Last chants for the slow dance

Chapters

Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Finale
Day 1

Day 2

The sun is just peeking out and morning dew coats the ground. The ponies of Sweet Apple Acres are busy preparing for cider season.

Applejack hauls a crate from one side of the barn to the other. She is always hauling crates. It doesn’t seem much like real work but for some reason it needs to be done. She stacks one crate on top of another, then those two on a third.

Applejack remembers what she is meant to be doing after that. She stacks a few more crates just to be safe.

Carrying the tools she had originally come in to get, Applejack steps outside back to the fields. She wants to hang her head a bit as she sees the west. Apples from those trees are shriveled black. The grass is a sickly yellow and has been dying, the soil unusually clumping, and odd weeds she’s never before seen are claiming the space.

Which is why she has her pest control equipment. Two white cylinders with various warnings she has never read compose the tank. Applejack loads the chamber with her best poisons and straps it to her back. Slinging the hose over her shoulder, she checks that the nozzle is fit snugly, grinning the grin of a problem about to be fixed. Her gentler treatments were not working and she will be damned if some out of place city weeds squat on her land.

So she’s going to kill it all. It may take the sacrifice of some of her sweet surviving apples, but by the time it has had a taste of her extra-industrial strength herbicide, this whole section of the field will be devoid of life for the next few years at least.

She paces up to the rows of trees and begins spraying. Applejack is no stranger to tough love.

Twilight jolts up and a stack of books falls on her. Swearing things like “Fuck why” and “Damn hell I’m a princess you dickhead”, she clutches her head in pain. Sometime during the night she had fallen asleep and she can’t remember when nor what she was doing.

Once it fades away, she opens her eyes. They’ve become so attuned to the poor light of the basement it takes near no time to adjust. and Twilight looks at the stacks of books around her. That’s right, she thinks, she’d stopped drilling for the night and went to her book corner to reference quantum physics materials again. Magic itself does not conform to standard notions of mass or interface with pony senses, let alone follow popular quantum theories. She just has to find the crux between magic and matter, the right resonance.

It must be some time in the morning. She thinks she is supposed to do something today. Twilight trots over to her work desk and checks her calendar and is not pleased by what she sees.

“Awful social schedules. Today is lunch with Rarity,” she spits out the name. She considers not going but that would likely mean the pushy unicorn will just come here. That would not be favorable.

It doesn’t seem likely she’ll get much done until after that and the drill isn’t going anywhere from the center of the room, so she heads upstairs to eat eggs. The light shining in the windows today seems especially bright and Twilight has to squint. Her eyes are getting increasingly sensitive since she spends all her time in the basement.

She eats her eggs and wonders where Spike is. She doesn’t really care since he can’t get very far having to robotmarch and the door’s still locked anyway. Little to fear from him. She spends time lightly reviewing her physics texts until lunch.

Twilight puts on her crown because she knows it agitates Rarity, and she heads toward their usual cafe. She doesn’t like the feel of it on her scalp, symbols of power are pretty itchy, but the tiara is useful for reaping the benefits of being princess. She has to act her station.

So she strides proudly through the streets and is pleased to observe the ponies out are careful not to find themselves in her way. The residents of Ponyville have become well versed with the consequences of impeding Royal Princess Business. Mostly it’s just her bitching at them since Princess Celestia said she couldn’t imprison anyone, but that’s fine enough because nopony wants to be in the street getting bitched at for twenty minutes.

The sky is moderately bright and she makes note to comment on that. Conversation eased by the idle and the trite; Those sort of things fit Rarity.

Too soon Twilight reaches the cafe. She doesn’t know what it’s called, to her it’s just ‘the cafe.’ She never bothers to observe the name on the exterior, but instead looks at the sign in the window ‘Home To Equestria’s Best Spinach Hoagie’. She has never gotten to actually try it for herself and thinks maybe today will be the day.

A stallion is holding the door for her and Twilight gives him her approval as a proper princess would. Inside, Rarity is seated at a table for two in the back by a window. She files her hooves while gazing blankly at the menu.

Twilight approaches the table and grabs the available chair. The unicorn glances at her and goes back to her hooves.

Wordlessly, she scans her own menu even though she has it almost memorized and knows she will be ordering the spinach hoagie besides. She adjusts her chair and winces at the squeak of metal against tile. Rarity ignores it and for a while they do not look at each other.

The waitress comes and takes their orders. Twilight goes to tell the mare she will have the spinach hoagie but Rarity says they both will have the fish fingers. Twilight sinks into her chair and harumphs, but doesn’t say anything to the contrary. She thinks to herself that when she has reality at her disposable, she’ll turn Rarity into a fish finger.

They are patiently waiting for their food when Pinkie Pie appears. Humming something synthpop she hops to their table, pulls up a chair and seats herself. “Look who it is, two of my best friends out having lunch without me!”

“Go away Pinkie, you were not invited,” Rarity scowls.

Pinkie Pie stares at her with a grin. “No, I’m going to order raisin chocolate muffins.”

“Fine, but we’re going to ignore you.”

Pinkie keeps humming and Twilight tries to sulk again. But the precursory silence has been broken. Now they are going to have to actually address each other.

Twilight opens her mouth and as there is nothing she actually wants to say, immediately resorts to the weather. “So, the weather has been not as bad as usual lately.”

“I wouldn’t say that. It has been raining like hell. But then I doubt you’ve seen much of it, always in that basement. Banal habits for banal looks.”

“It’s not raining today. Maybe it is just the sun in my eyes, but days like these make me dream of a bright future.”

“It does not interest me what you dream of.”

Twilight ignores her. “Of course I’ve been keeping busy as ever. So much to learn when your intelligence reaches the stars.”

The waitress arrives with the fish fingers. Sensing the vibes, she quickly sets their plates and takes Pinkie’s muffin order.

After she leaves, Rarity retorts, “You are not very good at what you do.”

Twilight immediately crinkles. “...Explain what you mean by that.”

The white one explains, “You don’t govern anything or perform any kind of royal duties; you’ve become a library hermit. It’s really embarrassing for a princess. And you spend so much time with your nose in musty pages you’d think you were princess of books instead of magic. You are no princess, and there’s nothing magical about you. I could have been princess.”

She’d walked into it. And Twilight can’t brag about her drill. She tries to quickly think a cutting remark. “Nuh-uh.”

“I would have been the prettiest in all the land.”

Inspiration strikes and she replies, “Then what does it say about you that Celestia chose me?”

“I was clearly next in line and would wager that if Luna had not returned, I would be a princess by now,” Rarity says, chomping her food as though it were Luna’s head.

“You carry yourself prouder than the count of blemishes on your face justifies.”

“Don’t you think I know that?” Rarity does not seem affected, clearly having the upper hoof.

Twilight violently jams a fish finger in her sauce.

She does not enjoy these outings and Rarity seems to get little out of them either. Yet the ritual persisted out of some lingering sense of obligation, and because Twilight does not want Rarity to come to her house.

“I think you know very little.”

Pinkie Pie chews on her muffin as she listens to the mares argue. Being quiet isn’t usually easy for her, but she doesn’t feel so great today. Her knees ache and one of her eyes is irritated. Lately she’s had a weird taste in her mouth and the muffin is doing little for it. Yesterday she threw a birthday party for Ditzy Doo and could barely taste the cake.

She thinks about the coming birthdays of her friends and the passing years and what their lives have been leading towards, and something ill and murky forms in her head. She occupies herself with another muffin.

Fluttershy peeks her eyes open a little. Judging from the height of the sun in her window it must be around noon. She quickly shuts her eyes again.

Sometimes Fluttershy pretends to be asleep like this so she will not have to get up and feed her animals. She hopes that if she stays in bed long enough she will fall back asleep.

The worst part of not doing things is it’s difficult not to think about things. When her mind does inevitably wander, she imagines what it would be like to be an otter. She has an elaborate fantasy life with a cute otter husband and three little cubs that she pictures herself cooking dinners for and helping with schoolwork.

It’s a nice daydream but she doesn’t think about it often. Usually she just wonders how much longer she can get away with staying in bed, and what it says about her that she intensely imagines intercourse with an otter.

Fluttershy composes a poem in her head:
I dreamt of butterflies
And certain things should have
not been so less
They were on my ass
It all comes from the same place

Having no criteria to evaluate with, she deems it good enough for her usual standards. But she won’t write it down and doesn’t want to get up anyway. So a bit more time is passed and a bit more of her effort is wasted.

Then Angel Bunny has enough of her act and climbs on the bed to stomp on her head. His fuzzy feet pound on her temple just enough to be unignorable. Fluttershy would give him a lecture on proper behavior for little bunnies, but thinks it’s cute so she lets it slide. He gets away with a lot that way.

Leaving her shield of sheets, the first thing Fluttershy does is go to her mirror and brush her hair enough to be presentable. She worries about looking so obviously unkempt, and Rarity has informed her that her mane is her best quality.

Then she proceeds through her routine of feeding and caring for her critters and tending to the sick. Spending her hours.

After her food is gone and she’s spent what is considered a socially acceptable amount of time conversing, Twilight leaves Rarity with the bill and rushes home. She is supposed to be a princess but Rarity doesn’t leave her feeling like one at all. All she can think of is her incredible drill, burrowing through the rejections of all her enemies.

It is all she can do not to break down the front door in her dash for the basement. Then she notices she has indigestion and it is all she can do not to break down the bathroom door. Twilight hates fish fingers.

She bursts open the bathroom door. Spike is standing at the toilet peeing already but Twilight doesn’t mind and teleports him to somewhere else, probably the Everfree forest. She feels close enough now that he and all he represents is irrelevant.

Her intestines are rumbling to beware, so she quickly claims her seat.

Twilight sits on her throne in quiet contemplation, with occasional grunts.

She reflects on the incident with Rainbow Dash yesterday. Twilight wonders how she can use those mind control bolts to her advantage. She recalls that the Wonderbolt is leaving Sunday morning for her Monday show for the Canterlot royalty, with Celestia the star guest.

Maybe while Dash is in Canterlot she can use her to her advantage, able to seamlessly place suggestions in Dash’s mind. Or she can just use it for cheap entertainment, since none of this will matter soon anyway.

She thinks she will do that tomorrow before Dash leaves. Just to see if it works. Of course Twilight herself can’t be seen in the vicinity when it occurs, so she will have to get her results second hoof. She will just have to make Dash do something ridiculous in public and hear all about it from the gossipy locals. And she knows they are gossipy, as she had learned last time she’d ordered the fish fingers.

Spike was peeing. Now he is in the middle of a forest.

Actually, he’s still peeing but that’s because his body is trying to catch up to this turn of events. He flexes his urethral muscles but is wary of helping it along too much because he knows how it feels when you try to stop peeing too quick and isn’t strong enough to take that. So he pisses on an odd plant and quickly scopes out his new environment.

The trees are so tall they nearly block out the sky and he already doesn’t like it here. Everything here is green, not a healthy shade like in the rest of Equestria, but dark and gnarled. There are thorned vines hanging from branches and the lack of wildlife is unsettling. He gets the distinct impression he is lost in the Everfree.

He hears a distant howl to the right and quickly looks in that direction. Robotmarching is slow going but Spike figures as long as he keeps his beeping quiet and doesn’t draw attention to himself, he should find his way out eventually. He really hopes nothing finds and eats him.

If his mouth wasn’t zipped shut, he would say something right now like, “Aww nuts,” or, “Fuck you, Twilight.”

Fluttershy saves feeding the fish for last. Lately the fish spawning in her river have been having troubles and she has enough of those, so is reluctant to face them. But she can’t just leave them be, so Fluttershy fetches her jar of fish food and heads slowly to the river, nervous of what she will see.

She sees defective baby minnow, guppies, and trout splashing toward her, eager for food. Usually Fluttershy would wade in to be nearer to them, but now she doesn’t want to be near. Most have sickly coloring or deformed fins, but a few have extra eyes and mouths, and there is even one that is conjoined. It makes both her heart and her stomach hurt - more than typical - so she quickly empties her jar and takes off.

By now it's almost dinner time. With a bit more weighing her down, Fluttershy sinks back into bed. She is grateful all her organs are in their place and are the right shapes. For a while she just thinks about her organs pumping and processing and tries to visualize what she looks like on the inside. Probably something sad and shriveled.

She is almost drifting off to sleep when Fluttershy is dredged out of bed this time by a knocking at her door. She thinks she knows who it is likely to be, hopes it isn’t, then hopes more it isn’t someone different. Then she decides to hope that it’s just the shifting of lint in her ears.

When Fluttershy becomes exceedingly anxious, she gets the urge to push lint deep into her ear canals until she can’t reach it. Lately she’s been developing ear infections but ignores it because she is afraid what the doctor will say.

But the knocking won’t stop and it obviously doesn’t sound like lint. Fluttershy opens the door slowly to show her disapproval.

As feared, there stands Rainbow Dash, rolling on her hooves and cautiously grinning with just enough shame as necessary. For some reason she’s wearing a red ascot. The visiting pegasus raises a hoof in greeting.

“And just where were you yesterday?” Fluttershy says and tries not to, but appends, “If you feel like telling,” and Fluttershy hates herself a little more.

“Went to Twilight’s and blacked a few hours far out. Guess again I’ve been working too at it.”

“Oh... Well are you okay?”

“Yeah, great as better than ever.”

She watches Dash and isn’t too sure of what she sees. The face seems haggard, her head more lumpy and scarred, damage no doubt from her rough lifestyle but that Fluttershy isn’t sure she’s noticed before.

Then Dash notices Fluttershy staring at her and Fluttershy has to look down, self consciously. “It’s just I think you look a little different. But I guess a pony can’t be sure in this illusionary existence.”

She wonders if that’s true or if there’s just something wrong with her that she can’t remember things properly. If her perceptions have changed from what she once saw as true and she can’t even remember or notice. Perhaps she had seen these scars on Dash before and was now no longer aware of it. And that scares Fluttershy, that she doesn’t even know the things she once was.

Rainbow Dash only looks at her and squints, the skin above her left brow straining at the action. “Look, don’t bring your books into it. Know what I’m saying?” she asks.

But Fluttershy is too busy thinking that perhaps she had never been Fluttershy, but something else, up till this very moment and was stocked with false memories to convince she had been so all along.

Rainbow Dash grows impatient so lets herself in and inspects the house, scanning the bare walls and dusty shelves and dirt in corners. Mice and other critters run rampant. “So not much out of the usual here, huh? Still doing the same, up to the old sins, that sort of thing?”

“Yes.”

“That the way you go about it?”

“Well, I suppose you could say…” She can’t really say and is struck with the desire to tell Dash, even though she still feels her friend ditched her again. In a flare of resolve, she starts, “Actually, not really the same, well most of it is and that part’s the problem. All my life I feel like I’ve been sinking and for a while there were you girls and that was great. But lately, I just don’t know what’s happened and what I used to have isn’t doing it anymore and I don’t think I have much longer left.” Fluttershy isn’t sure if it’s just the fuzz in her ears but her voice seems strained and squeakier than usual.

