She was late. Incredibly late. The kind of late she couldn't catch up to by going faster. Unless she took Twilight's babblings about faster than light movement seriously, but she had no intention of testing that out there and then. All she could do was try to take a shortcut.
She would have later sworn the tree hadn't been there before.
One cyan on green and brown, not too pleasant crash later, she was on the ground. And more importantly, she was still late.
The Sun was low on the horizon, just minutes away from disappearing behind the mountains in the distance.
"All the way up to the clouds? Are you sure about that?" Applejack asked, leaning against the nearest tree.
The cow nodded, humming. "I saw it with my own two eyes."
Applejack snickered to herself, amused. Being the Element of Honesty, it was pretty easy to tell when someone was lying, especially when the lie was something so improbable. Still, it was fun listening to what others would come up with when trying to impress, and rather harmless, really. "Any other marvel you saw?"
The cow looked up in concentration. "I told you about the eel, right?"
"Sure did."
"Well then there's only one other thing. But it's not much, really. You probably won't care."
Applejack got away from the tree. "No, please, tell me. I'm all ears."
"Well..." The cow looked around to make sure no one else was there, and lowered her voice to a whisper. "I saw Princess Celestia spying on Miss Rarity, earlier today when she had that meeting with the yellow pegasus near the lake. At least, I think it was the princess. She definitely looked like her but her mane looked like it was on fire."
A single drop of sweat ran down the back of Applejack's neck. That had not been a lie.
There was a flash of light in the distance, and suddenly the Sun was shining in the middle of the sky.
Applejack looked at her cutie mark and sighed, beginning to run towards the centre of Ponyville.
Twilight closed the book she'd been reading, a recent scientific publication containing a detailed analysis of the consequences of dark magic on whales, and looked out of the window. The Sun was setting, colouring the clouds with a beautiful orange tinge, and the last of its light gave the small city outside her castle a rather peaceful aspect.
A few ponies were lazily trotting around in the streets, taking their time and enjoying the breeze after the hot early spring day they'd gone through. Twilight reclined in her seat, resting her head on a pillow. Things had been going rather well lately, she had to say, maybe the time had finally come when she could-
A flash of light from outside the window caught her eye, and she looked out again. The city was now filled with light once more, not a single shadow left. Looking up, she saw the Sun shining in the middle of the sky.
"Maybe another day," she said as she headed for the stairs. "Starlight?" she called.
"Thank you again Pinkie, you save us so much time," Mrs. Cake said to the pink pony bouncing in place in front of Sugarcube Corner.
"Oh, it's no problem, I like to help," Pinkie replied. "Now I would suggest you two get going, my Pinkie Sense is telling me there's going to be a potentially world-ending catastrophe in two hours and I wouldn't want you two to miss out on your trip because of it." She smiled and kept bouncing in place.
Mrs. Cake tilted her head slightly to the side, giving a quizzical look to the mare.
Pinkie smiled at her.
Mrs. Cake shook her head and walked away towards the carriage, where her husband was already waiting for her. They both climbed aboard, and the vehicle rode off towards the mountains in the late afternoon's light.
Pinkie walked inside the Cake's house, and found the twin foals waiting for her, sleeping in their beds just as she'd been told they would be. She stopped and stared at them for a while, then looked at the clock on the wall. Still two hours to go before whatever was going to happen. Maybe she could take the twins on a visit to Twilight's castle.
Rarity took another sip of her tea. "And what about your brother, darling? I heard he found work as a mane stylist, is it true?"
Fluttershy meekly nodded from behind her teacup, occasionally glancing at its content like she was afraid it would come out and bite her. "How's your family doing?" she quietly asked after some time.
"Quite fine, really." Rarity picked up a biscuit from the small tray on the table. "Do feel free to take one. Or as many as you want," she quickly added before biting in. She chewed for a few seconds, her movements short and methodical, then swallowed. "Anyway, yes, my family. Mum and dad are on vacation right now, and Sweetie Belle is spending some time at Scootaloo's house. She's been going there quite often lately." She brought the cup to her lips for another sip, and looked at Fluttershy with a half-hidden stare as she drank.
The pegasus slowly moved to grab a biscuit from the plate, then stopped halfway, her hoof suspended in mid-air, and withdrew. "I..." She gave a nervous cough. "I think it's time to go back home, I have my animals to take care of." She started to get up from the table.
Rarity looked towards the window. "But dear, the Sun is still high up. It can't be that late, can it?"
Fluttershy, visibly confused, looked at the nearest clock. "But it should be past sunset already," she commented.
Rarity followed her gaze. "Oh my, you're right. I wonder if the clock's broken or if..." She looked at her cutie mark, then sighed. "Of course. Why do these things always happen at the worst of times?" she asked to no one in particular.
Fluttershy gave a weak smile, her own cutie mark glowing and pulsating as well.
Rainbow poked her head out from the bottom of her cloud, turning towards the familiar pink shape and the less familiar, smaller shapes alongside her. "Hey, Pinkie!" she called.
Pinkie looked up. "Hi Rainbow Dash!" she replied, waving at the pegasus.
Rainbow popped out of the cloud and flew down towards the ground. "Where are you going?" she asked as she got closer.
"Oh, something horrible is going to happen half an hour from now, so I thought I'd take the twins to see the castle so I'm already there when the Map calls us." She held a hoof around Pound, preventing him from flying away. "Want to come with us?"
Rainbow stopped in the air to look at the pink pony. "Nah," she said after a few seconds, "I think I'll take a nap. Half an hour, you said?"
"Yep." Pinkie nodded.
"How terrible, exactly?" she asked as her wings lazily flopped to keep her floating there.
Pinkie scratched her chin in thought, then her hoof snapped back down to hold Pound there once more. "I'd say about Nightmare Moon levels of terrible," she replied.
"Oh well." Rainbow began to head back to her cloud. "Have fun."
"You too? Well, I guess it's pretty serious then," Applejack said as she marched towards the looming shape of Twilight's castle.
"It must. I do wonder if the others are already there," Rarity replied, moving at a slightly faster pace now to keep up with the earth pony.
"What do you think it is?" Fluttershy asked from behind them, struggling to keep her pace.
"Something to do with Princess Celestia, most likely," Rarity replied.
"A cow said she saw her spying on you two," Applejack added, "she said her mane and tail were on fire. Gotta say I'm pretty worried about this whole thing, if Celestia's really involved I'm not sure how Twilight will react."
"Spying on us?" Rarity looked at Applejack. "Really? This is odd."
"Why would she?" Fluttershy moved closer to the two in front of her.
"No idea, but I guess we'll find out." Applejack accelerated, and so did the other two.
"So wait, what were you saying about the impending catastrophe?" Starlight asked as she held Pumpkin in a magic bubble floating by her side.
"Oh, nothing much," Pinkie replied, holding Pound close to her chest as she walked down the crystal corridor. "Just that something horrible is going to happen in-" A spasm ran through her body, accompanied by a flash of light from outside. "Uh. Now. Seems I was a couple of minutes off." Her cutie mark lit up and she began to head for the room the Map was in, Starlight following her with a worried expression.
"Starlight?" Twilight called from upstairs.
"Should we begin?"
"No, we'll have to explain everything again once she's here anyway."
"How can she be so late?"
"I think she said she was going to take a nap."
"Of course she's sleeping! She really should have learned her lesson by now."
A screeching sound came from the hallway, followed by the frantic clatter of hooves on crystal. Seconds later, Rainbow Dash entered the room, almost falling face first into the Cutie Map after crashing through the doors. "Sorry!" she half yelled, "Sorry! I fell asleep! Sorry!" Her mane and tail were messier than usual, a few twigs and leaves caught in them, a few more on the ground behind her in a trail.
Everypony in the room, Cake twins included, fixed eyes on her, unamused expressions on their faces.
Rainbow sat up and sheepishly looked at them, rubbing the back of her neck. "...Sorry," she more quietly repeated.
Twilight rolled her eyes. She cleared her throat, then scanned the room one more time, before her eyes finally fixed on the Map at its centre. "So, we can finally begin. I'll try to be brief, as we don't have much time. From what I was able to gather from the messages I received before Spike was taken out, what happened-"
"Wait, what happened to Spike?" Rainbow interrupted her, earning a couple of annoyed glances from some of the presents.
Twilight turned her eyes to a shape in the corner of the room, hidden under a blanket and rhythmically twitching. "He's... not in any condition to help, at the moment." She lifted the blanket with her magic, revealing the slouched over body of the young dragon, lying amidst a pile of torn sheets of paper, a nauseated expression on his face. A second passed, and another twitch wracked his body, accompanied by a burst of green flame from his mouth from which another damaged page emerged.
Rainbow stared. "That's..."
"That's the entirety of Canterlot's royal library, sent here one page at a time. She already sent all of it, and he's slowly receiving it, so he'll be like that for quite a while." Twilight turned back and let the blanket fall on Spike once more. "Can I continue now, Rainbow?"
The pegasus nodded.
"Good. As I was saying, before Spike was reduced like that Luna managed to write a letter detailing the events. She didn't give us too many details, but it's something to go off of at least." She brought out a small piece of paper and quickly read through its contents once more. "This is it if anypony wants to read it," she said while passing it to Rarity, "what it says is that Luna was having a conversation with Celestia, when suddenly Celestia seemed to snap and become angry at something, and shortly after transformed. She then repositioned the Sun and attacked Luna, and then ran away into the castle. Luna said she was going to go after her. I have also received a message from Cadence, informing me that an energy dome appeared over the Crystal Empire, effectively sealing them off. She barely managed to get that through before being completely cut off, so I'm afraid we won't get any help from there." She paused. "Any questions?"
"Why is Pinkie here with two foals? Shouldn't they be somewhere safer?"
Twilight closed her eyes and pushed her lips tightly shut, taking a deep breath over the sound of Pinkie's "I'm foalsitting!"
