Royal Duties

Chapters

Dreams of Discord
The Steel Pinions of the Sun
Memories of Spoons
Return to Ponyville
Behind Their Dyes
A Hasty Reunion
Detailing a Dimensional Detour
Discord in Harmony
A Balance of Power
A Meeting of the Mares
Unexpected Returns
A Dinner Trip
A Flight Unfancy
Soar Wings
Breakfast of Alicorns
Early Arrival
Wounds of Fear
Welcome to Barbhdad

Dreams of Discord

Twilight stepped forward into the shadow of the enormous maze, shivering slightly from the sudden chill. For a second, the voices of her friends grew dimmer in her ears as she considered the labyrinth they would have to search.

“Easy peasy!” Rainbow Dash was saying. “A quick flyby with these babies and we’ll know the way.” she said as she flexed her wings. “Discord will be none the wiser!”

Just as Rainbow was about to crest the top of the outside wall and begin scouting the maze there was a glimmer and a noise from the air, and she rammed right into a serpentine body and fell to the ground.

“Dear me,” said the suddenly materialized figure, mouth working strangely about the snake’s tooth it contained. “It seems that some ponies have trouble even obeying simple ground rules” it said as Dash stumbled back onto her feet.

“I guess I’ll just have to give your wings to somepony with more self-control.” said the voice with a twisted smile. Twilight felt some tingling on her back not unsimilar to what she had felt a few moments ago stepping out of the sun, but this time she looked down and she had wings! Rainbow’s mouth hung open in shock, her back as wingless as Twilight’s had been a few moments ago.

“And Rarity, while I do trust you to keep from using magic in most situations, I’m afraid the least splash of mud in the maze and you’ll charge up your horn. And we can’t have that now, could we?” the white unicorn remained stoic while the voice addressed her, although she did wince a bit when it mentioned mud.

“I know! Given how Fluttershy makes use of her wings, I’m sure your horn will be safe with her!” There was a flash as Rarity’s horn disappeared, and one appeared on Fluttershy.

“Oh dear...” the yellow pegasus-turned-alicorn whimpered.

Rarity’s eyes narrowed as she glared at Fluttershy. “Give it back.” she said, voice raw and guttural. “Give it back now!”

Twilight began to have a very bad feeling about what was going to happen to Fluttershy.

A pink blob bounced into Twilight’s peripheral vision. “Do you know what I’ve always wanted?” Pinkie Pie asked rhetorically. “Wings!”, she answered gleefully, bouncing toward Fluttershy.

Twilight was pretty sure she knew what was going to happen to Fluttershy, and it made her sick to think about.

“Ya’ know,” Applejack put in casually, eyes suddenly turning to Twilight’s head, “I’ve always wondered what it’s like ta’ have a horn...” She edged forward, and Twilight’s nervousness about Fluttershy shifted quickly to herself. Rainbow Dash began advancing too, expressionless. She didn’t like where this was going...

Twilight backed away, head spinning. “Now... girls...” she croaked as her friends drew towards her. She turned to run away, her heart was beating fast now, but she wasn’t fast enough, she couldn’t get away, she felt hooves catch her and pull her down toward the ground.

“Help! Fluttershy!” she cried, remembering too late that her other friend probably couldn’t help her. “Help!” she screamed, as her former friends began to tear off parts of her body. “Stop, stop!” she sobbed, frightened as she had ever been, but her friends continued to tear her to pieces.

Twilight Sparkle woke with a start. Her wings were badly tangled in the sheets, and she had somehow managed to wedge her horn between the head of the bed and her mattress.

The Steel Pinions of the Sun

Still shaking a little bit from her nightmare, Twilight decided against returning to sleep right away. Instead, she untangled herself from the bed and got up to walk around the castle hallways.

The castle was large and spacious, hallways just small enough not to seem empty and cavernous. It always made Twilight feel large and important to walk down them, especially when she was a little filly, and walking through them alone at night just amplified the feeling. It felt like the halls had been made expressly for her, and as she walked the familiar halls called up happy memories of her childhood and her tutelage with Celestia, and the teachers at the School for Gifted Unicorns. The halls were quiet. In this section of the castle, there were not even guards at this hour. Which was why Twilight was surprised to hear a cry that echoed up from the floor downstairs. Heart thumping, she raced to the stairs, where she could make out some light below.

She practically tumbled down the stairs, hooves nearly tripping themselves in their haste to be down, horn already beginning to charge. She was almost as the bottom of the stairs when she remembered that she had wings, and started to flap them, but stopped when that caused her to stumble and almost fall flat on her face. It was unimportant now, regardless, as she was already at the bottom of the stairs homing in on the light pouring from the door of one of the rooms off the downstairs hall. She briefly considered teleporting toward the door, but decided that it wouldn’t get her there much faster at the rate that she was moving, and that she would much rather save the charge in her horn for whatever lay within anyway. She could hear grunts and pants of frenzied exertion from within and skidded into the pool of light coming from the doorway, mind working furiously, ready to cast a sleep spell, a telekinesis spell, a teleportation spell, on the objects in the room or on herself, depending on the situation. No situation she had considered had prepared her for what was actually within, though, and her horn stopped glowing as its charge slowly receded.

She saw her mentor, the mare who had taught her most of the magic she knew (outside of books), the mare who, incidentally, happened to rule over the land of Equestria, wreathed in a flurry of feathers and magic. Small points of fiery orange sparked near the tips of a spell which seemed to change direction and target faster than the eye could see, surrounding the three other figures in the room. White wings, tips somehow shiny in the late light, slashed just past the throats, sides, and backs of the three figures, which appeared to be white, eyeless ponies, a unicorn, a pegasus and an earth pony. Their motion, hypnotic, continued for several breathless moments, illuminated by the light in the room and the schizophrenic spell. The three figures stood or hung motionless, illuminated by the same light, which danced in strange ways across their backs and blank faces. Then, everything stopped, and there stood Celestia just as Twilight remembered her, wings by her sides, lit only by the lanterns in the room, breathing heavily. She exhaled briefly and powerfully and turned to Twilight, smiling slightly.

“Hello Twilight.” she said, warm voice only minimally punctuated by deep breathing. “I didn’t expect to see you up this late. But I suppose you aren’t a filly anymore, and can keep your own hours.” She made a quick kind of stretching motion with her wings and some pieces of metal clattered to the ground. Twilight eyed them curiously.

“Oh.” Celestia said. “I see you’re wondering what my wingblades are. I suppose it makes sense, given that the last time I used them any more than ceremonially was over 700 years ago, that they would have become some obscure piece of history.” She paused and eyed her longtime student. “Suffice to say that they are weapons like those that the pegasi of old used to use for battle, specifically crafted for me.”

Twilight just stared at her quizzically. The idea that a weapon had been specifically made for the stolid and peaceable alicorn she had looked up to for her whole life was almost as outlandish as the idea that she was able to use it.

“Wingblade battle routines were actually so beautiful and graceful that they remained a form of dance a couple hundred years after the fall of the empire,” Celestia mused, “Really, I’m surprised that you haven’t read about wingblades in any of your books.”

Twilight had, but it was another thing entirely to see them in action. None of the books she had read on the subject had contained pictures, so she had always imagined wingblade routines as some sort of primitive jab-slicing motions, and the wingblades themselves as crude moils, not carefully crafted, wickedly shiny blades. She was suddenly struck by the notion that perhaps this sort of artificial primitivity was what others grafted onto the classical conjurers, and why they didn’t put nearly as much stock into them as Twilight did. She felt suddenly embarrassed at the ridiculousness of her preconceptions.

“Not to mention they make great exercise.” continued Celestia. “Want to try some simple ones with me before I turn in and leave the night to my sister, who so generously deserves it?” she asked.

Twilight could hardly refuse the princess she looked up to so much, and besides she was not about to pass up a chance for knowledge (which, she had been forced to grudgingly accept over the past year, did sometimes come from things other than books), so a few moments later she found herself next to the princess, watching and mimicking her as she gave instructions.

“Crouch down,” said Celestia, head turned toward Twilight as she bent her legs and flattened toward the ground, “and spread your wings out above you, like this.” An enormous volume of feathers sprung from Celestia’s back, as if all Fluttershy’s birds had taken flight at the same time.

Twilight spread her own wings, thinking of how she’d seen Rainbow Dash in this position quite a few times, whenever Rainbow was preparing to fly fast, or run fast, or do something else fast (which meant whenever Rainbow was about to do anything, pretty much). She doubted that Rainbow knew the first thing about wingblades, but maybe it was somthing instinctive. Twilight back felt strangely bare, and her wings quivered a bit in anticipation.

“Now do this.” said Celestia, and she waved her wings counterclockwise away from her in two quick strokes, first the right, then the left, using the power they generated to rear up slightly onto her hind feet.

Twilight attempted to copy her, but she flung her right wing out too far, tipping her further back on her hooves than she had intended. She tried to rebalance in her sweep with her left, but that sent her even further back and tipping toward her right. Her wings fluttered in front of her and she managed to set herself straight again just in time to fall over onto her back.

Celestia laughed politely. “Sorry Twilight Sparkle, I forget that even though you are the most talented unicorn I have ever seen, you have had your wings less time than most pegasus foals. I think we can safely end the lessons here tonight. Would you care to continue tomorrow?” she asked as she extended a hoof toward the prone Twilight.

Twilight nodded numbly, ashamed by her clumsiness. She accepted the hoof, which lacked the gold shoes her mentor usually wore, and clambered back to her own hooves. Celestia gently removed her hoof from between Twilight’s, and began walking toward the door. Halfway through, she stopped and turned back.

“By the way,” she said, her left violet eye and side of her face framed between the doorway and her tall body, half-shadowed by its distance from the lit room, “I’ll talk to you more about this tomorrow, but I meant to tell you that I need to talk to you and your friends about the elements in the next month or so.” her face seemed a bit contorted, perhaps from the strain of speaking backwards through a doorway. “You might start thinking about returning to Ponyville to give them my invitation.”

Memories of Spoons

Flinging yourself over backwards using your wings must have some merit as exercise, at least enough to make one sleepy, because Twilight fell asleep right after returning to bed. Her sleep was dreamless, so the next thing she knew she was sitting up in bed to a beautiful sunrise streaming in the castle window. She started to stretch, then abruptly stopped when her wings joined the stretch, the feeling of her upper back splitting in three a bit too novel for her, adaptive as her mind was. Wings folded back at her sides, she slid out of bed and landed on her hooves, then plodded over to the full-length mirror in her room, which faced the window. She looked at herself, illuminated by the dawn’s light, first glancing at her wings and body, then examining her face.

She looked like herself, not stunningly beautiful, but not ugly either, and even, she supposed, kind of cute. She looked more or less like she had the last time she’d stayed in this room, or one like it, five or so years ago, but older, of course, her expression, she thought, much wiser. In fact, turning her nose from side to side just a little, she had a look in her eyes just a bit like...
....

Celestia! Was it morning already? She should get downstairs so that she could breakfast with the princesses! She’d enjoyed that, yesterday. After the coronation the day before, she’d spent most of the rest of the day with her family, after escaping the party that Pinkie had thrown. When evening came, though, she’d decided to accept Celestia’s invitation to stay at the castle for a while, so that the royal sisters might groom Twilight some for her newfound position.

At breakfast the next morning she had sat with the princesses, understandably nervous, eating waffles with them quietly, until Luna, who was eating with her hooves, began complaining about the silverware (though actually it was goldware) after she accidentally brushed it with her elbow, causing it to clatter.

“What purpose do all these implements serve for this meal, since it is served on trenchers? I have breakfasted on this meal with you time and time again, and never have you had occasion to use a spoon.” Luna said accusingly, holding up the offending utensil.

“My dear sister, those spoons are on the table just in case we ever feel the urge to do this.” taking the spoon, Celestia licked it, breathed on it, and stuck it on the end of her muzzle, hanging it over her nose. Luna, not to be outdone, snatched Celestia’s spoon from her setting, and after a little bit of trial and error, had a spoon hanging out over her nose as well. Five minutes later, they all had spoons falling off their nose to various degrees, and as Luna boasted that her superior spoon-nose hanging time was a sure indication that Celestia was unable to properly use her own utensils, Celestia jokingly retorted that her spoon had only fallen off to preserve her face’s extreme royal dignity. She changed her defense when Twilight’s spoon stayed on her nose for three times as long as Luna’s had (as though anypony with some knowledge of surface tension, dynamics of ambient humidity, and the nature of static friction in gold could do worse! Celestia and Luna must not be really trying!), saying that of course she was just tired, having been up late last night teaching Twilight how to spoon-hang like a princess. They ended up laughing and making funny faces at each other from behind spoons as Luna began to recount a feast which seemed to feature Celestia in a somewhat less than royal role, over some feeble protestations by the sun princess.

Then there was a knock on the door, and the spoons were abruptly returned to table (Twilight’s because the noise startled her, causing her to jerk her head up faster than the spoon could follow. She had figured that using magic was cheating, but had found that by feeding the spoon moisture by blowing on it with her tongue she would be able to keep it on almost indefinitely. It had just occurred to her in the past minute that this might be considered cheating as well, which would explain why she had beaten Celestia and Luna). In the silence ensuing the mild (or in the case of Twilight’s spoon, not so mild) clatter, Celestia cleared her throat and called “Come in!”

The brown head and hair of an anxious, hornless pony peered in through the door. “Uhh...” it said. Celestia sighed and looked wearily at Luna. “See you both this evening.” she said, as she stood up and walked to the door. The figure at the door opened it fully and turned to let the princess pass through, and Twilight saw that it was a male pegasus (not like that was important!).

Luna and Twilight ate the rest of their breakfast in relative silence, and when conversation resumed it ended up turning to royal decorum and etiquette. Luna wanted to be sure that Twilight was well versed, but her own knowledge was a millennium out of date. As they finished breakfast Luna began a fairly esoteric anecdote about how she had managed to make some small mishap thousands of years ago and the consequences stemming from that (even though Twilight’s curiosity smouldered to know the rest of the feast story Luna had been telling instead!). This continued as she led Twilight down the halls and through the rooms of the castle, occasionally breaking narrative to instruct Twilight as to how she might need to behave with respect to some function of the room they were passing. It was the sort of story which Rarity would enjoy, and Twilight was disappointed that she lacked the same interest in politics which might make the story interesting to her. Luna was only about 13/20ths of the way through (an educated guess, based on the prespecified ending where Luna managed to remove the courtisain who had become her detractor due to his negative perception of the incident (something, Twilight remembered muzzily, to do with... banana crème pie?) and the amount which had been exposited already) when she begged Twilight’s pardon so that she might retire (obviously, Luna slept through the day. Who could forget that?). The lunar princess handed Twilight off to a unicorn mare with a dark blue coat, darker blue hair streaked with yellow, and a cutie mark which depicted three open books with the text falling out of them. The mare, whose name Twilight forgot already, introduced her to a variety of equally memorable facts about royalty, lineage, and court procedures. Twilight, who was usually eager to do any type of learning, found that she was just about as interested in these political trappings as she used to be, which was not very much. Honestly, she probably would remember them if she ever needed to, but her mind sort of recoiled at the thought of having to.

Afterwards, Twilight met with some of the ponies who helped run the castle, including some she remembered from her fillyhood. When it came time for dinner, Celestia did not show (she gave her regrets and promised to meet Twilight and Luna for breakfast tomorrow through an earth pony with a bright green coat), although thankfully Luna seemed to have forgotten about the interminable tale of a political gaffe, so they ate quietly once again. Twilight was somewhat surprised at the mediocrity of her first full day as royalty.

It was rewarding, however, to be able to talk and even horse around with her mentor on a more equal basis, so Twilight was looking forward to breakfast today.

As she made her way down to breakfast, just as she was on the same floor as the Royal Dining Room, Twilight saw Celestia striding her way. Celestia lips were tight and her gaze seemed focused far away, but she quickly noticed Twilight and her expression melted into a small smile. “Hello Twilight,” she said warmly, slowing to a walk, and then stopping across the short breadth of the hall, “I’m glad I ran into you. Luna and I are going to have a summit with Cadance in the Crystal Empire in a couple days, and I’d very much like for you to come too, and invite your friends.”

Twilight must have looked uncertain, because Celestia bent down, putting her face almost on a level with Twilight’s. “Don’t worry.” she said softly, almost whispering, “I know you’re concerned about your first time going out into Equestria as a princess, but I asked Lane Layer to arrange your escort from Canterlot.” She straightened, hair billowing softly back over her shoulders. “See you in a couple days.” she said, giving a bigger smile, and began cantering down the hallway again.

Return to Ponyville

After breakfast, where Twilight had gotten so tired of eating in silence with Luna that she’d asked her to finish her story, which, thankfully, seemed much shorter toward the end, Twilight followed Luna’s directions to the office of Lane Layer.

It turned out that Lane Layer was an earth pony with light yellow fur and even lighter hair. His cutie mark depicted a cutaway of a cobblestone road, but Twilight noticed it only after she noticed the dark irregular splotches over the front of his coat. She spent the first few seconds after meeting Lane looking at said splotches and wondering if Lane was somehow related to a zebra, or if there was some genetic peculiarity she was unaware of which could cause ponies to develop multicolored coats. It was only after Twilight figured out that they were ink stains that she spoke to Lane, who was by then staring at her unexplained intrusion.

“Hello, I’m Twilight Sparkle.” she said.

“Ah, Twilight Sparkle, I should have guessed.” said Lane, seeming relieved and turning back to his work. (He really should have, reflected Twilight. There were only, what, four alicorns? And it seemed like most of Canterlot had attended her coronation the day before yesterday.) Lane’s workroom was quite messy, papers and maps strewn everywhere covered with some of the ink spots which adorned their owner. An antique map of Equestria hung on the wall, and Twilight spent some time studying it until the yellow pony called her attention back to him by saying “Just a moment...” Twilight swung her gaze back to see him rummaging around in some drawers and select a scroll, then set it down on a desk, grab a quill from the inkwell in his mouth, and trace some lines on the scroll, not without some of the ink splattering (mystery of the ink splotches solved!). Lane handed her the paper, which appeared to be a map of Canterlot (an area which Twilight knew quite well already) and Twilight took it with her magic and folded it into her saddlebags.

