My Little Proletariat

The following story may help explain some of Twilight's quirks.

Once, several years before Twilight discovered her calling as a sorcerer and perpetual student, her parents took her to the Carnival.

Carnivals in general weren't particularly rare. Itinerant troupes of earth ponies would wander from town to town, setting down wherever would have them. They'd put up rides for the locals, or shows, or whatever they could throw together.

But there was only one capital-C Carnival, and that was the annual meeting of three different troupes outside the gates of Canterlot. For three weeks, the residents of the Royal City could indulge in the many distractions offered by the showponies, whether it was the games (rigged), the food (generally incredibly unhealthy), or the breathtaking rides (which breached several bylaws involved hygiene, safety, and in one particular case, low-flying pegasi).

This particular year, Twilight's parents had decided to take Twilight to the Carnival as a belated birthday present. Her father had read that such outings were character-building, and explained at great length to Twilight that if there was one thing that she, Twilight, needed to build, character was it.

Twilight had responded that she had already built quite enough character, thank you, and that taking her to such events could precipitate a boycott of all future character-building.

Twilight's father had responded that that was all very well and good, but there were laws and these laws said that until she, Twilight, got her cutie mark, she, Twilight, would just have to do as her parents said, and if her parents told her that she, Twilight, should build character, then by Celestia that was what she, Twilight, was going to do.

Twilight responded by asking if that was what she was to him, his little slave. Her father told her that no, slaves contributed something of value to their masters.

Twilight's mother, meanwhile, wondered for the hundredth time why they couldn't just get her a dictionary for her birthday like they did every other year.

Nonetheless, they went, and as soon as they walked through the gate Twilight forgot her misgivings. She rode the ferris-wheel twice and the roller-coaster three times and her father had to actually pull her out of the bumper cars after half an hour. She spent three weeks' pocket money on the slingshot stall, found out the hard way that all the good prizes were glued to the shelves, and she kept playing. She also managed to add her name to the very short list of ponies who've been turned away from a candyfloss stall because "I think you've had too much, miss".

She was nursing her final candyfloss for the night when she got lost. A group of tourist pegasi, cameras slung around their necks, bustled past, and when they'd gone she was no longer tailing her parents. She craned her neck to see over the crowds, but she couldn't see them anywhere. Still, they'd told her what to do in this situation - she found a quiet corner, slightly out of the way, and sat down, waiting for her parents to work out she'd got lost and backtrack until they found her.

The first five minutes were OK. The second five minutes were a bit more nerve-wracking. By the fifteen minute mark, she was starting to have doubts if she'd ever see her parents again. Her over-active imagination was painting a scene where the now-destitute Twilight Sparkle would have to survive alone in the wasteland of the carnival, living off scraps discarded by visitors or hanging out underneath the roller-coasters, waiting for somepony to drop their wallet.

So she did the first thing that came into her head: she made a list. She unfolded the fold-up map they gave you and pulled a quill out of her saddlebag (because, her parents had told her, if there's one thing you'll continually be thankful for, it's that you happen to have a quill in your saddlebag), and she began to write:

REASONS WHY MY PARENTS WILL FIND ME

1. They are the sort of parents who always have quills in their saddlebags...

By the time her parents found her, Twilight had reached item number thirty-eight, and was debating whether "A foal is a considerable financial investment, and mother is always frugal" was item number thirty-nine, or whether it was simply an extension of item seventeen, "My parents have always told me they care for me and will look after me".

There were three things Twilight discovered that night:

First, that sometimes an overactive imagination is not the best thing to have.

Second, that she could indeed rely on her parents, even if her father had an odd way of building her character.

And third, if she ever felt that she was being overwhelmed, the best solution was to make a list.