Rainbow lifted an eyebrow. "Well that doesn't-"
"Any relevant questions, Rainbow?" Twilight firmly interrupted her.
Rainbow turned back towards Twilight. "I think the safety of those foals is pretty relevant, Twilight."
Twilight groaned. "Of course she's not going to take them along, Rainbow. They just happened to be with her here when she was called by the Map. She'll be leaving them to someone else before we go. Now-"
"Actually, I'm taking them with me," Pinkie said, "I am the one foalsitting them after all."
Twilight snapped towards Pinkie. "You're what? Pinkie, you can't! They're just foals, you can't bring them into this."
"But I'm foalsitting!"
"Pinkie, this is serious!"
"Huh, girls?"
"But I Pinkie-promised!"
"Pinkie, Twilight's right, you can't bring a foal with you."
"Err, hum, sorry, but I-I..."
"But who's going to take care of them if I don't?"
"Anypony else? How can you even take care of them while we're fighting?"
"I was, hum, I was m-meaning to ask..."
"And how can I take care of them if I'm not with them, huh?"
"Pinkie, this is absurd, we can't-"
"SILENCE!"
Everypony stopped and turned to Rarity, dumbstruck, and bits of wood flew out of Rainbow's mane as she did so.
The white unicorn drew back at the sudden influx of attention, and slightly blushed. "Uh, yes. Thank you. Fluttershy was trying to ask a question," she said, pointing to the yellow pegasus.
All but four eyes in the room turned to the flying pony in question, who was now holding her mane in front of her face with her hooves. She slowly peeked out of the pink curtain, one single eye surveying the situation. "Oh, hum, yes, thank you Rarity. I wanted to ask, if the problem is in Canterlot why is the Map sending us elsewhere?"
Those looking at her looked at the Map.
"Huh. It is." Twilight frowned. "Why is it sending us elsewhere?"
Starlight turned her head towards her. "Wait, you didn't notice?"
Twilight's head turned towards Starlight, locking eyes with her. "Wait, you noticed? Why didn't you tell me?"
"I thought you'd seen it! It's literally in front of you."
"But I never brought it up!"
"I thought you were going to."
Twilight turned to the rest of the presents. "Did you girls see that?"
"I thought you would bring it up eventually," Rarity replied.
"Me too," Applejack echoed.
Pinkie didn't verbally answer, instead simply nodding along while she struggled to restrain both of the foals in her grasp.
Rainbow snapped back at attention, the small twig of wood she'd been fidgeting with flung away by her jerks. "I-hum-I-Well," she muttered, her eyes darting between Twilight and her friends in search of an explanation for what she'd missed. Then she fixed her gaze on the Cutie Map and her rambling came to a halt. "Wait, why isn't it sending us to Canterlot?" she asked.
Twilight groaned and ignored the pegasus, instead focusing on the Map itself. "Griffonstone," she commented. "And some place close to Yakyakistan. And... wherever that is," she added, pointing at a seemingly random spot in the middle of the sea, where her and Pinkie's cutie mark were floating. "This is odd."
"Maybe Luna solved the issue herself?" Starlight hopefully suggested. "Or maybe she drove Celestia away to one of those places?"
Her answer came as a thundering, earth-shaking blast from outside, followed by a beam of energy emerging from Canterlot and reaching up to the sky, followed by the magically amplified and distorted voice of Celestia proclaiming that she had defeated her sister, taken full control of the city, and that the day would last forever.
The ponies in the room exchanged silent glances.
"Okay, I'm going," Starlight said, walking away from the room. "You better come to help once you're done!" she yelled as she walked out of the castle.
The remaining ponies looked at each other, then at the Map once more.
"Should we-" Rarity gave a small and nervous laugh "-Should we help her?"
"Yeah." Rainbow leaned forward. "This seems like a pretty big deal."
Applejack scratched her chin. "I don't know. The Map's never been wrong before. Twilight? What do you think?" she asked, nodding towards the alicorn.
Twilight thoughtfully hummed. "I don't know. The Map has always been right, and maybe following it will solve the whole problem. But this does sound pretty serious, and I'm worried Celestia might be interfering with it somehow." She sighed. "What about you two?" she asked to the last remaining ponies.
"You're probably the most qualified of us to take this decision, Twilight," Fluttershy replied. "Though..." She hesitated and shot a furtive glance at Rarity. "Maybe we should go help Starlight? Should we?"
Twilight turned to the last pony. "Pinkie?"
The pink mare was precariously balancing on the back of her seat with her front hooves, her hind hooves entangled around Pumpkin as she held her in place while her mouth was serrated around Pound's wings to stop the foal from flying away.
Twilight audibly groaned, and her horn lit up as she brought the three of them back to the ground.
Pinkie sputtered a couple of feathers in what was likely supposed to be a 'thank you' directed at the purple mare. "I think we should follow the Map. Celestia didn't have the time to mess with it while dealing with Luna, and I don't think it would be easy to confront her with this." She pointed at her glowing cutie mark. "Remember the last time we tried to ignore it?"
Twilight looked at her own. "I guess you do have a point. Even if this is something Celestia did, it was probably part of the plan to make it harder for us if we went to her anyway. And Starlight wasn't called, so maybe Celestia has nothing to do with this in the first place. We'll just have to hope either following the Map will fix things or Starlight will be capable of holding her own until we get there." She lifted her head to stare back at the rest of her friends. "So I guess that settles it then. Are you all okay with this?"
The other five exchanged looks between each other, then they all nodded in approval, first Pinkie, then Rainbow and Applejack, then Rarity and lastly Fluttershy.
"Perfect." Twilight got down from her seat and grabbed a map from a shelf. "So Rainbow and Fluttershy will be going to Griffonstone, you two will be going to that mountain near Yakyakistan, and me and Pinkie will travel to see what's there in the sea. Sounds good?"
"Sounds good," Applejack agreed. "We better get going quickly. Are you coming?" she asked to Rarity as she headed for the exit.
Rarity gave a small jerk, like she'd been in the process of falling asleep and Applejack had waked her. "I-oh-" she looked at the others "-I'm coming, yeah. Bye girls," she said, waving at them as she walked out.
Fluttershy waved back, a quiet "Bye," accompanying the motion, before she too was shaken out of her distraction, this time by Rainbow's hoof landing on her shoulder.
"So, are we going?" the light-blue pegasus asked.
Fluttershy meekly nodded, still slightly startled, and then followed Rainbow as she fluttered away from the room.
Twilight packed the map and a few other books from the shelves into a pair of saddlebags, then passed another pair to Pinkie. "Could you fill yours with food?" she asked, "Mine are kind of full already. You should be able to find it in the kitchen, there's a package labelled 'take this in case of sudden mission at sea', next to the one labelled 'take this in case of sudden mission to the Dragonlands' in the lower cupboard on the left side. Then we'll go drop the twins off, okay?"
Pinkie grabbed the saddlebags and nodded, heading outside with the two foals resting on her back.
"Flim? Have you seen the Magic Hoof-band of Illusion anywhere?"
"You mean the one we stole from that magician who was doing research on changelings? Have you looked on the shelf where it's supposed to be?"
"The one we borrowed from that magician. Yes, I did look there, but in its place there's just a kettle."
"...Does it have a stylised drawing of the Sun on it?"
"Hold on a second, let me check... Yep, it does."
"Oh bother."
"Flim?"
Luckily, despite the general panic and confusion, trains were still working properly, so she'd managed to get on the one to Canterlot fairly easily once she'd gotten past the screaming mass of terrified equines aimlessly wandering the streets of Ponyville. And on top of that, she had most of the train for herself, as only a few others were brave or uncaring enough to still take it. Understandable, given the continuous messages Empress Daybreaker, as she referred to herself, routinely propagated through the air, announcing the beginning of her glorious everlasting reign over everything, and urging ponies to come witness her magnificence. And given the occasional mentions of dungeons for all those who disagreed with her.
Unluckily, as the train reached the city, she realised those who had chosen not to take it had not made the wrong choice. The vehicle was brought to a halt just outside of the barely visible dome of magic that now surrounded the city, and from her window she could see a group of blatantly mind-controlled guards about to enter the carriages to check their contents. She silently admitted to herself that maybe the mind-controlling wasn't that blatantly evident, and she was just good at recognising it.
The door to her compartment was opened, and three guards walked inside, wearing bright orange metal armours and helms that hid their faces. "State your name and your reason for coming to Canterlot," the one in the middle commanded, as the others pointed their spears at her.
Starlight calmly set down the book she was reading, a somewhat large volume entitled Space Whales; and other things that happen when you mess up cooking spells, and took a slow sip from the teacup in front of her before looking up at the stallion. "My name is Starlight Glimmer, and I am Former-Princess Twilight's Sparkle former personal student. I am here to pledge myself to our new Supreme Overlord, and help Her Royal Hotness in capturing and converting the last of her opposers. I am sure our Glorious Goddess-Empress will be most pleased at the news," she chirpily replied.
The three guards exchanged glances, then the one on the right nodded to the one on the left, who walked outside, leaving the remaining two to point their spears at her as they waited.
He came back after a short while. "Her Infinite Magnificence is pleased by the news of your arrival, and has requested you to appear before her," he said.
Starlight got up, putting the book back in her bag. "Very well." She walked a few steps towards the exit and stopped. "You will be escorting me, I suppose."
The guard nodded. He walked up in front of her, as the other two flanked her sides, and the four of them walked out of the train and began to head towards the castle.
"Are you going to climb or what?"
Rarity looked up to Applejack, then at the jagged wall of rock below her. Her horn lit up, then fizzled to a few feeble sparks of magic, and she tiredly sighed. "Can't we rest for a while? I don't think I can teleport right now."
Applejack grunted. "You've been teleporting since we started to go up the mountain! Why don't you just climb for once?"
"But it's gonna ruin my hooficure! I just had it done," Rarity whined.
