The Night Of A Broken Heart

by WanderingPony

Rating: teen
Tags: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Other, Spike, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Crossover, Main 6
Length: 34111

The power of the Crystal Heart has been shattered. The Princesses are scattered. The Elements are a trap wielded by a mad goddess. And the Cutie Mark Crusaders are making friends with an elemental spirit older than Celestia. We're doomed.

A sequel to Memories of the Stone, telling the further stories of Equestria after the destruction of the Empire and the shattering of the Crystal Heart. Contains elements lovingly borrowed from Square-Enix in quantity from the Final Fantasy series, and diverges from canon after the ending of Season 3.

Published 2013-02-23 08:10:01 UTC
Last updated 2013-08-02 20:47:38 UTC

Chapter 2: Sparkles Get In Your Eyes

Sleeping on the roof of a freight car with a few dozen armored stallions wasn't exactly first-class, but Trixie Lulamoon wouldn't have traded it for a chariot full of rose petals right now. Or all the bits jingling in her saddlebags, for that matter.

"What do you MEAN you have no seat available for the Great and Powerful Trixie?". The clerk responded by yanking down a shade over the ticket window that said "CLOSED" as she galloped out of the back for dear life, still being chased by panicked ponies desperate to get out. Time to go hide in the wagon until all this blew over...and this time, no parking it out in the open where some giant bear was going to squash it! That nice,high garage over there. Perfectly safe...

Celestia's traditional alarm clock woke her as the Sun rose over the horizon. The sounds of more than one joyful morning pony welcomed a new day as the rays of warmth managed to penetrate the cloud cover and Trixie's eyelids. Good that Celestia wasn't dead. She COULD have given Trixie another hour. Around her, Guard ponies still slept in their dented and scuffed armor...then again, they'd had a hard day. Munching mindlessly on a stale carrot, she brushed the gunk out of the corners of her vision.

A brief twinkle of colored light broke the endless white stretching to both sides of the train. Trixie squinted and cursed briefly as her eyelids took the opportunity to stick together again, an eyelash breaking off and leaving one of them stinging and watering. She rubbed at the betraying eyeball furiously...

...and the train hit a slight kink in the tracks, wiggling the freight car. With a squall of complaint, Trixie pitched over the side and tumbled into the snow, the chilly white blanket wrapping her in a ball as the unicorn fell down the side of the embankment...

*THUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPTHUMPWHAM!*

...only to find herself ramming tail-first into something at the bottom, the snowball breaking into a pile of fluff.

"Trixie is going to COMPLAIN to that train driver for this kind of treatment, once she...she.....EEEEEEEEE!"

The half-frozen face of Twilight Sparkle poked out of the obstruction that had stopped Trixie's fall- a pile of lifeless ponies under a blanket of snow. The only sign of motion from the Princess was the icicle of yellowing snot that broke off as Trixie screamed in terror at the abominable snowpony.

Still panicking, she pointed her horn to the heavens to send a flaring signal for help...

And stopped.

Scrabbling in her half-open saddlebag, she yanked out a smoke bomb instead. Being found with a dead Twilight Sparkle? They'd banish HER to the Moon, LUNA would banish her to the Moon! And when they were done, they'd banish her to the Sun for another thousand years!

The bomb exploded, sending a colored column of smoke into the air. Trixie turned to flee into the wilderness, resigning herself to a lifetime as a fugitive from misguided justice.

And now, I step into my life of eternal sham-AWK!

She gracelessly tripped over her own outstretched hoof and plunged into the snow. Buried up to her hindlegs, she thrashed madly as the cries of ponies rushing to follow her trail grew louder by the moment. Hooves grabbed her tail and pulled. They'd caught her, she was going to be charged with ponyslaughter, WHY HAD SHE LEFT THE ROCK FARM?

A concerned Guardspony turned her around and smiled broadly at the panic-stricken mare.

"Mistress Lulamoon? We don't know how to thank you enough!"

"Th-thank me? Me? ME?"

"I'm sorry if we pulled your tail a little too hard there, it was all we could get a hoof on." The armored earth pony held up a strand of Trixie's mane, frozen to a snow-covered horseshoe.

"Spotting Princess Sparkle in all this snow, charging down the hill like that, signalling for help while buried that deeply yourself...are you sure your cutie mark isn't in search and rescue? We'd have been the last chance those ponies had to be saved, and nopony saw so much as an ear of this bunch but you!"

A dozen ponies furiously dug the Princess and the chilled pile of her friends she'd been covering from the icy terrain, clad in the red-crossed armor of Guard medics . Princess Luna's head peered wide-eyed over the chaos, looking straight at Trixie.

And smiling.

Trixie decided that was enough for one day, and fainted backwards into the snowpile.

Meanwhile in Ponyville, the Cutie Mark Crusader Forest Rescue Team met over a spartan meal of survival rations- having been thwarted in mid-mission by a rather grumpy Y.D. Donkey. It wasn't their fault someone left an empty bucket in the middle of the road. Running into it, Scootaloo getting her head stuck in said empty bucket and ending up driving them through the Donkey's open window and smack dab into their bed? Maybe. A little...but did he have to tow them all back to Sweetie's dad and TELL?

Totally unfair. And nopony believed them about Rainbow Dash! They'd been confined to base- er, bedroom until after breakfast.

"Cloud Kicker even said she wasn't due back for days!"

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle ducked the spray of slightly stale cookie crumbs as Scootaloo punctuated her words with two-day old oatmeal raisin.

"Well, my sister isn't supposed to be home until after tomorrow, and they're with Applejack and SHE isn't home either..."

"But we all saw that, even if nopony believes it!. Who else is gonna be makin like ah rainbow in the dark?"

Scootaloo stood up, finishing the multilated, masticated cookie chunk with a swig of juice.

"WE know it's Rainbow Dash, and if she didn't come back home last night? She's still in the Everfree, and she needs our help!"

"You know we're not supposed to go in the Everfree Forest, Scootaloo.".

"Well, if we jus' look in the edge a little, we ain't IN the forest, right?"

"Right! All in favor of saving Rainbow Dash from certain doom?"

Two and a three-quarters-sorta hoofs up from Sweetie Belle ratified the decision, and the morning was dedicated to heroics and day-savings.

By noon, things had gotten grim. The rations were all gone, and the juicebox reserves were down to a single, lukewarm container- with no sign of a fallen pegasus to be found. Scootaloo's wings barely buzzed as the last of the sugary dregs burned their way out of her hyperactive system, and the wagon crew had twigs tangled in their manes from a near-death encounter with a wild gooseberry bush.

"Y'all think we done enough doom-savin to git fer lunch, Sweetie Belle? Granny's got biscuits and honey on the stove..."

"We COULD do another patrol later once we resupply...flight crew, are you go for lunch break?"

No response.

"Wagon to flight crew, come in Scootaloo?"

Sweetie Belle poked Scootaloo in the back.

The orange pegasus was leaning over her handlebars like a hunting dog, a toy spyglass shaking in her hooves.

"I think I found her! I found her! That's gotta be Rainbow!", passing it back to Sweetie Belle. "Look in the tree, way up there!"

The spyglass showed a blurry pair of blue hooves but little else.

"Maybe she's taking a nap?" was all she managed before the wagon lurched into a high-speed forest insertion.

Chapter 3: Sunny Weather With A Chance Of Magicite Showers

When you're a baby dragon and you aren't invited to the Equestrian Games, it can get kinda boring. You can only take so many bubble baths and reshelf the books six times or so before life starts to lose it's flavor, right? Well, today Spike's life had been ALL about flavor.

And when you're a total glutton for gems and it starts snowing stone sugar, you're wandering around the house with mouth open, drooling. Spike had woken up this morning to a strangely delicious smell in the air, and every breath he sucked in had the faint tang of gems. Was it turquoise? Maybe someone was cooking up some sapphire souffle? A watermelon tourmaline cake? It was -everywhere-. He could taste it spicing up his breakfast, wafting in on the breeze when he opened a window, the delicate tang on the tip of his claws when he licked one and waved it around. Dusting the shelves had been an exercise in culinary torture.

Second breakfast. Definitely time for a second breakfast, those corn flakes had tasted like lapis lazuli salad!

Meanwhile, the Cutie Mark Crusaders charged bravely to the aid of Rainbow Dash. OK, Scootaloo charged. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle jumped off the wagon as it lurched into the bushes and launched for the trees.

The much-lightened load sped with suicidal intent at it's target, and Scootaloo's full-force impact with the tree could be heard for over a quarter-mile, the helmet smacking into the trunk with a hollow *THUD*.

Dark fluids squirted across the bark, dripping down to be soaked by the roots. Scootaloo's body, pancaked against the unyielding wood slid to the ground- a splatter mark marking the final blow. Horrified, the two other members of the team rushed forwards to witness Scootaloo's senseless, wasteful act.

She'd smushed the last juice box!

Looking up at the sky as Apple Bloom peeled the slightly dented helmet off, Scootaloo gasped out a few desperate words as the trees whirled and her chest grew sticky.

"Is....is it bad?"

Sweetie Belle replied. "Not a drop left."

"NOOOOOOOOOO!", said the pegasus, and passed out from her wounds (or just closed her eyes in embarrassment, but we'll never tell). Solemnly, the two remaining ponies loaded Scootaloo's limp form in the somewhat abused wagon. As Apple Bloom slowly wheeled the scooter and it's cargo back to the path, she yelled out to the distant blue blur:

"Ah'm sorry we mighta ruined yer nap! We're gonna go git lunch now, so iffen ya want some vittles, we'll see y'all at Sweet Apple Acres!" With that, the rescue team began the long trek home, bearing their valiantly wounded behind them.

The still-unconscious unicorn in his perch wasn't in any condition to wave goodbye, sadly enough.

On the far side of Ponyville, a young pinto colt waited at the train station, his hooves tapping out a staccato beat as he paced. Two empty saddlebags gaped on his flanks, blazoned with "Canterlot Chronicle". The morning edition was late! How was a proper gentlecolt-in-training going to pay for his muffins and milk if the dot-dot-dashed delivery was only early for lunch? He should have been on his rounds hours ago!

The distant whooooooooo of an incoming train pulled Pipsqueak from his musings as it approached at a speed that could only be described as "going for the land record". With a screech, the engine reached the edge of the station, sparks flying from it's brakes as the engineer traded metal for stopping time, cars pushing against the back end as if eager to keep going.

Train doors slammed open as packages and passengers were thrown out with a total disregard for protocol, shipping labels, or fragility.

"I say!" was all Pip managed to get out before a thick bundle of newspapers pinned him to the platform.

The handler looked briefly apologetic as he mouthed package after package onto the planks. "Sorry, kid! *mmf* They gots us runnin' triple time *mmf* to Fillydelphia. Mil-i-tary emergency, no passengers, no cargo! *mmf* No time means double time for me!"

Swinging one last package out the sliding door, the grey earth pony shoved the open car door with a hoof, and the *clang* was matched down the line as car after car shut. The train leaped forward in a hiss of steam, only interrupted by a conductor heaving a last piece of luggage as the caboose passed by. Despite their rough treatment, the passengers seemed unoffended by the swift exit, if not outright relieved to be off the train.

"They said they needed the train for a Guard regiment, Daisychain? Why, we saw an entire flight of pegasi going north over our heads, armed to the teeth!"

"~I~ heard Princess Celestia herself was there. Maybe it's another parasprite swarm?"

"It couldn't be part of all that Crystal Empire business, could it? That was horrible."

Pip managed to shove the stack of papers (twice as large as usual, he noticed) off his back to look at the headline.

SOMBRA ATTACKS EQUESTRIAN GAMES, EMPIRE EVACUATED!

PRINCESS SPARKLE MISSING, CITIZENS FLEE FROM MONSTER ATTACK!

A blurry picture of the Empire in flames covered most of the rest of the front page. Pipsqueak gasped.

"Today is going to be a right cracker!", went through his mind. Forget the usual route. This called for the most drastic of measures!

With his saddlebags stuffed to the limit and the rest balanced precariously on his back, Pip left a widening wedge of dust in the air as he galloped for the town square, his paper bombshell ready to explode.

"SPECIAL EDITION, READ ALL ABOUT IT! CANTERLOT CHRONICLE REPORTS THE RETURN OF KING SOMBRA!", bellowed the colt for all he was worth. Ponies gathered as the newspony skidded to a halt by the fountain, flinging copies left and right as bits flew his way and the massive stack dwindled.

One of the copies reached Big McIntosh, placidly selling out of his cart.. His lips moved briefly as they sounded out the headline, then the line beneath.

"EEEENNNNNNNNOPE!"

Ponies scattered as a mad stallion rampaged down the street in the direction of the Ponyville Library, the remnants of a crate still stuck to the crazed creature's hoof.

Spike tried for one last mouthful of corn flakes. Sweet, sapphirelicious corn flakes. The emptied out box lay on it's side where the dragonling had shaken every piece out, then dipped his muzzle into the pile and devoured it with gusto. A stray flake vanished as he licked the soggy chunk off his chin.

Why hadn't Twilight told him corn flakes were this good with milk? Resembling a leather-covered ball more than a dragon, he leaned back on his tail and burped out a thin stream of smoke. If they were this good, imagine what -oatmeal- was like.

The front door ceased to exist as a red comet brushed through it, not really noticing there had happened to be a closed door in the way. The doorknob was the only survivor, rolling away to bump against a shelf- the rest didn't so much shatter as spontaneously transform into sawdust.

Big McIntosh spat the newspaper out onto Spike's empty bowl without further comment and casually shook a few bits of wood off his legs.

Moments later, the little dragonling was scribbling away on a scroll.

Dear Princess Celestia:

Twilight is missing, why didn't you TELL ME?

- Spike The Dragon

PS WHERE IS SHE?

Slapping a seal around the scroll, he tossed it into the air and spat...

Crimson flames rolled from Spike's jaws and reduced the paper to a fine ash.

"Aw, how could I make a mistake like THAT?"

Another scroll. More scribbles.

This time, the blast froze the scroll in mid-air and coated the ceiling with a thin layer of frost.

As the two extinguished the flames with leftovers from the milk pitcher, Spike could only wonder why his breath had gone haywire. Was it the corn flakes?

Many miles away, Princess Luna frowned as a third attempt to send a note to Ponyville failed, the scroll twisting itself into confetti rather than behaving properly. Putting her horn to quill for a fourth time, she wrote:

Dear Spike:

Princess Twilight is not feeling well, though I think with rest and time she will be fine. She and her friends caught a bad cold in the snow and are recovering- but need their rest. Please be so kind as to ask Applejack and Rarity's family to be ready to visit them in Canterlot, and I have already sent word to Twilight's parents as well. Please let the Cakes know that Pinkie Pie will be some time getting over this, and that Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash would likely enjoy a get-well card too.

I have sent chariots from Canterlot to receive any well-wishers and family- they should arrive soon after you read this. Be prepared and packed, Twilight asked me to remind you to bring your scale polish so her number one assistant looks his best.

Be well,

Princess Luna

Finishing the series of half-truths, she turned to a courier.

"Deliver this to Princess Sparkle's ward, and him alone. Then return. You know nothing other than that the Princess and her friends are recovering from a chill and need their rest. The rest is Crown business alone, and should they ask, you only need say that I will be there to welcome them when they arrive. Are we clear?"

The ivory-coated pegasus saluted, tucked the scroll securely in a bag, and leaped off the roof of the train in a dusting of snow. Lining up the aerial map in his head, he began the long flight to Ponyville.

Below him, a boxcar-turned-hospital was filled with wounded guards- and a portion was curtained off with curtains borrowed from the VIP passengers. Inside the hidden area, Twilight and the others she had saved in her final teleport slowly thawed, wrapped in damp, hot towels. In more than one spot, those towels had colored red as frozen blood had melted away, and the ponies were covered in bandages and casts in many places that the towels did not.

Applejack's hindquarters were strapped tightly in place, immobilizing her body halfway back. The occasional switch of her tail marked life, but the pained twitches that came afterwards showed that clearly, the cowpony had taken more abuse than was healthy. Her hat rested on a table as a Guard medic applied a fresh dressing to her badly chilled eartips and checked that a steady flow of painkillers and sedative kept her as still and comfortable as the ride would allow.

Dirty Jobs and Squeaky Clean simply slept- Princess Luna's brief sojourn in their skulls smoothing the nightmarish shock of Sombra's mental assault into more peaceful dreams. Their still nameless pie-slinging companion dozed through a mirage of being named "Best in Sales" by Princess Cadence.

Fluttershy lay on a cot next door, sipping on a cup of hot tea and squeaking a little each time an orderly changed the towels covering her hooves and wings. Of the lot, she'd suffered the little physical harm- but even pegasi in deep snow for hours can catch a cold.

Orange Wedge had the next bed over, a line of stiches across a shaved patch of fur marking where the Guard surgeon had gone in to stabilize the broken ribs. Stained bits of white marked where cuts and punctures had been cleaned out, and the Guard pegasus wheezed as he slept. Of the lot, he was clearly the worst off.

Pinkie Pie hung suspended a few inches off the floor in a sling, soft terrycloth borrowed from a requisitioned bathrobe cushioning three of her badly scraped feet. The fourth was wrapped in bandages and occasionally wept yellow and red droplets onto the floor, but the orderlies still had to keep the earth pony from trying to use her sling as a "fun swing" to get enough height to peek above the curtains.

Rainbow Dash was mushmouthed from facial swelling and had lost a back tooth, but was doing her best to make the orderlies wish they could sedate the pegasus as she whipped her bandaged forehooves around in a fierce pantomine and garbled lines like "Yoush hould shee he offer guysh!". That she'd had enough Derpaset to leave most full-grown elephants woozy probably had something to do with it.

Rarity was more tranquil, even if she looked with distaste at the orange coating of antiseptic that covered one side- making her coat a harlequin's motley. She watched over Twilight's bed with an almost tranquil expression, marred by worry any time she heard a cry of pain or the hurried pace of a doctor nearby.

And Twilight?

Though she had been well frosted and even frozen in a few places as she covered her friends with her wings, the alicorn lay on the floor of the car with suprisingly few signs of abuse- thick cushions and mattresses supporting her as comfortably as the chief surgeon knew to manage. "Strained wing and overmagicking", Soarnus Methodus had said- and the pegasus specialist had made sure the Princess was resting as comfortably as her other condition would allow. Her rather special condition.

Folded against the sides of the Princess, her wings sparkled like living amethysts- the feathers frozen into a crystalline mantle of precious stones.

Chapter 4: Friendship Is Magic, Electricity Is Inspirational.

Twilight Sparkle...slept. And dreamed, like any mortal creature. Princess Luna's only brush with Twilight's dreaming mind was with Soarnus' insistence on making sure no hidden traumas lay hidden in the alicorn's noggin.

Dream-Twilight was busily re-shelving stacks of books that had tumbled from her dream-library, being assisted by a figment of Star Swirl the Bearded as they organized the scattered subconscious into it's normal alphabetized-and-Dewdrop-Decimal'd system. Perfectly normal.

"She really does get the beard right", mused Luna before withdrawing to leave the mindscape free to unclutter itself.

"Star Swirl" looked at dream-Twilight meaningfully and let the illusion fall, becoming a greying sheep with a pair of eyebrows that mirrored the sweep of his silvered horns, capped at the end with the shimmering metal.

The beard, however did not change a whit, nor his respectful care of each book as he aligned them with the rest.

"I have always said it was ignorance and the fear of knowledge that has been the bane of proper friendships, and I apologize again for the latter- but I fear Luna would take my visit in poor taste. She always has been an impetuous spirit... and we have only so long before you wake. Shall we continue with the lesson?"

Dream-Twilight, who was quite lucid about the whole thing nodded eagerly.

"Before even there was life in this world you call "Equestria", there were spirits. They were without form, for there was none to give them form, but they flowed through everything. The earth, the sky, the sun and moon- small as the smallest speck, large as the reach of the sun, countless in number, nameless without a namer, to be for the sake of being. Spirits of fire consumed, spirits of earth moved for the sake of moving and crackling and crumbling and rising to mountain or falling to pebbles, the seas rolled in their basins and took in the pulls of the tides as the moon did in making the waters wash back and forth below the firmament.

And in time, those elements mixed and clashed and stirred amidst one another, and left something of themselves as they joined- life. Life was new, for it was made of a bit of one spirit and the leftovers of another, a hodge-podge that somehow fit together to make something greater, and then more lives like itself. It took, but it returned as well when it was extinguished and simply became a new voice in the endless song of being. As life grew, so did we.

Suddenly, the spirits were aware of each other, and ourselves as more than simply doing, but that there was "other", and those others "did" as we "did", but different things. Life, by putting pieces of us together and making them into something material had gifted the first spirits with awareness of the place they existed within- by keeping our essences in contact with each other, they could not but know something else was. One after another, we spirits became- still wordless, nameless, but creations unto ourselves. The eldest were what all life seemed to know first and hold dearest- light, and darkness.

Still, we did not have shape, and life grew and ended and changed on the world for a span of time that would make the age of ponies like an eyeblink to the eldest of mares. The waters teemed with life that found it's way upon the land, and grew larger, and larger- amphibian, reptile, bird....and eventually, creatures much like you."

