Past Sins
By Pen Stroke
Assisted By Batty Gloom
====

Chapter 7
Careful Maneuvering
====
Dear Revered Brother Nexus – High Prophet of The True Queen

I hope this letter finds you well, Brother Nexus, for I have both good and bad news that needs to be brought to your attention. First, in regard to your orders, our search of the Everfree Forest is still ongoing. We have yet to find any real traces of our queen, and, recently, even the lingering portions of her aura at the ancient castle have dissipated. 

But, this past evening, I became aware of a filly that has been living in town that bears, if I may say, a striking resemblance to our queen. The filly in question, Nyx, is currently in the care of Twilight Sparkle. Yes, the same Twilight Sparkle we are all so familiar with. I first saw her at an elementary school play, and I saw her a second time that evening when she shared a meal with Twilight Sparkle, the princesses, and a number of other local mares and fillies.

After speaking with my daughter, who shared a class with the filly for a number of weeks, I’ve come to discover that the filly was admitted as a new student to Ponyville Elementary around the same time our spell was cast, near the beginning of spring.

While this news alone is promising, I have been unable to learn anything else. Due to an incident, which was made worse thanks to my “darling” wife, I am now at odds with Twilight Sparkle. Also, my daughter, who might have proved useful in this matter, has made herself just as unwelcome around the Golden Oaks Library. Thus, I’m reaching out for your guidance, Brother Nexus, in how you wish me to proceed. 

I patiently await your reply.

For the Night Eternal
For Equestria’s True Queen
Honored Brother Rich – Prophet of Ponyville

The scroll, which had been hoof-delivered to the manor, lay across the desk in Spell Nexus’s study. Nexus himself was standing near one of his windows, horn glowing as he held a glass of fine orange juice. He gently swished the glass, and its contents danced under the gentle motions. His turquoise eyes focused on the moon, which was a beautiful crescent in the sky.

“A filly,” Nexus whispered to himself before sipping from the glass. “A filly who attends school, who lives with Twilight Sparkle, who was seen in the presence of Princess Celestia, no less. A filly who participated in a school play of all things. A filly… it is not what I would have expected.

“What are your plans; what are your schemes?” Nexus asked, as if posing his questions to the moon itself. “Do you act to keep your enemies close? Do you seek to find a weakness to exploit? Do you bide your time until you can overcome the Elements of Harmony and the ponies who wield them?”

Nexus drank from the glass again, draining every drop. The glow about his horn grew just a bit brighter as he took hold of a large, elegant pitcher on the nearby table. From it, he poured more orange juice and refilled his cup. He then resumed swirling the contents of his glass as he set the pitcher down and returned to the window.

“Perhaps you are merely waiting for us, your children, to discover you. Is that your plan, my queen? Do you wish us to prove ourselves capable and deserving of your grace?” Nexus mused, crossing the room. “Though… I assume much taking Filthy Rich at his word. This filly may resemble Nightmare Moon, but a resemblance is not enough. No doppelganger will do.”

Nexus sighed as he neared his reading table, on which he set down his glass. “In any case, this warrants further investigation.” A book floated out from the shelves, gripped by Nexus’s levitation magic. Yet, what Nexus sought was tucked behind it. It was a small black book, which floated from its hiding place in the shelves. Nexus then returned the first book to its place while his magic laid the small one out on the writing desk.

Nexus opened the book, revealing pages filled with names etched out in his own hoof-writing. It was the only true record of the Children of Nightmare; the only record of all the ponies who had sworn strength, magic, and life to the return of Equestria’s true queen. It was his duty alone to guard such precious information, for, if such a list were to be found by Celestia, all their hopes would be lost.

As his turquoise eyes flowed across the names, Nexus began to ponder what his next move would be. He would need agents that could travel to the small town of Ponyville and verify Filthy Rich’s reports. He would need ponies he trusted; ones like Gray Gale, Night Wind, and Stonewall. He would need ponies who were not just honored brothers and sisters, but ponies among the Exalted. Those who were just below him in the order. He, the one and only Revered Brother of the Children of Nightmare.

Other books began to make their way off the shelves, cradled by levitation magic, as Nexus began checking information. Every move made by the Children of Nightmare had to be planned with such care, for his opponent in this high-stakes game of chess was none other than Celestia herself. He faced a mare with a thousand years of rule and wisdom behind her; a mare who had unearthed less thoroughly thought-out plans during the cult’s infancy.

