“Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!”

Pinkie Pie splashed loudly into the pond, drenching Discord just as he was starting to wade in. The Cutie Mark Crusaders and Spike, who were already in the water and had received the brunt of the small wave, saw the draconequus’ sardonic expression and broke out into a fit of laughter. From her spot on the picnic blanket, Princess Twilight Sparkle smiled at the beautiful day before her.

“Cider, sugarcube?” Applejack slyly offered next to her.

Twilight glanced at the mug and giggled. “You know what? Please indulge me, Applejack.”

Between her coronation, chasing Sunset Shimmer into an alternate world, helping her friends defeat the former princess Amber Dawn, sacrificing the Elements to revive the Tree of Harmony, restoring the castle in the Everfree Forest, researching the mysterious chest, and returning Tirek to his prison, Twilight had not found a moment’s rest until now. Though the picnic had started out as a double date for Rarity, Fluttershy, Vinyl Scratch, and Octavia, Pinkie Pie hijacked the event and invited everyone else along… and despite her respect for the couples’ privacy, the alicorn did not mind this chance to unwind. She even decided to capitalize on the opportunity by not bringing a single book with her, and she roped Applejack into enforcing this brief discipline… with the added power of alcohol and sandwiches.

“So you’ve never actually performed together?” Rarity asked the musicians in front of her, levitating her own mug while Fluttershy passed Angel a carrot. “After all this time?”

Octavia grimaced. “Afraid not, you see….”

“It’s actually a technical issue,” Vinyl interrupted, more upbeat than her partner about the awkward question. “We’ve been trying to compose something where, like… we’re equals you know? My wubs aren’t too loud, Tavi can keep up with the tempo--”

“I can keep up just fine!” the classical musician snorted angrily. “You don’t know what tempo is! Tempo doesn’t mean random notes all over the place--!”

Vinyl held up her hooves. “Whoa, easy! All I meant was that I like to go a little crazy!”

“A little!?!”

“Ladies, we’re all friends here,” Fluttershy piped in, managing not to flinch at her own mild forcefulness.

Octavia winced, holding up an apologetic hoof. “You are right,” she said sheepishly, “I am sorry. I get a little worked up about these things.” She coughed. “I do, ultimately, agree with Vinyl. It is difficult to create a work of art that expresses the personality of both individuals adequately.”

“Oh, I so agree!” said Rarity. “I’ve been trying to produce an ensemble of complementary gowns for Fluttershy and I for past month now, but… the colors, the fabric, the theme! I have been beside myself on what to choose. I can be indecisive about fashion, of course, but never to this extent.”

Fluttershy shrugged. “I thought the last thing you did was great!”

Rarity made a sound between a sigh and squeal of joy, and then nuzzled her nose against Fluttershy’s. “Thank you darling, but you know I won’t settle for anything less than perfection!”

Fluttershy smiled at the affection, though privately she could not help but feel that it was a bit... forced.

At that moment, Discord walked out of the pond chuckling while Pinkie, Spike, and the Crusaders continued their water war. Humming to himself, he conjured a towel to dry off, vigorously rubbing his back as he tended to do. Twilight watched with a slight smile.

“Having fun?” she inquired before taking another sip of cider.

“Well, it’s not my usual idea of fun,” he pondered, “but I guess I am. There’s something to be said for letting someone else choose the game every so often.” He glanced at the playful ponies and dragon. “I’m just surprised anypony invited me.” A guilty swallow was audible. “Especially after the incident with Tirek.”

“‘Friendship is magic,’” Twilight intoned, satisfied when she saw the beginnings of knowing smile appear on Discord’s face. “You do something for another and they start to open up to you. Believe me, everypony appreciates what you tried to do when Amber Dawn attacked Canterlot. And you’d be surprised at what people are willing to forgive and forget.”

“Ain’t that the truth, partner,” said Applejack. “Ah told Applebloom that you’re good in my book, and Ah reckon Rarity and Rainbow did the same with Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo.”

Discord nodded slightly, then smiled to himself. “You know, I actually found it interesting to be useful, and you’d better believe it was even more of a surprise to me than it might be to you!”

“Oh, I believe it,” Twilight replied with a friendly grin.

