Hello, I just realized that I didn't put in two scenes in the last chapter, so the first paragraphs here should cover that.

Also, sorry this one is late and short; I was focused on other projects. Also, check out my Tumblr page, it's askblackandwhitedoctorwhooves. Just search the name on Tumblr and ask anything.

Spike Hedgehog: I kind of don't review much… doesn't mean I don't read, though.

flutterlikeanangel: That was a pretty good joke, eh?

RandomPerson65: Well, from simple extrapolation, they were older again. I completely agree with you about the chapter stuff.

ash the pokevenger: Teehee.

BaconLettuceTomatoSweg: Nah, I made that up. There might be in the future, though, in which case I will ignore it unless it's pressing.

spisaacman: Flutters is a boss. About the chapter writing, if you have a good typing thing (I use Microsoft Word) and copy and paste, all you need is good writing and grammar skills and a good idea and you're good to go.

ImmaRainbowDash: Vice Assistant Manager in Charge of Certain Things… I figured Spike fit that description.

werewolf99: It's an episode of MLP FIM.

SubZPhantom: Well, there really won't be a sequel. This covers the seasons and episodes of MLP FIM, and my other stories cover the games and movies and stuff.

decode9: I like it too.

8:42 AM

That day Rainbow Dash and Cobalt received an identical letter. It read:

Dear Cobalt/Rainbow Dash (the name depended on which letter you looked at),

I am pleased to inform you that due to a change in management of the Equestria Weather Pony Team, I would like to sincerely apologize for my predecessor Tiny's removal of you from the team, this was a mistake, and would like to extend the invitation to be back on the team, restored to your former rank and respect. If you accept, I expect to see you back on Monday.

Sincerely, the New Manager of the Equestria Weather Pony Team, Butch

Cobalt looked over his letter and scowled. "Oh, so now they want us back?"

"I can't believe this one." Rainbow said, laughing without humor. "Ha ha, okay, joke's over Fluttershy. It's not funny anymore." She sighed. "No need to rub it in."

"Does that look like my hoofwriting?" Fluttershy said dryly.

"I suppose not… and look." Cobalt pointed out the signature. "Apparently there's a new manager who disagrees with the old one."

"Hey, that makes sense!" Rainbow said, a real smile slowly tracing its way along her face. "We got our jobs back! Up top!" she and Cobalt high hoofed (high fived).

"There's one thing that I still don't understand, though." Fluttershy murmured. "Why did you hide your test grade, Rainbow Dash?"

Rainbow's cheeks began to color. "I–uh–"

"I mean, it's nothing to be embarrassed about–"

"No–you don't underst–"

"I think it's great that you got a perfect score."

A moment of silence followed before Cobalt snorted with barely suppressed laughter. "That's why you hid your grade? A perfect score? Seriously? That's awesome! How'd you learn all that stuff?"

Rainbow shrugged. "I don't know, actually." She admitted. "Sometimes I just went flying and the next day I knew more than I needed to." (Testing Testing 123 reference there… have to tie in to future chapters somewhere)

TWO SECONDS LATER

Cobalt suddenly felt a stabbing pain in his head, and thoughts that had nothing to do with what was going on spun around in his mind for a second. Thoughts of blackness and pain and death, and overwhelming despair. Then they were gone and his front legs buckled, forcing him into a crouched position, and then it went black.

He was in the middle of a dark room, with whispering all around him. They were too quiet to hear, so he listened closely and was pretty sure he could make out one sentence among the muttering. I draw closer

From far away he heard voices calling to him, asking him something. It took him a second to hear what they were saying. Was he okay? Yeah, I think. He thought as the spots danced in front of the blur assaulting his eyes, not sure if those words translated into speech or not. His vision started to clear a little, and he wasn't seeing just a white blur anymore.

"I'm getting him to the hospital." He heard somepony say, but muffled, as if the sound had passed through several layers of cotton, and he designated the sound coming from Rainbow Dash. "He needs help."

Although it took all the energy he could muster, Cobalt stood up shakily, nearly collapsing yet again. "No really guys, I'm fine…" he said, giving what he hoped looked like a smile.

