The Enchanted Kingdom

by Monochromatic

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Romance, Princess Luna, Drama, Rarity, Discord
Length: 204737

As an ancient alicorn trapped inside a library, Princess Twilight spent many a century dreaming of being rescued from her prison. Now, finding herself in an entirely new Equestria, she realizes she'd never planned for somepony to actually succeed...

It's easy to think about fairytales when you’re an ancient alicorn trapped in a library for centuries on end. It's easy to wonder how one would go about rescuing you, to think and devise and plot out how to free you in a blaze of glory, intrigue, adventure, and romance.

Or, rather, it’s easy until suddenly it happens and you’re forced to ask yourself the one terrifying question you’d yet to consider.

Now what?

PATREON!
Original story inspired by an old oneshot.
Chapter Art by Arctic Waters and lilfunkman// Graphic Design and Typography by Swan Song.

Published 2017-09-09 22:40:07 UTC
Last updated 2020-09-02 06:40:16 UTC

~ Act I ~ 01 ~ The Princess Awoken ~

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

~ Act I ~ 02 ~ The New Ponyville ~

Though it was North Ridge who'd agreed to travel with her to Ponyville, Rarity was the one to list three conditions for their travels. First, they were to travel only during the night, when all ponies slept; second, he was not to speak of her to anypony without her explicit permission; and third, they would travel alone without exception.

With little hesitation, he agreed.

How could he not, knowing what he knew?

The sun shone over a normal Saturday morning in Ponyville.

Ponies trotted along the streets, heading out of their homes to greet the new day. Shopkeepers arranged the items on their shelves, their best wares displayed for all to see; fillies and colts played in the parks, free of homework and studies for the week; and cloaked princesses jumped in circles around unicorns, exhilarated because Rarity, I can touch the ground! Rarity, I can breathe! Rarity, I can—No, I can not calm down!

Standing in front of Carousel Boutique, Princess Twilight Sparkle stopped skipping around Rarity long enough for her to close her eyes and take a deep breath of air. Not because she had to, mind, but because she could.

It also helped that she could savor Rarity’s perfume. Speaking of which…

Her ears twitched at the sound of Rarity's giggles. A warm smile spread across her lips, and so she indulged herself by turning around and taking in one of the few sights that never failed to make her heart race.

Neither spoke at first, content with saying or doing nothing beyond looking at each other. Rarity's mirthful smile had faded now, leaving her quite pensive as her ears lowered. However, though her eyes betrayed thousands of raging emotions Twilight couldn't quite figure out, even her own demons couldn’t deny that tenderness was still to be found in Rarity’s gaze.

"What are you thinking about?" Twilight inquired, as she often did when faced with the unfamiliar. She then smiled with more confidence that she thought she ought to, and added, "And you can't say me because you've already used that line before."

A fierce blush streaked Rarity's cheeks. "W-Well, well, well! Rather forward today, aren't we, Princess Twilight?"

Twilight made no effort to hide a cheeky smile. "So, you were thinking about me, then?"

Despite the flush on her face, Rarity flipped her mane indignantly. "I'll have you know I was simply thinking how unusual it is to see you without your regalia," she huffed for emphasis.

Though she initially planned to make another teasing remark, the princess’s thought processes screeched to a halt at the realization that she was, in fact, wearing neither her golden necklace nor her crown—also known as the Element of Magic.

Also known as The Mistake, but that was beside the point.

“W-Wait! Where’s my crown?!” she asked with alarm, already imagining the hundred and thirty seven different ways Discord might have already taken it, and would wreak hav—

“In my bag,” Rarity breezily interrupted, opening her bag with a wisp of magic and levitating the crown out. She smiled teasingly. “I do hope you think I’m smarter than to leave it lying around with Discord at large.”

With great relief and appreciation for her hopefully-still-significant other, Twilight took the crown in her magic and… and so did a sinking sensation overtake her, memories flooding her like tidal waves. The other elements must have been based off the remaining princesses, she’d said, and the visual representation of her mistake had been permanently affixed to her head for a thousand years as a result.

Her magic faltered as she closed her eyes and tried to repress a groan.

“Twilight?” Rarity asked, alarmed. “Twilight, what’s wrong?”

“Thoughts,” Twilight said. “Bad thoughts.”

She blinked several times, and though she offered Rarity a reassuring smile, she couldn’t bear to hold or see the crown for much longer. It felt like a cursed object, and in many ways, it was.

“Sorry! I’m fine now,” she said before Rarity could voice concern. “It was just… like nightmares in the middle of the day. But I’m fine. I’m fine.”

Rarity looked as unconvinced as Twilight felt, but whatever reservations she held, she did not voice.

Twilight levitated the crown back towards Rarity, eager to move far away from the demons knocking at her door. “Here,” she said. “Can you…?”

Rarity took it in her grasp, and instead of putting it inside her bag, looked coyly at Twilight. Then, she placed it on her head and the sight was adorable enough that it was almost able to cleanse the crown of its past.

“Shall I be princess in your stead? Darling, I’m delighted you’re finally seeing me for what I truly deserve to be!”

“Good, because I don’t want to be one anymore,” Twilight replied with a smile, even if she wasn’t entirely joking.

Unfortunately, the sight of the crown, and even Rarity’s words, clawed at her, and she found she didn’t want to have to look at it any longer. So, for now, even though Rarity looked adorable in it…

Poof!

Twilight liked it better inside the bag.

“You’re being silly,” she noted.

Rarity harrumphed. “Nonsense! You’re simply jealous I wear it better!” she said, and privately, Twilight agreed. “But I suppose we should move on. Pinkie and the others have a surprise for you, and perhaps that might take my mind off my denied princesshood.”

"Oh! You’re right!” Twilight exclaimed, her stomach grumbling. Hadn’t Pinkie said something about food?

She cantered off into the street, urging Rarity to follow. Or, rather, urging her to follow until she realized she had no idea where she was going.

With her tail between her legs, she trotted back towards the amused unicorn and with eloquence befitting a princess said, "Uhm…"

“Hm.” Rarity lifted her hoof and tapped Twilight on the nose, fluttering her eyelashes. "Shall I lead the way, perhaps?"

"Perhaps."

However, before Rarity could do so, somepony else interrupted them.

“Oh! Rarity! Princess Booky!”

They turned around, and saw an earth pony mare trotting towards them. She was waving effusively at them, and the smile on her face was much broader than one Twilight expected to receive from a stranger. A little filly trotted behind her, doing a poor job at hiding behind the mare’s legs.

"I'm so glad we didn't miss you!" the mare said upon reaching them, the filly now clinging onto the mare's foreleg and looking up at Twilight with wide eyes. "After that show you put on yesterday, I'm surprised half the town isn't here!"

Twilight gave the mare an owlish stare, and then shot Rarity a helpless one; they had not discussed the protocol to follow in such a situation. It only just now occurred to Twilight that, well, there were other ponies beyond Rarity, the princesses, and her friends.

Rarity thankfully stepped forward, offering a hesitant smile at the new arrival. “Oh, Amber! How lovely to see you!” she said at length. “And little Ivory, too!”

“And you, Rarity! I thought you moved to Hollow Shades!” Amber replied, lifting her foreleg and stroking the filly's head, who now chose to awkwardly paw at the ground. "And Princess Booky! Hello, it’s nice to meet you!” she continued, giggling and winking. “I thought you were a fairytale, but here you are! Thank you for saving us from the terrible spirit yesterday! My daughter can’t stop talking about it, can you, Ivory?” She nudged the filly. “Say hello to Princess Booky, sweetie.”

The little filly looked at the ground. “H-Hi, Pr-Princess Booky.”

Twilight stared until a light jab at her side jolted her awake. “O-Oh, uh!” She cleared her throat and, though a baffled, lowered herself to be at Ivory’s height. “Hello, Ivory. I hope the Spirit didn’t scare you.”

Ivory shook her head. “I wasn’t scared! I knew you would stop him ‘cause you’re the best!”

“Ivy, didn’t you want to show Princess Booky your drawing?” Amber asked.

Twilight leaned back, watching as Amber took out a folded-out piece of paper from her saddlebag. She made a move to give it to Twilight, until the filly protested that she wanted to give the drawing to Princess Booky, Mommy!

After doing just that, Twilight carefully unfolded it, and so did her heart swell at the sight of a extremely inaccurate but no less heartwarming drawing of herself and Ivory inside what looked like a library with only two bookcases. Twilight was smiling brightly in the drawing, too, and she somberly thought that small fact was perhaps the most inaccurate detail of the piece.

“Awwwww,” Rarity said, peering at the drawing. "My, what skill! We have a very talented artist in our midst!"

“Do you like it, Princess?” Ivory asked, trying to stand up on the tips of her hooves. “I drew it for you!”

“I love it,” Twilight said, smiling at the filly, who let out a big sigh and then a grin. “Would it be all right if I keep it?”

Ivory nodded so effusively, Twilight was afraid she might hurt her neck. “Uh-huh, uh-huh!” She then rushed forwards and hugged Twilight’s leg. “Thank you for saving us!”

A terrible voice piped up in her mind, reminding the princess that it was only right for her to save them from something she herself caused.

Twilight leaned down and nuzzled her, tears stinging at her eyes. Out of gratitude or remorse, she couldn’t rightly tell. She told herself it was gratitude. “Thank you for believing in me.” She stood up, and smiled at the mare. “And you too.”

When Amber and her daughter finally left, Twilight wiped away her tears and folded the drawing. That hadn’t been something she’d been expecting, but it was certainly something she needed.

However, when she turned to Rarity, the mare again seemed lost in thought, her brow furrowed and her eyes fixed on the alicorn.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked.

Rarity said nothing. She seemed to be doing that a lot, little silences that said everything without uttering a single word. She said nothing, did not share with Twilight the rushing thoughts in her head, but she did smile. Belatedly, but she did it.

“Darling, might I suggest you let me put the drawing away? Don’t want it to get dirty or wrinkle up, do we?” she suggested, and Twilight knew she was asking questions so as to avoid answering others.

“Onwards, then!” Rarity exclaimed once the drawing had been stashed away in her bag, after which Twilight followed her. Not after Rarity but beside her.

Why didn’t she want to answer? What was wrong?

As they walked, thoughts swirled around in her head, as they often did, all the time, unstoppable and immovable and more often than not terrible.

Terrible, terrible thoughts that spiralled and looped and pirouetted her into… into places she didn’t want to go to anymore, and so she would not.

She forced her mind out from its dark mazes and onto the bright streets of Ponyville and its happy citizens. The grass was soft under her hoof, and her ears swivelled towards the sounds of lives being lived around her, and of unicorns being silent beside her.

It was strange, really, to see this town that was so different from the Ponyville she'd known. Four houses, two dozen apple trees and a royal captain who’d uprooted his life and family to protect a princess who’d exiled herself. It certainly brought things into perspective, to see so vividly that life thrived without exception, went on with or without her.

Just as Rarity had for two years.

Rarity. Rarity. Rarity...

It was disconcerting to see Rarity keeping things from her, to see the tables turned. Rarity almost never kept anything from her before. She was admittedly ashamed to realize that not long ago, she’d kept centuries of secrets and thoughts hidden from the unicorn, and yet the idea that Rarity would be keeping something from her was nigh unthinkable.

And yet there they were.

She wanted to look at Rarity. Was she so quiet because she too was consumed with thoughts of Twilight? Was she too disarmed by the sudden unfamiliarity they were now confronted with regarding each other? She wanted to look at Rarity, but she did not. Instead, she turned to other ponies and with surprise found herself the center of attention of several passerbys. Stallions and mares seemed to frown at her, not with ill-intent, but trying to figure out where they knew her from, while fillies and colts gawked at her and whispered to each other.

They stared at her, young and old, and her cruel psyche reminded her of another time ponies stared at her, but decidedly less to figure out who she was and much more to shame her into giving a dragon in exchange for a mockery of peace. She swallowed, suddenly very hot under her cloak, and forced herself to stare at the ground and analyse the texture of dirt.

Stop it, Twilight, she chastised herself. Stop it.

And yet, she couldn’t stop feeling their stares. In fact, the only ones not staring at her were a couple that were too busy sharing besotted smiles to concern themselves with an anxiety-ridden princess. Who could blame them? She too could spend hours looking at her special somepony.

Speaking of which...

She really wanted to look at Rarity. In fact, she was oddly grateful towards the couple for allowing her to distract herself with Rarity, and yet she was equally irritated by just how distracting Rarity was. Her cheeks grew hot, and she became vividly aware of her hooves if only because she now increasingly wished she were able to hold Rarity’s.

Which she couldn't, but not because she physically couldn't, as was the case for a long time, but because it would be difficult to walk. Not impossible, no, but difficult and highly impractical and they would no doubt trip.

But she still wanted that affection, and that weighed on her all the more by a thousand years of lack of intimacy. Her wings twitched under the cloak, demanding to unfurl and pull the unicorn close, but instead she forced the desire away.

No.

Not yet, not now, because maybe Rarity didn't want that. Maybe she wanted to talk. Talking was still nice and pleasant and would pull her away from other very distracting ideas.

With that in mind, she turned around and Rarity’s name collided with her own when both spoke up at the same time. They stopped, surprised, and Rarity’s cheeks weren’t the only ones turning red.

"Oh, sorry!" they blurted out at the same time, the intensity of their blush only deepening at the fact.

"Oh, you go first!" they again blurted out in unison, resulting in both of them giving up altogether and looking away, trotting through the street in embarrassed silence.

Despite the flush on her cheeks, a victorious smile pushed itself onto Twilight’s lips. So, Rarity had been thinking of her! Except she might have been thinking bad thoughts, which would not warrant a victorious smile, but Twilight chose to believe they were good thoughts.

Hopefully.

They settled into silence, and yet the silence between them was anything but quiet. Rarity glanced at her every so often, sizing up the situation, and every now and then, the unicorn's tail would swish a bit too much, brushing the black cloak, and so would Rarity's blush increase and the tail swiftly return to a near-static state.

Now more than ever did Twilight hate the pesky cloak, her wings twitching and twitching below it.

"Twilight, I do hope you realize hiding your wings with a cloak becomes a fruitless endeavor if you keep trying to unfurl them beneath it," Rarity noted. "Do you want to fly to Pinkie Pie’s?"

"No," Twilight replied immediately, not wanting to disclose her wings’s true ambitions. She clamped them against her body and then cleared her throat. "What did you want to tell me earlier?"

"Oh, nothing important!" Rarity quickly said. "Don't mind me. What did you want to tell me?"

Finding herself under the heat of Rarity's curious gaze, Twilight looked towards the winding path, embarrassed to realize she hadn't actually thought of anything to say.

"Nothing important, either," she echoed.

Rarity opened and closed her mouth several times, as if about to press the issue, and though Twilight half-expected her to, she did not.

"If you say so," she said, drifting off. Silence settled again for a moment before she smiled. "I suppose we just simply enjoy saying each other's name, then."

Twilight grinned. "Well, actually, I was hoping to come up with something to tell you, but it didn't go as planned," she confessed.

"It didn't go as planned," Rarity murmured, like a thought accidentally said aloud. "I know that feeling all too well."

Twilight was thrown off by the comment, unsure of how to reply. What was that supposed to mean? Staring at Rarity with a severely concerned expression might be rude, so instead she decided to shift her concern towards the buildings they were passing by.

What didn't go as planned? Was it Twilight? Her return? Was that what was wrong? Taking into account how she came back, there was no logical way her return could have been planned, but that didn't necessarily mean it was a bad thing, was it?

"Are you sure there isn't something you want to tell me?" Twilight asked.

A pause followed. A short pause, but long enough to be noticed.

"Oh, as I said, it was nothing terribly important. I will be sure to tell you all about it when I remember." Rarity waved her hoof dismissively. "Besides, we're quite out of time. I can see Sugarcube Corner now!"

Twilight squinted and saw the most eccentric building she'd ever been confronted with in her life. It looked like somepony took a gingerbread house, covered it in frosting, and cast a magnification spell on it. She honestly wasn’t sure what to make of it. How was that even structurally sound?

"What is that?" she asked.

"A confectionary store!" Rarity replied. "A frightfully good one, at that. I spoke with the owners and they graciously allowed Pinkie to use their kitchen for the morning. She wanted to bake a surprise for you."

Twilight's stomach growled in delight. "Bake me one? She baked me something? Why?"

"Why? What a silly question!" Rarity chastised, playfully rolling her eyes. "Because your first meal in a thousand years should be special, of course! Judging by the description, it might be the tastiest cake she's ever made."

"Ooooh! Let's hurry!"

Twilight doubled her pace, Rarity trotting behind her, and the closer she got to the building, the more her nose was enticed with the scents of dozens of tasty treats held inside. Hunger now controlled her body, and she ignored Rarity's calls to slow down in favor of rushing to the door and—

SLAM!

Twilight tumbled back onto the ground, a sad side-effect of getting intimately acquainted with a thoroughly solid object. After a moment's disorientation and a painful groan, she glared at the door with teary eyes, her hoof rubbing her aching muzzle.

Stupid physical body.

"Twilight! Are you alright?!" Rarity exclaimed, rushing to her and looking her over for injuries. "What in Equestria happened?! Why did you—" She paused. "Twilight." She failed to hide an amused smile. "Twilight Sparkle, darling, dearest, sweetheart. Did you just actually try going through the door?"

Twilight's face burned. "No, I was interested in the construction materials used in modern Equestrian doors."

Rarity giggled, offering a hoof to Twilight and helping her up. "Of course you were," she said, fluttering her eyelashes. "Of course you were."

Twilight rolled her eyes. "Stop laughing, smartypants," she scolded, opening the door for Rarity with her magic.

A dozen patrons were inside the shop, most of them already seated and enjoying their mouth-watering pastries. Just like in the streets, it seemed a few of them recognized her, particularly the foals.

"Oh dear," Rarity said, coming to a stop and gesturing to a stallion reading a newspaper. "That explains things."

A photograph of Twilight fighting Discord was plastered all over the front page, below the headline "Seeking Night Preparations Come Early!”.

"Come along, we better hurry," Rarity continued, walking further inside the shop. "We can deal with that in a moment."

Twilight followed behind her, curious about the newspaper but not wanting to stay behind. Upon reaching the counter, an older mare greeted Rarity and 'Princess Booky', allowing them to walk behind the counter and into the kitchen area. Inside, they were greeted not only by the Cutie Mark Crusaders and Pinkie Pie, but by Applejack as well.

"Princess!" Applejack exclaimed, moving over to hug Twilight. "Am I glad to see you. Thought you'd be sleepin' longer than Granny Smith in the winter, the way you hit the hay yesterday. Surprised you didn't wake up. Took us a good while to get you off Rarity."

"More like get Rarity off the Princess," Sweetie Belle giggled.

"Oh?" Twilight asked, glancing over to Rarity who in turn quite decidedly glared at her sister.

Rarity cleared her throat. "Moving on from this fascinating conversation. Ladies, will you do us the honors?"

Applejack grunted. “Better be a mighty honorable cake, Pinkie, or I’ll never forgive myself for letting you get your way.”

Pinkie giggled. “Oh, come oooooon, Applejack! Princess Twilight can have one of your apple pies later!”

“Yeah, yeah. Just get it over with, filly.”

Pinkie cleared her throat. "Princess Twilight Sparkle!" she exclaimed, loudly enough that Twilight stepped back. She moved to the center table, and only then did Twilight notice something on top of it covered with a large box. "Princess of Books and… and…"

"Ghosts!" Scootaloo whispered.

"Princess of Books and Ghosts! We have brought you here for a sacred ritual, passed down for years and years since this morning to join us in being alive, if!" She paused. Her voice fell to a whisper. "If..."

"...If?" Twilight prompted.

"If you can eat your...first meal in a thousand years!" she exclaimed, gesturing rather dramatically towards the box, after which...

Nothing happened.

Twilight looked back and forth between the box and Pinkie, who incidentally was still dramatically pointing towards the box. "Uh…?"

"Sweetie!" Scootaloo whispered urgently. "This was your turn!"

"O-Oh, sorry!" the filly exclaimed, her horn lighting up and shakily levitating the box into the air.

"FIRSTMEALINATHOUSANDYEARS!" Pinkie exclaimed, again dramatically gesturing towards the box.

In all of her tumultuous life, Twilight had never seen a cake quite like that one, and that was considering her former teacher really loved them. Though the monstrous seven tier pastry towered before her, nothing was quite as impressive as the rumble her stomach let out in reply to it. The entire thing was decorated with what smelled like lavender frosting, and caramel jewels, topped with an edible marzipan figurine of Twilight herself.

"And ya gotta eat it in one whole sittin'!" Apple Bloom exclaimed.

"She has to eat all of that in a single sitting?!" Rarity asked, shocked. "That's ridiculous! Nopony can do that!"

Twilight stepped forward, running her tongue across her lips. The smell was calling her, more intoxicating than almost anything she'd ever come across. Her wings twitched besides her, and a predatory smile twisted her lips.

"Good thing I'm an alicorn, then."

Pain.

Pain like no other, crippling her body and her thoughts, and leaving her with nothing to support her but the table she was half lying on. Agony rippled through her body, leaving fire in its wake and a tummy ache for the ages.

She would have been fascinated by being able to reexperience pain if only she didn't feel like throwing up.

"Sweetheart, I'm sorry to say this, but I honestly don't know what you were expecting," Rarity said, leafing through the large medical book Mrs Cake had provided. "Perhaps had you not devoured it in three seconds like some sort of famished savage, you'd have given your stomach enough time to tell you it was full."

Twilight looked up, groaning some semblance of an intelligible reply.

"Now, Rarity," Applejack said, patting the groaning alicorn's back. "Ain't she in enough misery already? Poor thing was just tryin' to make up for all them years of not eatin'."

"Sis? Are you sure she'll be okay?" Apple Bloom asked. "She don't look good."

"Is she gonna die again?!" Scootaloo asked, staring at Twilight as though she expected it to happen at any moment. "We just brought her back! Like, yesterday! Literally!"

"She'll be fiiiiiine," Pinkie said, washing the remains of cake off the platter. She turned off the faucet and turned to the princess. "Besides, she loved it! Didn't you, Princess Twi?"

Though her body currently made it difficult to say anything more elaborate than a pained groan, she still put in the effort and nodded because oh Princesses, that had been so good. So, so, so good she'd eat three more of those cakes were they put in front of her.

"Well, the spell should take effect shortly. Regardless, we should head out now. Fluttershy must already be waiting for us with Spike and Rainbow,” Rarity said, closing the spell book and turning to Twilight. “Are you quite sure you’ll manage the walk to the valley?”

“Yes,” Twilight croaked. “Maybe. No. I don’t know.”

A bolt of pain shot through her body. Oh, to think the day would ever come she’d miss being displaced in time.

Stupid delicious cake.

Rarity levitated a newspaper and placed it on the table. "For now, I do believe there are much more pressing matters to discuss. Namely, the fact that the entire town saw you and Discord fighting."

"We tried telling everyone that it was real, but nopony believes us!" Scootaloo exclaimed, sticking a fork inside her piece of cake.

"Seems like the story folks are fine with believing that this is some sort of Seekin' Night joke. I reckon convincing them otherwise won't be a piece of pie, too," Applejack said. She gestured to Twilight's wings. "I was at the market earlier, and two mares kept talking about how realistic the Princess's fake wings were. One of them even wanted to find her to ask what spell she used!"

"Well, the foals certainly believe she's the veritable Princess Booky, and frankly, I think this works to our advantage until we talk with Princess Cadance," Rarity replied. "I wager she's not quite ready to deal with Equestria panicking not only over the princesses being real, but Discord as well.''

Rarity got up, putting the newspaper away in her bag and brushing a hoof through Twilight’s mane.

“Come now, Miss Gourmande. We shouldn’t keep the others waiting,” she said, and stepped away when Twilight heaved herself off the table. “Are you certain you feel well enough to walk there?”

“Yes, I am,” Twilight lied through her teeth. Every inch of her body protested movement, but unlike most other ponies, she was a prodigy at magic, and her body couldn’t protest levitation, now could it?

No.

No, it couldn’t, thank you very much.

Except that it could, actually, protest it. Thankfully, though, the kind owner of the pastry shop had no qualms with helping clean up the contents of Twilight’s stomach from her shop’s entrance, but that was entirely besides the point, and had never happened, ever, period.

Thankfully, Rarity wasn’t averse to levitating ill alicorns towards Spike’s valley.

As it turned out, Spike had not left Ponyville in the two years Twilight had been gone, making a home for himself in the valley adjacent to the White Tail forest, and even going as far as befriending the town itself. No wonder nopony was terrified by the ‘strange’ dragon barging into town yesterday.

Another in the line of life-changing events Twilight had missed.

As she floated above Rarity, Pinkie and Applejack, she watched them talk amongst each other, laugh and exchange pleasantries, saw them basking in a familiarity Twilight did not share, and it was admittedly making her sick. Or that might still be the cake. But still, it was enough for her to try to look away, and instead distract herself with the modern town.

Great, she thought bitterly, who needs Discord when I’m torturing myself just fine?

She looked down again, and her heart swelled at the sight of Rarity laughing at something Pinkie said. She allowed the unicorn to fill her vision, and the sounds of her laughter to counteract the noise in her head because, if anything, she was grateful she had her back.

As if summoned by Twilight’s thoughts, Rarity looked back towards her and smiled brilliantly, her tail swishing.

“Is our pampered princess feeling better or must she still be levitated about?” she asked. “We’re nearly at Spike’s.”

“Well, I was enjoying the sights,” Twilight replied, which wasn’t a lie if one considered Rarity a sight. Which she was. Scientifically proven.

“Yes, I gathered as much from how intently you were staring at me.”

In her mind, Twilight replied with something witty and crisp that would show Rarity she could not hope to best Twilight at a game of comebacks. In reality, she let out an embarrassed noise of alarm that did little more than widen Rarity’s victorious smile.

Rarity giggled. “Do keep up, dearest.”

Applejack cleared her throat. “If you’re done turning the poor Princess redder than an apple, we oughta hurry up.”

They stepped into a large clearing, and from her vantage point, Twilight saw her dear draconian friend in the distance, lying on the grass and apparently fast asleep. Two familiar pegasi flew above him, the yellow one seeming distressed at the blue one standing on him and, well, acquainting his face with her hindhooves. Repeatedly.

“Rainbow!” Twilight exclaimed, horrified. “Why is she kicking him?!”

“She’s not kicking him, silly!” Pinkie exclaimed, standing back as Rarity levitated Twilight down to the ground. “She’s waking him up!”

“By kicking him in the face?!”

“Now, now, Twilight! Rainbow may have, shall we say, unorthodox methods, but they are tried and true.”

Nevertheless, tried and true as they were, Twilight flew up into the air and watched as Rainbow smacked a hoof against Spike’s face and then landed on the ground, next to what seemed to be dozens of saddlebags. Relieved, Twilight began her descent towards the ground until Rainbow Dash extracted a heavy-looking tome from inside a saddlebag and—

“DON’T HIT HIM WITH THE BOOK!” she shrieked, beelining towards the pegasus and practically ripping the object away from Rainbow’s forehoof. “Rainbow!”

Rainbow grinned. “Oh! Princess Twi! You’re awake!”

“Rainbow, what were you thinking?!” Twilight demanded. “You could have damaged something!”

Rainbow snorted. “What? Pfff, Spike will be fine.”

“I meant the book!”

“Oh. Pffffft, that’ll be fine too,” Rainbow said, flying up and landing on the dragon’s head. She smacked a nearby scale. “Come ON, you lazy sack of gems!”

“Princess Twilight!” Fluttershy said, landing next to the Princess and trying hard to ignore Rainbow’s duel with Spike’s head. “How did you sleep?”

“Oh, I slept well!” Twilight replied. No nightmares, no bad thoughts, just blissful sleep. “I really needed it.”

“That’s wonderful, Princess!” Fluttershy exclaimed, relieved. “I was worried it would be difficult after not sleeping for so long…”

Pinkie giggled, elbowing Rarity. “‘Specially when somepony was holding onto Princess Twi like frosting to a cupcake.”

Rarity coughed. “Curious. I don’t recall that at all,” she said nonchalantly.

Applejack smiled. “Sure ya don’t, Rares. Sure ya don’t.”

“I do not!” Rarity protested, her apparent irritation melting away when Twilight giggled. “Regardless! Rather than discussing such trivial matters—” She turned towards Spike and cleared her throat. “Spikey-wikey! Wake up, darling!”

A second of silence followed before Spike’s eyes fluttered open, a yawn escaping his lips.

“Mmm?”

“Seriously?!” Rainbow exclaimed, the second book she picked up and threw at him missing its mark only because Twilight caught it in her magic. “You wake up for her?!”

“Of course he does!” Rarity replied, flipping her mane.

Twilight watched as the dragon’s lethargic gaze traveled the length of their friends, only widening and practically sparkling when it settled on her. She impulsively smiled at him, her wings twitching at her sides, and yet before she was even able to greet him, a massive claw took hold off her. She yelped in surprise, and suddenly found herself cuddled—or smushed, rather—against his face.

Twilight laughed. “Sp-Spike!”

Spike ignored her protests, simply sighing and then nuzzling his muzzle against her entire body.

“It doesn’t feel entirely real, does it?” Rarity asked.

Spike shook his head, drawing giggles out of the poor alicorn being tickled all over.

“Wh-What doesn’t feel real?” Twilight asked, pushing Spike away with a hoof so as to try to have some space to breathe.

“You, sugarcube,” Applejack replied, taking off her hat. “You bein’ with us.”

Oh.

A knot formed in Twilight’s throat. Though Spike remained silent besides her, his grip tightened around her body, as if afraid she might disappear.

“Well,” she said after she regained her composure. She nuzzled Spike in return, a gesture of affection she sorely missed, and her voice fell to a whisper, “I’m back now.”

“Yeah,” Spike finally said, and opened his eyes, treating her to the toothiest grin she’d ever seen. He put her down on the ground before sitting up on his hindlegs and stretching out. “That was a good nap, but being awake’s better.”

Rainbow harrumphed, flying up into the air and playfully rolling her eyes. “Pft. You’re never that excited to see me.”

Pinkie giggled. “Awww, are you jealous, Dashy?”

Rainbow snorted, crossing her forelegs. “Yeah, right!” she exclaimed, only to yelp when Spike pulled her in for a sudden hug.

“Awww, I love you too, Rainbow,” he cooed, grinning when Twilight and the others laughed at the pegasus’s indignant protests of not wanting any of his dumb hugs, Spike!

It was strange to see all her friends talking and joking amongst each other. And yet, in that moment, it wasn’t strange in a hurtful way. In fact, a sudden sweeping wave of affection engulfed Twilight, and she felt being able to partake in their familiarity.

“Uhm, Rainbow?” Fluttershy asked once Rainbow had been released back into the air. She fidgeted slightly. "Shouldn't you tell them about the trip…?"

"The trip? What trip?" Twilight asked, ears perking up.

Rainbow blinked. "The trip to… Oh! Yeah! Princess Twilight!” She flew up close to her, clapping her hooves. “Okay, so, listen, Spike and I decided we’re gonna go to Canterlot too, so we’re leaving tomorrow morning and—”

Rarity gasped. “You are?!” She turned to look at the dragon. “Spike! Is this true?”

Spike crossed his arms, looking away. “Yeah, we are. I figure it’s been long enough and…”

He nodded towards Twilight.

Rarity stamped her hooves against the ground, her tail swishing behind her. “Darling! That’s tremendous news! Sensational, even!”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Twilight asked, wanting to share in the excitement. “Why wouldn’t you want to come in the first place, Spike?”

Spike grunted, still looking away. If Twilight didn’t know better, which she did, he looked just as he used to when she caught him misbehaving. “Long story, Twi. Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, I’d like to hear it anyway,” Twilight insisted, her curiosity melting into concern. Had something—Well, of course something must have happened in the thousand years she was gone, but what would drive Spike away from their true home? “This seems important.”

Rainbow landed in front of her. “It is! And you’ll hear all about it ‘cause it’ll take us like five days to get to Canterlot by hoof aaaaaand you’re coming with us!”

Twilight's ears perked up. “I am?”

Rarity frowned. “She is?”

Pinkie giggled. “Ooooooh, fun! Can I come too?!”

“No, no, no, wait!” Rarity interrupted. “Pardon me, darling, but she can’t go with you! If you’d taken the time to suggest this yesterday, then perhaps! But may I remind you I’ve already bought expensive train tickets for all of us?”

Rainbow waved her off. “Pshhhh, big deal, Rares. I’ll pay you back for the tickets, no biggie.”

“Rainbow, that’s not the point!” Rarity shot back.

Rainbow deadpanned her. “Rares. Trains are, like, total snooze-fests. Princess Twilight’s been stuck in a library for like a jillion years. The last thing she wants is to be stuck in a train for half a day! Besides, she definitely likes this idea better, right, Princess?”

Twilight faltered, chewing on her lip.

On one hoof, she badly wanted to see Cadance and be back home.

On the other hoof, she’d really missed Spike, and five days was barely enough—in fact, it was probably too little—time to catch up on whatever she needed to catch up on. Including his aversion towards Canterlot.

“Yes,” she finally said, determined.

“What? But, Twilight!” Rarity complained.

In return, Twilight smiled reassuringly. “It’s not a problem, Rarity. I’m sure Cadance can wait a few days so Spike can get there, and I’m sure we’ll have a good time, you’ll see.”

And to this, Rarity hesitated.

“We?” she asked, and so did Twilight’s heart drop.

Wait, what?

“What do you mean ‘we’?” Twilight asked at once, whatever excitement she’d held fading. “Yes, we. You’re coming with us! Aren’t you?” She turned to Rainbow. “Isn’t she?” Back to Rarity, who now looked away. “Rarity! But—!”

“I don’t know, Twilight,” she said, helplessly.

“What’d you mean you don’t know?” Rainbow asked. “Why wouldn’t you want to come?! I’m paying you back for your ticket, come on! It’ll be fun!”

“It’s not that!” Rarity whined with irritation, turning to the two mares. “I have commitments! I arranged to deliver a dress to a client in Canterlot tomorrow night, and it’s not as though I can deliver a letter rescheduling today! And, not only that, but it’s unfinished, and I was hoping to finish it on the train ride. I can’t do that if we’re traveling on hoof!”

“Psh, we can figure it out! Fluttershy has mad sewing skills!” Rainbow insisted. “And this is Twilight. I’m pretty sure your client will understand, and besides! All you have to do is pull one of your all-nighters again and finish it tonight, whatever. ”

“Rainbow, honestly, I barely slept last night! I’ll fall asleep halfway! And, once again, that’s not the point!”

Rainbow pouted. “Come ooooon! Stop making excuses!”

Rarity snapped.

“I’m not making excuses!” she said, a fire in her eyes that, admittedly, forced Twilight to step back. She stamped her hoof against the ground. “I can’t just drop things anymore for this! I have a business, and clients, and responsibilities to take care off! I can’t grind my plans and my life to a halt again!”

And Rainbow didn’t reply.

In fact, no one else replied at first, and if they did, Twilight couldn’t hear them over the noise in her head. The noise drowning out everything but Rarity’s almost resentful words.

“Wow, Rarity,” Rainbow said, finally, stepping back. “Nopony said any of that. It’s just a trip. I… I just thought you’d like to come. Sorry…”

A wave of realization swept over Rarity, and now she stepped back as well, her eyes flitting between the almost shocked stares being directed at her. “I-I— I apologize, I didn’t—” She drifted off, frustrated.

“It’s fine.”

Twilight hadn’t processed the fact she’d spoken until everypony turned to her. But she’d said it. Because it was true. It was fine. Rarity didn’t want to spend time with her, or change her life for her, and it was fine, it was fine! It was fine.

It would be fine because Twilight would fix it.

Just like she’d fix everything else.

Rarity seemed taken aback. “Twilight?”

“It’s fine!” she repeated, forcing an almost manic smile. “I understand. You have your clients, and your life. You don’t have to come”— For a split-second, the words ‘if you don’t want to’ waited on her tongue, but she changed them. She wasn’t brave enough for that.—“If you can’t.”

“Twi’s right,” Applejack said. “Rarity’s business is important, and everypony knows customers tell one friend about the good apple they ate, but tell the entire village ‘bout the rotten apple they tasted.”

“Exactly,” Rarity said, though the intensity in her voice was long gone. An array of emotions again warred in her eyes, and Twilight could plainly see that the unicorn was avoiding meeting her gaze.

“Well.” Spike cleared his throat and clapped his hands. “I guess that’s settled…? So!” He got up. “I need to go get gems for the trip. Anypony coming with me?”

“Ye-Yeah!” Pinkie said, eager to get away from any discussions. She jumped up onto his tail and sat down. “Off we go!”

Rainbow, similarly, moved towards Spike after one last awkward apology to Rarity. She flew up into the air and settled herself atop his head, talking about a good gem spot she’d found.

Twilight herself didn’t quite know what to do.

“Why don’t you go with them, Twilight?” Rarity asked. She smiled apologetically. “I think my exhaustion might be getting to me, hm?”

“I… Okay,” Twilight relented.

“I’ll go with ya, Rarity,” Applejack said. “Been puttin’ off my chores at the farm long enough.” She rubbed her brow and moved in to embrace Twilight. “I’ll be seein’ you tomorrow, Princess!” She then hugged Fluttershy. “Don’t be out too long, you two.”

Rarity said nothing more beyond asking Fluttershy to take Twilight home later, and then offering the alicorn her crown back should it be needed. Once that was done, she merely smiled and trotted off, leaving Twilight to stand there and watch her go.

“She’ll be all right.”

Twilight looked to her side and found Fluttershy smiling warmly at her.

“And you’ll be all right too, won’t you?”

Twilight smiled. “I will.”

Sooner or later, she would fix everything. Sooner or later.

Night had fallen by the time she returned to Rarity’s house.

And an old feeling returned with it. Or was it new now, considering how much time has passed since she’d last felt it? Whatever the correct definition, Twilight was now feeling tired, her body heavy from all the movement during the day.

The day had gone by eventfully, or at least eventfully enough to keep her thoughts away from Rarity’s outburst. Pinkie had taken her to dinner at a lovely restaurant with the others, and she’d managed to confirm that yes, indeed, the entire population of Ponyville was convinced she was that good of an illusionist.

It was strange. All her life she’d hated her wings and the royal status they’d thrust upon her; now she was a bit disappointed ponies saw her as a pony and not a princess.

After dinner, they spent more time with Spike and Rainbow, as well as the Themis and Elara’s family who’d finally emerged with the sunset, and then she’d finally been escorted home by Fluttershy.

Elara, Themis and their owlets elected to sleep outside, and so silence greeted her when she stepped into Carousel Boutique. She closed the door behind her, and was reminded of how much she hated silence. The library had always been silent.

“I’m back!” she called, stepping further into the room, eager to talk to Rarity. Was she doing better? Maybe she’d changed her mind about the trip?

Silence again.

She pursed her lips, and trotted into the kitchen, finding it empty. Rarity’s workroom turned out to be devoid of Rarity too, and so did worried thoughts filter into her mind. Had… Surely, Discord hadn’t...

“Rarity?” she called out. “Rarity, I’m ba—!”

“Princess Twilight! You’re back!”

She turned around and saw Sweetie Belle rushing into the room.

“Oh, Sweetie!” she exclaimed. That was a relief.

“How’d gem-hunting go?!” Sweetie asked. “Is it true you’re going with Spike and Rainbow on a trip?!” She pouted and sat down on the floor, crossing her forelegs. “Rarity said I couldn’t go…”

“It is a long trip, Sweetie. And dangerous, too. She’s just looking out for you,” Twilight said, sympathetically. “Speaking of which, where is Rar—?”

Crack!

“Ah, Twilight, you’re back.”

Twilight yelped in surprise, turning around and tumbling down at Rarity’s sudden appearance. Her chest heaved, like her heart was about to leap right out of her chest, and yet Rarity had exactly no remorse for what she’d done. Instead, she simply stood there, smiling devilishly.

“Rarity! You scared me!” Twilight reprimanded, getting up and frowning at the unicorn. “That wasn’t funny.”

Sweetie Belle giggled. “It was a little funny.”

“I agree,” Rarity said.

“Well, I’m glad you can still teleport, at least,” Twilight said, her own frown turning into a smile. “I didn’t think you’d actually keep practicing with me gone.”

Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. “But of course! How else was I supposed to impress you with my progress once you returned, hm?”

Twilight blushed, leaning in. “Well, That’s ni—”

The sound of Sweetie clearing her throat interrupted her, and she quickly leaned back.

“Right!” Rarity exclaimed, clearly not blushing like Twilight. “It’s getting late, isn’t it?” She raised an eyebrow at Sweetie Belle. “And you should be in bed, young lady. Off you go!”

Once Sweetie begrudgingly left to get ready for the night, Rarity turned to Twilight. “And you too for that matter. At what time are you and the others supposed to be leaving for your little expedition?”

“Er... Seven in the morning."

“Seven? My stars, I barely slept! Do they want to kill me? Well, regardless, I talked with Applejack about it,” Rarity said. “She’s considering joining you all.”

“Really? That’s great!” Twilight said. If Applejack wanted to come, then maybe… “And you…?”

Rarity winced. “I… shan’t. I do have matters to attend to, darling, as I said earlier,” she said softly. “I do owe Rainbow an apology. I’m not sure what got over me. But...” She paused for a second, her brow creasing in thought.

“But…?”

“But it’s in the past now!” she said with finality. “And you need to get yourself to bed. Come along!”

Twilight followed Rarity upstairs, admittedly looking forward to sleeping again, but her path towards Rarity’s room was interrupted when Rarity stopped in front of Sweetie Belle’s room. With slight hesitation, Rarity peeked inside before turning to Twilight.

"I'm assuming you don't intend on sleeping in the library,” she said, “...So you're free to sleep in Sweetie’s room for the night.”

"Sleep in Sweetie’s room?" Twilight asked, frowning a bit.

Rarity nodded. “I’ll tell Sweetie to sleep in mine with me.”

Twilight didn’t reply. She didn’t want Sweetie to sleep in Rarity’s room. She wanted the filly to be able to sleep in her own room, while Twilight herself slept in Rari…

Her cheeks heated up.

What was the protocol for situations like these? Twilight had slept in Rarity’s room the night before, so it wasn’t wholly unreasonable for her to sleep there again, especially when Rarity was her… Well, right now, she wasn’t entirely sure they were officially anything, and if they were, Rarity wouldn’t be offering Sweetie’s room, so that…

Ugh.

"All right," she said finally, even though it wasn't what she wanted at all. "Thank you."

As it turned out, Sweetie Belle herself didn’t want to sleep in Rarity’s room either, but for wholly different reasons. She wanted to sleep wherever Princess Twilight was, and Twilight found some happiness in the fact that at least somepony in the house was thrilled with the arrangements.

It’ll be so much fun, Princess, she’d said as she snuggled under the covers next to Twilight. Rarity’s gonna be so jealous, she’d assured. Why don’t you tell me a bedtime story? she’d begged.

Ten minutes into the story, Twilight privately admitted she was impressed—and a bit offended—at how quickly she'd put Sweetie to sleep.

In the dead of the night, submerged in darkness and uneven snores, she stared at the ceiling and thought. She did that all the time, and more often than not, as they had in the last year, her thoughts meandered towards her.

She laid out the day in her mind, the many moments Rarity had held back, pushed something away from the light, signs that pointed towards something terrible, culminating in… the outburst, if that was an apt name for it.

How painfully fascinating that she'd literally been kept away from Rarity, and yet she’d never felt more distant than standing next to her during the confrontation.

Did Rarity not want to have anything to do with her anymore?

Did she not want to help? Was Twilight imposing on her? Or worse, had she… had she really stopped loving her in those two years…?

She thought back to the library. To that awful day, to… She hadn’t been there since reuniting with Rarity, and if she was honest with herself, she didn’t want to go back. She was afraid of it; it made her stomach churn, just the thought of… of what she’d become… and… it had been his fault. Discord had caused this. It had been all him.

Hadn’t it?

But then, memories resurfaced.

Nightmares in broad daylight, unbidden and unrelenting and excruciating.

Memories of the library, and yet...

And yet they were new, she thought at first. Unfamiliar, yet familiar. Memories of herself in the library, walking, feeling angry and bitter and resentful towards… Rarity? Towards herself? Towards everything?

The memories continued, like flashes, one after another, and yet she still couldn’t place the time until she saw splattered ink and black hoofsteps on the floor, and then she knew.

And then, like a dam had broken, more and more memories flooded her mind, of two years that seemed had not been fully suppressed. Her head began to ache, and so did a groan escape her lips.

She opened her eyes, trying to dispel the images, push them away, and though she succeeded, she feared closing her eyes would only bring them back. She wished she were able to fall asleep, but she was more awake than ever, and with the pain in her head and the ache in her chest, she resigned herself to a single fact.

She didn't want to sleep.

In fact, she knew very well what she wanted to do.

After several moments of consideration, she rose from the bed, careful not to wake Sweetie Belle as she made her way out of the room. She opened and then closed the door behind her, and exhaled a breath of relief when she was out in the hallway.

To her relief, light shone out of the unicorn's room, prompting her to tiptoe over and peek inside, finding Rarity lying on her bed, squinting at her sketchpad from behind her glasses.

For a moment, Twilight was perfectly content with simply watching her.

She’d hardly loved Rarity from the very beginning, but she had been fascinated by her from the start. The one element in her life she did not fully understand, the hurricane who'd stormed into a quiet desert, only to settle down and turn it into an oasis.

"Far be it from me to tell you what to do, as I too quite enjoy my own appearance, but might I suggest you admire me from a more comfortable location? You were walking around all day, after all," Rarity said, still drawing away on her sketchpad. Her eyes flickered towards Twilight, and she smiled. "I gather the sleepover isn't going too well?"

Oops.

Twilight walked into the room, smiling awkwardly. "Sweetie Belle fell asleep halfway through the bedtime story I was telling her."

Rarity raised an eyebrow, levitating her glasses on top of her head. "Really? That's not like her. Whatever were you telling her about?" She smiled mischievously. "The inner mechanics of thaumaturgic kinetics?"

"No, though that's a very interesting topic!" Twilight replied, standing in front of the bed. "I was explaining the architectural differences between modern Ponyville and the houses the Cobbler family built."

Rarity grinned. "Ah, mystery solved, then.” She gestured to the other side of the bed. "But, personally, I think that sounds fascinating! If you can bear a few minutes while I finish my design, I'd love to hear all about it once I'm done."

Twilight stamped her hooves on the floor. "Really?! I wanted to write a small dissertation on it; you can help me outline it, and—" She cut herself off. "And you won't fall asleep?"

"Twilight! Perish the thought!" Rarity gasped. "When have I ever been so impolite?"

"You fell asleep halfway through the foreword of Feyn Mane's Treatise on Quantized Enchantments."

Rarity coughed. "Well! Can you blame me? Who wouldn't be lulled to sleep with a voice as melodious as yours, hmm?"

Twilight giggled. "Right," she said, climbing up on the bed and lying down near Rarity. Not as close as she'd like, but not too far away either.

Even though she'd been wide awake and terrified of closing her eyes not even ten minutes ago, a sudden drowsiness overtook Twilight. She was comfortable now, like she was right where she needed to be, and the soft sound of Rarity's pencil scratching against paper was proving to be a soothing lullaby protecting her from ill thoughts.

If Rarity allowed her to sleep there yesterday, then perhaps she'd allow it again? It was a large bed, after all, and both of them and Sweetie apparently fit in it.

And if she pretended to have fallen asleep…

Determined to put her plan into motion, she paced her breath and cuddled into the bed, simulating the act of sleeping. Except she hadn't done that in a while. Could she even fake sleep anymore? Would pacing her breath be too obvious? But if it was too irregular, it would signal activity and unrest, and she couldn't pass it off as a dream since ponies only dreamt during the REM cycle of sleeping, which itself didn't start until ninet—

"Voila!" Rarity's voice chimed, jolting Twilight into a static position.

She heard Rarity putting the drawing on her nightstand, and for a moment she hoped the unicorn wouldn't get too close, as her own rapid heartbeat would no doubt betray her.

"Twilight?" Rarity asked after a while, and Twilight bit down on her lip. A few more seconds passed before Rarity's lovely voice sounded off again, the unicorn's hooves rubbing against her back. It was a heavenly sensation, and she was tempted to break her deception if only to hum in delight.

"Twilight, sweetheart? Did you fall asleep?" Another moment of silence before Rarity continued. "Well! I wish I could be cured of my insomnia that quickly. I suppose I have no choice but to let her sleep here, then."

If Twilight hadn't been so busy delighting over the fact that her plan apparently worked, she might have realized that was a very odd statement to say aloud. Instead, she allowed a satisfied smile to curve her lips and let out a content giggle—which she immediately tried to play off as a snore.

"Goodness," Rarity continued, tracing circles on Twilight's back, "that must have been the oddest snore I've ever heard! If I didn't know better, I'd have sworn Twilight just giggled! How truly fascinating."

Cursing herself, Twilight bit down on her lip even more, a desperate attempt to swallow down more of the giggles that wanted to come out. To her immediate horror, Rarity adjusted herself so as to brush back Twilight's mane and reveal her face.

"And look at this!" Rarity exclaimed. "She even blushes and smiles like a filly when she's asleep! This is absolutely remarkable!"

"All right, all right!" Twilight exclaimed, sitting up and puffing her cheeks out. So much for that plan.

Rarity, however, giggled with delight. "Awwww, is our silly princess pouting?" she said, imitating Twilight's expression, her ears lowering. "Might I venture she take acting classes elsewhere than with the Heart’s Haven changelings?"

"I don't need acting classes!" Twilight protested. "And I am not silly."

"Oh?" Rarity asked, lifting Twilight's chin with her hoof. "Now, now, you must admit you're a teensy bit silly, at the very least."

Twilight smiled. "Maybe a little."

A warm smile swept across Rarity's lips, and for a moment, like earlier that day, Twilight wanted to lean in to kiss her. However, before she could, Rarity looked away towards her desk.

"I..." She levitated a worn-out paper from her nightstand and then took it in her hooves, pressing the paper against her chest. "If it makes you feel any better, I have something very silly to show you. The little filly from this morning inspired me to look for it," she said, a blush creeping up her cheeks.

"What is it?" Twilight asked, ears perking up. This had her attention.

Rarity seemed hesitant. "You must promise you shan't laugh!"

Twilight shook her head. "I won't laugh, I promise."

Biting down on her lip, Rarity finally detached the paper from her chest and hoofed it over. Twilight turned it around and admired a very old drawing entitled 'The Princess and I', depicting an indigo maned filly having a costumed tea party with an ancient—and also extremely inaccurate—alicorn princess.

Even when the drawing inspired many emotions within her, Twilight didn’t initially know what to say.

"Do you like it?" Rarity hesitantly asked, and for a moment she reminded Twilight of the little filly from earlier, seeking approval from the one she so admired.

Twilight licked her lips and frowned. "I have some thoughts about it."

Rarity sat up straight, disconcerted. "...And those are?"

"There's at least fifteen things I can think of that are very wrong with having me wear a dress made out of book pages."

"Twilight! I was a filly!And what do you expect when you're called Princess Booky!" Rarity protested with a huff. "An 'oh, it's the most fabulous thing I've ever seen, Rarity,' would have sufficed."

Twilight laughed. "I think it's wonderful," she said, looking over the drawing with delight. When she put it down on the bed, she turned to Rarity and raised an eyebrow. "I guess meeting the real Princess Booky isn't something little Rarity was expecting."

Rarity hummed. "Oh? Dearest, you underestimate me."

"Do I?" Twilight asked, inching a bit closer to Rarity. "Maybe a little."

"Just a little," Rarity replied, and the way she smiled, soft and loving and playful, was enough to hitch Twilight's breath. "You honestly believe that I didn't plan all of this? That I didn't intend as a filly to grow up into the most beautiful mare in Equestria—"

"The most beautiful mare in Equestria. Right,” Twilight said with an insolent smile as she inched closer still.

Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. "The most, yes. I'm delighted you agree," she whispered, and she was so close now, all Twilight had to do was move just a bit more and lean in. "Grow up into the most beautiful mare in Equestria who would clearly meet and win the heart of the fabled princess."

"Clearly," Twilight replied, heart hammering in her chest as she moved closer one last time.

Bad thoughts rose in her mind, reminding her of Rarity's earlier unsettling actions, and yet...

And yet, at the same time, Rarity's mere presence acted as a barrier against them, kept Twilight safe from her own demons if only because their physical proximity forced other more heady thoughts into her mind.

"So…" Twilight said.

"So…?" Rarity replied, and for once, she leaned in slightly, so close their lips would touch if either one dared.

“So... you're responsible for all of this, huh?"

And then Rarity froze, her eyes widening.

And then she pulled back.

She pulled back, as if Twilight had struck her, and when she caught herself, she laughed nervously. "We-well, be that as it may," she stammered, her ears clamped against her head. "Be that as it may,” she repeated, looking around for the drawing and then levitating it back on the desk, "it is quite late, and you have to wake up early for your expedition!” She faltered. Briefly, but she did. “You should probably go back to your room."

To this, Twilight didn't know what to say.

She was sure that in ten minutes, her brain would torment her over it. She was sure that sleep would be hard to find that night, asking herself over and over what she did wrong, what was her mistake now, but in that moment, she did nothing but acquiesce.

"Yes, I probably should," she repeated without much emotion.

Without another word, but with a heavy heart, she got off the bed, and now did the questions burn her. Had she been too forward? Maybe Rarity didn't love her anymore? There it was again, plainly stated, the question she feared. She'd yet to say it, hadn’t she? Not once since they'd been reunited had Rarity uttered the three words, and perhaps now the unicorn had realized she didn't love Twilight anymore.

But, even so, Twilight couldn't help what she felt, and even at a cost, she didn't want to hide it either—not anymore.

She stopped, looked back, and spoke up.

"I love you.”

I love you, she’d said, and though this was and had always been very much true, even back when she didn’t realize it yet, it still hurt when Rarity hesitated in her reply, if she’d even planned one.

Finding she was too afraid to wait and see if Rarity was ever going to reply, Twilight spoke up again. "We-Well, good night. I'll see you tomorrow?"

Sitting on her bed, ears still lowered, Rarity's smile was much less bright than before.

"I would hope so.”

Twilight nodded, turning around to leave, and she wanted to, but…

But something was wrong. Something was wrong with Rarity, something Twilight didn't know about, and it would eat her alive. It would eat her alive because she couldn't fix a problem when she didn't know what the problem was.

Even if it scared her.

Even if there were a million other solutions she'd want to try rather than the most effective and terrifying one.

"Rarity?" she asked carefully, turning around to face the unicorn. "Is something wrong?"

Rarity sat up straight, pawing at the sheets. "Wh-Whatever do you mean?"

"Is it me?" Twilight asked, her voice steady. “Is it because I’m back?”

"No! No, no, no! Twilight, dearest, never, absolutely not!" Rarity said immediately, horrified. "Don't even think that!"

"Then what's wrong?" Twilight asked again, finding little relief in not being at fault.

"I..." Like a foal caught in her lies, Rarity looked down, away from the seeking stare. "I don't know."

I don't know.

Who knew these three little words could be akin to daggers?

Tears stung at Twilight's eyes, and she looked away. "You don't know," she repeated, slowly and painfully. "I can't fix this if I don't know what's wrong, Rarity."

Rarity's disposition changed. "Oh, sweetheart… Come here." She lifted her hoof, a beckoning gesture, and what could Twilight do but walk back to the bed and climb up right into Rarity's waiting embrace. Rarity nuzzled and held her close, her voice falling to a whisper. "Oh, my darling, you have nothing to fix, you silly pony."

"I am not a silly pony," Twilight half-heartedly mumbled against Rarity's coat.

Rarity chuckled sadly, stroking Twilight's mane. "No, you are not. I think I might be the silly one," she confessed.

When Twilight pulled back, a pained smile decorated Rarity's lips. She lifted her hoof and pressed it against Twilight's necklace, her eyes focused on the pendant.

"I think I need time," she murmured with finality. She looked up and wiped away Twilight's tears, letting her hoof rest on the alicorn's cheek. "Time to gather my thoughts and sort myself out. That forsaken magic made us wait two years, didn't it? So what's a little bit more waiting?"

"And then you'll tell me what's wrong?" Twilight asked.

Rarity nodded, looking solemn. "Yes. In fact, I shall make you an entire diagram explaining 'what's wrong', and afterwards, we shall sit together and write a dissertation on it to be entitled 'The Art of What's Wrong'. How does that sound, hmm?"

Twilight giggled at the stark contrast of emotion in Rarity’s voice and absurd content of her words. "Depends. How big are we planning on making it? I have a sixty page minimum."

Rarity grimaced. "Oh dear, I'm regretting my words."

"That's what I thought," Twilight replied, giggling and leaning in to nuzzle her again. When she pulled back, she licked her lips, happy that at least some of the weight on her heart was gone.

Rarity sighed. "Would you like to know why I didn't sleep at all? I kept waking up, expecting to be back in Hollow Shades and find out that this was all just a cruelly vivid dream." A sincere smile bloomed on her lips. "I'm surprised you didn't wake up considering how many times I kept tapping your shoulder to make sure you were actually there."

Twilight looked at her for a moment. "I… Can I stay here again tonight?"

Rarity didn't hesitate. "You are most welcome to do so."

Some time later, after the lights dimmed and two tired ponies lay under the covers, Twilight felt rather lonely until she took the plunge and scooted closer to Rarity, enveloping her in a timid hug. She feared Rarity would react aversely, push her away, but when the unicorn seemed to ease into her embrace, Twilight allowed herself a breath of relief.

She closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and the wonderful scent of Rarity's perfume. For a moment, she was scared she would never be able to let go. And as soon as the thought arose, so did the familiar insecurity, the guilt that plagued her for as long as she remembered.

I don't know, she'd said.

"Twilight?" Rarity asked, turning around to face Twilight.

Twilight's thoughts came to a screeching halt, but only for a moment before they came back at full-force. Her mind begged for her to do anything but to open her eyes. It begged to keep pretending to be in a wonderful illusion, to avoid what was certainly coming which was Rarity asking her to please move away, to please let go, to go back to Sweetie's room.

She willed her eyes open.

"Yes?" she asked, and when she did so, Rarity hesitated before leaning in, her forehoof resting on Twilight’s chest as she pressed their lips together in a gentle kiss.

Twilight’s heart leapt in her chest. It wasn’t a passionate kiss, yet this did not make it any less emotional. It was gentle, tender, and Twilight was endlessly content with following whatever pace Rarity wanted to take.

It was simple, and for now, that was enough.

When it broke off, their lips brushed together for a moment, shaky breaths intermingling before Rarity nuzzled Twilight's neck, allowing Twilight to wrap a wing and foreleg around her.

"I don't know what's wrong," she said, "but I do know that I love you, and… and I rather think that's a good place to start."

A wave of affection overwhelmed Twilight. She thought back to what Rarity said earlier. They'd waited two years, torn apart by internal and external forces, and in the end, the unicorn was right. What was waiting a little more compared to two years?

Twilight waited a thousand to be free of the library.

For Rarity, she’d wait a million.

Author's Note

♫ And when you're needing your space
To do some navigating
I'll be here patiently waiting
To see what you find ♫

Listened to this song a lot while writing this chapter. Might be the theme song for Act I.

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.
Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

~ Act I ~ 03 ~ The Boiling Point ~

"A stallion asked for you earlier," North Ridge said, glancing towards the mare sitting beside him. "He saw us talking last night."

"Did he?" she asked, and a knowing smile graced her lips. "Thought you were my father again? Asked if he could meet me and woo me off my hooves?"

North let out a hearty laugh. "Indeed! You're quite the catch, Rarity!"

"And I am already caught," she replied. Her expression then shifted, turned somber. "Did you...?

And so did he lose his mirth. "I told him the same I tell the others. I am a traveler, and you were willing to give me brief directions."

"Thank you," she said with a smile. She then paused and looked away into the distance. "You know, I saw new missing posters. She's not giving up."

"You sound surprised," he replied.

"I'm not," she whispered. "It simply makes me miss her more."

From behind the window, she watched as night gave way to day, moonlight intermingling with dawning sunlight and creating a beautiful sight.

For the first time in over a thousand years, Twilight Sparkle appreciated her namesake. She lifted the mug she was holding and took a sip of her tea, the taste of berries and nuts warming both her body and soul.

She felt safe.

Hoofsteps behind her drew her attention. She tore her eyes away from the window and looked back into Rarity’s kitchen, watching as her sleepy significant other trotted in, covering a yawn with a hoof.

“Is everything okay?” Twilight asked, her eyes following Rarity.

“If you must know,” Rarity replied, “considering it’s half past six in the morning, I would probably feel better if my coffee machine wasn’t, shall we say, indisposed.”

A fierce blush bloomed on Twilight’s cheeks, and she forced herself not to look at the various machine parts scattered on the kitchen table. She was going to fix it! And it wasn’t even really her fault! Rarity should have known better than to ask her to use such a fascinating device!

“Ah. Right.”

Rarity sighed, boiling water in a kettle on the stove. She then made her way to Twilight, sitting down and leaning against her. Almost instinctively, Twilight’s wing unfurled and wrapped itself around the unicorn, eager to keep her close.

“Honestly, I don’t know what Rainbow was thinking having you all leave so early. There’s no rush to see Princess Cadance,” she whisрered, closing her eyes and snuggling to the alicorn. “It’s not as though she can even leave.”

“Rarity!”

“Oh, Twilight, don’t be offended. If you think that’s bad, you should hear what she says about it,” Rarity teased, smiling wide. “Unlike you and Рrincess Luna, Princess Cadance actually developed a sense of humor regarding her situation.”

Twilight playfully rolled her eyes but said nothing in reply. Personally, she was glad that they were leaving as early as possible. Her heart ached to see her sister-in-law, and the sooner she was able to, the better.

And yet.

And yet, in the depths of her heart, fear and doubt lingered still. Was she truly ready to face Cadance again? Was she ready to face her old life again? Her parents… Shining...

The whistling of the kettle interrupted her stream of thoughts, and she heard Rarity sigh against her. What had she been thinking, Twilight wondered. Why did she sigh? And…

“Rarity?” Twilight asked when the unicorn finally tore herself away so as to go and silence the kettle. “Are you really not coming with us?”

Rarity lingered by the stove for a split-second before levitating a nearby mug and pouring water in it.

She looked at Twilight.

“Darling, you know that I…” She drifted off and placed the kettle on the stove. “I.. Do you want me to go?”

Yes, of course, Twilight wanted to reply, but what Rarity had said the day before still held true. Rarity had already done so much for her at the sake of her own life and career.

“I’m just worried,” she replied instead. “We don’t know where Discord is, and we don’t know what he plans on doing next. What if he goes after you?” Her eyes lowered towards the three scars on her marefriend's flank. "What if he tries to hurt you?"

“Then I shall simply have to deal with it,” Rarity replied. “We cannot let fear of him rule us, Twilight.”

Twilight wanted to protest, but a loud knock and the sound of the front door opening interrupted her.

“Rarity? Princess Twi? Y’all awake?”

“We’re in the kitchen, Applejack,” Rarity called, putting an end to their conversation.

Applejack trotted in, saddlebags hanging on her back, and to Twilight's surprise, Fluttershy followed behind her, carrying a large covered basket.

"Good morning," Fluttershy said, smiling brightly at both mares, but mostly at Twilight.

"Well, well, well, Twilight! Almost everypony's come to say goodbye," Rarity said, stirring her tea. "Except for a certain Miss Pie, who I presume is either fast asleep or baking."

"How did you sleep, Princess Twilight?" Fluttershy asked, taking a step toward her. Her eyes flickered to Rarity, enough that Twilight got the hint.

"I slept well," she replied, which wasn't exactly a lie. She slept little—most of her time occupied making sure the pony in her forelegs slept peacefully—but what little she slept went well enough.

"And you, Rares?" Applejack asked, helping herself to one of the apples on a nearby fruit basket.

For a moment, Rarity looked at Twilight.

"Oh, I slept wonderfully. Probably better than I have in quite some time," she said, a loving smile blooming on her lips. Twilight’s cheeks heated up, but before anypony could comment on it, Rarity continued. "So, then, will you be joining Twilight on her little expedition?"

"Sure am!" Applejack said. "Checked with Granny and Big Mac, and they can take care of things while I'm at Canterlot."

"Actually..."

Everypony turned to look at Twilight.

“Applejack, I think you should go with Rarity, please,” she said.

Applejack blinked. “I should?”

“She should?” Rarity asked, confused. “But, wh—” She paused, her brow furrowed, and Twilight knew she’d been caught. “Twilight…”

“If I can’t go with you…”

“Twilight!” Rarity exclaimed. “Applejack isn’t going to be my bodyguard! And I do not need one, for goodness’s sake!”

“But, Rari—!”

“Now, wait a darn minute here,” Applejack cut off, looking between the two mares. “What’s going on? Why’d you reckon’ Rarity needs herself a bodyguard?” She then paused and cautiously added, “You thinkin’ the Spirit’s going to come after her or somethin’?”

Before Twilight could speak, Rarity did.

“Applejack, Discord hasn’t done anything to us for two years! If anything, he’s more likely to go after Twilight! Which is why I asked you to keep Twilight safe first.”

Regardless of how heart-warmed she was by Rarity’s intentions, she was adamant about getting her way. She threw the mare a pointed-stare, something of a convincing mix between ‘I am a Princess, darn it, I have a higher rank than she does’ and ‘Pretty please’.

And yet, it wasn’t Applejack who spoke in reply.

“I’ll go with Twilight.”

All three mares turned to Fluttershy.

“You will?” Twilight asked, delighted. She very much enjoyed Fluttershy’s company. “That’s great!” She turned towards Rarity and Applejack. “See! Fluttershy can help protect me if Discord comes, can’t you, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy hesitated for a moment and then nodded. “Mhm! I’ll certainly try my best.”

Rarity and Applejack stared at her.

Applejack cleared her throat. “Well, see, Princess, now I’m not saying that Fluttershy here ain’t…” She drifted off. “Hm.”

“Fluttershy, darling, you know I love you dearly as the sun itself,” Rarity said, clearly weighing her words, “but you are… well… now, let me be clear, when I say ‘you’re you’, I don’t mean this in a bad way, quite the con—”

Fluttershy giggled. “I know,” she said. “But we’ll be fine. Spike and Rainbow Dash are with us.”

“And I’m not helpless, Rarity!” Twilight sрoke uр again, stamping her hoof against the floor. “I can take on Discord! What’s the worst he could do to me?”

There was a pause.

“Twilight,” Rarity said, “I cannot believe that is a question you just asked right now.”

Twilight’s cheeks burned. “We-Well! That only means I’ve already gone through the worst he can do, so if it happens again, I’ll know what to do.”

Rarity stared at her. “Darling, for my own sanity, I’m going to pretend you did not say that.” She then sighed. “Would it really make you feel better if Applejack went with me?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes. It would.”

“Well, all right, then,” she relented, clearly unsure. “I can’t say no to that.”

“It won’t be long,” Fluttershy said. “Rainbow told me it would only be a three-day trip.”

“And we have the necklaces,” Twilight added, pressing a hoof against hers. “We can communicate whenever one ne—” She paused, realizing Rarity wasn’t actually wearing hers. “Where’s your necklace?”

“My necklace? Oh! I, er… I hadn’t even realized I hadn’t put it back on,” she said, pressing a hoof against her chest.

“Can’t blame you,” Applejack said. “Barely been wearing the thing for a year, after all. Reckon’ Pinkie’s more used to it than you are.”

“Pinkie?” Twilight asked, thoroughly confused, her hoof pressing more against her necklace. “Why would Pinkie be used to it?”

Silence fell between all three Ponyville mares, which did little to alleviate Twilight’s confusion.

But before she could ask, or inquire, or prod, Rarity reacted. Her horn glowed, and the necklace now hung from her neck.

“Regardless! Here it is now,” she announced. Quickly. “So, I suppose we’re all set then, hm?”

Applejack looked at Twilight and Fluttershy. “You two shouldn’t be sticking ‘round here anymore. Rainbow’s not going to like it if you’re late,” she said, sitting down next at the table. “So, Rarity, what’s for breakfast?”

“Pardon me! Does it look like I’m running a diner here?!”

“Aw, I was just teasing,” Applejack said, grinning. She got up and trotted off into the foyer. “Come on! We’ll go to a real diner, and I’ll even treat you, Miss Prissy.”

Fluttershy trotted after her, followed by Twilight and Rarity. However, rather than following Applejack and Fluttershy into the streets, Twilight lingered behind with Rarity in the foyer.

“I prepared this for you,” Rarity said, levitating well-рacked saddlebags from a nearby chair. She waited until Twilight рut her cloak on before placing them on the alicorn’s back. “A few necessities for the road.”

“Necessities?”

“Oh, you know,” she replied, gesturing non-committally. “Snacks, a few gems for Spike, a blanket if you’re cold, aaaaaaaand…” She fluttered her eyelashes. “A notebook, and a new packet of ballpoint pens.”

Twilight gasped. “You mean the neverending-ink quills?! You know, I tested it, and you can save up to a minute on dipping with those.”

Rarity laughed. “Twilight, firstly, they don’t have neverending-ink, silly filly. But they are much less delicate than ink and quills. Wouldn’t want an inkwell to break inside the saddlebags, now would we?”

“I guess not, but… well, my calligraphy isn’t as neat with them. I wish I could combine the practicality of the ‘pen’ device with the nib of my quills…”

Rarity thought for a moment before lifting her hoof and adjusting Twilight’s cloak. “You know...” she said slowly, “Just because I adore you, I will look into inventing such an object just for you.”

Twilight blinked. “You will…?”

Rarity smiled widely. “I will! I’ve decided it! I will invent an object that works like a pen and has the nib of a quill. You know, I’ve even come up with a name for it. I’ll call it…hmm… a fountain pen!”

“Oh! I like that!” Twilight exclaimed, stamping her hooves on the ground. “I can’t believe nopony’s invented it yet…”

“Alas! Not everypony is as clever as me!” she said, tapping Twilight on the nose. She then looked down and pulled Twilight’s necklace from under the cloak’s fastener, allowing it to be prominently displayed.

“Rarity?”

Rarity looked up. “Mm?”

Twilight swallowed. It was hard to communicate. It was hard to ask questions she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answer to. But ask she must, and she looked straight at Rarity when she did.

“Why has Pinkie been wearing your necklace?”

Rarity didn’t freeze, not really. It seemed more like she paused, took a moment to think her answer over. She looked down, brushing her hoof against Twilight’s own necklace, before looking up.

“It’s… Well…” She paused and smiled, lifting her hoof to touch Twilight’s cheek. “As they say, a watched pot never boils.”

Twilight took a moment, allowed it to sink in, and then fixed Rarity with a blank stare.

“Yes, it does,” she said simply, thoroughly vexed by Rarity’s ridiculously inaccurate statement.

Rarity frowned. “Wha—? No, Twilight, sweetheart, that’s a say—”

“Water will boil whether or not you’re looking at it,” Twilight cut off. “If you’re referring to the ‘observer effect’ from the physics book you gave me, then that refers to examples where observing and or measuring something requires some sort of action that will by necessity alter the state of the object being observed.”

There was a long pause.

And then Rarity giggled.

“What?” Twilight asked, nervous. Had physics changed in the two years she’d been gone? “Why are you laughing?”

Rather than immediately reply, Rarity sighed fondly, lifting Twilight’s chin. “Goodness, I missed you,“ she said, and then playfully raised an eyebrow. "And clearly somepony hasn’t been studying her idioms book recently.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “I’ll work on it.”

“You should!” Rarity exclaimed, moving back. “And once you know what that means, you might understand why Pinkie wore the necklace in my stead, hmm?”

“I would know if you told me now,” Twilight replied, leaning in. “Hmmm?”

Rarity didn’t move, instead smiling brightly. “Hmmmmmmm…”

“Hmmmmmmmm—”

“Will you two hummingbirds actually get on with it before Rainbow comes and gets y’all?” Applejack called from outside, briefly poking her head into the room.

“My stars, everypony’s a critic,” Rarity whispered, rolling her eyes. She closed the distance between their lips in a brief but wonderful kiss, and then leaned back and brushed Twilight’s bangs back. “Well then, dearest, anything else you’d like to tell me privately before you depart?”

Twilight licked her lips. “Do you… Do you still not know what’s wrong?”

“I’m working on it,” she said gently. “I have an inkling, but… I’ll think hard about it while we’re apart, all right?”

Twilight’s ears lowered. “You promise?”

“I promise, and you know I keep my promises,” Rarity said, moving in to nuzzle Twilight. When Twilight wrapped her wings around her, she let out a breath of air, followed by a characteristically cute whine. “You haven’t even left yet, and I miss you already.”

“Well, if you went with—”

“I don’t miss you enough to change my mind,” Rarity replied.

Twilight’s eyebrows knitted together in a frown. “Fine.”

Rarity laughed. “Now, now, rather than pout, listen. I have the perfect idiom for this!”

“Distance makes the heart grow fonder?” Twilight ventured, and a smile pushed itself onto her lips when Rarity pulled back with a delighted grin.

“Twilight! You remembered!” She whined again, and her face puckered into a moue of quiet annoyance. “Drat. Now I miss you even more.”

The road to Canterlot Castle was a complicated one when it involved a fifty-foot dragon. There wasn’t a chariot that could sustain such a being, and Rainbow had assured Twilight that these ‘train-devices’ ponies regularly used did not transport massive dragons.

The group, or as Rainbow had dubbed them “Princess Twilight’s Rag-Tag Adventurers”, currently found themselves crossing Meadow Waters, the lake separating the Ponyville province from Canterlot Mountain. Rainbow Dash flew above them, while Twilight, Fluttershy, and five owls sat on Spike’s back.

Well, no. The baby owls and Themis all sat on Fluttershy, while Elara, ever her master’s pet, contented herself with perching herself on Twilight’s head.

“What exactly is Granite’s Rest?” Twilight asked, peering down at a map of the kingdom. So much had changed in a thousand years; she still felt like she’d stepped into a foreign land, not Equestria.

“It’s a ghost town at the base of Canterlot Mountain,” Spike said, only half-focused on safely crossing the river beneath him. “I found it a really long time ago."

"A ghost town?" Twilight asked. Had… Had Discord actually…?

"It means it's abandoned," Fluttershy elaborated.

A wave of immense relief flooded Twilight. "Oh…"

"It used to be a mining village," Spike continued. "At least, it was back when I first found it."

"And you say Rarity wanted me to see it?”

She couldn’t really think of any reason why Rarity would be interested in mining of all things. Unless it was to retrieve gems for her designs? In which case Twilight would make sure to bring her as many as possible.

“It’s not just Rarity!” Rainbow said, looking down at the Princess. “We’ve all been waiting for you to go!”

“But why?” Twilight asked. “Does this have to do with the Princesses? Or Discord?”

“Yes,” Fluttershy said, and continued before Twilight could ask, “but we think it’s better you see it for yourself rather than telling you what it is.”

“But why?” Twilight insisted.

“So I’m sure it’s what I think it is,” Spike replied. “There’s something I found there a really long time ago, and until now, the only other ponies who could actually tell me if I’m right or not were stuck in a library, a castle, and who knows where.”

“Yeah! So try not to think about it,” Rainbow said.

Regrettably, Twilight was not known for giving up easily.

“Is it something about Discord? Or Celestia? Is it about Princess Luna?” she continued. “It’s about Princess Luna, isn’t it?”

“Princess, we’re not going to tell you!” Rainbow exclaimed. “Quit askin’! Or ask about something else!”

“Uuuuuugh. Fine,” Twilight said, or grunted, rather, but a little smile pushed its way onto her lips when Spike laughed. She licked her lip, seeking a new topic, and settling on her favorite one.

“Did I tell you Rarity’s going to invent a device for me?” she asked, putting the map away in her bag. “She’s going to make a pen that has the functionality of modern Equestria’s pre-inked ones, but giving it a nib similar to my quills.”

Rainbow Dash landed in front of Twilight. “Rarity told you she’s going to invent that?”

Twilight nodded, her heart swelling with pride. “She’ll call them fountain pens.”

Rainbow snorted, crossing her forelegs. “Really? Wow! And what else did she tell you she’s going to ‘invent’, huh?”

“Nothing else yet, but I’m sure she’ll come up with something!” Twilight replied, trying to be cheerful. She was ecstatic Rainbow was impressed by Rarity so it was imperative she made sure Rainbow continued being so.

Dumb dresses in Canterlot.

“She also gave me a ‘notebook’ so I won’t have to alchemize scrolls anymore,” she continued, opening her saddlebag and retrieving the object in question. She flipped through the blank pages and smiled when Elara flew down onto her foreleg so as to inspect it.

“They’re not as nice as scrolls, though,” Fluttershy noted, her and the owls peering at the notebook.

Twilight huffed. Truthfully, a lot of things in modern Equestria were more practical but less aesthetically-appealing than their archaic versions. The only modern thing that was much more appealing than the ones from ages past was Rarity. Twilight had dated—long, long ago—but she’d never been as taken by somepony as she constantly was by Rarity.

Ugh. I miss her.

She was suddenly aware of her necklace rubbing against her chest and had to fight the desire to call the unicorn. Not that she couldn’t or there was something wrong, but… but something did feel wrong. She lifted her hoof and pressed it against the pendant, but as soon as she did, so did a thought enter her mind.

Rarity probably wasn’t nearly as concerned about Twilight as Twilight was over her.

Was she?

A watched pot never boils.

Why wouldn’t it boil?! Argh!

“Princess?”

Twilight blinked, realizing by Fluttershy’s expression that she’d gotten lost in her own swirling thoughts.

“Oh! Er, sorry,” she said quickly, her hoof shooting down from the necklace.

“Are you thinking about Princess Cadance?” Fluttershy asked carefully, and judging by Rainbow’s sudden intent stare, she realized that was a question everypony had on their mind.

“I…”

Well, she hadn’t been, but now she was.

“Hey, you don’t have to be nervous, Princess,” Rainbow Dash said, lifting a hoof and patting Twilight on the shoulder. “Princess Cadance is stoked to see you!”

“...Stoked…?”

Fluttershy giggled. “It means she’s excited,” she explained.

“Oh…” She looked down at the notebook, and then at the top of Spike’s head. “Have you seen her recently, Spike?”

A long silence followed.

“Spike?” she asked, her brow furrowing and her tone hardening. A thousand years could go by, and yet the dragon would still be her charge. “Spike, when was the last time you saw her?”

Another long silence, until he finally spoke up.

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Spike!” she exclaimed, putting the notebook down and flying up in front of Spike, Elara practically tumbling off her. “You haven’t talked to her?! You promised you would!”

The dragon groaned, pointedly looking down at the river rushing through his feet. “Did I? Sorry. I promised that two years ago, and I have bad memory,” he said dismissively. Except, when he looked back up, Twilight’s burning stare forced him to continue defending himself. “What! It’s not that easy, Twilight! The last time I saw her was, what, like nearly seven-hundred years ago? And I was a teenager and I…” He drifted off. “Look, it—”

“And you what?” Twilight asked, finally set on gleaming from the dragon the answers she couldn’t get when she was trapped in the library.

Red splotches decorated his cheeks. “I wasn’t very… I was angry, and said angry stuff,” he said eloquently.

Twilight’s ears lowered. “Spike…”

“I’m not proud of it, okay?” he said, chastised. “At least I’m going now… Not that I can even see her, anyway. I can’t fit inside that castle.”

"It's not like Princess Cadance tried hard to see him, either!" Rainbow defended.

"She couldn't," Fluttershy spoke up, softly but sternly.

"She literally couldn't," Twilight added, still flying in front of the dragon. "And just because she didn't make the first step doesn't mean you shouldn't have done it, either."

"I'm doing it now!" he protested, his gait changing to stomping. "You weren't there, Twilight! You don't know how bad it got! We had the curse, and Shining was gone, and those dumb changelings didn't make things better, and then Celestia's letter, and—"

Twilight's pending lecture on the importance of apologies ground to a halt.

What?

"Wait, wait, wait!" she exclaimed, and so did Spike come to a stop. "Princess Celestia wrote you a letter? When?! Why did nopony tell me about this?!"

"Because it happened centuries ago, Twilight," he said. His expression darkened, and he resumed his path across the river. "I'd been sending her letters every week, every month, every day, and nothing for years until I told her Shining was… You know... and I asked her to please tell us what to do, to help us, and well, she replied, and…"

"And…?" she pressed.

"It wasn't what we needed to hear."

She paused in the air for a second before continuing to fly next to him, an impending sense of dread growing within her.

"...What do you mean? What did she say?"

"There is no hope for us," Rainbow Dash replied. "That's what she said, right, Spike?"

Twilight's heart tightened in her chest.

"...She… She said that?"

"There is no hope for us. Centuries of sending her letters, and she only sent back six words," Spike replied, a strange sort of bitterness lacing his words. He laughed. "That was a really bad day for Cadance and me. A really bad day."

"But… But that doesn't even make sense!" Twilight protested. "What does that even mean?! Who's 'us'? What did she mean there's no hope for us?! What?!"

"That's what we said," Spike replied, cracking a small smile. "I didn't understand anything, and then I found The Weeping Mare of Granite's Rest."

"Will you just tell me what it is already?!" Twilight demanded, flying down and landing on Spike's head. Her heart thumped against her chest, and she was less and less excited to reach this Granite's Rest place.

"It's something by a pony called Indigo Glen," Spike said. "Nopony knows when it was done, and we only know the name of the creator because they signed it."

"And what's this thing?" she asked.

"You'll see," he replied. "You'll see."

Twilight sighed, getting the hint at the conversation being over. "Fine," she murmured, jumping off his head and landing next to Fluttershy on his back.

And again, for the second time, her hoof found its place on her necklace, and she wished Rarity were there.

"I'm sure she misses you too," Fluttershy said, softly, her eyes lingering on Twilight's hoof.

Twilight smiled. She wanted to agree, wanted to say that of course Rarity missed her, but… but Rarity would probably be there with her if it wasn't for… the two years and… and…

"I miss her," she said instead, pushing the negative thoughts away. The unicorn's absence left a hollow spot in her heart, and if not missing Twilight meant Rarity wouldn't be afflicted with a sore heart, then she quietly wished Rarity didn't miss her.

"Well, anyway, as I was saying..." Rainbow said, drawing the topic and the alicorn's thoughts away from Rarity, which Twilight was grateful for.

It seemed like Rarity wasn't the only one who had some thinking to do.

Looking at it from afar, Granite’s Rest was, oddly, exactly as Twilight had imagined it.

Well, no, that wasn’t true. It was impossible for it to be exactly as she’d imagined it, but it was somewhat similar to the diagram in her mind, and that was good enough.

Unfortunately for her, nopony in her rag-tag group of adventurers even bothered to do research or learn the history of Equestria, so she had no information on the town save for the fact that it was a mining town, there were ‘a bunch of big flat rocks everywhere', and it was old.

She didn't want to say it, but she did anyway.

"Rarity would have had research for me," she mumbled dejectedly, jumping off Spike's back and looking at the distant small town at the base of Canterlot Mountain.

Fluttershy laughed softly. "We could always ask a guide, Princess."

"I guess..."

She missed Rarity.

They'd been traveling for two days now, and though her friends were all great distractions for her mind, the nights were especially difficult. They would all be asleep, and yet she would stay up and stare at the stars so as not to stare at her necklace, hoping it would suddenly flash.

"I can't go there," Spike said, for obvious reasons, which Twilight personally took offense to. Spike was a wonderful dragon, and honestly, who wouldn't want to engage in conversation with him? "But Fluttershy should be able to take you to it"

"Are we staying here tonight?" Fluttershy asked. "It's almost night."

"Nah," Rainbow replied, perched atop the dragon's head. "We're staying at the next town over. Well, you two are, at least. Spike and I are crashing outside, but there's some dinky motel there that you guys can pass out at." She paused and added, "Er... Are you sure you don't want me to go with you now, though?"

Fluttershy shook her head. "I think it would be better if it's just the Princess and me," she said softly, offering a smile at the curious alicorn.

"But, Shy—"

"It's okay, Rainbow," Spike said. "Fluttershy knows what she's saying. She's dealt with… well.. You-know-who's…yeah."

"What? Who's you-know-who?" Twilight asked, finding she wasn't altogether happy with the air of mystery being shared among her friends. "Deal with what?"

"Princess, what you're going to see..." She drifted off, frowning lightly.

"It might be a shock," Spike finished.

A shock?

Her heart compressed in her chest. It was a distressing sensation, and she was almost starting to miss her previously ethereal state of being. She lifted her hoof and pressed it against her chest, a small action which brought her a small degree of comfort.

She frowned. "Well, this isn't making me feel better, you know?"

"What?! But, it's cool, though!" Rainbow quickly said. "You'll see! It's super old and scary!"

"Twilight, just go," the dragon encouraged, and as he did, so did five owls fly over and perch themselves atop their master's back. "We'll be here waiting."

Granite's Rest was a small, somewhat gray town.

The modest houses scattered about looked old and decayed, and yet nopony seemed to be bothered by the fact. Did they not care? It certainly wasn't intelligent or safe to live in outdated edifications. Worn-out signs hung over doors, exposing them as stores, festive locales called 'saloons', banks, a single school, and lots and lots of odd visiting ponies.

Some of them were posing for photographic pictures, wearing what looked like modern mining outfits. Others went into the shops, going in and out with little bags filled with decoratives items.

For a ghost town, the place sure was lively. Wasn't it supposed to be abandoned? Ugh. So many things in the future were off. Abandoned towns were filled with ponies, water didn't boil… It's like they all wanted to be confusing!

In truth, that was perhaps the most irritating thing of it all.

She didn't understand so many things about this new world, even if she wanted. It might have been the apprehension thrust upon her by, well, her friends' urgent attitude, but the more she thought about it, the more she realized she was quite lost without Rarity there to guide her.

"Princess?"

Twilight jolted back to life, only then noticing she'd been caught up in her own mind. Fluttershy searched her, doubtless trying to decipher what she'd been thinking, and Twilight was embarrassed by the fact.

She forced a hasty smile.

"There's a lot of ponies," she stated.

"They're tourists," Fluttershy replied.

"What are they touring for?"

"They're visiting," Fluttershy replied, clearly amused. "Just seeing sights."

They continued on the path, maneuvering around the ponies who unhelpfully stood in the middle of the street until finally, she saw a large sign pointing the way towards the town's star attraction: The Weeping Mare.

The closer they got to it, the more ponies walked alongside them, prompting Twilight to walk closer to Fluttershy and hope her wings were properly concealed under her cloak. It didn't help she kept attracting attention to herself due to the five owls hooting cheerfully at whoever got close enough.

Eventually, the path led them outside the town and towards the base of the mountain, where a crowd of ponies had gathered around a large granite slab resting against the mountain, their eyes all set on the Weeping Mare herself.

Twilight suddenly understood why Spike had been cautious.

A painting towered on the granite slab before her, depicting a horrifyingly familiar pale alicorn.

My faithful student.

Princess Celestia, or this depiction of her, sat alone, surrounded by a darkness as black as her eyes and the tears that streamed from them.

"Look at her horn!" a nearby unicorn gasped, horrified. "It looks like it's about to break!"

A violent sickening sensation overcame Twilight when her gaze reached her mentor's horn. It was glowing softly, but it was cracked. And above her… Above her, in the darkness, glowing and menacing: a pair of yellow eyes.

She heard Fluttershy calling to her, and yet she could not properly register it. Her friend's voice seemed distant, faraway as her entire world numbed around her.

"They say it's one of the princesses," a nearby stallion remarked to his companion. "You know, the Seeking Night ones?"

"What do you think happened, mommy?" a colt whispered to a mare.

"Princess, I— I'm scared. Please… Please don't go."

"Twilight, we cannot let fear of him rule us."

"B-But, Prince— If something happens to y-you, or— or Princ—"

"Then you will carry on for us, Twilight. As long as hope survives, Discord cannot defeat us."

"Well, she didn't live long, then, huh?" another stallion said, and Twilight’s knees began to buckle under her. Is the Princess dead…? "Bet that's the Grim Reaper watching over her."

"There is no hope for us. That's what the letter said, didn't it?"

And the nightmares came all at once, one after another, merciless and all-destroying. She closed her eyes, feeling short of breath as she in vain tried to silence them. They whispered, hissed, screamed that everypony she loved, one way or another and without exception, everypony—

"What can you tell from the painting, Princess?"

Twilight's eyes opened, and when she turned to Fluttershy, found the pegasus looking at the painting. She wondered, for a second, if she'd imagined the question until Fluttershy repeated herself.

"Wh-What?" she stammered, dragged back to reality.

Her eyes flickered towards the strangers surrounding her, and yet none seem concerned with her. They were all still transfixed, enraptured by this seeming fantasy depiction, smiling and nodding appreciatively. It was jarring. It was, really, if she had to sit there and think it, it was crushing.

They didn't know.

She… Twilight herself and her universe, their pain and trials and anguish… What was her entire life to her, was nothing but a simple fairytale to them. Entertainment to laugh and discuss and buy souvenirs of.

"Princess Twilight, focus on me." Fluttershy’s voice was kind, yes, but it was sharp as well, and it cut through the haze that shrouded Twilight's thoughts. When Twilight looked at her, trembling, Fluttershy lifted a hoof and gently placed it on Twilight's. "I don't understand much of unicorn magic," she continued, all of a sudden as casual as if they were discussing the weather. And yet, something in her tone was measured. "How could a horn crack like that? Could you try and explain, please?"

And Twilight did.

"I-It depends on the ci-circumstances, but a unicorn or in th-this case, alico—" Her sentence was cut short by her own inability to think properly. It was hard. It was hard to think, to breathe, and princesses, for a dark moment, she wished to be back in her library.

Instinctively, she reached out and held her necklace.

"It's okay. We're here," Fluttershy continued, moving closer and sitting next to her. Her eyes then landed on Twilight’s hoof. She hesitated for a moment and asked, "Do you want to call Rarity?"

Yes.

Yes, she wanted to, desperately so, to have the unicorn take charge and help and explain and comfort her, but… but Rarity had elected to stay away. To go against the unicorn's wishes now of all times was akin to a cardinal sin.

Her entire body trembled when she shook her head. "N-No," she said with some attempt at determination. She did, however, continue holding the necklace, drawing strength from its rose-glow. "I'm fine."

Fluttershy presented her with a believing smile. With but a gesture of her hoof, three baby owls landed in front of Twilight and stared back at her with curious eyes.

"Can you continue explaining to us, please?"

Twilight nodded. "Ye-Yes."

Fluttershy looked back to the painting. "Maybe Princess Sunshine's horn was damaged in a fight?"

"N-No. Princess Sunshine's horn wasn't attacked," Twilight managed, the foreign name allowing her to distance herself enough to start to properly examine the situation. It helped that Ginny, Amalthea, and Metis were all completely focused on her. It was imperative they learned proper horn care. "The… The pattern on her horn, the cracks are clean and diagonal. They're following the grooves on her horn."

Fluttershy nodded seriously. "Mh-hm. What does that mean?"

"We-Well! Well, unicorn magic travels through the grooves, but it's actually luminescent enough that it creates the illusion of the entire horn glowing," she explained, and the more words came out, the easier it was. She was even able to briefly look at the painting again. "But magic still has a presence. So, for Princess Sunshine's horn to be cracked in that way, it means she had to be casting a spell long enough that the magic would not only continually wear away her horn and damage its bone structure, but also prevent her magic from naturally healing it."

A small voice chimed in.

"But why would she do that?"

Twilight looked around and found the colt from before peering up at her, seeming quite concerned.

"I… I don't know," Twilight confessed.

She looked back to the painting, stared deep into the black eyes, beseeching for an answer. Why would Princess Celestia have put herself at risk for so long? Why would she sacrifice the structure of her horn?

A small hoof tugged at her foreleg, followed by the gasp of a mare.

"Honeycrisp!" his mother whispered urgently, trying to pull back the colt who insistently tugged on Twilight's coat.

"Why are her eyes black, Miss?" he asked, carelessly ignoring his mother and her hasty apologies. "Is she bad?"

"No, of course not!"

The words left her mouth with urgent immediacy. Just the thought of it! Princess Celestia was a paragon of benevolence and kindness, the most powerful alicorn in the kingdom, but…

But…

What if that was his goal?

The Princess's charcoal gaze pierced down on Twilight, drawing her in and drawing out memories Twilight had tried to suffocate and bury. Twilight herself wasn't evil. Even in the pits of her self-disdain, she could not truly sit there and designate herself as an unkind pony—misguided, yes, very very misguided, but bad? No.

And yet.

She moved forward, pushed past the crowd, their chatter forgotten as another voice called in her mind, beckoning her.

What does he want, Princess?

The answer is in his very name, Twilight.

Discord?

Discord. Disagreement. Conflict. Ponies turned against each other creates disharmony, and where there is disharmony, chaos lurks nearby.

"Princess..." Twilight whispered, speaking to the portrait itself.

But the Princess of the Sun did not reply. She simply continued to stare, as she often did when waiting for Twilight to reach conclusions herself.

"She's possessed," Twilight said, aloud, and when she turned, she found the colt and Fluttershy had moved to the front of the now attentive crowd. Twilight indicated the black eyes, certain of the answer because she herself had lived it. "The Chaos Magic is possessing her."

"Chaos magic?" prompted a nearby stallion.

Twilight didn't reply, turning back to the painting. She remembered being consumed by the magic. She remembered it, the suppressed memories coming back to light. She remembered hate consuming her, anger and bitterness and resentment.

She realized, then and there, how easily she might have been used as a weapon.

And, if that was the case, did that mean…

Celestia was protecting herself?

"This… When was this made?" Twilight urgently asked, turning to the crowd.

Most of them offered her blank stares, until a mare stepped up, brandishing an informational pamphlet.

"I work here!” she quickly announced. She cleared her throat, and stated, “This is actually a restoration! It was done about three hundred years ago by the painter Ochre Oil and then reinforced with a preservation spell. However, no information is available on the age of the original, as this is the only signed work of the painter Indigo Glen.”

Twilight returned her gaze to the painting, moving forward to inspect it in as much detail as she possibly could. As she did so, a tendril of her magic wrapped itself around the guide’s pamphlet and she levitated it over, her mumbled thank you losing itself amidst the ponies chatter.

Her eyes scanned the information on the paper, the dates and descriptions, but nothing on it actually helped! She didn’t want to know what the composition of the painting was! She wanted to know what it was depicting, what place, what time, what! Honestly, what kind of an informational guide was that, anyway?

“Uhm… Princess?”

Twilight looked down at the fidgeting Fluttershy, who glanced uneasily at the many tourists now pointing their camera lenses at the alicorn. Initially, she wondered why they were photographing her. Then, she wondered why Fluttershy seemed smaller. Finally, noticing her cloak on the ground, she realized her desire for detail had quite literally taken flight.

“Mommy!” the colt whispered urgently. “Mommy! She’s flying but doing magic!”

The tour guide gawked for a split-second before turning to the crowd, taking a nearby empty box and put it down on the floor. “Ladies and gentlecolts! What a surprise! What thrills! An alicorn-lookalike unlike no other! Brought to you by Granite's Rest Tours!”

Immediately, the ponies nodded and hummed appreciatively, some putting bits into the empty box while others resumed their photographing. Twilight frowned at them from above. Considering what happened at Ponyville and now there, it was terribly encouraging to see that ponies would still look for the word gullible if told it was written on the ceiling.

I can’t think of this now.

She returned her scrutiny to the painting. “What are you doing…?” she asked again, her eyes burning into the Princess’s cracked horn, hoping her mind would present her with some sort of epiphany.

Was… Is she trying to contain the chaos magic? Is she fighting possession? And why is Discord there? Is he waiting? Did he give up?

Wait.

What if…

What if he gave up on trying to have Princess Celestia possessed?

What if he gave up, and tried a different approach, or… a different target!

“Fluttershy!” She landed in front of the pegasus, trotting forward as the pegasus stepped back. “Fluttershy, when was the last recorded sighting of Discord?! Not with Rarity, but before that! Before she met me.”

Her friend gave her a stare more owlish than that of the owls themselves. “Uhm… I… I don’t know, Princess,” she replied apologetically, ears folding. “I’m sorry…”

“What? No! Why are you sorry? Don’t you understand what that means?!” Twilight asked, a smile sweeping across her face.

“Uhm…”

Fluttershy looked lost, which was perfectly fine, because Twilight was going to explain in a moment, anyway.

“If Discord had appeared before Rarity met me, if he’d done anything, Equestria would know! Cadance would know! But he didn’t! And now he suddenly led Rarity to me so that we’d fight and the chaos magic would possess me!”

“But… But why wait until now?” Fluttershy asked, and to that, Twilight had no immediately smart reply.

Why wait until now?

“I… I…” The words tumbled out Twilight’s mouth, her brain trying to put together some sort of… something. “I don’t know,” she admitted, finally, despite herself. “Maybe he couldn’t…? Maybe something happened? Or maybe he never could until… until Rarity became an opportunity…?”

And to that, Fluttershy’s eyes widened.

“The Book Bringer… The real one!” She gasped, her hoof flying to her mouth. “Zecora told him to stay away from the library! She never let anypony near, not even herself!”

Twilight nodded, her heart hammering in her chest. “But nopony stopped Rarity!” she continued, and a viciously victorious smile plastered itself onto her face. “He tried to use her to get to me, but it didn’t work. His plan failed. He couldn’t control me, and instead, Rarity freed me.”

She indicated Princess Celestia’s painting, and she could have sworn it was smiling at her.

“And now we can free the Princess! We can free Princess Luna, and Cadance, and Princess Celestia! I can fix this, Fluttershy!”

The words again tumbled out her mouth, a nervous thrilled excitement to them because princesses, for once, something was going right. Because Discord had led Rarity there to try and use her against Twilight, but instead, his weapon had become Twilight’s saving grace. Because even after the chaos magic had possessed her, it was Rarity’s impact in her life that ultimately freed her from it.

Never had she been more acutely aware of the necklace brushing against her chest as she was in that moment. She pressed her hoof against it, biting down a smile. Maybe it was a good thing Rarity hadn’t come, or else…

A blush flashed across the alicorn’s cheeks.

“Anyway,” she said, eager to move on from the topic in her mind. She picked up her cloak and put it back on, ignoring the tour guide collecting nearby monetary donations for the ‘Alicorn Programmed Event’. “We should go back.”

“Oh yes.” She cleared her throat, and so did the owls all return to their several positions on top of Twilight. “I’m sure Spike and Rainbow want to hear your thoughts on the matter so we know what to do next.”

“What to do next…?”

Though it was obvious Fluttershy had said that innocently—why shouldn’t she? It was logical to assume Twilight would explain all to Spike and Dash—it still managed to jolt the alicorn’s nightmares awake.

She remembered the last time ponies had listened and followed her theories, and she remembered very vividly living the consequences it brought.

“Not yet,” she said at once.

“Not yet?” Fluttershy asked, confused. She cocked her head to the side. “Why not?”

“I want to think it over more,” she explained, smiling apologetically. “Until Rarity and Cadance are there. We might get a better idea on how to proceed if we all talk about it together.”

Fluttershy, at least, seemed convinced. “All right.”

“Let’s go,” Twilight said, throwing the painting one last less-pained glance before trotting off, feeling much more relieved at the prospect of having more time to think and analyze about what came next.

And yet.

And yet, no sooner had they taken five steps that Twilight stopped, her eyes landing on a mare walking off with a souvenir bag.

“Could we stop to buy a souvenir?” she asked. “Maybe Rarity would like something.”

“Of course! Rarity will be very happy.”

Twilight licked her lips, and without a second thought, turned around and marched towards the tour guide.

“Excuse me, some of these are for me,” she said, nonchalantly levitating a hoof-full of bits from inside the now generously filled makeshift donation box. She counted twenty-five whole bits, before looking back into the box and taking five more, which she distributed equally among her owls. “Can’t keep paying with chestnuts.”

The tour guide gawked at her. "But—! But—!"

Twilight blinked at her. "You did say I was a professional alicorn lookalike brought by your company, didn't you?"

"Well, yes, but—!"

"Then it's only fair I get paid for my work!" Twilight replied, offering the tour guide a shamelessly innocent smile. “Thank you!”

With that, she trotted back towards Fluttershy.

“Now, we can go!”

The moonlight shone brightly that night, its soft silver glow draping itself atop the lone building waiting to greet exhausted travelers for a night’s rest. A large glowing sign—neon, Fluttershy explained—announced the place as Journey Repose.

Behind it, Twilight saw shadows of the trail leading up the mountain, all the way up to the golden city looking down on the Kingdom. Artificial golden light shone from Canterlot, illuminating its swirling towers and meshing with the moon’s own light.

For the first time in a thousand years, Twilight found herself a stone’s throw away from home.

A home that had long ago forgotten her, save for the Princess waiting in the topmost tower.

She wondered if she could even call it home anymore when everything she knew about it had vanished into fairytales.

“Princess Twi? You okay?”

The cold breeze and Rainbow Dash’s voice roused her from her thoughts. She’d been following her pegasi friends down the winding path, and only then did she realize she’d trailed behind.

She nodded, even if it wasn’t altogether the truth. She was fine, certainly and technically, but emotionally… It had been a long day to cap off two even longer days.

“I…”

“Princess Twilight…?” Fluttershy asked, catching the Princess’s eyes. A silent exchange passed between them, a quiet understanding akin to the one they had earlier shared with the painting, and Fluttershy nodded almost imperceptibly. “We’ll go ahead.”

Rainbow hesitated. “Well... If you're sure,” she said, later turning around and trotting off towards the motel.

Once their backs were turned and she was alone, her muscles loosened yet did not relax. Did that make sense? It was an odd sensation, to be clear. She didn’t relax as much as she resigned herself to…

To a search for home and a place in this new Equestria.

Another deep breath of air, the chilled air in her lungs awakening her body. She returned her gaze towards the motel and resumed her walk. Ponies lingered outside, some with bags and other affairs, and some sitting down by the dimly lit tables set outside. She noticed what looked like a couple sharing a meal together; a group of friends, their laughter and chatter filling the night air; a mare with a thin black cape, sketching or writing on something; and a few others, going about with their life.

She observed them for a moment, and her eyes lingered on the dark silhouette of the sketching mare, seemingly lost in her own world as she had often seen Rarity do when drafting out new designs.

A smitten smile made itself a home on her lips as she remembered her earlier realization and the wave of affection that had overtaken her. Once more, she was aware of the necklace on her chest, and yet—

“A watched pot never boils.”

She tore her eyes away from the couple, setting them instead on the pegasi disappearing in the distance. She broke into a gallop, catching up to the two mares and asking them to stop, her voice barely audible against the chatter of the group of friends nearby.

“What’s up, Princess?” Rainbow asked. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

Twilight nodded. “I have a question,” she said, and yet when it came time to voice it, a jarring feeling visited her.

Rarity had deferred her necklace to Pinkie Pie, and now did Twilight question if she really wanted to know the motivation behind the action.

“...Okay?” Rainbow asked, blinking at the mare. “What’s the question?”

She tried to reply in some roundabout way, to pass off as unimportant what had for so long defined her relationship to Rarity, but she failed rather miserably. “Why has Pinkie been wearing Rarity’s necklace?”

The question rushed out of her mouth, and two different reactions to the question collided with each other. Rainbow replied with startled confusion, hastily asking how did Twilight even know that. Fluttershy, however, who’d been present to the scene from days before, replied with a sudden seriousness to her expression.

“I-I asked Rarity why, and she told me it was because a watched pot never boils,” she elaborated. “What did she mean by that?”

“It’s an idiom,” Fluttershy replied after a moment’s thought. “It’s referring to how something we’re impatiently waiting for seems to take a very long time.”

The Princess’s voice fell to a whisper. “Oh.”

That feeling, she understood very well. She’d been subjected to it during the harrowing weeks Rarity had been cursed; the phantom pains in her chest as she waited by the door for a unicorn that may or may not ever come back.

And she’d subjected Rarity to two years of that.

“But why was Pinkie wearing it?” Twilight asked again.

“Well... sometimes,” Fluttershy continued, “we’re waiting for that thing to happen so badly, we just wait for that and stop doing anything else.”

Oh.

Rainbow must have noticed Twilight’s expression at Fluttershy’s implication, because she swiftly stood by the Princess’s side, wrapping a foreleg around her.

“Hey, it’s okay, Princess!” she said, the encouragement in her voice appreciated even if it was doing little for Twilight’s spirit. “Don’t let it get you down! You’re here now, right? You’re not going anywhere again.”

Twilight met her and Fluttershy’s warm gazes, and even if it was more difficult than she imagined, returned their gestures with a grateful smile and a shake of her head.

“No,” she said firmly, to herself or to them, she didn’t really know. “I’m not.”

“That’s the attitude!” Rainbow exclaimed.

She lifted her hoof and presented it to Twilight, an action which honestly confused her somewhat. She stared at it for a second before awkwardly shaking the pegasus’s hoof, drawing a delighted giggle from Fluttershy.

“No, Princess, it’s a hoof-bump,” Rainbow said, shaking Twi’s hoof off and presenting her own again. “You have to, you know, bump your hoof against mine!”

“...Why?”

“Because that’s what cool ponies do when they’ve said something awesome!” Rainbow exclaimed. “You can do it! Just bump mine!” she insisted, and when Twilight gently bumped her hoof against hers, the pegasus grinned.

The future was so strange.

“We should hurry,” Fluttershy said, moving along. “It’s very late.”

They made their way towards the motel, stepping through the doors and into the brightly lit lobby. As with outside, a few ponies meandered about, and yet the one that caught her and her companion’s attention was the orange earth pony mare waving her hat at them from the front desk.

“Applejack?” they said in unison, and no sooner had the words left Twilight’s mouth did panic settle itself everywhere.

Why is Applejack here? she thought in a frenzy, followed by a much more terrifying question. Where’s Rarity?

“Howdy, y’all!” Applejack greeted when Twilight practically tripped over herself running to her. “Took you long enough to get here! ‘Fraid my hide was going to go sore from sittin’ here waiting for you.”

“Applejack, what are you doing here?” Rainbow asked. Her face twisted in horror. “Please don’t tell me Rarity actually sent you here to check that the Princess slept in a motel.”

Applejack waved her off. “Don’t be silly, filly. Rarity knew you’d keep your promise,” she said. “But don’t start getting ahead of me now.” She turned to Twilight, and her expression sobered. “How’re you holding up, Princess? You saw the painting today, didn’t you?”

“Where’s Rarity?” Twilight asked, determined on solving much more pressing matters before engaging in trivial conversation. “Is she all right? Why isn’t she here with you? I don’t see he—”

“Now, now, don’t get your apples in a bunch! Rarity’s fine an’ dandy,” Applejack said with a laugh. She put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder and squeezed. “I promised you I’d keep her safe, and I ain’t breaking that promise anytime soon. We just came down here because she delivered her dresses on time. Since Pinkie's busy with somethin' in the city, Rarity got a bit antsy just the two of us, and well...” She cleared her throat. “Insisted we meet you halfway.”

Immeasurable relief pulsed through Twilight’s very being, so much so she might actually need to sit down just to sigh.

“She was waitin’ here with me about an hour ago, but I sent her off before she carved a darn groove in the floor,” she continued. “Told her I’d give her ten bits if she managed to draw the whole city before you came.”

Twilight’s heart jumped.

The mare sketching outside!

“So, you feelin’ all right?” Applejack repeated. “You know we’re here for you if you want to talk.”

“I am,” Twilight said, trying her best to focus on Applejack.

“That’s good!” Applejack replied. “Where’d you gals leave Spike and the owls?”

“Spike is going to sleep in the outskirts of town,” Twilight replied quickly. “The owls, as well.”

“Figures they would. Would’ve been mighty difficult to get a dragon to sleep here!” She laughed at her own remark and then continued. “So, what’d you think of Granite’s Rest? Lots of good folk running the place. Fun, wasn’t it? ”

Twilight stared. “It was all right.”

“Bit of tourist trap, though. Did you buy anything? Some souvenirs? They had nice keychains last time we went.”

“Uh-huh.”

Applejack nodded, rubbing her mouth. “You know, the mugs are good, too. Bought one for Granny Smith to use for cider season, and the darn thing hasn’t broken even after she’s—”

“Applejack?” Twilight cautiously interrupted.

Applejack blinked. “Huh? Yes, Princess?” Her eyebrows furrowed. “You want me to stop yammerin’ so you can go find your marefriend, don’t you?”

“Uhm.” A bright red tinge decorated Twilight’s cheeks. “Yes, please.”

Applejack rolled her eyes, smiling at the laughs of the two other mares. “Fine, fine. I swear, you and Rarity are like a couple of newlyweds.” She turned towards the nearby counter and gestured to a mug. “At least bring her some coffee. Don’t want her freezing her cutie mark right off .”

Levitating the mug into the air, Twilight thanked Applejack and the others before rushing off, heart hammering in her chest. She stepped outside and quietly walked towards the tables. She saw Rarity in the distance, a light shawl draped over her shoulders, still immersed in her drawing.

Twilight crept up behind her, careful not to be seen. She stood up on the tip of her hooves, admiring the hasty pencil sketch under the glow of a nearby candle. It was beautiful, Twilight thought, and in some strange way, it made her want to be home more than the sight of the actual city itself.

Without a word, she placed the mug on the table; action which Rarity did not seem to acknowledge until she spoke up.

“Thank you, Applejack,” she said, moving on to sketch out one of the castle’s east towers. She stopped briefly to adjust her shawl. “Goodness, it’s such a cold night. I hope Twilight is using the blankets I packed for her.”

She paused her drawing for a moment, tapping her pencil against her chin, still oblivious to the alicorn behind her.

“I still don’t know what I’m going to tell her! If they even get there that is,” she continued, returning to her task as quickly as the words left her mouth. “Maybe you were right! I made such a show out of not going with her, and now here I am, unable to stay away for even three days! Do you think Rainbow will come with her? I hope not. She’ll never let me live it down! I can hear her calling me needy already! And maybe I am!” A long theatric sigh followed, after which she levitated her drawing and turned around. “What do you thi—”

There they stood, gazing at each other, a mortified unicorn and an absolutely shamelessly delighted alicorn.

“Well,” Rarity said shortly. She put the drawing down. “Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

“Lady Rarity,” Twilight replied, the upwards curve of her lips almost villainous.

“Fancy meeting you here.”

“I could say the same.”

“So you could.” Rarity folded her hooves on the table. “Did you hear everything I said?”

“Every word, yes.”

“I see." She cleared her throat. “And do tell, how are you? I trust the trip was pleasant?”

Twilight’s smile vanished. “Mostly. There was one problem.”

Sudden worry marred Rarity’s face. “There was?” She lifted her hoof, cautiously placing it on Twilight’s chest. “Darling... Was it the… Was it the painting?”

“No,” Twilight replied, and a very smitten smile decorated her face as she put her hoof on Rarity’s. “It was that you weren’t there.” She then giggled maliciously and leaned down. “Lucky for me you’re so needy.”

Rarity’s giggling matched Twilight’s, her eyes sparkling with what Twilight knew to be unrestrained adoration--if only because her own eyes mirrored the feeling.

“Oh, be quiet, Miss Smartypants,” Rarity chastised, and earning herself an apologetic kiss from Twilight in return.

When they pulled apart, both mares sighed in much-needed relief, and Twilight settled herself next to Rarity, not caring if anypony saw her shamelessly nuzzling her significant other. She closed her eyes and, after making sure it was hidden under the cloak, unfurled a wing and wrapped it around Rarity, intent on keeping her close and warm.

“I missed you,” she said.

“I missed you, too,” Rarity echoed. She let out a soft laugh and craned her neck to nuzzle the alicorn. “I think I might have missed you a bit too much. It might be a problem.”

Twilight echoed her earlier words, injecting them with more intent than ever. “I’m here now,” she said, tightening her grip around Rarity. “I’m not going away.”

Gentle silence danced between them, both beginning to wander towards their different thoughts.

“Did you manage to deliver your dresses?” Twilight asked.

Rarity nodded, taking the pencil anew and tracing a few lines. “I did! Silver Heart was very pleased indeed, particularly seeing I was able to make some on-site adjustments.”

Twilight smiled, her tail swishing under her cloak. She shared in Rarity’s accomplishments, and it made her feel better about Rarity having gone to know it had been for the best.

Rarity fidgeted beside her. “Twilight, I…” Her statement cut off, drifting off into silence and meshing with the sound of charcoal scratching against the paper. Twilight was about to try and encourage Rarity to speak up but before she could do so, Rarity put the pencil down and leaned against her.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you.”

“You needed time,” Twilight gently reminded.

The pencil levitated again, and a tower sharply began to gain color. “I know that, but…”

Again, she trailed off, and the pencil flipped upside-down, erasing the harsh lines before flipping again and filling the blank space with softer strokes.

She turned her head for a moment, enough that their eyes met.

“Are you all right? Was that… Was it her?”

Twilight nodded. “I’m nearly a hundred percent sure it was.”

Rarity looked crestfallen. “Oh, sweetest… I’m sorry...”

Twilight shook her head. “No! It’s not a bad thing. I mean, it is, but… but it’s something that can help us.” She leaned down and nuzzled Rarity again, wanting to relieve some of her worry. “I’m fine. I just need time to think and gather my thoughts.”

Rarity’s laugh filled the air. “Why! Doesn’t that sound familiar?”

“It does!” Twilight replied, and though she tried to join in on Rarity’s mirth, another thought forced itself way out. She needed to ask. “And did you? Gather any thoughts?”

She braced herself for Rarity to freeze up, as she had often before, but instead, the unicorn merely sighed dramatically.

“I did, yes,” she answered. “Not all thoughts, but some thoughts.”

Twilight nodded. “And…?”

“And I think, for now, I want us to be close,” she said, emphasizing her words by pressing her body against Twilight’s.

“Tired of waiting for the pot to boil?” Twilight ventured, and what a winning sensation enveloped her when Rarity snorted in a very unladylike manner, enough to set Twilight off in a string of giggles.

“Perhaps,” Rarity murmured in a musical voice. “Perhaps.”

Twilight turned her attention back to the drawing, and Rarity’s own gaze followed shortly after.

“I suppose there’s no point in finishing this now,” she remarked. “I won’t be winning ten bits anymore.”

“I want you to finish it. But before that…” Twilight said, opening her bag with a tendril of magic and taking out the souvenir she’d bought: a purple bitbag inlaid with several multicolored gemstones. “ Here. It’s for you.”

“Darling! This is adorable!” Rarity exclaimed, taking it in her hooves. “Wherever did you get this?”

“I bought it,” Twilight quickly said. “Do you like it?”

“I do, I do! But… You bought this? How? Don’t tell me somepony actually accepted Elara’s chestnuts as currency!”

“What? No!” Twilight exclaimed, aghast. “I paid for it with bits, silly!”

Rarity giggled. “Oh, good. We’ll have to pay Fluttershy back later, then.”

Twilight frowned. “Pay her back? Why? I paid for that with my earnings. I hope it’s okay I stored them in the bitbag for now.”

Rarity moved away so she might see Twilight. “Pardon me? Your earnings?” she asked, raising an eyebrow.

Twilight grinned. “From my new job.”

“Your new job?!” she sputtered. “You have a job? Well! This is quite—! I mean—! I’m impressed! I’m glad you’ve been able to so quickly integrate yourself into the working forces, dearest. Are you going to invite me for a spot of tea at your brand new house next? I’m dying to find out how this all happened.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Pffft.” She took the bitbag in her magic and opened it, retrieving two five-bit coins and placing them on the table. “It’s a long story, and you have a drawing to finish.”

Rarity took the pencil. “How lucky for me that it’s a big castle, then.”

She settled herself comfortably in Twilight’s winged-embrace, and Twilight quietly watched her draw, as transfixed by the lines and the castle coming to life before her as she constantly was by Rarity herself. For the briefest moment, she glanced back up at Canterlot City, remembering her earlier sensation, her longing for a home.

“Well?” Rarity’s voice caressed her ears. “Your adoring crowd is waiting for a story, Your Highness.”

And as she began to talk, Twilight wondered if maybe home wasn’t so much a place as it was a pony to be with.

Author's Note

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.
Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

do you ever just write something between your otp that is so cute you're giggling so much you might die??? well that was me during the last half of the ending scene

AND GUESS WHAT? THIS SCENE ACTUALLY CONTINUES HERE in a cute little humanized ficlet and you SHOULD ABSOLUTELY READ IT

~ Interlude II ~ Those Left Behind ~

He would never learn the pain of being forgotten.

He had never sought out to be recognized in the eyes of anypony but those he cared about. Regardless of the passing of the years, he would never once care whether other ponies remembered him or not.

But he cared—painfully, agonizingly so—that ponies were forgetting her.

Ponies of all ages and walks of life trotted along the streets of Equestria's capital city, each lost in their own little worlds, their own little all-encompassing universes. That filly over there fretted over when she would next see her friends to play, that stallion over there wondered when he would see his beloved again, that elderly mare sitting at a table thought of her deceased husband, and many more avoided the young dragon stomping his way past them, his eyes glued to the dirty gravel path.

He didn't want anypony to see him cry, yet it was hard to not be stared at when he was nearly six feet tall.

As he made his way through the Moon Quarter, his bag thumping against his body, a scroll crumpled up in his claw, Spike the Dragon refused to look at others for fear he would show them nothing but hatred.

Fury.

Pain.

Resentment.

"Don't cry, Mister Dragon."

He stopped, dead in his tracks, his breathing ragged, and he turned around to find a filly looking up at him. Even though the elderly mare behind the filly could scarcely hide the fear in her eyes, the little filly seemed to be too concerned with his tears to care about his fangs and sharp claws.

"I… What?" he asked, taken aback.

"Don't cry," the brave filly repeated. "Wh—"

"Inkwell, dear," the elderly mare interrupted, pulling the filly away. "Let's not bother the—"

"Why are you crying?" the filly pushed on, seemingly determined to help him. He appreciated it. It was nice to feel like somepony wanted to help, for once.

"I… I can't find my best friend."

The words came out of his mouth unbidden, automatically, and yet to hear them said aloud was a much larger blow than he'd expected. It still hurt. It still hurt, even then.

"Mommy says everything I lose is always under my bed," the filly said, a tender warmth in her gaze. "Did you try looking there?"

"I… No," he replied. He looked at his claws, filthy and worn-down after weeks of digging under trees. Tears filled his eyes again. He hated it. Shining had told him to be strong. "I've tried everywhere."

"Young one," the mare said, and in that moment, her fear faded away. She stepped forward. "Have you asked Princess Rhythm's guards for help?"

He clenched his fists. "Princess Rhythm's guards can't help me," he said, a little more violently than he'd intended, judging by the mare stepping back. He balled his claws and felt the scroll crumple up further. "She… I have to find her. My friend."

"Where do you think she is?" the filly asked. She tugged on her grandmother's foreleg. "We can help look, can't we, Granny?"

The mare seemed uncertain. "I—Well—"

"She's under a tree," he said. "In a library."

The two ponies blinked, as they should when faced with such a statement. It was natural, yet their reaction only angered him all the more.

The filly reacted first, gasping. "Really?! That's just like Princess Parchment!"

It felt like a knife had been plunged into his heart. There was no other way to describe it.

"Twilight," he corrected immediately, trying to keep his irritation in check. Princess Parchment. He'd never hated a name more than he hated that one. "Her name is Twilight. Twilight Sparkle."

The filly nodded gravely. "Twilight... Maybe Twilight Sparkle found Princess Parchment!" she exclaimed, her complete and utter lack of comprehension only twisting the knife further into his heart.

But not as much as what her grandmother said.

"Inkwell, you know that's only a bedtime story, dear," the grandmother said, and her soft laughter sounded mocking to Spike. "Princess Parchment and the others aren't real."

"I know," the filly said with a giggle, and whatever else she had to add went unheard by the dragon rushing away, tears clouding his eyes.

Princess Parchment and the others aren't real.

He stopped again, opening his saddlebag and hastily exchanging the scroll in his claw for another, much more wrinkled, one. He unfurled it and tried not to feel the ache in his soul at the messy sketch of a unicorn reading a book.

It had been so long…

It had been so painfully long, he felt as if he constantly needed to remind himself of how she looked.

"Spike! Why do you keep that drawing around?! I look bad in it!"

"What? No, you don't! You look nice in it! And just because you don't want it doesn't mean I can't keep it, Twi."

"All right, all right. Silly dragon."

"Silly pony."

He wasn't altogether sure how he got to the castle. Well, no, he was, but he'd been too occupied with his thoughts to pay attention to the path. He only realized he'd arrived when he realized the pony he was now glowering at was one of the castle soldiers posted by the entrance.

"Ah… Master Spike," the guard said with hesitation, averting his gaze, clearly uncomfortable. And honestly? Spike wanted him to be. "You're back! The Princess was worried. How were your travels?" He faltered. "Good news, I hope?"

"Which one are you? You’re one of them, aren’t you?" he asked, bluntly.

He hated trickery and deceit. Hated it with a burning passion.

The stallion faltered again, his eyes darting towards the ponies walking by. "I… I'm sure I don't know what you mean, Master Spike," he said, readjusting his position and clearly struggling to keep eye-contact with the dragon.

Spike's nostrils flared.

He bent down, ever so slightly and carefully asked again, "Which. One. Are. You?"

The stallion lowered his gaze, and it wasn't until they were alone that he spoke.

"Th-Thespian."

Spike relaxed a bit. For a moment, he almost felt rude.

"You're new, aren't you?" he asked, and before the soldier could reply, Spike smiled thinly. "Of course she would bring in more of you. She always waits until I'm not home."

"I-It is my honor, Master Spike," Thespian said, voice trembling. "The Princess has done m-much for us. A-And my companions speak highly of you."

"Speak highly of me? Which ones? The ones like you?"

Thespian mutely nodded, and Spike leaned back.

"You know," he said, "just because you lie about the way you look doesn't mean you should lie when you talk, too."

"I… I…"

"Where is she?" He paused. "Sorry. Dumb question. She never goes anywhere." Before the stallion could even hope to reply, he stalked off into the castle, issuing one last request. "Tell the guards I don’t want to be bothered."

If there was one benefit to looking like a large bitter dragon, it was that nopony dared stop or question where he was going. The pony guards already knew him, and the other ones avoided him as much as he avoided them.

For the first few minutes, as he made his way towards the castle's private quarters, he was undisturbed. For a few minutes, he felt he would be able to rationally and calmly discuss the horrible news he brought.

But, like many things since the forsaken night he'd left Twilight's library, it didn’t go as he hoped.

Just as he stalked past the throne room, where unwitting guests thought they were talking to an alicorn princess, the chamber's two large doors swung open. He found himself stopping to take a look, only to feel burning irritation once again.

One of those pompous monocle-wearing nobles stepped out, head held as high as his ego, probably, and then… and then an elderly mare followed him, a royal crown placed on her head.

"Princess Rhythm, it was an honor," the stallion said, pushing up his monocle. "A shame dear Princess Melody is sick! I would have loved to see h—eek!"

The stallion jumped back at the sight of the glowering dragon, and though the pony looked afraid, the being masquerading as a pony beside him looked surprised.

She licked her lips. "Ah… Spike… What a pleasant surprise..."

"Your Highness," Spike dryly greeted.

The Duke was thoroughly impressed, inspecting Spike behind his monocle. "Oh! Good heavens, it talks! Why, Princess! How fascinating!”

“Yes, he lives in the castle with us,” the changeling said.

The stallion turned to Spike. “Young sir, you’re quite lucky ponies have taken you in! I mean no offense, but your kind isn’t known for their kindness," he said, completely missing the alarmed look that flared up in the alicorn's eyes. There was a message in them, a plea for somedragon not to burn off somepony's entire coat.

Your kind isn’t known for their kindness.

Dragons aren’t the kind ones when ponies eagerly agree to give a terrified baby dragon to a crazed spirit in exchange for peace.

Your kind.

“Lucky,” Spike hissed, and added before stomping away, “I’ll say I’m lucky. Luckiest dragon alive. Right.”

Towers of books surrounded him, and it was only in Twilight's room that he felt at peace. He sometimes swore it still smelled like her. Or he told himself it did, at least.

Despite the severity of the news he brought, he hadn't found it in him to go and seek out the pony he wanted. Instead, he'd retreated to his safe haven; the only place where he felt he could sit and think.

And miss her.

His belongings lay scattered on the nearby bed: a few gemstones, a few scrolls depicting the lost princesses, the heart-shaped emerald Discord had thrown at him and belonged to Twilight, and… and a single worn-out scroll, halfway unfurled.

Just looking at it made him sick.

He grimly thought that the Princess of Canterlot had one reprieve, at least. His anger towards her and the world had been momentarily replaced with rage, confusion and a sense of betrayal brought about by…

Ugh.

He grabbed a telescope and peered through it, desperate to get his mind off the scroll. He tried to focus on the distant lands, but his thoughts kept moving towards the scroll and… and he realized he was also a bit afraid of meeting with Her.

What he had to say, well…

It wasn't easy to say.

But, like many unpleasant things in life, they would come after him if ignored for too long. Time had a way of doing that, as it proved when three knocks sounded from the door.

He felt inclined, for a moment, to point out that there was no point with her knocking when she could just walk through the door. He felt inclined to not even answer, to wait and see if she would poke her head through. He felt inclined to do very many things, not all of them kind.

Three knocks again.

He walked towards the bed and sat down, dumping the telescope on the pillow.

“It’s open,” he called half-heartedly.

A tendril of blue magic wrapped itself around the doorknob, and when the door opened, Princess Cadance stepped in, a bright smile on her lips.

“Spike! Welcome home! I thought you weren’t coming back for a few more weeks,” she said, closing the door behind her. She looked happy to see him, and he didn’t doubt she was. He knew, somewhere deep inside, he was happy too, until he remembered the kind duke.

“I saw her,” he said, still sitting atop his bed. He knew no good would come out from telling her, no true catharsis, but he did regardless. “Coming out of the throne room with a duke. He was surprised a creature like me could talk.”

Her smile faded. “I heard,” she said, subdued, her ears lowering. “He didn’t mean—”

“Yes, he did,” Spike cut off. “There’s new changelings, too.”

She faltered, but her gaze did not lower. “We talked about it… Before you left, we did talk about it,” she gently reminded. “I know you don’t like it, but there won’t be any new ones for a while.” A pause. “Why don’t you try befriending them? They’re not bad, Spike. Not anymore.”

He scrunched the bedsheets in his claws. He felt like retorting something, anything to express disdain for these creatures that had harmed Equestria and now harmed any chance they had to find the others, but his eyes landed on the worn-out scroll instead.

She noticed, and he saw her noticing.

He unclenched his claws before he tore a hole in Twilight’s bedsheet. It needed to be in a good state for when she came back, he told himself, even if the letter on the bed said otherwise.

“Did…” She drifted off, for even she was afraid of what both of them had always dreamed of. “...Did Auntie Celestia write?”

“Yes,” he whispered, and tears bordered his eyes. “Yesterday. I sent her a letter, and she burned a message into one of my old letters.”

He didn’t have to say anything for her to know that did not bode well.

For over three hundred years, they’d had no hope. For over three hundred years, he’d been searching blindly, finding nothing after nothing, no princesses under trees, or mountains, or waterfalls. He wondered if it was stupid for him to look knowing he was literally cursed against it. He knew it wasn’t Cadance’s fault, he knew it was Discord, and he tried not to blame her, but…

But sometimes, at night, no matter how badly he felt about it, he did.

For over three hundred years, they had nothing, and the one time she replied…

Cadance levitated the letter towards her, slowly and carefully, like somepony awaiting terrible news from the doctor. She breathed in and out, in and out, a method she’d once taught Twilight, and then unfurled the letter. It had been singed, literally, as if fire had burnt through the scroll.

He could see the backward message.

“There is no hope for us,” Cadance read aloud, and what a sickening silence followed as the scroll got furled up again, revealing her stricken expression. “Oh.”

Oh.

Tears trickled down his eyes, his claws again clenching against the sheets. How could she say that? How could she say that, after he’d been looking for so long?

Cadance said nothing, for there was nothing to say.

He hated Princess Celestia. In that moment, he hated her as intensely as he’d ever hated Discord, with the burning fire of his own flames, with the heat of the tears rolling down his cheeks because how could she say that to him?

“M-Maybe it’s not true,” she said, putting the letter down on a desk and trying to keep hope because that’s all she had ever done. That’s all she and Shining and everyone else had ever done, keep hope no matter what, but hope was running thin now. Hope was dead to him, and it had died with six damned words.

“Yes, it is,” he said, the words leaving his mouth with as much intensity and fire as flames would. Hope was dead, and with its death, it had brought to life anger and sorrow like never before. “Yes, it is.” He stood up and he grabbed the telescope, Twilight’s telescope, and hurled it against the wall because who cared if it was ever used again when Twilight was as good as dead just like the rest.

Yes, it is.

“Spike!” Cadance exclaimed, but whatever else she had to say was drowned out by his yells.

“What?!” he exclaimed, despairingly so. “It’s true! There is no hope! We can’t do anything! I can’t do anything! I can’t, no matter how hard I try!”

“That’s not true,” Cadance said, keeping her voice leveled and kind, and the kinder it was, the more furious he became.

“They’re forgetting them! They don’t even know what they look like! No one knows but me!” he roared, turning around and grabbing the drawing of Twilight. “You know who they remember?! Princess bloody Parchment, not Twilight! Not Princess Celestia, but Princess Sunswept! Not Princess Luna, but Princess Stars!”

“I know that, Spike—”

“Then do something!” he snapped, slamming his foot against the ground.

“I am, you know that,” she said, raising her voice ever so slightly. “I’m having the statues built, and—”

“That’s not enough! That won’t do anything! What’s the point now?! They all think they’re fairytales!” he interrupted, voice breaking both in anger and hopelessness. “All of them! You think anypony’s going to believe they’re real now!? I can’t even try and convince them because I’ll curse them!”

“Spike, I’m trying the best that I ca—”

“Are you?!” he demanded, wiping away his tears. “Then why are changelings ruling Equestria?! Huh?! Princess Celestia put you and Shining Armor in charge, not them! Why are they talking to nobles?! Why are they going out into the kingdom?! When was the last time you spoke to a pony?! Of course they didn’t care Chrysalis died when you handed Equestria to them!”

And now, now she reacted.

“Spike!” she snapped, agitated. “That’s not true! You know why I can’t meet with ponies!”

“I don’t care!” he roared. “I don’t care! They’re the reason no one remembers them! They’re the reason everypony thinks everything is fine! They and you and this lie and all of this! Ponies should know about this!”

“We tried telling them! The castle court! You were there! You were there, and you saw how they reacted! Imagine that panic all over the kingdom!” she said, and then made a noticeable effort to temper her voice. “Spike, you know we were going to tell them. You know Shining Armor accepted the changeling’s help because we thought we’d find them quickly.”

“Well, he thought wrong! He thought wrong, and now he’s dead!” he said, and it hit him to say it. He fell to his knees, slamming his claws into the floor, tear-stricken eyes closed because it wasn’t fair. “He’s dead, and I don’t know where Twilight is, and I can’t find her! I can’t find her because of your stupid curse, and we can’t tell anypony because of your stupid curse, and Twilight is stuck under a tree forever and—” He again slammed his fist against the floor, the words leaving his mouth out of anger and fear and pain.

“And I’m stuck with you!”