Here was what her current list looked like:

TWILIGHT'S LIST OF PROBLEMS I NEED TO SOLVE

1. Who did the thing with Applejack's barn?

2. Patching things up with Rarity

3. Send Celestia a letter

4. Apologise to Rainbow Dash

5. Get Rainbow Dash to talk to other pegasi

6. Ask Pinkie Pie what I did last night

7. Research spells for un-burning gala tickets

8. Send Celestia a letter

9. Meet with Cheerilee. Loan her books.

10. Solve gala friendship problem.

11. SEND CELESTIA A LETTER

She stared at it. She felt she was missing at least five other problems. Still, she thought, it's a start. And that meant it was time for phase two.

On cue, Spike backed through the door, carrying an impressive pile of blank paper. "Here you go, Twilight," he said, placing it down carefully on the floor next to her desk. He stood up - the paper pile reached somewhere up to his shoulder. "What was this for again?"

"Brainstorming, Spike."

The dragon scratched his head. "I think most ponies only need a sheet or two for that, Twilight."

"Well," she said, tossing her head, "I guess most ponies are doing it wrong. Now, if there's nothing else, I have organising to do."

"Oh, yeah," said Spike, "there is something else. A letter came for you." He rummaged around on the bookshelf and pulled out an envelope, bound by a piece of string, a bit battered from being wedged in between two books. "No address or anything, somepony just slid it under the door."

Twilight sighed. She'd been looking forward to brainstorming. "Did you at least catch a glimpse of them?"

"I was cleaning upstairs," said Spike. "By the time I got to the door, they were gone."

Twilight took the letter from Spike, untied the string and opened it.

This is what the letter said:

    Twilight

    Something is rotten in the state of Equestria. Meet me behind Sugarcube Corner midnight tonight. Trust no one.

Yours,

An ally

The unicorn frowned. Then she passed the letter to Spike. The dragon read it, and then looked back up at her.

"Uh, Twilight, it says 'trust no one'."

"I know."

"Are you going to regularly start handing around messages people write to you which say 'trust no one' on them?"

"Spike, you aren't no one...or, you are anyone...or, uh." Twilight took a mental step back. "If I can't trust you, I'm dog food no matter what."

"Oh," said Spike. "Thanks. I guess."

Twilight returned to her list, her horn glowing as she picked up the quill once again. She played with the string in her hooves as she added:

1. Suspicious notes.

She stared at the piece of paper for a while. Something wasn't right.

"Uh, Twilight?" Spike asked.

Her hooves slowed down as she realized what she was doing. She was attempting to tie the knot she'd seen in the barn, it was a simple knot, ugly and effective like most pony knots.

And it was completely impossible to tie without magic, unless you had seven hooves.

Her quill floated into the air once again. She wrote at the end of her list:

1. KNOTS

She underlined it. Twice. Then she got up and walked out the door. As soon as she got onto the street, she set off towards town at a gallop.

Spike watched her go.

"I guess I'll clean up," he said.

Twilight finally found Fluttershy at Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie Pie was on shop again, and the pegasus had been roped into a discussion on sugar, demererra versus raw, the merits thereof. She looked rather relieved when Twilight opened the door.

"Twilight!" said Pinkie Pie by way of greeting. "You'll have an opinion on this!"

"On...what?" she asked.

Pinkie Pie huffed. "Well," she said, "if you're going to take that tone."

Twilight blinked. "I, uh, I need to talk to Fluttershy," she said.

Pinkie Pie's face fell. "But I made samples! To back up my arguments!" She ducked behind the counter.

"Samples?"

"Eff!" She reappeared, clutching an oven mitt. Held in the mitt was a tray of cupcakes. There were six cupcakes in total, three on either side, divided by...

"Pinkie, why is there a line of sugar down the centre of that tray?"

Pinkie placed the tray on the bench. "To keep them separate," the earth pony said, her eyes narrowing. "I'll have no common sugar cupcakes polluting my babies." She started to fawn over one side of the tray, pointedly ignoring the other.

"Well, looks like someone's playing favourites," Twilight muttered.

Pinkie Pie pushed a couple of the cupcakes towards Twilight and Fluttershy. "One each! Go on. Try them."