And the other mare regrets coming here, that much is apparent in her expression, a mix of discomfort and annoyance at being made aware of things she would rather not.

“I’m not… It shouldn’t... I came here to apologize and now you’re making me feel bad and I didn’t come here to feel bad. I ran to be all the way here and was hoping we could forgive and have a glass of water.” Rainbow Dash takes Fluttershy by the shoulder and waves a hoof to the air in front of them as if to explain away all she doesn’t care for. “See... You’ve got your good things, and I got mine.”

Fluttershy isn’t too sure what she expected.

“Do you understand that?”

She nods.

Applejack is reclining in her chair in the living room. The nice one with the cushion and red arm rests. It used to be Big Mac’s but she’d made him give it up as was her right as head of the house.

Her siblings get the couch with the broken springs. They are all gathered around the little color television on the shelf unit, watching the evening shows. A pony hits another pony on the head with different objects as funny sound effects play.

The fitting reward to a hard day’s labor on the farm.

But tonight Applejack isn’t truly focused on it. Her thoughts can’t get away from earlier today and the decimated field. It bothers her on an unusual level. Sure she’d done what needed doing and it had been damn fun, but what had turned that patch sour? That’s an open problem. What if whatever it was happened to the other fields? That would cripple their cider output and they really can’t afford that. They sorely need the money. They depend too much on the proceeds from cider season. She doesn’t think she’ll have to worry about a virus spreading, but what if it's something with the elements?

Big Macintosh is trying to watch the show but Applejack asks him. “Hey, Macintosh, what do you think about that bad field? The one I had to poison?”

“Eeyup.”

“Yeah, but, what do you suppose happened to it?”

Big Macintosh looks like he does not really want to be talking and would rather be watching TV, but he answers, “Don’t know. Must be something with the elements.”

I’m an element of harmony, she thinks. Applejack is pleased and says, “Yeah. Yeah, you know, I thought that myself.”

She thinks about the recent weather. That land is on the western side of the farm and the closest to the river, which has been scheduled for an awful lot of rain, lately.

But maybe it is probably nothing, just a fluke. Just in case, she should heighten her effort. Just put her head down and work harder and her nightly tv won’t be jeopardized.

Day 3

Today isn’t half as beautiful as yesterday.

Applejack can’t help but yawn. The sky is cloudy like it’s going to rain again and she is behind on her chores. But that is still no excuse to fall asleep on the job.

Applejack is working her Saturday stall at the market. She sells apples, various apple products, and some apple paraphernalia. It’s important to advertize for the upcoming cider season. Most residents of Ponyville know, but the past years the town has grown a lot, and there are always tourists it is important to let know as well.

She watches Rainbow Dash fly into the market.

Applejack calls, “Well look who it is. The big fancy Wonderbolt come down to grace us little folk.” Her voice has less conviviality than intended.

Rainbow Dash hears her and walks up to the stand. “Yeah, that is good or not. There is so much Wonderbolts stuff to have doing.”

Applejack raises a brow at Dash’s speech. “I suppose I can understand that. My farm keeps me busy, running it and all.” Her eyes scan Dash and Applejack thinks she looks noticeably worse this month than the last. A bit battered and anemic, almost like the pegasus looks a little deader.

“Yeah. Good things for you,” she says like she would rather keep talking about Wonderbolts.

“Well, what brings you here?” Applejack persists cordially.

“I was just going to visit the dentist stall. Have to need to get toothpaste, for our big show for Princess Celestia. It’s going to be the best one ever!”

Applejack thinks Rainbow Dash says that about every show. “Well is not that nice.”

Twilight’s been watching out the library window. She hasn’t seen her dragon boy in a while. She just saw Rainbow Dash go by. It is early Saturday so they are both probably off doing something stupid. Most ponies are at the market. The time is perfect.

Giggling eagerly, Twilight picks up her karaoke microphone, bright purple with stickers, and speaks into it.

Applejack watches Dash get a strangely passive look. Then she says, “I need to buy something. Hey Applejack, I need to buy something stupid like a pegasus would.”

“...I think you said you needed toothpaste?”

“Yeah. Nah. That’s too far, I’m right here. What are you selling in stupid? I need to buy.”

“But the stall is right over—” Applejack blinks but then decides it is about time for Rainbow Dash to get self aware. At least she will get money for the family.

Applejack gestures to display her products. “Lots of stuff!” She looks back at them and realizes in her haste to catch up on chores she forgot to bring the other merchandise.

“Not much,” she corrects herself. “We have apples, and we have apple paperweights... And for the tourists, Apple Family tshirts.” She holds a peach one up that says, ’Tastes like Apple Family apple!’ “Course they are in peach color because the manufacturer was out of apple red.”

“Okay, okay, I will take one.” Rainbow Dash reaches to take it but Applejack holds it out of reach.

“...You saying you’re a tourist?”

“If how that is what gets me a shirt.”

That does not seem right and Applejack can not tolerate a lie. She puts the shirt back. “Don’t you go calling yourself a tourist! What about us? No, forget those shirts. They are for the tourists.”

Rainbow Dash makes a frustrated face. “Who cares!” she says, pushing up on the counter. “It’s fine, I’ll take it. Time to buy, I want that shirt and let me at it!”

“No.” Applejack is firm. That is important when you represent the farm. “Here, buy a paperweight. That I can sell you.” She passes one to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash chucks it at her forehead. “Keep your dumb apple rocks and take these bits. I need to buy—No, now sell! Sell stupid things!”

Applejack clutches her forehead and glares at her. But before she can respond properly, Rainbow Dash trots over to Colgate’s stall.

Fuming, she watches the interaction at the nearby stall. Colgate is first smiling but it soon morphs into a frown. Rainbow Dash argues with the dental mare, trying to sell her paperclips. Colgate shoos her away and their voices rise.

“Look, buy this. It’s small and metal, it could be good for teeth.”

“What the hell? Rainbow Dash, I am not buying a paperclip.”

“Only a bit! Half a bit. Give me a bit and I will break it in half.”

“Please no - go bother somepony else! You are being weird. I am trying to run a stall.”

“Must sell! There’s no leaving until I sell something! Don’t like the paperclip, fine, have then about this ticket!” Rainbow Dash picks up a discarded movie ticket at her hooves and thrusts it in the air. “See a movie, 2:00 o’ clock showing Friday, it’s already happened!”

“Rainbow Dash, get out of here. No pony is going to peruse my white and fresh wares with you freaking out!”

“Fine, fine.” Rainbow Dash stands in the middle of the square. She resorts to shouting and jumping at passerby.

“For sale being a paperclip and a movie ticket! Buy it now, buy it while I’m still stupid! I wish I was a unicorn! I’m a Wonderbolt so get it!”

Faces turn sour. Ponies avoid her and the market starts to empty of potential customers.

Dash continues to shout with a jilted march, unnoticing. It’s not even that embarrassing, just mostly pathetic, as though all that stunt flying finally wore her down. She has been going at breakneck speed for too long.

Applejack looks away to clouds in the distance. She is mad but also feels a heavy sense of pity.

Pinkie Pie slurps her milkshake. And the milkshakes of the children who didn’t finish theirs. It was only really good the first few sips and she is hoping more will bring the taste back.

It is Saturday night and she’s taken a big group of them to Burger Palace. The parents welcome her taking the kids off their hooves and she gets paid in cookies, which is a beneficial arrangement for everyone.

They are playing in the indoor playground. She’d be in there playing with them but you aren’t allowed to eat in there. She needs to keep her energy up because that’s important when dealing with groups of foals, and because it drowns out despair.

Her ears prick as she notices the song playing in the background. “This is that new song by Messymane,” Pinkie says with a bob of her head. She feels strange bouts of pride when she recognizes bands and her friends don’t. Now her friends mostly are foals so they never recognize it.

Walking and walking. Spike keeps walking to be away from alicorns, and forests, and the things stalking him that he can’t see. Some kind of snake bit him and since then he has been woozy. One foot after the other he tells himself. His thoughts are on his feet when he finds himself out of the forest and in view of Fluttershy’s cottage.

And he’s doing fine, finding himself steadily transitioning to the cottage in a slideshow of images, until he steps on a rock. His scaly foot recoils but the rigid motion of his march can’t accommodate

He loses his balance and topples to the dirt. He tries to get up but thinks he would have a better chance if he hadn’t taken so much venom from that snake bite. He dimly stares at the rock until his eyes can’t stay open any longer.

Day 4

There is not much light. Rainbow Dash looks toward the horizon and shifts her bag as she waits for the train. It is good for her to be getting away, especially after making a doofus of herself yesterday.

Pinkie is on the bench to her right chatting her ear off, not having had breakfast yet apparently not enough to stop her flow of words. Pinkie is the only one of her friends to show. It’s still before dawn so Rainbow Dash doesn’t blame them. She wouldn’t be up now if it wasn’t worth it. And it’s Wonderbolts business, so it is totally worth it!

“—and that’s why everything went all wrong.”

“What’s that, Pinkie?” She tunes into Pinkie’s rambling.

“I’m just saying, don’t mess up!” Pinkie chirps. “If you mess up, everything will go to hell.”

“...That’s something morbid.”

“Yep. But the sun hasn’t risen yet. It has to rise first before it can set. So there’s still the rest of the day at least.”

“If that’s what you say.”

“You can never be sure if there will be a new day.”

Dash looks out before them. The station lights don’t light up much past the dim glow around their bench and the only other pony is lying on his own bench further down. “Pinkie, quit talking stupid. There’s always another day, it’s a law of the universe. Now stop with the mentioning, you’re killing my mood here. The show’s not even been till tomorrow and I need to be amped as I can be.”

“You would think so,” Pinkie says but then dutifully shuts up about it. She squirms in her seat and stares at the cracks in the cement.

Rainbow Dash thinks again to make sure she has all her stuff packed. Canterlot isn’t even that far for her but she’s going for half a week, and then who knows. Get a bunch of Wonderbolts together and next thing you know they’re taking off to go gambling in Las Pegasus. Involuntarily she grins, it’s one of her better memories.

Then Pinkie opens her mouth again. “Hey, Dashie, why are you wearing that ascot? It goes well with your jawline, you know.”

Dash is caught off guard and she glances down to her neck and sees red fabric with a zigzag pattern. She doesn’t really remember why she put the thing on, it isn’t her usual style, just that it had seemed important. She shrugs her shoulders. “Don’t know, who does? For good luck I guess.”

The earth mare kicks her feet. Her voice isn’t very sure. “Okay. That’s pretty important, if you believe in luck. I guess with magic there’s no real reason not to…”

“Yeah.”

“And like they say, friendship is magic... Do you think that counts? Do you think friendship is enough, that it’s as good as luck?”

Pinkie Pie is staring at her with an odd expression and Dash feels awkward. Pinkie’s usually strange but not like this and she isn’t sure what to say. Maybe Pinkie just misses her. They don’t really do much these days.

She takes a moment to order her thoughts. She says, “I think as long as you’ve done your best, things will go how they need to.” The genuineness feels strange on her tongue.

Pinkie seems satisfied.

Finally Dash hears the roaring of the train and sees it approach in the rising pink light. It stops and the doors open. The other stallion gets up and enters.

Dash grabs her suitcase and gives Pinkie a hug. “Look, Pinkie, I got to go now. When I get back, we’ll hang out more. Say bye to the girls for me.”

Pinkie nods her head. “I will. Try to get some rest for that cold.”

She looks at Pinkie inquisitively. “I don’t have a cold.”

“Enjoy your time, Dashie.”

“Yeah.”

She boards the train and her spirits pick up again as she leaves the mood of the station behind. She envisions the tall spires of Canterlot as she grabs a seat. It’s going to be her first time performing as a Wonderbolt for the princess. From her window she calls, “Tell them, it’s gonna be awesome! I’ll write all about it so you guys don’t miss a thing!”

Fluttershy’s been up all night. After dinner, she had found Spike collapsed outside her house and she’s been too worried about him to sleep. She carried him in and tucked him in blankets on her couch but he hasn’t woken up yet.

He doesn’t seem well at all to her. His scales are scratched up and his legs are oddly stiff. There is some weird zipper attached to his mouth and it took her an hour just to get it unzipped. It looks magically grafted to the skin and she’s afraid to try to detach it.

For a long while she does not leave his side, but then Fluttershy has to go and care for her critters. She rushes through that and then some of the animals complain she didn’t give them enough so she has to go back and take care of them.

It is late in the morning when he finally wakes up.

“I’m sorry, Twilight, it won’t happen again!” he says as he bolts up so quickly his head swims. He’s surprised to find his words weren’t muffled, and even more when he sees Fluttershy.

Fluttershy feels guilty she startled him. She puts her hoof on his arm and rubs it comfortingly, saying, “Calm down, there is nothing to worry about. You are safe, this is a safe place.” Then she feels she’s being weird so she puts her hoof back down.

Spike calms at that. He looks around cautiously at his surroundings. “...Fluttershy?”

“Yes, I am here for you.”

He leans forward and whispers, “Is Twilight here?”

“Sorry, it is just me. Did you want me to get Twilight?”

“No!”

Fluttershy scrunches her face. “I don’t understand,” she admits, and then feels bad that it is probably something she should. Maybe there was some context clue a normal pony would have picked up on. She tries hard to notice.

“Sorry... Just, don’t get Twilight. Please.”

She thinks maybe it is something to do with the zipper on his mouth. “Spike, who put a zipper there? Why would somepony do that?” She points.

Spike gets really upset at that and for a moment she thinks she said the wrong thing. Then he says, “It’s her. I know what I shouldn’t,” and she knows she’s said the right thing.

“What do you know, Spike?” she asks. It’s a vague question but she hopes she is on a roll and he will know what she means.

“I can’t!” Spike yelps. “She’s got a machine, I’m not supposed to tell!”

Fluttershy looks at him. She can’t really imagine anything that would have left him like this. It’s a bit strange for the greedy maw of the world.

“I think you should tell.”

Spike’s voice catches. He looks around again and blinks away tears. Slowly he works up words and tells her everything.

After seeing Rainbow Dash off, Pinkie returns to Sugarcube Corner. She doesn't like how Dash looked.

She eats a bunch of brownies. They already have chocolate frosting but Pinkie puts vanilla on them as well. There is no need to decide when you can just have everything. She thinks she can have everything today, now that her belly is full again.

While eating she also prepares a huge cake with strawberry fudge frosting. Featherweight’s birthday party is today and as usual she is running that, so she can serve her favorite snacks.

Today looks like it will be bright and warm sunsets. Applejack comes to mind; it seems good to give a quick visit to Applejack. After baking the rest of her orders for the morning, she leaves to the Sweet Apple Acres. Pinkie starts by skipping but quickly runs out of breath, so she just strolls and admires the outdoors on her way.

Applejack is dragging crates of apples into the barn when Pinkie Pie arrives. Her morning does not seem to be going as well.

“Dangit, Pinkie,” Applejack squints. “What did I tell you about distracting me when I am working?”

“But you’re always at your farm working. You really need to leave more.”

“That’s what I have Applebloom for.”