They laughed together, interrupted only when a huge belch erupted from Spike. Emerald flame gave way to a letter from Princess Celestia, which began to fall toward the lake.

“I got it!” Pinkie, Spike, and the Crusaders all exclaimed, scrambling to retrieve the parchment. As they collided, the letter landed right on top of Sweetie Belle’s horn. As they recoiled from their collision, she looked up and sighed in exasperation.

“Seriously?” she exclaimed, her voice cracking from the pitch. A light purple aura surrounded the letter and it levitated off of her horn towards Twilight, the damage undoing itself along the way. When it was in front of her, she broke the seal and held it aloft for herself and Applejack to see. Rarity and Fluttershy peered over their shoulders as she began to read, while Pinkie quickly climbed out of the water and shook herself off.

My dearest Princess Twilight,

I require your immediate presence to discuss an urgent matter regarding the national security of Equestria, which I cannot describe in this letter for fear that our communication security system has been compromised. It is imperative that you, your friends, and Discord all travel to Canterlot with utmost haste. I am aware that Rainbow Dash is not with you at this time, and have already arranged to send her my summons.

Princess Luna and I will be expecting your arrival with minimal delay. Please do not stop for anything, including supplies. Relevant literature and information will be here when you arrive.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia
High Queen of Equestria
Duchess of Canterlot

Applejack frowned. “Well so much for our picnic,” she remarked in exasperation.

“Applejack!” Fluttershy admonished. “Princess Celestia clearly needs our help!”

“For the umpteenth time!”

Rarity rested a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “I agree with both you. It is essential that we render aid to the Princess at once, but also make it clear that we cannot uphold Equestria’s safety each and every time without expense to our own priorities.”

“I couldn’t have put it better myself,” Twilight said kindly.

“Me neither!” Pinkie added as she hopped up on Rarity and Fluttershy’s backs, balancing with two hooves on each. “Maybe we should get that put on every message we send to her!”

Before anypony could so much as facehoof, Discord interjected, “I gather Princess Celestia wants everypony to scurry over to Canterlot?” The mares all nodded. “Well, what are we waiting for?”

“Wait!” Twilight almost shouted as Discord was about to snap his fingers. “Sorry, I do appreciate the offer and will take you up on it in just a second. Spike!”

The baby dragon rushed out of the water. “Present.”

“Spike,” she began hesitantly, “I know that you hate being sidelined, but I need you to stay and watch the town while we’re gone--”

He waved a claw dismissively. “Don’t worry about it. Just go save Equestria and see if you can get back in time for dinner!” He winked at Twilight. “You know, my potato soup is starting to actually taste better than ‘edible.’”

Twilight giggled. “I’ll do my best.”

“Mighty generous of you Spike,” Applejack added, then called out, “Crusaders, mind lending Spike a hoof while we’re gone?”

The three fillies jumped into the air, yelling at the top of their lungs, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DRAGON ASSISTANTS! YAY!”

“Raven, please take note that I have truly failed Equestria this time.”

“Raven, please disregard that note from my self-disparaging sister and any others that she might command in the next two days related to the unfolding emergency.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow at Luna, momentarily forgetting her quiet despair at the very serious situation the Royal Intelligence Service had alerted her to only a half an hour ago. “Luna, when did you get it into your head that you could countermand my commands?” she asked coolly the dark blue alicorn beside her. “Last we agreed, I still outrank you.”

“Dear sister, since you are so intent on embracing personal guilt as your administrative policy, it is clear that you have devalued your own leadership ability and authority,” the Night Princess answered with a daring smirk. “Therefore, for the security of the realm I will take on emergency powers that allow me to usurp any despair or misery induced decision. I am sure in time the bureaucracy will find… some legal justification for it?” She waved her hoof vaguely.

Celestia chuckled a little, about to make a witty retort of her own before the weight of history came crashing in again and snuffed out the light of Luna’s humor. She stood and walked down the throne, past her assistant unicorn Raven who had been watching the exchange between the two alicorns nervously, unable to quite catch the severity of their jabs at each other. The Sun Princess began pacing about a bit, the silence of the room beginning to infect Luna as her own visible cheer started to decay.