And no sooner had the words left his mouth, a horrifying sensation swept across him, amplified and worsened by the deafening silence that followed. He looked up to the terrible sight of a muted Cadance looking down at him, eyes twinkling with unshed tears, and he knew he’d gone too far.

He’d gone too, too far.

“I-I... “ He stood up, horrified. “I’m s-sorry, I didn’t—”

“I know,” she interrupted quietly, but the tears did not stop. His or hers. She stepped back. “I… I’ll leave you to settle in now.”

“Wa-Wait, please!” he begged, horrified, wanting to reach out and stop her yet knowing he could not even if he tried. “I didn’t—! I didn’t mean it, I—”

“I know,” she repeated, and she still stepped back. “I… I just need time alone.” She smiled, and that hurt even more. “All right?”

“I… Okay…” he relented, for what else could he say?

She stepped back again, and then turned towards the door, wrapping her magic around the doorknob and swinging it open. He watched as she made a move to leave, but before she did, she turned around towards him and offered a smile.

“...Will you be staying for dinner?”

“I…” He stood up, wiping his tears away. “I… don’t know.”

“You don’t have to decide now,” she said before stepping out, “but I hope you’ll be there at seven.”

And with that, she closed the door and left the dragon to his thoughts, to his choices, and to his shame. He walked over to the desk, taking the letter and looking it over once again.

There is no hope for us.

He thought of Cadance and her undying hope, and he made a choice.

Quietly, he walked over to the telescope’s remains and scooped them up in his claw, taking them with him over to the bed. There, he packed his things into his bag: the gemstones, Twilight’s emerald, and even the fragmented device. Once it was done, once there was nothing more to take, he took his bag and crossed the length of the room, opened the door and turned around.

Turned around to look at Twilight’s room for the last time before stepping out and closing a door he would not be opening for a long time to come.

He did not know how long it took for him to leave the castle, or for him to leave the city itself. He just walked, and walked, and walked, every step harder than the last.

“Master Spike!” greeted the pony guard defending the city gate. “Where are you going? You just came back!”

“I have things to find, Lance,” he replied.

“Things to find? I see.” The guard adjusted his helmet and offered the dragon a toothy grin. “When will you be back? The others and I are having a celebration soon. We thought you might like to come.”

Spike looked back towards the castle in the distance, towards the lights beginning to shine through the windows now that night had come. Supper was waiting somewhere inside and with it the Princess of Hope.

“I don’t know,” he said, turning back to the guard. “I’m not coming back unless it’s with Twilight.”

And the guard blinked.

“Twilight?” he asked. “Who’s that?”

Spike stared at him. He stared at him for the longest time before reaching into his bag, taking out a drawing, giving it to the guard and walking away without another word. He kept walking even as the guard called to him and only stopping when a traveling pony walking past him called him.

“Excuse me, Sir?” the pony said, and Spike listened if only because of the respect he was shown. The young earth stallion gazed at him with wondrous eyes. “Sir, are you from Canterlot?”

“Yes,” Spike said. “Why?”

The stallion stepped back, stunned. “Sweet sugar apples, might you be…” He cleared his throat. “Your name? May I ask your name?”

Spike looked back to the castle and again made the choice.

“Seeker,” he said. “That’s my name.”

“Oh…” The stallion bowed. “Forgive me. I thought you might be somepony else.”

“I’m not,” Spike said, and without another word, went on his way and left a princess to dine alone.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Princess?”

Cadance looked up from the window, finding one of her guards by the door. Four entire days had passed since Spike had left, and she knew he would not be back.

“Yes, Thespian?”

Thespian cleared his throat. “Princess, there’s a stallion wanting to see ‘Princess Rhythm’. A farmer, apparently? He brings urgent farming news, but he doesn’t want to say what it is unless he’s spoken to ‘’her’ directly. He’s been coming every day, and we told him he needs to elaborate but he refuses and… well… Totem would like to…” He paused awkwardly. “Take your place and see what he wants, but we would like your approval as always.”

Cadance’s reply did not immediately come.

Why are they talking to nobles?! Why are they going out into the kingdom?!

When was the last time you spoke to a pony?!

She didn’t quite know how the curse worked, or how it spread, but she knew simply talking to her would curse them. But Spike was right.

“Are you sure he hasn’t come for any other reason?”

“W-We don’t think so, My Que—”

“Thespian.”

“Your highness. We don’t think he has.”

She took a deep breath, even though she didn’t need to. She missed breathing. She missed the actual calm it used to bring.

She smiled. “Tell our visitor that Princess Melody will be seeing him. Please,” she added, before he protested or questioned her. “And tell Totem to prepare the throne room for me. The blinds need to be all mostly shut.”

“Yes, your Highness!”

After a dozen minutes, Princess Cadance found herself in the throne room, the blinds all closed and only a few torches spread throughout—enough that visitors could see, but too dark for them to realize they could see through her.

She stood before the throne, patiently waiting until the distant doors opened and four guards escorted in a young stallion. A smile graced his lips when his eyes fell upon her, and she returned the gesture, for a moment invigorated by taking an active part in the running of the kingdom.

“Your Highness,” he greeted, bowing down to her. “It’s an honor!”

“The honor is all mine. My mother was busy with other duties, unfortunately,” she replied with practiced serenity. “I apologize for the dark. I’m ill, and shadows help with my migraines.”

“Princess, not at all!” he sputtered. “Please, don’t apologize! Though…” He looked into his saddlebag and retrieved an apple. “Might this help? It’s one of the best ones we picked this season.”

She smiled kindly, and when she nodded, a guard took the fruit.

“My guards tell me you have urgent news?” she prompted, hoping to move things along. “Something to do with farming?”

And to this, the stallion hesitated.

“Well... “ He rubbed a hoof behind his neck. “Well. It’s not really about farming, but it is urgent.”

Silence.

“What do you mean?” she asked carefully.

“I…” He cleared his throat. “I don’t want you to think me insane.”

Silence again, and Cadance took a deep unnecessary breath.

Hope died last.

“Can you please explain?” she asked.

For the last time, he cleared his throat. “My name is Fritter Cobbler. I… My family and I have lived in the farming community Ponyville for some time now, you see? And, well, a few months ago, my brother and I got lost in the Everfree Forest, and, well…” He smiled nervously. “Would you happen to know something about a Princess Twilight Sparkle?”

Cadance didn’t know what to say. She simply observed him, through the haze created by tears, and she smiled, for what else could she do?

She could only hide in her castle, stay behind the scenes, and never dare to hope again.

Author's Note

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons!
Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

~ Act I ~ 04 ~ The Ladybugs Awake ~

It was the first time North Ridge had seen him. He’d returned to the inn, intending on retiring for the night, and as he stepped into the hallway to find his room, he saw an older stallion exiting hers. The stallion noticed him as well, turning his yellow eyes towards North.

“It’s you.”

The words tumbled out of his mouth, and the foreign stallion smiled in delight. He did not speak, and instead, North watched with surprise as he vanished into thin air. Once the shock wore off, he rushed forwards, opening the door and entering the dimly lit room.

He found her by the window, as always, but when she turned to him, her eyes were filled with tears. He felt compelled to console her, and yet he knew he could not.

“He asked me if I’d changed my mind,” she whispered.

“Have you?”

“I don’t know. That’s what frightens me the most.”

“Are you scared?”

Twilight did not immediately reply. Though she knew the answer to be a very definite yes, knowing it and admitting to it were two very different matters altogether.

Sitting atop the head of a resting Spike, she kept her focus on the golden gates about forty yards away. The sun dawned over the kingdom, painting the city and its castle in hues of golden orange similar to the gates themselves. It was just like she remembered, and yet it wasn’t.

That was what scared her the most.

To have known something inside and out, and to no longer know it at all. She thought of Rarity briefly. She did that a lot.

“Yes,” she finally replied, and though she knew the answer already, she still asked him the same. “Are you scared?”

His laughter echoed through the air. “You have no idea.” Though his words were no doubt true, the way he said it made her laugh. Carefree and relaxed, two emotions that clashed with his statement. Though she usually didn’t like it when things didn’t match, this one was a pleasant exception.

Neither said anything for what seemed several moments, and Twilight had gotten comfortably lost in her thoughts until Spike brought her back.

“Do you remember the day we left?”

His cheerful tone was gone, interchanged with a more subdued one; more akin to the reminiscing of two friends, when all was well; the calm before the storm.

“Yes,” she whispered. As if it were yesterday.

She remembered leaving the castle with the Apple family. She remembered saying goodbye to Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. She remembered Princess Luna trying to stop her. She remembered saying goodbye to Cadance, and then to her parents and Shining Armor.

Her parents and Shining Armor.

They were dead. This was a fact she’d known already and thought she had come to terms with, having mourned them a long time ago, when she’d first learned of their passing. She had assumed that the pain would go away eventually.

She assumed many things in life. Most of them were incorrect.

The pain had not left, much like they would never be back.

The quiet of dawn spoke in their stead. Spike was without doubt as lost in his memories as she was. Her gaze drifted upwards, toward the castle of white and gold, and then lingered on the balcony from which Princess Celestia and Princess Luna used to address the kingdom.

If she had to be honest...

If she had to be honest with no one but herself, she knew the fear of everything having changed wasn’t the only thing consuming her. It was the fear of facing Cadance. The fear of facing the first in a long line of dominoes she’d tipped over with a single decision.

The fear of not being forgiven.

As soon as tears wet her eyes, she forced herself to look away from the tower, directing her gaze towards Applejack and Fluttershy. They were both engaged in conversation with the gate’s guards, having allowed the Princess and Spike a moment of privacy. Only they had stayed behind, Rarity and Rainbow Dash having gone to alert the castle guards of their arrival.

As if she’d felt Twilight’s gaze, Fluttershy looked towards her and offered a small friendly wave.

“Are things better with Rarity?”

Twilight froze.

“Why would things need to be better?” she blurted out, belatedly realizing her hasty remark might have betrayed her attempt at portraying sincere curiosity. She ransacked her brain, trying to figure out what she’d said to hint something was even wrong. After all, she'd made a constant effort to keep her setbacks with the unicorn away from others. “Everything’s fine.”

“Twilight…” Spike said, and Twilight felt her ears flatten against her head.

It was fascinating how, even still, the dragon had a way of drawing the truth out of her with just a skeptical utterance of her name. Some things truly never changed.

“She’s not here," he continued. "You can tell me."

“Why do you think something’s wrong?” she asked, trying to sound only mildly curious.

His sweeping snort caught the attention of their friends in the distance. Twilight waved awkwardly when they looked their way.

“Well,” Spike began, “not counting her freakout back in Ponyville, I’d honestly be really worried if everything was great between you two.” At the sound of her distressed whine, he laughed. “It’s not a bad thing, Twi. It’s only a bad thing if you’re not trying to work it out.”

Twilight arched an eyebrow, skeptical. “You’re one to talk, Mister Leave-The-Castle-And-Never-Come-Back!”

“Okay, okay, I get it.” He shook his head, nearly tumbling Twilight off. “But I’m being serious here.”

“I know,” Twilight said once she’d settled down again. In truth, she didn’t want to talk about it. Talking about it meant making it real. “I think we’re working on it. I don’t know.” She looked down, ears flattening against her head, her hoof tracing circles on Spike’s head. “She won’t really tell me what’s wrong? She just said she needed time.”

“Did she say how much?”

“No. Yes. She said ‘a little more time’? I don’t know how long that is! I wish she’d been precise. What if her perception of time is different than mine? I gave her Starswirl’s Complete Collection for a little light reading, and she told me that wasn’t little at all.”

“Twilight, only you would call fifteen books ‘a little light reading’,” he pointed out. Her good influence on him had clearly faded with the passing of the centuries. “Besides, if she’s saying that’s long and you think that’s little, then maybe she won’t need as much time as you're afraid of.”

She sighed wearily. “I hope so. I think she was doing better yesterday.” A small blush crept up her cheeks at her memories of the previous night. Even a smile managed to valiantly fight its way onto her lips. Last night was the first time since she’d been freed that she and Rarity felt completely synchronous with their feelings. “Yesterday was really nice.”

“Yeah? Well, considering how cuddly you two were this morning, you must’ve had a lot of fun.”

“Spike!” she gasped, stamping her hoof against the top of his head. She was extraordinarily grateful he could not see her completely flushed and scandalized expression, which was not helped by his delighted laughter.

“Whaaaaat! You got to have a sleepover, and those are super fun! It’s not my fault you thought I meant something else,” he plaintively defended, instilling in Twilight the need to roll her eyes as far back as they could go.

“For Celestia’s sake... “ she murmured, pointedly ignoring his gleeful snickering.

Snickering which came to a sudden stop, interrupted by Applejack’s distant call.

“Here they come, y’all!” the mare hollered, waving towards them. “Get off your tushies!”

“Great,” Spike said, standing up and sighing. “He brought a whole bunch of ‘em.”

Twilight followed his gaze and saw two dozen soldiers marching their way down the castle’s main path. There had been very few times she’d seen such a large crowd of soldiers marching towards her, and the last time had been associated with a memory that still made her feel ill.

“Just like your coronation,” Spike said, voicing her unsaid thoughts.

Just like my coronation.

An event meant to guide her all the way to the castle, to present her as the grand savior of Equestria: she who defeated the Spirit of Chaos and acquired his willing surrender; she who then allowed the changeling armies to be defeated; she who allowed the Kingdom to enter a new age of peace and prosperity.

She who won through trickery and was rewarded for it.

She held her breath and let it out slowly. She adjusted her wings under her cloak and swallowed down whatever trepidations she had left.

This procession was her choice.

This procession was one she would walk with her head held high.

She jumped off Spike, landing on the ground just as the gates opened. The soldiers poured out from the city, led by Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and a certain guard Twilight recognized. Not because she’d ever met him before, but because she’d seen him through Rarity’s eyes and memories.

As soon as they caught Twilight in their sights, the guard signaled the others to stand down while Rarity doubled her pace and trotted straight towards the alicorn.

“I’m baaaack!” she sang in greeting, offering Twilight and Spike a brilliant smile. “Weep no more, my dears, for all in this cruel world is well once again now that you have been reunited with me.”

“Pfffft, I don’t see anypony weeping, Rares,” Rainbow exclaimed, flying past them and settling herself atop Spike’s head.

“Hey, I cried for her on the inside,” Spike rebutted.

“See! And Twilight here has simply exhausted all her tears already,” Rarity continued, tasking herself with readjusting Twilight’s cloak. She looked at the alicorn and fluttered her lashes. “Haven’t you, darling?”

Twilight playfully rolled her eyes. “All of them.”

It seemed for a moment as though Rarity was about to reply, but when Twilight noticed the earlier guard approaching, Rarity did as well. She quickly cleared her throat and moved aside, placing her hoof on Twilight’s chest when he arrived.

“Twilight, darling, this is Rift Shield. The one I’ve been telling you about. And Rift..." Her lips curved with surprising insolence and her eyes twinkled with uncharacteristic mischief. "This is Princess Twilight Sparkle."

Rift Shield gaped at her, mouth opening and closing several times. In truth, it was more than a bit awkward for the Princess, more so because he was only one of many more gawkers to come.

"Sweet Princess Cadance," he whispered when words finally decided to come out his mouth. He took his helmet off and blinked at her. "You really are the spitting image of the statue."

His eyes lowered towards her cape, and she could feel her wings rustling uncomfortably beneath it. To say she felt like she was on display would be an accurate assessment, which bothered her considering she hadn't felt nearly this self-conscious when meeting her friends. Was it because he was a changeling? They had once been her enemies after all, and even if she knew they’d reformed under Cadance, it was hard to completely see them as non-threatening—especially when she remembered the pain they’d caused ponies.

...And maybe it was also because she was very well aware of his previous feelings for Rarity. Was it silly to say she felt she was being judged by the competition?

"Frankly,” Rarity said, “that sorry statue hardly does justice to the charm and allure of the real thing.”

Rift laughed. "Geez, don't rub it in, Rares," he complained, which drew several questions into Twilight's mind, including but not limited to rub what where exactly.

However, before she could ask any of the questions she had, he stepped back and bowed reverentially.

"Princess Twilight, it's an honor to meet you at last," he said.

She heard Rainbow Dash gag behind her.

He straightened himself up and offered a grin. "I'm glad to see you're with us once again." His eyes darted towards Rarity for a split-second. "Your presence was sorely missed, I've heard."

Twilight froze.

He knew about Twilight's absence?

That was something she hadn't anticipated, and she wasn't altogether sure she liked the fact that he knew anything about the matter. It bothered her to think someone was privy to what she had done and said. What did he think of her? How much did he even know? Did he think ill of her?

Her eyes met Rarity's briefly, and her anguish must have been visible judging by the flash of concern that marred the unicorn's face.

Twilight forced a smile. "Hello," she said, trying to focus on other matters. "I've heard a lot about you too. You're a changeling, aren't you?"

Rift Shield didn't react initially. It seemed he had been prepared for her to know the fact, and as such kept a smile on his face.

"I am, Princess," he replied delicately. He caught her glancing at the rows of guards in the distance, and he continued, “They are ponies. Only a dozen or so of us actually work in the castle, Princess.” He met her gaze. "I hope that isn't a problem."

A thousand years ago, perhaps. Now...

"Not at all." Injecting as much sincerity in her statement as she could, she said, "Thank you for helping Princess Cadance while I couldn't."

Rift nodded, standing up straight and banging a hoof against his chest plate. "Of course!" he exclaimed. "It is my honor and pride to serve Princess Cadance and the Equestrian Kingdom, as has it been for every Equestrian changeling before me."

Twilight's attention was immediately caught by the loud snort from behind her. She turned around and saw Rainbow staring them down, a mocking grin plastered on her face.

“Ah, Master Spike,” Rift greeted with a smile. “We knew you’d come back one day.”

Spike snorted. “Sure you did.”

“We did!” he protested.

“Pffft, stop tryin’ to butter him up,” Rainbow said, rather rudely waving him off. “Get on with it.”

If Rift was bothered by it, he did not show any signs of it. He put his helmet back on and signaled for his guards to approach. A terrible weight intruded on Twilight’s heart at the sight. The time had come, whether she was ready or not.

Two dozen ceremonial guards marched towards them, circling the dragon in a square formation. Though Twilight knew their presence was necessary considering a large, unknown dragon was about to enter the city, it still made her uneasy. It brought much more attention to them than she wanted.

And, more to the point…

“How is he going to get to the castle?” she asked. Granted, she didn’t accurately remember the city’s layout, but she remembered enough to know Spike couldn’t possibly fit through the streets. “I don’t remember the streets being the proper width for a dragon to walk through.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” Spike added, raising an eyebrow. “I may have left a long time ago, but I remember the last time dragons came to the city, and none of them walked in.”

Twilight remembered that too. The fifth peace meeting. Races of all kinds crossing into the city, and the proud dragon tribe flying down into the main courtyard.

Rift was unconcerned. “That’s accounted for. The city’s layout was modified centuries ago. A dragon can easily fit through the main boulevard, so long as it’s clear of anypony.”

As soon as Rift moved away to order the gates to be opened, Spike hung his head, muttering under his breath. “Damn it.”

“Spike! Language!” Rarity scolded, earning a sneer from him. “Just because you don’t want to go through with this doesn’t mean you stop being a gentledragon!”

“Rarity, I’m a thousand years older than you,” he pointed out. “Besides, that’s not the worst swear word I could say.”

Twilight spoke up. “Just because you’re a thousand years old doesn’t mean you should swear, Spike,” she advised, smiling when he blinked and hung his head.

“Sorry, Twilight,” the ancient dragon mumbled much like a chastised foal would.

“What?! Sorry?!” Rainbow exclaimed, smacking a nearby scale on his head. “Swearing is what cool dragons do!”

“That’s not true,” Fluttershy rebutted. “Swearing is very ‘not cool’.”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, dismissing the pegasus with a hoof. “Come on, Shy! Bet you would be cooler if you swore too.”

An argument ensued, the majority of which Twilight thought was both ridiculous and pointless. It did, however, serve as a good distraction from her apprehension, up until she felt a gentle tap on her shoulder. She looked around and found Rarity nodding towards a solitary spot in the distance.

Leaving behind the riveting argument over whether swearing was cool or not, Twilight followed her belle, and once they were alone, Rarity smiled warmly at her, brushing a hoof against her cheek.

“How are you feeling?” she asked delicately. “A little scared?”

Twilight wanted to lie. She wanted to smile and say she felt fine, maybe just a little anxious, but in truth, she knew exactly how she felt. She knew it now better than ever if only because of who stood before her.

“I feel just like I did when we met in the library again after I… you know…” she confessed, ears lowering and tail swishing behind her.

However, rather than offer sympathy and comfort as she’d expected, Rarity grinned broadly.

“You feel just like that?” she asked. “You mean speechless and lovesick for the stunning mare before you?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “More like terrified and remorseful,” she corrected.

Rarity didn’t bat an eyelid.

“If that’s the case, darling, then you will be delighted to know that your reunion with Princess Cadance will likely go exactly as ours did!” She paused. “Well, no, not quite as exactly as ours did. That would include a kiss, and I must admit if that happens, I’ll need a sofa on which to be comfortably desolate.”

“Rarity!” Twilight gasped. “She’s my sister-in-law!”

“True enough! And it’s not as though you could even kiss her.” She tapped a hoof against her chin, regarding Twilight curiously. “Goodness, can you imagine what it would feel like to try and kiss somepony who’s ethereal? I find myself regretting I never tried it with you! Maybe dear Cadance will allow me to satisfy my curiosi—mmph!”

Muzzling Rarity with her magic and hoping she didn’t look quite as hot as she felt, she fixed Rarity a pointed stare.

“Are you done?” she asked, receiving a quick nod from her significant other.

“Well!” Rarity said, harrumphing once she’d been released. “I hope you realize there are much more romantic ways of attaining my silence, Twilight.”

“No, there are not because then I’d be rewarding bad behaviors.”

“Oh? How strange of you to say that! I clearly remember how yesterday you—“

“Come on, y’all!” Applejack called. “We’re just waiting on you two!”

“Give us another minute!” Rarity called back, and when she turned to Twilight, all playfulness had vanished from her face. She pressed a hoof on Twilight’s chest. “Twilight, it’s completely natural to be scared, but you have my word everything will turn out perfectly. Though…” She trailed off, biting her lip.

“Though…?” Twilight pressed.

“Though you don’t have to go through with all of—“ She gestured to the guards. “—That if you really don’t want to. I talked Rift down to keeping it to as few guards as necessary, but if you feel uncertain, you and I can always wait until they’ve all gone before going ourselves.”

Twilight shook her head. “No, it’s all right. I can do it.”

Rarity made a moue of concern.

“Really,” Twilight insisted.

For a moment, Rarity’s frown subsided, giving the illusion of believing Twilight’s affirmation. And then, she pressed her lips together and stared the alicorn down.

“Are you certain?”

“Yes, Rarity, I’m certain, positive, sure, and I’m even convinced,” she said, laughing when Rarity scowled at her. “It’s almost like you’re more afraid than I am!”

Rarity scoffed, putting her forehoof back on the ground. “Don’t be absurd! I am not! I am merely… concerned, if anything!”

“Then, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked, and finally, Rarity caved in, letting out a piteous whine as the bridge of her nose turned a ladylike pink hue.

“I...” The unicorn lifted her hoof once more and idly refastened Twilight’s cloak, her eyes pointedly set on her ministration. “I don’t know. I just want everything to go perfectly,” she finished, her eyes betraying genuine distress when she finally lifted her gaze and met Twilight’s.

Like with many other things that scared her, Twilight found herself a little less afraid if it meant giving Rarity peace of mind. How the tables had turned.

“It will be. This isn’t anything to worry about. They’re just escorting Spike and us to the castle and that’s it. Nothing more,” she said firmly, hoping to convince both herself and Rarity. She leaned in, planting a kiss on the unicorn’s forehead. “I promise I’ll be fine.”

To prove it, she trotted back towards the others, head held high.

Applejack extended a hoof when she arrived, patting her on the shoulder. “Don’t be nervous now, Princess.”

Fluttershy frowned. “It’s all right to be a little nervous,” she chided.

Applejack smiled, lifting her hat. “All right, you can be a lil’ bit nervous, but not too much ‘cause we’re all here with you to help, you hear?”

“It’s okay, Twilight,” Spike added, standing up straight and puffing out his chest. “Everypony’s going to be too busy looking at me to look at you.”

“Hah!” Rainbow guffawed. “They’re going to be looking at me, buster!”

“Okay, okay! You can argue about this while we’re on the way,” Rift interrupted. He indicated towards the gate, where already a rapidly growing crowd of excited onlookers tried to get the best view of them. “That’s going to get worse the longer we take.”

“Twilight,” Spike said, glancing down at her. “Whenever you’re ready, okay?”

With one final breath of air, Twilight’s nod became the signal for them to advance. Rift Shield motioned for gates to open and, with thunderous steps, Spike advanced into the city’s walls, leading the way for the Princess and her friends.

Rainbow Dash rode atop the dragon’s head, waving at the cheering crowd. Fluttershy walked next to Applejack, whatever nervousness she had distracted by Applejack’s constant conversation. And Twilight? Twilight froze at the gates until a worried look from Rarity willed her forwards.

She wanted to look around, to properly examine the city she’d once known, but it was hard to do so when everywhere she looked, ponies looked back. They were all around her, peering from the balconies of buildings, in the air, from behind the rope lines; from wherever they could see, the ponies of Canterlot gathered to witness the spectacle.

“Don’t look at them, Twilight,” Rarity whispered, walking close to the alicorn. “There is nopony here but you and I.”

But the reassuring whisper was lost amidst the sound of the city. Oh’s and Ah’s from the crowd bombarded her, screams for Spike to breathe fire, for Rainbow to fly into the air, for them to entertain. Her breathing became heavy, more labored the more steps they took forward. It was just like the coronation.

She forced her sight away from the crowd and kept it on the path, until she noticed Applejack and Fluttershy looking back at her, faces awash with concern. She imposed a smile on her face, but yet again images of her coronation flashed through her mind, of Canterlot calling her name in cheer at her ‘great deed’ while those who knew the truth glanced at her with worry.

She felt faint under her sweltering cloak, as though her body weakened with every step, making it harder and harder to breathe.

She felt attacked, by ponies and by her own mind alike. Her steps slowed, and it was clear from Applejack and Fluttershy's alarmed looks that she did not look serene. She struggled to keep her wings tucked under the cape, both appendages clearly wanting to follow her desire to fly away at once.

“Twilight?”

Twilight looked to Rarity, and only until she saw a tendril of her own magic wrapped around Rarity’s leg did she realize she’d been literally grabbing onto Rarity for support. She immediately let go, but her hasty apology was interrupted by the unicorn herself.

“Right. I knew this would be a bad idea, and it has gone quite far enough already.”

Rarity’s sharp, aggravated voice cut through the cacophony of sounds, and fear gripped Twilight’s heart when Rarity moved further ahead with intent.

“Wa-Wait!” she blurted out in a panicked voice, rushing forward to stop Rarity. “Where are you going?”

Though Rarity’s irritation lessened at the sight of an anxious Twilight, it was clear she was not content. “I’m going to tell Rift Shield to have the guards escort us out of here. I won’t allow you to con—”

“No,” Twilight cut-off, almost desperately so. She started walking, gesturing for Rarity to do so as well. “Please, I—I’m fine, L-let’s just go.”

“Darling, your entire coat is ashen! I thought you were going to have an anxiety attack! Twilight, please,” Rarity implored, anguish marring her face. “Is it because of the guards? Do you not want to make a fuss? We can teleport if you’d prefer. We’ll be out of here before they can ask what happened.”

A delighted voice broke out from the crowd, interrupting their discussion.

“Look!” a mare exclaimed. “It’s Princess Denza!”

Twilight’s head snapped up, and now she willingly grabbed onto Rarity. There, high above the castle’s gates in the distance, she saw a lone alicorn standing behind one of the castle’s larger windows, a guard standing at either side of her.

Cadance.

She was watching now.

Waiting, and it wouldn’t be right for Twilight to run away now, even if she wanted to. So she steeled herself, reigned in her anxieties, and stood as tall and strong as a Princess should.

“Twilight?” Rarity prompted cautiously.

Even if her every instinct rushed with fear, Twilight held strong. “Please,” she said in a trembling voice, not daring to look at Rarity for fear she might cave. She swallowed hard and steadied her voice as best she could. “I need to do it. For me.”

And she kept walking, the tension in her body ebbing when Rarity silently joined her—no more protests, no more questions asked, just a soft tendril of her magic wrapped around Twilight’s hoof. A gentle show of support.

They walked and walked, and she kept her eyes on the road, too afraid to look up and see if Cadance was still watching. What would she say? What could she even say? The words ‘I’m sorry’ felt hollow and small compared to all that had transpired, to all they encompassed.

But she did, eventually, reach the silver gates of Canterlot Castle, because as she’d been taught over and over again, time did not care for the fears of a regretful princess, and it did not delay atonement when it was long overdue.

The gates swung open, their creaking sending shivers down the alicorn’s back, and one by one, everypony crossed the threshold separating Equestria from a thousand-year-old deception. Rift and the guards went through, then Spike and Rainbow, followed finally by Applejack and Fluttershy.

But Twilight...

She stared at the mark on the floor, the worn-down groove on cement marking the gates’ path, and it reminded her of the barrier from her own library. The very same library she’d neglected to visit again for fear of…

A soft nuzzle distracted her, a gentle wordless push, and she stepped forward, over the line that bordered her past and her present. There was no turning back, she knew. No succumbing to demons for fear of dealing with them. No more running away, literally and metaphorically: the castle gate shut behind her as soon as she and Rarity were inside.

It was a stark contrast. The streets had been full of chatter and chaos, but the castle? The castle and its ground were empty and silent. No ponies walking in and out the castle, no merchants trying to sell their wares, nothing. Just two guards posted at every locked gate.

She wasn’t a prisoner, but she felt like one, like she were back in her library, and it made sense.

Canterlot Castle was indeed a prison, just not for her.

She finally looked up, towards the window, and found that Cadance was gone. She was gone, and as Twilight allowed her gaze to lower, a pained nostalgia soaked her gaze. The tower where she’d once lived, the windows she would look out from, even the cracked wall never repaired of the magic blast gone wrong.

Her eyes then found the armory’s tower, where the Captain of the Guard would spend most of his days. She remembered her brother. She remembered him, even as she’d tried for so long to forget him. She remembered his constant talk of a desire for a family.

She looked away, tears shrouding her eyes until again a soft nuzzle interrupted.

“Twilight…”

Twilight finally looked up, realizing all had quietly stopped to wait for her. Their eyes windowed different emotions, from compassion to support to everything in between. And yet, it was only Spike’s eyes that she sought out, for only he understood.

Only he empathized, rather than sympathized.

He shook his head, nudging Rainbow off it, and when she obeyed and flew down to the ground, he turned to Twilight and offered her a seat.

“Your throne awaits, Princess.”

She hesitated, but once again, Rarity nuzzled her.

“Come now,” she said, and with a gentle tug, Twilight’s cloak came undone and levitated away. No more need to hide. “He needs you.”

Her wings spread out, impressing the guards nearby. If they hadn’t thought she was real, they certainly did now, and even more so when she flew into the air and landed atop Spike’s head—the only throne she’d ever accept.

She sat down and lifted her hoof, firmly resting it on the spine on his head—not really out of need for support, but to show support. They continued their journey, all the way up to the immense castle doors, and a genuine smile bloomed on her lips at the sight of a small black owl perched on the sill of one of the lower windows. The rest of his family, she assumed, was nestled away somewhere close, waiting for night to arrive.

Themis took off into the air, landing on Twilight’s head and practically mimicking his master by holding onto her horn with a wing.

“Here we are,” she said, low enough that only Spike could hear.

“Twilight,” Spike said, his voice grave, “Would you mind if it’s just us?”

Twilight blinked. “Just us? What do you mean?”

“He means he would like for you and him to meet Princess Cadance alone,” Fluttershy said, having flown up to meet Twilight's gaze.

“But—But why?” Twilight asked. This had not been in the plan at all, and she didn’t think it very intelligent of them to change it at the last minute. Her gaze switched between Rarity and Fluttershy nearly as quickly as her heart was beating. Fluttershy smiled, and it was the kind of smile she’d given back at Granite’s Rest. The smile that tried to ease Twilight out of her own mind.

“Princess Cadance asked for it. She wants to meet you alone,” she said delicately, and then quickly added, “not because she’s upset.”

The panic tripled, darting across her body. Upset? Why would Cadance be upset? Is she upset?

“Lieutenant!”

A guard trotted towards them, his eyes lingering on Twilight for a moment before he saluted the changeling.

“Her Highness is ready, sir,” he announced, eyes again darting towards Twilight. “I suggest we proceed. Lady Rarity and the others are being insistently requested by the staff.”

Wait, Twilight wanted to say. Wait, no, I’m not ready, wait.

“Very well. Tell Captain Breeze that the changeling guards are all in position.” Finally, he turned to the door and knocked three times. “Open the doors!”

An unlocking sound emerged from beyond the doors, and Spike stepped back as the two large doors slowly opened outwards. Twilight backed up on Spike’s head, suddenly and viciously aware of what exactly was about to happen.

And, on second thought, she didn’t really have to see Cadance now, did she?

No, she didn’t! She could see Luna first. Or go to Ponyville, and then see Princess Luna. In fact, she needed to go back to the library! She hadn’t gone back yet, and there were probably books she needed to read, and maybe clean the entire place up, and then maybe she could meet with Cadance because right now…

She was not ready.

And yet Themis flew off and Spike moved forward, taking the choice away from her.

“Twilight!”

Twilight looked back, her desperate eyes fixing on Rarity, hoping beyond hope she would once again offer Twilight the option to teleport away, but she didn’t. She didn’t, and instead, her horn illuminated and her saddlebags appeared next to Twilight. Twilight shot her a pleading look, but yet Rarity said nothing., She simply lifted her hoof, pressing it against the glowing crystal hanging from her neck.

And Twilight could do nothing but reciprocate the gesture, her own hoof clutching her necklace even as Spike continued to advance and the doors closed behind them.

She stared at the main doors. She analyzed them, examined their designs, thinking to herself they had been changed in the thousand years she’d been gone. They had changed, and she was afraid to look back and see what else had changed.

“The Princess will be down shortly.”

Rift’s voice echoed throughout the hall, the only statement he could have said that willed Twilight into turning around. It was just as he’d affirmed, and she saw Cadance was nowhere to be seen. In fact, there was nopony to be seen. The immense entrance hall was devoid of anything and anypony save for the three of them.

But she didn’t care.

She was too busy fighting the pressure in her chest as her eyes roamed her old home. The grand staircases leading towards the upper levels, the ones she’d gone up and down countless times; the side doors leading to the kitchens, to the dining rooms, to the libraries, to…

Everything was the same.

And yet, if she went to the observatory, Princess Luna would not be there, arranging the stars or sleeping the day away.

If she went to the throne room, Princess Celestia would not be there to hold court or discuss policies and treaties.

If she went to the armory, Shining Armor would not be there, polishing his shield or devising new military tactics.

Her parents would not be in their house. Feather Scroll would not be dusting off books in the library. Bristle Loaf would not be in the kitchens, ready to scold her for sneaking pastries into her room. Spotless Heart would not be there in the mornings, knocking on her door to wake her up. Iron Cobbler would not be there, ready to follow her at a moment’s notice.

Everypony she loved was gone.

Name after name shot into her head, from cooks to maids, from librarians to scholars, even the nobles she’d debated with—they were all gone.

They were dead.

Dead, and the only one left alive in the castle had seen them all go.

The only one left alive, and Twilight didn’t know if Cadance would forgive her or not.

Forgive her for her role in a future that had been taken away from her and them and…

Tears bordered her eyes, trickling down her cheeks and onto the hoof pressed against her mouth. She missed home. She missed home, and even if everything around her was familiar, home was gone.

“Twilight?”

Spike’s voice, gentle and caring, the only home she still knew she had left, beckoned her, and she found she could not clearly speak.

“Sp-Spike…” Her words came out in a ragged breath, distorted and damaged, cracked to the point she wasn’t sure it was her own voice. “They’re gone.”

“I know,” he said.

“They’re gone,” she repeated, as it might change the fact, because she wanted it to be changed, she wanted it to be different, she didn’t want this pain, she wanted solace.

Her breath caught in her throat when a familiar blue magic enveloped the doorknobs of the doors above the staircase. It lingered there, the door fixed in place, and Twilight wondered if she was afraid, too.

Willing herself forward, she flew down and landed in front of Spike, turning her head to catch his eyes sparkling with tears. He looked at her, silently, the dragon who’d waited a thousand years to find her and bring her back.

The doors opened.

She turned around, watching as they moved and the Princess of Canterlot stepped inside, nothing and no one besides her save for what seemed to be an object floating behind her. There she stood, the Princess of Canterlot, her true name lost amidst the centuries, from Princess Rhythm, to Princess Melody, to more and more until Princess Denza took the mantle.

Both Princesses stared at each other across the harrowing gap of a thousand years, their emotions as veiled as the reality hidden from Equestria.

Twilight didn’t know what to say.

She didn’t know what to say even as the Princess moved forward, even as she walked down the steps, even as she reached the final one and took her place across the room.

It was her. It was her, from the cerise of her coat, to her mane in shades of purple and gold, to her crown, to her eyes. It was her, and yet it wasn’t, for in her eyes Twilight couldn’t see Cadance. She couldn’t see warmth, she couldn’t see a smile on her lips, she couldn’t see the love Cadance was known for.

The Princess looked down, the object behind her floating to the forefront and revealing itself to be a shield. A shield that, upon levitating towards Twilight, revealed a familiar, faded cutie mark that caused her hind legs to give way.

Finally, the Princess spoke.

“He would have wanted you to have it,” she said quietly.

Twilight took the shield in her trembling hooves, her tears dripping down her cheeks and onto her brother’s shield. She remembered her brother spending hours and hours polishing it, she remembered seeing him spar and defend himself with it, seeing it take beating after beating, the shield she thought was as invincible and immortal as Shining Armor himself.

And there it was, a ghost of its former self without its master to use it.

I will find you again, in this life or the next.

She was never going to see Shining Armor again.

When she could bear to look at it no longer, she directed her grieving gaze towards the Princess herself, she who had also lost what was precious to them both. And the Princess continued to watch, and the more she watched, the more Twilight hurt because she missed Cadance, she missed her Cadance, she missed her family, and to lose Shining Armor was devastating but to lose them both...

To know that Cadance might have faded away as the cutie mark on the shield had.

“Ca-Cadance?” she called in tears, much like she did once upon a time when a little filly sought the comfort of her governess.

The Princess said nothing at first.

Nothing until she tilted her head, her eyes sparkling with tears and her lips graced with a warm smile as she began to softly sing.

“Sunshine, sunshine...”

A lullaby, a greeting, a comfort Twilight had long ago lost and could now barely continue.

“L-Ladybugs awake,” she finally whispered, her voice cracking, barely restraining the choked sobs in her soul. “C-Clap your hooves and—” A sob cut her off, and she hid her face against the shield, her brother protecting her one last time from the world that hurt her. “Ca...Cadance… Shining A-Armor… He’s… I’m...”

“Twilight.”

Twilight looked up, eyes blurred by tears, and she saw Cadance kneeling down before her.

“Cadance,” Twilight said in choked sobs, clutching the shield to her chest. It was hard to talk, it was so, so hard. “I… I’m sorry. I’m sorry, please, I’m sorry, p-please forgive me, I—”

She drifted off, because this wasn’t something she could fix.

“Twilight.”

Cadance’s horn glowed and magic brushed Twilight’s cheeks, as warm as the home she’d once had.

“Twilight, there is nothing to forgive.”

And when the shield dropped to the floor, when Twilight reached forwards to hug her, when she went through Cadance, she began to weep. She began to cry, and cry, and cry, for those she’d lost, for those she’d never see again, for her home that was gone. She cried, even as warm blue magic cradled her and told her again and again that there was nothing at all to forgive.

Behind her, a sob alarmed her, and Twilight looked up to see Spike, tears trickling down his cheeks, biting down on his lips much like a baby dragon once used to do when proving to Twilight he was brave.

“Hello, Spike,” Cadance said, her voice as warm as the magic comforting Twilight. “Welcome home. Will you be staying for dinner?”

“Yeah,” he said, voice cracking. “I think I will.”

Author's Note

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.
Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

There is no cipher hidden in this chapter.

~ Act I ~ 05 ~ The Change of Perspective ~

He hated to see her cry.

He wished Frost Flower were there, for she always knew what to do. He wished she were there all the time.

“Have I told you about Frost Flower?” North asked, poking at the campfire with a stick.

She looked up, eyes sparkling with tears. “Your wife? No, you haven’t.”

“I met her a few days after I’d first left Equestria. We were both going to Lake Iridescence by boat, and she was my cabin mate." He paused, and he ached for his wife. "Never seen a creature like her before! A pony with black and white stripes. I thought she was beautiful. Then she punched me right in the nose for staring too long.”

“She punched you? Dear stars,” she said with a laugh. “Better than a bookcase, at the very least.”

He laughed with gusto. “‘Wajinga! Stupid!’ she said. ‘You must be from Equestria’,” he continued and felt his eyes stain with tears. “I had a black eye for the rest of the trip, but I knew right there that she would be my first adventure.”

In her short time back in Canterlot, Twilight Sparkle knew two great pains.

The first was the pain of the past, of having to come to terms with the death of her family, of the disappearance of a life she once led. The second was a pain that rippled through her body, burned her cheeks, so agonizing it made her wish she was a ghost again. The worst of it was that it had been brought about by a very simple thing.

Stumbling upon her essays from ages past and being horrified to find they were bad.

Cadance had sent Twilight to her chambers to calm down and relax. It was just as she’d remembered it when she saw it through Rarity’s eyes during the mental connection. And yet, as much as she wanted to relax and gather her thoughts, there she sat on the bed with scrolls in her hooves, unable to tear her eyes away from these… these… attempts at writing.

It was horrific, embarrassing, and even lethal to realize all her mistakes! Prepositions were not words to end sentences with! Comparisons were as bad as cliches, which, incidentally, had to be avoided like the equine plague. She had been incredibly vague, instead of attempting to be more or less specific, too.

And!

And to make things worse, her assertions… Ugh! One should never generalize!

With a groan, she pushed the scroll away and looked at anything but her desk. Thank goodness she was never able to finish that shameful excuse for a dissertation on Magic Thermodynamics. Once she was able to stand reading it again, she’d redline it, do a major rewrite, have Rarity edit it, and then she could publish it.

Her eyes roamed the room, analyzing the papers stuck to the walls—diagrams of the Elements of Harmony, back when she mistakenly believed they were aligned with the Princesses strengths. Just like with the essay, only in retrospect did she see and understand the mistakes she should have foreseen.

If only she could go back in time and prevent her younger—and shockingly less eloquent—self from making so many bad choices.

She looked away from the posters and back to the essay.

But, if I go back and change the past, how will I meet Rarity? she thought, her tail thwapping against the floor. Unless I take her back to the past with me? Hm.

Three knocks at the door interrupted her machinations on how to convince Rarity to go back with her in time, and with the perking up of her ears, she turned towards the door.

“P-Princess Twilight?” an unfamiliar mare’s voice called from behind the oak doors. “Are you there?”

“Y-Yes?” she called out in reply, hastily rolling and hiding the scroll away lest anypony came in asking to read it.

“Princess, Queen Cada—”

“Hyacinth!” a second feminine voice snapped.

“Aster, it’s fine,” a third male voice replied, which Twilight vaguely recognized.

Twilight’s brow crinkled. Queen Cadance?

“Princess Twilight,” the first voice called, louder and drowning out the discussion of the other two, “Princess Cadance requests your presence at the gardens, Yo-Your Highness!”

“Um, coming!” she replied, trotting towards the door and opening it to find three armed guards: a white pegasus who squeaked and quickly saluted her; a brown earth pony who saluted in a much more dignified manner; and, finally, Rift Shield himself, who grinned widely at Twilight.

“Princess Twilight! ” he said, bowing his head. He gestured to the guards. “I’d like you to meet Hyacinth and Aster.” A bright grin decorated his face, and Twilight felt some amount of relief at seeing it. She did know of the changeling’s feelings for Rarity, and she was glad it didn’t seem to be a concern. “Did you sleep well?”

“Er, yes,” Twilight replied, trying to keep her eyes on Rift but involuntarily shifting them towards the pegasus doing a disastrous job at not trembling like a leaf. “Is everything all right?” she asked her.

“Of course Princess Twilight!” The mare—Hyacinth—immediately jumped to salute her again. “It is an honor to serve you and the Equestrian royal family, as it has been for our village for generations since the founding of Heart’s Haven, and hope that you will please let us continue for generations more, please,” she said in a rush, and only after Twilight blinked at her did she clear her throat and smile nervously. “Yo-Your Highness.”

Aster rubbed a weary hoof against her forehead. “Oh, for the love of the Princess.”

Twilight was concerned, to say the least. “Why wouldn’t I…?” she asked Hyacinth, and the guard somehow seemed to shrink in size—which, considering she was all but indicating her true species, might have been a shrinking on the more literal side.

“I… Well, I…”

Rift cleared his throat, and the two guards resumed stoic positions.

“Princess Twilight, why don’t we discuss this later?” he suggested, subtly inviting Twilight to step outside. “I have strict orders from Princess Cadance and Rarity and a very excited Pinkie Pie to get you down there immediately.”

Rarity and Cadance she’d seen already, but Pinkie was the sole pony who’d yet to make an appearance since Ponyville.

Curious.

She closed the door behind her and followed Rift into the hallway, Hyacinth and Aster following behind, the former looking visibly relieved. Twilight had many questions, starting from why was Hyacinth afraid of her.

“You two are changelings, aren’t you?” she asked, receiving in reply two vastly different reactions. A single calm nod from Aster, and Hyacinth nodding so effusively, Twilight was reasonably convinced the changeling would give herself a headache if she didn’t tear her neck off first.

“Aster and Hyacinth are two of fifteen changeling guards living in the castle, Princess,” Rift explained, opening the hall door and allowing Twilight passage.

“Do… Do the rest of the pony guards know?” she asked.

“No,” Rift replied, now leading Twilight down the once familiar hallway. Ornate frames hung on the walls, paintings she recognized from her foalhood. “Only Captain Silent Breeze.”

“Is that why you’re in disguise as ponies?”

Rift shook his head. “No, we—”

A flash of light and Twilight blinked at the newly transformed Hyacinth, her pony disguise shed in favor of her natural insect-like demeanor as she bowed her body repeatedly, eyes slammed shut.

“Pl-Please forgive us, Your Highness!” she blurted out, and Aster slapped a hoof against her forehead in reply.

“Forgive you?” Twilight asked, completely lost at what they’d even done, and yet somehow succeeding in agitating the changeling further.

“You won’t forgive us?!” Hyacinth exclaimed, tears welling in her eyes as she stepped back, staring beseechingly at Rift Shield. “B-But we—!”

“Aster.” Rift’s voice cut through Hyacinth’s stammering, his tone commanding yet not harsh. When Aster saluted, he smiled at Twilight. “Princess, Aster will escort you the rest of the way to the gardens.” Ignored the pained whimper from Hyacinth, he turned to the other guard. “Aster, tell Princess Cadance…” he drifted off, but Aster nodded regardless.

“Yes, Lieutenant!” she exclaimed. “Princess, please follow me!”

Twilight did not budge, distressed at the other’s distress. “But…”

“Princess, don’t worry,” Rift reassured, a grin again decorating his face as he stood next to the forlorn Hyacinth. “We’ll both be down soon.”

Though unconvinced, Twilight didn’t argue further, turning around and following Aster down the castle’s halls. It was an awkward and silent walk. The guard marched in clockwork rhythm while the princess debated the pros and cons of asking what had all of that been about.

I’ll ask Rarity, she thought finally, trying not to focus too much on it.

Instead, she shifted her attention to the changeling and bombarded her with questions, including but not limited to: when were the new portraits painted? Who was the artist? They were going to turn right at the next corner and then left, weren’t they? Had Aster noticed Twilight remembered the path to an almost eighty-seven percent accuracy so far? How long had Aster been working in the castle? Three years? How often was the turnaround for changelings? How old was Aster? Was that an impolite question? It probably was, but how old was she, anyway? Should Twilight add a thousand years to her current age? Technically speaking, her body didn’t actually age since it was time-displaced, but should she?

“I-I don’t know, Your Highness,” Aster helplessly replied, unable to keep up with Twilight’s racing mind and mouth. She opened the doors leading into the castle’s foyer and her expression somehow turned more distressed than when being questioned by Twilight.

Twilight followed her gaze, and she too was overcome with confusion at the beautifully disconcerting sight of two Raritys animatedly conversing by the castle’s front door, several saddlebags beside them. Twilight blinked, for a fraction of a second wondering if perhaps she’d somehow fallen asleep and was actually dreaming.

Or, so she wondered until the voice of the guard next to her reminded Twilight of the only possible way this could be happening.

“Er.” Aster cleared her throat. “Let me escort you to the gardens, Your Highne—Yo-Your Highness! Come back, please!”

Aster’s desperate plea went unanswered by the alicorn, who was far more interested in talking with duplicates of her marefriend, whom she dubbed Rarity-X and Rarity-Y to avoid any bias.

She carefully trotted towards them, noticing that both of them wore identical broken necklaces, making it harder to distinguish who was the genuine article—if one of them actually was the genuine article.

This would be a fun experiment.

“Oh, come now, darling, you must admit it’s a very interesting proposition!” Rarity-X said with a captivating smile. “We would have twice as many clients! It will be our most avant-garde idea yet!”

Rarity-Y raised her eyebrow. “Darling, you keep using that expression, but I’m not certain it means what you seem to think it means.”

Rarity-X rolled her eyes. “Hardy har har. Did you even see my designs? We’re so ahead of our time, we might as well have a time machine!” she insisted. “Trust me, darling.”

“Oh, I agree entirely,” Rarity-Y said, smirking. “A time machine to take the designs straight back to the Stone Age, you mean?”

Rarity-X scoffed. “Well, then! Everything I’ve done for you, darling, and this is the thanks I receive?! Unbeliev—”

“Rarity?”

The fact that they were both surprised to see her made it difficult to determine who was the real one.

“Well, well, well,” Rarity-Y purred, tilting her head and smiling. “If it isn’t Princess Twilight Sparkle herself, come to grace us mortals with her beauty.”

Twilight giggled, having found her marefriend. That was fast.

“Incantation!” Rarity-X gasped, stamping her hoof on the ground. “Will you stop flirting with my marefriend?! This is entirely inappropriate! You’ve just met her, for goodness’ sake! Honestly, darling, you know how important this was to me.”

Rarity-Y’s eyes widened. “Wha—? Me?!”

Twilight’s giggling stopped. Wait.

“Twilight,” Rarity-X said, turning to Twilight with a pained expression. “Darling, this funny little mare is Incantation, the assistant Pinkie and I hired back at our shop in Hollow Shades. She is a changeling, as I’m sure you’ve already ascertained.”

Twilight smiled insolently. “I think I have, yes.”

Rarity-Y blinked, her expression going from annoyance to curiosity. “Oh? I’m the changeling? I see. Well then, I shall find comfort in the fact that I have extraordinary taste in my choice of disguise.” She glanced at Twilight and winked. “Don’t you agree, sweetheart? Two of me? Doesn’t that rather sound like a wonderful dream?”

“Rarity!” Twilight gasped, cheeks flushed.

“Why, darling!” Rarity-X said, licking her lips and staring Twilight down. “I’d say it’s quite rude to reveal somepony’s nighttime imaginings like that, but I’m must admit I’m flattered by the idea.”

“I do not dream about that!” Twilight protested, which wasn’t untrue, mostly because she hadn’t even thought of it before, but now she had and— “I barely even sleep! And I couldn’t sleep for most of the time I’ve known you!”

Rarity-Y fluttered her eyelashes. “It’s hard to sleep when the thought of me keeps you awake, isn’t it?”

“Okay, okay!” Twilight pleaded, deciding on ending this spectacle before it got worse. She pointed to Rarity-X. “You’re the changeling!” And she then pointed to Rarity-Y. “And you’re Rarity!”

Rarity, previously identified as Rarity-Y, laughed victoriously, flipping her mane and shooting the other one a smug grin. “Well, well, well! And you insisted she wouldn’t recognize me! I don’t want to say “I told you so”, but I shall do it regardless! I told you so.”

Incantation, previously identified as Rarity-X, let out a resigned sigh. “Aw... I thought I was doing really well, though,” she said in a voice that was not at all like Rarity’s.

“It was a valiant effort, Ink,” Rarity said, offering Twilight the very odd sight of Rarity patting her doppelganger’s cheeks. “But one can’t hope to ever truly imitate perfection.”

“Pfffft, sure, Boss,” said Incantation, grinning at Rarity before turning to Twilight with an expectant stare. “So! What was it? What gave me away?”

“You said ‘darling’ six times,” Twilight replied.

Rarity blinked. “She did?”

Twilight nodded.

“She used the term of endearment ‘darling’ six times in about two minutes of conversation, which conflicts with your usual diction and habit to call others dearest, sweetheart, and their names alongside ‘darling’,” Twilight elaborated, and so did Incantation’s cheeks taint pink. “Not only that, but she marked her real self as your hired aid. In your earlier conversation, she was trying to sell you on a design idea, which is something an employee would do to an employer, not the other way around.”

Ink stared with owlish eyes. “She’s good, huh?”

“Yes, she is,” Rarity replied with pride, lifting her hoof and brushing back Twilight’s bangs. “And she is also late to our get-together. Be a darling, and go tell the others please, won’t you, Ink?”

Incantation nodded, shifting back into her natural form right in front of Twilight’s very eyes. A cheery changeling grinned back at her, her carapace tinted purple. A large blue bandana was tied around her neck, the initials LD elegantly embroidered on it in a recurring pattern.

“It was nice finally meeting you, Princess Twilight,” Ink said, lifting her forehoof and shaking Twilight’s. “I’d say I’m excited to get to know you, but I’m pretty sure I learned everything about you that one night the Boss had too much to drink.”

“INCANTATION!”

Incantation burst out into a fit of giggles, grabbing her bags and rushing off. “See you later!”

“I’m firing you tomorrow!” Rarity thundered, her cheeks still burning brightly.

“You always say that!”

“I mean it this time!”

Once she was gone, Rarity rolled her eyes and turned to Twilight, whose raised eyebrow seemed to only fluster the unicorn more.

“Don’t you dare ask,” she warned, mellowing out at Twilight’s amused smile. “Well, that could have gone in worse ways, I suppose.” Her eyes grew tender. “How are you feeling?”

“What do you mean?”

Rarity’s brow furrowed. “Your meeting with Cadance…?” She seemed to be nervous about bringing it up, licking her lips as if choosing her words carefully. “She and Spike told me a bit about it, but…”

For a moment, Twilight’s heart shrank, and she could feel tears on the edge of spilling out. Is that how it was going to be from now? A single thought would bring back the pain?

“I’m fine,” she said, really wanting to avoid the topic, but at Rarity’s knowing stare, she amended her statement. “I’ll be fine. I think. I don’t know. I don’t want to think about it right now. I’m just glad it’s over.”

Rarity played with her necklace. “I… Are you sure?” She looked down, apologetic. “I… I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you. I thought you needed time alone with them, but—”

“I did,” Twilight cut-off, wanting to prevent any more worrying on Rarity’s part if she was able to. She then leaned in to nuzzle her. “But…”

“...But?”

Despite the pain, Twilight held her ground.

“Can you come with me when I…” She swallowed and took a breath. “Can you come with me when I visit them tomorrow?”

Rarity blinked. “Visit them…? Them where..” The meaning caught up with her and her expression fell. “Oh… Darling, I would be honored.” She lifted her hoof and pressed it against Twilight’s necklace, putting on a smile. “Let’s hope they approve of me, hm?”

Twilight couldn’t help but smile, leaning in slightly. “I don’t know,” she said. “Shining Armor is… Shining Armor is very protective.”

Rarity leaned in closer. “Oooooh? Well, Cadance has approved of me already, so I’m sure he does as w—”

“Come on, you guys!”

Twilight turned around to see Pinkie’s head peeking out from the hallway, waving what looked like an old rag.

“Everypony’s waiting for the party to start!”

The entire castle, as Twilight would later find out, had been closed not because she was coming—well, technically, it was because she was coming—but more so that somepony very important could attend.

“Pinkie, is the blindfold truly necessary?” Rarity’s voice came from somewhere around the left, her forehoof pressed on Twilight’s back as the alicorn cautiously moved further into…wherever she was going? The Gardens?

“Rarity,” Pinkie’s grave voice came from somewhere around the right. “Did you just ask if the blindfold was necessary?”

“I was simply making sure!”

“Geeeeeeeez, Rares. I can’t believe you asked that.”

“No kidding, boss.”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake! You know what? I’m never asking a question again!”

“Are we there yet?” Twilight asked, finding the darkness wasn’t all that inviting. Paving stones had disappeared under her hooves, replaced with what she hoped was grass. It felt like it, at least, but it was still such a foreign sensation.

“Come on, let her look already!” an altogether new voice piped up, and Twilight’s trepidation was replaced with relief at the sound of Spike’s voice.

Despite Pinkie’s ardent protests, Twilight finally took her blindfold off, and a great smile spread across her lips at the sight before her. A wide array of tables had been set out in the castle garden, each hosting dozens of different kinds of extraordinarily-smelling delicacies.

Following that, she saw a whole cast of characters already enjoying the festivity: Fluttershy stood by the banquet, helplessly trying to stop three little owlets from pecking away at the food while Applejack helped their poor exhausted owl-parents stay awake in broad daylight; Rainbow flew towards Spike, scolding him for having devoured half of the gem hoard set out on a table for him; Rift Shield barked orders at guards, who saluted and marched into the castle; Pinkie and Incantation straightened out the banner that had been set out, “WELCOME HOME, TWILIGHT AND SPIKE” written on it in uneven pink letters; and, finally, Rarity…

Rarity stood next to Twilight, as she always had, yet her eyes twinkling with tears.

Twilight nuzzled her slightly, a quick verification that all was well. “Rarity? Is everything all right?”

“O-Oh, yes, of course,” she said quickly, rubbing her tears away with a hoof. “I’m simply, you know, overwhelmed by how delicious the food smells.”

“Riiiight,” Twilight said, returning Rarity’s grin before stepping toward the food which, to be fair, did smell like nothing she’d whiffed in over a thousand years.

Before she could even properly appreciate what there was, Pinkie Pie jumped up from behind the table.

“Hi, Princess Twilight! Ready to eat?!”

Twilight nodded eagerly.

“Weeeeeeeell!” Pinkie rubbed her hooves together. “Let me tell you what we got!” She pointed to the furthest left side of the table, where all kinds of pastries were littered. “On that side, we have vanilla, lavender, and raspberry cupcakes; there’s also almond-chocolate cake, and—”

“Pinkie, should you really start with the desserts?” Rarity interrupted, and when the pink mare did nothing but stare at her, she coughed and stepped back. “What was I thinking.”

Pinkie turned back to Twilight, as though she’d never been interrupted.

“And triple-milk vanilla cake, and apple pie, and fruits soaked with honey and frosting, and the Super-Ultra-Pinkie-Stomach-Flipping-Surprise, aaaaaaand!” She turned to the right side of the table, where Twilight could see vegetables cooked in all sort of different ways. “And that’s the no-fun side.”

Thankfully, the decision of what to eat first wouldn’t be hard considering Twilight’s stomach was whining for a taste of everything.

“Twilight,” Rarity warned. “Do I need to remind you the stomachache you had a few days ago?”

Twilight licked her lips. “I’ll be fine Rarity,” she said, taking in her magic a french fry that dripped with butter. “I’ll be fine.”

An alarmingly short time and overgrown belly later, she desperately wished she’d followed Rarity’s warning.

“Don’t say it,” Twilight warned, chin pressed on the table as Rarity sat next to her.

“Can I think it?” Rarity asked.

“No, you can’t think it, either.”

Rarity sighed. “There’s a lesson to be learned here, you know?” she said, watching as Twilight levitated a steaming plate of apple pie right in front of her nose. “Clearly, you haven’t learned it.”

“Seconds, Princess?” Applejack asked with a grin, putting a second plate of pie down on the table.

“I think you mean sevenths,” Rarity noted.

“Technically, it would be my twelfth plate,” Twilight corrected, her stomach growling both in gluttony and horror at the deliciously-smelling pies.

Rarity opened her mouth to reply, but stopped and stared ahead. When Twilight followed her gaze, she saw three changeling guards standing on the opposite side of the table, their intense stares set directly on her.

Before she could speak, they did.

“Princess Twilight!” they all but yelled in unison, their forehooves flying to their foreheads in salute. “It is an honor to serve you and the Equestrian royal family, as it has been for our village for generations since the founding of Heart’s Haven, and we hope that you will please let us continue for generations more!”

Just like with the earlier changeling, Twilight asked, “Why wouldn’t I?”

The three guards froze in place, but more than stumped by the question, they looked at each other nervously and seemed afraid of answering. A dark thought crossed Twilight’s mind. What had the changelings been told about her that would make them be so afraid of her?

And again, like it did and would no doubt always do, the three haunting words returned.

It’s my fault.

Yet, as soon as they came, these nightmares as Rarity called them, so did Rarity’s voice soothe them away.

“Twilight?” she asked, turning to the alicorn with a meaningful gaze. “Didn’t you say you wanted to fetch one of the books from your room?”

The reaction was instantaneous, though it was not Twilight who reacted.

“A book?!” one of the guards blurted out.

“Which one?!” the second asked.

“We can get it for you, Your Highness!”

Rarity continued, narrowing her eyes. “Oh, I don’t remember… You said any book on magic thermodynamics would do, didn’t you?”

Though Twilight didn’t understand what Rarity was trying to achieve, she still tentatively played along with her marefriend’s game. “Yes…?” she said, and no sooner had she finished, the guards rushed off, blurting out promises of returning with the book immediately, at once, in a moment, Your Highness.

“Hoo-wee,” Applejack said, looking towards the distant door they’d disappeared behind. “Rift Shield ain’t a liar.”

Twilight finally sat up, her stomachache replaced with an altogether discomfort in her chest. “What’s wrong with them? Why are they all afraid of me?”

Rarity’s eyes were fixed on her. “There have been others?” she asked, and Twilight noted she hardly looked surprised. It was more as though she were simply confirming an existing suspicion.

“Yes,” she replied. “Earlier with Lieutenant Shield… There was another guard, and she said the same thing they did, and the entire time she kept looking at me like…” She faltered, the words unwilling to come out. “Was it something I did?”

Rarity replied, “Yes and no.”

“Yes and no,” Twilight repeated. “That explains everything.”

Applejack grinned. “You ain’t done nothing bad, Princess. They just reckon’ you’re going to give them a pink slip right out of Equestria.”

The longest silence followed as she regarded Applejack with blinking eyes.

“I don’t understand.”

“I know, but if you think about it a lil’ bit, you’ll see it makes sense for them to be thinkin’ that.”

Again, Twilight stared at her for the longest time.

“You ain’t got no earthly idea what giving somepony the pink slip means, do you?”

“Darling,” Rarity said, “the changelings are under the impression that now that you are free and about, their previously Princess-endorsed protected residence in the land now has an expiration date.”

And now that Twilight understood.

“What? They think I’m going to exile them?! Why would I do that?!” she demanded, finding herself hurt and confused by the mere thought that she would do something of the sort. Now more than ever, it seared her to see that she apparently did go down as an awful pony in certain places.

“It’s rather simple. The fact that you’re here opens up the possibility that Princess Cadance might get back her body’s physicality, so to speak, and if she does, then…” Rarity tilted her head to the side. “There’s no need for changelings to impersonate her, is there?”

Twilight faltered, looking down at her food and pushing the plates away. “I guess…”

“Not hungry anymore, Princess?” Applejack asked, and after Twilight shook her head, so did Applejack scoop up the pies into a single plate and take it away. “I’d been savin’ it for you, but if you ain’t hungry, might as well let Rainbow stuff herself.”

She watched in silence as Applejack trotted off towards Rainbow and Spike, letting out a rather audible sigh before turning back to Rarity and finding the unicorn fixing her an intense stare.

“What?”

“Are you very upset, darling?”

Twilight snorted. “No. I’ve always wanted an entire race to be afraid of me.”

“Twilight, they’re not afraid of you. They…” She gestured with her hoof. “You have to understand them. You’ve been gone for a thousand years, and weren’t the changelings from those days half-responsible for the First Chaos War?”

“Yes, and? That’s even less reason to be afraid of me,” Twilight huffed. “Why do they think I’m going to hold against them something that happened a thousand years ago?”

“I don’t know, Twilight,” Rarity replied, levitating a cup of punch over. “Why do you expect everypony to hold something that happened a thousand years ago against you?”

When Twilight had no answer for that, Rarity simply fluttered her eyelashes and took a sip of her drink.

“Th-That’s different!” Twilight insisted. “I was actually responsible for what I did. They aren’t. They’re not the changelings from a thousand years ago.”

“Twilight, that doesn’t matter. The guilt isn’t… Actually, you know what?” She looked around and stopped at the distant sight of Fluttershy and Spike talking to two Rainbow Dashes. “Incantation!” she called out, and when one of the Rainbows turned to her, she flagged her over. “Incantation, would you come here for a moment?”

Incantation trotted over, her appearance changing from Rainbow Dash to, once again, the spitting image of Rarity herself.

Rarity sighed. “Here we go again.”

“What’choo be needin’ from me, Bossy-O?” she said in a near-perfect imitation of Rarity’s voice, the accent only cracking at Twilight’s badly muffled snort. “I gots everythin’ you be needin’ ‘n more.”

“You’re not even trying,” Rarity said in deadpan.

“What’choo be needin’ from me, Bossy-O Darling?”

“I be needin’ you stop this immediately.”

“Aw.” Ink turned back to her natural form, and finally spoke in her true voice, “What’s up, Boss?”

Satisfied, Rarity finally gestured to Twilight. “Well, Twilight and I were talking about Heart’s Haven and the…” She moved her hoof in a forwards-circle. “...the interesting reactions she’s been receiving from the other changelings in the castle.”

Ink breathed in through her teeth, looking at Twilight for further explanations. “Oooooh. That bad?”

“Somewhat, yes,” Rarity replied. “I’m trying to explain to Twilight that they’re not afraid of her so much as they’re… well, you were all taught about what happened a thousand years ago, weren’t you?”

“About how our ancestors sucked the life out of ponies under the rule of Queen Chrysalis? And then how it allowed Discord to spread his influence through Equestria while ponies tried to figure out who was their friend and who was a life-sucking thief?” Incantation asked, apparently unphased by Twilight’s uncomfortable expression.

Rarity coughed. “Well, darling, I wouldn’t have put it quite that way.”

“Yeeeeeeeeah. I’m pretty sure the only reason we have school back home is so we can learn about what we did in the war in detail.”

“Which is why they’re so deferential and overly-polite towards you, darling. It’s not because they’re sincerely afraid of you, but because they want to make it up to you,” Rarity said to Twilight. She leaned back and took another sip of punch. “This seems to be Discord’s M.O., unfortunately. Guilt that spans generations. It gets tiring after a while”—She lifted Twilight’s chin with a hoof—”as I’m sure you of all ponies know best.”

Twilight giggled. “I think I know it more than I’d like to,” she said, the tension she’d been plagued with finally ebbing away at Rarity’s affection. However, as per the norm, once her mind was clear of fear and doubts, it gave way to her usual state of mind—unrelenting curiosity.

Specifically, regarding changelings and their new society.

“I don’t understand something,” she said, and she now wished she’d thought to bring her notebook. Maybe she could ask the guards whenever they came back with the book? “Why haven’t you integrated into pony society yet? I know you’re afraid of me remembering, but wouldn’t modern ponies have forgotten by now?” She gestured to Rarity. “She had no idea of what changelings were until I told her about them.”

“It’s not that simple, Twilight. You can’t just integrate a species that has been in hiding for a thousand years, though we are trying, at the very least.”

“You are?”

“That’s what I’m here for!” Incantation exclaimed, flashing Twilight a fangy-grin. “Among other stuff, like helping with Princess Luna in Hollow Shades.”

“And teasing me relentlessly?” Rarity added.

“That too, Boss. That too,” she replied innocently.

Rarity harrumphed before moving on with the topic.

“Incantation was hired to be my and Pinkie’s assistant, but more importantly, she’s the very first attempt to see if changelings can indeed live amongst ponies.” She turned to Ink. “Darling, you’ve been living in Hollow Shades for how long now?”

“Five months and seven days!” Incantation exclaimed, standing up a bit straighter. “And I’ve been employee of the month all five months!”

Twilight frowned. “Aren’t you their only employee?”

“Yes,” Ink replied, flashing Twilight another fangy-grin. “I live with Rarity inside Lulu’s Dreamland.”

“And…” Twilight faltered, uncomfortable by the question and its potential answer. If Incantation was living with Rarity, then… “How do you...uh… how do you ‘eat’?” she asked, hoping she wasn’t about to find out Rarity was willingly giving her life...love-force away.

Incantation smacked her lips. “Weeeeeeeeell, I usually visit Princess Cadance whenever I’m hungry.” She frowned, rubbing a hoof against her mouth. “I used to come every...uhm… two weeks? But now I can last waaaaaaay more,” she said, and the innocent smile she’d been showcasing turned into a vulpine smirk. “Especially after that one time I mentioned when the boss got dru—”

“Regardless!” Rarity interrupted loudly, her cheeks tainted pink. “Now you see there is no reason to think that they’re afraid of you.

“I guess...” Twilight murmured.

She fell silent, just in time for her eyes to land on the guard fast approaching them. She prepared herself for another speech on how great she was, and how honored they were, and how he hoped she would let them stay, but was relieved and surprised to see him act differently. Well, a little differently, at least.

“Princess Twilight!” he greeted, saluting her briefly before turning to Rarity. “Lady Rarity, I have an urgent matter to discuss.”

“An urgent matter?” Rarity asked. “What’s wrong?”

“There’s a stallion at the gate calling himself Knowledge Quill, and he’s demanding to be let in,” the guard replied. “He says he knows you.”

Rarity’s eyebrows knitted together. “Knowledge Quill? Who in Eques—” She let out a grand gasp. “OH!” She turned to Incantation with urgency, getting up from her spot. “He’s here!”

Incantation’s lips turned into a wicked smile. “I’ll get the camera,” she said, scurrying off, her excited giggling filling the air.

As she rushed away, the guard turned to Rarity, hesitant. “Er… What are your orders?”

“Bring him in!” Rarity said at once. “But take your time, and—” She moved to the guard, lifting her hoof and pressing it against his lips. “You are not to tell him what’s happening. Not a single word. You will only bring him here, and only when he’s here, you will go and tell Rift that we’re ready. Do you understand?”

The guard nodded, saluting Rarity and Twilight before rushing off.

Twilight, on her side, didn’t quite know what to do or how to interpret the events. “Who’s here?” she asked and felt the urge to step back when Rarity turned to her and regarded her with a smile almost as wicked as Incantation’s.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Rarity purred, moving in closer, lifting her hoof and placing it on Twilight’s chest. “Can you feel that?”

Twilight’s eyes shifted to the sides. “Feel what?” she asked, wondering if she really wanted to know.

“The winds of satisfaction,” Rarity whispered, inches away from Twilight’s lips, before almost violently turning around and allowing her shrill voice to pierce the air. “Pinkie Pie!”

From across the party, Pinkie stopped her conversation with Fluttershy and Applejack and excitedly waved at the unicorn. “Rarity!”

“Pinkie, he’s here!”

Pinkie processed it for one, two, three seconds before letting out a yell somehow even more shrill than Rarity’s. ”He’s here?!” She turned to the others. “Everypony stay still! Except for me! I’ll get the camera!”

“Rarity,” Twilight prompted, putting her hoof on the unicorn. “Rarity, what’s going on? Who’s he—” Her question was cut short when Rarity turned to her, an intensity in her stare the likes of which she’d almost never seen before.

“Twilight, stand up,” Rarity said, and then pointed to the next table. “Sit there!” she said, and when a very perplexed Twilight obliged, she furrowed her brow and pointed to another spot. “No, there. No, no, there. No, not that either, there! There, perfect.”

Twilight decided not to mention she was sitting in the exact same spot where she’d started. Instead, she watched as Rarity lit up her horn and quickly moved the welcome signs out of sight.

Rainbow Dash flew over next, sitting next to Twilight. “What?” she asked when Rarity gave her a pointed stare.

“Darling! What are you doing?! Go back to your place!”

“What?! And miss this?! No way,” she said, waving Rarity off.

“Miss what?” Twilight asked, desperate at this point. “Will somepony tell me what’s going on?!”

“Rainbow Dash,” Rarity continued, totally ignoring her marefriend and stamping her hoof against the ground “I’ve waited nearly three years for this! You will not ta—”

Her statement was cut short when Incantation and Pinkie rushed into the gardens.

“He’s coming!” Ink called. “He’s like right here!”

“Quickly!” Rarity yelled back to everypony as she herself sat on the opposite side of the table, brushing back her mane as Pinkie quickly sat beside her. “Everypony act natural!” She then finally turned to Twilight and pointed a hoof at her. “You! Don’t move!”

Twilight, obviously, paid little mind to her marefriend’s request and instead directed her gaze towards the grand doors, wanting to find out just who this stallion was that had the entire party in a frenzy. Incantation was at a ready with the camera, and even if they were at a distance, Spike, Fluttershy and Applejack were all watching with interest. She waited, and waited, and soon enough two guards stepped out and then moved to the side, revealing a very irritated-looking unicorn stallion.

Who seemed...somehow...vaguely...familiar?

Twilight furrowed her brow, watching as he stepped into the garden. Where have I…

“Professor Meanie-Pants!” Pinkie called, waving so effusively with her hoof, Twilight was worried her foreleg might come off. “Over here! Over here!”

Twilight’s hazy recollections began to fill with details. She had seen him, she realized with surprise, as he stomped his way over to Rarity and Pinkie Pie. She’d seen him once through Rarity’s mind, when they were linked together!

As he approached, the Professor paid no heed to Twilight or Rainbow Dash, his sights set entirely on the two smiling mares.

“Well, well, look what the guards have brought us,” Rarity said with a radiant smile. “If it isn’t Professor Brazened Awe!” She giggled and tilted her head. “Or, shall I say, Professor Knowledge Quill? I’m delighted to see you using your true name again, darling.”

He was not amused. “I’m sure you are.”

“I’m terribly glad you’ve joined us, Awe, even though I find myself confused by your irritation!” Rarity exclaimed, blinking innocently. “But before you explain, would you like a drink? Pinkie’s made some rather interesting fruit punch with just the right amount of vodka, and I do think it will help you, shall we say, mellow out a bit.”

The Professor’s eyes widened. “A… A drink?! Are you—?! I’ve been worried sick! Princess Luna has been worried sick, and you’re sitting here offering me a drink?! Is this a joke to you?!” he demanded with a tone Twilight didn’t appreciate much. “It’s been over a week and the first I hear from you is a letter saying nothing else but ‘be a dear and come to the castle’?! Really?!”

“Well, I say!” Rarity exclaimed, a hoof on her chest. “Are we supposed to tell you every single minute detail of our lives now? Shall I send you a letter every single time I do something?” She turned to Pinkie. “Darling, can you believe this?”

Pinkie shook her head. “No, Rarity!” She turned to Incantation, who was busy figuring out the camera. “Inky! Can you believe this?!”

Incantation looked up. “Huh?” She caught on and turned to the Professor, shaking her head with exaggerated disapproval. “What they said.”

“Rainbow,” Twilight whispered. “I don’t understand what’s going on.”

“Shhhh, keep watchin’,” Rainbow whispered back excitedly, gesturing in a shushing motion.

“I’m the one who can’t believe this!” Professor Awe shot back, indignant. “Are you somehow forgetting the state you two left in or that Princess Twilight summoned you?! I daresay I hope you did, because the idea that you remember and yet weren’t considerate enough to write me back immediately leaves me very unsettled!”

To this, Rarity sobered up. “You’re right, Awe,” she said, “and I apologize. It’s been… It’s been quite a week for me, as I’m sure you can imagine considering what…” She turned away and sighed in a comically disheartened way, completely missing Twilight’s raised eyebrow. “Considering what’s happened with Twilight and all…”

At that, the stallion’s anger evaporated. “Ah… I see,” he said, tone softening. “That’s… unfortunate.”

Rarity turned back to him with a gentle smile. “Now, now, it’s perfectly all right. You’ve arrived just in time! Twilight here was just telling us all about the wonders of being free, weren’t you, my darling?” she asked with a perfect smile.

No sooner had she done so, the Professor set eyes on Twilight, and his mouth fell wide open. Stammered, incomplete sentences came out of his mouth, intermingling with the sound of Pinkie snatching the camera from Incantation and taking a string of photos.

Seconds later, however, Rarity let out a ridiculously loud gasp.

“Oh, my dearest sweetest stars! I completely forgot to introduce you two!” She giggled, trotting towards Twilight. “Honestly, how silly of me! Where would my head be if it weren't affixed to my neck, I ask you.”

“Rarity, what are you doing?” Twilight whispered urgently when Rarity reached her.

“Satisfaction, my love, sa-tis-fac-tion,” Rarity whispered before speaking up. “Twilight, darling, dearest, love of my desolate life!” She turned to the Professor and fluttered her eyelashes. “This fine stallion you see here is Professor Brazened Awe! And, Awe, darling, this—” She turned back to Twilight. “This beautiful creature is Princess Twilight Sparkle who, as you can see, is quite real and very much not dead.” She leaned forwards to kiss Twilight briefly on the nose before turning back to him, practically purring as she asked, “Well? Anything to say, Professor? Or are you too much in awe?”

The Professor cleared his throat. “Well then.”

Having had enough of… whatever it was that Rarity was even trying to do, Twilight cleared her throat and nodded at the stallion, trying her best to remember what she could of him. “It’s nice to meet you, Professor,” she said, taking initiative. “Rarity told me about you.”

The Professor smiled thinly. “Did she, Princess?”

“Yes,” Twilight replied. “I was interested in discussing something she told me. You’re the stallion who thought Princess Luna and Celestia and myself had been assassinated by Cadance, right?”

There was a brief pause.

“On second thought,” the Professor said, clearing his throat and looking nearly as white as Rarity’s coat, “I’ll take you up on that drink, Rarity. Princess Twilight, it’s a pleasure.” He quickly nodded to Twilight before trotting off, a giggling Pinkie following him with her camera.

Twilight blinked. “I… Was it something I said?” she asked, finding Rarity offering her an almost malicious grin. “What?”

Rainbow whistled. “Geez, Princess Twilight, you could have warned him before you wrecked him like that.”

“Twilight Sparkle,” Rarity said, leaning in and playing with Twilight’s necklace, “Have I told you lately how much I love you?”

Twilight arched an eyebrow, wholly unsure of how she was supposed to interpret that question. Rather than try, she instead looked around the party, tuning out Rarity talking to Rainbow, and set her sights on Spike in the distance. She wanted to talk to him, mostly because it felt like he and Rarity were the only two individuals at the party who she really knew.

Well, technically speaking, Spike might have changed in a thousand years, so strictly speaking it was possible she didn’t know him at all, but she didn’t like the thought and decided not to dwell on it at all. Instead, she would go to him and prove she still knew him very well.

But what if she didn’t?

Her troubled thoughts were interrupted by noises behind her, more guards coming in. She heard prominently Rift’s voice, and thought she didn’t turn around, Rarity immediately did, smiling brightly at the newcomers.

“Well, hello there!” she said tenderly, and Twilight was surprised to find herself thinking that Rarity was being a bit too warm towards the changeling who had a crush on her.

Except, a moment later, one of the new visitors spoke up behind her and identified herself as the real target of Rarity’s warmth.

“Oh,” Cadance said, “I missed Knowledge meeting Twilight! Did somepony take pictures?”

Feeling more at ease in Cadance’s presence, Twilight initially intended on replying that Pinkie took dozens, but her reply was cut short when a single, much more important realization took hold of her.

Cadance was outside the castle.

Outside.

Of the castle.

Almost violently, Twilight turned around and indeed found Cadance behind her, as free as ever. She was still displaced, though, and it had never been more obvious, never her transparency been more visible and jarring than under the blazing sunlight, but…

But the fact remained that she had somehow left the castle.

“You—! But—! How—!”

The words stumbled out of Twilight’s mouth, her mind desperately trying to make some sense about everything. Why was Cadance outside? How was she outside? Except if she was outside, then why wasn’t she freed? And where was her barrier?!

“Rarity!” Twilight blurted out, reaching out to tap her forehoof on Rarity’s shoulder, her wide-eyes turning back and forth between the unicorn and the Princess. “Rarity, she—! What—?!”

“I know, darling,” Rarity said, voice leveled. “Princess Cadance doesn’t have a barrier stopping her.”

Twilight fell to her haunches, her mouth hanging open, watching Cadance in a daze. Her entire world had been rocked in less than a minute. Everything she thought she’d learned from her own situation, all the information gleaned was… useless now?

She was only brought to reality when Professor Awe returned.

“Knowledge Quill!” Cadance exclaimed brightly.

The Professor flinched before bowing his head. “Your Highness.”

“Knowledge, have you met Twilight already?” she asked, gesturing to the alicorn still reeling from there’s no barrier. “You know, the Princess I assassinated!”

The Professor turned white again. “You’ve been sitting on that one for a while, haven’t you?”

Cadance giggled. “Actually, it was Rarity’s idea.”

The Professor shot Rarity a dirty look. “Of course it was.” He turned to Twilight. “Princess, I… Is she all right?”

Twilight blinked at Cadance. “You… But… What… But… Barrier…?” she stammered, only vaguely hearing Rarity giggling next to her.

“I see.” He cleared his throat. “Princess Twilight, if I may...” He hoofed over his large glass of punch and vodka. “I think you might need this more than I do.”

Author's Note

Me: Hi everyone, I'm going on hiatus!
Writer Me: I only have two weeks left before I have to focus on classes??? I need to write TEK furiously!!!!!!
Me: Okay, well... It would have been better to do that when we had free time but ok. Classes don't start 'till March, at least. Anyway, we have a chapter now, so let's use it to start a buffer and--
Writer Me: No, we're posting now.
Me: But it's better to wait and let it sit for a while and--
Writer Me: hoW???? DARE YOU??? QUESTION ME???

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.
Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!
There is no cipher hidden in this chapter.

~ Act I ~ 06 ~ The Breath of Truth ~

In retrospect, she probably shouldn’t have downed that glass of punch.

“Twilight?” Cadance’s voice rang in the air as Rarity rubbed her hoof in circles on Twilight’s back. “Are you okay?”

“I’m working on that,” replied Twilight, massaging her forehead and looking up.

Gathered around a large table, her eyes scanned the plethora of strangers who awaited what she had to say, and… And it was a sobering thought, if she had to admit to anypony but herself and maybe Rarity; that out of everypony present at the table, she was the stranger.

It had never actually hit her so profoundly until that moment, when she realized they all knew each other in some way or another, forming friendships and bonds she had missed in the two years she’d been… gone. Friendships and bonds all intertwined and brought together by a single force of nature.

“Darling?” asked said force of nature, “is it too much to take in?”

If Twilight didn’t love Rarity, she would have doubtless offered a very sarcastic reply.

She did it anyway but added a small playful smile to make it better.

“You think?” she asked, and Rarity’s laughter helped clear her mind right up until she again felt everypony’s eyes fixed on her. It was uncomfortable, and yet she did not feel able to, well, ask them to leave. She was the main event, after all, and everypony at the party was there for her.

She turned to Cadance, seated at the opposite side of the table, and asked, “You really don’t have a barrier?”

The Princess shook her head. “No, but as I said…” She gestured to her transparent body. “I don’t need one to stop me from going outside. I didn’t even know there was supposed to be a barrier until I found out about yours and Auntie Luna’s.”

Twilight buried her face in her hooves. “But—! But it doesn’t make sense! Why did we have a barrier, then?”

“Didn’t you create that barrier, Princess?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Rarity said—”

“I said she was powering it,” Rarity quickly corrected. “Not that she created it. That’s what Discord had told me.”

“And you’re going to believe what Discord says? Come on, Rares!”

“But I was,” Twilight said, face still buried in her hooves. Truthfully, she had been avoiding the topic, been avoiding trying to dwell on her scenario and her reasoning, if only because she knew very well what the answer was. “I didn’t want to leave.”

“What? Yes, you did!” Pinkie protested.

“No,” Twilight said. “I didn’t.” She paused and finally looked up, feeling uncomfortable at the dozens of eyes set on her. If she had to confess her crimes, she wanted a jury of three, not twelve, but confess she did regardless. “I… I wanted to leave, and I was getting better because of Rarity and everypony else, but then…”

“Then you found out about me,” Cadance said, and Twilight noticed Rarity had stopped rubbing her hoof on her back.

“Y-yes,” she said, and yet she knew that wasn’t all of it. To find out everypony she loved from back then had been damaged by her actions was devastating, but the only thing it really did was convince her that she had no right to be freed.

It was Rarity who, ultimately, had sealed the deal by willingly deciding to throw her life away for Twilight’s then-hopeless cause.

“And if that doesn’t work?! Then what?!”

“Then we find something else! We find another way! I’ll find a way to free you even if I have to spend the—”

“The rest of your life?! And then you die, and what then?! I get to spend the rest of eternity sitting here wishing I could have died with you!”

She shook the memories away and continued. “But, if not having a barrier freed me, then why are you still displaced in time?” she asked, even though she was unsure of whether Cadance was displaced in time or not.

“I don’t know,” Cadance said after a moment. “Discord never told Shiny and me how to free me. Is it true he told you there was a map hidden in your library?”

Twilight nodded, shame burning her. “He said that he’d… that he’d trapped Spike, and only a map in my library could lead me to him, but if I left the library without finding it, it would disappear forever.”

“He told me the same,” Spike said suddenly, brow furrowed. “That he’d hidden your library under a tree in Equestria, and I’d have to dig out every single tree in the realm if I wanted to find you. He also…” He drifted off, lost in thought.

“He also what?” Rarity prompted.

Spike grimaced. “It’s not really something importa—”

“Is it the thing about coming back for you?” Rainbow asked, perched atop his head, and when Spike nodded, she turned to the others. “Yeah! See, tell them!”

“I told him I’d fight him when I was older,” Spike said, and Twilight could vividly picture a little baby dragon cursing the Spirit off. “And he said that he’d deal with me before I could even hope to grow older, except…” He faltered. “Well, I never saw him again until last week.”

And, inside Twilight’s mind, something clicked.

“But he came back for me.” The words tumbled out her mouth unexpectedly, and she was faced with looks of surprise from all around save for Rarity.

“That’s right! You mentioned that once, didn’t you?” she exclaimed.

Twilight nodded. “He said there was no map and I could walk out if I wanted to, and I didn’t believe him, but...” He hadn’t been lying, had he? “Did he ever come back for you?” she asked Cadance, the wheels in her mind turning and turning.

“...I wouldn’t know,” Cadance said. “Shining and I created a barrier to detect him if he went too far into the castle. If he ever tried to come see me, he wouldn’t be able to make it into the inner chambers without raising alarm.”

Twilight gritted her teeth. But why? Why would he… Why would he come to try and get her out of the library? It didn’t make sense! Why her?

“What are you thinking, Twilight?” Rarity asked, doubtless having noticed Twilight’s serious expression.

“Pinkie,” Twilight said, now looking at the mare in question. “Did he ever try contacting Princess Luna again?”

She shook her head. “Nope! Princess Luna never told me that he did, and she would tell me if he had because she tells me everything because I’m her best friend ever!”

Twilight paused for a moment, processing the facts and the idea that, in a thousand years, only she had seen Discord, until she realized she had not accounted for everypony.

“What about Princess Celestia? Why haven’t you contacted her?”

Silence fell at the table. A wide variety of expressions were thrown at her, ranging from confusion to severity to everything in between.

Professor Awe spoke first. “Rarity, you… Have you shown her the—”

“The painting in Granite’s Rest? Yes, she saw it already,” Rarity said, cutting him off before turning to Twilight and licking her lips. “Twilight, darling, what do you mean contact her? We don’t even know where she is.”

“I know that, but why haven’t you contacted her?” she insisted, and it was Spike who spoke before Rarity could.

“She won’t reply,” he said, having already caught on to Twilight’s intention. “I tried. I sent her a jillion letters, and she only ever replied once, and that was centuries ago.”

“Wait, wait, wait, I’m lost now,” Incantation chimed in. “Somebug explain to the new crew, please.”

“Spike isn’t any dragon. He’s a rare breed with magic fire capable of conveying messages,” Twilight explained. “Anything he burns can be sent to Princess Celestia, no matter where she is.”

“And, as I said, I sent her a jillion letters, and she only replied once, and it was to tell us there wasn’t any hope for you or the other Princesses.”

Twilight frowned. She seemed to be doing that a lot, and she had a feeling it wasn’t about to stop. “Did you ask her why?” she inquired as though it were the most obvious thing in the world, which apparently wasn’t the same idea Spike and Cadance had.

“Ask her?” Cadance asked.

Spike snorted. “Twilight, out of like a hundred letters, she only replied to one and it was to tell us that? What was the point of sending her a letter again? She wouldn’t reply, anyway.”

“What if she ran out of ink?” Twilight asked, and Spike gawked at her.

“Twilight, I—”

“Twilight has a point,” Rarity said, taking a sip of her drink. “I’m rather surprised this didn’t occur to either of you.”

“You’re just saying that because she’s your marefriend!” he protested.

“I am not!”

Applejack smirked. “Sure you ain’t, sugarcube.”

“Well, I never!” Rarity huffed, turning away.

“Spike is right,” Twilight said matter-of-factly. “It is a chemical, mental and survival instinct to agree with and support your desired partner and their ideas so as to avoid any potential conflict that might destabi—”

“Princess Twilight!”

She looked around and noticed the two changeling guards had returned, bringing with them the book Rarity had lied about Twilight needing.

Rarity sighed. “Thank the stars.”

“Your Highness!” one said in a breathless huff as the other hoofed over the book. “Your book, as requested!”

“Uh, thank you,” she replied, taking it and putting it to the side. “I need a quill, ink, and parchment now.”

“We can bring that, your Highness!” one of the guards blurted out, but just as he was about to reiterate in extreme detail that it would be his honor to serve Twilight as it had been for generations in his family since—

“Hoo!”

The single most scandalized hoot erupted into the air, and Twilight smiled kindly at the guards. “Thank you, but that won’t be necessary,” she said, watching as a sleepy white owl flew up in alarm and then regarded Rarity with an equally alarmed stare.

“In my bag, darling,” Rarity said with an amused smile, prompting Elara, her mate, and their trio of owlets to fly off and then return moments later.

Amalthea and Metis set down before Twilight the spiral-spined notebook they’d brought, Themis helped Ginny put down the inkwell and, finally, Elara perched herself atop Twilight and pecked a white feather free from her wing, offering it to her master before turning to the guards and narrowing her eyes.

“Hoo.”

Twilight smiled at the guards and then proceeded to open the notebook and uncork the inkwell. “I’m going to write to her,” she proclaimed, not bothering to wait and see what the others thought. In fact, the only bother she had was the realization that she didn’t know what to write about. A letter to Princess Celestia wasn’t something she could take lightly! It required deep meditation and thought, as well as least seven drafts, plus editing, plus proof-reading, plus—

“Soooooooo,” Rainbow Dash said, having grown bored with waiting, “what’re you gonna write?”

Twilight hesitated. “Well… I was going to start with an introduction and the biographies of ponies I’ll be mentioning, as well as the locations, and then I was going to try and summarize the past thousand years in five to twelve pages, which should give me—” A polite cough interrupted her, and she noticed Rarity’s pained smile. “What?”

“Princess,” Fluttershy said, calling her attention. “The painting.”

The image of the painting arose in her head, of Celestia sitting with tears streaming down her eyes, maintaning a spell with her cracked horn.

“Twilight, we don’t know what condition the Princess is in. For all we know, that might be the reason she’s not replied, rather than a lack of ink,” Rarity filled in. “I don’t know if a…” She gestured with her hoof. “...A fascinating but long letter is the appropriate course of action. Why not start with a question?”

“Oh…”

She turned back to the notebook, daunting and unused. She dipped the quill in the ink and finally wrote out in large clear letters.

PRINCESS CELESTIA, WHERE ARE YOU?

TWILIGHT SPARKLE

The words stared back at her, the question she’d not had an answer to in centuries, and… and she found she was afraid of its answer, or the potential lack thereof.

Forcing the thoughts away, she carefully tore the page from the notebook, along with the blank page behind it, and she folded them together, Elara’s feather trapped in-between. That done, she levitated her letter and the closed inkwell over to Spike, who regarded the objects with plain hesitation.

“Please, Spike,” Twilight insisted.

He relented, and a single burst of green flames shot out his mouth and turned the letter to magical ashes that floated off and disappeared.

A heavy silence fell, and everyone at the table did like Twilight and stared at the visibly uncomfortable dragon. Stared and waited, and waited, and waited for a reply to come.

An eternity seemed to pass during that silence, and yet the more seconds went by, the more Twilight’s mind filled in the silence. What if she wasn’t replying because she held Twilight accountable? What if she wasn’t replying because she didn’t want to be found? What if she… what if she couldn’t reply because she was…

Why couldn’t Twilight live for a single second without her brain tormenting her?

Her eyes turned to Cadance, who in her position could do nothing else but smile, and Twilight theorized once more about her barrier and Cadance’s lack thereof.

And it was, to be clear, a painful theory.

“Princess Twilight?” asked Professor Awe all of a sudden. There was a severity in his face that made her uncomfortable, and she shrank back when he continued to speak. “Princess Twilight, what happened to you during the time you were possessed in the library?”

Once again, one by one, all eyes at the table focused on her, and her chest compressed with memories. She tried to reply but was startled when her deeply rooted objections to discussing the topic were voiced not by her, but by Rarity.

“Professor!” she snapped.

The Professor didn’t flinch. “If we want to understand what happened with the Princess, we must know all the facts.” He turned back to Twilight. “Princess, I ask again.”

And again, before Twilight could reply, Rarity did.

“Professor, really,” she protested, and Twilight noticed the uncomfortable looks on every single pony seated at the table. “Discord possessed her, for Denza’s sake! That’s all there is to know!”

“No, it isn’t. Things are never black and white. Facts are what will help us here, not miracles,” the Professor insisted, yet unlike Rarity, he had not raised his voice. “She is the only one who was there when the curse broke. In fact, the more detailed you can be, Princess, the better for all of us.”

“That’s all right,” Twilight quickly said, trying to intervene before Rarity could. The Professor was right, after all, and the anxiety the memories of the possession had brought her were quickly beginning to wane compared to her growing distress at Rarity’s reaction. “I can ta—”

Rarity interrupted. “But Twilight, why—”

“Why not?” she asked, now wanting nothing else but to deconstruct whatever was behind Rarity’s words. She wanted answers, not roundabouts. “Why don’t you want me to talk about it? And you can’t say ‘I don’t know’. You have to have a good reason.”

Rarity held her tongue, and Twilight’s ears fell, finding herself torn between hurt and concern.

“Rarity.” Cadance’s voice was soft but firm, and Rarity’s disposition changed entirely, from thrown-off to chastised. “We talked about this, didn’t we? It’s better to know than not to.”

Rarity’s eyes traveled back and forth between Twilight and Cadance until, finally, they settled on the former. “Do you really want to talk about it, Twilight?” she asked quietly.

“Yes, I do.”

“Will it help you to do so?”

“Yes, it will,” Twilight said, hoping it wasn’t a lie.

“Very well.” Rarity relented, taking her empty glass of water. “I… Will you be alright if I go refill my glass of water meanwhile?”

Twilight would be fine, technically, but… “Yes.”

She watched Rarity trot off, and though her first instinct was to get up and go after her, it was Fluttershy who reacted first. “I should get more water too,” she said quickly as she rose after Rarity. “Wa-wait, Rarity!”

“Princess?” Professor Awe said, once again capturing her attention. “Can you elaborate on the possession?”

Her eyes drifted towards Rarity and Fluttershy in the distance, the former talking animatedly to the latter, and though she was still bothered by the outburst, and though she still longed for her partner to be there with her, she sat down and faced the Professor and the others.

“Were you aware?” he asked. “Rarity told me you were possessed by a chaos magic force. Were you cognisant? Do you remember anything?”

Twilight swallowed. “No,” she replied with confidence, and yet it wavered moments later. She did remember, bits and pieces maybe, but she did remember. “Y-yes. Maybe. Some parts.”

“Some parts…” He narrowed his eyes, in thought for a moment, and then simply asked, “What did you feel like when you were possessed? Were you a puppet?”

Twilight’s wings ruffled beside her, and she began to wish she’d paid attention to Rarity. “I… No? I don’t know?” She closed her eyes and buried her face in her hooves, trying to make sense of something she did not want to make sense of. “It wasn’t me, but it was also me. I l-let it, I just wanted it to be over. I…”

A thought nested in her mind.

I didn’t want to be responsible anymore.

It was easier, she knew, to deal with her fears by letting herself be unable to deal with them at all.

“Were you in pain?” the Professor asked.

“I don’t remember. I think at first I was.”

Silence fell again, and just as she withdrew her hooves and looked up, the Professor asked, “Do you know what triggered it?”

“Rarity.”

The reply tumbled out her mouth with startling ease. Rarity had always been at the center of every recent change in her life, and so it had been the logical conclusion that she’d been at the center of the event that allowed her eventual freedom. It had been Rarity who’d given her something to lose, and something to fight for.

Rarity had saved her, she thought, and yet the looks on everypony else relayed a very different message.

“Wait,” Rainbow said, “you’re saying it’s Rarity’s fault Discord possessed you?”

“What? No!” Twilight immediately protested, the mere thought of such an idea horrifying her. “I never said that! I said she triggered it!”

“Princess Twi, that’s literally the same thing,” Rainbow said.

“No, it’s not!” Twilight protested.

“Princess Twilight, let me phrase it differently.” The Professor cleared his throat. “Would I be accurate in stating that, if Rarity had never intervened in your life, you would have never been possessed by The Spirit’s chaos magic?”

“Y-yes,” she said, and yet she felt wrong to say it, and she hated that she did.

“Right. Moving on,” the stallion said. “Rarity mentioned you were powering the barrier keeping you in your library. Can you elaborate?”

“I… I didn’t…”

She wanted to speak, but the words were stuck in her throat. It was hard to confess, hard to analyze when all her analysis and hypotheses only made her feel and seem worse than she already felt and probably seemed.

And to voice them in front of everypony?

She could only think of two ponies she wanted to freely discuss the issue with, and one of them had already excluded herself from that possibility.

“I’m sorry, everypony,” she said finally, smiling apologetically at the Professor and the others. “Can I have a moment alone with Cadance?”

Though it was clear everypony wanted to know what was to be said, nopony denied Twilight’s request. One by one, they all ambled off with hasty excuses, and the commotion was enough that Fluttershy and Rarity turned around in the distance.

For the briefest moment, Twilight met Rarity’s eyes. She wondered whether to keep looking or to turn away, but the decision was made for her when Rift Shield approached the unicorn and caught her attention.

“Are you worried about her?” came Cadance’s voice.

Twilight kept her eyes on Rarity, processing the question. “Yes,” she said eventually. Her ears lowered and she turned to her sister-in-law, who now sat next to her. “What did you mean?” At Cadance’s raised eyebrow, she elaborated. “When you said you had talked about it with her, what did you mean?”

“You should ask her,” Cadance said.

“What if she doesn’t tell me?” Twilight replied, and she wondered where was the line between resentment and concern. “I’ve asked her about other things before, and she didn’t really tell me what’s wrong? And then I think we’re doing all right, but then… then something like what happened today happens and it turns out we’re not. She keeps telling me she just needs time, but…”

“She loves you,” Cadance said, watching Rarity as Twilight had moments ago.

Twilight was thrown back. “I know,” she said, looking at her sister-in-law with a confused gaze. And?

“Then have some faith in her, Twilight.”

Twilight grimaced, heart heavy in her chest. It was so… so… frustrating! It was frustrating that ponies kept thoughts to themselves, and instead of streamlining the process of communication, it just made it complicated for everypony.

“It’s hard for her, Twilight. Try to understand. It hurts to hear about when your loved ones were in pain.”

Neither spoke for about a minute, each lost in their thoughts, and it wasn’t until Twilight’s eyes landed on the Professor that she remembered his question.

“Rarity mentioned you were powering the barrier keeping you in your library. Can you elaborate?”

“Cadance…” She weighed every syllable in her mouth, every word that betrayed things she did not want to confess or admit to. Communication was hard, but she was trying. “Do… do you feel guilty?”

Cadance turned away from the others and directed her entire undivided gaze at Twilight. “About what?”

Twilight gawked at her. “About cursing all of Equestria into not being able to find us,” she said without missing a beat.

“Oh, that,” Cadance said with surprising levity for such a… well, for that. And yet, much more than the levity, what really surprised Twilight was her reply. “No, I don’t.”

Twilight was at a loss for words, unable to comprehend the concept. Didn’t she feel a little guilty? Not that she wanted Cadance to feel guilty, but…

Cadance must have noticed her inner turmoil, for their eyes met and her expression changed. The levity vanished, the warmth dropped, and Twilight had the distinct impression that she was talking not with her sister-in-law anymore, but with the Princess of Equestria and all that this implied.

She was reminded of Princess Celestia, and she regretted asking her question.

“Do you remember what Auntie Celestia used to tell us whenever we had to hold court?”

Twilight nodded. She’d forgotten many things, it was true, but Princess Celestia’s teachings remained.

“Intent is what defines us.”

“Intent is what defines us,” Cadence repeated with severity, imitating Princess Celestia’s demeanor and inflection to near perfection. After holding the pose for a moment, she relaxed with a string of giggles and continued, “I remember how she’d say it! Just before one of her big speeches.”

“And then Princess Luna would roll her eyes,” Twilight added, a heavy smile pushing its way to her lips. She missed them. She missed Princess Celestia’s big speeches, and she missed Luna’s pouting and her own big speeches.

Their laughter faded after a moment, and Twilight’s momentary reprieve left her as Cadance’s severity returned.

“I always did what I thought was best,” she said. “I tried to do good, and not everything I do can be good, but… intent is what defines us.”

“But…” Twilight swallowed. “Does intent matter when everything goes wrong?”

Cadance was silent for the longest time until her sight set on Rarity and she asked, “Do you blame Rarity for what happened to you? Even knowing it happened because she met you?”

“Of course not,” Twilight said.

“Why not?”

“Because she didn’t mean to—” She looked down. “Oh.”

“Bad things will always happen, Twilight,” Cadance said, smiling down at the alicorn. “No matter how good our intentions are, bad things will happen, but… but feeling guilty or sorry for yourself will only stop you from doing the right thing.”

“Which is?” Twilight asked.

“Taking responsibility for your actions.”

Twilight didn’t know what to say to that. The two words sank into her like a dagger, having been all but called out. Guilt had stopped her from taking responsibility, and instead, she’d hidden away in a library.

“Shining Armor said that,” Cadance continued. She set her eyes on Rift Shield giving out orders to nearby guards. “He said that to the changelings who first worked with us before all this happened.”

“Because they felt bad for what they did?”

“Yes,” Cadance said. “And, as you can see, I don’t know how to make them stop.”

Twilight looked down, offering a humorless smile. “It isn’t easy.”

“That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try, though, does it?” Cadance asked, and she sighed. “I did feel guilty, Twilight. At first, but I had to take responsibility and do something to help.”

“Is that why you used the changelings to…?”

The Princess’s expression softened. “No. Well, not at first. I tried to tell ponies, I tried to be honest, but…” She closed her eyes, grimacing. “They were afraid, Twilight. I only told the Canterlot Council and…”

“And what?”

“And it went as well as you can expect. Spike was there. He must remember the confusion. The denial. The panic that followed. And I don’t blame them, Twilight.” She looked away from the changelings and towards the dragon in the distance. “I was afraid. Spike was afraid. You and my Aunties were missing, Discord was free, and I was…”

“But lying?”

“We thought we would find you,” Cadance said with difficulty. “We… we thought we would find you all, but we didn’t, and we couldn’t go back. We couldn’t give the throne to somepony else because they’d find out Discord was still free, and that I was a spirit, and then what?”

Twilight felt a knot in her throat.

“I didn’t want this, Twilight,” she said. “But I had to take responsibility, and the changelings wanted to help us. Like I said, not all of our choices can go as we hoped, but we have to try and make up for it because nopony will do it for us.”

“Right.”

Cadance breathed in. Mere habit, no doubt. “I just want the others to be free. I want this to be over, and after that…” She laughed softly. “After that, I’m giving the crown away and taking a long vacation.”

The two friends shared a sympathetic laugh up until a loud gagging noise caught Twilight’s attention and she looked around to find the source of the sound: Spike.

There he was, in the distance, wide-eyed and looking as though he was choking on something, his claw on his neck as he loudly coughed and hacked.

The first thing Twilight thought was that he’d eaten too much, too fast.

The second was too good to even hope for, and yet it miraculously came when he let out a thunderous belch, flames, smoke, and a folded letter coming out. Cadance wasn’t able to exclaim a single word before Twilight teleported herself to him.

“Spike!” a scandalized Rarity gasped from the other side of the party. “Where are your mann—eek!Twilight Sparkle!”

Not bothering with Rarity’s protests, Twilight finished levitating the unicorn over in a peculiar silencing act and plopped her down on the ground.

“Really!” Rarity continued, getting up and brushing the dirt off her coat, oblivious to the letter everypony was staring at. “I’m starting to tir—” She blinked around. “What’s wrong wi—?” Twilight’s magic took hold of her muzzle and directed her view towards the letter. “Ah.”

There it lay on the ground, neatly folded, the first contact Twilight had with Princess Celestia in over a thousand years.

It was terrifying. It was terrifying to open it, and see what Celestia actually thought, if she hated or still loved Twilight, if she—

A cough caught her attention, bringing her back to the reality where everypony was watching and waiting, and even if it was scary…

She had to take responsibility.

With all the care in the world, she levitated the letter in her magic, took a final breath, opened it and… and frowned.

“Well?” Pinkie asked. “What does it say?! What does it say?!”

“She wants to know where I am,” Twilight lamely replied, turning the message around for all to see.

Twilight, where are you?

There it was.

Twilight’s first communication with Princess Celestia in over a thousand years.

And it explained nothing.

As everyone began to murmur between themselves, Twilight turned the letter back towards herself, trying to glean any additional information.

“Are you certain she wrote it?” Rarity asked, peering down at the letter.

Twilight kept her frown. “Yes, but…”

It was unmistakably Celestia’s calligraphy, and yet there was something wrong. The lines, usually straight and elegant, were shaky and messy but not in the way they would be when writing in a hurry, but more like when writing under some kind of magical duress.

“I don’t know what, but something’s wrong. Princess Celestia never replied to my questions with questions unless she was testing me or something was wrong,” she elaborated, hoofing the letter over for Rarity to inspect before turning around and teleporting the notebook over. “Rarity, do we have more ink and—?”

“In my bag,” Rarity replied, still looking over the letter.

Once she’d acquired new ink and a new feather, Twilight opened it up to a new page and wrote.

I’m in Canter Capitol with Spike and Cadance.

Are you safe? Where are you? What do we do?

The letter done, she quickly ripped it and another blank page before folding them and practically throwing them at Spike. She watched as his fire engulfed and turned it to ashes, and then...

Well, she waited.

And waited, and waited, and waited, and after a few minutes of waiting, she wasn’t the only one to feel impatient.

“So,” Rainbow Dash said to Spike, “you really never thought of just sending her paper and ink?”

His face turned several shades of pink, and yet instead of a protest, another belch came out of his mouth and with it a new letter.

Twilight snatched it in her magic, opening it up and reading aloud:

For now. Complicated. Free Luna.

“For now?” Cadance asked.

“Complicated?” added Fluttershy.

“Free Princess Luna!” exclaimed Pinkie Pie, hopping up and down in place.

Twilight allowed herself a minor breath of relief. ‘For now’ wasn’t the best reply she could get, but it at least meant she probably wasn’t in the situation depicted in the painting anymore. Only the knowledge of this made it easier to cope with the fact that she hadn’t disclosed her actual location.

“I don’t get it!” Spike exclaimed. “She said there was no hope for you, and now she’s asking you to save Princess Luna?”

“Spike,” Rarity said, “I rather think a pony can change her mind every other century.”

“But why?” Twilight asked, finding herself frustrated at the, well, lack of concrete explanations. What exactly had happened with the Princess? Was it Discord? Was it somepony else? And how did she expect them to free Princess Luna?

She opened the notebook again, dipping the quill in ink before writing down:

How do we free her?

There. The worst case scenario was that Princess Celestia would have no idea, but considering that was Princess Celestia, and Princess Celestia always had a plan, Twilight knew that she would know how to do it. Of course, then one could wonder why hadn’t Princess Celestia already freed herself but Twilight chose not to think about that too much.

Again, she ripped out the letter along with a blank piece of paper before folding them and repeating the process with Spike.

“What did you ask her?” inquired Cadance.

“How to free Princess Luna,” Twilight replied. It was straight and to the point, just as she hoped Celestia would reply.

“Can’t you, like, send her your necklace thing and that way it’ll be much faster than this?” Rainbow asked, prompting Rarity to put a hoof on her necklace in a defensive motion.

“The necklaces don’t work that way, Rainbow Dash!” she said, and then faltered. “Though our current process could stand to be less uncouth.”

As if her words had been heard, Spike belched again, and though a letter came forth, so did the inkwell and quill.

“Well,” the Professor said, “that’s one way of saying the conversation is over.”

Twilight took the letter, heart thumping in her chest. Pinkie had now rushed to her, practically crawling on top of the alicorn in an attempt to see the reply. If that letter held the answer to freeing Luna, then…

Without further delay, she opened it up and read aloud:

The Winter Moon Observance

“Even now, my brightest light is nothing but the remains of yours.”

An air of confusion swept across the creatures gathered together, marring all their faces save for the two princesses and the dragon, who all shared a worried glance.

“The Winter Moon Observance?” Pinkie asked. “That sounds fun! How come I’ve never heard of it?! Is it secret?”

“You wouldn’t have heard about it,” Cadance said. “There’s only been one Winter Moon Observance, and that was even before our first war with Discord. It was supposed to be a yearly event to honor Princess Luna, but it was canceled.”

“Cancelled?!” Pinkie gasped, horrified. “By who?! Why?!”

“By Princess Luna,” Twilight replied, “and we don’t know why. Princess Celestia never told me.” She looked back down at the letter, pursing her lips. What did The Winter Moon Observance have to do with Princess Luna being trapped? And what light?

“Cadance, do you remember anything from it?” she asked, turning back to her friend.

Cadance shook her head. “No. It’s been so long, I don’t really remember anything.”

“What about Princess Luna’s room?” Twilight continued, the words trying to catch up to the speed with which new thoughts appeared in her mind. “Does she have any books about it? Or Princess Celestia? What about the library?”

Cadance blinked. “I… I don’t know, Twilight. I can have my guards look them over, but there are thousands of books in there.”

“We would only have to read books written before our imprisonment,” Twilight said.

“Twilight, that’s still several thousand!” Cadance pointed out.

Twilight blinked. “And? A book is about two-hundred and forty pages on average. Though it’s below my own reading speed, your guards should be able to read two pages per minute. Following that, ten guards could read ten books in two hours, and therefore a thousand books could be read by ten guards in two hundred hours. If you use fifty guards, that would mean each guard would read twenty books, one every two hours, and we could go through approximately a thousand books in forty to fifty hours.”

Rarity hummed. “Did you by chance consider the fact that guards need to eat and sleep?”

“Oh. That’s important.”

“I would think so, yes, darling,” she replied. “Not to mention that not all of us can read non-stop without getting distracted.”

“Distracted? But they’d be reading books! Why would you get distracted?”

“Tragically, not all of us can be as perfect as you, Twilight,” she replied.

Twilight groaned and rubbed her forehead. Ugh! Why were ponies so complicated? “What about shifts? It would prolong the search, but the pace would continue and we could have the entire library read in… fifty changelings… shifts of…. Multiplied by…”

“Princess Twilight, if I may,” Rift interrupted. “With all due respect, we can’t have the entire guard reading books for days!”

Twilight frowned. “Well, if we take into account that—”

“You could ask Princess Luna…?” said a soft-spoken voice.

Interrupted, Twilight fell silent and turned to find Fluttershy smiling nervously at her.

“You could ask Princess Luna why she canceled it,” the pegasus clarified. “I’m sure she would tell you.”

“She would!” Pinkie burst in. “And then we’ll know how to free her! And then we can do all the things I want to do with her when she’s free! Do you want to know what they are?!”

Spike laughed. “I don’t think you’re gonna give us a choice.”

And so, as she began to ramble on, Twilight kept quiet.

And then we’ll know how to free her, Pinkie had said, and yet she couldn’t believe it would be that simple. If her experience had taught her anything, it was that things were never as simple and straightforward as she wished. She watched Pinkie talk and talk, the twinkle in her eyes, the enthusiasm and drive, and…

And then her gaze shifted towards Rarity, and she found the unicorn did not share the rest of the group’s enthusiasm. There was no smile on her lips, no glimmer in her eyes, nothing but the mild apprehension that seemed to suffuse her every action.

Two years ago, Twilight thought, Rarity would have been the first to force Twilight to talk about the possession.

Two years ago, Rarity pushed and pushed and pushed through every defense, every barrier, every tangle of Twilight’s existence.

But now? Now Twilight struggled to find the fearless unicorn who’d faced dragons, spirits of chaos, and Twilight herself.

Their eyes met for a moment, as if Rarity had heard by Twilight’s thoughts, and so the alicorn quickly looked back down at the letter Celestia had sent.

Even now, my brightest light is nothing but the remains of yours.

Her eyes focused on the line, trying to distract herself from her troubled thoughts until she felt something shift and Rarity sit next to her, their coats brushing and the unicorn exhaling a long sigh. The conversation went on without them, Twilight only barely paying attention to the ongoing discussion between Pinkie, Spike and the Professor up until Rarity finally nuzzled her.

“Are you very upset with me?” she murmured.

Twilight avoided her gaze. “I don’t know.”

“Stars,” Rarity replied after a moment. “That is a frustrating reply to receive, isn’t it?” she noted, and Twilight couldn’t help but laugh.

“Maybe a little,” she said, finally allowing herself to return Rarity’s affection.

“And maybe I’m a bit of a mess,” she continued, levitating her drink and taking a sip. “A fashionable one.”

“I'm not sure that makes it better.”

“Well, it certainly doesn’t make it worse, hm?” She put down the glass and took hold of the letter, reading it over. “I wonder wha—”

“Rarity, why didn’t you want me to talk about my possession?” asked Twilight abruptly, the words tumbling out her mouth without her permission. But there they were.

A pause followed.

“If you were in my position, would you be able to easily stomach listening to my two-year long possession?”

Twilight didn't immediately reply, for she knew the unicorn was right. Just remembering the fact that Rarity had nearly been mauled by a timberwolf was still sickening to her, after all.

Yet something told her there was more, and Rainbow Dash’s words tore at her mind.

“Rarity, you…” She swallowed, for the idea of it made her sick. “You don’t blame yourself, do you?”

“No,” Rarity replied simply.

Nothing more, nothing less, and Twilight forced herself to believe it was true.

He sat in silence next to the fire, watching her with curious eyes.

“You told her no,” North Ridge said as she stared up at the stars. “And there weren’t any other reasons?”

“I feared she would blame herself,” Rarity said after a pause. “The thought sickened me. To hear her say those three little words. I can understand why she was afraid I’d feel the same.”

“But there’s something else,” he said.

“Isn’t there always?” She paused again, and her chest fell and rose with a breath. Mere habit, no doubt. “Care to share your thoughts?”

“Two years,” he said, “is quite a long time to think.”

Author's Note

Me, during screen writing classes: What do you MEAN I need to interweave several plotlines at the same time?!

Me writing TEK:

also, wHO'S READY FOR PRINCESS LUNA AND THE NIGHTMARE ARC?

Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.
There is no cipher hidden in this chapter.

~ Act II ~ 07 ~ The Boutique of Dreams ~

“Crazy, ain’t it?”

North Ridge looked up from the newspaper, his eyes set on the vendor stacking up merchandise.

“Really? I’ve seen crazier things in the West!” he replied, smiling broadly. “A manticore terrified of a mouse, for one!”

The vendor shook his head.

“The Princess’s gone crazy. I always knew that Castle had secrets.”

North intended on replying, but the words caught in his throat as he turned the page. There she was, his charming friend, the word MISSING above her smiling face.

“Now, now!” he said, discreetly ripping out the page while the vendor looked away. “We all have secrets, don’t we?”

Flowers of all colors covered two old yet pristine statues inside the Sparkle family mausoleum.

They were arranged in all sorts of bouquets, droplets of clear water trickling down the petals and onto the cold marble. They were fresh, Twilight noticed, and though she was certain their presence was due to her sister-in-law, their beautiful arrangement was due to a certain artistically-inclined unicorn.

Her eyes lingered on the carvings at the base of the statues. ‘Twilight Velvet and Night Light’ it said, and an inscription followed below each name.

Gone, but never forgotten, said his.

In dreams, we are reunited, said hers.

And emblazoned beneath each promise was Twilight’s very own cutie mark.

Twilight didn’t know what to say. Well, that wasn’t true. She had very many things she felt and wanted to say, but she didn’t feel the need to voice them. So much had happened in the past few days, so many emotions, that even if she was sad and would probably continue to be so for some time yet, she was relieved to feel she was getting better at keeping her emotions reigned in. Maybe it was because Cadance wasn’t there, or maybe it was because she knew they would want her to move on and keep going.

Or, maybe it was because the company she kept made it hard not to feel better.

“Thank you,” she said, finally, watching as Rarity’s magic interweaved with the flowers and rearranged them slightly.

“It was the least I could do,” said Rarity brightly, followed by a quick frown when the bouquet she’d just finished arranging slid down again. She put it back in its place and nodded with satisfaction.

“I didn’t mean just the flowers,” Twilight continued, and despite it all, a smile stole onto her lips at Rarity’s soft harrumph when the flowers fell again.

“Darling, I’m the one grateful towards you,” Rarity replied, adjusting the flowers again. “It is my privilege and honor to be here with you, if only these damn flowers would—”

Twilight laughed. “They don’t have to be perfect,” she said.

Rarity stopped her fussing long enough to stare at the alicorn. “Who are you and what have you done with Twilight Sparkle?” When Twilight rolled her eyes, Rarity turned back to the flowers with a pronounced harrumph. “Not perfect, she says! I expect nothing less than perfection when it comes to my in-laws!”

“They don’t care,” Twilight continued, her wing splaying open under her cloak and enveloping the unicorn, coaxing her away from her task.

“Well, I care!” Rarity finished, adjusting the flowers one last time by arranging some nearby pebbles at the base of the flowers to keep them in place. She then finally relented and leaned against Twilight, accepting the embrace. “I care.”

Twilight turned her sight back to the inscriptions on the statues, a sigh accompanying the action.

In dreams, we are reunited.

Gone, but never forgotten.

Two inscriptions on two statues, all meant for her, and even if she had accepted it, it still hurt that they were.

“In dreams, we are reunited,” Rarity recited softly. “They’re touching epitaphs.”

“They should have been about them,” Twilight quietly replied, “not about me. Epitaphs are supposed to honor the deceased, not the living.”

“Perhaps they knew you’d be here one day,” Rarity suggested after a moment’s thought, “and wanted to leave a message for you to read.”

“Do you think so?”

“I do,” she replied. “It’s what I would have done. A message only you would understand, carved in a beautiful marble tombstone decorated with dozens of bouquets. In fact, I just thought of the perfect one!” She extended her foreleg and waved it in a horizontal line. “For you, a thousand times over.”

Twilight frowned, finding she did not actually want to think of anything involving Rarity and tombstones. “Well, that’s an epitaph I don’t ever want to read,” she grumbled, frowning slightly. “Or ever think about. Or, hopefully, it won’t ever be written.”

Rarity giggled. “Oh? Would you prefer it if I just live forever and never die, then?” She leaned forward and planted a kiss on Twilight’s cheek. “I shall only do it if you promise to live forever with me!”

Twilight wanted to laugh, say a smart and witty retort, but was instead struck by a very real realization.

“I can die now,” she said, mostly to herself, but aloud nevertheless. She did not feel saddened, yet, or happy, either, but she was aware of it. Aware of it and all that it implied. “I’m going to die.”

“Well, not soon, I would hope!” Rarity said, leaning further into the alicorn. “Hm. Now I see why you didn’t want to talk about this.”

“But it’s going to happen,” Twilight continued, and it was… it was fascinating. It was oddly exhilarating, oddly marvelous the idea that for the first time in centuries, growing old was something she had to think about. She really was free, wasn’t she? She turned to Rarity, wings spreading out, her earlier sadness completely washed away. “I’m going to die, Rarity!”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Yes, Twilight, that is an unfortunate inescapable reality of life. Everypony dies eventually.”

“Actually, that’s not true,” she said matter-of-factly, always eager to teach new facts. “Not everypony. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are natural-born alicorns and are ageless. They can’t die unless they’re killed, and there is no known way to fully kill an ageless pony. Not even Discord can do it.”

Rarity paused. “Not even Dis…” Her eyes grew wide. “Is that why he trapped them? That must be it! But…” She drifted off, frowning. “If he trapped them because they’re ageless…” Her eyes met Twilight’s. “Why did he trap you and Cadance? She isn’t a natural born alicorn, is she?”

Twilight shook her head.

“Then why didn’t he kill you?” Rarity asked, and Twilight flinched.

“He would never do that,” she quickly defended, because Discord had done terrible things, objectively, but he would never kill. When Rarity raised an eyebrow, she continued her point. “He wouldn’t! He would never kill, he would just—”

“Trap you in an underground library for a thousand years, taking away your physicality and right to a proper life?” Rarity said, cutting her off, unimpressed.

Twilight looked away. “Well, if you put it like that…”

“I’m putting it precisely as it happened, Twilight,” Rarity said without a beat. “If you are about to sit here and defend his actions, then let us lay them out exactly as they were.”

And to this, Twilight had nothing to say.

Well, she did have things to say, just not about that very awkward topic she now wanted to desperately avoid.

“We—Well, that still doesn’t explain why he trapped me and Cadance! Without Celestia and Luna, she and I couldn’t really fight him, anyway,” she continued. “There’s so much of what he does that doesn’t make sense… Why hasn’t he taken over Equestria? Why hasn’t he—” She stopped. “What if…” She licked her lips, careful with her phrasing. “What if he regrets what he did?”

Rarity stared at her in complete silence.

Simply stared at her.

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

“I’m not saying that to defend him!”

“I should hope not, Twilight,” Rarity said coldly, turning away. “After everything he’s put us through. He could come beg at my hooves, and I would still be unable to find anything he’s responsible for even remotely worth forgiving him for.”

A heavy silence filled the room, less jarring but as intense as the mood shift they’d gone through. It was frustrating, ultimately, to see the disconnect she still had not just with Rarity, but with anypony who’d ever interacted with Discord. It was difficult for her not to defend him when they were once friends, yet also know that he had done things beyond forgiveness.

And yet.

And yet, there was one thing she did thank him for.

“I could,” she said. “I know something he’s responsible for that might make it worth forgiving him.”

Rarity snorted in a very unladylike fashion, still seemingly fascinated by the building’s wall. “Surprise me.”

“I’m not ageless like Princess Celestia or Princess Luna. I should have had a normal lifespan like any other pony,” she said.

Rarity scoffed, turning her head ever so slightly. “Did you want to be immortal?”

“No,” she replied, “but if I hadn’t been locked in that library for a thousand years, I wouldn’t have lived long enough to meet you.”

Another long silence, Rarity’s head turned just enough that Twilight could see her subtly bite down on her lip.

“Touché?” Twilight ventured helpfully, finding it very difficult to suppress a giggle when Rarity’s lip bite turned much less delicate.

“Curious,” she said, still cool, still collected, still looking away. “You never told me you spoke French.”

Twilight perked up.

“Well, technically speaking, I actually initially learned of the word during fencing classes back when I was studying under the Princess, as it was required of me as her personal student to be trained in one of the more prestigious physical activities taught in the capital,” she informed. “It was through your modern dictionary and idiom book that I learned it was used when you’d won, or in your case, lost at a verbal duel.” She took a breath of air and, then finally said, “Though I did spend a thousand years reading books in a library, including the entire language section, as well as all twenty-seven translated versions of Starswirl’s the Bearded Magical Compendium, so yes, I do know French, or an archaic version of it, at least.”

She smiled smugly when Rarity finally turned to her, a playful grin on her lips.

“Oh?” said her beloved, moving closer, teasing. “Prove it, then, ma chère.”

Always one for challenges, Twilight smiled and recalled a recent poem she’d read while exploring Canterlot Castle’s library the night before.

“Mon âme a son secret, ma vie a son mystère, un amour éternel en un moment conçu,” she said in a flawless accent she’d learned from phonetic books and many centuries of practice. “Elle dira, lisant ces vers tout remplis d'elle, ‘quelle est donc cette jument?’ et ne comprendra pas.”

By the time she’d finished, a little grin decorated her lips at Rarity’s wide eyes and lovely mouth curved into a perfect ‘o’. Twilight Sparkle knew she was impressive, but she still enjoyed the confirmation of the fact.

“So,” Rarity said softly, lifting her hoof and idly playing with Twilight’s necklace, “what does it mean?”

“It’s an excerpt from a poem about unrequited love,” Twilight explained, vividly aware of how close they were, how near their lips, and then asked, “What did you think?”

Rarity hummed softly, admiring the pink crystal. “I think this visit has been lovely, but we really ought to be on our way.”

“I—? What?” Twilight asked, thrown-off by the sudden change of topic. She felt the urge to pull back, and yet she was strangely held in place by Rarity’s hoof still on her chest. “Are we going to be late to meet the girls?”

“If we leave now, we shall make it with time to spare, but, more than that…” Her eyes met Twilight’s, and she tilted her head to the side. “It would seem that your linguistic prowess has had quite the effect on me, and I really don’t think a passionate kiss would be appropriate behavior in front of your parents.”

Twilight felt her cheeks burn up. “No, it would not.”

Rarity giggled, leaning over and leaving a kiss on her lips. “A small one, then.” She then turned back to the statues and sobered up. “Any last things you’d like to say until our next visit, darling?”

Twilight turned to her parent’s final resting place. There were many things she wanted to say, but she settled on the clearest and more concise.

“I love you,” she said. “I promise I’ll make you proud.”

“More than you already have, thank you very much,” Rarity added, and Twilight laughed.

“More than I already have,” she repeated. She turned to her marefriend and, a bit awkwardly, asked, “Do you have anything to say?”

Rarity mulled it over. “Nothing we didn’t already discuss extensively last time.”

“Last time?” she asked, furrowing her brow. “You’ve been here before?”

Time slowed down, as though Rarity were debating whether to answer or not, until finally she did with obvious care.

“I have, yes,” she said, for the last time adjusting a stray petal here and there. “A few months after you’d… well, after your incident, Cadance suggested I come here to be with them. It was soothing to speak to somepony who…”

“Who…?”

Rarity leaned into Twilight, eyes still set on the tombs. “Who could relate.”

“Relate?” Twilight asked, her wing adjusting around Rarity. “What do you mean?”

The air seemed to shift, the tension in the air brushing against Twilight, as it always seemed to do whenever Rarity had something important—and, recently, painful—to say.

“The epitaphs. Their epitaphs and tombs being their last message to you,” she said quietly. “‘For you, a thousand times over’ is not a sentence I just came up with.”

Rarity fell silent and shifted against Twilight, gaze focused on the flowers. She was waiting, Twilight knew, for a reply or acknowledgement, and Twilight felt her anger rising at the idea that her own actions had caused Rarity to have to think about her epitaph.

But being angry would do nothing for her, would it? All she could try to do was doing what she liked best: making Rarity smile.

“That’s a shame,” she said finally, somberly, and before Rarity could say anything in reply, she continued. “Now you’ll have to use a less dramatic epitaph for your grave.”

Rarity’s laughter filled the small room. “Awful, isn’t it? One spends so much time crafting the perfect sentence to leave as a legacy, and then you had to go and devastate my efforts by liberating yourself. Rude, is what it is! What a lack of consideration! Now I’ll have something dreadfully boring like...” She bit down on her lip and then moved her forehoof in a horizontal gesture. “Rarity the Unicorn, died as she lived, a deathly beauty.”

Twilight snorted. “A deathly beauty?”

“Hush you, it only needs a bit of work.”

“Just a bit of work? Right,” she said, giggling when Rarity pulled herself away, flipping her mane and stomping off in a huff.

“Well, here’s one for you, then!” she declared, turning around and shooting the Princess an awfully smug smirk. “Here lies Princess Twilight Sparkle, who made a dreadful habit out of this when she was alive, anyway!”

“Hey!” Twilight protested, following after Rarity as the latter exited. “I wasn’t dead! I was displaced in time! There’s a difference!”

Rarity’s laughter echoed into the mausoleum from outside, and Twilight allowed herself a playful roll of the eyes. She offered her parents one final silent goodbye before finally trotting out into the Resting Gardens, finding Cadance and a few guards waiting for her. A large trunk floated behind them.

“Time to go?” asked Cadance, her smile not completely hiding the sadness behind it.

“I’m afraid so, Princess,” said Rarity, apologetically. “The others must be waiting already, and we don’t want to be late.”

“We’ll come back soon,” Twilight said quickly, for her and Cadance’s sake. Though she was about to see Luna, it still pained her to leave Cadance after such a short visit. She turned to Rarity for confirmation. “Can’t we?”

“Darling, unless something monumental happens in the next few weeks, we can come whenever you’d like,” Rarity replied. “Or, rather, you can come whenever you’d like. Some of us have jobs, you know?”

“If you promise not to take too long to visit, I’ll be happy,” Cadance told Twilight, her sad smile turning warm. “And don’t forget to write to say hello or if you have any news about Auntie Luna.”

“I won’t!” Twilight said.

Rarity cleared her throat, eyeing the trunk one of the guards was holding. “Princess, are those…?”

Cadance nodded, and the guard stepped forward and placed the trunk before Twilight. Curious, the younger Princess opened it up and felt her heart skip a beat at the sight of the shattered remains of the three Element of Harmony orbs she remembered having seen through Rarity’s mind.

There they were.

The three rocks she hadn’t been able to find herself.

The three rocks that might have prevented her… her mistake.

“I thought you should have them,” Cadance said, levitating one of them and looking it over. “If anypony can figure out how to fix them, it’s you, Twilight.”

Twilight levitated another in her magic, examining the cracks and grooves of a seemingly ordinary rock. “Are there any others? Is it just these?”

“I don’t know,” Cadance replied, “but I don’t think there are.”

She gestured to the chest, and Twilight noticed a large rolled-up scroll tied up with a ribbon.

“I made a scroll for you with all the information we have about them. I had to read over nearly two hundred of my diaries, but everything I ever wrote down about them is in there.”

“Thank you.”

With care, Twilight returned the orb to the trunk, and after Cadance did the same, she closed it and took a breath. It felt like some sort of odd reprieve, to not have to see the symbols of past mistakes.

