A Beautiful Night

by MrNumbers

Rating: teen
Tags: Violence, Alternate Universe, Drama, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Romance, Pinkie Pie, Sex, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 78189

The Elements didn't work. Nightmare Moon won. Twilight and Pinkie Pie never gave up, even when everyone else did.

The Elements of Harmony didn't work. Nightmare Moon won. Her beautiful night has been unending for over two years now, and her reign over Equestria is total.

Twilight and Pinkie Pie never gave up, even after everyone else did.

An infinity of praise be to Harwick for the cover art.

Published 2018-09-19 07:30:02 UTC
Last updated 2020-10-10 13:32:17 UTC

A Beautiful Night

It was a beautiful night.

It had been for almost two years now.

Pinkie had always been more of a morning person, though.

The Castle of the Old Pony Sisters in the Everfree was spooky at night, so it was always spooky, because it was always night. Twilight kept the place lit with candles at all times, and the windows covered with heavy black curtains so no one could see them. It was really witch-y.

Twilight stalked the libraries, hair fraying out like broken wiring, yelling into books. She never threw them, or tore them, or let their pages get ripped. But she didn’t watch her language around them either, or say many kind things about them.

With the castle, and the night, the mad pony, it sometimes took a moment to remember that Pinkie was on the good side. Twilight might have been a bit kooky, but her heart was in the right place. Nightmare Moon, on the other side, was just plain evil. Maniacal laugh, end-the-day, had an even spookier castle, creepy batponies... Which kind of made Twilight a good-witch?

Twilight hadn’t been amused when Pinkie explained her reasoning, and had made more of an effort to brush her mane since.

Pinkie missed the Cakes. They’d apparently just had twins — Twins!!! — and she wanted so bad to babysit them, and dote on them, and be an amazing auntie... but good-witch Twilight was right. If they gave up, the twins might grow up without ever seeing the sun. They could go their whole lives without playing outside during the day.
So Pinkie stayed to help.

Right now, Pinkie’s main way of helping was moral support. With Twilight’s brother running the big underground resistance, Queen Nightmare Moon didn’t really have time to deal with Twilight, but Spike was too busy helping Shining Armor to help Twilight take care of herself.

Pinkie wasn’t really needed for guard duty either. Black Snooty was probably just waiting for the forest to eat them. Or maybe she thought Twilight still fighting her after all this time was kind of funny. Futile resistance seemed to be the Queen’s kind of comedic sensibilities and all that.

Anyway, all that was to say there wasn’t really much defending to do. And Pinkie wasn’t smart enough in the same way Twilight was to help her go through the books. But Twilight wasn’t... sensible enough to look after herself when she went through them. Looking after Twilight was a full time job, because Twilight was determined to overtax herself no matter what.

Most wake-up times, that meant making her pancakes. But sometimes, pancakes just weren’t enough. The entire weight of the world was on her shoulders, or so she said a lot between anxious shouting at books, and that’s something pancakes just couldn’t fix.

On those occasions Pinkie made waffles.

This was one such wake-up time.

Pinkie had the whole castle kitchen to herself. Facilities meant for an entire staff being handled just by her, which was the exact right amount of ponies needed. There was still grain, and milk, and eggs in the long night. There weren’t really seasons anymore, everything was just kind of forever late autumn, so even though the food plants grew slower without the day, they grew all-year-around now. You nearly ended up with more, but it was way more work on the earth pony farmers.

Now Pinkie felt guilty about more than just how much sugar she was putting into this batter. She was an earth pony, she could be out helping on the farms rather than just making waffles for Twilight. But if she made waffles for Twilight, that might help the farmers more in the long run.

Blueberries too. For the good of Equestria. Fresh strawberries, even though they didn’t taste as good as they used to. Also for the good of Equestria. Some whipped cream? That wasn’t especially for the good of Equestria, that was for Pinkie’s own good.

Healthy delicious waffles made (it had fruit, so it was healthy), and some extra-strong, extra-sweet coffee to go with it, and breakfast was ready. Which was good, because the grumpy stomping down the stairs meant Twilight has woken up.

“G’morning Twilight!”

“Why do I have to get up? It’s still the middle of the night.”

It was Twilight’s favourite joke when she was grumpy about waking up. It was funny how ingrained not-being-a-morning-pony was into the core of Twilight’s being. Even now that days were a super arbitrary concept, she still refused to get out of bed before 9am.

Pinkie was feeling playful though. “Well, maybe if you didn’t stay up all night reading.”

Twilight winced at that one. “You made waffles, so you get to live. Another pony might not be so lucky,” Twilight attacked the plate, ravenous as always. She hadn’t gained as much weight being catered by Pinkie as she thought she might; The brain was nothing but fat and sugar, maybe she’d been thinking hard enough to burn through all the calories.

Or maybe it was the constant anxious pacing. She never sat down to read anymore, pacing furrowed trenches into the castle stone with books at eye level. Sometimes a whole flock of books all around her head, cross referencing stuff between them.

It used to be that she’d always look up and smile when Pinkie passed her. Now she didn’t do that anymore. Why not?

“Why not what?”

“Huh?”

Twilight wiped some cream from her mouth, ‘cause she was such a messy eater. “You asked ‘why not’.”

“Oh, I was just thinking you don’t smile at me when you walk past anymore, if you’re reading, but you used to. I was just wondering why not.”

Twilight froze, like all the blood rushed away from her skin. “You noticed that?”

“Yuh-huh.”

Twilight stared down at her empty breakfast plate, so Pinkie took it over to the sink to do dishes later. “I’m just trying not to let myself get distracted.”

“Oh, am I distracting you?”

“I didn’t say that-”

“It’s okay! I’m just glad it’s not because you’re mad at me.”

Twilight cringed, like a cockroach had landed on her bare chest. “No! Never! Pinkie-”

It was okay, though. Pinkie wasn’t upset or anything, just curious. “I know you’ve been extra stressed lately, or just regular stressed but for a long time now, so I’ve been fussing over you a lot more. I’m just trying to be helpful, but I guess it’s not helpful if you’re trying to study, huh?”

“Pinkie, you are helpful. You’re extremely helpful!”

“But it’s okay to say if I’m distracting you! I can just head out to Ponyville today and stay out of your mane for a while.”

Twilight was panicky, wringing her hooves. She really was an anxious pony. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Then what did you mean?”

Twilight was silent, but she looked like she was trying to swallow a billiard ball and it got stuck halfway down. “I... I don’t know what I meant.”

Pinkie was all smiles and cheerfulness, because if you moved the conversation along you could stop it from crashing on the rocky bits. “Do you want anything from town?”

“Maybe... do you have enough bits?”

“Twilight,” she giggled, “the vaults were full when we got here. How much do you think I’m spending on groceries?”

“I don’t know, I never thought about it until now.”

The truth was, honestly, kind of a lot. Food was more expensive than it used to be, too. At this rate, they’d only have another three hundred and forty three years worth, between the two of them. Hopefully they’d have beaten Nightmare Moon long before then. “It’s fine. We have plenty. What did you want?”

“Chocolate?” Twilight asked in a voice that rose in pitch over the length of the word, the sound of uncertainty, “Or ice cream.”

“How about chocolate ice cream?” Twilight hesitated, so Pinkie corrected herself, “Chocolate chip?”

Small, apologetic nod, the kind you give when you’re grateful for a big, horrible inconvenience you’re putting on someone. “That would be perfect, thank you.”

“Are we good for candles? You seem to burn through a lot of them. But I guess that’s what they’re for, right?”

“Only some of them! Most of the flames are magic, they’re the ones that don’t flicker as much. It just helps to make enough real ones so you still get heat, and the sound, and the flicker. Otherwise it messes with your head too much.”

“Is it really that noticable?” Pinkie was interested, sure, but Twilight was currently Explaining something, which was pulling her right out of her anxiety -- she had something to think about that wasn’t her problems, wasn’t her being a problem.

Twilight nodded twice, short and sharp and bobbing, and her smile lit up the dining room more than any candle could. “Have you ever poured a kettle and just knew it hadn’t boiled enough, even before you checked it? You can actually hear how hot water is by the pitch of the pouring, even if you don’t know it’s a thing you know how to do. There’s so much your brain just does that you never notice it doing, because it’s always doing it.”

“Which is why we still go through some normal candles, even though most of them are magic.”

“Yep! If you’re really, really quiet and listen for it, you can hear them snap and crackle. Magic fire doesn’t do that, because it’s not actually burning anything. You don’t hear it normally, because your brain filters it out. But, and here’s the interesting part, you’d notice it if it wasn’t there, because your brain was noticing it wasn’t filtering it out, even though you don’t notice yourself noticing it. Also, magic flames are more purpley, so the normal ones help make a warmer light.”

“Is that the proper scientific term for it? ‘More purpley’?”

Twilight’s smile disappeared, poof, absolute stern-faced seriousness, a doctor giving a dreadful diagnosis. “Oh, yes, very technical terminology that. ‘Purpley’.”

“Is it less purpley, or fewer though.”

“Less purpley light, fewer purpley candles. But now we’re arguing semantics.”

“Is that bad?”

“Not if you find semantics interesting, I suppose. Do you?”

“I find it interesting when you explain it to me. You have a way with words! A way with words about words, too.”

Apparently that joke -- was it even really a joke? What would you call that? -- was really bad because Twilight got extremely quiet about that, and you could hear the crackling of candles, if you listened for them. So Pinkie smiled. “Sorry, I’m distracting you again, aren’t I? Chocolate chip ice cream, right?”

“... right. Yes, right. Thank you, again.”

“I’ll talk to you later, if you want, okay?”

“Okay.” Twilight said to herself.

Pinkie grabbed a satchel bag and trotted jangling towards the front door. When she looked back over her shoulder into the dining room, Twilight was already nose pressed into a book, completely lost to the world. Pinkie sighed.

It had been nice to hear from happy talky Twilight, in between anxious Twilight and stressed Twilight. But what could she do if she stressed about the time she spent not stressing?

A conundrum, a riddle. The sort Pinkie was good at, and would probably be helped with ice cream.

The trip through the Everfree was scary at first, especially because it was always spooky in the always night time. You could giggle at the ghosties all you want, but a Timberwolf would still rip you to shreds and a cockatrice could just kill you stone dead if you didn’t have a handy helpful Fluttershy on side.

But after two years of traps, running away, occasionally whapping a few snouts, tactical confetti blasts and partillery fire, it was just kind of... it was just a walk in the park now, really. Most things smaller than a hydra were now more scared of her than she was of them.

It was so weird, she never thought she’d get used to walking through the Everfree, but now it was just kind of a thing she had to do every time she ran to the store to get milk. So Pinkie just sort of enjoyed the walk, and was extremely aware of the fact that that was about it.

Maybe it was because of what Twilight was saying about the candles that she noticed herself noticing it.

Ponyville hadn’t changed much, either, except in a lot of little ways.There was enough light by the full moon overhead, and no tree canopy blocking it like in the Everfree, so there were still the street markets going on, still ponies running produce stands. Some food grew better than others in the night -- Rarity called it terroir once which meant... something fancy probably -- and so the dynamic in the markets shifted. Rhubarb especially was the big new thing... the night growing actually made it taste a lot better, and grow a lot faster.

Golden Harvest, who’d been experimenting with forced rhubarb for years before Nightmare Moon’s takeover, suddenly found her little hothouse hobby had made her the agrarian powerhouse of Ponyville.

Mostly because apples didn’t fare so well.

“Heya, Applejack!”

“Howdy, Pinkie.” Applejack tilted her hat in greeting, even though there was never any sun anymore for it to be useful for. The habit ran too deep. “What can I get you?”

“Can you get me some arugala? And do you mind if I keep saying arugala? Because arugala sure is fun to say.”

“Knock yourself out there, pardner. Three bits for the bundle.”

Pinkie dropped a tied together patch of leafy green into her satchel, and took three coins out from it. “I remember when this cart used to be bright red, and filled with pies and fritters and stuff. It’s weird seeing you become a salad mare. You can’t really deep fry kale, can you?”

“Well, you can. Just wouldn’t recommend it. Actually, if you oven-bake it and brine it, you can make some right crispy chips out of it. I actually prefer it to potato crisps, if you’d believe it. Healthier for you too, if you care about that sort of thing.”

“I don’t!” Pinkie beamed, pulling out another two bits, “But I’ll give it a try. Twilight might care more for eating healthy, anyway.”

Applejack clucked her tongue. “You still babysitting that crazy mare in the woods, then, I take it?”

“Eeyup!” Pinkie grabbed a stack of kale leaves and put it in the bag too. “Still trying to figure out how to, you know, bring back the sun or whatever.”

“Well, you’re always welcome at Sweet Apple Acres if you want to try your hoof at doing some good that’s any good, you hear? We finally got the dwarf apples cultivated into the old trees, so if we play our cards right, we might even have first harvest in time for cider season.”

“Oh, Applejack, I haven’t had fresh Apple family apple cider in yeeears. You gotta tell me as soon as you’re ready, okay?”

“I’ll let you know.” Applejack nodded. “You want anything else?”
“Ah, I think I’m good for the moment, actually. I was more coming out here for the walk.” Pinkie admitted, patting her satchel.

Applejack grimaced, staring at her weirdly, tight eyes and lowered eyebrows and squinting. “You just went out for a walk through the Everfree? That’s just a normal thing for you these days, huh?”

“Yeah, I guess so. It’s amazing what a pony can get used to, huh?”

Applejack stared up at the moon, nodded and shrugged. “Eeyup. Guess it is.”

“Is there anything you, like, really miss? Like, really, really miss now that it’s eternal night?”

“Ponies not giving my hat weird looks.” Applejack glared at a stallion watching her from the town fountain, and the stallion moved along, “I’m still allowed to like it, dang it.”

“It’s a good hat. It looks good on you.”

“Thank’n you kindly. How about you?”

“I don’t think I’d be able to make it work like you do, though I’ve always wanted to wear a bowler hat.”

“I mean, what do you miss most?”

Pinkie had to think about that. “I feel like it’s really important. It’s the day, right? You can’t just... not have the sun. But every time I think about why it’s really important I just can’t... I can’t think of anything. It’s too big! It’s this big, silly, abstract ball of something, and every time I try to explain a little bit of it I push the whole thing away and I can’t grab at it anymore. You know?”

“Ah, no, Pinkie. I really don’t. But if you ever figure out what you were trying to say there, you get back to me?”

“Maybe I’ll be able to explain it over cider.”

“That sounds like the best darn plan I’ve ever heard. I’ll get right on making it happen.”

“Thanks, Applejack. You’re the best.”

“Anytime Pinkie. Oh! Say, maybe go check out Roseluck’s stall, while you’re out here. If you haven’t been to town lately, you might not have seen her yet.”

“Roseluck’s selling flowers again? I thought you couldn’t really grow them at night. Well, except for like, really poisonous ones I guess.”

“Hoo-wee, you really haven’t seen them, then, have you? You go take a gander, and I’ll see you around.”

Roseluck’s stall was where it always was, or where it had always used to be. The life of a flower pony was such that most days you’d get no business, then some days you’d have all of it at once. Since there were no funerals, holidays or weddings going on at the moment, Pinkie was going to get to have Roseluck and her flowers all to herself.

Actually, that did remind her.

“Hey, Roseluck! Happy birthday for last month. I think it was a Thursday, wasn’t it? Sorry I wasn’t there to say hi. Hi!”

“Pinkie? Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie nodded, yes, that was her. “Oh, it’s so good to see you! How’ve you been?”

Roseluck kept talking, but Pinkie didn’t catch any of the words. She was too busy looking at the flowers, now.

Holy smokes, those flowers.

They’d looked like Hearthswarming lights on the walk over, which didn’t really make sense, because it wasn’t that time of year yet, and also Hearthswarming wasn’t really a bouquet-of-flowers holiday. They made for good presents, though? Still! It hadn’t made sense.

No, the flowers were the little fairy lights.

A lot of them glowed, blues and greens. The other flowers were orange and red and pink and all the other pretty flower colours, and they were really shiny, tinted floral mirrors. So the blues were a constant light, while the shiny flowers made flashes of colours as they moved in the breeze. A bouquet of fireflies winking between the stars.

“Wow.”

“Oh! The flowers. I’m going to be honest with you, Pinkie Pie, when the sun went down for good--”

“Well, maybe not for good...”

“-- I thought I’d be out of a business. But nature finds a way. They still need to attract bees and other pollinators. So these ones,” she held up a glowing blue bulb flower, “produce light for the insects to see. And these ones,” she twisted and twirled an orange-and-red lily that sparkled as it caught the light at all sorts of different angles, “try to do as much as they can with the light they have. So you put them together...”

Roseluck threw a bouquet at Pinkie and it moved through the air like a firecracker, the rapid changes of all sorts of different angles and lightsources sending rippling sparks through the bundle in the night.

Pinkie almost didn’t catch it, she was so stunned. But it would have been a crime to let something so pretty drop.

“Wow. Ah, how much? I’ll take them.”

Roseluck smiled, waved it off. “On the house, Pinkie. For remembering my birthday.”

“Oh. Ah, thanks! Anytime. Well, at the right time, next year, I mean.”

“Have a good evening, Pinkie. Enjoy the flowers.”

That was really, really nice of her.

Pinkie absolutely, definitely had to show these to Twilight right now. She took off towards the Everfree at a gallop.

Sunflowers

“Twilight!” Pinkie yelled as she ran through the castle, “Twilight! Twilight! Twilight!?”

Twilight’s voice cracked back from the castle library. “What?!”

You’d think that’d be the first place Pinkie would look, but Twilight had a habit of taking a book from the shelves and just wandering about with it. It wasn’t the safe bet you’d think it’d be. Pinkie bounced after the voice.

“Hey! Hey, Twilight!”

Twilight was sitting at a reading desk, surrounded by stacks of books on either side. Her to-read pile and her have-read pile. Usually when this happened it was because she’d found a reliable lead on something and was trying to cross-reference down to the most reliable book to actually properly spend her time on. It didn’t actually mean she was reading all of those books. That made Pinkie’s head explode the first time she’d learned that.

“Pinkie, I thought you were going out so you wouldn’t disturb me. Running through the castle yelling my name... isn’t that.”

Pinkie winced. “Sorry, do you want me to go away?”

Twilight closed the book she was reading, and let it drop to the table. “No! No, no, I didn’t mean it like that, I just...” Twilight did a thing where she tried not to scream but she screamed a little anyway just very quietly and with her mouth closed, “What is it, Pinkie?”

“Well, I talked to Applejack down at the market, and I got us some fresh leafy greens... though they’re more leafy reds now, these days.”

“It’s the chlorophyll,” Twilight explained, “the stuff in plants that turns sunlight into food for them. It’s adapting to low light conditions.”

“Yeah! Well, I thought you might appreciate some proper healthy food for once.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too,” Pinkie agreed, half shouting from the sheer force of her enthusiasm, “which is why I’m baking them into crisps.”

“Ooh. I’ve never had kale crisps before. That should be... interesting.” Twilight wasn’t being sarcastic, even though the pause could be taken as hesitation. It was just the kind of pause that meant Twilight was trying to think of the exact right word. Pinkie admired the way Twilight actually stopped to think before she said things, it was fascinating.

“But! But, but but!”

“But?”

Pinkie reached into her satchel and dropped the wrapped bouquet of flowers on Twilight’s desk. They crackled like a lit torch in the candlelight, the blues and greens less-visible in here, but the shiny flowers exploding in the glut of light. “I got flowers!”

“Oh my gosh. What even are these?”

“I guess these are just what flowers are like now. Apparently they adapted so bees and stuff would still go looking for them. The blue ones glow a lot more in the dark.”

“But they’re so different. It’s only been two years, adaptations like this should take... well, decades! Several generations at least. Natural selection doesn’t work that fast.”

“Well, the plants have been weird, right?” Pinkie thought out loud, mostly in Twilight’s direction “So they’ve gone through a lot more generations a lot faster. Especially since there’s no more springtime for them to wait for, or winter to make them go away.”

“Everything’s adapted so much faster than I thought it could.” Twilight whispered, poking at the bouquet like it might bite her, or like it had already stung her real bad, “Soon it’ll be like there wasn’t a daytime at all, and ponies will just... forget what it was like to have anything else.”

“I never thought I’d get used to walking through the Everfree, either. But now...” Pinkie shrugged. “I guess if I can get used to that, the flowers can too, right?”

Twilight didn’t have an answer to that, which was weird, because she usually had an answer to everything. She was just thinking really hard.

“So, anyway. Can I put them in your room?”

Twilight jerked out of her thought at that, like Pinkie had actually tugged her head out of the clouds. “My room? Not the kitchen, or in here?”

“Well, I guess I could, but I did get them for you. So I thought they should be your flowers.”

Twilight went super, duper pale at that, and stared back down at her book. “Oh. Uh, yes. That would be nice then, thank you.”

“I mean, if you don’t like them-”

Twilight raised a hoof in protest, but kept staring down at the title of the book, reading it over and over again. “No, Pinkie. I’d like that a lot. Thank you. My bedside table should be fine.”

“Oh. Oh, uh, okay.” Twilight was being super hard to read, and weirder than usual, but at least she seemed really sincere. Which made it more confusing, but still, it seemed like a good thing. “Sure! I’ll go find a vase and go do that then.”

Twilight was silent. Like, Pinkie didn’t think she even heard her breathe until she left the room.

She went to go find a vase to put this in, and think about what just happened. She wasn’t as good at that kind of thinking; Pinkie was cleverer than most ponies thought, but she just either knew something or she didn’t. She wasn’t like Rarity or Twilight or Applejack, who could sit down and figure something out. This was a sit-down-and-puzzle kind of conundrum, which meant she really wanted to ask Twilight.

But Twilight was the problem, and the conundrum, so that probably wouldn’t help this time.
There were vases, or at least very pretty crystal containers, in a wooden hutch of sorts in a corridor. It probably used to hold brandy or something, but it had evaporated sometime in the last thousand years. Pinkie filled it with water and put the flowers in and deemed it good.

Now, Twilight’s bedroom. Or bedchamber. It was a castle, so it was definitely a bedchamber, but that sounded too grandiose most of the time. So bedroom. It was up a corridor, down another corridor, then second door on the right. It was really easy to find, actually, if you traced the groove in the stone from the library.

Twilight’s room was filled with books, and candles, and a tapestry of Celestia, which was how you knew it was Twilight’s room. Her bedside table had a photo of her with her family on it, neat and angled towards the properly-made bed. Pinkie put the vase down beside it, making sure none of the leaves blocked the photo.
There was also a book on the table, which she had to move to put the vase down. It was a lot thinner than most of the books Twilight read, and colourful, so even though Pinkie didn’t like to snoop... she also had to snoop in this case.

With the bright red book mark about two thirds of the way through, Twilight was obviously pretty far into... “So You Have Your Cutie Mark: What Comes Next?” by Nelly Nethers.

Pinkie looked at it very carefully. Poked it with a hoof, it didn’t explode or burst into flames. That was a good start, and a genuine risk of anything in Twilight’s room. She read the ‘blurb’, which is what the description on the back of the book is called, Twilight had told her.

There were a lot of reassurances that weird things were actually normal. It seemed to be a good, helpful book about puberty.

Which had a bookmark in it which meant she was actually reading it.

Pinkie was conflicted by her intense desire both to respect Twilight’s privacy and to snoop even more to see what the bookmark was at.

Her curiosity was losing out against her restraint when she saw what was hidden under the book. A little bowl of white powder, and a glass disc.

She hadn’t seen one of these in ages. It was a little pill making kit! You rolled the powder into a kind of dough pill and let it set with this stuff.

Twilight hadn’t said she was taking any medicine either.

Did it have anything to do with the book?

... weird.

Pinkie carefully put the book back and decided she’d ask about it later, when Twilight wasn’t in such a grump. She didn’t want asking to be taken the wrong way.

The flowers looked super pretty in here though, so that was nice.

Twilight’s clock confirmed it was getting to be time to make dinner, too. That was one of the weird things to adjust to. It was hard to just know what time it was, so you had to base it on how hungry you were. So Pinkie had to learn, at first, that it kept seeming later than it was just because she was always hungry. She’d gotten better at it though.

Maybe the kale chips would put Twilight in a better mood?

The thing about cooking things really well is you make them golden brownish.

The thing about cooking kale is that it looks horrible when you golden brown it.

Pinkie must have cooked it excellently, because it looked horrible as she pulled it out of the oven.

“Twilight,” she called hesitantly up at the library, “Dinner?”

“I know,” Twilight said right in her ear, making Pinkie jump halfway out of her own skin. Twilight flinched. “Sorry, didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”

“Wow, you’re like a ninja.” How’d she get to be so quiet on the castle stone? The kitchen cobbles echoed really loudly.

Twilight smiled that smile she smiled when she was actually dying inside. “I’m sorry, but it just smelled really good.”

Pinkie sniffed at the air. She’d been cooking it for so long she’d adjusted to the smell of it but... Yeah that actually did smell really good. She poured the tray of crispy bits into two bowls for each of them.

“Just try to remember that and not look too closely at them.”

Twilight grimaced. “Got to be a good girl and eat all my vegetables, I guess.”

“Yeeeeeaaaah.” Pinkie sighed.

They both sighed again, reluctantly staring at their bowl of crispy, crunchy kale chips just like you do when someone tells you not to look down on a bridge ‘cause you gotta know why they’d tell you not to do that. Then you find out.

Twilight was the brave one and took the first bite. It crackled and cracked in her mouth, which made that really nice sound good crunchy chips should. There was a big, relieved smile.

“These are really good!”

“Oh, thank goodness.” Pinkie wiped the sweat from her brow. “I knew Applejack wouldn’t steer me wrong.”

“She really was honest. I’ll give her that.”

Oh. Right. That whole thing with the elements cracking and stuff.

Twilight had been so confident about that, but something just... hadn’t clicked.

She was still really, really hung up and bitter about that because she blamed herself for the whole... world ending apocalypse thing that came after, but it really wasn’t her fault, because she at least tried to do something. Really, it was just Nightmare Moon’s fault.

Pinkie still couldn’t get Twilight to believe that though.

Twilight saw Pinkie’s expression and it must have been bad because she tried to change the subject and forgot to be subtle about it until after she said it, “So! Ice cream should be great with this, right?”, then she winced because she was so obvious.

Wait.

Pinkie totally forgot the ice cream didn’t she.

Twilight was looking at her so hopefully and it was the first time she’d seen her not be mad or grumpy or stressed all day so she was obviously really looking forward to the ice cream and Pinkie had totally forgotten it.

“Sorry!”

Twilight blinked. “Why?”

“I’m sorry, I forgot, I can run down and get some now-” Pinkie turned toward the door to start running out of the kitchenny area, back out to Ponyville. It wasn’t any darker than it had been before, anyway.

But Twilight held Pinkie still with her magic. “Wait, you forgot the ice cream?”

“I’m so sorry!”

Twilight looked sick. Like, the kale chips had been as bad as they looked, not as good as they smelled. “It was a simple mistake. Why are you so upset?”

“I know you were really stressed and looking forward to it, and I forgot, and I really don’t want you to be mad or stressed again.”

Twilight kept holding Pinkie but she stayed really quiet and still and didn’t even breathe.

“Have I really been so cold that this is how you react...?” She finally said, letting Pinkie go.

“I just know I’m supposed to be taking care of you, and I feel like I’ve been really bad at it lately. But I’ve been doing my best, I promise!”

“I know you have,” Twilight sighed, “It’s not your fault. I’ve just been... I’ve been really distracted lately.”

Pinkie asked, “Is that why you’ve been taking those pills?” and regretted it immediately.

Twilight’s eyes flashed, fire reflected off iron, and her jaw set. “What?”

Pinke flinched, the air had chilled so suddenly. “I’m sorry.”

“Look, yes, I’ve been... taking some assistance, but it’s really none of your business.”

“I’m sorry!”

Twilight was getting really, really legitimately angry now. Like, Pinke wanted to imagine it was smoke coming out of her ears, but it might not have been her imagination. “You went through my stuff?”

“I’m so sorry!”

“What gave you that right? And now you judge me for needing... a little help concentrating at the moment?!”

“I was just trying to work out where to put the flowers down!”

Twilight’s breath caught. “The... the flowers.”

“Yeah. It was on your bedside table, which is where I was gonna put the vase... thing.”

“You just... you saw it because you were giving me flowers, and you were just worried about me.”

Pinkie nodded furiously. She had barely moved a muscle, even after Twilight had let go of her. All she’d done is get more and more up onto the tips of her hooves with every anxious apology.

Twilight exhaled, and looked like she was on the verge of tears, and Pinkie was too scared to hug her like she really wanted to.

“I guess this is probably why you reacted the way you did when you realized you forgot the ice cream? That... that makes sense. I guess I’m a lot more... tightly wound than I thought. It was wrong of me to react like that, and I’m sorry.”

Twilight wasn’t a really private person, usually. It would have been hard to be, given how often she thought out loud. So something Pinkie saw must have really rubbed a raw nerve.

The medicine was one thing, apparently. But it seemed to be about more than that, or Twilight would have gotten angry about that first and the snooping second. Maybe the book?

Pinkie was at once even more glad and more curious than ever that she didn’t look.

“I just want you to be okay, okay? I don’t want you to just... not snap at me because you feel bad about snapping at me, I want you to not feel like snapping at all.”

Twilight moved a half step forward, and it looked like she wanted to hug Pinkie too, but she flinched away at the last second, just before closing the distance. Bit her lower lip and looked down at the floor between her feet.

So Pinkie hugged her even harder than she first wanted to because Twilight wasn’t allowed to feel bad about hugs either.

Twilight hugged her back really... firm. Not tight. More like she was locking all her muscles up in panic. Mashed her face into the side of Pinkie’s neck and just sort of held her breath.

Pinkie stroked Twilight’s mane and Twilight relaxed all at once. Melted into the hug, pressed as much as she could against Pinkie, let out a long ragged breath, and Pinkie felt her neck get damp.

Just kept stroking her mane, making calming wordless sounds, as Twilight just seemed to let Pinkie hold everything just for a few seconds, just for now. Just let herself be held.

“Twilight?”

The moment popped like a pin to a balloon. Twilight pushed herself away, rubbing her eyes back and forth on the back of a forearm, sniffling.

“I can’t. Not until I fix things.”

Pinkie pushed herself up behind Twilight and wrapped her up in another hug, this time with her legs draped around Twilight’s neck, resting her head between Twilight’s shoulders. “Can’t what? Everypony needs a hug sometimes.”

Twilight didn’t move, but she was back in her every-muscle-locked-up feeling, which was worrying. “Thank you.”

“So when did you start having trouble focusing? What happened? What changed?”

Still all knotted muscle, but she was at least breathing. Pinkie could feel just from the skin shifting around Twilight’s neck how hard she had winced her eyes shut at that.

“Nothing. Nothing’s changed for two years now.”

“I haven’t. I’m still here, as long as you want me to be.”

Twilight twitched at that. Not relaxing again like she did before, but more like she had to fight back the urge to run away. “You have, though. You’re quieter, and you’re better at being alone. You’re a lot more independent. You’re more patient, too.”

Pinkie thought about that. Before she had always been surrounded by all the ponies she knew, all the time. It was great! She adored that, flitting from pony to pony and helping everyone with their problems and running the bakery and seeing everyone...

With Twilight she didn’t get to do that so often. She was just looking after her, all the time. And while that was a full-time job, it wasn’t all the time. So Pinkie started reading a lot more -- especially poetry, there was a lot of good poetry in the library, she liked to think of music it could be sung to -- which was something she only used to do in long baths or before bed.

She couldn’t just ask whoever she wanted for advice, or help. She was the helper, now, she had to know what to do. She had to wait to figure things out sometime. She had to enjoy her own company a lot more.

Twilight was really good at that, and had been a great example. Well, sort of. Twilight was too good at it, so she still had to bully her into conversation and talking a lot, or else she’d be too isolated. And sometimes the others still visited, but they were a lot less often now.

She’d have to go ask them about that, tomorrow.

Actually that was interesting, wasn’t it? She thought tomorrow rather than right now, when she’d probably have already run off to do that before she knew Twilight.

She hadn’t really noticed that, actually.
All this flashed through Pinkie’s head in just a second or two. It was all stuff she already knew, after all, just hadn’t noticed before. Clicked like a puzzle piece.

“I guess I have,” Pinkie nodded. “I think that’s okay though.”

“Yeah,” Twilight’s voice cracked like a teenage boy’s. That couldn’t be what the book was for though, surely? “And you’re still here.”

“I am! For as long as you need me.”

“What about when this is all over? When we fix everything?” When, not if. Never if.

That was a confusing question though. “Well... would you still need me?” She probably wouldn’t, not when she didn’t need to push herself so hard all the time. She’d finally be able to relax and take her time with things. She shouldn’t need Pinkie anymore.

Twilight didn’t answer that, but she did stiff-panic muscle squeeze Pinkie a lot in an approximation of more hug.

Pinkie broke it this time, looked at Twilight sternly. She used her serious face so rarely that it seemed to stun Twilight out of... whatever she just got stunned out of.

“Well, maybe it’s because you’re overworked. So here’s what we’re going to do. You’re going to take a weekend off.”

“A weekend... Pinkie, it’s just reading. It’s studying. That’s what I do on my weekends off anyway.”

“Well, you can still read. But fiction only! Or you can read poetry with me. I don’t know if you like poems or not. I’ll make a big pot of tea, and we’ll sit together on a nice lounge, and we’re going to read together, okay? And we don’t have to talk, we can just relax.”

Twilight closed her eyes and winced really hard, hard, hard enough that the tops of her cheeks were tight, “I can’t. I’d be too distracted to work.”

“Well, yeah,” Pinkie was very confused now, “that’s the point. It’d just be for a weekend though.”

Twilight hugged Pinkie again, close. Was more of a jerking lurch forward than a pounce. Then, before Pinkie could figure out what to do, Twilight was already walking as fast as she could away.

“Not until we save Equestria. Then I can finally allow myself distractions.”

Pinkie watched Twilight go and really wished she’d just remembered the ice cream after all.

But she got so distracted by the flowers, herself.

If she couldn’t talk to Twilight like this... Fluttershy was always way better at this.

Tomorrow morning, as much as ‘morning’ meant anything, she was going to have to ask Fluttershy why she didn’t come visit anymore. She really needed her right now.

Pegasus

Pinkie put out Twilight’s favourite cereal and drew a smiley face on it. If Pinkie wasn’t going to be here to wake her up, whatever she cooked was just going to get cold. But just putting the cereal out would look... what did Rarity call it? Passive aggressive?

Twilight was just going to be in the kind of mood where she was going to find any reason to get angry at herself and just work harder, so it was best to cut that off if she was going to head out and not be able to deal with that either. She didn’t want Twilight getting cold either.

It was really easy to find Fluttershy’s cottage from the Everfree forest. All Pinkie had to do was follow the birdsong. You knew you were close when it seemed like the air was made of chewtoys going off at you.

Fluttershy was outside with a lantern, surrounded by fireflies, looking up at the trees with a very thoughtful expression. It wasn’t intense like Twilights would get. Like, Twilight worried with her whole body. Fluttershy just looked like she was somewhere very far away.

“Hi, Fluttershy.”

The tether snapped back and Fluttershy became alive again, moving. Blinking and gentle smiles, not just big eyes and slow breaths. “Oh, hello Pinkie. It’s nice to see you again.”

“That’s what I was wondering about,” Pinkie did her best to imitate her grandmother, wasn’t really very good at all but it was a lot of fun, “You don’t visit, you don’t write, not even a lettah. You got your dear old Pinkamena worried sick about you.”

Fluttershy didn’t laugh like Pinkie Pie had hoped she would. Just looked thoughtful again. “I’m sorry, Pinkie. I think that would be a bad idea.”

“What? Why? We miss you!”

The birds screamed to be heard over each other, a war everybody seemed to be losing. “Well, looking after the animals is getting harder. Some of them just aren’t adjusting as well as I would like. Oh, the animals that used to hibernate for the winter are having a great time, and the nocturnal animals think this is the best thing that’s ever happened,” that thought made Fluttershy smile genuinely, and then even that was gone, “but these birds usually migrate for mating season, and... they’re getting a tiny bit confused.”

“Is that why they’re all shouting so much?”

Fluttershy blushed, actually blushed! Ah! It was so cute! Pinkie wanted to smush her cheeks. “Actually, while they’re not building nests, or going to their... usual places...” Fluttershy explained, slow and patient tones, “they still have... urges.”

“Urges?”

“Well. They might not know to go raise a family, but they still want to... find a mate.”

Pinkie looked around at the surrounding treetops. So they were all... oh. “Oh.”

Fluttershy unlocked the front door of her cottage and gestured inside, where normal candles were burning and making it feel that much more homely. “Would you like to come inside, since you’ve come all this way? It’s... much quieter.”

“Yes, please.”

Pinkie sat down on a couch. Maybe Twilight was right; Maybe two years ago, she’d have jumped onto it, done a neat twist in the air and land down comfy on her back. But something about Fluttershy’s mood gave her pause.

“So when the birds are doing... well, other things again,” she started with while Fluttershy was quietly putting a kettle on the burner, “you’ll start visiting again, right?”

“Do you want tea?”

“Oh. Uh, yes please?”

“Green or black?”

“Black, two sugars, lots of milk, please?”

“Same as it always used to be then.”

“Well, some things don’t change!” Pinkie laughed.

“I suppose...” Fluttershy said more to the kettle than to Pinkie. “Some things do, though.”
Oh, no. No, no no- “You’re not coming back, are you?” Pinkie jumped off the couch. Fluttershy was hiding from her in the kitchen, just staring at the kettle as it boiled.

“I’d... rather Twilight didn’t visit either. We’re still friends!” Fluttershy was very quick about that, “but...” Pinkie wanted to grab Fluttershy in the long pause and shake her and yell her and panic... but if she had the patience to not jump on the couch, she had the patience to not jump on Fluttershy, “it’s too dangerous, now.”

“Too dangerous? I go from here to there every week for groceries, it’s fine, I’ll show you. You used to do it too!”

“You know that’s not what I mean,” Fluttershy scolded. The kettle screamed, and she removed it from the heat, “It’s not the Everfree I’m worried about.”

“It’s Nightmare Moon. Why now, though?”

“Because there are less things to distract her. She’s paying more attention. Applejack’s right, it’s not safe anymore.” Fluttershy put a scoop of black leaf-litter looking stuff into a teapot and filled it the rest of the way with boiling water. The tea smelled really nice and earthy and a little spicy, and it was relaxing, but not relaxing enough.

“Applejack?”

“She says it’s better if we stay out of it. Twilight doesn’t really have anything to lose, but... the animals need me now, more than ever. And Applejack has her family depending on her...”

Pinkie took deep breaths like Twilight taught her when she was getting too worked up. Every deep breath inhaled a lot of tea-smell, so that helped a lot. “But all of Equestria is counting on us.”

“Equestria’s... it’s not good, but it’s okay, Pinkie. We’re surviving.” Fluttershy poured the pot out into two mugs. “It won’t be the end of the world if we don’t help. But it might be the end of my world if I get caught helping.” She added the two sugars, and the milk, and was very gracious in handing Pinkie Pie her tea.

It was really nice and calming tea which helped her not be angry. “But if you help, it means that you don’t have to worry about getting caught anymore, and you don’t have to work as hard. Everything could be so much better.”

And Fluttershy gave her a smile that really hurt Pinkie, because it showed how hard Fluttershy was trying to be patient with her too. “Only if it works.”

“It’s still gotta be worth trying, right?”

“Blow on it first, it’s hot.” Fluttershy warned.

Pinkie paused with her mug at her lips. Blew on it a lot before taking a sip. Oof, she would have burned her tongue... “Thank you.”

Fluttershy bobbed her head in acknowledgement.

“It’s gotta be worth trying though, right? Or at least helping. Or at least showing up. Or at least being there for your friend who is trying.”

“Do you really think me doing such a little bit of good is worth taking such a lot of risk?” Fluttershy asked it like a question, but it was obvious that she thought there was only one correct answer.

“Well, what if I talk to Rainbow Dash, too? So you know when it’s totally safe to go and help out? Just so Twilight's not totally alone dealing with this all by herself.”

“But she’s not alone, Pinkie. She has you, doesn’t she?”

“Yeah, but I’m not enough anymore!” Pinkie took a fierce sip of her tea for emphasis, and regretted it immediately. “Ah!”

“Careful!” Fluttershy scolded, pushing Pinkie around the kitchen until she’d had a glass of tap water pressed into her hooves. “I warned you.”

“Sorry.”

“What do you mean, ‘you’re not enough’? Pinkie, you’re a wonderful pony.”

“Well. Thanks. Owch.” Pinkie sipped the tap water and that helped a bit. “It’s just... when it feels like nobody else is with you, it feels like everybody else is against you. Even if they aren’t. Like, you want to help, don’t you?”

“I think it’s the right thing to do,” Fluttershy agreed. “It’s the good thing.”

“It’s just scary?”

“It’s terrifying.” Fluttershy agreed, sipping her tea.

“What’s scarier to me is... doing nothing.” Pinkie admitted, sitting up on the kitchen bench. The couch might have been comfier, but this was the kind of conversation you had where you only moved when it finished. It had to stay in one place to hold in your mind. “At least when I’m with Twilight, it feels like we’re fighting. Like we haven’t already lost.”

“But Pinkie,” Fluttershy reminded her gently, leaning back against the fridge holding her tea in front of her, “we have already lost.”

Pinkie sighed. “I guess that’s why you stopped trying to fight, huh?”

Fluttershy shrugged uncomfortably. “I know I can help the animals. They need me more right now, and I won’t get in trouble for helping them.”

“Right...” Pinkie downed the rest of her tea. “is there anything you can do?”

Fluttershy thought about that a moment. “If Twilight just needs another friend... well, do you think a pet would help?”

Pinkie thought about that, and yeah, it would. “Sometimes she just needs the company, but I’d just be bothering her. An animal friend would be really nice.”

Fluttershy nodded in agreement, and offered an apologetic smile. “Well, do you think she’d uh... do you think she’d like a bird?”

They both tilted their heads up and listened to the lusty roar of thousands of horny birds.

“Something smart. And nocturnal?”

Fluttershy nodded again, but this was all confidence and certainty. “I think I’ve got just the thing.”

Twilight’s surprised yelp echoed around the library. “G’agh! Pinkie! Why is there an owl in here?”

Owlowiscious had landed on Twilight’s reading table right under her nose, and she hadn’t noticed until he’d hooted at her less than a foot from her face. It spooked her really good. Pinkie couldn’t stop giggling.

“His name’s Owlowiscious, and he’s your new friend. Did you know owls can fly completely silently?”

“I may have just learned that for myself, yes. He’s - he?” the owl nodded, “He snuck up on me.” She accused the owl. The owl hooted mischievously, which was another thing it could do apparently. “Why do I need an owl friend?”

Pinkie stared at Twilight. “Twilight, think about that question?”

“You’re right. How silly of me,” all deadpan and snarky, “how could I not want an owl friend?”

“I know right?!”

Twilight looked at Owlowiscious thoughtfully. Her annoyance seemed to be melting out of her, now that she was over being surprised. “You wouldn’t happen to be a good listener, would you?”

Owlowiscious hooted loyally. Twilight raised an eyebrow at it.

“You’re not going to go gossip about me, are you?”

The owl crossed its heart with a wingtip, shaking its head solemnly.

“Hrrm. I already know you’re good at keeping quiet, too.”

The owl laughed in a an owlish way.

Twilight nodded and went back to her book, seemingly satisfied. “Alright, we can be friends. Thank you for introducing us, Pinkie.” Twilight looked back at Owlowiscious and pointed a highlighter at him accusingly. “I didn’t get a cooked breakfast today over you. So we’re going to have to get along famously to make up for it. Think you’re up for it?”

The owl hooted thoughtfully.

“Oh, yes,” Twilight nodded, “A very good breakfast. Pinkie is an amazing cook.”

Owlowiscious jumped up from the table, and flapped a little frantically until he was perfectly balanced on top of Twilight’s head. He started shifting around a little bit and Twilight’s eyes went from ‘confused indignation’ to crossed and unfocused in a second, her mouth hanging open and a groan rattling up from her throat.

“Ooh. Head scratches from a bird. I guess he has nice claws, huh? Worth not getting pancakes for?”

Twilight just kept groaning. Owlowiscious did the owl equivalent of a chuckle, and kept working at it. Pinkie took that as a yes.

“Okay, well, I gotta head back out. You two have fun getting to know each other. You look like you’re going to be besties.”

Owlowiscious snapped off a smart salute, and Twilight tried to at least mumble her goodbyes as Pinkie ran back out.

She was going to get a lot of balloons if she planned on visiting Rainbow Dash today.

The Wonderbolts had become the Shadowbolts when Nightmare Moon won the war. They were always kind of sort of a military group anyway, like they were the rapid responders and if war broke out they were supposed to be Equestria’s elite fliers, but they were mostly just for show. Well, shows. They did really good shows, back then.

Now they were kind of like... when ponies disappeared in the middle of the night, it was because of them. And it was always the middle of the night.

Rainbow Dash had always wanted to be a Wonderbolt, always. It was kind of a bitter victory to become one now, but she still did it. Which also meant she’d stopped visiting too, but it also meant she might, like, know when it’d be safe for Fluttershy to visit, or to make Applejack less mad about stuff.

Pinkie drifted over to the Shadowbolts offices in Cloudsdale, since they didn’t have any surface offices. It only took fifty seven party balloons this time -- she’d lost a little bit of weight. All the walking must have been good for her. Or maybe it was the kale?

“Pinkie?”

Oh, Rainbow had snuck up behind her this time. Maybe she didn’t need to go to the offices after all. That was good, they were scary. “Hey, Rainbow! It’s great to see you!”

Rainbow spun her around and hugged her tight around the balloon strings, careful not to mess with any of them. “It’s been ages! You’re looking great.”

“Yeah I needed, like, five less balloons than last time.”

“Awesome! If you ever want a gym buddy, you know who to look for?”

Pinkie grinned wickedly. “Applejack?”

Rainbow slugged her in the shoulder, but it didn’t hurt at all. They were both laughing. “Seriously though. What are you doing up here?”

“I came to see you, silly! It’s been forever.”

“Yeah, it’s been like... I dunno, months, I guess. Maybe that’s why I’m so surprised?”

“Well. Your new job’s kind of scary, isn’t it? And you’re kind of busy. I didn’t want to bother you.”

Rainbow was wearing her black jumpsuit, and the dark goggles hung around her neck. Her mane was longer than it used to be, and she wore the fringe low over her eyes. She looked fierce. “I guess I’m kind of scary now, too, huh?”

Pinkie nodded a bunch.

“Figures. Sorry about that.”

“It’s okay!”

They both sort of floated in the sky outside Cloudsdale. It was really dark so it was kind of like being at the bottom of a deep ocean, too, only dry. The stars were really clear up here.

Pinkie hugged Dash back. “You free to hang out?”

“Not really. I’m on duty right now. I was actually coming to investigate the not-a-pegasus that was sneaking silently up on Cloudsdale. I was kinda hoping it was you.”

“Aww, did you miss me?”

Rainbow nodded, grinned. “We could get away with so many more awesome pranks in times like these. It’d be great.”

“So many great places to hide too!”

“Did you really just come up here to hang out though?” Dash just sounded curious, but Pinkie still felt really bad that the answer was ‘no’.

“Fluttershy’s been too worried to visit Twilight anymore. I was hoping you could tell her it’s safe?”

Rainbow’s grin died, like the happiness behind it just up and dropped off her face. “I’m sorry, Pinkie, but I can’t, because that’d be a lie.”

“What? Really?”

“Yeah.” Rainbow nodded sadly, rubbing the back of her neck. “Since the resistance gets more and more beaten down, we’ve got the resources to patrol places like the Everfree a lot more than we used to. Be hard not to notice.”