"No, you're not." Fluttershy told him in a voice so calm and confident it was hard not to believe her. "Ponies who are fine don't just randomly fall down."

He shook his head to clear it of the ringing noises and to disagree with his friends. "Honestly, it's just more… memories…" he told them, not sure whether it was a lie or the truth. It was really just an excuse to dismiss their worry, because he didn't like seeing either of them worried about him.

Oh, he could see them now.

Perfect.

Rainbow's face was distorted with worry. Her eyes were fixed in an expression of concern. Fluttershy on the other hand was calm, as if she dealt with this kind of stuff often, which she probably did, looking after animals all the time. Even though he was shaking from head to hooves, Cobalt leaned forward and touched his nose to Rainbow's briefly to reassure her. "Look, see me? Fine, see? Nothing to worry about. Don't worry, either of you."

"Are you sure?" Rainbow asked, her voice quavering.

Cobalt thought through his answer for a moment. "Yeah, I'm fine." He said with a weak smile. He was most certainly not fine. He had chills, felt like he was running a fever, shaking all over, and had a splitting headache that made him want to pass out again. He could even see the blackness pressing at the sides of his vision. He decided that maybe he was going to go to the hospital later.

"You said memories." Fluttershy pointed out what he'd identified the cause of his blackout.

"Yeah, and you told me you didn't want to remember three days ago." Rainbow frowned. "You've gotta try to stop having this happen to you. They're getting worse and you're going to end up hurting yourself worse."

"Hurting myself?" Cobalt asked, feeling a wave of nausea pass over him and the headache worsen. "No I'm not. Don't worry."

"Nothing at all wrong?"

"Nope." He muttered. "Is there just someplace I can sit down to recuperate?" He was directed to the couch and sat down on it, staring blankly at his hooves.

A few seconds later, Rainbow Dash suddenly gave a tiny yelp of surprise and checked her clock. "Oh jeez! I've gotta be at Applejack's in five minutes! I've got a barn to destroy!" she glanced over at Fluttershy. "Can you stay with him until he's okay?" she asked her friend desperately.

"Um," Fluttershy muttered. "I suppose so… I'm kind of worried about Angel and the others–"

AT FLUTTERSHY'S COTTAGE

Chaos ensued below the small, fluffy, white overlord of all things demonic as he sat on his throne. The anarchy pleased him, and he looked over his dominion, rubbing his paws together in anticipation of the fruitful conquest that would follow.

BACK TO THE PEGASI

"But I'm sure they're fine."

9:07 AM

Back in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle was having a rather different problem. She was pacing in the middle of the floor, muttering to herself about time. Running out of time to be specific. "One whole week…" she muttered to herself. "And no friendship problems! Not one!" she gave a small, high pitched, almost insane laugh. "I mean, sure there was the world cracking up, but that's not a friendship problem!"

Spike stumbled down the stairs, looking bleary eyed and annoyed. "What's the problem this time?"

"One week! No friendship problems! I haven't sent a report in a week and if I don't turn one in, Princess Celestia might send me back to…" she gasped, suddenly having a terrible image enter her head of her sitting in the middle of a small classroom filled with young foals all laughing at her. "Magical Kindergarten!"

"Oh, just that?" Spike yawned. "Well, I guess just find a problem. You know, Celestia might not mind if you miss a week."

"Yes, she would!" Twilight insisted, on the verge of tearing her mane out with frustration and nervousness. "You're right, Spike, I will find a problem to sort out and then I won't be late!"

ONE TITLE SEQUENCE LATER

12:49 PM

Yeah, Twilight's plan to find a friendship problem wasn't working. She'd witnessed Rainbow Dash performing an atomic rainbomb on Applejack's barn and Fluttershy wrestling a bear and a number of other things, and none of them had been friendship problems at all.

Now she was having a bit of an argument with her reflection in a puddle of water as she lay on a park bench.