With another grunt and a few quick jumps, Applejack descended the formation. "Come on," she said, "it's not that hard."
Rarity looked between her and the rock. "Why couldn't we take the road? We should have taken the normal road."
Applejack threw her hooves up in the air. "The main road was blocked, remember? Heat from the Sun weakened the ice and Daybreaker's shouting was enough to get chunks of the mountain to fall on it."
"But couldn't we have cleaned it?"
"It would have taken days to clean that, Rarity. We don't have time right now. So get on there and climb." Applejack turned, and ascended the wall once again.
Rarity walked up to the base of it, then looked at her hooves and whimpered.
"Come. On. Seriously, what did you even get a hooficure done for?" Applejack shouted from above, "Some dumb reason, I assume."
Rarity pouted, her cheeks swelling up. "As if a pony needs a reason to look their best. But because you so kindly asked, I was having a tea with Fluttershy. Not that I think a savage like you could ever understand that."
Applejack drew back a little at the words.
Rarity noticed her reaction. "I... Sorry," she added. She then looked at the wall once again. "Go ahead, I'll catch up once my magic is working again." She sat down against its base and rested her head on her hooves.
Applejack looked at her. "Fine. I didn't want to do this, but you leave me no choice."
"What do you-" those were the last words to leave Rarity's mouth, before being replaced by a scream as a coil of rope descending from above wrapped itself around her body, then violently tugged her upwards. She landed at Applejack's side, on a pile of snow, and slowly got up.
Applejack pulled the rope free from the unicorn and wrapped it around a hoof before putting it back in her bags.
Rarity looked at herself, then stared at Applejack and pointed a hoof at her. "You..." she vaguely began in an accusatory tone, unsure of what to say first. "You messed up my mane!" she finally yelled.
Applejack raised an eyebrow. "That's the first thing you're going to complain about?"
Rarity stared at her some more, then half-grunted-half-yelled a wordless cry of anger and frustration. "You had that rope with you the whole time? We could have used that to climb! And you could have warned me! And I wouldn't have wasted all my magic! Why? Why didn't you just use that one of the dozen other times we could have used that? Why?" she screamed in the other's direction.
Applejack shrugged. "We never needed it. If you'd just climbed we wouldn't have had any problems. You could have done it, those before this one were pretty easy to get up on." She turned and began to walk away.
Rarity stood there, mouth agape. "You-" she began, but stopped, pointing her hoof forward and slightly shaking.
Applejack turned back towards her. "Yeah?"
Rarity just kept pointing at something behind Applejack, still shaking.
Applejack turned. "Oh."
"So, what were you doing when the Map called us?" Rainbow asked, picking the last remaining twigs out of her mane.
"I was having a tea with Rarity. We'd spent some time at the lake before that. It's a shame we didn't get to finish it." Fluttershy paused. "Oh, not that everything else of what happened isn't bad, I didn't mean it like that, Celestia turning evil and all that. I hope Luna and the others will be alright," she added, sounding somewhat embarrassed, as if it had been wrong for her to complain about her tea when compared to everything else that was happening.
Rainbow finished cleaning her mane of all major pieces of wood and bark. "Well, then we better speed up, so we can get this over with as quickly as possible."
Fluttershy nodded in agreement. She reared back slightly, concentrating, and then shot forward. In a very moderate burst of speed, the flying equivalent of a slightly quicker walk.
Rainbow rolled her eyes and groaned, looking down at the world below them as it rolled on far too slowly for her tastes. Finally, she accepted the flight would be a long one. "So," she asked, "you and Rarity."
Fluttershy looked back towards her. "Yes?"
"Do you have some bread? I'm getting a little hungry here." Twilight compared the two maps on the table in front of her, adjusting the ship's trajectory slightly by steering the wheel.
"Sure thing!" Pinkie replied, before sticking a hoof in her mane and retrieving a loaf of bread. "Here you go!" she said, passing it to Twilight.
The alicorn distractedly grabbed it in her magic. "Thank you," she said, before taking a large bite out of the loaf and begging to chew on it, still focused on the maps. Then a thought occurred to her, and she stopped, swallowing. "Pinkie?" she asked, "Did you just take that out of your mane?"
Pinkie bounced up to her side. "Yes. Don't worry, I keep it clean."
"No, that's not- Well, first off, eww, I hope you're right about keeping it clean. But second, I never saw you take it out of the bags. Did you do it before we left?"
Pinkie nodded. "I put all the food in there."
Twilight's expression turned to a suspicious one. "Then why did you bring the bags with you?" she asked, afraid she knew the answer already.
Pinkie smiled.
"Pinkie."
Pinkie's smile grew wider. Uncomfortably wider.
Twilight rolled her eyes with a grunt and levitated the pink pony out of the way, exposing the two saddlebags behind her. Or, the section of the ship's room's floor where they should have been. One of them was suspended in mid-air, a frantic twitching coming from inside, the other was magically attached to the ceiling. "Pinkie."
Pinkie's smile threatened to fully encircle her head and make the top pop off.
Twilight gave her a stern look.
"I promised I would take care of them, okay?" the pony finally snapped, defensively.
"You lied to me! You told me you'd left them to a friend while I was renting the boat!" Twilight reproached her, accusingly holding up a hoof.
"But I did leave them to a friend!" Pinkie replied. "Me!" she said, popping out from behind Twilight.
Twilight jumped back, startled by the sudden display of non-magic teleportation. "Okay, listen, we don't have the time to go back, so just make sure nothing happens to them, alright?"
Pinkie vigorously nodded. "Yes ma'am. Now I just need to find them," she added, rubbing a hoof under her chin.
Twilight turned around to see two empty saddlebags lying on the ground, and audibly groaned.
"That sounds boring," Rainbow said, her wings lazily beating.
"Oh no, we find it very relaxing," Fluttershy replied.
"Bah! Sitting still for hours. No thanks."
"But I thought you liked doing something like that. Aren't you always napping somewhere?" Fluttershy asked.
Rainbow's ears perked up, and she flew ahead in front of the other pegasus. "That's completely different, okay? What I do is relaxing after some hard work. What you do is... It's like, active waiting! You have to put effort into it and stuff! It's tiring, and it's useless!"
"Hum, Rainbow? I don't wa-"
"What? Are you trying to tell me how wrong I am?"
"No, what I meant is-"
"Because I don't care about that, okay? It's not important."
"Well, okay, but if you could-"
"But what? I've said I don't care!"
"Rainbow, there's-"
"Wha-"
The albatross Fluttershy had been trying to warn Rainbow Dash about violently hit the back of the blue pegasus' head, and the mare fell downwards with a yelp of surprise.
"Oh dear." Fluttershy pointed down and accelerated, catching up to Rainbow and catching her in her hooves. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," Rainbow said, freeing herself from the other's grasp and resuming her flight.
The two quietly flew side by side for a short while.
"You know," Fluttershy finally broke the silence, "I understand if that sounds boring to you. But Rarity and I enjoy it. I get that you're annoyed you can't stay with us, though."
Rainbow grunted. "I said I'm not bothered by it."
"If you want, you could try hanging out with Applejack while me and Rarity are together. We invited her once, and she said it was boring as well, maybe you two can find something to do together that you both enjoy. You did always seem to have some things in common," Fluttershy continued.
Rainbow kept looking ahead, silent.
After a few more minutes of quiet, Fluttershy broke the silence again. "Is it going to take much longer to get there?"
"A bit," Rainbow replied. "So," she added shortly after, "just to spend the time while we get there, do you really think that thing you said? I mean, I'm not sure Applejack would want to hang out."
"Well, she did accept to stay with us, she'll probably do it. And I'm pretty sure you'll find something you both like."
Rainbow rubbed her chin, reflecting.
Sunburst gave a tired yawn, observing the magical dome at the edge of the Crystal Empire as he rocked Flurry's cradle back and forth to keep the young alicorn asleep despite the burning sunlight coming from outside.
"Your Royal Solar High-Majesty, Starlight Glimmer has arrived," the brainwashed guard declared.
"Very well," Daybreaker replied, lazily splayed over her throne, "let her in then. And leave the two of us alone, please."
The guard respectfully bowed, then walked out of the room to communicate her orders.
Seconds after, the doors opened again, letting Starlight in only to close behind her. "Your Supreme Regal Magnificence," she began with a bow towards the alicorn, "I am here to offer my services to you, and help in-"
"Cut the act, Starlight," Daybreaker barked, "I know you're pretending." She got up from her throne, her flaming mane and tail setting the tapestry on fire as she moved, and walked down the steps to the recently added swimming pool at the centre of the room, completely filled with molten gold.
"So you figured it out, huh?" Starlight said, a flat expression on her face.
Daybreaker hopped into the pool and looked up at Starlight. "Well, I am the smartest creature in existence, after all."
"And the modestest as well, I see."
Daybreaker huffed, grabbing another one of the golden statues made in her image from the large pile near the wall and melting it into her pool to raise the height a little. "Are you going to submit willingly to the brainwashing or do you want to struggle against it?" she asked. "I like it when ponies pick the struggling," she added, using her magic to make a golden mirror out of some of the gold in the pool and admiring herself in it.
Starlight sat down and looked at her. "Do you really hypnotise every one of your servants? Can't you just trust them?"
"Why should I trust they'll do what I want when I can be sure they'll think what I want?"
"How can you even claim you're so great if you have to force ponies to agree with you?"
"I don't need some lowly pony's opinion, Starlight, I know I'm the greatest creature to ever live. Really, they should thank me, I'm making sure they know the truth that is my unparalleled greatness." She melted the mirror back into the pool. "Enough of that though. Now sit still and let me rewrite your thoughts. Or thrash around violently and scream for mercy as I rewrite your thoughts. Same thing, really." Daybreaker straightened her neck and positioned her head, ready to use her magic on Starlight.