Twilight looked at them skeptically. Pinkie had offered them each one from her favoured batch. "I don't know, I didn't have breakfast that long ago." Her stomach informed her that actually, she'd skipped breakfast, what with the whole Applejack barn incident, and they were now coming up on lunch.

Fluttershy picked up one of the offered cupcakes, inspected it, sniffed it, and took a bite. Twilight looked on. It wasn't that there was anything inherently suspicious about Pinkie Pie's activity. It was just that Twilight had been subjected to enough in the past three days that her brain, faced with a problem like "Try one of Pinkie Pie's cupcakes", immediately started cataloguing every possible way in which the experience could go horrifically wrong.

"It's good," said Fluttershy.

"Tryyyyy iiiiiiit," said Pinkie Pie.

Twilight tried it.

It was good.

She tried the rest of it.

That was good too.

Then she was all out of cupcake.

She looked up. Pinkie Pie was watching her carefully, expectantly.

"That was...nice," Twilight managed.

"Sheeee liiiiked it!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "Now, try this one!" She spun the tray around and divvied up the remaining cupcakes - again, one for Twilight, one for Fluttershy, one for herself. The earth pony immediately rammed her cupcake into her mouth, crumbs flying everywhere as she pulled faces and made noises of disgust.

Twilight ate hers at a more sedate manner. It tasted exactly the same as the first. Fluttershy took a bite and put it back on the tray.

"Well?" said Pinkie.

"That was nice too," said Fluttershy.

"Nice? Nice?" Pinkie grimmaced. "Couldn't you taste the additives? The badness? The..." she gulped, suddenly looking green. "'scuse me." And she dashed through the door to the back room.

"So, Fluttershy," said Twilight, over the sounds of a frantic Pinkie Pie doing...something...with the remains of her inferior cupcake. "I had a look at the knot in the rope...you know the rope used in the...well....the thing." She gave the pegasus a conspiratorial stare.

"Oh," said Fluttershy.

Twilight's horn glowed as she absent-mindedly picked up one of the cupcakes Fluttershy had left on the tray. She took a bite as she continued. "It was a unicorn knot! But it looked like a pegasus knot!"

"Oh?"

"Yes! No one could have tied it but a unicorn! But whoever tied it, they wanted it to look like a Pegasus did it!"

"Oh!"

"Egshacly," said Twilight, cramming the last of the cupcake in her mouth. "And Rarity was so nice to me when she found I was investigating. I bet she thought it was clever, using her own mannequin. 'Oh'," Twilight mimed holding a hoof to her head, "'my dear, why would I incriminate myself so easily if I wanted to threaten Applejack?' It's her, it must be her." She grabbed Fluttershy's remaining cupcake from the tray and started to nibble on it. Her stomach was finally starting to settle down. "She could even stage the break-in to her own house," she muttered. "Open the window, reach around, bam, glass all over the floor. And I don't know about you, but I sure didn't see her sticking around at AJ's last night. Why, that-"

"Rarity was at my house last night," said Fluttershy.

Twilight coughed crumbs of sub-par cake over the counter. "She what?" She grabbed the pegasus by the shoulders. "When?"

"Around midnight. We were doing crochet."

"At midnight?"

Fluttershy looked at the ground. "It's hard to fit into my schedule."

"But Fluttershy, why didn't you say?"

"You seemed very excited."

"But...if she was at your place last night...then she can't have robbed her house...which means, if it wasn't her...it must have been someone else!"

"Yes, Twilight."

  "But if it was somepony else, it must have been unicorns! Two of them!" Twilight looked around the room. "You know what this means?"

"...no?"

"Just one pony, that's, well, that's just a disgruntled pony. But two? Two, Fluttershy, is a conspiracy."

"Oh my."

"I need to tell Applejack about this. You've been very helpful." And she turned to leave.

Pinkie Pie emerged from the back room just then. "Twilight!" she called.

"Sorry, Pinkie," the unicorn said, "business calls!" And she dashed out the door.

The earth pony sighed. "And I'd just put another batch on to bake," she said.

"Oh," said Fluttershy, "I was wondering...Twilight was very hungry..."

