//------------------------------// // This Is More Dangerous than Anyone Realized and... Why am I surprised, when Ponies have Proven Time and again How Stupid They Can Be? // Story: It's A Screwed Up Life // by Autum Breeze //------------------------------// This Is More Dangerous than Anyone Realized and... Why am I surprised, when Ponies have Proven Time and again How Stupid They Can Be? ___________________________________________________________ “Hello, Papa!” R. L. Stine whirled around, his eyes widening at who he saw on the sofa. “Slappy?! I thought the book got you?!” Slappy raised an eyebrow. “Maybe those others, but not me.” Stine inclined his head slightly, dread in his expression and voice as he asked, “Why’s that?” “You know I always survive,” Slappy replied in a cool tone that suggested he’d smirk if he could physically do so. “You wrote me that way.” He lifted his eyebrows, his tone becoming a little cheery as Stine noticed a book sitting on the dummy’s lap. “In fact, I wrote my own story while I was gone.” Stine’s dread turned to fear. “And guess what?” Slappy’s tone became more sinister. “You’re the main character.” “No,” Stine whispered as Slappy began laughing, opening the book, the blue vortex light shining forth. “NO!” Stine started turning to ink, before he was pulled into the book, which Slappy shut. “You try living in a book for a while, Papa” Slappy said simply, before giving a giggling cackle. He lifted the book up, before looking to the shelf of books. “Now, with you out of the way, which of our friends shall I let out first?” “Oh, Slappy, Slappy, Slappy,” a female voice sighed, causing the dummy to look around in surprise. “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. You aren’t the real Slappy, after all.” “Why don’t you show yourself?” Slappy said, his eyes moving around the room, curious. “It isn’t many who can sneak up on me.” “You can’t really have fallen for something so simple,” He turned his head and saw there was a young teenage girl sitting at Stine’s writing desk, her feet on the table. She was wearing a pink, sleeveless shirt that, with what looked like a screw and a baseball imprinted on the front. She was wearing tight short shorts and sneakers. However, it was not her outfit wasn’t that was curious to the evil dummy, but her hair and eyes. They were unnatural colours. Her hair was a mess of curls that were coloured purple and white. Her eyes, impossibly, were also purple, but instead of pupils, they were spirals. Slappy frowned, rubbing his chin. “You’re no normal human, are you?” “Well, at least you were written to be smart enough to figure that out,” she replied, glancing his way. His frown became more annoyed. “Insulting me? Not the wisest move, child.” The girl just rolled his eyes, tilting her head back nonchalantly. “If you think I’m actually going to be scared by the original, barely thought out, incomplete version of Slappy instead of the one I personally let loose on this world, you’ve another think coming, Pencil Penis.” Slappy’s eyebrows shot up, before the right one lowered again, his curiosity peaked. “What do you mean?” “You’re not the only Slappy that Stine wrote an unpublished manuscript of,” she said, shrugging, before looking to him with a bored expression. “At least Stine had to write a new story to stop him. You? You literally defeated yourself and can’t even see it. Not that I should expect anything better from a character from an uncompleted draft.” Slappy’s frown became displeased again. “Who are you?” The girl snapped her fingers and was gone with a popped. “What?” Slappy gasped, before the lights went out, him reappearing at the desk. “How did she…?” “You’re not the only one with powers, Slappy.” Slappy’s eyebrows went up as he turned around to see, standing at the door, the girl and… “Stine?!” He looked from the man by the door to the book on the sofa, then back again. “But, how? I wrote you into the story and sealed you in there!” “Boy. No offence, but your writing of his character originally is so bad,” the girl said, a hand over her face, before she looked to Stine. She then looked to Slappy, the book now in her hand. “You do realize, Slappy, the only reason the monsters you brought to life got pulled into your book was because you made them part of the story with your powers, right?” Slappy lowered an eyebrow to show it was cocked. “Your point, strange girl?” She rolled her eyes. “Sheesh. It was easier talking reason to Cheese Legs.” She sighed, before nodding her head to the book. “You turned fictional things to life. Fictional being the important word, here, Slappy. Did you never once question how you could write Stine, a real person, into a story and trap him there?” “He did it to all those monsters in that town before,” