The Equestrian Zone

Chapters

Episode 1 - Muffin, Muffin
Episode 2 - Living Pony
Episode 4 - Four O'Clock
Episode 5 - A Nice Place to Visit
Episode 6 - One for the Alicorns
Episode 7 - From Celestia... With Love
Episode 8 - The Silence
Episode 9 - The Changing of the Guard (TEASER)
Episode 3 - I Am the Night, Color Me Luna

Episode 1 - Muffin, Muffin

Lyra’s eyes slowly opened as the sun came through the bedroom window. It took her a few moments to register the dream she’d been having was over. She lifted herself up to find she was the same pony as she had ever been; two bright teal hooves pointed at her, another fell slightly out of the sheets, and a fourth wrapped around the leg of her sleeping partner.

Nope, Lyra thought. Still don’t have hands.

Unable to lie back down and return to sleep, Lyra got up and went over to the mail slot. The slot kept rattling and rattling as Lyra heard a crinkling of paper from the other side. Lyra went over to and opened the door to find a familiar grey Pegasus with blonde hair trying to shove mail into the mail slot.

“Why don’t I take that off your hooves, Ditzy,” Lyra yawned.

“Oops,” Ditzy said. “My bad.” She took the mail in her hoof and extended it to Lyra, who quickly grabbed it with her unicorn magic and set it down on a small table nearby. “Oh, and there’s one more thing here, too.”

Lyra stared in confusion at Ditzy as she rifled through her postal carrier bag. Other ponies’ mail went flying all over the place until the Pegasus pulled out a small wooden box with a metal lock on it. Lyra took the box and examined it, noticing something was etched on its lid. “Is… that all?” she asked, suddenly awake.

“For today,” Ditzy said cheerily. “Well, I’ve got to get going now. Lots of mail to deliver. Bye!”

Lyra ignored Ditzy trying to collect all the dropped mail and went inside with the box. Upon closer inspection, the box was of a very fine and polished oak and was made with such skill that Lyra assumed it was a jewelry box from Canterlot. While a very fine thing to think, Lyra knew no such pony in Ponyville that would have the necessary funds in order to buy one of them. And the medal lock was made from such a strong medal that Lyra’s magic couldn’t break it open.

Setting the box on the kitchen counter for a moment, Lyra turned her attention to the other mail she had been given. There was a bill from the electric company, a bill from the gas company, a bill for a credit card, a notice that the available bit amount was lowered for said credit card because of failure to pay it back, and a letter for the upcoming taxes. Lyra had at least been hoping for acceptance to her application from the local Ponyville symphony – ran by Octavia, who also was first chair cellist though wanted to go to Canterlot – in order to be able to practice with them. Even a simple job response from the bank would be enough, but the fact remained that Lyra was astoundingly in debt.

A groan from the adjacent room told Lyra her roommate was awake. The beige pony with a frazzled pink and blue main slouched over to the kitchen and pulled out a pan and some eggs. “Mail come in this morning?” she said.

“Bon Bon,” Lyra asked, “aren’t you supposed to be receiving a paycheck soon?”

“Why do you ask?” Bon Bon said, turning around to face the teal and white pony.

Lyra shoved the stack of bills over to her. Bon Bon quickly sorted through them with her hoof and sighed. “If only the Cakes would promote me higher than that Pinkie Pie. I swear, she makes a total mess of the kitchen while I am neat and organized. I don’t know why they keep her on. Anyways, if they did, I’d be getting a bigger pay and we wouldn’t be in this mess.” She turned back around and continued cooking eggs for two.

Lyra and Bon Bon went to eat at a small table when the latter noticed the box still sitting on the counter. “What’s that?”

“I don’t know,” Lyra responded.

“Is it a jewelry box?” Bon Bon asked, confused.

“I don’t think so,” Lyra said. “Neither of us wear jewelry; what would we need a jewelry box for?”

Bon Bon went over to the box and grabbed it with her mouth before bringing it over to where she and Lyra were eating. “There’s something etched on it.”

“Read it, then.”

Bon Bon turned the box around until she could see it right-side up. “You have been given this box courtesy of a very special friend. This friend shall come around this night wearing a cloak as black as oil. You will be given a choice.”

Lyra blinked. “Sounds like a bunch of nonsense.”

“I agree,” Bon Bon said as she finished her eggs. “I’ll take it with me and throw it in the trash on my way to work.” She washed her dishes and packed a small salad to take with her before heading for the door. “Are you playing today?”

“Practicing for tomorrow,” Lyra said. “There’s supposed to be a festival tomorrow night in the park and I want to be ready for it. Twilight let me borrow a book of musical compositions from the library a week ago.”

“Very well,” Bon Bon said, and headed out the door. “I’ll be home sometime this afternoon.” And she left.

Lyra finished her egg then went to pluck some strings.

Later that evening, after Bon Bon had returned home and dinner had been eaten, Lyra went to practice her lyre again in the bedroom. She was interrupted after the first few notes by a strange knocking coming from the door.

“Who is that knocking on the door?” Bon Bon shouted from the living room.

“A friend.” The voice resounded throughout the house like the royal Canterlot voice. “A very special friend.”

Lyra went to the living room and looked at Bon Bon attempting to peek out the mail slot.

“You get it,” she said quickly.

Lyra walked carefully towards the door and opened it. Standing outside was a very large pony in a black cloak that almost made her blend in with the night. The pony had a dark blue coat that was barely indistinguishable from cloak, and nothing else could be seen of it other than piercing white eyes and a blue aura that held a familiar box.

Bon Bon screamed.

The stranger walked in to the house uninvited, passing an astonished Lyra, before setting the box on the table where they had eaten dinner earlier that evening. A single hoof waved Lyra and Bon Bon over, and the two ponies went over to the table and sat down in the chairs the pony had magicked out for them.

“I’ve come here with a proposition,” the pony began, speaking much quieter. “One that deals with this box.”

“What sort of box is it?” Lyra asked.

“A special sort of box,” the pony said. “Inside this box… is a muffin.”

“A muffin?” Bon Bon scoffed as she regained her former composure. “What would we need a muffin for? This is starting to sound a bit overblown to me.”

“Now, now,” the pony chided. “Don’t be so quick to judge. You see, there are special properties attached to this muffin. Firstly, it is a special chocolate chip muffin, a blue-ribbon prize winning muffin at the Canterlot Dessert Competition from fifteen years ago and has been regarded as the most perfect muffin to have ever existed. The recipe has been kept secret by one family, one family that you know very well.”

“It’s still just a muffin,” Lyra commented.

“Ah, but with this muffin are magical properties. Things can change at the slightest whim of whoever eats it. Not beyond reason, of course, but the side effects of eating it can be… very strange.”

“So, what is your proposition regarding this muffin?” Bon Bon asked.

“You have two choices. Eat the muffin, or don’t eat the muffin. Do not eat the muffin, and you will be given a prize equivalent to it’s worth. Eat the muffin, and you will be given a hundred thousand bits, but something will happen in regards to your cutie mark.”

Lyra looked at her lyre. Bon Bon stared at the three pieces of candy.

“You have three days,” the figure continued without waiting for a response. “At the end of those three days, I will come back and either take back the muffin and give you your prize, or I shall watch you eat the muffin and you shall obtain the hundred thousand bits and whatever price your cutie mark shall pay. And you’ll need this to open it.” The pony brought out a small silver key. “Good night.”

Again without waiting for a response, the pony walked out of the house and disappeared in what Lyra could only describe as a tacky cloud of purple smoke.

“Well,” Lyra said after a long moment of silence. “What do you think?”

Bon Bon turned to Lyra as though dazed. “What do you mean?”

“What should we do about this box?”

Bon Bon’s head faced the floor. “I think… we should go to bed. In the morning, we’ll wake up and find out this has all been some sort of strange dream. Our lives will… go on as normal, I guess.”

Although she was trying to sound as tough about the issue as she had earlier, Lyra could tell that Bon Bon had no energy. “I suppose you’re right,” the unicorn said.

Nope, Lyra thought. Still don’t have hands.

Unable to go back to sleep, Lyra got up from the bed and decided to make herself breakfast so she could get started with practicing for that evening’s festival. Lyra lazily trotted to the kitchen and began making herself breakfast before turning her attention to the small oak box that sat on the table.

It wasn’t a dream, Lyra thought. We really do have this box.

Taking her breakfast over to the table, Lyra sat and stared at the box. She looked over it again and again, from the etchings to the lock to the silver key next to the box. Bon Bon had yet to wake up and Lyra decided that it wouldn’t hurt to just peek at the muffin. Taking the silver key and steadying it in the lock, Lyra turned the key until she heard a small click come from the interior of the box, taking her hooves and carefully opening the box.

Inside, as the stranger from the night before had said, there was a muffin. A small wisp of steam rose from the top of the lightly browned muffin. Lyra could see small chocolate chips scattered around the muffin. Forgetting her unicorn magic, Lyra took her hooves and gently lifted the muffin out of the box and brought it up to her nose; the muffin was soft but held up against the pressure from Lyra’s hooves. She smelled the muffin and noticed she was starting to drool. There was no doubt about it; this was the perfect muffin.

“Lyra!” a voice shouted from somewhere nearby, startling the unicorn. “What are you doing with that muffin? Were you going to eat it?”

“N-No!” Lyra said, placing the muffin back into the box with her magic. “I was just taking a look at it. I had to make sure it was real.”

“Thank goodness,” Bon Bon said, still annoyed. “Who knows what would have happened if you had eaten that danged thing.”

Lyra whined.

“Oh, don’t look at me that way,” Bon Bon said. “Just remember we have three days to make a decision before that stranger comes back.”

Lyra nodded.

“You’re playing at the festival tonight?” Bon Bon said.

“Yeah,” Lyra said. “I’ll be practicing for most of the day.”

“Alright. I hope the Cakes will let me out early to join up with you, but don’t wait for me.”

“Okay. Hope work goes better than yesterday.”

Bon Bon smiled as Lyra left the room to go practice.

Bon Bon hadn’t returned home by the time of the start of the festival, so Lyra left for the park on her own, her lyre levitating next to her in its case. She wasn’t as quick as other ponies all around her were, feeling slightly apprehensive about how ponies would react to her playing. The harvest festival was a big thing at Sweet Apple Acres, and Lyra hoped she would be able to get even a small audience.

The festival was crowded and well-lit before Lyra even arrived. The teal unicorn went around and said ‘hi’ to some of her friends, not mentioning the box with the muffin when someone asked her how her week had been going. A few others suggested going to the unemployment office when Lyra mentioned her debt but Lyra only smiled weakly and said “I’ll think about it” before trotting off.

A small stage was set up for small talent acts and a small fee was required for entry. Even though the price to enter was small, Lyra found that she didn’t have the proper funds in order to be able to join.

“No need to worry,” said a voice from somewhere near her.

Lyra looked around, dropping her lyre case and nearly screaming from surprise as she noticed the pony in the black cloak standing next to her. “Your entry price has already been paid and you are on that list,” the voice said as though not taking notice of Lyra’s reaction. The larger pony sighed. “I hope you do well on this most wonderful of nights. Perhaps the even the stars themselves shall aid you.”

Lyra looked over at the booth for the stage, then turned back to where the pony was standing. Or rather, had been standing; just as soon as Lyra turned her head around the pony was no longer there. Lyra blinked stupidly for a moment before walking over to the booth.

“What’s your name?” the unicorn at the table asked.

“Lyra,” Lyra responded.

The unicorn flipped through a few pieces of paper. “You’re the one playing the lyre?”

“Y-Yes,” Lyra responded.

The unicorn nodded and returned the papers to their original state. “Come with me. You will be allowed on stage in five minutes, and will have ten to twenty minutes of time to play whatever you want. You can place your case out for tips if you’d like. Are you ready?”

Lyra nodded as the unicorn took her behind the stage.

“Very well, then. Wait here for a few minutes and I’ll announce your name when we’re ready.”

Lyra nodded again and sat down, taking out her lyre to polish it and tune the strings. When she was finished, she waited anxiously for the unicorn to call her name. When he did, Lyra quietly walked on stage, settled herself on a pillow, and grabbed the microphone to move it closer to her lyre. She levitated the lyre in front of her and extended her hooves before beginning to gently pluck the strings of her first song.

It wasn’t long before Lyra found herself becoming lost in her playing. The tune was a simple one, one she had studied for weeks and found easy to play. The tune was a slow one, played calmly upon the strings of her lyre. There were a few faster parts, but Lyra had mastered them with ease and now quickly and smoothly played her lyre through those parts. Once or twice she looked out to the audience to see a small crowd of ponies watching her in awe and she smiled before returning to her work. A spotlight soon shone on Lyra as she continued playing her song, but soon it was all over and she was met with excited cheers and ponies going up to the stage and placing bits in her case.

The next song Lyra played was a simple olden hymn with slight variations in tempo and sound of her strings. Lyra wished she had somepony to back her up while she played, but the ponies still cheered with delight as she played her song. More ponies came to watch and more ponies came to place bits in her case as Lyra continued, slightly embellishing the last portions of the song to make it even grander than just her alone. By the time she had finished with her second song, Lyra was exhausted and the bits were falling out of her lyre case. Lyra bowed as the ponies cheered her again and she closed up her case and began walking off the stage.

“That was… quite the performance,” came a sophisticated-sounding voice.

Lyra looked around and just about squeed when she found who was looking at her. There was no mistaking the grey pony with the pink and white bowtie around her neck. “Octavia!” Lyra said delightedly. “You… you were watching me perform?”

“Yes, I was. And I am impressed. Not many ponies can play Claire de Luna on a piano, not to mention a lyre like you did.”

Lyra felt something that was between giddiness and shock though wasn’t sure which one she felt more.

“Tell me, what’s your name?” Octavia asked.

“L-Lyra,” the unicorn said as a smile grew on her face.

“I shall not be forgetting that performance any time soon, Lyra,” Octavia said, a much more refined and restrained smile settling on her face. “Well done.” And she walked off.

A little while later, a teal unicorn pony was seen laughing delightedly as she hopped around the fair like Pinkie Pie.

It was later still when Lyra returned, worn out from happiness as she placed the bits into a small chest she kept next to her before flopping onto the bed and immediately fell asleep.

The next morning, Lyra was awakened by the sound of a click coming from the next room. Wondering who was making that noise so early in the morning, Lyra walked out of the bedroom to see Bon Bon fiddling with the box with the muffin inside of it.

“Bon Bon!” Lyra said. “Where were you last night while I was at the festival?”

“I was also at the festival,” Bon Bon growled. “Working.”

Bon Bon’s quickness to anger upset Lyra and she walked over to the table and sat down with Bon Bon. “What happened?”

“The Cakes needed an extra worker at the festival,” Bon Bon said. “I was working until late last night, but all that running around made me stay awake. I haven’t slept since yesterday.”

“Um… do you get the day off?”

“Thankfully. But I can’t stand working there any longer!” Bon Bon shouted, nearly startling Lyra out of her chair. “Pinkie Pie always messes up everything I do! I try to make something, but it fails miserably because she wants to interfere to try something new. She’s always dragging me away from my work in order for me to help her with some little project she has. The Cakes do nothing to stop her and always are saying I should help her out! And I hardly am getting any overtime for the hours I had to work at the fair because the Cakes need the money to buy more supplies because Pinkie keeps using them!”

Lyra had no idea what to say.

“Um… Bon Bon…”

Bon Bon shot a death glare at Lyra, who recoiled but continued onwards. “I… made some money at the festival last night from the talent stage. I was also talked to by Octavia.”

“Wonderful,” Bon Bon said, but showed no joy or excitement. “You got back the entry fee, I’m assuming.”

“No. More than that.”

Bon Bon raised an eyebrow. “Show me.”

Lyra brought out the chest full of bits and placed it on the table and opened it so that Bon Bon could see. Together, Lyra and Bon Bon started taking out the bits and counting them until small stacks of bits filled the table.

“It’s… it’s enough money to pay off all our debts,” Bon Bon said.

“So… we don’t need to eat the muffin for the money?” Lyra said.

Bon Bon growled. “Are you crazy!?” she said, a maniacal look in her eye. Her voice became deeper and faster the longer she continued. “This is only enough to pay off this month’s debts. It won’t be enough to pay off any other debts we might occur. This meager amount is nothing compared to the hundred thousand bits we get if we eat that muffin.”

“But what about our cutie marks?” Lyra pleaded. “If something bad happens to my lyre cutie mark, I might not be able to keep playing. And… and what if it happened to yours? It’s possible we’d have the hundred thousand bits but not a way to keep adding bits to that. And let’s not forget a prize for not eating that muffin.”

“Do you want to know how much a muffin is worth?” Bon Bon asked.

“About two bits,” Lyra said.

“What prize is there going to be if we don’t eat it, then?” Bon Bon said. “What sort of life-changing reward will we get if we don’t eat the muffin? Nothing!”

“What about my cutie mark? I had Octavia come up to me today and applaud me for my performance! She might even ask me to join the Ponyville symphony orchestra! What would happen if my cutie mark were to change?”

“There’s the possibility of you becoming the best lyre player Equestria has ever known!”

“There’s also the possibility of you becoming the worst chef Equestria has ever known!”

“I say we should eat it!” Bon Bon shouted, raising herself up with the table as she stood on her hind legs.

“I say we shouldn’t eat it!” Lyra said as she rose to match Bon Bon’s height.

“Should!”

“Shouldn’t!”

“Should!”

“Shouldn’t!”

“We are going to eat that muffin!”

“We are not going to eat that muffin!”

“Fine!” Bon Bon shrieked. “If you won’t eat it, then I will all by myself when that stranger comes around tomorrow! And you shan’t have a single bite of it! Say goodbye to a taste of the single most perfect muffin ever made, because it’s all mine!”

Using her magic, Lyra flipped the table over, sending both Bon Bon and the box flying backwards. “Fine, then!” she said. “Be that way! Don’t care about what happens to our cutie marks!” And she stormed off to the bedroom, locking it so that Bon Bon couldn’t get in before settling down uneasily and waiting until the next night or at least until her roommate calmed down.

The next morning, Lyra carefully unlocked the bedroom door and slowly walked out to see Bon Bon sitting at the table staring intently at the box as though it was going to move.

“Bon Bon…?” Lyra asked.

Bon Bon didn’t move.

“H-Have you eaten anything?” Lyra asked.

Bon Bon slowly shook her head.

“Do you want anything?”

Bon Bon slowly shook her head again.

Lyra gulped but walked over to the table all the same and sat down. The two remained at the table, staring at the box for a long time.

“You won’t be eating the muffin with me?” Bon Bon asked.

“No,” Lyra responded.

“Fine.” Bon Bon fell silent again.

The silence was not broken until that evening when a knock came at the door. Lyra slowly got up and walked over to the door as she opened it with her magic to reveal the now familiar cloaked figure standing at the door.

“Have you made your decision?” the figure said.

“My roommate is going to eat the muffin,” Lyra said.

The figure stared at her with the whites of its eyes. “…and what about yourself?”

“I will not be partaking in the muffin.”

“You won’t be getting any prize.”

“It will keep my mind at ease.”

“Only your friend shall get the reward of the hundred thousand bits and the price paid only to her cutie mark.”

“I shall take that risk of not getting the reward.”

The cloaked pony nodded and walked inside to where Bon Bon was at the table looking at the box. Taking the silver key, the figure opened the box and brought out the muffin with its magic, handing it to Bon Bon. “You must eat the entire muffin for you to get the reward.”

Bon Bon nodded.

The cloaked pony brought the muffin over to Bon Bon’s mouth, the wisp of smoke still rising from the top. Bon Bon bit into the muffin and Lyra heard a “mmmmmmm” come from her roommate’s mouth as she chewed the muffin. Lyra could only watch with mixed feelings of regret and satisfaction as she merely smelled the muffin from afar. When Bon Bon was finished, the cloaked figure brought over a napkin for her to wipe her face on, then threw the napkin in the trash and began levitating the box with her magic as she walked out the door.

“Wait!” Lyra found herself shouting.

The cloaked pony turned around. “Your choice has been made,” she said.

“It’s not about that. What… what happens next?”

“The bits shall be placed into your friend’s bank account in two days’ time. The effect on her cutie mark shall be present by tomorrow morning. Meanwhile, the box shall be taken to someone else and the same offer shall be presented with a new muffin inside of it.”

Though the pony had answered the question, she didn’t move. “Do you have another question for me?”

Lyra gulped as Bon Bon walked over, intrigued. “What was the prize we would have gotten?”

The pony laughed a bit. “Do you know how many bits this muffin is sold for?”

Lyra shook her head.

