The Return of Nightmare Paring Knife (A Hearth's Warming Special)

by whizzball1

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Princess Luna, Original Character, Comedy, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Random, Main 6, Discord
Length: 36244

The Nightmare Paring Knife has returned at the worst possible time, Sweetie Belle's magic is spiralling out of control, and Hearth's Warming is falling apart everywhere. The CMC are up to the task! What could possibly go wrong? Everything. Again.

Reading the prequel is recommended.

Hearth's Warming Day is approaching, and Luna is finally getting settled in to Ponyville so she can start to guide Sweetie Belle in her new magic. But with Discord's antics grating on everypony's nerves, the unprecedented return of the Nightmare Paring Knife, the sudden appearance of the extremely annoying but also oddly endearing Cor Cantae Amoris, and Sweetie Belle's increasingly uncontrollable magic, will this perfect Hearth's Warming be all it's shaped up to be?

Probably not.

This story takes place post-S4. Twilight Time does not exist in this universe.

Edited by a friend not on this site.

Art by me.

Published 2014-12-20 20:10:02 UTC
Last updated 2014-12-25 17:34:54 UTC

Lesson Zero: It's Rude to Stare! Or, Welcome to Ponyville

Sweetie Belle's eyes fluttered open as the morning rays of the sun shone through the frost covered window to her room. She yawned and rolled out of bed, shaking herself awake and looking at the date. Her eyes widened and she snapped to full awareness. "Oh my gosh it's today!" As glee washed over her, the birds started tweeting a tune and Sweetie Belle couldn't help herself. She started vocalising, lyrics already coming to her. She flung open the window and her sweet voice rang out over the town.

"I look out... over the town, over the snow cov-ered roof tops, and my heart blossoms outward with song!" As she sang, faint, light green swirls began to dance around in the air and she watched the ponies in the streets. "I look out... at the ponies all wal-king and tal-king and I know what to-day is, I know who is comiiiiing..." She went back to vocalising as she trotted down the stairs, the swirls of magic fixing up her bedmane and drawing out a scarf, coat, and boots for Sweetie Belle. She donned them flowingly, not missing a beat.

Rarity began to trot beside her, and she sang next. "I look out... over the town, and I see inspiration for making apparel galore! I've been tasked with such glory! I'm making her clothes! I know what today is; I know who is comiiiing!" They trotted out the door as Sweetie continued to vocalise, and came upon Pinkie, hopping and spreading streamers and balloons and a few banners here and there. It was no surprise as she began to sing.

"I look out... over the town, and I'm ready to party with streamers and sprinkles and b'loons everywhere!" As the townsponies began to gather, there was a pause in the lyrics for just the vocalisation and the birds, and then they all joined in.

"We can't wait for the train! No time is too soon, for we know what today is, we know who is coming!" Discord appeared, green and looking very sick. Rather than the townsponies drawing out the last word, Discord sang in turn.

"I'm absolutely positively siiiick!" Everyone stopped and glared at him, and his look turned sheepish. "What? I ate too much candy!" His body changed colours rapidly at this in different styles of candy, like peppermint and chocolate.

"Now, Discord, what did I tell you?" chided Fluttershy. "You know better than that." She led him off back to her home, and the tune started up again like nothing had happened. The steadily growing group passed by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, enjoying breakfast at a café.

"I can't wait... for Princess Luna... She'll see those blank flanks are losers!" Diamond Tiara sang, and Silver Spoon joined in for the next line. "Maybe with us she'll hang out instead."

Scootaloo scoffed next to them. "Ha! Like that'll ever happen; well, she knows you're just bullies!" The two looked horrified, and horrible thoughts began to play out in their heads as to what Princess Luna might do to them.

Sweetie Belle cut in before they could continue as the group moved toward the train station. "I wish that train would go faster, for my magic she's coming!"

Luna's train had started moving as the song had started. Luna felt strange magic in the air, and then suddenly, the train jerked forward, moving at a breakneck pace across the twisting track, somehow staying on despite the curves. The ponies panicked inside the cars and the engineers frantically tried to stop the train, but nothing worked.

"And to learn how to be one of us!" The townsponies finished the verse, drawing out the last word. Twilight joined into the group and sang the next verse.

"I can't wait... for the princess; there's so much information! My heart is about to just burst! A new kind of magic to learn all about! Yes, I know what today is, I know what is comiiing!" They were close to the train station by now, and approaching it, everyone anticipating Luna's return, no one thinking that, hey, the train ride is long and it'll be hours before she gets here.

An engineer burst into Luna's car. "Princess! You have to stop the train! It's moving too quickly and we can't stop it!" His expression was frantic, and what came next would make it even worse.

"It is my duty as your princess." Luna couldn't help but be formal. Her horn lit up and she began to try and stop the train with telekinesis, but swirls of light green magic materialised and blocked off her attempts. "This is strong magic... This is Heart Song magic. I cannot stop this, we must simply wait."

She went into the Royal Canterlot Voice to reassure the passengers in all the cars. "Fear not, my little ponies! This is the result of a Heart Song, everything will be fine! Panic not!" At the sound of their princess, the passengers and engineers sighed in relief. Luna made her way to the front of the train quickly, and as they turned a corner...

She saw that the bridge up ahead was out and they had only seconds. She said not a word, but on reflex she tried to teleport the ponies out, but she was stopped. She couldn't make magic rails; she had never bothered to learn about trains. She thought she would never need them, so why did it matter? She had absolutely no idea how train tracks were formed and she didn't have enough time to figure it out. She prepared to protect her ponies with defensive spells, but suddenly a light green bridge filled the gap and the train rocketed over it, safe. They were approaching Ponyville now.

The whole town repeated the last part of the song. "Today's her arrival! Princess Luna is coming! And we! Can! Hard-! -ly! Wait!" They held the last note as they stepped onto the platform, and the train screeched to a stop in front of them. Princess Luna stepped out, and the music quieted. "Welcome to Ponyville, Princess Luna!" they all shouted, and then with the ponies that were inside inexplicably outside, the train fell apart into a heap.

There was a long, awkward (near) silence, finally broken by Sweetie Belle. "Um... Oops?" With a final flourish, the music stopped.

***

Discord appeared moments later, clapping- No, Sweetie Belle saw three copies of Discord, one clapping, the other whistling while waving a "#1" hand[1], and the third holding up three signs, each with a 10, in his three arms.

[1]: This shape was completely incomprehensible to the ponies present, since one particular mint-green unicorn was in Canterlot. She fortunately never found out.

"Absolutely frabulous![2]" he exclaimed, the two copies not clapping disappearing. "I loved every second of it! Especially that part where they were about to go careening off the bridge! That was a nice touch; how did you do it?"

"What do you mean careening-" Twilight was interrupted in the middle of her horrified remark by Discord.

"Luna!" he shouted, particularly loudly, to cut off Twilight. "How positively wonderful to see you again! It's been so long!" He held up a watch whose hands were on Too and Long (in the wrong order, of course), while all the other markings were inscrutable gibberish.

[2]: This was a mix of frabjous and fabulous, which was actually rather redundant because frabjous had been invented as a mix of fabulous and some other irrelevant words. Of course, nopony would ever know that, and so Discord was perfectly fine with using it.

"Discord," said Luna, deadpan. "It hath been only a mere two moons."

Discord was shocked. "Shocked!" he exclaimed. "You say that like it's a short time! Oh, I could hardly survive those two months waiting for my dear friend!" He drew his paw over his face, quickly growing pale. "I made a documentary of my ordeals! It was a hit, I'm sure you heard of it." He snapped his fingers and a screen rolled open, attached to the ceiling.

Luna immediately rolled it back up. "No, Discord, I did not, nor do I wish to. Now, if thou wilt excuse-"

"Oh, fine, suit yourself. Anyway, how are you doing? Did you enjoy your vacation in Kelpienesia?"

"I did not have a vacation-" Luna's mane and tail turned into matted seaweed and she disappeared, before reappearing with a straw sun hat that was rapidly growing wet, and she was covered in flowers. She shook the flowers off and reverted her mane and tail to normal, although she stashed the straw hat secretly in Canterlot, rather liking it.

"That vacation!" Discord smiled innocently. Some of the ponies let out a snicker; none of them had left yet.

"We are not amused, Discord! Do not make us use the Royal Canterlot Voice!" Luna exclaimed, becoming increasingly irritated with Discord. He didn't seem to know how to stop.

"Oh, how grumpy. I was sure you'd be more excited to see an old friend! Do you need that vacation again? I think it would make you more excited!" Discord was about to snap his fingers again, but Luna stopped him.

"No, no, I am fine. I do not need a vacation to Kelpienesia, however short it is. Now, I need to-"

"Well then, what will I do to make you happy?" He twirled the tips of a moustache that was now on his face, which huffed and rolled off of him, not making it far before it disappeared.

"Thou wilt allow me to speak with-"

"Ah, yes! Why didn't I think of it earlier? You're cold!" Everypony heard children from nowhere laughing at Discord. "Now, let's not be like that."

"We are not cold, Discord!" Luna's face was growing red. Discord snapped his fingers and steam rose out of her ears.

"Oh my, you're right! You're terribly hot! I can fix that." One finger snap later and Luna was covered in snow. A whistling sound was heard as steam rose out of the snow and it grew increasingly hot, before the snow exploded outward, Luna jumping up and spreading her wings, opening her mouth to shout. She was unable to, however, as her mouth detached from her head and rose up in front of her. A barrage of cold water spewed out of it, soaking her and causing her to shiver uncontrollably, and then the mouth reattached.

"N- Not... Amused.."

"Discord!" exclaimed Fluttershy, trotting up to him angrily. "Don't you see how angry Luna is getting? You need to stop. Uh, if you don't mind, that is."

"Yeah!" added Rainbow Dash, scowling. "If she's such a 'dear friend' of yours, you should listen to her! Look at her!" Luna was curling her wings around her, shivering, dripping, and trying to get warm but failing. Twilight conjured up a blanket and wrapped it around Luna with magic.

"Oh, but I was simply trying to make her happy!" Discord said, pouting.

"Well ya ain't doin' very well at it," Applejack reprimanded, raising her eyebrow.

"Hmm... Well, I suppose I'll just have to try harder!" exclaimed Discord, about to do something else, but Fluttershy stopped him.

"No! Don't! I mean, um, you need to go home, you're sick, remember? You can... You can make her happy later." Fluttershy looked up at her friend, pleadingly.

"If you insist, Fluttershy." Discord snapped his fingers and disappeared. Luna sighed in relief and Pinkie Pie galloped up to her.

"Are you okay, Princess Luna?" she asked, but not intrusively. "I have some warm cupcakes if you want one!"

"No, it is fine," Luna replied, politely. "Do not trouble thyself."

"I'm really sorry about Discord, Princess Luna," said Fluttershy, sheepishly. "He's still kind of learning how to... You know... Stop." She hid her face behind her mane. "But he really was happy to see you! He says he really bonded with you when you two were trying to stop us from getting the Elements."

"I most certainly did not," Luna said, with a tone of finality. "He is, was, and always will be one of the most irritating creatures I know." She sighed, getting up and getting rid of the last of her wetness with magic.

"He's nice if you get to know him... You just have to withstand his antics. You get used to them eventually, and they're really nice now! He is reformed." Fluttershy smiled; she had had a lot of great times with Discord since the Tirek incident when he'd been fully reformed.

"I shall learn to tolerate him, since I shall be staying here. But expect not more." Luna was adamant. She really disliked Discord. Not to the point of despising him, mind you, but close.

"If you insist..." Fluttershy stepped back, and Twilight stepped forward in her place, hugging Luna.

"It's so great to see you again, Luna!" she exclaimed, eagerly. "I'm so glad you're going to be staying. And you have so much information on what Equestrian culture was like all those years ago! Celestia never tells me about any of it."

Luna chuckled lightly, returning the affection with a hug of her own. "She thinketh that they were far too 'stuffy' and wanteth not thee trying them. Worry not, I shall tell thee about them. But that is for another time. For now, where is Sweetie Belle?" She scanned the crowd; Sweetie Belle seemed to have disappeared. She startled back as Sweetie Belle popped up in front of her.

"I'm right here, Luna!" she exclaimed, her voice cracking from her excitement. "I can't wait to really get to know you!" She jumped up to try and hug Luna's neck, but she was too short and couldn't reach. Princess Luna had started growing taller a number of moons ago. She frowned sadly, but then giggled as Luna lifted her up in her magic. She sat on Luna's back and hugged her neck. "Onward, my princess!"

Luna smiled warmly and turned her head. "Where dost thou wish to go, Sweetie Belle?"

Sweetie Belle thought for a bit, but quickly settled upon an answer. "You didn't really get to see Ponyville all that much any time you were here! I'll show you around!"

"That is a very good idea. Where shall I go for my room when we finish?" she asked the others.

"Just come to the castle, Princess Luna," Rarity replied. "It's positively gorgeous! You'll love it."

"I certainly should hope so." Luna smiled. "I shall see you all soon." She looked at Sweetie Belle. "Art thou ready?"

"Am I ever!" Sweetie Belle squeaked. "This is going to be so fun!"

"Bye, Princess Luna!" Twilight and her friends exclaimed, and with that, Luna was off.

"And that's Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie and the Cakes make lots of great food!" Sweetie Belle described, pointing out the building that looked like it was made of sweets[3]. "Like milkshakes and cakes and cupcakes and bakes and a bunch of other stuff that ends in ake!"

[3]: Which unfortunately it was not.

"Oh, my. That is a lot of things that end in ake," Luna said, sceptically. "But why is there bakes in that list? Are they not called baked goods?"

"Yeah, they are, but Pinkie officially changed the name to bakes because it rhymed!" Sweetie Belle replied, giggling. "Don't ask how; she's Pinkie. So that's what we all call them now."

"That is certainly interesting. But it is Pinkie, and with what I have seen of her, I suppose I shall have to let it go." She chuckled lightly. "I had heard that Twilight burst into flames upon trying to understand her."

"Yup! I didn't see it though." She started to frown, but then she perked up again. "Hey, do you want a cupcake? I have a few bits!"

"Oh, Sweetie Belle, thou needst not pay for my-" Luna was interrupted by Sweetie Belle.

"No, I insist. I saved them for this, for you!" She smiled sweetly, her eyes wide, pleading.

"Well... I suppose. Let us go." Luna trotted into the building, and some of the ponies gawked at the display of their princess being ridden by Sweetie Belle. Most had left the station before they could see that happen. Luna shot The Look[4] at them before Sweetie Belle could see their disapproving glares.

[4]: An extremely disapproving frown. It worked surprisingly well, for some reason.

"They made special cupcakes with you as a theme for today!" Sweetie's voice cracked. "They're strawberry flavoured," she added, offhandedly.

"I am sorry, didst thou say strawberry?" asked Luna, her mouth beginning to water in a very un-Princess-like way. She quickly flicked away the water from her lips.

"Yeah, why?" she asked, as they approached the Cakes. "Two Lunacakes!" Sweetie Belle dropped some bits on the counter and then waited for Luna's response.

"Strawberry is my favourite fruit; it hath always been." Luna eyed her cupcake hungrily as it was hoofed over.

"Wow, that's great!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed as she picked up her cupcake, and then she hopped off of Luna and sat down at a table, Luna following. "Although I guess the Cakes probably knew that," She giggled and took a bite of her cupcake, which was frosted dark blue with white sprinkles and and a frosting crescent moon.

"Why is my moon always depicted in its crescent form?" mused Luna, realising that she had seen it that way very often. She refrained from eating her cupcake for now, waiting for an answer.

"I dunno," Sweetie Belle replied as she finished her bite and wiped her mouth with a napkin in a most ladylike manner. "I guess it's easier to figure out that it's a moon and not just some white round thing. It doesn't look boring, either." She took another dainty bite, and decided that this was better eaten quickly. But she remembered that Luna was there, and she didn't want to offend her princess. "Um, Princess Luna?" Luna was interrupted just as she was about to finally eat her cupcake. "Can I..." She pointed to her cupcake, trailing off.

"Of course. I shall not be off-put." Sweetie Belle grinned, and in a few bites she had devoured her cupcake. Luna laughed lightly, and Sweetie Belle blushed, wiping her mouth with the napkin again to get rid of the crumbs and frosting. Then she gasped as Luna did the same thing that she had done (albeit in fewer bites), and then she started giggling. The other patrons were horrified at Sweetie Belle's laughing at her princess, but then Luna started laughing too, and before they knew it they were both laughing their heads off.

"Princess Luna, the bane of cupcakes everywhere!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, giggling again.

"No cupcake shall escape our wrath! Muahahaha!"

"Except for all of those ones, because I don't have any more bits! And I don't think I have room for any other cupcakes." Sweetie Belle blushed and wiped off one last spot on her mouth. Luna suddenly sobered as she noticed everypony gawking at the spectacle.

"Well," she said, quickly trying to regain her composure. "We must go, there is more of Ponyville for thee to show me." She wiped her mouth daintily, making sure everything was gone.

"Okay then! There's a lot more places to show you." Luna levitated Sweetie Belle onto her back again, and they trotted off, leaving Sugarcube Corner to a long, awkward silence.

"This is Carousel Boutique, where Rarity and I live and Rarity makes dresses and sells them!" Luna opened up the door and trotted in, looking around at the many mannequins, clothes, and accessories. And she's making some clothes for you! Do you want to see them? Don't worry, she didn't tell me they should be a secret, so I'm sure it's fine." She giggled.

"Well, I suppose it is worth a try. Let us see what she hath in store for me." They went up to Rarity's inspiration room, Sweetie hopped off of Luna's back, and she took out the clothes that Rarity had finished. There was one dress done, which was thick like a blanket, but surprisingly not heavy. It was a peach-ish maroon, with misty swirls of sea green. Another was a plain coat, dark purple with sea green fluff at the ends.

"Hmm, I thought she'd made more. Oh well! Do you want to try them on?" Sweetie Belle's voice cracked as she grew excited at the prospect of getting to see Luna in her new clothes.

"Well... Mine ethereal mane shall not be tussled per its nature, so let us begin." Sweetie Belle squealed and jumped up, clapping her hooves.

"Which one should we do first? Let's do the dress!" Sweetie Belle did not wait for an answer from Luna, although Luna was going to choose the dress anyway. They went through the articles of clothing, along with boots and socks and scarves that Rarity had made as well, Luna gradually loosening up again and having much more.

"I must admit, I had never thought that 'dress up' was this much fun. I believe I shall be rethinking many more of my perspectives in this town." She twirled the scarf she wore around her neck, and got comfortable in the purple coat and boots (which had the same colour scheme as the coat). The scarf was red and green striped. "Can... Can I go out with these articles?"

"Oh, sure!" Sweetie Belle replied. "They're yours anyway!" Luna clapped her hooves and levitated Sweetie back onto her back.

"Then by all means, let us go! We have more to see!" She teleported out of the room (not forgetting Sweetie Belle) and they began to trot through the town again, Sweetie pointing out more places.

"This is Fluttershy's cottage," Sweetie Belle pointed out as they reached the end of the path. "I wonder if she's here?" Luna knocked on the door, and Fluttershy flew out of the window.

"Oh, hello, Princess Luna," Fluttershy said, softly, as she set down. "I'm terribly afraid you can't come in right now. Harry the bear is blocking the door. He's been hibernating in front of it all this time. I don't think you'd fit through the window. Teleporting would wake Harry up." The window had been enlarged so more ponies could fit through it, but alas, Princess Luna was not a regular pony. "All I have for you to do is to look at my animals. You could get a pet."

"I already have one; I am sorry, dear Fluttershy. But I thank thee for the offer."

"Oh, but you could get another one." She began to sing. "I have so many wonderful creatures-"

"One is enough for me to handle, but I thank thee for the offer." Princess Luna smiled warmly.

"Oh, okay then. It was nice seeing you, though." Fluttershy waved to Luna as she retreated back into her window, and Luna teleported back to the town.

"Can we skip Sweet Apple Acres? It's kind of boring this time of year. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo are probably at the school." The trees at the orchard would all be dead, and Applejack and Big Mac were out in Ponyville. Plus, besides the fact that there wasn't anything to do, Granny Smith would probably talk their heads off and there would be no getting out of it.

"If thou insistest. Let us go to the school, then." Sweetie Belle pointed Luna in the right direction, and they began to trot through the town, vaguely aware that there were much fewer ponies than before.

"You know, that kind of sounds like a lisp," Sweetie suddenly interjected. "Insistest, doth, hath, all the th everywhere." She frowned in her thought.

"It doth not sound like a lisp! 'Twas perfectly fine in the olden days." Luna huffed.

"Well, lisp or not, it still sounds kind of cool." Sweetie Belle giggled. "Hey, there's the school now!" Sweetie could see Scootaloo and Apple Bloom... And Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. She could guess what they were doing. Luna trotted noiselessly, approaching behind the two bullies, and they could clearly hear what was being said.

"... a fluke she's even hanging out with Sweetie Belle. And you're both still blank flanks! There's no way she'll ever even look at you." Diamond Tiara stopped as Apple Bloom and Scootaloo snickered. "She's... Standing right behind me, isn't she?" She turned around slowly, and both bullies cowered at the sight of the looming Princess Luna. Luna was about to open her mouth and boom with the Royal Canterlot Voice, but Apple Bloom spoke up.

"Please don't punish them, Princess Luna," she said. "It'll jus' make them worse."

"What meanest thou, worse?" asked Princess Luna, her voice dangerously close to RCV levels.

"Every time they get humiliated or punished, they just come back harder," Scootaloo replied, hopelessly. The two bullies didn't know what to do, realising that they were at the mercy of the whims of their victims.

"... Fine. Be ye gone," Luna said dismissively to the bullies. "But do not let me see thee bullying my little ponies, or there shall be Tartarus to pay." They scampered off, and Luna sighed. "I shall have to find a way to teach them why they are wrong."

"Thank ya kindly fer that, Princess Luna," said Apple Bloom. "We needed ta go somewhere and they were all up in our muzzles."

"Speaking of that, we need to go right now!" exclaimed Scootaloo. "We'll see you later, Sweetie Belle." They both waved and galloped off before either Luna or Sweetie Belle could respond.

"That was weird!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, her voice cracking. In reality, she knew exactly why they had to go, but she did a pretty good job of hiding that. And she wasn't lying; it had been weird in a suspicious manner. "Hey, I think we're out of places to look at. Let's go see your room at the castle!"

"Oh! Yes. I know not whether the residents of Ponyville will be able to satisfactorily prepare Mr. Tibbles' quarters." Luna began to trot toward the castle at a leisurely pace.

"Mr. Tibbles?" Sweetie Belle asked, confused. "Oh, you said you had a pet when we were at Fluttershy's!" Her voice cracked.