While she remembers she says, “Oh, Rainbow Dash says Hi.”

Applejack does not seem pleased at that and Pinkie remembers what she heard about the market yesterday. “You tell that one I am not talking to her until she apologizes.”

“If she returns from Canterlot. Anyway, it’s not like you need to spend all day working. It’s nice sunshine today! There are places to see and ponies to spend time with…” Pinkie latches onto Applejack in emphasis.

Applejack shrugs her off. “Especially now, I need to work more than ever. You of all ponies would know cider season is coming up and I’ll have to work extra hard to make up the losses of poisoning one of my fields.”

She looks at Applejack like she grew a second head. “Applejack, you aren’t supposed to poison your own crops. That’s supposed to be the work of some villainous madmare.”

“Well it isn’t like I wanted to,” she says as she moves another crate. “Well I did, but only because it was contaminated. It probably would spread if left be.”

“That sounds like it matters. How did your apples get contaminated?”

“It’s not like I know. My best guess is something with the weather.”

“Shouldn’t you tell Twilight about that,” Pinkie says. “That is what friends do.”

Applejack’s glare is disapproving. “No, this is not anything that concerns fancy alicorns, and it isn’t something that is going to be solved from reading books in a basement. This is farm business. And I run this here farm so it is up to me.” Applejack sets down her crate.

“Oh. Well, if it's up to you, then shouldn’t you be doing something about it.”

“I am. I’m working my farm.”

“About the problem? We want things to go swimmingly.”

“That does not concern you,” Applejack says as she retreats inside the house and closes the door on her.

That doesn’t bother Pinkie and she just crawls in through the window to meet Applejack in the kitchen. Her tail twitches so she checks in the pantry for cookies and finds oatmeal apple. Her Pinkie Sense has been overactive lately but that doesn't mean anything these days.

Applejack enters and is only mildly surprised. “Bah. Damn you, can’t you let a mare get her business done in peace?”

“Shouldn’t you be going to the bathroom then?” Pinkie giggles but it is more a cackle.

“I mean chores. I am trying to do my chores.”

“You need to fix your apples before everything goes to hell,” Pinkie whines.

Applejack leans underneath the cabinet below the sink, searching for her extra cider squeezer. Pinkie thinks for a moment there will be words she doesn’t want to hear but Applejack only says, “Don’t test me.”

“That’s a great idea,” Pinkie says. They seem to finally be on the same page. “Test the apples, and see what’s wrong with them!”

She turns around and pokes Pinkie. “If it bothers you so much, then you figure out what’s the cause. Quit telling me about my business.”

Pinkie Pie checks her watch but does not have one. There is not much time and she needs to help set up. “Sorry, I would but I’ve been invited to a party,” she says.

“Some of us have important things to do with our time.”

She smiles so everything is fine. “It’s going to be so much fun.”

The hours fade away and time is meaningless while Twilight works. Scientific theory takes over her mind and she becomes too preoccupied to think.

Too preoccupied to brood on the myth of friendship, to enumerate her points showing it nothing but a foal’s figment. To notice how things don’t get better, time only goes on. She’d risen to the heights of harmony and life, become a princess, and there was nothing at the top. Still the world was empty.

When in her books and plans, Twilight doesn’t have to feel all this.

It is very difficult to find that elusive magic element, not detectable through normal means. And searching for it in the right location and frequency of space is very difficult. It is very possible that while searching she could go too far, rotate her drill just too much and completely miss it. That is why her tunes are so fine, so microscopically precise she can not even tell it moves anything, except that she designed it herself.

It’s moments like this where the danger of what she is doing wracks through her body. Just a second, before being absorbed, the awe of her task and audacity of it. Processing and pummeling the grain of existence to a fine liquid. It requires nothing less than perfect care.

Twilight has gotten in the habit of muttering to herself as she works. “It’s all coming together. All coming together.”

Day 5

The sun rises on yet another morning.

As she chews her breakfast with her siblings, Applejack is conflicted.

The corn is coming in glow-in-the-dark. Despite her best efforts Pinkie Pie’s words sunk into her head yesterday. The time for waiting and seeing seems over, but there is also much to do to be ready for cider season and she’s still falling behind. A whole field has already been lost. But if she doesn’t find out what’s corrupting the environment, she won’t have a farm for long to worry about. Unless the right thing is then to just work extra hard so they can weather it out.

There’s so many possibilities and as head of the family it is up to her to make these decisions. Applejack needs to be a strong role model. She needs to be brave and push through with a course of action. She needs to choose quickly because if she’s going to buck the northeast field she’ll have to get started now.

Applejack plays with her porridge but only eats half. While she’s still at the table thinking, Applebloom is getting ready for school and Big Mac is just about to head out. She grabs the big one before he gets through the door.

“Hey, Big Mac, getting your chores done is pretty important, I reckon?”

He stares at her steadily. “Eeyup.”

“And so is saving the farm from ruin, ain’t it?”

“...Eeeyup.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking… So then, maybe if’n you only do some of your chores and then use the rest of your time off saving the farm, then maybe that’s okay? Don’t you think that’s a fair trade, that it all balances out?” She says, mostly to work it all out in her head. She isn’t asking for approval, she is head of the family and makes these decisions for herself.

“If that’s what you gotta do,” Big Macintosh gives his approval.

Applejack nods her head. “Right… That’s what I gotta do. That’s what I decided is best for us, so don’t you give me any lip about it. You know I don’t take to my leadership being questioned.”

Macintosh goes out the door to start his own work, giving a final, “Eeyup.”

It’s decided and she feels a little better. Applejack puts on her hat and trots out the kitchen. Bad elements beware, she thinks. She is going to find out what is messing with her farm.

Spike told her a lot. She wishes he hadn’t. There are a lot of things Fluttershy wishes she didn’t know.

A villainous invention and manic plots. Twilight is apparently also not happy with the way things have gone. What does Fluttershy know about dealing with magical prodigies and particles?

She remembers what Rainbow Dash told her and wonders what her good things are. Little lives depend on her. She is good at getting lint deep in her ear canal. Anything she wants to do she can get up and do right now.

Spike has a fever. That’s enough to pull Fluttershy out of bed despite herself, because she would rather not be culpable for his death if the decision is up to her.

As she checks him she notices for the first time an inflamed bite mark on the back of his arm. Seeing that he must have been poisoned, Fluttershy panics and makes him drink several different antivenoms. That puts him out for hours. Fluttershy knits something that is meant to be a tea cozy.

Later that evening he wakes up again. As she tends to him with wet wash clothes, Spike groans as if to prove he is sick. He groggily says to her, “Fluttershy, please. You have to do something about Twilight, she is a danger to everypony. She will kill us all.”

Fluttershy doesn’t answer anything committing when he says things like this to her. She only pats his head and says, “There, there.”

But when Fluttershy is not caring for Spike or her animals, she is forced to think about it. Her guts become icier than usual and Fluttershy doesn’t see anything she can do. She feels something inside her say, ‘I really don’t think you’re strong enough.’

Today, she decides the world is too big for a small pony like her to alter its course.

Applejack starts by visiting Golden Harvest’s neighboring carrot farm. She is surprised not to see anyone working in the fields, so trots on up to the house. Applejack disapproves of that. Carrots are easier to grow than apples so carrot farmers are lazier.

When the door opens she spares not a moment. “I have questions.”

“Oh. Hello Applejack,” Golden Harvest says just enough to be courteous.

They have never had more than passing politeness for each other. Maybe if they were both fruit farmers, Applejack thinks, they would get along better. They both grow multiple crops but Applejack has always found more integrity in those who choose a fruit as their primary produce.

“So, say then, what’s your impression of the weather?”

Golden Harvest shrugs. “It has been raining a lot lately. Good for the carrots.”

“Not as you might think. You been noticing anything weird with your fields?” she asks vaguely. She figures it is important not to lead Golden Harvest on.

“Like what?”

“You know... freaky things. The unnatural. Infernal weeds? You know it when you see it.”

They hear a loud clang followed by the laughter of small children. Golden Harvest peeks her head back inside. “Can this wait? I am trying to feed my foals.”

“Nope. This is official Sweet Apple Acres business.”

“Then there is nothing supernatural going on at my farm.” Her tone of voice sounds like talking to a foal.

“I did not say supernatural, I said unnatural,” Applejack insists. “Like any troubles with your crops you don’t usually have?”

“No, I told you the rain is doing good for my carrots.”

“And the weeds and other pests?”

From somewhere in the house echoes the sound of shattering glass. Golden Harvest flinches at the sound. “Not much of anything,” she says impatiently.

Applejack isn’t buying it. The other mare does not seem to understand, and Applejack is sure she can’t be the only one experiencing this because she takes better care of her fields. Applejack says too loudly, “Okay, are you growing any glow-in-the-dark vegetables? Because I am.”

Golden Harvest is not impressed. “None of my vegetables glow in the dark. There are no demon weeds or ghost pumpkins. Now I really need to go,” she says and begins backing into the house.

Applejack steps forward, taking an urgent tone. “But are you sure? Your crops don’t look very healthy, is that just you not taking care of them? Or something more?”

Golden Harvest frowns at her. “Goodbye, Applejack.” The door shuts.

“You’ll regret that when you’re so lazy you don’t even notice you got mutant carrots!”

Noon light spills into her royal office. Soon it will not have to be shared with mediocrity.

Celestia sighs into her hoof. Never in her eternal life has waiting been so difficult. All this running a kingdom is pointless but she must keep up appearances for everything to play smoothly.

She looks down at the form she is filling out. The spaces are covered in Twilight, Twilight, Twilight. It’s been too long since she’s last seen Twilight. She wonders what Twilight is doing.

Every week, sometimes more, she sends Twilight a letter using her little dragon, and the replies have been getting sparser and sparser. Now she is not getting anything back.

She hopes Twilight has not been too busy. Celestia has been very busy lately and still makes time for Twilight. She is getting many complaints and petitioners and reports from ponies saying strange things are happening. Just this morning, a mare had entered her court hysterical that her foal had been born with no neck and six legs.

It had taken a lot of effort not to gloat in satisfaction. The mare was sent to a mental institute. It’s becoming difficult to prevent the petitioners from realizing other ponies are reporting the same problems and she has to keep the larger population unaware until it is too late. She thinks that is a job Twilight would be good at; Twilight is good at handling lots of tedious things for her and they make a perfect team.

There is a knock on her door. “Your Majesty, it is time to leave if you wish to arrive at the Wonderbolts show on time.”

Like that. A whole performance filling a stadium merely to impress her. Celestia does not see the point in a rabble of pegasi showing off for her when she is faster than anything alive and probably already knows all their tricks. But they do it anyway. The poor things, it’ll be over soon.

She recalls that one of Twilight’s friends is a Wonderbolt. Celestia will be there for Twilight to cry on her shoulder after they’re gone.

Foals cheer around her as Pinkie Pie pulls off her blindfold. Her aim was true and on the ground before her lies a broken pinata. The children rush in for the candy but she’s sure to get the lion’s share.

This time she is at Berry Pinch’s half birthday party. The foal’s parents said that was kind of silly but Pinkie said silly is good. She had to get in her party quota anyway. Featherweight’s party was canceled yesterday because he woke up with four ears and had to be taken to the hospital.

As they move on to the next game, she hangs back and starts in on her candy. She crams a chocolate bar in her mouth and before she knows it she’s eaten three. After friendship, there’s nothing better in all Equestria than candy.

Pinkie feels really thirsty and cotton-tongued lately. Drinking doesn’t seem to help. She won’t tell anypony. They’ll just tell her, Have a glass of water you dry-mouthed weirdo. But she’s tried that and it doesn’t seem to help and she doesn’t really want to go through the routine of explaining all this. Candy is worth it. Sometimes she isn’t sure if she means that.

Applejack has little luck. She spoke to all the agrarian ponies in town and no one else has bad crops. But she is sure it isn’t just her farm that is the problem. It’s pissing her off and making their apples look bad.

It isn’t until later at the town bar that her suspicions are confirmed. Sipping a beer, she is in what passes for deep thought when she overhears two mares at a table.

“Oh the poor mare, I just would not know what to do in that situation.”

“Awful thing. Terribly awful thing.”

“And so sudden - without warning!”

“Yes, that’s the meaning of sudden. Terribly awful thing.”

“I just do not know what I would do if my little Berry Pinch woke up with four ears.”

“Awful thing to have four ears. Terribly awful thing.”

Her head perks at that. Finishing her beer, Applejack makes her way over to the table. “Hey there, Berryshine?”

The mulberry mare smiles at her. “Oh, why if it is not Applejack! It’s been a while since we’ve gotten together! You should visit for scones,” she says strangely, as she says to all ponies outside her normal social circle.

“I am fine. I’m on the hunt. Now, did you say there’s a foal running about with two extra ears?”

“Yes, that is right. Poor little Featherweight.” Berryshine nods sympathetically.

“On his birthday too,” her companion chimes in. “Terribly awful thing for a birthday.”

Applejack thinks this might be a break. She asks, “Well how did it happen? Was he out rolling in fields, messing around with other ponies’ crop? I think somepony has been stealing my wheat too.”

“Nopony knows! He just got out of bed yesterday morning, and there they were. Four ears wiggling like the day he was born.”

“He is always trailing around with that Pinkie Pie and her little circus. I keep telling you gals she isn’t quite right.”

“I don’t know, she gives us more free time. She insisted on throwing a party today for Berry Pinch and if that gets the other children to be my filly’s friend then who am I to complain.”

“Awful thing, a mare not having enough time to herself.”

Applejack taps the table to get their attention back. “About Featherweight... have you heard of things like this happening to anypony else?”

“Well! This is the first I’ve heard about a colt with extra ears!”

The other mare remembers something. She says, “Now that I think about it, my sister said something about trouble at her birthing clinic. She went to petition Princess Celestia a week ago and hasn’t returned.”

“What was the trouble?”

“I can’t recall, but it was terribly awful.”

“I just would not know what to do if I had a birthing clinic undergoing trouble.”

Applejack's alert ears take it all in. So it is not just unnatural changes happening to farms. This is a greater occurrence spread all throughout town. She nods farewell to the mares and talks to a few other townsponies to be safe.

“Hey, that was a neat inverted corkscrew you did today. I’ve never seen one like it, you’ll have to teach me that sometime,” Soarin says with a grin.

Rainbow Dash grins back at the compliment. They’ve just left from dinner at a fancy restaurant, and the glow of a well done show still remains. They are all laughing and saying stupid things.

The only bit of trouble was when they wanted her to remove her ascot for the performance and she almost lost her cool. Other than that everything went perfectly. Dash is feeling greater than usual at a job well done and everyone agrees she has brought honor to the Wonderbolt name.

“I don’t know,” she teases, “that move requires a lot of finesse and with all those pies you’ve been eating...”

They are walking down a block, Rainbow Dash and Soarin hanging in the back. She rounds a corner and passes under a radio enchantment antenna.

So I said to him, get off my porch or pow! Right in the kisser!

“Hey, I may eat a lot but it gets worked off. I do routines.” Soarin sticks out his chest to show as he walks.

