There was no sound heard in the room. No sound, except for a little lavender pony quietly sobbing to herself. Twilight couldn’t control herself after she heard the story. Ever since the battle started, the tears in her grew stronger and stronger until they finally breached the dam and started flowing freely.

“How could he do something like that? *sob* How can he be so cruel?” Twilight asked between sobs.

Putting Twilight under her wing, Celestia began to tear up too. She did not want to recall the events of that day, but she had to in order to provide Twilight with an understanding of Orans’ power. They both sat together, embraced in a hug for several minutes. Celestia was glad that she could open up to someone, and Twilight was happy to have her mentor near her. She genuinely needed the closeness with another pony right now.

Some moments later, they both parted the hug and waited for the other one to break the silence. In the end, Celestia spoke up first. “I think you know now, why I didn’t want you to hear about this. It’s understandable if you do not want to be with me in this room right now. It’s alright if you want to leave.”

Twilight shot forward and forced another hug with her teacher. “Oh princess, please, do not hurt yourself through blaming everything on you. It does not matter what you did. What matters is, that you are still the same mentor, princess and teacher I used to look up upon, and some old guy from the multiverse won’t change that.”

Celestia looked down to her student and smiled warmly. “Thank you, Twilight. That really matters a lot to me.” With that said, Celestia stood up. “I think it is time for us to go back to your friends. They are surely worried about you.” She nudged Twilight to move to the door.

They both left Twilights’ old study and headed over to the dinner hall, where Twilights’ friends waited for her return.

“How did it go, sugarcube?”

“Why is your mane in such a mess?”

“How powerful is he?”

“Girls! Calm down. I will tell you everything you need to know eventually. I want to think about something for now.” Twilight walked to her old seat at the dining table and sat down. Her food was still untouched at the same place in the same state.

Even though, she didn’t eat since morning, she felt no hunger and no motivation to stab her fork into her tulip-salad. Her friends looked at her with compassionate eyes. Celestia seeing this, wanted to explain to them, why Twilight was in such a state.

“I am very sorry, my little ponies, but what I told Twilight is very hard to digest and the aftereffects may take some time to pass.” The girls looked somewhat confused to the princess but nodded to her in the end. Together they walked back to the table and sat down.

Celestia looked around and decided that now would be the best time to tell them, what Luna and she had planned for the six friends.

“I am now going to tell you, what will happen in the future and how Luna and I plan to defend us against Oran. Since you were not able to hear the story of Orans’ last visit, I have to tell you again how extremely dangerous he is. He is without a doubt the most powerful enemy we have encountered yet.”

“Now, Luna and I have formed a tactic, which we will follow in order to defend us. We came up with a three-phase-plan. I will now explain to you, every phase of the plan and our goal for that phase.” The ponies listened intently.

“Phase one is gathering as much help as possible. I want you to help me out on this one. We may need to persuade old foes of us to help us in the upcoming battle. With the Elements Of Harmony, we may be able to convince some of them.”

“Phase two is training our forces. This includes, planning our battle-tactic, training our capabilities in a fight and gathering experience in competitions, duels and test-wars. In this phase, I want you also to partake in. You will get a castle suite for the duration of the training. This may take up to several years. Your families will, of course, be provided for by the national treasury.”

“Phase three is training and perfecting our battle-tactic and all its’ necessary skills. Nothing much to explain here.”

The six friends just took this in with a hint of skepticism.

“What do ya mean ‘This may take up ta several years’? Ah can’t let ma farm run itself fer a couple a years. Ah need ta be with ma family. They can’t possibly manage through applebuckin’ season without ma help.” Applejack shouted angrily.

“Yeah, and I need to train to get into the wonderbolts. I can’t just throw my dream away like that.” Rainbow Dash looked angrily at Celestia.

“M-M-My little critters and animal friends really need me. I can’t just let them alone.” Fluttershy whispered while hiding behind her mane.

“And I need to throw appro-xima-tata-ley, oh whatever, about 289 parties a year, for all my friends in Ponyville.”

“And I simply can not waste the time of my life in some filthy barracks, while training to fight in the mud. My mane would never be the same again.”

The princess raised one of her hooves to silence the outraged ponies. “Like I said, everything will be provided for. Applejack, I will send workers down to your farm, who will help your family without any cost whatsoever. You will, naturally, be able to visit your family once in a while.”