He’d spread his agents like a fine powder, sprinkling them amongst the ponies of Ponyville. They’d start by simply watching. Then others would try to get closer so they could sample her magic and her nature. Then—

“Sir?”

Nexus looked up from his work and saw Proper Etiquette had poked his nose in the study doorway. “Yes?”

Etiquette stepped in through the door and walked over to Nexus. He held out a scroll, which was bound shut with a purple ribbon and a silver full moon seal. “There is another letter for you, sir.”

“Thank you, Etiquette,” Nexus replied as he took the scroll with his own magic.

“Will you be needing anything else, sir?”

Nexus shook his head. “No, not at the moment.”

“Very good, sir.” With that, Etiquette bowed respectfully before he turned and removed himself from the room.

Nexus watched and waited until Proper Etiquette had left before he began setting down the many books he had pulled off the shelf. He propped open the books on the floor so he could quickly resume his work once the letter had been attended to. The scroll was bound with a purple ribbon and a silver seal: it was the sign of a letter from a brother or sister. The full moon on the seal indicated it was of the utmost importance.

Dear Revered Brother Nexus – High Prophet of The True Queen

This is a written report on the comings and goings of the unicorns assigned by Princess Celestia to study and understand the nature of the resurrection spell we attempted.

I realize this report comes fairly soon after my last and that you did not expect it for several days. There have been, however, a few developments I believe you would want to know about without delay.

First, with the research team moved to the royal archives, their endeavors in understanding our spell have started to make steady headway. They have begun to decipher the arcane lines we used to augment and focus the magic in the Everfree Forest clearing. While I will act, as I have, to try and stall their efforts, I can at this point only slow their progress. They will, in time, decipher the spell.

Second, Princess Celestia came to the research team this morning to check on the progress. They reported to her exactly as I have reported to you, that their progress has now become steady and dependable. Bastion Yorsets and Celestia then began to chat casually. The princess talked about the Spring Festival she attended yesterday evening with her sister in Ponyville. She spoke highly of many of the performances and offered particular praise for a play put on by the town’s elementary school.

At this point, the princess divulged to Bastion Yorsets that her student, Twilight Sparkle, was now taking care of a young filly by the name of Nyx. The only description she offered was that the filly was a black-coated unicorn, and that the filly was also a half-cousin.

I would have dismissed this as idle chatter if Bastion Yorsets hadn’t made a very interesting comment. He divulged that he had grown up knowing Twilight’s father. He had even written a letter of recommendation, at the father’s request, to help her secure an invitation to take the entrance exam for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.

In his comments, Bastion admitted it was strange that Twilight had called Nyx a half-cousin. According to Bastion, while Twilight’s father has siblings, her mother is an only child. He further pointed out that Twilight’s father and his siblings all share the same two parents, making it impossible for Twilight to have any half-cousins.

Princess Celestia’s reply to this was that Twilight must have misspoken when introducing Nyx, or that she had a misunderstanding of what a half-cousin was. Bastion accepted this answer, and soon their meeting was over.

Again, I would have believed this to be nothing but idle chatter. Yet, later that day in the barracks, I overheard Princess Celestia’s private guards talking. The two pegasi were discussing the princess’s day, and, after eavesdropping for a time, I discovered that the princess made an unscheduled stop on her daily routine. She went to the Equestria Central Records Office, during what was supposed to be her lunch hour. From the ponies there she requested that family records pertaining to Twilight Sparkle be delivered to her royal chambers this evening.

I was unable to discover more, since my shift had ended, and I dare not risk lingering around the castle after work. Thus, this is all I have to report. I will continue my observation of the research team, and will alert you if I discover anything pressing.

I will submit my next regular report at the scheduled time.

For the Night Eternal
For Equestria’s True Queen
Exalted Sister Night Wind

Nexus licked his lips to wet his mouth, which had gone dry. The situation had become much more perilous. Just as his attention had been brought to the filly in Ponyville, so had Celestia’s gaze. Her interest had been spurred by the blabber mouth, Bastion Yorsets. Of course, he would have to have been a childhood friend of Twilight’s father.

Taking up the orange juice glass, Nexus tilted it up to his mouth and drained it with a few swift gulps. He then shook his head, fighting back the brain freeze the chilled juice had incurred before refocusing on the task at hoof. There was now a need for both subtlety and haste. The truth about who the filly truly was needed to be ascertained before Celestia could act in a way to make such investigation impossible.