Cadance turned to two of her guards. “Illumination, Sketch, please go with Princess Twilight and Lady Rarity and carry the trunk.” She then turned to Rift. “Rift, can you please tell Breeze that Twilight and the others will be leaving now?”

Rift Shield faltered. “Er, yes, of course, Your Highness.”

“Well then!” Rarity said, gesturing towards the distant castle gate. “Shall we be on our way?”

Though Cadance nodded and she and the guards followed Rarity, Twilight’s attempt to do the same was cut short when Rift Shield cleared his throat.

“Uh, Princess Twilight, a moment, please.”

Twilight stopped, turning to the severe-looking guard. This was the first time she’d ever spoken with him privately, and she realized she did so with a certain amount of trepidation.

“Yes?”

Rift cleared his throat and took off his helmet, a gesture that only concerned Twilight all the more. “Princess, may I speak freely with you? I won’t be long,” he added when he saw her glance towards Rarity and the others in the distance.

Cornered, she drew herself up. “Yes.”

He paused for a moment, seemingly weighing his words. “Over the past two years, I’ve been helping Rarity and, well, growing close to her and… Princess Twilight, you are aware of my feelings for her, aren’t you?”

Twilight froze. Of all the topics she wanted to avoid with him, that had been it. Apprehension clawed at her, and questions filled her mind. She had been under the impression that all he had harbored towards Rarity had been nothing more than a crush, but like many other things, it seemed that had changed too.

“Princess,” he continued, “I wan—”

“Did something happen between the two of you?” she blurted out, the most prominent question begging to be answered. Was he telling her this to assert his desire to fight for Rarity?

Rift smiled, and Twilight’s worst fears were confirmed up until he spoke. “No,” he said, and Twilight felt what it was like to really truly be absolutely relieved. “Nothing happened between us. Rarity is as loyal to you, Princess, as Rainbow Dash is to Spike, and believe me when I say that’s saying something. There is only you,” he said, and his smile vanished entirely. “And that worries me, Princess.”

“Why?” Twilight asked, even though she less and less felt like wanting to know the answer. But she pushed on, expression hardening. “There’s nothing wrong with that. I love her too. I would do anything for her.”

“That’s the thing,” Rift said. “So would she.”

And again, starting to feel unsettled and aggravated, towards him and the voices that hissed that she did not deserve Rarity’s devotion, Twilight repeated her statement. “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

As if having noticed he’d crossed a line, Rift stepped back. “Princess, I’m not trying to attack your relationship with her,” he said. “But you need to understand. You would do anything for her, and so would she, but… I spent almost two years getting to know her, and… I’m worried of what anything could be.”

And now, Twilight’s perspective changed.

“Oh,” she said, remembering very vividly that moment long ago where a unicorn swore to solely dedicate her life to finding a way to free Twilight.

“Twilight! Rift Shield!”

Twilight turned around to find Rarity waving at them, Cadance and the others waiting for them.

“Are you two done raving on about how wonderful I am?” Rarity called out, completely unaware of how close her joke was to the truth. “We will be late!”

She watched her, the unicorn who she would do anything for, who had time and time again proven to know the way back to her, and as her eyes landed on the glowing necklace on Rarity’s neck, the reply to Rift’s dilemma came to her without further thought.

“I trust her,” she said to Rift with finality, lifting her hoof and putting it over her necklace. “No matter what anything is.”
After a moment’s silence, he grinned and put on his helmet.

“Guess that explains why she picked you,” he said. “Glad to see she’s in good hooves.”

“Glad to see I’m in good hooves?!”

Echoing through Canterlot city, Rarity’s indignant remark drew the attention of several onlookers as she led Twilight towards the modern carriage station.

“Rarity! I didn’t tell you so you would scream it to everypony!” Twilight whispered urgently, smiling awkwardly at the guards trailing behind. She then turned her flustered gaze back to her marefriend. “And he is right, you know.”

“He’s right?!” Rarity gasped, turning to Twilight with a hoof on her chest. “What about, pray tell?! About me being a damsel in distress that needs to be in somepony’s good hooves? Twilight Sparkle, if you agree with that, you and I need to have a very long, very severe talk!”

“I didn’t mean that part!” Twilight said. “I meant that he is right to worry about how, well, reckless you can be.”

Rarity turned to her and fluttered her eyelashes. “I do believe the word you meant is dashingly heroic, not ‘reckless’.”

“That’s two words,” Twilight pointed out, “and no, I did mean reckless. You once went into dragon-filled caves alone in the middle of the night!”

“And I found Spike and ended up recovering stolen merchandise! Do find a better example, darling.”

“All right,” Twilight said, keeping up pace with Rarity, “you then later confronted a dragon lord and then bluffed your way out by saying I would come for him!”

“Bluffing implies I was lying,” Rarity replied nonchalantly, as she swung her tail to the side and captured Twilight’s in it. “If that awful dragon had eaten me, wouldn’t you have come looking for revenge?” At Twilight’s silence, she giggled. “Point proven.”

Twilight furrowed her brow. “What about the timberwolf? When you went into the forest under the curse and…”

And at that, Rarity faltered. “W-well! Well, it was a brave rescue attempt!” she defended, losing some of her earlier playfulness. “That doesn’t mean I’m reckless!”

“No, but running away from your friends and going back in with an injured leg is,” Twilight shot back, drawing out an intense whine from her beloved.

“Twilight! Really, it’s like you want me to feel bad about every decision I make!” she said, coming to a stop and glaring at the alicorn. “Don’t you think I haven’t ruminated on the consequences of my decisions enough already?”

Twilight stopped, realizing perhaps she’d overstepped, and quickly tried to make amends. “I’m just worried…”

Rarity offered a pained smile. “I know, my darling, but now that you’re here, I don’t have to be reckless, hm?” she said, using her forehoof to lift Twilight’s chin. “In fact,” she continued, moving her hoof away, “I do believe it’s my turn to swoon as you perform recklessly heroic deeds to impress me.”

“Like what?” Twilight asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Well, I don’t know, Princess! That’s up to you to figure out, and me to swoon over,” Rarity said, tapping Twilight’s nose before trotting off. “But…” She dropped the playfulness. “I promise I will try to be dashingly heroic in ways you approve of, all right?”

Twilight smiled. “Thank you.” Feeling better, she looked towards the distant station. “Come on! We don’t want to miss the chariot.”

“Chariot?” Rarity asked with a mischievous smile. “I do think you mean train.”

“Train?!” gasped Twilight, her wings ruffling under her cloak. “Are we finally taking a train today?!”

Rarity grinned. “I did promise we would, did I not?”

A loud, booming distant whistle answered her question—a sound Twilight had never heard—and before Rarity could stop her, she had already galloped past the unicorn and towards the station Twilight had formerly assumed contained chariots.

She galloped into the large building connected to the mountainside and found herself inside a building of unfamiliar design. In the vast hall salesponies stood behind stalls, calling out for travelers to buy snacks, drinks, and magazines to read; ponies of all ages and genders walked past the Princess, rushing off towards the different parts of the station or looking up at the massive board listing out destinations and times. Manehattan, Trottingham, Rainbow Falls, Ponyville, Dodge Junction, and Hollow Shades, among others. Places she’d known of since meeting Rarity, and places which she thought she would never be able to see for herself.

“Hurry, children! Get in line, or we’ll miss the train!”

She turned around, finding a mare rushing three fillies off towards these strange contraptions with turning bars guarded by ponies in red uniforms. She quickly followed after them all the way up until she was standing in line behind them, waiting for her turn to be allowed onto the platform. However, as their turn approached, she noticed ponies presenting a small paper she did not have. She turned around, hoping to find the source of the tickets. Instead, however, she found that about twelve ponies now stood behind her, all looking very rushed and very irritable and probably wouldn’t be willing to save her spot in line as she tried to get a ticket.

The line moved again, and the uniformed pony threw a look their way, prompting the mare and her children to take out their tickets. He then turned to Twilight with a raised eyebrow that remained all the way up until it was her turn to cross the device.

“Miss. Your ticket.”

“Uhm.” When the gatekeeper’s brow furrowed and a stallion behind her grunted, Twilight grinned. “Where do I get tickets?” Ponies behind her groaned again, the gatekeeper gestured for her to leave, and she yelped in reply. “No, wait, wait!” she exclaimed, looking around and sighing with relief as the solution quite literally walked through the door.

A hue of magic enveloped her horn, and not a second later, a shrill shriek echoed throughout the train station, drawing the attention of everypony towards the scandalized unicorn soaring through the air.

“Twilight Sparkle! For Denza’s sake, will you stop doing this?!” Rarity yelled, finally huffing at Twilight when the alicorn stopped her unexpected flight right on top of the gatekeeper.

“We need tickets,” Twilight said helpfully, looking up at her scowling marefriend, and she was pleased when, even if she did so with a loud huff, Rarity opened her saddlebag and retrieved two tickets. Twilight quickly took them in her magic, not bothering to put Rarity down, and then hoofed the tickets over to the gatekeeper. “Here you are, sir.”

“…Go on,” he said after a moment’s inspection, his eyes fixed on the weary unicorn as she patiently waited for a fascinated Twilight to push her way past the odd device.

“Rarity!” she exclaimed once she’d moved past. “What’s—”

“A turnstile,” Rarity answered before she could finish, now holding onto her saddlebag as she floated sideways. “Darling, I don’t know if you’ve realized Princess Cadance’s trunk is still halfw—Well then,” she said, watching as Twilight effortlessly levitated the two guards and the trunk all the way over and past the turnstiles, much to the delight and surprise of the many ponies watching the casual display of magical prowess.

“Wa-Wait, their tickets!” boomed the gatekeeper. “They need to present tickets! They need to present their tickets!”

Ignoring Rarity’s immense sigh, Twilight carefully placed the guards on the other side of the gate, thanked them for their help and then went on her determined way, levitating the trunk and Rarity further into the station.

It wasn’t until a few minutes later that the Princess finally reached her coveted destination in the shape of a fantastically huge vehicle called a train. Large carriages were linked together via metallic locks, every one decorated with several windows from which ponies peered outside at the platforms. How did it work? Was it being powered by steam? Or by fire? Or magic? Probably magic, as magic was clearly the most efficient source of energy, but—!

“Rarity!” she exclaimed, her mind already lining up the three dozen questions she wanted to ask. “Rarity, how—”

A book interrupted her.

Specifically, a book Rarity levitated before her, entitled The Great Railroad Revolution: The History of Trains in Equestria.

“I don’t see the others,” Rarity said, using her unusual position as a good vantage point to scour the station, “which means they’re already inside the train and, if all went according to plan, secured you the half-hour long interview with the conductor of the train.” She then looked down towards the alicorn and fluttered her eyelashes. “Twilight, I know you’re excited, but it’s not becoming of a Princess to have her mouth hanging open like that.”

Nearly an entire notebook.

Nearly an entire notebook had been filled in with notes, quotes, remarks, sketches, and stray thoughts that Twilight had jotted down during the two hour long interview she’d had with the train’s elderly conductor, Steam Stack. After that, she’d spent another hour interviewing train passengers, visited the restaurant compartment, was dragged out of said compartment by Rarity, went back in with Ink and Pinkie, was allowed into the train’s engine room, remembered what it felt like to be burned by coals, made notes on the experience, went back to the restaurant... In fact, she had been so enthralled, so transfixed, and so taken by this entirely new marvelous world, she had forgotten all about the fact she was about to meet Princess Luna.

Well, she forgot up until she stepped out of the train and into the shadowy train station of the hidden village.

“We’re here! We’re here, we’re here, we’re here!”

Pinkie’s voice boomed through the small station, every word accentuated with an enthused skip, hop and pirouette. She screeched to a halt in the middle of the platform, and Twilight couldn’t help but smile when the eager pink pony waved wildly at her, as though she’d been waiting on the platform rather than having taken the train with them.

The first thing Twilight noticed were the surroundings. Tall, imposing trees rose above them, whatever shade they threw over the town paling in comparison to the one that Foal Mountain brought, looming over the town like an immutable protector. Twilight, in a way, was reminded of her own forest back home, and though it was a truthfully unpleasant initial thought, she also knew that Hollow Shades was not like the Everfree Forest. No scary spirit or prison-like library awaited her there.

Next, as she walked towards Pinkie, trunk floating behind, she noticed the ponies walking about and, most of all, the black cloaks they wore. Another fascinating detail, she thought. Another perception shifted, as the symbol she had associated with Rarity’s scars and near-death was worn by these ponies as a sign of pride and communality.

She turned back towards the train, watching as Rarity and Incantation descended moments later, the latter having spent the train ride transformed as an ochre-coated unicorn with a braided blue mane.

“When is Spike arriving?” asked Twilight when the two mares joined Pinkie and her. “And the others?”

“According to Rainbow, it should take them a week to get here, not including naps and pit-stops,” Rarity said. “Applejack and Fluttershy had to go back to their jobs in Ponyville, and the Professor will return whenever he’s done with his affairs in the castle.”

“Come on! Why are you sillies talking here like sillies?!” Pinkie asked, bouncing towards the little group. “Princess Luna is waiting! Aren’t you excited to see Princess Luna, Princess Twilight?!”

“I am!” Twilight replied, even if she later faltered. “And she’s excited to see me too...?”

Pinkie stared at the alicorn as though she’d been slapped. “Is she excited to see you?! She’s TOTALLY super excited! It’s all she’s talked about the entire week!”

Incantation snorted. “You haven’t talked to Princess Luna for more than a week, Chief.”

Pinkie blew raspberries and then tapped Incantation on the nose. “I still know she’s been excited the entire week, you silly billy.”

“There’s nothing to be worried about, dearest,” said Rarity to Twilight. “I can promise you that no matter how worried you are about Princess Luna, she’s just as worried. And, before I forget…” She turned her sights to the changeling, expression softening. “Come now, Ink. You know what you must do,” she said and immediately Incantation’s cheery disposition shifted into a fairly uncomfortable-looking one.

“But… I mean… We just got here…” she said, grimacing like a filly ordered to take nasty medicine and stepping back. “Come on, Boss…”

“Aw, Rarity,” Pinkie said, going to the changeling and throwing a foreleg around her. “Can’t she stay like this just a little bit?”

Rarity winced. “Ink, darling, you know—”

Ink interrupted. “Yeah, I know, Boss, but—”

“Wait, wait!” Twilight interrupted, wanting to understand whatever unsaid conversation was happening right before her. “I don’t understand. What’s wrong with Incantation?”

“I’m a changeling,” Ink said sourly, and Rarity frowned.

“There’s nothing wrong with that, Incantation, and I would appreciate if you refrained from saying that at all.” She turned to Twilight and sighed. “As you know, Incantation is the first changeling to try and properly live amongst ponies. Well, that also implies living as a changeling, not masquerading as a pony.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “They know you’re a changeling?” she asked, and Ink nodded.

“Yeah,” she said, “and they don’t like me.”

“Yes, they do!” Pinkie protested, stamping her hoof against the floor. “Storytimes with Ink are the BEST nights of the week! Every foal comes for that!”

“And every adult comes too, just to make sure the scary changeling doesn’t act out,” Ink replied flatly.

Twilight felt her heart drop. “They’re afraid of you,” she said, a statement if only because no pony corrected her.

“They don’t know better, darling,” Rarity interjected firmly. “Just like they don’t know better about Princess Luna.”

Incantation’s ears dropped. “I know,” she said before shaking her head, taking a breath and grinning widely. “I’m fine now! Sorry, Bosses and Princess.” She then grinned at Rarity. “Let me stay like this until the shop, and I’ll do you the favor of organizing the wardrobes.”

“Do me the favor?! I pay you to do it!” Rarity exclaimed as Pinkie and Incantation gave each other a conspiratorial glance before running away in a fit of giggles. “Incantation?! Incantation! Pinkie Pie, don’t encourage this, for pony’s sake!” However, they were soon out of sight, and her displeasure was not alleviated when Twilight leaned in to nuzzle her. “Those two will be the death of me.”

“I like them,” said Twilight, walking in the direction the mares had gone off to. It wasn’t until Rarity was besides her that she spoke up again, tone more somber. “Are they really very afraid of her?”

Rarity sighed. “Not at first. When she first arrived, everypony loved her. She tells stories, you know? With her imitation abilities and the like. You should see her, it’s really something. I keep telling her she should pursue acting.” She licked her lips. “Regardless, everything was going well, until, well… somepony read up on changelings. One pony, Twilight, one pony is all it took, and next thing you know, ‘Princess Denza’ had to come here to promise dozens of parents personally that Incantation wasn’t here to harm their children.”

“That’s terrible…”

“It is what it is, but Incantation is frightfully good at taking it in stride most of the time,” Rarity replied, “though now you see that there is so much more at stake than just freeing Princess Luna and the others.”

As they continued their walk towards Rarity and Pinkie’s boutique, Twilight mostly entertained herself with admiring the village. The constellation designs on the homes were certainly very appealing, and despite the darkness the village was submerged in, the torches and friendly ponies brightened it up tremendously.

And the foals, as well, who all seemed excessively fond of Rarity.

As they walked on, many of the foals rushing around would stop and wave at them, saying hasty hellos before rushing off to continue their games. Some of them, even, seemed to stare at Twilight for a moment before giggling and running away.

“You’re, uh, very popular with foals?”

“Not to worry,” Rarity replied. “You’ll see why.”

“See why?” Twilight asked, blinking when Rarity came to a stop and pointed to the horizon.

“That is why.”

A tall building came up before Twilight in the distance, different from the Hollow Shades aesthetic yet somehow perfectly fitting in. She had seen it before, in one of the framed photos back in Carousel Boutique, but to see it in person was another thing entirely. There it was, Lullaby’s Dreamland, looking as though Luna had whisked Carousel Boutique away and re-modeled it in her own image. Much like the other houses in the village, the building’s blue walls were decorated with bright yellow star designs. Fake clouds lined the building’s exterior, stars and moons hanging from them in perfectly even intervals.

Finally, atop the large crystalline doors, was an oval painting depicting a very familiar lunar Princess.

“It’s quite something, isn’t it?” Rarity asked, pride soaking her every word as she moved toward the building. “Come now, Pinkie and Incantation must be inside already.”

Twilight followed, soaking up the design of the boutique up until they reached the crystal doors that barred them from the Dreamland. The first thing she noticed was the fact that there were two sets of crescent-moon shaped doorknobs, one at normal height and one at the exact height for a colt or filly to use.

“After you, Princess,” said Rarity, stepping back and gesturing toward the doors.

“Thank you,” Twilight said with a smile, intending on pushing open the doors had a deafening yell not interrupted her.

“Rarity!”

Twilight turned around and saw a little pegasus filly in a blue dress rushing towards them, an older pegasus mare and a unicorn colt following behind.

“Rarity!” yelled the filly, practically tripping over herself and screeching to halt before the unicorn. “You’re back! You’re back!”

“My, my, if it isn’t Princess Rhinestone!” Rarity exclaimed, bowing her head while Twilight set down the trunk with the elements. “Your Highness, what an honor to see you again. And, might I add, what a fabulous ensemble you’re wearing!” She fluttered her eyelashes. “You simply must tell me, Your Highness, who designed that fabulous dress?”

Rhinestone giggled. “You did, silly!”

Rarity gasped theatrically, lifting a hoof and placing not on her own chest, but Twilight’s. “Moooooooi?!I designed that marvel of a dress?! I simply can’t believe it! Did I truly?” She turned to Twilight. “Darling, look at it! I designed that! A dress for a princess!”

The older mare started laughing. “It really is a beautiful dress, Rarity,” she said, looking down at her daughter fondly. “I don’t think Rhy will ever want to wear her cloak again!” She then turned back to Rarity, intent on speaking, but her eyes landed on Twilight instead and she smiled widely. “And if it isn’t Princess Twilight! Out of the library, I see?”

Twilight stared at her. How did…? But…? What…?

“Uh, hello,” eloquently said the Princess, throwing Rarity a concerned glance and instead finding the unicorn very quiet and very focused, her eyebrow slightly furrowed.

“Mom!” chastised the colt, finally speaking up, rolling his eyes and groaning. “That’s not the real Princess Twilight!” He buried his face in his hooves. “Ugh.”

The mare laughed. “Oh, Dusk, let me have fun!”

“Actually...” Rarity drifted off, her brow furrowing further and her forehoof lifting to her necklace. She regarded Twilight thoughtfully for a moment before clearing her throat and flashing the mare and foals a brilliant smile. “Actually,” she said, “this is indeed Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Rarity!” she whispered urgently. “I thought we weren’t going to…” She drifted off at the curious stares of the three strangers and resigned herself to giving her grinning marefriend a pointed stare.

“Stop it, Ink!” Dusk said with a smile, trotting forward and tugging on Twilight’s cloak. “Come on! Show mom!”

Twilight cleared her throat, unsure of how to act. “Well, uh…” Again, she threw Rarity a pained glance, who again only smiled cryptically in reply. “I’m not Incantation.”

“Yes, you are!” said the colt.

Rhy poked Twilight on the foreleg. “Stop being silly, Inky! Rarity told us that the real Princess Twilight is fighting monsters in her library!” she added, much to the delight of her mother.

“Fighting monsters in her library?” said the mother, now leaning down to her kids. “With her big army of bunnies and owls!” She then looked up at Twilight and winked. “Isn’t that right, Princess?”

“...Yes?” Twilight said, throwing Rarity another helpless pointed glance.

Rarity cleared her throat, drawing the attention of everypony. “You don’t believe me?” She moved towards the boutique’s crystal doors, pushing them open and peering inside. “Incantaaaaation? Your presence is needed outside!”

Moments later, the door swung open and Rarity stepped aside to let a familiar changeling through.

“Oh! Rhy and Dusk! Always first in line for cupcakes. Pinkie just—What’s wrong?” she asked, following the two gawking foals line of sight and ending at Twilight herself. Her eyes flickered from the stunned foals, to Twilight, and to Rarity’s meaningful gaze and she quickly said, “Oh, Princess Twilight! Welcome to Lullaby’s Dreamland!”

“Uh, thank you,” Twilight said.

The mother frowned. “Oh, dear! Rarity, I…” She turned to Rarity and gave her a clearly pained smile. “I… You didn’t tell us we’d be having another… uh… special visitor!”

“I’m not a changeling,” Twilight said before Rarity could do so.

The mare laughed awkwardly, her gaze going to the still starry-eyed foals. “O-Of course you aren’t! You’re Princess Twilight!”

It was Rhinestone who reacted first, her wide eyes now turning to suspicious slits. “If you’re really Princess Twilight,” she said, “where’s your crown?”

“My crown?” Twilight asked, panic rising in her. She turned to Rarity, horrified. “Rarity! Where’s the Element of Harmony?! Do you still have it?! You still have it, don’t you? Tell me you—”

“Yes, I have it,” Rarity replied, digging into her saddlebags and carefully extracting the golden tiara adorned with Twilight’s cutie mark, much to the Princess’s relief and to Rhinestone’s awed delight. Rarity levitated the crown down towards the filly who in turn seemed almost afraid to touch it.

Her brother, however, had no such reservations.

“Cooool!” he exclaimed, taking the crown in his hoof and immediately putting it on before beaming towards the others, the oversized crown lopsided atop his head. “It fits me!”

“It does!” said the mother. “All you need is a suit, and you’ll be my handsome prince!”

“Or a Princess!” Rhinestone interjected. “Princesses are cooler!”

Dusk frowned and looked at Twilight. “Can I fight in a dress, Princess?”

Twilight blinked. “I… It depends on the make of the dress? But you can, yes.”

“Princess Twilight!” exclaimed Rhy, leaving her brother to muse on the art of the fashionable war and now tugged at Twilight’s cloak. “Why does your cloak have Rarity’s cutie mark?” She gasped and then pressed her hooves against her mouth, giggling as she eyed the two mares. “Do you… like-like her?”

Incantation snickered. “She does way more than like-like her. She—mmph!”

“Twilight,” Rarity quickly said, her magic proving to be an effective muzzle for the changeling. “Why not show them your wings?”

Awkwardly, Twilight undid her cloak’s clasp and then took it off, allowing her long wings to stretch out, again to the delight of the foals.

“Can I touch them?!” begged Rhinestone, already hoofing up at them and then gasping softly when Twilight acquiesced. “They’re so soft…”

Twilight smiled proudly. “Rarity showed me a strange liquid called shampoo to help maintain them.”

“Now, children, listen to me,” Rarity said suddenly, leaning down and speaking in a low hush. “Nopony knows Princess Twilight is here. This is our secret, understood?”

The siblings nodded gravely.

“Splendid!” exclaimed Rarity, drawing herself up. “Now, what can we do for you?”

Rhinestone cleared her throat, stepping back. “Uhm. I wanted to… go somewhere.”

“Me too,” said Dusk, similarly stepping back.

“Bye!” they both yelled, running off into town.

“Kids!” called the mother, stepping towards the foals.

“Goodbye…?” Twilight called out before turning to Rarity. “Did I do something?”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Rarity said, waving her off. “They’ll be back.”

“And the rest of the town’s foals,” Incantation added.

Twilight blinked. “Uh. All right, then,” she said, looking back towards the foals before yelping in horror. “Wait!” she gasped, running off in hot pursuit of the Element of Harmony currently rushing off towards the unknown. “WAIT! MY CROWN!”

Once she returned, crown levitating behind her, she finally placed the Element on her head, feeling very much as though royalty had once again been imposed on her.

“Well,” said the mother, smiling kindly at Twilight. “I’m sure that Rarity, er, discussed your visit with the Princess then?” She then turned to Incantation and quickly added, “Not that we mind, of course! The more the merrier!”

Incantation smiled thinly. “Of course! Anyway, I need to go inside to finish stuff,” she said before retreating into the boutique, her smile disappearing as she did so.

Once she was gone, Rarity turned to the mare. “Amethyst, Twilight here is a very real pony,” she explained carefully. “Incantation has been transforming as her.”

Amethyst blinked. “Oh? Oh!” she said, and Twilight was upset on Ink’s behalf to find the mare looking visibly relieved at the fact that she was not a changeling. “Oh, in that case, welcome to Hollow Shades!” Her wings ruffled at her side. “I’ve never seen prosthetic wings like yours before. They actually look real!” Before Twilight could inform that they were real, the mare met her eyes. “Your name is…?”

“Twilight,” Twilight replied.

“Really? Oh, you’ll fit right in here then! A lot of ponies here were also named after the Princesses, actually.” She giggled. “Dusk, for example was named after the original Princess Twilight. I assume you were too, then?”

Twilight blinked. “...That would be technically accurate.”

“Well, I’m sure Princess Twilight would be flattered! Dusk is very proud of his name, you know. And speaking of which…” She looked in the direction her children had run off to. “I better go after them.”

“Well, Amethyst, it was lovely seeing you again,” Rarity said, bowing her head. “Pinkie and I are back from our little trip, so the shop shall be open until further notice.”

“Oh, that’s great! I know several of my friends were starting to have cupcake-withdrawals.” Amethyst smiled and nodded to Twilight. “It was very nice to meet you…” She winked. “Princess Twilight.”

Twilight smiled politely. “Of course. You have wonderful children,” she said, and then watched in silence as the mare trotted off, waiting until she was out of earshot to say, “Hm.”

“Darliiiing.” Rarity lifted Twilight’s chin. “Did you think it would be easy? Ponies readily willing to believe ponytales are more than just ponytales?”

“You did,” Twilight pointed out.

“I did,” Rarity said, turning towards the doors, “and I also wasn’t under the influence of chaos magic my entire life, unlike every single resident of this town. You know very well what it can do, and more than that, what it convinces ponies they are seeing. I saw sinkholes and illusions littered throughout the Everfree Forest, and they… well...” She brushed her hoof across Twilight’s wings. “They see ‘prosthetic wings’. I could have you fly across town, and the magic will give them any justification to keep them from believing.”

“What about Incantation? Changelings have nothing to do with Discord and they treat her like--"

“Incantation knows this is a process that will take time and effort,” Rarity interrupted. She cleared her throat. “Now, shall we go inside? Nighttime is still hours away, so I do think a tour will be a splendid way to pass the time until your meeting with the Princess.”

Twilight tore her eyes away from where Amethyst had gone off to and turned to the boutique, shaking off the bad sensations. Determined to not let her mood be ruined, she took hold of the doorknobs and pushed the doors open, making a big show out of cautiously stepping inside if only for Rarity’s enjoyment.

Whatever discomfort she’d been feeling evaporated as she took in the entrance hall. Several doors could be found all around, as well as a grand staircase with two small Luna statues at the bottom of the railings. What interested Twilight, however, were the foyer’s navy walls, decorated with every little object that could be found in Princess Luna’s starry domain: planets and moons surrounded by innumerable stars and constellations.

Twilight made her way toward the walls, surprised to see the positions of the stars were almost entirely accurate to the real ones. The only thing that stood out, actually, was a very foallike drawing of Pinkie Pie throwing a party on a planet.

“Oh, dear, I forgot to erase that from last time,” Rarity murmured, having joined Twilight near the wall. She levitated over a rectangular wooden block with green fur on one side and then used it to erase the drawing, leaving only the image of the planet.

“Did you do that?” Twilight asked, surprised. “The drawing?”

“Me? Oh, goodness no, it’s the children who do.” She gestured towards a trunk filled with dozens of multicolored sticks. “Every inch of this place is coated with chalk-friendly material for the foals. We have a celest—lunar event every so often where the foals learn about astronomy and form constellations.” She giggled and gestured towards a constellation depicting a five-horned unicorn on the other side of the foyer. “They can be, er, quite creative.”

A few feet to the left of the quinticorn, Twilight felt her heart skip a beat at the sight of closed yellow double-doors bearing Princess Celestia’s cutie mark. No sooner had she seen it was she already rushing to it.

“What’s this room for?” she asked as she walked, looking back to the unicorn and then following her gesture towards an inscription atop the door.

“...Princess Celestia’s Bakery?” Twilight asked, turning back to Rarity now with less wonder and more confusion.

Rarity coughed politely, hanging her saddlebags on one of the foal-sized coat hangers. “According to Princess Luna, Princess Celestia spent her days, as she puts it, scavenging the castle’s larders. She was very insistent this be the room named after her.”

Twilight rubbed a hoof on her forehead. Really, Princess Luna? Really?

“Well? Go in!” Rarity prompted, walking towards her. “Let us not keep Pinkie waiting.”

It was difficult to properly define the variety of smells that assaulted Twilight when she pushed the doors open. It was difficult to properly define them with any other word that wasn’t either heavenly or delectable or impossibly enticing. Rarity’s voice faded into the background, drowned out by Twilight’s gurgling stomach as it drove her across the room, past the small pink tables set around and to the counter at the end of the room where Pinkie awaited with a wide grin.

A menu was placed on the counter, blocking Twilight’s view of the assorted pastries caged inside the transparent counter.

“So, Princess Twilight,” asked Pinkie with a giggle. “What can I get you? Everything?”

‘Everything’ was Twilight’s first thought as well but, remembering Rarity was present, she smiled politely and gestured to the single most enticing cupcake she could see.

“Just that one, please,” she said, ignoring her stomach’s scandalized protest in favor of basking in Rarity’s delighted smile.

“Just one?” Pinkie asked with a gasp.

“Just one,” Twilight replied.

“Really?”

“Yes, just one please.”

“But—! But—!” Pinkie turned her sights to Rarity, eyes narrowed as she simultaneously took out the single cupcake. “Oki-doki-loki.”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” Rarity said, rolling her eyes. She levitated a napkin from a nearby table over to Twilight before turning around. “Come on! The tour must go on!”

Twilight’s gaze followed Rarity, and it wasn’t until the unicorn had left the room that she quickly turned back to Pinkie.

“Pinkie, I—”

“I’ll have one of everything on the menu waiting in your room for you,” she cut-off with a grin, lifting her hoof and tapping Twilight’s nose. “Plus a cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows.”

Twilight’s heart and stomach soared. “But what about Ra—”

Again, Pinkie cut her off. “Oh, you can eat them when Rarity’s taking her weekly three-hour long bath!”

“Three-hour long bath?!” Twilight gasped.

Pinkie nodded. “Yep!” she exclaimed, looking over Twilight for signs of the unicorn before leaning in close to whisper. “Used to be five-and-a-half, but then we got our first water bill. She reeeeeeally didn’t like that.”

A voice called from outside.

“Twiiiiiilight!” Rarity called. “When you’re done conspiring, shall we continue the tour?”

After making her way to the foyer with an only mildly satisfied stomach and the insistence that she was not conspiring, Twilight joined her marefriend, who waited for her next to another set of double-doors. These, however, were painted pink and bore Cadance’s cutie mark.

“Princess Cadance’s Theatre,” Twilight read aloud from the inscription above the doors.

“I would love to show you inside,” Rarity said, patting on the doors, “but it would seem a certain changeling”—She turned towards the doors and raised her voice—”decided to be an utter slob while we were away!”

“I’m cleaning, I’m cleaning!”

“What’s upstairs?” asked Twilight, moving away from the door and towards the grand staircases. She took a moment to inspect the statues before climbing up towards the second floor where she found two double-doors, one single door, and a spiral staircase going up.

“That leads to the observatory,” Rarity pointed out, gesturing to the spiral staircase before grinning and gesturing towards lavender-colored double doors with Twilight’s cutie mark painted on them. “And that is Princess Twilight’s Library.”

As it turned out, the name was indeed very accurate, and in ways that made Twilight’s heart both soar and whimper. She was, for all intents and purposes, staring into a much smaller version of her own library’s first floor. Nearby tables, she noticed, all had owl-shaped inkwells with matching quills. The bookcases were organized in distinctive patterns, and as she strode through them, she was delighted to find the books organized in the appropriate Starswirl the Bearded Decimal System, as well as several perches for owl to stand on.

“We didn’t have floating chandeliers, but we tried our best,” Rarity said, drawing Twilight’s attention to the grand chandelier on the ceiling, which itself hung from what seemed to be several dozen nearly-transparent strings.

The walls, Twilight noticed, had been decorated much like the foyer, but rather than stars and planets, it had been filled with owls and baby dragons, interspersed with quotes from books.

When she finally returned to the entrance, tears sparkled in her eyes.

“Twilight, what’s wrong?” Rarity asked with alarm, but Twilight simply shook her head and wiped away the tears.

“Nothing’s wrong,” she said, looking back towards the library, a swirl of emotions running through her mind and body. The idea that the library that had for so long represented her prison was ultimately what others loved and associated with her in a positive way; she didn’t know how to feel about it, and so she decided not to dwell on it at all. “Uhm, wh-what’s next?”

Though still clearly concerned, Rarity did not press the matter. “Errr, what’s next? Oh, I know!” she exclaimed, turning around and guiding Twilight out of the room

They re-entered the hallway and Twilight followed Rarity towards an adjacent set of blue double-doors, sewing machines painted on them. Above the doors, in elegant white calligraphy, was the name The Royal Dressing Room.

The doors swung open with Rarity’s magic and Twilight stepped into a place that could only be described as wonderfully Rarity. An organized chaos of fabrics strewn about, of sketches and designs pasted all over the walls, of racks and racks filled with all sorts of foal and adult sized clothes, and a platform in the middle for ponies to model on.

More than the library room, she realized, that was the only room in the entire building that she felt completely familiar and comfortable in. The only room, perhaps, in which she felt safe to be herself.

“It’s a bit of a mess,” said Rarity, picking up some envelopes from her desk and looking them over. “I always tell that filly to leave the mail downstairs and she always…” She drifted off, extracting an envelope decorated with an owl stamp and then placing the others back on the table.

“And she always what?” Twilight asked.

Rarity did not reply, instead opening the envelope and reading the letter inside. She mumbled under her breath as she did so and just as Twilight was about to inquire on it, a grand smile curved her lips.

Twilight stepped forward, curious. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes, it is! Just a message from a friend,” she said, slipping the letter back in the envelope and placing it with the others. She then turned back to Twilight. “In any case, this has been my workshop for a little over a year now.”

“It’s very you,” Twilight replied, moving towards the unicorn to nuzzle her.

“I do hope you mean that as a compliment.”

“I do,” Twilight replied, placing her chin atop the unicorn’s head. “Mostly.”

“Mostly?” Rarity huffed theatrically. “Well then!”

Twilight laughed, listening to Rarity’s grumbling as she again looked around the room, admiring the sketches on the walls. Or, she would have if she’d not noticed a single spot of the room that was decidedly un-Rarity-like.

Inside an alcove at the end of the room was a large circular window, a ray of sunshine filtering in through it keeping warm the assortment of pillows and blankets at the bottom of the alcove. It beckoned to her, and she found herself moving away from Rarity and towards this spot that seemed to have been made just for her.

“Is this where you sleep?” asked Twilight, approaching the alcove and finding that the inner walls of it doubled as bookshelves.

“Oh, goodness, no,” replied Rarity, still watching from afar. “I only rarely sit there, I must confess. I have a hard time relaxing in the same place where I work.”

Twilight jumped up on the sill and lay down, finding herself awash with an indescribable sense of comfort. It was ridiculously cozy, she thought, and more than that, it reminded her of what she loved to do most when she’d still been trapped in her library: listen to the low hum of Rarity’s sewing machine as she read.

“Then why have this?” Twilight asked, grabbing a pillow and fluffing it, stopping only to frown at Rarity’s teasing expression. “What?”

“Well,” Rarity began, carefully and slowly, “I recall a certain alicorn loved to read while I worked, and… And I suppose I never lost hope that she might one day visit.”

Silence filled the room as Twilight put the pillow down, unsure of what to say or what to do.

“Rarity, I…”

“There’s not many books,” Rarity said, gesturing towards the shelves, “but I personally am rather fond of them.”

Twilight looked towards the bookshelves, pleased to find she recognized some of them. She levitated one over and was surprised to see they looked brand new despite being books written in her own time period. It was oddly satisfying to know the knowledge from her own time was still valid in the present.

“Oh, I really like these,” she said, turning back to Rarity with an eager smile. “Thank you.”

“It’s my pleasure, Twilight,” Rarity said again, a soft smile on her lips. “They are yours, after all.”

And, again, as Twilight’s eyes widened, so did silence fall over the room.

She looked down at the book, an ancient book that looked brand new, and brushed her hoof against the cover, almost afraid to open it and find out. An eternity seemed to pass, Rarity waiting in silence, until finally she opened the cover and her own familiar calligraphy stared back at her.

Property of Princess Twilight Sparkle

She looked back up, back towards the arch, levitating a second book and opening it to find the sentence waiting for her again, and again in the third, and the fourth, and the fifth until fourteen books were spread before her, every single one bearing her name.

All of them intact, all of them there, and Celestia’s spell still protecting them when teardrops fell upon them.

“There’s two missing still,” Rarity continued. “I was ready to sell Carousel Boutique in order to pay what one pony was asking for one of them, but it was worth it if it meant freeing you.”

“But… But why?” Twilight asked. “Discord said that—”

“I know,” Rarity interrupted, finally moving towards her and sitting next to her on the floor, taking one of the books and brushing a hoof over the inscription. “I know he said these wouldn’t free you, but…” She turned back to Twilight, eyes meeting. “As I said, I never lost hope.”

“I… I don’t know what to say.”

Rarity leaned in and kissed the ever-willing alicorn. “I believe a simple ‘thank you’ will suffice,” she said when she pulled apart, afterwards moving in to cuddle the alicorn. “And moving aside, as well. This spot looks far too comfortable for you to have it all for yourself.”

No sooner was Rarity comfortably propped against her, Twilight wasted no time putting the books away so she could focus on snuggling the unicorn, enveloping both her forelegs and wings around Rarity. Affection pulsed through her, like little jolts of electricity only to intensify when she breathed in the comforting scent of Rarity’s perfume. Rarity sighed next to her, safe and protected and back in her home that Twilight was quickly growing to love.

“What… What would you have done?” Twilight asked, suddenly. “If you’d found all the books while I was still in the library?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Rarity said airily. “Cry, I think. Cry and then march straight into that tunnel, throw them at that damned barrier and hope for the best.”

Twilight couldn’t help but laugh at the image of an irate Rarity chucking the books against the barrier. She snuggled closer to her, closing her eyes and sighing in contentment, feeling as though she could easily stay there for endless hours.

“As comfortable as this may be, shall we continue with the tour?” Rarity asked, and Twilight replied not with words but actions, her horn glowing and the door in the distance closing and locking soon after.

“Why, Princess Twilight Sparkle,” Rarity murmured, turning around to face Twilight with a sultry smile, her forehoof lazily brushing Twilight’s cheek. “I suppose that answers my question.”

“I suppose it does,” Twilight replied with a grin, leaning into her marefriend and revelling in being so close against her. How fantastic, it was, how new and exciting it still was to be able to hold her, and kiss her, and love her, and equally be very thoroughly annoyed by the sudden knocking at the door, forcing her to pull away from Rarity and glare at the door.

“Rarity?” Pinkie tentatively called from outside, and Twilight heard the unicorn beneath her hold her breath and keep quiet. Pinkie, however, was undeterred and she knocked even louder. “Rarity, we kiiiiinda need help with cleaning up downstairs ‘cause, uh, there’s a liiiiiittle line outside.”

“Drat,” Rarity murmured. “I forgot.”

Twilight bit down on her lip, her cheeks flushing. “Maybe we can, uh, postpone?” she suggested, even if it was the diametric opposite of what she felt like doing.

“I’d have strong words for the pony responsible for this,” Rarity whispered, “if that pony wasn’t me.” Before Twilight could ask, Rarity let out a long sigh, leaning up to kiss Twilight before dropping down onto the pillows with a huff and finally calling out to Pinkie. “I’ll be down in a minute!”

“Oki-doki-loki!”

Once she heard Pinkie trot off, she turned to her marefriend with a raised eyebrow. “How are you responsible for this?”

“If I’ve learned something in the year or so that I’ve had this shop, it’s that foals can’t be trusted to keep secrets,” Rarity said, gesturing for Twilight to look out the window. “And what did I tell Rhinestone and Dusk not to do?”

Twilight peered out the window as she replied: “Tell anypony that I was—Oh my gosh!”

There they were, the filly and colt from earlier, catching sight of her and waving furiously alongside more than three dozen other foals, all of them waving to her as excitedly as Rhinestone and Dusk, some of them even carrying hoof-made signs welcoming Twilight to town.

“Well, well, well,” said Rarity, lifting her hoof to close Twilight’s half-open jaw. “Welcome to Hollow Shades indeed, Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Author's Note

me, when writing adventure/lore heavy chapters: man, I must be at 10,000 words alrea--WHAT DO YOU MEAN ONLY 4000 WORDS????

me, when writing raritwi heavy chapter: that was fast, i bet i still have a good 7,000 wor-- WHAT DO YOU MEAN ITS ALREADY AT 8,000 WORDS????

If you find any typos, please let me know (preferably via PM)! Thank you! ALSO HAHAHA I DID IT, I MANAGED TO MAKE THE DEADLINE YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.
There is no cipher hidden in this chapter.

~ Act II ~ 08 ~ The Dreams of Alicorns ~

“Tell me more about her, North,” she asked as they walked under the night sky.

“About her?” he asked, clearing his throat. “About my Frost Flower, you mean?”

“Yes,” she replied, and he noticed she always asked about Frost Flower when she seemed to be missing her Princess the most. “You’ve told me so little of your adventures with her.”

He laughed. “Our adventures! We had many, indeed. Did I tell you the story of the bar we destroyed in Eventide Isle?”

"There's so many of them," observed Princess Twilight Sparkle, her muzzle pressed against the window and her eyes glued to the dozens of cloaked foals in front of the doors of the Dreamland waiting for her.

Rarity, having returned from her cleaning duties downstairs, trotted over towards Twilight and peered down the window. "That's not all of them," she said, ignoring Twilight's concerned whine. "There's still several missing." She then glanced at Twilight and smiled with mischief. "I'm sure they'll be along any minute now for the royal event."

Twilight looked back towards the children, just as Pinkie opened the entrance doors and allowed them to pour in, creating a commotion loud enough she could hear it all the way up to where they were.

Rarity jumped off the cushions and onto the floor. "Well then! Shall we head down? In my experience, it is not wise to keep them waiting," she warned as she trotted towards the door.

"Wait!" Twilight blurted out, following after her. "What am I supposed to do?!"

Rarity turned back, blinking. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Well, I don't know!" Twilight exclaimed, not understanding how what she meant wasn't obvious. "We didn't establish a protocol for this situation!"

There was a moment's pause before Rarity smiled teasingly. "Darling, not everything in this world needs to have a protocol in place, you know?" she mistakenly said before trotting off, missing Twilight's remark that yes, they did need a protocol, Rarity!

“The protocol is to act as yourself, then,” Rarity replied without missing a beat, to which Twilight had no rebuttal.

Bested, she followed the unicorn all the way towards the stairs, her growing apprehension only increasing at the sight of the entire lobby filled to the brim with kids holding welcome signs and makeshift princess crowns.

And yet.

And yet, out of all of the ponies gathered downstairs, the single most excited one wasn't one of the foals, but Pinkie Pie herself.

"Come ON!" Pinkie both somehow whispered and screamed as she rushed up the stairs, bouncing in place at the top of the stairs. "What're you two waiting for?!"

"Moi? Nothing at all," Rarity declared, trotting down the stairs and brightly greeting several nearby foals.

"And you?" Pinkie asked Twilight, staring at her with almost disturbingly wide eyes, enough so that they intimidated the alicorn into quickly following after Rarity, Pinkie right behind her.

The reaction was immediate.

As soon as she was in view of the lobby, silence swept over the young crowd. Mouths hung open, their conversation quickly forgotten; chalk drawings on the wall were left unfinished, the talented young artists dropping the chalks so as to stare; Incantation pouted, her transformation of a quinticorn fast forgotten in favor of the very real alicorn waving awkwardly at the foals.

And Pinkie, again, seemed fit to burst.

“Everypony, everypony!” she announced beside Twilight, barely contained giggles filtering in through her every spoken word. She put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder and exclaimed, “Meet Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

It all went by in a blur. One moment, Twilight was clearing her throat, preparing to formally greet the children; the next, she was backing away in panic as a crowd of thirty or more foals charged towards her, belting out what sounded like a war cry.

They filled the stairs, pushed past Pinkie, backed Twilight up to the wall and then gave her a dose of her own medicine by barraging her with questions, including but not limited to: were her wings real; did it hurt if they were pulled on; why wasn’t she wearing a cloak; what was it like to be a princess; did she really live in a library for a thousand years; was it boring; could she do magic while flying; could she fly while doing magic; yes, there was a difference; how did she escape; did she beat somepony up; did she meet the Spirit; did she beat up the Spirit—

“All right, children, let her be!” Rarity finally said after five merciless minutes, and nearly all of them immediately obeyed and backed away, much to Twilight’s surprise. Only Dusk and Rhinestone remained firmly planted near Twilight’s side.

“She’s just as pretty as you said she would be!” a filly excitedly told Rarity, sitting down and admiring Twilight as though she were a precious painting.

“Of course she is! When have I ever told a lie, Princess Pumpkin?” she asked, and then a nearby colt giggled.

“During the big map hunt,” he said, and other foals partook in his giggling. “You said the Dragon Gauntlet wasn’t in Princess Luna’s observatory, and it was!”

Rarity scoffed. “What?! Don’t be silly! You know very well that doesn’t count!” she protested as she moved towards Twilight. “If I told you it was there, you would have found it and then the game night would have been over in the first ten minutes!” She then cleared her throat and gestured to Twilight. “Princess Twilight has arrived at our little shop after a long trip, so she’ll only be answering a few questions today, all right?”

Immediately, more than thirty forehooves shot up into the air, including Pinkie’s and Incantation’s.

“A few,” she repeated with a raised eyebrow. She then glanced to Pinkie and Ink. “From the children.”

Only Incantation lowered her hoof, transforming into a filly and then raising it again.

Rarity let out a rather long sigh.

“It’s all right,” Twilight said in reply. Now that the foals had settled, her trepidation had all but vanished, and she was eager to find out how exactly flying while casting magic was different from casting magic while flying. She licked her lips, scanned the crowd and raised a hoof. “Why don’t we start with… uh…”

A raspy voice interrupted.

“May I have the honor of the first question?”

The owner of the voice revealed herself to be an elderly pegasus mare standing near the entrance of the Dreamland, leaning on her cane as she fixed Twilight and Rarity with her gaze. Much like the foals, she too wore a cloak, and it was clear she was respected judging by how all the foals immediately greeted her.

“Elder Moonshine!” exclaimed Pinkie, and for a split-second, her cheer seemed to falter. “Welcome!”

“Why, Elder,” Rarity said next, smiling politely at the pegasus. “How nice of you to join us! We weren’t able to say our goodbyes before leaving with such short notice.”

“No, you didn’t, child. But now you’ve returned!” said the Elder, walking past the foals and all the way up to the stairs, her curious eyes focusing on Twilight herself. “And with a very interesting guest, no less.”

“It’s Princess Twilight, Elder!” Rhinestone exclaimed, tugging on the mare’s hindleg. “She’s free!”

“So she is!” exclaimed the Elder, and Twilight was very pleased to see some adult ponies did believe in her. The Elder bowed her head slightly. “Princess Twilight, an honor to meet you at last.”

Twilight stood up straight, smiling in kind. “The honor is mine, Elder,” she said. “Are you the leader of Hollow Shades?”

Elder Moonshine laughed. “You could say that,” she said with a wink. “Never ran for town council, but the only pony the villagers think has more authority than me is our crown Princess.”

“Well!” Pinkie exclaimed, wrapping her foreleg around Twilight. “Now there’s another crown princess!”

One of the foals waved his forehoof wildly in the air. “Are you going to help us rescue Princess Luna, Princess Twilight?” he asked.

“Are we going to fight the Spirit?!” Dusk asked next, tugging on Twilight’s foreleg. He then turned to the Elder, his wings flaring up. ”Can we, Elder Moonshine?!”

Elder Moonshine hummed, tapping her cane against the floor. “Only after I’ve spoken with Princess Twilight,” she said and then turned to the foals. “Alone.”

“Awwwwwwwwwwwww,” said the choir of disappointed foals, their little ears dropping and their eyes widening and filling with tears, all of them clearly having learned a thing or two from Rarity.

“Pinkie, dear,” Rarity said, looking to their friend, “I might be misremembering, but weren’t we scheduled to have our monthly free cupcake sampling today?”

Pinkie frowned. “We were?” she asked, and only when Rarity pointed to the elder did Pinkie continue. “I mean, we were! We totally super duper were!” At the sound of the foals gasping, she turned to the filly behind her. “Inky! You know what to do!”

“You got it, Chief,” said Ink, not bothering to turn back into a changeling as she trotted towards Princess Celestia’s Bakery and opened the doors, barely jumping out of the way of the tiny stampede that rushed past her.

The Elder chuckled, shaking her head and leaning on her cane. “One thing nopony can resist are your cupca—” She cut herself off, her eyes landing on Dusk and Rhinestone, the two siblings still firmly planted next to Twilight. “Don’t you two want cupcakes as well…?”

The two foals looked towards the door, and Twilight’s heart swelled a bit when they then pressed into her sides, shaking their heads.

“My, my. Look at that!” Rarity exclaimed, grinning at Twilight. “Two foals after my own heart.”

“Children,” said the Elder, affecting a more severe tone and gesturing to the bakery. “Please.”

“Aw…” Rhy said, head dropping.

“We can spend time together soon,” Twilight finally said, endeared by the two foals. They reminded her very much of the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and she found herself missing the three fillies.

“Are you still going to be here for my birthday, Princess?!” Dusk asked. “I’m gonna be ten!”

Pinkie gasped. “Of course she is!” She turned to Twilight. “Aren’t you?!”

Twilight turned to Rarity, seeking some sort of confirmation. “Err… Will we?”

“I believe we will, yes,” she said, carefully enough Twilight could tell she was thinking of something else. “Your birthday is a few days after Seeking Night, isn’t it?” When he nodded, she noticed Pinkie and Rarity exchange a quick glance before she continued. “We will most definitely still be here, Your Highness.”

Dusk grinned, turning to Twilight. “Ha ha! Silver Note’s gonna be so jealous! Wait ‘till I tell him!” He rushed off, gesturing for his little sister to follow. “Come on, Rhy!”

“That’s not nice!” she protested as they ran off. “Princess Twilight is for everypony!”

“Mmm, I rather think some of us deserve a measure of exclusivity, ” Rarity murmured, low enough that only Twilight could hear as her tail brushed against the alicorn.

Once the siblings were gone, the Elder turned to Twilight. “So,” she said teasingly, glancing towards Rarity and Pinkie, “which one of them roped you into this?”

Twilight didn’t quite understand. “...Roped me into this?” she asked, and yet it was Pinkie who answered—or, rather, yelled.

“No!” she exclaimed with much more despair than Twilight thought was warranted, if only because she didn’t really understand what was going on. The mare stamped her hoof on the floor, ears clamping against her skull. “Elder Moonshine! She’s real! She wasn’t roped into anything!”

Oh.

“Elder Moonshine,” Rarity interjected, calm and collected, “I can assure you this is the real Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

“Now, child, these fake wings are good, but not that good,” she said with a laugh and a wink, to which Twilight herself couldn’t help but reply.

“They’re not fake,” she said, rustling the wings against her for good measure. It was true that for a very long time she had hated them, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t defensive over them.

“Yeah!” Pinkie exclaimed, helping Twilight’s affirmation by grabbing the nearest wing and drawing a pained squeak from the Princess by tugging on the wing hard. “See! She wouldn’t say ow if they weren’t real!”

“Pinkie, that really hu—OW! Pinkie!”

“See!”

Rarity cleared her throat. “Elder, we’ve told you several times that—”

The Elder waved her off. “That I’m under the influence of silly magic, yes, yes.”

Twilight stared. “Silly magic?”

Rarity kept her polite smile. “Chaos magic, Elder,” she said. “And yes, you are.”

Elder Moonshine sighed, leaning on her cane and giving Rarity a hard stare. “Rarity,” she said after a moment. “We’ve talked about this.”

Rarity’s smile, Twilight noticed, became slightly forced. “Elder, this isn’t about—”

“You have become a very important part of our town, yes,” the Elder interrupted, “but our traditions are our traditions, and they are absolute.”

“Elder, I do understand, and I am not trying to sway your opinion,” Rarity replied, “but Princess Twilight is free now, and with all the respect you know I hold for you, she is here regardless of whether or not you believe in her, or whether or not we can take charge of Seeking Night.”

Take charge of Seeking Night?

“I have always respected your decisions, Elder,” continued the unicorn, and now did her ears slightly lower. “I have never been here to impose my beliefs upon you.”

The Elder softened at that. “I would never think that of you, Rarity. If anything...” Her gaze landed on Pinkie Pie, whose chin she lifted with the tip of her cane. “I have you to thank for this little one not running off every other week, hm?”

Pinkie smiled brightly at that, and only afterwards did the Elder finally turn to Twilight.

“I don’t know if you’re truly who they say you are,” she said severely before smiling warmly, “but Hollow Shades is always open to anypony, regardless of what or who they are.”

“Unless you’re the Spirit,” Pinkie added. “Then you’re super not welcome!”

Elder Moonshine smiled. “Unless you’re the Spirit, yes.”

“Thank you, Elder,” Twilight said, bowing her head.

“Any friend of this little one is welcome here,” she said, adjusting her cloak and bowing her head. “I suppose I should let you go back to the children before we have a riot on our hooves.”

“Don’t you want cupcakes, Elder?” Pinkie asked, hopping in place. “We have your faaaaaavorite.”

The Elder grunted, pursing her lips. “...I don’t see why I can’t stay for one cupcake…”

“Hee! Nopony says no to my cupcakes!” Pinkie declared, jumping down the stairs and leading the Elder towards the bakery.

Once they were gone, Twilight turned to Rarity.

“What did she mean ‘take charge of Seeking Night’?”

Rarity sighed. “It was a… an idea I had, back when we thought you…. Well, you wouldn’t be free any time soon. I thought perhaps if I was allowed to organize the Seeking Night events here, I could, shall we say, influence the children in more positive ways, but Elder Moonshine is understandably less than thrilled by the idea of an outsider taking charge of the village’s most celebrated holiday.”

“Right.”

Rarity shrugged. “We just need to find another way, I suppose,” she said, trotting down the steps. “Things have changed now that you’re here, after all, so who knows what new options are available to us now.”

Twilight followed Rarity into Princess Celestia’s room and felt incredibly self-conscious when the previously loud room turned dead silent, dozens of eyes set on her save for the Elder’s, who was too busy regarding her six cupcakes. The Princess awkwardly strode through the room, smiling at the foals she walked past.

She found some brief reprieve when she finally reached the counter at the end of the room, upon which Pinkie set out a massive tray of multi-colored cupcakes with all kinds of designs. Some of them, she noticed, had her own cutie mark frosted upon them, and others bore the cutie marks of Princess Celestia and Cadance. Strangely enough, only one cupcake had Princess Luna’s cutie mark, and no sooner had she moved her forehoof towards it than Pinkie yelped and quickly picked it up.

“Oh, wait! Not that one! That one isn’t supposed to be there,” explained the baker, taking the cupcake and putting it aside on a plate. “That one’s for Princess Luna to eat.”

“For Princess Luna?” Twilight asked. “Isn’t she… Well… I mean…”

Pinkie blushed. “Oh! Uh, yes! She is, but you never know when she’ll be free! I make a fresh cupcake for her every day, just in case of a freemergency!”

Twilight giggled. “That’s very thoughtful of you, Pinkie. I’m sure Princess Luna will be hungry when she’s freed.”

She turned back to the tray of cupcakes, eventually settling on one that bore her own cutie mark, and when she turned around to eat it, she was again confronted with her expectant crowd.

“Oh. Uh. Yes. Right.”

No sooner had she spoken did dozens of hooves shoot up into the air, again including Pinkie and Ink’s.

From the back of the room, Rarity fluttered her eyelashes.

“Care to begin, Your Highness?”

Later that day, as she dragged herself inside Rarity’s workshop, her throat sore from talking, Twilight Sparkle internalized two new facts.

The first fact was that she had vastly, extremely and unbelievably underestimated just how exhausting it was to entertain thirty-something excitable foals.

The second fact was that her previous respect and admiration for Rarity had now tripled in size at the realization that she, along with Pinkie and Incantation, willingly put themselves through that on a constant basis.

“Well,” Twilight said as she threw herself on the pile of pillows and blankets, “that was something.”

“I thought you did splendidly for your first time,” Rarity’s said, the unicorn trotting into the room behind her. “The children were enchanted, and even Elder Moonshine seemed taken by you.”

“That’s good,” murmured the alicorn, “because I’m never doing that again.”

“Twilight, really, don’t you think you’re being a bit dramatic?” Rarity said with a teasing smile, arching an eyebrow and tilting her head to the side.

Twilight matched her teasing smile. “I’m sure you know all about being dramatic, Rarity.”

“Yes, I do, which is why I am the most adept at knowing when someprincess is being dramatic,” she replied. “Hm?”

“Well, I don’t think I’m being dramatic,” Twilight insisted, watching as Rarity trotted over towards a nearby desk and started folding fabrics. “I feel like I’m a hundred years old.”

Rarity laughed at that. “As opposed to being what you actually are, which is over a thousand years old?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “You know what I meant,” she said with a yawn, grabbing a pillow and snuggling against it.

“Well, there is one thing you should be thankful to them for,” Rarity said, putting on her glasses and threading string into a needle.

“What’s that?”

“You look like you’re about to fall asleep,” she pointed out as Twilight closed her eyes. “So your meeting with Princess Luna will be very soon.”

Twilight’s eyes flew open. “Oh, Princesses,” she said, and immediately she rolled around, clutching her pillow because she was going to meet Princess Luna now after a thousand years, and she had forgotten, but now she remembered, and she also remembered that maybe Princess Luna might be angry at her and—

“Darling, spiraling isn’t good for you,” Rarity noted, and Twilight turned around, indignant.

“I am not spiraling!” she protested. “Whatever that means!”

“It means you’re letting bad thoughts get a hold of you,” she explained. “And is that not what you’re doing right now?”

“No,” Twilight exclaimed. “Maybe,” she amended. “Yes,” she confessed, burying her face in the pillow and groaning.

She heard Rarity put down her things and trot towards her, and even despite her stress, Twilight was still more than happy when the unicorn climbed up and settled down beside her for a comforting nuzzle.

Princesses, she really was soft.

“My poor darling,” Rarity, stroking Twilight’s mane and giggling sweetly when the alicorn groaned. “Twilight, sweetest, I know you’re concerned, but I promise there really isn’t any reason to be nervous at all.”

“There are at least fifty-seven reasons I can think of right now, and if you give me another minute, I can think of another fifty-seven.”

“And I’m sure Princess Luna herself has fifty-seven reasons she’s nervous about seeing you too. In fact…” She craned her head towards the door and called out. “Pinkie? Pinkie, dear, come up here, won’t you?”

“Huh?” Pinkie said moments later, trotting into the room and gasping. “Are we having a cuddle party?! Can I join?!” Without bothering to wait for an answer, she rushed towards them, launching herself and landing on top of the two mares, burrowing her way between them and grinning. “So, what’s up?!”

“Somepony’s about to meet with Princess Luna,” Rarity said.

Twilight snorted. “Not anymore,” she said. “I’m not tired at all.”

“What? But falling asleep’s so easy!” Pinkie exclaimed, turning to Twilight. “Do you want me to show you?”

Twilight giggled. “I think I can remember how to sleep, Pinkie.”

“Really? Then let’s do it!” Pinkie exclaimed before closing her eyes. “One, two, three, and slee—!” Her sentence cut off mid-word, replaced instead with what sounded a bit too much like an actual snore.

One, two, three seconds went by before Twilight poked her.

“Pinkie?” she asked and again was met with a very convincing snore. She turned to Rarity. “Did she just…?”

“Rather remarkable, isn’t it?” Rarity noted, unphased by Pinkie’s apparent narcolepsy. “She can do it anywhere. I suppose it’s the unintended blessing of her unusual relationship with the Princess.”

Carefully, Rarity moved away from Pinkie and got off the couch, the lack of Rarity to hug prompting the sleeping pony to instead latch onto the alicorn instead.

“Where are you going?” Twilight asked, trying to move Pinkie into a more comfortable position.

“I’m going to help you sleep,” Rarity replied, a flicker of her horn switching on the nearby sewing machine. She grabbed her dress and then smiled at Twilight. “You did say it helped, didn’t you?”

“I did,” Twilight said, closing her eyes and relaxing into Pinkie’s embrace. Though it wasn’t entirely accurate to say Rarity’s sewing put her to sleep, it did help with relieving her stress as it was very easy to let the constant sound fill her mind and silence the swirling thoughts in her head.

Minute by minute, she focused on the whirring machine, the faint scent of batter and flour filling her nose, and the more she focused on the noise, the more her thoughts began to wane, until a yawn left her lips and sleep finally found her.

She slept, lost in her own world, in the heavy silence and heavy darkness, all the way up until she turned the page of her book.

In the depths of Canterlot Castle’s Library, Twilight Sparkle read a book, as was her usual routine most days of most months of most years. She read, and read, and read, and learned, and learned, and learned so she could assist her teacher in whatever way Princess Celestia deemed necessary.

After finishing the page, she allowed herself a yawn and stood up to stretch, not wanting her hours of reading to give her a posture worse than the one she already had. She noticed a mirror in the distance and smiled at the unicorn looking back at her, waving at her own reflection and giggling at the fact.

Her silliness done, she sat back down and turned to her book, intent on finishing it before her next lesson with Princess Celestia. Her smile vanished somewhat as her mind focused on the words and the meanings on and in-between the lines, her ears only barely picking up on the distant hoofsteps of the librarian moving around to put books back in their proper places.

They did, however, pick up on her name being called.

“Twiiiiiiiliiiiiiiight,” a voice called in sing-song, echoing through the library and drawing a smile out of the unicorn. “Where aaaaaaare youuuuuuu?”

Technically speaking, the polite thing to do would be to call out and point out her location, but considering just who was calling out, she felt it more appropriate to remain silent and keep reading.

Again, the voice called out, and her smile widened as her gaze went back to her book and moved along the words, only stopping when a voice spoke right behind her.

“Hello, Twilight.”

She turned around. “Hell—oh?” she asked, finding nopony in sight. “Where did—?”

“My, my! Reading about how wonderful I am, are you?” said the voice, and she turned back towards her desk and found a pocket-sized draconequus standing on top of her book, his arms crossed behind his back as he peered down at the book.

“Hello, Discord,” she replied with a playful smile. “And no, I’m studying for my exam on Magic Thermodynamics.”

“No, you’re reading about how wonderful I am. It says so right here,” he insisted, pointing down to the paragraph he was standing on.

“No, it doesn’t,” Twilight replied, peering down at the paragraph and finding that her former book on Aerial Thermodynamics was now a scientific thesis on Discord’s alleged wonderfulness. “Hey!” she exclaimed, levitating the book up to take a closer look and toppling the draconequus in the process, who rolled on the table until he bumped into an inkwell. “Discord! I need this book to study!”

Discord got up and dusted himself off before crossing his arms and sticking his tongue out at her. “I’m a much better thing to study!” he exclaimed, and so did two other pocket-sized versions of him which appeared inspecting the first Discord with magnifying glasses and taking notes. “And you’re always asking to study my magic!” The three Discords looked up to her. “Will you ever tell me why?”

A pang of guilt shot through Twilight. “I’m just curious,” she said quickly. “That’s all.”

Definitely not trying to find out her friend’s mortal weaknesses in case of emergencies, not at all.

He seemed unconvinced. “Curiouser and curiouser.”

“Is that even grammatically correct?” asked the second Discord of the third, who only shrugged in reply.

“Discord,” Twilight said, putting her book down and arching an eyebrow. “Why are you here?”

With two poofs in quick succession, the additional Discords disappeared and the original jumped into the air, his body growing and growing until a full-sized Discord now floated above her.

“Well, first of all, I brought you tea,” he informed, and with a snap of his fingers, a cup of tea and a cookie appeared on the table before her. “It’s your favorite. Cinnamon with honey and a useful surprise.”

“That’s your favorite tea,” she pointed out with a laugh.

“I have great taste,” he replied, “so it’s your favorite, too.”

Twilight lifted the cup and took a sniff. It smelled very good, it was true, but… “And what’s the ‘useful’ surprise?”

At that, Discord smiled. “It changes depending on the weather! If it’s cold outside, the tea is frozen, and if it’s hot outside, the tea is scalding!”

She frowned. “...Right. Useful. And what if it’s neither hot nor cold outside?”

He clapped his hands. “Then, clearly, it comes with a raisin cookie!”

Twilight giggled. “Clearly,” she said, taking a sip of the tea and finding it did, in fact, taste as delicious as it smelled. She then put the cup down and gave him a stare. “So, now will you tell me why you’re really here?”

“What?!” he gasped, a claw against his chest. “I’m just here to enjoy tea with my good friend!”

“Discord.”

“All right, all right!” he said, crossing his arms. “I’m bored.”

Twilight smiled. “Really? And what am I supposed to do about that?”

“I don’t know!” he exclaimed, poofing onto the other side of the table. “Something!”

“I’m studying, Discord,” she reminded him, looking back to her book and being pleased to see it had returned to its proper state as a book on Spatial Thermodynamics. “Why don’t you go home and, I don’t know, make it rain chocolate milk?”

“Home?” he exclaimed with disdain. He snapped his fingers and ignored Twilight’s groan as her book disappeared and was replaced with a large map of Equestria. “This is Equestria,” he pointed out, gesturing to the large map before taking a nearby quill and circling a teeny patch of land north of Van Hoof. “And this thing is what the Princesses appointed as my home.”

“Discord, your domain is the size of a small village,” she said. “It should be enough for you.”

“Well, it isn’t!” he complained, crossing his arms and looking away. “I deserve bigger lands.”

“Then you shouldn’t have facilitated Chrysalis’ invasion of Equestria,” she rebutted, her voice losing most of its playfulness.

He continued to look away. “Well, nopony’s perfect, Princess.”

“I’m not a princess,” she said, turning back to the mirror and staring at her simple reflection once again. She had no crown to weigh her down and no wings to tether her. She was everything she wanted to be and nothing more.

“The Princesses defeated you, Discord,” she said as she turned back to him.

“No,” he replied, setting his yellow eyes on her. “You defeated me,” he added, tone undecipherable. “Fair and square.”

She did not reply and instead forced her sights on her book.

She felt sick.

“Wouldn’t you say it’s only right, Twilight?” he asked.

“What is?”

“That we reap what we sow,” he replied, and when she finally looked up to face him, horror struck her to see he was gone.

He was gone, but he wasn’t the only thing to be gone.

Gone were Canter Castle’s safe walls, gone were its library’s books, the ponies she knew and had grown up with, the home she’d once had. All were gone, and instead she found herself inside her underground library.

She stumbled back in shock, getting up on her hooves and looking around, trying to understand not just why, but how.

“Discord?” she called out in a panic, backtracking from the rows of haunting and towering bookcases. “Discord?!”

The sickness in her stomach grew and grew, horrified at the idea of being back in that library, and yet whatever discomfort she felt could not compare to the horror that filled her when she realized her backtracking had led her not to bump against a table, but through it.

Horror at the wings now affixed to her body.

Horror at the crown clinging to her head.

No.

“No,” she gasped, tears filling her eyes as she backtracked again and again. “No, no, no, no, please, no.”

The words came out her mouth in rapid-fire, desperate and terrified and increasingly so when her backtracking led her through another table, and when her gasp of horror filled her lungs with no air.

“No, I was free!” she protested, blinking through tears and confusion because how was it fair that everything was going right and now everything had been taken away. “I was free! Please! Anypony!”

She looked around, at nothing and everything at once, until her eyes landed on the distant tunnel. One, two, three seconds went past before she galloped towards it, to leave the library as she had before, and yet agonizing pain tore through her when she collided against the barrier and it threw her back.

Silence suffocated the library.

And she stood, shakily, painfully, and her body thrust forward and collided against the barrier only to be pushed back again, and again, and again.

“Please!” she called, begged and pleaded. “It wasn’t my fault! I know it wasn’t my fault! Please, let me out, please!”

Yet the words felt hollow, and the barrier did not seem to cave or give in, and despair filled her because she had tried. She had tried to be better. She had tried to take responsibility.

“Get out.”

A voice.

Unfamiliar in its tone, strange in its diction, and chillingly familiar in its words.

With all the pain in the world, with every ounce of courage she could muster, Princess Twilight Sparkle stood up away from the barrier and turned around to face her cruelest enemy.

Herself.

“Why?” she choked out, staring at the distant alicorn’s black eyes. “Wh—why are you still here? I… I overcame you!” Her hoof slammed against the floor. “I overcame you, I beat you, I left the library! Why are you here?!”

The alicorn simply repeated her statement.

“Get out.”

“No!” Twilight protested, her horn lighting up. “Y—you get out! You don’t belong here! I don’t belong here!”

And the alicorn spoke again.

“Don’t we?” she said, and it was like a dagger to Twilight’s chest, the swirling thoughts that had plagued her for so long brought to the forefront once again.

She deserved her imprisonment, said a voice she could not stop, and more than everything that had happened, it was that thought that ripped her apart like no other.

The dawning realization that she was no better mentally than… than…

“I… I was better,” she insisted or pleaded, she could not really tell. Her voice fell to a whisper as she fell to her haunches and looked at her translucent forehooves. Why was she there? Why had she been taken away from Rarity, why had she been taken away from her home and the Dreamland and everything she had fought so hard to get back? “I was better, I was… I was f—free of this nightmare, I don’t underst—”

And the words caught in her throat.

A nightmare.

It all felt like a nightmare, and the more she thought about it, the more she realized… the more she hoped that...

It actually was.

“Princess…” The word tumbled out of her mouth, somehow surprising her at doing so. The terrible thoughts in her head continued, hissed and snapped that that was no dream of any kind, but hope died last.

“Princess Luna!” she finally called out, loud and clear and backing away from the alicorn that merely continued to stare. She looked up towards the ceiling and continued to call out, almost beseeching the Moon Princess to descend from above. “Princess Luna?! Is this a nightmare?! Princess Luna!”

And a voice replied.

No, a voice sang, hummed a beautiful and echoing lullaby that seemed to both soothe and invigorate Twilight if only because of the crashing relief she felt upon hearing it.

A crackling noise hissed to life behind her, and a quick turn revealed the barrier was struggling to exist, expelling magic static and sparks until it fractured like a broken mirror and fell apart.

Her first instinct was to run, so she did.

Without much care or thought, she lunged forward and let out a shaky laugh when she dived into the tunnel, no barrier stopping her way. Victory flowed through her, the satisfaction of the win, and she wasn’t able to stop herself from turning around to throw her cursed self a defiant look.

But she couldn’t.

Her other self, now stood waiting by the barrier, yet there was no anger in her face. No signs of having been overcome, of having been defeated, no visible reaction that would allow Twilight some shred of satisfaction or catharsis.

She was still there, Twilight knew, and would still be there in her mind, dream or no dream.

Twilight turned around and rushed down the tunnel, wanting to get out of there as quickly as she could. She jumped onto the spiral stairs and ascended them, pushing open the trap door and breathing a lungful of relief when she came out into a bright, sunlit valley.

She turned back towards the tree, quickly closing the trapdoor with her magic, and after waiting a moment and ensuring no distorted version of herself would come through, she fell on her haunches and breathed.

“You did it!”

Twilight yelped in surprise at the high-pitched voice and nearly tumbled down to the ground. She turned around, at first alarmed and then confused when she found Pinkie Pie behind her, stamping her hooves on the ground with an excitement that matched her grin.

“P-Pinkie?” Twilight asked, thrown-off. “Are you—? I mean—! Are you part of my dream…?”

Pinkie nodded. “Uh-huh!” she exclaimed and then paused and shook her head. “I mean, nuh-uh! Or wait, yuh-huh?” She sat down and tapped her hoof against her chin. “Both?”

“Both?”

“Yep! ‘Cause it’s me!” she exclaimed, jumping up and grabbing Twilight’s face with her hooves. “See! I’m super duper real! But I’m in your dream, so teeeeeeeeeechnically, I am part of your dream! Or maybe…” She narrowed her eyes and leaned in, her nose touching Twilight’s. “You’re part of my dream, hmmmmmmm? Bet’cha’ didn’t think of that, huh, Princess Twi?”

“So, er, this is a dream, then?” Twilight asked, trying to speak through her currently squeezed cheeks. “I’m not actually back in Ponyville and I’m not displaced in time again, right?”

“Nope, and nope!” Pinkie exclaimed, letting go of Twilight and jumping back. “This is all a dream! And you did it! You figured it out! We knew you would!”

“‘We’?” Twilight asked, her heart accelerating in her chest. “...You mean Princess Luna?”

“Yup! See, ‘cause we saw your door cracking, and it was a really bad nightmare, and I wanted to come in here to help fight your meanie self, but then Princess Luna was all— Oh, wait! I can show you!”

She stopped talking, and instead, Twilight yelped as an almost comically serious Princess Luna herself appeared next to Pinkie, the older alicorn staring down at the pink pony.

“Pr-Princess Luna?” Twilight asked, panicked and horrified and feeling her anxiety very quickly escalating as she truthfully was not expecting her first meeting with the Princess to go, well, like that.

Pinkie blinked. “Huh? Oh, that’s not Princess Luna!” she quickly corrected. “She’s a dream construct! I made her up! Look, look!” She turned to the construct and put on a severe expression. “Princess Luna, who’s your best friend FOREVER?”

“Thouest arest myesth besteth friendeth FOREVERETH, Pinkie Pie,” boomed the alicorn in a deadpan voice.

Twilight frowned. “That… That wasn’t quite right.”

Pinkie gasped. “Whateth?! Yesesth, iteth waseth, thy sillieth-billieth!” she exclaimed. “Er, I mean, what?! Yes, it was, you silly-billy!” She let out a grand sigh and said, “Anyway, where was I?”

Twilight racked her memory. “Err… something about a door cracking…?”

Pinkie gasped. “The door!” She nodded her head and resumed her story. “See, your door was cracking ‘cause you were having a really super duper awful nightmare, and I wanted to come in to help you—” She gestured to the construct. “—but Princess Luna said—”

“If Twilight Sparkle is still the clever unicorn I remember,” a familiar voice replied behind her, as the sunny sky above turned into a beautiful starry night, “she will soon enough realize this terrible vision is naught but her own mind’s design.”

Twilight’s heart slowed.

“What?” Pinkie said, looking to somepony beyond Twilight. “That is SO not what you said! You said that you were concerned she’d be afraid to meet you, and I said it was more like you were afraid of meeting her, and you said no, and I said yes, and then I told you to just go and help her, and you said that—” She took a breath. “—you said ‘surely she will surmise this is a nightmare and wake up thus my intervention will not be necessary, and I will have more time to prepare’, and then I said ‘well, I’m going in’ and you said ‘do not go into her dreams, you foolish child’!” Pinkie took another breath and then continued. “And then you told me you would smite me and I was like, ‘WHAT?’ ‘cause I didn’t hear, and then I came here, and I found Princess Twilight and now this!” She breathed again and then blinked at Twilight. “What?”

Tears stung at Twilight’s eyes.

They stung at her eyes, and as if an altogether foreign being was taking possession of her, she began to giggle.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Luna thundered, and yet in her voice Twilight detected no anger, “we meet again for the first time in centuries, and you dare laugh at your Princess?!”

And Twilight continued to laugh, finally turning around to see Princess Luna, tears streaming down her eyes at the sight of the Princess, and she choked out, “You threatened to smite her?”

And she laughed and was overwhelmed with affection and relief and joy and many other things she could barely understand.

Princess Luna harrumphed. “In olden times, Twilight Sparkle, ponies would be honored to receive such a punishment,” she said curtly until her seriousness faded, a laugh left her lips, a smile shaped them, and joyful tears sparkled in her eyes “It is most pleasing to see you again, Twilight.” She extended her foreleg. “You were dearly missed.”

And Twilight could do nothing else but rush forward, burying herself in Luna and relishing a hug she could, for now, only receive in dreams.

“Oh, Princess Luna,” she whispered, her smile intensifying when she felt Pinkie rush in to join the hug. “I missed you, too.”

Author's Note

LUUUUUUUUNA! Who will have a longer discussion with Twi next chapter, for those of you concerned of WHAT IF WE TIME SKIP.

There's a lot of things to announce today, so I will do that now.

For those of you interested, YOU CAN TOTALLY READ NORTH RIDGE'S BAR DESTROYING SHENANIGANS in a side-fic I posted some time back that is canon to this universe.

I will also be attending EFNW in two weeks (and as a community guest!! with panels!!! and stuff!!)! A friend designed an awesome EL-themed Tarot Card that I'll be giving out for free at EFNW so look for me if you're going and I'll give you one o:

And, lastly, just a little thing to say thaT HAHA I MADE THE DEADLINE YEAAAA and will hopefully make the next but we'll see depending on EFNW.

If you find any typos, please let me know (preferably via PM). Thank you!

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.
There is no cipher hidden in this chapter.

~ Interlude III ~ Behind Closed Dreams ~

In the depths of the Everfree Forest, past abandoned houses, past Timberwolves and frightening beasts, was a trapdoor at the base of a grand old oak tree.

Blue magic delicately surrounded the handle and pulled. Dirt and dust rose into the air when Rarity opened the trapdoor. She stepped back, trying to protect her coat from the mess. When the dust settled, she had no choice but to remain there for a moment, taking in the implication of dirt and dust and time collected on the door.

She lifted her hoof to her chest, a habit so very hard to break, and she was surprised to be surprised at the fact that her hoof found no necklace to toy with.

Why should it?

She finally moved forwards, down the stairs that creaked under her step, and into the tunnel scarcely illuminated by her horn. There was light at the end of the tunnel, the sight of a library in the distance, and she was filled with… sadness? No, that wasn’t entirely accurate, was it? Resignation, perhaps? No, that too was a feeling long past.

At the sight of the library, Rarity felt acceptance, the final step in the so-called stages of grief.

She strode forward and soon enough was bathed in the light of the magic chandelier, powered by the alicorn lying on a blanket and reading a book.

Rarity stood by the entrance of the tunnel and allowed herself a moment to smile at Princess Twilight much like one would smile at childhood photos of days long, long gone. She felt quietly proud that sadness no longer haunted her.

“Rarity?” asked Twilight Sparkle, turning a page of her book. “What does ‘La La Land’ mean?”

Rarity stepped closer. “‘La La Land’? It’s… I suppose it’s a state of being more than anything. Somepony who’s always very fanciful or always lost in dreams and fantasy.” She grinned. “In other words, nearly the entire population of Los Pegasus.”

Twilight did not look up, but she smiled. “And you, too?”

Rarity laughed. “On occasion, perhaps.” She glanced at the book. “What are you reading?”

“Galaxies Bleed Stars by Solar Rose,” she replied. “It’s all right.” She turned another page. “But you’re not here to ask about my book.”

A beat, one in which Rarity contemplated the alicorn and replied, “No, I’m not.”

She levitated a pillow over, placing it on the floor and planting her hindquarters on it.

“I went on a date today, Twilight,” she declared with a winning smile.

“You’ve gone on those before,” Twilight pointed out, turning back a page for a moment before returning it back to its proper place. “Was it Rift?”

“Goodness, no,” she quickly replied.

True, she’d pondered the idea before but … but he was too involved. Far, far too involved.

“Was it the scientist again?” Twilight asked, turning the page. “Crystal Beaker? Or the librarian? Page Turner?”

“No, no, neither one, no,” Rarity replied quickly. “It didn’t work out with either, though they were lovely ponies.”

“Why didn’t it work out?” Twilight asked, and the ghost of a smile passed through her lips.

Rarity laughed. “Now, darling, we both know the answer to that, do we not?” She took a breath and continued. “No, her name is Citrine Spark. She’s a unicorn like myself, and she has a very endearing affinity towards …” Rarity wrinkled her nose. “Explosions.”

“Citrine Spark,” Twilight repeated, slowly and carefully.

“We went on a lovely date today,” Rarity continued. “She asked me all about my newest designs! I’m working on my winter range, you know? Found myself inspired by floral patterns and so on.” She laughed softly. “I fear I might have been a tad too technical with my terms! The poor dear had trouble keeping up.”

“I didn’t,” Twilight replied, and so another page was turned.

“Well, If she likes me, truly and sincerely, she will learn the terms,” Rarity said defensively.

“Just like you learned the Starswirl Decimal System,” Twilight again added, and Rarity smiled.

“I didn’t think of you, Twilight,” she finally said, her tone losing its cheer and instead dripping with that silly little word so similar to resignation. She spoke with acceptance. “For the first time in over a year, I went on a date with a lovely pony, and I did not compare them to you. I did not think of you.” Her laughter nearly bordered on sad. “It was almost liberating.”

“Almost?” Twilight asked. “Why almost?”

Rarity’s voice fell to a whisper. “Now, my darling, we both know the answer to that, do we not?” Silence reigned, loud and screaming and haunting, and she felt muted.

“I can tell you what you want to hear,” Twilight said, still not looking up from her book. “If it’ll help you. Would you like that? Ask me your question.”

And Rarity did.

“How are you, Twilight?”

And finally, Twilight looked up with eyes black as the night and set them on Rarity.

“I’m fine, Rarity,” she said with a smile. “It’s only another thousand years.”

Eternity passed in a moment, until she heard hoofsteps behind her and a familiar voice.

“Rarity,” said Princess Luna.

“I really didn’t think of her,” Rarity said, staring at the petrified dream-construct of her long-gone hopes. Of a pony that had locked herself away a little over a year ago. “I really didn’t.”

“Pinkie told me,” said Princess Luna, her voice a soothing song. “She was at war with herself over it, but I am glad she did this despite her doubts. This Citrine Spark mare sounds most pleasant.”

“She was,” Rarity replied.

“Will you be seeing her again?” the Princess asked, and Rarity laughed humorlessly.

“I don’t think I shall. She was lovely, and I’m certainly glad Pinkie arranged the date, but… we’re simply not a perfect match, as it were. Which is no trouble at all, since I don’t think I even have the time to go on dates.”

Silence loomed.

“You still love her,” Luna noted. Not a question, not a theory, but a fact plainly stated. Life marching ever forward did not mean that feelings did as well.

Rarity lifted her hoof once again and placed it where a necklace would be. “I forget it’s not there, sometimes. I reach out to hold it, and it’s not there, and I can feel the panic setting in all over again.”

When she moved down her hoof, a bright pink necklace hung from her neck.

“Pinkie asked to guard it, did she not?” Luna asked.

Rarity laughed, shaking her head. “She was practically forced to! I don’t doubt ponies thought me vain! That strange unicorn that kept glancing at her necklace every other minute, diamond-obsessed surely, staring and staring and waiting and waiting for… for what? For it to glow?” Her voice grew quiet. “For it to not glow?”

“You wait for it not to glow?”

Though Rarity noticed the concern in the alicorn’s voice, she felt no inclination to alleviate it.

“I… I don’t wait for that. I would never,” she said, “and yet…”

There, in her dreams, in the most private thing she had…

There, she could confess what no other but she and Princess Luna were allowed to know.

“It frightens me, Princess Luna,” she said, and she could feel the tears hot in her eyes. “It frightens me even more now that I’ve moved on. Now that I look back and see. Now that it’s been so long. I want it so desperately, but I’m afraid.”

“You are afraid? What of?”

Her hoof brushed the necklace again.

“What will I do?” she whispered. “If it ever glows again.”

Author's Note

As those of you who've followed my blogposts now, I've been battling medical and mental conditions these past weeks, as well as being extremely burnt-out on writing. Nevertheless, I've been doing my best to work past it, and this was created as a result of a warm-up session. I really like it, so I've decided to post it despite my ongoing hiatus. Also because I missed Rarity POV.

Despite Twilight being the viewpoint character of TEK, I have always written it with the idea that Rarity still thinks this is her story. Things have changed for her, and I am incredibly excited to explore how she has changed in the two years between TEK and TEL. I'm really excited for what's coming in the future.

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons!
Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

~ Act II ~ 09 ~ The Door to Dreams ~

“Do you dream, North?”

“Sometimes,” he replied. “When I’ve had too much to eat.”

“And nightmares?” she asked. “What’s one of the worst you’ve had?”

“Well,” he began after a moment’s thought, ”I once dreamt that Frost, Tangerine and I were caught by Blood Dagger’s crew during our Silverlake Expedition.” He smiled at her. “What about yourself?”

She fell silent until she somberly replied, “A day in Trottingham.”

He laughed. “A day in Trottingham was one of the worst nightmares you’ve ever had?”

She harrumphed. “It would be yours too if you saw the markups in stores!”

In the dusk of an otherworldly night, two princesses stared out at a vast lake reflecting the moon and stars that only one of them had recently seen. It felt so real, Twilight thought, and she wondered if that made it better or worse for her friend.

“What did it feel like?”

Twilight took in the question, the very first that Princess Luna had asked her since their reunion. The very first in a conversation long, long due.

What did it feel like?

A question that could be interpreted in so many ways, mean so many things, and yet was crystal clear to the young alicorn.

“Overwhelming,” she said, finally, the only word that could actually hope to encompass the explosion of emotions at leaving her prison. “Everything I could feel all at once.”

Princess Luna said nothing at first.

“Were you happy?” she asked, her measured tone boldly stating she already knew the answer, therefore lying would be a useless endeavor.

“I was,” Twilight replied and when she paused, Luna continued.

“I thought you were always the one to offer complete answers, Twilight Sparkle."

It was a fact Twilight remembered from her days back in the castle. She could keep secrets from ponies, from Cadance and even from Celestia herself, but she could never keep them from Princess Luna. She always knew what Twilight hid, no doubt due to years of dream-walking, and more often than not, Twilight did not mind. It was liberating to be able to speak so freely about her inner mental tangles with somepony who would not judge.

“I was happy,” Twilight reaffirmed, because it wasn’t a lie. She was happy when she was freed, but… “But it’s scary. Everything is so different, and new, and…”

“And facing oneself is a nightmare that nopony can save us from.”

Twilight slumped her shoulders, recalling the black-eyed alicorn that plagued her dreams. Facing herself was indeed a long and terrible road, and one that she felt horribly far away from completing.

She looked towards the horizon, her eyes landing on the pink pony in the middle of the lake, rowing herself around atop an oversized alligator.

“Do you really not know where you are?” Twilight asked, hoping to divert the conversation away from herself and towards Princess Luna, whose predicament Twilight was far more interested in.

"A cave deep inside a mountain,” Luna stated helpfully.

Twilight pursed her lips. “Right. A cave deep inside a mountain."

Very helpful.

Princess Luna stamped her hoof on the ground and summoned a scale model of a very different Equestria than the one Twilight had seen on the modern maps. Deserts from the past were now forests in the present, forests had turned to wastelands, rivers had either moved or dried out, and one of the few things that remained the same were the two mountains on either side of Hollow Shades.

“It has been a thousand years, and I no longer recall which mountain I hid in,” she said. “Discord blocked the entrance and likely buried me further in.”

Twilight examined the model, her eyes set on Foal Mountain and Starling Peak. The Princess could be in either one of them, buried beneath who knew how many feet of earth. Considering Starling Peak was a single mountain whereas Foal Mountain was sprawling enough to be called a range, it was pretty clear which one would be the better option.

What could they do? Dig the Princess out? That in itself would be easier from the inside than from the outside, wouldn't it? And regardless of the direction, both options would probably take years if not decades or even centuries…

"And Hollow Shades' inhabitants are the only ponies under the reach of your dream influence?"

"Only the foals, but yes," the Princess clarified, gazing away from the water and towards Pinkie Pie. She stamped her hoof again, and the model changed and transformed into one of Hollow Shades itself. "Though they forget it, this town has been under my protection since the moment it was founded." There was a split-second pause before she continued. "And now that you are free, the rest of Equestria will soon have their dreams safeguarded as well."

Twilight smiled at this, encouraged by the Princess's positivity. "Yes," she said. "We'll definitely find a way to free you, Princess."

Princess Luna remained silent in reply, seemingly considering Twilight for a moment before looking around the length of the grand valley.

“Do you see the dream rift?” she asked.

Twilight blinked. “The dream rift?” She ran through her thoughts, trying to remember what she could of dream-walking and its various terms. “Er…”

“Almost every creature has magic within them, drawn from the essence of the land,” said the Princess, her horn crackling to life and levitating three large drops of water, each taking the shape of a unicorn, pegasus or earth pony. “And though our three races complement each other, each of the races draws on the magic in a different way. As long as a race lacks the magic of the other two, they will never be able to see or use the magic essence to its full power. Except…”

Another crackle of magic, and the three water ponies combined to become the shape of a winged unicorn.

“Except for alicorns,” she continued.

“Except for…” Twilight drifted off, eyes growing wide with realization. “Wait. You mean—? Can I…?”

Luna smiled. “Yes,” she replied. “Any alicorn can dream-walk, including you.”

Twilight frowned, the previous wonder quickly fading. “What? But—! Dream-walking is your special talent!... Isn’t it?”

“The night is my talent, Twilight Sparkle,” the Princess clarified. “The night and all it contains, including dream-walking. And yet, even if it is my talent, you too can learn.” She smiled. “Your talent is magic in all forms, is it not? I am most sure you could learn the trade quickly if you show dedication and respect as you always have.”

Truthfully, Twilight had always been interested in dream-walking and more than that, how dreams worked. Princess Luna had explained once, long ago, and the idea of putting theory to practice was more than compelling.

“Will you teach me after we’ve freed you?” Twilight asked.

Luna regarded her for a moment before smiling. “It seems foolish to wait when you could start now.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Now?”

Luna again turned towards the horizon. “Look for the dream rift, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight frowned, following Luna’s gaze and scanning the scenery so as to find a… rift? That technically told her nothing! What was a rift in the context of dreams? What if a dream rift was different than a real one?

“I don’t see anything,” she said, squinting towards the distance. “Everything looks fi… Wait...”

And then she saw it. Or, rather, felt it.

In the distance, near the grove on the other side of the lake, something compelled her to stare. A seemingly innocuous collection of trees that felt distinct from the rest, there but not there either. Did that even make sense?

“Those trees…” she said, and Luna hummed in approval.

Twilight took a step further, transfixed by these trees that seemed to waver the more she stared, and without her even realizing it, her horn began to glow. Another step followed, and then another, and another, closer and closer and closer still until the distortion shifted and took the shape of a translucent door.

“Did’ja forget the lake?”

Startled, Twilight looked down to find Pinkie looking up at her from inside the lake Twilight had been walking on. With a terrified yelp, Twilight plunged down into water, emerging moments later with several gasps and a great deal of confusion.

“Isn’t it super fun?” Pinkie giggled, paddling around the alicorn. “Only the stuff you see and think about is what’s real inside a dream. Even I wasn’t real when you weren’t looking at me! Or I wouldn’t be if it wasn’t the real me here. Or…” She gasped with horror. “What if I’m not the real me?!” She turned towards the Princess in the distance. “Princess Luna! Am I the real me?!” she asked, and when the Princess replied by rubbing a hoof against her own head in a long-suffering fashion, Pinkie turned back to Twilight with a grin. “I’m the real me!”

“Right.”

Pinkie looked towards the horizon. “So, what were you looking for?”

“Looking for?” Twilight turned around and saw the door in the distance. “That door over there.”

“That door?” Pinkie asked with initial confusion. “What doo—OH! You mean the dream doors! I can only see those when Princess Luna lets me.”

So it is only alicorns that can dream walk…

Determined to investigate, Twilight swam forwards, Pinkie right behind her, both eventually reaching land and trotting towards the door. And yet, nothing else happened when they reached their destination. It did not waver again, did not change shape or anything of the sort. It simply stayed there, immaterial and nearly transparent like a ghost, Twilight’s hoof going through it when she tried to, well, do something with it.

“You truly are skilled in magic, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said, now standing next to Twilight, Pinkie following along. “Not even my sister could see the rift on her first attempt.”

“That’s not a rift,” Twilight pointed out, furrowing her brow. “That’s a door! Or. Well. It looks like a door.”

Luna laughed softly. “It is a magic rift; the pathway between dreams. We understand it by shaping it into the form we most associate with entering and leaving.” She nodded towards the door. “This is the entrance into your dreams.”

Twilight waved her hoof through the illusory door, trying to ignore how unsettlingly familiar the entire thing was. “But how do I open it?”

“With time,” said the Princess, “and training.”

“Ooooooor,” Pinkie interjected with a giggle, “you could just show us now and then we won’t need time or training, silly Lulu!”

Princess Luna raised an eyebrow, but didn’t reply. Instead, a pulse of magic left her horn, and the door before Twilight finally materialized into a wooden blue door bearing Twilight’s own cutie mark.

“Come on!” Pinkie said, pushing Twilight towards the door. “Open it! Open it!”

Twilight did as told, stepping up towards the door, opening it and peering out. On the other side, she found what seemed to be an endless blue expanse, inhabited by nothing else save for white magic orbs floating all around. There was no ground or floor on which to tread either, and yet rather than ask herself how she was supposed to step into this room, another more pressing thought prodded at her mind.

She had been here once before, on a day that still continued to burn her.

This was the place where she’d ascended to alicornhood after tricking Discord.

Her chest compressed at the realization, and she tried to step back, her alicorn wings suddenly feeling heavy and uncomfortable on her sides. “This place…”

As soon as she’d spoken, however, the orbs pulsed with magic and a white pathway materialized before her, beckoning and reminding her of the terrible emotions she’d felt the last time she was there. Unworthiness, deceit, and the accursed guilt that plagued her over and over again.

“Princess Twilight?” Pinkie asked, poking the alicorn’s flank. “What’cha waiti—”

“Twilight,” Princess Luna cut-off, the tone in her voice clearly stating she knew what hissed in Twilight’s mind. “Do not dwell on what has already been.”

Right.

Pushing aside what trepidations remained, Twilight stepped forward onto the pathway, Pinkie and Princess Luna following behind. As soon as they had all crossed, the orbs pulsed again and the pathway grew and grew until the entire expanse had a white floor to walk on.

“This is the magic realm,” Luna said. “Many races can be connected to this realm, but only we alicorns can alter it.”

“Not even Discord?” Twilight asked.

Luna shook her head. “Not even he. I don’t presume to understand his magic, but it is not drawn from here.”

The door closed behind them; looking around more intently, she could see more of the immaterial doors in the distance, and yet… She was surprised, in fact, by how few there were, until she remembered a very crucial detail.

“These doors… Are these only Hollow Shades?”

“The doors are here?!” asked a tiny voice, and Twilight turned around to find a filly Pinkie sitting on Luna’s back, her hoof tapping against the Princess’s body. “I wanna seeeeeeeeeeee!”

The Princess’s horn glowed, and with the glow came another pulse of magic until not only did the doors in the distance materialize, but the entire realm changed, growing several shades darker. As if to contrast this, the doors turned white, allowing Twilight to distinguish the cutie marks present on some of them.

“A thousand years ago, I would have been able to show you thousands of doors,” Princess Luna said, guiding Twilight and Pinkie further into the expanse. “But, as I said, Discord’s magic has confined my reach.”

The gears in Twilight’s mind turned as she took in the sight. There were doors, yes, but far fewer than the number of ponies she’d seen walking among the village.

“Right. And you can only go into the dreams of foals,” she re-stated, examining a nearby door bearing a cutie mark. “Because all the adults are under the influence of chaos magic.” She moved on to the next door, her mind continuing to spin. “And the influence of chaos magic interferes with a pony’s natural innate magic, which prevents their dreams from connecting with the dream realm.”

Luna smiled, and it almost reminded Twilight of the way Princess Celestia smiled after she’d passed a hard test.

“But…”

Twilight turned back to the door, reaching out and brushing her hoof against it.

What’s powering the chaos magic? What's keeping her here?

Was it really just Hollow Shades and the residents themselves, as was the case with the Everfree Forest? Or… was it the case of the library, where the one powering the magic was…

Wait a minute.

"Princess Luna," Twilight asked, "do you remember the Winter Moon Observance?"

Immediately, Luna stiffened.

"...Why are you asking about it?"

"Well... You know how we managed to get in contact with Princess Celestia? She mentioned that in one of her letters."

"Did she?" Princess Luna asked, and a bitter laugh left her lips. "Her first contact in thousands of years, and that is what she chooses to relay? Fitting." When Twilight continued to look at her, she frowned. "What about it? Why did she mention it?"

"I was hoping you could tell me that? Is it true you canceled it?"

The princess sighed. "The Winter Moon Observance was supposed to be equal with Celestia's Summer Sun Celebration," she said curtly. "I canceled it when it was clear ponies did not hold it in the same regard as my sister's celebration. That is all."

"Even now, my brightest light is nothing but the remains of yours."

Twilight swallowed. Even though it had happened a thousand years ago, she remembered Princess Luna's... aggrievances towards her sister's prominence when compared to her. If it was guilt that had kept Twilight trapped for centuries, could... could it be...?

“Uhm..."

Twilight turned fully towards the Princess, a rather delicate question waiting on her lips.

“Princess,” she began, trying to sound as tactful as possible while knowing what she was about to say was anything but, “are you sure you’ve tried getting out of your cave?”

Princess Luna stared at her, and behind her, a normal-sized Pinkie gestured towards her own neck in a slashing motion.

Twilight smiled nervously. “That didn’t come out right, did it?”

“No.”

“Right. Yes. Okay.” Twilight cleared her throat, finally sympathizing with Rarity’s dilemma when faced with Twilight’s many complex… complexes. “I mean— Well, the thing is— I’m just— Because Discord kinda made me use my guilt to power the barrier?— So I just— Considering what Princess Celestia said... I mean, are you reaaaaaally sur—”

“I am trapped here, Twilight Sparkle,” said Luna shortly, “because of the chaos magic created by those who do not believe in me. That is the source of my condition, not any jealousy I held towards my sister or anypony else. If ponies want to adore her, that is their right.”

"Right."

Though Twilight had her reservations on that, she decided to file those reservations away for a later time where she and Rarity could discuss a better approach.

For now, she would have to focus on how to lessen the influence of chaos magic on ponies, rather than trying to fight what she suspected was the direct source of it.

The orbs around her began to glow anew, and she stepped back as Pinkie jumped up in spot.

“Ooooooh, I wonder who it is!”

“Who it is?” Twilight asked, turning to her friends. “What do you mean who—”

A pulse of magic from the orbs interrupted her and a few feet away, a new door began to materialize. She watched with fascination, taking a few steps towards it, and then felt her heart jump when the door took physical form and displayed a triple-diamond cutie mark for them to see.

“Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed, her voice giddier than a foal opening up a Hearth Warming present. “Is that her dreams?”

When Luna nodded, Twilight’s eyes practically sparkled with anticipation. Questions filled her mind, driven both by her curiosity at exploring dreams and her desire to understand and know Rarity better than she already did.

Ignoring Pinkie’s sudden cry, Twilight rushed forward, already composing in her mind a list of at least fifty questions she’d try to answer while inside Rarity’s dream. However, when she reached out to take the doorknob, a little whine of surprise left her mouth when blue magic enveloped her and floated her away.

“But, Princess Luna—!” she protested when Luna dropped her back where she’d begun.

“You do not have her permission,” said the Princess.

Twilight blinked. “Her permission?”

“Dreams are where the fears and desires of every creature take life, Twilight. Dreams are the most sacred and personal space we have,” said the Princess. “Dreamwalking is not simply being able to travel into dreams. It is also understanding the weight of such an act, even moreso when you are familiar with the dreamer.”

“The… weight of such an act?”

“Yeah!” Pinkie added. “Imagine if you were dreaming about a secret you reeeeeeally didn’t want anypony to find out, and then a friend suddenly walks in to watch without even telling you!”

“Oh,” Twilight said, her ears dropping somewhat.

“And what if it is a friend who dreams about you?” Princess Luna asked. “What if they are having a nightmare in which you are the nightmare? Are you certain they would be agreeable to you seeing that? Would you be prepared to see that?”

And now Twilight understood.

“That is the true danger of dreamwalking,” Luna continued. “We do not enter dreams to stop nightmares, but to help the dreamer understand and overcome their fears, even when perhaps we might be the source of a dear one’s fears.” She looked towards the doors surrounding them. “Dreamwalkers must shed their personal emotions and feelings when we enter this world. We cannot ask permission of every creature in the world, but until a dreamer can leave behind who they are, permission must be sought for entering dreams of those we know.” She turned to Pinkie and frowned. “A rule I was most surprised to see you disregard, Little One.”

Immediately, Pinkie’s ears sprung up in alarm. “M-Me? I didn’t disre—” Her eyes landed on Twilight and she smiled nervously. “But—! But that was different! Princess Twilight di—”

“There is never an excuse for lack of consent,” Princess Luna said.

Finally, Pinkie hung her head. “I know…” She turned to Twilight looking rather meek. “I’m sorry, Princess Twilight. I didn’t mean to enter your dreams without your permission. I mean I did, but because I wanted to be with you, not because I wanted to know your secrets, not that you have secrets, but if you did, I didn’t want to—”

“It’s all right, Pinkie,” Twilight said rather awkwardly. “Thank you for apologizing.”

“Twilight,” Princess Luna said suddenly, gesturing towards the distance.

Twilight followed her gaze all the way up until she noticed a door in the distance was changing colors, flashing back and forth between white and black.

“What’s wrong with it?” she asked, alarmed.

“A nightmare,” Princess Luna replied curtly, walking towards it, Twilight and Pinkie following behind.

When they arrived to their destination, Twilight watched as Luna lifted her hoof, pressing it against the blank wooden door.

“Whose is it?!” Pinkie asked, practically climbing on top of Princess Luna.

“A filly by the name of Strawberry Brush,” she replied, and her horn pulsed with magic.

A moment went by, and before Twilight’s eyes, the door flashed one last time before settling into white once more.

“She is well now,” the Princess said.

Twilight blinked. “What? But you didn’t go into her dream?”

“Not every nightmare requires my full-presence,” she explained. “Especially those brought about by fillies who disobeyed their mothers and ate a most unsettling amount of sweets.”

Twilight nodded. It made sense, after all. There were so many ponies that personally going into the dreams of each and every one would take more than a few nights.

“You will learn how to do this,” Princess Luna continued, and her expression turned somber, “when you take over my duties.”

Twilight turned to her. “Take over your duties?”

“What?! No!” Pinkie gasped, jumping off the Princess and stamping her hoof against the ground. “Princess Luna! You said you’d stop talking about this! I’m gonna tell Rarity on you!”

“For a thousand years, the ponies of Equestria have had to endure nightmares,” Princess Luna said severely, ignoring Pinkie’s huffs of discontent. “It is my duty to guide them and keep them safe, even if this means training a successor.”

The moment’s pause felt eternal as what the Princess just said processed in Twilight’s mind.

“What?” she said, taking several steps back, a sickening feeling clawing up her body. “No! You don’t need a successor! We’re freeing you, Princess Luna!”

“My freedom, Twilight Sparkle, is hopeful wishing,” Princess Luna replied. “It is a dream that may or may not come to pass, while ponies suffering from nightmares is a reality.”

“B-But why me?” Twilight asked, horrified at the prospect of being put in charge of another thing yet again. “I don’t want to take over your duties! You’re trapped in a cave in the first place because I was put in charge of something!”

“Princess Twilight!” Pinkie gasped again, stamping her hoof on the ground again. “That’s not true! You stop that! I’m telling Rarity on you too!”

“But it’s true!” Twilight protested. “Princess Luna should be the one dreamwalking, not me!”

“Twilight Sparkle,” said the Princess, the harsh tone quickly silencing Twilight. “You are correct. It is my duty as a Princess of Equestria to protect my ponies, and so it is your duty as a Princess of Equestria to do so as well.”

“But I never asked to be a Princess of Equestria!” Twilight snapped, her wings flaring up in reply.

Silence fell again, and Princess Luna’s expression softened.

“Prisons,” she said, “are not always physical, are they, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight didn’t know what to say, and that in itself was a telling reply.

Now more than ever she wished Rarity were there. She would know what to say or do, or at least would be able to bring Twilight some amount of comfort.

But she wasn’t.

Longing for her significant other, Twilight looked towards Rarity’s distant dream door, hoping to draw some sort of courage from just the sight of it, but instead she was met with a sight that only worsened her unpleasant emotional state.

There, in the distance, Rarity’s door was flashing black and white, and Twilight felt oddly responsible, as if her outburst had disturbed Rarity’s peaceful sleep.

Princess Luna noticed the event in the distance and silently walked towards the door, apparently putting the previous matter aside for now. Twilight and Pinkie followed, but the former’s vague sense of relief at the fact that Rarity’s nightmare would soon be alleviated disappeared the second a new event occured.

A crack, loud and noticeable, appeared on Rarity’s door.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked urgently. “Why is her door breaking?!”

“The nightmare has worsened,” Princess Luna replied, her brow furrowing. “‘Tis been a while since Rarity’s door has cracked like this.”

As with the filly’s door, Princess Luna lifted her hoof and placed it on Rarity’s cutie mark. Twilight and Pinkie watched with bated breaths and waited, and waited, and waited until Luna’s expression hardened.

“What is it?” Twilight pressed, resisting the urge to barge into the dream. “What’s wrong with her?”

The Princess’s eyes flickered towards Twilight for a moment before returning to the door.

“She will be fine,” said the Princess, “but I must help her with this myself.” She stepped back, putting her hoof down on the ground and addressed Twilight. “Will you consider my proposal, Twilight Sparkle? I do not need an answer now, but I ask you consider my request.”

Pinkie whined. “Princess Luna…”

But Princess Luna did not react. She waited, Twilight knew, for an answer to her question.

“Yes,” Twilight said finally, the weight in her heart the same as when Princess Celestia gave her wings. “I’ll think about it.”

Princess Luna nodded, and with a flicker of magic, Rarity’s door opened. Beyond it, Twilight caught a glimpse of an unfamiliar city filled with ponies, and selfish relief washed over her at the realization that she at least was not a cause of Rarity’s nightmare.

“I can’t go with you?” she asked even though she knew the answer.

“No,” Princess Luna replied before smiling, her horn lighting up. “But I am most certain that she will appreciate an embrace.” Her magic pulsed, and in an instant, Twilight saw the world around her fade away, Princess Luna’s voice echoing in the air. “Goodnight, Twilight Sparkle.”

And so, with a start, Twilight woke up.

She sat up on a bed, rubbing her eyes and trying to make sense of what had happened. The dream itself was starting to fade, its details blurring away save for Princess Luna’s last request.

A responsibility she wasn’t certain she wanted to take on.

A soft groan caught her attention, and when she turned around to find Rarity sleeping beside her, face scrunched up into a frown, she realized that she’d been moved to Rarity’s bedroom at some point during the night.

Another groan left Rarity’s lips, and Twilight debated what to do. Though her instincts demanded she wake her marefriend up, her fragmented memories of her meeting with Luna compelled to let the princess take care of whatever plagued the unicorn.

So she lied back down on the bed and decided to wait.

Hours seemed to pass, made all the more difficult by Rarity’s tossing and turning, but her patience was rewarded when Rarity’s eyes fluttered open.

“Twilight…?” Rarity asked groggily. “Why are you awake?”

“You were having a nightmare.”

A yawn escaped Rarity’s lips. “Oh dear, was I? Did I wake you?”

Twilight quickly shook her head, instead moving forwards to nuzzle her beloved. Rarity gratefully hummed in reply and cuddled up to Twilight, the latter wrapping her wings around her.

“What was your nightmare about?” Twilight asked.

“Incantation and Pinkie accidentally setting the boutique on fire,” Rarity replied.

“That’s not what it was about,” Twilight said, only catching her slight confession when it was already too late. “Or it might have been. It just feels unrealistic.”

Rarity laughed. “If you saw how Incantation cooks, you wouldn’t think that, I assure you.” She yawned again. “Regardless, I have the perfect pony to hold and keep me safe from nightmares, hm?”

Twilight smiled, tightening her embrace around Rarity. They stayed that way for countless minutes, their breathings intermingling as Twilight’s thoughts rushed through her head. Princess Luna’s words still rang in her head, and the inescapable reality that Luna being freed wasn’t a fact but merely a wishful desire.

“It is my duty as a Princess of Equestria to protect my ponies, and it is your duty as a Princess of Equestria to do so as well.”

“Rarity?” Twilight asked. “If I could dreamwalk, you would let me into your dreams, wouldn’t you?”

“Ah... Did Princess Luna ask you to take over for her?" she asked. "What did you say?”

Twilight nodded. “I… I told her I’d need time to think about it.”

Rarity yawned a fourth and final time. “Well, darling, at the rate things are going with stopping the chaos magic, time is all we have,” she said, and when she fell asleep moments later Twilight forced herself not to dwell on whether Rarity had avoided answering the question or not.

Author's Note

hey everyone, I know I said I wouldn't stop hiatus until Sept. 18th but chapter 10 is finished and it's one of the most unrestrained raritwi chapters so far and who has the time to wait until the 18th when there's mushy raritwi to post not me

Chapter 10 will go live on the 25th or 26th, and then hopefully chapter 11 two weeks after that and so forth.

it's so shippy you guys its sO SHIPPY

As always, if you see any typos, please let me know (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.

~ Act II ~ 10 ~ The RariLight Connection ~

“I can’t imagine it,” North said as they walked. “Having somepony else’s thoughts in my head.”

“It is a strange concept to grasp, I’ll admit. Not everypony is fond of having their mind shared so completely, particularly when one has rampant unpleasant thoughts.”

"So, what did you do?" he asked, returning their conversation to the story being told.

"I hesitated, at first."

"Understandable, considering what you told me," he said, eyeing the necklace glowing on her neck. "How was it?"

"Intoxicating," she said at once, closing her eyes and doubtless reliving the moment. "It was like finally being home after a terribly long trip abroad."

In the early hours of the morning, several days after she’d begun staying in Hollow Shades, Princess Twilight Sparkle thought of her long and rather haunting past.

She thought about an incident where Star and Swirl had stopped functioning, and for a good five hours, the library had been submerged in darkness, leaving nothing but her voice and that of the unicorn she’d befriended only a few months ago.

“This is what it feels like,” she’d said, a statement of unprompted and unplanned sincerity in the midst of the punishment she told herself she'd never escape from. “It feels like I can’t see the light, only the dark.”

A few weeks after that, on a day Rarity did not stop by the library to visit the lonely pony, Star and Swirl stopped functioning again due to a slight miscalculation on Twilight’s part. What she remembered clearly of this event, however, wasn’t the annoyance she felt at the mistake, but the surprise when in the sudden darkness, a glowing necklace on a table valiantly fought against the dark.

She remembered with crystal clarity the overwhelming affection for Rarity that shot through her at that moment along with the burning realization that, for the first time in eternity, she was not fighting the darkness alone.

“Princess Twilight?”

Drawn out of her thoughts, Twilight tore her gaze away from the necklace on the kitchen table and turned around to find Incantation standing under the door frame, rubbing away the sleep from her eyes.

“Oh, good morning, Incantation.” Twilight greeted, watching with some surprise as the changeling stepped into the kitchen to join her. Usually she woke up at around seven, not six. “You’re up early.”

“And you’re thinkin’ tasty stuff about the Boss really early in the morning.”

Twilight couldn’t decide if Incantation feeding off her emotions was fascinating or disturbing. “Right.”

Ink grinned at her, clearly taking pleasure in her embarrassment.

“So, why are you up early, Princess?" continued the changeling. "Are you still trying to decide if you're going to take Princess Luna's dreamwalking lessons?"

Twilight held back a sigh.

“No,” she said, feeling a bit guilty about being indecisive when she knew Princess Luna wanted it very badly. It felt as though Luna's insistence on the matter dwarfed what little memories Twilight was able to record in her dream journal after each night.

Eager to move the conversation away from that topic, Twilight focused instead on her grumbling stomach and shifted the conversation with the elegance befitting her title.

“Will you be making breakfast again?”

“Yep! And since Sweetie’s stayin’ over, I’m makin’ pancakes with whipped cream and berries today,” continued the changeling, rolling with the shift in conversation. “She’s gonna need all her energy helping us get ready for tonight.”

Twilight perked up at that. “Oh! You’re having an event today, aren’t you?”

“Yeah, all the town foals are coming for stories and cupcakes,” Ink said, taking out an assortment of ingredients from the fridge. “We’re setting up shop early to make up for the fact that you and the Boss won’t be here to help.”

“...We won’t?” asked Twilight. “Why not?”

"You'll see," said the changeling, her slithering tongue poking out her mischievous smile. "You'll see."

"I don't exactly know how to feel about this," Twilight said. It was true she'd only been living with them for a week, but a week was more than enough to learn to be suspicious of Pinkie and Incantation's ploys.

"Then help me make breakfast until you figure it out?"

And so, Twilight did as suggested, trying to forget her trepidations at whatever awaited her by focusing on the delicious food she'd soon be eating.

It was almost eight in the morning, right as she'd finished eating her sixth plate of pancakes, when the door opened and, like she did every morning, Pinkie stepped into the kitchen and then did or said nothing at all.

Not a good morning, not a hello, not anything of the sort.

A week ago, Twilight would have asked what was wrong, but she had since learnt not to interfere.

Finally, after a few minutes, and without any seeming prompt, Pinkie lifted her hoof, giving Twilight and Ink enough of a warning to cover their ears. Swaying her hoof from side to side, Pinkie marked the passing of one, two, three seconds until, like clockwork, Rarity’s horrified screech echoed throughout the boutique.

“What do you mean it’s already eight?!”

“Goooood morning, everypony!” Pinkie greeted, taking her time in the kitchen while Rarity rushed around yelling all sorts of remarks including, but not limited to: why hadn’t anypony woken her up; how did the place get so dirty during the night; why was everypony eating breakfast so slowly; why had Twilight eaten six plates of pancakes; why was she serving herself a seventh; did nopony care about anything at all; she was giving herself a raise because she deserved it; actually, she was packing up her things and going back to Ponyville; and so on and so forth in a half-hour long tirade Twilight had also learned not to interfere with.

As Rarity stomped towards her study to pack her bags, a sleepy Sweetie Belle dragged herself into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes with a hoof.

“Now I remember why I stopped visiting on weekends,” she complained, taking a seat next to Twilight and murmuring a quick thanks when Ink placed a small stack of pancakes before her.

“Aw, Rarity just wants us all to be up bright and early!” Pinkie said, serving herself a large piece of cake for breakfast along with a delicious-looking jumbo milkshake. “We have lots to do today!”

“Yes, we do,” came Rarity’s voice as she stepped into the kitchen, a checklist floating behind her.

“I thought you were moving back to Ponyville?” asked Twilight with a grin that only grew in size when her marefriend shot her a dirty look.

“Twilight Sparkle, have I gone insane or are you actually mocking me?”

“Me, Rarity? I would never,” Twilight replied with an innocent smile, unable to stop herself from giggling when Rarity theatrically rolled her eyes.

“You sillies!” Pinkie said between two mouthfuls of cake. “Now’s not the time for flirting!”

“What?” Ink said, ceasing production of Twilight’s pancakes. “Yes, it is! Why would you stop them? There’s nothing wrong with them flirting. Let them flirt!”

Rarity cleared her throat. “Incantation, as much as I love you and understand your situation, I do hope you realize how… well… creepy you can come off as.”

“...Sorry, Boss,” muttered Ink, turning back to the stove and poking her pancakes with a spatula. “S’not my fault your love is so tasty…”

“In any case,” Rarity said, moving the topic along, “we’d better start early if we’re to have everything ready for tonight. We have a lot to do.” She turned to her sister and sighed. “I’m sorry, darling. I know you want to spend time with Twilight, but your surprise visit was rather ill-timed.”

“No, it wasn’t,” she said with a sneaky grin and a mouthful of pancakes. “Pinkie asked me to come help.”

Rarity’s eyebrows raised at that. “And you agreed? You gave up spending time with the girls to come slave away at the Dreamland for an entire weekend?” She turned to Pinkie. “How much are you paying her?”

“Hey!” Sweetie protested.

“Rarity, I’m not paying her anything!” Pinkie quickly said. “I just told her we’d need the extra help since you and Princess Twilight won’t be around to help.”

Rarity relented. “Oh, I suppose that makes sen—” Stopping mid-sentence, she raised an eyebrow at the pink pony. “We won’t be around to help?”

“I’d like to help,” Twilight interjected, increasingly wishing to be part of the little family that lived in the Dreamland.

“And you will!” Pinkie said, offering a big grin. “You two have to take care of something SUPER-DUPER-LOOPER important, right, Sweetie?”

Sweetie nodded effusively, her giggling a less than endearing sight considering the whipped cream.

“Well, this certainly isn’t ominous,” said Rarity, levitating a napkin and forcefully cleaning Sweetie’s muzzle. “What, pray tell, is this ‘super-duper-looper’ important affair that Twilight and I have to take care of?”

“You both promise you won’t teleport?” asked Pinkie.

“Yes…?” said Twilight which was much more positive than Rarity’s: “Yes, I said with growing terror-filled suspicion.”

“Oki-doki! Follow me!”

Trading concerned looks, Twilight and Rarity followed Pinkie into the lobby and out the Dreamland’s doors. Once outside, and after finding nothing that seemed to need taking care of, they turned to Pinkie.

“Uh. What are we supposed to be taking care of?” Twilight asked, and before she could even wait for an answer, Pinkie rushed back into the Dreamland.

“EACH OTHER!” she yelled, slamming the door behind her and then loudly locking it from the other side.

“Pinkie!” exclaimed Rarity, trying the door and then knocking on it when it failed to open. “Did she really just lock us out?”

Twilight couldn’t help a smile. “That explains why she asked us not to teleport anywhere.”

Rarity, however, was finding the affair less amusing, now resorting to knocking insistently on the door. “Pinkie Pie! Open this door this instant! What is the matter with you?”

“Awwww, come on, Rarity!” came Pinkie’s muffled reply. “We just want you and Twilight to have fun! You’re always working so we’re making you have a surprise dat—” Her sentence was cut short by the sound of Rarity teleporting, leaving Twilight outside to stare at the door for a moment before, “Heeeey! You promised!”

“Pinkie, this is ridiculous! I have work to do, and the Dreamland needs to be ready for toni—Pinkie Pie!”

The doors to the Dreamland opened again and out came Rarity with a push, fast enough that she would have tripped onto the ground if not for Twilight quickly holding her with her magic. Behind her, Pinkie hung the closed sign on the door and then shut and locked it once more.

Rarity cleared her throat. “Well then.”

“Rarity?” asked Twilight, finally feeling bold enough to interject, if only because Rarity’s reaction to a surprise date wasn’t all that encouraging. “Don’t you want to go on a date with me?”

Immediately, Rarity’s irritation melted away. “Darling, I— I mean, I do, of course, but—” She gestured helplessly towards the Dreamland.

“They’ll be fine, Rarity,” Twilight said, clearly out of desire to comfort Rarity and not to convince her to agree to the surprise date. “Don’t you trust them?”

“I do! I do, but…” She licked her lips, clearly uncomfortable with her thoughts as she toyed with the necklace hanging from her neck. “You must understand that I can’t simply drop my duties now that you’re here again. The Dreamland is my priority; I’m sorry.”

And that Twilight understood, regardless of how much she wanted the date. The last thing she wanted was to create any problems for Rarity, after all. And besides, if Rarity was still the Rarity she knew and loved from two years ago…

“All right, Rarity,” she said with a smile.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Rarity seemed surprised, probably having expected more objections.

“I. Well. Yes! Yes, good, I’m so glad you understand, Twilight,” she said, taking a single step towards the door before turning back to the alicorn. “Of course, I don’t want you to think you’re not important either, darling,” she quickly added. “You really don’t mind us postponing our surprise date?”

Twilight simply replied, smiling innocently. “Of course not, Rarity. I understand that you want to focus on the Dreamland and I’d be more than happy to stay and help. And you did say as much back in Ponyville, didn’t you? That you needed to focus on your job?”

“Yes. Yes, I did,” Rarity continued, taking another step towards the boutique before again turning back to Twilight. “And you’re certain you don’t mind, do you? You did mention wanting to explore town.”

“Rarity,” Twilight said with a raised eyebrow. “Are you sure you don’t want to go?”

“What? Me? No!” Rarity denied. “I must focus on my duties! I’m just worried about you, is all.”

Twilight restrained an amused smile. “Right. Well, would you feel better if you stay here to help and I ask your sister to show me the town?” She tilted her head. “We can do that, if you want. I’m sure Sweetie would agree. In fact, I think we should do that now.” She strode forwards towards the door with confident steps. “Come o—”

“Wait, no, stop!” Rarity exclaimed, jumping in between an innocently smiling Twilight and the door. “I want to be the one to show you around town! Why should Swee—” She cut herself off, staring at Twilight for a moment before giving her a look bordering between flirtatious and disbelieving. “Why, Princess Twilight Sparkle, you are playing me like a fiddle.”

Twilight leaned in. “Me, Rarity?” she said with a smirk. “I would never.”

Rarity leaned in as well, matching Twilight’s smile. “Oh, yes, I’m sure you would never, Princess.” With a sigh, she leaned back. “Very well, you’ve convinced me.”

“I convinced you?” Twilight said. “You convinced yourself.”

Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. “Let us call it a team effort, then.” Letting out a smitten giggle, she lifted her hoof and fondly brushed back Twilight’s bangs. She seemed about to say something but shook it off, clearing her throat and turning towards the door. “I shall be back in an instant.”

With a magical crack, she disappeared inside the Dreamland.

“Heeeeeeeey!”

“Oh, for Denza’s’ sake, Pinkie, I’m just getting our things! Honestly!”

The door opened moments later, and Rarity stepped out, her saddlebag firmly placed on her back and Twilight’s cloak floating behind her. After closing the door, she turned back to Twilight, coyly moving forward and helping Twilight put on the cloak.

“So, Twilight,” she purred, the feel of her hoof pressing against Twilight’s necklace sent jolts through the alicorn’s body, “what’s on your mind?”

“Uhm. Well...”

“Yeeees?”

Twilight smiled sheepishly. “What does playing somepony like a fiddle mean?”

Rarity laughed, delighted.

“Oh, Twilight Sparkle,” she said. “What am I going to do with you?”

They made their way to the town’s marketplace, Rarity briefly explaining things here and there when Twilight wasn’t busy examining the stands. So many of them, she noticed, were themed after Princess Luna.

“I don’t understand,” said Twilight as they walked past a small stone sculpture of Luna in between two stands, its base littered with Equestrian and foreign coins. “They don’t believe in her, but they honor her?”

“It’s a tradition, darling,” Rarity explained. “They’ve been doing it for so long, they don’t question why they do it. They think it’s some sort of good luck charm, I suppose.” She smiled. “It certainly helps that the tourists find it all oh-so-charming, especially the cloaks.”

“Do you make them?” Twilight asked, aware of the one hanging on her back. She would probably have to return it soon and get one for herself.

Rarity snorted. “Stars, no,” she said. “Dear old Leather Silk would have Elder Moonshine banish me from the town if I dared try to be his competition. He has, however, hired me a few times during tourist season.”

Twilight turned back towards the stands, her eyes catching a small oil-painting depicting rather inaccurate versions of the Princesses. It was strange to see first-hoof the impact her actions had caused amongst modern Equestrians. Dolls, paintings, books, and more, all centered around the supposedly fake tale of the Four Lost Princesses.

“Are you two fans of Princess Twilight?”

Twilight looked up from the little ‘Princess Twilight’ figurine she and Rarity had been examining to find the shopkeeper peering at them.

“Oh yes,” Rarity said innocently, her tail swishing to brush against Twilight’s. “I’d venture to say I’m her biggest fan of all.”

Twilight playfully rolled her eyes, putting the figurine down. “These are all very, uh, interesting,” she said, picking up the figurine of a black slithering creature with wings and paws. “Is this supposed to be the Spirit?”

“Yes, it is!” chimed the shopkeeper before gesturing to the top of the stand. “And those are warding charms!”

An assortment of necklaces hung above her, their pendants carved into all sizes and shapes.

“There’s something very special about them, you see,” continued the shopkeeper. “A warding spell cast centuries ago! There isn’t any spell like it!”

“I agree,” said Twilight. “Mostly because there is no spell on these necklaces.”

The shopkeeper gasped. “What?! Yes, there is!” he protested. “They were found hidden in Canterlot Castle, along with a letter from Princess Twilight Sparkle herself, saying she placed a spell on them to keep the Spirit away!”

“Right.”

“My, my, how very thoughtful of the Princess!” exclaimed Rarity, placing a hoof on Twilight. “Don’t you agree, darling?”

“Why would they be hidden if they were meant to protect other ponies, then?” Twilight asked.

The shopkeeper sighed. “You see, miss, despite the Princess’s incredible magic talents…” He grinned. “Well, all alone in her library all day with nopony to talk to, poor Princess Twi went a little crazy in the head.”

“She went wha—”

“Do forgive her,” Rarity quickly interrupted before Twilight could lecture the stallion on how empty his head clearly was. “She simply has a rather large amount of, shall we say, strong opinions on the Myth of the Four Princesses.”

“Oh, I see,” he said, looking her up and down. “You’re one of them.” His eyes narrowed. “A non-believer.”

“A what?”

“You don’t believe in the legend of the four princesses, do you?” He shook his head, making a clicking noise with his tongue, as though he himself believed in the tale. “It’s because of ponies like you that the poor Princesses are still trapped throughout the land!”

“Clearly,” said Twilight. “Princess Twilight is trapped because of me.”

Rarity giggled. “I mean, dear, if you think about it, one could say she was trapped because of you.” At Twilight’s stare, she bit down on her lip. “Too soon?”

“A bit.” Twilight then turned back to the shopkeeper. “Sir, these necklaces aren’t enchanted, and you shouldn’t be saying they are.”

“But they are! The Princess enchanted them!” he protested, and she had to at least give him credit for his extraordinary stubbornness. “Poor Princess Twilight, what would she think of this?”

“She would point out that you’re profiting off her and the other Princesses’s situation.”

He waved her off. “It’s what she would have wanted.”

“Actually, sir, what she would have wante—”

“Twilight, look!” Rarity interrupted again, rudely preventing Twilight from telling him exactly what she wanted. She gestured to some pendants hanging above them, specifically two very familiar translucent crystals.

“Wait,” she said, her hoof jumping to the crystal on her neck as she glanced at Rarity, “are those…?”

“They are indeed. This is where I bought them.” Rarity gestured to her own necklace, the bottom part of it still missing. “Well, less damaged versions of them, of course.”

“You broke it?!” gasped the shopkeeper. “No, no, no! The spell won’t work if it’s broken! Clearly, you must buy another one, Miss, or the spell won’t work properly! Buy it, and I’ll even throw in a discount book! Have you read The Day Princess Twilight Painted The Moon Purple?”

“No, I did not!”

“Perhaps some other time!” Rarity politely refused, pushing Twilight away from the stand. “Thank you! Goodbye!”

Once they were sufficiently distanced from the stand, Twilight wasted no time expressing her thoughts on the matter in the shape of a very pronounced frown.

“Twiliiiight,” Rarity said, stifling a laugh. “Sweetest, you cannot let that upset you.”

“I’m not upset, Rarity,” she said. “How would I even turn the moon purple? That’s impossible! According to the scientific book you gave me, the moon's surface area is over fourteen million square miles! And I’d have to account for the paint I would use, which would need a chemical component complex enough to work in whatever atmosphere the moon has, which—” She stopped. “Unless I didn’t actually paint the moon, but instead cast a perception spell that made it seem purple? Hm.”

She turned to Rarity, but before she could speak up, Rarity did.

“No, you are not going to cast a perception spell on the entire town.”

“I wasn’t going to ask that.”

“Twilight, do you think I know nothing about you?” she asked with fluttered eyelashes.

“No, you don’t seem to,” Twilight flatly replied. “I was going to ask if you were free tonight so I could try the perception spell on you.”

“I do so love how you’ve just assumed I’d agree to being your test subject.”

“Would you not want to help me if I asked?”

“Well, no, of course I’d agree.”

“See!” Twilight replied with a winning smile, leaning in. “Maybe I’m the only one of us who knows the other well.”

“Well!” Rarity replied with a blush. “Somepony’s certainly on their game today, it would seem. But—!” She tapped Twilight on the nose. “It is always better to ask for permission even when you think you already have it, hm?”

Twilight playfully rolled her eyes. “Rarity,” she said theatrically, “Can I use you as a test subject for a perception spell?”

“I would be delighted,” she said, offering Twilight a quick peck on the lips right after. She then glanced towards the stand with the salespony and held her necklace. “Although…” She bit down on her lip. “You don’t think he’s right, do you?”

Twilight frowned slightly. “About what?”

“The spell—the real one—not working because my necklace is broken,” she elaborated. “Do you think I should replace it?”

At Rarity's permission, Twilight levitated the necklace off Rarity and examined it further. Though it was true that the pressure of the spell had cracked it once before…

“It’s worked fine the other times we’ve used it,” she noted. “The two times it was damaged were due to overexertion on our part, but...” Her eyes lit up. “We could test them, if you want.”

“You mean use the spell?” Rarity clarified, and she seemed much less enthusiastic about the idea than Twilight was. “I don’t know…”

“You don’t know?” she asked, her excitement wavering. “Why not?”

Rarity retrieved the necklace from Twilight’s magical grip and looked it over. “I— It’s been a very long time since we last did this properly, Twilight,” she said slowly. “Nearly two years, in fact, and I don’t know if…” She hesitated again. “A great many thoughts have gone through my mind in two years, and I’m not so certain I’m willing to share them so freely yet.”

Oh.