“Rainbow Dash, I can not allow you to continue your education in the wonderbolts’ academy, but I can manage to give you a special teacher that could educate you in aerobatics while you are training. This should even surpass the wonderbolts’ academy. If everything goes alright, you will, most likely, be perfectly capable of getting into the wonderbolts after our fight with Oran.”

“Fluttershy, your animal friends will be provided for by a loving medical team by my choosing. You can also take your most loved ones with you to Canterlot.”

“Pinkie Pie, I can also allow you to go to Ponyville and throw some parties for your friends there. You may be a little preoccupied at some times, but for most parties you will still find time.”

“And Rarity, I know of your aversion against dirt and filth, but you also need to know that the training you will be going through is no normal simple guardstraining. You will not be thrown into the mud, well at least not often, and if you wish, I can give you your personal stylist and masseur.”

The ponies were still not fully convinced. Of course, everything was provided for, but it still did not feel the same. Their future was decided by other ponies and not themselves. Naturally, they were still not comfortable with this idea, but they had no arguments anymore. In unison, they looked over to the still, at her food looking, Twilight.

Rainbow Dash flew straight to her. “What do you have to say about that? You didn’t say anything at all.” Twilight lifted her head, looked first at Rainbow and then at her friends.

“I am okay with this.”

“WHAT?!” everypony except Celestia exclaimed.

“How can y’all be okay with that? She practically decided our future lives fer us.”

“Yeah, what gives?” They waited for Twilight to answer.

“Well. It’s because you are all there with me.” They now all looked confused at Twilight. “You are my friends, and whatever happens, if we are together in this, I am able to accept any fate that befalls us. So what if we have to change our lifestyle for the next five years? If we still have each other, we can get through with this and maybe still have fun while doing it.” Twilight held her hoof in front of her.

Everypony looked embarrassed with some blushes to some really interesting parts of the castle floor or wall.

“Awh shucks, how can ah counter that?” Applejack looked to princess Celestia. “Alright, count me in.” She then placed her hoof on top of Twilights’

“*sigh* I think that’s it with finding my dream-stallion.” Rarity joined in and placed her hoof atop Applejacks’.

“How can I let my super bestest friends in the whole wide world down? I will help too.” Pinkie placed her hoof on Raritys’.

Fluttershy looked to her friends and afterwards to princess Celestia. “And you can promise me, that my animal friends will receive care and help?” Celestia just nodded. “O-Ok, then I will help too.” She threw her own hoof on the mountain.

Everypony in the room now looked at the hesitating Rainbow Dash. “Ah man, now I have to join, as well. I can’t let you do this without the most awesome and most loyal pony in all of Equestria. I just hope this trainer you told me about is as good as you make him to be.” Finally, every hoof was placed on top of each other.

Suddenly there was a warm glow, coming from their hooves. It bathed the room in rainbow colored light. Everypony looked at it with awe. It was one of the most beautiful things they ever witnessed. The warmness it radiated bathed their bodies in bliss and comfort. Celestia just looked at this with a happy smile and with one tear in her eyes.

“Your friendship is one of the strongest I ever witnessed. With this power, you can strengthen the Elements Of Harmony even further and may be able to drive off Oran. I wish you all of the luck I have, my little ponies.”

The group of six friends looked at the princess. They all nodded in unison. “You can count on us Princess.” Celestia could not be prouder of those six friends.

“Well then, what we will now do: I give you one month time before we start searching for help. You may go to your families and use this month to spend as much time as possible with them. Use it wisely, because this will be your last extended period of time where you will have time for this.”

Everypony nodded. “Good, then we will see each other in one months’ time. I wish you a wonderful vacation.” Celestia smiled at the gathered friends and left the room.

The six friends then left the castle and went back to Ponyville.

“Spike, do you know where the blankets are?”

“No Twilight, but I think the last time I saw them, they were in the freezer, for whatever reason.” Twilights eyes lit up, and she giggled.

“Of course, I had them in there because of the lice that somepony brought to the library. They really are persistent parasites. Maybe I should study them for some time.”

‘Oh dear. If Twilight starts to study parasites, I am out of this Library.’ Spike shuddered at this thought. She can’t force him to live with her while she looks at some tapeworms. It’s just too creepy.

“Oh look some of them are still alive.” Twilight held one living louse in her hoof.

“Seriously Twilight, I won’t wash this whole tree again if you unleash those lice again.” He certainly did not want to do that.