“Huh. Wow, that sucks.”

“It’s a nice patrol, at least.” Rainbow smiled again, reassuring Pinkie that looked more like she was trying to reassure herself, “I’m the only one out there some nights, and I’m not turning my friends in, but... well it’s not like she knows when that’s going to be.”

“Can’t you tell Fluttershy that? On those nights?”

“I can’t jeopardize what I have going here, or I’m not going to be able to stop something really serious.”

“But every time you don’t do something like that, you’re just helping them!” Pinkie frowned.

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed, gritting her teeth and looking everywhere but Pinkie, “but I can’t afford to be rash anymore, you know? Charging in to stuff. If I push boundaries and get fired over something small, I’m not going to be able to get fired ruining something really big.”

Pinkie hated how much sense that made. It felt wrong, and bad, but... it obviously made Rainbow feel worse for having to do it, and she was still doing it. “Do you think other ponies would do little things, too, if somepony were brave enough to let them know they could?”

“I dunno, Pinkie. I probably would, if they did.”

“So what if you all want to do it, but you’re all too scared to be the first?”

“Only way to find out would be to test it. And thing about tests is you can fail them.” Rainbow blew her mane out of her eyes. “You can’t really tell a pony’s true colours ‘til you really test them.”

The confusion and stress that Fluttershy’s tea hadn’t melted away bubbled back to the surface. “Why? Why would anypony be okay with this? Or turn on their teammates?”

“Because the money’s good. And if you turn a pony in, you get promoted, which is really sweet.” Rainbow scowled, furious, still unable to look at Pinkie, “And the ponies who get into the Wonderbolts tend to be pretty... I dunno, what’s that word that means ‘arrogant’ and self-centered and stuff, starts with an ‘n’?”

“Narcissistic?”

“Yeah, that one. Thanks. Narcissistic. You gotta believe you’re the best, and want everypony to tell you. I guess. And narcissists tend to value self-preservation over anything else.”

“And... you’re not a narcissist right?”

And finally Rainbow looked back at Pinkie with a brave grin, and she was either going to laugh or she was going to cry. “I tell myself I just haven’t had a good enough test yet. Having a healthy ego isn’t the same thing right?”

“Right,” Pinkie agreed, “I still think you’re a good pony.”

Rainbow looked really hurt by that, and it was funny how Rainbow punched her before and it didn’t hurt at all, and Pinkie didn’t punch Rainbow and it hurt a ton. Apparently. “That means a lot. Listen, I need to go back and tell the others it was just an earth pony, they’ll get a laugh out of that. Don’t fly back to Ponyville. Go land out in the Whitetail Woods and walk back, okay? Be safe, and make sure nobody follows you.”

Pinkie thought about that. “Do you trust me?”

“Yeah, Pinkie, of course.”

“If I don’t get caught on the way home... can you get me an appointment with Rarity?”

Rainbow grimaced. “You really still want to talk to her, after everything?”

“Yeah. Kind of? You don’t have to come with me.”

“No, no, I gotcha. I’ll get you cleared, and drop all the papers off with Fluttershy, I’ll tell her we talked. Just... be careful. I had nothing to do with anything if anypony asks, got it?”

“Don’t get fired until you can ruin something really big, okay?”

“Yeah, it’s gotta be worth my time right?” Rainbow laughed, hugging Pinkie one last time.

“Right.” Pinkie agreed.

Rainbow stormed off, her rainbow contrail long replaced by a black, thundering stormcloud. It came with the job, apparently.

Pinkie sighed and wiggled herself into the crossbreeze that would carry her back to Whitetail Woods. It’d be a long way home, and she hoped Owlowiscious was still good company. Maybe she should pick up something nice for dinner tonight?

Maybe burgers. Twilight liked burgers.

Owl

Fast food chains hadn’t actually changed that much since Nightmare Moon won. It turns out not even eternal night was going to mess with Old McDonald, and the corporate engine whirred on as consistently as ever.

There was a time where Pinkie would never, ever have walked through the Everfree smelling like hot fast food. That would have been a euphemism for suicide, even! Like, “Oh, yeah, and then I’ll just walk into the Everfree with a bag of takeout and some sauce packets.”

Honey-mustard for Pinkie, plain ketchup for Twilight. Twilight didn’t like overpowering the regular tastes, even though Pinkie thought barbecue was objectively superior. Twilight had said that Pinkie didn’t know the difference between ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ and was using the word wrong but Pinkie knew and just said Twilight got her sauces that wrong. Twilight then said Pinkie should cite her sources and Pinkie squirted her with mayonnaise and then Twilight was about to throw some relish at her, and even made a good ‘relish this!’ pun about it, but then they got into a fight over whether relish was a sauce or just a condiment or what.

The dictionary called it a sauce, which felt weird, but it meant Twilight was in the right when she sprayed some in Pinkie’s hair after and they had to take a long bath each.

It was a good time.

She heard a twig crack. Her ear twitched, her tail flicked, and her mane went all tingly. “Come on Leonard. Really? Today?”

There was a low growl. Twilight called it a Nemean Lion, but Pinkie called him Leonard.

“You know this is vegan, right?” Pinkie grumped, “It just smells really good, but you couldn’t digest it. And you know what happened last time. You’re still super ticklish, aren’t you?”

There was another growl, but it was far more uncertain. That was a big yes.

“How about this. You leave me alone now, and I’ll leave out a big bowl of milk for you when I get home. Deal?”

The growl was more threatening again. They were to her right, now, she could definitely tell. She whipped her head towards him and could see, just a dozen feet away, his glowing golden eyes in the trees. Apparently he was feeling greedy.

“No, no more than that, I don’t want to make you think attacking me gets you treats. I’m not letting any of you run a protection racket on me, you know that’d end badly for everyone.”

The lion jumped in front of her, puffing up its chest and sitting proudly, flashing its claws.

“Oh, yeah, you’re plenty tough. But what are you gonna do when a cockatrice sneaks up on you, cause it wanted to get some cuttlefish and bird seed out of me every week?”

Leonard stared at his claws, then slowly sheathed them again. It was pretty cool how cats could do that actually. Where did they even go? Leonard had a lot of claw.

“So, bowl of milk for you this time, right? And we’ll be happy about that?”

Leonard stared at the ground, but didn’t move or make any other threats. Eventually he stood up and cleared the path for Pinkie to keep walking.

“Thank you Leonard.”

Pinkie skipped with food the rest of the way, with Leonard following in the shadows behind. There were occasionally growls and roars, to let the other residents of the forest know that Leonard was not losing out on a big bowl of milk because of their shenanigans.

That was nice.

Not too long ago Pinkie would have been scared walking through the Everfree smelling like fast food. Now she was just thinking about whether she’d need to go back to do a milk run after this, and worrying that the food was getting cold.

“I thought we were supposed to be eating healthier.” Twilight jabbed a fry at Pinkie in accusation.

“Did you care about that though?”

“Not really.”

“Well, burgers it is.”

They were in the dining room to eat this time. Long banquet table. Pinkie and Twilight just took one of the corners and ate at a diagonal to each other, not quite next-to, not quite across-from. There was something extra fun about eating fast food on a fancy royal table like this.

Twilight inhaled one of the burgers in only two bites, maybe three bites tops. It was hard to tell, she didn’t pause between them long enough for Pinkie to get a good count.

“You missed this kind of thing, huh?”

Twilight nodded, sending flecks of ketchup flying.

Pinkie giggled. “Is my cooking not good enough for you, is it?”

Twilight shook her head just as fast, and swallowed a mouthful so big her cheeks had been bulging. “No, your food is really good. What I missed was really bad food.”

“Twilight, the breakfasts I make for you are like, one part sugar to one part butter to one part the kind of carbs that aren’t sugar.”

“Breakfast doesn’t count.” Twilight corrected, grabbing another burger from the pile. “Breakfast is the miraculous transubstantiation of junk food into healthy food. It’s why it’s the most important meal of the day.”

“Are breakfasts still magic even... you know...” Pinkie gestured at the full moon out the window, “without the day part? Or does it mean every meal can be breakfast now?”

“Well, if we’re being serious here... Which we are, because breakfast is very serious business,” Twilight bit a quarter pounder messily in half, then continued talking with most of it still in her mouth, “it’s the first meal you eat after waking up, which is ‘fasting’. So you ‘break’ your ‘fast’. Breakfast.”

“So why’s it pronounced brek-fist as opposed to break-fast?”

“What am I, a linguist?”

Pinkie was about to laugh, but then she realized she actually didn’t know. “Are you?”

Twilight did laugh. “Actually, I’ve been reading some really interesting books on the idea of language as an instinctual thing, as opposed to a learned one, and figuring out the kind of universal grammar that ponies think in. It’s been really useful in learning how to decode some of these old languages I keep running into. There’s this seapony named Chum Nomsky-”

Owlowiscious hooted grumpily. Twilight rolled her eyes. “Yes, you can have as many chips as you want, just don’t get sick.”

The owl chirped in delight as it swooped the table, grabbing two clawfuls of chips and flying off.

Pinkie giggled. “So how have you two been getting along?”

“He’s a very good listener, which I think I’ve needed right now.”

“Am I not a good listener?”

Twilight flinched, choking on her burger. Pinkie moved to thwack her on the back, but Twilight held up a ‘one moment’ hoof and shook her head, working down the rest of it. “Sorry, just caught me off guard. No, Pinkie, you’re a fantastic listener.”

“Huh. So you wanted a good listener to talk about me to, huh?”

Twilight nearly choked again, but caught herself this time. “Pinkie!”

“Ooh, that’s a big yes.” Pinkie grinned. “Twilight, are you gossiping?”

Owlowiscious laughed raucously from somewhere down the hall. “Owls are very good listeners, apparently.” Twilight said, taking a slurp from her styrofoam cola cup.

“Were they nice things at least?”

Twilight blushed furiously as Owlowiscious’s downright maniacal laughter confirmed that, yeah, it was nice things.

Pinkie nodded, satisfied with that, and took a big bite out of her own burger. “That’s all I needed to know.” Pinkie shouted down the hall, “Thanks, handsome!”

“I would never- I mean- if you were worried-”

“I wasn’t, really, I just thought it was funny. I know you needed someone else to talk to, and it’s not like there’s a ton of other things to talk about.”

Twilight took another long slurp from her cola. “It’s still embarrassing.”

“Why?” Pinkie tilted her head, genuinely curious.

“Well it’s... I don’t know!” Twilight threw her hooves up in frustration.

Pinkie mimicked her, throwing her hooves up in the same way, “I don’t know either!”

“I guess it’s like... do you ever feel embarrassed excusing yourself to go to the bathroom? Everypony does it, but it feels weird to let people know specifically, you know?”

“I guess, actually. Yeah, why is that so weird?”

Twilight shrugged. “I don’t know, but I know it’s something that happens.”

“Oh! Speaking of gossip!” Pinkie pounced on the segue while she remembered, “I was going to talk to Rarity soon! Is there anything you want me to ask?”

Twilight went totally cold. All the little movements, the tapping of her hoof under the table, the way she flicked her fringe out of her eyes every now and again, it all stopped. Just... stopped all at once. “You’re seeing Rarity? Why?”

Pinkie shrugged. “We used to be friends. We nearly saved the world together, once.”

“Once.” Twilight agreed, coldly. She put the burger she’d picked up back down and wiped her lips on one of the napkins they’d stuffed into the paper bag underneath the food.

“I guess you didn’t know her for as long as I did, either.” Pinkie admitted, feeling bad now for asking.

“It’s fine. I’m not mad at you,” Twilight said, obviously very angry in general, but Pinkie believed her that she wasn’t mad at Pinkie, “I just want you to ask her ‘why’.”

“Ah, okay.” Pinkie hesitated, bracing herself, “Why what?”

Twilight kicked the table, hard enough that the entire room-long banquet table shuddered. “Why she gave up the second the elements failed. Why she joined Nightmare Moon so quickly. Why she didn’t even try to fight. Even Rainbow Dash tried!”

“Rainbow’s still trying!” Pinkie cut in, “I talked to her too. She’s just trying from inside the system!”

Twilight sagged, like an old puppet whose strings were finally snapping under the weight of years, “I’m sure she is. But it’s like trying to lift a bucket up from the inside, isn’t it?”

“What do you mean?”

“She can only do as much as she has the Shadowbolts trust her. If she wants to do anything good, she has to earn their trust.”

“Yeah, it’s why Rainbow said she was waiting for something really big to come along before she blew it.”

“That’s the thing, Pinkie. If she wants to be there to do one big good, she’s going to have to earn it with a thousand little evils.” Twilight sighed, slow and shivering like she’d come in from the cold. “I couldn’t do that. Because as long as Luna doesn’t overplay herself, she’s gotten a lifetime of free evils out of Dash that she’s never going to be able to pay off.”

Pinkie stood up out of her chair, knocking it over. “Are you saying our biggest problem could be Black Snootie not being evil enough?”

Twilight held her face in her hooves. “Maybe? But we can’t make things worse just to make ponies care more.” She went totally monotone, like she didn’t believe it at all but was pretending to herself she did, “Because that would be evil.”

Pinkie hesitated. “I try not to ask this, because I know you’re trying as hard as you can and I don’t want to put more pressure on you but...” She took a big inhale, caught her breath. Wanted to get this out in one go before she backed out of it. “Do you have any plans on how to defeat right now?”

Twilight let go of her hooves and let her forehead ‘donk’ against the edge of the table. Her half-eaten burger jumped on the table. “The Elements came from the Tree of Harmony. Without them, we need something else that could restore the Tree... If I can find evidence of an artefact with enough harmony magic in it? We could use that.”

“Is there one?”

“If all the myths and rumours are true?” She leaned back up off the table, with all the confidence her Explaining Things Voice could provide her. “There’s a few. But they’re all myths and rumours! It’s why I’m so busy studying -- I either have to solve an archaeological mystery that dozens of ponies have failed at, which might not even have an answer, or I have to find out about a different artefact that’s more plausible, or accessible.”

“I think the real myth in Equestria is finding the myth that’s only a myth.” Pinkie looked up at the sky, even though a ceiling was in the way. “Everything around here has a nasty habit of being really real.”

“Here’s the hope that works for us, rather than just against us.”

Pinkie thought about that, frowned. “Hey, you think that means that the thing about, uh, your eyeballs getting hairy might be true, then?”

“Definitely not.” Twilight declared firmly, still in Teacher Mode, “Some mothers just tell their children that to discourage them from urges that the mothers think their children are too young for. Apparently doctors say while it’s uncomfortable to think about, it’s totally natural and spreading rumours like this is just harmful to a child’s emotional development at a critical time.”

“Huh.” Now here Pinkie had a conundrum. She knew what Twilight had been reading about recently but she couldn’t let Twilight knew how she knew. But there was no way she wasn’t going to tease Twilight about this. Twilight was also so ridiculously easily flustered she’d be way too busy thinking about how to defend herself way more than to pay attention...

She made a calculated risk, and took a measured shot.

“Wow. Where’d you read that?”

Twilight’s mouth snapped shut, and all the blood fell away from her face. “Uh, book about common myths we tell kids.”

“Really? That sounds super interesting. Could I borrow it from you?”

“Uh! I can’t think of a reason why not?”

“Neat!” Pinkie pretended she was totally oblivious to just how panicked Twilight was right now. “Can I ask which one it is? So I can get it before I forget about it.”

“You could. You could ask that.” Twilight agreed, nodding like her neck was getting stiff but she was trying to avoid setting off a motion detector.

“So?”

“So what?”

“So, what’s the book.” Pinkie helped her along. “Should I just get Owlowiscious to get it for me?”

“Oh! Yes. Owlowiscius! He can totally get you the book I’m talking about here. That one. I’ll go ask him now-”

Owlowiscious swooped in with the book Twilight had kept next to her bedside, the one with the bookmark in it. He gave Twilight a helpful smile, and skittered along the table for some more fries.

Twilight’s face went completely blank and neutral. She was thinking so hard, that she’d kind of left her body and reality for a moment. Pinkie was starting to feel a little mean, but she hadn’t expected Owlowiscious to be such a willing accomplice. That alone sort of reassured her she wasn’t pushing things too far.

The bookmark was open on the chapter about first crushes. It was covered in highlighter in some sections, and angry black marks in others, and lots of furious read pen in the margins. Apparently Twilight had found it a little... condescending.

There was a tiny drawing of a red-pen unicorn stomping the word ‘relax’ to death.

Twilight jerked the book back away and glared at Owlowiscious, who shrugged. He’d just done what he’d been told. “It was the only book I could find in the library about crushes, okay?”

“There wasn’t a book on dating advice and stuff?”

“There was, but it was all either really stupid, or... beyond my skill level.” She grit her teeth, clutching the book to her chest.

“Wait, does this mean you’re thinking about meeting somepony?” Pinkie gasped, “Twilight, that’s fantastic!”

Owlowiscious threw a fry at the side of her head. Apparently owls could arch their eyebrows. Who knew?

Twilight got up, pushing her chair out from the dining table and letting it scrape against the stone floor. “I don’t have time for that, Pinkie. I can’t afford that kind of distraction.” Owlowiscious threw a fry at the back of her head, too, as she turned to leave. Twilight brushed it off.

“So why were you looking it up?”

“Because I couldn’t stop it from distracting me anyway. I- I’m being really vague right now aren’t I?”

“Yeah. I’m really confused. Who did you even meet out here? Was it a pen pal, or...?”

Twilight stood in the open doorway, hoof resting on the handle ready to close the door behind her. Owlowiscious flew in front of her and landed on the floor, glaring up at her, tapping a claw against the stone tiles impatiently. Twilight growled. “We haven’t known each other long enough for you to take that attitude with me, mister.”

The owl rolled its eyes and pointed back at Pinkie with a wingtip. Then its expression softened as it made the best, most reassuring ‘well, go on then’ gesture it could. Owls were very expressive creatures when they wanted to be.

Twilight turned, looking Pinkie in the eye. “It’s you, Pinkie. I really like you, and it’s been distracting me. I've thought about it so much, and I hate it. Say you like me back: we try dating and I can’t divide my attention so cleanly between you and work anymore. There are expectations of a relationship I couldn’t live up to, even though I’d want to. So desperately. I have to make a decision to either work less, or give up on the relationship. I can’t work less, not when the fate of Equestria depends on us, so we break up. There’s a distance between us after, and I have you even less than I do now. If you can even stay around me at all.”

Twilight shrugged, and couldn’t hold eye contact anymore, looked down at the corner of the doorway. “Or we don’t. There’s rejection. At which point even admitting my feelings for you might as well skip us to the breakup stage, only I never even had a chance for something better. And I hate myself for ruining everything with a question that was best left unasked.”

Pinkie stared at Twilight. She felt really small, like the room had grown to gigantic proportions around her and she sat in her chair in her childhood body.

Twilight was the smartest pony she’d ever met, and she’d used all of it to sit down, plan out, and prove to herself what a weak, selfish person she was for having a crush and how everything was terrible forever now. Judging by the book, a first crush at that. Twilight was older than she was, that was... honestly kind of really flattering?

Okay so add that to the jumble of emotions right now; gnawing sadness that Twilight was hurting, confusion that this was all happening at once even though it obviously wasn’t, panic that she had no idea what to do about this now that she did know, and being really flattered that apparently she was... interesting? enough to ruin someone’s life. That was cool.

And before she had worked out what to say to that, Twilight had already left. Stoic, measured footsteps broke apart into a desperate gallop after only a few seconds.

Owlowiscious stood, stone-still and wide-eyed. This obviously isn’t what he expected, either. After a second, he tore down the hallway after Twilight, silent as he’d ever been.

Pinkie wasn't good at thinking about things. She either knew what to do, or she didn't. Right now, more than anything, she wanted to just tell Twilight everything was okay, give her a big hug, sit her down in a comfy chair and bake her some chocolate chip cookies, and make everything okay again.

But that wasn't an answer. And no matter what she answered, Twilight would be unhappy about it. But that wasn't to say not asking was the right solution either; that was why Twilight had been so--

Oh gosh. When she was telling Twilight to take a day off, the day off she'd described had totally sounded like her idea of a perfect date or something, didn't it? And she'd been stressed out because she was trying not to ask Pinkie on a date. So that was why she got such an awkward hug out of it and-

Okay a lot of things made a lot more sense now. Lines were connecting the dots in Pinkie's head -- forget the lines, she hadn't even seen half the dots until now.

That was... that was a lot to take in.

No, no no, Twilight had overthunk it and this is what happened. If there was a solution you could come to just by thinking about the problem hard enough, that would have happened by now, and it hadn't. And Pinkie wasn't nearly as good at that kind of thinking.

Pinkie was going to bake the everloving heck out of some cookies, because there's no point second guessing yourself if you got it right the first time.

No. Wait.

She did have a better idea than cookies.

Giant Ice-Cream Sandwiches

Pinkie balanced the tray on her back as she tippy-toed through the castle. There wasn't really a need to sneak up on Twilight, but she didn't want to give her a chance to run away and keep avoiding the problem.

Twilight had obviously had a lot of practice at it, and had gotten quite good at it, so Pinkie would have to put her fair share of work into flanking her. She couldn't be surprised like in the dining room again.

It was hard to sneak with the giant pan balanced on her back, draped under the dramatic white cloth, but nothing worth doing was ever easy.

There were a few obvious places to check. The library, Twilight's bedchamber... okay, so there were exactly two obvious places to check. The problem was, they were the obvious places Pinkie would look, so if Twilight didn't want to be found right now, they were the first two places she wouldn't be.

The library was closest, so that was where Pinkie walked first. She looked around and... no, no purple book horses. She kind of expected that.

Okay, follow the grooves in the floor to the bedchamber then.

The first indication that she was right was Owlowiscious standing outside the bedroom door, looking concerned.

He looked at Pinkie and gave her a sad, slow shake of his head. Pinkie grimaced. Okay, so she wasn't doing super great, that was to be expected, but it was kind of hard to speed-bake, and besides... it was probably better Twilight wear herself out a little bit, she'd been holding this in for ages.

Pinkie knocked twice. Owlowiscious hugged her leg, then flew off towards the library.

The door handle glowed purple, and opened silently. Twilight lay face-down on her bed, pulling the pillow tight around her head. The glass dish on her bedside table had been shattered, but Pinkie didn't see any blood or bandages.

The bouquet of brilliant flowers had been put down carefully on the floor in their crystal. Twilight hadn't broken that.

She put the pan she was carrying on top of it, and sat on the bed next to Twilight, thinking about what to say.

But then she remembered she wasn't supposed to be thinking right now, and just said things anyway.

“I was going to surprise you with it, but I remembered the chocolate chip ice cream this time.”

Twilight's head didn't move, but her ear flicked up.

“And... well, I was going to bake you reassuring cookies, and tell you everything was going to be okay, but that didn't feel... good enough. Like I was taking you seriously, when I am. I mean, I can't take everything as seriously as you take it, but I don't think you should either.”

Twilight grumbled wordlessly into the pillow. Just frustrated embarrassed noises, like she was being parented at. Pinkie managed not to giggle, but it was hard. Was it wrong to think Twilight was cute like this? She was like a pouty teenager. The dark room lit only by a few purple candles certainly made all of this seem like Twilight going through her goth phase.

... Twilight absolutely owned black mascara and knee-high boots in highschool didn't she? That was kind of a great thought to think.

Oh, right. “So, I made you a giant ice cream sandwich.” She flipped off her dramatic white cloth, revealing an ice-cream cookie sandwich the size of a birthday cake. “Combining the best of both comfort ice cream because you're sad, and everything-is-going-to-be-okay cookies into a single, fantastic thing.”

Twilight lowered the pillow and rotated her head until she could see the cookie-sandwich on her bedside table. She just stared at it, not knowing what to do.

“Well? Are you going to sit up with me, so we can eat some of this bad boy?”

Twilight hesitated. To sit up to eat was to have to have a conversation and have a Relationship Talk. To wrap her pillow around her head again was to avoid the talk, but not get any cookie sandwich.

Pinkie had anticipated this sort of thing, which is why she had used her secret weapon; fresh vanilla in the cookies. The aroma could have raised the dead. But for now it'd be enough to raise a mopey unicorn up off her bed.

Twilight sat up, and cut the cookie sandwich neatly into eighths with her magic. “Did you bring plates?”

“Ah, shoot! I didn't think.”

Twilight held a wedge of it next to her face. “It's okay, I'll just do laundry after this.” She took a bite, and got almost as much around her mouth as in it. “Thanks.”

Pinkie waited for Twilight to eat a little more before she wrapped her around the ribs and squeezed her in a big hug from her side. “I'm not going anywhere, okay?”

Twilight slowly, slowly put her piece back down on the tray. It wobbled as she let go of it. A second later she was slumped in Pinkie's arms, almost sliding down off the bed if the hug hadn't been holding her up. She was crying; the kind that was one quivering breath in then three ragged, shuddering breaths out, repeat. “I was so scared.”

“Why?”

Twilight mashed her eyes against the top of Pinkie's right arm, sniffling. “Everyone else moved on. Everybody else left me behind.”

Twilight stopped to think about that. That was okay, if she needed to think, they had all the time in the world. Pinkie was just going to keep hugging her for as long as it took. If Twilight was falling apart, Pinkie would hold her together, same as always.

Twilight sniffed again. “I... I tried to prepare myself for the idea of you leaving. Going back to Ponyville and being with the Cakes again, and then not visiting anymore, because you'd move on too.”

Pinkie hugged her even harder. “And you call me silly?”

Twilight nodded, face still buried in Pinkie's arms. “It wasn't that I thought you were going to. It--” Twilight bit the inside of her cheek hard, Pinkie could feel it.

“You were gunna say?”

Twilight hesitated. “I realized I couldn't. I couldn't even handle the idea of you going. I got really scared. I didn't know why – I mean, you're important to me, but...”

“You're important to me too, okay, Twilight? I'm still here.” She squeezed the hug a little, but just a little. She didn't want to break something so fragile.

“Everyone else I could handle. When Rainbow Dash got into the Shadowbolts, it hurt, but it didn't stop me. When Applejack stopped visiting, and then Fluttershy... I could deal with it. I could keep working. I got angry, even, but,” Twilight swallowed a dry ball of empty nothing, “I still wanted to save Equestria.”

Pinkie whispered, “You thought you'd give up, without me?”

Twilight laughed the kind of laugh that ponies only did when they hated themselves and they were remembering specifics, “I knew I would. With Celestia gone... without you, what was worth saving anymore?”

Pinkie scolded her. “Twilight, you can't possibly mean that.”

“I do. Which is why I was so scared. And why I was so scared of saying anything. That's not a fair thing to do to you.” Twilight laughed again, the same laugh as before, and her voice took on a forced cheerfulness – the only happiness she was going to show right now was going to be sarcastic, “Hey, Pinkie! It turns out, I accidentally got a crush on you, and now if you leave me, I'm going to stop trying to save Equestria and probably even just give myself up to Nightmare Moon! I wouldn't worry about it too much, but it really is just your fault for being too wonderful to me.”

“My fault for being too wonderful to you, huh?” Pinkie nudged Twilight's head with her own. Twilight went from flooby to rock-solid tensed in her hug in a second flat.

“Did I just say that?”

“Yuh-huh. You did.”

“Well,” Twilight sighed, floobying again, but at some point she'd stopped crying as much, so that was an improvement, “It is.”

“I didn't even know you liked girls.” Pinkie giggled again.

“I didn't know I liked anything.” Twilight grumbled, “I just know I like Pinkies.”

“Wait, so... did you really not know it was a crush?”

“I just thought, 'Oh, I think about Pinkie Pie a lot, and I'm always happy when she's around, and I always get sad when she goes away, and apparently the idea of her leaving me is about the same as the end of the world to me. She must be a really good friend.'”

“... Twilight?”

“Yeah?”

“You're the smartest pony I know, but you're also the dumbest.”

“I knooooooow.” Twilight moaned. “And the only other person I've been able to talk to about this with is Owlowiscious.”

“I guessed that.” Pinkie connected a few more dots, another line formed, “I also guess you told him all the parts about liking me, but you didn't mention the whole... giving up on Equestria part of it, or those panicky bits?”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah.”

“Poor guy really thought you just weren't brave enough to ask me out, I think. I don't think he meant to upset you.”

“I hope he doesn't think I'm mad at him,” Twilight sniffled again. “Of course I told him all about how hard it was to keep avoiding the problem. I was thinking of ways to just get over it... but leave it to a bird to try to play wingman.”

Pinkie snorted. “Well, in his defense, I did pick him up in the middle of a really... silly mating season. I think he might have been really fed up with this kind of stuff by now.”

“Wait- did he think I was trying to ask you to mate with me?”

If Pinkie had thought about what she was saying right now, she wouldn't have said it. But she wasn't, so she did. “What, don't you want to 'mate' with me?” She asked with the most serious, curious tone she could manage.

Twilight went completely still. All her muscles locked up again, and she stopped breathing totally. Like she was trying to hide, but the hiding spot was inside herself somewhere.

“Twilight?”

Twilight didn't move. Pinkie could feel the heat of her nervous, terrified blush against her arms.

“Twilight, I was joking. You don't have to answer that. Twilight?”

Twilight levitated the last of the slice of cookie cake she'd cut herself and ate the rest of it, careful not to get any stickiness on Pinkie's arms as she did.

Pinkie thought about that for a moment, then a lightbulb moment. She gasped. “Oh my goodness you learned about crushes from a puberty book you have no idea how to deal with urges do you.”

Twilight kept her mouth full so she didn't have to answer that.

“Oh my goodness have you been having sexy thoughts about me?”

Twilight coughed and spluttered on her cookie, pulling herself out of the hug and pushing Pinkie away from her. “Pinkie! You aren't helping!”

“How have you been having sexy thoughts about me but not realize it was a crush???”

“I am not a clever pony.” Twilight fumed, “This isn't funny!”

“It is a little bit, though, isn't it?”

Twilight grabbed the pillow she'd been sobbing into just minutes earlier and screamed a battlecry as she whacked Pinkie's head with it, Pinkie laughing hysterically the whole time Twilight kept whumping and whumping her.

Twilight started laughing too. She didn't stop hitting Pinkie with the pillow, but she laughed.

As Pinkie rolled about on the floor, still laughing her butt off, Twilight still hitting her with the pillow for laughing so hard, Owlowiscious swooped in. There was a clatter of something hard hitting the cookie pan. Twilight picked it up with her magic.

When Pinkie got up off the floor, still getting the last of the giggles out, she saw what it was. An amethyst pendant, a soft lilaccy purple, with a silver band fixing the thin end of it to a silver chain necklace. Had it been found in a royal jewel box? Was this the sort of thing the Princesses had worn a thousand years ago?

“What is it?”

Twilight had to think about how to answer that, which was interesting for its own reasons. You don't have to think about something you just know. “It's something special I made for you. I'm not really a jeweler but--”

“You made it?”

Twilight was looking at the pendant, not Pinkie, but she smiled at that all the same. “I guess I did, yeah. It's not really a crystal crystal, either. It's magic.”

“It's very pretty is what it is.”

“Yes, well, it's pretty and magic. If you ever need help, break it. Just stepping on it should work perfectly. I... was really nervous about giving this to you, because I didn't want to seem... clingy? Is clingy the right word?”

Pinkie looked at the very proud owl staring curiously at the cookie. “Was Twilight worrying too much again?”

The owl nodded. Twilight harrumphed. “It was a perfectly sensible amount of worrying.”

Owlowiscious snorted. Before Twilight could snap at him he'd jumped from the table to her back, and was massaging her neck with his claws, a look of serene concentration on his face. Twilight gasped sharply, then melted into it, purring happily. It looked very funny from Pinkie's perspective on the floor.

“I'm still mad at you,” Twilight said to the owl, but it was obvious her heart wasn't in it.

“Thank you, bird bro, for being brave for Twilight 'cause she's nervous.” Pinkie got up off the floor and hugged Twilight again, just a short squeeze this time. “I love it. It's really nice, and it's going to make me feel a lot safer walking around the forest. Thank you.”

Twilight blushed, but didn't say anything. She was obviously trying really hard to think of something savvy to say, something debonair, but every time she got close Owlowiscious found another good spot on her neck and killed her ability to concentrate. He seemed to be doing this on purpose. Good bird. Twilight was much cuter when she was all flustered.

One last hug. “I'm going to go out tomorrow, okay, but then I'm going to come back. I'll always come back for you, okay?”

Twilight hugged her back, tight. Owlowiscious jumped off – he wasn't going to interfere with the moment. They just held each other for a bit, Pinkie to give every ounce of reassurance she could give, and Twilight to give back an equal and greater amount of gratefulness.

Either answer she could give Twilight right now, yes or no, would have hurt her so badly. But Twilight didn't need answers right now. She needed her best friend, and she needed to know she wasn't going to lose her.

Pinkie wasn't going to lose a friendship over Twilight liking her too much.

When the hug broke, just as Pinkie was about to leave, she took the flowers off the floor and put them back on the bedside table.

She didn't know why she did that. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Just to prove to Twilight that she wasn’t going to leave, and nothing really important had changed between them.

Pinkie lay staring up at the ceiling of her own bedroom.

There had been an orchestra pit in the old castle, still with instruments. One by one she'd dragged the antiques to her room as she figured out the best sounds to go with the different poems she liked. And sometimes it was just fun to play a polka on a violin that was worth more than most ponies would earn in a year.

Violins weren't even polka instruments! Absurdism at its finest!

With the candles lit, the room was bright and covered with the happy murals she'd painted, and the walls covered in leaning instruments made it feel festive and cheerful. It was how she usually saw it – she was the kind of pony who fell asleep the second their head hit the pillow.

Tonight was the first in a long time she got to experience her room in the darkness. Now it felt like all those strange and mysterious shapes in the darkness were an audience, waiting in anticipation. Watching her silently, listening. There was no paint, just wall.

“I know I told Twilight not to worry about it,” she explained to her audience, hoping that acknowledgingacknowleding them would appease them, and she could finally sleep, “But... the Good Witch of the Everfree, smartest pony I ever met, says I'm worth as much as all the rest of Equestria to her? That's really scary.”

Her heart hammed in her chest. The weight of the world on her shoulders, even though all she had to do was just be there for Twilight. Really, that just made tomorrow the same as a week ago but it was like, the difference between walking on a foot-wide path painted on the ground, and a foot-wide bridge a thousand feet up.

You do it without even thinking about it when it's ground-level. But a thousand feet up, and it's suddenly terrifying, even though you're doing exactly the same thing in every other way.

... and now she couldn't stop thinking of Twilight in a black corset and a short black skirt and knee-high boots, surrounded by her purple candles and magic books, being that more modern kind of witch.

Pinkie smiled at the thought. But it wasn't making her laugh anymore.

Owlowiscious hooted. Pinkie whipped her head around to see him perched on the rim of a tuba. “Were you here when I started talking, or did you come because you heard me talk?”

Owlowiscious hooted mysteriously. Pinkie sighed.

“Well, I guess you can help me out here. I think Twilight absolutely went through a goth phase in highschool. What do you think?”

The owl chuckled. Pinkie grinned.

“I know right?”

The owl made a questioning hoot. Pinkie's eyebrows furrowed and she fell back onto her pillow again, staring up at the ceiling.

“I don't know why I'm thinking about it. I guess I just think like... I don't know, I think it'd be a really cute look for her. I just like thinking about it I guess.”

Owlowiscious hooted thoughtfully.

“Oh, yeah, way too much makeup. Like, it'd be a really fantastic look for her in moderation, but Twilight doesn't really get moderation, so she'd overshoot it and just look a bit silly.”

Owlowiscious hooted dissentingly.

“Well, yeah, if she had some help it'd probably be fine. But I'm not telling her that.”

Owlowiscious hooted questioningly.

“Of course I'm not telling her that! She's already so awkward about me right now, I don't want to tell her I've been playing dress up with her in my head.”

Owlowiscious hooted thoughtfully.

“Well, I was just thinking it'd look silly, right, but then the more I thought about it the less silly it seemed, and I actually kind of like the idea of it now? A lot. Like, it suits her. It's witchy and rebellious!”

Owlowiscious hooted agreeingly.

“Well. I guess she's going to stop taking those pills now, too. So that's nice. I guess she was just trying to do everything she could to force herself to focus on her work, huh? Like, if she could focus hard enough on that, she would be able to ignore having a crush? You know, for the sake of Equestria and stuff.”

Owlowiscious hooted sadly.

“Yeah, I thought so. She cares so much, you know? And sometimes it feels like she's the only one that does.”

Owlowiscious didn't hoot at that one. Just waited for Pinkie to explain what she meant.

“I mean, like... everybody else seems to have given up already.” Pinkie sighed miserably. “I've been seeing our old friends, trying to get them to come visit but... they all seem to act like we're just making things worse for them! So I guess it's like... it's so hard to fight on the behalf of ponies who'd rather you didn't? Like, you know it's the right thing to do, but everybody else tells you you're wrong. And Twilight's the only pony I know who's strong enough to do it anyway.”

Owlowiscious hooted uncertainly.

“What do you mean?”

No hoots.

“Oh. Right. I guess that's the problem, isn't it? Twilight's not strong enough to do that.” Pinkie thought about that for a moment. “I guess that's what she meant when she realized she'd give up without me. Even if she didn't know that's what she actually meant. Twilight's really dramatic about things.”

Owlowiscious hooted in amusement.

“You have noticed? Good, it's not just me then.” Pinkie giggled. “Twilight was right, you're a really good listener.”

Owlowiscious hooted proudly. There was quiet as Pinkie thought some more. Owlowiscious hooted accusingly.

Pinkie pulled the bedsheets up over her head. “So what if I was thinking about playing dress-up with Twilight again! She doesn't even brush her hair most days, there's nowhere to go but up!”

Owlowiscious's laughter was the last thing Pinkie heard before drifting off to sleep. Apparently she just needed somebody to talk to, too.

Treehouses

Pinkie stared at the amethyst around her neck. It reminded her of home. She wondered how the rock farm was doing? Probably exactly the same, honestly. It was always kind of gloomy there anyway, and rocks didn't need much light.

She hadn't gone home since this happened. Not to the farm, not to the Cakes...

After two years, the castle still felt transitory. This wasn't a home, this was just a place where they lived. Even though she'd made breakfast in this kitchen almost every morning for two years now, it was the castle's kitchen, not Pinkie's kitchen. She was still just borrowing it.

Pinkie began to fill a backpack with food and snacks and some potions. It wasn't Pinkie sense, but there was a strong feeling in her gut that she wasn't going to be back for a little while. Visiting Rarity was going to take a while. Canterlot was ages and ages away.

She sighed.

“Morning?”

Pinkie jumped. “Gah! Is Owlowiscious teaching you to sneak up on ponies?”

Twilight wore a look of carefully cultivated innocence. “No?”

“Well. Tell him he's a stinky butt.” Pinkie stuck her tongue out. “How're you feeling?”

Twilight grit her teeth as she went to the fridge. Found where she'd put the cookie sandwich and deemed that breakfast; anything's good for you if it's for breakfast. “That's a complicated question. Better in a lot of important ways. Like I don't have something really heavy hanging over my head anymore, ready to squish me.”

“You're only allowed to get squished if it's in a big hug, deal?”

Twilight snorted, leaning her head into the fridge and sighing. There was muffled eating noises. “Deal. But I'm also trying to stop taking my... medicine, let's call it medicine. It turns out there are withdrawal symptoms.”

“How bad?”

“Dry, cottony mouth.” Another bite of ice-cream. “Killer, throbbing headache.” More munching noises. “Feel like my eyes are covered in tiny needles. But mostly I'm feeling a bit... cranky.”

“Cranky?”

“Trying not to snap at you right now, not because you've done anything, but because I'm indiscriminately furious.” Twilight leaned back out of the fridge, face covered in sticky sugary stuff. “I'm glad you made so much of this, it's helping a lot.”

“Well, I'm glad it's helping?”

“Mm,” Twilight agreed, going back to grazing it directly out of the fridge. Apparently it was a good substitute for an ice pack, “A lot. I did this to myself, and I'll fix it just fine. But I'd probably give me some space for a while.”

“Well. I was going to go see Rarity. I got Dash to do all the paperwork for me, remember?”

Twilight smiled and sighed happily like a pony slipping into a warm bath. “Oh, there it is. Someone to be cogently, specifically angry about. Goodbye, directionless flailing, hello spite.”

“I figured you wouldn't want to come along.”

Twilight shook her head. “It would end badly for everyone involved. Especially Rarity.”

“Well. Yeah.”

Twilight felt brave enough to pull away from the fridge and give Pinkie a big hug. There wasn't hesitation or stiffness or limpness, it was just a genuinely nice hug. “Take care of yourself. Come back safe.”

Pinkie hugged her back tight. “Enjoy being miserable. Take care of yourself too.”

Twilight laughed as she broke the hug. “'Enjoy being miserable' huh? I'll see what I can do.”

There was a moment of hesitation as Pinkie went for the door. She had such a bad, ominous feeling in her gut... but she touched the pendant around her neck again, and felt better.

Hrm.

She also grabbed the milk on her way out, and filled another big bowl for Leo, just for good luck.

Fluttershy's cottage was still easily findable by following the sounds of the birds. The branches had filled with nests now. Pinkie went to the front door and knocked.

Fluttershy opened it with a smile, but when she saw who it was she went really pale. “Oh, hi, Pinkie,” she said.

“Hi, Fluttershy,” Pinkie pretended not to notice, “Rainbow Dash was supposed to leave some papers here for me. Did you get them?”

Fluttershy nodded. “Uh, they're not here.”

“Oh. Well, where are they?”

“I wasn't home when Rainbow came to deliver them,” Fluttershy lied, “So she gave them to Applejack instead, they're waiting for you at Sweet Apple Acres.”

Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Applejack wants to talk to me, huh?”

“... yes.”

“Sorry you got caught in the middle of this, then. Should I be worried?”

Fluttershy sighed in relief. Pinkie didn't know relief at what, but it was still a good sign. “I don't think so. But she just really didn't want you putting it off until after you saw Rarity.”

“I can't believe she was nearly the Element of Honesty...” Pinkie grumped.

Fluttershy sighed. “It would have been nice to be Kindness, I think.”

Pinkie gave Fluttershy a reassuring hug. “You'd have been an amazing Kindness.”

Fluttershy hugged back. “Maybe you should have been Loyalty and Generosity too. Give Rainbow Dash honesty, since Applejack and Rarity didn't seem to want theirs much anyway.”

Pinkie laughed. “I don't think it works like that.”

“Well, it didn't work how we tried it either,” Fluttershy pointed out.

Owch.

“Thanks again, Fluttershy. You keep looking after the birds.”

As Pinkie turned to skip away through Ponyville, she only just heard Fluttershy mutter to herself.

“Sorry...”

Sweet Apple Acres looked so pretty in the moonlight. The fireflies buzzing about, the new fields of shimmering and glowing flowers. Earth pony magic making the best of it.

She got halfway up the walk, passing the old treehouse they used to play in as teenagers, back when Pinkie would drink a few ciders to get all giggly, and Applejack thought smoking made her look tough. It might have, if she didn't panic like a little filly every time she thought she heard Granny coming.

It was never just them, though. There was always either Rainbow or Fluttershy or both as well, somepony to act as a join between them. Rainbow and Pinkie would be drinking, and Fluttershy would be smoking something completely different to Applejack, all bonding over doing something their parents would absolutely hate them doing.

She missed the days when they bonded over doing stuff everypony else would rather they weren't doing. Like plotting revolutions.

What would Twilight have done, if she'd been there? Or Rarity, if she'd known about it?

Twilight would think smoking was absolutely disgusting, and be hopelessly addicted to it. And Rarity? Probably just gossip outrageously, like she couldn't anywhere else.

That sounded really nice.

Applejack was running up to meet her. Pinkie waved, and Applejack waved back, gesturing for her to hurry up. Pinkie skipped up faster, towards the farmhouse. But Applejack wasn't walking back to the farmhouse, but to a nearby barn.

She swung the big barn doors shut behind Pinkie, grunting because they were heavy. “Heya, Pinkie.”

“Hey, Applejack. What's up?”

Applejack spat on the ground next to her hooves. “Heard tell you were going to visit Rarity.”

“Yeah! It's been ages. We used to be friends.”

“Whatcha gunna talk to her about?”

“Uh... I dunno. Why?”

The barn was lit by an old oil lantern hanging from the center of it. It made everything feel so... dirty, greasy. Tools hung from nails pounded into the wall, hay bales made sturdy benches. Piles of straw were stored here, where it was dry. Probably for the cows. All cast uneven, scattered and strange shadows.

Applejack cleared her throat. “You ain't turning Twilight in are you?”

Pinkie flinched. She should have kept a better poker face, but she had been way too unprepared for the question. So, “What? No!”

Applejack hung her head and kicked the wall behind her in frustration. “Figures it couldn't be that easy.”

Pinkie's eyes widened. “Wait, have you been thinking about that?”

“Well, shoot, yeah. Would make my life a heck of a lot easier, I'll admit it. It just ain't in me to do it, betray her like that.”

Pinkie exploded at that; “Make your life easier?! She's the one trying to bring the sun back! Don't you miss the sun! Days? Things used to be better for everyone!”

Applejack spat again. She didn't even respect Pinkie's anger enough to get angry herself. “'Course it used to be better. Things change, though, and you gotta deal with it, and do the best you can. Twilight's acting like an immature little filly. She needs to grow up, before somepony gets hurt.”

“Applejack!” Pinkie shouted, but Applejack was still just... bored and annoyed.

“Pinkie, she's out by herself in the middle of the Everfree, doing nothing for nobody, and ticking Nightmare Moon off pretty fierce by doing it. It's why Ponyville gets all those extra Shadowbolt patrols these days. She thinks we're aiding and abetting the enemy, and in truth, we sort of are, aren't we?”

Pinkie kept quiet at that. She seethed, but, yeah, they kind of were. And nobody had turned them in yet. The fact that nobody was doing anything seemed to cut both ways, at least.

“So what should she do, then? Just give up?”

Applejack growled. “Shucks, is that what you call it? Trying to keep everything together, trying to keep everyone going as best you can? Keeping the food growing? When ponies look for a leader around here, it ain't Mayor Mare they look to. Tartarus knows she's just a puppet, and she doesn't even have the stomach to hide it.”

Applejack was getting angry, which made Pinkie feel a lot more calm. You only get angry when you care. “You think Twilight should come back to town and be a leader?”

“She could have been a leader years ago, if she'd just grown up and been an adult about things. Now I'd just settle for a librarian who isn't making trouble.”

“But if she doesn't 'make trouble', then nothing's going to get fixed?”

Applejack scowled at Pinkie, but it wasn't really at Pinkie. She held her hat to her chest and squeezed it in frustration. “Nothing's getting fixed no matter what, Pinkie. And the sooner y'all accept that, the sooner you can help me keep things from getting worse. That's all that really matters.”

Pinkie wasn't going to get mad, or cry, or anything like that. Old Pinkie wore her heart on her sleeve. But Pinkie Pie had 'grown up' a lot, even if Applejack didn't think much of it. “Why did you take the papers from Fluttershy?”

Applejack put her hat back on, walked past a hay pile and reached into it, fishing her hoof back and forth until it came back out with a bottle of cider. Then another. She threw one to Pinkie, who caught it.

“I don't have a bottle opener?”

“I worked out how to do twist offs.” Applejack was proud of that one.

Pinkie twisted it, it popped. Sweet and alcoholic, stronger than she was used to. Good cider.

Applejack continued, “I'm working on mead at the moment, since the new flowers have been making for all kinds of tasty new honey. But the old cider's kept, and we keep some around for special occasions.”

Pinkie didn't know what this meant, but she wanted it to mean good things. “Mead sounds really nice. I've always wanted to try it.”

