Crisis on Two Equestrias

Chapters

1. Strange Magic
2. This Magic Moment
3. It's a Kind of Magic
4. Magical Mystery Tour
5. Do You Believe in Magic?
6. Could it be Magic?
7. Black Magic
8. Magic Trick
10. Black Magic Show
11. That Old Black Magic
12. By the Light of the Magical Moon, Pt. I
13. By the Light of the Magical Moon, Pt. II
14. You Made Me Believe In Magic
15. You Can Do Magic
16. Magic
9. Every Little Thing she Does is Magic

1. Strange Magic

It was a dark and stormy night.

The blue unicorn pony hunkering down under a meager tree trying to not get wet, and failing miserably at it, couldn’t believe that line actually popped into her head. She’d read some bad novels in her time, but even they had never stooped so low as to actually make use of that phrase, not even to call attention to it or mock it. But, there it was, floating in her mind. Besides, it was a dark and stormy night, and no amount of concerns about cliché would change that fact.

The unicorn – her name was Trixie, or technically Trixie Lulamoon, or most recently Dame Trixie Lulamoon, the last of which still made her smile with glee whenever she heard it – forced her mind back on task, brushed her soaking wet mane from her eyes, and looked down at the spellbook lying on the rocks beneath her. It, too, was soaked. The spellbook was illuminated with a blue glow emanating from her horn, which cast the entire area in an eerie cerulean light. Trixie was using her hat, tall and pointed and studded with silvery stars, to try to keep the book at least somewhat dry, even as her cape, similarly star-studded, failed utterly at doing the same for her.

She had tried to teleport for the first time in her life, from one end of her house to the other. Instead, with a blue flash, she had found herself on a rocky precipice Stars knew where in the world – with the storm being this wild, she probably wasn't in Equestria anymore, at least. There were a few trees around her, doing little to protect her from the rain falling in torrents all around her, resulting in her her hat, her cape, and herself being soaked through in seconds, and her book a few moments after that.

Trixie grumbled as she crouched over the book, trying to figure out how to make the teleporting spell work. Unfortunately, she’d never had much of a talent learning spells from books. She compared it to trying to learn a dance from a book: sure, you could write down the individual steps and movements, but the feeling, the very core of the dance, was lost utterly. However, at the moment, the book was all she had, so she dutifully set about trying to memorize spell matrices and formulaic applications of magic and all that other dull stuff in the hopes that she could use it to teleport herself somewhere drier.

At length, Trixie closed it, as lightning flashed, striking the ground a few hundred feet away and sending her scurrying tighter against the small tree's trunk for protection. Equestria was not often prone to wild thunderstorms, which meant that her knowledge of what not to do during a thunderstorm – that is, stand under a tree – was essentially nonexistent. It wasn’t her fault: a pony who’d spent their entire lives in the middle of a desert, after all, would not have known what to do if she had found herself in the middle of the ocean. Trixie, having spent her life in cities where the pegasi were adept, at the very least, at posting weather schedules so that Trixie could make sure to stay indoors during bad weather, was at a complete loss for what to do about thunderstorms.

It went a long way towards explaining why Trixie felt it was a good idea to place the spellbook into her hat, where it would be magically stored, put her hat on her head, and step away from the tree, running out into the open, away from any trees as she tried to get as clear and wide a space as possible, figuring that she must have had at least a minute before the next bolt of lightning struck the ground.

She didn’t know where she was, but she knew where she wanted to go: Ponyville. She didn’t trust herself enough to try and teleport to any particular location inside of Ponyville right now, however. Instead, Trixie tried to imagine Ponyville as a whole, as though seen from a bird’s-eye view. She imagined the town with its dirt and cobblestone streets, its wooden buildings, its railway station, its post office, that would soon have one of those new telegraph machines connected to it. She thought of the weather patrol station and its cloud silo, the wide plaza that surrounded the town hall. She thought of the farms that surrounded Ponyville – carrot farms and grape vineyards and wheat fields, of course, but most prominently, much to her own consternation, were the apple orchards of Sweet Apple Acres, the bedrock of the community. Still, she didn’t push the thoughts from her mind yet, as she needed to focus now on getting back to Ponyville, getting dry, and just writing teleportation off as a bad idea.

A stray thought did enter her mind, though. “This is all your fault, Twilight Sparkle,” she said aloud as she set her horn aglow. It wasn’t really fair of her to think so, she knew; sure, it was one of Twilight’s spellbooks that she was using, but it wasn’t like Twilight had burst into her home and held her down and forced her to teleport. But she was in a bad mood, and it made her feel a little better to blame somepony else for her problems, at least right now.

Still, after a moment Trixie shook her head, grit her teeth, and focused on the blue glow of her horn and the thought of Ponyville. She gathered her magical energy to herself, imagined a hole in space and time through which she could hop and end up in Ponyville, focused that thought forward and out of her horn, jumped forward…

The chances of a pony being struck by wild lightning are about one in one million. Of course, this is just an average, based on the number of times a given pony has been struck by wild lightning in a given year, divided by the total number of ponies in Equestria. The chances of being struck go up considerably if the pony in question is actually standing in the middle of a summer’s thunder storm. They go up even further if that pony is a unicorn – after all, unicorns have a natural lightning rod sitting right on top of their heads. They go up most of all, however, if that unicorn is actually casting a spell, as spells have a tendency to serve as conductors of electricity. Even so, the chances remain fairly small – about one in five thousand. One would have to be particularly unlucky to be struck by wild lightning in the middle of an uncontrolled storm while one just so happened to be casting a spell.

Trixie was a particularly unlucky pony.

She had just enough time to register a white flash, a cacophonous sound, and a shooting pain all the way down her horn, into her skull, and throughout her body…but then, there was nothing but blackness.

The place didn’t really exist. But if it had – it wouldn’t have mattered, because it had no air. But if it had air – then it still wouldn’t have mattered, because nothing could survive in this place, even assuming that it existed in the first place, which it did not.

But if it did exist, and if there had been air, and if somepony could have been there, then they would have heard nothing, because what happened was far too complicated for mere sound.

But if it had not been – if there had been a pony in this impossible nonexistent place, breathing air that wasn’t there and hearing a sound that couldn’t be made…

Crack.

And if one could look around this impossible place and seen the impossible sight of it, one would have seen the crack was but one of many, a splintered, fractured wall, already thin, already barely keeping itself together. The impossible sight of a blue unicorn, of all things, flying through the wall and leaving behind more cracks as she did certainly did not help matters.

Falling, falling, Trixie fell what would have felt like forever and through very painful, weird matter, had she been awake. She was not – she was unconscious, leaking magic like a sieve, leaving behind a trail of her very self as she fell, heading for another wall in the very make-up of spacetime, this one in no better condition than the first one…

Crack.

It was a bright and sunny day.

But Twilight Sparkle, Student of Princess Celestia, Head (and only) Librarian of Ponyville, and Element of Magic, didn’t have time to enjoy it as she read the letter levitating in front of her aloud.

“Dear Twilight Sparkle,

“After some careful consideration, I have decided to let you go through with your plan to examine the Elements of Harmony in greater detail. I must admit to being curious, as you are, as to the reason why the Elements worked differently upon Nightmare Moon for you and your friends than they did for me, yet both Luna and I wielding the Elements achieved the same effect that you and your friends did with your recent ordeal with Discord. I have my suspicions, of course, but it would be good to formally examine them.

“I do, however, have one small requirement: I wish to be there with you! In light of recent events, I fear we haven’t spent as much time together as teacher and student as we used to, and I would hate to think of us as beginning to drift apart. Therefore, I have cleared my schedule for this Tuesday, and look forward to spending the day with you.

“Your loving mentor,

“Celestia.”

Twilight read the letter that her number-one assistant, Spike, had handed to her a second time. Then she read it a third time, then a fourth. On her fifth read-through, some distant part of her brain noted that Spike had noticed the look on her face, shot off, and returned wearing a pair of pillows and a hoofball helmet for protection. This part of her brain, however, was not in contact with the rest.

Thus:

“Spiiiiiiiiike!”

It was a well-known wail to the baby dragon, who had already preemptively covered his ears for it. When Spike again looked at Twilight, she was already pacing back and forth, eyes wide. “What are you worrying about?” Spike asked Twilight as he cautiously slipped of his impromptu armor. “You used to do this sort of thing with Princess Celestia all the time back in Canterlot – ”

“No, Spike, it’s completely different!” Twilight exclaimed, stopping her pacing. “Princess Celestia is coming here! This isn’t just some laboratory or magic circle in Canterlot, this is Princess Celestia in my home!” She looked around. “And it’s a mess!”

She wasn’t referring to the first floor of the library, of course; that was impeccably organized at the moment, every book put away precisely where it belonged, catalogued, dusted, and so on. Her actual home, however, on the second floor of the library…

“My bed needs to be made, and – and I don’t think I’ve washed the sheets recently, but I should have – oh, and my pillow! My pillow’s looking flat, and Princess Celestia wouldn’t like that, I’ll need to get a new one – and then there’s my desk, it’s a mess, there’s ink all over it and papers everywhere, and my telescope! My telescope isn’t in focus right now, and it needs to be polished, and I need…I need…”

Twilight had stopped pacing back and forth, though only so that she could fall back on her haunches and take in deep, gasping breaths of panic, one hoof at her chest and eyes wide and pupils dilated down to tiny pinpricks. Normally she was far more organized, but every now and then she’d find herself deep in the middle of a study session trying to learn a new spell or read a new book, and then one book or one spell would turn into two, and then three, and the next thing she knew, her home would be a mess! And of course now of all times…

She couldn’t help but see Princess Celestia, looking around her home, a look of increasing disappointment on her features…

“I suppose you still have a lot to learn, Twilight,” she’d say with a sigh and shake of her head, and this would be coming so soon on the hooves of last week’s mishap with her misuse of the want-it-need-it spell…

“Twilight, calm down!” Spike insisted when she nearly fainted. He had run off and returned with a quill, inkwell, and sheet of parchment, holding them in front of the unicorn. “Just make a checklist like you always do!”

Twilight paused at that. “Yes! Checklist!” She cried out, horn glowing as she telekinetically grabbed the items from Spike and set to work. When everything else had failed her, a well-organized checklist would not. “Alright, first item – make checklist. Second item – make bed. No, wash sheets! Yes! Third item…”

Spike waited as patiently as possible while Twilight worked, glad to have at least partially diffused the situation. Twilight finished her checklist in record time, an expertly made fifty-two point document that would let her clean her home as swiftly as possible with plenty of time to spare for double-, triple-, and quadruple-checking before Princess Celestia arrived. When she had finished her checklist, she levitated it over to Spike.

“Okay!” She said, her panic forgotten. Now, Twilight had a list to work off of, a plan for her day, and by Celestia and for Celestia, she was going to follow it! “Make checklist?”

“Check!” Spike said, putting a mark at the top of the checklist. Sometimes he couldn’t believe the enthusiasm that he actually approached these lists with, although then again when Twilight got on a roll, it was hard not to get caught up in it. “Now you just have to – ”

He was interrupted when something cyan-and-rainbow came barreling in through Twilight’s balcony, without first opening the doors. Both Twilight and Spike yelped at the sudden chill – winter had been going for a few weeks now, but it had been relatively mild up until just a day ago, when the pegasi of Ponyville had kicked things off in earnest with four inches of snow and a cold front. One of those pegasi in particular was even now picking herself up from where she’d crash-landed against the wall on the other side of Twilight’s room

Twilight’s shock was dispelled as soon as she saw that her friend was unharmed. “Rainbow Dash!” she exclaimed, telekinetically closing her balcony door against the chill. “I have a front door, why don’t you ever use it?”

Rainbow Dash paused a moment at that, casting a glance at the front door as though noticing that it was there for the first time. She didn’t give it much more thought, though. “No time for that,” she said, turning around and looking at Twilight. “We’ve got an emergency!”

Twilight’s next set of objections were forgotten at that, as she set aside her checklist, quill, and inkwell immediately, and trotted over to Rainbow Dash, ears flopped back in concern. “What is it?” she asked cautiously.

Rainbow Dash beat her wings a few times, taking to the air. She rarely stood when she could fly instead, especially when agitated. “Down at Sweet Apple Acres,” the Element of Loyalty said, “I was there catchin’ some Z’s in a tree after last night’s storm – ”

“Just out in the cold like that?” Spike interrupted, head tilting to the side.

Rainbow Dash shook her mane. “Pegasi don’t get cold easily,” she said, jerking a hoof at the nearest window. “It’s barely freezing out, I was fine. More importantly, though, next thing I knew I was woken up ‘cause Applebloom was screaming her head off. So I flew over there as fast I could. Applebloom was on her way to school, see, and guess who she found lying in the snow right at Sweet Apple Acres’ front door?” She gave the two a few moments to guess, but when neither unicorn nor dragon did, she learned in. “Nopony else but the Great and Powerful Trixie. Oh, sorry – the Great and Apologetic Trixie.”

She made sarcasm-motions with her hooves at both titles. Twilight, meanwhile, had whickered, backing up. “Trixie?” she asked.

“Was she okay?” Spike asked. Twilight mentally kicked herself for not asking that first.

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “She was breathing,” she said, “after that, I dunno. Applejack and Big MacIntosh came outside then, and they brought her in. I went to the hospital and let ‘em know, then came straight here. Figured you’d want to know.”

Twilight nodded. Rainbow Dash was right, she would want to know. “I’m going down to Sweet Apple Acres,” she decided, looking around a few moments before levitating her scarf, magically enchanted to keep out winter’s chill, from her drawer and around her neck, before looking to her number-one assistant. “Spike, get to work on the checklist while I’m gone,” she instructed. He gave a salute – normally he might gripe at being left with chores to do, but apparently he understood the gravity of the situation.

Twilight looked back to Rainbow Dash. “Okay,” she said. “Go and tell Applejack that I’m on my way down. I don’t know why Trixie came back, but I’m going to help any way I can!”

Rainbow Dash gave a salute of her own at that, and shot off – out through Twilight’s balcony, the unicorn noted. Sighing, Twilight once more closed her balcony doors, and then set out.

Apart from the chill, it was actually a beautiful winter’s day. The sun was shining, the snow was fresh, and the ponies of Ponyville were going about their business as usual. The only thing disturbing the morning was a seemingly mad lavender unicorn charging as fast as her hooves could carry her through and then out of the town’s center, heading for the farmlands that surrounded Ponyville, and one farm in particular. The citizenry of Ponyville gave the unicorn a glance, saw that it was Twilight Sparkle, and returned to their business – something was always going on with that one, or her friends, and their antics were all but a part of the charm of Ponyville these days.

Twilight was not privy to such thoughts, though, as she arrived at the front door of Sweet Apple Acres. A medical cart was sitting in front of it, red lights prominent, though not flashing. Despite her rush, she nevertheless paused at the front door in order to knock, if for no other reason than to catch her breath. After a few moments, she was greeted by the sight of Applejack – one of her closest friends, the Element of Honesty, and one of the most dependable ponies that Twilight had ever met. Applejack was wearing a smile when she saw Twilight, though it was clearly put-on, masking some worry.

“C’mon in, Twi,” Applejack said, her country drawl thick as she opened her home’s door. “RD said you’d get here quick.”

Twilight nodded, knocking her hooves on the front porch a few times to shake off snow and dirt before entering. “I came as soon as Rainbow Dash told me,” she told Applejack. “Is Trixie…okay?”

“Doc’s checkin’ her out right now,” Applejack said, as Applejack guided Twilight through her house and up a flight of stairs, taking her to her room. Big MacIntosh was standing outside, still and stoic enough that he could have been doing a good impersonation of a Royal Guard, though he looked worried rather than stern. The two mares stopped before the closed door of Applejack's room “Ah feel bad for sayin’ it, but Ah’m a bit more worried ‘bout Applebloom. Ain’t somethin’ ya want to start the day with, exactly…” she lowered her voice slightly, “especially if’n things go south, if y’know what Ah’m sayin’.”

Twilight stiffened slightly at Applejack’s tone, eyes wide. “Th…that bad?”

“Don’t know,” Applejack said, taking off her signature Stetson and placing it against her chest. “Trixie didn’t look too good, an’ Ah don’t know how long she was out in the snow. No offense, surgarcube, but unicorns ain’t known for their fortitude, least not if’n they decide to pass out some winter night.”

Twilight didn’t take offense at all – of the three pony tribes, unicorns were indeed the frailest, lacking the temperature resistance of pegasi and the sheer endurance of earth ponies. She glanced to Big MacIntosh, who looked like he was about to give his own thoughts on the matter, when the door to Applejack’s room opened, and Doctor Stable, an bespectacled, orange unicorn, came trotting out, along with a pair of assistants. He nodded to Twilight in greeting, before taking in the three ponies before him. “Well, I have good news, and bad news,” he said.

“The good news is that Ms. Trixie in there is stable, healthy as far as I can tell, and doesn’t seem to have frostbite, or any signs of exposure. Her cape seems to have some kind of warming enchantment on it.”

Twilight tugged at her own scarf unconsciously; the same enchantment was woven into it. It may have just saved Trixie’s life. “What’s the bad news?” she asked cautiously.

Doctor Stable took a moment, looking over a clipboard he’d brought with him. “Well, first, Ms. Trixie’s received quite a shock, and I don’t mean the surprise kind. Unless I’m much mistaken, I’d say she was hit by a powerful electric jolt – lightning, wild lightning at that, much stronger than the bolts that weather pegasi generate.”

Twilight, Applejack, and Big MacIntosh all blinked in confusion at that, looking between each other. “Y’all ever heard of lighting during a snowstorm?” Applejack asked.

“Eenope,” Big MacInotsh said.

Twilight tapped a hoof to her mouth. “I think it’s possible…” she said, “but I didn’t hear any last night…”

Doctor Stable shrugged. “I don’t know what caused it, but that mare has been struck by lightning, mark my words. Right in the horn, too, probably when she was trying to cast a spell – must be the unluckiest mare this side of the Canterhorn. Now, fortunately, as much as magic tends to attract lightning, it also serves to insulate the body against it a little, so she doesn’t seem to have been badly hurt. But that leads to the second problem…she overchanneled.”

Twilight eeped without being able to stop herself, backing away slightly. Applejack and Big MacIntosh started at her reaction, looking between the two unicorns oddly. “Over-whatnow?” Applejack asked.

“Overchanneling is what happens when a unicorn uses too much of his or her magic in a single go,” Doctor Stable explained, his horn glowing blue as an example. “It leaves a unicorn completely drained and in a coma. Without aid, the coma can last for days or weeks, or even longer.” He raised a hoof before panic could overcome the three ponies before him. “Before you worry too much – we got here just in time and were able to give her ether to restore lost magic before the coma could set in. She’ll be unconscious for a day, but it shouldn’t be much longer.”

Twilight brightened at that, but Doctor Stable again raised his hoof before she could get her hopes too high. “Having said that,” he warned, “we can’t know much more until she wakes up. She could have some other form of trauma caused by the lightning strike, or overchanneling, or both.” He turned to look to Applejack. “As much as things might be easier if she were at a hospital, I’d rather not move her, if possible. The best thing I can proscribe for her right now is bed rest, at least until she wakes up.”

Applejack nodded. “Ah can bunk with Applebloom,” she confirmed.

“Would it be okay to see her?” Twilight asked.

“I think so,” Doctor Stable responded. “In fact I’d recommend keeping a pony with her at all times. She should wake up some time tomorrow, though she might drift in and out of consciousness in the meantime, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s only awake for an hour or two at most.” He nodded to Applejack. “I’ve left a good supply of ether in her room; whenever she wakes up, get her to drink some. Even a few drops are enough to start with. And if anything changes, come and get me immediately.”

“Will do,” Applejack promised.

With another nod, Doctor Stable and his assistants left. After a few moments, Twilight looked to Applejack, and after receiving confirmation, steeled herself, and went inside.

Applejack’s room was generally green in coloration, and relatively small and simple in setup. She was a simple pony, and her room was arranged to match, with a pair of wall-hooks for her Stetson and lasso, a low desk with a sitting pillow next to it, and a wooden, inviting bed with thick, hoof-woven and inviting sheets on it. The pony in the bed, however, drew all of Twilight’s attention.

Trixie lay on her side, her hat and cape hanging from the wall-hooks at the moment. Her silver hair was matted with sweat despite the cold conditions she had been found in, as was her brow. Her eyes were screwed tightly shut, and her forehooves gripped one pillow. Despite her sweat, the covers were pulled over her, wrapping the unicorn in a tight cocoon of linen. Her breathing, at least, was strong and steady, and she didn’t look like she was in any kind of pain.

Twilight put a hoof to her chest at the sight of her. Trixie had twice come to Ponyville – once, not long after Twilight had first arrived herself, more than a year ago now. She had been a boisterous, arrogant, vain showpony, unable to admit to her own faults. This had played heavily into her more recent appearance with the Alicorn Amulet. Trixie had somehow convinced herself that she and Twilight were rivals, and had done horrible things in Ponyville after defeating Twilight in a magic duel – but that had been the Alicorn Amulet influencing her, inflating her ego beyond even its previous proportions. After Trixie had been relieved of the amulet and shown the error of her ways, she had apologized to Twilight, and the two had parted on relatively good terms. Not that Twilight had been entirely willing to let Trixie off the hook, per se – she’d forgiven Trixie, yes, but the two were not precisely friends or even friendly.

But then last week had happened. Last week, when Twilight had been one frayed nerve short of a complete mental breakdown over, of all things, her friendship reports to Princess Celestia. Last week, when Twilight had cast the want-it-need-it spell upon her old doll, Smartypants, and turned Ponyville into a battleground.

Twilight had, all too suddenly, become very aware of how easy it was to misuse raw magical power. And if there was one thing Twilight had, it was raw magical power. So looking down at Trixie now, seeing her self-proclaimed rival in a state like this…it was easy for Twilight to want to set aside all differences and past problems with Trixie, and just start over. She resolved to do just that, as soon as Trixie woke up.

Trixie groaned a little in her sleep, her horn glowing a weak, pale blue. Twilight blinked at that – Trixie’s horn had always glowed lavender in the past, hadn’t it? She leaned in a little, confused, when Trixie groaned again, and started mumbling something in her sleep. Twilight’s ears perked up, straining to hear Trixie’s faint voice.

“Stupid…storm…” she breathed, clutching the pillow closer to her. “Stupid…Twilight…”

Twilight blinked a few times at that, listening still, but Trixie didn’t say anything else. Twilight sat back on her haunches, staring down at Trixie. Evidently, though Twilight was willing to put everything behind her, Trixie was not. Then again, it may have just been Trixie’s subconscious talking. She was, after all, recovering from an apparent lightning strike and overchanneling.

“Don’t worry, Trixie,” Twilight said, horn glowing as she moved Trixie’s covers into a more comfortable position. “Just focus on getting better, and we can take everything from there.” She smiled. “Maybe…we could be friends?”

My Little Pony, My Little Pony,
What is friendship all about?
My Little Pony, My Little Pony
Friendship is magic!

(My little pony)
Friendship never meant that much to me.
(My little pony)
But you're all here and now I can see.

When I was young, friends were just means to an end
Anything more was just too much effort to expend
But My Little Ponies, you opened up my eyes
And now the truth is coming clear as moonlit winter skies
And it's such a wonderful surprise!

(My little pony)
Friendship never meant that much to me.
(My little pony)
But you're all here and now I can see.

When trouble Raindrops into town, your true spirit always brings me 'round
Kindness is quite easy too, it's something anyone can Ditzy Doo
For loyalty you always play your part, you pluck the Lyra strings of my heart
On the Carrot Top of the world, as generous as can be
And the way you all teach laughter, makes me wanna Cheerilee!

(My little pony)
Friendship never meant that much to me.
(My little pony)
But you're all here and now I can see.

Our friendship's magic and it's growing all the time.
A new adventure waits for us each day is yours and mine.
We'll make it special every time!
We'll make it special every time!

(My little pony)
What a wonderful wonder friendship brings

(My little pony)
Did you know that we're becoming true
(Friends!) Friends, we're becoming true
(Friends!) Friends, we're becoming true
(Friends!) Friends, we're becoming true
(Friends!) Friends!

Author's Note

.
This story makes slight use of the anachronistic order that Friendship is Magic is aired in. For the purposes of this story, the following episodes have already occurred, in this order:
- Friendship is Magic
- Ticket Master
- Boast Busters
- Luna Eclipsed
- Hearth's Warming Eve
- Winter Wrap Up
- Suited for Success
- Best Night Ever
- Magic Duel
- Return of Harmony
- Lesson Zero

The following episodes have not happened yet:
- A Canterlot Wedding
- The Crystal Empire
- Magical Mystery Cure

Every other episode may or may not have happened; it'll be largely irrelevant to the story. Note that this is not my attempt to forge some kind of "Equestria Prime" and "Beta Equestria" or something; rather, we're simply assuming for the purposes of this story that certain episodes have happened so far or have not happened yet. That's all; nothing is stricken from canon or such.

2. This Magic Moment

“I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, Pinkie,” Twilight assured the pink perpetually peppy party pony, putting a hoof on her withers, “I’m just saying that Trixie’s probably not going to be in the mood for a party right after waking up. Just hold off until she’s strong enough.”

Pinkie Pie put a hoof to her mouth in thought, before smiling and nodding fervently. “That’s okay!” the Element of Laughter declared. “It’ll give me more time to set-up!”

Twilight returned the smile, thankful she had diffused the situation. The two were in Sugarcube Corner, where Pinkie was watching the front counter while the Cakes baked up a storm of fresh pastries for the eager citizens of Ponyville – today was even colder than yesterday, and everypony, even those lucky enough to own magically-warming scarves or cloaks or the like, were hoping to get their hooves on the food while it was still hot and fresh.

“Maybe try and keep it low-key, too, even after she gets better,” Twilight advised.

Pinkie Pie nodded, even as Twilight finished paying for the four muffins she was buying, two of which were gem-encrusted and for Spike. “Quiet party. Not my favorite kind, but still better than no party at all! Ooh, I can’t wait for Trixie to get better now! I wasn’t able to give her a party the first time she came to town, and the second time she was being all mean ‘cause of the Amulet. But the third time’s a charm!”

Twilight just chuckled as she took her bag of muffins in her telekinetic grasp, waved goodbye to Pinkie, and went back out into Ponyville.

It was the day after Trixie had been found in Applejack’s front yard, and already Ponyville was gossiping up a storm. The citizenry of the farming town seemed to require and live off of gossip at least as much as food and water, with word spreading quickly and ponies trying to figure out what this meant. A few mentioned that they had heard that the Great and Powerful Trixie had put on a show Hoofington, one of the towns near Ponyville. Apparently, she had gone back to wandering the land as a stage magician, but if the gossip was anything to go by, she had cleaned up her act immensely, and crowds of ponies were once more flocking to her in droves.

It was all-around good news, basically, and helped put Twilight’s mind at ease, at least a little, as she had worried that Trixie had returned to Ponyville having been unable to return to her previous profession. Though it did raise an interesting question – where was her cart? Surely she had acquired another mobile stage…what had happened to it?

Her thoughts were interrupted as she passed by the spa, and saw Rarity and Fluttershy emerging. The Elements of Generosity and Kindness, respectively, the two had started going on mutual spa trips not long after the incident with Nightmare Moon that had brought Twilight and her closest friends together in the first place. On spotting Twilight, Rarity let out a slight gasp, and rushed over to her even as she was careful to not get any snow or mud on her freshly-hooficured hooves.

“Twilight,” she said when she was close. “Is it true? Is Trixie really at Sweet Apple Acres?”

Twilight nodded. “Doctor Stable thinks that she was struck by lightning, and then overchanneled,” she explained. Rarity let out a gasp of worry at that, and Twilight had to hold up her hooves to calm her down. “She’s fine. In fact the doctor thinks that she might wake up today or tomorrow.”

Rarity put a hoof to her chest at that, breathing out a sigh. “Well, that is a relief,” she said. “Trixie may not be the most agreeable of ponies, but I would hate to think that anything bad should happen to her, even after what she put us all through.”

Fluttershy nodded at that, though she frowned. “Struck by lightning?” she asked. “But…there wasn’t any lightning in the snow storm…and Cloudsdale makes sure that no lightning cloud has lightning strong enough to seriously hurt somepony, anyway…”

Twilight shrugged, out of a lack of knowing the answer rather than a lack of care. “We’ll just have to ask her when she wakes up,” she said. “I don’t know if I’ll be there, though…I need to get my home cleaned up for Princess Celestia – gah!” Twilight’s eyes widened at her own words. “Oh no, I completely forgot! Princess Celestia is coming to town tomorrow! I’m sorry, girls, I have to go!”

She didn’t wait for a goodbye as she rushed off. She had, of course, remembered to start cleaning when she had finally made her way home yesterday, and had been doing more of the same all this morning, but with Trixie and her condition on her mind, she had only been putting in a half-hearted effort, she knew, her mind not really on the task. What if she’d skipped something in the checklist? Would there be anything worse than having made her bed only to realize she hadn’t cleaned her bed sheets yet?

Well, yes, of course there was. Princess Celestia might show up early.

“Gah!” Twilight cried, galloping faster.

Earth pony magic was a potent, if subtle, force, allowing the farming ponies of Equestria to rapidly grow multiple harvests throughout the year, making Equestria the single largest exporter of food on the entire continent by an order of magnitude. Even the most powerful earth pony magic, however, couldn’t make apple trees bloom in the middle of winter. This meant that Applejack, and indeed the entire Apple clan, typically had little to do during the shorter days of the cold season, at least compared to their normal workload.

Thus, Applejack was sitting in her room, keeping an eye on Trixie while she caught up on her almanac for the coming year, when a long, pained groan came from somewhere beneath the covers that Trixie had unconsciously buried herself under.

Applejack set her almanac aside and was on her hooves in an instant, as Trixie slowly poked her head out from beneath the sheets and comforters, eyes glassy and unfocused as she gazed out Applejack’s bedroom window, blinking a few times.

“Trixie?” Applejack asked, trotting around to the other side of her bed and waving a hoof in front of her charge’s eyes. “You okay, surgarcube?”

Trixie was silent for several long moments, her eyes gradually coming into focus. She tried to lift her head, but failed. “Headache,” she croaked, her throat sounding dry as a bone left out in the Mild West desert.

Applejack supposed the headache made sense, given that Doctor Stable was certain Trixie had been struck in the horn by lightning. She’d anticipated Trixie’s dry throat, too, and went over to her nightstand, where a jug of water and an empty glass was already waiting. She poured out a glass and set a straw in it before holding it forward to the injured unicorn. “Alright, now, drink up,” she instructed.

Trixie didn’t need any encouragement, lips closing around the straw and draining the glass’ contents in just a few moments. Applejack poured out a second glass, but before offering it to Trixie, she grabbed one of the vials of ether that the doctor had left behind and uncorked it. “Doc says we should get ya to drink these as often as possible,” she said.

Trixie obliged, taking a sip. She almost immediately started coughing at the taste, recoiling a moment, before looking at Applejack. “That’s…ether…?” she asked. Applejack nodded, and Trixie’s brow furrowed as she grabbed at the vial with her hooves, and drained it, wincing more at the taste but making sure to swallow the whole thing before going again for the water. When she’d washed the taste of the ether from her mouth, she looked again to Applejack. “O…over…overchanneled…?” she guessed.

Applejack nodded. “Doctor Stable got to ya in time, ‘fore that coma set in,” she explained. “Been ‘bout a day since we found ya.”

Trixie breathed out a long sigh of relief at that, looking around with just her eyes. “Where…?”

“Mah room at the farm,” Applejack explained. “Found ya passed out in the front yard, brought ya in. Gave Applebloom one heck of a scare when she found ya, though Ah’m sure that weren’t your intention.”

Trixie slowly shook her head, closing her eyes. “Magic accident…” she said. “Tried…tried teleporting, ended up…somewhere. Somewhere with a storm. Tried teleporting back to Ponyville…must have made it…” she grimaced, clutching a pillow closely. “Stupid lightning…”

Applejack nodded, brushing some of Trixie’s mane out from her face. “Well, you just rest up, y’here? You’re a guest a’ Sweet Apple Acres ‘til you’re back on your own four hooves again. Now, are ya hungry? Thirsty? Need to use the little filly’s room?”

Trixie shook her head to all questions. “Tired,” she said.

Applejack nodded, turning around and closing her window’s curtains, plunging the room into shadows. “Ah’ll let ya get some shut-eye,” she said. “But Ah’ll be right here if’n ya need anything, okay?”

Trixie vaguely nodded, and Applejack returned to the pillow she’d been sitting at. Just as she was picking up her almanac again and was about to move to her desk to get some light, she heard Trixie roll over. “Applejack…?” the unicorn asked.

“Yeah, sugarcube?”

Trixie stared at Applejack for a few moments, before inclining her head. “I…I know we haven’t…haven’t always gotten along, and…well…thank-you.”

Applejack realized, after a moment, that she was staring. It was one thing to know on some level that Trixie had seen the error of her ways after the whole Alicorn Amulet incident…it was quite another to actually hear the words thank-you come from her mouth, especially without prompting. Doing so made Trixie go far past reformed, in Applejack’s mind, and planted her firmly in downright neighborly territory. It was not a spot she’d ever expected the showmare to occupy.

After a moment, country manners overrode Applejack’s shock, and she tilted her Stetson to Trixie. “Ain’t no problem, Trixie,” she assured her. “You just focus on getting’ better, y’hear?”

Trixie nodded weakly, closing her eyes. “H…hey…” she said. “Do me a favor…tell my friends not to worry…if you haven’t already…”

Applejack blinked at that. She didn’t know that Trixie had friends in Ponyville. “Friends?”

“Yeah, you know…” Trixie breathed, yawning. “Lyra…Carrot Top…Cheerilee…Ditzy…” she yawned again. “Raindrops…oh, and make sure…make sure Pokey tells Luna…”

At that, Applejack stepped forward. “You know Princess Luna?” she asked.

The only sound that greeted her was Trixie’s breathing, however – she had gone back to sleep. Applejack was seriously tempted to wake her up and ask for a tiny bit of clarification, but on the other hoof, the mare had already been through a lot, and needed all the rest she could get.

As soon as Trixie woke up again, Applejack intended to get some answers. Until then, however, Applejack supposed she had a few ponies to get in contact with. She left the room, heading downstairs and finding Big Mac, where he had been reading an almanac of his own in the kitchen. “Trixie woke up for a few minutes,” she told her brother. “She seems fine. Mind runnin’ to town and lettin’ Doc Stable know?”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac responded, closing his book and standing. “Need t’get milk anyways.”

Applejack considered for a few moments. “Hey, Big Mac,” she said, before the stallion left. “Yer friends with Cheerilee, right?”

“Eeyup.”

“She ever mention anythin’ ‘bout bein’ friends with Trixie?”

Big Mac ruminated for several moments. “Eenope,” he declared. “Why?”

Applejack tapped a hoof to her mouth as she thought. “Trixie said they were,” she said. “And with a few other ponies…Ditzy, probably meant Ditzy Doo the mailmare…and Carrot Top, but she’s never said anythin’ nice ‘bout Trixie to me…and also Lyra, and Raindrops.”

Big Mac’s brow furrowed at that. “Lyra?” he asked. “Lyra Heartstrings? Plays the harp in the park sometimes?”

Applejack remembered that Lyra had once expounded, at great length, on how she played a lyre and not a harp, but that didn’t seem very important at the moment. “Ah guess,” she said with a shrug. “And I ain’t never heard of nopony named Raindrops.” She looked to Big Mac again. “Trixie also said she knew Princess Luna.”

Big Mac blinked a few times at that. “Lightning to the head must have the poor gal confused,” he concluded.

“That’s mah thinkin’,” Applejack said. “Might want to get Doc Stable down here on the double.”

“Eeyup.”

“Dust the whole second floor?” Twilight asked.

“Check!” Spike responded, putting a mark next to the entry.

“Dust it twice?”

“Check!”

“Polish?”

“Check!”

Twilight cantered backwards to her stairs, looking around her home. It literally sparkled, the firefly-lanterns causing the floor, walls, and even ceiling to glisten. The whole room smelled of lemony freshness. She had declared her flat pillow a lost cause and replaced it. Her bedsheets were dry and folded perfectly atop her bed, ditto the ones for Spike’s basket. Her desk was neatly organized with everything in its proper position, including the three quills (main, backup, and backup for the backup) laid perfectly perpendicular and equidistant from each other and the desk's edges. Her telescope had been polished, too, and focused, the lenses completely cleaned. Absolutely nothing was out of place as she regarded her home. It was, in a word, perfect.

“Finally,” Spike said, as he rolled up the parchment and glanced at the clock in the room. It read nine-thirty. “Time for this dragon to get some shut-eye.”

“Ah-ah-ah, Spike,” Twilight chided, using a hoof to stop him from going any further into her home. “Everything is too perfect up here! It needs to stay that way.”

Spike blinked. “You mean after going through all that work to get my basket cleaned and everything, I don’t get to sleep in it?”

“Not yet,” Twilight confirmed sagely, as she nodded and turned around, trotting down the stairs and telekinetically carrying Spike after her. “We’re sleeping downstairs in the library tonight.”

“Wh…bu…” Spike groaned. “Come on, Twilight!”

Twilight shook her head. “Sorry, Spike,” she said. “Hey, I’m not getting to sleep in my own bed, either. But I don’t know when Princess Celestia will be showing up tomorrow, and everything need to be perfect when she arrives!”

“I don’t think she’d mind a few ruffles…”

Twilight turned to Spike, pressing her hooves together. “Please, Spike,” she said. “For me?”

Spike made the mistake of looking into Twilight’s eyes. He’d used the puppy-dog stare enough times himself to know how effective it could be, and seeing Twilight there, hooves pressed together, ears flopped down, eyes huge and almost watery…

“Fine…” he groaned.

“Yes!” Twilight exclaimed in triumph, clapping her front hooves together. She and Spike wandered to the center of the library, where Twilight used her magic to conjure several large pillows in rapid succession, as well as a pair of bedsheets for the two of them. “Don’t worry, Spike, I’ll make it up to you.”

“Yeah you will,” Spike responded, as he settled down on one of the pillows, using his hands and feet to press it down a few times before settling onto it. Twilight threw one of the blankets over him as he yawned. “I want…a gem cake. A big one…”

“The biggest,” Twilight promised, settling down onto her own set of pillows even as she tucked him in telekinetically.

“With rubies…and…emeralds, and…” he yawned again, “and…opals…sapphires…”

“Sure thing,” Twilight promised.

“…lapis lazuli…” Spike sighed as sleep overtook him. Within another few moments, he was snoring softly. Twilight smiled at the sight. He was so helpful and energetic when he was awake, it was easy to forget sometimes that he was still just a baby dragon. Twilight gave him a gentle nuzzle, before settling down herself. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day – she’d check up on Trixie, maybe actually become friends with her, and then after, Princess Celestia would show up to her nice, clean, perfect home…

Tomorrow was going to be an eventful day. She could just feel it.

Author's Note

Oh Twilight, you should know better.

Not much here, I know. This is the "calm before the storm" chapter, so it's short.

Stay tuned...

3. It's a Kind of Magic

Trixie had woken up several minutes earlier, but she had spent those few minutes in almost a meditative state, as she focused on her low, but growing, internal supply of magic, willing it to move and flow around in side of her, making every last iota of power count. Once done, she slowly opened her eyes, and found herself looking at and an orange unicorn in a doctor’s outfit, whom she assumed was the Doctor Stable that Applejack had mentioned…whenever she had last woken up. She grunted a little.

“Good morning,” Doctor Stable said, his horn glowing blue as he levitated over a potion of ether. “Now, I know it’s not the best thing in the world to wake up to, but…”

Trixie nodded, taking the ether potion in both front hooves as she sat up, drinking it down as quickly as possible. Doctor Stable stared a few moments at her as she did. “I’ve never seen a faster recovery from overchanneling,” he noted.

Trixie finished the vile concoction, wincing the entire time. She paused after doing so, willing it to stay down. “I’m really good with magic,” she explained, smiling weakly. “It’s my special talent. Well, doing magic for others, but it still counts. I’m sort of…juggling my magic, I guess you could say. Making it count…”

Doctor Stable nodded. “Do you know where you are?”

Trixie nodded. “Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Alright…now, Trixie, you overchanneled, and you were struck by lightning. Either one in combination is bad, but both has me understandably concerned. Physically, you seem fine, so I just want to make sure that everything is alright up here as well.” He tapped the side of his head.

Trixie nodded, as the doctor levitated another ether potion over to her. She drank that down as well, even as she glanced around the room out of curiosity. It was appointed simply, though there was a cozy, homely feeling to it. She wasn’t much surprised by that – for all her faults, Applejack certainly came across as a pony who’d want to make sure her home felt like a home and not simply a place where she lived. She spotted her hat and cape hanging from a pair of wall-hooks; they seemed undamaged and dried out from the rainstorm.

“Now then,” Doctor Stable said, picking a clipboard up off the floor where he’d left it, and levitating a pencil over it. “Let’s start with the basics. Some of the questions will seem very simple or pedantic, but I just want to make sure to cover my bases. Now…your full name?”

Trixie winced a little. “Trixie Lulamoon,” she said, grabbing at the jug of water and glass still on Applejack’s nightstand and pouring herself a glass with her hooves and mouth, earth-pony style. She didn’t spill as much as another unicorn not using telekinesis might, but then she had excellent hoof-eye coordination. “But please, just Trixie…I don’t like my second name very much.”

“Alright,” Doctor Stable said. “Now, Trixie – ”

“Oh, wait!” Trixie interrupted, nearly spilling her glass. The doctor looked at her as her face split into a wide grin. “Sorry, I forgot a second, you must be right about that lightning. Dame Trixie Lulamoon.”

The doctor stared a moment. “Dame?” he asked.

“Yeah. I was knighted two weeks ago.”

“Really?” Doctor Stable asked, as his pencil glided across the paper on the clipboard he telekinetically held. “Well then…Dame Trixie. What’s your occupation?”

“Representative of the Night Court of Luna to Ponyville.”

Doctor Stable raised an eyebrow for a moment, though he wrote it down immediately. “Sounds like a hard job,” he said.

Trixie pressed her lips together for a moment. She couldn’t very well call it hard, but it certainly did her best to keep her busy. “I have Pokey to help me. Pokey Pierce. He’s my assistant.”

“Alright. Who’s the head of state of Equestria?”

“Princess Luna.”

The doctor pursed his lips at that. “Very good,” he said, writing. He paused a moment, tapping the end of the pencil to his mouth, eyeing her. “What’s the Equestrian currency called?”

“The bit. And there’s ten jangles to a bit.”

“Good.” The doctor smiled a little, looking almost relieved. “Do you know who Celestia is?”

Trixie was silent at that, eyes narrowing a little. “Of course I do,” she said at length, in a low voice. “You know I do. Everypony does.”

Doctor Stable held up his hooves at Trixie’s tone. “I’m sorry, again – the questions might get a bit pedantic. I’m just covering my bases.” He turned back to his clipboard. “Tell me about Celestia.”

Trixie blinked a few times, before closing her eyes, sighing. “Celestia was Luna’s older sister,” she said, echoing the foal’s tale known by every mare and stallion across the land – the legend of the Tyrant Sun. “A thousand years ago, Celestia and Luna were co-rulers of Equestria, with Luna governing the night, and Celestia the day. Celestia used to be kind, and gentle, and strong. But the years on the throne of Equestria, fighting monsters and protecting ponies, made Celestia grow spiteful, greedy, and paranoid. She wanted to become the unchallenged Queen of Equestria, and rule over night and day both. Luna tried to reason with Celestia, but she’d gone insane, and Celestia became Corona, the Tyrant Sun. So Luna had no choice but to steal the Elements of Harmony from Corona and use them on her own sister, sealing her into the heart of the sun. She thought it was permanent.”

Doctor Stable wrote down everything Trixie said, eyeing her. “I see,” he said.

“But then Corona escaped,” Trixie pressed on, as the doctor’s eyes widened a little. “She escaped six months ago, she sealed Luna in the moon, and tried to become Queen. So me and my five friends, we went into the Everfree Forest. We found the Elements of Harmony and claimed them. When Corona tried to kill us, we used them, weakened her. She would have been put back in the Sun if not for the fact that she had help, and escaped. So she’s still at large, and me and my friends are the only ponies in all of Equestria that can fight her.”

The doctor wrote that down, too, nodding. “I…see. So you’re a bearer of an Element of Harmony?”

Trixie looked to the doctor. Something was…off…about him. “Yes,” she answered after a moment. “The Element of Magic. Or…I am the Element of Magic. I don’t know, it’s complicated. I chose it, it chose me…yeah.” She stared at the doctor as he continued to write. He glanced at her, then quickly looked away. Trixie frowned. “Can I see what you’ve written?”

The doctor paused, looking like a foal caught with his hooves in the cookie jar, before nodding after a moment and hoofing over the clipboard. Trixie stared at him for several long moments before looking down at his notes, reading them quickly. They weren’t anything untoward, though – simply the questions that he’d asked, and her answers. His writing was bad, but that was a common trait amongst doctors. Once satisfied, she hoofed the clipboard back over. “Sorry,” she apologized. “You were just giving me a look…”

“Sorry. Ponies say I do that sometimes. Now – ”

“If you don’t mind,” Trixie interrupted, scooting back down into the bed and yawning. “I’m…I’m still really tired. Can we call it quits for now?”

Doctor Stable nodded, standing. “Of course. Just get plenty of sleep. I’ll be by tomorrow to check on you again.”

He trotted from Applejack’s room. Trixie watched him go, eyes slightly narrow, before she glanced up at her horn, willing a bit of magic through it. It responded by taking up a blue glow, like it should have…but she still felt weak. And for some reason, she had a feeling that this was not a good state to be in, or at least wouldn’t be for long.

The ether potions, at least, were certainly real and doing their job. Trixie sat back up, taking another one into her hooves, closing her eyes and resisting the urge to retch at the incoming bad taste. “Bottoms up,” she said, drinking the whole potion as quickly as she could. As soon as it was down, Trixie set the bottle aside, and picked up the next.

“Beg pardon?” Applejack demanded of Doctor Stable. The two were standing in the Apple family kitchen.

“I can’t be certain,” the doctor said, holding up his hooves, “but I think that Trixie has entered what’s called a fugue state. She’s thinks that she’s the bearer of the Element of Magic, that Princess Luna is the sole monarch of Equestria, and that Princess Celestia is some kind of monster the way Nightmare Moon was. She also seems to think that she lives in Ponyville, and that she’s been knighted.”

Applejack blinked at that, glancing up at where she knew her bedroom was. “That ain’t right,” she noted.

“But Trixie thinks it is,” Doctor Stable said. “She’s not lying, at least, not intentionally. She honestly believes what she’s saying is true.”

“Well how long’s this thing gonna last?”

“Hard to say. Usually it’s only a few days, but it could be weeks, or longer. If she’s even in a fugue state at all – which I can’t tell after just a few minutes of talking to her. I’ll need to get in contact with a psychologist to be sure, and do a full physiological evaluation.”

Applejack again glanced up at her bedroom. “Shucks,” she said softly. “That…that ain’t right. Ah can’t even imagine not really knowin’ who Ah am or what the world’s really like.”

“Physically, she seems to be recovering just fine. But her mental health in this case is delicate. I wouldn’t do anything to agitate her.”

“Ya mean Ah have ta lie to her? Worse, let her lie to herself? That don’t sit right with me, Ah don't mind tellin' you.”

“I can understand that, Miss Applejack. If you would feel more comfortable moving her to the hospital…”

Applejack bit her lip at that. “…no,” she said at length. “She’s a guest a’ Sweet Apple Acres, and it’s mah job to make her as comfortable as possible. She can stay. Ah’ll just…have t’ lie to her.”

“Even still, I’d avoid outright lying. Just don’t challenge anything she says, agree with whatever she claims is true, even if it seems outlandish. I’ll be back in a few hours with a psychologist, and we’ll get to the bottom of this, and find a way help her.”

With that, Doctor Stable said his goodbyes, slid on his winter cloak, and went out. Applejack watched him go, before grimacing, looking back at the ceiling.

“Consarn it all,” she cursed, trotting towards the stairs. “Ah’m terrible at lyin’…”

She paused outside her door, steeling herself. Going to talk to a pony that wasn’t quite right in the head…much to her own consternation, Applejack found herself not wanting to do that. But Trixie was a guest, and she needed help, and that was all there was to it. Applejack opened her door.

Twilight opened the library’s door even as the chariot set itself down on the ground a hundred feet away. Ponies were already gathering all around, of course, at the sight. It didn’t matter if Celestia had visited Ponyville more often over the last year than in the entire century preceding it, the arrival of the head of state and one of the diarchs of Equestria was a momentous occasion.

The golden armor of the Royal Guard glistened brightly in the morning sun, the pegasi that had pulled the chariot – their armor enchanted to make them both appear uniform in appearance, with white coats and blue eyes – unhooked themselves from the royal conveyance and instead stepped to either side of it, wings spread wide and faces stern. Twilight’s eyes, however, were not really focused on them. Instead, they were focused on the being that they had carried across the skies of Equestria, from Canterlot and to Ponyville.

Her coat was the white of fresh snow, but tinged slightly, almost imperceptibly, with pink, and otherwise marred only by the golden cutie mark of a full, eight-armed sun on either flank. Her mane wasn’t made of hair at all, nor her tail, but instead both formed a long, flowing pastel rainbow of pure magic made manifest. Her eyes, kind and inviting, had seen the passage of innumerable millenniums. Her hooves seemed almost dainty, but they could crack mountains in half. Her horn was long and pointed, accounting for nearly a quarter of her total height, which was nearly twice that of the typical stallion. Her wings were wide and strong, and any pony lucky enough to be under them would find themselves to be in the safest place in all of Equestria. And her soft, serene smile was the stuff of legend – who knew how many poems had been written about that smile alone?

She was the Steward of the Sun, the Bringer of Light, a Diarch of Equestria, the eldest of alicorns, the Undimmed Daystar. She was Princess Celestia Equestris – Twilight’s teacher, role-model, and one of the wisest, most forgiving ponies Twilight had ever known. She couldn’t stop herself from dashing up to Celestia with a smile on her face as the Princess approached. The slightest twitch of Celestia’s wings checked her guards, as it always did, and so nothing stopped Twilight from almost plowing into Celestia, nuzzling her close, an action that Celestia returned without hesitation.

“My most faithful student,” Celestia said, her voice motherly but never condescending. “I’m so happy to see you.”

“Me too, Princess,” Twilight said, as their nuzzle broke. Twilight blushed a little. “And, um…I’m g-glad that we’re getting together for a good reason this week.”

Celestia’s smile didn’t falter in the slightest at Twilight’s allusion to the want-it-need-it incident. “And I as well,” she said. “In fact, I think we should make it a habit to get together more often as teacher and student.” She closed her eyes as her smile widened a little as she laughed lightly. “It should take more than some new crisis brewing for us to see each other.”