The ram paused to hold a book open, showing a somewhat ponylike creature in size, but four-toed instead of hooved and a face closer akin to a camel than any pony Twilight had seen alive. Shelving it under "E", he continued:

"As more of the sun became bound to living things, it's spirit awoke in turn, knowing as the energies it gave poured into plants, which the beasts ate, and then ate one another, living and dying and feeding, all to sustain themselves on the bit of Sun inside them. And the Moon awoke soon afterwards, for in darkness the world depended on it's reflected brightness even as in light they did the Sun, and the wakeful Sun's light did pour itself upon the Moon so it might watch more of Life with the stony mirror it provided. They were the last of the great spirits to awaken, for the longest of times.

The Sun then did what no spirit had done, or even thought to do. As it gave of itself to Life, it sent a measure of it's awareness, even as it had the Moon without meaning or thought for only a moment, to whatever had stood under the gleam of sun that it had sent forth. That beam landed on a herd of those almost-pony creatures, and for the first time, they knew of themselves. They had a sense of self, and of like, and of other- and a great desire to categorize them, much like your books!

In return for the gift of the Sun, they gave their own- names to everything they saw. As Life's mixing had brought awareness to spirit, so it's namings brought shapes to what was formlessness. Lights and darkness upon what you call the "Astral", and we were Light and Dark the first, Sun and Moon the last, and as many in between as your many-many-many-times ancestors could put gesture, sound, and symbol to!

They learned to use things beyond themselves in ever more complex patterns- tools, language, Life using the world in what would be "civilization". Unknowingly, their self-awareness touched other creatures, and they in turn drew upon the spirit-stuff within them to know as your proto-ponies did- and the first ancestors of many of the races you know today took their places. Ponies, griffins, zebras? More creatures than exist in all the books in your head that have lived and died to allow the ones you know their lines in your library.

And rams, of course. Their ancestors lived on the mountain peaks, and when lightning struck, they drew upon it to begin the long journey to wisdom."

The ancient silverhorn bleated something suspiciously like laughter.

"Eventually, they even managed to get a few of us to join them as Life, but that will have to be when we meet again...."

A book flopped off it's perch as the dream began to waver, like a dish full of gelatin.

"Once you've seen the light."

A *snap* of static tickled the dream-pony's nose, and she blinked...

The dream vanished with the flash of light. Twilight awoke.

Chapter 5: The Sky Is Crawling

"It's gonna work THIS time!"

Spike's lips pursed, and the little dragon briefly turned himself into a miniature sandblaster as a cone of fine particles pinned the seventeeth scroll to the wall.

Bits of paper and paint fell off the abused patch, leaving a nicely reversed stencil of the doomed message surrounded by crumbled white stucco.

Big Mac quietly watched Spike as he managed, time after time to demolish his paperwork in new and creative methods. Fire, ice, a tiny bolt of lightning, even a minature sunbeam that had disintergrated a windowpane on it's way out of the library? With a shake of his head, the pony turned to leave Spike to his massacre of the library's writing supplies.

A relatively tiny, grumpy, and tired-eyed Guard pegasus looked up at the stallion.

"You are NOT a dragon. This is the residence of one Spike, is it not?"

"Eeeyup."

"Then in the name of Princess Luna, stand aside!"

Big McIntosh obeyed without a word of backtalk.

"Bloody country hicks", thought Moonlight Wings as he crossed the threshold, noting the broken hinges. "Don't they know what a doorknob is?"

His reward for entering was a thick, black cloud of smoke in the face. Sucking in a lungful, he found himself dizzily staggering up to a pair of small reptilian creatures. "Princess Luna never told me there were TWO of them.". Now four, and they were doing the strangest little dance...

"*hic* Meshage.....meshage fromph Princessh Loona for Spike duh dwagon!"

The purple and green quartet walked up and pulled the scroll from Moonlight's mouth, splitting it into identical copies that they all read with a concerned expression. The herd of giant red apples in the room looked the note over as the four purple worms crawled in and out of them, waving their papers in front of the fruit.

Moonlight's eyes ceased to track the same target as he turned to leave. A sparkling portal beckoned.

"Missshun accompwished! Fer the Suns and Moons, AWAAAAAEEEIGH!"

The pegasus leaped through the already holed window, crashing into the air. Rising (sorta), the messenger headed towards one of the Canterlots he could see in the distance. He was sure it'd be the right one, the little butterfly-winged ponies were telling him so. They smelled like corn flakes! Hee hee hee...wearing the remnants of the window frame like a collar, a very, very smoke-addled Moonlight Wings bobbled through the skies. One might have been able to say he was heading in the general direction of the capital every minute or so, but how he was doing it upside down, even Rainbow Dash couldn't have figured out.

Below, Big McIntosh galloped for home in the afternoon sun, a royal-sealed scroll held between his teeth and a half-empty cart trailing behind.

He was late for lunch, as the plate full of flaky biscuits on the kitchen table would have shown. The somewhat bloated and sticky collection of fillies seated around the table were too full to notice much as Granny Smith placidly gummed a honey-soaked tidbit. They'd failed at getting a cutie mark in biscuit eating.

Defeat was sweet. And went well with a big glass of milk.

Scootaloo commented on it with a sugary belch. Sweetie Belle stifled a giggle and Apple Bloom tried not to laugh as Granny gave them the wordless eye- considering her mouth was pretty much stuck together from all the honey.

The clatter of wheels marked the arrival of Sweet Apple Acre's champion biscuit eater, followed by a bang as the front door and Big Mac's head had a brief reunion. Granny managed to wrassle her mouth into a honey-strung smile.

"Well, mister-late-fer-dinner, it's a good thing Applejack ain't here or you'd be goin' hungry!"

He spat out the scroll onto the table, Apple Bloom slapping a hoof on it to keep it from rolling off onto the floor.

"I thought I went and fetched all the mai-OH MAH GOSH WE'RE GOING TO CANTERLOT! ON A CHARIOT!"

Aching tummies forgotten, the three fillies read aloud as the stallion helped himself to the still-lukewarm plate of food.

" "ask Rarity's and Applejack's...", hey, that's ME!"

"Am I Rainbow Dash's well-wisher?"

"She rescue you from any lately?"

"HAY!", erupted from the chomping mountain standing at the table. A crumb adhered to Sweetie Belle's horn, dangling on a gummy line.

"Apple Bloom, you help Granny git packed. Miss Belle, you take this here message to yer mama. Scootaloo, git yer things an' come back here."

Three small dust clouds sat at the table for a moment before settling to the floor. The scroll had vanished like magic.

Rocketing down the dirt road, Scootaloo shouted back to the rattling wagon Sweetie Belle was grabbing four-hooved for dear life:

"HEY, WE SHOULD TELL RAINBOW DASH WE'RE GOING TO SEE RAINBOW DASH IN CANTER...."

Her wings stuttered in confusion, letting the wagon skid to a stop in front of Sweetie's house.

"Um...if Rainbow Dash is sick in Canterlot, who's been up in that tree since last night?"

"Maybe another pegasus?"

"Yeah, but they didn't talk or anything. Somepony could be hurt up there!"

"Do you think they need help?"

The two briefly got stuck trying to get in the front door together, but the yelling from inside a few minutes afterwards resolved into the rattle of suitcases and the weather team being called out as a search party.

From the sky, a blue dot atop a tree was easy enough to see, if you knew where to look. Cloud Kicker had been in the square when all the excitement had started (and thankfully, ABOVE it when that crazy horse went wild), but when there'd been reports of a crashed pegasus spotted in the forest? She should have found a thunderhead to sleep on, it'd have been a more quiet day! With Dash hoofing it up at the Games, guess who got to play lost and found on the weather team? Her, and whatever wings she could scrounge up.

She glided in for a landing. Why, it was just a little fellow! Maybe he'd fallen out of someone's cloud, but there wasn't any blood or feathers scattered around. Pretty good landing...for a unicorn?

The distinct lack of wings and stubby black horn poking out of the colt's skull was a shock. That he hadn't even reacted to a grown mare landing next to him was another.

"HEY! MEDLEY!", she shouted at the raincloud-cutie-marked flier winging it overhead. "GET BACK TO THE HOSPITAL! TELL DOCTOR STABLE WE'VE GOT A UNICORN COLT, MAYBE A YEARLING, PROBABLY FELL OUT OF A CHARIOT, NO RESPONSE BUT STILL BREATHING, AND BRING A BACKBOARD."

Stroking the shock of blue and red hair on the colt's head, Cloud Kicker could only wait for help to arrive.

Chapter 6: Recovery Room

..."Ram....uh?"

The crackle of static off a down-filled comforter sparked against Twilight's wet nostrils as the dream-world moved from "now" to "memory" inside her skull. The smell of old books and dozens more familiar to her sifted in behind the ozone, and the only unpleasant reminder of the past was a nagging ache in her wings and horn. But where....?

Grit-filled eyes opened to an scene even further in the past than she'd expected. Old shelves, dusty but still faithfully carrying old schoolbooks and reference collections dating back to Magic Kindergarten, wisps of yellowed paper poking out from every angle where she'd carefully marked note after note. The brackets where her telescope used to be before they'd moved it to Ponyville. Spike's old hatchling bed. Her third-best quill and ink set. The old study table, painted with a rainbow of wax drippings from the endless night-long study sessions. She sighed and burrowed back into the warm covers a bit.

Canterlot...we made it home. Everything is going to be fine.

A pink comet slowed from a blur to a Pinkie as it *sproinged* to the top of a bungee cord. Peering through the tower window, she waved all four hooves in the air.

"Hey! HEY! She's AWAAAAAKE! HIYA TWILIGHT!"

Gravity yanked her back down, a string of elastic spooling out like some demented spider's web.

The next visitor wasn't far behind, as a blue streak shot to the top of the stairs and wobbled there. Still sporting a shiner the size and color of a fried egg, Rainbow Dash fluttered forward, nearly landed on Twilight, and half-slid into a prone pony position at the foot of the bed instead. Opening her mouth, she greeted her best friend...

*URP*

The smell of silage filled the air as she emptied the contents of her stomach into a handy wastebasket.

The breeze fanning the stench away from Twilight's watering nose marked Fluttershy's arrival, who managed to look embarrassed and comforting at the same time.

"Poor Rainbow Dash...sorry...she's not supposed to be flying much for the week...sorry..."

"Hey! I can *urp* apologize for myself! Doc Sorehead thinks anything more than baby flaps is *hic* fast...."

"I think we're using the stairs to go down, Dashie. It's SO good to see you're feeling better, Twilight...come downstairs when you're up to it. Applejack and Rarity aren't handling stairs too well right now, either, but they'd be very happy to see you."

Herding an unsteady pegasus back down the spiral, she toted the unpleasant mess out of sight and out of smell.

In much humbler surroundings far away, another patient awoke to a much more pleasant smell.

Soup. Onions and garlic and broth and noodles and a sprinkle of half a dozen herbs and a spice or two.

"Wait. What is soup?"

Confusion. How do you not know what soup is and know what soup is? And why am I talking to myself about not knowing what soup is?

Memories. Thin hay broth, hungry, abandoned, found, warm, happy, travel, lost, weak, dimming, dying

With a little gasp, the unicorn colt opened his eyes. A sympathetic pair of blue ones were already looking back at them, a pink shock of hair poking out from beneath a nurse's cap. On a table next to the bed, a container of soup steamed as it cooled in the hospital room.

"And Doctor Stable thought we needed smelling salts for you, little fella. What's your name?"

Blank. Blank. ...

A broken bit of blackened crystal sat by the bowl of soup. The colt's eyes were drawn to it, looking for a half-remembered spark of light, a thought, a...

It is a chip.

"I'm....ah....uh...Chip?" That sounds kinda right...

The nurse smiled.

"Good to meet you, Chip. Now, do you remember who your mommy and daddy are? What's their names?"

Empty. More than empty. Gone. Crystal, brothers, sisters, gone, gone gone...

"No, no, NO! Crystals, gone, gone!"

Redheart's eyes went wide at the outburst, only to come to a conclusion a second later. She held the little colt against one shoulder as he thrashed through a sea of disjointed memories that simply made no sense, lights and stones and two voices crying GONE as one in his head, soaking the mare in warm, salty tears that seemed to flow without stopping.

Doctor Stable came in on his rounds to find Redheart still holding the exhausted Chip, still sniffling now and again as he slept on the damp patch of fur he'd burrowed his nose into.

"The boy...he's from the Empire, Doctor. I...I don't know how he got in that tree, but he wouldn't be the first one to end up the Everfree from...somewhere else."

The little yellow pegasus checked out with barely a scratch. A miracle, considering she'd fallen all the way from Cloudsdale without knowing how to fly...but when she'd wandered into town from the forest and shivering from the cold, they'd brought her to the hospital to make sure everything was OK. A candystriper named Redheart brought in some soup...

"He's got that chunk of crystal, and it looks like it's been through a war. The papers said that Sombra has invaded the Empire...do you think...he said his parents were "gone"..."

Doctor Stable nodded. "He's clearly been traumatized, he's scared, and he thinks he's alone."

At the word alone, Chip whimpered in his sleep and clutched at Redheart's mane.

"That's not happening. Sweetheart and the rest are covering your rooms, effective immediately. You're the best we have with children, and this one needs a tender hoof..."

...getting her out from under the blankets wasn't easy until the rabbit kit Fluttershy had snuck in tried to jump headlong into the soup bowl to guzzle the contents. The doctors found Redheart and Fluttershy with a bottle of broth, and the hungry little fellow named they named "Angel" sucking it down like there was no tomorrow.

Dabbing at her wet and slightly snotty fur with a towel, the nurse settled down with Chip on his bed for the night. It wouldn't be the first night with a lonely child.

Later that night, Redheart watched as the pegasus filly- no, a young mare now with that cutie mark -lay curled up with her Angel Bunny. Dragging herself home after a long shift, she noticed a red-crossed cutie mark of her own had appeared sometime in the night when she peeled off her scrubs...

Chapter 7: Everything You Know Is Wrong

Canterlot's Ivory Tower

Twilight Sparkle stretches, feeling her spine crackle pleasantly- and casually attempts to teleport downstairs to see her friends.

Two things result- one, a flare of magic spreading from her wings is more than enough to reduce her blankets to a spray of rags and tufts of feathery down.

The second is Twilight Sparkle realizing said wings are now clad in delicate, crystalline "feathers" instead of the real thing.

Downstairs, four ponies look at each other and realize nopony had told Twilight she really sparkled now.

Whinnatche, western Equestria

Flim and Flam grin as they start up the Super Cider Squeezy 6300, anticipating an easy win. The entire farm crew not only got in on their sucker bet, but caught a nasty stomach bug. Trying to catch up with the SCS's last two days worth of production hasn't worked out very well while half of them are doing their best impression of green apples in bed...

The slightly germ-infected "free cider samples" they'd given away last week had nothing to do with that, of course.

Grinning, Flim engages the gem matrix and powers up for the third and final day to finish it off, rake in a lovely deed to forty acres of prime farmland, and come out of it with the pile of bits they so richly deserve.

The enchantments fail, catastrophically as the SCS propels itself like a rocket through seven Red Delicious trees, a fence, a barn wall, the opposite barn wall, and into a pigsty. It's passengers spend the next three months in the jailhouse hospital- wearing a fashionable combination of body casts and inmate stripes.

LaGaitia Airship Port, Manehattan

The airships were at 100%.

One hundred percent "out of service". Crowds clamored in long lines for refunds as the only flights in and out were pegasus-powered small chariots. Mechanics scratched their heads as propeller shafts and engine parts came out fouled with crystalline growths gumming up everything- at times, even growing straight through parts to fill every lubricated surface with stony grit the second someone tried to get the things moving. The more spells a part had on it, the worse the "glittergunk" got...

30th Street Station, Fillydelphia

Minty Franklin pulled the throttle open gently to coax his cargo of Royal Guardponies into motion. The firebox warmed as the coal inside heated up nicely, black smoke filtering into the anti-smog spell built into the smokestack...

...and the fire followed the smoke out , spinning in a frozen lick of cherry red as it floated down the track. An occasional ember dripped off the glowing mass, but other than that the elemental ball of flame seemed quite happy to just be on it's way. As the engineer watched, the fire elemental drifted around a corner with a final spiral and vanished down the southbound tunnel.

Nobody believed him until a second attempt burped another living flame into the train, where it calmly floated through six cars of Guard before *popping* out of reality.

The regimental commander opted to march out of Fillydelphia on hoof instead.

The Everfree Forest

As rocks go, Tom had led an interesting life. I mean, how many rocks do you know get to be one of Discord's props, fought over by the Elements of Harmony, and then used to seal off a pool of immense magical power just in case Pinkie Pie had another REALLY bad idea and decided she needed another dozen Pinkies to help out?

Well, it'd have been interesting if Tom was anything animated, anyway. Rarity and Pinkie Pie aside, most of Ponyville wasn't in the habit of talking to rocks, and Tom really wasn't much for talking back anyway. He was, aside from the occasional chaotic glamour tossed his way, just an ordinary chunk of stone.

This was about to change. Tom actually gleamed a bit in the afternoon sun. Well, it was the sandy bits of crystallne debris that had ended up falling from the sky and landing in his cracks- but it did add a nice bit of flair. Very micaline.

It also added just enough weight to weaken the already eroded edges of the hole Tom had been jammed into, sending the rock rolling down a smooth ramp to *splash* into the waters below. I mean, immersing a rock with chaos magic residue coated in the remnants of an ancient arcane artifact into the waters of a magical pool with enough energy to give a dozen major ley lines a run for their bits would be totally harmless. Right?

The resulting earthquake wasn't much- about a 3 on the Richter scale, just enough for a few ponies in Ponyville to think that Pinkie Pie had been test-firing that new Super Duper Party Cannon again. (For the record, she's gone straight to working on a Super Duper Scrumpalicious Party Patty Cake Cannon, and it is as delicious and dangerous as you might guess from the name.). The results? Well, magical.

The chamber formerly occupied by Ms. Mirror Pool and Mr. Tom Rock now was filled to the brim (and indeed, a few over the top) of Tom-sized, humming, floating, blue-glowing crystals that rather resembled Rarity's flank, if you'd jazzed them up a bit with some cutie mark polish. Occasionally letting off the odd bubbly mote of enchantment, the herd of Tom's progeny did what you'd expect of a good bunch of rocks. Absolutely nothing else.

Chapter 9: Maybe You Can't Figure It Out Just Yet

Floating pegasus-high in the sky isn't natural for for earth ponies or unicorns, but the small crowd riding in a formation of aerial chariots were doing a good job of making it look easy...or that could have been the Guard pegasi keeping the three chariots in perfect balance. Sadly for them, nopony was paying much attention.

The lead chariot in the wedge barely managed to fit the massive form of Big Mac alongside the equally un-massive Spike. The dragonling rambled on about his theories as to why his breath had gone on the fritz, a subject the stallion barely commented on- the occasional polite "Eeyup" dropped in as he thought about his sister.

Y'know, iffen it was only a cold, why'd they send a chariot?

The second chariot held Rarity's mother, who spent most of the time chattering away in a non-stop barrage to her fellow passenger about seeing Canterlot. Angel Bunny frequently looked like he was going to leap off the chariot and end it all, especially after realizing that if anything, Pearl's cutie mark was apparently in talking your fuzzy ears off. Next time, he was taking the train!

Chariot number three had joined them in mid-air as they flew towards the mountain- a family of earth ponies. The eldest stoically held his hat in his mouth as the wind rushed by, a older grey mare who would have blended in perfectly with any boulder you care to mention leaning against her husband for a little warmth- or perhaps because he was the steadiest rock in the chariot. Two younger mares with slate and shale-colored coats hung their hooves over each side, trying not to leave breakfast behind. Most of the Pie family preferred only to leave the ground two hooves at a time, at most- and never more than six inches at a time. Anything more you...left to Pinkie. The thought that Princess Luna had cajoled them into this completely overdone method of arrival instead of a more sensible method hadn't failed to cross the minds of Pinkie's parents, either. Along with a copy of the Chronicle story. Disasters and evil kings and suddenly, one of the rulers of Equestria summons you to see your daughter for a head cold? The only visible reaction to that thought was Clyde's hat developing an extra crease where it met his teeth.

The golden spires of Canterlot Castle distracted the travelers from their gloomier thoughts as the wide...open...covered in tents and ponies? Courtyards and gardens rolled out beneath them as they slid beneath the cloud cover. From the sky, it looked like nearly every empty piece of ground in the castle was first covered in a quiltwork of fabric shelters, a tent city filled with the sparkle of crystal ponies mixed in with a dash of one species or another. What space the first chaos didn't fill, a second array of tents did- in neat squares, each topped with the Equestrian flag. Lines of glittering metal marked units of guardponies as they marched from one spot to another or drilled in neat ranks.

Ahead, a landing platform awaited the chariots. The dusky form of Luna stood by the platform entrance, a squad of bodyguards clustered about her like an island of steel- only the occasional dip of a spearhead marked any real animation from the Night Guard, but Luna herself showed few signs of tension. Big Mac relaxed a bit as the alicorn's body language spoke more of happiness and relief than sadness or grim tidings.

As the pegasi brought their rides to a halt, she stepped out of her ring of protectors, dipping her head in a friendly fashion. Clyde and Sue's faces stayed stony, but their children simply looked dazzled at being greeted by a princess. Pearl wasn't much better off until Angel, who'd used her back as a proper ride flicked one of her ears with a claw. Spike simply waddled forward with a grin- Princesses were old hat!

"Welcome to you all, and I thank thee for coming so swiftly to see your familes here. Princess Celestia sends her regards, for as you may well have seen the affairs of Canterlot have been most pressing of late, and the Court has barely given her a minute to eat, much less escape it. Your little ponies are on the mend, and I see you are all most eager to be with them. Hast thou any questions before mine guard brings you to them?"

