By the time Twilight looks up from the final gem, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie have already arrived. After she deposits the diamond choker behind the library counter, she picks up their conversation, but doesn't turn towards them quite yet.

"...number of strong ponies in Equestria. I know most ponies are probably scared bitless right now, but trust me, there's no way she can stand against a whole country alone. I'm totally confident that we got this, it's just gonna be... intense. But we got this," Rainbow Dash is saying, voice cracking and quavering in obvious fear.

"But everything Twilight said is totally right!" Pinkie replies. "She's insanely old and smart and she's stronger than the strongest pony in the whole world! If she can wipe a pony off the map in the blink of an eye, it doesn't matter how many we send after her, and I bet she can! And we definitely don't have a country-sized plan sitting on the shelf waiting in case Nightmare Moon shows up and murders us all anyway! No one in Canterlot is going to have a clue what to do! We don't even know why she's really doing this! We don't know why she's killing us!"

"She... she can't be that smart if she thinks what's she's doing is a good idea. Pinkie... You can't think like that. You... you can't think like that, Pinkie! We have to make it through, we have to stay strong, I... I can't... we can't just give up! It's like taking her horn in your hooves and jamming it into your heart yourself!" She's crying. Twilight doesn't even need to see to know.

Tinder Heart pauses halfway through the door. "What in Celestia's name are you talking about?"

Rainbow Dash remembers who she is and collects herself in an instant. "We're talking about how there's no way we're gonna roll over and take it! If she's gonna take us down, she's gonna have to work for it!"

Pinkie Pie wanders over to the her corner from earlier in the night.

"That's what I like to hear, Rainbow. We have to keep up our spirits. It's natural to feel panicked, but we haven't had any time to gather our wits. Once we sit down and think things over, we're going to feel a lot better." Get real, Tinder. "Speaking of which, hi, Twilight. How have things gone?"

Twilight stops scratching the inkless quill against the parchment behind the desk and turns. "Things are going... okay. I've worked out what our first steps are. I have no idea how to start thinking long-term, but as soon as everypony arrives, I'll start going over what I have planned."

"That reminds me: Applejack said she'd be over in a little bit longer. She's explaining things to her grandmother, and sometimes it... takes time." Twilight nods. "Speaking of time, what do you mean, 'long-term'? Once we defeat Nightmare Moon, everything should go back to normal."

That's not true, Tinder. That's not true.

"I mean that no matter how well we pull off short-term solutions, I don't know how we're going to survive past a month, or maybe two. It's not what demands our attention right now, but still... The night has only just begun."

"A month?! Twilight... why are you thinking about how we'll get by a month from now?"

"I'm just planning ahead! Or recognizing the need to, anyway. What's wrong with that?"

"...You're assuming that we aren't going to depose Nightmare Moon, aren't you?"

...Am I?

"No she's not!" Spike exclaims, meeting Tinder's eyes. "But we need to consider both possibilities, and one needs a lot more thought to figure out."

Twilight nods, proud. "He's right. I'm not going to assume we won't defeat Nightmare Moon. But I'm not going to assume that we will, either. In case you didn't notice, the jury's still out."

She catches Tinder's ears swiveling downwards, as he says, "Fine. I guess I can't argue with that." It'll have to do.

As conversation lulls, Fluttershy enters. She does nothing to break the silence; she just steps over to where Pinkie Pie is lying on the ground and kneels next to her, hoof around her neck.

A few minutes later, somepony finally speaks up. "I actually agree with you, Twilight," says Rainbow Dash. "I do believe we're going to take her down. But I do agree that we have to be able to survive until we can make it happen, however long it takes. And that part might not be easy, either."

"...Thanks, Rainbow." More silence.

Some long minutes later, Rarity and Applejack eventually enter together, and Twilight catches enough of their chatter that she realizes they were talking about Applejack's grandmother. Another conversation she can't contribute to whatsoever. But they drop it as they walk into the room, and Applejack greets the group surprisingly warmly: "Howdy, girls. Everypony's family holding up alright?"

Some nods, some meek responses. Twilight hears Fluttershy whisper something gentle to Pinkie, but it doesn't resurrect the conversation. It doesn't matter. Everypony's here; it's time.