"I did. He is an opossum."

"Is that some kind of exotic animal or something?" asked Sweetie Belle, having never heard of an opossum.

Luna gasped. "Thou hast not heard of the opossum? 'Tis such a regal creature![5] We shall show you." Her horn glowed and a magical hologram of Tiberius the opossum appeared in the air.

[5]: Celestia hadn't actually believed this would work. She'd once told her sister that she should get an opossum, "one of the most regal of creatures," and Luna looked at one and actually thought of it that way. Despite Celestia's subsequent attempts to dissuade her, Luna got it anyway. [AN 1]

Sweetie Belle stared at it, utterly amazed... At the absolute lack of regality in the creature before her. She chuckled sheepishly, trying to think of an escape. "It's certainly... An interesting pet. Yes! It's interesting."

"Dost thou likest any part of it in particular?" Luna prodded further, eager for Sweetie Belle's opinion.

Sweetie's eyes darted rapidly around the opossum, trying to find something specific. "I... Really like its... Ears?"

"That is a good choice. His ears are such wonderful apparatus." Sweetie Belle laughed tensely again, but Luna took no notice. "Ah, here we are!" Luna exclaimed as they came upon the door. She opened it up with her magic and trotted in. The throne room was empty.

"Up the stairs over here," Sweetie Belle said, pointing to an archway on the left. Luna made her way up into the third level and trotted briskly through the corridor, Sweetie Belle pointing out the door with a crescent moon (again!) over it. "This is it! Twilight worked really hard on it." Luna opened up the door and stepped in, first noticing that the room's walls, floor, and celiing were black, seamless, but gleaming stars decorated the blackness. She couldn't find her moon, though...

Until it lit up at the top of the room, filling it with light, and Sweetie Belle and all the ponies hidden in her room cried out, "Welcome to Ponyville!" Luna shot back and slammed the door with her magic, panting.

"Sweetie Belle, we must go, quickly! They wish to kill me!" She charged her horn for a teleport, but Sweetie quickly responded.

"No! It's a surprise party, not a plot to kill you!" Her voice cracked again.

Luna paused. "A... Surprise party? Dost thou mean an ambush?" Luna didn't grasp what she meant, despite how obviously self-explanatory it was.

"No," Sweetie Belle replied, giggling. "It's a party for you, a normal party, but they make sure you don't know about it so they can surprise you." Luna had a very confused look on her face. "Okay, so you know how you get gifts, but you don't know what's inside them?"

"Yes, certainly..." Luna said, slowly, not seeing the connection.

"So it's a surprise what the gift is going to be. And sometimes ponies give you gifts and you didn't know they were going to give you a gift?"

"That happeneth all of the time with the nobility, to fall into my favour." She shuddered.

"Well, a surprise party is like a surprise gift. Except it's a party." Sweetie Belle beamed.

"... Art thou sure 'tis not an ambush?"

"I'm sure. Come on, it's fine! They're waiting." Luna sighed and opened up the door. The ponies were still in the same positions as before, having not known what to do.

"Whooo's ready to party?!" Pinkie cried, and the ponies finally broke out of the silence and milled about, the awkwardness instantly reverting to a warm and conversational atmosphere.

Luna was quiet for a bit, and so was Sweetie Belle. "Interesting." Sweetie Belle giggled at Luna's short response.

"Well, go enjoy! Talk to some ponies! Have some cake!" Her voice cracked each time she spoke. "Yes, the cake is strawberry flavoured." She giggled again. Luna perked up and got a plate, putting a slice of cake and some strawberries on it. Sweetie filled her plate up with fruits and she and Luna trotted around while she munched on them. Pinkie Pie popped up in front of Luna.

"Hey Princess Luna! Do you like your party?? Oh, and your room, too!" Pinkie swept over the room with her hoof. The room's surfaces were still black, since that was their natural colour, but that combined with the light of the moon gave the oddest feeling. Everything else was lit up normally, of course.

There were balloons, streamers, a banner, and the other usual things that made up a Pinkie Party. It was Luna-themed, with lots of dark, bluish colours. This had come from the party cannon, actually, but it wasn't odd at all that the colours radically differed from the usual of that cannon. It was Pinkie. You never knew with her.

"The room is wonderful," Luna replied. "I had honestly thought 'twould be nothing like my room at the castle. I stand corrected, it seemeth. And I hope that this party be wonderful. From what I have heard of thee, it will be." She smiled and took a bite of a strawberry.

"I sure hope it is! It's not as wild as my other parties, because I know you don't really like that!" Pinkie was always considerate of others in how she partied. It had taken a while to get that into her head, but it was there now.

"Thou art correct. I thank thee for thy consideration. Now, 'tis time I enjoy my party!" Luna smiled widely, almost, but not quite a grin. Luna never grinned. She paused suddenly, realising: "How... How doth one enjoy a party such as this?" With a literal record scratch[6], everyone suddenly stopped everything, turning to stare at Luna.

[6]: Bureaucracy is an unrelenting machine, and the poor DJ, Vinyl Scratch, had to pay for a replacement record in full.

Pinkie Pie was unfazed. "Well, you talk with other ponies, eat cakes, cupcakes, and more bakes, and play games! Although I'm not sure you'll be very interested in the games." Pinkie pointed out the beanbag toss as an example.

"Thou wouldst be surprised. Givest thou a try to me." Pinkie led Luna to the beanbag toss as some of the other ponies went back to what they were doing, but an equal amount stayed to watch.

"Can I tell her how to do it?" asked Sweetie Belle excitedly, her voice cracking. She tried to reach for a beanbag, but Luna was just barely too tall for her legs to reach. "Oh, come on!" Pinkie giggled and tossed a beanbag to Sweetie, which she caught. "So you have to get the beanbag into one of the holes! Actually, that's pretty much it." She laughed and threw the beanbag, getting it close to a hole, but just not there. "Aw, I didn't get it. Oh well, your turn!"

Luna hmmed and levitated up a beanbag, carrying it neatly through the hole. She paused again. "Art thou sure that this be a game? I thought games are to be fun. This doth not seem quite fun."

Both Pinkie Pie and Sweetie Belle burst out giggling, and Luna stared at them, wondering what could possibly be so funny that they would refuse to give her any sort of explanation. "Princess.. Princess Luna..." Sweetie Belle said, trying to stop laughing. "You're supposed to- To throw it!"

"Yeah, you probably should have said that better, Sweetie Belle!" Pinkie interjected. She was a master of talking while giggling. "Throwing it is what makes it fun, because you can fail! So you have to try not to fail!"

Luna mulled this over, and then brought back the bean bag, holding it in her hoof, pulling her hoof back, and throwing. Her aim was wildly inaccurate in terms of the holes. She'd thrown rocks at enemies before, but they were really big rocks. She hmmed again and teleported back the bean bag again, before conjuring up a modified magical crossbow, loading the beanbag, and then shooting it. The beanbag went cleanly through the hole, and the crossbow only shot it as fast as a throw, so it wouldn't knock over the board. "Huzzah!"

Pinkie and Sweetie stared.

"What," Sweetie Belle said. It was a statement. Not a question.

"Wow!" exclaimed Pinkie, suddenly. "That's a great new take on the bean bag toss game! Can you keep that bow thing together?" She began to bounce up and down, an idea popping in her head. Ideas didn't light up in Pinkie's head, they popped like fireworks. Some of the time.

"I can," Luna replied, absent-mindedly, as she put another bean bag in the crossbow and shot it.

"Well, how about you keep it like that so other ponies can try it once you go to another game? Please?" Pinkie Pie smiled sweetly.

"Thou needst not beg, Pinkie Pie. I shall do what thou askest." She placed down the crossbow next to the beanbags, and, satisfied with her performance, turned around to see Discord standing in front of her.

"Why, hello, Luna! I must say, I was not expecting you! What a pleasant surprise!" He shook Luna's hoof vigorously, grinning.

"Discord, this is my party. Why wouldst thou not expect me?" Luna asked, deadpan. She hoped that Discord would not do something to ruin her mood, but at the same time, she knew it would happen.

"Hmm, you make a good point. Oh well, no matter, you're here now, and so am I! Let's have some fun!" Discord was just about to snap her fingers, but Luna interrupted.

"No I am not," she said, quickly, and teleported with Sweetie Belle to the other side of the room, turning around and sighing in relief...

Faced by Discord. "I'm wounded! But really, I am. I'm trying to make friends with you, but you refuse to give me even a second glance. And here I thought the princesses were all about their little ponies and friendship and love." He turned around and crossed his arms.

"We- Thou-" Luna spluttered, unable to give an answer, but she quickly rectified it. "Thou art not a little pony!" Before Discord could change, she quickly added, "Of ours!"

Discord harrumphed and snapped his fingers, changing into a pony with constantly flickering style and a sign around his neck, saying, 'Property of Princess Luna.' He changed back and scowled. "Well, if you don't want to talk to me, then at least accept my gift."

"What gift dost thou speak of?" asked Luna, sceptically. She didn't know about any "gifts" from someone like Discord.

"So suspicious! At least take a look at the gift; if you don't like it, just say the word." He smiled innocently and snapped his fingers. The stars on the room's surfaces began to move subtly, with nebulae of different shapes forming. It gave a sensation of floating, in a way, as space moved around you. "It can zoom in and out, too!" The surfaces zoomed out to reveal galaxies and bigger clouds and nebulae, before zooming in to show planets and comets floating around the stars.[7]

[7]: The many affairs shown on the surfaces were in fact quite tiny. Equestria, with its ever changing shape and topography, rested on a giant turtle whom Luna and Celestia were quite fond of.[AN 2] Thus, the stars and galaxies were much smaller than they seemed. They were real, of course, but the stars were small enough to be considered floating lights in the sky, and the planets were basically incredibly detailed marbles.

Luna was speechless. Her room was no longer just like her room at home, it was, Astral Plane forbid, even better. "I... It's..." Her eyes darted around the surroundings hungrily like a foal taking in a new toy.

"Oh, so you don't like it, then." Discord scowled and crossed his arms again, about to snap his fingers.

"No!" Luna shouted in the Voice. Everypony quieted to look at her. "Um, we mean, please do not thou remove thy gift. It... We... I love it."

"Hah! I knew you would." Discord did a little dance, and then placed his paw under Luna's muzzle. "I really am truly sorry for being so forward at the train station. I hope we can be friends eventually." He smiled sincerely, and walked off to enjoy the party.

"This still doth not mean we are friends!" Luna exclaimed, still adamant about toleration. But she accepted that Discord was sincere; that could not be denied. As she continued to look around at the room, a memory started to form, one of a day long past, as she looked at a room... just like this. She remembered being a filly; she remembered her mother showing her the room she had made. No, that Discord had made. A tear began to form in her eye, and she realised that she couldn't cry in front of her little ponies.

"Everypony, I am sorry, but you all must leave. This party was wonderful, and I thank ye all for giving it to me. But I... I need some time for myself."

"Oh, we understand, Princess Luna!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "Right, everypony?" They all nodded with murmurs of assent. "No hard feelings!" She squeezed Luna and then she was gone, along with all of the party supplies. Nopony seemed at all surprised by this as they shuffled out the door, except for Luna, but the memory returned and replaced the confusion.

She trotted slowly to the wall and placed her two front hooves to it, remembering how she touched the walls with her little filly hooves so very long ago. "Oh, mother..." She remembered hugging her mother's hoof, trying to get up to her but being too little. She remembered her mother's warm embrace, and the salty, stinging tears began to fall as the wonderful feeling began to disappear. She frantically reached for it in her mind, but it was already gone. Gone like her mother and her father and Star Swirl and almost everypony she'd ever loved.

The tears streamed down her face now, a never-ending well of despair. But she forgot about the little filly sitting on her back, who quietly embraced her neck, nuzzling her Princess's neck and trying to comfort her. Little did Sweetie know how much her embrace helped, the feeling it brought back, which wasn't going to go away again. Luna had a little piece of her mother with her again. It didn't matter how little, Luna felt like she was there.

Maybe she didn't have her mother, but she did have Sweetie Belle, and that was what mattered.

Author's Note

And, Chapter 0 of the sequel. This actually started with "I should make a Hearth's Warming Special." Then I thought really super hard and hoped for ideas and somehow I got ideas. Good ideas!

I didn't know that I would put in any feels, but apparently I did. Was it sad enough? I don't think there'll be too much more feels. Don't worry, you guys will get to see more origin stuff as the story goes on.

Footnote Footnotes (Footnoteception!):

[AN 1]: The story behind Luna getting Tiberius is different because I've never read the actual comic.
[AN 2]: No, I didn't get this from Discworld, nor have I read it. I plan to eventually, though.

~Solo Deo Gloriam Dedi~

Lesson One: Sing From Your Heart? Or, Too Fast! Too Fast!

Sweetie Belle was with Luna for what felt like an eternity for the latter, humming softly and comforting her Princess to the best of her abilities (which was quite a lot, since she was inadvertently using her magic while humming). Eventually, the tears stopped flowing, and after a bit more time, Luna was ready to go out again. "I thank thee, Sweetie Belle. Thou hast not an inkling of an idea of how much thou hast helped me." She smiled and ran a hoof through Sweetie's mane.

"I'm glad I could help, Princess Luna!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, her voice cracking. She beamed.

"I needed that. Now, we must collect Fluttershy and Twilight so we can begin thy first lesson." She placed Sweetie Belle on her back as the filly squeed and trotted out of the room, moving through the castle back to the throne room.

"Really?" Sweetie Belle asked as Luna started going. "Yay, finally! I can't wait to learn to use my magic!" She had been beside herself in excitement for quite a while now. She could hardly even levitate a paring knife with her horn, no matter how much she practised. She hoped that she'd be able to do that with Heart Magic, although she wasn't sure. Having nothing more to say, she simply thought about all the things she would do after this first lesson while Luna trotted in silence.

She noticed a clock and saw that it had only been an hour since they had stopped the party. "Wow, it's only been an hour! It felt a lot longer."

"I find that very surprising," said Luna, with only mild surprise in her voice. "It certainly did. Hopefully they be there still." Sure enough, Fluttershy and Twilight were waiting in the throne room, chatting mildly. Fluttershy let out a noise of surprise when she saw Princess Luna coming into the room, and she stood up and bowed quickly. Luna laughed lightly and bid Fluttershy rise with a wave of her hoof. "Worry not. Thou needst not bow to me in thine own castle."

"Oh, okay then, sorry..." Fluttershy looked down sheepishly. Princess Luna laughed heartily; a welcoming and comforting laugh it was.

"Thou needst not apologise, dear Fluttershy. Here, we are equals." She smiled and touched Fluttershy's hoof.

"Oh, we are? Um, okay..." Fluttershy still didn't feel like an equal. Luna was so much taller, and she was so small, and pathetic, and how could she ever measure up to Luna? Luna was probably a much better singer than her and they were just bringing her here as a courtesy and she didn't deserve to have a throne-

"Fluttershy!" Luna exclaimed, snapping Fluttershy out of her rapidly spiralling-down trance of self-abuse. She had curled herself into a shivering ball. "Whatsoever thou art thinking, banish thou the thought from thy mind! Thou art not less than anypony. On the contrary, thou art much more virtuous than many."

"You really think I am?" Fluttershy asked, removing her wing from her face.

"I do, Fluttershy. Now, straighten thyself up, and let us begin!" Luna exclaimed, cheerfully, and Fluttershy stood up straight with more confidence than before. "We must first evaluate thy power without song, to figure out how much of thy magic be tied to Heart Magic. My mother did not need Heart Magic to perform magic; she discovered it much later."

Sweetie Belle frowned. "I'm absolutely terrible at it! Do we even have to look at it?" She didn't want to be reminded of her own inadequacy. Nopony did.

Twilight spoke up, going into lecture mode. "Yes, Sweetie, we do. We have to measure the magical output of your horn at peak ability, and then we compare it to that of other average fillies at your age. I know you don't want to be reminded about how small your magic output is, but remember, you have it much better with your Heart Magic, right, Luna?" Luna nodded in assent, and Sweetie Belle felt adequately reassured. She nodded also, and Twilight levitated over one gold bit. "This is the standard for the testing."

Sweetie Belle channelled magic into her horn and began to push, trying to get as much magical energy as she could out to levitate the coin. The coin, however, hardly went up more than a centimetre. "Wow!" exclaimed Twilight, in surprise at her readings. "Your magical output is next to none, so close it's practically null! I don't think I've ever seen a situation like this!" Sweetie Belle's look became sad.

"It is settled, then. All of thy magic is tied to Heart Magic. Thou canst do nothing without it. Fear not, we shall teach you to use it. Twilight, listen thou closely, and takest thou notes. Sweetie Belle, thou knowest of the three rune structure of magic, correct?" Luna asked, her mind filling with an explanation. Sweetie Belle nodded profusely and was about to launch into a lengthy explanation of the three concepts that made up a spell, but Luna stopped her.

"Thou needst not explain it to me. Now, just as magic relieth on concepts to direct spells, so doth Heart Magic rely on the tune and emotion of the song. For levitation, it shall simply be a rising tune. Focus on the object thou wishest to levitate, and let thou the song flow from thine heart. Dost thou understand?"

"Yeah, that makest sense!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, her voice cracking, and she giggled. Luna deadpanned.

"'Tis maketh," she said, simply, and waved for Sweetie to begin.

Sweetie Belle smiled sheepishly, and, without further ado, began to hum softly, her eyes trained on the coin. Faint ribbony swirls of light green magic began to twirl in the air, moving toward the coin. Sweetie Belle began a slow crescendo, the coin floating up into the air...

And then she lost control. The crescendo sped up and the coin flew straight up, slamming into the ceiling and then whizzing to the side, ricocheting off a wall and sailing toward Luna's head. The princess ducked just in time and the coin hit the table, denting it and then stopping. Sweetie Belle's humming finally stopped and they all sighed in relief.

"Hmm..." Luna mused, mulling over what had happened. "Try thou again. Tryest thou to control thy magic lest this happeneth again."

"And do it with a softer object this time," Twilight added, conjuring up a small red stuffed ball. Sweetie Belle blushed and began humming again, starting the crescendo. It held for a few more seconds as Sweetie tried her best to control her magic, but before she knew it, it burst out of her and she lost control again. It didn't hit anypony as it whizzed around, but it would have been negligible anyway.

Fluttershy recovered the courage to speak up. "Sweetie Belle, sometimes my music gets away from me too. Why not focus on the song instead of the magic? Um, I mean, if that's okay with you..."

Sweetie Belle nodded. "Maybe that will work." Twilight scribbled notes faster and it became more noticeable. Sweetie looked over at her. "Um, Princess Twilight?" she stated, a bit miffed.

"Oh, sorry!" exclaimed Twilight, blushing, but not looking up from her notes. "I'll take notes more quietly from now on." She went back to writing, albeit more quietly with the help of a soundproofing spell.

Sweetie Belle giggled and began humming again, her eyes on the coin but her focus on the music. She began the crescendo, but as it passed, she tried to speed up, but the song stayed slow, and she couldn't change the speed. The ball moved ever so slowly, and Sweetie Belle finally stopped stopped singing when it was clear her attempts would be unfruitful.

"Thou hast a lack of control," Luna said, solemnly. "This is not good at all. Thou hast not control over thine emotions, wherefore thy magic is controlled by them." Her horn glowed and a magical hologram lit up, showing a churning heart. Green swirls touched the heart, but instead of controlling the storm of emotions, the heart took control of the magic and it whipped out of control.

"What?" asked Sweetie Belle, confused. "I'm great at controlling my emotions! Rarity taught me all about it, because proper ladies need to be calm and collected." She beamed.

"Hmm... I believe I know what has happened. While thou mayest do well at controlling thine emotions on the outside, on the inside, though thou mayest not know it, they churn in thine heart, looking for an outlet."

"And that outlet... Is your magic!" finished Twilight, and Luna and Sweetie deadpanned. "What? I had to say something."

"Sweetie Belle, try singing straight from thine heart, with no purpose. We must measure thine emotions and thy magic to see what is happening and discover a way to fix thy problem." Luna looked on, her brow furrowed and her body tensed. She prepared to stop Sweetie if her magic flew out of control in a bad way.

Sweetie Belle nodded, and without another word, she began to vocalise. It started as a bright, bouncy tune, a light, skippy thing that sent tendrils of magic dancing around the room. Colourful lights began to appear throughout the throne room, dancing in tune.

The song became adventurous and the tendrils swirled out of the room and twirled through Ponyville, conjuring up more and more lights to fill up the town and make it even more festive. Background music began to come in, and a magical flute actually appeared in the air near Sweetie, playing of its own accord.

Sweetie Belle was all into her music now, the tune becoming more adventurous and less bouncy, although still light and bright. Unknown to the residents or Sweetie, one of the tendrils went dancing into the Everfree, scaring off the animals around it, until it came upon a clearing where a small, unassuming Paring Knife sat, doing nothing and being altogether boring.

And also having residues of its old spells. It felt the tendril of magic approaching it, and began to rattle with the presence of Heart Magic. Then the tendril made contact.

Instantly, the tendril darkened to black and Sweetie's suddenly plunged from a light, happy tone to a dark, eerie, and foreboding tune of evil and hate. The lights went out and the tendrils combined into the one touching the knife. Sweetie Belle's expression grew dark, not of her own will, and the song plunged its magic into the knife, filling it and reinvigorating the spells, even stronger than before.

Princess Luna immediately lit up her horn, trying to stop Sweetie Belle's singing before it could do any damage. Her body strained and sweat rolled down her forehead as she tried to close Sweetie's mouth or freeze her vocal cords or anything to stop the singing. But then, just as suddenly as it started, it stopped. The tendrils disappeared, the music finished, and Sweetie Belle stopped vocalising.

Her dark expression quickly changed to one of horror. She didn't know what her magic had done, but she knew it was bad. "Quickly, Sweetie Belle, dost thou know what thy magic has done?" Luna asked, frantically. "We can no longer follow it!"

"I don't know! I can't tell!" Sweetie Belle cried, trying to get a hold of the rapidly fading remnants of the magic. But it was to no avail. It was already gone.

"All we can do is wait," Luna said, dejectedly. She sighed and rubbed her forehead with a hoof, trying to think of what to do.

"Whatever it is, I'm sure that when it comes, we can stop it," Twilight reassured Luna, although she didn't really know what to do other than talking. She felt a bit awkward around Luna, if she had to be honest with herself. Would Luna respond to contact? Luna was incredibly old. What if she didn't respond to the same types of touch as other ponies did?[1] These dilemmas danced through her head, preventing her from doing anything further.

[1]: Really, it was a bit inconsiderate that she didn't see Luna as any other pony. If anything didn't change, it was how mothers comforted their children, but it was an easy mistake to make. That wasn't the kind of thing you could easily get through research.

"The best we can do for now is hope," Luna stated, an idea popping into her mind. "Let us assemble the other Elements and converse about this. They may have ideas."

"So, what exactly did you call us here for?" asked Rainbow Dash, miffed that she had been woken out of a perfectly good nap. "It'd better be important."

Rarity gasped. "Rainbow Dash!" she exclaimed. "How could you speak to your princess like that?" She huffed.

"Well, Princess Luna says that you guys are equals in this castle," Sweetie Belle added, very helpfully. Rarity was immediately horrified at the prospect of Rainbow Dash acting as an equal to the princess.

"Really? Awesome!" the disrespectful pegasus in question exclaimed, but Applejack quickly rectified the situation, raising an eyebrow.

"Now, that don't mean you kin go around insultin' the princess. Or talkin' down to her. Or anything ya wouldn't do if we were outside the castle." Rainbow Dash grumbled and crossed her hooves, but acquiesced with a reluctant nod.

"I, for one, am going to respect Princess Luna as I should. I hope that you do the same." Rarity disapprovingly frowned at the others to drive in her point. It was nothing like Luna's Look[2], but it worked well enough.

[2]: If you don't remember, this was an extremely disapproving frown which worked surprisingly well. The reason why is, again, contested.

"Rarity, it hath come to mine attention that thou hast been teaching Sweetie Belle how to control her emotions." Luna's face was indifferent, not disapproving or approving, so Rarity felt that she was in the clear.

"Why yes, I have. It is becoming a of a lady to be calm and collected, after all," she finished, gesturing toward herself as an example.

"It hath come also to mine attention that thou art going about it wrongly," Luna responded, bluntly.

Rarity's face fell, and then she "fainted," but immediately sat back up again because the chair was incredibly uncomfortable for fainting. "Excuse my uncouthness, but what?!"

"Thou hast only taught thy sister to control her emotions on the outside. On the inside, her emotions are a churning storm, and she doth not even know she hath those emotions any more. Whilst I am sure thou hast impeccable control of thine inner emotions, thou hast not been able to correctly teach thy sister that control. This may have terrible repercussions for us all," Luna finished grimly.

Rarity was horrified again. "But- I didn't-" She didn't know what to say. She certainly had never wished for this outcome.

"Thou couldst not have known. But the fact remaineth: Sweetie Belle cannot control her emotions, wherefore she cannot control her magic, and her magic but less than an hour ago hath done something dark and evil which she could not have stopped."

Pinkie Pie gasped. "Oh my gosh! That's not good at all! Do we know what it is?" She frowned. "Do I need to giggle at it?"

Luna's brow furrowed in confusion. "I... I do not think thou needst... Giggle at it."

Pinkie Pie's expression shot up into a smile again. "Okay then! Just tell me if you need me to!" She giggled, and Luna just stared.

"It's a long story," Twilight said, snapping Luna out of it. "I'll tell you later."

"Anyway..." Luna began, not amused at the distractions. "We must find a way for Sweetie Belle to control her inner emotions such that they do not take control of her whenever they can. Do any of you have any experience in this?" Rarity was of course excluded from the list.

"If there's anypony it isn't, it's Applejack," Rainbow Dash interjected, bluntly. "Remember Dodge Junction?"

"With all due respect, Rainbow Dash," Rarity began, condescendingly, a light frown on her face. "You are not a candidate either." Rainbow Dash's usual mode of speech was not anything near controlling her outer emotions, and she her inner emotions weren't always well dealt with either. Rainbow harrumphed and crossed her hooves for the second time that meeting.

"Not Twilight, either, for obvious reasons," Spike said, monotone, eliciting a blush from their neurotic friend. "Or Pinkie." Pinkie's oblivious smile didn't fade.

"My goodness, are we all this bad at controlling our emotions?" asked Rarity, fanning herself. She quickly added, "Oh, and by we, I mean you." Pinkie Pie giggled and Rainbow Dash let out a snicker, but the others weren't too pleased. Rarity frowned again. "What?"

"We do not seem to have anypony who can help. I myself am not a candidate for this undertaking, either. Is there anypony any of you know that can help?[2]" They all thought hard about something they could do, but before anypony could come up with an answer, the doors suddenly burst open and a white, almost blinding light shone.

[2]: Luna could be fairly redundant sometimes, especially in times of stress.

"I think that I can be of assistance," a soft and sweet, but commanding voice spoke from within the light.

Luna's eyes grew wide. "I know that voice..." She raced through her mind, trying to think of who it was that she could possibly be remembering.[3]

[3]: Why she didn't recognise it at first blush would always be a mystery. "She was always a slow one," [REDACTED] had to say on the subject.

"As well you should! For I am Cor Cantae Amoris, Queen of Equestria, the First Song!" Out of the glow stepped a pink alicorn, whose fur faded to white down her legs and up her wings. Her flowing mane and tail went from Celestia's green to her light blue and finally faded into Luna's dark blue, from the beginning to the end, rather than striped like Celestia's. They seemed to hum softly when you looked at them.

Discord appeared with a flash. "She's not actually the 'first song,' she added that after all that business with the Heart Song. 'Incredibly arrogant,' if you listened to me at all last time."

Luna was frozen in disbelief. She stared at the alicorn before her, unable to process what she was seeing. It was really her. "M- Mother?!"

Author's Note

One chapter a day. Muahaha.
I'm so good at making Author's Notes.
Also, according to Discord in the previous installment, Amoris was incredibly arrogant, which was extremely annoying but also oddly endearing. So look forward to that. Or don't.

~Solo Deo Gloriam Dedi~

Lesson Two: Turtles Are Good for You, or, Outrageous Teaching Methods

Luna was frozen in disbelief. She stared at the alicorn before her, unable to process what she was seeing. It was really her. "M- Mother?!" Slowly, her limbs freed up, but she still didn't want to move, for fear the illusion would disappear.

"In the flesh!" Amoris replied, tapping a hoof against her side. "Actually, I'm not completely certain I really am in the flesh," she started, her brow furrowed. "I would ask somepony to bite me, but that would ruin my literally heavenly complexion." She chuckled.

"Oddly endearing!" Discord interjected, holding a plushie of Amoris and squeezing it with a squeak. From Discord, not the plushie, of course.

"Last time I checked, ponies didn't eat meat," Rainbow Dash added. "And I don't think the animals in the Everfree will be too polite about biting you." The six shared a light laugh.

Luna's limbs finally freed up, but she didn't think to move just right then. "But... But how didst thou come back? I thought thou wast dead!" She teleported in front of her mother and poked her, trying to satisfy her disbelief. Rarity gasped and fainted at the disrespectful and uncouth touch, but then realised that Cor Cantae Amoris[1] was Luna's mother and sat back up, clearing her throat.

[1]: Rarity would be insistent about using Amoris' full name. They all (mostly) got used to this.

"Oh, I was!" Amoris replied, laughing lightly. "Dead as a doorknob. Well, except for that one doorknob I met in Zebrica. She was very much alive, last I checked, which was actually at least 3000 years ago. Discord, do you know what happened to that doorknob you made?"

"Oh, she's dead too. All doors come to an end, you know. I could bring her back if you like, though." He raised his claw to snap his fingers.

"No, let her stay dead. I didn't like her. She's probably off in the Astral Plane doing some doorknob-y things anyway." Amoris waved a hoof in dismissal and continued. "Anyway, like I said, I was very dead. Pretty thoroughly, I should say; turned to a fine dust! But Luna, dear, we're goddesses! Don't you think we could just poof out of the Astral Plane whenever we wanted to? Twilight's friends killed her, you know." She giggled lightly. "Turned her to fine dust too, I think."

"The Elements did what?" Twilight asked her face filled with shock, and she startled back, banging her head into the hard crystal throne. "Ow..." she said, rubbing her head, and then Discord snapped his fingers, making the thrones much more comfortable and soft.

"It's about time I fixed those," he muttered. "That old Tree never did have any taste in chairs. Hard chairs this, hard chairs that. Blah, blah, blah." He mimicked the speaking with his claw.

"I thought the spell just sent me to the Astral Plane!" Twilight exclaimed, her mind running through possibilities. "It couldn't- Wait. Did you just say the Tree had no taste? It isn't even sentient! Unless it is..." Her expression grew vacant and a stray hair popped out of place in her mane, before she began rambling about the implications. Discord snapped his fingers and a soundproofing barrier fell over Twilight. He hung a sign saying 'Out of Order' in the air above her.

"Maybe I shouldn't have mentioned the Tree. Oh well! What's done is done."

Luna, meanwhile, was ecstatic. "Thou... Thou art not dead. Thou art not dead!" She was about to grin, but suddenly it stopped. "Wait. Thou couldst have come any time thou wished?" she asked, sceptically, her demeanour fading.

"Yes! Absolutely any time. I visited Qizhon'Xian a few times, actually. Those cranes are fabulously wonderful." Amoris laughed lightly.

"Any time at all?" Luna said again, trying to elicit the right thought process in her mother's mind.

"Yes, exactly, you don't need to drag it on, dear," Amoris said, yawning boredly.

"I do love dragging things on though," Discord said, frowning. "Although redundancy is a pain."

"Discord, you know how to drag things on. Everypony else doesn't. Except for maybe Rarity, actually." Amoris giggled.

Luna was not amused. In fact, she was fuming, positively livid. "Dost thou know how much I missed thee? Every night of every year I cried for thy death! Didst thou not see my pain? My despair? And thou never once thought to even visit briefly to reassure me? How could thee?"

Amoris frowned. "First of all, it's 'How could thou,' not 'How could thee.' I thought you knew these things! Second, I was busy. Watching you two rule. It was cute! Celestia getting over your loss was especially interesting."

"Thou wast busy?!" Luna cried, her face growing red with anger. "And thinkest thou not to correct our grammar when much more pressing matters are at hoof! For example, why thou never visited us?! Why thou left us in despair?" Luna snorted and pawed a hoof against the ground.

"Speaking of that, why are you still using that old style of speech? That is so 600 years ago and you know it. Keep up with the times! You've been here long enough to correct yourself." She sighed. Luna's anger grew and grew, until suddenly, it faded. Her shoulders drooped and her mane actually fell, losing its ethereal quality. Tears welled up in her eyes and then began to stream, before she let out a choked sob, and then, without another word, she flung open the doors with her magic and galloped outside, sobbing in despair.

A tear slowly dripped from Amoris' eye as she watched her daughter leave. She snapped around as Fluttershy stomped in front of her. " What was that? How could you do that to your own daughter?" Fluttershy growled, fuming. The others backed away from Fluttershy; they knew not to disturb her in this state.

"She loves you! She hasn't seen you for at least a thousand years! And then you just dismiss her like it's nothing! How could you be so cold?" She became increasingly more agitated as she spoke. "You are the worst mother ever!"

"You have no right to tell me that!" Amoris retorted, angrily. Another tear dripped from her eye. "You have no idea how much it hurt to say those things to my daughter! Do you really think I of all ponies would be so insensitive? It was an act!" She sighed and calmed down, breathing in and out slowly. She wiped her fur and then fixed it back up with magic.

"W- What?" Fluttershy asked, confusion replacing her anger. "It was an act?" She drew her eyes up and down the Queen, who shuddered in sadness.

"It certainly did not look like an act," Rarity said, huffing. "And I know my acts. I can tell an act when I see one."

"Well, you're definitely very good at acting," Rainbow Dash snarked, smirking. "Oh, woe is me!" she mimicked, badly, drawing a hoof over her face. "This is the most bad possible thing!"

"Worst, darling. Not most bad." Rarity frowned lightly, and Dash scoffed.

"I know that; I was trying to be ironic." Rainbow Dash scowled.

"How do you know what irony is?" Rarity retorted, huffing again.

"Daring Do," Rainbow Dash replied. "Daring adds some stuff about writing stuff throughout the books so cool other stuff she does isn't lost on us readers. Duh."

Applejack finally spoke up. "Ah'm the Element of Honesty, an' ah didn't feel even a tiny mite like you were lyin' or actin'." She raised her eyebrow.

"My goodness, you're good at raising your eyebrows," Amoris said, suddenly. "Anyway, I'm the Queen of Song, but that also includes other forms of art--including acting. I'm the master actor. With divine magic. And you, Applejack, are not divine, however i-" Discord hushed Amoris with a finger.

"Ah ah ah, spoilers. You can tell them later." Discord swung a pendulum with the typical warning sign as its end: The outline of a circle with a slash running through it.

"Ugh, fine." Amoris harrumphed, in the same vein as Rarity's huffs, and continued her original discourse. "I have always taught my children in outrageous ways, emphasis on rage. I find it the most effective way to teach them. Simply telling them things does not work: They must experience it for themselves. In this case, loss. My daughters never felt loss, because they had always been nearest to immortals.

"As time passed, I dropped hints about dealing with loss, making sure they registered them, but I never gave them a reason why. I knew that, inevitably, a certain enemy who shall not be named would come back and I would die. So I died! And then I didn't come back. It took a while, but they figured out how to deal with it based on the little things I'd instilled in them.

"I needed them to learn to deal with loss, because, once we were gone, they would make mortal friends. And those friends would die. Very often. If they didn't know how to deal with loss, then they would never be able to withstand that. And this final insensitivity was the hammer on the head. She has experienced true, complete loss, when I do not even show signs of caring. That is what that was, Fluttershy. Now do you understand?"

Fluttershy was well and thoroughly reprimanded. "I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to... I didn't know..." She began to cry softly. Suddenly, Amoris' demeanour changed. She scooped Fluttershy up in her magic and brought her into a comforting hug, letting the poor dear know that it was okay.

"Worry not, Fluttershy," she said, softly. "That was the right way to respond. You could not have known what I was doing." As Fluttershy showed no signs of calming, Amoris began to hum softly, a calming, soothing tune. Deep red swirling ribbons of magic danced around Fluttershy as Amoris' song worked its magic and brought Fluttershy's mind out of its stupor. "I'm sorry, too."

She slowly lowered Fluttershy down onto her throne and then cleared her throat, looking at the others. "Wow, Queen Amoris, that was so cool!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, her voice cracking. "Was that Heart Magic?"

"It was. Don't worry, I only brought out the calm inside her, that which she wanted to have. It's not forced or artificial." Applejack was sufficiently relieved by this, and Amoris perked up once more. "So! Like I think I said earlier, Luna was always the slower one as to figuring out when I was teaching a lesson. By my estimates, she'll be back in, hmm... 3... 2... 1."

The door burst in and Luna tackled her mother in a hug, sobbing quietly. "You're back... You're alive..." Luna whispered, as her slowing tears wet her mother, but Amoris didn't care, although she usually would. But this was her daughter.

"I'm sorry I took so long," Amoris said, stroking Luna's mane softly. "I'm sorry I had to leave you alone like that."

"Why did you stay away for so long? Nightmare..." Luna trailed off, her meaning incoherent to the others in the room. Amoris understood perfectly.

"That was why, dear. I was about to return, but then you began to show signs of that." She sighed sadly; she had been heavily disheartened by that thousand year wait. "When you returned, I knew it was time to come back. Then I realised that somepony else was going to receive Heart Magic, and I decided to wait until then to make sure you had fully recovered. And you did quite nicely.

"Thank you for that, by the way," she said, nodding to Twilight and her friends. They nodded in return, but didn't say anything, not wanting to disturb the moment.

"Yes... We did not handle that in the best way." Luna sighed. "But yes, we are 'over it,' as the ponies now say. I thank thee so much for returning." She squeezed her mother one last time before pulling back.

"So!" exclaimed Amoris, returning to a casual yet regal demeanour. She straightened up her build, thinner than Celestia but not as thin as Luna. It was reminiscent of Cadence, but her width did not change as much as Cadence's and Luna's did along their body. "I came to help, and help is what I shall do. And to do that, I won't teach her any specific way of controlling her emotions.

"Rarity, did you learn from somepony how to control your emotions?" Rarity thought back, and, with surprise, shook her head. "I didn't think so. You have to develop it on your own. And I'm going to perform some tests--" Twilight squeed--"to figure out what the best way to elicit inner control would be." The music boxes of her mind[2] were already turning, coming up with tests to perform.

[2]: Ponies had actual mental gears that turned when they thought. The alicorns had special gears, Amoris' gears being music boxes, Luna's being phasing moons, and Celestia's being extremely odd flickering flames. She'd never changed it, mostly because she couldn't think of anything better that was related to her divinity. Maybe something having to do with lights and mirrors. She didn't know.

"But first, I want to get to know Sweetie Belle. And her friends, too, for good measure." Her horn glowed and she teleported Apple Bloom and Scootaloo into the castle. Thankfully, they hadn't been doing anything too important.[3]

[3]: If "about to get their cutie marks in carpentry and scooter stunts[4], respectively" counted as unimportant. The Fates knew this, which was, of course, exactly why they stopped the two. Fate could be cruel. Right now, actually, it wasn't.

[4]: This had been gradually evolving (or devolving, in Scootaloo's opinion) into dancing. Unfortunately (or thankfully, in Scootaloo's opinion), she was teleported away before she could realise it, hence, before it could get good (or bad, in Scootaloo's opinion).

"Eh, scooter stunts weren't going to get me a cutie mark anyway," Scootaloo muttered.

"Who teleported us?" asked Apple Bloom, looking around as her eyes got oriented to the different light. Her eyes drifted to the weird pink pony with wings and a horn, then she looked over at Scootaloo- Weird pink pony with wings and a horn? "Er... 'sthat a new alicorn?" She shook her head, trying to clear her mind and get rid of the illusion. Nope, still there.

"Not new, just gone for a really long time," Sweetie Belle clarified. "She's the one that could do Heart Magic too, remember? In Discord's play." They all laughed as they remembered it.

"A play? About me? I want to see this," Amoris mused, her mind absent, working on other things. "Actually, it's made by Discord, I'm not sure any more..."

"Wow! I get to know three alicorns now!" exclaimed Scootaloo, grinning. "Diamond Tiara will be so jealous."

"I like that name..." Amoris muttered, deep in thought.

Spike groaned. "She's even worse than Twilight when she's thinking," he droned, not looking forward to when this happened again. Because he knew it would.

"Ah know how ta fix this," Applejack said, tossing up an apple from her saddlebags and throwing it at Amoris[4], who lifted her hoof and caught it without a second thought, taking a bite thoughtfully. "Er... Never mind."

[5]: Getting an apple thrown at you did not hurt in Equestria. The fruit families threw fruits around so much that the divines decided that since they couldn't stop the ponies, why not stop the fruits? It was still startling, though.

"Just let her think, darlings," Rarity said, as Twilight with her magic held Rainbow Dash back. "If this is anything like Twilight when she's thinking, we have no hope. You may faint if you want, I have spares." Rarity presented a fainting couch to her friends, but for some reason, none of them accepted. How rude.

Then, just like that, Amoris was done. She blinked and then began speaking like nothing had happened. "So you're Apple Bloom and Scootaloo," said Amoris, looking them over. "It's wonderful to finally meet you in person[AN 1]. Your friend has a lot in store, but I wanted to get to know you too. Just scrying you from afar is no way to get to know anypony, no matter who you are." Amoris laughed lightly.

"It's wonderful ta fin'lly meet us?" asked Apple Bloom. "Oh mare, DT's going ta faint like Rarity on a good hair day.[5]"

[6]: Rarity fainted enough on good hair days. Bad hair days? It hurt to think about.

"Did somepony say fainting?" asked Rarity, teleporting between them with a fainting couch. Ever since the whole Tirek and rainbow power incident, the Bearers had gradually been growing stronger in terms of their magic. As a result, Rarity fell into neurosis more easily than ever. Now was no exception. "I have a fainting couch! Does anypony want a fainting couch?"

"No, sis, we don't want a fainting couch," Sweetie Belle droned, and Rarity trotted back dejectedly, still levitating her fainting couch.

Amoris looked the two over a bit more, trying to decide whether they were interesting enough to get to know right now. The answer was obvious; she blinked. "Okay, I'm done getting to know you now," she stated, simply. "I want to see the World Turtle."

Twilight's eyes boggled. "The World Turtle is real?" she asked, incredulously. "But- But- I thought Equestria floats in space! The astronomical calculations clearly-"

Amoris held her hoof up in front of Twilight's mouth. "That's the silliest idea I've ever heard. Equestria floating in space?" She threw her head back and laughed. "That's almost as crazy as believing stars are anything bigger than light bulbs." Twilight was further disconcerted by this, and now there was an alicorn and a unicorn falling into neurosis. "Equestria sits on a giant Turtle in a bigger pool inside the Astral Plane. No, there are no elephants involved."

"Do you need a fainting couch, by any chance, Twilight?" Rarity asked, pleadingly. Twilight was too busy breaking to respond. Or faint. Spike rolled his eyes.

"Luna, dear, did the Turtle finally choose a gender?" Amoris asked. "Also, what's its name right now? We of all ponies know how fickle it is. Always changing its name. And Equestria's topography. You know, I wonder why the world is still called Equestria. I mean, there's so many other non-equestrian species on it. It should be called something else that's less specieist. Something random like, I don't know, Ioka or something.

"Discord, next time you go talk to the divines, tell them I renamed Equestria. It's Ioka now." Discord chortled furiously and stuck a note to the inside of his head about doing that. Twilight whimpered further as Rarity's eyes began to twitch.

"No, mother, it did not. It seemeth to have grown rather fond of being genderless, now. I know not its current name, either. It is changing names much more often, recently." Luna laughed lightly (if a loud "Ha!" counted as light). "Dost thou wish of me to teleport us?"

"No, I will. Who's the Heart Song in the room?" Amoris asked, rhetorically.

"I am!" exclaimed Sweetie Belle, her voice cracking. She beamed, totally ignorant to the rhetoric quality of her predecessor's question.

"And I," Amoris replied. "It was rhetorical." Without further ado, she teleported them all to the head of the Turtle, who extended its will into a much smaller copy of itself, about Sweetie Belle's size.

"Hello, Amoris," it greeted, with that sort of voice where you couldn't tell what gender it was. It had a distinct English accent.[AN 2] "And Luna, and Twilight. Congratulations on your divinity, by the way." Twilight's eye was twitching now as well. "It seems she's going through neurosis. And the white one too. Is anyone going to stop that?"

Rarity teleported in front of the Turtle, waving her fainting couch around. "Do you want a fainting couch? Please tell me you want a fainting couch!"

"No, I suppose not," the Turtle said, answering its own question. "I have a pile of fainting couches somewhere around here. They all look like that one, for some reason." It was probably where all of Rarity's random fainting couches went. Why they went to the Turtle was unknown.