Pinkie gasped. "Did she eat your cupcake? Did Twilight eat your cupcake? That's horrid! Don't worry, I'm sure we have something out back." And the back door slammed as Pinkie Pie once more exited the room.

There was (relative) silence in the room. Fluttershy looked around and, once she was sure she was alone, trotted over to a particularly ornate cake, sitting on display on the counter. It had a castle on top, complete with towers and minarets.

"Rarity?" Fluttershy whispered to the cake. "Are...are you all right?"

The cake shifted slightly. "There's icing in my mane," it said. The castle shifted, and the tallest tower shed its icing to reveal a horn. The horn glowed blue, and the cake started to liquify, pooling and revealing a unicorn, her coat an unappealing matte white.

Rarity examined herself, still sitting in the middle of a pool of molten cake. "Ugh," she said, "I'm going to have to take five showers just to start dealing with this."

"Did you hear what Twilight said?"

"Yes, and thank you for covering for me. Let her think it's a bunch of unicorns - it'll keep her off the trail. In the meantime, the party is off, understand? No more cunning plans from either of us until I get things sorted."

"But what went wrong?"

"I have no idea. I was told that somepony sympathetic to our cause would be arriving in Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration, and naturally I assumed it was Twilight. Either somepony got their wires crossed, or somepony is playing games with us." She tossed her main, horn glowing as particles of icing flung themselves at the wall. Inspecting herself in the window, Rarity stood up and sighed. "Now. I think it's best we both start hiding any evidence that just happens to be lying around. Put it somewhere secure, or get rid of it. I don't think Twilight's going to give up on this one."

"Sure."

"I'll meet up with you again tonight, next to the bridge. I might have an idea of what to do by then. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to clean up."

Rarity stalked out of the bakery, daring anypony to comment on her looks. A few minutes later, Fluttershy followed, still looking around in case anyone was watching.

Pinkie burst through from the back room, tray balanced on her head. "I found some, Fluttershy! I found..." She trailed off when she noticed she was alone.

"Oh," she said, placing the tray on the bench. "I guess I have to eat all the cupcakes. Again."

Applejack, it turned out, was harder to find than Twilight expected. Big Mac was the only pony working at Sweet Apple Acres, and he told Twilight that his sisters and grandmother had takens a day or so off work to head out to the old distillery, out in Everfree Forest. They'd be back sometime tomorrow, and he could leave a message if she wanted. As nice as Big Mac seeed, Twilight didn't trust anyone right now - instead, she told him, she'd be back tomorrow to talk to them.

Twilight's next task was to talk to Rainbow Dash. She knew she should probably leave it longer than a couple of hours, to let the pegasus' mood cool, but she wanted to set things straight.

Of course, finding Rainbow Dash was another thing entirely.

Twilight's current method went like this: she'd wander around town, eyes on the sky, looking for a suspiciously low and slow-moving cloud. Then she'd either throw things at it or shout at it until either (a) she'd worked out it didn't contain the sleeping form of Rainbow Dash, (b) it did and she woke the pegasus up, or (c) people started looking at her funny. If this didn't work, she'd start doing the shout/throw routine with convenient tree branches and rooftops, although it didn't usually come to that.

And so Twilight spent a good hour wandering around Ponyville, neck cricked at an awkward angle, watching every low-flying cloud in case it turned into a sleeping pegasus. And another half-hour throwing rocks at trees. And she would have spent a good twenty minutes or so scrambling up convenient drain-pipes and scaling walls in a manner quite unbecoming to the town librarian (and personal student of Princess Celestia) had she not rounded a corner, gaze fixed on the sky, and run smack-dab into another pony.

"Argh!" she cried, eyes still fixed on the sky. "I mean, oh! Sorry! Didn't see you there."

"Twilight!"

"Uh-huh."

"Twilight, it's me!"

"Huh?" She took her glance off of the sky for a moment. "Oh, hi Cheerilee! I, uh, I was busy watching the sky, you see, so I, uh, I guess I didn't notice it was you?"