Applejack reached into the hay pile again and pulled out a manilla folder. She pulled the papers Pinkie needed from it. “I've been good with you and Twilight 'cause you've kept the town out of it as much as possible. But if you're going to Canterlot, I need you to promise you're not going to mention Ponyville at all. You haven't talked to me or Fluttershy. We aren't with you none.”

Pinkie nodded. That made a lot of sense. She really wanted to talk to Rarity about how the girls were doing, and if Applejack hadn't thought to warn her... that might have ended badly. “I can't just say I don't talk to Twilight anymore?”

“Shoot, Pinkie, you sure can. But it's up to you to deal with the consequences.”

“Rarity's still our friend. She's just... doing what's best for her right now.”

Applejack downed her entire bottle of cider in one long gulp. Just held it over her head and glugged it down, then wiped her lips with the back of her arm. “Yep. Reckon that's what she's doing too. Horseapples is what it is. I'd buck her upside the head if I saw her again.”

Pinkie nodded sadly at that. “That's how Twilight feels too, I think.”

Applejack grinned at that. “'Of course it is. Twilight's a smart cookie. Never disputed that.”

“So you think she's smart, but you also think she's stupid?”

Applejack laughed. “Oh, Pinkie, it's the difference between smart, clever and wise. Twilight's smart, and she's more than a little bit clever, but it's her sense of wisdom that I'm seriously questioning these days.”

Pinkie nodded, but then quickly shook her head. It sounded like it should be obvious, like she should understand, but she honestly didn't. “What's the difference?”

“It's the different kinds of intelligence. Smart's when you know a lot of words, and a lot of big ones. Clever's when you have a way with words, and you're quick with them. Wise is knowing when to be smart, or clever, and when to keep your mouth shut.”

Pinkie thought about that. She felt clever and maybe a little wise, but not as smart as her friends were. Applejack seemed smart and wise, but not always clever – she couldn't think fast to save her life, but she could solve most anything if you gave her some time and some quiet. And Twilight...

Well, she was very, very smart. Definitely clever. But... rather than just tell Pinkie 'hey I have a crush on you sorry if I'm weird about it', had started taking what were probably amphetamines and becoming increasingly self-destructive.

Yeah, okay, maybe Applejack had a point.

Pinkie nodded more confidently this time. “That makes a lot of sense.”

Applejack shrugged. “That was it. That was all I wanted to talk about. I trust you, Pinkie, don't make any mistake about that. But Rarity's... well, Rarity's a nasty kind of clever, and I don't trust her. I don't much like you seeing her, but I'm not going to stop you, either.”

That made Pinkie really sad, and she got the same bad feeling in her gut, that same twisting sense of foreboding as when she'd left. “I think that's what Twilight thinks, too.”

Applejack smiled. “I told you, didn't I? Twilight's a smart cookie. It was good seeing you, Pinkie.”

Pinkie was happy to realize it was the honest truth. As much as Applejack made her a bit sad right now, the fact that she was so honest and upfront about it made everything a lot more okay than it might have been.

Pinkie looked at the papers Applejack had given her. One of them was a coupon, a chariot ticket. Apparently she was supposed to set it on fire when she was ready to go.

“Hey, Applejack, do you mind if I borrow that oil lantern?”

Applejack pulled a pack of matches from under her hat and threw them to Pinkie as well. “Get the heck away from the property line before you use that thing, partner. Remember what we talked about?”

“Right, right...” Pinkie muttered, feeling horribly guilty she'd already nearly made a big mistake, maybe. No wonder Applejack went so far out of her way to talk to her first... “Hey, why did you have a box of matches in your hat, anyway?”

“Old habits.” Applejack said, looking out towards the tree house.

Author's Note

If you liked this chapter, also by the author.

Poetry

Twilight didn’t say anything, didn’t move, but her eyes flicked from side to side as she tried to process as much of what was happening as possible. She hadn’t had any warning before the breaking crystal had pulled her here.

The guard in the doorway, a unicorn, ran in, and a batpony followed after him, and they levelled their spears at Twilight. Twilight tackled Pinkie and threw a purple, thrumming shield around them that glowed like an electric soap bubble. The spears bounced off it with the sound of butter knives bouncing off a bug-zapper.

Rarity coughed into a hoof. “I'm sorry, you must forgive me, but when is any of this going to start making sense?” Then Rarity seemed to notice the way Pinkie was looking at Twilight, and how Twilight looked like she was trying not to curl up into a ball and hide. There was a spark of recognition in her eyes, and she laughed. “Oh, heavens, you were trying to impress her, were you?”

“I just wanted to see how it'd look!” Twilight shouted back in confident defiance, staring directly down at the floor between her hooves.

Rarity hummed thoughtfully. “And tell me, before you were so rudely interrupted, how do you think that experiment of yours went? Actually, don't answer that, I'd rather hear what Pinkie Pie thinks.”

Pinkie stared out of the shield at the guards, and at Rarity, and she realized Twilight wasn't saying anything. They were all waiting for her answer. “It looks like she put a lot of effort into it, and I appreciate she'd try something like that for me.” She answered as honestly as possible, feeling really weird about it. The shield shimmered and glowed brighter.

Rarity was staring at the two of them, and she was still giggling, and it was warm and almost friendly, the proper mean-girl laugh.“Oh, she certainly tried very hard, that much is obvious. Twilight, you look like you just got done smoking clove cigarettes beneath the high school bleachers.”

Twilight focused on her shield and snarled. “I'm sorry, I'll stay out of your wardrobe from now on.”

Rarity rolled her eyes, and sighed. “If you took that from my wardrobe, I should be able to write it off as a charitable donation. Speaking of charity cases, was that just another transparent attempt to save face in front of your little crush?”

Twilight flinched, the shield flickered. “Shut up!”

“What do you like about her? How helpful she is? How willing, how impressionable, how manipulatable? Her naivety? She's cute, I'll give her that, but she's hardly intellectually stimulating, is she?” Rarity laughed again, “Let me guess; She doesn't add much to the conversation, but she's such a wonderful listener, and she makes you feel interesting. Stop me if I'm wrong?”

“She is interesting!” Pinkie tried to stand up for Twilight but, apparently that didn't help. In fact it seemed to make Twilight feel worse. The shield caught a spear jab and snapped inward like a deflated balloon catching a blunt pencil, but it didn't break.

"I don't know what's more pathetic. That you're so desperately trying to take advantage of her, or that you can't. Twilight, you're a brilliant mare, a wonderful conversationalist, and anyone would count themselves extraordinarily blessed to have you. But I suppose it's true what they say: opposites do attract."

Pinkie boiled at that. “I'm not stupid! I just want to see the goodness in ponies, and I'm sorry I saw something in you that obviously wasn't there! But I still managed to trick you just now!”

Rarity was taken aback at that. “My, my, into crushing the crystal, yes? You certainly did. You know, I take it back. Nobody would be better for her Twilight, and I mean that sincerely. She'd be happier with nobody, than with you. She pities you, did you realize? That's the whole reason she stays with you.”

“I--”, Twilight opened her mouth, but closed it again just as quick. After a second of biting her cheek, “oh, that hit a nerve.”

Pinkie Pie was too stunned to say anything this time. What could she say to that? That wasn't rhetorical, her brain was thrumming with so many ideas, and none of them were good enough. Rarity was too good at being awful.

“Face it, my dear Twilight,” Rarity tossed her hair back as she leaned up against the bubble, raising an unimpressed eyebrow, “you might be the smartest pony in any room you're in, but you're not half as clever. Would you like to try me, again?”

“Actually, you know that old saying, 'sticks and stones may break my bones'--” Twilight was the kind of calm she got when she had come out the other side of angry. Her eyes were still a little bit bloodshot; There was no way she’d gotten over her withdrawals yet.

“'But words will never hurt me', really, are we getting that juvenile? Do you have so little to say in the defense of this tawdry infatuation of yours?” Rarity obviously thought Twilight was just trying to force herself to be regular calm, not being scary calm.

Twilight's horn glowed and chunks of stone ripped up through the carpet and out of the walls, fist-sized shards filling the air around the bubble. The guards stopped stabbing at it, and twisted so as much armor as possible was between them and Twilight. Rarity was wearing no such armor. “I was just thinking now would be a good time to switch to sticks and stones.”

“Oh.” Rarity said.

“You forgot I could do that? You always were clever, Rarity, but you're not very smart.”

The guards dove between the stones Twilight sent flying and the screaming Rarity as she tried to run past them, run for the door. Twilight grabbed the unicorn guard with her magic and flung him off the balcony like a rag dool. The batpony guard stared at her, levelling his spear. Twilight sighed.

“Look, your friend is going to be very upset with you if you don't go and catch him right now.”

And with that the batpony followed the unicorn, tearing out over the balcony as Rarity ran out the door howling in pain and rage, covered in deep black bruises. According to how Applejack had laid it out for her, it seemed like it was more accurate to say Rarity had been very unwise. But Pinkie wasn't going to correct either of them right now.

“Twilight! Teleport us back.”

Twilight dropped the bubble with a big gasp, like she had been holding her breath the whole time. Maybe she sort of had? Magic was weird. “Pinkie, that crystal was a one-way ticket. We've got to go back the long way.”

“That was a terrible design idea!” Pinkie shouted, waving her arms frantically, “Think how many ways I could have needed you, that would have gotten you completely stuck with me when you showed up!”

Twilight looked around the room, and out over the balcony. “Like, in Nightmare Moon's palace, surrounded by her guards, who aren't as pacifistic as I am?”

“Yeah! Exactly! Wait, pacifistic? You weren't actually trying to break Rarity's bones just now?”

Twilight hesitated. “Well, I wasn't not trying to break them?”

“Twilight!”

“She was really mean, okay?” Twilight was that special kind of defensive where she couldn't decide between being embarrassed or justified, “And I'm pretty sure she's a bad guy, isn't she?”

“Oh, yeah, she was doing the full evil villain thing before you showed up. Practically grew a moustache just to twirl it.” Pinkie paused, “Okay, she probably deserved to have some rocks thrown at her.”

“Good to know,” Twilight agreed, surveying the room. “Why's there a bottle of sherry here? You don't drink, and this doesn't look like it'd be Rarity's room.”

“So a ton of things just happened right now that are probably important and I'll fill you in right away, after we run somewhere?” Pinkie suggested, eyeing between the door and balcony, “That batpony is totally going to grab a bunch of his friends isn't he? Or Rarity will. Or just anypony who heard anything going on.”

Twilight's eyes went wide, and she turned to the wall behind them that she'd already taken parts out of, quietly pulled a pony-sized hole out of it. She ran through, dragging Pinkie behind her, into the next empty guest room, coming out just behind a bedroom. She did the same thing on the other side of the next room, and continued to drag Pinkie through, filling up the holes behind her as they ran until you couldn't tell they'd ever been knocked down at all. Only then did Twilight make her run to a front door.

The curtains to the balcony of this room were still drawn, so you couldn't see in from outside. Twilight slid a makeup mirror under the door and her horn lit up. The mirror's casing glowed, and she slid it back, looking at it and showing it to Pinkie.

Twilight had 'frozen' the reflection of the mirror in place. Two guards stood on either side of the broken door to the room they'd just snuck out of, waiting to ambush them.

“What do we do?” Pinkie whispered. Twilight stared at the reflection.

“I don't want to fight the guards. They only need to get lucky once to kill us.”

“Maybe they won't kill us?” Pinkie suggested, “Maybe if we give up, they'll just take us prisoner? That sounded like what Rarity wanted, anyway.”

Twilight nodded. “Okay, are you ready to give up?”

Pinkie shook her head hard enough to send her frizzy hair flying in all directions. Twilight nodded again.

“Neither am I. But that means we definitely don't want to hurt these guys, just to keep our options open.” Twilight looked up and down and at the curtains blocking the balcony, mapping everything out in her head. “I grew up here, so unless Nightmare Moon changed things a lot, I should have a pretty good idea for the layout. But we can't count on that.”

Twilight pulled out her tube of dark red lipstick, and before Pinkie could tell her that she looked fine – really, really fine actually – she was drawing a complicated series of interlocking circles and triangles and letters in an alphabet Pinkie didn't recognize. Some of them looked mathematical.

“Twilight?”

“I need to think, let me think.” Twilight scrawled and smudged and rubbed out and redrew all sorts of things, “Think, think, how do I do this again?”

There was a warcry about two doors down as the guards gave up their ambush and charged, trying to figure out where they went. There were shouts of confusion, demands for them to come out and surrender. Twilight seemed more annoyed by the noise than anything else.

“Twilight, they're gunna start searching rooms any second, what do we do?”

“Done!” Twilight stepped back and stared at her masterpiece, whatever it meant. Her horn glowed so bright it went white and seared the back of Pinkie's retinas, then spots appeared all across her vision, and then everything was white, and there was a noise in her ears like something steaming coming off a barbecue, and then everything was normal again.

Twilight had already grabbed some toilet paper and wet it in the bathroom, and was removing all trace of the lipstick on the wall.

“Twilight,” Pinkie said, “what did you just do?”

Twilight smiled, and she looked so confident, and her smile made Pinkie feel safe. “I cast a Background Pony spell on both of us. I haven't had much opportunity to practice it since I learned it, since it works better the more ponies there are around. It's way more subtle, and way easier, than an invisibility spell.”

“So we're sort of invisible?”

“Sort of. Ponies can still see us, but they won't really look at us, and they're filled with an overwhelming sense of apathy about us. We fade into the background. But it only works if you don't do anything interesting. Walk, don't run. Don't pull faces. Don't get overconfident.”

Pinkie balked. “Wait, you mean... our lives depend on me being boring? Twilight, I don't know if this is a good idea.”

Twilight grabbed Pinkie's shoulders with her fishnet-covered forelegs and looked her in the eye wearing more makeup now than Pinkie had seen her use in the past two years combined, and said; “Pinkie, you're capable of far more than you know. And even though I've never seen it, I think just this once you can manage to not be the most interesting person in the room.”

Pinkie smiled, but she was trying not to cry. “You know, we're usually in a room together.”

“I'm not interesting, you just make me feel like I am.”

Pinkie hugged her tight. “I don't pity you.”

Twilight kissed Pinkie on the cheek. “You know, normally that would have hurt a lot more than it did. But I think you were right to suggest this look for me... it's doing wonders for my self-esteem. It's like wearing armor against insecurity.”

There was the implication there that if they managed to get out of this, Twilight was going to look like this more often. She'd always been confident in specifics, but just as equally anxious and nervous in front of others.

Now, even after all Rarity had just said, she hadn't hesitated for a second to kiss Pinkie on the cheek just because it's what felt like the right thing to do. There wasn't the tensing up of her overthinking it, she just... did it.

Surrender was absolutely not an option.

“I'll follow your lead. You know this place way better than I do.”

Twilight thought for a bit, then went to the room's small kitchen and grabbed some plates, filled some glasses with water, and set up the sitting area with the armchairs just as they'd been when she'd first walked in on Fancy Pants.

Then Twilight sat down in one of the chairs, and gestured for Pinkie to sit beside her. With a glass raised to her lips and a vacant smile, Twilight asked; “We're waiting for the guards to search this room. Let me do the talking when they do. You have until then to fill me in on everything that happened with Rarity. Just keep your voice low.”

Pinkie explained everything she could. As she got to the part about the Crystal Heart the door to the next room was kicked open, and they could hear the guards tearing it apart through the wall. Twilight gestured for Pinkie to keep talking, but now every other sentence, she'd let out a hollow laugh and say something like, “Oh, really?” or “Is that what they said?”. Background noise.

Pinkie finished catching Twilight up before the guards had gotten to their room, so Twilight had just started explaining the concept of currency arbitrage, and talking about the history of bank notes to fill in for small talk. Pinkie was actually more disappointed than nervous when the guards kicked the door in, because they'd just gotten to a really good bit.

“Good heavens!” Twilight pressed a hoof to her mouth in surprise.

The guard looked apologetic as his partner started searching the room. “We're sorry, ma'ams, but do you mind if we search your room real quick?”

“Whatever for?”

The guards were ripping open wardrobes, and lifting the bed to look under it. Pinkie didn't blink when one of them ran is spear through the mattress. “Two fugitives just escaped custody. Threw a guard over the balcony like a crumpled up paper ball and vanished. They were last seen on this floor.”

“On this floor? We better go somewhere safer.” Twilight said, getting out of her chair and leading Pinkie after her, “Thank you, and good luck on your search.”

“These two are dangerous. Keep your eyes open, they could be hiding anywhere.”

Twilight nodded, and started walking calmly out of the room. Pinkie followed. “Let's get out of here.”

They just walked out the open door while the guards searched the room behind them, walked out into the corridor and around the corner. Twilight led them into a dark alcove in the shadow of some vast statuary in the main hallway they'd walked to.

Twilight took a deep, calm breath, and took a moment to brush her hair back. “It worked perfectly. You did perfectly, Pinkie Pie. How are you holding up?”

“That was really scary. Did we really have to wait for them to come to us, like that?”

“We didn't, but that was our safest option, and the easiest way to get me caught up on what I missed. Now we can just walk out of here talking about fractional reserve banking, if you want?”

“I thought we were still talking about banknotes?” She was really looking forward to where that one was going.

“Right! We were. Fractional reserve banking is what happened when the different banks realized they could lend out more bit-backed promissary notes, the bank notes, then they actually had bits. So long as nopony all rushed to get their money back at once, and when that happens it’s called a 'bank run'. After a bank run, everyone who didn't cash their banknote before the bank runs out of 'real' money loses that money, because they only had the promise for money from the bank.”

“The money exists only as long as ponies promise it exists? But they promise more than they have? Why? Shouldn't that be illegal? And why not just keep your money in bits, so you can't lose it?”

“Well, for one thing, can you imagine trying to pay for a house with bits? When ponies usually get angry that banking is just 'moving numbers around', this is sort of the reason why. The truth is, though, that it's a very important invention in expanding the money supply without causing inflation. The more money in an economy, and the faster it moves about, the faster the economy can expand. Because it allows more ponies to make investments, which help them make more money.”

“Does that mean if Applejack got a bank loan to buy more land for her farm, the bank promises they have that much money, and give that promise to the pony Applejack buys the land from. Then Applejack makes more money from having the extra farm land, and she pays the bank back more, with interest. But that's okay, because she’s also making more money. So... nopony had the money at the start, but they did at the end and Applejack can earn more, so it was a good thing for everyone?”

“That's right!” Twilight grinned, “Fractional reserve banking means that, as long as ponies trust the banks to keep their promises, everyone can get the loans they need. Which is good for everyone, not just the banks being greedy. Alright, all the guards have gone past, follow me again.”

Pinkie followed, astonished. She hadn't noticed any guards at all. “There were guards?”

“I counted four, which is I think all that were headed this way to begin with.”

“How did they not notice us?” Pinkie was panicked. She'd been so loud, she'd gotten excited about figuring out the Applejack example. But Twilight didn't seem worried at all.

“We weren't talking about anything interesting, that's all.” Twilight reassured her, leading them down a big staircase into a public art gallery. Big oil paintings and old, old tapestries lined the walls, and the room was filled with bright white gas lights, making the air warm and cozy. A few ponies wandered about without looking at them at all, and nobody ever looked twice. “Crowds should help. The spell's much harder to notice around other ponies.”

“Not interesting? I didn't know about any of that, though, and I use money all the time. How is that not interesting?”

Twilight laughed, and they passed an oil painting of a sheep crying over a lamb in the snow, surrounded by hungry crows. It was the size of a barn door turned on its side but had the tiniest attention to details, and it was hauntingly beautiful. Twilight noticed Pinkie had stopped to look at it, and stopped so she could admire it too. “Most ponies find that sort of stuff really boring, Pinkie. It's one of the things I appreciate most about you, I get to talk about things like that with you.”

“Well, I really appreciate talking to you too, because you talk to me about all sorts of things like that.” Thinking about it, Fluttershy talked to her like she was a kid, Applejack like she was an idiot, and Rainbow like she couldn't take things seriously, and Rarity was all of the above. But Twilight talked to her like she was just as smart as she was, and expected her to keep up. She was never disappointed when Pinkie didn't already know something, and it made her happy to explain rather than annoyed. “I'm just sorry I can't really do the same with you.”

“What Rarity said is really getting to you, too? I guess you're not wearing the magic self-esteem boots,” Twilight started walking again and Pinkie followed, her eyes lingering one last time on the shiny crows at the painting's edge. “There's plenty of subjects where you know more than me, though.”

“Are you saying there's stuff you don't know about?” Pinkie asked, and she tried to make it sound as accusatory as possible, like this was a deep and personal betrayal. But honestly, she was curious.

“It's a flaw I'm working on,” Twilight admitted, playing into it, looking as ashamed as possible. “But social skills? Cooking? You know a lot more than I do about poetry and music, too. Parties and ponies, and apparently figuring out I look really good in black leather.”

She did. She really, really, really did. Pinkie took a moment of pride in her intuition before realizing she was staring again. She'd seen her naked every day for two years now, why was it so hard to get over her wearing a corset and fishnets and a micro-skirt? That was still objectively more clothing.

If they got out of this alive, Pinkie was going to have to get herself a pair of stripey socks in revenge. And have some very pointed words with a certain bird.

“Pinkie?”

“Hrrm?”

“You weren't saying anything. Don't tell me you were just thinking about how good I look in black leather?” She laughed, because she thought she'd made a joke.

Pinkie went way pinker than she ever thought possible. “I wasn't just thinking that.”

Twilight stopped mid-step, mid-chuckle. “Wait, you were?”

“I was thinking about plucking Owlowiscious's feathers, too, actually,” Pinkie said, “And teach him the importance of keeping certain private things to himself.”

“I was going to tie bells to his legs after he dropped that book on you, since he likes being able to sneak around so much.” Twilight's tone was wistful, like she was recalling a fond memory. Or fantasizing.

“We're going to have to dye him bright green at some point,” Pinkie thought, “Then when we tie the bells around his legs, he’ll be like a Hearthswarming elf.”

“Pinkie that’s diabolical. We’ll buy the supplies on the way back. We can’t hurt him though, he was too helpful with the mascara.”

“He talked you into doing this for me, so I guess we should also get him some really nice bird seed. Maybe some trail mix. Do owls like chocolate?”

“White chocolate would probably be the best option.” Twilight hummed in thought, “He’s a good friend.”

“He’s an excellent friend,” Pinkie agreed, “but he still deserves to suffer.”

“But only a fair, reasonable amount of suffering!”

“Ah, Twi? I don’t think we’re being boring enough.”

Ponies were starting to look at them. One mare with glasses squinted at them, took her glasses off to clean them, but seemed to have forgotten about them before she put them back on.

Twilight nudged Pinkie and smiled, then winced, then sighed and smiled again, which meant she’d played a whole conversation out in her head and it went badly. “This is going to sound really bad, given the context, but I’d love to hear you talk about poetry?”

“Really? I mean, it’s like ponies talking about their dreams, right? Nobody finds it interesting.”

“Well, not to put too fine a point on it, but that’s kind of why it’d be a good conversation right now,” Twilight made a point of looking around the room at the crowd they were walking through, “but I’d really like to hear it.”

Pinkie thought about it. “Well, it’s kind of a big topic actually. And you know a lot about books, so I’m guessing you’re caught up on stuff like meter, metaphor, all that?”

“As far as poetry is being good at writing, then yes, I’m caught up on that. I can make it read well, but it always feels hollow to me. I’m not sure how to make it say something more?”

“It really depends on what you want to do. Poetry is kind of a two way process, because it’s about reflecting ponies thoughts back at them. You write how ponies think, but you also make them think how you write. Songs are a really good example, because they’re designed to make you think in time to the music, and then the music makes you feel a certain way, so it gives you an emotion to go with the idea.”

“Right, so what happens when you sing about something sad, but with a happy, catchy music?”

“A bunch of really clever ponies already do stuff like that all the time, I’ll play you something by They Might Be Mountain Goats when we get back. But the point is, you gotta think how you think, and how you can mess with that. Rythm’s such a big one, because you can make something profound just by throwing off the timing.”

“Throwing it off?” Twilight was probably confused because here Pinkie had told her to make something nice and orderly and then to break it on purpose. It went against the core of her very being. “Why would you throw it off?”

“Well, let me think of an example,” she hummed as she flicked the words around in her head, made little phrases and wiggled them up a bit until they fit neatly together. It was a bit like designing the puzzle and solving it at the same time.

“Poetry’s pretty easy
Make the words pretty
tell something sincerely
Anyone can teach that”

to someone who has something sincere to say.”

“Wow, okay.” Twilight murmurred, her thinking and concentrating voice on as she led them through, out of the art gallery and down another corridor, this one was busier and with a high ceiling. It looked like important conference rooms were through the few doors. “What was that, what did you do there?”

“Well, it rhymed until it didn’t, with a pretty consistent timing for something I just made up. It’s not the best, but you never know until you say it out loud,” Pinkie admitted, wiggling the words around a bit more in her head, “but because it didn’t end on a rhyme, it set you up for the pause, and then after the pause the meaning flips. So you let the first idea settle on its own, and be its own thing, and then pow! the whole thing gets flipped at once. There’s a lot of feeling just in the pause, and breaking the flow.”

Boring ponies in boring suits passed by them, the kind of ponies that feel no shame in wearing a lanyard over a tailored jacket. Somehow they were still more interesting than Pinkie and Twilight were being.

“There are other kinds of structures. Haiku’s a really famous one, because it’s so easy. I think they’re a bit lazy, but they’re really, really good for doing jokes that aren’t worth a whole limerick. Like; “Why don't owls have eyes, placed in the backs of their heads? Their ears are enough.”

Twilight snorted. “So, that kind of poem is only about the structure of the syllables?”

“Positively, absolutely. I like the ones you can figure out songs to, the most. They don’t have to be long or anything, they just have to be ones you can sort of dance to in your head. Like, okay, take one of my absolute, absolute, all-time hooves down favourites;
My candle burns at both ends, it will not last the night
But oh my friends, and ah my foes, it casts a lovely light.”

Twilight laughed, then sighed. “It’s been a very long night, hasn’t it? I’ve burned a lot of candles before morning’s come.”

“Yeah, I thought you in particular would...” Pinkie bit her tongue, “‘like’ is the wrong word here. Appreciate? Appreciate it. But your poems don’t need to rhyme, or have structure. Just as long as you explain something really complicated in the fewest words possible, and make it sound how people think.”

They turned a right, and guards ran past them, muscling their way through the crowd, without looking at either of them twice. One even jostled Twilight as he ran towards the art gallery without looking back. “So try to think about my thinking without overthinking it?”

“Ridiculous! Preposterous!” Pinkie laughed, “Exactly correct.”

Twilight’s face was her usual concentration seriousness until it cracked with a laugh, but she didn’t say anything. Pinkie poked her. “No, no it’s too silly.”

“That just makes me wanna hear it more!”

So Twilight said,“Life gave me lemons, I made pink lemonade.”

Pinkie grinned, ear-to-ear and a flash of white teeth. “That was fantastic!”

“It’s a bit simple...”

“Yeah, but that’s what makes it so good. Do another one like that!”

Twilight looked around the castle they were in. Another turn, and the crowds were thinning out again. Now most of the ponies in this corridor weren’t even going anywhere, they were just sort of waiting around, and it was only four ponies wide. This time the concentration face was broken by a flinch, like she’d bit into an apple and it turned out to be a lemon.

Pinkie poked her again. “Poems that hurt are still good poems. It’s all about explaining how you feel when you couldn’t otherwise.”

“I hate to say I told you so, but I could never tell you, ‘No.’”

Pinkie hissed air through her teeth and winced. “I deserved that.”

“No, you deserved for me to be wrong,” Twilight said, “I blame Rarity, not you.”

“Well, do you have any poems in mind about her?”

Twilight smirked, she got this one immediately.

“A crossword puzzle, double cross, going down
Six letter word for the biggest bitch in Equestria
Final hint; Ends in ‘why’”

Pinkie snorted. “That was a really nerdy kind of anger you had going there. Extremely ‘you’.”

“So I’m nerdy and angry, am I?”

“Kinda, yeah.”

Twilight held her nose high in the air, giving Pinkie an imperious, sidelong glance without turning her head. “I’ll allow it.”

Pinkie snorted again. “Those were all really great!”

Twilight gave a more polite smile, which conveyed a complicated emotion. The kind where she was both grateful for the praise, but mentally bracing herself to get completely blown out of the water. “I haven’t heard you do one. A proper one, I mean, that you’ve put real thought into.”

“Are you sure you want to hear it?”

“Yes, Pinkie Pie,” This smile was far more genuine, probably because she realized if Pinkie blew her out of the water she’d get to reassure her about being nervous, and that made Twilight feel better because her selflessness outweighed her insecurities a million to one. “I am sure I want to hear it.”

“Well, there’s one I thought about a lot over the last few months, when everypony stopped visiting? It’s supposed to be something you sing to happy music.”

“Do you know Nobody? They’re my best friend,
Nobody gives me all the time they can spend
They’re there with me when I wake up in bed.
“Have a great day Pinkie!” Nobody said.
Nobody follows me out into town,
I don’t feel lonely – Nobody’s around!
Once it gets late, we start making a cake;
"Tastes great!" says Nobody, helping me bake.

Nobody helps me when I do chores.
Nobody helps me when I’m feeling bored
Nobody needs to – but they’re slightly strange,
‘Cause they stayed the same while everyone changed.
Nobody helps me take care of Twilight;
Nobody’s there to make sure she’s alright.

Nobody’s there when I need them all night.
Nobody’s there, and I think that’s just right.”

Pinkie sang it to a tune she’d hammered out dozens of times in her head. She was pretty proud of it, actually.

Twilight went absolutely quiet, and her face didn’t move as they kept walking. Pinkie didn’t want to interrupt her; this is just what happened when she was thinking so hard she forgot that the world existed outside her head. Like when you read a good book for so long you forget that you don’t live in its world.

“I’m sorry you feel that way, Pinkie.”

“What?” Pinkie was surprised, Twilight must have thought something but Pinkie didn’t know what that train of thought was that ended up with that sentence, “It’s about how I don’t feel alone when I’m by myself. And, yeah, I get a little frustrated about that sometimes, but mostly it’s about feeling independent.”

“I don’t think I understand. I thought it was about being lonely?”

“It’s more about... okay, so before Nightmare Moon happened, I was Ponyville’s premiere pink party pony. Everypony knows me, and I know everypony, and I do my best to make everyone smile, and it’s the best thing in the world. I didn’t think I could live without that? But when I had to, I realized I did it because I liked doing that, not because I needed to. So instead of being about loneliness, I personified the concept of being alone and befriended it!”

“You befriended the concept of being alone?” Twilight said.

“Yeah! That’s poetry.”

“Well,” Twilight said, giving Pinkie a reassuring smile even though she didn’t know what she was being reassured about, “I’m glad for you,” she lied. Or she wasn’t telling the whole truth. It was weird. Pinkie was just about to say something when Twilight pushed open the double doors ahead of them.

Pinkie stared through them. “You totally just forgot where we were supposed to be going, so you just took us to the library didn’t you?”

The library glowed with pale purple flames which streamed a sapphire light, the same light as Twilight’s magic candles back at the castle. Without any regular candles -- a fire hazard, obviously -- to make up for it, it was really obvious what Twilight had said about the lack of flickering being a thing you don’t notice you notice. It was way too still and even. Everything looked crushed flat by the blue light.

“I guess they really didn’t change much after all...” Twilight chuckled awkwardly, rubbing the back of her head and smiling way too wide with too many teeth, her everything’s-fine smile. “Exit’s this way.” She said as she led them towards the stacks.

“When you stop thinking where you’re going, do you just assume you were going to the library?”

Twilight’s voice went up an octave, “Usually the only time I’m not going to a library is when I’m just leaving one.”

“I guess that’s true. Were you really thinking that hard?”

Twilight relaxed a little, looking around at all the books. Her happy place. “I was, actually. You know--”

There was a huge explosion, a big blast of purple light, lightning crackling through black smoke outside. The library shook, and someone putting a book back from the top of a ladder lost their balance. Everypony else was too busy running and screaming to notice her fall. Pinkie ran through the library and dove to catch the falling unicorn, but she wasn’t going to be fast enough.

Twilight caught her with her magic, just as Pinkie managed to make the slide underneath her. Twilight finally caught up as she let the falling unicorn down the rest of the way, but it was clear from their faces that Pinkie’s thought definitely counted, as the rest of the library ran.

The unicorn, cream coat with a tangled red mane and a pair of glasses half the size of her face, stared up at them both. “Twilight? Is that really you?”

Twilight sighed. “Darn it, Moondancer. Alright, so there goes the Background Pony spell. That was nice while it lasted.”

Pinkie, still lying on the floor in a catcher’s pose, whipped her head back to Twilight at that. “Wait, does it not work until we’re out of sight again, or is it just broken to everyone now?”

Moondancer grabbed them both and dragged them deeper into the stacks, away from the crowds, hissing at them in as close to a whisper as she could get while this worked up, “You’re supposed to be in hiding! What are you doing here?”

“We were just leaving, or trying to. And the background pony spell is completely broken, and I need to break line of sight with anyone I’m not including in the spell for it to work again.”

Moondancer pulled them deeper into the stacks. She panicked in the same way Twilight did. “Why didn’t you just use an invisibility spell? And I thought black turtlenecks were more traditional. Or a latex catsuit?”

“Because I wanted to be able to hold a conversation! And the outfit’s a long story, but if we’re getting anyone into a catsuit here it’s Pinkie Pie.”

“Are you volunteering me for sexy outfits now?!”

Twilight gave her a sidelong look, “Pinkie, I’m not going to say you owe me big time for all of this--” Pinkie realized Moondancer wasn’t just getting them out of the crowd, she was running them towards the direction of the explosion, at the back of the library, “-- because this is something I would implicitly do for you, as my best friend, and I would never ask you to do anything like that if you didn’t want to, but darn it, can I at least get permission to gossip about it to Owlowiscious after we’re done making him a Hearthswarming elf?”

Pinkie tried to keep her voice to a stage whisper, “Okay, that’s fair.”

“Best friend?” Moondancer seemed unimpressed. “It has been a long two years.”

“Sorry I couldn’t make your party, Moondancer,” Twilight said, “but Nightmare Moon came up.”

“No, no, perfectly understandable,” Moondancer didn’t seem all that annoyed actually, just focused, “you haven’t been able to contact anyone since, not even your brother. I know, I know.”

Then they were running up the staircases in the back of the library, and Moondancer pulled them through a staff door. Pinkie could see now she had been carrying a book behind them the whole time--

Twilight noticed something else, though, “Wait, how do you know about my brother?”

Moondancer laughed like she realized she couldn’t find her glasses because they were already on her head, “Oh! Uh, welcome back to the Resistance, I guess.” She showed Twilight the book; It was about the Crystal Heart. “They’re going to be--”

Whatever it was that they were going to be, Pinkie didn’t hear it, because they’d just come out into the museum part of the library, where the explosion had came from.

A pink alicorn and a tall unicorn in white plate mail led a squad of Solar Guard, Celestia’s old personal pegasus soldiers, in a fight against the batponies. Two Shadowbolts lay crumpled up in odd angles, smashed against the castle wall outside. This must have been where the handoff was going to be at the castle, what Rarity said.

“Shiny? Cadance?”

Author's Note

Special shoutout to Pearple Prose for pretty poem proofing and provision.

Training

The alicorn and the unicorn in the white plate stopped, and the unicorn through up a strong shield -- just like Twilight’s! -- around the both of them as they turned to see Twilight. “Twilight!” they both shouted at the exact same time and made the exact same face, like an old married couple.

Then a batpony smacked his halberd into the shield, and then Shining popped it and snapped around and kicked him in the chest, and Cadance was shooting spells at all the Solar Guard ponies that made them stand up straighter, slow down slower.

Twilight just shot laser beams at a bunch of bad guys who blasted them back.

“So there goes sneaking,” Moondancer groaned, “This was supposed to be a stealth operation.”

“Change of plans!” Cadance shouted, apparently having heard Moondancer over the battle noises, or maybe she hadn’t and Moondancer was just that predictable, “Fancy Pants got made.”

Pinkie stayed beside Moondancer and did everything she could to not draw attention to herself, prayed that the Background Pony spell had some lingering after effects.

“Where’s the Crystal Heart?” Twilight shouted, picking two Lunar Guard up and banging their heads together like a kid making her dolls kiss. They were out cold.

“Spike has it!” Shining shouted back. Instead of Twilight’s displays of raw power, Shining was the picture of military efficiency. He was unbuckling their armor with his magic, letting it slide off as they moved and jabbing them in the exposed weak spots it revealed. Applying force at the points of movement that had the least resistance, but most messed up a pony to be moved in that way.

Pinkie watched him do it three times in a row to three different guards, and she couldn’t even explain what he did once. It was just like that prank where you poke someone on the opposite shoulder to the side you’re standing on, except everywhere and it somehow made ponies crumple up at the end of it.

“Spike’s here?” Twilight was huffing and puffing and sweating up a storm, while her brother just looked like he’d taken a brisk jog through the crowd of elite soldiers.

“He’s not,” Cadance moved next to Twilight and her horn glowed. Twilight kept blasting more laser beams and knocking guards around as befit the Good Witch of the Everfree in her butt-kicking boots, “we’re meeting up with him later. We’re trying to draw attention until he and Fancy Pants can get to a safe house, then we’ll meet back up much later.”

Pinkie realized the bad guys couldn’t understand them. Probably Cadance’s magic, since she couldn’t see what other spells she was casting. Or maybe that was on purpose too? “Fancy Pants is safe?”

“You must be Pinkie Pie, then?” Cadance looked at Pinkie and, even though everything around them was blood and crumpled bodies, Pinkie thought everything was going to be okay. When is charisma indistinguishable from magic? “Fancy apologizes for not taking you with him, he’ll be glad to know you made it, but he wasn’t even sure we’d be willing to break cover to save him.”

Shining grunted, “Still threw himself out the window anyway. It’s not like he gave us much of a choice.”

“We made our choice, just as he made his, I think,” Cadance said back, “Twilight! It’s so good to see you.”

“We got married!” Shining added, falling back for a breather as he let the other Royal Guards do their work as well, “So you missed that. You didn’t miss much of a wedding, though.”

“What? You’re telling me this now?!” Twilight shouted, also falling behind the guards just to yell at him. Pinkie and Moondancer followed, Moondancer clutching her book to her chest as a shield.

“First available opportunity, that was my promise to myself,” Shining beamed, obviously proud of himself.

Twilight couldn’t argue with that. It looked like she really wanted to, but she couldn’t.

There was a stillness, but for the haggard panting of bone-tired soldiers, as the last Lunar Guard fell. Twelve of them, and the two Shadowbolts, for only two of the Solar Guard downed, and six more left standing. Shining and Cadance and Twilight tipped the scales in their favour it seemed.

Shining must have noticed her noticing. “We had the advantage of surprise, and they always have more reinforcements. This isn’t a win, this is barely acceptable losses.”

Cadance touched him on the shoulder, and Shining relaxed all at once, like her body heat radiated out from that touch and thawed him out. “They’re probably waiting for us now. I feel more coming, as well. Moondancer?”

Moondancer was already focusing really hard on a spell, her horn glowed white-hot, and then there was a corona around it. She grunted, and dug her hooves into the floor, and then...

Pinkie’s head twisted, it felt like someone was winding her brain around a screw. She could see everyone, her mind told her that she did, but her eyes said she couldn’t. It was like her eyes were seeing one thing, and her brain was editing the others in over the top of it, and it felt weird.

Twilight made a wretching noise. “I hate group invisibility spells. Makes me get solipsistic.”

“Well, this one doesn’t come with sound muffling, or conceal glowing horns so... General Armour?”

Shining Armour nodded, and gave complex hoof gestures to the other guards. They started moving out silently, Cadance and Moondancer and Twilight following, and Pinkie falling in behind them. They moved silently, which was really impressive given all the armour they were wearing. That stuff should clink like a bag full of bits, but it was hardly noticeable at all under the sound of ponies panicked yelling.

Pinkie wanted to ask so many questions, and it was obvious Twilight wanted to ask them even harder than she did, but the invisibility spell wasn’t like the Background Pony spell. They couldn’t talk, just had to focus on following the General wherever he was leading them, out through a courtyard, down through a hedge row, out through the back of a groundskeeper’s shack, all wandering about with only the light of a full moon.

That probably did help a lot, actually. Every mission was a night mission. The chirpy bugs in the hedges they snuck through were louder than the sneaking ponies, which is probably why Twilight’s brother snuck them out this long way around.

There were so many ways they could have been caught if anyone had been paying attention. The crushed grass under their hooves, the ways they brushed hedges as they passed, and no matter how quietly you moved, you couldn’t hold your breath forever. And with the way Twilight and Moondancer flinched at every unicorn they saw, it seemed like a unicorn could have caught them at any moment.

But nobody came. Nobody saw them. Under Shining’s careful directions and plans, they hid and moved for hours. Down from the gardens until they got to the waterfalls under the palace, then down the cliffs of the slippery waterfalls -- one of the guards with them slipped and fell, and Cadance caught him before he went over the edge. Anyone could have seen her horn glow against the rocks, but they didn’t.

Down the waterfalls, flinching every time a rock fell over the edge and clattered down the mountain like an echoing billiards break. Following it down until they were above the tunnel the trains ran through. Then they just waited.

Or, everyone but one of the soldiers waited. He pulled a grey sheet off a rock, which turned out to be a footlocker. It was opened in a hurry, and two train tickets were taken out of it, two cloaks, and some potions.

Shining took the cloaks, throwing one on Cadance and one over himself. “We didn’t plan on taking more with us this way. The others are going to be raising tartarus to keep the attention off us. We only have supplies for two.”

Moondancer hugged Twilight tight, and the two seemed to have a moment that Pinkie didn’t understand. “It was good to see you again.” Moondancer said, “I’m heading back to the library, unless Fancy Pants named names...?”

“He didn’t,” Pinkie said.

Moondancer nodded. “Good. So, hopefully no dungeons for me when I get back. The resistance can’t afford to lose its head research librarian,” her tone of voice and frown were sarcastic, but her eyes were proud and determined. Pinkie could guess why she’d been friends with Twilight.

With that, the other soldiers with them formed two groups and ran down the mountain, one heading to their left and the other heading to their right. That left Pinkie, Twilight, Cadance and Shining alone, waiting on the tunnel.

“How are you two getting on the train. Also, does that mean you’re my sister-in-law now?”

Cadance grinned, and her eyes sparkled with mischief and excitement, “I’m going to jump,” her wings fluttered and twitched at the promise, “and Shining’s been practicing his combat rolls for two months now. Sometimes he doesn’t even throw his back out.”

Shining rolled his eyes. “Combat rolls from rooftops, dearest, it’s a bit trickier.”

Pinkie stared down at the tracks below them. “So you’re just going to jump down and...?”

“That’s the plan, unfortunately,” Shining obviously didn’t have half the sense of adventure his wife did, “It’s the only way we could meet back with our other agents. If they made it.”

Twilight was also looking over the edge now. The train was approaching, but it was still very far away. You could see it for miles with its bright foglight against the mountain at night. Finally, Twilight seemed to work something out. “Alright, Pinkie and I are coming with you. This train goes straight to Ponyville, doesn’t it?”

“Express, actually.” Cadance said.

Twilight was watching the train carefully. No cloak or anything. “I know what we’re going to do. You do your plan, and I’ll stay completely out of it, to minimize us getting the other caught.”

Shining sighed. “Okay, I trust you.”

“You better, I’ve been doing this as long as you have now, buster. We were doing fine sneaking our way out of the palace before you went and blew it up.”

Shining frowned. “What were you doing here, in the first place?”

“It’s a long story, and there’ll be plenty of time on the train, when we’re sure it’s safe. We’ll sneak on after you, I want to watch you do a combat roll.”

Cadance danced on her hooves and giggled. “It’s so dashing! He looks very handsome doing it. Don’t you think, Pinkie?”

“Uh, I dunno, I haven’t seen him roll yet?” Pinkie rubbed the back of her neck while trying not to ogle Twilight’s brother at the invitation of his wife.

“I just want to see if he pulls his back out.” Twilight grinned.

“I missed you too, sis.”

“You’re still my B.B.B.F.F.!” Twilight threw herself at him and hugged him tight. He hugged back, “But I’m still your sister, and I really want to see you mess up trying to do something really cool.”

Shining puffed his chest out. “So, you think it’s really cool, Twily?”

“What, diving onto an oncoming train on purpose? Absolutely. It’s also really stupid and I hope you hurt yourself doing it enough that you never try this again.”

The train was getting closer. Maybe four minutes away, at a guesstimate. Cadance walked up next to Pinkie Pie super seriously, all business. “I see,” she said, “that we are both pink.”

“Yeah! I guess we are, huh?”

“This is the surest sign that we must be best friends.” Cadance’s kept her voice flat and even, and her face neutral. Pinkie did the same thing, trying to keep her own face neutral.

“Yes. This is evident. I agree with your conclusion”

“It is the most objective measure of friendliness there is.” Cadance kept her face neutral, even though her lip wobbled when Twilight and Shining started giving them odd looks. “There can be no doubt.”

“The legion of pretty pink ponies shall grow, befriending all,” Pinkie agreed, nodding. She didn’t say it in a ‘culty’ way, but like how you’d discuss the weather. It was funnier that way.

“Let all be welcome to our cheerful disposition and-” Cadance paused, “did you just say I’m pretty?”

Pinkie couldn’t keep a straight face any longer, she burst out laughing, “Yeah, we’re pretty pink ponies.”

Cadance swept her up in a great big hug. “I am keeping you. I hope Twilight’s gotten better at sharing since she was little.”

Twilight didn’t skip a beat, “You can have Pinkie, or you can have my brother, but you don’t get both.”

Cadance looked between Pinkie, still holding her tight, and Shining who was raising an unimpressed eyebrow at his wife. She finally sighed, let Pinkie go and slunk back over to Shining again.

“Honey, I love you, but you have to understand how hard that was for me.”

“I believe you, dear.”

“She’s so pink!”

“Speaking of looks,” Shining gestured at Twilight’s outfit. “It’s a new look for you.” Then he chuckled. Cadance gasped and stopped hugging him.

This time, Twilight puffed her chest out. “I’ll have you know, it makes me feel very self-confident and empowered.”

“It definitely works for you, I’d have never pictured you snapping a bunch of royal guard like matchsticks before,” Shining said, walking around Twilight so he could see the other angles of her, “I was just thinking how much you look like Death from Sandstallion.”

Twilight stopped, and looked down at herself, and her boots. “You really think so? You’re not just saying that because you know how much I loved that character.”

Cadance stuck her tongue out, “Maybe he’s just saying that because Death’s brother was Dreamy.”

“I’m definitely not Dream.” Shining said, with the I-know-you’re-joking-but-I’m-a-huge-geek-about-this-so-I’m-taking-it-seriously-by-choice tone that Pinkie had heard from Twilight so often in the past. She looked at Cadance and Cadance was giving her the exact look back; Yeah, mine’s like that too, and we love them for it. “I’d be Destruction.” Shining was very confident about that, and pretended not to notice how Pinkie and Cadance were looking at each other.

Twilight didn’t even have to pretend not to notice, she was too busy being a hopeless geek herself. “You’re ready to quit all this, and become a terrible painter?”

“Hey, now, Destruction was also a terrible chef, don’t undersell him. Cadance, when all this is over, we’re getting a big shaggy dog and naming him Barnabus.”

“I don’t get the reference, I’m sorry, but if we get a big shaggy dog out of it, I’m happy to go along with it.”

Shining and Twilight gasped. Shining looked personally betrayed. “You haven’t read Sandstallion?”

Twilight slugged him on the shoulder, “How could you marry anyone who hasn’t read the best thing Stardust ever wrote?”

“I didn’t know!” Shining said, “You have to believe me!”

Pinkie gulped, “I haven’t read it either?”

Twilight’s head snapped towards Pinkie. Eye contact was locked. Fire in her eyes she hadn’t seen even when she threw that unicorn off the balcony. “We are fixing that when we get back.”