The books that had been left on the floor were carried back into the air by Nexus’s magic. He drew out a feather pen and several pieces of parchment. Then Nexus began to feverishly work. His eyes moved between the little black record book, the many other tomes that now encircled him, and the pieces of parchment he was scrawling partial plans out on. 

Spell Nexus would get no sleep that night.

===

Twilight yawned, making no effort to control or stifle it as she walked down the path to Ponyville Elementary. The sun was still rising from the horizon, and the sunrise’s tapestry of colors was just starting to fade to the constant blue of midday. Normally, it would have taken an important research trip to make Twilight get out of bed this early. That was, however, before Nyx came into her life. Now it was not an expedition to some far-off archaeological site or a rare celestial event that drew Twilight from her warm bed covers. It was a far simpler event that, to a certain little filly, was nearly as important.

A few days after the Spring Festival, Cheerilee announced that she wanted to try something new for the school. It was a Saturday event where students would set up educational exhibits and the school would host food and games: something Cheerilee was playfully calling “Learn and Play Day.” It was an event that had quickly grown, even Ponyville’s schools for older students were more than eager to join in.

It was because the event had grown so quickly that Cheerilee had called on Twilight, Ponyville’s number one organizer, to help get everything in order. Twilight had been working alongside the teacher for the past two weeks to plan the event while the students researched and built their educational exhibits. It had turned into quite a lot of work, but it was worth it. Nyx had only grown more excited as the “Learn and Play Day” drew closer. 

Approaching the schoolhouse, Twilight walked around the brightly painted building to the open field behind it. There, Cheerilee was working with a few other volunteers to get everything set up. Tables, chairs, colorful strings of flags, and numerous signs decorated the grassy field behind the school, making it almost as inviting as the schoolhouse itself. 

“Good morning, everypony,” Twilight greeted. She attempted to put on a smile as well, but it was ruined when she was gripped by another yawn.
 
“Not much for mornings?” Cheerilee teased as she walked over to meet Twilight. 

Twilight covered her mouth with a hoof, and laughed through the end of her yawn. “Not usually, no.”

“Well, thank you for coming out and giving everything one final check-over before the big day. Everypony seems so excited! This little weekend may turn into a new Ponyville tradition if it goes off right.”

“Well, let’s get through today first before we start planning for next year,” Twilight said. She opened her saddlebags and floated a checklist with a pencil into the air. “Now, let’s see. Are the exhibit tables set up?”

Cheerilee nodded and pointed a hoof to the area just behind the school. Several circular tables had been borrowed or rented from a number of ponies around Ponyville. Each one was covered in a white tablecloth and bore a pair of numbered signs. “Thirty round tables with tablecloths and sixty exhibit signs on yellow paper.”

“Perfect,” Twilight replied. She made a check on her list and started to look around the area the pair were standing in. “What about food?”

“We’re just about to finish setting up the tables for our little food court. Big Macintosh has brought in a food cart from Sweet Apple Acres. That just leaves Danver and the Cakes, who need to arrive and set up their food stalls.”

“Danver?”

“His family owns and runs the carrot farm next to Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Oh,” Twilight said before she lifted a hoof to her mouth to mask a giggle. “Let me guess: Danver is a type of carrot.”

“You’d be guessing right,” Cheerilee replied with a chuckle of her own.

“Then I’d say the food and eating area is all taken care of,” Twilight commented before she checked the next item of her list. “That just leaves the afternoon activities. Still, I doubt we’ll be able to mark that one off just yet.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, we put Rainbow Dash in charge of that. She’s reliable, but she likes to procrastinate. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was still back at home, snoozing away the morning.”

“Boo!”

Twilight quickly turned her head to the side, a little startled by the sudden addition of a third voice to the conversation. It was only then that she noticed the sky blue pegasus hovering in the air near her head. Cheerilee had to cover her mouth to keep herself from laughing as Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight with a smug grin.

“Back at home snoozing, huh?”

Twilight laughed nervously, forcing a smile. “Rainbow Dash, I… didn’t expect you to be here this early.”

Rainbow chuckled, landed next to Twilight, and folded her wings. “Relax, Twi. On any normal day, I would still be asleep, but this is just going to be too awesome! I just had to get up early, not only to clear the skies, but to make sure all my cool sporting events were ready.”

“What do you have planned, anyway?” Cheerilee asked. “I’ve been too busy making sure the student exhibits would be ready to keep up with everything else that’s been going on.”