“Five bits,” the pony said. “It can go for up to seven bits in places like Canterlot and Fillydelphia. A small price to pay for a pony looking for the best possible muffin. Do you know how many are sold each year?”

Lyra again shook her head, feeling something cold and wet roll down her cheek.

“Thousands. Thousands of this type of muffin are sold everywhere to ponies far and wide. Had your friend not succumbed to her greed, I’m sure the Cakes would have been willing to show you how to make the muffin. Alas, should you talk to them now, they would pretend they do not know. And you shan’t find it in writing anywhere, either; it’s a family secret.”

Both Lyra’s and Bon Bon’s mouths dropped.

“Anyways,” the pony said. “I hope you have fun with your cutie mark. I doubt you’ll be seeing me again anytime soon. Good bye!” And she vanished in a tacky cloud of purple smoke, leaving no trace she had ever been there.

“I’m going to bed,” Bon Bon said, leaving a dumbstruck Lyra at the door.

After Bon Bon left for work the next morning, Lyra sat down and took her bits to pay for all the bills they had received in the mail before taking them to the post office to send back her payments. When she was done, she went over to Sugarcube Corner and ordered a chocolate chip muffin; it smelled nothing like the one she had been offered and even tasted slightly dry, but it was good enough for her.

A familiar face saw Lyra sitting in the shop eating the muffin and walked out from the kitchen. “Lyra!” Bon Bon said. “Enjoying your muffin?”

“I don’t think I’ll enjoy it as much as you did last night,” Lyra responded.

“Hey, I’m sorry about that whole thing these last few days,” Bon Bon said apologetically. “I didn’t mean to be so hard on you about the whole thing. I promise you I’ll share the reward when it comes.”

“It’s fine,” Lyra said. “You got to taste the most perfect muffin in the world and you looked like you enjoyed it. Be happy you got to experience a rare thing and that we finally have some money for us now.”

“True,” Bon Bon said. “But, there’s something else.”

“What is it?” Lyra asked.

“Hold on; I’ll be right back.” Bon Bon left for the kitchen and returned with a small plate with two small pieces of confectionary on it. “I think I may have perfected my recipe!” Bon Bon said excitedly. “I knew it was these things that were my cutie mark, but I haven’t made them in so long. Anyways, I want you to be the first taste tester and tell me how it goes.”

“Thank you, Bon Bon!” Lyra said happily and picked up one of the pieces of confectionary. “And congratulations on the recipe.”

“Thank you, but come on! Try it!”

Lyra happily took the piece and put it in her mouth, exploding with sweet and salty flavor as she bit into it. She may not have had the muffin, but as she took the second bite of her treat, she found it to be just as good. She savored the flavor as she gulped it all down.

“That’s… that’s…” Lyra was going to say “That’s excellent”, but something else caught her eye.

“Well?” Bon Bon asked. “What do you think?”

“Bon Bon… your cutie mark… what happened?”

Bon Bon turned around to see what Lyra was pointing at. Her eyes widened in surprise as she saw that the normally blue and yellow candy wrappers emblazoned on her flank had turned to a mixture of sickly green colors. Lyra almost couldn’t believe her eyes even as she stared right at them.

Suddenly, her stomach dropped and started churning. The world became blurred and she found it hard to stay in her chair. Lyra’s head swam as she struggled to stay upright as Bon Bon tried calling out to her, but her voice was so distant and echoed so much that Lyra could not understand what she was saying. Lyra lost her balance and fell off the chair and onto the floor of Sugarcube Corner.

The last thing Lyra heard before blacking out was the sound of sirens approaching.

Episode 2 - Living Pony

Eight year old Anna and five year old James were two normal human children living in a small town. The two enjoyed many things together, including their favorite dessert, their favorite toys, their favorite games, and their favorite television shows.

The children’s mother, Donna, was a kind and considerate middle-aged woman who spent her time as a secretary for a small paper company in their town. She loved spending time with their kids and it was often said she spoiled them rotten; baking them their favorite cookies and spending some of her hard-earned money in order to buy them new games and toys. One particular afternoon after she had gotten off work, Donna went to the local toy store, bought a special gift for her two children, and left after hiding the gift in a small bag before picking Anna and James up from school.

When Donna and the children got home, Donna revealed her gift to Anna and James: a doll of Pinkie Pie that was an exact replica of the pony on the show, right down to her face, her body covered with soft pink fur, her wild mane and tail, and the three balloons that made up her cutie mark. It was Anna who soon found their new Pinkie Pie doll could speak if one inserted batteries in it, so Donna opened up the doll and inserted the batteries in. Much to the children’s delight, the doll began to talk when the batteries were inserted, saying fun and silly phrases whenever the children squeezed her front hoof. The two enjoyed the gift and thanked their mother and continued playing with it throughout the day.

It wasn’t until nearly dinner time at which the children’s father came home. Eric was a man with a sour face and a hardened heart, and came home from his job at the bank in a grumpy mood much like he had every other night. Anna and James rushed up to greet their father, who hugged them unenthusiastically in return, and showed them the gift that they had been given. Eric took the toll and squeezed the hoof at Anna’s insistence, and the pony talked.

“My name is Pinkie Pie, and I want to be your friend!”

Eric gave the doll back to Anna and the children ran off to play with it some more.

“How much did that pony cost?” Eric demanded.

“I found it on sale at the toy store around the block from the elementary school,” Donna said. “It was only forty-five dollars instead of sixty. There was only Pinkie Pie left, and you know how much the kids love that show.”

“It’s too baby-ish,” Eric scoffed. “Anna at least is in the right demographic, but James ought to be doing something more geared to his gender. I remember at his age, I was playing with toy hardware and Hot Wheels. They’ve got to grow up a little.”

“Oh, Eric,” Donna said, “they’re only young once. And they genuinely like it. They’ve been playing with it all day since I brought it home and watch the show every morning before they go to school.”

“Well, forty-five dollars is still too much to spend on a whim.”

“Just because you work all day and provide the money for this family doesn’t mean you need to be a grump all evening when you get home. The least you could have done was act interested in the pony instead of just waving it off. Anyways, dinner’s ready. Anna! James! Go and wash up for dinner!”

“Yes, mom!” the kids said, and ran off from the living room where they were playing, leaving the doll behind.

While his wife continued making dinner, Eric got up and walked over to the living room where the doll was on the floor. It was cute. Too cute, Eric thought, and picked up the doll before giving the hoof a squeeze.

“My name is Pinkie Pie, and I think you’re mean.”

Eric stared at the doll, confused. This was a doll for little kids? Eric gave the hoof another squeeze.

“My name is Pinkie Pie, and I don’t want you as my friend.”

Imagine this! Eric thought. A doll that talks back worse than my wife. Frustrated with the doll and the amount of money his wife had spent on it, Eric threw the doll at the television, which flicked on to show a scene with an animated pink pony with completely straightened hair and dulled pink fur, looking maniacally at the camera.

“My name is Pinkamina, and I want to make cupcakes with you.”

Annoyed, Eric shut off the television and left the doll in the room before going to the kitchen for dinner. Donna was placing a bowl of salad covered with a brown dressing on the table, in addition to a bowl of mashed potatoes.

“Eric,” Donna said. “I heard you messing with that doll in the living room.”

“Donna,” Eric said. “Please don’t be mistaken.”

“You threw it, didn’t you?”

Eric gasped.

“Eric,” Donna continued, “we’re living in a different time period than you lived in. Time has moved on. Let the kids enjoy what they enjoy and worry about teaching them how life is later on. James is hardly in kindergarten.”

Eric was fuming but didn’t say anything.

“Besides, Anna and James love you very much, even if they aren’t your own.”

Eric managed to restrain themselves.

“Don’t you remember me always saying I wanted to have a little girl with you?”

“Oh, Eric…”

“I still do, but I didn’t expect to have three little girls running around this house.”

Donna gasped. “You inconsiderate man! I only wanted to do something nice for our children because you never do, and you go and chastise me for it.”

“Listen to me, Donna,” Eric said, his voice a low growl. “I want that damned horse—”

“Pony,” Donna interrupted.

“I want that damned pony out of this house by tomorrow when I get home.”

“Make me,” Donna said, folding her hands across her front.

Eric couldn’t say anything in response; Anna and James were standing at the entry to the kitchen.

Later that evening, after Donna sent the kids upstairs to bed, there was a loud screaming.

“I’ll go check it out,” Eric said.

“Be gentle with them,” Donna chided gently.

Eric groaned as he walked up the stairs and down the hall to the children’s room. The pink pony doll was in between the hands of both Anna and James, who were fighting over who would get the pony, suspended by its back hooves.

“What’s going on here?” Eric shouted.

“I wanna sleep with the doll!” Anna shouted.

“I want the doll!” James shouted.

“I want it!” Anna said.

“No!” James shouted. “Mine!”

“If both of you don’t figure it out, I’ll take the doll away from both of you!” Eric roared.

This, as expected, did nothing. James and Anna started arguing about who had called it first and Eric was moments away from stepping in and tearing the doll apart until a voice came out of nowhere.

“You gotta share… you gotta care…” the pony sang.

Almost immediately afterwards James and Anna stopped their shouting. Both of them stared at the doll for a moment before looking at each other apologetically.

“I’m sorry, James,” Anna said, releasing the pony. “You can sleep with Pinkie Pie tonight.”

“Yay!” James cheered, hugging the doll then hugging his big sister. “Thank you, Anna! You can have it tomorrow night.”

“Alright,” Eric said. “Dispute settled. Now both of you get into bed.”

“Yes, dad,” James and Anna said solemnly as they went to their beds, James curled up with the Pinkie Pie doll in his bed.

Eric flicked off the light and left the room and went to the bathroom before going over to his own bedroom to gather up the newspaper to read. Heading back over to check on the children, he found the eyes of the pony glowing as they seemingly stared straight at him from James’ bed.

“My name is Pinkie Pie, and I really want to be your friend.”

Eric rubbed his eyes, unsure if he was seeing things, and looked again. The Pinkie Pie pony doll was in the same position it had been in when James had gone to bed at it and the eyes didn’t glow. Eric gave off a “hmph” before heading back downstairs with the paper.

“Eric,” Donna said. “I’ve made you a cup of coffee. I’m going upstairs to sort out some papers before going to bed.” She walked over to him and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Good night, dear.”

“Good night, Donna,” Eric said and unfolded the paper in his favorite chair, sipping from his cup of coffee.

Later that night, when Eric was about ready to go to bed, he folded up the newspaper and put it in a small bin placed next to his favorite armchair, then went to go pick up his coffee to put the cup away. However, when he felt the cup, it was not how he imagined it; instead of being cool and smooth, he was touching something warm and soft.

Eric turned to the table next to him to see the Pinkie Pie doll in place of where his cup should have been. Eric jumped as the doll began to speak.

“My name is Pinkie Pie, and I don’t think you should be my friend.”

Eric calmly walked over to a small chest, pulled a key from his pocket, and opened the chest. Inside, was a small pistol. Eric took the pistol, cocked it, and walked over to the doll, whose stare had followed him from the chair. “Well… Pinkie… my name is Eric, and I’m going to get rid of you.”

There was a ridiculous gasp and Eric could have sworn he saw the doll shudder. “You wouldn’t dare! It wouldn’t just hurt me. It’d hurt Donna, Anna, and James, too. They’re my friends, and I don’t want to see my friends get hurt.”

Eric cocked the gun again and pointed it at the Pinkie doll.

“Please, no…” the doll whimpered.

“You have feelings! No doll can have feelings. This must be a prank, or a trick, or a ruse!”

“But Mister Eric, you’re too far wound tight for me to play a prank on. Anything like that would simply upset you. I don’t play pranks on Fluttershy because she’s too timid. And I haven’t played a prank on the mayor because she doesn’t like that sort of thing. You’re the same way.”

Eric dropped his gun. He stumbled to pick it back up and put it away before turning around and finding the Pinkie Pie doll was gone. There was only a high-pitched laughter. Eric followed the laughter through the house to see that the doll was back inside James’ bed. Unsure of what else to do, Eric turned off all the lights through the house and went to bed.

The next morning, Eric awoke to find Donna awake bright and early in the kitchen making breakfast as she usually did.

“Bacon and eggs this morning?” Eric asked.

“Turkey bacon and egg whites, to be precise,” Donna replied. “Part of a healthy diet thing going around lately. You’re certainly up earlier than usual.”

“I’m taking the day off today,” Eric replied. “I wanted to get some housework done.”

“Oh,” Donna said. “Well…”

“Is there something the matter?”

“Well, the lawns need mowed and the windows to the backyard need fixing, if you don’t mind.”

“Sure thing, darling.”

Eric was served his plate of food along with a cup of coffee as Anna and James came into the room. “Daddy, daddy!” they said. “Aren’t you going to work today?”

“Nope,” Eric said. “I’m going to stay at home and get some housework done.”

“Oh, oh!” the children said. “Mommy, can we stay at home and help daddy?”

“No, Anna and James, you have to go to school today. Maybe if there’s anything on Saturday you can help daddy out then.”

“Yay! And maybe Pinkie Pie could help us. Don’t you think Pinkie could help us, daddy?”

“I AM NOT YOUR DADDY!” Eric roared.

Anna stared at him in shock. James started to cry. Donna quickly shooed the kids out of the room to get ready for school before coming back in to the kitchen.

“Look what you’ve done to your children!” Donna said.

“They’re not my children!” Eric said.

“Well, you don’t need to be so bitter about it. Listen to me: I expect not one more word of hate towards that doll and I certainly don’t want you to hurt Anna and James’ feelings like that again. If you do, I… I… ugh!” With that, Donna stormed out of the room.

Eric could only watch as his wife left the room. He said nothing more the rest of the morning, retiring to his garage until his wife and children left the house altogether, preparing a small hatchet by sharpening it on a whetstone.

When he was sure that Donna and the kids had left, Eric left the garage and went up to the bedroom to find the Pinkie Pie doll still resting in James’ bed. Eric picked up the doll and went downstairs to the garage, taking the doll with him.

“Please, no…” the doll whimpered.

Eric ignored the doll’s pleas. Going downstairs, he placed the doll in the garage in front of the lawnmower, which he fired up. He pushed the lawnmower towards the doll but before it could get close enough for the blades to do any damage, the motor sputtered and fell out.

“Wow,” the Pinkie doll said. “Someone looks like they need a party.”

“You know what sort of party you’re going to need?” Eric challenged. “A funeral.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure…” Pinkie replied. “My name is Pinkamina Diane Pie, and you can’t kill me.”

Eric grabbed his hammer and started pounding the doll furiously. To his surprise, the Pinkie Pie doll started laughing uproariously at him as though he was merely tickling him.

“If you are a doll,” Eric said, “I can at least silence you.”

“I’m not a doll!” Pinkie said as Eric picked up the doll, noting the duller color of the pink fur ad the rougher texture. “I’m a pony.”

Eric flipped the doll around to see the battery case and opened it up to find… nothing was in there.

“Told you.”

Eric looked at the doll and noticed the mane and tail were completely straight instead of the originally poofy design. The doll slowly turned its head towards Eric and spoke slowly and more maniacally than he had ever heard it.

“My name is Pinkamina Diane Pie, and I am going to kill you.”

“Oh, yeah?” Eric said. “We’ll see who kills who first!” And he ran out of the room, leaving the doll on the floor of the garage.

The first place Eric ran was the small chest in the living room. Eric quickly took out his key and unlocked the chest, pulling out the pistol and cocking it as he returned to the garage.

When he returned to the garage, the doll wasn’t there anymore. Eric began walking around the house, beginning in the living room, listening to the doll’s taunts.

“You didn’t share… you didn’t care…”

“Giggle at the ghostie, guffaw at the grossly…”

“First you take a cup of flower, add it to the mix. Then you take a little something sweet, not sour, a bit of skin, just a pinch. Baking these treats is such a cinch, add a teaspoon of vanilla. Add a little blood and you count to four and you never get your fill-a. Cupcakes, so sweet and tasty; cupcakes, don’t be too hasty; cupcakes. Cupcakes, cupcakes, cupcakes!”

By now, Eric was double checking the children’s room, gun pointed ahead of him in case he were to find the doll. His intention: load as many bullet holes as he could before the doll could move again, then to take it to the dump. It would be gone and no one would suspect a thing.

“Come out, come out, wherever you are…” Eric called as he headed for the stairs back down.

Then, he kicked something. But whatever he kicked didn’t budge. Eric, however, tripped and started falling down the stairs. Eric rolled and bumped and skidded down the stairs, feeling a crack in his legs, his arm, his back, and his neck. At the bottom of the stairs, the last thing that Eric saw was the Pinkie Pie doll, giggling madly.

Soon, there was a rumbling of a motor in the driveway. Donna stepped out of the car, explaining a longer than usual lunch break as a chance to check on her husband, whose condition she was afraid for. She came home to find the lawns still as rough as they were before she left.

Donna walked up to the door and knocked on it. “Eric?”

No one answered.

Donna unlocked the door and found the lifeless body of her husband lying at the foot of the steps. She gasped and went over to him, listening desperately for any signs of life from him. When Donna was sure that there was no life left in him, she broke down and began crying; he might have been mean towards her own kids, but Donna still loved him.

It was then that Donna noticed the Pinkie Pie doll lying next to her husband, as bright and poofy-haired as ever. Donna picked up the doll and gave it a looked over; the batteries were out, but otherwise it was still in good condition. The fur was quite soft and the eyes were staring at her bright and happy as though nothing had ever happened. Halfheartedly, Donna squeezed the front hoof of the doll.

“Hi! My name is Pinkie Pie, and I want to be your friend. Do you want to be my friend?”

Donna felt herself starting to cry, but she wasn’t sure if it was out of sadness… or joy. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, Pinkie. I want to be your friend.”

Episode 4 - Four O'Clock

At around four o’clock in the Ponyville town square, time seemed to stop except for a single lone object. It was a strangely familiar object that most ponies thought they wouldn’t be seeing again anytime soon. At least, not after it had been crushed under the paw of an Ursa Minor.

The carriage stopped in the middle of the square, a light blue cloud with a star-shaped wand emblazoned on the door that flew open into the bright light of a lazy summer’s afternoon. A short while later a light blue unicorn stepped out, flinging the blue bangs of her mane out of her eyes. The unicorn sighed as she took in the sunlight before stepping back into her carriage.

Inside the carriage was everything the unicorn needed. A small drawer held purple capes with stars emblazoned on them, while a small hat stand held numerous pointed wizard’s hats with the same design. On one end was a bed with the same blue cloud and wand symbol on the blankets, and opposite from the bed was a small desk sitting next to a rather large barrel of fireworks. The unicorn opened a portion of the desk and took out a note she had been waiting to read for a while. Filled with excitement, the unicorn opened the note and began to read.

Dear Trixie:

I don’t know why you should go badmouthing my faithful student Twilight. I assure you both that she is no stranger to the salt lick and that I’m fully aware of what actions she’ll do under the influence of dehydration. However, Twilight is also reasonable and knows better than to get with another pony without telling me or Luna first. So no, I won’t be disbanding her as my ambassador to Ponyville, not while she has friends and lessons about friendship yet to send me.

Princess Celestia.

P.S.: Do not bug me about this anymore.

Trixie pounded the surface of the desk with a bang. So even Celestia hadn’t got enough sense to realize Twilight and her friends had ruined her show. Since being stumped by the Ursa Minor last time she was in Ponyville, Trixie had been unable to get anyone to see her shows from Manehattan to Trottingham, and even Las Pegasus had snubbed her. Now she was near homeless and searching for a job and had yet to get completely back on her hooves.

For a long time, the events of Ponyville had been lingering in the back of Trixie’s mind. Without realizing what they had done, they had ruined her life and had caused her to suffer more than most of them could understand. Sure, there was the Nightmare Moon incident, and the Discord incident, and the Changelings at the Royal Wedding, but weren’t they also caused by that stupid purple unicorn sticking her hoof into someone else’s business and ruining it? Trixie certainly thought so. As a result, Trixie had started an elaborate plan to get back at Twilight and her friends.

Although, if the note from Celestia was anything to go off of, they weren’t the only troubles Trixie would have to fix.

“What in the world of Equestria…?” Twilight Sparkle gawked, staring at the note from Celestia on her desk in the Ponyville library.

“What are you looking at?” Spike asked, the dragon hopping on Twilight’s back and nearly clambering on her head to get a better view.

“Celestia said someone wrote her a note saying that I was cheating on her and Luna!” Twilight said. “She didn’t say who it was, but she also said I was neglecting her reports on friendship she gave me to do! I’m a little behind because I found some evidence that was crucial to my work and I’m sure she’ll understand, but I would never forsake her!”