Twilight’s eyes widened at that. “O-of course!” she exclaimed. “I’ll just have to adjust my schedule – not that it’s a bother! It’s just, well, you know how I like to have a routine going, and – I mean, again, not that it’s any problem at all – ”

Celestia reached out a hoof, placing it gently on Twilight’s withers. “We can discuss it later,” she assured Twilight. “There’s no hurry today. Although…” She glanced behind her, horn glowing gold. Levitating itself from her chariot came a blue box inlaid with gold, and Celestia opened it up as it neared, showing the contents – five gilt necklaces, and one tiara, each inlaid with a gemstone – to Twilight. “I’m sure you’re as eager as I to get to the experiments?”

With that single word, a small shift seemed to overcome Celestia. She wasn’t a diarch of Equestria anymore – she was a teacher with her prodigal student, confronting a mystery even she didn’t have the answer to, the teacher eager to at once crack the mystery, and see if her student could surprise her along the way while she tried to do likewise.

A similar shift overcame Twilight, as she tapped her two front hooves together, smiling as well. Celestia the Diarch, Twilight grew nervous around for some reason, even though the rational part of her brain knew there was no reason to. But Celestia the teacher? All of Twilight’s panic and jumpiness seemed to just melt from her. “Oh, yes!” She exclaimed. “Right this way, Princess!”

Twilight turned and trotted, a notable spring to her step as Celestia followed. She didn’t even think to feel nervous when Celestia entered the library and was given a full view of Twilight’s home and place of work. Even as she noticed Celestia glance around, however, her teacher smiled down at her before any of the panic could return. “Spotless as always, I see,” she noted.

The spring in Twilight’s step doubled.

“I’m sorry to say that will no doubt change due to our experiments, though.”

Twilight faltered a little, but then decided that promises of getting magical residue, or smoke, or whatever other fallout there was from examining the Elements of Harmony in detail, all over her nice, clean library, was worth it.

Applejack stepped into her room, and found Trixie sitting up in bed, guzzling the last of the ether potions that Doctor Stable had left behind. She was notably green in the face, and on finishing the ether potion put a hoof to her head and groaned.

“Whoa, nelly,” Applejack objected, trotting over quickly. “Was that really a good idea?”

“I dunno, let’s find out…” Trixie said, her horn glowing blue. An effervescent aura of identical color wrapped itself around the jug of water and glass, and Trixie poured herself out some, then brought it to her lips and drank it down eagerly. She suppressed a burp after finishing. “Looks like,” she confirmed with a smile. “Still a bit wobbly, but I think the magic’s back on.”

“Glad t’ hear,” Applejack said, taking the empty bottles from Trixie and setting them aside for the moment. There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. “So…” said, rocking on her hooves for a few moments. “Doc says you’re recoverin’ nice. Probably eager to get out a’ here, ain’t ya?”

Trixie nodded, looking to Applejack. “I’ll pay you back,” she promised.

Applejack shook her head at that, taking off her Stetson. “Ain’t no need, Trixie. You needed help, and Ah ain’t about to turn away a pony that needs it.”

Trixie shook her own head, however, pointing at Applejack. “No, I mean it,” she said. “I was…I was rude on the Longest Night, I agitated you all throughout that farm competition with Carrot Top…it’s the least I can do.”

Applejack stiffened at that. She’d forgotten for the barest moment, somehow, what Doctor Stable had told her. Trixie had just reminded her immediately, however, that she was remembering things that never happened. Applejack couldn’t think of any farm competition with Carrot Top, and she’d never heard of a Longest Night, whatever it was supposed to be. “A-Ah see,” she stuttered. “W…well, if’n ya have to. Ah don’t want much, though.”

Trixie looked like she was about to say something, but stopped herself. She set her horn glowing again, pulsing with light, probably doing the unicorn equivalent of flexing and stretching her magic. Applejack rubbed the back of her head at the sight, however. “Um…if ya don’t mind me askin’…how come your magic’s blue?”

Trixie paused, glancing at Applejack. “Huh?”

“Well, it’s just, last time ya – ” Applejack stopped herself after a moment, bucking herself clear to Cloudsdale mentally. “Ah mean, last time Ah saw ya, yer magic was pink.”

Trixie’s eyes widened. “No it wasn’t.”

Applejack was an honest pony through and through – and she was more than adept at noticing a lie. Doctor Stable had said that she wasn’t to question anything Trixie claimed had happened…but this didn’t seem like a fugue-induced memory, this seemed like an out-and-out lie. “Really?” she asked.

Trixie started shifting around in bed a little. “Yes. Blue. It’s always been blue.” She paused. “Always.” Another long pause, glancing at Applejack, who was just looking at her with a slight smile. At length, Trixie let out a long-suffering sigh. “Okay okay okay. When I first started doing magic it was pink. But then Luna took me on as her apprentice, and I got into the habit of making it blue, ‘cause Luna’s is blue.”

Applejack blinked. So not only did Trixie think that she was the bearer of the Element of Magic, but on top of everything, she thought that she was Luna’s apprentice, the way Twilight was Celestia’s? She realized after a moment that she was staring, and more importantly Trixie was staring at her. “Uh,” Applejack said, looking away. “That’s, um…Ah didn’t know that unicorns could just up n’ change their magic’s color like that.”

Trixie kept staring at Applejack for a few long moments. “It’s not easy,” she said after a moment. “But with enough practice, you can. These days it’d take me effort to make it pink.” She leaned forward to Applejack. “You okay?”

“Fine! Just…darn tootin’,” Applejack said. “Well, um…you look pretty tired. Ah’ll just get these bottles outta here an’ let you get some shut-eye.”

Trixie stared after her. “Okay,” she said, suspicion evident in her voice, though she just as clearly didn’t know what she was suspicious of. She looked to the window, horn glowing again as she grasped the curtains that were keeping the room dim. “Think I’ll open the curtains, though…”

The curtains slid open, and Trixie blinked a few times at the sudden glare. Applejack was about to leave, when she noticed that Trixie was staring out at Sweet Apple Acres, eyes wide. Looking out the window, Applejack didn’t see anything out of the ordinary – vast fields of apple trees, leafless due to the season, the whole vista covered by four inches of snow. The sight of apple trees without apples or leaves was always a bit disheartening to Applejack, but hardly unexpected this time of year. “Sugarcube?” she asked Trixie. “There a problem?”

“There’s snow on the ground,” Trixie said. “There’s no leaves on the trees.”

Applejack blinked. “Uh, yeah,” she said. “It’s winter.”

“No, it’s summer. It’s July.”

Applejack didn’t sense any dishonesty there – this was one of those things that Trixie honestly believed. Her mind raced back to what Doctor Stable had said. “Ah…Ah mean, right!” she said. “It’s July! Yup, had a nice barbecue last week, hay fries and eggplant. Whole town came down. Good times.”

“Then…what am I looking at?” Trixie asked, glancing behind her.

Applejack quickly looked away. “Um…oh, well, you know. Mix-up with the weather schedule…accidentally got four inches a’ snow while you were out. Just…waitin’ for it to melt.”

“And the leaves on the trees?”

“Uh…um…w-well, we had a bit of a nasty blight. Them trees are, uh…dead. Lost their leaves. Lost the whole darn crop! Terrible thing – ”

“A blight.”

“Yup.”

“Which in…what, two days…managed to kill every single apple tree outside and strip them of leaves.”

“W-well, uh, the…snow! Yeah, the snow didn’t help none. Terrible thing.”

Applejack put her hat back on her head, glancing at Trixie. The blue unicorn had shifted in bed, sitting on her barrel – looking read to spring if she had to. “But you’re just waiting for the snow to melt,” Trixie said. “Which means that, if I open up the window, I shouldn’t feel any kind of wintery breeze come in. It’ll be warm out.”

“Uh…window’s stuck! Swells in the summer – ah, shoot.”

The last came as Trixie’s horn glowed and she lifted the window open without any effort. A gust of cold air rushed in immediately, though Trixie didn’t stop staring at Applejack.

“N-now, just hold on, Sugurcube,” Applejack said. “Ah’m sure there’s a…a perfectly reasonable explanation for why it’s so cold…and snowy…and nothin’s growin’…in the middle of summer! Maybe…maybe Twilight cast some kind a’ spell accidentally and – ”

“Twilight?” Trixie demanded, standing suddenly. She rocked back and forth a little when she did at the sudden motion, but kept her balance on the bed. “Twilight Sparkle?”

Applejack stepped closer to her bed. If things got ugly, she knew that unicorn telekinesis and spellcasting gave them a tremendous advantage at distance, but up close, earth pony strength and stamina would win every time. “Uh, no,” she lied again. “Twilight…Twinkle. Yeah.”

Trixie stared hard at Applejack. Normally, she farm pony wasn’t one to be intimidated, but she hated lying, especially to a house guest. She found herself wilting. “Y…yeah. Twilight Sparkle.”

“She’s in town?”

“She lives in town,” Applejack noted. “R…remember? You remember, right? The library?”

“No, I don’t remember. What I do remember is that crazy mare dragging an Ursa Minor into town just to try and prove how good she is at magic!”

Trixie’s tone, coupled with her words, got to Applejack. Before she knew what she was doing, she pointed a hoof at Trixie. “That ain’t what happened. Snips n’ Snails brought the Ursa Minor in ‘cause a’ your boastin’!”

Trixie blinked at that. “That ‘ain’t’ what happened,” she said, echoing Applejack. “Stars Above, Applejack, the Ursa destroyed your applecart too! I got a faceful of pie!”

“Ya deserved a faceful of pie, but ya didn’t get one! Twilight saved the entire town, and you, and ya couldn’t even thank her! And then ya came back with the Alicorn Amulet and turned the entire town into your own little Trixieville ‘til Twilight stopped ya!”

Trixie recoiled at that, and Applejack instantly realized what she was saying. She stepped back, wondering if she’d just triggered some kind of mental breakdown on Trixie’s part. “Ah…Ah mean, um…what you said. Yeah.”

Trixie’s eyes narrowed. “You…you’re not lying,” she said. “You don’t realize it, anyway. You really believe that happened.”

Applejack looked away. “Maybe,” she said, forcing herself not to rise to Trixie.

“Where’s Twilight?”

“Ah dunno,” Applejack lied.

“Applejack, look at me, I’m being serious. You said she was at the library, right?”

The earth pony glanced at Trixie. Applejack saw that Trixie was standing with her legs far apart, horn glowing brightly as she levitated her hat and cape off of the nearby wall-hook and put them on, and looked down at Applejack with authority and purpose that she had never before seen in the showmare. “Applejack, I think I know what happened,” she said. “I think that Twilight Sparkle’s back and she’s looking for some kind of revenge on me. She cast some kind of spell on the town that turned her into a hero and me into a villain – ”

“Well, Ah wouldn’t call ya villainous…a mite touched, maybe – ”

“But don’t worry,” Trixie said. “I’m going to go and stop her and try and talk to her and convince her to turn herself in at last. I’m going to undo whatever she did, and I’m sure that Princess Luna will help the town out with its weather problems this time without any Night Court shenanigans this time. Because I am the Great and Powerful Dame Trixie Lulamoon, Apprentice of Princess Luna, Representative of Ponyville, and Knight of Equestria!” She finished this last by rearing back on her hooves and making her horn flash brightly in a multitude of bright, gaudy colors, one flash in particular nearly blinding Applejack.

Maybe she ain’t so far gone, Applejack thought. She stepped forward again. “Trixie, Ah can’t let you do that,” she said.

“I’ll get to Twilight and talk her down. I know that she can be reached. It won’t be easy, but I can fix this.” Trixie said, setting herself back down on the bed and looking at Applejack. “The spell probably tries to defend itself, will make you all try and fight against any attempt to counter it. I’m sorry, Applejack, I really do appreciate you helping me.”

Applejack planted herself firmly on the ground. “Trixie, get back in bed. You ain’t well, and Doc Stable will be along soon ta see ta you.” She reached out a hoof to Trixie. “Ya ain’t leavin’ this room – ”

Her hoof passed straight through Trixie, however, like she wasn’t even there. Starting, Appleack reached forward again, waving her hoofs around – Trixie remained unaffected. “So that’s why I left this illusion behind to distract you,” Trixie finished.

There was a flash of blue light, and she suddenly exploded in a cloud of blue smoke, which quickly dissipated. Applejack stared in shock, until she heard a slamming sound from downstairs – and, through her window, she saw Trixie, having dashed through her front door, running down the road leading to her front door. Trixie glanced over her shoulder at Applejack and waved, before resuming her gallop.

“Oh consarn it!” Applejack exclaimed, turning around and galloping from her house and after Trixie, stopping only long enough to grab her lasso from her room. “This ain’t gonna end well…”

Applejack was faster than Trixie. Within a minute she had closed the distance between herself and the escaped mental patient, close enough for her to whip out her lasso and twirl it a few times before throwing it at her. Trixie saw, however, and dodged out of the way. She skidded to a halt, letting Applejack slide past her, as her horn glowed. “Applejack, you have to fight the spell!” she called.

“There ain’t no spell, Trixie!” Applejack called back, gathering her lasso back up. “Doc Stable says you’re in something called a fugue state – ”

“I’d know if I was in a fugue state!”

“Ah don’t think it works like that, Trixie!”

Trixie grimaced. “Applejack, I’m sorry,” she said, blue smoke manifesting from nowhere all about her. Applejack let out a cry of consternation as she turned and looked back down the road, looking for where the real Trixie had gone – and therefore not seeing it when Trixie, never having been an illusion at all, leaped backwards from the blue smoke, landed, and gave Applejack a good solid buck to her flank and barrel. She wasn’t very strong, but Applejack hadn’t been expecting the blow, and she cried out as she stumbled and fell down, gasping in pain.

Trixie was off again. Applejack snorted as she picked herself up and followed. “You sucker-bucked me!” she accused.

Trixie glanced behind her and stuck her tongue out at Applejack. “You’ll thank me later!” she called back.

“Ah seriously doubt that!” Applejack wheezed. The blow hadn’t broken anything of Applejack’s, but it had winded her, enough that she wasn’t able to catch up to Trixie as fast as she had the first time. They were already in Ponyville proper. Trixie disappeared behind a moving cart for a moment, and when Applejack cleared it herself, she found herself staring at a half-dozen Trixies. Her eyes widened as each shot off in a different direction.

Applejack shook her head as she ignored all of them and simply started running for the center of town. “Won’t help, Trixie!” she called to the nearest one, which didn’t glance at her. “Ah may not be able to tell one from the other, but Ah know where you’re goin’!”

Applejack caught sight of several Trixie bursting apart into blue smoke, but the nearest one remained real. “Zut alors!” That one – the real Trixie – cursed.

“Don’t you start speakin’ Fancy now!”

“I’m from Neigh Orleans! I’ll speak all the Prench I want, vous moitier fou po-chum!”

“Those ain’t real words!”

“Well neither is ain’t!”

Applejack leapt at Trixie, but she nimbly dodged out of the way, horn flashing. This time she wasn’t crafting any illusions, instead using simple telekinesis to hurl a nearby stack of crates at Applejack. The earth pony took them with a few grunts, but Trixie had charged in, slamming her shoulder against Applejack’s side. Again caught unprepared, the earth pony faltered and fell again. She was up in a moment, but when she looked, Trixie was nowhere in sight.

“Shoot!” Applejack cursed, getting up and galloping again, this time towards the library. She saw two golden-armored pegasi of the Royal Guard standing watch outside of it. As Applejack watched, however, she saw one of them suddenly lurch to the side, as though bucked in the face, despite nopony around to do the bucking. He crumpled, dazed. The second one moved away in a second, wings spread wide in challenge to the invisible foe as his eyes darted around – but before he could do anything, a blue field wrapped around him and threw him into the sky. He recovered quickly, but it was all the time the invisible pony – Trixie, no doubt – needed to open the library door and charge in.

Applejack was seconds behind her. “Twilight, company!” she called out as she entered. She needn’t have bothered – Twilight was already in the middle of the library, surrounded by a pile of open books and with an open blue-and-gold box next to her, containing the Elements of Harmony. She saw as blue smoke manifested from nothingness, and Trixie appeared.

“Twilight Sparkle!” Trixie cried. “Surrender now and undo whatever spell you’ve put over Ponyville! Your issue is with me!”

Twilight stared with wide eyes. “What?” she demanded. “Trixie? How…how are you up already?”

“Twilight, careful!” Applejack warned, as the two Royal Guards entered, wings spread threateningly and the one she had bucked looking none too happy, especially seeing as his helmet was now dented. “Trixie’s gone off the wall! She thinks yer doin’ somethin’ bad ta Ponyville!”

Twilight glanced at Applejack, before looking back to Trixie. “Trixie, calm down – ”

“I’ll calm down when you’ve turned Ponyville back to normal! It’s supposed to be summer! And – and are those the Elements of Harmony? What did you do to them?” Her eyes widened. “Is…is that your cutie mark on the Element of Magic? And why does one of them have Applejack’s?”

“Trixie,” Twilight said, holding out a hoof. “Please, calm down – ”

“I’ll calm down when – ”

“What is all that shouting?” A firm, commanding voice demanded as the door to the library’s basement opened. Applejack gulped when she saw Princess Celestia walk out, carrying some kind of magical device that Applejack didn’t recognize. She was frowning deeply.

Applejack, Trixie, and the royal guards all opened their mouth to explain. None of them, however, reacted as fast as Trixie, who pointed a hoof at Celestia, eyes wide in panic. “Corona!” She shrieked.

Celestia froze suddenly at that. For just a moment, her look of concern dropped, becoming one of…familiarity?…before she set aside whatever she was holding in her telekinetic grasp, and took a step towards Trixie. “That is not my name.” the Princess said. “I am Celestia. And you appear to need help – ”

Trixie glanced between Celestia, Twilight, and the Elements of Harmony. “Oh…oh no…” she breathed. “Oh no…it wasn’t you, was it, Twilight? It was her…”

Celestia took another step towards Trixie. “Please, miss…Trixie, is it? I recognize you from my student’s reports. You – ”

Trixie shook her head, backing away from Celestia. “No, no, no – ”

“Please, let me help you – ”

“No!” Trixie screamed, shutting her eyes.

Several things happened simultaneously, but Applejack was running on just enough adrenaline to notice them all. Two flashes of blue magic appeared, one over Trixie’s eyes, the other over Celestia’s, and the magic left behind jet-black magical sheets. At nearly the same time, there was a blinding flash of light, bright enough to send Applejack reeling. She heard shouts of surprise from everypony, even Celestia. Then there was a cacophonous sound, like a dozen fireworks going off simultaneously. Applejack felt herself being shoved out of the way by somepony.

When the blinding light cleared a few seconds later, Applejack squinted, looking around. She saw Twilight and the royal guards both recovering from the painful light and burst of noise, rubbing their eyes and shaking their heads. Celestia, meanwhile, was standing still, her horn glowing as the black film over her eyes dissipated.

“Wh…what happened?” Applejack demanded.

“Trixie ran off,” Celestia noted, frowning deeply. “She cast a burst of light to blind all of you, but covered her own eyes and mine with a magical film that shrouded us in darkness – she correctly guessed, I assume, that I could see through any light, no matter how bright, while the darkness over her own eyes protected her from her own flash. The explosion we heard was a ghost sound meant to cover the sound of her escape.” She looked to her student, then Applejack, then her guards. “Are you all alright?”

There were some confirming nods. “Wait,” Twilight said. “She…she blinded herself, blinded you, set off a ghost sound and a flare, all simultaneously?”

Celestia nodded. “It would appear,” she said, “that Trixie is a very adept magician when she wants to be. Guards, please contact Ponyville’s local authorities and see that they search for – ”

Celestia, and the rest of them, started when there was a puff of blue smoke. Glancing at its origin, they saw the blue-and-gold box that had contained the Elements of Harmony dissipating into nothingness, leaving behind only a blank floor.

Trixie had stolen the Elements of Harmony.

4. Magical Mystery Tour

It was Tuesday, there was a large loaf of freshly-baked bread sticking out from her saddlebags, the sun was shining brightly in the midday sky, and Raindrops the pegasus was convinced that nothing could possibly go wrong. The off-duty weather mare was trotting through Ponyville, back to her home, where she planned to make herself a pair of sandwiches, grab a juicy novel, and just waste the rest of the day doing nothing, enjoying her day off.

From an alley that she passed, she saw a few small wisps of blue smoke. Naturally curious as she passed on by, she looked in, and saw a blue box with gold inlay, and a blue unicorn with a look of sheer terror and panic on her face as she breathed heavily, pressed against a wall with one hoof to her heart.

Raindrops frowned when she recognized the pony in less than a second: Trixie, self-proclaimed Great and Powerful, who had only a few months ago turned the entire town into her own private fiefdom with the aid of some magical artifact. Apparently the artifact had made her drunk on power, and the Princesses had forgiven her, as had the town’s authorities, but Raindrops wasn’t sure she’d want to, not after what Trixie had done.

Still, that didn’t mean she intended to go out of her way to make Trixie’s life miserable, either. She simply snorted and trotted on – or tried to.

“Raindrops!”

The pegasus paused, looking over her shoulder and back into the alley. Trixie was staring at her now, eyes wide. “Yeah?” Raindrops asked, surprised that Trixie even knew her name.

Trixie stared at her. “You don’t recognize me,” she said softly.

Raindrops frowned. “Of course I recognize you – ” she began.

“Thank Luna!” Trixie said, horn glowing bright blue. Raindrops cried out as she found herself wrapped in magic and dragged into the alley, next to Trixie. “Okay, then you – ”

“What are you doing?”

“Shh!” Trixie insisted, putting a hoof to Raindrops’ mouth. Her horn glowed blue again, and on either side of the alley a blue field erected itself, then a third one directly overhead. Trixie dashed away from Raindrops, running up to the edge of one field and inspecting it, before nodding to herself and looking back. “Okay okay okay,” she said, pacing back and forth. “There’s glamors and ghost sounds hiding us now. Okay. There’s you, and there’s me. Who else? Does Carrot Top remember? Cheerilee?”

“Remember what?” Raindrops asked. The aura around her had dissipated, and her wings were flared. “What are you doing? Why are you hiding?”

Trixie paused, looking at Raindrops. “Why? Why?” She demanded, pointing out the alley. “Because Corona’s in town, Raindrops!”

“Who?”

Trixie rocked back on her hooves at that, staring at Raindrops with wide eyes. “B-but…” she intoned, her look of terror dropping for a moment and being replaced by one of pain. “But…you recognized me…”

“Of course I did!” Raindrops countered. “You’re the one who got my little brother to think it was a good idea to go into the Everfree and bring a space bear into town – ”

“N-no, I – ”

“And then you came back and made Snails your little slave!” Raindrops exclaimed, jabbing a hoof at Trixie and beating her wings. “And okay, it was that necklace thing that made you. But don’t think I forgot that!” She trotted up to Trixie, who backed away in panic. “Twilight said that we should forgive you, and I was going to just leave you alone. But do you know what I think? I think I’ve changed my mind!”

“R-Raindrops – ”

“I think you should get worse than just some kind of talking to! So if I see you again – ”

“Wait, please – ”

“I’ll sue!”

Trixie froze. Her hooves were raised as though she was ready to ward off incoming blows, but after blinking a few times, she lowered them. “Huh?”

“You heard me!” Raindrops continued, pointing a hoof at Trixie. “And I think I’ll look into a restraining order, too.”

“You won’t…beat me up? Buck me and hoof-punch me?”

“No, Trixie, because I’m not like you!”

Trixie stared, and Raindrops stared back. “Maybe…steal a stormcloud from the silo and leave it over my house?”

Raindrops’ eyes widened. “I’d never!” she exclaimed. “And what silo?”

“The cloud silo. Where the clouds are stored.”

“We don’t have anything like that. I’ve never heard of anything like that. The clouds are left free-range over the Whitetail Wood.” Raindrops paused a moment at that, though, tapping a hoof to her mouth at the thought of actually storing clouds rather than simply leaving them out in the open. It would cut down significantly on evaporation. “Although…that’s not a bad idea, actually. Was one of your parents a pegasus?”

“My uncle Sky Shaper, yes. Not the point – Raindrops, what’s wrong with you?” She started trotting in circles around the pegasus, looking her over as though seeing her for the first time – which wouldn’t have been very odd, if not for the familiarity she had been putting on moments ago. “You think I turned Snails into a slave – ”

“You did turn Snails into a slave – ”

“But you don’t want to…to hit me? Beat me up? Where’s the anger?”

Raindrops stared at Trixie. “You think I’m not angry?” She demanded.

“Not really. No.”

“Well, I am!” Raindrops said, stomping a hoof.

Trixie stared at the hoof, and the cobblestone street beneath it. “You didn’t break it.”

“Of course I didn’t, I’m not an earth pony, I can’t break rocks with my bare hooves – ”

“Yes, you can! I’ve seen you!” Trixie objected.

“Trixie, we’ve never even spoken before today.”

Trixie’s eyes were wide. “She didn’t just change everypony’s memories…” she mumbled. “She…Corona’s changed ponies personalities.”

“Who in the wide wide world of Equestria is Corona?”

Trixie bit her lip. “You’re not going to believe me,” she said. “Raindrops…the pony you think is the princess of the land? Celestia? She’s not really Celestia. She’s Corona the Tyrant Sun, the most evil being in the past thousand years. She’s trying to take over Equestria…maybe she has taken over Equestria, and I’m the only one who remembers what it’s supposed to be like.” She trotted over to the blue-and-gold box, and opened it, removing something from –

Raindrops beat her wings and took to the air in shock at the gilt necklace, with an orange apple-shaped gem in it, that Trixie removed. “I-i-is th-that…?”

“Raindrops,” Trixie said, holding the necklace up. “This is the focus for the Element of Honesty. And you’re the Element of Honesty. This is supposed to be yours. Just like how I’m the Element of Magic.”

“No I’m not! No you’re not! Where did you get those?” Raindrops demanded. She turned around. “I’m going to get the authorities – ”

She was once again wrapped in blue magic, pulled back down to the ground, and turned around. She felt the necklace close about her neck as Trixie put it on her. “Trust me,” Trixie begged. “Please, please, please, Raindrops, you have to remember who you are!”

“I know exactly who I am! Now let me go!”

Trixie stared as Raindrops fought against her telekinesis. “Okay,” Trixie said, shaking her head as her horn glowed brighter, and she trotted up to Raindrops. “Okay, I have to do this then. I didn’t want to, I really – really – didn’t want to…no offense…”

“What are you doing?” Raindrops demanded, as Trixie took either side of her face into her hooves. Raindrops’ eyes widened. “Oh, wait, no, are you going to – ”

“You owe me big time,” Trixie insisted, leaning in and –

…the Everfree Forest, winter, but hot, stiflingly so. Melting snow and fog everywhere, a ruined tower…the Elements of Harmony saving them from Corona…fighting against an Ursa Minor, working with Trixie to save all of Ponyville…a rainy day, everypony, all of her friends, getting together – it had been embarrassing, but good…Trixie and all her friends helping her when she’d gotten bad therapy for her anger…a trip to Canterlot to expose the corruption in Luna’s Night Court…her being Knighted alongside Trixie…

…there was emotion, too. Anger, pain, resentment, hope, joy, laughter, love…Raindrops was a scary mare, an angry mare, but the anger wasn’t really a part of her, it was a burden she carried, and just beneath it was one of the surest, truest friends that Trixie had…

“In that case,” Raindrops’s voice echoed in her own mind, “Honesty. That’s the one I want. That’s the one I am.”

Raindrops threw herself away from Trixie, who didn’t resist. The pegasus stumbled, one hoof at her mouth. “Tongue?” She demanded. “Tongue? Why was there tongue?”

“Because that’s how the memory spell works – ” Trixie began, wiping her own mouth, then paused. “Wait, wait – that’s…that’s what you said last time!”

“I think that’s what anypony would say if you Prenched them out of nowhere!” Raindrops exclaimed, stomping her hoof. “Stars Above, Trixie, don’t you remember what happened last time, Cheerilee came in and thought we were…thought we…”

Raindrops froze at that, rocking on her hooves, then stumbling slightly. Her brain felt like it was on fire, a thousand new memories suddenly in her head, memories that in no way matched up with the ones she already had. “I…I remember…I think I remember…” her eyes were wide, pupils darting back and forth as she remembered…

Raindrops looked at Trixie, and saw two ponies. Not physically, but her mind was at war with itself. There was Trixie, the braggart, the showmare, the pony who’d tried to enslave Ponyville, who’d been corrupted by the Alicorn Amulet, who’d turned her little brother Snails into her slave…

…and there was Trixie, the braggart still, but one of her best friends, who showed her little brother magic on occasion, who saw past her angry exterior to the real pony beneath it, and who’d helped her out of tough spots and whom she’d helped out of tough spots…

“What did you do…?” Raindrops demanded, falling back on her haunches and pressing her hooves to her head. “Ow…”

“Raindrops,” Trixie said, trotting forward. “You have to fight the spell, the one that Corona placed over you – ”

Raindrops remembered Corona. The Tyrant Sun. Blank white eyes, mane and tail made of animate fire…Corona, the Tyrant Sun, the greatest enemy of Equestria, the one who had kidnapped dozens of foals from Ponyville and threatened to immolate them if Ponyville didn't obey her every command...

Raindrops looked at Trixie again. The first Trixie, the showmare, the one who had enslaved her brother…seemed to fall into the background. Looking at her now was only Dame Trixie Lulamoon, Element of Magic…her best friend.

Trixie’s face broke out into a wide smile, and relieved laughter escaped her lips when she realized that Raindrops at last fully and truly recognized her. “Thank Luna,” She breathed, leaning forward and touching her forehead to Raindrops’. “You…you do remember…”

“Hold on, hold on,” Raindrops said, pushing Trixie away and scooting back. “I…okay, I remember…remember everything you were saying. I remember being the Element of Honesty, I remember everything we’ve done…but I also remember my life. Or…what I think is my life…”

Trixie grimaced. “That’s Corona’s spell,” she insisted.

“How do I know that? Maybe…maybe you just cast some spell on me! How can I be sure?”

Trixie, in response, immediately dropped to her knees. “Please, Raindrops, please. If you never believe anything else I tell you, believe me on this.”

Raindrops eyed Trixie, her best friend, on her knees and hocks, literally begging her, eyes wide and ears flopped back…she’d never seen Trixie like this, except for when it really, truly mattered. Trixie could be manipulative when she wanted to be, lie an awful lot, but she would never lie about something this big, this important.

Raindrops pressed her lips together for a moment. “O…okay,” she decided. “Okay…I’ll trust you.”

Trixie smiled brightly. “Perfect!” she said, dashing back over to the case that contained the Elements. She lifted all five of the remaining jewelry up. “Okay, now Raindrops, I want you to use those memories Corona put in you. Ditzy, Cheerilee, Carrot Top, Lyra. Who’ll be closest?”

Raindrops looked over each of the necklaces. “Lyra,” she decided. “Lyra’s home is closest…Trixie, if you’re right, then why don’t the Elements of Harmony look like they’re supposed to?”

Trixie stowed the Elements. “I don’t know,” she said. “But that’s a mystery we can solve later. Right now…to Lyra’s!”

It all happened so fast for Lyra. One moment, she was sitting on her couch in her parent’s place, reading a magazine, and the next, a jasmine-coated pegasus and a blue unicorn – Trixie – burst in through her front door, slammed it behind them, and turned to her.

“Please tell me I won’t have to kiss you,” Trixie begged.

“What?” Lyra demanded. “What are you doing here? You better not have broken the lock, that’s a new door my dads just – ”

“Zut,” Trixie cursed, charging at Lyra. She leaped backwards, but the pegasus was already behind her, body checked her, then Trixie was at her, magically closing a necklace with a red gem set into it around her neck, leaned in to her, and –

…meeting at the train station for the first time…into the Everfree…Corona…being transformed into a naked bear (a human?!)…Trixie worked so hard to make sure the concert went off…the secrets of Andalantis…Trixie, trying so hard to show her how Octavia, her mentor, was trying to trick her……the salamanders…the Grand Galloping Gala…

And yet, despite all of that, despite the wave of emotion, one thing that Trixie showed her stuck out more than anything – Bon Bon, Lyra being with her, nuzzling her, kissing her…they were…supposed to be together? Yes! Since forever…Lyra wasn’t supposed to have kept her crush on her oldest friend a secret for her entire life! She was supposed to be marefriends with her…Lyra was supposed to be living with her, not in her dads’ house! She was supposed to be a successful musician, not a hobbyist! She was supposed to be doing something with her life!

“Loyalty,” Lyra’s voice said in her mind. “The Element of Loyalty. Because…because of the forest. Because I wouldn’t let the sirens get any of you, no matter what. Even if it killed me.”

Lyra fell away from Trixie, landing on her back, though Raindrops caught her head before it could hit the ground. It took her several minutes, but eventually the world stopped spinning, things stopped looking strange…she stopped seeing two Trixies and two Raindropses, or rather a Raindrops and a pegasus she had only occasionally seen around town, and instead…

“Wh…what?” Lyra demanded. “Trixie? Raindrops? What’s going on?”

“The usual,” Raindrops drolled. “Bad times, we’re trying to fix them.”

Lyra nodded. “Hold on,” she said, dashing away and upstairs and to her room, before returning with her lyre.

Trixie eyed her as she did. “Why not just summon it?” she asked.

Lyra blinked. The new memories…no, the right memories…in her head coalesced, she did remember being able to summon her lyre to her side. “I…I dunno,” she said. “Gimme a break, Trixie, I just had my memories restored.”

Trixie nodded, holding up the remaining Elements of Harmony. “Cheerilee, Ditzy, Carrot Top,” she said. “Who’s closest?”

“Carrot Top,” Lyra said after a few moments of thinking. “She works at the herbal remedy shop – ”

“Shop? Not a farm?” Trixie asked.

Lyra shook her head. “Corona really did a number on us,” she noted. “But come on! Lyra Heartstrings, Knight of Equestria, has a town to save!”

Everypony rushed from Lyra’s home as fast as their hooves could carry them, Trixie’s horn glowing and wrapping herself and the Elements in invisibility glamors as they left. Had she been in anything other than a state of panic, Trixie might have noticed something slightly off about what Lyra had said, or rather, how she had chosen to say it – but then, even if she had, she would most likely have written it off as an effect of the Tyrant Sun’s spell.

Celestia put a hoof on Twilight’s withers as her Royal Guards left, rushing off to the town hall. The touch went a long way towards preventing a complete panic attack. Glancing at Celestia, her teacher smiled down at her, then closed her eyes, horn glowing gold for several moments before opening her eyes again. “I have surrounded Ponyville with a shield,” she said. “Nothing may come in, nor go out. Trixie will not be able to go far.”

“Unless she’s already gotten away,” Twilight objected, despite herself. “Unless…unless she learned how to teleport! I mean, I know it’s really rare that a unicorn can, but then, I’ve never heard of a pony being able to cast six spells simultaneously!”

Celestia’s smile faded slightly at that. “Indeed,” she noted. “Is it possible that she is once again in possession of some artifact that is increasing her power?”

“Ain’t just power,” Applejack said. She blushed at the interruption, but at a glance and nod from Celestia, she pressed on. “Beggin’ your pardon, Princess, but Trixie weren’t just castin’ spells. She was castin’ ‘em smart. Left some kind of trick a’ light behind at first, that poofed apart into smoke. Then when Ah caught up ta’ her, she just made smoke, tricked me into thinkin’ she were just another fake before sucker-buckin’ me. An’ then there’s what you said – she blinded you ‘stead a’ just flashin’ a light.”

Celestia frowned. “Has she displayed finesse like that in the past?”

“No,” Twilight said, shaking her head rapidly. “Trixie…even with the Alicorn Amulet, she just went for the largest, most impressive spell she could cast. She’s never been so…proficient…and she’s never had a plan before, other than just making herself look better. But I thought she’d changed…”

The Princess offered Twilight a sad smile. “I do not believe Trixie fully understands what she is doing right now,” she said. “You saw how she reacted to me, and you heard what she accused you of. She is confused, and acting in a way that makes sense to her, even if not to us. But, she must be found before she has a chance to bring harm to somepony else…or to herself.”

Celestia withdrew from Twilight. “I will go to the town hall and coordinate with Mayor Ivory Scroll,” she said. “Twilight, Applejack, please gather the rest of your friends. If Trixie truly believes what she says, she may think that you are collaborating with this ‘Corona’ she believes me to be. She may lash out at you. Once you’re all together, try…try and imagine this situation from Trixie’s perspective.”

“What?” Applejack asked. “Just…pretend Ah waltzed in here an’ saw Trixie makin’ friends with Nightmare Moon or somethin’?”

“Yes, exactly that,” Celestia said with a nod. “It may help us to predict her next move, once she realizes there is no leaving Ponyville. Now, if you will excuse me…” She turned, trotting towards the door.

“Um…Princess?” Twilight asked. Celestia stopped at the door, turning around. Twilight tapped her hooves together. “I know we’re in a rush and all, but…one question. When Trixie called you Corona…you looked like you recognized the name?”

Celestia paused a moment, looking away in consideration, like she was debating telling Twilight later. She eventually looked back to Twilight, and to Applejack. “I did,” she said. “But before today, only one pony had ever called me Corona, and she only did it once…nine hundred and ninety-one years ago. It was one of the most memorable days of my life.”

Twilight and Applejack looked at each other. “Who was the pony?” Applejack asked.

Celestia offered a weak, but somehow genuine, smile. “Princess Luna,” she said, turning and trotting out the door.

Applejack and Twilight followed, both of them thinking about what Celestia had just told them. Something seemed off…

“Wait a second,” Applejack said, looking to Twilight. “Nine hundred ninety-one years ago, Princess Luna weren’t Princess Luna, she was Nightmare Moon, wasn’t she? An’ she was trapped in the moon. So how could she have…?”

Applejack and Twilight had both looked to Celestia for clarification, but the Princess was nowhere in sight.

Carrot Top opened her front door, and found herself looking at a mint-green unicorn – Lyra, she thought her name was, she played harp sometimes in the park – and Raindrops, a weather mare and one of Ditzy Doo’s friends. “Yes?” She asked.

“No time to explain,” Raindrops said, pushing Carrot Top back into her first-floor apartment home, glancing over her shoulder as Lyra entered as well, closing the door just as a pair of Ponyville’s police officers trotted by, looking around every which way.

“O-oh my,” Carrot Top breathed as Lyra’s telekinesis closed all her blinds. “P…please, take anything you want, just don’t hurt me!”

“We’re not going to hurt you,” a voice from nowhere said. Carrot Top jumped as a puff of blue smoke appeared from nothingness, revealing Trixie once it dissipated, looking around. Similar puffs of smoke around Raindrops and Lyra’s necks showed them to be wearing gilt necklaces. “An apartment? An apothecary? You don't even run it! What happened to the farm?”

“Wh…what? You mean my – ”

“You know what?” Trixie asked, looking to Carrot Top, “doesn’t matter. Carrot Top, please please pretty please tell me that I don’t have to kiss you.”

Carrot Top blushed. “Um. W-well, I’d like it very much if you didn’t.”

Trixie groaned as she brought forth a case, took out a gilt necklace and placed it around Carrot Top’s neck, then set her horn glowing bright blue as she leaned forward, Carrot Top’s eyes widening – was she really about to…?

…meeting Trixie and Lyra on the road…walking through a field of poison joke in order to save Lyra, Trixie and Raindrops beside her so she wouldn’t have to suffer alone…the phoenix terrorizing Ponyville…Trixie helping her with the farm competition, helping her save her farm from bankruptcy…working with Trixie to expose the Night Court and save her farm yet again…

Her farm…her farm! The one she’d sold to Applejack all those years ago, after her grandparents had died; she loved the country life but knew she had no real head for business, couldn’t really run a farm if she tried, so she had her carrot garden out back but that was it. But that wasn’t what was supposed to happen! She was supposed to have her own farm, and yes, struggle with it, but it was hers!

“Generosity!” Carrot Top’s own voice exclaimed. “I…how do I know that?”

“Because what else would you get?” Lyra’s voice asked in return. “You walked through poison joke for me!”

After a few minutes of existential crisis, Carrot Top looked up at her three friends. Trixie was holding out the remaining two Elements of Harmony. “Ditzy or Cheerilee?” she asked.

“Ditzy,” Carrot Top answered without hesitation, putting together what was going on, what had happened, for herself. If the Elements of Harmony were involved, then that could mean only one thing – Corona. “She’ll be home in a few minutes.”

Trixie paused a moment, then blushed a deep scarlet. “U-um…” she intoned, looking extremely uncomfortable. “Y…you mean…you and her, you’re, um…”

“Roommates,” Carrot Top answered, blushing herself at what Trixie had just implied. All four mares shivered at the thought of…that. “We’re roommates, Trixie, that’s it.”

“Praise to the Moon…”

“I beg your pardon?” Rarity demanded as she, Applejack, and Twilight raced through Ponyville, simultaneously keeping her eyes on the road ahead while also glancing around, trying to spot Trixie. “Ugh! I do hope she doesn’t actually plan to wear the Element of Magic, Twilight. Its colors are completely wrong for her coat!”

Applejack cast a glare at Rarity. “Kind of not the point, Rare,” she said.

“There can be more than one point!” Rarity objected. “I assure you, Applejack, I am worried about all possible implications of Trixie having her hooves on the Elements!”

“We have to focus right now, though!” Twilight insisted. “Pinkie Pie will be at Sugarcube Corner, right?”

“Nope!” A high-pitched voice said from nowhere. Neither Twilight, nor Applejack, nor Rarity slowed down at the sound, instead only glancing behind them and finding that Pinkie Pie was following them easily, indeed she was bouncing rather than galloping. “My tail got to twitching, and my ear a’ flopping – down down up up left right left left – and I just knew that you girls needed my help! Of course, if it had been down down up up left right left right, then it would have meant – ”

“Do you know where Rainbow Dash is?” Twilight interrupted. Normally she might have been slightly fascinated to document another possible iteration of the Pinkie Sense – she had long since given up on figuring the mysterious sixth sense out, but she was still convinced that it could behave in a predictable way – but at the moment, she had bigger concerns, and of all of them, Pinkie was most likely to know where Rainbow Dash was at any given moment.

Pinkie considered a few moments. “Slow Tuesday?” she asked. “I dunno, she normally schedules herself for a day off today, so she could be anywhere. But I do know that Fluttershy was going grocery shopping today in the farmer’s market!”

“That’ll do, Pinkie, that’ll do!” Applejack said, as the small herd of mares changed direction as one, racing towards the market.

Pinkie hopped up next to Twilight. “So why are we running?” She asked. “Are we practicing for next year’s Running of the Leaves? Ooh! Are we trying to make slush? Ooh! Ooh! I know! We’re all going to go to Bon Bon’s to try and get the golden ticket! If there’s six of us and we all buy candy bars…”

“No, Pinkie!” Twilight insisted. “Trixie thinks that Celestia’s evil for some reason and that we’re the bad guys. She stole the Elements of Harmony! So we need to get together and find her!”

“Darn, that was my next guess, too,” Pinkie mourned.

Ditzy opened her front door, taking off her mailmare’s cap as she did. “I’m home!” she exclaimed brightly as she shucked her coat as well, and left her empty mail bags near the door. She trotted into the kitchen. She had intended to get the blueberry muffin she knew was waiting for her in the fridge. Instead, she found herself looking at Raindrops, Carrot Top, Lyra – all of them wearing Elements of Harmony – and, of all ponies, Trixie, looking at her with a pained expression on her face.

Ditzy whickered in surprise at that. “T-Trixie?!” she exclaimed, backing away. She looked to Carrot Top. “Carrot Top, you have to get her out of here! The entire town is looking for her, Princess Celestia is here and – ”

“I know,” Carrot Top said, holding up her hooves. “Ditzy, it’s Corona, somehow she’s – ”

“Who’s Corona?”

Trixie stepped forward with determination, even as she levitated an item – the Element of Kindness – from a nearby blue box and slid it around Ditzy’s neck before she could react. “Ditzy,” she said. “Ditzy, please listen – ”

“Stay away from me!”

She made to fly away, but both Trixie’s and Lyra’s magic grabbed her, pulling her back. “I’m getting real sick of this…” Trixie groaned as her horn glowed bright blue and she leaned in –

…Corona had been released, kidnapped Dinky…Ditzy being there when Trixie first met Twilight Sparkle…Trixie and Ditzy together at Andalantis…Trixie afraid of Ditzy for the first time in her life, when gangsters had kidnapped Dinky, and then again, weeks later, when Ditzy had made some accidental assumptions about Trixie and Dinky…Ditzy helping Trixie make peace with Night Light, Twilight Sparkle’s father, at the Grand Galloping Gala…

…but strung throughout, for the two were inseparable in Trixie’s mind, was Dinky Doo as well. Trixie teaching Dinky how to use her telekinesis better. Dinky coming to Trixie for help with some simple spells. Dinky as Trixie’s stage assistant for her Eventime Festival show…Trixie’s heart swelling with pride when, for the school talent show, Dinky did a magic act…throughout it all, Ditzy saw the blue unicorn as somepony she trusted with her daughter – and if she could trust Trixie with Dinky…

“I…yeah,” Ditzy’s voice said to her. “Kindness. Okay. I can get behind that, I guess…”

Ditzy and Trixie fell away from each other. Lyra and Raindrops caught Trixie, while Carrot Top caught Ditzy. The two ponies stared at each other, one in confusion and recognition at the same time, the other only with hope.

“Trixie…?” Ditzy asked, recognition finally winning out.

“Ditzy!” Trixie exclaimed, leaping forward and embracing and nuzzling Ditzy tightly. For some reason, her normal hooves-off attitude tended to drop with Ditzy, probably due to how motherly Ditzy could be. Ditzy returned the hug tightly.

“I can’t believe I forgot you…” Ditzy exclaimed.

“It’s not your fault,” Trixie insisted, breaking the hug and nuzzle. “Where’s Dinky?”

“At school,” Ditzy said, looking around at the rest of her friends. Her memories were at war in her head, but it was a brief one. Ditzy knew practically everypony in Ponyville thanks to her job at the post office. “With Cheerilee…whom I guess we’re going to get now?”

Trixie nodded, pressing her two front hooves together. “And then,” she said, “We’re going to buck Corona back into the sun where she belongs!”

Ditzy pointed dramatically out the door. “To the school!” she exclaimed.

In the farmer’s market, three mares were panting, out of breath, one pink one was buying a slushy despite the cold weather, and two pegasi mares – the rainbow-maned one of the pair laden with grocery bags as she hovered in the air, using the groceries as weights – were waiting for an explanation.

“Elements…stole…Celestia…” Twilight gasped.

Fluttershy put her hooves to her mouth. “Oh my goodness!” She exclaimed. “The Elements stole Princess Celestia? How?”

Rainbow Dash set her groceries down, as she rolled her eyes slightly. “I think you need to clarify,” she suggested.

Twilight shook her head. “Trixie stole the Elements,” she explained once she had her breath back. “She thinks that she’s supposed to be the bearer of the Element of Magic, and that we’re all frauds. Princess Celestia is helping with the search, but we all need to be together in case Trixie thinks that we’re all evil, too, and she tries to attack us.”

Rainbow Dash groaned. “What is with that mare?” she demanded. “What’s going to happen next time she comes to town? Will she be riding an Ursa Major?”

“Poor dear,” Fluttershy said, tapping her hooves together. “She must be confused after being struck by lightning and overchanneling…I’ve seen this sort of thing happen with animals I look after sometimes. They can be completely different after!” She looked to Twilight. “Um…what can we do to help her?”

Twilight considered. “Figure out where she’s going next,” she said. “Princess Celestia said that we should try to think like her…imagine if we found ourselves in Ponyville, found everypony acting strangely, and found Trixie making friends with Nightmare Moon and with the Elements of Harmony.”

“Well…” Rainbow Dash said, glancing between her friends, “get the Elements of Harmony, then find you guys, I think.”

Applejack stomped a hoof. “Right!” she said. “Trixie don’t just think that she’s supposed to have the Element of Magic. She was surprised to see mah cutie mark on the Element of Honesty too, right? So she thinks that they’re all supposed to be different.”

“But who?” Twilight asked, looking around. The farmer’s market was slow right now, but there was still several dozen ponies in easy sight. “There’s thousands of ponies in Ponyville! Which five are we looking for?”

Applejack thought. “She…she mentioned bein’ friends with a few ponies ‘round town when she first woke up,” she said, brow furrowing. “Um…Carrot Top, Ditzy Doo, an’…Cheerilee. Yeah. That’s all I remember.”

“I don’t know where Ditzy Doo and Carrot Top are right now,” Rarity said, “but right now, Sweetie Bell is at school – and that means that Miss Cheerilee must be, as well. And if Trixie isn’t there now, she will be soon.”

“Alright,” Twilight exclaimed, looking around a few moments, before pointing. “To the school!”

5. Do You Believe in Magic?

It was said that all roads led to Canterlot. While florid and metaphorical, it was true that Canterlot sat near the center of Equestria, and so naturally many of the nation’s highways and byways crossed over it or went through it.

Ponyville, however, had to make do with just four roads that led to it – plus a railway line, of course, although really the railway more just passed through. As a small farming town, though, four roads were more than enough. Indeed, sometimes – especially during the summer games – the citizenry of Ponyville emphasized loudly that the road that led in from Hoofington did just that: come from Hoofington and to Ponyville, and not the other way around, because Ponyville was more important by far, and was going to win this year’s summer games, too. If one listened, one could hear similar things, albeit in reverse, being said in Hoofington.

Both Ponyvillians and Hoofingtonites agreed, once the hard cider got to flowing, that Bridletonians could go buck a beehive. Especially if the Bridletonians had recently beaten the two of them in the summer games.

Trixie steeled herself as she looked into the town from the front of her brand-new wagon. She and Ponyville had…a history. And it was difficult to not feel apprehensive over the fact that, literally just as she had entered Ponyville, a golden field had surrounded the entire town. She had spent half an hour just sitting inside her wagon, debating whether or not to nevertheless go through with her plan. But she had to – because, if she could make it in Ponyville, she could make it anywhere.

Trixie nodded, running a hoof across the brim of her hat as she hopped atop her wagon, horn glowing a pastel pink beneath her hat as she turned a lever. The lever made the wagon go forward through a clever arrangement of cogs and gears, rolling forward at the equivalent of a brisk trot. At the same time, she wrapped the entire wagon in a pink glow that looked like a telekinetic aura, but in reality was nothing more than a little light. Still, a typical Ponyvillian – such as those glancing at her with wide eyes as the wagon moved forward – would see the wagon appearing to move under her telekinetic might and power.

No need to lie, Trixie, no need to go on about how Great and Powerful you are that you can lift an entire full wagon…she thought to herself at their stunned glances. There is no need for Trixie to prove her majesty…just be majestic!

“Citizens of Ponyville!” Trixie exclaimed as her cart moved. She stood on her hind legs, spreading her front hooves wide. “Come one! Come all! Come and see the greatest show in all of Equestria!”