Cheerilee gave her a level look.

"That didn't sound as good out loud as it did in my head, did it?"

"No, no it probably didn't."

What happened to grovelling and calling me ma'am? Twilight wondered. She didn't want to admit it, but it was kind of fun having people defer to you.

She sighed. "Can I start again?"

Cheerilee smiled. "It's OK," she said, "I wanted to talk to you anyway. About books."

"Oh!" said Twilight. "Books!" She knew books. "What about books?"

"Some of the ones in your library, the ones that might help an aging earth pony learn Equestrian. Are you busy right now?"

Here was the thing Twilight hadn't written to Celestial about regarding friendship: it's like a drug. It's happy and fun and when you're high on friendship you can do anything; when it leaves you, you want it back, like there's a hole in you that you didn't even know was there.

At least, that's what she told herself as her and Cheerilee made their way back to the library, chatting about school and Canterlot and everything in between. Part of her brain was yelling at her, telling her that she needed to fix problems like the whole thing with Rainbow Dash and the way Rarity had been acting and Applejack's barn incident and she hadn't even thought about how she'd explain the tickets thing to Celestia, but right now she was quite happy to deal with all those problems later.

Spike had just finished cleaning up when Twilight burst in the door. "Spike," she instructed. "We have a copy of My Little Reader still, yes?"

"Well, I've only just re-glued the spine on one of them. It really should dry for another-"

"Bring them out, please."

"Oh, honestly," said Cheerilee, "it isn't really that urgent-"

"Cheerilee, you know how long I've been in charge of this library?"

The schoolteacher counted under her breath. "Six days?"

"...yes. And you know how many ponies have been here to look at my books?"

"How many?"

"Four. You, and your three students."

"Don't be silly. There must be plenty of ponies in Ponvyille who want to get books out."

"Must there? Because I haven't seen them. If somepony wants to get a book out, especially if it means they'll read more, I don't see why anything should stand in their way."

Spike re-entered, carrying four matched booked in his arms. He placed them gently on the table. "Be careful with volume three," he said, keeping a protective claw on the corner of the pile. "It's still not really ready for public consumption." He shot Twilight a glare.

Cheerilee smiled at the dragon. "Thank you," she said, "I'll look after them like they're my own." She opened the top volume with a hoof, scanning the page. "'Yellow Star...chases...the ball. Chase the ball, Yellow Star.'" She looked back at Twilight. "This is a bit low-level, isn't it?"

Twilight gave a sheepish grin. "Well, no offence, but your reading age is only a bit higher than this. And, uh, we don't actually have that many books for young foals. Anyway, Yellow Star is a classic! I learned to read with it." When I was three, she didn't add.

The earth pony sighed. "I guess I have a long way to go." She shook her head. "Sorry," she said. "You're going to all this trouble to help me, and all I can do is complain." She carefully pushed the books into her saddlebag. "Thank you, both of you. I'll take good care of them."

"It's no problem," said Twilight, "honestly." Even Spike seemed mollified by Cheerilee's concern. The earth pony settled the saddlebags on her back, and made her way to the door. She paused in the doorway, hoof raised.

"Uh," she said, "Twilight."

"Yes?" The unicorn looked up.

"You've done some travelling, haven't you?"

"Well, a bit."

"...what's it like in Hoofington?"

"Hoofington?" Twilight thought. "A lot like here, I guess. It's a pretty small place, they're maybe a bit further from Everfree than we are."

"Do they....do they need teachers in Hoofington?"

"Cheerilee, everywhere needs teachers. Canterlot needs teachers." She frowned. "Why're you interested?"

"Oh," the earth pony said dismissively, "I was just thinking I needed a holiday soon, that's all."

"Oh, right!" Twilight grinned. "Well, I guess you deserve it. Must be tiring, teaching those foals all week."

Cheerilee nodded, distracted. "Anyway," she said, "thanks for the books. I'll see you around."

Spike watched the earth pony trot down the road. Twilight started to shift books around, humming to herself.

"What's got into you?" the dragon asked.