“Don’t worry Spike. I know how to handle them. Well I’m off to the picnic with the girls. See you later!”

“Bye Twilight.” While Spike was stepping down the stairs to the library, he heard the door close itself. He walked over to the Kitchen and saw that the freezer was still open and some black little dots started walking away from it. Spike hurried to the freezer, picked every lice up and placed them back into the freezer. Finally, he closed it and hoped that this won’t have any repercussions.

‘I am really getting underpaid for this’.

Twilight arrived at the green hill where her five friends already waited for her. The hill was green as one of Rainbow Dashs’ manestreaks. The flowers and trees were in their full bloom. The smells seem to punch her with the word ‘Spring’ repetitively. It was one of the best times of the year.

Winter Wrap-up was just two days prior to this and thus the spring-feeling was still fresh and felt strongly by everypony in town. Her friends saw her and waved her over.

“Twilight, darling, what took you so long?” Asked Rarity while holding one of her hooves over her eyes to block the sun.

“I’m sorry, I kind of lost track of time while reading retroactive space-time-exploration.“

One collective eye-roll later, they all sat together on their blankets. Twilight was on Applejacks’ because there was still an extremely interesting problem with her own ones that she still intended to look into.

“So now that we are here, how has everypony been?” Twilight asked her friends.

“I’ve been great! When I heard that I can’t throw any parties anymore for my friends in Ponyville, I was a sadpony, but then I realized that I can still throw parties for my ultra super bestest friends that come with me to Canterlot, and maybe also for new friends that I will surely meet there. Oh I am almost happy to go there. Where can I organize parties and how do those ponies there want them? There are so many funny things I need to consider.”

“O-Oh Pinkie, that sounds wonderful.” Fluttershy uttered quietly, being baffled by Pinkies energy.

Twilight smiled happily, since one of her friends at least was glad to go to Canterlot. Then she looked at Fluttershy. “Fluttershy, how was the last week for you?” Everypony looked expecting at her, which made her nervous.

“W-Well, it wasn’t an easy week, since I-I had to make my little friends ready for m-my departure in three weeks. It still breaks my h-heart whenever I think about them.” She had a tear in her eye.

“Ah c’mon Fluttershy. You heard what the princess said to us. Your animals will get company from the vet team, she chose.” Rainbow Dash just shook her head at Fluttershys’, well, shyness.

“B-But it’s still hard for them… and for me.” She lowered her head. Applejack put one of her hooves around Fluttershy.

“There there, sugarcube. Everything will be fine in the end.”

Looking at the seemingly uncaring Rarity, Twilight asked: “So, how was your week Rarity?” Rarity looked up as if she just woke up from something.

“Oh me? It was alright. The thought of giving up Carousel Boutique still drives me crazy, but I am also looking forward to my private masseur and stylist. Oh I will look simply smashing.”

And another friend that seems to be optimistic for the future.

“Well Ah am being with mah family as often as ah can. Granny Smith seems ta take the news quite well. Big Mac also looks ok with it, but Ah can feel that he will miss me. The worst is Applebloom. She cried fer hours to me that Ah shouldn’t go. Ah just hope that they can manage without me fer a while.”

“Oh I am sure that they can. Celestia guaranteed that they will get enough help from some workers.” Rainbow Dash exclaimed “I can’t wait to show this new teacher my skill and bravery. I bet that when he sees me, he wants me on the wonderbolts immediately. Oh, this is going to be so awesome.”

The outcome was better than Twilight thought. She thought that her friends would still be devastated by the news that they would need to spend the next five years in Canterlot. Naturally, she was still sad for Fluttershy and Applejack, but they will also manage somehow. She just hoped that things would stay this positive…

Twilight looked intently at the little tapeworm she was dissecting. It certainly is fascinating how they work. There is nearly no air in the intestinal tract, and they still manage to survive somehow. She just got hooked on the subject of parasites, when she saw the surviving lice two weeks ago in the freezer.

“Spike can you bring me internal workings of Parasites?” There was no answer.

“Oh right, he wanted to spent the night at Raritys’ after I told him about the tapeworm I wanted to dissect, but I still don’t get why this has to do anything with his payment.” Could he be right? Should he get some form of payment for all the hours he invests in helping her? Maybe he was right, maybe he should get some pocket money from Twilight… nah.