A rather sickening sensation overtook Twilight, as though a door had been shut squarely in her face. Rarity didn’t want to mindlink with her anymore. Because of what she’d caused. Because of the divide she had created. Because of the outburst that she’d had. No matter how hard she tried to forget it, the consequences of that outburst kept cropping up time and time again.

“Right,” she said, and nothing else.

An awkward silence shoved itself between them, only mildly alleviated by the glowing necklace on her neck. It was pink, wasn’t it? If Rarity had truly stopped trusting Twilight, then that wouldn’t be the case.

Ugh.

“Twilight?”

Twilight looked up and found Rarity staring intently at her broken necklace, ears lowered.

“Yes?”

“You… Do you remember that night some time after we broke the curse? When we did the mindlink and you noticed something was wrong with Cadance? Do you remember how you were afraid of doing the spell after that because you didn’t want me to think about what you saw?”

“Yes,” Twilight replied.

“And do you remember,” she continued, still looking at the pendant, “how we did so later because I promised you I wouldn’t go where you didn’t want me to go?”

That, Twilight remembered very well. She remembered being terrified of Rarity realizing the extent of the damage Twilight had caused, and instead being met with the most embarrassingly self-indulgent half-hour of Rarity mentally showing Twilight how much she loved her.

Just thinking about it still sent shivers up her spine.

Rarity looked up and their eyes met. “If we try the spell again, will you promise me you won’t go where I don’t want you to go?”

Relief and excitement washed over the alicorn, and she had to stop her wings from flaring up.

“Of course!” she exclaimed. True, she was still… sad that Rarity didn’t trust her a hundred percent, but considering her own past habits of keeping everything a secret, it wasn’t as though she was in any position to complain. “I can cast the spell so it’s focused on me rather than you, if you want.”

Rarity mulled it over for a moment before smiling warmly. “All right, then, Your Highness.”

Though every inch of Twilight wanted to jump in joy, she restrained herself and sought confirmation.

“Are you sure?” she asked carefully.

Rarity offered her a dazzling smile as her horn blazed with magic and their necklaces began to glow.

“Certain.”

Unable to stop herself, Twilight rushed forward, embracing her marefriend joyously before promptly levitating her up in the air and rushing out of the marketplace, ignoring Rarity’s half-hearted protests to be put back down.

Upon finding a secluded spot in the first back alley she found, Twilight put Rarity down and began to speak at a mile per minute.

“Darling, I do remember how to do it, you know?” Rarity said, playfully raising an eyebrow at the Princess's long-winded explanation.

“I just want to make sure,” Twilight promised before patiently waiting for Rarity to close her eyes and cast the spell.

One, two, three seconds passed, and a ping! sounded off. A moment of silence befell them, Rarity waiting and Twilight…

Twilight trying not to think too much of Rarity’s hesitation at using the spell, as well as the guilt that came with it.

“Twilight?” prompted Rarity. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes!” Twilight blurted out, once again pushing away the bad thoughts. What mattered now was Rarity, and nothing else. She took a long breath, and closed her eyes. “One, two, and…”

Ping!

In the darkness they sat, waiting and waiting. Nothing happened at first, no foreign thoughts or other sensations. Just silence, and the now familiar feeling of breathing in and out, the distant sounds of the marketplace, and the enticing smell of the food stands.

So enticing, in fact, that they were awakening her large appet—

“Dear stars,” came Rarity’s voice in a gasp. “Are you always this famished?! I feel like I haven’t eaten in centuries! Why?”

Twilight grinned. “Why are you asking me? You already know why.”

“Twilight Sparkle, just because your magic output has increased exponentially due to you being alicorn doesn’t mean you’re allowed to eat like an uncivilized troglody—Oh dear, I’ve just hurt our feelings. And now I feel bad for hurting our feelings. And now I can’t really tell which one of us is fee—”

Twilight laughed. “Rari—”

“I don’t care that me stating what we’re both feeling is silly!” Rarity said before Twilight could finish her sentence. “This is still bizarre!”

Twilight fell silent, biting down on her lips.

It was bizarre, wasn’t it? Yet more than bizarre, the feeling that completely and overwhelmingly seemed to be taking over was the feeling of relief, like coming home after a long trip. This was where Twilight felt most comfortable, in this space where she had nothing to hide, nothing to explain, nothing to be but herself with the pony she cared about the most.

For the first time, all her barriers were completely and utterly gone, and she would have it no other way when being with Rarity.

“Twilight, really,” Rarity said, and Twilight didn’t need to open her eyes to see Rarity’s burning blush and the whole flurry of emotions that melded with Twilight’s absolute delight at flustering the poor unicorn which, by the way…

Without warning, she opened her eyes and regaled herself with the fantastic view of a closed-eyed Rarity, who was feeling mortified by how immensely flustered she was. And beautiful, too, Twilight was sure to add, and kind, and attractive, and every other word she could push to the forefront that would increase Rarity’s blush.

“I can’t tell if I should feel flattered or horrifically narcissistic,” noted the unicorn with a laugh, prompting Twilight to finally nuzzle her, and embrace her, and try to put some sort of physical sense to what her mind was trying to express.

“I’m perfectly fine staying here,” said Twilight before Rarity could even audibly point out that they should go on with the tour. She was perfectly fine staying there nuzzling Rarity, and she knew that so was Rarity, and it was so nice to know and understand and—

And so a new sensation overtook her, not originating from her, but from her other half. A desire to show Twilight what she’d done in two years, who she’d met, which in turn fueled Twilight’s desire to understand and learn and finally rid herself of the silent question of what she had missed.

“Where should we go first?” she asked, already on their next train of thought and making an effort to be as audible as Rarity.

“We’ve already seen the marketplace,” said Rarity.

“We could go see Moonstone park, though Lunar Plaza has that little café we like.”

“Well, we don’t know if you like it, we only know that I certainly enjoy its aesthetic, and… and now I can see why this spell is a problem.”

Twilight smiled. “It’s hard to decide on something when we’re both trying to please each other, right? Though, I agree with your idea of being spontaneous and looking around until we find something.”

Rarity tilted her head. “Darling, us voicing our thoughts won’t work if you—”

“Keep answering your questions before you ask them,” Twilight finished before sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. “Sorry.”

“You’re quite the silly pony, aren’t you?”

“We’re a silly pony,” Twilight clarified.

She then turned around towards a more prominent town street and was about to lead the way until a foreign thought politely knocked in her head and reminded her Rarity couldn’t actually go anywhere with her eyes closed.

That, unfortunately, was a lesson they’d learnt the hard way. The last time they both tried opening their eyes while under the spell had created an overload of sensory and visual information strong enough to result in a splitting headache so painful, Twilight was able to feel it through the spell despite her displaced condition.

“A shame we can’t move as a single pony,” Rarity noted, until a thought arose in Twilight’s mind, and Rarity’s face immediately contorted. “No. Absolutely not. No.”

Twilight blinked innocently. “I haven’t said anything, Rarity,” she said. “It was just a hypothetical idea, which you’re seemingly starting to like.”

“You’re imagining things, I can assure you. And besides, what are we going to use? Sunglasses? I don’t think anyone in this town sells them, let alone wears them. You’d have to use some sort of—Oh.” She fiddled with the necklace. “Well, you would look dashing and mysterious, I suppose, but…”

“Rarity…”

“Oh, all right, fine!” she exclaimed. “But you’re the one coming up with the excuse we’ll give ponies who stare!”

Darkness.

Complete and utter darkness with only a few struggling rays of light seeping into the black blindfold wrapped around Twilight’s eyes, and yet she could not care for the dark. It would be gone soon, after all.

“Rarity?” she called out, the communication spell no longer active. “What’s wrong?”

“Twilight, this is ridiculous! Really, it is! What if I fall?” came Rarity’s strained voice somewhere behind her.

“You won’t fall off, Rarity,” Twilight reassured, bending down and extending her wings. “I promise.”

“Promises won’t mean anything when I’m in the hospital with a broken leg!” she retorted, but finally relented when Twilight gave a meaningful look in the general direction of her voice.

After one last plaintive noise on Rarity’s part, Twilight heard the mare trot up to her and then proceed to clumsily climb onto Twilight’s back and sit down rather uncomfortably, even going so far as to accidentally smack Twilight on the head.

Once she’d finally seemed to settle into a comfortable position, Twilight heard the ping! of her necklace activating, followed by a theatrical sigh.

“Well, let us break a leg, then!”

A crackle of magic filled the air, the darkness continued for a moment, until an image filled Twilight’s mind. The back alley they’d been in materialized with crystal clarity in her mind, like some sort of vivid daydream, and while she took in the sight, so did Rarity adjust herself until she reached the optimal position for both of them.

They both waited with bated breath until the blindfolded alicorn trusted the vision in her head and took a step forward, Rarity’s hold tightening and then releasing when nothing went wrong. A desire filled Twilight’s mind to take another step, and then another, and so on until a single mind controlled their joined bodies, the two of them sharing a shaky laugh.

They left the alley in perfect coordination and looked around, simultaneously assessing and appreciating their surroundings. It was hard to tell where one began and the other ended. It was hard to tell if Rarity’s fascination towards hoof-made souvenirs was really Twilight’s burning curiosity, just as it was hard to tell if the glee Twilight felt towards the strength of her magic was hers or Rarity’s.

“Rarity?”

They turned towards a nearby stand, where a mare—Silver Blue, whom Twilight now remembered had met Rarity two months ago during a formal event—curiously peered at Rarity and Twilight from behind her wares.

“Hello, Silver Blue!” exclaimed Twilight, seeing the mare’s rather confused expression through Rarity’s eyes.

“How are you, dear?” Rarity continued, nonchalantly levitating an emerald bracelet from the table and bringing it up to her eyes. “Why, this is lovely! Twilight, what do you think?”

“Oh! The inscription! Is that ancient Equish, Silver?” Twilight asked, and again withheld a laugh at Silver’s stammering.

“Er, y-yes, Miss,” she said, staring Twilight down as if expecting to find out how shewas seeing while blindfolded. “It means—”

Rarity interrupted. “We were strangers when first we met,” she read aloud.

“I didn’t know you could read Old Equish, Rarity,” said Silver Blue, only for Rarity to simply smile.

“I don’t.” She turned the bracelet around and exclaimed, “Oh, here’s the other part of the phrase! Look, Twilight!”

“But now we are the best of friends,” read the Princess, still blindfolded and amused by Silver Blue’s thoroughly flummoxed blinking.

“What a lovely sentiment,” Rarity said wistfully. “It rather reminds me of us, except strangers don’t usually throw ponies against bookcases.”

“Really, Rarity?”

“You’re the one who let me say it out loud, Twilight,” replied Rarity before putting the bracelet back on the table and scanning the rest of the accessories. “Is there any other item you like, Twilight?”

Twilight licked her lips, narrowing her closed eyes under the blindfold. “That blue one in the corner is nice, I think. Then again, this one with the red and blue oval is also nice.”

“Excuse me,” blurted out Silver, “but how are you doing that?”

“Doing what?” said Twilight and Rarity in perfect synch, their stares set on the mare.

“That,” said Silver.

“Oh, you mean this?” replied Rarity and Twilight again, their smiles increasing.

“Uhm. You know what? Don’t worry about it,” said Silver, taking the emerald bracelet and putting it in a small bag. “You can have this on the house.”

“Are you sure?” they asked a third time, and held back cheeky smiles when the mare seemed entirely weirded-out.

“Yes, yes,” said Silver. “You can pay me back by teaching my husband and I how to understand each other like you do!”

With a final farewell, they moved on the next stand, and the next after that, all the way up until a voice called out to them; their smiles turning wicked at the sight of Professor Awe trotting towards them.

“Dear lord,” he said when he reached them, taking in the sight of Rarity and the blindfolded alicorn. “What are you doing?”

“Hello, Professor!” they said in unison. “It’s nice to see you. How was your trip back home?”

“Clearly not as interesting as the one you’re on right now,” he said with a light smile, his eyes moving back and forth between the glowing necklaces. “So, this is the spell you’ve mentioned before, isn’t it? The communication spell?”

“Actually,” Rarity began.

“It’s a mind-melding spell,” Twilight clarified. “Well, an imperfect one, since we share different bodies, but we can essentially extract any information we want from the other’s mind.”

The Professor offered an amused smile. “Interesting. And are you acting as a single entity now? Should I start calling you TwaRity?”

“TwaRity?” Rarity gasped. “Stars no, that sounds terrible.”

“TwiRity?” Twilight offered and then retracted. “Maybe not. RariTwi?”

“I don’t know, it’s missing a certain je ne sais quoi.”

“Yeah, you might be right. Wait…. RariLight?”

“Because you’re the light of my life or because I’m a shining light of beauty and fashion? What?! It’s true!”

“I didn’t say anything, Rarity.”

“You thought it!”

“AHEM,” said the Professor.

“Yes?” they asked in unison, Rarity directing their mutual sight towards him.

A long silence followed, in which the Professor seemed to debate how exactly to react to, well, them. He eventually cleared his throat and looked up at Rarity.

“I brought back what Princess Luna asked of me,” he said, and though Twilight was expecting to find out what it was through Rarity, she was surprised when Rarity herself had no idea what he was referring to.

“Did you?” asked Rarity, for a moment putting aside their shared consciousness. “What exactly was this thing she wanted?”

“A book,” he said, and his sights now turned to Twilight. “A very old book on dreamwalking.”

“On dreamwalking?” Twilight immediately asked, suppressing the impulse to take the blindfold off. As soon as she’d spoken, however, a foreign memory jumped into her mind of a hesitant Rarity discussing with Luna the possibility of Twilight dreamwalking if she were ever freed.

“She’s already asked Twilight,” Rarity said, “but she hasn’t decided yet.”

The Professor sighed. “Well, at the rate things are going with the Princess, someone must give in. Either Princess Twilight or Moonshine.”

“Moonshine?” asked Twilight. “Elder Moonshine? What about he—”

Her sentence cut off, a new memory pushing into her mind. A room in the Dreamland she’d never seen before, where Pinkie and Rarity tirelessly worked on diagrams, and charts, and plans and… teddy bears?

Was… Was that something to do with the thing Rarity mentioned about wanting to take charge of Seeking Night?

“Twilight,” Rarity said suddenly, gently but firmly, “I will explain later.”

Twilight swallowed, putting the matter aside. “Right. Sorry.”

Rarity cleared her throat and turned to the Professor. “Now, what were you—Ah yes. You know the Elder, Professor. There is only so many times one can ask.”

“Has she met our lovely Princess?”

“Yes,” Rarity said, “and she thought her fake wings were very well done.”

The Professor frowned. “I see. Well, giving up isn’t an option for us, as I’m sure you both know. It won’t hurt to ask again. I did see her near the Garden Plaza.” He smiled. “Perhaps if you go to her in this state, she might see the RariLight.”

Twilight frowned and voiced her and Rarity’s common thought. “Really, Professor?”

“And this is why I am not a comedian,” he added with a grin before trotting off. “Goodbye, ladies.”

It wasn’t until after he was gone that Rarity finally answered the question in Twilight’s mind.

“Yes, darling, it had to do with my ideas for Seeking Night,” she said, “but I see no use in dwelling on it since Elder Moonshine is as unwavering as a mountain about it, and no, we are not going to the plaza to ask her, no matter how much you try to persua—Oh, fine.”

“I didn’t even say anything,” Twilight said cheekily.

“You know,” Rarity said with a hum, “I think I’m suddenly tired of casting this spell.”

“All right, all right, I’m moving!”

The Garden Plaza, as its name suggested, was filled with all kinds of potted plants and flowers, as well as a small playground swarmed by several groups of foals. The only thing they couldn’t find was Elder Moonshine herself, much to the conflicting emotions of disappointment and relief that coursed through the mares.

Oh well.

Fortunately, whatever disappointment Twilight felt was soon forgotten in the wake of the things she remembered upon looking at the foals. It only took her a second, a quick look-over them all, and she suddenly knew everything about these foals she’d just met. Their names, their favorite games, everything Rarity had ever learnt about them.

In fact, this wealth of information brought about the question of whether it was really ethically correct for her to be learning these things. Then again, the wildest secret these foals had was that one had a crush on the other, and that this one had wet the bed last month.

“Princess Twilight! Rarity!” two voices called in unison, and the two were dragged out of their mental discussion on the ethics of mind-melding and towards a group of foals, two of whom Twilight herself recognized: Rhinestone and Dusk, the little siblings she seemed to have a habit of bumping into.

Twilight stepped towards them, but the Rarity’s side of her compelled her to stop.

“Rarity?” she asked.

“Wait,” Rarity replied and without offering any explanation, vocal or mental, she jumped off Twilight and closed her eyes, sinking Twilight into darkness. “Quickly, give me your blindfold.”

Twilight blinked. “I—Okay?” she said, removing the blindfold and taking a moment to get used to seeing through her own eyes again. “Why do you—”

A foreign idea formed in her mind, her eyes darting towards the foals, and with an excited smile, she helped Rarity put on the blindfold. Once it was done, they walked towards Rhinestone and the others, trying to look nonchalant.

“Hello, everypony!” Twilight greeted, immediately identifying the two other foals as Rosey Posey and Redwood Grass.

“Why are you blindfolded, Rarity?” asked Rhy, peering up at the unicorn.

“I seem to have strained my eyes terribly while working,” she explained, then gestured to her and Twilight’s glowing horns. “Luckily for me, Princess Twilight is kind enough to guide me with the help of a spell.” She paused for a single dramatic second and added, “She’s sending instructions right into my head, you see.”

The foals’ eyes widened and they looked towards Twilight. “You are?!”

“Yes, I am,” Twilight said. “I can read her mind and send her instructions as well.”

Though Dusk and Rosey Posey nodded effusively, Rhy and Redwood seemed far more suspicious of Twilight and Rarity’s claims.

“You can’t read Rarity’s thoughts!” Rhy said, regarding Twilight with a skeptical smile. “What’s she thinking now?!”

“Well,” Twilight said, “she’s thinking about wan—” Her sentence cut-off with a choked cough at realizing the very forward thoughts Rarity was having about her.

“Twilight?” asked Rarity innocently. “Is something wrong?”

“No,” stammered the blushing alicorn, loudly thinking to herself that somepony was being very silly right now until a terribly entertaining idea formed in her mind. “Well, I guess since Rarity’s okay with this, I’m going to assume you’ve all had lessons on anato—”

“Twilight Sparkle!” gasped Rarity.

“Rarity? Is something wrong?” she asked innocently, and she didn’t need to be mind-melded with Rarity to know that the unicorn’s little grunt meant point taken. “Weren’t you just thinking of how delicious Pinkie’s cupcakes are?”

“Yes. Yes, I was. Yes. That.”

“That’s not what she was thinking!” Redwood said, stomping his hoof on the ground. “Everypony thinks that!”

He rushed over to Rarity and tugged on her foreleg, and as soon as she bent down, he whispered something in her ear. Nothing changed in Twilight’s mind at first, until suddenly she could hear his voice clear as crystal, as if he were whispering in her ear as well.

“Okay!” he exclaimed, turning to Twilight with a smug smirk. “What’s she thinking of now?”

Twilight let out an entirely too Rarity-esque sigh. “I don’t know, Redwood. It’s true that quinticorns would be exceedingly proficient at magic,” she said, quietly revelling in his gasp, “but I really don’t know if they’d be better than alicorns since they’re still lacking the magic of the other two races.”

“How did you do that?!”

“She’s Princess Twilight!” Dusk exclaimed, standing next to her and puffing out his chest. “She can do anything, just like Princess Luna!”

“Can you read my thoughts too, Princess Twilight?” asked Rosey excitedly, tugging on her foreleg. “What am I thinking?!”

Twilight laughed, the little filly staring up at her like her life depended on it. “I can’t read your thoughts right now, Posey, but…” A little tidbit of knowledge was politely sent her way. “I know your biggest secret.”

Posey stepped back, horrified. “No, you don’t! ...Do you?”

“It’s all right,” Twilight said, leaning down to be at her eye-level. “I’m really afraid of spiders, too.”

“R-Really?!” asked Posey, completely star-struck by the alicorn. Much like Dusk, she puffed out her chest and stood tall and proud. “Don’t be afraid, Princess Twilight! I’ll protect you!”

“Wait, wait, do me next!” Redwood asked, rushing up to Twilight and jumping up in spot. “What’s my biggest secret?!”

A new tidbit entered Twilight’s mind--a memory of Rarity comforting the colt after a little accident during an overnight event at the Dreamland.

She bit down on her lip. “Do you really want me to say what your biggest secret is?” she asked, making a note to find a book for him on the unfortunate event of bedwetting.

Redwood blushed. ‘Uhm. No. Maybe not,” he said, stepping back and then pointing to Dusk. “What’s his biggest secret?!”

“Hey!” he protested before turning to Twilight. “...what is it?”

Twilight waited a moment, and again a memory rushed through her mind, drawing a laugh out of her lips.

“Dusk,” she said, trying to sound as serious as she could, “Incantation is a little tooooooo old to be your special somepony.”

Dusk bowed his head, hoofing at the floor. “Aw.”

“What about them?” Rhy asked, pointing to the rest of the foals scattered about the plaza. “Do you know their biggest secrets?!”

Twilight hesitated. “Uh… I’d have to talk to them,” she said, and no sooner had she finished her sentence, the four foals sped off towards everypony else before she could stop them.

“My, my, aren’t you a smashing success with the children?” said Rarity, moving towards Twilight and snuggling up against her. “Are you having fun taking my poor mind apart like everything else you’re interested in?”

“I’m not taking it apart,” Twilight protested. “Only the parts you let me, just like you said.”

“And you’ve delivered splendidly,” Rarity replied, a rather strong sense of external affection pushing itself into Twilight’s mind at the end of the statement. “Thank you, darling, for respecting my privacy.”

Twilight nuzzled Rarity, content in that moment, still riding the small exhilaration from being able to so thoroughly amaze the foals. Thanks to Rarity, she’d been able to see what others saw when they looked at her. For a small time, she had forgotten her guilt, her nightmares, and the wings that seemed to tether her to a terrible past, and she was instead able to actually appreciate who she was.

“I would hope this newfound appreciation of yourself lasts even past the spell, Twilight,” Rarity murmured.

Twilight said nothing, for anything she could say Rarity already knew. It was a long road ahead to ever feel what she now felt without help, but it was easier with…

“With...?” Rarity prompted. “Don’t keep me in suspense, now.”

“You’re silly,” Twilight said.

“And you’re deflecting.”

“No, I’m not. You already know what I’m thinking.”

“Touché,” she said, again nuzzling Twilight. “It is a long road ahead, but it certainly is worth walking, isn’t it?”

Before Twilight could reply, somepony clearing their throat interrupted her and she turned to find an entire crowd of foals had now gathered before her, each and every one waiting to witness Princess Twilight’s mind-reading powers.

“Dear stars, we’ll be here a while,” Rarity whispered. “Shall we show them, as they say, the RariLight?”

Twilight laughed, the necklace on her chest glowing brightly. “It sounds even worse when you say it.”

“I said it? Pardon me, but this road is one we walk together, dearest.”

“I know,” said Twilight.

She wouldn’t have it any other way.

Author's Note

Me, in a blogpost three weeks ago: hey guys, the real reason I write EL and TEK is to talk about mental abuse and cope with the mental trauma I went through a few years ago

Me, while writing this chapter: rARITWI IS THE ONLY THING I CARE ABOUT IN THIS GOD-AWFUL WORLD NO OTHER PLOT THREAD MATTERS BUT THEM BEING SHAMELESSLY ADORABLE I DONT CARE ABOUT ANYTHING ELSE

Also, if any of y'all find typos, please let me know via PM! Thank youuuu<3

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.

~ Act II ~ 11 ~ The Three Elementals ~

North settled down next to the fire, taking a moment to blow on his coffee.

“Where did we leave off, then?” she asked.

“You and your Princess literally embodied your relationship, if I recall correctly.”

She laughed. “That we did! That we did.”

“If I may ask… what was in that chest Princess Cadance gave Twilight?”

“Three dumb rocks.”

“Three dumb rocks?”

She grinned. “That’s what Twilight called them for a while, at least.”

They were rocks.

No matter how much she poked, prodded, analyzed, studied, and any other otherwise related verb, Twilight had no choice but to admit to herself that the granite orb fragments she’d been studying for the past days were just that.

Rocks.

The Elements of Gravel, that’s what they were.

A groan escaped her lips, and she buried her muzzle deeper into the extraordinarily soft pony she’d forcibly dragged away from the sewing machine and into the comfortable little alcove for a much-needed session of cuddling.

“Twilight,” murmured Rarity, a hoof lazily brushing the back of Twilight’s mane, “as lovely as this is, may I go back to my livelihood?”

“No,” came Twilight’s muffled reply. “I need to—” She extracted her head long enough to turn towards the table and glare at the stones on the table. ”—figure out how they work.”

Rarity sighed. “I see, I see,” she said, adjusting herself when Twilight nuzzled her once more. “And clearly lying here cuddling is the way to do so, yes?”

“Yes,” Twilight replied. “It’s called the I-Give-Up Method.”

Rarity laughed. “A very tried and true method. Well, seeing as I'll be stuck here for a while, I might as well do some reading to pass the time." She levitated a nearby book and looked it over. "I think this is Pinkie's. 'The Terrible Tales of Ragnar the Reaver.'" She flipped through the pages. "Ah yes, there's nothing quite like reading about the exploits of bloodthirsty barbarians to pass the time. Let's see what our dear Ragnar is up to." She read a page for a moment, then frowned. "Chopping legs off, apparently."

Replying with a grunt, Twilight released Rarity from her comfy grip and got up, returning to the desk and the useless rocks that felt more useless the more she looked at them.

"Why won't you transform?" she asked the fragments, lifting them in her magic. "Tell me how to activate you!"

"Dear, dear," murmured Rarity, putting back the book and getting up to go to her sewing machine. "Talking to rocks now, is she? We've lost her, completely lost her."

"Ha ha." Twilight frowned at her for a moment before going back to her dumb and clearly not magical rocks. “Can you tell me what you saw in the castle again?”

“What I saw in the—? Twilight! I’ve told you six times already!”

“Please, Rarity?”

Though she whined loudly about it, Rarity relented, making a show out of turning her sewing machine on as a sign of protest. “Fine! But this is the last time, Twilight! Do you hear me? I’m not repeating it again!”

Twilight teleported next to her, quill and parchment floating beside her. “All right, I’m ready.”

“The girls and I went to the castle to question Denza,” Rarity said tonelessly.

“Yes.”

“And we found Discord and he tricked us into going inside the castle through a backdoor.”

“You mean you completely missed all the obvious signs that something was wrong.”

“That’s not what I said.”

“But that’s what happened.”

“You know what? I’m terribly tired all of a sudden, I think I should go to bed!”

“What? But it’s eleven in the morning! Why would you be tired?”

“Twilight, really?”

“What? Oh.” Twilight cleared her throat at Rarity’s pointed stare. “Sorry. Uh. Please continue with your, uh, version of the story.”

“As I said, Discord tricked us into going inside the castle, after which we found your and the princesses’ rooms, so I ventured into your room.”

“Right.”

“And then I saw those rocks on your desk—”

“—Elements of Harmony.”

“...And then I saw The Elements of Harmony, which you yourself have multiple times referred to as dumb rocks but never mind that I suppose, and when I approached them, this white wispy thing shot into my bag, and before you ask me again, no, I do not remember what I had in my bag two years ago.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, darling.”

Twilight smiled and nodded her head. “Thank you,” she said politely before turning back to her rocks, grabbing them within her magic, and shaking them like her life depended on it. “TRANSFORM, DARN YOU!”

“Twilight!” Rarity chastised.

“It doesn’t make sense!” Twilight despaired. “Why aren’t they transforming?!” She levitated her crown from the table and waved it in front of Rarity. “Mine did immediately! I found the orb next to the Tree of Harmony and it transformed just like that! I don’t understand!”

“What about those sentences in Cadance’s notes? The ‘I appear when the something or other’?”

Twilight’s eyes flickered towards the pile of books on a different table, all the assorted notes Cadance and her guards had made over a thousand years.

She watched as Rarity levitated an old scroll over to her and scanned its contents.

“I appear when I stand by others,” she read aloud and then glanced at Twilight. “Does that mean anything to you?”

“No,” replied Twilight.

How was that supposed to even make sense? What did that even mean? Why should she trust some ancient scroll found in some mountains Celestia-knows-where?

“Uuuuuurrrrghhhh—”

As if summoned by her distressed noises, the door slammed open and in came Rainbow Dash, bearing no regard whatsoever for Rarity’s protest at her door being treated like that.

“Rarity!” exclaimed the pegasus, trotting into the room and ignoring Twilight’s distress in favor of heading straight towards her target. She gestured to the emerald gemstone hanging from her neck, which Twilight immediately recognized. “Hey, we need some kind of super large chain for this thing. Do you have one?”

“Wait a second,” said Twilight, getting up and going to Dash. “That’s Spike’s gemstone! Why do you have that?”

Rainbow shrugged. “I’m just carryin’ it for him until we find something that fits him.” She turned back to Rarity. “So, do you have one or what?”

“Why, yes, Rainbow Dash, I do indeed have a spare hundred foot long chain just lying in my sewing workshop.”

“Really? Great!” exclaimed Dash. “I’ll wait here for you to get it!” Without giving Rarity time to reply, she turned towards Twilight and walked over. “What’re you up to? What’s all this junk?”

“It’s not junk!” Twilight protested hotly, nevermind that she’d called it junk an hour ago. She levitated the stone fragments towards Rainbow and spoke matter-of-factly. “These are the remains of the Elements of Har—”

Wanting to make their own introduction, one of the fragment stone orbs interrupted her by starting to faintly glow, and before she could even process it, she saw with her very own eyes as a white wisp shot out of it and went straight into Spike’s gemstone.

“What?” asked Twilight.

“That!” Rarity gasped next. “That’s exactly what happened to me!”

“Oh, hey, cool.” Rainbow turned back to Rarity. “Anyway, so where’s that cha—argh! Princess Twilight!”

Twilight gawked at the gemstone now in her hooves. “What?”She looked at the stone fragments. “What?” She looked at Rainbow Dash. “What?!”

“Darling, whyever are you upset?” Rarity asked. “Isn’t this what you wanted?”

Twilight stopped.

Silly Rarity.

“Well. Yes. Sure. Right. Except that this still explains nothing!” she exclaimed. “In fact, it explains even less!” Her mind reeling in her head, she began to walk around in circles, her mouth trying to somehow relay her frantic thoughts. “What does this—?! Does this mean Rainbow Dash is one of the Elements of Harmony?! But why?! Or is it Spike?!”

“What? No, no! It’s me!” Rainbow quickly interjected. “I’m one of the Elements of Whatever!”

“Harmony, darling.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“What?” asked Twilight, rushing to her. “Why?! How do you know?!”

Rainbow shrugged. “I don’t. It just sounds cool, so I want in. Oh! Do I get a crown like yours?”

Twilight blinked at her, trying to somehow process that statement.

“Rainbow, really, don’t say those things! Can’t you see she’s already distressed?”

And she was distressed, which was not at all alleviated when Pinkie Pie now poked her nose into the room, attracted by the loud voices.

“Are you guys having a reunion?!” she asked, excitedly hopping in. “I can bring up the cupcakes I just made!” She went over to the table and looked over the stone orbs. “Ooooooh, what are the—?”

Fwoosh!

Just like moments ago, the other stone fragments glowed and then expelled another white wisp which shot straight towards the crescent-moon pendant hanging from Pinkie’s neck.

She gasped. “Oh, neat!”

Twilight didn’t even know where to begin, and she wondered if she actually even wanted to begin at all now.

“Sweet! Is Pinkie part of our club now?” asked Rainbow, turning to Rarity.

“Rainbow, we don’t have a club.”

While Rarity and Rainbow Dash went over whether they were a club or not, Twilight decided to invest herself in something more productive. Namely, shaking the stone fragments in her magic.

“Why can’t I understand you?!”

“What’d you mean?” Pinkie asked, sitting next to Twilight and blinking at the fragments. “Do you want help? I speak rock!”

Twilight stared at her blankly, and even Rainbow stopped listing all the benefits of Club Rainbow Dash.

“You what?” asked Twilight.

“I speak rock!”

“You speak rock,” repeated a Princess who’d clearly had one too many surprises for the evening; she was barely aware of Rarity sidling up to her and intertwining their tails together.

“Twilight, dear, the faster you learn not to question Pinkie, the better,” she advised. At Twilight’s pointed stare, she smiled patiently. “Trust me.”

"I used to live on a rock farm in Tall Tale before coming here," Pinkie explained, approaching the table and poking the stones. She grinned at Twilight. "That's why I can talk rock, see?"

"But—How—Why would that mean you know how to—? But—Rocks?"

Without further ado, Pinkie grabbed one of the stone fragments and pressed it to her ear, gathering the attention of everyone present. She hummed loudly and creased her brow, nodding along to whatever the stone was allegedly telling her.

After a minute or so, she finally put the rock down and stared Twilight straight in the face.

“It says we’re not ready.”

Twilight pondered her entire life and all the choices that led her to that very moment before asking: “The rock says what?”

“It says we’re not ready!”

“No, I heard that, Pinkie.”

Pinkie shook her head good-naturedly. “Then why did you ask, silly?”

“I don’t know why I asked,” said Twilight flatly. Many a thought swirled in her head—the majority of them related to grabbing a pillow and stuffing her face in it—but she pushed them aside in order to do what she did best: try and make sense of things. Thus, she continued. “So the rock says we’re not ready.”

“Princess,” said Dash, “she literally just said that.”

“Did they say anything else?” Twilight asked. “If they said anything at all, which I’m still having a difficult time believing, but pretending they did.”

Pinkie hummed and rubbed her chin with a hoof. “Weeeeeeeell… It did also say something about liking to stand.”

“Liking to stand?” asked Rarity, suddenly alert. “Twilight, isn’t tha—”

She barely had time to finish her sentence before Twilight had grabbed the scroll from earlier, her heart hammering in her chest.

“I appear when I stand by others,” she read aloud, and she found some solace in seeing Rarity now looked as shocked as she felt.

“Pinkie!” Rarity exclaimed, gesturing to another stone fragment. “What does that one say?”

Pinkie grabbed a larger fragment and pressed it to her ear. “Thiiiiis one says… Oh! I like this one! It wants to be like the sun!”

Twilight scanned the scroll over and fell to her haunches as she read aloud, “I appear when I brighten your day.”

This can’t be real.

“What about the last one?” asked Twilight, still stunned.

Pinkie grabbed the last large fragment and pressed it to her ear, squinting. “Hmmm… This one says… that it’s really generous!”

For the last time, Twilight scanned the scroll over and found what she wanted. When she didn’t even bother to read it aloud, Rarity took the scroll and did so instead.

“I appear,” she said, loud and clear, “when I’ve given all there is to give.”

“What does that even mean?” Rainbow asked, but her voice soon faded away in Twilight’s mind.

The bulk of the research she’d done a thousand years ago lived and died by the idea that there were four Elements of Harmony, each assigned to the four princesses of Equestria. Everything had been based on the idea that the sun, the moon, love, and magic were what defined the supernatural objects, and she thought her research had been confirmed when Cadance had found only three stone orbs.

But now, if she really believed that Pinkie could talk to rocks, all her research had been proven wrong in a few short minutes.

“Twilight?” asked Rarity, pulling Twilight out of her reveries. “Twilight, are you oka—?”

“When I learned about the elements, I assumed that they were tied to alicorns because both the Elements and alicorns draw from the magical essence of the realm. I wasn’t an alicorn when I got mine, so I thought I was wrong, but then Princess Celestia ascended me. That made me think that maybe the Elements were tied to alicorns or ponies who had the magical essence necessary to be an alicorn. The entire bulk of my research was to find the Elements of the Princesses or ponies who had strong magic auras, and now...”

She drifted off.

“...Yes?” Rarity urged.

“Well, I was wrong! Apparently it isn’t tied to race or magic essences, but… riddles? That you have to somehow fulfill? Cryptic requirements that explain nothing?!”

“Twilight…” said Rarity, her tone now very measured.

“It’s fine,” exclaimed Twilight suddenly, jumping up and deciding that if everything she knew was going to be turned upside-down, she might as well go with it. “It’s fine. Everything is fine. Fine. I just learned that I wasted years on baseless research which is probably why I never discovered how the Elements work and why Discord managed to trap us, but it’s all great. Just gre—”

“Twilight, please stop that.”

Twilight’s torrent of thoughts came to a crashing halt at the sound of Rarity’s strangled voice. It took her a moment to compose herself, and she was startled by realizing how fast she’d gone into a spiral.

“I… I…”

She turned to Rarity, hoping to apologize, but any concerns she had about herself were quickly discarded when she properly saw the unicorn.

Pale, motionless, and looking more than uncomfortable. Was she shaking, too? Even Rainbow Dash and Pinkie were looking at her with concern.

“Rarity,” asked Twilight. “Are you all right?”

Realizing she was in the spotlight, Rarity quickly smiled. “Y-yes, of course! I was just concerned that you were winding yourself up, and you know how much that affects you.” She cleared her throat and smiled. “Regardless, let’s focus instead on trying to figure out what this all means, shall we?”

Though still a bit concerned, Twilight pushed away her reservations and nodded.

Getting to work, she cleared away the table and carefully moved the stone fragments to the side. Once that was done, she borrowed one of Rarity’s large design papers, spread it over the table and drew four orbs.

“Right,” she said, capping the marker and looking at her handiwork. “According to the writings of the Ancient Manticore King of the West, the Elements of Harmony are magic objects that were left by four powerful ponies centuries before Princess Celestia or Luna reigned over Equestria. They hid them inside the Tree of Harmony, a magic tree in an underground cave in Dew Drop Valley.”

“Dew Drop Valley?” asked Rainbow. “I’ve never heard of that place.”

“You wouldn’t. Dew Drop Valley’s had a different name for a long time now,” Twilight replied, levitating a map over and pointing her hoof at the sprawling depiction of the Everfree Forest. “That’s why my library is there; I was studying the Tree of Harmony. Anyway, the Manticore King tried to acquire the Elements of Harmony, but couldn’t. So when I went there I expected to find them all, but I didn’t find anything except for the Element of Magic. I assumed the others had been stolen.”

“By whom?” Rarity asked.

Twilight faltered. “I don’t know.” She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead, trying to think. “There is one hypothesis I had that I discarded, but Pinkie might have given it some sort of legitimacy today.”

She opened her eyes and levitated her crown.

“When I found the tree, I saw an orb like these ones hanging from a branch. As I said, I assumed that the rest had been stolen by others.”

Rainbow snorted. “Some good thieves if they left one just hanging there.”

“That’s the thing, though! When I walked up to the tree, the orb fell! Just like that! And when I touched it, it transformed into my crown.” She put the crown down and took the other three orbs. “I used to think the Elements had been stolen, but after seeing what happened with you three… what if the tree gave the Elements away to creatures that met the requirements?

“And not only that,” she continued, “but according to Cadance, these three orbs and the sentences from earlier were found in abandoned Arimaspi Territory in the Mysterious South, and, well, legends say that the Arimaspi were so in tune with the earth, they could even—” She looked at Pinkie. “—commune with it..”

“Like me! Like me!”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, but even if they could speak to rocks, we still don’t know if they were actually chosen by the elements, and if they were, then—”

“They never fulfilled these supposed requirements,” Rarity finished.

“Compatible, but not worthy,” Twilight finished. “In theory, at least.”

“Wait, wait! Wait a sec!” exclaimed Dash. “So, you’re sayin’ that these things ponies have bonded to never figured out how to get their crowns, but then you touch it and you get it in five seconds? Come on!”

“She’s got a point, I fear,” Rarity said next. “Fabulously talented as you are, Twilight, that seems a tad…convenient.”

“I don’t know why that happened!” Twilight exclaimed. “And it’s not like it’s helped me. My crown can’t do anything useful on its own.” She couldn’t help sounding resentful. “That’s why I need to find the others.”

“You mean ‘we’ need to find the others, right?” Rainbow corrected, grinning.

Twilight faltered. “I… It’s dangerous,” she said, finally. “If we find the other Elements, Discord will come after us, and I’m not going to put you in danger.” She closed the map in a final gesture. “I’m sorry, but I did that once. I’m not doing it again."

“What?! That’s dumb!” Pinkie exclaimed. “Rarity! Tell her that’s dumb!”

Rarity opened her mouth to reply, but whatever she had to say was interrupted by Rainbow Dash.

“Wait, wait, I can fix this!” She cleared her throat. “First rule of Rainbow Dash’s Element Hunting Club. Whenever Princess Twilight has a dumb idea, we’ll disregard it. All in favor raise your hoof!”

“Hey! It’s not dumb!” Twilight protested, and was further aghast when all three of her companions raised their hooves. “Rarity!”

“Yes, darling?” she asked innocently before turning to Rainbow Dash. “To be clear, I’m only voting because Twilight’s idea is silly, not because I condone being in a club you just made up.”

“You’re just jealous it’s not the Rarity club.”

Rarity looked away. “Alas! I’ve been caught! I’ll simply have to go cry in one of the rooms of the two businesses I own!” She grinned victoriously at Rainbow before turning back to Twilight. “Now that that’s settled, might I suggest we figure out how to activate these Elements before we go gallivanting around the kingdom in search of others?”

Twilight looked back to her drawings of the orbs and pulled the cap off her marker, writing the word MAGIC inside hers.

“How do you know it’s the Element of Magic, Princess?” asked Pinkie curiously.

Twilight prepared her smart reply, but stopped upon realizing she didn’t actually have one. Or, well, she had one, but now that she realized she had to say it out loud, well...

“I… I assumed it was the Element of Magic because I’m better at it than anypony I know except the Princesses,” she said very quickly. “Anyway! That’s not important! What’s important now is to figure out the others.”

Over the drawings of the orbs, she drew the objects the wisps had associated with them: her crown, Spike’s gemstone, Pinkie’s necklace, and…

“Rarity,” she said, looking up. “Do you really not rem—”

“I promise you I’m trying to remember, Twilight,” she replied, toying with her necklace. “It’s not that easy!”

Defeated, Twilight settled on drawing Rarity’s saddlebag. After that was done, she took the Arimaspi scroll and wrote down the three conditions under their respective stones.

“So,” she began, “I thin—”

“I already know what my Element is,” Rainbow Dash cut-off, and then struck a pose. “The Element of Awesome! ...What?” she asked upon seeing their expressions. “Princess Twilight named hers after what she’s good at! I’m just doing the same!”

“We don’t even know if it’s yours,” Twilight pointed out. “It could be Spike’s!”

“He’s awesome too! See, it checks out!” She grabbed the marker, and despite Twilight’s protest, wrote down the word AWESOME inside the drawing of the orb.

“Oh! I like it!” Pinkie said, nodding approvingly. She grabbed the marker from Dash and scribbled over her own element. “There! The Element of Laughter!”

“Laughter? Why laughter?” asked Rarity.

“Because laughing always brightens up your day!” Pinkie exclaimed, and then giggled as if to prove so. “What about you, Rarity?”

“Well…” She grabbed the marker and looked the riddle over. “I shall be the Element of Magnanimity, since apparently I have so much to give to everypony.” She wrote it down, capped the marker and gave it to Twilight. “And now, if we’re all done, may I return to my dress?”

“Yeah!” Rainbow said. “Spike’s still waiting for me!”

Twilight’s first instinct was to say that no, they weren’t all done; no one had spent more than a minute actually trying to solve the riddles and had just thrown out haphazard guesses! But on second thought, she was the one best suited to researching the Elements anyway; she’d just figure it out herself.

Ooooh! What if she asked Professor Awe to let her use his lab?

“I’ll do more research on this and we can reconvene later,” she offered, picking up the drawings and rolling them up. “For now, the three of you should focus on activating your elements. Laughter does seem to fit the riddle, so that might be the best method to try now, Pinkie.”

Pinkie saluted Twilight. “Yep!”

“Rainbow, you should… protect someone, I think? Defend them?” Twilight offered. “Either that, or you literally have to stand by every pony you meet and see what happens.”

Similarly to Pinkie, Rainbow saluted. “Yes, ma’am!”

And finally, she turned to Rarity.

“And you, Rarity…” She bit down on her lip, deep in thought. “Give everything you have to somepony…?” At Rarity’s expression, she quickly backtracked. “On second thought, that might be too much.”

“I’m sure I will figure it out, Twilight,” she said politely, finally moving back to her sewing machine, turning it on and then promptly levitating three protesting ponies outside. “Now! Everypony out! You’ve distracted me enough!”

“H-Hey!” called out Rainbow Dash when the door shut. “What about my chain, though?!”

“Wait! I need my papers!” exclaimed Twilight, rushing forward, unceremoniously slamming herself against the door nose-first and tumbling backwards.

Rainbow’s delighted laughter came first. “Did you just try going through the door?! You’re still doing that?!”

“No,” blurted out Twilight.

Not a moment later, the door swung open and revealed Rarity. “What in Equestria was that?!” She looked down and saw Twilight on the floor. “Twilight! Why are you on the—” Her expression shifted from concern to restrained amusement. “Did you just—”

“Don’t say it.”

“But—”

“No.”

Having been kicked out of Rarity’s workroom, Twilight set out to find another place to do her research, which was considerably more difficult when every room except for the bedrooms and Rarity’s workshop were swarming with small foals, including one who kept asking her if she could pleeeeeease fly her to the top of the Dreamland and back.

It’s just one filly, she’d thought. What could go wrong?

She soon learned never to ask herself that again.

“Okay!” she said when the fifteenth giggling foal jumped off her back. “That was the last one!”

“Awwwwwwww,” chorused the dozen foals standing in line.

“But the sign says it’s until three!” a colt whined, pointing towards a sign announcing that “Princess Twilight’s Fly-Around” would be open until three in the afternoon.

“What? Who made that?!” she asked, and was only met with Pinkie and Incantation pointing hooves at each other. “Pinkie! I can’t do this until three! Are you crazy? I need to work on the Elements, and then I need to go to sleep so I can see the Princess!”

“But Princess, you are working on the Elements! Look at how many foals are laughing! I’m gonna get my element super soon because of you!”

“Pinkie! You’re the one supposed to be making them laugh, not me!” Twilight pointed out. “This doesn’t count!”

“Awwww…”

Despite the line of foals, Twilight decided she needed to put her hoof down. She was pretty sure that five more foals had lined up in the three seconds she’d been scolding Pinkie, and ten more would line up in the minutes it would take for her to fly another foal around.

“I’m sorry, children,” she said firmly. “I have to go now.”

And again, the collective youth of Hollow Shades stared at her as if she’d done nothing less than destroy all their hopes and dreams, holding on to each other through this awful news, their little eyes tearing up and—

“Okay, fine,” she relented, rubbing her muzzle. “Those who didn’t get to fly today will fly tomorrow.”

Though still disappointed, the majority of the foals were satisfied with the promise and rushed off, either into the Dreamland proper or into Hollow Shades. Now that they were gone, she walked back towards the Dreamland, finally able to find a place to work on the Elements for a few hours.

“Hello, all!”

Or not.

Twilight turned back around and saw Elder Moonshine making her way towards Pinkie and Incantation. Despite having work to do, curiosity overpowered and she decided to linger a little longer.

“Elder!” greeted Pinkie Pie. “What’re you doing here? Are you coming to get your dozen cupcakes for the week?”

The Elder laughed. “Oh no. I’ve had too many of those already.” Her eyes briefly flickered towards Twilight before continuing. “I’m here to speak to Rarity. Is she home?”

Pinkie nodded. “Yep! Princess Twilight was with her earlier, right, Princess?”

“Yes,” Twilight replied. “Though she was busy working on a dress. She didn’t want to be interrupted.”

“Why don’t you come tonight or tomorrow, Elder?” Pinkie suggested. “Or I can tell her to go see you when she’s done?”

The Elder shook her head. “It can’t wait, little one. Please let her know that I need to speak to her,” she insisted.

“Oki-doki-loki!” Pinkie turned to Ink. “Inky, can you please get the elder some cupcakes while I get Rarity?”

“Sure thing, Chief!”

The two rushed into the building, leaving Twilight alone with the elderly mare.

“Oh, er, well…” Twilight said awkwardly, still unsure of how to feel towards a pony who was cursed to believe she wasn’t who she claimed to be. “Uhm. Right.”

“Are you busy, Princess?” the elder asked, and Twilight wasn’t able to tell if she was using her title seriously or not. “I’d like you to be there when I talk to Rarity, if you are able.”

“O-Of course.”

Disconcerted, Twilight followed the mare into the building, already trying to figure out what exactly she’d done to necessitate a talk from the Elder. Rarity entered the room just as Twilight was closing the front doors.

“Elder!” she exclaimed, smiling brilliantly as she descended the stairs. “How nice to see you! Pinkie tells me you have an urgent matter to discuss with me?”

“And the Princess, too,” added the Elder, and when Rarity threw Twilight a questioning look, the alicorn couldn’t do much anything but shrug.

“I see.” Rarity stood next to Twilight and cleared her throat. “Well, here we are, then! What can we do to help you?”

The Elder regarded them both for a moment before clearing her throat. “I heard a very interesting story about the two of you,” she began. “Something you did a little while ago.”

“Something we did?” asked Twilight, carefully.

“You mean be fabulously dazzling?” Rarity offered playfully.

“Yes,” said the Elder quite bluntly. “That’s exactly it.”

“...What?” asked Twilight and Rarity in unison.

“I was visiting the school for my niece’s show-and-tell, and my poor niece couldn’t speak over all the little foals talking non-stop about the incredible Princess Twilight Sparkle and her mind-reading spell.”

Twilight’s grin matched Rarity’s.

“Oh, really, now?” asked Rarity. “My, my, my.”

“Yes,” said the elder with a smile. “And then they started talking about how much they love coming here after school.”

“Well, thank you for telling me this, Elder,” Rarity said genuinely. “I’m delighted to hear that.”

The elder’s smile vanished. “That’s not what I’m here to say.” She fell silent after that, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly as they went back and forth between Twilight and Rarity, and then she spoke. “Seeking Night is almost here, as you know.”

At that, Rarity went very still.

“Yes, I do,” she said, cautiously enough to draw a raised eyebrow from Twilight. "What of it?"

The elder's severity vanished and she offered a smile.

"It is true, Rarity, that this town is very set in its ways, but… maybe it is time for a change."

Rarity's eyes widened. "You don't mean to suggest that..."

"Yes, I do," said the elder. "You are now in charge of Hollow Shades' Seeking Night festivities."

Oh, right! thought Twilight. Rarity mentioned wanting to organize Seeking Night?

"I see," said Rarity, smiling with much more restraint than Twilight had expected after she'd basically gotten what she wanted. "Elder, I promise you will not regret this!"

The elder laughed. "I hope not, child." She furrowed her brow and gave Rarity a stern look. "But you can't do anything without letting me see it first, understand?"

"I wouldn't dream about it!" she said, and was now very subtly guiding the elder towards the exit. "In fact, if that's all you needed from us, why don't you let me start today and I’ll swing by your house tomorrow with some ideas, perhaps?"

"All right," the Elder replied. "I'll be waiting." She then swatted Rarity away good-naturedly. "And stop leading me away like the old mare that I am, child!" When an abashed Rarity quickly stepped away, the elder turned to Twilight. "Goodbye, Twilight."

"Goodbye, Elder Moonshine!" Twilight exclaimed, now liking the elderly mare much more than before.

"Have a good afternoon, Elder!" Rarity said next, holding the door open for the mare and then waving her off. She lingered there for a second or so, slowly closed the door, and the moment it clicked shut, she whipped around and screamed like a batpony. "Pinkie Pie!"

"Mmmyeeeees?" Pinkie said, poking her head out of the bakery room.

Rarity's expression was almost machiavellian.

"Seeking Night is on."

"What?!" Pinkie gasped before looking towards the room on the opposite side of the hallway. "Incantation!"

Twilight was only somewhat shocked to see a three-horned Luna poke her head out, along with several children.

"Yeah?"

"Seeking Night is on!"

"Really?!" Ink turned to Rarity. "Boss?!"

"Yes, indeed," Rarity replied with a grin Twilight would have admired if she actually knew what was going on.

She raised a hoof. "Can somepony expla—?"

"Pinkie!" Rarity cut off. "Write to Red Lining immediately and let him know we'll be needing every book he'll give us!"

"Oki-doki!"

"But I have books to give you!" Twilight interjected, and was promptly ignored.

"Incantation! Please, go to the professor and let him know immediately that we'll be needing his contraptions! And for Denza's sake, you know you’re forbidden from taking Luna’s shape after what happened last time!"

Twilight turned to Rarity. "What happened las—"

"Oh, and Ink! Send a letter to the Princess and let her know, as well! And I'm serious about Princess Luna's sha—"

"Rarity!" interrupted Twilight.

"Twilight!"

Twilight pursed her lips. "Can you please tell me what's going on?!"

Rarity stared at her for a second before reacting.

"Darling, did you know I love you?" she asked.

"I… Yes? I love you, too? But what does this have to do with Seeking Night?"

Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. "Absolutely nothing at all, dear. I just wanted to remind you. As for your question, follow me!"

Without another word, she rushed away, and Twilight followed her up to the second floor. Foals were walking around, some playing and others drawing on the walls, and without explaining why, Rarity very politely told them that she needed them to go down to the first floor for a little while.

Once the floor had been evacuated, Twilight blinked at Rarity.

“... I still don’t understand.”

“Patience, dearest. We have to hide the room from them lest they draw all over what we’ve done.”

“Hide the room?”

Rarity walked towards a nearby bookcase. Twilight watched as her horn lit up, and slowly but surely, she levitated the bookcase to the side, revealing a large door bearing the cutie marks of all four princesses. When the door was completely clear, she opened it and turned to Twilight.

“After you, Princess.”

With no small amount of excitement, Twilight walked past her and into the room, finding herself inside what could only be described as a war room. Charts, graphics, designs, checklists, maps and all manner of things were plastered over the walls and on the large round table in the middle of the room; every single one somehow related to Twilight and the other three princesses. She could see a map pointing out possible locations for Celestia and Luna, as well as several designs for what seemed to be foal attractions, going from foals exploring Princess Twilight’s Book-Maze to foals splashing around in Princess Celestia’s Waterfall, followed by them playing in Princess Cadance’s Castle.

The most prominent of them all, however, was a massive design of what seemed to be mares and stallions eating at a café while watching over their sleeping children inside a room dubbed Princess Luna’s Dream Spectacular.

“Rarity, did you do all this?” Twilight asked, stunned to see the amount of work that had seemingly gone into everything in the room.

“Yes, I did!” Rarity replied, walking into the room and picking some items up. “Well, not all of it. The Professor helped me with some of the charts, and Pinkie did some other things, but the core concepts and the attractions were all my idea. I admittedly never told you about all this as I didn't ever think we'd be able to implement it soon, but...”

She opened a closet and levitated out four miniature mock-ups of the designs on the wall, including little clay ponies.

“This, Twilight, is what I have been doing for the past two years,” she said. “And this…”

She levitated something else from the closet and put down on the table what seemed to be a completely ordinary, if custom-made, smiling brown teddy bear.

“This precious little bear is how we are going to rescue Princess Luna.”

Author's Note

GUESS WHO'S BACK

TEK IS BACK, TELL YOUR FRIENDS if you want to and if they're reading, idk

Anyway what's really funny is how TEL was from Rarity's POV with Twi as the main character, and TEK is from Twi's POV with Rarity as the main character and it's great and also I'm hyped for the upcoming arc

Also, if any of y'all find typos, please let me know via PM! Thank youuuu<3

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.

~ Act II ~ 12 ~ The Plan of Attack ~

Nighttime had fallen by the time they’d managed to gather everypony inside the war room in Dreamland, all of them seated around the circular table in the middle of the room.

Well, almost everypony.

“Spike, darling, can you see properly?” asked Rarity, her and everypony else looking at the large dragon eye peering in outside the window.

“What?!” said Spike’s booming voice.

Rainbow shook her head, trotted towards the window and leaned out. “She’s asking if you can see anything!”

“Oh!” he called back. “Seeing is a very generous way of putting it!”

“Keep your voice down, ya goof! Wanna wake up the whole town or what?!”

“What did you say, Rainbow Dash?!”

“Spike, just put your ear against the window, not your eye! Come on, dude!”

“If I may,” interjected the Professor, “this is all very ridiculous.”

“You think everything is ridiculous, Professor,” Rarity pointed out good-naturedly, clearing the table and putting down the mockups she’d done, as well as some parchment and pens for Twilight to use. Afterwards, she placed the teddy bear right in the middle of the table. “Now, everyone settle down so we can begin, please.”

Twilight levitated the parchment over and wrote down some preliminary information, but when she looked back up, she was surprised to find that Rarity was still standing.

“Rarity?” she asked. “Aren’t you sitting down?”

“No,” Rarity said, levitating a pointing stick from the closet and twirling it in the air. “I’ve found I think better when moving about the room.”

“Oh boy,” Rainbow said. “I hope you’re comfortable, Princess, ‘cause Rarity’s going to monologue us to sleep.”

“Oh! I love monologues!” Twilight exclaimed, itching to start writing.

“Rainbow! Princess!” Pinkie scolded. “Shhh!”

Without further ado, and clearly ignoring Rainbow’s remark, Rarity began to speak.

“Let’s review what we know of our particular situation,” she said as she walked around in circles around the table, speaking loudly enough for everyone to hear. “We know that Princess Luna is inside of one of the mountains surrounding Hollow Shades, we know that Discord has similarly displaced her in time, and we know that the only place her dream magic can reach is Hollow Shades and the surrounding forest.”

She levitated her pointer towards a map on the wall and tapped on a mountain near the town.

“Drilling through an entire mountain is clearly not an option available to us, and especially less so when we have no idea where she is, but… But, as I said, we may not know where she is, but we do know where she can be.”

She stopped walking and talking, drawing out a theatrical pause before speaking again.

“She can be in dreams. Dreams will be our most vital asset in freeing Princess Luna.”

Twilight frowned.

“Dreams? But Princess Luna can’t go into the dreams of most ponies,” she pointed out.

“Ah, but that isn’t true, is it?” Rarity replied, resuming her walk around the table. “Princess Luna cannot enter the dreams of adults, of ponies who don’t believe in her. They’re far too set in their ways, not to mention the fact they’ve been under the complete influence of chaos magic for decades now, which…” She grinned. “Which is why it’s fantastic for us that we are not concerning ourselves with the adults. We, Twilight, are concerning ourselves with those who can still be swayed. Foals.”

And again, Twilight questioned her logic.

“Foals?” she asked. “I don’t understand how we’re supposed to use foals to free her? How is that even different? The princess has been able to interact with foals for centuries, and it’s never changed anything. She’s still trapped.”

“That’s true, yes,” Rarity conceded. “Princess Luna has spoken to dozens and dozens of generations of Hollow Shades foals, but the instant these foals are told the supposed ‘truth about her’, that she is nothing more than a tale, whatever connection she had with them dies. And, well, it does make sense, doesn’t it? How can they believe in her when they’ve only ever seen her in dreams? How can they think she’s real when she’s ever only appeared in these supposedly fictional tales that their imagination conjures up when they’re asleep?”

“...They can’t?” Twilight ventured, and felt even more confused when Rarity stopped walking to look at her with delight. “...What?”

“Nothing, nothing!” Rarity said playfully, her pacing again resuming. “I’d just like us to think a little bit more about this, is all. Let’s just take a moment to really think about dreams, shall we? These silly little ephemeral things that accompany us as we sleep. So, tell me, what happens,” she asked, “when you wake up from a dream?”

Twilight blinked. “I… I’m not sure I know what you’re trying to get at, Rarity.”

“Oh, me! Me! I know!” Pinkie exclaimed, waving her forehoof in the air. “You forget them!”

“Precisely!” Rarity exclaimed. “You forget them! Perhaps not entirely, no, but the details of them and more often than not the vast majority is forgotten. This world, this princess, that was so vivid fades away like a distant memory, and whatever feelings and impression you had are gone in at least the first ten minutes or so after waking.”

She took a breath and continued.

“Why should foals stand by Luna? Why should they resist and fight what the adults tell them when they have virtually no way of proving both to adults and to themselves that the princess isn’t a figment of their imagination? But… but what if we could change that?”

As soon as the words were said, Twilight’s ears perked up, and her heart skipped a beat at noticing most everypony in the room was smiling.

“Change that…?” Twilight cautiously asked. “What do you mean?”

“What if,” Rarity continued, still moving around the table, closer and closer to Twilight. “What if we could bring something back from these dreams? Bring something back that we could not only see, not only remember, not only have…” She stopped right next to Twilight and with a hoof lifted the alicorn’s chin. “But something we can touch, as well.”

“Touch?” Twilight asked, a little breathlessly.

And rather than reply, Rarity simply stepped back and resumed her walk.

“Boss.” Incantation giggled. “Milking it for all its worth, huh?”

Rarity grinned. “Absolutely, darling,” she replied, and then it was the teddy bear’s turn to be levitated off the table and taken along for Rarity’s walk. “Teddy bears! Such adorable things, wouldn’t you agree? A foal’s most precious friend, and not only that, but more often than not their fearsome protector against whatever dreadful things are lurking in the dark. I did tell you, Twilight, that this little bear would be the key to saving Princess Luna, did I not? Well, we’re going to start by giving teddy bears to each and every foal in Hollow Shades.”

She took a grand pause after that, doubtless expecting Twilight to gasp in understanding.

This did not happen.

“...Right,” said the alicorn, trying to sound polite when she followed it with, “And what does that have to do with Princess Luna?”

“Simple!” Rarity said. “She’s going to make it for them.”

Silence.

Twilight blinked once, twice, thrice.

“She’s going to make teddy bears for foals?” she asked.

“Yes,” Rarity said with a grin. “Yes, she is.”

Looking around, Twilight found that no one but her seemed to realize the absurdity of that impossible statement.

“All right,” she said. “How?”

“Indulge me a moment, my darling,” Rarity said, her voice carrying itself across the room as she floated the little bear before her. “Imagine this! A poor foal who’s suffered from a ghastly nightmare is being comforted by Princess Luna in his dreams. A comfort that sadly cannot last for she will be gone the moment he’s awake! Except, before he does, she gives him a present. A beautiful teddy bear, and not only is she going to give it to him, but she’ll ask him to make it his.

“Did he want it to have a bowtie?” she asked, a red ribbon floating from a nearby cupboard and tying itself into a bowtie on the bear’s neck. Then, from another cupboard, a small blue felt suit floated up and warmed the little bear, followed by a blue flat cap landing on his head and covering his ears.. “What about a suit? A blue one? And a flat cap too?”

By the time she’d finished, the little bear looked quite dapper.

“Now,” she said, “we have this charming bear with his darling accessories, and the princess gives it to our little foal.”

“...Yes?” Twilight asked. “And then…?”

“And then, when the foal wakes up, yawning and rubbing his tired eyes, I’m sure you can imagine his surprise when who is in his forelegs but—” She placed the teddy bear in front of Twilight. ”—a teddy bear with a red bowtie, blue suit and matching cap, holding a note from the princess.”

Twilight was concise with her reply.

“What?”

“You heard me,” Rarity said, coming to a stop.

“But…? What? How would that be possible?! That’s not possible! It’s impossible to bring something from a dream into real life!”

“Twilight, of course it’s possible.” Rarity tilted her head. “Because I’ll make it.” She began to walk again, faster now. “I’ll make it, put it in his forelegs while he sleeps, and for the first time in a thousand years, a foal has tangible reasons to not only believe that the princess is real, but he now has a reason to fight for her too. For every adult that says no, for every hiss of chaos magic whispering no, that little bear will say yes, yes, yes.”

“But—! But what about the chaos magic?!”

A different voice chimed in.

“Ah! My turn, then,” interrupted Professor Awe, lifting up a small grey rectangular contraption with antennas, a light-bulb, and a glass-covered indicator with an arrow for measuring something.

“What’s that?” Twilight asked, resisting the urge to levitate it out of his hoof.

“You see, Princess Twilight, in the two years you’ve been gone, I’ve been experimenting with chaos magic!” said the Professor. “And this little device can not only show us the extent of the influence that chaos magic has had on a pony, but it’s also showed us that this influence fluctuates. It can change.” He turned it towards him and tinkered with it. “Unfortunately, I’ve determined that it has a tendency to grow stronger the more one believes in its cause, but…” He pointed to Rarity. “Rarity’s incident two years ago proved that not only can a chaos curse be fought, it can be eliminated too.”

Twilight’s emotions warred inside her. Awe at what Rarity had apparently planned for two years, excitement at the idea that it could work, but also… well…

“But this will take years!” Twilight exclaimed. “Or centuries even! Hasn’t this town been cursed by chaos magic for almost a thousand years? It would take years to completely overturn that!”

Rarity’s smile did not waver. “Yes. This is indeed a long-term plan,” she said and gestured to Incantation. “In the same way that one adorable changeling living amongst ponies is hardly going to make the whole of Equestria accept them in a year, neither will one generation of foals who believe in the Princess turn the tide in probably a lifetime, let alone a year, but!

“But,” she repeated. “All of this is nothing more than our secondary goal.”

“Your secondary goal?’ asked Twilight, awed. “There’s more?”

“Twilight, you surprise me! Did you really think this was all I had planned?” She fluttered her eyelashes. “Silly filly.”

Finally, Rarity ceased her theatric pacing and settled at the table, sitting directly in front of Twilight.

“Twilight, while you were gone, I had a dreadful amount of time to think about what happened the night the library was sealed off. The most important thing I concluded was that the chaos magic was not only reacting to you—” She directed the tip of the pointer towards Twilight. “But it was also being influenced by you, wasn’t it? You said as much when we were in Canterlot Castle with Princess Cadance.”

Shame burned Twilight.

“Yes,” she said, trying not to think too much about it. “I did say that.”

“Well then,” Rarity continued, leaning back, “the question of the hour is this: what if Princess Luna is the same? What if to some extent she may not be ready to accept she too is playing a role in her imprisonment?”

Twilight nearly jumped up. “That’s what I told her!”

“And she denied it, didn’t she? Just as she’s denied it to me, and Pinkie, and Rainbow, and Spike, and just about anypony who’s tried to reason with her about it.” She gave Twilight a pointed stare. “Just like you once did.”

Twilight again felt shame tint her cheeks, and if Rarity noticed, she did not make it obvious.

“But,” she said instead, “if we can turn the tide, even if it’s just a few foals… If we can make at least one generation of foals believe in her, just as Pinkie did, just as I did in you, if we can convince her this can all change, if we give her hope, then…” She smiled. “We might not need the long-term plan at all.”

It was more than a lot to take in.

It felt… easy.

Too easy, almost, not to mention the fact that Rarity still hadn’t explained a very vital thing.

“Wait,” she said, “if you’ve planned this for so long, why haven’t you done it earlier? And what does any of this have to do with Seeking Night?”

Rarity’s smile finally faltered.

“Well, this is where we reach a… a snag, let’s say.”

“A snag,” Twilight repeated. “What do you mean?”

Rarity licked her lips, her brow furrowing. “Well, in order to pull this off, we would need not only an excuse to have dozens of foals sleeping in the same place, but we’d have to hire at least a dozen seamstresses if not more. Talented as I am, I cannot pull off creating so many custom teddy bears by myself in only a few hours.”

Twilight tried to be polite when she stated the obvious.

“...So hire them?”

“Well, they do not come cheap, for starters,” Rarity said, and again Twilight felt she was being rude when she furrowed her brow and spoke up.

“Why isn’t Cadance paying for them, then?” she asked, finding it hard to believe that Cadance would not be doing whatever she could to help Luna.

“She could,” Rarity said, carefully. “But just hiring them isn’t the problem, Twilight. We can’t have just any seamstresses. We need a dozen that believe in the legend and can be visited by the Princess. How else would they be able to reproduce the designs if they don’t see them for themselves?”

“But Rar—”

“Which is why,” Rarity interrupted, “we need to do this during Seeking Night. Seeking Night is the only night of the year that we actually have a decent shot of finding ponies who are ready and willing to believe, and it is the one night of the year where the chaos magic is confronted with a herd of ponies who believe. This is why we created the Dreamland, Twilight. This isn’t just a shop or a bakery or a nursery for foals. The Dreamland is a boot camp, and Seeking Night is the battleground we’re preparing for.”

She gestured towards the mock-ups of playgrounds for foals.

“Hollow Shades is famous for being completely and utterly designed around the myth of the four Princesses, and it is famous for its Seeking Night events which we can now design, change and use to influence others.”

She gestured towards a mock-up of a Twilight’s library maze, foals rushing inside and pegasi lifting the bookcases into the air.

“Ponies will arrive at the event and go through Princess Twilight’s book maze, trying to find the two Elements of Harmony hidden in books despite pegasi rearranging it every thirty minutes. After that…”

She gestured towards a large mock-up of a waterslide leading straight into a pool, with treasure chests at the bottom.

“In their daring quest to free our heroines, they must slide down Princess Celestia’s waterfall and dive down in search of the pair of Elements of Harmony she hid. Once they’ve found them—”

“Boom!” suddenly exclaimed Rainbow Dash, putting down a figurine of Spike. “They’re going to climb the awesome fire-breathing dragon and rampage through town!”

“What?!” Spike called out, indignantly. “I didn’t agree to that! I thought I was gonna guard the maze!”

“It’s a work-in-progress, darling!” Rarity called out, throwing Rainbow a dirty look. “In any case, as I was saying, once they’ve found the Elements…”

She now gestured towards a house decorated to look like a part of Canterlot Castle.

“They must enter the castle and…” She floated out a little figurine of a changeling. “Once inside, they will be told that the Spirit has infiltrated the castle and in order to protect Princess Denza—”

“Rarity, Rarity!” Pinkie interrupted, bouncing in her seat. “I wanna say the next part!”

Without giving Rarity time to reply, Pinkie grabbed the changeling figurine and continued.

“‘Kay, so, in order to protect Princess Denza, brave changelings took her form so he wouldn’t know which is the real one, but now we don’t know who is who! And what if we’re the Spirit too?! So we’re gonna have to figure out the ciphers on the walls to know which one is the real Denza and then she’ll be like ‘that’s it!’ and we’ll be like ‘yeah!’ and then we’ll know who Denza is and then—”

“Pinkie, darling, you do remember it’s the foals who will be doing these activities, don’t you?”

Pinkie looked away with a pout. “...Yeah…”

Rarity cleared her throat.

“And, finally, once Princess Denza has given them her Elements, the foals will rush to…”

With a grand gesture and matching smile, she gestured to the last mock-up of foals engaging in what could only be described as a large sleepover.

“Princess Luna’s Dream Spectacular.”

She deftly levitated the Professor’s device towards her far too fast for him to protest.

“Foals will gather inside the Dream Spectacular and be told that Princess Luna has been trapped in the dream realm, and it falls to them to go into dreams and find her. Once they have, she will tell them the location of the last Elements, and, to a select few, assign a personal guard against the terrible spirit.”

“The teddy bear,” Twilight said.

“The teddy bear,” Rarity repeated with an almost manic grin. “And so, while parents relax while their foals sleep for a few blissful hours, I and other seamstresses will make their dreams come true in a room to the side.”

And again, for the second time that night, Twilight did not really know how to react.

“Rarity, you… you came up with all of this?”

“Yes,” Rarity said, and every word glowed with unrestrained pride. “Yes, I did. What do you think?”

Twilight privately thought she had never felt quite so attracted to Rarity before, but she decided that was a thought best imparted when they were alone.

“Uhm. Wow.”

“Thank you,” Rarity said. “And that’s not all, either.”

And, for once, Twilight wasn’t the only one surprised judging by how everypony looked at each other in confusion and then at Rarity.

“What? It’s not?” asked Rainbow Dash.

Rarity shook her head.

“There’s another reason we need so many seamstresses,” she said. “Because dreams are forgettable. For every teddy bear made, we would need at least four seamstresses in the dreams to see it, wake up and then corroborate the details they remembered.”

Twilight frowned. “That seems inefficient.”

“Yes, it is, which is why we were planning on having only a dozen foals or so for our first test event, but… but now that won’t be necessary anymore. Now, we have somepony who can not only go into dreams but will be able to remember the designs with crystal clarity..”

“What?!” Twilight asked. “Who?!”

And when Rarity simply grinned at her, and when one by one every face in the room was turned towards her, Twilight understood.

“Oh.” She got up and stepped back. “Wait, but — I mean — I don’t know how to dreamwalk! I’d have to learn and I don’t know if there’s enough time for that before Seeking Night!”

“Seeking Night isn’t for several more weeks, Twilight,” Rarity said. “And I’m sure a pony as frightfully talented as you can learn fast. I’m also sure Princess Luna will agree.”

Twilight gave her a pointed stare. The idea of Princess Luna thinking that dreamwalking was something that could be taught in weeks?

“I highly doubt that, Rarity.”

“It’s okay, Twi,” said a baby dragon as he affectionately patted the head of the poor alicorn collapsed in a dream version of Hollow Shades. “One day you’ll learn not to tempt fate.”

Twilight mustered the strength to lift her head and properly glare at him.

“If you’re going to be a smarty-pants about this, Spike, I’m having the Princess take you back to your own dream,” she threatened before lying her head back down and groaning. “How can I be so tired? I thought you couldn’t get tired in dreams.”

“You said you were excited to learn when you started!” Spike said. “You read all those books the Professor brought from the castle in like two hours!”

“That was weeks ago.”

“That was two days ago, Twi.”

Twilight gasped. “Two days ago?!”

“Twilight Sparkle!” boomed a voice and Twilight winced when Princess Luna appeared before her. “Lying on the floor is not part of your training! We must use all the time we have to prepare you for Seeking Night!”

She stamped her hoof on the ground and Twilight saw a chaos magic version of herself appear in the distance.

“Princess,” Twilight said, lifting her head again. “I don’t suppose part of the training will involve comfortably reading books and not having to deal with nightmares every night?”

Princess Luna actually smiled. “You suppose correctly, Twilight.”

Twilight closed her eyes and put down her head for what would be the first of many, many times to come in the following weeks.

“Oh goodie.”

His hoofsteps were deafening as they rushed through the woods.

They ran and ran, until the calls of guards faded into the distance, and she finally allowed him rest.

“How…” he asked breathlessly. “How did they find us…?”

“Those were batponies,” Rarity said, her voice more than severe. She turned to him, frazzled. “North, your dreams.”

“What about them?” he asked her.

“Have you been dreaming of me? Have I ever appeared in them, even once?”

“No,” he said immediately… until a memory surged within him and he recoiled. “Ah. Well. Perhaps. Once. Yesterday.” At her expression, he grew defensive. “I can’t really control my dreams, you know!”

And her expression softened.

“No,” she said, resigned. “No, you can’t.”

Author's Note

Me, in 2014, writing Ch.1 of EL: I'm going to have Rarity organize Seeking Night in Ponyville as a set-up for her doing it in Hollow Shades! I'll probably get to that part in like maybe six month or so, in about 40k.

Me, today, the year of our lord 2018: SIX MONTHS I SAID. IN ABOUT 40K I SAID.

So anyway yeah I've been waiting a real long time to get here basically

Thanks as always for reading, and if you find any typos, please let me know (preferably via PM)! Thank you~!

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.

~ Act II ~ 13 ~ The Unusual Trial of Cinnamon Drop ~

Author's Note

comes in five months later with a starbucks-
HI IT'S ME AND TEK

Made a short 2k long silly recap of TEK thus far for those who need refreshers.

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.
Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

~ Act II ~ 13 ~ The Unusual Trial of Cinnamon Drop ~

“Rarity, we’ve been friends for many years, have we not?”

She laughed. “Three weeks hardly qualifies as many years, my dear.”

He grinned. “Ah, but is time not relative? For our wonderful friendship, maybe not! But.” He frowned. “For you and Princess Twilight, I’d imagine these three weeks have felt eternal.”

The warmth in her expression vanished. Quickly.

“...What are you saying, North Ridge?”

“I’m saying it seems you’ve taken to old bad habits. Remind me, how long did it take you to read that one letter?”

If this were Rarity, if it were her walking through that forest, she’d have a lot to say about it. She would say that the familiar path no longer brought her joy, but pain. She would say that the sounds of the forest, the howling timberwolves and echoing wind, no longer encouraged her but frightened her.

Or she might say that the stillness of the forest relaxed her, even despite what she’d been forced to endure inside of it. There she walked, boldly and proudly, the scar on her hindleg a symbol not of weakness, but survival.

To Rarity, the Everfree Forest was just that—a forest.

To Twilight Sparkle, however, as she walked through that forest with her friends, she could see it as nothing other than what it was.

Her prison—literally so.

Trees loomed over from the ground with the sole intent of keeping her hidden from anypony who’d ever want to find her.

Soldiers had died in that forest because of her. Cadance had told her so when she asked about the immediate aftermath of her imprisonment, and if Twilight had thought that tragic, the fact that Cadance had refuse to say how many died made it worse.

Just the thought that Rarity almost joined their ranks was…

“Darling,” Rarity said, her voice drawing Twilight’s gaze away from her scarred flank and towards her teasing eyes. “I know you enjoy the view, but might I suggest being more discreet?”

Trotting beside Rarity, Fluttershy couldn’t help but giggle, though it was unclear if she was laughing at Rarity’s comment or Twilight’s embarrassment.

“I wasn’t staring because of that!” protested the princess.

Though her two friends believed her and went back to their conversation without any other remark, Twilight couldn’t help the distress in her heart as she trailed along.

“Rarity,” she called out, and when the two mares stopped and looked back, she spoke up with pained severity. “I’m serious.”

Rarity softened.

“I know, dearest,” she said, smiling with sincere affection. “I only wanted to lighten up the mood. I know how hard this is for you.”

Twilight couldn’t help but return the smile and the tease.

“What is? Not staring at you?”

“Precisely!” Rarity exclaimed with a laugh, resuming her brisk trot. “Now, come along, you two, we’re almost there.”

They made their way through the forest, until finally they came to a stop in front of the massive oak tree Twilight had been in for so long. It was strange to see it there inside of a forest instead of in the middle of a valley. Maybe that was the very thing that made it feel like this place was no longer her home.

The anxiety she felt at seeing it also did little to help.

She thought she'd be able to go back in, but now that she was there before it, well…

"Where's the book?" Fluttershy asked, heading towards the tree.

"Somewhere in the maze, I gather?" Rarity replied, already at the trap door. She looked over to Twilight for confirmation. "Isn't that ri—" She frowned. “Twilight?”

Standing far, far away from the tree, Twilight returned the frown.

"What?" she asked, clearly not trying to stay away from the library. Clearly.

Rarity’s expression softened. "Darling…" She smiled gently and gestured to the spot next to her, her next words willing Twilight to approach her. “There’s nothing to be afraid of.”

"We're here with you, Princess Twilight," said Fluttershy when Twilight passed her by, and received in reply a cross between a thankful hum and an anxious whine.

"Twilight," Rarity said when the princess finally reached the trapdoor. "I know this is difficult f—"

"It is," Twilight cut-off, not intending to be rude but wanting Rarity to really understand. Just looking at the trap-door, just thinking of the library was enough to make her feel sick.

"I know that, Twilight, I do," Rarity said, her tone gentle but firm. She lifted her hoof and raised Twilight’s chin. "But that is precisely why you need to go down there and face this."

Twilight half-smiled. "You sound like Princess Luna."

Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. "You mean Princess Luna sounds like moi," she said, proving once again that her charm was almost always enough to convince Twilight to take action. She stepped to the side, allowing Twilight her space, and gestured to the trapdoor. "After you, your highness?"

Invigorated, Twilight leaned in to nuzzle her before finally turning to the trapdoor. As long as Rarity was there with her, she could do what had to be done. Taking a breath, she opened the trapdoor with her magic and…

And felt her throat constrict at the sight of the dark tunnel she was expected to climb into. Whatever courage she'd gathered was now barely clinging to life.

"Twilight?" Rarity prompted.

"I'm fine," Twilight replied forcefully, a lie meant to trick Rarity, if not herself.

She became aware of her body suddenly, of her hooves pressing against the ground, and the wind brushing through her coat, and she had to tell herself she would not lose this. She was just getting a book, that's all. She would not lose her body anymore.

She took a step forward, lifting her hoof and lowering it into the tunnel.

Discord's voice hissed in her mind.

"You deserved it."

As soon as the thought finished, her hoof collided against the steel stair, and the sound it made, cold and metallic and loud, immediately sent her scrambling back, as if the chaos puppet was about to crawl out of the tunnel. Disregarding Rarity's calls, she slammed the trapdoor shut with her magic and rushed away, ending up somewhere behind Fluttershy.

"Twilight!" Rarity called. "Twilig-!"

"I don't want to!" Twilight called back, struggling to say the words, shame and horror and frustration burning her. She couldn't go back to the place of her assault. She couldn't. She didn't want to. "I can't!"

"Oh, princess," Fluttershy said, and though she doubtless meant this with all the sincerity and affection in the world, it registered very differently to Twilight.

Pity.

She forced herself to look away from Fluttershy, to push away her voice, and turned towards Rarity, finding the unicorn still standing by the trapdoor and still looking straight at her, expression indecipherable.

Neither said a word at first until Rarity's horn lit up and careful magic opened the trapdoor again.

Twilight's heart sped up.

"Rarity?"

The unicorn didn't offer a smile or reassurance.

"I won't be long, then," she said instead, and though it was likely she did not mean it in this way, all Twilight could register in that sentence was something far worse than pity.

Disappointment.

She watched, torn and hurt, as Rarity stepped down into the tunnel, and just as she was about to disappear into the depths of the ground, Twilight called out her name.

The surprised unicorn turned back towards Twilight.

"Yes?"

"I..." Twilight faltered and made a choice. "I'm sorry."

Rarity stared at her for a moment and then, without a word, disappeared into the tunnel.

“Great,” Twilight said.

She turned away from the library and walked towards the forest.

Great, great, great.

“Princess? Where are you going?” Fluttershy asked, alarmed.

“I need to clear my head,” she explained and hoped that would be enough.

Though she intended on reassuring Fluttershy she wouldn’t take long, and in fact managed to say half that sentence, she was interrupted by the ground violently and suddenly shaking, completely throwing her off her balance.

She tumbled to the ground, caught off-guard, and turned to Fluttershy when the pegasus let out a terrified yelp.

Strangely enough, the earthquake stopped just as fast as it had arrived. It couldn’t have lasted more than a couple of seconds, but what certainly lasted a while was the horror of what came next.

No sooner had the earthquake ended, a horrified shriek came from the library tunnel.

“Rarity?!” Fluttershy called out, standing up just as Twilight rushed past her.

“Rarity?!” Twilight called out next, only steps away from the tunnel now, and ready to jump down up until she actually got there and again the sight of the tunnel made her feel violently ill, jolting her away from it.

Her breath caught in her throat, her heart in her chest, and for what felt like forever, she struggled to breathe.

“Princess?!” Fluttershy called out, confused and desperate.

“I can’t,” Twilight croaked, even though she wanted to, she did. “Rarity?! Rarity, are you—”

Another shriek cut her off, but this one was distinctly not Rarity, and it was much less a shriek and so much more an enraged screech.

The earth trembled again, and she barely had enough time to scramble back when from the tunnel emerged a familiar monstrous creature, as angry and chaotic and Discord-looking as ever.

“No!” Twilight gasped. “No! You’re supposed to be gone!”

With little regard to what was supposed to be and what wasn’t, the puppet screeched at her and slammed its fists against the ground, sending vibrations through the earth and shaking off the branches of surrounding trees. The moment they fell to the ground, it screeched again and the branches floated up into the air, their shape shifting just as life was breathed into them.

Surrounded by timberwolves and faced off against a creature that wanted to either kill or possess her, Twilight Sparkle was more than a little at loss for what to do.

“Princess!” Fluttershy called, and when Twilight turned to her, Fluttershy looked at her with pleading, terrified eyes. “Princess, how did we get here?!”

“Wh… what? Fluttershy, what does that have to do with—?!”

“How did we get here?!” Fluttershy repeated. “Don’t you remember?!”

Twilight gawked at her friend, thrown off-balance by this completely arbitrary question, and yet suddenly nothing seemed more important than the answer to it if only because, try as she might, Twilight couldn’t find a reply.

She had no idea how they got there, and this fact was more harrowing than the chaos puppet itself.

Upset at being ignored, the creature howled viciously and caught Twilight’s attention, her mind struggling to decide what to focus on.

Something was wrong, something was very very wrong, and it wasn’t the puppet or Rarity, but how could she focus when the puppet’s hands had started to glow, summoning a fireball in its claws to throw at her.

Which it did.

It threw the fireball at her, fast and strong and doubtlessly hotter than lava, and she conjured up a shield to defend both herself and Fluttershy.

But the impact never came.

She cracked open an eye and looked up to find that not only had the fireball and puppet frozen in place, but so had Fluttershy been plagued by the same stillness.

“What…?” she asked, and her question was promptly answered when Princess Luna appeared beside her, looking quite unamused.

“I think we’ve had enough for today.”

Confusion came first, her beating heart trying to slow down. “Princess Luna?!” The tension in her body wore away and she fell onto her hindlegs, trying to catch her breath. “Oh, thank the stars. It was just a nightmare.”

And then, no sooner had she said that, her relief turned to horror.

“A nightmare?!” she gasped, and turned to the Princess. “No! Wait! But—! Enough?! I was about to figure out it was a dream! I was right there!"

The princess arched an eyebrow. “How many times have you said that already?”

“That doesn’t matter! This time was different!” she protested. “I thought something was wrong!”

"Thinking is not enough, Twilight Sparkle," said the Princess gravely. "You must know. The only way to have lucid dreams is to be able to control them, and if you cannot do lucid dreaming, then controlling the dreams of others will be a nightmare in itself."

"I know that," Twilight murmured, bowing her head.

"You are not expected to master all of this in a few weeks," she said. "It will take you time."

"But we don't have time," Twilight retorted, frustration seeping out. "Seeking Night is in a few weeks! Everything Rarity’s been working on depends on me being able to do this, and we haven't even started with dreamwalking and I'm already failing!"

“You are improving, Twilight. The last time you had this dream, you did not even try to go down into the library.”

Twilight laughed humorlessly. “And? The only reason I did it this time is because you were manipulating the Rarity construct. ‘You sound like Princess Luna’. How did I not see that?!”

“You are mistaken. Rarity and Fluttershy were both products of your own subconscious, not part of my design. That Fluttershy was you trying to remind yourself of the dream test,” the princess clarified. “As for Rarity…” There was a hint of a smile on her lips. “I’m sure she would be most pleased to see that even in dreams she pushes you to confront yourself.”

Well, what else would she do? Twilight wanted to say. She’d never known a Rarity that didn’t seem eager to have Twilight deal with the plethora of things that had to be dealt with.

“I wish it actually worked,” Twilight grumbled.

The princess was silent for a moment and then said, “Can you take me to Hollow Shades?”

Twilight blinked. “I… Outside? To the real Hollow Shades?”

“No,” Luna said. “Here. Take us from this forest to Hollow Shades.”

Realizing she was being tested, Twilight hesitantly looked around at the Everfree Forest, at this reality that was anything but, and she closed her eyes, trying to picture Hollow Shades. She pictured the houses with constellations on them, the tree houses littered with lanterns, the ponies walking about in cloaks.

I am in Hollow Shades, she told herself as her horn crackled with magic. I am in Hollow Shades.

“Open your eyes.”

And when she did, excitement burst through her, the scenery changed from the Everfree Forest to Hollow Shades, ghostly illusions of its inhabitants walking about and living their lives.

“You are capable, Twilight. You’ve just done what you could scarcely do even a few lessons back. You will be ready to dreamwalk soon.”

“I need to be ready now, Princess Luna,” Twilight said, the thrill she felt not enough to overpower the burden of what was expected of her. “Soon isn’t soon enough.”

"Perhaps it is time to test the age-old saying, then.”

"What age-old saying?"

"Practice makes perfect," said Princess Luna, and at Twilight's confused stare, she elaborated. "You will dreamwalk tonight."

Twilight gawked at her. Had she heard right? "Dreamwalk? Tonight? "

"Yes, tonight. Brazened Awe should have brought my old books from the castle. I assume you've already read them?"

"Yes," Twilight replied. “But what about lucid dreaming? I haven’t mastered that yet, and—”

“It is not required to dream walk. It makes it easier, yes, but it is not impossible to do it without it,” the Princess reassured. "Read the books again. Study them, and we will reconvene at midnight tonight.” Her horn flashed with magic and the world around them began to blur, the princess’s voice fading out as she woke Twilight up. “Have a pleasant day, Twilight.”

And just like that, without fanfare or a start, Twilight blinked awake.

Sunlight filtered in past the nearly-drawn drapes, only barely illuminating the clock on a nearby nightstand and informing Twilight that midday had passed half an hour ago. She groaned softly and rubbed her eyes, finding two owlets and their father huddled against her chest, all three fast asleep.

“Where’s…”

A soft hoot answered her unfinished question, and she turned around to find Elara and Ginny standing on a notebook on the nightdesk, the owlet holding a pen in her beak.

“Right.”

She took the notebook and recorded what she could remember of her now-fading dream. When she was done, she carefully sat up, the owls’ sleep thankfully undisturbed, and looked around at the books littered all over Rarity’s bedroom.

Studying, she decided, could wait until after she’d cleared her head.

With a yawn, she and the two owls now perched on her back stepped out of the room where their restful disposition was swiftly attacked by a horde of screaming foals stampeding towards them.

“Princess Twilight, you’re awake!” gasped a filly.

“Uh, ye—”

“Did you see Princess Luna?! Did you tell her I said hello?! Did she say hello back?!” demanded a colt.

“Well, I—”

“Can I use Ginny to play with my dolls?!” pleaded another, already reaching for the owlet.

“Elara, don’t peck her!”

“Is it true we’re seeing Princess Luna soon?!” another one asked, tugging at her forelegs. “Rarity said we’re going to help rescue her!”

“Yes!” Twilight exclaimed, using her magic to levitate the horde of foals up into the air and away from her—not that they cared, as floating around was fascinating for all of them. She put them down—far, far away from her—and continued. “I’m going to go see Rarity now and… plan our rescue.” She looked around, trying to find a distraction. “Meanwhile, why don’t you, er… ask… Pinkie? Ask Pinkie what she’s doing to help Princess Luna!”

Her idea was successful, and the stampede rushed down the stairs without much care for the princess. Relieved, and still in possession of her two owls, she intended on following them down up until a familiar filly tugged on her leg.

“Princess Twilight?” the filly said, her ears lowered. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Of course, Lemon Drop. What do you need to ask?”

Lemon looked at the ground, her brows knitted in concentration. “Uhm…” She looked back up. “Rough Nut said that, um, bad ponies can go to jail? Is that true?”

“Yes, that’s true… Or, now it is, at least. The law books Rarity gave me last year don’t mention dungeons anymore.” She sat down and inspected the filly. “Why do you ask?”

“And what does a bad pony have to do to go to jail?” Lemon asked, ignoring Twilight’s question.

“Er… It depends? There’s a lot of reasons you can go to jail, but essentially it means you broke the rules.”

Lemon’s eyes widened. “You go to jail for breaking the rules?!”

“Yes. Or, actually, you go to court first,” she said, realizing this was a great opportunity to revise what she knew of modern laws. “It’s actually very interesting! Before, it was the princess who held court and decided if a pony was guilty or not, but in modern times, there’s an entire new system for it! There’s a judge, who’s the really important pony that decides if you’re guilty or not, and then the defendant—that’s the bad pony—has another pony called a lawyer to help prove their innocence based on gathered evidence. It’s a lot more thorough than what we did in Canter Capitol, even though it still has flaws. In fact, this book Rarity gave me detailed a very interesting case where a pony was wrongly jailed for life because of a crime his twin brother committed!

“Isn’t that interesting?” she asked next, until she saw Lemon’s wide-eyed, open-mouthed expression and remembered she was talking to a foal. She smiled awkwardly. “...Let me start over.”

“No, no, it’s fine!” Lemon quickly said, her voice faltering slightly. However, before Twilight could comment or inquire, the filly rushed off and down the stairs. “Thank you, Princess Twilight!”

“Wait!” Twilight called out.

She followed after her, but the filly was already gone by the time she reached the lobby, no doubt joining the throng of foals visiting the Dreamland. She debated trying to find Lemon Drops, but the idea was pushed away when the door to Princess Cadance’s theatre slammed open and a stallion-shaped Rift Shield rushed out, laughing loudly.

“Awwwww, come on!” he called out, missing Twilight and turning back towards the theatre. “Get a sense of humor! It was funny”

“Funny?!” came Rarity’s screeching voice, followed by her screeching self as she stomped out into the foyer, her glasses perched up on her horn and a rolled up scroll floating above her. “Funny?! Let my scroll show you what’s funny!”

“Rares, please!” he begged, failing miserably at looking sincere instead of amused. “Have mercy!”

Though Twilight still admittedly battled with her feelings towards Rift, she’d grown to like him well enough to decide upon sparing him the wrath of her marefriend.

“Hello,” she said loudly, drawing their attention.

Now Rift’s amusement vanished, the changeling immediately standing to attention and saluting her.

“Princess Twilight! Good afternoon!” he said, nearly cracking a smile at Rarity’s harrumph.

“Well, well, well!” she exclaimed, walking towards Twilight in an exaggerated kind of way. “If it isn’t somepony who—” she looked over her wither to glare at Rift, ”—loves and respects me!”

“Unlike me,” Rift politely clarified.

“Yes, unlike you! And now stop fooling around and take things seriously, for goodness’ sake!”

“Yes ma’am!” he exclaimed, doing a mock salute and walking back into the theatre before the scroll could assault him.

After she was done rolling her eyes, Rarity put her glasses back on and examined Twilight.

“You’re up early,” she pointed out.

“Early? It’s twelve in the afternoon, Rarity.”

Rarity gave her a fixed stare. “Oh, ha ha. You know what I meant. Are you done with your lessons?”

Twilight deflated.

“No. Well, yes for now.”

Rarity bit down on her lip.

“And how did it go? Did it go well? Whatever it was called? Vivid-dreaming?”

“Lucid-dreaming,” Twilight corrected. “And no, it didn’t go well.”

Rarity smiled sympathetically, patting Twilight’s cheek. “Well, don’t let it get to you, dear. I’m sure you’ll figure it out soon.”

“That doesn’t matter anymore,” Twilight replied, only slightly bitterly. “Princess Luna wants to start dreamwalking tonight. The actual thing.”

Rarity’s eyes widened. “Dreamwalking? Dreamwalking dreamwalking?” she asked, her voice marred with… concern? Did she too think Twilight wasn’t ready?

“Yes, dreamwalking dreamwalking,” Twilight repeated slowly. “Why? Isn’t that good?”

Rarity blinked at her, thrown. “Good? Yes, of course! Yes, yes… I… Well, I suppose I’m just a tad surprised since Princess Luna made it seem like it would take longer.” She cleared her throat and offered Twilight a winning smile. “Regardless, this is good!”

“What about you?” Twilight asked, looking over Rarity and towards Cadance’s theatre. “What’s going on?”

Rarity sighed, turning around and heading towards the theatre. “Same as yesterday, I’m afraid. Things are still going a little slower than I hoped.”

Intrigued, Twilight followed her and was immediately beset by a cacophony of noises and individuals all gathered together in different clusters. The entire place had been cleared out of floor cushions and plastic tables of varying sizes had replaced them, each occupied by ponies and changelings busy with assorted tasks.

The nearest tables, near the left side of the room, were occupied by a dozen chatting mares and stallions, each one busy with sewing different kinds of teddy bears while Fluttershy encouraged them. Further along to the right, Applejack and her brother were clustered around mock designs of the bookmaze, the former animatedly talking to a group of carpenters. Finally, all the way to the right, Twilight saw Rift Shield talking to not one, not two, not three, but eight Cadances—including one who looked thoroughly amused by her five horns.

“Rarity! What are you talking about? This isn’t slow at all!” Twilight exclaimed, following Rarity towards the stage.

This was progress! Actual real progress, which was much more than she could say about her own side of the bargain.

Rarity didn’t relent. “It’s something, I’ll give you that. It’s going faster now that Princess Cadance has sent more help, but there’s still a great deal of things to do.”

They walked up onto the stage where Rarity’s workstation was chock-full of designs, checklists and formal letters of request.

“Like what?” Twilight asked, levitating a checklist and looking it over.

“Well, let’s see,” Rarity said, grabbing a pen and taking Twilight’s checklist. “First, we still need Applejack and her brother to tell us what we’ll need to build the bookmaze; secondly, we still need Rainbow Dash to confirm with Cloudsdale if they can lend us a hoof with the waterfall; thirdly, Pinkie and I still have to sit down and somehow figure out how we’re going to turn this place into Cadance’s castle; and on top of all of that, I still need to somehow find the time to go to Trottingham for the books.”

Twilight’s ears twitched up. “The books?”

“Yes, for the bookmaze. I’ve recently befriended the librarian from Trottingham’s library, and he’s offered to lend us as many books as we need in exchange for a small fee and advertising his library.”

Twilight couldn’t believe it.

“Uhm, I have books,” she said with a frown. “I don’t mind if we use my books.”

“Twilight,” Rarity said. “I’m aware you have bo—”

“A lot of books.”

“Yes, I’m aware you have a lot of books, darling, but until recently, those books were not available to us, hmmmm? Although…” She tapped the tip of the pen against her chin. “The books are going to be outside all day, and your books do have that protection spell…”

She put the checklist down and grabbed her nearby agenda, flipping its pages over to the current date.

“Well, I still want to use some of Red Lining’s books since he was kind enough to offer them, so let’s schedule the entire thing for this weekend. We’ll go to the library…”

She drifted off, brow furrowing and ears dropping slightly.

“...Yes?”

Rarity snapped alert. “What? Oh! My apologies.” She cleared her throat, her cheeks red. “As I was saying, I’ll set up a date with him this coming Sunday in Trottingham, and then on Saturday, you and I can… can go to the library and pick out books.”

“Wait. You and I? As in I’m going with you to the library?”

“Yes, of course,” Rarity replied “If Princess Luna is all right with it, and she doesn’t mind your training interrupted, I don’t see why we shouldn’t go together.” At Twilight’s uncertain expression, she raised an eyebrow. “Or should there be…?”

“What? No, there isn’t! Why would there be? I’m excited to go with you!” Twilight said, pushing away the thought that having nightmares about the library was surely a bad sign. She would be fine, especially with Rarity coming with her. Unless… “Unless you have a problem with me going?”

“What? Me? Of course not! Why would I have a problem with that? I don’t.”

“Well, I don’t either.”

“And that’s great, darling.”

“It is great.”

A moment passed, the two mares definitely not engaged in a stand-off, until Rarity perched her glasses atop her horn and smiled.

“Darling, it’s understandable to be nervous about going back,” she said gently, lifting Twilight’s chin up when the alicorn bowed her head.

“Princess Luna told you about my nightmares?”

“Not at all,” Rarity said, lowering her hoof. She tilted her head and fluttered her eyelashes. “I just happen to know you very well, and… Well, as much as I would love for you to come with me, if you’re still struggling to face this, then perhaps it might be better to wait until you’re ready.”

The words tumbled out of Twilight’s mouth without permission.

“That’s not what you said in the dream.”

Rarity frowned. “I… What? What dream?”

Her mind finally catching up, Twilight tried to backtrack. “Oh, uh… In a dream I had, you… I mean, not you you, the dream you. She said the fact that it was hard was exactly why I should go.”

Rarity took this in. “...Did she? Interesting.” She put her glasses back on her nose and shrugged. “Regardless, darling, it’s up to you.”

“I’d like to go,” Twilight said with finality. “ I’ll be fine.”

If Rarity thought otherwise, she did not voice her concerns. “In that case, I shall make the necessary preparations.”

“So!” Twilight said, looking around the room in an attempt to move the conversation along. “What else do you have to do?”

Rarity similarly looked around and noticed a few mares trying to flag her down. “Assist my impressive new army of seamstresses, it would seem.” She looked at Twilight. “What are you going to do? Study for tonight?”

When Twilight nodded, Rarity’s brow furrowed again.

“Entering nightmares, then?”

“That’s the idea, yes.”

“I see! How interesting.” Rarity licked her lips. “Tonight, then.”

They both fell into an awkward silence, broken only when Twilight finally asked what was on her mind.

“...And do you still not want me to go into your dreams…?”

Rarity smiled painfully. “No. No, not yet, no, darling,” she said, and though Twilight didn’t question it, Rarity quickly defended her response as if she had. “Not because I don’t trust you! It’s just rather… It’s a bit too much, you know, with us having to get ready for Seeking Night, and...”

Twilight arched an eyebrow. “‘And I need time’?” she ventured, and Rarity winced.

“Twilight Sparkle! That’s not fair!” she whined. “I gave you about a year of time, Miss I-Don’t-Want-To-Talk-About-My-Dark-And-Broody-Feelings!”

Twilight grinned sheepishly. “Okay, okay! I understand.”

“I know you’re worried, darling, but don’t be. My nightmares are mine and mine alone to face, and I will.”

“Do you promise?”

“Yes, I promise,” Rarity said, lifting her hoof and placing it on Twilight’s chest, right on top of the glowing necklace. “In fact, I’ve already started.”

Dreamwalking was much like meditating.

All she’d needed was a quiet room, a comfy pillow to sit on for hours on end, an ancient rune from a book, and alicorn magic.

“Or is it more like a trance?” Twilight mused aloud, her eyes scanning the many doors spread throughout the dream realm.

“A trance would be incorrect,” replied the Princess sitting beside her. “We have not closed ourselves to the outside world, nor are we only half-conscious. Does this feel like a dream?”

“No,” Twilight replied.

“Administer the test, then, please.”

“The tes—? Oh.”

Twilight closed her eyes and focused.

“How did you get here?” Luna asked her.

“I woke up in the afternoon, went down to see Rarity, we talked about Seeking Night, we decided to go to the library to get my books, after that I went to see Pinkie and had lunch with her, then I went to see the Professor, after that I came back to study until midnight and then I entered the dream state, then I met you, then I fell out of the dream state, then I entered it again, and then we started to talk, and I remembered all of this so I’m not in a dream.” She took a deep breath and opened her eyes. “There!”

“Excellent.”

Pleased by her small success, Twilight was excited to see what new things she was about to learn. She glanced towards the dozens of doors, briefly looking for familiar ones, before turning back to Luna.

“What next?”

“Are you and Rarity truly going to your library?” the Princess asked.

“Yes, this weekend.”

“Both of you?”

Twilight blinked, confused by the line of questioning. “Yes?”

The Princess smiled. “I see”

“What? Why? Why ‘I see’?”

Luna shrugged, looking back to the endless doors. “Considering all your nightmares take place in the library, I’m surprised to see both of you going there regardless.”

Twilight swallowed. “I know, but it’ll be fine. I’ll be fine,” she said, determined, and yet her determination faded when she turned to Luna and saw the princess giving her an expectant stare.

“What?”

The princess smiled and said nothing more.

“Princess Luna, why are you being so… so cryptic! Why is everypony being cryptic?! You, Rarity—!”

“I am not cryptic, Twilight Sparkle. I’m merely observant, something which it would seem you are not.” Before Twilight could protest, Luna stood up and moved forward. “Dream walking,” she said in a tone of voice that put an end to their previous conversation, “is not simply going into ponies dreams.”

“...It technically is,” Twilight noted, getting up to follow her teacher. “You just fix their nightmares, too.”

“Our job is not to fix ponies’ nightmares, Twilight Sparkle. Our job is to guide them through their fears, not save them.”

She came to a stop and stamped her hoof against the ground, and Twilight yelped and jumped back at the sight of a massive eight-legged beast covered in spikes materializing before them, its eight eyes fixed dangerously on the alicorns, though it did not move an inch.

“Nightmares are rooted in reality. In fears that we have.” The princess stamped her hoof again and the terrible beast howled and shrank until a teensy little spider blinked up at the alicorns. “Dream-walkers can dispel them, yes, but only the dreamer can truly banish them.”

Twilight nodded, jotting down notes on a quill and notebook she’d conjured up—not that she could bring it into the real world, but still.

“Uh-huh.”

Princess Luna added, “This is why we cannot emotionally engage with them.”

Twilight looked up, quickly following as Luna moved forward again. “What do you mean?”

“We are objective agents, Twilight. When in somepony else’s dreams, you are no longer Twilight Sparkle. You have her expertise, her knowledge, her thought process, her empathy, but the rest? The rest must be subdued and gone. Your priority will be their emotions, feelings and experiences, not yours.

“This is why we, as dreamwalkers, never enter the dreams and nightmares of our loved ones.”

Twilight hummed. “Right. You’ve said that to me already, but… I guess I don’t understand? Why not? We know the ponies we love. Who better to help them than us? I can be the objective factor that they need.”

The princess came to a stop and hummed thoughtfully.

“That seems easy, does it not? Simple even. But do you remember what else I told you?” She burned her gaze into Twilight’s. “Are you prepared to see your loved one’s darkest fears? Their darkest moments?”

Twilight thought of Rarity, and the answer was obvious.

“Yes, of course.” She stood up straight. “I love them. I would be there for them, no matter what it is.”

Princess Luna came to a full stop, turning to Twilight and fixing her with a severe stare.

“Do you remember what else I told you? What Pinkie told you?”

Twilight faltered. “Err…”

“Tell me, Twilight Sparkle, what if you are the source of your loved one’s nightmares? What if you find out that what afflicts your loved ones, what is hurting them and causing them unrest, is you?” Her expression softened slightly. “Knowing what you’ve gone through and what I’ve seen of your dreams, I am sure you have wondered that many, many times already.”

When Twilight did not answer, her mind caught in the implications of such an event, the Princess continued her walk.

“It is impossible to ask for the consent of everypony. Dreamwalking is, inherently, a violation of a pony’s most private space, which is why, as I said, we cannot be ourselves when we dreamwalk, and why it is always a risk to dreamwalk the dreams of those you know.”

“Because you risk becoming emotionally compromised yourself,” Twilight finished, feeling altogether less enthusiastic about dreamwalking than she felt when they’d begun.

“There are also nightmares that don’t require us,” the princess continued as she reached a door only softly darkening. She pressed a forehoof against it, magic pulsing out and into the door. She smiled to Twilight. “Silver Twist being afraid of spiders does not necessitate an intervention, as I am sure you can imagine.”

Not even a moment later, the door flashed white and returned to its normal color, a soft baby blue.

“Not to mention there isn’t time to go into every single nightmare. There are degrees of severity and priority. Back when I could enter the dreams of adults, I would say some ponies benefitted from a good scare now...” The princess’ brow furrowed, her eyes drifting towards something beyond Twilight “...and then.” She paused for a split second and then continued to speak as though she hadn’t. “For your first lesson—”

“What happened?” Twilight asked, the princess’ words going unheard as Twilight’s curiosity compelled her to look around. “What did you—Princess!”

To her great alarm, there in the distance, a white door pulsed and transformed, flashing back and forth between white and black. A nightmare, and judging by the intensity of black, a pretty bad one at that.

It was alarming, yes, but…

It was fascinating too.

Without asking or waiting for permission, Twilight sped towards the door, ignoring the princess calling her name. A horrible nightmare! She hated hers, but she had no problems whatsoever studying those of other ponies! Not that she wanted them to have nightmares, clearly not, but scientifically and even psychologically speaking, nothing was quite as complex and visceral as nightmares.

“Twilight Sparkle!”

Princess Luna’s voice echoed throughout the void, her body materializing soon after and planting itself right in front of the flashing door, her wings splayed out like a barrier before it. The younger princess screeched to a halt, looking up at Princess Luna and offering an embarrassed smile.

“Sorry. I got excited.”

Princess Luna raised an eyebrow. “A pony suffering is not something to be excited about.”

“Well. No. But. From a research point of view—” The princess’s expression quickly silenced her, and she tried to recover, clearing her throat and standing tall and proud and definitely not excited. “Let’s go help them!”

Princess Luna did not budge, her eyes still fixed on Twilight. What she was thinking or doing, Twilight couldn’t rightly extrapolate or guess at, and her quick review of everything she said didn’t highlight any mistake, so she relaxed her stance and cleared her throat.

“Princess?”

The princess, again, did not speak, but she did lower her wings and stepped to the side, revealing the three familiar blue diamonds adorning the door.

Then, and only then, did Twilight’s excitement truly die.

“Rarity?” she asked, surprised at first, like it had never dawned on her that Rarity could even have nightmares. The concern came next, propelling her forward to the door. “Rarity?! Why is she having a nightmare?!” Her hoof shot to the knob. “We have to—”

She stopped abruptly and forced herself to step back, gritting her teeth.

“I gather she has yet to give you permission to enter her dreams,” said the princess, the words forming a question but the tone stating a fact.

“Yes,” Twilight said, her ears dropping and her defenses as well. She glanced at the princess, whose narrowed eyes and tilted head Twilight processed as a judgement on her relationship with Rarity, and so did her defenses shoot back up. “I’m sure she has her reasons!”

“I’m sure,” said the princess.

She turned back, raising her hoof and pressing it against the door. It pulsed with magic, but rather than fixing the problem and restoring the door to its normal color, it did nothing at all. The door continued to flash white and black.

Princess Luna’s expression darkened.

“This one might need me to intervene.”

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, stepping forward and placing her own hoof on the door, as if she would somehow similarly extract information. “Is she okay?! What’s the nightmare about?!”

The princess stared at her, and Twilight backed away with a nervous smile.

“And you’re not going to tell me because that’s her private dreams and that’s fine.”

“Your learn quickly,” said the princess with a slight smile. She then looked around and gestured to a distant door that was only slightly darkening. “That door is Lemon Drop’s. Assist her with her nightmare while I take care of Rarity’s.”

“Wait? Alone?” Twilight asked, her nerves starting to climb. “You want me to fix—er, guide her dream alone?”

“It will be a simple dream, Twilight,” the princess reassured her. She gestured to Twilight’s construct notebook. “You already know how to create objects and situations, and I don’t think influencing a foal will be a challenging task for you.”

“I… But…”

“You are very capable, Twilight,” the Princess said with a smile. “I’ve yet to meet a pony who doesn’t believe you are. You should believe in yourself too.”

Twilight took a breath and stood straight. “Right. I will.”

“Good. And remember, Twilight, we do not fix nightmares. We assist ponies in discovering why they’re having that nightmare.”

That said, she turned her attention to the door and opened it up wide enough that Twilight was able to catch a glimpse of what seemed to be a forest. However, before she could see more, the princess stepped into the dream and closed the door behind her, leaving Twilight outside.

“A forest?” she murmured, knitting her brows together.

What forest, though? Was it the Everfree Forest? Realization dawned on her. Of course! Rarity had to be dreaming of the day the timberwolf attacked her!

She looked back at the door, taking a step forward and once again pressing her hoof on the doorknob. It would be easy to go in. She wanted to go in, to in dreams rescue Rarity from the scars she’d not been able to rescue her from in reality. It would be simple to do it.

But she wouldn’t. And she didn’t.

Twilight stepped away from the door, throwing Rarity’s cutie mark a final, almost apologetic glance, and then turned around and rushed towards the door of a small filly who needed her.

She opened the door, and no sooner had she done so, she was assaulted by a cacophony of furious, indistinguishable yells. Following that, she stepped into the dream, the door fading behind her and leaving her to frown at the mob gathered inside of Hollow Shades’ town hall. Mares and stallions clustered together, their cries almost indistinguishable save for a few prominent claims being thrown around.

“Punish him!” some yelled, while others called for, “Justice! Justice!”, and a few even went as far as to demand, “Exile! Make him leave! Make him leave!”

“Make who leave? Punish who?” Twilight asked a nearby mare, and was promptly ignored in favor of more yelling.

Is this common practice in the future? Angry mobs were something Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had to deal with a thousand years ago, but she admittedly would have expected modern society to be more… well, she didn’t mean to sound like Rarity, but more well-behaved.

Further attempts to converse with the ponies yielded no results, so she pressed onwards, pushing her way through the crowd until she was at the front lines.

Though Twilight Sparkle had seen the princesses hold court, she had never seen a modern courtroom like this one before—not in person, at least. She’d only read about them in the law books and courtroom drama novels Rarity had lent her, but this was the very first time she was witnessing a modern trial.

Or an attempt at it, at least.

“A trial? Why a—” She cut herself off, her stomach dropping at the memory of her earlier conversation with the filly. Had she caused this?

“SILENCE!” boomed Elder Moonshine, startling Twilight. She was sitting atop an obscenely large chair at the back of the room and banging her gavel on the table. “Silence!”

Rather than obey, the crowd raised their voices even more, forcing Twilight’s ears to clamp against her skull. Eager to get out of there, she scanned the room and finally found Lemon Drop cowering behind a desk to the left.

“Lemon!” Twilight called out through the crowd, and what relief when the filly looked around and spotted her.

“Princess Twilight! Princess Twilight!” Lemon called, waving her hoof. “You’re here!”

And then, only then, did the crowd not only go quiet, but it also turned its sight on Twilight, dozens of eyes now burning into her.

“Oh-kay,” she said awkwardly, stepping forward and heading towards Lemon.

What was that about? she thought, glancing back to the silent crowd. Now they’re paying attention to me? Why? Was it because Lemon was aware of her now?

Was this what the princess meant by influencing the dream?

“Guards!” Elder Moonshine bellowed. She gestured to two cloaked ponies, their hoods lowered over their faces. “Bring in the defender!”

“The defender?” Twilight murmured. “Doesn’t she mean the defendant?”

“Princess!” Lemon called. “Hurry!”

Twilight hurried over to her and took her place behind the desk, conjuring a stool for the filly to sit on, rather than having to hide behind the desk.

“Where’s the lawyer?” Twilight asked next, looking around and failing to find such a pony. She turned to Lemon, and on seeing the filly staring up at her expectantly, she realized the role she was now meant to play. “Oh.”

“Silence!” Elder Moonshine boomed again. “The defender is here!”

The crowd in the stands gasped and whispered amongst themselves as the hooded ponies came back, a caged terrified colt floating behind them.

“Cinnamon!” Lemon called, horrified.

“Lemon Drop!” called the colt back, reaching out to her through the bars. “Help me!”

“Cinnamon Drop?!” gasped Twilight, the sight of a defenseless child inside a cage bringing back uncomfortable memories. “Why is he caged?!”

“He was naughty!” Elder Moonshine replied.

“And so he should be caged for it?!” Twilight shot back, indignant.

“Prin… Princess Twilight,” Lemon asked, tearing up. “Why are you yelling? They’ll be even more madder!”

Jarred back to reality, both by the tears and the grammar, Twilight pushed her emotions back. She was supposed to be an objective agent, someone to observe and not take control, and considering her new role in the dream, she’d already failed at one of those two things.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I…” She cleared her throat and turned back to Elder Moonshine. “The, er… The defense requests the defendant be allowed out of the cage!”

“The defender is in criminal time-out,” Elder Moonshine replied, slamming her gavel again.

“No pony gets out of time-out!” Lemon whispered to Twilight.

“But…” Twilight frowned, her eyes darting between the cage and Lemon Drop. If she wanted to influence the dream, she had to influence Lemon herself. She cleared her throat, grabbing a coloring book nearby and flipping through its pages. “True as that may be, it says here that, in accordance with the Fifth Law of Fair Time-Out And Other Punishments, a foal must be given fair seating in their trial.”

Elder Moonshine frowned. “Well…” She slammed her gavel and bellowed, “Accepted!” after which she turned to the guards and gestured to the cage. “Release the defender from the cage!”

“You mean sustained, but that’s fine,” Twilight said, mostly to herself.

The guards opened the cage and a sniffling Cinnamon trotted out, taking a seat on a little blue chair that appeared next to him.

Twilight smiled.

“Thank you,” she said. “What exactly is my client being accused of?”

Elder Moonshine was clear.

“Breaking the rules!”

“...Yes. I gathered that. Thank you,” Twilight replied politely. “I meant to say, what rule did he break?”

Later on, in retrospect, Twilight admitted it was quite a sight to see the elderly mare, the highly respected matriarch and leader of Hollow Shades, take on a somber expression, narrow her eyes and ruthlessly declare:

“He ate all the cookies from the cookie jar.”

Silence beset the courtroom, broken only by gasps and murmurs from the crowd and then by Twilight Sparkle herself.

“WHAT?”

“No!” Cinnamon blubbered from his seat. “I didn’t eat the cookies! I promise!”

“Ate every last one, he did!” the Elder continued, drumming up a storm with her gavel. “Even the raisin ones!”

“He’s on trial for eating cookies?!” Twilight asked, flabbergasted. All this charade for… “Cookies?!”

Lemon grabbed Twilight’s foreleg and shook it.

“What?! What’s wrong?! Is he not supposed to be on trial?! Is he guilty?! Are ponies who eat cookies not ‘sposed to get trials?!”

Twilight turned to her, thrown.

“Wait, what? Where did you--”

BOOM!

Before she could say much else, the dream warped and changed, a metal clanging echoed through the room. To Twilight’s horror, Cinnamon was back in a cage, this one not only much smaller than the one from before, but also covered in chains.

“Guilty!” shrieked the elder, gaveling her desk to the point she must have made holes in it. “Guilty! Guilty!”

“Wait!” Twilight begged.

“No! I’m not guilty!” Cinnamon cried, his little hooves holding onto the bars. “I didn’t eat the cookies! I promise!”

“Stop lying!” the elder roared. “You’ve disappointed me, Cinnamon!” There was a flash, and suddenly a sobbing mare and stallion appeared in the courtroom, holding each other through their unbearable pain. “You’ve disappointed your parents!” Another flash, and now Princess Denza joined them, the mare weeping into a tissue. “You’ve disappointed the princess!”

“No!” cried out Lemon and Cinnamon.

Another flash and now Pinkie was in the courtroom, comically huge tears pouring out her wide eyes.

“You’ve disappointed Pinkie! And Incantation!” Flash, and there she was, the poor changeling looking towards Cinnamon with hurt in her eyes. “And Rarity!” Flash, and there she was, quiet and stoic and with the same expression Twilight had seen in her own nightmares.

“Stop!” Lemon cried, her eyes puffy and red. She rushed to Twilight and hugged her, burying her face in her coat. “Please! Make them… Make them stop!”

Twilight didn’t need to be told twice.

“Stop!” she commanded, getting up and slamming her own hoof on the table, much louder than any gavel. “Enough, Elder!”

Once the elder fell silent, Twilight tried to regain some modicum of control.

“I need a moment to think!” she informed, and when nopony spoke, she exhaled in relief. “Thank you.”

She turned back to comfort the crying filly while trying to decipher why in Equestria was all of that happening. Why would she be dreaming of her brother going to jail for eating cookies? In what world would that even be—

“Wait.”

Could it…

“Prin… Princess?” Lemon asked, looking up at Twilight.

“Hold on for a minute,” Twilight said kindly, waiting for the filly to detach herself before turning towards the elder. “Elder Moonshine! The defense would like to have a moment with the defendant’s sister!”

The elder slammed her gavel. “Accepted!”

“What are we gonna do?!” Lemon asked when Twilight turned to her.

Twilight glanced at the cage in the distance. “We need to prove Cinnamon innocent so he’s not unfairly punished.”

“Uh-huh!”

“And in order to do that, we need to present irrefutable—” At the filly’s expression, she started her sentence over. “We need to present, er, a very good reason for why he’s innocent.” She then knelt down, made sure to look the confident filly in the eyes, and asked, “Lemon. Do you have any reason to be sure Cinnamon didn’t eat the cookies?”

Lemon looked back at her, and without warning, her eyes filled with tears.

“I… Uhm… I…”

“Lemon,” Twilight said again, as kindly and patiently as she could. “Do you have any evidence that Cinnamon didn’t eat the cookies?”

Lemon shakily nodded.

“What is it?”

One, two, three seconds passed and the filly burst into tears.

“I’m sorry! I ate the cookies!!” she wailed, hiding her face in her hooves. “They were really—! Really tah-tasty, and I didn’t mean to eat all of them, I promise! And, and I don’t want Ci-Cinnamon to go to jail! And I don’t want to go to jail!”

She launched herself into Twilight forelegs and clung to her, her string of desperate apologies as incoherent as the last.

Twilight held her and was unable to repress a little victorious smile. She waited a moment until the wailing became sniffling and then firmly but kindly spoke up.

“Lemon,” she said, “no pony is going to jail.”

Lemon peered up at her. “But—! But bad ponies who break rules go to jail!”

“That’s true, but you’re not a bad pony. Jail is for really bad ponies, and you’re not going to jail for eating the cookies.”

Lemon stood back, rubbing her eyes. “You promise?”

“I promise.”

The courtroom faded around them, Elder Moonshine and the rest of the ponies fading out from the dream until it was just Twilight and Lemon now inside of a kitchen.

“There is one thing, though,” Twilight continued, and she gave the filly a meaningful glance. “You have to tell your parents the truth.”

Lemon looked down and hoofed at the floor. “Even if they’re going to punish me?”

“Even if they’re going to punish you.” She lowered herself and grinned at Lemon. “Maybe next time don’t eat the cookies without permission, okay?”

“Okay!” Lemon nodded. A moment went by, the little filly deep in thought until she timidly looked back up at Twilight. “Princess Twilight? ...You’re not disappointed in me?”

Twilight licked her lips, taking the question in and thinking back to her own nightmare, and the admittedly deep-rooted fear of somehow one day disappointing Rarity. She feared it, yes, but she now realized that she couldn’t hide from it forever.

“Well, I am a little bit disappointed.” At Lemon’s contrite expression, she lifted the filly’s chin with her hoof. “But I’m a thousand times more proud that you were brave and did the right thing in the end. You tried to be better and take responsibility,” she said with finality. “And that’s what a good pony does.”

“A good pony like you!” Lemon said, rushing over to hug Twilight and missing the alicorn’s eyes misting.

“A good pony like me,” she whispered.

“Strange,” a third voice said, “I recall my sister catching you in the larders many times, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Princess Luna!” the filly gasped, jumping off Twilight and going to the elder princess. “You’re here!”

“I am,” said the princess and then offered Twilight a meaningful glance. “The affair I was dealing with has been resolved.”

Relief washed over Twilight. Good.

“As for you, little filly,” the princess continued, levitating Lemon into the air. “I hope we have also learnt to cease eating sweets before bed so we don’t suffer from nightmares.”

“What about one sweet?!” Lemon asked, clapping her hooves together and jutting her lower lip out.

Princess Luna sighed heavily. “...One sweet is acceptable, I suppose, if your parents allow it.”

The princess put Lemon Drop down, just in time for Twilight’s horn to crackle with magic and the scenery to fade away from the kitchen and transform into an extravagant playground for the filly to play in.

“Impressive,” said Princess Luna, watching as Lemon rushed off to play.

Twilight allowed herself a smug smile.

“The advice you offered was impressive as well.”

“Thank you!”

“You should consider following it yourself.”

Twilight coughed, embarrassed. “Right. Well. I will.”

The princess laughed, sitting down and admiring the scenery. “You did very well, Twilight. Sister would be proud.”

“Yeah,” Twilight replied. She had done well, hadn’t she? Sure, some mistakes were made but all in all, it had gone well. She’d done things right! “I can’t wait to tell Rarity.” At that, she turned to the princess. “Is she doing better, then?”

“She is,” Princess Luna said carefully. “Though there is much she has to face, and…” She met Twilight’s gaze and drifted off.

“...And?” Twilight pressed.

The princess looked away.

“The influence of Discord’s actions… They’ve taken a toll on her, to extents I do not believe she’s yet realized.” She paused. “To extents even I had not anticipated.” She smiled mirthlessly. “It’s unfortunate but, even if not physically, she and you have traded places in more ways than one.”

“What can I do?” Twilight asked, her heart aching. “How can I help her? She’s doing so much already, and…” Anger bubbled at the surface, at the idea that Discord’s influence had taken Rarity. It sickened her to think Rarity’s life was being plagued by him. “I need to help her, Princess Luna. I can’t let him...”

Change her, she wanted to say. Change and hurt her more than he already had.

She couldn’t allow that to happen to Rarity anymore.

The princess was silent for what felt like an eternity.

Eventually, she spoke.

“You must work on yourself, Twilight. If you want to be there for her as she was for you, then you must continue to work on undoing the damage Discord did to you.”

“And that will help her?”

“Yes. Even dreamwalking itself will prepare you to help her when the time comes.”

Twilight looked away, setting her sights on the distant filly playing in a sandbox, and she wished life was that easy. She wished she could fix Rarity’s problem as easily as she had fixed Lemon’s. She wished, as well, she could blast Discord through the face, and was comforted by the idea that might be feasible.

“We will continue our lessons tomorrow,” Princess Luna said. Much like she did every lesson’s end, she nodded at Twilight, her horn glowed and she began to fade. “Sleep well, Twilight.”

And just like that, Twilight closed her eyes and focused her magic on waking up.

It took her a moment, but she succeeded eventually and fluttered her eyes open, taking in the sight of Rarity’s study. She stood and stretched, a loud yawn following after, and she rubbed the sleep off her eyes.

She wasn’t sure of what time it was, but whatever it was, she was more than ready to go to bed. After a quick visit to the pastry room, and after ignoring the hypocrisy of stealing two cupcakes for herself, she made her way upstairs and saw light filtering out of the bedroom door.

“Huh?”

She opened the door and stepped in to find Rarity wide-awake and reading a book in bed.

“Rarity?”

“Oh, Twilight, darling!” she said, putting her book down and beckoning Twilight over. “Did something happen? Are you done with your lessons?”

“Yes, I just finished,” she said, climbing up on the bed and sitting down next to the unicorn, taking a moment to nuzzle her before continuing. “What about you? Why are you awake?”

Rarity laughed softly, sitting upright and brushing back Twilight’s bangs. “I’m sure you know why, dear.”

Twilight winced. “The nightmare? I didn’t go in!” she added quickly.

“I know you didn’t,” she said with a genuine smile. “And I appreciate that tremendously. I know it’s… I know it’s not easy for you that I’m… well, you know.”

“Oh, it’s fine,” Twilight said, choosing her next words carefully. “I’m going to continue to work on myself so I can help you,” she said tentatively.

“Good! As you should,” Rarity exclaimed with a brilliant smile. “As we both should.”

Taking Rarity’s positive reaction in stride, Twilight ventured another step.

“Do you want to talk about your nightmare?”

Rarity bit down on her lip, mulling it over, and finally put her book down. Twilight moved back slightly, trying to give her space and trying not to be too excited at what seemed to be potentially Rarity opening up.

“I… What if…” The words came out clipped, but they came. “I’m frightened that… What if Seeking Night doesn’t work?”

Remembering her lesson, Twilight tried to stay objective.

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Rarity continued, frustration seeping into her tone. “What if… What if nothing works out? The event, the foals, everything? I… I’m frightened by all of it. What if we fail?”

The answer didn’t require thought.

“We won’t,” she said, sitting up straight. “We won’t fail.”

Rarity eyed her dubiously. “You can’t possibly know that.”

“I do. I do!” she insisted at Rarity’s raised eyebrow. She looked down at the sheets and collected her thoughts. “We’re doing everything we have to do. We have checklists, and plans, and dozens of ponies to help.” She looked back at Rarity. “It will work.” She strengthened her resolve. “Discord won’t ever hurt you again, Rarity.”

“Discord?” she whispered back, her eyes indecipherable, her mind doubtless lost in the pain he’d brought her.

“Yes. I won’t let him hurt you or me or anypony else anymore.”

Rarity peered at her, and not unlike Lemon Drop, she asked, “Do you promise?”

Twilight lifted her chin with a hoof. “I promise.”

A silence fell between them, Rarity’s lip curving into a loving smile.

“Why Twilight,” she whispered. Her loving smile turned into a smirk. “Stealing my moves, are we now?”

“What?!” Twilight exclaimed, taking her hoof back. “Rarity, I was being serious! Also, that’s not your move!”

Rarity’s laughter filled the room.

“Oh, don’t be a silly pony! I was only teasing you!” she said, using her magic to bring back the princess who’d indignantly scooched away.

“I’m not a silly pony,” Twilight grumbled as rude external forces coaxed her into cuddling.

Once Twilight had relented and allowed herself to be wrapped in a hug, Rarity continued. “Thank you, darling. I appreciate it, I do, and you’re right, things will be better now. So! Instead of pouting, why don’t you tell me about your session with the princess?”

“Okay, but… are you feeling better?”

“I am,” Rarity said, with what seemed like relief around the edges of her tone, “especially now that you’re here.”

~ Interlude IV ~ An Old Friend ~

He woke up at the crack of dawn, as he did almost every day. An old habit he’d kept from the Undiscovered West, from the times when waking up late was a literal matter of life and death.

Times were different now, of course. Sleeping in wouldn’t result in a band of mercenaries kidnapping him like that time in Siribilo, but it would result in a mare being quite, quite upset.

Speaking of which…

He cracked an eye open and saw her sitting on the other side of the fire, awake and alert in the early dawn, still plagued by insomnia. Oh, he did appreciate her! They’d barely known each other in the grand scheme of life, but he deeply appreciated his strange friend and the fascinating story forever scarred into her body.

She frowned at him, suddenly, and though he thought he’d been subtle, it seemed she noticed him wake.

She stood up without effort nor sound and walked towards him, her gaze promising a scolding on the theme of hurrying up and getting ready.

He debated pre-empting her, lifting his hoof and saying alright, alright! I’m getting up!

A vicious beast pre-empted his pre-emption.

Before she could reach him, a snarling manticore jumped out from behind the nearby bushes, placing itself between the startled unicorn and the wide-awake stallion. It glanced over him for a moment, barely a second, inspecting North Ridge as if looking for something.

“What… What in Equestria’s name…?”

The words tumbled out of North Ridge’s mouth, his brain scrambling to understand, to protect, and to maybe, just maybe, recognize.

The manticore turned to Rarity and then did it become truly frightening. Its ears flattened against its skull, its massive wings splayed out like a shield, and every hair on its body stood on end. It hissed at her, its clawed paw raised and its pupils wide as moons, as if it were frightened by Rarity just as much as she was by it.

“North!” Rarity gasped in fear. “Do something!”

“Now, now, Rarity, it’s just a manticore!”

“Just a manticore?!”

“Yes!” he continued, rather excited to be honest. “I can deal with it! They’re easy to subdue and—” The manticore turned to him as he said that, giving him a look of offense and confusion. “And…”

The thought drifted away, his mind now faced with the possibility of the past catching up. He looked the beast over, what he could of it at least, and took a shot in the dark.

“...Tangerine?”

The manticore growled in assent, its tail thumping up and down on the ground before turning back to Rarity and baring its teeth at her.

“Tangerine!” North exclaimed, breaking into a wide grin. Briefly. “Oh. Wait! Wait!” He barged forward, pushing past Tangerine and jumping in front of Rarity. He raised a protective forehoof and looked the beast in his eyes. “She’s a friend, Tangerine! She’s a friend.”

Though his hairs remained standing up, Tangerine’s expression softened, his searching eyes darting back and forth between Rarity and North.

“When have I ever lied?” North asked, and added after a pause, “Alright, well, I’ve lied many times, but this time isn’t one of them!”

A few seconds went by, and eventually Tangerine relented. His ferocity faded, his hairs lowered, and North Ridge grinned when the beast sat on his hindlegs, his ears flitting up and his paws lifted to his chest, transforming him from a terrifying beast to a timid, harmless overgrown cat.