"Oh no. how terrible." The unicorn's expression remained flat, and her horn flashed for a second.
Daybreaker frowned, then looked at her horn. "Did you... You locked away all magic in the room, didn't you?"
Starlight nodded. "Yep. It wasn't a bad idea to have your guards take me here, but it turns out you're not the only one who knows how to hypnotise ponies. I had them draw a restriction circle around the room, and just moved the last piece in place. It also works as a containment field, so you can't go out."
Daybreaker grunted. "Well, your magic is turned off as well. Do you seriously think there's anything you can do to stop me when I'm the stronger, bigger, smarter, more beautiful, and all around better of us? Really, I'm not locked in here with you, you're locked in here with me!"
"Maybe." Starlight got up and walked up to the door. "But I have a plan. You see, the circle actually extends a bit past this door, and I had the guards bring me something here." She extended her hooves past the exit to grab something.
Daybreaker snickered. "What are you going to do, read me a story or something? Are you trying to bore me into submission?"
Starlight pulled in a briefcase and opened it, revealing two pairs of hoofcuffs and a harness designed to restrain wings.
Daybreaker stared at her. "This is a joke, right? You don't expect me to willingly step into those things, do you?"
Starlight smiled. "Well, I don't see how that would be a problem, unless you mean to tell me these pitiful bonds would be enough to contain your unimaginable strength."
"..."
"..."
"This is a trap, isn't it?"
"Sounds like you're scared to me. Are you implying I could somehow be able to trap you? Are you afraid, Celestia?"
Daybreaker's eyes twitched. "I am NOT afraid, you pathetic worm. And I am not that weakling you knew as Celestia! I am Daybreaker, the glorious and all-powerful sup-"
"Yeah, yeah, skip the rigmarole and get your flank here."
Daybreaker gritted her teeth. "You insolent insect," she growled as she pulled herself out of the pool. She walked up to Starlight and looked down at her. "Well, get on with it so I can free myself and then obliterate you."
Starlight grabbed the cuffs and locked them around Daybreaker's legs, then tied the harness around her wings. "There, all done."
Daybreaker exhaled. "Good." She tried to pull herself free. She failed. A knock on the window drew her attention, and she looked up to see Discord waving at her from the other side. She was about to yell, when Starlight placed a gag on her mouth. She was then pushed by the unicorn, and fell on the ground, where she futilely twitched and emitted angry noises.
"And now," Starlight said, pulling a blackboard in from behind the door, "I'm going to lecture you on the importance of friendship."
Daybreaker's blocked screams turned from anger to panic.
"So... you know... how to climb... after all..." Applejack slowly said between heavy breaths.
"I..." Rarity didn't get any further than that, and instead just kept panting, too drained by the recent exertion to have the strength left to retaliate against the earth pony's quip.
Applejack looked down from the edge of the stone structure they'd climbed on, a round and strangely large area atop a rather thin pillar. "Still there, but it looks like we're safe up here," she said, watching the yeti circling around the base of the pillar.
"Hello, visitors."
Applejack and Rarity jumped up from the shock, hugging each other in mid-air, and almost fell back down. They fortunately landed back on the rock, and quickly let go of the other once they realised their position.
"Oh. Sorry," the stallion who'd unintentionally startled them said, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head and smiling. He was a yellow earth pony with a messy green mane and a padlock as his cutie mark. "Welcome to my side of the rock!" he greeted them.
Applejack and Rarity tilted their heads in opposite directions. "Your side?" the second asked.
The stallion nodded. "It goes up to the middle," he said, turning around and pointing a hoof forward, "and past that there's Looking Glass's side," he added, pointing a little further to a dark purple earth pony mare with a puffy blue mane and a magnifying glass as her cutie mark, sitting on the edge of the rock with her back to them. "My name's Keys Keeper, by the way."
"I'm Rarity," Rarity said, "and she's Applejack."
"So, ah," Applejack began, "why are you two here on this rock?"
"We got chased here by that beast down there, like you did," Keys Keeper replied. "It's been... a while, actually. Let me think. I believe it happened the month before this one? Yeah, it was late winter I think."
The two mares stared gaping at him. "A month?" Rarity asked, stupefied.
The stallion nodded. "Yep. We don't really mind, there's food and all, and the view is actually quite lovely."
"There's food?" Applejack asked, curious.
"Yep." Keys once more pointed a hoof towards the centre of the platform. "There are some vegetables growing there between the cracks in the rock. So really, we actually enjoy it here, we'd come here to spend some time away from the city after all." He looked down. "At least, we used to like it. We used to share the rock between the two of us. Then we had our discussion, and things have been a little worse since then. We split the rock and we haven't really talked much since," he finished, gloomily.
Applejack and Rarity looked at each other, then at their cutie marks. "Care to tell us more?" they asked in unison.
"Do you think this is far enough?"
"Shut up and keep walking."
The two cloaked stallions marched onwards through the desert, the Sun bearing down on them, their hooves leaving a trail behind them on the scorching sand.
"I'm never trusting you for something like this, ever again," Twilight hissed in Pinkie's direction, as quietly as she could. She then slowly crawled forward, belly pressed on the yard below her, careful not to scare away the two foals perched on the yardarm in front of her.
"I'm sorry," Pinkie whispered back, in a surprisingly loud whisper considering it was still clearly a whisper.
"Well you should have-" Twilight suddenly slipped off and found herself hanging from the yard by her front hooves. This did not scare away the twins, but it did catch their attention, and they turned towards Twilight, watching her with curious eyes.
"Are you alright?" Pinkie asked in what at that point might as well not have been spoken in a whispered manner, as it was clearly louder than her normal speaking voice.
"Yeah," Twilight replied, looking down then up, "I think so." She stared at the two foals. "I'll try not to use magic or my wings, they seem to not be scared right now."
"Okay," Pinkie said in the whispered equivalent of a scream.
Twilight rolled her eyes and suppressed a groan. She then looked back at the yard and tentatively attempted to swing herself back up. She succeeded in grabbing it with her hind legs, and found herself hanging upside down below it, much to the amusement of the two young twins.
Pinkie smiled at her in encouragement. Somehow producing a noise as she did. Somehow, a noise that sounded like a really loud whisper.
Twilight tried to move forward, a bit dizzy due to her position. She pulled herself closer to the yard and made an attempt at replicating the movements of a caterpillar. She only had mild success with that. It at least amused the twins.
"Come on, Twilight, you can do it!" Pinkie, now wearing a cheerleader outfit, cheered her on.
Twilight swallowed. She looked ahead of her, trying to take proper measurements, then gave a push and pull with her hooves to jump forward. She failed. Miserably. It didn't help that she had displayed about as much coordination and grace as a drunk elephant on stilts. She shortly after found herself hanging from the yard with just one single hoof keeping her there, and looking down she decided it was time to use her magic to get herself back up.
Pinkie gasped in anticipation as Twilight almost fell, then sighed in relief when she teleported back on top of the yard.
The Cake twins watched the alicorn dangle precariously in front of them, amused, but when she finally used her magic they were startled away from their spot. Pound spread his wings and flew away, while Pumpkin teleported away with her own magic.
Twilight gasped and watched in apprehension, fearing the two might fall into the sea around them. Thankfully, they both safely landed on top of the giant sea monster's head.
Twilight took a moment to re-examine the situation.
Twilight gasped in horror, suddenly aware of the giant, snake-like sea monster which had appeared at the side of their boat, its body a scaly blue with red stripes, its long fangs bared and sharp, its large, predatory eyes strangely wet and its low, terrifying voice... sobbing?
Twilight took a moment to re-examine the situation
Twilight gasped, not in any particular feeling, wondering why there was a giant sea monster crying in front of her.
"Uh, hello?" Pinkie called, "Mister monster? Down here!"
"Huh?" The monster looked down. "Oh, hello there, bouncy little pink quadruped. My name is Charles." He turned to Twilight. "And greetings to you as well, winged purple quadruped."
Twilight cleared her throat. "Hem, hello, Charles. I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this here is Pinkie Pie. Could you, hum, could you please be careful? A couple of foals moved on top of your head."
"Oh?" Charles looked up, keeping his head still and only moving his eyes. "Well hello there," he said to the twins.
Pound and Pumpkin crawled forward on top of his head to stare at his large circular eyes and at the slitted pupils inside them. They smiled and cheered.
Charles smiled as well. "I suppose you would like me to put them back down, right?" he asked Twilight.
"Well, yes, if you could. Try not to hurt them."
"Don't worry." A skeletal claw-like appendage extended from the back of Charles's body, previously hidden underwater. It's three jagged and pointed ends closed around the foals, the limb a sickening green and black colour against the bright red and blue of the monster's scales, and then the whole apparatus moved with twisted and unnatural jerks, reminiscent of broken bones, to safely deposit the two young ponies back onto the boat. It then retracted back into the waters, its sound like the howl of pain of a tortured creature.
"I-Uh-" Twilight suppressed a surge of vomit "-Thank you. Thank you."
Pinkie was on the edge of the boat, head low and mouth pointed at the sea, clearly showing she did not possess as much self-control as Twilight.
"Oh, don't worry about it."
Twilight quickly grabbed the twins in her magic and pulled them close to her, though they seemed too focused on Charles to try to run away again.
"Excuse me if I ask, but, are they yours?" the monster asked.
Twilight looked confused for a moment, then shook her head with a giggle. "Oh, no, no they aren't. We're just taking care of them while their parents are away."
"Isn't it a bit dangerous to bring them here?"
"Maybe. But we didn't have much of a choice." Twilight looked at Pinkie. "Right, Pinkie?"
Pinkie gave an awkward smile and a nervous laugh, turning slightly red.
"So, what brings you here?" Charles asked, leaning over the boat with his head and looking down at Twilight.
"Well, it's a bit complicated to explain, but basically we've been sent here to find and solve a friendship problem and-"
"A friendship problem?" Charles's face lit up. "I have a friendship problem!"