"Okay, girls," says Twilight. "I'm glad you all made it back. I've been working and planning since you left, and I think I have a rough sketch ready of what we need to do."

"Wonderful, darling. I'm sure all of us are eager to hear it. Do tell," says Rarity.

"I have a task for each of you. Let's not waste any more time." Yet even as she says it, she pauses. Where to begin? Start with something easy. Convince them you know what you're talking about, but don't start pushing the unpopular agendas yet. "Pinkie Pie, you know everypony in Ponyville, right?" she resumes.

"Uh-huh!" she squeaks. She leaps up, and bounds over to stand next to Twilight.

"Does the Ponyville schoolhouse have a bell?

She blinks. "Um, yeah, of course! But how'd you know I'd know? I said I knew every pony in Ponyville, not every bell! But we only have one bell anyway, so—"

"Good." What in the world happened to the Pinkie Pie from a few minutes ago? "Next question: who was the earth stallion onstage before the mayor? With the hourglass cutie mark?"

"Oh, that's Time Turner! He and I are like thiiis!" She leans up on her back hooves to cross her front two together, but disentangles them before she hits the ground. "He makes, you guessed it, hourglasses! And he's sorta got a thing for timekeeping, so we let him handle it for big events like the Summer Sun Celebration and the Sisterhooves Social obstacle course and the Running of the Leaves race and the—"

"Perfect. Can you find him? I have a task for which he's very well suited.

"Absolutely! I haven't talked to him in forever anyway! Whatcha want him to do?"

"I need you to listen very carefully to these instructions, so you can relay them to him, okay?" Twilight pulls a gem off the desk, and shows it to the group. "This emerald is going to flash and emit a ping every hour, plus or minus a few seconds. Every sixth hour, it pings twice. I need him to ring the schoolbell when it activates, as many times as what hour it is. We'll use military time, for obvious reasons. He'll need to find another pony or two to take shifts. The first pulse should be in around twenty minutes, and depending on whether it makes it to his hooves before then, the first hour he strikes will be either eight or nine. I've set up the gem so that it will lose pulse brightness and volume before timekeeping precision, so as time goes on, it will become harder to perceive. Ask him to find me when that happens. It's a very simple spell, so it should keep ticking for at least ten days, but I'm not sure when it'll become to difficult to hear. Got it?"

"Gosh, that's smart! I got it, I got it!" Pinkie grabs the gem in her mouth and bounds toward the door—

"No, wait! I also wrote down all those instructions for him." Twilight levitates a sealed scroll from behind the desk, and pushes it in Pinkie's direction.

"Whh dnnt..." Pinkie drops the gem from a mouth into a hoof. "Why didn't you just let me read it? Why'd you wait till after you told me to give it to me?"

"Redundancy. It's not a bad thing. It's how you do sensitive operations involving secondhoof instructions."

"Smrrt!" Pinkie grunts, the scroll and emerald in her mouth once again, the latter wedged into the open center cylinder of the former. She trots towards the door again.

"No, stay until I finish giving everypony their instructions. You might as well hear from me what's going to happen to Ponyville, starting as soon as we're done here. It's not going to be pretty, but urgent action is required on all of our parts if we want the town to survive the night."

Nopony really seems to know what to make of that, but the climate of the room is clinging to her words like dark waters rage below.

Next order of business. Like you rehearsed. "Applejack?"

"Yeah?"

"I need you to speak with the mayor, as a representative of Sweet Apple Acres. A pony can only survive without food for a couple days, and we're going to start running low very, very quickly. We're going to start rationing what we have immediately. We need to seize all edible goods from bakeries, cake shops, and whatever else there is in town. Also, we're going to salvage the leftovers from the festival, at least whatever doesn't have bits of rock all over it. We're going to store it all somewhere at your farm; figure out where. This isn't going to be a popular course of action, but it's one we simply have to take. Immediately. I don't know enough about pony biology to know the numbers, but work out with the mayor exactly how much every pony gets per day. That entails finding a complete list of all Ponyville citizens, which I assume the mayor's office keeps on file. I don't know how to account for all of the out-of-town visitors, but I would guess most of them are going to try to head home. The trains won't be running for long, but I expect one or two to go out within a day; hopefully everypony who wants out can leave." Everypony except me. Twilight shakes her head. "We're going to start eating the apples and other fruit first, since it'll spoil sooner, leaving the grain and the like for later. There are books on nutrition here if you need to consult a few to get the numbers on minimum consumption. Got it?"