Shining was still looking at Cadance with the haunted eyes of a heartbroken man. “Then how did you know Dream was Death’s brother?”

“Because you’ve talked to me about it before, and I’m a good listener who loves you dearly?”

“This marriage is built on lies and deception!”

There was a rumbling at their hooves, the train was approaching fast, now. It wasn’t going as fast as Rainbow Dash, but it was definitely moving faster than Pinkie could run. In just a few seconds it’d be passing under them. Cadance sighed in relief and put a hoof to her chest. “Thank goodness.”

Shining stared her down, “You’d really rather throw yourself at a moving train than have this conversation?”

“I love you!” Cadance shouted as she jumped over the edge. Then the locomotive was under her hooves. Shining followed, jumping over the edge to the roof of the first passenger car, his legs crumpling underneath him and he rolled on his side across the entire length of the carriage, falling down into the gap between carriages. He looked like he landed on his feet fine on the catwalk part, but they only saw him for a second.

“We’re getting in the caboose, the last carriage.” Twilight said, making Pinkie realize that while Twilight said she had a plan, she hadn’t actually told her what it was.

“Do we- should we jump?”

“That would probably help, yes.” Twilight looked over the edge of the tunnel as the last car approached. “Just look over the edge, and as soon as you see the front of it clear the edge of the tunnel, that’s when you jump. Ready?”

Pinkie got over to the very edge and looked down, bracing herself to jump. Her knees bent. The train was moving so fast and she had no idea how to roll like Shining had. She was going to get herself killed wasn’t she? She was going to die? She was literally throwing herself into the path of an oncoming-

BANG

POP

The caboose was dark, no lights but what spilled through the carriage ahead. There was a big lever in the middle of it, and some bells hanging from the walls. There was a guard, but she was snoring soundly. Twilight had already flashed a sleeping spell at her, otherwise they were alone.

Twilight hugged her. “Sorry, just had to make sure you were standing absolutely still to do that.”

“What if I actually jumped!” Pinkie whisper-shouted at Twilight, in case anybody could hear them over the clattering of the train down the mountain rails. Twilight smugged at her, which was something she’d only really seen Rainbow Dash pull off.

“Were you going to, after I told you to look over the edge?”

“No!”

Twilight looked around the small carriage. It was about the size of a garden shed on four wheels, and the outside bright red paint was just oily board in here.

“This is actually just a guard van,” she said, “a proper caboose is where all the workers stay on a freight train. But on a passenger train this small, it’s just for the emergency brake.”

“That’s a weirdly specific thing to know about trains.”

“There was a week just after I got my cutie mark where I just got really obsessed with trains. I think I had just found out that their wheels are sort of cone-shaped, and I wanted to know why.”

Pinkie was about to tease Twilight for being a nerd even when she was a kid when she thought, “Train wheels are cone shaped?”

“It helps them roll back towards the center of the track. That’s also why they have a single fixed axle for both sides, or they’d slide off the tracks. There’s a reason I got really interested in them.” Twilight pointed at the sleeping guard, “Could you put on her uniform and see if you can’t find Cadance and Shining? Tell them to meet back here.”

Pinkie saluted and stole the guard’s uniform. She felt a little rude doing it, but at least the guard wasn’t going to wake up to tell her off about it. It was just a blue vest, and a matching blue hat like an upside-down-cake tin with a short black brim.

“It’s a good colour on you.” Twilight watched from the back of the carriage, “Matches your eyes.”

Pinkie snorted, doing a little twirl to show off all the angles of her ‘new uniform’. “Maybe I should have been a train conductor, so I could keep the hat.”

“I think you can just buy the hat,” Twilight stared at it, like she was working out what style it was if she wanted to do that.

“You’re not allowed to wear this hat unless you work on a train though!”

“Pinkie, you’re wearing that hat right now, and you absolutely do not work on this train.”

“Which is why I absolutely can’t get caught.”

Twilight opened her mouth, but then closed it and seemed to chew that one over. “That’s actually a good point. Go find Shining and Cadance now?”

Pinkie saluted, and headed into the passenger carriages.

Conduct

Pinkie took a deep breath, pushed open the doors to the first passenger cart, and sighed in relief when she wasn’t immediately arrested. That was a good first start. Less immediate arrestings were still a concern though, and there were ponies staring at her.

That was normal. She was just new to the carriage, and in a uniform. It wasn’t suspicious looks, just curious ones. When a pony in uniform showed up, you always had that niggling little feeling in your gut... did I do something wrong? Did somebody else do something wrong? Is somebody in trouble? Is that somebody me, and I just don’t know it yet?

At least, that’s how it went with her and Twilight. That curiosity about authority. The authority that you got from wearing a silly blue hat.

Pinkie swallowed back the urge to go mad with power.

She walked across the carriage, looking for Shining and Cadance. Or at least, looking for ponies looking at her too long, because they might have disguised themselves, or hid. She didn’t think they’d be hiding, though, or else they wouldn’t have gotten train tickets.

There weren’t many carriages to look through, fortunately. Maybe, like, four more, from what she saw from the tunnel top? There were long uphill stretches that made it dangerous to carry more. Less ground to cover, but it looked like Shining and Cadance were going to be in the one closest to the locomotive, based on where they jumped.

Pinkie pushed forward, making sure to scan every pony she saw. She realized she didn’t even have to pretend she wasn’t doing it; She was a ‘ticket inspector’, it made sense for her to be looking for someone of a certain description. As long as she looked confident about what she was doing, that was all the acting she needed to do.

Nobody she recognized in here, so she moved onto the next carriage, across the short walkway between them. She took a moment to appreciate how hard it must have been for Shining to have landed on his hooves in this small space.

The next carriage did have a pony in it she recognized though, and he seemed just as surprised to see her as she was to see him.

She bit her cheek before she could say his name in surprise. Instead she walked up to him, doing her best to look professional, and asked; “May I see your ticket please, Mr...?”

“Fancy Pants. I’m surprised you have to ask: Everyone usually recognizes me.” Fancy Pants said this with a careful smile and a look that made it clear he’d just said more than what he was saying.

Oh, right. He was saying that a fake name’s one thing, but if you’re one of the most famous ponies in Canterlot, if you haven’t been caught yet it’s only because ponies don’t know to arrest you yet. And they were too busy looking for the Crystal Heart right now to realize he hadn’t died throwing himself off the balcony.

“I’m sorry, Mr Fancy Pants, I’ll make sure I won’t need to ask twice. Are you travelling with anyone today?”

Fancy Pants smiled again. “Oh yes, a young companion of mine is travelling with me. I think he’s a bit excited to meet your employer, actually.”

No way! He was with Spike wasn’t he? “Well, she’s in the back carriage, actually, watching the handbrake. It’s why I was assigned this train today, actually. I wouldn’t be here otherwise.”

Fancy looked just as surprised as she’d hoped he would. “That’s how you made it? Talk about having favours from friends in high places... Yes, I’ll tell my companion the good news, and he should make his way over. I’ll have to go find him. Pass on my best wishes, if you will?”

“I’ll be sure to do that. You have a safe trip, okay, sir?”

“‘Sir’,” he chuckled, “will do his best. It’s a much safer trip than the last I took, I recall, but at least that one was blessedly short.”

Pinkie snorted, even though she didn’t know why. What he said hadn’t been funny at all, but the way he said it made it funny. Charming ponies were weird in how they could do that. And from the sparkle in his eye, he knew just how charming he was too.

She was really glad he was okay. The world was probably a much better place for him being in it.

She turned back to head to the front carriages. Just three more between her and it. No guards she could see. Another ticket inspector was checking everything, and she just walked right past him without a second look. He was wearing glasses anyway, and she hadn’t seen what colour the mare whose uniform she’d stolen was. Apparently they were close enough.

Hopefully.

Maybe.

She wasn’t looking forward to coming back this way when he could get a better look at her.

The whole length of the train she walked just waiting for someone to shout that she was a fake, or to call the guards, or Black Snooty herself to descend from the sky and rip her from the train but that never happened. Nobody even looked twice at her the whole time.

Then she was in the first carriage, with two cloaked ponies talking about the best spell selection for a buffing cleric build if they were only going to run the character to level ten.

Pinkie had to fight the whole way over to them not to laugh. They were such Twilight’s brother and sister-in-law in so many ways. Just pulled off a huge heist against Nightmare Moon herself, fought dozens of guards, and they were talking about their Ogres and Oubliettes characters.

It had been years since Pinkie had played. She used to love bards, but she felt like playing a ranger next time. One with a bright green owl companion.

“Excuse me, sir and ma’am? May I see your tickets please?”

They both jumped and looked at Pinkie. Then Shining grinned beneath the hood, the same expression as when you get a plate of food in front of you when you skipped breakfast. They pulled their tickets out of their cloaks and passed them to Pinkie, who squinted at them.

“I’m sorry, there seems to be an issue with your tickets. You haven’t done anything wrong,” she said, for ponies in the carriage listening in’s sake, “but I’d appreciate it if you could come with me to the guard van to get this sorted out.”

Cadance was confused. “Guard van?”

“Caboose.”

“Ah! Yes, thank you, Ms. We’ll head there now.” Pinkie led them towards the back of the carriage, and out onto that tiny walkways between carriages. But, instead of opening the door to the other carriage when they got outside, Shining and Cadance jumped up onto the roof. Pinkie stared up after them. Shining looked back and gave a shrug. “The less ponies that see us, the better. We know where we’re going.”

“Isn’t it even more suspicious if a pegasus sees you doing this?”

“Absolutely,” Shining agreed, “Which is why we’re going to be quick about it. See you on the other side!”

And with that they zipped off, giggling about balance checks and acrobatics rolls. Pinkie didn’t particularly feel brave enough to follow them up there if there was a perfectly nice inside to walk through, so she made her way through slower, making sure to look out the opposite window to the other train pony when she walked past him, so he couldn’t see her face clearly.

The only guards fast enough to stop the train would have been the Shadowbolts, and they were already taken out of commission for tonight. Or at least the ones in Canterlot were. Still, knowing that, Pinkie worried anyway about what she didn’t know she didn’t know. That’s what always got you.

Last carriage. She tensed, feeling like something horrible was about to happen. It wasn’t like that feeling she got before going to see Rarity, it was... itchier. Just under her skin in a way she couldn’t explain. She opened the door to the guard van.

Shining and Cadance and Spike were all hugging Twilight, and she was hugging back, and they were all crying, and they all seemed very happy and safe and okay. The guard in the corner was still fast asleep.

Spike tugged Twilight’s fishnet stockings, and raised an eyebrow. “It looks good! Like something Raven would wear to a nightclub.”

Twilight looked furious. “Spike! What have I told you about reading DC?”

“I had to deal with what Shining gave me, okay?”

Twilight wheeled on her brother. “You exposed my assistant to sub-par comic books?”

“Hey, now,” Shining threw his hooves up defensively, “The resistance got what it could. I couldn’t even find him a good supply of Power Ponies comics.”

“You have failed him as adoptive parents.”

Shining gave Cadance a sidelong look. “Well, at least he read Sandman.”

Cadance rolled her eyes, and Pinkie giggled. Everyone looked at her, just noticing her entering the carriage now. She laughed even harder, “Oh my goodness, you’re all such huge nerds you didn’t even notice me come in, did you?”

Twilight leapt forward and hugged her, hard. “Pinkie! Welcome back. This is Spike, who you met years ago. Spike, this is Pinkie, who you probably remember.”

“She’s the one that inflated like a pufferfish, then threw you a party with hotsauce cupcakes, right?”

“Yeah, that’d be her.”

Spike held out a claw, and Pinkie shook it enthusiastically. Spike was really cool, after all. “Spike T Dragon, professional mailbox for the resistance.”

“Pinkie D Pie, professional Twilight Sparkle wrangler.” Pinkie laughed again at Twilight’s sour-yuck face when she said that, “I heard that was your old job?”

“Sort of. Though I was just called her number one assistant. I’m probably out of practice now, though. You’ll have to get me caught up. You seem to be doing good at it; You even got her to brush her mane!”

“I know right?” Pinkie laughed. Twilight seemed unimpressed by their conversation, but then Shining and Cadance were distracting her. Cadance gave Pinkie a wink. “I don’t suppose you want your old job back, huh?”

Spike saluted, like a proper soldier. “Reporting for duty. I’ve been on leave way too long. You can consider yourself relieved, Corporal.”

Pinkie saluted back. “Corporal?”

“Corporal Pinkie Pie sounded the best in my head. It had the most alliteration.”

Shining seemed to be listening in after all. “I can make that one official, actually. I would hazard that defending my sister from herself for two years warrants an NCO rank.”

Twilight stuck her tongue out at her brother, but he just shrugged. Corporal Pinkie Pie it was then.

Spike offered his hand out for Pinkie again, and Pinkie took it. “It’s good to be back. You should be pretty relieved to get Twilight out of your hair, right? She’s a bit of a handful, even at the best of times.”

“Ah, I can still help, if you need?”

“Nah, I can handle her on my own. You’ve done a great job, I heard! You can finally take a break and do your own thing now, if you want.”

Pinkie didn’t really know what to say to that. Spike smiled at her, and hugged her leg, then ran off to go talk to Twilight. Or maybe interrogate her was the better term for it.

“Have you been eating properly?”

“Close enough. Sometimes she even made me eat vegetables.”

“Look at you, acting all grown up. She manage to get you to go to bed at proper hours?”

“Yes,” Twilight lied through her teeth. Spike ‘mmhmm’d super hard at that.

“I bet she didn’t even check to make sure you weren’t hiding a light under the bed covers when you were pretending to sleep.”

“I didn’t need to,” Twilight said proudly.

“You stayed up way too late every single night, didn’t you?”

She looked down and away. “I’ve been busy.”

Spike shook his head, fists on his hips, tapping his foot at her.

Cadance slunk over to Pinkie while Spike was busy emphasizing just how much better he was at handling Twilight.

“You!” she declared in a whisper, “Have a crush on Twilight!”

Pinkie blinked. “Well, yeah, I guess.” She admitted it pretty freely, considering you could probably have hit Twilight over the back of the head with a kettle right now, and it wouldn’t have gotten her attention.

Cadance stopped giggling. That answer seemed to surprise her a lot, even though Pinkie was just agreeing with her. “You already knew?”

“I figured it out on my own, if that’s what you were asking.”

Cadance frowned, and her pout looked especially dark under the hood of her cloak in the dark van. “Aw. I thought I was going to get to do the whole thing where we get you to think about your feelings and realizing that deep down you felt it but you didn’t understand it before...” She sighed, “That’s always my favourite part.”

Pinkie shook her head. “I’m not Twilight. I know how I feel about stuff when I feel it. Sorry if it takes the fun out of it for you.”

Cadance was frowning and confused now. “So why aren’t you a beautiful pink and purple pair right now? She’s obviously head over hooves about you.”

Pinkie coughed into a hoof in that way you do when you’re trying to think of the least awkward way to say a very awkward thing. “Because the idea of a relationship made Twilight panic so much last time it came up that she had a total meltdown, and started using I think amphetamines, so I’m just trying to be a good friend for her at the moment.”

Cadance frowned now, but she didn’t seem as confused anymore. it seemed like she was frowning because she understood, which is how Pinkie felt. “Oh. I suppose that’s... amphetamines? Why amphetamines?”

“She didn’t like how much having a crush was distracting her from her work, but it just ended up making her better at planning out every way that having a crush was a bad idea and was going to ruin her life. It was hard to argue with her, she made a really good argument. ”

Cadance nodded, grim and resolute. She hadn’t had this much of a war face when she was actually fighting ponies. “I see. We’ll have to have some very stern words, between us ladybugs. I didn’t raise that filly just to fall apart at the first sign of a healthy relationship. I’m sorry to hear that, Pinkie.”

“Uh... it’s okay?”

“It will be.” She gave Pinkie a blink-and-you-miss-it reassuring smile, “Us pretty pink ponies have to look out for each other.” But then the war face was back.

Apparently Cadance took the whole ‘Princess of Love’ thing as seriously as Applejack took apples. And Pinkie had seen Applejack tuck an apple tree into bed and read it bedtime stories.

But it was too late to do anything about it, because Twilight had already convinced them both what a terrible idea it was. And Twilight was the smartest pony Pinkie knew.

“I’m going to sit in the next carriage and stand guard.” Pinkie said to the group, “I’ll let you guys catch up. You’ve obviously really missed each other, and I don’t want anybody else interrupting this, okay?”

Twilight hugged her brother tight, and Spike hugged her leg tighter. “Thanks, Pinkie. You’re the best.”

Pinkie doffed her uniform’s hat and went to go sit in the next carriage, to be alone with her thoughts for a little while. It wasn’t more than a few hours to Ponyville, which was eons when you’re left alone with your own thoughts, but Pinkie felt like she needed about that long to sort them out.

The train stopped at Ponyville, and no one came to the back carriage. As everyone else snuck off, and Twilight started directing them towards the Everfree, Pinkie stopped to check up on one other passenger before they left.

“Hey, Fancy Pants.”

“Hello, Ms Pinkie Pie,” the stallion snapped his book closed and looked up at her with a weak smile, “It’s a pleasure, as always.”

“What are you planning on doing now?”

“Well, I suppose I was planning to get into Dodge and see what my next move was from there. Or maybe just hide low there for a while. It’s fairly out of the way, I’m sure that even if I were recognized out there, nobody would particularly care to collect me.”

“You’re going to be okay, right?”

“The worst I expect is a bit of boredom, and boredom doesn’t kill a pony. Well, not quickly at least. I should be fine, Ms Pie. Now, the train’s about to leave, and I’d rather you didn’t get stuck with me again.”

“Uh, okay,” Pinkie eyed between him and the exit. He was right, the last ponies had just dragged their luggage off. The train whistled. “Well... Good luck?”

“Thank you,” he smiled more genuinely this time, opening his book, “And to you as well.”

Pinkie bolted for the door, throwing off the hat and vest behind her as she ran. What Fancy Pants said was ringing in her ears; would come to collect me.

She hadn’t told Rarity where Twilight was, exactly, but Rarity could definitely guess they were still around Ponyville. Which meant the Guard might come tearing up Ponyville asking where they were hiding her. Pinkie had to warn people.

She ran to Twilight, who was already making haste towards the Everfree, Cadance carrying a giant hat box that had to hold the Crystal Heart in it. “Twilight!”

The others turned. Pinkie stopped. “No, no, you guys go on ahead, I just need to warn Applejack and Fluttershy!”

Shining and Cadance threw their hoods off. Shining was ecstatic, “You have your own resistance here?”

Twilight didn’t break eye contact with Pinkie, “No, we don’t. Pinkie, why?”

Pinkie bounced on her hooves, antsy to bolt towards Sweet Apple Acres, “Because the Guard are going to come looking for us, and they’re going to go through them to do it. They need to know.”

Twilight seemed to finally get it. “They haven’t done anything though. That’s been our biggest problem!”

“Nightmare Moon won’t care about that, though”, Cadance said, “Will you be okay to make it back through the forest on your own?”

Twilight and Pinkie both laughed at that. “Pinkie’s fine with that. Just... are you sure you don’t want me going with you to talk to them?”

Pinkie was already walking backwards now, and accelerating, “If you want, but I think that might just make them angrier. I can do it, I’m good at this sort of thing.”

Spike raised a scaly eyebrow, “You give ponies the bad news very often?”

Pinkie thought about that. Actually, she was just guessing this was the sort of thing she was good at. When was the last time she had to give the bad news? Don’t think about that too hard then. “It’ll be fine,” she shouted over her shoulder, running now, “I’ll meet you back at the castle.”

She ran for Sweet Apple Acres.

Unity

The run to Sweet Apple Acres wasn’t that long, but Pinkie wasn’t that fit either. She was already heaving like a bellows by the time she knocked on the farmhouse door. It was Applejack who answered.

“Figured it’d be you.” Applejack yawned, “It’s late, Pinkie.”

Pinkie blinked, tilting her head back to look directly up at the full moon overhead. “How can you tell?”

“It’s late ‘cause I’m tired and the clock says so. What are you doing here?”

There was a long moment of silence as Pinkie realized she spent the entire run up here not working out what she was going to say. But then again, she wasn’t much for planning, was she? “You know how you warned me about Rarity, and said not to drag my problems to Ponyville?”

Applejack sighed. “You stuck your hoof in it, huh?”

“The Guard knows to look around here for Twilight, but they don’t know where she is, so they’re probably going to be interrogating ponies, and since Rarity’s the one telling them about what to do-”

“I swear, I’m going to break that girl’s legs.”

“Twilight nearly did! I think she got her ribs anyway. So I think that means they’re going to come after you and Fluttershy first and I’m sorry, I’m so sorry--”

Applejack made a ‘hold your horses’ gesture, and closed the door. There was the rattling of pots and pans in the kitchen. The door opened again, as Applejack was back with a cast iron skillet. “So the Guard’s following you? And you came here first? You made sure you weren’t followed?”

She hadn’t. She’d just run here the whole way. “I’m sorry!”

Applejack tested the weight of the skillet, took a few lazy swings with it. “I’ll take that as a ‘no’ then. Here’s my question. Say they’re around here and I turn Twilight in. Do you reckon I’m safe?”

“You should do that! We can handle ourselves, we don’t need you to put yourself in danger for us, honest.”

But at that, Applejack shook her head. “Nah, because then it ‘comes a question of how did I know so much in the first place? Then I ain’t ever safe again. You put me between a rock and a hard place here, Pinks.”

“I’m sorry!” Pinkie said again, as if this time saying it would actually fix anything.

Applejack leaned against the doorway, head tilted low so that her eyes were hidden. But you could still see the tears streaming down her face, even as her voice remained steady. “I need you to know something. I ain’t ever going to forgive you for this. I suppose you didn’t mean it, and it’s more Nightmare Moon’s fault than yours. Heck, I’m surprised they held off as long as they did. Must have thought Twilight was dead or gone until you poked your head up. But they’re here ‘cause you poked your head up, and now you’ve forced me to stick my neck out.”

“What are you... Applejack, what are you saying?”

“I’m saying you finally did it, you dang idjit!” Applejack shouted, smacking the skillet into the door frame hard enough to splinter it, and dent the pan. It sounded like it woke up Big Macintosh and Applebloom. “Now I don’t got a choice but to help Twilight. Only way out is through, here, Sugarcube. I can’t be the sensible pony and hide if you’ve gone and got me accused of treason no matter what I do.”

“But you didn’t do anything!”

“And that don’t matter anymore, now, does it?” Applejack spat. Big Macintosh was standing behind her, listening to them carefully. “Listen, Pinkie. I know you’re sorry. I get that? But you just took everything away from me unless we can take down Nightmare Moon. I’m going to get Fluttershy and tell her what’s happened and... well, I think she’s going to be mighty ornery. Heck, I’ll say it, she’s going to be pissed off about all this. Then what?”

“Then what?”

“We’re on your side, now, Pinkie, ‘cause there’s no where else to go anymore. So what would you have us do?”

“Ah-” Pinkie stammered. She hadn’t thought about this before.

“Goddang it, Pinkie, two years now you’ve been gnawing my leg off about us helping, and now that you got me you got no clue what to do with me, do you? ‘Cause there never really was anything, was there?”

“No! I mean, you could... I don’t know! You’re going to have to ask Twilight.”

Applejack spat. “See what I mean? It was always the idea of helping, but it’s not like I could ever do much, was it?”

This wasn’t supposed to be Pinkie’s job. She was supposed to do, not lead, or instruct. But Applejack was yelling at her, and she was right, and-- and Pinkie had told Twilight she was supposed to be good at this. Even under the weight of Applejack’s cold fury, and hateful stare, she swallowed back the lump in her throat. “Are you saying there’s nothing you could do to help?”

Applejack paused. “Well, I wouldn’t know how to even start,” she said, because her pride wouldn’t let her admit anything less.

“Maybe that’s the first thing you can do then. Figure out how you can help. You’re supposed to be smart, right?”

“Well, shucks, I don’t know so much about that...” Now Applejack was on the back foot, defensive. Big Macintosh watched with interest over her shoulder. He didn’t say anything, but the look he gave Pinkie Pie filled her with confidence.

“You knew better than me about Rarity, and you’ve been working out how to grow the farm even in the dark, and you’ve been helping ponies for all this time so they trust you. And you’re getting angry at me because I can’t give you instructions?” Pinkie was getting a lot more confident, now. She wasn’t getting angry, she was just... reassuring herself she was right, and believing it more.

“‘Course I’m angry. You had all this time to figure something out for me, but you couldn’t!” Applejack, on the other hand, was getting angrier as she got less confident.

“No, Applejack. We’ve had all this time to work out how to work around you. And we tried to do that as long as possible.”

Big Macintosh winced at that one, hard. Applejack didn’t react at all, which kind of was a reaction in a way. “What exactly are you trying to say? Think careful.”

So Pinkie did. Applejack looked like she was about ready to smack her with the skillet, but... “You chose to ignore a world where innocent people could have their life ruined at any moment, just because it wasn’t happening to you.”

Applejack whipped around. “Big Macintosh? If anypony comes knockin’, I went to Fluttershy’s, otherwise you don’t know nothing. Don’t bother trying to hide, it’ll just make you look guilty. Got that?”

He nodded, slow and solemn. “Eeyup.”

“Take care of Applebloom for me.”

Applebloom walked around Big Macintosh, rubbing her eyes. “What’s this about me? Applejack, where you going?”

“Out. I’m going out for a while, I’ll be back later, you hear?”

“With our skillet?”

Applejack looked at the skillet. “Yeah, with the skillet.”

“Huh. Are you crying?”

“Ain’t nothing you gotta worry about.”

Applebloom tugged at Big Mac’s back leg, but he didn’t bother looking at her, just tilted his head in acknowledgement. “Big Mac, you know why Applejack’s cryin’?”

“Eeyup?”

“You gunna say why?”

“Eenope.”

“Rats. Grown ups are weird.”

“Eeyup.” Big Macintosh agreed.

Applejack gave a big sigh, miserable and exhausted and worn-down, and walked out past Pinkie, marching a brisk pace towards Fluttershy’s cottage. “Come on then. Let’s get all this over with so I can get home soon.”

Pinkie let her lead the way.

Applejack gave Pinkie a ‘Let me handle this’ glare when they got to Fluttershy’s cottage, and knocked on the door. Fluttershy answered, and was obviously surprised to see Pinkie and Applejack together. “Oh, my. Something’s happened hasn’t it? How was Rarity?”

“Evil,” Pinkie said, “I messed up. She’s sent the Guard to look for Twilight, and she knows about you guys. She also guessed that Rainbow Dash is playing mole, but she might have just been guessing and hoping I confirmed it for her. And I didn’t!”

“Well done, Pinkie,” Applejack said in a dead monotone, “We’re all proud of you for not messing up as badly as you could have.”

Fluttershy hid behind her door. “The Guard are coming? Why? To look for Twilight?”

Pinkie nodded. “Yeah. And they know to come after you and Applejack first, because I talked about talking to you.”

Fluttershy thought about that. “Is that it?”

Applejack nodded too. “Yeah, that’s the long and short of it. So I’m heading out to throw my lot in with them. You coming?”

“If it’s all the same to you girls, I might just explain to the Guard I have nothing to do with it.” Fluttershy shrank a little more, “If that’s okay?”

“What? You can’t just ignore the problem and hope for the best, Fluttershy. We’re in danger, we have to do something!”

“The sensible thing is to just tell them I don’t know anything, and I haven’t done anything.” Fluttershy explained to Applejack in the same patient, mature tone she’d used on Pinkie so recently. “Because it’s the truth.”

“You think that’s going to matter? You’re guilty by association!”

Fluttershy stood her ground though, or at least her doorway. “They’re still ponies just like us, and I haven’t done anything wrong. They’ll be reasonable. You should be too.”

Pinkie bit her tongue and didn’t say anything, but Applejack could feel the weight of the unsaid ‘I told you so’s’ burrowing into the back of her head where Pinkie was staring at her. Applejack hefted her skillet. “Fluttershy-”

“They’ve had two years to come after us, and they didn’t do anything. I didn’t do anything. Everything will be okay, girls,” Fluttershy gave the most reassuring smile she could manage, which came across to Pinkie as condescending... must have been to Applejack, too, because she tensed right up, “Really, it will be. I think you’re overreacting right now. ”

“Fluttershy, these are bad ponies. They don’t need a reason, they just need an excuse. You can’t just knuckle under and hope for the best this time.” Applejack turned to Pinkie. “And don’t you say a word.”

Pinkie said, as innocently as she could manage, “What? I was just going to agree with you.”

“You’re pushing it.”

Fluttershy edged behind the door further, and moved to close it. “I’ll be fine. If you’d both please leave now?”

Pinkie turned to leave. “Alright. As long as you’re warned. Good luck!”

Applejack ran in front of Pinkie and blocked her exit, fuming. Fluttershy took the opportunity to close her door the rest of the way and click it, then the deadbolt, then the latch. “What are you doing? We gotta get her to listen to reason!”

“I’ve tried for like, two years to do that. If you have any better plans than me, that’d be really helpful.”

“It ain’t the same as all that though, now. It’s different!”

Pinkie tilted her head and pricked her ears. “How?”

Applejack stared at her. “Whadda ya mean, ‘how’? How’s it different?”

“Yeah. From before.”

“Well... I guess ‘cause it’s happening to us now, we can’t ignore it anymore.”

Pinkie shrugged again. “Fluttershy doesn’t think it is happening to us though. So nothing’s changed for her. So it’s the same as it ever was.”

Applejack kicked the dirt hard, not finding anything else better to kick at that moment. “She’s not going to get a chance to help herself until it’s too late, then.” Pinkie didn’t say anything. “Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Yeah, well say it quieter.”

“What do you want to do now, then? You coming with me to see Twilight?”

Applejack grumbled. “Yeah, guess if Fluttershy ain’t signing on... we might as well head out.”

“Just follow me and you should be fine. Stick close or the lion might get you.”

“There’s lions now?”

“I think there always was lions, I don’t think they’re just a ‘now’ thing.”

Applejack stared into the Everfree and gulped. “Do rather miss the sun rightabout now.”

“You get used to it. The Everfree, I mean. I- Do you hear that?”

Applejack stared at the forest, scanning it. Her ears flicked back and forth. “Hear what?”

But Pinkie Pie was looking up. “Shadowbolts!”

Crackling stormclouds trailed behind a group of three of them, still wearing their bodysuits and goggles. Armor would just slow them down, even on combat missions. They were coming in fast from the direction of Cloudsdale. Pinkie grabbed Applejack and pulled her into the cover of the forest as quick as she could, ducking behind a rotting log and looking over.

The Shadowbolts were there a few seconds later, landing at Fluttershy’s cottage like stars falling to earth. Pinkie filled her hair with twigs and leaves before popping her head up, trying to keep only her eyes over the lip of their log. Applejack started scraping leaves onto her hat.

One of the ponies knocked. Fluttershy opened the door and smiled, and offered them inside. They said a few things to each other, but Pinkie couldn’t read lips. Now they were asking Fluttershy to step outside. Applejack’s hat, now sufficiently camouflaged, popped up beside Pinkie.

Fluttershy didn’t leave her house, and seemed to be hugging the door tight. The Shadowbolts weren’t hostile, yet. They just seemed to be asking questions. Fluttershy pointed out into the Everfree, just over Applejack and Pinkie’s heads. They ducked just as the Shadowbolt’s head turned to look in their direction.

They both kept silent, the breath you hold in when you’ve stubbed your toe in front of a baby and are trying so hard not to swear. Pinkie counted for a few seconds before raising her head again.

The Shadowbolts had gotten Fluttershy out of her cottage and were surrounding her out the front, their wings held out stiff to emphasize the sharp cutting edge running along the edges of them. They were marching Fluttershy out towards the forest itself, trying to get better directions.

Then Fluttershy stopped, and there was some shouting. Fluttershy wasn’t going into the forest after them. There was some more shouting, and then Fluttershy was on the ground crying. One of the Bolts had kicked her, but Pinkie couldn’t see it happen from this side. Applejack grit her teeth so hard her jawbone clicked.

A bear charged at the guards, roaring. The Shadowbolts turned to it, but Fluttershy was shouting him -- it was a him -- down. It looked like the bear was still furious, and being told to stop was just confusing it. Applejack had practically crawled on top of the log at this point, and Pinkie had to pull her back down.

One of the Shadowbolts had a blade held to Fluttershy’s throat, and the other had rooted themselves preparing for the bear to charge. And then the third Shadowbolt bucked the first one in the head, they dropped in a way that made their entire body just go all limp at once and fold in on itself as it fell. Then the third Shadowbolt twisted and bucked the second one in the head, as well, felling them like a tree. They’d just gone all stiff and sort of fell to the side with their legs locked.

Applejack hissed air through her teeth, quietly. “That ain’t ever good when they go down like that.”

Rainbow Dash ripped her hood off. “Damn it, Fluttershy! Why’d you have to tell them?!”

Pinkie charged out of the forest and crashed into Rainbow Dash, a fuzzy, loving cannonball. “I knew Rarity was bluffing!”

“Pinkie Pie? What are you doing?”

Applejack walked up to the the small group left still standing, and she seemed over all of this. “Heya Rainbow Dash. Good to see you’re still kicking.”

Rainbow looked at her hooves self-consciously. “Yeah, I guess. What’s this about Rarity bluffing?”

Pinkie hugged Rainbow Dash tighter and laughed. “I didn’t ruin everything! Rarity said she totally knew you weren’t really loyal, but I pretended and said I didn’t know that. She was just saying she knew to trap me! Or you! Us?”

Rainbow’s face went slack. “Wow, I’m going to have to break her legs, aren’t I?”

Applejack snorted. “Take a number, sugarcube. Reckon we’re only this deep in it because Twilight took a shot, herself.”

Rainbow was so surprised it knocked her into a coughing and spluttering fit. “Wait, Twilight took a swing? How’d that turn out?”

“I think she broke a few ribs? Not legs though.”

“Awesome.”

Fluttershy was lying on the grass with her arms over her eyes, shivering like a chihuahua in the snow. “Are they gone?”

Applejack nudged one of them, who was definitely still breathing because they were blowing spit bubbles. “Well, they’re out if that’s what you mean. Think this one’s even awake, just don’t got the inner ear to stand up.”

Rainbow Dash winced. “Sorry.”

Fluttershy stood up, with Applejack and Rainbow Dash helping her up from either side. “What do we do now?”

Pinkie pointed in the direction of the Castle. “I’m going to head back to Twilight. You guys are free to come with me, if you want.”

Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash all looked at each other, waiting for someone else to have a better idea. But none of them could really think of any. They didn’t have any place to go after this.

“Alright, well, follow me I guess. Move quickly, but not suddenly, always watch your step, and Fluttershy, if you hear Leonard, tell him I change my mind. He’s hired.”

“Leonard?”

“He’s a lion I know.” Pinkie led them into the forest, past the log she and Applejack had hidden, the leaves and twigs still in her mane.

Rainbow said, “Why are you hiring a lion?”

“The usual thing you’d hire lions for, I guess.”

They followed her after that, eyes fixed on their steps just like Pinkie asked. It was pointless trying to see anything coming in the Everfree at night. The real trick, she’d found, was in the listening.

Pinkie opened the door, and let the other three wander around in awe for a bit. The castle was still filled with that mix of magic candles and the warm, soft crinkling of normal fire burning at the wicks.

“Twilight! I brought friends over, is that cool?”

There was a panicked flash of green from the top of the castle’s grand staircase, and a brightly painted Owlowiscious flew down and landed in front of Pinkie, hooting grumpily. Pinkie didn’t know whether to laugh, or feel left out that she hadn’t been here to help. Probably laugh, because it meant she wouldn’t have to ask his forgiveness so much.

She was definitely tying tiny bells to him later though.

Twilight came running after, jumping down more steps than she was taking. “Applejack! Fluttershy! Rainbow Dash! You’re all here.”

Applejack held her hat to her chest and looked away. “Look, Ms Sparkle, I’m sorry to be an imposition-”

But Twilight was already at the bottom of the stairs, and wrapped them all up in a big hug, squeezing them each one-by-one. “I don’t care, as long as you’re here now.”

“I’ve been rubbing off on her!” Pinkie was so proud of her.

Applejack looked around the castle, trying to look like she was just taking in the view but mostly just trying to avoid eye-contact. “So, if there’s anything we can do to make ourselves useful-” There was a pause, but however she was going to finish it got steamrolled by Twilight snapping off orders.

“Fluttershy, you remember Spike, the dragon?” Fluttershy’s eyes sparkled, so that was definitely a ‘yes’, “Go tell him we need three more beds made, and if you could help him with that, please? I know hotel maid isn’t the most glamorous job-”

“It sounds safe.” Fluttershy said, and that was that. She was already flying up the stairs, looking for Spike.

“Rainbow Dash, my brother’s here now. I need you to tell him everything you learned from the Shadowbolts, and see if he can work out how we best use you tactically, if it comes to it.”

Rainbow Dash saluted, then went to fly up. Twilight turned to watch after her. “Shining’s actually on the ground floor, but it’s probably not worth going after her to tell her that. She’ll figure it out pretty fast. Uh, Applejack.”

“Yes ma’am?”

“First time I met you, I think you were feeding a family of over two dozen ponies mostly by yourself.”

“Well, Granny and Applebloom helped.”

“Do you think you could manage,” Twilight closed her eyes and her lips moved as she counted names off in her head, “seven and a half ponies? By yourself?”

Applejack chuckled. “Shucks, that’s what you got me for? That’s my big help to the resistance? Head chef?”

Twilight nodded. “At the moment, that would be the biggest help you could be. I know it doesn’t sound like a big deal, like stealing secret documents, or infiltrating lairs, or making bombs, or learning how to fight... but all those other things take time and energy. By just taking charge of something small, like cooking, you’re responsible for all the good other ponies do with the time and energy you’ve given them.” Applejack nodded, that made sense to her. “Besides, you’re great at it.”

Pinkie felt a little bit undermined by that. “Don’t I normally do great at it?”

“You’re fantastic,” Twilight smiled at her, and she meant it, “but I need you for something else right now.”

“Hang on.” Applejack interjected back in between them, “You’re saying even though I can’t do anything myself, by helping ponies who can do something, I’m making them be able to do more?”

“That’s the long and short of it, yeah. For instance, Pinkie has basically single-handedly kept me alive for the last two years, in spite of my best efforts to work myself to death. So, my successes are basically hers at this point.”

“I guess you got a head chef then, Sparkle. If I’m being honest with you, I’ve been wondering how I could possibly make any difference, and it’s seemed useless to me. But hearing you put it like that makes an awful lot of sense, I guess. Who made the grocery lists, you or Pinkie?”

“Pinkie did.”

“Welp. Better get started working out a menu that makes sugar seem healthy. I’ll see you when I ring the dinner bell. Ah... point me towards it, so I don’t do a Dash?”

Twilight pointed to the East Wing, to the right of the entrance, where the kitchen area was. Applejack tipped her hat in thanks and trotted off, muttering to herself about maybe rosemary and honey glazes.

That left Pinkie alone with Twilight, who’d changed out of the outfit she really liked. “You needed to talk to me?”

“Pinkie, you’ve been my absolute best friend for two years now, and you only seem to take breaks when I do. But now with Shining doing security, and Applejack cooking, and Spike being my number one assistant again, I don’t think there’s anything you need to be doing. I think it’d be good if you took some time off.”

Praxis

Pinkie didn’t know how to feel. It was a really nice gesture, and the time off would be nice, but it was just like with the comment about Applejack’s baking. “You don’t need me anymore?”

“Not at the moment. Everything’s taken care of, for once. Normally I’d say you should spend some time with the Cakes, but I think that would be a really bad idea right now... Poetry and instruments?”

That sounded pretty nice, actually. “Okay. But you need to take a day off, too. Remember, that’s a thing you said you’d do.”

Twilight looked away, biting her lower lip. “Just reading together, right?”

“Yeah.”

“... There’s a lot of questions I have, that I need Moondancer to answer. That’s going to take some time for her to get back to me.” Twilight admitted, “But then it’s going to be burning the midnight oil on getting through what she sends back. Is that expression still relevant?”

“I know what you meant, so it’s fine. So...?”

The decision was made. Twilight’s shoulders set, and she got in her confident pose where she stood up straighter, looked taller than she was. “It’s settled. I just need to send everything to Moondancer but, to be honest, I got most of that done while you were in Ponyville. Come with me and find a comfortable spot?”

“You mean, now?”

Then Twilight’s confidence crumbled. “Why not now?”

“I don’t know why not now. Now is nice. I would like to do now. I just might make some hot chocolate for us first.”

Twilight’s stomach gurgled at that, and she winced in embarrassment, shut her eyes hard enough to pretend she wasn’t there. “Hot chocolate sounds really good. I haven’t eaten anything since breakfast yesterday though, so the sugar might hit me hard.”

Twilight on a sugar rush? Something to look forward to. She cooouuuld get her a snack, but... “I’ll see if we have any marshmallows to toast over candles too. Like a library campfire.” Sugar rushes in Twilight were absolutely a thing she wanted to encourage.

Twilight was, fortunately, too hungry to see this as the obvious trap that it was, because it ended in toasted marshmallows for her. “That sounds fantastic. I’ll meet you in the library, I guess?”

Pinkie nodded three times, then made off to the kitchen where Applejack had gone. Owlowiscious was looking at her curiously. He raised an eyebrow that just screamed “Oh, really?”

Pinkie blew him a big raspberry. “You’re a great wingman, but you deserved that new look, you know.”

Owlowiscious folded his wings across his chest. He apparently disagreed.

Applejack had found herself a chef’s hat and a white apron, and was really letting a wad of dough have it on the kitchen counter when Pinkie entered. Like, she had sworn an oath of vengeance against it or something. Applejack noticed her noticing. “Always helps after a rough day. Then you get to eat it after.”

“That makes sense. Thanks for helping out.”

Applejack tipped her chef’s hat -- Twilight told her it was called a toque! -- and bowed slightly. “At your service. What are you in here for? I thought Twilight had a special assignment.”

“Yeah! I’m making hot chocolate, and then we’re going to go cuddle up and read poetry by candlelight. It’s going to be great.”

Applejack slammed the dough onto the counter and stared at Pinkie as she darted about the kitchen, putting the milk in the saucepan... finding all the ingredients she needed. “First thing I get to take credit for is you two hooking up? Ain’t sure how I feel about that to be honest.”

“I kind of feel pretty great about it.”

“Well, you would, wouldn’t you? You’re made for each other; you’re both crazy.”

“And she likes chocolate even more than I do!”

Applejack was doing her best to pretend to be annoyed, but it was obvious she just found the idea of all this really funny. “I guess it was like we locked you two alone together in a cupboard for two years, ain’t it? Here’s to the rebellion, then, I guess, bringing ponies together in the weirdest ways.”

“Yeah! Now, thanks to you, we get to be normal, functional ponies for a bit!”

Applejack barked a single, shouted “Ha!”. “I’ll believe it when I see it. Now, where do you keep the baking trays, I couldn’t find ‘em on my own.”

When Pinkie brought the tray with the pot of hot chocolate up, and the packet of marshmallows with the box of toothpicks to skewer them with, Spike was standing beside Twilight’s favourite desk, blowing green fire over document after document. Twilight watched with interest.

Pinkie put her tray of bits down where the last document had been picked up from, and passed a mug to Twilight. “Moondancer get everything?”

“She’s just as brilliant as I remember. It’s so nice to have someone I can talk to about magic again. And I forgot how useless I am at organizing things without Spike to help me.”

Spike snorted. “You’re great at organizing things, you just suck at being organized. You put things down without thinking, then wonder why it’s not where it’s supposed to be the next time you go to pick it up.”

“I already thanked you, so shut up.”

Pinkie noticed Twilight do that all the time, but had thought she was doing it on purpose. Was she supposed to have been helping with that more? Or sorting that more? Spike wasn’t just taking her responsibilities from her, he was showing her just how much she’d missed.

Spike made her feel way out of her depth.

He saluted. “I put some apple cider vinegar with your flowers, too, so they should last longer. While I was cleaning your room.”

Twilight blinked. “That’s a thing?”

“You can do it with bleach too, but I think the vinegar works better. Where’d you get those, anyway? They’re beautiful.”

Twilight absolutely radiated pride and happiness. “Pinkie gave them to me. Aren’t they amazing?”

“I haven’t seen anything like them up in Canterlot. Then again, I spent most of my time in caves so...” Spike shrugged. “I’m going to go help Fluttershy some more, I’ll let you know when I start getting your mail back.”

“Thanks Spike, you don’t know how much I missed you.”

“I can guess.” He jumped up and wrapped his arms around Twilight’s neck.

Then Spike went to Pinkie. While Twilight was distracted with filling her mug from the tray, he snapped off a pair of approving fingerguns at Pinkie. “Cadance told me.” He whispered, “Don’t worry, I got you covered.”

“What?”

“I can look after her just fine, so you don’t need to worry about that anymore. Now you can focus on doing the things only you can do for her.”

Pinkie had no idea what to say to that.

Spike smirked, looking back over his shoulder to make sure Twilight wasn’t paying attention to them still. “Just go make each other happy or something.”

Then Spike skipped out, actually skipped. He spun and gave Pinkie Pie one last blast from the fingerguns before ducking out.

... doing the things only she could do?

Suddenly, Twilight had Moondancer to talk to about magic, and Shining and Cadance to support her, and Spike to do the things that had made Pinkie feel so needed... so what did that leave her with?

Pinkie snapped out of that thought when a mug of hot chocolate was floated under her nose.

“So, book-buddy,” Twilight giggled, actually giggled about that, “where do we start?”

Pinkie never used to feel overwhelmed by her emotions, because she’d just feel so much of everything. She felt the most sadness, the most happiness, the most anger and the most whatever it was she was feeling.

Twilight always felt the most panic. So, unlike Pinkie, who’d just sort of accepted being the most everything she could be, she’d actually worked out how to calm herself down, as long as somepony reminded her to do it.

So, thinking about what Twilight taught her helped. Just think about her breathing, count her breaths even when her mind wanted to run all over the place. In, two, three, four, out, two, three, four, in-

Think about how last time they’d planned this she’d called it a date, and that upset Twilight, but now she kind of wanted it to be a date but Twilight didn’t seem to think it was so would it upset Twilight to ask-

In, two, three, four, out.

Just reading together, that’s what she had said.

Out, two, three four, in.

A big pot of hot chocolate on a big lounge together, with Pinkie’s favourite books of poetry to show off. Dotty Parker, Firey Rime, Boy, Harp Weaver, all the stuff by They Might be Mountain Goats, -- oh wow, she hadn’t talked to Twilight about any of this before, had she? There was so much to cover.

Twilight waited for her dutifully on her side of the couch as Pinkie raced from bookshelf to bookshelf, trying to find the important ones and bookmarking them. Each time she found a particular one she liked, she put a ribbon in it and dropped it on a growing pile next to Twilight’s seat.

A record, she had a record, but that could come later. Music with lyrics would interrupt the conversation she’d want to have.

Twilight picked a book up from the bottom of the pile and started reading aloud the one Pinkie had picked out:

“A voice said, Look me in the stars
And tell me ponies, of life’s worth
Aren’t all the soul-and-body scars
A price too much to pay for birth?”

“They’re not all like that,” Pinkie reassured her, “I just really like that one.”

“Why?” Twilight sounded confused, “I mean, it’s pretty.”

“Because I think the answer is ‘yes’, yes it is, but it made me have to think about it. And I think it’s worth thinking about it sometimes, to make sure the answer is still yes.”

Twilight picked up the next one.

“Safe upon the solid rock the ugly houses stand:
Come and see my shining palace built upon the sand!”

“I thought you’d like that one. It’s by Harp Weaver, she did the candle one too.”

“I don’t get it, I’m afraid. What does it mean?”