"I made a friend! And I just thought about how I'll write to Celestia and explain the ticket thing, and I don't even have to mention that I was....ah...inebriated."

"It's 'drunk', Twilight. What you were, was 'drunk'." Spike looked back at the door. "Did Cheerilee seem a little preoccupied to you, Twilight?"

"She's probably got a lot on her mind," Twilight said. "All those kids, plus she's trying to learn Equestrian now. Now, bring me some more paper. I'm going to write a letter, and it's going to be perfect. And nothing can possibly go wrong."

The sun was well down when Twilight finally set down the quill. Her fifth (and, she hoped, final) revision of the letter sat on the desk in front of her. Spike was curled up on a pile of particularly soft almanacs in the corner - his plans for a quiet evening had been thwarted by Twilight's constant demands for ink, paper, or reference materials, and in the end he'd given up and set up shop in the corner of her study.

Twilight reviewed the letter once again:

Dear Princess Celestia,

First, my greatest apologies for the tardiness of this letter, but I have had many matters weighing on my mind regarding the nature of friendship, and I wanted to make sure that I had my thoughts in order before I wrote to you. I felt that for such an important lesson as this, it were better that I leave this letter for a few days rather than make a rush job of it and perhaps leave you thinking I weren't taking this course as seriously as I am.

Friendship is about ponies, not about things. I see now why you sent me the tickets to the Gala - to test whether I was truly friends with these ponies, or whether I was willing to play favourites or give up a ticket for favours. I have to admit, the temptation was strong. In order to keep myself from giving in, I'm afraid I was forced to dispose of the tickets, preventing me from inviting anypony to the Gala with me. I'm sure you understand that the loss of two tickets is nothing - nothing - compared to the loss of a friend.

I hope I'm not laying it on too thick, she thought to herself. Nonetheless, the letter continued:

While I'm writing to you, I feel I should also mention a new friend I made here in Ponyville. While I'm very grateful to you for introducing me to my friends Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Fluttershy (and Pinkie Pie is friends with everypony), I can't help but feel that I was unfairly advantaged. Thus, I'm glad to say that I met and became friends with Cheerilee, the teacher here in Ponyville, of my own volition, without any outside help. The school here is in dire need of an upgrade - I'm frankly appalled at the literacy rates here - and I see it as my mission to bring magic and science to bear on the problem. I'm sure her and I will have a long and fruitful friendship as we seek to improve Equestria.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle

She paused biting her lip. Then she lifted the quill and added:

P.S. Apparently you already know Cheerilee! She said she'd done some work for you in the past. I didn't know you were this heavily invested in Ponyville. We'll obviously have a lot to talk about when I see you next.

Sitting the quill down next to the parchment, letting the ink dry. She gave the letter another once-over, then a twice-over just to make sure.

"Well," she muttered to herself, "I should send it now or it'll never get done." She trotted over to Spike, who was snoring gently in the corner. She smiled. "Spike," she said, nudging the dragon gently, "Spike, that can't actually be comfortable."

Spike rolled over, still asleep, mumbling to himself. "Why, Rarity," he slurred, "fancy meeting you here..."

"Sorry," said Twilight with a grin, "I don't think you'll be having any meetings with..." her eyes widened as she remembered this morning's letter. "Meeting!" she half-shouted.

Spike's eyes flew open. "Fire!" he yelled.

"Spike, I'll be late for my meeting!"

"Oh," the dragon said.

The unicorn set off upstairs at a canter. Spike curled back up into a ball, and was busy getting back to sleep when Twilight clattered back down the stairs, dressed in a long cloak.

"Spike, can I get you to send that letter? The one on the writing desk. I need to get to this meeting. Do I like conspiratorial enough? Ooh, maybe I look too conspiratorial. Maybe I'll stand out. What if there's other ponies around there at this time? Do you think they'll think it's odd if I'm-"

"Twilight," Spike said. "Go."

"OK, bye!" Twilight said, and barged open the door. A few seconds later she returned. "Letter!" she said. "It's urgent."