“Oh, tons of stuff!” Rainbow Dash energetically answered. “When I was at Twilight’s library last week, I checked out a book with a whole bunch of killer ideas and now I’ve got something for everypony. Got things for just the kids to do, things for kids to do with their parents, and things for the parents to do so the kids can cheer them on. We’ve got games for pegasi, for earth ponies, for unicorns, and games where you get to mix it up. It is all just going to be so awesome!”

“Wow, that… sounds like a lot,” Twilight said, unable to hide how impressed she was.

Rainbow Dash smiled smugly, lifted a hoof, and brushed it against her chest. “Yeah, I pretty much outdid myself.”

“And, since we got so many ponies to volunteer their time and things for free,” Cheerilee began as she reached under a nearby table and pulled out a box. “I actually was able to spend the last of the budget on some prizes for your—”

Cheerilee didn’t even get to finish what she was saying. Without a word of warning, Rainbow zipped forward, stuck her head in the box, and began to rummage around inside with a gleeful squee. “You got prizes!?”

“Uh… yes, yes I did.”

“And good prizes too,” Dash commented with her head still inside the box. “There’s some choice stuff in here. Oh cool, yo-yos!” At that, Rainbow Dash pulled her head out of the box with a yo-yo pinched gingerly in her teeth. In a flash, its string was around her hoof. Then, with an expert flick, Rainbow Dash sent the little plastic disk up and down the string in a smooth motion. Another flick and the yo-yo was in a simple sleeper trick, where it stayed at the bottom of the string but continued to spin.

“Heh, I used to be pretty good at this,” Dash bragged as she flicked her hoof to bring the yo-yo out of the sleeper trick. Rainbow Dash then gave the toy a few more flicks to build speed before she wrapped some of the string around her hooves, resulting in the yo-yo swinging back and forth inside a triangle of string. “This here is called ‘The Pendulum.’”

“That’s great, Rainbow, but shouldn’t you leave the prizes for the ponies who actually win them?” Twilight asked. 

“Sure, just one more trick. You heard of ‘Around the World?’ Well, this is my super, double loop, around the sun trick.” With that, Dash gave the yo-yo a firm flick, jumped into the air, and used her wings to spin herself. A few seconds after starting the trick Dash flopped to the ground, hog-tied in the string. 

Cheerilee and Twilight couldn’t help but burst out laughter as Dash struggled to free herself from the string. “Oh wow, Rainbow Dash, that was really something,” Twilight deadpanned.

“Yeah yeah— laugh it up. Now, are you two going to just stand there giggling, or are you going to lend me a hoof?”

===

The Learn and Play Day was in full swing the moment it opened to the public at nine o’clock that morning. The students had set up their exhibits, and each exhibit had been done on a different topic of interest. There were exhibits about farming techniques, about history, about how weather was made, and dozens of other topics that usually caught the interest of school age fillies and colts. 

That was the “Learn” part of the “Learn and Play Day.” The students learned more about subjects they wanted to know more about, and some parents and other ponies in the community had a chance to learn as well.

“Isn’t this so super-duper fun, Fluttershy?!” Pinkie Pie chirped as she bounced along between the student exhibits while Fluttershy walked calmly beside her. “I mean, I knew cotton candy was good, and I knew how to make it. Still, I never knew how little pieces of sugar turned into stringy sweet goodness.”

Fluttershy nodded. “Yes, that was a really interesting display.”

“Which one’s been your favorite so far?” Pinkie asked excitedly.

Fluttershy shrank slightly under Pinkie’s undivided attention. “Well… um… I liked the one about how caterpillars become butterflies. I already knew about that, but the student did such a wonderful job explaining it.”

“All the kids did a really good job,” Pinkie Pie agreed before her eyes lit up. “Oh, I wish I could have an exhibit! I’d do one about parties!”

Fluttershy blinked. “Parties?”

“Parties aren’t as easy as everypony thinks. There are lots of rules I have to follow for my parties: the Pinkie Pie Party rules,” Pinkie stated matter-of-factly.

“Really?” Fluttershy asked in disbelief as the pair continued to move through the crowd. “I would never imagine you actually had rules for your parties.”

“Of course! How do you think they turn out so good? I have rules I can never ever ever ever never ever break. And, as long as anypony else doesn’t break them, the party is a guaranteed success. Like, rule number one: Every party must have decorations, or rule number one hundred and fifty-seven: If the ratio of fillies and colts to mares and stallions is at least two to one, there must be a piñata.”