“Does that mean that you need to head to Canterlot again tonight?” Spike asked flatly.

“No. Celestia also said she didn’t believe any of it, so I’ll be good for now. I’ll make sure to add an extra apology on the letter for the next report I sent.”

It was around that time that a knock came on the door.

“I’ll get it!” Spike said.

“Thank you, number one assistant!” Twilight said.

After finishing reading the note for a third time, Twilight went downstairs to arrange some of the books recent patrons had left scattered about the library. Using her magic, Twilight swiftly picked up the books with a purple aura and ran them by her face; all she needed was a quick glance at the title to see where everything needed to go. A few minutes later, Twilight had finished, but Spike wasn’t back.

“Now, what is that dragon doing?” Twilight asked no one in particular.

A voice answered Twilight regardless. “Twilight, darling! Are you home?”

Twilight went over to the door and opened it to find a familiar white unicorn with three gems as her cutie mark standing at her door.

“Oh, hey Rarity,” Twilight said cheerfully. “Looking for a book on the latest fashion trends? I’ve got the most recent edition of Hoity Toity’s fashion magazine, featuring an article with the dresses you made for Sapphire Shores!”

“I’ll have to look into that later in addition to something else,” Rarity said as she made a mental note, “but we have a dilemma in the town square!”

Knowing Rarity’s tendency to exaggerate things and her focus on fashion, Twilight attempted to keep her cool. “What sort of dilemma?” she asked, deciding to ask for more information in case it was another one of Rarity’s fashion problems.

“Trixie’s back!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Why would she be returning to Ponyville?”

“I don’t know,” Rarity said. “But she’s in the town square and is standing there proclaiming something about Celestia coming to smite us all.”

Twilight sighed. “Let me see.”

Rarity nodded and led Twilight to the town square, where Twilight saw the familiar caravan with the stage set up and fireworks exploding all over the place. As Twilight approached, however, the unicorn noticed two young colts – Snips and Snails – along with Trixie standing on the stage with a microphone held up with her light-blue aura.

“Listen to me, citizens of Ponyville!” Trixie shouted into the microphone. “The time of the end of your evil is at hand! Celestia’s wrath shall descend on this village for your evil deeds! I have received word from the Princess herself, and she states her wrath will be as furious as the fire of the sun!”

“Yeah!” Snips said. “She’ll be angry with all of you.

“Destroy us all!” Snails said. “Destroy us all! Trixie’s right!”

Trixie’s eyes scanned the clouds and eventually fell upon Twilight. “Look, you citizens of Ponyville!” Trixie said as she pointed a hoof at Twilight. “Knows so many types of magic, but what does she do with it? Nothing! Doesn’t help you out at all and all the magic she’s learned recently is useless! Just for show! She is the evilest one of you all!”

“Nah, man!” piped up a white unicorn with large purple shades. “Twilight’s cool in my book. She helped me get a job DJ’ing at a wedding in Canterlot! She helped me get my first big gig and opened the way for a rave later this week there.”

“You’re the one they call DJ-Pon3?”

“I prefer Vinyl or Scratch when I’m not working the wubs.”

“That ‘wub’ isn’t even music! It’s sent by Discord to cause problems with our fragile ears.”

“I see it as a blood pumper, but it sure ain’t Discord’s doing.”

“Eeyup,” came the voice of a stallion.

Trixie went off on another rant as Twilight and Rarity started walking away.

“Do you think the princess would want to know about this?” Rarity asked.

“Not at this stage,” Twilight said. “If Trixie keeps ups her showboating, then I’ll send a letter to Celestia. Right now, it’d just be a disturbance.”

“I’d say slander is enough,” Rarity said. “She was going off about my dresses earlier, and talk like that is enough to cause bad business if taken seriously.”

“Perhaps, but the effects aren’t noticeable enough to really convince the Princess there’s a definite problem. Let’s wait and see what happens tomorrow morning and if she’s moved on.”

The next day, Ponyville was thrown into pandemonium.

The Ponyville Postal Service was overloaded with mail, some to its own boss. One said that a certain grey Pegasus with derpy eyes had bad eyesight and kept sending mail to the wrong addresses. Another said one of the fastest mares in the service went out for salt licks in the middle of their run and started harassing ponies for payment.

But the hate mail wasn’t limited to the post office workers. The weather team got a report that a rainbow mare was skimping out on rain coverage and wasn’t bringing the scheduled showers on time. Filthy Rich got a letter saying that the apples sent to his store had worms in them. A note to the library said that patrons were getting the books sticky and filled with food and that the librarian was doing nothing to make sure the quality of the books were top-notch. Another note said that the town’s star cellist was really a sort of pied-piper and practicing to lure all the little fillies away from their parents. Another noted that a certain doctor wasn’t even a real doctor.

It got so bad that the mayor even got a letter for her poor performance overseeing the last year’s Winter Wrap-Up, regarded to be one of the fastest in Ponyville history.

Even worse, they were all signed off the same way:

I hope your attention has been brought to these damnable acts, and I hope something should be done about this. I would suspect no less than the firing of these individuals as satisfactory.

The Great and Powerful Trixie.

That evening, Mayor Mare sent out an invitation to all ponies in Ponyville – Trixie excluded – to talk about these notes at a special meeting at city hall.

“I am sorry these notes have been circulating around recently,” Mayor Mare began. “Ponyville has been a relatively safe and peaceful place until this Trixie began sending around this series of notes. First of all, I am dreadfully sorry, but there is currently nothing I can do about Trixie.”

“Why not?” came the shout of an angry stallion.

“According to Ponyville law, I can’t cause Trixie to move anywhere because she’s in a public place. According to Equestrian law, Trixie has the right of free speech and is allowed to say whatever she wants.”

“But such slander is harmful to everypony!” piped up another mare.

“She told me I partied too much!” came one voice.

“She said that my treats were so bad I could poison someone!” came another.

“She said that we were horrible parents and cheated on one another!” came another voice.

“She said I’d never be able to get mah cutie mark!” came another young voice.

The city hall became filled with chatter and disgusted remarks about whatever Trixie had placed in the letters addressed to them in hopes of getting one of them fired. It became so much that Mayor Mare had to pick up a gavel and bang it a few times on her stand in order to get everypony’s attention focused on her again.

“Calm down, everypony!” Mayor Mare said. “It seems that a little bit more than the law is required to get Trixie to stop her antics. Therefore, I say we should ask one of our most reliable mares in order to contact the princess and see what she’ll be able to do.”

“…and you picked me why?” Twilight Sparkle asked, taking a sip of her tea as she sat on the upper level of the Ponyville library.

“I’m sorry,” Mayor Mare said. “But with the large amount of letters going around town, I wanted you to send this list of things Trixie has said about our citizens to Princess Celestia in addition with a small report of what Trixie has done. The townsponies are getting riled up and I don’t want there to be an incident even worse than a showboating unicorn here.”

Twilight nodded. “I was afraid I would have to do this and really hoped I wouldn’t.”

“I understand how you don’t like to waste the princess’ time,” Mayor Mare nodded approvingly. “But we really need her help right now.”

Twilight put a hoof up to stop the mayor from talking anymore. “Don’t worry. A letter to the princess should be sent by tomorrow afternoon and hopefully we will get a response. If not anything else, she should be able to give us some advice.”

Mayor Mare got up from the balcony and Twilight led her back down and to the front entrance of the library where Spike was waiting with a quill and ink. “Thank you so much, Twilight Sparkle. Your performance around here and helping me has been admirable.”

“Thank you, Mayor Mare, but I’m just the sort of pony who wants to help others out, nothing more.”

“Again, thank you so much for sending that letter.”

Spike stood, quill at the ready. “What do you need me to say?”

Dear Princess Celestia,

You may have recalled that in one of my past letters to you, I discussed the lesson of friendship I learned about boasting and how you shouldn’t boast to get another’s attention. You may have also noticed that I talked about a certain mare named Trixie and how events surrounding her helped me come to this conclusion. Well, Trixie is back, and while I have learned my lesson on friendship Trixie has not.

In short, Trixie has been slandering both your good name and the name of every pony in Ponyville. She first started by saying that we were all evil and that you were going to bring your wrath upon us. I know you’re not the sort of princess to do that, but she took it a step further and sent out letters to everyone in Ponyville saying why we were evil, the reasons for which are all lies. The list of these is attached to this letter, created by Mayor Mare herself. We need your help in doing something about this, and we need it quickly before Trixie’s antics get out of control.

I await your response. Hopefully you could at least give us advice on what to do.

Your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle.

P.S.: When do you want us to meet up at Pony Joe’s again? I’ve heard Luna’s preparing another batch of her famous moonshine.

Dearest Twilight:

I’m coming.

Twilight read the note over and over again, which wasn’t hard considering it was only two lines long. While Twilight had expected a response, she wasn’t prepared for such a short response. She also wasn’t prepared for the fact that Celestia was not the one who had written the letter back and that she couldn’t recognize the handwriting.

It wasn’t her brother, Shining Armor. His letters would have the stamp of the royal Captain of the Celestial Guard.

It wasn’t her sister-in-law, Princess Cadence. She often signed off with a heart and tended to have more flowery print than the letter had.

It wasn’t Princess Celestia. While she was concise, she usually had a signature at the beginning and the end of the letter and would state more than just that she was coming.

The letter had come sometime that afternoon as the sun was setting on Ponyville. Aside from a similar rant to the one she had produced two days ago, Trixie had remained relatively silent and didn’t send out any more letters. Things seemed to be proceeding on as normal until there was a sudden flash of green fire and Spike was standing there with a piece of paper in his hand. Now, Twilight was standing in the entrance of the Ponyville library as the moon came over the town and wondered who had sent the note.

Not much later, a knock came at the door. Who could be knocking at this hour? Twilight asked herself as she made her way towards the door and opened it.

The answer came as a surprise.

“Princess Luna!” Twilight said. “What are you doing here?”

“Princess Celestia shared thy letter with us and asked us to come down here to assist thee,” the dark blue alicorn said. She coughed for a minute, then spoke again. “Sorry, still getting used to not using the royal ‘we’. Anyways, Celestia is busy at the moment with something regarding the zebra kingdom but felt the situation needed attending. As a result, she sent me. It’s nice considering I was able to stretch my wings for a nice long flight on this beautiful night.”

“It’s nice that you’ve come,” Twilight said, bowing slightly out of respect. “But… you really should send more notice.”

“Did you not get my letter?”

Twilight blushed. “Oh, that was you? You really need to add a greeting so I know who it is.”

“The quality of my letters aside,” Luna said, “where is this Trixie? I’ve been sent to reason with her.”

“She’s in the town square,” Twilight said.

“Lead the way,” Luna said.

Twilight nodded and she and Luna walked through the moonlit streets of Ponyville until they reached the town square, quiet and dark except for a single light coming from the light blue caravan. Twilight and Luna approached and Luna raised a hoof to knock on the door.

“Who is it?” came a voice from inside. “Who disturbs the Great and Powerful Trixie?”

“Princess Luna demands an audience with Trixie,” Luna said.

Trixie came and opened the door. The dark-blue alicorn towered over the light-blue unicorn, but Trixie was unfazed. “So, you’re friends with Twilight Sparkle?” Trixie observed. “I suppose the royalty is as evil as these citizens are.”

“Trixie Lulamoon,” Luna said. “Twilight Sparkle has sent my sister, Princess Celestia, a letter informing her of your little stint regarding the hate mail in addition to what you’ve been saying about her in the town square.”

“Ah, that little information about Celestia coming down to bring her wrath upon Ponyville? That won’t be necessary.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. She turned around to Twilight Sparkle, who was as clueless as Luna was and could only shrug. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve figured out a way to do this myself.”

“Explain yourself.”

“Well, a few years ago, I attempted to disband an Ursa Minor from Ponyville…”

“…Snips and Snails woke one up and led it here to see if you could,” Twilight interrupted.

“Let me finish!” Trixie said. “Anyways, I tried, but the Ursa crushed my home and forced me to rebuild my caravan. Also, Twilight upstaged me and managed to put the Ursa Minor back in its cave in the Everfree Forest. Afterwards, my reputation became ruined. I couldn’t perform anymore because everypony started hearing about what Twilight Sparkle did with her magic and how she supposedly ‘put me in my place’. So, because of Twilight Sparkle and the residents of Ponyville, I became nearly homeless and penniless.”

“This is a sad story,” Luna said unsympathetically, “but it explains nothing of what has been going on here recently.”

“True. However, I thought about those events for a few years and realized that I was not the one in the wrong. The ones who were the problem were the citizens of Ponyville for causing me to suffer like I did. So, I came back with the intent of making others aware of what they had done wrong.”

“You do realize slander is against our laws, correct?”

“It was not slander. It was free speech and irritation. I mailed the companies and let them know of their problems and hoped they would respond reasonably, but the people of Ponyville are as ignorant as the rest of them. As such, I’ve devised a brilliant plan to take care of the situation myself.”

“And what would that entail?”

“My magic will reach its peak at four o’clock tomorrow afternoon. At that time, I will cast a spell that will shrink all of them down to so small a size that I would be able to crush them under my hoof! Of course, the spell won’t affect me and it won’t affect a few others who have been kind to me like the colts Snips and Snails, but every evil pony in Ponyville will be shrunk to miniscule size at that time tomorrow!”

“What would be the purpose of such a thing?”

“It would be to point out just how evil the ponies here really are and to make them feel ashamed of what they’ve done to me!”

Luna shrugged. “Fine.”

Twilight and Trixie gasped. “What!?”

“Fine. Do whatever you want. Come along, Twilight Sparkle. There’s nothing much we can do here.”

Twilight stared at Luna, but followed nonetheless as Trixie went back inside her caravan.

“What do you mean ‘fine’?” Twilight asked as the two approached the Ponyville Library.

“Everything will be fine,” Luna said. “Firstly, no pony has that sort of magic available to them. Secondly, if Trixie does manage to come up with something, my magical power would be able to revert all ponies back to normal size. Whatever happens tomorrow, everything will be fine.”

Twilight stared curiously at the princess. “If you say so…”

“Until then,” Luna said, “I would like to use the library and will need a pot of coffee.”

At three o’clock the next afternoon, Trixie had announced her plan to shrink all of Ponyville, and everypony was gathered in the town square to see what exactly happened and if Trixie could do such a thing. For a little while, Trixie kept spewing her usual rant about how the wrath of Celestia was going to come down and she was warning them of their impending doom.

A few minutes till four Luna and Twilight Sparkle showed up at the scene.

“I could understand needing the library to read,” Twilight said, “but why did you need to drink two whole pots of coffee?”

“I needed the caffeine,” replied a jittery Luna, now running in place and slowing down to a trot. “I’m not usually up at this time, but because my magic may be required, I need to be awake for it. The caffeine is helping with that. For me, this is usually the equivalent of you staying up until four in the morning.”

Shortly afterwards, the clock at Ponyville tower rang four times.

“At last!” Trixie said. “The time of your doom has come! As the one assigned to this reckoning, I shall cast my magic and strike down those who have been chosen to bear the brunt of Celestia’s wrath!”

“How dare you use my sister’s name like that!” Luna called out.

Trixie laughed as her horn began to glow a bright blue. “We shall see who is the one in the wrong soon enough, Princess Luna! My magic is at its peak, and thus you shall be marked!”

Trixie began to surround herself with a light blue aura as her horn glowed brighter and brighter. Eventually it became so bright that the entirely of Ponyville square was engulfed in the bright blue light that blinded everypony for a fair while afterwards. There was a distinct hum of magic in effect and many ponies began to scream out in horror.

“We’ve been marked!”

“What are we going to do?”

“Celestia’s wrath is coming!”

But as the light faded away, Twilight Sparkle noticed nothing was wrong. Aside from Snips and Snails on the stage and any fillies in the audience, no pony had shrunk down to anything smaller than everypony else. However, a small circle was beginning to gather in the middle of the crowd, caused by a few ponies staring down at their hooves in astonishment.

“Make way!” Luna called. “Princess Luna and Twilight Sparkle coming through!”

The crowds parted as Luna and Twilight made their way through towards the circle and eventually found the cause of the ponies’ astonishment. There, in the middle of the circle, stood a small blue unicorn no bigger than Twilight’s front hoof staring upwards in a mixture of horror and confusion.

“But… but… wait a minute!” Trixie shouted. “That magic wasn’t supposed to work that way!”

Luna lay down near Trixie on the grass and lowered her horn to the unicorn. Luna’s horn started glowing a dark blue, causing Trixie to scream out as its aura surrounded her.

“Hey! What are you doing? Put me down, I say! This is not how the Great and Powerful Trixie should be treated!”

A moment later, Trixie’s request was granted as she flopped over on the grass of the town square. Luna stood up, looked around, then back to Trixie.

“You said your magic wasn’t supposed to work that way?” she asked.

“Stop repeating what I said!” Trixie snorted.

“You said your magic would shrink any pony in Ponyville who was shown to be evil,” Luna said. “Unfortunately for you, it seems your magic worked. You shrank; therefore you were the one here in Ponyville who was deemed evil enough.”

“What!?” Trixie said. “Certainly there must have been a mistake!”

“That’s the thing. There isn’t. By disrupting the harmony of this fair town, you have done more than any of these ponies have deserved. For that, you were evil enough that the spell shrank you down to no more than the size of my hoof.”

Twilight walked forward and stared at Trixie’s smaller body on the ground.

“Twilight!” Trixie pleaded. “There must be something you can do to help me!”

Twilight shook her head. “I was wrong, Trixie. You are a greater magician than I am. I have yet to be able to figure out a spell that makes an evil pony shrink enough to be stepped on by those who are not. But… why would I need such a thing when the spell’s already been cast and the faults already shown?”

Episode 5 - A Nice Place to Visit

“Brilliant idea to turn off the quality control!” the pale green unicorn with a red mane said to his twin.

“Well, you shouldn’t have panicked!” the moustache’d shouted said as he continued driving the steam-powered vehicle with his green aura. “If it weren’t for you overreacting, Flim, we could have won that farm and gotten all the profits we would have needed to be set for life! Even the citizens of Ponyville knew that our cider was better!”

“But it was your idea to turn off the quality control and ruin our reputation,” Flim said as he knocked against one of the storage tubes, still full of cider and broken branches. “And who knows what happened to how others want to view us in other towns. There’s a reason that I am the leader, Flam, and that’s because I am the older brother and thus wiser! You only grew out your mother because mother said you looked more dignified with it!”

“And you have a little baby face!” Flam said. “You always were a baby, little brother, and never were big enough to make responsible, profitable decisions. You’re too young and inexperienced; you couldn’t even sell a piece of grass if you wanted to!”

Flim suddenly turned so angry his face turned as red as his mane. “Fine, you old man! I’m going to go off on my own, and I’ll prove to you I’m the better salespony!” And he jumped off the moving cider-making machine.

Flam turned around and shouted at his brother. “Ha! I’d like to see you do so. Anything else to say?”

“Look out!” Flim shouted.

“Are you trying to sell me something?” Flam said. “Well, I know better.”

“Turn around and drive!” Flim shouted.

“Are you already running back to your older brother? Ha ha ha! I can’t believe it! You really are a youngster. Well, I’m kic—”

Before he even realized it, Flam was falling down a large cliff at the edge of Ponyville, the same road that the carriage had been saved by the Mare-Do-Well. Flam watched his younger, clean-shaven brother at the top of the cliff and thought Why did they make a road that goes off the edge of a cliff? before blacking out.

“Flam Flimflam, is it? I was expecting your arrival.”

What is that voice? Sounds… angelic…

“Wake up, Flam. There’s still so much to do, so much to see. Then again, we do have plenty of time to do it in.”

Flam opened an eye to find himself staring at the white hoof and golden shoe of an unfamiliar pony. Flam opened the other eye and looked upward to find himself staring at a rather large unicorn with Pegasus wings – an Alicorn – with pinkish eyes and a multi-colored mane staring back at him with a rather content smile on her face and a flaming red sun cutie mark on her flank. Flam jumped to his feet.

“You’re arrived right on schedule,” the alicorn said. “Your brother tried, but his change of heart was a bit too late.”

“What?” Flam suddenly remembered his falling off the cliff, the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 crashing into a million little pieces before he fell straight on one of the broken cider storage tubes before passing out. “Wait a minute, who are you?”

“Me? Most call me Celestia. I’m here to be your guide. And I could give you whatever you want.”

“What? What sort of place is this?”

“A special place,” Celestia replied. “It’s been a long time since someone’s arrived here. Well over a thousand years, I think.”

Flam wasn’t paying attention. “What are you? Are you a sort of cop? Are you here to arrest me for my attempt at a recent scam against the Apple Family?”