Trixie guided her cart through to the nearest open space. “Her comeback tour has stunned in Stalliongrad!” Trixie exclaimed. “Been applauded in Appaloosa! Hoofington and Bridleton have both been privy to her new and improved act!”

Her wagon came to a stop, and she hopped inside quickly, pulling a lever. It set about transforming, even as Trixie’s horn glowed brighter pink, wrapping magic around her throat in one of the few true spells she knew, which would both throw and project her voice. “But now she has returned to Ponyville!” Trixie said as her stage finished transforming. Her hoof easily found a capsule that contained smoke powder for her entrance. “She knows she has a history in this town, and so she is here to reclaim her honor – and give you all the show of a lifetime!”

Trixie grinned. The first time she had been in Ponyville, whatever else had happened, these country hicks –

Careful, Trixie, she warned herself.

These fine ponies had eaten up her show, loving every sleight of hoof and act of illusion. If she could just get them to see past the Alicorn Amulet thing…

Trixie stepped up to behind her curtain. “Come one! Come all!” she repeated. “See the one – the only – the Great…and…Powerful…Trixie!”

With a flick of her hoof, Trixie set off the smoke bomb, then rushed on stage before it could clear, careful to avoid tripping on her cape. Tapping her hoof against a well-placed and well-hidden button on the stage set off the automatic trumpeting fanfare, as well as several fireworks and streamers, as she reared back on her hooves again.

She didn’t get applause. She hadn’t really expected it, though, not in this town. She had an uphill struggle in front of her, she knew. She was equally unsurprised when she finally looked at her ‘crowd,’ and saw only a few dozen ponies, all of them with stunned looks on their faces, none of them looking impressed – or happy.

Trixie closed her eyes, putting a hoof to her chest. “Trixie sees your concern,” she announced. “And she understands it. The Great and Powerful Trixie has done the town of Ponyville wrong and she – she apologizes.”

Huh. That hadn’t been as hard to say as she thought it was going to be.

“She asks only that you give her a final chance!” Trixie cried out, opening her eyes again and spreading her hooves. “Trixie wishes only to amaze and astound!”

Trixie tapped a hoof against another hidden button, and music began, even as from a hidden panel in her stage, a trap-door opened, a puff of smoke was released, and a table adorned with cards, knives, hoops, small puppets, and other tricks of legedemain was revealed. Trixie’s horn glowed pink as she grabbed the cards and spread all fifty-two before Ponyville telekinetically, flipping them around in an intricate pattern

“Oh, it really doesn’t matter what I do, what I do,
“As long as I do it with a flair!
“What effect a little smoke is with a dash of hocus pocus,
“And the scent of burning sulfur in the – waagh!”

The last word wasn’t part of the song. What it was, was a reaction to a golden-armored, white-coated pegasus suddenly tackling Trixie to the stage floor and making her lose all her cards. A second pegasus landed a moment later, wings spread wide and glaring down at Trixie.

Trixie recognized the armor of the Royal Guard, of course. “Is…is there a problem…?” she asked. She hadn't thought she was that hated in Ponyville…

“By the authority of Princess Celestia,” the guard informed her, “you are under arrest for the theft of the Elements of Harmony!”

Trixie’s eyes grew several sizes wider. “What?!”

Fifteen minutes earlier, Twilight was considering how Ponyville Elementary did not look like a good place to try and talk down an apparently crazy unicorn – most of all because of the foals just inside, who could potentially be put in harm’s way if things didn’t go well. “Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called, as the schoolhouse came into view. “Go inside and let Cheerilee know what’s going on, then get the foals out!”

Rainbow Dash grinned. “Right!” she said, shooting ahead of the rest of the group and barreling through the school door. Twilight could hear her as she entered. “Great news, kids! School’s out early!”

Twilight didn’t focus on the ensuing cheer, instead just rolling her eyes as the remaining five of them came to a stop just outside the entrance. After a few minutes, the foals all came tumbling out of the schoolhouse as a group, rushing towards the center of town. Twilight looked questioningly at her friend. “I told them there was a race to Sweet Apple Acres,” she said. “Winner gets a cupcake.”

Pinkie gasped, glancing after the foals pensively and looking like she was debating joining in the race. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “It’ll keep them sticking together,” she said, “and Trixie probably won’t be coming from that direction.”

Twilight nodded, glancing into the schoolhouse. Cheerilee was coming up to the six of them, worry painted all over the schoolteacher’s face. “Rainbow Dash said that Trixie was back…” she said, “but…but why would she be after me? What did I ever do?”

Twilight shook her head. “I don’t know,” she admitted. “Trixie’s…confused, right now. She thinks that she’s the bearer of the Element of Magic, and that you’re supposed to have one yourself – ”

“Kindness, maybe?” Pinkie asked, tapping a hoof to her mouth. “Yup! If you’d be any Element of Harmony, you’d be Kindness! Right, Fluttershy?”

“Um…maybe. I don’t know you very well, Miss Cheerilee. I’m sorry. B-but I’ll bet that if you wanted to bear the Element of Kindness, you’d do a great job!”

“Naw,” Applejack said. “Not t’ toot mah own horn, but Ah think Miss Cheerilee would make a fine Element a’ Honesty.”

“Or Generosity,” Rarity suggested. “Giving up so much of your own time, for your students’ wellbeing!” She winked knowingly at Cheerilee. “I think that would be the perfect fit.”

“Girls,” Twilight interrupted, holding up a hoof. The other five bearers looked suitably embarrassed at their tangent as Twilight turned back to Cheerilee. “I think it would be best to get you to – ”

“Twilight Sparkle!”

Twilight froze a moment at the mention of her name, then let out a slight groan when she recognized the voice and turned around. She found herself looking, unsurprisingly, at Trixie, standing at the base of the hill that the school was on. More surprising, however, was the fact that four other mares were with her – a jasmine-coated, blue maned pegasus; a gray-coated, blond pegasus; a yellow-coated, orange-maned earth pony; and a mint-green, white-and-mint maned unicorn, holding a lyre in a golden telekinetic aura. Her eyes widened when she recognized a few of them – the mail mare Ditzy Doo, and the unicorn lyre-player, Lyra, specifically. Twilight couldn’t see the box that she knew the Elements of Harmony were in.

Trixie took a step forward, looking Twilight in the eye. “Twilight,” she said, “I know, I know, that you would never willingly work with Corona. It has to be the spell.”

“There is no spell, Trixie!” Twilight exclaimed, as she and her friends formed a protective wall between Trixie and Cheerilee. She looked at the other ponies with Trixie. They were all panting heavily, looking like they had just run across town to get here. “You four…Trixie’s told you that you’re supposed to be Element bearers, right? You don’t really believe her, do you?”

The pegasus opened her mouth at that, pointing at Twilight, though she paused. “I…” she intoned. She closed her eyes, steeling herself. “Trixie is my best friend. My closest friend. I can’t just ignore what she showed me!”

“What she what now?” Rainbow Dash asked. She flew forward, waving off Twilight’s concern at getting closer to Trixie. “Raindrops, we work together almost every day. You know I’m the one who’s supposed to have the Element of Loyalty. I brag about it often enough!”

Raindrops shook her head. “I’m the Element of Honesty. Trixie showed me.”

“And I’m supposed to be the Element of Generosity!” the yellow earth pony in Trixie’s group exclaimed, trotting forward and looking at Applejack. “And I’m supposed to have my carrot farm! I’d never sell it to you!”

“What?” Applejack asked, taken aback. “Carrot Top, ya didn’t really listen to Trixie over that, did ya? You sold the farm to Sweet Apple Acres ‘cause you trusted us! We’ve known each other for years, remember?”

“Carrot Top,” Rarity insisted, stepping into view, “darling, please, listen to reason. We see each other at the spa. We get along, ever since I helped you with that mane-cut fiasco. You know me, you must remember me.”

Carrot Top faltered a little. “I…I do remember…but I also know what Trixie showed me. You can’t just make up memories!”

“Not just memories,” Lyra said, eying Rainbow Dash. “I’m supposed to have the Element of Loyalty. I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash, but I am.”

“What?” Rainbow Dash demanded. She made to dart forward, but Applejack grabbed her by the tail before she could. “Lyra, I’m sure you’re a great mare – ”

“I don’t know about that,” Lyra said. One hoof was gliding over her lyre absently as she talked. “I…I really don’t know. But I do know that I’m supposed to be with Bon Bon. I love Bon Bon, and she’s supposed to love me! But whatever this spell is, it’s…it’s taken that. Turned me into some kind of lazy good-for-nothing layabout, afraid to even admit to Bon Bon what I feel!”

“You’re not lazy!” Pinkie Pie objected, trotting forward with a bright smile on her face. “You come to every one of my parties! Aaand…” Pinkie Pie produced from nowhere a large, spiral-bound notebook, every page full of writing and with reams of additional paper with drawings and blueprints sticking out of it, waggling her eyebrows at Lyra. “Don’t think I haven’t noticed the way you look at Bonnie! I’ve been planning your Lyra finally confessed to Bon Bon party for years! It’s gonna be a blast!”

Twilight looked at Trixie, who hadn’t broken eye contact with her. “Trixie,” she said, “look at that notebook. Pinkie didn’t just pull it out of nowhere…I think. She certainly didn’t fill it all up today! If Princess Celestia really was evil, and she really could just re-write the entire world…don’t you think that she’d do something a little, I don’t know, bigger than just breaking up a couple of ponies and giving Carrot Top’s farm to Applejack?”

“Corona’s insane, Twilight, I don’t know what she’d do,” Trixie countered. “I don’t know what spell she cast. Maybe…maybe it’s just how the spell works, maybe the spell can’t hurt anypony. I don’t know! All I know is it’s wrong!”

Trixie looked to Ditzy, pointing at Fluttershy. “You know Fluttershy,” she said. “She is sweet and demure and a good pony. But think about it, Ditzy! Think about how much of a shut-in Fluttershy is! I don’t know what you Corona made you think happened on the Longest Night, when she returned. Princess Luna being evil and returning from being trapped in the moon? Whatever! Just think about Fluttershy. After Princess Luna did her evil thing, would Fluttershy really go into the Everfree? No! She’d run home and make sure that her animal friends were okay! Or hide under her bed! Or both! I don’t know whether she deserves an Element, or which one she thinks she is…but there is no way she’d ever be in a position to have earned one in the first place!”

“Excuse me!”

Trixie’s head whipped around, and she saw Fluttershy glaring at her – for a moment. The butter-colored pegasus wilted slightly, though only slightly. “Um, sorry,” she said. “But…but that’s not what happened. I mean, I wanted to, when Nightmare Moon first showed up, go home and make sure that all my friends were okay, and…and maybe hide. But I saw Twilight,” she looked to her friend, smiling, “instead of panicking, like everypony else was, she had run straight to the library. I just knew that she knew how to stop Nightmare Moon. And the surest way to help my animal friends would be to help Twilight do that! Even if it did mean going into the Everfree.”

Trixie stared a moment more at Fluttershy, then looked back to Ditzy. “See?” she asked. “That’s not Fluttershy.”

Ditzy looked between Fluttershy and Trixie. “I…” she said. “I…I don’t know. I remember…I remember you, Fluttershy…but I also remember…” she shook her head a moment, debated, then stepped closer to Trixie. “I have to trust my friend,” she declared.

“But Trixie isn’t your friend!” Twilight objected. What kind of spell had Trixie used on these ponies?

“Yes I am!” Trixie countered. “Think, Twilight! How could I even know these mares if I wasn’t friends with them? If I wasn’t supposed to live in Ponyville?”

Twilight shook her head. She didn’t have an answer for that, but that didn’t make Trixie’s claims any less absurd. “Please, Trixie,” she said. “We want to help you, but this isn’t right. Don’t…” she paused a moment, then set herself steadily on the ground, horn glowing. “Don’t make us do something we’ll regret later.”

Trixie stared at Twilight, mouth hanging open slightly. After a moment, her face hardened, her horn glowing blue. There were puffs of smoke around the throats of each of her so-called friends, atop Trixie’s own head, and beside her revealing each of them to be wearing Elements of Harmony. Atop Trixie’s head, meanwhile, set over her wizard’s cap, was the Element of Magic – and floating in her telekinetic grip was the blue box that would contain the Element of Laughter.

“I’m sorry, Twilight,” Trixie said. She sounded like she meant it, too, as she charged up the hill, horn glowing bright blue. After a second, her comrades followed.

“Pinkie, stay with Cheerilee,” Twilight said. The pink pony gave a salute. “Everypony else…don’t hurt them.”

Twilight’s friends nodded. Then, they charged.

Things did not go the way Trixie had thought they would, and she had already entered the ensuing, short battle with little enthusiasm. She had simply expected her hopes to be dashed by Twilight’s raw magical power, and that her friends would otherwise hold their own against Twilight’s own ensnared compatriots.

This was not the case.

Raindrops and Rainbow Dash met each other first; Raindrops was a slow flier, but even a slow pegasus could still fly faster than a pony could charge uphill. Raindrops was supposed to be strong, though – stronger than many earth ponies, even. Instead, to her own surprise and even to Rainbow Dash’s, she was knocked back almost instantly. Raindrops tried to recover, but Rainbow Dash was behind her in a bare instant, grabbing her about her barrel with her forelegs and pinning Raindrops’ wings to their sides with her hind ones. Rainbow Dash’s own wings beat rapidly, taking Raindrops to the ground as gently as possible and pinning her there.

Doesn’t Raindrops know martial arts? Trixie wondered. She should be putting up more of a fight!

Ditzy and Fluttershy met at nearly the same time. Neither pony looked eager to fight, and even paused, unsure of how to proceed without hurting each other. Ditzy tried to fly past Fluttershy, but Fluttershy simply spread her hooves wide and blocked Ditzy’s path each time, sadness mixed with determination on her face to make sure that Ditzy progressed no further up the hill, and Ditzy, for all that was at stake, couldn’t bring herself to physically push Fluttershy out of the way.

Fluttershy shouldn’t be acting like that! Stupid spell!

Carrot Top and Applejack met at nearly the same time as Rarity and Lyra. Lyra’s horn glowed gold as she swung her lyre telekinetically, trying to use it as a bludgeoning weapon for some reason. Rarity stopped it with one hoof surprisingly easily however, before she continued her charge, leapt over Lyra, and actually landed on Lyra’s back. Her hooves grasped Lyra about her head and pulled, and the two fell backwards. Rarity let out a slight grunt at landing on her back with another pony atop her, but she rapidly had Lyra in an effective head-lock.

Lyra! You’re supposed to know spellsongs! Why didn’t you use any?

Carrot Top had fared no better against Applejack. Trixie didn’t even see what had happened clearly – Applejack had gotten her lasso out, whipped it around a few times, and within just a few moments, Carrot Top had been hog-tied, Applejack using her teeth to pull her knot tight.

Carrot Top! You should be strong enough to break that! You plough fields all day long!

Trixie didn’t have any time to worry about the state of her companions, though – because, very suddenly, it was down to just her, and Twilight. And it was a simple fact that, spell for spell, she would never beat Twilight Sparkle.

That was why she just threw the box containing the Element of Laughter at Twilight’s face as hard and as fast as she could. Twilight gasped, barely catching the box in her own telekinesis – and lurching backwards when Trixie leaped, shoving her shoulder against the box and pushing it forward into Twilight’s muzzle. Twilight stumbled, but her horn glowed bright lavender, and a field of energy erected itself around Pinkie Pie and Cheerilee, stopping Trixie’s progress.

Trixie turned on Twilight just as Twilight’s horn shot off a beam of energy, probably meant to stun her. Trixie ducked it, though she thought she noticed something as she did. Trixie stepped to the side, away from Twilight’s shield, keeping one eye on it even as she ducked under another stunning blast –

And she saw it. For just a moment, the shield flickered. It seemed that, despite her power, Twilight was just like many other unicorns – unable to maintain more than one complex spell at a time. The speed with which she replaced the shield was fantastic, but there was a chance…

Trixie slung off her cape and held it in front of her with her telekinesis, keeping most of her body shielded. “You couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn!” she taunted.

Twilight fired off several more magical bursts at Trixie. She dodged them with a flourish of her cape each time, using her cape to disguise where her body actually was even as she cantered around randomly. “You’re not going to make me angry, Trixie!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Your father is a vindictive, cruel pony! Your brother is a kiss-flank! Um…you’re an insane nag who dropped a space bear onto a town just to show off how powerful you are with magic!”

“Not going to work!” Twilight repeated, firing off another burst. She really didn’t seem angry, to her credit, but Trixie didn’t need her to be angry, just distracted enough to not slow down her stunning blasts – distracted enough to not pay close enough attention to Trixie’s cape flourishes and movements – distracted enough to fire off one blast in particular and not notice the angles involved…

Trixie moved her cape out of the way just as the shield dropped. The blast passed through where the shield had been – and nearly hit Pinkie Pie square in her barrel. The earth pony dodged only by leaping into the air in surprise.

Twilight froze, eyes wide at having nearly struck one of her own friends. Trixie seized the moment to leap at Cheerilee, casting aside her cape as she pulled the Element of Laughter from the box it was in and slipped it around Cheerilee’s neck. Cheerilee’s mouth opened to let out a shout of surprise, which was just the opening that Trixie needed. Their lips touched, and Trixie’s horn glowed bright blue, and –

She thought of every moment she’d ever spent with Cheerilee – being introduced by Lyra, confronting the Everfree Forest together, Cheerilee standing up to Corona and earning the Element of Laughter. She thought of the rainy day in Ponyville when Cheerilee had somehow gotten it into her head that Trixie had never had ‘the Talk,’ and how embarrassed the both of them had been by the end of it. She thought of Oaton, and Count Copper Coin, and poor Tarnished. She thought of Cheerilee rescuing her when she’d been kidnapped by the salamanders. She thought of the Grand Galloping Gala.

Trixie thought of everything that Cheerilee was. She was strong and confident. She was a little introverted, but there whenever anypony needed her. She laughed easily and encouraged others to do the same. She never took anything too seriously. She was, in many ways, the leader of her group of friends, always organized, always best at coming up with plans and understanding what was really going on…

And Trixie thought of what Cheerilee had said six months ago – the words that had earned her the Element of Laughter.

“I’m dead anyway,” she had told Corona after making a joke at the mad alicorn's expense. “So why not? I’m going to die laughing and I’m going to die making everypony else laugh at how ridiculous you are!”

Trixie thought of all this, and then mentally shoved it forward, though her mouth, though the magical conduit that the spell forged, and into Cheerilee, and –

Trixie was pulled off of the earth pony mare by a telekinetic aura. Cheerilee fell away from her anyway, eyes wide and unseeing for several moments, or rather not unseeing – instead, seeing everything that Trixie had shown her, every single one of their memories together, feeling every emotion that Trixie had for one of her best and closest – and only – friends.

“You have to remember, Cheerilee!” Trixie exclaimed as she was pulled backwards by Twilight Sparkle. She didn’t fight. At this point, it wouldn’t matter. Either she had succeeded, and she could fix everything, save everypony…or they were all doomed. “I’m your friend! You have to remember!”

“No,” a stern, though not cruel, voice said, “she does not. Because there is nothing to remember, Trixie.”

Trixie recognized that voice.

Trixie turned around, and saw Corona. She may have disguised her mane and tail, made herself seem to be as she once was, before her fall into madness and hatred and fire, but Trixie wasn’t fooled.

Corona was in the air, though she landed easily, looking around and frowning. Everypony’s eyes were on her, of course. Twilight, and her ‘friends,’ looked relieved. Trixie knew that they didn’t understand what they were doing, though. They weren’t collaborating. It wasn’t their fault. Her own friends were all unharmed, had all been brought together, and Cheerilee was even now being walked over to the same group by Pinkie Pie, even as the schoolteacher’s mind was still visibly at war with itself, as she still fought Corona’s spell. Trixie, meanwhile, was held in place by Twilight as Corona approached Trixie, the frown not leaving her features.

“Trixie,” Corona said, “you are not well. I only wish to help you. But I cannot do that if you will not let me…and I cannot ignore what you have just done to five perfectly innocent citizens of Ponyville. Can’t you see how you are only hurting them?”

“What’s hurting them is not letting them live their real lives, Corona!” Trixie exclaimed, looking at Cheerilee, at all her friends. “I don’t know how you did it…I don’t know what kind of magic you used.” She glanced at Twilight. “Maybe something Twilight helped you uncover…though I know that she didn’t do it willingly.”

Celestia closed her eyes, her frown at last dropping and a look of sadness overcoming her features. She shook her head. “I will see to it that you go to the best hospital that Equestria can provide – ”

“Just make sure to get a non-crazy pony to pick it out,” a voice interrupted.

Celestia paused, opening her eyes and glancing at the source of the voice. It was Cheerilee, standing amongst the other real Element bearers. She looked almost as surprised as Corona did to hear the interruption, as she glanced at Lyra, Carrot Top, Ditzy, and Raindrops, before finally looking first to Corona, and then to Trixie. She recognized Trixie.

The blue unicorn cried out in joy, horn glowing blue as she looked to Twilight, sending out not a powerful burst of magic, but a telekinetic shove – not much, but enough to strike Twilight’s horn. She cried out in surprise at the sensation, concentration disrupted, and Trixie bounded away from where she had been dragged, over to her friends before Corona could react, throwing her hooves around Cheerilee. “You remember!” she exclaimed.

“I think I do – ” Cheerilee began, when a golden aura suddenly wrapped around Trixie.

Trixie looked behind her in horror, and saw Corona’s horn glowing, her own telekinesis trying to pull Trixie away. “This isn’t real,” she said. “It’s a delusion created by a pony who needs help. I am sorry that I must be harsh here, but – ”

“No!” Trixie exclaimed, as she felt her friends grab hold of her and try to pull her back. Even as they did, Twilight and her false friends came in, trying to separate the pile. “No! We’re together. We can do this! We can stop Corona!”

“No you can’t!” Twilight objected. “Because you’re not the bearer of the Element of Magic!”

Trixie glared at Twilight. “YES I AM!” She shouted, her magic reaching out, to the tourmaline diadem that still sat atop her head. “AND THESE ARE MY FRIENDS, AND I’M GOING TO SAVE THEM!”

There was a flash of light – not from Corona, not from Twilight, and not from Trixie’s horn. It was from the Element of Magic, glowing bright.

Twilight didn’t want to fall away, but she did in utter shock at what she saw, as did her friends. The Element of Magic was glowing – responding to Trixie’s magic. As Twilight stared in horror, the other Elements, still around the necks of Trixie’s brainwashed ‘friends,’ began to glow as well, pulsing in bright colors.

The golden aura around Trixie cut out as the Element of Magic flashed brighter. While its gem didn’t change, over Trixie’s head appeared a magical outline of her cutie mark, the crescent-shaped nebula with a wand overlaying it, although it was the pink of the Element’s gem, instead of blue. A similar set of arcane marks began to appear over each of the ponies currently wearing the Elements as they were all lifted into the air, their eyes glowing white with power.

“Wh…what’s goin’ on?” Applejack demanded.

“How can the Elements actually be doing this?” Rarity added.

“I don’t know!” Twilight exclaimed. “This…this isn’t possible!” She looked to Celestia for explanation. Her teacher was staring in disbelief at least as large as Twilight’s own, her telekinetic grasp on Trixie forgotten about. “Princess!”

“She’s not the Princess!” Trixie’s voice called down from where she was floating in the air. “She’s Corona…” There was a burst of magic, the power of which Twilight had felt only twice in her life before today, and pure arcane energy in a rainbow of hues shot straight up into the sky. “And she’s going back into the Sun where she belongs!”

Twilight could only watch as the power the Elements of Harmony were unleashing began to fall from the sky, arcing on itself, curving around…and then falling right back down, not towards Celestia – but towards Trixie, and the five other ponies with her.

“What?” Trixie asked, just as the rainbow hit her. There was another flash of light, and a gust of wind strong enough to toss everypony but Celestia off of their hooves. When the light faded and the wind cleared, and Twilight was able to pick herself back up, Trixie and her ‘friends’ were on the ground, each of them looking stunned.

Almost as one, the five Element necklaces fell from their necks, landing on the ground at their hooves, the glow within them subsiding. Only the Element of Magic remained on Trixie’s head as she stared in shock and horror at Celestia, still standing, not merely wholly unhurt by the Elements, but in fact not even touched in the first place.

“Wh…what…?” she asked. “What? What? No!” She stood on shaking legs, looking behind her. “C…c’mon, get back up, put those back on! We have to try again!”

Raindrops was the first to recover from her stunning, shaking her head and putting one hoof to it. “T…try what…?” She asked. “What…what just happened?”

“Ow…” Lyra intoned as she picked herself up. “Ow…headache…ow…”

“Kind of not the most important thing right now, Lyra,” Trixie insisted, looking to Cheerilee. “Snap out of it!”

Cheerilee looked back to Trixie, frowning. “This…this is strange…” she intoned. “I was so sure that you were right, but now…it’s like everything you showed me. Everything in that memory spell…it was just like watching a movie. That’s it…”

Trixie stared with eyes wide. “Y…you mean…”

Ditzy picked herself up next, eyes rattling in her head for a few moments. “Trixie,” she said. “I think…you showed us all your memories. It made us act funny. But now…now I think I can see what happened. Getting a rush of memory and emotion like that, of course we thought you were our friend, would trust you…” She turned one eye on Trixie. “But…but you’re not. You’re not our friend.”

“I don’t think you’re a bad pony,” Carrot Top added, trotting over to Trixie. “I think…I think you need help.”

Trixie stumbled backwards at that, teetering for a moment before falling on her haunches. “No…” she breathed. “No…”

Celestia took a step forward. Trixie whirled around, apparently not having let her out of her peripheral vision. The Princess waited several seconds before advancing a second step. “The Elements of Harmony are the most powerful magic in all of Ponydom,” she said. “You wished to help your friends, Trixie…or the ponies you believed were your friends. The Elements responded. But they recognized that something was wrong…that you were the source of their conflict, not me. The memories you implanted in them were causing disharmony.”

Celestia was closer to Trixie then she had yet been able to get since this whole ordeal had begun. “Please, Trixie,” she said. “I do not know how it is that the Elements responded to you or your friends in the first place…but the results would seem to be clear. I was not the problem. You were.

“I understand that you do not trust me, Trixie. It is clear to me that you feel you cannot. But please, for your sake, and for the sake of those whom you would consider to be your friends…please, let me help you.”

Trixie was breathing in short, quick gasps as she looked at Celestia, then to her friends. She looked at Twilight Sparkle last of all, staring at her with wide, tearing-up eyes. “This isn’t…this isn’t…”

“Trixie,” Twilight said, stepping forward herself. “Please.”

Trixie gazed at Twilight another long moment, before looking back to Celestia. She was still tensed, still defensive, still looked ready to bolt at a moment’s notice – but very slowly, she nodded. “O…okay,” she breathed. “Okay…I’ll trust you, Corona…for now. But I want to know what in Tartaros is going on before I start – ”

Her tirade was interrupted when she saw something past Celestia. Glancing in the same direction, Twilight saw one of Celestia’s pegasus guards flying towards them. He landed a few feet behind his Princess, bowing deeply. “Your Majesty!” He reported without looking up. “We have captured Trixie, your Majesty.”

“We?” Celestia echoed, turning around.

The pegasus guard looked up. “Yes, your Majesty, on the other side…of…Ponyville…” He noticed, for the first time, the blue unicorn in the wizard’s cap, still wearing the Element of Magic. Everypony remaining looked between him, Celestia, and Trixie.

“I’m confused,” Pinkie Pie said.

Meanwhile, in the center of Ponyville, Spike had been in the middle of fixing himself lunch – he was worried about the theft of the Elements, of course, but he saw no reason why he should worry on an empty stomach – when he heard the library’s front door open. “Lunch break!” he called.

“Spike?”

Spike came out from the kitchen, and brightened. “Hey Twilight!” he said, walking out with his BLT – beryl, lettuce, and tashmarine diopside – sandwich in one hand and a cup of milk in the other. “Did you find the Elements already?”

Twilight stared down at him for several long moments, looking confused. For some reason, she was wearing a plain brown cloak, tied around her neck with a simple rope. “U-um,” she said. “Yes! Yes, I did. It was easy!” She smiled widely.

Spike joined in as he crunched down on his sandwich. “Awesome!” he said. “I knew that Trixie wouldn’t – ”

“T-Trixie?!” Twilight interrupted. “Trixie was here?”

“Uh, yeah?” Spike asked, drinking some milk. “She was all, ahh, Corona! when she saw the Princess and – ”

Twilight nearly leaped from her coat at that, backing away from Spike several long paces. “Wh-what?!” She demanded. “That Trixie?!”

Spike stared. “Um…what Trixie?” he asked, taking another bite from his sandwich.

Twilight had started pacing around, shaking her head. “Why? How? How’d she find me? Oh no oh no oh no…I…I knew coming here was a bad idea, but I just thought…oh, stupid, stupid, stupid!”

Spike watched Twilight for several long moments, head turning to the side as he took in the sight of her. She looked…a little travel-worn. And there was something about her eyes…

He gasped, dropping his milk and sandwich and pointing an accusing hand. “You’re not Twilight!” He exclaimed.

The unicorn – if she was even that – stopped her pacing, and looked to Spike with fresh surprise on her face. After a moment, her eyes narrowed just slightly, and she frowned. “I’m…I’m sorry, Spike,” she said, horn glowing.

6. Could it be Magic?

“Who are you?” Spike demanded from inside the bubble-shield. He had run for a moment, but Twilight had managed to get the shield around him while he was near a bookcase. His voice had a hollow, echoing quality to it to Twilight’s ears while he was inside. “What are you doing? Are you…are you Twilight’s long-lost evil twin?”

“I’m not evil!” Twilight exclaimed, stopping her search of the library for a moment and looking at Spike. “And I’m not Twilight’s twin!” She went back to searching for every book on magic she could find, putting them into a pocket in her cape that she had enchanted to shrink things down to a fraction of their normal size.

“Some kind of evil clone?”

“No!”

“An evil robot?”

“I’m not evil!”

“But you are a robot?”

“No, I’m not! I don’t even know what that is!”

“Okay, how about…are you a changeling?”

“Changelings are just a myth!”

“Some kind of shapeshifter, then?”

Twilight paused in her search again, flipping through one spellbook. She found several spells she didn’t recognize, and so tossed the book into her pocket with the rest. “No,” she answered, looking to Spike. “How are you coming up with all of these?”

Spike was sitting down inside his temporary prison, and held up a stack of thin magazines that he’d pulled from part of the bookcase that the bubble shield encapsulated. “This is the comic section,” he noted, as he opened one. “Are you…from an evil alternate universe?”

“I’m not evil!”

“But you are from an alternate universe?”

Twilight sighed. “Yes.”

“Really?”

“Yes – ”

“And you’re just the first one through, and you plan to slowly replace all of us with our alternate selves?”

Twilight closed the most recent spellbook she held, stowed it in her cape, and thought about that for a moment. “Why would I do that?” she asked. “Even if it was true, if we’re just going to move everypony from one universe to another, why not just stay in our own universe?”

“Because your universe is collapsing!”

“Okay, but if our alternate selves were going to die anyway, then why not just kill them?”

Spike let out a cry at that, eyes wide as he backed against the bookcase and away from Twilight. She herself let out a cry of panic and galloped over. “But that’s not going to happen!” she tried. “There is no invasion, Spike! There’s just me!”

“And you’re going to replace Twilight?”

“No!”

“Because you already have – ”

“No, Spike!” Twilight exclaimed. “I’m not going to! I maybe thought I could talk to her, but if Trixie is here…” she paced back and forth, shaking her head. “I…I made some mistakes in my world. Big ones. But I wasn’t even trying to flee to here! I was just trying to teleport, but my…my brother had me trapped in a shield, the most powerful shield in all of Equestria. The only way I could escape was to use this really, really powerful teleportation spell I learned from a forbidden magic tome. I think Princess Luna herself made it. It was so powerful, so efficient, that I actually based all my teleporting spells off of its spell matrices! They’re all just smaller versions of that spell!”

She began pacing back and forth. “But it wasn’t just a teleportation spell. I ended up in this world. And I can’t go home! I think I’ve figured out why, though. I think that you can’t learn one world-teleporting spell and then be able to go to any world you want. I think that you need to know a completely different spell for each world you want to go to. I needed one to get from my world to here…and I need to figure out how to make a new one to get back to my own home.”

Twilight paused, looking at Spike. “But now if what you said is right, Trixie’s here. My Trixie, the Trixie from my world. And…and I can’t…” she sat down, holding up her hooves as though trying to grasp something in them. “I…I don’t know, I was so ready to, to maybe turn myself in…but if in this world, Twilight, your Twilight, can be the Element of Magic…” she darkened. “But…but then of course she proved she was no better last week, didn’t she? I had thought that maybe in this world she was just…me, done right. But I heard about that little want-it-need-it thing…she isn’t any better.” Twilight sighed, closing her eyes. “We’re all broken.”

She glanced back to Spike, who was staring at her still. “I…I got maybe half of that,” he said.

Twilight groaned, standing up and trotting back to the books. She selected two more, before turning back to him. “Okay, short version then,” she said. “I’m not evil, I’m not going to replace Twilight, I’m not Twilight’s evil twin or robot or clone, and no, I’m not possessing her or anything! And I’m not going to hurt you! Because…because to be honest, I met you once. Well, the other you. My universe’s version of you. And…and Spike was probably the closest thing to a friend I've ever had.

“So I’m just leaving now, I’m getting as far away from this town as possible, and you’ll never have to worry about me again, okay?”

Spike pressed his fingers together, visibly mulling over what Twilight had told him. “Okay,” he decided at length. “Good luck, I guess.”

Twilight had been in the middle of readying herself to teleport, but paused at Spike’s words, looking at him. She felt herself smiling, just a little bit, for the first time in what felt like years. “Th…thanks,” she said, closing her eyes, thinking of a spot about half a mile down the south road into Ponyville, and teleporting. Instantly she felt the chill of winter on her coat, and opened her eyes, looking back into Ponyville for several long moments.

Trixie was in there. Maybe…maybe she had accidentally ended up here, too? She doubted that Trixie had the raw power necessary to duplicate the world-hopping spell…but after her disastrous trip to Ponyville, her Ponyville, her wagon loaded with books and journals about spellcasting had been left behind. Trixie had probably found her notes on teleporting, tried to duplicate it…and somehow found a way to get enough power to change it from a teleportation spell to a world-hopping spell.

Meaning Trixie was probably stranded here, too.

Twilight almost turned around and went back to Ponyville. After several long moments, however, she decided against it – for now. If she could figure out how to get home, and if Trixie was still here, then yes. She would come back. But right now…right now she still wasn’t ready to confront her crimes.

Twilight turned around on the road – and froze when she saw six mares, about fifty feet down the road, staring at her.

“That’s not fair,” she breathed.

The ponies that Trixie had brainwashed had been escorted by the royal guard and Twilight’s friends to the Ponyville hospital. While Celestia doubted that there was any damage done to them, it couldn’t hurt to make absolutely certain. The Steward of the Sun, however, was more concerned with Trixie. It had been a very, very long time since anypony had been so utterly terrified of Celestia as Trixie seemed to be – and worse still, not terrified of anything that Trixie thought that she would do, but rather, Trixie was focused on what she thought Celestia had done.

And how had she known the name Corona? Her sister had only called her Corona once, and the circumstances around that had always been mysterious, to say the least. Celestia had all but written it off by now as a grief-induced hallucination, especially since Luna claimed to have no recollection of the event herself…

It hadn’t been very much. Celestia had been in the depths of despair, a scarce nine years after being forced to banish Nightmare Moon into the moon via the Elements of Harmony, unable to find a way to separate her sister from the dark magic that she was allowing to influence her judgment. Celestia had become…less than stable. Having failed to see the pain and darkness in her sister, she had begun to see it everywhere else.

In some circles, especially beyond Equestria, she was still considered a tyrant for her actions during that dark period. She had never fallen into true depravity…but law after law had been created and passed, restricting freedoms, yes, but making sure that everypony was safe, and secure. Individually, no one law had even been too much. And Celestia herself, she hadn’t had much time for sleep, or eating. Not when she needed to constantly move from one city to another, make sure that everypony was safe. She was an alicorn, anyway. She could go weeks without sleep or food if she wanted to without it affecting her judgment.

Of course…the weeks turned into months…and her judgments would become less sound, the laws she issued less…sensible. And certain basic rights…like privacy…had been revoked. For the good of everypony. She’d never hurt anypony, not physically, anyway. But she had failed Luna, and she would never fail anypony else, she was determined.

And then it had happened. One day, the moon had begun to rise of its own accord, the stars following it. The Mare in the Moon remained imprinted on the lunar surface, but Celestia, sleep-deprived, probably starving, had panicked. She’d found the source of the moonrise, on the edge of the Everfree Forest, and gone there…

…and seen Luna. Not Nightmare Moon, not the twisted, corrupted mockery that her sister had become…but Luna, a little haggard, but whole and healthy. Celestia had just frozen in place, and stared, unbelieving at the sight.

Luna had looked at her. She’d looked terrified. She’d screamed a single word – Corona – and then disappeared. Try as she might, Celestia had not found her. When she had journeyed to the moon, inspected the seals and arcane marks keeping Nightmare Moon in place, she found them intact. Nightmare Moon had no idea what Celestia was getting at when Celestia had demanded to know how she had escaped. She had only threatened Celestia, promised her torment and suffering…

“Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked.

Celestia realized that she had been trotting with her eyes closed in thought – her other senses more than adequate to prevent her from stumbling or bumping into something – and opened them, looking down to her student, not entirely ungrateful for the interruption, as the memory was not truly a happy one, though its consequences were. “Yes, Twilight?” she asked.

“Why is Trixie still wearing the Element of Magic?”

“Because I am the Element of Magic,” Trixie insisted, glaring at Twilight. She and Trixie were following Celestia to the center of town. The blue box, now once more containing the other Elements of Harmony, was held in Celestia’s magical aura, but she had not requested the tourmaline diadem of the Element of Magic back yet, nor had Trixie volunteered it.

Twilight glared at Trixie. “No, you’re not,” she insisted. “Because first of all, that is the Element of Magic,” she pointed at the diadem, “and second, I’m the one – along with all my friends – who earned the Elements defeating Nightmare Moon and freeing Princess Luna.”

Trixie made a face like she’d just smelled something particularly vile. “This is the focus,” she said, tapping her hoof against the Element. “I’m the Element. Princess Luna said so.”

Twilight looked to Celestia for backup. The Princess stopped in her trot, considering. “Princess Luna,” she said, “has always been…artistic, and fond of metaphor. I suppose in a sense, calling the bearer of an Element the Element itself, is not incorrect.” She looked to Trixie. “However, you must understand that according to my memory, and that of Twilight, you are not the Element. Twilight is.” She turned back to Twilight. “And, to answer your original question…I do not believe allowing Trixie to wear the diadem will do any harm. Indeed, I hope that it will help assure her that our intentions towards her are pure.” Celestia looked back to Trixie hopefully.

Trixie considered. “It helps,” she said at length, “a little.”

Celestia smiled at that, nodding, and their pace continued. “If I may,” she said at length, “you believe that I am supposed to be an evil mare?”

Trixie eyed Celestia, debating a moment internally, before nodding. “Corona, the Tyrant Sun.”

“And I suppose I want to bring about eternal daylight?”

Trixie eyed Celestia strangely. “No,” she said. “That’s…that’s stupid. Everything would die. No, you want to reign over Equestria as Queen. Be unchallenged, uncompromising. Make everypony into your little puppets and just control every little detail of our lives.”

“I see,” Celestia said, pressing her lips together as she mulled over this information. It was…unsettling, to say the least. She was grateful when they finally reached their destination, on the other side of Ponyville. A small crowd had gathered, though it was being kept back by several of Ponyville’s finest. Celestia’s other pegasus guard was sitting next to a large wagon, currently unfolded into a portable stage, talking to a pony that Celestia couldn’t see clearly due to him being in the way.

She could certainly hear the pony, however.

“This is absurd!” the pony exclaimed. “Trixie has never before even seen the Elements of Harmony in real life before! And even if she had, Trixie would most certainly not steal them! What would the Great and Powerful Trixie even need with them?”

Celestia and Twilight both started slightly at the sound of the voice, but Trixie froze outright, eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. “That’s…” she said softly, “that’s…not possible…”

Celestia trotted forward, as did Twilight, cautiously. The guards and ponies of Ponyville all bowed when they saw their Princess, as did the pegasus guard once he noticed her – and his bowing revealed a blue unicorn, wearing a purple wizard’s cap and cape, both studded with stars. Her eyes widened at the sight of Celestia, and she dropped into a bow as well.

“P-P-Princess Celestia!” Trixie – the Trixie in front of Celestia – exclaimed from where she stooped. After a moment’s pensiveness, she rose, taking a few steps forward. “Your Majesty…Trixie is awed and dazzled by your presence! But she nevertheless wishes to complain about the treatment she has received from your royal guards!” She jabbed an accusing hoof at the pegasus guard. “This brute has accused the Great and Powerful Trixie of stealing the Elements of Harmony, which is absurd! Trixie hasn’t even been to Canterlot in years!”

Celestia stared down at the mare before her, blinking several times. She looked, in every way, identical to the mare that was even now still standing behind her in shock. As Celestia watched, Twilight moved forward, next to this mare, and poked her a few times with one hoof.

“Hey!” Trixie exclaimed at Twilight’s poking. She eyed her when she realized who it was doing the prodding. “Twilight Sparkle,” she said. “I see we meet again…why are you poking Trixie?”

Celestia considered, then stepped aside, looking behind her at the other Trixie. The two blue unicorns’ eyes met, and both gasped, stepping back. After a moment, the Trixie not wearing the Element of Magic pointed a hoof. “There’s your thief!” She exclaimed. “Look, she’s wearing the Element of Magic right now! Arrest her for theft, and for character assassination, trying to ruin the Great and Powerful Trixie’s reputation! She’s an imposter!”

The other Trixie bristled. “I am not an imposter!” she shouted. “I am Dame Trixie Lulamoon, the Element of Magic, the Apprentice of Princess Luna, the Representative of the Night Court to Ponyville! You’re the imposter, you…you overblown hack!”

“Also, she’s crazy!” The first Trixie exclaimed, leaning away from her. She looked to Twilight. “Twilight, you do believe me, yes? The Great and Apologetic Trixie? Trixie can offer any proof you wish!”

Twilight looked between the two Trixies, then up to Celestia. “This one’s the real one,” she said.

“I’m the real Trixie!” the other Trixie insisted, stomping her hoof.

The Princess of the Sun could only shake her head a few times as she considered the two Trixies. “We shall go back to the library,” she said. She turned to the self-proclaimed Great and Powerful of the Trixies. “Miss Trixie, I must ask you to accompany us. There is a mystery here, and I wish to solve it.”

“Trixie is not a thief!”

“No, I do not believe you are. And you match up much more closely with my expectations, based on my student’s reports on you.” She turned and looked to the other Trixie. “Which raises the question…who are you?”

The other Trixie looked between Celestia, Twilight, and her counterpart, eyes still wide in disbelief. “I’m…I’m Trixie,” she insisted, though she paused at her own words. “…right?”

“Okay okay okay,” Trixie said, eying Corona, Twilight, and her overblown, pompous, egotistical, arrogant, nag of an imposter. “I think…I think I know what happened.”

The four were trotting to Ponyville’s library, the overblown, pompous, egotistical, arrogant nag’s wagon being carried along behind them by Corona’s magic. “I think,” she said, “that somehow, when I was struck by lightning, while in the middle of trying to teleport…somehow I was teleported to an evil alternate universe where Corona, you won a thousand years ago in the fight with Luna. But then over the past thousand years, you’ve had a chance to mellow out. Maybe.”

“That’s absurd,” Twilight said as the library came into sight. “This isn’t an evil alternate universe!”

“I agree with Sparkle,” the overblown, pompous, egotistical, arrogant nag said. “Trixie is not evil.”

“Oh yeah?” Trixie asked her. “What’s this I hear about an Alicorn Amulet?”

She bristled. “Trixie made a mistake!” she said. “Much like you did by trying to impersonate her! But Princess Celestia will correct everything!”

Trixie looked to Corona, who glanced between her and the overblown, pompous, egotistical, arrogant nag. “I believe,” Corona said, “that we all need to take a few moments to calm down and gather our thoughts. Once we reach the library, we shall brew up some tea, sit down, and try and sort things out.”

“I prefer coffee with cinnamon,” Trixie and the overblown, pompous, egotistical, arrogant nag said at the same time. Their eyes widened when they heard each other, and both leaped away, stopping their trot and glaring at each other. They were, by now, right outside the library’s front door.

“Imposter!” Trixie exclaimed.

“Fake!” The fake Trixie countered hypocritically. “Go buck a beehive!”

“Go burn in the sun!”

“Trixies!” Corona interrupted, telekinesis stopping the two of them before they could leap at each other and begin trying to tear each other limb from limb. “Please, this fighting will not solve nor help to solve anything. Emotions are running high right now, and what we need most, I feel, are just a few moments of peace, and – ”

The library’s front door opened. Trixie looked, and saw a small, purple baby dragon –

“Spike?” she demanded. “What is Spike doing here?”

“He’s my number-one assistant,” Twilight said, groaning as she pointed between the two Trixies. “Spike, you remember Trixie. And now there’s Trixie as well. There’s two Trixies. One of them is real. I think it’s that one.” She pointed at the imposter, who smiled and stuck her tongue out at Trixie.

Spike blinked a few times, eyeing the imposter. “You’re the one who came here a few months back with the Alicorn Amulet?” he asked. At her somewhat embarrassed nod, he looked to Trixie. “Okay, then, so you’re the one from an alternate universe.”

“That’s my theory,” Trixie said. “I think this is the evil alternate universe. It would explain a lot. Though I guess from your perspective, my universe is alternate…”

“Spike,” Corona said, “how did you come to that conclusion?”

Spike looked to Twilight, pointing at her. “Because Twilight’s alternate universe self just left a few minutes ago.”

“What?” Corona asked.

“What?” Twilight demanded.

“WHAT?!” Trixie exclaimed at the top of her lungs, as her head whipped around, keeping an eye open for Ursa Minors. “She’s here? How? Why?”

“That’s what she asked when I told her about you…”

“Why didn't you, I dunno, stall her and keep her here?”

Spike shrugged a little. “Not like I had much of a choice, she trapped me in a bubble.” Twilight gasped at that, putting a hoof on Spike’s shoulder, but he patted it reassuringly. “I was fine. Well, I thought at first she was a clone, or a robot maybe. But she didn’t want to hurt me. And she said that she was from another world.” He looked to Twilight. “She, um…she took a bunch of spellbooks, then teleported away. I don’t know which ones yet…”

“That’s okay, Spike, as long as you’re fine,” Twilight said, patting him on the head. She looked to Corona. “What do we do?”

Corona’s head was tilted in thought. “Get inside and out of the cold,” she said, trotting forward. The other mares and one baby dragon followed her inside, Spike closing the door behind him. “And then brew up some tea, and try to sort things out, as before. If this other Twilight has teleported away already, there is not much we can do – oh, what now?”

Trixie blinked. It was the first time she had seen Corona actually, truly lose her control, only in this case it seemed to be more in exasperation than ire or madness, like she had been expecting since this whole ordeal had begun. Corona had turned around, trotting back to the door and opening it, looking outside. Whether by chance or design, the library’s front door happened to face east, the direction of the rising celestial bodies. With the sun already in the sky, the horizon should have been empty but for a few stray wisps of cloud.

It was not. In the far distance, the Moon was beginning to rise, at a speed that Trixie had never seen it do before. Following the moon into the sky, from horizon to horizon, were the stars and the dark of the night. It looked like nothing so much as a giant tidal wave, growing ever larger and ready to fall upon Ponyville and wash it away with the power of the Night.

Trixie felt relief for the first time in hours, as a broad smile split her features. “I know what’s happening,” she said, dashing past Celestia and out into Ponyville. “I know who’s doing this!”

Corona followed Trixie quickly, as did Twilight, the imposter Trixie, and Spike. Corona glanced up, at the Sun. Its position had been unchanged in the sky, but Trixie saw it beginning to move, making way for the oncoming, unexpected Night even as the citizens of this alien Ponyville were panicking.

“Princess!” Twilight cried. “What’s going on? Why’s the night starting already? It isn’t…it isn’t Nightmare Moon, is it?”

Trixie shook her head, looking around. “No,” she said. “It’s not. It’s – ”

She stopped talking, then because she saw them. Rounding a corner in Ponyville, five mares galloped as fast as their hooves could carry them, while a sixth was limiting herself severely in order to make sure she didn’t race ahead of the rest. They all slowed, and then stopped, when they saw Trixie.

Trixie felt tears in her eyes and did nothing to hide them when she saw Lyra, Carrot Top, Cheerilee, Raindrops, and Ditzy, all of whom were panting from their run, all of whom broke out into wide, relieved smiles at the sight of Trixie.

Trixie actually started running, though, only when she locked eyes with the sixth pony – tall, regal, not out of breath in the slightest after her run, with a coat of dark blue, and a cutie mark of a black nebula with a white moon sitting inside of it. She had wings, broad and strong, and a horn, tall and pointed. Her mane and tail were made of animate magic, flowing like water catching the reflection of the night sky.

Trixie didn’t check her speed at all as she barreled into the alicorn, throwing her hooves around her and squeezing as tight as she could, knowing that she would do no harm to her even if she wanted to. The alicorn’s own hooves and wings closed tightly around Trixie as she returned the hug whole-heartedly.

“Trixie,” Luna breathed softly. “Trixie, you’re safe, thank goodness…when I realized what had become of you, I…”

Luna gasped. Trixie felt herself being moved, suddenly, placed protectively behind Luna. Her friends closing in a tight circle around her as Luna spread her wings wide and head stooped low, eyes narrow, horn glowing brightly as she stared down Corona. The white alicorn’s own wings were spread protectively to shield Twilight, the imposter Trixie, and Spike. Far from looking like she intended to challenge Luna, however, her face contained little but confusion, though the confusion swiftly gave way to a look of enlightenment, like she had just finally solved a puzzle.

“It was you,” she said. “A thousand years ago…it wasn’t my Luna that I saw. It was you.”

Luna shifted slightly. “I did come here a thousand years ago, yes,” she said warily. “My reasons for why…are my own, Corona.”

Corona lowered her wings slowly, staring at Luna for some time, before finally closing her eyes. “I mean neither you, nor your student, any harm,” she said. “You may leave, Princess Luna. I wish you well. And…thank-you. I know you do not know what for…but thank-you.”

Luna blinked a few times at that. She stood a little straighter. “You’re not mad,” she said. “You’re not…you’re not Corona, are you? You never were.”

“No.” Celestia stood up somewhat straighter.