“There you go,” said Lane brusquely, “and I’ve sent for an escort, they should be arriving... now.” he said, in a somewhat relieved tone, as two of the white-coated honor guard which had escorted Twilight for her coronation poked their heads around the door. “Just follow the map, train leaves in an hour, should get there on the dot, here are the tickets” Lane said, holding out the tickets. “Go! Go!” he exhorted as Twilight took the tickets with her magic, waving Twilight on with a hoof. Puzzled at his seeming exasperation, Twilight turned and left, and the honor guard fell into step on either side.

***

“Where are you going?” asked one of the mares accompanying her, as Twilight continued stepping down the street at a near canter (she was going faster than most of the other ponies on the street, despite the fact that this city earned its name a thousand years ago for the frenzied pace of its citizens compared to their rural counterparts). She and Twilight’s other escort had stopped at an intersection with a side street. Both of them were still wearing their platinum blond hair in the same curl slightly reminiscent of Fluttershy’s mane, (maybe emulating it actually... Rarity would know for sure whether Fluttershy had made that much of a splash in the fashion world.) the standards they had worn for her coronation were replaced with saddlebags though, making it clear that they were both pegasi. Twilight was just glad that she didn’t seem to be expected to fly to the train station.

“The train station’s this way!” she replied, pacing back and forth forth slightly, split between abandoning her guard and running to the train station. A small thought was hanging in the back of her mind like a little gray cloud. They were going to be late.

“No, this way’s a shortcut. Look at your map!” called the other guard. Her voice was slightly deeper, and Twilight was reminded of Rainbow Dash. She hastily grabbed her map from saddlebags and studied it as she paced back to the guards. She frowned as she saw that it did indeed detail a right turn from where her escort was standing, and continued studying the map as she turned down the alley and the two pegasi fell in behind her.

Twilight frowned as she finished studying the map. It had a line going straight through the long building south of the train station, which, if Twilight remembered correctly, was the Canterlot Courthouse. The issue being that Twilight had covered every inch of the courthouse open to the public, back when she had written a report on the practice of Equestrian Law, and she had never found any connection between the front of the courthouse and the adjoining alley. Perhaps they had changed the area open to the public? Twilight began to walk faster, urged on by her feeling of lateness and her sudden realization that things might have changed in the years she was gone. Her honor guard kept pace, until they were nearly running through the narrow street. Twilight soon saw the end of the alleyway, where it diverged into two wider roads. There was indeed a door there, and she rushed up and tried it with her magic.

It was locked. Twilight was stunned. Taking off from the Canterlot Gardens was one thing, and would certainly reveal that she lacked the flight skills of most pegasi, but taking off here to hurdle a building? With so many walls in the way? Come to think of it, Twilight didn’t see very many pegasi flying over buildings...

The guard next to Twilight began fishing around in her saddlebags and pulled out a key, which she used to unlock the door, and the other guard opened it. They took the lead as the party squeezed into a narrow hallway.

The back of the courthouse was decidedly more spartan than the front. Judging by the types of rooms they were passing, Twilight guessed it functioned as a staging area for the various activities performed there. They walked quickly down the corridor, then through a door which led out onto the large entrance room to the courthouse, which was a familiar expanse of marble and spiral staircases. Twilight’s guards smiled at the guard on duty and then they were outside, approaching the train station two and a half minutes before they might have gotten there otherwise.

And there was the Friendship Express, steaming at the station! Or at least Twilight thought it was the Friendship, but glancing up at the clock confused her again. It was two minutes past, and Twilight thought the train left on the hour. Perhaps they’d changed the scheduling? It must have changed considerably, because the conductor was just standing around outside the only open couch, and, getting closer, it looked like there were ponies inside the others, so the last train’s passengers hadn’t yet disembarked. Or... wait.

As they passed the conductor with another couple of nods from her guard, slipped inside, and found their seats in the empty coach, Twilight began to feel terribly embarrassed. After a few moments the train began to roll, confirming her suspicions. She blushed and recoiled in her seat at the thought of having inconvenienced so many ponies.

As the train left Canterlot though, her embarrassment began to subside, somewhat. Enough so that Twilight realized with a start that she was just staring at the two whitewashed guards across from her, and that they were just staring back.

“So...” she coughed nervously, “what are your names?”

Behind Their Dyes

Their names, from left to right, were Misty Rain and Morning Dew. Morning Dew was the one with the slightly deeper voice, which, after a bit of conversation, didn’t really remind Twilight all that much of Rainbow Dash. Twilight learned that they had become honor guards after coming to Canterlot from Cloudsdale, receiving a handsome retainer in return for dying their coat and mane blond.

“Yeah,” said Misty Rain, “not everypony is willing to dye their coat, especially since it covers up your cutiemark.” She twisted in her seat, showing a blank flank. Twilight blushed slightly at the embarrassing absence.

“For...ever?” she stuttered.

Misty Rain smiled, and Morning Dew laughed. “No. It’s just that the dye doesn’t discriminate between cutiemark color and coat color.” Morning Dew explained, leaning forward and using her front hooves for emphasis (of the difference between cutiemark and coat colors, supposedly, given all she did was besides stick them near Twilight’s face was alternate waggling them around). “If we stopped dying our coats they would come back, cutiemarks and all, within days. Actually, the whole reason we get a retainer is that guards need to dye their coats every day, or their coat will start to show. It takes a couple days to fully dye a coat too, or we’d just dye our coats right before we needed to.” Morning Dew flopped back onto the plush bench she was sitting in. “The retainer is nice, though.” she added.

“Besides,” said Misty Rain taking a scrap of paper and a pencil from her saddlebags. “I’s na a’ if we c’n’t stil’ sh’w ‘ou”, she continued, speaking around the pencil as she took it in her mouth and made some marks on the paper. “Nnn... ahh... There!”, she exclaimed, spitting the pencil into one hoof and holding out her sketch to Twilight with the other.

Twilight looked at the seemingly random scribbles. “Uhh...” she hedged.

“Here, let me.” said Morning Dew, taking the pencil and paper. She flipped the pencil into her mouth and began her own sketch. After a minute she hoofed it over to Twilight.

“That’s my cutiemark,” she said as Twilight stared at the intricate drawing, two gleaming drops on the leaves of a clover. Taking back the paper and shifting the pencil back into her mouth she resumed drawing. Twilight tried her best to peer over the paper and divine her superior technique, but after just a few moments she handed it back, now with a drawing of a cloud whose bottom was split into gauzy sheets. “and that’s Misty’s.”

The pegasus in question gave Morning a look and stuck out her tongue, gathering paper and pencil back into her saddlebags as soon as Twilight was done looking. “So...” said Twilight, “ah, how do you know what her cutiemark looks like, given...”

“Oh.” said Morning Dew. “We grew up together.”

“That’s right!” Misty Rain beamed. “We’re both from Marshvale.” She scanned Twilight’s face for recognition, and, finding none, continued. “It’s a little town, pretty close to Cloudsdale, right next to the Muggy Marsh.”

“It’s primarily a water-gathering facility,” chimed in Morning, “most of the residents are pegasi employed by the Department of Weather.”

“It’s pretty boring...” complained Misty, “Plus, since it’s a water-gathering town, we hardly ever got our own clouds to play with or sleep on as foals, especially during the summer. Once we grew up and joined the Department of Weather, we thought we’d get more, but the bureaucracy there is just... I mean, you’d think the government is run by Diamond Dogs or something the way they... Umffph.” Morning Dew had grown alarmed at this last bit of Misty’s speech, and shoved a hoof into her mouth.

“Sshhh!” she hissed frantically, glancing fearfully at Twilight, “Don’t you remember who we’re talking to?!”

“Anyhow,” Morning continued in a much calmer, near-emotionless tone, “I, for one, know how important it is that the Department of Weather implement such policies to keep operations running smoothly. My friend does too, she just... gets carried away sometimes...”

Twilight laughed nervously. “It’s okay, I know you weren’t talking about me,” she said, trying to keep her tone light, instead of surprised and dismayed, “I was only coronated two days ago, how could I have any hand in the Equestrian Weather Department policies of even last week?” She chuckled lightly, at the absurdity of the idea and the strange expression of relief and puzzlement on Morning Dew’s face.

“But..” trailed Morning, “you’re close to Princess Celestia...”

“Yeah,” smirked Twilight, “and she complains about excessive bureaucracy all the time. Trust me, you’re not alone in disliking it.” Staring at the two surprised faces across from her, she had a sudden inspiration. “Tell you two what, I am a princess now, so I’ll look into the weather situation and see if I can’t get the government to loosen a few strings as far as moisture control goes. There’s plenty of water to go around, after all.”

“Oh.” said Morning Dew. “You don’t have to do that.”

“Nonsense.” said Twilight “I just want to hear the rest of your story.” She turned to Misty, “How did you end up in the royal guard?”

“Right!” exclaimed Misty, obviously glad that this rough patch in her storytelling was over, “So Morning and I worked for the Department of Weather, but it wasn’t that great, and then last summer we hear that Nightmare Moon is back, but really she’s Princess Luna again. So Dewy, she’s always liked looking at the Mare-in-the-Moon, she thinks that if she just got back, she’ll need, like servants or something. So Dewy just comes up to me one day and says...”

Author's Note

I was pretty frustrated that even after writing this I had no idea what Morning and Misty actually looked like... so I commissioned cenyo, who's really good at OCs, to figure that out for me, and here they are, pre-Cloudsdale!

A Hasty Reunion

It turned out that Morning and Misty had made their way to Canterlot to find that Luna was only recruiting a small contingent of guards, arranged in militaristic style. As neither one was all that keen on becoming a soldier, they passed on that possibility, but their inquests at the castle happened to fall on the ears of some head of ceremony. Impressed by their devotion to royalty and willingness to serve, she asked them if they would be willing to fill some of the ever difficult to recruit for spots on Celestia’s honor guard, which was currently severely understaffed. As the primary requirements were simply a willingness to dye one’s coat and a decent head on one’s neck, they readily agreed.

By the time the train reached Ponyville, Twilight felt that she knew the two mares across from her much better. Although Misty had struck her as quiet and polite at first, she reveled in positive attention, and had an ego. In contrast, Morning would generally brusquely state whatever was on her mind, but was much more reserved overall. There was obviously a deep friendship between the two mares, and Twilight wondered if that was why their personalities seemed so complimentary.

As they stepped onto the Ponyville platform Twilight stumbled (out of sheer clumsiness? It wasn’t that large a step) and was immediately caught in a press of feathers and barrels as Morning and Misty moved in to catch her between them, almost before she realized she was falling. Once she got her hooves again, they stepped back after making sure she was steady. Twilight looked to either side, and felt uneasy when she saw the white faces of the two, looking to her for guidance, their manes styled just like one of her friend’s.

“So...” she said, stepping out from between them and turning to face them. “Why don’t you stay here while I go and round up my friends?”

“Princess... aren’t we supposed to guard you?” asked Morning Dew

“Well, gathering all my friends will take a while, and I hardly need a guide around Ponyville.” Twilight smirked, “In fact, getting them all together will mean that I can’t give you a tour of Ponyville, so you’ll have to do that yourselves. How about you take a while to explore and be back here in an hour and a half?”

“Okay.” said Morning, at the same time as Misty said “Alright!” They turned towards Mane Street, Misty guiding the pair towards the nearby cafe. Twilight turned the other way and hurried towards the giant, hollowed out tree which was the Ponyville Library.

The inside of the library was mostly the same as Twilight remembered, but much... cleaner. Usually there were some books unshelved, or some of the general clutter that was a result of making the library the home of a pony and a baby dragon. But now there was hardly a speck of dust to be seen and the books were all shelved, and, Twilight saw from peering at the spines, properly alphabetized.

“Spike?” she called, wondering if her charge had stayed as interim librarian as she’d told him he could, or managed to finagle a way to turn her absence into an extended stay at Fluttershy’s or Rarity’s, leaving the library unused.

“Twilight!” The dragon in question rushed from an adjacent room, hugging her front hooves with his claws. Twilight saw a bit of perspiration in the corner of his eye.

“Hey, what’s up?” she said softly, extricating one of her hooves to run it over the green crest atop his purple head. “How was the library while I was gone?”

“Oh, you know,” said Spike, stepping back from the hug and giving her one of his sardonic glances, “I cleaned everything up, helped Ribbon find a book. Things were just starting to get boring.”

“Well I’m glad you kept things in order” said Twilight, stepping forward and taking a book she had wanted to reference yesterday off the shelf, then flipping it open. Before immersing herself in reading the desired section (about traditional modes of Pony Humour), she took another look around the library “Even cleaner than usual, actually.”

“Well, it’s a bit easier when somepony isn’t leaving books lying around all the time.” said Spike, rolling his eyes. Futilely, as Twilight was buried in her book.

“Oh, please,” said Twilight as she finished reading, rolling her own eyes, and beginning to search the shelves for related passages. She soon found a promising one and hooked it down with her magic, flipping through it as she levitated it onto the table next to the one she had just read. “It’s not as if it makes all that much...” she said absently, scanning the section she wanted. She grunted appreciatively as some small intricacy of Luna’s story was revealed to her, then straightened and walked back toward Spike. “Anyway!” she said, “I actually came back because I need to talk with all my friends, could you go find Applejack and Rainbow Dash and tell them to meet me at the train station in an hour?”

“The train station?” said Spike, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes, tell them there’ll be a couple of Celestia’s honor guard there too.” said Twilight, “they’re there to take us to the Crystal Empire for the Princesses’ Summit.”

Twilight and Spike split up, Spike heading to Sweet Apple Acres, and Twilight to Fluttershy’s Cottage. It had been a while since Twilight had heard much from Fluttershy, as she wasn’t the sort to talk a lot when there was anyone she didn’t know well around to hear. This meant that more or less the last words she had heard from Fluttershy were “Wow, you look just like a princess.”

Twilight wondered, actually, about her quietness on the train ride to Canterlot. She hoped Fluttershy didn’t see her too differently. This was Fluttershy after all, she should know how wings weren’t necessarily all that integral...

And with that, Twilight had arrived at Fluttershy’s. Taking a deep breath, she crossed the bridge and knocked on the door.

A few moments later, there still wasn’t an answer. Fluttershy was usually pretty prompt about opening, well, cracking open her door and peering at whoever was outside. Twilight looked in through the window, but didn’t see anypony. She could hear some noises, but given the number of animals which Fluttershy’s house hosted it was always somewhat noisy. Twilight knocked again.

After a minute without an answer, Twilight was fairly certain that Fluttershy wasn’t home. With a sigh, she turned and headed toward Carousel Boutique.

A short walk later, Twilight steeled herself, and knocked on the door of Rarity’s buisness/residence, Carousel Boutique.

“Co~oming!” Rarity’s voice sang from inside.

A few moments, and the door opened to reveal a smiling Rarity. She seemed surprised to see Twilight, both her eyebrows shot up, and her smile broke into a grin.

“Oh, Twilight!” she said, throwing open the door and guiding her inside, “I didn’t expect to see you back so soon! Fluttershy and I were just working out a new line for my boutique. It looks amazing, if I do say so myself. It may be some of my best work yet!”

Stepping past some racks of clothing into the main room on the bottom floor of the boutique Twilight was greeted by a rare sight on the stage in the center, a happily smiling Fluttershy in a dress.

Twilight didn’t see Fluttershy smile openly very often, as she didn’t seem too comfortable with large groups of ponies, even when it was just her friends. As dresses were generally worn only for social occasions involving large groups; the only other time Twilight could remember really seeing Fluttershy smile in a dress was when she had been bursting with excitement on exploring the Canterlot gardens.

“Well, what do you think?” asked Rarity, studying Twilight’s expression.

As far as the dress itself went, Twilight was a bit out of her depth. She had never really attended to fashion, and though she liked to think that she could tell if a dress was ugly, well... she’d thought that the dress a mean-spirited, power-mad Trixie had summoned to make Rarity faint looked just fine. Rarity had shown it to her after the fact one afternoon and then looked expectantly at her for commentary, just as she was doing now. Luckily it was easy to tell from context what sort of reply was appropriate.

“Oh, uh, looks great Rarity! I bet it would fly off the shelves in Canterlot!” Twilight remarked. Rarity beamed in response. The last bit, about Canterlot, was a nice touch. Though Twilight hadn’t been into fashion much there either, it was generally considered the fashion capital of Equestria, and Rarity still seemed to think Twilight had some sort of secret knowledge of it.

“In any case, what brings you to my humble abode?” asked Rarity “Did you need anything? Why are you back from Canterlot so suddenly?”

“Oh.” said Twilight “Actually, I came to ask you if you could come down to the train station in an hour or so. Celestia invited you both to the Princess Summit, and her honor guard are there to take us to the Crystal Empire.”

Rarity’s and Flutershy’s eyes both widened.

“Princess Celestia?” asked Fluttershy. “Why does she need us for the princess summit?”

“I don’t know,” said Twilight, “she just asked me to tell you you were invited.”

“Well” said Rarity, “we’d be glad to support you, if that’s what you want.” Fluttershy nodded her head in agreement.

“Yeah...” said Twilight scratcing the back of her head with a hoof, “that’d be nice.”

“Besides,” continued Rarity, “a Princess Summit! I can’t imagine anything more sophisticated! Just give us a few moments to finish up, and we’ll be right with you.”

“Okay.” said Twilight. “Ah, I haven’t told Pinkie Pie yet, so, see you at the train station?”

“Absolutely!” Rarity called. She had shifted her focus to helping Fluttershy out of her dress, and the other mare seemed to be pointing something out in her quiet way. As Twilight left, they seemed to be already deep in discussion over the dress.