"...Got it, sugarcube. I'll go talk to the mayor, then round up the food."

"Good. Return to me once the mayor agrees and once you have a projected date for... when we'll run out. That's when we'll start figuring out how to work around the poor growing conditions."

"Okay, Twilight," Applejack says, as she takes a step back and paints her face with a resolute expression directed toward the ground.

"Rarity?" addresses Twilight.

"Yes, darling, I'm here."

"To my understanding, most ponies around here don't have much need for warm clothing, since the winters here are pretty moderate. Is that the case?"

"You're correct, dear. Only the most fashion-aware ponies seem to bother with clothing themselves at all in Ponyville." Her lowered gaze betrays that she finds it a true tragedy.

"Okay. I need you to collect every winter coat you can find. Our goal is one per pony. As of right now, citizens are not allowed to own more than one, until we meet that goal. Yes, that includes you. You'll be in charge of distribution, too. Borrow a cart from Sweet Apple Acres if you don't have anything workable, pile all your extra coats into it, and start going door-to-door handing them out and taking in any extra. Right now, I assume everypony is in their homes, so this is the best time. Talk with the mayor's office if you run into problems, or if you think someone is holding out. After you make the rounds, I need you to focus on crafting more. Distribute them to foals and the elderly first. Optimize for warmth and efficiency, not anything else, and make sure they have hoods. Got it?"

Even Twilight can see the flash of pure scorn across Rarity's face at the mention of hoods, but in a split-second, it's gone again. "I understand, Twilight," she says. "You can count on me. I only have about eight spare coats, but I should be able to make something... serviceable... in no time at all."

"Good." Ponies' face are riveted to Twilight's. There's no going back. "Moving on. Tinder?"

"Yes?"

"You're going to be in charge of keeping the town lit. Gather some ponies to help you retrieve all the candles from town hall, and arrange them up and down the streets. Use whatever stock you have left as well. Be smart about the spacing; we only have so many before you make more. Prioritize bigger, more central streets. If you need to put one where there's a lot of grass, put it on a plate or something. I'm sure you're familiar with fire safety. Distribute one to each building as well, with some flint if there's enough. Tell them we'll get them more as soon as our bases are covered. As soon as that's done, I need you working to craft more. Enlist more ponies if you need to; we're aiming for every street illuminated and every house with two candles. After that, we're going to teach all unicorns a basic flame spell, to harness our natural regeneration for further light and heat and preserve the kindling. Got it?"

"The moonlight won't be enough to see by?"

"We don't know whether the moon will stay full yet, or whether it'll remain dead overhead. Besides, I have other plans for the sky. Trust me."

"...I see. All right, Twi. If you say so."

"Okay." The ball is rolling now, and there's no stopping, for anything or anypony. "Speaking of which, Rainbow Dash?"

"Yeah?" She flutters into the air, maybe to display her readiness, maybe for no reason at all.

"For the foreseeable future, we're going to maximize cloud cover over Ponyville. I need you to take the weather team and scrounge up every cloud you can find for miles, and move them directly over the town. We need all the thermal insulation we can get, since we aren't going to have the warmth of the sun. Also, we're going to need to manually stimulate the water cycle as best we can. I don't know how to handle compensating for the sun's evaporation of standing water, but the agriculture books say it rains less at night around Ponyville, so we might need to force it every once in a while. It's hard to know whether it'll really be necessary until we see whether it rains anytime soon, but we'll be watching, at least. It's not going to be fun for us, with the weather already being so cold, but the crops need it, and we do, too. Got it?"

"That's... that's super lame!" replies Rainbow Dash. "But... I get it." She lands, then sits on the ground, hooves extended, mouth firmly closed.

"Good. That's something that needs to happen ASAP, before we lose any more heat to the sky." One more. "Fluttershy?"