Luna stood still for a moment more, before taking a single, faltering step forward. After another second, she moved, suddenly – fast enough that Trixie couldn’t track the movement, though her destination was near – Princess Celestia, who suddenly found herself with Luna nearly on top of her, nuzzling her, hooves around her, wings folded around Celestia’s body. It was enough to actually unbalance the sun princess, and the two tumbled to the ground. Luna didn’t loosen her grip on Celestia at all.

Celestia looked uncomfortable as she managed to get herself into a sitting position. “Princess Luna,” she said. “I am not your sister.”

“I know…” Luna breathed, not moving. “I know, but please, just for a moment…let me pretend…”

Celestia didn’t hesitate. Her own wings unfurled, wrapping around Luna as she held the other princess close. Luna all but burst into tears at the action, hugging Celestia tighter.

7. Black Magic

Things were more delicate than they seemed. They always are.

Crack.

The splinter and spider-web cracks that weren’t really there, across the place that wasn’t real, were huge now. The wall was more cracks and chips than actual wall at this point. But it was fine. In the grand scheme of things, worse things by far had happened to the wall that wasn’t there. Reality wasn’t going to tear apart at the seams just because a few mares had decided to play with it. The universe is made of sterner stuff than that.

But that didn’t mean that there weren’t other consequences.

Crack.

It is difficult for a three-dimensional being to really understand what was happening. It could only have been described in metaphor, and poorly at that.

Imagine a bow, like those used to fire arrows. Only, this bow has four ends, all meeting in the middle. Two of the ends reach past the wall of reality and into one world, and the other two into the other world. Now, imagine that the bow has bent back on itself. The ends are nearly touching, all four of them. The bow can bend, but it isn’t really supposed to, not like that. Of course there is strain. Cracks along the center as the bow remains pulled taut.

Crack.

Still, things are not beyond recovery here, either. The bow has to bend for only a little while longer, and as long as any sudden shocks are avoided, it can go back to the way it was, and be repaired over time.

But if there is any additional strain added…if things go even a little wrong…

“In my life, I have made three great mistakes,” Luna informed Celestia several minutes later, when she had finally calmed down. “The first was failing my version of you. Being so self-absorbed with my own resentment and loneliness that I didn’t notice how ruling Equestria was beginning to wear upon her. Doing nothing until it was too late…until my sister had become Corona, and needed to be sealed within the Sun for what I thought would be forever.”

Celestia inclined her head. Overhead, the moon and stars were retreating backwards in the sky, setting beyond the eastern horizon until it would actually be their time to rise “I have similar regrets,” she said.

Luna nodded. “The second mistake is…personal,” she said. “And not relevant. The third mistake is. Nine years after banishing Corona into the Sun, I…” she looked down. “I abandoned Equestria, my Equestria, utterly.”

Celestia’s head tilted to the side slightly. “What do you mean?”

“That is why I was here a thousand years ago,” Luna said. “I had spent nine years drunk and depressed, wandering the land, trying to forget, avoiding my duties as Princess. But I couldn’t forget, no matter how hard I tried. Celestia and I, we had dwelled in Equestria since time immemorial, since before there was even an Equestria. Every tree, every rock, every blade of grass, would remind me of what I had done.” She shook her head. “So…so I arranged for the Sun and the Moon to take stable orbit. I made sure to leave behind, in Canterlot, instructions for the unicorns, lost knowledge on how to move them. They would have plenty of time to practice. And I just…went away.”

Luna looked back to Celestia. “I have always had an interest in exploration, in what lies beyond the next horizon. I had long ago discovered that my world was but one of many. I had also discovered, though, that the vast majority of worlds are barren and lifeless. And travel between worlds was only possible during limited windows of opportunity, windows that are closed for hundreds or even thousands of years at a time. An opportunity to go to an inhabitable world, however, presented itself, and…” she fell silent, looking down and closing her eyes.

Celestia pressed her lips tightly together. “And you abandoned your world,” she finished, “leaving the ponies there to the wiles of fate.”

“I make no excuse,” Luna said, shaking her head. “There is none. Once I was here, I discovered ponies, I discovered a world very much like my own…but different, and new, as well. I thought that I could start fresh.” She looked to Celestia. “And that is, of course, when you appeared. And though you did not look just as Corona had, in the end…” she shook her head. “I…saw you, and I felt a presence in the Moon, and I drew my own conclusions. That this was a parallel world to my own, where events had transpired much as they had in mine, except that you had defeated me.”

Luna scuffed a hoof. “I entered a town…I forget its name. I heard that you had become a tyrant. I witnessed a pony being placed in the stocks for a day for swearing. And…and I thought that the same madness that had taken my sister in my world, had taken you here. The same desire for ceaseless, unending control.”

Celestia stiffened slightly, glancing at Twilight. “I…did not take banishing my sister into the Moon well, Princess Luna,” she said. “Here, I was the one who failed her. The pain and loneliness you mentioned, I did not notice, and the result was her corruption by dark magic. She became Nightmare Moon, and she vowed to make the Night last forever, in order to ensure that ponies had no choice but to witness its beauty.” She looked down. “After banishing Nightmare Moon, I plunged myself into my role as the Princess. I wanted to keep ponies safe, and I wanted to ensure that nopony ever could fall into darkness as my Luna did. But…but mostly, I wanted to keep myself so busy that I could not think about what I had done.”

Luna blinked a few times, shifting uncomfortably. “I see,” she said. She offered a pained smile. “Work…drink…we each have our coping mechanisms, I suppose.”

Celestia nodded. She eyed Luna. “So…so then you returned to your world, obviously, and resumed your duties,” she noted.

Luna shook her head. “Well, I did return,” she said, “but the depression only worsened at the thought of there being no escape at all, not even the cowardly one I had taken. It was three more years before I was finally able to pull myself together.”

Celestia started at that. “I see,” she said, looking disturbed for some reason. She quickly looked away from Luna, and to Trixie and her friends. She was amongst them, nuzzling them and hugging them closely. “How did you know what had happened to her?”

“She didn’t,” the magenta earth pony, Cheerilee, said, as she finished hugging Trixie. She looked warily at Celestia, but seemed to have decided that if Luna was comfortable, then she could try to be the same as well. “At least, not at first.”

“She said you were dead,” The jasmine pegasus, Raindrops, said as she patted Trixie on the head.

Trixie started at that, looking to Luna. “Um,” she said, “why?”

Luna grimaced. “Trixie, you know that I am a very firm believer in a pony’s right to privacy,” she said, “but…I do believe that there are exceptions to that right. And the first and foremost exception are those ponies whom I have taken on as an apprentice. You remember, years ago, when I first took you into Canterlot? And I cast a location-spell upon you in case you got lost?”

Trixie thought a moment, before her eyes widened. “You said it would fade at the end of the day!” She noted.

Luna smiled a little guiltily. “I…lied,” she admitted. “But, it is a good thing that I did. I do not track your movements on a day-to-day basis, I do trust you, Trixie. But the spell would be useful, I felt, if anypony were every foolish enough to kidnap you. You can imagine my shock, however, when it suddenly ceased. In the past, there has been only one reason for that.”

Trixie put a hoof to her chest. “I’m…I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to! I was trying to teleport, and…stupid lightning…I’m never teleporting again.”

Luna inclined her head. “I went to Ponyville. My arrival was…public, and my concern evident. Your friends caught up with me in front of Sweet Apple Acres, where I was in the process of both trying to discover what had happened, and demanding of Miss Applejack everything she knew about what had happened to you – which was, of course, nothing.” She shook her head. “I had all but given up hope until I noticed the hole you had left behind in the world, realized what had happened,” she looked to Celestia, “and realized where you had gone.”

“That’s when she got all of us together,” Carrot Top, the yellow earth pony, said. “Explained what had happened. I didn’t really believe it at first – ”

“I’m still having a hard time,” Ditzy Doo, the gray pegasus, added.

“ – but we came anyway,” Carrot Top continued. “Only…we were supposed to have the Elements of Harmony with us, in case we needed to fight Corona.”

“But they didn’t come with us, for some reason,” Lyra said. She noted the tourmaline diadem sitting on Trixie’s head still. “I guess you found the local ones, though. Um…why does that have Twilight Sparkle’s cutie mark?”

“Oh!” Trixie interrupted, stepping forward and looking at Luna. “I almost forgot! Princess, Twilight, our world’s Twilight, is here!”

Luna grimaced. “Yes,” she said, closing her eyes and setting her horn glowing. After a moment, there was a midnight-hued flash and pop, and a deep blue sphere, five feet in diameter, was hovering next to Luna. Inside the sphere, hunkering down and looking utterly defeated, was a lavender unicorn with a dark mane marred by two stripes, one purple and one pinkish, with a cutie mark of a starburst with smaller stars around it. She glanced up, gave Trixie a long look, and then cast her head back down.

“We caught her,” Luna said.

Crack.

Twilight stared at Twilight, but Twilight refused to look back.

The concept of that alone would have normally been enough to set off Twilight, but with everything that had been happening over the past few hours, she felt almost like her panic-mode was burned out.

Trixie, however – that was to say, Trixie, self-proclaimed Great and Powerful, her universe’s Trixie – seemed to be utterly fascinated.

“So if Trixie is understanding everything correctly,” she said quietly to Twilight as Luna continued to speak with Celestia, “that…tramp…is the student of Princess Luna from another universe?”

Twilight nodded. “It makes no sense,” she said.

“Trixie agrees – hey, wait a minute!” she turned on Twilight. “What do you mean by that? You think I’m not good enough?”

“No, I mean it makes no sense!” Twilight hissed, looking at Trixie. She felt annoyance rising inside of her again at this whole situation. “Didn’t you hear what the difference was between our world and theirs? Princess Luna stayed good and princess Celestia went evil, somehow. But that was a thousand years ago! Shouldn’t a thousand years of differences started to pile up? How does that Trixie,” she pointed a hoof at the alternate-universe counterpart “even exist? Do you know what the odds are of two ponies meeting and having a foal? The slightest change and you might not even exist! Then multiply that by a thousand years worth of differences!” She put her hooves to her mouth as she gasped. “It could work if free will is a lie! If all our lives are just played out on some kind of tapestry without us having any real input! We just go through the motions and – ow!”

Twilight rubbed her flank, where Spike had poked her with one claw. “Spike!” she exclaimed. “I was in the middle of an existential crisis!”

“I know. I helped,” he said.

“Trixie stopped paying attention after you stopped talking about her, anyway,” Trixie said, looking back to Twilight’s counterpart, the one stuck in the bubble. After a moment, she trotted up to it, knocking on the bubble’s outer edge. “Hello! Twilight from another world! Trixie would ask you a question.”

The Twilight inside blinked, glancing up. Celestia and Luna also ceased talking, as did the other Trixie and her friends. The Great and Powerful Trixie noticed the attention, and stood up straighter at it.

“Trixie has gathered that our two worlds run parallel,” she said, making a sweeping motion with one hoof. “Therefore, she assumes that you, too, were unfairly blamed for the arrival of an Ursa Minor in Ponyville. Trixie would like to hear you regale her about how her…other self…defeated it!”

The pony in the bubble blinked a few times. “Why not ask her?” she asked, pointing at her own version of Trixie. Her voice was tinny from echoing through the bubble’s surface.

Trixie smiled. “Oh, no reason – ”

“She wants to hear it coming from you because it’ll sound like it’s coming from that one,” the alternate Trixie said, trotting forward. She eyed her counterpart. “It’ll be like hearing her Twilight describe her.”

The Twilight in the bubble stared between the two Trixies, before her eyes narrowed. “I don’t believe it,” she said. “You really are the same. Both of you! You’re both giant frauds! And me and my own counterpart!” She glared at Twilight, pointing at her. “I thought you were better. I thought you wouldn’t make the same mistakes as me. But then…want-it-need-it?”

Twilight blanched, trotting forward herself. “I made a mistake!”

“And that mistake was that you used it on foals!” Twilight exclaimed shrilly.

The Trixie from the alternate universe rolled her eyes. “Yes, and dropping a space bear on the town is so much better – ”

“I teleported it back into the Everfree! All you did was distract it and nearly get eaten!”

Celestia and Luna regarded their students and their students’ doppelgängers, who were completely ignoring them at this point. They glanced between each other. “Should we…?” Celestia asked.

Luna considered. “I sense there is a lot of pent-up anger here,” she said, looking to the pony who looked so much like her sister. “It…might be best if we let them get it out of their systems. Especially my Twilight.” She inclined her head. “But this is your world and your kingdom.”

Celestia considered. “We’ll intervene if things get too much out of hoof.”

“Of course.” Luna swept a hoof behind her, at the remaining five Elements of Harmony – her Elements, in any event. They were watching their friend Trixie closely, but seemed to have come to the same conclusion that Luna did. “I should like to introduce you to these fine mares, in any event.”

Crack.

Trixie took the Element of Magic off of her head, waving it in front of Twilight. “You don’t get this just for being a good spellcaster, Twilight! That’s what I was trying to tell you before – ”

The Element was wrapped in Twilight’s horn-glow, as she pulled it back to herself. “I’d really like this back now, though,” she said. “Since, you know, we’ve figured out that it’s not really yours.”

“But it could have been mine…” The Great and Powerful Trixie said thoughtfully.

The Twilight in the bubble and the other Trixie both laughed. “You’re a fraud,” Twilight said.

“You’re like me, before I came to Ponyville, multiplied by ten,” Trixie continued.

The showpony blanched. “And what is that supposed to mean?” she asked, getting up in her other self’s face.

“It means,” she said, and then looked to the free Twilight. “What’s that about an Alicorn Amulet?”

“Leave Trixie alone,” Twilight insisted. “She – ”

“She doesn’t need help from you, Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie interrupted, holding up a hoof. “Trixie is still grateful for you freeing her, make no mistake. But Trixie can fight her own battles!”

“Ha,” the other Trixie said. “I’ll bet.”

The trapped Twilight rolled her eyes. “Are you really so insecure that you have to belittle her?” she asked. “It’s not like you’re any better.”

“Not like I’m…?” Trixie asked, stepping back, before her eyes narrowed. “Um, hello? Dame Trixie, Twilight. I didn’t get that for nothing. I helped defeat Corona, I saved Oaton. It was me at Andalantis, me at – ”

“Ice. Palace.”

Dame Trixie froze at that, mouth hanging open, before shutting it deliberately and narrowing her eyes. “That was months ago!”

Crack.

“Well it just seems to me that if you’re going to keep at this Trixie here for whatever she did – ”

“This from the pony dodging how she mind-slaved an Ursa Minor – ”

“You what? And you have the gall to call me out for using the want-it-need-it? I thought you just lured the thing into your Ponyville – ”

“Which Trixie wasn’t even responsible for here, incidentally! But no, they all blamed her for – ”

“Because it was your fault! Your boasting, your own stupidity – ”

“You’re not even from here! You don’t know what happened! The Great and Powerful Trixie only – ”

“Oh will you stop that? You’re not on stage!”

“The whole world is a stage!”

“Stars Above it’s like looking into a carnival mirror.”

“Speak for yourself, chubby.”

“What?”

“You heard me! We’re not identical. Trixie has finely toned musculature from her life on the road, but you, you clearly need to work out more!”

“Please, Trixie wouldn’t know hard work if it bit her in the flank. She shouldn’t even be Representative to Ponyville, she just used Luna to get herself a cushy job.”

“I did not! Besides, your counterpart is a librarian! How do you get easier than that?”

“Hey! Firstly, I’m still Princess Celestia’s student too, you know! That’s a job in and of itself – ”

“Sure it is.”

“You know what? You’re both jerks.”

“So are you.”

“And so are you! We’re all just broken – ”

“Not me! I’ve got the Element of Magic – ”

“Hey, give that back! It’s mine!”

“It’s mine too!”

“It could have been mine!”

“It shouldn’t be any of ours – ”

Stop and look, before it all falls apart.

Princess Celestia was talking to the bearers of the Elements from another world, assuring them that she is nothing like Corona. But at the sound of an actual scuffle, she has her head over her shoulder. Luna has turned around as well. Both are about to intervene.

The Twilight from Luna’s world is standing on her hind legs inside her prison, her forelegs touching the edges. She’s shouting as she stares at the Element of Magic, suspended in front of her.

The Trixie from Luna’s world has a telekinetic grip on the Element of Magic. She’s shouting, too, pointing a hoof at the free Twilight.

The self-proclaimed Great and Powerful Trixie is reaching out a hoof, trying to touch the Element of Magic. She won’t get a chance.

And Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia, is pulling on the Element of Magic with telekinesis, trying to bring it back to her.

Nopony had ever even considered that it could happen. How could they? It’s so utterly impossible. Not that that has ever stopped something from happening before.

CRACK.

Snap.

Everypony froze at the sound. It wasn’t even very loud. Indeed, one would think that it should have been a much louder, more intense sound, given what had happened. It nevertheless was loud enough to shock both Trixie and Twilight from letting their telekinetic grip on the tourmaline diadem go, as everypony watched it fall in two pieces to the ground. The gemstone it held broke free of its clasp as it fell. It bounced into the air once, fractures all along its surface, then fell back down onto the road and shattered apart.

There was a moment of stunned, horrified silence. Then, there was an explosion of light, followed only slowly by a cacophonous boom that threw everypony to the ground, even the Princesses – even the Twilight that had been trapped in Luna’s bubble, as the bubble was utterly destroyed by the blast.

Purple light shot from the shattered gem into the sky, and after a moment the pieces of the gemstone followed. The light was not a solid beam, nor even a curve, but a jagged, twisting thing, roiling and moving upon itself in random directions in the sky and leaving streaks of purple-tinged magic behind it, before finally beginning to descend in the far distance, its fall much more uniform than its ascent. It appeared to land somewhere deep inside the Everfree Forest.

Everypony picked themselves up only slowly. Princesses Luna and Celestia were the first to rise, moving slowly, unbelieving, towards their apprentices and their apprentices’ doppelgängers. In the center of those four ponies lay the tourmaline diadem, broken jaggedly in half – and not a trace of the gemstone remained.

“Twilight,” Celestia said. Both Twilights looked to her in shock, though she undoubtedly was referring only to her student. “What have you done?”

“It…it wasn’t me!” Twilight exclaimed, pointing an accusing hoof. “It was Trixie!”

“No it wasn’t!” One of the Trixies exclaimed. “I just needed the Element for an example, Twilight wouldn’t let go – ”

“It certainly wasn’t me,” the other Trixie said, cowering before the two alicorns, “I never touched it – ”

“It was definitely these two pulling it apart, what did they think would happen – ” the other Twilight said.

“Silence,” Luna ordered, spreading her wings wide. The four ponies cowered, Celestia’s student looking fitfully to her teacher. Celestia, however, did not rebuke Luna as she gingerly hefted the shattered diadem with a golden aura, eyes darting back and forth as her mind raced.

“Princess Luna,” Celestia said after a moment, looking to the other alicorn, “I need to speak with you, privately, for a moment.”

Luna nodded, following Celestia as she trotted off a dozen paces, already speaking in a low voice. The ponies watched the conversation in silence, glancing between each other. At one point, the Trixie of Luna’s world began to edge closer to her friends, but Luna noticed and shot Trixie a look, and she returned to where she was.

Both Luna and Celestia seemed to say things that made the other unsure, but at length, they turned around and returned to the four ponies that had broken the Element of Magic. “Trixie,” Luna said as she approached, looking directly at her student, “I do not want to hear any argument about what we are about to say. Do you understand?”

“Nor you, Twilight,” Celestia said. “Time is short.”

The two students glanced at one another fitfully – glared might have been a better term – but nodded.

“You shattered the Element of Magic,” Celestia began. “All four of you. I do not know how, but that does not matter.”

“Without the Element of Magic,” Luna continued, “disasters and monsters long held at bay in this world, may find themselves loosed one again. In fact without the Element of Magic, it is possible that this entire world may unravel. In other words, Trixie, you have endangered the lives of everypony here.”

Trixie wilted. Celestia eyed Luna a moment, but then returned her gaze to Twilight. “We have time,” she said. “That much is obvious by the fact that we are not already besieged by our greatest foes.” She leaned a little closer. “You know who I’m talking about.”

Twilight nodded. “Discord,” she said.

“And he’s only the greatest threat,” Celestia said. “Not the only one.”

“The solution is simple,” Luna said, pointing a hoof behind her at the Everfree Forest. “Go and recover the gemstone. Both of you.” She looked past the two students, at their two copies. “And you two will accompany them and aid them.”

“What?” The other Trixie demanded. “Trixie has no intention of going into the Everfree!”

“And I didn’t even do anything!” Twilight objected. “I was in your bubble, I couldn’t possibly have – ”

Luna and Celestia’s wings snapped wide open. Twilight shut up, while Trixie backed away a little and laughed nervously. “I…guess we could use my wagon?” she asked.

The two Princesses nodded, pulling their wings back against their barrels. “It must be you four only, however,” Luna said, glancing at Trixie’s other friends, and then also at Spike. “Do not ask why. Just leave. Now.”

“W-wait!” One of Trixie’s friends – Lyra – objected, stepping forward. “You mean we came all the way here, we jumped across an entire world, just to not help Trixie?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” Celestia said, inclining her head. “I am sorry, but things have to be this way. We can explain in detail later. Why have you not left yet, Twilight?”

The rapid change in subject startled Celestia’s student. “U-um,” she stuttered. “R…right! Come on!” She galloped towards Trixie’s wagon. After another moment, the other three ponies followed. Celestia and Luna both noted, with no small amount of concern, that the four ponies all studiously avoided looking at each other, and even once all atop the wagon and setting it off via magic, they left in silence, not out of determination, but from contempt of one another. Their silence was not broken even once the four were out of sight, heading towards the edge of town, and beyond that, the Everfree.

Trixie’s remaining friends, and Spike, all looked to the Princesses. “Why couldn’t we go with them?” Spike asked Celestia. “I mean, I never get to help Twilight out with saving the world!”

Celestia glanced down at him, “because,” she said, “you are Twilight’s friend already…which means you cannot help her.”

“The Element of Magic is the Element of Friendship,” Luna continued. “And I believe what we just saw was what happens if two bearers of the Element of Magic meet…and don’t like each other very much.”

“The problem may have even been exacerbated by the presence of the other Twilight and other Trixie,” Celestia continued. She grimaced. “I suspect that the Element of Magic will only be repaired if those four can become friends.”

“Oh,” Spike said. Then he really thought about what Celestia had said. “Oh…that’s not good.”

Nearly a hundred miles away and a few minutes earlier, a jagged beam of purple light arched through the sky over the Everfree Forest. It twisted and turned several times, doubled back on itself, ricocheted off of tree and rock and one very rudely awakened hydra, bounding randomly until it finally splashed down into a roaring river framed by thick bushes and trees.

There was a moment of calmness after that. Then, a pony’s head broke the surface of the river, gasping for air, trying to swim but sinking beneath the rapid flow quickly. She rose a second time, only to sink back down once more. On the third time, she let out a scream, the horn atop her head glowed a bright, angry purple, and magic shoved at the river, pushing the water on all sides of her backwards and away. She landed in the muck of the riverbed, getting coated in grime and sand, breathing deeply a few times before grimacing and standing. She looked at the water that she was telekinetically holding back, that had dared try to drown her. With a grunt, she sent a blast of black magic at it.

The magic seemed to coil and twist into the water, running and moving like inky lightning, upriver as far as the eye could see. When the entire water had become jet black, it ceased, leaving behind nothing but a dry riverbed.

The pony chuckled to herself as she climbed out of the river, shaking herself off. There was a puddle nearby, which allowed her to get her first good look at herself. She discovered her mane and tail were dark blue and thick, and her fur was a deep blue, or maybe purple, she didn’t know. Twisting a little, she found herself looking at a cutie mark on her flank – a lavender starburst set against a midnight-blue, crescent-shaped nebula.

“Makes sense,” the pony grunted, then raised an eyebrow. “I can talk!” She paused a moment at her own words. “I can think! I exist! That’s new! I think, therefore I am! I am…”

The pony paused. “Huh,” she thought aloud. “Who? What? Where? When? How? Why? Why?” Okay, wait, calm down. You can do this. One at a time. In a list.”

“Who…um…I’ll get back to that.”

“What? Seem to be pony-shaped. Sound like a pony. Pony, then. Ha! This is easy!”

“Where? Looks like the Everfree. I don’t like the Everfree.”

“When? Now.”

“How? Trixie and Twilight broke the Element of Magic. Duh.”

“Why?”

The pony thought. Ah, there was the rub! A purpose! A pony needed a purpose in life. Cutie marks were a good guide, but hers wasn’t, not really. She needed something more. A driving goal. Something to motivate her. Something to give herself meaning. The answer was, of course, obvious. Some ponies may have spent years or decades agonizing and philosophizing, but not her. She was only a few minutes old, but, just like how a foal instinctively knows how to walk, she instinctively knew exactly what she wanted.

“I’m going to kill Twilight and Trixie.”

She considered.

“It’ll be fun.”

8. Magic Trick

The icy silence that gripped the two sets of doppelgängers didn’t last once the two Princesses were out of sight and Trixie’s wagon was moving full speed ahead, nearly as fast as a pony could gallop.

“Oooooohhh this is bad,” Twilight panicked, hooves running through her mane in a nervous tick. Three of them – the two Twilights, and Luna’s student – were crammed into Trixie’s wagon, though the roof, they had found, could be partially opened and folded back, allowing them to see the Great and Powerful Trixie was leading them. The owner of the wagon, meanwhile, was sitting above them and in front, horn glowing bright pink as she worked the mechanisms of her wagon to keep it moving.

“This is bad, this is bad, I don’t believe we broke the Element of Magic!”

“Twilight, calm down.” Trixie tried.

“I am calm!” The other Twilight objected. “I didn’t break anything!”

“No, I meant that one,” Trixie continued, jabbing a hoof against the Twilight that was Celestia’s student. “Look, it’s easy, all we have to do is find where the Element landed – ”

“The Everfree Forest is an area nearly fourteen thousand square miles in size,” that Twilight objected as she rocked back and forth. “The gem is, what, maybe two inches across? And it was cracked. You saw it crack, Trixie! It could be anywhere…it could be everywhere! How much of it do we need? What if we need every last mote? How much dust was scattered across the Everfree floor, Trixie? Do we need – ”

“I never even touched the Element,” Trixie objected from where she sat. “Trixie doesn’t understand why she has been drafted into this against her will – ”

“Not you!” Twilight exclaimed, glancing up. “Well, yes, you…argh, this is going to get confusing…” she pointed up. “You’re Pink,” she then pointed to the Trixie that was closer to her. “And you’re going to be Blue, okay?”

“Wrong,” both Trixies objected at the same time. They glared at each other as the cart bounced over a pothole. Both snorted, then looked away. “I’m Trixie,” Luna’s apprentice asserted.

“No, only Trixie is Trixie,” the stage magician insisted, jabbing a hoof. “You’re the visitor to this world!”

“Yeah, but I’m better than you, so…”

Trixie’s cart ground to a halt at that, throwing the passengers inside forward and against each other. It was several moments before they were able to disentangle themselves, and glare at the driver.

“Trixie may not have had the teachings of an alicorn,” she said, jabbing a hoof down at her counterpart, “but Trixie has worked for everything she has, not had it hoofed over on a silver platter!”

The Trixie in the wagon laughed. “Right, you really think that Luna just hoofs stuff over? You think I haven’t worked?”

“I don’t think you have,” Twilight said.

Trixie turned to her. “I have!” she insisted.

“I didn’t say that, she did!” Twilight said objected, pointing at Twilight.

“Argh!” The Twilight from Luna’s world cried out, throwing her hooves in the air. After a moment, she pointed at her counterpart. “You can be Twilight, this is your world. I’ll just be Sparkle. And you’ll be Trixie,” she pointed at the pony in the wagon’s driver seat, “because this is your world, and you’ll be – ”

“Don’t you dare,” the last pony began to object.

The newly-christened Sparkle paused for just a moment, then grinned. “Lulamoon,” she said.

“I hate that name!”

“Why?” Trixie asked.

The vehemently-opposed-to-her-new-name pony looked at Trixie. “You were never teased in school?” she demanded. “Lou, lou, skip to my Lulamoon? Every time your name was said?”

Trixie thought a moment, then her eyes widened. “I remember that!” she exclaimed. “Wow, it’s been forever…”

“Wait, so that one,” Sparkle observed, pointing at Trixie, “got over something that you weren’t able to? And you call her – ”

“Shut up!”

“Blue or Lulamoon, take your pick.”

“Blue!”

“Okay, then.”

Trixie got her wagon moving again after a long moment of everypony staring at everypony else. After several seconds, she began humming to herself, glancing down at her counterpart as she did.

“Blue, blue, skip to my blue…”

“Shut. Up.”

“Fly’s in the buttermilk, shoo fly shoo…blue, blue, skip to my – ”

“Fine! I’ll be Lulamoon!”

“Are we in the Everfree yet?” Sparkle asked. “Are there any manticores nearby? Can they eat me? Please?”

Trixie swiftly discovered that letting the three ponies she’d been drafted into service with ride with the wagon open was a bad idea. Even before they had reached the Everfree, she had closed the awning, giving her peace and quiet from the three bickering mares in her wagon – more specifically, giving her peace and quiet from Lulamoon.

“Ooh, I hate her,” Trixie said to herself, pushing her front hooves together as they entered the Everfree proper, along a rough, natural dirt path. At this time of the year, the Everfree had no leaves on its trees, and so the gnarled branches of its trees did little to block the light of the sun from making its way down and into the forest itself. Even with it being brightly lit, however, the Everfree still managed to look…unnatural. Most notable was the complete lack of snow – the pegasi of Equestria may have dumped snow over most of the rest of the country, but the Everfree had not wanted snow, and the Everfree got the kind of weather that the Everfree wanted due to pegasus weather-magic having no effect on the region.

Which was, in fact, gigantic.

“How are we supposed to find a single shattered stone here, anyway?” Trixie asked, throwing her hooves in the air. “I wonder if that was Princess Celestia’s decision, or Princess Luna’s. It was a dumb one, anyway – ”

“Uuuugh!” Trixie heard from within her wagon. There was a popping noise from behind Trixie, and she started, turning just in time to see a teleportation bubble pop, and a unicorn in a brown cape now standing on top of her wagon. After a moment, she tapped her chest. “Sparkle,” she identified, trotting over and sitting down next to Trixie as a window on Trixie’s wagon opened.

“Hey! Don’t teleport away again!” Lulamoon’s voice called out from within, and she stuck her head out, looking around.

“I’m right here!” Sparkle objected, not looking. Lulamoon’s head whipped around to glare at her. Sparkle glared back. “I’m…I’m not going to run away again.” She sighed. “There’d be no point…”

“Good,” Lulamoon declared. “Don’t know what Luna was thinking, sending a wanted criminal along with us – ”

Sparkle stiffened, and turned to glare at Lulamoon, opening her mouth. After several moments, however, she shut it, turning back around. “Leave me alone,” she insisted, hunkering down. Lulamoon regarded her for a moment, looking almost regretful for some reason, before withdrawing back into the wagon – not before shooting a glare at Trixie, however.

Trixie returned it with full force, before looking at the unicorn that looked so much like the mare that Trixie still, on some level, considered to be her greatest rival. Sparkle noticed it after a moment. “What?” she demanded.

Trixie bristled. “So…Trixie still never heard how her counterpart defeated the Ursa Minor…” she noted with a wide smile.

Sparkle’s glare intensified. “I’m not going to help you stroke your own ego!”

“Trixie’s sense of self-worth,” she corrected, raising one hoof, “is more than sufficient! She is quite secure! She is simply curious. Did she – that is, Lulamoon – send it flying in a great whirlwind?”

“No.”

“Did she charm it with the music of the spheres and lead it home?”

“No.”

“Perhaps she grew to the size of the bear – no, four times its size – and bade it return from whence it came?”

“No!” Sparkle exclaimed, looking to Trixie and jabbing a hoof against her. “You ran around like an idiot for five minutes before I could teleport it back home!”

Trixie had leaned way from Sparkle’s hoof-jabs, bristling at her having used the term you instead of she. “You’re kidding,” she stated, “right?”

“No, I’m not,” Sparkle said, turning away and hunkering down once more. After a moment, she noticed the look from Trixie. “Oh…alright, fine. It was more complicated than that…Lulamoon and her friend Raindrops distracted it while I built up the energy to teleport it. She made a half-dozen illusions of herself to keep it busy while she conjured up a stormcloud, and Raindrops made it bigger, then tried to shock the bear. That didn’t work, so Lulamoon made her horn flash bright enough to blind it.” She looked back to Trixie. “Then she tripped and fell. The Ursa would have eaten her if I hadn’t teleported it away then.”

Trixie stared at Twilight, eyes wide, before letting out a long groan, looking away. “I don’t believe it!” She exclaimed. “Whole different universe, student of an alicorn princess, and Trixie is still playing second fiddle to Twilight Sparkle?”

“Looks like,” Sparkle said absentmindedly. “How do you think I feel? I graduated Luna’s magic academy with a perfect grade-point average. I aced every single test. Homework was always on time. I was graduated a year early. Luna herself was there to give me her diploma! But the Element of Magic chose her?”

Trixie scoffed. “Sorry,” she said, though her tone clearly indicated she was anything but, “but Trixie does not feel much sympathy for you there.”

“What?”

Trixie eyed Sparkle. “Listen to yourself, Sparkle,” she insisted, waving her front hooves over her head. “Ooh, Twilight Sparkle! My life is so hard because I went to the Princess’ own academy and was top of my class!” She set her hooves back down, staring at the road in front of her. “I may not have a diploma in my wagon. I may not have spellbooks.” She eyed Sparkle. “But the Great and Powerful Trixie is a working mare! She has come as far as she has in the world through her own sweat and blood and tears!”

“You think what I did isn’t work?” Sparkle demanded. “Do you even know what the tests at the Academy are like?”

“I assume they involve paper, and quills, and ink,” Trixie said, glaring at Twilight. “Trixie is not uneducated. But you don’t know what it’s like to be booed off stage!”

“Well, I’ll bet you don’t know what it’s like to pull a thirty-six hour study session!”

“Of course Trixie does! Her talent is extraordinary, but it requires work and practice! Ever been in the middle of a trick and suddenly forgot how to do it while on stage? I think not!”

“Wrong! I’ve had practical tests. And I sometimes I’d forget what I was supposed to do. Besides, all you have to do is live up your crowd’s expectations. You can just move to another town if things go bad. I had to live up to the expectations of Luna and my father and mother and…”

Trixie rolled her eyes. “Trixie’s grandfather was the greatest magician to have ever lived,” she said. “I bet he lived in your world too. Quartermoon the Magnificent.” She shifted a little, moving her cape aside to show off her cutie mark. “I have the same cutie mark that he did. Try imagining living up to that kind of standard.”

“That’s easy,” Sparkle noted. “My father is the viceroy of Latigo. The title will go to my older brother, of course, but I still grew up surrounded by royalty and nobility. There’s…” she sighed. “My father never pressured me into anything. But there’s still all that history behind me…behind the Starlight family. And I failed it.” She glanced at Trixie. “I...I didn’t even come up with the plan to get rid of the Ursa Minor. I was just panicking. Trixie – Lulamoon – is the one that came up with it.”

Trixie pursed her lips, even as she smiled inwardly. She knew that she – her counterpart, whatever – had been more instrumental than she had been led to believe! She focused on that happy thought as she watched the road in front of her, though after a moment she noticed that Sparkle’s eyes were still downcast. Trixie let out a long, low groan. “We’re not broken,” she insisted. “You worked hard at magic but were passed over because Trixie’s counterpart got lucky. And Trixie herself…she is intelligent, and charismatic, and beautiful, and has worked her entire life to get where she is! But Twilight got lucky. Our counterparts were in the right place at the right time and so the Element of Magic chose them.”

Sparkle scoffed slightly, no doubt at the implication that Trixie could ever be an Element. Trixie began to object, but then checked herself, sighing. “Trixie’s…rivalry…with Twilight,” she said at length, “should not extend to you, she supposes. The Great and Understanding Trixie, much to her own surprise, feels a measure of camaraderie with you.”

“Thanks,” Sparkle said, not immediately, but after weighing Trixie’s words carefully. She looked to Trixie. “And…I guess that, for all that you look like her…you’re not Trixie. My Trixie.” After a long moment, she extended a hoof. Trixie regarded it for several moments, considering, before finally reaching out one of her own hooves and tapping it to Sparkle’s.

“Could you stop doing that?” Twilight demanded of Lulamoon as she rifled through Trixie’s wagon.

“I could,” Lulamoon said. However, she did not.

The inside of Trixie’s wagon was cramped, with most of the space devoted to hanging sundries, turning gears, chests full of various trinkets and props for a magic show…Twilight didn’t know much about stage magic, but she gathered that there was enough here to put on quite a performance.

Lulamoon didn’t seem very interested in any of it, however. “If I was her…” she said aloud, “where would I keep it…?”

In some ways, Twilight was almost thankful to Lulamoon, as her constantly rifling was distracting, and that was exactly what Twilight needed right now: a distraction. Otherwise, she would keep thinking over the past day. Otherwise, she’d keep seeing the Element of Magic shattering before her. Otherwise, she’d keep thinking of the look on Celestia’s face…

“Argh!” Twilight exclaimed, turning around and glaring at Lulamoon. “How are you so calm? Princess Luna looked at least as angry with you as Princess Celestia was with me!”

Lulamoon stopped what she was doing, looking at Twilight. “You think that’s angry?” she scoffed. “Please. Try melting an ice palace on, amongst other ponies, her. Then you’ll see angry Princess Luna – aha!”

Lulamoon had found a hidden compartment, stashed beneath a chest. It had looked like just a blank piece of wood, but Lulamoon had it pulled open within just a few moments and began pulling out the contents. “Good, I was worried she was completely without taste…aahhh…” she pulled out a glass bottle full of an amber-colored liquid and held it up triumphantly. “Monsieur Bourbon, ne jamais me quitter!” She examined the label, and uncorked it and took a sniff. “Pas mal…”

“Alcohol?” Twilight demanded, stomping forward, horn glowing. “You’re not going to get drunk!”

“Send me to the Sun if I’m doing this sober,” Lulamoon countered, taking a long swig from the bottle – not as long as she would have liked, however, as Twilight pulled it away from her.

“This isn’t yours!” Twilight exclaimed.

“Well it isn’t yours either, so you can’t tell me what to do with it!” Lulamoon objected, though she didn’t make an effort to get the bottle back – probably, she was worried about it breaking, not unlike certain other objects in recent memory.

Twilight sighed, rubbing her head with one hoof. “This is going to be a long trip…”

“Drink up, it’ll make the time fly by.”

“I don’t drink.”

“Then there is something wrong with you. Can I at least get a little buzz going? It helps me think.”

Twilight gave Lulamoon her best look even as she pointedly levitated the bourbon back into the secret compartment that Lulamoon had pulled it from, then pointedly closed it and moved the chest that had been covering it back into position. Lulamoon pouted. “You’re no fun.”

Twilight stomped forward. “The Element of Magic is broken,” she said, “because of us! Why aren’t you acting concerned? Don’t you realize what could happen?”

“Bad things,” Lulamoon responded. “I get that. I get that, okay? I screwed up again! It’s not exactly a new experience for me, Little Miss Perfect! Stars Above, though, what can I do about it?” Her horn glowed bright as she threw up a hoof. With a flash of light, a glowing blue rough outline of the Everfree Forest appeared in front of her. “Look. This is the Everfree Forest, and this…” she conjured a tiny ball of light, almost imperceptible, and threw it into the forest. “this is the Element of Magic. How are we supposed to find it?”

“I was asking that earlier!”

“Yeah, I know. Forty billion square miles, you said!”

Twilight groaned, rolling her eyes. “Fourteen thousand. Forty billion would make it larger than the surface of the planet by several orders of magnitude – ”

“I was being facetious. However big it is, we’ll never find it! And that’s assuming we even get to spend the rest of our lives looking! There’s manticores and sirens and who knows what else?”

“Ursas,” Twilight said absently. She probably wouldn’t have, if she hadn’t been looking at a precise duplicate for Trixie.

Lulamoon threw up her hooves. “You make me sad, Twilight.” She said, horn glowing blue as she took off her hat and shook it a few times. A journal came tumbling out unceremoniously. She then moved the chest aside and once more retrieved the bottle of bourbon from where it was hidden. “So if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get a buzz going and see if Sparkle has anything useful in here, because other than that, I’m out of ideas.”

Twilight let out a long groan. “Lulamoon – ”

“Don’t call me that! I know we agreed that she’d be Trixie and I’d be Lulamoon but don’t actually call me Lulamoon!”

Twilight ground her teeth together as she stomped over to Lulamoon. “I,” she said, horn glowing as she took the bourbon away from Lulamoon, “am not going to deal with you – wait.”

She paused, considering. Lulamoon tried to get the bourbon back, but Twilight held it out of reach as she stared at the journal Lulamoon had pulled out. “Wait,” she said, turning around and opening up the wagon’s top again, sticking her head – and the bourbon – out. “Sparkle!”

Her doppelgänger looked back at her, eyebrow raising at the sight of the alcohol. Trixie, too, glanced, and her eyes widened. “Where did you get that?” she demanded, stopping her wagon and standing. “That’s Trixie’s!”

“I know, I’m keeping it away from Lulamoon,” Twilight said, levitating it over to Trixie, who grabbed it and held onto it protectively. She ignored Lulamoon’s second protest about her name as she focused on Sparkle. “Do you still have all those books you took from the library?”

Sparkle considered for several moments, before nodding, moving her cape aside and levitating out several books from the pocket inside. The magic of her pocket that made them tiny cancelled itself as soon as they were out in the open. “Yeah. Why?”

“It’s research material! Between your journal and those books, we might be able to find a way to track down the Element of Magic.”

Sparkle stared at her, head tilting to the side. “My journal…?” she asked, before her eyes widened. “Y-you mean the one I forgot in Ponyville? My Ponyville?”

Twilight nodded, looking behind her and holding out a hoof. Sighing from within the wagon, Lulamoon hoofed it over, and Twilight held it up. Sparkle’s eyes grew wider. “There is something in there that can help!” she cried, clambering forward and opening the book, rifling through it. “A tracking spell. I used it to find the Ursa Minor I…” she paused a moment, then shook her head. “It’s not important. We can use this as a start!” She flipped the journal around, showing it off to Twilight.

Twilight looked the spell over, smiling widely. “Wow, this is really good!” she pointed out. “But it only works on living creatures. We need to modify it somehow to be able to detect the magic of the Element of Harmony.”

“It’d help if we had a piece of it,” Sparkle said, sighing as she crossed her hooves in front of her. “The gemstone, I mean, I don’t think having the diadem would have helped any.”

Twilight shook her head. “We can make do. You didn’t have a piece of the Ursa Minor, after all, right?”

“No, but I knew what I was looking for: a Star Beast. I had a book that had the resonant magical aura of every Star Beast with me, so I was able to attune the spell to that. We’d need to know the resonant magical aura of the Element of Magic.”

“I don’t know what that is,” Twilight admitted dejectedly, sighing as she looked down. “Maybe if I’d had a chance to study the Elements today like I’d planned…”

“Well, maybe we can use somepony who was recently in contact with the Elements, or better yet who recently used them, specifically the Element of Magic.”

Twilight and Sparkle stopped at that, then looked behind Twilight, into the wagon, where Lulamoon was inspecting the hidden cavity in Trixie’s wagon for more bourbon. She noticed their staring after a moment, and frowned. “What?” she asked.

“I don’t remember agreeing to this,” Lulamoon said, standing in the middle of a magic circle that Twilight and Sparkle had drawn in the dirt ground. She raised on hoof, looking like she was ready to bolt in a moment. “In fact, I’m having a difficult time remembering how you even got me here in the first place.”

Twilight pointed absentmindedly to Lulamoon’s left as she examined Sparkle’s journal, comparing it with several of the other books that Sparkle had procured from her library. Lulamoon looked, and saw a glass with about two shots of bourbon in it floating in her own telekinetic aura.

“See, but it seems to me I could just as easily drink this and not be in a magic circle…”

“Shush,” Twilight insisted.

“Indeed, Trixie wishes to watch,” Trixie said. She had bourbon of her own, namely the remainder of the bottle, still half-full. “Also, Trixie suspects that you have a drinking problem.”

“I do not have a drinking problem. I just overcompensate because Luna is a teatotaler and wouldn’t ever let me have any alcohol and I only recently moved out of the castle.”

“Okay,” Twilight said, closing the book and spreading her hooves, hopefully stopping the argument before it could begin. “If there’s any trace of the Element of Magic’s magic still in you, Lulamoon – ”

“Don’t call me that – ”

“Then this should draw it out. Then we can use that magic to find out where the Element has landed!”

“…and that’s it, right?” Lulamoon asked, taking another sip of borubon. “I won’t turn into some kind of naked bear, will I?”

“What? No. Naked bear?”

“Or…something, I think Luna called it a hominan. Long story. Didn’t happen to me, happened to Lyra.” She looked down at the magic circle, before draining what was left of the bourbon and levitating it back to Trixie. “Unfun times. Hang on a second, I’ll want to see this…”

Lulamoon closed her eyes, horn glowing. When she opened them again, they had a faint blue glow to them, matching that of her horn. The other three mares stared. “What are you doing?” Twilight asked.

“Looking at magic,” Lulamoon said, raising one hoof as she looked between Twilight and Sparkle. “You two are really, really bright, by the way…” she glanced at Trixie. “And…that is weird, seeing my own magic from this angle. It doesn’t really work with mirrors, see, so…”

Sparkle blinked a few times. “That doesn’t look like a detect magic spell.”

“It’s not…not really, anyway. Detect magic just detects unicorn spellcasting. This lets me look at all magic, earth pony and unicorn and pegasus and everything else. It’s how I’ve learned most of the spells I know – I just watch them be cast, learn how to duplicate them. Lyra called it playing by ear. Luna showed me how to do it because I was terrible at learning magic from books.”

Atop the wagon, Trixie shifted uncomfortably, looking away dejectedly. Sparkle, too, had her head down in thought, looking somewhat embarrassed for some reason. Twilight noticed both, but decided to ignore them for the moment as she focused on the spell that she’d cobbled together. She set her horn glowing lavender as she focused on the lines of the magic circle she’d drawn in the dirt. The circle itself wasn’t really magical at all, but it served as a useful focus, its lines forming a path for her to sculpt and shape her spell. The circle lit up as Twilight’s magic poured into it, glowing bright lavender. Motes of spare magic fell away from Twilight’s horn, as well as sparks from the circle itself. Lulamoon clicked her tongue at the sight, but said nothing.

Twilight focused on her magical senses. She could feel Lulamoon within the circle, her magical being, her very core. She focused on that core, looking for anything aberrant…

There. Like a vein of gold hidden in ordinary rock, she found a magical presence completely different from that of Lulamoon’s. The presence was entwined around Lulamoon’s very being, far more of it that Twilight had originally suspected would be there. More to the point, Twilight realized, the vein of magic seemed to extend away from Lulamoon, out of the magic circle, and over to Trixie as well. Twilight’s senses told her that Trixie’s connection to the aberrant magic was tenuous at best…but what was it even doing there?

On a hunch, Twilight cast her senses inwards. She found her own magical core, and after looking, found a similar vein of powerful magic entwined around her very self.

So this is what Princess Luna means when she says that Trixie literally is the Element of Magic, she realized. As with Lulamoon and Trixie, the vein running through her extended out, and touched her otherdimensional counterpart, tenuous, but present. More to the point, however, she noticed even thinner threads as well – from her to Lulamoon, and to Trixie, and from Trixie to Twilight and Sparkle, from Sparkle to Trixie and Lulamoon, and from Lulamoon to Twilight and Sparkle.

Enlightenment came naturally after that, and all at once she knew why the Element of Magic had broken.

It can’t tell us apart, she thought. Not really…Lulamoon and I, we have the exact same vein of magic, and then we’re connected to each other, and to our counterparts…and then, with us all fighting over it…

Twilight set the thought aside as she returned to her original task. There was far too much magic here for her to safely remove, but focusing just upon Lulamoon, she was able to, extremely carefully, pull some of the magic away from Trixie. Only the barest mote, but hopefully, it would be enough.

Taking in a sharp breath as she pulled the mote of magic away, she focused now on a different spell. This one was a bit more familiar, a conjuration mixed with a little bit of divination. The mote of magic was sealed inside of a clear, crystalline container that she conjured out of nothingness. After a moment, the container pulsed pinkish-purple, then a beam of light shined from it, pointing north, through the Everfree and out of sight.

Twilight broke into a smile, clapping her hooves together as she ended her spell. “It worked!” she exclaimed happily. “We can use this to find the Element!”

Trixie glanced up from the wagon, looking at the direction the light was pointing, which was off the path they had been following and into the trees. “Trixie’s wagon is not meant to go off-road,” she noted.

“We’ll follow the path for as long as possible,” Twilight said, nodding her head. She smiled a little. “This is going to be easier than I thought!”

The pony stopped in her trot, staring at the beam of purple light that shown from her left and terminated at her flank. It passed through rocks and trees and hills unhindered, but not her: it just stopped.

“What’s this?” she asked aloud, waving her hoof over the light. It didn’t move. She tried to move out of the way, and the light followed her. Growling, her horn glowed bright and she lashed out at the beam, but her magic had no effect on the beam – or rather, it did succeed at cutting out the beam for several seconds, but then it resumed again. She’d destroyed the light but not the source of the light…

…which was almost certainly Twilight or Trixie, looking for their lost Element of Magic.

The pony considered a moment, before smiling brightly. The two had just given her a path to follow! A way for her to track them down! They had made it easier for her to find them and kill them in the most amusing fashion possible!

“This is going to be easier than I thought!” she said with a smile, skipping through the Everfree and towards the source of the light.

Author's Note

Sort of a filler chapter. Sorry.

10. Black Magic Show

They’re gonna teleport! The pony realized just as Twilight and Twilight’s horns began to glow. She ignored the smoke at her hooves and reached out magically, using her full power in panic.

“No you don’t!” She exclaimed, her own horn reaching out with magic just as the teleportation bubbles began to form around the four of them. She seized them and pulled as hard as she could.

“You can’t escape that easily! I’m gonna kill you and – ”

She had pulled too hard in her panic. While what had happened was much more complicated than simply accidentally throwing them over her shoulder, it just about amounted to that. She turned quickly, just in time to see the teleportation bubbles pop them out of existence, even as Trixie’s wagon hit the ground behind the pony and splintered into a thousand pieces.

She had hurled them somewhere deep in the Everfree, she realized. The pony groaned and rolled her eyes. “Perfect,” she chastised herself, horn glowing as she spread a pair of wings that manifested on her back. She beat them a few times, heading into the air.

An equine body in free-fall reaches a terminal velocity of about one hundred twenty miles per hour after roughly fifteen seconds of falling, Twilight thought in the brief instant where she was suspended in mid-air rather than falling. Rate of acceleration is roughly thirty-two feet per second squared in a vacuum. We’re falling a slower than that due to air resistance, though.