“Oh, Tangerine! Tangerine!” North exclaimed, rushing forward and embracing his friend. He stood back and looked the manticore over, practically glowing as he did so. “You’re certainly a sight! A fantastic sight, at that! How did you find me?! Oh!” He quickly gestured to Rarity. “Tangerine, this is Rarity. I met her a few days after crossing the border!”

With cautious steps, Tangerine moved towards Rarity, meekly held out his paw, and said with the softest voice:

“Mew?”

Rarity’s eyes darted back and forth between his eyes and his paw, and though in her hesitation she did not shake his paw, she did offer an attempt at a nervous smile. “...How do you do.”

Her delighted laughter rang in the air, intermingling with the crackles of the logs burning in the fire.

“He didn’t!” Rarity exclaimed to Tangerine, who nodded furiously in return as he stirred the soup cooking over the fire. She turned her sights to the grinning North Ridge. “You didn’t.”

“I did! I was chained, beaten, had a migraine that would kill me, and I still spat in his face and told him—” He cleared his throat. “Well, I told him things you wouldn’t approve of involving his mother. I could tell you what I said, if you’d like.”

“No, thank you,” she replied. “Oh, how uncouth of you! You must have had a death wish.” She leaned in, riveted. “What happened next?”

“Tangerine happened.”

Tangerine stopped stirring the soup long enough to straighten his posture, glancing to Rarity and then excitedly throwing a string of mewls and growls towards North.

“Yes, yes, I remember how you threw him out the window,” he said nonchalantly. He then eyed the soup and smacked his lips, leaning in. “Is it almost ready? It smells fantastic.”

“It really does,” Rarity added, breathing in the scent.

Tangerine nodded, taking a nearby bowl and filling it up as North nodded his head in hungry encouragement. Once it was full, the manticore put the spoon down and offered the bowl to Rarity.

She lifted her hoof. “Ah, no, thank you,” she said, kindly.

“More for me!” North exclaimed, already reaching for the bowl. “You can start preparing my next four bowls, please, Tangerine.”

Tangerine rolled his eyes, reaching for another bowl, while Rarity could only laugh.

“Your next four bowls?! And I thought Twilight was a glutton!” She turned to Tangerine and noticed the manticore putting his bowl down and stepping away. “Is something wrong?” she asked, glancing at North when Tangerine mewled a reply.

“He needs to relieve himself,” said the stallion between spoonfuls.

Once he’d disappeared into the forest, North turned to Rarity.

“What do you make of him?”

“He’s certainly very interesting, though not entirely what I imagined from the stories you’ve told me,” she said, still looking off towards where the manticore had disappeared off to. She turned to North. “That’s quite a first meeting you had.”

“It went better than expected, all things considered. It could have been me he was hurling out the window! ...Or at a bookcase.”

Rarity pointedly didn’t dignify him with a reply, instead turning back to the forest.

“I’m surprised he came looking for you,” she said. “I had the impression you’d parted ways permanently.”

North stared into his soup for a moment, trying to voice what he’d long tried to ignore. It really was true, wasn’t it? One can’t always escape the past.

He put the bowl on the ground and took a breath.

“I was the one who asked to part ways,” he confessed. “I didn’t give him a choice. He was…”

“You didn’t?” she asked, surprised. “Why not?”

The answer was hard to voice. In fact, it was hard to think about; hard to accept that ghosts would not stay in the past.

“My wife,” he said and was surprised to find tears in his eyes. “He reminded me too much of better days, I suppose, when she was still here. It was too much.”

Her ears lowered. “Oh, North…” She mulled on her words and ventured forwards. “I confess that you never talk about her so I’d just assumed you’d… well, you know.”

He laughed. “You and I handle this in very different ways, Rarity. I don’t speak about her, and you—” He grinned. “I might make good money writing about Princess Twilight’s biography.”

“Aren’t you exaggerating a bit?” she said, her cheeks tinted red and her hoof clutching her necklace. At his pointed stare, she continued. “In any case, be that as it may, I… Well, I would like to hear more about Frost.”

North looked at Rarity.

Really, really looked at her, at this mare he strangely saw so much of himself in. Saw in her his past that had caught up, and saw in her a story that he had now joined.

And if that was so, then it was his role to make sure this story ended as it should.

So he made a choice.

“Very well! I will tell you one last story, if only because it’s the last one I’ll tell.”

The delight in her expression vanished.

“What do you mean?”

How difficult. How difficult it was!

“I’ve decided I’m no longer going with you to Ponyville, Rarity.”

And there it was, and it was just as painful as he imagined it would be.

“What?” She laughed, but it was strangled, uncertain, unwilling to believe. She smiled, and it wasn’t a smile. “And where, may I ask, are you going instead?”

“To the next event, wherever it’s held.”

Rarity blanched, knowing full well what that was. What it meant.

“North. North, if this is a joke, I’m not finding it funny.”

“I wouldn’t joke about this.” He smiled wryly. “Rarity! You must have seen this coming.”

“No, I didn’t,” she said quietly. “I actually didn’t.” She thought of Tangerine and wondered if maybe he had. “I gather I don’t have a choice.”

“You gather correctly.”

“And you won’t change your mind?”

“I won’t.”

There was a long pause. Long, and long, and he decided he would allow it to be as long as she needed it to be.

“I… I’m frightened.” Her eyes sparkled with tears. She laughed, and it was heartbreaking. “I’m not ready.”

“I know. I know, and I don’t blame you,” he said kindly, “and it’s why I’m not asking you to come with me.”

Another pause.

“Why?”

He thought carefully about it, for all things that mattered deserved care.

“I’ve been a distraction to you, Rarity. A dashing distraction, clearly, but a distraction still. To put it in a way our dear princess would approve, I’ve been a footnote taking your attention away from the story that needs to be told. It’s been some time I’ve cared for a story as much as I care for yours. I don’t want to hold you back from finishing it.”

She said nothing.

“Rarity, I—”

“I know what you’re going to say, North. I think I’ve always known."

And as much as she didn’t want to admit it, as hard as it was… he was right.

She looked back to him. “He’s going to come. After you’ve left. He’s going to gloat and tell me I made a mistake and...” She gritted her teeth. “Damn him. Damn him.”

“Rarity, now now! If he dares come to you, I have some very good insults you can say about his mother!” he said, and how grand it was when she laughed, genuinely and sincerely.

It didn’t last long.

“Will I ever see you again?” she asked, her voice cracking.

“You will,” he said, and he meant it. “This isn’t goodbye.”

“What is it, then?”

He leaned back. “So long? See you soon?” He mulled it over and found what he wanted. “It’s a promise you’re going to make to me.”

“What promise?” she asked.

“A promise that, even if I will no longer be with you, even if my footnotes in your tale disappear, well…”

He grinned.

“Promise me you’ll catch up to ours, hm?”

“Alright,” she said, the tears fresh on her face. She made an effort and grinned valiantly. “I promise I shall, but… I still want this last parting story of yours. And it better be a damn good one.”

“Rarity! Rarity, I would have it no other way! I’ll tell you the best story I have! And do you know why it’s the best story to tell?”

“Why?”

“Because it starts just like a bad joke,” he declared, and gestured for the forthcoming manticore to take a seat.

“I believe you’ve told me this one before,” she remarked, the twinkle in her eyes now from amusement rather than tears.

“Have I? Well, would you say it’s worth hearing again?”

She thought about it for a moment and grinned.

“Absolutely.”

“Well then!” he said, settling in for one last tale. “A zebra, a stallion, and a manticore walk into a bar...”

Author's Note

Me, during the prologue: Okay, I need to at one point stop the little snippets so I'm just not going to get attached to whatever random OC i pick for this and it'll be fine

Me, while writing this:

~ Act II ~ 14 ~ The Ethereal Archives ~

PREVIOUSLY ON TEK (Refresher to make up for sporadic updates / most recent chapter recap is at the top of doc)

Once upon a time, Twilight Sparkle celebrated multiple Equestrian holidays in a single day. Back when things were easier. Simpler.

She’d been reading a book in her library and stopped when she heard noises in the distance, her strange new non-displaced acquaintance having returned to visit her.

She’d put her book down and made her way through her library—literally so, her body going through the bookcase aisles of her permanent home. When she reached the main entrance, she found Rarity there, levitating several closed bags.

“Rarity,” she said, teleporting next to her and ignoring Rarity’s startled shriek.

“P-Princess Twilight!” Rarity gasped. “Must you really do that every time?!”

“What are you doing here? You’re not due to return your book until tomorrow.”

Rarity pulled at her mane. “Ah, yes, I know, Princess, but I wanted to visit you anyway.”

Twilight frowned. “...You did? Why?”

“Why?” Rarity faltered. “Err… Well…”

At the unicorn’s stammering, Twilight continued.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“Princess, no, heavens no!” Rarity stepped forwards, raising a reassuring hoof and then quickly lowering it when Twilight stepped away, even more uncomfortable. She cleared her throat. “No, I just… Well, I really just wanted to visit you! If that’s alright?”

Twilight pondered this a moment. “...I suppose it is.” She gestured to the bags. “What are these?” she asked next, her curiosity dampened by her lingering trepidation towards the unicorn. “More books?”

She lifted a bag in her magic and frowned when Rarity quickly swiped it back.

“Oh, wait, please, Your Highness!” She moved the bags away from Twilight and offered a strained smile. “Good things come to those who wait.”

Twilight’s frown deepened. “For what? For waiting? Why would things come to you if you’re just waiting?”

“No, Princess, it’s a saying, an idio—You know what? Nevermind.” She cleared her throat and took a breath. “I… Well, I was wondering if—Princess!” She snatched away the second bag Twilight had started to open and gestured to a spot in the distance. “Sit! There!... Please, Princess Twilight, if you will.”

Though annoyed, Twilight indulged her and teleported a few feet away.

“All right.”

Rarity sighed. “Thank you. Now, as I was saying, you mentioned the other day that Hearth’s Warming Eve was your favorite celebration from when you weren’t…” She gestured to Twilight haphazardly. “...well, that. So! So.” She opened the bag and took out dozens of Hearth’s Warming Eve decorations. “I thought perhaps we could make up for the ones you’ve missed?”

Twilight blinked. “But…” She teleported over the calendar Rarity had given her, the one where she’d diligently marked down the days Rarity was scheduled to visit. “Hearth’s Warming isn’t for several more months.”

“I am well aware, Your Highness, but I thought it would be fun.” Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. “Perhaps?” Her horn lit up and a neatly-wrapped box came out the bag. “I brought you a present.”

That had been the first time she’d celebrated Hearth’s Warming Eve in a thousand years.

And a short time later, Twilight would find that other ponies thought it was a brilliant idea.

“Okay!” Scootaloo exclaimed, standing atop a bookcase next to Twilight and throwing dead leaves into the book aisles. “Running of the leaves is all set!” She turned around towards Sweetie Belle, standing atop another distant bookcase and throwing paper snowflakes into the aisles. “How’s Winter Wrap-Up coming?!”

“We’re running out of snow!” Sweetie called back, and looked towards the entrance of the library. “We need more snow, Rarity! More snow! Did you hear me?! More snow, more snow!”

“Yes, I heard you the first time!” Rarity called back, and Twilight couldn’t help but smile at the exasperation in her voice.

She quietly teleported to the entrance and found Rarity surrounded by piles of paper and unfinished snowflakes while Fluttershy looked over a checklist of events. The pegasus immediately saw Twilight, and though she attempted to greet her, she was unable to when Twilight quickly kept her mouth shut with magic.

Fluttershy’s eyes filled with confusion at first, until she noticed Rarity hadn’t seen Twilight, and so she turned to the grinning alicorn and shook her head disapprovingly. Twilight moved behind Rarity, got very close and…

“Rarity!”

Rarity’s shriek pierced the air, snowflakes flying everywhere, and the endlessly-delighted Princess gladly faced the wrath of her friend.

“Princess Twilight, for star’s sake, why are you like this?!”

“We need more snow,” Twilight innocently said and giggled when Rarity rolled her eyes and turned back. “Also, you don’t have to keep calling me Princess, remember?”

“Ah, yes, because that implies I have respect for you, which is rather unfair when you have none for me, apparently,” she grumbled and then turned back to Twilight, pointing at her with the scissors. “Isn’t that right, Twilight?”

“Rarity! That’s dangerous!” Fluttershy gasped.

“Oh, it’s not dangerous, she’s not even real. Physical. Oh, you know what I mean!” She then gathered all the snowflakes into a bag and gave them to Fluttershy. “In any case, be a dear and take these to Sweetie, won’t you?”

Once Fluttershy trotted off, she turned back to Twilight and raised an eyebrow.

“You know, I don’t miss Princess Serious-All-The-Time, but sometimes one can’t help but be nostalgic for when you weren’t sassing me at every turn.”

“I learned from you?” Twilight replied, taking the checklist in her magic and looking it over.

“Fair point.” Rarity took off her glasses. “What else do we have pending? We should be done now.”

“Sweetie told me she added something.” Twilight said. “Here it is. Hearts and Hooves? The instructions for it say that you and I have to be alone and that you… have to prepare a special event for me?”

“What?!” Rarity snatched the checklist and furrowed her brow. “I see,” she whispered under her breath and then turned back to Twilight, her cheeks pink. “It’s a joke, dear. Don’t pay it any mind.”

“But what is it? Is it a real event?”

Rarity faltered. “I… Yes, but… it’s only supposed to happen under certain circumstances, and…” She drifted off again, but was forced to continue under Twilight’s earnest gaze.. “It’s to celebrate two ponies that are… well, in love.”

“Oh.” Twilight looked back to the checklist, confused. “Why would Sweetie think you and I would want to celebrate that? That’s silly,” she said, looking to Rarity and interpreting her expression as one of similar confusion, not something else.

“Yes,” she said, curtly. “Yes, I suppose it is.” She put her glasses back on and turned to her snowflakes, the scissor cutting through paper. “Silly, indeed.”

Twilight stayed in place, her ears lowering. “Rarity—”

“You know, Twilight ” Rarity turned back to Twilight. “Some ponies take it as a celebration of friendship rather than love.”

“Oh! That’s interesting. I suppose that makes sense.”

“It does, doesn’t it?” Rarity said, staring intently at Twilight. “Very interesting, indeed.”

After a moment in which neither said a word, Twilight cleared her throat.

“Er, well—”

“You know!” Rarity interrupted, having a hard time looking at Twilight and instead poking away at another snowflake. “We could celebrate that, if you want? It might be fun.”

“The friend version of it, you mean?”

Rarity forced a smile. “Of course! Of course.” She met Twilight’s eyes and grinned. “As you said yourself, we are friends, are we not?”

Twilight’s ears perked up. “Oh, I don’t see why not. I’ll go get the others so they can celebrate with us,” she offered, not noticing Rarity deflate ever-so-slightly.

“No, that’s all right, Pri—Twilight. We don’t really need to celebrate it. It’s a silly event, and we’re all spending time together regardless,” she said quickly, turning back to her snowflakes. “Be a dear and fetch Fluttershy, won’t you?”

Twilight nodded.

“All right.”

And then the scene paused right there, on that very moment, on Rarity swallowing her pride and lost opportunity and Twilight failing to see what was only clear in hindsight, much like the many other events she’d seen in a whole new light now that dreamwalking had given her unrestrained access to her own memories.

Twilight, the real one, the one who’d been observing the events, flashed her horn and the memory around her disappeared, faded away until she was back inside the hallway of doors.

She stood there for a moment, a few seconds at most, and then did what one did at realizing the errors of their past, as she’d been doing throughout so many of the memories she’d revisited so far.

“Ugh!” she groaned, slapping a hoof to her forehead. “‘I’ll go get the others’? Really?!”

“Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight yelped as her mentor spoke beside her. “Princess!”

“Are you done going through your memories?” Princess Luna asked. “Were you successful in your task?” At Twilight’s expression, she smiled sympathetically. “I presume you’ve discovered that knowledge from the future taints the past when looking back?”

Twilight bowed her head. “Yes.”

The princess nodded, taking this in. “Did you find memories that framed your library in a more agreeable light? One you can use to guide you?”

“It was hard. Everything was… Nothing was really happy? I mean, it was, but then I know it wasn’t really happy forever, and so it was just bad.” she said. “I thought that the sleepover would be a good memory, but that happened right before they all got cursed. And then I thought of that moment when Rarity used the necklaces to show me she loved me, but that was basically the day before Cadance happened, and… It’s like every time something good happened, something bad was waiting around the corner! And yet…”

“And yet?” Princess Luna prompted.

“And yet I miss it. Does that even make sense? I miss back then, when Rarity and I were fine, and I didn’t have to deal with…” She gestured aimlessly. “This.”

“Your past only seems simple now because it is the past.”

“I know,” Twilight said. “But I don’t know if things are better.”

“Would you like to go back to being trapped?”

“No. No, that’s not what I meant. It’s just—” It was so hard to explain. It felt silly and bothersome. “Even despite the bad times, things still felt better, and now they don’t. I don’t know how to explain this. It’s like I was reading a book and it was great, and then I got the sequel, but it’s not what I thought it would be?”

Princess Luna was quiet for a moment.

“What did you want it to be? One where you kept letting others deal with—” She gestured to Twilight. “—this, while you ignored it?”

“I didn’t know I was something to deal with,” Twilight replied, hurt.

“Yes, you did. Lying to yourself is an exercise in futility, Twilight Sparkle. The truth remains that you were either willfully ignorant or blind to the book you were reading. I suspect both.”

Twilight kept quiet. Even though she was used to Luna being blunt with her observations, it was often a difficult pill to swallow—particularly so when she was right.

“This book, however, still has Rarity in it,” Luna offered, and when Twilight couldn’t help but smile, so did she. “And many others, too, who are more than glad to stay with you as you continue to improve, as you already have.”

“Do you think I’m ready?” Twilight asked. “For the library?”

“That does not matter. All that matters is that it is happening whether you are ready or not.”

Should we wake her up?

Twilight frowned. “What was that?”

The princess raised an eyebrow. “What was what?”

“Didn’t you hear that?”

“I fear I heard nothing. What did you—”

Do you think she can hear us?

“Pinkie?” She looked around, but she couldn’t see her even though she could quite clearly hear her.

“Pinkie?” Luna asked, ears alert.

Do you think she can feel it if we poke her?

“And Incantation!” Twilight blurted out. She turned to Luna, confused. “Can you not hea—Ow!” She pressed a hoof on her ribcage, where she’d distinctly felt something jabbing into her. “I… I think they just poked me?” When she looked at the princess, she was surprised to find her smiling. “Princess? What’s going on?”

“Dreamwalking is not the same as sleeping, Twilight. You are merely meditating. Your mind may be elsewhere, but it is still cognisant of events happening around your physical body.”

Pinkie, dear, have you see—What are you two doing?! I said wake her up, not—whatever it is you’re doing! What are you doing?

Twilight cleared her throat. “I think I have to go. I’ll see you when we’re back?”

“I don’t expect to be freed in a weekend, so yes, you will,” Luna replied, smiling at Twilight’s eye-roll.

“Wish me luck?”

“Not luck. Success.” She raised a hoof and placed it on Twilight’s shoulder. “Luck is arbitrary. Success is a choice. I wish you and Rarity success in your endeavor.”

And with that, her horn flashed and Twilight was pushed out of the dream realm, opening her eyes to find Pinkie and Incantation insisting to Rarity they weren’t planning on testing the limits of Twilight’s responsiveness.

“Hello, everypony.” She noticed the suitcases behind Rarity. “Are you done packing?”

“I am,” Rarity said, and then floated up several train tickets. “And I’ve gone ahead and bought our tickets for Ponyville and Trottingham.”

“You’re just going to be gone for a weekend, right?” Ink asked.

Rarity nodded. “Just a weekend, yes, so please don’t let the foals set the place on fire while we’re gone.”

“What else are we missing?” Twilight asked.

“Just you, darling,” Rarity said and added after a pause, “Are you ready?”

Twilight nodded. “I am. You?”

Rarity smiled. “I am.”

Though she’d intended on exploring the train, Twilight ended up sleeping most of the way to Ponyville, a consequence of her erratic sleeping schedule. Then again, sleeping was a somewhat inaccurate description considering the multiple nightmares she’d had on the way there.

The whistling of the train woke her up from one, and when she fluttered her eyelids open, her attention was first drawn towards the sleeping owl nestled against her, and then towards Rarity. Unlike the rest of the passengers, she didn’t seem in a rush to leave the train, and in fact, as she looked out the window, a frown marred her face.

“Rarity?”

Rarity glanced her way, the same expression on her face.

"Good morning," she said. "How did you sleep?"

"All right," she lied. "You? Did you sleep at all?"

Rarity looked back to the platform. "Not really, no."

"Is everything okay?"

Rarity looked at her again. "Why do you ask?"

“You, er, look upset.”

After a moment's pause, Rarity smiled. "I'm just upset you fell asleep and deprived me of your company, of course."

"Rarity..."

Rarity's smile faded. "It's nothing to worry about, dear. I'm just… I'm just still worried about Seeking Night, I suppose."

"Everything will be alright, Rarity," Twilight said, smiling warmly. "I promise."

"You promise," Rarity repeated. "Well, in that case—" She jumped off her seat and opened the carriage door with her magic. “We should be off. We have a lot to do!”

Deciding to put the matter to rest, Twilight smiled and did as her marefriend bid, jumping off her seat and following Rarity out onto the platform and the unfamiliar station, Elara perching herself on her back.

“Now, I was thinking we should go to the Boutique to freshen up first,” Rarity said. “Have some lunch, and then visit Fluttershy and Applejack, too. I told them we were coming so they’re expecting us today, and then… Oh! I also want to schedule an appointment for us with the spa. They usually don’t take walk-ins but they make exceptions for moi.”

Twilight playfully raised an eyebrow. “Did you schedule actually going to the library somewhere in there?”

“Oh. Yes, that. It is why we came here, isn’t it?” Rarity sighed theatrically. “I suppose I can fit it in somewhere. Maybe we can do a two-hour spa session instead of a four-hour one. We can go to lunch first, then the spa, after which we’ll see Fluttershy, then Applejack, then back to the boutique to get suitcases for the books, and then we can go to the library.”

“Actually…” Twilight took a breath and made a choice. “I want to go to the library first.”

The sooner she could deal with it, the better, after all.

“To the library first?” Rarity said, surprised. “But, Twilight, that wasn’t in the plan! You can’t just change things last minute! You of all ponies should know this.”

“Rarity, you literally just made the plan.”

“...Well, be that as it may, I don’t think that’s a good idea. We should at least go have lunch first and see Fluttershy, if only because she’s expecting us, and—”

“Rarity,” Twilight interrupted. “Please. I want to get it over with.”

Rarity relented somewhat. “I… Twilight…” She petered out, looking towards some passing ponies and then back to Twilight, placing her hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Are you sure? Red Lining has more than enough books for us. You don’t have to do this.”

“I know,” Twilight said, “but I want to.” She smiled affectionately, placing a hoof over Rarity’s and giving it a squeeze. “You don’t have to keep coming up with plans so we don’t have to go.”

Rarity harrumphed. “Pardon me, I actually did want to go to the spa,” she said indignantly. “But… I suppose if you’re sure.”

And she was, as they walked past Sugarcube Corner; she was as they passed Quills and Sofas; she was as they got the suitcases from Carousel Boutique; and she was, more than ever before, when they finally left Ponyville’s outskirts.

...But then.

But then they made their way through the forest, and suddenly she wasn’t so sure anymore, especially when everything reminded her of nightmares of the library.

Some details were different, yes, but the whole was mostly the same. The leaves crunching under Rarity’s hooves, Elara hooting as she led them through the forest, and Twilight…

Twilight herself trailing behind and eventually coming to a full stop.

Her ears twitched at the distant sound of Rarity calling her name, but she ignored her. Instead, she put down the suitcases she was levitating, opened her saddlebag, retrieved a book from within and stared at its title.

A Reality Entirely Our Own

A Study of Dreams

She opened it up to a bookmarked page and read the highlighted paragraph.

...and this is perhaps the biggest similarity between dreams and fiction novels, it said. Both are strange in design, portraying scenarios said to be entirely made up, and yet both hide reality within their depths. A truth, per se, that we are either trying to embellish or, more often than not, uselessly trying to avoid, to refuse to see even as it leaks into a reality entirely our own—a warped reflection of our deepest thoughts.

She closed the book once she was done, counted to three, and when she opened it up again at the same page, her heart fell at the realization that nothing had changed. The words were the same, the page was the same, and if she were to ask herself how exactly they got to the Everfree from Hollow Shades, she would be able to say so.

This wasn’t a dream, was it?

She finally looked up and saw Rarity a few feet away, ears lowered and quietly waiting for Twilight to be done.

“I was just making sure,” Twilight said hastily. “I don’t want to lose the habit.”

Rarity smiled sympathetically. “I understand.” She looked to the distance and then back to Twilight. “Are you really certain you want to do this?”

The memories of her nightmares returned, of the Rarity she’d disappointed.

“I’m sure,” she said, firmly.

“All right,” replied Rarity after a moment’s hesitation, and then said nothing else when Twilight forced herself to take the lead and walk past her.

They walked in silence, step by step, each lost in their own thoughts. The silence felt awkward, so dissimilar to what it was in her dreams of that journey. Eventually, Twilight concluded Rarity was the difference. In every dream, she was talkative, unpreoccupied, doing what had to be done without a second thought.

In reality, however, she was quiet and serious, her expression twisted into a moue of dissatisfaction. When again asked what was wrong, she said the same as before. The stress of Seeking Night was getting to her. Nothing more, nothing less.

Though Twilight was unconvinced, her dissection of potential reasons Rarity could be upset was brought to a halt when Elara perched herself on a branch and hooted loudly, signaling their arrival.

There it stood, as she'd seen it once before when she'd escaped, quiet and hidden in the embrace of the forest trees, waiting and waiting and waiting for her to return.

She ignored the pain in her chest and forced herself to walk forwards, to not look back to Rarity and instead jump down into the sinkhole, gritting her teeth when her hooves met the ground. This was it, wasn't it?

No more running.

"Twilight."

She turned around and looked up to Rarity, the unicorn standing at the edge of the sinkhole. She said nothing else. Her downcast ears, scrunched-up brow, and pursed lips said enough.

"I can do this, Rarity.”

"Are you sure about that?" Rarity asked, and the more she asked it, the less sure Twilight was.

“I am. Really.”

She turned away from Rarity before her body language could betray her. She took a few steps forward until a cracking sound filled the air and Rarity teleported in front of her, blocking her path.

"Rarity? What are you…?”

“Twilight, maybe I ought to go first?” she suggested.

Twilight shook her head. “No. I can go first,” she said, and smiled. “As long as you’re right behind me.”

“But, dearest—” Rarity sputtered, moving in front of Twilight when she tried to keep walking. “What about ladies first?”

“That’s why I’m going first,” Twilight replied with a giggle.

She then walked around the unicorn and continued on her way, only for another crack to fill the air and for Rarity to again appear before her, now slightly out of breath.

"Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed. “Stop that!”

"Twilight," Rarity said forcefully. She composed herself and smiled. "My darling, I—"

"No, don’t ‘my darling’ me. What are you doing?" Twilight interrupted with force of her own, irritated at Rarity’s actions. If she wanted to make Twilight doubt herself, she was certainly succeeding. "Rarity?" When Rarity kept quiet, she narrowed her eyes. "What is it? You don't think I can do it?"

"That's not what I said," Rarity replied, diplomatically. “Of course I think you can do this.”

"It doesn't feel like you do."

"Well, I do."

"Then move," Twilight shot back and then forced herself to control her flaring temper. "Please. You’re not making this any easier for me."

After a brief stare-down, Rarity stepped to the side, pointedly looking away. Twilight waited for her to say something else, but when she didn’t, she swallowed a sigh and moved on.

She honestly didn’t want to deal with it. Not now, at least, so she walked to the trapdoor and stood before it, her eyes lingering on the dirty plaque nailed to the tree.

PONYVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY

Donated by Princess Twilight Sparkle

“Hoo!”

She looked higher still and saw Elara perched on the windowsill, waiting for her to proceed, and when she glanced back, she saw Rarity watching her silently. She turned back to the trapdoor, and every hair on her coat stood on its end when the trapdoor creaked open and revealed a long and dark stairway leading into an even darker tunnel, waiting to swallow her whole.

A sickening feeling washed over her, forcing her to step back. Was this really a good idea? Was… Was Rarity right to be worried? She turned back to the unicorn in question and found her still watching and waiting in dead silence.

“It’s dark in there,” Twilight noted, hating how her voice trembled as she spoke.

“So it is,” Rarity replied. “An illumination spell should help, I imagine.”

She said nothing else after that.

Twilight laughed nervously. “Right. Why didn’t I think of that?” Embarrassed and uncomfortable, she turned back to the hole and swallowed the lump in her throat. She cast the illumination spell and lit up the dirty steel staircase leading down into the tunnel.

Discord is gone, she told herself, transfixed by the abyss. He’s gone.

He was gone, and she had already made such a show out of going down that backing out now was no longer an option.

The sound of her hoof colliding against the metal staircase hit her first, resonating in her head and her chest and her entire body. A simple sound, quick and easy, that sounded to her no different than the chaos puppet growling.

But she'd taken a step, and so she forced herself to take more, her eyes and mind glued to the ground. There could be no multitasking here, no thinking of each and every step, for if she thought too much…

Her breath hitched when her hoof moved from steel to ground, forcing her to look up into the endless tunnel until the void was too much and she looked down at the ground with a whimper.

"Twilight?" Rarity called, her hoofsteps clanking against the stairs. "Twili—"

"I'm fine!" Twilight gasped, and then fell to a murmur. "I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine."

She took another step after that, and another and another, each as sickening as the last, but each moving her forward until eventually the light around her expanded and she looked up to find she had crossed into the library.

There she was, back in the familiar darkness that had imprisoned her for over a thousand years. There she was, like a frightened animal looking around a once-familiar darkness.

But all that mattered was that she did it. She was in.

And yet it didn't feel like a victory.

It felt like waiting for it to happen, whatever it was.

She moved forward, almost by sheer will to do so, and scrambled back when her hoof bumped into something and knocked it on its side, the sound of glass hitting the floor echoing throughout the library.

"Twilight?! What was that?!" Rarity called in the distance.

Panicked eyes scoured the floor, and a wave of relief flooded her at the sight of just a fallen inkwell.

"It's just an inkwell!" she stammered back.

An inkwell, she noticed, that had been used on dozens of foalish, scribbly drawings strewn nearby.

Drawings, she noticed, that were nothing like the ones left for her in the tunnel when she was trapped. Those drawings, she remembered, were gentle and kind, encouraging and loving.

These? These were different.

These weren't messages of support.

These were reminders.

Of Discord fighting ponies while the princesses stood by helplessly.

Of Rarity being threatened by dragons, and another of her being stalked by Discord, and another of her being attacked by timberwolves, her hindleg scarred beyond recognition.

Drawings and drawings, in all sorts of colors and scrawls, of all the terrible things that, in one way or another, she'd been responsible for.

And, in the middle of them, the ink still fresh, was a drawing of Discord trapping her in the library, her eyes pitch black as he watched.

"The real show, Twilight, is what will happen when you realize what I did to you."

The memory overpowered her mind, as clear as the day it happened, her lungs now struggling to breathe.

"Ra… Ra..." The words tumbled out, muted and clipped in the total paralysis taking her over at the sight of her mistakes, her actions, and the voice of Discord that haunted her still.

"Your fault."

And it was too much. Too much, too much, too much, and she stumbled back, her hornlight fizzling out as she tripped over the inkwell and fell to the floor, her tear-filled eyes clouding her sight as she lifted a hoof towards the distant light inside the tunnel.

"Rarity?!"

"Twilight?!"

She watched as the light rushed to her and soon enough Rarity stepped into the tunnel, standing before Twilight and looking her over, ears pressed against her skull and eyes wide with fear.

"Ra...Rarity..."

"Twilight! Twilight, what happened?!" Rarity gasped, kneeling down on the floor and holding Twilight when the alicorn threw herself at her, clutching onto her for dear life and burying her muzzle in her chest. When Twilight didn't immediately reply, Rarity’s voice emerged alarmed. "Twilight. Twilight, look at me. Look at me."

Twilight looked up to meet Rarity's gaze, the latter searching Twilight's eyes for something. After a moment, she visibly relaxed and stroked Twilight's cheek.

"You're fine," she said, to what felt like herself and Twilight. "What happened, sweetest?"

"Dis… Discord," Twilight choked out between sniffled sobs. She glanced back, still holding Rarity, and tried to point to the drawings.

"He… He left… drawings… and… and…" She turned back to Rarity, burying herself in her marefriend's chest.

"Drawings?" Rarity asked, craning her neck to look at the drawings without letting go of Twilight. "What…" There was a moment of pause, a silence filled only by Twilight's sniffling, until suddenly Rarity spoke again, her tone cold. "It wasn't Discord."

"Wh… What?" Twilight asked, looking up at her and finding her staring at something behind Twilight. She looked back in the same direction and saw the familiar sight of Sweetie Belle's school backpack, surrounded by more inkwells and paintbrushes.

"...Sweetie drew this?" she asked, completely at a loss, her eyes going back to the drawings. "Why would..."

"It doesn't matter," Rarity said brusquely, gathering the drawings up in her magic so they were out of sight. Once that was done, she turned back to Twilight and the warmth returned to her face. "Come now, dearest, let's get up."

Though Twilight wanted to, her eyes watered and she bowed her head, pressing herself against Rarity.

"You were right…" she whispered, pained. "I can't… I can't..."

"Don't think of that anymore, dearest," Rarity whispered, brushing her mane. "You don't have to come here again, all right?"

"B-but the books..." Twilight pleaded, desperate for something to go right.

"Red Lining has more than enough. Come on."

Trembling, Twilight allowed Rarity to help her stand up, trying her best to hold it together. She waited until Rarity finished putting the drawings back in the backpack and then, feeling pathetic as she did so, followed her out into the tunnel and up the stairs.

She had tried, and it had been humiliating.

But perhaps not as humiliating as what came next.

"What were you thinking, going to the library?!" Rarity snapped, slamming her hoof on the Carousel's kitchen table, the little filly on the other side of the table flinching as she did so. "Have you gone absolutely mad?!"

If Twilight had hoped going back to the boutique would help her, she had been sorely mistaken.

"Rarity, please," she whispered.

"But you said I could go if I went with Zecora!" Sweetie protested, valiantly standing her ground. "I needed to look at the library for what I was working on—"

"What you were working on? What? These?"

She opened the backpack and grabbed the drawings, slamming them down on the table. To Twilight's growing humiliation, now that she saw them in proper lighting, she could see them for what they really were. Childish drawings, and nothing more. A filly's silly drawings had sent her into a full-blown panic attack.

"What is this, Sweetie Belle?!" Rarity continued. "Is this your idea of a joke?! Well?! Is it?!"

"No! I don't even know—!"

"Then what?!"

"They're drawings! Why are you so upset?! They're just drawings!" Sweetie shot back, glaring at her sister. "Why are you yelling at me in front of Princess Twilight?! I didn't do anything wrong!" She looked to Twilight helplessly. "Did I?! I didn't! Princess Twilight, tell her!"

"Of course you didn't, Sweetie," Twilight replied immediately. "It's ju—"

"They nearly frightened Twilight to death, that's what you did!" Rarity interrupted, and Twilight felt her heart drop at Sweetie's eyes growing wide and filling with tears, looking at Twilight in horror.

"Rarity! Please!"

Sweetie looked at Twilight. "Puh...Princess?"

"No, you didn't. Don't listen to her," Twilight insisted before turning to Rarity, angered. "Rarity, this isn’t necessary—"

"Yes, it is, Twilight! You didn't see your face down there!" she exclaimed, and for the first time, Twilight saw in Rarity's eyes that it wasn't just anger driving her, but fear.

Rarity turned back to her sister and brandished the drawing of Twilight and Discord. "We thought these were from Discord, Sweetie Belle! That he'd put them there to taunt us! Do you understand how serious this is?!"

"I'm sorry," Sweetie blubbered, looking aghast. "I just— I was trying to— to make a book for— for you and Princess Twilight about—- about your ad— adventures..."

Her horn lit up and she shakily levitated her backpack to her, reaching in and taking out a folder titled PRINCESS TWILIGHT'S BOOK, from which she extracted several more drawings, all of them more colorful than the ones from the library and depicting much happier scenes.

The two mares fell silent, Twilight burning with shame as Rarity looked over the drawings, her ears dropping.

Rarity sat on her hindlegs and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Oh, Sweetie Belle.”

“I didn’t mean to scare you,” Sweetie said to Twilight.

“I know,” she replied. “Don’t feel bad. It was my fault.”

“No, it wasn’t, Twilight,” Rarity interrupted rather forcefully. She then composed herself and continued. “It was no pony’s fault.” She looked at Sweetie. “I’m sorry I yelled at you, Sweetie. I… You just have to be smarter about where you leave things like that, please.”

“I’m sorry…” Sweetie bowed her head, pawing at her drawings and then looking at Rarity. “You’re afraid of the library, so I didn’t think you’d go there first…”

This jolted Twilight, her eyes shifting to Rarity immediately. She was afraid of the library?

For an instant, as if knowing Twilight’s thoughts, Rarity glanced at her before immediately turning back to Sweetie.

“Well, be that as it may,” Rarity quickly said, “I hope you’ll be smarter about this in the future. And…” She smiled, taking a nearby drawing of herself facing off against the dragons and using it as a peace offering. “I really like this one.”

“That’s my favorite one too!” Sweetie exclaimed, seemingly fine with putting things to rest. “Wait, I’ll go get the others!”

Twilight waited until Sweetie was gone before turning around to confront Rarity.

“You’re afraid of the library?”

“Stars above,” Rarity muttered, closing her eyes and rubbing the bridge of her nose again.

“Rarity.”

“Twilight.” She turned to her. “No, I’m not afraid of the library. I just…” She hesitated, idly toying with a nearby salt-shaker. “I don’t think we should be going back there again.”

A strange sense of indignation shot through Twilight. It was one thing for her to have issues with her library, but the thought of somepony else having issues with it? Why would they? It was a fantastic library! Ventilated despite being underground, updated with all the literature of the time, hidden for maximum reading privacy, and she didn’t even charge late fees!

And not only that, but some of her happiest memories not just in a thousand years but in her entire life happened inside that library.

“Not go back there again? Why not?” Twilight protested.

Rarity stared at her like she’d gone mad. “Why not? Twilight, look at what—Look at how you—”

She cut herself off and looked away, gritting her teeth.

“Look at how I what?”

“Look at how you reacted back in there,” Rarity forced out. “Look at what that place did to you, and you think I want you to go back there? Back to the place you keep having nightmares about?”

“It’s my home.”

“It was your prison,” Rarity shot back. “Nothing good ever came from that place.”

Fury flared in the alicorn. “That’s not true, Rarity,” she protested, slamming her hoof on the drawings of the happy memories she clung to, tears in her eyes. “What about these? All of these happened in there! All of my memories of you happened in that library!”

“Twilight, for two years, the last memory I had of that place was you being imprisoned.”

“But I’m not anymore!”

“I know that, Twilight, but I can’t exactly go back there and pretend that never happened,” Rarity snapped, in tears. “I can’t! And then when you screamed my name, I thought that thing had trapped you again! And, and—”

She fizzled out, looking away.

“And?” Twilight pressed, as gently as she could.

“And I suppose… I suppose I wish I had listened when Princess Luna said I wasn’t ready.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “You… You’ve been having nightmares of the library?” At Rarity’s silence, she pressed. “Of Discord?”

It took a moment, but eventually, Rarity nodded.

And there it was, the flashing nightmare door Twilight had been seeing in the dream realm, plainly opened.

And there it was, the dawning realization that it was one thing to let Discord taint her happy memories of her home, but it was another thing entirely to allow the same to happen to Rarity’s.

And there it finally was, Twilight’s chance to help Rarity conquer her fears—not in the way Princess Luna had intended, maybe, but beggars shouldn’t be choosers, should they?

So she stood up straight.

“Here they are!” Sweetie Belle rushed into the room, a few more drawings floating behind her. “I brou—” She stopped in her tracks, concern awash on her face at the sight of her sister. “Rarity?” She turned to Twilight. “What’s going on?”

“We’re going back to the library,” Twilight said, levitating her cloak from a nearby chair and putting it on.

Rarity frowned, eyes still red. “Twilight.”

“We are?” Sweetie asked.

“Yes,” Twilight continued, gathering Sweetie’s other drawings into their folder and passing it to the filly, “so we can help you with your book about our adventures. Can you go get your things?” When Sweetie rushed off, she turned to Rarity. “Do you want to come?”

Rarity frowned, resistant. “What about all the other things we had planned?”

“We can reschedule, or they can come with us. I don’t think Fluttershy would say no.”

Rarity gritted her teeth. “What if something goes wrong again?”

“It won’t,” Twilight promised.

“You can’t possibly know that.”

“I can, in fact,” Twilight replied, smiling assuredly. There was little Twilight wouldn’t promise if it meant helping Rarity. She walked to her and bent down, extending her wings to serve as a platform. “Come on.”

Rarity balked at her.

“Come on?” she asked, leaning back and eyeing Twilight suspiciously.

“Climb on,” Twilight elaborated, glancing back at her back.

“Climb on?”

“You said you were afraid of the library, so we’re going to both go in.” Twilight flapped her wings again. “Together.”

“Twilight Sparkle, don’t be ridiculous. What if I fall?”

“Rarity, we’ve done this before. And I was blindfolded!” When Rarity pursed her lips, Twilight raised an eyebrow and smiled politely. “I guess I’ll just ask Sweetie Belle to help me, then?”

Rarity puffed her cheeks.

“Well! If you think that’s going to work with me, Twilight, you’re sorely mistaken. You do whatever you want, and that’ll be fine with me.”

“Faster, Princess Twilight!” Sweetie exclaimed, one hoof on Twilight’s neck and the other furiously tapping the side of her shoulder as the princess cantered through the Everfree Forest. “Faster!”

“Sweetie Belle, she’s not a race horse, for sun’s sake! And stop moving so much or else you’ll fall!” Rarity scolded, sitting right behind Sweetie, one hoof holding onto the filly and the other to Twilight’s cloak. “Twilight, if you drop us—”

“Rarity, I’m not even going that fast!”

“She’d be going faster if you’d let her fly us there, Rarity!” Sweetie tapped Twilight again. “Go faster!”

“Slower!”

“Fas—mmph!”

Twilight sighed, grateful for the silence that followed magically muzzling her two companions. She stopped and glanced back at them, finding them frowning at her.

“Are you two done?”

Though Rarity didn’t deign to reply, Sweetie nodded effusively which was good enough for Twilight. Giving them one last warning stare, she let go of their muzzles and resumed her path.

“I’ll have you know that was very rude,” Rarity politely pointed out.

“I didn’t think it was rude!” Sweetie quickly said. “You should do it on Rarity again!”

“Oh?” Rarity said. “You mean do this?”

“Mmmph!”

“What’s that, Sweetie? Did you say something? Goodness, you really must learn to spe—mmmph!”

“Sweet Celestia,” Twilight muttered, again coming to stop and glancing back to find the two sisters muffling each other. “Girls.”

The two let out muffled protests, pointing at each other.

Twilight’s horn lit up, and Sweetie’s protests grew when she was levitated up into the air, forced to stay there as Twilight continued the journey.

“Princess Twilight!” she whined, uselessly trying to swim down through the air towards the alicorn. “I want to go on your back! Why does Rarity get to go on your back?!”

“Now, now, Sweetie Belle,” Rarity said innocently, adjusting to having more space and placing her hooves on the sides of Twilight’s neck. “Not everypony can be the princess’s favori—” She cut herself off when Twilight abruptly stopped to look back at her, and she quickly amended her statement. “Err, what I meant was, you can have a turn on the way back…?”

“Are we flying on the way back?!”

“No, I already told you that’s dangerous! Do you want to fall off fifty feet from the ground?”

Twilight shook her head and went on her way as the sisters continued to squabble, allowing herself a smile when Rarity wasn’t watching.

All in all, despite the sisterly fights, Twilight was grateful Sweetie was there. The library wasn’t too far away now, and Sweetie’s presence had inspired in Twilight a relief she hadn’t really expected to be feeling. With the filly acting and truly believing nothing was wrong, it made Twilight feel as though maybe there really shouldn’t be anything wrong.

She cantered to the edge of the sinkhole and plopped Sweetie down inside before jumping down herself, vaguely amused by Rarity’s frightened eep.

“Come on!” Sweetie exclaimed, rushing to the trapdoor, propping it up and running downstairs.

“Sweetie, wait for us!” Rarity called out, hooves pressing against Twilight’s coat. “It’s dark down there! Sweetie?!” When no filly popped her head out of the tunnel, Rarity sighed. “Honestly.”

“She’ll be fine,” Twilight reassured, mostly to Rarity but a little to herself as well.

Once she reached the trapdoor, the familiar sinking sensation returned at the sight of the dark tunnel. The desire to turn back was there as well, but having Rarity there—physically there—with her was actually managing to stave it off.

“Twilight,” Rarity said when the alicorn paused. Her hooves again pressed into Twilight’s neck. “Are you sure about this?”

“Yes,” she replied, the confidence in her voice faltering slightly when she asked, “And you?”

Rarity adjusted herself upon Twilight.

“I’m sure. After all, I very well can’t let you do this alone, now can I?” Much like Sweetie had, she patted the side of Twilight’s shoulder. “Onwards, noble steed!”

Twilight nearly choked. “Excuse me?”

Rarity leaned in, fluttering her eyelashes. “Am I wrong? Are you not a steed who is also a noble?”

“I mean. Yes. Technically.”

“Then onwards, noble steed!”

“Hrm.” She rolled her eyes when Rarity kissed the back of her head and patted it amiably, though she allowed herself a smile as well. A teasing, silly Rarity was definitely an improvement over one afraid to go in. “Anyway. Hold on while I’m going down.”

So began the descent, once again different than before. While earlier she’d been preoccupied by the sounds and the memories, now her only concern and focus was on the unicorn—on keeping her safe, keeping her secure and, admittedly, indulging in making her yelp in surprise by jumping over three steps at once.

Hooting interrupted them, as Elara returned from her hunting trip and perched herself on Twilight’s back, behind Rarity. The claws digging into her coat were also a fantastic distraction from her fears.

Sweetie was waiting for them on the other side of the tunnel, her horn light barely illuminating the room.

“Princess! Where are Star and Swirl?”

“Uhh…somewhere?” Twilight offered, stopping right before crossing into the library.

Her eyes immediately went to the ground, and her shoulders relaxed when she found no unexpected reminders.

“Darling?” Rarity whispered.

Twilight’s eyes lingered at the threshold, searching for a barrier that obviously wasn’t there. She’d crossed earlier, after all, and yet she couldn’t stop herself from lifting a hoof and waving it in front of her just to be extra sure.

When nothing happened, she took a breath and took the plunge, jumping into the library with a yelp. Once she did, she was relieved to still feel Rarity on top of her, and when she glanced back at the tunnel, there wasn’t any barrier either.

“...Are you okay, Princess Twilight?” Sweetie asked.

“Yes! Yep! Great!” Twilight blurted out, turning to her. “Uhm. Yes. Where were we?”

Sweetie blinked. “Finding Star and Swirl?”

“Finding Starswirl?” Twilight exclaimed. “I mean, Star and Swirl. Not Starswirl the Bearded. Why would he be here? He’s dead! I think. Yes, he is. Yes. Right. Yes.”

Rarity brushed her hoof against Twilight’s shoulder. “Twilight, are you sure you’re fine?”

“Haha!” She swallowed. “Sorry. I’m a little nervous, but I’m fine.”

She had to help Rarity, and she had to help Sweetie Belle finish her book. She needed to remove her emotions from the situation. She would be fine. End of discussion.

She shook her head and cleared her throat.

“One second.”

Her horn lit up and a wave of magic burst out, covering the room. After a moment, clanking sounds surfaced in the distance and Star rose up into the air, its candles lit up. It floated towards them, and Twilight frowned at one of its twisted, broken branches.

“Twilight!” Rarity gasped as the candelabra excitedly circled them. “Poor thing! It’s injured!”

“Rarity, it’s a candelabra,” she pointed out. “It can’t feel anything.”

“Well, it’s still a perfectly lovely candelabra that’s been ruined.”

Twilight playfully rolled her eyes. “Right,” she said, glad that things were moving along smoothly.

“Can it still go all big?” Sweetie asked, peering up at Star.

Twilight examined it. “I don’t see why not.” She used her magic to bend Star’s branch back to its original position and smiled, satisfied. “There. It should work now.”

“Star!” Sweetie exclaimed. “Light, please!”

At her command, Star flew high into the ceiling, a burst of magic transforming it into the familiar sprawling chandelier that engulfed the library in light and brought to Twilight’s attention the wreckage she’d left.

Rarity got off her back, shaking her hoof in the air.

“Oh dear.”

Bookcases on their sides, books strewn all over, tables overturned and ink splattered on the floor. Though Twilight could no longer detect the presence of chaos magic in her library, it was sad to see it had left a mark.

Rarity stepped forward and picked a book from the floor, inspecting it for damage. “Goodness, they look brand new! That spell of Celestia’s really is something, isn’t it?” She levitated an overturned table up from the floor and stood it upright, placing the book on top of it.

Sweetie followed after her, placing her backpack on the table and taking out her drawings and pens.

“Let’s start!”

“Err… Why don’t you start first?” Twilight asked, making her way to a pile of books on the floor and gathering them up in alphabetical order. “I’ll clean up in the meantime.”

“If you can figure out where to start, that is,” Rarity noted, joining her while Sweetie got to work at her table. “And find the time, as well, because if you want to have this place clean in one afternoon, you’re going to need a miracle.”

Twilight grinned. “I thought that’s why you’re here.”

“My, my.” Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. “How charming of you, thinking flattery will persuade me to help you.”

“Oh, I didn’t think that. You left so many of your things lying around my library all the time, I think it would be a miracle for you to actually help pick up.”

“Well! I never! I’ve left nothing in this library!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Right.” She looked around the mess and then pointed at a bundle of books strewn on the floor.

“Those aren’t mine!” Rarity marched towards them, picking one up. “See! This is—Oh, my romance novels! I’ve been looking for them ever—Wait.” She turned to Twilight, embarrassed. “Well! Well, this hardly counts as ‘so much of my things’!”

Twilight grinned. “Is that a fact?”

“Yes. No. Maybe. Yes.” Rarity stamped a hoof on the floor. “Yes it is.”

The crackling sound of Twilight teleporting filled the library. She teleported near the back, looked around and picked up a scarf from the floor, she then teleported near the left side of the room, picked up two sketchbooks and a pair of red glasses on a desk, and she then teleported to the other side of the room and levitated a whole slew of fabrics.

When she teleported back to Rarity, she delicately placed them all before her marefriend and smiled.

“...Alright, alright!” Rarity grumbled, taking the glasses and putting them on. “You’ve made your point!”

“Come on.” Twilight walked past her and headed to the right side of the room, her tail brushing Rarity as she did so. “We can start here.”

Twilight liked to think she enjoyed organizing her things. One grew to love organizing when it was the only thing one could do to keep themselves busy for a thousand years. It was a nice way to revisit memories and long-forgotten memorabilia.

Memorabilia like the camera tucked away under a fallen table, photographs littered around.

“I think it still works?” Twilight murmured, looking it over for scratches and damage. She heard Rarity laughing and turned to find her looking at a photograph. “What’re you looking at?”

Rarity showed her a terrible photograph of half a desk.

“Oh, that’s not very good.”

“It’s the first photograph you ever took, don’t you remember?” Rarity said, looking back at it. She looked at another and laughed again, showing it to Twilight and revealing a picture of a perplexed Elara. “This one, too!”

Twilight took the photographs and looked them over. There were several of Elara and Themis, of her library, and even of her, but…

“You’re not in any of these?” she noted, upset.

“I’m not,” Rarity said. “You didn’t feel inclined to take pictures of me.”

“I didn’t?”

“Twilight, are you forgetting you didn’t like me very much?” Rarity asked, amused.

“What? Yes, I did!”

“Oooooh, sure you did, Your Royal Seriousness,” Rarity said, lifting her glasses on top of her horn and circling Twilight. “I’m sure that’s why you never said goodbye when I left, or why you never smiled at me, or why you frightened me at every chance you got?”

“That wasn’t me frightening you, that was you being easily frightened!” she protested. She absolutely did like Rarity! Sure, she was too busy dealing with her plethora of mental traumas to express it properly, but— “Actually, I can prove I liked you.”

“Oh? In that case, please do.”

“Do you remember how I gave you books to read before you left?”

Rarity tilted her head, intrigued. “...Yes?”

“Well! You probably didn’t notice, but—”

“But you kept making the return dates shorter so I’d have to come back sooner?”

Twilight looked away, embarrassed. “...I guess you did notice.”

Her embarrassment grew when Rarity laughed fondly.

“All right, Twilight, I’m willing to concede you appreciated me somewhat, then,” she said. “Somewhat.”

“It wasn’t just somewhat! Look, wait.”

Without explaining, she trotted further into the library, lifting bookcases back to their place as she did so. Eventually, she reached her destination in the shape of her personal desk and the calendar hanging from the wall.

“Here!”

She took the calendar from the wall, flipped the months over and then showed Rarity several dates with her name on it.

“See! I’d mark down the days you were supposed to come over!”

Rarity looked very pleased, taking the calendar. “I do love how there’s more and more circles as time go—Twilight!” She flipped the calendar towards Twilight, prominently displaying a date with her own name surrounded by hearts. “This one has hearts!” She turned the calendar back towards herself. “Was this before or after you confessed you loved me?”

“You mean before or after you confessed,” Twilight playfully corrected.

“Details, details,” Rarity murmured, continuing to look at the calendar. “Drat. It’s after I confessed.”

“Does that matter?”

“Well, no,” she said, putting the calendar back on the wall. “I just liked the idea that one of us wasn’t alone in pining over the other for months.”

Twilight’s ears perked up. “For months?” A second question arose in her mind, which she couldn’t stop herself from asking. “When did you realize you liked me?”

Rarity blinked at her, thrown off. “When did I realize I liked you?” She blushed when Twilight nodded. “Well. Well, I don’t know.”

Twilight frowned. “What? You have to know. It’s you.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? And I don’t! You were a fairy tale princess! I was impressed by you from the very start!”

“But when did you really know you liked me?” Twilight insisted, purely out of curiosity and nothing else.

Rarity made an exasperated noise. “I don’t know! I suppose…” She mulled it over for a moment until her eyes landed on Twilight’s necklace and she pressed a hoof against her own. “I suppose it was the first time we used the necklaces.”

“Since the necklaces? That was only a few months after meeting each other,” she exclaimed, only for her elation to quickly die. “Oh wow. “

“What?”

“I am dense.”

“A tad, yes. In any case, we sho—”

“Wait, wait!” Twilight interrupted. “What did you like about me?”

Rarity gave her a pointed stare. “Twilight.”

“Was it my books? Or my essays? I write great essays.”

“Sweetheart,” Rarity said, turning around and trotting off into the aisle, “we’re supposed to be cleaning, not building up your ego.”

“We?! I’m the only one who’s been cleaning!”

“Keep at it, then!”

“But was it the essays?!”

Though she felt tempted to chase after her, she decided she should at least finish cleaning up the room. More mementos were uncovered as she did so, including her map of old Equestria, her old notes and letters, and a few more photographs she’d taken while testing the camera.

It was nice, honestly. Despite it all, even with the bad memories, she had fallen into her old routine with more ease than she’d expected, like she’d travelled back in time to the rose-tinted days of yesteryear.

Such was the comfort and the impression of being back in the past, she almost forgot she wasn’t displaced anymore.

“Not today,” she told the bookcase she almost slammed herself into when she tried to move on to the next aisle.

She moved around the bookcases and figured she ought to see how Rarity was progressing, if she’d progressed at all. When she peeked into an aisle, she found her in the middle of a pile of things, intently reading a scroll.

As quietly as she could, Twilight made her way over and then, once she was sure Rarity hadn’t noticed her…

“Rarity!”

Rarity yelped, practically jumping five feet into the air before turning to Twilight, furious.

“Twilight Sparkle, I swear to—”

Twilight quickly teleported out of the way of the scroll being chucked at her, and reappeared on top of the bookcase, where she had to avoid yet another scroll

She tilted her head to the side. “Rarity, you’re supposed to be cleaning the messes, not making them.”

“Come back down here, you—! You—!”

“You cat? I think that’s what you called me when I was up here.”

“You vulture!”

“That too.”

"'That too," Rarity mimicked, watching as Twilight levitated over the scroll she'd been previously reading.

“What is this?" she asked, looking it over. "‘Lava Lamps. Mechanical objects that extract molten lava from under the ground, then store it for cooking, melting objects and launching projectiles at high speeds.’ Oh! Scootaloo gave me this, remember?” She teleported back down. “Can we go to a lava lamp extraction soon?! How often do they happen?!”

Rarity gave her an unimpressed stare. "Oooooh, I see. First you scare me, and then you ask for favors?"

"Pleeeeeease?" Twilight asked, pleading as cutely as she could, which wasn't very much, but it seemed to do the job.

"Very well then," Rarity said after a theatrical sigh and roll of her eyes. “Remind me tomorrow in Trottingham, then.”

“There’s a lava lamp extractor in Trottingham?!”

“You’ll seeeeee,” Rarity said sing-song, rolling up the scroll and putting it to the side. “Regardless, now that you’re here, I can show you what I found!” She gestured to some closed and bulging trash bags. “I’m actu—Twilight! Wait a minute!” Harrumphing, she grabbed the bag Twilight already started opening and forcefully put it to the side. “Now, as I was saying, I’m actua—Twilight, really!”

Ignoring Rarity’s protests, Twilight opened the second bag she’d levitated over and reached in, taking out a pair of wrinkled cardboard wings and matching cardboard crown.

“The contest!” she exclaimed, inspecting the crown intently. “Wow, I haven’t worn mine in weeks.” She patted the top of her head, suddenly feeling naked without it and her regalia.

“I also found these,” Rarity continued, turning to another one of the bags. She opened it up and took out a case of unopened fine wine, some wine glasses, and a bag of chocolate cookies. “I bought them for us a week or so after breaking my curse, if I remember correctly.”

“For us?” Twilight took the wine and looked it over. “But I couldn’t have these anyway. Well, not then, at least.”

“Oh, I know!” Rarity said, peering into the cookie bag and wincing. “Dear stars, these are going straight into the garbage. Anyway.” She put the cookies inside the trash bag. “I bought them because I was, errr… shall we say, a little overconfident in how long it would take me to free you. So much for that, hm?”

Twilight bit her lip, taking the wine. “Do you think this is still good?”

“It should be, or else the vendor who swore it would last me decades unopened owes me money.”

“Well… Why don’t we have it now, then? A late celebration!”

“Now? As in right now?” Rarity raised an eyebrow. “I’m never one to refuse a glass of good wine, but I thought you wanted to clean.”

“I guess you’re rig—”

“Alright, you’ve convinced me!”

Rarity took the bottle in her magic, uncorked it and then poured a decent amount into two of the glasses.

“You know, Princess Celestia told me once that a glass of wine is good for giving you energy in the middle of a task,” Twilight added helpfully, taking one of the glasses. “One glass should be fine.”

“I’m sure it will.”

Half a bottle of wine later found the two mares lying on top of a makeshift bed of pillows and blankets, Rarity resting the side of her head on top of Twilight’s barrel as she watched the alicorn take another spoonful of peanut butter from a jar somepony had left lying around.

“Can you even imagine what would have happened if Discord’s magic hadn’t saved us from Dragon Lord What’s-His-Face?” Rarity asked, readjusting the cardboard crown threatening to fall off her head. “What if he’d, I don’t know, threatened to keep us in his lair until you showed up to rescue us?”

“Wasn’t he going to eat you?” Twilight asked after another spoonful, passing it and the jar to Rarity.

“I don’t remember, actually.” She tapped the tip of the spoon against her lips. “Who do you think he’d have tried to eat first?” She paused. “Don’t answer that.” She paused again. “Rainbow Dash, I bet. She actually exercises, so she looks meatier. Then I’d be second. And I don’t think he’d eat Pinkie. She’s too pink.”

Twilight’s horn crackled and she summoned a book on dragons Celestia had given her once. “I don’t think dragons eat ponies,” she said, flipping through the pages. She then put it down and smiled playfully at her marefriend. “And this is a silly conversation.”

“I like silly,” Rarity complained. “I’ve done many silly things for you, Twilight Sparkle. I…” She fell silent, rubbing her hoof against her mouth. “Goodness, I really have done many incredibly daft things in your name, haven’t I?”

“Not too many,” Twilight said, amused. “Just one or two.”

Rarity laughed. “Just one or two? I’ve done much more than one or two, Your Highness. What about walloping a timberwolf with a can of pepper spray? Or confronting a horde of dragons, hm? Or what about investigating a changeling village? Or telling the Professor off, and telling Princess Cadance off, and telling Discord off.” She fluttered her eyelashes. “Twilight Sparkle, there’s an entire picture book being made of the ‘just one or two’ things I tripped over myself doing for you.”

“Okay, okay,” Twilight said, opening the book again and trying to hide how pleased she was, which was made impossible when Rarity snuggled her way into Twilight’s forelegs and pressed her face into her chest, mumbling something.

Twilight struggled not to laugh. “I can’t understand you like that.”

“I said,” Rarity mumbled, only vaguely more clearly, “that loving you is going to be the death of me, I tell you! Death by Princess Twilight!”

“You’re drunk.”

“Drunk in love!”

“No, drunk from too much wine.”

“A lady does not get drunk, she gets fun,” Rarity protested, humming contentedly when Twilight wrapped a wing around her. After a minute, she confessed, “I did miss this.”

“Even the library?” Twilight asked, and Rarity smiled.

“Yes, even the library and everything that happened inside it,” she said, leaning in to kiss Twilight. She then looked around and sighed. "Dearest, must we really clean this entire place? It's late, and we're drunk, and I need a two-hour long bath to make up for the lack of spa."

"At what time is our train for Trottingham leaving tomorrow?"

"At an ungodly hour I don't want to be reminded of."

"Well..." They hadn't really even managed to clean even half of the first floor, but it was late. "I guess we can take some of the books lying around back to Hollow Shades and then reorganize them next time we're here. Do you think Sweetie is done?"

"Let us find out!” Rarity craned her neck around and yelled out into the distance. “Sweetie Belle! We’re leaving soon, dear!”

“Wait, wait! I’m done, I’m done!” Sweetie called back, and sure enough, the little filly trotted into view a few minutes later, a book, a stack of drawings and their folder floating behind her. “Look!”

Though Rarity patted an empty spot next to her, Sweetie promptly ignored her and wiggled—or rather, pushed—in between the two mares. She then took out her multiple drawings and showed them off, displaying rather embellished versions of past events. Twilight was pretty sure the dragon Rarity fought didn’t have two heads, and she wasn’t particularly “heart-eyed” the first time she met Rarity either.

“These are all lovely,” Rarity said, genuinely, taking a few of the drawings and looking them over, a warm smile on her face. “I expect a signed copy once it’s published!”

Sweetie nodded. “I’ll give it to you for the special price of five hundred bits because you’re my sister!”

“Five hundred bits!? Dear girl, I should be getting this for free!” She shot Twilight a piteous look. “Twilight, tell her!”

“Sweetie, this is your hard work. You shouldn’t be charging Rarity a discounted price just because she’s your sister. She can pay full price, like everypony else.”

“Twilight!”

“Authors are poorly paid, Rarity!”

“Alright, I suppose I can pay whatever actually reasonable price it ends up being,” Rarity conceded, grabbing the folder and looking it over. “But! If I’m to spend a single bit on this, then I’m allowed to say that I find ‘Princess Twilight’s Book’ a rather uninspired title.”

“It’s a work in progress!” Sweetie stammered, with a blush. She grabbed the book she’d levitated over, revealing it to be a thesaurus. “I have a better one!”

“How about The Tales of the Fairytale Mare?” Rarity suggested, fluttering her eyelashes at Twilight while Sweetie went through the book.

“I’m a fairytale mare?” she asked, amused.

“Sweetest, darling, Twilight! Obviously I’m the only fairytale here.”

“Obviously.”

“Obviously.”

“I got it!” Sweetie cleared her throat, waiting a moment for dramatic effect, and then announced: “The Ethereal Archives.”

Twilight frowned. “The Ethereal Archives?”

“Do you like it?!”

“Err… I do. I do!” Twilight said.

Rarity smiled politely. “It’s certainly quite... flowery!”

Sweetie nodded gravely. “I was going to call it The Magical Bookstacks, but Scootaloo said that wasn’t cool enough.” She got up suddenly and rushed off. “Wait, I can show you the names we came up with for the sequel!”

Rarity laughed.

“The sequel?” She turned to Twilight. “Better get started on daring exploits, then. It’s only fair the sequel is about you tripping yourself over me, hm?”

Though Twilight had a snappy reply, Rarity’s words and the book itself struck her, taking her back to her last conversation with Princess Luna.

“Even despite the bad times, things still felt better, and now they don’t. I don’t know how to explain this. It’s like I was reading a book and it was great, and then I got the sequel, but it’s not what I thought it would be?”

“Rarity,” she asked carefully, “was this what you thought it would be?”

“How do you mean?”

“This,” Twilight repeated, unable to bring herself to look at Rarity first and instead looking to the drawings. “All of this. Me being out. What we’ve been doing. Us.” She forced herself to look at Rarity. “Was it what you thought it would be?”

Rarity looked away for a moment, and then turned back to Twilight.

“No.”

Twilight winced. “Oh.”

She tried to think of something else to say, something to move things along, to swallow the lump that now was in her throat, but any attempt to do so was thwarted when Rarity got up and ceremoniously dropped herself right next to Twilight, nuzzling her for good measure.

“No,” she repeated, “I think it’s very different from what I thought it would be, because not even a few months ago, I thought I would never see you again. So, no, this may not be the fairy tale dream I imagined two years ago, but for now, this works splendidly.”

For now, Twilight thought, wrapping a wing over Rarity and settling on that thought. Things would still go wrong. There were still many, many things she couldn’t yet solve, fix or save ponies from.

But for now worked.

Today, she’d helped Rarity overcome her nightmares, and tomorrow she’d have to deal with more nightmares, more problems, and rescuing Princess Luna herself.

But for now…

Solving one nightmare was good enough.

Author's Note

It's my birthday Sunday so y'all can't be mad this update took longer than expected HA HA
also putting recaps now to make up for my bad update schedule

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.
Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

~ Act II ~ 15 ~ The Final Detail ~

Author's Note

Important The Enchanted Kingdom V. 3.0.5.6 Patch Notes:

Updated minor characterization bugs in earlier chapters.

Updated all mentions of Hollow Shades "Luna isn't real" event to happen when a foal turns ten rather than thirteen, mostly because God knows how to write thirteen-year-olds.

Expanded conversation between Luna and Twilight in Chapter 9 to address The Winter Moon Observance, because I completely forgot about that plot-thread.

Didn't change the act numbers as I said I would, mostly because that implied re-doing tons of title images and ain't nobody got time for that. Thus, TEK will consist of four acts rather than three.

Optimized the RariTwi coding by adding at least two more kisses in previous chapters.

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman. Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

~ Act II ~ 15 ~ The Final Detail ~

Things changed after that.

Well. Technically speaking, it had only been one day since she and Rarity went into the library. But in that little amount of time, things had changed. Maybe it was just Twilight. Maybe she was telling herself they did. Whatever it was, real or not, it was easier to breathe with a weight lifted off her shoulders.

It also made it easier to take life’s disappointments in stride.

Sitting at a picnic table outside one of Trottingham’s libraries, Twilight and Elara frowned at a magic lava lamp, watching a multicolored goopy liquid rise from the glowing base of its glass prison and float up to the top, staying there for a moment before gently sinking back to the bottom. They watched this happen for one, two, three cycles before Twilight turned to the unicorn sitting on the other side of the table.

“So, just to confirm, this doesn’t extract molten lava from the core of the earth and then store it for cooking, construction and/or military purposes?”

Rarity perched her sunglasses atop her horn and then smiled, sympathetic. “No.”

“You’re sure?”

“I’m afraid I am, dear.” She failed miserably to suppress an amused smile. “Are you terribly disappointed?”

“No,” Twilight lied, adjusting her cloak in a way in a way she hoped seemed nonchalant.

Rarity hummed. “Well, certainly, it’s not as exciting as a lava-launching contraption, but it has some mesmerizing charm to it, I think,” she said, watching a wax bubble rise up. “Besides, you can’t deny it has kept you entertained while we wait.” That said, she tapped her hoof on the table several times and looked towards the library’s closed doors, muttering to herself. “Where is he? This isn’t like him at all.”

“What do you mean?”

“Hm? Oh, it’s just that I can’t for the life of me remember a time he’s opened the library so late,” Rarity said, turning her attention back to Twilight. “I got here at six in the morning one time, and Red Lining had already opened the library.”

“You come here often?” Twilight asked. She couldn’t remember Rarity ever mentioning Trottingham back before she’d been freed, so this must’ve been a recent event.

“I do! Not as often anymore, what with the Dreamland and all, but last year I came so often that the local hotel started giving me discounted prices.”

“Really?”

Rarity nodded. “Yes, I’d… Well, let’s say I’d developed an appreciation for literature and…” Her lips curved into a sheepish smile. “I suppose it made me feel at home.”

Twilight smiled widely. “But you had no one to pester you into practicing teleportation.”

Rarity laughed, folding her forelegs on the table. “I guess now you’re here to fix that, aren’t you?”

“Actually,” Twilight said, “I am. You were very out of breath yesterday when you teleported, which I know you think I didn’t notice, but I did. So! I was working on some new daily training drills on the train ride here while you were sleeping. It’s just twenty pages.”

Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. “Yes, darling, I’m sure you wrote twenty pages in the one hour I was asleep.” Her tune quickly changed, however, when Twilight blinked at her and a flash of her horn materialized twenty pages of notes onto the table. “Oh. Well. Right.” She cleared her throat. “Twilight, as you know, I strive to be a paragon of propriety at all times, but—” Her eyes drifted off towards something beyond Twilight and then widened just as a gasp left her mouth. “Dear stars! Princess Luna?!”

“Wait, what?” Twilight blurted out, immediately swirling around and… and finding no sign of Princess Luna. Funnily enough, when she turned back to Rarity, the unicorn was also gone, currently speeding away into the distance. “Wha—? Rarity! See! You could have at least teleported away to start practicing! Rarity!”

She watched as Rarity disappeared around the corner of the building and then playfully rolled her eyes, turning to her papers and gathering them up. They weren’t even complicated exercises, really! If she had been practicing, then they would be easier than sewing. Regardless, she thought as she took out a pencil from her bag and started to write, she was such a nice marefriend she would make it even simp—

Crack!

“Twilight Sparkle!”

Twilight yelped in fright and turned to find Rarity behind her, the unicorn failing rather miserably to hide her wheezing.

“So… So! Tell me, dear, do I… look… out of breath… now?”

Twilight couldn’t help a snort, telekinetically re-adjusting the crooked sunglasses on Rarity’s horn. “Would you like to try that again with less wheezing, maybe?”

“It’s not…! It’s not the teleportation!” Rarity protested, catching her breath before offering Twilight a sly look. “Clearly it’s you that leaves me breathless.”

Twilight nodded severely. “Right.” She then leaned in and smiled. “Just to be clear, you do realize you’re implying I’m causing you second-hoof asphyxiation, right?” she remarked, and at Rarity’s pronounced eye-roll, she laughed. “I’m not wrong!”

With a harrumph, Rarity put on her sunglasses and pointedly looked away, even when Twilight sidled up and nuzzled her. “No,” she said, “you’re a mood-killer, is what you are.” Despite herself, a smile crept up her lips. “Or would it be more accurate to say you’re a lady-killer?”

Twilight frowned. “A lady-killer flirts with multiple ponies, though. Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say—” She grinned. “I’m a Rarity-killer?”

“Ooooooh.” Immediately, Rarity’s sunglasses came off so as to reveal her sparkling eyes. “A Rarity-killer, hmm?”

“Not just a Rarity-killer. The Rarity-killer.”

“The Rarity-killer! Yes!” She gestured to the distance and took on a grand tone. “Twilight Sparkle, Rarity-killer extraordinaire, reading books by day, seducing her marefriend’s breath away by night!”

“Seducing you every night? I think you might be overestimating me.”

“Am I?” Rarity put her glasses back on. “My, I would think last night begs to differ.”

“Last ni—” Twilight cut herself off with a choke, her face turning beet-red as she gasped, “Rarity, stop!”

“‘Rarity, stop’? But yesterday you were asking the oppo—mmph!” Though a mortified Twilight magically muzzled her, Rarity didn’t seem to care and instead fluttered her eyelashes at her, smiling as widely as she could.

“What is wrong with you?!”

Rarity tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Mmph mmph mmph~!”

“You’re not supposed to answer that!”

When Twilight finally let her go, she gave her marefriend a meaningful look. “Are you done?”

Rarity’s eyes flickered briefly towards something beyond Twilight, and she smiled politely. “For now, if only because we have company. Look over there.”

Twilight turned around, and lo and behold, she saw a stallion standing by the library, a line of colts and fillies waiting for him to open the two big glass doors.

“Right then,” Rarity said, gathering her things while Elara perched herself on Twilight’s back. “Shall we?”

According to Rarity, Trottingham Scriptorium was one of Equestria’s lesser known libraries, hidden away at the far end of Pembrook Park and mostly visited by either the elderly ponies from the nearby retirement homes, or the colts and fillies who routinely played in the park.

The scent of books and fresh ink filled Twilight’s nose as they stepped inside, vaguely reminding her of her own library. Unlike her home, however, there were no magical chandeliers floating by the ceiling. Instead, there were wisps of light, dozens upon dozens of softly glowing spheres that floated all over and followed patrons much like Star and Swirl might.

“What are these?” Twilight asked, watching with awe as three wisps chased after laughing foals running past her. “I’ve never encountered this kind of magic before!”

“Helpers,” Rarity elaborated. “Or, rather, that’s what Red calls them. He made them, you know? He’s a very gifted alchemist.”

“He made these?” Twilight asked, and she cleared her throat uncomfortably. “But he’s.... Well. An earth pony?”

She wasn’t trying to be rude, really, but back in her time, at least, magic in all forms was reserved for unicorns exclusively. Not that she didn’t think earth ponies couldn’t do magic, which she obviously knew they could, but maybe not as well as unicorns, but—

“He is an earth pony,” Rarity said, interrupting Twilight’s thoughts, smiling widely with what seemed to be a hint of dreamy pride coating her words, “which is why I think he’s terribly impressive, don’t you agree?” No sooner had she said that, however, a flicker of something crossed her eyes and she quickly added, “Not as impressive as you, obviously.”

It took Twilight a moment, but she raised an eyebrow and smiled. “I’m not jealous, Rarity, if that’s what you’re worried about. This is impressive.”

Rarity laughed. “Well, I can’t say I wouldn’t be jealous if you went around calling other designers impressive, but I’m glad you’re more mature than I am.” She leaned in to briefly kiss Twilight before stepping away. “Be a dear and look around while I go fetch Red.”

Twilight moved forward. “I can go with you.”

“No, no!” Rarity insisted. “Really, dear. He’ll need time to, well…” She licked her lips. “...prepare.”

“Prepare? What do you mean? I thought he knew I was coming?” she asked, disconcerted. “Does he not believe in me, or—”

“No, no, he does. He does believe in you, but he’s well… Well, he’s a bit of a fanboy, shall we say.”

“A what?”

Rarity laughed. “You’ll see. Now, go!” She shooed Twilight away before taking a few steps back herself. “Go look around and I’ll fetch you when he’s ready!”

Disconcerted but willing to trust her partner, Twilight watched Rarity leave before setting off to explore the library herself, a few wisps materializing and following her around as she did so, much to the displeasure of Elara—who was apparently somewhat upset they weren’t edible.

“This is a nice library,” Twilight said to her owl and the wisps, presuming they were even sentient. The books were well taken care of, and the sight of ponies walking around or sitting on cushions reading was a welcome but strange sight in a sad sort of way.

Her own library was better, she thought, but it was also much, much lonelier.

“We should open a new library in Ponyville,” she said to Elara. “One that isn’t hidden and where Rarity and other ponies can come to read.” When three loud fillies ran by and Elara threw them a chastising look, she laughed and added, “Well-behaved ponies, at least.”

She continued her exploration, yet to call it an exploration of the library would be inaccurate. It was more an exploration of the future, of this new idea, this grand fantastic library she could look forward to creating. It was… It was exciting, really, to think of a future after all of this, and more exciting than that was the idea that she could actually think about one now.

“We can have a room for Rarity, too,” she added. “One on the second floor, next to the owl hatchery. Or even a workshop for her clothes! Then again, why would she need a room of her own if my room is there? Unless she wants a room of her own. We should also have a room for the princesses!”

Much like her future library, her excitement grew and grew with every new idea, every new room. This feeling, this drive to work towards a future dream… It was something she wanted for Luna. Something she wanted for Cadance, and then for Princess Celestia, and then for Spike and everypony that had ever been hurt by Discord.

In that day, in that moment, it wasn’t guilt driving her. It was hope. Hope that had come out of nowhere, maybe, or perhaps she was still riding the high of having finally helped Rarity, but whatever it was, it was there.

And she wanted it to stay.

“Red, you look fine, really.”

Rarity’s voice caught her attention, the only thing interesting enough to entice her away from her designs. She quietly followed after it, peering around a bookcase and finding her target. There was Rarity, smiling sympathetically at the stallion from earlier, who’d now changed into a fitted suit and was adjusting the purple bowtie around his neck.

“I’m overdressed, aren’t I?” he said, now frantically combing his mane. “I shouldn’t have worn clothes. She’s not wearing clothes. Why do ponies even need clothes?”

“Darling, don’t insult me, please.”

“Sorry. I don’t understand why I’m so nervous. Probably because the dry cleaners opened late today. Did she mind waiting? She minded, didn’t she? Oooooooh.” He took a breath. “I’m fine. I’m fine.” He paused and then whispered despairingly, “What if she doesn’t like me?! What if she doesn’t like my library?! Can she revoke my librarian’s license?!”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “...You need a license?”

Twilight rolled her eyes at her marefriend, whispering what Red gasped, “Of course you need a license for a private library!”

“Goodness, you roll your eyes just like her. You two will be frightful friends,” Rarity noted, looking around just in time to see Twilight step forward. “Oh, Twilight, darling, there you are! Come here.” She gestured to the stallion, who suddenly looked so confident and carefree that he might have fooled her had she not seen him be a nervous wreck not ten seconds ago. “Twilight, this is Red Lining. Red, this is—”

“Princess Scriptoria!” he exclaimed with a sudden childlike glee before clearing his throat, composing himself and bowing. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“Princess Scriptoria?” Twilight asked. “Is that the name Trottingham has for me?”

Red nodded. “It is! Trottingham’s legends pinned you down as an archivist, you know? It was changed to Princess Scribe for a few centuries, but Scriptoria was brought back by popular demand about two hundred years ago.” He cleared his throat and smiled nervously. ”I do hope you like it.”

Twilight nodded. “I do!” She gave Rarity a pointed stare. “Better than Princess Booky, at least.”

“Why are you saying that to me?! I’m not the one who came up with it!”

“Well,” Twilight said, giving her marefriend reprieve and turning to Red again, “thank you for helping us, Red Lining. And, uh, believing in us.”

“Princess, any historian or archivist worth their diploma knows you and the other princesses existed at one point in time. There’s too much evidence pointing towards it.” He grinned. “Besides, Rarity has kept me up countless nights talking about you all. At least, she did back when she used to accept my invitations to stay at my family cottage.”

“Darling, that’s not fair!” she protested. “I’ve been busy! I’ve an entire daycare, bakery, toymaker, and rescue plan to take care of! Does it look like I have the time to run away to a seaside cottage and sit there and do nothing?”

Twilight frowned. Seaside cottage? Huh.

“Maybe I’ll invite the princess instead,” he threatened before actually turning to her, eyes sparkling. “Actually, would you like that? You’re more than welcome to! I would love for you to come. Please do come.”

“Oooooh! I would!” Twilight replied and then added, “After we rescue the others. You’re lending us books to use, right?”

Red nodded. “I am. I’ve already hired carriages to help transport the books to Hollow Shades in time for Seeking Night.” He turned to Rarity. “I imagine you’re nearly done getting ready for the event?”

Rarity coughed. “...Oh yes. Nearly done.”

“Good!” he said. “In that case, Rarity, why don’t you lead the princess to my office while I go get us all some tea?”

The moment he was gone, Rarity turned to Twilight. “Very well, let’s—” And cut herself short at the sight of Twilight grinning madly at her, her tail swishing behind her back. “...Something on your mind, dear?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow, playfully tilting her head. “Trips to his seaside cottage?”

Immediately, concern washed over Rarity’s face. “Are you implying something, Twilight? Because if you are, I can assure you it was a friendly outing, nothing more. Need I remind you he just invited you, as well?”

Twilight laughed. “Rarity. I’m just teasing you. I told you I’m not jealous. Besides.” She leaned in slightly. “I am the Rarity-killer, right?”

Rarity relaxed, rolling her eyes. “By giving me heart-attacks, you are,” she murmured, before noticing Twilight was still watching her, a big grin on her face. “What? Is something else on your mind?”

“Yes,” Twilight said, ready to tell Rarity all about her plans for a new library up until she cut herself off. Should she tell Rarity, or might it be better to keep it a surprise? Hide it away, and once everypony is freed, she can present the idea to Rarity! The cherry on top of the proverbial princess-freeing cake!

Rarity coughed politely. “...And do you intend on telling me, or…?”

“I… Well…” She swallowed down the excitement and instead presented determination. “I can’t wait to free Princess Luna and the others, no matter what it takes.”

Rarity laughed somewhat nervously. “No matter what it takes? My! That is quite a bold statement, isn’t it?”

Twilight laughed. “Yes, but we’re ready, aren’t we?”

Rarity snorted. “Are we? I’m glad one of us believes that because frankly, I was lying to Red Lining when I told him we were.”

Twilight’s expression softened, faced again with Rarity’s insecurities. “Rarity… We will be ready,” she assured sincerely and was rewarded with her marefriend’s smile. “Trust me.”

“...You’re right! We will be ready. It’ll be fine. We’re still missing a few things here and there, but nothing that can’t be done in time!” She nodded her head, assured. “I’ll be ready.”

“Seeking Night is tomorrow!” Rarity screeched, bursting into the Dreamland’s bakery. “And I’m not ready! Nopony is ready!”

That announced, she made a beeline towards the counter and levitated three cupcakes from the display rack.

Pinkie peeked her head out from the kitchen. “Wha—Rarity! Stop eating the cupcakes! Those are for the foals!”

“The foals aren’t the ones paying you to make these, so I’ll do whatever I damn well—Hey!” At the sight of her cupcakes being forcibly floated away from her, she whipped around and found the offending alicorn, all dressed up in her regalia and crown. “Twilight! That’s my comfort food you’re floating away!”

Twilight smiled. “We’re all waiting for you two.”

“I am well aware of that, Twilight Sparkle. Why, pray tell, do you think I’m hiding here? And give me my cupcakes!”

“They’re all waiting?!” Pinkie gasped, practically jumping over the counter. “Hurry, Rarity!”

“Pinkie, no!” she blurted out, trying and failing to grab Pinkie before she could rush out. “If you go, then I have to go!” When Pinkie failed to wait and left the room, she turned to Twilight. “The show must go on?”

“The show must go on.”

Twilight rolled her eyes as Rarity heaved herself off the counter with an unnecessarily theatrical sigh and then followed her out of Celestia’s bakery, into the lobby, and finally into Cadance’s Theatre.

As they stepped in, Twilight’s eyes drifted over the dozens of ponies and changelings gathered around, their loud conversations falling to a hush. Rarity faltered at the sight of it, but a quick nudge from Twilight set her back on track towards the stage where Pinkie was already waiting.

Rarity stepped up first, taking center stage while Twilight placed herself a few feet behind her, unable to suppress a grin at all the familiar faces—The Cutie Mark Crusaders waving at her from the front lines, Rift and Incantation with the changelings near the back, Professor Awe and Fluttershy watching as Applejack shushed Rainbow Dash.

“Well!”

The whispers died as soon as Rarity spoke up, which made for an embarrassing silence when she didn’t immediately know what else to say.

She cleared her throat. “Right.”

Another silence followed, until…

“Nice pep talk, Rares!” Rainbow Dash yelled, grinning when the room erupted in laughter.

“Alright, alright, settle down!” Rarity said, trying to sound stern despite the smile on her face. She waited until the crowd was quiet before continuing. “Now, you’ll all have to excuse me, Twilight insisted I write down my speech for you all, but I didn’t have time for that—"

A speech materialized before her.

"...But apparently Twilight did!" She threw the grinning alicorn A Look, before taking it in her magic and reading it over. "Let's see... Gathered here... Long journey... Page one of fourteen?!"

Politely, she rolled it up and then fluttered her eyelashes at Twilight.

"You know, I've always excelled at improvisation."

Twilight snorted. "If you say so, Rarity," she teased, having been under no illusions Rarity would even read her speech.

After blowing her marefriend a kiss, Rarity cleared her throat and turned back to her audience.

“Seeking Night is finally here! The foals are coming tomorrow, with their parents’ signed permission slips detailing the full-event—not that they believed it, but regardless!” She took a breath. “For some of you, this has been only a journey of a few weeks. For others, a few months. For me, exactly three years ago tomorrow, when I first met Twilight. And for Twilight herself—” She glanced at her briefly ”—this has been a thousand year journey.

“Though how long you’ve been on this journey hardly matters,” she continued. “What matters is that all of you are here now, and you should all be proud of the part you’ve played to make tomorrow possible.”

Twilight stepped forward, drawing the attention to herself.

“And for believing in us,” she said. “I… I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for ponies like you, like Pinkie, and Rarity, and everypony else, who believe in me and the others.” She grinned. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for all of you who didn’t think Rarity’d gone crazy when talking about me.”

More laughter filled the room, intensifying when Rift called out, “Just because we believed her doesn’t mean we don’t think she’s crazy!”

When everyone settled down again, Twilight continued.

“We have to do this,” she said, stepping forward, meaning every word. “No matter what happens, no matter what can go wrong, we have to do this. Not just for Princess Luna, or me, but for everypony that Discord’s hurt. For everypony that he can hurt, wherever he is.”

She looked at Rarity and Pinkie.

“No matter what.”

Pinkie nodded. “No matter what!”

“No matter what!” the others echoed.

And finally, when all eyes were on Rarity, she said, almost quietly, her expression certainly not one of excitement, “No matter what.” However, whatever was wrong, if there indeed was something wrong, didn’t last long, for before Twilight could register or worry, she shook her head and slammed her hoof on the floor, finally driven with the same determination as the others. “We will free Princess Luna, no matter how long it takes! So, with that in mind...”

She grinned.

“Break a leg, everypony!”

~ Act II ~ 16 ~ The Seeking Night Spectacular ~

“How much longer?”

“We’ve passed this bookcase four times already!”

“How do you know? They all look the same!”

“Honey, hurry up!”

Under the twilit sky, four arguing foals made their way through a labyrinth of bookshelves, searching and searching and searching for the missing princess of old. The youngest, trailing behind, carried with her a small saddlebag where she’d stored the Elements of Harmony—the only objects capable of defeating the Spirit of olde.

“Honey!” a colt called, and she quickly picked up her pace, unaware of the cloaked pony quietly following them from atop the bookcases.

Just as they turned a corner, a loud chime rang out, putting them on high alert. They immediately looked up, and lo and behold, to their audible dismay, two pegasi carrying a bookcase flew over and placed it before them, blocking their path.

“Awwww, again?!” whined the colt. “That wasn’t half an hour!”

“Come on, Doodle,” an older filly said, “let’s just go back the other way.”

As the foals turned around and went back whence they came, the cloaked pony used the reprieve to scan the area, briefly observing the dozen or so other fully cloaked ponies walking atop bookcases, each and every single one following the various foals and ponies trying to figure their way out of the maze.

She looked back towards her foals and continued to follow them around, deftly moving away whenever they looked up to try and catch her in the act.

“This is the last group, ain’t it?”

She turned around to find another cloaked pony walking next to her, joining her in following the foals.

“Is it? What time is it?”

“Time for you to high-tail it out of here before you-know-who comes hollering.” She gestured to the foals. “Reckon’ they could use a good spook, don’t’cha think?”

In almost complete synchronization, the two mares picked up their pace and then jumped down in front of the foals, who quickly backtracked, shrieking as they did so.

“Hurry, hurry, Sorbet!” one of them whispered, watching as the two cloaked ponies stalked closer. “The candlestick!”

Frantic, a colt rushed in front of his friends and brandished a toy candelabra, just in time for the four of them to yell, “Star! Light, please!”

Instantly, the two cloaked ponies stepped back, and when the foals pressed themselves against the bookcases, they bowed their heads and walked past them.

“Wa...Wait!” Honey gasped suddenly, pointing to the bottom of one of the cloaks. “Look!”

The other three foals did as told, noticing that while one cloak bore the traditional full moon cutie mark present in all Hollow Shades’ cloaks, the other one bore a very different design: three blue diamonds.

“Princess Twilight!” the littlest one exclaimed.

“Get her!” bellowed the other three when their target rushed off into the tunnel.

She ran, and ran, turning around a corner and then practically screeching to a halt when a bookcase materialized right before her. The foals caught up moments later, yelling victoriously at the sight of their trapped target.

Their victory cries quickly died, however, when she laughed.

“Since when can a bookcase stop a spirit?”

That said, she rushed towards the bookcase and went through it, the foals groaning and whining in the background.

Safe from her persecutors, Twilight took her hood off and looked up, waving at the cloaked pony standing atop the nearby bookcase.

“That was a great illusion!”

The pony harrumphed. “Rarity did hire the greatest and most powerful illusionist in Equestria, Princess!” she proclaimed. “Speaking of, when am I supposed to replace you?”

“Soon. Applejack said they’re the last group.” She looked up towards the sky. “Themis!”

Moments later, Themis emerged from a nearby aisle, hooting at his master.

“Find the foals I was with and take them to my room, please!”

When he flew off to find them, she put her hood back on and made her way through the labyrinth, eventually reaching a small room made entirely from bookshelves. She took her hood off again and waited a few more minutes until Themis emerged, followed by the four foals from before.

“We found you!” they gasped in unison, rushing to her.

“And we found the elements!” the little one exclaimed, reaching for two gemstones inside her saddlebag and proudly presenting them to the princess. “See?!”

“So you did!” Twilight exclaimed, moving forward and picking the rocks up in her magic, making a show out of looking impressed. “Even I could never find them! The Element of Magic, and the Element of Resolve!”

The colt giggled. “But Rainbow Dash said it was called the Element of Awesome!”

“Rainbow Dash is wrong.”

“But—”

“Trust me.” She gave them back their gemstones and then conspiratorially looked from side to side. “You better run off, now! The more you stay here, the more likely the Spirit will find you and steal your Elements!”

After a quick succession of goodbyes, the foals rushed off. When she was alone, Twilight turned to Themis.

“One last run-through of the festival, maybe?”

She grinned when he hooted in reply, taking her saddlebags and then flying off alongside him.

The first thing she flew past was the food fair, which smelled fantastic enough she wished she had time to fly down and join the hundreds of ponies partaking in the festivities. Pinkie had been in charge of catering the event, hiring vendors from all over Equestria.

Forcing herself to move away before she followed her stomach’s protests, she moved on to Princess Celestia’s Waterfall Spectacular—a truly massive inflatable pool, waterfall included. Foals and adults of all ages splashed in the water, the foals diving down to retrieve treasures at the bottom. A smile pushed its way onto her lips at the sight of the Cutie Mark Crusaders racing—and beating—adults as Elder Moonshine tried not to cheer hard enough, else her Celestia wig might fall off.

A distant roar caught her attention, and she moved on from the waterfall and ended up at what she called Spike’s Valley, an area near Hollow Shades where he’d stomped down the forest trees to make himself a home.

“Climb, kids!” Rainbow Dash bellowed. “Climb!”

Below her was Spike, the dragon roaring as harnessed foals—and some very excited adults—climbed up the many ropes tied to his spikes, giggling when he’d gently try to shake them loose.

“Don’t let him kick you off, kids!” Rainbow continued to yell, pumping her hoof in the air. “We won’t lose to the dumbest dragon ever!”

“Dumbest dragon ever?!” he bellowed, aghast, before roaring again and breathing out fire, much to the delighted gasps and screams of the foals. “I’m Spike the Dragon! Undefeatable! Unextinguishable! Unforgettable! Rooooooar!”

Rainbow Dash rubbed her hooves together. “Don’t worry, everypony! I’ll protect you!” she promised before flying over to Spike’s head and socking him. “Take that!”

“Hey!” he protested, losing his bravado. “That hurt!”

“So,” Twilight said, flying down to join them, “you two are having fun.”

“She keeps punching me!” Spike whined to Twilight. “Hard!”

Rainbow Dash brushed him off with a gesture. “Oh, come on. You’re a dragon! You can take it, ya big baby!”

After glaring at his friend, he turned to Twilight. “What are you doing here? Isn’t it supposed to start soon?”

“I still have time,” Twilight replied. “I wanted to do one last run-through to make sure everything is going well, and then I need to get Incantation.” She flapped her wings and prepared to take off, grinning to Rainbow. “Try not to keep punching him too hard.”

“Okay, so, she wasn’t punching me that hard,” Spike quickly said, trying to act cool. “I’m fine, actually, Twilight. I couldn’t even feel her punches. They were baby punches.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah?” She quickly flew towards the kids, raising her forehooves to her mouth. “Oh no, everypony! The big, mean dragon threatened to eat us all! Let’s beat him up before he can!”

A bloody collective war cry rang out into the air, and Twilight laughed as poor Spike scrambled in circles, yelping at all the tiny hooves punching his body.

“Hey, twenty against one isn’t fair!”

Twilight and Themis flew off after this, leaving Spike and Rainbow to their games. They stopped briefly to watch some foals light up nightmare bombs, and then made their last stop at town hall. Rather than attempt to push her way through the crowd gathered near the front, she snuck in through an open window near the back.

Once inside, she beamed at the sight of all the ciphers she’d made pasted on the walls, designed to help the foals identify the “real” Princess Cadance and get two Elements from her. Originally, she’d wanted to encrypt them in the Shugborouneigh method, but then Rarity pointed out that a method the foals couldn’t even properly pronounce might not be the best idea.

Maybe next year.

“Hi, Princess Twilight!”

A Cadance popped up from behind a wall, waving brightly at her.

And then another walked in from the room next door. “Heya, Princess Twilight!”

And finally, a third peeked her head in from a hallway. “Oh! Hello, Princess Twilight!”

“Hello, Cadances,” Twilight greeted. “How’s everything going?”

“Everything’s swell!” they said in perfect unison.

“Are you here to get Incantation?” asked one.

“She’s in the next room over,” another said.

“Sulking,” a third elaborated with a giggle.

Twilight took this in. “And where’s—”

Frantic yells interrupted her, and when she turned to look, she saw a group of foals running past the room, followed moments later by none other than—

Discord.

The Spirit of Chaos himself, practically slamming to a halt as soon as he saw the princess. Surprised, eyes trained on her, he stepped into the room and blinked.

On instinct, Twilight stepped back, her heart racing in her chest, her stomach somersaulting inside her. She noticed the Cadances’ eyes were trained on her, attentive and wary, their soldier instincts readying them to act if necessary.

And yet, with all the will in the world, Twilight held her ground. She had agreed to this, and even more so, she had insisted she’d be fine even when Rarity was furiously opposed to the idea.

After all, if they wanted to protect these foals against him, she’d told Rarity, then it was only right they knew exactly what he looked like, no?

She forced herself to step forward, focusing on the sensation of her hoof touching the floor, and then smiled, poisoned words once familiar leaving her lips, “Hello, Discord.”

And so, Discord, in reply, immediately broke into a salute. “Princess Twilight!” He faltered for a moment and looked himself over. “I’m sorry, should I change—” He interrupted himself, and did as much, revealing himself as Rift Shield.

“No, no!” Twilight said, dismayed. “It’s fine, Rift. You didn’t have to do that.” She glanced at the Cadances, all three of them as concerned as he. “I’m fine. It was my idea, remember?”

“...Right,” Rift said, and after a moment’s hesitation, transformed back into the Spirit of Chaos, awkwardly clearing his throat. “I should go.” He saluted again before running off. “Good luck, Princess!”

Shaking off the encounter, Twilight bid the Cadances goodbye before moving on to the next room, where she found the real “Princess Cadance” looking absolutely bored as she leaned against a makeshift copy of Shining Armor’s shield.

“Having fun, Ink?” Twilight asked, laughing at the changeling’s exasperated groan.

“No! I wanted to be the Spirit! That’s way more fun!” She rested her chin on top of the shield and frowned. “Ugh. Boss is punishing me for slacking off, isn’t she?”

Twilight smiled sympathetically. “How many groups do you have left?”

“Just one more. After that, Rosetta is replacing me and I’ll head over so we can get it over with.”

Twilight tilted her head, surprised. “Get it over with? You don’t want to do it anymore?”

“No, I do!” Ink quickly said. She then paused and added, quietly, “I just… I hope it works.”

“The teddy bears?”

Ink nodded. “All of this. Everything Rarity’s done." At the princess's expression, she continued, “I was talking to her, and she’s so worried, I think it’s rubbing off on me.”

Twilight frowned. “Did she say something specific? Is she worried about what will happen if it doesn’t work?”

A silence followed after this, Incantantion’s brow furrowing as she set her eyes on Twilight. After a moment, she spoke up.

“Yeah, but…” She lifted her chin off the shield, chewing down on her lips before slowly saying, “I think… I think she’s more worried about how it might affect you, Princess.”

Twilight paused. “...Me?” she asked, affection for Rarity overtaking her at the idea she was the unicorn’s first priority.

“Maybe? I mean, probably not, actually,” Incantation said quickly. “I’m probably wrong. I just thought—You know, maybe because Princess Luna is your friend, and—Nevermind. I don’t know.”

“Ink,” Twilight interrupted, smiling confidently. “It’ll work.”

“What if it doesn’t?”

“Then Rarity and I will figure something out.” Twilight replied without missing a beat.

And they would, Twilight thought as she and Themis finally headed to the Dreamland. No plan survives first contact, but with Rarity there to support her, adapting and powering through didn’t feel impossible.

A crowd of foals and their parents had already gathered outside the Dreamland by the time she’d arrived, the former excitedly discussing their plans to help Princess Luna while the latter couldn’t wait to be free of their children for a few hours.

Twilight snuck in through the backdoor, walking into the lobby to find Rarity, Pinkie and Professor Awe, all cloaked.

“Oh, Princess Twilight!” Pinkie greeted, waving excitedly. “You’re here!”

“Where’s Incantation?” Rarity asked, alarmed. “Please somepony tell me she didn’t forget.”

“She’s coming soon,” Twilight reassured her, joining them. She turned to the professor. “Did you bring the device?”

The professor nodded, lifting a strange rectangular device with antennas, a light-bulb, and a glass covered indicator with an arrow for measuring something.

“That’s going to detect chaos magic levels?” she asked, taking it in her magic.

“We’ve actually been using this for the last two years,” Rarity elaborated, “back when we first realized chaos magic is the reason nopony believes in Princess Luna.”

The professor nodded. “I’ll use this to write down the foals's individuals levels, and after our experiment is done, we’ll simply have to try and trigger the chaos magic and pray that the teddy bears will work as immunity against it.”

“Can I see how it works?”

“I don’t see why not. But before I give it to you...” He turned to Rarity. “Your necklace still has chaos magic inside of it, yes? If so…”

After she gave him the necklace and he inserted into the device, he gave it to Twilight to inspect.

The back door slammed open moments after, and Incantation rushed in, tangled up in a lasso. “I’m here, I’m here! I couldn’t find my lasso!” she blurted, running towards them. “Are we ready?”

Rarity nodded. “We are now.” She took one last breath and then clapped her hoof on the ground, yelling out. “Showtime, everypony!”

With this call to action, everyone scrambled to their positions, Pinkie rushing into Cadance’s theatre, Incantation and the professor heading to the bakery, and Twilight and Rarity opening the doors to let in the crowd, the foals immediately surrounding the princess.

“Rarity,” a mother asked, “are you sure you don’t mind handling them all for tonight?”

“But of course, of course! We’re more than happy to take care of them while you enjoy the late-night festivities!” Rarity reassured her and the other parents listening in. She called for Incantation, asking her to distract the children, and when she did so, she turned back to the adults. She cleared her throat and carefully said, “Now, before we begin, I’d like to verify something. You all remember the slips I gave you last week?”

The parents looked at each other, amused.

“About Princess Luna’s visiting them and giving them toys?”

“To help defeat ‘the chaos magic’ of Hollow Shades?”

“Suuuuuure!”

Rarity cleared her throat. “Yes. That. Well, this means we’ll also be scanning them with a harmless magic detecting device, as I mentioned, which you are free to inspect for yourself.”

“Oh, actually,” Twilight said, realizing she had the device with her still. “Here.”

A mare took it and looked it over.

“It’s very interesting, actually,” Twilight said. “You’d think it’d be a complicated machine, but it actually works by detecting the fluctuations of the residues in—”

“Look, honey!” the mare interrupted, pointing the device at her husband. “You’re a ten!”

“Well, fine,” Twilight muttered.

Afterwards, the mare gave it back to Rarity. “Well, be sure to tell me what my kids’ chaos levels are! That’ll probably explain why they’re such a hoof-full!”

“Of course, but...” Rarity continued, opening her mouth to continue until a parent stopped her.

“We have no concerns, Rarity. Really,” he said, not forceful but almost. “It’s cute that you’re doing all of this for the kids. They’re really falling for it.”

One giggled at Twilight. “They’re already so excited they found ‘Princess Twilight’!”

“I’m fine with it,” another said, and so did others echo this sentiment, smiling.

Rarity smiled thinly, clearly not wanting to push the issue further and risk the chaos magic actually, well, doing something.

“Well, all right… Regardless, the activity ends at midnight, but we’ll be open until three in the morning, so feel free to pick them up at any time. You’re also quite welcome to check in on them if you’re worried.”

A stallion laughed at that. “Worried? The only thing I’m worried about is getting my kids to leave this place!” he said, and Twilight beamed when another added, “You and Pinkie can be strange sometimes, but you do have something really special here.”

Rarity bowed her head, offering a reserved smile. “Ahh, well, it really is our pleasure.”

“And, by the way,” he whispered, turning to Twilight, “you still have to teach me how to build those mechanical wings of yours, ‘Princess’ Twilight.”

Twilight smiled awkwardly. “Oh. Yes. I will!” she said, hoping they’d somehow free the adults of their chaos magic lest she actually might have to come up with a design for mechanical wings.

Which, actually, would be an interesting engineering exercise, especially if she could find a way to generate lift—

“Now, say goodbye, kids!” Rarity exclaimed, interrupting Twilight’s train of thought.

When the parents went off to their kids, Rarity turned to Twilight, concerned.

“Well, they still didn’t believe me,” she said. “But at least nobody can say that I didn’t try.”

“That’s the best we can do, Rarity.”

“I suppose so.” When she noticed all the parents had left, and the foals were all staring at them expectantly, she nodded. “You know what to do.”

“I know.”

Rarity leaned in for a quick kiss—rolling her eyes when a chorus of “ewwwwws” sounded out—and then rushed into the theatre, leaving Twilight with the foals.

“All right, everypony,” she exclaimed, “form a line and—one line, not three—and follo—that’s still three lines! Everypony get behind Minty!” She waited until they formed what could somewhat be called a single file and then continued. “And now…”

To the gasps of the children, the doors to the theatre opened up all by themselves.

“Follow me!”

The foals huddled behind her, Twilight’s horn began to glow, and she led them inside the pitch black theatre, stiffling a giggle at their urgent whisperings.

“What’s going on?!”

“Why’s it dark?!”

“What’s on the floor? It’s soft! Can I step on it?!”

“Dusk, can I jump on it?!”

“Don’t jump on that, Rhy!”

Their whisperings devolved into a yelp when the doors closed behind them, and before they could try and figure out what was happening, BOOM! Stage lights beamed to life, drawing their attention to the two cloaked ponies on opposite sides of the stage, their hoods obscuring their faces.

“Foals of Hollow Shades!” Rarity exclaimed.

“Welcome,” Pinkie continued, “to Princess Luna’s Dreamtime Spectacular!”

Boom! The stagelights turned off, a faint crack following soon after, and Rarity spoke up again, the foals scrambling as her voice suddenly sounded off behind them.

“You have been selected for a very special mission!”

“A super duper special mission! It’ll be dangerous!”

Boom! The stagelights returned and focused on Daring Do, whipping her lasso around as the foals cheered.

“A top secret mission!” Rarity warned, and at the sound of her voice did the stagelights go off, turning back on to reveal a ninja, looking around suspiciously and then scrambling in place at having been revealed.

“And most of all,” Pinkie continued, the stagelights turning off again, “it’ll help Princess Luna!”

The stagelights returned and Twilight’s heart squeezed at the sight of the moon princess herself, standing on stage—stoic, determined, fierce.

Rarity’s voice picked up, now moving across the room. “Princess Luna, as you all know, has been trapped by the dastardly Spirit of Discord and Disharmony, which means…”

“She can’t have any fun on Seeking Night! Or ever!” Pinkie continued, and as she spoke so did Luna’s ears drop, her determination and fierceness melting into loneliness as she looked away from the foals.

“So it’s up to you to help her!” Pinkie insisted. “The more ponies believe in her, the better her chances to escape!”

One crack sounded off in the room, and Twilight teleported next to Luna, stepping forward to address the foals, echoing her speech from the day before.

“Listen to me, everypony! I’m here now because of foals like you who believed in me! Will you help Princess Luna, too?!”

When the foals all cheered, Rarity and Pinkie joined Twilight and Incantation under the spotlight.

“In that case,” they said in unison, stepping forward, “it’s time for…” Finally, the entire room lit up now, revealing the dozens of mattresses and blankets scattered around. “A Sleepover!”

Chaos filled the dreamland as foals rushed to pick a mattress, trying to sleep next to their friends or near Twilight and the others. As they did so, Twilight turned to look at the others, her grin matching theirs at the sight of their plan truly and fully materializing.

“Oki-doki-loki, everypony! Princess Twilight and me are going to be in your dreams too so we can help with Princess Luna!” Pinkie exclaimed, clapping her hooves together. “But first, since she’s trapped in dreams, we have to sleep to find her! Like this!”

No sooner had she said so, she literally fell completely asleep in place, the foals giggling at her snores.

Twilight and Rarity exchanged amused glances before the latter cleared her throat and addressed the foals again.

“...Anyhow! Before you sleep, Professor Awe will go to each one and measure your chaos levels.” She noticed somepony raising their hoof. “Yes, Dusk?”

“What’s chaos levels?”

“Chaos levels represents the level of resistance you have against chaos magic,” Twilight explained. “Measuring it will help us see how ready you are to remember Princess Luna even when you’re awake. Are you fine with us doing that?” When the foals nodded, she added, “You can ask the professor anything you want, too, okay?”

Just as she said, the professor and Incantation walked in moments later and made their way around the room, the professor jotting down the foals’ individual chaos levels while she offered them milk and cookies.

Rarity hummed, looking over the scene. “I was hoping we wouldn’t need a sleeping spell to put them to bed, but seeing how excited they are…”

“It’s a perfectly safe spell, Rarity. I used it on Spike when he was little. And we did tell their parents,” she reassured her, but when Rarity’s nod seemed more nervous and stressed than reassured, she leaned in to nuzzle her. “Rarity, it’ll be fine.”

Rarity tried to smile. “I know, darling, but I just want this to be over.”

Once the foals were snuggled in bed, the lights were turned off, and they had all been shushed multiple times, Rarity signaled Twilight and her horn glowed, a soft aura spreading over the room as one by one the foals fell asleep.

Leaving Pinkie to sleep on stage, the rest of the crew then exited the room and went up to the second floor stairs.

“Oh, Rarity!”

If the first floor was overrun by foals, the second floor was overrun by seamstresses and their sewing machines, Fluttershy at their lead. More than a dozen mares were spread throughout the place, and surrounding them were piles and piles of fabrics and materials of all sizes, colors, and textures, designed to create absolutely anything a foal might dream up for the dozens of teddy bears spilling out of bags.

“It’s done,” Rarity announced. “They’re asleep. Now comes the real challenge.” She looked at Twilight and then gestured to her workshop. “After you, your highness.”

One by one, all eyes drifted to Twilight and she tried not to feel the pressure as she made her way into Rarity’s workshop. Once there, Rarity closed the door behind them while she settled on a floor cushion prepared for her.

When there was nothing else to do but start, Twilight swallowed.

“Wish me luck?”

“Success, darling. Princess Luna once told me: luck is arbitrary. Success is a choice.” She lifted Twilight’s chin with her hoof. “I wish you success.”

Twilight closed her eyes. “Can you put—”

Immediately she heard the faint sound of Rarity’s gramophone beginning to play, soft lounge jazz tinkling into the parlor.

As always, Rarity was one step ahead.

With a smile, she took a breath and did her best to relax, her horn lighting up as she fell into a dreamstate.

Her eyes opened a few moments later as she found herself inside the realm of dreams, the music still faintly filling the background. A few couple doors could be found scattered around, but as she walked up to them, her ears lowered at realizing not a single one bore the cutie marks of the foals in the Dreamland.

“...Okay.”

Did something go wrong? Was Princess Luna not able to create a shared dream? Where was she, even? And where were all the foals’ doors?

“I guess we could go to each foal’s dream individually,” she muttered, already working on a solution. “That’ll take longer, though.”

Her machinations whirred to life in her head only to abruptly stop when her eyes landed on a door in the distance. Specifically, a humongous white double door bearing the missing cutie marks of the Dreamland foals.

“Ooooooooooh!”

She rushed up to the towering doors, pushed them open and before she could voice her excitement, she had to practically throw herself out of the way of a stampede of roaring quinticorns, a foal guiding them all.

“Hi, Princess Twilight!” he yelled, waving at her as his personal stampede directed him towards the complete pandemonium that was this dream, filled with olympic vanilla-shake pools, towers of ice cream and cake, and foals laughing and chasing each other around in costumes, completely changing the dream to their every whim.

And at the center of it all was Pinkie, delighting the foals by giving herself—admittedly disturbing—extending legs and then slipping on banana peels in slow motion. Twilight watched this with faint amusement for a few minutes, but forced herself to move on when banana peels started slipping on Pinkie.

She looked around and finally found her target in the shape of Princess Luna, watching from a distance as Pinkie played with the foals.

“Princess Luna!” Twilight called out to her. “You did it! A shared dream! It looks amazing!”

The Princess smiled. “Thank you, Twilight. It is nothing.”

“No, this is amazing, Princess,” Twilight insisted, because it was. It was exciting, and amazing, and real. This was hope given life. She couldn’t help an excited giggle. “It’s happening.”

The princess returned the gesture. “I am trying not to get my hopes up, but this is encouraging, is it not?”

“What do you mean not getting your hopes up?!”

They looked down to see Pinkie had joined them, now transformed into a filly. She put her hoof against her mouth and blew, transforming back into a mare and then hopped in circles around the two alicorns. “We’re getting you out! We’re getting you out!”

“Hope,” said the princess carefully, “is a dangerous thing.”

“It’s the best thing!” Pinkie retorted. “Right, Princess Twilight?”

“We’re going to do it, Princess Luna. We are getting you out of wherever you are.”

Princess Luna laughed softly. “That would be nice, Twilight Sparkle.”

They walked around after that, taking a dozen or so minutes to not only play with the foals, but to find their first and most important target.

“Dusk Star,” Princess Luna called, rousing the attention of the colt. “Approach us.” When the colt rushed over, she leaned down to speak with him. “Your birthday is in a few days, is it not?”

“Mm-hmm! I’m going to be ten!”

“And do you believe in me? Do you believe that I am real?”

Dusk snorted. “Yeah!”

She nodded, satisfied, and leaned back. “I have a gift for you and the other foals. A guardian.”

“A guardian?”

“Something that will watch over you when I cannot, and will remind you I am real and will always be with you.”

Twilight’s ears perked up when the princess materialized a teddy bear, and she then quietly moved behind Dusk, ready to see and remember everything he saw.

He frowned.

“Uhm. That’s just a teddy bear?”

The princess shook her head. “Not just any teddy bear. One that will be of your own design.” She met Twilight’s eyes briefly before looking back to him. “What would you like it to have?”

He fell to his haunches, deep in thought.

“Mmmm… Dragon wings!” he exclaimed.

And so Twilight made sure to carefully observe the details of the blue dragon wings that sprouted from the bear’s back, and then the green armor, the spiky red helmet, and the yellow and blue pouch hanging from its waist.

The most important part, however, was the symbol of a sword patched onto its back, hidden beneath the armor.

“Cool!” he exclaimed when it was done, reaching for the bear and looking him over. “Thank you, Princess Luna!”

The princess bowed her head. “It is nothing.” She gestured to Twilight. “Why not let Princess Twilight see it?”

“Oh, yeah!” He turned to her, practically shoving it against her chest. “Look, Princess Twilight! Do you like it?!”

“Oh, wow!” she exclaimed, taking the bear in her hoof and turning it upside-down, sideways, diagonally, imprinting every single aspect of it into her brain. “What a great teddy bear, Dusk!”

When she handed it back to him, he rushed off to show it to his friends, leaving Twilight and Princess Luna alone.

“Soooo,” Twilight said, “I should—”

Princess Luna’s horn flashed, and Twilight blinked to find herself alone in Rarity’s workshop.

“...go.”

One, two, three seconds went by until she practically launched herself at the door, slammed it open, and rushed out upon which every single mare in the room fell dead silent, eyes wide.

“I have one!” she exclaimed. “Dusk Star!”

“Dusk Star,” Rarity repeated quietly, before whipping around, screeching like a banshee. “Quick! Where’s my sketchbook?!” The second somepony threw it at her, she rushed to Twilight. “Go, go, go!”

“I’m going!” Twilight blurted out, her horn lighting up, followed by her necklace. She closed her eyes, hearing Rarity’s own necklace ping seconds later, signaling her to start picturing the bear in her head. She did her best to conjure it up and couldn’t help a smile when this was quickly followed by the sound of a pencil scratching paper.

After about a minute, the connection abruptly cut off, and she opened her eyes to see several sketches on the floor, all of them depicting in detail the teddy bear’s different angles. Rarity grabbed the sketches from the floor with her magic and then pinned them onto a corkboard that had been lifted high up for all to see.

“Now!” she thundered. “Delegate! Pick something and start!”

One by one, the sewing machines whirred to life, their owners calling out different parts of the bear. “I’m doing the wings!” yelled one, rushing to the blue fabrics, while another waved to Fluttershy, calling for “quick! I can do the helmet! Can you do the spikes?!”

“Sew, ladies!” Rarity yelled, jumping atop a table. “Sew like your life depends on it!”

In the middle of this thrilling, stressed chaos, Rarity turned to Twilight and gestured to her workshop.

“Off you go, darling. It’s going to be a long evening.”

They fell into a rhythm, Twilight going back and forth between dreams and reality and bringing back designs—from teddy bears with two heads to teddy bears with long flowing dresses and golden hair—while downstairs, Incantantion watched over the foals, greeting parents who stopped by to see their foals.

Eventually, as midnight approached, new orders came farther and father in between, until they finally stopped entirely. Soon enough, the exhausted but exhilarated seamstresses were sprawled on cushions throughout the room, admiring their pile of transformed teddy bears.

“Ladies,” Rarity said, drinking from a glass of wine, “twenty-three bears in a single evening. Bravo.”

“So, when are we testing if this worked or not?” Rainbow Dash asked, having joined them alongside Applejack, Pinkie and the professor for the final act. She grabbed one of the bears and looked it over. “Can’t we, like, wake up one of the kids and just get it over with?”

Twilight shook her head. “No. They need to remember the teddy bear when they wake up, so the more time we give Princess Luna to make sure they play with them, the better.”

“How’d you reckon’ we’re going to trigger the chaos magic?” Applejack asked. “The birthday thingamajigger?”

The professor nodded, looking over his notes. “In theory, yes. The real test to see if this worked will be when Dusk Star is told Princess Luna—and Princess Twilight, as well—aren’t real during Elder Moonshine’s visit on his birthday. However.” He put his notes away and adjusted his glasses. “We’re also administering a preliminary test today. Something to try and trigger it while I measure their levels.”

“Do you think they’ll have gone down?” Fluttershy asked.

He shrugged. “Possible, but unlikely. As far as I’m concerned, if it’s unchanged, I’m calling that a win.”

“Hello?” a voice called from the floor below, and before anyone could go down to look, Incantation came running up.

“A mom is here!” she whispered urgently. “For Dusk and Rhinestone.”

Rarity smiled. “Oh, good,” she said, immediately afterwards drinking up the entirety of the fresh glass of wine she’d just poured herself. “Mmm. I shouldn’t have done that. Anywho!” She put the glass down and followed after Ink. “To fetch him I shall go! And I expect to have a third glass prepared for my return!”

An oppressive silence followed this, Twilight noticed, nopony apparently having anything better to do than wait, and wait, and wait.

Eventually, Dusk and Rarity’s voices broke the silence, drifting closer and closer. Everyone’s eyes darted straight to the stairs.

“Really? How dazzling! And then what happened?”

“And then! And then, I told Tumble to throw me, and he threw me, like, a bajillion feet up in the air!” the foal rambled on, walking up the stairs with Rarity.

“A bajillion?!” she gasped, following up after him.

“Mm-hmm! And then, I got dragon wings, and I was like fwoosh!” He jumped up two stairs, presumably demonstrating his flying, and then saw most of the Dreamland crew gathered around, blinking at him. He blinked back, suddenly shy. “Oh, uhm. Hello.”

Immediately, and terribly, most of the ponies scrambled away, pretending oh so very hard to be otherwise engaged that Twilight couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

“Hi, Dusk!” Pinkie greeted, moving forward.

“Pinkie!” he exclaimed, suddenly delighted. “You were in my dream! And you too, Princess Twilight! Just like you said you would be! And Princess Luna, too! And…” He drifted off. “Oh… Something cool happened, but I can’t remember it… Uhm, wait…”

Rarity cleared her throat. “Princess Luna gave you something, didn’t she?” she asked, walking over and sitting next to Twilight. “A guardian, you told me?”

“O-Oh, yeah! It was really cool! It had dragon wings, and red helmet with spikes, and then—”

And so his ramble was cut short when, before his very wide eyes, Twilight levitated a very familiar teddy bear.

“It… It’s Mister Dragon!” he gasped, rushing forward to grab it. “But—! But he was in my—! How did—!”

“It’s a present from Princess Luna,” Twilight said. “She asked us to make it for you.”

“Wait, wait!” he blurted, moving the fabric of the armor. “Does it have—” A shocked gasp left his lips, and he turned it over for everyone to see the sword patched onto its back, right beneath the armor. “It has my sword! It has my sword!” He hugged it to his chest, running to the stairs. “Princess Luna’s the best! Mom! Rhy!”

“Ah ah ah,” Professor Awe quickly said, levitating the foal away from the stairs and back towards them. “We need to check your chaos levels first.”

“My chao—Oh, ‘cuz of the spirit!” He quickly stood up straight, prepared. “Okay, I’m ready!”

Slowly, inch by inch, everypony in the room dropped any pretense of not caring as the professor took out his device. Rarity, in turn, took off her necklace and gave it to him, later pressing herself against Twilight when the alicorn draped her with a reassuring wing.

“Very well.” The professor glanced at his notes one last time, before clicking the machine on, and approaching the foal. “Very well.” He cleared his throat, glancing back at everypony else, before pointing it towards Dusk. “Now, Dusk, I’m going to ask you several ques—Hng.”

Suddenly he cut himself off, without reason or explanation, and Twilight felt Rarity press herself more against her body, practically burying her face in Twilight’s chest.

“What’s wrong?” Dusk asked, voicing the common thought of the entire room. He turned to the others, seeking an answer, and then back to Awe, nervous. “Did I mess up or something?”

The professor stared at the device for agonizingly slow seconds before clearing his throat.

“No, no, not at all. I was just looking at something, nothing is wrong,” he said, as if indeed nothing was wrong. “Now, I’m going to ask you something and I need you to answer truthfully. Do you believe Princess Luna is real, and that she and Princess Twilight are indeed the princesses of legend?”

Dusk snorted. “Yeah, duh! Of course they’re real!” he exclaimed, hugging his teddy bear.

“Good. Good!” The professor shut down the device. “That will be all.”

“That’s it?” Twilight blurted out, despite herself. She quickly cleared her throat and nervously continued, “I was under the impression you’d ask more questions, Professor.”

“Oh, I changed my mind,” he said, quickly.

“Ha ha…!” Pinkie said. “Are you sure, Professor? Super duper sure? Maybe you bonked your—”

“I’m sure.”

And Twilight’s heart constricted at that. This was... Well, this was bad. If he didn’t even feel the need to ask questions, then that meant…

“How did it go?” Dusk asked, standing on the tip of his hooves. “Am I better now?!”

The professor hummed.

“Let’s see. When I first measured you earlier today, your chaos levels were at four ticks. It has changed since then,” he said, and Twilight tightened her wing against Rarity. Without further ado, he whipped the machine around for all to see. “See for yourself.”

And so did they see in stunned silence as Dusk cheered, “It went down! I’m a two now! I’m a two! My guardian is protecting me!”

Rarity was the first to react, moving her head away from Twilight to whisper, “it went down?”

Twilight was next, moving away from Rarity entirely to grab the device and see this for herself, make sure for herself, that this was real and there.

And it was.

And she said as much as she turned to everyone else, gawking at her for confirmation, and repeated, “It went down.”

Numb as she said, “It worked.”

And now Pinkie reacted next, her gentle laughter becoming a full on cheer as she rushed forward to swing Dusk in her forelegs, tears in her eyes.

“It worked! It worked!” she cheered on and on and on, as the delighted foal celebrated what he thought was a game.

“We should get my mom and Rhy!” he asked, and so Pinkie rushed down the stairs, both of them yelling at the top of her lungs.

“Mom, it WORKED!”

“Dusk’s Mom! It WORKED!”

Cheers erupted in the room after that, ponies hugging each other, Dash rushing to the window to holler the result to Spike, everything spinning and turning and delirious and happening. Such was the merriment, intensified when Dusk’s sister came up to fetch her own teddy bear, that no one noticed Rarity quietly slip away to her workshop.

Except for Twilight, of course.

“Rarity?” she asked, stepping into the workshop to find her marefriend sitting in the middle of the room, idly toying with her necklace. After closing the door behind her, Twilight stepped towards her, concerned. “Is something wrong?”

“It worked,” Rarity said, and Twilight couldn’t help a smile.

“It did.”

“It did, didn’t it? It worked,” the unicorn repeated. “It really did work. It worked. It actually worked. It worked! It worked!”

Her screech filled the room as she rushed to Twilight, practically toppling her to the floor in a hug, lost in a chorus of it worked, it worked, it worked, it worked, because it had somehow actually worked.

“Oh, thank the stars,” she said eventually, voice lowering, a tearful whisper as she buried her face in the crook of Twilight’s neck. “Thank the stars it worked.”

When she pulled away, wiping off her tears but not her delirious smile, she stood proud before Twilight.

“My! My, that was certainly something, wasn’t it?”

“You did it,” Twilight replied, matching her grin. “See? I told you to trust me when I said you could pull this off.”

Rarity laughed, affection seeping every note. “You did, didn’t you?” she said, moving forward, her hoof playing with Twilight’s necklace. “Look at me, Seeking Night Planner extraordinaire!”

Smitten, Twilight took advantage of their closeness to lean in for a kiss, which Rarity more than enthusiastically reciprocated. When they pulled back, Rarity sighed contentedly, lifting her hoof to brush back Twilight’s bangs.

“Happy meeting-anniversary, Twilight.”

A giddy laugh left Twilight’s lips. “Happy meeting-anniversary, Rarity,” she repeated, grateful for the mare that had stepped into her life exactly three years ago.

Now, everything was fine. This was it. The breakthrough.

Rarity was finally okay.

“Come on,” Twilight said, stepping back and heading towards the door. “We should tell the others.”

“Wait, Twilight,” Rarity quickly said, a forehoof pressing against Twilight before she could move away.

“What is it?” Twilight asked, going back to her previous position.

There was a moment of pause, Rarity’s cheer fading as she idly toyed with Twilight’s necklace, staring at it as she did so.

Eventually, she met Twilight’s gaze.

“You have my permission.”

Twilight frowned. “Permission? Permission for wha—” Her eyes grew wide, her heart now thundering in her chest. “Wait. You mean…?”

“Yes,” she said. “You have my permission to help me with my nightmares.”

An explosion of emotions flooded Twilight, and yet she had to be sure. There could be no doubt here.

“Are you sure?” she asked, putting her hoof over Rarity’s. “Are you really sure? I—” She paused, trying to figure out how to say it. “I don’t care if you’re not ready. That’s fine. I don’t want you to say yes if you’re not ready, Rarity. You need to be sure.”

Another pause, and eventually she opened her mouth to speak..

“And I mean really sure,” Twilight interrupted before Rarity could speak, drawing a laugh from her marefriend.

“Twi-light Sparkle, darling, dearest, sweetheart. I am.” She leaned in, gently tugging on the alicorn’s necklace. “You did tell me to trust you, did you not?”

Author's Note

It's surreal to think that most of this chapter was born as a conversation on Skype in 2014 back from the good ol' days when TEL wasn't supposed to be divided into two separate fics because I was confident I'd finish it in 100k words.

And now, the end of Act II finally begins.

Edit: ALSO, I TOTALLY FORGOT TOMORROW IS THE ONE-SHOT'S ANNIVERSARY DANG

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.
Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

~ Act II ~ 17 ~ The Art of Falling Apart ~

Author's Note

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman. Additionally, please let me know if you see a typo (preferably through PM)!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls! After over two years of buildup, welcome to the final arc of Act II! It's been a wild ride to get here, challenging me as a writer in ways I never anticipated, and yet I have to say I am incredibly proud of what's in store.

Thus, please enjoy this arc that I've lovingly dubbed...

The Nightmare Nights.

~ Act II ~ 17 ~ The Art of Falling Apart ~

They’d been there before, hadn’t they?

Once upon a time, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Rarity the Unicorn had a sleepover with all their friends—they played games, shared stories, and had more fun than Twilight remembered having in quite some time.

Three days later, Rarity got cursed, maimed, and taken away from her.

Twice upon a time, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Rarity the Unicorn had a sleepover with all their friends—they played games, shared dreams, and had more fun than Princess Luna remembered having in quite some time.

Three days later, they hoped the other shoe wouldn’t drop.

Foals of all ages filled the Dreamland, running and rushing and playing and laughing, each and every one carrying with them a very special teddy bear—each one wholly unique.

At the center of this excitement was Dusk Star, reveling in his very last nights as a nine-year-old foal.

The foals talked and talked and talked, about what he’d do, what presents he would get, and most importantly, at what time would Elder Moonshine come visit him to tell him the town’s great secret.

It was impressive, Twilight had to admit, the extent to which the chaos magic had shaped Hollow Shades and its customs. Impressive in a tragic sort of way how it had quietly warped ponies into convincing each other for generations that Princess Luna wasn’t real.

But it was fine because they had won.

They had won, and as she’d said to Incantation during Seeking Night, if this didn’t work, then she and Rarity would figure something else out.

Then again, there was no shame in preparing in advance.

Seated at the corner of the lobby, Twilight poured herself into the fourth of several history books written during her era, Celestia’s note about the Winter Moon Observance acting as a book marker.

Beside her were notebooks filled to the brim with notes on Princess Luna and everything she’d done during her reign in comparison to Princess Celestia. As it turned out, the Winter Moon Observance wasn’t the only event Princess Luna had canceled. There were dozens more, all resembling successful events Princess Celestia had organized, and all doubtless canceled for the very same reason.

She had thought no pony cared.

Maybe this will help?

Chimes from a distant clocktower interrupted her thoughts, and she smiled when the foals collectively groaned in disappointment.

“Come on, everypony!” Pinkie announced. “Time to go home!”

As Incantation herded the foals towards their backpacks, Twilight carefully put her books and notes away and then quietly approached Pinkie.

“We should talk to him now before he leaves,” she said, glancing towards Dusk and his sister. “Where’s Rarity?”

“Oh, in the bakery, I think? She said she wanted more coffee.”

Twilight frowned. “More? It’s nearly seven at night.”

And wasn’t that her seventh cup that day?

“I’ll go get her,” she continued, walking towards the bakery. “You get Dusk ready and we’ll be out in a minute.”

Twilight tried to go to the kitchen to do just that, but a barrage of foals interrupted her, as they often did when they had to go home. After saying goodbye to each and every one, and then almost—almost—manipulated to take one on one last fly around the Dreamland, she finally stepped into the bakery, closing the door behind her.

Phew.

Sounds distracted her, and when she looked towards them, she saw Rarity looking for something under the counter, steam rising from the large mug she’d put on it.

“Rarity? We’re supposed to talk with Dusk now. What are you doing?”

Rarity looked up. “Oh, Twilight! Nothing, dear. I’ll be right out!” She looked back down. “Do you know if Pinkie moved my sugar bowl? I can’t find it anywhere.”

“Isn’t it a little too late to be drinking coffee?”

“Too lat—Ow!” A clunk interrupted her, and she lifted her head from beyond the counter, rubbing where she’d hit herself. After assuring Twilight she was fine, she cleared her throat and went back to searching for her sugar bowl. “As I always say, a good night’s sleep is only made better with a good cup of coffee.”

“I have never heard you say that.”

“...I’m sure Pinkie has a mug with that written on it somewhere, though!” The sound of mugs clanking filled the air. “Some of the slogans on these are quite clever, actually. In fact! The one I was using earlier had a delightful joke, hold on—”

She got up from behind the counter and disappeared into the kitchen.

“Rarit—”

“Hold on, hold on!”

She came back out a minute later, reading off the dirty mug she was holding.

“All right, here it is. I’m sure you of all ponies will appreciate this.” She cleared her throat and read aloud, “What did the coffee-drinking ghost say?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Rarity.”

“What did it say, Twilight!”

With a roll of her eyes, Twilight indulged her. “What did the coffee-drinking ghost say, Rarity?”

“Brew!” Rarity exclaimed, dissolving into a fit of hysterical giggles before those giggles dissolved as well as she pressed her face against the counter. “Stars, I’m so tired.”

“Of telling bad jokes?”

“Bad? It’s a terrible joke,” Rarity muttered, face still pressed against the counter. “Pinkie thinks it’s hysterical. And I’ll have you know I’m actually tired.”

“I’m not surprised considering how much coffee you’ve been drinking the last couple of days,” Twilight gently chastised, walking over to her marefriend. “Are you avoiding sleep?”

“What? No! Goodness, no,” Rarity said, instantly alert. “I’m just stressed. I’m sure you can appreciate that with everything still at stake. I promise once everything with Dusk is over, I will take several sleeping pills and have a well-earned beauty sleep.”

“Tonight,” Twilight gently said, pushing the mug away from Rarity. “You should sleep properly tonight.”