Celestia pulled a scroll out of her large flowing mane with a glowing gold aura from her horn and began to read from it. “Flam Flimflam. Born twenty-four years, three months, fifteen days, five hours, thirteen minutes, and twenty-two seconds ago. Your father is Smooth Talker and your mother is Loud Mouth. You’re a salesman and inventor of the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, which sold well at various companies in Trottingham, Phillydelphia, Las Pegasus, and even Sacramaneto only to fail after two months of keeping up with demand. Well played on that one, and seemed to have left your brother with quite a few bits to his name, but most of it was secretly spent on the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000’s development and testing of newer models leaving him with a mere 500 bits of the original profits.” Celestia rolled up the scroll and placed it back into her mane.

Flam was astounded. How did she know so much about him? Flam was sure he had never met her before a few minutes ago after waking up. “Who are you? Do you want me to sell you something? I could give you…” Flam searched around for something and ended up plucking a long piece of grass out from the ground and presenting unceremoniously towards Celestia. “I could give you this for 1000 bits.”

“I’ll take it,” Celestia said, pulling out a large bag and gave it to Flam.

Flam opened and counted out 1000 bits exactly. For a moment, all he could do was stand flabbergasted at the bits until Celestia spoke again.

“I said I could give you whatever you wanted,” she said gently. “And that means I’ll pay whatever price you want me to pay for something.”

Flam’s eyes opened wide. Something didn’t seem right. “What else is there?” Flam said, readying a spell with his horn. “There must be something different.”

“Follow me,” Celestia said. “We’ve got a fair amount to see.”

Flam couldn’t believe his eyes even as much as he wanted to.

He was staring in what appeared to be a fairly accurate rendition of Canterlot, although Canterlot Castle was just a shade redder than he thought it would look like and the sky was a bit too red for midday. Not only that, he was standing in one of the high-end apartment buildings a few trots away from the high-end shopping districts and a few steps away to Canterlot Castle itself.

And the apartment wasn’t too shabby, either. There were famous paintings all over the walls, the coolest sheets and softest blankets on the bed, the comfiest couches, the most expensive fabrics for the window blinds, the best and most vibrant colored paints on the walls. The carpet was made of an expensive material that Flam couldn’t figure out and just seemed to support his hoof at the slightest touch and made it extremely comfortable to walk over. And the view from the top was absolutely fantastic.

“Wow!” Flam said as he stopped charging his spell and started wandering around in awe, looking into the bathroom with the golden tub and toilet. “How much would something like this cost normally?”

“About twenty million bits,” Celestia asked.

Flam gasped at the price, then smiled to himself. “How about I get it for fifteen million bits?”

“Deal,” Celestia said without hesitating.

“How about ten million bits?” Flam asked.

“I’ll take it.”

“One million bits?”

“Certainly.”

“Five hundred thousand bits?”

“Are you going to go any lower?”

“Fr—wha, what?”

“I said, are you going to ask for anything lower?”

“…how about free?”

“The apartment’s yours.”

“Well…” Flam said, though his recent acquisition was taking a while to register. When it did, Flam burst out laughing. “Wow! I’ve… never made a deal that easily before! Hey, Celestia, how about I take you out to dinner to celebrate! And by the way, got any nice mares we could hang around with? I’d like to see the Canterlot crowd and tell them about this!”

A half an hour later, Flam and Celestia were sitting in the most expensive restaurant in Canterlot and all of Equestria and eating a salad. Celestia sat across the table from Flam, sitting in a booth with a white unicorn mare with a pink mane and three fleur-de-lis as a cutie mark on one side and another mare on the other side.

“I tell you, Celestia, this is the life,” Flam said. “This is the best a stallion could ask for. I’m able to haggle my way down everything I’d ever wanted. I mean, I have this expensive hat, watch, and suit that I was able to haggle down to next to nothing! Ha ha! So, this is what it feels like to be Canterlot elite, to be able to buy anything you want without being concerned for how expensive it is.” Flam opened his mouth as the white and pink unicorn mare brought a bite of the salad and hay fries he’d ordered to him and bit it off the fork.

“I’m glad you’re enjoying yourself,” Celestia said.

“Ah, Mister Flam,” the unicorn mare said. “You are a delight to be around. I can’t believe the sales you’ve made!”

“All in a day’s work for a smooth-talking salespony like me,” Flam replied. “There’s a certain thrill to being able to bargain down a price for something you’re buying until you’re paying less than what it costs to make it. There’s also a certain sort of joy you get in making double or even triple what an item actually costs. I actually cut down the costs of production on the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 5000 and 6000 models I sold so that any machine outside of my own would only last for two months! Ah, that was the best.”

The mares around Flam, including Celestia, laughed politely.

“Might I ask what happened to me?” Flam asked.

“Severe bodily trauma that resulted in your heart stopping and your magic running out,” Celestia replied.

“So…” Flam thought about it. “I’m dead?”

“To put it bluntly, yes.”

“But… this place is so perfect,” Flam said thoughtfully. A light bulb went off in his head. “And, if I’m getting whatever I want without having to haggle for anything, I must be in Heaven. And you… you’re my guardian angel, aren’t you?”

“Yes, something like that,” Celestia replied.

“Well, do you think I’d be able to see my parents again?” Flam asked politely. “I’ve always heard the stories about going to heaven and being able to see your friends and family again. Any chance I’d be able to see my father again?”

“No.”

Flam looked at Celestia suspiciously. “…I thought you said you could give me whatever I wanted.”

“I forgot to mention a catch: this world is yours and yours only. No one is real here except for you and me. Of course, everything you experience is quite real, from the taste of the delicious salad you are eating to the luxuriously soft mane and fur of the mare next to you.”

Flam looked at the mare next to him, who gave him a soft kiss on the lips. Immediately, Flam felt like he was shot with ecstasy at the feeling.

“I suppose that’s not much of a problem, then,” he said.

A waiter in a fancy suit much like Flam’s came up and addressed Flam. “Will that be all this evening, sir?”

“Yes; I’m afraid we’ll have to pass up the desert for tonight, as much as I love crème brule. However, I must complain about this salad. I thought I saw a few leaves of unsatisfactory quality and, although I still ate it, is nowhere near the quality of salads I’ve heard they make in Canterlot Castle.”

The waiter nodded. “I shall be around with the bill shortly.” And he walked away.

“Celestia,” Flam said. “Be a dear and pay for the meal when the bill comes around.”

“Oh, that won’t be necessary,” Celestia said with the same, unchanging smile on her face.

Flam began to wonder what the problem would be.

“Your bill, sir.”

Flam looked up to see the waiter with the bill and politely took it. When he looked at the charge, though…

“It’s free…” Flam said disbelievingly.

“They’re ashamed here if you say they’re less than Canterlot Castle quality,” Celestia explained. “Even if they try as hard as they can, they never quite have worse torment than being told they’re not as good as Canterlot Castle cuisine. Then again, even the dishwashers here get paid more than anywhere else.”

Flam nodded. “Very well. Come along, dolls!” he said to the two mares on either side of him. “Time for a bottle of champagne and then whatever involves the three of us resting on the most fantastic-feeling bed you’ve ever felt. Drink it in, ladies! It’s going to be a long night!”

The next day, Flam was able to get himself a crème brule, a bottle of the best champagne in Equestria, a gold and diamond-framed monocle, and a new car for free. The white and pink unicorn mare accompanied him anywhere and complemented him on all his choices. Flam managed to get her a new set of diamond earrings and one of the most expensive dresses from the best-known Canterlot boutique for free as well.

“Oh, darling, isn’t it wonderful?” the mare asked him.

“Yes, it is,” Flam agreed. “Now, where do you think that Celestia is at this hour?”

“Right next to you.”

Flam turned around to see Celestia was indeed standing right next to him, still giving him that same smile. He chuckled nervously. “Yes, good. Well, there was something I wanted to ask you about.”

“Ask away,” Celestia said.

“Well,” Flam began. “I never was the best pony when I was alive. I argued and cheated a lot. I must have done something good in order to get into this place. I must have done something good that made up for all the other stuff. But… what? What did I ever do that was good?”

“Well,” Celestia began. “We could always check the Hall of Records.”

“Please,” Flam pleaded. “Show me.”

Celestia nodded and led Flam and his mare through the streets of Canterlot to a very old building graced with the statues of the Princess Luna and Cadence on either side. Celestia led Flam into the building and began scanning the numerous old books on the shelf. There suddenly appeared a book that was quite new, which Celestia pulled out and placed on a table for her and Flam to look at.

“How old is this book?” Flam asked.

“I’d say about twenty-four years, three months, sixteen days, five hours, thirteen minutes, and twenty-two seconds old.”

Flam noted the number to be oddly specific, but looked at it anyways. On the first page there was his name. On the next page was a long list of things Flam had done in his life, from cheating on multiple marefriends in school to cheating in a game of dice to the poor construction of every item and invention he’d ever sold that wasn’t his own. It even noted the stealing of his younger brother’s idea for a motorized vehicle that flew without the help of pegasi, an idea which ultimately failed.

“This…” Flam said, stuttering. “This… this is only a list of things I’ve done that are bad. What have I done that got me here?”

Celestia said nothing.

A month later, Flam lay awake in bed. The pink and white unicorn mare was lying in bed next to him, mane ruffled and unkempt. Flam had been awake the whole night and was bored out of his mind. All over the apartment were plates and plates and plates of expensive food and drink and half-empty bottles of wasted expensive drinks. But Flam couldn’t even stand staring at them anymore; all of them had been free and Flam didn’t have to pay a bit.

It’s perfect, Flam thought. Too perfect. It’s too perfect. I didn’t do anything to deserve this. Why is it happening, though? How did I get into… heaven?

A knock came at the door. Flam slowly raised himself out of bed and wearily walked over to the door to open it.

Celestia was standing there.

“Enjoy yourself last night?” Celestia said. “I could hear it from the castle.”

“No,” Flam said. “They were not cries of pleasure. They were cries of anguish. I’m bored here. I haven’t had to haggle for a deal in a month. I’ve gotten whatever I wanted for whatever price I wanted to pay for it and sold whatever I wanted for whatever price I wanted for it. But… it’s been too easy.”

“I don’t understand,” Celestia said.

“This place is perfect,” Flam responded. “Too perfect. If I stay here another day, I’m afraid I’m going to go nuts! If this is Heaven, I don’t belong here! I want to go to the other place.”

Much to Flam’s fear, Celestia’s smile widened for the first time in a month, then she burst out laughing.

“What?” Flam said. “What’s so funny?”

“Oh, Flam,” Celestia said in between bursts of laughing. “Heaven? What gave you the idea that you were in heaven? Matter of fact, this IS the other place!”

Flam’s eyes widened before he bolted out of the apartment past the still laughing Celestia. He didn’t even wait as he heard the cries of his newest marefriend and her hooves as she galloped towards him. Flam bolted through the streets of Canterlot and dashed for the train station where a steam engine was just leaving; it left the platform and started chugging along in the direction of Ponyville just as Flam entered the station.

Flam ran over to the ticket booth and started pleading with the attendant. “Please, give me a ticket to Ponyville!”

“I’m sorry, sir,” the attendant said. “That was the last train leaving.”

Flam grabbed the attendant with his hooves as his voice became more panicked. “You don’t understand. I’ve got to get out of here. Ponyville, Trottingham, Las Pegasus, anywhere!”

“I’m sorry, sir,” the attendant said. “I’ve got no more tickets and that was the last train leaving.”

“What do you mean by last train leaving?”

“I mean that no other train will be passing through this station.”

“No!” Flam said. “I refuse to believe it! There’s always a train that comes through here at some point! Now, give me a ticket! I’ll pay you whatever price you want; just get me a ticket out of here!”

“I can’t do that sir.” And he closed the window.

Flam collapsed onto the floor of the station as the mare he’d been with for the last month came up to him and kissed him on the cheek, but Flam pulled away from the gesture. Shocked, the mare started to cry, but all Flam could see was the red sun glaring down on him with heat like fire and Celestia’s laughing kept ringing in his ears.

Episode 6 - One for the Alicorns

Flim had seen the cliff coming long before Flam even saw it. He heard about the whole thing with the Mare-Do-Well a long time ago, prompting him to tell his brother about the easily amused ponies, that and the approaching cider season made for a fine time to sell their new machine. Deciding to show his brother he could handle himself, Flim decided to take a risky decision. “Fine, you old man! I’m going to go off on my own, and I’ll prove to you I’m the better salespony!” And he jumped off the moving cider-making machine.

Flam turned around and shouted at him as the machine kept going at its steady pace, now with nopony to drive it. “Ha! I’d like to see you do so. Anything else to say?”

“Look out!” Flim shouted. Once Flam had seen the cliff Flim had seen, he’d admit his younger brother was on par with him and would gratefully accept his ideas, although Flim had seen a few ‘original ideas’ come out of his older brother that had looked oddly familiar.

“Are you trying to sell me something?” Flam said. “Well, I know better.”

“Turn around and drive!” Flim shouted, now with greater urgency.

“Are you already running back to your older brother? Ha ha ha! I can’t believe it! You really are a youngster. Well, I’m kic—”

Flim never heard the end of it. Whatever threat Flam was making was cut off as his brother plummeted down the edge of the cliff with the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000. Flim ran over to the edge of the cliff and watched as the machine crashed and broke into thousands of pieces, losing the plans of making another one along with it. It wasn’t more than a second later that Flam crashed into the wreckage and Flim found himself suddenly alone.

With no money in his pockets, Flim silently left the scene and made his way to the bank where the tellers happened to be the only ponies who didn’t know about the scene at Sweet Apple Acres. Taking out one hundred bits and seeing he only had a mere four hundred bits left in his account, Flim trudged his way to the train station and bought the first ticket to Canterlot; if he stayed any longer, Ponyville would have mobbed him.

So much for the home of the Elements of Harmony, Flim thought to himself.

“So… you say your name is Applebuck?”

“Yes,” Flim said. “My name is Applebuck and I wish to work for your company.”

The interviewer adjusted his glasses and examined the single apple slice that was Flim’s cutie mark. “Your cutie mark’s right for it, but… isn’t that a job usually done for earth ponies?”

“My parents couldn’t think of a better name for me,” Flim said hastily.

The interviewer raised an eyebrow but eventually shrugged it off. “Well, you’re resume is very impressive, Mister Applebuck. It says you’ve created a machine called the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 and a previous 5000 model that have sold well in places like Trottingham, Las Pegasus, and Phillydelphia. In fact, with sales of such an inventive new device, I’d say that’s enough for me to open up a space in our company. Congratulations, Mister Applebuck, you’re hired.”

Flim breathed a sigh of relief. The ponies in Canterlot didn’t know about the Sweet Apple Acres incident. For now, this was a safe place. Which was even better, considering he’d just used his last bits on a down payment for his apartment.

The next day, Flim was in for his first day on the job. Flim was given a box filled with knives and a few supplies to show how to test them out as well as a fair amount of money. Flim even went to the local farmer’s market and bought a few items with the bits he was given to get supplies for. It was going to be hard work, but selling the Cider Squeezy 6000 had been harder and that was the way things worked for the company; you sold the harder items to sell, you got the easier ones that raked in profits.

Flim’s first idea was to try local, so he went to his little apartment building and started knocking on the door nearest to his own apartment. The door opened to reveal a grey-violet unicorn filly with a golden mane and no cutie mark that looked at him quizzically.

“Excuse me,” Flim said as politely as he could. “Is there an older relative of yours at home?”

The unicorn filly nodded and turned around. With a voice that would have matched the Royal Canterlot voice, the filly shouted: “SIS! THERE’S SOMEONE AT THE DOOR LOOKING FOR YOU!”

From a hallway came a light magenta unicorn with a violet mane and three diamonds as a cutie mark. “You don’t need to shout, Dinky,” she said as she walked over to the door where Flim was standing with a ringing in his ears. “Now, you said you needed me?”

Flim quickly regained himself. “Hello, miss, I’m Flim. I own the apartment next door and I’m here to show you the knife of your dreams. This knife can cut through a shoe, a tennis ball, and even a piece of wood and still have the ease of cutting you need to cut things like lettuce, tomatoes and carrots. Care for a demonstration?”

“I suppose…” the unicorn said half-heartedly, but stepped out of the way and let Flim in.

“May I ask your name, miss?” Flim said.

“I’m Amethyst Star, and the filly you see around here is Dinky.”

“Well, Miss Amethyst Star,” Flim said as he walked over to a table and started to pull out a cutting board. “I guarantee you, after this demonstration you’ll see that this is the perfect knife. Is there anyone else you live with?”

“It’s just me and Dinky,” Amethyst replied. “Although I end up babysitting another filly every once in a while.”

“Well, have you ever had trouble with knives that dull out after so much cutting up lettuce and tomatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner?”

“Um, I guess.” Although she was expressing interest, Flim could tell she wasn’t buying it.

“Well, let me give you a demonstration. Take this apple for instance,” Flim said. “A nice sweet braeburn apple. Let’s see how this works…” Flim took the knife handle in his hoof and started swiftly cutting through the apple with utmost precision.

Amethyst’s gaze seemed to widen.

“Now, let’s go to something like a tomato. Now, a tomato gets squashed if you’re not careful and using the wrong knife, but this knife makes it as easy to cut an apple as it can a tomato.” Flim quickly proved himself with a bright red tomato, cutting it perfectly in half.

Now Amethyst was interested. Even Dinky had come over to watch.

“What else can you do with it?” Dinky asked.

“I’ll show you,” Flim said, opening up a package of new tennis balls and pulling out one of them. Taking the knife, Flim proved himself by cutting the tennis ball with ease then going back to the tomato.

“Now, what do you think?” Flim said.

“Well, I must admit that I’m impressed,” Amethyst said. “But…”

Flim became nervous. “But what?”

“You don’t know what it’s like living in Canterlot. I can’t just buy things even if they will make things a little easier. Everything’s so expensive here. Even the things I need cost more than I can afford sometimes.”

Flim felt something change. It was odd and occurred somewhere within him, but he couldn’t exactly explain where. He’d heard of ponies having a ‘change of heart’ before, but never knew what it meant.

“A knife like this usually costs twenty bits,” Flim said. “Normally, in Canterlot, it’d go for twenty five, but our Company goes for the lowest price. Now, I am willing to make a little deal with you and give you this knife for only fifteen bits. This is a one-time only offer and it isn’t going to last long. So, are you going to take the deal… or not?”

Amethyst looked at Flim, then at Dinky, then back at Flim. “I’ll take it.” And she shook hooves with Flim and gave him fifteen bits, five bits less than what he was supposed to sell it for but five bits Flim knew his company wouldn’t notice was gone. He said his goodbyes to Amethyst and Dinky and left the apartment and started knocking on the door of the next one.

By the end of the day, Flim made six more sales. He went back to his company with the extra profits and five extra bits hidden in with the rest. The company took out a quarter of the money made from Flim’s sales and told him to keep the rest for himself and to come back tomorrow for more work.

By the end of the month, Flim was much better off than before. He had a few hundred bits in his bank and was able to support himself. He’d also been promoted to selling children’s toys, which were much easier to sell than other things. Though the money came in slowly, Flim continued his work starting at his apartment and eventually making his way out into the streets of Canterlot, and there the money started coming in.

Soon after he started selling the toys, Flim made his way over to Amethyst’s apartment yet again. He knocked on the door to be answered by Amethyst herself this time, although there were two other fillies besides Dinky also in the apartment.

“Babysitting?” Flim asked.

“Yes,” Amethyst said. “I’ll admit, the knife you sold us has been working well. Have you come by to sell us something again?”

“Well, since you have the fillies over, this is the perfect time. I’ve got cars, bouncy balls, coloring books, picture books, crayons and markers and all other sort of things. You could get a cheap price on something for every filly and I’ll see what I can do to make it cheaper if you need it.”

Amethyst smiled. “One coloring book, one ball, two picture books, and a pack of crayons, please. And I’ll pay the full price since the knife you sold us is holding up well.”

“Thank you very much, Miss Amethyst.” Flim pulled out the items Amethyst had asked for and Amethyst gave him the amount of bits he asked for before he left with a tip of his hat.

“Hey.”

Flim turned around to see Amethyst still in the doorway. “Yes? Is there… something else you need?”

“Do you want to go out for lunch tomorrow?” Amethyst asked. “I’ve got tomorrow off and the fillies are going to be at daycare so I’ll have tomorrow afternoon off.”

Flim was surprised at the offer, and even more so at his answer. “Yes. That sounds… fun.”

“Tomorrow at one?” Amethyst asked.

Flim nodded. “Tomorrow at one.”