“Well, I think it’s about not living the safe life just because it’s safe and sensible. Her life doesn’t seem sensible at all, but she made something wonderful out of it.”

Twilight’s eyes went back and forth over the two lines over and over. “Oh! So it’s a metaphor for... I guess being the kind of person who throws everything away to live in a castle in the forest.”

“So how does that make you feel, knowing that?”

Twilight’s brow scrunched and her eyes went distant, which meant she was really thinking hard about it. “I don’t know. It makes me feel proud, but scared. Keenly aware of how reckless all the decisions I’ve made are, but more confident that they were the right ones. Trying to do what Applejack did, that would have been more sensible... but I could never have done it. That’s an ugly house on solid rock.”

Pinkie dropped another book on the pile. “It’s also just really musical. I like poems that are musical.”

Twilight looked down at the growing stack of books, which was already as tall as the arm of the sofa. “I think that’s enough, don’t you?”

Pinkie looked at them, and chewed the corner of her mouth. “It’s not all the book, and you’re a really fast reader.”

The books all levitated around Twilight’s head as she looked over them all. “I was hoping you’d read them to me, and explain them. I’m not very good at this.”

“Isn’t that the point of reading it though? To help understand it?”

Twilight grimaced as she flicked through some of Pinkie’s suggestions. “I don’t even understand what I don’t understand, that’s the problem.” Then, she looked at Pinkie with soft eyes, “And I really like how you explain it. I’d never have thought about the Rime poem that way, but it was beautiful how you put it. Besides, I want to know your reasons for picking these ones.”

“Well, yeah. But you don’t want to hear my reasons for all of them, do you?”

Twilight nodded emphatically, passing Pinkie one of the books and dropping the rest in a pile. Then she patted the spot on the lounge next to her, and scooted over to give Pinkie more space.

It looked like Pinkie was going to be reading poetry to Twilight and explaining why it resonated with her emotionally. Breathe in, two, three, four...

She looked at the one Twilight had picked out this one and smiled as she sank onto the couch next to her. They snuggled side-to-side so Twilight could read over her shoulder as they drank their hot chocolate.

“Do not go gentle into that good night,” Pinkie began reading. She really liked this one too. It was sad, but it was also determined and fierce and so she put as much emphasis as she could every time she repeated, “rage, rage against the dying of the light...”

When it was finished, and Twilight was silent, she explained that it was kind of a poem about dying, but really it was a poem about living, and fighting for life. About trying to overcome something that seemed inevitable, because the fighting was the important part.

Then she talked about how it was a villanelle, and the repetition and structure of it made it a really lyrical poem, to her, but she could only ever see it being read to violin, and she wasn’t really good at that.

Twilight stared at her. “I would never have been able to get that on my own. Any of that. Or even think about what kind of instrument would go with it. How do you do that?”

“Well, the words have a beat to them, and you can break that down into bars. Then you figure out what kind of emotion it makes you feel, and you think of an instrument that makes you feel like that. Violins are good at sadness and dramatic triumph, and that one’s both of those. Then you just fiddle around with scales you like until you find one that sounds right for it.”

“You just ‘feel it out’? I don’t even know where to begin, but you make it sound so natural. Like, you tell me how a violin feels, and of course it makes sense when you say it. But if you’d asked me, I’d have just said ‘violiny’.”

“They do sound ‘violiny’ though.”

“I just can’t make those kinds of connections in my head. I can understand it when it’s explained to me, but I’d never be able to think of that on my own.” Twilight beamed, rifling through the pile, picking up poems and glancing at them and then shuffling to the next one, “It’s always so fascinating seeing how your mind works.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m really bad at knowing how I feel. I don’t even notice when I’m getting too upset, or too worked up about something. You know exactly how you feel, as soon as you feel it, and you always know how I’m feeling before I do.”

Pinkie flinched. “Except when it’s really important-”

Twilight rapped a hoof twice against the arm of the chair, like an ‘ah-ha!’ in percussion, “But that’s exactly what I mean. I didn’t notice myself trying to pull away from you, until you were doing things to close the distance I didn’t realize I was trying to create. Even though you didn’t know what it meant, you were trying to fix the problem I didn’t know I had.”

“I guess...”

“Pinkie, I just thought my attention span was suffering. The only book in the entire library that had the answers I was looking for was meant for... you know,” Twilight flinched and blushed at the same time as her sentence ran her against an admission she couldn’t admit to, “I wasn’t exactly up to giving you hints, even when I did figure it out.”

That was true. Pinkie stuck a pencil through a marshmallow and held it over one of the actually lit candles, and appreciated how the flames rolled around the sides of it without quite making it catch. She offered Twilight one. Twilight waved it off.

“Thanks, but I sort of got my own while you were gone.” There was a ‘pop’, and Twilight held up a big slice of the cookie sandwich -- it yet lived! -- and ‘pop’ as it was sent back to the freezer. “I’m saving it though. Just the drink is nice for now.” She made a big point of sipping her extra-sweet, extra-creamy hot chocolate while Pinkie toasted her mallow nice and crispy.

Twilight looked through the other poems as she did that. Pinkie pulled her pencil back. Blow, blow, blow, munch -- Ow! Yum! Ow... more blowing next time.

Then Twilight looked through the books and passed her another one. “How about this one? To His Coy Mistress?”

“Oh! I love this one. Its language is so pretty, and it flows so well, and it’s really funny when you stop to think about it” Pinkie opened up the page and scanned down it, trying to commit it to memory so she could read it while watching Twilight’s expression. Then she remembered what the poem actually was about. “Uh. Maybe a different one would be better?”

“What? But you just said you loved this one. What’s wrong with it?”

Pinkie gulped. “It’s a really good poem. I just kind of expected you to read it to yourself. It’s a bit different when I have to read it to you.”

Twilight looked over the first few lines. “It looks fine. Weirdly chaste, even, for a romantic poem.”

“Yeah, they are. The first few lines I mean. That’s why I think it’s funny, and why you should probably get me to read a different one.”

Twilight was very confused. “How could it being weirdly chaste be a joke? I don’t understand.”

Pinkie took the book, because it was going to be way easier to just read this than it was to explain it. She held the book in front of her face, between her own and Twilights, so she couldn’t see just how red she was turning. She actually felt the tips of her ears burning. Hopefully Twilight was as bad at reading Pinkie’s emotions as she was at reading her own...

The first two stanzas were fine. They were all about chaste love, and all the platonic ways a relationship was totally perfect, and how they could do that until the end of time... oh but mortality was totally a thing, so, in with the third stanza. The punchline.

“Now therefore, while the youthful hue
Sits on thy skin like morning dew,
And while thy willing soul transpires
At every pore with instant fires,
Now let us sport us while we may,
And now, like amorous birds of prey,
Rather at once our time devour
Than languish in his slow-chapped power.
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Through the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.”

Yep.

“So, it’s about-”

“I worked that one out.” Twilight cut her off. “It was very...”

“See, when you read it on your own, it’s really funny.”

Pinkie didn’t lower the book, but she felt Twilight’s breathing stop against her side. They’d been pressed so tight together, and with every line Twilight had pressed herself just that little bit closer. Now, though, she’d realized what had just happened, and...

Well, knowing Twilight, she was fighting in her head over whether it was more awkward to be this close right now, or whether moving away would make it even worse and draw attention to it.

Wow, she really did understand Twilight that well. Maybe better than anyone else...

Twilight groaned, and Pinkie lowered the book in time to see her curl her face towards her knees. The cookie sandwich was back in front of her, but she was making a groaning noise.

“Twilight?”

“I just wanted one perfect day together as friends before I ruined everything.”

“Ruined everything?” The panic was rising in Pinkie’s gut, bubbling, “But we just got Applejack, and Fluttershy, and the others, everything should be okay right now.”

“Because now that everything is okay, I can finally ask you to go steady with me, and when you say ‘no’,” Twilight gestured at the ice cream sandwich, “I can get over it as quickly as possible, move on, and we can get back to saving the world. But we couldn’t have another day that was just like this.”

And the bubble of panic popped, and relief washed over her. “What if I don’t say ‘no’, though?”

“Pinkie, you have to say no.” Twilight patiently explained to her knees, “If you don’t say no, then I’m still in this purgatory state and I can’t move on. And I’ll explode the next time you read me a poem like that. Actually explode, with a blast radius. Bring a broom.”

“But what if I say ‘yes’?”

She sat up enough to look at Pinkie. Or at least twist her head toward her. “Pinkie, I don’t understand. What if you say yes?”

“Yes, what if I say yes, I want you to be my girlfriend?”

Twilight contemplated the ice cream sandwich floating in front of her, staring down it like it was a magic 8 ball. “Are you saying yes, though?”

“If you asked then yes, yes I would say ‘yes’.”

“I-” Twilight stared deep into the cookie sandwich, “I didn’t plan for this. I didn’t plan for this at all. This wasn’t how it was supposed to go.”

There was a long moment of silence hanging between them.

“Twilight, if I say ‘yes’, you still get to eat the cookie sandwich.”

There was the first, nervous hints of a smile. Twilight gestured at it. "Does that mean I'd have to share it though?"

Pinkie giggled. She wanted to jump up and shout and scream and run around the room yelling but instead she just leaned against Twilight’s back. "It means we get to share it!"

Twilight’s back was shifting. She could keep the laughter from being out loud, but Pinkie could still feel it rocking through her. "Pinkie please say no I want this all to myself now."

"Twilight!" Pinkie grabbed a lounge cushion and smacked her with it.

"Pinkie I can't help it the sandwich... it's too great."

"Twilight I can just make you more if you want."

Twilight pounced all at once, hugging Pinkie tight and knocking her over to the other side of the couch. They were both giggling now, but they were pretending they didn’t notice yet. It was more fun that way.

"Is this what you want?” Pinkie demanded, “A relationship built on baked goods?"

"Honestly?” Twilight admitted, nodding into Pinkie’s chest, or nuzzling, it was hard to tell. Pinkie didn’t mind. “Yes."

"Okay good, me too."

Then there was more giggling, trailing off into nothing.

Pinkie became aware of her own breathing again. She wasn’t concentrating on it this time, it just felt heavy in her chest. Like she was running in place. Her back was against the arm of the couch, and Twilight was puddled against her, chin resting against her chest, eyes staring into her own. Just watching each other.

Twilight lifted off her chest, eyes half closed, mouth half open. She had no idea what she was doing. Pinkie leaned forward and melted into her.

Twilight’s ears folded down. She was smiling and wobbly, and her blush never went away. She looked drunk, except for her eyes. Her eyes. She shifted her weight lower, to kiss Pinkie’s neck.

“Pinkie, would you read me another poem?”

“... okay.”

“Like that last one.”

“You liked that last one, huh?”

“You’re so warm.”

“Like the sweet apple that reddens
At end of the bough--
Far end of the bough--
Left by the gatherer's swaying,
Forgotten, so thou.
Nay, not forgotten, ungotten,
Ungathered (till now).”

“I’m the reddening one, am I?”

“Y-you are.”

“I guess I am, too.”

“Aa.”

“Another one?”

“I’m not going to be able to read another one if you keep -- Ah, Twilight-”

“Mm. I read some interesting books. I’ve been thinking about this a lot...”

“I’m really, really, really not going to be able to- aaaAAaa-”

“You think you could try for me, though? Please?”

“The sweet companionship through quiet days
In the slow ample beauty of the world,”

“You’re starting in the middle?”

“Y o u are o n e to talk about starting in mid-- AH! --middles! .”

“I’ll keep going if you keep reading for me?”

“...”

“Yes?”

“yes.”

“Keep going.”

“And the unutterable glad release
Within the temple of the holy night.”

“I see why you picked that one.”

“please don’t stop.”

“Hrm? Mmm. M m m.”

“This isn’t fair! You haven’t done this before! You’re not allowed to beee this gooood!”

“I’m a quick student.”

“Aaa a a a a a a a a a a A !”

“There’s the first one...”

“F-f-first o-one?”

“Your teeth are chattering.”

“Y-ye-yeah.”

“That’s so cute.”

“fffirst onne?”

“You have given me infinite kindnesses over the last two years. I want to pay you back for each and every one.”

“you really dont have to.”

“I know. But I really, really want to. Okay?”

“okay.”

“Good.”

“should we maybe move to a bed?”

“Clever plan.”

“oh, and... if it’s... not too much of a bother...??”

“Mm?”

“could you maybe wear the... outfit... again for me please?”

“I think so.”

They landed on Twilight’s bed with a bounce. It was a very enthusiastic teleport. Twilight landed on top of Pinkie with a devilish grin and licked her lips slowly, like she was hungry.

Then something clicked. The fog went out behind her eyes, and she jumped off the bed like it was a hot pan. “I’m sorry!”

“Sorry? Why sorry?”

“I’m being way too forward. I shouldn’t have- I didn’t even ask-” Twilight was staring at her with blown out pupils, the kind she always got when she was having an anxiety attack.

Pinkie screamed in her head. NOW she does this!

But then she stopped screaming because she realized what had happened. Of course it was now, she hadn’t made any plans for what would happen if Pinkie said yes. Which meant that this was the first time she’d actually stopped to think about what she was doing. So it was just hitting her all at once.

So Twilight really needed to stop thinking right now and crawl back into bed because stopping right now was actually cruel and unusual punishment. It was way better when she wasn’t thinking, just making it hard for Pinkie to think.

“Twilight it’s okay. I’m really, really okay with this right now. Extremely okay with it.”

“I thought you’d say no, and then I got overexcited, and I just... I’ve been playing that moment over in my head so much--”

Pinkie cut her off again, “You’ve been thinking about that a lot?”

Twilight turned bright red. “I can’t believe I just said that.”

“So you’ve been thinking about doing this for a while now?”

“Is that okay? Is it... I didn’t think I had your permission to, so I shouldn’t, but I kept thinking of you anyway, and I couldn’t help it. I’m so sorry.” Twilight was practically curling up into a ball of shame on the floor now.

Pinkie slunk out of bed and wrapped her in the warmest, most reassuring hug she could manage. “Well, it’s okay. I was planning something too. When I tell you that, how do you feel?”

Twilight’s ears flicked. “You were?”

Pinkie kissed her cheek. “I asked you a question, sparklebutt.”

“... excited? Curious? Flattered?”

“So, why do you think I’d feel different?”

Twilight mumbled into her knees. “Because, you knew I liked you, so... that feels like it makes it different.”

“Well, now you know I like you a lot too. And I uh...” Now it was Pinkie’s turn to bury her muzzle in Twilight’s neck so she didn’t have to finish that sentence. But Twilight was just waiting patiently for her to finish. No escape. “... when you took charge like that just then? I really, really, really, really liked that...”

Twilight straightened up, the hairs on the back of her neck all stood to attention. “You did?”

Pinkie just nodded, because she couldn’t manage to make her mouth move to say ‘yes’.

“I wasn’t making you do anything you weren’t okay with? You weren’t just... doing it because it’s what I wanted?”

Pinkie wanted to scream in frustration and pounce her to the ground and that was probably counter-productive. Instead she just peppered Twilight’s face with tiny, rapidfire smooches. Now that she had Pinkie, now came worrying about hurting her, or losing her so soon. She didn’t have any frame of reference for what was or wasn’t okay yet. That was the solution, then.

“As my wonderful, super smart girlfriend who can overthink everything,” Pinkie whispered into Twilight’s ear. She shivered at ‘girflriend’, from the tips of her ears down to her tailbone, “I give you permission to think about me however you want. In fact, I’m going to go grab something real quick and when I get back, I want you to show me everything you thought about while I was gone.”

“Really? You do?”

Pinkie swallowed back the dry lump near the top of her chest. She knew what she wanted to say, but it was really, really scary. It was kind of big. It was the kind of big thing that feels like it won’t fit through your throat if you try to say it. “I’ve been thinking, since you told me you had a crush on me... and how I kind of really liked you too, so umm...”

“You have?”

And Twilight’s surprise, the feeling of her sitting up straight and attentively, just listening... that’s what pushed Pinkie over the edge to just say it. “I want you, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight didn’t move, had stopped breathing. When Pinkie stopped hugging her to look at her properly, she could see that her eyes were doing that far away thing, where she was too busy inside her head. Pinkie kissed her on the forehead, just below the horn.

“I’ll be right back.”

Twilight still hadn’t moved by the time Pinkie had closed the door quietly behind her, and started heading towards her own room.

She’d said it.

She’d said it, she’d said it, she’d said it, aaaah!

That was so scary and intense but she couldn’t just leave Twilight thinking that what had just happened in the library wasn’t okay. It really was so far beyond being okay in a good direction.

Her girlfriend -- hee hee hee hee hee ha ha haaa -- just needed some time to think. So she had given her the clear instruction on what to think about, and permission to think about it. Telling Twilight not to think too hard about something was like telling a housefire to maybe chill out a bit.
Work with the fact that her girlfriend had to overthink everything, not against it.

Let her focus on good, happy thoughts, while she internalized the fact that was a thing she was allowed to do now. That was a thing that got to happen.

Oh, gosh, that got to happen. Pinkie grinned drunkenly. Her legs still kind of wobbled a little bit just from their start on the couch. Twilight was... somehow amazing at everything she put her mind to, and apparently she’d put her mind to Pinkie pretty hard.

Ha ha ha. Wow. Wow.

Pinkie ran down the hall on her mission. Cadance was heading the other way, and they locked eyes as they were about to pass each other. As soon as she saw Pinkie, she raised an eyebrow. Pinkie wiggled hers back, smiling so hard that she was squinting from her cheeks pressing up into her eyes. Cadance smiled, and made an excited noise like a boiling kettle.

Cadance stuck her hip out as Pinkie ran past, and Pinkie gave her a proper bump as she ran past. The pretty pink pony signal of “Woo-hoo, sister!”

Then Pinkie was at her room, and throwing the door open. Then Pinkie was in her sock drawer, and found her planned revenge.

Four socks, pink-and-white horizontal stripes. She was going to absolutely destroy Twilight in these. This was the heavy ordnance revenge she had planned for that short skirt. She looked at her reflection in her bedroom mirror and... oh, yeah, her girlfriend didn’t stand a chance. This was basically lethal weaponry because of how much she was gunna knock her dead.

Pinkie started skipping fast back down the halls. This time she past Fluttershy, who was drifting past, carrying a bunch of neatly-folded linens.

Fluttershy saw the socks, and seemed confused for a moment. Then she blushed, right to the tips of her ears, and looked to Pinkie’s eyes for confirmation.

Pinkie grinned and wiggled her eyebrows. Yep.

Fluttershy zoomed past, and Pinkie cackle-snorted the whole rest of the way back to Twilight’s room. The look on her face was priceless.

She stopped laughing as soon as she opened the door. Twilight was wearing the outfit again, looking at her with the same eyes she’d had on the couch... except it was even more intense, now, with all the confidence that those boots gave her.

“Close the door,” Twilight said in that voice. Pinkie gulped and closed it. Twilight grinned that hungry look again. “I have good news, my sweet girl.”

Pinkie felt her knees wobble again. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go. She was supposed to be knocking Twilight off her hooves. “Yes?”

Twilight picked Pinkie up with her magic and threw her onto the bed. Pinkie bounced once, twice, sprawled out on the bed. Twilight stalked up to the bed like a tiger. “I made a list.”

That was the trick to it. You couldn’t just tell Twilight not to think about something. That would never work. Instead, you had to point her in the right direction. Without direction all she thought about were problems, but with them she thought about solutions.

And considering the slow, precise methodology that followed, the way Twilight focused on experimenting and learning the best way to do everything she did, and the imagination of some of the stuff on the list? Pinkie Pie was just another thing she could figure out to solve.

The socks were a false hope for fighting back. She never stood a chance.

Bite Marks

Pinkie groaned, because everything was sore. But then she smiled wickedly because everything was sore. Twilight slept beside her. She didn’t snore, just a soft rise-and-fall of her chest. The corset was strewn about on the floor, but she’d fallen asleep with the skirt on.

Pinkie rolled out of bed, careful not to wake her. She stretched, rolling her neck, working her jaw. Wow, that was especially sore. She grinned again, letting the bone click as it settled back into place. Yeah, that was a really fun one.

Fluids. Salt and sugar. She needed those stat before she could crawl back into bed, or she’d wake up like a zombified lich mummy. With cottonmouth. She’d learned her lessons about sleeping dehydrated after her second cider season.

She had learned nothing from her first.

It took her a few steps down the stone hall, following the grooved path from Twilight’s room to the library and towards the kitchen, before she wondered why her hoofsteps weren’t ringing in her ears.

Oh yeah. She was still wearing the socks. Hee hee. What were originally meant to be sexy powers were sneaky powers now. Truly, socks were a force to be reckoned with.

Past where the groove ended at the library, down the stairs on tippy-hooves to the kitchen. Applejack had been cooking. Ooh. That was right: That wasn’t entirely on her every morning. She had a helper now.

Dining room then, and see if there was -- sniff sniff, breakfast apple strudel? -- some still left for her.

Everypony else was in the dining room when she got to the door, and she could hear them all. The doors were open, so she could see them all by looking at them through a mirror hanging on the wall. She paused. She was still sneaky-sneaky right now, and it felt like a waste to announce herself.

“Pinkie knew I was joking when I said I was giving them time off so they could hook up, right?” Applejack said in the next room, “I ain’t even mad. Just... unimpressed, I should say, is the word.”

Pinkie felt the blood rush out of her face and into her cheeks at the same time, caught halfway between the cold embarrassment of getting caught doing something you weren’t supposed to be doing, and the hot embarrassment that comes from being proud of having done it.

Then Cadance laughed. Pinkie pressed her ear to the wall as she watched their reflections. “Just be happy they gave you the courtesy. Did you see the way Twilight was looking at that sweet girl?”

“Ah, not much. Maybe a little? Didn’t see them together much.”

“My special talent is recognizing the love ponies have for each other, but even you should be able to see that Twilight looks at her like she’s the last ray of sunshine in the whole wide world.”

“It’s weird.” Rainbow Dash admitted, dipping some bread soldiers into an egg, “Before all this, Pinkie was just annoying. I mean, she was great to be around in small doses, but you couldn’t take more than that. Actually, you know what the difference is? You know how some ponies don’t think before they speak? Pinkie didn’t listen before she spoke. Now she does and every, like, fifth sentence starts with; 'Twilight said-'"

That totally wasn’t how her voice sounded. Also, hey! Also, she did kind of do that, didn’t she? She couldn’t really help it...

“You want to see something really cute?” Cadance leaned forward and stage whispered. Fluttershy tried hard not to look like she was leaning in closer to listen, as she leaned in closer to listen. “Every time Pinkie does that in front of her, Twilight goes from staring at her, to completely unable to look at her. She looks down like she got caught with the cookie jar. It’s the sweetest thing.”

Applejack grunted. “Wonder why?”

Cadance was in full gossip mode now. She was leaning forward, resting her chin in her hooves and her elbows on the middle of the table. “Because I taught her modesty, and Pinkie talks about her like she’s the smartest pony that ever lived.”

Fluttershy sipped at her orange juice through a straw, her eyes focused on nothing in particular. “They really respect each other, don’t they?”

Cadance nodded enthusiastically, overflowing.

Rainbow snorted. “So why didn’t they just, you know, doink already?”

Shining stopped mid-bite of his strudel, thumped his chest and put it back down on the plate. “Can we not say it like that...? But, knowing my baby sister, because ‘the fate of the whole world was on the line’. Every second she spent not saving the world was another second of freedom she was taking from everyone else. Her brain works like that.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Yeah, they couldn’t have waited even a second longer...?”

Cadance snorted. “Please, are you kidding me? You’re lucky Twilight didn’t just drag her by the mane, neanderthal-style, as soon as she got some responsibility taken off her. Little ladybug was pent. Up. I bet she felt too guilty to take care of herself without permission, poor thing.”

Ooh, she was good.

“Cadance!” Shining choked on something, maybe even nothing. “My baby sister.”

“Shining, I love you and I know it’s weird to think of your sister as a sexual creature, but tell me I’m wrong.”

“You’re not, and that’s why I’m so upset right now.”

“Aww! That’s sweet of you to think about her so innocently. Just think how she feels about her big brother and her favourite babysitter, then.”

“Oh, geeze. I did not think that one through...”

Cadance’s smile dropped, and she looked at Applejack levelly. “Trust me, it’s much better to work with than the alternative. So don’t get annoyed when they make some transparent excuse and run off for an hour, or else you’re going to have to work with stressed-out, grumpy Twilight. We don’t want that.”

Rainbow shrugged, left with more soldiers than egg and wondering if she really wanted to eat the plain toast or not. “I mean, it’s been two years with these two locked in a broom closet together. It’d be weirder to think this wasn’t going to happen.”

“What, you reckon we would have?” Applejack said.

“Yeah, probably.”

Applejack looked her up and down, and shrugged. “Maybe.”

“I probably would have, with Rarity.” Fluttershy whispered. Everyone stared at her, and she hid behind her mane. “Well, I wouldn’t have let her be evil. I mean.”

“Huh.” Applejack rapped her strudel thoughtfully against the table, “Don’t that beat all.”

Cadance giggled. “You should see what’d happen if you locked me in a castle with the cute pink one for two years...”

“Honey!”

“I love you!”

“... I love you too.”

Pinkie’s breath had caught in her throat at that, and she exhaled slowly. Her first instinct to gasp air back in would have given her away. Quiet, slow breath back in. Cadance was giggling evilly under her breath.

Fluttershy was whispering again. “Two years of that... and she didn’t let herself...?”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, we just talked about how hard it’d be not to... fall into a... get smoochy?” Fluttershy tapped her hooves together and looked at the floor, letting her hair cover her face again. “But she thought that made her a bad pony, because she thought it was selfish to put that over the whole world.”

“Well, yeah. I guess we’ve gone over that. So what?”

“Do you think she might hate us?”

Rainbow lowered the soldier she’d given in to eating, just before she bit on it. “Woah, now. Hate us? Why hate us? What’d we do?”

“Twilight gave up so much to be here. And she kept giving it up. Don’t you think we might seem a little... ungrateful? Like, she did it all for everyone else, and we just talked down to her...”

Rainbow and Applejack held their breath. Applejack’s face twisted up.

“Yeah, but that was her choice. It ain’t like... I mean, she can’t... Dangit.”

“She’s not saying she does,” Rainbow murmured, “She’s just saying that, if I were her, I’d hate my guts right now.”

Fluttershy didn’t raise her head, not even a little. “I don’t know about that...”

“Dang it!”

“You’re here for her now,” Shining pointed out. “If you want to help, when it seems like she’s working too hard and needs to take a break, don’t tell her that. Offer to take over what she’s doing, on the condition she does something else. Probably tell her to talk to Pinkie, it seems like she’s had the most experience at this point in figuring out what my sister needs.”

Rainbow snickered. “I bet she has.”

Shining stared directly at her. Rainbow shrank behind the table a little, and crammed her mouth full of bread so she couldn’t speak.

Pinkie took that as her cue to burst in. “Good morning, everybody!”

They all stared at her. She looked down. She was still wearing the socks. There was an obvious bite mark taken out of her back right one. “Oh, you all knew.”

Applejack’s eyes never left the teeth marks as Pinkie took her seat at the table. “Twilight likes it rough, huh?”

Shining’s face fell to the table and he groaned. “Please. Please, do we have to do this?”

“It’s always the quiet ones,” Cadance said to herself wistfully. Everyone looked towards Fluttershy, whose blushing face receding below the tableline reminded Pinkie of a setting sun.

Pinkie took a big helping of mushrooms from the table. Mushrooms grew just the same as they ever did, and they made a really good, protein-heavy breakfast, which she needed. “Would you believe me if I said I was just expecting to quietly read together, and maybe some snuggling?”

Rainbow Dash burst out laughing, breathing in some toast crumbs and hacking on them in the process. Applejack and Shining actually considered her though, and Applejack nodded with her arms folded in front of her.

“Reckon I do. Nice to know you weren’t just being coy or taking advantage of me then. Not that I thought you were, mind, just... nice to know.”

Shining looked almost as incredulous as he had when Cadance had admitted to not reading Sandman. “You’re telling me that my sister did anything like that without a plan?”

“Oh! Yeah! She planned on me saying ‘no’. So when I said ‘yes’ she got way-ahead-of-herself enthusiastic. Then she had a panic attack the second she stopped to think about what she was doing.”

Shining massaged the bridge of his nose, just between his eyes, by holding his hoof still and nodding his head into it. “That is definitely Twily, yes.”

“So I phrased it like a problem to be solved instead, and told her to present her solution as a list. Then I gave her some alone time to think, but not enough to overthink.”

Shining Armor still looked like a man having a crisis, but he smiled even through the balled-up-scrunchy-face. “I understand why she likes you so much.”

Cadance head snapped up. “That’s why you were in the hall after you disappeared from the library! I knew--” Then she clamped her mouth shut and went to hide under the table with Fluttershy.

“Dearest, sweet wife of mine... were you snooping?”

“There was a big burst of love in the library, and then it just disappeared! I needed to check!” Cadance’s voice rang through the table. Pinkie ate the mushrooms and they were good. Spicy, actually. Definitely had to get the recipe for this, they’d make a great burger...

Huh? Rainbow was watching her, leaning forward, waiting for her to do something. “What?”

“Aren’t you going to get mad or something?”

“Why? She was being nice.”

Applejack tipped her hat back, making sure her smirk disappeared whenever Shining looked in her direction. “Some folks would care about modesty, privacy, that sort of thing.”

“Not me though. Just ask Fluttershy, right?”

Fluttershy squeaked, and Cadance made the noise children make when they meet a puppy for the first time. “She’s acting all flustered, while hiding under the table! Ah! Oh, sorry, this isn’t helping, is it?”

Rainbow stuck her head under the table, down periscope. “Fluttershy?”

“Pinkie wiggled her eyebrows at me, a lot, on the way to Twilight’s room. In the socks... she was very pleased with herself...”

“I was!” Pinkie said. Rainbow grinned, and Cadance bumped her hoof under the table. “I think Cadance is more hiding from her husband, cause of the whole... peeping on his little sister thing? Secret wingmare stuff?”

“I love you!” Cadance sang out under the table.

Shining’s expression was as impassive and unmoving as a cliff face. “Not coming out, yet?”

“Looove you.”

Applejack and Rainbow made the hummed ‘ah’ of understanding, and Pinkie continued to appreciate the mushrooms.

It was Applejack that seemed to consider that. “Would Twilight be okay with it. Heck, with you being so honest about it?”

“I think so. I don’t know. It’s less that she likes honesty than I don’t think she understands being dishonest.”

“Morning, everypony,” Twilight’s tone was absolutely professional as she walked into the kitchen. She’d showered, her hair was brushed to precision, and her posture was perfection. Pinkie hadn’t seen her like this since she first came to Ponyville. She looked... normal, which really wasn’t normal for her.

Twilight smiled. Everyone stared back at her silently. Cadance and Fluttershy’s heads popped out from under the table to join. Silence. Twilight’s smile clattered to the floor.

“You know?”

“We heard.” Applejack confirmed. “Before Pinkie showed up, I mean.”

Pinkie expected Twilight to blush, or get nervous. Twinge in her heart even worried she’d deny it, pretend it didn’t happen. Do the teenager getting caught with their first crush routine.

She didn’t expect Twilight to sigh, “Can’t be helped,” and kiss her on the cheek before sitting down for breakfast. It didn’t seem like anyone else did either, especially not Shining. Cadance seemed to take that as absolution, and took her seat back beside him.

Twilight took a piece of toast from the table and chewed on it. “Any questions?” She whipped around on Rainbow, whose face had lit up. “Respectful ones.”

Rainbow folded her arms across her chest, slid down in her chair, and sulked.

Pinkie raised her hoof. Her girlfriend looked at her like she’d tried to fit the whole thing in her mouth. “You can just ask, Pinkie, you don’t need permission.”

“Oh! I was just going to ask where Spike is?”

Twilight bent over and looked under the table. “He wasn’t with Cadance and Fluttershy? Hello, Fluttershy, by the way.”

“Hello, Twilight. It’s lovely to see you.”

Cadance fielded the question. “He’s in the library with some ice cream. Moondancer has been sending him notes all morning, poor thing.”

Twilight grabbed the toast, held it in her teeth, gave the room a perfunctory nod, and ran out. Pinkie had a private smile at everyone’s confusion, and even Applejack being a little offended. Shining was smiling the same way. Twilight could get used to having friends around her for the first time in two years after the important work was done.

Then Shining noticed she was smiling the same way, and he seemed to think really hard about that. He was so overprotective, it was great.

Pinkie grabbed a big pot of coffee and ran after her, waving goodbye as she did.

She followed Twilight to the library. It was super easy if you didn’t know, or if you couldn’t see because your face was full of coffee pot: all you had to do was trace the grooves in the floor back up.

The door was still open. Spike was sulking on the floor with his entire head inside an ice cream bucket. Dozens of scrolls were piled on a reading table behind him, and Twilight pored over the notes.

Spike lifted his head out of the bucket. “When she gets like this, it’s best to leave her alone and let her figure it out for herself. Trust me.”

That was... what? No. What? “The entire time you’ve known her, you didn’t get her to just... talk to you before she did something?”

Spike shrugged. “I mostly just try to be a supportive listener.”

“How many things blew up?”

“A metric butt-ton, but when Twilight gets something in her head-”

“That’s why you need to know what she’s thinking before you start getting worried. Or else it’s just going to be too late, and everything’s already on fire. Why did I think you were good at this?!”

Spike pulled himself off the floor with a shrug and dragged himself to the door, ice cream bucket pressed to his chest. “See if you do any better. I got real bad heartburn anyway... euugh.”

Then it was just Pinkie in the room with Twilight, and her pile of papers. Pinkie wasn’t quiet about coming up behind Twilight at her library desk, but Twilight didn’t even turn her head to acknowledge her.

“Wow.” Pinkie looked over the pile as she put the coffee next to Twilight. How did you stack scrolls that high without the tubes sliding around...? Practice, probably. “This is a lot of stuff.”

Twilight began drinking from the pot like it was a mug. “Most of it’s the work I sent Moondancer to look over. I’m just looking at her notes to see if she came to the same conclusions I did.”

Pinkie stuck her nose over Twilight’s shoulder trying to read whatever was on the scrolls. It was all maths and formulas and marking pen and stuff. So even when she could see it, she still couldn’t read it. “What conclusions did you come to?”

“The Tree of Harmony in the Everfree was the original source of the Elements. It’s something I kept running into in my research, it’s full of so much of Equestria’s Harmony magic. But on its own, without the Elements to channel it...”

“So, the Crystal Heart would... act like kind of a battery?”

Twilight did a teetery-wobble gesture with her hoof. “More like a capacitor. Which is sort of like a battery. The point is,” she said, tapping a part of the scroll that Pinkie assumed meant something, “Moondancer checked off on it too. The Crystal Heart is supposed to be a conduit to convert the love of the Crystal Empire into refined magic. We should be able to...”

“Able to what?”

Twilight stopped, and gave Pinkie a look of fierce and grim determination. "Pinkie, do you trust me?"

"Oh, Twilight," Pinkie sighed as she squeezed her in a tight hug, "Absolutely not. No."

Twilight flinched, but Pinkie kept hugging her tight. “How could you not trust me?”

“Because I know you, and love you to itty-bitty bits, and you were totally just thinking something like,” and Pinkie did her best Grumpy Twilight voice, “It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission, right?” She leaned back from the hug enough to watch Twilight hang her head in... strong-negative-emotion. Pinkie kissed her cheek. “And you wouldn’t ask me like that unless it was something you knew I was going to have a hard time forgiving you.”

Twilight managed to squeeze her arm out of the hug to rub her eyes against. “You know me way too well.”

“What would I have needed to forgive you for?”

“A capacitor is just a kind of battery where you release all the energy in it at once. So... a bomb. A really big bomb. Without the Elements to turn it into a ray, the next best thing we could manage would be... indiscriminate in its targeting. I wanted to make sure with Moondancer that it’d still be harmony magic and only affect evil targets but... no such luck.”

“Harmony magic in, harmony magic out though, right?” Pinkie wasn’t a scientist, but she was an optimist. Which is to say, she definitely wasn’t a scientist.

“In the quantities we’re talking about? Total molecular harmonization in a two kilometer radius. Which is bad. You don’t want all of your body to be averaged out with itself, and then with the surrounding air.”

Pinkie tried to imagine it, then tried to stop imagining it, then tried very hard to stop imagining it, and failed to stop imagining it. “Wow. What were you going to do with it. Lure her to the castle and blow yourself up?!”

You could see the realization happening in real-time behind Twilight’s eyes, from the way her pupils darted back and forth, her ears went high and still, her jaw went slack but her lips rapidly mimed words too fast to say. Then, she dry heaved, and Pinkie pushed out of the hug.

“Twilight!”

“That is... much... better than what I was going to do.”

“How?!”

“I was going to hide it under her throne, to be absolutely sure. Moondancer found some tunnels through the crystal caverns-”

“You would have destroyed all of Canterlot!”

“I know!” Twilight was somehow taking the news worse than Pinkie was, “I know, but... Years of work, of being under constant threat of annihilation, and I had a plan. With exactly one shot. I was just thinking of odds of success. I didn’t even think-”

“You would have been worse than Nightmare Moon if you did that!”

“You can remake Canterlot. And only a few thousand live in the blast radius, but the whole world is without a sun, is living under a total dictatorship. The loss of one city would have been... fine.”

“Everyone, everyone would have hated you forever and ever! You could never come out of hiding.”

Twilight was lying on the floor with her hooves over her eyes, like a scared foal. Not the kind that’s scared by monsters, but of their parents when they see the bottle’s empty. “That’s what it’s already like!”

“Except you have me, don’t you?” Pinkie panic-shouted, half angry, half confused, half trying not to make Twilight feel worse than she already did, only able to deal with two of those things at a time, “Do you think I would stay after you destroyed Canterlot?”

Twilight’s voice was weak and fragile, barely rising up from the floor without breaking. “Would you?”

“If you thought I would, you’d have told me first, instead of trying to ask around it.”

Twilight was quiet at that.

“Were you really going to do it, if I’d said I trusted you?”

“You were the only one who stayed with me for everything else. I didn’t want to lose you, but I just want all of this to be over. I need this to be over. If this was all for nothing...”

Pinkie sat down next to Twilight and rubbed the back of her head. Calming skritches, the kind that feel good when you do it to yourself but a hundred times better when someone does it for you. “We can still beat her. We’ll just find another way. Because what’s the point of winning if you don’t get to be happy after, too?”

Twilight leaned her neck back to rest it on Pinkie’s lap. She buried her face against Pinkie’s stomach and trembled.

“New rule, okay?” Pinkie said as she stroked Twilight neck, “You don’t get to do it if it doesn’t mean you get a happily ever after, too. Even if you don’t care about you, I care about you, and you care about me. So you have to care that I care.”

“Okay.”

“I promise not to tell everyone else, too.”

“Thanks.”

Quiet Places

Twilight had messed up really bad.

There was that feeling you get as a child of being so tired, so tired that you start crying and begging to go home. Not even begging anyone in particular, even when you were completely alone.

It was worse when you got that feeling all grown up, staring at your own ceiling.

What Twilight wanted was to just take a break from her own life for a little while. Not take a holiday, but to be an entirely different person for a little bit. No memories. No guilt. No shame or self-loathing or that feeling of frostburn in her guts.

She didn’t want to be alive anymore. The idea of living the rest of her life with the memories of what she’d already done, and almost did, were an impossible weight. She didn’t want to kill herself though. That was terrifying. While the idea of living with her memories was unbearable, the thought of the void, of not even being able to realize what you once were? That was incomprehensible.

Every time she came close to comprehending just how final and total death would be, something pulled her back. Like an elastic band wrapped around the edge of her brain, trying to hold the thought was just a constant pressure and then snapped away again. But every time she got close, it felt like looking between the loose boards of a rope bridge.

She was too tired to stay alive, but too much of a coward to end it.

Besides. She couldn’t do that to Pinkie.

That was hard, actually. How could she possibly tell her any of this without it seeming like emotional blackmail? “By the way, you’re the reason it only takes me an hour of staring at the wall to get out of bed in the morning, and if I lost that then I’d probably do something horrible”. You can’t unring a bell, and you can’t take that idea back out of someone’s head.

Worse was the selfish reason. No matter how much Pinkie would assure her it wasn’t the case, Twilight would always have that lingering, self-loathing doubt that she was only staying with her to keep her from doing something stupid. Emotional hostage.

But she’d just almost done something truly unforgivable. Had spent days planning it out, running the numbers past Moondancer, rationalizing it, justifying it every way she could... committing herself to it being a foregone conclusion, so she could deal with the self-hatred first, so actually doing it was just a formality.

Now she didn’t know what to do.

That was the honest truth of it. Pinkie said she wasn’t allowed to make any plan that didn’t get her a happy ending. But Twilight had no idea how to do that, because she didn’t know what she was doing before Nightmare Moon.

She could only do all this because she had nothing to lose. That was the honest truth of it. It wasn’t bravery or a sense of righteousness. It wasn’t because she was better or smarter than anyone else. It was always because she had nothing. Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, they hadn’t joined because they realized she was right. They joined because they had nothing to lose, now, too.

Nobody wants to change the world if they know their place in it.

Twilight had no idea how to plan for a future that had a place for her in it.

Pinkie had a problem, which was that Twilight had nearly committed an atrocity and she had to not panic to their new friends who had just shown up and were super suspicious of Twilight anyway. Which was a problem, because right now she was freaking out about how close her girlfriend (still new and tingly word) had come to committing atrocities.

She thought she handled it well in the moment, but it really was the kind of thing you needed to sit down and talk to a friend about. Except she couldn’t tell any of her friends. Or Twilight’s brother. Maybe Cadance would understand.

Maybe Spike, but she wasn’t really impressed with him right now, and he seemed to be sulking into an ice cream bucket anyway.

It wasn’t even the afternoon yet, as much as that meant anything it meant that it was still way too early to be dealing with all this.

Shining and Cadance were on the second floor balcony together, looking out over the Everfree. Shining had a big spear-axe thing, and he was all stiff joints, looking at the trees. Keeping watch like a proper soldier.

Gosh, he looked so cool.

Cadance was sitting in a chair next to him, some old stone gardenware thing, sipping a glass of apple juice and watching her husband watch things. There was an open book on her lap, but it didn’t look like she was reading it.

“Ah, sorry to interrupt...” Pinkie stage-whispered from the castle, “but could I borrow Cadance for a minute?”

“Ooh, yes. Can she borrow me?” Cadance asked, tugging at Shining’s waist and pouting up at him. It seemed to make Shining more hesitant to say ‘yes’ than anything else.

“What do you need her for?”

“I just need a friend right now, if that’s okay?”

Cadance started tugging on Shining twice as hard, and he sighed a long-suffering marital sigh. “I can’t say no to that, can I?”

“You could,” Cadance opined as she unfolded herself, leaving the book to keep her seat warm, “but it’d be curmudgeonly of you.”

Shining smiled, even as Cadance continued to sell her pout with wild abandon, “Curmudgeonly?”

“I’m very happy to see Twilight again.”

“It does seem like a word she’d like.”

Princess Cadance bounced into the castle with Pinkie, making sure to give a quick lean-hug as she passed. “What do you need, Pinkie?”

Pinkie looked around. Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy might be wandering around, and she didn’t want to say where ponies could hear. So where... oh. “Why don’t I show you a really cool secret first?”

“I do like sharing secrets.” Cadance agreed, “Alright, we can do that.”

There was a long row of candle holders welded into the stonework all down the corridors. What Pinkie had found while dusting (old castles got really dusty) is that some of them opened secret passageways and tunnels through the castle. Usually by swinging open bookcases or rotating walls or other really cool stuff.

She made sure only her and Cadance were there right then, and pulled the lever. Cadance ‘ooh’d appreciatively as the wall made a grinding noise, and a damp archway appeared next to them. With a twist of her wrist, candles flickered on down the passage, and Pinkie gestured for Cadance to follow her.

A few seconds after they entered the tunnel together, the wall ground closed behind them.

The alcove they found themselves in was barely bigger than both of them, but they weren’t pressed together or anything. It was just cozy, and the damp was from the fact that they were in the middle of the insulated stonework of an old building which meant the air was... humid in that way that smelled clean and mossy and natural. Like being behind a waterfall.

“What kind of friendship problem do you have, where you talk about it in a secret hiding place like this?”

Pinkie breathed deep. It was so relaxing in here. “Okay. So... you knew Twilight from before the end of the world, right?”

“I was her foalsitter, actually,” Cadance corrected. Pinkie knew that. But you needed to start where you knew to work up to what you didn’t. “She was my absolute favourite, when she was little. It wasn’t just because her brother was helping me to bed after...” Cadance sighed happily, “He actually just tucked me in with a warm glass of milk and thanked me for looking after her so well if I fell asleep on the job...”

“He sounds amazing. Does he have a younger sister you could introduce me to?” Pinkie asked hopefully.

Cadance blinked, then laughed. “I’m sorry, I was supposed to be talking about Twilight. What did you want to know?”

“What was she like, back then?”

Cadance looked around the room, making for absolute sure nobody could listen in on them in here. Pinkie had picked the spot well. “Well. She was a little... high strung.”

“Even before Nightmare Moon?”

“For as long as I remember. Even before she got her cutie mark. She was actually pretty bad at magic before she saw Celestia raise the sun, but then she decided she was going to be the best at it. It took her a week to start using levitation at a highschool level.”

“Is that hard? I don’t actually know.”

“Most unicorns I graduated highschool with weren’t doing levitation at a highschool level. She was six.”

“... oh.”

“She’s determined. She’s like a border collie, I think. When they’re in sheepdog mode, there’s nothing else in the whole world but the mission. Brilliant, loyal. But when it’s not the job, no attention span whatsoever. And if you let her get bored, she’ll rip up the furniture.”

“She is kind of like a puppy sometimes.”

“If I caught her with her hoof in the cookie jar, she’d pout at me and before I knew it I was helping her with it. She’d always share, too, which didn’t help. It’s hard to be responsible around her sometimes.”

“Tell me about it. But somebody has to be.”

“If you leave her on her own, she’ll be as irresponsible as she can get away with. She has a unique kind of silliness to her that’s only possible because of how serious and clever she is.” Cadance hugged Pinkie tight and squeezed just a little bit tighter. “I’m so glad she’s got another special pink pony to look after her now.”

“Do you think she was unhappy, before all this?”

Cadance’s grip on the hug went completely slack, then she squeezed again. “I think she was too busy to notice it, but yes. She was.”

“Like, really unhappy?”

“I think so.”

Pinkie broke the hug and went back to the secret door to check it would definitely be blocking sound. It looked like pretty thick stonework. “Do you know why?”

“She didn’t really have friends that she was friends with. She thought that happiness was something you earned, a destination with a finish line. I don’t think she ever figured out that if you weren’t happy doing it, you wouldn’t be happy having done it.”

“I think that’s sort of a really good way to put it. I think Twilight knows she wants to save the world, but I don’t think she actually knows what she wants to do after that. It’s kind of scaring me a little bit.”

“There’s a puzzle for you then,” Cadance challenged her, “Solve the one thing that Twilight Sparkle could never, in a million years, figure out on her own.”

“What’s that?”

Cadance’s horn set off a shower of sparks, silent fireworks. “Figure out what makes her happy. Then make her do it. Knowing Twilight-”

“She thinks being happy would just make her work less hard, and feel guilty about it?” Pinkie stumbled over herself trying to stop herself from cutting Cadance off, but also couldn’t help herself ‘cause she knew.

Cadance didn’t seem to mind. “Let me tell you a story. Back when I was babysitting her, we went out to the park and I was pushing her on the swing. She loved the swings, I used to think she was a pegasus born in the wrong body.”

“I guess you don’t think that anymore, huh?”

