Sparky

Somewhere on the ground, in a little house not too far off, a little jungle green filly paced through the uniformly brown living room while squealing, "But mommy, you said we go out today, now I've waited forever and we are still sitting around here!"

"'S been half an hour, honey. Besides, do you really want to go out into this rain?" the adult mare responded, showing no intention to rise from her comfortable sitting place.

"Actually, Bonny," Lyra said from the armchair, looking out through the window, "it's starting to clear up. Gotta pick her brother up from school, anyway. So I guess I'll be going out soon, unless you really want to do it."

"That'd be great." While the unicorn walked past her, Bon Bon waved a hoof and murmured, "Over here, you," quickly caressing the neck that followed the invitation.

"Glad to oblige. C'mon, Maria, you're gonna get what you wanted." Lyra then led her into the wardrobe, where the filly did most short of running up the door trying to open it like a puppy. "That is, after we've got your boots and coat on," she then said with a slightly malicious grin, satisfied about how well she had managed to trap her daughter again.

"Nooo!" Maria squeaked and tried to escape the floating pieces of clothing, even though they both knew that resistance was ultimately pointless. After a brief struggle, magic had overpowered foal and she was fully equipped with bright yellow water detergents.

"There ya go. Don't you feel a lot safer now?"

"Why did we go to the hospital and get shot if I got to dress up anyways?" the little unicorn grumbled.

"Because, if you don't, we will have to bring you there to stay. Do you want to be at the mercy of that mare?" Lyra said while unlocking the door and ushering Maria outside.

Maria shuddered. The newest addition to Ponyville's clinical staff was known to be very cynical and occasionally a bit sadistic. Those that had bothered to get to know her a little bit better knew that that was just a surface impression, but it served well to control foals. Also, Lyra didn't feel bad for talking badly about her as she wasn't present.

A little bit in the distance, a purple unicorn contemplated testing her freshly learned illusionary combustion spell right away versus waiting for the intended subject. She decided against it and vanished in a flash of magic unknown to both mother and child. Just then, the filly paused, looking up in the air in amazement. "Oooh, pretty!"

Lyra looked up herself, quickly identifying the source of Maria's awe, a broad rainbow spanning across the sky. "Heh. Do you know why it's so sparkly?"

"Hm?"

"Rainbows are made by pegasi, and when there's a strong love living in that pegasus's heart, it makes it sparkle. So somepony in Ponyville just found a very special somepony," Lyra explained.

"That's good," Maria said.

High above the two, a very special pegasus sped to return to whence she came.

Quick as ever, she was back at Carousel Boutique in no time. From the outside, she could hear happy chatting coming from inside, which allowed her to breathe through, knowing that it would sound differently if anything had happened. She landed just in front of the door to clean up her physical appearance so that nopony would suspect exactly how fast she had been flying in order to return as quickly as possible. Just for completion, she also cleaned through her wings, though in the middle of it, she noticed how silly that was and who was waiting inside, folding them back in and pushing through the door without knocking, feeling that, in the current situation, it was one step too far into the direction of clean and orderly and all of those words she despised without even needing to know their exact meaning.

Inside, she found everybody as she had left them, currently unaware of her. Twilight was already back to pacing around the room while dictating a letter as she always did, "Thus, I ask for Your presence at earliest convenience for us to discuss the next steps, especially concerning the task You gave me to study the deepest form of friendship. I believe I have found an opportunity and would like Your advice on how to use it best. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."

Spike looked up from the parchment, "What do you mean by 'the deepest form of friendship?'"

"Uh, I'll explain that to you later. For now, just send it."

A second after the letter was gone in a cloud of green smoke, Rarity spoke up, "You just mentioned it, what do we do now?"

Feeling that her moment had come, Rainbow Dash walked further inside and said, "We gotta tell everypony who heard she was dead as fast as possible that she's not. I guess we could..." She stopped talking when she saw how eager Twilight's smile was. "Of course. S- Twilight, what do you think we should do?"

"Pinkie Pie," she said simply.

Meanwhile, in the deepest reaches of Canterlot Castle, where regular ponies would have to go through many corridors and forms to get to, a dark blue mare slowly awoke from her sleep, which was remarkable given how violently somepony else of about her size was trying to wake her up. In her haze, she barely managed to register that somepony flailing her legs around while babbling things she wouldn't be able to understand even if she did care and wasn't too displeased from being torn from her dreams, though the vast difference between what she saw and would expect of her sister made her question if she wasn't still dreaming. Understanding that she wouldn't be able to go back to rest, she groaned, "Yes, Tia? What is it?"

