Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

Some cruel entity was laughing at me inside my head as I picked up the Element of Honesty and placed it into my saddlebag. I faced Glowing Sera.

"I don't really know what to say for that." She commented.

I took a step down the staircase. "Well, at least we know they're still coming my way. Go on ahead and find a group to join." I continued walking down the stairs and found her trotting next to me.

"Don't alienate yourself, Princess. I said that the both of us will find a site, and I meant it."

We reached the bottom of the staircase. "Okay," I murmured.

"So," I said as we walked into the forest, "What are you going to do now? Your 'position' isn't exactly around anymore."

She looked up at me. "I don't fully know yet."

"If I were you I'd just hightail it back to Fillydelphia, and get out before this situation gets any worse." At the mention of Fillydelphia she closed her eyes and winced before quickly readjusting.

"No, I don't think that's the right place for me to go. I'll ride this one out and see what comes of it."

I peered at the moon above. "Aren't we all?"

We continued in the direction of an orb of light. As we grew nearer the ponies sitting around the fire became clearer in our vision. I stopped.

"I don't know if I should go over there."

"Why not?"

"I'm tired. If they see me they'll start to lose faith in a weakened ruler."

"That's foolish. You're tired and not thinking straight. You weren't hiding it very well before. We're going over there to sit down, whether you want to or not." Glowing started forward again.

"I'll just sleep right here. I need it anyways." She turned around and trotted back up to me.

"No," She demanded. "Talk with your citizens. It might be more enjoyable than you think."

I wavered on what my decision should have been. The spell I had cast to keep me awake was wearing off, and the energy I had left to renew it wasn't enough to prolong the spell. I wasn't going to be able to keep awake much longer anyways.

"Fine, I'll do it. I'm going to fall asleep eventually."

In retrospective, that decision to stay awake a little longer was both life-saving and damning at the same time.

We approached the campfire to find it held the standard look: there was the flame in the middle, surrounded by four logs a few feet apart from one another. It formed a somewhat even square. There were six ponies taking residence on three of the logs. Five were faces I had seen in the crowd. The sixth pony was the azure guard who was previously held hostage. He was the only one who was asleep, and deep at that.

We heard them talking amongst themselves until we stepped out from behind the brush.

Immediately all five of them bowed; nopony bothered to wake the guard.

"Rise," I lightly ordered, "I'm not here to rule. I need some rest, just like all of you."

Glowing and I sat down on the unoccupied log. To our left was the sleeping guard and a violet earth pony stallion. To our right was a gray unicorn stallion with what seemed to be a green pegasus marefriend. Across from us were two unicorn mares: one was Clean Tome, the librarian, and the other was tan-coated and holding a mandolin.

"How is everypony doing tonight?" I asked with a smile.

No one made a sound. I eyed each of them and they each awkwardly tried to avoid my gaze.

The green pegasus quietly said, "I'm doing fine, thank you."

Those ponies did not understand how to handle a Princess sitting down with them. And why would they? I had to be the one to get them used to me if I wanted to relax. I looked at the sleeping guard.

"You know, he isn't going to be waking up any time soon. You can talk as loudly as you'd like."

I payed attention to their faces. There were not any welcoming smiles.

"Or . . . not."

I stared into the fire. Its crackles failed to mask the sound of loudly chirping crickets, but easily silenced all of the ponies sitting around it. At the time there were few swampy areas and few dry areas in the Everfree forest, so the wood and kindling were always great for fires. The one in front of me enveloped the dark area into light. It wasn't a warm light, like inside the castle, though. At its core the fire was white, yet on the surface it sheened with a magical glow. Much like my sun, this smaller fire's caretaker aided the fire's development with magic.

That meant that I was able to play with it. If I couldn't break the ice by talking to them, I was going to put on a little show.

I reached out a hoof and neared it closer to the fire. Each pony let out an exclamation of surprise and Glowing Sera reached out to try and stop me. She didn't get there in time, and my hoof was already basked in flames. I pulled the hoof out and showed the whole group.

"Controlling the sun has its perks. I didn't just get this because I wanted to put my hoof in fire. If you find the right materials," I stood up and started looking through the brush with my magic aura, "you can put on quite the show."

"What are you doing?" Glowing asked.

"I may not be amazing at some areas of magic, but a kind zebra once taught me all about fire!" I found what I was looking for: a small yellow flower that was common in the Everfree area. Along with that was a rock with a white crystalline layer on top, and some charcoal from the fire.

"More specifically," I exclaimed as I prepped myself to add the three items together, "Pyrotechnics!"

I placed the three items onto my hand and the fire shot up into the air. It was accompanied by a whizzing sound and a loud pop as it reached its peak. The fire bloomed into an orb that resembled a sun, my sun.