Rainbow Dash moves closer to him even though the crowds are sparse here and their group mostly has the sidewalk to themselves.

"Yeah,” she laughs. She thinks the way Soarin is looking at her is really cute. Persephone, I declare my love. Something has been building between them for a while. She’s feeling good and maybe—Persephone, I declare my love. She thinks she might have had too much to drink.

Tongs! Use them to cook your meals! Buy tongs at Don’s Warehouse! She stops. Why did she think that? Rainbow Dash really wants to buy tongs and isn’t sure why. Dinner was a lot of fun. She tries to remember how many drinks she had.

Soarin sees her look. “Hey, RD, everything alright? Your look is a bit too serious over there.”

Buy tongs! 10% off!

“Yeah,” she mutters. “Just... why are they 10% off?”

“What’s that?”

Not enough? 15% off!

Rainbow Dash feels several urges storming her. “Why are they 10% off? No, now they’re 15!”

Rainbow Dash doesn’t remember seeing any tongs at the restaurant. 20%! Tongs! Buy tongs! At the warehouse, buy tongs! Did that restaurant have enough tongs?Soarin puts a hoof on her shoulder. They’re getting farther behind the other Wonderbolts.

“What are you talking about?” He looks at her with concern.

He’s worried about her and Dash thinks that’s really nice. Pick up stuff! Pick up stuff with tongs! She tries to think but—Pow! Right in the kisser! Use tongs!

“Gaah!” Rainbow Dash socks him in the face. While he’s still reeling, she grabs him and kicks him in the gut. Persephone? Rainbow Dash pounces on the downed pegasus and squeezes his head. Tongs! Forgotten in the underworld—

She raises a hoof. “I declare my love!”

Day 6

There's no more need for tuning or manual control. This morning Twilight’s search with her drill hit the right resonance, ahead of schedule. Now it’s just a matter of time.

With a simple spell she made the drill run automatically, just until it bores through the magical substance and extracts enough essence. Even now it grinds away at the magical source, slowly filling the repository chamber.

At breakfast Big Mac says he needs her today, and as a good head of the house Applejack suggests to help him.

So much to be done, mostly it is moving crates and pulping apples. Then it is moving barrels. After all the farm work she is too tired to prance about town. She hopes they will be on time for cider season.

Her hoof is forced into action. Spike has coughed up a magic scroll.

A vanilla scroll bound with Celestia’s seal. Fluttershy spends most of the afternoon fretting. For a while she just paces in fervor.

Fluttershy has to make a decision. She can either deliver the letter, and by extension Spike, to Twilight or not. But then the princess will just send something by mail for Twilight. And if Twilight finds out Spike was here hiding letters then they’ll both be in trouble. Can she entrust Spike back to Twilight?

She thinks she could send something back and warn the princess, but they are so close. She does not even know what the letter says. Maybe she should just open it first? But then she won’t be able to give it to Twilight at all. Maybe Celestia already knows, or maybe she just won’t believe her.

Fluttershy puts her head in her hooves. She does not like responsibility. Celestia’s seal stares back at her and she wishes she never saw the sunshine.

Since no one is around, Twilight dives into her cake face first, smearing vanilla frosting all over. She’s too giddy to care. She doesn’t even care that vanilla cake is Celestia’s favorite and the memories that brings up. That’s not why she bought the cake, there’s just no better way to celebrate.

Her glee is interrupted as the doorbell rings. She wonders who that would be but is at least glad that somepony remembers there is a doorbell. Twilight hastily wipes up her face.

She opens the door. “Well, Fluttershy! Of course it would be you who remembers the doorbell.”

“Was I not supposed to? Sorry.” The pegasus shrinks in the doorway. Fluttershy has a difficult time looking her in the eye. Moreso than normal. She is wearing saddlebags.

“No, no, it’s just it is clearly there but everypony always knocks. It’s like I’m the only pony with a freethinking mind around here.” She rolls her eyes even though that is what she actually believes. “Anyway, what did you want? I can probably guess.”

“Oh, I’m not here for me… I brought Spike, and a letter from the princess.” Fluttershy reaches out of sight and with difficulty pulls Spike into view. He’s looking pale and wobbly.

“Oh, Spike. I was wondering where you’d gotten off to.” She stares coldly at him as his zipper is undone.

“And a letter,” Fluttershy says holding it up.

“And a letter… from the princess.” Her eyes narrow. “The princess! Well that’s very important and we should always receive the princess promptly and with due respect.” She snatches it.

“But about Spike… um, he isn’t feeling well. He’s been bit by a snake and needs this antidote.” Fluttershy reaches in her bag and pulls out a small bottle. It sloshes with bright pink liquid. “Just give him a cap full every five hours and he should be fine. He will need a lot of rest, too,” she advises.

“Mmhmm, sure.” Spike is standing still trying to look inconspicuous. Twilight does not mistake him for part of the wood frame. She magically picks him up and hauls him inside. “Quit clawing up the door. And thanks Fluttershy for the delivery, that will be all,” Twilight says as the door briskly shuts.

“Please treat him precious!”

Twilight doesn’t think it really matters what he might have told Fluttershy, that wallflower is far too timid to try anything, but she will play it safe.

She levitates the scroll to her face and quickly she unravels it. She looks it over and does not like what she sees. Rainbow Dash incident? Investigation? Possible drug involvement? That prune-brained pegasus. The first thing she thinks of is that they will examine Dash and find her implants, if they have not already. Twilight can’t allow that.

“Spike, you will need to pack my bags. I need to see the princess in Canterlot!” She looks back and sees he is barely standing on his feet and is drooling. He won’t be much help.

Twilight sighs in aggravation and levitates him again, bringing him upstairs with her. She drops him in his little basket with his medicine. He’s grown so much he doesn’t really fit in it anymore but she doesn’t have the money to waste on frivolities. Science is expensive.

She proceeds to pack her bags, making sure to take the scroll as well. Princess Celestia wants to see her first thing tomorrow morning. While she certainly does not hold Celestia in the same reverence of her childhood, answering such a call is still always critical.

That turns her good mood to dread. Twilight swallows. She doesn’t even know how long she is intended to stay but will have to be her best. She just needs to cover up what’s going on and get back. She is so close, it’s eclipsing everything. She can’t allow Celestia’s games to get in the way right at the end.

When she has reality at her disposal, she’ll show Rainbow Dash what a real psychotropic experience is.

Spike doesn’t know what time it is when he wakes up. Everywhere is cold except the bite on his arm.

It’s dark. He’s pretty sure that means Twilight is gone. Gone to Canterlot. Now is his only chance to stop her machine.

He forces himself to his feet. It’s hard and he struggles on his knees but eventually makes it up. His jaw hangs open and drool is spilling out but he doesn’t worry about that. After taking a moment for his stomach to settle, he takes a step and is reassured by its robotic beep.

Spike forgets where he is. Then he remembers. Somehow he makes it downstairs and it’s even colder. He has to find her machine and turn it off. No, that is not enough. He will have to find a way to break it. Twilight will probably be really angry at him. He’ll have to find a way to break it so that she can’t fix it again. At least Fluttershy knows about it and if anything happens to him she will hopefully tell someone.

Spike wobbles over to the basement door. It will be another set of stairs but after that he can catch his breath and figure how to stop the machine.

He grabs the knob, and is blasted back with 4,000 volts of magical electricity.

Spike thinks he remembers Twilight saying not to try touching the door because she put a spell on it. His lungs are charred and that’s funny because he breathes fire.

Day 7

If the sun shines on her, will she be only ashes?

After sleeping only four hours, Twilight awakes to another morning.

For a while she just stares up at the dreary lavender canopy over her. Waking up to her old room in the palace is a morose experience and generally reminds of childhood. Before she’d pierced the lie of friendship. She doesn’t know why she opts stays in the old spire whenever she visits Canterlot.

She’s spent the better part of four years in a basement. It’ll be worth it. So soon she will have universal power. Touch the source of reality. She is unable to imagine what that will be like. She imagines the line of her life leading to this destination, fated from the start.

She has to go down and meet Princess Celestia before Day Court starts. Her stomach sinks, this time into annoyance. She has put a lot of effort toward removing the nosy sun princess from her life. Yet here Twilight is, still under her hoof.

Even at her best Celestia tends to the enigmatic and there’s no telling how much she knows of anything. Twilight resents the performance she will have to give.

Twilight gets out of bed. Yesterday at the train station, Pinkie Pie had found her and nagged her to ask Celestia about rain. She is not going to do that.

Twilight had not been surprised when she left her room to find a guard waiting to escort her. He had nothing but stoic obedience for her when she’d told him he was walking too fast and then too slow and then too fast again. He seemed familiar with the ways of princesses.

But princesses have servants and all Twilight’s ever had is Spike. No, Twilight pushes that thought away. That doesn’t make her less of one. It would have been a complication and hindered her work. She’s just as good and regal as Celestia and they’ll all soon see.

She is lead to one of the royal studies.

Twilight pauses to gather herself before the ornate doors. Even from here the diarch’s presence is overwhelming. It is time to put on her game face. For all her thunder, Celestia is not as smart as she thinks she is. Smiling like she wants to be here, Twilight exhales and pushes the doors open.

The warm reds and mahogany of the study greet her and Twilight disarmedly takes a step inside.

The alabaster princess sits at her desk, regal and immaculate as always, writing on various forms. With perfectly performed surprise, she looks up from her work. It would be believable if her quill had ink on it.

“Twilight Sparkle! I’m glad you could make it,” Celestia smiles with pearly white teeth.

Twilight wants to scoff at the smothering perfection. “Yeah,” she says, taking her seat, “it’s been a while.”

“Six months. Has Spike been delivering my letters? I’ve been sending you many letters.”

Most of which are in a drawer unread, Twilight thinks, until she’d zipped his mouth shut and then who knows what’s happened to them. “Yeah... no, I haven’t been getting anything.”

Celestia looks vaguely concerned at that. “Oh no. I hope nothing is wrong with Spike. Perhaps when you return to Ponyville you should inspect him to make sure the mailing enchantment has not deteriorated.”

“Will do.” She nervously fidgets her hooves.

Princess Celestia just smiles a moment. Then intent forms on her face. “Well, now I’m afraid we must move onto the reason I requested your presence. I’m sorry we must jump straight into business so early…” Twilight doesn’t think she is sorry at all. “But your friend Rainbow Dash faces serious charges. She is accused of wildly assaulting one of her teammates in open sight of a dozen witnesses. So far she has claimed no motive and that she was not in her right mind. Please don’t fidget with your hooves.”

Twilight keeps her face pleasant as she puts her hooves at her side. “You should know that she’s a big drinker.”

“Now that may be, but she has mentioned hearing foreign voices. It has lead ponies to suspect drugs are involved. And for a popular Wonderbolt to face such suspicions, it casts a bad light on the entire team. You must understand this puts the rest of them under scrutiny as well.”

Twilight glances down at the work on Celestia’s desk. Some report on major reservoirs and toxicity, it does not look very interesting. She says, “Well, with Rainbow Dash, who can say they’re surprised?”

“Oh? I always thought your friends were nice young mares.”

Twilight chastises herself and backpedals. “Oh, yes, she is my shining star. She’s the best.”

Princess Celestia’s smile renews as she leans closer across the desk. “Well, since you both are such close friends, I want to give you charge of the investigation. I admit I was surprised you didn’t ask for that yourself; you must know it’s within your jurisdiction as a princess. It is making such waves in the news.”

Twilight scrutinizes Celestia’s face for any hint to her thoughts. “Oh, well I hadn’t heard. I have never been much for the papers.”

“Of course. We’ve got to get you outside more, my little pony.” Celestia giggles saccharinely.

Despite her slip, things seem to be going smoothly now. A bit painfully like the old days. She easily replies, “Oh, well you know me.”

“I suppose some things don’t change even for princesses. Now you’ll have to go talk to Hard Time, in the dungeon offices. He was meant to lead the investigation and has already been informed you were expected to be taking over,” Celestia says in a tone that implies all such small lives and their trappings are irrelevant. She leans even further and lowers her voice, “And don’t go giving her preferential treatment just because she’s a friend.” She winks.

“You don’t have to worry about that. My administration of justice will be decisive and fair.”

“Other than that, you’re free to lead the investigation how you see fit. Rainbow Dash is in the holding cells and the rest of the administration are there to seek counsel from as necessary. Just report to me when you’ve wrapped things up.”

Twilight blinks. She was not expecting everything just dropped in her lap. Seems she can just hang around here a few days, order some ponies around, and then return back to her lab. Things are going much better than expected and Twilight praises herself for her handling of this situation.

“Sure thing,” she says. “As always, I will give my best.”

“I expect no less from my Twilight Sparkle. Well then, I will trust that the matter is safe in your hooves.” Celestia gives one more smile and then begins reaching for her paperwork.

Twilight is about to give another generic response when suspicion creeps on her. It is far too easy. There is no way their eternal ruler would bring her here and drop all that in her hooves without some kind of catch. “So then, that’s it?”

“That’s it.”

“Okay…” Wary but still pleasantly surprised, Twilight gets out of her chair and heads back for the doors.

As she is leaving, Celestia calls. “Oh, Twilight, and while you are here I hope we’ll be able to see more of each other. It’s so rare these days we get to spend time together as befits two ponies with our bond. I trust that won’t detract from your duties.”

“Of course not, Celestia.”

Dash is in Canterlot and so is Twilight now. That must be a good thing, to get her away from library and hopefully some quality time with her idol. Pinkie Pie believes that will certainly help.

Today Pinkie is buzzed. She is energized and her veins feel like electricity from the cake she’s eating.

It’s been another all-nighter and she can barely feel her pinchy knee or tired eyes. So she started on the morning’s orders while baking snacks for herself. It can’t be helped, when she lies in bed all she can think about are the things she still wants to do. If she keeps moving, nothing can catch her. Last night her Pinkie sense went haywire and she hopes Applejack fixes her apples.

It’s been a good week. She saw her friends and had fun partying with the foals. That was good and she does not know what she is going to do today but it will be better.

Fluttershy wakes up early and goes out to stare at her pond. There are no deformed fish there so it is okay. For a while she watches the ripples in water, imagining herself the source in an infinite watery causal web. Then she notices her reflection, and instead watches the fish. They are the real cause of the ripples and never pause. She is still going nowhere.

She thinks about Spike. Twilight will do what is right is what she wants to believe. She will nurse Spike back to health and stop the bad thing she is doing.

Maybe Spike will say the right thing and be able to convince her. Fluttershy never says the right thing.

Twilight spends a few hours revisiting the royal library before appearing at the dungeon. She assumes Hard Time is expecting her and sees no reason not to keep him waiting. No pressure at all, she sings in her head.

All she has to do is spend some extra time with the Princess. She assumes that means Celestia will be summoning her again. Other than entertaining the bitch queen, all she has to do is not anything stupid and she’ll be home free. Goddess of the universe before the week is over.

So Twilight leisurely enjoys a morning of books and then scans a text on handling investigations. She finds that the average sentencing for drugs in Equestria is five years, and assault only two. She snorts at that but figures she can use it against Rainbow Dash if the pegasus is unruly.