“Oh, Twilight, there you are!” said Mr. Cake as she entered Sugarcube Corner.

“Here I am? Were you expecting me?” asked Twilight.

“Well, a minute or so ago, Pinkie was helping me bake cupcakes, when all of a sudden she shouted ‘Twilight’s here!’ and shot out the door. And here you are!” replied Mr. Cake. “Where is she, by the way?” Mr. Cake asked, craning his neck to peer behind her, but not seeming otherwise perturbed at the sudden loss of his employee.

“I don’t know!” groaned Twilight, a bit irritated at Pinkie’s tendency to know things she had no business knowing, “I haven’t seen her since I got back.”

“Oh.” said Mr. Cake. “Well, if you do see her, tell her that she doesn’t need to come back here right away. We’ve done baking for today, so she can take the rest of the day off if she likes.”

“Right.” said Twilight, already exiting the shop.

Where could Pinkie be? Twilight would like to say that her range was limited by the fact she had only left Sugarcube Corner minutes before, but Pinkie could travel fast, and had a habit of popping up in unexpected places. She paced back and forth in the street a few times before deciding to head down to the train station early, hopefully some of her friends would be early as well, and they might have seen Pinkie.

As she approached the station though, Twilight saw Pinkie herself, a bright pink pony between two all-white ones, talking with the honor guards, who were just finishing lunch.

“Heya, Twilight!” called Pinkie, jumping up and waving when she got close. “I knew you were back in town, and my Pinkie Sense told me that there were ponies from Canterlot at the cafe, so I thought, it must be you! But these mares are Misty Rain and Morning Dew! Turns out they’re part of an honorable guard, escorting a new princess from Canterlot! You guys must have been on the same train! Isn’t that... Oh!” Pinkie’s eyebrows shot up and her pupils shrank as she worked it out, though whether from simple logic or the embarrassed glances between the three ponies Twilight would never know. Behind her a waiter presented a check to the table, and one of the guards counted some bits out of her saddlebags onto the table. Pinkie trotted around the table, then vaulted the fence that kept the cafe separated from the street, landing right in front of Twilight.

“Sooo... Twilight” she said, sticking her face right under Twilight’s nose, “Why are you back so soon? Where did you get a guard? Are you out on princess business? Is it a secret? If it is, you can tell me, I Pinkie Promise not to tell. Are... ?”

“Actually,” said Twilight, cutting Pinkie off while she could still answer all of her questions, “I’m here because Princess...” Twilight broke off, coughing, as a cloud of dust rose up right beside her.

“Hey Pinkie, Twilight.” said Rainbow Dash from within the cloud of dust as it settled. “What are you doing back here Twilight? I thought you were still learning how to be all princessy.” grinned Rainbow.

“Yes, well, I’m here because Princess Celestia asked you to invite you all with me to the Princess Summit” said Twilight, repeating what she had meant to say before she was cut off. “I’ve already told Rarity and Fluttershy, and they’re coming, and hopefully Spike has managed to tell Applejack by now. We’re meeting at the train station in...” she craned her neck around to look at the town clock, “...six minutes?! We may have to wait a bit.”

Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash just looked at each other and grinned, as though sharing some silent joke. Twilight had half a mind to ask what it was, but she was distracted as the gate to the cafe banged shut behind her and her honor guard came out to stand beside her. As she turned back to look at her friends she saw Spike riding atop Applejack, both of them making their way down the street to the train station.

“Spike! Applejack! Over here!” she called, waving a hoof.

As Spike and Applejack started to make their way over, their group was joined by Rarity and Fluttershy, who quickly greeted Pinkie and Rainbow. Soon Twilight was surrounded by seven ponies, all looking to her for direction. Was it because she was a princess, or because she was their only common point of contact?

“Right. Everypony, meet Misty Rain and Morning Dew” she said, waving her hoof at both of them. She was embarrassed as she realized she couldn’t actually tell them apart without them speaking. They smiled as the attention of the group shifted towards them. “They’ll be taking us to the Princess Summit.”

“Right now?” asked Applejack, “Begging your pardon, but ahm not packed yet. Is there any chance ah could nip back to the farm and grab ah few things... ?” She looked back and forth over Twilight and the honor guards.

One of the honor guard stepped forward. “Princess Cadance will be putting you up in the Crystal Palace, so you shouldn’t need to pack anything.” said the voice of Morning Dew.

“Um...” Misty’s said, looking to her friend.

“Oh, actually,” said Morning, catching her friend’s meaning, “the summit isn’t until the day after tomorrow, so Cadance won’t be prepared for you until tomorrow. We can stay the night and escort you to the empire tomorrow, princess, but we’re not going right away.”

“Oh, no, that’s fine” hurried Twilight, “you don’t have to stay here, I’ll be fine with some of my friends as escorts. I guess you can just... give me whatever information I need?”

“Okay. Well, Princess Celestia wanted you to know to bring your element, but don’t worry about your friends’.” said Morning, opening her saddlebags and hoofing the aforesaid element to Twilight.

“Also, we’ve got money to purchase tickets for you and any of your friends that want them!” put in Misty.

After a chorus of affirmatives, Twilight offered to accompany Misty and Morning down to the train station so they could buy six tickets to the Crystal Empire as well as return tickets for the Express back to Canterlot, but Rarity quickly gainsayed this idea.

“Don’t worry yourself darling, we’ll do it!” she said, indicating Fluttershy, “Besides which, you need some rest, you look awfully tired!”

And so the group split up, everypony giving quick goodbyes, leaving Twilight walking to the library, Spike plodding along beside her.

***

Twilight groaned as a claw poked her. There was something hard and flat near her head. A second pillow...? No. A book on turbulence and hydrodynamics. Several pertinent equations came to mind. The claw poked her again.

Twilight groaned and opened her eyes. The remains of last night’s study were strewn around her bed and over the floor of her room, and Spike was poking one of her hooves that was sticking out from under the covers.

“Spiiike...” she moaned, trying to shut her eyes once again.

“Come on Twilight! The train to the Crystal Empire leaves in an hour!” said Spike. “You’re not even packed yet!”

Twilight’s eyes opened again, much faster this time. “What? How is that even possible? I’ve overslept!”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have stayed up so late last night reading.” said Spike drily.

Twilight leaped out of bed and proceeded to brush her teeth, have breakfast, and throw a couple books and a crown which represented the element of magic into a bag. Spike took the bag and wheeled it out of the treehouse as Twilight trotted along beside, and they made their way to the train station.

All her friends were already there, as was the train (it was still five minutes before departure, though). As they boarded the train, and as the train steamed toward the empire ruled by Twilight’s old babysitter, they talked and complained, filling Twilight in on all the things that had (or hadn’t) happened in her absence. In return, Twilight told them about seeing Celestia do a wingblade routine, which drew some surprised comments. Rarity, in particular, was pretty close to almost flatly disbelieving her.

All in all, a journey which was close to half a day seemed to fly by, and soon their train had pulled into Crystal Station and everypony was disembarking.

Twilight checked her bag to make sure the crown was still there, then checked her seat to make sure she hadn’t forgotten anything. She turned back to her bag to see that Spike had already taken it and was rolling it off the train.

They walked toward the stunning arches of the Crystal Empire in awed silence. As they entered the city Applejack finally turned away from the cityscape towards Twilight.

“Hoowee, your very first Princess Summit! You must be over the moon, Twilight.” she said searchingly. Twilight almost didn’t hear her, caught up as she was in her own thoughts.

“Oh. I am excited, but, to be honest, I’m a little nervous too.” replied Twilight.

She and her friends talked as they made their way up to the palace, Pinkie introducing the word ‘nervoucited’, and Rarity fussing over Twilight’s new royalty, unusually unsubtly, for her, but earnest all the same. Twilight smiled. Everything was going just fine.

Detailing a Dimensional Detour

Rainbow Dash cleared her throat. She turned, to say something to Princess Celestia, but paused, seeing the look on her face. She started walking back and forth in front of the mirror. One, two, three, four, one, two, three, four, five. Soon, very soon, she would ask Princess Celestia if they couldn’t go into through the portal and get Twilight now. She was sure that she could do it, just dive in through the mirror and fly Twilight through whatever was taking her so long to recover the Element of Magic from Sunset Shimmer, back before the portal closed. She closed her eyes briefly, imagining it, then opened them again so she wouldn’t run into anything. One, two, three, four, five, six.

Twilight stumbled through the portal, dazed and tired after saying goodbye to her (new?) friends. She was stunned by how similar they were, and also how her body no longer seemed to be in a stable position. She dropped back to the normalcy of four hooves and the regular(?) faces of her five friends(?) surrounding her. They were all glad to see her.

“Sunset Shimmer. Is she all right?” asked Princess Celestia.

Twilight replied that she was going to be just fine, and in good hands. It wasn’t until Rainbow Dash asked that she realized that nobody (nopony!) knew what hands were here (a silly mistake, she should have known, she’d blown her cover...).

Luckily Spike chose that moment to exit the portal from behind her (strange, when she could have sworn he entered just ahead of her). She turned and smiled to see her number one assistant as he lifted himself up onto two legs, flexing his claws happily (of the two of them, she thought, he would be more comfortable in a human body, and she in a dog’s, which was... ironic?).

Twilight’s friends followed her as she made her way towards her bedroom. She tried to explain what had happened beyond the portal, but her thoughts were muddled, and she really just wanted to sleep. Which was probably why she ended up turning around at just the right moment to run into some(pony).

She turned around to see a handsome (pegasus!) stallion smiling at her.

“We’ve got to stop bumping into each other like this!” he said, helping her up, before snapping back to attention and walking off.

His voice brought back memories of another world, where front legs were noodly arms, and bodies were tall reedy things, and of one noodly-armed reed in particular. Twilight blushed in spite of herself. “Who’s that?” she asked.

“He’s a new member of the castle guard. Flash Sentry, I think.” replied Cadance. Of course it was! “Why, do you know him?” she continued.

Did she? Was he the same here? Her friends were basically the same in both places, but was everypony? He seemed the same, and even that line reminded her of alternate world Flash...

“Not exactly.” she replied, surprising herself with the possessiveness in her voice. This wasn’t even the same Flash, probably!

Unfortunately, her tone also surprised Applejack. “Oooh. Somepony’s got a crush on the new guy!” she said.

“No, no I don’t.” Twilight flatly denied, but all of a sudden Rarity was in front of her, studying her expression. Twilight tried to turn her face away... was she blushing?

“Ooh, she does, she absolutely does!” Rarity crowed, after only a moment’s study. Twilight tried skittishly to meet Rarity’s eyes to deny it, but in the end opted for simply closing her own and trotting past Rarity. A denial in body language, if not in expression.

“Don’t be ridiculous!”, she said. She really shouldn’t be. “I don’t even know him!” That was, true, right? “He just...” How could she phrase this?

As it turned out, she didn’t have to. Pinkie Pie came to her rescue once again. As she rattled off an explanation that was accurate to the letter, Twilight became less embarrassed about the Flash Sentry duality. Her embarrassment for the laws of causality steadily mounted instead. As Pinkie Pie finished, she hazarded a question, not really expecting a sensical answer.

“How did you know that?”

“Just a hunch.” replied Pinkie, smiling widely at Twilight before bouncing off.

Twilight sighed and rolled her eyes. Remembering an identical incident in the other universe, she smiled. Trust a Pinkie in any universe to have uncanny intuition.

The next morning all the princesses, Prince Shining Armor of the Crystal Empire (or Twilight’s brother, Shiny), and their guests (namely, Twilight’s friends) breakfasted together, as much as nine ponies could when each had vastly different habits. By the time Twilight got to the table (she may have spent a little time before breakfast looking at a passage on the prismatic etherium in one of the books she’d brought along, in an unsuccessful attempt to determine how the alternatively-magical devices she’d found in the other universe worked), Rainbow Dash had already consumed most of a prime selection of all a royal breakfast in the Crystal Empire had to offer. Twilight hadn’t even finished selecting some of the remains of what had been piled onto the plates of Rainbow Dash and Spike (and also the rest of her friends and fellow royalty, who had served themselves as well, but whom she doubted had made a considerable contribution to the serving dishes’ emptiness) when Rainbow Dash finished, gave a loud belch, and announced her desire to go out and explore the Crystal Empire. Applejack, who up until now had been uneasily trying to eat daintily (which, for her, apparently consisted mostly of looking hungry and attempting to consume the food without having to put it in her mouth), hastily agreed with Rainbow’s sentiment, and sped up her own eating speed considerably, making an uneasy truce between eating with daintiness and for sustenance which ended with her leaving promptly with Rainbow while half the food lingered on her plate. Pinkie finished soon afterward, but stayed to trade pleasantries (well, more like non-sequiters) with the princesses. The princesses themselves seemed interested enough in her friends’ lives, but Twilight wasn’t sure it wasn’t just polite interest. Her brother ate as he normally did still with pretty atrocious table manners (better than Twilight remembered, but terrible for a prince). At least he wasn’t talking with his mouth open. Be that as it may, though, he didn’t talk much through the whole meal, though he seemed glad to see her. After Fluttershy finished her meal, she quietly inquired how the townsponies were doing after their scare with Sombra, to which Cadance replied proudly “Why don’t you see for yourself?”, which Fluttershy immediately did (she may have thought Cadance was commanding her to).

A little after that, Twilight realized that Pinkie had left too, and also that she was all out of fruit, which she replenished from the serving dish. Shining Armor stood up and took his leave (he was the captain of the Crystal Empire guard now), and it was just Twilight, Rarity and the (other) princesses.

Rarity was just ending the story of how she became Sapphire Shores’ go-to costume designer and single-hoofedly civilized the Diamond Dogs (Twilight remembered it a little differently). After she finished, and received congratulations from all three of the princesses, Princess Celestia embarked on a story about civilizing a race of her own (Aurochs, which, as Twilight understood from the story, were ancestor to the cows which roamed around Ponyville today). Twilight noticed that some of the refinement and restraint which the princess normally exhibited was gone, and she smiled widely as she recalled her exploits. Rarity, for her part, became more and more flabbergasted, eventually shooting Twilight an ‘I-believe-you-now’ look halfway through the story. When Celestia finished, Rarity was already wearing her enviable poker-face, which she used to congratulate Celestia in turn and excuse herself. Twilight hoped her opinion of Celestia hadn’t been too badly damaged.

Then it was just the princesses, and Luna told her take on the story of the Aurochs, which included a more critical view of Celestia’s actions. A little while in, Cadance began chiming in to justify or condemn decisions long since made, which quickly turned into gentle ribbing of both the princesses for their past mistakes. Luna’s story suddenly began to get a bit more exaggerated in turn.

“Then Celestia said to the new Auroch chief, she said,” exclaimed Luna, retelling the end of Celestia’s story, when she had solidified peace with the new Auroch government, “she said, I bull-eive we shall get on quite well together, now that we can respect each other’s cow-stoms. I can horn-estly say that I wish you a reign of many mooooo-ns!”

All three princesses broke out in laughter, and Twilight herself had to crack a smile. Luna’s ending of the story matched perfectly with Celestia’s, so much so that she could almost imagine... but no, Celestia wouldn’t do that. She turned her attention back to her waffles.

Twilight was just swabbing up the last of her syrup with the final piece of waffle (she had found that the waffles absorbed syrup so well that cutting them along the ridges, as she usually did, was no longer practical. Luckily, since they absorbed syrup so well, bisecting the ridges to split each cell into four presented no spillage problems. Unfortunately, her waffle had also more or less reached the syrup saturation point, making swabbing a challenge.) when she heard Celestia request that she join them when finished, and saw the other princesses standing off to the side of the table. She popped the last bit of waffle into her mouth and followed them into an adjoining room.

It was a room with a small table and a nice view of the empire stretching below them. Celestia’s magic held the door open for her, and shut it after her.

The ponies found their places around the table, and Celestia looked at them all in turn before speaking.

“All of you know, to some extent, the reasons that I call you here. First though, I’d like if you could fill us in on what happened to you in detail, Twilight” she said, turning toward Twilight and speaking to her in a way which made Twilight giddy with excitement.

Twilight did her best to relate exactly what happened on her trip through the mirror. The few glances she spared to her audience seemed to indicate that they were surprised at what had happened, but mostly Twilight focused on the middistance and did her best to process the weird events of yesterday and explain them in an understandable way. Sunset Shimmer had stolen her crown and fled to the alternate dimension. When Twilight followed her, she found her appearance changed to one more suited to the plane. After working through the resulting disorientation, she had figured out that the crown had been taken into custody by local law enforcement, and would be awarded only to a pony (or ‘body’) chosen by a vote of every(one). In order to avoid disrupting local customs, she had participated in this rite which gave strange precedence to the uninformed, and briefly described the challenges she faced. Fortunately, there were alternate versions of her friends behind the portal (also, somewhat fortunately, no alternate version of her around to blow her cover, but still... she wished she’d gotten to talk to alternate her...), and they recognized her and helped her as best they could. After Twilight had earned the crown, Sunset Shimmer defied the local tradition to take the crown regardless, and with it quite a bit of power, but Twilight had been able to summon a specter of her own powers with her (alternate?) friends. Finally, she found herself explaining how she had looked up at her (true?) friends and the princess after falling back to newly restored hooves and stopped, blinking. Three horned, winged ponies stared at her.

“Now that you’re finished, I feel I owe you a more... complete explanation than I gave your friends.” Celestia said. She looked nervous, not looking directly at Twilight, and Twilight realized that she was still incredibly embarrassed about a mistake which was not millenia old, and was still very much. Twilight was struck with the sudden fear that if Celestia gave her her own kingdom, that this sort of embarrassment could be hers, quite soon.

“The mirror is a relic from before Luna’s banishment, a portal to the land of the ‘humans’...”

“Humans?” broke in Twilight, “I thought they were called Bodies!”

