-<>~--*--~<>-<

Aurelic wakes to some strange noises in the castle, odd noises he can't quite pin down, like he's never heard before. Donning his Forge disguise, he leaves his room towards the library. That's when he notices the open gate to the Starswirl the Bearded section, and strewn scrolls, books, and papers scattered all over the ground. Before he can enter, he sees a very banged-up looking Twilight, along with Pinkie, and an unwell Spike.

"Oh, hey Forge. You aren't gonna believe what just happened to me today, and last week." Twilight starts, about to start recounting her escapades through time.

"Actually, I do know. You went through a bootstrap paradox. By going back in time using that spell, it caused your past self to go through the exact actions necessary to facilitate your traveling to the past in the first place, creating a closed loop in time. Time corrected itself, because time wants to happen the way it does. The only being capable of truly altering it I know of is Discord, by bringing me here to give him new freedom, as temporary as it was." Forge explains, leaving out that the spell can alter time when altered by one who knew what they were doing.

Pinkie looks dizzy-eyed for a moment, before shaking it off. "I have no idea what you just said, but O-K."

Twilight looks just as dumbfounded. "You, how? You had visions of it, AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!? I could've saved SO much time not worrying!"

"I'd bet even if I tried to tell you, your stubbornness would have kept you on this path anyway, so it was pointless to try. And if it had worked, I would have ended up creating a real paradox, where you never went back in time the way you were to warn yourself. The original future you would be erased after that." Forge continues.

"I, uh... Huh, so by keeping the bootstrap paradox in place, time continues normally afterwards. That's so weird." Twilight says, rubbing her forehead with a hoof.

"Not everyone can understand time-travel and its different paradoxes immediately. You'll understand without racking your brain over it once you're used to the concepts." Forge says, entering the library past Twilight.

"Wait, where are you going?" Twilight asks, turning to look at Forge.

"To do a bit of reading. I'm almost halfway through with everything in this section." Forge says, heading over to a shelf.

Twilight, Pinkie, and Spike simply head off, presumably back to Ponyville.

"Her time traveling means Cerberus left Tartarus unguarded. Tirek's out and about now, though he won't be a problem until after Twilight gets her wings. I have an end-goal now, and to get it, I need to let Tirek do his thing. Plus, witnessing that massive anime fight's gonna be so cool!" Forge thinks giddily as he picks up where he left off.

-<>~--*--~<>-<

As Forge trots through Canterlot, he notices Rarity walking and talking with Fancy Pants and his crew.

"Gala must be close... but Twilight's birthday is even closer... I should get her a gift, but what... Not a book, I don't know what she doesn't have, and a duplicate book isn't exactly a good gift. Something to do with books, but isn't a book... and it has to be soon..." Forge ponders, until Rarity waves over at him.

"Foooorge! Could you be a dear and come here for a moment?" Rarity asks with a wide grin.

"Using me to impress them huh? Rarity, you manipulative little cunt." Forge thinks with an eyeroll, walking over to the group of socialites.

"And this is my dear friend Turner Forge. He's a royal blacksmith working under Princess Celestia herself!" Rarity half-lies, eliciting oohs and ahs from the other ponies.

"I do say, it's a pleasure to make your acquaintance mister Forge." Fancy Pants greets with an extended hoof.

"Oh, the pleasure is all mine sir Pants. Might I add that you look rather dashing today, a shame I was ill-prepared for such a meeting." Forge fakes in the most genuine way possible.

After all, Fancy Pants is just about the only noble pony he actually likes.

"Fret not, I know a gentlecolt when I see one. Say, how do you know miss Rarity?" Fancy asks.

"Well, I just so happened to enter her fine establishment, leaving with a custom-embroidered set of bags. Naturally, I couldn't stop myself from buying more of her ensembles, they radiate a sense of fashion I haven't seen from any other retailer thus far." Forge lies, Rarity nodding in approval.

"I see what you mean, she's always dressed so stylishly." Fancy comments, turning back to his group, whom are now murmuring about visiting Rarity's boutique sometime.