"You have frie-I mean, you do?"
Charles vigorously nodded.
Twilight looked at her cutie mark, then teleported back to her table for a moment before teleporting back. "Well, looks like we're in the right place. What is your problem, Charles?"
"Chapter one, section two: Defining Friendship, part one of eighty-seven," Starlight recited from the voluminous textbook she'd pulled inside from behind the door, the first of many parts of a properly organized and expanded edition of Twilight's studies on friendship. She moved up to the blackboard once more.
Daybreaker whimpered from her position on the ground, her muffled cries echoing in the room.
"So I swept down and-"
"Huh, Rainbow? I-"
"What? It totally happened, you can-"
The large arch signalling the entrance to Griffonstone bashed into the back of the distracted pegasus's head, and she fell to the ground below.
"No, I meant to say that I think we're here," Fluttershy whispered. "Oh dear." She flew down to where Rainbow had fallen.
Rainbow lifted her head from where it had impacted the ground, and looked up, her face undeniably flatter than usual. "Hey, we're here!" she exclaimed as she saw the city. She quickly got up and began to walk forward.
Fluttershy walked behind her. "Do you think we'll have a hard time finding the problem?"
"Nah," Rainbow replied, looking back. "And even if we do we can always ask Gi-"
She was interrupted by a flying crate smashing into her.
"Sorry!" a voice yelled in the distance.
Fluttershy quickly moved to make sure she was alright, removing the rests of the crate from her.
Rainbow got up and shook her head, still a bit dazed, splinters of wood in her mane once again.
"Dash!" a familiar voice said, coming from a griffon quickly approaching them.
"Gilda!" Rainbow replied.
"What are you doing here?" Gilda asked, finally stopping in front of the two.
"Friendship mission," Rainbow replied. A potted plant fell from somewhere above her, the pot shattering on her head and covering her mane in dirt. "Ouch!" She looked up. "Hey! Watch what you're doing!"
The griffon above her shrugged.
"Hi," Gilda said, finally acknowledging Fluttershy.
"Hello," Fluttershy replied.
"So, huh," Rainbow said, shaking her mane to shake off the dirt, "how's it going? We were sent here to fix a friendship problem, and we'd rather get over with it quickly, since, you know..." She vaguely pointed at the sky.
"The fact that it should be the middle of the night right now? Yeah, we guessed you ponies were behind that."
Rainbow coughed. "Yeah, that. So, see anything that looks like a friendship problem around here?"
Gilda looked back over her shoulder. "I don't know, Dash. You tell me."
Rainbow looked past the griffon, to the raging mess of fighting griffons in the middle of the city. "Oh."
Fluttershy's eyes went wide at the sight. "Oh my. What happened?"
"Eh. A bunch of crates fell from the sky and a fight broke out when nobody could decide who they belonged to."
Rainbow scratched her head. "What was in the crates?"
"A bunch of different stuff. Bits, silverware, books. A lot of tea. Like, a lot of tea. Some cakes too," Gilda explained. "Oh, and I also found this," she added, holding up a necklace with a locket hanging from it, the pendant rusted and closed. "It wasn't in any of the crates though. Too rusty to open, and it's not worth much so the others had no interest in it."
Fluttershy picked up a broken section of the crate that Rainbow had been hit by, and noticed what looked like a symbol printed on to it, though only part of it was on the piece and it was impossible to identify it. "Have you tried figuring out who the crates were actually meant for?"
"Nah." Gilda put the necklace away. "We're griffons, the moment they realised there was money involved it was over."
"And you're not fighting against them because?"
"I run the only decent bakery in town, Dash. Where do you think they're going to spend all those bits?" Gilda gave the two a smug look.
Fluttershy stared at the griffons. "I thought things had gotten better here after Pinkie's visit, and after we opened the school."
"They have," Gilda said. "It's mostly just a small group that's making all this mess. Plus, you know, we're griffons, we don't exactly do friendship the sappy way you ponies do. But if you want to put a stop to this then go ahead."
The two ponies looked at each other.
"Well, it seems we better get going if we want to do this, right?" Rainbow said. "After all, how hard can it be to calm down a few griffons?"
"Ah! I won again," Shining said as he picked up the cards and started to shuffle them back together. "Want to play another round?"
Cadence sighed, staring outside the window at the magical dome covering the Empire. "Sure, why not."
"Hi," Looking Glass said, flatly.
"Hi," Rarity replied, more cheerfully. "My name is Rarity."
"Hi, Rarity." Looking Glass's hind legs aimlessly dangled from the edge of the rock.
Rarity sat at her side. "Is there something you want to talk about?" she asked.
"No."
Rarity forced a smile on her face. "Are you sure? Maybe something about a necklace with a locket?"
Looking Glass grunted, looking away. "Fine. What did he tell you?"
Rarity moved a little closer. "Well, he told me that you lashed out at him after checking your bag and seeing the necklace wasn't there, but that you'd given him permission to throw it away before that. Is that not what happened?"
Looking Glass kept looking away, without answering.
Rarity moved her face closer. "So? I want to help you, darling, but if you don't tell me anything there's not much I can do."
Looking glass rolled her eyes, groaning. "Okay, fine!" She turned towards Rarity. "I cared about that locket, okay? He should have asked before throwing it away."
"Well, he says he did ask you, darling. He's said you told him it was just a piece of trash."
"I..." Looking Glass looked down. "Well, I did say that. But I didn't think he would throw it away! I was just trying to get him to ignore it. I didn't say it was fine for him to throw it away."
Rarity tentatively moved a hoof to Looking Glass's face, lifting it up to have the pony look at her. "I'm sure we can fix this, darling. If it was all just a big misunderstanding then all you need to do is go talk to him, everything will be alright once you've made things clear."
Looking Glass looked sceptically at her. "And what should I tell him? That it's my fault if he threw away my locket?"
Rarity tried her best to keep smiling. "Well, what did you tell him exactly? About the locket I mean, when he asked about it."
"I think the exact words were 'it's nothing important, it's just a piece of trash', he was going through our stuff to throw away the garbage since we'd found a trash bin and he decided to check my bags as well. I guess it sort of was my fault if he thought it was okay to throw it away."
Rarity tilted her head to the side. "You found a trash bin? Here in the middle of the mountains?"
Looking Glass nodded. "This is actually quite popular as a tourism destination for all those interested in climbing and the like. We probably should have been more careful and stayed on track, we wouldn't have run into that beast that way, but it's perfectly normal to have found a trash bin while we were still on the track."
Rarity frowned in though. "Weird, we didn't find anything like that while coming here. Oh well, it must have been damaged when some parts of the mountain broke off." Her expression returned to a more serene one. "Well, anyhow, now that we've made it clear what actually happened I think we should go tell your friend about it." She grabbed Looking Glass by the hoof and turned towards the centre of the rock.
"Wait!" The mare resisted against the unicorn's pull.
Rarity turned back, quizzically staring at Looking Glass.
The pony drew back her hoof. "He still needs to apologize! He didn't have the right to go through my stuff like that!"
"Well, I'm sure he will apologize about that if you explain it to him. And I'm sure he'll apologize for having thrown away your necklace as well, once you've told him that you actually cared for that."
Looking Glass appeared confused for a moment, then turned to look at a side. "No. I'm not coming, okay?"
Rarity frowned. "What is the problem, darling."
Looking Glass didn't answer.
Rarity got closer. "Is it about the locket?" she asked.
The mare pressed her lips together for a moment, her gaze distant, then finally she nodded.
The unicorn walked up to her and sat at her side. She wrapped a leg around the back of the mare and leaned in closer. "That locket was very important to you, right?"
Looking Glass nodded.
"But you don't want your friend to know why. Correct?"
Looking Glass nodded again.
Rarity smiled at her. "Well, you can tell him the truth, or you can tell him you simply overreacted about what he did. Either way, nothing good will come if you just keep holding a grudge against him without telling him why."
Looking Glass appeared confused. "Are you saying I should lie to him?"
Rarity gave a brief giggle and covered her mouth with a hoof. "Maybe? Just don't tell my friend I did."
"I heard that."
Rarity and Looking Glass stared at each other.
"Did you say something, darling?"
The earth pony shook her head.
"I said I heard that," Applejack repeated, emerging from past the edge of the rock in front of them.
"Oh, huh..." Rarity looked around nervously. "Shouldn't you be trying to figure out a way to deal with that yeti?"
"I am," Applejack replied, pulling herself up on the rock to sit down. "I just happened to pass by and hear what you said while I was circling the perimeter. You can't be seriously suggesting that she should lie to him, right?"
"Well, it's a completely harmless lie, okay? If she doesn't want to tell him then we can't force her to," Rarity defensively replied.
Applejack pursed her lips, unconvinced. "Listen. The Map sent us both here, and I'm willing to bet I wasn't chosen just because they needed a way to deal with the yeti. If she doesn't tell him the truth about that locket he's never going to give her the apology she wants from him. She'll just remain annoyed that it happened, and one day she's going to bring it up again and they're going to have another fallout like this one. Keeping stuff hidden like that won't do her any good in the long run."
"I..." Rarity paused. She closed her eyes and pressed her lips, giving a muffled and high-pitched grunt.
Applejack looked at her with a smug smile. "Something you want to say?"
Rarity rolled her eyes and sighed. "You're right."
Applejack kept smiling.
Rarity turned to Looking Glass. "She has a point. As much as I don't want to admit it. If you don't tell him how much that thing actually meant to you you're never going to get over the fact that he threw it away. You know he didn't mean to hurt you, but if he doesn't understand what he did you'll never be able to forgive him for it. It might sound like it's not a big deal, but it's exactly the type of thing that's going to come out again at the worst time."
Looking Glass held her head low. "So I should tell him everything about it then? I'm not sure I want to."
"Yes, Darling." Rarity smiled. "It's necessary if you want things to go the right way in the future. Right, Applejack?"