After a small lunch, she heads to the dungeons. The main entrance is outside but Twilight is sure to use the staff entrance in the castle. Inside the officelike setting she finds Hard Time working at desk, and two other ponies at smaller half-desks.

He stands at attention. “Greetings, Princess Twilight Sparkle. It is a pleasure. I’ve been informed to advise—”

“No, just give me the arrest form.” She contemplates ordering him to sit back in his chair but that would just be crude.

The stallion barely blinks. He quietly hoofs it to her and Twilight subtly angles herself away to indicate she does not welcome his presence.

She scans the form. She thinks it is funny to learn Rainbow Dash’s middle name is Priscilla. Then she moves down to the significant information. Rainbow Dash was arrested babbling about tongs and porches. She is being charged for aggravated assault, disorderly conduct, suspected of drug use, and has also been suspended from Wonderbolts

“Has she been interrogated?”

“No, your highness.”

“You haven’t done that yet?” Twilight says Princessly, even though she is pleased they left it all to her. The less other ponies meddling the better.

“No, your highness. Normally that would be so but Princess Celestia ordered us to wait for your arrival.”

“Ponies just can’t get anything done without the help of a princess. Well then, as first order of priority, I’ll interrogate her myself.”

“Very well, your highness. I will show you to her cell.”

“By myself. If I need you, I know where to find you.” His expression is still unperturbed so she adds, “That means stay here.”

Twilight leaves him and descends to the dungeons on her own. She’s only been here once previous so she gets lost and goes too far. Luckily there is no one there to see, the dungeons see little use, so Twilight retreats and finds the first level.

Rainbow Dash is in the third cell on the right. She is on her back drawing circles on the wall with a hoof but quickly perks up when she sees Twilight.

She sits up on her cot. “Hey! Hey, Twilight! They said that you’d be here.”

“I’m leading your investigation,” Twilight says as she stops in front of the bars and looks across to FrankenDash. She’s pleased to see Dash is still wearing the red ascot, though it has been knotted very tightly. But it also smells musty down here and that outweighs any good sentiments.

“They let you to do that? Wow, that’s neat.”

Twilight rolls her eyes. “Of course, I’m a princess. Hello Rainbow Dash.”

Near the pegasus, the bad odors are stronger. “Do you think maybe you could let me see what they have on me?” Dash’s skin is sagging as she talks and Twilight thinks to wonder how long her rush job of a resurrection is actually good for. Still the mare talks fervently, without acknowledgement that her life is already over.

“No,” Twilight answers. “Don’t you think that is a conflict of interest...”

“But we’re friends and you should go easy.”

“I know what I’m doing. But let’s focus on you.” She narrows her eyes in preparation of giving the third degree. “What were you thinking, taking dangerous drugs and putting everypony in danger? Haven’t you learned anything about peer pressure.”

Dash leaps to the defense. “Hey, there weren’t any drugs! You know me better than that.”

“So you just felt like beating up your teammates?”

“No! I didn’t want him hurt.”

“That explains why he’s in the hospital. You broke his jaw and right leg.”

Dash rubs her arm. “It’s not like that. Like I told the guards, it was like I wasn’t myself.”

“You’re telling me you're just a dangerous crazy pony then. I thought as much.”

“Look, I’m not crazy!” Dash shouts then looks introspective. “I don’t know how to explain, it’s the weirdest thing. Like there was a strange voice commanding me?”

Twilight turns away so Rainbow Dash doesn’t see the expression on her face. “...A strange voice?”

“A few! They sounded like something you’d hear on the radio. There was this guy about tongs and another about this mare, and one just yelling about punching people!”

Twilight doesn’t say anything but when she does look at Dash she conveys with her eyes that other mare that she is a crazy pony.

Dash shifts on her legs. “Look, I have a theory.”

“Oh, a theory, huh. This should be good.”

“Yeah, who have you know you can implant thoughts in ponies minds? There’s no magic that can do that! ...There’s no magic that can do that, is there?”

“Uh, no,” Twilight says. “Don’t ask that.”

“Right, so it was aliens! Just like hearing those stories where ponies are getting abducted and then strange experiments. For some reason they put crazy thoughts in my head. This isn’t the first time, and at the market. It’s a weird experiment, they wanted this all to happen!”

Twilight kind of wants to strangle the pegasus. “Being stupid should be illegal,” she mutters.

But she is beginning to think she understands what happened. Voices are too much of a coincidence to be anything other than related to Twilight’s receiver implants. Dash is saying something but she isn’t listening. The pegasus doesn’t know what the hell happened and Twilight needs to keep this from getting back to her. Having her take a drug test can’t be allowed. No medical examination of any kind.

There is nothing to worry about at the moment, Twilight tells herself. She has full charge. All she will have to do is pressure Rainbow Dash into taking a deal and then letting her on bail. All she needs is a few more days. A few more days and then she’ll be one with the source and nothing can touch her.

Still though, posterity urges her to be sure of the cause. She’ll have to visit the scene. Even if it was signal interference, no one will think to connect that to her.

“You had better tell me, where were you when it happened?”

“I don’t know. It was just after dinner and we were going back to the hotel we were staying at. Some place on the street.”

“The name of the restaurant then.”

Rainbow Dash is not forthcoming so Twilight gestures.

“... I had a few drinks.”

“That will not help your case. Just so you know.”

Dash casts her eyes down and swallows. “Yeah. Twilight, we’re friends, that counts for something, right? You have to believe it was an accident. Tell me how bad this is going to be for me?”

“Forget the drugs and aliens. In fact, don’t repeat that to anypony. You are in a lot of trouble. It’s almost certain there will be jail time.” Twilight does not tell Rainbow Dash that she has full control and could avoid that if she bothered.

Rainbow Dash winces. “Jail time? Is there no other something?”

“There are at least fifteen witnesses.”

“Well, how is Soarin? No pony will tell me. Is he okay? Tell him my sorries.”

“Hmm? Oh, your victim. Yes.”

“Do you think I could at least visit him? I think we are friends and it doesn’t feel like you are going very easy on me,” Dash rambles.

“Hey, who is the genius here?”

“...You are.”

“And who is an alicorn princess?”

“You are.”

“Yes,” Twilight nods. “So stop complaining. Just leave everything to me. I will take care of everything.”

The pegasus listens hopefully. She seems content at the prospect of Twilight taking care of everything.

“Don’t worry. I’ll tell Hard Time to bring you down some jail food. We’ll work out the sentencing later and I’ll probably be back later.”

If Rainbow Dash realizes she has a right to a trial, she does not assert it. “You’ll be back?”

“Maybe. And Dash, keep wearing that ascot.”

“Yeah. There’s something naked about taking it off.”

Twilight turns to walk away. “Good! We have that settled then. I have got a lot of work to do cleaning up the mess you made.”

After having time to think yesterday, Applejack decides to go to the root. She is certain it has something to do with all the rain and the weather patrol is the best place to go.

Applejack stalks the the building that the weather team operates out of, industrial gray with satellites on top. She can tell she won’t like it here because it is one of those fancy modern buildings, built at taxpayer expense. There are too many changes happening to Ponyville and most of them are bad.

She heads through the door to a light blue interior. There’s a minty air-conditioned breeze and a janitor mopping up in the corner. A seaweed colored mare works secretary at the counter. She’s playing with a rubber band ball.

Applejack marches up to her. “Hey, I have some questions for you.”

“Yes, you are an unique and interesting individual.” The mare barely looks up from her ball. “Please take a number and a seat.”

Applejack looks past her at the bold black ‘Do Not Touch The Employees’ sign and frowns. She is not one to be intimidated by big administration. “Now listen here, I don’t need a number. You know some stuff about what goes on here?”

“I make appointments. I can schedule you a meeting with the chief later in the week.”

“I’m on an investigation!”

“Aren’t we all?” she sighs. “Right now, I am basically trying to find my inner self. You are distracting me from that.”

“I need to know why we’re getting all this rain. What’s in it? What’s the big idea?”

“It rains so the plants don’t die. I learned that in kindergarten.”

Applejack slams a hoof on the counter. “Hey now, I got a right to know what is going on. I run Sweet Apple Acres.”

“No, you have a right to please leave.”

As the secretary says that, a weathermare walks in from down the hall.

Applejack turns at the new opportunity. “Hey, you! Hey!”

She wisely ignores the loud farmpony, walking faster toward the exit.

Applejack can’t abide her best shot at information escaping. “Wait just a second!” Applejack runs over and grabs her by the withers. “What can you tell me about what’s going on here?”

The weatherpony gazes down in shock at the hoof on her. Then her face tilts up to the mare at the desk. “Uh-oh.”

The secretary looks at the janitor. “Uh-oh.”

The janitor faces Applejack. “Uh-oh.”

“Uh-oh,” Applejack says as a burly guard hurls toward her.

Twilight stands on a downtown street. Ponies walk passed her and turn out of sight. None of them know what is coming, none can see the shape of the future. But Twilight knows better. Today their lives go on without her. Soon they will revolve around her.

Twilight looks through the paperwork to find the scene of the crime and traces Dash’s steps. As anticipated, there’s an antenna overhead nearby. It must have been magical radio interference. Not being properly tuned must have made Dash aware of the thoughts as foreign, but the connection to her nervous system gave no choice but to obey.

At the castle, Hard Time asks her if she wants to contact the witnesses so she go does that, then takes care of some routine legal matters. She spends some time marching around the castle meddling in other ponies’ business and instructing as a princess.

Day 8

Twilight spends the morning in the library again, but can’t get her thoughts focused. She tells Hard Time she is investigating, and spends her time reading paleontology books. She daydreams about bringing back the dinosaurs to roam the land and raising huge trees that blot out the sun.

She figures later in the afternoon she will check on Rainbow Dash and work out some lame two year sentence or something. Nopony is eager to question Twilight. If it all goes well, she might be able to wrap this up and go home tomorrow.

Twilight eats lunch and wanders back to her room. Lying in the center of her bed she finds a picture. It is Celestia on the beach in a blue bikini, with a caption that says ‘Wish For Sunny Days!’ There’s a bow on the top of the frame.

She puts it face down in the drawer of her nightstand. Twilight is not sure what kind of joke this is but it makes her guts twist. She wonders if she is being taunted. And when is the last time she was at the beach? There is something the other alicorn is conscious of that she is not.

She puts it out of mind with a cackle. She needs to get back to Ponyville or she will go crazy. She needs to get away from this room and Celestia and all the old things. Just break free and soar like an omnipotent eagle.

She decides she should just go see Rainbow Dash now.

Turning about, Twilight flinches to find Celestia outside her door. “Twilight! Do you think we should go shopping?”

She thinks Hard Time blabbed.

‘You’re such a wonderful person, but you got problems.’ That is one of the things that has stuck in Fluttershy’s head through the years. Her counselor had told her that when she was still in high school. She seems to make problems out of things that are not problems for other ponies. But this is a problem for everypony.

She can’t just leave everything up to Spike.

Fluttershy tends to the deformed fish and the sight hurts her. The poor things are another symbol of the corruption of this world. Maybe she cannot bear the weight of the world but she can at least do her small part. She feeds them and works herself up to it.

Fluttershy decides she will check on Spike, and while she is there, try to talk to Twilight. They will have some tea and talk together about it and she will convince Twilight not to kill everypony. Maybe what she just needs is for a friend to be there for her. That is what Fluttershy feels she needs.

She goes to the library. On the door is a hastily written note saying the library is closed while Twilight has gone to Canterlot. Despite her plans, Fluttershy thinks that is a good sign and the door is not locked so she goes in.

Spike’s electrocuted corpse lies there on the floor.

Fluttershy is too empty for tears.

She goes down to the basement and for the first time sees Twilight’s machine, buzzing and emanating strange blue swirls at the point. She sits down and just watches it. The waves are entrancing. The controls look confusing.

Fluttershy goes home. The bed is too good for her so she crawls into a corner. All she can think is that she should have been better.

At the biggest mall in Canterlot they go to almost every store. The alicorns both buy a lot of stuff. Twilight doesn’t want to buy much of anything, but that does not seem to impact her decisions.

“Twilight, you should buy that purple saddlebag. It would suit you.”

“Thanks, but I do not really want a saddlebag.”

“Are you sure? I think you should.”

“I would have no use for it.”

“But it matches your coat.”

“I see that it does. That is not really a benefit because if I were to buy a new saddlebag, I would want one in blue.”

“It is on sale. I am pretty sure you will have no trouble affording it. You should buy it.”

“I do not really think it is something I need.”

“Who can be sure?”

“There are probably better things to buy.”

“Right now, you are not wearing a saddlebag and I think you will be unhappy if you miss this opportunity to obtain one. This is a very nice saddlebag and it has gold clasps. I would know because I am the Princess of Equestria, but do not let that affect your judgement.”

“...Will they take a check?”

“I think they do! It will look so cute on you.”

Applejack waits outside the weather building. She’d hit a bit of a dead end. Yesterday’s attempt had not gone well and she learned the perils of big administration. They had tossed her out and filed an incident report.

But she’ll be damned if some snooty pegasi get in the way of her saving her farm and if anything, their behavior proved to her that the weather team is up to something. Why else would they need such security? They have the answers, she just needs to get to one of them away from the others.

So she has been hiding in the bushes all day because she does not know the first thing about a weatherpony’s shift. Applejack munches on apples meant for cider as she waits. They don’t want to tell her nothing? Fine, then she will just have to make one talk. She brought her rope.

She waits and waits yet nopony comes or goes. The sky is darkening when somepony finally exits the building—the same weathermare from yesterday. She walks down the path obliviously humming some trendy pop tune.

As she passes near the bush, Applejack leaps out with a raised hoof, striking the side of her skull.

The mare goes out like a light.

Applejack leans over looking down at the unconscious mare. Her heart beats rapidly in her chest and she cannot help but smile proudly. It feels good to have a righteous cause.

When they get back, Twilight is barely able to hide her frown. Her room is now filled with today’s purchases and she looks at them thinking she will now somehow have to bring all this on the return trip home.

She takes a bath to wash off the stink of the sun, but only gets a brief hour before she finds herself again summoned.

A guard knocks outside her door and announces, “Her Majesty requests your presence at dinner.”

Twilight sighs to herself because she thought they were done for the day. Celestia had never seen fit to say anything about dinner. Just dinner, she tells herself. She repeats her mantra. Just a few more days before ultimate power is hers. That sounds kind of like a villain thing to say, but Twilight knows better. She is princess of books and friendship, which are good things.

With trudging feet, Twilight is escorted to the dining room. The air is scented lavender and there are candles burning around the room. Tapestries are situated around the room depicting Twilight’s triumphs. A sculpture of her rests in a corner. The sun princess awaits radiantly, seated at the far end of a long dining table.

She gazes around the room at the tapestries. It does make her feel better about the day. Like she deserves this. Finding more of a smile on her face than she expected, Twilight takes the place set for her on the end opposite a smiling Princess Celestia.