"Three hoof shakes and a rattle.", replied Sue. "Three. Hoof shakes. And a rattle. What did you do to my little filly?"

The mother of the Pie clan slid forward almost with an eerie silence, with a gait that made the Princess take a step back.

"That was no "little cold", a Pie mare knows what happens to their children. And you don't fib about it to me, not one word!"

Suddenly, Princess Luna knew what it was like to be under an avalanche just before it crushed them- even if it wasn't even half her size.

"Th-thine daughter was wounded in battle 'gainst Sombra, but I...I swear, she will mend anon! Twas her that let me know your arrival was near! Mine missive was writ so only to keep such knowledge privy only to their beloved ones!"

Big Mac looked like someone had booped him on the nose with a branding iron. Luna looked like someone was holding said red-hot iron perilously close to where the moon doesn't shine. The crushing weight of Sue's eyes relented, seeming to hover above Luna like a brooding cliff.

"You take us there yourself, young lady. If you weren't royalty, I'd be putting a cupcake in YOUR eye."

Inky and Blinky shuddered. They knew what Mama Pie put in the "special cupcake frosting" when you didn't tell the truth.

"Yes....yes Madam Pie! Certes! Guards, clear this mare a path to the Ivory Tower for her and her most esteemed companions. I shall escort them mine self to their destination! Swiftly, for my sak- for their sakes!"

With the special kind of speed that hovers just between "panic" and "swift gait", Luna's bodyguard cut a path through the castle corridors, Luna slotted in behind them. A single guard kept curious ponies from coming up behind as the family of the Elements trotted down marble hallways towards Twilight's old quarters. Sue and Clyde calmly trotted down the center of the way as if it was nothing more than a country path, most of the group giving them -just- a little more space than needed, even if it meant crowding someone else. Except Angel.

The fuzzy wiseass was hopping up and down on the back of the rearguard, waving like a king as he passed.

Chapter 10: Visiting Privileges

Chapter 10: Visiting Privileges

Dragging enough slightly out-of-date medication to qualify for a hypochondriac's medicine cabinet, Scootaloo proudly wheeled her cargo through the front doors of Ponyville Hospital. Straining slightly, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle held the way open.

(The author would like to note that being mostly from Granny Smith said "medication" was primarily prune-based and used for producing movements of a laxative nature. We don't condone giving fillies your leftover Derpaset, Vicoltdin, or anything that should never be handed to anyone who hasn't even managed a cutie mark in three seasons. Common sense!)

Scootaloo rolled up to the front desk with a few squeaks and jumped up to clear the top...well, she did manage to get her front hooves up there, anyway.

"We're....*flapflapflapflapflap*...heeeeeeere...*flapflapbuzzzzzzz*...to see a friend! *thud* ", before the pegasus lost her precarious wing-assisted grip and tumbled out of sight.

The receptionist looked down from the other side to find two fillies looking up expectantly at her, plus a third flat on her back and trying to remember how to breathe like a normal pony.

"Yep, he's almost family!", beamed Sweetie Belle. "I remember him jus' like we met him yesterday!", Apple Bloom added.

Penny Post-It looked dubiously at the trio. "I don't have anyone your age on the visitor's list, girls. Maybe you should come back tomorr-"

Without fanfare, Scribbles dropped Chip's file, fostering/visitation request and all on Penny's desk, nearly smacking her on the nose. "Here's the file on the colt, sorry it took so long, had to decipher Doctor Stable's excuse for mouthwriting again byeeeee!", she added as she zipped back into the office maze, leaving only a drifting random page in her wake.

"Ohhhh." Horseapples, Scribbles! Penny scanned the file. Foster request, visiting request...aha!

"I'm sorry, girls. Your friend is only allowed to have visitors if you have the mare or stallion of the house with you."

"What's that mean?", said Apple Bloom. "I think she's stalling us...", added Scootaloo. Sweetie Belle just fished around in her mane for Celestia knew what.... "Safe from the horde for another day!", thought Penny.

"That means whoever's taking care of your home has to be here when you come to see your friend Chip. So come back tomorrow with your mommy or daddy-"

Sweetie Belle held up a folded piece of paper. Dreading the contents, Penny unfolded it.

Magnum,

While I'm away to see our firstborn daughter in Canterlot, Sweetie Belle is going to be the mare of the house. I better not see any laundry piled up or a single thing left on your honey-do list by the time I get back! She's in charge!

Your little hoofball cheerleader of love,

Pearl

PS NO FISHING TRIPS TILL IT'S ALL DONE!

"I'm Sweetie Belle!", the unicorn added helpfully.

The dull *whump* of Penny's head hitting desk could be heard faintly before she pushed a pad of paper and a quill across to the waiting trio, then the note a moment afterwards..

"Sign-sign in here. I need more coff...I mean, I have to file some papers for the nice doctors. Room two-one-one, up the stairs and to your left.". Defeated, Penny took the somewhat ink-splattered log back with three scrawled names and vowed quietly to call in sick tomorrow with a bad case of the cutie pox.

Near the foot of the stairs, a Filly Scout stood, with a large bin and a sign that said "Hospital Donations".

"Wow, look at that wagon! They brought all that stuff in? This is gonna look GREAT to the Scoutmistress!", thought Tag-A-Long. First that gem the nice zebra gave her in the market a while back, plus a wagon full of donations today? "I am SO getting my Cutie Badge in Giving and Helping tomorrow!"

"You...you came to give all that stuff to me?", she said, giving the three her best green-eyed come-on-you-wanna smile to go with it. If she'd had a halo, it'd have been polished too.

Apple Bloom looked at the sign.

"Why, and I was wonderin' where to put alla this stuff we were givin' to the doctors!"

Yes!

"Here ya go, that's right nice of you!" - and she proceeded to dump the contents of the wagon into the bin. A roll of gauze unraveled and bounced down a hallway. A bottle of Mrs. Purple's Easy-Move tipped a bit, leaving a fruity dribble to glue a stack of old bandage pads together. The scent of old prunes and antiseptic mixed as the Crusaders waved cheerfully and rolled the now-unburdened scooter-and-tow up the stairs.

"Y'all are so nice, thanks for helpin'!" "We'd have never gotten all that upstairs!" "Yeah, good thing she was there to take all that stuff for us!".

Tag-a-long looked at the disaster area that had once been a donation center and began to sniffle.

Softened by the inappropriate application of laxative, the cardboard bin collapsed, sending it's contents scattering in every direction across the hospital floor. Tears flowed to the cheery sounds of Sweetie Belle arguing over whether being the mare of the house meant you got dibs on the cookie jar with Apple Bloom. With a muffled, heartbroken sob, Tag-A-Long gave in to the tide and sank into the ocean of despair, dotted with smiley-face-good-checkup-stickers.

Author's Note

What, you didn't recognize Tag-A-Long from somewhere else? Tsk, tsk.

Chapter 11: Spelling It Out

Canterlot is not a place for anyone with even a hint of acrophobia. Or at least, it's a great way to get a proper fear of heights started.

Inkie Pie was finding this out as her family walked across a broad, golden walkway that connected the Royal Observatory Annex to the Ivory Tower (or, as it was oft called nowadays for it's frequent resident, the Sparkle Spire). Canterlot had a serious lack of enough railings and a penchant for high places that you could feel the breeze in as you walked and see what lay below. When you're a young mare who's high point in life was the top of the sand silo- well, the balcony on the other side was a welcome find indeed. A pegasus guardpony stood at the door, but stepped aside without a word at the sight of the Luna-led party. They'd had to walk between one tower and another, up stairs and down stairs and across plenty of bridges to get through with any speed, as the grounds below had become a traffic jam of refugees from the Empire and Guard units mobilizing and training.

Finally, though- they were here at last!

The world developed blur lines as Inkie found herself suddenly yanked dozens of feet in the air. Stunned, she could only watch as the faces of the entire party stared at the creature who had snatched her from the midst of their number. It was so sudden, she couldn't even scream...

Pinkie Pie did it for her.

"EEEEEEEOHWOWYOUMADEITIAMSOHAPPYTOSEEYOUANDBLINKIEANDMOMMYANDDADDYIMGONNAHAVEAPIEFAMILYPARTYYEEEEEEEEEES!" dopplered off as the elastic-banded pony hugged Inkie to her chest, the words blurring together into a hyperactive babblesquee of pure Pinkie joy. A tug marked the top of the line's limit, and Inkie's stomach rose as the brief moment of weightlessness turned into a plunge.

A dozen ponies (plus a bunny) watched as Inkie and Pinkie dived past them, then snapped back up again, then down...and up...and down...and up......and finally, with a gentle landing, Pinkie lowered her sister back down on the walkway and swung in a little circle on the end of her bungee cord.

"Ithoughtitwasn'tgoingtobemuchfunwithhurthoovesbuttheyputmeonareallyfunharnessandonceIknewitwassosuperstretchyoohBlinkieyouwantnextrid"

Sue cut Pinkie off by hugging her daughter instead. "Don't you EVER scare me like that again, Pinkamena Diane Pie!"

"Mooooom, the line is good for three thousand pounds and I haven't eaten THAT many cakes since you last saw me!"

"You KNOW what I mean!"

Pinkie just sniffled a bit at that, shut up and let her mother get back to the hugging. You could never get enough Mommy Hugs and it HAD been a hard last couple of days. The Canterlot doctors didn't even give her any of those good checkup smiley face stickers!

"Now, you take yourself inside so your family can talk to you somewhere with four walls and a floor!"

"Okie dokie, don't be pokey!", Pinkie replied. Clambering up the line, she vanished through an open skylight in the onion-shaped top of the tower. The rest of the lot simply used the now-open door, which the astonished guard had been holding for them during the entire snatch-and-gab.

Compared to the scene outside, it was a fountain of tranquility- if you didn't count Spider-Pinkie hanging from the ceiling.

Stretched out on a sofa, Rainbow Dash was performing one of her rarest tricks. Not moving without sleeping first. A book was propped open between her hooves, and her face was pressed against the pages as she read with an intensity that made you wonder if she'd swapped cutie marks with Twilight Sparkle. Fluttershy had already ended up nose-to-nose with Angel in record time (even if the local birds were very nice once you knew what bread crumbs they liked, Angel was her specialest baby-waby), and gathered around a round table (somewhat stained and chipped) were the other occupants of the tower. A tea pot and a few cups floated down to it's surface as they turned to see the new arrivals:

Applejack, who from the crumbs and scattered droplets of tea had just managed to demolish an apple scone. Rarity, who had been conversing with the older couple at the table. Night Light and Twilight Velvet, who had a far easier trip from Canterlot proper to the castle to see their loved one. Twilight Sparkle, who had a rather large book (but only one, she had been taught that two books or more at teatime was overdoing it) open...oh, and the large, dawn-colored alicorn princess resting her Royal Fanny on a sizeable cushion.

"Sister, I thought you were supposed to be at Court?", Celestia pronounced with perfect innocence. And slurped her tea.

"Oyez, oyez! Her Royal Majesty, Princess of the Dawn shall resume her audiences after a short recess for dinner!", shouted Sunny Flag, Herald to the Dawn Court. For the third time. In an hour. A drop of sweat rolled down his face. "She's left me to keep the crowd busy again, hasn't she? Princess Luna was supposed to take over by now!"

A small crowd of well dressed ponies looked as if they were preparing to trample him underfoot to get their petitions heard, and the less-well-dressed ponies behind THEM were twice and numerous and half as patient looking. Sunny Flag swallowed the lump in his throat as the royal entry opened.

Servants in the royal livery rolled cart after cart of delicacies into the waiting room, followed by tables and comfortable-looking chairs. Oh, salvation!

"DINNER IS SERVED!"

"Fear not, dearest sister. I've made sure Sunny Flag has everyone well in hoof while we discuss a few things. A little tea with your sugar as usual?". Celestia floated a cup anchored with a thick silting of sweetness across the table to rest in front of Luna before turning her gaze to the rest of the ponies before her.

"My little ponies, you are all close kin or good friends to the Elements, and I would ask that what you hear here go no further than this tower. I'd also like to introduce you to a few new friends I made the other day, who have been good enough to wait here with your family until I could make some proper introductions. Too many ponies have been sticking their noses around our chambers to give them privacy elsewhere, but thankfully they've had a chance to make some more friends here."

The doors to a storage closet opened, and Princess Celestia introduced her subjects to their first meeting with the Goblin and Moogle races.

Kupollux and Kupofrieda were quite happy to join the table for tea, floating stallion-head-high as they slowly spoke in Equestrian to the three Princesses. Macguffnox and Macgyvix, on the other hand ended up in a cluster of earth ponies on the other side, the Pies and Apples making themselves understood without all the fancy talkers getting in the way.

"We gobbies actually speak Tartarian just fine, even if those bat-winged flutterbrains over there ain't up for talking with "demons" most days.", said Macguffnox. The words rolled out from behind his mask like he'd carved each one out of a cavern wall.

"Ain't that some kinda fish sauce?", said Applejack. The slightly confused looks from the other ponies came along a heartbeat afterwards.

"Nah! Tartarian is what demons talk in- and booooy, when we heard your pretty Princess talking monster, she had us spooked!", Macgyvix answered in a slightly higher-pitched and squeakier tone than her companion. "We didn't know that monsters learned to talk from ponies- heck, we didn't even know there WERE ponies! Just goblins, those moogle twerps over there-", the she-goblin waved at the two orbiting Twilight's head, "and the beasties Princess Way-Too-Bright kept locked up in the caverns over our noggins. With nice big magical wards that'd fry anyone who touched em, up and down and all around!"

"But a few days back, the wards went POOF and a few braver gobbies, an' even a couple of those scaredy-mogs climbed up to see what was goin' on. Well, there was some NEW monsters in there, and they wanted our masks with the heads still in em. Nothin' else, see. Me and Macgyvix ran before we was chop-chop-suey, and we ran into them mogs on the way out. Then we found a tunnel to this "outside" stuff and there's this big ol' pony lyin' there all banged up. Good thing she talked to us first, or the flutterbrains woulda flapped their white butts halfway back to Moogletown by now. We helped patch her up, she gave us the mythril-coated road to Shiny City here an' we've been talkin' deals ever since.", finished Macguffnox.

"Father, what does "mythril" mean?", asked Blinkie.

Macguffnox sat down and dug a shiny, silvery nugget from a pocket.

"This here's a little bit of mythril ore. When ya melt it down an' forge it, ya can draw it as fine as silver but it's harder than steel. Mostly, ya find it in sand or pebbles like this."

"Find it? Why don't you grow it?", said Clyde. "Whattya mean, "grow" ? ", replied both goblins at once.

"Ya grow mushrooms an' fish! Who ever heard of growin rocks?", said Macguffnox.

Clyde and Sue studied the nugget with professional eyes. "You'd need to find the right field, but I've got a bumper crop of hematite coming in this season. I'd just finished turning it two days back, before Princess Luna's letter arrived.", said Clyde.

"It'll make some fine iron once they're done cooking it at the foundry.", finished Sue. "We Pies have been rock farmers for centuries- an earth pony with the right knack for farming can grow nearly anything, after all. Though I do have to say, this is something new...we'd have to do a few seasons just growing enough seed ore for a decent harvest. What do you think, girls?"

"We did end up having to pebble out most of that galena field when you hired Trixie, mother...", said Blinky. "I bet it'd do pretty good if it's like silver, especially if we put down some sulfur!", chipped in Inky.

Sue smiled. "Well, you two needed to do something for your Four-Hooves project this year for the country fair, and this looks like blue-ribbon if you make it work. Macgyvix, dear? Let's talk bits and brass."

Macguffnox just sat there as the she-gob and mare found a corner and started chatting away. Clyde put his head down between his two daughters and started discussing the finer points of fertilizing metal sulfides.

"Ya...ya can't just grow rocks? Rocks? How do you...why would anyone...", the baffled he-gob said. "Can you?"

Applejack and Big Mac looked down at the goblin and nodded as one.

"Eeeyup."

Chapter 12: Look It Up On Moogle

Two moogles, three unicorns, three alicorns, and one problem bigger than all of them. That was the situation.

The smallest (and newest) of the three Princesses at the table read aloud from the book before her, "Ancient Enchantments and Spellcraft In The Unicorn Nations".

"The unicorns of old did not have spells as modern ponies knew them- only the ability to move objects with their horns. Manuscripts that predate the era of Clover the Clever mention the discovery of "Magicks of Earth and Skye" that gave the unicorn powers over the world around them, but little else. Eventually, this led to unicorns being able to control the rise and fall of the celestial bodies themselves, a power that would bring them into conflict with the earth ponies and pegasi..."

"And that, Twilight was about when Luna and I incarnated.", said Celestia.

"You became a traveling show, kupo?"

The Dawn Princess giggled. "That would be "carnival", Kupollux."

"You became...meat?"

"That's actually much closer. "Incarnate" means "embodied in flesh", Kupofrieda. And it was a trick that actually cost Celestia and I quite a bit of power. Being material means that a lot of what we could do as spirits simply couldn't be done, and even some of what we COULD do, we had to learn new ways to do it- and that's what ponies call "spells". We had been watching over the world- and especially the ponies in it - for thousands of thousands of years. One day, we decided to see if we could imitate the creatures who loved playing under us. At first, we just managed pony-shaped shells of magic that we could "pour" ourselves into, like a cup. But they weren't really alive, and it was just that- a cup, without the ability to feel or sense the world any differently than how all spirits do- and the more powerful we made it, the more exhausting it was to keep it around- "avatars" like that were obviously not real ponies, and we scared the tails off more than a few of your ancestors, Rarity!"

Twilight Velvet was, if anything scribbling notes faster than her daughter was, a slight scorching smell coming off the end of her quill. Luna arched an eyebrow.

"Thou hast no plans to reveal such things as we give in confidence, aye?", interrupting Celestia as she was about to continue.

"Oh, no. Not at all! But this is giving me GREAT ideas for the next book."

"Next...book?"

"Well, yes. I've had writer's block for months since I did "Daring Do and the Terrifying Tower" and- and- ...oh dear. You mean you didn't know?"

Twilight Sparkle developed a guilty expression.

"Mom was the original author before she stopped to raise me and Shining. Now that we're out on our own, she got a new contract with Polo House and-"

Behind them, Rainbow Dash stretched out, utterly unaware of anything short of possibly Celestia setting her on fire. The world had pretty much vanished since Twilight's parents had handed her a preview copy of the new Daring Do novel signed by the author and everything!.

To our most loyal fan, Rainbow Dash.

Blurry vision or not, she was already thirty-five pages of pure distilled awesome in and plenty more to go.

"- well, they want her to do another four at least."

"They won't know a thing, your Highness. This wouldn't be the first time I've made something I've researched into an "exciting adventure into magical fiction", to quote a critic.". Twilight Velvet smiled. "Didn't I do a good enough job on "Daring Do and the Platinum Crown" ?"

"Oh, darling, that was amazing! I did love the whole bit with the hidden heirs to the crown of Unicornia and...that wasn't true, WAS IT?", said Rarity.

Twilight Velvet merely winked and said a single word.

"Spoilers!"

"In any case, incarnation. We didn't want to terrorize ponies, we wanted to be closer to them...find out what all this "living" business was. We didn't understand it very well at all, but we kept trying new shapes and none of them really worked well. Finally, we just about gave up, pretty much copied ponies outright out of whatever matter we could find and tried to animate the bodies with magic. It went a little too well." , Celestia finally managed to continue.

"What mine sister means is we ended up inside them entirely."

"That. We soaked into the bodies like most ponies take a sun bath, and ended up going from creatures of the astral to the living flesh- ready to explode from trying to contain much more power than any pony's form should handle. We grew. Very, very fast.". Celestia stood up and stretched out her wings, shadowing Luna and Twilight beneath them. "And we couldn't get -out- of them either. Life had grabbed us both firmly and had no intentions on letting us go...and made us learn more than a few lessons along the way."

"Like eating. Twas always her favorite."

"Or sleeping. Twas always Luna's favorite.", Celestia retorted and stuck her tongue out at her sister for good measure.

"Being double-sized unicorns with some odd ideas in the middle of a land full of ponies half your size and with much less...impressive manes was tough at first. We passed ourselves off as being from Mareabia, where the myths told of giant ponies, and our experiments with getting back our powers as "magic from the far-away East". Rising Dawn and Mysterious Shadow, the Wandering Wise Mares. Trading some of those experiments with mortal ponies for food, lodging, knowledge, or just for the sake of friendship is how the first true unicorn spells came to be made."

Night Light caught the reference first. "Unicorns? Your Highnesses are....a bit more than unicorns."

"And so is Twilight Sparkle, now. Or Cadence, for that matter- and that is why yes, you still have a daughter-in-law and son- even if we don't know exactly where. Despite Luna's frequent jokes that I'm mostly made of cake these days, alicorns are supersaturated with magic. So much so that if you add too much more, too fast to a pony..."

Celestia's wing brushed against Twilight's, the crystalline quills tinkling musically as they rubbed together.

"...you get something I call "Magicite". Think of it as something like the spell that held Discord in stone, or what happens when you look at a cockatrice- only closer to the Crystal Heart or Cadance's necklace. Living stone, or in this case crystal. I have it from a witness to what happened that somewhere, Shining Armor and Cadence are a pair of crystal statues and should we learn a spell to reverse the process, unharmed otherwise."