"Twilight Sparkle! She's back!"

Princess Luna sighed and rolled onto her back. "Pay attention, sister. we both miss her. Perhaps Thou moreso than anypony else. But there are times for saddling a donkey."

Princess Celestia gave her sister a look that testified genuine confusion, "What do you mean?"

"Stop crying after what Thou hadst and live on with what is available!"

"No, seriously, she's back!"

"Nopony has yet recovered from death, sister," Luna said while untangling herself from the bright pink undersheets nopony was to know about.

"Yet. I'm telling you, her friends have done the impossible. Here, look at her letter." Celestia produced a small piece of parchment and basically shoved it into Luna's face, much hindering her efforts at getting up from bed.

"Such is the writing of a young dragon, that which Twilight Sparkle routinely employs. Then what you say may be true, but before we move further in this discussion, answer Us one objection, Tia."

"Of course, just ask."

Luna managed to put all four of her hooves onto the ground simultaneously and moved in closer to her sister until she could whisper into her ear, which may have been pointless as her chambers were perfectly quiet and there was nopony anywhere nearby to overhear them, but she couldn't care less for rational reasoning. "Be this an excuse for thee to drop your duties and have me perform them in your stead while you enjoy yourself with thy protégé?"

"Uh, Lulu, you know, she asked that I report to Ponyville as quickly as possible and I may have left one or two audiences behind in coming here, so basically, it'd be really nice of you to do that for me."

"Of course. Leave the documents by the royal throne." Suddenly, gravity seemed to pull much stronger than before, and Princess Luna collapsed to the ground, "Sugar Heart! Thy princess demands for coffee!"

"Still hanging on to your new best friend, I see?"

"She's not my friend. Princesses don't show such weaknesses. She's just my preferred little servant. Heartsy, where are you?"

"Heartsy?" Princess Celestia asked with a slight chuckle.

As the lunar princess noticed her slip, selective spots of her fur suddenly became even darker than they had been before, "It is Our matter what We call Our servants! Do We have to remind thee of Spread Stockings?"

"Oh, don't you dare go down that road."

In response, Princess Luna simply blew a raspberry.

"Fine. I have no interest in fighting with you, so I concede."

"Neither do I. I concede as well."

"You can't, I already did before you!" Celestia said defiantly, repeating Luna's last gesture. "Anyway, I'll be departing then."

"Enjoy thy stay. And, if this is true, tell Twilight Sparkle I'm glad she's back."

"I will. And..." she looked back inside from the balcony, ready to take off, "Lulu? Love you."

"I know. Go, go. Sugar Heart? There you are. Did you bring coffee as I asked?"

Princess Celestia smiled and began heavy wing strokes, nothing more in mind than to reach her destination as fast as she could, regardless of what proper protocol would be.

Back in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle was being buried. Fortunately, the layer covering her wasn't made of earth, but rather built out of ponies who had all wanted to hug her at once. Slowly, the pile deconstructed again, one pony at a time. When she had room to move, Twilight stood up and looked around. Truly, this was something only Pinkie Pie could possibly pull off. She had not only invited literally everypony in Ponyville plus a few members of other select species, but also made sure that they all came to a hall that had enough room and party supplies to host them simultaneously, not to mention that the party had been ready to start no twenty minutes after they had asked her for help. Strangely enough, a fair number of ponies had even brought a gift to celebrate her revival. It was the biggest mass of ponies she had ever seen in her life, including the Shadow Rave and her brother's wedding. It warmed her heart to think that everypony had come for the single reason that they were glad to have her back. Glancing to the side, she could just see Rainbow Dash slowly hovering towards her. It was obvious she wanted to remain unnoticed, so Twilight decided to play along, at least until her darling was about to surprise her from behind, which she prevented with a jab to the wing. A soft thump confirmed her that everything had gone as planned, "He he he."

"Ow. Why do eggheads have to be so darn attentive?" Rainbow moaned from the ground before Twilight released her.

"Yes, my little Dashie?" Twilight asked while helping Dash get up.

"Y'know, I think we could duck into the closet over there for a sec if you feel like it," Dash said, pointing a hoof towards a nearby side room containing supplies.

"And do what?"