Amethyst smiled again and went back inside. Flim merely sat there dumbfounded as the information processed in his brain. When it did, Flim broke into the biggest grin he’d ever had in his life.

At one o’clock, Flim went over and knocked on the door of Amethyst’s apartment and waited outside. His boss had been kind enough to give him the day off as well, so there was nothing between him and his date with Amethyst.

Amethyst opened the door. “Hey. You ready?”

“Yeah,” Flim said, then followed Amethyst’s lead as they left the apartment. “Where did you have in mind?”

“There’s a little place nearby that makes a decent daffodil and daisy sandwich,” Amethyst said. “It’s also one of the few places around here within my price range.”

“Ah,” Flim said thoughtfully.

The two walked a few minutes away from the apartment to where the café was. Flim and Amethyst sat down at a table on the patio outside and ordered a daffodil and daisy sandwich with hay fries each. The two started talking and eventually started telling each other jokes and other funny stories about their life. Amethyst told Flim about their near win in the Sisterhooves Social and her experiences with the Mysterious Mare-Do-Well. Flim told Amethyst about a wrestling match with his brother that Flim came out on top by tickling him. Amethyst laughed in all the appropriate places, and Flim did so in turn.

After a particularly long bout of laughing, Amethyst sighed. “Wow, this is the best time I’ve had in a while. It isn’t easy raising a filly like Dinky; she’s such a little ball of energy. It feels good just to get out of the house for a little while like this.”

“Yeah,” Flim agreed. “I only moved here recently so I’ve had to work long hours in order to get enough money just to pay rent and live here. I’ve been moving all over and switching jobs so it’s been hard for me to settle down.”

“Well, Canterlot isn’t exactly the easiest place to settle down,” Amethyst affirmed. “I moved here with Dinky soon after the Sisterhooves Social when I finally had enough money to sell my last pig and move here. It isn’t easy paying the rent, but with the farmer’s market and a good school and daycare for Dinky close by, not to mention the security of the Royal Guard always walking around here, it’s not bad and better to live than most places.”

“I’ve got to agree with you there,” Flim said. “It’s quite amazing. And I heard the ponies are pretty friendly here,” he said with a wink.

Amethyst giggled. Flim could swear he saw her blush.

When their lunch was over, Amethyst left to pick up Dinky from school and Flim went back to his apartment next to Amethyst’s. At his apartment, Flim went into the bathroom to wash his face before getting ready to go out to the farmer’s market to pick up a few things for the week.

However, his otherwise peaceful afternoon was interrupted when he saw what looked like the figure of a pony cloaked in a pure black cloak with the hood up, but under the hood it was too dark to see what the figure looked like.

“Who… who are you?” Flim asked.

“Ponies often see the signs of death when it approaches,” the figure responded coldly. “A cold wind in the air. A shadow looming over them.”

“Why are you here?” Flim asked, now becoming scared as the lights in the apartment dimmed around them.

“I’m here to watch… and to wait.”

“What for?”

“I’m here… to watch you die.”

“Die?” It took a moment for it to register. “No! I… I can’t die yet! I’m one of the greatest salesponies in all of Equestria, and you expect me to die just like that?”

“Well, yes.”

“What time?”

“About seventy minutes and twenty-three seconds from now.”

“Well, I might be one of the greatest salesponies in Equestria, but that doesn’t mean my life’s work is complete. I’ve sold a cider machine. I’ve sold knives. I’ve sold toys. I’ve even nearly sold a chariot with wings that moved without pegasi. But I haven’t made that deal yet.”

“What do you mean?”

“Give me a chance. Let me make one last deal. A deal for the alicorns. A… a… a sort of deal that would make even the Princesses Celestia and Luna buy from me! Give me that last chance. This is a one-time only offer and it isn’t going to last long. So, are you going to take the deal… or not?”

For a moment, the cloaked figure considered the offer. “Very well. I suppose I’ll let you live.”

Flim sighed.

“Although…”

“What now?”

There was a whinny, a crash, the sound of something breaking, and an oddly familiar scream that sent a shiver down Flim’s back.

“Somepony must die.”

Flim dashed out of the apartment and down into the street to see the horrifying scene. There were ponies all over the place and broken and splintered wood almost everywhere. Stray apples and oranges and lettuce and tomatoes were rolling everywhere, tripping up everypony that stepped on them. Most of the ponies seemed to be okay, and a quick surveillance told Flim that a chariot carrying a few of the guard had landed right in the middle of the street after one of the pegasi carrying it were blinded by a gust of wind.

However, one pair of unicorns in particular were in particularly bad shape. One was a lavender-colored filly with a golden mane and the other was a lighter-colored mare with a violet mane. It didn’t take long for Flim to recognize them.

“Amethyst!” he said, galloping over to where the unicorn was sitting panting.

“Flim!” Amethyst cried out, running over and nuzzling him.

“Amethyst!” Flim said. “What happened?”

“I don’t know,” Amethyst cried. “I was bringing Dinky back home from daycare when a chariot with some of the guard came crashing down on top of us. I’m okay, but… oh, Celestia, Dinky…”

“Where is she?” Flim said.

Amethyst and Flim galloped back to where Dinky was laying in the street covered in blood. There were a few gashes on her back and her horn was damaged at the tip and she was barely breathing. Flim ran over and shook Dinky gently.

“Dinky!” Flim cried out. “Dinky! Can you hear me?”

Dinky didn’t respond.

“We’ve got to get her to a hospital!” Amethyst said.

“She’s only got an hour or so,” Flim said. “Don’t ask me how I know. Just get Dinky on my back and we’ll get going to the hospital.”

Amethyst nodded and used her magic to gently lift Dinky onto Flim’s back as more guards came to the scene. Amethyst broke into a full gallop and Flim followed closely behind, making sure to keep Dinky from bouncing around too much on his back as Amethyst lead him through the Canterlot streets.

“Make way!” Flim shouted. “Injured unicorn filly coming through!”

Crowds leapt out of the way as the approached the hospital. Amethyst and Flim made their way through the hospital to the emergency unit, where Amethyst bolted for the counter. When Flim arrived, a few unicorn doctors took hold of Dinky and started rushing off with her on a stretcher. Amethyst followed the stretcher with Dinky and Flim started following behind Amethyst.

“Sis…” Dinky said weakly. “I feel so cold…”

“Don’t worry, Dinky,” Amethyst said, trying to maintain her composure. “It’ll be okay. The doctors will have you fixed up quick.”

“Sis…” Dinky said weakly. “Who’s that pony in the black cloak?”

Amethyst stopped and turned around, but Flim was the only one there in the hallway besides her and Dinky, whose stretcher quickly turned a corner and went into a room with three doctors.

“Don’t look at me!” Flim said. “I didn’t do anything!”

“You knew…” Amethyst said. “You knew this was going to happen, didn’t you?”

“Well, maybe I made a slight deal with Death himself that said I could live until I had made a deal for the alicorns, but I never knew he was going to take someone else instead until after the fact! And I certainly didn’t think he was going to take Dinky if he did!”

Amethyst looked at Flim with disgust and turned around running for the room.

“Amethyst!” Flim shouted, galloping after her. “Amethyst, wait!”

Amethyst had already closed the door to the room Dinky was in. Flim could only watch from a viewing window in the hallway outside as the doctors took notes and spoke with Amethyst about her little sister’s condition.

“Death!” Flim started calling out. “Death! Where are you? I’ve changed my mind! Take me instead of her!”

A shadow on the floor materialized into a vaguely pony-like form with a black cloak. “The deal is done, Flim. In a short amount of time, the filly shall be mine.”

“No…” Flim said. “No… You can’t do it.”

“But that’s the job. Surely you understand.”

Flim stared at him in horror. “Look at me!” he shouted as tears started falling down his face. “You can’t do that! You can’t just take a little filly like that! Please! Take me instead!”

Death stared at Flim from under his cloak. “And why would I want to do that? You’re older and not such a prize.”

“That’s the thing,” Flim said. “I’ve experienced more than that filly has. I’ve been selling things for the last five years. It’s my job. I’ve met every sort of pony there is out there. I’ve met ponies who are willing to backstab and cheat and take shortcuts even if it means doing whatever is necessary.”

“How should you know?” Death asked.

“Because…” Flim gulped. “Because I was one of those ponies. I fought with my brother. I fought with the citizens of Ponyville. I fought with my brother some more. I did whatever I needed to in order to get by, even if that included lying and cheating and stealing and backstabbing. I could have done something to save my brother from dying, but I didn’t do anything. I thought I could make it better off without him, but instead I doomed him and myself.”

“But Dinky…” Flim continued. “Dinky is just an innocent filly. She has the world ahead of her. And she means so much to Amethyst. Amethyst is such a good sister and takes such good care of Dinky, and to have the only family she has here with her to be taken away from her so quickly just isn’t worth it.”

Flim paused for a moment and looked at his cutie mark with a sigh. “My cutie mark is a single apple slice. I have no family to go back to; I’ve rolled too far away from the tree. I have no apple that fits; my brother was killed over a month ago. I’ve got no one and nothing left. I am the one you should take. Please, take me… and leave Dinky alone to live out her life. Please…”

Flim was now on the floor and nearly crying out. Out of the corner of his eye Flim saw Amethyst staring through the window and was quite sure that she could now see Death as well.

Death remained silent for a moment. After what seemed like a long time, he nodded. “Very well, Flim. I shall take your life instead of Dinky’s. It is past the time I should have taken someone by a few minutes now, and I must return with somepony.”

“You… you will?” Flim asked incredulously, a small smile on his face.

“I shall.”

Flim started hooting for joy. He didn’t care if anyone saw him. He just was happy he’d been able to somewhat make it up to Amethyst. The unicorn herself came out of the room and wrapped his arms around Flim shortly afterwards, crying for joy herself now instead of sadness.

“I don’t know what you’ve done, Flim,” Amethyst said, “but you did it. The doctor’s said Dinky’s going to make it. Her wounds just closed up on themselves. Thank you… thank you so much!”

Flim laughed for a little while, then looked at Death.

“What is it?” Amethyst said.

“I did it. I made a deal for the alicorns. I made a deal that convinced even Death himself.”

“What… what did you do?”

“I bargained with Death. My life… my life for Dinky’s.”

Amethyst frowned and shook her head. “No… you can’t go…”

“I’ve got to,” Flim said. “Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself and Dinky. She’s got a long life ahead of her, and she’ll be wanting you there with her.”

“Flim…” Amethyst said.

Death reached a hoof out to Flim. “Come on, Flim,” Death said. “It’s time.”

Flim reached out to take Death’s hoof and watched as Amethyst slowly waving and smiling at him, along with the rest of the world, faded away into white…

Flim. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you.

Where… where am I…?

You’re dead, Flim. Although, you’ve certainly lived over this past month.

I suppose I have. He he…

Tell me something. You were a salespony when you were alive… weren’t you?

I certainly was. One of the finest salesponies you ever saw. I made a deal for the alicorns, even. One that persuaded even Death himself.

Did you like being a salespony?

There was no greater joy to me. Especially when I started selling those toys. To see the look on those filly’s and colt’s faces was the greatest source of happiness I ever received, not to forget to look on the mother’s faces when their little foal was entertained enough to give them a short break.

How would you like to continue selling those toys and continue bringing joy to everypony?

But how? How will I sell things if I’m dead.

You never know what pony will need that sort of thing up there.

‘Up there’?

Didn’t Death tell you?

He didn’t say much else other than it was time for me to go.

Well, you never know who might need items up there, Flim. That’s where you’re going. You’ve made it.

Episode 7 - From Celestia... With Love

“What’s happening, Frank? You’re work and drawings have become sloppier than usual lately. Not to mention a little… too detailed.”

“I’m sorry, sir. I’ve just been so distracted lately. You see… she has been talking to me so much lately I can’t concentrate.”

“Who? Your wife? Your girlfriend?”

“No. Her.”

“Who? A fia– you have got to be kidding me.”

“She just keeps getting into my head. I swear; I don’t know what’s going on, but I can hear her talking to me.”

“Nonsense! How can a simple drawing of a pony talk to you? Pure madness! I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to fire you unless you can come up with a better excuse for your behavior.”

“…I’m sorry I wasted your time. I’ll be leaving now…”

D.T. entered the drawing room that his new boss had shown him to. All throughout the room there were desks, each with a computer and each with a large drawing board next to them. About twenty or so others were already in the room, the only sounds in the room being the pervasive sound of pencils scratching against the pads and the sounds of computer keyboards and mouse clicks. Conversation was kept to a minimum as the supervisor led him to a desk towards the center of the room.

“It’s considered an honor to be working on the princess of the sun herself,” the supervisor said. “Everyone else in the office wanted the chance, but I needed someone with true talent. Those drawings you submitted were so close to the design anyways I figured it would be almost sacrilege to have anyone else in the position.”

“It certainly feels like an honor. I have been practicing day and night for this chance, for any position to be in, but this… it almost feels as though I am at the hooves of the royalty herself.”

The supervisor laughed a hearty laugh. “You’re eager, grateful, and determined. I like that about you, and I’m sure you’ll do well. Anyways, here’s your desk. I’ll have a few instructions coming up for positions and angles we’ll need for later episodes coming your way later this afternoon. Until then, feel free to draw whatever you please and if you come up with anything interesting, please send it to me.”

“Thank you. My pleasure. I’ll get started right away.”

The two shook hands and the supervisor left the room. D.T. sat down at the desk and oriented himself with the drawing pencils and the pad in the room and started immediately beginning a sketch, starting with the basic outline and proceeding onwards from there.

“Hey. You’re the new artist in charge of Celestia, aren’t you?”

D.T. looked up from his work to see a young man in front of him. He had a fine figure, with shiny brown hair and a pure white smile. His face didn’t have a single blemish on it, and D.T. felt he could see muscles on his arms. He was dressed in business-casual attire and almost had the air of being a model.

“My names Walter Holmes,” said the man as he extended an arm.

D.T. shook it nervously. “Pleasure to meet you,” he said. “And yes, Mr. Elwood hired me for the position.”

“I tried out for the position myself,” Holmes said. “They weren’t sure if I could get the proportions right. Got stuck here doing some background ponies as a result. Anyways, I have to get this scene ready for the next episode, but we’ll talk later, okay?”

D.T. gulped. “Fine by me,” he said.

D.T. spent the rest of the day finishing his sketch before scanning it onto the computer a few hours later. He was waiting for the scanner to finish when a young woman in a black dress with long black hair came into the room.

“Excuse me, sir?” she said as she approached him. She held a folder in his direction. “This is from Mister Elwood. It’s some of the positions he needs for the next episode from the writers.”

D.T. shifted nervously in his chair. Talking to girls had never been his thing. Even in practical, business associations, he had never been able to talk to girls. Especially one so pretty as this. D.T. shot a hand out and grabbed the folder with a quick “thankyou” before resuming his work, loading the scanned picture on to Photoshop.

“Hey there, pretty lady.” D.T. heard Holmes’ voice clear and crisp. “Mind getting me a cup of coffee, two sugars and a dash of creamer to make it as sweet as yourself?”

D.T. groaned at the display.

Surprisingly, it worked. “Oh, my,” the woman said, quite clearly blushing at the display. “Of… o-o-of course.” And she trotted off briskly.

D.T. leaned over his desk. “How do you do that?”

Holmes kept smiling. “Pay attention to them. They like being flattered with compliments. Even smaller ones. I suppose you wouldn’t know that, though, being so focused on your drawings.”

D.T. felt like he wanted to flip the table over, though merely grated his teeth and went back to sitting at his computer and absent-mindedly applying shading. He finished some smaller details before sending it off in an email to his supervisor labeled as “Starter Project” and said he would get started on some preliminary sketches that afternoon.

A few hours later, D.T. was in the middle of another sketch when the supervisor, Mr. Elwood, came into the room. From the look on his face, he was absolutely beaming.

“You have certainly proven yourself!” he said to D.T. “This introductory piece of Celestia is amazing! I mean, you have the highlights to her hair, the glimmer of the gold of her accessories, and the brilliant shading job… why I almost had the feeling she could have jumped right off the page if she wasn’t staring into the distance! Brilliant work!”

D.T. managed a small smile as he heard Holmes grumbling away at his desk.

“Anyways, you can just go ahead and fold up your drawing boards for right now; the first episode we need Celestia for isn’t really entering production for a few weeks, so take your stuff and just remember we need them in a few weeks.”

“Thank you, sir.”

It was nearly four o’clock. D.T. printed out a copy of the picture for himself and was reminded of the episode he had sent in a drawing to work on, of a miniature Trixie surrounded by ponies that included Twilight Sparkle and Luna. He had been working on applying for a position to draw Luna, but that position became taken and the head producers and animators had told him his drawings were much too good and he was to be for Celestia, as he had been the only one as of late who could draw her radiantly; the others were getting kind of dull and sloppy. D.T. left the office, taking the picture with him, and went home.

Home was a small, one bedroom apartment littered with other, similar pictures to the one he had recently submitted, all done in painstaking detail that had taken hours to complete. The best were framed; one of Luna highlighted by the moon, one of Celestia sitting on her throne, one of the main six cast members sitting around enjoying a milkshake similar to that one scene in the third season. He never thought it would be his life’s work; just a little hobby on the side. Today… it had become so much more.

But he was lonely. All this time spent drawing and he had no one to share it with. His parents thought it was silly, a grown man spending his time drawing characters from a kid’s show. The last time he had a ‘girlfriend’ she was taken aback by weird references and odd attempts at flirting that she had taken one or two steps too far from the original meaning. So, for now, the apartment was quiet and barren. A quick dinner from the freezer was all that was needed before D.T. settled down for a long evening of random sketches and reading an email sent from Mr. Elwood once again praising him for his work.

D.T. soon picked up the picture of Celesta and sighed, contemplating how much a frame would cost him. “Oh, Celestia,” he said longingly at the picture. “If only you were real, then maybe I could have someone to give me peace.”

But the picture didn’t talk back to him. It couldn’t, no matter how realistic Elwood said it was.

His home computer could. There was a beep signifying he had a new message. When D.T. looked up, there was a new message in his inbox. He opened it and read the message inside:

“It seems that I have a subject that is distraught and lonely. But do not fear. I have a plan. The next time that girl comes around at work, make sure you act confident. Boast about your accomplishments and how you’re working in such a prestigious position. Show her the drawings and how good you are; that is, of course, your talent, so play it up a little.

“But remember this most of all: so long as the sun shall cross the sky, you are never alone.”

There was no signature. There was no sender address. There wasn’t even a box to reply.

D.T. considered momentarily sending the email to spam or simply deleting it, but whoever it was knew about his interaction with the lady in the office. So he had someone who found his email; he couldn’t respond to it anyways and figured it was just a prank someone was playing on him.

The email beeped again. He opened the message.

“This is not a prank.”

D.T. looked around the room. Nothing had changed. No one had entered.

But Celestia was staring straight at him.

D.T. returned to the studio at eight a.m. the next morning feeling very well rested and ready to work. He cleared his mind and continued his work on the assignments that Mr. Elwood had given him. He worked carefully and paid as close attention to detail as he could on his work, at by the time the morning coffee break came around he was finished with the first sketch he had been told to do. With that, he got up and went to the break room for a coffee and donut.

The woman from yesterday was there, taking a small spoon and pouring a few cups of sugar in her cup. She didn’t pay attention to him until he stood there getting his own cup of coffee.

“Hello,” she said, mostly just to exchange a greeting.

D.T. took a breath. “Hey there,” he said as confidently as he could. “What’s your name?”

The woman looked shocked, but interested. “Jamie,” she said.

“What a pretty name you have, Jamie,” D.T. said. “Such a pretty name.”

Jamie blushed and her face went beet red.

“Must be boring working as an office aide, huh? Not like me, drawing a character for a kid’s show so well they hired me specifically for the job.”

Jamie’s face went redder than before and she huffed. “I’m fine with my job, thank you,” she said as calmly as possible. She briskly walked towards the exit, running into D.T. and causing him to spill his coffee and creating a hot brown stain on his shirt. D.T. padded the stain with a towel before returning to his desk with another cup of coffee, absolutely fuming.

Jaimie returned to the workstation later, this time with a folder for Holmes. “Hey there, pretty lady,” Holmes said. “You know, I envy you. You get to take it slow.”

Jamie blushed and smiled. “Not really,” she said. “I work non-stop running errands and taking notes for Mr. Elwood. It’s… actually rather busy.”

“Oh, but the big shot stuff must me much more interesting than having to sit in the same room all day.”

D.T. was just about to say something when his computer beeped. He pulled it up to find another email with no signature or sender address.

“Don’t listen to him. You’re worth more than him.”

