Resuming Duties, Night 1by auctorChapters1. Meeting2. Sparring3. Battling1. MeetingOn an isolated road in the midst of a fierce blizzard, a pair of ponies were hollering furiously at each other. Socket Wrench yelled, “We’d never be here if not for your blasted tinkering with the motor!” Sunny Skies yelled back, “The tinkering would’ve been fine if not for your shoddy craftsmanship!” The storm intensified as the stallions argued. Sunny reared up in anger and frustration, and above him he caught sight of a hole in the clouds, through which he could see a thin partial circle at the edge of the new moon. In the billowing fog and snow, one could make out any number of shapes, and for just a moment Sunny thought he saw Petunia, looking up at the sky. “What’ve you got to smile about?” demanded Socket. Sunny rubbed the back of his neck, “It’s silly. It just occurred to me that if Petunia were looking up, we’d see the same moon.” Behind Sunny, the fog and snow, for just a moment, drifted into a shape that reminded Socket of Olive. Socket smiled, and playfully poked Sunny’s side, “Marefriend of yours, eh?” “Oh, no no! We’re just friends. But Petunia — she is something special.” Socket chortled, “You sound like I did before I got the nerve to ask Olive on a date.” Then he sighed, “If we ever get out of here, you’ll have quite the story to tell your Petunia.” “She’s not my Petunia,” Sunny stammered. “And you’ll have a story for your Olive.” “Nah, she passed some years ago.” “Oh, I’m sorry.” “Don’t be. I have plenty of happy memories of her. And there’s li’l Torque. Spanner took after me, but it’s like my Olive skipped a generation. If it weren’t for her mane, li’l Torque would be a spitting image.” As they continued chatting, the howls from the storm seemed to become fainter, of less and less import. The thickness of a thought away, in the domain of symbols and metaphors, a small sky‐blue alicorn mixed the red and white paints on her palette and began painting the fire of newly‐forged friendship that’d warm the old stallion and the colt through the mid‐winter storm they dreamt themselves in. A being like an alicorn, but twisted and deformed — cobwebs for her mane, giant mosquito wings, and a coat of green and puce, mottled like rotting flesh — landed beside the easel, furious. “What are you doing?” she shrieked. Luna snorted, “Ill met, witch. We are seeing to Our Duties. Long absent We have been, but not so that We may such forget!” “You are ruining my exquisite nightmare! Do you know who I am?” “We ken well whom thou art, Mother of Nightmares. Thou art unwelcome here. Go thither whence thee came and ne’er return.” The dream world shifted... “Messing with ponies’ dreams, Luna?” Celestia said, a disappointed frown on her muzzle. “Will I have to send you back to the moon?” “Thou’rt a fool to reckon such rude trickery wouldst deceive Us. Begone, thou faker, thou false sister.” “So, you have the power to not blindly accept all illusion.” ‘Celestia’ leaned forward, “But not the power to banish them. Leave me and my nightmares alone, or I’ll trap you in dreams so vile you’ll be begging to be my slave if only I’d release you from them.” “Thou kens not what Our power be.” “Show me, little one.” “Majesty! Majesty! Twilight Sparkle has snuck into the Dark Magic library annex!” Dusty Shelves called out, racing towards the princess. Celestia brought her hoof to her chest, “No. Not again.” Her heart raced. Had she learned nothing? Was she doomed to make the same mistakes, every time? She decided that she needed some cool, brisk air. She stepped out onto her balcony. The crescent moon whispered to her, “’Tis but a figment, Sister. You are needed. Harken to Our voice and come hither forthwith.” Celestia hadn’t experienced this dream lucidity in a millennium, but she remembered what Luna had shown her back then quite well. She easily identified the portal, and followed Luna’s voice. Which led her to the throne room, where there was... another Celestia? But the moment her duplicate saw her, the image tore apart in the characteristic manner of dispelled illusions, to be replaced with an alicorn uglier than any she’d ever imagine on her own. “Witnesseth thy folly, despicable beast! Thy apparition of Our Sister canst not remain with Her being present.” The impersonator hissed, and the dream world shifted... Nightmare Moon cackled in glee. “It