There’s about ten seconds until we hit the ground.

“Twiiiiliiiiiiiiight!” Lulamoon screamed right into her ear just as the two of them began to fall. Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw Sparkle and Trixie appear and also start plummeting.

Nine seconds.

One of us has to teleport all of us so we don’t get separated, she thought, even as Sparkle looked at her. Her eyes told Twilight that her counterpart had reached the same conclusion.

Eight seconds.

Speed is maintained by teleporting. So I have to teleport before reaching terminal velocity anyway or it won’t matter.

Seven seconds.

Sparkle reached out her hoof, and Twilight grabbed it as she looked around while Trixie and Lulamoon screamed. But this was the middle of winter. All the trees had lost all their leaves. The leaves might have served as something of a cushion, but without them the trees weren’t likely to make their landing any easier.

Six seconds.

“I see a lake!” Sparkle called, pointing.

Five seconds.

“But we’re going too fast! Water will be as hard as rock!”

Four seconds.

The water was probably freezing, anyway. If they hit it, or teleported straight into it, they’d go into shock.

The ground was very, very close.

Three seconds.

They were close enough to terminal velocity now that it wouldn’t matter.

Velocity…

“I have an idea!” Twilight called, pulling Sparkle, and therefore Trixie, closer to her to make teleporting easier.

Two seconds.

Twilight closed her eyes and set her horn glowing.

One second.

Twilight swore that she felt the ground just slightly touch her for a fraction of a second even as they all teleported.

Pop.

For a moment, there was the blissful silence of the slight delay between disappearing and re-appearing…and then…

Pop.

Twilight opened her eyes, and let out a cry of delight as she saw that her plan had worked. The ground was moving away from them – they were now ascending into the sky.

“What?” Trixie demanded, her screaming stopping.

“Speed is maintained in a teleport,” Twilight explained, “but velocity doesn’t have to be! All I had to do was change our direction so that we were falling up!”

“Brilliant!” Sparkle said, clapping her forehooves together as they continued to sail upwards, although without thrust behind them, they were slowing down notably. “I didn’t even think of that!”

“Now you’re thinking with ‘porting!” Twilight said with a smile. “That’s what Princess Celestia told me the first time I showed her that! It was great, there was a fun little obstacle course that she had set up in the garden, and – ”

“I had the same thing! Well obviously it wasn’t set up by the Princess, but – ”

“Magic! Wonderful! We’re falling again!” Trixie exclaimed.

“Huh? Oh, right hang on…”

As the pony soared through the sky, she sensed her quarry teleporting twice. She froze in the sky, eyes wide at the thought of them leaving the Everfree, but according to that little crystal they’d created to track her – which she could use to do the reverse – they were still within the forest. She breathed out a sigh of relief.

“That was close, though,” she thought aloud, pausing a few moments and considering. She smacked her hooves together and smiled brightly when a solution occurred to her, however. Her horn glowed deep blue, and she fired off a burst of magic towards the sky over the center of the Everfree. It reached its destination inside of a minute, then seemed to vanish. It hadn’t, however – it had simply changed its nature. To any being with magical sight, the skies over the Everfree would have seemed to begin to roil and twist, shuddering and shifting until they began to spin around and around like a hurricane, glowing with angry, dark magic.

“Ha!” The pony exclaimed as she resumed her flight. “Try teleporting now!”

The pony felt pretty good about herself for that trick. Still, sooner or later they were going to figure out that she could track them through the crystal, probably sooner. She needed some other way of finding them…and an amusing way to kill them, of course. It needed to be simultaneously, too. Well, maybe not, there was a chance that it wouldn’t make a difference. But fun or no, the pony didn’t want to leave her very existence, still only measured in hours, up to chance.

She spotted a cave up ahead, and frowned. Something about it seemed familiar…she dug through the vague memories of Twilight and Trixie that she had. It wasn’t much, just flashes and small insights into their minds…

And when a particular memory flashed through her mind, she laughed, and landed in front of the cave, magically stowing her wings as she skipped in, horn glowing brightly as she looked around. It didn’t take her long to find her target, sleeping soundly.

“Hi there, kiddo! Is Mommy home?”

Twilight and Sparkle landed easily on their hooves after the second teleport, while Trixie and Lulamoon tumbled off of them, both proceeding to kiss the ground furiously. Twilight was smiling for a few moments at their antics, and also at her own escape from certain doom by creative spell-use. She swiftly remembered, however, what had caused that certain doom. The purple, empty eyes of the pony that had attacked them flashed through her mind, and she fell back on her haunches.

“I am all the bile and hatred and doubt that you four felt, put in a pony-shaped suit conjured up by the dying embers of the shattered Element, and given life and sentience! Without you, I wouldn’t exist!”

“We made her,” Twilight said aloud, eyes wide. She looked to Sparkle, and Trixie and Lulamoon. “That pony…she said that we made her. That she was the Element of Magic.”

“She’s lying,” Lulamoon said. “She has to be.”

Twilight pointed at the magical device she had created to track the Element of Magic. “But…but you saw where that was pointing – hey!”

Lulamoon had swiftly taken the gem from Trixie’s cape, throwing it to the ground and stomping a hoof down on it. It broke apart with a crunch and a burst of magic. “Five bits says that she found us by following this,” she said, telekinetically lifting the pieces of them stone she’d crushed and hurling them away. “Can probably follow it here.”

“Lulamoon’s right,” Sparkle added, glancing at her counterpart. “We can’t take the chance.”

Twilight looked down at her hooves. “She wasn’t lying,” she said.

“I say she was,” Lulamoon insisted.

“She wasn’t! You saw that the beam was pointing at her. And a special talent of anti-magic? And…and we made her!” Twilight was up now, beginning to pace back and forth. “The Element of Magic broke apart and it was because we were fighting over it and now everything that was bad about us has been made into her!”

“That’s not poss – ” Lulamoon began, then paused, thinking. After a moment, she looked down, letting out a long sigh. “It is possible, actually…”

“Huh?” Sparkle asked. “How? I know the Element of Magic is powerful, but I’ve never heard of any of the Elements actually making a pony before!”

“I have,” Lulamoon said, glancing at the three of them. She bit her lip. “I…can’t go into the details, I promised Princess Luna. But, the Elements have created a pony before, in my world, at least. But she…she isn’t anything like that pony.”

The four of them looked at each other uncomfortably. At length, Trixie stomped the forest floor with one hoof. “Well,” she said. “Trixie is officially homeless. Again. She’s getting hungry. And she in no way came here expecting to fight a pony-shaped abomination against magic. I wish to go back to Ponyville. Now.”

“Not a bad idea,” Sparkle said. “I’m not even supposed to be here…I just want to go home…”

“We can’t just run away!” Twilight objected, stepping forward and looking between the three ponies. “Princess Celestia and your Princess Luna,” she pointed at Lulamoon, “sent us into the Everfree to get the Element of Magic back!”

Trixie looked at Twilight, eyes narrow. “Trixie was using the magic sight spell that her counterpart deigned to show her. It was active for the entire fight. That pony…she is like a hole in magic. She has no aura. When she cast spells it wasn’t that she was creating effects, it was more like she was ripping spell-shaped holes in the world, and magic would rush in to fill the gap.” Trixie shook her head. “Trixie learned from the Ursa Minor, Twilight, and from the Alicorn Amulet. She knows…I know my limits. I can’t fight her.”

“But…”

Lulamoon opened her mouth, beginning to object, before closing it, sighing. She looked to Sparkle and Trixie. “Twilight’s right,” she said, though she looked to Twilight. “But Trixie and Sparkle…they’re not here for this. We’re the ones who broke the Element, and they’re not apprentices of alicorns. They shouldn’t have come…and we can’t just draft them.”

Twilight blinked a few times, surprised at the sudden shift in maturity from Lulamoon. She nodded after a moment. “Okay,” she said, trotting forward so that she was standing between the other three. “I’ll teleport us all back to the library. We can rest, do some research…then Lulamoon and I can come back here and deal with that pony.”

The other three nodded, stepping closer to Twilight. She closed her eyes, thought of her library, and teleported.

Pop.

The brief delay between teleports was anything but quiet. A deafening roar reached Twilight’s ears as the four of them careened more than moved through space –

Pop

“Ahh!” Twilight cried out as they came tumbling down onto the ground. She rolled several feet, her movement stopped by a tree. Sparkle had been tossed into the air, and landed tangled in the branches of a pine tree. Lulamoon skidded past Twilight, almost keeping her footing before falling down, while Trixie…

“Oof!” Twilight exhaled as Trixie skidded into her barrel, with enough force for Trixie to roll over Twilight and hit the tree that Twilight had hit as well.

The next few moments were ones of scrambling and checking each other to make sure everypony was okay. Lulamoon stumbled back to the rest of them, Sparkle managed to get out of the tree with only a small amount of fuss and pain, and Trixie picked herself up off of Twilight. The three of them glared at her.

Twilight shook her head. “What?” she demanded. “I wasn’t me!”

“Maybe I should teleport us,” Sparkle volunteered.

“Wait, hang on,” Lulamoon said, stopping the argument before it could begin. “Gimme a second, I got a feeling that…” her horn glowed blue, as did her eyes after a moment, and she looked up. Her eyes grew wide.

“What?” Trixie asked, repeating the trick herself, albeit with somewhat more effort and a pink glow. “Oh…oh my…”

“What is it?” Sparkle asked, looking up. The sky was slightly overcast, but looked otherwise normal, or as ‘normal’ as anything ever looked in the Everfree.

“The sky is…spinning,” Lulamoon said. “Like water down a drain. And there’s this black lightning all over the place, and…”

“It’s like the storms that form over the Southern Sea, south of Neigh Orleans,” Trixie said. “Hurricanes, we call them. The weather pegasi there, their main job is to prevent them from hitting land. It’s dangerous…”

“What?” Twilight demanded, staring at the sky. She couldn’t see magic like Trixie or Lulamoon, but maybe…she closed her eyes, setting her horn glowing as she tried to sense the ambient magic of the area, as Sparkle did likewise. She discovered that Trixie and Lulamoon were right, there was a kind of drain in the sky, a roiling, twisting morass that seemed to be pulling at the ground beneath it.

“Don’t know about hurricane…” Sparkle said after a moment, opening her eyes and glancing to the other three. “But it’s definitely like a whirlpool. Anypony trying to teleport inside the Everfree gets tossed and spun around, dropped anywhere…” her eyes widened at her own words, as she glanced around. “We could be anywhere inside the Everfree. We could be a hundred miles from Ponyville! More!”

“How did that pony make this?” Lulamoon asked, shaking her head. “I don’t care that she was made from the Element of Magic, no unicorn is this powerful!”

Twilight felt a panic attack coming on. It had been building for awhile, in fact, but hearing Lulamoon and, more poignantly, Sparkle, begin ones of their own, finally touched her off. “This isn’t possible!” she exclaimed, beginning to pace back and forth. “Ponies aren’t just made from nothing! The kind of power that she’s using, only the Princesses or Discord have it! And she shouldn’t be this…this evil! Now Princess Celestia is angry at me and she’s going to stop being my teacher – ”

“You think you have it bad?” Lulamoon demanded, though there were tears in her eyes. She wiped them away, trying to fight them “I’m on thin ice with Luna as it is! I mean, yeah, she knighted me, but that was more for political reasons than anything! Luna would be crazy to not just strip me of my rank and ship me back to Neigh Orleans for this even if I fix everything…and I-I’ll never see my f-friends again…”

“Trixie is homeless again!” Trixie wailed, doing little to hide her own tears. “All she wanted was to come back to Ponyville and apologize and put on a magic show! Rebuild her reputation! Now she has to get a wagon again and start over! Sh…she has no bits, and…and nothing but the cape on her back and hat on her head! Again!” she clutched her cape in her hooves, closing her eyes tightly. “I don’t want to go back to that rock farm. There’s no magic…no smiling…just rocks.”

“At least you all get to go back to your family!” Sparkle exclaimed. She was on the ground, hooves over her head. “I…I screwed everything up! All I wanted was to learn more magic but I’ve spent all these months just running around and hiding and ruining ponies’ lives and I’m a fugitive and I’m gonna spend the rest of my life in jail and my parents aren’t going to want to see me…”

Lulamoon looked to Sparkle. “What are you talking about?” she demanded. “Your dad’ll be overjoyed. He’ll probably declare the day you come back to be Twilight Day in Latigo.”

“Don’t make fun of me!”

“I’m not! I talked to your dad before the Grand Galloping Gala. He’s…he’s a…” she seemed to be searching desperately for the right words. At length, she sighed. “He’s a wreck. He’d give up everything just to see you for a minute or two. And he’d do anything to anypony else if he thought that it’d help, even threaten to…” she trailed off, then shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. Look, the point is that, yeah, you’re gonna go to jail…but your dad’ll see you every single day. Brother, too.”

“A…and mom…?”

Lulamoon shook her head. “Never met her. I don’t know.”

Sparkle stared a long time at Lulamoon, who stared back. At length, she stood up straighter, horn glowing – an instinctive call for attention from other unicorns. Twilight and Trixie both glanced at her.

“I want to go home,” Sparkle said. “I want to go home! A…and sitting around here and complaining and crying and worrying…that isn’t going to help! So we’re all going to pick a direction and start walking! And if we run into that pony, we’ll just buck her straight into the sun! Okay?”

Twilight started at the sudden force behind her counterpart’s words. She wondered, idly, what exactly she had been up to for the past few months that seemed to have broken her so much, robbed her of so much of her self-esteem. Whatever it had been, she had clearly just decided to start getting over it.

Twilight stood, and nodded. “O…okay,” she said. “I…I guess that you’re right. Princess Celestia might not ever forgive me…but she definitely won’t if all I do is sit around and do nothing!”

“Princess Luna, too!” Lulamoon exclaimed. “I have to be the pony she thinks I can be, or else I’ll never get to keep my friends!”

Trixie glanced between the three of them. “Trixie doesn’t have friends,” she said. “Trixie isn’t an alicorn’s student. Trixie is just homeless. Again. And all the speeches in the world aren’t going to change that!”

Twilight trotted up to her. “You can stay with me,” she said. “Until you’re back on your hooves, anyway. No rock farm.”

“Trixie doesn’t need help from anypony! She…” the showmare began, when she paused, and looked down at herself. She was still wringing her cape between her hooves. At length, she sighed. “O…okay. Trixie…Trixie sees your point. A-and…” she glanced at Twilight. “Thank-you.”

Twilight nodded. She smiled at the three other ponies as Sparkle picked a direction and started walking, and the other three, having no better idea of where to go than she did, followed. “Who knows?” Twilight asked. “Maybe…maybe we can be friends at the end of this?”

Sparkle scoffed. “I didn’t say anything about us having to like each other,” she said, though she frowned at the sight of Twilight looking dejected. “But…I guess we don’t have to hate each other.”

Hundreds of miles away, atop the Canterhorn and within Canterlot Castle, Princess Luna finished explaining herself to the other Luna, the one native to this world. She wanted to see her reaction, but she found herself unable to do anything but stare at her own hooves as she spoke, wings held tightly at her side.

“I see,” the native Luna said.

“So you understand that the Princess, here, did not mean to offend you?” Celestia’s voice asked. Luna flinched. Celestia had been quiet as Luna has explained herself, and she had somehow almost forgotten her presence…she glanced up, and found Celestia standing next to Luna, looking down to her. She was standing close enough that their wings were just barely touching, looking down at her little sister with deep concern and worry and –

– Love –

Luna turned away, looking instead at the statue of Discord, somehow finding that a more agreeable sight. It hadn’t moved an inch, physically or magically. The spirit of chaos and disharmony remained as trapped now as he currently was in Luna’s world. She didn’t really see it, though. Even if she wasn’t looking at the pair, the image of the two of them was burned into her mind.

For a just few, precious seconds, Luna had been able to convince herself that she had Celestia back. That her elder sister was sane and whole and never hadn’t been. That Luna hadn’t failed her so utterly…

…but all it had been was a few seconds. Reality had come crashing back down, and the presence of this other Luna only served to reinforce its barriers.

“So you understand that the Princess, here, did not meant to offend you?” Celestia asked Luna.

Of course she didn’t, Luna thought, eyes narrow. But she did – nay, her very presence is offensive!

Luna stood from where she had been sitting, glancing between Celestia and her otherworldly doppelgänger. She wouldn’t even look Luna in her eyes, instead focusing on the statue of Discord. “I insist that thou shalt not again attempt to usurp my rightful control over the domain of the Night,” she said. She knew she was slipping into early-modern Equestrian, but didn’t care.

Her counterpart nodded, glancing a moment at her. “Of course,” she said. “If I had taken even a moment to investigate this world in detail, I would have seen that doing such was unnecessary. Your Celestia never fell as mine did.” She looked down, closing her eyes. “I…apologize.”

Luna fought back a slight sneer – not at the apology itself, but rather, at Luna’s tone, which to her ears seemed full of condescension – in highlighting how she had never allowed loneliness and enviousness to consume her, as Luna had. “Yes, well,” she said, shifting her weight from one hoof to another. “Quite.” She looked to Celesita. “If thou wouldst excuse me, sister, I must now inform the castle of thy return, and see to assuaging the fears of the ponies – ”

“Actually,” Celestia said, spreading her wings a little. There was a slight, and familiar, twinkle in her eye. “I would much prefer you stay, Luna. I have been trying desperately for hours now to get a decent cup of tea, and as you know, I do not like to take my tea alone.”

Luna stiffened slightly. “B…but, the ponies – ”

“The day progresses as it should,” Celestia interrupted, a slight smile on her face. “The night will come soon, and your Court begins then. It’s winter, Luna, and I don’t get to see as much of you as I would like as a result.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed. “Tia, thy attempts to forge a bond of friendship between myself and my doppelgänger are as transparent as glass – ”

“Excellent!” Celestia said, trotting past Luna. “You’ve caught on already, that’ll make things run much more smoothly. Wait here, I’ll go fetch the tea.”

“Wh – bu – ” Luna began, turning and staring at her sister as she trotted from the gardens and towards the castle proper. “Tiiiaaaaaa!”

“I’m certain you two will have a lot in common! I’ll be back in just a few minutes!”

Luna bristled, wings flaring. No. Luna was not some little filly, Celestia couldn’t order her to stay in place. She was a diarch! Celestia’s equal in all things! She began trotting after Celestia, intent on leaving the garden and seeing to saving her reputation, when she heard her breath hitch in her throat – or a sound like that, anyway, though it came from a few feet behind her.

Oh no, Luna thought, knowing where this was going to go even as she turned around to look at her counterpart. The other Princess Luna was sitting still, eyes downcast, but with one hoof to her mouth. Luna couldn’t see her face clearly, but she imagined that there were tears there.

Luna stared after Celestia’s retreating form, then back to her counterpart, then back again. She scowled, stomped her hoof, and then turned back around, trotting over to the other Luna. It did not escape her that this Luna seemed to be somewhat taller, though only by a few inches. The result of a thousand years of freedom? Or was she just simply taller?

“Wherefore – why are you crying?” Luna asked, forcing herself to use modern Equestrian.

The other Luna took in a deep breath, then let it out with a shudder before looking up at her counterpart. “I – I’m not,” she insisted. “It’s just that I…I was remembering how insufferable Celestia could be sometimes, and how annoyed it made me. I’d forgotten.” She smiled softly. “So…so sure. So convinced that she knew how to fix everypony’s problems…o-of course, that was the problem…” she looked back down, her eyes distant.

Luna scowled slightly. “You should not have come here,” she said without thinking. She immediately scrambled to cover her tracks. “H-here, as in the Castle, that is. I suspect that it brings up bad memories for you.”

The other Luna closed her eyes, shaking her head. “Memories, yes…not bad ones, though. That’s what makes them hurt.”

Luna’s scowl deepened at that. Did her counterpart have to so show such maturity even in the face of her own pain? Luna knew full well that were situations reversed, she doubted she could keep as level a head as her counterpart was. And the fact that she was annoyed by this only served to annoy her more. She closed her own eyes, forcing herself to take a few calming breaths. After that, she did her best to not think of the other Luna at all. She seemed lost in her own thoughts, and there, Luna determined, she could stay for the moment, while she tried to parse through her own feelings on the matter.

Certainly it wasn’t jealousy plaguing her. No. Not at all. Not even a little.

“Tea-time!”

Luna let out her breath slowly, opening one eye. Celestia bore a fine mahogany tray, set with ceramic, ornate cups imported from the far-distant Qilin Empire – this was a tea set broken out only when foreign dignitaries visited Equestria. Several servants followed Celestia with trays set with biscuits and pastries, as well. If any of them seemed confused at the sight of two Lunas, none of them showed it, though it was possible that Celestia had told them what to expect.

Luna looked at Celestia, eyebrow raised slightly. “That…was very fast, Tia,” she noted. She had expected Celestia to disappear for an hour, at least, but her own internal sense of time told her it had been no more than fifteen minutes.

Celestia smiled to her sister, even as she nodded to one of the servants who had followed her out. “Feather Duster has informed me that as I have taken the day off, I am not allowed inside the castle, lest I accidentally run into some official or another and they pester me. She was very insistent.”

The pegasus maid smiled slightly even as she lay out a blanket and set down the trays of food, and helped Celestia with the tea set. “Now, if there is anything you need, Majesty…?”

“No, thank-you, Miss Duster. I’ll call for you if something should come up.”

The servants all bowed and left, as Celestia poured out cups of tea for the three of them. Luna’s counterpart glanced between the statue of Discord, and the tea set, even as Celestia poured out cups for the two Lunas, and one for herself. “We’re going to take tea in front of the spirit of disharmony,” she noted.

Celestia nodded. “We will be in an excellent position to react should Discord break free, but until then, he is only a statue like any other. Or at least, that is how I choose to see it.” She took a sip of tea, and Celestia, already a generally optimistic soul, visibly brightened further, her wings raising just slightly, her posture becoming a little better, and her smile becoming a little more honest.

Suddenly, all is right with the world, Luna thought of her sister. Every problem, soluble. Every difficulty, surmountable. There is tea, and tea is the solution to all problems. Or rather, it has the amazing ability to replace all problems with a more fundamental one, viz. why isn’t there any more tea?

Luna glanced at her counterpart, who was staring into her own cup of tea, the same distant – deliberately distant – look on her face. The local – and rightful – Princess of the Night looked away quickly, and scowled into her tea, taking a long drink and ignoring how it tried to burn her tongue. Her own problems, on the other hoof, would require quite a bit more than tea to solve.

11. That Old Black Magic

It was the strangest thing in the world – in two worlds, really – for Luna to watch somepony else raise the moon and the stars, and bring on the night.

Luna’s native-to-this-world counterpart seemed to be making a particular show of the night this evening – probably to re-assure herself that she still had control over the Night, after it being wrestled from her earlier today. In truth, Luna hadn’t even noticed any resistance – though she imagined that this had more to do with her acting while the native Luna had been sleeping, rather than due to any true discrepancy in power between the two of them caused by her imprisonment in the moon. After all, with beings as old as Luna and her counterpart, a thousand years either way weren’t going to make much difference.

The moon was the first to rise. It seemed to almost creep slowly and timidly over the horizon in the east, as though unsure if it would be welcome. The stars followed thereafter, organized into constellations already as they moved ahead of the moon, settling into place quickly as they prepared the night sky ahead for the path of the moon. Eventually, night settled fully over Equestria and, as there was a lack of any signs of rioting or panic in the surrounding land, Luna supposed that its impromptu, earlier arrival and then retreat was by and large being written off by the population of the land as only a hiccup in the schedule, and not as a return of Nightmare Moon.

“Beautiful as always, Luna,” Celestia complimented. Despite her foul mood, the native Luna did react just slightly to the compliment, the faint twitch of a smile appearing on her lips. The three of them remained in front of Discord’s statue, though their picnic had turned more into a full outdoor Court, at Dusty Feather’s insistence – lavish sitting-cushions, lanterns, and even several fires for warmth, had been set up. In deference to the rulers of the land, Celestia and her sister sat side-by-side, while Luna sat slightly apart, to Celestia’s left.

The native Luna settled back down onto her cushions – Celestia having, at length, convinced her that it was more important to remain before Discord’s statue should he attempt to break free, then it was to hold Court tonight. To her credit, the native Luna had not put up much resistance to that point, only making her displeasure at Princess Luna’s continued presence clear.

She was right, Luna thought as she stared at her hooves. I shouldn’t have come here. Or…or I should have disguised myself, perhaps. Pretended to be somepony else. ‘Selene’ would have had a nice ring to it…

“Princess Luna?” Celestia asked. “I wonder if I might ask a question?”

Luna blinked a few times, breaking herself from her reverie. She looked to the diarch. “Yes?”

Celestia considered, pressing her hooves together. “Our two worlds must have relatively divergent histories,” she said, “but I imagine there are certain constants. I was just wondering…around one hundred years ago, there was a hurricane in the southern reaches, a very powerful one. Was there one for you as well?”

Luna thought. “Yes,” she said at length, frowning slightly at Celestia. “Why?”

Celestia circled one hoof on the ground. “I admit to being curious if you dealt with the situation differently than I. I authorized the Sub-Ministry of South-Central Weather to send virtually every weather pegasus in its region to combat the hurricane before it reached the coast. They succeeded, but the cost was…high, higher than I would have liked, in any event. We were not prepared to manage a crisis of that magnitude, it turned out.”

Luna blinked. “Sub-Ministry of South-Central Weather?” she asked. “How many southern weather ministries do you need?”

Celestia’s sister did something unexpected: she rolled her eyes. Celestia pretended not to notice. “Four,” she responded. “But, if you please…?”

Four? Luna thought, trying to think of a good reason for the number of southern weather ministries even as she responded. “I deemed the hurricane too strong to fight,” she said. “I issued a royal mandate to evacuate the affected regions. My own weather ministry served as a picket force only to cover the refugees.” She frowned deeply, however. “The evacuation was successful, but the damage…southern Equestria is still one of the poorer regions as a result, with a lower quality of life then the rest of the country. And the damage to nearby Caballeria was great, as well, even moreso since King Espada did not take my advice to issue a similar proclamation there. I’ve often wondered if I should have combated the hurricane.”

Celestia offered a sad smile. “I have wondered the reverse,” she noted, thinking. “Perhaps a happier point of comparison…how are Griffin-Pony relations in your world?”

Luna returned the smile. “At a high point,” she noted. “The Kingdoms seem to go through cycles…right now they’re in the ‘stable confederation’ phase. The last one lasted for two centuries. I’m hoping to help this one last for three, though that is of course up to them.”

“Kingdoms?” Celestia asked. “Not Empire?”

“No, it collapsed after Yuri’s death without heir.”

“It did as well, here, but reformed later under Svyatopolk.”

Luna’s eyes grew wide. “Svyatopolk!” she hissed, shaking her head. That was a name she had gone a long time without hearing, and she would have liked to go longer. “I remember him. He did try to re-form the Griffin Empire…whether or not each of the individual kingdoms wanted to join with him. I had signed mutual defense treaties with some of them, but he thought that I wouldn’t go to war over them.” She shook her head again. “He was mistaken. He surrendered after only two years…very quickly, by the standards of the time.”

Celestia considered. “I had no such treaties,” she noted. “I try not to become involved in the affairs of other nations. And Svyatopolk’s ambitions began and ended with the Empire. Once he had it under his dominion, he proved to be a reasonably peaceable griffin.”

The native Luna whickered slightly in annoyance. “Luckily,” she noted. “You weren’t as lucky with Isidor, even though that whole mess could have been prevented…”

Celestia let out a slight sigh. “My sister feels that I do not meddle in international politics as much as I should.”

Luna had sensed as much. She did not, however, want to potentially fan the flames between the two sisters’ debates, least of all because she suspected strongly that she and her native counterpart would come down on the same side of things – and two against one simply would not be fair. Even as the other Luna opened her mouth to object, Princess Luna leapt in. “What about fashion?” she asked.

Silence greeted her for a few moments. “Fashion?” Celestia asked.

“Yes,” Luna said. She smiled a little. “Did this world also go through a phase where everypony insisted on wearing ridiculously huge wigs?”

Celestia’s lips pressed together tightly – while her sister did something completely unexpected. She burst out laughing, though she put her hooves to her mouth to try and cover it, as Celestia shifted. “Yes,” the Princess of the Day said. “Yes, there was such a phase.”

The native Luna closed her eyes, horn glowing even as she continued to laugh. With a pop, a picture appeared before Princess Luna. It was a period painting, several hundred years old, depicting Celestia sitting at her golden throne, dressed in deep red and gold fineries, thick and luxurious-looking…

The idea at the time, at least in Luna’s world, had been that the taller and more ornate the wig, the more important the pony, and further that it had to be at least as tall as the horn on the unicorn who wore it. Princess Celestia, as the most important pony in the land, obviously needed the largest, most ornate wig in all the land. It was done in a pastel rainbow of patterns, tightly braided tightly but with several locks left to hang loose, with golden thread and white diamonds and flowers woven throughout.

It was also, from the looks of things, at least four feet tall.

Maybe five.

Luna sputtered, trying to keep her laugh in. It didn’t take her long to fail, whickering with delight at the picture of Celestia, the Undimmed Daystar, done up like a foal with access to too much of her mother’s make-up. A glance at Celestia showed her to be blushing a deep scarlet, but that only made Luna laugh harder.

“It – it took – took ten hours!” the native Luna exclaimed between bursts of laughter. “Ten! It said so in a book I found! Who’d sit still for that long? Wh…what was the point?”

“It’s not as though I wore that around the castle,” Celestia defended herself as she shifted uncomfortably. “It was just for the official portrait…which should be hanging in the Royal Museum!”

“I was grateful for my exile when I found this,” Luna said, as the portrait disappeared back to where it came from. “At least I skipped the worst crimes of fashion over the past thousand years…”

Luna got her own laughs under control. With her declining mirth came an increased concern for Celestia’s embarrassment, but she had a cure for that. “I never took to the wigs, myself,” Luna said, as she set her horn glowing. “But there was…well, I’ll just show you. Fair’s fair. And I did wear this around the castle…”

About four hundred years ago, neck frills had been all the rage about the Night Court. For whatever reason, the nobility decided that making oneself look like they were choking on a dinner plate was fashionable. Luna’s own neck frill had been deep blue, rather than white as was the style, and star-studded. And, like the wigs, authority had been basically derived from the size of the frill…

Celestia burst out laughing at the sight, though the native Luna tempered her own laughter, probably due to the sheer similarity of appearance between her and the interloping Princess. “H…how did you get through doors?” Celestia asked as Luna spread her wings for comparison. The frill was about half her wingspan, nearly as wide as Celestia’s wig had been tall.

“Very carefully,” Luna said, as she stood, spinning around to show it off. “The frill was just part of the full dress, of course…there was the train…the corset…the saddle…”

Luna trailed off when she saw, from the castle, a rush of golden-armored royal guards, a mix of pegasi and unicorns, each galloping as fast as their hooves could carry them. The Royal Guard had been briefed on the basics of the situation – there were two Lunas, but it wasn’t a problem and was a situation that would hopefully resolve itself soon enough – but Luna would have expected them to at least start at the sight of there being two Princesses of the Night, especially given the frill that one of them was wearing.

They didn’t even slow down, however, instead rushing straight for Celestia and her sister, each of them remembering only at the last moment to bow. “Majesties!” The leader of the group called. “Princess – your Majesty – Everfree – huge – ”

Celestia blinked a few times at the panic from the guards. She held up a hoof quickly. “Calm down, please!” she insisted, as Luna dispelled the frill she had been wearing, while Celestia’s sister stepped forward. “Please, take a moment. Deep breaths.”

“N-no time!” One of the other guards said, eyes wide with panic and stepping forward, forgetting protocol. “Majesty, in the Everfree – there’s a bear – ”

“Our last ursine census suggests there are actually several thousand bears in the Everfree,” Celestia noted wryly.

“Not like this one,” the lead guard said, finally collecting himself as he pushed his over-eager underling behind him. “Majesty…we can see it from Canterlot.”

Celestia blinked at that, then looked to her sister. The native Luna came forward, wings fluttering in agitation. “That is impossible,” she said. “Only a Star Beast could possibly reach that size, and while there is one in the Everfree, it is not that large, and will be hibernating with her cub for some centuries yet.”

“W-with respect, Majesty,” the guard said, bowing slightly, “she’s awake, and…she must have gone through a growth spurt.”

The interloping Luna’s mind, meanwhile, was cast backwards, to the dawn of the world – her world, at least, and likely this one as well. Star Beasts were creatures of nothing more than myth and legend in the modern world, but in ancient times they had walked the earth, had shaped much of it with claw and talon and wing. They were neither good nor evil – they were animal, cunning and insightful in their own way, but not truly intelligent. Luna had long ago subdued them and guided them into the Night sky, though some few had remained on the earth, outside of her reach. They did not eat material food, but rather stardust and solar wind and ambient magic, and so Luna allowed those remainders to reside on the world, as they were generally no threat to mortal beings.

“But to be seen from Canterlot…” Luna said, shaking her head as she trotted away several steps, then beat her wings, taking to the sky. Celestia her sister joined her, as did the pegasi of the guards that had rushed in to their impromptu Court. “No Star Beast but Draco itself ever grew so large, and that was in a time long…before…”

Luna’s voice trailed off when she saw it: a small, purple-glowing spot far in the distance, within the dark sea that was the Everfree Forest. From this distance, it looked no more than half an inch tall. Of course, they were many miles from the Everfree. Luna did some quick math in her head.

“It’s more than a quarter mile tall – ” Luna began. Then the bear stood.

Night came fast in the winter Everfree. Even without leaves on them, the thick tree branches overhead served as an effective barrier for the sunlight, even before the stars appeared in the sky. The darkness wasn’t the biggest problem, however – it was the cold. Within minutes of darkness closing in around them, three of the four unicorns trotting through the Everfree were shivering and teeth-chattering as the temperature plummeted. Only Lulamoon was unaffected.

“Wh-why?” Twilight demanded of Lulamoon as the four trotted.

“Magic cape,” Lulamoon said, considering it. Her horn glowed, and she removed it from herself and threw it around Twilight’s neck, clasping it in place. Lulamoon herself gasped at the sudden cold, but otherwise tried to ignore it as best she could for now. “It’ll take a few minutes to kick in.”

“And wh-what about u-us-s?” Trixie demanded. Her own cape was just a cape, and not a particularly warm one, either.

Lulamoon shook her head. “I only have the one. We can share it – ”

“N-no,” Sparkle said, as she stopped, squinting as she looked around. The glows of the four unicorns’ horns were the only things allowing them to see, and not very well at that. “W-we shouldn’t be moving at n-n-night, anyway. W-we’ll make a c-camp here.”

The other three agreed without complaint, mostly because camp was inexorably linked with fire and, therefore, warmth in their minds. Wordlessly they began gathering twigs and fallen branches, as well as a few stones, and within a few minutes had managed to create a crude, but hopefully effective, ring of stones and tinder to light the fire with.

Twilight did the honors, horn glowing brightly and creating a small flame that quickly caught. Trixie was on the fire at that point, using logs she’d found to create a triangular stand of wood, rather than the simple pile that the other three had started with. She grinned as she did. “Trixie sees that she’ll be in charge of keeping us from freezing…”

“I haven’t gone camping in years,” Lulamoon and Twilight both objected at the same time.

“And in my world, it’s summer,” Sparkle added. “Plus I can just rent motel rooms…”

Lulamoon glanced at her. “How?” she asked. “Your picture’s circulating everywhere – ”

“I’m careful,” Sparkle objected, as she scooted closer to the fire, then closed her eyes and set her horn glowing. Around them, a field of violet energy manifested, gradually shaping itself into an inverted cone with a hole in the top. Twilight nodded her head once, and the four of them found themselves inside a shelter made from wood, a hole in its top to allow smoke from the fire to escape, and another small one that served as an entrance to the shelter, covered with thick curtain.

“Neat!” Twilight noted, looking around and poking the inside. “This will keep us warm…oh, hang on!” She began conjuring pillows all around the shelter, enough for each of the four unicorns to lie on, as well as blankets. She was panting by the end from the effort, but smiling. “I helped,” she noted.

Lulamoon studied her own pillow for a few moments, before nodding. “Good job,” she said. “I want my cape back now.”

Twilight gave Lulamoon a sidelong glance – apparently with their freezing in the night having been avoided, the blue doppelgänger of Trixie was back to her confrontational self. She sighed as she took off the cape and hoofed it back over. “I have a scarf that has the same enchantment,” she noted. “But…well, we were in a rush this morning.”

Lulamoon started at Twilight’s referencing the chaos of earlier today. “Was that only this morning?” she asked, rubbing her head with one hoof. “Feels…feels like much longer…”

“This would be the chaos that got Trixie unfairly arrested?” Trixie asked.

Lulamoon glared at her. “Yes. Amidst me being in the middle of a crisis thinking that all my friends had been brainwashed by Corona and all of Equestria placed under her unknowing thrall, you were detained for a few minutes.”

“Wait,” Sparkle interrupted, before Trixie could respond. “You thought that Corona had taken over? Really?”

“You didn’t?” Lulamoon demanded.

“For a few minutes I suspected,” Sparkle said, though she smiled. “But then a calm and rational – stop snickering – a calm and rational examination of the situation showed that I was wrong.”

Lulamoon shook her head. “Coming face-to-face with the Tyrant Sun wasn’t putting me in a calm and rational mood.” She shifted slightly, as her stomach audibly growled. “Zut…I’m hungry…”

“We’ll just have to go hungry tonight,” Twilight said, as she settled down on the conjured pillows and under her blanket. “We can look for food tomorrow. It might be winter, but there has to be something.”

“Not pinecones,” Trixie said quickly.

Twilight blinked. “I…wasn’t going to suggest we eat pinecones.”

“Good.” She closed her eyes as she poked at the fire magically, muttering under her breath “never again…”

“Well, I’m intrigued,” Lulamoon said as she settled down herself, taking her hat off and setting it beside her, then propping her head up on her front hooves and staring at Trixie expectantly. “I’ve eaten some strange things in my time – I’ve had crawdad, even – ”

“Ew!” Twilight and Sparkle both exclaimed, looking green. “Meat?”

“Neigh Orleans is a pretty diverse city,” Lulamoon defended herself, blushing. “Some ponies like it…but only every now and then.”

“Carnivore,” Twilight accused. “Ugh, I can’t…I don’t even…”

“It’s not like I ate anything with a hoof!” Lulamoon objected. “And I’m sure you’ve had eggs! That’s technically meat! And besides, we’re not talking about me, we’re talking about Trixie and pinecones!” She looked at Trixie expectantly, who was looking pointedly into the fire and not answering.

Twilight and Sparkle, however, continued to stare at Lulamoon. “I hear that griffins eat pigs,” Sparkle said. “And fish. And whales! Have you ever eaten a whale?”

“Carnivore,” Twilight hissed again.

“I’m not a carnivore! And no, I’ve never eaten a whale!”

“Have you ever eaten a pig?” Sparkle asked.

“No! Nothing with a hoof, remember?”

“How about chickens – ”

“Trixie was curious!” Trixie exclaimed suddenly. Twilight, Sparkle, and Lulamoon all looked to her. She was standing, glaring at Lulamoon. “Trixie was curious, so she ate a pinecone. And it was awful, but Trixie ate the whole thing because Trixie said she would, so she did. And then regretted it for the next two days.” She looked to Twilight and Sparkle. “And Trixie has had crawdad, and shrimp, and chocolate-covered ants, and once, when she performed in a town on the Equestrian-Griffin border, she even had sliced salmon! And there is nothing wrong with that because none of them had hooves!”

There was a pregnant silence.

“That’s not healthy,” Twilight said at length, as she notably scooted closer to Sparkle and away from the two carnivores. “We’re herbivores. You shouldn’t eat meat, it’s not good for you.”

“Well neither is cake!” Lulamoon exclaimed. “Which is made with eggs, by the way!”

“Have you ever eaten chickens?” Sparkle asked. She actually sounded honestly curious rather than challenging.

Lulamoon was not having any of it, however. “Goodnight!” Lulamoon exclaimed, hunkering down and pulling her blanket over her head, creating a shield from the world, though muttering could be heard from beneath it. Sparkle and Twilight both looked to Trixie.

“No, Trixie has not,” Trixie said, settling down herself. “Goodnight.”

Sparkle shifted uncomfortably. “You’re not going to eat us – ”

“No!” Trixie and Lulamoon both exclaimed, Lulamoon coming out from under her blanket shield to do so. “Nothing! With! A! Hoof!”

Twilight and Sparkle both blinked at the twin exclamations, said in perfect unison. Trixie and Lulamoon glared at the two other unicorns for several moments afterwards, before – without looking at each other – bumping hooves, then both pointedly settling down to go to sleep.

To Twilight, it seemed like she had only just shut her eyes when the loudest, deepest roar she had ever heard suddenly cut through the night. She cried out as she stood suddenly, the other three unicorns with her standing just as quickly. A glance at the fire showed it to still be burning, though low at this point – they’d managed to get maybe an hour of shut-eye.

That meant very little to them, however, as the roar was repeated a second time. Twilight and Sparkle set their horns glowing, dissipating the blankets and the shelter that had been constructed for them, as Trixie and Lulamoon stepped closer to the two purple unicorns, their own horns glowing in instinctive warning against whatever was coming.

The ground shook – not a small tremor, but an impact that was enough to rattle their legs and forced the four unicorns to brace themselves. There was a sound of crunching trees, splintering wood, and what Twilight strongly suspected was the sound of the earth itself giving way to whatever impacted it.

There was a second impact, and that was when the glow finally reached them, a bright purple light that shined like a second moon. With another earth-shuddering impact, the four unicorns saw what was approaching. Before they could even think to run, the thing was on them with but a single step, glaring down at them.

To call the Ursa Major the largest living thing that Twilight had ever seen would have been a gross understatement. Twilight had seen smaller castles.

The sheer size of the creature approaching them paralyzed the unicorns as the Ursa Major leaned down, looking at them with glowing red eyes larger than houses, mouth hanging open and displaying fangs bigger than a minotaur. A family of fully-grown dragons could have fit comfortably inside of its mouth, with room to spare.

Then Twilight looked up, and saw, sitting on top of the Ursa Major’s head, clapping her hooves together gleefully, the pony that had made it her mission to kill the four of them – the accidental spawn of the Element of Magic. Her horn was glowing bright purple, magical cords reaching out from it and around the bear that she sat upon.

“I don’t know why,” the pony said gleefully as she stood, and the Ursa Major began to rise as well, “but this feels right!”

The Ursa Major finished standing, and cast back its head – the pony atop of it keeping her footing somehow – and roared, a sound that was felt more than heard, and rattled the Everfree Forest for miles in every direction.

“…and now we run,” Trixie said, turning and taking off into the forest. Twilight agreed wholeheartedly as she followed.

Author's Note

I have no excuse for why this took so long to update. I just wasn't in the mood for the past month. Not even a bad mood, just not in the mood for writing this story.

On the bright side, it did let me write I'll See You Soon and start doing serious planning and outlining for The Return of Tambelon in the interim.

NEXT TIME: A VICIOUS BEAR ATTACK!

12. By the Light of the Magical Moon, Pt. I

Trixie’s hooves pounded on the earth beneath her as she ran as fast as her legs would carry her. She wasn’t thinking at all, not the least of which when the Ursa Major roared again. Sapient thought wasn’t possible – she was relying totally on instinct, on the base desire to run with the herd of three other unicorns away from danger, hoping for her superior speed to win out.

Of course, then she made the mistake of glancing behind her. The Ursa Major came back down onto all four paws, its landing making the Earth shudder again and causing Trixie to stumble and fall over. She whinnied in fright, and shrieked in stark terror when the Ursa took a single step forward – one step – and instantly covered the hundreds of feet she had ran, one of its massive paws landing only a few scant feet from where she’d fallen.

“Twilight!” Trixie cried out for help as a deep blue aura wrapped around her and dragged her high into the air, towards the maw of the Ursa Major. She screamed again, a scream that wasn’t lessened as she was dragged up and past the mouth to look into the blank eyes and too-wide smile of the pony controlling it. The pony reached out a hoof and tapped Trixie lightly on the muzzle in a way that was almost friendly – at least until her telekinesis pulled Trixie closer and pressed her to the bear’s skull painfully, almost enough to begin suffocating Trixie as the pony placed a hoof on her cheek and leaned down. Somehow, her smile grew even wider, to proportions Trixie was certain were unnatural. Trixie let out another shriek of terror as the pony whispered into her ear.

“What are you screaming for? I haven’t even started killing you yet.”

Lulamoon, Sparkle, and Twilight skidded to a halt when they heard Trixie cry out Twilight’s name, and turned around just in time to see her lifted up to atop the bear’s head.

“Oh no,” Twilight breathed. She was panting from the running they had just done, as were the other two. “We have to help her!”

“Why didn’t she have the bear eat her?” Sparkle asked.

Twilight and Lulamoon both turned to glare at her. “Really?” Lulamoon demanded. “You don’t have to sound disappointed!”

“No, I mean,” Sparkle said, as the three started running again, circling around the Ursa Major and using the trees for cover, “that pony – she’s going through all this effort to kill us…so why didn’t she kill Trixie?”

Lulamoon grimaced. Sparkle had a point, whether or not she wanted to admit it. “Earlier she said she wanted to kill us all at the same time,” she noted.

“No,” Twilight said, eyes widening a little. “No, she said ‘I’m pretty sure I have to.’ She doesn’t want to but she thinks she needs to!”

“Why?” Sparkle demanded.

“Who cares?” Lulamoon demanded. “It gives us time to – gah paw!”

The last came as the Ursa’s gigantic paw came crashing down about a hundred feet in front of them, making the earth shudder once more as trees were splintered like so many toothpicks, then began dragging across the forest floor towards them. It was hundreds of feet long – they weren’t going to be able to dodge it, nor outrun it.

Sparkle cried out, grabbed the two other unicorns in her hooves, closed her eyes, and set her horn glowing. Lulamoon had just enough time to begin to voice her objection when the three of them popped out of existence. There was the roiling chaos that the between-space had become, then they popped back into existence, tumbling and spinning across hard ground and into branches and trees before finally coming to a stop.

Lulamoon stood, head spinning. “I th-thought we’d agreed that was a bad idea…” she mumbled.

“I didn’t think we had a choice,” Sparkle said as she stood, looking around to get her bearings. It didn’t take long – they spotted the Ursa Major only a few hundred feet away, though they were now behind it. It reared up, growling, head darting around and ears perked up as it tried to find them again.

Sparkle looked to Twilight. “Small hops,” she said. “Try teleporting only a few feet. Looks like we’ll overshoot and go a few hundred instead, and the direction is random, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Okay, so now what?” Lulamoon demanded, setting her own horn glowing. A hundred feet away, an illusion of the three of them appeared, and the glamors began to run swiftly away from them, hopefully buying them time and distracting the Ursa Major. “We can’t teleport up there, climbing is too slow and we’ll be noticed…”

“I can give one of us wings,” Twilight said, as the three began running again, trying to stay behind the Ursa. “It’s a really exhausting spell to cast, and the wings are really delicate – but I think it’s our only option.”

“Okay, so magic some up!” Lulamoon demanded. “That pony – ”

“She needs a name,” Sparkle put in.

Lulamoon ignored her. “That pony might not want to kill Trixie, but you'd be surprised what you can live through!”

“I can’t just conjure them up!” Twilight objected. “It’ll take me a few minutes. We’ll be sitting ducks! And I can only do it one of us at a time, and I’ll probably be too exhausted afterwards to do a second set…”

“So you need a distraction,” Sparkle said, horn glowing. “I can do that.”

“Wait – ” Lulamoon began to object. It was too late, however; Sparkle disappeared in a flash and pop even as Lulamoon and Twilight slowed to a stop. “Imbécile!” Lulamoon cursed. “How are we supposed to find her after this?”

Twilight bit her lip, but then set her horn glowing, staring at Lulamoon. “Worry about that later,” she said. “I’ll be too tired after this spell, and you can turn invisible. You’ll be the one flying.”

“Yay,” Lulamoon intoned, bracing herself.

Sparkle re-appeared thousands of feet away, six feet in the air, and moving forward at a disturbing, though luckily not fatal, speed. Fortuitously, a helpful tree branch was in the way of her movement, and it stopped her by smacking her in the face. She cried out as she was sent tumbling to the ground, and picked herself up only slowly, shaking her head.

“I don’t like teleporting anymore…” she breathed as she stood, looking around. It wasn’t hard to spot the Ursa Major. She was now directly in front of it, though hidden by tree branches.

Sparkle took in a deep breath, centering herself as she spread her legs and braced. At the tip of her horn, she began gathering raw magical power. It started off as a small bead only a few inches across.

Bigger, Sparkle thought, pumping more power into the magic. The bead grew in size to be nearly as large as her. Grunting, the magic swelled three more times – to as large as Trixie’s wagon had been, then to the size of a small house, before finally topping out at the size of Golden Oaks Library. By this time, Sparkle was sweating despite the cold of the night, struggling to maintain the magic. With a grunt, she swung her head back, then shoved it forward, sending her magic flying.

The Ursa Major had noticed her, of course, as she’d gathered magic, and took a step forward. It roared in surprise when Twilight’s orb of pure force came flying at its face, however, and reared back in surprise, but that only bought it a moment before the magic came crashing into its chest. It roared in pain and stumbled backwards a few steps, before growling low, its purple effervescence suddenly taking on an angry tone and almost shifting towards red. The bear advanced on two legs angrily.

“Uh,” Sparkle thought, closing her eyes and teleporting again. The roil carried her to one of the areas that the Ursa had stomped flat in its advance, and she tumbled over fallen tree branches and excavated roots, landing eventually against a clump of dirt and snow and no small number of stones. Standing on shaking hooves and glancing around, Sparkle saw the Ursa Major only a few hundred feet away. It was glancing around for her, dropping back down to four legs, but didn’t see Sparkle given how close she was.

Sparkle decided to go for quantity rather than quality this time, since she couldn’t do more than annoy the Ursa Major anyway. She summoned magic to her horn and sent it flying out in as many bursts as she could, bright stabs of red-lavender light that would have stunned a normal pony senseless.

It was several moments before the Ursa Major even noticed them, and that was, Sparkle suspected, only because of the light show that it created. It turned to her, growling deeply and swiping a paw with far more speed than Sparkle was comfortable with.

Big things shouldn’t move that fast! She objected mentally as she closed her eyes and teleported. The roil launched her through the air this time, and she appeared right over the Ursa Major, beginning to fall almost immediately. She cried out in surprise, teleporting again without thinking.

This was a mistake. The roil that the between-space had become had her pop back into existence moving far, far too fast. She had just enough time to register something blue directly in front of her, before smacking into it. Then everything was black.

Twilight gasped as the spell finally concluded, falling to shaking hocks and knees and sweating from the effort. Lulamoon came forward instantly, using telekinesis and muzzle both to help her stand. “You’ve got to hide,” she said.