"So, what's your name right now?" Amoris asked. "I can't just call you 'you' forever; that would be silly once other ponies start talking."

"I feel like a Carol right now," Carol stated, like it was the most obvious fact in the world.

"Well, it's nice to see you again, Carol. I really should visit more often." Amoris patted Carol's head.

"Strike that; I feel like a Ken now," Ken interrupted. "Call me Ken."

Pinkie Pie, who had been oddly quiet, finally spoke up. "Wow, it's so great to meet you, Ken! I heard there was a World Turtle but now I actually get to meet you! I need to throw a party! Can I throw an impromptu party on your head?" Ken nodded, but before it could say anything, Pinkie had already fired her party cannon and their area of Ken's head was thoroughly decorated.

"Very practical," Ken noted. "I suddenly feel like a Nolan." Nolan teleported over a cupcake and took a bite out of it. "Thank you for these cupcakes, pink one."

Fluttershy was considerably more brave around animals, even an animal that happened to carry all of the recently renamed Ioka on its back. So, she finally decided that it would be interesting to talk to Nolan. "Um, mister Nolan?" she asked, at an almost normal volume.

"I'm genderless, shy one," Nolan replied. "Use 'Turtle' rather than 'Mister' or 'Miss'."

"That is the weirdest thing I've ever heard," Rainbow Dash droned, disrespectfully.

"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity scolded, suddenly back, neurosis gone, while Fluttershy attempted to draw the conversation back to herself to no avail. "How could you say that? Such disrespect! This is the Turtle that carries all of Eq- Ioka on its back! I think that just demands respect."

Twilight's neurosis was still getting worse. Her mane was completely unkempt and her face was contorted as her mind continued to be shattered. "This is no longer interesting," said Nolan, and it touched one of its feet to Twilight's head. The foot glowed and Twilight's neurosis faded away as the information sorted itself out and her fears were calmed. "Call me Joan now."

"What in tarnation was that?" asked Apple Bloom, very interested. "Didn't look like no regular magic to me. Or that fancy Heart Magic Sweetie uses."

"It's Mind Magic," Joan stated, without further elaboration.

"Er... Care to explain?" Apple Bloom continued, trying to push Joan in the right direction.

"Oh!" Joan exclaimed. Apple Bloom perked up. "No."

"Why not?"

"I don't want to. I like Tanner now." Tanner turned away from Apple Bloom before she could respond.

"So," Amoris began, finally getting to what she wanted to say. "Was Luna's reaction when I returned surprising?"

"Cora, you should know by now that nothing surprises me." Tanner chuckled lightly, omitting the recent exception.

Amoris, however, did not forget. "When I came back surprised you," she claimed, suddenly.

A look of surprise formed on Tanner's face. "What? No I wasn't. Neither was I just there." Pinkie Pie giggled and Rainbow Dash snickered.

"Yes you were. Both times." Amoris smirked.

"No I wasn't."

"Yes you were."

"No I wasn't." Before Amoris could respond, Tanner said, "Call me Sam."

"Okay, two things," Rainbow interrupted, obvious annoyance on her face. "One: Those names are weird." Rarity gasped. "Two: Stop changing names! It's annoying!" Rarity fainted onto a fainting couch at this second offence.

"Rainbow Dash," Applejack muttered, with gritted teeth. "Don't insult the prob'ly all powerful giant turtle."

"Oh, it's fine, I'm not insulted," Tanner said, laughing lightly. "Although you should be careful. I may not be all-powerful, but I'm powerful enough to..." The Turtle winked. "Anyway, call me Seymour."

"To what?!" asked Rainbow Dash, frantically.

"Whatever it is, it doesn't matter, because I believe I've finished catching up. The Turtle knows almost everything. Goodbye, Seymour."

"Goodbye, Cora," the Turtle said, and as she looked at each pony, she continued, "Pink One, Magic One, Kind One, Brash One, Generous One, Honest One, One of Heart..." She turned to Scootaloo, and began, "One of-"

"Okay bye!" Amoris exclaimed, quickly, and they all teleported back to the castle. "So! I think it's time for the tests."

"I never got to talk to it..." Fluttershy whispered, dejectedly.

"Don't fret, Fluttershy," Amoris said. "I'll take you again some time. But we have many things to do."

"What was the Turtle saying to me before we left?" Scootaloo asked, tilting her head.

"Probably nothing interesting. It was dragging on too long again." Amoris chortled. "And anyway, it might have had something to do with your cutie mark, which would have been spoilers for you."

"Aw, come on!" Scootaloo exclaimed, hitting the ground with her hoof.

"Ah could've found out too!" Apple Bloom suddenly realised. "Why'd ya have to do that?"

"Because, you're supposed to find out for yourself." Amoris huffed. "Right now, I need most of you to leave. Twilight and Luna can stay, and so can Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. I'll need you two in the second test." The other ponies shuffled out of the throne room, while Discord hid in a chandelier to watch.

"Now, I first need to test your emotions while you're singing. While a song straight from the heart can be quite dangerous, I'm here, and I'm more powerful than Sweetie Belle, so I can stop it if it gets out of hoof. Now, Sweetie Belle, begin."

Sweetie Belle hesitated, thinking it over. Well, there were three powerful alicorns in the room (one of which could do what she did), and Discord was probably hanging around too. Satisfied, she opened her mouth, and began to vocalise, unconsciously reaching out and gripping her heart, opening a connection for the emotions to flow outward and be controlled by her song.

As Sweetie began to sing, Amoris herself began to vocalise, her deep red Heart Magic quickly working its way to Sweetie's heart. She watched and felt the emotions storming inside of Sweetie. She concentrated as the emotions began to flow at a regular pace... before suddenly, emotions from all over the chaotic sea flooded toward the opening, controlling Sweetie's song instead of the other way around.

While last time it was (mostly) harmless, this time, darker emotions took hold, like ire and envy. But before anything detrimental could take place, Amoris sang a halting, discordant note which ended the magic. "Next test," said Amoris, as she projected a mental image of what Amoris had felt into Twilight's mind so the bookworm could take notes.

"Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, go next to Sweetie Belle. Hug her or something. Whatever you do, be very happy." That would be easy for them. Amoris had cut off the song before anything remotely scary could visibly happen. And they liked Sweetie's singing. All around, they were pretty ecstatic.

Apple Bloom and Scootaloo squeezed Sweetie Belle between them. "Too... Tight..." Sweetie gasped, trying to push the two into a looser position.

"Oh, sorry 'bout that," Apple Bloom sheepishly replied, the squeezers loosening up.

"Now, Sweetie Belle, begin singing again." Sweetie Belle began to vocalise for the second time, opening up the same connection as before. Amoris watched closely as the emotions were coaxed out to the connection. As the time came that the stormy emotions would begin to take control, suddenly, faint bridges began to form between the three hearts, and as the emotions tried to rush forward, they were held back by an invisible force.

But after about 10 seconds of being held back, the chaotic emotions broke free of their bonds and rushed toward the main connection. Amoris halted the song again and sent Twilight another mental image, launching Twilight into another furious bout of note taking.

"Interesting..." Amoris mused, mulling over the results.

"What happened?" Scootaloo asked, and Sweetie and Apple Bloom echoed the inquiry.

Amoris shook her head. "None of your concern. Anything I do might not work if you know anything about it."

"Please?" asked Sweetie Belle, about to whip out the cute face. One of them. She had many.

"Nope. You go play outside with your friends." Then Amoris flashed her horn and teleported the Crusaders away. Moments later, she sensed something with a Heart Song spell coming toward Ponyville. "There's something with a Heart spell coming toward the town," she said, to the other alicorns in the room. "It feels sinister; I'm going to try and dismantle it."

Luna and Twilight looked on awkwardly as Amoris began to vocalise a lilting, choppy tune. After a few seconds, she stopped. "Hmm..." She switched to vocalising an odd tune, in which she suddenly stopped notes and superimposed others. Finishing, she explained, "I can't seem to get rid of the spell. I've put up as many exceptions as I could, though, since it seems to be a mind altering spell.

"All the important ponies, and Spike. By important ponies I mean the Elements of Harmony." Amoris hummed a bit more.

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, agitated. "We're not the only important ponies in-"

Amoris teleported over and put a hoof to Twilight's mouth. "Hush. I'm trying to listen." Her ear flicked, and then she teleported the rest of them outside, joined with the other Elements and the Crusaders.

Sweetie Belle's eyes widened and she startled back as she saw the object glowing and spinning in the air. Some of the ponies in the group were staring at the all too familiar object while the others were watching the ponies scrambling away in fear. "That's..."

"Ah know what that is..." Apple Bloom said, horrified, her eyes wide and her ears pinned back.

"I thought it was gone!" Scootaloo continued, tensing up.

Finally, simultaneously, they cried, "The Nightmare Paring Knife!"

And then all Tartarus broke loose.

Author's Note

The magic that really happens in the Heart Song has not been fully described. Each time I may describe more, but all will be shown near the end, though, worry not. And it will be grand.[AN 3]

Footnotes:
[AN 1]: Person is not strictly human. "In pony" is bad and you should feel bad.
[AN 2]: No. Not all Earth names have to be ponified. Is it so hard to believe that there could have been a group of Angles who settled somewhere and developed that accent? The answer to that is no, in case you didn't guess right at first blush.
[AN 3]: I hope.

Lesson Three: Fear > Logic, or, A Song is a Tune with an Instrument, Preferably [SUBJECTIVE]

On the contrary, all Tartarus did not break loose. Technically, it already had. There were already many ponies running around screaming their heads off[1]. The Crusaders only screamed for one or two moments before adopting clear heads again. Twilight and her friends quickly grew composed.

[1]: Would Ponyville ever learn how not to panic? Probably not. Although, to be fair, they were only scared because of the spells specifically meant to make them scared, but that was besides the point.

"Well, that's not good," Applejack stated, helpfully.

"Like Tartarus it is!" exclaimed Dash. "Do you know what that thing could have done to my reputation if anypony saw me when that happened?" She shuddered, not daring to think of the ponies laughing at her and destroying her well-built reputation of bravery and fearlessness... Blast it, she'd already done it.

"Darlings, have you noticed we haven't been scared yet?" Rarity asked, suddenly, looking back at the knife. "Ponies farther away from us are turning tail, but we're just fine."

"Ah, that would be me," Amoris explained, smiling. "I wasn't able to dismantle the spell, but I placed exceptions for all of you and Spike." Only now remembering to get him, she teleported him over, where he started to launch into a panicked explanation about what was happening. "Yes, yes, we already know," Amoris said, stopping Spike before they would have to sit through that. "You're safe because of me." Spike was thoroughly satisfied.

"Can I sing to stop it?" asked Sweetie Belle, looking at the knife sceptically.

"If my speculations are correct, you sang to start it. And if I couldn't sing to stop it, neither can you, especially with that lack of control." Amoris sighed. "If I can't stop it, there's the chance that only you can, and so we need to build up control in you and quickly."

"I can try and contain it," Twilight said, and before Amoris could think of objecting, Twilight's horn lit up and she surrounded the knife in a barrier. It stopped moving, but it didn't stop scaring anypony that looked at it. So, Twilight made the barrier opaque.

"No, don't!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. As soon as Twilight made the barrier opaque, the knife drained the magic from the shield to strengthen itself and then began moving again. Sweetie sighed. "It can use the magic of others to make itself stronger... Especially if it can't fulfil it's purpose."

"Um... Oops?" Twilight asked, blushing sheepishly.

"I don't think the magic in a shield would be very much for it, though," Amoris rectified. "Now, it's time to-"

Discord appeared with a flash and an explosion of snow, coating the others in white. They all quickly shook themselves so they could see who had done that. "Yoohoo! Sorry I'm late, friends, I had a bit of difficulty with the candles." He blew on a bit of flame that had just sprouted on his paw, putting it out. "Hmm, looks like it's not fully gone. Note to self: Don't mould so much with the chandeliers next time."

He blew out another flame on his claw this time (which perturbed Twilight) and then donned glasses and a plaid suit. "I'm suited and ready to teach, my dear," he said, bowing to Amoris and Luna. He booped Luna's nose with his paw and she scowled. "Oh, don't be so glum. You should be honoured that I'm here to help! I'm very good at singing, you know." He opened his mouth and put a claw to his chest, but Luna interrupted quickly.

"Yes, we know, thou canst sing well, let us get on with it." The Crusaders giggled and Discord pouted.

"You can't control Heart Magic any more than the Elements of Harmony can control Chaos Magic," Amoris explained, frowning. "You won't be any help at all."

"Oh, sure I will," Discord said, straightening a bow tie that hadn't been there before. "Luna can't use Heart Magic and she taught Sweetie Belle perfectly well. I mean, it isn't like her carelessness caused Sweetie Belle to restart the Knife. But if it were, I of course would reprimand her, because that's what friends do. Because I'm her friend. Right, Luna?"

"I am most certainly not friends with thee," Luna retorted. "However appreciative of thy gift I am. And that is not amusing." Luna scowled again.

"Oh, fine. But still! I simply must help with this. As a good friend, it's the least I can do." Discord held up his claw and began to snap his fingers as he listed what he needed, creating each thing in turn. "Now, we need a blackboard, some chalk, a dolphin, a bat, preferably vampire, not Fluttershy, and-"

"The best thou canst do is leave," Luna said, huffing. "We do not need thee." Discord literally deflated, the object he'd summoned disappearing, before he curled around Luna as a blanket to add to her coat.

"Why, don't make such quick judgements as to whom you do and do not need," Discord reprimanded. "Goodness me. Just because I am not an orderly being does not mean I can't be a perfectly good teacher. Helper, at least."

"You couldn't possibly help in such a terrifyingly dull outfit!" Rarity exclaimed, suddenly. Discord as a blanket still had the plaid suit on. "Plaid is fine if you know how to pull it off, but these colours!" They were a drab green and brown, with a hint of drab red. "I don't need a Knife to scare me with that monstrosity around."

"And here I thought you would like my choice in fashion. I thought I'd learned so much from you. It seems I'll have to try harder," Discord said, with obviously fake dejection. But that coat you made for Luna! It looks absolutely frabulous on her." Discord curled off of Luna and returned to his original shape, booping Luna's nose again. "Stunning." Luna frowned in confusion at the compliment, her eyebrow raising. Discord took no notice.

"Well, I'm glad you like it! I worked hard on it. Oh, and I have so many more in store to make!" Rarity exclaimed, excitedly. Then she drooped. "It'll have to all wait until after this big mess." Discord conjured up sea green suit around himself, the same colour as the fluff from Luna's coat. It had an abstract gold paisley pattern.

He teleported next to Luna and smushed their faces together, side by side. "Don't we look great?" he asked, as Luna tensed up and pushed him away, an annoyed scowl on her face.

"Now that looks much better," Rarity said, her eyes gleaming. "Keep wearing it! The abstract positions of the pattern actually complements your asymmetry. A hard task, I should say."

Discord gasped. "You don't like my asymmetry? Well, how rude. I was born like this, you know! Well, not born, but that's a story for another time." Discord closed a book he was holding and threw it into nothingness, before remembering he was holding another and throwing that one out too.

"I never said I didn't like it, just that it was incredibly hard to make fashionable!" Rarity exclaimed. "In case you're wondering, that was not a compliment." Both she and Discord harrumphed.

"Ah, fer one, don't think Discord would be any kind of help right now," Applejack said, scowling.

"And why, pray tell, would that be?" Discord asked, interestedly. "Do you think I am incompetent in matters like this because I'm the god of chaos? Last I checked, that was not a deterrent of any sort. Or maybe you just don't trust me." He laughed. "Wait, we're friends, and friends trust each other."

Applejack opened her mouth, and then closed it. "Look, if you somehow think I have bad intentions, why not be that lie detector you are thanks to the Elements?" Applejack frowned, but her ear flicked and she listened closely. "I have no malicious or harmful intentions. I sincerely want to help. There. Do you trust me now?"

Applejack's eyes widened as she realised he was telling the truth, but then she grew sceptical again. "How do ah know ye'r not jus' twistin' the results?"

Discord was taken aback. "I would never do that!" he exclaimed, sincerely. "But to ease your suspicions: The Elements of Harmony negate chaos. Unfortunately, the Tree won in that little power battle of ours. Always one-upping me, that one. So! You will know if I'm telling a lie." Applejack sighed and tipped her hat in defeat.

"I think it'd be cool to see Discord helping with teaching," Rainbow Dash added, surprising the others. "What? You know how crazy he is. He might keep this from being a borefest."

"I agree!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "Discord is super silly but he can be super serious at the same time!"

"But-" Luna tried to protest, but Fluttershy finally spoke up.

"I think we should let Discord have a chance, Princess Luna," she said, shyly, but not too quietly. "He really wants to help."

Luna frowned once more. "... Fine. I shall let him help. But know that it is on your heads if this faileth because of him."

"It won't," Fluttershy assured her, her voice steady. She was sure of her friend.

"If thou sayest so." Luna sighed.

"So it shall be!" Discord exclaimed, and then launched into talking with himself. "We need to figure out just how Sweetie Belle can control her emotions." The ponies expected him to create a duplicate of himself, but Discord wasn't having that. A mouth on his claw spoke instead. "Oh, but have you seen that storm?" "You know, she doesn't even know what those emotions are," added a third mouth on his stomach, reminiscent of his little musical number with Cadence and Twilight.

"That is the main problem," Amoris said. "How can she control her emotions without knowing about them?"

"Clearly, she needs to subconsciously control them somehow," Twilight added. "Or we could elicit them to actually show."

"That could have adverse effects," Luna replied, frowning slightly as she thought. "There are many emotions that swirl in her heart. If the bad emotions come to the surface and stay, it could ruin her innocence in terms of emotions."

Sweetie Belle came out of her thoughts and looked up at the divine discussion. "Well, how about you tell us how you got to control your emotions, Amoris?"

Amoris thought about it. "I had a different situation than you, you know. I knew what my inner emotions were. You don't. I'm not sure I'd be very helpful." But, as they were beginning to find out, Amoris was very arrogant concerning herself, and so naturally, she had to talk about herself. She could spare some time anyway, since she could shorten it.

"As I started my reign," she began, "a lot of emotions began to surface. Sometimes the many creatures could be so insufferable, and I had anger and malice and soon hate boiling in my heart. So I took up singing, trying to get a break from the annoyances. I hummed in court, I vocalised when I was alone, I learned to play instruments and even created a few.

"I began to let my roiling emotions emotions into my music, and slowly, the music really did calm me down. The emotions began to subside as I let my singing peter them out bit by bit. Now I hardly even know if the emotions are coming. I sing from my heart and let them resolve themselves." She smiled lightly, and then frowned.

"But you, Sweetie Belle? Singing from your heart isn't helping. Yes, it's giving them an outlet, but I think it's just making them stronger." She scuffed the snow with a hoof ever so slightly, maybe a bit irritatedly.

Sweetie Belle paused, mulling this over. "Huh. That's a bummer."

"Clearly, we need something that doesn't have anything to do with the Heart Song to get this right," Discord said, with his usual mouth. His claw quickly spoke up. "Why not compose sheet music for her to follow?"

Realisation dawned in Luna's eyes. "If we create a song for her to follow, one that controlleth her emotions for her, that may succeed for long enough that Sweetie can stop the Knife!"

Hmm. Maybe that would help. "I'll get to that right now," Amoris said, summoning up a paper and beginning to project notes onto it with a spell.

Meanwhile, the Knife had begun moving around much faster, terrorising the ponies in the town with horrible fear of nothing at all. Twilight's friends tried their best to reassure the ponies that came their way, but it was to no avail. The Knife was too strong for petty logic to break its hold.

Nearly all of the ponies without an exception had been scared by now. There was hardly any damage, though, other than that which the ponies occasionally knocked over in their panic. But collateral was kept to a minimum. The Knife's job was not to cause destruction, just fear. But even then, so much fear was not a good thing to have. At least it was only staying in Ponyville.

"Mare, this is crazy," Rainbow Dash said, as she redirected a pony that would have barreled into the conversation between the divines. Besides trying to calm the ponies down, they were also making sure that the conversation was not interrupted--this needed to go as quickly as possible.

"Ye'r tellin' me," Applejack droned, throwing an apple into the mouth of a loudly ranting foal.[2] "And it seems to be gettin' worse and worser."

[2]: The ranter was none other than Pipsqueak, the town conspiracy theorist. And of course, the apple didn't hurt him, as stated before.

"Applejack!" Rarity exclaimed, scandalised. "You know better than to use 'worser'!" She huffed and turned away, summoning a gem[3] and throwing it to the side to distract another pony.

[3]: As Rarity's magic skills had been developing, so her gem finding spell grew to the point that she could actually summon the gem(s) found if she needed them.

"Literary effect, or summat," Applejack replied, waving her hoof. "Twilight mentions it sometimes." Rainbow Dash picked up a particularly persistent pony and shot off, depositing him at the edge of the town and coming back in less than ten seconds. She was gradually decreasing her "flat" time as her talent with flying grew.

"Worse and worser," Dash mused, putting a hoof to her chin. "I've got to say that some day." Rarity frowned. "For literary effect, obviously." Rainbow Dash smirked, and Rarity's frown deepened sceptically, but she reluctantly brushed it off.

While they were talking, Fluttershy was trying in vain to calm another scared pony down. Unfortunately, ponies were not animals, and though her magical care for animals was gradually extending to ponies, these particular ponies were under the influence of a magical spell, so Fluttershy's comforting tones were lost on the irrationally scared victim.

"Fluttershy," Dash finally said, as she put a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder. "It's not going to work. The Knife is too strong. You have to make them leave." Rainbow Dash sighed. She knew that Fluttershy would not be happy about it, but there was nothing for it.

"But look at him..." Fluttershy replied, sadly. The stallion was cowering and shivering in fear. "I know it's just a spell, but that doesn't make the fear any less real."

Rainbow Dash herself was saddened by the revelation. "I know, Fluttershy. I don't want them like this any less than anypony else. So we need to make sure they don't interrupt Amoris and the others so they can figure out a solution faster. As soon as they fix it, the ponies won't be scared any more." Rainbow wasn't so sure that it would be that easy, but she couldn't tell Fluttershy that.

Fluttershy had no such doubts now, though, having been reassured by her friend. If Rainbow Dash trusted them to find a solution, then they would. "Okay then," she said, her voice firmer and she slowly turned the stallion around, shooing him away. He happily[4] obliged.

[4]: If by happily you mean "in sheer terror," of course.

They continued to converse as the divines (minus Amoris, who was writing music) brainstormed. However, they unfortunately weren't coming up with any useful answers other than the first one. Every now and then Amoris would glance at the knife and mutter to herself, before projecting notes again, quickly approaching the end of the song.