Suddenly her wanted book flew to her desk while being encased in a dam glow. Twilight looked to her right and saw somepony she was quite happy to see. It was the dam unicorn Cream Puff. She met him one week ago, and they instantly liked each other. Cream just had something on him, that made Twilight warm inside every time she sees him.

“Here you go, Twilight.” He winked at her with a smile.

“Oh hi Cream! I didn’t know you were here. Oh look at all this mess I made. I’m really sorry, normally Spike does the cleaning, but he is at a friends’ house right now.” Twilight blushed a deep red. Cream Puff just laughed with a deep laugh.

“Oh Twilight, I love it when you are embarrassed and no, I do not mind the disorder at all. I think it kind of suits you, when you are somewhat stressed. So much on your mind and no time to bring it into order.” Twilight looked now even redder than before.

“Oh stop teasing, Cream. So, what do you want to do?” Cream now looked somewhat nervous and drew circles with his hoof.

“Well uh- you know yeah- well- *sigh* I- I wanted to ask you something.” Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“well would you eh… you know… it would be really great if you would ehm go with me to the new stage play that was in town. You know… just the two of us.” He now blushed a deep red, too.

“Wait, did you just call me out on a date?” Twilight couldn’t believe what she just heard. She could believe it even less, when he nodded. Nopony asked her ever out on a date. She was overjoyed. Cream always woke some unusual feelings in her. She always kind of liked him, and he was asking her out on a date? This was a dream come true.

She grinned and wanted to agree, but then she remembered. In one, week she will go away from Ponyville, and she won’t be able to visit often. On top of that, every other really important pony would come with her to Canterlot. Oh why did he have to ask now?

“I would really love to, but I can’t.” To say Cream looked devastated would be an understatement. “I really am sorry.” She looked down at her hooves. Cream had a somewhat forced smile on his face.

“Oh ok. Well if this is how you feel about me then, well ok. Oh look at the time I need to go home and eh-… look at some stuff, yeah. Good evening Twilight.” He turned around and ran out of the Library.

“No Cream, wait! This is not what I…” He already was out of hearing range. “meant…” Twilight looked some minutes at the floor and then walked to the Library door. She changed the sign from ‘Open’ to ‘Closed’. Without eating and washing she just went to bed. There was just too much pain in her, at the moment. Oh, how she wished Spike was here right now.

“And watch out for that corner up there. Spiders love to make their webs there. Oh and don’t forget to reshelf the whole library at least once a week. Oh and you may need to clean up the basement, I just took everything out from there and it was more dirty than I thought. I just hope you don’t mind.” Twilight scratched the back of her head out of embarrassment.

“Miss Sparkle, I can guarantee you that I know how to administer a library. I am librarian after all.” The green unicorn told her.

“Oh right, totally forgot about that. Sorry.”

“It’s no problem, Miss Sparkle, but I do think you need to catch a train, if I’m correct?” Twilight widened her eyes.

“Oh yeah, right right. Well these are the keys.” She floated some keys over to him. “I leave the library in your surely capable hooves. Goodbye and good luck.” She waved him and walked to the library door.

“Oh I think you are the one that will need the luck. Well it was nice meeting you, goodbye.” He also waved her. Twilight left the library and made her way to the train station. It was still unbelievable how fast the month went over.

When she arrived at the train station, she saw that her friends were already there.

“Hello everypony! I hope I am still on time.” She exclaimed with a sheepish grin.

“Oh no worries, darling. The train has not arrived, yet.” Rarity looked to Twilight. “*gasp* Oh Twilight, whatever happened to your coiffure?” Twilight looked at her hairstyle, if it is even possible to call it that. Her hair just went in all directions.

“Oh I didn’t sleep very well, and it just felt like such a bother to fight against my mane this morning. I guess I just forgot about it.” Rarity looked at Twilight with compassionate eyes.

“Oh I am sure that none of us slept very well. It is an important day after all.” Several nods confirmed her statement.

“Ah just hope Applebloom will be ok. She was devastated when Ah left.” Applejack looked at the floor.

“I’m sure she will be fine.” A teary eyed Fluttershy hugged Applejack. “She will get over it eventually, just like my animals.”

“Well I just hope we will have enough spare time to visit our families.”

Twilight looked at the horizon. “Well, we are about to find out. Here comes the train.”

‘I just hope everything will turn out alright, in the end.’

Author's Note

Yeah i was bored, sat on my ass and didn't know what i should do.

So i decided to write this chapter a little early.