“Oh, I should have prepared for this better Lulu!” Celestia finally sighed in melancholy. “Everything we worked for lost because I did not anticipate this day--”

“I will not have you blame yourself because you could not anticipate every outcome possible!” Luna interrupted forcefully, flapping her wings to glide over to her sister. “You ruled this country by yourself for one thousand years while I was exiled, dealing with the domestic affairs of ignorant commoners and the foreign affairs of malicious foreign powers like the Felonians. We may be immortals, but we are not omnipotent like the Holy Empress in Elysium. You can be forgiven for being limited in foresight, as I can be forgiven for jeopardizing the safety of Equestria!”

A smirk broke through Celestia’s sad expression. “I can agree with that.”

“Haha, you’re funny,” Luna remarked facetiously. “Now, what exactly is your plan of--”

BAMF

“And to my left,” Discord announced with the voice and apparel of an art aficionado, “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna discussing the future of Equestria, an artistic invention from ancient times still immensely popular in the contemporary period.”

Twilight, Rarity, Pinkie, Applejack, and Fluttershy staggered, blinking and rubbing their faces in an attempt to regain focus after Discord’s teleportation magic. The moment she recovered, Twilight saw Celestia, and a wide smile appeared on her face.

“Celestia!” She trotted over to the Sun Princess, embracing her. As she took in Celestia’s expression and slightly haggard look her face fell. “Is everything alright?! You look awful!”

“Twilight is right!” Rarity added worriedly. “Both of you look positively ill!”

Pinkie gasped. “That’s the danger to Equestria! You’ve caught a dangerous disease that threatens your very life but you can’t tell anypony aside from us because then everypony will find out and there will be chaos throughout the land but if you die anyway then there will be chaos because Twilight will have to take over and Twilight is smart but she’s not experienced enough to take over just yet so you need everypony here to help--”

Luna calmly stuck a hoof into Pinkie’s mouth, mostly silencing her, though her mumbling around it was still audible. “A reasonable guess, but not even remotely close fair Pinkie Pie. We are both quite well… at least physically. Our outward appearance is due to our abject despair in the face of a great evil returning to the land.”

Twilight shook her head and implored, “I don’t understand. What sort of evil has you this terrified?”

“It is not so much the evil itself that worries us as our inability to deal with it,” Celestia replied almost mournfully. “Like Discord here, he was contained by the Elements of Harmony, and without them the odds are most likely against us.”

Discord froze, his eyes widening. “Wait, you don’t mean…?”

Celestia nodded slowly. “Palderias, the Heretical Inventor, has escaped Tartarus.”

A flurry of emotion was visible on Discord’s face, but after a few moments he settled on outrage, confusing everypony. “Well, I see how it is. It is one thing to want me to abandon my ‘wicked ways,’ I can understand that just fine. But to have me reformed for the purpose of attacking my own kind to save your sorry plot?! Just who do you think you are--!”

“DISCORD!” the white alicorn suddenly shouted, stunning everyone in the room. With a long, heavy breath, she said more calmly, “I understand your anger, but I would appreciate it if you heard everything I have to say, as well as help explain the nature of your ‘kindred spirit’ to these ponies who are not aware.”

Discord stared at Celestia lividly, his left eye twitching slightly. However, he glanced over at Fluttershy, who looked up at him in concern. With a sigh, he relented, “Fine, but don’t expect anything!”

“Thank you,” Celestia replied in a weary voice. “Now then--”

The doors to the chamber blasted open as a cyan mare galloped in, coming to a halt in front of the group and collapsing to the floor in a panting heap. “Am… I… on… time?” Rainbow Dash wheezed.

Everypony looked at the pegasus as if she were insane. “Actually, we was all sorta early on account of Discord’s teleportation,” Applejack answered. “Did ya fly all the way from the Wonderbolt Academy here in just a few minutes?”

Rainbow simply nodded.

A few giggles and laughs filled the chamber. “Well, it’s good havin’ ya here partner,” said a now bemused Applejack, offering her hoof. Rainbow Dash took it gratefully, wiping the sweat from her brow as soon as she rose to her hooves and caught her breath.

Celestia nodded. “Well, I am glad everypony is here, so I can tell you about Palderias. Afterwards, we must discuss a means of containing him and his influence.”