"Don't worry, Twilight." She told her reflection, trying fruitlessly to smooth out the sticky-uppy (references) bits of hair in her mane. "It's only half the day over… you'll find something wrong soon…"

"But what if you don't?!" her reflection argued with wide eyes. "What if you never manage to find something wrong?!"

"Don't worry, I will." Twilight said, but her temporary confidence was shattered when her reflection wailed, "MAGICAL KINDERGARTEN!"

Twilight gasped. "I'm right!" at that moment, something inside her snapped, and all of a sudden she went completely insane, like as insane as she'd been when she suggested building a duplicate Ponyville. "If there isn't a problem…" she schemed, rubbing her hooves together and noticing a familiar group of three fillies playing with an inflatable ball. "Then I'll make a problem!"

A COUPLE OF MINUTES LATER

Sweetie Belle bounced the ball off her back. "Say, Scootaloo? When is Miles going to join our class?"

"Sometime next week." The orange pegasus replied, bouncing the ball off the top of her head.

"Well Ah for one can't wait." Applebloom said with a sly grin, juggling the ball when it came to her. "Ah think he's hot." Apparently she didn't notice Scootaloo flashing her a dirty look and growling a few choice words under her breath. "What do you think, Sweetie?"

"I'm more into dragons." Sweetie Belle admitted, then clapped her hooves over her mouth, blushing, and completely missed the ball when it bounced passed her.

She was saved the embarrassment of that statement when the ball bounced off the hoof of Twilight, looking thoroughly as insane as she was acting and holding a rag (yeah, literally rags) doll that wore patchy overalls. "Hi, girls!" Twilight said like she normally would, but it was obvious something was up, because her eyes were wide yet her pupils small, and her tone suggested a trap that she was trying too hard to hide.

"Hey, Twilight." The three responded guardedly, exchanging a glance.

Twilight held up the doll with her magic and said, "I was just walking by and I saw you girls and I thought that it was time I passed this old thing on to somepony else."

"What is it?" Scootaloo asked observing the lump of decaying fabric that vaguely resembled a pony.

"This is Smarty Pants." Twilight said, launching into what seemed to be a pre-prepared speech. "I got him when I was little and kept him till now. Look, he even comes with a notepad so you can pretend he's doing his homework!" she presented a pristine notepad (obviously had not come with the doll) and gave a wide smile that didn't exactly seem to be a smile at all and more of a pained grimace and levitated the doll over to them.

Sweetie Belle looked at the doll and instantly said, "Um, I like it, but you should have it, Scootaloo…" she pushed the doll across the dirt over to her friend.

"Oh, um, that's nice…" Scootaloo said with a pained grin. "But you really deserve it more, Applebloom." She pushed it over to Applebloom, and the cycle continued of each of them pushing it over to their friend in an attempt to look as if they wanted it but was giving it to their friend as a show of good manners, when in actuality they were trying to get that thing as far away as possible. (Honestly, if Twilight had just stood there this could've gone on for hours)

Twilight meanwhile popped up from a bush a few meters away with a birds' nest resting on the top of her head. "Perfect… all according to plan…" she rubbed her hooves together. "They don't want it, so…" she shot a spell at the doll and all of a sudden all the fillies were all fighting over it. "Want it; need it spell." Twilight said triumphantly, stepping out of the bush to 'resolve' the problem. "Works every time."

But then before she could initiate the third part of her plan, Big Mac came walking out of nowhere and made direct eye contact with the doll. All of a sudden he rushed forward and snatched the doll out of the fray, dashing away and heading toward town.

Twilight saw this and apparently it jolted her back into sanity. "Crap." She muttered under her breath and started chasing him, attempting to head him off before the problem got any worse.

TEN SECONDS LATER

That failed. Big Mac ran into town and drew every single inhabitant that saw it (which was everypony) out of their homes and forced them to abandon their occupations to pursue what was now the only thing that mattered in life. Eventually they were all piled up in a pyramid-like shape with Big Mac at the top, clinging with all his might to the doll, which he would hold onto to his last breath.

Twilight's mind was racing, trying to figure out some possible solution to the problem. The only answer she could think of was the counterspell, and she didn't know that one.