"That is no way to be a crystal pony, your Highness!", Rarity interrupted. "Who saw this happen? We should speak to them immediately, find where this ruffian took them, and save those two poor ponies this instant!". The last three phrases were punctuated with her hoof stamping against the floor.

"And there is the problem I was coming to, Rarity. In the days since you fought Sombra, more and more of the spells unicorns have made- even some of the ones I put a hoof into crafting myself - have failed. Enchantments and spellcasting across Equestria have ceased to work, or produce such dangerous and random effects as to require a decree banning nearly all forms of enchanted goods, tools, or spells beyond the most innate of ponydom's gifts. Would you be so kind as to mend this torn handkerchief?"

Celestia produced a lacy one, the trim on one side fraying away from the cloth and placed it on the table. Lifting a glass cover off the snacks, she levitated a glazed donut and took a bite, chewing on the treat as she stared intently at the distressed damsel-cloth.

"Oh, it'll be a pleasure! Just a little cantrip to sew it up...", Rarity's horn glowed and a threaded needle shot towards the hanky...

...and stabbed through it as Celestia brought the cover down over the glowing needle and it's intended target. The needle furiously stung the cloth, piercing it with dozens of holes like an enraged metal wasp, then chipped at the glass dome containing it until a brief spark of Celestial flame melted the wayward tailoring implement to a flaming lump of slag. It fell onto the cloth and ignited it, causing the vision in the bowl to fade into a blackening cloud of roiling smoke.

Pearl and her daughter clutched at each other in horror as the fashion disaster consumed what air was trapped under the glass and charred a neat circle in the wooden table. Almost every eye in the tower turned at the sound of burning metal and the scent of charcoaled wood.

"And that was one needle with the smallest of spells cast on it.". Celestia's tone was suddenly no longer light in the least.

"B-but my shop! How will I make anything! How will ANYONE make anything! This IS the worst thing ever!"

"By hoof, by horn or by none. Canterlot Mercy has sixteen ponies in the hospital that look like they hugged a forest full of cactus. They WERE the sewing club at the Canterlot Old Mare's Home. Until such time as such magic becomes tame or new spells can be found...I will have nopony hurt or worse."

Kupollux broke in as Rarity sobbed in her mother's hooves,her career crumbling faster than the hanky had. "It's not just ponies, kupo...the smallest snifter of moogle mage-ry turn into pugnacious punishments!". Pushing a stunned Spike off his seat, Macgyvix stuck her masked nose in his place. "Goblins are better at magic than you batwinged pains are, but even WE can't toss so much as a snowball without it trying to come back and make ice scream!"

Rubbing his tail, Spike said "Dont'cha mean ice cream?"

"I dunno about you, kid...but when someone shoves a snowball up my nose, I wanna scream about it."

Pinkie dropped into the conversation bungee-first, upside down and with a balaclava pulled over her face. Her goggle-covered eyes glittered as she tossed a string of interrogatives into Macgyvix's breathing hole.

"Hey! When did you leave the tower and find that out? You don't do any magic, right? Where are your friends who do magic? ARE THEY NINJA GOBLINS? Are they imaginary goblin friends? Ooh, do they know any good invisibility spells? Can I talk to them? How do YOU talk to them? Ooh! Ooh! Pleeeeease! I can bribe em with jellybeans..."

Macguffnox yanked on the cord, pulling Pinkie nearly to the floor- then let go. The Pie-ish Friendquisition flew back towards the open skylight.

"I HAFF WAYS OF MAKING YOU LAUGH!", she yelled as the elastic rebound carried her over the threshold and out of sight.

"So lemme guess. Ponies only talk long-distance over tin cans.", Macguffnox grumbled.

"Hey! I can send messages....um...I could send messages...OK, I can't send messages anymore.". Spike's eyes brimmed with tears at the thought of the abuse he'd managed to put a paper stack higher than he was trying.

Kupofrieda fluttered down and put Spike back on his feet. "You mean lizards talk to each other like moogles? Did you lose your pom? Oh, you poor little moogling, kupoooo!", she said while petting Spike's scaly crest. The moogle was confusing, but the petting was kinda making Spike feel better...

Kupollux was a bit less confusing about the whole thing. "Everymog can talk with everyone else- right here, on top of our noggins, kupo!" -and he shook the red ball of fuzz that dangled from a stalk on his head. "It's a Mognet!"

"Gobbies didn't want to grow silly-looking furballs, so we grew something else instead.", said Macgyvix. Pulling her mask a bit further away from one green ear, she showed the table a lump that seemed to rest just under the skin. "Dat's a linkpearl. Gobbies grow these big ol' clams, and if you got one of it's pearls in your ear and I got another? Just think it, and everyone else with a pearl hears it like you whispered in their ear. Long as nothin' breaks the clam and kills it, this pearl keeps ya chatty. Gobbie clans keep one in their houses so we can pass the word and no other nosy gob hears a thing!"

"And since neither is a spell, they've been working all this time?", said Twilight Sparkle.

"Yep! Didn't anyone tell you "When you talk deals with a gobbie, you make it with the whole clan?" when you were a ki...oh, right. Who woulda told you about goblins before now? The clan's been loving every minute of this. Growing rocks? The biggest market ever for linkshells? Half the chatter I'm gettin' in this ear is what the bit-to-gil rate is gonna be! Heyyyyy...how big a cave fish can you fit in that mouth, Princess?"

Kupofrieda looked up at the goblin as she successfully managed to gross out a Princess with the image of a wriggling catfish between her teeth. "Hey! We'll figure out how much your bits are worth without sticking a fish in your mouth, kupo!"

She fluttered up to look at Big Mac.

"You're a pony that grows stuff, right? Sooo....how big are your nuts, kupo?" *

The stallion managed to turn at least two shades deeper red than usual.

Celestia dragged the chaotic mess of a conversation back somewhere near the tracks, if not on it.

"We would, if you please, speak to your...clan leader Macgyvix? And...who rules the Moogles, Kupofrieda?"

"His Majesty King Kupofried the Twenty-Third. My parents named me after him!", and the moogle squeaked with amusement at the thought. "He'll love talking with actual royalty!"

"Aww, Moogle "kings" are only good for fishing lures! You want business, you talk with our Grand Greedalox, Gildalix! She'll make a deal so tight your money squeals when it changes paws!". Macgyvix waved her gloved one dismissively at the peeved Moogle maiden. "And it'll be a better deal than the other clans, too!"

"At least MOOGLES don't make a deal with one paw and steal it with another like you goblins do, kupo! What one clan sells, three more will want to get a cut in, and six more will try and stab you for whatever it is you traded!". Kupofrieda puffed up like an angry balloon and pointed an accusing finger at the goblin in return.

"Please, PLEASE! I'm sure that the Kingdom of Equestria would be willing to extend a hoof of friendship and trade with BOTH of you...as long as you don't fight over who gets which one!", Celestia pleaded as the two emissaries looked about ready to fight over who got a Princess first. Diplomacy won (for the moment), and the conversation between ponies, goblins and moogles stretched further into the afternoon as it headed towards dusk...

Author's Note

* The Gil, a common form of trade currency in the underground realm was originally equivalent to a set length of fish (generally, one that fit whole when put in sideways into a Greedalox's mouth) or equivalent in value to the two largest size of Kupo Nuts (a delicacy of the Moogle diet) that could be fit into the Moogle ruler's cheeks without discomfort. Historically, King Kupofried the Seventh and no less than fifty different goblin clan heads have choked to death trying to improve the trade value of the Gil during their reigns for their respective races, a sacrifice that has been well remembered by both occupants of the under-underworld. Goblins also have minted more conventional coinage in bronze, silver, mythril, gold, and platinum denominations, each being a specific weight of the precious metals. Wise goblins bite their coins to make sure they're not adulterated.

Chapter 13: With A Sweetie On Top

With a final clunk and a rattle of wheels, the Cutie Mark Crusaders achieved the summit of their aspirations.

No, not their cutie marks. The top of the hospital stairs, thanks to Tag-A-Long's generous offer to take that load off their hooves. A pleasant afternoon breeze blew through a window, sending a few sparkling motes of dust down the hallway. Sweetie Belle followed the glittering bits as they floated past a sign:

<--- 200-230 STAIRS 231-265 --->

"We're almost there!", she cried out, prompting a nurse to poke her head out of a nearby door and "Ssssh!" her into something almost resembling quiet. She swiftly shut the door as Scootaloo pushed down the hallway, cutting off the sounds of wheel against tile for whoever else was trying to sleep inside. Fortunately for the health of most of Ponyville, only a few rooms had patients in the summer months, and nearly all of the ones leading to 211 were for therapy sessions.

211's door was open just a crack, and three filly heads only needed to push it a hair more to...to watch Nurse Redheart bopping an inflated rubber hoof-boot at a bed. The occupant's azure hoof batted it back with a giggle, but the rest was just out of sight. Apple Bloom leaned just a little bit further. Sweetie Belle thought she could see more if SHE leaned just a little bit further. Scootaloo, who was on top of both of them KNEW she could see more if she got her head around the corner...and her two friends obliged her by tossing the little pegasus headlong.

The Leaning Tower Of Pony toppled into the room, Applebloom tipping Sweetie flipping Scootaloo to slide across the floor under Redheart's hooves.

"Hi! We're here to see our friend, Chip?", Scootaloo said without missing a beat.

At the name, the bed's occupant leaned over the side to look fearfully at Scootaloo.

"Miss Redheart...are they my friends?", said the frail-looking colt.

Slightly muffled by Sweetie's tail, Apple Bloom piped up. "We was the ones who found him, an' Cloud Kicker said he'd be lonely!"

Sweetie Belle stood up, her tail hairs interrupting Apple Bloom by forcing a sneeze. "And nopony should be lonely! Um...you are all lonely and stuff, right? That looked kinda fun and not-alone..."

"Girls, why are you here without an adult?", Nurse Redheart said as she absorbed the fact that three children had crashed into her patient's room and were beginning to spook him to boot.

"Miss Penny said it was OK cause the mare of the house said so!", Apple Bloom answered with sincerity. That the mare in question was still in remedial math class for fillies, lacking a cutie mark and so young that she could barely spark her own horn was artfully omitted.

"Well, Chip IS nervous around most adults...", thought Redheart. "As long as I'm here, some time with other children will be good for him. It's probably better for the first visit to be with ponies his age."

"Did your mommy and daddy tell you about fostering, girls?", she said.

"Nope!", all three fillies answered. Which was true.

"Sometimes, when we have someone who doesn't feel well at the hospital and can't go to their home, we ask someone else's mommy or daddy to "foster" them. It's....sorta like a really long sleepover, where they can be with someponies who have plenty of love to share while they get better. Chip doesn't have his mommy or daddy here, and he's far away from his home..."

"Really?", said Scootaloo.

"Really,", answered the nurse. "and having ponies that love you is often the best medicine of all, especially when you're little. Somepony who can be mommy and daddy for Chip, as long as he needs them to be." Reaching onto the bed, she gave the little colt a reassuring hug. "If there's anything I know, it's that having someponies to love you is a very, very good cure for all sorts of things!"

"Awww....", Scootaloo said. She was out of this race. "Would havin' big sisters and brothers be good?", questioned Apple Bloom.

"Chip is at that age where it really helps to have other unicorns, dear. But brothers and sisters would be good, too."

"Umm...hey! -I- have a big sister, and I'm a really good little sister, and a mom and a dad and I'm a unicorn!", Sweetie Belle blurted out as she managed to put this two and two together and NOT get four. Rather, it'd be five.

"D-does that mean I don't get to see you anymore?", Chip managed to get out. "I don't want you to go away!" Nurse Redheart delicately pried Chip's hoof from the death grip it'd found in her pink mane and nuzzled the tip of his horn.

"No, honey. You'd see me lots and lots- we visit everypony in home care, and you're my favoritest get-better-buddy. Just because you're not here doesn't mean I don't want to you be best-better or be your friend. Promise!". She thought for a moment. "You know, Bop The Boot is a lot more fun with more players...would you like to play with Chip and me?"

Redheart couldn't have hoped for a more enthusiastic response. The five-pony game sent the puffed-up bit of rubber back and forth between wings and hooves, riding on gusts of giggly filly with occasional colt nickers and mare laughs to bear it back into the air when it wasn't.

Chapter 14: Moon Prism Power...

Canterlot's Ivory Tower had become a bustling and noisy place, what with goblins and Pies and moogles and Apples, plus a liberal helping of alicorns, unicorns, and the occasional pegasi, crying divas and blushing Big Macs. The time for some of that population to leave had come along with the time for sunset, and so most of the crowd stood at the opened door for the balcony, watching the Princesses prepare to set the sun and bring forth the evening skies.

Rarity cocked her head to one side and stage-whispered to the moogle floating beside her, "If you think Celestia's work is gorgeous, you must see her sister! Why, it's like watching someone floating a dragon's hoard of gems into the sky...oh! Here she goes, hush hush..."

The alicorn sisters began their change with a smoothness any changing of the guard would envy- Celestia's aura sending the sun into a gentle, easy curve as it sank below the horizon, while Luna's deeper blue unrolled the stars like a carpet into the night sky....and then came the moon, majestically settling into it's place like the crown jewel.

Except someone had changed the jewel from "moonstone" to "jade". Luna's namesake floated into place, it's nearly-full light tinted a distinctive green as it rose into the sky. As the moonrise touched her mane, the color spread- faint twinkles of a verdant glow mixed into the starlit vista that rode the Princess from neck to tail, rippling in an unseen (but playful) breeze. The whole effect was as if someone had covered Luna in the contents of a basket full of lively firefly lanterns.

She stood in the midst of the glittering cloud, jaw agape. The silence was broken only by the lively zephyr taking up residence in Luna's mane. It managed to stretch into a long moment of awestruck appreciation, which the breeze took as an opportunity to pour itself across the castle courtyard and into every open window in sight, drifting motes of green light carried along as they kindled from their Princess-nursery to dance in the air. Ponies stopped in mid-march, while at play, whatever errand or task had gripped their thoughts as the finale of Luna's moonrise left Canterlot Castle briefly a starscape in green...and then the breeze faded to a phantom's touch, letting the twinkles settle onto whatever surface they might find as they, too faded away. Every creature it touched felt like a breath of fresh air had suddenly cleared away whatever miasma of worry or fear had clouded their heads, short-lived though the wind had been.

The spell was broken by the stomping of dozens of hooves and a wave of cheers directed at the balcony where Luna, still rooted to the spot realized that she had become the center of attention for the entire castle without even trying- looking for all the world like a chorus girl who'd just managed to sing the lead of Das Neighbelungen perfectly without realizing she'd done it before a packed house. She looked back at her sister, not knowing what to expect...

Celestia was applauding as loudly as the rest of them, pride radiating from every pore as she clapped a hoof against the balcony stones. The ovation lasted for a minute, two, three...before finally tapering off into chattering and ponies returning to something resembling normal, if more lighthearted than before.

"That was magnificent, your Majesty!", Rarity managed to gasp out as she finally tore her gaze away from the glittering jewel the moon had become. "That's kinda purty, but...ain't it supposed to be white?", a more dubious Applejack followed up. Twilight was simply racing through astrological terms at an incomprehensible pace while trying to restrain herself from dive-bombing the Royal Observatory and commandeering the biggest telescope she could find, just to get a closer look.

"That was the most impressive moonrise I've seen in ages, dear sister! We will have SO much to talk about it when I've wrapped up the Day Court and...", started Celestia.

"Bu-bu-but I...I didn't mean...", Luna managed to gabble out before her elder sister put a hoof to her lips.

"I know, you didn't mean to show off quite so much for our guests-" Celestia cheerfully said as she walked for the edge of the balcony, one wing lifting to startle Luna a bit as it billowed out under her nose - "but it'll be so fun to talk about when we're in those boring old chambers during court change!"... and turning briefly to wave at the gathering, she launched herself into the air, flapping a slightly crooked line towards the gold-and-silvered halls that royal petitioners could be glimpsed peering from even in the darkness, looking for the approach of one royal or the other. Two Guard pegasi seemingly congealed out of the dark and followed, ensuring the Princess had a clear flight path all the way throughout. Landing on a balcony, Celestia left her escort behind, passed two more guards standing watch over her private entry, and walked into one of the many rooms reserved for alicorns who oft desired and required being able to come and go as they pleased.

This one had a comfortable couch that Celestia had been known to take more than one quick nap between sessions of Parliament or just for a snuck-in snack break...occupied by a chimerical guest. A serpentine mish-mash of species, somewhat....dwindled. Lessened, even. And fast asleep. Celestia paused a moment and bumped the spirit of Discord's muzzle with her own, an almost wistful expression of hope on her face.

"Discord? Discord?", she said with the tone of a mother half-unwanting to wake up her child.

The chaotic creature curled impossibly back on himself and muttered, "Oh, just hit the snooze alarm for next century, I was having the most delightful dream..." , and proceeded to literally soak into the cushions., leaving only a mismatched set of upholstery and a pair of bushy eyebrows on a pillow to mark his presence.

"You...you didn't just turn the moon green, did you? It was beautiful, you couldn't have not heard the applause..."

The cushion opened two yellowy eyes and peeped at Celestia. "Is THAT what all the racket was about? Clever girl. She's finally developing a sense of style, but no. My powers at the moment are...*YAWN*...relaxing. All that iron grip of Princess List-A-Lot's little pony friends and the order you've been squeezing into the world for centuries? So flaccid, my dear. Why, what they did in the Empire has managed to set more chaos to roost in Equestria than -I- did. The world doesn't need me set against something you broke all by yourselves...so I've been given a vacation. Chaos doesn't need a champion when it's already running around with the cup! You know how I tick..."

The cushion morphed into an alarm clock, which jangled it's eye-bells as it's fang-pointer spun to 12.

"And look at the time, it's "ponies can't control the world" after "blowing up the greatest artifact of order the world has ever known" ! And without all that order bottling up all that chaos in little ol' me...well, you've left me a shadow of my former self."

Celestia's shadow suddenly developed a new form as a monochrome Discord rose from it's depths.

"I've gone all pale...", as the shade cracked apart and sank back into the depths, "falling to pieces...", and as the shrunken spirit reappeared on the couch, "and half the handsome creature I used to be.".

The Princess grinned, despite the deadpan-grim delivery. "But the same horrible sense of humor, so clearly we can't bury you just yet."

"Oh, no no no Princess! Cremation. Self-inflicted. The only way to go." Discord spontaneously combusted, crackling into a tornado of ashes that drifted into a nearby flower vase. "Just make sure you pour what's left of me on Blueblood. Maybe some sense of humor might stain him for a while.".

Celestia levitated the impromptu urn and upended it. With each shake, a different bit of the dracoequus drifted to the floor until a sand-painting image had finished staining the rug...whereupon it got up and resumed being flesh again. "You know, Fluttershy would love to see you in person. She thought the butterfly flowers were a wonderful get well present...especially when they started flying around the bed. Spending most of your time moping around secret passages and royal chambers can't be good for anyone..."

"No, no, no. Every time I DON'T hide, your unicorns are always trying to *poke* me with something. They're boring. Why, Dotted Line spent an hour trying to write me up as some kind of EQUATION! On a CHALKBOARD. If I hadn't started his X's and Y's on a nice game of hoofball, he might have actually lectured me to death." Discord slithered up to press his mouth against Celestia's ear as if to share a prophecy of doom.

"He was worse than Twilight Sparkle. Every one of your subjects wants to study me, poke me, measure me, see how big a cup I fill, exactly how much I can do, why I can do it...well, except for Fluttershy and her friends. Do you BLAME me from hiding from being an endless test subject?" The scroll that unrolled from an open paw was covered in nonsense save for a big red "D" circled in ink. "Why, I'm barely passing them as it is!"

Celestia headbutted Discord, half-lifting, half-shoving as he began to protest further. "Go see them, Discord. I know you're not that familiar with friendship, but when you feel like you need to hide from your best friends...that's when you need them the most. And they need to see you. Do you want Fluttershy to worry about you?"

"Why, of course not! Oh, all RIGHT." The weight suddenly vanished as it shrank to a moth-size Discord and flapped energetically towards the door. "Maybe we can play a nice game of Old Maid or something, have some milk and cookies..." the voice dwindling as it's owner gave in to the inevitable and went. All the griping in the world couldn't hide what Celestia had known all along...Discord was a lonely creature, and needed friends as much as anypony did.

She shook her head, letting a few strands Discord had rumpled fall back neatly into place. We all could use more friends right now..., Celestia thought tiredly, and walked past the now empty couch. The very full audience was still waiting, and Celestia for once didn't have enough answers to match them...

Chapter 15: Operation Super Sleepover

The most dangerous thing in Ponyville walked out of the hospital on a lovely afternoon, plotting devious and convoluted plans for the night.

That would be Sweetie Belle. With an idea. And neither of the other two Crusaders were having any luck getting it out of her head, seeing as she'd gotten the bit in her teeth and was running with it.

"He's a COLT, Sweetie Belle. Do you want a COLT running around all day in your house?", said Scootaloo in an attempt to get Sweetie to actually think about something for five seconds.

"Mommy always tells me it's good to have a colt in the house for when you need something done.", Sweetie replied.

"Ah think she means a stallion, Sweetie. Y'know, like your dad?"

The unicorn filly stopped in her tracks, Applebloom nearly ramming nose-first into her tail.