was foolish to be so stingy with your power, ‘princess’. It made your ‘faithful’ student oh so easy to turn.” Celestia had to concentrate to keep tears from welling up. Her voice was anguished, “Why, Twilight? Why?” Twilight Sparkle sneered at her, “Nightmare Moon was willing to give me the power I had earned, that I deserved, that you were never willing to trust me with.” Celestia replied, “Unwilling to trust? Twilight, you had my utmost trust. You never expressed any desire...” She raised her forehooves to her head and screwed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth as she fought back against the dream trying to insinuate its ‘facts’ past her consciousness. “You — are — not — Twi–light.” Yet all reality was bearing down on Celestia’s mind, insisting with unrelenting pressure that she was. 2. SparringCelestia towered over her student. “It’s my fault for having too high expectations of you; that made it inevitable that you’d fall short.” “Princess, I — I — I’ll work harder. Just tell me what I did wrong, so I can improve.” “No, Twilight, you’ve reached as far as your talents can. I have more to teach, but there’s nothing more I can teach you. It would do no good to retain you as my student.” “But, but, but I can still see you, right? We can still meet and discuss other subjects, right?” “No, Twilight, I don’t have time for such trivial frivolities.” Twilight started crying, “I can’t see you at all?” “You can see me through the normal court attendance protocols, of course.” Twilight sprinted out of the palace, half‐blinded by her tears. Something from the skies spoke her name. See looked up, and the half moon said, “Stanch thy tears. ’Twas a nightmare’s trickery that thee beheld, not Our Sister.” Twilight’s head spun, “A nightmare? It’s only a nightmare?” “Mighty forces nightmares can be, but We needs speak to that anon as thy presence is needed forthwith. Harken to Our voice, find what portal leads hither and tarry not.” “But your voice is coming from the moon.” “Nay, Twilight Sparkle, that meanst this portal be locatèd high. Where ’twill be found has great import to thee.” “My apartment atop the tower!” “Hie hither, Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia grimaced as the nightmare tried to claw belief from her mind. She wasn’t sure how long she could continue to deny it. She met Nightmare Moon’s gaze and pointed at Twilight, “That is not Twilight Sparkle. I trust Twilight completely. She would never betray me.” Twilight Sparkle ran into the room through a side door, panting. “And I trust ... Celestia completely.... She would ... never expel me.” The dream sundered into pieces around mentor and student as they hugged each other, until the dreaming pulled them apart again. “Little foal... Did you really think you had bested me forever? Behold! It took merely half a day to restore and reassert my power!” Nightmare Moon cackled. Twilight dropped to her knees, “No...” Through the broken ceiling the gibbous moon bellowed, “Thou canst not gain victory unattended, Twilight Sparkle, yet despair not, as We have mustered thy companions!” The moon slid over, and the beam of moonlight angled to illuminate her five new friends. Twilight ran over to them, engaging in a group hug as Nightmare Moon snorted derisively. Twilight looked at the black‐coated alicorn, then grinned at her friends, “Ready for an encore, girls?” With an oh, yeah from Rainbow Dash, the six of them rose into the air on the Elements’ power, and Harmony’s rainbow beam arced to strike Nightmare Moon, stripping away the illusion to briefly reveal an alien creature which immediately morphed into a mangy, sickly‐looking alicorn. The castle, the sky, the entire world ripped away, revealing Princess Luna, striding forward and pulling everything except the alien and the six ponies into her horn, seeming to grow by half a hand as she did so. The foreign alicorn snorted, “You’re taking my nightmares’ power, I see. Soon you’ll be a nightmare yourself once more.” She turned to the six smaller ponies, “Then you won’t have my illusions to face, but the real thing. And she won’t be foolish enough to allow the Elements to strike her down again. Follow her, and you’ll wallow in eternal night. Follow me, and you’ll only face the occasional harmless nightmares which you’re already enduring.” The navy‐blue alicorn stepped up to the intruder, “Yea, We