Rarity whined. “But…” Her ears dropped. “What if I have nightmares?”

“You haven’t had one since before Seeking Night,” Twilight pointed out. This was good, of course, but she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t a little disappointed that now that she could help, Rarity wasn’t having a single bad dream.

“That’s true…”

“And if you have any,” Twilight continued, smiling affectionately at her, “I’ll take care of them.”

Rarity smiled. “I’m sure you will.”

The doors to the bakery opened and Pinkie poked her head in. “Uhm, are you two coming, ooooor…?”

“We are.” She turned to Rarity and nodded towards the door. “Coming?”

Rarity’s eyes drifted towards her coffee. “But…”

“I’ll make you a cup of tea after we’re done, okay?”

“Oh, all right,” Rarity said, defeated. “Onwards, then.”

“What’s going on?” Dusk asked as they stepped out, glancing towards the outside where Incantation was distracting his sister. He clutched his teddy bear in his foreleg and grinned. “Are we doing something?!”

The three mares briefly glanced at each other, sharing the same trepidation. Was this a good idea?

Rarity decided for them.

“Dusk, if I may,” she said, sitting down in front of him. “You believe Princess Luna is real, don’t you? And that Twilight is really the princess of legend, yes?”

Dusk nodded. “Uh-huh! We’re rescuing Princess Luna, right?! I’m gonna tell Elder Moonshine all about it when she comes to visit me tomorrow!”

Rarity laughed nervously. “Yes, about that. When the Elder comes…” She faltered.

“What about it?” he pressed. “Is it about how I’m gonna help you with Seeking Night next year?! Featherwing told me his big brother started helping when he turned ten! I think we should have more waterslides!”

“No, dear, that—” Rarity faltered again.

Twilight took charge.

“Dusk.”

She stepped forward and sat down next to Rarity, Pinkie doing the same on the opposite side.

How did she say this?

“Tomorrow, Elder Moonshine and the others are going to tell you things that you might not agree with.”

His brow furrowed. “Like what?”

“Things,” Twilight said, unsure of whether she should elaborate or not. “Things about Princess Luna. About me.” She faltered and then forced herself to go on. “Things that might upset you.”

“Upset me?” he asked, eyes searching the three mares. Perhaps subconsciously, he squeezed his teddy bear. “Why would they say stuff like that?”

Pinkie moved forward, speaking quickly.

“It’s the spirit! Remember how we told you the Spirit is making the adults think silly, dumb things? It’s ‘cause he’s mean and he’s trying to trick us! And he’s already tricked the other adults!”

“Is he gonna try to trick me?!”

“Yes,” Twilight said, “but you’re not goi—”

“Is Elder Moonshine going to try and trick me too?” he interrupted, visibly upset. “Why would she do that?!”

“No, darling,” Rarity quickly said. “Elder Moonshine doesn’t want to trick you, but… Well, she doesn’t even know she’s been tricked herself. Do you understand? It’s as if… Pretend you didn’t know what vanilla or chocolate ice cream was, and I tricked you by giving you vanilla ice-cream but telling you it’s actually chocolate.”

“But it’s vanilla!”

“Yes, but you wouldn’t know that, would you? As far as you’re concerned, that’s chocolate ice-cream. And if Rhinestone were to ask you what it was, when you say it’s chocolate ice-cream, well…”

“Ooooh… “ Dusk frowned. ”I’d be tricking her.”

“Not on purpose, of course, or because you meant to trick her. You just won’t know you’re accidentally tricking her because you don’t know you’ve been tricked yourself.”

“Dusk,” Twilight said. “Whatever they tell you, whatever they say, you know what’s real. You know I’m real.” She reached over and placed a hoof over his teddy bear. “And you know Princess Luna is real.”

“This isn’t about who’s right or wrong,” Rarity added. “This is about what you believe. Trust what you know.”

“Okay! I won’t let him trick me, I promise!”

“Good,” Twilight said.

Hopefully he would keep his promise.

***

Late into the night, long after Dusk and his sister had left, Twilight and the others were gathered in the bakery, having nothing left to do but wait.

“So you told him?” Rainbow asked between mouthfuls of cake.

“As much as we could,” Rarity replied.

“Okay, but, like, why not just tell him everything?”

“This is a test,” the professor spoke up, tinkering with his device. “The final test, which means it wouldn’t be a very accurate one if we completely prepare him for it. For our own sake, we need to see what happens when he’s told without expecting it. If his belief in the legend survives, we’ll know our efforts are fool-proof.”

“There’s also the fact that we can’t risk activating the chaos magic,” Twilight continued.

“Activating it?” Applejack asked. “I thought the darn thing was already mighty active.”

“Not really. It’s influencing ponies, but right now it’s doing it in a very passive way. We have to be ready for it to fight back once it realizes what we’re doing, which it will.”

“Pfffft! So what?” Rainbow Dash stuck her fork in her cake and crossed her forelegs. “We beat the chaos magic at the dragon caves, and then the one from Princess Twi’s forest. We can beat it again!”

Fluttershy cleared her throat, drawing the attention to her.

“But…if Dusk passes the test, what will we do then? Do this for years and years until there’s no more ponies influenced by chaos magic?”

“In theory, yes,” Rarity replied.

“That’s insane! I mean, I know that’s the plan, but that’s going to take years!”

Rarity smiled thinly. “...Yes.”

“If,” Twilight interrupted, “we only focus on chaos magic. I think we should consider what might be fueling the chaos magic, too.” At everyone’s stares, she elaborated, “Princess Luna. I have a theory that she might be keeping herself trapped in there.”

Rainbow guffawed. “What?! Come on, Princess! Why would anypony keep themselves locked in some dinky place for a thousand years?!” she asked, and when everypony fell silent as Rarity eyed daggers at her, she quickly cleared her throat. “Oh. Uh. Well. Besides you, Princess.”

“Land sake’s, Rainbow Dash.”

“I’m sorry!”

“Anyway,” Twilight interrupted, “when Princess Celestia wrote back to me at the castle, she mentioned the Winter Moon Observance, an event that was supposed to go along with the Summer Sun Celebration.”

The professor blinked. “Strange. Most of our holidays are the same as the ones from your era. Why haven’t I heard of this one before?”

“Because Princess Luna canceled it after feeling like ponies didn’t care for it as much as they did for Princess Celestia’s event. That might be what’s keeping her wherever she is. Discord… Discord lived in the castle with us for almost four years. He knew us well enough to know how we work. That’s what his chaos magic is doing; using us against ourselves.”

Pinkie’s eyes widened. “The inscription on her statue!”

“What? The statue in the plaza?” Rainbow asked. “What inscription?”

“It’s what she told the founder of Hollow Shades when she met him in his dreams,” Rarity said, somberly. “I saw it the first time I visited Hollow Shades. ‘Perhaps my fate is to be forgotten, now in dreams as I was in life.’”

Applejack snorted. “At this rate, I reckon’ we should hire a therapist and we’ll get y’all out of there lickety-split.”

Twilight laughed. “We don’t need a therapist. We have somepony better,” she said, grinning at her marefriend. “Right, Rarity?”

Rarity peered into her cup. “Ah yes, who wants a thrilling career in fashion when you can run around like a headless chicken rescuing princesses from themselves, mm?”

“What exactly are you proposing, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, looking to Twilight

“If our Seeking Night plan works, then that’ll mean the Princess has no other choice than to believe ponies do care about her. If she believes that, and if she really is trapping herself in there like I was, maybe that will convince her to break her own curse.”

“Interesting theory,” said the professor. “If true, that might actually help.”

The others quickly voiced their agreements, and yet Twilight noticed Rarity didn’t join them, instead staring intently at her tea.

“Rarity?” Twilight asked. “What do you think?”

“I think,” Rarity said, standing up and covering a yawn with her hoof , “that I’d love to discuss that when I’m not falling asleep. Tomorrow’s a big day for us all and Twilight’s already threatened to put a spell on me if I don’t try to get a full eight hours. So, with that said, goodnight, everypony!”

Twilight blinked, thrown off by the abrupt goodbye. “All right…”

The gathering didn’t last much longer after that, most everyone using Rarity’s departure as a good time to leave as well. Goodnights were said, said goodnights turned into half hour conversations in the lobby, and then eventually ended when Incantation strongly encouraged them out. Soon, only Fluttershy remained , the only out-of-towner actually staying at the Dreamland.

“Why do they even say goodnight if they’re going to stay another hour talking?” whined the changeling, locking the front door. When that was done, she turned to the princess. “I’m going to bed, Princess. Did you need anything else before I do?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, that’s fine. I’m going to make myself a cup of coffee and then I’ll head up.”

Incantation raised an eyebrow. “Coffee? At midnight? Isn’t that kinda la—Oh! Are you dreamwalking tonight? I figured you’d stop doing it after Seeking Night.”

“No. Princess Luna still wants me to practice,” Twilight replied.

“Oh, I guess that makes sense. It’s not like she’s going to be freed tomorrow.” Another yawn escaped Incantation’s lips and so she made her way up towards her room. “Okay, well, I’m heading off. G’night, Princess!”

Twilight watched her go before heading back to the kitchen, where she brewed herself a cup of coffee and then a cup of tea for Rarity, hopefully dissuading the unicorn from wanting more of the caffeine she’d been practically inhaling for the past days.

Her nightmares must be really bad if she’s avoiding sleep that much, she thought to herself, idly stirring sugar into the tea.

Unless.

Unless she doesn’t want you in her dreams, another voice whispered.

“No, that’s not true,” Twilight quickly told herself, wanting to bury the thought before it began and turned into something else. Unless it was true, which it might be, which meant that—”No.”

No.

Rarity had given her permission, and she trusted Rarity to not have done that unless she really meant it.

She took a deep breath and pressed her hoof on the physical and literal representation of that trust, trying her best to remember her breathing exercises. Once she’d taken ten full breaths, she forced away any further doubt and made her way out of the kitchen.

She’d almost made it to Rarity’s room too when the sound of arguing forced her to stop.

“...worrying over nothing, really!” Rarity said, though Twilight failed to catch what or who was worrying over nothing.

“I’d rather worry over nothing than not worry at all,” Fluttershy replied, her voice coming closer and closer until she stepped out of the room and ran into Twilight. “Oh, princess!”

“Is something wrong?” Twilight asked, immediately concerned.

Fluttershy shook her head. “Oh no, everything is fine!” However, rather than elaborating as Twilight hoped, she instead looked at the mugs Twilight was floating and smiled playfully. “I hope the coffee is for you.”

“It is.”

“Good! I’m going to bed, then,” Fluttershy continued, walking past Twilight. She only made it five steps before stopping and turning back to Twilight. “I’ll be in my room if you need me, all right? Please don’t hesitate.”

“Er, all right.”

Fluttershy smiled. “Good night, Princess.”

“Goodnight.”

Twilight watched her leave after that, the entire exchange leaving more questions than answers. Was she worried?

“Oh, Twilight!” Rarity exclaimed when Twilight stepped into the room. She was already in bed, ready to turn in for the night. “Coming to bed?”

“Uh, no, not yet.” She walked over and put the two mugs on the table, glancing back towards the door. “Does Fluttershy think something is wrong with me?”

“What do you mean?” Rarity asked, reaching for her cup of tea.

“I’m not sure? She said I shouldn’t hesitate to talk to her if I needed to.”

And so Rarity’s hoof froze in mid-air. “Oh?” she asked, before finally taking her mug. “Don’t trouble yourself over that, dear. It’s been an emotional week for us all, and she’s just being, well, Fluttershy.”

“But…”

“Twilight, really,” Rarity insisted, not forceful but almost. “Fluttershy would worry over her own shadow if she could. Don’t think about it anymore. Instead…” She patted the spot next to her, fluttering her eyelashes. “You could join me in bed.”

Twilight grinned. “To sleep?”

“I was more thinking something akin to cuddling and talking until morning, but I suppose we could add sleep somewhere in there, yes.”

“I can’t. I told Princess Luna I’d practice dreamwalking tonight,” Twilight insisted when Rarity whined at her. “I told her!”

“Oh, all right,” Rarity grumbled, covering herself with the sheets. “Be that way! Leave me to sleep alone. I see. I see.”

Twilight moved in to kiss her, giggling when the unicorn tried to hide her face so as to prevent it. After kissing Rarity’s cheek through the sheets, she got up and made her way to the door, magically turning off the room’s lamps.

“Goodniiiight!”

“You know!” Rarity loudly said to herself. “Since Twilight will be too busy dreamwalking instead of making sure I’m asleep, she certainly won’t be able to stop me from getting more coffee!”

Twilight stopped dead in her tracks and turned to Rarity. “You won’t.”

Rarity smiled deviously. “Won’t I?”

“You won’t,” Twilight repeated, assured, up until Rarity simply kept smiling. She sighed heavily and then made her way to the bed. “I can’t believe that worked.”

Soon enough she was under the covers, Rarity cuddled up against her with one hoof wrapped tightly over Twilight’s barrel. The unicorn sighed after that, a long and relaxed sigh, and Twilight couldn’t help but be endeared.

“I’ll stay five minutes,” she warned, the teasing tone of her voice dissipating when Rarity buried her face in her chest, whining softly. “What’s wrong?”

There was a long pause.

Long, long, long until finally Rarity spoke.

“I love you,” she whispered, like a vulnerable confession, moving her head back slightly to meet Twilight’s gaze. “You know that, don’t you?”

“I know,” Twilight replied. “I love you, too.”

Rarity stayed in that moment for another second before moving forward and burying her face in the alicorn’s chest again, eyes closed.

So Twilight made a choice.

“Do you want me to tell Princess Luna I’m not dreamwalking tonight? I can stay here with you, if you’d prefer that.”

And faced with that, Rarity made a choice of her own.

“No, that’s fine,” she said after a pause. “Though I’d appreciate it if you stayed until I fell asleep.”

In the dead of the night, a wing wrapped around her significant other, Twilight Sparkle waited for Rarity to fall asleep. She waited, and waited, and waited, as patiently as she could, anxious to face whatever monster kept Rarity awake at night.

About an hour later, Rarity’s grip on Twilight finally loosened, the unicorn putting up no resistance when Twilight gently sat up and moved off the bed. She climbed down, tucked Rarity in, gave her a kiss on the cheek, and then quietly left the room, closing the door behind her.

Showtime.

The workroom’s lamps glowed to life when she came in, revealing that the room hadn’t been touched since Seeking Night. Everything had been left as is, from the gramophone and its jazz record, to the teddy bear designs scattered on the table, and finally, the meditation cushion waiting for Twilight in the dead center of the room.

She made herself comfortable, taking one last sip of her coffee, before finally closing her eyes and letting her horn alight with magic. A moment passed, and when quiet music filled the room, she began the spell.

“Twilight Sparkle.”

A smiling Princess Luna greeted her when she awoke in the dream realm, standing tall before the younger mare. Behind her, dozens of doors had already appeared, some flashing softly.

“Princess Luna!” Twilight said, getting up. “Sorry I’m late. Rarity asked me to stay with her until she fell asleep.”

Princess Luna’s smile vanished.

“Is something troubling her? I’ve not spoken with her since Seeking Night.”

Though she knew Rarity was nervous about Dusk, telling Luna probably wasn’t the best solution. She’d been in a good, hopeful mood since Seeking Night, and the last thing Twilight wanted was to ruin that.

“I think it’s her nightmares again,” Twilight said, and she couldn’t help a smile. “But I’ll take care of them. Has her door appeared yet?”

“It has,” Princess Luna said carefully.

“Really?! Where is it? Can you show me?” Twilight looked past the princess, trying to find Rarity’s door, but quickly stopped at Luna’s unimpressed stare. “...Or not?”

“It is not very reassuring to see a dreamwalker be so enthusiastic over their partner having nightmares.”

Twilight cleared her throat, embarrassed. “Right.”

“Let us walk,” Princess Luna said, walking away from Twilight and towards the rows of doors.

“A lot of them are flashing,” Twilight noted. “That’s strange.”

“Strange? Not at all. Despite its games, Seeking Night is still a reminder of Discord’s triumph over us, so it is normal for foals to have nightmares about him. It has always been the busiest time of the year for me.” She paused. “Well, I suppose examination season at school is one such as well.”

“Are we going together or splitting up like we did last week?” Twilight asked. “I think splitting up will be easier as we’ll cover more ground and finish faster. In fact, I can start with—”

“We’re going together.”

“...Oh. Okay. Although! Considering how many foals need help, splitting up would be a lot faster, Princess. I counted last time, and it took us one hour to end a high-maintenance nightmare, so if we split up, we can—”

Princess Luna stopped, giving Twilight A Look.

“...Sorry.” Twilight paused. “Though it would be much faster.”

“Nightmares are not a game, Twilight, nor something to be excited about,” the princess continued, moving on. “Rarity’s nightmares do not have priority over the nightmares of others.”

“I know,” Twilight said, chastised. “And I don’t think they should have priority, but I’m worried about her. She’s been drinking coffee to avoid sleep, and I really think I can help her. I know her.”

“Do you.”

Twilight came to a stop. “What do you mean? Of course I know her.”

“No. You know what she presents to you, nothing more, nothing less,” Princess Luna said, stopping as well. “The very fact that you are eager to assist her tells me you have no inkling of what ails her.”

At Twilight’s expression, the princess’s demeanor softened.

“It is not my intent to be harsh, but to simply make you understand what it is you want to do. Rarity’s dreams are not like the ones of foals, Twilight. She is an adult, and the terrors that plague adults are a very different beast to handle; the ones that plague Rarity even moreso. There are things in her dreams that even she does not want to confront, and though she may have given you permission, remember the circumstances of that. We often agree to things we are not prepared for when we are too deliriously happy to think them through.”

“But…”

An awful feeling overcame Twilight. She’d asked Rarity if she was sure, but just the idea that she might have been lying or…

No.

Rarity had said it was okay, and so Twilight would believe her. Rarity trusted Twilight to help, as she’d proven earlier that night.

“But she did think it through,” Twilight said, determined. “I asked her tonight if she preferred I didn’t dreamwalk, and she said it was fine.”

“She did?” the princess asked, ears lifting, and when Twilight nodded, a smile settled on her lips. She hummed for a moment, thoughtful, and then went on her way. “Follow me.”

They walked further along the corridors of doors until, finally, they came to a white door emblazoned with three diamonds.

“Here we are.”

Unlike the many others surrounding them, Rarity’s door was not flashing. It simply was, signaling that whatever dream she was having wasn’t an unpleasant one.

Princess Luna reached over and pressed a hoof on the door, a pulse of magic filtering into the wood.

“All is well.” She smiled to Twilight. “I do hope you’re not disappointed.”

“I’m not disappointed!” Twilight protested. She did in fact believe Rarity deserved a good night’s sleep, thank you very much.

“Regardless, I must assist the others.” Princess Luna retrieved her hoof and stepped away. “I assume you’d prefer guarding Rarity’s door.”

Twilight nodded, straightening up. “Is there anything I should know about her dreams? Or that I should prepare for?”

The princess stared at Twilight for a moment and longer still. The kinds of stares where millenia passed in a second, where all and nothing was considered at once.

“Remember your purpose,” she said eventually. “You are no longer Twilight Sparkle. You are merely an observer, and whatever you see, whatever happens, remember you are there to assist her and nothing else. Your personal feelings cannot get in the way.”

Twilight nodded. “What about the nightmare itself? Do you know what it’ll be? If it comes.”

“I have an inkling, yes,” the princess said, and nothing else.

“...And?” Twilight prompted, gesturing with her hoof until the princess kept silent. “...Aaaand you’re not going to tell me. Why not?”

“This is your final test, Twilight Sparkle. It is perhaps one of the most important tests you’ve yet faced.” She cocked her head to the side. “It would not be an effective one if I gave you all the answers.”

A lump formed in Twilight’s throat. She… She didn’t know this was going to be that kind of test. In fact, she didn’t know this was going to be a test at all.

“Farewell for now,” said the princess, walking away. “Find me if you need me.”

“W-wait!” Twilight called out. “Isn’t there anything you can tell me? What am I helping Rarity with? I know she was afraid of Discord and what he’s done! Is that it? Is she still afraid of what happened?”

Or… Or maybe what Rarity really feared was Discord hurting Twilight.

“Or is it me?!” Twilight asked next. “Does her nightmare involve me?”

And for the final time, the princess stopped to speak, though she did not look back.

“It does,” the princess said and then, after a pause, went on her way, leaving Twilight alone with her thoughts.

Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts that swirled and swirled as she waited for the nightmare to come, if it was to come. It made sense that Rarity would be afraid to have Twilight see her nightmares, especially if she was still afraid of Discord and what he could do, or of all the things that could go wrong. She was a leader now, not that she’d ever stopped being one, and she probably had trouble showing weakness in front of anypony—especially considering how long it took her to open up to Twilight herself.

Maybe there was just a bigger monster to face and, just as Twilight had for so long, she was afraid to ask for help.

It was this thought, really, more than any other that drove Twilight to want to help Rarity. This thought that prevailed above all others, shut down the insecurities, and then gave her the nerve she needed when finally Rarity’s door cracked and turned black.

Whatever monster Rarity was facing, she thought, twisting the handle and pushing the door open, Twilight would face it with her.

Admittedly, she’d not expected said fear to be Trottingham.

Trottingham! Trottingham City was bustling with life in this vivid new dream, and as Twilight walked around, making sure to be invisible to all, she couldn’t help but be, well, a little underwhelmed.

She sat down in the middle of the sidewalk, ponies phasing through her, and she tried to figure out exactly what was scary about any of this. Ponies were walking by, immersed in friendly and energetic conversations; others were walking in and out of buildings, going about their daily routine; and…

“How is this a nightmare?”

To be fair, she didn’t see a lot of ponies wearing clothing, so maybe that was the nightmare? Not that Rarity was a fashion designer anymore, as far as Twilight could tell, but still.

I should start by finding Rarity first, and then maybe this’ll make sense.

She got up and took a better look at her surroundings, noticing some of the buildings weren’t well-defined—literally. Murky but distinguishable as buildings, they blurred into the background and revealed themselves as things Rarity didn’t care to visually establish in her dreams. Much like the buildings, ponies too lost their features the further they walked away from Twilight.

It was because of this that the perfectly defined, crystal-clear hotel behind her stood out amongst everything, the name Scriptoria Suites & Spa emblazoned for all to see. A thrill rushed through her heart. Rarity was naming a hotel after her Trottingham name? Interesting! Very interesting.

Filing that away into a mental folder of things to treasure, she walked inside the hotel and into a big luxurious lobby with marble floors and plush surfaces. Elegantly dressed ponies paraded around, bellhops trailing behind them as they all walked towards some steel doors in the back, numbers going all the way up to twelve flashing above them.

Oh! Those must be the elevating devices Rarity told me about!

Her curiosity getting the best of her, she followed the bellboy towards the elevating device, eager to test it out for herself. She watched with excitement as the numbers flashed in descending order until finally, to the sound of a loud ding, the doors opened and revealed Rarity.

Oh, there she is!

In a decidedly strange blast from the past, the unicorn ran through her and towards the front desk, prompting Twilight to run after her, hovering by as Rarity spoke to the concierge.

“How can I help you, miss?” she asked, pushing up her glasses and peering at the unicorn. “Are you checking out?”

“No, er, not yet, I’m afraid. I…” She glanced back, briefly scanning the lobby before turning back to the mare. “By any chance, has somepony asked for me?”

The concierge looked at her papers, shaking her head. “Not that I know of, Miss Rarity. Should we be expecting somepony to do so?”

“No!” Rarity blurted out, an embarrassed laugh following after. “No. No, no, you shouldn’t. I was just curious.” She bowed her head and made a move to leave. “Thank you.”

“Of course, miss. If someone asks for you, is there anything you’d like for us to do?”

Rarity glanced back towards the lobby. “Just letting me know is fine, thank you!” she said brightly before walking away.

As they walked towards some nearby floor cushions, Twilight noticed Rarity’s cheer fading away, her brow furrowing with every step. Furthermore, the second she sat down, she devoted herself to scanning the lobby again.

Looking for what, though?

Twilight sat beside Rarity, trying to piece together this unclear puzzle. Clearly Rarity was either waiting for someone or, potentially, avoiding someone? Was it Discord maybe? Or was it someone Twilight didn’t know?

Maybe figuring out a time-frame would help.

Looking at Rarity, the first thing she noticed was the missing necklace, meaning this could either be set before they met or during the two year period Twilight was gone. Rarity’s scars, too, were gone, but she didn’t feel comfortable using that as evidence of this being before she got them. Dreamselves were often the ideal versions of a pony, and she very much doubted Rarity’s ideal self had scars.

Okay, well, that still doesn’t help.

Maybe she should appear before Rarity and outright ask her? Would Princess Luna consider that cheating?

The loud chiming of the elevating devices caught both her and Rarity’s attention and they both turned in unison to see the doors open and a familiar stallion step out, a bellboy carrying luggage behind them.

“Red Lining?” Twilight asked aloud, staring at the stallion. The Trottingham librarian? Twilight frowned. Was he somehow Rarity’s nightmare?

Her attention turned to Rarity next when she let out a soft, strangled laugh matching her strangled expression which then swiftly turned to a delighted one the second Red Lining spotted her.

“Rarity!”

He walked towards her, the bellboy still trailing behind with luggage Twilight couldn’t help but notice seemed too big for a single pony.

“Were you waiting for me?” he asked with a big smile.

“But of course, of course! No one else but you, dear...” she said slowly, her hoof lifting to her chest and patting on it, only for her eyes to lower down to her hoof. “Oh.”

“Are you looking for your necklace? Because I have it.” He reached into his saddlebag and extracted a familiar pink, glowing necklace, giving it to her with a teasing smile. “You left it behind.”

Oh, Twilight thought, joking to herself, maybe losing the necklace was the nightmare.

And yet, Rarity did not seem as thrilled as Twilight would have expected.

“Oh! Oh, thank you,” she said, taking the necklace in her magic and pocketing it in the saddlebag she now had rather than putting it on. That was strange, but at least it gave her an accurate timeline of the events, as she knew Rarity avoided putting the necklace on during the two years she was gone. “The light was bothering me when I was sleeping.”

“I found it under our bed this morning when I woke up,” he continued. “Good thing I saw it!”

“Thank you, dear,” Rarity said again, just as Princess Twilight Sparkle blurted out for nopony to hear, “Our bed?!”

Oh. Oh. Oh. Okay. All right. Okay.

Our bed.

“Have you checked us out yet?” Red Lining asked, clearly referring to the room he and Rarity had shared in this hotel named after Twilight, which in retrospect was actually no longer a little funny detail, and in fact should be taken from her mental treasuring file and added into her very concerning file.

“Not yet, no.” Again, Rarity glanced towards the lobby. “Are we in a hurry?”

“Not really, no! I just want to call Summer Breeze ahead of time to let her know when she should expect us at the cottage for our—” He grinned, giddy. “Permanent stay.”

Twilight stepped back. Permanent stay?!

“Yes! Yes, that’s right,” Rarity said, her excitement dissipating as she rubbed a hoof against her neck. “Permanent.”

To say that statement hit Twilight like a freight train would be an understatement. Why was Rarity—? Permanent? Thoughts swirled in her head, frenetically building up on each other. Was this something that had happened? Or did Rarity want to go with Red Lining to live at his seaside cottage?

“And that’s not all!” he continued, clearly trying to restrain his excitement. “With the opening of the new library, I can invite prominent ponies in the fashion industry and you can get your career back on track. I hear Sapphire Shores is looking for a new personal designer.”

For the first time, Rarity’s eyes genuinely lit up. “Sapphire Shores? Really?”

“Yes,” he said, Twilight’s chest compressing in on itself as he leaned in to kiss her. “Just as you hoped for.”

Rarity smiled thinly. “Just as I’d hoped for…”

Twilight took a step back, and then another, and another, too overwhelmed by her own emotions. What was all of this? Where had it come from? What did it mean? Every answer was worse than the next, and the more she thought about it, the more she hated being there at all, a catalyst for the world’s most invasive show.

Maybe this was the test. Maybe this wasn’t even Rarity’s nightmare, because as far as she could tell this was more her own nightmare.

Did Rarity not love her?

Had Twilight done something wrong?

“No,” Twilight hissed to herself, desperate. “Focus. Detach yourself.”

No matter what she saw, no matter what she felt, she’d brought this on herself. She’d asked to be let in, to face whatever had to be faced, and if Rarity had allowed her in, the least Twilight could do was her job.

This was still a nightmare, after all, wasn’t it? Maybe Rarity didn’t want this either. She wouldn’t have allowed Twilight to see this if it wasn’t for a reason.

Steadying herself as much as she could, she walked back towards the couple, doing her best to stay as objective as possible.

“...should be back tonight,” Red was saying. “Will you be fine until then?”

Rarity nodded, smiling brilliantly. “I believe so. In fact, there’s a fashion show a few blocks away that I really want to see! If I’m lucky, I might be able to network a little and make some new contacts.”

“Really? That sounds fun. Do you want me to go with you? I can cancel my meeting.”

“No, that’s all right!” she said. “I’m quite fine going alone.”

“But, Rari—”

“Really, Red,” she interrupted, insistent. “I do want to go alone.”

He sighed. “All right, but you’ll have to tell me how it goes, then. Goodbye!” He made a move to leave but then turned back to her with an affectionate smile. “I love you, Rarity.”

“Darling, you’ll be late!” she quickly said in reply, nudging him off. “Off you go!”

And off he went, leaving Rarity alone with her haunted ghost, who was slowly coming to realize that she didn’t know what to do. Or where to start. Or what to think.

Twilight might have almost preferred having to deal with Discord.

She’d been shaken to the core, and she thought it painfully amusing that the only thing she wanted to do was talk to Rarity and ask for advice. When she turned to her, a glimmer of hope flickered to life when Rarity pressed a hoof to her temple and whined miserably.

It was reassuring to know they both felt the same way about what had happened.

Maybe there was nothing to confront, then. Maybe that was the test, maybe this really was just a bad dream and nothing else. No deeper meaning, no fear not confronted, just a bad situation.

“Miss! Miss Rarity!”

They looked and saw the concierge waving at them.

“Miss Rarity,” she said when they walked up, “somepony was asking for you. That mare over there.”

Twilight followed the concierge’s gaze and felt her stomach drop at the sight of herself, lingering by a painting on the other side of the lobby, apparently not having seen Rarity with Red. To her dismay, Rarity seemed to be anything but pleased, letting out a deep breath and rubbing a hoof against her forehead, her eyes closing.

Until.

“She’s very beautiful,” the concierge noted.

At this, Rarity opened her eyes and shifted her gaze towards the distant alicorn. She stared for what felt like hours until finally she dissolved into an affectionate smile, tenderness in her eyes.

“She is, isn’t she?” She turned to the concierge and grinned. “She’s my marefriend, you know. “

Oh. So Rarity wasn’t dating Red Lining.

She was cheating on Twilight with him.

Rarity moved away from the counter and walked towards the dream-construct Twilight, the real one following along as she debated whether she should take the compliment or not in light of recent events.

“Once upon a time,” Rarity said aloud when she reached the construct, her voice carrying out like a storyteller in front of an audience, the smile still present on her lips, “there was a mare more beautiful than the sun and moon themselves.”

A matching smile pushed itself onto the construct’s lips.

“Oh?” she asked, her smile turning into a smirk. “And did said mare wander off to random hotel lobbies without telling anypony?”

Rarity laughed, pressing herself against the construct. “No, she scolded other ponies for taking an interest in architecture, but darling, I’m flattered.”

The construct sighed, wrapping a wing around her. “You’re very silly, Rarity.”

“Silly in love!” Rarity protested, and then buried herself against Twilight. Her next words came in a whisper.

“I do love you, Twilight. You know that, don’t you?”

“I know,” Twilight said, chorusing her construct self, still at a loss for what to feel, but sure of what she whispered and her construct giggled, “I love you, too.”

A few moments passed as they shared in the silence.

“I suppose this is a nice lobby,” The construct relented, letting go of Rarity.

“Isn’t it? But I am a little tired of it.” Rarity fluttered her eyelashes. “In fact! There’s an event going on nearby, and I was thinking you should come with me. In fact, I insist!” Twilight felt a small surge of vindication at the fact she’d gotten invited but Red hadn’t. “No danger, no spirits, no nothing but a wonderfully lovely time, just you and I. We can get front row seats and—”

“An event?” The construct frowned. “But we need to go rescue the princesses.”

Rarity faltered. “...Well, yes, of course, but…”

“We don’t have time for events, Rarity,” the construct said.

“Yes, we do!” Twilight exclaimed, unable to help herself.

“I told you. We need to rescue the princesses, no matter what,” the construct continued, echoing the very words Twilight had said herself during Seeking Night and even in Trottingham.

“I… I know,” Rarity said, resigned almost, and Twilight practically jumped in front of her.

“That’s—! That’s not what I meant!” she cried, not that anypony could hear.

“But…” Rarity spoke up again, “darling, it’s…” She sobered up, standing straight. “Twilight, I need to tell you something.”

“What?” she asked, and immediately her eyes widened. “...Is something wrong?”

Rarity looked away, her ears flattening. “I… Yes,” she said, finally, and now more than ever the real Twilight paid attention. “You—”

“M-me?” the construct interrupted, horrified. “Did I do something wrong? Is that why you want to go to an event? I’m sorry. What did I do wrong? I—” Her eyes then landed on Rarity’s chest and her horror increased. “...Where’s your necklace, Rarity?”

Rarity’s eyes widened in horror. “My necklace? O-oh! In my bag, it’s in my bag!” she blurted out in a frenzy, reaching into her saddlebag and putting it on. “See! There it is! Ha ha!”

“Oh, all right,” dream-Twilight said, relieved for a minute, as the real Twilight stepped back, ears clamping against her head. That wasn’t right. It wasn’t right at all, and to hear her voice say that it was…

“I just took it off last night for a while, noth—”

“You took it off?” the construct asked, and in less than a second, it all came back. “Why? What’s wrong? Why did you take it off? Did I do something wrong?”

“No, darling,” Rarity said, clearly straining to be calm. “Nothing bad, the light was just—”

“How do you know? Are you sure?” dream-Twilight continued, speaking over the unicorn. “Did I do something? I’m sorry. Is it my fault? I’m sorry! You don’t want to wear it anymore, do you? That’s fine. I understand. I messed up, didn’t I?”

“Twilight, no, it’s—You did nothing wrong, it’s fine,” Rarity tried to say, the construct interrupting her to apologize. It was sickening to watch. “You know what? It doesn’t matter. Let’s just go with the othe—”

“But what did you need to tell me?” both Twilight’s asked, one much more rattled than the other.

“Nothing, Twilight,” Rarity insisted, trying to push her along. “It doesn’t matter. Let’s just lea—”

Twilight couldn’t help herself.

“Of course it matters!” she protested, jumping in front of Rarity, not caring that she couldn’t hear her. “How could you even think it doesn’t?!”

Oh, what was the point?

Twilight closed her eyes and let out a frustrated groan, knowing that by then she’d probably already failed the princess’s test regardless, letting her own feelings interfere. She sat there, waiting for whatever came next in that sunforsaken nightmare, and yet when she opened her eyes to do as much, she realized the now paler Rarity was gaping at her.

At her.

“Twilight?”

If Twilight didn’t know better, she might say Rarity was actually looking at her. And in fact, when she turned around and realized the dream construct was frozen in place, she realized exactly what she’d just done.

Rarity backed away, looking between the two alicorns. “Twilight, how—?! What is going on?! Why are there two of you?!”

“Rarity, wa...wait! I can explain!” Twilight stammered, the panicked words tumbling out her mouth in a hurry. “You weren’t supposed to see me, but I-I messed up and—”

“Wasn’t supposed to see you? What in Equestria do you mean I weren’t supposed to see—” The rest of her sentence died strangled in her throat, along with any of Twilight’s chances for damage control.

She stepped back.

“Oh.”

Twilight’s heart sped up, her mind struggling to control her panic. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no.

“Rarity, please—”

“What did you see?” Rarity interrupted in a whisper, inaudible to the point Twilight almost wasn’t sure she spoke at all.

“Wha—”

“What did you see, Twilight?!” she snapped, her forehoof slamming against the floor.

Not for the last time that night, Twilight’s ears clamped against her head as she recoiled, eyes brimming with tears, completely out of her depth.

“I don’t know! I’m sorry, I—”

“What do you mean ‘you don’t know’?! How could you possibly not know?! What did you see?!”

“Red Lining!” Twilight blurted out, wanting this to end and regretting every second of it. She steadied herself with all the courage she had left, yet she could not stop herself from bowing her head apologetically as she spoke: “I saw you meeting with Red Lining and everything after that.”

When Rarity said nothing, Twilight forced herself to look up, the desperate solution she’d scrambled together dying at the sight of the shell-shocked Rarity, staring at Twilight through tearful eyes.

Horror filled Twilight, and yet before she could say anything or move forward to comfort her or something, Rarity vanished from existence, followed in short order by the rest of the dream. It cracked and fragmented like a mirror until Twilight was back in the hallway of dream doors, Princess Luna standing before her.

Twilight stared at her, completely detached.

“Twilight.”

And only then did Twilight react, her eyes filling with tears, her body trembling out of pure horror. A storm of thoughts pummeled her, incoherent and rambling and desperate, dazing and overwhelming her to the point she could hardly speak.

“Uhm,” was all she managed, this tiny word that summarized the war raging inside her head. Eventually, from somewhere, she clawed out more words to speak. “I… I’m done.”

And she was, in every sense of the word.

And yet, “I am sorry, little one,” the princess said with all the kindness in the world, her horn flashing as she did so, “but you must face this. All of it.”

The world around her faded, and Twilight jolted upright with a gasp, her sight blurry from tears still streaming. She lifted her hoof and wiped at her eyes, staring at her trembling damp forehoof with mindless fascination.

What now?

Could she even ask questions? Was she allowed?

Who did she ask for help with this when the only pony she trusted was the one she’d apparently hurt?

What now?

What now, what now, what now, she wanted to ask, to think, to figure out, her heart beating painfully against her chest, and even more so when she heard the distinct sound of a door opening outside, followed by lights turning on and filtering in from under the door.

It’s not over yet, indeed, because much like everything else Twilight messed up, consequences were always to be had.

She stood up from her cushion, mind blank as she waited for what came next. Waited, and waited, and waited until distant hoofsteps filled the air, coming closer and closer until their owner and her shadow stopped right outside the door.

It would be easy to leave. Easy to teleport away as she used to do when things were too much. Easy to disappear and find a new place to hide from it all. But instead, she waited, lost in this fantasy yet too paralyzed to enact it.

All she could do was wait.

Nothing happened for a while, for minutes that felt like hours, the anticipation rising and rising until she nearly jumped right out of her coat when there were three knocks at the door.

“Twilight?” Rarity called, a cheer to her voice that threw Twilight off. Either she was faking it, or… had the dream really meant nothing at all? “Twilight, dearest, are you awake?”

“Y-yes!” she called out, burying deep her guilt, and her pain, and her feelings, and furiously wiping her eyes. When no answer came, she called again. “Yes? What is it, Rarity?”

“Can I come in?”

“O-of course!”

After another eternal minute, the handle lowered, the door opened and in stepped Rarity with a big smile.

What?

“Hello!” she exclaimed, closing the door behind her.

“...Hello,” Twilight said, unsure until she realized that Rarity might interpret her being unsure as something being wrong, and if nothing was wrong with her, then— “I mean, hi!” Too enthusiastic. “Hi, Rarity.”

Did she really just say hi three times?

“Is something wrong?” she said next, trying to save face.

“Is something wrong? No!” Rarity quickly said, her strained laugh finally hinting to Twilight not all was as it seemed. “No, no! No.” Her eyes grew wide. “Is something wrong with you?”

“What? No!” Twilight threw back. “No.”

“Oh, good.”

“Yes.”

And that was that, apparently. Were they just not going to address it? Or mention it? Or…? Silence filled the room, allowing Twilight’s anxious thoughts to get louder and louder until she couldn’t take it anymore. She had to say something.

“Rarity—”

“Did you dreamwalk tonight?” Rarity cut off, and again, she couldn’t hide the strain in her words.

Twilight’s chest compressed her heart. “Yes,” she said, and almost as fast blurted out a defense, something to explain or somehow assuage whatever was to come next, “I told you I would. Princess Luna asked me and—”

“Yes, I know,” Rarity tersely cut-off, before quickly composing herself. “I mean, yes! Yes, I know, darling. I was just wondering…” She faltered. “Did you…” And again she faltered, now closing her eyes and just forcing it out. “Did you do it?”

Panic flooded Twilight, and so did stumbled explanations rush out. “Rarity, wait, listen, I—”

“Just answer me, Twilight. Please.”

Not for the last time, Twilight’s ears pressed against her head.

“Yes,” she replied, and decided she might as well move things along. “I went into your nightmare.”

It startled her when Rarity laughed.

“Of course you did,” she said, a thin smile shoving itself onto her lips.

Twilight watched, horrified, as Rarity slid down against the door and onto the floor, tears filling her eyes.

“Of course you did.”

“Rarity!”

Twilight rushed to her, scooping her in a hug as best she could, horrified to see her beloved like this. Any fear over the nightmare died, any doubt, any pain, all suppressed and gone in favor of helping Rarity herself.

“Rarity, please—”

“I’m sorry, Twilight,” she choked out, buried against her, clutching her tight. “I’m sorry, I just— There was never anything between us, I promise.”

“Rarity, it’s fine! It’s fine, it was just a nightmare. I believe you,” Twilight gently insisted. “And you don’t have to apologize. I asked to be let in. Part of my training with Princess Luna is to expect being part of the nightmares of ponies you know! It’s fine!”

“I know, but— But—” Rarity looked up at her, eyes reddened from crying. “I don’t understand. Aren’t you upset?”

Twilight swallowed, memories of Red and Rarity pushing through. But it was fine. If there was something Twilight knew she didn’t have to worry about, even despite that, it was her relationship with Rarity.

“I… Well, it was upsetting to see,” she confessed, “but I’m fine.”

Rarity’s eyes widened, surprised. Wary. “Really?”

Twilight smiled, nodding her head. “Yes. It was just a nightmare, and nightmares are just reflections of our subconscious fears!” she insisted, trying to reassure both herself and Rarity. “In fact…” An idea sprung to mind. “In fact, it makes sense! When we saw Red Lining at Trottingham, you were worried I might be jealous and that’s where this nightmare came from. See? It makes complete sense!”

And yet.

And yet Rarity did not seem convinced. Her brow furrowed, and her eyes searched for something in Twilight’s gaze.

“Do you see?” Twilight prompted, and received a wholly different answer.

“But… what about the rest?” Rarity asked, every syllable cautious. She leaned back, ears lowering. “Aren’t you upset about that?”

“The… The rest?” Twilight asked, confused. “What else was there? It was just you cheating on me. That was the nightmare,” she said, and when Rarity moved back, her confidence began to wane. “...Wasn’t it?”

And when Rarity said nothing, just stared with watering eyes, it began to crumble.

“Rarity? What is it?” she asked, alarmed, and even more so when Rarity moved back when she tried to move in. “What else was there? Rarity?”

But Rarity didn’t reply.

Instead, she simply shook her head and leaned back, completely silent.

“Rarity, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked again, her chest compressing more and more with every time Rarity replied with a mute shake of her head. “What’s wrong? Tell me, please!”

“I can’t!” Rarity choked out, desperate.

“Why not?!”

“I can’t! I’m afraid, Twilight, I—”

And now Twilight was really concerned, a terrible thought crossing her mind. “Afraid? Of what? Is it Discord? Rarity, did Discord do something to you?! Rari—”

“No, it’s not Discord!” Rarity snapped, somehow finding it within her to sound exasperated. “It’s never been Discord, it’s—” She cut herself off again, closing her eyes. “It’s never been Discord.”

Twilight stared, completely lost. “Then—Then what is it? Why are you so afraid?” she pleaded. “You need to tell me! You have to trust me, please.”

“I’m trying, Twilight! Can’t you see?!” Rarity exclaimed, startling the alicorn. “I agreed to using the necklaces! I agreed to going to the library! I agreed to you going into my dreams!” Her voice again fell to a strangled whimper, pressing her hooves against her eyes. “I’m trying.”

“Then let me help you,” Twilight pleaded, struggling not to raise her voice out of desperation. So many things she had messed up, so many things that were her fault, yet not saving Rarity from her monsters would not be one. “I can help you! Like with the library! You were afraid of it, but you trusted me and now you’re not afraid of it anymore!”

And then it came. In a harrowed whisper.

“It wasn’t the library.”

Twilight leaned back. “What? Yes it was? You were afraid of the libra—”

“It was never the library I was afraid of, Twilight!” Rarity interrupted, her face still hidden. “It was you.”

It was you.

And her entire spinning world came to a stop.

“What?” Twilight said, whispered, gasped, whatever, standing up.

What?

And yet as soon as Rarity saw this, realized that Twilight had stood up, now towered before her, her eyes filled with tears. “Nothing!” she said, suddenly. “Please! Nothing, it’s fine! I—”

“Nothing?!” Twilight exclaimed, flabbergasted, her thoughts dizzying. Rarity was afraid of her? Stars alive. “What do you mean— How is that nothing, Rarity?!” she demanded, her eyes welling with tears. “You’re afraid of me?”

“No!” Rarity exclaimed.

“No! But you just said you were!” Twilight demanded, desperate, thinking, what had she done now? What had she done, what had she done, what had she done now.

“I know what I said!” Rarity shot back, ears clamped to her head. “Please, Twilight, it doesn’t matt—”

“Of course it matters! You’re afraid of me, Rarity! How can it not matter?! But I can’t—! I can’t fix this if you don’t tell me what’s wrong!” she said, helpless against another of Rarity’s roadblocks, another of Rarity’s walls that she’d apparently stupidly believed were gone.

“You don’t understand, Twi—”

“Of course I won’t understand if you don’t tell me what’s wrong, Rarity!” Twilight exclaimed, the final drop. “I can’t fix this if you don’t communicate with me!”

And there it came, spilling out.

“I’m afraid of that, Twilight!” Rarity snapped, in voice and in spirit. “How do you expect me to communicate with you when I’m afraid that anything that happens or that I say will just be another weapon for you to use against yourself?! How do you expect me to not be afraid when anything might set you off into another guilt spiral and next thing I know I’m waiting outside a barrier for another two sunforsaken years because of something I set off in you?!”

And as soon as she finished, as soon as Twilight felt like a dagger had been plunged through her heart, Rarity’s eyes widened, her hooves pressed against her mouth.

No taking that back, was there?

And so Twilight thought back.

Thought back to the last moments of the dream, of Rarity trying to talk to the construct and the construct in turn being too busy blaming herself to even listen, and only then did Twilight Sparkle realize who was the big, bad monster of Rarity’s dreams.

And Rarity was right to be afraid, wasn't she? The only reason the chaos magic ever managed to possess her was because she allowed herself to spiral that far.

“I’m sorry,” Rarity agonized, seemingly guilt-wracked by her own confession, “I’m sorry.”

But Twilight was too far away to respond, too lost down memory lane, mentally reviewing each and every single instance that hinted at this.

“Granite’s Rest,” she said, hoarsely.

“Wh...What?”

“When I went to see Princess Celestia’s painting with Fluttershy and the others, you were supposed to meet with us at Canterlot. Instead, you were at Granite’s Rest because you said you missed me too much. That was a lie, wasn’t it? It was because you were afraid of how’d I’d react with the painting?” she asked, calculated, measured, detached, now really taking Luna’s lesson in stride.

“I did miss you,” Rarity defended, desperate. “It wasn’t just because I was afraid.”

“But you were afraid,” Twilight stated, matter-of-fact as she began to list off moments and events.

Rarity’s outburst during the party at the castle, when Rarity left when they were talking about her imprisonment.

Rarity not wanting to mindmeld with her out of fear of how Twilight might react.

Rarity’s reaction to Twilight’s spiral when she realized her research on the elements was wrong.

Rarity being so against Twilight going to the library, almost upset at the idea.

But most damning of all was Seeking Night.

It had been there all along, all those times Rarity said she was worried, and the most damning thing of all when Incantation told her as much and she didn’t even think about it.

“I think she’s more worried about how it might affect you, Princess.”

“But—But I was better—” Twilight said, every word searing her throat because she was better, she really thought she was better, she— “I was better.”

“I know,” Rarity said, burying her face in her hooves. “I’m sorry, I—”

But maybe she wasn’t better.

Maybe she was only better because Rarity had made it easy, tried to avoid setting her off, maybe she would be set off by anything, maybe she really was still a monster, and now Rarity was traumatized because of her.

Rarity the unicorn was the only thing she knew was safe, thought was safe, in fact the only anchor she had, she could overcome anything as long as she had Rarity there, and to see this?

To see a Rarity who once was fearless, once had no problem calling Twilight out, once stood up to the princess of legend herself, and yet who now thought through every action, every word, every moment twice, who—

Rarity was afraid of her.

She’d hurt her.

“I’m sorry.”

The words tumbled out of her mouth, familiar, familiar, familiar, as were the tears and what came next.

“It’s my fault.”

Rarity looked up, alarmed. “Twilight. No,” she said, bellowed almost. “Stop, no. No. It is not your fau—”

“But it is!” Twilight gasped, because it was, it was, it was. “It is! Look at you! Look at you, Rarity! You’re afraid of talking to me, and it’s my fault, if I hadn’t—”

“See?! Look at this!” Rarity exploded, standing up, her voice a dance of desperation and frustration. “This is exactly what I meant, Twilight! You can't keep doing this every single ti—”

“I KNOW!” Twilight exploded back, because she knew, knew she was no different than the construct, and yet she couldn’t stop any of these thoughts from assaulting her, now mixed with the horror of this all happening. “I know,” she choked, hating herself for hating herself.

She was better, she’d been better, and yet there she was, as if nothing had changed, as if she was still stuck in her library, just the same, freed physically but not mentally.

It was painful to be aware, to be a spectator to her own spiral. She was better, wasn't she? To believe otherwise was devastating, but then why was she relapsing so badly? She’d forgiven herself! She had! She was out of the library! So why was this all coming back?

Why wasn’t this nightmare over?

“Tw-Twilight!” Rarity exclaimed, rushing to her.

“No!” Twilight yelled, and it took her that much not to conjure up a barrier. When Rarity immediately stopped, ears flat against her head, tail between her legs, guilt and regret washed over Twilight. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Just don’t, please.”

Rarity fell down to her hindlegs, quietly obeying. What else could she do?

Three gentle knocks rang out.

“Girls?” Fluttershy called out gently. “Can I come in?”

Rarity turned to Twilight, seeking confirmation, and in turn Twilight looked away.

“I don’t care,” she murmured, forcing herself up, and swallowing hard when she heard Rarity let out a deep breath.

“Come in, Fluttershy,” she called out, standing up as well.

It must have been a sad sight for Fluttershy, Twilight thought, when the pegasus stepped in to find two quiet mares, eyes still red from the tears.

But if it was, she did not show it. Instead, she simply looked to Rarity and smiled kindly.

“Rarity. I think you should go to bed,” she advised, and when the unicorn’s eyes flitted towards Twilight, she continued, “I’ll take care of everything.”

You mean deal with me, Twilight thought, bitterly.

But Rarity didn’t move.

“But… Twilight.” She turned to her, concerned despite it all. “What… What are you going to do?” she asked, and somewhere found the courage to ask, “Do you still want to sleep in my room?”

“No,” she replied, not wanting to sting Rarity on purpose, not really, but just… “I’m not tired, sorry. I’m going out.”

“Out?” Rarity asked, alarmed. “But, Twilight, it must be three in the morning!”

“It’s fine,” she said, moving to the door. “I’ll be back later.”

“But, Twilight—!” Rarity protested. “You’re in no state to go out at this hour! Please, be reasonable.”

“I’m fine,” Twilight affirmed again, stung by Rarity’s attitude and hurrying to the door before she lost her temper.

“Twi—” A frustrated groan interrupted her, and so Rarity turned to Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, please, go with her, won’t you?”

“I said I’m fine, Rarity!” Twilight snapped, turning around and slamming her hoof on the ground, telling herself that was the reason for the tears in her eyes. “I don’t—! I don’t need a babysitter! I’m not going to—! To—!” She choked on her words, torn between upset and indignant. “I’m not going to go trap myself anywhere!”

“Princess...” Fluttershy said, only to flinch when Rarity replied in kind.

“That’s not what I meant, Twilight!” she snapped back, her own hoof slamming the floor. “Of course I don’t think that’s going to happen, for sun’s sake! I was just worried about you!” And yet, as soon as she’d said that, so did she step back, shaken. “I… You’re right. You can make your own decisions. I should go to bed.”

And so, without another word, she moved forward and out of the room.

Though she wanted to speak up, Twilight held her tongue as Rarity marched out of the room, instead closing her eyes and taking a deep breath when a door in the distance audibly closed shut.

When she opened her eyes, Fluttershy was still there, still smiling kindly.

“Princess,” she said, “are you sure you don’t want me to join you?”

“I’m sure, Fluttershy,” she said. “Thank you.”

The pegasus bowed her head. “Of course.” She smiled. “Though, I might check up on you a little later?”

Twilight found it in her to smile. “...All right.”

She then moved forward, almost crossing the door, when she stopped again. She turned to Fluttershy, ready to speak, only for Fluttershy to pre-empt her.

“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of Rarity.”

Twilight bowed her head.

“Thank you.”

Thus she made her way out of the room, into the lobby and then down the stairs, focusing on keeping her erratic thoughts suppressed by focusing on whatever was in front of her as she walked—on toys strewn on the floor, on drawings plastered on the wall, and on dresses and costumes left behind. Anything to distract her.

It wasn’t until she was outside, until she unlocked the front doors with her magic and pushed them open that the weight of it all hit her with the same intensity as the freezing night air, a sharp intake of frigid breath burning her lungs.

Spike was her first thought.

More than Luna, more than Princess Celestia—if she even for once answered the letters Twilight had been sending her—it was Spike she wanted to see.

The only other home she had, now that Rarity was…

Another breath of air, blinking back tears and emotions that served little purpose.

She pressed on, though to say it was she who pressed on would be inaccurate. It was her hooves that moved, that carried her along, her mind only numbly following along. She walked through the streets of this place that wasn’t home, barely registering the few ponies still meandering about at this hour, barely returning their smiles, barely thinking for fear of thinking too much.

“Come on! You could totally do it!”

When she reached the outskirts of Spike’s valley, it was Rainbow Dash’s voice that gave her pause. She hid behind a tree and looked out, finding Spike curled up and the pegasus on his back, the two of them chattering and laughing without a care in the world, as if it wasn’t well into the night.

And Twilight stepped back, now unsure of what to do.

She’d hoped for Spike, but not Rainbow Dash.

She’d hoped for home, but not the future. Not the present.

She’d hoped for the past. Suddenly, almost overwhelmingly to the point of being sick, Twilight Sparkle was homesick for a place that no longer was.

A rush of cold air hit her again, her coat standing on end, and she hated it. She hated the cold she could sense, hated her heart that could beat, hated her lungs that could breathe, and hated her body that felt.

She stepped away from the trees and headed back towards town, Spike and Rainbow’s voices gradually fading until there was nothing more but the sounds of her hoofsteps, of her heartbeat, of her breath.

Wandered through town, aimless and dazed, past the empty stalls of the merchants, past the firepits for nightmare bombs, and finally past the Seeking Night constructions that had yet to be dismantled, until she finally saw it.

The maze.

And it wasn’t that she wanted to be imprisoned again, but she couldn’t help but be comforted when she stepped inside and was greeted by her books, by these vaguely familiar hallways of a place that had been her prison but also her home.

She made her way until finally, she stepped inside her little room and took in the sights.

The owl inkwells the foals had made out of clay, the scrolls pasted to the walls filled with scribbles of all kinds, the stacks of books scattered throughout, the barely lit candles flickering their last light. All these cozy little details that reminded her of home.

Yet none brought tears to her eyes as much as the discovery that she was apparently not the only one who was homesick.

From under the table, huddled in their nest of parchment strips and sticks, a family of owls peered up at their master.

“Hello,” she sniffled, walking towards them and lying down, placing her muzzle near the nest. “Is there any room for me?”

And there was, of course, as the family left their nest and found a better one, Themis and Elara huddling against her barrel, and the chicklets against her heart. One of them nestled up beside the softly glowing necklace hanging from Twilight’s neck, and when she hooted curiously at it, Twilight closed her eyes and silently shook her head.

She knew it wouldn’t ring. Not tonight.

Time passed. Minutes. Hours? Twilight didn’t know how long. She simply let it flow like ink from her quill, indulging herself to an existence in a simulacrum of her past. She didn’t want to stay there a thousand years, no, never again, but…just a few hours would be fine, wouldn’t it?

“Hello,” came a soft, familiar voice after a while. “Is there any room for one more?”

Twilight glanced up. Standing by the entrance, a saddlebag draped around her, Fluttershy had made good on her promise.

“Oh, Fluttershy.” Twilight sat up. “You came,” she said, only for her surprise to turn into...not resentment, but... “Did Rarity send you?”

Fluttershy giggled. “No.”

Twilight snorted, lying back down. “Really.”

“She tried to get me to come,” Fluttershy elaborated, carefully stepping in, “but I came here because I wanted to.”

When the princess said nothing else, she stepped further into the room and looked around. “Are you sleeping here tonight, Princess?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said. “I’d like to. Why? Do I have to go back?”

Fluttershy hummed thoughtfully. “Oh no, you can stay here if you want to. Not forever, I hope, but one night should be fine.” She took off her saddlebag and opened it up. “I’m only asking because I brought a pillow and blanket for you.”

“Oh…”

And so, the princess quietly watched Fluttershy lay down a blanket, willing herself to get up and lie down on it afterwards. It was surprisingly warm, so, so warm, and as comfy as the small pillow Fluttershy placed under her head when she lifted it up.

When she was done, the pegasus turned to Twilight, affectionate. “There! All set.”

And Twilight’s heart hurt.

“Would you like to still be alone, Princess?” Fluttershy asked. “Or would you like for me to stay?”

And in the smallest voice, the princess spoke.

“Please stay.”

Not long after that, after a second pillow had been set and a second blanket covered them both, Princess Twilight Sparkle nestling herself against her friend and closing her eyes as she tried to focus on Fluttershy brushing her mane.

Just like Rarity might.

Stars.

“Does Rarity hate me?”

“She loves you very much, Princess. A fight won’t change that.”

“But this wasn’t just a fight,” Twilight murmured, burying herself in Fluttershy. “This was… The worst! This was terrible! This was— I don’t know what this was!”

“A step forward,” Fluttershy suggested.

“A step forward?! This was… This was fifty steps back!” Twilight protested, and again, the frustration came back in a great sweeping wave. “I was better… I really thought I was better, but now it turns out that I’m not, and…” She petered out, barely aware of Fluttershy brushing her mane again. “I don’t understand. I’m out of my library. Why am I still like this?”

“You’re trying your best,” Fluttershy chastized. “Thousand year old habits won’t die in two months, Princess.”

“How am I going to fix this?” Twilight asked. “Can I fix this?”

“Rarity asked me the same,” Flutterhy said, suddenly.

“Huh?”

“She asked how she was going to fix this.”

“...She did?”

“Mm-hmm. She also asked me if I thought you hated her.” She paused. “And then she asked me if she should exile herself to Saddle Arabia and become a… what did she say… ‘a work-a-holic too lost in her business to feel the wound in her heart.”

“The wound in her heart.”

Fluttershy frowned. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t say that right. She said ‘the gaping wound in her ravaged heart’.”

“The gaping wound in her ravaged heart. Right.”

And despite it all, Twilight couldn’t help a laugh, affection for the unicorn washing over alongside a great wave of exhaustion.

She would have to fix this, wouldn’t she? This, whatever it entailed, whatever it meant, and whatever had yet to be said. Cadance’s words again rang in her mind. She had to take responsibility. For what she’d caused, and what was yet to be fixed.

After all, if the unicorn had once fought for her, so would Twilight have to do the same.

And she would tomorrow.

Tomorrow, she’d deal with Rarity, and Dusk, and Princess Luna and everything else.

But tonight?

Tonight she just wanted to sleep.

~ Act II ~ 18 ~ The Star Will Aid In Her Escape ~

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

~ Act II ~ 19 ~ The Trapped Town ~

It all happened very fast.

Princess Luna—or Nightmare Moon, rather—rose on her hindlegs, stared Twilight down with her pitch-black eyes, and then slammed her hooves on the floor, a pulse of magic discharging from her whole form.

“Princess Luna!” Twilight begged to no avail. “Please!”

Her pleas went unheard as the magic swallowed her, brusquely ejecting her from the dream and back to reality.

She opened her eyes with a start and found herself back in the workshop. The entire place was eerily quiet, and for a moment, she wondered if she’d been dreaming. If maybe it had all been some sort of nightmare.

But it hadn’t been.

Somewhere out there, Princess Luna had just gone mad with grief, and pain, and chaos magic.

Panic flooded her.

“Rarity?! Rarity!”

She ran towards the door, stopping when a thundering explosion boomed in the distance, followed by an earthquake toppling her down to the floor. The bookcases, the desk, tables, anything that wasn’t nailed down swayed back and forth, objects falling and shattering.

“Twilight?!”

Rarity burst into the room moments later, followed in short order by Pinkie and Incantation as the quaking slowed to a stop.

“Are you all right?!” Rarity asked, rushing to help Twilight up and looking her over.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Twilight reassured, similarly inspecting Rarity for harm. “Are you all right?”

Before Rarity could reply, Pinkie rushed to Twilight and grabbed her by the shoulders.

“What about Princess Luna? Is Princess Luna fine? Princess Twilight?!” she asked, shaking Twilight like a maraca. “Princess Twilight, is she fine? Is she? Princess Twilight—!”

“Pinkie, please!” Twilight yelped.

Contrite, the mare immediately backed away. “...Sorry.”

“Thanks, I’m fine, too,” Ink said, and at Rarity’s frown, she cleared her throat. “Also, uhm, what was that all about?”

Twilight took a moment to compose herself before replying.

“It’s Princess Luna,” she said, gravely. “The chaos magic got to her, and now—”

A loud beating sound interrupted her, seemingly coming from all over and then turning into a distant hum. It was followed in short order by navy-blue—almost black—magic flooding the room, enveloping everything and everyone one in it.

“What’s happening now?” Rarity asked, practically glued to Twilight, all four petrified by fear as they waited for the magic surrounding them to do something.

“I-I don’t know,” Twilight said, helplessly.

“What do we do?” Pinkie asked.

“No one move!” Twilight ordered. “Just wait.”

They waited and waited, and then, just as fast as it had come, the magic abruptly vanished and everything remained as it was, the distant humming disappearing as well. They stayed fixed in place, waiting a moment before Pinkie broke the silence.

“What did it do?” Pinkie whispered, loudly.

Twilight frowned. “...Nothing? I think?”

She hesitantly waved her hoof in the air, and when this triggered nothing, she relaxed.

“I think it’s safe to move,” she declared, and then headed out of the room, anxious to see if any other part of the Dreamland had changed. “Come on!”

“But Twilight! What happened?! What was that earthquake?!” Rarity asked, rushing after her.

Pinkie followed after them, Ink on her trail. “What happened with Princess Luna?!”

“I told you!” Twilight stopped at the lobby and turned back towards Rarity. “She found out about everything, and then I told her she’s probably powering the chaos magic, and… You were right, Rarity. She wasn’t ready to deal with it, and then the chaos magic inside wherever she was got to her, and then she completely lost it.”

“What’d you mean she completely lost it?” Incantation asked.

Pinkie’s eyes widened. “She went bad? Like you did?”

Twilight let out a breath. “Yes. I think so.”

“But—! But, Twilight, that means she’s isolated herself!” Rarity exclaimed, flabbergasted. “How are we going to find her?! It was already a needle in a haystack when we could only talk to her in dreams, now it’ll be practically impossible! Stars knows where she is!”

Twilight shook her head. “No! No, don’t you remember? Isolating myself wasn’t the chaos magic’s choice, it was mine. And Princess Luna has felt overlooked her entire life.” She gestured all over. “This. The earthquake, the sound, the magic everywhere. This isn’t somepony trying to hide herself away. Whatever she does, she’ll make sure we see it.”

Frantic knocks at the door interrupted her, and they turned around to find Rainbow Dash standing outside the crystal doors.

“Hey! Open up!” she called, slamming her hoof on the glass repeatedly. “Come ON!”

Rarity frowned, walking to the door. “Rainbow Dash, stop that! You’ll break it!” she scolded, opening the door with her magic and yelping when Rainbow pushed past her. “Rainbow!”

The pegasus went straight for Twilight, grabbing her and practically dragging her towards the door.

“Come on, come on! We have to go!”

“Go where? Wait, Rainbow!” Twilight protested, trying to stop her. Eventually, she used her magic and forcibly floated her off. “Stop! Go where?!”

“Outside!” Rainbow exclaimed, gesturing towards the door. “Spike is stuck on the other side of the barrier, and I can’t bust it open!”

“Spike is trapped?” Twilight asked, her sudden panic similarly shared by Rarity.

“On the other side of ‘the barrier’? What barrier?”

Rainbow rushed forward and pulled on Twilight again. “Come on! Just go look for yourself!”

“Okay, okay!” Twilight turned to Rarity, Ink, and Pinkie. “Stay here, in case anypony else comes.”

“Wait, darling!” Rarity grabbed Twilight, for the briefest of moments, and then immediately let go. “...Please be careful.” She placed a hoof over her necklace. “Call me if you need me.”

Twilight nodded. “I will. I promise.”

She followed Rainbow Dash outside, and the first thing she saw was nothing at all.

“What…?”

She was used to the forest town being somewhat dark, considering it was a forest town, but this was unlike anything she’d ever seen before. It was like she’d stepped out of the Dreamland and into a cave, only able to see the distant lights of houses and torches.

“Princess, come on!”

With the help of an illumination spell, Twilight saw Rainbow hovering several feet above her. She quickly took flight and followed Rainbow up past the trees and above the forest. Her dread soon turned into full-blown alarm, however, at the sight of a massive, dome-like magic barrier completely encasing Hollow Shades and the surrounding forest, light barely filtering in.

“Oh no, no, no, no.”

She flew past Dash and made a beeline towards the barrier, increasing her illumination spell in the process. The dome crackled with life before her very eyes, bursting with alicorn and chaos magic combined, creating a barrier that she was unfortunately intimately familiar with.

Just like she had hundreds of times in the past thousand years, Twilight reached out to the barrier with her hoof and quickly flew back with a wince when it repelled her.

Well.

This was bad. This was really, really bad, and it wasn’t just because this was dredging up really bad memories, but because she was trapped.

Again.

“See?!” Rainbow flew up to her, giving Twilight something to focus on as she did some breathing exercises to calm her nerves. “Spike and I were chilling by Foal Mountain, and then there was this huge sound, and then this earthquake came out of nowhere! Spike was like, ‘what was that?!’ and I was like, ‘I’ll go see!’ and so I flew ahead, and then this—” She banged on the barrier. “—thing appeared out of freaking nowhere!”

“It didn’t appear out of nowhere,” Twilight said, managing to compose herself long enough to examine the barrier again. “Princess Luna made this.”

Rainbow frowned. “Princess Luna? What? Because of the thing with that foal? Did she go crazy and get all possessed like you did and mess things up?”

Twilight’s face burned. “Something like that.”

“...But that’s good, right? Not the Princess Luna going crazy part,” Rainbow clarified at Twilight’s pointed stare. “But, like, you already went through this, Princess! You got rid of the barrier in the library, so you can totally get rid of this one! Right?!”

Twilight shook her head, turning back to the barrier. “No, Dash. The only reason I could remove mine is because it was my magic powering it, but this is Luna’s. If Princess Luna doesn’t stop it herself, then…”

She looked at Rainbow, somber.

“...We’re trapped here. All of us.”

“Trapped here?! Are you serious?!” Rainbow slammed herself against the barrier, trying to break it. “No! We can’t be trapped here! I’m not staying here, what, two years?! Three?! Princess, we can’t do that!”

“We won’t,” Twilight said before flying off towards the forest below. “Come on. Let’s go back to the Dreamland. I don’t want to worry Rarity and the others.”

Despite the oppressive darkness, Luna’s Dreamland stood out in the distance. Light filtered out from every window, but none cut the dark as strongly as the one coming from the upper tower, shining out of the stained-glass window depicting Princess Luna. In a sad sort of way, some form of Princess Luna was quite literally guiding them home.

When they approached, she saw Rarity and the others had ventured outside.

“Twilight!” Rarity called, flagging her down. When they landed, she rushed to them. “Oh, thank goodness, you’re all right. You took so long! What happened?”

Twilight briefly explained the situation to her friends, and when she was done answering their shocked questions, which was hard considering she didn’t know much herself, she asked a question of her own.

“Why are you all outside? We don’t know if it’s safe.”

Rarity looked taken aback. “We heard the yelling, so we came to see what it was. We thought it was you two!”

Twilight and Rainbow looked at each other, confused.

“The yelling?”

Pinkie nodded. “Yeah! Didn’t you hear it? We were waiting for you girls, and then we heard somepony yelling outside, so we came out to see!” She gestured towards the distant houses. “Over there!”

Twilight looked back towards the darkness, her stomach twisting. “I…. I didn’t hear any yelling… Did you, Rainbow?”

“No, I didn’t hear anything, either.”

“Something's wrong,” Rarity said, intensifying her hornlight. She stepped forward and called out. “Hello?! Is somepony there?!”

“Rarity!” Twilight yelped. “You don’t know if it’s safe!”

“And you don’t know if somepony’s in danger,” she replied, stern. “We have you. They have nopony.” When Twilight backed down, she called out again. “Hello?!”

Silence replied, all five staring out into the darkness until finally something changed. A faint cluster of lights appeared in the distance, slowly moving towards them.

Rainbow flew up, trying to get a better vantage. “What is that?”

“Everypony!” Twilight commanded, her horn crackling with magic and her wings extending as she stepped forward. “Stay behind me!”

The cluster continued to slowly move forward, Twilight ready to jump into action if needed. It moved and moved until finally it began to have a defined shape and revealed itself not to be a single moving thing, but several smaller ones.

Several small foals, to be exact, huddled around three older unicorn foals, their horns providing a meager guiding light.

“My stars! It’s the foals!” Rarity gasped, pushing past Twilight, instantly alarmed. “Children?!”

“What the heck are they doing outside?” Rainbow looked around, trying to find more ponies. “Where are their parents?”

“Miss Rarity?!”

As soon as she called back again, their gasps filled the air and they stampeded towards them, the younger ones launching themselves at the adults and breaking into full-blown distraught sobs.

“Sundust!” one of the older fillies said, turning to a unicorn colt. “Get the others! Tell them Princess Twilight and all the adults at the Dreamland are awake!”

“Awake? Why wouldn’t we be awake?” Rainbow asked, carrying a crying filly in her forelegs. “Who could even sleep through that earthquake?”

Rarity was practically lying on the floor, three fillies huddled against her. “Darlings, darlings, you’re safe.”

“Kids, what happened?” Twilight asked. “What are you doing here?”

“It’s our parents,” the older filly said, her voice cracking. “And—And my big brother and my big sister, and the adults…”

“They’re having nightmares!” a colt exclaimed, clutching onto Pinkie. “And I tried waking mommy up, but she won’t, and she was crying, and it’s so dark outside, and—and—” He dissolved into hysterics that were muffled when Pinkie picked him up.

“But you’re fine!” the older filly exclaimed, hopeful. “You can help them, right…?” And then, much like the rest, she dissolved into tears as well, crying for her mom as Incantation scooped her up.

Twilight’s heart constricted itself in her chest. She turned to Rarity, at a loss.

“...What are we going to do?”

Rarity took a deep breath, getting up and cradling one of the foals. “I suppose we shall have to do as I told you, darling. We’ll have to survive this, too.”

“Hnng… No… Please! Stay away from me! Please...”

Inside a fully-lit room, a sleeping Feather Blade tossed and turned in her bed, painfully murmuring and pleading, suffering while everypony watched. Gathered around her bed, Applejack and a decidedly uncomfortable Twilight stared as the professor waved a device over the mare, trying to discern whatever he could.

Maybe, Twilight thought, she’d feel less uncomfortable if they hadn’t been forced to break into Feather’s house to do this.

“Are y’all sure about this?”

Twilight looked to the other side of the bed, where Applejack in turn frowned at the professor. He stuffed the device in his bag and pushed up his glasses.

“It’s not a method I’d encourage, but she does need a shock.”

Applejack snorted. “This’ll be mighty more than a shock, I reckon’.”

“Incoming!”

The door slammed open and in came Rainbow Dash, balancing a bucket of ice-cold water on her back.

Twilight levitated the bucket up and floated it towards the bed right up until it was above the mare. Wincing, and internally apologizing, she tipped it over and—

SPLASH!

Everypony jumped away as the water fell onto the mare, soaked her and her bed entirely, and then… and then nothing. The mare didn’t so much as react, she just continued to thrash about.

Professor Awe frowned. “Hrm.”

“Yo, wake up!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with frustration, jumping onto the bed, grabbing the mare from under her forelegs and literally lifting her into the air. She wiggled her around, a dozing marionette. “Wake up!”

“No… I’m sorry…. Please…”

The same thing awaited them in the next house, and then the next, and the next. With each non-responsive family, the crew’s frustration rose palpably, as made obvious by an increasingly agitated Rainbow Dash.

“Ugh! Come on!”

Rainbow let go of her latest non-responsive passenger, the stallion nearly falling face-first onto the bed until Twilight quickly caught him in her magic and gently laid him down.

“Rainbow,” she said, frustrated, “I thought we established shaking them isn’t working.”

“Nothing is working, Princess!”

“Well, regardless, that’s another pony off the list,” the professor declared, grabbing a notepad from a nearby desk and checking off the stallion’s name. “Tundra Snow, her husband, and their elder son next door are up next.”

“We’re wasting our time!” Rainbow protested. “We’ve already gone through a bunch of them, and none of them have woken up! We don’t have to go through the entire freaking town!”

“Miss Dash, if you’d rather try your luck giving yourself a concussion against the barrier, you are welcome to do so.”

“No! No. Sorry.” Rainbow let out a frustrated sigh. “Sorry, it’s just… Let’s just hurry up to the next one.”

“You comin’, Princess?” Applejack asked as the others got their things together.

Twilight shook her head. “No, I need to get back to the Dreamland. I told Rarity and the others I’d help them with the kids.”

“Are you going to see Princess Luna?” Rainbow asked next, putting down her bucket. “Can I go?! My hoof has some choice words for her flank.”

As enticing as it sounded to have Rainbow Dash with her to deal with… whatever Princess Luna now was, Twilight shook her head. “No, Rainbow. I told you. We need you and Applejack to stay awake in case… in case something happens. Or…” She swallowed. “He comes.”

The professor snorted. “That would suit what I’ve learned about him, at the very least. Making a grand appearance when everything’s already gone to Tartarus.”

“Let’s just hope he doesn’t,” Twilight said, taking her things and trotting out, gathering her mental bearings for what had so far been a long, long night.

She made her way out of the house and stepped out into this forest where no wind blew through the trees, where no birds chirped from their nests, where sunlight no longer reached. She sat down on her haunches and breathed in one, two, three times. As she did so, she looked up towards the black sky and reviewed her list of known facts:

First, the entire town was encased in an impenetrable black barrier that allowed nothing to come in or come out.

Second, the Dreamland was currently housing dozens of hysterical sleep-deprived foals who were being forced to stay awake.

Third, somewhere inside the dream realm, Twilight was ninety-five percent sure Princess Luna had lost her mind to chaos magic.

And four, well… save for the Dreamland adults, the Ponyvillians, Rainbow Dash, and Professor Awe, anypony from Hollow Shades over the age of ten was asleep. Each and every single one, confined to bed, thrashing and sweating, consumed by neverending nightmares.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Twilight had made a fifth entry detailing how long they could last inside the barrier without food and water from the outside, as well as a sixth entry figuring out how long the adults could be trapped inside a nightmare without eating and drinking.

She tried not to think of those two entries. They were a little stressing. And depressing. And mostly stressing, especially after she’d told Rarity the answers and Rarity told her that she knew “misery loves company, but my stars, I didn’t need to know that, darling.”

The point was she tried really really hard to ignore them except for when she’d joked to herself that, hey, being displaced in time had been somewhat useful! Can’t die of starvation when you’re already dead. Displaced. Anyway.

Too bad she couldn’t temporarily time-displace an entire town.

“Princess!”

Twilight got up, watching as Fluttershy rushed towards her, a lantern hanging from her neck.

“Fluttershy! Did you find any other foals?”

“No,” the pegasus replied, joining Twilight in the darkness. “They’re all at the Dreamland now. “

“And Dusk Star?”

Fluttershy sighed. “Oh… He’s asleep, too. But he seems peaceful!” she quickly added at Twilight’s crestfallen expression. “He didn’t seem to be having a nightmare, at least.”

Twilight frowned.

“Interesting. Maybe it’s because he’s only a recent convert?” She looked back up at the sky. It was so dark. She was almost afraid to ask, but… “What time is it? The sun should be out soon and we might get some sort of light.”

Fluttershy fidgeted uncomfortably, looking at the little pocket-watch hanging from her saddlebag. “Uhm… It’s a quarter to noon…”

“...Nevermind that, then!” Twilight cheerfully exclaimed, again pushing down the nagging voice that reminded her of the fifth and sixth facts regarding their survival inside the dome. “Anyway,” she continued, “I’m heading towards the Dreamland. Are you done with everything you needed to do? We should probably get going soon.”

Fluttershy gulped.

“...Is it time?”

“I don’t think we can put it off any longer.” She lifted a hoof and placed it on the mare’s shoulder. “Are you sure you want to do this? You don’t have to. Honestly, I don’t know that any of you should be doing this.”

Despite her squeaky voice saying otherwise, Fluttershy shook her head. “I… I want to. We want to, all of us.” She smiled kindly. “You don’t have to do it alone, even if you can.”

Twilight returned the smile sincerely. “Thank you, Fluttershy. I appreciate that.”

Just as Fluttershy had said, the Dreamland was overrun with the entirety of Hollow Shades’ ten and under population. All things considered, the foals were taking the situation as well as one could expect, which wasn’t well at all. They were tired and scared, and any attempt to sleep was immediately thwarted by the exhausted changeling running around.

“You’ll sleep soon,” Incantation sympathetically told a filly, dabbing the filly’s eyes with a handkerchief. She grabbed a cold chocolate milk sippy cup from her saddlebag and hoofed it over. “Here, drink this.”

“But I wanna sleep now,” the filly complained, barely able to stifle a sniffle.

“I know.” Ink fell onto her haunches and exhaled, rubbing the bags under her eyes she wasn’t bothering to hide. “I want to sleep, too.” She forced herself to get up and flagged down one of the older foals. “Gust! Can you go with Illumination and help her wash her face with cold water, please?”

“I’ll do it,” Twilight interrupted, stepping into the theatre with Fluttershy in tow. She levitated the filly and cradled her in a foreleg. She then noticed a colt dozing off near the corner of the room and gestured it to Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, can you—”

“I’ll go!” two separate voices chimed in, and the mares watched as two separate older foals rushed over, teddy bears strapped to their backs.

That was the other thing keeping the Dreamland afloat.

The group of a little over a dozen foals who’d participated in the Seeking Night event, every single one carrying their teddy bear on their back as they took charge and helped the adults in whatever way they could.

“Princess Twilight!”

She turned around and saw Rhinestone and a few other foals rushing towards her, each carrying their teddy bear.

“Hi, everypony,” Twilight said, continuing on her path towards the washroom.

“Princess Twilight,” Rhinestone continued, hurrying up to match Twilight’s pace. “When are we helping Princess Luna?!”

“Is she okay?!” an older colt asked.

“...She’s managing,” Twilight lied, opening the washroom door and stepping in, the filly in her foreleg yawning loudly. She soaked a nearby face towel and dabbed it on the filly’s face. “How are you all holding up?”

“We want to help!” Gust added, having joined them as well.

“You are helping!” Twilight exclaimed, putting the filly down and watching as she sleepily stumbled off. She turned to the foals, all still eagerly surrounding her. “Maybe Rarity needs you?... Where is Rarity, actually? And Pinkie?”

“No, Princess!” Rhinestone said. “We want to help Princess Luna!”

Another filly spoke up. “She’s helping our parents, isn’t she? Well, uhm—” She gestured to Rhinestone, Gust and the others. “We were talking with the others, and we decided we’re gunna fall asleep so we can—”

“Fall aslee—No!” Twilight blurted out. “No. No. No falling asleep.”

“But we promised Princess Luna we’d help her!” Rhinestone insisted.

“Those are our parents!”

Twilight ears folded back.

“I know, but…” She knelt down, trying to reason with them. “Kids. These aren’t… This isn’t normal. These nightmares aren’t like the others you’ve had. These are bad. Actually bad. It’s not something you can just wake up from or beat on your own. We don’t even know if you can wake up if you fall asleep. What if you can’t? You’ll be trapped there alone.”

“But we’re not alone!” they exclaimed, reaching up to grab their teddy bears. “We have our guardians!”

Twilight nearly laughed. If only teddy bears actually could save them from this mess!

“Look. We’ll talk about this later, okay?” she said, leaving the bathroom and giving them a final decisive look. “But right now, it’s not a good idea. Nopony is helping Princess Luna until I’ve tried first, okay?” At their silence, she narrowed her eyes. “Okay?”

“...If you say so, Princess Twilight.”

“Good.” She ushered them away. “Now, please go and help Incantation with whatever she needs.”

Once they trotted off, Twilight made her way through the rest of the Dreamland, hoping to find Rarity and Pinkie. It was her nose that led her to them, guiding her inside the bakery kitchen where she found Rarity keeping Pinkie company as the latter cooked up an absolute storm of foal’s meals.

“Oh, Twilight,” Rarity exclaimed when the alicorn stepped in. “You’re back! Any good news?” When Twilight shook her head, she sighed. “...Ah.” She glanced at Pinkie briefly when the mare turned on a mixer and then back to Twilight. “How are you managing?”

Twilight tried to speak over the sound of the mixer. “I’m tired, but I could be worse. You?”

“Very much the same.” She offered a sad smile. “Failing rather miserably not to think of all the things I could have done to prevent this.”

Twilight frowned. “Rarity…” She had half a mind to protest the implications in that statement, but her attention was drawn to the pink mare mixing away. “How is Pinkie doing?”

“She’s coping in her own way. Waiting for you to come back so we could go see Princess Luna was driving her a bit mad, I fear,” Rarity explained, sympathetic. She raised her voice and waved at the mare. “Pinkie! Twilight is here!”

Pinkie looked up and immediately her eyes sparkled. “Princess!” she gasped, turning off the mixer. “You’re back! Are we seeing Princess Luna now?! How did it go with the adults?!” At Twilight’s expression, she deflated briefly. “Oh… Well! It’s okay! Once we go into the dreams, we’ll help her! And then she’ll get out! Right?!”

“Yes,” Twilight said, decisively. “Fluttershy and I are ready to start if you are.”

“Me too! I even have her cupcake ready!” Pinkie continued, walking towards the oven and peering in.

Twilight frowned. “Her cupcake?” she whispered to Rarity.

“I’ll explain later,” Rarity whispered back before turning to Pinkie. “Darling, finish up and then go fetch Fluttershy, won’t you? I need to go prepare the room.”

“Oki-doki-loki!”

Twilight watched as Rarity left the kitchen, and though she could have stayed with Pinkie, she followed her heart and trailed after Rarity towards the workshop. The entire place had been cleared out to make space for the large throw pillows and blankets Rarity was placing around on the floor.

“Any idea what we should expect?” Rarity asked, now busying herself with getting smaller pillows out of a closet.

“No. Maybe. Nightmares. Lots and lots of nightmares.” She swallowed. “Are you sure you want to do this? You can stay here with Incantation if you want.”

“I can do it.” Rarity fluffed a pillow for a moment and then abruptly stopped, her eyes set on the floor. “What about Discord? You said he can’t enter the dream world?”

“Not under normal circumstances, no…”

Rarity looked at her.

“...but? There is a ‘but’, is there not?”

Twilight let out a deep breath. “The last thing I saw was chaos magic taking over Princess Luna in the dream realm. So. Chaos magic couldn’t enter the dream realm before, but now… I don’t know. Maybe it can through her.”

Rarity paled. “Stars above… Even Discord?”

“Maybe. There’s a chance he can, yes,” Twilight confessed, quickly trying to backtrack at Rarity’s horrified expression. “But—! But it’s fine. Even if Discord does enter the dream realm, you’ll be fine. The you inside there is just a projection of your mind. He can’t physically or mentally hurt you.”

“What about you?” Rarity asked immediately, seemingly not caring for her own well-being. “You’re not dreaming, you’re dream-walking. What does that mean for you? Can he hurt you?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?!” Rarity yelped, immediately afterward lowering her voice and trying to steady herself. “Twilight. How can you not know? Didn’t Princess Luna tell you, or—?”

“No. Why would she? I don’t think Princess Luna has ever even considered the idea we could get attacked inside the dream realm.”

“What do you think?”

“Well… when you dream-walk, your consciousness actually goes into the dream realm. It’s not a projection. Following that fact, I guess he could trap me inside my mind, or he could wipe my consciousness, for example.”

Rarity rubbed a hoof against her eyes. “Oh, my stars, stars, stars.”

“Rarity.” Twilight moved forward and nuzzled her. “I’ll be fine.” She felt Rarity press her face against the crook of her neck, and when the unicorn whined pitifully, Twilight wrapped a foreleg around her. “I will be. Okay? Besides, what’s the worst he could do?”

Rarity immediately pulled away.

“Twilight, you say that as if the horrific scenarios you just described weren’t the worst he could do.”

Twilight hummed. “I mean, that’s just surface things. The actual worst thing he could do to me is—mmph!”

Rarity immediately placed a hoof on Twilight’s mouth, shutting her up. “No! Do not! Do not tempt fate!”

Twilight tilted her head. “Mm-mmm-mmph.”

“I don’t care what you’re sayi—Twilight!” She yelped with disgust, taking back the hoof Twilight’d just licked. She shook her hoof and regarded her marefriend with horror. “What IS your problem?!”

“You’ve done that to me!”

“That is entirely beside the point!” She shook her head and grabbed the pillow from the floor, launching it at a nearby blanket. “‘What’s the worst he could do?’ I can’t believe you actually said that. It’s as though you’ve never read a book in your life, Princess Booky.”

Twilight sat down and watched, endeared, as Rarity finished setting up the room. She would never actually put the thought out there for fear of destiny actually interfering, but she felt oddly calm if only because the worst thing Discord could do to her was hurt Rarity.

And he couldn’t—at least, not in dreams. So long as Rarity was dreaming and her consciousness was safe, then Twilight didn’t have too much to be afraid of beyond, well, dealing with Princess Luna. If Discord decided to attack them all while they were sleeping, that was another matter entirely but—!

But that would be a bridge to cross only if it had to be crossed.

“You know, the foals wanted to go help Princess Luna,” Twilight mentioned, a casual fun fact to keep the conversation going. “As in fall asleep and help her wake up their parents.”

“I’m not surprised they want to help.” Rarity said, already nearly done prepping the room. “Which ones asked?”

“The older ones. With the teddy bears? Rhinestone and her friends.”

“Mmm. What did you tell them?”

Twilight frowned. “That they couldn’t,” she said, as if it were obvious because it was.

Rarity turned to her. “And what did they say?”

“‘If you say so, Princess Twilight’.”

“I see.”

“What?” Twilight asked when she noticed Rarity frowning slightly. “...You don’t think they’re going to try anyway, do you?”

Rarity mulled it over for a moment before going back to her task.

“I’m certainly not an expert on foals, but if running the Dreamland has taught me anything, it’s that foals often follow their hearts, not their sensible caretakers. However, I don’t think we should be too worried. Just remind me to ask Incantation to keep an eye on them before we go to sleep. ”

Twilight smiled, teasing. “I’m sure at this point you are an expert at taking care of foals.”

A question occurred to her suddenly.

“Actually,” she continued, genuinely curious, “do you want to have foals?”

Rarity mulled it over for a moment, her gaze set on a pillow she was fluffing again. “I used to, yes. It was a thought I entertained as a filly, and then again when—” She turned to Twilight and offered a half-grin. ”I used to visit you in your library and fantasize about my fairytale romance where I rescued you and we were in love and had foals like every fairytale couple is supposed to do.”

Twilight’s heart fluttered despite herself. In truth, she’d never even considered the idea of foals at all, but even so, she liked the idea Rarity thought about it—not about having foals specifically, but just the fact that Rarity thought about their future. That there was something to look forward to.

Except…

“Wait. You used to? You don’t want them anymore? What happened?”

Rarity didn’t reply initially. She merely stared at Twilight, as if contemplating whether to reply at all.

“Rarity?” Twilight prompted, and Rarity’s expression shifted, a choice having been made.

She batted her eyelashes.

“Well, you can’t exactly have a future with somepony you think you’re never going to see again, now can you?” she asked playfully, and yet every word slammed against Twilight like a freight train.

But it was fine.

It was fine because:

“I’m here now, though,” Twilight said, and she meant it, and when she smiled lovingly, she meant that, too.

For a split-second, Rarity’s expression changed. It softened, the teasing facade evaporated, and for a split-second, something torn and wounded flashed through her eyes. But she pushed it away, and the smile she returned was not exactly loving, no, but vulnerable, and that was enough.

“That you are, your Highness,” she repeated softly. “That you are.”

Knocking at the door interrupted them, followed in short order by Incantation peering into the room.

“Uh. Hi.”

Rarity waved her in. “Oh, Ink! Good timing. I was just about to—” She stopped when Incantation threw her a… not a pained look, but a… concerned one. “Darling, what’s wrong?”

Immediately after, Pinkie peered in, looking just as harried.

“Hi! Are you busy?! We need to talk. Can you talk? It’s important!” She looked towards someone out in the hallway. “They’re not doing anything. Tell them it’s important!”

Fluttershy peered in next, speaking politely. “Very important.”

“What’s wrong?” Twilight repeated, her and Rarity standing up in alarm.

Ink cleared her throat. “Uh. Well.”

The door swung open and revealed a fourth pony who, with a gentle encouraging nudge from Fluttershy, stepped forward.

“Hello…” said Dusk Star, the one and only, looking terribly chastized as he clutched his teddy bear.

“Dusk Star?!” Rarity gasped, her shock matched by Twilight.

“What are you doing here?!” she blurted out. Dusk Star was there? How? What did this mean? Had Rainbow and the others woken up the adults, or—?

Unfortunately, her genuine shock came out differently to the foal. His eyes quickly watered and he bowed his head down.

“I’m sorry,” he sniffled. “I can go…”

“Princess Twilight!” Fluttershy scolded, frowning and shaking her head.

“No, no, that’s not what she meant,” Rarity blurted out before Twilight could. “She’s just—We’re just—We’re surprised to see you! We thought…”

“We thought you were asleep,” Twilight filled in, her eyes darting to Fluttershy. “Wasn’t he?”

Fluttershy nodded. “He was,” she insisted. “I saw him sleeping!”

“No,” Dusk interrupted, and it seemed as though his shame grew triplefold, his ears folding back. “I was pretending… I stayed in bed after the earthquake woke me up…”

Twilight’s eyes grew wide. “Woke you up?”

The earthquake woke him up? Just like all the other foals? But why? How? He was completely overridden with chaos magic, just like the adults, and yet—!

And yet there he was.

“But why didn’t you come with Rhinestone?” Rarity asked.

Dusk held his teddy bear tighter. “...’Cause I thought you were mad at me, because I was angry, and I shouted... and…” His eyes watered anew and his words came out in cracked chunks. “And now everypony’s ha-having nightmares because I up-upset Princess Luna.” He bowed his head. “I’m sorry…”

“Oh, darling…” Rarity softened, walking towards him. “Darling, you—Wait. Wait. Come again?”

Dusk blinked at her. “H-Huh?”

“‘You upset Princess Luna’?” Twilight repeated, carefully. “Dusk.” She stepped forward. “Dusk, you said Princess Luna isn’t real yesterday. Does this mean you… you believe us?” Her wings extended. “You see my wings properly now?”

“...No…” He squinted and then gestured to the spot where her wing met her body. “They look like robot wings...”

Twilight deflated. “Oh…”

“But… But wait!” Rarity interrupted. “How is he here, then? Why didn’t he stay asleep? If he sees mechanical wings, he should still be asleep! Right?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight confessed. “It doesn’t make sense.”

Dusk frowned. “What do you mean? They don’t have teddy bears,” he said plainly, and when the adults blinked at him, he clarified. “I’m awake ‘cos Princess Luna gave me a teddy bear, and she didn’t give any to them.”

“Hold up,” Ink said, “you think you’re awake because of the teddy bears?”

He nodded his head. “And Princess Luna wouldn’t be able to do that if she wasn’t real!”

Twilight bit down on her lip. That didn’t make sense, but she didn’t know how to tell him or if she should. Dusk Star went to bed believing Princess Luna was a lie, so logically he should have still been asleep like the rest of the adults. His belief couldn’t actually protect him unless, well, he believed.

“What?” he asked, having noticed her silence. He swallowed, hugging his teddy bear. “Did I say something wrong?”

“No, I—” Twilight took a moment and continued. “Dusk, you didn’t believe in Luna when you went to bed, right? Last night, you thought we’d been lying to you about the legend being real, right?”

“...No,” he confessed. “I did, at first! And when I went home, I was really upset you lied, but… but it didn’t make sense.”

“What didn’t make sense, darling?” Rarity asked.

“I remembered Princess Twilight’s wings being real before! But now they weren’t! But I remember them being real, because she yelled when Scribble Heart twisted them last week, and then I remembered I had a photo we took from Seeking Night with Princess Twilight where her wings were all—” He sat down and extended his forelegs to the side. ”—woosh! And big, and stuff! So I went to look at the picture, and now the wings were all roboty! Which doesn’t make sense ‘cos pictures can’t change!”

“They can’t!” Pinkie exclaimed. She turned to Fluttershy. “Right?”

“Oh, I don’t think so, no.”

“I wanted Princess Luna to be real,” Dusk continued. “And I wanted to keep having fun with you, and Miss Rarity and everypony else in the Dreamland, and with Princess Luna in my dreams!” He picked up his teddy bear again, emotional. “I don’t want that to go away so even if it doesn’t feel real, I’m still gonna believe it is!”

Silence filled the room until it was broken by a sniffle.

“Well,” Rarity said, wiping her eyes, “I think that’s wonderful, Dusk.”

Twilight smiled, starting to feel emotional herself. It had worked. Somehow, maybe not how they expected, but somehow, someway, to some minor extent, the plan worked. Rarity and the others hadn’t wasted two years.

Obviously, it didn’t matter anymore, but… it was nice to know.

“Yeah!” Pinkie exclaimed, Dusk yelping when she picked him up. “You did it! You’re fighting the bad magic! You’re not letting it win!”

“Mister Beary helped too!” he exclaimed, waving his teddy bear. He looked to Twilight, excited. “And if we get Princess Luna to give my parents and everypony else teddy bears, they’ll wake up, too! Can you ask her?!”

Twilight swallowed. “I can try,” she said, which wasn’t exactly a lie. She could absolutely suggest this to Princess Luna, but getting her to agree if she was possessed was another thing entirely.

“Come on, then!” Pinkie blurted out, having contained herself for most of the conversation. She pushed past the foals, and then past Rarity and Twilight, and threw herself onto one of the larger pillows on the floor. “I’m going to help Princess Luna!”

No sooner said than done, her snoring filled the room.

Twilight cleared her throat.

“This is it, then.” She exchanged glances with Rarity and Fluttershy. “Time to go to sleep.”

“Let’s go!” Dusk exclaimed, rushing into the room, all ready to fall asleep until raspberry magic caught him in the middle of his jump towards a pillow. “Huh?”

Twilight levitated the colt directly in front of her.

“I think this should be something for the adults.”

“Yes, Princess Twilight…” he mumbled, just as his sister earlier had, pouting when Twilight deposited her outside the room.

As Fluttershy stepped in, Rarity addressed Incantation and gestured to Dusk and the couple of foals who’d slowly crept up the stairs to find out the gossip.

“Keep an eye on them, won’t you? In fact, transform yourself into something with eyes on the back of your head,” she instructed, smiling ever so slightly when Dusk and the foals outside scrunched their faces in disapproval.

“Yes, ma’am!” Ink exclaimed, saluting briefly before ushering the foals further into the hallway. She grabbed the doorknob and gave the mares a final look. “Good luck!”

Once the door clicked shut, Rarity and Fluttershy made their way towards some of the pillows.

“Goodness, I hope I can fall asleep quickly,” Fluttershy said, covering herself with a blanket. “I feel awfully awake.”

“Don’t worry about that. I have a spell that will help you fall asleep,” Twilight said, dimming the lights with her magic. “Remember, once you’re in there, there’s a high chance you’ll have some sort of nightmare. I’ll try to find you as soon as I can and help you, but as you fall asleep, keeping in mind the mission might help it carry over into your dreamstate.” She alternated looking between both mares. “Understood?”

Rarity didn’t much react, staring at Twilight but seemingly lost in her own world, sitting up straight on a pillow. Fluttershy, on the other hand, nodded vigorously and then closed her eyes.

“Remember the mission,” the pegasus repeated to herself. “Go into the dreams, find the ponies, and... “ Her eyes peered open, and she looked to Twilight for help.

“And keep them safe while I deal with Princess Luna,” she completed. She watched as Fluttershy nodded and closed her eyes again. When the pegasus lost herself in repeating the mission over and over, Twilight turned to Rarity and found the unicorn still sitting up straight on the pillow and still staring at her.

Twilight smiled playfully.

“Are you planning on going to sleep sitting up?”

“What? No! Obviously not,” Rarity quickly said, lying down on the pillow. “Don’t be silly.”

Twilight levitated a blanket and draped it over Rarity. She moved to her, intending on tucking her in properly, but stopped when Rarity directed an intense stare her way.

“What is it?” she whispered.

Rarity fidgeted for a moment before replying.

“Please. I’m not trying to coddle you, I’m not, I give you my word,” she said carefully, “but you will be careful there, won’t you? You’ll get out at the first sign of something going wrong?”

“To be clear, what do you define as ‘something going wrong’?”

Rarity frowned. “Twilight.”

Twilight dropped the teasing attitude and sobered up. “I’ll be careful. I promise,” she said, genuinely. “As long as you’re careful, too. If you ever feel like you want to stop, or you don’t feel safe, I’ll wake you up immediately. If I can. All right?”

Finally, Rarity loosened up and sighed dramatically.

“I suppose I shall try,” she declared as Twilight tucked her in. She looked to the side and laughed, drawing Twilight’s attention to the sleeping pegasus. “Well, well. No need for a spell, hm?”

Twilight turned to her. “You should follow her example before we’re here all night.”

“Afternoon. Isn’t it half-past one?” She closed her eyes. “Regardless! Goodnight. Or good afternoon, actually.” And then she opened her eyes before Twilight could even so much as reply. “I love you.”

Twilight smiled affectionately. “I love you, too.” She leaned down and nuzzled her briefly. “Goodnight.”

Rarity closed her eyes when Twilight pulled away and then opened them again just as Twilight was walking off.

“You will be careful, right?”

“Yes. Goodnight, Rarity.”

Rarity closed her eyes. “Good afternoon.” She opened them again, and whatever she had to say died at Twilight’s pointed stare. She closed them again. “All right, all right! Just use your spell before we’re here all night!... Afternoon. Midday? Or would it be early… after...noon…”

Less than a second later, Rarity dozed off, Twilight’s sleeping spell draping her and then fading away. A soft groan caught her attention, and she turned around to find Pinkie fidgeting in her sleep. A pronounced frown marred the mare’s face, quickly reminding Twilight that nopony here was actually going to have a pleasant afternoon nap.

All right, she thought. Here we go.

She made her way to the center of the room and sat down on her usual pillow. She took one last look around, one last deep breath, then closed her eyes and cast the spell. Everything faded away, and when she felt herself in a different place, she took another breath and opened her eyes to find…

Hollow Shades.

“...What?”

She stood up, finding herself not inside the dream realm’s hallway of doors, or even inside the Dreamland, but inside—outside, rather—a Hollow Shades back-alley. In fact, she might have wondered if she’d accidentally teleported herself if only for the fact that this was not the Hollow Shades she’d left behind.

There was no sunlight, no, but the entire place was lit, not shrouded in complete darkness. Illuminated despite lacking any source of light.

I don’t understand…

Why was she there? This was the first time she’d actually… teleported directly into a dream instead of the hallway of dream doors. But whose dream is this?

She stepped forward, calling out.

“Rarity?! Fluttershy?! Pinkie?!”

But no one replied.

She moved further into the alley and towards the exit, and it wasn’t until she stepped out into a plaza that she realized where she was.

Dream doors.

Flashing, black dream doors scattered all over the plaza, every single one swinging off its hinges, chaos magic seeping in and out of them and covering the entire dream realm.

The chaos magic got in! she thought urgently. It had happened. It had been let in, finally, and she wondered if this was possibly Discord’s end-game with Princess Luna. Could he come in here? He shouldn’t be able to, but… If he could…

Cursing under her breath, she ran to a nearby door and crossed it, just to be led back into this distorted Hollow Shades that now revealed itself for what it was: a single, massive shared nightmare with a chaosed Princess Luna at its center.

This was beyond what Twilight could handle.

She’d not been trained for this.

But, as she walked further into the nightmare, she remembered what Rarity told her.

She would just have to survive this, too.

Author's Note

Hi everyone!

Here is the newest chapter, later than I hoped. My partner moved in with me in February, then I got a really bad flu (not the current one going around), and then just as I recovered, COVID happened.

I'm currently and unfortunately quarantined in my house due to Covid, and work has... really let down... because I work in the movie industry and there is no movie industry right now, so I've had a lot of free time to write. Still haven't lost my job yet, but hopefully it won't come to that.

Anyway! Here it is, and I hope all of you are safe and secure and healthy wherever you are.

Thanks as always for your patience and support, and I don't anticipate the next chapters being too far away.

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.
Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

~ Act II ~ 20 ~ The Nightmare Night ~

Twilight could not accurately estimate how long she’d been in the dream realm, particularly when time worked differently there, but it certainly felt like she’d been there a while. A long while, cluelessly wandering about this warped Hollow Shades, chaos magic seeping out of everything the eye could see.

“Hello?!” she called out, but much like the dozen times before, no one replied—even though she couldn’t shake off the feeling she wasn’t alone. Moving shadows seemed to loom all about, scurrying into alleys, vanishing when she turned around, and dancing inside the empty, dimly-lit houses. It didn’t help either that the chaos magic seemed to be reacting to her, like a mist that followed her wherever she went.

She walked towards one of the houses and peered in through the window, squinting at the darkened outlines of furniture and other assorted household objects. A rocking chair, she noticed, rocked back and forth despite not having anypony on it.

When the chaos magic enveloping the house seemed to move towards her, she quickly stepped away and looked back towards the town.

Where is everypony?

It didn’t make sense. The majority of Hollow Shades' inhabitants were trapped in nightmares, so they should be here. She should have seen somepony by now! At least one or two ponies! An entire town couldn’t be hidden like that, and they couldn’t exactly be anywhere else, either.

Her mind wandered towards Rarity, and out of instinct, her hoof went to her chest, landing on the glowing construct-necklace. If only it worked here.

“Hello?!” she called out again, moving further into the town. She swallowed and gambled with fate. “Princess Luna?! Princess Luna, can you hear me?!”

A sound caught her attention, directing her gaze towards a nearby dark alley. Her hornlight illuminated her way as she ventured in, walking past distorted dumpsters and apple boxes.

“Hello?” she called out. “Is anyone the—?”

“Shh! Please! He’ll hear you!”

With a yelp, Twilight turned around and saw a pegasus mare cowering behind a dumpster.

“He? Who’s he?” Twilight urgently whispered, looking around. “What’s going on?”

“You have to hide! Please!” the mare continued, tears streaming down her eyes, wildly gesturing for Twilight to hide next to her. “Please!”

“There you are, Spring Flower,” a voice said behind Twilight, and when she turned around to see who it was, she heard the mare let out a strangled sob behind her. “Why did you think you could leave me?”

To call the thing a stallion would not be as accurate as calling it a stallion-shaped hole in the world, flickering and indistinct around the edges, and black throughout save for its two white eyes. It sucked up the light around it, giving off only oozing darkness that leeched into the ground beneath him

Twilight stepped back, frightened.

“No, please! Please, go away! Leave me alone!” Spring Flower wailed, pressed against the dumpster, terrified out of her wits. “I’m sorry!”

And to see Spring so helpless, to see her crying and apologizing for something that was not her fault… Well, that was enough for Twilight. If before she’d have stepped back in fear, now she stepped forward, her wings flaring up defensively and her horn crackling with magic.

“No, please!” Spring gasped, reaching out to Twilight. “You’ll be hurt!”

“It’ll be okay,” Twilight promised kindly, as Luna had taught her. A bright magic burst from her horn, enveloping the shadow pony and dismissing it quickly enough. Once it was gone, she turned to the mare. “See? It’s fine now.”

“What did you do?!” the mare urgently asked, anything but relieved. She stared at Twilight, horrified.

“I dispelled it,” Twilight explained, taken aback. “It’s gone, it—”

“No!” the mare exclaimed, burying herself against the dumpster. The dream around them began to shift, distorting even more as chaos magic seeped from all sides, reacting to her growing distress. “He isn’t gone! He’s there! He’s always there!”

The chaos magic crackled to life all around them, and one by one, shadow ponies materialized from thin air, completely surrounding them. While Spring Flower dissolved into terrified sobbing, Twilight again extended her wings, her horn flaring up, and she dispelled them again.

And they appeared again, and again, and again.

“What?” she asked, her magic fizzling out as fast as her confidence. “Why isn’t it working?”

She stepped back, and her horn flared up again, followed in short order by a roar that startled Spring Flower out of her sobbing and the shadow ponies out of their threatening looming. The mare and her nightmare creations turned to Twilight, surprised.

But not as surprised as her.

“I didn’t do that!” she exclaimed, only to prove her point when another deafening roar sounded out.

They looked around for the source of the sound and traced it to a single, adorable teddy bear plush seated near the entrance of the alley. They stared at it, absolutely bewildered, and even more so when the teddy bear not only stood up but grew ten feet tall.

It stumbled about, trying to adapt to its new monstrous height, and once it had, it looked straight towards Twilight and the others. It tilted its head to the side, blinking curiously, right up until Twilight Sparkle’s mood went from scared but curious to absolutely furious when four foals appeared next to it, Rhinestone leading them all.

“Kids!” Twilight snapped. “What did I say?!”

“Summer?!” Spring gasped, horrified.

“Stay away from my sister!” a filly shouted, followed in short order by Rhinestone gesturing to the shadow ponies and yelling out, “GET THEM, RUDOLPH!”

Roaring, and somehow actually looking terrifying despite being an over-sized teddy bear, Rudolph charged forward with great heavy stomps, his furry arms wildly swinging at his sides. The shadow ponies tore towards him in return, only to be swatted away and vanishing upon colliding with the alley’s walls.

“We won!” cheered the foals, rushing to them and surrounding Twilight and the mare.

The chaos magic thought otherwise, however, and it again crackled to life, bringing back more of the shadow ponies.

“...Or not…” Rhinestone yelped.

“It’s never going to end,” Spring whispered, eyes filling with tears. She fell to the floor, burying her face in her hooves, crying miserably. “Please… Please… Make it stop… I’m sorry… Please…”

Again and again, Rudolph swatted at the shadow ponies, keeping them away from the ponies, and again and again the shadows reappeared, a seemingly unbeatable enemy.

Scared, but not deterred, the foals crowded around Twilight, trying to protect Spring.

“Princess Twilight!” Rhinestone asked, looking to her for guidance. “What’s wrong? It’s not working!”

“Hold on,” Twilight said, not able to admit defeat yet. “Stay there! All of you!”

She gritted her teeth, flew up into the air past Rudolph, and hovered on top of the shadow ponies. As she had before, she tried to dispel them, only to have the same results as the teddy bear. They just kept coming back.

I can’t stop them, she thought, panicked, helplessly flying overtop.

What did she do? She didn’t have Princess Luna there to help.

Had she failed?

Had all her training been for nothing? What good was she if she couldn’t get rid of a nightmare?

She looked back towards the others. The foals were cheering the teddy bear on, at least, but poor crying Spring was still cowering by the dumpster, barely registering her little sister trying to comfort her.

How did she fix this?

“Our job is not to fix ponies’ nightmares, Twilight Sparkle. Our job is to guide them through their fears, not save them.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. That’s it!

“Spring?” Twilight called out, flying down to her. When Spring ignored her, Twilight took a cue from Princess Luna and raised her voice, as commanding as she could make it. “Spring! Listen to me!”

Finally, Spring turned to Twilight, beseeching her for guidance as Rhinestone had.

“This is your nightmare! Only you can stop this.” She gestured to the shadow ponies. “You can get rid of them.”

“I-I can’t!” Spring sobbed. “I tried, and they keep coming back!”

“Then why are they still here?” Twilight asked, as kindly but firmly as she could. “Why aren’t they gone?”

“I don’t know!” Spring protested, a slight hint of anger lacing her tone. “Why should I know?!”

“You know exactly why they’re not leaving,” Twilight continued, unrelenting. “Why aren’t they gone, Spring?”

Finally, Spring crumbled, drenched in a shame Twilight was not unfamiliar with. “I’m not strong enough,” she whispered, defeated.

“No,” Twilight interrupted, her wings flaring up, Spring clinging to every word. “You think you’re not strong enough. But you are! You are strong enough to stop this! The monsters are only as strong as you let them be.”

“How… How do I stop them?”

“With a teddy bear from Princess Luna!” her sister exclaimed, and immediately a small teddy bear in a ballerina tutu materialized, pirouetting for the benefit of the ponies. “She’ll help you!”

Spring blinked, and even though she sniffled, she stood up and addressed the bear. “You can help me?” she asked it, and the bear delicately curtsied.

It turned around towards the shadows, and flipping its non-existent hair, grew ten-feet in size, standing protectively over the ponies.

“You’ll never hurt my sister again!” the filly yelled, the foals echoing the claim, and Twilight watched as something changed in the mare’s expression. She believed. “She’s better now!”

“She is!” Twilight exclaimed, and withheld a smile when Spring joined in, angered.

“I am!” she exclaimed, and so did the bear rush forward towards the shadows, joining Rudolph in fighting them. “You—! You can’t hurt me anymore!”

And now, when the bears did away with a shadow pony, it did not come back. They fought them off through sword slashes and rather elegant high-kicks until not a single apparition remained.

They waited a moment, and when it was clear they were safe, Spring erupted into cheers.

“I did it! I did it!” she exclaimed, laughing when her little sister jumped at her, practically toppling her over. Tears of relief glided down her cheeks. “Oh, thank goodness…”

As the foals joined in the celebrations, Twilight stepped back, her mind already on her next task. If Spring’s nightmare was defeated, then it stood to reason that she could wake up, right? Her horn lit up and, too eager to warn her, she focused a waking spell on Spring.

Twilight watched, hopeful, as the spell enveloped the mare.

Her hope quickly died, however, when Spring remained in the dream, her and the foals having noticed both the spell and Twilight’s pronounced frown.

“Are you trying to wake her up, Princess?” Rhinestone asked next, immediately alarming the mare.

“Wake me up?” Spring asked, startled. “What do you mean? I am awake!” She swallowed. “Aren’t I?”

Her sister giggled. “Teddy bears don’t dance in real life!” she pointed out, the ballerina bear twirling behind them for good measure. “You’re asleep!”

“What?”

“All the adults are trapped in nightmares!” said a colt.

“What?”

“And the Spirit from the fairytale put the town in this big blue barrier, and we can’t get out,” a filly added. “And then Bluebell heard Princess Twilight tell Miss Rarity that we’re gonna have a famine!” She turned to Twilight. “What’s a famine?”

“What?!” Spring gasped, horrified. “What do they mean we’re trapped in nightmares? And the town is trapped? And a famine? Is this some sort of a joke?! A famine?!”

Twilight really regretted telling Rarity that, now.

And… And now she regretted having thought that because she was immediately filled with anxiety over where Rarity was. If this mare was having such a terrible nightmare, did that mean that so was Rarity? And Pinkie? And Fluttershy?

“No,” Twilight said, answering the mare. “It isn’t. None of that is a joke. Except for the famine part. I mean. It’s not a joke, but… Let’s not think about that. Anyway.” She looked around, eager to get moving. “This isn’t the place to talk about this. We need to get somewhere safe.”

Even though she didn’t know where to even start looking for someplace safe.

Maybe she ought to start with finding Rarity, making sure she was safe, and then just go from there.

“And we can find Dusk and the others, too!” Rhinestone exclaimed.

Twilight’s eyes widened. “‘Dusk and the others’?” she repeated slowly until her wings almost flared up. She turned to the mare, trying her best to imitate one of Rarity’s ‘customer service smiles’. “Can you give us a minute? I want to make sure the foals are up to date with the plan I told them.”

She turned to the foals, gestured a little ways away, and smiled politely. “Kids?”

Excited, they rushed off, eager to assist Twilight. They were admittedly less eager when her kind smile immediately disappeared the second they were far enough away.

“Kids!” she whispered, furious. “There’s more of you?! What did I tell all of you?! I told you one thing! To not sleep! And here you all are! Asleep! And now you’re telling me there’s more of you lost inside the dream realm?! I can’t believe this! Why didn’t Incantation stop any of you?”

At the changeling’s name, all the foals immediately looked away, guilt spread across their faces.

Twilight was horrified.

“...I’m afraid to ask,” she said. She did so anyway. “What did you do to Incantation?”

“Nothing bad!” Rhinestone insisted. “We just gave her lots of hugs! And told her we loved her! That’s not bad!”

“Yeah!” the others added.

“And I’m sure you didn’t do it because you knew she gets sleepy when she’s overfed with love,” Twilight whispered, her eyes narrowing. “Right?”

The foals looked away, hoofing at the ground.

“Uhm….”

“Kids! That’s incredibly irresponsible! You know ponies are having terrible nightmares, and yet you tricked Ink into falling asleep?!”

“But—! But you said last week that changelings can’t come into our dreams! They have a dream station of their own!” Rhinestone defended.

“Dreamscape. And—” Twilight relented. “...That’s true. Only ponies can enter our dreamrealm. Changelings have one of their own. But still! You disobeyed me!”

“...We’re sorry,” they said in unison. “We just wanted to help…”

Twilight let out a long, long, so very long sigh and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“...I know.” She licked her lips. Well then. “We need to find the other foals, then we find Rarity, then we find the other ponies stuck in nightmares, then we find shelter, then we figure out what to do, and then we do that.”

“And then we don’t get punished ‘cos we saved you and Spring Flower?” a filly suggested eagerly. At Twilight’s stare, her cheeks reddened. “Oh.”

“Do you have any idea where the others went?”

“My big brother went to the plaza with his friends,” Rhinestone said.

“Okay.” Twilight gestured for Spring and the teddy bears to follow them. “That’s where we’ll go first.”

The way to the plaza was much less haunting now that she wasn’t completely alone. The foals weren’t afraid either, but that was mostly because their faith in Twilight, the teddy bears, and Princess Luna was unwavering. They absolutely believed they were unbeatable and so, in dreams, they were.

“But… But the legend isn’t real!” protested Spring. “That’s impossible!”

For the past however many minutes they’d been walking, everypony was involved in a heated discussion over whether Twilight was a real alicorn or not. Twilight herself wasn’t participating, mostly on account of needing to somehow rescue everypony, but it was interesting to half-listen to.

“It is!” the foals protested.

“It can’t be!” Spring protested back. “If it was real, Princess Denza would know and she would have told us!”

Right, Twilight thought. And then you’d all find out she’s displaced and start panicking.

The discussion continued, and Twilight tuned it out in favor of listening for more ponies.

“Hello?!” she called out, the plaza looming on the horizon. “Rarity? Fluttershy? Pinkie? Kids?”

From a distance, the plaza seemed empty, and once they reached it, she was disappointed to see it was empty—well, empty of ponies, but not of chaos magic. That was still around, seeped into everything the eye could see, living and breathing and waiting.

“Are you sure Dusk and the others were headed this way?” Twilight asked, looking back towards the ponies being ferried around on the teddy bears’ shoulders and arms.

“Yes!” Rhinestone exclaimed, her brow furrowing. “He said he’d be here!”

Twilight clenched her jaw. Something’s wrong.

“Everypony, stay behind me,” she warned, and the bears put down the foals and took on a defensive stance, Rudolph summoning his sword. “Don’t let down your guard.”

The group carefully moved into the plaza—Twilight at the front, the bears taking the rear, and everypony else huddling inside the middle of the triangular formation. Without warning, the chaos magic stirred and a haze rose from the ground.

“What’s happening?” Spring asked, instantly alarmed as she and the foals quickly gathered near Twilight.

“The dream is changing,” Twilight replied, her wings flaring up as her horn illuminated what it could. “Stay close to me!”

“Look!” a filly gasped, and when Twilight turned to do so, she realized a tree had appeared a few feet away.

And another. And another. And another, and soon enough the forest had encroached upon them. But not any forest, Twilight realized. These trees were familiar, but they were not the ones from Hollow Shades.

This was the Everfree Forest.

“Grr….”

A low growl filled the air, and her suspicion was confirmed when a timberwolf appeared in the distance, stalking its way through the trees. More growls followed, and a dozen timberwolves joined the first, all of them headed in the same direction, apparently unaware of Twilight and the others.

“What are those?” Spring whispered urgently, trying her best to protect the foals.

“Timberwolves,” Twilight whispered back, her eyes set on the wolves as they moved away.

But if timberwolves and the Everfree Forest were here… then that meant this nightmare belonged to somepony from Ponyville.

And who else would dream of timberwolves but somepony who’d been attacked by them?

She debated what to do—whether to stay with Spring and the foals, or to leave them with the bears and go find Rarity—but the choice was made for her when the timberwolves rushed off and distant screams of terror echoed out.

“Stay here!” she ordered her companions, before looking up to the bears. “And keep them safe!”

Without waiting for a confirmation, she sped off towards the source of the screams, scared for Rarity even though she rationally knew there was nothing to be afraid of.

“Rarity?!” she called out, clearing the haze away with her magic.

She rushed out of the pseudo-forest and found herself back at the plaza. The timberwolves were gathered there as well, terrorizing the six or so adults backed up against a building, all watching as Fluttershy stepped up to the wolves.

“Stay back!” she yelled, standing her ground even though her eyes were filled with frightened tears. “Stay away from us!”

“What manner of creature are these?!” Elder Moonshine gasped from within the crowd.

“Fluttershy!” Twilight called out, rushing to the pegasus, who nearly burst out in tears of relief at the sight of the princess.

“Princess Twilight!” she gasped. “Help us! They’re everywhere!”

“Help us?! What can she do?!” a stallion exclaimed. “They’re going to kill us!”

Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “Kill us?!” she yelped, and immediately more timberwolves materialized, slobbering green fumes and howling into the night.

“Fluttershy!” Twilight exclaimed, trying to get Fluttershy to focus on her. “This is a nightmare, remember?”

“A… A nightmare?” she said, struggling with the fact. “But… But…”

“Fluttershy, think. Think about what’s happening. There are no timberwolves in Hollow Shades,” Twilight said, and a wave of relief swept over her when Fluttershy’s eyes grew wide with realization.

“You’re right!”

Twilight turned towards the timberwolves, her wings flared. Hopefully, she would be able to dispel this nightmare permanently, unlike the shadow ponies from before.

“What about Rarity?!” she asked next, staring down the growling wolves. “Is she with you?!”

“No. Is she not with you?” Fluttershy replied, her tone as concerned as Twilight’s.

Twilight shook her head, her heart constricting in her chest. She pushed away her concerns and flared up her horn, ready to deal with this as quickly as she could.

Except…

The mist began to change again, and the chaos magic all around lit up. The wolves, too, changed their behavior. Though they kept growling, they moved to the side and made space for an alicorn to emerge, her body completely wrapped in an aura of chaos magic.

Under that aura, her coat and wings were a solid black, like she’d been cut out of the night sky. Her horn had grown to a wicked length and to a wicked point; her regalia had decayed away, bled of its colors, its ragged edges razor-sharp. Twilight had to crane her head to meet the alicorn’s eyes, mad and luminous as moonlight.

Twilight stared, horrified.

“...Princess Luna…”

This… This was a complete transformation. She hadn’t transformed like this, and much less had she been able to look so in control of herself!

Was this Nightmare Moon?

Nightmare Moon stepped forward, sympathetic.

“Oh, my beloved foals. Poor things. Having such terrible nightmares.” Fangs gleamed in her mouth, accentuated every word. “Oh, my dear, dear children. It’s been so long since I’ve seen your precious little disbelieving faces! Remember me? No?” she asked when none replied, all of them cowering behind Twilight. “Well.”

She grinned.

“I remember you.”

And with a flash of smoke, she disappeared, just as Twilight stepped forward. “Wait! Stop!”

“Little Lemon Sorbet!” Nightmare Moon exclaimed, appearing next to the mare and grinning when Sorbet shrieked and fell to the ground in her haste to back away. Nightmare Moon leaned down and tilted her head to the side. “Still dreaming of spiders under your bed?”

Spiders crawled out from the ground, and Sorbet’s yelps triggered another flash of smoke as the princess disappeared and reappeared next to an older stallion.

“Little Edge Wise!”

“Wait!” Twilight exclaimed, dispelling the spiders away from Sorbet.

But Nightmare Moon ignored her, too busy towering over the terrified stallion.

“Still afraid of the monster in the closet?” she asked, and a gruesome gasping sound rang out as a half-formed oozing creature dragged itself out from the forest, groaning out Edge Wise’s name.

Twilight clamped her ears to her skull, overloaded by the noise and it all.

She tried to shield Sugardash, but the young teenager still burst into miserable tears when her foalhood bullies materialized before her, mocking her for her dumb nose and her dumb face and her lack of friends. Running past the poor princess, the elderly Blitz called for help as the chaos magic clouded his face and forced him to live in the dark, his worst fear made real. He spun around and around, ignoring Twilight’s warning and tripping on Lunar Star and Ivory Twirl as they ran away from ghosts and the undead.

And all throughout, Nightmare Moon laughed and laughed and laughed.

“Princess!” Fluttershy exclaimed, terrified, as timberwolves prowled around her. “What do we do?!”

“Stop!” Twilight pled to Nightmare Moon, run ragged as she dispelled one nightmare after another, only for them to come back as they had before. It was too much, it was too much. She came to a stop, breathing heavily, tired even in dreams. But persistent. Persistent as she haggardly yelled out, “You have to stop!”

Twilight felt somepony touch her shoulder and speak urgently.

“Where is she?”

She looked up and saw Elder Moonshine standing next to her, looking quite grave.

“Wh-what?”

“You say you’re the real Princess Twilight. The one from the legend,” the elder continued, as ponies not yet plagued by nightmares listened in. “Then that means Princess Luna should be real, too. She can fight off even the worst of nightmares, can’t she?” Her hoof dug into Twilight’s shoulder. “Where is she? Can you bring her here? Surely, if she is real, she can defeat that… creature, can’t she?”

And Twilight stared, helpless. “That is Princess Luna,” she whispered, but only the shocked Elder Moonshine heard, because the stallion eavesdropping had already left the conversation to confront the terrible creature of the night.

“That’s right!” he yelled out, emboldened as he grabbed Nightmare Moon’s attention. “Princess Luna will rescue us! She’ll stop you!”

And Nightmare Moon did stop.

In fact, for a moment, all the nightmares stopped, frozen in place, lifeless marionettes dangling by the string as their puppeteer stared. Stared at the stallion, almost thrown off, processing his daring, dashing statement.

“Princess Luna will rescue you? The fictional Princess from legends?” Nightmare Moon asked, and then she laughed. She laughed, and it was loud, and shrieking, and overpowering, and angry. And then she sobered up.

“Well. Where is she?”

She vanished out of existence, reappeared next to the stallion, and looked out into the horizon.

“I don’t see her here. Do you?” She turned towards the other adults, frozen in fear, and towards her nightmares, which obeyed her every word. “Do any of you? Where is this so-called Princess Luna?” She glanced towards the horizon. “Oh, Princess Lunaaaaaa?!”

She turned back to the stallion, and her grin was sinister as she leaned down. “Well?”

A flash of light followed, and Twilight appeared in front of the stallion, forcing Nightmare Moon to step back.

“Enough,” Twilight demanded.

“Enough?” Nightmare Moon asked, and laughed. “Twilight Sparkle! Everypony!” She flew up into the air and addressed them all. “I hope last night was restful slumber, my little ponies, for it was your last!”

And to the sound of her cackles, the nightmares began anew, chasing ponies to and fro.

“Everypony, you can stop them!” Twilight called out, trying to appeal to ponies who did not listen. “Listen to me! This is just a nightmare! You can stop this!”

“There they are!”

Startled, Twilight looked around and saw a new arrival in the distance.

And it was the strangest sight, she thought, which made sense considering where they were.

Like Equestria’s strangest cavalry, a horde of massive angry teddy bears stood in the distance, Dusk and the rest of the foals crowded around their feet, all awaiting the orders of their intrepid leader: Pinkie Pie.

There she was, standing atop an overgrown alligator and brandishing a wooden toy sword.

And for a second.

Nightmare Moon faltered.

“Chaaaaarge!” Pinkie hollered, and so did her brigade obey, the teddy bears rushing forward to attack the nightmares while the foals rushed to help and protect their families.

Twilight took the opportunity and turned to the adults. “Everypony! These nightmares can’t defeat the teddy bears! Stay out of the way and trust them to do their job!”

At the rallying cheers of the foals, the adults stepped back and watched as indeed, one by one, the nightmares were permanently defeated by the bears.

“Teddy bears? Teddy bears?” Nightmare Moon howled, and the chaos magic around her intensified. “You think you can defeat me with teddy bears?”

“Yes, we can!”

Pinkie jumped off her alligator and landed in front of Nightmare Moon. Though everything about her stance and her voice was on the offensive, she still lowered her sword and put it on the ground.

Nightmare Moon ignored her. She laughed instead.

“You fools!” She teleported towards her nightmares, almost delighted by what was going on. “How adorable! How quaint! You think you’re winning!”

“Why are you doing this?!” Pinkie demanded, rushing to Nightmare Moon, who promptly ignored her and went to another nightmare as it was defeated by the bears.

“You cannot hope to defeat me!” Nightmare Moon thundered, her horn lighting up. “I know your fears! I will just keep bringing them back!”

It was just like before, Twilight realized, watching Pinkie willing herself to confront Nightmare Moon only to be ignored. Just like with the dreams, where any mention of Pinkie would be dismissed by Princess Luna.

Even then, even totally transformed, Princess Luna was still ignoring—or, perhaps, avoiding—Pinkie Pie.

Much like Twilight had tried to avoid Rarity long ago.

Finally, she watched as Pinkie willed herself one last time in front of the alicorn, yelling out so loud, even the ponies and remaining nightmares turned to watch.

“Then do me, first!” she demanded, and finally.

Finally, Nightmare Moon could ignore her no longer.

“You,” said the princess of the night, and anger laced her tone, her eyes burning into Pinkie’s. “Why are you here?”

Pinkie did not hesitate in her reply.

“Because Princess Luna always said ponies’ dreams have to be protected.” She placed a hoof over her sword. “So if you want to make them have nightmares, you have to make me have nightmares too!”

Nightmare Moon laughed derisively. “Is that so? Confident, aren’t you? You think I will stop for you?!” Her cackling filled the air as her horn crackled with magic. “You underestimate me, child!”

“No! Don’t!” Twilight called out, rushing to stop Nightmare Moon before she could hurt Pinkie, the latter standing tall and proud and ready. Her horn burst with magic, ready to pull up a shield. “Stop!”

She was, admittedly, startled when Nightmare Moon did.

There she stood, her horn still crackling with magic, her eyes burning into Pinkie, everything about her showing she wanted nothing more than to bring about the mare’s worst nightmares, but she didn’t.

She couldn’t.

Pinkie did not falter. She stared right back, unwavering. A standoff as everypony waited for someone to blink.

“You,” Nightmare Moon hissed.

“Me,” Pinkie replied, calm, and collected, and more severe than Twilight had ever seen her.

Nightmare Moon stepped back, her magic dying down. “Very well. I will let you be. For now.” she warned, and in the stammer of her voice, Twilight knew hope remained. The situation was still salvageable. “But I’ll be back! You cannot run away from your fears forever!”

And with that, she disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Her nightmares followed suit and the forest around them faded until the plaza could be seen in the distance. Spring, the foals, and the bears noticed Twilight and the others and quickly hurried over just as parents reunited with their children, relieved to see them safe.

“Princess!” Fluttershy exclaimed, rushing over to Twilight. She sighed with relief before her worry returned. “Was that Princess Luna…?”

Twilight nodded, her ears folding back. “Yes. That was her.”

She looked to Pinkie, unsure of what to say. The pink mare was gazing off towards the spot where Nightmare Moon had been, her brow scrunched up. If seeing Princess Luna in such a state wasn’t easy for her, she couldn’t imagine it had been any easier for Pinkie.

“Pinkie?”

Pinkie turned to her, and immediately the frown vanished, replaced instead with a delighted grin. “We did it!” she exclaimed, hopping up and down in place. She looked at Fluttershy and Twilight, excited. “We kept everypony safe!”

“...We did!” Twilight exclaimed, thrown off.

“Isn’t it great?!” Pinkie added next.

“Oh, yes…” Fluttershy replied, glancing at Twilight uneasily. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine!” Pinkie exclaimed in earnest. At their stares, she doubled down. “I am!”

“So, it’s true, is it?”

They turned around and saw the ponies had crowded around them, Elder Moonshine leading them all, leaning on her cane. A pronounced frown marred her face.

“That was Princess Luna.”

Gasps rang out, from mares and foals alike.

“Princess Luna?!” a stallion exclaimed. “But isn’t she supposed to be good?!”

“What’s wrong with Princess Luna?” a filly asked, tugging on Twilight’s leg. “Why would she be mean like that?!”

“Is she mad?” Dusk asked, tearing up. “‘Cause of what I did?!”

The barrage of questions assaulted Twilight, and she stamped her hoof on the ground, trying to restore some order. She opened her mouth to speak out:

“That wasn’t Princess Luna!”

And left her mouth hanging open when she turned to Pinkie, who moved towards the others after her very bold—and very wrong—assertion.

“It wasn’t?” Twilight blurted out.

“But—! She was an alicorn!” a mare exclaimed.

“So?! It’s not her!” Pinkie shot back. "That's Nightmare Moon, not Princess Luna!"

“But her cutie mark! It looked like Princess Luna’s!” a teenage stallion protested.

“Lots of cutie marks look sorta the same!” Pinkie giggled, seemingly amused.

“But… where is she?” a filly asked. “Why isn’t she helping us?”

Pinkie frowned. “She is! She’s not here right now, but she’s trying to fix everything! She’ll be here soon!” She turned to Twilight and Fluttershy. “Right?”

Pushing down her reluctance to lie, Twilight nodded her head, Fluttershy following suit.

“Right.”