"Daddy always wanted a colt.", Sweetie said. "Mommy said we couldn't have any more brothers or sisters. That I was the best surprise she ever had, but it was just me...me and Rarity. Maybe if she saw Chip for a while, maybe she'd let us have one for real? He's really nice and shy and, and, iwanttobeabigsistertoo."

"Whut was that?"

"I said, I want to be a big sister, too! Like Rarity! Don't you ever want to be like Applejack someday? Scootaloo, wouldn't you ever want to be like Rainbow Dash? Being a big sister is...is...like the most awesome thing ever!"

The three fillies looked at each other as Sweetie's epiphany sank into their skulls.

"Big sisters ARE kinda awesome...", Scootaloo said. "Ain't we a little small to be someone's big sister?", Applebloom added, still dubious. "So we'd ALL be his big sister together. To teach him all the important stuff. Like which crayon's best to get first.", Sweetie countered.

"Or how to fold a paper airplane!" "The face you make when you want the last juicebox!" "Double-loop jump roping!" "The best place to jump over the creek!" "How to rub a puppy so his leg goes twitcha-twitch-twitch!"

In full scheming mode, the three fillies trotted down the road as they discussed the proper care and training of little brothers.

Somewhat tuckered after being ganged up on by three fillies and full of dinner, Chip slept in a way most young parents dream of- peaceful, sprawled out, and dead to the world. At least on the outside, which gave Nurse Redheart a chance to grab something and freshen up a bit, once she'd cleaned up the incidental destruction caused by four children occupying a small hospital room for playtime.

A wide open grassy field, full of colts and fillies at play. The sun was warm. The grass smelled sweet and clover flowers dotted the ground, begging to be nibbled on. He lowered his head for a bite...and fell through the ground as it faded into a limitless expanse dotted with lights instead of flowers, flitting around his...glow? He flickered through the spectrum and chased a tiny mote of crystal with his light-friends, until he felt tired enough to rest on a shard of glittering stone. Time to soak in the love and joy until he recovered enough to play again! He blinked. The stone became the soft, sun-soaked field, and the breeze rustled through the red fur on his legs as the grass pillowed his head. Shards of friend-light danced on the inside of his eyelids as he basked in the springtime warmth.

What is clover? Why is it good to eat? Why are all the ponies lights? That's what I look like. No I don't! I am blue, not red. But I...I know I'm red! I know I'm not red, I'm all the colors. I thought I was blue? I do remember blue.

Perhaps maybe I am both.

The three fillies split up at Sweetie Belle's house, reluctantly. The sun had nearly found it's place to rest, the first tinges of the sky readying itself for Luna's touch already evident.

"Ah'm for Sweet Apple Acres, Granny's going ta need a hand and I still got chores to do. Good luck, Sweetie!". Apple Bloom waved a hoof and sped down the dirt road that led back to her home.

Scootaloo remained, and the two fillies shared a conspiratorial look as they looked through an open window to find Magnum snoring away, hooves pointed in all directions as he sprawled back on a comfy-looking bowl of a lounge chair.

"Ready for Operation Super Sleepover, Sweetie?". Nods were had.

"OH, SWEETIE BELLE! A SLEEPOVER AT YOUR PLACE WITH OUR FRIENDS IS GOING TO BE SO AWESOME! I CAN'T WAIT TO DO THIS, YOUR MOM WILL LOVE IT!", Scootaloo bellowed through the open window, the volume sending the stallions straw hat flying as he flailed back into sudden wakefulness. And buzzed off, leaving a trail of dust.

Magnum managed to keep the naughty words down to a mumble as his daughter calmly pushed the front door open and walked up with a face that should have had a halo floating above it.

"Hi, Daddy!", the angelic unicorn chirped. "Mommy gave me some notes for you!", and she mouthed over first the "mare of the house" note, then a fat scroll labeled "Honey-Do-or-DIE". Magnum's hat visibly wilted as he went down the second scroll.

"Awwww....", Sweetie followed up with the next weapon in her arsenal. The cuddle. Boom. Heart shot.

"...your Sweetie has a REALLY good idea. You could do all that...or...sleepover."

Sweetie's father gave her a look that meshed confusion with the faintest glimmer of hope.

"If you're busy being a GREAT daddy while my friends are here, well I guess it was OOPS!", as she booted the scroll full of chores out of Magnum's hands , "you were too busy making sure Sweetie and all her friends were having a wonderful time while they were here."

Sweetie Belle's hindleg brushed the scroll again. Magnum's face held a look most colts had about one minute before recess began. "Diiiiid I mention Scootaloo made a new friend? A colt friend? Who likes to play.......hoofball?". Her father's face twitched at the word "hoofball". "He's a unicorn, too. And he's new in Ponyville and really nice but he doesn't know anypony else yet and I thought my daddy would make a really good friend cause you should meet him and his name's Chip and he's blue and-"

Sweetie Belle found herself being swept up off the ground and plopped on the recliner next to her father.

"Sweetie, darling? Your mother can run rings around me. Your sister's voice could be a tool of the Friendquisition for how often it gets her what she wants. But I know when my little Sweetie is trying a sneak to the endzone, so you're going to sit here and tell me about YOUR new colt-who's-a-friend and why you want him sleeping over at our place and not his house instead."

Alarm bells went off in Sweetie's head as plan A collapsed like a house of cards. Time for plan B! As in blubber!

Sweetie sucked in a deep breath. She hiccuped. She sniffled, and....

"HesalittleponyinthehospitalandhedoesnthaveanyparentsandwesavedhimfromatreeandCloudKickersaidweshouldgoseehimandheslonelyandscaredandNurseRedheartsaidheneedsunicornsandsistersandadaddyforawhileandyousaidyouwantedtobeacoltsdaddyIcouldsharemyroomandbeasisterwhileyouweredaddyand-", Sweetie's torrent of words was matched only by the torrent of tears flying in every direction as she let the run-on-and-over sentence end in sobbing, hiccups, and a thoroughly saturated subject.

While Rarity is known as the literal Element of Generosity, her parents aren't too far back on that race, and Sweetie tears are one of the best emotional solvents known to ponykind. Magnum barely knew what hit him.

"Oh, kiddo...you were trying to run a play for this-"

"Chip!", Sweetie squeaked out.

"...and here I thought you were trying to slide your first special somepony in while your mother wasn't around." Magnum booped his daughter on the nose with a hanky, wiping away a liberal helping of sob-snot. "Your sister pulled that when she was your age, did ya know? "Her friend's friend", plays the game, nice unicorn until your Mom found them playing spin the bottle when she checked in on them. Grounded her for three weeks!"

Sweetie dissolved into giggles as her father poked her with a hoof.

"Tomorrow after school, I think you and I need to visit mister Chip. But if you want to have a "sleepover"...you and I are going to have to make sure this house is extra-nice for your friends. Especially if it's going to be a long one.". Magnum picked up the scroll full of chores and winked at Sweetie. "Ready to start after dinner?"

The rest of the evening was filled with smoke, dust, polish, and sparkle.

Chapter 16: When The Stars (Aren't Quite) Right

Fluttershy was feeling a mite stressed.

Too many ponies. And not ponies. Talking. Or, if their name happened to end in "Sparkle", theorizing about how rainbow pollution in the upper atmosphere was coming down in the form of moonbeam rain and the inevitable spicy-fication of Equestrian soil was at hand. Strands of her mane were beginning to take on that "Twilight's gone twitchy" spring and Pinkie's comments on how much better salads were going to be were just not helping.

Oh dear. Oh dear....and now that poor moth was bouncing off the window. What a curious little moth it was! The gardens in Canterlot had so many interesting creatures.

"I'm...um...that moth outside is really confused by all the lights and noise in here. I'm going to go help him on his way...", said Fluttershy. The words could perhaps have been heard about two feet from her mouth before being ground into garbles by the near-roar of conversations going on around her. The pegasus ducked her head and slunk for the nearest exit, a few wisps of pink tail curling around the edge of the door before vanishing like a shred of mist. Nobody noticed, which for Fluttershy was actually a rather nice thing.

*tug*

OK, nobody noticed except Angel. That was even better. The white-furred critter took up a comfortable spot in his mistress's mane as she lifted herself into the air, floating upwards as if she was afraid of accidentally nudging a stray breeze and offending it. The moth ceased it's buffeting of the window and turned to regard the two with it's single, yellowing eye...which sprouted a goatee'd pair of lips below it.

"Fluttershy?", it managed to say in a voice that far exceeded the size of the hoof-sized creature it emanated from. "Oh, I'd SO hoped you'd think I looked good." The two settled atop the tower, where only a single rubbery line tied around a flagpole kept them company. The Discord-moth rubbed it's feelers together, with a fat spark of magic leaping from the collision. Two stories down, Pinkie Pie found herself bellyflopping into a previously unseen pile of pillows, her bungee line pouring out over the feathery debris pile in an industrial-sized spiral of sproinginess. The neatly untied cord sidewindered itself through a window in serpentine fashion and vanished from sight.

"Oops! I guess we get a peaceful, quiet spot on the tower without someone begging me for a cumulus full of chocolate milk.", and Discord's voice dropped to a more grumpy growl, "or poking me with their horns about how I do it.". The moth flapped it's wings irritably. Coincidentally, portions of the Canterlot Civil Service building managed to have a snowstorm of powdered sugar. Indoors. Concerned, Fluttershy nuzzled the peeved insect into a perch on her nose. "Oh...has it been hard living here in Canterlot? I mean, there's so many ponies and it's really so busy and..."

"...and my best friend is all the way in Ponyville, AND they get nervous every time I so much as vanish into thin air. Oh, Discord. You'll cause a panic. Discord, come down from the chandelier before Blueblood has a stroke. Discord, behave yourself. Discord, stop making all the courtiers spill pasta out of their mouths every time they say something even if it IS that bad. It's hardly ever fun at all!"

Fluttershy's wings stiffened in outrage before she realized it and hastily folded them back with a demure blush.

"But I did make a new friend, and since you're the best person I know about helping friends trust friends, aaaaand my new friend miiiight have the same kind of problems...could I ask you for a teensy-weensy bit of advice?"

"You made a new friend? Discord, I am SO proud of you! I know that most ponies don't know what to make of you at first, but you're a sweetie-sweet-sweetheart once they get to know you. Who was it?"

Discord wafted into the air to whisper the name straight into Fluttershy's ear.

Charitably, it wasn't unreasonable at all that the people inside the tower would mistake the resulting squawk of outrage and crash to be the Griffon Ambassador colliding with another tower after one too many evening nightcaps. I mean, who'd have thought you could get that kind of noise out of Fluttershy?

"TRIXIE? YOU MADE FRIENDS WITH TRIXIE? AFTER WHAT SHE DID TO PONYVILLE?"

"And after what I did to Ponyville?", said the Discord-moth plastered to the roof.

Fluttershy twitched in midair at the thought. "But...she's a pony? She should know better...she...."

"...had an ancient evil amulet that brought out the worst in anypony who wore it? A nasty attitude and not a friend in the world? Heavens, Fluttershy. I know it's been a hard week, after she found you freezing to death in the snow..."

"...in the snow?"

Two feathery antennae covered a cyclopean eye. "I see Celestia and Luna are as excellent at breaking the news as ever. Yes. After you were done blowing up most of the Crystal Empire with the Elements of Harmony, she found you in one big slushy pony-pile near the tracks as the last train was about to go on by. That is, I made friends with the pony who saved my best friend in the world."

"...I blew up the Crystal Empire? But...Trixie?"

"She also saved most of the Royal Guard from being eaten by demons and Princess Luna adores her."

At this, Fluttershy's mind simply shut down from utter incomprehension and she settled with a delicate thump on the roof, Angel frantically trying to get her to snap out of it.

"I should have expected that. Now, I'm better at making people snap than unsnapping them..." The moth cleared his throat. "At last, I have Fluttershy under my spell. Mwah-ha-ha. I am so evil and devious. Bwa-ha-ha."

*BAMF*

"STOP RIGHT THERE, DISCORD!", Twilight Sparkle yelled as she suddenly materialized on the tower roof. "I MEA-whoawhoawhoawhoaWHOA!" ...and slid down the slippery tiles she landed on to go flying into the into the air, wings extended. Sadly, wings feathered with rocks. The flight looked to be vertical and terminal as the alicorn tumbled helplessly end over end off the precipice...

...until a "Pretty Pretty Pegasus Baby's First Flight Parachute" canopy popped into thin air, neatly harnessed to the plunging pony. Stabilized, the gently twirling Twilight descended into a stable (if utterly undignified) drift to the path below. On the way down, she passed the window Rainbow Dash was sitting by, still muzzle-to-page.

"RAINBOW DASH! DISCORD HAS FLUTTERSHY ON THE ROOF IN AN EVIL SPELL. HELLLLLLLLLP!"

"Mmm-hmm..." said Rainbow Dash without moving an inch. "Oh, Daring Do! Don't you know your new coltfriend is secretly a vampony?". Sadly for the alicorn, the new novel was still a better story than Twilight. A long minute later, Twilight touched down- and blinked back to the top of the tower.

"YOU LET HER GO YOU NAST- er, what?"

A doctor-scrub clad Discord was holding Angel in one paw, the bunny frantically rubbing his face against Fluttershy's muzzle.

"Hush now, quiet now. We're attempting nuzzle-to-nose resuscitation here, Twilight Sparkle. It's a delicate process." The precious procedure only took a few moments more to shake Fluttershy out of her daze as Twilight watched.

"I...I had the most horrible dream, Discord! Someone told me I made an entire city go boom and Trixie had to save everyone!"

"Umm...we kinda did and Trixie...er....saved us all.", Twilight said with a blush. Fluttershy went cross-eyed and tipped over with a rustle of feathers into Discord's waiting paws. Still in his surgical mask and scrubs, the chimerical chaos-bringer looked at his accuser and dropped Angel in front of Twilight...who promptly went over, kicked her in the foreleg and chittered something rather rude that would have probably made Fluttershy faint again, if she wasn't out cold already.

"Would you like to be a LITTLE more sensitive, Twilight?", the caretaker of chaos said peevishly. "If we rub Angel on her much more, he's going to start to peel."

Chapter 17: Blueblood Makes You See Red

A circle of Guard unicorns trotted at the quick-step through the maze of tent-lined streets Canterlot Castle's courtyards had become. At their center, a white unicorn did his best not to let any of the common folk get the peasantry of those tent's occupants on them.

If it hadn't been for the utmost importance and at the behest of the Equestrian House of Lords, he'd have stayed miles away from the entire filthy (by which any pony with more brains than Blueblood's would have been astonishingly good hygiene for an ad-hoc refugee camp put up in mere hours) place. His hooves would need a triple polishing to get rid of whatever debris these homeless ponies had left on the ground! The circle paused in it's tracks as a double line of smaller fillies pulled a cart overflowing with donations crossed their path, clad in green sashes and caps....and was that a ZEBRA? The only thing dirtier than commoners. Commoner children. And foreigner children, which if anything was even worse.

Four attendants, each hoof, four times., Blueblood thought with disgust as he trod on a chance-fallen apple. Looking up to the top of his destination, he saw Twilight Sparkle, arguing with Discord while the freak cuddled his pegasus doxy in open view of the public. Jumped-up unicorns, "fashion models", and a mis-matched puzzle arguing in the middle of the night atop a lit up tower for the rabble to see. I haven't come soon enough. The Guard squad surrounding Blueblood narrowed to a double-file as it moved up the tower ramp to the door, where at the Prince's urging they hammered a brief thunder of knocks with the back end of their spears.

"BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE EQUESTRIAN HOUSE OF LORDS AND THE PRINCESSES ROYAL, OPEN!"

The door did, but the opener froze the dozen or so unicorns in their tracks as a cold wind suddenly washed from the opening, knifing through the Prince's golden locks and reducing them to a disorganized muddle of hay-colored strands.

"I am right here, Blueblood.", Luna replied from the doorstep. The rest of the contents of the tower- pony, goblin, and moogle - stared in various levels of shock at the intrusion. "Hast thou reason to interrupt me whilst I enjoy the company of good folk and whilst I am in the midst of diplomacy most delicate, O Prince?".

To her surprise, the poncy Prince actually had a backbone. And a scroll, which he unrolled and began to recite.

"In the name of the House of Lords and Commons, the ponies named here shall be brought forward in safe keeping for the answering of charges against the laws of the Kingdom of Equestria. The earth pony, Applejack. The earth pony, Pinkamena "Pinkie" Diane Pie. The pegasus, Fluttershy. The pegasus, Rainbow Dash. The unicorn, Rarity."

He unrolled the scroll in a curl of aura and flaunted it in Luna's face, a finely drawn image of each cutie mark inked below the list. Rarity looked ready to faint at the sight- but her mother beat her to the couch and collapsed on it first.

"These charges include but shall not be limited from amendment in the course of inquisition to the use of weapons of mystical destruction, acts of massacre, and gross and unparalleled cruelty against ponydom and the demesnes of the Crystal Empire. Further, we humbly-" - a word that could not have been spoken less honestly by it's speaker- "request the presence of Princess Twilight Sparkle for an explanation of her acts before the Houses assembled, as they have greatly upset her subjects and they seek the wisest of counsel.". The tone underlined that the "request" was in name only, and the ponies in question would not take no for an answer. "Guards, take the accused to the dungeon. Make the murdering scum comfortable."

Princess Luna could take no more of the sneering unicorn and snagged her nephew's by the ears in a glowing vice, dragging him close to her muzzle with a squeal of pain. "You. Shall. Do. No. Such. Thing."

The brief spark of magical light behind the squad of guardsponies marked Twilight's return from the roof- and the look on her face would have told anyone that not only had she heard the whole thing, but she was one step away from turning Blueblood into Orange Juice.

"The.....eeeeeurgh, AUNTIE....press will hear the charges read in the House in about three minutes. And the press will tell that mob you've bedded down in the castle you have the ponies who destroyed their families....owwwwww! And their friends, their-irk homes and estates are nothing but dust and ghosts because of those friends of yours who were seen killing ponies by the dozens and destroying the Crystal Empire! DowOWOWOWOW! DO YOU WANT THEM LYNCHED NOW OR TRIED LATER?"

Horrified at the thought, Luna's concentration broke and for a long moment, there was only a youngish filly with a crown, not a Princess Royal standing before Blueblood. The mask came back down over Luna's face.

"Nay, O wise and kind Prince. We shall take the accused to a more secure and hidden place where they might not draw the wrath of the people Ourselves." She released Blueblood's ears with a toss of her starry mane, leaving him to shake his head as blood rushed back into the slightly crushed points. Her eyes cast themselves across Blueblood's escort. "You. Take these good folk to the rooms We reserve for the Diplomatic Suite and make them welcome. Thou shalt guard them and make sure none disturb their rest. None. I shall be greatly wroth if some member of the fourth estate should cross any boundary near them, is this understood?" Without a word, the unicorns flowed into the room and effortlessly herded ponies, random luggage and the now-floating couch with a distraught Pearl clinging to the cushions and sobbing as the guards carried it away- and marched the once-wellwishers away without so much as a change in expression. Somewhat confused, the moogles and goblins followed along with the rest.

"My guards!", Blueblood spluttered. Luna glared daggers at the coltish idiot. "Thou art a big pony, Prince. Truly, it has been a week since you last got lost without thine escorts. Perhaps thou shouldst try it again.". Blueblood followed the last swish of a guard's tail in an hasty exit, pausing only to stare wide-eyed at the slightly smoking form of Twilight as a second princess held her temper over his flanks like a whip. With that, only two Princesses and four ponies remained. And one terrified looking pegasus peeking through a hole in the ceiling. The angry aura dissolved, and the warmer, gentler touch of the season's air returned, following Fluttershy as she slipped into the tower and glided down. A long, clawed paw lowered Angel to the floor and began to withdraw. "Discord?", Twilight said. The paw wavered and paused. "It'd...it'd be nice to have our friend here, too." The sinuous form slithered down like stretching taffy, curling itself around Fluttershy. Shrunken to the size of a scaly, winged boa, he looped himself over the pegasus' neck.

"I'm assuming we take the back door, or do you want to just go out the front? I can do an excellent judge for a kangaroo court, but it'd be no fun at all.", Discord uttered. A somber black and red outfit rolled itself up his scales briefly, then sank back beneath the skin like a drowning pony with a thrash of fabric and gold chain.

Luna's horn glowed, and seven books simultaneously shoved against the hidden triggers built into the bookshelf. It sank, almost soundlessly into the floor to leave a tunnel easily broad enough for Celestia herself to move comfortably in. Seeing Twilight's startled expression, Luna said in a mock-conspirational tone-

"What, you didn't think the books here were just for taking out, did you?"

And with that, they descended into the hidden tunnels below Canterlot.

Chapter 18: Stony Rivers

Magic, in Equestria is a very water-like thing. It flows in rivers through the ground- "ley lines", as the unicorns named it when they grew aware enough. It streams, it gushes and eddies and occasionally pools, as Tom's stony progeny and an overabundance of Pinkies proved.

It took slightly less than three days for enough contaminants from the Crystal Heart to penetrate down into said lines, sifting into points where the lines rose closest to the surface. Thankfully, the rapid flow of energies prevented the lines themselves from being clogged in stone, but as bits of arcane energy found itself eddying and dribbling away from the streams, they worked a strange alchemy on whatever was around them...and in a places where enough lines met, the mystical flows slowed enough to allow for stone to form- first small pebbles, then increasingly larger as more and more of the magic-fed conglomerate extended itself upwards towards the sun, and deeper into the earth.