She looks at Twilight. Good enough.

"How well-trained are your birds? Could they be taught to carry letters back and forth from other towns?"

Fluttershy gently places a hoof on her chin. "Um..."

"Trains are going to stop running, and they're the primary channel of communication between distant regions. We need to keep abreast of what's happening in Canterlot, among other places."

"Um..."

"...And as an aside, it would greatly ease my mind to know where Nightmare Moon is, if anypony in Equestria even knows."

"I think it... might be possible?" Fluttershy finally speaks up. "I don't think they truly understand what cities are, and they definitely don't know where any given one is. But I think I could maybe make it work..."

"Great. I need you to at least try to talk to them about it. Make sure to emphasize how important it is, for their sake too. If it works out, send a message to the post office in Canterlot briefly explaining Nightmare Moon's appearance, just in case they somehow haven't heard, and ask them to send the bird back when they figure out who's going to run things. Maybe send a couple at once if you can. Got it?"

"There's a good chance they just won't understand. But I'll do my best, Twilight."

"Great. I have one more topic to address, then you'll each be on your way."

Without waiting a beat, Twilight levitates seven golden amulets and chokers from behind the library desk. It's a bit magic-indulgent to levitate seven things at once, but Twilight feels more in control than she ever has before, and she never realized exactly what it's like. A couple ponies gasp. There's one piece each of ruby, sapphire, quartz, opal, amethyst, and tourmaline. Aside from the inset stone, they're identical in style to the topaz amulet Twilight has worn for months.

"Jewelry? At a time like this?" asks Rainbow Dash. "What gives?"

"These aren't just rocks. Things around Ponyville might... change, with the coming conditions. I mean, some ponies' behavior may become... hostile. These gems are infused with a distress signal spell suspension triggered by blunt force. What that means is, if you throw it on the ground or clap it in your hooves, it will emit a loud sound and send colored light up into the air in a burst. Two of them are also set to trigger on a magic impulse, for Rarity and Tinder."

Rarity in particular can't seem to believe her eyes. "Dear, I appreciate the gesture... but I simply can't accept such an extravagant gift! Each of these must have cost at least a thousand bits!"

Twilight blinks. Come to think of it, I am, in fact, giving away tens of thousands of bits' worth in precious gems. I didn't even think about it. Still... this is a way better use than letting them sit around. I'm not going to get much theoretical research done anytime soon, to put it mildly. It comes to her mind how willingly they all accepted their tasks, how much authority they've given her already... These are ponies to be protected.

"Don't worry about it," she says. "I mean it. I get a huge monthly stipend for gems from the Canterlot royal government; I've got a couple dozen more sitting around my home. If we're going to take up these tasks, we might be in unpopular and contentious positions. For multiple reasons, it's very important that you only activate it if you feel you're in imminent physical danger. But trust me: you won't regret having something like this on hoof."

"Well..." Rarity replies. "They do sound useful. And I can't help but call them immaculate, too. Although gold isn't really the metal for me..."

Twilight scrunches her face at her. "Rarity..."

"Oh, pay me no attention! It's a truly thoughtful gift, one I'll graciously accept. Thank you, darling, sincerely."

"You're welcome, all of you."

"I'm not usually the type for fancy stuff like this, but it sounds mighty handy," says Applejack. "What you're saying about the town... I get. Ponies under bad times act different than what we're used to, girls. I trust Twilight's judgment."

Something thin begins to burn inside Twilight. Maybe a wick, maybe a fuse.

"Good. If there are no other objections, we'll continue. The color of each's pulse matches its stone, so I'm distributing them by coat color to the degree that I can. That way, we'll know who triggered the pulse. Sapphire for Rainbow, opal for Rarity, ruby for Tinder, tourmaline for Applejack, quartz for Pinkie. I recast the spell from my topaz on the amethyst, so I'll take that one, and the topaz goes to Fluttershy. Sounds fair?"

"But that's so... matchy!" wails Rarity, before she catches herself. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, dear. I understand that's the point." She giggles, for some reason. "'Opal' is actually my cat's name, you know."