I turned back at them with a grin and saw all five of their faces along with Glowing Sera's were in awe.

"How was it?" I asked as they each erupted into applause.

There isn't a better way to break the ice than with a little party. Everypony was lively and talkative as I sat back down.

I noticed the guard was still asleep. "Looks like somepony isn't that interested in fireworks," I quipped to a series of chuckles.

And we continued on having fun; I showed some more tricks that I could perform, and Glowing Sera helped explain the background behind each spell I casted. Eventually we winded down and kept on talking. The unicorn next to Clean Tome had set her mandolin on the ground.

"Hey," I said to grab her attention, "Why don't you play us a tune?"

She looked down at the mandolin and back at me. "Oh, you wouldn't want me too," she hastily sputtered while raising her hooves up, "I'm not that good."

The couple on the other wood bench sat up. "Oh, come on, you're great!" The stallion complemented. "I'm sure the Princess would love a show."

She hesitantly looked back at me. "Well, okay."

All eyes turned towards her as she picked up the instrument and set it on her lap. She was bracing it against her with her hooves but pushed down the strings with her magic and got ready to strum with a pick.

The barcarola cooled down the excitement from a burning sun to a relaxing pool. That wasn't a bad thing, though; her fast strums combined with the long held notes created a beautiful sound that washed over us all at the same time. Once again, a magic had overtaken my thoughts, but it wasn't a sun this time. It was music.

I could see myself rowing along a lazy river, without a care to be held. I was taken back to a time when I was no Princess, just a child and sister with ambitions and goals. Goals that I shared with another, that I would eventually succeed in reaching and fulfill my role as a pony the world would pay attention to. As the music sped up the river swiftly passed by ponies from long ago that I barely remembered, but each pony was calmly wading in the river, happy about what they had achieved. I was too. I flowed along and held the elements of a happy life with me. A harmony that I held with myself and myself alone, but with every other pony that I came across.

I realized that as the tune played I had forgotten about everything that had occurred through the night. I had a friend by my side, a group to join and have fun with, and a place to relax. There was no need for a new plan, or place to go next.

My sentiment was shared with the rest of the ponies in the circle; I had not only calmed myself but made the night better for these ponies.

It was a small step to serve the ponies in the world I had control of, but the most important one I could take.

As the mandolin slowed down and faded away, I looked back up at the moon above and grinned. I next looked at Glowing Sera, and she was grinning too, along with everypony who was awake around the campfire.

"That was beautiful."

I watched as directly in front of me something twinkled in the air.

It fell to the dirt ground with a pat.

On closer inspection by me and all of the ponies around the campfire, it was a light blue shard.

Glowing Sera looked at me in awe. "Is that . . . another one?"

I levitated the shard up in the air and felt the magic wafting off of it.

"This is definitely another one. I would say it would be the Element of Laughter, by its color."

"How many do you have now?" She asked.

"This should be," I levitated the saddlebags off of my back and peered inside, "the fourth one."

"Amazing."

The Element was amazing in how much it reminded me of where I was. I was not carefree, and was not ready to use The Elements on my sister. They took me out of the small dream I created for myself from the music.

"Well," I said aloud to the ponies around the campfire, "You can take a closer look."

Four of the ponies scrambled to look at The Element with ooh's and ahh's. The fifth one, the violet mare who sat next to the sleeping guard, prodded his side with a hoof.

"Come on, get up. We've got something you don't see every day, you don't want to miss your chance."

She prodded his side again, except a little harder. "Hey," she said loudly, "get up."

I had taken notice of her at this point. I stood up from my seat and cantered over to the guard. She grabbed him by the shoulders with and started to strain her voice.

"Wake up!" She yelled. The other ponies stopped paying attention to the shard and joined me in examining the guard.

"Is he still breathing?" Glowing Sera asked.

I placed my ear in front of his mouth. His breathing was shallow, but there. I moved my ear down to his heart, and found that it was still beating, albeit lightly.

"He's alive," I said, and the ponies sighed in relief. "But he's as good as dead if we don't figure out what's wrong with him."

I looked at Glowing Sera. Her face had paled and her eyes widened.

"What is it, Glowing?"

She looked me in the eyes and said, "I know what's happening."

Through our silence rang out the cries of help and terror that littered through the forest.

As that voice started to laugh inside my head once again, I wasn't able to tell if I was burning up or drowning.

-Princess Celestia

Author's Note

This was chapter was a bit harder to write than usual. I didn't know how I wanted to show the Element of Laughter, and I decided it would be good for it to appear when Celestia allowed herself to celebrate and pretend it life was better for a little while. It can't be too happy for too long, though.

Tune in once again sometime in the future!