"Sure, I'll get on it. Now go."

And Twilight went.

The lights were out at Sugarcube Corner. Nopony was around. Twilight slipped from shadow to shadow (or at least, she tried to slip from shadow to shadow, but since her reference for this was numerous spy novels, she mainly tiptoed from the lee of one wall to the next rather conspicuously). Soon she was plastered up against the side of the bakery, looking around nervously.

"Psst," she whispered into the darkness.

"I can see you," came a voice from the shadows. It was high and weedy, like nopony she'd heard before. She'd hoped she could work out who her co-conspirator was from the tone of their voice, but it seemed she'd have no luck on that account.

"I came, like you asked," Twilight said. "Now, what's this letter about?"

"Twilight," the voice said, "you're in grave danger."

The unicorn looked around nervously.

"Not right now," the voice continued. "In general. Here. In Ponyville."

"Is this about Pinkie Pie's baking? Because-"

"No! It's not about Pinkie Pie's baking. Well...it's probably not about Pinkie Pie's baking."

"Oooh, is it about Rarity and her complete inability to consider earth ponies as actual ponies? Because I'm already-"

"It's far worse than a bit of latent prejudice, Twilight."

"Oh, then it must be about-"

"Will you let me get a word in edgewise."

Twilight shut up.

The voice cleared its throat. "Twilight Sparkle, the town of Ponyville is compromised. Have you heard of the Party?"

Twilight blinked. "Are you sure this isn't about Pinkie Pie?"

"Not that party, Twilight. The Party."

Twilight ransacked her brain. "Um...pass?"

"Have you ever wondered why Celestia stayed in power all these years?"

"Well, duh, because she's a Princess. She has amazing magical powers! She moves the sun. What'd we do without her?"

"What would you do without her? Indulge me."

"Well..." Twilight fell silent for a moment or two. "The unicorns could handle the sun and moon, I guess. We're not as powerful as she and Luna are, but working together we could find some way of doing it. After all, we did it before Celestia and Luna came along. I guess the Pegasi would continue to control the weather, so we'd have that tied up." She looked up, into the darkness where she guessed the voice was coming from. "But what about the enemies of Equestria? What about, about the Ursa Maximus, or Discord, or the Beasts of Tartarus? They're more than a match for us ponies."

"Have you already forgotten what you did here, in Ponyville? Six ordinary ponies against Nightmare Moon. And you won."

"Well, yes, I guess, but that was one time. Celestia's done that over and over."

"And strangely enough every single story is well before living memory."

Twilight narrowed her eyes. "Just what are you implying?"

She could have coped if the voice sounded smug, or even angry. Instead it sounded...sympathetic. "Maybe none of these things happened. Or maybe Celestia's just spun them the right way. But she seems to be defending Equestria from evil an awful lot over the past millenium or two."

"What, and you think she'd do that just to stay in power?"

"Broadly, yes. Wouldn't you?"

Twilight sniffed. "This is treason."

"Yes, but that's not important. What's important is-"

"Not important?" Twilight said. She barely remembered to keep her voice below a whisper. "You're talking about why we should overthrow the Princess of Equestria and it's not important?"

"No! Well, yes, but it's not important now! What's important is-"

"I've a good mind to report you to the Mayor. Except I don't know who you are. But I know your voice now, traitor! And when I hear you in the street, I'm going to report you so hard!"

"Twilight-!"

"No. Spike's already sent my letter to Celestia this week, so this incident will have to wait. But she'll hear about it. And she'll not be happy about your lies."

"Twilight-!"

But the unicorn tossed her main and galloped out of the alleyway and down the street, heedless of any onlookers.

"...but Twi," the voice said, "you're in danger."

Twilight checked herself before letting the door to the library bang open. Spike was curled, alseep on the pile of manuscripts where Twilight had left him. The letter from her desk was gone, so at least he'd sent that first.

Twilight closed the door behind her and stood in the lobby, counting silently to ten. Then, somewhat calmer, she walked quietly into the main room.