“I’m…I’m not that out of it…” she said, standing on her own as Lulamoon and her began to trot away, Twilight stumbling only a little. “Hey…what do you think…?”

Lulamoon glanced at her back. She had given her cape to Twilight, so nothing blocked her view of her brand-new set of wings. They were clear and veined, looking like they belonged to a dragonfly, tinged slightly green. “Nice,” she admitted, taking off her hat and setting her own horn glowing. She pushed her most-familiar spell into the fabric, then set it atop Twilight’s head. To her eyes, Twilight seemed to take on a blue glow, but to anypony else – and hopefully anybear else – she would be completely invisible. “Okay, um…when I’ve rescued Trixie, I’ll set off some fireworks. Just shoot some magic into the air so that I can find you.”

Twilight nodded. “Be careful,” she insisted. “Those wings are made from gossamer and morning dew. They’re delicate.”

Lulamoon nodded, turning around and giving her wings an experimental flutter. Like any other proper transmutation spell, it seemed, the knowledge of how to use the wings correctly came with the wings themselves – she wouldn’t need flying lessons. Weaving an invisibility spell around herself, she took to the air, flying straight at the Ursa Major, which by now had turned slightly so that Lulamoon was now approaching the bear from its side rather than behind. Flying closer and closer only seemed to continuously re-emphasize how massive the bear really was – from one shoulder to another, the Ursa was larger than Ponyville’s town square. Setting herself down between the shoulder blades, Lulamoon found herself amongst a sea of translucent strands of fur, a thick carpet nearly as tall as she was. The body beneath her was similarly translucent and glowing, and through it she could just barely make out the forest floor.

“Okay,” Lulamoon said, galloping and for a brief moment being thankful that the Ursa Major was so large, as it probably couldn’t notice her moving across its back.

The bear remained on all four paws as Lulamoon ran, making her gallop up its neck relatively easy. She checked her run, however, when she neared the top, and saw the deep blue, murderous pony, grinning widely as she looked around the forest floor for her quarry along with the Ursa Major. She paced back and forth across the bear’s head, and at her hooves was Trixie, held in place by a deep blue aura and looking scared out of her mind, but otherwise basically unhurt.

“U-ni-corns!” She exclaimed in a sing-song voice as Lulamoon approached, her voice almost as loud as the Ursa’s roar and sounding like thousands of copies of her speaking in unison. “Come out and play…!”

Lulamoon grimaced, closing her eyes a moment as she conjured up her magic sight, wanting to have an idea of what she was fighting. She opened her eyes, looked at the pony, and –

Nothing.

“What?” Lulamoon asked beneath her breath.

Lulamoon could still see the murderous pony, of course; the magic sight spell didn’t render her otherwise blind. But the pony didn’t glow in any way. She was as inert as a rock – more inert, in fact, for while the gold-and-silver strands of magic would permeate and pass through a rock, with this pony they almost seemed to flow around her and shun her.

“If you don’t come out…” The pony said, her voice still sing-song, “I’m just going to have to burn the forest down…!”

“How?” Lulamoon demanded quietly. She didn’t have any magic, she shouldn’t have been able to cast any spells at all. Then, Lulamoon saw it, and only because she was using her magic-sight to look. At the tip of the pony’s horn, there was a flash – no, not quite. More like the opposite of a flash, as her horn seemed to tear a hole straight into reality itself. For a brief second, Lulamoon found herself looking at absolutely, positively nothing – then all of a sudden, the gold-and-silver streamers of magic that flowed through the air seemed to rush in towards the gap, falling into it like water in a bathtub after the plug had been pulled. And just like that, at the end of her the pony’s horn, there was a massive fireball.

The pony swung her head, and reality was once again rent open in a line from the fireball that floated at the tip of her horn, to the Everfree floor far below. The fireball shot off along the hole in reality, following it until it landed and detonated. From there, at least, it looked like a normal spell.

Trixie was right, Lulamoon thought as she began inching forward, though extremely reluctantly after what she just saw. She doesn’t cast spells…she tears spell-shaped holes in the universe and magic rushes to fill the gap. That’s why she’s so powerful…she’s not, not really, but she can just tear the right holes and do anything she wants…

Lulamoon shuddered at that. She already knew that she wasn’t capable of challenging a spellcasting prodigy like Twilight Sparkle spell-for-spell. Against a pony like this – who had access to the basically limitless ambient magic of the world itself? There was only one thing she could do.

The pony had launched another fireball, then another. They were all well away from where Twilight was, and Lulamoon could only hope that she was missing Sparkle, too. Grimacing at what she had to do, Lulamoon crept forward another few feet, making sure she had a clear run, then charged forward.

The murderous pony never noticed her approach – for all her access to power, she wasn’t expecting an invisible attack – and so could do nothing when Lulamoon’s charge ended with her slamming one shoulder into her. The pony cried out in surprise, stumbling away on suddenly uneven hooves and eyes wide, her expression of malice finally changing to one of shock. Lulamoon didn’t give her a chance to recover as she charged forward again, slamming her front hooves into the pony’s side and sending her reeling backwards again – until one of her hooves slipped and she found herself teetering backwards against empty air, having reached the edge of the Ursa Major’s head. Lulamoon started to advance to give a final push, but there was never a chance as the pony fell before Lulamoon could do anything else. With a single startled yelp, the pony fell out of sight.

Lulamoon was certain that if she wasn’t running on adrenaline and determination, she would have been disgusted at having just murdered somepony, even this one. As it stood, however, she unwrapped her invisibility spell from herself as she came over to Trixie’s side, while beneath them the Ursa Major roared. Trixie was already beginning to stand on shaking hooves, eyes wide. “Come on!” Lulamoon exclaimed, her gossamer wings fluttering as the head beneath them began to tilt and the Ursa Major began to rise onto to legs. “We have to get going before the Ursa – ”

“You tried to kill me!”

Lulamoon didn’t know why she was even surprised, but she was as she turned around, looking at where the pony had fallen. Rising through the air on feathered wings much like that of a pegasus, the pony glared hatred down at Lulamoon as she alighted on the bear’s head again, her smile disappeared. She seemed taller somehow, as well.

“You don’t kill me!” The pony roared. “That’s not how this works! You don’t kill me – I KILL YOU!”

The pony then moved, wings beating once and carrying her forward and against Lulamoon, a hoof lashing out and catching her across the face. Lulamoon cried out in surprise as she was sent reeling down onto the bear’s head, even as she heard a series of snaps and cracks from just behind her – her conjured wings shattering and dissolving into nothingness. She tried to rise, but there was a hoof on her face, pressing her down.

“Get off of her!” Trixie exclaimed, having risen fully. She charged forward, trying to help, but the pony stopped her with a single buck from one of her hind legs to Trixie’s chest, sending her sprawling.

“I’m just trying to have a good time, Trixie,” the pony said, “but you’re making that VERY HARD FOR ME!” The pony shouted. “I kill you, Trixie – I kill you. Because I am hate. I am a black pit that will tear open reality itself to kill you and everything you love. I am your antithesis – ”

The pony gasped, backing away suddenly. Lulamoon groaned as she picked herself, Trixie slowly doing likewise. The pony was staring down, eyes darting around, before a wide-mouthed smile began to creep onto her face.

“I like it,” she said quietly. “I like it! That’s what I am! That’s who I am! That’s my name!”

The pony’s horn flashed, and before she could do anything, Lulamoon found herself seized in a telekinetic aura and swung around, colliding with Trixie, before the two of them were forced to the bear’s head again. The two fought to try and free themselves, but couldn’t, as the pony turned around and stomped down the length of the bear’s head, so that she could look over its edge.

“You hear that, Twilights?” The pony roared. “I have a name now! I am…ANTITHESIS!”

She laughed aloud as her horn glowed and she shot off more fireballs. Her manic joy died only when she seemed to notice something approaching in the sky. Glancing herself, Lulamoon saw a trio of lights approaching, leaving a trail of shattered sound in their wake – one in the form of a rainbow, and two in a line of stardust.

“Luna!” she exclaimed brightly, feeling hope for the first time in what felt like forever as she looked to the newly-christened Antithesis. Far from looking worried, Antithesis still had the same smile on her face. “You’re not really thinking of fighting Luna, are you?” Lulamoon demanded. “Luna, and this world’s Celestia…and I can only guess that the other stardust-trail is this world’s Luna, too. I don’t care how powerful you are. No unicorn is a match for three alicorns.”

Antithesis glanced at Lulamoon, her smile widening as she flapped her wings several times and set her horn glowing. It suddenly occurred to Lulamoon that they did not, in fact, look like they were made out of gossamer or morning dew, as her own wings had been.

Lulamoon gasped as a dark, dark thought entered her mind. Antithesis’ smile widened to impossible proportions as she took to the air, leaving Trixie and Lulamoon stranded atop an increasingly angry bear.

Teleporting from Canterlot to the Everfree Forest hadn’t worked – there was some kind of magical storm over the forest, causing no damage to the physical world but turning the between-space of teleporting into a chaotic roil that couldn’t be pierced. The three of them had tried, and instead had found themselves chaotically thrown miles off-course, to the other side of the Everfree Forest and over the Sea of Tranquility that it bordered. Flight had been the only option from there, but they had lost valuable minutes.

Celestia blamed her confusion at the roil, and at the mere presence of such a large Star Beast to begin with, at not seeing the real threat until it was almost too late. Shooting from the bear at speeds that Celestia had thought only herself and her sister – and, by extension, the other Luna – capable of was a blue-purple bolt that swiftly realized itself as a winged unicorn pony that collided hind-legs first with the interloping Luna, knocking her from the sky and down into the forest below.

Celestia checked her flight, wings flaring to stop her supersonic advance towards the bear. Her sister did likewise, but a glance between the sisters was all it took to convey to Luna that she would handle this, and her little sister should deal with the Ursa Major, a task she was far more suited to than Celestia anyway due to her natural affinity with Star Beasts. Luna nodded once and shot off.

Celestia turned to the newcomer, who licked her lips and smiled even as her eyes remained narrow. “Hello,” she said. “I’m Antithesis – ooh! I like being able to do that. Introduce myself, I mean. I’m new.”

Celestia glanced down at the ground. The interloping Luna was picking herself up now, taking wing again. She looked basically unhurt, but surprised and angry. “I don’t know why you attacked us,” Celestia said evenly, “but I will give you this one chance to stand down.”

“She’s behind the Ursa Major,” Luna said as she joined Celestia in the sky. Celestia glanced questioningly at Luna, who shook her mane. “I doubt the two are unrelated, in any event.”

“Oh, no, not at all,” Antithesis said. “See, I needed a way to find Trixie and Trixie and Twilight and Twilight, and I found this sleeping Ursa Major, and thought to myself yes, Ursa Major. This seems right. And here we are.”

Celestia’s eyes narrowed. She didn’t need to ask what Antithesis wanted with her student and the other unicorns – the reasoning was as obvious as the half-mile-tall bear that her little sister was even now engaging. “Surrender now,” Celestia insisted.

Antithesis’ horn glowed, not any color of the rainbow, but instead jet-black. “No,” she said.

“Suit yourself,” Luna said, beating her wings, Celestia doing likewise. The two had banked away from each other on instinct, then turned and closed on Antithesis from opposite sides.

The pony remained hovering in air, raising either front hoof out to her side. “By the way,” she said, as her horn seemed to suck in all light, and channeled the resulting darkness into a pair of jet-black orbs, each large enough for an alicorn, on either side of her, “I’m guessing you thought I’m just some winged unicorn on a power trip.”

Celestia blinked, and checked her charge at the utter confidence that Antithesis still had. Antithesis glanced her way even as her the orbs of blackness launched themselves at Celestia and Luna. “I’m not,” she said.

The orbs moved too fast, and the two alicorns were enveloped in their orbs before they could react – and Celestia, for the first time in her very long life, found herself face-to-face with nothing, an utter lack of anything but her that seemed to pull away at the very fabric of her existence, trying to utterly annihilate her.

It hurt, to say the least. It was only through willpower more ancient than anything that walked the Earth that she did not scream, that same willpower devoted to simply keeping herself real and whole and existing. When the utter nothing at last receded, however, she found herself drained as she fell to the forest below. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Luna in a similar predicament. The two alicorns righted themselves only just in time to check their falls and land in a tumbling heap on the forest floor.

“I’m not really a pony at all, technically,” Antithesis’ voice explained. Celestia and Luna had landed only a few feet apart, and both immediately struggled to their hooves, glancing at each other. Neither had felt pain like that in centuries, and looking into each others’ eyes, they both knew exactly when the last time the other had felt that kind of pain was. Neither were by any means out of this fight, but it had suddenly become significantly more serious an engagement.

Antithesis landed, wings spread wide and horn pulsing black as she conjured up more orbs of nothing all around her, setting them into orbits all around herself.

“But if I was…I’d be an alicorn.”

Sparkle awoke with something rough, yet wet and sticky running across her face. It was not a pleasant way to wake up, and she was up and standing in a moment, sputtering as she shook her head. “Ugh – what was – what was that…” She rubbed a hoof to her face, and it came away with something that looked like nothing so much as saliva. Sparkle cried out in disgust, horn glowing brightly as she ran a cleaning spell over herself, then a second time, then a third.

It was only then that it occurred to her that for her to be covered in saliva, something had to have been licking her. Something big. Frozen mid-casting, eyes as wide as dinner place, Sparkle slowly turned her head – and she found herself face-to-face with a pair of large yellow eyes, set against a blue, translucent, star-studded coat – the coat of a bear that was larger than a house.

Sparkle screamed, and the Ursa Minor roared.

13. By the Light of the Magical Moon, Pt. II

The pony – the alicorn – that had called herself Antithesis was laughing as she conjured more and more of her null-orbs all around her. One she conjured directly around Celestia, who disappeared into the nothing created by the orb; Luna had little time to worry, however, as she found herself surrounded by one as well.

It hurt. But Luna was old, and as painful as this was, Luna knew pain – physical, mental, emotional – and knew how to fight past it, to put the pain in its own little corner and focus on more important matters. She instead focused on the nature of the null-orb, what was creating it. Antithesis was laughing still when the orb disappeared from around Luna, though her laughter trailed off as she glanced up at the Ursa Major. It was swinging its head around, trying to shake off the two Trixies trapped atop it, while the Luna native to this universe circled around it, trying to decide how best to approach the star beast.

Luna glanced at Celestia, who was still reeling from her own trip into a null-orb. Their eyes met, however, and Luna saw the solar princess incline her head just slightly – she had been studying the null-orb as well.

“Alright, let’s make this quick, I got stuff I need to take care of,” Antithesis said, turning back to the two alicorns. All the orbs that were orbiting her stopped, as her horn pulsed black. “This time, you die – ”

Antithesis’ magic tore open reality; her null-orbs were created when she didn’t allow magic to rush in and fill the void. As such a void began opening around Luna, however, the alicorn’s own horn glowed midnight blue, and she pushed magic into the void herself, filling the gap completely within just a second.

Antithesis’ eyes widened as her null-orb failed to materialize. She glanced at Celestia, trying again, but Celestia’s own magic plugged the gap with a golden flash from the eldest alicorn’s horn. The two princess then looked to the orbs surrounding Antithesis, and one by one closed them. The drain on their magic was not small, but working together they had closed all the voids within just a few seconds.

Antithesis’ smile dropped, though her eyes grew in size and her wings flared wide in surprise. “What?” she demanded. “What? NO! THAT’S NOT HOW THIS WORKS! YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO – ”

Luna didn’t get to hear whatever it was she was supposed to do, as Celestia had moved, carried herself forward with a single beat of her powerful wings. Her shoulder slammed into Antithesis’, sending the nascent alicorn flying across the ground. Luna was already waiting for her, raising one hind leg and bucking her into the sky. There, Celestia met her, and stopped her ascent with telekinesis, though the stop was sudden enough that, had Antithesis not been an alicorn or something like one, her bones would have shattered to dust.

“One more chance,” Celestia said to Antithesis. The young alicorn’s eyes widened. She closed her eyes, her horn glowing pink this time, and she disappeared, though she re-appeared only a few hundred feet away, upside-down and facing the wrong direction. She righted herself quickly as Luna joined Celestia once more in the sky. Antithesis glanced between the two alicorns, her smile long gone.

“Oh…I’m afraid,” Antithesis mumbled, though Luna and Celestia both could hear her. “This is what fear is. I don’t like it. Not at all.”

“Surrender,” Luna demanded.

Antithesis glanced between the two alicorns, eyes darting between them, wings beating steadily to keep herself in the air. “You’re closing my null-pockets with your own magic,” she said. “But…but! But. You only have so much magic…you can’t keep doing that! I can outlast you!” With a roar, she spread her hooves and surrounded herself with dozens of null-orbs. “This costs me nothing! You can’t win! S…so go away! Leave me alone so that I can get back to killing the Twilights and the Trixies!”

Luna cast a sidelong glance at Celestia, who returned it. Did Antithesis really think they’d give in to that request? The two older alicorns reared back in the sky, and charged.

Sparkle’s scream and the Ursa Minor’s roar ended at the same time. She scampered away, but quickly found herself backed against a rock wall. Her hooves pounded against it, trying to find some way to climb it or break it down – her magic completely forgotten in her utter terror. It was only slowly that she realized that there was no way for her to escape, at least not the way she had run – but at the same time, she hadn’t been eaten yet.

The Ursa Minor let out a low growl behind her, and Sparkle flinched, slowly turning around, eyes wide and horn glowing in instinctive threat, keeping one flank pressed against the wall.

The baby Star Beast was larger than most houses, its fur a translucent, sparkling blue, its eyes red and yellow. It was lying on its side, eying Sparkle and huffing, but not getting up, nor moving towards her. It growled again, and Sparkle again flinched as she moved along the wall, ready to bolt at the first sign of attack. The Ursa Minor didn’t make any such move, however, and after a moment, Sparkle saw why. Lashed across its back and along its paws, holding it down, were a series of thick, red and slightly glowing chords, anchored firmly into the ground by magic and holding the Ursa Minor securely in place.

The Ursa Minor growled again, and Sparkle suddenly realized that the growls weren’t meant to be threatening. It looked like it had been struggling against the chords, and only stopped when Sparkle had showed up. And instead of eating her, it had started licking her…

Sparkle glanced around. The cave that she was in seemed to go on forever; even with the light of her horn and the bear’s own glowing hide, she couldn’t see much of it, other than an impression that it reached deep into the bowls of the earth. Apart from the size, however, it looked much like she expected a bear cave to, including a large nest of reclaimed foliage nearby that had clearly recently been occupied. She couldn’t see a way out, either, though there had to be one somewhere.

Sparkle swallowed, looking to the Ursa Minor, who let out another plaintive growl. It struggled again against the chords holding it down, but to no avail. “O-okay,” Sparkle said, taking a few steps away from the wall and towards the bear, which seemed to calm it down somewhat. “Okay…s-so I’m guessing that pony came here, a…and…and found your mother, and you.”

The bear had no response to that, not that Sparkle was really expecting one. The sound of her own voice, though, was calming her down as much as it was the bear. “A-and,” Sparkle said, taking another step forward, “and she took control of your mother, and tied you up. Why?”

Sparkle looked to the red chords, her own magic dancing across one of them as she examined it. They were constructs of magic, of course, a powerful binding spell, but they would be easy enough to dispel. The Ursa Minor almost certainly wasn’t aware of Sparkle’s ability to do that, however, so that didn’t explain why it seemed comforted by her presence…

“Oh!” Sparkle exclaimed, letting out a long sigh after a moment as enlightenment struck. “Oh, right…you think I’m this world’s Twilight.” Sparkle looked away, scuffing one hoof on the floor, as she remembered the details she had learned of Twilight’s encounter with the Ursa Minor that lay before her. “I guess we smell the same, too, or close enough…and this world’s Twilight rocked you to sleep and sent you back home to your mother. She must have left a good impression.”

The Ursa Minor huffed. Sparkle inched closer again, then another step. “But…” Sparkle asked. “But why didn’t that pony kill you?” The Ursa didn’t have any answer to that, either, which was probably just as well, as it occurred to Sparkle that it wasn’t precisely the nicest question to ask anypony – or anybear, as was the case here. Nevertheless, it was a question that lodged itself in her mind and wouldn’t go away. “Why not…why not control you too? Or kill you? Why just leave you here? If that pony can control an Ursa Major, surely she could control a Minor as well…”

The bear huffed again, and resumed trying to get free. Sparkle moved closer again, then another step. She was close to the Ursa now…she reached out a hoof, putting it on the Ursa’s muzzle. The baby Star Beast stopped its struggles again. It tentatively shifted, then licked Sparkle’s hoof. The unicorn resisted the urge to recoil, instead settling down in front of the Ursa Minor, out of licking range but still in sight, rubbing hoof against one of its legs. This action seemed to calm the bear.

“Because…” Sparkle said as she tried to figure out the puzzle in front of her, “because…because no matter what that pony is doing, it’s still fundamentally some kind of Enchantment. And strong shocks can break Enchantments or make the impossible…like a mother seeing her child being attacked!” Sparkle beamed slightly, nodding. “Right. So she couldn’t kill you because that would undo everything, so instead she just captured – ”

Sparkle froze then, and pieces clicked into place in her mind. She stood, eyes moving back and forth and not really seeing what was in front of her as she considered.

“That’s why that pony didn’t kill Trixie then and there!” she exclaimed, beginning to pace back and forth. “This whole thing…she’s like you,” she nodded to the Ursa Minor without really looking at it. “She’s like you. She can’t really tell me apart from this world’s Twilight…or the two Trixie’s apart. I mean, she knows that we’re individuals…but she’s like the Element of Magic. She was made from the Element of Magic, or something…and all of this started because the Element of Magic can’t tell us all apart, or has a really difficult time, anyway!”

Sparkle pranced in place a little as everything slid into place, as things finally started making a degree of sense for the first time in ages. “All of this is because the Element can’t tell us apart,” she repeated, “but if the Element didn’t have to choose anymore, or if it had a smaller pool of choices…if there was just, say, me and the other Twilight and Lulamoon…then it might, might default to one of us. And it’d be even easier if two of us were dead…and no problem at all if three of us were dead! And since she was made from the Element of Magic, that might end her!”

Sparkle turned to look to the Ursa Minor. “So that’s why she wants to kill all four of us at once. If she does that, then the Element has nowhere to go, and she gets to keep on existing. Because she can’t tell us apart!”

The Ursa Minor huffed, and Sparkle thought that it might have rolled its eyes, though she wasn’t sure. Clearly, it had little interest in Sparkle’s revelation. The unicorn swallowed, looking over the Star Beast again. “Right, more important things,” she noted, looking the Ursa Minor over, examining the chords again, then glancing to the Ursa, then back to the chords holding it down. She grimaced at the thought of what she was about to do.

“Do not eat me when I free you,” she insisted, stepping back a few paces and setting her horn glowing brightly, reaching out magically to the chords. With a few deft bursts of magic, the red chords disappeared one by one, and in a moment the Ursa Minor was free, swiftly enough that it didn’t even seem to realize at first. That didn’t last, of course, as it growled and swiftly picked itself up, stretching and scratching at itself. It gave Sparkle one more glance, before huffing and turning around, heading off into the cave at a lumbering, easy pace. After several moments of walking, it glanced behind at Sparkle, huffed again, and continued walking.

Sparkle pressed her lips together tightly, watching it leave. She had no idea where it was heading – towards the surface, or deeper into the cave, it was impossible to know. It might still decide to eat her. But then, unless she wanted to risk teleporting again, she didn’t see that she had much of a choice…

Luna banked hard in order to avoid the swipe of a paw that could have fit Canterlot Castle in its palm. Beating her wings, she took herself high into the sky, out of range of the Ursa Major even if it should choose to stand.

It was no good. The Ursa Major may have had animal intelligence, but it was a canny enough fighter. It knew that Luna was trying to get to the two hapless unicorns trapped atop its head, and it was doing everything in its power to keep Luna away even as it tried to crush them with its paws. How Trixie and her doppelgänger were still holding on, Luna didn’t know, only that it was a situation that wouldn’t last – she needed to act quickly.

Luna again tried reaching out magically to the Star Beast. In ages past, she had been able to tame them, as she had learned to tap into the magic of their being and coax it to passitivity. But there was a black wall between her and the Ursa Major’s core, and beyond that wall a burning red moat of fury and anger from the Beast such as she had never felt when dealing with any of its other kin – even Draco.

Grimacing, Luna determined that sheer force was her only option. Beating her wings rapidly again when the Ursa Major stood, she let herself fall to the forest floor below, then shot forward, aiming herself at the Ursa Major’s hind right leg, landing against it with all four hooves. There was a deafening crack of thunder at the force of the impact, and the Ursa roared in pain, falling backwards. Luna was off in a moment, galloping along the Ursa Major’s leg and then body as it fell, hoping to get to the head in time. Even as it fell, the Ursa Major swiped at her with its massive front paws, but she was too small a target.

Luna was at the Star Beast’s head with only a few seconds to go before the bear would hit the ground. She found the two Trixies easily enough, one wearing her star-studded, purple ensemble and one lacking it, each of them holding onto the fur of the Star Beast and each other as they screamed in terror. Luna grabbed them telekinetically, pulling them to her own front hooves before taking off into the sky just as the Ursa Major crashed into the ground with the force of a minor earthquake.

Both Trixies hugged her front legs tightly as she took the two of them into the sky, staring down at the Ursa Major. Despite Luna’s attack, it had no bones to break, and so was already beginning to stand, glaring hatred at Luna as she sailed into the sky. She grimaced at the battle that yet lay ahead of her as she looked to the two unicorns in her grasp. “Are you two alright?” she asked, paying particular attention to the one without hat or cape, as she seemed the more bruised of the two. “Dost thou require aid?”

The Trixie eyed Luna. “What?” she asked. She seemed put off by Luna’s choice of words, but the alicorn herself cared little for endeavoring to stick to modern Equestrian at the moment.

“Trixie does!” The other exclaimed, holding onto Luna tighter still. “Trixie requires that you get her out of here!”

“I shall,” Luna promised, looking between the two. “Where might I find the Twilights? My sister’s and the interloping one.”

The naked Trixie blinked a moment, then looked away, setting off a series of illusory fireworks from her horn. “Twilight was supposed to…there!” She pointed, as a burst of lavender light shot up into the night sky, thankfully behind the Ursa Major. It didn’t see the light. “Twilight’s down there – this world’s one. The other one teleported off to distract the Ursa, but I haven’t seen her…”

Luna marked the position of the burst of light in her mind, grimacing. “I must retrieve Twilight,” she said, readying herself. “Once I have her, I shall take you all to safety, then return to battle the Star Beast. The interloping Twilight must fend for herself until she revealeth herself to me.”

“W-wait,” the purple-clad Trixie said, as Luna beat her wings a little harder, readying herself, “couldn’t you, uh, drop us off first – ”

“No time,” Luna said by way of explanation, as she dove towards the Ursa Major, the two Trixies screaming in fright. Luna shut them out easily enough, but let out her own shout of surprise when the Ursa did not wait for her charge – it leaped at her, roaring and stretching out its paws. Luna ducked under it just in time to avoid teeth larger than whales, and found herself having to roll and fly upside down as she passed beneath the Ursa’s body as it fell towards the ground beneath it. It was with only inches to spare that she and the two Trixies got out from under it, flying towards the spot where Twilight Sparkle was.

They found her easily, panting slightly and wearing the other Trixie’s missing cape and hat. Luna grasped Twilight telekinetically, and rose into the air quickly, as the Ursa Major had already turned around and begun swiping at them. Within a few moments, Luna was high in the air, moving the two Trixies into her telekinesis as well as she kept her eye on the Ursas. “Twilight Sparkle,” she said, nodding towards her newest guest, “I wish the circumstances were better, but it is nevertheless good to see thee again.”

“Y-you too, Princess,” Twilight said, reaching out a hoof and placing it on the withers of the caped-and-hatted Trixie, who grasped it with both of her own front hooves. “Um…I…I think we’re in a little over our heads here…”

“Indeed,” Luna noted, glancing away from the bear. Elsewhere in the forest, she saw a white, hot beam arch into the sky – her sister’s work, no doubt, as she battled the fell creature that had driven the Ursa Major to wrath. “My sister and…other self…have informed me of the details. Hast thou had any luck in locating the sundered Element of Magic?”

“Um…yeah, sort of,” Twilight said.

“She’s calling herself Antithesis,” the interloping Trixie said, as she took her hat and cape back from Twilight when offered. “She’s an alicorn. And she’s not right in the head.”

Luna’s lips pressed tightly together. “She faces my sister and a mirror image of myself from another world. I can imagine no being short of Discord himself that could stand up to that combination.”

Luna’s horn glowed brightly, and she conjured a broad cloud from nothingness, though it took no small amount of effort as she fought against the Everfree’s extreme dislike of weather manipulation. The next spell was far easier, even casting it three times, infusing the three unicorns before her with the ability to stand atop the cloud as though they were pegasi. She deposited them, then moved away. “I must see to the Star Beast,” she said. “Remain here. Should I encounter the other Twilight, I shall retrieve her, retrieve you three, and then return you all to Ponyville before resuming my battle.”

Luna didn’t wait for a response, shooting off and down again. Once more, the bear leaped at her, but Luna expected it this time, and she rolled away easily, horn glowing deep blue as she circled around the Star Beast, leaving a streamer of stardust as she circled around and around the Ursa Major, deftly avoiding its paws and teeth. After several minutes, she spun away, her horn flashed, and the stardust she had left behind suddenly entwined and solidified, becoming a long, thick magical band that tightened around the Ursa Major, pinning its legs to its sides and forcing its mouth closed. With a muffled roar, the Ursa Major fell onto its back once more struggling against the alicorn’s binding, but it was powerless as Luna swooped down and landed on its chest, closing her eyes.

“Now, Star Beast,” she said, casting her consciousness forward and towards the bear’s own. The black wall and moat of red rage once more impeded her progress, but Luna was putting determined effort forward this time, freed as she was from other distractions.

Calm thyself, Luna insisted, closing her eyes and spreading her wings wide. In the night sky, the moon and the stars glowed brighter, peaceful, silvery light raining down upon the Beast. She couldn’t use words to communicate, exactly, but she could project images, images of the bear sleeping soundly in a warm den to convey peace. Calm thyself, Ursa Major. We are not thy enemies. We wish no harm to thee, nor thy progeny –

Luna sensed that she had made a mistake in sending an image of the Ursa Minor, but the sense was too late. The bear let out a muffled roar, Luna’s mental contact with it broken instantly and suddenly. She staggered backwards, mouth hanging open as the Star Beast found a new reserve of strength, straining against the chord that bound it. With a burst of strength, the magical binding snapped, and its paws lashed out for Luna. Her wings beat of their own accord, trying to take her up and away, but one of the Star Beast’s paws at last found her. The next thing she knew, one of its massive paws had closed around her, trying to crush her.

Luna let out a cry as she pushed back against the paw with wing and hoof. The second paw joined the first after a moment, trying to crush Luna between them. Luna’s muscles were taxed to their limit, but she held them apart.

Then she felt herself being lifted, and found herself gazing at the Ursa Major’s face. Its jaw strained against the chord that still bound it, but not for long as, with a triumphant roar, it broke free, then eyed Luna with angry, red glowing eyes.

“Not good,” Luna breathed, as the bear’s head lunged forward.

Celestia’s horn glowed bright gold, stopping Antithesis’ attempted retreat into the sky with a wall of fire. Luna came up from below, her own horn glowing blue and seizing Antithesis in a telekinetic aura, throwing her back to Celestia. The elder alicorn anticipated the move, readied herself, and bucked Antithesis straight into the ground.

The two older alicorns landed side-by-side a few dozen feet away, as Antithesis picked herself up gingerly, staggering like a drunkard. Luna and Celestia began advancing as one at a measured, even trot.

“Ooh I’m going to kill you…” Antithesis hissed, glaring at Luna and Celestia, horn pulsing black. Luna reacted first, however, and the attempt to create a fireball backfired, the void of magic the young alicorn was creating being filled instantly while it was still over her head. She was tossed backwards and into a tree. Antithesis stood up again, shaking her head. “I HATE YOU!” she screamed, charging at them and leaping, no attempt at magic this time.

Celestia and Luna simply moved out of the way, and the young alicorn fell to the ground harmlessly, at least to the elder ones. Celestia let out a long sigh. “This is…pathetic,” she insisted. “Antithesis, it should be clear that you cannot defeat us. Please, stop trying. I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Your every effort is only hurting yourself,” Luna added.

Antithesis looked back at them, her eyes wide and furious, as she again stood. “I can…” she breathed, “I can…I can create more voids than you can fill!” Her horn pulsed black again, drawing open voids in magic between her and the alicorns, and trying to close one around them, as well.

Luna let out a sigh, side-stepping the void and deftly maneuvering around the ones created, until she was atop Antithesis and lashed out with one hoof at the young alicorn’s horn. Antithesis cried out as she was sent sprawling, the voids she had created collapsing of their own accord. “Stop this,” she insisted.

Antithesis picked herself back up, breathing deeply as she glared at the two alicorns. “This…this isn’t supposed to…” she insisted. “Twilight…Trixie…I hate them…I hate them…but right now…hate you two…too…so much…so much hate…”

Celestia glanced to Luna at that, and she glanced back. Wordlessly, they had reached the same conclusion: despite being pony-shaped, Antithesis was not a pony. And whatever she was, she couldn’t not hate them, hate everything, want to bring it to ruin. She didn’t have a choice in the matter, that much had been made clear by now.

“Let’s make this quick,” Luna said softly, distaste evident on her face at the only realistic action they could perform. Antithesis glanced between her and Celestia, her eyes widening as she knew what the two alicorns planned to do to her.

“No,” she insisted, “no, no, no, NO NO NO NO NO NOOOOOOOOO!”

Her horn pulsed deep blue, and she winked out of existence, teleporting. Luna and Celestia took to the air immediately, glancing around – Antithesis’ teleporting was just as haphazard as their own, after all, she likely had no clue where she was going, any more than the two of them would.

They spotted her sailing into the sky several thousand feet away, dragging null-orbs with her as she shot upwards, creating more and more around herself. Luna and Celestia took off towards her as she stopped in midair. As the elder alicorns closed, their magic began reaching out, filling the voids she had created even as they maneuvered around the orbs she tossed their way.

But then Antithesis spread all her hooves and her wings wide. “FILL THIS VOID!” she challenged, a black pulse from her orb signaling the oncoming nothing. At first, it seemed like nothing had happened, but then the two older alicorns saw its edges begin to form, creating a black sphere that filled itself in towards its epicenter – Antithesis herself. It was a void thousands of feet across, and Celestia and Luna were already inside of it. The two alicorns charged at Antithesis, intent on stopping her.

They weren’t quite fast enough, and the gigantic null-pocket closed around them both, ripping, tearing, trying to smother and wipe them out for daring to exist within it. Any thought but pain became all but impossible, and it was only with determined effort and desire to not give Antithesis an inch that the two alicorns did not scream. Celestia did, however, reach out a hoof, closing it around Luna’s own, the other alicorn serving as a bastion of reality and existence, and herself serving as one for Luna.

The void finally collapsed, and Luna and Celestia went falling towards the Earth below before they got their senses back, only barely righting themselves in time to land on their legs and stumble into kneeling positions.

Antithesis screamed in the sky. “WHY CAN’T YOU JUST DIE?!” she demanded, charging, opening voids all around the two alicorns and bringing them together, bludgeoning them with nothingness, the null-orbs appearing and disappearing within matters of moments.

It was agony, but Celestia and Luna held on, even stood, albeit on shaking hooves, conserving their magic. At the right time, Celestia let her magic loose, filling the area around the two of them to the brim such that no orbs could open for a few precious seconds – enough time for Luna to dive out and lash out with lightning at Antithesis. The young alicorn took the electricity to the face, and fell to the ground, but stood anyway, smoldering but still conscious and still glaring hate.

Antithesis screamed pure rage again. “FINE! I WON’T KILL YOU! I’LL JUST GET YOU OUT OF HERE!”

Celestia had no idea what Antithesis was yammering about, at least not until the young alicorns’ horn glowed gold, and she reached out, wrapping Luna in a golden aura. Antithesis practically opened up a new leyline with the amount of magic she channeled then, drawing the ambient magic from miles around into this next spell.

“Oh no,” Luna breathed, eyes wide as she recognized the magic and tried to fight it, Celestia doing likewise. But it was too late – and in a moment, Luna disappeared into a bright white comet, arching straight up into the sky – towards the moon. As Celestia watched in horror, the comet impacted against the moon, and a series of markings suddenly appeared across its surface, looking like nothing so much as the profile of an alicorns’ head.

Celestia blinked in shock, then turned back to Antithesis, feeling real rage for the first time in the fight. She charged forward, horn down, intent on skewering the nascent alicorn and ending her threat once and for all. Antithesis anticipated the move, however, and avoided it, shoving a hoof forward with all her might into Celestia’s head. The sound was roughly like that of a mountain cracking in half, and Celestia stumbled away, temporarily dazed.

It was only for a moment, but the moment was all Antithesis needed as her horn glowed midnight blue, and the same color aura wrapped around Celestia. Once more, magic was drawn from miles around, focused into this one point – then, in an instant, Celestia felt herself at once being torn apart and tossed up, higher and higher, arching across the gulf of space, before plunging into the burning heart of the Sun.

“What was that?” Twilight demanded from where she stood, next to Lulamoon. She stepped forward, right to the cloud’s edge, her eyes wide in shock. “What was that?”

Lulamoon’s eyes were no smaller. “Antithesis…” she said. “She just – just – she just banished Luna into the moon, and…and Celestia into the sun…”

“What?” Trixie demanded.

“How?” Twilight demanded. Then the three heard the Ursa Major roar. Dragging their eyes from the sight of where Lulamoon and Twilight had seen their mentors somehow defeated, they saw Luna – this world’s Luna – struggling against the Star Beast holding its paws open with her bare hooves and wings, though it looked like it was taking everything she had – and the bear’s mouth was now free from the binding that Luna had placed on it. With another roar, the bear’s mouth shot forward, ready to devour Luna. The three unicorns screamed in fright.

Their scream, however, was not as loud as the plaintive wail that came from somewhere far below. The sound was enough to make the Ursa Major pause – though it did not release Luna in the slightest – and glance down.

Far, far below, lumbering from the forest, was a glowing blue bear the size of a house – and trotting alongside it, a lavender unicorn wearing a brown cloak. The blue bear let out another wail as it advanced towards the Ursa Major.

“Twilight!” Lulamoon exclaimed, eyes wide, recognizing the unicorn even from this height, and the Ursa Minor that she was trotting beside, though she stopped her advance well clear of the Ursa Major. The Minor, meanwhile, continued ambling forward, until it was next to the Ursa Major, whereupon it reared up and placed its front paws against the Major’s fur and wailed again.

The Ursa Major paused only a moment, blinking a few times as though its recollection was fuzzy. Then, quite suddenly, it released Luna, who quickly flew away and into the sky. As the unicorns and alicorns watched, the Ursa Major leaned down, and shivered. It suddenly began to glow brighter, then a starry mist seemed to envelope it. As the mist poured from the Ursa Major, it visibly began to shrink, and at the same time the rage seemed to disappear from its eyes. The Ursa Minor let out a roar at the sight, though the roar didn’t seem to be in anger so much as joy.

It was almost enough to distract Lulamoon and Twilight from what they had just seen – and it might have gone further, had not Luna suddenly buckled as something purple-and-blue slammed into her from behind, impacting between her wings. The alicorn cried out in pain as Antithesis lifted a hoof and brought it slamming down again and again against Luna’s back, then bucked her away, horn glowing gold. Before Luna had any time to react, Antithesis had her wrapped in an aura, and shooting into the sky.

The three unicorns screamed in terror. Antithesis was breathing in and out heavily as she turned to regard the three, sucking in air in great gasps and drifting forward.

“N-now…” she breathed, “wh…where…were…we – ”

She didn’t have time to say or do anything else, however, as a lavender aura suddenly wrapped around her. Eyes widening, she looked down, and saw Sparkle staring up at her, horn glowing brightly. Before Antithesis could say anything else, she disappeared in a flash and pop.

14. You Made Me Believe In Magic

Antithesis – she rather liked her new name, but right now she was a little busy and couldn’t really spare the time to admire it – popped back into being hurtling towards the ground at rather uncomfortable speeds. She gasped, which naturally meant she got to have a mouthful of dirt and mud as she collided with the ground, bounced, tumbled, rolled, hit and rebounded off of a tree, and then landed in the muck.

“Ow.”

Pain had by now lost its appeal as a new and interesting sensation. She decided she didn’t like it and resolved to take steps to avoid it in the future as she stood. The world before her swam, and there were stars in her field of vision, and she was reasonably certain she was about to black out. This, too, would be new. She suspected she wouldn’t like it.

“Hate…” she groaned, before collapsing to the ground, unconscious.

Some part of Lulamoon’s brain registered that getting down from the cloud would require considerable effort and timing. One of them would have to try and telekinetically lower the other two, one at a time, until they were low enough for Sparkle to catch them. Then they would have to take a leap of faith – jump down themselves, and hope that Sparkle’s aim was good enough to catch them telekinetically before they hit the ground.

Lulamoon reasoned, in her mind, that it would make the most sense for her to take that leap of faith. Twilight and Sparkle had far more magical power than her or Trixie, so it made sense for Twilight to go down first. Then Trixie – she was the innocent one, she didn’t deserve to be here, was completely out of her element. Lulamoon did not consider herself expendable at all, but with both Twilights on the ground, they’d stand a good chance of catching her.

Yes. This made perfect sense, and it was what should be done, said that small part of her brain. This part of her brain, however, was not in contact with the rest. Lulamoon found herself only staring dumbly at the moon, and the pattern of dark craters that had appeared across its surface in the shape of an alicorn’s head. She was vaguely aware of Twilight and Trixie both trying to coax her into action, but she had nothing. There was a brief sensation of being lifted, lowered, and landing on the ground.

But past that, all Lulamoon could register was that, for the second time in her life, she had seen her mentor, Princess Luna, banished into the Moon she claimed dominion over – and this time, there were no Elements of Harmony to help.

Twilight took a deep breath and hopped from the cloud. She kept her gaze focused down, on Trixie and Sparkle, hoping that the two of them could coordinate enough to catch her as she fell. Unicorn telekinesis was, unfortunately, not much use for exerting any leverage on oneself.

Her faith paid off. Trixie and Sparkle caught her as best they could, with about a hundred feet still to go to the ground, though they focused on cushioning her fall more than stopping it. It still felt like running into a wall, but that was considerably better than the alternative. She fought the urge to kiss the ground once she was set down, instead trotting over quickly to her fellow unicorns. “How’s Lulamoon?” she asked.

Trixie waved a hoof in front of her counterpart’s face. “Not good,” she said when she got no response. Her main focus, however, was on the Ursa Major. By now, it had shrank back down to its normal height, and the angry red glow to its eyes had disappeared. It was still a frightening sight to behold, or would have been, were it not nuzzling and playing with the Ursa Minor, the Star Beast cub play-biting and batting at its mother with its paws as the mother lay on her back, making the occasional half-hearted swing back.

The fact that the Ursas were paying no real attention to Trixie didn’t seem to calm her down too much. “Y…you’re saying that i-it remembered you?” Trixie asked Sparkle.

“Well, her,” Sparkle said, pointing at Twilight, “but I guess it can’t tell us apart.”

Trixie swallowed. “S…so, would i-it remember me?”

Sparkle shrugged, even as the Ursas finally stopped playing around with each other, or at least the Major did, the Minor not getting the message and continuing to bat and bite at its mother’s legs. The Major paid it no mind as it looked down at the four unicorns with deep, fathomless eyes. It huffed, then began to walk away, its cub in tow.

Twilight watched it go, and decided that, whether or not the Ursa Major liked her and her counterpart, she had bigger problems to deal with – problems that were highlighted when she looked up at the moon, and saw the imprint of the Mare in the Moon upon it. Suddenly, Lulamoon’s near-catatonia almost seemed like a good idea, as she felt her hind legs give out.

“Th…the Princesses…all of them…” she intoned softly, feeling tears in her eyes.

Trixie and Sparkle looked up at the moon, and both grimaced. Sparkle glanced at Twilight. “I don’t suppose this world has a Princess Cadenza?” she asked.

Twilight blinked, then shook her head. “I…I don’t know. I’ve n-never heard that name.” She tapped her hooves together. “U…unicorns can move the Sun and Moon if we all work together. I guess w-we’ll just have to do it again…w-without the Element of Magic, there’s no way to free Princess Luna or Princess C-Celestia…”

Sparkle grimaced, looking down herself. She glanced at Trixie, then back to Twilight. “I…I know why Antithesis didn’t kill Trixie when she had the chance,” she said softly.

“Because she’s a very sick pony?” Trixie guessed.

Sparkle shook her head. “She can’t tell us apart,” she said. “You, me, these two,” she waved a hoof at Twilight and Lulamoon, “she can’t really tell us apart, just like the Element of Magic couldn’t. And she’s worried that if she doesn’t kill us all at the same time, then the Element inside of her might…might default to one of us.”

There was silence as the three considered that, and they glanced between one another. Trixie coughed. “Trixie is too famous to die,” she insisted.

“I don’t like the idea either,” Sparkle said. “I was just…just letting you know. Just getting the information out there.”

Twilight blinked a few times, before closing her eyes, wiping tears from them – it was too cold out to be crying, she told herself, and they were all exhausted. They needed to rest somewhere safe. “L…let’s go,” she said, standing and telekinetically placing Lulamoon on her back. The catatonic unicorn offered no objections. “We have to find someplace safe to hide. We need to rest, without interruption this time.”

Sparkle grimaced again, glancing at Trixie, then back the way the Ursas Major and Minor had gone. “I…may have an idea about that, too – ”

“No,” Trixie said immediately, eyes widening as she realized what Sparkle was suggesting. “No! No! No no no no no no no no…”

Being trapped in the moon for a thousand years had been an exercise in bitter loneliness and resentment for Luna. She had endured a millennium of resentment and anger, even as she prepared herself for her eventual return – Celestia had let it slip that she had known that Nightmare Moon would escape, and no matter how much she tried to deny it to herself, Nightmare Moon was Luna was Luna.

What?

Being isolated and alone on the world under the sun for a thousand years had been an exercise in abiding loneliness and terror for Luna. She had endured a millennium of uncertainty and difficulty, trying to shape Equestria into the nation that she knew it could be. She had stumbled and fallen and failed many times, but she had risen to the challenge as often – but every morning and every evening, raising and lowering the Sun, she had touched the soul of Corona and felt hate and sheer rage. Luna and Luna had failed their sister.

What?

Luna was Luna. And Luna was Luna. Consciousness was a tangled mess between the two of them, a cacophony of images and memory, so many of them alike, precious few of them different. But Luna and Luna scrambled and struggled to hold onto the memories they knew were theirs. They found the differences and held onto them tightly, and from there rebuilt themselves, their individuality.

And at length, Luna found herself standing before a hundred crystalline steps that lead to a throne of polished white quartz veined with silver and obsidian, and upon the Selenic Cathedra sat Luna, gazing down at Luna, as the crystalline surface of the Moon stretched in every direction and the stars glistened overhead.

It wasn’t real – it was a mental construct, a dreamscape, a way to rationalize and interpret their predicament and make it easier for each to hold onto themselves.

Luna-upon-the-throne blinked a few times as she stared at her counterpart. “Every day?” she asked quietly, voice trembling. For the briefest of moments, their minds and souls had been one and the same but for the barest shreds of ego to separate the two, and of everything she had seen, the constant, recurring memory of touching the Sun and feeling pure hatred from it was the strongest.

Luna-below-the-throne bowed her head, wings fluttering. “Every morning. Every evening. Except…except the last six months,” she said. Luna-upon-the-throne stared in utter disbelief. To have had to deal with that for a month would have been too much for a lesser pony. Luna herself could not conceive of doing it for a year.

But a thousand? With no end in sight? Luna-below-the-throne had thought that Corona was banished forever – there had been no thousand-year prophecy, as there had been for Celestia and Nightmare Moon. Celestia had a goal to work towards, a light at the end of a long, dark tunnel, something to buoy her spirits. Luna had nothing, had been forced to feel Corona’s hate for her every day with no end in sight – yet somehow she had persevered.

Luna-below-the-throne looked then to Luna-upon-the-throne. “I am jealous of you,” she said plainly. Here, in the dreamscape, after having touched souls, she could be little other than honest.

Luna-upon-the-throne’s eyes narrowed. “I let my loneliness overpower me,” she said. “I let myself tinker with dark magics to try and soothe my pain. I made the world revolve around me, my needs, my desires. For a thousand years I dreamed of nothing but laying my own sister low! Of making her suffer as I had suffered – of making all Equestria suffer! Yet thou art jealous of me?”

“I am,” Luna-below-the-throne said. “Because for you…the nightmare ended. And she was there. I envy you.”

Luna-upon-the-throne looked away, shamed at her own feelings. “And…and I am jealous,” she said. “I do not envy thy circumstances…but…but I wish I had thy strength.”

Luna-below-the-throne laughed. “I’ve spent a thousand years terrified of becoming Nightmare Moon. I’m not strong.”

“Thou art a liar,” Luna-upon-the-throne insisted. “A thousand years without slipping into darkness, when thou were far more lonely, more isolated, had more cause than any I ever imagined myself to have!”

“Nor can I rule,” Luna-below-the-throne said, as though she hadn’t heard Luna-upon-the-throne. “Equestria stumbles, slides into corruption. I try to fix everything…but it happens again. And again…I am a poor substitute for Celestia.”

Luna-upon-the-throne laughed now, not ironically, but as though her counterpart had told a true joke. She rose from the throne and descended halfway down the steps that lead to it, shaking her head. “My sister,” she said, “hath – has – created so many ministries and organizations, appointed so many officials and passed so much legislation, that it is a wonder that the whole thing has not collapsed under its own weight. It is as though…as though the entire government has gorged itself on the cakes that my sister loves so.”

Luna-below-the-throne stifled a laugh of her own at that image, as she considered her counterpart’s words. “Sub-Ministry of South-Central Weather?” she asked, as she tentatively placed a hoof on a step, then, at length, began her ascent towards the other Luna.

“Exactly,” Luna said. “I have begun trimming the fat, as best I can.”

Luna smiled softly. “Don’t…don’t trim out all of it. I feel I have invested too much power in too few ponies in my world.”

“I will bear that in mind,” Luna promised. The two stood now on equal footing, gazing at each other in silence for a long while. Beneath them, the stairs disappeared, the throne disappeared, and the two stood upon the surface of the Moon.

“I was trapped here once for a thousand years,” Luna said. “But that was by the Elements of Harmony, and then…I was alone.”

“And Antithesis is young,” Luna added. “And an imperfect, impetuous spellcaster. She would make some mistake in her spell. There is a way to escape.”

“We shall find it together,” Luna said.