Finally, it was finished. "Here we go!" she exclaimed, brightly, presenting the sheets to Sweetie Belle. "All done. This should do the trick!"

Sweetie Belle stared at the sheets without signs of comprehension. "Um... I don't really know how to read sheet music." She blushed sheepishly. "Oh wait, it's upside down." She turned the sheet music upside down at this. "Now it's worse."

One of Amoris' eyes twitched ever so slightly. "One: Only now it's upside down." Her voice was kind, not reprimanding or annoyed like Sweetie Belle expected after her failure. Amoris giggled lightly and turned it over. "Second, you only need to know the first few notes, enough time to start the song." She sang the first four notes to clarify.

Sweetie Belle looked over the page a bit more. It seemed complicated. There were notes on top of each other and seemingly in the same place. How could she possibly sing so many? But she trusted the Heart Song, and began to vocalise.

As she sang the first four notes, the notes on the page sprang to life. Immediately, she knew what to sing and what notes were where, and she rose to the challenge, her heart following the page. Somehow, her voice layered in the notes that were together, singing both low and high and even chords.

In her heart, the usual connection opened up. However, instead of many emotions flowing out, none came at all. She sang the song well, and the magic of the tune itself was working, but there were no emotions in it. Long story short: Nothing happened.

Amoris sighed, disheartened. The very second Heart Song user, snagged by an impossible lack of control. What was she going to do? "Well, that didn't work. Did we come up with any other ideas?"

"Wow, Sweetie Belle, that was awesome!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "It sounded kind of like there were lots of singers but at the same time only you."

"Darn tootin'!" Apple Bloom echoed. "That's yer best performance ah've heard yet!"

"I wasn't really feeling it," Sweetie Belle replied, grimly. "Not as much as usual."

"Ye'r serious?" Apple Bloom asked, surprised. "Dang." She didn't know what to say. That was incredible, and she wasn't even feeling it? She just shook her head in wonder.

"Again, have we come up with any other ideas?" Amoris asked, impatiently. Time was ticking, and they needed to be more concerned about this. Amoris tapped a hoof on the ground in irritation.

"Unfortunately, your highness, we have not," Discord said, in a business suit with a suitcase. He pointed to a presentation with various ideas crossed off, most of them nonsensical and only a few the ideas that they'd actually come up with.

"Hmm... My findings from this are that trying to artificially control Sweetie's emotions simply completely holds all of them back. No matter how intricate it is, it cannot replicate natural control of emotions unless Sweetie Belle knows what her emotions are, which we've established she can't." Twilight quickly wrote down the findings as Amoris spoke them, drawing up a few of her own notes which weren't very helpful.

Amoris gazed at the Knife, and then at Sweetie Belle, before being snapped out of her reverie by Luna speaking. "So, then, what shall we do? We have not any ideas."

Amoris looked at Sweetie Belle, and then at her own hooves, her faced wrinkled in conflict. "I need to go. I'm sure you can all figure something out." And then with a flash, she disappeared.

Everypony in the group quieted, the divines, the Crusaders, and the Elements. "Ha!" Luna finally exclaimed, breaking the silence. "I told you all that Discord would somehow make this fail!" Now everypony was glaring at her. She shrunk back a bit. "Um... We are sorry?" Fluttershy glared harder. Luna frowned. "Fine. Discord, we apologise for accusing you of causing our mother to leave."

"Apology accepted!" Discord exclaimed, with comically large tears in his eyes. He tightly hugged Luna, before letting go and snapping his fingers, creating a life-sized plushie of himself hugging Luna. "Hah! It's perfect."

Luna scowled, and then her expression softened. She lightly pushed the plushie away from her face so she could see again. Before conversation between the two could further and anger be accidentally rekindled, Sweetie Belle spoke up. "So... What do we do now? Amoris is gone, and you didn't come up with anything else."

"I don't really know," Twilight replied, grimly, her face emotionless. "There doesn't seem to be any way to negate what's happening to these ponies. I hate to see them so scared. Maybe Amoris will come back. Until then, we sit down, and we think. There's nothing else for it." She sighed, and there was a depressing silence.

"There's got ta be a way!" Applejack suddenly cried, breaking the silence. "Ah refuse ta believe that we can't do nuttin' without that pretty pink princess!"

"Queen, Applejack," Discord replied, tutting. "Know your titles." He began to unroll a very long scroll, but Rainbow Dash stopped it with her hoof.

"That literary effect thing again, or something," she replied. "Probably because 'Pretty Pink Queen' doesn't sound anywhere near as good." She chuckled.

The scroll disappeared with a flash. "You're right! Carry on, Applejack."

"Maybe we kin corral these ponies somewhere where they can't see the Knife," Applejack said, her eyes brightening.

"Last time we didn't need to see the Knife for us to keep going to the Elements," Twilight responded, still emotionlessly. "That won't work."

Applejack opened her mouth, and then suddenly, the Knife disappeared and the panic stopped, the fear subsiding and returning the ponies to a (mostly) normal state. The ponies all shuffled back to their homes, and the immune ponies quieted again. "Huh," Twilight eventually said. "Never mind."

Suddenly, with a flash, Amoris appeared with the Knife in her telekinesis and a cheery expression on her face. "Oh, hello, my friends! Guess what I did!" she exclaimed, in a singsong voice.

"I'd like to guess that it was stopping the Knife..." Fluttershy whispered.

"Unfortunately for you, no." Amoris chuckled lightly. "You need to get better at guessing." Before anypony could guess further, Amoris continued. "Well, since you obviously won't ever get it, I joined the Knife!" The singsong tone was beginning to become infuriating.

In unison, the others replied, "You what?!"

"She ain't lying," Applejack said, next, forgetting that Amoris was the master actor. That, however, did not mean Applejack wasn't right.

"Nope! I'm not. Would you like to know the reasons? They're very interesting!" Amoris giggled when the others said nothing, preferring to scowl at her. "Well, one, I joined it because it was cute! Trying to cause havoc with its little irrational fear spell, however powerful it is."

"You think that monstrosity is cute?" Rarity asked, horrified.

"Actually, I think it looks kind of cute," Fluttershy whispered. "Although I'm not sure that's what she meant."

"Obviously," Amoris droned, but in a cheery way, however impossible that was. "Anyway, I have a second reason, if you'll all bother to listen. Which I'm sure you will. To put it short: I'm jealous!" She had no qualms about admitting that at all. She was very arrogant, after all.

"You see, all those years ago, when I discovered my use of the Heart Song, I realised that I was going to be the absolute best musician ever, not just past or present, but future, as long as nopony got my magic. I 'one-upped every musician ever,' as Discord so eloquently said." Discord bowed and the sound of clapping filled the air as rose petals floated down around him.

"Not the time, Discord," Twilight said, gritting her teeth.

"Anyway, then came Sweetie Belle." Amoris glared at the filly in question. "Going up and somehow gaining the powers I thought nopony would ever have. But she had potential. So much potential for great power. The chance to be better than me. So I help her, and then I find out that she can't control her emotions, and even worse, she doesn't even know what they are! It's pathetic."

Sweetie Belle looked hurt. "You do not talk about my sister like that!" exclaimed Rarity, indignantly. "Just because you hit a small hitch like that doesn't mean you can just brush her off!"

"Your care for such a useless little filly is adorable. But alas, I really don't care. What I do care about is the possibility of anypony ever having my Heart Magic again. So, I've decided upon the perfect solution! Add a hate spell to the Knife and then spread it across all of Equestria. Everypony rips each other to pieces, no more ponies, nopony to get the Magic." Amoris giggled.

Twilight and her friends were taken aback. For all the villains they'd faced, none had ever wanted to kill anypony.[5] "Unfortunately, it won't work on you, since I couldn't take off those exceptions, but you're all girls, and unless you can magic foals out of nowhere, I don't think that's going to get anywhere." She consciously left out Spike, who was considerably hurt by the total dismissal.

[5]: Besides the various consequences of an Eternal Night, of course.

Luna's emotions were conflicting terribly. She couldn't bring herself to hurt her mother, but this was a dire circumstance. Still, she just couldn't. Thankfully, what she did know was that no matter what, ponies did not kill each other. Ever. Spell or no spell, it didn't happen. She hoped her mother didn't know that.

"You're a monster," Rainbow Dash said, darkly. "Killing everypony in Equestria? Also, villain cliché number one, the villain says her plan. I mean, come on." Rainbow Dash crossed her arms.

"I can do that because I've already started it!" Amoris exclaimed, a wide smile on her face.

"No you haven't," Pinkie Pie said, grimly. She had not spoken through this entire time, and her hair was beginning to flatten from the prospect of a land without any laughter at all, a land where nothing she could do would ever make anypony laugh.

Instruments from nowhere began to play a dark, driving, and dissonant tone with anger in its undertones. Suddenly, a bubble of dark red light burst from the Knife and expanded, covering all of Equestria in mere moments. "Well, I just did! So, there goes your little cliché, Rainbow Dash. It'll be fun watching you all try and fail to come up with a way to help Sweetie Belle in time." Amoris giggled. "Cute."

And then Amoris and the Knife disappeared. The ponies huddled together, watching in horror as ponies from all around began to exit their houses into the night[6], starting to horribly insult each other.

"Well, I feel like there's only one thing to say in this situation," Discord said. "With fronds like these, who needs anenomes?"

[6]: The day had for some reason progressed much faster than it usually did.[AN 1]

Author's Note

Yes, I realise that the plot here sounds a lot like that of Once Upon a Time in Season 4. Trust me when I say I came up with this without any influence from that. Or don't. You probably should do the former though. That would be nice. Yes, I also realise that anemone is spelled wrong, but this is dialogue, and Discord. :derpyderp2:

[AN 1]: Yes, this has a reason. No, you don't get to find that out yet.

Lesson Four: Songs Solve Everything! Or, New Yak City

"With fronds like these, who needs anenomes?"

Applejack raised her eyebrow. "Just a hunch," she replied, "but it looks like everypony that ain't us."

"Well excuse me for wanting to reassure us," Discord said, huffing. "I swear, these ponies. So pessimistic! You need more chaos in your life."

"We have you," Rainbow Dash droned, and Discord opened his mouth. And closed it.

And then opened it again. "Touché." He reached into the pocket of his suit and threw various, unrelated items and contraptions out into nothingness. After a few moments of staring, the ponies ignored him and went back to business.

"Well, at least they aren't hurting each other," Rarity said, relieved. "But the insults are so gauche. I feel sick hearing them." This was not an act. They could hear all sorts of horrible things: racial attacks, very private secrets, and many other hurtful things.

"Let's just not listen to them..." Pinkie Pie said, sadly. Luna helpfully put up a soundproof barrier, and then they all turned to Sweetie Belle, who had started crying.

"She called me pathetic..." Sweetie Belle said, between sobs. "I thought she liked me... I thought I was doing so well..."

"Oh, Sweetie Belle-" Fluttershy said, but Sweetie interrupted.

"Stupid no control!" she cried, slumping down further. "Stupid stupid stupid! I can't even get knowing my own self right. How dumb is that? I'm a disgrace to my sister."

"Sweetie Belle, you are not a disgrace to me!" Rarity exclaimed. "Not anywhere near so! if it's anypony's fault you can't control your emotions, it's mine.

"It's not your fault... It's mine! Now because of my lack of control, the Nightmare Paring Knife is back, and Amoris is evil, and Luna hardly got to be with her mom, and- and-" She couldn't say any more. The tears came back full force and she buried her ivory face in the snow.

Fluttershy suddenly pulled Sweetie Belle up out of the snow and into an upright position. "Now, listen here, young lady!" she exclaimed, firmly. "This is not your fault! All that was was a mean, arrogant 'queen' who doesn't know how to treat her subjects, especially her student! It's only unfortunate luck that you're like this, and nothing else!"

Sweetie Belle woke.

She shook off the neurosis and the snow off her face. "I shouldn't have said those things about myself," she said, reassured. "You're right. Queen Amoris is just jealous. She said so herself."

Fluttershy deflated back to her usual demeanour. "Good," she whispered, sheepishly. Sweetie Belle giggled. Before they could keep conversing, Rarity gasped in horror as a fire broke out in an empty building.

"Ponies may not kill each other," Luna gasped. "But they can destroy!" She had completely forgotten that. Twilight jumped to the action and starved the building of oxygen to put out the fire.

"By the way, if you hadn't noticed by now," Discord declared, pulling out a map of Equestria from his pocket and displaying it, "this same thing is probably starting in every city in Equestria. Just thought you should know," he finished in a singsong voice.

Their eyes widened in horror. "We need to come up with a way to spread out and keep Equestria under control, and fast," Twilight said, frantically. "I can handle[AN 1] the biggest city, Manehatten. The Crystal Ponies in the Frozen Nurth are too far away to be affected, but if they are, Cadence and Shiny can get them under control."

"Wait," Rainbow Dash interrupted. "The Frozen Nurth?" she asked, incredulously.

"The Frozen Nurth." Twilight chuckled. "Nopony knows why it's called that. It's been that since before Celestia was born, in fact. They never ended up changing it. I think we're too fond of it by now."[AN 2]

"I shall take Canterlot," Rarity said, confidently. "I know best how they act, and I'm sure I can get Princess Celestia to help."

"I can do Cloudsdale," Rainbow Dash added. Applejack volunteered for Appleloosa and the buffalo, in case the spell affected more than ponies, and Discord and Pinkie could go around to the scattered towns around Equestria.

"I can handle[AN 1] Ponyville with my animal friends." She had tamed some friends in the Everfree, and the other animals could carry things like buckets of water or even ponies around if there were enough. The cockatrice would be especially useful in temporarily freezing especially hostile ponies. Fluttershy was loath to use it often, though.

"I learned quite a bit from the Tirek incident," Twilight began to explain. "What happened to us is something I'm calling Supercharged Harmony Magic. If we go about it right, we can temporarily enhance our skills enough to do the things we'd need to do for the places we're going."

"Well then, let's do it!" Applejack exclaimed. "We don't have time to waste." The others nodded quickly.

"Okay then. We need to share one mindset altogether, that mindset being to protect the towns and cities of Equestria." Twilight gathered them into a circle. "Now, think about our friendship, and how with it we've solved so many other problems."

They began to feel magic permeating the air around them, and they rose into the air, their eyes beginning to faintly glow. Twilight called upon the magic she remembered from that time and distributed it among them, enhancing them, making them stronger, faster, better. And then just as quickly as it began, it stopped and they lowered to the ground.

"Ah don't feel no different," Applejack mused, scuffing the snow with a hoof. But she seemed to feel a stronger connection to the earth, even through the snow, which usually impeded that.

"Woah, Applejack, you're taller!" Pinkie cried in wonder. In fact, they were all taller--almost as tall as Luna, with longer horns for Rarity and Twilight and larger wings for Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy.

"Awesome! I feel like I could fly from one side of the world to the other!" Dash exclaimed, invigorated. "Actually, probably not, but I feel like it!" Applejack rolled her eyes.

"All the parties I'm going to throw...!" Pinkie's hair finished poofing out again. "Well, after we save all the towns and cities and stuff!" She giggled and pulled a ball out of her mane to play with.

"I would love to teleport myself to Canterlot, but I don't think testing the limits of this Supercharged Harmony is a good idea, considering the circumstances," Rarity said. "Twilight, would you be a dear and teleport me there?"

"Of course. I'm going to send you to Princess Celestia and Applejack to Appleloosa. I'm sure Rainbow Dash can get out Cloudsdale easily, and Pinkie is Pinkie. With Discord. So that's covered."

"I shall stay here with Sweetie Belle and her friends," Luna added. "While you keep Equestria in order, I shall try my best to give Sweetie Belle control."

"Well, it's settled then. Are you all ready?" Twilight's friends nodded their heads in affirmation. They were going to do this. They had to. Without further ado, Twilight teleported Rarity to Princess Celestia and Applejack to Appleloosa. Rainbow Dash shot off in a rainbow blur, Pinkie and Discord exploded into a cloud of feathers, and Fluttershy flew off to get her animals.

Rarity appeared next to Celestia in a flash. "Why, hello, Princess Celestia!" she exclaimed, her height bringing her mane level with Celestia' muzzle. "Twilight has sent me to help you keep Canterlot from being destroyed by all the affected ponies."

They were in the empty court, Celestia having just teleported all of the agitated Nobles, petitioners, and guards back to their homes. "I take it you are immune to whatever hate spell has taken over Canterlot?" the princess asked, eyeing Rarity with a bit of suspicion.

"Certainly. I don't think I would have gone here otherwise." Rarity's eyes gleamed. "I get to protect Canterlot with Princess Celestia!" she whispered to herself, ecstatic. The nobles would never be able to ignore her after this.

Celestia laughed lightly. "Well, we have no time to waste." Then she noticed Rarity's height. "Are you... Taller?" she asked, curiously.

"Why, yes! Twilight calls it 'Supercharged Harmony'. I will have more power with which to deal with the destruction."

"Good. I am sure we will need it." Celestia teleported them out of the castle, activating the wards which sent any remaining ponies inside the castle to their homes. "I'll take the west side of Canterlot, you take the east."

"My pleasure, Princess," Rarity said, bowing and squeeing internally.

The princess chuckled. "No need for that, Rarity; worry not."

Applejack appeared in the town square of Appleloosa, where there was already a commotion forming. A few doors had already been broken off their hinges, and she could see the inside of the bar in shambles. Of course the bar would be the first thing to get ruined. But there was nopony in it now.

She extended her awareness into the earth. Earth ponies could do this to an extent, able to sense some things involving the plant life or the soil or the type of rock. But Applejack could now feel everything.

She felt ponies clamouring around a building, ready to destroy the windows, and she galloped to the area in record speed, expertly lassoing the rocks out of the path of the windows as they were thrown. But as she continued to extend her awareness, she knew that she wouldn't be able to be everywhere at once, and that was soon going to be a necessity.

Rainbow Dash sped from Ponyville to Cloudsdale in seconds. She did a sweep of the city, and a mess was already forming. Some cloud houses had been smashed into wisps, and one of the weather factories was being assaulted.

Rainbow rocketed toward the factory and extended her innate control of the air outward, holding the cloud walls intact as she quickly picked up and deposited each of the riotous pegasi far away from the factory. Satisfied, she performed another sweep to find the biggest problems.

Fluttershy sent the closest bird she found to gather up the animals and bring them to her. In a minute or two, the first birds began arriving, and then came the many other land animals she took care of. She didn't know what exactly to say until a fire broke out in another building.

"Birds," she began, confidently, "I need you to find buckets and fill them with water so we can put out that fire." Suddenly, she felt magic flowing out of her and into the birds, empowering them to perform the task quickly and without much effort. They sped off, and Fluttershy continued to give orders.

"Harry, you and the raccoons should keep the ponies away from breaking things as well as you can." Magic empowered them as well and Fluttershy more and more confidently directed the animals around.

Pinkie Pie and Discord appeared in Baltimare, a town-like city a bit bigger than Ponyville. "Ooh! Ooh!" Pinkie cried, bouncing. "We get to throw a party for a whole city!"

"Now this is going to be fun," Discord said, rubbing his claw and paw together gleefully. Pinkie began to pop in and out of buildings, firing her party cannon all over the place faster than she'd ever done before.

As Pinkie set up parties all throughout Baltimare, Discord placed faint persuasion to play the games and eat the food as a much higher priority. So, instead of destruction, it was just furiously competitive partying, which was messy, but not nearly as destructive.

Twilight appeared above Manehatten, her wings spread out as she seemed to glow in the sunlight. There was nothing wrong with a grand entrance; Celestia did that all the time. Magic filled the air as she reached throughout the city, permeating every nook and cranny with her presence.

It was a big city, though, with a lot of ponies, and even with her enhanced power it was admittedly hard to keep track of everything. There was a new fire practically once every five seconds, and that wasn't counting the riotous ponies bent on the very and destruction of windows, furniture, and other property.

She put out the fires easily, and she pulled bats and bludgeons out of hooves while making sure ponies didn't hurt themselves punching glass with their own hooves when they had no weapons. But it was getting gradually worse.

The effects in Canterlot were much tamer than in the other cities. Instead of too much wanton destruction of property, the nobles were breaking down centuries of hard-earned control over each other with secrets proclaimed to all who would hear.

Rarity herself was tempted to listen to what would undoubtedly be many juicy secrets, but she held back. Only the divines knew what trouble that could cause, even after the curse was broken, so she would have to stop it before it got out of hoof.

She erected soundproof barriers around every noble she saw or heard, and extended her magic to find the rest. She teleported swiftly throughout East Canterlot, restraining guards with clothes of all things and protecting the occasional house or store.

As fast as she could teleport, though, Canterlot, even one side of it, was fairly large. She could only cover so much at a given moment. The problem was slowly spiralling out of hoof--when she got around to repeat places she'd already done, there was more trouble than before, so it took longer. Gradually, she knew, this would get worse.

"You know what we need?" she asked herself, her eyes lighting up.

Applejack, although she was an earth pony, and a fast earth pony, and a faster earth pony with her enhanced abilities, was not Rainbow Dash. Well, she could never be Rainbow Dash. But Appleloosa was a town with a fairly large area in perspective.

Sure, she could keep up with most everything in the town at once with her heightened connection, but that didn't mean she could actually be everywhere at once. And moving from place to place was not very efficient in the long run.

That came to a head when two groups of ponies on opposite sides of the town gathered to trash a building each. If she went to one, she'd lose the other. If she went to the other, she'd lose the one. And every apple tree counted--if you just said "It's only one tree," collectively you didn't care about any of them, in her perspective.

Which is why it was a great boon when she realised that the subtle manipulations earth ponies had over the shape of the earth would be enhanced, too. She smiled widely and dug her hoof into the ground, a wall of earth surrounding both buildings to keep the mischievous ponies from doing any damage. Now she was much more confident in her ability to keep the town under control.

Then she saw the buffalo.

And there were a lot of them. She quickly erected thick barriers of earth to block their paths, but buffalo were nothing if not magically hard-headed, and with a few good hits they smashed right through the barriers. She created new ones just as they would get through the first, but they were getting the idea and moving around the town for other entrances.

Applejack suddenly smiled. "You know what we need?"

Rainbow Dash was, true to her name, dashing through Cloudsdale at high speeds, solving problems left and right by weather magicking them away or literally throwing the ponies out of the picture. But even though she was much faster, Cloudsdale was big, very big, and there were always a few places left to accumulate problems.

The problem came to a desperate head when she, like Applejack, was faced with sensing two imminent problems where only one could be solved and not the other. While she did not hold to the same philosophy as Applejack regarding this, both problems had to do with important companies and neither could be neglected.