are accroaching thy nightmares’ power for Ourself. Yet no nightmare shalt We be, as ’twas envy what taintèd Us, not power. We no further covet the Day. Witnesseth Our Sister aside Us, again thee!” As proof that this domain recognized Luna’s suzerainty, it was Celestia who stepped out of Luna’s shadow to make her presence known. The larger alicorn stepped forward to Luna’s side, “We have enough nightmares of our own to deal with. I urge you to leave peacefully. I never want to use force and I seldom have to, in part because I am always ready to when it’s necessary.” The alien was unmoved, “You talk of force? You? Even together,” she swept her leg to take in all eight ponies, “you have only a fraction of my power. Fight me, and your every dreaming moment will be pure agony of the likes you’ve never experienced.” The princesses turned to face the six mortals. Celestia told them, “You have brought the power of the Elements to bear in the waking world and in a dreamscape.” Luna pointed her leg to the alien, “We decree to smite her here too at dreaming’s overworld!” 3. BattlingAs the beam faded, Vaermina’s pony form looked somewhat stunned, but otherwise none the worse for wear. The six mortal ponies floated slowly back to the ground. The young purple unicorn with the tiara was slack‐jawed, “It didn’t work?” The Princess of the Night explained, “All Equestria’s magic couldst not slay her ilk, yet the Elements have exacted her faculty a‐weaving ponies’ dreams.” The princess’s horn lit up, “We shall descry what rift she gainèd entrée wherethrough we may banish her.” Vaermina stood up, shaking away the daze from the rainbow blast. The dream overworld shifted around all the parties, and now they were on a barren plain, alongside the millennium‐unmaintained wall that marked the border of the ponies’ dreamland. A rip in the irreality of the dream realm was torn through a broken gate in the decayed wall. Being here with a selection of Equestia’s champions was not a circumstance Vaermina found desirable. Allowing the ponies to gather had been a serious mistake. She set off a concussive blast, knocking everybody down and, more importantly, scattering them across the plain. Vaermina took flight, and looked towards the gate she’d long ago shattered to get here. The moon princess was running towards it; so was the purple one, from the other direction and more distant. Vaermina fired at the princess, but a violet shield materialized to deflect her shot. Vaermina turned her attention to the unicorn, and encased her in a shell, which the unicorn immediately blasted at, slightly weakening it. Vaermina could feel her magic: surprisingly powerful, but wielded inexpertly. Unexperienced, and apparently ignorant of dream magic. The battle would be over before she broke free, so Vaermina paid her no more attention. Vaermina took aim at the Dream Princess again. Somewhere off to the side was a shout, “Don’t you dare!”, and Vaermina was blinded by a faceful of concentrated sunlight. She summoned a retroreflector in the path of the beam, and was gratified by a scream at its other end. It took her a few moments to regenerate her retinas, and in this time something wrapped itself around her head. Once she could see again, Vaermina blasted at the other dream‐walker, but her shot flew wide as her head was jerked to the side at the last moment. Vaermina snarled and put an enforced nudity charm on herself, which tore apart the exquisitely crafted gem‐encrusted bridle that was to blame. (This was both the first time she’d used such a charm in this world, and the first time she’d used it on herself instead of the object of one of her nightmares.) The Princess of Dreams was getting alarmingly close to containing the rift. An incongruously beautiful scarf tried to wrap around Vaermina’s neck, but she ignored it to take aim at the princess once more. The scarf tore asunder as it touched her, but her shot was disrupted by a prismatic blur filling her vision. She spun with the blur, and it resolved itself into the small blue pegasus. Vaermina struck her wing joint, and the pegasus yelped and spiraled to the ground. Vaermina stopped her spin, and noticed the smaller white pony leading the larger one towards the shell holding the purple pony, but right then a lariat caught her leg and yanked her downwards. She snapped the rope, but had lost too much