This time, there was a reply box.

D.T. typed out: “Who are you? And how do you know who I am?”

There was a pause for a minute, then the anonymous sender sent back a reply.

“I am the sun. Whoever should be active under the sun is under my watchful and ever-present eye, and I will help those who are in need.”

“You’re advice failed me. She rejected me and got mad at me.”

“I never said it would work, only that I had a plan.”

“…who are you?”

“So long as the sun shall cross the sky, you are never alone.”

The reply box left. D.T. closed the internet and was about to go back to his drawing when he noticed his picture of Celestia he had drew the previous day was now sitting on the computer as his desktop.

At the end of the day, D.T. felt tired despite the sun still being high in the sky. Another sketch had been worked on and was nearly finished besides some cleaning up, but Holmes had ended up asking Jamie out on a date and she said yes, after which he proceeded to brag about it to the rest of the artists the rest of the day; leaving had been D.T.’s only source of relief. He walked out of the building and went over to his car, a small white sedan, and fired it up with the radio on silent before pulling out of the parking lot and heading onto the main highway towards home, the sun shining brightly down on him and feeling pleasantly warm compared to the cool of the studio.

A shot of teal and pink crossed the rearview mirror and settled in the back seat. D.T. gripped the wheel tighter and continued facing forward, hoping he was just seeing things. Then game the glimmer of gold like a crown. D.T. pressed the accelerator down harder, going a few miles above the speed limit to force himself to focus on the traffic ahead of him.

Suddenly, the car’s steering wheel started to glow yellow and the car slowed back down to the speed of traffic. D.T. slammed the accelerator, but the car didn’t even rev. He pulled up the parking brake, but the light wouldn’t go on; soon the yellow glow surrounded the brake and put it back down. The car was still going in the direction he needed it to go, but the fact that he was suddenly powerless against whatever was blocking him was more than enough to cause him to burst out.

“Please, stop! I beg you! Please!”

“Stay calm, my faithful subject,” came a calm, regal voice.

The response was enough to elicit a scream much unlike that would normally come from a grown man. “Who… who are you? I demand that you show yourself!”

“Turn around,” came the voice again. “You are in capable hooves.”

D.T. didn’t turn around, instead he kept his hands on the steering wheel and looked in the rearview mirror. There she was, sitting in the back seat of his sedan. The radiant white fur and rainbow mane couldn’t hide it, nor could the golden accessories or the purple eyes that now stared back at him.

“Celestia…” D.T. said in awe.

Celestia smiled. “I have been watching you for quite some time, my faithful subject,” she said in her calm voice. “And it saddens me to see you in such a lonely state. But don’t worry. I shall make it where you are lonely no more.”

“How did you get here? You’re… you’re not supposed to exist in this world!”

Celestia kept smiling. “Just because I cannot control the sun here does not mean I am not allowed to visit every once in a while. You are, after all, approximately where Canterlot is in my universe.”

“Well, then… what was the big deal with sending me the false advice.”

Celestia’s smile faded, but only slightly. “Did you really think you had a chance with her? Let me tell you: you would never have had a chance with her in a thousand years.”

“And that’s another thing: what’s with the whole thousand year thing?”

Celestia ignored him. “There is someone out there who is better-suited for you, someone you need only to recognize is there for you and will be there for you always.” She placed a golden hoof on his shoulder. “Just trust me and let me show you.”

It, admittedly, was a tantalizing subject. “Yes! …wait, I mean no! No! I am fine on my own!”

“That’s not what your experience with the office aide Jamie showed.”

“Stop watching me! Stop stalking me! I am fine! Leave me alone!”

“I shall not leave one of my subjects in a position where they are unhappy.” Celestia’s voice was sterner now, more demanding. “Let me help you.”

“I take it that wasn’t a request.”

“I take it you won’t accept my help.”

“Not at the moment. Not when you suddenly pop into my life and know everything about m– aaaaaagh!”

D.T. quickly pulled his hands off the wheel; the sun had suddenly lowered so that it was shining directly into the car, blinding him and causing the steering wheel to heat up immensely. D.T. shook his hand and tried to shake it off, but the burn didn’t go away. It hurt to touch anything in the car and it even hurt to move his hand an inch as the heat radiated off the steering wheel.

“You should know that a princess never takes ‘no’ for an answer.”

“You… you bastard…”

The car suddenly came to a stop. D.T. hadn’t realized it, but Celestia had controlled the car and led it back to his apartment complex and had parked it in his usual spot. The heat finally receded from the steering wheel and his hands and the glow vanished.

“I shall make sure to keep in touch and see if you should reconsider the offer.”

There was a flash of light, and Celestia was gone.

D.T. was lying on his bed. He had remembered he was dozing off a few minutes ago, but now he lay wide awake on his bed in a light shirt and a pair of sweatpants. More than that, he felt hot as though he had turned on his heater, but he didn’t need the heater in the middle of summer, so… why was it so hot?

“Come with me.”

D.T. sat up on the bed and looked at his door, where the voice had come from. There was a faint white glow coming from underneath it. D.T. took a quick look around the room but found no one there. A shadow moved under the door, then stayed there.

“Come with me, or I shall wake you up again.”

D.T. got off the bed and opened the door to find the royal princess pony standing in front of him. She was much larger than he imagined, her head standing just above his own and making it so he had to look up slightly to see her. The pony began wandering off down a long hallway filled with ornate stained glass, including that of a draconiquis, of six different ponies summoning a rainbow glow, of a unicorn and an alicorn surrounded by a heart. D.T. followed the pony barefoot into the large hall, feeling the cold stone followed by the warm and soft feel of the decorative rugs underneath his feet. The clopping of the pony’s hooves ahead of him was muffled by the carpet as she led him outside the hall and into a hallway.

It was a bright day outside as they went down the hall. D.T. went over to one of the large windows and looked out to see a large, apparently very rich city with some of the elite ponies walking its streets.

“Canterlot…” D.T. said in hushed whispers.

“Come with me,” Celestia’s voice rang out and echoed in the hall. “I have much to show you, and little time to do it in.”

D.T. pulled himself away from the window and followed the royal alicorn down the halls until she led him into a large room with a fireplace, a large four-poster bed, a large window facing out towards the Canterlot streets, and a large glass roof overhead to let the sun in. The room was decorated with a large amount of sun motifs and D.T. had a very good guess as to where he was. He felt he knew it for sure when the door closed behind him with a resounding thud, and was also quite sure he couldn’t open that door by force.

“I never liked seeing a subject become unhappy,” Celestia said in a warm, gentle voice as she walked over to the window, leaving D.T. in the middle of the room. “Whenever a subject became unhappy, I would always find ways to make them happy again. It’s my duty as princess of Equestria, you see, to maintain the balance of harmony.”

D.T. said nothing.

“I watched you for a long time,” Celestia said, turning back and slowly walking over to D.T. “I saw you going to work every day at a boring job and figured you needed a better one. I saw your talents and created the position for you. I made it so you could take that job and do what you wanted to do. But… even after I got you the job, I saw you were lonely, and loneliness is a much harder thing to fix.”

It was hard to believe. “You were the one who…”

Celestia nodded.

“I have a proposition for you. Come with me. Come and live here in Equestria, here in Canterlot with me. I shall make sure you have friends to be by your side. I shall make sure you have everything you ever wanted. All I ask…”

Celestia took off her crown and placed it in front of her.

“…is that you take me to be your own.”

The idea was absurd.

“No.”

Celestia frowned, though her voice remained the same. “Take it. I insist.”

“Never.”

Celestia sighed. “All that I have done for you, and yet you still reject me.”

“It was all for your own benefit.”

“Never. I only do things that make my subjects happy.”

“You have tormented me over these past few days, and now you torment me in my dreams. I find nothing to be happy about here.”

“I would give you whatever you wanted. I would make sure you had whatever you wanted whenever you wanted it. I offer you a place at my side, as one I would love and cherish, and you decline the generous offer I have set before you.”

“That is correct.”

They sat there for a long while, each looking at the other.

“I suppose… you leave me with no choice.”

Before he realized what was happening, D.T. saw Celestia’s horn touch him and felt the burn of the flames of the sun itself on his hand. The pain was tortuous, but he couldn’t pull away; Celestia’s magic had locked him in place and all he could do was shout in pain as the alicorn’s magic coursed through him.

“I had done all I could to make you happy,” Celestia said. “I see I have no other choice. By the time you leave work tomorrow, you will have one more chance: either willingly give up everything and come to Equestria to be with me, or I shall forcefully bring you here myself.”

Everything happened at once.

The glass roof shattered.

D.T. felt himself leave the ground at high speed.

The sun came nearer and nearer and nearer…

The blinding light faded away and D.T. found himself in his bed again. He looked over at the clock to find it said four in the morning.

A pain like a burn on his hand registered in his mind. He looked down at the palm of his drawing hand and found that there was a mark there not unlike Celestia’s cutie mark. When he looked at the picture he had drawn two days ago, the entire background was covered in red flames and the only character in the frame was Celestia, now looking at him straight on.

D.T. returned to work at eight the next morning and sat down to continue the sketches. He started out carefully and paying attention to every detail, making sure that everything was just right. The picture came out quite well and was almost ready to go and be approved by Mr. Elwood.

Jamie walked in, but D.T. ignored her. Holmes started chatting her up, but D.T. was too busy with his drawing. Something was not right. Something was… missing, yet something was there that should not have been there. And it was quite apparent with D.T.’s hand that not all was well.

D.T.’s hand was flying furiously across the page, surrounded by a yellow glow. His feet were stuck in place underneath his chair and his other hand attempted to stop the damage his other hand was doing to the sketch, but it was no use. Celestia’s eyes went from large and welcoming to little more than pinpricks. The warm smile that she wore on her face turned into a manic grin, and her teal and pink hair became shades of a dull pink. The controlled hand tore the paper aside and onto the middle of the floor and D.T. turned to the next one and gave it the same treatment, tearing it aside minutes later and starting work on a new one.

It was only when the third one hit the floor and Mr. Elwood came in to examine the work that he saw the damage that was being done and the yellow glow that surrounded D.T.’s hand.

“Someone stop him!” Mr. Elwood cried out. “He’s been possessed!”

“Not my fault, sir!” D.T. cried out in response.

Holmes stood up from his desk and grabbed the hand that was being controlled, but it merely launched him aside and into another one of the artist’s desks before resuming the work, this time in drawing a picture of this same Celestia that had been going on for four previous drawings and placing D.T. on her back with a yellow glow around him as though he was placed there by magic. At the bottom of the page, D.T.’s possessed hand wrote out the following words:

“So long as the sun shall cross the sky, you are never alone. So long as the sun shall cross the sky, your body and your heart shall always be mine.”

Mr. Elwood nearly fainted from surprise. “So… Frank wasn’t lying.”

“What happened to Frank, sir?” D.T. said as his hand threw aside that drawing and started another one.

“I fired him. He said that Celestia was talking to him. But I… I never took much stock in his words. I should have started sooner.”

“Are you going to fire me, sir?”

“No. I shall transfer you to work on drawings of Luna. I… I’m sure that Holmes here could easily take over your position.”

“Honored to, sir,” Holmes said.

Without warning, the glow receded and D.T.’s hand dropped limply to the side.

“You may start your new positions immediately and from your current desks,” Mr. Elwood said.

D.T. nodded happily.

Holmes smirked triumphantly.

A few hours later, D.T. had finished his first drawing of Luna that showed the princess of the night smiling at him. A short while later, he could have sworn he heard a cheery laugh coming from the direction of the painting and saw Luna wink at him, and he felt proud of himself.

The same could not be said of Holmes.

The room suddenly became very quiet, with not even the scratching of pencils. D.T. stopped sketching and turned around to see a very familiar face in the doorway, but its gaze was not focused on him. Instead, the figure took long, slow, deliberate strides down the center aisle of the studio until it came to a stop at Holmes’ desk; Holmes was shaking so much the entire room could hear his desk vibrating beneath him.

“So…” the voice said, gentle and warm, “you’re the replacement?”

Holmes gulped.

“Come with me. I have an offer to make you, but your only choice… is to take it.”

Holmes was surrounded in a yellow glow and lifted onto the back of the towering alicorn. The magic glow soon surrounded him and Holmes began to scream as he found he couldn’t move. The alicorn soon shot out the door and all the artists ran to the window to watch as the alicorn took flight and carried the screaming Holmes into the blinding sunlight.

Episode 8 - The Silence

As was par for the course, Pinkie Pie just couldn’t seem to stop talking.

“And then she wooshed down so fast that she did a sonic rainboom! But then, she was coming down so fast and was still so far up that she did another rainboom right after that! And then she kept flying around the clouds so fast they all formed a rainbow-colored tornado and the air started blowing all around me and it was just so incredibawesomazing that I could help myself and I jumped into the air and went ‘YAHOO RAINBOW DASH!’ Isn’t that right, Dashie?”

“Yeah,” ‘Dashie’ replied. “Sure. We’ve already heard this story five times before, Pinkie. When are you going to stop telling me?”

“But I was just telling it again to Ditzy Doo and Cloudkicker,” Pinkie explained. “The other five times were to Twilight, Rarity and Sweetie Belle, Fluttershy, Applejack and Big Macintosh, and Applebloom and Scootaloo. Ditzy and Cloudkicker hadn’t heard it before.”

“Nice work, Rainbow Dash!” Ditzy said. I saw the rainboom while eating a muffin at Sugarcube Corner!”

“See? It’s just like when you saved those ponies, only a lot cooler because no one else can do a rainboom like you can! Come to think of it, I don’t think anyone else can do a rainboom at all!”

Rainbow Dash sighed. “Pinkie, I know I agreed to hanging out with you today, but can you give it a break? Ever since we’ve sat down to lunch, all you’ve been able to do is tell other ponies the story of that trick that I did a week ago. Besides, you haven’t even eaten your own lunch!”

Pinkie looked down at her pile of hay fries and a daffodil and daisy sandwich, left alone for the last twenty minutes on her plate. “No sweat,” Pinkie said, and proceeded to eat the entire plate in a single swish of her tongue.

“That’s… kind of gross,” Dash said. “But it works. Shall we? I’ve got an amazing prank to pull on Applejack today.”

“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie said, hopping up and down happily. “Just wait here one second; I wanna tell Mr. and Mrs. Cake about the trick!”

Dash sighed as Pinkie ran off. “How about we just do this another day?” she said to no one in particular and walked off towards Twilight’s to see about getting another Daring Do book.

“Daring Do?” Twilight asked. “I know I recently had a copy of ‘Daring Do and the Kingdom of the Crystal Ponies’ donated a short while ago. Is that okay?”

“Nah,” Dash said. “I’ve already seen the Crystal Ponies myself. We all did.”

“Alright. Well, I’m sure I have something here on the shelves. Come with me.”

Rainbow Dash followed Twilight into the main room of the library and watched as Twilight began scanning the shelves. It didn’t take long, and soon Dash was holding a copy of ‘Daring Do and the Arabian Nightmare’ in her hooves as Twilight stamped the book as ‘checked out’.

“Something bothering you lately?” Twilight asked. “I didn’t expect you to be coming by here. I thought you were hanging out with Pinkie Pie today.”

“Well, I was, but I just can’t get that pony to stop talking,” Dash said. “I had this amazing prank I was going to pull on Applejack today by painting some of the regular apple trees different colors to look like different apples, but then Pinkie started talking about a trick I did last week to everypony that was passing by. She ended up running off to tell more ponies about it and left me at the restaurant we went to lunch to alone.

Twilight frowned sympathetically. “Well, if you wanted to have some time off from Pinkie, you could propose a wager.”

“A wager?” Dash asked. “Aren’t ponies only allowed to make bets in Las Pegasus?”

“Consider it a friendly competition,” Twilight replied.

“What exactly would be the terms of the competition?”

“Well… we could put Pinkie into a small room with everything she needs to live and in a place where everypony could see her. We then enchant the room so that if she talks we’ll notice and she’ll lose the competition.”

Dash thought about this for a minute. Pinkie Pie being silent for any length of time was unbelievable, but to post a competition that could see just how long she could be silent? That… that was brilliant, something only a pony like Twilight could come up with. Dash grinned.

“A competition?” Pinkie asked. “You mean… like a game?”

“Exactly like a game!” Dash said. “We’d put you in a little magical chamber that Twilight’s gonna make and you would have to remain silent for just one year! We’d give you whatever food you need and whatever supplies you’d need, and all you’d have to do to communicate is write little messages on a slip of paper that could be delivered to whatever pony you wanted them to. And to make it interesting, I’ll throw in ten thousand bits if you manage to last that lo—”

“I’ll do it!” Pinkie said. “I just need to get some things organized with the Cakes and Rarity, but I should be ready for it in a month’s time. Oh, Dashie, this is gonna be so fun! Wait until I tell Cloudkicker and Ditzy and Big Macintosh and Applejack and Rarity and Sweetie Belle… Ooh! And I’d be able to help Mr. and Mrs. Cake with the bills they’ve been having lately! I’ve only been making cupcakes lately, but they’ll need a new fridge, a new oven, a new mixing bowl, a new set of spoons…”

One month later, the chamber was set up in the center of Ponyville near the town call and Carousel Boutique, a widely traveled area. The chamber was made entirely out of glass with a door on one side that had a slot in the center of it and contained a bed, a dresser (per Pinkie’s request), and a table, in addition to a large stack of index cards with a few quills and bottles of ink nearby. The entire chamber had a pinkish glow to it courtesy of Twilight’s sound detection magic that she had placed on it. To the right side of the door, there was a contract written out.

“Ms. Pinkie Pie has agreed on this date to stay inside this magical chamber for one year without speaking a word. If she should make it one year without speaking, she will be awarded a prize of 10,000 bits by Ms. Rainbow Dash as soon as she exits the chamber. If not, Pinkie Pie is to leave the chamber whenever the alarm goes off and shall pay Rainbow Dash 2000 bits in defeat.”

Twilight was present with Rainbow Dash as ponies began to gather at the site of the glass chamber. Soon, it felt like the entirety of Ponyville was present that morning. The ponies were all looking at Carousel Boutique, where Pinkie Pie had been seen entering earlier that morning under the pretense she was going to speak with Rarity for a minute before agreeing to the competition. Rainbow Dash stomped her hooves impatiently and flew into the air for a minute.

“What’s taking Pinkie Pie so long?” she asked no one in particular. “Is she chickening out?”

A few minutes later, Dash got her answer. Pinkie Pie emerged with Rarity next to her adjusting a scarf that Pinkie had placed around her neck. The two trotted forward, with Rarity carrying a rather large, transparent plastic bag filled with shirts, scarves, and sweaters that Pinkie was allowed to take into the room.

Pinkie trotted over and stood across from Rainbow Dash, who stood next to the contract.

Twilight went up to a podium and began to announce the crowd. “Ponies who are present, we are here today to watch as Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash begin their competition! Once Pinkie signs the contract currently placed on the side of the chamber, she will be unable to speak for an entire year, and must remain inside the chamber at all times.”

Rainbow took the quill and signed her name on the contract before handing over the quill to Pinkie, who had yet to say a word since leaving Carousel Boutique. Pinkie signed the contract then looked at Rainbow Dash as though expecting something.

“Ready for this, Pinkie?” Dash challenged.

Pinkie nodded.

“Pinkie Pie,” Twilight asked, “could you please step inside the chamber?”

Pinkie Pie nodded, took the bag from Rarity in her mouth, and went inside the chamber.

“Good luck, dear,” Rarity said.

Twilight used her magic and locked the door, preventing any other pony from entering. Pinkie waved a hoof to all the others outside, then took a pad of paper and a crayon and began drawing.

The competition had begun.

For a long while, everything was the same in Ponyville.

Pinkie followed a much stricter schedule than any pony had ever seen to the point where you could tell what time it was by her routine. If Pinkie was waking up and eating a cupcake, the shops were beginning to open. When Pinkie finished her cupcake and started drawing, most of the ponies were at work. When Pinkie was delivered hay fries by Mr. or Mrs. Cake, it was lunch time. If Pinkie started reading a book, it was back to work. If Pinkie had a sandwich with a side of alfalfa, it was dinner time.

It got so precise that it went to days of the week. If Pinkie decided to dance, it was the weekend and a day off. If Pinkie was sending off a message to Twilight asking to check out some books, it was the first day back at work after the weekend. If Rainbow Dash came by to see if Pinkie would give up her bet (and Pinkie always wrote back “no”), it was the second day of the week. If Pinkie was sending off a message to Rarity to do something with one of her garments, it was the middle of the week, and if Rarity was bringing back said garment, it was the last day of work before the weekend.