Once seated, she pulls the chair forward and instantly regrets it, wincing at the screech of metal against the floor.

“... Chairs, huh?” she says.

Princess Celestia still smiles. She makes no comment until Twilight reaches for her water glass.

“Make sure to push in your chair all the way.”

“...Of course.” Obediently Twilight pulls her chair in further, ears prepared this time. They are sat far enough away that she has to speak up louder than comfortable.

“I am glad you could make it, Twilight,” Celestia grins. “Tonight we will be dining on artichoke hearts and spinach casserole.” On cue servants arrive and bring out their food, serving generous helpings to their plates.

Twilight does not believe she’s ever given Celestia the impression she enjoys artichokes. She stares at the green-yellow chunks in disdain. “That is very wonderful.” The tapestries do not seem so great anymore.

“That is a good word for it! Today has been a wonderful day, don’t you think?”

“We went shopping and bought a lot of stuff.”

“We did!” gushes the princess. “It was so much fun. I’m so glad to spend time with my faithful protege once more!”

If only she could zip the princess’s mouth like she did Spike’s. She can’t believe she used to fall for such things. But there’s no growing up, not under celestia. Ponies only grow apart. “Yeah, too bad we will not be able to tomorrow,” she is sure to say.

“I hope you aren’t stressing yourself over your friend’s investigation,” Celestia says knowingly.

She is not going to admit to anything. “Oh, just trying to get work done.”

“Yes, being a princess is difficult. Only we would understand each other. Ponies just can’t get anything done without our help.”

Twilight doesn’t say anything, instead going to take a bite of her casserole.

“Twilight, be sure to eat all your vegetables. Chew slower.” Her smile is overly large and repulsive and perfect.

Twilight spears her artichokes, following it with water so she does not have to taste. Twilight does not see a reason for anypony to be smiling so large. Except her, because of what she has coming.

“But you should not worry about anything, Twilight. I have utmost confidence in you. You are a mare of many talents.”

“That is true.”

“...Perhaps some of which can be explored tonight.”

“Like a test? ...If you want to give me a test I will need time to study.”

“You don’t need to study,” Celestia assures her. “I just think your mane looks really great tonight. Did you style it?”

“No. It’s pretty much the same I have had my entire life.”

Twilight silently listens to Celestia babble on about her mane as she finishes her dinner. Really she should tell the princess she hardly ever washes the thing, it is not so fascinating. She finishes her plate and stares at it and waits for an appropriate point to interject.

“Yes, I have a mane that is blue. Would you notice this, well, it appears that dinner is done. Thanks for the artichokes.” She rises from her seat, slowly distancing from the table. “Then I guess I will see you tomorrow, or not.”

“Twilight, I think you should come to my room with me.”

That is the last thing she wants to do and her nose wrinkles. “Oh, no, uh you know I’m pretty tired and should probably get ready for an early sleep... lots to do tomorrow.”

Celestia looks at her with doe eyes. “Would you not rather retire to my room? I think you would rather do that.”

Twilight tries to think of a way out. “Uh... uh, yeah,” her voice is a higher pitch than she would like. “Not really... we went shopping... bags to sort...”

“Come on,” Celestia nods toward the door. “We can go to my room and I will put on some light Phil Collins.”

Apparently she is not yet dead. Hours later Fluttershy wakes up to a stiff neck and sore back. It comes to her attention she does not remember the last time she had a shower. Probably smells and has corner crumbs in her fur. Probably is hideous.

If she is an illusion it is time to fade away. She wishes she could wake up. Fluttershy pretends Spike is still at her house and is smiling. He says to her, “I forgive you. You only did what you thought was best.”

She left him with Twilight. And Twilight killed him. There is nothing she knows and she is not best at anything. It should have been her who confronted Twilight. Now Twilight is in Canterlot and time is running out. They need a hero and that is not her.

But she can tell someone else… Rarity.

The more Fluttershy thinks about that, the more appealing it is. There’s little heroic about Rarity, but she does not like Twilight. Tell her about Twilight’s terrible plan and she will have no problem stopping it and saving everypony.

Burnt lavender pervades the air. A clipped concerto is playing, occasionally skipping, the record obviously worn. But this does not seem to bother the mare in the room.

In her existence, she had anticipated a greater amount of joy. It had never come to be. There is nothing left but her work. Not even. Rarity checks the time. She’s worked late into the night and now she can shove her dresses aside and get to her favorite part of the day. The part that makes her smile.

Rarity goes to her special rack and selects an intricate white victorian gown. She magically slides it onto herself and carefully does the laces. In her haste some are uneven, so she undoes and reties them. She chides herself. Everything must be perfect. Now is the time for the immaculate.

Suited, she elegantly steps her way to the bathroom. Here she washes off her makeup, her normal stylings, and using her most expensive products specially acquired for this purpose, applies it in a manner befitting royalty. In the manner of Celestia herself.

Crows feet are blotted out, wrinkles near her lips paved over and certain blemishes carefully erased.

She restyles her mane, which she has been brushing all day, lower and flowing and does her best to conceal split ends.

Rarity checks herself in the mirror and is pleased with her visage.

From the shrine in her closet is retrieved the center piece. Her crown, carefully forged from scrap metal and her finest jewels, glorious in its splendor. She ceremoniously places it on her scalp, wary not to unduly mess her mane.

There in the full length mirror stands an avatar of refinement and grace, Princess Rarity, prettiest princess in all the land.

For a while she simply does different poses, soaking in the sight. For the scrapbook she takes pictures of the best, each time looking better than the last. Near every night she does this and the scrapbook is long since filled, but it’s never enough for her.

When her film is used up, Rarity proceeds to the next part.

Entering the open floor of the boutique, where she has several more mirrors strategically placed, she gives her performance. Rarity trots a circle around the room in her most regal gait. Mare of dreams and idol to the masses, she gazes with contempt at imaginary onlookers. Filthy peasants desperate to bask in her presence throw themselves down before her. They kiss the ground she treads and for a while Rarity is young forever.

Her illusion is broken with the ring of her doorbell.

She thought she had the damn thing removed. Thankfully her curtains are drawn. Adopting her natural scowl, Rarity hides the tiara but keeps on the dress.

She opens the door and is met with Fluttershy.

Rarity stands there in a strange white dress. She looks very pretty. Fluttershy momentarily forgets what she had intended to say. She worries her mane isn’t how Rarity likes it and then she will be refused.

“Oh, Fluttershy, you’ve stopped by. Still going with your animal den?”

“Yes. I take care of them. I’m not doing a very good job with the fish.” Her hooves reek of heartache and she keeps them to herself.

“I don’t know if you can tell, but I am a bit busy at the moment. Why are you here?”

“Please, I need your help. There’s trouble.” She looks up pleadingly.

Rarity stands with mouth pursed, obviously contemplating what she will say. And Fluttershy momentarily remembers the trouble with talking to the unicorn. Rarity typically has lots of words, few of them any good. But it’s for the best. She will fix things.

“You had better be off then, you bring trouble wherever you go. I don’t want any on my doorstep.”

“Rarity, I’m sorry but this is serious,” she insists. “Equestria is in danger!”

“I didn’t think we still did that.”

Fluttershy knows it has been a long time since the last crisis, and they stopped the whole saving thing since losing the elements of harmony. She says, “This is important but doesn’t involve fighting anypony. I think. It’s just something really bad about to happen and you have to put a stop to it, you have to do the right thing! Everypony needs you.”

Rarity is disinterested. “I have the ability to enact justice but I decide not to.”

“But there’s an evil machine and it’s built by Twilight!”

“Twilight... this is something you are certain of? Not another of your little fantasies?”

“...I think so...”

Her head snaps and Fluttershy immediately knows Rarity’s been sold on it. The unicorn draws herself upright, stomping hoof with dramatic purpose. “The pretender-princess! After so long... Now is the time I come face to face with ruin.”

Fluttershy wilts. “Please don’t ruin me,” she says.

Rarity sees her distressed look. “I mean Twilight. Don’t worry darling, I’ve only mused about betraying you. Little more.”

“Oh.” She isn’t sure that is reassuring, but it must be. Rarity is going to fix things now.

Rarity gazes off to a distant point, cold smile crawling up her face. “Yes, Twilight Sparkle is going to get what has been coming to her.”

“Actually she’s in Canterlot. We need to save everypony before she gets back.”

“Of course. Well then, you had better show me right where this monstrosity of hers is at.”

After ambushing the weathermare, she managed to drag her to a storage unit the family rents in town. Nopony questioned her pushing a cart loaded with what appeared to be a sack of apples.

Applejack really knocked her out good. It is only hours later that the mare wakes up. She begins stirring in the chair that Applejack tied her to.

Applejack rubs her hooves, eager to get the show started.

“Finally ready? It is about time for you to wake up, you lazy pegasus.” Positioning the interrogation lamp for maximum discomfort, Applejack yanks the sack off her head.

“Huh, wha?” She slowly opens her eyes, squinting into the light. “The farmer?”

Applejack shifts into interrogation mode. She has to be subtle, she has to be a smooth operator if she’s going to intimidate this weathermare and get the goods.

Applejack circles her once, stopping in front of her. She gives her the famous Apple Stonewall. “We both know something around town is different than it usually is, and you’re going to tell me what it is.”

The pegasus glances down at her binds, struggling to move her wings but finding no give. She does not seem too distressed.

“Whatever.” She scoffs. “Well, over the weekend a new horseshoe stall moved into the market and that’s pretty different. Can I go home now?”

Applejack knows what stall she is talking about and they are third rate. She shakes her head. “No, no, you know that ain’t what I meant.”

“Could you be a little more specific?”

She frowns. No one seems to get her subtlety. Looks like she will have to try a different track, try to speak this city hooligan’s language. “Ya know, ya know... Now if you want to, uh... lay on me the skivvy and get some cheese off your boss’s back, well now, who’s to say I wouldn’t give you some of that back?” She watches the other mare’s reaction hopefully.

“...If you want an accomplice for something illegal, you should kidnap somepony else.”

Applejack squints her eyes, taking a small step back. “What? I don’t want nothing illegal,” she says in total disregard of her conduct for the past several hours.

The other mare leans back in her seat and looks back accusingly. “Then what are you trying to do here? Why did you jump me and tie me up? Did not you learn about the ‘Hooves off employees’ rule yesterday, the hard way?”

She furiously shakes her head. “I didn’t—Don’t think you can pull a fast one on me!” She stomps a hoof. “You’re the criminal and I’m asking the questions here. This is an interrogation.”

“You aren’t much of an interrogator.”

Applejack tries not to let the words get to her but it’s starting to dim her mood. It isn’t so fun anymore. Applejack knocks the lamp aside. “Forget it. This is stupid. Just tell me who put you up to pouring all that rain on Ponyville.”

“The rain,” the captive pegasus repeats, eyes bulging noticeably. “All this Dirty Harry crap is because you’re upset about the rain?” The mare shouts, rocking furiously in her chair.

“There’s something wrong with it! It’s mutating ponies and shit!” Applejack defends. This isn’t the reaction she was expecting. She pulls out one of her mutant apples and waves it around. “How do you explain this? That apple is messed up!”

“Get your weird crop out of my face!”

“Tell me about that rain!”

“I don’t even know! That’s my boss’s job, the chief forecaster. He said something about orders from high up. Made it sound like one of the princesses. Is that enough for you?”

Applejack jerks her head back. “The princesses?” She did not expect this to be a conspiracy from the top, but it makes sense. The city corrupts all.

“That’s what it sounded like. Now let me go so I can report your ass to the police.”

“Oh shoot… you’re not gonna involve the police, are ya?”

The mare stares at her. “You knocked me out cold, then kidnapped and bound me in a hidden location.”

Applejack quickly unties her so she does not get in further trouble with the law. Sending off the pissed weathermare, she says, “Now you just remember, I didn’t molest ya. I had the chance and I didn’t molest ya.”

Shaking her head, the mare rolls opens the storage door and flies out.

Applejack watches her go and thinks about this new information. The mutating crops, foals with extra ears, ponies going to Canterlot and not coming back. What could the princesses be planning? She needs to watch where she steps now. There is only one thing left to do.

If the lavender aroma was obnoxious in the dining room, here it is obscene. The whole room is stuffy and light glares off the framed pictures around the room. Twilight awkwardly squints and sits by the bed as Celestia goes to put on a record.

“Do you like this one, Twilight? It is one of my favorites.” The moody beats of In the Air Tonight wind through the air.

...I can feel it coming...

Twilight shifts nervously. Twilight is getting the distinct feeling things are getting out of control.

“Yes. That is alright,” she says. She tries to swallow her discomfort. Push it down deep in her darkest recesses and be cool, be anything, just don’t blow it. She’s put up with Celestia’s eccentricities many times.

“I knew you would like it. You are an alicorn of great taste.”

“So here we are listening to music. A great start to twenty minutes of quiet contemplation, followed by bed time.”

“Contemplation is good, Twilight,” Celestia laughs, “but there is more to life than that. So much more. I was thinking of a night a little more intensive and I am sure you have great stamina. You are the full package.”

“While that is true, I can think of someone better. Rainbow Dash. Maybe we could let her out of her cell and—”

The princess smirks, slinking towards her. “Just you and me tonight, Twilight. We have the world to ourselves.”

Twilight sees nothing good in that gait. Backing a step, she says, “Oh, but the world is not enough for me.”

“Of course. It takes much more than that to fill an alicorn’s insatiable appetite... but we can try anyway.”

...coming in the air tonight, oh lord...

“Well, like they say, you should not tempt fate,” she titters.

“Fate? The universe is empty and without fate. There is no grand plan, only ponies,” Celestia says taking a place by Twilight’s side.

Twilight stiffens as she is wrapped in a swanlike wing.

“And soon... it will be only the two of us,” Celestia’s voice huskily whispers with artichoke breath. She softly begins nibbling on Twilight’s ear.

Revulsion curls within her. Her body itches. She’s greatly miscalculated. When Celestia asked her into her room, Twilight did not anticipate things getting so intimate.

“Twilight Sparkle, you are so incredibly soft.”

“Goddess before the end of the week,” she mutters.

“What do you mean?”

Twilight tries to keep mind on the drill, working even now in her basement. “Uh, nothing. Don’t worry, let’s move on.”

“Oh,” Celestia coos. “Tell me.”

“Eh, just, no troubles soon.”

Celestia sighs into Twilight’s mane, chest pressed against the smaller mare. “No troubles at all...”

“Maybe we could go back to separate chairs and—“

...I know where you’ve been…

…It’s all been a pack of lies…

“Um, Pr—Celestia, about this song… any reason you chose a song with these lyrics?”

“Lyrics…” Celestia nuzzles, swept away in her infatuation. “Just enjoy the beat. It’s a love song.”

She feels Celestia’s raised heartbeat pressed against her. Her own heart is pounding for an entirely different reason. All she can smell is fucking artichokes.

She feels a pelvis grinding into her.

Twilight looks down to find Celestia sensually humping her side. Panic overtakes her face. She needs to defuse this thing now. Complain about a headache, maybe. She squirms and tries to wiggle out of the embrace.