“No way. So I’m pushing her, and she just stops laughing all at once. I ask her what’s wrong and she says ‘I could be studying right now’. I said now was playtime, and we were having fun. And she was so serious, she looked at me with the most intense eyes. She said; ‘If I have fun, by the time I get home, and I’ll feel normal again. But if I study something, I’ll know it forever. And I only got so many hours in the day. So is playing on the swings worth not knowing something forever?’. I told her time she enjoyed wasting wasn’t time wasted, but she didn’t believe me.”

“So... what did she do?”

“She still liked the swings for a while, but she’d only swing on them if she also had a textbook with her. That way she could study and have fun at the same time. If you didn’t remind her, though, she’d just read and forget the swinging.”

Pinkie tapped the stone walls, for the same reason you click a pen. Think, think, think. So this wasn’t recent about Twilight, she’d been like this forever. That was frustrating ‘cause it meant that just beating Nightmare Moon wouldn’t fix it, but it made Pinkie feel the special selfish kind of good that comes from knowing something bad definitely wasn’t your fault. “Did you tell her that happiness and pleasure were two different things?”

Cadance tilted her head. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, when you do something that makes you feel really good when you start, but a few hours later you feel like you haven’t done anything? That’s just pleasure. Happiness is when you feel good about it even when you’re not doing it anymore. Except knowing things doesn’t actually make Twilight happy.”

“She’s proud of how smart she is. Knowing things gives her confidence.”

Pinkie nodded so hard she got dizzy. “But she doesn’t seem to know things for a purpose, right? So she’s only trying to know as much as possible. So that means whenever she knows she doesn’t know something, it’s going to feel like she hasn’t done enough yet.”

“She’s ridiculous. She’s already maybe the smartest pony who ever lived.”

“Yeah, but she doesn’t know that, because she’ll just point at a bunch of things and go ‘I can’t be smart if I don’t know that!’, right? So she’s doing a thing that makes her feel accomplished, but hasn’t got a destination she could ever get to. So it would be the same problem as having fun, except she never had fun.”

“Pinkie, are you... are you solving Twilight?”

Pinkie blinked. “Ah, maybe? Kinda? I’m trying.”

“Keep going, I want to see where this goes.”

“I was just thinking she needs an objective. Something she can be good at, but still causes her problems she can solve. So it still feels like she’s learning, but also that she’s already crossed the finish line? Like she’s exceeding at something instead of never good enough.”

“So... beating Nightmare Moon?”

“That’d work for a while. But then what? I think she thinks that after that, she’s ‘served her purpose’. I want to know how to keep her going after she’s saved the world.”

“Not if?”

“You think there’s a chance...?”

“I just think it’s great you don’t, either.” Cadance giggled. “Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor are working together on the same problem. We’re on the winning side.”

“Shining seems so different to Twilight. It’s kind of hard to remember they’re brother and sister until he starts talking about comic books.”

“Really?” Cadance asked, walking further down the corridor and trailing her hoof along it, looking for... something? “You don’t see it?”

“He’s a big tough soldier. She’s an itty bitty bookworm.”

Cadance stopped at a part of the wall and tapped. It sounded hollower. Pressed her ear to it. “They’re both brilliant. They’re both so focused on getting whatever they want. They put everyone else before themselves, though they’d both disagree. They’re both good ponies, with unflinching morals. They’re both leaders... but I don’t think Twilight actually realizes that.... and...” Cadance stopped, then tapped on the wall.

“And?”

“It’s stupid,” Cadance said, tongue poked all the way out of her mouth, eyes scrunched shut, ear pressed to the stone, “don’t worry about it.”

“No, you were totally going to say something else. And everything else you said was smart.”

“I was going to say, they’d rather die than fail. And I don’t think anything in Equestria could kill them if they didn’t want it to.”

“Except themselves?”

Cadance pressed a brick, and it slid away to reveal... a rope and pulley? Cadance tugged it with her magic and the old wheels squeaked away. It came up with a blue ceramic jar that smelled like fresh baked cookies. Cadance knocked the lid off, and it was filled with cookies.

“How did you...?”

Cadance grabbed two cookies out for each of them, then wheeled the jar back down. “I knew my aunt Celestia pretty well, and this is her old castle, directly over the kitchen... Don’t tell Applejack.”

Pinkie munched her cookie. Cadance was really cool.

“Thanks for letting me know about this... now I know how to keep sneaking these. Aunty, wherever you are right now, you’re a genius.”

Pinkie stepped out on the other side of the passage, behind a bookcase, after Cadance went back the way they came. There was a painting with the eyeholes cut out of it so you could make sure nobody was watching when you peeked through, which was super useful.

Then she ducked out and went looking for... anybody, actually. Cadance had been super helpful to talk to about Twilight, but asking Pinkie to figure out how to be happy was like asking a fish what it was like to be wet all the time. Maybe finding someone who could be happy in spite of themselves...?

Fluttershy!

How do you find Fluttershy in a castle at night?

Go to where the most candles were. Listen for humming.

Pinkie ran about looking and listening for that. What would Fluttershy be doing...?

Smell for dust or sweeping. There!

Pinkie flew down the main stairs, nose snuffling the air. The smell of dust was strongest there. The front door was open! Must be outside. Zoom, out and-

“Fluttershy!”

“Oh,” Fluttershy said, spitting out the ancient wicker rug whacker she had been holding, “Hi Pinkie.”

“Fluttershy, if you leave the front door open all sorts of things might come in.”

“I asked them not to, so they won’t.”

“You asked them not to?”

“Well...” Fluttershy tipped her head toward a... what was the name of those big silver serving platters that fancy restaurants put over dishes? Cloche? She’d flipped one of those upside down and filled it with cream. Big Leonard-the-lion sized tongue stains trailed the rims, “I might have had help.”

“You’re spoiling him! He’s going to be impossible to deal with now.”

“No, no, he still respects you a lot.” Fluttershy reassured her. “Apparently you have the mane of a leader. I just thought if you were already playing ‘hard’ I could play ‘soft’” She picked up her wicker whacker again, with its intricate braided loops in the clover shape. She was beating a long rug on a clothesline she’d pinned up.

Except the rug kept going and going and going and going. It must have been one of the long corridor ones. No wonder Pinkie could smell the dust from upstairs.

“I never thought to do this,” Pinkie admitted, “I just thought dusting stuff normally every now and again was a big enough job.”

“Ponies step on this, it kicks it all up, you breathe it in,” Fluttershy scolded, “and it could have made someone very, very sick. Dust is mostly dead skin, and fur. Dreadful.”

“I thought it was just something that happened...”

“Dead skin is just something that happens.” Fluttershy whacked the rug again, and Pinkie coughed. “Did you want to ask me something?”

“I- Do you know what Rainbow Dash is doing?”

“Shining Armor’s teaching her how to keep watch and do sentry training. Teaching Rainbow to sit still for a long time...” Fluttershy whacked her rug again, and Pinkie coughed again, “I’ll take dusting any day of the week. Er, excuse the expression... sorry...”

“It’s okay!”

“Is that what you wanted to ask me?”

Pinkie hesitated. “... no. I just don’t know how to ask what I want to ask without it sounding mean.”

“Well,” Fluttershy whapped the rug again, and Pinkie had finally learned to hold her breath first, “now I at least know you don’t mean to be mean. So you might as well.”

“How do you stop worrying about stuff?”

“Why,” Fluttershy put the whacker down again, “What are you worried about, Pinkie?”

“Right now, Twilight, but I don’t worry about things like you two do. I know if it’s going to be okay, it’s going to be okay, and if it’s not, you can try to fix it. I don’t get... how you or Twilight do.”

“Ah,” Fluttershy had a quiet smile, “you want help understanding how to talk to Twilight about her anxieties?”

“Yeah, I guess?”

“I’m not sure how much help I can be, I’m sorry. We have very different kinds of anxiety.”

Pinkie tugged her mane in frustration. “There are different kinds?!”

Fluttershy nodded. “Do you want me to talk to her?” That was a hard question. Yesterday, absolutely! Today... she was feeling weirdly defensive and possessive of Twilight. Fluttershy had that quiet smile again. “Would you like to be there when I talk to her?”

“Please?”

Fluttershy nodded once, neat and sharp, like they’d just signed a contract. “Now, I’m going to ask you if you could just try to listen without interrupting, no matter how painful that gets. Parts of this might be hard for you to hear, but it’s going to be important that you just listen and try to understand without judgement.”

“I can do that.” Pinkie hoped that wasn’t a lie. But she’d had a lot of practice over the last two years. “Is this going to be serious?”

“She’s probably going to talk about how much she hates herself, a lot. And a lot of really mean and nasty things about herself. And you’re not going to be allowed to interrupt.”

“I can still hug her lots, right? Is that okay?”

“I think that might be very helpful.” Fluttershy looked into the castle, up the stairs. Chewed the inside of her cheek. “Where is she now?”

“Ah.. I don’t know... Is that bad?”

Fluttershy was already halfway to the stairs, without a word.

Old Habits

It was still warm and smokey in the library. The candles had only been blown out recently. The door handle hadn’t been touched either, judging by the coldness, and the fact there was no little zap of static from recent magic-on-metal. It was one of the reasons most unicorns didn’t use their horns for everything, as a courtesy.

So, Twilight was still in here, hiding out in the dark.

Applejack attributed her detective powers to having a little sister.

Bit melodramatic, just for stealing some cookies. But it seemed like AJ had caught her thief. If she was wrong, then there’d be nobody to see it. If she was right, she’d look like a genius.

“Mind lighting some candles for me, sugarcube?” Applejack called out, “Otherwise I’m just going to stumble around in here until I bang my shins on you, and my shins are probably harder than you are. Don’t want to go testing that.”

Twilight didn’t say anything, and Applejack had a moment of doubt.

AJ reached under her hat for a book of matches and lit one. It’d only last a few seconds, but it might be long enough to get her to a candle. There was a candelabra just by the doorway, happily enough. She could use that to light a few more and-

Oop, nevermind, all the magic lights flickered on at once, and some real ones to round them out, lighting the entire library clearly. Twilight walked out in front of her in a big sulk. Yep, just like Apple Bloom alright.

“Why do you have matches on you?”

“Old habits. What are you doing, hiding here in the dark, that I gotta use them?”

Girl was a mess. She’d obviously been crying and pulling at her mane. She’d run out of crying, but hadn’t seemed to figure out what to do after. She looked... waterlogged, would be the way to put it, like everything was just heavier than it was supposed to be, every movement took a bit more effort than it should.

Twilight tried to wave her away.: “Go away, Applejack.” The wave was slow going up and fast coming back down.

“Hey now,” Applejack acted as if Twilight seemed fine as she put the candelabra back into its... wall... socket... thing? “You spent so long trying to get me out here, you can’t just tell me to go away again. I remember a time you jumped off a cliff just ‘cause I said so.”

Twilight scoffed. “I didn’t jump.”

“Don’t think the ground can tell the difference.”

Then Twilight surprised her. She threw her head back like she was going to scream in frustration, but it all caught into her throat and made a noise like a clogged sink instead. She wasn’t even trying to banter back, just seemed she was thinking real hard about finding a cliff to jump off properly, this time.

“That bad, huh?” Applejack drawled. Must have been, if she wasn’t even up for snark.

The purple lights flickered as Twilight fell back on her butt. “Yes. That bad.” Too tired to be angry, too sad to be snarky. All the fight was right out of her, which was most of what made her. “What did you want?”

“Was just looking for you, actually. Didn’t know you were hiding.”

“I wasn’t hiding.”

Applejack cocked an eyebrow. Now the Big Sister voice came out. “Then what do you call sitting in the dark all by yourself?”

“I wouldn’t call it hiding, I’d call it...” Twilight struggled. “Okay, I was hiding. I didn’t think anyone would find me in here.”

“You didn’t think anybody would look for you in the library?” Applejack laughed, hoping it’d get at least a smile out of Twilight, but it just seemed to make her more of a sourpuss..

“I knew they’d look here first,” Twilight groused, “realize if there were no lights, then I couldn’t be reading. Then I thought, nopony could believe I’d be in the library not reading, and they’d tell everyone else I wasn’t in here.”

“Huh.” AJ scratched her jaw in thought, “You know, that probably would have worked if Apple Bloom hadn’t tried to pull the same trick on me before. You put a lot more thought into it, though.”

“Great. So you’ve been vaccinated against childish sulking, is what you’re saying.”

That got another smile out of AJ. It was always funny how the smartest ponies could be the silliest. “Is that what you’re doing, is it?”

“Actually, it’s very adult sulking. Thank you.”

Applejack chuckled. “That’s why you were stealing cookies, huh? Adult sulking?”

“You made cookies?”

“Yeah, the cakey ones Pinkie likes. You didn’t take them?”

“I would have, if I knew. But I didn’t, so I didn’t.”

“Huh. Well, some disappeared out of the jar without anyone coming into the kitchen, so I didn’t have a long list of suspects.”

Twilight smiled back. “Cadance.”

There’s a thing you do when you smile when everything hurts, where your eyes wince a little and a tear leaks out the side. Applejack always thought it was because, when you were so full of emotion, you needed to push some of it out to make room.

Applejack nodded. “Cadance is a cookie thief, then? I’ll have to keep a better eye on her.”

“Just like when I was a kid. She and Shining used to lift me up to get the jar off the top shelf. Thinking back, I think they were just making me complicit so I wouldn’t tell on them...”

“You’re dobbing her in now, though?”

“Of course I am,” and Twilight laughed way too hard, ‘cause she was just so full up that everything had to overflow, “she didn’t share this time.” She seemed surprised at her own laughter, which just made her laugh harder.

There were plenty of chairs and desks around here, but if Twilight had flopped on the floor, well, Applejack was going to flop down next to her.

Twilight was staring at her hooves though. “I nearly did something really stupid.”

Applejack sighed, quietly, in relief. Thank goodness Twilight was going to start, because she had no idea how to drag it out of her. “But you didn’t?”

“I didn’t, because Pinkie–” Twilight cut herself off, and flinched like she’d gotten a static shock inside her skull. She finished, carefully, “... saw through me.”

Applejack poked her in the side, gently. “It’s not that you nearly did something stupid then. It’s that Pinkie caught you doing something stupid?”

Twilight didn’t immediately reply; instead she spent some time thinking about how to answer. Which was either a good sign or a really bad one. “It’s not okay if she ends up feeling like she’s the only reason I don’t do something stupid. She’s really good at it, is the problem. I just don’t want to lean on her too hard.”

“But you overthink everything, and you’re probably going to keep worrying her, so you’re afraid you’re going to do that even if you don’t mean to?”

“I want to give at least as much as I take.” Twilight winced. “I don’t know how to not be like this.”

“Well, she seems to like you well enough after two years.” Applejack started with the spoonful of sugar before getting right into the medicine. “But, you’re right, shouldn’t rely on that.” Twilight winced again, so Applejack pushed on before she had any time to stew on it. “That doesn’t mean you have to figure it out on your own either, though.”

Twilight looked at Applejack. “It doesn’t?” Not a question—a rebuttal. The snark was back, at least, some fight.

“It doesn’t,” Applejack said. “You got other friends you can count on too, y’know? Even if Pinkie’s gotten to be the best at it. Me, your brother, the cookie thief, Spike, at the least.”

“You know, Spike told me Pinkie’s ‘getting on his case’ about what he lets me get away with?” Twilight smiled, then frowned. “He tries his best, and he’ll always be my number one assistant, but she’s right. I raised him. There’s a lot of stuff that he’ll take for granted about me that probably isn’t healthy to assume is normal.”

Same reason Applejack decided to quit smoking so suddenly. She didn’t want Applebloom thinking it was normal. Actually, there was a thought. “You got some note paper?” Applejack waved off Twilight’s surprised look. “Just, trust me on this.”

Twilight pushed some over to her. Applejack ripped a neat square from it, and rolled it into a tight tube, about a pencil’s width. Doing that with hooves took a lot of practice.

“Do me a favour and lick along that crease there so it stays rolled up, there’s the sport. A’ight. Now, we ain’t going to get you up on smoking, but we’re going to do what I did when I was quitting.”

“What. What?”

Applejack held the tube towards Twilight. “Press it to your lips, breathe in for a count of four. Hold it deep in your lungs, real deep, then breathe out smooth for four seconds. Like you’re trying to be careful not to cough on it. Then hold for another four so you can take a proper deep breath again.”

Twilight stared at her like she’d gone mental.

Applejack winked. “It’s just the breathing, more than anything else. Steadies everything, clears your head. Helps stop the thoughts from racing.”

Twilight held the paper to her lips, thought about it a moment, then put it back down. “Applejack, this is the dumbest thing I’ve ever been told to do.”

“Sure is. You’re gunna hate practicing this.”

“Practicing?” Twilight scoffed. “What’s there to practice about breathing into a tube? Watch.”

Twilight held the tube against her lips.

She breathed in.

Then, she breathed out.

Then she looked at Applejack. “See?”

Applejack nodded. “Sure. The breathing’s the easy part. The hard part is when it gets boring, and it gets boring real fast.” Twilight stared, like she was trying to remember something she heard dumber than that, and coming up blank. “When’s the last time you let yourself be bored?”

Twilight replied immediately, tube still dangling from her lips. “I don’t,” she said “My head starts racing, and everything gets big, and loud, and... I need to be doing something. Thinking about something.”

“Thought so. Got that real bad when I was trying to quit.”

Twilight stared at the cigare– rolled paper. “I don’t think this is the same as trying to quit smoking.”

“Sure ain’t. It’s trying to quit stupid. Way harder.” Applejack shook her head. “Don’t envy you even a little.”

Twilight laughed at that, actually laughed, and AJ beckoned her to try while she was caught off guard enough to stop resisting.

Reckon it’d only take her one full cycle before she twigged out.

In...
Hold...
Out...
Hold...
In...

Twilight lurched forward, clutching her heart. Her eyes were wide and wild, like she’d felt something fuzzy crawling on the back of her neck. “Applejack!”

“You got bored didn’t you?” Applejack answered mildly.

“Yes!”

“Well, I got some bad news here, sugarcube. All this does is let you hear the background noise of your own thoughts. Your brain’s like a cistern and it’s all full up,” Applejack tried to be reassuring as she wiped a tear off Twilight’s face. She flinched at the touch, but she didn’t look mad. Just wound up tighter than a mama rattlesnake. “See?”

Twilight curled up. “I don’t think brains work like that.”

“Well, if you knew how brains worked, you wouldn’t be needing my help figuring out how to breathe through a paper straw, now, would you?” Applejack pointed out.

Twilight looked down at the ‘cigarette’ with the sort of respect that only comes with fear. “Alright,” she said. “So it’s a cistern then, and it’s full?”

“That’s right. Now most folk, when that happens, they stop to take a break. But apparently, if you try that, you think the whole world’s going to blow up.”

“Maybe not blow up...”

“Right,” Applejack continued while Twilight tapped her hooves together all guilty-like, “so you ain’t taking breaks. You’re just trying to work harder so you don’t hear none of it. You’re overpressuring the system, so something’s gotta give.”

“And, what,” Twilight was getting tense and frustrated again, instead of twitchy and anxious. It was progress towards something at least. “Breathing into the tube helps with that?”

Applejack just ignored the frustration, stayed real cheerful and just leaned on Twilight shoulder-to-shoulder as they sat on the library floor together, “Yep. You put the whole system on shutdown and let it drain out. Problem is, you’re so far gone at this point that doing the right thing’s gonna crush you under pressure a little. You’re going to have to swallow back a lot of hurt to fix it.”

Twilight stared at the straw again, suspiciously. Like it might bite her. Or, rather, that she knew this was going to suck, but she didn’t know it was going to work. “This is a really confusing metaphor. Don’t you want a cistern to be full?”

“Work with me here, I ain’t a poet.” Twilight smiled at that, but it looked smitten rather than smirking. Musta been about Pinkie. “How about this,” Applejack tried one last push, “You do good, and I’ll get you one of the cookies Cadance didn’t steal.”

Twilight nodded at the straw, and began to breathe again.

In...
Hold...
Out...

If she could manage this for fifteen minutes or so, maybe there was hope for the girl yet.

Well now. Twilight might be learning how to get bored, but Applejack had mastered it already. She didn’t need the practice, so she started looking for anything interesting to do that wouldn’t distract Twilight’s straw-breathing.

Applejack sat, quiet as a church mouse, and started flipping through one of the books Twilight had gotten out. A library catalogue. Or, at least, a catalogue of the catalogues. It listed where all the different subject catalogues were, which’d have all the individual books in that section. A book of book books.

What’d they even have in this place?

Cryptozoology, paleozoology. Reckon the cows and pigs were hard enough to manage as it was. Aetherbotanicals, magical mycology, herbology... fold the corners down on those pages and come back to them later, might be some kind of fourth dimensional apple. That’d make her popular in the markets.

A section on contrabulous fabtraptions. She’d have to check that one out just to know what that even meant. Maybe find something illustrated. Differential topology? Applejack didn’t know what that was, but she didn’t trust the sound of it one bit.

Local histories, family histories, financial histories, all of these had to be hundreds of years old. Guess that made it that much more historical.

Tyromancy? Gotta ask what that one was. Haberdashery? It’d suit somebody, she guessed. Hrrm.

Applejack looked up from her glossing. Twilight’s eyes were still closed, but now she wasn’t crumpling her whole face up. The muscles in her shoulders, too, look like they’d untensed for the first time in ages. Not bad work at all.

She turned back to the book book book. “Huh.”

Twilight opened her eyes, slowly, like she was waking up from a nap. “What?” Applejack remembered what it was like to have all the bad blood in your brain getting knocked loose for the first time. Tended to filter down like sediment in cider.

“Sorry, just... they got a section here on political science.” Applejack worked her jaw lazily, chewing the word over, “I didn’t know that was a thing you could call a science? Always thought politics was just law with a lot more hoof shaking.”

Twilight didn’t so much ignore that as not hear it. Whatever was happening in her head right that second was louder than anything Applejack was saying. Her eyes were darting left to right, reading something that was going on behind them.

All of a sudden, Twilight stood up. The book was yanked out of Applejack’s grip. Twilight’s eyes shot around the page until she found what she was looking for, then she was off like a shot towards the shelves.

“Applejack! You’re brilliant!” Twilight shouted, skipping through the library.

“Shucks, maybe. What’d I do, though?”

Then Twilight was back with a stack of books at a reading desk. “I’m going to need cookies and tea, Applejack.”

Applejack blinked. “Uh. Alright. Can do. But, uh…” She looked at the new pile of books. Most of the titles ended with “... and the State”. “Did I just help you come to an epiphany, or was the breathing a little too much?”

Twilight didn’t even look at her. She immediately pulled a book off the top of the stack and flicked through it. “Epiphany!” she said.

“Well, what’s gone and filled your head now that you’ve made some room for it then?” Applejack huffed in relief.

“Friendship may be magic,” Twilight started writing notes on a long strip of parchment as she kept paging through the book., “But politics is science. And I’m feeling a bit like a mad scientist.”

The Everfree’s untamed thunder rattled the windows of the castle.

“Alright then. Cookies and tea. I’ll trust you with this.”

“You probably shouldn’t, but that’s how you know the idea might work.”

Maybe helping Twilight get more of her brain back wasn’t the entirely good thing Applejack had thought it would be. The fake cigarette still dangled out the corner of her mouth. Celestia help the poor girl if she ever discovered nicotine. She seemed happy enough with the breathing, for now.

As quickly as they’d started out, the sheer length of the castle had slowed down Pinkie and Fluttershy’s attempt to get to Twilight and reassure her. The library was a long way from the front door.

Pinkie had managed to catch up to Fluttershy in leaps and bounds. Fluttershy might have wings, but Pinkie knew the castle better, and didn’t have to take those little pauses to remember what was where like Fluttershy did.

When they finally got to the library, Twilight was just sitting at a desk with her back to the door. That wasn’t surprising. What was surprising was that none of the books on her desk were about magic, or even maths.

Instead it was covered in books about the kind of very famous pony that most ponies would never hear about. Pinkie tried to sound the names out to herself to try to figure them out.

“Hello, Twilight,” Fluttershy said as they walked up behind her. If she hadn’t heard Pinkie try to pronounce “юлианский”, she sure wasn’t going to hear Fluttershy’s quieter voice.

“Girls,” Twilight greeted them, not turning to face them. She had heard them then? Fluttershy must have noticed her noticing, Pinkie hadn’t. “Pinkie?”

Pinkie gave a weak smile back. “She just knows I’m worried about you,” she said, rubbing her elbow and trying hard not to make this look like an ambush. “I’m allowed to worry, right?”

Twilight sighed, twisting in her chair to face them. “I’d rather you didn’t, but I’ve... given you plenty of reasons to.” She turned back to her book, but gestured for them to join her. “Sorry.”

Pinkie stepped up beside her with a smile, Fluttershy following slowly behind, curious.

Fluttershy’s eyes lingered on a pile of wadded paper and scattered books on the floor over to the side, before reading over Twilight’s shoulder. “What’s this?”

“Trotsky.” Twilight groaned, “He’s brilliant, but unfortunately he would probably be the first pony to tell you so, and it shows in his work. I already got as far as I’m going to get with Faucet, though, once I learned ‘everything is prison’. I found Publius’ articles on federation ran on a bit too long, but Bristle Burr summed him up with some great bullet points.”

Pinkie looked through the stack of books. “I’ve never seen you read books like these before.”

“Exactly. This is what was missing.” Twilight looked at Pinkie and smiled - smiled! “The whole time, I was just thinking about Nightmare Moon. I kept believing that everything would just get better if I could beat her.” Twilight tapped the book for emphasis, though Pinkie wasn’t sure what she was supposed to be emphasizing. “But I never stopped to think, why?”

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie shared a look, trying to work out if the other knew what she meant. They didn’t. Fluttershy asked, “What do you mean, why?” She poked one of the philosophy books like it might bite her. “She’s... scary. And powerful.”

“Right.” Twilight nodded as if Fluttershy had said something very clever. “She’s powerful. You’d rather be with her than against her. If you aren’t, maybe the Shadowbolts will knock on your family’s door. But there isn’t a way to defeat her, either. Or, there is one, but Pinkie won’t let me do it.”

“Not like that.” Pinkie said firmly. Fluttershy didn’t ask – either she didn’t want to, or she didn’t need to.

“That’s the only way we could defeat her directly.” Twilight didn’t raise her voice, but she was firm on that. “So how do we beat her indirectly?” She jabbed the book she was reading. “We just need to be more powerful than her in a different way. Maybe we can offer something better than she is scary, so ponies would rather be with us than with her.”

Fluttershy walked around the table so she could actually see Twilight’s face. “What do you think that could be?”

Twilight looked surprised for a moment. Finally, she slumped. “I don’t know. I hadn’t gotten that far.” She admitted. “We need more allies. There’s never been a revolution in Equestria before. But we can’t just make everyone’s life worse and hope that works, like we kind of did for you and Rainbow and Applejack.” She jerked up, eyes wide. “Wait, unless-”

“No,” Pinkie said.

Twilight slumped back again. “Sorry.”

“You were just following a thought to its conclusion.” Fluttershy reassured Twilight with a pat on the back. “Don’t be too harsh on yourself.”

Twilight nodded, looking back at her book. “There’s an idea from history,” she said. “When the unicorns got too demanding with their taxes, before Celestia, the earth ponies found it was cheaper to bribe a few unicorns more to raise the sun, then to pay the taxes to all of them.”

“They didn’t need all the unicorns?” Pinkie asked, since she hadn’t spoken in a while.

“It only took about forty unicorns working together to raise the sun,” Twilight said. “And then the unicorns were too busy fighting over which fortygot the bribes, instead of holding out for all of them to collect more from taxes. Which teaches us three things. First, a chain of command is only as strong as its weakest link... second, that enough ponies will act in their own self-interest rather than for the benefit of the whole group, if the group is motivated by personal enrichment…” Another look at the book, and then Twilight frowned. “Or fear, in our case.”

Fluttershy kept trying to read over Twilight’s shoulder, reading what she kept pointing at. “And the third?”

Pinkie stared at the magical candle on Twilight’s desk, thinking. “It teaches us that unicorns used to raise the sun without alicorns.” Twilight’s hoof was tapping the desk rapidly now. “I feel like that might be important, but I’m missing some pieces.”

“There are a lot more than forty unicorns in Equestria.” Fluttershy said, “Does that help?”

Twilight nodded, chewing the tip of a pencil. “Only if we could get all of them working together, somehow...”

Fluttershy was seemed ready to talk her down, to guide her towards coming up with a more reasonable plan... but then stopped. “That sounds... possible,” she admitted, her tone cautious, “But it wouldn’t stop Nightmare Moon.”

“But what could she do if we did that? Just, murder ponies until they all started agreeing with her?” Twilight asked it like it was a rhetorical question, but it didn’t seem sure that it was only rhetorical, “Right now everybody’s just following her because she’s scary. But what if we could give ponies back the sun?”

Pinkie didn't reply. She was too busy working something all the way out in her head, but she didn’t want to say anything before she was sure it didn’t sound stupid. By her side, Fluttershy looked much more focused on the conversation than her, anyway – and besides, she'd said to let her do the talking this time.

This probably wasn’t the conversation Fluttershy had been expecting, though. “What if Nightmare Moon does just start trying to murder everyone until they give up?” she asked.

“On her own?” Twilight asked. “Without the Guard? Against every other pony in Equestria?”

“Yes.”

Twilight was about to dismiss that idea, but then she winced instead. “I guess we’ll cross that bridge if we come to it. Right now it’s just down to working out how to get every pony in Equestria working together in the first place. I need the sun to unite them... and with Nightmare Moon working to keep it down, we’d need everypony we could get.”

“So you need everyone working together... to raise the sun... to get everyone working together?” From anyone else, it might have sounded mean. From Fluttershy it was Socratic.

“It’s a bit like trying to open a crate with the crowbar inside, isn’t it?” Twilight smiled weakly, again.

Usually when Twilight got stuck on a problem, she got frustrated or depressed. This was the first time in a long time that the stumbling blocks didn’t seem to be overwhelming her. It definitely made it easier for Pinkie to figure out her question, which didn’t sound as silly as when she first thought of it.

“Twilight,” Pinkie asked, still looking at the purple-flamed candle on her desk. “With all the magic you have in the Crystal Heart... could you make a new sun?”

Twilight and Fluttershy looked up from the book to notice Pinkie again, like they’d forgotten she was there, “A new sun?” Twilight repeated to herself, “Pinkie, what do you mean?”

Pinkie pointed at the candle. “Like this, but bigger. The biggest you can. Use the Crystal Heart to make it feel real, then put it up in the sky?”

Twilight and Fluttershy stared at her. Fluttershy looked back at Twilight. “Is that possible?”

Twilight began tapping a pencil on the desk again, levitating a quill to sketch some outlines on a torn piece of notepaper. “I mean, in theory, making it work would just be an engineering problem.” She watched the even, flickerless flame of the candle for a moment. You’d just need enough power.”

“We give them something to fight for.” Pinkie emphasized. Twilight looked hopeful, but hurting. Her optimism was shining through again, but it had to work its way through so much scar tissue now. It made Pinkie smile to see it there so clearly after everything, though. “Don’t make it about them getting something back, make it about them not losing it again!”

Twilight chuckled. “Alright. Make a sun, and that’s the easy part. Then I just have to keep it up. It sounds like the best plan we’ve made in two years.”

Pinkie wiggled her eyebrows. “I don’t know, Twilight, you haven’t had a problem keeping it up before.”

Fluttershy grimaced. “Pinkie, you’re both girls. That doesn’t make any sense.”

Pinkie ignored her. Twilight was blushing, and that was the important thing.

“Alright.” Twilight said with the faintest tremor in her voice that let Pinkie know that she won. “Next part is just make sure everypony in Equestria is ready, when they see the sun.To make sure they’re on our side. That’s the hard part.”

“Harder than making a new sun?” Fluttershy wondered aloud. “I guess Nightmare Moon is really scary though...”

Twilight nodded mindlessly, invested in her outlines now. She stopped, an ear flicking up. “Why were you looking for me, anyway?” she asked, closing the book she’d been reading from with a hollow whumpf and putting it to one side.

“Uh.” Fluttershy stumbled, like her hoof was caught in the cookie jar, “We were, uh, supposed to talk to you about anxiety.”

Twilight smiled. “Applejack beat you to it. She’s very helpful.”

“She is,” Pinkie agreed. “So’s Cadance, actually.”

“She is,” Twilight agreed, “and a cookie thief.”

“That too!”

“I wanted to help,” Fluttershy mumbled.

Twilight gave Fluttershy a determined nod. Her Leader voice was back, now. “It’s nice to know I have friends I can go to, instead of just hiding in the library with the lights off. And I should do that. I’ll go to you next time, alright?”

Fluttershy’s nod back was just a shy bob. “I’d like that.”

Pinkie saw her chance, snuck behind Twilight, and squeezed her hard enough she couldn’t wiggle out of it. “Also, you talk to me too!” she said.

“I don’t–”

Pinkie squeezed tighter, until Twilight’s ribs were so squished with affection that she couldn’t interrupt. “The problem was that you tried not to, doofus! I know you don’t want to rely on me too much, but I don’t want you to be scared of talking to me about things either.” Pinkie let up on the hug a bit, and Twilight wheezed like a chew toy.

“... okay. That does scare me,” Twilight admitted, gingerly tapping her ribs and wincing, “but not as much as your grip strength, apparently.”

“I had to carry our groceries all the way here every week! I got legs for days now.”

Twilight winced again, not about her ribs this time.“Can we stop letting my personal crises get in the way of saving Equestria, now?”

Fluttershy chuckled at that. The other two looked up at her, they’d forgotten she was there for a second.

“Oh. Uh.” Fluttershy ducked behind her mane, looking down and away. “Sorry. I just thought it was funny that Twilight’s mental health was a matter of national security. Is all.”

“Ha!” Pinkie declared, hooves shooting up, then back around Twilight. “See Twilight! Now that means we have to fix it, and you don’t get to complain about it not being important anymore, because Equestria depends on your happiness!”

“Fluttershy,” Twilight said, “you’re allowed to stop helping now.”

“Sorry.”

End First Act

At Pinkie’s insistence, it was Moondancer who was going to do the engineering of the new sun. Twilight hadn’t protested when Pinkie made her, even though she was excited to do everything herself. Moondancer had been working on the Crystal Heart for far longer, and Twilight needed to delegate. In return, Pinkie didn’t mention the empty paper tubes she started finding around.

Instead, she was organizing everyone in the castle around a big, round conference table, with the biggest map of Equestria she could find unrolled across it. All the major population centers were counted in poker chips, with the values related to their populations. The cities were the big pots, the towns like Ponyville were basically just the blinds.

“First part of the plan is easy. Rainbow Dash flies to every place we know there’s an active resistance cell, and gets them to contact us via Spike. He’s still the most secure line we have.”

“Talk about burn after reading...” Spike chuckled to himself.

“Just happy to have kept my old uniform,” Rainbow tugged at the skintight spandex, letting it ‘snap’ back against her chest, “Means I don’t have to worry about hiding. Ponies are going to go out of their way to not see me.”

“Shining should be able to help you know how to find who we’re looking for, but for obvious reasons we’re not going to be able to give you written instructions.”

“If these guys are communicating via Spike, how about you just send me the instructions for the next contact every time we confirm one. If I get compromised looking for any one cell, it’s going to be because it was already compromised. The only one I know of’s Trottingham, though.”

“We know about Trottingham,” Shining grinned, “They’ve been how we’ve been feeding bad intel for months now. Glad to hear that one didn’t get figured out.”

Rainbow stopped, and her eyes glazed over as she mentally played the memories of the last few months back to herself with the new context. “Wow. So that’s why we messed up the convoy raid so bad. And why we got so blindsided up North. And... okay, that explains a lot.”

“I guess this is what happens when your intelligence specialists all change sides at once. We’re basically cheating on that one.”

Rainbow stared at Shining open-mouthed, while he bashfully rubbed the back of his neck. “How do you pull the best prank in the whole world, and not rub it in their face?”

“I could say ‘because that gets someone killed’, but the honest answer is... I think they’re keeping a running scoreboard and saving it all up for the end, whenever that is. I think the look on somepony’s face a few years from now is what helps them stay creative.”

“Can we get back to the task at hand, please?” Twilight asked, rapping her pointing stick against the map. “We can talk about how brilliant Shining is later.”

Shining grinned so hard at that it almost wasn’t endearing.

“What do I do after that?” Rainbow asked.

“Actually, Rainbow, you should leave now. We can fill you in on what you need to know later, later. Right now, the less you know the better, in case anypony tries to read your mind later.”

Rainbow blinked, surprised, then gave a sharp nod and salute, and walked out of the room. She made sure to close the door behind her hard, to make it clear she wasn’t listening from the other side.

Pinkie knew that there wasn’t really mind reading magic. Mind influencing magic, sure. But Rainbow Dash probably knew how the Shadowbolts really got information out of people too...

“After that... the history says unicorns used to gather to raise the sun, but it seems like it was just because it was easier to coordinate them that way. You don’t need them to be close together, just organized. Nightmare Moon is going to resist as soon as the sun goes up, but as long as we can get enough unicorns to work with us at the same time, we should be able to resist.” Twilight made a face like she’d bit something bitter, “In fact, it’s probably better we don’t have them all in the one place for this.”

“Being able to let everyone organize themselves from their own location is a big deal,” Shining added, “we couldn’t get everyone together without blowing everything before it even starts.”

“It’s symbolic, too,” Cadance added, ever the romantic, “Let them fight for Equestria from the homes they’re fighting for. It’ll mean a lot more to them.”

“Right.”

“This is the part of the plan I’m less clear on.” Shining admitted, looking to Applejack and Fluttershy, as if they knew. “What do we do then? We’ll have support, we’ll have the sun. But if we try to make any central power to oppose the Nightmare-”

“We won’t.” Twilight interrupted him.

“Then how do we beat her?”

“By giving everyone the one thing she won’t, and telling them they have to oppose her to keep it. We pay our own guards with our own taxes, and we let everybody be in charge of their own group.” Twilight smiled, “We’re ponies, we’re good at that sort of thing.”

Fluttershy coughed politely. “Maybe it would be time to talk about that bridge...”

That just made Shining more confused. “What’s this about a bridge?”

“Fluttershy means, ‘what do we do if Nightmare Moon just starts hurting people until they do what she wants’.”

Shining nodded, “That’s a big bridge. What then?”

Twilight massaged the bridge of her nose. “Honestly, it’s really stupid. I was hoping we could just stick to the hope and democracy and declaring a peaceful independence part of the plan.”

Pinkie nodded. “I’d like to stick to that part too, please.”

Shining shook his head though. “We’d all like to stick to that part of the plan, but we need to know you have a contingency in case something like that happens. Hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.”

Twilight sighed. She mumbled to the side, “I guess we drop the sun on her.”

“Sorry,” Shining leaned forward onto the map, his hoof squashing Las Pegasus, “what was that?”

“I said, we drop the sun on her. It’s the Crystal Heart, powered by the love of ponies all across Equestria, right? What if we just splatted her with it.”

“That’s a very technical military term that,” Shining gestured at the rest of the room, “You might want to explain what ‘splatted’ means for those without officer training in the room.”

“Oh, ha-ha, BBBFF.”

“Hold on,” Applejack protested, “Wouldn’t that be like swatting a mosquito with a big lantern?”

Twilight looked like she was trying to explain how it wasn’t, but ended up having to settle on; “It’s a really nasty mosquito.”

Applejack shrugged. “Yeah, alright, I can go with that. You reckon that could work?”

“I’m less sure of it than if it were a detonation, but... if we charge it in the tree of harmony, and then keep it powered by all of the ponies in Equestria, it’d certainly hurt a lot.”

“Good enough for me then. Captain Armor?”

He shrugged. “I guess it makes for an interesting hammer in a hammer-and-anvil strike. I’m just worried about the anvil.”

Pinkie raised an eyebrow at Twilight before she could volunteer to drop a sun on herself for the good of Equestria. Twilight shot back a sheepish grin which meant that was absolutely what she was about to have done.

“Frankly, this is the best plan I’ve had in over two years now. I agree it leaves a lot to be desired-”

Cadance cut her off this time, flashing a perfectly-white perfect smile. “It sounds perfect to me.”

“It does?” Twilight asked, suspiciously.

“Twilight, you made a plan that doesn’t rely on you doing everything, for once. It lets everypony help fight for themselves.” Cadance giddily clapped her hooves together and beamed, “I couldn’t be prouder!”

“That’s definitely one way to look at it...”

“It shows you still trust ponies to do the right thing,” Fluttershy said, and Pinkie jumped when she did. It was so easy to forget she was there, sometimes. “Which must be hard, after everything. I think that’s nice.”

“If I’m being honest, it’s having you and Applejack and Dash here that helped more than anything.”

Applejack knocked her hat forward and leaned back in her chair. “Aw, shucks, to be honest it ain’t like we’ve really done anything yet.”

“I more mean,” Twilight did that thing where her face scrunched up and she looked down a little, thinking so hard about how to say what she was thinking, “Having you out here at all. Being supportive. Dash didn’t have to protect Fluttershy like she did. All of you could have turned me in immediately, and you’d probably have been fine.”

“Oh, heck naw. I might have thought a lot of unkind things about all this, and you know I’m going to be sorry about that now, but I was still more on your side than Nightmare’s.”

“Right,” Twilight agreed, like Applejack summed up exactly what she was finding it so hard to say, “That’s what you being here reminds me. Ponies want what we want. We’re just asking them to take too much of a risk right now for the odds we’re giving them. We still need to think of them as allies.”
“What’s your question?”

“Ah. Right. The Elements originally came from the Tree of Harmony, and I think they didn’t work because it was too sick. So-”

“To save the world, you need a gardener?”

“... yes?”

“Well, shucks.” Applejack knocked her hat forward. “Was worried I was gunna have to learn something.”

Fluttershy raised an arm.

Twilight nodded at her. “I was hoping you could keep Applejack safe, and make some allies in the Everfree.”

Fluttershy lowered the arm.

“Alright. Shining? Cadance?”

Shining looked surprised. “Is there anything for us to do right now?”

Twilight nodded. “I order us to take a break. If everything’s going to get big, soon, we need to be well rested.”

Shining stared. “Really? There’s nothing for me to do?”

Twilight nodded again.

Shining sagged and fell backwards into the chair he’d pulled up to the map, chuckling so quiet it sounded more like he’d been punched twice in the gut. “I can’t remember the last time I could just relax.”

Cadance wrapped him in a hug from behind, but seemed to be propping herself up on him just as much. “There was that one shop, in Canterlot...?”

Shining grinned. “They were good. I think the stallion pushed himself harder than I did. Wonder how they’re doing, right now?”

“They’re tough.” Cadance kissed him on the cheek. “Even then, though, we were so busy, so scared...”

“I wasn’t scared,” Shining lied.

“You weren’t scared,” Cadance agreed.

“There’s nobody to train right now, nothing to be scared of. Nightmare Moon’s known where I am for ages, now, and she won’t come. I think she’s scared of something? Maybe she doesn’t know how sick the tree is...”

Pinkie nudged her in the ribs. Twilight jerked.

“Right! So, whatever I could ask you two to do? Is way less important than you being at your best for showtime. So consider this a mandatory holiday.”

Shining smiled, but shrugged. “I think if there’s something we can do, we have to do it.”

Pinkie smiled at Cadance, who smiled back. This family, they thought at each other.

Twilight teleported next to her brother, and wrapped him in a big hug. “Sorry, BBBFF, but apparently our wellbeing is a matter of national security now.”

Shining hugged back. “What will you be doing?”

Twilight teleported back next to Pinkie, and hugged her too. “Me? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

Pinkie squeezed her tighter. “She’s not good at it, so I’m making her practice.”

Cadance bonked her head against Shining and just let herself lean. “Is that even allowed?”

“Well,” Twilight nuzzled into Pinkie, “as much as I want to handle everything myself... any plan that relies on us, fails without us. And this isn’t just about us.”

Author's Note

It's been a longstanding issue to me that stories like these, that really should be about everyone, really only show the world through the eyes of a particularly charismatic leader.

To that end, I've decided to pursue the next part of this story as a sort of anthology. To tell the story of the resistance in other places, the other heroes who have stories worth telling that aren't just an extension of Twilight.

The first of which has just been published now, but I'll be tagging this story as a prequel for your convenience.

I hope it's good and that you like it

The Question (Part 1)

Time passed, even if the night didn’t.

If Twilight had given up to Nightmare Moon on the first day, she could have been a librarian right now. She could have had friends in Ponyville, and lived a mostly normal life.

She would have to keep certain books out of the library, of course. And she couldn’t study the wrong kinds of magic. She couldn’t publicly have the wrong opinions. But as long as she kept within those borders, she could have been a normal pony, with normal friends. She could have been almost safe.

She could have woken up in her own bed, in her own library.

But she didn’t.

Instead, she got to wake up in a royal bedchamber, in her stolen castle, next to Pinkie Pie.

Twilight would have been proud of her choice, but the honest truth was being normal was never a choice she got to make. It wasn’t a choice a lot of people got to make. Most of the resistance wasn’t rugged guerilla fighters or cool loners. It was the weird kids who got beat up a lot, who got suspended for fighting when they never had a chance of fighting back.

Or it was ones like Pinkie Pie, people so full to bursting with empathy that it hurt too much to do anything else.

That’s really what all this was about. The people who didn’t have a choice, trying to make their side the smart one to choose.

Twilight had plenty of time to be alone with these thoughts, because she was still in the favourite part of her day. The five minutes of pretending she was still asleep before she had to get up.

It was the five minutes she practiced being bored and alone with her thoughts, now that her head wasn’t an angry crackle of static. Five minutes of mental maintenance every day, curled up to a softly snoring Pinkie Pie, that she’d practiced every day for weeks now.

Being bored gets boring very quickly, though. Time to get up.

Twilight took the diary from underneath her bed, the most secure place in the entire castle. Enough enchantments to stop even Cadance from being able to crack it. It was thick enough that she could cut a section of it and hide something small and precious in its pages.

The engagement ring was still there, and she was still the only one who knew about it. She took it, hid it on herself, listened to make sure Pinkie was still snoring.

She was.

It wasn’t the first time she’d taken the ring out, since she’d made it. But every time she’d done it she’d planned a date that went so well... she felt like she didn’t want to risk spoiling it.

It was the same train of thought that had stopped her from just asking so long ago. Knowing that didn’t help now; knowing how it turned out last time just gave her the feeling she had more to lose this time.

This time she had friends, and self-esteem, and had taken much better care of herself. She was happier, healthier, and perhaps most importantly, could make others hold her accountable if she wussed out again.

She closed the bedroom door behind her, as quietly as she could.

Twilight got Octavia just as she was unlocking the music room. Twilight never had to remember where it was, she just had to follow the copper wires that Vinyl had rigged to the ceiling when they’d arrived. Octavia was still, key held in the lock. Her ear flicked as she heard Twilight approach.

“I thought you’d earned the right to sleep in by now. The only time I ever expect to see you or Vinyl up this early is when you’re up that late.”

Twilight smiled, but her heart wasn’t in it. Her heart was in her throat, instead. “I had a request, for later today.”

“You know I’m always happy to take requests. I reject them, sometimes, but I’m always happy to take them.”

“Could you do something ‘romantic’, in about six hours?”

Octavia frowned. “I have managed to steal the violins from Pinkie Pie’s room, where she can’t hurt them any more. Maybe piano? It depends on what you mean by ‘romantic’.”

“I don’t know, just... romantic. I guess.” Twilight didn’t feel like a clever pony. “Pinkie’s the one who understands this sort of thing.”

“I have to agree, I’ve seen your taste in music. So why don’t you ask her, and then come back to me?”

“Well... asking her is what I want the music for.”

The silence was broken by Octavia’s key turning the heavy lock with a clunk, and she showed Twilight in. Then she locked the door behind her.