“In any case, my sister was always better with such portals,” continued Celestia, “so it languished in her absence. I left it that way for hundreds of years. It was only recently, when Sunset evinced an interest in such things, that I brought it back out.”

“We traveled together to the land of the humans. Luna had told me they were an intelligent race, but savage... It was only when we arrived that I truly got a taste of how savage they were. Sunset and I used magic to cloak ourselves as humans, and set out to learn something of them... though their horses are no match to us for intelligence, they treat them as nothing... use them as transport while beating them. Even worse, they... attack their own kind, as ponies used to do, but even more savagely, and over differences as small as coat color. The fact that you saw so many different colors while you were there is a good sign, perhaps their race has grown more civilized.”

“After we returned, when Sunset Shimmer expressed her desire to join them and learn their ways... I tried to break the portal, to tear the gateway away from the other world. It... didn’t work as well as I’d hoped. The portal still worked, though only on certain moons. My enchantment spell became entangled with the mirror as well, as you experienced. Unfortunately that meant Sunset no longer needed my permission to adopt their form; she escaped to that dimension, and I couldn’t find her. That was several decades ago... I actually brought the portal here because I had hoped that she had mellowed with age, and that we could go to her for some help, as she is a formidable magic user... She must have sensed your element through the portal... The fact that she’s still so young means that I either slowed the passing of time beyond the portal when I broke it, or humans live much longer than I thought.”

“Which brings us to the question I wanted to ask” said Luna. “Tell me, have you, the rightful bearer of the element of magic, ever known it to have such power, by itself?” Luna asked Twilight.

“Well, no, but Sunset Shimmer said it gained power by passing through the portal.” Twilight replied.

At this, Luna’s eyes narrowed, and she began to tap her chin with her hoof. After a moment she began to speak, slowly.

“Tell us,” she asked Celestia neutrally, “do the Breezies still migrate through Equestria?”

“Of course!” said Celestia, seemingly taken aback by such a simple question, though Twilight knew precious little about breezy migrations, except from breezy tales. “Their last time through was six years ago, I always instruct the weather crews to provide the correct conditions! Their next migration should be...”

Luna dismissed her with a hoof wave, tension leaving her expression. “That is good... I think that Sunset Shimmer has unwittingly uncovered something we could not, namely what exactly happened to your portal.” Luna’s expression suddenly darkened, and she slipped into the Royal Canterlot Voice “THOU HAST CREATED A BASTARD UNIVERSE BETWEEN THE PORTAL’S TERMENI! A FRAGILE REALM WHICH SWAYS TO OUTSIDE INTERVENTION! WITH COUNTERPARTS FOR THOSE FROM BOTH DIMENSIONS!”

Luna caught the stares of the other ponies at her outburst and took a deep breath, quieting herself before continuing. “A simple portal, even to a dangerous dimension, might be kept safe if kept secret. There are ways to shield such things from prying eyes, though my sister has never been adept at that category of magic.” she muttered to herself. “For example,” she turned, adressing Celestia, “if thou had managéd to make the portal closèd with the phases of mine moon without invoking thine shadow world the problem might be solved.” Luna hissed the words ‘shadow world’ as though they were worse than an insult.

“A portal like this though, through an intermediate world... the central world tugs at the fates of each dimension, trying to pull them both into itself, and ultimately, together.” Luna continued. “Really, thou shouldst have known this might come to pass.” she muttered at Celestia sullenly.

“I did... but, other concerns... it didn’t seem important at the time.” said Celestia lamely. She held her head up beneath her sister’s scorn, but her cheeks were flushed red with embarrasment, the ear not covered by her hair folding back.

“In any case, this is not so much of a disaster as it might be, and I shall strive to resolve it posthaste.” amended Luna, softening in the face of her sister’s discomfort. “It is good I was informed so soon, and I believe there are more pressing matters which my sister has called us here to attend to.”

“Ahm, yes.” said Celestia, recovering. “Actually, Cadance can introduce this better than I can...” she continued, looking to Cadance.

Cadance straightened and began to talk about troop deployments all over Equestria, and what it meant for national security. That’s when Twilight found out that her ascension had stressed Equestrian politics to the breaking point.

Discord in Harmony

When Cadance finally finished her lecture on the current military security of Equestria, she caught Twilight looking at her, stunned.

“What?” she teased, “Certainly you knew your big brother and I had to talk about something between kisses?”

“No...” said Twilight, “it’s not that. It’s just... I really upset the Griffin Kingdom?”

“Well, judging from their troop deployments,” Cadance resummoned a representation of the Equestrian border with the Griffin Kingdom and the troops posted along it, looking just at it had several minutes ago, glowing in different shades of her signature sky-blue magic. “they’re not actually preparing for any sort of conflict, or they wouldn’t show their hoof like this, but they want us to know that they’re militarily strong.”

Militarily strong was right. It had been ages since anypony had come to grief from griffins, but Twilight knew from experience that there was more than just a grain of truth in Old Mare’s tales, several of which featured an unsuspecting pony being shredded between the paws and claws of a griffin. Twilight tried not to think about all the other borders Cadance had outlined, most of them with civilizations even less savory and creatures even more fearsome, and all of them experiencing some sort of action.

“If you ask me, I would be more worried about the Zebrican border.” continued Cadance, giving a half-smile as she shifted the projection of her horn’s magic to represent the thin strip of land in the far south of Equestria which represented its only contact with Zebrica. “We haven’t seen any troops mustering yet, but the Zebricans were naturally outraged at the ascension, as their culture teaches that magic is Zero Sum. Normally, their leaders are quite level-headed, but in recent years, there’s reportedly been more religious fervor among the elders for whatever reason...”

Twilight’s discomfort must have shown in her face at that point because Cadance suddenly stopped and Celestia stood up and walked over to put a hoof and wing over each of her shoulders. Twilight wanted nothing more than to curl into a little ball and become the unicorn filly who had been enfolded in that embrace countless times again. She was so overcome by misery that it took her a moment to realize that her mentor was chuckling, a light, bell-like laugh.

“Twilight, don’t worry about the griffins, they always get uptight at any reminder of the fact that they don’t have magic. I remember, back when I was tutoring Starswirl, the Griffish ambassador tried to threaten a trade embargo because I was ‘too powerful to teach anything’.” Celestia’s wing came in and gave Twilight a little squeeze before leaving her shoulder. Celestia let her hoof remain on Twilight’s shoulder as she turned toward Cadance and Luna and addressed the whole room. “You all know that Equestria’s magic keeps it from harm and makes its land whole and good. There is also a great measure of evil in this world, though, as Luna and I are well aware.” At this, she shared a very grave glance with her sister, and they nodded at each other. “This evil recognizes that the might of Equestria is one of its gravest enemies, and will do its utmost to destroy it. Now, with Luna back on the throne, the Crystal Empire restored, and a new princess with unparalleled magical ability, it doubtless sees that its time may be running thin. We can expect it to throw at us whatever it can from wherever it has managed to gain a foothold. That is where you and your friends come in, Twilight.” she said quietly, pivoting so that she was looking directly down at Twilight’s face, hoof still on Twilight’s shoulder. “I would have preferred to give you more time before asking you to use you newfound power, but simply put, there is none. Equestria not under any peril with three princesses to protect it, but, as Cadance mentioned, Saddle Arabia is doing considerably worse than we are, bordered by ghuls and manticores. What she did not tell you was that Luna and I received an Arabian ambassador the other day, requesting our aid. That is what I wanted to ask you today, to ask if you and your friends would go to protect Saddle Arabia with the elements and your magic.” Celestia looked into Twilight’s eyes with sadness and questioning, and Twilight knew that this was indeed a request, and not a command.

“O-of course...” quavered Twilight, “I’ll have to ask my friends if they are willing, but I’ll certainly help protect Saddle Arabia.” It wasn’t such a difficult decision, seeing as she was the cause of all this tension. Still, it was scary to think of leaving everything she had ever known and striking out on her own so soon.

The questioning left Celestia’s eyes, but the sadness remained. Still, she gave Twilight a little smile and stood up, lifting her hoof from her shoulder.

“Then we should begin right away,” said Celestia in a much louder voice, “there are several spells I wish to teach you, and perhaps... Cadance and Luna?” she asked looking to the other two. Cadance nodded her assent and walked over to Twilight and Celestia, but Luna shook her head.

“Actually sister, I would much prefer to start looking into the portal situation. I will write a summary of useful defensive spells for Twilight later.” Luna said.

“Of course.” replied Celestia, and she guided Cadance and Twilight out of the room and towards the noonday sun ouside, while Luna strode along the halls towards the portal Twilight had used yesterday.

“First of all,” said Celestia, “there’s a reason I asked you to bring only the element of magic. With it, and your new alicorn magic, you should be able to summon all the elements easily.” Twilight realized that she had been wearing the element ever since she got it back, and blushed. Then she closed her eyes, pictured the elements, and tried a simple teleportation spell. She could feel the other elements slide toward the element of magic, and they popped into existence around her.

“Now, don’t try too hard, but maybe you can contact your friends through the elements?” Celestia looked on curiously while Twilight concentrated. She couldn’t really feel her friends, but she could feel vague... presences through the elements which could be them. “See if you can tell them to come here.” continued Celestia. Twilight couldn’t really talk to them, so after a moment she sent a sort of silent plea to the presences she felt to come to her, feeling a bit more desperate than the situation really called for. Celestia looked thoughtful.

“You’ll need someone to help you in Saddle Arabia, someone well-versed in powerful magic, who knows the shape of things. I’d hoped that Sunset could do that for you, but...” Celestia sighed. “Watch carefully, in case you need to cast this spell yourself. You may want to use the elements to help you out.” Celestia’s horn began to glow, spitting out a lot of magic energy. Twilight studied the accompanying aura closely, it looked mostly like a teleportation spell, but the aura grew all spiky toward the end. There was a pop from beside Celestia.

Discord sat in midair next to Celestia, clutching a beverage in his eagle’s claw, dressed in a red and yellow Hirzaiian print shirt. He turned slightly towards them as if just noticing them, and Twilight saw that he was wearing sunglasses.

“Oh, what brings you here? Or, should I say, what brings me here?” he blandly exclaimed.

“We’d like it if you could be Twilight’s... adviser.” said Celestia guardedly

“Oh, and I’d thought my help wasn’t wanted.” drawled Discord. “I was practically kicked out of Canterlot after I helpfully prepared and color-coded your breakfast by calorie content! Really, Celestia, do you not like green eggs and ham?”

“I just said that you were free to do as you pleased, as long as you didn’t bother anypony, and didn’t need to hang around the castle all the time. And, really Discord, you know ponies don’t eat ham.” Celestia gave him a chiding look that Twilight recognized from her time with the Sun Princess, this one considerably more steely than Twilight could remember her giving.

“Yes, yes, I remember now.” said Discord, switching his drink to his lion’s paw and tapping his chin rhythmically. “I went to the Crystal Empire to see if I could ‘use my powers for good’ there, but after a small misunderstanding with Cadance...”

At this Cadance’s stern expression suddenly turned to one of outrage. “Ssss...” she hissed, “Ssmall misunderstanding indeed.” she manged to say, stern expression reasserting itself.

“In any case, I decided to take a short vacation, and, well, here I am.” finished Discord. Cadance and Celestia regarded him coldly.

“Well, it seems that you two are slightly steamed at me, and Luna and I have never gotten along. Congratulations Twilight, you’re the only princess left willing to work with me! Isn’t it an honor?” grinned Discord. “At your service!” he continued, pulling up suddenly from his sitting position into a tight salute, his vacation clothes replaced by some sort of blue uniform.

Twilight couldn’t help but give a small sigh.

Author's Note

Another chapter... for those who wonder what ghuls are, they're basically more civilized diamond dogs, I've stolen them from The Moonstone Cup.

A Balance of Power

Twilight’s sigh at Discord’s theatrics was followed by a gagging noise and a scoff. Twilight turned around to see Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

“Hello!” Twilight said, unduly relieved that she wasn’t the only one dismayed by Discord’s antics. “What brought you here? Did you get my message?”

“Oh, y’know, just seemed like the thing to do, wanted to make sure you’re feelin’ all right.” replied Applejack, “’Dunno about a message though, hope the pony deliverin’ it ain’t too sore when they find out we came back on our own.”

“Sooo...” said Rainbow Dash, “what’s going on here? We gonna turn Discord back into stone?” she asked. It didn’t seem like a bad guess, what with the two princesses currently staring daggers at him.

“Um, no, not yet.” answered Twilight, “Discord’s going to be my adviser in Saddle Arabia... I’m going to Saddle Arabia to help protect it, would you maybe come along?” asked Twilight. She tried to keep her voice even, but she was pretty sure a little bit of her fear crept into it.

“Saddle Arabia? With all those fancy ponies?” asked Rainbow, grimacing slightly. “Nn-ooot so keen on the idea, but I’ll come with if you want.”

“If’n protectin’ it doesn’t take too long, you kin count me in.” said Applejack thoughtfully. “I need ta’ be home by plantin’ season though, so’s we’d best save it before then.” she finished.

“Saddle Arabia!?” exclaimed Pinkie, who had somehow avoided Twilight’s peripheral vision before popping up beside Applejack, “They make saddles there, right? Do they make arabias? Do you think they’d let me take one home for Gummy as a pet? Maybe we can find a levitating rug, I hear those things are awesome...”

“So you’re in too?” asked Twilight, cutting Pinkie off, at which Pinkie began nodding vigorously.

“Don’t forget me!” called Rarity, who had come out of the palace behind Celestia, “different body-types mean different fashion, and Saddle Arabia’s is very interesting. I may try and adapt some of it, in the time we have to spare from saving it of course.” she added.

“Um. I’ll come too, if everypony wants.” called Fluttershy audibly, but only just, from off to the side of the courtyard. “Angel can pretty much handle all my pets, especially if Spike helps.”

“Thank you, everypony!” said Twilight, gathering them together into one of the group hugs which were the norm for them.

“So,” said Celestia, after everypony had disentagled themselves from the group hug and been doled out their respective element. Cadance had bid everypony farewell and left after shooting one last look of pure poison at Discord, who was now draped in a standing position slightly off the ground. “What you’ll be doing in Saddle Arabia is a simple spell using the elements to protect it, by bringing it into harmony just like Equestria. I can’t perform the spell myself without the elements, and it’s difficult to explain, but hopefully Twilight will be able to cast it when I show her this... Twilight, watch closely...everypony else may want to close their eyes.” Celestia concentrated, and Twilight saw her start a complex barrier spell, drawing on the power of the sun. She targeted the space just above her horn, and Twilight could feel the air start to react to its sudden exclusion with some strange breezes. Twilight was watching Celestia’s horn to study how the spell was cast, but it still came as a shock when Celestia finished the spell and the area she was warding exploded in brilliant light. Twilight felt a gust of hot air rush past her and spots danced in the edge her vision, even though Celestia had cut the spell almost immediately.

“And now you know why I can’t cast that to protect Saddle Arabia myself.” whispered Celestia to her, giving a small, sheepish grin. Twilight probed the spot Celestia had warded with her horn, and found that it was powerfully protected. “In any case, I hope you got that Twilight?” Celestia asked. Twilight nodded, and Celestia looked relieved.

“Okay girls,” said Twilight, pausing only a moment to consider that this would certainly be by far the most powerful spell, if not the most complex, she had ever cast. She turned to her friends, who were looking somewhat stunned at the aftermath of Celestia’s spell, Rainbow in particular dazedly waving a hoof in front of her eyes. “Let’s give it a try.”

Twilight knew something was amiss right after she began to draw on the elements. She couldn’t see her friends in the conventional sense, what with all the magic welling within her, but she could feel them, and understand them in a way which she couldn’t just from vision, and she knew that they could feel her the same way. The problem was, they were lagging. Twilight needed a lot of power for the spell Celestia had given her, and this wouldn’t be enough. She tried increasing the power she was outputting, in hopes of getting more back, but this had the opposite effect. All of a sudden, the other five were draining magic, and the elements were in danger of falling apart. Twilight panicked, and tried to cut the spell, but she had put a lot into it already, and the elements fell apart anyway, draining even more magic from her as they did so. The rainbow ring which had held the bearers together fractured, and they were thrown apart by a burst of white light from their center.

Twilight stood up shakily, her horn achy from using so much magic, and looked around anxiously to make sure that her friends were alright. There was Rarity, standing right back up with no problem, there was Pinkie, already standing with wings folded at her sides, and Applejack, hair falling messily around her horn, but getting to her feet without any trouble.

Twilight blinked, and opened her eyes wide. Sure enough, she wasn’t mistaken. Rarity and Fluttershy looked just the same (maybe a little dirtier after being thrown into the ground), but Pinkie had wings, and Applejack and Rainbow Dash had horns. Twilight instinctively looked to Celestia for guidance.

Celestia’s mouth was open in an expression of shock. “I... I didn’t expect this. J-Just a moment, wait here, I have to ask my sister something” she said shakily, and galloped off towards the entrance to the Crystal Palace.

Twilight looked around at her friends, who looked dazed and confused, with extra appendages. Applejack was touching her horn lightly, unbelievingly, with one forehoof, hat held in the other. Rarity looked a bit put out as she touched each side of her barrel. Fluttershy and Rainbow were stirring, looking lightly grazed, but still alive. AJ, Pinkie, Dash... She closed her eyes and remembered their true forms, remembered group hugs in which there weren’t any excess muscles in her shoulders to shrug awkwardly...

Pinkie’s wings didn’t remain at her sides for long. When Twilight opened her eyes, they were spread out, and Pinkie was prodding them with a hoof.

“OHMYGOSHTwilightRainbowApplejackRarityFluttershy! I have WINGS! Wingswingswingswingswingswingswingswings... I can FLY!!!” she squealed, flapping her wings and rising into the air.

Twilight watched numbly as her friend began flying faster and faster, turning into a pink blur shouting “WHEEEEEEEE!” through a strong Doppler effect. All of a sudden, she took off in one direction.