"Well, I'd better be off then. I have some errands to run. Ta ta." Forge says, walking off.

"Jesus, I don't think I could keep that up for much longer without slipping into sarcasm. But hey, Rarity's going to face her lies soon enough." Forge thinks as he wanders over to a quill shop. "Maybe I could find something here. I've got the spare income for a place like this. Something on the expensive side, but not too expensive..."

-<>~--*--~<>-<

His shopping done, Forge settled on a nicer looking quill and inkwell organizer, assembly required. Of course, he'd assemble it fully before wrapping it. Thanks to Rarity's appearance in Canterlot, he has a rough estimate of the days until Twilight's birthday. Naturally, he'd likely see her in the castle on occasion, particularly at one of the very special suites usually designated for delegates of other nations on their visits. One small look inside and he would have a near perfect time frame. However, Pinkie has other plans, as Forge discovered via a little pink envelope that had clearly been slipped underneath his door when he was out. Unsurprisingly, it was Twilight's birthday invitation, scheduled a week from now.

"Well then, looks like I won't need to peek in Rarity's room for the time. This invitation says it all. Funny how that works, I bought a gift for Twilight even before I got the invitation." Forge thinks happily as he cleans up the confetti from the explosive mess Pinkie's invitations tend to leave in their wake.

Locking his bedroom door, Forge reverts to Aurelic, opening the boxed quill and inkwell organizer. Setting the instructions next to the open box, he begins the process of assembling it.

-<>~--*--~<>-<

Aurelic sits in his room, his gift for Twilight already wrapped three days ago. As of right now, he's staring at the vial of pink pills containing his love supplements.

"Something isn't right here... When Thorax got his glittering wings, he wasn't hungry at all. Yet, here I am, needing to take these pills from time to time... Why am I not satisfied? Why do I have to take these things? And most importantly... Why am I still black with holes? What am I doing wrong? Aurelic ponders, his eyes still fixed on those pills.

"I have to figure this out, something clearly isn't adding up." He confirms, deciding on his next course of action.

In the meantime, he goes back to his tinkering.

-<>~--*--~<>-<

Forge is beside himself with giddy disbelief. Here he is, helping throw Twilight up in the air and catching her when she lands. Not only was this something he's never done before, but it's also with the characters he used to believe were just fiction. Yet, here he is, celebrating Twilight's birthday with them.

Up next, Twilight passes slices of cake out as she cuts them. Forge noted the cake itself was quite simple, chocolate with strawberry icing. Most likely a request by Twilight. Suddenly, cake flies into Fluttershy's and Applejack's faces, and then HIS face. All brought on by a cackling Rainbow Dash. The cake doesn't last much longer, being completely obliterated in the following food fight.

Before he knows it, Forge ends up being dragged into a conga line, sandwiched right between Applejack and Rainbow Dash. While he does notice when Rarity makes her escape, he chooses not to mention it, for obvious reasons. If he knew one thing, it was not to interfere in the friendship lessons. Or at least, for now.

"Okay everypony! It's time for the Friendship Frenzy Pinata Bash!" Pinkie exclaims, dashing out of sight in the blink of an eye, quickly returning with multiple pinatas, and hanging them all in the span of a few seconds.

"W-wait, why are there so many? Isn't it usually one pinata?" Forge asks, looking at the pinata hung just in front of every present pony.

"Why have one pinata, when you can have ALL OF THEM? That way everypony gets more candy, AND can bash open their own pinatas! That's why it's called the Friendship Frenzy Pinata Bash! Because you and all of your friends race to see who can open their pinatas first! Pretty cool idea, riiiiiiight?" Pinkie nudges Forge's shoulder, before immediately zooming off, returning to put a bat in everypony's mouth, then blindfold them all.

Forge shrugs, and is immediately startled when Pinkie blows a whistle. "GO!"

Forge starts swinging away at his pinata, without using his magic, it's a race after all.