She hadn't meant the voice to get to her like that. She didn't know what it was about his insinuations, but Celestia had been her teacher and mentor these last ten years. After that long, you developed a bond with someone, and when you heard them insulted in front of your face...well...

Spike turned over and yawned, not opening his eyes. Twilight smiled. At least there were some ponies - some people - she could rely on. Her horn glowed as she settled a blanket around the sleeping dragon.

"I'll let you rest," she said quietly. "Looks like we've both had a long day." And then, quietly, she climbed the stairs to bed.

Cheerilee locked the classroom door behind her. Her heart was racing, even now.

It wasn't that meeting a mysterious figure in the centre of Ponyville in the middle of the night was scary, per se. Nor did the content of his message frighten her. As much as she hated to admit it sometimes, she was a loyal Party member, and when something needed to be done in Ponyville, they came to her. She was used to their schemes.

No. What bothered her was Twilight.

The mysterious figure (they always wore cloaks, and they always kept to the shadows, and she could never work out who they were from their voices, either) had told her in no uncertan terms: Twilight's wheerabouts and activities were to be tracked, recorded, and reported. Anything she did, anyone she talked to, should be noted down. And anything she did that could indicate the presence of some sort of resistance group in Ponyville should be reported immediately. If the unicorn looked set to blow the Party's cover in Ponyville, Cheerilee was to deal with things her own way.

Which made Cheerilee's stomach crawl. She liked Twilight. Most of the ponies in Ponyville didn't get why Cheerilee was a teacher. She sure as hell didn't do it for the bits. Twilight understood and, more than that, encouraged her. And now she was forced to betray her new friend.

And then the figure had said: "In case you need it," and passed her a sheet of paper. It was a small sheet, but on it was listed the name of every Party member in Ponyville. There were five in all, but it was the two names at the top of the list that surprised Cheerilee the most.

She needed to talk to Twilight. The list was safely locked in her desk drawer, but they were going to be checking up on her, she knew it. Giving her the name of every Party pony in Ponyville? They were lining her up for a promotion, and the last thing she wanted to do was get more involved in this mess.

Yes, she thought to herself, Twilight's a smart pony. If I tell her, she'll know what to do. Her hooves trembled slightly as she locked the hallway door, her keys clunking together the only sound in the entire building.

A giggle came from the darkness, shrill and unnerving. Cherilee whipped around, but there was no one there.

She stood like that, frozen, for a full five minutes. It felt like an hour. After her meeting, she was on edge.

Finally, she let out a breath. "You're letting this get to you," she muttered. It was her imagination. It'd been a long day, and then, well, this...she was hearing things. She gave the hallway door a shove, just to make sure it was locked, and turned to leave.

"Snitching, are we?"

Cherilee whirled again. There was someone here! "Scootaloo, if this is you, you're getting detention. For a month."

Silence. That unnerved her more than anything. "This school is private property," she said, pawing at the ground. "You're trespassing right now. I've a good mind to call-"

"Call who?" the voice continued. "The Party? You've been reporting to them. Haven't you, Cherliee?"

She whipped her head back and forth. Where was the voice coming from? Backing towards the door, she replied, "They didn't give me any choice! They came and asked questions and they threatened to take away my licence! I'm the only one in Ponyville who can teach the foals!"

"And that was all it took for you to start ratting our your friends, Cherilee? A little bit of blackmail?"

"They threatened the school!" Cherilee called out. "They threatened the children!" She reached out with her hindhoof, and felt the wall against her. Almost there. Now to keep the voice talking for a bit longer... "The Party know everything anyway! They have ponies everywhere!" There, she felt the edge of the door behind her. Keeping a watch on the hallway, her hooves fumbled at the latch, opening it with a quiet snick.

And then she was outside. The moon was new tonight - only the stars lit up the scene. She tuned and closed the door behind her, as carefully as she could. She backed down the steps onto the grass of the front yard. Only then did she breathe out.

"Silly Cherilee," came the voice from right behind her. "I'm the only party pony in Ponyville."