“Pinkie wait!” called Twilight, flapping her wings halfheartedly and rising slowly into the air. It was too late, Pinkie was already gone, disappearing among the rooftops of the houses that surrounded the crystal palace. Twilight stopped flapping and let herself land, right next to a goat’s hoof and dragon claw digging into the ground.

“Discord!” barked Twilight, rounding on him.

Discord turned lazily to her. “Whaaat?” he drawled, eyebrows raised, “This is hardly my fault!”

“I don’t care. Do something!”

“Oh, right, the adviser thing.” he put his claw to his chin and looked thoughtful. “Well, I’m new at this, but the best advice I can think of at the moment is ‘you probably shouldn’t have done that’. Will that do?” He peered at her searchingly.

Twilight felt her aura starting to burn. Her hair began to lift from the name of her neck as she felt magic start to seethe not only from her horn, but the rest of her body as well. She was powerless to turn Discord to stone, only the elements could do that, but maybe...
She could hurt him. Teleporting nervefire with reactive targeting of the signal Celestia had shown her to summon Discord should do the trick. She turned toward Discord, smile much larger and falser than normal, horn sparking as she subconsciously prepared for the cast.

Discord must have read something from her expression or her horn, though, because the next words out of his mouth were a contrite ‘That is, ah... what did you want me to do?’.

Twilight considered, aura and horn quieting, and smile dropping into a slight frown. What did she want Discord to do? ‘Fix everything’ wasn’t a valid answer, she really didn’t want to see how Discord might ‘fix’ things in any case. Come to think of it, she really didn’t trust Discord in any task that allowed him to determine much at all.

“Go get Pinkie Pie.” she grunted, turning away from him. She felt him flash out of existence next to her, leaving her to feel guilty that she’d even considered using nervefire.

Use of nervefire, especially on a living being, had been banned almost upon its discovery by a petition to the royal sisters from a group which represented the foremost enchanters of the time, headed by the discoverer himself (one Grave Light, not generally known for his propriety). The only reason Twilight knew of it at all was from following some experiments Starswirl had done with the spell, to see whether it was useful for creating constructs or possibly even artificial life. The results were resoundingly negative. It hadn’t taken long for him to join the group petitioning its ban, where he testified to its uselessness in the field of constructs. She was chastened, imagining his disapproval of her idea.

She looked back to her other friends. Rarity had moved over to Applejack, who now simply held her forehoof close to her horn. It looked like she was trying to teach Applejack to use it, by practicing levitation on a piece of crystal which Twilight hoped had been separate from the ground before. Rarity was smiling, and AJ’s face was starting to break into a wide smile too. Twilight didn’t blame her, if gaining a horn felt anything like gaining wings. Ever since that night Twilight had felt better than normal, like she did when she had a cup of tea and watching the sun rise in the morning after studying most of the night. She always felt reenergized and usually was able to keep reading and even write down some proof-of-concept spells or reorganize her notes. Now it felt like she had always just had 10 refreshing cups of tea over 10 sunrises, which in turn made her feel a bit nervous, but good.

Rarity lit her horn and demonstrated lifting the crystal, but it looked like AJ couldn’t get a charge. Fluttershy was now sitting up and watching them, wide-eyed. Rarity saw her watching and beckoned her, waving with a forehoof and calling her name.

Rainbow Dash was just beside Twilight, so Twilight turned to her before she went to help Applejack. Rainbow had sat up and was touching her horn, but her expression was nothing like AJ’s. She looked like she might be about to cry. Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but before she could Rainbow’s wings rose up then took an enormous downbeat, and Dash arced into the sky.

“Wait!” Twilight’s wings fluttered and she lifted off after Dash, but it was no good. Even if Twilight had more practice flying, Rainbow was going at full speed, straight up into the sky. She had already reached the top of the Crystal Palace.

“What’s wrong?” asked a quiet voice from behind her shoulder. There was Fluttershy, flapping her wings slowly and looking very worried. Rarity and AJ had stopped their impromptu lesson and were frowning up toward the sky.

“I don’t know!” exclaimed Twilight. “Rainbow seemed upset, and then she just took off!” She narrowed her eyes and looked at the rainbow-trailed blue spot in the sky, preparing to teleport herself up to it. All of a sudden an explosion arched out from it. The rainbow circle that marked a rainboom, but also a sphere of swirling rainbow light, like a very colorful soap bubble. As it swept over her Twilight’s horn felt funny, then hollow. She tried to cast the teleportation spell she’d been preparing, but nothing happened. Twilight noted in horror that instead of the rainbow contrail that normally accompanied a rainboom there was just a blue speck, falling fast. She tried to teleport again, then looked at Fluttershy, and they both raced over to where Rainbow was falling. Face-to-face, Twilight and Fluttershy held out their hooves to catch Rainbow Dash. She was falling fast, and Twilight’s horn still felt empty. All of a sudden Rainbow hit her hooves painfully, then ripped through. Twilight looked down, preparing to dive, trying to lift Rainbow with her telekinesis.

It was too late. Rainbow fell to the ground, and orange began to seep from her.

The orange glow vanished and Rainbow hit the ground with a soft thud. Then there was some coughing, and Rainbow’s hoofs and wings sprawled over the ground. Her eyes popped open, and her mouth broke into a huge smile.

Applejack chuckled as she moved over to Rainbow. “Ah’m pretty sure yew weren’t counting on mah magic to save yew” she said, poking Dash gently on the nose with the tip of her hoof. Her expression suddenly went more serious. “Now why in Equestria would yew do a fool thing like that!?”

Rainbow Dash didn’t really seem to be listening. In fact, she seemed delirious from exhaustion. “I can still do it!” she whispered up to the worried faces surrounding her. “Even with a horn, I can still do a Sonic Rainboom.” Then her eyes closed, and she slept.

Twilight couldn’t help but grit her teeth a bit. AJ was bragging, taunting Twilight and Rarity with her magic, levitating a bit of crystal when Twilight couldn’t get so much as a spark from her horn. She now had an inkling of how annoying she would have been as a filly to other unicorns.

Applejack waved the crystal around in her new magic’s grip, then saw her friends watching her jealously. Fluttershy was carrying Rainbow to a nearby hospital with the help of a crystal pony nurse, while the rest of them waited for Celestia. “What’s this?” she playfully grinned, twirling the crystal telekinetically. “Has the student b’come the master?” she asked Rarity. Seeing how this soured both of their expressions, she dropped her smile and the crystal shard.

“Aw, ah didn’t mean it like that.” she said. “S’till,” she continued, “ah’ve watched you and Twi’ lift e’rything from combs to cupcakes with yer horns an’ niver said a word. Kinda funny, when you think about it.” she said as her smile returned.

Before this statement could be discussed the conversation was interrupted by Celestia, who rushed panting toward the center of the group.

“W-what happened?” she asked. For the first time Twilight could remember, her rainbow hair fell mostly limp, devoid of the shimmering aura that normally surrounded it. Her eyes had bags underneath them and she looked... old. Not Granny Smith old, but around the same age as Twilight’s mother. “I felt this shockwave... and now...” she lowered her head and lit her horn, and the aura was a dim lantern’s glow, instead of the normal undeniable bright yellow. “Did you do this?” she asked gravely, looking at Twilight.

Twilight stammered under her gaze. What had Rainbow done? Celestia looked worse than when they’d released her from Crysalis’ cocoon. Had Rainbow’s stunt done her more harm than the Changeling Queen could? It was unthinkable.

“R-rainbow.” she finally managed to get out. “She did a rainboom, but with another... another part, like a spell.” She realized as she said it that that was something strange about the rainbow sphere, and one of the reasons it felt so weird on her horn. It had been quite some time since she’d had a spell slip past her horn...

“She fainted after casting it... I don’t know. We could go to the hospital...” Twilight was miserable. How could this have happened? How could any of this have happened?

“There we are!” said an unwelcomely familiar voice from behind her, accompanied by some unfamiliar and unsettling squealing noises. “Perhaps next time your friend would refrain from dusting away all the magic in the empire without warning? My task became considerably more ‘inconvenient’ after all that.”

Twilight whirled around to see Discord, holding a surprisingly piggy-looking Pinkie Pie. She had a pig’s snout, no wings evident, and Twilight was sure she could see a curly tail, but then Discord dropped her. Pinkie’s wings flew out before she hit the ground and her pig nose fell off, revealed as a cheap costume piece.

“Oh, Celestia!” continued Discord, feigning surprise. “Back after the crisis I see? Finally feeling some of the aches and pains that come with old age too. I’ve been having those as well, couple hundred years as granite does a number on the joints.”

Twilight was surprised by Celestia’s reaction. Her mouth tightened to a line, and she raised a forehoof and moved as though to strike Discord, but thought the better of it and just kept the hoof raised. One half of Discord’s lopsided mouth tugged itself into a grin, and he begin to laugh cruelly.

“Stop it!” she commanded, stamping a hoof into the crystalline ground. To her surprise, not only did Discord stop laughing, but Celestia lowered her hoof and looked at her. To her further surprise, she felt her horn glowing.

“This is no time to argue.” she proclaimed, just to keep the two’s attention. She had started to smile from the restoration of her magic. “I don’t know what Rainbow did, but it’s obvious that it’s quickly wearing off. We have more important things to worry about, like... preparations for our journey to Saddle Arabia.”

“True enough.” her mentor agreed, and Twilight was glad to see the ends of her pastel hair were stirring once again in nonexistant breeze. “We have much to do before you and your friends will be ready to be of much help to Barbhdad.” Discord just raised an eyebrow.

A Meeting of the Mares

Clacking hooves echoed through the empty banquet hall. The sun coming into the crystal spire was no longer enough to heat the room, and it had become slightly chilly. Celestia, seated to the side of the expansive table, gave a small smile at her sister’s nervous pacing. Ordinarily, it would annoy her, but after 1000 years of absence... well, give it a decade. In the meantime, she extended a hoof to stop her sister in her tracks anyway, since there was something to be said for consistency.

“What are you so worried about?” she asked her sister. “Twilight will be able to defend Barbhdad easily, even if the Zebra’s dissent is a different sort of evil than she has faced before. Are you upset that we cannot go too? Somepony must guard Equestria, and I would not trust the Sun-neigh with your presence.”

“And yours would likewise upset the She-high.” laughed Luna, the trickle of the motion through the stream of her hair igniting small droplets of joy in her sister’s eyes.

“No sister,” said Luna seriously, “I do not worry about her ability, but rather... you are the only mare I know who has handled power well. The gentile sex revels in power for its own sake, but for a mare, power is nothing if not used... Starswirl, Clover, they were happy to study magic for its mere complexity, but this business with Sunset... How do you know Twilight will not follow in her footsteps or even oppose us when she realizes the full measure of her own power? She is an alicorn now, with so much magic she siphons it to her friends! From this moment forth it may as well be her running the kingdom, not us!”

Now it was Celestia’s turn to laugh. “I have had other students during your absence sister, and I admit, things do not always turn out... as planned. I would share your concern about Twilight, except that the Elements are not hers alone. Her friends must support her in her actions, and they will only support her so far. I cannot imagine Applejack or Fluttershy underwriting a tyranny for any reason. Rainbow Dash would likely find it ‘uncool’ and Rarity ‘uncouth’. Beyond which, her friends have a truly grounding effect on her. Even if she becomes powerful enough on her own to be threaten us, we are safe for the next century, barring some accident. If Rainbow truly is an alicorn now, we... may have other things to worry about.” her face grew worried as she said these last words, even though she grinned wider as she said it, and the grim expression which had just eased its way off her sister’s face returned.

Luna frowned for a few moments more, then her expression eased. “I suppose you are right.” she told her sister, “With Twilight alone I would fear that she might... give in to darkness... but her friends protect her, and their hearts are good.” still she stood, hooves trembling.

The room was silent for a while, and Celestia moved forward and wrapped a foreleg around her sister, who returned the gesture and buried her head in Celestia’s pastel mane. They stood like that until the room started to grow dark, and Luna lifted her head and sniffed. As they exited into the better lit hallway it was impossible to tell if one patch of Celestia’s hair might be sparkling more than the rest of it, and if Luna’s eyes were red it might well be from tiredness.

It seemed unfair, Twilight thought, that the one most bothered by her friends' sudden changes was herself. She had at first been indignant that Rainbow Dash was not also invited to her meetings with the princesses, but as they pointed out there was no indication that the changes were permanent or of their duration. Rainbow Dash herself was too busy playing with magic to miss meeting with the princesses. She showed absolutely no skill or ability in the basic magics of levitation or object manipulation, instead skipping straight to the relatively complex art of teleportation with minimal effort and an enviable degree of skill. Soon after she learned, she could exit a teleport flying backwards at top speed, and even though she promised to take it easy after her fall, the crystal ponies soon became accustomed to seeing rainbow contrails stretching overhead the next few days, often doing things like writing ‘Rainbow Dash’ or drawing several copies of Rainbow Dash’s cutiemark at once, courtesy of the only other spell Rainbow had bothered to learn, which allowed her to maintain her natural contrail in vibrant, sparkly form. She had already invented dozens of new tricks which used teleportation to great effect, and would generously give performances or even write messages in the sky for anypony who asked (though she drew the line at grocery lists). It was a bit of a lost cause to warn Pinkie of the danger that her wings might disappear at any moment. Whenever you did, Pinkie just nodded, promised to stay close to the ground, and smiled like she knew something you didn’t. Twilight was already looking back in nostalgia to the days when you knew that Pinkie was at least more or less confined to a 2-dimensional plane. Pinkie popping down out of the sky got old right away, though it took a couple days before Twilight stopped trying to scan the skies for her. She also did this thing where she’d swoop up behind you and cover your eyes with her wings and say “Guess who?”, then flip over in front of you and give a bow. Actually, that was kind of funny and made Twilight laugh, but it was the principle of the thing.

Applejack and Rarity had left to acquaint Applejack’s family to her new appendage, which Applejack felt she had to do right away. “Ah’ dun like keepin’ them in th’ dark-like.” Fluttershy and Spike had gone with them back to Ponyville, the former schooling the latter on animal care.

This had pushed the departure to Saddle Arabia back, and diplomats arrived, in a large airship which docked right against the crystal spire, to take them there on the second day they were gone. Twilight tried to get some information on the situation from one, a tall brown stallion whose body looked awkwardly gangly, but he seemed tired and quite glad for a rest. As far as she could understand, Saddle Arabia was actually quite well defended from most enemies, but their close relations with the neighboring Zebricans made their fanaticism quite problematic. Already diplomats had tried to convince the current shah (which, as Twilight understood, was an elected position held by a stallion for the rest of their natural life) to cut all ties to Equestria, and local Zebricans and sympathizers had been causing trouble. Princess Luna and Celestia talked quietly with the diplomats for a few moments before Cadance sent them to their rooms, and none of them heard any good news. The rest of Twilight’s time was taken up with meetings, with Princess Luna and Celestia to learn useful spells, with Cadance and Shining to learn military tactics. Twilight was already sorely missing her assistant, and had to take valuable time out from learning Arabic to review some simple fetch spells which she’d let grow rusty.

By the time Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy came back, right after Twilight’s first official meeting with the diplomats, who informed her on Arabian culture, and tested her on the rudimentary Arabian she’d studied, both the princesses and diplomats were anxious that they depart the same day. So, after a smiling Applejack told a couple of anecdotes involving apple-related spells Rarity had taught her, it wasn’t too surprising to see the princesses and diplomats descending upon the six mares. Twilight knew what this meant, and hadn’t been looking forward to it very much. They would have to retry the protection spell.

Unexpected Returns

It was surprising to Twilight when Discord, whom Twilight hadn’t seen or missed since he’d retrieved Pinkie, snapped into existence in front of the diplomats. “I’ve been thinking it over, and concluded you might do better with a bit of motivation” he grinned. He snapped his fingers, and Twilight could see the enormous grid of a strangely foreign looking city in the place they were trying to ward. Tiny peach-colored creatures hurried back and forth on two legs within the hologram. “They’re counting on you.” he finished with a cheeky grin.

Twilight shook her head, trying to clear it from Discord’s mind game. She would have chewed him out if the diplomats weren’t here, which was probably why he’d chosen to show up now. Luna and Celestia glanced at each other in response to Discord’s sudden presence, but lit their horns and stepped forward. They would monitor and intervene if anything seemed out of the ordinary. Twilight saw Shining and Cadance at the other end of the courtyard, with a full contingent of the Crystal Guard behind them. After a quick probe of Discord’s apparition in the center of the circle which the group had formed around it (Twilight noticed that some strange disks were now floating over the virtual city) proved to Twilight that it was only some light manipulation, she levitated the element of magic from her head and showily called the other elements, levitating them onto her friends necks. She grimaced with apprehension as she felt the connection and started to float in the air...

...and nothing happened. Or at least nothing out of the ordinary for the elements. Her power coursed into her friends and theirs coursed back into her, and for a moment Twilight thrilled at their closeness and the power of their friendship. Then she opened her eyes and turned her attention to their center...

Lying within was a city being attacked. Creatures ran from black monstrosities which fell from disks and swept among the panicked creatures greedily. Twilight spent only a moment recalling the protection Celestia had taught her, and even that moment was too long. One second later, the space was warded, the black creatures disappeared, and six element bearers fell to the ground with a thump.

Twilight realized right away that the spell she had just cast was not only the most focused spell the elements had cast, but the shortest. She still felt full of nervous energy. Letting out some of the charge in her horn, she was surprised at how acutely she felt her own magic. She chuckled at the absurdity of what she was doing as she combined find, teleport, and levitation spells to shuffle some of the notes on the dresser of the room she had slept in. This quickly took care of the sudden excess, so instead of trying her hoof at remote reading she rounded on Discord... or rather rounded on where Discord had been, since he was no longer there. Instead, she saw Princess Celestia and Luna deep in conversation with the diplomats.