Appleloosa would be the first, small witness to the results as a spear of blue crystal shot up from a nearby mesa at the crack of dawn:

Compared to most of Equestria, the laconic earth pony population was remarkably undisturbed by the results. While the occasional shard that was easily found scattered nearby was "purty" and "kinda tingly when you pick one up", the effects proved utterly harmless. The general store put bits of the "Appleloosa Blue Sky Stone" on sale as souvenirs the same day, though anyone could just walk across the tracks and pick up as many little shards as they liked. Why, it almost seemed like they grew there!

Thankfully, almost no pony populations sit above a large eddy of magical energies coming together, especially one that had already shown an astonishing amount of magical crystallization, the likes of which unicorns and other ponies had happily mined for their treasures and then abandoned, leaving plenty of room for such a growth to occur...

Well, at least it'll take a bit of time to fill in all that empty space below Canterlot. Who knows when that'd happen?

In Canterlot, there are plenty of "quiet spots". Libraries, rooms coated with privacy spells for ministers and heads of state to meet, diplomatic stations, and all manner of nooks and crannies in which somepony just wanted a break from the bustle of the city around them- or possibly just nobody to notice them for a while.

The best of these happens to be Princess Luna's bedroom. Or rather, the "Consort's" bedroom BEHIND her bedroom, much like the one behind Princess Celestia's, both thoroughly sealed off from the rest of the palace, unless you happen to know the secret passages. And the second layer of said passages hidden inside the first. Oh, and the third one for good measure, which only numbers amidst the living two alicorns, one spirit of chaos (because Discord finding out would have been a matter of time anyway), and...

...six ponies who were currently trying to sleep together on a pile of slightly secondhand pillows in Luna's favorite quiet spot of all. And honestly, if they'd been nearly anywhere else, they'd have heard the ruckus, between the small army of pressponies that had clamored at the gate, the Guard quietly herding most of them into someplace Luna could discuss that yes, the responsible ponies were safely contained, then the Guard not-so-quietly containing a brief riot when some of the press started to interview the Empire's refugees, and a VERY not quiet Guard taking care of the two members of the Canterlot Chronicle who somehow managed to sneak close enough to Princess Celestia's window during said riot to shout a few questions through a megaphone at the snoozing Sun Princess, then managing to start ANOTHER riot when they were dragged away screaming about whether Celestia was protecting her "hidden weapons" from the public eye, and finally the VERY loud Princess Luna politely asking the milling horde to remain calm and return to their tents. Worst, the castle kitchen had run out of coffee and Celestia had ended up awake four hours before dawn- the first happening shortly after the second. It wasn't going to be a great morning for anyone...

...but those six ponies. They had peace and quiet. At least on the outside.

Twilight Sparkle's mind was normally a peaceful and quiet place, too- the very image of her beloved Ponyville library, even if the "books" were a bit different. That would have been before it ended up occupied by five other ponies and one rather large old ram, all of which thought nothing of being there as they dreamed of a slumber party, a pelting storm keeping them wanting nothing more than to stay dry and warm in the arboreal sanctuary. Somehow, the giant he-sheep just seemed to blend in.

"Ooh! He's so big and fluffy...do you have to count him more than once?", Fluttershy said and proceeded to run a fingered comb through the wool, smoothing away a few tangles.

"I am quite big enough that once is enough for most, or perhaps I could recite all of the prime numbers up to one million, two hundred and ninety-nine thousand, eight hundred twenty-seven. That usually puts most mortals to sleep.", the ram said contentedly as the comb worked it's way through his wool. "You have a gift for making creatures feel loved and cared for. It is good that they will protect you in turn, great and small."

The yellow pegasus paused in her wool-gathering. "Protect? Me? From what? Where?", as a crackle of thunder sent her diving under the nearest table, sending the card game on it flying in all directions. Most of the other ponies in the room proceeded to spend their time in an impromptu game of "52-Card Pickup", except for the incredibly formally clad (for a sleepover, anyway) purple alicorn that was giving her ovine guest the eye.

"You all happened to be sleeping in a rather adorable-looking pile, it wasn't as if I could leave them all "outside" while we chat. Besides, it is a pleasure to meet your companions.", the ram diplomatically bleated.

It could only be described as a mastery of dream-working that except for Twilight Sparkle, nobody else had noticed a Celestia-sized ram with sparking silver horns as anything odd in the Golden Oak Library. The scattered deck of cards seemed to breed, leaving half the room carpeted with four suits. Other than a few groans from Rainbow Dash, the five ponies cleaning up didn't seem to find 52,000-Card Pickup any more strange.

"Wouldn't you fit in better if you'd looked a bit more like us?", said Twilight, mildly peeved at the phantasmal desecration of her home.

"A fluffy pony-ball would hardly blend in well. And besides, it would be demeaning. Would you rather meet me as a winged, one-horned ewe? Besides, false forms are for those who would hide worse things. And I am a spirit of inspiration and revelation, not some green-eyed shadow stealing secrets in the dark."

A memory of crossing horns with Chrysalis briefly settled in the front of Twilight's mind before she pushed the disturbing image back. Honesty really WAS the best policy.

"And your mind has been quite in need of inspiration, youngest cousin. I have seen it is hard at work..."

Twilight's eyes involuntarily slid to a book table piled high. Celestial Influence On Modern Sorcery, A History Of Lunar Conjunctions, Crystalline Enchantment, Sombra's Syllabus Of Geological Warlockery...did he say cousin?

"...but the knowledge you seek is not to be found through any library or book. It requires a new book to be written, an author, a source. I have come to ask you this. Would you be the one? You are not merely "The Element of Magic", you are, in many ways the symbol that is the thing itself- and what has been left wild may be set to order through that authority, given enough power."

"Write....rewrite the very nature of magic itself? Are you telling me to become something more powerful than...Celestia? Or another Discord? Or that thing that stole our bodies through the Elements?", Twilight blurted out as a shudder of disgust ran through her body.

"Nay, never, no- three times I tell you this cannot be so!", the ram rumbled. Outside, a near-miss seared a long strip of bark and branch, sending it burning to the ground- only to be struck again in a double-CRACK of thunder that pressed against the windows like an angry beast. and vaporized the fallen branch in mid-air. The storm's driving rain reduced the outside view to the occasional bit of swirling mist and a curtain of rain. Behind the princess, four of the five sleepover guests turned as one to look at Rainbow Dash.

"Hey! I didn't schedule THAT kinda storm again, not after Rarity complained for a week about what it did to her mane...", the pegasus said, waving off the accusing stares. "This isn't MY fault...hey, do YOU know anything about this, sparky?", as she buzzed across the floor to hover in front of Twilight's unponylike companion. The creature looked somewhat embarrassed and taken aback by the attention.

"I...yes, that was my fault. It was quite inexcusable. I apologize for scaring you, losing my temper and causing the storm to drop so much lightning that close to your friends.", he said, a rather appropriately sheepish expression crossing the wool-covered face.

"Hey, I was NOT scared Mister...mister...hey, wait! Who ARE you, anyway?", Rainbow Dash said, poking an accusing hoof. "You some friend of Twilight's? Why are you here anyway? Why didn't she tell us you got invited for the sleepover? Have you been messing with MY weather team's clouds?" Jab, jab, jab...

"Twilight calls me Ram....uh? Yes, Ramuh. It is a good name. I, too dwell high in the skies, in the mountains where the wild weather rolls down into the Everfree. Once, you ponies called it the "Cloister of Storms". She and I have corresponded before on matters of history and magic, but I happened to be in the area and wished to meet more closely. She has been a most gracious host, even though I have disturbed your "sleepover". May we perhaps discuss it further over a game of cards, once you're ready to play again?.

The suspicious light in Dash's eyes faded as Ramuh's formal tone and speech filed him firmly under the category of "another one of Twilight's egghead friends", and with a final pugnacious sniff, she turned...

...and turned back for one more jab. "Don't you ever do that lightning stuff around Ponyville again, or I am SO gonna take you on, Twilight's friend or not!"...then dropped back to the ground to pick up a stray six of spades. "Stoofid cards" managed to get around the clamped teeth as she walked back to the rapidly growing table pile and deposited it on the top.

The glittering look in Pinkie Pie's eyes at the thought of "new friend" crossing with "party" warned Twilight that any further conversations would be very short indeed.

"Are you conversant with the construction of grimories, Twilight Sparkle? It was once said that given enough power, you could write the world into a book, but that you reached deep enough to find the right wordOOF"

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! One K, two P's, and three eyes!"

The library vanished as if stomped by a hoof...

...and Twilight found herself with Pinkie's bandaged one giving her a smarting muzzle as she woke in a suddenly chaotic cuddle pile. The still sleeping Pinkie thrashed about, murmuring something about molasses and dandelion pies as she shoved ponies off the pillows in every direction. Finally, a too-solid jolt to Applejack's backside woke both of them up.

"MAH DOCK!", she squealed and proceeded to buck right back, sending Pinkie flying into an old four-poster bed with a clatter of musty linens and collapsing canopies. The noise managed to wake anypony who hadn't already been struck in a tender location. "That mean ol' ram, I TOLD HIM NO MORE-.what?", a confused Rainbow Dash got out as she narrowly avoided decking Fluttershy, who vanished save for a shivering pink tail waving like a surrender flag from under a blanket. "Aww....I was having an awesome dream about having a party for the Sleepy Sheep!", Pinkie's voice wafted from the wreckage.

A second BOOM even louder than Pinkie's collision silenced the squabble- Twilight shoving the trap door leading out open with a single triumphant jerk of her horn. It lay cracked in two, nearly torn from it's hinges by sheer enthusiasm.

"I've GOT IT!", the princess exclaimed.

"Got a burr under your tail?" "Got a horrible case of morning mane, darling?" "Got breakfast?" "Got *yawn* five more minutes?" "Is....is it going to get ME? *squeak* "

"No no no! How to fix all the broken magic! I've got to write a grimoire, the most importantly magical book of magic that ever got spelled! All I need is...is...oh my gosh, I need..."

"YES?" came from the five ponies tangled in the mostly-dismantled bedding.

Twilight told them, and in less than a minute (give or take a moment) the tunnels echoed with the sounds of running pony-feet.

Chapter 19: Cooking The Book

6:23 AM, Canterlot Castle

The blankets had reached perfection- not too warm, nicely rumpled, with all the pillows in precisely the spots that left Princess Luna neatly cushioned in just the way that promised a swift journey to dreamland, as Celestia had taken over dealing with sun-raising and the Tartarus-raising that had been most of the Night Court's dealing with the public.

There had been three cups of tea just to get in the proper mood, rather than the normal one. And she had slurped the first one loudly enough to make Missy Manners, the bedservant actually drop a spoon. Yes, a nice long nap was just the...

crunch crunch crunch Did The Royal Bedroom have mice again...WHOMP crunch CRUNCH...rodents of unusual size? WHOMPWHOMPCRUNCH!

A pony-high oval of plaster and drywall crumbled onto the carpet, with a pair of dust-covered legs stuck through the hole. Speckled with enough spackle to resemble an orange-spotted Appaloosa, an earth pony's head poked into the gap.

"Sorry, yer Majesty but this was the only way to get in past the guards without anyone else knowin'. Twilight's gone and gotten an idea..."

Sleep promised a horrible revenge more dreaded than Nightmare Moon, but Luna placated it with promises of a gallon or so of Zebrican Double Roast. The alicorn bent her head to listen to Applejack as she relayed the plan under cover of comforter. For a Twilight To-Do list, it was actually fairly short and she had just the extra unicorn in mind...

"We have decided on a late morning snack...er..."breakfast" will be in order to fufill Our Sister's request. And then a nap. Thou shouldst rest, Mistress Applejack. You look like someone kicked thine hindquarters all evening." With that, Luna stood up, burying her under a pile of extra-extra-double-wing-sized blankets and sauntered out as if nopony had just smashed a hole through her bedroom wall. The doors swung open, revealing two startled Night Guards and an even jumpier Missy.

"We cannot sleep, alas. The tea was not enough, and our palate grows peckish. Attend." The Princess sedately walked down the hallway, gathering the occasional startled glance from servants as she made her way through the Royal Quarters with two slightly bemused guards (not like you could tell) and the somewhat confused Missy in tow.

"Mistress Manners, kindly deliver my invitation to Trixie for breakfast. And make certain she attends. Her company in this trying day calms me greatly...." - and with that, the starry-veiled bedservant was off. "Surely, it is fate that a suitable pony be so near at hand!", thought Luna. "Twilight shall have her properly "powerful unicorn", and I shall actually get some shuteye!".

An hour later, the Princess came back floating a tray of leftovers and sweets, with Trixie bearing a similar one balancing a large pot of fragrant coffee and a similar one of sassafras tea. "We shall not be disturbed", Luna said as the two entered her bedchambers and the doors swung shut- and locked from the inside.

Within a quarter hour, half the servants were whispering about Luna's choice in special someponies, Applejack had added the remnants of a tray's worth of pastries to the crumbled mess on the carpet , and two ponies had made themselves an unofficial second pair of guards as Luna snored contentedly at last.

Canterlot Castle Gardens, 7:04 AM

Philomena stretched out her lovely, flame-kissed wings and called out to the risen sun from the tallest tree she could find. The sun had risen and it's blessed flames signaled that all was right with the world, as eternal as her dear Celestia waAAWRK!

The bird found itself pulled into the tangled branches by a hoof and began to puff up angrily, ready to scorch the offender that dared molest the sacred bird of fire and-

"Ssssssh!", said Fluttershy.

"Wark?" "Twilight sent me because she needs a REALLY big favor. Three of them. Could you...um...molt a few feathers?" "Warrrrrk?" "She has to write something really magical and pegasus feathers won't do. I tried!" "Wark. Waaarrrk. Wark!"

And with that, Philomena stroked a wing down Fluttershy's mane, leaving three of her primaries stuck in the tangle.

"Oh, thank you!"

Sally Stitch's office, 8:45 am

Sally would not be what one described as "relaxed", for an earth pony. After all, she -was- the Royal Tailor, which meant when she wasn't doing dresses for three princesses, she was fixing random accessories, broken stitches, scuff marks, and the thousands other wardrobe malfunctions that nopony wanted to see their Highnesses in. It wasn't a thankless job (as the unlimited budget for deliveries from any restaurant in the city showed), but you had to be a special kind of creative to get through the day. The occasional thin line from a too-quick run through a sewing machine or worse marred her blue hide, and thick red ragdoll curls held a bewildering array of needles, bits of thread, pins, and even a measuring ribbon or two trailing like snakes in the mane-grass.

That in the last few days absolutely every enchanted bit of machinery had ceased to function or in one case attempted to cross-stitch her ears to her head had only sent things from "too busy" to "going full Sparkle", as the castle staff called it. The spool of thread that was her cutie mark even looked like it was starting to unravel...

"Oh! No! We have a fashion EMERGENCY!" came from the doorway.

One ear twitched. A single pin *sproinged* from Sally's mane to impale a nearby ponnequin. A small, dim red light began to burn in the mare's eyes as she turned to glare at the blond-coiffed, almost vapid-looking creature sticking her hair through the door.

"Another one of Celestia's stars-be-darned hoofmaidens, here with the straw to break my back? WHAT. IS. IT?", she managed to get out in a barely controlled voice that crackled with too long nights and far, far too many minotaur energy drinks.

Under the thick layer of sky-blue eyeshadow, a pair equally azure eyes fluttered dramatically, utterly ignoring the gathering attempts for Sally to commit equuicide with her stare.

"The worst possible thing!" "Since she had a split hair in her tail", thought Sally. "Her Highness has scuffed her shoes!". "And the idiots forgot the repair kit. Again.". Sally jerked a hoof towards a shelf, towards a jar marked-

"Gold" Dust: 99.9% pure! 50% copper dust, 50% brass dust by volume

"Take that. Remember it's not real frickin' gold and don't come back complaining because you didn't heat it enough to stick properly to the rest of the metal."

"Not....real...gold?"

"What, did you think Her Majesty's heavy hooves of state weren't going to turn gold sheeting into a wrinkled mess in three steps? Of course it's not real gold! Besides, even SHE thinks that kind of bit-blowouts are nuts! Now GET THAT TO HER MAJESTY BEFORE SOMEONE NOTICES!"

The hoofmaiden quickly grabbed the jar in her teeth and deposited into a discreet pocket in the scarlet-and-moon cloth that draped over her hindquarters- then rushed through the door a moment before Sally bucked the door shut with a BANG.

She turned back to her project, grumbling all the while about hiring help that did nothing but look pretty and..."Oh buck it, I forgot I had to fix Celestia's shoes for next week!" Butting the door back open with her head, Sally looked for the hoofmaiden...who had already vanished. The next slam was enough to knock the gilded cross of needles and spool clean off the top of the door, where it rolled against a nearly imperceptible gap in the wall...

Running through a hidden tunnel, the "hoofmaiden's" exceptionally poofy mane slipped a bit, revealing an ivory horn. Three blue gems peeked from under her outfit as she galloped towards Twilight Sparkle.

"That poor mare, trapped in such a disaster of dressmaking! When this is over, I shall help her, but duty calls!"

Day Court, 9:58 am

Twilight Sparkle had finally met her match. And by "match", I mean a scroll of such lawyer-speech and legal terms that she had two books on Equestrian litigation open just to try and untangle the barrage of "forbidden from", "cannot do", and even at least three "thou shalt nots" woven into a net of "requests" and "if the Crown pleases" that the Herd (as the Houses of Lords and Commons were oft referred to) had managed to serve her with not a minute after popping out of what she thought was a secluded, hidden exit from the tunnel network.

Sedately seated on the Dawn Throne, Celestia leaned over as Twilight's mouth involuntarily formed another bit of legalese that made penta-alliteration seem like a nursery rhyme.

"They're saying "Sit down, be silent, look decorative, and do nothing until we tell you to." -which is what they did to poor Luna when she came back, they were afraid she'd blow up half of Canterlot, then plunge the rest into eternal darkness."

Twilight looked back, offended. "What did you do?"

"Politely told them they could kiss my horn in the sweetest, most poison-laced decree I could write and burned the thing on the spot. Which, if I could, I would do to that serpent in parchment...but this time, they have an excuse."

The two noble alicorns looked at the line of petitioners. Unicorns, mostly- but the rich suits and greying manes of more than one businesspony sprinkled throughout, and what wasn't suit or horn was the barely-sparkling forms of refugees from the Empire. Not one of the latter had so much as paid a copper bit's worth of attention to Twilight Sparkle, much less the usual measures of respect.

"An entire city is ashes and magic as they know it has gone out- which to many is a worse fate than never seeing the sun again. And yes, we will try to make better of it- as we discussed before court. Try to remember that for today...and tomorrow, if all is well and the sun does rise, I have a lovely place for that scroll. Philomena's place, about a foot below her perch.". One gold clad hoof brushed against Twilight's smaller one, leaving a few small scratches in each.

"Oh, drat. Another scuff on Our second-best shoes. Sally will be in a fit. Twilight, have you seen our hoofmaiden?", Celestia uttered in a slightly louder "Do pay attention" tone.

"She is such a devoted servant, I do believe she's already taking care of the problem.", Twilight twittered in a reply that Rarity would have stood up on two hooves and applauded for sheer overdone decorum.

"Why, no Princess could have a better friend indeed."

"Quite!", came out of Twilight's mouth, in a way that made the hearer think she might call for tea and crumpets next. A few not-quite-inaudible sounds of disgust managed to reach Twilight's ears from the crowd.

"Just a few more hours of this Diamond Dog-and-Pony show...", she thought as she pursued a hastily re-bound copy of Great Grimories of the Past and Present, wrapped neatly in a cover reading "Equestrial Litigation For New Legal Clerks". "Everyone else's parts will be simple enough. And all I have to do is read the world's magic and just write it down with a dash of something to hold it all together again. Easy!", as she scribbled another note for the ritual on the back of the scroll expressly forbidding her from trying so much as a firefly-summoning cantrip without a majority vote.

The nervous titter that followed accidentally managed to fool most of the audience into believing the ditzy, panic-stricken Princess Incompetent act. It was probably for the better.

9:36 am, behind Luna's bedroom

The sheet of vellum curled not a bit as Pinkie Pie lovingly brushed a thin layer of baker's glue over the thin sheet, then dusted it with a sparkling cloud of metallic "gold". Not a dot an "i" could be spotted with would find it's way under that glittering plane!

Six more shimmering sheets already were drying out, ready for their moment of destiny as the confectioner put her emergency cake repair kit to unorthodox use. Top-of-the-line baking sheets were as good for writing as they were for cooking, and the layer of metallic flakes was as easy to apply as a delicate layer of frosting...making her a perfect sugary scribe.

"It's a piece of cake to bake a pretty book, if the way is hazy...", she sang under her breath as sheet number seven stuck a perfect landing.

Behind her, Rainbow Dash snored along, having the pillows all to herself at last. (Having Pinkie Pie boop you in the nose at early-o-clock had ruined what could have been a perfect post-morning snooze start, but she was in fine form on the recovery.)

"You gotta do the cooking for the book, you know you can't be lazy...", only pausing to nom a passed-back chocolate croissant before it got stale. Can't have THAT.

Chapter 20: What My Cutie Crystal Is Telling Me

Diplomat's Quarters, Canterlot 12:16pm

"Lunch...is served!"

Red Carpet wrinkled his nose at the slightly overdone smell of too many species tucked into a set of rooms that was likely a hair too small for the lot- but they HAD insisted on staying together. He did produce a titter of laughter from the crowd, which only made his face go even tighter than usual.