Not many ponies were too happy with the arrangement by the time a month had passed.

“I do not like the look of this game,” Zecora commented one afternoon when she was visiting. “It takes away what gave her her name!”

“What’s going to happen with the school’s Hearth’s Warming Eve party?” Applebloom asked. “Pinkie Pie always made that such a fun event!”

“Pinkie makes the best muffins!” Ditzy Doo said. “But now there’s no other baker as good that can take her place!”

This last statement was an agreement among many of the ponies. While many ponies were eager to see Pinkie Pie beat Rainbow Dash at her competition, most of them were also disappointed that the party pony and one of the best bakers at Sugarcube Corner was gone. The Cakes productivity level was nowhere near where Pinkie Pie’s had been, and it had taken Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Twilight to create the same amount as Pinkie had been able to make and the quality still wasn’t the same.

Three months passed in this fashion.

One day, Rainbow Dash came up to taunt Pinkie Pie.

“I’m surprised the alarm didn’t go off the first week!” she said. “I’m impressed, Pink. I never thought you’d make it this far.”

Pinkie Pie scribbled a note and passed it through the slot. “Anything for one of my friends. Besides, this is fun! :)”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I thought you’d miss talking all day.”

Pinkie Pie scribbled another note. “Nope. I can finally hear myself think!”

Dash went away amused, but still confident.

Twilight was sitting in between two large stacks of scrolls. There were fifty two of them, in fact, all branded with the royal seal of a golden hoof. She had recently received a letter from Celestia, asking that she write an essay of each and every day to explain how she had come to each of the conclusions in the letters she had sent her. It was turning out to be a longer task than she had thought, but she had whittled it down a little each day.

It was nice, not having Pinkie around bothering her all the time. She would always come over with a tray full of baked goods, balloons, and confetti saying something about a party. Two months before the bet, it was a “Rainbow Dash completed fifty Sonic Rainbooms” party. One week after that, it was the “Mr. and Mrs. Cake have locked themselves up in their bedroom and are making odd noises” party. One week before the bet, there was the “Mr. and Mrs. Cake are having another filly” party. After the invitation was given five minutes after her arrival, Pinkie would go about singing a song about the party that went on for another few minutes, and then she’d leave. Inevitably, she’d always return because she forgot something, like the date or the time, and interrupt Twilight for another half an hour talking about some random thing before finally telling her the information. It usually caused Twilight to be an hour and a half behind schedule, but you couldn’t schedule Pinkie.

Today, however, it was sad. Pinkie had been in the box in the center of Ponyville for about six months now and Twilight was beginning to miss the (mostly) once-weekly visits with the pink party pony. Lately, Pound and Pumpkin Cake had been traveling by once a week on their way to school with a small box in their bag containing six muffins or cupcakes. They’d talk for a while, Pumpkin about magic and Pound about flying lessons or any messages from Pinkie, then be on their way about two minutes later.

This time, the library was quiet. Too quiet. Pinkie’s absence had at first been welcome and gave Twilight the peace of mind she needed to complete her assignments and get much farther ahead of schedule, but things had became… dull. Pinkie was smarter than she looked and frequently gave Twilight some interesting insight the purple unicorn had never thought of before. Things were quiet and uninteresting.

Suddenly… there came a rapping at Twilight’s door. Twilight got up from between her stacks of scrolls and went over to the door to see who was there.

The visitor was unexpected. Rainbow Dash was standing at the door looking panicked; her hair was out of place and her eyes were wide with small pupils. She was panting and sweating as though she had flown very fast to reach her.

“Twilight!” Dash panted. “Twilight! You’ve got to help me!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Help? Help with what?”

“My bank account!” Dash exclaimed.

Twilight scowled; she thought Rainbow would have a problem with friendship to send another letter in to Celestia (it had been a while since I sent one, she thought). “Why do you need help with your bank account?”

“I’m having money troubles!” Dash said. “I haven’t had as much work with the weather patrol lately and haven’t been earning as much lately. If this keeps up and Pinkie succeeds in the challenge, I won’t have enough to pay her the full reward!”

“You could just pay her back in smaller amounts when you get the money,” Twilight said.

“That’s the thing!” Dash said. “The contract we signed states I have to give her ten thousand bits as soon as she exits! I won’t be able to fulfill my part of the contract!”

Twilight sighed. “If you didn’t spend so much on Daring Do books lately, you wouldn’t be in this predicament!”

“But I felt bad about borrowing them from the library over and over to reread them and wanted my own personal set! The author’s on fifteen now and I spent so many bits getting the full collection; you had no idea how quick they were gone, and the first is starting to become collector status! Oh, it was a stupid mistake, but I have to find a way to either convince Pinkie to leave or rearrange the contract! You’ve gotta help me, Twilight!”

Well… it was something more exciting than things had been lately. “Alright. Let’s go and talk to Pinkie and see if we can work something out.”

Twilight followed Dash to the box where Pinkie was currently sleeping, wearing a pink sweater with a high neck that went almost to her chin. Her hair was less poofy than it had been before, and her fur was a shade or two darker than it had been a week ago when Twilight last checked out her books. The pink pony heard them coming and woke up and went immediately to her notepad and crayons as they stepped up.

“Hey Pinkie!” Twilight called. “How are you lately?”

Pinkie scribbled a note: “Fair enough. It gets lonely in here sometimes.”

Rainbow Dash walked up. “Actually, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about that.”

Pinkie’s fur brightened as she wrote another note. “Are you going to set up camp next to me? Then you could tell me fire-side stories and we’d have smores and everything! It’d be fun!”

“Sorry, Pinks. Not something to talk to you about… in that way.”

Pinkie’s fur darkened again. “Then what?”

“I… have a proposition. I’ll give you five hundred bits to let you out now.”

Pinkie didn’t hesitate for a second. “We’re only halfway through. I have plenty of steam left.”

Rainbow Dash pounded on the glass. “Pinkie! Listen to me! I have five hundred bits for you right now. I will give it to you right now if you leave.”

Pinkie might have actually laughed if she hadn’t been silent. “Are you kidding me? You’re caving in? I would have expected better from you, Dashie. I’m not giving up yet.”

Three months later, Dash had become something of a spectacle, though not in a good way.

It had become a fairly common sight to see Rainbow Dash flying circles around the glass box Pinkie was still living in. Sometimes it was lazy circles that were more shouting at the glass and Pinkie shaking her head in response. Sometimes there would be a rainbow whirl from how fast the Pegasus was flying, and the things coming from the mouth of the Pegasus were too explicit to be written down, and most of the foals that were watching with their parents had their ears covered.

“Pinkie! Please! Why don’t you just take the offer I’m making you of a thousand bits and leave!”

“I can’t now!” came Pinkie’s response. “There’s only three months left! We’re so close!”

“How about one and a half thousand bits!” Dash called.

“Nope!”

“How about two thousand bits! Two thousand bits, right here and now!”

Pinkie stopped shaking her head for a minute. She put a hoof to her chin and thought for a moment, taking longer than usual to write out her answer. Eventually Dash touched down and looked at the paper.

“Right now? Let’s see it!”

Dash realized she had spoken too soon. “Well, I actually need to retrieve it from the bank.”

“Then that’s just an hour or so more I’d have to wait. That’s an hour or so closer to the deadline. So… no.”

Dash dropped down. “How? How are you doing this?”

Pinkie’s fur darkened again. “I can’t say.”

Three months later, the entirety of Ponyville was out in the central plaza to see Pinkie being released from the box. No one was able to believe that Pinkie Pie, the most talkative and hyper pony in all of Equestria, had been able to stay silent for an entire year. Pinkie was in a fancier scarf than usual that was covered in pink diamonds courtesy of Rarity and was jumping up and down in excitement.

The only one not excited was Rainbow Dash. The mare was standing outside the box with Twilight and waiting for an alarm to set off that announced the time Pinkie could leave the box, but the blue mare was nervously stamping the ground and shivering as though she could have used Pinkie’s scarf. Arguably, Rainbow was the more interesting mare to watch, what with her stamping and her shifting eyes and the way she nervously flew around and checked the box anywhere for signs of an alarm waiting to set off within the final minutes of the bet.

The alarm never sounded. The bell rang and Twilight went before the box to make a quick speech. “Congratulations to Pinkie Pie for winning the bet against Ms. Rainbow Dash! Our pink party pony and the Element of Laughter has managed to stay silent for an entire year! But now, she will be able to speak and to hold parties again!”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t tell, but she thought there might have been some sort of sad look in Pinkie’s eyes as Twilight commended her feat.

Rainbow Dash went up to the podium. “Before Twilight opens the box, I have an announcement to make: I cannot fulfill my end of the bargain. I spent my savings on the complete Daring Do collection, and with the lack of work I’ve been receiving from weather patrol I don’t have enough money to pay Pinkie even half of the amount I promised her. I tried to make the bet too high stakes to make Pinkie back out before the bet was finished.”

The crowd gasped.

“So, instead, I shall do two things. Firstly, I shall help Pinkie at the Cake’s shop and help her run the shop. In addition, I shall not speak badly of Pinkie or her constant talking ever again.”

Inside the box, Pinkie started scribbling a note madly.

Twilight opened the box. “Well, Pinkie… have you anything to say to that?”

Pinkie continued writing on the pad, but wouldn’t let anyone see what she was writing.

“Pinkie?” Twilight asked her. “You’re allowed to talk now; the bet’s off. Why aren’t you talking to us?”

Pinkie finished the note and gave it to Twilight as the town fell silent and waited with bated breath as Twilight red it. The unicorn looked at the paper for a few minutes, then shook her head and pulled it closer as though there was something she had missed. Twilight looked up from the paper in disbelief.

“Wha…? I… I…”

“Well, Twilight?” Dash asked impatiently. “What does it say?”

Twilight looked at the note and read it slowly.

“I haven’t told anypony except for Rarity about this. There’s a reason that Rarity has been making and repairing all these scarves and sweaters for me: a week before I was placed into the box, I underwent a special surgery. I knew I couldn’t finish the challenge normally, so I went over to Trottingham and had my vocal chords severed!”

Rainbow Dash went over to Pinkie and gingerly took the scarf wrapped around Pinkie’s neck in her mouth. With as much care as possible, Rainbow unwrapped the scarf from around her neck and let it drop onto the ground. She gasped – along with the entire town of Ponyville, as they saw the incision mark down the center of Pinkie’s neck.

Episode 9 - The Changing of the Guard (TEASER)

Celestia stood at the entrance of the balcony, taking in a large sigh. She could hear the crowds outside, ponies filling the courtyard that marked the entrance of Canterlot Castle. There was a large commotion outside, with music and others speaking outside, though the Princess herself was quiet and reflective. A short ways away, her sister, Princess Luna, stood in a dress that few others knew was somewhere more than a thousand years old, preserved by ancient designs. Celestia looked over at Luna and noticed her wearing the dress.

“I… cannot believe you have kept it for so long,” she said quietly.

Luna shook her head. “Do not concern yourself with what I am wearing,” replied the alicorn of the night gently. “Those ponies out there are waiting for you to make your speech as they have all day. ‘Tis a momentous occasion for you.”

“Yes… but it isn’t the same without the rest of them here to celebrate.”

Luna walked over to Celestia and put her muzzle under Celestia’s chin. “I know. It’s been hard for all of us. Cadence has either been shut up in her room for the past week or in the secret corner of the gardens with her vigil. She seems to be unreachable during this time of year. But you… you have to stand strong. If not for them, for me.”

Celestia nodded. “I shall try, dear sister.”

Celestia heard the triumphant fanfare that was due to mark her appearance and walked, in all her regalia and a bright, sparkling dress, out on to the balcony reaching over the crowds of ponies, all standing silent and with bated breath for Her Majesty to speak. A microphone was standing in front of her, and multiple speakers surrounded the courtyard for the best sound quality so that all could hear the Princess’ speech. Celestia took in a breath and pulled herself closer to the microphone and began to speak, hearing her voice echoing far and wide across Canterlot and Equestria.

“It is a pleasure to speak to you all on this, the evening of the first day of my two thousandth year as your Princess. I should hope that my next thousand years, I will continue to lead this fine nation through thick and through thin, and to stand by you all as not only your ruler, but as your kin. I wish for all of you to think of me not as a nigh-immortal being, but another pony like you.

“For, as we gather here this day to celebrate the beginning of a new millennium in Equestrian history, we also gather here to pay our respects to six of you. Two Earth ponies, rulers of the land. Two pegasi, rulers of the air. And two unicorns, rulers of the magic throughout the land. If we were to examine the lives of these ponies, they would be just like you: a farmer, an animal care-taker, a party planner, a librarian, a dress maker, and a weather team member. Yet they have managed to do some extraordinary things. I advise you all throughout this year and the coming years, to remember the strength and courage that these six had, and though they accomplished things that most would only ever dream of, that they were all once just like you.”

“I now read a poet that was a favorite of the late prestigious magician Twilight Sparkle, former Element of Magic:

When I was one and twenty, I heard a wise mare say:

‘Give emeralds and sapphires and bits, but not your heart away.

Give pearls and rubies, but keep your fancy free.’

But I was one twenty; no use to talk to me.

The heart out of the bosom was never given in vain

‘Tis paid for size aplenty, and sold for endless room.

Now I am two and twenty and lo; tis true… tis true.”*

The crowds stood silent, as though they knew not what to think of what the Princess had just said.

“I now shall quote the magician herself form a statement she made in her later years,” Celestia continued. “‘Do not give your lives to meaningless pursuits of greatness, for greatness is not searched for and found, but searches for and finds. Instead, give your lives to your talents and your abilities, and delve into them with all your heart. Even the smallest of you has something to give if you give it your all, and if you do this… greatness shall come to you.’ My little ponies: stay true to your talents, your marks… and yourselves. I see in front of me a crowd of little ponies, some young and some old, who I have watched over from the very first day. I have a feeling that potentially all of you will grow to become fine young mares and stallions who will make their marks and leave their marks, as the Elements of Harmony have done so long ago.”

Upon finishing with her little speech, Celestia backed away from the microphone and bowed her head in respect as the crowds thundered their approving applause towards her. Celestia waved to the masses for a short while before the bands struck up again and the Solar Princess retreated into the quiet hallways of Canterlot Castle, where Luna stood with an approving smile.

“You did well, dear sister,” she said.

Celestia sighed and smiled back. “Come. We should find Princess Cadence and join her vigil for a moment. The celebration of my two-thousand year reign has fallen at a bad time.”

* * *

Princess Celestia: an old, wise ruler of Equestria and guide to the younger residents of her land who is about to discover that life still has certain surprises even after two thousand years… and that the grounds of the ancient Canterlot Castle lie in a direct path to another kingdom…

The Equestrian Zone.*

* * *

Episode 3 - I Am the Night, Color Me Luna

Shining Armor was uneasy. For the first time in thousands of years, there was a murder in Equestria, and with the worst consequences. The trial had gone swiftly with Shining Armor – and the rest of the Celestial Guard’s testimony – contributing his piece to the case. And so it happened that an alicorn now rested in the dungeons. Shining Armor left the case originally feeling pleased with himself, but as the moon now rested overhead and the Captain of the Celestial Guard sat on a balcony in the cool of the night, the white unicorn could no longer feel peaceful or confident with his decision.

A blue glow holding a white cup with gold trim came to a rest beside him. Shining Armor took the cup in his own aura and sipped the brown liquid inside: a bitter tea with honey and sugar to lighten the taste. As he did so, a young pink alicorn stepped up next to him and sat down next to Shining Armor on the balcony.

“What is it, dear?” the alicorn asked. “Is it about the trial earlier today?”

“Yes, Cadence,” Shining Armor replied.

“Don’t be so worried,” Princess Cadence said, bringing her head to his chin and nuzzling him. “You did what was right. You should be proud of yourself.”

“And yet I don’t feel that way,” the unicorn stallion replied, eyes downcast. “I feel like there’s some detail we missed. Some puzzle piece we don’t have, like how we managed to miss that one time where Celestia had gone off to Ponyville to check on my little sister’s progress and allowed Chrysalis to take your place. It was a small detail so far back we didn’t even see it and it nearly led to all of us being in great danger.”

“Well, what other options presented themselves?” Cadence asked. “I mean, I wish things could have turned out another way, but you’ve run into a dead end with the evidence presented.”

“I only wish the punishment were not so severe. Enough unicorn townspeople in Ponyville stepped in to prevent things from getting worse than they already were. Celestia could have given her some sort of pardon. I mean, she is royalty and could easily have done something differently. Instead, she just sidestepped the issue and didn’t want to deal with anything.”

“I’m sure she has many other things to do,” Cadence said reassuringly.

Shining Armor merely shook his head and finished his tea.

“You still don’t seem comforted,” Cadence said.

“It’s the first murder in thousands of years and Celestia sidesteps the issue? I don’t believe it.”

Cadence bit her lip. “I’m sorry, dear. I don’t know what else to say.”

Shining Armor couldn’t say anything.

“You could write a letter to Twilight Sparkle,” Cadence suggested. “I’m sure she could take the time to come here to Canterlot and be willing to listen. She and her friends were witnesses, right? Maybe they’d have another answer.”

“I don’t know if Princess Celestia would approve,” Shining Armor said hesitantly. “I mean, she and—”

“Oh, don’t worry about what Celestia would think,” Cadence interrupted. “If you need Twilight to come here to comfort you and get some brother and sister time, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind it a bit.”

Shining Armor sighed and nodded. “I suppose I should write a letter to her.”

“Good. And do remember to come into bed when you’re done,” Cadence said. “It gets cold at night up this far in the tower.” And she trotted off to bed again.

Shining Armor got up and went to his desk in another section of the tower and began to write.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I need you to come to Canterlot as swiftly as possible. I am uneasy regarding my decision in this last case and need to talk to you about it. Your friends can come along if you want them to.

Your brother, Shining Armor

Twilight Sparkle looked at the hastily scrawled letter that had come in the mail that morning. At first she had been angry; the grey Pegasus mail-mare had been rattling her mailbox since before the sun even rose. Her anger quickly turned to happiness when she saw the letter was from her brother, but became concerned when she saw the jerky scrawl that was so unlike her brother’s usual handwriting. And the subject of the note wasn’t any better.

“The last case?” Twilight wondered aloud. “Does he mean…?”

Twilight didn’t think about it very long. She quickly went upstairs and started poking the bundle of blue blankets inside a small basket next to her bed.

“Spike!” Twilight called out.

The blue bundle quivered a bit before a purple and green dragon head popped out from underneath. “What is it? Why are you up so early? Do you need me to add fire to something? If not, I’ll be going back to sleep until a normal waking hour.”

“Spike, I need to go to Canterlot for a few days,” Twilight said. “My brother wanted me to come over swiftly but he didn’t say when he wanted me to come. This is so confusing. Write a note telling him I’m on my way to the Ponyville train station and coming to Canterlot as fast as I can. And please add in that note about him not putting a specific time he needed me to get there; it’s making me so confused.”

Spike grumbled a little more, but got up out of the blankets and went over to the desk on the lower floor of the Ponyville library, taking a few minutes to make a cup of coffee before writing the letter. Once the letter was sent with his magical flame, Spike drank a cup of coffee and carried an extra cup up the stairs to where Twilight Sparkle was deciding what research reports went with her to Canterlot to show Princess Celestia and which could stay behind.

“Shouldn’t it be more important to see what your brother needs instead of pondering whether or not you’re going to take a research report on levels of friendship in fish?” Spike asked.

“I’ll be in Canterlot spending time with my brother!” Twilight said. “At some point, we’ll be seeing Princess Celestia and I’ll be able to tell her how my research report on friendship is going and about the studies I’ve found on friendship in other creatures.”

Spike picked up the note on the nightstand next to Twilight’s bed and read it over. “It doesn’t sound like you’ll be seeing Princess Celestia much if she’s preoccupied as she’s going to be.”

“Well, if she can’t read it, I’ll be able to share it with Princess Luna and maybe she’ll learn a thing or two from it as well.”

At the mention of Princess Luna, Spike dropped the cup of coffee over the floor, causing Twilight to drop her reports. “Spike, could you be a little less clumsy and help me decide?”

Spike blinked. “You really don’t know…”

Twilight went over to Spike, studying him. “Don’t know what?”

Spike shook his head and went back downstairs to make a new cup of coffee. “It’s nothing. I’m sure you’ll find out from Shining Armor.”

Twilight sighed and packed her friendship reports and a few books on animal behavior before heading downstairs. Spike presented her with a coffee and Twilight went to the station for the first express train to Canterlot, noting especially that the Captain of the Celestial Guard had called her there. The station manager immediately gave her a ticket to Canterlot and set her on the earliest and fastest train, and soon Twilight Sparkle was speeding along towards the royal city.