“Palderias,” Rarity repeated. “As in the one who built the Box that trapped Discord?”

“Pah, it only had me for a few minutes,” Discord scoffed.

Twilight rubbed her chin. “I’ve read about the Box of Palderias, but all my books could tell me was that he was a wicked mage from the pre-classical era.”

“He was much more than that,” said Luna grimly. “In fact, that account is most likely a creative fiction, written out of ignorance. Sister, you had best begin.”

The Solar Diarch nodded again. “In the beginning of the world, the Holy Empress Faust created the land and the speechless animals that lived there. Whether it was unintended or a desired result we do not understand the wisdom of, there was a byproduct of this new creation: A race of Beings who almost transcended the limitations of physics and magic. There were quite a few of these beings, and their appearances and personalities differed wildly. However, they shared one thing in common, which is that they cared nothing for the mortal creatures surrounding them.

“Over time, some animals evolved into creatures with intellect, speech, and sometimes magic. Ponykind was amongst their number. For much of history, the Beings left these mortals in peace, being more concerned with their own diversions. As the nations of Ponies, Zebras, Gryphons, and Felonians grew, however, the untouched land available to the Beings decreased and the affairs of mortals were now front and center. Whether out of irritation, injustice, or petty cruelty, the Beings decided to assert themselves. A few centuries after the founding of Equestria, the nations of the world were overthrown and divided by the Beings. And prominent amongst their number were--”

“Yours truly,” Discord interjected, jerking a thumb at his chest.

“--and Palderias,” Celestia finished with a nod. Her horn glimmered and shot out a gold light that turned into a projection. A map of Equestria was displayed for the mares and draconequus. “Equestria was defenseless against such beings. Discord here took the lionshare of the territory for himself.” The entire west and northeast of Equestria turned red.

“None of the others wanted to challenge me,” Discord remarked with an air of pride, ignoring the raised eyebrows around me. “Well, at least aside from him.”

“Palderias, famously known as the Heretical Inventor,” Celestia continued. The remainder of Equestria turned a sickly green. “Where Discord loves chaos, Palderias loved technology. The ability to construct a tools, to manipulate the world around him... that is all he cared about, aside from quantifying said world. Not only did he reject the existence of virtues and higher emotions, he imposed this view on those around him. When he moved into Equestria, he enslaved those few ponies who were not under the thrall of Discord. However, he already had an army of drones to do his bidding, so putting his new slaves to work would have been pointless. Instead, he tasked his army with strip-mining his territory and fabricating the materials into consumer goods, which he forced those ponies into buying with money they earned from stock in the various drone groups. Over time, they became addicted to their wealth and material possessions, forsaking all friendships, families, or affections of any kind. They also came to despise the poor and misfortunate, and judged each other on wealth alone.”

Silence filled the air as the six friends stared at the map as they attempted to envision such a twisted world.

“Wait a minute,” said Fluttershy, “Discord, you said to me that you defended Equestria from Palderias.”

Discord nodded. “Quite. Or at least, I defended the territory and ponies I ruled by leading those ponies into battle.” He chuckled at the looks he received and held his head up in theatric pride. “Yes, I lead instead of pulling the strings from the sidelines. Not quite the front lines, but I lead them, gave them the weapons and might to overcome his drones. Lost quite a few stallions, but my kingdom did not lose an inch of land.” His eyes and tone grew intense with the last few words.

Twilight looked at him skeptically. “So you… beat him?” she asked.

“No,” he answered, the intensity suddenly dropping like a balloon losing all its air. “When it came to Palderias and I… neither could win.” His face suddenly filled with disappointment. “I had the power, but he had the determination. It was going to come down to killing blows and for some reason I ended up drawing the line there. If he was in my position, well, I don’t think he would have drawn any such line.”

Again, silence permeated the room until Luna resumed the story, “The tyranny of the Beings was so repugnant that Elysium itself could not abide it. The Holy Empress, who had been content to allow the world to evolve as it would, intervened by sending two volunteers to resolve the crisis and prevent any in the future. This is where the story of my sister and I began.”

Celestia nodded with a small smile. “With our own power, we rid several lands of the Beings’ tyranny. However, Discord and Palderias were each beyond our combined powers. To defeat them, well, I think you know what comes next.”