Looking Glass swallowed, looking up. "I... Well, I don't really..." She paused, and took a deep breath.
Applejack looked at her face.
"I'm not sure I want to tell him why. I..."
"You don't need to tell him everything."
Rarity turned to Applejack, a questioning expression on her face.
Applejack ignored that. "You just need him to understand that it was important to you, it's not important why it was important. Just that you cared about it, and you didn't want him looking around through your stuff. We can talk about what exactly you should tell him." She turned to Rarity. "You go and talk with him, I can handle the honesty part of the matter."
Rarity frowned a bit. "Well, if you say it like that. I'll tell him to meet in the centre in ten minutes, is that enough?"
"Sure."
Rarity began to walk away.
"Oh, and one more thing," Applejack added. "I think I saw some tea growing on the rock as well, see if you can prepare something with that."
Rarity stopped. She almost turned around, then realised something and smiled, resuming her walk.
On his spot on the ground, beneath the blanket, Spike sighed in agony as another page appeared from inside him.
"This thing is hundreds of years old!" Twilight exclaimed as she examined the rusted metallic cylinder in front of her. "Look at this glyph! Something like that hasn't been used for the last two hundred years, and even then it had already been falling in disuse. And this pattern! If we assume this isn't some rare occurrence, but a mass produced item, then we can confront it with the various stylistic trends and date this to at least a hundred years earlier. And the way the sea has damaged it seems to line up!"
Pinkie bounced at her side. "Oh," she said in a marvelled tone, not having the faintest idea of what Twilight was talking about. "Interesting." She stopped bouncing and pointed a hoof at the cylinder. "So what is it?"
"It's a trash bin!" Twilight squeed.
"Oh. Interesting." Pinkie pressed her lips together in thought, squinting. "Why is it interesting?"
"Well, there must be a story behind it! How did a trash bin end up at the bottom of the sea? It's fascinating. I will have to do some research on it." Twilight returned to examining the object, lifting it above her with her magic to look at each side of it.
"That's good, but aren't you forgetting something?" Pinkie asked.
Twilight looked away from the cylinder. "No, I don't think I'm..." She stopped.
Pound and Pumpkin waved at her from inside Charles's mouth, the monster having opened it to allow them to play. Between her and the serpent, Pinkie theatrically posed, pointing to the latter.
"Oh, right." Twilight smiled. "Sorry about that. Charles, do continue with your story."
Charles gently set the twins back down on the boat, then cleared his throat. "As I said, I found that... trash bin, you called it? Anyway, I found that at the bottom of the ocean, where I usually hang out. I usually hang out at the bottom of the ocean, you see, I'm only here on the surface because I wanted to be away for a bit and that's why I didn't even notice that the Sun shouldn't still be up until you told me and-Oh my, I'm getting distracted again, am I not? Sorry." He chuckled. "Back on topic, I found that trash bin, and it wasn't the first time, I will occasionally find one like it, you see, which is why I decided I should try to bake something with the contents like I usually do. But then George got that terrible reaction from eating it- George is my friend, I should have said that sooner, we always have a lot of fun together and-My, Charles, get a hold of yourself! So I offered him a slice of cake, like I always do when I bake, and then he started to cough and spit and twitch until he shot out something from his throat. He said it was horrible, and that it was my fault for it! And that my cakes are never that good anyway! So I swam away, and I started crying. And then I met this small boat with two colourful quadrupeds on it, saying that something was on my head, and- Well, I suppose you know what happened after that."
Pinkie hummed in concentration. "Twilight, are you thinking what I'm thi-Twilight?"
Twilight had gone back to examining the trash bin, a sparkle in her eyes. "Ah-ha!" she exclaimed as she spotted something on the bottom. "I knew I'd read about something like this. It was the way Charles said he'd found other bins in the past. This thing used to be near the border with Yakyakistan, until a dragon attacked that region during the late winter. The reports say that the fire melted all the snow, and that the resulting stream of water carried all the debris left from the battle away. This inscription on the bottom clearly says that this was placed there, and the dates would line up. Now we know how this got here!"
Pinkie, the Cake twins and Charles all stared at her, expressions flat and uninterested.
Twilight smiled sheepishly. "Er, yes, Pinkie? What were you saying?"
"How about now?"
The stallion only received a grunt from his companion in response.
His steps became more erratic, his pace uncertain. "Can't we take a pause?" He looked around, seeing nothing but an endless sea of sand around them.
The stallion in front of him slowed and finally stopped. His breath could be heard, heavy and tired. "I think we're almost there. We should keep going."
"Are you sure?" The other asked, moving closer. "Can we make it?"
"The reports say it's possible to cross it all in one go. We're guards, Rain, we're used to this type of stuff. We can do it. It's probably behind that next crest."
"And what if we don't?"
"Would you rather have stayed there?"
"Okay, calm down, I'm sure that if we all sit down for a moment and talk about this you'll see how you are actually making a mistake," Rainbow pleaded in the calmest tone she could muster, as the angry mob of griffons carried her tied-up body towards the cliff-side.
Gilda landed at Fluttershy's side, atop a nearby peak. "Hey, why did you come all the way here? How are things go-Oh no, that's not good," she said as she noticed the scene. She turned to Fluttershy. "I left for five minutes to go check the oven and I come back to this? What did she do?" she yelled.
"She tried to convince them to throw the crates away. It was actually going pretty smoothly, they had a song about it and all. Then they saw her trying to grab all the stuff for herself while they were distracted."
Gilda dragged her paw along her face. "Great. I suppose I have to save her, yes?"
"No," Fluttershy calmly replied as Rainbow's body was brought closer to the edge. "This is actually all part of the plan. Step one is coming together marvellously."
Gilda looked puzzled. "It is? Shouldn't we be worrying about how Dash is about to get thrown off a mountain?"
"Don't worry. We switched out the rope, the one they actually used has cuts in it so you can get out of it whenever you want. Rainbow is just waiting for them to throw her, and then she'll break free and hide. There, look." Fluttershy pointed as Rainbow Dash was launched away.
"Huh." Gilda sat down at Fluttershy's side. "So what's the plan?"
"Phase one is about getting the Griffons to band together over something. Phase two..." Fluttersy paused and smiled, looking somewhere behind Gilda. "Well, I think you can ask her about it directly."
Gilda turned around to see Rainbow land in front of her. "Dash!" she barked, lurching forward to tackle the pegasus. "Next time you have to fake something like that warn me before, okay?"
Rainbow Dash laughed as she wriggled out from beneath the Griffon. "Okay, sure. Fluttershy told you about the plan yet?"
"Only the first half."
Rainbow brushed some dust off of her body. "So, it all started while I was watching the other griffons fight. I realised that even if I explained to them that it's wrong to fight over this stuff, that would have still left the problem of who the crates should go to. They feel from the sky, so there's no real answer to that. And well, as a pony I might think that the solution is to either leave the crates behind or split them equally, but you said it yourself, griffons don't do friendship like that. Sooner or later someone was going to complain that they should have gotten more, and there was the problem of some stuff being already taken, too."
Gilda nodded. "All very interesting. Now could you get to the point that involves you getting thrown off a cliff?"
Rainbow chuckled. "Sure. I figured out that what they needed was a reason to share the stuff. Like, a business type of reason. So I tricked them into thinking that I was trying to steal from them. The first part of the plan was forcing them to band together over something, and part two involves getting them to stay on the same page. Eventually, they'll see the advantages of sharing things without the constant need for an outside menace threatening to steal their belongings if they're divided, I just gave them a push in the right direction."
"I'll admit I'm impressed, Dash. Did you come up with this all on your own?" Gilda asked.
"Well-" Rainbow hesitated. "Have you heard of this story called Watchmares?"
Fluttershy gave a brief cough to grab their attention, interrupting them. "I think Giorno is about to start his speech."
Gilda looked at Rainbow for answers.
"Oh, yeah," Rainbow said, moving to get a better view of the mass of griffons. "This is part of part two of the plan. We found a griffon who wasn't fighting over the crates and Fluttershy convinced him to collaborate, now he's going to give them a speech about how everyone deserves compensation because they all did their part in defending the treasure, and about how they need to stick together if they want to keep it safe. Then I'll rush in one more time to convince them that the danger is still there." She spotted the blue and yellow griffon amongst the crowd. "There he is," she said, pointing to him as he moved to hover in front of the rest and began to speak to them.
Gilda looked at the scene, then a thought occurred to her. "Hey, am I not going to be ostracised for being the one who brought you here, or for not having been there when they dragged you here? And isn't this going to be a problem for that whole school thing you're doing?"
"Oh, don't worry about that," Fluttershy replied, "we hypnotised them to think Rainbow was a completely different pony. As for what you were doing, Giorno will tell them you stayed back to defend the treasure from potential attacks, so you're safe there."
Gilda questioningly raised a claw. "You did what?"
Rainbow pointed out a large plain metal ring around one of her hooves. "Well, we didn't really hypnotise them ourselves, it was mostly this thing's doing. It was lying discarded on the ground near the crates and nobody was paying any attention to it, I picked it up and tried to put it on just because it looked like you could wear it around your hoof, and the next thing I knew everybody was seeing me as something else. I have to actually think about who I want to allow to see me as me. Here, check this out!"
Gilda didn't have time to answer, as immediately Rainbow disappeared and another pegasus replaced her, one she'd never seen. She was left speechlessly staring at it, until Rainbow reappeared in front of her.
"Well, looks like Giorno finished his speech, now it's my turn," the pegasus said. She shot up in the air with a push of her wings and flew towards the crowd.
Gilda watched as Rainbow lowered herself near the griffons, taunting them but staying out of their reach. Then one of them threw a brick at her and hit her in the head, making her fall once more behind the cliff. The griffon huffed and rolled her eyes.
"Oh my. Looks like I'll have to get her back," Fluttershy softly said, covering her mouth with a hoof.