Then she smirked sinisterly. "You know what we need?"

Fluttershy had a lot of animals. Those animals were currently prowling the town, looking for problems to solve, ponies to separate, or buildings to save. Fluttershy felt that she was pretty well equipped for the town. Her animals were very thorough.

Then, suddenly, as she flew up to look over everything, she realised that her animals were only taking one side of the town, and the other was in absolute chaos. She started back, horrified that she had made such a blatant mistake.

Then she gasped, realising exactly what was needed. "You know what we need?" she whispered, to nopony in particular.

Discord and Pinkie, having just finished Baltimare, teleported to Las Pegasus, a city almost as big as Manehatten. Before she started creating parties again, Pinkie asked, "I wonder why there were no yaks there!"[1]

[1]: Manehatten was also called New Yak City. This is because the city had once been an extension of the territory of the yaks. When Equestria acquired the territory once more, they kept the name out of courtesy. The current widely used name was adopted because the first mayor was known for a very large hat which kept his mane from view. Nopony ever found out exactly what his mane looked like.

"Oh well," Discord said, dismissively. "Yaks are terrible partygoers." With that, the began the same routine as before, although the parties were decidedly more rowdy than the previous. Not to the point of wanton destruction, though, thank parties.

However, they quickly realised that if they did one city at a time, all the other places they weren't at yet would be in complete chaos. The bad kind, not the good kind. Discord for all his attempts to take over the world was only into the harmless kind of chaos.

But then Pinkie was glad. She knew that they were all connected by the solution that was rapidly forming in her head. Pinkie gasped. "Gaaaaasp!" she exclaimed, drawn out. "Dissy, you know what we need?"

Twilight was not having any problems like the others. With a bit of tweaking on the fly, she was much better able to keep track of everything in the city from her position up high. This was a breeze, and she hoped the others were doing as well as she was.

Then, in a painful moment of clarity, she remembered the two large cities on the other side of the Country: Vanhoover and Tall Tale. She didn't know if she could extend her magical grip there, and if she tried, what if she used too much magic and passed out?

However, she began to feel new connections forming between them. It felt familiar, kind of like what she felt when Sweetie Belle was singing... Then she knew. "You know what we need?" she asked, stretching in reinvigoration.

At exactly the same time, six ponies scattered all over Equestria said the exact same thing at the exact same time. They also at that same time felt an eerie sense of contrivance which they decided to ignore. "A montage!"

Then, completely explicably, instruments played and a song started.

"There are too many places to be, and only one me," Rarity sang, as she teleported around Canterlot frantically, stopping problems left and right.

Sweat dripped from Applejack's brow as she repeatedly erected barriers to protect the town from the buffalo while also having to deal with the ponies inside the town. "These obstinate buffalo are getting too close for comfort!"

The song thankfully solved both of the imminent problems so that the lyrics could continue, but Rainbow Dash still zipped from place to place, trying to deal with the aggravated pegasi who were more than eager to resist her efforts. "Yeah, sure, I'm fast, but the pegasi? They're rowdy!" She barely managed to pry a group of pegasi away from smashing a building.

Fluttershy, stressed out, tried in vain to spread out her animals in a different way to cover the whole town. "The town's too big for my animals to guard stalwart," she sang, sadly,

Pinkie and Discord had started trying to go from city to city by doing only a few places in one city, going to another city or town and doing the same, and continuing that routine. It got through all of them, sure, but not anywhere near all of the city.

At a slower rhythm than the earlier lines, Pinkie and Discord lamented, "E-ven chaos can't put parties everywhere at once."

As Twilight teleported between the three cities, her eye twitching as she tried to solve every problem in every city as quickly as she could. "Why wern't two huge towns found in my cognizance?"

"Mind tellin' us what that word means?" Applejack asked, from at least a hundred miles away.

"How about never?" Rainbow Dash asked. No time for an egghead rant about a word she already knew.

As the music rose into the chorus, the six began to feel further empowered.

"But with friendship, (Friendship), and a song found deep inside our souls,"

"With friendship, (Friendship), We'll protect each one of our patrols!"

As the chorus finished and an instrumental part dominated by violins kicked in, a pulse of magic reinvigorated the friends. Rarity rose up into the air via magic, enough to see all of her side so she could take care of all the problems with expert finesse. Telekinesis was one of her fine points, of which she had many.

Applejack dug her hooves deeper into the ground and started actually moving her barriers back, strengthening them enough that the buffalo couldn't break through any more and pushing them back out of the town. She was much more able to keep track of and take care of the attempted destruction from the ponies.

Rainbow Dash began zipping around even faster than before. She, like the unicorns and Applejack had done, actually kept track of Cloudsdale using the weather magic. She kept the ponies in order as she shot about, fixing what damage she could and reinforcing buildings she couldn't get to at the moment.

"Souls?" Sweetie Belle asked, from Hollow Shades, where Luna was currently keeping the bat ponies in order and trying to figure out solutions (this to no avail). "Why not hearts? It's more accurate." They were connected to the song too, despite not singing for it.

"I think 'souls' has more rhymes to it," Fluttershy replied, as from her position over Ponyville she called for animals from both Whitetail Woods and the Everfree to come and fulfil the duties she had for them, like (gently) restraining ponies or stopping riots in progress.

"Ooh, yeah, that makes sense! I was wondering too!" Pinkie exclaimed. Contrary to their previous lyrics, Pinkie and Discord were now practically spreading parties everywhere at once. The others didn't know if that was copies of them in each town they had to do, or just them moving really, really fast. Either way was good enough.

Twilight rose up higher, teleporting herself at the centre of the triangle between the three cities. Rather than extending her grip across the whole of Equestria, she beamed out her grip to the three cities, keeping track of and solving every problem as it came up. It was hard, but not to the point of harmful straining.

"With friendship, (Friendship), and a song found deep inside our souls,"

"With friendship, (Friendship), We're protecting all of our patrols!"

But as the music would have stopped with the finale, the tune became more sinister and Amoris' voice echoed through the song. "So, you're somehow protecting all of Equestria from destroying itself. Very resourceful!" The sound of clapping was heard. "In case you didn't think so, Luna, I do know that ponies don't kill each other. Obviously, that wasn't my plan.

"I took the time to prepare something much more lethal. One that you can't stop like it was stopped the last time. But a little tip: You don't need to protect the towns any more. I doubt the ponies will be able to do anything other than hug their own selves and back away from others. Slowly, though."

The music grew dramatic as Twilight scryed for what Amoris could possibly be talking about. Then, as she saw what was coming, and the others started to feel colder, they all gasped. "Ta-ta, my friends! Sure, you'll probably survive, but everypony else will be dead before they leave."

Then, once more, to end the song, they cried, "Windigoes!"

Author's Note

So I originally wasn't going to make a song because I was running low on time. I made a compromise: I would write one verse instead of two or more.

[AN 1]: Once again: Lots of species have hands. Dragons, griffons, minotaurs, and the cranes to a lesser extent.
[AN 2]: This is based off what looks like a typo in the canon map. If you glance at it, it looks like a 'u' instead of an 'o', but more closely it's definitely an 'o'.

Lesson Five: Dancing Isn't Dumb, or, Too Many Reckless Spells!

"Windigoes!" Twilight immediately teleported them all back to Ponyville, which was closest to the centre of Equestria and would give them the longest time to figure out a solution. Hopefully there wouldn't be too much damage by the time the cold stopped anypony from doing anything riotous.

"Amoris said that 'the last solution' wouldn't work," Twilight said, when they had all reoriented. "What do you think she means?"

"I think she means the fire of friendship, darling," Rarity replied, thinking back to the Hearth's Warming pageant. "That is how the Founders defeated the Windigoes."

"How would we even git it goin'?" Applejack asked, scuffing the ground with a hoof.

"Probably something cheesy like sitting down in a circle and shouting 'friendship!' " Rainbow Dash droned. "We're already friends, anyway. The Founders had to become friends for that to happen."

"Maybe Amoris said it wouldn't work because the Fire is an extension of Harmony Magic, but the Windigoes are here because of Heart Magic?" Fluttershy asked, and everypony stared at her, confused by her sudden burst of knowledge. "Oh, um, Twilight encouraged me to read her and Star Swirl's findings about Harmony and the other related things..."

"Huh, figures it would be Twilight."

"Hey! Actually, I'm not sure that's an insult." Twilight shrugged.

"I know what we need!" Discord exclaimed, wildly. "Chaos! I'm sure that if we just do lots of chaotic things, eventually we'll chance upon the right solution."

"We can't just randomly throw solutions around and hope we'll get one right!" Twilight retorted, indignantly. "The chances of getting a solution would be terribly small!"

"Ah, but that's if we live in an orderly world. Which, of course, we don't. We live in a harmonious world. Totally different." Discord whistled conspicuously. "Really, there's a 50/50 chance that there'll be a big chance to get a solution right off the bat, assuming we get to the bat in the first place. Overall, I'd say the chances are..."

He counted on 11 fingers and then pulled an abacus with twisted rows out of his pocket. He spun the beads and then slid them back and forth, changing their colours before shaking the abacus and then throwing it out somewhere, eliciting the sound of a crash and the hissing of a cat.

"That sounded like Opal," Rarity said, scowling.

"Oh, I would never hurt a fly!" Discord replied, taken aback. "Especially not a dem- angel of a cat like yours." Rarity harrumphed and tossed her head back. "Anyway, I would say the chances are... One hundred and ten percent![1]"

[1]: "That Twilight would freak out," said I, in the footnotes. Pinkie frowned suspiciously.

"But that's literally impossible!" Twilight exclaimed, irritatedly. "You can't have one hundred ten percent in real life."

"Well then, why don't you check my maths, hmmm?" Discord presented a paper with lots of mathematical operations, some real, some with symbols that only Discord understood. At the bottom corner was a final answer of "110%!"

"But- But that's impossible!" Twilight cried, of course not believing that any of the fake operations were credible. She didn't make it seem like that, though. "This isn't even-"

"Not impossible. You see for yourself, don't you?"

"No I-" Discord shut her mouth and painted his own mouth lavender, holding his head in front of Twilight's.

"Yes I do!" he exclaimed, in a perfect imitation of Twilight's voice. Definitely not the poor imitation that everybody else thought they heard. That would be silly. "See?" His head was re-attached and his mouth was back to normal. "She does. It's foolproof."

Applejack raised an eyebrow high, and then she had a pink horn and wings with a sign around her neck, saying, "Princess of Eyebrows." Just as quickly as it appeared, Discord got rid of it all.

"Never mind, you'd be a terrible princess," Discord said, huffing. "That's a fact, you know. That's why they didn't decide- Oops, spoilers." Applejack scowled. "Fluttershy is the closest of any of you, other than Twilight, to princess material," he added. "But she's much better the way she is."

Dawn rose on Hearth's Warming Eve. The sun and moon had still been moving faster for still as of yet unknown reasons. For the ponies around Equestria, however, the sun didn't do much to help the cold.

"Well, it's Hearth's Warming Eve," Rainbow Dash said, dejectedly. "And Windigoes are coming to ruin everything."

"Worst Hearth's Warming ever," Pinkie grumped, her hair beginning to slowly straighten out again in despair.

"Why don't we try Discord's option?" Fluttershy asked, quietly. "At the very least something might slow down the Windigoes."

"Haha, see?" Discord asked, clapping his hands. "Someone knows what they're talking about! Oohoohoo, I have so many things to try!" He rummaged a claw in his suit pocket.

"Maybe it'll be cool." Rainbow Dash glanced at Discord.

"That's what ya said last time, when Discord was gonna teach!" Applejack exclaimed, exasperatedly. She threw her hooves up into the air and then scuffed the ground with them.

"And he came up with a good idea," Rainbow retorted. Applejack opened her mouth, and then closed it.

"Let's see what he has in store," Rarity suddenly said. "Maybe he'll have good ideas. Like that suit." Discord bowed.

"We're with them!" the Crusaders exclaimed, in unison. Sometimes Twilight wondered if that crazy friendship of theirs was more than met the eye. Did they have one of those silly "inherent telepathic connections"? It was more likely that somepony whom she would have to find had cast some sort of spell on them. That made much more sense.

Luna was uneasy, but not as much as last time. She felt she was... "Warming up to him," as the ponies said. She was supposed to tolerate him, not befriend him! But maybe that wasn't so bad. "Maybe... Maybe he shall be of help." Discord beamed. "Maybe."

"Frabulous! Practically everypony agrees." Pinkie nodded profusely. "So I'm going to put a touch of chaos magic in your minds, enough for you to come up with chaotic ideas, hopefully for what we're talking about." Applejack looked sceptical. "Oh, don't worry, it's not any mind control or anything. Just a little something to help us all be more chaotic, temporarily. No malicious intent."

Applejack's lie detecting was satisfied again, so she nodded her head slowly. Everyone else nodded, trusting Applejack, and Discord snapped his fingers, making everypony's ideas that much more chaotic.

Immediately, Pinkie spouted an idea. "Hot chocolate rain!" she exclaimed. "I had that idea before we started!" She giggled innocently.

"That's perfect!" Discord replied, snapping his fingers and setting off hot chocolate rains all throughout Equestria. The chocolate wasn't so hot to the point of burning, but it was comfortable. It was chocolate though, but hopefully the ponies wouldn't care. At least they were getting warm, right?

"Cuddly lions!" "Those are myths!"

"Not any more!"

"Hot pink warning signs!" "Hot blue!" "Another song?" "No more songs!"

Discord threw out a stack of sheet music, the notes flying off the page and whacking Discord, and then each other, before winking out of existence.

"... No more songs!"

Nothing happened.

"Haywaiian BBQ pits?" "Rainbow Dash, we are not doing BBQ pits!" "Ever!"

"Tanning beds?" "Ponies don't tan!" "And why would they get inside?"

"Hang them upside down, of course!" Discord hung tanning beds from the ceilings of random buildings with sturdy noodles and glitter glue. Obviously this was not an answer to the question, but it was Discord.

"Dry ice!" Everypony (obviously excepting the non-pony Discord) stared at Apple Bloom. "What?"

"I like that idea, thank you very much," Discord said, crossing his arms. "So cold it's hot!"

"It's not actually hot," Twilight replied, scowling. "That'd make it even worse!"

"Oh, fine."

"Giant heat lamps!" "Where would we even put those?" "Open Easy Bake Ovens?"

"I like that last idea!" And then half the ponies in Equestria had Pinkie Patented Easy Bake Ovens baking snap pea and rutabaga cupcakes.

"Enough!" shouted Twilight. "This is getting us nowhere!"

"Bah. Everypony in Equestria is that much warmer!" Discord rolled open another presentation screen and then pointed to the air on the opposite side of the group from the screen, showing a 4d sweeping hologram of ponies, some being glomped by very cuddly and harmless lions, others sitting under tanning lamps (and fighting for sole usage, unfortunately), and still others sitting close up to their Easy Bake Ovens.

But they were all still shivering. Not as much, mind you, but enough to show that there was still a problem, and at the rate it was growing, a soon to be very bad problem.

"Let's do a dance!" Discord suddenly exclaimed. "Wouldn't that be great?" With a snap of his fingers they were triangle dancing[2], upside down. Not on an upside down platform, mind you, but with their legs on their heads. The Crusaders in particular were made to dance much closer to each other.

[2]: Completely different from square dancing. They did things in a triangle.

Twilight shook herself, which put her back to normal. "No! No dancing! We need to be serious here! Yes, the ideas help. But they don't help enough to be efficient in terms of time." She sighed and then took a few deep breaths to calm herself before she continued speaking. "Let's just calm ourselves and think reasonably of what might be a logical idea."

"Dancing!" Discord exclaimed.

"Dancing is not a logical idea!" Twilight cried.

"Sure it is! Because-"

"No! No more ideas from you right now. Just, close your mouth. Let us talk. And get rid of the chaos magic."

Discord grumbled and snapped his fingers, pulling out the chaos magic and its effects. "You'd know why it was a good idea if you'd let me talk," he muttered, quietly enough that he couldn't be heard. No, he would have to try harder! Not to tell them the reason, now. That would be too easy. They needed to figure it out for themselves.

"Let me clarify what we need to do," Twilight began, after she was sure it was all gone. "The only sure way to stop the Windigoes is to stop the hate spell. That way, the unnatural hate will disappear and the Windigoes will have nothing to feed on. A nice thing to get done that would expedite the Windigoes' retreat would be to pulse a Harmony event from the spire of the castle. I have an idea as to how to activate one."

"Good!" Rarity exclaimed, stomping the ground with her two hooves. "I find it very helpful in my designing to lay out a description of everything I want accomplished and basic ideas I have as to how I can accomplish this or that feel or air in my pieces."

"Said to the mare who makes checklists of her checklists," Rainbow Dash said, smirking. Twilight blushed.

"I have an idea! Let's dance an explanation!" Discord grinned. "I can provide visualisers!" He snapped his fingers, creating a hologram of them dancing, a glowing red liquid flowing out of the ponies of Equestria, and the Windigoes being dispelled by a rainbow pulse.

Twilight ignored him.

"I don't really have any ideas..." Fluttershy said. "The divines couldn't really think of anything."

"And remember? Amoris couldn't get rid of the spell, how much less us?" Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves. "Especially when Amoris herself is powering it now, with a hate spell!"

"It's clear that Harmony Magic won't do anything to it," Twilight added. "Amoris made that perfectly clear."

"Amoris turned evil," Applejack replied. "Can we trust what she said?"

"I'm not even sure she said that!" Pinkie interjected.

"Can confirm," Discord interrupted. "Harmony Magic does not affect Heart Magic unless it's specifically wired in." Twilight nodded. "Can we dance now?" he asked, pleadingly.

Twilight ignored him.

"Maybe we should witness Sweetie Belle singing a Heart Song and make observations about it," Rarity mused. She had not seen her sister's Heart Song in full before. "Maybe we will find something Amoris did not."

Luna spoke up. "I believe this may be a viable option. Any harmful effects, if there be any at all, will be either negligible, simple to fix, or nothing compared to what is currently happening. The main problem is the hate spell; anything else can be looked at later."

Discord was growing exasperated. He snapped his fingers and they were dancing a ballet, all in costume. It appeared to be about a song and a dance, a meta dance, if you will. "I want to dance!" he exclaimed, in a mock tantrum manner. Everypony else immediately stopped dancing.

"No dancing!" exclaimed Twilight, indignantly.

"Yeah!" Scootaloo added. "Dancing is dumb!"

Discord scoffed. "Dancing is not dumb," he replied, looking squarely at Scootaloo. "Dancers go through much gruelling training. Most good dancers are as fit as boxers and even the Wonderbolts." Scootaloo was silenced by this revelation. "Anyway, I think that we should not do something as horribly reckless as having Sweetie just do a random Heart Song.

"I expected better from you all! My goodness. Think about things before you do them."

Twilight scuffed the ground with a hoof. "I am thinking about the things I'm doing," she said, seethingly. She scuffed the ground repeatedly, which conveyed extreme irritation to Discord, so he decided to back off lest Twilight never decide to try it. So of course he took off his back and crumpled it up, before moonwalking backward.

Twilight sighed and ignored him.

"So... Do I do it?" Sweetie Belle asked. Twilight nodded firmly.

Sweetie Belle uneasily began to vocalise, singing what came to mind. She quickly fell into the music, vocalising heartily. Emotions churned in her heart, slowly trickling in, and then the dam burst, Sweetie Belle losing control of the song like a wave hitting her head-on.

Ribbons of light green magic slowly formed and began to dance about the air. Sweetie's song was mostly calm, not festive or anything else. Just a slow, rocking song. The ribbons flowed through the town, doing just about the most harmless thing that could possibly be done: fixing up uneven parts of the snow-cover. Bumps were flattened; dents were filled; nothing really happened.

As that happened, the song began to warm up, and more ribbons branched out in a grid pattern through Ponyville, rising up and curling around an invisible ball. They glowed and began to form globes of warm orange light, light that didn't hurt the eyes. The ponies were grateful for the warmth it provided, but they still stayed away from each other.

The song sped up a bit more, with a few flat notes, and the lights heated up more, to a point that would be uncomfortably warm if not for the Windigoes. Discord snapped his fingers and copied the effect to spread about Equestria as much as he could.[3]

[3]: Discord would not have been able to do this if not for Sweetie's song creating it. Heart Magic had a part in beating back the Windigoes the first time, and it was a surefire way to negate their effects, even if only a bit.

The song sharpened, and with a flash, the lights became too bright to look at. The ponies averted their eyes, but the white snow everywhere reflected the effect somewhat, enough to be quite uncomfortable. There was nothing for it except to close their eyes, for the only other option short of leaving was to curl up into a ball, which was a fairly uncomfortable position.[4]

[4]: These effects did not apply to the balls of light Discord had spread, thankfully. But he could no longer copy them because of this.

The song flattened again, but with a dark edge to it. Some of the ponies sitting under the lights had their feelings slowly numb. It was rather uncomfortable, and left them feeling colder, albeit with less of a feeling as a whole.

Then the song became more prickly, taking on a noticeably darker tone. The ponies all began to feel very itchy, and their frantic scratching alerted the group to this. "I don't think that looks very good," Fluttershy said, frowning. "I'm not sure this song was such a good idea."

"Oh, don't worry, Fluttershy. It'll be fine." Twilight patted Fluttershy on the head and went back to taking notes.

The song grew even darker, and it became choppy, with sudden flat notes and a few notes of dissonance. Some of the group, particularly Fluttershy and Applejack, were not pleased by what that could entail, and their fears were realised when joints and muscles began to lock up. Ponies realised this and began to try to move. Moving was somewhat painful and slow.

"Ah'm getting uneasy 'bout this the same, Twilight," Applejack said, twisting a hoof in the ground with furrowed brow.

"Oh, lighten up," Twilight said, not even looking at her. Applejack frowned, but said nothing.

The choppiness in the song came to a stop as the song slowed down, drifting into a sort of rickety, blurring tone. Before the eyes of the group, some of the wood in many buildings began to visibly rot, developing holes and tears. Some buildings began to creak, and Rarity, still empowered by supercharged Harmony, extended her magic to keep the buildings from falling if the wood rotted too much.

"The wood is rotting, dear," Rarity said, her voice tense. "That is not good." Twilight ignored her.

The song changed again as the wood continued to rot. This time, Sweetie's notes layered noticeably as she sang both sharp, high notes and deep notes, the latter in a warm tune. Very small spots on the globes of light began to emit very hot light, hot enough to burn painfully, but not at a second degree level. That didn't mean it wasn't painful--when ponies began crying out and they could spot burns, the group knew something was wrong.