height to pull out from the dive, and she hit the ground and went tumbling across the plain. When she came to a stop, there was a yellow pony in front of her, cowering from the fighting. Ah‐ha. If she could get into the mind of one of these ponies, then she could unravel this mess from there. And this was clearly the most fragile one. She hissed and bore into the pony’s gaze. The pony wasn’t letting her in. All else came to a halt as the contest between them began. Let me in. Blue‐green eyes stared back at her. Let me in! The pony’s eyes remained placid and limpid. Vaermina couldn’t believe it. Her eyes were watering. This was impossible! Vaermina blinked. The action immediately resumed. “Surprise!” the pink one called out as she popped up out of nowhere, and sprayed her with Super‐Sticky Celebration String. Vaermina kicked the pony, which sent her sailing away, calling out “Look ma... I’m flying...” as she disappeared into the distance. A pair of wing‐gloves landed on Vaermina but instantly shredded into tatters. Now the orange pony was closing on her, so Vaermina attempted to take flight, but the flailing shreds of the gloves were disrupting her wings’ airflow. She tried to pull them off, but the string spray was gluing them to her wings like rubber cement. Vaermina snarled and burned the string away, but then found herself facing the rear end of a ranch workhorse; a pair of hooves smashed into her, sending her flying straight at the repaired gate the night princess was holding open. She started to fly to the side, but translucent purple chutes instantly popped into place, funneling her trajectory right through the portal back to Quagmire. Luna grabbed several boulders from the barren waste and levitated them over to the portal, stacking them to entirely cover the passageway. The full moon flared like the sun for a moment, and the pile of boulders blazed with heat, turned soft, and sagged together while Luna shouted, “Ne’er return!” The indigo‐coated alicorn panted heavily as those two words echoed across the plain. Once the echoes faded, the silence was broken only by crackly ‘ting’ noises from the cooling lava‐welded rock. After several seconds the mood was broken by a voice behind her. “That — was — awesome!”
1. MeetingOn an isolated road in the midst of a fierce blizzard, a pair of ponies were hollering furiously at each other. Socket Wrench yelled, “We’d never be here if not for your blasted tinkering with the motor!” Sunny Skies yelled back, “The tinkering would’ve been fine if not for your shoddy craftsmanship!” The storm intensified as the stallions argued. Sunny reared up in anger and frustration, and above him he caught sight of a hole in the clouds, through which he could see a thin partial circle at the edge of the new moon. In the billowing fog and snow, one could make out any number of shapes, and for just a moment Sunny thought he saw Petunia, looking up at the sky. “What’ve you got to smile about?” demanded Socket. Sunny rubbed the back of his neck, “It’s silly. It just occurred to me that if Petunia were looking up, we’d see the same moon.” Behind Sunny, the fog and snow, for just a moment, drifted into a shape that reminded Socket of Olive. Socket smiled, and playfully poked Sunny’s side, “Marefriend of yours, eh?” “Oh, no no! We’re just friends. But Petunia — she is something special.” Socket chortled, “You sound like I did before I got the nerve to ask Olive on a date.” Then he sighed, “If we ever get out of here, you’ll have quite the story to tell your Petunia.” “She’s not my Petunia,” Sunny stammered. “And you’ll have a story for your Olive.” “Nah, she passed some years ago.” “Oh, I’m sorry.” “Don’t be. I have plenty of happy memories of her. And there’s li’l Torque. Spanner took after me, but it’s like my Olive skipped a generation. If it weren’t for her mane, li’l Torque would be a spitting image.” As they continued chatting, the howls from the storm seemed to become fainter, of less and less import. The thickness of a thought away, in the domain of symbols and metaphors, a small sky‐blue alicorn mixed the red and white paints on her palette and began painting the fire of newly‐forged friendship that’d warm the old stallion and the colt through the mid‐winter storm they dreamt themselves in. A being like an alicorn, but twisted and deformed — cobwebs for her mane, giant mosquito