-<>~--*--~<>-<

After a while of Rarity sneaking off, she comes back holding damning evidence. A croquet mallet.

"Uh, what's with the croquet mallet?" Rainbow asks.

"Whht crrqhh mllllt?" Rarity asks, her mouth filled with croquet mallet.

"Duh, the one in your mouth?" Rainbow continues, talking about said croquet mallet.

It dawns on Rarity that she did, in fact, have a croquet mallet in her mouth. She quickly drops it.

"Ahahahah, oh, that croquet mallet. I, well I- you know, the truth is- the truth is..." Rarity fails to word, the croquet mallet lying right in front of her on the floor.

"Rarity, were you at that other party in the garden?" Twilight asks, stepping closer to Rarity, and the ground-bound croquet mallet by proxy.

Rarity seems to have acquired marbles in her mouth, in place of the croquet mallet.

"Rarity, I'm surprised at you." Twilight says, Rarity soon joining the croquet mallet on the floor.

The croquet mallet lies there, having been tossed away by the pony who had deigned to grab it, unable to fulfill its purpose of hitting a croquet ball from this new position. It is unaware of the struggles of the pony who had tossed it aside, the mallet only concerned with its own lack of usefulness at the present. As the ponies begin to leave, a different one picks up the croquet mallet, relieving it of its former state of being useless. The one who grabbed the croquet mallet seems to be a bit taller than the previous pony, bearing a somewhat brighter white coat. Not that the croquet mallet could perceive any of this, for it was just a croquet mallet. Eventually, the croquet mallet was placed back in its proper resting spot. Were it alive and able to think, it would be grateful for this. Alas, it was simply, a wooden croquet mallet. With some red acrylic paint applied to it.

Forge, having put away the croquet mallet, now watches on in glee as the high society "party" is crashed by the other five Ponyville residents. "Karma's only a bitch when you are."

Everything comes to a head when Twilight reveals that her unintentionally unfinished dress had been made by Rarity.

"You know these ponies?" Fancy Pants asks Rarity with a raised brow.

Rarity is suffering an internal mental breakdown, an imaginary croquet mallet bashing around the inside of her skull. Figuratively speaking. She makes her decision, walking up to the Canterlot Elite with a determined expression.

"Yes. Yes I do know them. They may not be as sophisticated as some of you Canterlot ponies, but they are my best friends. And they are without a doubt, the most important I know." Rarity affirms, smiling back at the group.

"Important ponies? These ruffians?" Jet Set mocks.

"Don't make me laugh." Upper Crust chimes in.

Forge steps forward. "Excuse me, are any of you aware who they are? They're the bearers of the Elements of Harmony! Highly important magical artifacts that they've used to save the world from eternal night and eternal chaos! Without the efforts of these six ponies right here, you'd all be suffering the wrath of Nightmare Moon, AND Discord! These ruffians are by FAR more accomplished than the lot of you put together! If you can't appreciate them for who they are or what they've done for all of you, then you're not worth their time or effort." He caps his statement with an affirmative, light hoof stomp.

Fancy Pants steps forward. "Well, they certainly sound highly accomplished indeed."

Jet Set, and Upper Crust both look shocked at this, while the rest of the Canterlot Elite simply acknowledge Fancy's statement.

"And, I also quite like that dress. I dare say every mare in Canterlot will be wanting one."

"Ooh, I'd like to place my order right now." Upper Crust says, in stark contrast with her previous attitude, pressing her face up to Rarity's from the right.

"I think you should get two." Jet Set says to his wife, while pressing his face into Rarity's from the left.

Rarity steps forward, causing both snobs to collide their heads together.

"Yes, yes, now then. How about you introduce me to your friends." Fancy Pants switches the topic.

"With pleasure!" Rarity beams.

Forge mentally crosses this particular little event off, enjoying the rest of the evening, eventually returning to Twilight's birthday party with the rest of the group.

Author's Note

Sorry for not posting for so long, so to make up for it, here's a bigger chapter. Also, did I forget to mention the croquet mallet?