“But this doesn’t make sense!” one of the ponies exclaimed, bewildered. He gestured to Twilight. “You’re—You’re not an alicorn! You’re not the actual Princess Twilight! She has wings, and you have—” He trailed off, his eyes settling on her rustling feathery appendages. “...wings.”

“Of course she has wings!” another mare retorted. “They said we’re in a dream! It doesn’t mean they’re real! Or any of this is real, or—”

“But they are!” Pinkie protested. “She is!”

“You just don’t think they are ‘cause of the Spirit’s bad magic!” Dusk exclaimed.

Pinkie did not budge. “The spirit did this! He’s the reason you’re all trapped here!”

“Pinkie…” a mare said, aggravated. “We’re not foals anymore! And we’re in danger! When are you going to grow up?!”

Elder Moonshine stamped her cane against the ground.

“Enough, children!” she snapped, commanding. She turned to the other adults and pointed the tip of the cane at them. “Do any of you know how to get us out of here? No?!" When no one spoke up, she slammed her cane down again. "Then be quiet! And be grateful this child is still willing to help after how much you mocked her and her friends!”

When the adults fell quiet, muttering chastised apologies, Elder Moonshine turned to Pinkie.

“Child. What happens now?”

"Uhhhh… I don't know. I'm not good at planning," she confessed, smiling sheepishly. "Usually Rarity plans what we have to do, so—!" She looked around. "Where's Rarity, Princess Twilight?"

Twilight's heart fell.

"I don't know," she confessed, and anxiety gripped her again, along with the desire to leave them to their devices as she sought out the unicorn. Where was Rarity?

"Oh..."

"But I have a plan on what to do next," Twilight continued. The sooner everyone was safe, the faster she could find Rarity. "Kids, is this all of you?" At their nod, she detailed her plan: "Good. Then Fluttershy and I will go find Rarity and anypony else we can find. Pinkie, you know how the dream realm works. Can you find a safe place for everypony to stay in?"

"Ab-so-dute-ly-lute-ly!"

"What about us?" Dusk asked, gesturing towards the foals and teddy bears. "Can we come with you?"

Twilight shook her head.

"No. I need you to do something more important than that." She gestured to the teddy bears and the rest of the foals. "I need you and the bears to keep making sure everypony is safe from the nightmares." She leaned down to him. "Can you help me with that?"

"Uh-huh!"

"Great! I knew I could count on you," she said, smiling back at the grinning foals, all excited and ready to help. She looked back towards Pinkie and then Elder Moonshine. "That's that, then."

"Very well," the elder said, and then shocked Twilight by bowing slightly. "Thank you, Princess. Be safe." She looked up, severe. "And find the others, please."

"I will," Twilight promised, and stepping back took one last look at them all before rushing off. "Come on, Fluttershy!"

"Where are we going?" Fluttershy asked, catching up to the princess.

"The only place I can think of Rarity being in any version of Hollow Shades," Twilight replied, aware of the faux-necklace thumping on her chest. "The Dreamland."

Their rushing hoofsteps echoed throughout the dreamscape, a constant thrumming sound that matched Twilight’s heartbeat. Not much conversation was shared between the two ponies except for a few remarks here or there about the warped buildings, the lurking shadows, and a hushed order to be quiet and listen.

Listen for any suspicious sounds beyond the constant din of the chaos magic, ever whispering and crawling.

The only thing louder than it and their hoofsteps were Twilight’s thoughts.

How could they save everypony? How could they wake them? And more importantly, how could she save Princess Luna? All these and more bombarded her constantly, and yet answers were hard to come by.

“She stopped for Pinkie,” she said aloud, and Fluttershy faltered a moment before resuming her gallop.

“Huh?”

“Princess Luna, or Nightmare Moon, or whatever she is right now,” Twilight elaborated, leading Fluttershy into a warped alley. “She stopped for Pinkie Pie. Maybe she’s the one who can fix this. She can bring Princess Luna back.”

“What brought you back?” Fluttershy asked.

“Rarity.”

She didn’t have to think about it. In fact, she’d seen her own situation reflected earlier with Nightmare Moon.

“Rarity is what helped bring me back, so Pinkie must be the same for Princess Luna. It makes sense!

“Do you think Rarity’s okay?” Fluttershy asked next.

“I hope so,” Twilight said. “Rarity’s been in Hollow Shades for over a year. I told her all about my training with Princess Luna. She shouldn’t be completely defenseless.”

Regardless of whether this was true or not, she would soon find out, now that the Dreamland loomed in the distance.

It had been transformed into a twisted and decrepit ruin. The building's blue walls were black and decayed, the bright yellow constellation designs faded and blurred. The clouds lining its exterior had darkened into stormclouds, complementing the smashed windows and the shredded flag above the building.

And atop the large crystalline doors, the oval painting usually depicting Princess Luna had been replaced with a cackling Nightmare Moon.

“Oh dear,” Fluttershy gasped, coming to a stop. “That certainly doesn’t look good. Do you really think she’s in there?”

“I hope so,” Twilight replied, her wings jostling nervously at her sides.

Much like the dream doors scattered throughout, the crystal doors of the Dreamland swung on their hinges. The two mares lingered outside, staring into the dimly lit foyer.

“Well,” Twilight said.

“Yes,” Fluttershy replied.

“It’s dark,” the former pointed out.

“Very dark,” the latter agreed.

The creaking doors, Twilight decided as she stopped them with her magic, didn’t really need to participate in the conversation.

“Thank you,” whispered Fluttershy.

“It’s no problem,” Twilight said, her horn lighting up as she decided that she ought to make the first step or else no one would. “I’ll go in first, then?”

“Alright,” Fluttershy said, and despite it all, Twilight couldn’t help an amused smile at how relieved the pegasus sounded.

Much like the Dreamland’s exterior, so had the interior been fully transformed. The grand staircase’s rugs were decrepit and frayed at the seams, and the small statues of Princess Luna lay shattered and scattered on the floor.

What really struck Twilight, and not in a particularly good way, were the walls. Though the drawings on these walls were still filled with foalish drawings and designs, what they now depicted was certainly not for foals.

They depicted scenes like massive dragons laughing as three mares helplessly drowned inside a well they could not climb out of. Or hungry changelings, green drool dripping from their mouths, descending towards a basement where a terrified stallion was trapped.

At hearing Fluttershy whine, she noticed the pegasus pointing towards a crude drawing of timberwolves preying on a white mare in the woods, her leg messily scrawled with red chalk.

“Princess…”

Twilight cursed under her breath, turning around away from the walls and towards the rest of the building.

“Rarity? Rarity!”

A crashing sound came from Princess Cadance’s theater, followed immediately by the doors slamming open, and a mare and two stallions rushing out, screaming at the top of their lungs. They rushed past Twilight, practically toppling her over, only to slam into the crystal doors that were no longer off their hinges and instead were perfectly shut and locked.

“Help! Help!” one of the stallions yelled, trying to no avail to force the doors open. “Stop her!”

“Hold on!” Twilight exclaimed, trying to get them to calm down. “Stop her? Stop who?”

“She’s going to eat us!” the mare wailed, terrified, holding onto the other stallion.

Eat us? Twilight thought, completely baffled right up until a wet, slavering, slobbering noise emerged from the theater. Once Fluttershy was next to her, Twilight stepped forward, her horn lighting up with defensive magic.

Twilight had seen changelings before. In fact, she currently lived with one. She knew what they looked like, but...

But the one emerging from the room looked nothing like the ones she knew.

It stalked through the doorway, its carapace dull and sunken, emaciated to the point where Twilight could see its ribs. Its eyes shone with a mad, feral glean, and slaver ran down from its fangs to the floor.

The only thing about it that Twilight and Fluttershy recognized was the torn, dirty blue bandanna tied around her neck, the initials LD embroidered in a messy pattern.

An aghast Fluttershy uttered her and Twilight’s common thought. “Incantation?”

“I’m hungry,” she rasped. “It hurts. Let me feed...” She advanced on Twilight, her usual joy gone, replaced instead with a mindless, starved stare. “Let me feed…”

Twilight was terrified, at first. Moments later, she was something quite distinct.

She turned on the ponies, incensed. “You think Incantation wants to eat you?! This is your nightmare?!”

“Please,” the stallion begged. “She listens to you! Can’t you keep her under control?!”

“What is that supposed to mean?!” Twilight demanded, indignantly.

“Princess!” Fluttershy said, shaking her with a hoof. “The nightmare—!”

Twilight turned back towards Incantation, who now seemed much less mindless and much angrier.

“Enough… Enough!” Ink snarled, lunging at Twilight, her fangs bared out. “Let me feed!”

As quickly as she could, Twilight took the construct in her magic and slammed her on the ground with a painful thud, keeping her held in place even though she snarled and screeched.

Privately, Twilight was glad ponies did not share the same dreamscapes as other creatures. The thought of Incantation potentially witnessing what some ponies thought of her was sickening.

“Please,” the mare begged. “Get rid of it! It’s evil!”

Twilight turned back to Incantation, wanting to end this before they could offend the changeling even more. Her horn burst with magic, and though that was not the real Ink, Twilight still felt sorry as she dispelled it with a burst of magic.

Except.

Except it didn’t go away.

Incantation remained on the floor, thrashing and hissing. “I’m hungry!” she snarled. “Let me eat!”

Twilight frowned, thrown off for a moment before she remembered the rule this dreamscape now followed. Ponies had to dispel their own nightmares.

“This is a nightmare!” she said, turning to the cowering ponies. “This isn’t real! You can make her go away!”

“She’s a monster!” the stallion gasped. “She wants to hurt the foals!”

“She would never!” Fluttershy gasped.

“What is wrong with you?!” Twilight snapped, infuriated. “Changelings don’t even work that way! They feed off love! They—” She grit her teeth and shut herself up. Why waste her breath? “Look! I’m going to dispel her, okay? Believe that I can get rid of her!”

The ponies didn’t bother to acknowledge her, instead just watching as Twilight turned back to Incantation. She summoned all the magic she could and cast a spell, filling the room with a blinding light.

However, when it died out, Incantation remained.

“For Celestia’s sake!” Twilight exclaimed. She didn’t have time for this!

“Puh...Princess?” Fluttershy yelped. “Look! The ponies…!”

Aggravated, Twilight whirled around, but her aggravation quickly vanished when she noticed the ponies had too. They were completely gone.

“What?” she gasped, startled into losing her grip and allowing Incantation to break free, jumping up and backtracking, her ravenous eyes still set on the mares. She lunged forward, slamming against a barrier Twilight conjured.

“That… That can’t be her! Our dreamrealm is only accessible to ponies!” Twilight stammered, wincing when Incantation again launched herself against the barrier. “Changelings can’t be in here! Except…”

Her eyes roamed the room, landing on the chaos magic littered throughout, crawling up the changeling’s hindlegs.

Except chaos magic had gotten in, and if it got in, who was to say it wouldn’t let other creatures in, too?

“This is her nightmare,” Twilight said, horrified.

Fluttershy watched Ink slam herself against the barrier yet again, distraught. “Can’t you help her?! She’s hurting herself!”

“I don’t know how!” Twilight exclaimed. “She has to see for herself that this is a nightmare! That ponies don’t actually feel this way!”

She braced herself for another slam, only for Fluttershy to take her completely by surprise and rush out of the barrier’s protection and straight towards the changeling. Incantation, too, was taken aback, if the fact that she was letting Fluttershy hug her was any indication.

“...Or you could do that, I guess…”

“You’re a wonderful changeling,” Fluttershy insisted with a disarming kindness that Twilight had only ever seen from Fluttershy. She held the changeling tight. “And you take wonderful care of the foals.”

“...I do?” the changeling rasped, her eyes filling up with tears, and in her uncertainty, Twilight saw the solution.

“Yes, you do, Incantation,” Twilight said. “You’re an incredibly important member of the Dreamland. If Rarity were here, she’d say so herself.”

“But… But…” The changeling struggled against it, her eyes going to the spot where the ponies had been. She buried her face in her hooves. “But they think I’m a monster.”

“And they’re wrong! You’re our friend,” Twilight insisted, and with a smile, unleashed what she hoped would be her piece de resistance. “And we could really use your help since the foals tricked you into falling asleep and now they’re in the dream realm with us.”

The effect was immediate.

“They WHAT?!” Incantation gasped, practically shooting up, and Twilight couldn’t help a smile of relief when the changeling transformed, her nightmare body returning to her usual one as she practically toppled Fluttershy over trying to stand up. “No! I’m sorry! Am I fired?! I don’t want to be fired! I love the Dreamland! I’ll work for free!”

She was completely thrown-off when Twilight and Fluttershy giggled.

“Wait. What? What’s going on?”

“Welcome back,” Twilight said, watching as Ink helped Fluttershy back up on her feet. “You were having a nightmare. Or, well, we were in your nightmare, more accurately.”

“Oh! Oh!” She went red in the face. “Oh no. You saw—?” At their nods, her face turned redder. “Oh. I’m not fired, though?”

“No,” Fluttershy reassured her. “You’re most certainly not fired.”

“Oh, good! And the foals didn’t go into the nightmares?”

Twilight grimaced. “No, that part is true. They’re safe with Pinkie right now.”

“I don’t understand.” Incantation looked around, nervous. “I thought I wasn’t supposed to be able to go into ponies’ dream-place-whatever?”

“You aren’t. And that’s the problem,” Twilight said, somberly. “It’s complicated, but right now isn’t a good time to try and figure it out. We have other things to deal with.”

Namely, Rarity.

And if Rarity was here, then she’d be in her workshop.

“Come on!” she called out, making her way up the stairs.

Much like the floor below, frightening drawings plastered the walls of the Dreamland’s second floor—several of them were the same as downstairs, in fact, including the one with the timberwolves. Teddy bears littered the floor as well, but these were not like the ones protecting the foals. These were bare, devoid of life, missing eyes, torn at the seams, stuffing poking out from within.

“Geez,” Incantation said when she and Fluttershy joined Twilight. She stepped forward and took one of the teddy bears in her hoof, half its face shredded off. “This definitely isn’t my nightmare.”

“Something awful happened here,” Fluttershy said, whining softly. She gestured towards a wall pockmarked with scorched holes and scars, looking like the consequence of a misfired magical blast.

“Rarity?” Twilight called out, gripped with anxiety as she moved further in. “Rari—”

A terrified yelp coming from Rarity’s bedroom caught her attention. Without hesitation, she galloped towards it, practically slamming the door open as she rushed in and looked around.

“Rarity?! Rari—”

Her words caught in her throat. It was not Rarity who she found inside the dark bedroom, but a stallion and a mare, both of them cowering behind the bed. She immediately wondered if they were even real, but… something about them seemed off—and not in a way dreams should act.

The two of them were dead quiet, pressed against the adjacent wall, the stallion’s foreleg defensively wrapped around the mare as they stared at Twilight, completely terrorized.

Fluttershy and Incantation were walking towards her, but stopped when she held up her hoof. More ponies might frighten them even more.

“Hello,” she said gently, moving towards them, “it’s okay—”

The mare yelped at this, burying herself in the stallion, his grip over her tightening.

“Please… Please, Denza, help us…” the mare sobbed, forcing Twilight to stop.

“It’s fine, really,” Twilight insisted.

She looked around the bedroom, finding it to be a complete disaster. Furniture was lying on its sides, the drawers completely pulled out with their contents spilled all over. More signs of misfired magical blasts littered the walls and furniture, including some lamps that had been blasted apart.

What in Equestria happened here?

Even in the dark, she could see a fight had ravaged the bedroom.

“Alright,” she said, carefully, the stallion staring as she moved further in. “I’m going to come closer, okay?”

“No!” he gasped the moment her horn lit up, the mare’s wailing intensifying. He clutched the mare, protecting her as much as he could and shielding himself from Twilight. “Please! Please don’t hurt us! Please, I beg you!”

“Hurt you?” Twilight asked, bewildered. “Why would I hurt you?”

Though it wasn’t them who answered her question.

A noise emanated from the bathroom—a low, angry growl—and Twilight realized the closed door had been barricaded with furniture and other items.

“What’s in there?” Twilight asked, her wings flaring when something slammed itself against the bathroom door. She glanced at the couple again, the two cowering in fear, and irritation laced with fear rose within her. “What’s in there?”

It was the nightmare that answered.

Its growling became an enraged snarl, followed by a blast of magic that blew the door to smithereens, the blowback of it toppling Twilight to the floor as the couple screamed in terror, fleeing from behind the bed and running out the room.

Moments later, when the dust settled, the princess stood up to see half the bathroom door missing.

Fluttershy and Incantation rushed to her but again stopped when Twilight lifted her hoof, her eyes fixed on the bathroom. Still hearing the nightmare inside, she carefully got up and waited for it to come out.

And it did.

Its raspberry-colored magic took hold of the furniture blocking the door and flung it away, sending it crashing into the same spot the couple had been. The rest of the door followed suit, magically torn off its hinges and thrown off, leaving ample space for the nightmare to step out, her lavender wings flared, her horn ablaze, the necklace hanging from her neck devoid of magic and color, and her eyes—angry, angry, angry—were pitch-black.

Just as they’d been two years ago.

And just like that, staring into her reflection, feeling really quite gutted, Twilight knew she’d found Rarity.

Author's Note

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman.
Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

~ Act II ~ 21 ~ The Valiant Never Taste of Death but Once ~

Twilight Sparkle had faced nightmare versions of herself before.

It was, however, one thing to face a Twilight she’d created. It was another thing entirely to face one Rarity designed. If she’d had the time to think, to pause everything and reflect upon it, she’d have felt rather horrible at seeing how that one sunforsaken mistake two years ago still haunted her significant other.

But…

But there was no time to sit and feel awful because the nightmare Twilight didn’t much care for any of that.

The nightmare stalked forward.

“Get out,” she murmured, as Twilight herself had long ago, and when Twilight faltered, the chaos alicorn became enraged. “I SAID GET OUT!”

It attacked faster than Twilight could think, assaulting her with a blast of magic strong enough to fling her back, her body slamming against the wall.

Pain rushed through Twilight, forcing tears from her eyes. She groaned, her thoughts a dazed cloudy haze that, much like the pain, shifted into muted panic upon realizing that, well. That had hurt. That hurt, and stung, and her head throbbed with pain, and that wasn’t supposed to happen.

The chaos magic had made her mind physically vulnerable.

She was in danger. Real danger.

Her thoughts whirred inside her at a thousand miles per hour. She needed to get out. She needed to leave the dream realm, just as Rarity had said. But doing so meant leaving everypony alone, and who else was going to save them? Clearly not Nightmare Moon.

This meant she couldn’t leave them. And even if she could…

She wouldn’t.

“Get out!” the chaos Twilight roared again, and now Twilight was fast enough to react, teleporting outside the room just in time for her to avoid the second blast.

“What’s happening?!” Fluttershy asked, her and the others watching as Twilight slammed the bedroom door shut and then barricaded it with whatever furniture she could reach. “Princess?!”

“You need to leave! Now!” she commanded, adding her body to the objects barricading the door. If she was to fight, she couldn’t risk anypony while doing it. She gestured to the frightened couple. “Take them, find anypony who’s downstairs, and then go!”

Her two friends faltered.

“But what about you?”

A blast of magic from within the bedroom shook the door and nearly toppled a small desk onto Twilight.

“Go!” she pleaded, and then hoped she wasn’t lying when she said, “I’ll be fine! I promise! Just get out!”

Relenting, Incantation and Fluttershy beckoned the couple to go first before following them, throwing Twilight one last glance before they disappeared below. When the nightmare blasted the door again and wood splintered from the impact, Twilight teleported to the other side of the room and faced the barricaded door.

In real life, she didn’t know how to properly execute the protection spell Celestia had cast upon all her books.

But this wasn’t real life.

As quickly as she could, she cast the spell on the door, and when the nightmare blasted it again, it did not splinter.

“Yes!” Twilight exclaimed, excited by her small victory.

A victory that, unfortunately, was quickly dashed away when the nightmare stepped out through the barricade, her body now slightly transparent.

Twilight let out a deep breath. “Of course.”

As soon as it was out in the lobby, the chaos magic surrounding the nightmare flashed, and its body became tangible again. It gritted its teeth, eyes burning into Twilight’s as the latter pulled up a magic shield.

“So! I’m guessing we can’t settle this with some kind of intellectual sparring match, right?” she ventured.

When the nightmare began to assault the shield with one magical attack after the other, Twilight smiled thinly. “Well. That answers that.”

Her hopes for a fascinating intellectual duel dashed, she refocused her efforts on her barrier. In real life, what she wanted to do would require a much more advanced knowledge of magic, and some special rune magic as well, but in dreams…

Her horn flashed once, and so did her translucent shield flash as well. With every beam that hit it, the barrier changed in color, absorbing the magic until it was solidly pink, chaos magic bursting from within.

Twilight grinned. “My turn.”

She slammed her hoof down and the shield discharged an explosive burst of magic that sent the other Twilight flying straight against the wall. It fell to the floor, knocked out, and gave Twilight enough time to focus on the real solution.

‘Rarity?!” she called out, looking around. “You need to come out!”

“Ra...ri...ty..” The nightmare groaned out the name, pained and angered. With a great heaving groan, it pulled itself up, and then slamming its hoof on the floor, roared out, “RARITY!”

“Wait, wait! Don’t come out!” Twilight quickly amended.

After narrowly avoiding another blast of magic, she teleported herself down to the floor below. With a big breath, she tried to take a moment to actually think, only to decide that thinking could come later when the nightmare let out a frustrated yell from upstairs.

Rightrightrightrightright.

She pushed open the doors to the Dreamland and poked her head out. Fluttershy, Ink, and the couple were there, along with a few other ponies who’d presumably been hiding out inside the Dreamland.

“Rarity?”

Fluttershy and Ink shook their heads.

“Oh. Hrm.”

“Get OUT!” the nightmare Twilight bellowed behind her.

“I’ll be right back,” Twilight politely informed the ponies, stepping back into the building. She poked her head out. “Oh! Uh. Don’t come in here.”

That said, she slammed the door shut and turned towards the nightmare, who was already preparing another attack.

“Get ou—!”

Its cry died out when an exasperated Twilight silenced her with a blasting spell, throwing the nightmare back against the wall and mostly knocking it out like earlier. She walked towards her nightmare self, strangely not entirely horrified by what she’d done. Maybe before, but now, all she really had in mind was—

“Get out?” she asked, annoyed. “Is that all Rarity thinks I could say while under chaos magic influence? I could say other things!”

The nightmare Twilight groaned softly. “It’s my fau—mmph!”

“Alright,” Twilight said, quickly silencing her other-self. “I should have seen that coming.”

Without giving the other alicorn time to react Twilight picked it up in her magic, opened up the bakery’s mess hall and flung it inside, the nightmare colliding against a table. As soon as she did so, the other alicorn stirred, painfully attempting and failing to lift itself.

I need to trap it, she thought. But how? Rarity made this! How am I supposed to know what will keep it trapped?...Unless…

Unless.

She moved back from the bakery, opening the double doors wide and staring into the room, focusing on its decor and then willing it to change: the walls and floors of the bakery expanded, becoming a massive foyer; the bright pink colors of the plastic tables faded out, allowing them to transform into worn-out wooden desks; the assorted pastries and treats distorted and morphed into books, the racks and cupboards they were in becoming bookcases to hold them.

She watched, steel-faced, as the bakery became the only place in the world that had ever trapped her.

Inside the library, the nightmare managed to stand up, now more enraged than ever. No longer bothering with magic spells, the nightmare rushed forward, headed straight towards the door, and then promptly smashed itself against thebarrier that appeared.

The nightmare Twilight stumbled back, blinking incredulously at the barrier and at Twilight standing on the other side.

She grinned at it.

“Now you get out.”

And try to get out it did, getting up and smashing itself against the barrier again and again, which in truth quickly did away with the small amount of levity Twilight brought to the situation. This was just a nightmare, sure, but… it quickly became uncomfortable to watch, well, essentially herself doing the very same thing Twilight had done not so long ago.

She moved away from the barrier and made her way up the stairs, finally able to focus on finding Rarity.

“Rarity?” she called out, galloping into the first-floor lobby. “Rarity, where are—argh!”

Without warning, a magic of some sort took hold of her entire body and slammed her against a wall, her head thunking against it. Pain tore through her body, nearly making her instinctively try to leave the dreamscape. She managed to hold on, however, but not without falling to the floor and lying there in a dazed haze.

“I have her!”

Despite the pain, the voice forced Twilight’s eyes open and she felt immense relief at the sight of her attacker. A clearly scared but unscathed Rarity stared her down, her horn glowing and ready to act.

“Ra...ri...ty.” Twilight groaned, wanting to say more but instead burying her throbbing headache in her hooves, only half-watching the unicorn.

Rarity flinched at Twilight’s call, but whatever hesitation she felt immediately died out, replaced instead with fierce determination. “Now, everypony! Run! Get outside!” she commanded, her eyes fixed on Twilight as half a dozen ponies rushed out of her workshop and made a beeline downstairs.

A stallion lingered behind, whom Twilight recognized as the father of one of the kids. “What about you?” he asked, eyeing Twilight. “We can’t just leave you here!”

“I appreciate that, Hawk,” Rarity said, kindly but firmly, her eyes never leaving Twilight. “But I’m not leaving her to bear this alone again. Besides,” she added, “I think I’ve subdued her.”

“Dear Denza,” he said, staring at Twilight in horror. “What a nightmare.”

Rarity laughed bitterly. “Isn’t it just.”

“It is,” Twilight groaned, and then yelped in pain when Hawk yelled at hearing her voice and a panicked Rarity reacted to his yell by slamming Twilight against the wall again.

“Wait,” Rarity said, immediately afterward. “What did she say?”

“It is?” Hawk repeated.

Rarity turned her attention to the alicorn, and though her horn glowed with magic, she did not attack. “It is?” she asked, slowly. And just as slowly, her eyes roamed Twilight’s body and landed on something that made her spin around towards the stallion. “Hawk!” she exclaimed, nearly startling the stallion out of his skin. “Quickly! How did we get here?!”

Hawk blinked, startled. “What?”

Rarity continued, urgent. “How did we get here? How did we get to the Dreamland?”

“I—! Well— I—” Hawk faltered, helpless. “I don’t know. I can’t for the life of me remember! How did we get here?”

At that, Rarity gasped in horror. “Oh, stars. This is a nightmare! But where’s Princess Luna?! Wait.” Her horror doubled. “Wait. Princess Luna—! And all the adults fell asleep—!And Dusk Star—! And Twilight, and— Twilight!” She turned towards the alicorn, and in an almost comically terrified fashion, tentatively said, “You’re the real Twilight, aren’t you.”

“That depends,” Twilight murmured, smiling at Rarity as she held her aching head, “will it make you feel better for slamming me against a wall twice if I say I’m not?”

“Darling!” Almost instantly, a mortified Rarity rushed to Twilight, practically lifting her as she checked her all over. “Are you all right?!”

“I’m fine,” Twilight promised, doing her best to act as if it were true. The last thing she needed was for Rarity to prematurely find out that it was possible to get hurt in the dreamscape. Instead, she moved forward to nuzzle her, relief washing over her at having her there. “I’m fine.”

“Wait, hold on a minute!” the stallion interrupted. “What’d you mean this is a nightmare?”

Twilight detached herself from Rarity and stepped towards him. “I can explain later. We need to get going.” She glanced at Rarity. “Fluttershy and Incantation are waiting outside.”

Rarity frowned. “What? But—? Incantation? I thought Incantation couldn’t come here, Twilight. You said only ponies can enter the dreamrealm.”

Twilight smiled awkwardly. “That’s not entirely true, anymore.”

Rarity blinked, incredulous. “What do you mean that’s not entirely true anymore? Twilight? Are you going to tell me this means Discord can come in here now?” When Twilight faltered, she paled. “Oh, my stars. Oh, my blessed stars.”

“Rarity….”

“What else, Twilight?” Rarity continued, not angered but almost. “What else isn’t entirely true anymore?”

“Later,” Twilight pleaded, already going to the stairs and gesturing for the stallion to follow. “I promise we’ll talk about it later. But we need to go now. Please.”

“...Alright, alright.”

The stallion went down first, followed by Rarity and then Twilight taking the rear. To her surprise, the lobby wasn’t empty as she’d expected it to be. All the ponies hiding upstairs were gathered there, apparently never having left the building at all.

“What? Why are you all here?!” Rarity asked.

The ponies, Twilight noticed, were all staring at the same thing with various degrees of horror, and it wasn’t until she followed their gaze towards the bakery that she realized what they were staring at.

“Wait!” she blurted out, grabbing Rarity before she could advance. “Wait, wait!”

A slam and the crackle of magic sounded out, and Rarity, Twilight, and everyone else nearly jumped out of their skins when an enraged snarl sounded out.

“Rarity?!” it called out, and the unicorn ignored Twilight’s pleas to wait and rushed into the crowd, towards the bakery.

“Rarity?!” Twilight called out, echoing her other self’s cry, before similarly pushing her way through the gaping crowd, a series of expletives leaving her mouth. “Rarity, wait, stop!”

When she finally found Rarity, her stomach fell at the sight of her nightmare self slamming her body against the barrier again and again and again while Rarity—shaking, transfixed, front and center—stared.

Twilight rushed forward, jumping in between Rarity and the barrier.

“Rarity—”

“Did I do this?” Rarity asked, stricken but unfocused. Distant.

“No,” Twilight said, immediately and she rushed forward to grab Rarity and pull her away. “Look at— Look at me,” she demanded when Rarity tried to again look towards the barrier. “This is a nightmare, Rarity.”

“I know that, Twilight!” Rarity said with difficulty. “But I… I… I created her. I—If it wasn’t for me, then—”

“It’s okay,” Twilight reassured her, earnest. “It’s okay! It’s just a nightmare!”

“But... She…”

She glanced towards the barrier again, eyes fixing on the nightmare’s relentless assault, each time ringing with a painful-sounding thud.

“Rarity!” it snarled, drawing tears out of the unicorn’s eyes.

“I did that, Rarity,” Twilight insisted, physically grabbing her chin with her magic and forcing Rarity to maintain eye-contact. She was begging, at this point. “I trapped her there, not you.”

Rarity’s expression shifted suddenly. Like something triggered inside her.

“I know,” she whispered, and when Twilight reached out with a foreleg, Rarity moved forward. She buried her face in the crook of Twilight’s neck, holding tightly onto the alicorn. “I know. I know, I know. Please, just… make it go away.”

And that was all Twilight needed.

Still holding Rarity, she turned and conjured a powerful blinding blast, directing it straight at the nightmare. To her immense relief, the nightmare did not resist anymore and faded away, the bakery returning to normal.

“Thank Celestia,” she murmured, sitting down on her haunches with Rarity following suit, still clinging to the alicorn. Twilight then realized everypony was still there staring at them, and she flung the front doors open with her magic. “Everypony! Get outside! It’s not safe here!”

Not a single one of them had to be told twice, and no sooner said than done, they filed out where the others were waiting, leaving Rarity and Twilight alone in the foyer. Twilight nuzzled her, trying to come up with something to say.

“Rarity—”

“Is that what it was like?”

Twilight paused, taking in the question.

“What?”

Rarity was still pressed against her, her voice coming out muffled and contrite.

“Is this what you did? For two years? Just slam yourself against a barrier over and over?”

Twilight swallowed. “No. I’ve told you before. I didn’t really… do anything. I just shut off. I don’t know. But that’s in the past,” she finished, hoping to move on to comforting her marefriend. “Are you all right?”

“Am I all right?!” Rarity exclaimed, pulling back to reveal her teary eyes and folded ears. “Are you all right?”

“I am,” Twilight reassured her, ignoring her throbbing headache. She forced a smile. “Really. I am. It’s fine.”

“Fine? None of this is fine! This is the opposite of fine, Twilight! Did you not see what just happened? That was terrible!”

“Was it? I don’t agree.”

“You don’t?”

“No. I think it was great. That you were great,” Twilight said, and then allowed some excitement to bubble up inside her. “I can’t believe you don’t recognize how incredible that was! Well... Not the part with the library, but the rest was! You recognized it was a nightmare! You even remembered my exercises for figuring out if you’re dreaming!”

Rarity looked baffled. “Twilight, I slammed you against a wall! Twice!”

“Yes! And that was amazing, too! You stood up to what you thought was a chaos alicorn just so you could protect others and help them escape! That was really brave of you!” She leaned forward, pressing her forehead against Rarity’s. “I’m very impressed.”

Finally, Rarity laughed softly, pressing her hoof against Twilight’s chest. “I suppose sometimes I’m quite brilliant, yes.” She let out a long breath and moved in to nuzzle Twilight. “Stars. Thank Denza you’re here.” She pulled back slightly, and half-teasingly asked, “This is the real you, isn’t it?”

“Yes, silly,” Twilight said, and then immediately squealed in excitement. “And that’s another thing you did! You even figured out I was the real one! Was it because of the eyes?”

“No. I don’t really know,” Rarity replied evasively, her eyes settling on the pink necklace on Twilight’s chest. “I suppose I just knew.” She finally smiled, lifting a hoof and brushing back Twilight’s bangs. “Call it intuition.”

“...Right,” Twilight said, though she did not press further. Instead, she leaned in for a brief kiss, a slight victory she awarded herself.

Just in time, too, because the doors pushed open and Fluttershy and Incantation peered in.

“Rarity!” Fluttershy exclaimed, relieved. “You’re all right!”

“Boss!”

Rarity pulled away from Twilight.

“Fluttershy! Incantation!” she exclaimed, overjoyed and running to them as Twilight followed behind.

“Oh, Rarity, thank goodness you’re all right,” Fluttershy said, gratefully accepting Rarity’s hug. “We were so worried!”

“You were the last one missing,” Twilight elaborated. “Pinkie is waiting back at the plaza with the others.”

“I see. Well, haha! You know me, always fashionably late!” Rarity exclaimed, humorously. She moved away from Fluttershy and towards Incantation, extending her foreleg for a hug. “Incantation! I’m so happy you’re saf— Wait.” She spun towards Twilight, suddenly severe. “Alright, princess! Tell me now! What’s happening?! How can she be here?!” She turned to Incantation. “Not that you’re not a sight for sore eyes, darling, but—!” She turned back to Twilight. “Explain.”

Twilight smiled nervously. “Right. About that… Well, my working theory is that when Princess Luna became possessed by chaos magic, it allowed the chaos magic to infiltrate the dreamrealm. Which, in turn, set a precedent for other species to access it as well.”

“So Princess Luna really did get possessed?”

“Influenced, actually, in her case. And I guess in my case, too, but the chaos magic only suppressed me, whereas it seems to be intensifying and augmenting Princess Luna’s worst instincts and thoughts. But! But I do have good news!” She smiled tentatively. “We haven’t seen Discord yet.”

“Yet?! Oh, my stars,” Rarity whined. “What’s next? Are you going to tell me the foals are here too?”

Ink matched Twilight’s nervous grin. “Haha! So. Funny story. Please don’t fire me. But. So. Uhm.” At Rarity’s blanched expression, she quickly shut up. “Anyway! Should we go? We should go! I’m gonna go!”

She promptly opened the door and marched out, presumably before Rarity could fire her.

“...I’ll wait outside,” Fluttershy added, following the changeling. “Don’t take too long.”

When she left, Twilight turned to Rarity and found the unicorn looking more than distressed.

“Darling…”

“Rarity, don’t worry. I promise it’ll be fine,” Twilight insisted, sincerely.

“And you can’t get hurt, at least? Even if he comes here, he can’t hurt you, can he? Can he?”

Twilight took a breath and braced herself as she said, “...I think he can. Because of the chaos magic.”

“Twilight!” Rarity gasped, aghast. “You said you’d leave if you could get hurt. You said you would leave!”

“And then what?” Twilight replied, calm but firm. “Do you know anypony else that can dreamwalk? Or handle Princess Luna?”

“No! No, of course not, but—” She cut herself off, letting out a despairing whine.

“Rarity. Princess Luna trained me for this. She made sure I was ready. I trust her teachings. Don’t you?"

Rarity looked away, laughing dryly. “You say that as though I have a choice.”

“You don’t have to be here for this,” Twilight said, lifting Rarity’s chin with her magic and looking into her eyes. “Do you want me to wake you up? I’m sure Rainbow Dash and the others need help with the foals.”

“No,” Rarity said after a moment. “I said I’d do it, so I will. Just…” She leaned in and pressed her hoof against Twilight’s necklace. “Promise me you’ll take care of yourself. Promise me you’ll be the first thing I see when I wake up. Promise me you’ll be there.”

Twilight nodded dutifully. “I promise,” she said, and to really bring it home, crossed her chest with a forehoof and recited an oath she’d learned from her book of idioms. “Cross my heart and hope to die.” Half a second passed. “Wait.”

“Twilight!”

“That’s how the saying goes!” Twilight exclaimed, apologetically, giggling when Rarity finally lightened up.

“Hope to die? Why would anypony even come up with that!” she whined, half-giggling when Twilight pulled her in for a comforting hug. “Why not, I don’t know, ‘cross my heart and hope to live on a luxury island with my marefriend and nopony has to die’? Does that not sound better? I think it sounds better!” She pulled back from Twilight. “In fact, I’m writing to the publishing house and suggesting it immediately!”

“Sure you are,” Twilight said, and then her grin faded. “I meant it, though.”

“I hope you’re not referring to the dying part,” Rarity said, and then giggled when Twilight rolled her eyes.

“No, silly. The part about being there.” She smiled affectionately and placed a hoof over Rarity’s glowing necklace. “As long as we have these, I’ll always be there when you need me, alright?”

“Darling. Those don’t work here,” Rarity playfully pointed out.

“Maybe they do! We’re in a dream!” Twilight said, opening the door for Rarity to step out. “Technically speaking, anything can happen if you believe it can happen.”

“Well, true as that may be, I’d rather we not find ourselves in a situation where we have to put that to the test, hm?”

Once outside, and once all the ponies gathered were assured that Twilight was fine and healthy and wouldn’t attack any of them, really, they went on their way.

“And where exactly are we going?” Rarity asked, leading the charge alongside Twilight while Fluttershy and Ink took the rear. “Back to the plaza with Pinkie, you mentioned?”

“Right. She must be waiting already with the kids and any other ponies, and I’d rather get to them first before Nightmare Moon does.”

Rarity furrowed her brow. “Nightmare Moon?”

“I told you, remember? That’s what Princess Luna is calling herself now.”

She looked around, at the warped buildings, at the unhinged dream doors, at this truly unsettling place with an aptly named ruler.

“Ah…” There was a pregnant pause afterward, the two of them walking in silence until Rarity finally continued. “...And have you seen her already?”

“Yes.”

“And? How was she?”

Twilight grimaced. “Not good. She’s, er, really putting her knowledge of everypony’s nightmares to good use.”

“And Pinkie?” Rarity immediately asked next. “Was she there when you found Princess Luna? How is she? Is she all right?”

Twilight faltered. “Hrm. It’s… complicated? She seemed fine after we got Nightmare Moon to leave. She told everypony that wasn’t Princess Luna who’d just attacked them, and said the real princess was busy trying to fix things.”

“And they believed her?”

Twilight laughed. “Honestly, I think with how crazy things are right now, they’ll believe anything we tell them. And it’s not like they have a choice until I figure out a way to get them out of here.” Her levity died immediately. “Somehow.”

“...Well, perhaps Princess Luna can help you.”

Twilight turned and saw Rarity had stopped. She stopped as well.

“What? Princess Luna can help me?” She raised an eyebrow. “You want me to go and try to get help from Nightmare Moon? I thought you wanted me to be smart about this!”

“Twilight, I didn’t say Nightmare Moon,” Rarity carefully replied, and then pointed her hoof at something in the distance. “I said Princess Luna, who is standing right over there.”

Twilight blinked. “What?”

She immediately looked around. Sure enough, there in the distance, surrounded by adults, foals, and Pinkie Pie was Princess Luna herself.

“What?!”

“Oh, hey! It’s the Chief!” Incantation exclaimed, joining them. She gasped and stretched out her wings. “And is that Princess Luna?! I get to meet her?!”

Fluttershy walked over, and Twilight felt some measure of relief when the pegasus looked just as shocked as she felt. “Princess Luna?” she gasped, immediately turning to Twilight for some explanation.

Which she couldn’t give.

“That… That can’t be her!” she whispered urgently to Rarity and the others. “We saw Nightmare Moon! And it was Princess Luna!”

“...Could she be a fabrication?” Rarity asked.

“She has to be!”

“Princess…” Fluttershy glanced towards the distance where Pinkie was talking with Luna. “Pinkie said Nightmare Moon wasn’t Princess Luna. And she looked awfully sure of herself…”

“She did, but— But that can’t be— How could there be a Nightmare Moon and a Princess Luna?”

Twilight looked back towards the princess. They’d seen Nightmare Moon, but Fluttershy was right. Pinkie had seemed almost a hundred percent positive in her statements. Could… Could that actually be Princess Luna? Had she somehow separated herself from Nightmare Moon? They were in the dreamrealm, so technically speaking anything could happen, right?

An inkling of hope spread throughout her.

If that was genuinely Princess Luna, then she wouldn’t be alone anymore in saving the dreamrealm! Surely Princess Luna would know how to wake everypony up.

They quickly made their way towards the gathered ponies, Twilight’s heart skipping a beat when Pinkie and Princess Luna turned to them.

“Princess Twilight!” Pinkie exclaimed, overjoyed. “You found other ponies! And Rarity, too! Rarity!”

“Pinkie, dea—Oof!”

Rarity and Pinkie tumbled to the floor, the latter practically crawled all over Rarity.

“You’re safe, you’re safe! And Fluttershy is here, too! And Incantation!...Waitaminute!” She stopped to look at the changeling, wide-eyed. “Inky? You’re here, too?! Ohmigosh!” She pulled her in for a hug, similarly toppling her to the ground as she hugged both Rarity and Ink tight. “The Dream Team is all together! And Princess Luna too!”

When Pinkie gestured to her, Princess Luna smiled softly and bowed her head.

“I was delayed, but I’m here now,” she explained, her wings rustling at her side. She looked at Twilight when the younger alicorn stepped up. “Ah. Princess Twilight. Are you well?”

“I am! I am,” Twilight said, smiling as she tried to figure out what exactly was going on. “Are you well? I thought you…” She lowered her voice to a whisper. “You were upset after our last meeting?”

“What was that, Princess Twilight?” Pinkie immediately asked, craning her neck.

“Nothing!” Twilight exclaimed, smiling awkwardly. She took a glance around and then continued, “What about, er, Nightmare Moon?” She couldn’t help a glance towards Princess Luna. “Have you seen her again?”

“No, we haven’t,” Princess Luna said.

“Wait, wait!” one of the mares from the Dreamland interrupted. She stepped forward towards the princess. “Are you actually Princess Luna? You’re real?”

“I am, Dewdrop,” Princess Luna replied, smiling kindly. “You and Pinkie used to play together atop mountains of ice cream I created for you.”

Dewdrop faltered. “I... I don’t remember that at all…”

“We did, though!” Pinkie exclaimed, getting up and jumping up and down excitedly. “But the chaos magic made you forget!”

“And you can save us from these nightmares?” a stallion asked, stepping forward as well. “That’s what you do, isn’t it? My… My daughter says you help her with her nightmares.” He frowned, wary. “If you’re the real Princess Luna, you’d know what they are, wouldn’t you?”

“That depends. Which daughter are you talking about? The one who’s afraid of getting bad grades, or the one who’s afraid of the spaghetti monster?” she asked teasingly, and Twilight watched as the stallion’s eyes grew wide.

He was surprised she knew, Twilight hoped, because if he was, then this was even more proof for the adults that Princess Luna was real.

“That spaghetti monster is super scary!” Pinkie exclaimed, shivering and covering her eyes. “I was helping Princess Luna when she was helping Silver Bow, and even I was afraid!”

The princess laughed softly at that, before looking around and settling her eyes on Rarity. Her smile increased.

“Rarity! It is good to see you. We were worried. Are you well?”

“Oh, I am!” Rarity quickly exclaimed, clearing her throat. “And I’m glad everypony else is safe and sound too, though… is this all of you?” She turned to Twilight. “I gathered there were more? And where are the kids?”

“The kids?!” gasped one of the stallions. “Our children are here?!”

“Yes, but it’s okay, they’re safe! They’re with the teddy bears!” Pinkie quickly exclaimed. “We should be close to the plaza where they are!”

“Everypony,” Princess Luna announced, her wings extending as she turned around and began to walk, the parents eagerly following behind. “Stay close to me!”

Though still unsure, Twilight couldn’t help but be relieved they were no longer dealing with nightmares. This was much better than what happened in the Dreamland.

And it got even better when Rarity spoke up.

“Pardon me? The teddy bears?” she asked as they walked off.

Twilight stopped. “The teddybears?” She blinked once, twice, thrice, and then her smile turned absolutely sinful. “Oh. Right.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Oh dear. I know that smile.”

“You’re going to love this,” Twilight said, resuming her trot with a spring in her step.

“Love this? Love what? Tell me!” Rarity insisted, and when Twilight regaled her with a grin and not an answer, Rarity turned to Fluttershy. “Fluttershy? What did Pinkie mean ‘the teddy bears’?”

Fluttershy giggled. “You’ll see.”

“Fluttershy!” Rarity whined, as they turned around the corner and Twilight stopped just so she could bask in what followed as Rarity bumped into her. She frowned at the alicorn. “Oof! Twilight, don’t just stop in the middle of the way like that! We’ll fall be… hind....?”

Twilight didn’t rightly know what made her grin the most: Rarity’s jaw falling half-open when her eyes landed on the foals and the numerous massive teddy bears loitering around, or when Rarity’s forehoof slammed against the alicorn’s chest.

“Twilight.”

“Yes?”

“Those are the teddy bears.”

“Yes, they are!”

“The teddy bears we made for the foals.”

“During the Seeking Night event you organized, yes.”

“And they’re huge.”

“Ten feet tall, more or less.”

“And one just moved.”

Twilight giggled. “How else are they supposed to protect the foals if they can’t move?” She gasped with glee and pointed to the tutu-sporting bear. “Did you know that one over there knows ballet?”

Incantation flew up into the air, delighted. “It worked! The plan worked! We did it, boss!”

And just as they had when Dusk revealed himself to be awake, Rarity’s eyes watered. “Ah… So we did,” she whispered, laughing softly when an excited Twilight nuzzled her. “Not as I had expected, but…”

“This works?” Twilight ventured with a grin.

Rarity flashed her an emotional smile. “Yes. This works.”

“Come on, everypony!” Pinkie called out, further out and waving to them. “Hurry!”

“Princess Luna!” the foals exclaimed, delighted at the sight of the Princess. They rushed to her and crowded around her. “You’re here! You’re here!”

“Hello,” she said, delighted. “I am sorry I am late. I had much to do.” She then looked towards the adults peering at her, wide-eyed, and bowed her head. “Hello again.”

“Princess Luna! We fought off the nightmares!” one of the foals exclaimed, pulling on her foreleg. “We did it!”

The princess smiled brightly. “As I knew you would.”

“I’ll be,” Elder Moonshine said, stepping forward and peering at Princess Luna. “The infamous Moonlight Lullaby herself.”

Princess Luna smiled. “Elder Moonshine. It is nice to see you again.”

“Seeeeee!” Pinkie exclaimed, climbing up on Luna and sticking her tongue out at the Elder. “Told you she was real!”

“So she is.” After a glance at Twilight, she then readdressed Princess Luna. “You’re not this Nightmare Moon pony, then?”

The princess shook her head. “No, I am not.”

Twilight bit down on her lip. But... She had seen Princess Luna be overtaken by chaos magic.

“You look just like her, though,” a mare said, stepping to the princess.

“And yet, here I stand before you,” Princess Luna replied. “And so long as I do, you will always be safe. I will always be here when you need me.”

“Princess Luna…”

Dusk had approached them, looking terribly contrite as he pawed at the ground. “I’m… I’m sorry I said I didn’t believe in you.”

Princess Luna leaned down. “Do you believe in me now?”

“Yes!” he exclaimed and giggled when she leaned in to nuzzle him.

“Then I am real,” she said with finality. “But, for now, we should move on. Rarity.” She turned to the unicorn. “Do you have a plan?”

Rarity balked. “A plan? Me?” she stammered, taken by surprise. “I—Er… Well… I suppose we ought to seek shelter? Somewhere?”

“That sounds like a great idea!” Pinkie exclaimed. She looked around and pointed off to the distance. “How about inside there?!”

Out of thin air, a massive mountain appeared right in the middle of Hollow Shades, a large cave waiting at its bottom. Though the foals cheered and the adults seemed impressed, Elder Moonshine clearly had reservations.

“There? Inside that cave?”

Princess Luna nodded. “Don’t be afraid. I promise you will be super safe.”

Twilight frowned. “...Wait. Say that again?”

The princess acquiesced. “Don’t be afraid, Twilight.”

“No, no!” Rarity interrupted. “The other part?”

“You will be super safe.”

Twilight and Rarity’s eyes met and then simultaneously traveled to Pinkie Pie, her bright smile now seeming more nervous than bright.

“I see,” Rarity said, at length, before clearing her throat and sighing theatrically. “Well! I’m glad you’re here, Princess! I would trust no one but you with my safety. Not even Twilight.”

“Hey!” Twilight protested playfully. Afterward, she also turned to what she now knew was a construct and smiled warmly at it. A warmth that was directed both at Luna and Pinkie, now that it was clear what she was doing. “Though Rarity’s right, Princess. I trust you completely, too.”

The construct returned the smile. “Thank you, Princess Twilight,” she said, distracting ponies’ attention from Pinkie’s visible relief. The construct then gestured to the cave. “Follow me, little ponies!”

The trip to the cave was short but busy with all sorts of activities: Rarity scolding all the foals; the foals apologizing to Incantation for tricking her; the changeling making up excuses for them; Rarity scolding her for making up excuses for them; and the construct guiding them all, every single adult surprised and delighted by how much she knew about them.

“All her life they’ve mocked her,” Rarity murmured as they approached the cave, she and Twilight trailing behind the group. “And look how much she knows about them. All the positive things she’s having Princess Luna say about them.”

Twilight sighed. “I know. I wish the real Princess Luna were here to see this. Wherever she is.”

“What are we going to do about her? It’s not safe having the foals or the adults be there when we… find her. She could be dangerous.” She swallowed. “You were certainly nothing to sneeze at.”

“I know,” Twilight replied. “But…”

She furrowed her brow, taking in the sights until her eyes focused on the teddy bears and the foals that had breathed life into them.

“...I have a plan.”

As the rest of the group filed inside the cave, she trotted ahead and stood by the entrance.

“Listen to me, everypony! My friends and I are going to go and confront Nightmare Moon. You’re all going to stay here and wait until we’ve stopped her.” She gave the foals a pointed stare before they could try and speak. “All of you.”

“But—! You’re leaving us here?!” a stallion gasped.

“Alone?!” a mare blurted out.

Twilight shook her head. “No. Not alone.” With a smile, she gestured to the construct. “Princess Luna will stay here with you.” She then turned to the construct and after making sure Pinkie was listening, continued. “Princess, can you create a barrier over the entrance of the cave? Something to make sure nothing and nopony can get in.”

The construct nodded and immediately did so, a barrier appearing and protecting the entrance. That done, Twilight looked back towards the adults.

“Princess Luna is going to stay here and power this barrier, but you need to listen to me carefully! Dreams are powered by our beliefs. In order for all of you to stay safe, for Princess Luna to be able to protect you, you need to help her by believing she can. As long as you believe nothing can get past this barrier, nothing will get past this barrier. Do you understand?”

She waited for them to nod in understanding, then gestured to Luna.

“While we’re away, Princess Luna is going to sit here and power the barrier, but she needs to concentrate.” Her expression turned severe. “Please. Please, don’t interrupt her. She won’t be able to speak back. Just trust her and know she’s keeping you absolutely safe. Believe it.”

No sooner said than done, Princess Luna turned around and sat down on her hindlegs, her horn flashing and emitting a constant beam of power towards the barrier.

Once that was done, and once she instructed Incantation to distract everypony, she rushed to Pinkie.

“Pinkie,” she whispered. “Stop the construct.”

“Stop it?! But—! I’m the one keeping her here!”

“I know, Pinkie. But trust me. Make her leave.”

With great reluctance, Pinkie took a deep breath and closed her eyes. After a moment, she opened them, looked around and gasped at the sight of the construct still sitting in place, powering the barrier.

“Wait! I’m not doing that! Princess, I’m not doing that!”

Twilight grinned.

“Exactly. She’s part of their dream, which means that now…” Her smile vanished, as her friends turned to her, she swallowed any fear before it could arise. “Now, we go find Nightmare Moon.”

She walked back to where Incantation was and gathered the attention of the others.

“We have to leave now, so until we’re back, please. Don’t lose faith in the princess. And in each other. And no matter what happens, no matter what you hear or see, don’t pay attention to the nightmares.” She waited until they all nodded before glancing at the foals and their teddy bears. “Kids. I’m counting on you to keep everypony safe.”

“Yes, Princess Twilight!” they exclaimed, standing tall and proud.

Elder Moonshine stepped forward, her gaze traveling from Fluttershy, to Pinkie, to Twilight, and then at last to Rarity.

“Good luck, children,” she said. “May you end this terrible nightmare. And Pinkie…”

She glanced towards Luna, and then turned back to Pinkie, smiling.

“Bring Moonlight Lullaby home.”

Pinkie blinked once, twice, thrice, and then broke into a tearful grin. “I will, Elder! I will!”

To cheers and fanfare, the four mares strode out of the barrier and back into the distorted Hollow Shades. To their surprise, when they turned around, the barrier changed and took the shape of the mountainside, hiding the foals and adults from view. Chaos magic crackled to life around it, the haze surrounding the barrier only to be instantly repelled.

“What now?” Rarity asked. “Are we supposed to just find Princess Luna? Where could she be?”

“The last we saw of her was when she made a retreat back at the plaza, so she might still be around that area.”

That said, they set off into town, the haze of chaos magic trailing behind them, stalking their every move.

“That was really clever of you, Pinkie,” Twilight said. “Using a construct.”

“O-Oh! Thank you, Princess Twilight,” Pinkie said with a smile that faded a bit too quickly. Her gaze turned towards Rarity. “How are you doing, Rarity?”

“I’m managing alright, I suppose. I could have done without the ghastly nightmare Twilight had to save me from, but c’est la vie. How about yourself? Did you have a nightmare plaguing you?”

“No.”

Twilight frowned. “No? Interesting. So far everypony I’ve met has had some kind of nightmare chasing after them. If I had to guess why you’re not being affected, it might be because you’ve been exposed to Princess Luna and lucid dreaming your entire life. A nightmare can’t affect you if you know it’s a nightmare.”

Pinkie’s ears folded back, and she turned her gaze towards the road.

“No, that’s not it. It’s more that nothing is scarier than Princess Luna being a bad pony. So! I guess I do have a nightmare after all!” she exclaimed, and then immediately deflated. “Ha ha.”

Twilight placed a wing on Pinkie’s back.

“We’ll free her, Pinkie. You’ll see.”

They kept going after that, finally finding their way towards the main plaza only to find it completely changed. It was barren of objects, like benches and fountains and other such things. They had disappeared, and it was because of their disappearance that a single new object was highlighted. One that Twilight had completely forgotten about.

There, in the middle of the plaza was the statue of Princess Luna.

To Twilight’s surprise, the statue remained unchanged from its real-life counterpart, still depicting the princess looking into the distance, her ears pressed against her head, and her eyes still sad and dejected.

“What do we do now?” Fluttershy asked.

Twilight pursed her lips together.

“Er. I don’t know.” She scanned the area and found no trace of the other alicorn, so she jokingly added, “Call her name?”

“Princess Luna!” Pinkie hollered out, startling Rarity next to her. “Priiiiincess Luuuuuuuuna!”

“Pinkie! She didn’t mean that!” Rarity turned to Twilight. “Did you?”

“...I don’t have any other ideas. I could try and trace her down with my magic, but considering she seems to love the attention…” She turned towards the plaza and placed a hoof next to her mouth. “Princess Luna! Nightmare Moon!”

She called out a few more times before turning her attention back to the statue, as though she could somehow glean information out of it. Her eyes roamed the granite and finally landed on the cutiemark only barely hidden by a cloak: a full moon.

“Hilarious, isn’t it?” a voice said next to her. “I’m not even remembered properly.”

With a surprised yelp, Twilight jumped aside and found Nightmare Moon herself next to her, leisurely laying on top of a floating stormcloud.

“Twilight!” Rarity called, immediately rushing to her, ready to attack only for her bravado to vanish and turn into shock at the sight of the totally transformed alicorn, possessed by chaos magic. “My stars.”

“Why are you surprised?” asked Nightmare Moon, her smile displaying her fangs as the stormcloud flew high above into the air. “Weren’t you the ones seeking me out?”

“Princess Luna!” Pinkie Pie called, looking up at the alicorn. “What’s wrong?! Why are you doing this?!”

“Nightmare Moon,” the alicorn corrected curtly before leaning down from her cloud. “And what do you mean, foal? Why am I what? Having more fun than I have in ages?”

Twilight flew up into the air.

“Princess Luna—!”

“Nightmare Moon!” she corrected again, faintly annoyed as she lifted a hoof and suddenly Twilight was launched towards the ground. She flew her cloud down to where she’d landed. “Really. Try to keep up. It’s not that difficult.”

“Stop this!” Twilight demanded, painfully getting up. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?!”

Nightmare Moon tilted her head to the side. “Helping ponies face their fears?”

Pinkie Pie stamped her hoof on the ground. “No! No, you’re not! This isn’t helping anypony, Princess Luna!”

Nightmare Moon raised an eyebrow. “Ahhh… Again with your little ‘Princess Luna’. You really are thick, aren’t you. I really don’t want to repeat myself again.”

“I’m not calling you that ‘cause that’s not who you are!” Pinkie protested. “You’re Princess Luna! You help ponies with their fears by explaining them and guiding them through them, not by making them even more afraid!”

Nightmare Moon’s cloud flew to Pinkie Pie, the latter stumbling down in surprise.

“I am doing what I should have done centuries ago,” she hissed. Her stormcloud then flew back up into the air and she yelled out for all to hear. “I, Nightmare Moon, am no longer taking care of ponies who have never cared for me! And so it shall be evermore!”

“Princess Luna!”

“I told you, you fool! I’m Night—”

“No, you’re not!” Pinkie begged, looking up at Nightmare Moon on her stormcloud. Tears filled her eyes. “This isn’t who you are, Princess Luna!”

“Princess Luna? Princess Luna?!” howled Nightmare Moon, no longer bothering to keep up her aloof façade. Thunder crashed down from the stormcloud in front of Pinkie, and just as Twilight jumped in to protect her, so did Nightmare Moon emerge from the blast, enraged.

“Stay back!” Twilight ordered, forcing the combative Pinkie a few steps back to where Fluttershy and Rarity were—the former terrified, and the latter muted with shock.

Twilight turned back to the princess, wings flared, her tone threatening. “Princess Luna.”

“Princess Luna is GONE!” the mare snarled, the chaos magic coursing over the ground and her body flaring to life. She stepped forward as Twilight and the others stepped back, every word she said next edged like a dagger. “And I have taken her place! They did not believe in her, but they’ll believe in me!”

“That’s not true!” Pinkie protested, pushing past Twilight only for the alicorn to grab her with a foreleg and hold her back. “Let me go, Princess Twilight! Let me go!”

“Pinkie, please—!” Twilight begged, not wanting to use magical force.

“But that’s not true!” Pinkie protested, struggling against her. “Tons of ponies believe in Princess Luna! The foals believe in her!”

“The foals?! Don’t make me laugh!” Nightmare Moon shrieked derisively. “The very same foals that are so quick to forget me? To become another adult that laughs at the mere notion that I’m not a story for foals? Those foals?!”

Pinkie exploded at that.

“Not me! I didn’t!”

Her will finally overpowered Twilight’s strength, pushing her to the ground as she rushed to Nightmare Moon, planting herself in front of her and placing a hoof against her chest.

“I’ve always believed in you! Always!” Her ears folded back, and she all but pleaded. “Doesn’t that count for something?”

Nightmare Moon laughed. She laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

“You?!”

Her laughter died. Quickly.

She leaned down, eyes narrowing to slits.

“You?”

Pinkie didn’t reply again this time. No valiant ‘yes, me’ that Twilight could see and be inspired by. No shining ray of hope. Twilight saw none of this in Pinkie Pie, oh no, but what she saw in Luna… The bitterness, the anger, and most of all, the resentment.

That she recognized.

She knew what came next.

And, it seemed, so did Rarity.

“Stop her,” Rarity gasped, jolted to life, her voice strangled. “Stop her, Twilight!”

But Nightmare Moon was faster, her horn lighting with magic. She slammed Twilight against the ground, and as Rarity rushed to help her, Nightmare Moon regaled Pinkie with her full attention.

“You think your silly belief counts for something?!” Nightmare Moon demanded, everyone paralyzed save for the little pink pony standing her ground despite flinching at every word. “Don’t make me laugh! You think you’re better than them! But are you? After what you’ve done?! You made me believe I could leave. You made me feel I could leave. You gave me hope.”

Her eyes filled with angry tears.

“Ponies have forgotten me, derided me, for hundreds of years! All of them, making a mockery out of my name, out of my role, out of everything I am, and yet you, Pinkie Pie. What you have done to me. You—”

“Stop! Stop it, Princess Luna!” Twilight begged, wrapped in Rarity’s embrace.

“You’re worse than all of them combined.”

Twilight wasn’t altogether sure what came first: her own gasp, her heart constricting in her chest; Pinkie falling to her hindlegs, her widening eyes puffy with tears; Fluttershy rushing to Pinkie Pie and hugging her close, her brow knitting with outrage; or…

Or Nightmare Moon’s look of surprise when an enraged Rarity spoke, still holding Twilight in her forelegs.

“How dare you.”

Twilight froze in Rarity’s grip, though only emotionally. Her body, on the other hand, was shaking because Rarity herself was shaking, completely overtaken by fury.

“How dare you speak to her like that. How dare you after everything she’s done for you!” she seethed, her words directed at Nightmare Moon but slashing Twilight Sparkle. “After everything she’s endured for you?!”

“No, no, Rarity!” Pinkie stammered, her cracking voice only just above sobs. She clumsily stood up to her hooves, standing defensively in front of Nightmare Moon, a hoof raised in the air. “Please! Don’t be mad at her! It’s fine!”

“It’s fine?! Pinkie Pie, in what world is this fine?!”

“It is! She didn’t mean it! She’s just hurting! The spirit hurt her!”

“I don’t care!” Rarity yelled, indignation bleeding through her words, her hooves subconsciously digging into Twilight. A gesture painful for the alicorn in more ways than physical. “I don’t give a bloody damn if she’s hurting, or wounded, or in pain, or if Discord hurt her, or Hollow Shades forgot her, or anything! I don’t care how badly she’s hurting, none of that means she’s allowed to treat us like that!”

Her eyes filled with tears as hot as the shame that burned through Twilight, terrible memories rising to the surface.

“To treat us as though we’re somehow worse than anything Discord’s ever done to her! To—! To even say it!”

Rarity turned her sights back to Nightmare Moon.

“How dare you, Princess Luna.”

Nightmare Moon stepped back, surprised but not entirely thrown off her balance. “Well, well.”

Twilight, still clinging to Rarity, tried in vain to say something, to catch Rarity’s attention, but was unable to when Rarity continued, relentless.

“Apologize, Princess Luna,” she demanded. “Now.”

The two words clung in Twilight’s throat, her muzzle pressed against Rarity. Even though the apology was not expected of her, she wanted to say it. But she couldn’t. She was gripped by the anxiety of waiting for Nightmare Moon—for Princess Luna—to say them, hoping she would in some shape or form absolve them both by doing what Twilight hadn’t.

But she didn’t.

“No.”

In Pinkie’s eyes, Twilight saw a broken heart.

She had to act.

“Princess Luna!” she demanded, Rarity backing off as she stood up. “Think about what you’re doing!”

“How could you!” Fluttershy exclaimed, and now it was she who was angered. She turned to them all—to Twilight, to Nightmare Moon, to Rarity—and continued. “This is no way to treat each other!” She directed her fury at Nightmare Moon. “And you—! Pinkie Pie believes in you!”

“No,” Pinkie replied.

Fluttershy looked at her. “What?”

All eyes were on Pinkie. And then on Nightmare Moon when she spoke.

“No?” she asked, and there was no derision here. No sarcastic tone readying a witty remark. This was confusion. Surprise. She stepped forward, her ears alert. “What do you mean no?”

Suddenly, Pinkie stood up, almost but not quite pushing Fluttershy away.

“No!” she yelled. “I believe in Princess Luna! Princess Luna always takes care of others!” She stepped forward, and Nightmare Moon stepped back. “Princess Luna always tries to make sure you’re a better pony!” She stepped forward again, and her voice cracked. “But… But you’re not Princess Luna, anymore. And if... If...”

She choked on her words, strangled bits and pieces that she struggled to push out. But push them out she did, for the filly who believed...

Believed no more.

“And if this is who I’m gonna see every time I go to sleep,” she continued, “then I’d rather never sleep again!”

And with a poof, Pinkie Pie disappeared.

Just like that, leaving a stunned silence in her wake.

“My stars,” Rarity whispered, a much more polite variation of the expletive that crossed Twilight’s mind.

“Where did she go?” Nightmare Moon asked, and at Twilight’s silence, her tone rose. “Foolish child! No one can leave!” A burst of magic shot out of her horn, and when a second passed and nothing changed, she did it again. Again, and again, until three times went by, and Twilight nearly jumped out of her skin when Nightmare Moon materialized before her, furious. “Where is she?!”

“I-I don’t know!” Twilight blurted out. “She woke up!”

“Then bring her back!” Nightmare Moon demanded, and as her eyes found the light, it was no longer Nightmare Moon who spoke. She magically grabbed Twilight by the scruff of her neck and shook her back and forth. “Bring her back, Twilight Sparkle!”

“I can’t! She left!” Twilight protested, trying to break free of the princess’ grip. “You made her leave!”

She yelped in pain when Princess Luna dropped her suddenly, the alicorn stepping back several paces. Her wings lowered, her ears folded back, and she looked towards the spot where Pinkie had been, distraught.

“I… I did this.”

“Did you?”

Twilight’s eyes widened, fear gripping her. A voice had just whispered in between her and Luna, and it wasn’t any voice that she recognized.

But before she could question it, a surge of chaos magic flared to life from the ground and launched itself at Princess Luna, swallowing her whole. When it dispersed after a moment, the darkness had returned to the Princess’s eyes, along with a dark aura much larger than before.

“No, I didn’t,” hissed Nightmare Moon. “They did this to me! She did! She was holding me back! But now that she’s gone…” She looked at Twilight, and her smile turned predatory as the chaos magic around them rose into the air, a mist that soon became a whirlwind with them at the center.

“The nightmares shall last forever!”

Twilight only had enough time to react, the harsh winds pelting against her, threatening to whisk her away. She turned to Rarity and Fluttershy, the two of them standing a few feet away and seemingly faring no better against the dusky winds, now slowly dampening her visibility as well.

If they got carried away and separated…

“Hurry!” she barked, reaching out to them, yelling over the sound of the wind and Nightmare Moon’s howling laughter. “Grab on to me! Hurry!”

“I can’t see!” Fluttershy called.

“Twilight?!”

“Fluttershy? Rarity?!”

But the sound of Rarity’s voice was soon drowned out by the wind and the darkness. The whirlwind finally became insurmountable, and she yelped in surprise when it carried her off, a dizzyingly terrifying ride that seemed to go on for hours and hours until it ended with a... 

Slam!

In the midst of total darkness, pain rushed through her body as she crashed against a wall with a thud, and again when she slid down to the ground. This was followed shortly after by several heavy stray objects tumbling down from the sky, forcing her to cover her head under her forelegs.

To her immense relief, the ‘attack’ did not last long, if it even was an attack at all. Her eyes fluttered open and she peered into the darkness, trying to figure out where she was. Or where the others were.

“Hello?! Is anypony there?!” she called out, pressing her hoof on an indent on the wall as she rose to her hooves. “Hello?!”

Silence replied.

She took a step forward, intending on lighting the room with her magic, but shrieked and stumbled back when taking a step forward resulted in a loud ripping sound, like a page being torn in half. She waited, paralyzed, for something to happen, and when nothing did, it occurred to her that that sounded exactly like a page ripped apart.

Wait a minute...

Her horn burst with magic, illuminating not only the page she’d now torn clean off a book, but the bookcase she’d become intimately acquainted with, holes in the shelves once filled by the books now scattered on the floor.

And, in truth, she couldn’t help a laugh. A genuine, actually amused chuckle.

Fitting, wasn’t it. Of course she’d be hurled against a bookcase.

Unfortunately, bookcases weren’t usually by their lonesome, now were they? And especially not this one, she knew, that was familiar, and old, just like the many other bookcases she saw when she turned around.

And, in truth, she couldn’t help a laugh. Because it was funny.

Of course!

Of bloody course.

It made sense! Nightmare Moon had promised them nightmares, hadn’t she, and she delivered! She wished she were surprised but she wasn’t. Wasn’t this great? Wasn’t this wonderful?

Wasn’t this absolutely fab-u-lous?

Of course it would be the library.

When her calls again fell on deaf ears, she decided she had no choice but to press on, apprehension gripping her heart. The sooner she found the exit to the library, the better.

It would certainly help if she could see, too.

Moving forward into the somber hallways, she looked up at the sky and bit down on her lips. Well, if this was a dream, and this was the library, then… “Star? Light, please!”

Clanking noises sounded off in the distance, and she watched with relief as a small candelabra floated up from the middle of the room. And yet, her relief was short-lived. One of its branches, she noticed, had been almost torn clean off, swinging about by the thin piece of metal still keeping it affixed to its trunk.

It did not fare any better when it transformed into a chandelier, either. It illuminated the room, certainly, but many of its branches had been twisted and nearly torn off, their flickering lights clinging to life, somehow shining despite the chaos magic engulfing the chandelier.

It was awful to see. It unsettled her to her very core, but perhaps not quite so much as the distinct impression she was being watched. Which in fact she was, she realized, when she turned towards the end of the hallway and nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw somepony standing in the distance.

Her scream echoed throughout the library, the poor dear levitating a book and hurling it at the distant pony. Unfortunately for her, the book hit its mark, and she yelped again when the sound of shattering glass rang out.

She looked back towards the end of the hallway and found the pony still there, gawking at her from the other side of a full-length mirror. Despite the piles of shards scattered on the floor around it, and despite what had absolutely been the sound of glass shattering, the mirror was complete. Not intact, no—it had cracks scattered throughout it—but it was complete.

She was immediately drawn to it, her thoughts of her friends dimming out as she traveled the length of the hallway and came to a stop in front of her reflection in the mirror. The cracks disjointed her image, somehow heightened her every terrible feature: emphasized eyes that once sparkled and now constantly felt tired; highlighted lips that once dazzled and now struggled to smile; framed a glowing pink necklace that, much like Star’s light, flickered with a pink dimness, clinging to life.

And now, she didn’t mean to be theatric, but she was who she was, dramatic, darling, ‘till the very end. And as she stared at her warped, jagged reflection, Rarity the unicorn felt like she’d never before seen herself more clearly.

Once upon a time, there was a mare who did not believe in fairytales.

Did not believe in alicorns fighting spirits of chaos, or all-powerful elements scattered throughout the land, and certainly less in princesses trapped under trees, waiting to be found.

And then she found herself one such princess! And she was a beautiful one, at that—silly, and smart, and hurt, and brave. Stars, she was brave. And so the mare fell in love, and fancied herself on a rescue mission. She was dashing and heroic, going off on grand adventures to save her beloved! Fighting dragons and demons! Breaking curses! Getting battle scars, too!

A heroine through and through.

Rarity fell to her hindlegs, her eyes fixed on her reflection, sad and tired because, you see, this brave mare, well…

She lost her princess. Lost her to an enemy she could not vanquish. And what happened when she got her back? Did she go back to being a daring adventurer?

No, not exactly.

She became paranoid. Terrified. Obsessive. Coddled her princess. And most of all, she became a coward. And then…

“And then,” Rarity said, lifting a hoof and stroking her reflection’s cheek, “she wasn’t much of a hero anymore, was she?”

A wave of exhaustion befell her, and she moved to sit against a bookcase, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath.

Then she remembered Princess Luna, having gone mad. Insane. And how she reacted, too! She hadn’t been able to help herself. To see Princess Luna treat Pinkie in such a way had awoken visceral memories in her, things she had thought she’d put to rest.

How much had Twilight heard of what she’d said? Likely all of it. How was she handling it? Was she okay?

She’s fine, she thought to herself, forceful. Twilight is fine.

A mantra she’d been repeating to herself over and over for what felt like forever, and even more so after their fight a few days ago. The only thing she cared about, and which perhaps had blinded her from asking a very different question:

Was she herself fine?

Perhaps that’s why she’d focused on Twilight so much. Why she’d coddled her, why she’d poured herself into burying her feelings all for Twilight’s sake. Focusing on Twilight meant she didn’t have to think about herself.

Didn’t have to think about a question whose answer frightened her, even though it was now so overwhelming, seeping out of her very own subconscious like it had that damned night with that damned dream.

She wasn’t fine. Obviously, she wasn’t fine. Everypony and their aunt could tell she wasn’t fine.

She knew that. What she didn’t want to confront was the solution to fixing that.

“Rarity?!”

Her eyes flew open at the sound of Twilight’s distant voice, and tears wet her eyes. Her trembling mouth tried to speak, but the alicorn’s name caught in her throat.

I can’t, she thought, and how horrible that this both relieved her and distressed her. How awful that she wanted to call out Twilight’s name, but she wanted her to stay away at the same time.

“Rarity?! Are you here?!”

For a moment, Rarity debated not answering. She debated sitting there, looking like a complete and utter wreck so Twilight would find her and see how she felt. Rarity, frankly, wanted to cry. She wanted to be held, and to cry and cry and wail and wail and have Twilight hold her and comfort her, and then maybe gorge herself on ice cream—if ice cream was even served in this sunforsaken place.

But crying wasn’t going to save Princess Luna, now was it?

So she did what she did best: get up to her hooves, wipe away her tears but not her makeup, and then on with the show.

“Twilight?!” she called out, doing her best to steady her voice. “Where are you?!”

“Near the entrance! Where are you?!”

“Stay there! I’ll come to you!”

Leaving the cracked mirror behind, she rushed into the labyrinth, following the sound of Twilight’s voice until she emerged in the library’s lobby where she saw the alicorn lingering by the entrance.

The first thing she felt was relief. A crashing, overwhelming sense of relief at the sight of Twilight, shaken but unharmed and real. Unlike the Twilight who’d haunted her in the Dreamland, the necklace hanging from this Twilight’s neck was vivid and shining and glowing with life.

Twilight rushed over and pressed a hoof against Rarity’s shoulder, concern etched on her face. “I’m so glad I found you! Are you okay? Why are you crying?”

“I’m fine! I’m fine, I am!” Rarity said, wiping at her eyes again. “I’m just… shaken. What happened with Princess Luna, and Pinkie and…” Her eyes grew wide, and she looked around. “Wait. Where’s Fluttershy?”

"I don’t know. I thought she’d be with you?” At Rarity’s expression, her ears folded back. “Oh. Oh. Ohhhhhh no.” She buried her face in her hooves, breathing rather heavily. “Okay. Princess Luna’s gone mad, Fluttershy is who knows where, Pinkie is gone. Everything is fine, just fine, finefinefinefine.”

And then, just as Rarity was about to try to calm her down, the alicorn stopped her heavy breathing and looked up.

“Everything is fine,” she said, suddenly confident.

“...It is? I mean, it is! Of course it is! Is it because you have a plan?”

“No,” Twilight replied with a smile. “It’s because we’re together. Right?”

Rarity offered a smile of her own, placing a hoof over her necklace. “Of course.”

Twilight nodded and made a move towards the exit tunnel. “Come on, we should go. The sooner we find Fluttershy, the better.”

Rarity quickly followed after. “Where do you think she could be?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said, about to rush into the tunnel. “We might have luck finding her—”

Slam!

Crackling and hissing, a raspberry barrier came to life before the princess, blocking her exit and sending her tumbling back onto the floor.

“Twilight!” Rarity exclaimed, rushing to her and helping her up. She then looked at the familiar barrier, horrified as it flickered and then disappeared. “The barrier?! Why is it here?!”

“I don’t know!” Twilight stammered, as shocked as Rarity was. She lifted her hoof towards the tunnel, only for Rarity to yank it back with magic.

“Don’t touch it again, for goodness’ sake!”

Twilight frowned. “...Because it’s going to trap me even more?”

“Touché.” She looked back to the tunnel. “But why is it here?! Is it because we’re in nightmares?”

Twilight hummed. “That would make sense. Try and see if you can go through it.”

“But… Alright...”

Swallowing down her trepidation, she carefully lifted her hoof and tried to cross it through, only for the barrier to promptly repel her. It seemed as though she was trapped as well.

She admittedly felt some strange sort of relief by the fact.

“Can’t you make it disappear?” she asked next, keeping a calm demeanor mostly because she could think of worse things than being trapped in a room with Twilight. “This is a dream, isn’t it? Surely you can use your dreamwalking magic to get rid of it, can’t you?”

“I can try…”

After taking a step back, Twilight’s horn lit up with magic and a spell shot out, aimed straight for the barrier. The barrier flickered, but much to their dismay, did not disappear or seem otherwise damaged by the spell.

“Right. That didn’t work.” She turned to Rarity. “Any ideas?”

Rarity looked to the exit, and then to the library around them. “Hrm…”

Truthfully, she had one idea, but didn’t exactly feel keen on speaking it out loud. If this was her nightmare, then didn’t it stand to reason she could dispel the barrier? But expressing that out loud meant revealing to Twilight that her nightmares were about her imprisonment.

“Let me try,” she ventured instead and was grateful when Twilight didn’t question it. She waited until the alicorn stepped back and then, much as Twilight had, alighted her horn with magic and blasted the barrier with a spell.

It didn’t go away.

“What? Why isn’t it leaving?” she complained, and again blasted another spell at it. And then another, and another, until she turned to Twilight and whined. “Twilight, why isn’t it working?”

“How am I supposed to know, Rarity?” Twilight asked, just as bewildered as she was. “Unless…”

Her expression darkened.

“Unless what?” Rarity asked, and a terrible thought crossed her mind as she looked to the barrier. “Unless I didn’t make it?”

“Bingo!”

The two mares squealed in surprise at the voice and looked around for its source, only to find absolutely nopony.

“Who said that?!” Twilight demanded, back to back with Rarity, her horn lighting up. “Show yourself!”

“It’s him!” Rarity gasped, grabbing Twilight with her hoof. “It’s him! He’s here! Discord!”

Twilight blanched, her magic fizzling for a moment. “Discord?”

“Discord? Really?!” the voice said, greatly annoyed. “Discord, Discord, Discord! What am I? Chopped liver?!”

To the sound of a sinister laugh, the chaos magic littered on the floor and walls moved and converged on the same spot, until Rarity watched with horror as it clumped together and took the form of the spirit of chaos.

With a great big grin, he extended his arms to the side and struck a pose.

“It’s me!”

“It is Discord!” Rarity exclaimed, horrified.

“What? No! I’m not him! I’m—” He stopped and tapped a finger against his chin. “Actually, I suppose I am him. A part of him! The best part! The one who’s been living here for a thousand years! The one who made all those idiotic little ponies believe Princess Moony isn’t real! Not Discord, but the...” He excitedly encouraged them with a gesture, waving his paw in a forward circle. “The…”

“The chaos magic?” Rarity exclaimed. “You’re the chaos magic?”

“Bingo again!” He clapped his hands with delight. “I’m the chaos magic!” He bowed reverently. “Hello, ladies!” And then his neck stretched out all the way until his face was nearly pressed against theirs, and then his eyes turned to slits. “Haven’t you been a pain in the neck?”

“But—! But how are you doing this?!” Rarity demanded.

“You can talk?” Twilight asked next.

“But the chaos puppet from the library! It couldn’t speak!”

“Oh, please,” he said, his neck snapping back to normal length as he crossed his arms and harrumphed. “Don’t compare me to the library’s magic. A fraction of me could have kept little miss it’s-all-my-fault over here trapped in that forest. But to keep an entire town controlled, he had to leave much more of me! And now that Moony gave me access to the dreamrealm, I can do so much more! Even talk!” He narrowed his eyes again. “And do you know how long I’ve—”

“Twilight!” Rarity cut off, turning to the alicorn and grabbing her by the shoulders. “Leave! Leave, Twilight! Now!”

“Le-leave?”

The chaos magic blinked. “Excuse me? I was talking.”

"The dreamrealm, Twilight! You need to wake up!" Rarity continued, gripped with panic as she shook the poor alicorn. If something happened to Twilight, if she… "Wake up!"

The chaos magic leaned down, tilting his head to the side. "Wake up?" He grinned. "She can't."

"Shut up! Just shut up, you infernal beast!" Rarity snarled to him, her panic increased tenfold. She turned back to Twilight and implored her. "Twilight, please!"

"Come now, Princess Twilight!" he exclaimed, floating onto his belly and resting his chin on his hands, eyelashes fluttering. "Wake up!"

Overwhelmed, Twilight did as instructed, her horn lighting up. She closed her eyes and cast a spell, the magic aura enveloping her for a moment before disappearing and leaving her behind in the dreamrealm.

She opened her eyes, and for the first time, Rarity saw her terror reflected back at her.

"I can't," Twilight whispered, pale like a ghost. "I can't leave."

And Rarity's entire spinning world came to a violent stop.

No.

"What do you mean you can't?" she asked quietly, and then her quietness became an unholy screech as she grabbed Twilight, her hooves digging into the alicorn's shoulder. "What do you mean you can't?! Try again!"

"B-but—!"

"Try again, Twilight!"

The chaos magic laughed with unrestrained glee. "I told you! She can't! She's trapped here with you!" He floated upright and blinked at her. "I would've thought this was what you wanted! Isn't this better than last time? Now you're both trapped in the library!"

Twilight's eyes filled with tears. "I… I..."

And so did Rarity's, as she stepped back, a forehoof rising to her mouth. "No. No."

No. This was over. This was supposed to be over. Twilight was supposed to be safe now, wasn't she? She was supposed to be safe!

She was supposed to be safe.

"But this is wrong, isn't it?" the chaos magic continued, his brows knitting together. "It's missing something. That little detail to make our story interesting. But what?" He hummed loudly, his eyes roaming the library, until finally they settled on Twilight. He grinned maliciously. "It's missing a ghost."

Before either mare could react, the chaos magic snapped its fingers and a jolt of chaos magic hurled Twilight into the air, immobilizing her as though it had her in a chokehold.

"No!" shrieked Rarity, but the chaos magic shrugged it off, snapping his fingers again only for more chaos magic to rise from the floor and restrain Rarity. "No! Let her go!"

He ignored her, instead levitating towards Twilight, the panicked alicorn gasping and struggling in his magical grip.

"So, Princess Twilight, what will it be?" he asked, pensively. He lifted a claw, placed it on Twilight's forehead, and as her eyes grew wide with fear, magic pulsed out from his claw and into her body. "Another thousand years?"

"No! Stop!" Rarity begged, fighting against the magic with every fiber of her being. Watching, sick to her soul, as she began to see the outline of bookcases and walls through Twilight’s body.

Twilight was beginning to lose corporeality.

“Please! Haven't you done enough to her?!"

"No!" Twilight gasped. "Let me go!"

"Princess! I really can't have you messing up my plans in Hollow Shades anymore!" it chastised, and Rarity could bear it no longer.

"It's not her!" she exclaimed, desperate. "She's not the one messing up your plans! It was me! The Dreamland was my idea! The Seeking Night event was my idea! I asked her to dreamwalk! All of it was me! Please!"

She made her choice.

"Take me."

Now that made the chaos magic stop. He looked away from Twilight and towards the unicorn staring him down from the floor.

"Take you?"

"Yes," Rarity replied at once. "Let her leave. Please. And you can have me."

He blinked at her, almost genuinely surprised. "You would take her place?"

"I would."

The chaos magic contemplated her offer a moment before snapping his fingers. The magical grip holding Twilight in the air disappeared, and the princess fell to the floor with a thud, her body regaining its physicality. She coughed violently, gasping for air.

"Twilight!"

When the magic restraining her vanished, Rarity rushed to Twilight and scooped her up in her forelegs, holding her close as the tearful alicorn trembled in her embrace, shaken to her very core. She grabbed on to Rarity, burying herself against her.

“I… I couldn’t breathe, I— I couldn’t feel, and— and—”

“It’s alright, my darling,” Raritywhispered to her life entire, struggling to talk over her tears. She nuzzled her close, because she could touch her, and feel her, and no one would ever take that from Twilight ever again. “It’ll be fine. I’ll stay behind.”

“But—” Twilight gasped, clutching her. “But, Rarity—”

“Please, Twilight. Please, don’t argue. Not now.” She forced the best smile she could, and then lifted Twilight’s chin, brushing back her bangs like she’d done dozens of times, like she now feared she’d never do again. But it was fine.

“Once he lets you go,” she continued, “find the others and rescue Princess Luna, and then get out of here. You’re smart enough to figure out how. Promise me, Twilight.” When Twilight nodded, she leaned down and pressed their foreheads together, her heart bleeding. “Stars. I love you.”

“Well, isn’t this disgustingly sweet!”

The chaos magic snapped its fingers and Rarity yelped when he propelled her into the air, restraining her in a magic chokehold as he’d earlier done with Twilight. He floated all the way to her, his face once again inches away from hers.

“My, my. How romantic! In exchange for her freedom, you’d give up yours. What a dashing gesture from our dashing heroine! But are you sure about it, Ra-ri-ty? How about we give you a little taste, darling.”

Despite herself, Rarity couldn’t help a terrified scream, muffling it by biting down on her lip as the chaos magic lifted his claw and then pressed it right against her heart, magic pulsing out.

To say it was awful would be to put what Rarity felt kindly. It was unlike anything she’d ever experienced before, agonizing but not in a way where there is a pain you can feel. Not a sharp pang, or a burning sensation. It felt like she was asphyxiating, but not because she couldn’t breathe, but because the air was being sucked out of her body.

It was like her very consciousness, her very soul, was seeping out, leaving her numb, numb, numb until she couldn’t feel at all.

When it stopped, her first reaction was to try and breathe, to gasp out, but she couldn’t. Her very body panicked at the fact that no matter how much she breathed in, no air came in. She felt absolutely nothing.

“Stop!” she gasped despite herself, because when one was being willingly murdered, your body cared little for your heart’s resolve. Out of sheer instinct, she reached towards his claw, tried to swat it away, only for her hoof to go through his hand.

It was enough to make her body stop, to make her survival instincts halt and wait.

Wait as she lifted her hoof again, slowly now, terrified and slowly, and then waved it in front of her face, her hoof going through the chaos magic’s arm every single time. If her heart was beating, which it wasn’t any longer, it would have slowed to a stop, no doubt.

She was a mirage. No different than an illusion, or a projection.

Stars.

“This, my dear,” he said, “is what will happen to you.”

He leaned in again, every word a sharpened whisper.

“So. Let me ask again, Rarity. You would take her place?”

And despite it all.

Despite what it meant, despite how it felt, despite the horror she’d seen the displacement inflict upon Twilight, Rarity stared into his eyes and kept her choice.

“Yes, I would.”

There was no hesitation here. No fear, no second-guessing, nothing of the sort. If it meant Twilight was safe, then she’d do what had to be done.

“Rarity. Rarity. Ra-ri-ty. You really are something, I’ll give you that,” he said, lifting her chin with two fingers. “For centuries and centuries, I had this abysmal town under my control! I made so many ponies believe Moony was a sham, she bought into it herself! It was wonderful!” Little clay figurines of Princess Luna and assorted ponies materialized in the air, dancing around Rarity. “All I had to do was cut their access to the dreamrealm for a few centuries, and next thing you know, she was doing it herself! It was wonderful!”

“Pinkie…” Rarity hissed. “Pinkie… still… won…”

He frowned. “Ah. Yes. The pink menace. I don’t actually know how she managed that. But it doesn’t matter!” A single pink figurine appeared, its expression one of sadness as the other figurines began to dance around her. “Isn’t it delightful! How they mocked, and mocked, and mocked her! You know, ponies are absolute idiots, but they do have delightful insults!” He giggled. “Tall Tales Pinkie is my favorite!”

He sighed wistfully before turning to her, his magic grip loosening around her neck. Just enough so she could speak. “What’s your favorite insult? You’ve lived here for two years now! Surely you have a favorite.”

“Free her,” Rarity hissed. “Now.”

The chaos magic rolled his eyes. “One-track mind, aren’t you?” He sighed, looking down at Twilight, still shaking on the floor.

His smile turned predatory.

“Silly Rarity. So very full of yourself.”

“W-what?”

“ What makes you think I’d trade a full-blown alicorn for you?”

He flung Rarity away like a rag-doll, her body regaining its corporealness just in time for her to crash against a table. Disregarding her, he turned his sights back to Twilight and levitated her back into the air.

“Prin-cess Twi-light!”

“No! Stop!” she demanded, wrestling with a magic that neither she nor Rarity could stop, the latter painfully struggling to get up. “Let me go!”

“You know, I’m starting to think a thousand years is too generous. How about ten thousand this time? He glanced over at Rarity, and glasses appeared on the bridge of his nose. “What do you think, Rarity? Too much? Too little?”

“I’ll free her,” Rarity promised, rising to her hooves and glowering at him. “No matter where you trap her, no matter what you do to her, I will find her and I will bring her back.”

“Will you? You’ll ‘bring her back’?” he asked, pondering Twilight, the alicorn still struggling to break free. “Why, Rarity, I think you just hit the mark! That’s where He went wrong, isn’t it? Because He still cared. He made it something you could fix.”

His neck stretched out to Twilight, bringing his face close to hers.

“But I don’t have to do that, do I?”

Rarity’s eyes grew wide. “No. No!” she gasped, but chaos magic erupted from the floor and slammed her down, restraining her. “Please, don’t!”

“Poooooor little Princess Twilight! Such a stickler for details! All those pesky, little ponies who kept saying you were dead!” His face transformed into hers, and he spoke in mimic, pushing up the glasses still perched on his nose. “I’m not dead! I’m displaced in time, bla bla bla blabbity bla!”His face turned back to his own self. “How annoying, isn’t it! But don’t worry, Princess!”

His entire body materialized in front of her, his hand shooting out and grabbing her by the muzzle.

“I’ll make sure they’re never wrong again.”

A hissing pulse of magic traveled down the length of his arm and poured straight into Twilight, her cries muffled by his hand as the magic engulfed her completely, her body thrashing about. Rarity watched in horror, flinging books, quills, whatever she could, trying to get him to stop.

And he did.

As did Twilight.

Her body went absolutely limp, like a puppet, lifelessly dangling from a string, and then when he snapped his fingers, she fell to the ground.

The first thing Rarity saw were Twilight’s eyes.

They were not bitterly black, as they were in most of Rarity’s nightmares. No, these eyes that looked back were big, and beautiful, and deeply violet.

And they were dead.

Below these dead, violet eyes, lying on the floor was a crystal pink necklace that flickered once, twice, thrice and then its magic died out.

No.

No, she couldn’t be dead. No.

Rarity didn’t even register the chaos magic disappearing around her, allowing her to get up and rush to Twilight. Didn’t even register the chaos magic laughing and talking as she cradled Twilight’s… Twilight’s corpse.

“Twilight?” Rarity said, sobbed out, almost, shaking her lightly because Twilight couldn’t be dead. She couldn’t. She wasn’t. “Twilight? Twilight!”

No.

Any moment now, she’d wake up and make a remark on this not being nearly as painful as when Rarity slammed her against a wall, and Rarity would cry with relief, and everything would be fine.

“Twilight, darling, wake up!” she pleaded, lifting her hoof and brushing back Twilight’s bangs. “Wake up, please, stars, you can’t—” Her voice cracked. “You—You need to wake up.”

But Twilight did no such thing, her head limply bobbing with every shake, her eyes dimmed of all light.

“Oh, Rarity,” said the chaos magic, the beast sounding almost sympathetic. “Poor little unic—Eep!”

Crash!

For once surprised, the startled chaos magic gawked at the bookcase he’d avoided with the skin of his teeth before looking towards Rarity, the unicorn standing over the body, her eyes glazed over with a veil of intoxicating hatred.

She was going to kill him.

“Rarity! How unlad—Eek! Will you stop?!”

Again, he narrowly avoided yet another bookcase, and then another and another as Rarity levitated them into the air and hurled them at him, screaming in rage with every throw. She couldn’t think, couldn’t concentrate, driven forward by a blind fury that increased with every hit he avoided, with every voice that yelled in her head that Twilight couldn’t be dead, she couldn’t, she couldn’t.

“Bring her back!” she demanded, because if she killed him, if she threatened him, surely he would. “Bring her back!”

“From the dead?!” he asked, almost with glee.

And she hated him. She hated it. And she had enough. Using every ounce of strength the dream realm provided her with, she levitated every single bookcase in the room and launched them at him.

That, he wasn’t able to avoid, and soon enough, he was buried under the bookcases, his detestable voice silenced at last, either because he was knocked out, or dead, or who bloody cared.

She waited, her chest heaving with every heavy breath, until nearly a minute went by and there was no sound. No retort. No nothing.

Her mind still a daze, she stepped back several paces away from the mound of bookcases, and waited to see if he did something. If he even tried. She kept walking backward, her attention only distracted when she stepped on something, turned back and realized she’d bumped into Twilight's body.

And as Rarity stared at it, as her concerns and care for the chaos magic faded away, so did the haze shrouding her mind disappear. Her eyes filled with tears, the alicorn’s name got caught in her throat, and as she fell to her hindlegs, Rarity realized that Twilight wasn’t going to wake up.

A single thought crossed her mind.

A single sentence, ripping through the core of her very soul with the same intensity as the excruciating numbing pain this had wrought. A suffocating agony she’d felt only once before, standing on the other side of an impenetrable black barrier.

Not again.

She couldn’t live through this again.

She would die if she had to. She would die, just like Twilight had died, and as she buried her face in Twilight’s coat, she began to cry. To want, with all of what was left of her heart, for that nightmare to be over.

“Twilight,” she cried, distraught, angered, abandoned. She lifted her hoof and clutched her necklace. “You promised me. You promised me you’d be here.”

“I’ll admit this has been fun, but I really should get going now. I still need to deal with your little friends and that barrier they’ve made for themselves.”

She jerked away from the body and turned around, miserable to see the chaos magic rise through the bookcases, yawning rather loudly and looking completely and wholly unharmed. Her anger immediately flared up again, aghast to see that monster still alive.

And yet, before she could even so much as think or do or say something, a burst of chaos magic shot up from the floor and restrained her.

“But first, I’ll deal with you.” He lifted his paw and conjured a floating, crackling chaos magic sphere. “I really don’t want you ruining my plans again.”

“You monster! You—! You—!”

She choked on her words, still wracked with grief, unable to speak, glaring at him as he tossed the sphere up and down in the air.

“Any last words?”

"Do it," Rarity hissed. “Just get it over with.”

“Oh?” He quirked an eyebrow. “Giving up so soon?”

"I'm not afraid of you anymore. Whatever you intend, I’ll either wake up, or I’ll die. And either is preferable to this."

"Hmph.” He smirked. “Very well, then, Rarity.”

Bracing herself, Rarity closed her eyes and held the necklace. Twilight had said that as long as Rarity had it, Twilight would be there.

And so the unicorn wished and wished, with every fiber of her being, that this would hold true.

That no matter what came next, she would at least get to see Twilight again.

"Let me thank you for your help.”

She heard him hurl the sizzling sphere at her, and she could do naught but wait for it to hit her, kill her, wake her, whatever had to happen, but when she heard a loud explosive sound, it was not followed by pain.

It was followed by a voice.

“Like hell you will.”

Time slowed to a crawl as Rarity’s eyes fluttered open, gripped with the realization she was afraid to look. Afraid that her grief was so much, so intense, her mind was playing tricks on her to cope.

But she had to look, and so she did, turning around only for tears to fill her eyes when who did she see standing over her—wings flared, horn ablaze, a shield pulled up—but Princess Twilight Sparkle herself.

The real one, of course, burning with the rage of a thousand years.

And alive, unlike the construct-Twilight lying on the floor next to the unicorn.

“Rarity!”

Rarity turned away from Twilight and towards the distant spot where Fluttershy emerged through the newly-appeared dreamdoor bearing a triple diamond cutie mark. The pegasus rushed to her, looking absolutely horrified as she embraced the unicorn who was barely cognizant of the fact.

She was barely cognizant of Fluttershy talking, of the pegasus’ embrace, having such a hard time grappling with the whiplash of it all that her mind decided it’d rather deal with it by going completely numb.

“Princess Twilight!” the chaos magic exclaimed. “How nice of you to join us!”

“Discord?!” Fluttershy gasped. “What’s he doing here?!”

“That’s not Discord,” Twilight said, still holding up the shield, her glower set on the chaos magic creature. “It has the same magical signature as my library’s maze. If anything, this thing is just a second-rate copy of a draconequus. It’s nothing but scraps.”

“This thing? Second-rate?! Scraps?!” he gasped, indignant. He snapped its fingers, and several dozen sizzling chaos magic spheres appeared around him.”Let’s see if this is second-rate!”

The spheres hurtled towards the three mares right up until Twilight’s horn glowed and they all came to a complete stop mid-air. Her magic seized them, fused them, and formed a massive ball of energy which then launched itself at the chaos magic creature and slammed him against the mounds of bookcases, a cloud of dust erupting in its wake.

When the dust dissipated, Rarity was shocked to see him laying on the bookcases, hurt.

“You—You—” he coughed out, confused. “You hurt me?! But there’s nothing more powerful than me!”

“There’s me,” she snarled. “And if you can hurt me in the dreamrealm, I can hurt your physical form.”

“H-How?! That doesn’t make sense!”

“Dreams are not supposed to make sense, you third-rate mumbo-jumbo! Now, shut up!” she snapped, before looking back towards Rarity, her anger melting into concern. She immediately freed Rarity from the chaos magic restraint with a burst of magic. “Rarity? Are you okay? Did he do something to you?!”

“I… I…”

Rarity stumbled on her words, watching as this Twilight spoke to her and then turning to the other one, lying dead on the floor.

“Princess!” Fluttershy yelped, only just having noticed the body. “Look!”

If Twilight was shocked, she only showed it for a moment. Her eyes widened ever so slightly until they darted back and forth between Rarity and the body, and then her eyes narrowed and her teeth gritted together.

A terrible panic gripped the unicorn, bringing her back from her daze.

“I’m—I’m sorry!” she blurted out, horrified at subjecting Twilight to such a terrible sight. She tried to reach forward to the alicorn, to hold her hindleg in a pleading motion, but instead stumbled forward onto the ground, overwhelmed with shame and exhaustion from it all.“I’m— I’m sorry, I—”

“Rarity!” Fluttershy exclaimed, scooping her up and holding her close. She looked at the princess, helpless. “Princess…”

Twilight spun back towards the creature, the latter floating back up into the air after having recovered.

“What did you do?!” she demanded. “What did you do to her?!”

“Meeeeee?” he exclaimed, placing a paw against his chest in mock surprise. “Why are you angry at me?! I’m just an actor! This is her nightmare! Her script! She orchestrated all of this! Isn’t that right, Rarity? Tell her! Tell Twilight Sparkle what’s going on! You know why!”

“I—I—” Rarity stumbled on her words, clutching onto Fluttershy, because he was right, and she knew it, she knew it, she knew it.

“I know why.” He suddenly materialized right in front of Twilight’s shield and slammed his paws against it, forcing all three mares to flinch back as he stabbed his vicious glare right into Rarity’s eyes and hissed.

“Because some nightmares don’t end when you wake up, do they, Rarity?”

“Enough!” Twilight exclaimed, pulling down her shield just in time for her horn to let out a blinding spell that shot straight at the chaos magic creature. “Leave her alone!”

The spell blasted the creature squarely in the chest, and the last thing Rarity saw were his eyes, piercing hers before it exploded in a burst of light and chaos magic shot out all over, fading into the walls and ground.

“Where is it? Is it gone?” Fluttershy asked, still holding onto Rarity, the latter deathly quiet. “Did you get rid of it?”

“Temporarily. Only Princess Luna can get rid of it completely,” Twilight said, aggravation suffusing her words. She stepped forward and looked around, scoping the area. “But we should be safe for now. I don’t think it’ll try attacking us again yet.”

“Rarity?” Fluttershy said, standing up and tugging on the mare’s forehoof. She smiled kindly. “Let’s get up.”

But Rarity didn’t, or if she did, it was because Fluttershy almost forced her up and not because she tried to get up. She was too busy thinking of what the chaos creature had said, its last words burned into her mind.

“Rarity?”

Her eyes drifted towards Twilight, and she saw the alicorn’s disposition completely changed. Gone was the anger, the irritation, replaced instead with earnest concern as she walked over, ears folded back.

But if before, back in the nightmare Dreamland, Rarity’s first instinct was to seek out Twilight’s comfort, now...

“I… I…”

“It’s fine, Rarity.”

Now it was different.

Now, when Twilight approached and raised a forehoof, beckoning her as she earlier had, when said hoof so much as touched Rarity’s coat, she jerked away with such force that it surprised all three of them.

“Don’t,” she said, the words tumbling out. Not because she was trying to be rude, or ungrateful, but because emotions warred inside her, pulling at the threads she now realized she’d clumsily sewn her heart together with.

Nightmares don’t end when you wake up.

“Rarity?” Twilight asked again, and how guilty Rarity felt when Twilight’s ears lowered, when the shadow of hurt flashed through her eyes, when she pushed it away in favor of a loving smile that hurt the unicorn. “It’s okay. What’s wrong?”

What’s wrong? Rarity thought, and she tried to answer, she wanted to, really, but all she could do was look away from Twilight and stare instead at the one still lying on the floor, her dead eyes still staring off into the distance.

She heard Twilight curse out loud, rushing forward to the body and stepping in front of it, only half blocking it from Rarity’s view.

“Stop. Don’t look at it,” she pleaded the unicorn, before spinning in place and looking down at herself.

“Princess, why is that still there?” asked a perturbed Fluttershy, similarly trying to block the body from Rarity’s view.

Twilight frowned. “I don’t know, I—”

“You were gone.”

Rarity didn’t even register she’d spoken out loud until both Twilight and Fluttershy slowly looked over their shoulders at her.

Fluttershy spoke first, and her voice was soft, and delicate, and pained with understanding. “Oh, Rarity.”

But Twilight’s was different. She thought she understood. “Rarity… I wasn’t gone. That was a nightmare. It wasn’t real.” She spoke kindly, gently, like an adult trying to explain to a child. “I’m fine. And as for this thing.” She turned to the body, her horn lighting up. “This thing can go.”

She blasted it with her magic, and her frown deepened when the body remained.

“I said it can go!” she exclaimed, and another blast of magic produced the same damn result. “Why—” Another blast. “—isn’t—” Another. “—it—” Another. “—leaving?!” She turned to Rarity, helpless and pleading. “Rarity? It’s okay. It’s over!”

“You… You…” Rarity’s voice cracked, the words spilling out from her heart, not her mind. “You were gone, Twilight.”

Twilight stepped forward, gentle but firm. “I’m right here, Rarity.”

Fluttershy spoke up, matching Twilight’s tone. Gentle, kind, and in this case, brutally direct.

“You weren’t two years ago.”

There it was, every word stabbing into Rarity like a well-placed dagger, later twisted when Twilight finally understood, her expression losing its gentleness, losing its well-meaning frustration, losing its confidence.

“Rarity,” she said, the tremor in her voice matching the one in Rarity’s heart, as she asked again the question she’d been asking since the very moment she escaped the library. “What’s wrong?”

A question that Rarity could no longer avoid answering, and even less so as her mind went back to her memories, the ones that haunted her at night, the ones she’d tried to forget, the ones that overwhelmed her so completely that the dream began to change.

The library vanished in a whirl and now darkness surrounded them, all save for the glowing barrier in front of which an illusion Rarity yelled at the illusion Fluttershy that’d come to fetch her, who insisted that please, Rarity, you can’t keep coming every day and what about your commissions.

“And I waited for you.”

The dream changed again, and now it became Carousel Boutique, Sweetie Belle crying in frustration because again Rarity had declined a trip with her in favor of staying in Ponyville, because again Rarity had missed a recital in order to go be at the library, because she missed Princess Twilight too, but she missed her big sister more.

“Stop,” Twilight said, the distress evident in her voice. “Rarity, stop this. Stop, please.”

Rarity blinked at her. And remembered. And the dream changed again.

“I don’t give three hoots if you don’t like it, Rarity, but this has to stop.”

And now Sweetie Belle and Rarity weren’t alone anymore. They were surrounded by others--by Pinkie, by Applejack, by Rainbow and even the Professor—all of them standing on one side of the room while Rarity stood on the other, infuriated.

“I don’t need to leave Ponyville! What is wrong with all of you?!”

“Rarity,” Applejack said, stepping forward. “We’re just saying that we think you need some change in your life. It’ll do you some good, sugarcube. Why, Fluttershy here was just telling me about this fashion thingamajigger in Trottingham and—”

“What? The Winterfest? Are you even listening to yourself?! You want me to go parade around a bloody event while Twilight is trapped inside the library, being tortured by chaos magic?! Or worse?! Have you gone insane?!”

Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof. “That isn’t what she meant, Rares, and you know it!”

“How about Hollow Shades?” Pinkie said, trying to sound bright despite her obvious nerves. “You can help me with Princess Luna! We can try freeing her! That’s important, too!”

“Twilight is here! In Ponyville!” She grabbed her necklace. “And she needs me!”

“Princess Twilight is gone, Rarity!” Applejack exclaimed, and for once, the unicorn recoiled. “And we don’t know when she’s comin’ back! For all we know, she ain’t comin’ back!”

“Don’t— Don’t say that,” the illusion Rarity said, her voice cracking. “Don’t you ever dare say that to me ever again!”

Applejack softened. “I’m sorry, sugarcube, I am, but as much as we all want her back, she’s gone.”

“Rarity…”

Rarity looked away from her sobbing other-self on the floor and turned towards Twilight, the real one, her eyes welled with tears. And then Rarity’s eyes landed on Twilight’s necklace, her necklace hanging on her neck, weighing her down as it had before.

And the dream changed again, Carousel Boutique vanishing, now replaced with Pinkie Pie’s room in Hollow Shades, moonlight filtering in as the door slammed open and Rarity marched in, waking Pinkie up.

“Rarity? It’s three in the morning, silly! Our meeting with Elder Moonshine isn’t until—” She fell silent at the sight of Rarity’s necklace floating in front of her. “Huh?”

“Take it,” Rarity pleaded, her voice trembling. “Please.”

“Your… Your necklace?”

“I can’t… I can’t sleep, I can’t… I can’t stop staring at it, and I— Please, Pinkie. Just… Let me know if it rings, but I can’t… I can’t do this anymore.”

And then Twilight could take it no longer.

“Stop!” she demanded, and a blinding burst of magic shot out from her horn and killed the memories until they were back in the library where it all began. She breathed heavily, blinking through the tears. “Please. Stop.”

But Rarity couldn’t.

Not because she wanted to be mean, not because she wanted to hurt Twilight, but because she had to.

“You were dead.”

The three words came out in a whisper.

“You… You died, Twilight,” she continued, and the more she spoke, the more her entire being seemed to fracture, the floodgates tearing open. She stumbled on her words, months of denial, of trying and failing to get better, of trying not to hurt Twilight, of deluding herself into thinking she was fine, all of that going up in flames before her.

“I-I waited for you, but I didn’t know if you’d ever come back, and I… I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t live, and I had to tell myself you’d died, and I… I thought I’d die from the pain. I… I had to tell myself you were dead.”

She stumbled on her own words, burying her face in her hooves, because she was incapable of finishing her sentence, and even less so when Twilight rushed forward to hold her.

“It’s okay,” Twilight said, and she was so warm, and so gentle, nuzzling Rarity through her tears, because she loved Rarity so much and that was the worst thing of them all. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I was gone, but I—I’m here now. It’s okay.”

“No,” Rarity whispered, shaking her head against Twilight, because it wasn’t. Because Twilight Sparkle had died, yes, and that had been terrible, yes, but what this nightmare had done was shown Rarity that it wasn’t Twilight dying currently ripping her apart, but something else entirely.

“I can’t,” she whispered, her tears burning hot, because Twilight Sparkle loved her, and she loved Twilight Sparkle, and that damned them all the more. “I can’t…”

“You can’t what, Rarity?” Twilight asked, still holding her close, realizing that something was wrong. “Rarity? You can’t what? It’s fine! I’m here! Is that what’s wrong?” When Rarity shook her head, when she apologized for things she’d yet said, the princess tried again, a slight fear tinging her voice. “Then what is it? Rarity?”

And now it was Twilight’s turn to pull away.

“What’s wrong? Please, you need to tell me what’s wrong,” she insisted as fear-laced anger took over her voice, because: “I can’t—! I can’t fix this if you don’t tell me what’s wrong! What’s wron—?!”

“You died! You were everything I had, and then I lost you!” Rarity exclaimed, falling to her hindlegs, burying her face in her hooves. “I mourned you. And then I moved on, and I... I never thought I’d experience something as horrific as losing you ever again, but then… but then...”

Her voice fell to a harrowed whisper.

“But then you came back.”

Author's Note

So there's a lot I want to say, but I also don't know how to say it right now. I've been building up to this scene (and the immediate next in Ch. 22) for so long, and it's strange to be here. I don't know. Ultimately, I just wanted to tell a story about mental health and the effects of it.

To those of you who've stuck with me and TEK even though the story took a different direction, I appreciate it a lot. I was worried I wouldn't be able to properly tell the story I wanted, and though I've stumbled here and there, I'm quite proud of what I've achieved. And of how this act ends.

The next chapter will bring Act II to a close, and will bring several plot threads to an end with it. I think it'll be worth the ride. At least, for me it was! And for my editors and the patrons with access to the wip of Chapter 22, it seems they think so too, for now!

~~If all goes well, the act finale will go live Sunday (or Monday)!~~ Things did not go well, BUT IT SHOULD BE OUT SOON. So pray burnout doesn't get to me because I've written about 25k in like three weeks lmao

ALSO HAHA DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN WAITING TO POST THIS MEME

Also, oh dear, sweet beloved Rarity POV, how I missed you.

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman!! Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

~ Act II ~ 22 ~ The Filly Who Believed ~

No one said anything after that, and especially less so Princess Twilight Sparkle.

But then you came back.

The statement rang in her head like a haze, every word making sense individually but not as a whole. ‘You were dead and you came back’ would make sense. ‘You were dead, then you came back’ would make sense.

But she had said neither of those things.

Huh.

“Oh. Okay.”

“Okay?” Rarity asked, looking up at the alicorn. “Okay?”

“Yes,” Twilight replied, matter-of-factly. She then gestured to the exit tunnel. If they left now, they could find Nightmare Moon and go from there. “We should go. The sooner we can find Nightmare Moon, the better. Let’s regroup with Elder Moonshine and the others.”

“Princess?” Fluttershy asked as Twilight walked past her.

Rarity followed suit, stepping towards her. “Twilight? Twilight, wait!”

Twilight stopped in her tracks, which she hated because stopping meant she couldn’t focus on Nightmare Moon, and instead had to focus on the pain ripping through her chest, through her mind, through her body.

She didn’t bother looking back.

“What?”

“‘Okay’? What do you mean ‘okay’?”

“Exactly what I said. Okay.”

“Okay? What are— Is that honestly all you’re going to say?” Rarity continued, her indignation incensing the alicorn.

Twilight finally turned around, failing so miserably at stopping her tears that she wasn’t even trying anymore.

“Yes, it is,” she said, stepping towards the unicorn, ears folded back. “What else do you want me to say, Rarity? What do you want me to do? You literally just said that I died, but that the—” Pain tore through her chest again, making it hard to speak. “But the worst part of it was me coming back?”

“What?! That’s not what I meant!”

“Yes, it is! It’s what you said! Somehow, me coming back is worse than me having died! So, tell me, please, what am I supposed to say to that?!” Her eyes watered anew. “I’m sorry I didn’t stay locked in my library? I’m sorry I came back? Is that what you want?!”

“No! No! Of course that isn’t what I want!” Her voice cracked, almost enough to make Twilight soften. “For sun’s sake, Twilight, how… How could you even think that?”

“I don’t have to think it! You said that—”

“You were everything I had, Twilight!” Rarity cut off, stabbing Twilight with every word. “I put everything on hold for you! Don’t you understand?! Everything. M-my career, my friends, my life, all of that I pushed aside for you and for the princesses and for all of this! You became my life, and then I lost you!”

It was horrific for Twilight, and even more so the guilt that immediately washed over her. Just the idea that… that her entire existence had been the cause of all that. That not only wasshe at fault, again, for someone’s misery, but that this someone was Rarity.

But for once. For once, when blame was being thrust her way, the princess didn’t take it.

“I never asked you to help me!” she snapped back. “I never asked you to put everything on hold for me! I never asked you to make me your entire life! You made the choice to get involved, not me!” Her tone turned vicious. “In fact, if I remember correctly, I asked you to stay out of it!”

“Princess Twilight!” gasped Fluttershy, turning to the two mares. “Stop it! Both of you!”

“Don’t you think I know that?!” Rarity said back. “I am well aware you never asked me, Twilight! I’m not blaming you! I would never dream of blaming you! I did it because I wanted to, and I don’t regret it! But I can’t… I can’t go through this again! I can’t go through us going to rescue the princesses again, and then you getting locked in a barrier, or dying, because of something I did, or something that’s happened, and then you’re hurt again and suffering and—” She faltered, her anger turning into vulnerability. “I’m afraid, Twilight.”

Twilight Sparkle felt many things when Rarity finished her statement.

Primarily, she felt stupid.

Stupid to have believed their fight from a few days ago had been the worst of it all. Stupid to have believed, hoped, that somehow things would be as they were before she locked herself away. Stupid to have believed the issue between them was something she could fix.

She gritted her teeth together.

“Why didn’t you tell me any of this?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“I didn’t know!” Rarity said, and she began to pace, her eyes manic. “When you came out of that library, I… my feelings were so… confused. Don’t get me wrong, I was happy to have you back, so unbelievably happy. But at the same time, there was this tinge of unease that I… I couldn’t explain. And I just had to keep going, hoping that it would go away.”

She stopped her pacing, and nervously looked back up to Twilight. “But when you started spiraling because of the elements, just like when you found out Cadance was a ghost, and then again when we had to go to the library… that’s when I realized that it was fear. The fear of you spiraling into a place I couldn’t reach. Of losing you, but this time, forever.”

A long silence followed as Rarity’s words sank in.

“You should have told me,” Twilight said quietly.

“I tried. What do you think me letting you into my dreams was? And look at how that turned out! And even then, Twilight, how do you expect me to tell the love of my life that I was somehow happy and miserable to have them back! And especially after… after all you’ve already been through, and… I was afraid you’d—”

“Blame myself.”

Like she had after she saw Rarity’s nightmare.

She was right. Rarity was right. And Twilight could only feel one thing.

Shame.

“What do you want me to do, Rarity?” she asked, tonelessly. “I can’t fix this. I can’t go back in time and stop myself from doing that, or letting the magic possess me, or locking you out. I can’t. What am I supposed to do?”

Rarity was taken aback. “I… I don’t know, Twilight.”

“No! You don’t get to say that anymore!” Twilight exclaimed, her anger returned. Anger at Rarity, anger at herself, and anger at the fact that she didn’t know what to do. “Tell me what to do! Should I stop? Should I stop trying to help Princess Luna and the others, then?”

“No! Of course not!”

“Then what?! Because the other logical solution is to end our relationship here, and you go back to your life, and I go back to mine, and then it doesn’t matter whether I die or not!”

“Princess!” Fluttershy scolded. “That’s an awful idea!”

Rarity’s expression hardened, and she lifted a hoof towards Fluttershy.

“No, no. It isn’t. It’s brilliant!”

Twilight’s heart nearly stopped. “It is?”

“Yes, of course! Let’s break up! What a perfectly sound, intelligent solution. In fact, the moment I wake up, let me pack my bags and gallivant back to Ponyville just as you want!”

Twilight stamped her hoof on the ground.

“I don’t want that!”

“Then don’t make such asinine suggestions!” Rarity snapped, tearing up again. “Running away from the problem can’t be your solution to everything, Twilight!”

“I’m not running away!” Twilight shot back. She just wanted this over. “I’m just— Tell me! Please! How do I fix this?! Tell me!”

“I don’t know,” Rarity replied just as despairingly. “I don’t know how! And frankly, I don’t even think we can fix this right now! In fact, right now, Pinkie and Luna matter more.”

Twilight stepped back, Rarity’s statement a slap in the face. “Pinkie and Luna matter more?” she asked, her incredulous voice barely above a whisper until the moment she teleported herself in front of the unicorn and struggled to stay composed. “This is our relationship, Rarity! This is the only thing that matters!”

“I know that, Twilight! I wouldn’t be here if our relationship didn’t mean everything to me! But right now, we need to help Pinkie and Princess Luna because if we don’t, then this!” She gestured in between them. “This horror we’re going through is what awaits them! We need to stop Nightmare Moon!”

“No! We are dealing with this now! Right now, I don’t care about Pinkie Pie, or Princess Luna, or Nightmare Moon’s problems!”

A great explosive crackle answered her back and Rarity and Fluttershy all but tumbled back in surprise as the bringer of nightmares herself teleported into the middle of the room.

“You rang?!” exclaimed Nightmare Moon, cackling with delight, instilling shock and fear into all except for Twilight who simply stood there, her eyes burning holes into the older alicorn. “Well, well, my little ponies! I’ve finally fou—”

“We’re a little busy here, Princess Luna!”Twilight thundered, her horn lighting up with magic and promptly teleporting Rarity, Fluttershy and herself to a completely different section of the dreamrealm.

“Twilight!”

Twilight ignored Rarity’s protests in favor of casting an opaque protection barrier around the three of them, ensuring Nightmare Moon wouldn’t be able to interrupt them again.

“Twilight, what are you doing?!” Rarity exclaimed, flabbergasted. “We need to help Princess Luna!”

“Fine! Fine, we will!” Twilight said. “This is what’s going to happen now. You two are going to stand there, and I’m going to pace until I figure something out, and nopony is going to talk until I’m done thinking. Got it? Without talking!” she reasserted when Rarity opened her mouth.

She waited until they both reluctantly nodded.

“Great. Thank you.”

No sooner said than done, she began pacing around the inside of the barrier, her frazzled mind scrambling to put together what would surely be a fantastic, intelligent, sound plan.

“Alright,” she announced after a few minutes. She faced her two friends. “I have a plan.”

“Oh?” Fluttershy asked, encouraged.

Rarity, on the other hand, seemed wary.

“Do you, now?”

“Yes. This is my plan. I’m going to trap Nightmare Moon in a dream bubble, and then I’m going to stay here in the dreamrealm and maintain the spell for as long as it takes for the chaos magic to let her go.”

Fluttershy bit down on her lip. “...Oh dear.”

“You’re… You’re what?” Rarity asked, blinking at Twilight. “Let me make sure I’m understanding this correctly. You intend on staying here, in the dreamrealm, until Princess Luna is rid of the chaos magic, which may I remind you took you nearly two years to do yourself? That’s your plan?”

“Yes.”

Rarity gawked at her.

“Are you even listening to yourself? How is that any different than being trapped in the library? Have you gone mad?!”

“It’s the only plan I have, Rarity!”

“I don’t care! I just got you back, and now you expect me to sit here and let you lock yourself again for stars know how long?”

“Then help me!” Twilight urged, because she was tired, and scared, and out of ideas except to ask help from the best friend that was slipping in between her hooves. “Please, Rarity. You always know what to do.”

“Help you?” Rarity asked, incredulous. Not angry. Not resentful. Ashamed. “Twilight! Twilight. Don’t you see? My help is the reason we’re in this mess!”

And just like that, everything shot into crystal clarity, overwhelming Twilight Sparkle with a wholly new kind of dawning horror.

“What?”

“All of these awful things that are happening are because of me, Twilight! If I hadn’t come up with the entire Seeking Night event, Princess Luna wouldn’t have ended up going mad! Her relationship with Pinkie wouldn’t be shredded to pieces! If I…”

Tears clouded her eyes.

“If I hadn’t pushed you so hard, then maybe you wouldn’t have been trapped for two years, possessed because I tried to help,” she whispered, the thought seemingly more harrowing than anything Discord had ever done to Twilight. “Stars, I—I know you didn’t mean it but… but I can’t help think that maybe you were right when you said I was his revenge.”

Twilight blanched, appalled. “Rarity, you… you blame yourself? You told me you didn’t blame yourself!”

“I don’t! Not like you do!” Rarity harshly interrupted, meaning every word. “I don’t torture myself for it. I know I meant well, but facts are facts, Twilight!” She gestured around, to Hollow Shades, to the nightmares, and in passing to Twilight. “And the fact remains that none of these things would be happening if it wasn’t for me!”

At that, Twilight didn’t actually know what to say.

She could only stare at Rarity, shell-shocked, finally forced to see the other side of the coin as she struggled to comprehend what Rarity was saying; tried to somehow grapple with the mind-boggling fact that somepony as intelligent as Rarity could say something so profoundly misguided.

“Rarity.” She stammered the name out, staring at the unicorn wide-eyed, until she managed to regain some sort of eloquence and blurted out, “Yes! You’re right! This is your fault! All of this is because of you!”

“Stop it!” Fluttershy yelled, standing in between Twilight and Rarity, the latter now filled with hurt. “This isn’t helping—!”

“But it’s true!” Twilight protested, desperate. “All of this right now is because of her! If it wasn’t for Rarity, the foals wouldn’t have teddy bears protecting them! If it wasn’t for Rarity, we wouldn’t have an entire army of ponies wanting to help!”

It was Rarity who moved first, quiet save for her gaze, which burned with emotions as she gently pushed past Fluttershy and hung on every word the alicorn said.

”You’re right, Rarity,” Twilight continued, now pacing in quick circles as she rambled on and on. “You’re right. So many things have gone ridiculously wrong. Princess Luna’s turned into her worst nightmare, the chaos magic is making our nightmares worse, Pinkie left us all, and literally every adult in Hollow Shades is in danger. Everything is crazy! But I’m fine! I’m happy to be here!”

She stopped in front of Rarity and met her gaze, pleading.

“Because if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here at all.” She stepped forward. “What I said earlier. I meant it. I never asked you to put your life on hold for me. I never asked you to help me and get involved.

“But thank you, because I… I never would have asked.” She took a moment to catch her breath, to still her heart and her voice, but not to wipe away the tears. “If it had been up to me, I’d still be in my library right now, alone and hating myself and telling myself that’s what I deserved. But instead, I’m here now, helping Princess Luna and the others because of you. So yes, Rarity. It is your fault. Thank Celestia for that.”

She watched, waiting for what Rarity would say, but when the unicorn simply fell to her hindlegs and pressed a hoof against her muzzle, Twilight pressed on, knowing that it was time to step up. For good. Regardless of what happened next.

Her expression softened.

“I have to help Princess Luna and the others. I’m sorry. I can’t give up on them.”

Now Rarity reacted, her hoof flying down to her chest. “I know that. I would never dream of asking you to do that. I’m just… If you get hurt, or…”

“I know,” Twilight said, gently. Remorsefully, her ears folding back. “And I wish I could, but I can’t promise you I won’t get hurt. I can’t promise you something won’t set me off, or I won’t lose myself again, or Discord won’t hurt me, or… Or that I won’t blame myself anymore because I’ve been doing it for centuries! That’s a lot of years of bad habits to break! But…

“But I’m going to get better. Even if it’s hard. I won’t be great at it all the time, and even though I’m statistically likely to have tons of regressions, I’m still going to keep getting better no matter how long it takes me, whether you’re there or not.”

Rarity’s eyes widened, her own ears similarly folding back. “What do you mean?”

“It means that I...I understand if you don’t want to do this anymore. I can’t promise you we won’t get hurt again,” Twilight explained, a terrible panic growing in her heart until she touched her glowing necklace and found her resolve.. “But… But if you still want to stay with me and help me again, even though we might get hurt or it might go wrong, I…” Her voice cracked. “I would really, really love that.”

“I… I…” Rarity stammered on her words, her faltering setting off all of Twilight’s last resort alarms.

“And if you don’t want to help, that’s fine!” Twilight blurted out, panicking slightly and rushing forward to take Rarity’s hoof in hers. “We can figure something else out! You can just stay in the Dreamland or in Carousel Boutique, and I’ll go rescue the princesses alone, and then I’ll visit you in between, and it’ll be just like before except inverted! It’ll work!” She then pressed her forehead against the unicorn’s, pressing Rarity’s hoof against her necklace. “Please.”

She swallowed her fears, waiting for Rarity to speak, to say something, to help her save their relationship, but she admittedly hadn’t been counting on soft, tearful giggles.

She immediately pulled away, her heart pounding in her chest, confused at the sight of the unicorn smiling at her.

“W-what? Why are you laughing?”

“Princess Twilight Sparkle, that makes no sense whatsoever,” Rarity said, the giggle that escaped her lips complementing her eyes that sparkled with tears and affection. She caressed Twilight’s cheek with her hoof and tilted her head to the side. “Tell me please, dearest, how does you going off on adventures while I stay in Carousel Boutique alleviate anything? If anything, you have more chances of getting hurt if you don’t have me there ready to knock some sense into your silly ideas!”

“I don’t know! I was panicking! I’m trying to make this work!” Twilight blurted out, the tightness around her heart lifting at the blissful sound of Rarity laughing again.

“And furthermore, not only does that not make sense—” Rarity moved in and pressed their foreheads together, her hoof on Twilight’s necklace. “You would have me miss out on the delightful experience of watching you trying to navigate your way through modern Equestria? What a dreadful suggestion!”

And for the first time in what felt like weeks, Twilight Sparkle laughed. She laughed, toppling both of them down to the ground when she moved in for a hug and nuzzled the unicorn. “Celestia,” she whispered, laughing, tearful, relieved, so so so relieved. “What was I thinking!”

“What were you thinking, you silly silly pony?” Rarity whispered back, holding her tight and burying herself in the alicorn in her embrace. Her laughter faded after a moment, and her grip tightened. “Stars. I’m sorry, Twilight. For everything.”

Twilight almost immediately pulled back, alarmed.

“Sorry? No! No, no, no. I’m sorry for everything!”

Rarity grinned.

“Mm. Let’s just agree we’re both sorry, then.” She brushed back Twilight’s bangs and then caressed her cheek again. “And we’ll get better at this whole relationship affair together.”

Twilight nodded, nuzzling against the unicorn’s hoof right up until the moment her eyes shot open and anxiety filled her again.

“Wait. But. Are you sure? What about my guilt? And I don’t know. I can’t promise you I won’t get hurt, and—”

“And it’ll be fine, Twilight” Rarity interrupted, gentle but firm towards both Twilight and herself. “It’s a risk I’ll take. We’ll just have to be extra careful, won’t we? And keep getting better at it, as you already have.” She tapped the tip of Twilight’s nose with her hoof. “And you simply shall have to refrain from putting me in a position where I’ll have to go wrestle your soul back from the grim pony. Because I will.”

“I promise.” Twilight’s ears flicked up, a sparkle in her eyes. “And you should go back to your business!” she quickly added. “I remember you told me before you wanted to have shops in different cities and places. When we gather intel throughout Equestria to help the princesses, I can help you scope out clients and locations. Not only will it help your business, but we’ll have more allies ”

“Ah… That sounds lovely,” Rarity whispered, emotional. “That would make me quite happy.”

“Wait. One last thing.”

“Yes?”

Twilight’s brow furrowed. “Promise me you won’t hold back anymore when it comes to me. And you won’t be afraid of confronting me anymore, even if sometimes I won’t react in the best way.”

“I won’t,” Rarity said, affectionately. “I promise I shall metaphorically smack you on the back of your head every time I think you’re being ridiculous, after which I will shower you with kisses.”

“Good.” Twilight sighed, nuzzling the unicorn again.

“Oh, my darling, dearest, sweetheart, Twilight Sparkle, I do love you,” Rarity whispered, peppering kisses in between every assertion of devotion. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”

“I love you, too,” Twilight whispered back, allowing herself to melt in the embrace, the pleased flush on her face increasing with every kiss.

A sudden, rather loud sniffle dragged them out of their little bubble, and they turned around to find Fluttershy regaling them with a tearful smile.

“I imagine you must be relieved, dear.”

Fluttershy giggled softly. “Oh, I knew you would work things out,” she said, watching as Twilight stood up and then helped Rarity up. “I knew it would just take a little bit of time.”

“Mmm. In any case.” Rarity lifted Twilight’s chin with a hoof. “I, for one, am glad everything is fine now.”

“Me too,” Twilight added. “Except Nightmare Moon is still out there.”

“Ah, yes. On top of that, we’re all still trapped without escape,” added Rarity.

“Don’t forget the foals are all here now,” Fluttershy added.

“And all the adults are trapped in a cave, protected by their fragile belief in a fake Princess Luna.”

A heavy silence followed.

“So!” Twilight exclaimed. “What now?”

“...Don’t you have a plan?” Rarity asked.

“I told you my plan.”

“...An intelligent plan, Twilight.”

“Oh. Right.” She bit down on her lip. “I don’t know. My original plan involved Pinkie, since she seemed to have gotten through to Princess Luna at least twice now. The memories you shared with me through the necklace were instrumental in helping me escape, so I was planning on having Pinkie use the dreamrealm’s magical properties to recreate key memories of her and the princess, and maybe that would bring Luna back. But now Pinkie is gone.”

Rarity frowned, rubbing a hoof against her chin while she stared up at the sky.. “Right. No Pinkie, no memories… Unless.”

“Unless?” Fluttershy asked.

“Unless we don’t need Pinkie Pie herself!” She looked back down. “Twilight! Would this plan of yours still work if I can give you some sort of access into her memories?”

“I… Yes? In theory yes, I could just relay them to Nightmare Moon myself, but… You can’t extract memories from Pinkie.” She leaned back. “...Or can you?”

“No, of course not, darling. And I don’t need to.” She lifted her hoof and tapped Twilight’s nose. “You see, Twilight, while you and I have necklaces, Pinkie and Luna have something of their own. A full bookcase’s worth in the Dreamland.”

Twilight frowned. “A bookcase’s worth?”

“Pinkie’s dream journals!” Fluttershy gasped. “There’s over thirty of them!”

“Precisely. More memories than I’m sure even Nightmare Moon can withstand. Twilight, you can hear what’s happening around your physical body while you dreamwalk, can’t you? Everything going on in my workshop?” At Twilight’s nod, she continued. “Then that’s what we have to do! I shall wake up, convince Pinkie to lend me her dream journals and read them out loud. All you have to do is find Nightmare Moon, trap her somewhere with you—one of those dreambubbles you mentioned, I don’t know—and then wait for me!”

Twilight thought for a moment, then cleared her throat.

“Okay, so let me get this straight. You want me to find Nightmare Moon, trap her in a dreambubble, then stay with her in that dreambubble for an undetermined amount of time?” She playfully raised an eyebrow. “You do realize that’s literally the plan I suggested, right?”