wings, and a coat of green and puce, mottled like rotting flesh — landed beside the easel, furious. “What are you doing?” she shrieked. Luna snorted, “Ill met, witch. We are seeing to Our Duties. Long absent We have been, but not so that We may such forget!” “You are ruining my exquisite nightmare! Do you know who I am?” “We ken well whom thou art, Mother of Nightmares. Thou art unwelcome here. Go thither whence thee came and ne’er return.” The dream world shifted... “Messing with ponies’ dreams, Luna?” Celestia said, a disappointed frown on her muzzle. “Will I have to send you back to the moon?” “Thou’rt a fool to reckon such rude trickery wouldst deceive Us. Begone, thou faker, thou false sister.” “So, you have the power to not blindly accept all illusion.” ‘Celestia’ leaned forward, “But not the power to banish them. Leave me and my nightmares alone, or I’ll trap you in dreams so vile you’ll be begging to be my slave if only I’d release you from them.” “Thou kens not what Our power be.” “Show me, little one.” “Majesty! Majesty! Twilight Sparkle has snuck into the Dark Magic library annex!” Dusty Shelves called out, racing towards the princess. Celestia brought her hoof to her chest, “No. Not again.” Her heart raced. Had she learned nothing? Was she doomed to make the same mistakes, every time? She decided that she needed some cool, brisk air. She stepped out onto her balcony. The crescent moon whispered to her, “’Tis but a figment, Sister. You are needed. Harken to Our voice and come hither forthwith.” Celestia hadn’t experienced this dream lucidity in a millennium, but she remembered what Luna had shown her back then quite well. She easily identified the portal, and followed Luna’s voice. Which led her to the throne room, where there was... another Celestia? But the moment her duplicate saw her, the image tore apart in the characteristic manner of dispelled illusions, to be replaced with an alicorn uglier than any she’d ever imagine on her own. “Witnesseth thy folly, despicable beast! Thy apparition of Our Sister canst not remain with Her being present.” The impersonator hissed, and the dream world shifted... Nightmare Moon cackled in glee. “It was foolish to be so stingy with your power, ‘princess’. It made your ‘faithful’ student oh so easy to turn.” Celestia had to concentrate to keep tears from welling up. Her voice was anguished, “Why, Twilight? Why?” Twilight Sparkle sneered at her, “Nightmare Moon was willing to give me the power I had earned, that I deserved, that you were never willing to trust me with.” Celestia replied, “Unwilling to trust? Twilight, you had my utmost trust. You never expressed any desire...” She raised her forehooves to her head and screwed her eyes shut and gritted her teeth as she fought back against the dream trying to insinuate its ‘facts’ past her consciousness. “You — are — not — Twi–light.” Yet all reality was bearing down on Celestia’s mind, insisting with unrelenting pressure that she was.
2. SparringCelestia towered over her student. “It’s my fault for having too high expectations of you; that made it inevitable that you’d fall short.” “Princess, I — I — I’ll work harder. Just tell me what I did wrong, so I can improve.” “No, Twilight, you’ve reached as far as your talents can. I have more to teach, but there’s nothing more I can teach you. It would do no good to retain you as my student.” “But, but, but I can still see you, right? We can still meet and discuss other subjects, right?” “No, Twilight, I don’t have time for such trivial frivolities.” Twilight started crying, “I can’t see you at all?” “You can see me through the normal court attendance protocols, of course.” Twilight sprinted out of the palace, half‐blinded by her tears. Something from the skies spoke her name. See looked up, and the half moon said, “Stanch thy tears. ’Twas a nightmare’s trickery that thee beheld, not Our Sister.” Twilight’s head spun, “A nightmare? It’s only a nightmare?” “Mighty forces nightmares can be, but We needs speak to that anon as thy presence is needed forthwith. Harken to Our voice, find what portal leads hither and tarry not.” “But your voice is coming from the moon.” “Nay, Twilight Sparkle, that meanst this portal be locatèd high. Where ’twill be found has great import to thee.” “My apartment atop the tower!” “Hie hither, Twilight Sparkle.” Celestia grimaced as the nightmare tried