“The Elements of Harmony,” said Applejack.

“From the Tree of Harmony,” Fluttershy added.

“We tested it on Palderias and then trapped Discord shortly after,” Luna continued. “It was decided that they would not be kept together, however, and so Palderias was kept with the other Beings while Discord was brought to Canterlot and placed under our watch. And the rest… you know the rest,” she finished uncomfortably.

Celestia walked over and wrapped a wing around her sister. “Recently, we received a letter from the Knight-Captain at Tartarus reporting that the bindings we have placed on the Beings have begun to degrade, Palderias included. This was not a surprise: After one thousand years, Discord broke free of his stone prison, and Tirek recently found a way to escape his own chains without being detected. No magic lasts forever, and even the bindings we created with the Elements were based on the same ones we used before finding them.” She bit her lip. “After the Elements were given up, we decided that we were going to restore the existing bindings on the other Beings and place several on Palderias to best imitate his prison. We sent a letter to the Knight-Captain on duty… only for it to be intercepted and rewritten.”

Luna leveled her stare at the mares before her. “I believe you six are familiar with the two unicorn stallions that go by the names Flim and Flam?” she said, her voice filled with disgust.

Their facial expressions soon matched hers. “Those two, huh?” said Applejack venomously. “To hell with tough competition… I’m gonna buck ‘em in the face next time I see ‘em….”

“They are the culprits,” Celestia continued, a glare directed at nopony in the room, “though from what they have revealed there are others involved who share their very unique brand of ‘Equestrian capitalism.’ In any event, they pretended to be members of the Royal Intelligence Service, infiltrated Tartarus, and freed Palderias from his weakened bonds. Our actual agents from the Royal Intelligence Service report that he and his new allies are headed towards Appleloosa.”

Applejack’s eyes widened in panic. “Well why didn’t ya say so?!” she shouted, raising her front legs so as to bolt out of the chamber. Before she could, however, purple magic surrounded her hooves and pulled them down to the ground.

“Stay cool AJ,” Twilight said, “we can’t do anything for Braeburn and the others if we don’t have a plan.” Applejack grumbled.

“As we said before, we do not have the Elements of Harmony,” said Luna. “However, our numbers have grown. There are four sane alicorns in Equestria,” Twilight, Celestia, Rarity, and Fluttershy all cringed at a bad memory, “and Princess Cadence will be joining us here very soon, along with Prince Shining. However, it was our hope that--”

“My answer is still no!” Discord huffed, giving both sisters a disgusted glare. “I’m no friend of Palderias, he and I have almost nothing in common, but he is one of my own kin! Why in the name of Faust did you think I would be okay with that? Do you think I went senile from being blasted by the Elements twice? Or maybe you think you can take advantage of my friendship with Fluttershy--?!”

“How dare you!” Celestia exclaimed, her face consumed with fury. “Of all the outrageous accusations I have heard in my reign, that may be the most delusional yet!”

“Well, sorry!” Discord shouted back, his claws bundled into fists. “I guess I was too busy being angry at the suggestion of serving as YOUR PERSONAL ENFORCER!!!” The last statement was a roar, his eyes turning sulfur. The next moment, he flashed out of existence.

Celestia gritted her teeth and muttered, “Buck.” She turned to face Twilight and the others with an air of forced cheer. “Well, as you can see, we are a draconequus short of an effective task force. Worse, I cannot be part of said task force--”

A chorus of six mares shouted, “WHAT?!”

“Because somepony has to immediately travel to Tartarus,” she finished exasperatedly. “I’ve mulled this over a little bit with Princess Luna, and though it’s risky… we have decided that the seven of you can handle it.”

Twilight looked at her incredulously and asked, “We’re not even waiting for Cadence then?”

“No and yes,” answered Luna. “It is our intention to defend and evacuate Appleloosa before reinforcements can arrive. Naturally, that includes fighting the inevitable army of drones that he will be already creating. We hope that he will not be in the front lines since it’s not his style. If he does….” She looked to her sister.

“”I have confidence in you former Bearers,” Celestia proclaimed with a note of finality. “Particularly you, my dear,” she added, looking at Twilight intently, “you are powerful.”