Twilight had seen Rainbow Dash sarcastically before, but her current expression surpassed everything. "Sparky, do I really have to tell you what freshly made lovers do when they're alone? Haven't you read a manual on that or something?"

"Uh... oh. Well, I guess we could if you want. Are you sure nopony will see us?"

"What the hay, even if they do, what are they gonna think? You're the star of the evening, there's some kinda explanation they'll come up with. Now come along, I need to taste you again."

"You go ahead. I'll follow once a distraction comes around," Twilight whispered. Just after Rainbow Dash had snuck into position, Pinkie Pie literally came up hovering above the crowd, loudly inviting everypony into a contest about whose magic could lift her highest. She would have loved to participate and show everypony else, but then realised that firstly, she literally couldn't, and secondly, that was exactly what she had hoped for."Huh. You can always count on Pinkie. Sometimes, I wonder if she knows more than we think and does those things on purpose. Scary thought," she murmured to herself before going into low profile and rejoining with Rainbow Dash.

For minutes, they stood together in the closet, nothing else in mind than to enjoy each other's bodies, uncaring as to what was going on outside. Rainbow couldn't complain as Twilight was just as wonderful the second, third, and tenth time they connected. They paused only momentarily when a voice was heard, clear and loud like it was standing right before the door, saying, "'Kay, that's the Doc, Cloud Chaser, AJ, Midnight, and Sunny Skies. For now. Phew, we're gonna need a lot."

"We didn't lock the door, right?" Twilight whispered.

"Nope! Does it bother you? I think I can reach the lock in time if I have to," Rainbow exclaimed.

"Not really..."

"Let's give 'em a show. Three, two, go!"

Twilight carefully approached Dash's face. Just when their lips met, the door flew open, showing a smiling Pinkie Pie about to retrieve additional sasparilla. When they saw what was going on inside, the entire party went silent in a matter of seconds, seemingly not knowing what to say. They stayed together the entire time. After an eternity, a mare in the back called out, "Dirty filly foolers!"

Rainbow was about to react when she saw how Pinkie's face had turned from the purest of smiles to what she could only hope was just anger. "Somepony slap her, please." A dull thump could be heard. "Now, what's everypony's deal? You should be happy for the two! Show 'em!"

Started and aggravated by Pinkie Pie, the crowd broke into a single voice, screaming, stomping, cheering for their love. Many seconds later, when the noise had finally died down, a white unicorn stepped forward on her own, saying simply, "I see."

Seemingly, this told Twilight far more than Rainbow Dash, even though that didn't mean a lot, as she quickly moved her head away from Rainbow's and towards the ground. She couldn't say she was pleased with this development, "Oi! I was using that egghead."

"Dashie, stop complaining and come down this instant," Twilight hissed.

"Why? It's just," Dash said, promptly interrupted by the unicorn in front of the crowd literally taking off her skin and throwing it to the ground, where it quickly dissipated into fading sparks. From under the skin came forth nopony other than Princess Celestia. "Oh." Rainbow hurried to follow protocol in the face of this new revelation, as did anypony else present.

"Twilight Sparkle, I would have to tell you that you never cease to amaze me, but in all honesty, I've said that once too often already. So, instead, let me express how I envy you. Your adventures, your knowledge, your abilities, which may even exceed mine. I tell you this, you are the absolute first pony since the beginning of my memory who has risen from the dead."

"That one was kinda my part," Rainbow threw in. Twilight glared daggers at her, to which she responded, "Hey, I gotta take credit where it's due. I read a book for you, Sparky. A book!"

The princess chuckled softly, "Do not think you are left out here, young pegasus. As I was saying, I envy you, Twilight. All of this, and still you hold the freedom to explore it all to your heart's desire. Not like me who has to deal with court obligations each day. But there is one thing about you that I envy most. Your friends, Twilight Sparkle. Them and their readiness to follow you into another adventure on a daily basis. In one case, into the adventure of love. You have my absolution for any studies that may arise on the topic, and expect plenty of reports about it, whether they're about experiences or problems. Hesitate no second to contact me in the latter case, of course. I think Princess Mi Amore Candenza could be convinced to go back to her old ways if you need to."

"What is she- how would that even work?" Dash whispered, unaware of the princess's range of hearing.

"I'll explain later."

A/N: Does the story end here? Well, do you want it to? If not, read on, though be warned that you might regret your decision if you're content with this ending.