"Her Highness has assured me that everyone will find something to their satisfact-" was broken by one of the flapping creatures laughing hard enough to begin to do involuntary spins in mid-air.

"-their satisfaction-" And now the masked ones were snuffling in what had to be good spirits, a deep SNEEEERRRK! through a breathing hole putting yet another hole in the unicorn's snooty balloon of a speech.

"AHEM! So that all will enjoy the highest quality the Royal Kitchens produce for their most honored guests." Sweet Sun-In-Wing, the bloody rock farmer was grinning at him like he'd just walked in painted pink!

"WewishyouapleasantmealandpleasepullthebellropeshouldyoudesireanythingfurthergoodDAY!" he finished in record time and exited hastily, leaving a small army of pleasantly steaming covered dishes to cover his retreat.

As the door closed, the entire feast jawed away in perfect timing to Discord's best Red Carpet imitation- seeing as every cover was connected to a set of puppet strings held by the ceiling-walking chaosity and had been miming along to the butler's stolid announcements. Dish covers wiggled and pronounced their virtues to all and sundry.

"You shall be SO fondue of my cheese and breadsticks!" "Salad, salaam!" "Open, sesame-roasted sandwiches!"

Angel proceeded to kick one cover clean off a mountain of mixed greens and simply dove in, causing the rest of the meal to remark.

"That rabbit's got a mean streak a mile wide!" "It's a killer!"

Lunch was self-serving and high-spirited.

Rarity minced by the door as Red Carpet led a line of serving-ponies back towards the kitchens. The Prench-born servant was less than amused at being the butt of Discord's performance.

"Discord, vous batard delicate! Douleur DANS LE CUL!". She almost lost her wig as her ears twitched to the harsh words. "Such language!", she thought. Grabbing a lunch cart with her teeth, she guided it to the back of the line and detoured it away when the rest of the help had rounded a corner.

Princess Celestia was having her lunch at one-fifteen sharp. She had a few extra menu items to pick up beforehand.

"Oh, and Red Carpet? I forgot, Princess Luna will be here for lunch. We'll need..." , Celestia began piling on the extra dishes as the butler began to grind his jaw with barely contained agitation. "....and a few extra things, Luna's supposed to be having a guest for lunch."

"Table por quatre? Agrebale.", he said, though it was not lovely in the least. Not enough servers on shift, the kitchen would be running double-time....and he almost forgot to bow politely before heading for the lunch chef to utterly wreck HER schedule as well.

12:36pm

Fluttershy let out an adorable little "choo!" as Rarity thoroughly powdered the last bit of her cutie mark under a layer of makeup. The mane dye had (of course) come in perfectly, leaving the pegasus a blushing bottle-blond. Another bit of dress over the top and...

"Celestia's staff will be extra busy today, and you're going to be the perfect set of hooves to help with lunch!"

"But...but what if someone makes me do something or wants me to say something?"

"You're the help dear, just like me. Why, you may as well be invisible to most ponies here! Just keep your teeth on the cart and don't say a word. Now, follow me! I just -know- they're going to need all the help they can hoof into the kitchen."

And with that, Rarity lined up next to her and flank-to-flank, they pushed the rather broad wheels-for-meals towards the delicious smells of an army of cooks, hard at work.

Royal Kitchens, 1:04pm

"Next in line, desserts on the bottom, main dish on the middle, appetizers on the top! Go, go, go!"

Fluttershy barely managed to keep a plate of tea cookies stable as she tried to slide it into the covered shelf at the bottom of the cart. The load bobbled and began to tip halfway in...

...and a pink hoof on the other side took up the slack, drawing the sweets into the shadowed alcove.

Rarity discretely shoved a strand of green tail back into the cart as she tucked a final plate of watercress and saffron-sprinkled wraps into the middle shelf, then the two wrestled a plate of carefully arranged flowers that could easily serve as both table decoration or snack tray on the roof before finding their way to the tail of the caravan heading for the Day Court.

A crimson hoof tapped in barely-contained wrath as they squeaked by. "YOU!", the owner of the hoof pointed in the finest Prench fashion of "J'accuse" at Rarity! "WHERE HAS ZE CART BEEN FOR AN HOUR!"

Fluttershy's teeth began to leave dent marks in the silvered mouth-railing.

"Why...why....someone had left it full of dirty dishes and I HAD to clean it! And....and...", Rarity bent to whisper in Red's ear.

"They scratched the top. I had to polish it for half an hour!"

"ZUT!" spat from Red's mouth as he shoved Rarity back into position. "I will find ze pony responsible and he will be SACKED! SACKED! Go!"

"A sack doesn't sound too bad..." Fluttershy managed to get out around the handle. 'DEPECHEZ-VOUS!" roared from behind the two. Rarity actually had to dig a thin groove in the carpet to keep the cart from plowing into the ponies pushing the next in front!

The thin line of shiny, sparkling meal tickets made their way down the carpeted lanes of the court and found themselves swallowed by a pair of tall double doors, beyond which four ponies shared the long stretch of table that marked the Royal Dining Room. Celestia's serene form occupied one end, Luna's the other, and Twilight and the cape-and hatted Trixie could be found at opposite sides of the center.

"Why, Red Carpet! As always, impeccable." , and the Solar monarch smiled in a way that made the butler's ill mood melt away in seconds. "I think...yes, we'll have those two over there serving for lunch today. The rest are free for an extra hour's break today for their meal, and that includes you...especially you! Your perfection deserves it's reward."

Save for the relatively unfortunate pair, the servants rapidly took advantage of their boon, a few whispering condolences and encouragements at the pegasus-maid who looked positively stricken at the idea of being almost alone with the Princesses as she conferred with her cart-partner.

"Oh, oh! We have to do all these for...what if I drop a plate!", she wailed as the last one pulled the doors shut behind her, leaving the two servants to handle the meal by themselves.

And with that, Twilight's face unbent from it's regal (actually, she'd been studying portraits of royalty) mien and broke wide open.

"Fluttershy, you can drop the act now- it was very good, but they're gone. Lunch, then we save the world?"

"Umm....are you sure I can't just serve lunch and then go on break with everyone else? Maybe go walk in the flowers and save the garden or something?"

"I think we have two ponies who already started on lunch-", Celestia said. Trixie didn't take half a moment afterwards and gracefully whipped the cloth covering off the cart. Curled on the bottom was Pinkie Pie and a rather empty plate, while Rainbow Dash was revealed with half a wrap sticking out of her mouth and the crumbs of more decorating her fur. The dish on top barely waved a petal.

*MRPH*, Dash commented as she failed to unstick the mouthful currently going down her throat for more. Pinkie simply clapped her hooves, then winced a bit and kept applauding anyway.

"- perhaps someone would be kind enough to get them a drink? The sauce they put in those wraps always makes my mouth stick together, never mind that many cookies."

Two pitchers of water later, the meal (and a great deal of "how to save Equestria" small talk) began.

"...and Ramuh mentioned grimoires, so I started reading and I think I know just what to do here...", Twilight continued. For the third time. While Trixie was glazing over and not even trying to feign interest at this point, the rest of the table just let her talk her way into circles while she convinced herself that yes, she really could do it. Anything else lost it somewhere around the "thaumaturgical impressions" and a long equation written on the tablecloth in chocolate sauce with a fondue fork.

"Twilight? Dear? I'm sure this will work, you've thought this out -perfectly- and we're all ready to help you. And I'm afraid Pinkie may have finished the last of the dessert you've been writing with, so shall we clear the plates and get to work?"

Six heads managed to nod as one. Trixie managed to make things clear by snoring.

"We did wake Mistress Trixie a bit earlier than usual today.", Luna said with a hint of embarrassment. "TRIXIE?", she inquired at a polite level of "too loud for mornings" at the unicorn, who by this point was leaking a small puddle of drool from under her hat. The pointed headpiece shot up to attention, revealing a face that would have looked right at home in Cheerilee's schoolhouse. Right before the rest of the class started laughing about Trixie getting extra homework.

"Trixie's almost done with the exam! One more minu...um, Trixie is prepared to do what it takes for Equestria. Yes. She is honored that you would invite her into the company of royalty to save the world, and cannot fail you." "Or I'm about to be blasted into dust in one of Twilight's crazy plans and there's no way in Tartarus you refuse a direct request from two Princesses unless you enjoy lunar excursions for the next century."

Tables floated to one side, carts were herded to another to clear the center of the room as Twilight fussed over placement.

"Princess Celestia, right here...", as she pulled a compass from her saddlebags. "A step to the left, and perfect. True north."

"Rarity, another two steps to the left of Princess Celestia and...a little closer to me.". The compass wavered a bit in mid-air. "Northwest. Good. Pinkie! I know standing still is normally a little tough, but PLEASE...oh, I'm sorry. Right there. West IS best, Pinkie. Trixie, the same distance away from Pinkie as Rarity...yes, I know you never miss a mark. Very good, Southwest on the button. Rainbow Dash, you can figure out which pose is most awesome for saving Equestria but -don't move from that spot-. South! Applejack...oh, you already knew? Southeast."

The cowpony waved her hat at Rarity as she moved into position.

"This ain't the first dance I've been called at, Twilight.". Rarity giggled. "Does this mean we need to find Twilight a fiddle? Or a cello for the waltz?"

The image finally managed to break Twilight out of the increasingly nervous state she'd been in all day- crafting the ritual, whether everyone would be together, everything. "I have the best ponies anyone could want to help me. Everything is going to be fine." She snorted as her lips curled into a grin. "Fluttershy, would you mind landing here facing Pinkie? That is very good, Fluttershy. And thank you, Philomena never talks that way around me. I promise, extra incense for dessert tonight- and I'm buying. East, just right. Princess Luna, the final place, northeast...yes, yes, yes."

A dozen sparkling pages arranged themselves around Twilight as she stood in the center of the mystical formation and began a widdershins dance, circling just outside the stretch of Twilight's wings. She examined each of the feathers Philomena had donated, each cut to a precise quill's edge. Two was enough, but a third just in case.

"I'm going to start. Everyone, remember what I asked you to focus on- all of you have been the bearers of relics of great power, and that residual connection is what I'm using to bind this book together once the ritual is complete. Whatever you do, DON'T STOP CONCENTRATING."

The alicorn's horn blazed with aura and reached out to kindle a white glow from Celestia.

"The light that guides, now blinds."

In turn, it touched Luna, whose skin was shrouded in obsidian.

"Darkness has fallen, shrouding us in the cloak of ignorance."

Emerald sprang from Fluttershy, who shivered as the miasma left her powdered fur a sickly tone.

"The winds blow cruel across the summer sky."

A yellowed tone oozed from Applejack's pelt.

"And the earth grows barren and wild."

Sparks kindled from the eyes of Rainbow Dash, and the scent of ozone seeped into the room.

"Storms curse all below them with spears of betrayal."

Trixie's blue fur bubbled motes of magic to float around her in a sea of mana.

"And the jealous rivers reach from their banks to drown us all."

Pinkie's ears pricked as a halo of sourceless fire lit above her head, sending fat sparks to scorch the marbled floor.

"The heavens rain fire and tribulation on the world as portents of sorrow."

Rarity's horn grew a sheath of hoarfrost that covered it's upper tip, sending snakes of icy mist to caress the spinning sheets of parchment.

"For all ponies despair that the Windigo Time has come. I call it upon this place, I bring it forth, I name it and witness it by these words and write it large upon these pages."

A thick, almost pestilent drop of dark magic wept from Twilight's horn to stain a phoenix-quill with venomous ink as it scrawled symbols that made the eye burn with tears to read them. The auras mixed and circled the nine ponies, and a wordless, silent scream flattened their ears, the promise of a predator to leap on their backs and tear out their bellies in primal cruelty. The world outside the circle became monochrome, almost as if the colors were draining it to fuel their malice.

The quill, complete in it's task sparked into flames and consumed itself, taking the last stained bits of blackened magic with it.

"I have called, it has come, and by it's name I shall command it and abjure it's wickedness from the world.", and Twilight's eyes became burning lanterns in her skull. Her wings spread on their own accord, barely missing the rotating words that painted the golden pages around her.

"For the sun still rises to bring hope to the lost, and blesses both the wayward and the wise." -and Celestia's light gentled from the glittering spikes of painful glow to her familiar solar radiance.

"We look to the night sky and know the signs that the time is right to bring healing and restoration, for it is writ in the stars above.", as Luna's blackness faded to a somber blue-black of the night just before dawn.

"The winds bring sweet tidings of spring, the thaw of anger in the warmth of love." , and with a whole-body shake, Fluttershy's fur-powdering found itself wafting through the room, tickling the nose with it's perfume.

"No evil shall deny the land, for it's destiny is to bear fruit and be prosperous." , and indeed, shoots of green sprang from what should be barren marble at Applejack's feet and the stone crumbled to the richness of farm-tilled soil.

"The storm passes, and the wild lightning is tamed to our hooves." Rainbow's scent turned from the nostril-searing touch of a near strike of electrical wrath, and the light dimmed from her eyes. A distant, gentle rumble of thunder filled the room as her wings opened and flapped, leaving her hovering inches from the floor.

"Gentle is the rain, that brings new life and heals the scars of the world." The malicious magical humidity in the air around Trixie dissolved into clouds and mist that stroked across flesh like a balm.

"No more the sign of coming tribulation, but the hearth-friend, house-keeper." Pinkie's halo spread and diluted itself across the earth pony in a ruddy overcoat, no longer searing, but the warm scent of a bakery at work.

"And the Windigo Time shall pass and ne'er be seen again, for the land sleeps beneath a snowy blanket in peace." Rarity's icy horn-shell crumbled into flakes of snow, which kissed the brow with a delicious coolness as they melted away, only to be replaced by more that seemingly formed from the unicorn's horn in an unending eddy of frozen sweetness.

At the last, the sounds of predatory hatred faded, and colors began to return outside the circles as a second quill scratched a harmonious tapestry of colors that wove itself across the hateful writings that had come before, the blend turning what had been dissonance into something that delighted the eye rather than striking it out. With a second spark of Twilight's more ordinary aura, the feather joined it's mate and ashed away.

"We who have borne great bindings of power upon us, call upon these words to be bound in turn, and restore the magic which was torn from it's place as we tie these pages together." A rainbow of colors swirled from the nine ponies into the spinning sheets of vellum, which rose to stack themselves in a neat, precise row above Twilight's head. Flecks of phoenix-ash floated into the colorful blend, and the magic solidfied to form a prismatic cover for the grimoire that the ritual had successfully inscribed.

"Let the power of the world be as it should be ONCE MORE!"

The book closed with a clap. The world's colors faded from a vibrant richness to ordinary sight as the last of the ritual's power was drawn into it, and Twilight sighed with relief as she felt the pure pony-rific rightness of the book, it's energies the familiar tones of the magic she had lived and learned with all her life. She looked up at the salvation of Equestria that floated above her horn.

Why was she heading so quickly towards it all of the sudden? What was that sound?

Eight pairs of eyes watched Twilight's sudden ascent towards the ceiling in absolute shock as a spear of crystalline magicite drove from the floor, through the alicorn's heart and into the book, smashing first the grimoire into sparkling shards of dust and then pinning the princess to the ceiling like some kind of freakish, purple insect.

She squeaked briefly at the impact as it knocked the wind from her lungs. The white fire in Twilight's eye sockets vanished, leaving behind only a look of surprise. There was no blood as the body sagged on it's post, but animation fled from her like a suddenly quenched torch. A *CRACK* from the door revealed the forms of a half dozen guardponies with an improvised ram and the snobbish Blueblood, a look of smug satisfaction on his face as the locked door finally gave way to their panicked battering.

An instant later, the mortal coil of Twilight Sparkle became a haze of formless, purple dust that spread across the witnesses like a thin coat of paint. Only the blue pillar remained, it's glow harshly filling the room with an uncaring light. The circle around the pillar burgeoned with tears...

"And so, Twilight Sparkle pays for her crimes at last.", Blueblood uttered into the silence, desecrating the moment with the alchemy that transmutes utter sorrow into blinding rage with it's heartless formula.

The stallion found himself flung from the room as four horn-auras grabbed him by a leg each and launched him like a catapult into the audience room beyond, where he left a deep dent in the entrance doors and the ring of bending brass to herald the coming of the Sisters into their court. Terrible in fury, a killing haze blinding the ponies that stampeded behind them, teeth bared to tear and punish the stunned prince by flaying his skin to ribbons.

The Court has at least two dozen Guard at all times. It took six each to keep the Princesses from making sure Blueblood was never a pretty face again, three to hold a screaming Dash down, another three for Applejack, two to lift a sobbing Rarity off her feet and bear her back before she stabbed the FILTHY GELDING through the eye with her horn, but only one to support a crushed, joyless Pinkie Pie and another to keep Trixie at bay, her horn sparking.

None of them managed to stop Fluttershy, her face twisted into a mask devoid of any kindness, love, or mercy as she latched her hooves around Blueblood's throat and tried to choke the noble with her bare hooves. A petitioner in the crowd gently pried the shuddering pegasus off her prey and without a word, just hugged the poor thing as she screamed and wailed on a stranger's shoulder. Freed, he staggered upright to lurch out the listing pair of doors.

A strange smile briefly would have been seen to cross the "noble" stallion's face, if anyone had been looking. In the chaos of thrashing royalty and raging mares, none were.

Epilogue: Double Dimensional Damage

The ruins of the Crystal Empire, 3 days after the destruction of the Heart

Precious little of what was the Empire now existed in any larger pieces than pebbles, the catastrophic release of energies scouring most of the city down to a choking cloud long since blown to the windigos. Of what remained, the largest pieces were the occasional scrap of wall that once had been the central castle.

Amidst that jumble could be found the blasted remnants of what once had been a mirror-frame. That it still held a single jagged third of glass at the bottom could only be a testimony to the nigh-legendary construction it had once had before being battered by the arcane blast and ruined, untold energies forced through the portal until it gave way, violated in a way it was never designed to handle.

The shard twinkled and sparked like a filly's horn as something forced it's way through the shard and into the world. A hoof, the yellow fur pitted by dozens of scorch marks. It pawed blindly for purchase and found a loose stone, then a few bricks that had flash-melted into a somewhat solid grip. The leg convulsed, dragging a smouldering pony through the broken mirror to lay gasping on the rubble.

With a flash, the failing portal spat a last bright nimbus of magic into the skies. A few droplets of molten glass peppered the unfortunate unicorn's tail with a few more burn marks, who ignored them in favor of breathing air she hadn't had to magically create herself, or actual ground to stand on that wasn't hurtling through a void and trying to crush her on impact. The one eye that wasn't currently facing the ground rolled, looking around. Rubble, ash, ruin, destruction.

Sunset Shimmer took a deep breath to address the situation and tell the world what she felt after being tumbled about like an aura-covered pinball for days, unable to sleep, eat, drink (beyond a handy sports bottle that'd been stuck in her purse-now-saddlebag for gym class) or most forms of common sanitation. She was burnt and burnt out. She stank. And she'd spent the entire time watching the sucked-in, ground-up mess that had been Equestria High and it's surroundings as it'd been torn from it's place and reduced to a thin slurry of crumbled concrete and ashphalt to squeeze into the space between worlds.

She watched the rubble, because watching the hundreds if not thousands of -people- that had been in there when it happened would have driven any good creature stark raving mad. Their state of...mixture made an exact count impossible and equally sanity-breaking to consider.

BAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWW!

That is, she cried like a newborn, terrorized filly. As it stands, being the only living pony in the middle of the Crystal Empire, making a magical explosion and then howling like a baby isn't a bad way of attracting attention.

Hooves tapped on the rubble, and a rattle choked the young mare's cries to a strangled sob.

"Someone? Somepony? Can you help? WHY IS THIS ALL WRONG?"

The pony-head that poked over the half-melted pile of bricks failed to restore any faith in the universe. It lacked- flesh, a tooth, eyes (save for a glowing pair of red dots where they should have been), and the cackle of laughter the skeletal, reanimated corpse gave upon spying her was one of cruel joy and purpose. It's mostly-intact teeth showed a full set of sharp, pointed teeth...which the skeleton put to their purpose, and bit.

Fire burned across the back of Sunset's neck as the thing scraped skin and tore a chunk of mane clean out, giving her new reserves of energy that apparently had been hiding in the back of her head, filed under "absolute terror". She flung the nightmare away, then conjured a perfect summoning spell that should have burned the thing to ashes with the flawless precision that only a self-absorbed, power-hungry unicorn could provide.

Instead, the inside of her horn felt like someone had dumped boiling oil down the tip and into her skull as the spell misfired, sending motes of orange flames in every useless direction at once. Her panic and focus shattered by the burning pain that found it's way behind her eyes, she wobbled once, twice...and collapsed as she had nothing left to give.

A second bony remnant of the population canter-clattered onto the scene on three and a half legs to scent (if one could call the nose holes it pointed "smelling") the burnt, bloody flesh. Sweet, living flesh. The two mindlessly tangled briefly above the unicorn's broken body, clashing mouths as each tried to tear out the mare's still weakly beating heart.

A green, flaming meteor slapped into the three-legged corpse, shattering it and sending the other undead tumbling down what had been a street before a behemoth had pulled down the hospital atop it. It did not care, but simply rolled back onto the cracked bones of it's legs to charge at it's meal again, snapping and uttering that insane laugh once more. A second meteor obliterated the thing before it took two steps, then unbent it's legs and walked away from the bone-splintered crater. Together, they turned glowing blue eyes on the Equestrian girl.