The sun princess tightens her grip. “Twilight, don’t ruin the mood.”

Oh goddess, she’s pulled in even closer. Her face scrunches up. Don’t blow i—Those awful hips hump into her. Smothering. Being domineered by the other alicorn again and it doesn’t feel like being a princess at all.

A growl she can’t subdue rises deep in Twilight. Twilight forces out of Celestia’s hold and whips around.

“Aagh, never again!” She jabs Celestia with a hoof and shrieks, “I’ll drill right through you!”

“Drill? Is that a euphemism?”

She screeches. “Ugh, you perverse cretin! No! It’s a threat!” Twilight freezes.

Celestia stares at her. “Threat,” she repeats.

Her apex mind rapidly processes this latest turn. She’s brilliant, she can work through this. Talk her way out, that is what she will have to do. Celestia’ll believe any half-plausible story she feeds.

“...Why are you threatening me with a drill?”

Twilight dives out the balcony.

Applejack makes it back home. Before she does anything rash, goes accusing anypony of mass poisoning, it is always best to return to home base. In the living room she sees Applebloom up late and speaks to her.

“Quick. Applebloom, tell me, you know the ponies in town pretty well, right?” It isn’t that she needs help deciding, she just has to make sure the family is on the same page.

“Yeah, I mean I guess so.”

“You know anypony in town with a horn and a love of science, maybe purple, who could have ordered the weather team to cover ponyville in radioactive water?”

Applebloom stares at her, probably wondering why she had bothered asking but used to it by now. “Well, sister, with the description you gave, the only pony who fits that is Twilight Sparkle.”

“Yep, yep, Twilight Sparkle, that’s just what I was thinking. Glad you agree.” Applejack winks. “Guess great minds think alike, huh?”

Applebloom goes back to her cartoons. “If you say so.”

Just what she thought. Twilight under all their noses scheming against Ponyville, sabotaging the town’s hardworking agriculturalists. Contaminating their precious crops. Applejack has to protect the farm from Twilight.

Finale

Wings beat frantically against the blue night as Twilight flies, using her teleportation to augment her travel. Her bookish muscles cry as they push to the limit.

She blew it. Twilight doesn’t dare look behind her. Celestia probably knows everything now. She is probably chasing after Twilight.

Twilight has become an experienced flyer but that is still no match for the mighty wingspan of Celestia. She has to make it back to her basement lab first. She can only see enough in the moonlight to know she’s heading in the right direction. Even with her short range teleportation, it will take a while.

Fluttershy leads Rarity into the library to show her. As they pass Spike’s body the unicorn seems hardly surprised and makes nebulous sympathetic sounds.

In the basement Rarity sees the giant arcane drill working in the center of the room.

“I knew it. That conniving whore.”

Rarity gives a cursory examination of the machine, rifles a bit through the notes on the corner desk. She seems to understand some of the magical detailings or at least acts like she does, occasionally tutting and squinting.

Fluttershy doesn’t say anything and isn’t sure if she should be. So she patiently sits by the stairs and waits for it to be over. Rarity will figure out what to do and everything will be fixed. Twilight will be in trouble for what she did to Spike and life will get better.

After a while, the unicorn announces, “You just sit there, Fluttershy, and I will be right back. This will soon be finished,” Rarity assures and departs.

It sounds good to her ears. Some lint is loose so she pushes it back in.

A long twenty minutes pass before Rarity comes marching back down. She is magically lugging several jugs of gasoline and begins pouring them around the room, upending one whole jug on the drill. It continues uninterrupted as the liquid seeps through its cracks.

“Rarity,” Fluttershy squeals out of her stupor, “What are you doing?”

“Why, Fluttershy, I should think that apparent. This is a wretched machine, the work of an unholy demented mind, and it must be purged as all vile things. With fire.”

As much as she wanted Rarity to deal with it, this isn’t what she was expecting. “You could have at least asked me,” Fluttershy complains.

“I could have done a lot of things. I chose none of them.”

Fluttershy opens her mouth but does not reply. That sounds like something she would say and she thinks maybe they have something in common.

Rarity lights a match and drops it.

The unicorn stands grinning a bit too much at her work so Fluttershy takes a step away. Fluttershy decides that maybe it is not something they have in common. Maybe that is her problem, that she does not have enough in common with other ponies. It feels too late.

Fire quickly jumps through the gasoline network.

Rarity notices her expression. “Don’t worry, dear, we’re stopping her nasty scheme.”

Twilight’s lab had needed to be destroyed but this seems rash and overly destructive. And Rarity had seemed to have little delay jumping to arson. She wonders just who was responsible for the market fire last spring, then scolds herself for the thought. She needs to trust Rarity.

She asks, “I don’t mean to doubt and know you know more about magic than me... did the notes indicate fire would stop it?”

“Not particularly.”

Flames surround the machine now, cutting off access. It is consumed by the blaze, but appears to continue its work despite. It looks grim in the blaze and the blue swirls seem to draw them in.

Fluttershy can’t help herself and says the things she wanted to before but did not. “But you didn’t even turn it off and we don’t know what will happen if it breaks. This is not good, I mean worse than before. Spike said Twilight was messing with quantum waves—”

“The poor dear,” Rarity interjects at Spike’s name.

“And this sounds really fragile. There could be a bad reaction to the fire.”

“And that will be bad for Twilight.” Rarity’s eyes are fixed on it.

It’s getting hot. The fire is consuming the rest of the room but still the drill whirs in a distorted pitch. “I think that is enchanted metal. What if the fire doesn’t even stop it?”

“The library will burn and Twilight will cry for her precious princess books.”

She should not have told Rarity.

The room is soon engulfed and they retreat from the basement.

Rarity can’t help but laugh at the thought of Twilight’s reaction when she gets back. Her little plan ruined and all her possessions destroyed in the crossfire. Some princess she will be then. Maybe she’ll even abdicate her position to Rarity!

Rarity was not expecting tonight to be so eventful, and could almost kiss Fluttershy for bringing this to her. But she is not going to do that.

The pegasus is leading her to the front door when a thought catches her.

Rarity stops. She thinks of the official crown Twilight is always forgetting. What are the chances she even took it to Canterlot with her? There will not be such a great opportunity again and it would be such a waste. She puts a hoof to her mouth, contemplating the idea.

“Rarity, I don’t think it is safe to be in here any longer.”

“I am sure you think a lot,” she says. “You just keep on going and I will soon be out.”

She lets Fluttershy out the door, then quickly searches the main room. Nothing but books on the table and shelves. There’s only a little time before the fire leaves the basement.

Running up the stairs she frantically rifles through Twilight’s nightstand and the bins under her bed. All she sees are more books. Where is that infernal tiara? There is simply no way she would have remembered to bring it, she never does. Rarity has to find it!

She ransacks the dresser to no avail.

Pinkie Pie is watching the library tree go up in flames, flickering stark in the darkness. She’s been partying all night and was about to bake some early early morning cookies when she saw the bright blaze from her window.

She sits on the roof of Sugarcube Corner with candy piled around her. Munching on a bag of M&Ms, she rests on her haunches and nervously watches. Her body has been tingly all week and just wants sugar to make it go away.

This seems like a worst-case scenario. She hopes Applejack isn’t responsible for this. Friends don’t hurt each other like that and they are all good friends. They just need a few parties and everything will better. Just eat a few more pieces of candy.

Other ponies are starting to leave their homes to watch the scene, so the fire ponies should be here soon. She hopes there’s no one burning alive in there.

“At less teeter totter inside is Canterlot.”

That was funny. She meant to say, “Twister is on can’t.”

Huh. There it is again.

Pinkie can’t feel her left side and her mouth isn’t moving right. The candy drops from her hoof. It feels like there’s spider webs in her brain. It hurts.

The orange glare of flame is suddenly too bright and she has to close her eyes. She closes her eyes and sees nothing but the flame. Not even the stroke can stop her from knowing.

This fire has been burning for too long, she thinks as she lays down.

Twilight is nearing Ponyville when something doesn’t look right. There is a huge glow in the night, like a giant fire. Her heart can’t pound any faster. Something really big in the middle of Ponyville is on fire.

Applejack is barely out the door when sees a fire in the distance. It is in the direction of Ponyville.

“What the hell, another town fire? This must be the work of Twilight!” Applejack says to herself. She doesn’t need Applebloom to tell her that.

With no time to lose Applejack breaks into a gallop. The poisoning must not have been quick enough so Twilight resorted to arson. Applejack has to save the townsponies from her corrupt clutches.

It is what she feared. That is her library on fire!

No! Her stomach flips and she nearly plummets to the earth. She feels faint pains for her books but all that matters at this point is the drill. Once she collects her distilled magic, just a tiny vial, she can undo everything.

If this is Spike’s doing, she swears she is going to skin him alive.

Ponies crowd the road spectating. They move away a bit as Twilight swoops into the scene. Her neighbors’ eyes perch on her.

She lands a ways from the tree. She can feel the immense heat radiating off and Twilight wastes no time casting a heat protection charm, then teleporting inside.

Smoke clouds the air and she stumbles forward coughing. Everything is lit glowing orange and the shelves around her are ablaze. Looking up and through the haze she sees Rarity coming from upstairs, running towards her. Wearing her crown.

“Twilight, dear! I tried to help but it grew too quickly. I am trapped!”

Twilight gets moving. She shoves Rarity out of the way and breaks for the basement. She jumps over Spike’s burning body—apparently it wasn’t him—and marches down the stairs.

As she descends, she hears shrieks that the fire quickly consumes.

Down below it’s even harder to see, smoke clogs the air and furnishings are coated in flames. Twilight is sweating. Even though she is protected, it’s still incredibly warm. She has to teleport out her drill and hide it somewhere and everything will be fine.

Everything quakes violently. Twilight pushes through the fire and sees her machine working, the spinning bit giving off harshly lit blue streaks almost like lightning. It’s sucking in flames and building.

She didn’t even consider the risk of triggering a reaction! She won’t be able to simply turn it off like this, with the risk of a meltdown. So much active energy here it’s impossible to calculate the consequences. Incomprehensible. A catastrophic failure could obliterate the greater portion of the solar system, maybe beyond. For once Twilight realizes the gravity of what she’s been meddling with unsupervised in a residential basement.

There’s too much energy buzzing around and her drill is tapping into more, she has to pull it from the magical fabric! Immediately Twilight goes to the panel on the side, twisting dials and recalibrating to carefully recede the bit. The light is piercing and getting brighter. She tries desperately to recall her formulas. The drill is deep in quantum particles and elemental magic, she has to maintain some kind of equilibrium.

If she can just ease it out carefully, she believes it’s still possible to fix this.

Fluttershy is watching. There are many other ponies now but none of them saw her running out. Rarity hasn’t come out. It is probably her fault and she doesn’t know if she is okay with that. She didn’t know there was any lower for her to go.

Suddenly a bunch of ponies around her look up and whispering breaks out. Twilight swoops down from the sky and Fluttershy ducks her head, hoping Twilight doesn’t see her. Apparently she doesn’t and the alicorn disappears into the building.

Fluttershy’s panic reaches a crescendo. This shouldn’t be happening. Somehow Twilight has found out and there’s no hope. She does not know if Twilight will be able to continue her plan but Fluttershy should not be here.

She turns around, and runs into Applejack.

“Oof.”

Unaffected, Applejack says, ““Finally a pony I can trust!” Applejack gives her a hungry look. “Fluttershy, what’s going on here? Burning her own house—what is Twilight up to?!”

The farm pony is not looking very friendly. Fluttershy doesn’t know why she has to be so afraid of those she is closest to. “Um, I can’t talk about that now. Bye.”

She steps to the side. Applejack blocks her path. “Hold up! Tell me what is going on.”

“It’s Rarity! It’s Twilight! She built this terrible machine to take over the world!”

That interests Applejack just as much as it did Rarity. “Some terrible machine? Like, a weather machine?”

“It’s a magic drill. It’s evil so Rarity had to burn it down!” she spews, feeling little control over her mouth.

“That’s it then, that must be how she messed up the rain, she drilled into the sewer system! That slippery rascal!”

Her head shakes quickly in refutation. “She is doing bad things with particles.”

“What does that have to do with the weather?” the farm mare asks blankly.

Fluttershy looks back at the burning tree. She is first to admit she does not know much about ponies, but Twilight is definitely very angry and nothing good will happy to the ponies she sees when she emerges. “I wouldn’t know. Applejack, it’s not safe here and everything’s gone wrong. We have to go,” she pleads.

“Damn right it isn’t. You don’t understand—Twilight’s been bribing the weather team and poisoning the town.”

“Nopony is safe...”

“That’s why I am going to teach her a lesson about meddling with my farm.” Applejack takes an angry step toward the library.

“She is in there. The best thing is to go. You can tell Princess Celestia! Let’s just leave!”

“No. She’s messed with the bull and I am the horns.”

Fluttershy watches her leering at the blaze. Applejack does not seem concerned with her any more and Fluttershy does not have any words to convince her.

As fast as she can she runs, leaving behind Applejack and Rarity and Pinkie and even Twilight.

“I assume this is what has kept you so preoccupied the past year?” Celestia steps out of the flames.

Twilight whirls around. It’s extremely loud down here between the fire and the machine but Celestia’s voice cuts through everything.

“Celestia!” she hisses, eyes scanning wildly. All is chaos and she can see nothing beyond the ring of smoking inferno around them. “No, stay back, you can’t touch this!”

“We were having such a great night... After all the things I’ve done for you, you disappoint me.”

“No!” Twilight repeats, backing up against the console. “Go away! We don’t have time, I have to fix this!” She shields her machine.

Celestia takes another menacing step. “I don’t understand what this is about, but it is over.”

“You fucking perfect princess!” Twilight shouts. “The only thing over is you, and you’re too stupid to understand it! Too stupid to notice not everypony wants to be one of your pets.” Her voice is raw with unrestrained emotion. Everything was in her hoof and somehow it’s all gone so wrong.

“Pets?” A wavering sneer forms on the other alicorn’s mouth. “I’ll let you in on a little secret. I’ve been poisoning Equestria, dosing it with enough radiation to soon put out all mortal life. None of those wretches could compare to you, Twilight. But even you’ve betrayed me.”

Twilight stares with open mouth as... tears form in Celestia’s eyes?

The buzzing grows frantic and shrill, the aura starts pulling in purples and hellish maroons. Twilight can’t spare any time, she has to shut it down.

She levitates her flaming desk and hurls it at Celestia, then spins to the panel.

Celestia effortlessly dodges, closing on Twilight. “What went wrong, Twilight? I put on In The Air Tonight for you! You were the best of ponykind—so faithful, so industrious. Like this little thing.” She brushes Twilight aside and puts a hoof on the drill.

“I need to get to the controls!”

Celestia continues, “Only you could have built something like this under my nose... It was just the two of us, Twilight. You were my shining star.”

The tall princess fills her vision and Twilight roars. “No! You only liked smothering me! Even as a princess, I was only there to be pushed around. Your hollow friendship! I hate your stench! You have no idea how long I’ve detested having to indulge you, only waiting for the day to end you.”