With no outlet for the sullen anger which Discord’s last minute addition had caused Twilight, she just stood there a moment. She was curious about the fate of the holographic city they had warded, but at the same time she wasn’t sure she wanted to see. She was saved from the decision by the fact that Luna, Celestia and the ambassadors were trotting up to the hologram themselves, muttering quietly in Arabic. They seemed pleased with what they saw, at least.

Twilight was just about to turn away in relief when a hoof poked her gently and she swiveled on her hooves much faster than she’d intended, coming face-to-face with Fluttershy, who was nervously tapping her hooves together.

“Umm...” she said. “Rainbow and Applejack are having a dispute about magic, and...”

Before she could finish her sentence, Rainbow’s voice echoed across the courtyard.

“I’m just saying” it called, “teleporting is a lot cooler, so it’s obviously better.” Rainbow emphasized her point by dashing through a shimmering portal that formed for her as she gained speed, and took her back to where she’d started. She continued to run through portals which formed and reclosed around Applejack, turning to grin and stick her tongue out at her as she passed.

“Why you!” came Applejack’s frustrated shout, and an orange glow swept over Rainbow as she exited a portal.

It was probably a mental thing, but Twilight had noticed Rainbow couldn’t actually teleport if she wasn’t already moving somewhat fast. So, instead of teleporting away, Rainbow sat there struggling. It was AJ’s turn to grin as she twisted an immobilized Rainbow Dash to and fro in midair. She did so until Rainbow somehow broke free, and ran into a more stealthy teleport which took her right behind Applejack, where she tapped on her shoulder. Applejack turned, but Rainbow had already teleported away... to her other side, where she tapped her other shoulder. Rainbow galloped off, preparing to teleport again, but then her legs tangled in a certain orange aura, and she stumbled. Twilight watched Rainbow attempt to keep her balance and avoid being completely overwhelmed by the levitation spell AJ was casting for a moment before turning back to Fluttershy

“They’re just playing.” Twilight told her. She knew that if the battle were at all serious, both ponies would be severely injured by now. “I swear,” she continued, shaking her head slightly, “they’re like foals with those horns.”

This didn’t seem to reassure Fluttershy, who left to circle nervously above them. Pinkie was an aerial spectator as well, and seemed to be literally jittering in midair above her roughhousing friends, a violation of aerodynamics which Twilight staunchly ignored. Cadance and Shining were already gone, organizing displays of Crystalline power to answer the Griffish ones. Some of the guard leftover from the demonstration watched interestedly though, and there were some excited nudges as the slower ones realized that Rainbow was an alicorn. Twilight looked for Rarity, and saw that she was in the middle of one of her imprompteau fashion advice and styling sessions with some unsuspecting stranger. Something clicked, and Twilight realized her friends were feeling the same way she did, and burning off the excess energy as best they knew how.

As Twilight turned to go back into the crystal palace, she first took a deep breath and walked the few paces to where the Discord’s hologram city still stood.

It seemed alright, and there was no visible carnage from above, but the virtual popultaion seemed like it might be smaller. Barely one or two ponies could be seen on the street at once, where before...

“Wait a minute.” she said out loud. “Weren’t these creatures two-legged before? I remember they walked just like humans...”

“Utter nonsense!” said Discord, leaning in over her shoulder. He took advantage of her surprise to vault neatly over it and curl around his holographic metropolis. “Such uninspired creatures wouldn’t change their form so quickly! Banish the thought!” and with that he clicked his fingers, causing both his hologram and himself to disappear, and leaving Twilight to grit her teeth over having such an impossible ‘mentor’.

A Dinner Trip

Twilight made her way up one of the Crystal Palace’s many staircases and found Celestia, Luna, and the ambassadors in the dining room, in front of appetizers for what would be a very early dinner. The ambassadors had switched back to their clean, unaccented Equestrian, making Twilight cringe inwardly at the thought of her own Arabic accent. Even though Twilight couldn’t quite make out what they were saying it seemed that every word was thanking the sisters.

Celestia noticed her almost immediately, and turned her head to Twilight.

“Oh, Twilight!” she said with a small smile, voice ringing across the dining hall, “We were just sitting down to dinner. Could you call your friends? We’d like to get started right away!”

Twilight nodded and started to turn back downstairs, before feeling the weight of the crown on her head and thinking the better of it. She reached up and touched it instead, feeling for her friends through the elements.

The teleport practically cast itself, and five ponies with elements around their necks popped into existence in the air in front of Twilight. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were wrestling, but Applejack and Rarity dropped to the ground with a thud, while the winged elements variously glided, swooped, and fluttered to the near end of the table. After fielding an irate glare from Rarity with a sheepish smile, Twilight also approached the table, Applejack and Rarity following right behind.

Once they were all seated, princess Celestia wasted no time. “Greetings, everypony!” she smiled at the element bearers. Then her smile vanished, and her face grew sober. “Lumen and Veris,” here she indicated first the brown stallion, then the green, “our ambassadors from Saddle Arabia, are very worried that the situation there may be deteriorating as we speak. It’s going to take a couple days to get there, so unless anypony objects, I suggest you pack after dinner and get settled in your bunks on the ship tonight.” Celestia paused, and the six elements traded glances with each other and the princess’ concerned eyes, the ambassadors traded a glance with each other, and Luna continued to gaze at the lettuce on her plate. Then, six friends, with varying degrees of vigor, nodded their assent to the alicorn. “Okay.” Celestia continued, more softly. “Remember what I told you.” she finished, whispering to Twilight across the table.

Celestia had told Twilight quite a bit over the years, but most recently she had stressed to her that she should keep the other elements near her, that Saddle Arabia’s fate was important, but what really mattered to her was the safety of her Equestrian subjects, Twilight and friends included. Twilight saw something close to fear in her mentor’s eyes, a look that reminded her of the time when, as a filly, she had fallen trying to get a book on a high shelf. Surprised, she gave a quick, embarrassed nod.

The silence following Celestia’s announcement lasted through the first course of dinner, broken only by the rustling of salad and drip of dressing. The silence continued into the second course, when Rarity broke it by turning to the lanky brown stallion next to her with a smile and a “So, tell us about Saddle Arabia.”

The ambassadors were only too happy to comply. From their descriptions, it seemed that, during peacetime at least, Saddle Arabia was a marvelous place. It was, after all, as Twilight knew, the birthplace of algebra and modern optics, as well as modern astronomy. Since then they had been surpassed in such disciplines by Equestrians such as Starswirl, but they maintained a rich culture from that time, including a special brand of geometrically based architecture which effortlessly straddled the line between art and science. Able, finally, to speak in Equestrian, Twilight asked about some of the first of these unique buildings, which housed famous organizations founded at the time of their construction. She was dismayed to hear that the Arabian Optical Society had been dissolved not twenty years earlier and the building repurposed as a temple. The Philosophical Mathematics Society was still around, but had also given up their historic grounds to another temple and moved into a smaller space. Twilight was relieved to hear that the Astronomical Society had, if anything, gotten bigger over the years, and fully occupied its traditional site, with overflow. The famous telescope, used by al-Khathiawari himself, was still operational, having been maintained all these years. “You should see it” boasted Lumen, “all gleaming bronze, with the same angle plates used by Khathia still polished and only slightly worn. They’ve got better stuff nowadays, of course, but there’s something to be said for tradition. It’s only sad they can no longer look at...” he stopped suddenly, as Veris extended a hoof almost to his shoulder. Glancing around, he suddenly fixed his eyes on his plate.

Twilight was confused, and about to ask him politely to continue, when Pinkie, who had no patience for the interruption, interjected.

“What? Can’t look at what?” she cried, bouncing out of her chair and into the face of the brown stallion in a way which indicated intense curiosity to those who knew her, but which, Twilight reflected, might seem like a challenge to anypony else. The ambassador certainly seemed to take it as that, flinching and stammering.

“Ah... ah, they can’t look, can’t look at Hokkai’s comet.” he finally managed. Twilight raised an eyebrow. True, the last time Hokkai’s comet had been around was a decade ago, but, Luna willing, it would be back in sixty years. Any astronomer worth their salt should understand that, and almost everypony who wanted to would have the chance to see it at least once.

Before she could comment, Lumen moved on to explain Arabian fashion to Rarity, answering the questions she asked in detail. Arabian clothing, it seemed, traditionally served to keep the wearer’s sweat from evaporating too quickly in the desert climate. The garments, which covered the back while leaving the legs free so as not to constrict movement, were called saddles, hence Saddle Arabia’s name. Nowadays, with more water available and most ponies not needing to travel long distances on hoof, this function was less important, and the Saddle Arabians were freer to develop different styles. It seemed, however, that only the fashion for mares had done so, and that stallions would still tend to wear clothing which echoed past utility.

“You mean to say,” asked a shocked Rarity, “that there’s no allowance for style at all?”

“Well, most clothing still follows the traditional pattern, even the mares’. But yes, while a mare’s saddle might have all sorts of allowances for looks, the most that’s common on a stallion’s are some manner of geometric design from our illustrious past.”

Rarity’s throat gurgled in what might have been, if there was such a thing, a polite gagging sound. “Well, tell me about mare’s fashion then. Surely they’re not still stuck wearing burlap sacks?”

Lumen smiled. “No, no.” he replied, “Fashion for mares uses all types of fabric, with various designs, and beads. One of the older fashions that’s made a comeback in recent years has the mare wear a veil over her muzzle made of silk, or gauze...”

“A ve’el?” asked Applejack. “Din’t you say Arabia was mighty windy? Wold’nt a thing like that just flap right off?”

“Well... yes.” replied Lumen. “But mares mostly stay inside, so...”

“Inside?!” asked Pinkie “Why would everypony stay inside? That’s silly!”

“Well, you see...” answered Lumen, “Mares... Mares are...” At a loss for words, he turned to his fellow ambassador.

“Mares are the water of Arabian society.” Veris continued smoothly. “And stallions the earth. Mares are naturally weak, shapeless if not contained, and susceptible to sun. Stallions are more solid, a fertile basis for growth with a mare’s support. A stallion who defies his mother, his wife, who wanders without settling down, we call a ‘dust devil’. It is one of our worse insults. A stallion ‘worth his salt’ will protect the mares in his life as tradition demands, saving them from the harshness of the outside world. Only the hardiest, most important, and most defiant mares frequently appear in public in our culture.”

“But surely they’re not that fragile?” interrupted Twilight “Arabian stallions and mares still look mostly the same, wouldn’t it be better to have a young mare go out in public than her old father?” Twilight paused, fixed on Veris’ eyes. They were greener than his coat, and darker towards the pupil, blue, or purple maybe.

“Forgive me, honored Twilight,” he replied, staring back at her, “but you clearly do not understand the difference between Arabian mares and stallions. While, in certain cases, the traditional ways may not be the best, they are this way for a reason.”

Ignorant on Saddle Arabian anatomy, Twilight inclined her head. She would really have to study their morphology and sexual dimorphism when she got a chance.

After a brief lull the conversation continued, elaborate dishes giving way to some simple desserts and cakes. Everypony asked questions about various aspects of Saddle Arabia and listened to the ambassadors explanations, except Rainbow Dash, who seemed preoccupied with filling her stomach. Twilight could swear she consumed entire plates all by herself, and she was pretty sure half of them was not the correct portion of dinner rolls for a single pegasus. Applejack wanted to know what they did for food, Pinkie what they did for fun. Fluttershy even managed to ask a quiet question about what sort of animals they had there, although Veris may have misinterpreted that, since he spoke at length about the neighboring races, the camels and zebras. Celestia and Luna excused themselves, each carrying off a small piece of cake, and reminded the group they would be seeing them off in a couple hours.

When dessert was done and everypony else was rushing off to pack, the ambassadors waited at the door for Rainbow Dash, who had decided that it couldn’t hurt to use the airspace above the table to do a few postmeal loop-de-loops. As she landed and was about to trot off to pack, the brown one cleared his throat and held up a hoof for attention.

“Ah, Honored Dash, my colleague and I, we both, both want to know...” he looked at the stallion beside him for help.

“Do you stand with the Sun or the Moon?” asked the emerald green stallion.

Rainbow just looked at them quizzically.

“He means, ah, do you... do you like Celestia or Luna?” asked the first.

“Oh. Yeah! I mean Luna’s actually really nice, and Celestia... well, she’s Celestia!” Rainbow started to leave again, thinking the conversation over.

The two stallions looked at each other, and the green stallion held up one of those long thin legs in front of her.

Rainbow turned, already losing patience with the Arab stallions, and losing more when the hoof lowered, and the stallions began to whisper quickly in Arabic. She knew ambassadors were basically just ponies you had to be nice to no matter what, but really! She’d just made it through the doorway when the voice from the brown stallion stopped her.

“Wait! My colleague, he says... he says you must walk with the Moon, since all things must have balance, and it is clear that the Honored Twilight walks with the Sun. Is this true? Do you worship the night, and honorable Twilight the day?”

Rainbow Dash whirled around, feeling that the conversation had taken an insulting turn. “Look,” she said bitingly, “I don’t know how it is with you, but I’m a stuntpony. I don’t get dizzy easily, not from walking! And I’m pretty sure both Twilight and I can walk and even fly whether it’s dark or not!” She turned and strutted off, already considering whether or not she could find the cook in time to smuggle some rolls into her pack. Those Arabian ponies sure were weird!

Twilight kept expecting Spike to come up from behind and take the bag she was lugging behind her with her magic. It seemed like not so long ago, right after Spike had hatched and was transferred to her care, that she’d used her magic for everything, despite and because of him. It hadn’t taken long for Celestia to find that her favorite student was falling asleep in her classes, and pin the blame upon said student’s already cognizant and indolent dragon. She had a talk with Twilight, telling her that she shouldn’t do everything for Spike, and remind him that magic still took work. Since then, Twilight had always made sure that Spike had taken care of himself, and even helped her, thanking him for his contributions as Celestia suggested. She felt responsible for Spike, but relied on him. She had had little time left to pack whatever books she needed, and where normally Spike would know what she was reading and be one step ahead of her, she had no idea what she would need besides the books she’d brought with her. She scraped a couple books on Saddle Arabia off the nightstand into her saddlebags, and spent an hour pacing fruitlessly through the Crystal Library lamenting that she couldn’t bring the whole thing with her. Any books in Arabia would be harder to read, as she couldn’t skim Arabic yet. Eventually, Twilight selected a couple travel guides, slipped the volumes into her woefully understuffed saddlebags after checking them out, and proceeded to take her luggage to the top of the Crystal Palace spire. She pulled her wheeled bag onto the causeway connecting the Crystal Palace to the airship reflecting the late rays of Celestia’s sun. Hopefully Spike would be okay managing Fluttershy’s critters. He was still young, and prone to be a bit immature, but Fluttershy seemed to think it would be fine. She couldn’t bring him along on this mission. Saddle Arabia seemed like it would be dangerous, she didn’t want to bring him into such a situation. Besides, Saddle Arabia had less than enlightened views on dragons. She was sure she’d made the right decision leaving Spike behind. She was sure of it.

A Flight Unfancy

Boarding the vessel, Twilight became aware of a heated discussion.

“What do you mean, no flying!? That’s ridiculous! No way am I following that rule!” exclaimed a rough voice Twilight knew to be Rainbow’s.

“Pardon me, princess, but this fine vessel will be doing a mean clip, without stopping.” replied a gasping voice which varied in intensity from a stage whisper to a bellow, as if the speaker were trying to blow bubbles with volume. “Many pegasi have gotten it into their heads to go flying, only to find that the ship won’t stop, inevitably falling behind! At best five hours lost for everypony, at worst shark food!” As Twilight rounded the deck to the fore of the craft to find that the speaker was an old dun stallion of Equestrian stature. The captain literally rocked back and forth in delivering his bellows, and had his face set in an almost malicious scowl, bushy white beard growing beneath.

Rainbow was unimpressed, hovering vertically above the captain with her forehooves crossed. “Oh yeah? This old clunker? I’ll believe it when I see it, which I won’t! I could fly to Arabia on my own just like that! I’m only here to keep my friends company. I’ll fly when I want, loops around this thing!”

The captain grimaced. “Well I can’t stop you from flinging yourself off the craft, but I’m not stopping! So I hope you’re prepared to make it to Arabia yourself if you do!” With that he gave a snort and turned to Twilight.

“Princess Twilight, an honor to meet you.” he said, seeming quite sincere, though he accented ‘you’ just a bit. His voice was nowhere near as guttery when he wasn’t yelling, and he didn’t rock on his hooves, though Twilight now had a full view of the deep bags wrinkling the skin under his brown eyes. “If you follow me, I’ll show you to your quarters.”

He led Twilight to a small cabin, which nevertheless had enough room for her bags, and, as she noted with some pleasure, a bedside table that could be used as a writing desk. Then he ran through the ship’s rules, which did include ‘no flying’. He seemed relieved that Twilight nodded throughout, and left her there after estimating that they would arrive in Barbdhad the morning of the third day. Twilight figured that she should see how her friends were settling in, but she wanted to see how uncomfortable the bed was first. She had read several books which complained about the bed quality in airships. She pulled off the covers and settled on the bed. It was surprisingly comfortable.

Twilight woke in the dark. A faint humming sounded, and after a few moments Twilight realized it must be the engines of the airship she was on. Disoriented from the unexpected nap, she lit her horn and turned to her desk. She was shocked at the sight of a couple books, a page placed on top of them, next to her inkwell and quill. Somepony had been through her saddlebags! Recovering, she realized that written on the page was a letter, addressed to her. She quickly read it in the violet-tinted light of her horn.

Dearest Twilight,

Celestia and I were surprised to find you already in dreamless sleep before the vessel embarked, though the past few days have not been a picnicing voyage for you. We bid your friends fair tidings, and you farewell the best we could. Celly went so far as to kiss you upon the forehead, and would like you to know of it, and also asks you remember what will now be her parting words to you. For myself, know that you may call upon the night, wakeful or not, and I will be there. Both Celestia and I bend our will to aid you. As parting gift or course of study I leave you these books on Arabian religion. ‘Tis is a subject which both my sister and myself prefer to avoid, but I believe you will find the knowledge both interesting and necessary.