A trailer of smoke curled from the ears of Sunset Shimmer to twist it's way through her saviour's leg. That is, in one side of the hole that showed above a chitinous hoof and out the other. The hoof poked. The mare moaned.

"Alive. She wishes evidence of the death here. Would a fresh body be enough?", a somewhat chitinous mouth spoke.

"A survivor would be better. There have been no others. Take her, and we wear pony-skins until she is delivered to the Blueblood, all glory to the Queen." With that, the first voice chittered agreement and two glimmers of magic cheated their forms into something false, yet real enough to touch.

Grey-and-armored, the pair of pegasi in tarnished guardsman gear bore the unicorn on their backs and vanished, but for the occasional glimpse of a flame-red tail. Canterlot was a long flight, but they had been sent flush with love from the nest. It would suffice, and the Queen would have more waiting when they returned with their prize.

Sunset Shimmer had clearly died and gone to pony heaven. Or recovered from a long bout of madness. She had a real shape, HER shape, with a horn and hooves and a tail as only the apex of creation could be born to. Her eyes were closed, but she lay on cloudlike softness, a feeling she hadn't known since the day she left through the mirror, years ago. Humans didn't sleep on clouds, no matter what their commercials said. That took pegasus down and a fresh cumulus. The room smelled, and she could actually -smell- again, not the claustrophobicly thick perfumes she'd have to hose herself with scent to notice, but the more subtle...notes...of a stallion?

An ache in her neck brought back memory, and she startled as her eyes opened to the sight of Blueblood's muzzle casually giving her the once over. In a bedroom. A very much STALLION'S bedroom.

The blankets snarled themselves into a ball of rather expensive 300-thread shreds as she covered herself and blushed furiously. Blueblood's near-nuzzle turned quickly into a solicitious sniff as he realized the sleeping beauty had awakened. While impeccably dressed, it was obvious that he'd had a hard day- a few bandages peeked out from under a velveted coat, and someone had bloodied the stallion's muzzle. Or he'd banged it into a door.

"Canterlot? Not? Gone? What? What...what am I DOING IN YOUR BEDROOM?", she shrieked! And covered in bandages maaaaybe just a little doped up oh wow this feels like when Flash spiked the punch at the Fall Formal...

"Why, to keep you from Auntie Celestia, of course!", and at Celestia, a stab of envy, guilt and anger raced through Sunset's head. "You ARE a wanted pony, after all. What -were- you doing in the Crystal Empire in all those horrible ruins? How DID you live through the explosion?". Blueblood's eyes seemed to bore their way into her aching skull. She could tell him everything, and then a nice little nap with her lovely Blueblood keeping her safe...

As the unicorn babbled out the story of mirror-leaping, high school domination and the final cataclysmic destruction of her teenage "kingdom", Blueblood looked up to a well-dressed unicorn butler standing at the door.

"Ambitious, willing to use anyone to get ahead, and less love in her than a starveling grub. She gives us the destruction of all these "humans" to pin on Celestia as well. You could not have done better.".

Locked in the grip of Blueblood's stare, the unicorn didn't even pause.

"All I wanted was to be the princess...", Shimmer murmured.

Malice lit in Blueblood's eyes as an idea crawled through the slimy sludge he called a brain.

"Six-seventy-five, find me someone who can paint a lovely portrait of Sunset Shimmer that I can fit in the closet."

The changeling-butler stared in confusion. "You...want her image? I can just call in a drone to copy her in every detail."

Blueblood clonked the butler gently upside his horn.

"No, Six-seventy-five. I want a lovely image of Blueblood's long-lost secret special somepony he was betrothed to wed when she came of age, but was banished by the wicked Celestia to the "humans" so that they would never know..."

And Blueblood's mouth worked hard to bring it's sarcasm into the world with the final two words....

"True love."

Chapter 1: Silica Gets Into Everything

(Prologue note: For the short version of what's happened, read Chapter 21 of Memories of the Stone at this link. - The Author)

It is a night of great turmoil in the Equestrian world.

The Sun lies senseless upon a mountain, wounded and helpless.

The Moon guides the blind and torn in tears.

Love has failed in the face of the wounds of war and intolerance.

And Friendship?

Friendship, even if the Sun and Moon and Love should fail or fall from the skies?

Friendship is magic.

Princess Luna blinked away the grit of a weary trek from her eyes. Only a few steps remained until her band of wounded refugees would be safe under the aegis of the Royal Guard, pacing the Friendship Express as the train chugged it's way down the tracks. Ahead of it, four smaller engines, each towing car after car filled with ponies struggled to drag them down the line to civilization- but move they did. The Express fared better, it's modern coal-fired belly filled and puffing white smoke contentedly from the stack. Though as loaded as the rest, it bore no extra cars- all of which had ended up on the trains ahead of it - and the midnight blue one in the center had every comfort a Princess might desire. Like a bed. Oh, sweet mercy, a bed! Though every room in the Royal Car otherwise had been stuffed with fleeing ponies on the Night Court's orders, that one bed, that one divine and fluffy bed was hers.

In the skies, something whistled almost inaudibly. as it fell from above. With a *clank*, it hit the edge of the smokestack, rolled around the rim, and fell into the furnace below to land in the pile of burning stone.

The night-black bit of crystal reacted poorly to it's new home at first- a mote of darkness within darkness that swelled angrily , rattling the coal flume and sending a burp of brimstone to cloud the stream of smoke as it drifted back into the snowy wastes. Then....then it tasted the dreams as a bit of it's essence glided through the exhaust, twisting through one row of passengers after another. Ponies in fitful dreams of the horrors that had torn the Empire apart, friend from friend, life from life, mother from child, loss.....loss...loss...a bitter meal compared to the dreams of happy times that had fed it for millennia.

Carried by the winds, the tenuous strand found itself pulled back along the track, to a station that no longer had any connection to the living. The end of the line, now the End. Only the echo of the original station remained, a spectral image of the one that had been reduced to nothingness by the Heart's explosive release. So, too did the trail of dreams end here, as the ghostly forms of thousands of lost souls stood in their lines, waiting for a train that could never find the dead or ferry them to the hearts of the living.

A legion of souls, torn from their home like the mote had. They needed to go home, a guide that could bring them together in dreams- happier dreams. The souls waited for a train. A "train" was what the mote had landed in. The mote knew dreams. One could even say the mote WAS dreams. The mote was a train. The mote would BECOME a train of dreams.

Inside the engine of the Friendship Express, the fires began to belch a thick, sulfur-laden cloud. The noxious fumes rapidly drove the engineer and his crew out of the cabin as they bailed, eyes streaming with tears. The sooty pall shrouded first one car, then another, and another...until the fires had left even the caboose hidden between a thick blanket of smoke.

The whistle sang, with no hand to pull it. One might have made out a horned head from the blackened cloud at the front, looking over it's the length of it's "tail" as it finally curled around the last bit of the train. Luna watched, unsure as crew members from the other trains charged in with buckets of snow poised to quench the fire that must surely be devouring the engine compartment by the second.

The smoke....turned white, and puffed out to fill the space with a misty haze. The sulfur stench became the kinder smell of woodsmoke. With a thought, the princess summoned a breeze to clear the air.

Hundreds of ponies lay covering the tracks crew and passenger, firepony and guardpony, fast asleep. Nothing would wake even a one for over an hour, but every single one did awake- and many spoke of the ones they had left behind, who had told them not to worry, that even though they were gone- they would always ride through their dreams, where a friend kept them safe until the time where they would meet again- whenever their special somepony rested their heads. Tears were shed, but the tears lightened burdens instead of forging chains of sorrow. Luna did not sleep- but found her bed was in better hooves.

Of the train, there was no sign.

Above them, the moon shimmered and it's color began to change...

A second fragment flew further, the occasional bit of rainbow light dwindling below it's trail. Ahead, the Everfree Forest grew larger and more mysterious by the moment. The trees waved in an unseen wind, welcoming the shard into their midst.

It passed, unimpeded by branch or leaf to skip along a moonlit pond in the heart of the forest. A few long-eroded blocks of rock marked the pond as pony-made, but no other civilized sign appeared as the shard sank into the waters.

Silence returned after the brief splash. A pack of timberwolves dipped their jaws into the pure woodland fount to drink, the full moon reflected in the still rippling surface....and the surface broke to reveal a head, formed from sunken logs and pond moss. Ferns from the shore spotted it's wooden hide, and it waded out of the water towards the beasts.

Towering above the pack, the gargantuan timberwolf howled towards the moon, baying notes of hunt and stalk and eat and prey! in the language of those who hunt by night. A glittering chunk of feldspar formed one eye, while the other held naught but the knot of a stump, blind and scarred.

The pack obeyed with a feral joy, and that night, they feasted on a manticore- hamstrung by the pack as their new alpha strangled it with his driftwood jaws.

Truly, it was good to be home.

"Golden Chariot is DOWN! Repeat, Golden Chariot is DOWN!"

The night sky above Hollow Shades was filled with pegasi, furiously running bombing sorties as quickly as they could dump a wing full of spears into the nearest fell beast, land to reload, and take off to do it again. Breezy Spring and Dawn Trotter were part of the 34th Cloudsdale Air Patrol (the "Cool Shades", if you happened to be in the know), and had just gotten the word from the ground crew that Celestia had flamed out over the Appleachians, location mostly unknown as the Princess had flapped in up to Her Royal Hindquarters so far that the rest of the defenders hadn't been able to catch up.

New orders, courtesy of the ground crew relay. Get in the area. Find the Princess. Save the Princess. Call in the medical chariot with a flare, and get HRH out of hock, by the previous hour if they could manage it. It was almost supposed to be daylight and nobody could find anyone -else- to raise the sun, right?

Swap the spear clips for medical kits and industrial-sized sugar cubes. Preen everything -perfect-. Wait for the groundhoofer to wave them out on the trotway, and....

*FOOOM*

Building up lift as they galloped, Breezy and Dawn caught the updraft at the end of the road and lit up their burners, twin golden contrails leaving a brilliant afterimage as the CAP wing went full out. A bat big enough to blot out the moon dove on the pegasi, intend on making a meal out of the two bugs lifting off for the boonies.

The groundpounders' ballista bolt tore a hole through one membranous wing and sent the monster tumbling towards the trotway, Guards lined up another volley on the thrashing beast and pumped the second round through it's skull, putting the night terror down for the count.

Nearly devoured by something out of a two-thousand year old legend. Just another day, right?

"Hey, Dawn? We got smoke.". Breezy looked down to see something huge and feathery self-barbequing in the valley below, but it wasn't equine.

"Negative, that's not Chariot."

"Can YOU think of anything that would drop that kind of heat?"

"Dragonfire."

"You see any dragons?"

"Negative."

"Then Golden Char-Celestiaclopit! had to be near here. WE didn't start the fire. Look around!"

Dawn Trotter cut the burners and winged over to circle the smouldering avian wreckage, Breezy lining up to keep an eye on her six...

....just in time to see Celestia's hooves as something dragged her off the edge of a cliff and into the mountain.

"SUCK A CYCLONE! ONE OF THEM MONSTERS IS GONNA EAT CELESTIA!", spat Breezy.

The pegasi pair dove nose to tail for the narrow ledge, letting their legs absorb most of the braking as they confronted two small, white beasts that had laid their paws on the ruler of Equestria. Small bat wings sprouting from their backs, the fiends fluttered away from their prey, a small orange ball waving back and forth between two catlike ears.

"Filthy meat-eating predators!", snarled Dawn as his spear lined up to shish-ke-bob one of the beasts.

"You're DEAD....dead whatever you are, you Tartarus fiend!", followed Breezy. Nothing two pegasi couldn't save a princess over, it'd be done in two swings!

A pair of cast-iron frypans neatly brained the winged heroes as they lunged forward. One swing each.

...

Some time later, Breezy and Dawn woke up, trussed like turkeys and stripped down to their pinfeathers.

Dawn focused on the roaring fire in front of him and started crying. Something was bubbling in a pot over the fire, and it smelled like....mushroom gravy!

"I DON'T WANNA BE MONSTER CHOW! BAWWWWWWWW!"

A distinctly royal sigh followed the outburst. Princess Celestia's head came into view, giving Dawn a clear view of Her Majesty's profile. Straight off the two-bit coin.

"You are not being made into dinner, but if you can behave, you're welcome to some."

Dawn Trotter checked herself for signs of a concussion. You did not get invited to dinner by Princess Celestia. In a cave. With monsters. It just didn't happen.

"My friends thought I was being attacked by monsters, and when you tried to attack them too...well, it's a good thing you had those medical kits! Now, lower your voice. They don't understand Equestrian yet, but anypony knows someone screaming at them with spears is up to no good.". The Princess explained this to Dawn with the tone used by most teachers trying to explain algebra to the stallion who got in on a hoofball scholarship.

This had to be head trauma for sure, she thought.

Breezy proceeded to show why he was bright enough to be wing leader by saying:

"Um, your Highness? What do you CALL them things?"

"They are not THINGS, any more than a griffin would be. The two white ones are called "Moogle", and the other two...

A masked, floppy-eared humanoid poked it's head into Dawn's view and waved tenatively. Two dark lenses shielded it's eyes from view, and a thick outfit of cloth and leather shielded the rest from...the sun, perhaps? It was a fiend from Tartarus, after all.

"....are called "Goblins". This is Maguffnox, and her companion is Macgyvix. Kupofrieda and Kupollux are still rather scared of you, so we've all agreed to keep things wrapped up until we're all sure you're ready to be nice."

"Y-y-your Highness?", babbled Dawn.

"Yes, my little pony?"

"If they can't speak, how do you know they're not monsters?"

"Oh, it turned out we had a common language after all.", said Celestia with a twinkle in her eye.

Two moogles, two goblins and one alicorn held up a steaming cup of tea at the same time.

One large pot of mushroom stew and two cups of tea later, Breezy and Dawn found themselves standing by their Princess as she looked out over the valley from the edge of the cliff. Celestia, her hindfoot swathed in bandages stood looking to the east with a practiced eye.

"It isn't Canterlot's balcony, but I think we can rough it.", she said.

Golden lights shimmered across her horn. The moon drifted into below the horizon to the Celestial call, and the solar disk rose to fill the once-dark land with a new dawn.

Chapter 8: Sometimes You Get Left Behind

Bearing an entire pony-and-dragon show, two chariots lifted off from Ponyville for a swift trip to Canterlot, briefly silhouetted against the morning sun.

Three VERY grumpy fillies were not aboard.

"But...but....I'm a well-wisher! I've been in LOTS of wells!"

"Big Mac told me I hafta take good care of Granny! It ain't fair! We was GOIN' TO CANTERLOT!"

"Mom said -I- had to be the mare of the house?"

The pegasi pulling the flight had been quite insistent, however. Nopony that wasn't an adult. Except Spike. Apparently, heroes of Canterlot and the Crystal Empire were exceptions. And so, the Crusader's dreams of getting cutie marks in "doctorin'" their big sisters back to health after a nasty cold floated away into the clouds.

"I guess we aren't going to need all this stuff we borrowed from the hospital, are we?"

With heart-breaking sighs, the three turned to trudge back, a wagon full of band-aids, tongue depressors, half the contents of Granny Smith's "medicinals" drawer, and a liberal amount of first-aid equipment dragging behind Scootaloo. Nopony wanted to see their house (or granny, or dad) after this disaster...

"Let's try the spoon again, Chip."

Wobbling, the soup spoon made it's way out of the bowl, a noodle plopping back into the liquid as it lifted off. A good portion of the contents dribbled away as the soup made it's way to Chip's mouth, but enough got in to make a modest mouthful. Nurse Redheart smiled and fed him the next spoonful instead.

"Chip" shows relatively normal arcanodexterity but below normal physical reflexes for a colt of his size and development. Precise age unknown, family history unknown. Low body weight and empty,sensitive stomach & bowels indicative of lack of food within 72 hours of admission. Patient shows signs of serious memory disjunction commonly associated with radical thaumaturgical trauma, horn coloration unusual but fully functional. Patient's initial location in tree with no physical injuries, lack of consciousness and extreme distance from likely point of origin plus symptoms: Teleportation dissociative syndrome? Repression from extreme emotional duress also likely.

Doctor Stable stopped scribbling on his pad and moved on to the next room on his daily rounds, leaving the colt and his nurse to lunch. On the way, he stuck his nose into the hospital office. Thankfully, Ponyville didn't have a long waiting list for foster care parents- one thing the town never seemed to lack was kind ponies willing to help someone down on a bad hoof. Good as Nurse Redheart was, an actual home was a better place for a pony to recover from shock than a hospital bed...

Foster colt in need of a loving, gentle family environment to recover from loss. Family with children of similar age and unicorn heritage preferred.

Adding the note to the top of a long set of notes about Chip, he dropped the pile off in front of an industriously typing earth pony in the office.

"Miss Scribbles, if you can turn that into a proper file- we have a little pony that needs the kind of medicine a hospital isn't best for providing. Let Nurse Redheart know that her room might have visitors shortly. Brief visits only unless she thinks the little fellow is up to it."

"Oh look, Silver! They finally figured out you're not supposed to put the cart before the pony."

"Stocking up on band-aids for the next time you try to take off, Scoot-and-burn?"

If the Crusaders had cutie marks in firestarting, Diamond Tiara would be called Charcoal Grill...but fortunately for the stuck-up prima donnas, they only delivered a few scathing remarks in passing before prancing down the road with a well-synchronized SWISH of their prissy little tails.

Sweetie Belle sighed and with a single dismal spark, gave up on trying to tie their backsides into a nice little bow. The caravan continued at a more dismal pace down the street.

A gust of wind blew her mane over her eyes. Stomping a hoof, the little unicorn turned around and...

"OK, that's IT! Leave us....a..."

Down the road, Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara choked as a cloud of dust roiled off the stones and grimed their pristine, pretty pelts in a mix of dirt and random bits of trash.

"HEY! GIRLS! SO SORRY NOBODY TOLD YOU THEY WERE DOING STREETCLEANING HERE THIS AFTERNOON!"

The source of the wind and apology came to earth- a lavender pegasus. A few more flaps of her wings sent the last bits of garbage to chase after the thoroughly mussed pair of bullies.

"Pssh. Now they're dirty on the outside, too.", called Cloud Kicker in passing. A few seconds later, her straight face broke into a smile. "Bet I don't get invited to Diamond's next party, eh?"

The pile of giggling fillies wasn't up for saying much to that.

"I did have a reason to drop down on you three before I saw that pair of grey clouds raining on your heads- you did some good work the other day, and I hear you were about to all go flying off to Canterlot. What happened?"

The floodgates were opened.

"They said we had ta stay home and take care of-" "I'm a housemare!" "They said I had to be this high to get on the rid-"

"Whoa, whoa! Storm warning! So, you got left behind to do all the work while the big adults got to have all the fun?"

"YEAH!"

"Heh, me too. I've been pushing cumulus since Dashie went off on vacation, but you three are why I got to do something very important."

Suddenly, the pegasus had a rapt, very attentive audience.

"You know you saved a very lucky pony yesterday, right?"

"You mean that pony up in the tree?" "The one that wasn't Rainbow Dash?" "Was they all right?"

"Yep, he's at the hospital right now, and he didn't have wings, either. Little unicorn colt, sitting in a tree like that!"

"A UNICORN?" "How come HE can fly?" "Ain't that a little weird?"

"Well, I think he fell more than flew, kids. But the doc said he wasn't hurt bad, just really spooked from being up there."

Sweetie Belle looked slightly dizzy at the concept. Scootaloo a bit envious.

"So...where you going with all the stuff? Gonna go patch up a few dolls that got into a freak wind shear accident?"

"We WAS gonna fix up our big sisters! But now...we ain't." Sighs of disappointment. "So, since we ain't going to be big sister doctors, we gotta give back the stuff the nurses let us have ta help since they weren't goin' to Canterlot, neither."

"You know...maybe you could go visit someone at the hospital. Like that colt. He's about your size...and I think he has three friends he doesn't even know about. The ones that helped me find him up in that tree."

The cloudy forecast changed to sunny in seconds.

"Do you think your Granny has something for overclimbing?"

Author's note: You did what?

While it isn't my cutie mark that's telling me, I did get a few questions sent my way. Spoilers for people who skip to the last "chapter" of a story.

"You killed Twilight Sparkle!" - well, yes. I blew Twilight Sparkle into little bits. Of course, so did the S3 ending and look what THAT got you.

"Blueblood is a total (insert dirty word here)." - by the end of this, I think you've figured out that isn't exactly Blueblood. And yes, it gets worse.

"Sunset Shimmer with Blueblood?" - see above. The original story just had Blueblood, evil unicorn nogoodnik. The movie giving me that kind of fodder BEGGING to be abused was irresistible.

"What the heck is a Ramuh, that name is STUPID?" - Well, play some Final Fantasy games and get to know him.

The Pies are keeping their fan-fiction names rather than the ones revealed in the Pinkie Pie book. You're welcome.

"What happened to Orange Wedge?" - nothing good since you last saw him, but I seem to write enough mangled ponies into the story without needing a chapter about THIS one.

"Why is there so much Trixie shoved into the story? Are you replacing Twilight Sparkle with her?" - trust me. Trixie is both the closest and the farthest from THAT happening.

And with that, this bit of the story concludes, and as of the date I'm outlining the next "book" in the series and scribbling random bits that The Night Of A Broken Heart needs to keep going. More sooner rather than later, faithful readers.

W.