Twilight looked around the instrument room, with its battered sound dampeners and tangled nests of microphones and stands. The work of a brilliant technician with more time than resources. A work of love in its own way, Vinyl’s gift to Octavia.

Octavia gestured to a seat at a jury-rigged mixing table, and went to put a coffee pot on. “You’re proposing?”

“I’m trying to.”

“Are you sure?”

Twilight knew the answer she wanted to give, but she gave the honest one instead. “Not even a little bit.”

Octavia’s smile was sympathetic. “I don’t know what that’s like. I was thinking about it, though... I thought I needed the perfect plan. For everything to go right. For everything to be perfect.”

Twilight nodded. “What did you do?”

“Nothing. Vinyl and I were walking down Canterlot’s high street after a concert I’d had. She’d sat in the front row, and she didn’t smile at all. Didn’t fidget, didn’t move all night. So I’m wondering what that means when we walk past a jeweler, and she basically drags me in. I go to look at the rings, thinking I was the clever one, taking the opportunity to do it while Vinyl is obviously too distracted by something to notice. Then she buys the ring I looked at the longest, and just gives it to me immediately, down on one knee, in that moment.”

“What?”

“She’d decided during the concert. She just knew. So why wait?” Octavia smiled, tried to be discreet about how she was wiping her eyes now. “Do you know what I said, when she did it?”

Twilight hesitated. “Yes?”

“That was the second thing I said. The first thing I said was; ‘I wanted to pick that one for you!’ She had no idea I was thinking the same thing.”

Twilight smiled. She understood. “She ruined a perfectly good plan.”

Octavia shook her head. “Maybe. I don’t think anything I planned would have been as perfect. Do you?”

Twilight thought about that. “I don’t know.”

“And now neither of us ever will,” Octavia agreed. “I’ll think of something, for you. In about six hours, I’ll announce an anonymous request.”

Octavia brought Twilight a coffee with more sugar than sense in it, and Twilight drank deep from it. “Thank you.”

“Have you told anyone else?”

Twilight shook her head.

Octavia thought about that. “I understand. You should, though. They’ll all have good advice, in their own way. Take it how I take requests.”

“Reject any I don’t like?”

“You learn a lot about what’s right for you by knowing something’s wrong for you.” That seemed to remind Octavia of something. She frowned at the mixing board and started making adjustments. Twilight laughed.

“Applejack?”

“Applejack,” Octavia seethed.

“I’m surprised she understood this enough to mess with it.”

“She had plenty of time to experiment.” Octavia nudged the last lever back into its proper place, and sighed. “Another reason to tell everyone, even. They’ll know not to interrupt. Imagine trying to propose to country music.”

The Music Room Coup had been swift, brutal and total. “I had no idea Applejack could play guitar like that. Or that Braeburn could sing.”

“If they were playing anything else, I’d say they were quite good. I still wouldn’t call it romantic.”

Twilight winced. “Point taken.”

“You have six hours to prepare everyone. Also-” Octavia was about to add, but hesitated. Twilight finished the rest of the coffee in a gulp, waiting for the end of the sentence that never came.

“Also?”

“From one ‘control freak’ to another,” Octavia grimaced, “there’s two ways to say ‘no plan is perfect’, and both are true. No plan is perfect, but having no plan can be perfect, too.”

Twilight thought about that. “I think that helps. Thanks”

Octavia just nodded, and went to looking at the instruments in the studio, testing them to see what she was in the mood for. Twilight stood up to leave her to it, but paused at the door. At the keys in the lock.

“If you had to do it all again,” Twilight asked, “would you do anything different?”

“Yes.” Octavia said immediately, then paused. “No.” She corrected herself, “I trusted someone I shouldn’t have. We couldn’t save Photo Finish. I nearly couldn’t save Vinyl. But I have lived long enough to have those regrets, and I’m not sure I could say that if I’d done anything differently. Why?”

‘Why’ was a good question. “I don’t know. I’m just thinking.”

Octavia was obviously thinking about it too. She let out a breath that she’d been holding in since Twilight had welcomed her to the castle, weeks ago. “Well. Thank you for asking. It might not have been an answer you needed to hear, but I think it was one I needed to give. But I also think we’ve let the others sleep in long enough.”

Octavia picked up a cello as Twilight unlocked the door, and closed it behind her. It stayed unlocked, for anyone else who wanted to join.

The radios around the castle sang with the first notes of the cello. It was time to wake up.

Applejack was already making breakfast, Twilight could smell it from all the way on the other side of the castle. It couldn’t be helped - there were a lot more to cook for then there used to be.

What surprised her was that Cadance was up too, eating pancakes the shape of love hearts.

“I know,” Cadance sang.

Applejack turned from the stove, where she was juggling four pans at once, her green apron splattered in all sorts of sauces. “Know what? Ah, mornin’, Twilight. What’ll it be?”

“Fruit salad?”

“In the fridge, ladel’s still in it.”

Twilight went to the fridge, measured herself out a bowl, walked back to the smaller dining table they’d set up in the kitchen. If everyone ate at once they’d have to use the big dining room, the castle-sized one, but if everyone was still getting out of bed then it was nice to be able to keep the chef company.

The whole time, Cadance never stopped grinning at Twilight.

Applejack turned back to the pans, swearing under her breath. “Almost burned that one. What does Cadance know?”

“Should I tell her?” Cadance asked.

“I’m going to try to propose. Again. Today.”

Applejack turned the burners off. “You what?”

Cadance squealed laughing and tipped back in her chair. At least someone was having fun. Twilight took a solemn bite of... whatever fruit they could get to grow out here.

Applejack went to turn the burners back on, but stopped herself. “Hang on. Again?” Cadance stopped giggling.

Twilight nodded. “I wanted it to be a surprise, but I’m not very good at this.”

Cadance was not happy about this. “You tried before?”

Twilight nodded again, taking another bite of fruit. “I got scared. You could only tell now?”

“How long have you been working up to this?”

“A while. I think I finished making the ring nearly two weeks ago, now, so that long.”

Cadance sighed in relief. “That’s okay then. I was worried I’d lost my edge.”

Twilight nodded, paused. Her spoon clattered against the side of her breakfast bowl with an angry ‘clink’. “Hang on. Does that mean it feels like I haven’t been taking this seriously until today?”

Applejack snickered, but Cadance shook her head. “You both usually glow like bonfires. Today you’re more like... a lighthouse. It’s a lot more focused. Like you’re on a mission.”

“Hold on,” Applejack left breakfast forgotten, even as a mollified Twilight picked up her spoon again. “You can ‘see’ love like that, now?”

“Always could.”

“Well,” Applejack squinted at her, “What does Shining look like to you?”

“A dork.”

Twilight snorted. “I’m curious too, though.”

“He’s like sunlight catching a gigantic diamond.” Cadance took a messy bite out of her pancakes, careful to eat from the middle of it so she could keep the outlines. “I just don’t like to brag.”

This time Applejack laughed, and Twilight rolled her eyes. “Okay, okay. How about me?”

“You don’t like anyone, yet.”

“Yet? What’s ‘yet’ mean?”

Cadance shrugged. “It means you could, I guess.”

“Is there a different way you could put it, for me?”

“Seeds only become trees when you plant them.”

“Now that makes sense.” Applejack gave a look heavy with meaning to Twilight, pointing to Cadance. “Now, why can’t you talk like that more often?”

Twilight stuck her tongue out in response, because she was feeling clever.

Applejack was getting into this now, though. “So you can see if two folk love each other more?”

“Sometimes,” Cadance admitted, though it made her look seasick to say it, “most of the time they just love each other differently.”

“Sure, sure,” Applejack waved that off, “But you could tell, like, if parents had a favourite, right?”

That, Cadance gave a relieved laugh at. “I thought you were going to ask something else, but this one’s easy. Parents always have a favourite.” She corrected herself, “Almost always.”

“Wait, so of me and Shining-”

“Almost.” Cadance chimed again. Twilight went back to her breakfast.

“How about them Manehattan musicians? Those two. I can never get a read on ‘em.”

Cadance had to think about that, had trouble finding the right words. “Picture two very long, slow candles. Like, a candle the size of a grandfather clock.”

“With you so far.”

“Picture that, but the little flame on top is like a welding torch.”

“Huh.”
“Huh.” Applejack and Twilight echoed each other. Applejack looked to Twilight.

“Jealous?”

“Kind of.”

“Hang on,” Applejack looked back to Cadance, who’d started stealing the strawberries out of Twilight’s fruit salad whenever she wasn’t looking, “you said it’s different, but you’re describing everyone in pairs. So which is it?”

“I’m trying to describe colour to someone who’s colourblind,” Cadance rolled her eyes, “so it’s just whatever makes the most sense. With something like that, it makes more sense to compare them to, say, Twilight and Pinkie than to each other, right?”

Applejack obviously didn’t like that answer, but it seemed like the best that Cadance was going to give. “Any other fun ones?”

“Are you trying to gossip right now?”

“Yeah, guess I am.”

“Good, I thought you’d never ask, just turn the stove back on and whisper.” Applejack did as she was told. “Braeburn and Little Strongheart really are just friends, and Fluttershy doesn’t like anyone right now, but she wishes she did.”

“That’s it?”

“Who else were you thinking of?”

Applejack thought about it as she flipped an omelette. “Spike?”

“Not for a while.”

“Huh. Who’d he like?”

“Rarity.” Cadance winced as she said it, and Applejacked sucked air through her teeth.

“Gotcha.”

Twilight finished her fruit just as Shining stretched as he woke up, coming in for breakfast. She stood to leave. “Nobody tell him. I’m being petty”

“Tell me what?”

Twilight went to drop her empty bowl in the sink. “You’ll find out pretty soon, and you’ll know why when it happens.”

Shining shrugged and went to get his breakfast. “Surprised to see you up this early.”

“I’m surprised you didn’t get up with Cadance.”

“I don’t have morning sickness.”

Twilight looked back at the table just in time for Cadance to finish the last of her pancakes. She hadn’t noticed the two other plates it was stacked on. “Oh.”

Shining kissed Cadance on the back of the neck as he went past her. “Love you.”

“You did this to me,” she groaned.

“Sure did.”

Applejack kept her eye on the stove as she leaned to whisper in Twilight’s ear. “Mitts off the pickles and the peanut butter for a little while.”

“Got it.”

Applejack flipped a pancake from the pan to the plate, immediately squirted more batter in. Shining came to take it, and they waited until he moved away before Applejack whispered again. “Don’t worry, I got a brother too. What’s the plan?”

“Five hours. I’ll ask in the library.”

Applejack nodded, keeping her voice low. Shining’s ears were pricked up, but he looked too annoyed to be understanding them. “I’ll see if there’s anything good to drink in the cellar. Most of it’s vinegar, but some of it ain’t. Am I getting wine for asking, or bubbly for celebrating?”

“Wine. She might not say yes.”

Applejack nodded. “Get both, got it. I’ll find some place to hide it, and leave you to it.”

“Thanks.”

Shining coughed. “Twilight?”

“I’m going, I’m going!”

Next step; Clearing the library.

That wasn’t usually a problem, usually it’d just be her or Spike to worry about. But there was another arrival to worry about.

Only the fake-lights of the library were still on, the real candles melted to nubs. A pile of maps and books lay in the middle of the room like a burial mound, drawing equipment scattered in every direction.

“Deliberate?”

A bearded face breached the pile of books, like a whale breaking the surface of the water. “Hello? Twilight?”

“Yeah, just me.” Twilight lit more of the real candles. “Were you asleep in here?”

Deliberately Slow looked at the books he was immersed in. “No. I haven’t slept yet.” He stood up, and let the books slide off him a bit. “I think I figured it out. Maybe. I wanted to see what you think.”

Deliberately Slow - Deliberate - looked like how Twilight had always imagined Starswirl the Bearded to look, if he were a druid. He knew almost as much about magical theory, but he wasn’t a unicorn. He designed spells for other ponies instead.

When he’d showed up, Twilight and Moondancer both had a problem they’d never had experience having to solve; They could learn magic, but had never been very good at teaching it. But if Deliberate composed a spell, teaching it was the only way he’d ever see it cast.

So here was the problem Twilight had gotten him to figure out; How did you co-ordinate that many casters? Even if they were all over Equestria?

Twilight looked at the scroll he’d put his latest notes on, which was a scroll she’d originally written. His notes were mostly the mathematical equivalent of red pen and grammar corrections. She frowned. “Was the problem my spell being too messy to work with?”

Deliberate shook his head, neatly stacking the books he was buried in until he had a way out. “No, yours was very good. Very efficient, very optimized.” He looked at the pile of books with a furrowed brow, and then plucked from it a book like a bear pulled salmon from a stream. He opened it to a page about the Crystal Heart. “So that’s what I changed.”

Twilight looked back at the ‘red pen’ again. They were written like corrections, but he was right. He’d deliberately made the spell worse. “I don’t understand.”

He opened his mouth, closed it, thought. “I wish I’d been able to meet Starlight Glimmer.” He said, tapping the side of his head, hard enough to make his glasses shudder down the length of his nose. “I only ever heard about her, but I’m sure she would have been better at this.”

“I think that’s kind of one of the big tragedies of Nightmare Moon. There’s so much of what’s happened that we’ll never really know.”

Starlight Glimmer had apparently been a powerful unicorn that had founded a town of radical equality. How well she managed that, nobody could say; Rainbow Dash had found Deliberate among the ruins. There were no survivors; Just late arrivals, following rumours.

Deliberate ran his hoof underneath his beard, scratching. “The Crystal Heart. You’re igniting it in the Tree of Harmony, but after that, it’s going to be powered by...” he double checked the exact wording in the book, “The light and love of Equestria, right? It converts that into magical energy.”

“That’s the theory.”

He nodded, putting the book down and reaching for another one, this one from Vinyl’s collection. “We can treat that like a signal, then. We can read the energy coming in. Like, uh... we can use it like a microphone, I guess. “Held up to Equestria.”

“So, we make a spell that can read the energy coming in, like Cadance sees love?”

“That’s a good idea, I should talk to Cadance,” Deliberate tapped his chin again. “But I don’t think we need to. Make another spell, I mean. We already have one, we just need to make the Crystal Heart... leak?”

“Leak?” Twilight frowned. “I don’t know what making a microphone leak means.”

“Ah...” he dug out another book, “The Crystal Heart is kind of like a transformer. Your spell treats it like a really good transformer - all the energy goes into making the Heart do what you want with the magic. But if you make a transformer ‘leak’, it makes a magnetic field. If you make the spell leak...”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “Oh my gosh. Equestria is the microphone, and the Crystal Heart is a speaker? Maybe?”

Deliberate smiled, slowly. “More like, every unicorn casting the spell gets to plug their headphones into it. I think. But that’s the idea.”

“It can’t be that easy.” Twilight’s eyes flicked up and down the modified spell.

Deliberate laughed bitterly, looking at the pile behind him. “It feels too simple, doesn’t it? I think it could only work with the Crystal Heart. When you think about what it is, it makes sense.” He shook his head. “I have no idea what that would feel like, though. ‘Hearing’ all of Equestria like this. It might not be useful, but it’s the best idea I have.”

Twilight nodded. “You’re right. I think we should ask Cadance.”

Deliberate swayed on his hooves a bit, steadied himself. Frowned. “I think I should go to bed.”

“Were you working all night?” Twilight caught herself, “You know what I mean.”

“I think I’ve had dinner twice since I woke up.” He thought about that. “I definitely remembered to eat. I think.”

“Wow. Go to bed.”

“Right. Yes.” He started shuffling off. Stopped himself. “Could you do me a favour?”

“Anything.”

“Next time someone tells you that anarchists don’t read theory? Say something rude to them.”

Twilight blinked. “Who says anarchists don’t read theory?”

Deliberate had a quiet chuckle Twilight didn’t understand, and kept shuffling. This time, Twilight remembered the thing she actually came in here to say.

“Wait! One more thing, too.”

He turned, took a long blink. Yawned. “Hm?”

“I was going to propose to Pinkie, in a few hours. I wanted to tell you.”

“Well.” Deliberate smacked his lips. “Just don’t have the wedding before I wake up. I don’t want to miss it.”

Then, he was gone.

Twilight looked at the pile of books he’d left her and wondered if she was allowed to reshelve it. He had said he was finished... she could go ask permission, but that felt mean at this point. But it was way too much of a disaster area for the romantic mood she was going for.

Try somewhere else? But then she’d need to tell Applejack, and she was on a time limit with Octavia. Was that more rude than putting away all of Deliberate’s work? A hard question.

She should use her best judgement, then.

Using her best judgement was a terrible idea, as she expected. She was so stressed about the big thing coming up, that she was paralyzed about making smaller ones like this.

A reasonable decision was finally made.

“I’m going to ask Fluttershy what I should do.”

Fluttershy was tending the garden with Braeburn. Well, ‘with’ might have been too strong a word for it. Braeburn was trying to keep himself busy in the long castle greenhouse while Fluttershy tried her hand at beekeeping outside.

Braeburn stalked the long rows of dug trenches and chest-high terracotta potting beds as Fluttershy flew above him, pointing out patches of flowers in the forest to the swarm. Apparently bees were just another animal to talk to. Still, every now and then, Braeburn checked to make sure all the windows were still shut tight.

“Hey!” Twilight shouted over the buzzing, which she immediately regretted when it got the bees attention as much as it did Fluttershy’s. Fluttershy shushed them, and skipped over.

“Hello, Twilight.” Fluttershy was upsettingly cheerful, “Are you here to ask if we’re open for buzzness?”

“No.”

“Because we are.”

Twilight looked over to Braeburn, hiding in the greenhouse. He seemed to have the right idea of things. “I was just going to ask an etiquette question.”

Fluttershy nodded. “I think I’m good at those.”

“A friend left a shared space cluttered, and I think they’re finished with it. But they’re asleep now, so I can’t ask to make sure. Is it okay if I put their work away, if I need the space?”

Fluttershy considered that. “I think so. Yes. Was that all?”

“I was going to propose to Pinkie Pie in three hours. That’s what I needed the space for.”

Fluttershy paused. “You are?” She asked in the same way Twilight’s parents had when she was going out in winter without a jacket.

“Is that a problem?”

“I don’t think so.” Fluttershy said carefully, “I just didn’t expect you to make a decision like that so quickly. It’s very sudden.” The bees swarmed behind her, listening intently. Twilight frowned at them.

“Sudden ain’t a bad thing.” Braeburn shouted from the greenhouse. The bees flew back over to him curiously. They’d forgotten he was there. Braeburn looked up through the glass roof with a frown. “The best time to do the right thing is ‘now’, I reckon. Hey, Fluttershy, never asked. These are honeybees right?”

“No, no. These are some wild bees I found who wanted to help out. They’re lovely, though. And they’ve promised not to sting anyone unless I tell them to.”

“Terrific.” Braeburn muttered under his breath, so quiet Twilight barely heard him.

Fluttershy kept doing her best to be delicate. “I’m just worried when Twilight is impulsive.”

Braeburn rolled his eyes. “Twilight, I know how you tick. You’re going to hear that and think it’s a ‘you’ problem. Sometimes your friends are wrong, though, and you’re allowed to think it.”

Fluttershy was silent. Twilight had no idea what to say to that.

Fluttershy coughed into a hoof and looked away. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“What did it take for you to finally join the winning side?”

Now Fluttershy looked angry. “That’s not fair.”

“Ain’t it?” The bees buzzing got louder. Braeburn had mustered all the bravery of a man behind a glass wall, though. He stared the bees down and tapped it. “I mean, glad you did and all. Happy to have you around. But come on, Fluttershy! Everyone here knows the risks they’re taking. Everyone always knows it. You think you’re being the calm, collected voice of reason when you try to talk folk down like this?”

“I just think-” Fluttershy jumped when she heard that she was shouting, she hadn’t expected it from herself. She calmed herself down. “I just don’t want to see anyone get hurt.”

“I know you don’t, but you act like if anyone’s doing anything, it’s only because they don’t know the ways it could go bad and you gotta explain it to ‘em. It’s frustrating is all.”

Twilight looked between the two of them, at how Braeburn was glaring, at how Fluttershy couldn’t look him in the eye anymore. “This isn’t just about right now, is it?”

Braeburn’s ear flicked, he looked away. “I suppose not, no.”

It was dark, and it was quiet. Fluttershy wasn’t going to speak up for herself. “Do you want me to leave?”

Fluttershy kept staring at her hooves. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, I can just-”

“No,” Fluttershy raised her voice, but not her head, “Braeburn’s right. You must be really scared right now, and I wasn’t being a good friend. I should be hoping it goes well, and I should be here for you if it doesn’t. So that’s what I’m going to do.”

Twilight was too shocked to be grateful. Braeburn was right; she had been second guessing herself just now. She had just assumed that Fluttershy was being more objective about this than she was. Braeburn looked more relieved than she felt, though.

He took a big huff, started walking to the greenhouse door out - but the bees were waiting for him. They were quieter now, but they filled the air around their side of the glass door. He stopped there. “I ain’t mad at you, you know.”

Fluttershy still didn’t raise her head. “You probably should be.”

“I was. But I ain’t anymore.”

That got something out of her. Fluttershy cooed to the bees. “There’s still some flowers out there that need their attention more than me right now.” Braeburn didn’t chime in to tell them to buzz off, but Twilight could see him thinking it, watched him fight it down. The bees did as they were told, one at a time at first, then in bigger clumps and swarms. Finally it was just the ponies left.

Braeburn opened the door, came out. “Thank you.”

Twilight, for her part, was just confused. “I feel like I missed something important.”

Braeburn took the time to work out how to say it delicately, which is why Fluttershy was faster to say it. “I told him it was wrong. To burn Appleoosa like he did. I said it when he first came.”

Twilight flinched. “Oh.”

Braeburn nodded. “That’s basically all of it, yeah.”

“Why?”

“I thought-” Fluttershy’s voice was raised again, but this time she didn’t notice, “that they could have talked it out. Without needing to do that.”

Twilight breathed in. To Braeburn’s credit, he really didn’t look mad anymore. Twilight was just hearing this for the first time, though. “Did you ever apologize for saying it?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “No.”

Twilight and Braeburn waited. Fluttershy didn’t apologize. Braeburn’s neck stiffened, he set his jaw. Fluttershy noticed, but said nothing.

Then, Braeburn let the breath out again. “That’s why you said I should hate you, right? You never changed your mind on that one.”

That made her look away again. She stood her ground, though, in her own way. “I didn’t.”

Braeburn nodded, looked back at the greenhouse. But he’d come out here, now, into the open. A bee had already come back, sensing the tension. “Twilight, do you think I did the right thing?”

“Of course you did! It was the only thing you could do.”

Braeburn shook his head. “I could have done nothing. Could have kept trying to negotiate. Could have just left and not looked back. There’d just be a lot more dead ponies, or buffalo, or both.”

“You don’t know that.” Fluttershy huffed. It was the same Fluttershy that had still been trying to talk the Shadowbolts down, to the very end.

How much of Fluttershy’s idea of right and wrong came down to this? It was finally seeing Braeburn get scolded that made her appreciate that. How Fluttershy treated Pinkie Pie, too.

Braeburn, though, just shrugged. “She ain’t going to change her mind. I’ve made peace with that.” He said to Twilight, like Fluttershy wasn’t there any more. “Just something to keep in mind. You can’t argue everything, though I know you got a hard time understanding that.”

“I’m still here.”

Braeburn grinned. “Didn’t think you went anywhere. Still reckon I was too hasty making the hardest call I’ve made in my life?”

Fluttershy paused at that. “You really thought about it?”

“Heck, no. Snap judgement, spur of the moment, made it up as I went. I ain’t Octavia, bless her heart.” Braeburn sidled up beside Twilight, and pulled her into a sidelong hug. “Turns out, the right decisions can be the fastest. Because you know it the second you think it.”

Fluttershy opened her mouth to say something, closed it, spun on a hoof and started off after the bees. Braeburn chuckled, just loud enough that Twilight could hear him.

“Reckon I might need to stay indoors for a bit. What about you?”

“I’ve got to clean the library, so I can propose to Pinkie Pie in it. Soon.”

“Shoot, that’s right. You need anything from me?”

“I did.” Twilight smiled. “Thank you.”

“Don’t know what I did, but the pleasure was all mine.”

She should find Spike. He was good at cleaning up book-related disaster spaces.

By the time Twilight had walked around the side of the castle again, the greenhouse was covered in bees again, Braeburn’s mad laughter echoing behind her.

The Question (Part 2)

Pinkie was halfway to the library when the music changed. It was hard to put words to it, but it felt… more significant. The change from improvisation to composition, maybe? Octavia didn’t announce it.

Maybe that’s what Vinyl had gone to do, but Pinkie wasn’t so sure about that one.

She caught Shining Armor in the hallway. He looked concerned.

“Can’t talk now,” he darted right past her, “Need to send a message out. You seen Spike?”

“I think he went-” but even that was too slow for him.

“I’ll figure it out.” And then he was gone.

He didn’t seem to be worrying about the same thing Pinkie was.

Pinkie needed to talk to Twilight about their relationship. And she was a bit scared. Well, not scared. Nervous? No, scared. It was scary. Probably good, unless Twilight said no. But she might say no. It was a big question.

Pinkie got to the library. She opened the door.

Twilight was sitting at a table for two in the middle of the room, surrounded by candles. A vase of familiar flowers in the middle, catching the flicker of candlelight on their surface and scattering it in pretty ways. A bottle of wine in an ice bucket, and Twilight trying to look just as cool.

They were both too nervous to say anything as Pinkie took the chair across from her and sat down. It wasn’t new-relationship jitters, those had disappeared months ago. It was… they had a relationship built on little moments and small gestures.

This was a big gesture. Twilight had planned this. Judging by the music, she’d even planned this with other people. That was a big deal. And Twilight knew that Pinkie knew, too.

So, they were nervous, because they weren’t a new couple anymore. They had enough of a normal for this to fall outside of it - even the dates they’d been on lately hadn’t been like this.

Twilight spoke first. “It’s just wine. I didn’t actually have lunch planned or anything.” She poured them each a glass. “I didn’t plan much, actually.”

“This is really nice.” Pinkie took a sip. It wasn’t vinegar! So that was good. It was hard to tell with the castle wines sometimes. It might actually be port on purpose. “What’s the occasion?”

“It’s no fun if I just say now. I think.” Twilight nodded. “We have time.”

“I’m not in any rush.” Pinkie agreed, half because she was putting off her own thing. Warming herself up to it sounded perfect. “I’d say normally you’re supposed to do this kind of thing as a dinner, but it’s already the middle of the night.”

“I don’t think it’s the middle of the night anymore.” Twilight stared at her glass, swirling it. “I think it’s nearly the end.”

“Way too late for lunch, then, anyway.” Pinkie agreed, and Twilight giggled. “You really think so?”

“I think we’re going to win.” Twilight wasn’t drinking her wine, just playing with it. “Soon.”

“Is that what this is about?”

“No. Well, not directly.” Twilight gave Pinkie the look she gave when she caught her cheating at cards (Pinkie only cheated when it was more fun, and Twilight had more fun trying to catch her), “But I said we had time, didn’t I?”

“You did,” Pinkie stuck her tongue out. “I just wanted to see if I could trick you. But you’re too smart.”

“You can’t get me with compliments either. That doesn’t work on me, anymore.”

“Tsk,” Pinkie clicked her tongue. “It was so much more fun when it did.”

“I still like you trying though.”

“Which is why I haven’t stopped!”

They both giggled at that. Twilight finally took a sip from her wine, and sighed in relief. “Oh good, it really isn’t vinegar.”

“You waited for me to drink first!”

“I was hoping you weren’t just keeping a straight face to trick me into drinking it too, in revenge.” Twilight admitted. “I would have deserved it.”

“You would have!”

There was a knock at the door. Twilight flinched, nearly fell out of her chair. “Little busy here!” she called, trying not to look away from Pinkie.

“Whatever you’re doing, this is more important.” Shining shot back.

“I don’t think it is!” Pinkie Pie had seen suspension bridges under less tension than the smile Twilight gave, as she said that.

“Twilight.” Shining knocked again, hard enough to rattle the doors.

Twilight pushed her chair out. “If you’ll excuse me.”

Pinkie grabbed a book while she waited. None of the books were made for light reading, though, so she started trying to see if she could make a house of cards out of them instead.

She couldn’t. You’d think it’d be easier because they were so much thicker, but it wasn’t. She couldn’t get a second layer done before the door banged open again.

Twilight came back, more frazzled than she left. “Sorry about that.”

“Hey, it’s okay.” Pinkie piled the books into a neat stack and bounced back to her chair. “You were saying?”

“Where did we leave off?” Twilight checked her glass again. “Right. You didn’t trick me into drinking vinegar.”

Pinkie giggled. “If that’s how you want to put it.”

“It is exactly how I want to put it, yes.”

“What was that about?” Pinkie looked at the door. Twilight tensed up.

“A problem for later. I think.” She let her breath out, but the tension stayed in her shoulders. “Not a solved one, yet.”

“We’ve solved problems before. It’ll be…”

“Fine?”

“Fixable.” Pinkie felt much more comfortable with that. She leaned across to touch Twilight’s wrist. “I think the problem’s exactly as bad as you think it is, but I think you’ll be better at fixing it than you think you are.”

Twilight blinked. She had to blink a few more times, and wipe the first misting tears. Then she sniffled. She laughed as she rubbed her eyes. “I wasn’t ready for you to say that.”

“I’m also better than you think I am.” Pinkie blew a raspberry, and Twilight laughed harder.

“I really do love you,” Twilight said, and Pinkie wasn’t ready for that. It was the way she said it. “I’m really scared. I think, whatever’s about to happen, it’s going to be the end.”

“We’re going to win.”

“I hope so. But, whatever comes after, it’s going to be different.” She tried to give a reassuring smile, but it was more vulnerable than anything else, “I don’t think I could have done this if I had somewhere else I was supposed to be. If I had a life to go back to.”

“You would have.” Pinkie just kept holding her wrist. “I did.”

Twilight shook her head, but she didn’t pull away. “You’re stronger than I am.”

“You would have,” Pinkie said again. “It’s not about being tough. Lots of tough ponies just tried to make the most of it. It’s about needing to do the right thing.”

“So you’re saying I’m stubborn?” Twilight teased.

“You are,” Pinkie squeezed, “so stubborn. Oh my gosh. You’re impossible.”

“I’m impossible?”

“The absolute worst.” Pinkie leaned forward. Twilight kissed her. Her cheeks were still a bit wet. It was nice.

“Well,” when she leaned back, the tension was finally leaving her, “I’m glad.”

“I’ve been thinking about that, though. What I want to do after all this.” Pinkie shrugged. “I’m different now. Maybe I want to do different things.”

“Like what?”

The music stopped. Spike’s voice interrupted it. “Ah, Twilight? We need you-”

Twilight teleported before she could scream in frustration. The music started again, but this time it was a recording.

Pinkie looked at the bouquet of flowers, and smiled. Some memories are more important than whether they were happy or not, because they led to happier things.

Would flowers like this still be around when the sun came back out? Would they be as beautiful in the daylight? Or was it just the moonlight that made them so pretty?

There’d still be night, she reminded herself. Just the normal amount of it.

She looked at a pile of books that was being put away. There was a big stack of notes about spells on it. How they were going to use the Crystal Heart to save Equestria. How it was powered by love and harmony magic. How to jumpstart it with the Tree of Harmony. Blah blah blah. Pinkie didn’t understand the specifics, and she already knew about most of the big picture stuff.

Here was a note from Shining Armour though: Was it safe to test? Here was the reply in three different styles of handwriting: “No”.

Moondancer wrote it’d be like trying to test a giant bomb without being noticed. Deliberately added that the bomb was essentially made out of things that were made specifically not to blow up. Twilight added that you can’t test the same bomb twice, and they weren’t getting a second one.

Spooky.

Twilight teleported back. She was more frazzled than when she came back last time. When she tried to give a reassuring smile, it came out a grimace.

“Is it an emergency?”

“Yes.” Twilight nodded. “It is. But this is more important.” Twilight sat back down, and Pinkie sat across from her. Twilight downed her wine, then looked at the empty glass as she sucked her lips. “That was a bad idea.” She poured another glass anyway.

Pinkie took Twilight’s second glass, and pulled it across the table where Twilight couldn’t reach it. “What’s going on?”

“It’s-” Twilight reached for her glass anyway, and Pinkie raised an eyebrow at her. Twilight slunk back in her chair. “I was just going to sip it that time. I like having something to fiddle with while I think.” Pinkie slid the wine glass back across the table, and Twilight swirled it in the glass instead of gulping it. “You really think we’re going to win?”

“I do.”

Twilight’s ears flicked at that. “It’s believing we have a future that’s made me think about what I want from it. I think.”

Pinkie sat up straighter. “I’ve been thinking about that too. I think we might be thinking the same thing.”

Twilight looked a lot like her brother, then. She got the same look that he did when he was getting ready to jump onto a moving train. “You do?”

“I do!”

Twilight’s ear flicked at that again. She took a deep breath. She lifted the flowers from the vase on the table. “Pinkie,” she started.

“I want to be a Mom!”

Twilight had just taken the engagement ring off the bouquet. It hung in the air between them. Pinkie stared at it, and it clicked.

“Didn’t we already do that part?”

Twilight was looking at Pinkie from somewhere very far away. “No.”

“I could have sworn…”

“Pinkie, did you think we were already engaged?”

Obviously! “Don’t you want to be?”

Twilight’s face fell in her hooves. “Yes. Yes, Pinkie, I’d like that very much.”

“Well! Good.” Pinkie took the ring. She was going to wear it on the same chain a crystal had hung a few months before - she’d kept it. “Did you make this? It’s lovely.”

“I did.” Twilight was on autopilot. She didn’t even smile or look proud about the compliment, yet. “Please don’t break this one, though. If you don’t know where I am, just hold it close and it’ll point you to me, like a compass.”

Pinkie tested it. The amethyst crystal in it pulsed with warm sunlight when the ring faced Twilight across the table. It reminded her of the crystal heart, kind of. “Gosh, you’re clever.”

“Did you mean it? About wanting to be a Mom, I mean. I don’t-” Twilight’s eyes widened, and she threw herself across the table, grabbing Pinkie and throwing a shield around them.

Behind Pinkie the castle roared. Books flew off the shelves like autumn leaves in a gust - licking red and yellow flames as they passed. Pinkie turned to see the stone wall melting into slag.

Nightmare Moon was here.

Shining and Cadance were there a second later. They were yelling, but Pinkie couldn’t understand it. Cadance was yelling louder. Shining’s shield overlaid Twilight’s, and then they teleported in a flash. Pinkie’s stomach lurched.

They were in the forest. The black vines around the tree of harmony twitched and shivered around them, but Braeburn and Applejack had worked hard at clearing them away from the tree itself. They were here now, terrified and determined. Smoke rose from the castle behind them.

Deliberately Slow looked half-dead at this point. He’d only had a few hours of sleep, and you could almost see the bone of his eye sockets deep in the bags under his eyes. He read paper pouring out of the machines Twilight had built and attached to the crystal heart.

It had a heartbeat now, pulsing as fast as Pinkie’s, each beat a flash of sunlight.

“Where’s everyone else?”

“It’s just us.” Applejack looked back at the castle. “Don’t know about anyone else. How many of them?”

“We only saw one, but it was Nightmare Moon herself.” As soon as she said it, all the blood ran out of Applejack and Braeburn’s faces. “Now or never.”

“I don’t know if we can do it now.” Deliberate’s eyes never left the readouts. “You were right about the Tree, but I think it’s tapped out.”

Octavia and Vinyl Scratch came hurtling through the forest. Vinyl stopped at the clearing, and Octavia crashed into her at full speed, pulling her into a deep kiss as they tangled over leaves and tree roots. “Never again. I’m never losing you again.”

Pinkie nudged Twilight and pointed at the Crystal Heart. Its pulse had quickened, flashed brighter, as Octavia and Vinyl had… arrived. They hadn’t let go of each other yet.

Twilight groaned. “I guess we’re really doing this then. We’re really going to save the world with the power of love, aren’t we?”

Rainbow streaks lit up the skies. Rainbow was a much better fighter than the first time they’d run into the Nightmare, but she still had to get lucky every time she dodged - Nightmare Moon only needed to be lucky enough to hit once.

Below her was the crackle of Little Strongheart’s flintlock pistols, a sound like a tree branch being shattered over your knee. Twilight doubted they’d do more than annoy Nightmare Moon, but her guards were a different matter; they weren’t bulletproof, and they’d all heard the stories of the buffalo out West by now.

If Nightmare Moon even felt like she needed guards at all, now.

Cadance made it to the clearing with them with a wince. Pinkie wasn’t surprised Shining wasn’t with her - she was surprised she wasn’t with Shining. Flashes of his magic light up the treeline between Rainbow’s bursts.

Twilight hugged Cadance close, and Cadance winced like her whole body was bruised. Maybe it was, even if Pinkie couldn’t see any marks on her. “I’m so glad you’re safe.”

“For now,” Cadence looked back at the castle, a ways behind them. “We might only have a few minutes.” She finally noticed Octavia and Vinyl, foreheads still pressed together, holding each other. “I think they might have the right idea.”

“They do,” Twilight agreed with conviction. “Pinkie, Cadence, I know this is a bit sudden-” That thing happened where Twilight was absolutely confident thinking of it, but then lost it the moment she had to say it. Pinkie pressed herself into Twilight’s side, and Twilight found herself again. “Cadance, I need you to marry us.”

“Now?” Cadance asked incredulously. There was another gunpowder crack, then Little Strongheart screamed out in pain. “Point taken. This might not be the wedding you wanted-”

“Let’s be honest,” Pinkie cut Cadance off, “it suits us.”

Twilight laughed so hard there were tears in her eyes. Cadence held her stomach and winced, but nodded. She beckoned to Applejack and Braeburn to bear witness - Braeburn picked Twilight’s side, Applejack stood at Pinkie’s.

“Okay.” Cadance cleared her throat. “Fastest wedding in Equestria it is. Do you-”

Pinkie cut her off again. “I do.”

“And do you-”

“I do.”

Cadance looked at the bedraggled, haggard and terrified ponies that made up their wedding reception. “Any objections?”

Of course there weren’t.

“You may now kiss the bride.”

A second later, the crystal heart hit critical mass. It shot up into the air above them, only as bright as a new star.

But all across Equestria, there were people who knew exactly what that meant, and took it as their signal.

Pinkie Sparkle-Pie didn’t particularly notice it happening. She was distracted.

Dawn

Donut Joe wiped the blood off his rolling pin. The last few years he’d stayed alive by sticking to the shadows, striking from ambush, only taking fights when he had a clear advantage.

Couldn’t do that with Saffron was standing on the roof with her horn glowing, linked to the bright new star over the Everfree. A clear beacon shouting; “Hey! Guards! Beat these ponies into a pulp!”

It was his job to stop that from happening.

His homemade grapnel lashed out and caught a pegasus flying over, and he swung her down into a unicorn trying to get a clear shot at Saffron.

The roof of the Midnight Oil was as good a defensive position as they could get. Joe still had access to his workshop here, important tools. The problem was he only had four hooves and a horn - and he wasn’t nearly as good with it as Saffron was.

It also had limited access up, and a chest-high walling around the whole roof. It didn’t give him much protection from the flyers, but if he could survive Lightning Dust, he could survive anyone.

They’d tried lobbing tear gas up here, but Joe had caught it and thrown it back easily enough. Unicorns and earth ponies in gas masks moved unseen through the thick clouds below - a hellish red glow where they caught the light from the Midnight Oil’s neon.

Screams and twisting metal sounds as they hit the traps in the front door and made it into the restaurant - but that was all he’d had left. Soon they’d be able to push the roof.

There was a flash behind him, and Joe turned to knock the unicorn’s head off - but it was Moondancer, her own horn flaring a shield above them.

“I’m relieved, you know,” Moondancer laughed. She was sweating, her glasses were cracked and one lens hung out of the frame. “That you do this better than you make coffee.”

“Can you keep Saffron covered?” Joe was already prowling for the roof access. “I need to clear the ground floor.”

“You don’t want me to take over for her?”

Saffron shook her head. Veins in her neck were straining from the effort. “Are you a particularly loving person, Moondancer?”

Moondancer thought about it. “Not really. I have a lot of pent up aggression, actually.”

“Then please,” Saffron was forcing this through grit teeth now. It was heard, not seen: Her neckerchief was soaked in milk and pressed over her nose and mouth.

Joe was at the door now. He pressed the side of his head to the brick, waiting until he felt the vibration of troopers on the stairs. “We’re calling it Cinnamon Sugar if it’s a girl. Garam Masala if it’s a boy.”

Moondancer looked over at Saffron, raised eyebrows. Her shield brightened and hummed, but for a thin gold tether, like fishing line, stretching from Saffron’s horn to the Everfree.

Joe felt the vibrations, then they stopped. They were getting to breach. He smiled. This was going to be fun.

The door slammed open on its hinge, right into the side Joe was hiding. His back legs shot out like cannons, kicking the door back onto the face of whoever opened it. Something cracked, and the door twisted off its hinge. Then Joe was after it, throwing himself onto the tangle of Guards in the corridor elbows first. They went down the stairs as a twisting ball of limbs and fur.

There was a lot of blood, most of it wasn’t his. That was Joe’s strength here: He wasn’t going to be the best fighter, but he’d definitely had the most practice getting the absolute snot beaten out of him and coming back up.

The rolling pin came up and went down on the knees and elbows of any guards who looked like they had any fight in them. A few seconds later, the twitching stopped, and he had the back kitchen to himself again.

Crossbow bolts went through the cafeteria area, bolts sinking three hooves deep into the wall over the deep fryer - flying through the window between the kitchen and cash register, where he and Saffron took turns yelling orders at each other. He couldn’t make out the shooters through the clouds of gas.

Back upstairs, Saffron could feel it through the spell - they weren’t alone.

Fancy Pants roared a deep and throaty laughter as the star over the Everfree brightened. He’d worried that he’d left Canterlot a shambles without his leadership, but it seemed like a most wonderful young lady was doing an admirable job of things.

Here in Dodge Junction, things were going a lot better.

Chief Thunderhooves watched Fancy with interest, visible even through the thick armour the buffalo had taken to wearing. The Chief shirked the simple flintlocks his warriors all carried, sticking to a heavy sledgehammer used to drive rail spikes. His people’s last line of defense, one that didn’t need to reload.

“It does seem to be working.” The buffalo admitted. “Not that I doubted you.”

“Well, better than me then,” Fancy was filled to bursting with all the love Equestria had to throw at him, and he was throwing it right back, “I doubted this to the very last. Couldn’t think of anything better, though.”

The buffalo grunted. “It makes sense this would be the way of things. That it would take the one thing from ponies we could not make our own.”

“Magic?” Fancy shook his head. “That’s only a small part of it. Most of this is you, right now, good friend.”

The buffalo creaked in his armour, content to wait for Fancy to explain what he meant without being asked. Fancy was happy to oblige him.

“I’m just the tether. I’m sending it all the love you have for your people, and all the love your people have for you. That’s most of it.”

The Chief seemed satisfied, creaked again in the hull of the locomotive shell he wore. “It is much better, then, to be something of our own.”

Shots rang out. The Shadowbolts were back again. The only group in Equestria that would still face the buffalo after the Siege of Appleoosa. The lightning they kicked couldn’t shock a buffalo in its conductive armor, but it could super-heat the metal, searing the buffalo in their heavy plate.

But still, Fancy Pants laughed. “Trust me, Chief,” he explained, “There’s nowhere in Equestria you’d rather be than here.”

Outside Manehattan, a pony smoked a cigarette and looked out towards the city. She’d been carried out here on a palanquin, because she couldn’t walk anymore. Her cracked horn could barely hold the cigarette. Still, she smiled.

Now, the star over the Everfree was one of the only ones visible in the sky of the city that never slept.

The projector beside her wouldn’t be quite that bright. But it would be clear enough against the clouds, anyway. She’d spent weeks sending agents to hide the speakers throughout the city, too - she wished she had time to do more, but Shining Armor’s message had made it clear there wouldn’t be.

She put the cigarette down so she had the strength to hit the ‘start’ button on this whole fiasco. It was an honour, the Resistance agreed, that should remain hers.

Vinyl Scratch’s movie played one more time on the skies above Manehattan, with a few significant edits on Photo Finish’s part. A new ending, a new call to action.

This was what she’d died for.

How inconvenient that she still lived to see it.

Beside her, an older writer downed a bottle of wine, then lit his horn towards the star over the Everfree. Unionists of all stripes filled dug-out trenches in this hill, armed with knives tied to boom poles and crossbows taken from stage armories - they looked real, because they were.

There was nothing Manehattan loved more than a good movie, where the heroes save the day.

Pony Joe slid on his stomach towards the crumpled ball of breachers. One of them must have had a shield, hadn’t they?

But no. Only weapons.

Time to get creative. He had his tools down here, a heavy metal box of it under the sink.

He took a screwdriver from it and started taking it to the fridge door, tearing off the thinner welds when it was quicker. There was a shelf in the door that attached at both ends, it had a gap between it and the door. Joe held one arm to it and looped it thick around the shelf until it made a decent improvised riot shield.

It hurt his shoulder something fierce, though. There was no balance to it. He took a safety razor, and sheathed it in the ball of tape on his left foreleg. He needed to be able to detach himself from this quick.

Also under the sink, some other toys. Some plastic explosives he’d stolen during his last fight with Lightning. He’d been saving this for a rainy day…

Then Moondancer was beside him, staring at him. She had a shield around her head like a bubble, keeping the gas out.

“Hey,” Joe coughed.

“Why?”

“Crossbows.”

“Oh. Why don’t you use a shield?”

“Nyeh nyeh nyeh.” Joe said rogueishly, like Con Mane would.

“Right. Sorry.” Moondancer grimaced. “Forgot not everyone-”

“Why aren’t you protecting Saffron?”

“Some friends of yours showed up. Some dragon with an apron, Blueblood, Fleur. I thought you’d need help down here.” Moondancer said this while pointedly looking at Joe’s fridge-arm. “Can’t imagine why. You’ve clearly got this handled.”

Joe perked up. “Ginger’s here?”

“The dragon’s name is Ginger?”

“I happen to think Ginger is a very good name for a dragon, actually.”

Moondancer plucked one of the crossbows from the wall and analyzed it. “I didn’t see them out on the street. They’re shooting from in that gas cloud.”

“Good to know,” Joe coughed, “You got any spells for that? I was kind of just going to try charging out while holding my breath, see how well that worked out for me.”

Moondancer pulled a gas mask off one of the guards in the pile, and in a flash it was fixed to Joe’s face. It wouldn’t do anything for the stinging in his eyes or the fact it felt like his lungs were already breathing, but it’d stop it from getting any worse.

“Thanks.”

“Nice job with them, by the way.” Moondancer admitted. She closed her eyes, concentrated. “There’s six of them. All with crossbows. Four on the right, two on the left. I think they tried to flip your tables, but they’re bolted to the floor, right?”

“Yeah.”

“So they’re hiding in booth seats. It’ll be hard to get to them, but they’re going to be stuck there if you make it.”

Joe looked at his fridge shield. “I can’t point this both ways. Either side I go for, I’ll be exposed to the other one. Got any ideas?”

“Get a better shield.” Moondancer deadpanned.

Joe grimaced. “You know any combat magic?”

Moondancer shook her head. “Not really. That was Shining Armor’s-” she stopped. “They’re getting ready to advance.”

“Fantastic.”

“Two more about to come in. I think one of them has a grenade launcher.” Moondancer grinned. “That’s our opening.”

“That’s our opening?!” Joe seethed.

“I’ll set it off when it’s in the middle of the room,” Moondancer was concentrating hard, her horn glowing. “That’s your chance.”

“You really think you can set off a grenade mid air?”

“Well, if I can’t, we both just die.” Moondancer admitted. “I’ve never tried this before. But, I mean, you got any better ideas?”