"Twilight, the ponies are getting burned!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. Twilight continued furiously scribbling notes, completely oblivious to what was happening. Rainbow Dash shook her wildly. "Stop her, now!"

Twilight snapped out of her reverie. She lit up her horn and tried to shut Sweetie Belle's mouth. Failing that, she magically dampened Sweetie's vocal cords, before plugging the hole magically, which immediately stopped the song, including the rotting and burning. The globes of light reverted to their original, would-be uncomfortably warm state, thankfully.

"That didn't go very well at all," Twilight said, frowning. "At least we know how to stop the song if it gets bad."

"Why don't we use my idea?" Discord asked. "Dancing can't possibly hurt."

"Yes, it can hurt," Twilight replied, frowning. "We don't have time to dance."

"Sure we do! And if I'm right, which I usually am-"-they all rolled their eyes-"-it'll work anyway, so everything will be fine and dandy!" He was sure it would work, but not in the way he was insinuating. He knew Twilight wouldn't go with it; he was trying to nudge her in the right direction.

"No. We are not dancing. Stop asking." She thought for a bit, ignoring Discord's further protests. "Well, I got a few observations, but not enough. Sweetie Belle, I need you to do it again."

"What if more bad stuff happens?" Sweetie Belle asked, a bit scared. "What if the bad stuff's worse?"

"Even if any more bad stuff does happen, which I'm sure it won't, it's nothing compared to what's happening right now. You need to do this. Please."

Pinkie Pie shivered. "Ooh, it's starting to get colder!"

Twilight swallowed. "If we're starting to feel colder, that means that everypony else is feeling possibly much colder than we are. We'll probably survive because of our friendship, but that's not saying the same for everypony else... Sweetie Belle, we need to do this quicker. Start a Heart Song so we can get more observations and work out a solution."

Sweetie Belle reluctantly obliged and began to sing again. The song was a trembly song, not in her voice, but in the notes. The fear in the song easily gave way for the churning emotions, and they rushed forward to take over the song within only a few seconds, while before it had taken quite a bit longer.

And then it became dramatic, driving, and dark. Ribbons of magic danced off in a vague direction, but the others made no move to follow them, influenced subtly by the song. Discord attempted to scry the area, but the Song stopped him from doing so. Teleporting failed, too. He frowned sceptically.

Meanwhile, the ribbons snaked toward the gates of Tartarus. Cerberus was only momentarily fascinated with them, and although he probably wouldn't have taken much other notice of them, the magic used aversion anyway and then slithered through the bars, making their way into the deepest pits of the prison. They made their way into Tirek's cell and fluttered around him.

"What is this?" he asked, looking around at the ribbons. "What are you?" They seemed to sing to him, coaxing him to come with them to begin a rampage once more. "Ha! I can hardly move." Without waiting for an answer, they swirled around him, and in a glow of light green, Tirek disappeared.

He materialised in Manehatten, chain and spell free. He could hardly believe that it was true, that it wasn't a good dream for once. But either way would be at least somewhat fine. He felt himself more empowered than last time with the help of those ribbons. Powerful enough to get at least a medium-sized group of ponies for his first gain.

He was surprised to find that there were in fact no real groups of ponies. They were all staying away from each other, but it seemed to be in the near vicinity of large globes of lights. He mentally shrugged it off and sucked away the magic of the ponies around one globe, and then he did it again, and again, and again, much more quickly than last time.

In about three minutes he had overtaken half of Manehatten. In another minute he sucked the rest dry, and teleported to the next city to begin again. Soon it was whole towns and then cities in a minute. City by city he took away the magic of Equestria, growing more and more.

Meanwhile, Sweetie Belle continued to sing, Twilight taking notes on what she could. But there didn't seem to be any visible effects for her to witness. So, she focused on studying the magical signature and other magical phenomena that happened around Sweetie as she sang.

Tirek went to Canterlot last before Ponyville, taking as much power as he could before confronting Celestia. She was too surprised to do anything as he, without making the mistake of gloating, immediately began to suck in her power. She was completely unable to retaliate. Tirek, satisfied, teleported off to Ponyville.

The group's collective eyes widened in horror (minus Twilight, who was still taking notes) as they saw Tirek standing in front of the town. "So, this is what became of my enemies. A castle to replace that precious library I destroyed? Ha!"

Rainbow Dash noticed the ribbons of light green magic dancing around Tirek and realised what was happening. "He's here because of Sweetie's song!" Luna immediately tried the same thing she had before, but the song simply destroyed the attempt at stopping the cords and the song continued unhindered.

"We cannot stop it!" Luna exclaimed. Discord decided to try something, snapping his fingers. Immediately, a discordant tune with many instruments conflicting horribly with each other filled the air. However, Sweetie's song simply overpowered the dissonance. Tirek chuckled and sucked in the magic of all the ponies, but he couldn't seem to get to that of the group.

"What? Why can't I steal your magic?" And then, just like that, the song shot into a minor key. Suddenly, the magic began forcing its way out of Tirek, rapidly returning to the ponies in Equestria. "No! What's happening?" The ribbons seemed to dance around Tirek mockingly. He swiped at them, but that only sped up the depletion of his magic. In just a few more moments, the magic had all been returned and Tirek was sent back.

Sweetie Belle finally clamped her mouth shut, and she stumbled back, horrified. "Not again!" she exclaimed. "Please don't make me do it again!"

Stray hairs were beginning to pop out of Twilight's straight hair. "I didn't get enough observations! I need just a few more!"

"A dance!" Dicsord exclaimed, exasperatedly. "We need to dance! Pleeeeease?" He presented obviously faked puppy dog eyes to Twilight, whose eye began to twitch.

"You're obviously not taking this seriously! We're not going to dance! Ever!" Twilight's hoof began to scuff the ground, and it didn't stop, because her neurosis was rapidly getting worse. "Now, Sweetie Belle, do the Song!"

Sweetie Belle squeaked and ran to the nearest shelter, which was Princess Luna. "Twilight!" Luna shouted, indignantly. "Thou art scaring the poor foal! This will not bring us anywhere if she be too frightened and have even less control of her magic! Now, be thou calm!"

Twilight was hyperventilating now. Luna sighed. "Sweetie Belle, please, sing thou a song for Twilight. Maybe it shall cure her neurosis."

Sweetie Belle sighed, but she decided to do it, for Luna. Shakily, she began to sing, but this time, she immediately lost control. A dark, eerie song proceeded from her mouth quickly, ribbons materialising and shooting outward, branching out and touching every pony they could. Before long, all of the ponies in the town save for the group were touched by the ribbons.

Sweetie's song dove into a crescendo, and as it hit the bottom, it lingered at a low, foreboding tone, before shooting back up into a driving rhythm.

That's when the screaming started. The ribbons transmitted nothing but pain into where they touched. It was unbearable pain, and the reactions of the ponies showed it. They writhed and cried, trying to ignore the pain, but it was too much. Twilight and her friends frantically tried to stop the song.

"I'm sorry, Sweetie Belle," Discord whispered, and then he removed the air from Sweetie's lungs. Sweetie coughed and hacked, the terrible song immediately stopping as she gasped for air. She collapsed into the snow as she recovered her breath. Even though the song was done, though, the ponies were still in pain. Ending the song had not ended the effects.

Getting up and seeing this, Sweetie Belle burst into tears.

Twilight was frantic. "What are we going to do?!" she cried, lighting up her magic to try and revert the changes, to stop the pain. The cold was much worse than it was when they had started the songs, and she knew that time was ticking down and down. This was terrible! "I can't stop any of it!"

"I didn't mean to, I didn't mean to," Sweetie Belle muttered, rocking herself. "It wasn't my fault, I didn't do that to them, no no no no!" She sobbed.

"Look what you did to her!" Scootaloo exclaimed, obviously very frightened.

Fluttershy was horrified. Why did this have to happen? Why didn't she stop Twilight? Apple Bloom and Scootaloo hugged Sweetie Belle comfortingly, trying to dissuade her terror at the things she--no, not her, her song--had done. Tears were welling up in their eyes as well, for they were almost as scared.

They were all seeing how desperate things were becoming. Besides what had just happened, there was the fact that the Windigoes were almost finished freezing Equestria, and if they didn't stop this soon, the ponies wouldn't just become frozen in ice; they wouldn't just be in pain--they would be dead.

"I don't know what to do!" Twilight exclaimed, burying her head in her hooves. "There's no Fire of Friendship to make, no pulse of Harmony to work, no nothing!"

Sweetie Belle continued to rock, but the comfort of her friends was beginning to pull her back from the despair. Her mental gears turned faster than ever as she tried to come up with something, anything she could do to reverse the things she had done, to get rid of the Windigoes, to stop the hate spell. But all she could think of was a song.

A song?

But that would just do more terrible things. She would lose control again. A song couldn't possibly help. But maybe... Just maybe it would. She had to try. She responded to the tugging in her heart and listened to the song. She felt what she needed to do, the notes to vocalise, what to ring out as the song began to take place in her head, notes flying here and there as the perfect Song began to assemble.

The connection began to form as Sweetie opened her mouth and vocalised, crisp, clear notes piercing the air and opening up the way for the magic. With Sweetie's friends beside her, the emotions flowed like they should, siphoning up out of her heart and implanting themselves into each note she sang. The vocalisation let the magic out into the air, forming the ribbons of raw Heart Magic ready to do what it was meant to do.

But Sweetie Belle's heart was still filled with churning emotions, and if something wasn't done, they would take over. Sweetie Belle, however, had peace, having the strangest feeling that it just might not happen this time. She didn't know how; she didn't know why, but she felt that it would work. It had to.

Scootaloo felt a tugging in her heart--no, not her heart. Somewhere different: her soul. Confused, she blinked, and then blinked again, and suddenly, she could see something very new.

All around her, she saw into the souls of the ponies around her. She saw the emotions and feelings in their hearts: the friendship, the loyalty, the kindness, the anger and hate and sadness coming from Sweetie Belle, the- What? Were these the emotions Sweetie didn't know she had? She was too confused by what she was seeing--or feeling--to think about the fact that she was seeing into the souls of the ponies around her.

She could see the dark emotions creeping up, trying to overwhelm the good emotions in Sweetie's Song (which was currently doing nothing at all). She knew what would happen if they succeeded. And she knew how to stop it.

Before she fully realised what was happening, she Danced. She felt the emotions around her; she called them. They were hers to use now, hers to use to do amazing things.

Discord grinned as he watched Scootaloo dance. Maybe they hadn't listened to him, but apparently they didn't need to--Scootaloo had done it herself. The other ponies looked on in wonder as Scootaloo moved gracefully to the tune of Sweetie's Song, flowing bend over flip over spin in a magical pattern.

Coloured mist began to flow from the chests of the Elements, Luna, Discord, and Apple Bloom, coalescing into a magical globe of emotion. Then, with a spin and flourish, Scootaloo directed the mass of happy emotions toward Sweetie Belle, who was hardly registering anything around her.

The emotion burrowed into her, the calm love and friendship and serenity overwhelming the dark emotions in her heart and vanquishing them, her churning heart slowing to a stop and returning to what it should have been: a still pool of goodness.

Sweetie's Song took on more power as the good emotions finally flowed like they should. Her Song rang out throughout all of Equestria, and then it began to do things.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo rose into the air, the latter dancing on nothing as she called the emotions from her friends, and as the area of Sweetie's Song grew, Scootaloo began to draw the faint remaining love in the rest of the ponies, helping Sweetie Belle along in a beautiful display.

Sweetie's Song reached a high, piercing note, and she held it, the ribbons of magic piercing the hearts of all of the ponies in Equestria and shattering the hate spell. Lower undertones began to reverse the effects of Sweetie's earlier, reckless songs, taking away the pain, the burns, and the scars.

Twilight levitated up her friends in her magic, bringing them into a circle around the castle's spire. The Heart and Soul Magic reached them, and they, as one in friendship in harmony, released a rainbow that coalesced into the spire. The Harmony Magic resonated through the crystal castle. A beam of rainbow magic shot up into the sky, and then a circular pulse of rainbow burst from the tip, forcing away the Windigoes from Equestria and back into their hiding places.

"Cor Cantae Amoris," Scootaloo boomed, as she danced in the air. Her eyes opened to reveal a white glow. Amoris was summoned by the Song in a flash. She was held suspended in the air before them, as she beheld the scene that had defeated her plan.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle began to speak in unison, the latter in undertones of the same words while she continued to sing. "You have attempted to impede the progress of the Heart. You have become embittered toward the Heart because of her (my) failures, and in your avarice were jealous that somepony else could be what you were."

Scootaloo unfurled her larger wings, and Sweetie Belle unfurled her own set. "But you have forgotten your true purpose. You were always to act as a Guide for the Heart to come. The Heart was to better you. You must remember what you were originally: The Goddess of Care, the Divine Actress. Not the goddess of song. Accept and be forgiven, we beg you."

Amoris smiled brightly. "Oh, I know. And I'm absolutely ecstatic! You did it! You passed my test!"

Just like that, the Song and the Dance ended and they all fell to the snow. There was only one thing for the two to say: "Wait, what?"

Author's Note

You may have noticed that ponies scuff the ground with their hooves often. This is (in my story's canon) a tell of irritation or anger. Stomping hooves is clapping, of course. Only pegasi can reliably clap like we see clapping. Unicorns that are strong enough to support themselves can do this too. It's too awkward for earth ponies who can stand on their hind legs to do so. Hooves twisting on the ground signifies unease.

No, they are not alicorns. This will be explained in Lesson Infinity.

And there you go, the (hopefully) grand explanation of the Song and also the reveal of Scootaloo having Soul Magic. And Sweetie has wings. (Scootaloo has a horn, by the way, although I didn't mention that. Couldn't find a place to put that without it being really awkward.)

Lesson Infinity, or, the Epilogue: Ponies Question All of the Wrong Things, or, Honorary Princesses

"Wait, what?"

Amoris giggled. "It was all just a lesson, a plan to elicit your control! I told you I would get you control, and oh, did I!" She twirled her hoof in the air. "And with an amazing display to boot!"

"But-" Scootaloo stuttered. They were both dumbfounded.

Discord appeared with them (even though he was only a few feet away). "It's another one of Amoris' lessons. The really, really over the top ones. Amoris, you really outdid yourself this time. It took me quite a bit longer than usual to figure it out!"

"What-" Sweetie Belle tried to say, but Amoris interrupted.

"Well, I decided to go all out, you know. I've been gone for thousands of years." She laughed lightly. "Anyway, most of that stuff you two said is true. When I first found that I had Heart Magic, I very quickly found out from the Fates that I was not to be the true bearer of the magic. I was to be the guide for the bearer.

"I was to discover its secrets and all that, find out everything about it so that when you came along, I could impart all my knowledge about it. I'll admit--I was a bit jealous of you. But I would never let it go so far that I would become evil." She giggled again. "No, that would be silly. But I did make it believable. I'm the Divine Actress, like you said. I'm literally the master actor."

"So... That means I'm this 'true bearer'?" Sweetie Belle asked, cocking her head.

"Certainly! And Scootaloo is the true bearer of Soul Magic. That was that dancing you just did, by the way," she added, offhandedly. "It was wonderful."

"Wait. What?" Scootaloo thought back to what happened, and her eyes widened, her pupils shrinking. "I danced!"

"You did!" Amoris replied, seemingly obliviously.

"But dancing is-"

"Really awesome, kid," Rainbow Dash said, grinning. "I just found that out."

Scootaloo paused. "Huh."

Amoris continued before Scootaloo could say more. "I figured out that the only way for Sweetie Belle to control her own magic was through Scootaloo's Soul Magic. How? In the first test I performed, the control slipped away fairly quickly. The second time, when you and Apple Bloom were with her, you tempered her for some time. I wondered why until I noticed that there was something a bit different about your connection, Scootaloo.

"I realised that that was because your Soul Magic was doing something. Or, trying to do something. I don't remember." Amoris chortled. "What I do remember is that that led me to this solution: I had to do something drastic, something that would bring you all so close to the brink that instincts would bring out Soul Magic in Scootaloo. And this was it!" Amoris beamed.

"Wait, so..." Scootaloo thought for a bit. Then, finally, she figured out what happened. "Wait. This was all just a lesson? You're not actually evil?" She was extremely surprised.

Amoris deadpanned. "You just figured that out now?"

"Yeah?" Scootaloo shrugged. Amoris buried her head in her hooves and sighed. Scootaloo remained blissfully oblivious.

"Wait," Twilight said, her brow furrowed. "You're telling me that you did something that could actually kill everypony, pushed us to the brink of failing, and then crossed your hooves and hoped?"

Amoris mulled over the statement for a bit. "Yes, that's exactly what I did! Spot on. But everypony else already knew this, dear. You're supposed to be the smart one."

"It could have killed everypony if we failed?"

"Of course! Obviously you wouldn't fail, but still." Amoris cocked her head. "Why?"

"It could have killed everypony if we failed!" Twilight was indignant. "That was reckless! Incorrigible! It was- I can’t even think of anything else to call it, that’s how terrible it was!”

Amoris just giggled. Twilight threw her hooves up into the air.

"What about all the damage the ponies did?" Fluttershy asked, growing more confident at the realisation.

"Reversed, with the hate spell." Amoris continued to smile infuriatingly. Fluttershy looked around, and Discord helpfully set up another hologram (only 3d this time, thank goodness), showing that the broken and charred buildings had been fixed and the many messes had been cleaned up. The nobles had also all forgotten the secrets accidentally revealed. It was fun watching them playing their "greatly important" games.

Twilight paused. "Wow," she eventually said. "You were thorough."

"Yes I was. That spell took a lot of work, you know. I can't just do that kind of thing in seconds. A certain little pony here probably eventually could, though." All eyes turned to Sweetie Belle and by extension Scootaloo, and they gasped, finally realising what was there.[1]

[1]: Amoris definitely had not put any sort of aversion spell.

Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, however, were quite confused. "What?" Sweetie asked. "What's wrong?"

"Oh, not something wrong. Although I suggest that Sweetie should look behind her, and Scootaloo should look up just a bit." Amoris smirked slyly.

Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, rather looking at each other. Their eyes grew wide. "Scootabelle, you have a worn!" They exclaimed, their words jumbled up. With that failure, they instead looked at themselves and their eyes grew wider.

Amoris beamed as they expressed their final observation. "We're alicorns!"

"They're what?!" Twilight and her friends cried, despair quickly filling them. Cutie Mark Crusaders alicorns... That would be terrible.

"Well, you aren't actually alicorns," Amoris replied, twisting her hoof a bit in the snow. "Just winged unicorns."

"Uh..." Scootaloo's face was blank.

"Isn't that the same thing?" Sweetie filled in for her.

"No. We get the word all from alicorn. An alicorn has pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony magic. You just have pegasus and unicorn magic. Although Sweetie probably doesn't have unicorn magic. However, you may be able to use the three-rune system directly." Amoris put her hoof to her chin as she began to think about it.

Twilight's mental gears were beginning to go wonky again. "I thought we got alicorn from all!" she exclaimed, incredulously.

"No, that would be silly." Amoris scoffed. "On the contrary, we got all from alicorn."

A stray hair popped out of Twilight's mane and Luna buried her head in her hooves. "Where did you get alicorn?"

"We made it up, obviously." Amoris giggled. "What else?"

Twilight's eye twitched. "And what about Sweetie Belle using the three rune system directly? Only non-ponies can do that!"

"Well, we haven't seen any regular ponies who can do that. But Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo are the first winged unicorns." Twilight opened her mouth, and then closed it.

Then she opened it again. Then she closed it. "Well, I'm glad you understand." Amoris courteously waited to see if Twilight would say anything more. She did not. "With that done, we need discuss-"

"Are we immortal?" Scootaloo suddenly asked. "That would be so cool!"

Sweetie Belle nodded profusely. "Yeah! Wait... That means I would live forever and my sister wouldn't!" She swallowed. Never being able to see her sister would be terrible.

"I have multiple things to say about that, each of which would entail a long conversation." Amoris frowned, not sure if she wanted to deal with that. Then again, their reactions would be interesting.

"I want to hear them!" Pinkie exclaimed.

"I would also like to hear about this," Rarity echoed. "It involves me and my sister."

"Then let it be done," Amoris said, and perked up back to her usual happy demeanour. "One: No, you two are not immortal. You are mortal, but definitely with longer lifespans. You would probably live a few years longer than your children."

"That doesn't 'entail a long conversation,' " Sweetie Belle replied, frowning.

"Well, I guess it doesn't." Amoris giggled. "Anyway, two, even if you were immortal, you wouldn't live any longer than the Elements would."

Rainbow did a double take, immediately realising what that entailed. She wasn't that dumb. "Wait, what?"

"Yes, that means what you think it means," Amoris replied, rolling her eyes. "You're immortal, blah blah blah."

"Oh, my," Fluttershy gasped, quietly. "I'm immortal?"

"Oh my gosh! Does that mean I'm a princess??" Pinkie Pie asked, bouncing up and down. "That would be great!"

"Oh, heavens no. You'd be terrible princesses. That's a fact. I and the other divines easily saw that." Rarity quite predictably fainted.

"That does explain why I saw a really broken copy of myself on a rock after that one stunt." Rainbow chuckled.

"Figures you'd laugh at that," Applejack muttered, scuffing her hoof on the ground.

Amoris, meanwhile, had a hearty laugh. "They really did that? Ha! Oh, those Fates. Morbid sense of humour."

"Why are they immortal?!" Twilight cried, more hairs popping out.

"Whaddya mean why?" asked Applejack, sceptically. "Ya don't want us to be immortal?"

"No, I do, but why we're you made immortal? You're not alicorns! Last I checked, Celestia didn't set up any of us other than me on some magical spell to alicornhood!" Twilight's hair gradually became more frazzled.

"Well, after the Tirek incident, the Tree was feeling particularly feisty," Amoris exclaimed. "It realised that it wasn't going to get any bearers better than you 6, confirmed it with the Fates, and then made you all immortal just like that. Didn't consult any of us."

Twilight's mane instantly frazzled completely.

"At least he didn't make you divine," Amoris continued, her ear flicking. "That would be terrible. Mostly because it wouldn't work." She pointed at Applejack. "There's already a divine of earth and plants. Already one of animals, one of beauty, one of the air and of weather, and Discord's here for chaos.

"A divine for Honesty or Laughter or Generosity would be silly. What could they do? How could they help run the world in a way that we don't already do? At the very best you could be called demigods. I'm sure you could eventually find a way to become alicorns, though." That would certainly be interesting.

"Wait, how did we become alicorns?" Sweetie Belle asked. "Well, winged unicorns." No use counting on Scootaloo to correct her.