Twilight blushed deeply at the comment from her secret lover, fortunately managing to keep her wings folded in the presence of her unknowing friends. “Well, maybe a little--”

“No, as in, you are very powerful. There has not been anypony born with your raw magic potential in the history of Equestria. That does not mean you are equal to Palderias, but it gives us a chance, especially when Luna will be with you.” Celestia turned back to the other mares. “As for the rest of you, your service to Equestria is well-known, and seemingly grows every month. And more importantly, I consider you my friends,” she said softly. “I hope that I can count on you in this desperate hour.”

Rainbow Dash stuck out her chest proudly. “You can count on us, Princess!”

“Indeed,” Rarity added, sticking a hoof in front of the pegasus’ sternum, “though in light of the many times our service has been requested, the other five of us decided that we would appreciate less requests in the future, so as to secure a decent ‘civilian life style.’”

“Whatever,” Rainbow snorted, while Twilight grimaced from the poor timing of Rarity’s remark. “You can call on me to save Equestria whenevs. I’m awesome!”

“I think we missed the memo on that last bit,” Applejack muttered with an eyeroll.

Celestia chuckled, nodding intently at the white unicorn. “I agree with you Rarity. As much as I appreciate being able to rely on you six, I will try to do so less in the future.” She began walking towards the door. “I must depart now for Tartarus. I leave the safety of Appleloosa in your hooves and Princess Luna’s.”

In the next few moments, everypony made their farewells and wishes of good luck to Celestia. However, Twilight elected to walk with the princess out to the palace entrance. At first they went in silence, until at last Celestia spoke in a small voice:

“You are worried?”

Twilight swallowed and nodded. “Yes… for both of us. Are you sure you’ll be okay on your own? All those Beings… how many are there?”

“Nearly a hundred,” Celestia answered gravely, then shook her head, as if dispelling a small cloud of smoke around it. Her expression returned to its normative warmth and patience. “But I think I shall be fine. Their prisons remain intact, and while it is necessary to restore them to full strength, it will only be a problem if they were to break down entirely. Also, the Knight-Captain is, despite this mishap, a very capable stallion and can be relied upon to aid me in a worst-case scenario.” She looked to Twilight in concern. “But I think your troubles lie in your task. I am sorry that I have forced you and your friends into another sudden trial--”

“It’s not that,” Twilight interrupted quickly. “I mean, I agreed with Rarity at first before we came here, but this is a totally reasonable request. I just… have a bad feeling about this. When we fought Discord, he robbed us our true selves. It was a fate worse than death, and we were lucky that I discovered the letters you sent back to me.” She turned her frightened face to her lover. “You said that Palderias turned his slaves to mindless materialism. What if he does the same to us? What if--”

Twilight was silenced by a pair of forceful lips, reassuring her, filling her with warmth, joy, love. After a long moment, Celestia pulled back and whispered to her, “Twilight, I have known you since you were a filly, and in the past year we have shared our hearts with each other, deeply.” Their eyes were locked with each other, Celestia’s possessing the mirage of intense solar flame. “Of all the ponies in Equestria, you are the last pony who would ever forsake your soul for selfish greed.”

“Celestia!” Twilight croaked, eyes tearing up. They both quickly leaned in for a brief yet passionate kiss. And though it was passionate, it was brief, Celestia quickly breaking away.

“I have to go,” she gasped, trotting towards the open doorway. She called out, “I love you!”

“And I you!” Twilight yelled back. As the Princess’ form disappeared into the bright light of day, she lowered her head and faced the floor. Her stomach was a knot, her mind flurrying in ten different directions. It was one thing to be sent to face the enemies of Equestria, at great risk to herself and that of her dearest friends. But it was another to do so while her lover, the second half of her heart, was voyaging to face dangers of her own.

And Twilight couldn’t help a gut feeling that said she was going to face an unimaginable peril.

Author's Note

For those of you who read Basking in the Sun and Lust is Magic and had been waiting for me to release a sequel, I do thank you for your patience. This work has been sitting in my Google Drive collecting dust for the longest time. I am glad to finally be bringing it out after so many years.

More chapters to come. As always, your comments are everything to us.