Joe thought about it, shrugged. The shoulder with the fridge door attached to it shrugged visibly less. “This was basically as far as I got.”

“Well then.” Moondancer’s closed eyes winced harder. “Ready in three… two…”

There was the kchunk of a grenade being fired. Joe started running.

The griffins scowled at the flaring light hanging in the night sky.

They would have no part in this.

Zecora had watched as, over the minutes, the star burning above the Everfree had grown in size, from a pinhead to a pea. It was still growing now.

She wondered if she should not have tried her pilgrimage to the Everfree after all. Maybe not all ponies would have been as hostile and hateful as she feared. It was the first time she ever felt a pang of regret for staying.

All the zebra in the village looked to the growing star in the north. There was something strange about its light - you only had to look at it to know what it meant. To feel a profound sense of love and community.

Had the potential been inside them all along? It must have been.

“The hate I feared from pony minds, a hate that tainted all their kind,
Unnatural as forever-night, I see that in this sunny light
They have found their way, I don’t know how, I only pray I may be welcome, now.”

The zebra of Zecora’s village had grown to fear what would happen when the ponies stopped expanding West, and looked South instead. Found in the zebra lands fertile soil and mineral wealth.

If it weren’t for the fierceness of the buffalo, and others like them, villages just like this one might already have been colonized.

In the jungle around Zecora, birds chirped their dawn chorus. Some were so young that it was the first of their lives.

The Empire ran on coal.

The trains that pushed military and material into the Western expanses and the Northern warfront burned coal. The electric lighting and heaters needed to replace the lost sunlight burned coal.

The Empire ran on coal. And coal ran on sweat and blood, more blood than was needed.

A coal miner would crawl a mile on average from the bottom of the mine shaft to the coal face, through tunnels too narrow to stand. A normal pony would call that a full workday on its own, but a coal pony then had to break and shovel coal for another ten hours. A coal pony had to shovel a ton a day, each of them.

There was plenty of natural gas. All it took was the sparks from a pick to ignite it, bury survivors under rubble. And sometimes it was digging out survivors that caused more cave-ins. One in a hundred miners were seriously injured every year. One in a thousand died.

The Empire ran on coal, and coal was mined with blood. If the miners stopped, so did the Empire. So the Empire was willing to spill as much blood as needed to keep the mine’s going. No price too high.

Well. No price but livable wages and better working conditions. It was far cheaper to hire one guard with a crossbow to keep a hundred miners down, then it was to pay a hundred miners one share more. Too often that’s what happened.

Dotted Line was a chemist, born and bred in the North. He’d wanted to become a civil servant, and he would have made a damned good one. Instead, he’d become a union leader. He wasn’t as good at it as he needed to be.

He was short, fussy, and nobody could tell if black were his natural colour or if he just never got the soot off. He was probably naturally black, once, but stress had turned most of his coat silver at a young age. He’d already had a heart attack by thirty. He was back at work the next day.

A geologist, Maud Pie, had brought cross sections of the mountain with her, pointing to fault lines dynamite could be placed to cause major landslides. Normally, that was to be avoided. Maud tied her red bandana tight around her face as she left.

Dotted Line signed off on the blasting charges she’d need, matched her up to a crew capable of laying them. Next petitioner. The last one. Everyone else had their marching orders.

Limestone was outside, pouring kerosene into empty cider bottles and loading them into crate. Each bottle had an oily red rag wrapped around its neck, ready to light. Dotted regarded her.

“These are only to make it harder to pursue anyone falling back,” he warned. “I won’t tolerate you throwing them at anyone.”

Limestone rolled her eyes, but didn’t argue. “Fine. Stab ‘em, shoot ‘em, but don’t burn ‘em. Wouldn’t want to be the bad guys here.”

“No. We don’t.” He chided. “It’s not about whether or not they deserve it. It’s about not doing that to ourselves. We are are our actions, not our reasons.”

“Actually, about that.” Limestone grunted as she hefted the first crate up. “That star over the Everfree, it’s getting brighter. There’s something special about it. You’d probably like it.”

Dotted stepped outside his office for the first time in three weeks. He looked at the star, now the size of a penny in the sky. It pulsed. It urged him to reach out with his horn, like it was close enough to touch. The chemist instincts in him, strong enough to have kept him holding on to all four limbs this long, screamed at him not to do it.

It took a lot of effort to ignore them, and reach out anyway.

He flinched away from it. He could have fallen to his knees and wept if he felt it a second longer.

The miners were their own. The soldiers had made it impossible for the resistance to operate here - Dotted Line’s union had been illegal enough, repressed enough. They hadn’t been preparing for this siege, a thousand miners, two hundred to each mountain top, because they’d received orders. They’d seen the swelling ranks of soldiers and feared the worst.

It wasn’t for them. Whoever was responsible for the star over the Everfree had made Nightmare Moon very afraid.

“No more blood, today.” Dotted told Limestone. “Tell them all, not ours, not theirs, no more. Tell every unicorn to focus on keeping that star alive.”

Limestone scoffed. She saw the light too, but she couldn’t feel it like he did. She was thinking clearer. “It’s not ours I’m worried about. What if they don’t listen?”

Dotted stopped. They hadn’t won yet, he had to remind himself. There were too many who believed in their very heart of hearts that Nightmare Moon was right. There were just as many who had too much blood on their hooves to stop now - to live in a world that might hold them accountable for it.

Too many.

“Just the unicorns, then.” He corrected himself. “Tell the rest that whatever comes next, we can’t hate our enemies. We do this for love of our friends, who we can’t stand to see hurt any more.”

Limestone took the first crate off. She’d be back for the second, soon. The stout pony stood on his mountainside and touched the star again, and he listened to Equestria sing.

Nightmare Moon’s loyalist unicorns tried to tear it down, as they were told.

They didn’t believe in what they were doing, though, not really. Where the resistance acted in co-ordination, the loyalists faced the spell with their own motivations, their own reasons. They acted as individuals, co-ordinated only by circumstance.

Some were loyal only out of fear. They turned away first. The truly hateful, the superior, held out longer. But love is nourishing, it feeds itself. Hate is exhausting. Even the most fervent of Nightmare Moon’s legion couldn’t keep their hand on the hot stove forever.

That was the worst part about the spell surrounding the Crystal Heart; They could feel what was in the hearts of their allies, too. Equestria sang to them, and how could they respond with anything but shame?

One by one, then all at once, they felt as the others winked out.

Rarity turned away in disgust. This was who she was. It was not who she should have been.

The sky was a rosey pink now.

Twilight was too terrified to touch the heart. She, more than anyone, knew the implications of the spell. She didn’t know if she could ever be ready - if she deserved to be a part of this.

She hadn’t been a hero. She was an antisocial, depressed loner. The kind of person who can speak out is the kind of person who’s used to being hated, anyway.

And here she was, helping save Equestria with the power of love.

Here with her wife.

What a bizarre word. She wasn’t used to that, yet.

Pinkie Sparkle-Pie nudged her side again. “Go on,” she said. “It’s yours as much as anyone’s.”

Twilight’s voice cracked, her throat was dry paper. “I don’t deserve this.”

“Who cares? Don’t do it because you need to, do it because you want to.”

Twilight touched the heart, and gasped.

She felt the Buffalo in Dodge Junction. Their love for each other, and their hopes for freedom.

She felt a desperate struggle in Canterlot, in the seat of power. Of a desperate need for hope. A fierce need to protect those who could not protect themselves.

She felt an army on a mountaintop, and their conviction that either all lives mattered, or none could.

She felt Manehattan, their need for expression, for connection.

She felt beyond Equestria’s borders, and their love for their way of life they had been so scared would be taken from them.

She felt the fear and anger and hate of the loyalists still clinging on. They were lost. They were losing.

One of them had been a stage magician. She had wanted to be great and powerful, but now she had never felt so small and insignificant.

Twilight felt it, too, but didn’t flinch away from it. Everyone mattered. It was as simple as that. Of course she didn’t feel like she deserved to be the hero of the story; When she touched the Crystal Heart, she was lost in just how massive Equestria was, how it felt to hear every single voice in it.

Nobody could be the hero, because everybody had to be.

Equestria had to save itself, if there was ever to be anything in it worth saving.

The traitor-pegasus lay in a crumpled wad at the treeline. The subrace with the noisy toys was having her guts stitched back in by a pegasus only of threat to herself. Celestia’s Captain had fled.

It had taken disgustingly long.

Nightmare Moon reached towards the infant sun, to tear it from the sky.

A Beautiful Day

Fancy Pants cried out. He didn’t deserve to be here. He was a privileged trust fund kid who’d never worked a real day in his life, and he had the gall to be out here, with the buffalo? Was he that vain, that arrogant?

He should be ashamed of himself.

He should let go.

Saffron Masala was going to get Joe killed. She heard the grenades, the screaming. Could she pretend she didn’t know what she meant?

Of course Joe would do anything to protect her. She knew that. As long as she was doing this, he’d protect her.

She needed to stop. It was the only way she could keep them both safe.

If Dotted Line went through with this, how much blood would be on his hooves? How many would have dreams haunted for the rest of their lives by what they did today? What things would they forever see every time they closed their eyes? What could possibly be worth it?

He had to stop this.

It was impossible to make Photo Finish doubt herself. She had already proved she was willing to die for this, had already come so close. She held tenaciously to the cusp of life.

As Photo Finish’s voice snapped and crackled across the swirling doubts corrupting the dimming sun, blackening it, a thin tendril of stars reached out for it. That will was so far beyond what her feeble frame should have been capable of. That was her weak spot.

The mind of Photo Finish in the storm went silent, and cried its last.

Nightmare Moon lips twisted up at the corners of her mouth. She had to be so indirect before, but Twilight Sparkle had given her direct access to her subject’s hearts and minds.

She had been given an impossibly powerful new weapon.

Fancy Pants turned away. He was still connected to the heart, but it was hard now. He couldn’t look Chief Thunderhooves in the eye, staring at his hooves in shame.

The Chief slammed the ground with his hammer, hard enough to jostle Fancy Pants. That got his attention. “Tell me what is upsetting you.”

“It’s not my place to do this.” Fancy Pants tugged at his moustache. “I shouldn’t be here.”

Chief Thunderhooves nodded, sidled up beside Fancy Pants and looked out at the new sun and the dark spots roiling on its surface. “I see. You think, by doing this, you condescend to us?”

Fancy Pants winced, and Thunderhooves took off his helmet, stroked his chin. All around them was the crackle of flintlocks, the reply of thunder and lightning. Thunderhooves didn’t seem to pay that much mind, right now.

“Fancy Pants, my friend. The buffalo are helping themselves right now. It would be our honour if you would join us.”

Fancy Pants set his jaw, and turned back to the sun. He concentrated.

Dotted Line backed away. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t be responsible for this. He couldn’t-

Limestone slapped him, then picked up the next crate she’d come to pick up.

“Get your head in the game, Boss.” She growled. “Things are about to get hot.”

“We can stop this. We can de-escalate, we can negotiate, we can-” he stopped. Those ideas were already starting to sound strange and absurd to him. He’d only disconnected from the sun for a second, but…

Limestone snorted, picked up the next crate from outside Dotted’s bunker-office. “Nah, you couldn’t. If you told anyone to stop now, they wouldn’t listen to you. They’re not doing this for you, idiot.”

Dotted took a deep breath. Of course they weren’t. That was the secret to his leadership; He was only as important as other people let him be.

He reconnected to the sun.

Saffron didn’t need anyone telling her why Nightmare Moon should shut up.

She was not raising a child in a world without daycare centers.

The artists in the trenches of Manehattan couldn’t stop to mourn Photo Finish. They were fighting to keep her ideas alive.

Twilight let go of the sun with a gasp.

Nightmare Moon’s mind had been so cold, and overwhelming. It was so easy to be lost in the swell of voices - but it had only taken hers to force them to one side, suppress them, quiet them.

The sun flickered and guttered. Everyone had come too far to stop now, none of them believed this would come without a fight. Nightmare Moon couldn’t overpower every pony in Equestria, but she didn’t have to. She just had to fight them long enough to convince them that she could.

That meant she was distracted, focused entirely on the sun and all the voices in it. Twilight raced through the Everfree back to the castle.

Nightmare Moon hovered in front of the hole in the library, the stonework melted like candlewax. Her eyes were closed, her lip curled in a snarl. It was like she was purring with hate.

Twilight only had one shot at this.

All the love in Equestria was powering that thing. The difference she could add to that was a drop in an ocean.

What Twilight was, though, was in the right place at the right time. All the concentrated power of Equestria, freely given to her, to do with what she will.

Twilight reached around the sun - careful not touch the spell itself, where Nightmare Moon could have heard her do it - and grabbed it.

Then, as hard as she could, she hurled it at Nightmare Moon.

Nightmare Moon’s eyes opened only at the very last second. Too late.

Deep down, Twilight had hoped that Celestia had just been imprisoned, or captured, or escaped. She’d have hidden away until Nightmare Moon was defeated, then step out to congratulate Twilight on saving Equestria, and they’d all throw a parade and live happily ever after.

She knew that had always been unrealistic. It was a dumb hope, but… she was never going to get Celestia back.

Equestria had lost its immortal, benevolent ruler. It was going to have to figure out how to lead itself, now. What that would even mean.

It’s not that they’d never heard of democracy. Most towns had a mayor. It’s just… when you had Celestia, the point of national representation seemed kind of moot, didn’t it?

Even with Nightmare Moon gone, Celestia remained a past tense.

The real sun rose over Equestria again, raised by a team of forty unicorns led by Celestia’s protege Twilight Sparkle.

She took no pride in it, and resigned immediately after. Moondancer graciously accepted the honour.

There was more important work to be done, and not much time to do it in.

It was easy for Pinkie to find Twilight. She was in the library, like always. A plate of mostly-eaten salad was next to her, and an empty glass of water.

Pinkie hugged her from behind, and kissed her cheek. Twilight groaned.

“You’re not allowed to be antisocial anymore,” Pinkie chided, “You fixed Equestria. Everyone wants to be very nice to you. No excuses.”

“That’s the problem,” Twilight grimaced, not getting up from her reading desk, “if everyone’s being nice to me, I don’t get any work done.”

Pinkie blew in Twilight’s ear, which flicked rapidly in annoyance. “Oh no! Twilight! We can’t have you having too much fun!”

Twilight groaned again, with more enthusiasm. “Okay. What are we doing?”

“They’re talking about renovating the castle, now.” Pinkie dragged Twilight’s arm. “They’re arguing over what gets changed, and what gets preserved for history.”

“Preserved for history?”

“Yeah!” Pinkie laughed. “They’re going to build a museum and everything!”

Twilight pulled back. “About us?”

“About everything! So, now’s your last chance to tell everyone how not important you are and how embarrassing this is, since you didn’t really do anything. I thought you wouldn’t want to miss out.”

That got Twilight motivated. She redoubled her pace. “You just want to watch everyone tell me I’m wrong about that, don’t you?”

“Duh!”

They made off through the castle, warm and dappled in sunlight. They walked against a steady current of ponies carrying yellow folders and clicky pens.

Something else happened when the Crystal Heart came down on the Everfree. The chaos magic woven through the place got hit with the full blast of all the harmony magic Equestria could throw at it.

It was still a place where the weather controlled itself, the plants grew on their own. But the forest was bright, welcoming. Safe.

Deliberately Slow had a theory about that. Nightmare Moon had become a symbol of order, the resistance was chaos. It didn’t make sense, then, for the harmony magic to act as a force of order.

It had long been held that order was a force for good, and chaos was malicious.

Bullshit.

Twilight was ahead of Pinkie now, practically at a run. “What are they really talking about in there?”

“I told you.” Pinkie teased. “They’re really talking about how great and important and wonderful you are.”

“They are?”

“Well. I might have started the ball rolling,” Pinkie teased. “It was all true though.”

“Pinkie…”

They’d never used the throne room for much, anyway, while they were hiding in the Everfree. The throne had been tossed out, and where it had stood on the dias was Equestria’s new constitution - most of which Twilight had written, when nobody else volunteered.

They tried to crown her princess too, because she was Celestia’s protege and all, but Twilight had yelped like a kick puppy when it came up. There was nobody else everyone could agree on… Pinkie suspected that Twilight mostly wrote the constitution just so nobody tried to put a crown on her head again.

Even Princess Cadance was just Mi Amore Cadenza now. She didn’t seem that bothered by it, as long as Shining still called her “Princess” now and again. He didn’t seem bothered by that, either. Also, Twilight was probably going to be an aunt any day now, but that was neither here nor there.

Anyway, they’d put a bunch of fancy desks and chairs and stuff in the throne room, because it was big enough, and it was kind of Equestria’s government now. Canterlot Castle was still a bit of a sore point. Bad taste in everyone’s mouth.

When Twilight entered the room, everyone else stood up. She glared at them until they stopped showing undue respect to her again. They did so, out of respect, which just annoyed her more.

“Twily.” Shining Armor announced. The informality was enough that Pinkie felt Twilight relax. “I know you love museums.”

“Seeing them is one thing. Being one is another.” Twilight countered. “What were you thinking?”

“Honestly?” Shining shrugged. “It’d help draw normal people in. You remember what Canterlot was like, don’t you?”

Twilight hesitated. “Elitist. Snobby. Old money. Right?”

“Right.” Shining gestured around. “We were thinking, making half this place a museum means everyone can come here and feel like they’re meant to be here, ‘cause they are.”

Twilight thought about that. “Can we make the library a lending library? Open to the public?”

“You could.” Shining agreed. He stopped, looked around the room. Frowned. “Ah, sorry. All those opposed, say neigh?”

The room full of elected representatives from all across Equestria were silent.

“Okay, yeah, you could. Sorry, still getting used to that.” Shining rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “We were thinking some marble busts, a big one of Owlowiscious above the library doors. Botanical gardens from here to the Tree of Harmony, and some nice plaques. Maybe a memorial wall. We were also thinking of filling the cellars with soil, and keeping a collection of all the plants that can’t handle sunlight.”

Pinkie was cackling inside. Twilight couldn’t say no to any of that. Got her!

“That sounds… unobjectionable.” She conceded. “But I’m noticing you’re only mentioning the parts that don’t have anything to do with me.”

Pinkie went still. She forgot Twilight was smart, and noticed things. Drat.

Shining rubbed his neck. “Ah. Would the representative from Cloudsdale take this for me?”

Rainbow Dash had an eyepatch now, and a long scar from forehead to the corner of her lip on that side. She looked awesome. Equestria’s Messenger had won her home county with 79% of the vote. “Hey, yeah, so. We were also thinking, yours and Pinkie’s bedrooms, and the music room made sense.”

Twilight bristled. “No.”

Rainbow shrugged. “Hate to tell you this, Twilight, but you really did wear a groove between your bedroom and the library. I’d make other suggestions, but you really didn’t give us much to work with, here.”

“Absolutely not.” Twilight was caught in fight or flight - she couldn’t pick whether to be angry or terrified. Pinkie stayed close. “I don’t need to be remembered. Let me fade into obscurity, the sooner the better, please.”

“Twilight,” Rainbow deadpanned, “Hate to break it to you, but you beat Nightmare Moon by making your own sun and throwing it at her. That’s pretty unforgettable.”

“I had help!” Twilight protested. Pinkie snickered, and Twilight shot her a sidelong glare. “It’s your bedroom, too. You really want ponies in a hundred years to be trying to work out who you were by going through your diary? Reading your poems?”

Pinkie froze. “Oh, wow. This is a really bad idea.”

Rainbow shrugged. There was an absolutely wicked smirk on her face, now. “Hey. You can vote against it, since you’re here, but I’m pretty sure you’re going to get overruled here. I get that you don’t think you’re a big deal, but this isn’t really about calling you the hero of Equestria or anything.”

Twilight didn’t even dignify that with a reply. She just raised an eyebrow at Dash, at the rest of the room.

“Yeah. We all think it’s important that nobody ever forgets-” Rainbow Dash pauses, catches herself. She’d all been swagger and bravado here, but this one dug at a wound deeper than the missing eye. “I think it’s important that everyone remembers who the first to stand up was. Not how it ended, but how it started. They need to know it could have been anyone - and why it wasn’t.”

Twilight had stopped breathing for a bit. She shook her head, caught herself. “Yeah. Okay. Just… do me a favour, save the really real stuff for when I’m dead, or at least too old to care, alright?”

“I think we can all agree that’s fair.” Rainbow announced to the room. No objections.

Pinkie cleared her throat. “Ah, actually, now I’m kind of-”

Rainbow boomed, she’d had drill sergeant training and it showed. “All in favour of the plans as drafted, say aye!”

“Aye!”

“All opposed say neigh!”

“Neigh!” said Pinkie Pie, and nobody else.

“Motion passed. Next on the agenda… hey, who’s got the agenda?”

Twilight pulled Pinkie out of the room before she could tackle Rainbow Dash.

The dining room was a cafeteria now. The kitchen still ran full time, and it made ice cream. Home made! Castle made. Pinkie and Twilight had a cone each. It helped.

“This isn’t fair.” Pinkie sulked.

“Isn’t it?” Twilight asked in amusement. They played hoofsie under the table.

“I’m not like you,” Pinkie batted at Twilight’s hooves, and Twilight nudged back, “I actually didn’t do anything.”

“They were right.” Twilight sighed, looking up at the ceiling. They were surrounded by ponies that worked in the castle, now, and none of them paid them any mind. They really weren’t that special, here. “It’s about knowing who took a stand, remembering us as more than just… idealized, heroic figures.”

“Idealized sounds good. We should go with that.”

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t know. Dash said something about remembering how it began, not just how it ended. That means you. I wouldn’t have done it without you.”

“Don’t you mean couldn’t have?”

Twilight shook her head. “I could have. I just wouldn’t have believed it, so I wouldn’t have tried. Everybody but you told me I couldn’t.”

Pinkie pouted. “Being historically important sucks, huh?”

Twilight’s smile turned wistful. “Maybe that was how Celestia handled it. Just never letting herself become history.”

They tried to finish their ice cream before it melted.

Applejack caught up to them both in the hall as they were walking back to the library. There was a knowing smirk, there. “Knew I’d find you here.”

“I’m a bookworm. Rub it in.” Twilight blew her fringe away from her eyes.

“Well, that’s just it, actually,” Applejack handed Twilight a letter. “Managed to get my grubby little hooves on an important document from a lifetime ago.”

Twilight looked at it. “I was going to be librarian of Ponyville. What about it?”

“Never got rescinded, officially.” Applejack snorted. She took the parchment back, rolled it up, and tucked it under her hat. “The job’s still yours, if you like.”

Twilight blinked. “What, really?”

“Yep.”

“You’d just let me retire, be a normal librarian. Not let anyone bother me.”

“Well, hey now,” Applejack scolded, “Part of the whole job would be letting people bother you. You’re their librarian. People need to bother you to ask what books you think they’d like.”

The implication hung in the air. It wasn’t just a job: It was a place in a community that wanted her. Twilight straightened up. “You mean it?”

“Twilight, it’s a library job,” Applejack knocked her hat back, somehow without losing anything she was keeping under it. “I ain’t trying to crown you princess or nothing.”

They both had a giggle about that.

“I’ve kind of been afraid to ask,” Pinkie rubbed the back of her neck. “Are the Cakes okay? I never found out.”

“The Cakes made it through just fine,” Applejack reassured her. “Heard they miss you a ton, too. You didn’t ask? It’s been weeks.”

Pinkie couldn’t say it out loud. Twilight did it for her. “She’s been scared they were punished for knowing her. Like Fluttershy could have been.”

Fluttershy was the gentle explanation, because she was one of the ones that made it out okay. But they’d come after Twilight’s parents. They’d come after a lot of folk.

Nobody would ever really know just how much was lost.

“Sugarcube Corner’s waiting for you. Ponyville’s got a lot of parties that need planning, and I can’t think of anyone better.” Applejack reassured her. “They’re safe. You were careful enough.”

Twilight held Pinkie up. She hadn’t even felt her knees wobble, and Twilight was already moving to catch her.

“I think we’d both like that,” Twilight answered for them both.

Pinkie didn’t have much left to take that wasn’t being made into museum. All their luggage was Twilight’s two cartloads of books, which they had to cart through the Everfree path. They’d kept the name, too. Everfree. The Everfree Castle. It was a good name for it.

Then, they were out the other side. They were in Ponyville again, in the bright morning sun. It was almost the same as when Pinkie had left it, and she wasn’t.

That was scary.

They arrived at what Twilight insisted on calling a branch library. She smiled every time she said it. She had changed, too.

She took the key out, put it in the door, unlocked it. She wasn’t ready to open the door yet. “Are you going to move back in with the Cakes, then?” Twilight asked.

Pinkie blinked. “I don’t think they’d have room for you, though.”

“I know.”

“Twilight, we’re married.” Pinkie snorted. “I want to live together.”

“I just mean, you don’t have to any more. You can-”

Pinkie kissed her stupid wife so she’d stop being dumb. “I only ever did what I wanted to. I’m going to keep reminding you until you stop forgetting.”

Twilight was flushed up to her ears as she finally opened the door. “It’s just good to be reminded sometimes. You have something to go back to, now.”

“Oh right. That reminds me, I was forgetting something!”

“Yeah?” Twilight asked absently. She was already shelving a big pile of the books she’d brought with her, making herself at home. “What?”

“I still want to be a mom!”

Twilight flinched, dropped the books. Thump. “Wow. I mean, I didn’t forget, I just wasn’t ready for that to come back around this exact second.”

“You don’t?”

“I just don’t think I’d be good at it,” Twilight admitted. She was quiet though. Pinkie started helping her shelve to let her think, and also just to see what Twilight had actually brought with her.

Most of them were poetry books, Pinkie noticed. All the ones she recognized were ones she liked.

Twilight put the last book in its correct place. “This library has a lot of windows. It lets a lot of sunlight in.” Twilight looked out one of them, now. “I really like it. I think-” She stopped. That moment between what she was thinking, and having to say it.

Pinkie kissed her cheek.

“I think this feels like it could be home for me. A real home.” Twilight announced. Was it just her imagination, or did the tree shiver happily when she said it?

“A place to put down roots, you mean?”

“I love you so much.” Twilight tried to hide her mouth with a hoof, but it didn’t hide the smile reaching her eyes. “I do.”

Pinkie’s heart start beating faster. She whispered at it to settle down until she knew for sure. “You mean…?”

Twilight wiped her eyes, sniffled. Her voice was catching in her throat, but she was glowing. “You told me a long time ago. That I only got to save the world if I got to have a happy ending, too. Well, we saved the world, didn’t we?” Twilight wiped her eyes. “I earned my happy ending, didn’t I? I- hang on. We need to go outside a moment, okay?”

Pinkie was out the door that second. Twilight stepped outside, looked her up and down, closed the door behind her.

With a gasp and a giggle, Pinkie was scooped up - not with her magic! In a proper bridal carry!

“We are married!” Twilight declared, loud enough for all of Ponyville heard her.

“Yeah!”

“We have a perfect home!”

“We do!”

“And!” Twilight kicked the door open. Kicked it! Actual property damage! Pinkie loved her so much. She kicked it closed behind her. This just to Pinkie and no one else, she said: “We are going to be amazing parents.”

They kissed. Twilight kept carrying Pinkie towards the bedroom, which was up a flight of stairs, which was really impressive and actually kind of great. This was just showing off - Twilight had been taking care of herself.

It was a beautiful day.

Unicorns

Pinkie stood at a field halfway between Sweet Apple Acres and the woods. It was a clear night tonight, perfect for looking at the stars. She hadn't gotten bored of them yet; So much of her time was spent in the castle, underneath the oppressive branches of the Forest. Just because it was always night didn't mean she got to look at a clear, starry sky.

The ticket burned in a puff of green fire, and the smoke sucked towards Canterlot like a stormcloud's sneeze. There was a distant thunderclap, and a matching cloud of smoke burned back towards Pinkie, unfurling into a shiny golden ticket with her cutie mark on it.

That was pretty cool, actually. She hoped she got to keep it after, but that probably defeated the purpose of it. Maybe? She'd ask. It never hurt to ask.

She flopped her rump down on the soggy grass and stared up at the stars, waiting for whatever was going to happen now to happen.

Twilight taught her a lot about astronomy. Like, if a star was red it was a lot colder than a blue star. Which was weird, because red seems like the hotter colour. She only remembered the stuff Twilight taught her that seemed weird – which constellations were what were forever lost to her, but she'd always remember that the sun's surface was actually the coldest part of it, and there was something called a corona way above it that--

There was a chariot made of dark blue steels approaching, pulled by two batponies. Luna's royal guard! Pinkie was about to turn and run when the ticket in her hooves twitched up towards it. The chariot was empty.

Well, Rarity always had a flair for the dramatic. Seems like Pinkie wasn't going to be taking the train to Canterlot today. Applejack telling her to get the hay away from Sweet Apple Acres was definitely super understandable. Applejack didn't like bats very much.

The chariot landed in front of her, and neither of the batponies said a word. Pinkie showed them her ticket, but it was already obvious to them that she was who they had come for. So Pinkie just shrugged and climbed aboard.

“Hi! My name's Pinkie Pie. What's yours?”

The batponies tore off from the ground and charged towards Canterlot, leather wings ripping through the still night air. They didn't answer her, not even a not-going-to-answer-you answer. Just stoic silence.

Pinkie held the amethyst close to her chest. “You know, this trip's going to be a heck of a lot longer if there's no talking.”

There was no talking. At all. Not even a grunt of acknowledgement, even though they obviously heard her. At least on a train she could sit next to somepony interesting looking.

So even though the trip by chariot was way faster than the one by train, it felt like it lasted an eternity.

The entire time Pinkie watched the country below. The patches of blue and green glowing flowers, the flashes of gold and orange and red that caught the light just right. Nothing purple, none of the darker blues. And the 'natural' greens were way less so.

Twilight explained it to her once. Chlorophyl was green because it reflected green light, because that had the most energy in the colour spectrum, and plants couldn't handle it. But now that there was way less light to 'eat', they'd started eating as much of it as they could. So now the leaves were a lot darker, because they were 'eating' more light.

It made the trees look like even darker, more menacing shadows than they normally would.

Canterlot mountain was backlit by the moon, which put the entire front of it in shadow too. Which made it even more ominous and menacing than it should be. Canterlot's white, pearly exterior was just as black as everything else without anything to light it.

As the batponies made the last of their desperate dash toward it, it felt like Pinkie was about to get swallowed up by a giant hole in the world. But, again, Rarity always did have a sense of the dramatic.

They pulled the chariot up next to a spire near the royal hall itself. They didn't say a word, or even look back, but the chariot had stopped so Pinkie just assumed this was the place to get out. As soon as she had bounced off, the chariot tore off again, those same liquid sounds of leather ripping through the air.

“Pinkamena Diane Pie!”

Pinkie looked around. The spire had a little... rampart? Crenellations? Fortified stone walkway to the royal palace itself, and at the doorway inside was a smiling and waving white pony. Their hair was done up into a professional looking bun, and their tail was cropped short in a very fashionable way. They had shoes the same metal as the chariot's, and the same style as Nightmare Moons'. A blue silk shirt that matched her eyes, and a deep midnight tailcoat that framed her cutie mark.

They had Rarity's voice, and colours, and cutie mark, but they couldn't be Rarity, because they looked exactly like a bad guy would.

“Pinkie, dearest, come in out of the cold, won't you?”

“Uh, sure, Rarity. That sounds nice.”

Pinkie tippy hoofed across the walkway to the doorway Rarity waited next to, and Rarity opened the door for her and ushered her in. “Come in, come in, there's somepony I'd rather have you meet. There's actually a guest bedroom laid out for you, afterwards. It would be such a shame to fly you all the way out here, and then just fly you back home again for only an hour or two, wouldn't it?”

“Oh, uh. Thank you, heaps, that's really nice of you?”

Rarity stopped, stood in front of the door just before Pinkie could enter it, and her smile tightened into the center of her face a little more, pulled into a worried frown. “You sound unsure. Is everything okay?”

Pinkie bit her lower lip. After the ride, and the palace itself, she was in no state of mind to play up a poker face. It would be better to tell an awkward truth than get caught lying, because she would get caught. Rarity always knew, even when she didn't let you know she knew. “You just look so...”

“Dashing? Rogueish?”

“Evil. All this looks so evil-y.” Pinkie admitted, awkwardly kicking at nothing, staring down at her hooves. “It's scary.”

Rarity looked down at herself in surprise and laughed. “Oh, if you're not used to it, I suppose it can look a bit that way. It's really more of a uniform, I wouldn't worry.”

Pinkie nodded, and let herself be relieved by that, but then remembered; “Wait, you designed it though, didn't you?”

“Which is why I make looking bad look so good.” Rarity flicked her hair with a hoof and gave Pinkie a wink, and Pinkie laughed a little. Okay, so Rarity was still kind of the same, and that was probably good.

They stepped into the dark halls of Canterlot, and everything was purple tapestries and candleabras. If Twilight was the Good Witch castle, this was a vampire's caste... just deep purples instead of blood reds. All the white stone was now dark grays.

“Cheery.” Pinkie muttered. Rarity waved it off as their hoofsteps echoed down the columned halls.

“No less gloomy than a bank, and ponies have to work there too. At least I get to have a nice garden instead of a few potted ferns to liven it up. Does wonders. These new flowers, ah! So inspiring.”

Pinkie took the opening to reassure herself her friend was stilll really there. “You still design dresses and stuff?”

Rarity sighed sadly, genuinely sadly, “Oh, if only I had the time. The Princess has me so busy doing everything, keeping all of Equestria from falling over. I still make ensembles when I'm truly inspired, when it all builds up inside me so much you could pop me with a sewing pin... but it's hardly even a hobby these days.”

“Oh. That's sad.”

“It is,” Rarity agreed, leading Pinkie down a left turn, this corridor lined with dark redwood doorways more like a hotel's, “But there's so much opportunity here, leading the new nobility. Can you imagine that opportunity, Pinkie? Not just being accepted by the elite, but getting to define what that even means?” Rarity was breathy and excited now, the steady sounds of her trot replaced by the more frantic clip of giddy skipping.

“Not really,” Pinkie admitted, “I can't imagine that at all.”

“It's nonpareil! And with the Princess off defending Equestria from that even-nastier King Sombra right now, I'm almost entirely in charge, left to my own devices. It makes a lady dizzy to think about.”

But Pinkie's attention had snagged on something. “Did you just say the Princess is nasty?”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Pinkie please, we're alone, I assured of it. Well, alone but for the pony I want you to meet.”

They stopped at one of the doors in the corridor. Rarity pulled out a keyring the shimmered like a millipede, and flicked through it until she found one she was satisfied with. The door opened on what looked like the fanciest hotel room Pinkie had ever seen, four poster bed, dark red wooden furniture, black marble kitchen. Sitting in a deep purple armchair was a white pony in the most fabulous tailcoats, with a magnificent blue moustache and coiffed hair.

The breeze from the balcony caused the curtains to billow dramatically when they went into the room.

“Fancy Pants, it's always a pleasure.”

Fancy Pants took a sip of... port? Brandy? Fancy alcohol. The kind of drink that happened to other ponies. “I thought you said you were coming alone. I'm glad I brought my own sherry, I'm not sure I can trust these aren't poisoned now.”

Rarity laughed like it was a joke, but it didn't sound like one, and Fancy Pants wasn't laughing either. “There was a change of plans. My friend Pinkie Pie decided to out herself unexpectedly. She's been in hiding, goodness, at least two years now?”

Pinkie felt caught on the spot. But Fancy Pants was looking at her so expectantly, and it's not like Rarity was wrong. “About that, yeah.”

“Really then?” Fancy downed his glass and stood up, stretching. It was very slightly rude, but not rude enough that anybody could say as much, or pinpoint why it was rude. So he obviously did it on purpose. “Alright. I want to hear it from her. What have you been doing?”

“Ah, why me?”

Fancy Pants raised an eyebrow. He'd walked around the back of the armchair and was leaning over the top of it. “Just one way of being sure our mutual acquaintence here doesn't rush over herself giving you a convenient backstory.”

Rarity didn't laugh at that one. Sighed in a rather exasperated fashion and looked at Pinkie expectantly.

Pinkie gulped. “Ah, I've been kind of helping Twilight Sparkle figure out... stuff. I don't want to say more though. I promised I wouldn't. But!” She reached down to the amethyst resting against her chest and showed it off proudly, “She made me this? It's really powerful magic, so I guess that should be a kind of proof?”

Fancy looked at it, and he had the same kind of thinking face Twilight did when you asked her if she wanted dessert or not after a big dinner. Finally, he said, “Do you mind if I look at it? As a unicorn, I mean, plainly I can see it from here, you needn't step any close, my fair lady.”

“Oh! Uh, sure, I guess? Just be careful with it; it's fragile you're really not supposed to break it.”

The amethyst lifted off her chest. Fancy's eyes went wide, and he walked more into the center of the room, closer to the doorway. Rarity took that as a prompt to enter properly herself, and Pinkie followed as the chain dropped its slack around her neck again.

“It is as you say. I apologize, lady Rarity, for my cautiousness. It's the way of the times, I fear.”

Rarity waved it off, business-faced. It's like poker-faced, but you know what cards everyone else is holding too. “I understand, Fancy. Pinkie Pie, Fancy Pants has been leading the Canterlot branch of the resistance for a while now, I believe. At least since Shining Armor left?” Fancy Pants was stoically silent. Rarity went from exasperation to annoyance. “I understand trust is hard to come by, but I obviously already know. And instead of guards, I give you a sort of asylum here, where you could have done all sorts of damage by now.”

Fancy looked back at Pinkie, who felt so uncertain about all of this. But Fancy was part of the resistance? “How did a pony like you end up in charge of the resistance?” She asked, earnestly, then clapped her hooves to her mouth. “I didn't mean 'like you' in a bad way, I just mean...”

“You're used to thinking of soldiers, and grizzled freedom fighters, I suppose?” And at that Fancy Pants did smile, and he almost laughed, and he extended his hoof for a shake because they were close enough now. “We all play their part. Mine has been money, connections, organizational skills and, I've been told, a certain charisma. I'll let you decide that for yourself.” There was a mischevious twinkle of his eye.

His smile was genuine, and self-effacing. He was embarassed about boasting, but confident enough to not be corrected for it. He also had a really cool moustache. If that wasn't charisma, Pinkie didn't know what was. She smiled and shook his hoof enthusiastically. “I sort of know what you mean. Twilight might be the one doing all the magic, but she needs someone else making sure she doesn't work herself too hard.”

Fancy Pants nodded. “We all play our parts as best we're able. How is she doing? We haven't had contact with her in months.”
“She's been busy. Right now the plan is apparently find an artefact with enough Harmony magic in it, whatever that means. I think she worked out a way to make them do what the Elements should have.”

Fancy Pants turned and hustled back to his sherry, chuckling in such satisfied delight. He poured himself a glass, passed the glass to Pinkie Pie, then poured another for himself. Pinkie stared at the glass she had been given. She was about to take a sip from it, but Rarity gently took it from her and gave her a sidelong expression.

It seemed like sherry was still a drink that only happened to other ponies then.

Rarity walked over to the sitting area by the dramatic curtains sat down for herself, gesturing for the other two to sit down as well. “It sounds like we have something interesting to discuss then?”

“You were right to invite Pinkie Pie. I apologize again for my-”

Rarity waved it off. “Enough, enough, I understand, I'm a very dangerous pony to admit this to. But I want the same thing everypony else wants, which probably means you should keep talking to her. Like you said. Some ponies just try to help by organizing things. And is the idea of a mole so unreasonable? Rainbow Dash is as deep undercover in the Shadowbolts as a mare can get.”

“Really?” Pinkie squeaked out.

Rarity blinked. “Dearest Pinkie, I thought you knew?”

She did know. She just didn't know that Rarity knew. She didn't say that though.

“Hrm. You should talk to her sometime. But yes, Fancy, continue with anything but the apologies.”

“The Crystal Empire returned. Did you know?”

Pinkie shook her head, and Fancy nodded to himself. “I didn't suppose you would, given your circumstances. King Sombra-”

“Ooh! Rarity, you said that name before.”

“Yes, dear, now don't interrupt ponies, it's rude.”

Pinkie blushed, and looked down at her hooves instead of up at Fancy. He continued.

“King Sombra distracting Nightmare Moon is just the start. The Crystal Heart, at the heart of the Crystal Empire, might have enough Harmony magic to defeat both Sombra and Nightmare Moon together, if we could get it to Twilight Sparkle, but there's a hitch in that plan...”

“You don't have it?”

Fancy Pants leaned back in his soft chair and winked at Pinkie. “Not yet. That would be up to the Lady Rarity.”

Rarity nodded. “Thank you, gentlesir, but I'm not quite sure I understand what you mean?” Fancy Pants raised an eyebrow. Rarity stared back in confusion, then something clicked. “Wait. You mean, the guarded envoy from the Crystal Empire, that's what that is?”

Fancy seemed surprised. “You didn't know?”

“Of the specifics? Hardly. I had thought it was an important hostage.” Rarity scoffed, blowing some fallen fringe out of her eyes, “I suppose she doesn't really trust me as much as I'd like. Wise of her.”

Fancy frowned, rapped his hoof twice against the table. “Then it would be out of the question for you to move its route, or hand it over upon delivery?”

“I can't think of anything. However, I can make sure the guards are pre-occupied when you make your move. I have plans for that, at least.”

“Is that the most I can get from you?” Fancy asked with the tone of someone who already knows the answer isn't the one he wants.

“There's only so much I can do without drawing too much attention to myself. This?” She drew a gestured line between them, “This is already a risk. I regret not being able to do more.”

Fancy sighed, and his hoof went from standing firm and attentive on the table to relaxed, resting. “Right. I suppose I need to give you a time for your distraction, then?”

“That would be helpful, yes.” Rarity agreed.

Fancy turned back to Pinkie. “Will you pass this on to Twilight Sparkle, as well? Or at least arrange a meeting place.”

“Are you doing this soon? I could probably just sneak it back myself. Or show you guys the way, if the Crystal Heart's too big to sneak. How big is it?”

“It's a crystal, smaller than a pony but larger than a foal. It's also fragile and quite heavy. I expect, as much as you seem quite the capable young mare, it might be a bit much for you to handle.”

Pinkie smiled at the compliment. “Well, I can guide them back anyway, since I'm all the way out here anyway. How are you going to do it? Knock a train over?”

Fancy shook his head. “It was-”

Rarity cut him off. “It's being flown by pegasii non-stop to the castle itself. Shadowbolt teams stationed at go-points, passing it off like a relay baton so it never stops, or goes below the cloud cover. I organized the security details myself, I just wasn't told what was being transported.”

Fancy Pants twirled his moustache with a hoof, grinning wide. The sherry seemed to be hitting him now, but he seemed happier for it. “The final handover at the castle walls is the weak link in the chain, we think, and with Nightmare Moon fighting Sombra, we have a golden opportunity.”

Pinkie was curious now. “So what are you going to do? Bribe the guards? Sign a fake delivery slip? Because I don't think you can wear a fake moustache.”

Fancy giggled. “That would look quite silly.”

Rarity was far sterner though. “So what did you have in mind?”

Fancy Pants shifted awkwardly in his seat, like he had a rock in his shoe all of a sudden. “This would be where the 'grizzled' freedom fighters and soldiers come in, I'm afraid. Not everything can be peaceful.”

Pinkie gulped. “Oh. So, dangerous mission then. Lives at risk and stuff?”

“It's unfortunate, but I'm afraid it seems necessary. I'm not young anymore, or I'd join them. I can't stand to send other ponies to go in my place...”

“Needs must?” Pinkie offered, what she hoped was helpfully rather than rudely, “That's what Twilight says, anyway.”

Fancy nodded again. “Needs must.” He agreed, “A good way to put it, thank you.”

“Pinkie, do you mind if I look at that gem you brought, again? It’s quite interesting, and you do know how I feel about gemstones.”

Pinkie thought really hard for a second to think of a good reason to say no, before she finally just nodded, taking it off from around her neck and letting Rarity hold it up to her eye.

“I used to love searching for gems like this around Ponyville. These days the caverns under the castle leave me a little spoiled. That Twilight risk getting this for you? You’re probably quite valuable to her. If you were to be captured, smuggling the Crystal Heart back, do you think she’d try to come to your rescue?”

“Uh,” Pinkie thought about that. Would Twilight really risk saving all of Equestria just to save her if- oh, right, yeah, she absolutely would. She basically said those exact words. “Probably. Why?”

“It's something to consider, it makes you as much a high-value target as Fancy Pants himself.” Rarity warned them both, grim. “And the walls have ears.”

Fancy Pants' ear flicked at that. He jumped out of his chair and ran for the door. Rarity winced as his chair fell backwards and thudded against the carpet, offering Pinkie Pie an apologetic frown as she slowly stood up.

“No tunnels this time, I'm afraid, or revolving bookcases. I was rather impressed by that one, and your literary selection was absolutely lovely. You have a good taste in literature.”

Fancy was staring down the peephole lens of the door. He shouted and jumped back as the door was kicked open by a royal guard. He turned and ran, jumping back over his armchair as he ran past Pinkie and Rarity for the balcony, and didn't hesitate for a second as he lept over the railing.

He was a unicorn, and they were really high up, and he just jumped!

“We heard everything, Mistress Rarity. We recorded it, just as you said. I still don't understand the need for all of this,” he groused.

Pinkie stared at the guard, then Rarity, then the guard, open-mouthed. “This was a setup?”

“Yes.”

Pinkie could feel her heart break. She fell back onto her butt as her wobbly knees got swept away by the butterflies in her tummy. “But I trusted you!”

“Yes,” Rarity agreed, gesturing at the other guard to help Pinkie back up, “which is why it was an effective setup.”

“Why?” The question Twilight had wanted her to ask.

Rarity sighed, and gave Pinkie a look like she was a dumb kid, “Because I've gotten to a very comfortable, very successful position in the Court and you're trying to ruin that for me? Because you're risking the lives of innocent guards who are just following orders. Because Twilight Sparkle is inconvenient, and I'm sick of devoting resources to finding her. I don't get to take my accumulated vacation days until I have her, you know.”

“That's not a funny joke.”

“What? Pinkie Pie, spa holidays are nothing to joke about.” The worst part was that Rarity sounded offended and it didn't sound like she was acting or playing it up. “Do you know what all this palace intrigue and viziering is doing to me? My back is all in knots. Utterly dreadful.”

Pinkie shouted, “You said you wanted the same thing everypony else wants!”

“Yes.” Rarity stared incredulously, like she was honestly surprised by Pinkie's confusion, “To win.” Rarity looked at the amethyst, and hummed in thought as the guard stood impassive in the doorway. Not threatening her, but their existence implying threat. Pinkie panicked as Rarity held the gemstone up to her eye to admire it.

“No! Stop! Twilight says it's really powerful magic, and if it gets broken... bad things will happen!”

Rarity rolled her eyes. “Well, now, I suppose this doesn't take a genius, does it?” She dropped it to the carpeted floor and smashed it with a hoof, grinding it down with a few back-and-forth twists, looking at it with... disappointment? Disgust? “Such a pity, to destroy something so beautiful. It was just my colour, too.”

The idea of Rarity wearing the necklace Twilight had made for her made Pinkie's stomach churn.

There was a sound like a fire cracker going off in an empty oil drum, and a bright flash of purple light. Then Twilight was standing there, in the middle of the room between Rarity and the guard, blinking in surprise.

Pinkie was surprised too. Twilight looked really different. Knee high boots with tight laces over fishnet stockings. Dark, dark red lipstick, a lot of eyeliner and a brushed mane. Black microskirt and a leather corset, done up as tight as the boots.

The butterflies in her stomach roared up again as Pinkie realized what a little birdie must have told her. “OWLOWISCIOUS, YOU ABSOLUTE GOSSIP QUEEN!”