to claw belief from her mind. She wasn’t sure how long she could continue to deny it. She met Nightmare Moon’s gaze and pointed at Twilight, “That is not Twilight Sparkle. I trust Twilight completely. She would never betray me.” Twilight Sparkle ran into the room through a side door, panting. “And I trust ... Celestia completely.... She would ... never expel me.” The dream sundered into pieces around mentor and student as they hugged each other, until the dreaming pulled them apart again. “Little foal... Did you really think you had bested me forever? Behold! It took merely half a day to restore and reassert my power!” Nightmare Moon cackled. Twilight dropped to her knees, “No...” Through the broken ceiling the gibbous moon bellowed, “Thou canst not gain victory unattended, Twilight Sparkle, yet despair not, as We have mustered thy companions!” The moon slid over, and the beam of moonlight angled to illuminate her five new friends. Twilight ran over to them, engaging in a group hug as Nightmare Moon snorted derisively. Twilight looked at the black‐coated alicorn, then grinned at her friends, “Ready for an encore, girls?” With an oh, yeah from Rainbow Dash, the six of them rose into the air on the Elements’ power, and Harmony’s rainbow beam arced to strike Nightmare Moon, stripping away the illusion to briefly reveal an alien creature which immediately morphed into a mangy, sickly‐looking alicorn. The castle, the sky, the entire world ripped away, revealing Princess Luna, striding forward and pulling everything except the alien and the six ponies into her horn, seeming to grow by half a hand as she did so. The foreign alicorn snorted, “You’re taking my nightmares’ power, I see. Soon you’ll be a nightmare yourself once more.” She turned to the six smaller ponies, “Then you won’t have my illusions to face, but the real thing. And she won’t be foolish enough to allow the Elements to strike her down again. Follow her, and you’ll wallow in eternal night. Follow me, and you’ll only face the occasional harmless nightmares which you’re already enduring.” The navy‐blue alicorn stepped up to the intruder, “Yea, We are accroaching thy nightmares’ power for Ourself. Yet no nightmare shalt We be, as ’twas envy what taintèd Us, not power. We no further covet the Day. Witnesseth Our Sister aside Us, again thee!” As proof that this domain recognized Luna’s suzerainty, it was Celestia who stepped out of Luna’s shadow to make her presence known. The larger alicorn stepped forward to Luna’s side, “We have enough nightmares of our own to deal with. I urge you to leave peacefully. I never want to use force and I seldom have to, in part because I am always ready to when it’s necessary.” The alien was unmoved, “You talk of force? You? Even together,” she swept her leg to take in all eight ponies, “you have only a fraction of my power. Fight me, and your every dreaming moment will be pure agony of the likes you’ve never experienced.” The princesses turned to face the six mortals. Celestia told them, “You have brought the power of the Elements to bear in the waking world and in a dreamscape.” Luna pointed her leg to the alien, “We decree to smite her here too at dreaming’s overworld!”
3. BattlingAs the beam faded, Vaermina’s pony form looked somewhat stunned, but otherwise none the worse for wear. The six mortal ponies floated slowly back to the ground. The young purple unicorn with the tiara was slack‐jawed, “It didn’t work?” The Princess of the Night explained, “All Equestria’s magic couldst not slay her ilk, yet the Elements have exacted her faculty a‐weaving ponies’ dreams.” The princess’s horn lit up, “We shall descry what rift she gainèd entrée wherethrough we may banish her.” Vaermina stood up, shaking away the daze from the rainbow blast. The dream overworld shifted around all the parties, and now they were on a barren plain, alongside the millennium‐unmaintained wall that marked the border of the ponies’ dreamland. A rip in the irreality of the dream realm was torn through a broken gate in the decayed wall. Being here with a selection of Equestia’s champions was not a circumstance Vaermina found desirable. Allowing the ponies to gather had been a serious mistake. She set off a concussive blast, knocking everybody down and, more importantly, scattering them across the plain. Vaermina took flight, and looked towards the gate