Fluttershy couldn’t help but tilt her head to one side and arch an eyebrow. “Rule number one hundred and fifty-seven? How many rules are there?”

“Three hundred and seventy-six,” Pinkie replied nonchalantly. 

“Oh… oh my… that’s… that’s a lot of rules.”

For a brief moment Pinkie Pie stopped bouncing, and her usually happy expression turned stone-cold. “Hey, throwing parties is my special talent, and it is serious business to make them seriously fun.” Pinkie Pie’s normal, cheerful demeanor returned a moment later. She then scanned the exhibits, looking for the next one she and Fluttershy would visit. “Oh! Hey, there’s Nyx’s booth! We should go see what she did.”

Pinkie Pie bounced ahead, forcing Fluttershy to break into a quick trot just to catch up. A group of stallions and mares were just stepping away from Nyx’s booth when the pair of mares came up.

“Hi Fluttershy!” Nyx said with a wide smile, one that withered a little as Nyx turned to look at the, at times, overwhelming pony that stood beside Fluttershy. “H-hi, Pinkie Pie.”

“Hey there, Nyx,” Pinkie Pie chirped. “What super cool, amazing thing did you do for your exhibit? Give us the whole rundown.”

“If you don’t mind, that is,” Fluttershy added, trying to curb Pinkie Pie’s enthusiasm.

“O-of course not, it’s—” Nyx stated, before she coughed into her hoof to clear her throat. “I chose to make my exhibit about transfiguration magic.”

Pinkie tilted her head, confused but still excited. “Transfigurwhatiewhat?”

“Transfiguration. It’s the magic that focuses on turning one thing into another.” Nyx pointed to a number of pictures she had set up on the cardboard backdrop of her exhibit. “Transfiguration magic can be used to transform practically anything into anything else. Like a stick into a fancy walking cane. Or a stone into a hat. Or even an apple into a horse-drawn carriage.

“Transfiguration magic is only limited by the skill and the ability of the pony casting it. Skilled unicorns, such as Rarity, can use transfiguration to turn fabric into a dress, and Twilight Sparkle is able to transfigure four common mice into four full-sized horses.”

“Hey, I remember that!” Pinkie Pie said with a giggle. “They didn’t exactly look like horses.”

Nyx stammered a moment, trying to recover from Pinkie Pie’s interruption. “A-and that leads me to the next part of my exhibit: the limits of transfiguration magic. Transfiguration magic is always temporary. Everything transfigured will eventually turn back to normal. This is why anything that needs to be permanent is still hoofmade, like houses and clothing. Otherwise there wouldn’t be a need for construction workers, carpenters, or any other ponies who make things.

“And, as a final part of my exhibit, I-I would like to provide a live demonstration of transfiguration magic.”

Nyx pointed to the rock sitting on the table at the center of her exhibit. She then shut her eyes, her horn and the rock beginning to glow. Her face contorted with concentration, and she puffed out her cheeks as she strained her young magic. After a few tense moments, a small pop and flash of light enveloped the rock before it was turned into a potted flower.

“Oooooooooooooo,” Pinkie Pie said before she leaned in and sniffed the flower. “It even smells real.”

Nyx smiled bashfully. “So, um, any questions?”

“No, none at all. That was very well done, Nyx. You should be—” Fluttershy began to praise, only for Pinkie Pie to put her head in between Fluttershy and Nyx. 

“Oh, I got a question! Have you tried changing anything bigger than a rock? Oh, do you take requests?”

“W-well… no,” Nyx stammered, “b-but I guess I could try. Um… what did you have in mind?”

“Turn that grass into cotton candy!” Pinkie Pie said ecstatically. “No, wait, turn that into a candy apple! No, wait, you should turn that stallion’s bowtie into a squirty flower! Oh! No no no no! I know what you should try to do!” Pinkie Pie was grinning ear to ear as she pointed a hoof at Fluttershy. “Turn her into a tree!”

Nyx’s head lowered and her ears flattened as she took a step back from Pinkie Pie and her manic behavior. “A… a tree?”

“Yeah! Turn Fluttershy into a tree.”

“W-why would you want me to be a tree?” asked Fluttershy, looking incredulously at Pinkie Pie for her odd suggestion.