Of course I don't know. "Anyway, wear them while you're doing anything commanding. Honestly, you might as well wear them twenty-four/seven; there's not really a reason to take them off. If anypony asks, just say it's a gift. It's true, after all."

Rainbow Dash comes up and snatches the blue stone in a flash, and she's holding it in one hoof, and she's pulling her other one, bent, out to the side, and too fast for Twilight to react.—

Almost too fast. Rainbow's outstretched hoof, still, pulses with magenta energy. "No, Rainbow!" she screams. "You do not want to fire that thing unless you have to. Especially indoors. Also, it only has charge for one or two uses, and I don't have the magic to recharge it for you right now. Finally, you don't need to clap it nearly that hard; you'd probably break the stone, and I don't have anything else blue."

"...Sorry, Twilight. It just sounds so... so cool, I wanna know how it works! Imagine being in a tricky spot and slamming this into your enemy's forehead or something! Then the cavalry comes charging in—"

"Rainbow, you have to take her word for it," pipes up Fluttershy. "I value my hearing, thank you very much," she says with great courage.

Celestia, this pony wants to weaponize it already. Calm your wings, Rainbow Dash.

"Be gentle with it, Rainbow. You don't want to make a fool out of yourself and call everypony for no reason to boot," says Applejack.

Rainbow Dash lowers the gem, her cheeks flushing a tinge of purple. "Okay, okay, you're right. My bad..." She sits and fastens the stone onto her body, first fastening it in the front, then spinning it around her neck.

Tinder has just started tapping a hoof against the floor. "Come on, girls, there's work to do. At this point we're just burning dayli... we're wasting time."

"I agree," says Twilight, with a pause. "It's time to put things in action. If there are no question, you should all be on your way."

Pinkie Pie bounds out the door, just like that. "I'll be back in a split! See ya!" she yells behind her. Yet she slows to a walk almost immediately after she leaves.

Other ponies say their thanks for the amulets, put them on, and start trotting out the door, most of them with resolute expressions. But Applejack lingers behind, and after the last pony starts walking away, speaks up.

"Twilight... I've gotta ask you somethin'," she says, looking somewhere else unknown.

"...Yes?"

"I really appreciate you steppin' in and takin' charge of things. Really, I do. You're an obviously qualified pony, and I know Celestia sent you to look over the festival for a reason." She stops.

"...Yes?" Twilight says, again. Ponies are presently in the slow, slow process of starving, Applejack.

"But I gotta say, you're not the mayor. Shouldn't you just be talkin' with her, instead of ordering us around directly?"

...Oh, yeah. The mayor is a thing. Well, too late now. I'm not doing anything that shouldn't be done, period. I'll talk with her if the need arises.

"That's a... fair point. I didn't really think about it. But everything I've commanded is necessary, Applejack. Most of it would be standard procedure for imminent poverty of resources. I'm confident the mayor won't have much to say about it."

"...Maybe not. But what am I supposed to say if she tells me she's making the decisions around here?"

Starving, Applejack. "If you fully understand your duty, you shouldn't have any problems pressing the point on the mayor. If you do, come back to me, and I'll convince her." Twilight turns and starts looking around for Spike, ready to move on to further dictation.

"Okay, Twilight. I'll give it a shot," Applejack replies, something grim on her face.

"Good. Why don't you get going," Twilight says. It's not a question.

"Okay, Twi." Applejack turns and leaves. "See ya later."

After Twilight calls out for him, Spike comes down the stairs, yawning, he asks, "Everything go okay?" He's got half an apple fritter hanging out of his mouth.

When did he—and where did he get—whatever. "Everything went quite well, yes. The girls are off on their tasks, and I've got some free time again."

"Oh, great. What are we going to be doing?" he says, through a second yawn.

Some of the hairs on Twilight's coat bristle up a bit, and she brings her hooves a little closer to square. It's a fair question, one she hasn't asked herself yet, but she knows the answer anyway.

"...We can only survive like this for so long," she says, finally.

Twilight Sparkle should not say the words she's about to say, and she knows it. There are smarter things to be doing. But the winds of power and control are blowing in her heart.

"I'm going to start thinking about how to fight back."