She was simply going to give up and let things take their course when a loud, regal voice called out, "TWILIGHT SPARKLE!" and she looked up into the air to see the descending form of Princess Celestia. The alicorn's horn glowed and all of a sudden the pandemonium stopped and gave way to mass confusion, and in the middle of it all was a devastated looking Twilight.

Well, this is it. She thought miserably, hanging her head. This is the end of my time in Ponyville. Now I'm going to go back to Canterlot in magical kindergarten and there's nothing I can do.

"I WILL SEE YOU IN THE LIBRARY!" Celestia thundered.

IN THE LIBRARY; FIVE MINUTES LATER

Twilight sat in the middle of the floor, awaiting Princess Celestia's arrival. The Princess of the Sun strode in, looking regal as usual, and began to speak. "Twilight Sparkle, I see you have not learned a thing from the ordeal with Discord."

"Huh?" Twilight asked. She'd been expecting anything else, but definitely not that.

"It appears that you haven't learned that creating a problem to solve a problem isn't moral behavior."

"But I–" Twilight began, but then suddenly realized that that was exactly what she'd done. "Oh, I…"

"And now you will tell me why you did so."

Twilight bit her tongue and said, "I–there weren't any friendship problems so I–"

"So you took it upon yourself to make one?"

"I–uh–yes." Twilight said, blushing in shame.

"And there must be consequences for this." Celestia said.

"I understand–"

"HOLD IT!" came Rainbow Dash's voice, followed almost instantly by the pegasus herself zipping in through the door, and then the rest of Twilight's friends followed.

"She's not going anywhere!" Cobalt said, putting a hoof to the side of his head a moment later to try and calm his splitting headache.

"Twilight is our friend!" Fluttershy said.

"And we simply won't let you take her away!" Rarity added.

"She just made an honest mistake." Applejack reasoned.

"And even though it was a completely terrible idea–" Pinkie threw her opinion in.

"She deserves a second chance." Spike finished.

"What the heck did we just do?" Cobalt asked anypony who would answer.

"I believe the seven of you who spoke just delivered two sentences in the form of all of you speaking in turn." Celestia answered. "And I must confess that it was pretty cool." Her brow furrowed. "But what do you mean by 'take her away'? I never planned to do anything of the sort."

Twilight sighed. "Well I figured that when you found out that I hadn't sent a letter or… after this whole fiasco happened…" she gestured out the window at the mass confusion still ensuing in the streets. "Then you would send me back to Canterlot and put me in magical kindergarten again."

"Is that what you want to happen?" Celestia asked calmly, the slightest trace of a mischievous grin playing across her face.

"NO!" came the collective answer from seven ponies and a dragon.

"In that case, I believe a second chance is in order." Celestia said. "But first Twilight, you must promise me two things. One: you will remember that you never had to send a report every week. Something bad doesn't happen every single week. Only send a report when something does go awry."

Twilight nodded. "Of course. I understand that now."

"And two: never cause a problem in order to solve a problem." The Princess said. "And come to think…" she looked thoughtful. "How about all of you send in a report whenever something happens?"

"Oh, Ah get it." Applejack said. "So if somethin' happened to me, Ah'd write it."

"Exactly." Celestia agreed.

And that would've been the end of it, but then Cobalt stepped forward and whispered something to Celestia. It was very discreet, and nopony noticed anything happening at all.

FIVE MINUTES LATER; IN AN UNNOCUPIED ROOM

"Why did you want me to meet you here, Cobalt Spikes?" Celestia asked.

"Look, Princess." Cobalt said, wincing again as his headache worsened. "I get the feeling that you still don't trust me."

Celestia opened her mouth as if to protest, but then closed it without a sound.

"Uh huh, as I thought." Cobalt nodded. "But I need to tell you one thing before you leave." His face suddenly seemed to be cast into shadow. "The darkness is coming… I don't know what it is… or when it'll show up… but be ready. Just… keep on the alert."

Celestia hesitated, then silently inclined her head in agreement. "Okay."

Season 2! (Insert season 4 Discord face here)