"We can't have anypony else… coming in to this castle." Twilight didn't have the strength to pace, what she'd normally do if talking like this. In actuality she barely had the strength to sit upright. "The castle's lockdown system… is directly attached… to my magic."
"You're saying Charlie has to do it? AWW, Charlie gets to do everything fun!" Pinkie whined.
"I wouldn't call this… fun… Pinkie… But I wouldn't call it hard either."
"Unlike most of the tasks you've given him, darling."
"And I… apologize for that. But this spell is not hard… in fact it is quite a simple… …incantation."
Charlie nodded.
"It is as such…: 'Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye'. Nopony breaks a… Pinkie Promise… and nopony breaks… my lock system… either." Twilight paused. Right as he began, she stopped him. "You must do the motions… as well."

When he looked moderately confused, Pinkie Pie exclaimed, "Like this!" and demonstrated. He noted that this could be some this-group-of-friends-specific play off of the original version of this, though it did seem more fitting to this culture. Doing the motions along with it this time, he said, "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."
With that there was an impressively loud magical sound echoed through the castle, causing everypony to put their hooves over their ears. Then there was silence. He looked out a window – there was a huge bubble of magenta-colored aura surrounding the castle, shimmering in the bright noontime sunlight.
"Sweet!" exclaimed Rainbow, looking out the window with him. She turned. "Hey Twi! When did you make this thing? It's really cool!"
"It was a simple spell but… it needed doing. I cast it after talking to… Fluttershy… after she fell off… the balcony of… the Town Hall."

"So nopony can get through this thing?"
"No… Rainbow… they can't. Not without my permission. Or… rather… the pony who holds my magic's permission."
"It can't be completely impenetrable…" Charlie walked back away from the window. "Can it?"
"Nope!" Pinkie bounced over. "See, magical theory suggests that any force field of any power can be broken through with a sufficiently advanced physical force, like that changeling army from the end of season 2, but it can't be broken by magical force. Even so, each shield has a different magical strength, heavily dependent on the pony casting it, so this one would be ultra, ultra strong 'cause you cast it and you have, like, two alicorns worth of magic! Right Twilight?"
"…Y-Yes… Pinkie…" Twilight was slightly astonished. "How… did you know all that, Pinkie?"
"I have no idea!" Pinkie bounced away from where Rainbow and Charlie were hovering and standing, respectively.

"That's Pinkie Pie for ya." Rainbow shrugged.
"I noticed." He walked over to Twilight. "Amita and I have pinpointed where Crystal would have the highest probability of residing."
She nodded, the question "And where is that?" implicit.
"Somewhere on the same plateau as the Academy. This is confirming my theory that Lightning Dust is the ringleader here."
"Not… a theory… she was here… she is. I'm sorry… I didn't tell you earlier. Regardless… go ahead."
"Hey Twi, wait a sec. You're saying Charlie should just fly over and chat with the enemy?"
"Relax, Rainbow. Lightning may not be so keen on you, but she seems to be fine with me. I… still don't know why."

Pinkie nudged him. "Ooh, somepony has a crush on you!"
"Ugh. I doubt that. Quite heavily. For one thing, Lightning doesn't like colts." Rainbow responded for him.
"Oh. Okie Dokie Loki, Dashie!" The pink pony shrugged. "WAIT. How do you know that?"
"She told me. We were partners, remember?"
"Oh yeah!"
"Yeah…"

Rarity cleared her throat. "Darling, I believe there are more important topics to discuss than whether Lightning Dust likes colts."
"Yeah, Rarity?" Rainbow turned to face the unicorn, continuing to hover.
"I could use a modified version of my gem-finding spell to locate Crystal's 'secret lair' as Rainbow so eloquently put it, once we are in close range."
"Hey, I was just trying to make it sound cooler."
"…Anyway, that would be great, Rarity."
"Actually, darling, I have a better idea. It would be, to say the least, difficult, but I could… yes. Alright, somepony get me a chariot. A nice one."

Rarity magically hooked herself into the chariot.
"Eh, Rarity? Ah dunno, but ya ain't exactly the fastest runner around… how're ya gonna pull two ponies?"
In response she simply tapped her horn.
"If ya're gonna teleport, why'd ya need the chariot?"
Rarity sighed. "Applejack, remember when I told you my cutie mark story? How my horn took me to the giant geode? That was an accidental manifestation of my talent. I can adapt the same spell, however difficult, to lead us to Crystal."
"Oh, okay. Ah get it… ya know, ya could've said that in the first place."
"I was trying to… oh forget it. Celestia knows that you cannot pick up on social cues."
"It ain't 'cannot', it's 'choose not to'."
"Anyways, I'm finished. Charlie, climb in please."

After a few moments of silence as Rarity was recalling how to perform the spell, her horn began to glow a bluish color, followed by rays of light shooting from it in various directions. And then, without even moving her hooves, she began to move forward. Her expression relaxed and she moved her hooves in a motion to make it look like she was trotting.
"Later, dears!" Rarity exclaimed just as she began to speed up to what would have, if she were actually running, been a brisk gallop.
Charlie looked at the open back of the chariot as he held on tightly to the front and wondered how these things would ever pass a safety inspection. They also are supposed to and designed to fly. That bit of trivia made him question the inventor of this thing's sanity.

"Rarity, do you know who invented these chariots?"
"Uhm… No dear, I don't. Why do you ask?"
"The back is open. Couldn't somebody just fly out the back?"
"No, the chariot is magically protected. That's simply where the non-magical part ends, it's purely aesthetic. Speaking of which, darling, you can let go of the side."
"Oh." He let go of the side. Nothing happened. "Oh! This is… a lot of fun, actually! How fast are we going?"
"Quite quickly, but not quickly enough to mess up my coiffure. I would prefer not to have hair that looks like Rainbow Dash's when this operation is finished. No offense to Rainbow."

They rode for a while in silence, being pulled towards their destination at remarkable speed purely by the power of Rarity's horn. As the Academy came into view, Rarity said,
"This thing looks much… higher… when you come at it from the ground…"
"Not that you can't get up it." He leaned slightly over the rail to look at her. "Right?"
"No, I can, it's just impressive." She looked over to see the residual worry on his face. "Apologies for, as Applejack put it, 'nearly giving you heart failure'."