she’d long ago shattered to get here. The moon princess was running towards it; so was the purple one, from the other direction and more distant. Vaermina fired at the princess, but a violet shield materialized to deflect her shot. Vaermina turned her attention to the unicorn, and encased her in a shell, which the unicorn immediately blasted at, slightly weakening it. Vaermina could feel her magic: surprisingly powerful, but wielded inexpertly. Unexperienced, and apparently ignorant of dream magic. The battle would be over before she broke free, so Vaermina paid her no more attention. Vaermina took aim at the Dream Princess again. Somewhere off to the side was a shout, “Don’t you dare!”, and Vaermina was blinded by a faceful of concentrated sunlight. She summoned a retroreflector in the path of the beam, and was gratified by a scream at its other end. It took her a few moments to regenerate her retinas, and in this time something wrapped itself around her head. Once she could see again, Vaermina blasted at the other dream‐walker, but her shot flew wide as her head was jerked to the side at the last moment. Vaermina snarled and put an enforced nudity charm on herself, which tore apart the exquisitely crafted gem‐encrusted bridle that was to blame. (This was both the first time she’d used such a charm in this world, and the first time she’d used it on herself instead of the object of one of her nightmares.) The Princess of Dreams was getting alarmingly close to containing the rift. An incongruously beautiful scarf tried to wrap around Vaermina’s neck, but she ignored it to take aim at the princess once more. The scarf tore asunder as it touched her, but her shot was disrupted by a prismatic blur filling her vision. She spun with the blur, and it resolved itself into the small blue pegasus. Vaermina struck her wing joint, and the pegasus yelped and spiraled to the ground. Vaermina stopped her spin, and noticed the smaller white pony leading the larger one towards the shell holding the purple pony, but right then a lariat caught her leg and yanked her downwards. She snapped the rope, but had lost too much height to pull out from the dive, and she hit the ground and went tumbling across the plain. When she came to a stop, there was a yellow pony in front of her, cowering from the fighting. Ah‐ha. If she could get into the mind of one of these ponies, then she could unravel this mess from there. And this was clearly the most fragile one. She hissed and bore into the pony’s gaze. The pony wasn’t letting her in. All else came to a halt as the contest between them began. Let me in. Blue‐green eyes stared back at her. Let me in! The pony’s eyes remained placid and limpid. Vaermina couldn’t believe it. Her eyes were watering. This was impossible! Vaermina blinked. The action immediately resumed. “Surprise!” the pink one called out as she popped up out of nowhere, and sprayed her with Super‐Sticky Celebration String. Vaermina kicked the pony, which sent her sailing away, calling out “Look ma... I’m flying...” as she disappeared into the distance. A pair of wing‐gloves landed on Vaermina but instantly shredded into tatters. Now the orange pony was closing on her, so Vaermina attempted to take flight, but the flailing shreds of the gloves were disrupting her wings’ airflow. She tried to pull them off, but the string spray was gluing them to her wings like rubber cement. Vaermina snarled and burned the string away, but then found herself facing the rear end of a ranch workhorse; a pair of hooves smashed into her, sending her flying straight at the repaired gate the night princess was holding open. She started to fly to the side, but translucent purple chutes instantly popped into place, funneling her trajectory right through the portal back to Quagmire. Luna grabbed several boulders from the barren waste and levitated them over to the portal, stacking them to entirely cover the passageway. The full moon flared like the sun for a moment, and the pile of boulders blazed with heat, turned soft, and sagged together while Luna shouted, “Ne’er return!” The indigo‐coated alicorn panted heavily as those two words echoed across the plain. Once the echoes faded, the silence was broken only by crackly ‘ting’ noises from the cooling lava‐welded rock. After several seconds the mood was broken by a voice behind her. “That — was — awesome!”