Upon her arrival at the Canterlot station later that morning, Twilight Sparkle was greeted by two pure white Pegasus stallions in gleaming gold armor. Twilight bowed to them as she approached.

“You are Twilight Sparkle?” one asked.

“Yes,” Twilight responded.

“We were sent here by your brother and Captain of the Celestial Guard, Shining Armor, to pick you up and escort you to the castle. We have a special coach waiting for you just outside the station.”

“Oh,” Twilight said as one of the pegasi picked up her suitcase. “Thank you.”

The guards escorted Twilight over to the chariot and attached themselves to the front of the coach. Twilight and her bags were loaded into the fancy coach before the pegasi began dashing through the streets of Canterlot. Once they had gained a fair amount of speed, Twilight felt the coach lift off the ground and start sailing over the crowded city streets.

Twilight stuck her head outside of one of the windows. “Where exactly are we going?”

“Special entrance to the castle,” one of the guards responded back. “Shining Armor made it clear he wanted to keep this whole thing private.”

Twilight slipped back inside the coach to think. Spike not wanting to talk about Princess Luna? Shining Armor insisting that a simple conversation with his little sister was going to be private? And that same Shining Armor sent a letter to Ponyville by urgent mail asking Twilight to speak with him in Canterlot as quickly as possible? Something was strange, Twilight was sure, and it had to do with a lot more than just not setting a specific meeting time.

Twilight didn’t have long to think. The coach soon began to descend in the back of Canterlot castle along a makeshift runway manned by two more pegasi in golden armor. It wasn’t long before Twilight could see Shining Armor making his way out of the castle with two more guards and waiting alongside the runway as the pegasi in charge of the coach slowed down and gracefully landed on the runway. One of the guards opened the door and another helped Twilight Sparkle out before getting her suitcase.

“Put that one in the spare bedroom in my suite,” Shining Armor commanded before taking off his helmet and addressing Twilight Sparkle directly. “I’m sorry I called you here on such short notice, little sis.”

“Short notice?” Twilight said. “It’s less notice than when you invited me as best mare for the royal wedding to Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Speaking of which, how is my favorite foalsitter?”

“Eager to see you,” Shining Armor replied, “but she is preoccupied until this evening. You will get a chance to talk to her about it eventually. For now, we’ll simply head up to my suite and have some breakfast. We have many things we need to talk about.”

“Is that why you called me here?” Twilight asked. “If you wanted to talk, you could have just talked to me through mail.”

“But there are things I want to show you that aren’t done justice through mail,” Shining Armor said. “It’s better that you came here.”

While her brother’s voice was much more serious than she had anticipated, Twilight otherwise assumed nothing much was wrong other than a simple conversation with her brother. However, Twilight’s fears from her flight to the castle were reaffirmed when she saw a door with a crescent moon on it soon after entering the castle with two of Celestia’s guards near it and a sign saying “Danger! Keep out!”

“Is it about Princess Luna?” Twilight asked.

“I’m afraid so,” Shining Armor said.

Twilight waited until they had arrived in Shining Armor’s and Princess Cadence’s wing of the castle and Shining Armor had commanded two of his guards to stand guard outside before setting themselves down to a large salad Shining Armor had ordered. Twilight served herself a plate and watched as Shining Armor had served himself before starting her barrage of questions.

“What was with the letter? Why did you want me to come so quickly? Why didn’t you tell me about this earlier? Why did you want me specifically to come? Why can’t you talk with anyone else about this? What is going on with Princess Luna?”

Shining Armor raised a hoof and waited for Twilight to become quiet again before responding. “I called you here because of a case that went on recently regarding the first murder in Equestria since Nightmare Moon was banished. The suspect, and as of right now confirmed murderer, is Princess Luna.”

Twilight gasped.

“Evidence suggested that Princess Luna was being verbally attacked by some ponies near Ponyville. Reports also say that Princess Luna temporarily transformed into Nightmare Moon and killed one of the mares harassing her. Two more remain hospitalized since the event. If the guard and some residents of Ponyville had not intervened, Luna likely would have killed more.”

“But… why…?” Twilight asked. “What… what is going on?”

“Because of the seriousness of the crime Luna has been charged with, she is going to undergo execution. The sentence was that Princess Luna is to be publicly rocketed to the sun and thrown into it tomorrow morning.”

“That’s not fair!” Twilight shouted, pounding the table and causing salad to spill all over the table and the floor.

If he had noticed the mess, Shining Armor didn’t say anything about it. “The reason I called you here is because I was part of the testimony against Luna because some of the guards under my command were called to stop her. I had to present their evidence in court on behalf of the members of the guard involved. But… I do not feel at ease with my decision.”

“Why don’t you plead with Princess Celestia, then?” Twilight asked. “I’m sure she could do something about it.”

“Believe me,” Shining Armor replied, “I want to. And Cadence suggested the same thing. But Celestia won’t hear anything else about it. She sadly told me the case was closed and she wouldn’t have Nightmare Moon taking control of her sister again.”

“So the best thing to do is sentence her to death?” Twilight sobbed. “That’s not fair! It’s just not fair!”

“I have persuaded Celestia to do one thing for me,” Shining Armor replied. “You are allowed to go down to the dungeons with an escort and talk with Princess Luna for a short while. You two have been close friends since Nightmare Night and we both realize you may need this.”

Twilight nodded and tried to wipe the tears from her eyes. “Thank you,” she said, but had a feeling it wouldn’t be enough. “If you don’t mind, I would like to see her right now.”

“I shall inform the guard you will want to see her,” Shining Armor nodded. “In the meantime, I have a few more thing to do until this evening, but you are allowed free reign of our wing of the castle; Celestia’s wing is available under special conditions at this time.”

Twilight nodded and followed her brother out of the room, where he spoke to the guards.

“Twilight Sparkle has requested an audience with Princess Luna, currently in the dungeons. Take her there and keep watch on her. Give her as much time as she needs. This is an order approved by Princess Celestia.”

“Yes sir,” the guards said, and began to lead Twilight through the halls of Canterlot castle.

Twilight had never been to the dungeons. She never had reason to, and often Celestia hadn’t permitted her to even go near them. She had sometimes seen a few ponies go into the dungeons while walking and talking with Celestia, but she’d never seen anypony leave. A few did, but she never heard of them.

The dungeon had little light and low ceilings. One of the guards had to ask Twilight to carry a torch for them so they could see the darker corners of the dungeons. Twilight walked through with a guard in front and a guard in back as they descended a staircase into the dark depths. Twilight felt a shiver run through her back, never imagining someplace this cold and dark could be underneath the beauty and warmth of Canterlot Castle.

At the bottom of the set of stairs, one of the guards took a key and locked the door before taking another key and unlocking one of the doors into a much larger room. Twilight was guided inside and instructed to place the torch in a holder near the entrance. Twilight walked in and went over to a chair where she seated herself down as one of the guards went over to and opened another door.

Through the door the guard opened stepped a very weary-looking alicorn covered in deep-blue fur with a darker flank and a flowing mane looked like it was made from the stars. Her blue eyes rested on Twilight Sparkle and her wings extended happily as she ran over to the mare and took her in her hooves.

“Twilight Sparkle!” the alicorn said. “It had been too long since we last talked.”

“Yes, Luna,” Twilight said. “I believed the last time we talked was the royal wedding.”

“It is a pity we haven’t been able to see each other since then in more favorable circumstances,” Luna said. “I feared I wouldn’t be able to talk to you.”

“What happened, Luna?” Twilight said. “Please tell me it isn’t true…”

“I was flying around one night to stretch my wings when I noticed a few ponies talking amongst themselves. The arguments were between those who were having trouble with the royalty and me and my sister’s policies and those who didn’t mind them. A unicorn began firing off some magic, hurting one of the others. I stepped in and intended to use my magic to separate them. Before I knew it, a few random shots of magic were fired and the unicorn was dead and an earth pony hurt.” Luna looked at Twilight with pleading eyes. “You believe me… don’t you?”

Luna had said things so earnestly and straightforward with Twilight that the unicorn almost immediately knew that she wasn’t lying. “I believe you,” Twilight said. “I know you’ve gotten better since the Nightmare Moon incident. You may have had some problems blending in at first but it was still better than it had been. And you had made so much progress by the wedding. It… it couldn’t have been you.”

“I don’t know who it was,” Luna admitted. “But I do know I used no magic.”

“Why doesn’t Celestia listen to any of this?” Twilight asked.

“Because the families of the ponies hurt were disappointed and still believed the legends told of Nightmare Moon,” Luna said. “If one of them was for us before, they were all against us afterwards unless something was done to appease them. The family of the pony killed never came forward and we weren’t able to find them.”

“Oh, Princess,” Twilight said, now beginning to sob into Luna’s mane; it was soft and cool and soothing like a gentle night breeze, and Twilight didn’t want to let go. “I wish I had known. I wish I had been there to help you.”

“Don’t cry for me, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said, though Twilight could tell she was beginning to cry herself. “If you are ever up studying at night, look up at the moon and remember me. Look at the stars and patterns I put in the sky and remember me. No one ever truly leaves us if we keep the memories of them alive.”

“But we’ve had so little time,” Twilight sobbed. “I wish we had more. We had only just become friends.”

“I know,” Luna said. “If only Celestia had the sense to listen and didn’t cave in under the pressure.”

Twilight remained there for a little while longer, closing her eyes and sobbing into Luna’s mane as the alicorn took her hoof and gently held her close, all the while trying not to cry herself. Twilight wanted to stay in the cool of the alicorn’s mane forever and wished she had more time to speak with Luna in person; she had grown fond of the mare in her letters to her and was pretty sure Luna had been herself, yet now she was already being torn away from her.

After a while, Twilight had calmed down enough to release Luna. “I should probably go,” she said. “Maybe… maybe I could try talking to Celestia since I am her favorite student. She would listen to me.”

“I would hope so, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “And please, tell your brother I forgive him. It wasn’t his fault I’m here.”

Twilight hugged Luna one more time before the guards placed Luna back into her room and locked her away. Twilight took the torch again and the guards led Twilight back up the staircase and out of the dungeon. The walk up took less time than the walk down, and Twilight soon found themselves entering the castle, now already in evening.

“Have we really spent that long down there?” Twilight said as she placed the torch near the dungeon entrance.

“I think you fell asleep for a while,” one of the guards responded. “But you kept crying so neither of us could really tell. There was also the fact that Celestia and Shining Armor approved you to stay as long as you needed so long as you attended dinner. We were going to tell you, but you finished conveniently enough we didn’t say anything.”

Twilight nodded.

“It is time to escort you to the dining hall. Princess Celestia, Princes Mi Amore Cadenza, and Shining Armor are awaiting your arrival before starting.”

Twilight nodded again. “Lead the way.”

At the dining hall, Princess Celestia was sitting in her usual seat at the head of the table, with Princess Cadence on her right and an empty chair on her left. Shining Armor sat on Cadence’s opposite side and a servant was holding a chair out for Twilight Sparkle next to Princess Celestia herself. Twilight entered and walked over to where the servant was waiting.

“Welcome, my faithful student,” Princess Celestia said, her voice echoing across the chamber towards Twilight. “Shining Armor told me you were spending time with Princess Luna in the dungeons.”

Twilight didn’t say anything. She remained quiet as the servant pushed her chair in and brought a plate of salad to her.

Shining Armor nervously poked his salad. Cadence smiled at Twilight, but the purple unicorn didn’t return it, so she nervously poked her salad out of a lack of anything else to do.

“Why didn’t you do anything?” Twilight said suddenly.

Celestia frowned. “I did what I could. Alas, the evidence was too much.”

“But you could have pardoned your own sister!” Twilight said. “She didn’t do anything! Why didn’t you?”

“You must understand I did what I did because otherwise we’d have an even larger problem on our hands.”

“But you have power! You could have used your power!”

“Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia said as calmly as she could. “One thing you must learn is that neither I, nor Princess Cadence, nor Princess Luna abuse our power. I believe Luna’s story, but to abuse my power to diffuse any conflict would not be an appropriate use for it.”

“But flinging your sister into the sun is?”

Celestia placed a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder and rested her head on top of Twilight’s, but the unicorn pulled away from the gesture.

“I agree with Twilight,” Cadence said. “Perhaps there is something else that could be done so that this could all be avoided. I do not think our powers were meant for crushing dissenters, but I also don’t believe that our powers were meant to fling one of our own into the sun as execution.”

“And Luna’s powers were not meant to bring out Nightmare Moon,” Celestia said, “but that same pony tried to plunge the land into eternal night. I am afraid that, should this get out of hand, she will try to do so again.”

“I could stay here!” Twilight pleaded, feeling a rage build within her. “I could work with her! You have the power to pardon her and I am close enough friends with her that I could stay here or she could come back to Ponyville with me! Can’t you do something?”

Princess Celestia’s face was downcast. “Hush, my student. Calm down. I am not your enemy.” Twilight felt the angry feelings leave her before Celestia continued. “There’s nothing I can do now. Aside from running the risk of Nightmare Moon’s reappearance, I also risk those who would overthrow me if they saw me become a coward.”

Twilight sighed. “I’m going to go to bed,” she said weakly as she excused herself from the table.

“Aren’t you going to eat anything?” Cadence called after her.

“I’m not hungry anymore!” Twilight called back as she ran out of the room and back to her room in Shining Armor’s wing of the castle before throwing herself on the bed. A heavy weight rested on her back and on her eyes as Twilight collapsed into the bed, sobbing. She couldn’t even use her magic to cover herself with how little she focused on her.

A few minutes later there was a knock on the door. Twilight didn’t respond, so the knock came again.

“Twilight?” Princess Celestia called. “I want to talk to you.”

“Leave me alone, you coward!” Twilight said. “I don’t want to talk with a princess who won’t save her own sister from an unjust sentence! You were my idol, Celestia, but now you’re nothing but an alicorn who wants to save her own popularity. I don’t want to talk with you anymore!”

For a long while, not another word came from the other side of the door. Finally, Celestia spoke, but her words did not reassure Twilight. “The execution will be at eight in the morning tomorrow. Shining Armor and Cadence will be in attendance and you are welcome to come along with. I hope you can forgive me. For now, sleep.”

Celestia’s hoofsteps started up, then quickly faded away. Twilight felt her energy leave her as she finally closed her eyes and fell asleep.

A few hours later, Twilight awoke to a knocking at her door.

“Who is it?” Twilight called groggily.

“It’s me, Cadence,” Cadence responded. “It’s nearly time for the execution.”

Twilight got up and turned around to the window to find that she could still see the stars and the full moon outside. “But it’s not even dawn!” she said.

“I know,” Cadence said. “Even with all of her magical strength, Celestia has been unable to raise the sun this morning and Luna has been unable to lower her moon. However, the execution is still underway at eight.”

Twilight grabbed a black cloak from the room and put it on before walking outside to meet Cadence, dressed in a larger but fairly similar black cloak. The two walked together to find Shining Armor and Celestia in the entry hall with Luna carried in Celestia’s yellow aura, the dark blue alicorn’s eyes closed though Twilight noticed she was not asleep; a few tears were coming from her eyes.

Twilight followed Cadence out into the growing crowd as Princess Celestia walked out onto a balcony and set Luna down between herself and Shining Armor. Twilight and Cadence stood in the front of the crowd as Shining Armor erected a barrier in front of the crowd so they could not approach the royal family. Some of the ponies present were questioning the reason for the execution, but an ever-growing number were complaining about the royals and how they knew Princess Luna was a threat to their safety and well-being and heralded a return of Nightmare Moon. Twilight wished they wouldn’t talk that way, but she had nothing she could say to defend her.

Princess Celestia stepped forward and began to address the mob. “Citizens of Equestria. Today, we gather here to witness the execution of Princess Luna for the murder of a pony and the serious assault against two other ponies. Today, we rid ourselves of the hiding place of Nightmare Moon and prevent her from coming back to cause harm to us again.”

The crowds cheered and chanted for Luna’s execution.

Celestia turned to Luna. “Princess Luna, do you have any last words?”

“I do,” Princess Luna said. “You may notice that the sun has not risen today, and the moon will not lower itself to make way for the dawn. I am afraid to let you know that both of these events are out of mine or my sister’s power. Neither of us have been able to do our duties because even the sun and the moon realize the damage you have all done by condemning me. The sun shall not rise and light shall not return until you realize what you have done wrong.”

Princess Luna turned to Celestia. “As for you, my sister… my cowardly sister! Do not blame these ponies for what you yourself have turned to in order to keep your own fame up. You have thought you could keep the corruption of the commoners out of the castle, but you yourself have turned to petty reasoning in order to keep yourself and your people satiated. As though that could have put your mind at ease! This could have been solved easier if you hadn’t have allowed me to undergo this!”

Princess Luna then turned and walked towards the balcony. Her eyes quickly found Twilight Sparkle at the head of the crowd with Cadence. “As for you, Twilight Sparkle,” she said calmly and gracefully. “You are a great magician and full of knowledge. Do not let the same corruption that has tainted my sister fall onto you and let it spoil what I saw in you.”

Twilight’s lip quivered.

Princess Celestia stepped up to Luna. “Do you have anything else to say?”

Luna shook her head.

Celestia nodded, then let her horn glow brightly with her aura. Luna was surrounded in the aura and lifted a short way off the ground.

“Goodbye, Equestrians!” Luna called out. “Enjoy your cowardly tyrant!”

Suddenly, there was a bright flash of light and a fireball rapidly receding away from the streets of Canterlot. The crowd watched in awe as the flame burst into existence then began to climb at an ever increasing pace until the fireball had disappeared into the darkening sky. At the same time, Celestia shot upwards, spreading her wings as the sun finally appeared in the sky. A large solar flare erupted from the surface – so large it could be seen in the streets of Canterlot – and returned into the sun as the crowd cheered.

It was then that everything came crashing down. The sun began to lower and would not raise no matter how much magic Celestia used to bring it back again. The stress began to take its toll on the alicorn princess as she collapsed onto the floor of the balcony. The lights in the streets of Canterlot turned on in succession as Equestria collapsed into darkness.

Twilight and Cadence shot up the staircase towards the fallen alicorn. “Princess Celestia!” Twilight called. “What happened? Are you okay?”

Celestia weakly opened up one eye and looked around at Twilight, Cadence, Shining Armor, and the guards standing around her before looking up at the black sky. “What have I done?” she said, then closed her eyes.

“Guards!” Shining Armor shouted. “Get her to the hospital wing, now!” A few pegasi guards came and surrounded Princess Celestia in their aura before opening the doors to the castle and rushing the alicorn inside.

“What’s going on?” came a shout from the crowd.

“What’s happened to the princess?” came another shout.

“Why hasn’t the sun risen? Where is the moon?” somepony else shouted.

Twilight Sparkle went up to the balcony and jumped onto it. “Listen up!” she shouted.

Shocked by the power and command in Twilight’s voice, the crowds fell quiet.

Twilight gulped. “In case you haven’t realized it, this is all your fault!”

A collective gasp rose up.

“How dare you accuse us like that! What did we do?” said one pony.

“You heard Princess Luna!” Twilight said. “This is all your fault! You refused to listen to reason and instead wanted whatever you wanted. You didn’t listen to what your princess of the night had to say. Instead, you only cared about whatever you wanted!”

A few pegasi started flying around from all different directions.

One of the pegasi landed on the balcony next to Twilight and began to address the crowd. “Listen to me, citizens of Canterlot!” said the first Pegasus said to the crowd. “The darkness is not just here! The darkness has also eclipsed Ponyville!”

The crowd gasped, including Twilight and Cadence. “That’s where the murder was committed!”

“Listen to me, citizens of Canterlot!” a second Pegasus said. “The darkness is not just here! The darkness has also eclipsed Trottingham!”

Another gasp. “That’s where that one politician was attacked!”

A third Pegasus landed next to Twilight on the balcony. “Listen to me, citizens of Canterlot!” he said to the crowd. “The darkness is not just here! The darkness has also eclipsed the whole of the Griffin kingdom!”

The crowd was silent.

“But, why?” a voice finally asked.

“The darkness has eclipsed places where harmony has failed to solve problems,” Cadence said, looking up into the night sky. “Wherever harmony has tried – and failed – but has not been the answer, then darkness shall eclipse it. Our society seems idyllic, but because not even us alicorns are perfect, then even we must face the consequences. Perhaps Princess Luna is the one who has the last laugh, for she no longer must suffer the hatred and lack of harmony that now has covered our dear Equestria. I suppose the promise that Nightmare Moon made not but two years ago shall come true: the night shall last… forever.”