In the Canterlot Castle dining hall, Celestia was slightly off-put by the wide grin on her sister’s face. She knew what this was about and she was happy for her sister’s excitement over the coming of her favorite holiday, which was still months away, but the look still disturbed her somewhat.

“Luna, are you sure you will be ready by then?” Celestia asked with concern. “Have you recovered enough of your strength to resume that duty?”

Luna nodded, “I believe that I will have regained enough of my former power by then at the rate my powers return. Even the incident at the Gala did little to set back my progress. I have already regained enough to resume my duties as the guardian of dreams. I am certain that I will be ready by this coming Autumn.”

Celestia smiled, “If you are certain, then I will prepare an announcement to prepare the ponies for the coming of the true form of that holiday. We will need the extra food for the war on the horizon.”

“It certainly helps that it’s my favorite holiday, just as Hearts and Hooves day is our niece’s favorite. It was a great idea to use Nightmare Night as a placeholder holiday so that when the true form of it returned that it wouldn’t inconvenience our ponies.”

“Well, we will still keep the Nightmare Night traditions going since the cities won’t be able to celebrate the additions like the rural towns will be able to, this will simply add more for the farming communities to enjoy.”

“I can remember how it was a thousand years ago,” Luna fondly reminisced. “We didn’t have large urban areas like we do today. Every town had its share of farms so they could celebrate in equal measure.”

Celestia chuckled, “Sometimes I wonder why more ponies favored my sun over your moon when you could do so much more with yours than I could with mine.”

“Using my moon in such a way is taxing on my reserves but I’d still do it every year to ensure our ponies had enough to eat.”

“Then let us make preparations for the return of the Harvest Moon Celebration.”

Ever since the incident where Twilight had a meltdown, Sophia had reluctantly given Violetta more freedom to do as she wished. She hoped that she wouldn’t regret it, but she had more important things to do than to act like the horror’s keeper.

Twilight had also attended more therapy sessions with Violetta. The sessions helped her to realize that she tries too hard to please Princess Celestia by being a good student. When it was pointed out that Starlight’s slightly casual behavior toward their ruler was never rebuffed, it made her wonder why that was and if it was alright for her to do the same. She wasn’t too sure it was a good idea, but she was willing to take small steps toward being more casual toward her teacher.

A month had passed since Starlight taught a few guard instructors what she learned from Nova. At that point, Celestia was ready to pass her first wave of reforms to the parliament. The policies were a little more radical than they were used to since peaceful times had made any major changes to the laws unnecessary.

A few nights ago, things changed when a few scouts were sent to the northeast by Sophia’s direction where they discovered an outpost that was unlike anything they had ever seen before. Sophia accompanied the scouts in order to help them understand what they were up against by pointing out their weapons and what they could do to a pony.

She pointed out the missile turrets that would blow up any pegasi who got too close and detect any of Luna’s bat ponies who would try to conceal themselves with shadows. She pointed out the round structures near the entrance with square bases as bunkers that could house a few of their infantry while allowing them to attack through the holes without endangering themselves. She also pointed out the large vehicles with the cannons on top that appeared to roll on treads but were immobile thanks to the stabilizers at their base to keep them from moving around. She pointed out that they were in a mode that fired long range artillery shells and that they were just barely out of their attack range. There were also many more soldiers like the ones who attacked the gala within the encampment, along with some bulkier models.

“How would anypony get past that defense?” one scout asked. “Unicorns would have to move closer to attack but those cannons would probably wipe them out before they could get close enough.”

“I can think of a few ways to break through that,” Sophia offered. “However, even if I destroyed the place, it won't change the fact that you ponies are insignificant in the face of enemies like this and they certainly won’t be the last.”

“So your plan is to help Equestria become stronger so we can deal with threats like these humans?”

“Exactly!”

The humans in the prison had made clear their intent for Equestria and seeing what they were capable of, the nobles of the parliament were less resistant to Celestia’s reforms. Their sense of self-preservation had made them more pliant and hopeful that their princesses and Sophia knew what they were doing.

Among the reforms was the request to have the entire royal guard retrained in waves by the recently retrained instructors. After a month of Starlight teaching them how to fight all over again, she felt that they were ready enough to train the rest of the guard. She could have taught them more, but she was worried about Twilight after her episode a few weeks ago.

Starlight had asked Moondancer and the others about their friend and was surprised that Twilight told them that she was having weekly therapy sessions with the same creature who tormented Discord’s mind. This only worried Starlight more as she was concerned about potential damage the horror could have done to her best friend’s mind.

Once her time in Canterlot was up, Starlight took the fastest train to Ponyville and headed straight for the library where she found Twilight reading a book on the couch like she usually did.

“Hey Starlight!” Twilight greeted. “How did everything go?”

“Twilight, I heard what happened,” Starlight replied as she slowly moved around her friend while scanning her with her magic. “Are you sure you’re okay? I heard that you’ve been talking to Violetta.”

Twilight sighed, she knew why Starlight was looking her over and she admitted that if she were in Starlight’s place she would be doing the same thing. She couldn’t blame her, she’d be skeptical too if she heard that one of her friends was being psychoanalyzed by a creature from who knew where.

Once Starlight was finished giving her scans, which she knew were pointless but did so anyway to tell herself that she did something, she seated herself in a nearby chair to get comfortable. “What did she do?”

Twilight hesitated for a moment as she wasn’t sure how to explain what happened to her. What happened to her would be difficult to believe after all. In the end, she tried her best to explain what happened.