Regards,

Luna

Twilight realized muzzily that the books below the letter were not from her saddlebags, and quickly confirmed that they were indeed on religion. Then she flopped back on her bed, mentally picturing Celestia’s kiss as she drifted back to sleep.

The next day, Twilight woke early, and ate a bland breakfast in the small airship mess hall. Lumen and Applejack were there, but both seemed preoccupied, so she left them alone except for a quick hello. Returning to her room, Twilight hopped back in bed and eagerly cracked the books Luna had given her on Arabian religion, happily (and somewhat guiltily) noting that they were written in Equestrian. Religion was a fairly small and ill-reputed field of magic in Equestria, dating from the days when ponies thought that magic and philosophy were one and the same. Twilight was surprised to find from the introduction of the first book, Arabian Religion Through the Ages, that this view still prevailed in Arabia and surrounding areas. She began to understand what exactly Cadance had meant when she said that Zebrican religion was Zero Sum. They practiced a form of Shamanism which taught that every being and landscape in the world had an attendant spirit god or gods, whose power and manifestation varied depending on the amount and quality of worship they received. There was a limited amount of this power available, so a deity receiving more worship could diminish the amount available to others. It was in this way (said the book) that the Zebras believed they had tamed the deserts and savannahs of Zebrica. By worshipping their twin gods, of light and darkness, the Zebras had tamed the continent.

It was at around this point that Twilight became aware of some yelling outside, to the front of the ship. A few moments later she heard the humming from the engines to which she had grown accustomed increase to a high whine. She tore herself away from her book, suddenly nervous.

She hoped there would be no problems with the ship. She remembered the tornado rushing toward the balloon she and her friends had taken up to the craggy spire which served as the Wonderbolts Academy to visit Rainbow. On that occasion, she had simply fallen for a few moments before Rainbow could rescue her, but she felt the cool damp of sweat under her fur as she realized that this time, she might have to help save her friends. She relaxed a bit as she realized that everypony but Rarity and Applejack could fly. If the ship was going down, she could get Applejack and have Rainbow get Rarity.

She opened the door, and was relieved to see that everything was okay for the moment. Wind whipped the deck, but the craft was level, and nothing seemed to be wrong. Twilight looked to the bow, and saw Rainbow, flying backwards in midair right in front of the ship. She seemed focused on something at the front of the ship, staring through the multicolored strands of her mane as they whipped back across her face. Twilight opened her wings to fly up to meet her, and was almost swept off the back of the ship. Instead, she walked up to the front of the ship, and yelled to Rainbow over the breeze.

“Rainbow! What’s happening?” she hollered.

Rainbow glanced at her, looking slightly embarrassed. “Oh, Twilight. Just showing Mr. Hot Air that these measly engines aren’t enough to faze me!” She returned to staring at the front of the ship.

Twilight followed her gaze, and found herself looking into the face of the captain, hunched over the tiller, eyes boring back into Rainbow’s. He glanced quickly at Twilight then turned and spat on the ground beside him before locking eyes with Rainbow once again. Twilight glanced back and forth between the two parties in the staring contest before sighing and walking back to her cabin. She trusted both of them not to fall out of the sky, and figured it would be pointless to get between them.

The Zebra tradition held that dual gods, such as their own, were the mark of an advanced, moral culture. Lesser races, such as the Antelope, had only one god. It was a view which depressed the equines who crowded the edges of Zebrica’s desert; they had no god at all. A few things happened to these ponies in the course of the next millenia, slow, complex societal change. Twilight had to guess at most of it, since all the book really cared to say was that just at the point where the previously nomadic ponies settled down and founded Saddle Arabia, they began to hear that across the world there were two winged, horned ponies who raised the sun and moon. It was their chance to counter the smugness of their zebra neighbors.

The alicorns, managing a country half a world away, became a fixture in Saddle Arabian culture almost overnight. Temples, small and tasteful in what was otherwise an age of reason, began popping up, worshipping Saddle Arabia’s new twin gods.

Twilight quickly skimmed the rest of the book, looking for confirmation that Celestia and Luna were not, in fact, gods. Gods were abstract, ineffable, conceptual tools given life through partitioning of magic, like the Zebrican gods of light and dark. But the book didn’t provide, instead describing how the Arabian ponies prayed, worshipped and based their magical theories and practice on the sisters. Twilight sighed and closed it on the last few chapters, moving on to The Sisters: Modern Religion and Magic in Saddle Arabia.
The Sisters picked up more or less where Arabian Religion had left off; describing a vibrant culture in which worship of the alicorns was a constant, quiet presence. It expanded on the difference in worship of the two 'goddesses'; those who worshipped Celestia tended to be more realistic and satisfied with their lives, those who worshipped Luna were artists and dreamers. There were also social side effects of worship. Gold was no longer commonly used as currency; due to its association with Celestia, it was preferred for religious idols. The night became safer as well, as the nightlife of Luna worshippers pushed the petty crime generally associated with darkness into the last few hours before dawn.
Then the author started to go on a tangent about Arabian politics, and Twilight yawned, covering her mouth. She shifted and stretched, noting that the cabin was completely dark without the light of her horn. Turning over, she slipped under the covers and fell fast asleep.

Soar Wings

Stroke, stroke, stroke. Rainbow’s Wings traced steady, powerful ellipses in the air. Rainbow Dash was reminded of her days in flight camp. As part of their instruction on flight convoys they had learned what to do when separated from your group. The general rule was to glide straight down to the ground and set up camp there, but when you were over the ocean or somewhere nasty, like the Everfree forest? The idea there was to hover in the air as long as possible, in hopes that somepony would find you before you had to descend. The counselor had taught them how to scull in order to hover in midair, and made it a contest to see who could do it the longest, with ice cream after dinner for the winner. Either he’d misjudged the foals’ ability or the motivational power of ice cream, but after an hour he called the contest, with several young pegasi still hovering, one of them Rainbow. They all got ice cream.

This was just like that, other than the fact that Rainbow was actually over the ocean, she had to push herself backwards with every stroke, it was already getting dark, and… ponyfeathers. There was probably no ice cream.
Still, she wasn't about to let this old fogey get the better of her. What would happen when a mere machine could beat Rainbow Dash? It didn't matter, because it wouldn't happen.

She focused on the Hot Air’s eyes again. Yup, still trying to stare her down. Rainbow furrowed her brow a bit, trying to make her own stare more impressive.

It didn't take long for Rainbow’s mind to drift off again. Her wings were getting sore. She began to imagine that she was a phoenix, being reborn just as she’d seen Philomena doing. She enjoyed the flame licking from her wings, down her back, up her mane, through her legs. Soon enough she was bathing in fire. After a little while of being phoenix-Dash, she was brought back to the present by movement right in front of her. Hot Air took his hooves from the tiller, leaned back, and spat directly at Rainbow. His spittle almost fell on one of her hooves, but she dodged, recovering quickly. She wasn't able to give as powerful a backstroke as usual while dodging though, so she ended up drifting closer to Hot Air.

The airship captain seemed startled by her sudden proximity, widening his eyes and muttering something that Rainbow couldn't make out less than two feet away. Then he turned and spat, on the deck this time, and slowed the engines, so that Rainbow shot ahead of the airship. By the time she was back at the head of the ship, the old stallion was already walking away from the tiller.
Rainbow paused for a moment, then flipped onto the deck, stretching her wings before folding them at her sides. Her hooves heavy, she made her way to her bunk, and flopped down.

Stroke. Stroke. Stroke. Rainbow floated effortlessly in front of the airship, locked in a contest with Hot Air. But Hot Air was no longer at the wheel, instead, he was running around the deck, bellowing furiously. Alarm bells rung, and the ship sank below Rainbow Dash’s hindhooves. It was in trouble.

Or, at least, it would have been, if not for Rainbow. She dashed around and under the ship, then hoisted it onto her back and accelerated. After a couple of rainbooms, there they were, in Saddle Arabia. It didn't take long to find the source of its woes. Changelings! There were changelings everywhere! They tried to make themselves look like Rainbow’s friends, but she always knew. That one looked too ugly, that one had the wrong kind of expression, that one’s eyes were too bright. She punched them and they reverted to their changeling forms. She continued fighting them, punching them out of her way, smacking them as they used their super bright eyes to follow her. Wow, their eyes were really bright. They kind of made everything else fade….

Rainbow woke up to the sun shining into her eyes from her cabin window. She groaned, turned over and shunk! Tore a hole in her pillow. She groaned in frustration. That was the umpteenth time she’d forgotten about that thing. Doing portals was cool and all, but she wasn't sure it was worth having a great big bone poking out from her head. She groaned again as she stretched her wings, trying to clear the morning’s tension from them. They were really sore from yesterday. She spent a moment or two wishing she could be an earth pony, just for today, then hopped out of bed and went down to get breakfast.

Breakfast of Alicorns

Rainbow wrinkled her nose as she entered the cabinet-sized room where they were supposed to eat. It smelled musty after the fresh afternoon air outside. You could tell that you were over the ocean from the air even without any training in the subject; it smelled exciting, like adventure. Rainbow sighed, that was probably why she hadn't seen Flutters much this trip. At her exhale the dark room was lit by a soft violet light, and she could see Twilight's wan face. It looked like she had been hunched over a book since breakfast, since there was one in front of her, next to an empty bowl with a spoon in it. She was such a bookworm!

“Oh. Hey Rainbow.” said Twilight. She sat lighting the shadow while Rainbow rummaged around.

“Ugh, it’s so dark in here!” complained Rainbow. “Didn't anypony think that ponies would need light as well as breakfast?”

“The sun shines in through the window in the morning…” replied Twilight, causing Rainbow to glance at her. She didn't seem to be nitpicking even, just stating a fact. Typical Twilight. Rainbow found the oats and poured some into a clean bowl.

“Dry oats again….” she sighed to fill the silence as she tried to muster up the desire to eat them.

“Oh, here,” said Twilight, dumping part of a pitcher of water into Rainbow's oats. “Rarity found these raisins in the pantry too.” she continued, picking several of the shrunken fruits up with her magic and throwing them into the bowl, before pushing it to Rainbow

“Umm…” said Rainbow, poking the bowl with the tip of her hoof and looking at the tidbits floating in the puddle that filled it. “Raisins are great and all, but I don't think soupy oats are so much better than dry ones.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Here,” she said “let me.” her magic took hold of the bowl and scooted it closer to her, and the air began to hum softly. Rainbow wondered what Twilight was doing until she saw wisps of steam coming out of the bowl. Twilight’s magic released the bowl and Rainbow took it back with both forehooves, peering inside. The oats had absorbed the water and been cooked, and the raisins were plump with the leftover steam. It smelled delicious.

“Thanks Twilight!” she managed before tipping the bowl back to pour porridge into her mouth. “Uhr da behst!” she continued.

Twilight just smiled slightly and watched as Rainbow gulped down porridge. Hey, she was hungry.

“Hey Rainbow?” asked Twilight all of a sudden.

“Mmm?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

“Uwa!?”

“What would you do if you found out that ponies were arguing about you? Like fighting over what type of food you liked or something?”

Rainbow finished off her porridge, swallowed and gave a contented sigh before turning to Twilight.

“Easy,” she replied, “I’d just tell them what type of food I liked.”

Twilight groaned. “No, like, what if they were actually physically fighting? What would you do then?”

Rainbow laughed. “I’d knock them both down and call them losers for fighting over me before I told them who was right. You know, that reminds me of this one time my fanclub…”

“No, no, no! What if they still fought anyway? What if you couldn't stop them? What if you found out that lots of ponies were fighting about somepony else, like Cadance, and that she hadn't stopped them? What would you think then?” Twilight looked visibly upset, like she was about to cry.

Rainbow spent a moment staring at Twilight wondering whether she should answer or just pat her on the shoulder while she cried. After a moment, Twilight brought her gaze to meet hers, and she still wasn't crying, so Rainbow went with the first option.

“Geez Twilight, these questions don't make sense. Do Cadance and I have armies fighting each other now? What's up?”
Twilight frowned, and her lower lip quivered. “I… I just found out that the Saddle Arabians have been have been fighting over Celestia and Luna for thousands of years. It was mostly just stuff like who was the better alicorn, but when Celestia sent Luna to the moon there was a massacre. The Luna followers revolted, took control of the government, slaughtered other ponies, changed the currency… and Celestia let it happen.” Twilight was crying now, head in her hooves, tears dripping occasionally down her cheeks.

Rainbow wasn't sure how to reply. She stared across the table for a moment. “Wait, what?” she finally said. “Why were Celestia and Luna so important to Saddle Arabians?”

“They, they think alicorns are gods. It was originally intended to be classic dualism…” Twilight was speaking from behind her forehooves now, head slumped on the table. “Celestia and Luna each got their own churches, and it wasn't long before they began fighting…”

“Hey,” interrupted Rainbow, trying to get Twilight away from her unhealthy obsession with past events. It could almost be sort of cool when Twilight knew somepony who’d been dead for ages, but crying over somepony’s great-great-great-great aunt didn’t do anypony any good. “Didn't this all happen thousands of years ago? Equestria had just barely been founded, and everypony was still fighting over whether it was better to have bones sticking out over various parts of your body or not. Celestia had her hooves full I bet. Besides, what's-his-name and what’s-his-face like different princesses, and them seem fine. By the way, horns? Totally overrated.”

In reply, Twilight sniffed, sighed, and sat up. “You're right, Rainbow.” she said, her tone now calm again. “But how did you know Lumen and Veris worship different princesses? I had my suspicions, but they’re very tight-lipped about religion.”

“Oh, ah.” said Rainbow, suddenly embarrassed, “They may have asked me which princess I liked better. I didn't really know why it was so important to them, but they obviously expected different answers.”

Twilight fixed Rainbow with an intense gaze. “What did you say to them?”

“Uh. Heh, heh. Funny story.” replied Rainbow. “I… may have told them off just for asking me.”

Twilight’s face fell a bit. “In my defense they were standing in my way, and I really wanted more of those dinner rolls they served.” Rainbow finished.

“Seriously?!” replied Twilight exasperatedly, “I was going to talk to you about that, it was so rude! They're called dinner rolls instead of Rainbow Dash rolls because everypony is supposed to be able to enjoy them at dinner, not just Rainbow Dash!”

“Yeah, well…” replied Dash redly, “the cook didn't think so. He made an entire batch just for me and told me how much his daughter loved my skywriting. I bet he’d rename them Rainbow Dash rolls if I asked!” she finished.

Twilight sighed and shook her head. “Whatever.” she replied. “You're right; we don't have to understand their weird religious thing, all we have to do is cast a protection spell and make sure they're okay, and we'll be back to Equestria in no time.”

Early Arrival

It was just after noon when Hot Air announced that they would be landing soon. The six friends had gathered in the center of the deck, treating this lunch like one of their customary picnics. Twilight had stopped reading the books on religion and turned her attention to her Arabic language texts. She smiled to herself as she reflected that this was kind of a picnicking voyage after all, and puzzled out how to say picnic and voyage and how to modify nouns in Arabic.

Rarity was sitting on a small couch which she’d managed to pack, alternating between some knitting and throwing the occasional pointed comment in on either side of the exchange between Rainbow Dash and Applejack.
Rainbow and Applejack were sitting on the deck and playing an interesting sort of tug of war. Rainbow had found that by moving just a part of herself, a hoof, an elbow, an ear, she could cause a portal to form for just that extremity. She immediately started using this to cause Applejack’s hoof to fall through the deck and stick up upside down next to her own hoof, and to knee and bat Applejack with her ears at range.

Applejack responded by quickly immobilizing the offending extremities with her magic, the result being that Rainbow twitched like an itchy dog from within a net of Applejack's magic, trying to find a point from which she could portal, and Applejack just kind of sat there grinning, streams of orange magic flowing from her horn. Occasionally, Applejack would get hit by the nape of Rainbow’s neck or some other point she’d neglected to immobilize, and her smile would drop for a moment as she grunted and forked her magic yet again to catch the offending point. This was accompanied by a constant stream of banter as Rainbow and Applejack slung subtle (or, in Rainbow's case, not so subtle) insults at each other.

Pinkie was sitting near them, facing the front of the craft. While she was technically obeying the ‘no flying’ rule she wasn't really following it in spirit. Every so often, whenever she heard or saw something funny, she would rear back on her hind legs, spreading her wings and letting the wind blow her over into a backwards somersault, giggling.

Fluttershy lay pressed against the deck in the center of her friends where she was mostly protected from the wind. She wore a small smile on her face and just watched her friends have fun.

As the captain cleared his throat Applejack let go of Rainbow, causing her to sprawl every which way on the deck. Then she reached out with a hoof and poked her prone friend gently in the side, drawing an extremely irritated glare from Rainbow. Pinkie flipped over backwards laughing from this. Twilight and Rarity looked up from their books and knitting, and Fluttershy looked down and poked at the deck.

Hot Air’s announcement, made in mildly guttering speech and accompanied by many pointed glances at Rainbow, conveyed the facts that they were miraculously ‘ahead of schedule’ and would be arriving in Barbhdad momentarily. If they went to pack now, they’d likely be done in time to view the approach to the city. If they wanted to fly in, well, that was fine with him. Only, he’d heard that Barbhdad was ‘on military high alert’ and, well, he wasn't going to be defending them from any countermeasures meant to secure their airspace.

Twilight and Rarity quickly packed up their activities and trotted back to their rooms. After a brief staring contest Applejack and Rainbow Dash did the same. Pinkie Pie laughed, spread her wings, and let the wind carry her back to her room in a way which would have given Twilight a headache if she’d been there to watch. Fluttershy saw that her friends were gone, and, buffeted by the wind, bit her lip and scurried off to her own room.