“The circumstances are completely different!”

“Completely different.”

“Completely! Primarily because I don’t intend to let you stay there for longer than a few hours.”

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Fluttershy asked, no longer nervous but eager to help out.

Rarity mulled it over, her eyes set on the pegasus. “I… I have an idea of what you could do, but first we need to go find Incantation and the others.” Her eyes darted to Twilight. “Is there any way Fluttershy can find you after you’ve trapped Nightmare Moon?”

“This is a dream, so all she has to do is want to find me and it’ll happen.”

“Fabulous! That’s that, then. I’ll leave Fluttershy with the others, wake up and find the journals, and Twilight, you find Nightmare Moon. Are we agreed?”

“Oh, yes,” said Fluttershy.

Twilight nodded. “Sounds like a smart plan.” She grinned. “Unlike mine, right?”

“Now, now, we can’t all be perfect,” Rarity said, matching Twilight’s grin before affection overwhelmed her. “Stars. I missed this. Let’s never fight again.”

“We can try, but it’s statistically impossible that we’ll never have another fight.”

Fluttershy politely cleared her throat before Rarity could reply.

“Princess,” she said, giving the two embarrassed mares a frown. “We should go. Can you take down the barrier, please?”

“Right. Yes.”

She stood up straight, lit up her horn, and cast a spell. The dome crackled to life and fell apart around them, bringing into view the decrepit dream town. Her horn lit up again and a dream door appeared a few feet away, the door swinging open.

“Here. This should take you to where the others are.”

They nodded, Fluttershy taking the lead towards the door while Rarity lingered behind with Twilight.

“You’ll be careful, won’t you?”

“I promise. You don’t have to worry about me.”

“I won’t,” Rarity said, smiling brightly. She moved in briefly for a kiss before finally backtracking towards the door. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” Twilight glanced at Fluttershy and then Rarity. “Okay! Good luck!”

“Goodbye!” Fluttershy called out, before disappearing through the door.

“Listen for my voice!” Rarity said next, finally following after Fluttershy and closing the door behind her.

Afterwards, Twilight dispelled the door and looked at her surroundings, formulating her next course of action. She could go looking for Nightmare Moon in the library, but the library wouldn’t really be the ideal place for a potential confrontation.

She teleported herself back to the main plaza, willing away benches and everything else that was not Princess Luna’s statue. She wanted that to be front and center. After all, Nightmare Moon controlled the dream realm, so the fact that the statue still stood told Twilight that she wasn't beyond hope.

Once she was done clearing out the place, she got to work on the statue, enveloping it with magic and willing it to change. After a few moments, she stepped back and admired the brand new, menacing statue of Nightmare Moon, rearing up on her hindlegs as if ready to charge off.

This should do it.

She waited one, two, three brief moments and smiled when the crack of lightning sounded off behind her, followed by a voice.

“You fool! You think you can manipulate the dreamrealm without me noticing?!” Nightmare Moon demanded when Twilight turned to look at her. Her eyes then drifted up towards the statue, and for a moment, her brows knitted with anger. “What?! What have you done to the statue?!”

“Statue? Oh! I changed it,” she said, calculated in her nonchalance. “Don’t you think it’s better than what it used to be? I thought you’d like it! Who needs Princess Luna, right?”

A flare of chaos magic erupted around Nightmare Moon.

“What?”

Twilight blinked innocently. “What do you mean ‘what’? What’s wrong? I thought you’d like this! I thought you wanted ponies to remember Nightmare Moon and her, what was it? Oh, right. ‘Nightmares everlasting’ and all that.”

Nightmare Moon seemed taken aback, shaken by Twilight’s words. “...Fool. Fool! I don’t know what you intend or think you’re accomplishing, but you cannot best me! I know your every fear, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight cocked her head to the side.

“Mm. Do you, though? Which fears?” She proceeded to walk in circles around Nightmare Moon, and with every other step she took, she left behind a construct of herself, until the chaosed alicorn was completely surrounded by copies of Twilight. “Because as far as I’m concerned, I’ve pretty much worked them all out. Or am working them out. It’s a work in progress.”

Nightmare Moon stamped her hoof on the ground. “What are you doing?!”

“Figuring out any unresolved fears!” said one of the Twilights. “What are our fears? The library?”

“Well,” another one replied, “we trapped Rarity’s nightmare in the library, and though that felt a little strange and brought back bad memories, we were able to keep our emotions in check. That’s progress!”

“We also know that what happened a thousand years ago wasn’t our fault, either,” a third Twilight mused. “We did the best we could.”

“We could have done some things differently,” a fourth observed, the others nodding along.

“Technically speaking, everything could always be done differently,” a fifth said. “So, let’s make a list.”

“Ooooh, I love lists!”

“We’re going to work on our guilt,” the first Twilight listed off. “We’re going to work on not losing control. And most importantly, we worked out our anxieties with Rarity. Any other fear we have is something we can work through, or logically and rationally explain away. Except for our irrational fear of cheese as a filly.”

“Highly irrational.”

“Only as a filly?”

“So!”

All five Twilights stopped in their spot and then disappeared one by one until only the original remained.

She blinked innocently at the furious alicorn.

“Which one of my fears do you know again?”

Nightmare Moon gaped for a moment, clearly having lost her composure.

“Urgh. Fine. Fine! So you have confronted those fears,” she conceded, suddenly taking on an air of nonchalance. “You think you're clever. But that means nothing! I still control the dreamrealm!"

"Do you? Because honestly, Nightmare Moon, I don't think you do. In fact! You told me so yourself! This isn't your domain anymore." The earth began to shake beneath Twilight’s hooves, but she continued undeterred. "It's mine."

Nightmare Moon's eyes turned to slits, she too ignoring the tremors of the earth.

"Excuse me?"

Twilight Sparkle didn’t immediately reply.

Instead, she smiled, the tremors intensifying as the earth beneath her began to move and transform. Her smile then grew when Nightmare Moon stepped back, growing smaller and smaller as a dragon’s head that Twilight was suddenly standing on raised her up into the air, the Spike-construct roaring violently as he reared from the ground.

“What are you doing?!” Nightmare Moon demanded.

“What does it look like? I’m going for a ride. You should come with us!” Twilight replied, looking down at the construct. “Let’s fly, Spike!”

The construct roared again, extending a pair of massive green wings that would doubtless make the original Spike greener with envy. He flapped his wings and took off into the air, Nightmare Moon following behind.

“Stop!” she demanded, barely able to keep up with the dragon soaring over the dream town.

Twilight ignored her, too busy trying to work on her next move. She needed to buy Rarity enough time to do what she needed and to get the dream journals, after all.

But what can I do? She couldn’t just fly in circles around the town, could she?

Grabbing onto one of the construct’s spikes, she peered down towards Hollow Shades and glimpsed the cave where everypony was hiding just in time to see one of the overgrown teddy bears briefly step out.

That’s it!

“Stop!” Nightmare Moon demanded yet again. Her horn flashed with magic, and she teleported herself atop the dragon, startling Twilight. “Fool! You think you can outwit me?!”

“Nightmare Moon! How good to see you,” Twilight exclaimed. “I was just finished getting everything ready!”

“You—! ...What?” Nightmare Moon frowned. “Getting what ready?”

“The Seeking Night event! The one you missed. I thought you should get to see it.” Twilight extended her wings. “Spike is going to leave now, by the way.”

“Wha—”

Nightmare Moon’s question became a scream as Spike abruptly vanished out from under them and she hurtled down towards the ground.

“I did say he was leaving,” Twilight commented as Nightmare Moon flapped her wings rather hysterically, steadying herself before flying up to Twilight, murder in her gaze.

“So!” Twilight continued. “Why don’t we start with Princess Celestia’s Waterfall Spectacular?”

“With what?”

Her answer soon came in the shape of a gigantic waterfall cascading down on her and pushing her into the massive lake Twilight had materialized beneath them.

Twilight flew down to the lake, diving in just in time to avoid the blast of magic Nightmare Moon shot at her from the bottom of the lake.

“Hey!” Twilight called out, her voice carrying under the dream water. “You almost hit me!”

Nightmare Moon howled in anger, and now it was Twilight’s turn to scream when long seaweed vines shot out from the bottom of the lake and wrapped around her hooves, pulling her down into its depths.

“Is this a game to you?!” Nightmare Moon exclaimed when the seaweed brought Twilight down in front of her.

Twilight smiled nervously. “No?” she ventured, wishing very intently Rarity would hurry up with whatever was keeping her. She cleared her throat and sobered up. “No. It isn’t. This is very serious. Oh!” She looked to the chest now laying at the alicorn’s hooves. “You found the treasure! Are you going to open it?”

Nightmare Moon swam away from it, wary. “You cannot trick me again!”

“I’m not tricking you. This is literally the point of Princess Celestia’s Waterfall Spectacular.” She sighed theatrically, in a way that would make Rarity proud. “I guess we could always just have someone more important open it.”

Nightmare Moon’s eyes narrowed.

“You think your little mind games work on me? They don’t.” And yet she still swam over to the chest, her eyes still set on Twilight. “I will open it, if only to show you that your little schemes cannot succeed here!”

Twilight smiled politely. “If you say so, Nightmare Moon.”

Throwing Twilight one last dirty glance, Nightmare Moon turned to the chest and opened it up with her magic, only for a single purple book to float up into the water.

“A book?” asked the alicorn, bewildered. She turned to Twilight. “A book?”

“Of course. Books are part of my activity from the Seeking Night event. And on that note—” Twilight’s ears folded back. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?” Nightmare Moon swam up to Twilight, looming over her with a snarl on her features. “Sorry for what?”

“For this.”

SLAM!

A massive bookcase erupted from the lakebed and slammed into Nightmare Moon from below, flinging her upwards. The water from the lake drained just as dozens of similar colossal bookcases emerged, arranging themselves in the shape of a massive maze.

The seaweed holding Twilight disappeared and she fell to the ground with an ‘oof!’

“Come on, Rarity,” she murmured, standing up and looking towards Nightmare Moon, the latter tottering atop the bookcase and then teleporting down to Twilight.

“You—mmph!”

Nightmare Moon stumbled back, startled at the magical muzzle around her mouth.

“Hey! No teleporting in the maze. That’s breaking the rules,” Twilight admonished. A burst of magic shot out from her horn. “There. No more teleporting for you.”

Nightmare Moon shook the muzzle off and cackled derisively. “Excuse me? Ex-cuse me? You think you can control me?!”

“Yes, I can,” Twilight said, mustering every ounce of confidence within her. After all, she couldn’t control Nightmare Moon. She honestly didn’t believe she could control Nightmare Moon, but…

She didn’t have to believe it.

“I told you,” Twilight continued, nonchalantly. “This is my domain now. My rules. You said it yourself! I’ve surpassed you, Princess Luna.” She stepped forward, grinning. “Don’t believe me? Try it. Try teleporting.”

“Don’t tell me what to do,” hissed the older alicorn, the slight stammer in her voice only widening Twilight’s confident smirk. Her horn lit up and a burst of blinding magic shot out. When it dissipated, a startled Nightmare Moon found herself exactly in the same spot as before.

She blinked once, twice, thrice and then howled in anger, lunging at Twilight just in time for the younger alicorn to jump out of the way. Just as fast, Twilight’s body became completely incorporeal, and when Nightmare Moon lunged again, Twilight stepped through a bookcase and quietly (and a little remorsefully) sighed in relief at the sound of Nightmare Moon banging herself against the bookcase.

“Twilight Sparkle!” she howled, enraged. “Come back here this instant!”

“Good luck finding me first, then!”

She allowed herself a smug little laugh at that, interrupted only when the chaos magic on the floor flashed and the maze began to move and rearrange itself. Her delight died, and even more so when the bookcase right in front of her floated up and revealed her to Nightmare Moon.

“...Uh. Good job?”

She squealed in fright when the alicorn lunged at her, narrowly avoiding the attack before she rushed through a bookcase and into a different aisle.

Okay, this isn’t going to cut it.

She ran further into the maze, quickly reviewing which else of the Seeking Night events she could use. She’d already done Spike, and Celestia, so…

Cadance’s copies!

Just as she had a little while ago, her horn flashed and she left behind copies of herself that then took different paths through the maze.

“This is your grand plan?!” Nightmare Moon demanded from somewhere within the maze, presumably having encountered an illusion Twilight as a blast of magic sounded out.

“No! My grand plan is to talk some sense into you!” Twilight shot back, dipping into another aisle when another magic attack sounded too close. “You don’t have to do this! You’re better than this! It’s okay that not all of Equestria believes in you!”

Nightmare Moon’s cackle rang out through the air.

“Whether Equestria believes in me or not is of no concern to me!”

“Right,” Twilight murmured. “You’ve trapped us all here for fun and games, that’s the real reason.” She cleared her throat. “If that were true, we wouldn’t be here! Can’t you see?! He’s using your fears against you! That’s what he does! I know how easy it is to let yourself believe it!”

A blast of magic rang out somewhere behind Twilight.

“You?! What do you know?!” Nightmare Moon sneered, and a bookcase moved up to let the alicorn step into Twilight’s aisle. “Who are you to speak of this as if you know anything about it?!”

A blast of magic shot out from her horn, deflecting against the shield Twilight pulled up.

“Because I’ve been through this before!” Twilight protested. “Not everypony has to believe in you. If anything, there’s only one pony who should. The rest shouldn’t matter!”

There was a pause. A brief moment of silence as Nightmare Moon stared at Twilight, contemplating her words for a moment before she broke into hysterical laughter.

“Oh, please! Please. What are you? A self-help book?!” she sneered. “Don’t make me laugh! What will you say next?”

“It’s true!”

“Is it? Then, tell me. Who is this pony who should believe in me?” Nightmare Moon asked, lurching forward. “You? Rarity? Pinkie Pie?”

“Yourself!” Her expression softened. “You need to believe in yourself.”

And it was then that it happened. Brief, sure, but for a moment, the black eyes glazed over and tearful cyan eyes peered through.

“How?!” she demanded, and it was no longer Nightmare Moon who spoke. “Because I have tried, Twilight Sparkle! All my life, I have strived to do good things! To do what is right and what is just and to help, and yet here we are!”

She gestured to the dreamrealm.

“The fruit of my labor is to be alone in a prison! How am I expected to believe in myself when clearly I am not worth believing in!”

...Twilight? Darling?…

...Stars, I hope you can hear this...

Twilight's ears flicked at the sound of Rarity's voice, and her heart picked up pace in her chest.

"You're wrong, Princess Luna," Twilight said, putting into motion the final part of the Seeking Night Spectacular. "You are worth believing in, and I'm going to prove it to you."

...Dear diary…

...Today I dreamt of Princess Luna again…

Twilight flew up into the air and cast a spell that spread out over the labyrinth. The bookcases trembled and then disappeared into the ground until there was nothing left but Twilight and Princess Luna. A second beam of magic shot out from her horn, and then, much like the one surrounding the real Hollow Shades, a dome-like barrier materialized, encasing the two princesses inside it.

Princess Luna looked around, shocked. "You… You're trapping me?!" she gasped, turning to Twilight, betrayed. "Twilight?!"

"No," Twilight replied, landing down in front of her mentor. Her horn alighted itself, her mind taking in the stories Rarity was telling her. "I just want you to have the best seat for Princess Luna's Dreamtime Spectacular."

...she helped Tilly Rose…

And just as before, just as Rarity had changed the dream back in the library, so did Twilight take a cue from her book and changed the world around them. Changed it and changed it and changed it until the sounds of foals echoed all around, until schooldesks appeared in several rows, and until—

"Rose!"

Until Princess Luna whipped around at the sound of a little pink dream filly bounding into the classroom, headed straight towards a shy filly at her desk.

"Is it true?! Did you really stand up to your big brother?!" When the filly from the memory nodded her head, Pinkie gasped with delight. "That's great, Rose!"

The filly hesitated. "...Promise you won't laugh?" When Pinkie shook her head, the filly continued. "...I had a dream about it! A really pretty princess showed me that Limedrop was hurt about something I said and said I should apologize! So when I woke up, I did and… and he apologized back!"

And at that, the memory Pinkie exploded with joy.

"Princess Luna helped you! Isn't she the best?!"

Princess Luna stepped towards the memory Pinkie, bewitched.

…I told Princess Luna about what the others said, because it made me so angry...

A flash of Twilight's magic, and the dream changed again. The classroom faded, the filly faded, and only the dream Pinkie remained, she too changing until she was no longer a filly, but a young mare, staring down at her sulking reflection in a lake.

"Little one."

Twilight watched as Princess Luna turned to the memory Princess Luna walking past her, headed straight towards the memory Pinkie. She leaned down and gently nuzzled her.

"Are you still sulking?"

"I'm not sulking!" She turned around to the Princess. "I’m just tired of them saying you’re not real all the time! And a bunch'a other mean stuff!" She turned back to her reflection. "They're dumb! Maybe you shouldn't help ponies anymore until they stop not believing in you when they grow up!"

The memory Luna sat down next to Pinkie. "But I must. You know very well that..."

"It's your duty," Pinkie finished off, quietly.

"No," Princess Luna—the real one—replied in unison with the memory Luna, her ears folding back.

The construct spread her wing and wrapped it around the younger mare, finishing the statement alongside the real princess. "Kindness should never be conditional."

...Dear diary…

So it went on, Rarity reading a passage from a diary, and Twilight bringing it to life before the alicorn. The dream of Pinkie and Luna at the lake turned into a memory of Pinkie watching quietly as Luna helped a colt fight the monsters in his closet.

After that, the memory changed and now Pinkie Pie was in Canterlot, fighting again and again for the right to see Princess Cadance, to convince the guards that Princess Luna was real.

A memory of Pinkie Pie regaling foals from another city with tales of Princess Luna came next, followed shortly after by her memories of meeting Rarity.

Of meeting Twilight.

“What’d you mean you don’t know?!” the memory Pinkie asked Rarity, the two of them standing before a memory of Twilight, talking about what they’d do when their respective princesses would be freed. "I've known what I'm gonna do with Princess Luna since I met her! I'm gonna take her to the tippity-top of Foal Mountain, and bring my telescope, and we'll look at the stars all night, and then I'm taking her to Miss Frosting’s Bakery in Manehattan, and then… and then I don't know!"

The memories came and came, one after another, Rarity dictating and Twilight creating them, and with each memory that a transfixed Luna watched, so did she look more and more like her true self.

Princess Luna’s eyes welled with tears, the chaos magic around her subdued.

“Little one…”

And then it happened.

Just as Twilight was about to create a new memory, the dream changed again without her willing it to do so. The most recent memory faded out, and the two mares soon found themselves inside a dark forest.

This doesn’t look like Hollow Shades, thought Twilight, and her confusion grew when she noticed Princess Luna looked just as confused as she did. She’s not doing this, either?

The sound of a filly sniffling startled them both, and they quickly turned around to find a very young Pinkie Pie curled up against a tree, the poor thing crying her heart out.

Luna, Twilight noticed, was the first to react, stepping towards the filly, and stopping only when something else intervened.

A voice, specifically, that did not speak but sung a soft lullaby that danced along the air, quiet and gentle yet seemingly all around.

“I saw a dream last night, and heard sirens sing.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, recognizing it as the singing voice of the alicorn a few feet away from her, looking just as surprised as she was.

“I heard a trembling filly crying out, thinking she was alone.”

The little filly’s sniffling died out and she looked up towards the forest, entranced just as Twilight and Luna were by the mysterious singing voice. Stumbling up to her hooves, Pinkie wiped her eyes and made her way towards the source of the song, the two alicorns following behind.

“Castles standing by, stars in the sky. “

They eventually reached their destination in the shape of a small clearing, the soft gasp tumbling out of Pinkie’s mouth matching Twilight’s when they saw a dream Princess Luna sitting on the other side of the clearing, softly singing to the little filly.

“Don’t cry, my dearest star of the night.”

Despite herself, tears welled in Twilight’s eyes, her heart swelling upon recognizing just what exactly she was witnessing.

“Come, please follow me, where the moon is made of dreams.” The dream Luna stood up, and with a gesture of her hoof, a small cloud floated a giggling Pinkie up. “And in the evening light, we'll be playing.”

The real Princess Luna stepped forward as Pinkie was floated towards the dream alicorn, and Twilight’s heart caught in her throat at noticing the alicorn was whispering the lyrics.

The other Luna gestured with her hoof again, and little pony dolls appeared around the filly, dancing around her as she watched, delighted.

"Come, please follow me, where the forest meets the sky.” The cloud brought Pinkie Pie all the way up to the dream Luna and gently deposited her at the princess’ hooves. The dolls disappeared, and the princess leaned down and sang the last verse of the song. “And as your dreams float by, I’ll sing the song of the night.”

A moment of silence passed, and then the filly erupted in applause, clapping her hooves together, prompting the real Luna and Twilight to approach them.

"Again! Again, Miss Singer!"

The memory princess laughed. "That was meant to put you to sleep, not have you ask for more," she said, rising to her hooves. "I have never seen you before. You are not from Hollow Shades, are you?"

Immediately, Twilight noticed, Pinkie's expression softened.

"...No. I just moved here…" Great big tears filled her eyes, and she looked up at the princess. "And I don't like it!"

"Why not?"

"Because..." She wiped her eyes. "...I don't have any friends yet."

"When did you move here?"

"Tonight," Pinkie said matter-of-factly and frowned when the princess laughed softly. "Wh-What?"

"Making friends often takes longer than a single night. And you are also incorrect. You do have a friend, little one."

The filly clapped her hooves. "I do?! Who?" She gasped. "Is it you?!" When the princess smiled brightly, she jumped up to her hooves. "I wanna be your friend! I wanna be your friend! My name is Pinkie Pie! What's yours?"

"Princess Luna!" came the answer, yelled out for all to hear but… not by the memory Luna, not by Twilight, and certainly not by the real Princess Luna herself.

The memory faded completely, and as the barrier revealed itself, so did the pink creator of the memory as well, practically hugging the outside of the dome.

"Priiiiincess Twiliiiiight!" wailed Pinkie Pie, banging her hooves against the barrier. "Please let me in!"

"Let her in."

Twilight hadn't even registered Luna speaking until the princess teleported in front of her and shook her with her magic.

"Let her in, Twilight!"

Twilight bit down on her lip, her eyes darting back and forth between Princess Luna and Pinkie. It seemed that Princess Luna had mostly returned to normal, so…

Her horn flashed, and an entrance materialized in front of Pinkie, which she quickly rushed through before Twilight closed the dome behind her.

Pinkie and Princess Luna looked at each other from across the dome, the former wiping away at her eyes not unlike her younger dream-self had done.

"Princess Luna, I..." Pinkie stepped forward, her tail hanging in between her legs, and her ears pressed against her head. Her voice cracked as she spoke, a child apologizing for wrongdoing. "I'm sorry! I-I didn't mean those awful things I said!"

"No," Princess Luna replied, her voice barely holding steady. "Little one, I— I—"

A loud crackling noise interrupted her, and the chaos magic puppet rose behind her, his eyes narrowed to slits just as the older alicorn turned around towards him.

"Ahhhh! I knew waiting would be worth it!"

"No!" Twilight gasped, rushing to Luna, conjuring a blasting spell at the creature. "No! No, stay away from her!"

She was too slow, unfortunately, and the magic pulse missed the creature as it plunged into Luna. She cried out in pain and fell to the ground, chaos magic completely enveloping her body, and the color that had been restored to her coat faded away once again.

"Princess Luna?!" Pinkie called out, running to the alicorn and then skidding to a halt when the princess looked up at her with pitch-black eyes. "No. No! No, Princess Luna!"

Luna groaned in pain, curled on the floor, magic pulses flaring haphazardly out of her horn. It was a ghastly sight, to be sure, but it also showed Twilight something vital: she was resisting. Fighting it.

"Princess Luna!" Twilight teleported in front of her. "Fight it! Fight it, please! You can do it!"

"Of course she can do it," the chaos magic said, his voice coming from all over. "But the question is, does she want to?" He materialized behind her again. "After all she has done, can you imagine facing them? Not only did she trap them in dreams, but then she did that other thing. Can’t imagine her reputation will ever recover from that.”

The princess groaned.

"Other… thing? Wha… What are you…"

"Stop it!" Pinkie exclaimed, rushing to Princess Luna and hugged her, attempting to shield her from the creature.

“What am I talking about?” the creature said, ignoring Pinkie’s pleas. “I’m talking about the fact that you encased the town of Hollow Shades in an impenetrable barrier, of course! They literally can’t get out! You’ve doomed them all! You did know you did that, didn’t you?”

In Luna’s wide eyes, he found his answer.

The chaos magic gasped in faux-surprise, pressing his claws against his cheeks and turning to Twilight. "She doesn't know?"His neck stretched out until his face was near Luna's. "Oh dear. Oh dear, dear, dear. Maybe it’s better! You not knowing you’re just as bad as He is. Oh, but I suppose now you know. Oopsie!”

Princess Luna looked at Twilight, struggling against the magic.

“Twilight… what… what does he mean?”

“Don’t listen to him, Princess Luna!” Twilight urged, moving in and leaning down in front of the princess. “Whatever you did, you can undo! It’ll be fine!”

“Tell me, Twilight!” the princess snapped. Not angered. Afraid. “Is it true?!”

Twilight moved back, weak. “...Yes,” she said, horrified at having to do so. “You did. We… We’re all physically trapped inside Hollow Shades, we can’t… nopony can get out.”

The chaos magic around the princess flared up, and she groaned in pain, tears filling her eyes. “No… But… I… I did not intend that! I…”

“You didn’t intend that?” the creature asked, amused. “But you did! It’s what you do! It’s all about you, you, you!”

“Shut up!” Twilight snarled, blasting it with magic only for him to appear somewhere else.

“You don’t care about others, Princess Luna! You only care so long as they care about you!” He appeared in front of her, ignoring Pinkie when she immediately tried to push him away. “How dare ponies not believe in you, no?”

“No… No, that’s not…”

“But isn’t this what you wanted?” He rose up into the air, his body halving itself to avoid another blast of magic and immediately putting itself back together. He gestured to the dreamrealm. “You’ve punished them all for daring to ignore you! Bravo, Princess Luna! Death to the non-believers! Literally!”

“No!” Princess Luna exclaimed, and the chaos magic intensified around her, collapsing her back down to the ground as soon as she stood up. “No… I… I did not mean to… I...”

“Look at me, Princess Luna!” Twilight begged, standing in front of her. “Do you know why I’m here? I—”

“Why you’re here? Well, I thought that was obvious,” the chaos magic interrupted, floating down next to her. “She trained you to see if you were better than her, and when it turned out you were, she could throw a fit about it and feel sorry for herself! Isn’t that right, Princess Luna?”

Princess Luna no longer struggled to reply, groaning against the magic, tears flowing freely from her eyes.

“And it worked,” he finished. “Now not only is Princess Twilight in charge, but even a fake version that Miss Pink Menace created of you managed to do what you couldn’t in centuries! Ponies would rather believe in an imitation than believe in the real you.”

Twilight spun around, a snarl in her throat, only for a yelp to come out instead when a comically humongous toy hammer slammed down on the creature.

“That’s not true!” Pinkie cried out, infuriated, hammering down the creature again when it tried to reappear. “That’s not true, that’s not true, that’s not true!”

While Pinkie occupied the creature by hammering it every time it so much as tried to manifest, Twilight turned back to Princess Luna, kneeling on the floor and holding the agonizing princess’ hooves.

“Twilight…” she whispered in between groans. “Please… I didn’t… I did not mean that…”

“I know, Princess Luna. And he’s wrong.” Twilight wiped away her tears and then grabbed Luna’s hoof again, squeezing it tight. “You know why I’m here? Because you cared more about Equestria than you ever did about yourself. Because you couldn’t keep their dreams safe, so you wanted somepony to do it when you couldn’t. Even if no one knew you were trying to do it. It’s because you care, Princess Luna.”

Princess Luna stayed silent, clinging to every word, so Twilight continued.

“You cared about me a thousand years ago, when I was afraid and suffering and thought everything had been my fault. You cared about me and about Rarity, enough to try and help us through our problems. You cared about Hollow Shades, even though the chaos magic didn’t allow them to care back. You’re not like Discord! You’re not like Nightmare Moon, either. And do you know why?”

Her voice cracked, but Twilight held firm and offered a smile.

“Because your love has never been conditional.”

And, finally, the darkness faded from the princess’ big, blue tearful eyes, until she closed them and brought Twilight’s hooves to her face, at a loss for words.

And even more so when her name was called out.

“Princess Luna?!”

Twilight and Luna looked up, past the stunned Pinkie Pie, and for what felt like the millionth time that day, her eyes dampened at the sight of not only Fluttershy and Incantation standing outside the dome, but the entirety of Hollow Shades.

There they were, adults and foals alike, pressed against the barrier, the teddy bears behind them, all having come to help their princess of the night.

“Oh, Rarity,” Twilight whispered, her heart swelling with affection, Rarity’s voice still echoing in the background, a gentle whisper in the wind, “you did it. You really, really did it.”

Twilight stood up, her horn emitting a blast of magic headed straight for the dome. It flashed once and when it faded away, the ponies rushed and ran to Twilight and Princess Luna. The foals got there first, huddling around the stricken alicorn.

“Princess Luna!” Dusk exclaimed, tears in his eyes, holding her tight. “Don’t let the bad magic win! Don’t let it win, please!”

“We’re here now!” Rhinestone added, pressing her face against Luna’s coat. “We’ll protect you!”

“Oh… my children…” Luna whispered, holding them close. “You are…”

Twilight saw Elder Moonshine coming closer and went to her.

“Elder! A-About Nightmare Moon and Princess Luna, I can explain.”

The elder smiled. “There’s no need, your highness. Fluttershy explained. But it doesn’t matter.” She banged her cane on the floor. “We will help her, no matter what form she takes.”

“How do we help her?!” a mare asked Twilight, frightened. Concerned. She looked around towards the ground where the chaos magic still lingered. “It’s that magic, isn’t it?!”

Pinkie turned away from the chaos magic creature she was fighting and shouted to the others, “You have to believe in her! Please! Keep the magic away!”

“It’s useless!” the chaos creature roared, only for a teddy bear to rush at him and slash with its sword.

“We have to keep the chaos magic away from her!” Twilight exclaimed, turning to all the ponies looking at her for guidance.

“But how?” asked Elder Moonshine.

“The teddy bears!” Dusk exclaimed, standing up. He looked to his friends and towards the adults, and stamped his hoof on the ground. “Princess Luna made some to protect us! Now we have to make some to protect her!”

“A-any teddy bear?” a stallion asked, and when he frowned and a small living teddy bear appeared before him, he broke out in an excited gasp. “Like this one?”

“Yes!” Twilight exclaimed. “The more, the better!”

The adults all nodded at her command, and no sooner had she spoken, teddy bears were brought to life around them, some rushing away from Princess Luna and towards the chaos magic construct while others grew in size and took positions around the ponies, shielding Princess Luna from further harm.

Relieved of her tasks, Pinkie ran back to Princess Luna and stopped right before her, watching as the foals hugged the princess.

“Oh, my children,” Princess Luna whispered in tears, ashamed and still wincing in pain, still surrounded by chaos magic. “I’m sorry, I… I’ve hurt you. I… I’ve broken every single rule there is, every vow I made, I… I’m sorry.”

“It was a mistake!” Pinkie insisted, wiping at her eyes. “It was just a mistake.”

“Discord did this, Princess Luna,” Twilight added. “Discord trapped you here, Discord made you think ponies forgot you, his magic forced them to do it. He made you follow your worst instincts, just like he did to me. And Pinkie’s right. You made a mistake! But so did I! And it’s done. The only thing that matters now is to take responsibility.”

“I… I imprisoned you,” Princess Luna said, aghast, holding a filly close to her heart, the latter nuzzling her quietly. “How… Please… How do I earn your forgiveness?”

Twilight tilted her head to the side.

“Princess. You already have.” She paused, licking her lips, finding her words. “It’s true. You imprisoned us! You did! The worst thing you could have done happened! You did that, but look!” She gestured around: to the foals, to the adults, to Fluttershy, to Ink, and to Pinkie. “Look around, Princess Luna.”

She kneeled down, and looking into her friend’s eyes, said:

“We’re still here with you.”

Princess Luna choked on her words, her mouth opening and closing, but failing to speak out.

“We believe in you, Princess Luna,” Twilight continued, and so did the others chime in.

“I believe in you!” a mare exclaimed.

“I do too!” a stallion added.

More and more joined in, every assertion as earnest as the last, until finally Twilight spoke again.

“Won’t you believe in you, too?”

“I… I…”

The cracked, sobbed words stumbled out of her mouth, stopping only when the filly moved away and Pinkie Pie kneeled down in front of her best friend. She reached out, and as she had time and time again, pressed her hooves against Luna’s cheeks.

“Princess Luna, I really want to meet you,” she whispered, her smile as big as her heart. “Don’t you want to meet me, too?”

Princess Luna didn’t need to reply.

What came next was enough.

As if something clicked within her, her horn suddenly burned with her magic and her aura expanded around her body. Foals and adults stepped back, giving her space as her magic grew in brightness, and with a great roaring cry, she slammed her forehooves on the ground and pushed herself up. The chaos magic around her body tried to fight it, but was simply snuffed out as Luna’s own magic aura continued to grow.

“No more!”

A pulse of magic burst from her horn, and one by one the teddy bears stepped aside, giving the ponies a clear view of the chaos magic creature, its smugness all but gone.

“No more will I let you control me!” Princess Luna seethed, stepping forward towards the chaos magic. “The dreamrealm is my domain! And so long as I live, the dreams of ponies will be protected!” Her magic aura was now immense, blinding with light and magic. She lifted herself up on her hindlegs and slammed her hooves down on the ground, her aura bursting out of her body and across the dreamrealm.

“So BE GONE!”

Twilight and the others covered their eyes, the chaos creature screeching in anger and fear as Princess Luna’s magic burned it out of existence. There was no time to celebrate, however, for no sooner had the chaos magic disappeared, so did the dreamrealm begin to fracture all around them.

“W-what’s happening?!” Pinkie asked.

“The dream! It’s fracturing!” Twilight explained, turning to Pinkie only to see her friend blink out of the dream.

“Don’t be afraid,” Princess Luna gently said. “It is merely time to wake up.”

Fluttershy blinked out next. And then Incantation, and then everypony else until only Twilight remained.

“Princess?”

“You’ve done well, Twilight. Sister would… No. I am proud of you.” Princess Luna smiled, looking up and closing her eyes, a soft laugh escaping her lips. “You know, Celestia would laugh, but I must confess that…”

Twilight was enveloped in Luna’s magic, and just as she was ejected from the dream, Twilight heard the last of Luna’s voice.

“I look forward to seeing the sun.”

The dreamrealm vanished around Twilight, and before she could reply, she opened her eyes and found herself back inside Rarity’s workshop. The floor was littered with open books, Pinkie Pie snoring away on top of them, and her attention was then drawn towards the unicorn sitting in front of her, still reading from the journals.

She bit down on her lip, leaned in, and…

“Rarity!”

Rarity screeched in surprise, practically throwing the book at Twilight. When her marefriend broke into delighted giggles, Rarity frowned.

“Twilight! What is your problem?!” she scolded, until she realized what was happening, and she gasped. “Wait. You’re awake? You’re awake!” Her hooves flew to her mouth. “...Did you do it…?”

And it wasn’t Twilight who answered, but Fluttershy by waking up with a start, then followed by Pinkie Pie.

“Yes,” Twilight said, her heart pounding in her chest. “I think we did.”

Suddenly, just like last night, a massive earthquake began, followed shortly by Princess Luna’s magic wafting in, enveloping everything and everypony in its grasp. When the earthquake stopped a moment later, and the magic vanished as well, Twilight got up and rushed to the door.

“Come on!”

They rushed downstairs, where they were immediately assaulted by the foals crowding them and asking if Princess Luna was fine, were the adults fine, what happened and what came next.

Much like before, the doors to the Dreamland slammed open, and Rainbow Dash flew in, screeching to a halt at seeing everypony there.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight exclaimed. “What’s happening?!”

“The barrier! It’s fading!” she blurted out. “And all of you are awake, I guess? It’s because we won, right?! Please tell me we won.”

Before they could reply, the door to Princess Cadance’s theatre slammed open, and Professor Awe rushed out, urgently waving the magic detection device while a groggy Incantation trailed behind.

“It’s gone!” he exclaimed, practically tripping over the foals as he shoved the device in Twilight’s face. “The chaos magic! It’s gone! It’s gone!”

Twilight ran outside, Rarity and the others following, and she felt short of breath at the sight of Hollow Shades, the real one.

Of the afternoon sunlight filtering in through the trees.

Of the doors of houses opening, and adults walking out, the sound of foals gasping behind her.

“M-mom? Mom!” a filly blurted out, a hitch in her voice as she rushed towards a mare coming out of a house. “Mommy!”

“Dad?!” another one yelled, running to a stallion rushing towards him. “Dad! Dad!”

The foals ran off, tearfully reuniting with their parents, their older siblings, and everypony else who’d fallen asleep. Twilight watched, her heart full, and even more so when Rarity nuzzled her, laughing with relief.

“Well, darling. We did it. It’s over.”

“Not yet.” Twilight moved away from Rarity, and after leaning in to kiss her, she stepped back and flew up into the air. “I love you. I’ll be right back.”

“Be safe!” Rarity called out.

Twilight took off towards the sky, Rainbow Dash quickly catching up. They looked around, and their shared target made itself known when it came stomping his way towards them.

“Twilight! Rainbow!” Spike called out, and when they flew to meet him, they saw he looked absolutely terrible, as if he hadn’t slept at all. “You’re okay! What the heck was that?! What happened?!”

“It’s a long story,” Twilight said, “but we’re all okay. Are you—”

A loud boom interrupted her, followed by another slight tremor. Both were immediately followed by another boom, and suddenly, a massive beam of magic energy shot out of the side of Foal Mountain, leaving an enormous plume of smoke in its wake.

“What was that?!” Rainbow exclaimed.

Twilight’s heart skipped a beat.

“I… I think that was Princess Luna…”

Another beam of magic pierced through the smoke, this one even bigger than the last, followed by a final explosion, and more smoke.

Without thinking to explain herself, Twilight sped off towards the mountain, ignoring Spike’s calls. Once she was close enough, she tried to fly through the smoke, but it proved to be too much and too thick.

She turned around and saw Rainbow catching up.

“Rainbow! Can you—?”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” Rainbow said, speeding towards the plume of smoke and flying fast around it, dispersing it as she did so. When she was done, she rejoined Twilight and looked at the results. “There!”

Indeed, the smoke had been blown away, revealing a brand new gaping hole in the side of the mountain.

“Holy smokes! Did Princess Luna just, like, blow up a chunk of Foal Mountain?!” Rainbow gasped, delighted. “Awesome!”

Twilight, however, was not overly interested in the hole. No, what she cared about was the alicorn sprawled on the bottom of the hole, her horn still fizzing with magic.

She… She’s out…

Feeling almost numb, she instructed Dash to hold back and then flew down and landed in front of Princess Luna, her heart skipping a beat when her hooves touched the ground and the princess coughed.

She looked over her friend, who thankfully seemed wholly intact except for the dirt on her coat and her disheveled mane.

“Princess Luna?”

Twilight’s voice was like that of a child. Small, timid. Hopeful.

Princess Luna stirred briefly, and though her eyes blinked open, she immediately closed them and shielded them from the sun, hissing slightly.

“Ah.” She coughed. “Perhaps I spoke too soon…”

And Twilight laughed. A choked, strangled giggle, raising her hoof to her mouth as she did so, tears trailing down her cheeks.

Princess Luna looked to her friend, and smiled good-naturedly. “Twilight Sparkle. We would have prefered you find us in a more dignified position.”

“I’m sorry, Princess. It really doesn’t matter, though.” She grinned brightly. “If it makes you feel better, I was soaked in black ink when I got out.”

Princess Luna returned the smile.

“Thank you. That does make me feel better.”

Twilight stepped forward and offered Princess Luna her hoof. There was a moment of pause, the princess’ eyes contemplating Twilight’s hoof until she finally raised her own, and they both audibly held their breath when they touched.

A drowning sense of relief flooded Twilight when she squeezed Luna’s hoof because she wasn’t alone, anymore. She’d never been really, and she had her dear modern friends, but… but Princess Luna was here.

Princess Luna was here, alive and well, and as Twilight lost her composure and threw herself at the princess, burying herself in Luna’s chest and starting to cry, she couldn’t help but be so relieved. So, so, so relieved because this could be fixed.

The others could be saved.

Things would be okay.

“Princess Luna,” she blubbered, the anxiety of everything that had happened in the last few months finally truly ebbing away. “I’m—I’m so happy.”

“All will be well, Twilight,” Luna whispered, stroking the younger princess’ mane. “All will be well.”

Twilight cried and cried, Princess Luna holding her tight right up until Rainbow Dash flew down and joined in, hugging the two alicorns, her own eyes red with tears.

“Rainbow,” Twilight hiccuped, half-crying, half-laughing, pulling away from Luna and wiping her eyes. “Why are you crying?”

“What!” Rainbow exclaimed, wiping her tears away but not her grin. “I don’t know! It’s emotional!” She turned to Princess Luna and playfully punched her on the shoulder. “It’s good to meet you, Princess! Just don’t go losing your marbles again, huh!”

Princess Luna laughed, standing up and dusting her coat off. “I will refrain from doing so, Rainbow.”

“How do you feel?” Twilight asked her, stepping off to give the princess space to move. She stretched her wings out and showed them to Luna. “Be sure to stretch out your wings! And do breathing exercises for your lungs! Big breaths!”

She demonstrated immediately by breathing in and out quickly several times.

“Uh, Princess Twi, those don’t look like big breaths.”

“Twilight,” Luna interrupted, amused. “I am fine.”

“Okay!” Twilight blurted out. She then cleared her throat and took an actual big breath. “Okay. Right. Yes.”

“Come on!” Rainbow took flight into the air and gestured for them to join her. “Let’s take her to Hollow Shades!”

Twilight joined Rainbow Dash in the air, and they both turned to the other princess. They watched as she stretched out her long blue wings, took a breath and then flew up to join them with a nervous laugh.

The three flew towards Hollow Shades, stopping briefly when Spike spotted them.

“Princess Luna?!” he gasped, and almost immediately, the great big dragon became a great big blubbering mess. “Y-You’re back?! That’s… so… great...”

“I am, Spike,” Princess Luna said, gazing at him affectionately. “There is no need to cry.”

“I’m not crying!” he cried.

“Aww, you big baby.” Rainbow Dash flew down to where he was, patting him on the head before looking back towards the princesses. “You get going! I’ll deal with Mister Emotional here.”

The two alicorns shared an amused glance before finally diving into the sea of Hollow Shade’s trees and landing in front of the Dreamland. Some ponies had already gathered in front of it, and when Twilight and Luna landed, a chorus of gasps rang out from the surrounding ponies.

Twilight’s first instinct was apprehension, and even more so when a mare approached them.

“Your wings!” she gasped, and quickly rushed over to Twilight. “They’re—! They really are real!” She then turned to Princess Luna, still in shock. “You… I… I remember you. You… You helped me with my brother when I was a filly… didn’t you?”

Princess Luna leaned down. “Tilly Rose,” she said. “You’ve grown up. I hope you no longer tease your brother about his teeth.”

More gasps rang out from the adults, followed by a string of exclamations as they approached Princess Luna, memories that had long been repressed finally surfacing now that the chaos magic was gone.

“Look who it is!” said Applejack, trotting towards the princess with a big grin, Fluttershy following behind. “We were mighty worried about you for a minute there, Princess. Thought we lost you to the Spirit!”

“Oh, Princess Luna!” Fluttershy exclaimed, rushing to the princess and hugging her tight. “Oh, thank goodness you’re okay!” She then pulled back and frowned at the mare. “Don’t ever do that again! ...Please.”

Princess Luna opened her mouth to reply, but a new voice interrupted.

“Well, well, well,” said Rarity, standing next to Twilight, their tails intertwining. She bowed slightly. “Princess Luna, it is an honor to meet you at last.”

“Ah, the famous Rarity,” replied the princess, leaning down. “The unicorn who saved us all.”

Rarity laughed, a slight blush on her face. “Well! I don’t know if I’d say that I’ve saved you all, but…”

“I would,” Twilight said, nuzzling Rarity affectionately and then kissing her on the cheek, biting down a grin at the chorus of giggles and ‘ewwww’s from the foals watching.

“Regardless,” Rarity continued, tearing herself from Twilight to go to Luna. She smiled affectionately. “It’s good to have you back, Princess.”

“It’s good to be back,” she said.

And then paused.

And bit down on her lip.

“Ah. Er…” She cleared her throat and looked around. “I don’t mean to disregard you all, but…”

“Where’s Pinkie Pie?” Rarity ventured, fluttering her eyelashes. When she received an embarrassed blush in return, she glanced back towards the Dreamland. “She’s inside fetching something quite important. She should be out any minute now. Or…” Her smile turned devious. “We could go in and meet her?”

“Yes!” Princess Luna exclaimed, before clearing her throat. “Ah. I mean. If we can, that would be most agreeable.”

“I certainly don’t see why not,” Rarity said, walking towards the Dreamland and opening the doors with her magic. She then bowed down and gestured inside. “After you, Your Highness.”

Princess Luna returned the nod and stepped inside the Dreamland, followed shortly after by Twilight, her friends, and though several adults and foals tried to follow in, Rarity politely stepped in the way.

“Now, now, everypony! I know you all want to see, but we should allow them some privacy.”

“Awww…”

When Rarity stepped back into the Dreamland and closed the door behind her, Twilight looked around and noticed Pinkie was nowhere to be seen.

“So, where is she?” Applejack asked.

Rarity blinked.

“Oh! One moment. I’ll go fetch her. Stay here.”

As Rarity walked off inside the bakery and closed the door behind her, Twilight made her way to Princess Luna. Though the princess seemed composed and serene, sitting down in the middle of the lobby, her slightly folded ears and tail thumping against the floor betrayed her.

“Nervous?”

“No,” Princess Luna replied, confidently.

“She’s OUTSIDE?!” Pinkie’s muffled yell came from within the bakery, followed immediately by a loud shushing and then Pinkie whisper-yelling in the exact same volume. “She’s OUTSIDE?!”

Princess Luna cleared her throat.

“On second thought, perhaps I am somewhat nervous,” she amended.

Twilight offered her a sympathetic smile before walking to the bakery and stepping in. She closed the door behind her and found Rarity and Incantation standing near Pinkie, who was wearing her traditional Hollow Shades cloak. She was pressed against a wall, her trembling hooves holding onto the handle of a small dining cart, its contents obscured by a small dish cover.

“What if she doesn’t like it?” Pinkie asked, her voice small. “It’s going to be her first meal, ever! In a thousand years! What if I messed it up?”

“You didn’t, Pinkie,” Rarity reassured her, pressing her hoof on Pinkie’s. “You’ve made this thousands of times before. She’ll love it. Have faith in yourself.”

Pinkie nodded before closing her eyes and taking a big breath.

“You’re right! I can do this!”

She looked at Twilight and gave her a firm nod, prompting the alicorn to step outside and keep the door open for all to see. The gentle whispers inside the lobby died down immediately, and Princess Luna stood up, anxiety painted over her face.

It seemed for a moment as if time stood still, everyone waiting in the wings until finally, the tip of the cart pushed itself into view, followed in short order by Pinkie Pie herself. She froze under the frame of the door, her hooves clutching the handle of the cart, and her eyes set on the alicorn staring back at her.

Neither said a word at first, the two of them just watching each other, completely frozen.

“It’s okay,” Twilight whispered to Pinkie, and her friend almost imperceptibly nodded her head.

Time began anew when she pushed her cart into the room, almost all the way up to Princess Luna. Princess Luna watched her, transfixed, waiting for whatever happened next, her ears flicking upwards when Pinkie opened her mouth.

And yet, she did not speak, almost immediately closing it again.

Her eyes darted back and forth between Luna and the food cart, until finally she stepped away from the cart and took a step towards the alicorn.

Her mouth opened and closed a few more times, before she finally cleared her throat and smiled.

“H-Hello!” she said, a slight crack in her cheer.

“Hello!” Princess Luna exclaimed, her voice comically high-pitched until she cleared her throat, and lowered her tone. “Er. Hello. I.. Ah… Hello.”

Pinkie swallowed visibly.

“I’m Pinkie Pie!” she continued, pressing a hoof against her chest.

“I knew that,” Princess Luna stammered, and then blushed and stumbled over her own words trying to correct herself. “Ah, er, I’m Luna. Princess Luna. Though you knew that, too.”

“I did! B-But that’s fine!” Pinkie exclaimed, and Twilight couldn’t help sharing an amused glance with her marefriend, the latter having joined her near the door. “It’s n-nice to meet you!”

“It’s nice to meet you too,” Princess Luna replied immediately.

Pinkie looked towards her cart and with slightly shaking hooves, grabbed the plate and lifted the cover.

On it was a lone dark blue cupcake, carefully decorated with a crescent moon-shaped piece of frosting and countless sprinkles.

“I… I made this for you,” she explained, turning to Princess Luna. “I remember when I was little how you said you missed eating cakes from your castle, and I wanted to make sure your f-first meal ever was a cake! But… But I didn’t know when you’d be free, and I didn’t want to make one, and then what if you took forever to come out, and then it was all icky and stale! That would be awful! S-so! So since I didn’t know when that would happen, I’ve baked you a fresh cupcake every day, and—”

Her voice trembled as she presented Luna with the plate. “H-here it is! I hope you like it!”

Princess Luna blinked at her.

“...Thank you.”

Her horn lit up and shaky magic enveloped the cupcake, floating it up in the air and towards her. She stared at it, transfixed, as if it was the first cupcake she had ever seen in her entire life. It certainly was the most important one.

Finally, she slowly brought it to her mouth and finally took a bite.

Everyone watched, riveted, as the princess slowly chewed, and Twilight felt Rarity squeeze her hoof when Princess Luna’s eyes filled with tears. The princess fell to her hindlegs, her tears trailing down her eyes, down her cheeks and splashing on the cupcake she was looking down at.

“Ah… This… This is the most delicious meal I’ve ever had,” she whispered, and when she looked up at Pinkie Pie, who struggled to blink back tears, the princess raised a hoof towards her and smiled affectionately.

“Thank you, my little one.”

Bursting into tears, Pinkie Pie rushed forward and all but threw herself in Princess Luna’s embrace, letting out earth-shattering sobs as Princess Luna held her close, nuzzling her lovingly.

“Princess Luna!” she wailed, burying her face in the alicorn’s coat. “Princess Lunaaaaa!”

“I’m here now,” Princess Luna whispered, her tears now wetting Pinkie’s coat. She lifted Pinkie’s chin and met her gaze. “I will always be here, little one.”

Twilight’s own eyes were blurry with tears, watching the two mares while Rarity pressed herself against her coat, using the alicorn as a way to muffle her rather pronounced sniffles.

“I-I’m so happy you liked it,” Pinkie blubbered, pulling back only to let out a comically dramatic gasp and point at Luna’s chest. “Oh no!”

To everyone’s horror, the remaining half of the cupcake was now firmly squashed against Luna’s chest, the frosting stuck to her coat. Pinkie then looked down at her own chest, and found more of the cupcake decorating her pink coat.

“O-oh… Uhm…” She looked up at Luna and offered an awkward smile. “...At least we’re matching, right?”

Princess Luna blinked at her once, twice, thrice and then… and then she lifted a hoof to her mouth and giggled, until her giggle turned into laughter, and she hugged Pinkie again, the pink pony joining in her glee.

They laughed, tears streaming down their eyes, the scene bringing light and warmth to the room both metaphorically and physically as well.

Especially when Pinkie’s chest began to literally glow.

Twilight stopped crying.

Immediately.

“What?”

The magic light glowed brighter and brighter, until finally it exploded in a blinding flash. When it disappeared, the light was gone from Pinkie’s chest, as were the cupcake bits, both replaced instead with a golden necklace bearing a gemstone resembling Pinkie’s cutie mark.

No one said anything at first.

No one, that is, save for Twilight.

“What?!” she gasped, rushing forward and grabbing Pinkie with her magic, staring at the necklace with bewilderment. “This— This—!”

No. No! It couldn’t be! Could it?!

But—?! It looked like her crown, and—!

She dropped Pinkie and stepped back, flabbergasted, barely able to comprehend what had just happened, and how it had happened, and… and…

“Twilight?” Rarity asked, urgently. “Twilight, isn’t that—?!”

Twilight nodded her head, stumbling back until she reached Rarity and grabbed on to her for support.

“That’s… That’s one of the Elements of Harmony…”

There it was. Literally. There. Just like that.

There.

“It is?” Pinkie asked, and she took it off, admiring it with delight. “It is! It’s an Element of Harmony! We did it!” She turned to Twilight, bursting with excitement. “We did it, Princess Twilight!”

“But—! But—!” Twilight stammered, trying to piece together everything despite her scrambled mental state. “But why?! What does it represent? Why did it appear now?! It’s the Element of What?!”

Pinkie chimed in.

“Of hope!” She turned to Princess Luna, and when the alicorn nuzzled her, Pinkie spoke again. “It’s the Element of Hope.”

“The Element of Hope,” Twilight repeated, still reeling. “Right. Sure. That sounds accurate. That works. Okay. Right.”

“We have to tell everypony you’re back!” Pinkie said next. She gasped. “We have to tell Princess Cadance! But how?!” She turned to Twilight. “Princess! Fly to Canterlot and tell Princess Cadance that Princess Luna is back!”

“Fly to Canterlot?! I can’t fly to Canterlot! It would take me an entire day of non-stop flight to get there!”

“But then how will she know?!”

“I don’t know!”

“If I may interrupt,” Princess Luna said. “I have a suggestion for that. What time is it?”

Twilight glanced at a clock. “It’s almost sunset,” she replied, and no sooner had she done so, her eyes grew wide. She looked back towards the other princess. “Hold on. You’re not… Or are you?” She jumped on the spot, bursting with excitement. “Are you?!”

“I think I will,” Princess Luna replied, standing up and opening the Dreamland’s door with her magic. “Follow me, everypony.”

“What’s happening?” Rarity asked as they followed the princess outside. “What’s Princess Luna going to do? Twilight?”

“You’ll see,” Twilight whispered back, giddy. “Oooooh, I’m so excited!”

Once outside, Princess Luna looked up at the dark blue sky, her horn glowing with magic.

“It would seem we’re just in time.”

“Twilight, what is she doing?” Rarity insisted. “Tell me!”

“Rarity, what is princess Luna the princess of?”

“Dreams?”

“Yes, but also of something else. Don’t you remember the legend? What else was she the princess of?”

Rarity frowned. “Hrm… The moon?” Her eyes grew wide, and when she gasped, Twilight nodded her head excitedly. “No! Is she—?! Can she?!”

The two of them turned to Princess Luna just in time to see the alicorn fly up into the air, her horn still bursting with magic.

After a moment, the sun began to set, and just as darkness shrouded the world, the princess’ horn flashed again and the moon soared into its place in the night sky, glowing brightly for all to see.

Applejack took off her hat, awed. “I reckon’ there ain’t no way Princess Denza doesn’t know you’re back now.”

“Oh no,” Twilight interrupted, glee in her voice. “That’s not what’s supposed to tell Cadance she’s back.”

“It ain’t?”

For a final time, Princess Luna’s horn burst with magic, a pulse of energy shooting out towards the sky. Nothing happened at first, all the ponies gathered around frowning up at the night, until finally, it happened.

Rarity gasped, grabbing on to Twilight for support. “My stars!”

My stars indeed, when like a brushstroke on canvas, dozens upon dozens of brilliant white speckles of light filled the sky, the ponies of Hollow Shades and the rest of the kingdom basking in the light of more stars than had been seen in Equestria for over a thousand years.

Princess Luna landed on the ground, and after sitting down to admire her work alongside the others, she breathed in and smiled.

“That is how she’ll know.”

Author's Note

And there it is, three years of work finished (well, not finished, there's still a lot to do but... an act is finished).

There's still a small act "epilogue" coming after this, and then Act II will be officially closed. I have a lot to say about this chapter, but I feel like I need to collect my thoughts so they'll wait until the epilogue.

I will say that I worked really hard on this. Not just this chapter specifically, but the arc as a whole. I knew TEK looked like an adventure story, but I decided to stick to my guns and stay in the spirit of TEL, which makes TEK fundamentally a story about mental health. About being better.

I wanted to write a story that not only helped me through my own trauma and struggles, but might help others too. Hopefully, I succeeded.

It was a really hard road to get here, especially these past few weeks. I've been struggling immensely with my own mental health, and with my faith in my writing, and my storytelling, and my future as a writer/storyteller. TEK, particularly, was hit hard as I've been working on it for so long, and I sometimes struggle to remember why it's worth working on and why it's an important story to be told.

Regardless, I'm trying to push through, and so I wrote this chapter in that spirit. Though, on that note, if you liked the chapter (and the arc as a whole), be sure to let me know! Any positivity would be greatly appreciated c:

Also, HAHA, GOD, DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THE CUPCAKE SCENE FROM CHAPTER 8 OF TEL TO PAYOFF??? Oh my GOD.

Anyway, I hope you like it, stay safe, mwa <3

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman!

Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

~ Act II~ 23 ~ The Heartbound Home ~

Previously on TEK a.k.a Chapter 22 a.k.a. Payoff The Chapter

this chapter is too long to recap so instead, here are some CHOICE highlights:

That moment when Twi and Rares finally make up and talk and reaffirm their love for each other and promise to communicate

That moment when Twi finally overcomes her guilt and recognizes her trauma won't ever go away, and she will falter and stumble, but she'll get better god damn it and rarity decides to stay with her and they'll work at it together

That moment when Twilight makes NMM relive her memories of Pinkie, including when they met and it's,,, so good,,, look at this fanart my friend Isa did of that scene IT'S SO GOOD

That moment when the Seeking Night event pays off because all the adults and kids come to help Princess Luna

"Yes, Princess Luna! You did it! You've done the worst thing you could do! But look around! We're still here."

"I really want to meet you, Princess Luna. Don't you want to meet me, too?"

Luna defeating the chaos magic finally

When Luna's like "I look forward to seeing the sun" and then she comes out and the sun blinds the eff out of here and she's like "mmm spoke too soon."

THE CUPCAKE SCENE

the adults finally being free of the chaos magic and seeing Luna and Twi as alicorns

Pinkie gets the element!!!

Pinkie being all "how will we tell Cadance" and Luna being all "hold my cider" and then doing the thing

and that's it

The party that came after Princess Luna’s liberation was one unlike Hollow Shades had ever seen.

No matter where you were, inside or out, you could hear it. The laughter, the dancing, the celebration of a cursed town that was cursed no more. It invited you to join, drew you in with the infectious cheers, and you would be remiss to not attend.

Unless you were Princess Twilight Sparkle, and you were too busy debating whether you should take apart an Element of Harmony or not.

Destroying a camera was forgivable. Probably. This, not so much.

Inside Rarity’s now sound-proofed workshop, Twilight frowned at the brand new Element necklace floating before her. A moment later, her crown floated up from the table and joined Pinkie’s necklace as her family of owls watched.

“Hrm.”

With great care, she made the two objects clink together, and then again when nothing happened, and then several more times with growing frustration when still nothing happened.

“I don’t understand!” she exclaimed, putting the elements down and resting her chin on the table. “Urgh. Do they work now? How am I even supposed to know if they work now? Do I still need the others? This is useless!” She looked towards the three owlets blinking at her. “You agree that taking them apart might be useful, right?”

All three hooted cheerfully.

“Yes.”

Elara and Themis, however, hooted in disapproval.

“...You’re only saying that because Rarity told you to say that! Look. It’ll be fine! I’m sure I can fix it if something goes wrong.” She picked them up again and narrowed her eyes, her horn crackling with magic, and when her owls hooted again, she spoke: “I don’t care! I’m going to figure this out even if it takes me all night.”

“Seriously?!”

Startled, Twilight looked around and yelped at the sight of Rainbow Dash hovering outside the now open window, her forelegs crossed.

“What!” Twilight exclaimed, shoving the elements under the table. “I wasn’t doing anything! I wasn’t!” she insisted when Spike’s head appeared behind Rainbow Dash and frowned at her as well.

Rainbow gestured to the outside.

“Come on, Princess! The elements aren’t going anywhere!”

Twilight looked back and forth between Rainbow and the Elements before finally and reluctantly putting the elements inside a saddlebag and tying that to her back. She then made her way towards the window, only to once again be faced with the disapproving Rainbow and Spike, both now accompanied by the entire owl family.

They, too, looked disapproving.

“What!”

Rainbow gestured to her bag. “Take them out.”

“But—! What if something happens? Or they activate? I won’t take them out unless something happens, I promise!”

“Twi,” Spike said, “Rarity said to make sure you left them here.”

“Rarity won’t know I took them out because I’m not taking them out of the bag. Unless they activate, in which case she’ll see I was justified!”

At their raised eyebrows, she cleared her throat, flew outside and moved the conversation along.

“Look. It’ll be fine. Okay?” She turned to Spike.“Any news from Princess Celestia?”

Spike shook his head. “No, not yet.”

Her brow furrowed. “Oh.”

That was disappointing to hear. She’d sent a letter to Princess Celestia about Princess Luna over an hour ago, and even though the princess hadn’t replied to any of the letters Twilight’d sent since Canterlot Castle, she still would have expected Princess Luna’s liberation to warrant some sort of reply.

“It’s only been, like, an hour, Princess,” Rainbow added. “Come on! Let’s go party, and I bet she’ll answer before you know it.” She turned to Spike. “We’ll go ahead, ‘kay?”

At Spike’s nod, the two ponies and the owls set off further into Hollow Shades, straight for the bustling main plaza. The entire town was still out and about, celebrating long into the night. The two mares landed next to a campfire where an elderly mare was in the middle of telling foals the dreams she remembered of Princess Luna.

Truthfully, It was nice to see. It was really nice to see, actually, and hear how the way the adults spoke about Luna had changed. Gone was the noticeable teasing tone when speaking of Princess Luna and the legend, replaced instead with the same enthusiasm and earnestness that always dwelled within the foals.

For that night, and hopefully more to come, everypony in Hollow Shades was a foal once again.

“Oh, Twilight!”

She turned around and saw Professor Awe walking towards them, accompanied by a unicorn mare and earth pony stallion—both whom Twilight recognized as the parents of one of the foals.

“Hello!” she greeted. “Here for the party?”

The professor hummed. “Party? You mean, having Princess Luna and Miss Pie gloat to my face about how wrong I was?” He grinned. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Twilight laughed. “Right.”

“On that note, I’m going to run along if you don’t mind. I don’t think I’ve eaten since yesterday.” He bowed his head to Twilight and then nodded towards Rainbow and the couple. “I shall see you all later, then.”

After watching him leave, Twilight turned to the couple and gave them once over. “How are you feeling?”

“We’re doing alright, Twilight!” the stallion replied, smiling widely. “Glad to be awake.”

“Very glad,” added the mare.

“Oh, good. I was worried that the chaos magic might have left some impact on everypony, but I’m glad to see that isn’t the case.” She paused to give them space to talk, but when they instead awkwardly stared at her, she cleared her throat. “Er. Is there anything you wanted to ask me?”

They fidgeted slightly, and though they struggled to find what to say, their glances towards Twilight’s wings provided an obvious hint of what they wanted.

Rainbow Dash understood.

“Did you, like, want to touch her wings or something?” she asked, bluntly, the couple’s awkward fidgeting increasing.

“Ah!”

“Well!”

“Touch the wings? Ehm.”

“No! Well—”

“Maybe?”

“If it’s okay?”

“Please?”

Twilight extended her wings with a laugh. “I don’t mind. Go ahead.”

Like foals in a toy store, the two ponies stepped forward and delicately brushed their hooves against the feathers.

“They really are real,” whispered the mare, enthralled. She brushed her hoof along the length of the wing, clearly trying to feel out for anything mechanical, but when she found nothing of the sort, she took back her hoof and gawked at Twilight. “You really are an alicorn.”

The stallion similarly observed the wings. “They looked so fake before! This is… I was going to say ‘the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen’, but we were all just trapped inside dreams.” He looked up towards her horn. “Wings and a horn! I’ve never seen an alicorn horn before. Is it different? Is that why it’s longer than my wife's? Can I touch it?”

“Honey!” the mare gasped. “You can’t just ask to touch her horn!”

“I’m sorry!”

The mare looked at Twilight. “...But can we?”

Now, it was Twilight’s turn to fidget uncomfortably. “Er. I… I guess?”

It was a little weird, but if it was in the spirit of discovery, then she could sort of understand. A little embarrassed, she leaned down and allowed the couple to delicately poke at her horn…

Or, well, she did right up until Rarity walked by laden with platters and gave her significant other a very intrigued stare.

“Anyway!” Twilight blurted out, straightening herself up and clearing her throat. “I’m glad you know the truth now.”

At her statement, the two ponies’ expressions dampened. Their ears folded down and they tucked their tails in between their legs.

“We’re sorry we didn’t believe you, Twili—Princess Twilight,” said the mare. Her ears folded even more. “And Rarity, too. And Princess Luna. And Incantation. And Pinkie.” She pressed a hoof against her face. “Oh gosh, Pinkie.” She looked to her husband. “Do you think she’ll accept an apology dinner invitation?”

The stallion laughed, sympathetically putting a hoof over his wife. “Well, we’ll have to get in line because Sunrise Storm and his husband already invited her and Princess Luna to one.”

“Drat.” She turned to Twilight and put a hoof on her shoulder. “Has anyone asked you and Rarity yet? If not, we want to be the first! What day works for you?” She then noticed Rainbow Dash watching blankly. “...You can come, too!”

“Oh, sweet! I love free food.”

“It’s the best kind of food,” agreed the husband.

“Well, we won’t keep you two any longer,” the mare said, smiling at Twilight. “I’ll come by the Dreamland tomorrow, and we can set something up!”

After goodbyes were exchanged and the couple was off, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and the owls went on their way. Twilight was in the lead, which generally meant trying to find Rarity and figure out what she was up to. It was just a lucky coincidence that this also happened to be on the way to the food stands ponies had set up, all of them serving up sweet treats fried at least five times.

A crowd had gathered in the area, and though she initially chalked it up to the food, the reason quickly revealed itself to be Princess Luna and Pinkie Pie talking to at least a dozen other ponies, including Applejack and Fluttershy.

“Princess! Rainbow!” Applejack exclaimed, flagging over Rainbow Dash, Twilight, and the three slices of pie she’d accepted from a merchant only because it would have been rude to refuse, really. “What’ve y’all been up to? Hope you weren’t fiddling with the elements again like Rarity asked you not to, Princess.”

“We were just lookin’ around,” Rainbow Dash said, covering for the alicorn currently eating like she hadn’t in days. “No biggie.”

“Where’s Rarity?” Twilight asked before starting with her second pie. “I saw her walking this way? Have you seen her?”

“Last we saw her, she was helping Incantation,” Applejack replied.

“She should be somewhere around here,” Fluttershy noted, now a perch for the little owl family.

“Ah, Twilight!” exclaimed Princess Luna, having seen the younger alicorn. “There you are. Have you tried some of the treats Molasses has prepared for us?”

Twilight nodded eagerly, finishing up the second slice.

“Princess!” Molasses exclaimed, approaching her with three slices of pie on a plate. “More pie? You’ve only had one!”

The princess smiled amiably. “No, thank you, Molasses. I am quite full.”

“Full? With just one slice?!” Rainbow Dash asked, startled. “But, like, I thought you alicorns had to eat a ton?”

“Yeah!” Pinkie agreed, frowning deeply. “‘Cause you need it to make up for all the energy your magic uses up, right?!”

Princess Luna blinked. “...No. Alicorn magic doesn’t expend energy resources, and even if it did, the energy produced by food intake has nothing to do with our magic. If anything, eating in great quantities would only make me lethargic.” She turned to Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle, I would’ve thought blaming your new body for your gluttony was a habit you’d have left in the past.”

“I didn’t use to eat like this before I was an alicorn!” Twilight protested, putting down her third slice. At her friends’ laughs, she doubled down. “I didn’t!”

“Now, don’t let them make you feel bad, y’hear?” Applejack said earnestly, patting the shamed alicorn on the back. “Ain’t nothing wrong with loving food.”

“Wait, are we talking about food? I love food!”

They turned around to find Incantation walking towards them. She sat down next to Twilight and eyed the slice of pie the alicorn had left.

“Mmm.” Ink licked her lips. “I could go for some food now.”

“Awh, are you hungry, Inky?” Pinkie giggled, jumping up and rushing to the changeling to envelop her in a hug. “Eat up!” she exclaimed, rubbing their cheeks together. “Muah, muah, muah!”

“I, uhm, meant pony food, but this works too, Chief!” Ink replied with a laugh, delighting in the affection.

It was an endearing sight, so much so that Twilight had the urge to nuzzle her marefriend—if only her marefriend was actually there.

Princess Luna, it seemed, was thinking the same thing.

“Where is Rarity, Incantation? Was she not with you?” asked the older princess once Pinkie’s loving assault was done.

“Oh! She was, but we split up a little while ago because she had to go take care of something. She said she’d catch up to us later.”

“Very well.”

The conversation moved along after that, a Hollow Shades pony approaching to speak with Pinkie and Princess Luna. Twilight, meanwhile, couldn’t help but wonder what Rarity was doing. Did she need help? Mmm.

"Are you going to look for Rarity, Princess?" asked Fluttershy, noticing Twilight getting up.

Applejack grinned. "'Course she is. Even when they had their britches in a bunch, they still trailed after each other all the time. Ain't that right, Princess?"

“No, we didn’t!" Twilight said, a pink tinge coloring her cheeks when Fluttershy laughed. She sat down on her hindlegs and smiled politely. "I don’t trail after Rarity. See? I'm staying here."

After a half-second of Applejack and Fluttershy staring at her expectantly, Twilight got up again.

"Fine," she conceded, her embarrassed defeat only increasing when her two friends laughed again. "But we don't always trail after each other!"

"Of course not," Fluttershy offered, innocently.

"We don't!"

"Don't take too long, y'hear?" Applejack called out as Twilight walked off.

"Trailing after her. I'm not trailing after her," Twilight muttered, maneuvering through the crowd while doing exactly that.

She asked around for a bit and was finally directed towards a small alley somepony had seen Rarity wander into. She made her way along the dark street, eventually stepping out into a small empty plaza with a fountain in the middle.

The princess’ most beloved pony was there, as well, sitting down by the fountain and peering into the water, her ears folded down and her tail curled around her body.

With a small degree of concern, Twilight walked over to Rarity and gently nuzzled and kissed the back of her head. She heard Rarity sigh contentedly, her eyes closing as she leaned into Twilight when the alicorn sat down and pulled her into a winged hug.

“Well, well,” she said, eyes still closed, “if it isn’t the princess herself.”

“You didn’t even open your eyes to check it was me,” Twilight noted playfully. “That’s awfully confident of you.”

Rarity finally opened her eyes, if only to flutter them at her significant other. “Ah, yes. Because so many ponies are dying to nuzzle me in empty plazas in the middle of the night.” She gestured to the empty plaza. “Better stay away, you thirsty fiends, lest Princess Twilight Sparkle shoo you off with a stick!”

Twilight frowned. “Thirsty? Why would they be thirsty? Because of the fountain?”

Rarity giggled. “Oh, yes. Let’s go with that.”

Twilight sighed theatrically. “Oooh. I see.” She pulled the giggling unicorn further into the hug. “This is another modern usage for a word that I don’t get because I’m… how did you put it?”

“Positively ancient!”

“Right. Because I’m “positively ancient”, and you’re making fun of me because of it.”

“Aw, dearest, I only do it because I love you,” she promised, leaving little apologetic kisses on Twilight’s jaw.

“Right. What are you doing here, anyway?”

“I was testing something!” Rarity exclaimed, brightly.

“Testing something?”

“Yes, and I must thank you, Twilight. You’ve just confirmed my hypothesis.”

“I did? What hypothesis?”

“That if I went and waited in an empty plaza, I wouldn’t have to wait long before you inevitably came trailing after me because you simply can’t resist me!”

Twilight whined, breaking off the hug.

“I don’t trail after you! I don’t!” she replied, the severity of her tone faltering when Rarity offered a silly smile.

“Don’t be cross, dear. I trail after you, too.”

“Hm.” Twilight looked away. “And here I thought you’d left for some important reason like, I don’t know, checking up on the event, or—”

Rarity hummed. “Or going to the Dreamland to check you didn’t take the Elements that aren’t in your saddlebag right now, I’m sure.” She gasped. “Oh my! You’ve gone all red suddenly.” She leaned in with a smirk. “I wonder why.”

Twilight cleared her throat and her guilty blush. “Anyway.”

Rarity leaned against her, delighted. “Anyhow.”

“Nonetheless.”

“Notwithstanding.”

Twilight playfully raised an eyebrow. “Oooh, really digging into the mental thesaurus, are we?”

“Perchance.” Rarity giggled, kissing her. “Anyway,” she said, imitating Twilight, and then turning back to the fountain to look down at her reflection. “I didn’t actually come here to see if you’d follow me. I just wanted to step away from the party for a moment and gather myself.”

“Why? Is everything alright?”

“Oh, yes, yes. I’m just… It’s a lot. All of it. In a good way, certainly, but… I suppose I feel how I did when you were freed. In a good way,” she repeated at Twilight’s expression. “I suppose that I…” She looked around at the town. “Freeing Princess Luna has been my life for two years. Just like you were. And, well, now that it’s done, I’m not entirely sure what comes next.”

“Right. First things first, then.” Twilight playfully raised her eyebrows. “It seems to me you need to learn how to delegate your time instead of throwing yourself into one big project and nothing else.”

Rarity scoffed in faux offense. “Are you actually suggesting I be reasonable? Unthinkable! What next? Are you going to ask me to actually take a vacation instead of rushing headfirst into saving the others?”

“Do you want a vacation?”

Rarity rubbed her chin. “I could be persuaded. Mmm, actually!” She sat up straight, her playfulness replaced with genuine eagerness. “I was rather thinking that maybe we could have a home vacation. Just stay at home. A staycation is what they’re called, I think.”

“Oh?”

Rarity nodded her head. “Mhm. We can, oh, I don’t know, pretend you just got freed so clearly we have to stay home cuddling in bed for five days straight.” She gave Twilight her most dashing smile. “Does that not sound agreeable?”

“I would love that, Rarity,” Twilight said before giggling. “I juuust don’t know how much of a vacation we’ll get at home with dozens of foals running around the Dreamland all the time.”

“Ah! Yes… The Dreamland…”

Rarity fell silent after this, lost in thought, her eyes falling to Twilight’s necklace as her hoof reached for her own.

“Rarity?” Twilight prompted.

Rarity’s gaze met Twilight’s briefly before flitting back down to the necklace. She bit down on her lip hesitantly and then spoke up.

“Twilight. If I may be so bold, what are your plans after all of this is over?”

Twilight frowned. “You mean after the party? Sleep, I hope.”

“No, you silly pony. I mean after everything is done. All of it. Princess Celestia, Cadance, and when, if the stars allow it, Discord is dealt with too. When all of that is done, what do you intend to do then?” She paused again. “For example, have you thought about where you’d like to live?”

Twilight faltered. “I… I’m not sure.”

She looked back towards her reflection in the fountain, deep in thought. That wasn’t necessarily true, was it? There were a lot of things she was unsure of concerning the future, but she still remembered the little idea back when they visited Trottingham.

“I think… I’m going to live in a library.”

“In a library?!” Rarity gasped. “Twilight Sparkle, I didn’t get my flank permanently scarred and you possessed so you could go back and coop yourself up inside the library the second this is done!”

“Not the old library, Rarity! A new one.” She jumped on top of the fountain’s edge, which was large enough to stand on. She stood up straight and proudly declared, “It’ll be the greatest library Equestria has ever seen.”

Rarity laughed. “The greatest library Equestria has ever seen? My, my. Will this one be haunted, too?”

“No.”

“Oh. I don’t want it, then,” Rarity said, waving her off. “Moving on!”

“Are you sure?” Twilight asked, leaning down a little. “You really don’t want to know?”

“Weeeell… I suppose I could be persuaded to hear more about this library.”

An idea suddenly occurred to the alicorn, and her excitement tripled. Her nerves, too, but it would be okay.

“I could also do more than just tell you about it…” Her lips curled into a smile just as her horn lit up, her necklace flashed, and a familiar ‘ping!’ filled the air. “I could show you?”

Rarity was immediately alert.

“The necklaces?” she asked, perhaps a bit too eagerly for her liking at first, considering how quickly she cleared her throat and composed herself. A visible hint of nervousness tinged her voice. “I mean, I would love too, darling, but… are you sure? This would be the first time we do it since, ah, well… it’s all come out and all...”

Twilight jumped off the fountain wall and stopped in front of Rarity, her expression gentle.

“I’m ready if you are. I won’t go where you don’t want me to go.”

“Silly little princess,” Rarity said affectionately, her horn lighting up. “Thinking there’s places I don’t want her to go to.” She exhaled one last breath and then let out a nervous giggle. “Alright. Shall we then?”

“We shall!”

They closed their eyes, and finally a second ‘ping!’ rang out. Like the times before, nothing happened at first. There was just silence and darkness, right up until a single sensation cut through Twilight.

Anxiety.

Not hers, though, but Rarity’s. An anxiety Twilight was not wholly unfamiliar with, as it was the one she’d had when all her darkest, deepest secrets had been exposed. The fear of being judged, of being rejected.

For a moment, Twilight—or, well, the Twilight part of this shared connection—worried that the connection would be severed, or that a path would be blocked, especially so when she physically felt Rarity press a hoof against her, as if grabbing her tight.

But the path wasn’t blocked, nor was the connection severed. These were certainly hard thoughts they were having, but Rarity was allowing them to exist. To be shared.

Twilight felt them as if they were hers, all these negative emotions that Rarity once had, that she still feared would affect their relationship. The grief at losing Twilight, the fact that she’d been so afraid to communicate, all these emotions she’d bottled up.

As said before, they were familiar. This was exactly and precisely how Twilight herself had felt when she faced Rarity again in the library right after she’d been freed.

And how lucky Twilight felt to be able to say back to Rarity what the unicorn had once said to her.

“Rarity,” Twilight whispered, because, sure, it was silly to voice it when they both knew what came next, but some things had to be said aloud. “Do you really think I love you so little that pushing me away would ever make a difference?”

It was relief that Twilight felt next. Rarity’s relief, boundless and immense and all-encompassing, but not like a dam bursting open or a door opening wide. It was like hugging someone and not wanting to let go, only to realize they didn’t intend on letting go anytime soon. It was warm. She felt it, Rarity’s burning affection intermingling with hers, and when Rarity’s eyes teared up, she felt that, too.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle,” playfully whined the second heart the princess owned, “don’t you think we’ve all cried enough for one night?”

Twilight laughed after that, or it might have been Rarity, or it was probably both. They dissolved into silly little loving giggles, Twilight opening her eyes so as to kiss Rarity. When she pulled away, she cleared her throat and stepped back, taking a moment to admire the flushed unicorn sitting in front of her, eyes still shut.

“Are you going to actually tell me about this library of yours, or do you intend on staring at me for the rest of the night?” Rarity asked, her gentle flush becoming more pronounced when Twilight thought to herself that she’d gladly stare at Rarity all day long.

“Darliiiiing.”

“Alright, alright,” Twilight conceded, jumping back up onto the fountain’s rim. She took a big breath and began to walk on the edge of the fountain, careful to maintain her balance—except for that one moment where she nearly slipped and both she and Rarity yelped in fright, but nevermind that.

“So! It’s going to be two stories high,” Twilight began. “No, wait, three.”

Though she was staring at the ground as she walked, she could clearly see the building in her head as she spoke. A large grey building like she’d seen in Trottingham, which she thought looked fine right up until the Rarity part of her mind politely made design suggestions such as give it blue accents and some more modern marble columns at its sides.

Actually, some oval windows would look very aesthetic as well, and some alicorn statues overlooking from the ceiling and maybe—

“Rarity.”

“Sorry! Go on.”

Twilight continued on her path, focusing on her forehooves stepping one in front of the other, while continuing to picture the library. She wasn’t entirely sure how she wanted the interior to look, but she knew exactly what she wanted it to feel like.

She wanted it to feel like home. She could see them, vividly picture the dozens of bookcase aisles, the dozens of candelabras guiding delighted patrons around while Star and Swirl illuminated the entire thing as magnificent chandeliers.

As she pictured it, she could feel Rarity’s consciousness working alongside her, adding flourishes and ideas here and there. Statues of the princesses, silk fluffy cushions with ponies relaxing on them, beautiful wooden desks with carved patterns and designs.

“I want an owl hatchery, too,” Twilight mused aloud, and immediately Rarity’s designs pushed into her mind, and when Twilight thought of a room for Spike, so did Rarity’s mind comply, shifting their joined perspective into picturing a truly massive room where Spike could stay after walking in through equally immense crystal doors.

“What about the third floor?” Rarity asked, a giddy timbre to her voice, and Twilight could feel herself suddenly picturing a large observatory. “Somewhere to look at the stars, perhaps?”

“Actually, that would be the living quarters,” Twilight told her, and the design Rarity was weaving of the observatory immediately stopped.

In fact, Twilight noticed, nearly all of Rarity’s input stopped.

“So, the living quarters, then?” Rarity prompted, moving it along and not commenting on the obvious mental freeze that just happened.

Twilight cleared her throat. “Right. Er…”

She began to picture several rooms she’d like to have. A little study for herself, which she essentially modeled after Rarity’s workshop from the Dreamland, with space for sewing machines and closets, and a little desk for studying and reading; a nice comfortable kitchen, like the one from Carousel Boutique; a little guest room, like Sweetie’s room also in Carousel Boutique; and finally, Twilight’s bedroom with a big bed for whenever Rarity stayed the night.

“And there!” she declared proudly, ending the magical connection between them with a ‘ping’. “The greatest library in Equestria.”

And it was great, if she said so, herself. More things could be added to it later on, but that seemed to be a good foundation.

“I see!” Rarity exclaimed, something a little off about her tone. She licked her lips. “And where exactly would you like this library to be? There’s so many places in Equestria that need libraries! Appleloosa, Fillydelphia… Ponyville? Perhaps?”

“Actually, I was thinking putting it here in Hollow Shades. Next to the Dreamland,” the princess said.

Rarity faltered. “O-Oh?”

“It’s more convenient that way. If it’s next to your home, you can visit me often.” She frowned suddenly. “Oh, but then that makes it easier for you to go home instead of, uhm, spending the night with me.”

Rarity faltered, a slight blush on her face. “Darling, if me not sleeping over often is a concern, we could also simply just, ah, well… You know. We could make it a more—” She gestured rather aimlessly—” permanent thing, as it were.”

Oooooh.

Oh.

“Wait. As in live together?” A heavy blush washed over Twilight’s face, her ears alert and her wings tight against her body. “As in together together? As in share our lives and belongings in equal measure?”

“...Perhaps not as formally as that, dear, but yes. That’s what I’m suggesting ” Rarity continued, tentatively. “If anything, we’ve practically already been living together for a while now, and I don’t know about you, but I rather think it’s worked out well for us! So it makes perfect sense we just make it official, no?”

“That does make sense,” Twilight replied, slowly. “Is, uh, that all we’d do…?”

“...Yes? What else is there to do?” Rarity asked. Her cheeks tinted slightly. “Unless you mean, ah, the more personal things couples do while living together….which we already do…?”

“Not that, Rarity,” Twilight whispered, flustered.

“Then what?”

“Nothing,” Twilight said, quickly, looking away. “Forget it. Nothing important. It’s just an old outdated tradition, I guess.”

“Wait, no, no, now you have to tell me,” Rarity said, immediately jumping up onto the fountain and walking up to Twilight. “Do what?”

“It’s not important, really!” Twilight insisted, backtracking slightly, becoming really rather flustered. Which did not go unnoticed. “It’s really not interesting.”

“It clearly is if you’re redder than my fainting couch, your highness! Tell meeeeee, Twilight!”

“Rarity, it’s just—”

Her sentence quickly became a yelp when she lost her footing, tumbling down into the fountain with a big splash that was promptly followed by Rarity’s screech as she crouched out of the water’s way.

“Twilight!” she called out afterwards, leaning over the edge of the fountain and doing a frankly miserable job at not laughing when Twilight emerged, completely soaked. “Look at what you’ve done!”

“What I’ve done?! Look at what you’ve done! You made me fall in!” Twilight protested, shivering. “You should be in here with me!”

“Why, Twilight! I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” Rarity said, innocently trotting around the fountain’s edge. “And even if I did, I can assure you I would never be so clumsy as to fall in!”

“You’re right, Rarity,” Twilight said, solemnly. “And I’m sorry.”

Rarity stopped. “You’re sorry? You’re sorry for what?”

Twilight’s horn lit up with magic.

“For this.”

SPLASH!

“Twilight Sparkle!” Rarity gasped furiously when she emerged from the water. “What is your problem?!”

“Why, Rarity! I’m sure I don’t know what you mean!” Twilight innocently said between laughs, only to yelp when Rarity started making her way towards her.

“You stop swimming away this instant, Twilight! Twilight!” Twilight eventually allowed herself to be caught, giggling when this resulted in Rarity splashing water at her. “Take that! And that!”

“Stop! Stop, please!”

“There is no mercy for those who dare ruin my mascara!” Rarity shot back, trying to sound infuriated despite her smile. “Take this! And this!”

“Oh? If this is how it’s going to be, then...”

Her horn lit up, the equivalent of a bucketful of water floated up into the air. Rarity immediately backtracked.

“Wait!” she yelped, raising her hoof. “N-Now, darling, let us not be rash, shall we? We’re all rational mature adults. Revenge isn’t becoming of a princess!”

Twilight smiled politely. “So then, how about a three second head start?”

Honestly, Twilight was impressed by how loudly Rarity could scream.

By the time the two mares had found a campfire to huddle around, the majority of the townsponies had finally gone home. Twilight’s friends were all still awake, however, and soon enough had joined the two mares around the crackling fire.

Nopony said much at first, allowing the fire to speak for them all while they settled into place, Princess Luna’s stars and moon shining above.

“So,” Rainbow Dash said, breaking the silence after a moment, “now what?”

Everyone turned to look at the pegasus lazily wrapped over Spike’s tail.

“What do you mean ‘now what’?” asked Twilight.

“...I mean, Princess Luna is free, so now what’s the plan? We go for the other two, obviously, but, like, what’s our plan? Princess Cadence is in her castle and Princess Celestia still who-knows-where.”

Rarity raised an eyebrow. “Rainbow, we only just freed Princess Luna today, and you think any of us has a plan?” She cuddled up next to Twilight. “I plan to sleep is what I plan. I’ll think about rescuing alicorns tomorrow, thank you very much.”

“I must go to Canterlot to see Cadance,” Princess Luna said, Pinkie sitting on her back. “Preferably sooner rather than later. Afterwards, I believe my sister should have priority in our search efforts.” She looked towards Spike. “Has she replied to the letter?” When he shook his head, a great frown marred her face. “Hm.”

“I hope she’s okay,” Fluttershy said, seated next to Applejack. “And that Discord hasn’t gotten to her…”

“He hasn’t,” Princess Luna replied. “My sister is not so easily defeated.”

Twilight nodded. “Besides, if he had, we’d already know. Discord wouldn’t miss a chance to gloat.”

“But how are we going to find Princess Celestia if she doesn’t answer our letters?” Pinkie asked, standing on her hindlegs on top of Luna’s back and putting her forehooves on the princess’s head. “Do you know how many waterfalls there’s in Equestria?! A bajillion!”

“We’ll just have to start without her help,” Princess Luna said. “Tomorrow, if we must.”

“Tomorrow?!” Pinkie gasped. “But—! But we just finished rescuing you! And what about all the fun stuff we were going to do when you got freed?! We’re going to make you an honorary member of the Dreamland family! And you can live with Rarity and Inky and Princess Twilight in the Dreamland! You’ll help us with the kids, and then in the mornings when Rarity is cranky and yells at us, and all that stuff! And maybe I’ll move in, too! It’ll be so much fun!”

“There is no time for fun, little one. I was in that cave doing nothing for a thousand years. I do believe that is enough resting to last me a lifetime.”

As soon as Princess Luna finished, Twilight felt Rarity fidget against her, and when she glanced towards her marefriend, it was obvious on the unicorn’s face that she seemed to disagree with that statement.

A tacit message was spoken between them when their eyes met, and Twilight turned back towards the others.

“Princess Luna, if I may, I think tomorrow is too soon. I know you just got freed, and you want to do something. I felt the same, but… I can’t speak for everypony, but honestly, I’m tired. I’m not ready to go back into it so fast.” She gestured to her friends. “I don’t think any of us are. We need a vacation, even if it’s a small one.” Twilight smiled. “You’ve seen our dreams. Do you think we’re all ready to go? Why don’t we see Cadance, take some time, and then get back to it? Like we said, Princess Celestia must be fine for now, and it isn’t smart to let ourselves burn out.”

The princess pouted slightly. “...That is wasting time, Twilight Sparkle.”

Though Twilight opened her mouth to reply, Rarity was faster.

“Princess… I’m tired.” There was something pleading about her tone. Tired, for sure, but pleading. Her ears folded back slightly, and she subconsciously grabbed Twilight’s hoof as she carefully spoke, her eyes fixed on the campfire flames. “I want to go home.”

Immediately, Princess Luna’s expression changed. Her aggravation was gone, replaced instead with the analytical expression she often wore when dreamwalking. Similarly, a few other ponies reacted the same way—namely, Applejack and Fluttershy.

Twilight, too.

Oh.

Princess Luna straightened up. “I see. The time has come, then..”

“You want to go home?” Pinkie asked, concerned. “Why didn’t you say so earlier, silly? You didn’t have to stay here so late!”

“I can go back with you, Boss!” Incantation quickly chimed in, seated next to Professor Awe. “And don’t even worry about the foals tomorrow! I’ll handle it, and I’ll even handle it when you’re all out finding Princess Celestia.”

Rarity winced. “No, darlings,” she said with visible difficulty. “I didn’t mean the Dreamland. Or Hollow Shades.” Her voice caught in her throat, but she recovered and continued: “I meant it’s time for me to go back to Ponyville.”

And there it was. And Twilight realized now that it made sense.

Princess Luna was free. The deed was done. This long, long arc was finished, and now Rarity wanted to go home to Ponyville.

Pinkie paused a second before laughing nervously. “Oh! You mean going back for a vacation? That’s fine, we can handle it until you’re gone!”

“Wait, wait, no, boss,” Ink interrupted, alert. “You don’t mean you’re moving back to Ponyville, right? Right? Boss?”

When Rarity simply smiled sympathetically, two thirds of the Dreamland team gasped, one standing up in horror and the other falling off Princess Luna’s back.

“You’re leaving Hollow Shades?!” Incantation exclaimed. “Boss! You can’t!”

Rarity didn’t relent. “Come now. You both always knew I had to go home at some point.”

Pinkie climbed back on top of Princess Luna. “But Hollow Shades is your home!”

“No.” When Rarity’s hoof tightened around Twilight’s, the alicorn tightened her winged embrace. “Ponyville is my home.”

Incantation fell down onto her haunches, tearing up. “But, Boss…”

“Wh-What about Princess Twilight?!” Pinkie protested, wiping at her eyes. “She doesn’t want to move back to Ponyville!” She turned to Twilight. “Right, Princess? Rarity would never go anywhere you aren’t!”

Rarity’s expression softened. “Pinkie…”

Pinkie ignored her, eyes still set on Twilight. “Right, Princess?”

Twilight hesitated, honestly unsure of what to say. Truthfully, she felt sad. She’d been in Hollow Shades for what felt so long now, she’d basically considered it her new home, and until moments ago, she thought Rarity did too.

She’d never even considered the fact that they’d have to go back.

But Hollow Shades wasn’t her home, was it? And neither was Ponyville, really. Her home was where her heart was, and her heart was wherever Rarity went.

So the choice was obvious.

“I’d like to go back to Ponyville, too,” she said, decisively. “I was thinking I could open a library there. One that isn’t inside the Everfree Forest.” She looked to Rarity warmly. “Do you think there’s space next to your boutique?”

Rarity teared up, relief evident in her eyes. “I’m certain we can figure something out.”

“What about us?” Incantation pleaded. “What are we supposed to do without you? What if we miss you?!”

Pinkie furiously nodded along. “We already miss you!”

Rarity laughed. “You say that as if you’re never going to see me again. I can visit, you know.”

“That’s not the same!” both Incantation and Pinkie protested.

“And how am I supposed to run the Dreamland without a co-owner?” Pinkie added, miserably.

“You won’t,” Rarity replied. She paused a moment and then carefully said, “I already have a successor in mind, in fact. I’ve had them in mind for a while now.”

“You have?” Pinkie asked. “Why didn’t you tell me?!”

“Frankly, darling, because I thought freeing Princess Luna would take several more years. I didn’t think I’d be resigning this soon.”

“...Well! Who is it?” pressed Incantation, leaning in. “Do I know them? Do I like them? If you’re leaving me, boss, it better be for someone I like, too!”

“Oh? In that case, I suppose it’s a good thing you seem to like yourself quite a lot, don’t you, Incantation?”

Ink frowned. “What? Why?” She narrowed her eyes. “Is it because I’ll dislike them so much that I’ll need my own love to feed?”

Twilight snorted at that, which the changeling thankfully didn’t notice on account of Rarity giving her A Look.

“Darling.”

Ink leaned back. “What?”

Dash spoke up: “Preeetty sure she means you, Ink.”

“What? No, she doesn’t.” She turned to Rarity for confirmation, but when Rarity simply fluttered her eyelashes, Ink practically choked on her saliva. “Wait, what?!” She stood up again, flabbergasted. “Me?! You want me to replace you as the owner?!”

“Yes,” Rarity replied, emotion filling her eyes. “As of whenever I leave, you shall own half of Princess Luna’s Dreamland.”

“B-But, Boss—!”

“I reckon’ that’s a great idea!” Applejack exclaimed. “‘Bout time a changeling owned a business without having to hide who they are!”

“That’s true!” Twilight added. “This would be a great first step for Changeling-Pony relations.”

“Y-Yeah!” Pinkie added. “And I’d take nopony else as my business partner!”

Incantation turned to her, overwhelmed with tears. “Chief…” She turned back to Rarity. “But—! I can’t! I’ll never be as good as you!”

Rarity grinned. “No. You shall be better. In fact, you already are. And you deserve this. I’m very proud of how far you’ve come, Incantation. I hope you know that. Or, rather, in your case, I hope you can feel it.”

Incantation laid down on the ground, sniffling as the professor patted her back sympathetically.

“I’ve never been so miserable to be so loved,” she sniffled, unable to stop herself from smiling when everyone laughed.

“When are you planning on moving back, Rarity?” Fluttershy asked next, the excitement in her voice rather evident despite her best attempts.

“I don’t know. Soon, I expect. We’ll sort out the details later. I don’t have to take all my belongings back to Ponyville yet, so perhaps I’ll just do a trial run of sorts.”

“To see if you realize you miss us too much and then you come back?” Pinkie asked, hopefully.

“Darling, Pinkie,” Rarity said, smiling affectionately. “I already miss you. And besides,” she added, teasing, “It’s not as though I’ll leave without saying goodbye properly.”

The conversation moved along after that, focused mostly on Princess Luna answering questions about her past and about old Equestria. Twilight, on her side, was more interested in the mare cuddled next to her, the both of them sharing a comfortable silence as they listened to the others.

This went on for about an hour, and by the end of it, almost everypony had left and only Rarity, Twilight and Princess Luna remained, all three waiting for Pinkie to come back from closing up the Dreamland.

“How are you feeling, Princess?” Twilight asked.

“I’m all right, Twilight. I feel more alive than I ever have… perhaps even before my incarceration.” She folded her legs in front of her and looked up towards the sky. “I confess I keep expecting to wake up as though this were a dream.” When she lowered her gaze, her eyes settled on the younger mares. She smiled. “I notice you two have been particularly affectionate towards each other tonight. I assume you’ve talked things out, then?”

Rarity laughed, turning to Twilight and brushing back her bangs with her magic. “That’s one way of putting it, yes.”

The princess nodded. “That is good to hear. I assume Twilight will be staying at your house in Ponyville until she finds a more permanent accommodation?”

“Oh! Well, actually, I’ve asked Twilight to move in with me,” Rarity said, both her and Twilight’s cheeks tinting red.

Princess Luna raised an eyebrow. “Move in with you?” Her eyes drifted towards Twilight, and Twilight felt her blush increase at Princess Luna’s smirk. “Interesting.” She turned back to Rarity. “Is moving in together the only thing you plan to do?”

Rarity faltered, her now suspicious gaze flickering briefly towards Twilight. “I… Yes? What else would we do?”

“Oh, nothing. I merely ask out of curiosity. You see, back before we were imprisoned, asking somepony to move in with you carried more archaic connotations,” she explained, politely ignoring Twilight discreetly shaking her head. “In our times, that was akin to a marriage proposal. Isn’t that right, Twilight?”

“...Yes,” Twilight replied, only slightly glaring at the grinning princess.

“Oh!” Rarity exclaimed. “Oh. Oh.” She turned to Twilight and gave her an amused pointed stare. “My, my! That certainly explains somepony’s earlier reaction.” She tilted her head to the side. “Alas! Too bad that tradition is long gone, no?”

“‘Too bad’?,” said Princess Luna, gravely. “I’m confused. Do you wish it were still akin to asking Twilight to wed you? Rarity, if that is what you want, you can just ask her to marry you. I hope you realize that.”

“Don’t be silly,” Rarity replied, amused, and yet when Princess Luna continued to stare in a very un-silly way, Rarity’s good-natured laugh stopped. “...You don’t think I actually want to marry Twilight, do you?”

“Wait.” Twilight pressed a hoof against her necklace, feigning hurt. “You don’t want to marry me?”

“What?!” Rarity blurted out, flustered. “That’s not what I said either!”

“That’s exactly what you said!” Twilight exclaimed.

“It is what you said,” Princess Luna added.

“I know it’s what I said!” Rarity threw them both glares. “But you know what I mean! Of course I want to marry Twilight!” she protested, right up until she noticed Twilight’s absolutely delighted expression and she turned yet another shade of red—that, too, was delightful. “But not right now, obviously! Maybe after we’ve saved all the princesses, and Discord is defeated, and if we’re still together!”

Twilight’s amusement vanished. “What do you mean ‘if’ we’re still together?!”

Rarity threw a hoof up in the air. “Darling! A few months ago I thought you were dead! Who knows what will happen in the next six months! Maybe I’ll be dead next!”

“She does have a point, Twilight,” Princess Luna noted, watching as a flustered Rarity settled back next to Twilight. “Though it would be appreciated if you avoided perishing, Rarity.”

“Very appreciated,” Twilight added with a giggle, wrapping a wing around Rarity and pulling her close for a nuzzle. “And don’t worry. I don’t want to marry you yet, either.”

“I should hope not! That would have been the single most unfabulous accidental proposal I’d ever seen. No, thank you. Imagine proposing so casually.”

“What if I propose casually?” Twilight teased. “Would you say no?”

“...No, but you’d have a very underwhelmed fiancé.”

“I’m baaaack!”

Twilight looked up to see Pinkie trotting towards them, a spring in her step.

She waved at Twilight. “Hi, Princess Twilight!” She waved at Princess Luna. “Hi, Princess Luna!” She turned to Rarity, and rather than waving, opened her eyes wide, actually teared up, and contorted her quivering lips into a cartoonishly sad face. “Hi, Rarity…”

“Pinkie, are you going to do that every time you look at me?”

“Maybe.” Her lips contorted down even more, which Twilight found heartwarming and disturbing in equal measure. Did she not have bones or face muscles, or…? “Unless it’s upsetting you.”

Rarity hummed. “Somewhat, yes.”

Immediately, Pinkie’s face snapped back to normal, her tears gone as if they’d never been there. “Oh no! I don’t want to upset you!” She climbed back on top of Princess Luna’s back and poked her head out. “Can I cry for real the day you leave?”

“Pinkie, if you don’t cry me a river deep enough I can swim in it the day I leave, I will be more than cross.” She then lifted her hoof and covered her mouth as she yawned. “Goodness. I want to keep talking, but I can barely keep my eyes open.”

“Do you want to go to bed?” Twilight asked, focusing away from the discussion Pinkie and Luna had started.

“No, I’ll be alright,” Rarity replied, snuggling up against her significant other and closing her eyes. “I just need to rest my eyes, unfortunately, but it’s not a problem.” She then opened them briefly. “Though… you don’t need to rest your eyes, do you?”

Twilight couldn’t help an affectionate smile.

“No.” Her horn lit up, and to a soft ping, their necklaces glowed. “I don’t.”

Another ping rang out, and as before, and hopefully every time moving forward, the two minds intertwined felt as though all was right.

Because it was.

“Twilight?”

Twilight turned away from Rarity and towards Pinkie and Princess Luna, finding both of them staring at her curiously.

Princess Luna’s eyes flickered back and forth between Twilight and Rarity’s resting body. This was the first time she was seeing the spell in action, which was likely the reason she asked:

“What happens now?”

What happens now. A question both Twilight and Rarity had asked themselves many times before in many different situations. A question that was so often tangled in a web of apprehension, and fear, and nerves.

A question whose answer was still the same.

“We don’t know,” Rarity replied, and when she smiled, so did Twilight in perfect unison, seamlessly finishing the sentence her other half had begun. “But we’re excited to find out.”

Author's Note

This probably would have been better right after Ch22 but a lot of things have happened between 22 and now (including me moving to a new place, a massive social movement in the U.S., my birthday, etc..) so I'm not too upset at myself.

Anyway, after these past chapters, I thought I should treat myself with unrestrained raritwi fluff.

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons, as well as my wonderful editors, and the talented chapter artists, ArcticWaters and lilfunkman! Credit for the ending picture goes to the wonderful Lollipony <3

Special thanks to Doomgooey, Dawnf1re, Isa,Snekinabox, and Jykinturah for offering their OCs for the chapter art!

Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

~ Epilogue ~ A Beautiful Night ~

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

~ Prologue ~ The Storyteller of Luna Bay ~

Author's Note

As was the case with The Enchanted Library, it is recommended you read this with a HIGH CONTRAST DARK or ULTRA DARK formatting setting so as to better experience the artworks and typography.

* * *

Dedicated to those who, like myself, are still struggling to fight external and internal demons that continue to haunt and scar us. Recovery starts not only with the choice to move on, but the choice to move on despite knowing it will still continue to be a difficult journey.

~ Prologue ~ The Storyteller of Luna Bay ~

On the northwestern-border of Equestria and The Undiscovered West, at the edge of Luna Bay, rested a small forgotten village by the name of Moon Shine. It did not feature on most maps as there was nothing remarkable about it beyond twenty houses, a run-down shop, a small school, a tiny post-office, and an inn older than all of the villagers combined.

If somepony had asked North Ridge when was the last time he'd stepped into an Equestrian town, the only truly accurate reply would be thirty-two years ago. Though he'd recently shaved his beard, the wrinkles on his face betrayed his age. Many would say that the earth pony was not elderly by any stretch of the imagination, and yet, he felt old.

Thirty-two years of travels had aged his soul.

Nighttime had fallen long ago, and the frigid wind and snow from the northern mountains fell down upon his dirty cloak and the sleeping village. He had hoped to find a settlement in daylight and ask for guidance, but life had taught him hopes were a bit a bushel.

It was odd to be back in Equestria, he thought as he walked the main street, looking for some sign of life. Had things changed? Or were they all the same as when he left? He yearned for familiarity, and yet the idea of nothing having changed was disappointing somehow. No last adventures, no secrets to be discovered.

Finally, he saw some promise in the distance, in the shape of what seemed to be an open establishment, lights shining out the windows. He could not see too clearly through the snowfall, but he'd travelled enough to recognize an inn when he saw one.

As he approached, the inn door swung open and out stumbled a young unicorn stallion. It seemed somepony had drank more than they could handle.

He trotted towards the stallion and waved.

"Excuse me!" he called, straining his voice so as to be heard despite the wind and snow. "Sir!"

The stallion blinked at him, and North's nose crinkled at the stench coming off him. "Huh? You're talking to me?" he asked, studying the older stallion with wary eyes.

"I am, yes!" North replied, finding himself happy to converse with a pony despite the circumstances. He looked around and asked, "Where are we? I've been travelling, and this place isn't on my map." He looked southward, where a shore was visible in the distance. "That is Luna Bay, isn't it?"

The stallion snorted. "Hah! Figures Moon Shine wouldn't be on any map. Nothin' good ever happens in this good-for-nothing place. Sick of it." He coughed once, twice, thrice, and rubbed his runny nose with a hoof. "You should go somewhere else."

North smiled sympathetically. "I suppose drinks don't heal all wounds."

The stallion grimaced. "I didn't go there to heal any wound, old-timer. I went in there for a nice time, and then the prettiest mare I've ever seen tells me to get lost when I asked her to join me, and then the innkeeper throws me out for that!" He stopped and groaned, rubbing his forehead. "Ugh." He looked back at North. "You're not from here. What's your deal?"

"I've been away from Equestria!" North exclaimed, standing up straighter. He was a remarkable traveler, if he said so himself. "And I've just come back after thirty-two years of travels! I'm heading to Canterlot. How is Princess Amore, if I may ask?"

"Deader than my chances with the mare from the pub," the stallion bluntly replied. "And her daughter's gone crazy. Bad time to come back, old-timer."

A pang shot through North's heart. Princess Amore was an older pony when he left Equestria, so it made sense that her child—Princess Denza, she liked to be called?—was now the ruling monarch.

"Crazy, you say?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. "She always did seem a bit rebellious, I suppose. What did she do to make you say that?"

"Grab a newspaper, pops. You wouldn't believe me even if I told you," the stallion replied, walking away and rubbing his no doubt throbbing headache. "I just hope Seeking Night wasn't your favorite holiday 'cause we don't need it anymore."

North watched him go. Strange things said by a strange stallion, he thought before walking towards the inn.

A sign swung above the oak door, proclaiming the worn down building as The Moonlit Inn. What a delightful name! With renewed interest, he pushed the door open and stepped inside.

As to be expected from the late hour, the dimly-lit establishment was nearly empty save for a few patrons drinking the night away. He took his cloak off, put it on the nearby rack, and when he turned towards the bar, was surprised to see no innkeeper in sight. He approached the counter and rang the deskbell.

"Give me a minute!" a voice called from inside the kitchen.

"Of course!" he called back.

That done, he turned around to find a spot to sit and, if he was lucky, somepony to share a drink with. A stallion sat by the bar, his face resting against his crossed forelegs, and the snores coming from him quickly crossed him out as a viable option. He looked to the left, saw a couple snuggling their youth away at a booth, and an aching heart forced him to look away. Finally, upon glancing right, he found the ideal candidate.

A unicorn mare sat alone at a table in the corner of the bar, and though he'd long ago stopped caring for love, he could still appreciate her beauty despite the obscuring shadow of her chosen spot. The lights were off around her, and yet she did not seem to be bothered.

The first thing he saw was her well-kept indigo mane which fell over her face, as if hiding her away. His eyes traveled down her pale gray coat, searching for her cutie mark. The sight of it torn away by three jarring scars gave him a start.

Well, well, he thought, it seems I have found the infamous heartbreaker.

He saw no drinks on her table, and though he'd been interested in approaching, he now wondered if it that was a wise decision. The last thing he wanted was for her to assume he had ill intent. It seemed he would be drinking alone that night.

Or he thought he would, until she turned and looked straight at him, and he had the sense she'd known he'd been watching her. They stared at each other silently, both waiting for the other to react, and so did North approach her when she finally smiled at him.

"Hello!' he greeted brightly, nodding his head towards the spot opposite her. "Is this seat taken?"

The mare smiled. "That depends entirely on what you seek to gain from sitting there, sir," she said, voice melodious.

North chuckled. "I can promise you I don't seek what the stallion that just left was looking for," he assured. "I only want to hear a story I've never heard before, and you look like somepony who has interesting stories to tell!"

Her smile grew, apparently pleased by his statement. "You are a flatterer, aren't you? But you're also quite right. I have stories ponies would hardly believe." She tilted her head. "You seem interesting yourself, sir. Please, do sit down."

"I will, but first, a drink! It's been a long day," he said, having noticed the innkeeper’s return. "What will I be bringing you?"

"Nothing, I fear," she replied. "I don't have my bitbag with me at the moment."

North smiled. "You can repay me with a story, then," he said, and again asked, "What will I be bringing you?"

Finally, after a moment's hesitation, she accepted. "Whatever you're having will do."

Though the innkeeper had returned, his attention was hardly on his customers and more on the newspaper floating before him. The younger stallion's words echoed in North's mind, and he found himself trying to catch a glance at the front page, but only succeeded in reading as far as "Princess Cadenza Armor the Tenth's Shocking—"

"Evening," the stallion said, putting the newspaper away and giving North an expectant stare. "What can I get you?"

North hummed, looking upwards and scanning over the menu hanging on the wall. His first drink in Equestria! It had to be a very important and unique drink befitting such a momentous occasion.

"Black coffee, please!" he said, licking his lips. "Make that two of them. One for me and one for my new friend!"

The bartender's brow furrowed slightly, and North saw him glance at the mare for a moment. When she smiled, he replied.

"Black coffee it is," he said, finally. "Anything to eat?"

North hummed again. "A daffodil and daisy sandwich should do."

The bartender nodded and headed off towards the kitchen, giving North time to idle around. His new friend was still at her table, now entertained by examining her forehoof. What an intriguing mare, he thought. There was something about her, like she were trying to hide something away in that dark corner of the bar.

His mind wandered towards the newspaper again, and his curiosity clawed at him. He'd seen the innkeeper stash the newspaper away inside the counter, so… a quick peek at the front page surely wouldn't hurt? He'd once outrun feral lions; he could certainly read a newspaper before the owner came back.

He walked around the counter and spotted the stashed object. He inched towards it, taking a moment to inspect everything else behind the counter, and froze when his eyes met the wastebasket.

Inside it were a dozen or so scrunched up newspaper pages, and though that wasn't an altogether shocking sight, there happened to be a single page that had simply been thrown away rather than crumpled into a ball. It was because of this that he'd caught the word "MISSING" printed at the top in large red letters, and yet it was not that fact that caught his attention, but the photograph printed below it. Blinking, he grabbed the paper and found himself staring at a wrinkled photo of the very same mare still inspecting her hoof at her table.

At that moment, North Ridge learned three important details about his new friend.

One: Her name was Rarity.

Two: She had last been seen several days ago near a place called Dodge Junction which, if memory served, was entirely on the other side of Equestria.

Three: A mere two days ago, Princess Denza had launched a kingdom-wide search for her.

And yet there she sat, admiring her hooficure with unusual interest.

A sound came from the kitchen: hoofsteps drawing closer. North quickly threw away the page and returned to his spot in front of the counter. It had been quite some time since his heart had last beat as fast as it did now. There had only ever been one mare he'd found more fascinating than this Rarity, and that had been his own wife.

"Here you go," the innkeeper said, a tray with a plate and two cups of coffee floating behind him. "Enjoy."

"Th-Thank you!" North sputtered, trotting to the coat hanger and pulling his bitbag out the pocket of his cloak. "How much will that be?"

The bartender again glanced at Rarity before saying, "Don't mind that. It's on the house."

North blinked. "I—Really? Are you sure?"

"Yes," he said. "Just don't upset her, or I'll have to ask you to leave."

"Of course not," North said, bowing his head before taking the tray and walking back to his very interesting table companion.

"Here you are!" he exclaimed after setting down the tray, subsequently sitting across from the mare. "On the house, too! Lucky day for both of us!"

"Glass Drops has been quite kind to me," she replied, watching as he placed the cup before her. She then fluttered her eyelashes and added, "Though I do appreciate your intention." She leaned back a bit and tilted her head. "So, Mister…"

"North Ridge," he filled in. "And you?"

"Princess Rarity the First," she replied simply.

North blinked, raising an eyebrow. "Really?" he asked, and so did she giggle.

"No, but you cannot deny me the simple pleasure of making a stranger believe I'm royalty," she replied. Her ears then flickered and her brow furrowed. "Then again," she continued, and she lifted her hoof for a moment as if to grasp the pink broken crystal hanging from her neck, until she stopped and lowered her hoof. "I was hoping to be princess-consort. Or I may yet still be. I'm not quite sure anymore."

Rarity fell silent, staring down at her coffee, lost in thought. What was she thinking, he wondered.

"So, North Ridge," she spoke up, lifting her gaze towards him. "What is your story?"

North grinned. "Miss Rarity, I asked you that first."

"Indeed you did," she replied, "but a lady does not divulge her secrets to just anypony."

"Fair enough," North said, taking a big gulp of his coffee. When he put the cup down, he rubbed a hoof against his muzzle, deep in thought. "I am a traveler, if that tells you anything. I left Equestria as a young stallion to explore the lands beyond the western border, and thirty-two years later, I've finally come back home."

"Well! That is quite the story, if a bit too brief," she said, but the smile she wore clearly showed she was pleased. She leaned in a bit, her ears perked towards him. "Thirty-two years is quite a long time. What brought you back to Equestria?"

He did not hesitate. "My wife, Frost Flower."

Her eyes suddenly sparkled with life. "Really? She sounds lovely," she exclaimed and then giggled. "I can imagine she'd be quite worried if you've been gone for thirty-two years."

His heart twisted a little, and though it was a subject he did not share with others, he felt inspired for once. "Those who are gone do not worry about the living, Miss Rarity," he said carefully, and felt somewhat bad when the sparkles in her eyes vanished. "She was my companion not just in life, but in travel. Sadly, she's gone now."

"Oh. My condolences."

He waved her off with a hoof. "It's all right. As they say, time will heal all wounds."

Again, she seemed lost in thought, staring at her coffee. "You must miss her terribly," she said.

"All the time," he admitted. "I thought it would ease with the years, but it hasn't. I see her everywhere. It's like she's haunting me."

Rarity looked up at him, suddenly amused. "Love makes ghosts of us all, it would seem."

"How about you?" he asked in return. "Do you have somepony you love?"

It was the right question to ask for the intensity of her sudden smile surprised him. The sparkle in her eyes returned, yet something else was there, something sad, he could tell. But that smile. It was not the largest smile he'd seen, yet it was by far one of the most sincere smiles he'd ever gotten from a stranger.

"I do," she replied, sitting up straight. "I do, and I'm embarrassed to think about just how madly in love I am with her. My only consolation is that I'm quite certain she's just as madly in love with me."

A grin pushed itself onto his lips. What a painful yet heartwarming sight. It made him think of his wife, and he wished she were there. He was sure Frost and Rarity would have been fast friends.

"What's her name, if I may ask?"

Without hesitation, and with a smile, she replied, "Twilight Sparkle."

He thought about remarking on what a lovely name that was, but another question drifted into his mind. Those missing posters clung in his memory, and so did the answers he sought, prompting him to carefully ask, "And does she know you're here?"

"If you ask because of the missing posters—yes, I saw you looking at them—then no, she does not know I'm here," she replied. Her eyes softened, and the sadness in them deepened—as if that very fact of keeping secrets from her beloved wounded her.

"Miss Rarity, if I promise to keep your secret, will you tell me the story behind that poster?" he asked, having found an entryway into what promised to be a tale to remember. "I won't be leaving for Canterlot until tomorrow, and it's been some time I've shared an Equestrian coffee with a friend."

She hummed, inspecting him with her gaze. "I won't be leaving for Ponyville until tomorrow night," she said eventually, and with a tilt of her head, agreed. "All right, then. Have you heard of the Myth of the Four Princesses?"

"When I was a foal," he replied. "Once upon a time lived four beautiful princesses who slighted a terrible beast, and as punishment, he trapped three of them throughout the land, doomed to live as spirits while the remaining princess and her descendants were cursed to never find the others."

"And which princess is your favorite?" she asked, and the sudden seriousness in her expression was jarring considering the foalishness of her line of questioning.

"Is that relevant?" he asked.

"Absolutely," she replied.

He chuckled. "Then I would say the answer to be Princess Dusty Scrolls. I don't know what name you know her by, but that was the name for her in my hometown."

She frowned. "Princess Dusty Scrolls? That's the youngest of the princesses! What wonderful taste you have!" She grinned at him for a moment and then hummed thoughtfully. "Hmm… That would mean you're from Tall Tales, are you not?" she ventured, and so did she give a winning smile when he nodded. "I'm from Ponyville! We refer to her as Princess Booky back home, and—yes, yes, I know it's not the most original of names, don't laugh!"

North grinned at her. "And what does Princess Booky have to do with your missing posters, then?"

"Why, everything," she replied, and then leaned in, looking to either side conspiratorially. "I found her," she said completely and utterly seriously. "I found the lost princess, North Ridge!"

He stared at her for quite some time.

"Did you now?" he asked, amused. He didn't know what Rarity was getting at, but he could admit it was entertaining.

"I did! It's true!" she insisted, nodding her head. "I found her inside the Everfree Forest, and she now walks upon Equestria, free of her forsaken library. We've become very close, you know."

"Have you now? I must say I've met and seen all manner of creatures and beings during my travels, but I've yet to befriend an ages-old lost princess," he admitted, delighting in playing her silly game. "You have to tell me, then, what is her real name?"

And again, without hesitation, and with an even broader smile, she replied, "Twilight Sparkle."

North Ridge stared at her for what felt like years. He lifted his cup of coffee and took a lengthy drink before putting it down and looking at her again.

"The very same Twilight Sparkle that you're madly in love with, and who is madly in love with you?"

Her grin widened. "The very same, yes."

"Miss Rarity," he said, leaning forwards, "the conviction with which you say these lies is very impressive."

"Now, North! We're such frightfully good friends, and yet you doubt me?" she asked with mock-offense. "What reason could I possibly have to lie to you about such things?"

He thought about his answer to that for quite some time, staring at her coffee and noting she'd been talking for so long, she had yet to have a single sip.

"To be honest," he finally said, "I can't think of any reason, and more than that, I think I actually want to believe your fantastic tale." He gestured for her to continue. "You found Princess Twilight Sparkle, a spirit of olde, and then you freed her from her prison?"

"Not at all," Rarity replied, and in her voice he detected a great deal of pride. "She freed herself. My beloved escaped her personal Tartarus by fighting the fiercest of her inner demons, and she came out all the stronger for it."

He hummed. "I've learned in my travels that the fiercest of creatures were often forged in the harshest of fires."

"Precisely," she replied. "And my privileged role was simply to light the flame."

North took his cup for the third time, and finished it off in one go. When he put it down again, he examined her with the same curiosity as she had earlier regarded him with.

"You tell interesting stories, Miss Rarity."

She fluttered her eyelashes. "We are all stories in the end, North. I will be a fairytale, just as you will one day. Better make them interesting ones, wouldn't you agree?"

"I do! Very much so! That same ideology is what drove me to explore the west!" He licked his lips, wondering how many more cups of coffee would he be drinking that night. "So then, our fairytale princess saved herself from her terrible demons? What happened next?"

Rarity's response was simple. "She fell asleep."

He blinked. "She fell asleep," he repeated. "And what happened next?"

Rarity giggled, raising an eyebrow. "Isn't it obvious?" she asked. "She woke up."

~ Interlude I ~ A Near-Death Experience ~

Face to face, he saw her only once.

In his dreams, however, he’d seen her nearly every other night; in dreams where his hindlegs still worked, still moved, where he was not crippled for life.

He was a painter by trade. Or had been, at least. He was more accurately a fool; a fool who’d embarked on an ill-fated journey to trap the world in paintings and now found himself trapped in the unforgiving claws of the forest.

He’d lost his supplies, lost his way, and he feared his very own life would soon follow. He’d scavenged whatever food he could find, whatever might feed him, and had been too blinded by hunger to realize he’d eaten a too generous hoof-full of poisonous duskshade berries.

The hallucinations, like nighttime, had descended upon him some time ago, but now he could barely walk, barely move as he pushed through the poison and deeper into the woods. Would he die alone?

He thought of his wife. He thought of his daughter, and his grandfoals.

The sound of a cascading, raging waterfall filled the dry air, intermingling with his ragged breaths. He reached a clearing and found before him a lake and waterfall larger than mountains themselves. He tried to make sense of it, tried to figure out where he could be, but the poison seeped into his mind and clouded his thoughts.

“He-Help…” he called out, to the night, to the stars, to whoever might listen. “He...Help! Please! Some...” He collapsed to the ground. “Somepony…”

...Little one...

He opened his eyes and looked up, a gentle voice whispering to him. Oh, he was hardly a foal, but he could not think to argue with a voice as motherly as that one. Was he dying? Had his mother come fetch him from beyond the stars and the earth?

...I am here, Little one...

“Whe…”

His voice drifted off, his eyes drawn towards the waterfall crashing down. He could see it; beyond the lake, there was a light. It called him, beckoned him, and his eyes widened when a faint golden magic enveloped the waterfall. He watched as it parted in two and revealed the entrance to a cave.

With whatever energy he could muster, he forced his body off the ground and walked towards the river. The water was as cold as the night air and yet, the more he stared at the light, the closer he swam towards it, the more a strange sort of warmth took over.

The more, it seemed, his pain faded away.

Perhaps he truly was dying.

Eventually, he reached the cave, climbing out from the river and into solid ground.

In the distance, where the light was, he saw the outline of a creature. He walked towards it—towards her. As he approached her, he could see the outline of a horn, and whatever spell she was casting was bright enough he could see her perfectly when standing before her.

He fell to his haunches and wondered if he was still hallucinating.

An alicorn sat before him.

An alicorn, tall and goddess-like and still as a statue. Her closed eyes betrayed no emotion, no sign of life, and her wings were firmly pressed against her body, nearly hiding the sun-shaped cutie mark she bore.

And her horn.

Her horn, he noticed with horror, was cracked, but it still glowed brightly enough he could see the tears rolling down her cheeks.

The beautiful creature was crying.

He stepped back, and a ripping sound on the floor caught his attention. Several dozen or more scrolls lay scattered all around, all of them in various stages of decay. He grabbed one and tried to decipher the faded out words, but it was hard. He was tired, and dying, and they were all written in big scrawling, desperate letters.

Pri c ss, it's me, Sp ke,

wh re are you??? ??

i c n’ find Twil g t, can t f nd prin ess Luna, Shin ng Ar or is g ne

plea e help us pl ase ple se pri ces wh re are y u

ple se an wer

“Is it commonplace now to read somepony else’s mail?”

Startled, he looked up towards the mare, and she looked exactly as she did before, save for the smile on her lips.

“Yo-Your horn,” he said, the only thing he could think to say. “It…”

“I am not in pain,” she replied in an almost heavenly voice, light and carefree and gentle. “Or, if I am, I’ve grown used to it.”

A sharp jolt of pain shot through his body, and he groaned.

“Are you dying?” he asked, when he managed to collect himself. He couldn’t rightly tell if it was meant for her or for him. Probably both.

“Am I dying? No, I no longer can,” she replied with shocking nonchalance. “In other circumstances, I would be able to, but it would take quite some time. My sister and I are ageless alicorns.” She paused, frowning. “My niece and my student aren't, however. I sometimes envied them for it.” She smiled. “It's all in the past now, isn't it? But now... time, life, and death are inconsequential for one in my current position.”

“Can you move?” he asked, even as his body began to fail him. “Can you heal?”

“I will never move again,” she replied. “But if I move and stop casting my spell, I could heal myself.”

“You...you must,” he said, suddenly clinging to the health of the alicorn. She needed to live, for he feared he would not, but if she survived death, maybe he too would be pulled from the brink. “Please… you need help…”

He collapsed onto the ground, the pain ripping him apart, and his vision blurring. He struggled to keep it focused on her.

“You are kind,” she replied, “but you were the one asking for help, weren’t you?”

Finally, she opened her eyes. She opened her eyes, and they were pitch-black. They were black, and sad, and she continued to cry. He wondered if he ought to be afraid of her, but realized he was afraid for her.

“Why are you dying?” she asked gently.

“Duskshade berries,” he said, his speech starting to slur.

“How long ago?”

“Time...is inconsequential...isn’t it?” he echoed, and found it in him to smile even through the agony. He thought about his family. “My wife, my daughter…”

She did not reply. He thought, for a moment, that she was waiting to watch him die. A weeping angel to look after him in his final moments. He thought of his daughter. He thought of his grandfoals.

“One pony.”

He looked up, confused by her words, and found her looking away. He realized she was not talking to him, but instead seemed to be talking to herself.

“One pony,” she said. “He is asking you for help, and you brought him here. One pony.”

She looked down at him, and the sadness in her eyes vanished. They were hard, and cold, and yet… kind at the same time. She was going to kill him, he thought. And he was too gone to fight it.

“Please stay completely still,” she instructed.

She took a breath, and when the spell stopped with a crackle of magic, she gasped in pain and nearly tumbled down. Before he could hope to try and offer help, she steadied herself and her horn glowed anew.

Except, now it was he who was enveloped in golden magic.

“Don’t speak,” she replied when he opened his mouth to do so. “We have little time.”

He did as told, and magic filled him with a burning heat, as though the sun itself pulsed through his veins. Except, though it burned, the other pain he felt began to fade, his limbs began to stir, and his vision clear. He realized that somehow, someway, she was burning the poison away.

And then, it happened.

A loud, deafening crack sounded off behind her in the darkness of the cave, and her eyes widened with unrestrained fear.

And a laugh.

Deep, raspy, terrifying.

“...hello, Princess...”

He saw them.

Two yellow terrifying eyes behind her.

“I am sorry, my little pony,” she said quickly, desperately, and before he could ask, she stopped the healing spell. Both she and him hissed in pain, but she quickly unleashed another spell. A barrier surrounded her, and again she sat completely still, her horn glowing and crackling.

“...oh, my dear, it’s too late now..."

She gritted her teeth and said nothing.

“...all this to save him? Threw it all away for a single pony? You really are a fool.”

The painter tried to speak, but his vision clouded again.

“I stopped the poison,” she said gently, and she continued to cry. “I stopped it, but I could not undo the damage to your legs. I am sorry. You must go. You…” She swallowed. “You have been here too long.” She smiled kindly. “Thank you. ‘Tis a long, long time since I’ve seen a pony.”

And before he could say much, before he could ask her name, her horn glowed as brightly as the sun itself, and with a final agonized groan, she cast a third spell.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself in an entirely different place. A road. He could see a town in the distance, and ponies moving about.

Exhaustion swept over him, and he tried to remember where he’d been, tried to remember what he’d seen, but the more he tried to do so, the more the details blurred away. By the time he fell asleep, by the time he was found, his memories of the past days had gone, and only her image remained.

The weeping princess who’d saved his life.

Her image, her voice, and those yellow eyes would haunt him until death.

Author's Note

that feel when you're about to die and you meet a literal alicorn

throwing a small interlude your way, because I had a very difficult writing month, emotionally speaking, and I only just managed to get over it yesterday. I'm doing my best to stay positive and keep writing, tho, so here we are! It's a lil thing but still exciting nonetheless as we wait for chapter 3.

Thanks as always to my amazing patrons!
Please let me know if you see a typo or error (preferably via PM)! Thank you!

~ Interlude V ~ A Quiet Moment ~

She hadn’t been able to sleep since they came back from the library.

She simply lay on the edge of her bed, unable to tear her eyes away from the sleeping alicorn beside her, the ink all over her coat staining the sheets and Sweetie Belle huddled next to her.

For hours, she was convinced it was a dream. It had to be. Any moment now, she thought, she’d hear Incantation yelling her name, she’d wake up back at Hollow Shades, and Twilight would still be sealed inside the library.

But the hours had passed, and the more they passed, the more she had to confront the fact that it wasn’t a dream.

Twilight really had been freed from the library.

Pinkie was awake when Rarity came down the stairs at around five in the morning.

“Rarity!” she exclaimed, and she was happy, and thrilled, and delighted, and it was jarring. “You’re awake! Were you too excited to sleep, too?!”

Rarity smiled thinly. “Ah. I suppose I was.”

It was jarring and uncomfortable, and Rarity didn’t know why, but it was. Hours ago, she’d shared that joy! Double, even triplefold, endlessly relieved and overjoyed that Twilight was back, completely drunk in the euphoria of what seemed to be a miracle.

She’d been happy, but somewhere in between then and now, reality had settled and now she was something else. Something she didn’t quite want to think about it, because whatever it was, it felt bad.

It felt frightening.

She hadn’t seen Twilight Sparkle in two years.

She’d been torn apart from Twilight longer than she’d actually had her.

She made herself tea, in this house from this town she’d abandoned from sheer paralyzing grief—over somepony she’d only known for a year! Dear stars, dear stars, dear stars above—listening quietly as Pinkie rambled on and on. How excited she was! How thrilled! If Princess Twilight had gotten out, then Princess Luna would, too! With every excited hop around the kitchen, the pink necklace Pinkie had been wearing for over a year bounced on her chest. It bounced, and bounced, and it was transfixing and mesmerizing until Rarity remembered when she’d taken it off.

Remembered the hazy hours of staring at the necklace for days on end feeling like nothing else mattered.

She quickly looked away, fixing her stare on her cup of tea and the drops spattered on the table around it, and she hated it.

How she hated it.

Pinkie left a little later, off to see Mister and Missus Cake so she could use their kitchen to bake Twilight a cake. Rarity waved her off, standing under the frame of the front door, and when Pinkie was but a speck in the distance, she went back inside to pour herself another cup.

This time, her hoof was steady. A small insignificant detail, but it mattered to her.

She sat down at the kitchen table, dropped a sugarcube inside, and then stirred the tea with her magic. Stirred, and stirred, and stirred it, a mechanical motion that allowed her to press her chin on her hoof and look off into the distance, her thoughts drifting her away.

For the past two years, after a six-month haze of grief, Rarity the unicorn was fearless. Fearless enough to leave her hometown, fearless enough to be blinded into abandoning her fashion career and everything she’d built, fearless enough to try and free Princess Luna from her cave. All these things that might have once frightened or stopped her did not anymore.

She hadn’t been afraid of anything going wrong, because no matter what happened, no matter how badly it went, no matter what it was, nothing in the world would ever absolutely and completely shatter her as much as losing Twilight had. Nothing could devastate her as that had.

One couldn’t really fear death anymore when one had already died.

And now, all of a sudden, Twilight was back.

Just like that.

Author's Note

And with this posted, all that’s left is the end of Act II, which will comprise of two chapters posted back to back (maybe a short act epilogue) and an interlude. All of these posted back to back.

It’s strange to see this posted, as this entire interlude was conceived and first drafted back in 2017. Somewhere in the depths of my GDocs is the first scene of TEK’s first chapter written entirely in Rarity’s POV. This scene is part of it. The unpublished beginning of a quiet arc that has spanned literally the entire fic thus far. A quiet reminder that the beating heart of this saga is still the bond between Fashion Horse and Book Horse.

Tattered, and scarred, and bleeding, but still beating.

I’m excited to see its conclusion! And for those of you who’ve stuck with me through highs and lows, through my neverending awful updating schedules, I hope it’ll be worth it. The entire story isn’t over, but this arc will be, and I hope it’ll be as meaningful to you as it is to me.

Be on the lookout for Act II’s grand finale: The Nightmare Night & The Filly who Hoped.

Stay safe, everyone!