“Because, this one time, on a train, I got talking with Rainbow Dash and Twilight, and, for some strange reason, Rainbow thought you were a tree, even though you obviously aren’t. But then you said you’d like to be a tree,” Pinkie Pie answered Fluttershy before turning her excited blue eyes back to Nyx. “So, can you turn her into a tree?”

“I don’t know.”

“Oh, come on, just give it a try. You never know unless you try,” Pinkie Pie encouraged.

“But—” Nyx tried to protest.

“Come on, Fluttershy doesn’t mind, do you, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy scratched at the ground, drawing anxious circles in the dirt. “Well… um, you do seem really excited so I guess I don’t mind, but are you sure it’s safe?”

“We saw Twilight turn mice into horses, and she wouldn’t put your animal friends in danger.”

“Well… I guess that’s true,” Fluttershy admitted, “and I guess it would be kind of nice to see what it’s like.”

“Yay!” Pinkie Pie cheered before she looked back to Nyx. “So, come on, let’s see some of that unicorn magic!”

Nyx took a step back, shying away. “Pinkie Pie, I-I d-don’t know… I don’t think Twilight—”

“Aw, come on, please? It will be so totally fun!” Pinkie Pie pressured as she bounced with excitement.

“Pinkie Pie, maybe—” Fluttershy began, trying to tell her friend she was being a little overbearing. However, she didn’t get to finish her sentence as she felt magic wrapping around her. Nyx had shut her eyes and focused her magic into her horn. She was making an attempt at the transfiguration spell, if only to appease the energetic Pinkie Pie.

===

“Boy, some of these booths are really cool!” Rainbow Dash said, she and Twilight trotting amongst them. “I mean, did you see what Scootaloo did? She actually explained how my Sonic Rainboom works! I didn’t even know how it worked, besides the fact that I was breaking the sound barrier.”

“Yes, all the students have really done—” Twilight began, only to be silenced as the ground shook and a loud noise cut through the air.

ssssrrrr-RRRRUUUUGGGGHHHH-RRRUUUGGGHHH-frrggggh…

Trrrssss-ssssttthhh-stttshh…

“What was that?” Twilight asked once she had regained her footing from what had felt like a minor earthquake. When she got no answer, Twilight turned to look at Rainbow Dash, who was staring wide-eyed in the opposite direction. Following Rainbow’s gaze, Twilight nearly choked on the air in her own lungs at what she saw.

A young tree had appeared in the center of the exhibits. It was just barely as tall as the schoolhouse’s roof with a trunk about as wide as a metal bucket. It was a young weeping willow, and its long, hanging branches and leaves draped across nearby exhibits. The tree, however, was very unusual; its bark was a bright yellow and all of its leaves were a light, frilly pink.

“Oh my gosh! You did it!” Pinkie Pie’s voice burst out above the crowd, drawing Rainbow Dash and Twilight out of their stupor. The two quickly raced through the network of tables and shoved their way through the crowd to reach the tree. Pinkie Pie had climbed up into the branches, hanging off one of the few branches thick enough to support her weight.

“Pinkie Pie, where the hay did this tree come from?” Rainbow asked as she took flight to catch up to Pinkie Pie in the tree’s crown.

“It was amazing! Nyx did it with her magic!”

“Nyx did?” Twilight said as she looked up and down the tree in disbelief before her eyes narrowed. “Wait, where is Nyx?”

Twilight’s question was answered with a whimper that emanated from beneath one of the exhibit tables. When Twilight lifted the tablecloth, she found Nyx shaking like a leaf. Her head was in her hooves, and a few tears were pulling at her eyes.

“Nyx, what did you—” Twilight began, which only caused Nyx to break down.

“Tw-Twilight, I’m sorry! I-I didn’t want to, but Pinkie Pie kept asking and Fluttershy said it was okay and… and I’m sorry! I didn’t want to do it!”

“Do what?” Twilight asked, still unsure exactly what had happened.

“She turned Fluttershy into a tree!” Pinkie Pie cheered.

“Wait… wait, wait, wait, hold on a sec,” Dash began, pointing a hoof at the yellow and pink weeping willow. “This, this tree right here. This tree is Fluttershy.”

“Well duh. Of course it is! I just told you that Nyx turned Fluttershy into a tree. Seriously, Rainbow Dash, I’d think you’d be happy. After all, you were the one that thought Fluttershy was a tree when we were on our way to Appleloosa.”

“I did not! I was being sarcastic.”