Twilight beat Rainbow to the prow of the airship. It had taken only a moment for her to pack up all her stuff, and she was excited to get her first glimpse at Barbhdad. When Rainbow hovered up to the bow of the ship Twilight was already there, hanging over the railing and peering at the distant city.

“Did you know?” she asked absently. “In the Classical Era they called this ‘the city of learning’.”

Rainbow looked at the far away city. She could kind of see why some ponies might think that. It looked dry, dusty and dull.

It wasn't long before the ambassadors joined Rainbow and Twilight at the bow to watch the city come into view. The vague skyline was slowly resolving itself into the distinct shapes of buildings. Lumen paced forward and pointed off the bow. “Look there!” he exclaimed, “That's the palace.” Twilight followed his hoof and looked down on the city. After a little searching she decided that he had probably indicated the large building with the tall bell-shaped towers. It was the only one with any green around it. From this distance, Twilight could just make out what seemed like a lush garden that took up most of the block in front of it.

“There’s the famous observatory!” continued Lumen, this time indicating a dome-shaped building. “I can hardly wait to show you around the city.” He looked around at them for a reaction, a proud smile on his face. His smile was impervious to Rainbow’s less than enthusiastic expression, but faltered when his gaze met his fellow ambassador’s frown. “Ah…”

“Sadly, we should delay the full tour until after the city is secure,” said Veris with a wry smile of his own. “still, we can give you a full tour of the palace before showing you to your rooms.” Lumen’s expression fell, but he didn't object. Rainbow flashed a smile at Veris’ change of plans, but when Veris and Rainbow caught the other’s eyes the smiles slipped from their faces, and their gazes lapsed into hard stares. Twilight coughed into her hoof and they both broke off and looked at her.

“Ah…” she said, turning to address Lumen, “perhaps we could make the most of our time in the air with an introduction to the city?”
Lumen was glad to oblige, and soon four pairs of eyes stared down at the landmarks he pointed out.

By the time they were flying over the city Lumen’s voice was getting scratchy, and all of Twilight's friends but Fluttershy had joined them.
“...and here you can see the shrine where Akhal-Teke brought back what he’d learned from the Zebras to found his own school of magic here.” he continued. He paused as everyone peered to look down at the building that they were passing close to. It wasn’t very big, just a bit larger than Sugarcube Corner.

“Why are there so many ponies down there!? It looks like a party!” squealed Pinkie, leaning off the prow of the ship, wings spread. It looked like she was considering swooping down to join the fun. Everypony peered down at the Saddle Arabians and Zebras gathered around the shrine.

“Ahem, well…” answered Lumen, bringing one of his long thin legs up to his lengthy muzzle. “Due to its history it has a… following among many of the zebras and some saddle arabians who dabble in old magic. Lately there’s been a rumor of some… important event regarding one of the zebra gods, hence the crowd.”

Twilight turned and looked at Lumen, her interest piqued by the first mention of religion she’d heard from the ambassadors.

“What sort of event?” she asked.

“Um… er… that is to say, ah…” stammered Lumen before he was interrupted by Veris.

“An avatar.” Veris said. Reading their blank faces, he continued, “One of the zebra tribes claim that their new chief is an avatar to their dark god.”

“Ava-what now?” chirped Pinkie. Her questioning gaze was echoed by the other elements.

Veris looked taken aback at having to explain. “An avatar is - the word in your language - a… a messenger with the, ah, the charge of a god. Most would consider you to be avatars of Celestia or Luna, with the powers you wield. Especially Rainbow and Twilight.” There was silence as the group considered this. “However, the important thing is, the dark god has not had a avatar in recorded memory. These ponies are discussing how this has affected their magic.”

There was silence until they slowed and moored above some of the most colorful and varied buildings in Barbhdad. Saddle Arabians and the occasional Zebra milled around in the streets below. “Here we are!” cried Hot Air “Barbdhad Market!”

Wounds of Fear

Their party got several strange looks as they wound their way through the streets toward the palace. Lumen and Veris were taking more care to keep the pace to one more reasonable for the shorter-legged Equestrians, waiting and turning back. Discord seemed quite pleased with himself, swimming through the air and popping out from around corners the group had yet to walk around. The rest of the group had to deal with moving their luggage and themselves at a brisk pace, while being the center of unasked attention. Six Equestrians at once was probably remarkable enough for Saddle Arabia, but two apparent alicorns made it a spectacle. Most ponies just watched silently, but Twilight was surprised when she caught an egg someone lobbed at her in her telekinesis.

Twilight stared at the egg as the group walked on. It was an unfortunate fact that even in modern times Equestrians tired of debate would sometimes fall back to the primitive expedient of embarrassing their opponents by hitting them with food. Still, even then, it was always baked goods, cakes and pies. She shivered as she considered the mindset necessary to throw eggs in enmity.

The walk continued uneventfully as they walked through dusty streets, as long as you didn’t count the constant stares of Saddle Arabians as eventful. And it wasn’t, really, though Twilight was still uncomfortable at being the center of so much attention. The buildings grew taller and less cramped, and soon they were nearing the open grounds and greenery that surrounded the palace.

As they reached the large, empty road that ran along the side of the palace they could hear the low murmuring of a crowd, and a booming voice that echoed from the walls around the corner.

“Oh!” exclaimed Lumen “This way! The shah is giving one of his speeches!”

Veris muttered a couple words in Arabic, which, as far as Twilight understood, translated to ‘he’s not’. She frowned. She’d have to brush up her Arabic more.

They rounded the corner and soon joined the crowd which clustered in the street around a wide balcony from which the largest Saddle Arabian Twilight had seen yet was addressing them. He was a light, sandy brown, dressed with a golden circlet and flanked by guards. He wasn’t taller than them, but had a build far thicker than the thin frame Twilight had come to expect from Arabians. He was speaking in Arabic, but she thought she caught the words for ‘mighty’ ‘pride’ and ‘strong’. The crowd certainly seemed to be enjoying itself, cheering as the shah’s words grew more impassioned and he began to make gestures to accompany them. He paused for a moment, and a zebra came out from the depths of the palace with a stack of scrolls, took up something in their mouth, and buried it in the shah’s chest.

It took Twilight a moment to process that what she’d just seen was a knife stabbed into the shah's heart. In that time the zebra had fled back into the palace, followed by the guards, and the shah had slumped out of sight. The audience’s mood changed instantly to extreme anxiety. A few tense moments passed before a guard came back out and yelled (unintelligibly to Twilight) a few sentences in Arabic. Whatever it was, it didn’t improve the crowd’s mood. The Saddle Arabians began to mutter and mill about. Twilight had to dodge a hoof that would have hit her face. Seeing that her earthbound friends were suffering similarly, she put up an impromptu shield around them.

Not a moment too soon. The guard barked out another sentence Twilight couldn't translate, and the crowd frantically began to scatter. She winced as a stallion leapt to the top of shield before jumping off, but the shield held and protected them from countless hooves and knees besides.

When the street had almost emptied, Twilight sighed and dropped her shield. Rainbow, Pinkie and Fluttershy were hovering just overhead, the ambassadors a few hooves away, staring through the group with wan expressions. Discord was rolling on the ground, laughing.

He straightened when the shadow of six mares fell across him. Twilight had brought out her crown and summoned the elements around her friends’ necks. Her head bowed as she concentrated on the will to bring her friends together. Even Fluttershy looked prepared to petrify Discord, face empty of expression beyond a slight, thin-lipped frown.

“Whoa, whoa!” came a surprisingly old-sounding voice from Discord, suddenly wearing a pink dress and bonnet with lace. “That had nothing to do with your poor, harmless grandma Discord there.” Discord slithered up into the air, clothing vanishing in the process. “It's just… you don't do anything chaotic for a while, because you're 'reformed’, then you do something, but it's ruined by a purple demigod, so you're like 'Discord! Are you really lord of chaos, or just some viscount?’ And you put a brave face on it, but you're worried you’ve lost the spark. And then you see someone else's idea of causing chaos, and it's so puerile, you just have to laugh.” Discord glanced around at his audience, and saw the faces of six uncomprehending mares, slightly calmer now, but still in various states of anger. Even Twilight hadn't followed the dialogue past where she was pretty sure Discord had called her a demigod. It was probably a deliberate attempt to get under her skin, but it was working.

“Ahem. You see, the position of shah is ceremonial,” Discord continued, watching their faces for a reaction. “most of the… Oh, nevermind! I can see you wouldn't understand anyway!” he snapped, turning mostly away from them. Then he turned back and focused on the six friends, adopting a more serious tone, “Just trust me when I say this little bump in the road won't make a difference to Arabian governme-”

Suddenly his eyes swept over Twilight's, and their gazes locked. They stared at one another for a moment. Discord's eyes widened and his eyebrows raised.

“...eennnnt” he finished. Twilight could swear she saw a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth, and groaned inwardly. She didn't want to wonder how far she could trust Discord while dealing with ponies who used weapons.

"Okay, we trust you." she finally said.

Discord moved his gaze back to Twilight's friends and the ambassadors, who had joined them. He really did break into a smile then, perhaps because everypony seemed merely upset rather than angry, with the notable exception of Applejack, who seemed ready to kill him with her bare hooves.

“Well, now that we've established my innocence in that unfortunate event, let's get somewhere safe! To the palace!”
Eight pairs of eyes stared blankly at him. Lumen lifted a forehoof in front of his mouth, hiding his face partially as he spoke. “Ahem, I was actually thinking we'd, ah, avoid the palace, due to what, ah, just happened…”

“Nonsense!” said Discord, rising up in a tight corkscrew through the air, “I'm fairly certain the palace has the most guards, and given how skittish your populace seemed just now I’m sure our Equestrians would like to be well-guarded. That is, unless you think all the guards are all as loyal as the standout we saw on the deck?”

“No…” started Veris angrily.

“Excellent, the palace it is then! That is, if the august Twilight agrees with my advice?” Discord dripped out of the air in front of Twilight, bringing his face just below her eye level. They had another staring contest, Twilight glaring into his unnerving red irises. She couldn't, however, find a fault in his logic. She sighed and turned away.

“Yes. Let's go.”

The ambassadors’ worried faces slipped out of view as they turned to lead the Equestrian delegation to the palace. They set a slow, reluctant pace. Discord hung smugly in the air for a moment before setting off and running smack into an orange hoof. Applejack stepped around from the side, keeping her hoof pressed to Discord’s body. Her brow was furrowed over gleaming eyes. He tried to pull back, but found that he was being held from the other side as well. Applejack's horn was glowing, undoubtedly activating her telekinesis.

“List’n here buster,” started Applejack, “I dun much know wha’cher tryin’ to pull wit’ yer advice bizness, but jest know Ah’m watchin’ yew.” Discord started to give an elaborate shrug, when she continued, “Oh. And one other thing. Yew. Are. Not. My. Granny.” She punctuated each word of the last sentence by poking her hoof into Discord. Discord was proud of his skin. It weathered the extremes of chaos, while causing minimal discomfort and being incredibly stylish. Nevertheless, he distinctly felt every prod. He sagged slightly as Applejack released him and hustled to rejoin the rest of the group.

Welcome to Barbhdad

There was no walkway ready for the airship. Instead, Hot Air threw a gangplank from the deck that sloped steeply to the ground instead. Most of the party just glid down to the ground. Twilight started down the gangplank but changed her mind when she tripped on a crosspiece, flapping away and gliding the rest of the way, swinging her luggage clumsily through the air behind her. She turned around just in time to see Applejack stepping off the end of the gangplank, her magic holding it steady.

After her was Rarity, biting her lip as she picked her way down the plank, while levitating several neatly stacked suitcases behind her. Lumen and Veris were last, each with a couple suitcases that Rarity had them carry. Twilight frowned at what she was sure was somehow a breach of diplomatic relations.

They made their way down into the market street, where Lumen and Veris merged with the crowd of other Saddle Arabians. Twilight, Rarity and Applejack were dwarfed by the crowd, they were only about as tall as the market stands and benches scattered around the edges of the street, and Saddle Arabians streamed around them as if they were furniture too. Even the zebras tended to be slightly taller than Twilight and her friends. Fortunately, Lumen and Veris had their position marked from above by a spiralling Rainbow and Pinkie and glimpses of Fluttershy as she bobbed just above the crowd. They pushed through the crowd with varying degrees of success. Twilight heard a hacking noise and felt something wet fall onto her flank. She spun around and promptly ran into a pillar in front of her.

“Pardon me!” came a voice from the length of fur and scales in front of her.

“Ohh… Ah… Excuse me, sorry…” stammered Twilight, until the figure turned around to reveal large red pupils in luminous yellow eyes. Then her worried frown became a grimace, and she narrowed her eyes.

“Discord?! Why are you here?”

“Let's see…” said Discord, suddenly wearing some severe reading glasses and a powdered wig, and holding a scroll between his claw and paw. “I am to accompany you on your trip to Saddle Arabia, and… oh, nope, that's it.” He tossed the end of the scroll at Twilight, showing that it was almost totally blank. “Honestly Twilight, there's not a lot of subtext here, I’ll be ‘around’ for the duration of this little trip.” he finished, making quotes in the air and rolling his eyes in his once again bare face as the scroll he’d dropped rolled out of sight.

“In any case, allow me to recommend that you keep nearer the ponies that love you…”

Twilight looked around, realizing only now that she’d been separated from her friends in the press.

“Isn't that where you leech your power from? Love, tolerance, friendship and all that?” Discord continued, accompanying the word 'leech' with a grabbing gesture from his claw. Twilight’s attention snapped back to him and she gave a cold stare as Discord straightened up and clicked the fingers of his claw.

Which meant that she looked very angry as she tumbled out of the air in front of the Ambassadors, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Pinkie.

“Your excellencies!” crowed Discord, popping up in front of Lumen and Veris, “You seem to have misplaced one...” his eyes widened in mock surprise “no, three ponies from your entourage!” on 'three' the air simmered above Twilight and Rarity and Applejack dropped to the ground on either side of her, nearly hitting her.

Twilight had forgotten what being teleported by Discord was like. His magic didn't feel the same as that of any pony she knew. If she didn't know better she'd almost say that she'd just happened to be floating in the air just then. It felt sort of like when you found something you'd lost in an unexpected place, only Twilight didn't ever lose complete track of her position. She should write this down.

Meanwhile Rarity and Applejack got to their feet and looked around, expressions of confusion soon replaced by glares at Discord, who was introducing himself, with much pomp and pretension, as avatar of chaos. The ambassadors were bemused, even more so as Rainbow piped up.

“Yeah, yeah, chaos and all that, but really he's just a big snake Twilight's babysitting.”

“S-s-snake?” Discord’s eyebrows shot up and he recoiled, becoming more snakelike as he did so and exclaiming with a forked tongue sticking out. “Really, if anypony needs a babysssitter, isn’t it the pony who can't find any better use for being an alicorn than ssskywriting?” He slithered around Rainbow, encircling her loosely.

“Pfft.” Rainbow made a face, but her eyes burned. “Don’t try to deny it, you’re with Twilight since you pissed off every other alicorn in existence. One step away from being stone again.”

Then Twilight widened her eyes in surprise, because Discord did something she’d never seen him do before. Well, technically, everything Discord did was something Twilight hadn't seen him do before, but it was predictably unpredictable and annoying. Now, Discord stopped and slumped out of the air, slipping from his pseudosnake form into a normal standing position. For a moment, he just stood there, eyes closed.

Just as Twilight began thinking about feeling sorry for him, his eyes snapped open and he turned, blood red irises focusing on her.
“Well… I’d sooner turn myself to stone than suffer Twilight’s bad opinion.” Twilight colored, realizing he knew she'd almost cast nervefire. Discord snapped around to Rainbow, twisting in midair. “You, however… Well. Let's just say I’m not so fond of an alicorn whose primary talent seems to be petty annoyance.” He floated up above the newest alicorn and tilted his head down at her as he spoke, raising a single eyebrow. Rainbow had no choice but to look slightly up in order to meet his eyes. When she did, her horn almost grazed his chin.

Rainbow and Discord simply stared at one another for several tense seconds. Finally, Discord broke off and slithered away through the air to land by Twilight. Moments later, Rainbow began to be blown about in midair. Her teeth gritted as she tried to stay stationary, but her face otherwise slipped into an 'everything-is-fine’ expression which indicated, to anypony who knew her, that things were pretty far from fine right now.

“Discord!” Twilight exclaimed, “What did you do?”

Discord inspected a claw on his talon. “Oh, you know, just some ‘chaos and such’.” He looked up into Twilight's eyes “Nothing harmful of course. It will stop when she lands.” he turned his focus to the mare in question

If Rainbow heard him, she didn't indicate it, instead continuing to struggle against winds that seemed to blow up out of nowhere. Twilight felt a stray breeze lash at her face and closed her eyes, visualizing the air moving around Rainbow. It swirled unpredictably around her, looking somehow familiar. She'd just read about this… She stared into the vortex, recalling the Neighvier-Stokes equations she’d recently learned. This was Dales-Balear convection! If she could just lower the Dales number…

Twilight charged her horn, closed her eyes, and gave a quiet grunt of effort. Rainbow almost fell out of the air as the winds surrounding her stopped, then proceeded to do some loop-the-loops and aerial acrobatics. Twilight opened her eyes, still breathing heavily from exertion. She felt the back of her neck prickle and turned to see Discord looking at her with interest. It was an expression at odds with all the carelessness she associated with him. After a moment he caught her looking and composed his face into a reasonable approximation of disinterest.

The feeling on her neck persisted and she realized that the noise of the market had quieted around them. Scanning around her, she saw that her friends were surrounded by a circle of Saddle Arabians and a few zebras, taking in the drama. Lumen and Veris almost blended into it, being just a bit closer to the Equestrians and the draconequus than anypony else. Flushing at the awkward attention, Twilight addressed the two. “The palace?”

“Oh, right.” replied Lumen, “This way.”