"Well, you better get going, I think I heard something about having to save the world and all that fun stuff. See ya." Gilda turned around to walk away, then stopped. She took out the necklace and looked at it. "Heh, you know what? I don't have much use for this thing anyway. Here!" She tossed it to Flutttershy, who clumsily grabbed it. "And, huh, thanks for the help," she added before taking off towards the city.
In their shared bed, Mr. and Mrs. Cake slept peacefully, loudly snoring, the comfort of the bunker at the bottom of the cave system they'd toured keeping them isolated from the turmoil of the outside world.
"And here we go!" Pinkie happily declared as she pulled the cake out of the oven and presented it to Charles. "Did you memorise the whole process?"
The serpent happily nodded, and gave a blissful smile as the smell drifted up from the trail Pinkie was holding and to his nose.
"Great!" Pinkie smiled.
"Yes, great," Twilight uncertainly echoed as she struggled to hold the Cake twins in her grasp.
Pinkie set the trail down. "I'll make sure to send you all the ingredients you need once we get back home. Right Twilight?"
"Yes, right," Twilight distractedly replied as she hung upside down from the yard, a twin in each hoof. Pumpkin suddenly teleported herself and Pound away, leaving the alicorn to fall down as the shock made her hind hooves lose their grip.
The two reappeared on top of Charles's nose, and he chuckled as he set them down. "George should be here any second now," he commented. "I hope he'll like the cake."
Just as he'd finished speaking, the boat began to shake as waves began to form and expand in circles from a nearby spot in the water. The surface of the sea began to rise as a large shadow emerged from the depths. Then with a crashing sound the wall between air and water was breached, and the creature became fully visible.
It was reminiscent of an angler fish, if Twilight had to compare it to something. Only, rather than remaining confined to its mouth, the long and jagged rows of teeth seemed to extend all over its body, replacing what should have been its fins. Even then, more rows of large and sharp teeth-like appendages protruded from all over the creature at weird, twisted angles. Its body was a murky brown-green colour, like rotting algae, and four enormous, round and gelatinous eyes were on the centre of its forehead, the direction of its gaze imperscrutable.
The creature lifted a claw-tooth-appendage, the grinding sound of bones sickeningly echoing from within its body. "Hi Charles," he apathetically said. "I see you've replaced me already," he added, pointing to the ponies.
Twilight and Pinkie just stared at him, occasionally blinking, while Pound and Pumpkin watched in awe and began to happily cheer towards him.
George noticed the two little foals, and extended forward one of his eyes, detaching it from his body save for a single strand of muscle pushing it forward, the tentacle-like protrusion moving to observe the ponies from above. "Interesting creatures," he commented.
Twilight opened and closed her mouth a couple of times, wordlessly chewing. "Charles?" she finally managed.
"Oh, yes, sorry." The snake moved forward. "Hello George. These are Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake. Guys, this is George."
Pinkie tentatively lifted a hoof. "Hi George."
George retreated his tentacle-eye and turned to Charles. "So why did you call me?"
"I wanted to say I'm very sorry for what happened. I'm here to make it up to you. Pinkie here helped me bake another cake and I'm sure this time you'll-"
George interrupted him. "Are you trying to poison me or something? I wouldn't be surprised after last time."
Charles rushed towards him, a worried look in his eyes. "No, no, listen, whatever happened last time was just a misunderstanding, I wasn't trying to harm you, I swear!"
"Yeah, sure. Listen, I almost chocked on whatever that thing was that got stuck in my throat. I don't even know where I sent it when I spit it out!" He turned around and prepared to leave.
"No, wait!" Charles yelled, moving closer. "Please!"
George ignored him.
"Hey!" Pinkie yelled as she saw the monster leaving.
George turned around. "Oh, fine, what is it that you want you little critter?"
Pinkie held up the cake. "Won't you at least have a slice? We went through all the trouble of baking it just for you! Charles even learned how to do it himself so he'll be able to make it again whenever you want."
George mumbled to himself for a moment. "Well, I will admit it looks tasty." He extended another one of his eyes, which once above the boat revealed a slitted opening from which the monster inhaled. "And it smells good, I'll give you that," he added, retracting his eye-nose-tentacle. "Fine! I'll give it a shot," he finally said, moving back towards the boat.
Pinkie smiled and held up the plate, as Twilight cut two slices from it and levitated them towards the two monsters.
Both Charles and George ate their slices at the same time, and began to chew on them. Seconds after, their eyes lit up.
"Oh my Goodness," they both let out at the same moment.
"I've been eating garbage for my whole life, and I never knew what real food tastes like," George commented.
"I've been baking garbage my whole life, and I never realised," Charles said.
They looked at each other.
"I'm sorry I've been feeding you garbage for all this time," Charles said to George.
"I'm sorry if I didn't tell you about this sooner, and I ended up bursting like that," George replied. "You... Pinkie said you've learned how to bake this thing, right?"
Charles nodded.
"...Would you mind making more tomorrow?"
Charles dashed forward, extending his horrifying bone-like back arm to hug George's nightmare-inducing teeth-covered body. "Of course I can! I'll just need to wait for Pinkie to send me the ingredients, okay?"
George smiled in response.
"Well, all's well that ends with cows," Pinkie said, munching on a slice of cake.
"Cows? Don't you mean cake?" Twilight asked, biting into a slice of her own.
"Well, we're going back home," Charles said, "goodbye girls."
George simply waved, still eating his cake.
"Goodbye Charles. Goodbye George." Pinkie waved at them.
"Goodbye guys," Twilight echoed. "I guess we should go as well. Now, let's get-" She froze. "Pinkie, you were keeping an eye on the twins, right?"
Pinkie turned towards her. "What?"
Twilight frantically looked around, then froze again, spotting the two foals clinging to the bone-fins on George's back, right as the monster was about to dive back down. "Wait!" the alicorn yelled, panicking, as she aimlessly stumbled forward.
The sound of dice rolling and cards being drawn, the occasional creaking of the door opening and closing, and the click-clacking of the glasses and bottles were still the ever present background noise, but for once the collective murmur of voices was less prevalent, a fair number of the presents focused on the pony in front of the counter.
"And then I said we're guards, Rain, we can do this!" The stallion took another large sip from his mug. "And Rain here was all like we're never going to make it, but I've got a great sense of direction, and I told him don't worry, it's right behind that next crest, and sure enough here we are, safe and sound." Another sip. "Ain't that right, Rain?" he asked, poking the slumped over form of his friend to his right.
"Yeah..." the stallion replied between heavy pants, "Only took us... fifteen more crests... after that one..." He tiredly moved his hoof forward to grab his glass of water and drink some more.
The first one looked at him, then burst into a laugh that resonated around the walls of the inn, drawing the attention of yet more customers.
"And what brings you two here?" the bartender asked as he refilled Rain's glass.
The stallion took another sip. "Well, Ah shouldn't tell you this, cause it's gonna get me in trouble if it gets around too much, but I can trust you, right? So we used to be... Well, we used to be guards, guess I let that one slip already. So anyway, we were carrying a cargo. Really important stuff, can't tell you what. Carrying it with an airship. It was just me and Rain, Cel-they didn't want too many ponies knowing about it.
"So we were there, driving the airship and making sure no one attacked us, and then out of nowhere this thing comes down from the sky and pierces the balloon. I've got no idea of what it was, looked kind of like a small rock but I guess more metal-looking. Came down on us fast as an arrow, and lodged itself in one of the crates. We had to get onto the lifeboat, and we managed to make it out but the ship probably crash-landed somewhere, and it was starting to spin so the cargo probably fell off-board and now it's lost forever. And even if it landed somewhere safe it'll have already been raided by now.
"So we had to run away. And I mean, we had to run away. It was some really important stuff there. We've already gotten news of the consequences, if the pr-the ones who asked us to carry that thing had somehow been merciful a lot of other ponies would have made sure we paid the consequences either way."
The bartender grabbed Rain's empty glass. "Cool story," he said without looking at the two.
"Wait, where are you going?"
"I've got something to take care of," Applejack replied as she dropped past the edge of the rock. "You go ahead, I'm sure it'll be alright!" her voice came from where she was hanging.
Looking bit her lip, then turned around and began to walk towards the centre of the rock.
Keys was already waiting there for her, awkwardly fidgeting around with a stone on the ground in front of him, Rarity standing at his side.
"Hi," Looking said, tentatively approaching the two.
"Hi," Keys replied, still trying to focus on the rock on the ground.
"So... How's it going?"
"Fine."
Silence descended for a while.
Rarity smiled and gave a small cough, lightly nudging Keys in the side.
The stallion appeared startled. "Oh, hum... Is there something you want to talk about?"
For a moment, Looking Glass seriously considered turning around and leaving. "I... It's about that necklace," she finally managed to get out.
"Yeah... I guessed that."
Looking bit her lip. "So, I guess I owe you an apology. I did tell you it was trash. But... I cared about that thing, okay? I just didn't want you opening it. It was pretty personal."
Keys looked at her, his mouth half-open in what slightly resembled a smile. "I... You should have told me that. I would have left it there if you did."
Looking sighed. "I know. It was just- an impulse, you know? You didn't even ask to check my bag first. I know you were just doing me a favour, but you should have asked me before, okay?"
Keys pursed his lips in a frown. "You're right. I shouldn't have done that." He sighed. "I'm sorry that I did that. And I'm sorry I threw away your necklace, thinking it was just another one of those cheap discarded souvenirs you'd picked up along the way." He looked down.
"And... I'm sorry I didn't tell you the truth, and I threw a tantrum once I found out instead of telling you why I was upset. You couldn't understand, I shouldn't have blamed you for that. I just... I didn't want you to find out about that," Looking Glass replied.