“Yes,” Luna agreed.

Lulamoon didn’t have a memory of going to sleep, but she found herself waking up with a blanket over her and pillows beneath her. Opening her eyes, she found herself lying on her stomach, legs tucked beneath her and head resting on something soft and slightly furred and purple –

Lulamoon resisted the urge to yelp and leap away, instead taking in a deep breath and slowly pulling away from Twilight – or was it Sparkle? – who lay beside her, Trixie having lain her head across Twilight’s neck. On the other side of her, she found her counterpart, lying on her back, while the other purple unicorn lay beyond her. Each had their own blankets, but over them had been lain a fifth for additional warmth – the necessity of which reached Lulamoon when she realized just how cold it still was, and the quest for which had made her snuggle up to Twilight (or Sparkle) in her sleep. Her cape and hat lay nearby, as did Trixie’s and Sparkle’s. Glancing around, she found herself in a cave, which was illuminated by a low, purple light –

Lulamoon bit down on her hoof when she saw the Ursa Major, in order to prevent herself from screaming in fright. The Ursa Major had little interest in her, however, itself asleep, curled protectively around its cub.

Lulamoon heard a yawn, and saw Twilight (Sparkle?) stirring next to her, waking up herself. She glanced at Lulamoon, how close they were, and then her eyes narrowed slightly. “No jokes,” she insisted.

“What?” Lulamoon asked, blinking a few times in confusion, before the implication hit her. “Gah! No! That didn’t even – ”

The Ursa Major shifted slightly, huffing. Lulamoon again put a hoof to her mouth, quieting down as she stared. When the bear didn’t wake up, she continued in a lower voice. “That didn’t even cross my mind!”

The purple unicorn nodded, yawning again. She tapped a hoof to herself. “Sparkle, by the way,” she provided.

Lulamoon grimaced. “Lulamoon,” she identified in a low voice.

“I know,” she said, eyeing the Ursa Major. She looked to Lulamoon. “Ursas feed on starlight and solar winds, not ponies. And this one doesn’t think we’re a threat. As long as we don’t do anything to disturb her, we should be fine.”

Lulamoon blinked, then nodded, looking down. Sparkle eyed her. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” Lulamoon said. “Why wouldn’t I be? All that’s happened is Princess Luna just got trapped in the Moon again. As well as Princess Celestia. Oh, and a whole new Princess Luna, too. Antithesis has so much magic to toss around because she’s an alicorn. And the Element of Magic. Which is still shattered. So I'm just peachy. How are you?”

Sparkle pressed her lips tightly together, tapping her front hooves a few times. “I figured out why Antithesis wants to kill us at the same time,” she said, and told Lulamoon her supposition.

Lulamoon thought it sounded patently ridiculous, but at the same time, she didn’t have anything to counter it. Instead, she stared at her own hooves as she considered what Sparkle was saying, and the implications. “Last, last, last resort,” she said.

“I agree,” Sparkle assured her. “I want to go home. But…but I can’t think of anything else that might work. Antithesis is just too strong.”

“She isn’t,” Lulamoon said, glancing at Sparkle. “Not really…she isn’t really casting any spells at all. Like what my clone here said,” she poked a hoof at Trixie, who snorted in her sleep and buried herself under the blanket, but didn’t wake up. “She’s just tears spell-shaped holes open. She wants a fireball, she tears open a fireball-shaped hole. She wants to enchant an Ursa Major, she tears open a dominate-shaped hole. Magic rushes in to fill the void, gives her the same effect, without her having to use any of her own magic – because she doesn’t have any. Her? Nothing. Magic is almost going out of its way to avoid touching Antithesis herself.”

Sparkle blinked at that, shaking her head. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Nothing about this makes any sense.”

“How can she be alive?”

“I don’t think she is,” Sparkle’s own voice answered, but from the other side of Lulamoon. She looked, and saw that Twilight had woken up, and was sitting on her own barrel. “I think she’s just…just exactly what she says she is. A pony-shaped thing wrapped around the remains of the Element of Magic.” She looked to the other two awake ponies. “She keeps saying she’s just bile and hate and anger. She won’t ever learn or grow, she doesn’t understand why she’s doing what she’s doing beyond that it makes her feel good, and she doesn’t want to understand. She just wants to hurt ponies, starting with us…but if we’re gone, she’ll just move on to her next victims.”

“So how do we stop her?” Lulamoon asked. “Without any of us killing ourselves, I mean. How do we stop something with basically limitless magic, that only wants to kill us?”

The three of them were silent, each trying to come up with something. “Have we tried just hitting her a lot?” Sparkle asked.

“She went hoof-to-hoof with my Princess Celestia and your Princess Luna,” Twilight noted. “I don’t think we can hit her hard enough.”

“And she has those nothing-pockets,” Sparkle said, sighing. “Ugh, how do you deal with something that’s just a hole…”

“Fill the hole,” Lulamoon said absentmindedly, though she stopped after saying it and thought about what she’d said. “Fill the hole! That’s it!” She looked between Twilight and Sparkle. “Magic is avoiding her. Why? Maybe it’s because she’s keeping it away. If all her spellcasting is based on just tearing spell-shaped holes in the world and magic rushing in to fill it…maybe the only reason she exists is because there hasn’t been any magic rushing to fill her in!”

Sparkle thought. “Maybe,” she said. “Without knowing how she even exists in the first place, we can’t be sure…but it’s better than nothing.” She looked to Lulamoon. “So…so, we just have to get close to her and just start dumping magic at her until she’s, what, just sort of negated?”

“That sounds like it could backfire pretty badly,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “And something just seems…seems wrong about it. Like we’re missing something important.”

“Maybe it's a couple of alicorns for making sure day and night happen?” Lulamoon asked. “Unless there’s somepony here who could take over?”

Sparkle shook her head. “There’s no Cavallia in this world, and Twilight’s never heard of Cadenza.”

“Right,” Lulamoon said. “We’re on a time limit now, until this world freezes without the Sun. And we can’t keep running away. We have to take the fight to Antithesis, challenge her on our terms, surprise her for a change.”

Twilight bit her lip, before nodding. “Okay,” she said, looking down at Trixie’s sleeping form. She nudged her a few times with a hoof, trying to wake her. The only response was Trixie burying herself even deeper in the blankets and mumbling “cinq minutes…”

“Maybe leave her,” Lulamoon suggested. Twilight and Sparkle glared at her, and she held up her hooves defensively. “I mean it in a good way! She’s not as good a spellcaster as us three, this really isn’t her fight, and I don’t want to see her hurt! I don’t think she could do much to help – ”

Lulamoon was interrupted not by either of the purple unicorns, but by Trixie, who sat up suddenly, pulling her hat and cape on from where they were laying and throwing them on dramatically. “That’s what you think!” She exclaimed, suddenly wide-eyed and awake.

The Ursa Major again huffed in its sleep, and Trixie eeped and ducked down low. When the Star Beast didn’t do anything other than twitch its nose, she stood again, one hoof in the air. “You forget,” she said, albeit in a low voice, “that Trixie’s magic has something yours does not: style!”

Lulamoon blinked, wondering if she had ever woken up so suddenly and easily as Trixie just had. “I have style,” she said defensively. Sparkle and Twilight also seemed off-put by being told that they lacked style.

Trixie offered a simple smile, and patted her counterpart on the head. “Trixie is sure that you are quite the hobbyist,” she said, “but Trixie is a professional magician. Misdirection is Trixie’s life. She has been listening to you three talking – incessantly – while she was trying to sleep – honestly it was extraordinarily rude – and has come up with the perfect plan to amaze, astound, befuddle, and bedazzle Antithesis, leaving her quite vulnerable to our efforts to fill her with magic until she explodes!”

The other three unicorns all blinked at Trixie’s rather vulgar description of what they were planning on doing. “Ew,” Twilight finally put forward.

“I can’t believe I’m going to say this…” Sparkle said, sighing, “but…what’s the plan?”

Antithesis woke up suddenly, and was instantly on her hooves, scrambling around, wings beating rapidly and horn glowing brightly to banish the darkness she was surrounded by. She was hyperventilating, sweating, ears swiveling.

She was right: blacking out was a singularly unpleasant experience. It was rather like not existing for a time, or what she imagined not existing to be, if she had any recollection of what it had been like before she had been at all. She had grown rather fond of being, and did not want it to end.

An image of one of the Twilights, the one with the brown cape, popped into her head. She was the one who had teleported her – who had made her sail down and hit her head and get a mouthful of dirt and muck, who had reduced her to her present state, covered in grime and dead leaves. Oh, the Princesses Luna and Celestia had done their part, too. Antithesis’ whole body ached. But the Princesses and the sound beating she had taken from were was such a secondary thing next to the knowledge that it had been one of the Twilights who had actually driven her to unconsciousness.

Antithesis resolved to never sleep again, no matter what, even as she took to the sky, trying to get her bearings, head whipping around and looking for landmarks. Fortunately, the site where the battle with the Ursa Major had taken place was not hard to find, and in a moment, she was off.

“I was just trying to have a good time,” she said as she reached a broad swath of forest that had been completely leveled. She alighted atop a fallen tree, horn still glowing bright as she attempted to look around and see if she could find her quarry. “Just trying to enjoy myself. But no, you have to all make it so difficult!”

Antithesis looked around, stowing her wings – alicorn or no, she found it easier to keep track of four limbs rather than six. Unfortunately, she had no idea what she was looking for – in the mess the Ursa Major had created, there was no sign of any hoof-prints. She could have given herself the nose of a bloodhound, but she didn’t know what the Twilights or Trixies smelled like. And try though she had, Luna and Celestia had come along before she could have had any real fun with her victims and made them bleed, so there was no blood to follow, either.

Antithesis was just about to scream in frustration when there was a flash of multicolored light and the sound of a distant, small explosion from behind her. Turning quickly, she saw the remains of a fireworks going off – then as she watched, a second, then a third, all launching straight into the sky, maybe a mile distant

“Come one!” A voice shouted, probably meant to be loud, but from this distance it was rather faint, though just inside Antithesis’ range of hearing. “Come all! Come and see the greatest show in all of Equestria!”

Antithesis blinked a few times. That was Trixie’s voice. Was she – what was she doing? Why was she setting off fireworks? Was it some kind of trap –

“Unless you’re scared to be finished off, Antithesis!” Trixie’s voice followed up.

“OH I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!” Antithesis roared, unveiling her wings once more and shooting off towards the fireworks, seeing nothing but red.

Author's Note

I think...three more chapters, maybe. But we'll see.

15. You Can Do Magic

Celestia couldn’t even watch.

Technically, she had no physical form now. Her body had been dissolved into nothingness as her soul had been locked within the burning heart of the Sun. There was no literal prison bars for her to rail against, no cell to pace. She had no eyes to see out from her prison with.

Nevertheless, she at the same time had all those things. Even her mind was not quite equipped to handle a complete lack of a body while still being conscious and alive, and so it rationalized a surface for the sun made of solid gold, and a great cage, almost like a bird’s, within which she was captured. She envisioned a body, her body, within that cage, and she paced around within it as she would have were she actually, physically there.

Celestia’s hooves clinked upon the metal floor of her prison. The fires of the Sun would reach out and through her cage, trying to soothe her. Anger, she knew, would not help with matters, and so she forced herself to not get angry, and instead to think.

Antithesis was young, impetuous, and impatient. She could not possibly have thrown together an effective banishment spell, certainly not one that could keep Celestia trapped for a thousand years. Part of Celestia’s mind was already examining the spell, looking for weaknesses. She had a few promising leads, but with all her power bound into the Sun, it was likely she would need some kind of outside help – an alignment of the planets, perhaps, though Celestia did not believe such an alignment would happen for a good five or six hundred years. Even something as simple as utilizing the powers of the unicorn tribe when they attempted to move the Sun, as they would soon have to, would probably be enough.

For now, however, Celestia was trapped within the Sun – and worse, she was trapped on the other side of the planet. Glancing up at the world showed her only open ocean, with some land far to the east. She was suspended here, the heat from the Sun already bringing unusual warmth to the world below, heating up the ocean that was supposed to be in the middle of winter. If something wasn’t done in the next few days, the heat would create a hurricane of impressive proportions.

Celestia chose not to consider what would happen if her Sun remained in place for longer than a few days. Not yet – the consequences were too horrible to contemplate, and she had faith in her little ponies to figure out how to move the Sun anyway.

But as long as Celestia was here, suspended in the skies over the wrong hemisphere, she couldn’t watch a single thing that was happening on the world below. She didn’t know how her student nor her erstwhile companions were doing against Antithesis, if her sister had managed to escape or had been banished along with the interloping Luna, nothing.

It was maddening. She was Celestia the Undimmed, the Daystar, the Sun Incarnate. And she was powerless.

It should have been dawn, and the weather schedule had even called for a relatively warm day. Instead, the moon and the stars yet hung in the sky, and the cold winter night lingered. Across Equestria and beyond, ponies and other beings wondered if this heralded the return of Nightmare Moon, after yesterday morning’s abortive start – but if that were the case, then why was the Mare in the Moon so prominent upon the lunar surface?

The affairs of the outside world, however, mattered little to four unicorns and one abomination guised as an alicorn that lay within the Everfree Forest. Or at least they didn’t matter to Antithesis; she could frankly have not cared less about what the Trixies and Twilights thought. They had been spoiling her fun all night, them and the Princesses Three, but at least that latter problem had been taken care of.

Antithesis came to a landing in the center of a forest clearing, her hooves kicking up ice, snow, and dirt as she skidded to a halt, horn glowing an incandescent violet as she once again stowed her wings, lips pulled back to expose barred teeth as her head whipped around, looking for the source of all her problems and finding herself wishing that she could spare the time to figure out how to move the Sun and Moon and make it daylight.

She found her target surprisingly quickly – one of the Twilights suddenly came rushing from the forest, horn glowing brightly as she fired a beam of light at Antithesis. She ducked low, growling aloud and striking out with her own magic, a beam of pure force that struck Twilight and sent her sprawling away with a cry of pain.

Antithesis smiled a little, shuffling her front hooves and feeling a little better for a moment, then galloping towards Twilight, who was groaning and picking herself up. Antithesis’ horn glowed again, and she lashed out with lightning. Twilight crumpled in pain, screaming.

Antithesis would have smiled, but she saw a moving blur beside her, and spun quickly, barely avoiding as a blob, like a clear liquid in a vague pony shape, tried to buck her. She deftly avoided the blow and lashed out with a hoof of her own, but the blob moved – though the poorly-constructed illusion fell then, revealing one of the Trixie underneath it, eyes wide at having been found out. She turned to gallop away.

“Wrong!” Antithesis cried, reaching out telekinetically for the Trixie. She didn’t have time to actually establish a hold, however, as quite suddenly from her right, an entire tree came flying, wrapped in lavender effervescence. Antithesis gasped and leaped high, barely avoiding it, and she found herself confronted by the other Twilight – the first one was still picking herself up. This Twilight pawed at the ground a few times, before conjuring up lightning of her own and lashing out. Antithesis created a shield and blocked it, though she wasn’t sure why she bothered – the lightning didn’t feel like it had much force behind it, though that was unsurprising given that the Twilights weren’t exactly used to combat.

Antithesis snorted, dropping her shield and picking the tree up. She spun it around over her head a few times, then threw it forward. The Twilight’s eyes widened – then her horn glowed, and she popped out of existence – but re-appeared a moment later once the tree had passed, exactly where she had been. Grinning at Antithesis, she popped in and out of existence a few times, appearing here and there with little effort – rather than being hurled by the roil in a random direction at random speed.

Antithesis’ eyes went wide. “What?!” she demanded, looking up. The magic of the roil was still in-place. Antithesis looked back to Twilight, but found her gone – as was the other Twilight, and the Trixie.

“Mwahahahahaha!” Trixie’s voice came from everywhere as Antithesis looked around. “That’s right, Antithesis! We’ve learned how to counter your tricks!”

Antithesis’ head whipped around, looking for the source of the voice, but finding none. “That’s impossible!” she screamed.

“So are you!” Trixie’s voice countered. With a flash and pink pop, Trixie appeared, cape and all, in front of Antithesis. “Trixie’s talents are immense! She has discovered magic sight, and teleportation! She is – waagh!”

Antithesis screamed and opened a null-pocket right on top of Trixie, pushing back reality and pouring in all of her hate. She held the pocket for a good minute, but at length finally let it drop – and was greeted by the sight of Trixie, on her stomach with her front hooves over her head. She opened one eye after a second, then stood suddenly, looking no worse for wear. “Wasn’t sure that would work,” she noted, “but the Great and All-Powerful Trixie has even become immune to your null-pockets!”

Antithesis took a step back at that, eyes widening and jaw dropping. “Wh…what?!”

There were a series of two lavender pops and one blue one, and suddenly Antithesis found herself staring at both Twilights, and both Trixies. “Now then…” one Twilight said, horn glowing with magical energy. “Time to end this!” She lashed out with magic.

For the briefest instant, Antithesis thought that this was somehow a trick, maybe an illusion of Trixie’s. But the magical beam that struck her was most certainly not fake – she felt herself flying backwards, head spinning and in pain as she landed on the ground, then quickly scrambled to her hooves. The four ponies she hated most in all the world had disappeared again in a series of pops.

“This is the part where you scream,” Trixie’s voice said from everywhere.

Antithesis knew that it was what Trixie wanted, that doing it would only be playing into the blue unicorn’s hooves. Even with that knowledge, though, she still found herself stomping her hooves, shaking her mane, and screaming as loud as she could.

“I! HATE! YOU!”

Lulamoon’s horn stopped glowing, and she took in a few deep breaths. Trixie eyed her, but Lulamoon only waved her hoof. “Give…give me a few moments,” she said, as Sparkle returned, dispelling the invisibility spell around her herself and putting a hoof to Lulamoon. The four of them were ducked down in a blind they had hastily constructed on the edge of the clearing, a blind supplemented by an illusion spell that actually hid magical auras rather than affecting any of the physical senses. It wasn’t perfectly constructed – Lulamoon had shown Twilight how to do it rather than casting it herself, as she had needed to hold onto her magic for the current performance – but it would hold up as long as it wasn’t scrutinized closely, something Antithesis wasn’t likely to do.

The plan had been thought up by Trixie, but they hinged on Lulamoon’s proficiency with illusion magic. From their blind, they could see out into the clearing, but Antithesis couldn’t see them. Trixie was providing the amplified voice and taunting, but Lulamoon was providing the figments and ghost sounds that Antithesis was being lead to believe were the ponies themselves. She was also occasionally casting invisibility spells on Twilight and Sparkle, the latter two tasked with dashing out from the blind on occasion and providing some actual spell-work to sell the figments.

But Lulamoon couldn’t keep it up for long, not with the number and the complexity of glamors she was crafting.

“You’re doing good,” Twilight provided, patting Lulamoon on withers. Lulamoon steadied herself, then cast an invisibility spell over Twilight as she grit her teeth.

“Can’t keep this up…” Lulamoon noted. “We’ll…we’ll have to wrap things up quickly.”

Trixie had to admit that she was impressed. She would have to learn illusions of this quality in time for her next show. Focusing her mind back on task, she looked back out at Antithesis, who was bucking around like a bronco in rage, and started speaking again. She had to get Antithesis furious – enough that the alicorn wouldn’t be focused on what she was doing, what was happening, wouldn’t notice the tiny imperfections in the illusions – and wouldn’t double-check when the show’s climax occurred.

Antithesis watched as one of Twilight’s horns glowed, and a fireball came from nowhere and struck her in her side, sending her flying. She hadn’t known that Twilight could conjure fireballs from nowhere – but then, apparently the mares had just developed about a thousand new spellcasting powers from nowhere. It was patently impossible, but then, so was Antithesis.

That didn’t mean she liked it.

Antithesis magically reached out to Twilight, but the purple unicorn disappeared in a flash and pop. She tried to follow the teleportation to its destination, but didn’t have time as she saw hooves coming for her face. She ducked, and lashed out, but the Trixie that had bucked at her avoided her blow. Then a Twilight was all but on top of her, once again telekinetically lifting up a tree, then a second, and sending them both flying at Antithesis. She caught one in her own telekinesis and avoided the other, sending it flying back, but the Twilight simply teleported away. The one Antithesis had caught, she hurled at a Trixie, but that Trixie, too, disappeared in a flash and pop of her own.

“GRAAAAAH!” Antithesis screamed, running her vocal chords ragged.

“Graaaah!” A Trixie, this one with a pink glowing horn, mocked, waving her hooves in the air. “That’s you! That’s how dumb you sound!”

Antithesis launched as large a fireball as she had ever made at that one. She eeped and popped out of existence as the fireball connected with the ground, rolled a few hundred feet, and then exploded somewhere in the forest, sending dirt and wood everywhere.

Antithesis’ horn glowed brighter, but she didn’t lash out with her magic this time. Instead, she charged, horn down, right at the nearest Twilight. Just as that Twilight was about to teleport away, Antithesis reached out with magic and held her in place. Had Antithesis been more focused, she might have noticed that her grip didn’t feel quite real – but she was anything but focused right now, except on taking her horn and ramming it straight into Twilight Sparkle’s chest.

The Twilight managed, at the last possible moment, to twist out of the way. Antithesis went shooting past, but instantly adjusted herself, bending her forelegs and hindlegs. She couldn’t impale Twilight, but she did manage a buck with all the powers of an alicorn right into Twilight’s chest. The unicorn’s scream of pain mixed with a rather satisfying wet crunch, and she went flying away, tumbling on the ground and landing on her side, still screaming. Instantly, the other Twilight and the two Trixies teleported to her side, eyes wide in shock.

Antithesis grinned brightly as she reached out again, holding all four in place magically. They struggled and fought, but none of them could teleport as Antithesis telekinetically lifted up the ground behind her, a circular section twenty feet wide and six feet thick, hovering it in place over the four of them as they looked on in horror.

“NOW DIE!” she screamed, letting the earth fall on them. There was a scream of fright and shock, then an earth-shaking thud that kicked up dust and snow and dirt.

Antithesis stared, eyes wide as the dust began to settle, breathing heavily. “It’s…” she intoned, staring at the pile of dirt and stones that she had crushed the four ponies underneath. “It’s…is it over…?”

The alicorn took a step forward, then another, blinking rapidly. No ponies teleported in suddenly to ruin her day. No more did Trixie torment her and challenge her and make fun of her. There was only the silence of the forest, and the sound of her own heavy breathing. “It’s over,” she said, a wide smile breaking out on her lips. “It’s over…it’s over! They’re dead! They’re dead! I WIN! I WIN! I WIN!”

“Now!”

Antithesis’ eyes widened at the sound of the voice. She turned around quickly, just in time to see a flash of lavender, pink, and blue light completely cloud her vision.

The four of them had closed in, invisible thanks to Trixie, to within just a few paces of Antithesis before making their move. The not-pony had only just had the chance to turn around when beams of pure magic lashed out from the horns of Twilight, Trixie, Lulamoon, and Sparkle.

Antithesis screamed, not in rage, but pain – real, actual pain, the first such cries that the four unicorns had heard her ever utter. She tried to stand at first, but buckled quickly. She tried to set her horn glowing – to cast a spell or open a null-pocket, none of the unicorns knew, and she failed in any event. Her very form seemed to shift and twist and bend oddly. Her wings appeared, but even though she flapped them as hard as she could, she couldn’t rise.

The attack hurt the ponies executing it just as much, however. They had no idea how much magic was needed to take down Antithesis, and so each of the four of them were giving it their all – pouring their everything at the not-pony, the alicorn whose body housed the shattered Element of Magic. The force of their magic was enough that the beams of arcane force eventually lost any color or definition, becoming simply rays of pure white light as the eyes of each of the four unicorns glowed a similar color. The Everfree Forest was bathed in a light brighter than that of the missing Sun.

Lulamoon buckled first, exhausted, a she was, from the illusionary show she had just helped put on. She fell to her knees and hocks, felt her concentration slipping. She felt a hoof on her withers, though, and a glance found her looking at Sparkle. The other unicorn smiled just a little, but then she, too, buckled, losing her ability to stand – but not her ability to keep the magic going. Lulamoon felt herself growing determined to equal Sparkle’s efforts – not as a rival trying to compete or show off, but as a pony trying to make sure that if others were going to give it their all, she would, too. Looking at Sparkle, she knew that the other unicorn felt the same way.

Trixie was on her knees and hocks too, simply not having the magic output of the other three. For once, though, she didn’t care about showing off. She wasn’t here to show off. Antithesis had attacked her, and attacked one of the few ponies she’d ever known who had offered her an honest helping hoof. Twilight had forgiven her, and Trixie owed it to Twilight to put forward all she could.

Twilight lost her ability to simply pour out magic last. She kept thinking of Celestia, her mentor, trapped in the Sun, placed there by Antithesis. The pony’s name was truly fitting, for she was the complete opposite of Celestia – impatient, cruel, violent, savage, the perfect opposite of everything that Celestia was. Twilight was going to make sure that Antithesis couldn’t hurt anypony ever again, no matter what it cost.

Antithesis had fallen to the ground by now as well, screaming incoherently, gnashing her teeth and bucking her legs and flapping her wings in pain. Her body was distending and contracting, expanding and collapsing randomly – she looked less like a pony, and more like a doll that had been filled with something moving and writhing.

Then there was a flash – Antithesis’ screaming suddenly stopped, and the magic of the four unicorns’ magical assaults ended. The four of them gasped for breath, each of them sweating buckets and trembling uncontrollably, fighting to stay awake – they were each of them but a second away from overchanneling, their bodies fighting desperately to hold on to what little magical power they still possessed inside of them. Antithesis, meanwhile, didn’t move at all – she lay still and unmoving on her side, eyes wide and unseeing, mouth open, face frozen in a scream of rage.

Twilight tried to stand, but couldn’t – she could barely summon the effort to keep her head off of the ground. She turned to look at the other unicorns. “I…I th-think…think w…we did it…” she said.

Sparkle nodded. “Th…thank the Stars…” she gasped. “I don’t think – ”

Antithesis twitched. The four ponies jumped, or tried to, but each still lacked the strength to rise. Like a slow-moving motion picture, Antithesis’ wings curled around herself, and she drew her hooves and head down and towards her barrel. Her eyes were still unfocused as she, too, began to gasp for air.

“Ah…ahhh…aaaaaahhhhh…aaaaahhhhh…AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH…!”

Antithesis screamed as she scrambled to her hooves, twitching and shaking. Her body convulsed still as bright pink, glowing veins began to trace their way along her form, looking almost like cracks. She kept screaming even as she stumbled around, hitting the ground with her hooves, flapping her wings, her head kept down and eyes closed the whole time as the four unicorns struggled to rise.

Eventually, Antithesis stopped screaming and thrashing around. The pink veins didn’t disappear as she turned around, eyeing the four unicorns, and began to stumble forward. Each step was made on shaking, unsure legs, like those of a foal still figuring out how to walk.

“I…I am A-Antithesis…” she hissed in a trembling, pain-wracked voice. “I am…I am an a-alicorn! I am the h-hatred and loathing-g that sh-shattered Element of M-M-Magic! I…I will NOT d-die in such an ASININE way as being filled f-full of magic and EXPLODING!”

Antithesis spread her wings wide as the four ponies managed to struggle to their hooves, and took to the sky, spreading her hooves wide as her horn glowed deep black. “This ends! NOW!” she declared.

As the four ponies watched, the sky and horizon seemed to be blotted out. A massive null-pocket was beginning to form, starting at the edges of their vision and rushing forwards towards an epicenter focused on them – and from the looks of things, the null-pocket was the size of the entire Everfree Forest, or a goodly portion thereof.

Lulamoon looked at the null-pocket, and realized, at last, in spite of everything, they were doomed. Maybe if she’d had more power, or if Trixie had, or Twilight or Sparkle. Maybe if they’d been able to last for just a little longer against Antithesis – but they hadn’t. They were doomed.

She looked to Sparkle. “I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “I’m sorry for goading you into making yourself look like a tribalist. I’m sorry that I wasn’t the Element of Magic you wanted me to be.”

Sparkle nodded, reaching the same conclusion that Lulamoon had. “I’m sorry I said you were horrible at magic,” she said. “You’re not. You’re great.”

“You’re amazing,” Trixie put in quickly. The edges of the null-pocket were closing in rapidly now. “Trixie wishes – I wish I could do magic like you.”

“I wish I could stay and learn some stage tricks from you,” Lulamoon said. “I’m sorry I – “ she looked at the closing null-pocket and realized that there wasn’t time to make a list. “I’m sorry for everything.”

“Me too,” Sparkle said, looking to her counterpart and to Trixie.

“Me three,” Trixie said.

“And me,” Twilight confirmed, leaning in to the other four, pulling them into a hug that they didn’t refuse. “But mostly I’m sorry that it took ‘til now for us to say it. I wish we could have been friends sooner. But we’re friends now…right?”

“Right,” Lulamoon agreed.

“Right,” Trixie said.

“Right,” Sparkle confirmed, leaning into the hug and closing her eyes tightly, bracing herself for…

…nothing.

And not nothing in the sense of the null-pocket’s nothingness that tried to swallow and consume them, reduce them to nothing as well, pull them apart atom by atom and grind those atoms down to utter entropy. No, this was the nothing of simply nothing happening at all; nothing bad, in any event. Sparkle opened one eye, glancing around, and found that she and the other three unicorns were standing in a patch of grass and snow and dirt just like what they had been standing on. Just beyond its limits was the utter nothingness, the blackness that Antithesis conjured up – but it was held back, stopped from falling inwards somehow.

The ground beneath them began to glow, a combination of blue and purple. The four unicorns broke from their hug in confusion and surprise as a symbol began to trace itself onto the ground – a pale blue, crescent-shaped nebula set with shimmering stars, framing a six-pointed, lavender starburst. It was identical to the cutie mark on Antithesis’ flank in shape, but the colors were brighter.

The four stared in incomprehension, before Twilight stomped one hoof and let out a long groan. “We four,” she said, as a bright glow suddenly manifested in her chest, over her heart, “We’re the biggest idiots in two Equestrias.”

Lulamoon raised an eyebrow for a moment, then enlightenment struck. She groaned as well. “Yeah we are,” she confirmed.

The null-pocket collapsed, nature not liking a vacuum. Even Antithesis couldn’t maintain it forever, at least, not yet. She planned to work on that, once she got over the massive amount of pain she felt in her everywhere. At least now she had time to do that, seeing as the Trixies and Twilights were…

…standing four in a row, upright, white glows in their chests and staring up at Antithesis.

“WHAT?!” Antithesis demanded, letting herself fall from the sky as she glared at the four unicorns. “What is this bu – GAH!”

The last came at a sudden shooting pain in Antithesis’ chest that overrode the lines of pain that stilled etched their way across her body in the form of pink, glowing veins. She put a hoof to her chest and steadied herself with her wings and three other hooves, and it was several moments before she could look back to the four unicorns. Her vision was blurry, however – she couldn’t tell them apart. “How?” she demanded.

One of the unicorns stepped forward. “You’re right, Antithesis,” she said. It felt like there was cotton in Antithesis’ ears – she couldn’t tell if it was a Twilight or a Trixie speaking. “We were foals for thinking that the solution to stopping you was just filling you full of power, just attacking you head-on. That’s what you’ve been doing. That’s what we did. Because we didn’t realize what made us different from you.”

“Phenomenal cosmic power?” Antithesis asked, or began to. The pain shot forward again, and she stumbled, nearly falling over. She breathed in deeply, trying to fight her way past the pain. It wasn’t working.

“You were created because the Element of Magic broke,” one of the other unicorns said. “And we were so focused on the fact that you existed, on all the power that you had, that we didn’t stop and realize what that meant.”

“The Element of Magic didn’t break because it couldn’t tell us apart,” a third unicorn said. “Or it did…but that’s not the whole story. The Element of Magic broke because we couldn’t get along.”

“Because magic isn’t just power. Magic isn’t about who’s most deserving or least deserving. Magic is about connections…about reaching out and affecting others…it’s not power. It’s Friendship. Friendship is Magic.”

“We all could have born the Element, but none of us were friends. For a few minutes we even hated each other, and that was enough to break the Element, to create you. But we’ve figured things out now.”

“We’ve forgiven each other. We’ve learned to get along, to work together.”

“We’ve learned that we’ve got flaws, but we’ve got strengths, too.”

“We’re not perfect. But we don’t have to be. We just have to be there for each other when it matters most. Help each other out.”

“We’re friends. It took almost dying to make it happen…but it happened. And that means that the Element is starting to repair itself.”

Antithesis felt shooting pain once more. She fell to the ground again, wings spread wide. She looked up, but her vision had gotten even worse. She couldn’t even see separate unicorns anymore, just one – Twilight, Trixie, she didn’t know. She couldn’t tell.

But she hated her. She began crawling forward, wings wide. “I…I don’t care…” she gasped. “I don’t – I’m gonna kill you. I’m gonna kill you. No matter what! You’re going…you’re going to die! I’m going to kill you!”

The unicorn trotted forward. Gold and silver seemed to surround her body in a halo of light. “No you’re not.”

“Hate!”

“Antithesis…I don’t know if you’re going to actually live through – ”

Pain shot from Antithesis’ chest again. She put one hoof to it, trying to keep whatever was in there in place even as she kept crawling forward. “I don’t…I don’t care!” She screamed. “I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill everything you love! I hate you! I hate you! I HATE EVERYTHING –”

The Element of Magic was not torn bodily from Antithesis. The alicorn simply convulsed, there was a flash, and then quite suddenly it was there, the gemstone floating in front of her chest, over her heart. Antithesis’ hooves reached out, trying to grab it, but it drifted out of reach, floating to just before the four unicorns who were arranged in a semi-circle before Antithesis. The gem was a simple hexagon, looking like neither Twilight’s nor Trixie’s cutie mark, and indeed it floated equidistant between the four of them, even as the entire forest became lost in the appearance of a sudden, seemingly endless field of white that stretched in every direction, occupied only by the four unicorns and one dying alicorn.

Antithesis stared at the four of them, and at the Element of Magic. As the unicorns watched, her wings began to dissolve into dust, as did the tips of her hooves, her tail, her mane. She looked to her hooves in shock as they disappeared, mouth moving a few times without sound coming out.

“It doesn’t hurt,” she said. More than half her body had disappeared. “I thought it would hurt…”

Twilight grimaced, taking a step forward in spite of herself, in spite of everything. Antithesis’ existance was ending – she was dying, if indeed she had ever been alive in the first place. “Antithesis…” she said. “I’m – I’m sorry that – ”

“I’m not,” Antithesis said, looking at Twilight as she continued to disappear. Almost all of her body had dissolved into dust by now, as the disappearance began tracing its way up her neck and to her head, even as it began claiming her horn. “I’m not sorry. And if I ever come back – I’ll do it all again.” Her eyes narrowed as she regarded Twilight cruelly. “My biggest regret is not taking one of you with me.”

“I don’t think I hate you, though,” Twilight said. “Not now. I just…pity you. You could never have really grown beyond what you were. I’d change that if I could.”

Antithesis was little more than her face, and even that was disappearing now. “I don’t want to change,” she said, as she was nothing more than narrow, hate-filled eyes and a mouth with clenched teeth. At last, even those dissolved into nothingness - and Antithesis was gone.

Author's Note

...

The big trick here is that I don't want Antithesis to come across as a woobie, and especially not a woobie, destroyer of worlds. You're not supposed to feel sorry for her. She doesn't want you to feel sorry for her. She regrets nothing that she did, and given half the chance she would have done worse. She has no good reason for doing what she did other than following her basic nature. You don't feel bad for a Cat-5 hurricane when it finally dissipates, and nor should you feel bad for Antithesis.

...

...having said that, were the Lunaverse more popular, Antithesis would be a great candidate for a Lunaverse Nyx kinda' role. But strictly as a fanfiction.

16. Magic

From the moon, there was a flash of silver-white light, and the imprint of the Mare in the Moon disappeared. A pair of comets streaked away from it, twisting around each other, though the comets flared out within moments, and the Moon began to move at breakneck speed across the sky, the stars following it, as in the far east the Sun began to rise.

Far above the world, Luna and her doppelgänger from the other world floated. The native had her horn alight as she guided the Moon down beyond the horizon, and the Sun over it, though worry was painted all over her face as she did. “My sister has not yet freed herself,” she noted.

The interloping Luna nodded, but her eyes were focused on the world that stretched beneath her. “She doesn’t have your experience with it, or another alicorn aiding her,” she said. “Even still, that was far faster than it should have been – I suspect that Antithesis has been defeated.”

“Huzzah,” Luna said, though with no enthusiasm as she started towards the Sun, intent on aiding her sister – at least, until a bright flash occurred on the world below, and a pillar of white light stretched upwards, past the two alicorns. The alicorns watched it shoot into the depths of space, then looked back, towards where it was originating – the Everfree Forest. The pillar radiated pure magic, so strongly that the two wouldn’t have even needed horns, let alone their alicorn affinity for magic, to sense it.

Each grimaced as they pointed themselves downwards, and flew towards the light’s origin.

Everything, everywhere, was nothing but an endless field of white light, with the sole exception of two purple unicorns, two blue unicorns, and a purple, hexagonal gemstone floating between the four of them as the last motes of Antithesis floated away into the nothingness from which she had come.

There was silence.

Then, there was silence.

And, at length, the silence continued.

Trixie finally let out a long groan, taking a step forward. “Trixie wants to know what is supposed to happen now – gah!” The exclamation came when she realized, on stepping closer to the Element of Magic, that it had shifted in appearance, its purple fading towards blue. She backed away hurriedly, uneager to damage to Element and start the whole ordeal over again. As she did, the gemstone’s hue darkened once more.

The other three unicorns had all tensed at the changing shape of the Element, and didn’t relax when it had shifted back. After a few moments of held breaths, Twilight inched forward, reaching a hoof out. The Element changed as she neared, until, when she touched it, it had taken on a purple hue that matched her cutie mark.

Sighing slightly, she put her other hoof around it, trying to draw it closer to her, but it remained stuck in the air. Frowning, she pulled harder, then resorted to telekinesis as well – but nothing.

“It’s, um…” she noted, as she continued to pull. “It’s stuck.”

“Here, let me – ” Lulamoon began stepping forward. The gem flashed blue then, its surface becoming a swirling glow of blue and lavender. The glow didn’t last, however, as Lulamoon and Twilight both backed away from the Element warily. It gradually shifted again, becoming inert once more.

“Okay,” Lulamoon grunted. “What?”

Twilight tapped a hoof to her mouth. “I’ve got a hypothesis…” she said. “Okay, on three, everypony step towards it. One…two…three – gah!”

The Element hadn’t liked that, it seemed, its form suddenly buzzing with sparks, and a wave of magic pushing out from it and forcing everypony back a step. It didn’t hurt, but it felt more than a little weird. Twilight panted a few times. “Okay,” she said, “okay, I thought that might happen – ”

“You didn’t warn us?” Trixie demanded.

Twilight grimaced. “Sorry,” she said. “But…Sparkle, could you step closer to it now? Touch it?”

Sparkle eyed the Element warily, but at length did as Twilight suggested. As she approached, its hue once again shifted, to match her cutie mark. Twilight nodded. “Okay,” she said. “Okay, I think I’ve got it. The Element still can’t tell us apart.”

“Seriously?” Lulamoon demanded. “Why not?”

“Could you?” Sparkle asked, as she stepped away from the Element.

“But I think…” Twilight continued, one eye a little narrow as she contemplated the Element of Magic. “I think that it’s giving us a chance to choose for ourselves.” She looked to Trixie, Lulamoon, and Sparkle. “Two of us…one of us from each world…we get to claim it. And the other two give up their claims.”

“What?” Sparkle demanded, eyes wide as she switched between looking at the Element, then Twilight, then Lulamoon. “I – but – the Element can’t just, just be transferred like that! Can it?”

“This one time, I think it can be,” Twilight said, sitting down on her haunches and shaking her head. “Nothing about this past day has been possible. I don’t know why I’m surprised it’s going to close with something impossible.”

Trixie’s eyes were wide as well, her mouth hanging open slightly. “The Great and Powerful Trixie…Bearer of the Element of Magic…” she said, taking a few steps forward. “It certainly has a ring to it…”

“Yeah, it does,” Lulamoon said, as her horn glowed – but only to put up a small telekinetic field between Trixie and the Element. She looked at Twilight. “But hang on. Even if you’re right, the Elements only work as a set…and only if the ponies using them are friends. And it comes with responsibilities. And – no offense, Sparkle, Trixie – you guys didn’t earn the Element by standing up to an insane ali…” Lulamoon’s voice trailed off for a moment as she realized what she was saying, thought a moment, then resumed “by standing up to an ancient, insane alicorn returning from exile.”

“That doesn’t mean that they can’t take up those responsibilities,” Twilight said. “And…and besides. The Element is giving them a choice. Giving us a choice, too – a chance to become just regular ponies if we want.” She tapped her front hooves together in thought. “I…I know what I would choose. But it’s not just my choice right now.”

Lulamoon grimaced, looking at Sparkle. “And…it’s sort of a get-out-of-jail-free card, isn’t it?” she noted. “Only the Elements can stand up to Corona…and it wouldn’t really do to have one of the Elements locked up.”

Sparkle’s eyes, somehow, managed to grow even wider at that, though she didn’t seem like she was looking at anything, instead seeing the possibilities before her. “I could…” she said softly. “I could make things right. I could make things how they’re supposed to be…be how the Element of Magic is supposed to be…”

Lulamoon frowned. “I’ve been trying,” she insisted.

Sparkle took a step towards the Element, one hoof out. After a moment, however, she lowered her hoof, and shook her head, closing her eyes. “But it would just be running away again, wouldn’t it?” she asked. “I enslave a bear, just like Antithesis did, and then I run away from the consequences. I try and make my own Elements, but then run away from that. I ran away from my entire world…and then when I was here and I was found out, I ran away again. Taking the Element from you, Lulamoon…Trixie…just to not have to go to jail, it’d just be running away again. Running away from what I’ve done.” She opened her eyes, took another glance at the Element, but then looked to Lulamoon. “No,” she said firmly, though as much to herself as to Lulamoon. “No, I’m through running. I’m going to home, and face what I’ve done. I’m not the Element of Magic. I accept that. And you, Trixie, you are the Element. You deserve it. I accept that too.”

Lulamoon began to offer a smile, then thought better of it, and instead stepped forward, touching forehead and horn to Sparkle’s own. Sparkle flinched, at first, but then leaned in to the friendly nuzzle, reaching up and putting a hoof on Lulamoon’s withers. Lulamoon returned the embrace. “I’m sorry I wasn’t the mare you wanted me to be,” she said. “It’s taken me awhile…but I think I’ve finally started to figure everything out.”

Twilight smiled at the sight of the two interlopers embracing. They’d had much further to go then she and Trixie had needed…not that there wasn’t still unresolved issues between the two. She turned to Trixie, who was still eying the Element with an odd mixture of confusion and hunger. Twilight forced a smile. “S…so how about it, Trixie?” she asked. “You could get to know everypony in Ponyville better. Pinkie always loves it when new ponies come to town. Oh, and Applejack – she likes it too, any excuse to bake up some apple fritters. And once you’ve gotten to know them, I think you’d get along great with Rainbow Dash and Rarity, you’re a lot like those two in some ways. And Fluttershy! Can’t forget her! She’s shy, of course but once you get to know her – ”

Trixie eyed Twilight. “But…those are your friends,” she interrupted.

“No reason why they can’t be yours as well,” Twilight insisted, and she laughed a little as she rolled her eyes. “And it’s not like they’d stop being my friends just because I wasn’t a bearer anymore.”

Trixie looked back to the Element, taking another step towards it. It glowed in response, and that seemed to embolden Trixie even more. She stopped just short of touching it, however, before looking back to Twilight. “But…what do you want?” she asked.

Twilight put on another smile. “That’s not really important right now,” she insisted.

Trixie considered, then stepped away from the Element, shaking her head. “No…no, it is,” she insisted. “My show, my cart, my career, my everything. Trixie is always so, so focused on what Trixie needs. Even though Trixie is perfectly justified as of late, what with her having to rebuild her career again…and it being her cart that was destroyed…and Trixie could go on for some time. Really, she could.”

Twilight laughed lightly, though only because Trixie was as well, her litany of complaints as much a jest as a legitimate list. Trixie then looked Twilight square in the eye. “But…but if we’re really supposed to be friends now, then Trixie knows that she has to start focusing not just on herself. Which is a shame, but Trixie can manage. So…what do you want, Twilight?”

Twilight’s smile faded slightly. “I want to keep on being the bearer of the Element,” she said without hesitation, looking away. “I’m part of something bigger than just me when I am…it’s almost like the Element is a part of me now. I don’t want to give that up, but I will, if you want.”

Twilight heard a long groan, and glanced back to Trixie. The unicorn was looking up and waving one hoof as though making demands of the heavens, not that the heavens could be seen in the endless field of white that the four of them had found themselves in. At length, Trixie stepped away from the Element, crossing her forehooves before her as she sat down purposefully away from it. “Take,” she insisted.

Twilight raised one eyebrow. “Are you sure?” she asked.

“Well Trixie can’t very well take it now, after a little speech like that about how it’s part of you.”

Twilight shook her head. “But it doesn’t have to be, Trixie. If you want it, you can have it – ”

“I do want it,” Trixie said, raising her hooves. “Trixie wants it because it will make Trixie famous and rich and powerful and bring her fortune and glory and she will earn the respect and admiration and love she deserves and…and I want it for all the wrong reasons.” She shook her head. “Trixie doesn’t want it to be part of something bigger than her. She…I want it for myself.” She shook her head. “And Trixie has to stop putting herself first all the time. Sometimes…preferably a lot of the time…but not all the time. And not now.”

Twilight paused a moment, before nodding to Trixie. She wasn’t the same mare that had, nearly a year ago now, trotted into Ponyville claiming to be the most magical unicorn in Equestria, and both of them knew that. “Thank-you,” she said.

Trixie rolled her eyes and looked away at first, but after a moment, glanced back to Twilight, smiling. “But you owe Trixie,” she insisted.

Twilight nodded, looking back to the Element, and on the other side of it, Lulamoon. The juxtaposition of looking from Trixie to Lulamoon was more than a little strange. Lulamoon was looking at her as well, seeming to be unsure. “This will work, right?” she asked.

Twilight began to respond, then considered for a few moments. At length, she sighed, shaking her head. “I have no idea,” she admitted.

To her surprise, that just made Lulamoon smile, as she stood up a little straight and trotted right up to the Element, putting her hoof on it without hesitation. “Only kind of plan that ever works, near as I can tell,” she said.

Twilight trotted up to the Element as well, sighing and rolling her eyes. “It’s our best shot,” she said, reaching out a hoof. “Here goes nothing…” Her hoof touched the Element, and it flashed bright white. The four ponies all shut their eyes against the glare, Lulamoon and Twilight instinctively recoiling from the Element.

They all felt it in their horns a moment before it happened – the Element had steams of gold-silver threads of magic reach out from it, wrapping themselves around the four of them as they were lifted from the ground, their eyes opening of their own accord and glowing bright white with power.

The gold-silver thread gradually unwound itself from around Trixie and Sparkle, nearly all the threads from them wrapping around Twilight and Lulamoon, encasing both in cocoons of pure magical power. They felt the Element then, deep within themselves and even within each other as the Element became re-accustomed to them, recognizing the two of them, and only the two of them, as its proper bearers. Even still, however, a few bare threads of magic remained, linking them with their counterparts and each other, and to the ambient magic of the world around them, becoming two core points of a web that stretched across the face of this world and all others.

It was almost a pleasant experience. What followed next was less so – a draining sensation felt by all four unicorns, as the Element, now re-assured as to its rightful bearers, almost seemed to become a sinkhole for magic, pulling all the magic it could towards fully reconstituting itself and the tourmaline diadem it was supposed to be set in.

Then it was done, and the world went very swiftly from white to black.

Hearing was the first thing to return, slowly but steadily. Lulamoon’s ears twitched at the sound of a beep, beep, beep that was threatening to drive her insane, especially seeing as she felt far, far too tired to actually do anything about it. Opening her eyes weakly, she found herself looking at white-and-blue walls, lying in a small, white-sheeted bed. The beeping was coming from some kind of machine lying next to her, and there was also a tube that traced its way from a bag suspended on a pole down to Lulamoon’s foreleg and even into it –

“Gah!” Lulamoon exclaimed, trying to stand, but failing miserably. She stared in no small amount of horror at the tube, filled with some kind of liquid, and immediately and instinctively set her horn glowing, pulling the thing from her. The tube came free easily enough with surprisingly little blood, while the machine nearby suddenly stopped beeping and instead let out a high-pitched, continuous squealing sound. Lulamoon cried out again, selected the nearest convenient object – a chair next to her bed – and telekinetically picked it up, then began slamming the chair into the machine. She only got a few hits in, however, before a pair of mares wearing white medical coats appeared. One, a unicorn, took the chair from Lulamoon’s grasp, while the other maneuvered in front of her.

“Calm down, miss, calm down!” the nurse said.

“Calm down?” Lulamoon demanded, leaning away from the nurse, who backed away a few feet, giving Lulamoon some distance, while the machine was switched off by the other. “Calm down? What was that? Why was in me? What were you injecting me with – ”

“It’s not anything – ”

“Then why were you taking my blood or whatever? You can’t draw blood from me without permission, I’m the Great and Powerful Dame – ”

“Trixie.”

Lulamoon froze at the sound of the voice. She knew that voice. Glancing, she saw Princess Luna trotting into the room. “Trixie,” Luna repeated, raising a hoof, “calm down.”

Lulamoon eyed the alicorn. “How do I know you’re Princess Luna?” she asked. “I’ve been here, I don’t know how long, I’ve had a tube sticking into me…”

Luna sighed, glancing at the two nurses, then leaned down next to Lulamoon and started whispering something concerning the Elkheim Embassy, an elk fawn she had met there some years ago named Edel Hjerte, and a few certain incidences that had involved a tree, which probably hadn’t been an ice worm in disguise, and a disturbing amount of fire – admittedly, Edel’s fault as much as Trixie’s. By the time Luna was done, Lulamoon had turned from blue to red. “O-o-okay,” she stuttered. “Okay. S-sorry.”

Luna offered Lulamoon a slight smile. “No need,” she said, glancing first at the nurses, then to the machine, and the pole-with-a-bag next to it. Her smile dropped into a frown. “I do not believe I like the intravenous drip either, or at least not its execution…”

One of the nurses stood up a little straighter at that, eyeing Luna. “It’s a perfectly functional and safe piece of medical equipment – that is, as long as somepony isn’t destroying it.” With a huff, she trotted from the room, her fellow nurse following her. Luna and Lulamoon watched them leave, before Luna turned back to look at Lulamoon – and found the mare had all but leaped from her bed, using what little real physical energy she had to grasp Luna about the neck and hug her tightly. Luna returned the hug without hesitation, using her own leg to support Lulamoon.

“How are you feeling?” she asked.