Pinkie Pie flopped her head to one side. “You were being sarcastic?”

As Rainbow Dash tried again to explain to Pinkie Pie why she had once called Fluttershy a tree, Twilight began to glance nervously around the steadily growing crowd of ponies. They were all murmuring and whispering about Nyx.

Nyx picked up on the growing crowd as well and also the growing concern on Twilight’s face. With another whimper, she retreated further beneath the table. “I… I’m sorry.”

“No, no, Nyx, it’s okay,” Twilight whispered, trying to reassure her. “Just… uh… give me one moment.” At that Twilight turned to look at the tree, and she took in a deep breath to brace herself.

After the accident during her entrance exam to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns, when she had turned her own parents into potted plants, one of the first spells Twilight had been taught by the princess was a transfiguration reversal spell. Yes, a transfiguration would wear off in time, but it was also important to be able to reverse a transfiguration at a moment’s notice.

Closing her eyes, Twilight began to focus and her horn started to shimmer as she called on her magic. The same glow began to engulf the tree, and Rainbow Dash grabbed Pinkie Pie out of the tree’s crown before Twilight completed her reversal spell. The crowd watched in awe, and the display even drew Nyx out from beneath the exhibit table. 

Then, after a few tense moments, the tree imploded on itself. It compressed down to a single point, and with a magical pop, Fluttershy reappeared and dropped to the ground with a small thud.

“Fluttershy, are you okay?” Twilight asked. She quickly rushed up to help her friend back to her hooves.

“Ye… y-yes,” Fluttershy said, though both her voice and her knees were shaking. “I-I’m fine.”

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. “Good. You were never in any real danger; transfiguration magic is inherently temporary. Still, from what my parents told me, being turned into a plant can be a bit disorienting.”

“Oh, what was it like? What was it like?” Pinkie Pie asked, bouncing in excitement.

“It was…” Fluttershy began, and then paused a moment to collect her thoughts. Not only did Pinkie Pie, Twilight, and Rainbow Dash lean in to hear the answer, but any ponies nearby who had witnessed the feat of magic leaned in as well. They were all eager to hear the first hoof account of what it was like to be a tree.

“Nice,” Fluttershy finally concluded, cause a groan of disappointment to sweep through the crowd. With a lackluster climax to the small spectacle, many of the ponies in the crowd turned to leave. Pinkie Pie, however, was unfazed.

“Oh, now I want to be turned into something! A rose bush… no, a balloon! No! Turn me into a cake, turn me into a—”

“Wow, would you look at that! It’s almost lunch time,” Twilight interrupted as she put a hoof against Pinkie Pie’s mouth and forced a smile. “Personally, I’m starved. Aren’t you starved, Nyx? Of course you are, you just turned a pony into a tree. That kind of thing must really work up an appetite. Why don’t we go get something to eat?”

Not even waiting for an answer, Twilight grabbed Nyx with a levitation spell and galloped out of the crowd of ponies. This left Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash standing dumbfounded in the wake of Twilight’s abrupt retreat. 

“Aw, but I want to be a cake,” Pinkie Pie whined in disappointment. Yet, she then perked up, scratched at her neck, and began to look around, as if searching for something.

Dash took notice of her pink friend’s sudden shift in mood. “What’s wrong, Pinkie Pie?”

“Itchy neck, itchy neck,” she replied.

Dash arched an eyebrow. “Itchy neck… wait, like twitchy tail?”

Pinkie Pie shook her head and got to her hooves as she continued to search the crowd. “No, silly. Twitchy tail is when something is about to fall.”

“Then what does itchy neck mean?” Fluttershy asked. 

“Somepony is watching us,” Pinkie Pie answered with a low hiss. 

“Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy just got turned into a tree,” Dash pointed out before waving her hooves at the crowd. “Everypony was watching us.”

Pinkie shook her head violently from side to side. “No no no no no! That was an innocent ‘wow that’s a really cool thing that happened’ watching. No, itchy neck is a bad kind of watching.”

“What the hay is bad watching?” Rainbow Dash questioned.

“Sssssspyyyying,” Pinkie Pie hissed quietly, “and the spy is… that way!”

Without another word Pinkie Pie was off. She galloped at a full sprint through the crowd, dodging ponies before she made a hard turn and disappeared behind a table. That left Dash and Fluttershy to anxiously glance at one another, worried about what kind of chaos Pinkie Pie was about to unleash on the “Learn and Play Day.”