Celestia’s voice is pained. “...And just how did you plan to do away with me?”

The drill is in critical mode, it needs to be dealt with now or never.

“The demiurgic,” Twilight finds herself saying, staring in awe. Even on fire, her machine is beautiful. “With this, I’ve touched the magical essence of reality—the force that brings the universe into being. You were playing with radiation, but the work I’ve done here is the triumph of all that has come before! I‘ll be a true god and ascend to divinity.”

Their plans lay bare in the air between them. Their eyes lock and in that gaze they know each other again.

Celestia’s eyes shine in the glow of the fire.

Celestia wrenches her tearful face into a grin. Her hoof pounds a control knob. “No heaven waits for you, my dear.”

A primordial wave brighter than the sun erupts and Twilight is not even ash.

Applejack is standing so close to the burning tree it hurts. The heat billows and she squints in pain but refuses to give.

Fluttershy may be a coward like always, but she is not. That stupid alicorn always lording over everypony, making her late for cider season and making her fail the farm. She’s strong! When Twilight gets out of there, she’ll show her what happens when you mess with an Apple.

Applejack readies her rope so she can subdue Twilight until proper authorities arrive. Then it occurs to her Twilight can just teleport away.

Her ears are assaulted by a screeching bang. The tree library bursts and Applejack never looks up.

Fluttershy makes it to the edge of Ponyville, lungs wheezing and running harder than ever in her life. Tears she thought were gone coat her face.

She hates herself and the things she never did and the things she was. All her life only letting things happen and waiting for something good. For so long she told herself she should have never lived. For so long she was sinking in the dark. She blamed her friends for leaving her there, never once did she step out.

One step she is near the light, two she is gone.

Day 1

Rainbow Dash does not know why the hell she woke up with a fifth leg today. And not fifth leg like she’d joke about a penis, but an actual malformed miniature leg protruding out her right flank. Just south of her cutiemark.

She sits dumbfounded in her cloud bedroom, gawking at it. She can’t really control it but every few minutes on its own the leg will twist and the underdeveloped muscles contract and spasm. The leg does not look healthy.

She’d been having a good morning the ten minutes she has been up before she noticed it. Yeah, something felt strange but she hadn’t dwelt on it until just now when she glanced at her mirror. That does not make her oblivious, it makes her a busy pegasus.

She harshly twists the thing in anger. She squeals in pain. That was dumb, she won’t do it again. She is not recklessly impulsive, she’s just too busy to calculate every little thing like an egghead.

Dash sniffles. This is real serious. She’s so confused. Is this some kind of curse? Or some kind of divine joke by some higher power using her as fodder for amusement? Retribution for her sins?

Visions of a life as a freak assail her.

Dash doesn’t care about the questions overwhelming her. She just wants it gone. It came abruptly so maybe it can go away abruptly. Let somepony else deal with the mysteries and fix everything.

She flashes out her house toward Twilight’s library.

Blue sparks light up the room. Muffled buzzes and whirs fill the air.

In her basement, Twilight Sparkle operates the controls of a large machine. A large steel drill situated in the middle of the room, mounted on a frame at a downward angle. It vibrates and the conical bit spins, seemingly boring into nothing, were it not for the bright sparks at the tip.

She has been at it again for hours, and the air smells singed. Turning a dial at the base, she checks the display before her showing a shifting multitude of measurements and data.. Again she crosses her basement laboratory and scrutinizes her notes, recording the latest data.

For four long years, since she’d become a princess, Twilight has plotted incessantly. The funds she’s entitled to as princess have been extremely useful, ensuring nothing necessary was out of reach for her designs. All her supplies had been gathered and the machine before her covertly assembled. Since then, her days have been consumed with thaumaturgical drilling and analysis. She’s advanced magical subatomic theory further than anypony has ever dared.

These long years are coming to a head. Soon she will tap the source.

Beeping noises break her thought. Spike robotmarches down the steps with mouth zipped shut. He points rapidly upstairs while hopping on his feet.

“What is it, dragon boy, choking on another scroll?” Twilight taunts with a sharp giggle. None of them ever did learn. Celestia will never learn. Part of why it has been so easy, she reflects, before deigning to see what the fuss is about.

Upstairs she hears the locked entrance rattling with a frantic banging.

It does not sound like a good sign. Ponies know she closes the library on Thursday. Twilight doesn’t really want to answer because there’s always a chance it’s the Revenue Service inquiring about those royal funds.

For a moment she deliberates. She gives the door a nasty glare but the banging does not stop. Out of options, Ponyville’s smartest mare yanks open the door.

“Twilight! Twilight!” A shouting Rainbow Dash hurls into the building. And bashes her head into the corner of Twilight’s new Art Deco coffee table.

Twilight gasps as Dash crunches into it.

Feebly, Rainbow Dash rises to her feet, left side of cranium caved in and gaping with bits of fleshy pink brain visible, blood pouring down her brow. Her head turns to Twilight and half-smiles. Then she collapses and lies with disturbing lack of motion.

Twilight gapes. “You did that on purpose.”

“Spike! Spike!”

He hears a voice from upstairs that he would rather not.

Spike wants to reply, but because his mouth is zipped up, it comes out as a grumble. He’d just gotten down the stairs and stairs were hard when you were a young dragon with stubby legs cursed to robotmarch.

But because Twilight is still yelling and won’t stop, he ascends. He is afraid what she’ll do if he doesn't obey. Things don’t look good.

Spike is chilled at the sight upstairs. Twilight is attempting to yank Rainbow Dash’s impacted brain out her skull. She pulls vigorously but the cavity is too small for the brain to fit through and it is only squishing out various fluids and making a mess.

He thinks ranting and raving shouldn’t lead to anypony’s death. It’s easier to believe things don’t work like that. That all ponies have a good heart and he is obeying Twilight because he wants to.

Beep boop beep.

Twilight hears the sound of his robotmarch over her panicking and turns frantically. “Oh, good you’re here, I have tasks for you, you should always be here. Dash’s brains are busted for good this time and we need to get her a new one before anyone finds out!”

Spike points to the door and makes squeaky noises. Not really to indicate anything, but just because it makes him feel better.

“Damn, the door is wide open! Anyone could be looking in - I can’t be found out. Spike, bring me the organ barrel!”

No one makes a move to close the door. Spike rocks on his feet. He decides to think the new look kind of fits Dash and is wondering if he should tell her so. If his mouth wasn’t zipped and Dash was still moving, he would reassure her about her new look.

Twilight notices Rainbow Dash’s little surprise. “And for the love of books, why does she have a sick little new appendage?” She shouts while wiggling it a bit. “While you are at it, get a saw. And surgical tape!”

She’s frothing at the mouth again. Spike doesn’t like being top on the list for organ donors, so the zipper-mouthed dragon boy moves quickly and once more ventures the stairs. He’ll bring her the stuff but he isn’t touching any brains.

Until her dragon boy returns, Twilight counts the bits of brain on her table—four—and devises possible alibis. The best she comes up with is that she was out helping the elderly when she found Rainbow Dash like this. That’s crap.

No matter. If she moves fast enough, no one will even know this little incident happened. The last thing she can do is let police ponies in the library. She can’t have her grand plans, everything she’s spent all this time on, tumbling down because of a stray freak accident. No, impossible.

The downed pegasus’s face remains a dazed mild-hearted expression as if to say ‘This should not reflect poorly on you’.

Twilight snatches the supplies as soon as Spike returns.

Casting a non-stick spell on the coffee table, Twilight lays the body across it. Her tools float in the air beside her and the first thing she does is cut into and alter the jawline, giving Dash a small underbite - not very noticeable at first glance but enough to snicker at. With any luck, ponies talking to her long enough should be put off and wonder why they didn’t notice she was somewhat pigeon-faced before. Which should also distract from noticing the dent in her head, so Twilight considers it quite a clever plan.

Then prying open the organ barrel, she notes looking in that she is down to her last two brains. The choice is between a pruney raspberry-colored brain and one that is oddly lumpy, so Twilight chooses the pruney one, magically saws off Dash’s crown, scoops out the residual brains and fits the new one in. The skull top is reattached with surgical screws, and then she stretches Dash’s skin over the forehead gap and magically seals the flesh.

The alicorn praises herself on her surgeon’s touch before glancing at the malformity southward. That must be what Dash came here for. What has that pegasus been up to?

With minimal care Twilight magically grips mutant appendage—she isn’t touching that thing herself—and hacks that off. At first sight she thought it was a penis, but once it was determined to be a leg, she knew she had no scientific use for it, so Twilight tosses it.

She’s finishing casting a memory transfer spell to put Dash’s mind into the new brain, when Twilight is struck with mad inspiration. Maybe she can get something out of this misfortune.

Seeing the opportunity before her, the meddling-with-all-that-is-holy scientist can’t resist, so she quickly fetches a rainy day project she’s been working on: a pair of magical receiver bolts. She installs a bolt on each side of the pegasus’s neck, integrating them to Rainbow Dash’s nervous system.

Magically tuned to a microphone she got from her karaoke kit, this should allow her to intercept Dash’s brainwaves and inject her own commands.

Twilight stands back and admires her work. Her mood is turning around from panic. It seems to her this might be providence. She doesn’t know if she’ll end up needing it, but now she’ll have another lackey if anything comes up. And one with no smart mouthing.

“I shall call her FrankenDash,” Twilight declares triumphantly. “But only behind her back.”

She just hopes there is nowhere FrankenDash was supposed to be.

Her expectations dwindled. They had never been much of anything, and now they are worsened from that. Fluttershy sometimes thinks light is not so great and then she notices that weeks have slipped away.

She is supposed to be somewhere else right now. An official veterinarian practice with quality facilities for all her animals and steady income so she could have electricity and not have to depend on government aid to eat. Five years ago the world had been young. The susceptible mare had made friends that promised to help her. Rainbow Dash had promised to meet her today.

Fluttershy has been waiting on this street bench for the past hour. Across the street is Ponyville’s new public museum. They’d made plans to see the falcon exhibit currently in town. It was the only day the other pegasus had available.

Rainbow Dash has been a member of the Wonderbolts for the last three years and is going to perform for the princess next week. Fluttershy is going nowhere.

“Today is a little bit worse than yesterday,” she says to her rabbit. He isn’t there but Fluttershy is okay with that.

Her nose picks up the scent of hayfries from a nearby vendor and her stomach rumbles. She would have brought bits but Rainbow Dash had offered to pay for them. Rainbow Dash isn’t here and Fluttershy isn’t really okay with that. She could have stayed at home to be hungry and unsatiated.

Being late isn’t unusual to her airheaded friend, yet not this excessively. Most of the time. It does not seem likely that she will show but Fluttershy reminds herself she cannot predict the future and decides to wait twenty more minutes. She tries not to think that she didn’t have to see the future to know she would turn out like this.

She sits on the bench and kicks her hooves.

Atop her balcony, Princess Celestia breaths in the cool autumn air.

With expertise, her magic embraces the sun and guides its descent. Another day performed in a routine stretching a millenia. She watches the city below. Shops closing. Streets that empty further, ponies heading along their predefined routes, wrapped around daylight’s rays. The sun may be the source of those rays, but it is she that gives them to Equestria.

And she that can take it away, she thinks as night falls.

A familiar frown grows over her face. How she’s grown to despise their small sinful hearts. If only it were as simple as withholding the sun, letting it all die off and starting anew. But they saw how well that plan worked out for her sister.

Her dear sister. Luna’s return had not been what she hoped - in truth, Luna never had returned, not her Luna, the sister she’d once loved. It wasn’t fair. They’d both waited so long. Centuries Celestia had made it through, holding to the hope that things could be how they used to be.

But time doesn’t heal; time kills.

Celestia had tried hard, from the bottom of her heart, to cheer her sister, but nothing healed the gap between them. Nothing pulled Luna from her grief and shame.

Unable to fix the situation on her own, she’d turned to her wonderful Twilight and had sent Luna to Ponyville for Nightmare Night that first year. It had helped for a while, Luna had come back buoyant and reinvigorated to build anew... only to soon sink back to her distant ways. Their relationship was ages dead.

She won’t be surprised if Luna means to go off and build her own castle. Probably something black and brooding and full of gargoyles...

Abandoning Celestia to those pathetic ponies ponies stumbling around below her. Too many summers had gone by. None of these ponies know it. They all go on like nothing had happened. But she’d endured a thousand cycles of seasons. Only Twilight knows her.

Only her most faithful and amazing student. So bright and pure, unlike all the other small-minded ponies who only care for their squabbles and vices. Thinking of her faithful student turned fellow alicorn always does warm her heart. And certain other areas.

But Celestia worries for her. Why was Twilight growing distant? No longer visiting. Letters getting progressively rarer, until now all responses have stopped completely. They’ve hardly seen each other all year.

She’s played ruler so long and what does she have to show for it? Pretty spires and petty rabble that wilts and is replaced by the next same, decade after decade. Her own sister lost to time. She won’t lose Twilight too.

Alone on her balcony, Celestia smiles. She and Twilight won’t be distant for much longer. Her plan isn’t so crude as to withhold the sun, but it’ll work as well. And soon it will be just her and Twilight. Celestia will make her into the most perfect alicorn and their love will shine as bright as the sun. Two perfect ponies with an entire world to themselves.

Rubbing at the exhaustion in her eyes, Twilight forces herself to keep monitoring the drill. No rest for the wicked, as she is fond of saying. Everything must be done manually until she finds her target. She supposes it is pretty dangerous to be operating such hazardous machine when exhausted.

The moment Rainbow Dash had left, she’d gone back to her work. She had wanted to test her receiver right there, but it would defeat the purpose if Dash were aware of her new improvements. So she’d convinced the pegasus, with the aid of subliminal techniques, that she’d merely knocked herself out in another crash landing and sent her off. She also used subliminal messaging to make her cover the bolts with an ascot. No pony will notice a thing.

Celestia won’t see it coming until Twilight strikes from right under her shadow. The arrogant eternal princess will never know what happened even as she falls from her perch.

She examines a red gauge meant for tuning. With care she recalibrates the bit, a microscopically fine adjustment as it drills into the smallest substances known to ponies. Just her really. It isn’t quite on the right resonance yet, but she can feel herself getting closer, evidenced by the flaring sparks it frequently gives. The vibrations her electromagnetic meter is picking up also reassure her.

Giving an optimistic estimate, she thinks that within the fortnight she’ll have it. The force that makes something out of nothing.

Pure magic extracted from the very fabric of creation. This is the quantum force that all magic is derived from, from which unicorn magic is but a clumsy way of reaching at it to manipulate reality. She will touch it from the root. Twilight has a space pinpointed, she is so close to finding the wave length it reacts on. Once she finds that, the secondary feature of the drill will collect and condense it, the grain produced and sifted into near-liquid.

Then all she has to do is drink it. She can’t exactly figure what that will do yet, but it will be something great and powerful. She will be the most powerful being in existence.

Twilight is to be the culmination of reality. Her heart soars and she can’t tell whether she wants to laugh or vomit.