“Like I donated all my blood and then tried to run a rally,” Lulamoon responded. After a moment, she fell away from the hug, lying back down on the bed, though she kept her eyes on the lunar princess. “How’s…how’s everypony else? The other me, and the two Twilights?”

“They woke up yesterday,” Luna responded. “You were still, to an extent, recovering from your trip here, and – ”

“Wait, yesterday?” Lulamoon asked, eyes widening. “How long was I out for?”

“Four days,” Luna responded, wings twitching slightly. Lulamoon could guess why – if Luna had spent the four days here, waiting for Trixie to recover, then that meant that she had spent four days, or five really counting everything that had happened before they had encountered Antithesis, away from her Equestria, her world – where Corona was yet at large.

Lulamoon looked away. “I’m – I’m sorry. I’m sorry I caused this whole mess to begin with, that I’m keeping you here instead of back in our world where you’re needed – ”

“Don’t be,” Luna said, settling down onto her haunches. “You hardly chose to be unconscious for so long…and I have full faith that Equestria can make it a few days without me.”

Lulamoon nodded, looking back to Luna. “And…and I’m sorry that I broke the Element of Magic.”

Luna smiled a little. “It was…well. Not an accident, but certainly unforeseen. I don’t think I need to tell you how unprecedented this whole situation is. Who could have possibly known that a few mares getting into a fight would shatter one of the world’s foundations?”

“I still shouldn’t have been fighting with any of them. It was…stupid.”

“Ponies fight, Trixie, frequently for stupid reasons. Sometimes it turns out to be for the best, sometimes not. The important thing in either case is to move forward from those fights, learn our lessons, and be a little wiser afterwards. Did that happen?”

Lulamoon thought a moment, which seemed to please Luna, though she seemed even gladder when Lulamoon nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “I think so.”

“Lesson learned, then,” Luna said. Her ears twitched then, and she looked to the door to the hospital room for a moment, head tilting slightly to the side. “Incoming – ” she began, though she got no further before a quintet of ponies – Lyra, Raindrops, Ditzy Doo, Carrot Top, and Cheerilee – appeared there.

They paused for only a moment, giving Luna time enough to get out of there way before they all galloped forward. Ditzy, having the advantage of wings over most of the remainder and being faster than Raindrops, reached the unicorn first, throwing her hooves around Trixie and embracing her tightly. “You’re okay!” the grey pegasus exclaimed.

“Not – for – long – !” Lulamoon gasped out as she felt the life being squeezed from her.

Ditzy broke away, though only to make room for Cheerilee, who leaned in and nuzzled Lulamoon warmly. “You’re in a crazy-advanced hospital, they can probably fix you,” she said.

Raindrops was next, leaning in close to Lulamoon and jabbing a hoof at her face. “But don’t ever worry us like that again,” she insisted, though she was smiling. “Stars, it’s not enough you get Luna thinking you’re dead, you have to overchannel, too?”

“A second time, too, from what we heard,” Carrot Top asked as she moved in, hugging Lulamoon tightly, though not as tight as Ditzy had. “We’d only just gotten you back, too…”

“I didn’t mean to!” Lulamoon insisted.

Lyra was last, tapping a hoof to Lulamoon’s own outstretched one. “So…how was everything?” she asked. “I heard crazy, insane alicorn from somepony at some point…”

“Long story,” Lulamoon said, waving a hoof. “I’ll tell you later. What about you guys?”

Lyra rolled her eyes. “You would not believe the last few days…if you think you had it rough, just wait ‘til you hear what we’ve been up to…”

It was several more hours before Lulamoon was given the all-clear to leave her bed by the hospital staff. In the meantime, her friends filled her in on everything that had happened while she was unconscious – Ponyville had been a busy place, it seemed, though she personally didn’t think that it quite measured up to what she, Trixie, Sparkle, and Twilight had gone through. After spending so much of the past week either unconscious from magical drain, or else galloping around thinking that the world was going to end in any number of myriad ways, spending time simply talking to her friends was a welcome change of pace.

Eventually, however, she found herself stepping from the hospital and out into the afternoon sun’s glow, Luna and her friends trotting with her from the hospital of Ponyville to the town’s library, where Lulamoon found herself looking at another Princess Luna, just slightly shorter and rougher looking, standing outside already, having used a hoof to draw an intricate pattern in the ground before the library. There were numerous Ponyvillian onlookers, including all the local bearers of the Elements of Harmony, this universe’s Trixie, and Lulamoon’s own Sparkle, though they were all being kept back a respectable distance by gold-clad, white-coated pony guards.

Luna smiled down at Lulamoon when she shot her mentor a questioning look. “This world’s Celestia isn’t quite as experienced with being trapped in a celestial body as this world’s Luna,” she said. “And of course, she is trapped by herself, unlike my counterpart and I, who were locked away together. Though Celestia is quite alright, when we contacted her she claimed hasn’t been able to escape the Sun under her own power.”

“Claimed?” Lulamoon asked.

Luna glanced at her counterpart, then leaned in close. “I think that she is deliberately remaining within the Sun,” she whispered. “Recall that in this world, this Luna was trapped for a thousand years, and when she returned, she threatened to bring eternal night. The events of a few days ago rocked the faith of the common pony in her. By remaining within the Sun, Celestia has allowed her sister to make it clear that she was not responsible for the Sun not rising a few days ago, did not trap Celestia, and can also make Celestia’s return very public and showcase herself returning Celestia of her own free will.”

“Oh…” Lulamoon responded. “Clever. A little underhooved, but clever…”

“Luna – that is, my counterpart – has figured all this out as well. She is somewhat less than pleased with her sister, but is going through the motions anyway.” Luna smiled, though it seemed like a forced thing. “I expect Luna will get her sister back somehow.”

Lulamoon noticed the slight pain behind her mentor’s smile. The unicorn knew she had no ability to comprehend how difficult this was for Luna – to see a pony so much like her sister, whole and sane and filled with love for her sister. Her inability to ever fully understand, however, didn’t prevent Trixie from reaching over and touching a hoof to Luna’s shoulder. The alicorn’s smile became a little more genuine, though she didn’t say anything and broke away after a moment, trotting past the gold-clad guards and up to her native counterpart.

Lulamoon, meanwhile, trotted over to the herd of Element bearers from across the multiverse that had formed, plus Trixie and Sparkle. Both were watching the magic circle that Luna was creating closely, Trixie’s eyes glowing pink as she used the magic sight spell that Lulamoon had taught her.

Lulamoon winced at the sight. “Um,” she said to Trixie, “I wouldn’t have that on when Luna starts spell-casting. I watched my Luna raise the Moon once…went blind for three days afterwards. Too much magic.”

Trixie huffed, though her horn flashed and the spell faded. “That’s no fun at all,” she said. “How is Trixie supposed to learn great and powerful spells with her new magic sight if she can’t even look at the most interesting spellcasters with it?”

“You could try books,” Sparkle suggested.

“Pfeh. Writing down a spell is like writing down the steps to a dance. The entire dance is lost in the translation.”

Lulamoon smiled brightly at that, extending a hoof, which was bumped wholeheartedly by her counterpart. Twilight and Sparkle, meanwhile, looked scandalized. “That’s not true!” Twilight objected. “If it were, what would be the point of a spellbook?”

“And it lets you know so many more spells!” Sparkle echoed. “Instead of having to keep practicing the same ones over and over so you never forget, you can just learn it and then move on to the next, and then the next…”

“And there’s the fact that they’re books as well,” Twilight continued. “The smell of paper, the fun of reading something new, and this new thing is a magic spell…who knows what’s on the next page…”

Trixie and Lulamoon both rolled their eyes, each of them mentally tuning out the two lavender unicorns as they went on for some time. Eventually, however, they stopped, when Lulamoon’s Princess stepped back from the magic circle as the native one spread her wings wide and set her horn glowing brightly. A hush fell over the crowd as the ground she had etched the circle into began to glow with white light, the lines of the magic circle lighting up almost too bright to be looked at directly.

There was a flash from the circle, a similar flash from the Sun – and then, a moment later, there stood a white-coated alicorn with a cutie mark of an eight-armed Sun, wings spread wide, eyes closed and head slightly bowed. She opened her eyes and began to smile beatifically – though the smile dropped when she noticed that her mane and tail, rather than being animate, pastel rainbows of pure magic, were instead long locks of thick, luxurious, but perfectly ordinary pink hair.

“Luna!” She exclaimed, looking to her sister, who was pointedly staring at a rather interesting cloud. The other Luna, meanwhile, covered her mouth with one hoof, expertly hiding whatever expression was contained there. The crowd, who had begun to cheer at the return of the Solar Diarch, instead found their hoof-stomps and cries of joy checked just slightly. Lulamoon heard the words “magic dye” at least once from nearby ponies, and managed to hide her snickering about as well as her teacher had.

“Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked. She had started to dash forward, but stopped at the sight of the hair. “Um…what’s wrong with your…?”

“Nothing, Twilight,” Celestia said, horn glowing gold for a moment. Her mane and tail lit up then, returning to normal. She stepped forward, leaning down to nuzzle Twilight, a move that her student returned eagerly. She then glanced to her sister. “Though there will be little peace in Canterlot for the next few days…”

Luna eyed her sister for a moment. “I accept your challenge,” she said as she trotted forward, nuzzling Celestia herself.

After a moment, they broke away from each other, and Celestia turned to look to the other Luna. She offered her best smile. “Although…I imagine that, though I am returned, there are nevertheless goodbyes that need to be said.”

Luna nodded, looking to the Elements from her own world. “Unfortunately,” she said, closing her eyes and letting her horn glow brightly. “Our worlds remain close enough to travel between for about another week, perhaps longer…but I cannot leave my throne vacant for that long.” She opened her eyes, and looked to her own Elements. “We must be going,” she said, then glanced to Sparkle. “And I understand that you wish to come, of your own free will.”

Sparkle jumped slightly, but then steeled herself. “Yes,” she said. “I’m…I’m ready to turn myself in.”

Luna nodded, her face neutral as she trotted up to Sparkle. “There is something you should know,” Luna said, waving a hoof around. “You will notice you had no guards on you. I did not ask this world’s Luna to place any, and this is why: the planeswalking spell, once cast, will transport you back to the exact point in space you were in when you left. As I understand it, that was in the middle of Poniszawa’s town square.” At a nod from Sparkle, she continued. “Because you are traveling under my power, and not your own, you will be more can capable of acting when you return. You could flee. Or, you can turn yourself in. The choice will be entirely yours.”

Sparkle blinked at that. “But…well, you could just send somepony on ahead, couldn’t you? Let them know I’m coming?”

“I could, yes,” Luna admitted. “But I do not think that will be necessary. Will it?”

Sparkle didn’t answer immediately, though at length she shook her head. “No. It won’t. I’ve decided already – I’m not running away anymore.”

Luna smiled, then looked to her Elements. “Say your goodbyes. We will be leaving shortly.”

Twilight’s friends, and Lulamoon’s own, had their own goodbyes to give to each other. Twilight found herself oddly jealous of Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and everypony else from her world – they had gotten much more opportunity, these past few days, to get to know the Element-bearers from the other Equestria. She’d been stuck pretty much just with Lulamoon and Sparkle, or else unconscious. Though she had spent some time yesterday with them, it wasn’t as much as she wanted. There were so many questions…

She forced those questions from her mind, though, when Lulamoon trotted over to her. “Well, it was nice meeting you,” Lulamoon said, rubbing the back of her neck with one hoof. “Kind of…strange. But nice.”

Twilight smiled, nodding. “I wish we could get to know each other better,” she said, reaching out a hoof. Lulamoon touched her own hoof to it.

“Well, you’ve got her for a little bit,” Lulamoon said, nodding to Trixie, who was nearby, talking with Sparkle. “That’s kind of the same thing, I guess.”

Twilight shook her head. “It isn’t, really,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to spend time with her, get to know her better…but she’s still different from you. And I’m not going to have any chance to get to know you at all.”

Lulamoon blinked a few times at that, before looking down, heaving a long sigh. “That’s right…” she noted. “It’s gonna be a thousand years before we’d even have the chance. I don’t think I’ll be around. We just became friends, but we’ll never see each other again…”

Twilight pressed her lips tightly together, then stepped closer to Lulamoon, hugging her. Lulamoon returned it tightly. “But we’ll still be friends,” Twilight insisted. “Doesn’t matter how far apart we are.” She leaned back, and poked Trixie in the chest. “That’s what friendship is, right? Connections. We’ll always be connected, no matter what.”

Trixie nodded, the ghost of a smile appearing on her face. “Right,” she said, glancing up to Twilight. “You know…I hate to admit it…but I think you’re better at this friendship stuff than I am. A lot better.”

Twilight laughed a little. “it’s not a contest,” she noted. “Just…keep trying. That’s all.”

Lulamoon nodded, and the two hugged again, before trotting over to Trixie and Sparkle, who had just finished a hug of their own. Lulamoon’s head titled to the side as she looked to Trixie. “So what are you gonna do?” she asked.

Trixie smiled brightly. “The same as Trixie has always done,” she said. “Trixie intends to get a new wagon, bigger and better than her last. She will travel the land bringing magic wherever she goes, helped along by the adulation of her thousands of loyal fans!”

Lulamoon gave Trixie’s lifestyle a thought. Travelling across Equestria, getting to meet new ponies, putting on magic shows and bringing wonderment and awe wherever she went… “That sounds like a great life,” she admitted after a moment, rubbing one hoof against the opposite leg. “If Luna hadn’t apprenticed me, I’d probably be trying to do that myself…it’s basically what Grandpapa did.”

Trixie smiled at Lulamoon. “Backup plan, maybe?” she asked.

Lulamoon shook her head. “Can’t think like that,” she said, stamping a hoof slightly. “Onwards and upwards, that’s it. Maybe I would have been happy as a traveling magician. But I’m happy where I am, too. Besides, it’s not like I never get to put on any kind of show at all.”

Trixie nodded. Twilight, meanwhile, had gone up to Sparkle, who was rubbing her front hooves together somewhat nervously. “Are you okay?” Twilight asked.

“Fine,” Sparkle said. “Just…just fine. Everything’s fine.” At a look from Twilight, Sparkle shook her head. “I’ve just spent something like four or five months on the run. I brought a space bear into a town because I thought I could show off how powerful my magic was…but then I lost control of it. I ran away from that. Then I tried to make my own group of Element-bearers. That…that didn’t work out at all. I was going to use a living being as a bargaining chip after that – my world’s version of Spike, that is, and even though he’s the closest thing to a friend I’ve ever had. And then…then I ran away from everything, here. But now I’m going home. I’m going to see my father, and my mother, and my brother…and they’re going to see me…as I’m being marched off to jail.”

Twilight eyed Sparkle, who shook her head. “I’m not running,” she said. “I’m not. But it’s…it’s kind of a lot. You have your friends, Trixie, Trixie has her magic act, and my Trixie, she has her friend and her future…me? I’ve cracked all four of my hooves down to the frog.” She sucked in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “But…but hey. I’ve hit rock-bottom, right? Nowhere left to go but up…”

Twilight shook her head, leaning in and hugging Sparkle. “You haven’t hit rock bottom,” she insisted. “And you’re not going to. Everypony makes mistakes – ”

“Not like me.”

“What about what I did? With the want it need it spell? What happened to you calling me, calling all of us, broken?”

“You’re not. I can see that now…that’s why Trixie deserves the Element, that’s why you do, too. It’s just me that’s broken. But I can fix – ”

“No you can’t,” Twilight insisted, “because you’re not broken. You made mistakes. That’s not being broken, that’s just being a pony. There’s nothing to fix…but there’s always room for improvement.”

Sparkle looked at Twilight, smiling herself after a moment and closing her eyes. “Thank-you,” she said.

Twilight patted Sparkle on the withers. “What are friends for?”

Luna was aware of Celestia’s presence, despite her eyes being closed as she focused on the world-hopping spell. This was partially due to her powerful alicorn senses, though it had as much to do with the fact that when an alicorn twice the size of an average pony sidled up next to oneself, one tended to just notice it. Luna opened her eyes to look at Celestia.

“Am I interrupting?” the elder alicorn asked.

Luna shook her head. “No,” she said, glancing up at her glowing horn. “I am nearly done at this point…the spell is about power more than anything, I simply have to gather it right now.”

Celestia nodded as she sat down next to Luna. She glanced away, at her sister, who was giving her counterpart a wide berth at the moment – giving her ample space to say her own goodbyes to Celestia, Luna knew. The white alicorn ruffled her wings as her gaze next fell to the ponies who were saying goodbye. “This is different for us, of course,” she noted, looking back to Luna. “For them, this is goodbye, forever. For us…in a thousand years, we could see one another again, if we wished.”

Luna smiled. “I’d like that,” she said.

“Perhaps then, I could meet my own counterpart. Your sister Celestia.”

Luna pressed her lips together tightly at that, looking down. “Perhaps,” she said weakly.

Celestia shifted. “If our worlds will remain connected for another week, that would give me ample opportunity to follow you, if you wished,” she said. “I could aid you in finding your Celestia. I don’t quite know how…maybe I would simply be able to make some good guesses. And once she was found…I could aid you in helping her, if there was time.”

Luna shook her head. “You could be trapped in my world if we weren’t careful.”

“We could be careful, then.”

Luna only shook her head again, however. “I…I think that having you there would only exacerbate problems between myself and my sister. She would likely see you as a usurper. And I am not sure how the ponies of my world would react. Celestia – Corona – is feared there, feared as Nightmare Moon never was in this world. And – ”

“And it hurts, just to be around me.”

Luna paused a moment, looking to Celestia, to a being that was outwardly, in every way, identical to the Celestia that she had once known. “You cannot imagine,” Luna whispered. “A thousand years, and your sister returned, deposed you, made good on a millennium of threats…and a day later, she was beside you again. And to come here and see that…”

Celestia shifted uncomfortably. “I understand,” she said, looking down. “But there is something I must do – and that is thank you.”

“For what?”

Celestia closed her eyes. “A thousand years ago, you appeared in this world…then disappeared. I did not even consider the possibility of another world – I thought that perhaps you were Nightmare Moon, escaped from her prison somehow. When I investigated, I found that was not the case…but in examining Nightmare Moon’s prison, I did discover something, something imperceptible excepting if I was examining every detail of the magic that held Nightmare Moon in place, convinced not only that she could escape, but that she had. I found the smallest, most inconsequential of flaws in the prison, a flaw that would, in time, grow larger.

“I poured myself into examining that flaw, researching it, trying to discover what it meant. And eventually I had an answer: on the longest day of the thousandth year of her imprisonment, the stars would aid Nightmare Moon in her escape. That the imprisonment that I had believed would last for all eternity, would not be so eternal after all.”

Luna sucked in a deep breath at that, nearly losing focus on the spell she was casting. Celestia opened her eyes, looking to Luna. “I do not know what would have happened had I not known about the thousand-year deadline,” she said. “But I do know that you…you helped me free my sister from Nightmare Moon. Thank-you.”

Luna looked away, closing her eyes tightly. An immense part of her wished that Celestia had not just told her that – because if there had been such a flaw in Nightmare Moon’s imprisonment on the Moon, then there had likely been a similar one in Corona’s prison within the Sun. There had been a chance that Luna could have been forewarned of her sister’s return, been given a thousand years to prepare for it, to arrange matters, to act to save her sister when she was freed.

Celestia had every right to want to thank Luna for her part in freeing her own sister from the madness that had been Nightmare Moon, however. She nevertheless cringed and closed her eyes yet tighter against the tears she felt in them. That was when a strong wing placed itself over her back, and pulled her close and tight to its owner. Luna leaned into the embrace.

“I can’t pretend to know all of your sister’s thoughts,” Celestia said softly. “But…if she was ever, in any way, like me, then no matter what – no matter what insanity has gripped her, no matter what she says, or what she does…she still loves you, Luna. And one day, that love will lead her back to you. Never, ever doubt that.”

Luna nodded. For just a moment, she had again been able to pretend that it was her sister hugging her, her sister saying reassuring things, helping her see that the world was not so bad and so lonely a place. That fantasy had ended as soon as it had begun…but it helped. It buoyed her, in a way that this Celestia had to know it would. For even as the fantasy ended, it left behind a firm, iron thought in her mind: Corona would not last, and one day, Celestia would return to her.

Luna felt a slight pulse along her horn, then, and broke away from Celestia’s embrace, blinking a few times and willing her tears to stop. “It’s time,” she said, turning and pointing her horn forward. Midnight blue magic reached out into a point in space, that then seemed to fall inwards and backwards upon itself, expanding outwards until it created a slowly-swirling vortex that distorted the world around it, looking like a smudge in the fabric of reality.

Luna looked to her subjects, who had come forward at the creation of the gateway. Her own Twilight, after a final embrace with this world’s counterpart and this world’s Trixie, came forward first, her face full of a strange mixture of determination and doubt. She looked at Luna, nodded, then trotted forward without another word. She hadn’t been gone more than a moment, however, before the other Twilight approached. “Princess Luna?” she asked.

Luna put on a smile. After thousands of years, she was more than adept at hiding her true emotions when the need arose “Yes?”

“About Sparkle…sorry, Twilight, or your Twilight. What do you plan on doing with her?”

Luna sighed, shaking her head. “I feel she has suffered enough,” she answered, “though she has committed crimes, and must be held accountable. The courts will no doubt assign her a prison term, though I had planned to intervene and instead offer her the option of house arrest instead, at her family’s abode in Canterlot.”

Twilight thought. “I was talking to her,” she said. “And…if you don’t mind, Princess, can I suggest something else?”

Luna considered a moment. “I’m listening…” she decided.

Princess Luna had liked Twilight’s idea, which made Twilight more than a little happy, and helped her feel a little more positive about things when she was done, and it instead came time to say goodbye to Lulamoon – Trixie, really – for the final time. The two stood before the portal that Luna had made, even as Trixie’s friends shuffled through one by one after saying their own goodbyes. “Well,” Trixie said at length, “this is it.”

“Yeah,” Twilight agreed. She sighed. “Maybe…maybe we’ll find some way to connect our worlds sooner. I mean, Antithesis, the Element breaking…that shouldn’t have been possible, but it happened. So maybe that can happen, too.”

“Maybe,” Trixie agreed. She didn’t sound convinced. Twilight wasn’t, either…but hope sprang eternal. At length, she reached forward and hugged Twilight again. “Au revoir,” she said.

“See you later,” Twilight returned. The hug broke, Trixie took one last glance at her, then she stepped into the portal. Her form swiftly grew indistinct, then disappeared entirely. The only interloper left was Princess Luna, and she left after one more moment – a final hug of her own with her counterpart in this world, a much tighter one with Celestia, and a nod of acknowledgement to Twilight…then she stepped through the portal herself, and was gone as quickly as Trixie had been. The gateway shimmered once, then disappeared without flare, simply fading away into nothingness.

Twilight shivered a little, as Princess Celestia came up alongside of her, and looked down at her. “Are you alright, Twilight?” she asked.

Twilight nodded. “I will be,” she said. “Though…I think I’m going to have a huge friendship report to send you.” Celestia smiled gently at that, and Twilight did as well. “So…what now?” she asked.

Celestia thought. “We never did get to examine the Elements as we intended…”

Author's Note

Aaaand it's done.

I enjoyed myself thoroughly; I know not everyone did, but that's okay. This was not At the Grand Galloping Gala 2.0.

A quick F.A.Q. Or what I imagine will be Frequently Asked Questions, anyway.

What's gonna happen to Lunaverse Twilight?
Lunaverse Twilight's full conclusion will be handled in the Lunaverse season 2 story Magic Tutor, coming soon (as soon as The Return of Tambelon is finished). It's more of an epilogue to her arc, though, which is basically over here: she's going home. People who hang out on the Lunaverse board already know what's gonna end up happening to Twilight, though, and it was implied pretty heavily in this chapter. I consider it a Good End.

What went on with everypony else?
I am opening up this story to other authors; this was part of why I have a four-day gap between Antithesis' defeat and the Lunaverse charaters leaving. Anyone who wants to write a story about, for example, what Lyra or Carrot Top were up to, can! They will be added to the Lunaverse's fanfiction folder, and the ones I like most (and I'm pretty easy about such things) will even be made fully canon!

So, wait, it's only because of Lunaverse Luna that Maneverse Luna was saved?
Not necessarily; who knows what could have happened over 1,000 years? Everything else was still Celestia, in any event, and I don't think that this necessarily invalidates anything from the show itself. All L!Luna did was get Celestia looking in the right direction, and indirectly and unintentionally at that. Ultimately, I don't think it matters where the thousand-year prophecy came from, only that it helped reunite the two sisters.

What the Hell do you mean that L!Twilight and M!Trixie could have become the Element of Magic?
*Shrugs* This one time, in this one instance, it could have happened. But it didn't.

Wait a second, Luna's little portal thing at the end there is completely different from each other instance of world-hopping we've seen in this story! And L!Trixie was teleporting from a mountainside to Sweet Apple Acres; if it works by "snapping back," might she end up appearing at some point between the two, or even in the air?
Shush, you. :twilightsmile:

9. Every Little Thing she Does is Magic

By train, it took about two hours to reach Ponyville from Canterlot. Most pegasi could generally manage the trip by wing alone in a matter of four hours of hard flying; a pegasus chariot took a little longer, at five hours.

Luna and Celestia arrived in Canterlot within ten minutes.

“I am not certain I am comfortable leaving the remaining Elements behind,” Luna said as the two landed in Canterlot gardens. She was looking around, taking in everything. Celestia wondered just how different her castle, her Canterlot, was from that Princess Luna’s. A thousand years was a very long time for changes to occur, and though their two worlds did seem to run in rough parallel, there were also numerous differences.

Celestia inclined her head to Princess Luna’s concern. “If Discord breaks free,” she said, “I would rather there be some distance between him and my little ponies. We would be able to buy some time, however short, for them to prepare – and give our students a chance to repair the Element of Magic.”

Luna shuddered slightly as the two trotted through the garden. “He has broken free in the past?”

“Just last month. The Elements passing to my student and her friends caused his prison to weaken enough for him to break free.” She looked to Luna. “Has he not yet in your world?”

“No,” Luna said, shaking her head, “although thank-you for letting me know. I can preempt him now…” she stopped trotting, staring straight ahead. “You’re kidding. You’re kidding, right?”

The two of them had reached Discord’s statue within the Canterlot garden. He was exactly as he had been: turned into nondescript gray stone, a look of shock on his face, coiled and twisted as he tried to fight the Element’s binding him into his current rocky form. Celestia had been sure to replace him exactly where he had been before, down to the very direction that his eyes had been pointing. The only change from the last time Celestia had seen the statue was the light layer of snow covering it.

Celestia looked to Luna, who was staring with her mouth hanging open slightly. “What?” she asked.

“In the garden,” Luna said. “You are keeping the personification of chaos, evil, and disharmony in the garden.”

“Where else should I keep him? If he were to break free of the Element’s binding, he would easily break past any defenses I might put in place. Here, at least, he is easy to access and keep an eye on.”

“I had him sealed in concrete and buried underground behind eight layers of protective wards regardless,” Luna noted. “My concern is not so much with Discord breaking out under his own power, as much as somepony trying to free him.”

“Who would be so mad?”

“There have been ponies…”

Celestia pressed her lips tightly together at that thought as she set her horn glowing, examining the statue. To her eyes, nothing seemed to change – it remained, to all outward appearances, simply a garden ornament, exactly as it was supposed to appear to any magical examination. Luna finished her own examinations at the same time.

“Nothing?” Celestia asked.

“Nothing,” Luna confirmed.

“Excellent. In that case, there is somepony I must see immediately.” Celestia grimaced. “I imagine that she may be in quite a fit right now over your stunt in Ponyville earlier – ”

“Celestia!”

The Princess of the Sun started at the exclamation, as Luna’s mouth had not moved, though in a second Luna seemed to break apart into star-stuff, a glowing, sparkling blue mist that retreated behind Discord’s statue. Celestia frowned slightly at that as she turned and saw, galloping across the garden from the castle, Princess Luna – her sister.

“Celestia!” her Luna cried again as she neared, eyes wide. “The Moon – the Night – it was not my doing, I – ”

“I know, Luna,” Celestia said comfortingly, stepping close and nuzzling her little sister. “Hush now. I know. The past few hours have been…eventful.”

Luna shuddered slightly in relief at Celestia’s reassurances, returning the nuzzle wholeheartedly. This close, it occurred to Celestia that there were slight differences between her Luna, and the visitor from another world. Her Luna was a little shorter, by several inches. Her stance was also different – more guarded, more on-edge, more pensive, her wings rarely settled at her side, but rather poised and ready to emote or carry the younger alicorn away. She also appeared to be in just slightly better shape – not that the otherworldly Luna was out of shape by any means, but rather, she was clearly a pony who, while concerned for appearance, had also grown relatively comfortable in her position. By contrast, Luna, as Nightmare Moon, had spent the better part of the past thousand years constantly training her mind and body for what she believed to be eventual combat with Celestia, and it showed.

Celestia pulled away from Luna, looking her sister in the eye. “Now, Luna,” she said, “behind me is a pony I want you to meet. I want you to promise me, however, that you will not…overreact.”

Luna’s gaze switched between Celestia’s eyes. “Tia, is now really the time for introductions? There is a being in Equestria who can override my control of the Night! We must find that pony and…”

Luna paused at Celestia’s slightly bemused smile, and she frowned. “The pony you speak of is the one you wish for me to meet, isn’t it?”

“Yes, she is.”

The Princess of the Moon’s face hardened somewhat. “I would have words with her, Tia.”

“I understand, though I assure you that she means no harm.” Celestia nodded, turning around and standing next to her sister, draping one wing over her. “Please, come out now. We don’t want to draw this out.”

“I am having second thoughts,” a voice – notably not that of Princess Luna’s, but rather magically changed to sound higher and more airy – said from behind Discord’s statue. “Perhaps it would be better if I left – ”

“No,” Luna insisted, stepping forward and out from her sister’s wing, spreading her own wide. “Thou hast violated my sovereign control over the Night. Thy careless actions have doubtless caused mass panic across Equestria and rocked the faith of its citizenry in my person. Show thyself that thou might defend thy actions, if thou canst!”

Celestia winced slightly at Luna’s lapse into older language habits. She was still getting used to the modern form of the language, and early-modern Equestrian was still more natural for her, especially if she was annoyed or concerned. Celestia almost trotted back over to Luna, wanting to protectively put her wing around her again, but she recognized that Luna, right now, felt almost violated. The Night was very much a part of her being, and so have that part of her dominated…

Slowly, almost guiltily, the blue mist that the otherworldly Luna had become drifted out from behind the statue. Luna’s own eyes widened at the sight, even more when the mist coalesced into a pony-shape, before finally solidifying and taking on definition and form – that of the otherworldly sovereign Princess Luna.

Celestia’s sister balked, backing away a step at the sight. “Imposter!” she cried.

“No, Luna,” Celestia corrected, trotting forward and placing a re-assuring hoof on Luna’s withers.

It didn’t help much, as she retreated from Celestia, wings beating frantically. “N-nay, sister!” she insisted. “I swear to thee, I am the one, true Luna!”

“Yes,” Celestia confirmed. “You are my sister, Luna, and she is not. I do not doubt that for a moment. She is not an imposter, because she has not claimed to be you.”

“Wherefore then does she wear my face?” She turned to glare at her counterpart, then back to her sister. “Sister, I am in a foul mood right now, having been awoken by the raising of the Night without my willing it, sensing a great magical calamity in Ponyville, and unable to leave Canterlot for fear of leaving ponies leaderless, even as I have had no fewer than three ponies ask me if I have ‘gone Nightmare Moon’ again! I demand an explanation for what is happening, now!”

Celestia inclined her head, leaning in and nuzzling Luna, an action her sister accepted, if only reluctantly. “Of course, Luna.” She looked to their visitor. “Please, it might be better if you explain.”

The other Luna did not immediately respond, seeming to focus more on Celestia’s nuzzling of her sister than on what was being said. When she noticed her counterpart glaring at her, however, she straightened herself. “Very well,” she said, looking to her doppelgänger. “A thousand years ago…”

“Argh! My eyes!” Trixie cried out, putting her hooves to her face.

“Yeah, that’s what I meant when I said take it easy!” Lulamoon said, rolling her own eyes. “You’re channeling raw magic into them!”

“Trixie was taking it easy!” Trixie objected, rubbing her eyes. “She has very precise control over her magic from years of practice!”

The two were sitting in the front of Trixie’s wagon, while Twilight and Sparkle had retreated inside, doing something involving magic that Lulamoon, while somewhat interested in, was not interested in enough to want to spend time with them. Unfortunately, that left her outside with Trixie as she guided her wagon to following the location spell that Twilight had cast. The gem that contained it was currently attached to Trixie’s cape.

“Uh-huh,” Lulamoon said, reaching out a hoof and moving one of Trixie’s own away from her face. The only way she had been able to get Trixie to stop acting haughty and full of herself had been to teach her the magic sight spell she knew. “Hang on, let me check and make sure you didn’t make them explode or something…”

Trixie pouted at that, lowering her hooves and glaring at her counterpart. Her eyes were watering slightly as she squinted at Lulamoon, but looked otherwise fine, though they had taken on a slight pink glow from the magic she was channeling through them. She squinted at Lulamoon. “You’re…glowing pink, in your barrel, and up to your horn.”

“That’s what unicorn magic will look like,” Lulamoon explained. “Earth ponies are a kind of dark green, with their magic spread across their whole bodies, and pegasi are sky-blue, with their magic is concentrated along their wings and hooves.”

Trixie looked at her own hooves, then glanced around. “And…there’s magic all over the place. I can see it! Like threads of silver and gold…” she reached out a hoof, clearly trying to poke at one such thread. Lulamoon knew that her hoof would pass through it, as though it were an optical illusion.

Lulamoon couldn’t help but smile slightly. She made sure to make it seem smug, however, lest Trixie get any ideas as she stood up, horn glowing slightly. “Okay,” she said. “Now look at me. Pay attention.”

Trixie did so, squinting slightly. Her eyes were still watering, and turning a little red – she needed to get used to using the spell still, though Lulamoon had to grudgingly admit to being impressed that despite using the spell, she was still at the same time keeping her wagon moving. She resolved to make her lesson a quick one. “Okay, see my cape?” she asked, taking her cape off and throwing it off of the wagon. Trixie leaned over, watching it hit the forest floor, before looking back to Lulamoon, nodding.

Lulamoon closed her eyes, thinking to one of the simplest spells she knew, and also a perfect one to demonstrate her magic sight with. She set her horn glowing, magically reaching out to her fallen cape – it was easy to find, given the several small but useful enchantments woven into it. She imagined her magic as a string, with one end tied around her horn, and the other end she wrapped around her cape. Finally, she gave a slight tug.

From the forest floor, her cape disappeared, then reappeared in front of her inside of a blue sphere that popped after a second. She caught it before it could fall, and looked to Trixie. “Did you see?” she asked.

Trixie considered, closing her own eyes as she took off her hat and set it down in front of her. Lulamoon raised an eyebrow at that – she was actually starting small?

After several long moments of concentration, tongue clenched in her teeth and visibly straining, her horn glowed. Her hat popped from reality, and then popped back into being in front of her, encased in a pink sphere that swiftly dissipated. Trixie let out a long gasp at that, but smiled brightly as she purposefully picked her hat back up and put it on her head.

Lulamoon felt a slight itch from her cutie mark; she scratched it as she focused on Trixie and sat back down. “You okay?” she asked.

“Trixie is fine,” she said, crossing her hooves and pointedly stopped panting as heavily. Her eyes still had a pink glow to them. “She has just learned two new spells in as many minutes! How would you be?”

“Not so bad, actually. Though I guess you don’t have nearly the same amount of practice as I do. Still, you figured it out without exploding your eyeballs, so I guess that means you’re not beyond hope.”

Trixie harrumphed. “Trixie has not had an alicorn teaching her the nuances of magic for ten years. But she has the same potential as you. And now that she knows how to see magic, she can realize that potential! And she shall do it without letting herself go.”

“What?”

“As Trixie mentioned before,” she said, standing and delicately extending a front and rear hoof, striking a pose, “Trixie has finely toned musculature from years of wandering the roads of Equestria. Indeed for the longest time, Trixie had to pull her wagon, like a common earth pony! But you…you are just a little chubby.”

“I am not! In fact I’ll have you know that, one, I exercise every week with Raindrops, and two, I am almost exactly average weight for my height and length!”

Trixie grinned. “Almost?” she echoed.

Lulamoon stood. “I take some of my valuable time and try and teach you some magic, and you call me fat?”

Trixie tapped a hoof to her mouth. “More…comfortable, Trixie would say.”

“Oooh I’m going – ”

“ – to kill you!” A voice shouted from within the wagon. Its top was thrown open, and Sparkle came stomping out, teeth gritted as she passed between the two Trixies. She turned around quickly, however, pointing down at Twilight.

“Clover the “Clever” was a hack!” Sparkle shouted, as Trixie and Lulamoon looked at her, then to each other, in confusion. Trixie couldn’t do it for long, however – she still had her magic-sight active, and Twilight and Sparkle were exceptionally bright, forcing her to look away. “All she did was compile what Starswirl the Bearded had written and add in mostly useless notes on how the spells were created! Her only contribution to magic was one spell that can’t even be cast without a pegasus and an earth pony around to serve as a focus!”

“Clover’s insights into the spellmaking process were invaluable!” Twilight countered. “Half of what Starswirl wrote would be indecipherable without Clover cleaning up his notes and journals and re-constructing a lot of his matrices! Starswirl may have been the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era, but he was terrible at showing his work!”

Lulamoon rolled her eyes. “Academic problems,” she noted quietly, preemptively covering her ears and closing her eyes, sighing. Well, at least it wasn’t just her and Trixie who couldn’t get along –

That was when something leaped from a nearby tree, landed beside the wagon, and shoved at it with deep blue telekinesis. Lulamoon, Sparkle, Trixie, Twilight, and the wagon all went flying sideways, screaming.

The pony grinned brightly as she charged after the wagon she had shoved. It had landed on its side in a thick tangle of pine bushes. She skipped forward a few feet, then leaped and landed atop the fallen side of the wagon, spinning in place on one front hoof as she looked around for her quarry.

She spotted Twilight first, climbing from the wagon’s back door in surprise, looking bewildered and a little bruised, but unhurt. The pony let out a laugh of glee as she leaped through the air, spinning in place and landing in front of Twilight, horn glowing. Before Twilight could react, there were a series of pops around her, and she found herself trapped in a square of four doors of different colors that had sprang into being from nothingness. The pony smiled as, with a flick of her head, she opened all the doors inwards at the same time. She heard Twilight cry out from being struck on all sides.

“Ha!” The pony laughed, hitting Twilight again, then a third time. She would have continued for some time, but Trixie appeared then, charging out from behind the wagon, eyes wide and glowing pink.

The pony let out a whoop of glee at the sight of her other target, horn glowing bright as she gathered fire at the tip of her horn, then threw it. Trixie let out a yelp of surprise, ducking the fireball, and scampering away and out of sight when several more fireballs followed. The pony forgot about Twilight as she charged after Trixie.

Rounding the fallen wagon, she caught a glimpse of Trixie’s tail disappearing behind the wagon’s next side. After a second, however, Twilight and Trixie ran out from their hiding spots, Trixie’s eyes no longer glowing blue. Twilight had probably teleported from her door-prison.

Trixie and Twilight looked between one-another, grimacing, before Twilight’s horn glowed a bright lavender. A wall of snow appeared over the pony’s head and fell towards her. She ducked down, covering her head as the snow landed, grunting at the force of the impact. In a moment, however, she was standing again, body glowing with heat and melting the snow off of her.

The pony leaped forward, front hooves spread wide. When she landed, her body shimmered, and two of her seemed to step out from the same pony and complete the charge. One of her slammed into Twilight, sending her tumbling and reeling away and into a bush. Trixie, meanwhile, smirked, apparently deciding to ignore the other, thinking it was fake as she readied a spell. She was taken for surprise, then, when that pony body-checked her as well, slamming her against the fallen wagon’s roof. She gasped in pain and fell to her knees and hocks.

Both copies of the pony were dragged together after a moment, slamming into each other and merging into a single whole again. She gasped at the sensation, shivering slightly. It was painful, yet strangely fun, like blood rushing back into limb that had fallen to sleep. She didn’t have time to focus on it, however, as Twilight appeared again, behind her, finally showing her bruises from the door-attack. Her horn glowed bright as she picked up all the nearby rocks, branches, and even dirt, hurling it forward as hard as she could. The pony simply caught it all in her own telekinesis, then smiled as she packed everything together into a single four-foot-wide ball of pain, and threw it back. Twilight leaped out of the way, but still caught some of it in a glance across her flank, causing her to stumble. She audibly growled from where she’d landed, horn glowing an angry lavender as she shot a beam of pure magic at the pony.

This time, the pony didn’t dodge quick quickly enough. The beam of magic sent her reeling to her knees, nearly paralyzing her – nearly. She laughed aloud at the feeling as he horn glowed brightly, sending a burst of magic at Twilight that sent her tumbling away. The pony laughed again, a laugh that died only when Trixie, eyes glowing pink once again for some reason, leaped and landed on her back.

The pony was almost forced to the ground, but began bucking like a bronco, swinging her head and whinnying as she did so. Trixie was thrown from her back and to the ground. The pony was on her in an instant, wrapping a hoof around her tail and dragging Trixie across the forest floor. The pony cried out in pain as she was dragged against the wagon, lifted Trixie up telekinetically, and head-butted her, careful to not also include her horn in the process. Trixie and the pony both stumbled away, dazed, but the pony only shook her head and enjoyed the feeling – she’d never head-butted anypony before, after all – while Trixie collapsed next to Trixie.

Wait, what?

The pony shook her head again, putting one hoof to her head and deciding that no matter how fun the sensation was, she would avoid head-butts from now on to cut down on the double vision. The double vision was not helped when Twilight appeared twice right in front of her, each one with their horns glowing bright lavender as they readied a spell.

The double vision was just killing the fun, though. Growling, she stopped their incoming spells, whatever they were, and telekinetically grabbed each Twilight, pulling them forward with all her might as she turned around, raised her hind hooves, and bucked at each one as they came forward, figuring that she was bound to hit the real one this way.

She had not expected both hooves to solidly connect, nor to hear two distinct cries of pain. The pony was unnerved enough to trot away several paces before turning around, looking back at her battle.

One Trixie was nearly unconscious, reeling and with a bloody muzzle from the head-butt she’d been on the receiving end of. Another was banged up and shaking her head, but standing. Both Twilights were on the ground, clutching at their stomachs where they’d been bucked, but one of them, somewhat more bruised, was taking it harder, while the other had managed to move into a sitting position, breathing heavily.

“Two…Twilights?” the pony asked aloud. “Two Trixies?”

She considered.

“It’s like Hearth’s Warming has come early!”

Sparkle was in a considerable amount of pain, and was fairly confident that if not for the adrenaline high that was still in the process of kicking in, she would have thrown up, passed out, or both from the buck she’d received.

Sparkle stumbled, getting up onto shaking legs as the pony that had overturned Trixie’s cart and attacked them pranced and spun in place happily, like a foal being told they were going on a trip to Cayo el Bayo. The pony was about her height, with deep blue fur, almost tinged purple, and much more obviously purple mane and tail, the latter two of which were wide wild and unkempt. Her eyes were solid purple, lacking any kind of pupil.

But Sparkle’s eyes were mostly drawn to the pony’s cutie mark: a crescent-shaped, deep blue nebula, with a six-pointed purple star set between the horns of the crescent. The colors were much darker, but casting a glance at her own cutie mark, and that of Trixie’s or Lulamoon’s…

“Who…” Sparkle breathed. “Who are you…?”

The pony stopped prancing in place, looking to Sparkle with a wide smile – a touch too wide. “The Dark…and Omnipotent…TWIXIE!”

Sparkle stared, as did the other three ponies, in utter confusion. The pony noticed their confusion, and seemed to backpedal. “IS NOT MY NAME!” she exclaimed, pointing a hoof at Sparkle. “You won’t call me that! It’s not my name! I’m…uh…”

She paused, looking away from them, brow furrowing and mouth hanging open. She was breathing heavily from the fight she’d started, Sparkle noted. After a moment, she looked back to Sparkle. “My name doesn’t matter!” she exclaimed. “Because I am Dark! And Omnipotent! And I am going to kill you!” she paused, putting a hoof to her mouth. “Dark Omnipotence? Omnipotent Darkness? Not bad names…they don’t really sit right, though…”

Sparkle grunted, calling on her magic. The pony saw, and her own horn glowed – black, not the deep blue it had been glowing earlier. Sparkle lashed out with a bolt of lightning. The pony, meanwhile, had conjured a jet-black orb in front of her, attached to her horn by a long strand of black magic. The lightning hit the black orb, and did not emerge from the other side.

The pony smirked, and shoved her head forward. The black orb shot towards Sparkle at the same time, closing in on and enveloping her before she could react.

She screamed. The orb wasn’t hot, or cold. It wasn’t wet, or dry. It wasn’t physical. It wasn’t anything – it was like a ball of pure, absolute nothingness enclosing her, and trying as hard as it could to make Sparkle a part of it. She coudn’t see, couldn’t hear, couldn’t smell, couldn’t breathe! Sparkle tried to teleport out of it, but found she couldn’t – she couldn’t do anything magical while within the orb, in fact. She rifled through six spells in succession, the last being a simple attempt to make her horn glow – but they all failed. Worse than failed, in fact – they never even began to take shape in the first place.

The sphere withdrew, and Sparkle let out a gasp as she fell to her knees, tears in her eyes. The pony who had attacked them smiled brightly. Sparkle could feel her magic returning to her – she could use it again – but the pony was conjuring more orbs of utter blackness, surrounding all of them with them on all sides, building a chaotic space full of bubbles of nothing.

“My special talent,” she said, “is anti-magic. Now isn’t that the scariest thing you’ve ever heard?”

“Why are you attacking us?” Lulamoon demanded, picking herself up fully, and helping up Trixie as best she could.

The pony looked to Lulamoon with a look of stunned surprise, before it twisted into a leering smile. “Because you made me, Trixie,” she explained, as though she were talking to a foal. “You, and Twilight, and I supposed Trixie and Twilight as well.” Her eyes widened, and she perked up. “Are there more of you? More Trixies? More Twilights? Oh, please say yes.”

Twilight had picked herself up, and trotted over to Sparkle, placing a hoof upon her withers, trying to calm her down. She glared at the pony. “What do you mean, we made you?” she demanded.

“Oh Twilight,” the pony said, shaking her head, as her horn continued to pulse with black magic and create more and more orbs of anti-magic. “Do you really suppose that cracking the Element of Magic wouldn’t have consequences?”

The four recoiled at that. “We…freed you?” Twilight asked.

“No, you created me!” the pony said. “I’m not some eldritch abomination from the dawn of time. I’m six hours old! Oh, but it gets even better.” She pointed to Trixie, smiling. The four ponies looked to her, at last remembering the location-finding spell encased in a gemstone that Twilight had created and attached to Trixie’s cape. Its light had gone out, but the pony stomped a hoof, and it started up again – and the gemstone pointed right at the pony, or more specifically her cutie mark.

“I’m also the Element of Magic,” she said, brushing one hoof against her coat. “I am all the bile and hatred and doubt that you four felt, put in a pony-shaped suit conjured up by the dying embers of the shattered Element, and given life and sentience! Without you, I wouldn’t exist!”

Sparkle’s heart skipped a beat at that, as the pony threw her head back and laughed. The globes of anti-magic began to spin around slowly. Whenever they passed through a tree, or rock, or other feature, that thing seemed to grow somehow…lesser. Less alive. Less colorful. Less real.

“You’re going to die,” the pony said, skipping around in place a few times. “The good news is I’m pretty sure I have to kill all four of you simultaneously, so it’ll be quick. I’m thinking…crushed under a falling wagon!”

The pony’s horn stopped glowing black, reverting to its deep blue coloration, as the wagon behind the four of them lifted itself off of the ground. The four also found themselves seized by telekinesis, and forced together in one spot, while they were surrounded by orbs of anti-magic. The orbs seemed to sap at every spell they tried to cast – they weren’t utterly prevented from conjuring magic, as Sparkle had been when inside of one, but none of their spells had any effect.

“Wait!” Sparkle called out, struggling to escape from the telekinesis that held her. She couldn’t however, and her eyes were locked on the wagon hovering over them, rising ever higher into the air. “Wait! You don’t have to do this!”

“Of course not, idiot, but I want to.”

“You have to know this is wrong! I can’t believe that the Element of Magic would create something so evil!” Twilight tried.

The pony glared at her. “Evil?” she demanded. “Evil? Am I evil just because I want to kill you? Am I evil just because I would rather tear you limb from limb and watch you bleed out one at a time, and I’m genuinely sad I won’t be able to? Am I evil just because after I’m done here I’m going to go to Ponyville and slaughter everypony you four have ever loved out of pure spite?!”

“Yes!” Twilight exclaimed.

The pony’s smile brightened. “Excellent!” she declared happily. “I like knowing my place in the world! So few ponies do. Any last words from any of you? Trixie, you’ve been quiet.”

Sparkle looked to Trixie, eyes wide. The poor mare had been utterly outclassed by the other three of them from the beginning, had been all but dragged into this situation. Her muzzle seemed to have stopped bleeding, at least, as she stood up and away from Lulamoon. “Trixie has three things to say!” she exclaimed.

“Goody! I’ll allow them.”

“Firstly – you owe me a new wagon, you psychopath! Second,” she looked between Twilight and Sparkle. “Library, understand? Library! And finally, Trixie must compliment you on your anti-magic spheres. They are cancelling our spells magnificently. But there is one problem!”

The pony smiled, trotting closer to the four. “Oh?” she asked.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn’t need spells to do magic!”

Trixie reached into her cape with one hoof, and then threw her hoof forward. A series of small capsules fell to the ground at the pony’s feet, and then exploded into smoke. The pony’s eyes widened and she whinnied in surprise, rearing back onto her hind hooves and letting her concentration slip. She lost her grip on the wagon overhead. It remained in place for just a moment before beginning to fall – but the anti-magic spheres she had conjured also dissipated into nothingness.

Sparkle stared in shock, frozen for an instant. She then felt hooves closing about her neck, saw Trixie grabbing her, and realized what she had meant by library, even as Twilight had grabbed Lulamoon, horn already glowing lavender. Sparkle snapped her eyes shut, thought of Twilight’s library back in Ponyville, and teleported.

Even as she did, she heard the pony who’d tried to kill them scream.

“No you don’t!”

Something pulled on Sparkle even as she tried to teleport. For the briefest moment, she thought she saw Twilight’s library. Then, in the next moment, everything went black. When the darkness cleared, Sparkle found herself looking not at the comforting surrounding of books and wood and perhaps a warm fireplace.

Instead, she found herself a thousand feet in the air over the Everfree Forest, and falling fast.