"Well," Keys Keeper began, "I don't think it will replace the one you cared about, but Miss Rarity helped me with something. I don't know what made the other so special, and it's fine if you don't want to tell me, so just... consider this an apology." He turned to the unicorn, who passed him an envelope wrapped with grass and leaves. "Here," he said, passing it to Looking.
The mare grabbed it in her hooves and slowly unwrapped it, revealing a thin metal necklace with a spherical light-blue gem as a pendant. She looked up at the other two, wide-eyed.
"Just a little something I did with stuff I found around here. It's a real fortune there was a gemstone like that in the side of this pillar, and that dear Keys here was so helpful in getting it out of where it was stuck. Don't worry about the chain, I happened to have one with me that I'd forgotten to take out of my bags," Rarity said.
Keys Keeper looked up at Looking. "Do you like it?"
Looking looked back. She didn't answer, and instead simply sprang forward to hug the stallion.
Rarity smiled, staring at the two.
The rock trembled with a cracking sound, then began to lean to a side.
"Applejack!" Rarity yelled. "I'd told you to warn me!"
"Sorry ma'am," Applejack replied, emerging from the edge of the rock. "I saw my chance, I didn't have time to."
The rock kept tilting further and faster.
"Huh... Girls? What is happening?" Looking asked, looking at the two mares.
"We're getting out of here!" Applejack replied. She took out her rope and swung it towards the others, the coil on the opposite end latching on to a protrusion in the side of the boulder. "Hold on tight!"
The other three grabbed onto the rope.
"What are we doing?" Looking screamed.
There was another crack, the surface of the rock now almost perpendicular to the ground and the ponies only hanging on thanks to the rope.
"I told you," Applejack replied, looking up. "I'm getting us out of here."
"But what about the beast?" Keys asked.
"Don't worry. I've thought about that."
Below them, the yeti reared up and pressed his paws to the pillar, staring at them.
"Are you sure about that?" Looking asked.
Applejack rolled her eyes.
There was another cracking sound, and finally the top of the rock broke away from the pillar and began to fall.
"You're sure, right?"
Applejack rolled her eyes again.
The yeti stood there, waiting for the four ponies to fall towards him. And they did. Along with the rest of the rock. It was unfortunately too late to get out of the way when the creature realised that.
The rock landed on the ground with a loud thud, and the rope swung slightly from side to side. Then, as it had stabilised, the four ponies descended its length and dropped back to the ground.
"Well, looks like we're safe now. What did I tell ya?" Applejack said, fixing her hat as she smirked, eyes closed.
Rarity looked around, perplexed. "Uh... Applejack? I don't think they're here any more."
Applejack opened her eyes and scanned the area, then grunted. "Didn't even say thank you! Well, I guess we should go back now." She began to walk away.
Rarity gave one last look at the rock, then followed her.
A wrench sailed through the air, to land near a life-sized stuffed toy in the shape of Queen Chrysalis.
"Are you absolutely sure you checked everywhere properly?" Flam's voice came from the bottom of a box the unicorn was currently examining, as other objects kept being flung out of it.
"I am!" Flim replied, going through a long list he held in his magic. "It's not on the other side of the karma portal, it's not in the fireworks stash, and it most definitely hasn't fallen into the shoggoths' pool."
"Have you looked in the collection of Celestia's fake letters?"
"Twice, and I've also checked the mirrors room."
"And what about-"
"And the bags of arcane dust, and the collection of stand-disks."
Flam emerged from the box, launching an eerie looking stone mask away. "Well, it looks like we actually sent that thing. I can't believe you picked that instead of the kettle!"
"Hey!" Flim retorted, "It was your turn to deal with the delivery!"
"Whatever." Flam picked up a glass sphere with a little statuette of Shining Armor wielding a sword and striking a pose inside it, his eyes painted red. "What do you think will happen?"
"Worst thing, we'll probably have to move again. Guess it won't be as bad as that time in the Crystal Empire last Hearth's Warming though, at least we'll have time."
"Well, guess we should prepare then. You move the anteaters."
"Fine."
Twilight rushed towards the throne room, her breath coming in short bursts. Beside her, Pinkie quickly moved forward in long bounces, still holding on to Pound and Pumpkin. They both wore their Elements, and the remaining four floated at Twilight's side.
As they rounded a corner, a door burst open. "Twilight!" Rarity yelled as she saw her, Applejack emerging behind her.
"Girls!" Twilight replied as she passed them, still running.
The two started to run after the alicorn, and grabbed their Elements along the way.
As the group passed by an open window leading to a balcony after a flight of stairs, Rainbow Dash and Flutershy flew in, and they began to fly behind the others, grabbing their elements as well.
The ponies finally reached the last hallway, the entrance to the throne room straight ahead of them. The guard in front of it strode forward. "Halt!" he shouted, "Starlight Glimmer asks you to wait here as she's informed of your presence."
As they heard those words, the ponies screeched to a halt, and all managed to stop in their rush. All but Rainbow, who was moving too fast to stop and ended up crashing against the door, then falling to the ground.
The guard looked at her, then he turned and opened the door.
"Chapter three, section eight: The Benefits of Friendship, part ninety-four out of-" Starlight, comfortably sitting on the throne, noticed the door had opened and looked up from the book. "Oh hi girls!"
From her position on the ground, Daybreaker looked towards them as well. She bashed her head against the floor and the gag she was wearing finally came loose. "Please do the friendship rainbow laser thing, please!" she begged.
Twilight questioningly raised an eyebrow.
Rainbow, getting up from the ground, shook her head and looked at the scene. "...I really hit my head good there, didn't I?"
Rarity lifted a hoof, stuttering and struggling to begin her sentence. "I-Ah-I... I have several questions," she finally managed to say.
"Please!" Daybreaker begged again.
Applejack gave a faux cough. "Well, guess we should."
The group got in formation, the Elements began to glow, their bodies were lifted in the air, and a bright stream of rainbow-coloured energy poured from them onto Daybreaker's whimpering form. There was a bright flash of light, and as it dissipated Princess Celestia stood in the middle of the room, the cuffs and the harness now discarded on the ground beside her. "That was... inappropriate, perhaps. I apologise for trying to take over the World," she said in a tone that desperately tried and failed to hide her embarrassment.
Starlight got down from the throne and headed for the exit. "Well, my job here is done. You can thank me later."
Pinkie bounced up to her, having left the cake twins to wander the room. "Good job, Starlight!" she exclaimed, clearly ignoring the unicorn's instructions. She then kissed Starlight, went to grab the two foals just as they were about to fall into the pool of molten gold, and bounced away. "Don't forget about the ingredients!" she yelled to Twilight as she made her way down the hallway.
Starlight stood there dumbfounded for a few moments, staring at the slowly disappearing shape of the pink pony. "Did she just..." She brought a hoof up, questioningly. "Did she just..." She looked around at the others. She half-grunted, half-yelled a wordless sound. "Pinkie!" she screamed as she began to chase the pony.
Flutteshy walked up to Rainbow Dash. "Are you going to tell Twilight about the hoof-band?"
Rainbow looked at the metal ring. "Nah," she replied after a moment of thought. "At least, not until I've got the chance to pull a couple of pranks with it." Before the yellow pegasus had time to reply, she dashed off towards Applejack and hovered at her side. "Hey!" she called to draw the earth pony's attention, "Wanna race to the train station to see who gets there first?"
Applejack looked up at her. "Depends." She smirked. "Do you want to lose?"
Rainbow smirked back. "See you there!" she said as she pushed herself away with her wings and began to speed down the hallway.
"Hey!" Applejack yelled behind her. She growled and rolled her eyes. "That pony!" She began to chase after Rainbow, then took a turn at the first window and dropped herself out of the castle, using her rope to safely get herself to the ground.
Rarity watched the two of them go with a smile.
Fluttershy approached her, and they began to walk away as well. "So, hum," the pegasus said after a moment of silence, "Gilda gave me this thing while we were in Griffonstone. Think you can polish it a bit?" she asked, taking out the necklace.
Rarity took hold of it in her magic. "Well, it's not exactly my special talent, but I think I can do something about it, yes." Her horn glowed a little brighter, and the rust on the locket disappeared. Rarity smiled, and, curious, opened it. A short gasp left her lips as she saw the yellow stallion staring at her from the picture inside it, the ends of his messy green mane cut out of frame.
Celestia walked up to Twilight. "Next time, do me a favour, send Cheerilee instead, would you? I've heard rather good things about her methods."
Twilight smiled, and the two began to walk towards the nearest balcony. "What was it that made you transform?" she asked.
Celestia blushed. "Er... Promise you won't tell it around?"
Twilight nodded.
Celestia lowered herself to whisper in Twilight's ear. "I... We were expecting a cargo to get here today, and it was supposed to have my new reserve of tea as well, it's a special imported brand, you see. It didn't arrive, and... I get kind of cranky when I don't have my tea. Seeing Rarity and Fluttershy sharing theirs might not have helped."
Twilight had to force back a laugh by pressing a hoof to her mouth.
Celestia frowned. "Well, what's so funny?"
"You almost doomed the entire World just because you missed out on a cup of tea," she giggled out. "Oh my Goodness, that's not funny at all. It's actually horrible. Why can't I stop laughing at it?" She struggled to calm herself down. "Maybe you should retire, you know?"
Celestia rolled her eyes, and the two reached the balcony. "Well, all's well that ends well, I guess," she said. "It might take a while to fix Spike, free the Crystal Empire, undo the brainwashing of my guards and get the throne room back to normal, but it won't be too complicated. At this point I should probably just leave the Sun as is, I'll tell Luna to-" She paused.
Twilight had a moment of realisation and looked at her. "Princess? Where is Luna?"
"And it went all the way up to the sky!" the cow declared in a pompous tone.
"You made that up."
The cow huffed. "You're one to talk, miss I'm Princess Luna."
The blue coloured cow sighed, a flat expression on her face as her ethereal, star-filled and now rather short mane and tail swished around in the non-existent breeze.