An explanation later, Starlight tilted her head confusedly, “So she just…talked to you from inside your mind?” Starlight questioned as she tried to make sense of what happened.

“Most of it was her asking questions while I thought about my own answers. It wasn’t like she was quizzing me, it was as if she was trying to make me consider my own actions from an outside perspective. She showed me my own memories and made me think about my own actions.

“Starlight, part of me actually envies that you can speak with Princess Celestia as if you were friends while I’m not sure if I can be the same since I’ve always feared disappointing her. It’s as if I dedicated my life to making her proud of me and I couldn’t bear it if I disappointed her.”

Seeing her best friend holding her usual concerns made Starlight breathe a sigh of relief as it seemed as if Violetta hadn’t done anything to change her mentality. Starlight gave a sympathetic smile, “Twilight, at the end of the day, Princess Celestia is a pony like you and me. You have to look past the regal facade to see who the real Celestia is. Most ponies are too blinded by that to see anything else. Try to be more adventurous toward her, you haven’t even seen where she would draw the line. Even if you have to take baby steps toward Celestia the pony, it’s still progress in the end.

Twilight nodded, ”Yeah, you’re right! I should make an effort to see her like I would see my friends, just in a private setting, of course.”

Starlight giggled, “Yeah, wouldn’t want those stuffy ponies being sent to the hospital for overexposure to watching somepony’s casual behavior toward the princess.”

The two then talked about their days and shared a few laughs for a couple of hours.

The next few weeks featured a few events but Sophia nor her family needed to intervene and allowed them to play out.

Ponyville hosted its annual Sisterhooves Social race and the judges had finally decided to allow Sweetie Belle to compete despite her mechanical form. Sweetie had been denied the previous years because the judges were afraid that Sweetie’s mechanical body might offer some unfair advantages in the race. It took a lot of begging and pleading from the two sisters to finally get the judges to cave to their wishes. Thankfully the race was as fair as it always was so it was decided that Sweetie could compete in future races as long as she never used any gadgets stored within her body.

There was also a point in time when Rainbow became jealous of her friends because they all had pets and she didn’t. Fluttershy happily helped Rainbow find a pet for her which led to a series of events that led to her being rescued by a tortoise and her choosing the tortoise as her pet.

The biggest event was when Apple Bloom was brought to Zecora’s hut by Sophia for her weekly potions lesson. The filly and the zebra worked together to create a potion to help a rooster fix his morning call. After that, Apple Bloom began crafting her own potions under Zecora’s supervision.

Zecora and Sophia noticed that the filly created a few potions that seemed highly volatile and prone to exploding if jarred. Another potion turned a pile of dirt into a clay-like substance that gave off a weird smell. When Sophia smelled it, it smelled familiar to her.

“Aw, why do ah keep makin’ all these stinky failures?” Apple Bloom whined.

Sophia took one of the potions that the filly made and gave it a smell. It was also a familiar scent. This is impossible, she thought. These chemicals can’t be crafted with plants and dirt, this stuff is usually fabricated in a specialized weapons plant. Is she subconsciously altering the chemical composition of her potions with her earth pony magic?

“Ah guess mah special talent ain’t in potion makin’” Apple Bloom sighed, dejected.

“Do not give up on your attempts in haste, the look on our friend’s face shows your efforts were not a waste,” Zecora observed.

Apple Bloom then looked at the rabbit who had a thoughtful look on her face. “I have no idea how you did it. By the science that I know this should have been impossible. The potion bottles contain pentaerythritol tetranitrate or PETN which is a highly explosive compound. The plastic you made is also an explosive. Frankly, these substances need to be disposed of with caution since they will pose a threat to anypony’s home or life if they aren’t properly handled and we haven’t created anything that can properly contain these, yet.

“So what good are a bunch of explosives, anyway?” Apple Bloom asked.

Sophia grinned. “What you made today, not much good. However, I can help you craft more powerful explosives that would be useful in defeating the terrans in the future.”

“Terrans?”

“Another name for the human invaders.”

“So ah could create somethin’ that could help protect ponies from those pirates?” she asked with a hopeful look in her eyes. A nod from Sophia was all the confirmation that Apple Bloom needed which filled her heart with elation. Her happiness was expressed with a wide smile.

Suddenly, the room was briefly flooded in a bright flash of light. None of the creatures in the room were prepared for it so it left them briefly stunned while they waited for their vision to return. Once the spots faded from their vision, they looked around to see what had happened. The rabbit and zebra were mildly shocked to see a change in Apple Bloom who looked at them staring at her. “What?”

The staring continued so the filly looked around herself until she spotted something on her flank. It was an apple, however the stem was sparking, as if the stem had been replaced with a fuse. She rubbed at the image to make sure it was real. Her wide smile widened even further to one that would have rivaled one of Pinkie’s best smiles. “AH GOT MAH CUTIE MARK!!” she cheerfully shouted, much to the annoyance of the two in the hut with her as they recovered from the auditory fatigue.

“Seems your voice can be explosive too,” Sophia quipped.

“Ah gotta tell Sweetie and Scoots, Di and Silver too, and Spike!” The filly then raced out the door recklessly. Sophia quickly bid the zebra farewell before she quickly caught up with Apple Bloom to keep her safe on the way back to town.

Author's Note

Sorry this one took so long. Seems I struggle to find inspiration when it comes to slice of life content. Plus I've been working on Starlight Saint and that takes up time as well. A lot of the Season 2 episodes will be glanced over in this story unless I have something interesting in mind for it.

This chapter covered Sisterhooves Social and May the Best Pet Win with The Cutie Pox being altered into a special event for Apple Bloom.