"When you used your magics together, you shared your very essence in a bond I didn't think possible. Heart and Soul intertwined and you became almost one. Two thirds of the way, in fact." Amoris smiled. "Anyway, I'm getting off track. So you shared your essence, and that includes your races: pegasus and unicorn. When you broke off, you left those races in each other. Hence, winged unicorns."

"Can I be a horned pegasus?" Scootaloo asked. "I was a pegasus before." She cocked her head and smiled lopsidedly.

"Winged unicorn and horned pegasus can be the same thing. Even though I don't think the latter has as much of a ring to it as the first one, you two are the first of your race." Amoris giggled, and relented. "So you can be what you want to be called."

"Great! I'm a horned pegasus." Scootaloo grinned. "And Sweetie's a winged unicorn." Sweetie nodded profusely.

"There you go then. I haven't figured out whether anything else was shared, but if there was anything it's negligible. It'd be nice to know, though." Amoris mulled over the statement a bit more, and then nodded. "And now we continue to the next topic that relates to this: Even if the Elements were not in fact immortal, and you were immortal, you could visit them any time you want.

"I suppose this really applies mainly to you," she continued, referring to Twilight and her friends. "Since Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo are the mortal ones."

Rarity began to smile. "Even when she has died, I can still visit her?" she asked, to confirm.

"Does that mean ah can visit mah brother and Granny?" Applejack inquired as well.

"And my family?" Pinkie echoed.

"All of those, and more," Amoris replied, beaming. "Any time you wanted."

Twilight momentarily lapsed out of her neurosis to ask another question. "Wouldn't that ruin your lesson with loss? I mean, if Celestia knows how to go to the Astral Plane, couldn't she have gone and talked to you?"

"Yes, she could! But here's the kicker: I didn't tell her about it until I was sure she had dealt with the loss of both me and her sister." Amoris nodded to Luna. "Which means this is a good time for me to tell you, Luna. And I suppose by extension the Elements."

"Wait, does that mean I can talk with... Star Swirl?" Twilight's eyes gleamed. Amoris giggled and nodded. Twilight's hair frazzled again and she lapsed back into neurosis.

Amoris giggled again. "Anyway, it's quite simple. All you have to do is die."

"Wait. What?" Applejack was thoroughly perturbed. "Whaddya mean die?"

"Die. I mean you have to die. Just die. The way doesn't matter." Amoris cocked her head, seeming to wonder why Applejack seemed to be against the idea.

"Well, um, I'm not sure I want to die every time I go to the Astral Plane..." Fluttershy whispered. "Wouldn't that hurt?"

"Oh, I can set up a spell that allows you to just die. Disintegrate. Get turned into a fine dust. I'm not going to dance around the subject; it's definitely dying, it's just painless and harmless." Amoris was completely serious. "And then you can return exactly the way you were. Celestia does it all the time. So do the other divines. Really, it's not that hard."

They were all very sceptical. "Fine, if you won't believe me, Luna will do it. Surely you'll believe her."

"I am to do what?" Luna asked, surprised. Amoris transmitted the spell information to her before she could test further. Luna sighed and cast the spell, turning into fine dust that blew away into the wind. The Crusaders and Twilight's friends were horrified.

Luna appeared in the Astral Plane, glancing around and gazing at the place that held many memories. She had not been here in so long. She trotted over to the pool where the World Turtle resided, and looked down at it. It was interesting being bigger than the Turtle that carried the world you resided in. "Why, hello, Turtle."

"Hello, Luna!" the Turtle exclaimed, turning slowly toward her. "Did Cora finally tell you how to get here? Well, of course she did, I already know."

"She did. It is nice to be here again." Luna gazed around at the surroundings and smiled.

"There is a spell to return, but there is no time to teach it to you right now. You have to return immediately. Simply ask me to send you back and I can."

"Sendest thou me back, then, my friend." The Turtle smiled and nodded its head to send her back to where she had been before.

"I feel like an Eric."

Luna reappeared just in time, because Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity had been on the verge of attacking her mother. They all sighed in relief at her return. "Why, pray ye tell, are you about to attack my mother?"

"We thought she killed you!" Rarity replied, bringing her hoof up over her face.

"She did," Luna replied, deadpan. "And then I came back, as she said I would." The three blushed sheepishly.

"Anyway, do you believe me now?" Amoris asked, frowning on the verge of a scowl. They all nodded profusely. "You can all do that: Die, and then ask the Turtle to send you back. It's quite simple. Only immortals can do it. By the way, you're going to become part of the Hearth's Warming legend very soon for what you did." They were all very surprised by this.

"Ah thought we were supposed ta lay low and not get much recognition, 'cause it might attract bad stuff," Applejack replied, raising her eyebrow.

"You are," Amoris responded, sighing. "But, alas, too many ponies here in Ponyville saw what you did, and the ponies throughout Equestria saw you keeping their towns in order. There's no way you can get around it now--especially since you'll have to correct ponies about what happened if you don't want it horribly different from what actually happened.

"And on that topic, you're all eventually going to be hailed as... Well, something. Ponies will figure out you're immortal, and then they will look up to you."

"Um... I'm not sure I want a lot of ponies looking up to me... I couldn't handle that..." Fluttershy whispered, each time she spoke getting lower, almost to the point of inaudibility.

"There's nothing else for it," Amoris replied, dismissively. "They won't get it for at least 50 years, though. Maybe they'll think the Elements are prolonging your lives. But eventually they'll realise."

Pinkie Pie hummed. "Hmmmmmmm." She was leaning towards liking the idea of being immortal, but she wasn't sure. "Is there a way to become not immortal any more?"

Discord burst out laughing heartily. "Ha! You think you can become mortal. Ha!" He laughed more. But nopony else was laughing. He sighed. "Oh, pooh. Fine. There's no way to become mortal once you're immortal. None at all. It can't be done. I'm not sorry, though. You'll realise it's much better to be immortal. All those stories about how sad and lonely Celestia must feel are all wrong.

"And if Twilight can deal with being a divine without being like..." He pointed at the extremely neurotic Twilight. "Like that all the time, you immortals can deal with it, too. All of you 6 have equal mental and magical capabilities. Eventually, like Amoris here said, you could find a way to become alicorns, but not divines. Divinity is not completely based on mental and magical capabilities." Discord conjured up fake wings and horns for the five.

"Eventually, you will be recognised. Ponies will figure out disguises, they'll know when someone new comes after you mysteriously disappear, etcetera. There will never be a permanent way to get out of it. But eventually, like Discord said, you'll warm up to it." Amoris waved her hoof dismissively.

"Well, you got me," Rainbow Dash said, finally. "I guess I can't say no."

"Rainbow Dash, I of all ponies know you want it for the recognition," Rarity replied, chortling.

"Well- Yeah, but so do you!" Dash retorted, blushing.

"But of course. I won't deny that. Eventually I'll be a princess!" Rarity exclaimed, beaming happily. "Even not an alicorn, they'd have to make me a princess if they made that buffoon Blueblood a prince."

Amoris' jaw dropped. "Celestia actually made Blueblood a prince? After I specifically instructed her not to before I died?" Amoris scuffed the ground with a hoof.

Rarity's pupils shrunk to the size of marbles. "If you instructed her not to do that before you died..." She summoned up a fainting couch and fell back on it. "Blueblood is the only possible suitor that'd live as long as me because he's immortal!" she wailed, drawing her hoof up over her face and covering her eyes with it.

"Yes, Blueblood is immortal," Amoris replied. "There's a perfectly good reason for it, and he certainly deserves it, but that doesn't change the fact that he is, like you said, a buffoon."

"Only very few nobles know that Blueblood is immortal," Luna added. "Apparently, Celestia magically 'ageth' Blueblood until his 'death', and then introduceth him as a hidden son. The nobles are clueless in most matters not relating to their games, and only a few very sharp nobles know anything about it."

"And Blueblood is not your only immortal suitor," Amoris said, winking at Spike. Rarity was oblivious to who she was referring to, having forgotten about Spike's crush again and missing the wink because of her hoof over her eyes.[2]

[2]: Amoris later spoke to the Fates about this. She found that they had adamantly decided that a relationship between Spike and Rarity would not be an option for the next 30 years. They had been feeling particularly feisty, inspired by the Tree. Thankfully, however, the Fates' influence on immortals that weren't divine faded with time.[3]

[3]: Divines were immediately unchangeable.

"Wait, so why do we have to die to go to the Astral Plane?" Rainbow asked, suddenly, in a moment of insight. "That seems sort of weird. I mean, it might make sort of sense with just immortals, but divines? Really?"

"Well, one: Not all rules can be easily applied to a select group of people," Amoris began. "Especially when it involves the finicky World Turtle, particularly the boundaries between worlds. Two: Well, first, guess whose fault it is."

Discord scrunched his face up from the suspense, but could hold the answer in for no more than exactly 4.2 seconds. Those 4.2 seconds were spent saying, "Oh, I can't hold it in any more!" overdramatically. "It's my fault.

"Figures," Applejack said, rolling her eyes.

Discord looked taken aback (in an obviously fake manner). "Why, you offend me! How could you think I'm obviously at fault for every silly rule the divines have? Other than the fact that for most I am." He chuckled.

"Ya just answered yer own question," Applejack replied, smirking. Discord muttered something unintelligible.[4]

[4]: Even if it were made louder, it would still be unintelligible.

Amoris threw her hooves up in the air. "Will any of you let me continue?" They all closed their mouths before saying anything further. "Finally. Anyway, a long time ago, Discord got into the business of transporting ponies to the Astral Plane for a fee. This would have been just fine back then, since we didn't see anything wrong with ponies going to see their dead relatives in paradise.

"But then we found out from the Turtle that apparently, ponies residing on the Turtle are very, very small, because they keep their original form. Dying sends your heart, soul, and mind, the three eternal parts of a pony, up to the Astral Plane in a much bigger form. But just teleporting there didn't do that, and since they still conformed to the World Turtle's laws, making them really big would be very, very bad, naturally. Even with Discord's magic.

"We let it continue for a while, because ponies got to see their loved ones before they died--Discord shrunk the ponies already in the Astral Plane, because that would work fine--but then one pony accidentally stepped on a mare, which naturally killed her." They all gasped, including Twilight (excluding Discord), even though she was still neurotic.

"So we convened and unanimously--minus Discord--made the rule. Not before asking the World Turtle if we'd be able to except the immortals and divines. It said we could not, and so you get the rule as it is presently. However, a stipend of the rule stated that you had to be divine or immortal to return, and we hadn't figured out how to make ponies immortal but not divine yet, even though we knew that was a category, so we apologised, made her divine, gave everypony false memories of her gaining divinity, and sent her back."

"Who was the divine?" Rarity asked. "Do we know her?"

"You do, in fact. Her name is Cadence." They all gasped again. Cadence hadn't actually ascended of her own merit? But it was clear she didn't know that.

"Wait, isn't her name 'Me Amora Cadenza' or something like that?" Rainbow Dash asked, cocking her head.

"Oh, no, of course not. That would be absurd. She was a regular pony and regular ponies hardly ever gave their children non-Equestrian names. Celestia added that stuff after I died to make it 'official' or something." Amoris scoffed. "Anyway, we needed a Goddess of Love anyway, and Cadence was pink and had a heart for a cutie mark, so it was perfect."

Twilight's mane and tail frazzled further, if that was even possible. "You know, I feel like I should stop saying things that are totally different from her perspectives. I've broken her twice in the last two days, now."

"Hey, about that!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Did anypony else notice that the days were moving really really fast?"

"Hey, yeah!" Rainbow Dash realised. "I'm not even close to tired, and night's passed at least twice by now!"

"I'll explain that in a bit," Amoris replied. "First we need to lay out what needs to happen soon: We need to figure out who is the Guide for Scootaloo. The Fates probably know, but they'll laugh at me if I ask them. That's just how they are."

"Okay, so what about the day and night thing?" Dash asked, again. "What happened?"

"Ah, yes, that. Before I returned, the Fates told me to speed up the movement of the sun and the moon, for suspense. I didn't know what they meant yet, of course. Today is Hearth's Warming Eve, but I arrived early two days ago. And it is almost Hearth's Warming Day." Sure enough, the moon was coming up and night was falling over Equestria.

"This has been a very serious conversation, with many important discussions and revelations," Amoris continued, sagely. "So, let's abruptly change the tone to something much more light-hearted! We have about two hours to set up a Hearth's Warming party in Ponyville, so get to it! I've already prepared a party in Canterlot, I just need to set it up. I'll be back! Tata!" And with that, she teleported away.

"Did... she... say... party?!" Pinkie exclaimed, grinning widely.

Twilight's bubble of neurosis finally popped and she returned to normal. "I think she said party. Well, we've got a town to prepare!" The others in the group cheered their approval and the town began a grand reprise of the song that had started this amazing day.

Scootaloo danced around as Sweetie sang, jumping up and stringing streamers and lights across the trees. Rainbow Dash shot about the town, placing poles on the tops of the buildings as Fluttershy followed, stringing long lines of streamers and ornaments across the poles.

Pinkie shot her party cannon again and again, decorating the buildings with wreaths and confetti. Discord conjured tables and food and even a DJ to help out the montage as the ponies decorated much faster than they should have.

But that was the power of the Heart Song.

As the ponies sang the chorus, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo galloped up to Luna. "Princess Luna!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "Can we be princesses?"

"Just honorary princesses," Sweetie clarified. "Since we're almost alicorns!"

"Little ones, you cannot just be princesses," Luna replied. "Ponies will question your princess-hood."

"No they won't," Scootaloo said. "They'll question that we aren't princesses!" Apple Bloom galloped up and nodded profusely in agreement.

"Ya know, ah read in a book somewhere that there was this one pony who had some disorder or somesuch, so she looked like an alicorn even though she weren't one," Apple Bloom recalled. "Everypony asked why she weren't a princess. Tec- somethin' or other. Dunno. Everypony mostly forgot 'bout 'er."[5] Luna hummed, mulling over the statement.

[5]: This is a good time to mention that each sentient race on Ioka was created in the image of one of the divines. Thus, each race has its own divine. Some have more than others. Each race's divine(s) looked different in some way from the regular creatures.

"And since we're little, they'll get that we don't have any responsibility yet!" Sweetie Belle added.

"An' if'n they become real alicorns?" Apple Bloom continued. "An' ah think that could happen. They'll already be princesses!"

"Yeah! What if we became alicorns? Ponies might become suspicious that the alicorns they were seeing are only just then becoming princesses!" Sweetie Belle argued. Luna was sceptical.

Amoris appeared. "I love that idea!" she exclaimed, happily. "We'll have an impromptu declaration at dawn-"-the night was rapidly approaching midnight-"-and then a coronation as soon as we can! And those two bullies of yours will be so jealous."

"Yeah!" Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle exclaimed, together, while Apple Bloom whooped. Luna sighed.

"If thou sayest so, mother," she reluctantly caved.

"Hopefully your sister will listen to reason as well," Amoris added, chortling. "Anyway, I'm going to go finish the preparations for the Canterlot party and talk to Celestia. Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, lay low and don't let the bullies see you." Amoris giggled. "This will be good." Then she disappeared.

The Crusaders grinned.

Midnight passed and Mayor Mare stepped up to the stage as the ponies cheered. "Happy Hearth's Warming, everypony!" she exclaimed. "It has been a mess these past three days, but we've gotten through it, just like we always do!" The ponies cheered again. "I don't want to delay your party-going any longer. Let's celebrate Hearth's Warming, our Founders, and our heroes!"

Apple Bloom trotted around the party, knowing that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon were following her as inconspicuously as they could. It wasn't working, but she didn't let them know that. She was acting as a decoy, keeping them away from her friends while they were prepped for their introduction as princesses of Equestria.

Apple Bloom led them to an area where any other ponies were out of ear-shot. That way, she could stall longer by letting them make fun of her.

"I heard that Scootaloo got her lame cutie mark," Diamond said, snidely, as she emerged. "And you still haven't."

"Why are you guys even together any more?" Silver asked, rhetorically. "You're the only one without a cutie mark, so you're still even lamer than them."

"'Cause we're friends," Apple Bloom replied, adamantly.

"Hah!" Diamond exclaimed. "If I were them I would ditch you the moment I got my cutie mark."

"Too bad we're better friends than you two are," Apple Bloom retorted, grinning. "And anyway, ain't no way you'll be able to call 'em lame after dawn, and even me by extension." She chuckled lightly. While usually she'd be put down by the insults, the current situation was too great for the same old stuff to bring her down.

"Like any of you will ever be not lame." Silver adjusted her glasses.

"Oh, jus' you wait 'till dawn up on that there stage." Apple Bloom smiled as the sky began to grow lighter. The sun would soon come up and the two bullies would be proven oh so wrong.

The bullies had to see this. No, of course they didn't believe her! But still, you know, they had to make sure that she was lying. Obviously she was, but anypony else might think she wasn't, right?

As the sun rose, trumpeters lined up on the stage, side by side against the back, leaving room for one pony or two foals to enter. The two bullies pushed and shoved through the crowd, making their way to the front of the ponies watching while eliciting a few disapproving glares and disgruntled oofs.

Amoris stepped out onto the stage, her wings spread wide and a glow coming from behind her to illuminate her further. "Hello, my little ponies! It is I, your queen, the Goddess of Care, the Divine Actress, Cor Cantae Amoris!" Many of the ponies murmured, for they didn't know that they had a queen.

"In case you don't remember ever having a queen, that's because I only recently returned from what you could call a very long vacation. I returned to guide a very special pony, and bring that pony's friend into her own power. And it is with great pleasure that I introduce our newest two alicorns, honorary princesses of Equestria! Without further ado, Princess Sweetie Belle and Princess Scootaloo!"

Amoris rose up to make way for the two fillies, who stepped out into the sunlight, illuminated by the glow. It was clear that they were taller than they had been before the ordeal began. They unfurled their wings and turned toward each other, touching horns as they proudly displayed their cutie marks: Sweetie Belle with a heart enveloped in her light green aura, with music notes rising up from it, and Scootaloo with a pair of ballet slippers enveloped in a blue magical aura, bubbles rising behind the slippers to represent the soul.[AN 1]

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon stared. Silver shook her head quickly to get rid of what was obviously an illusion, but succeeded only in throwing off her glasses, which she scrambled to pick up. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo glanced inconspicuously at the disgruntled bullies and smirked to each other.

Luna had teleported back to Canterlot to celebrate Hearth's Warming with her mother and sister. She sipped tea as she watched the nobles dance, all oblivious to having ever revealed the secrets they so carefully held. She chuckled lightly at the thought, and then further when she realised they thought they could hide their secrets from the princesses.

She yelped and startled back when Discord appeared in front of her in his suit. "Oh," Luna said, when she realised who it was. "Hello, Discord."

"Why, hello, Luna!" he exclaimed, bowing with his claw to his chest. "Fancy seeing you here. Well, I came to see you here, so strike that." He chuckled lightly. "I have come to ask you... For a dance."

Luna was caught off-guard for the second time that day. She looked at him sceptically. "A dance? And why, pray tell, wouldst thou please to dance with me?"

"It is a token of our friendship. To make certain that you want to be my friend, you see." Discord smiled and snapped his fingers, turning into a light green alicorn Luna's size, but with the same suit and his usual two horns rather than one. "May I have this dance?"

Luna thought for a bit. "If it is for thy described purpose, then let us dance." She smiled and took Discord's hoof, stepping onto the dance floor. The nobles made way for the two, extremely surprised that Discord of all creatures was dancing with Luna of all ponies.

Discord mentally pumped his fist. Score!

And so they began to dance.

Back in Ponyville, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo turned toward the crowd again, and Sweetie Belle began to vocalise, a crisp, familiar tune filling the air as the magic of the Heart Song compelled the citizens to sing with her.

"The fire of friendship lives in our hearts,

"With our hearts and our souls, we cannot drift apart." At this, Scootaloo began to slowly dance, her own misty magic calling down a light snow.

"Though quarrels arise, their numbers are few,

"Dancing and singing will see us through." The Knife rose up into the air and turned into a fine dust. The magic spread the dust, not just around Equestria, not just around Ioka, but all the way out into the relatively massive pool of the Astral Plane.

"The times we've spent together as one,

"How wondrous they've been since our quest has begun.

"We are a circle of pony friends..." Even the two bullies joined in now, the magic bringing them in as well.

"A circle of friends we'll be to the very end!"

Somewhere in the Astral Pool[6], tiny pieces of dust began to-

[6]: The Astral Pool (with capitals) was the pool where the World Turtle resided. There were many pools in the Astral Plane, but this particular pool was capitalised because the Turtle wanted it that way.

"Oh no, none of that!" the Turtle exclaimed, completely removing any traces of the spell and then incorporating the matter of the Knife into random parts of the World. With the help of its Mind Magic, it even did some calculations to actually change the atom types, just to make sure that it couldn't possibly be the Knife in any way, shape, or form.

And so the Knife was unmade.

Author's Note

You have to read this Author's Note! It's really important (probably).

Wow. I can't believe this is done. I finished this chapter on the twenty-third, which was cutting it pretty close, but I had already finished most of it by now, so I was pretty safe. But yeah. Wow. This was an awesome ride of writing from start to finish.

I purposefully didn't show Scootaloo's cutie mark until the introduction as princesses. (I definitely didn't forget to add it until then and decided that would be a good place for it.)

Footnotes:
[AN 1]: I remembered that I needed to say what I'm about to say at this point in my writing, but when I looked back, I found that there was nowhere to put it that sounded right. So, I'm putting it here: A pony is born destined to have a cutie mark about a certain talent. However, what nopony (except the divines) knows is that there are many versions of this cutie mark, some of which are not as representative of the pony's highest potential as others.

If a pony gets a lesser version of their cutie mark, it means that whatever they did to get it fated them to get less than their full possible potential. The Fates actively work to make sure each pony gets their best cutie mark. However, earlier, you may have remembered that Amoris teleported Scootaloo and Apple Bloom away before Scootaloo could get a cutie mark in what was "gradually evolving (or devolving, in Scootaloo's opinion) into dancing."

Apple Bloom has a better cutie mark than the one she would have gotten there. That one will be revealed eventually. If Scootaloo had gotten her cutie mark then, however, she may not have been able to unlock Soul Magic, which would have been devastating. The Fates were almost unable to stop it; thankfully, Amoris was up to the task.

Yes, you read that right: "That one will be revealed eventually." I am planning another sequel and it will be longer. And it won't take forever to create because it's going to be a usual fanfiction, being released as the chapters are written. So it will be longer than this one.

Thanks to LegendBegins, my editor, who is not on this site. No one on this site helped me (mostly because Legend was fabulous with it). And most of all thanks to God for His help writing this thing and finishing it on time.

~Solo Deo Gloriam Dedit~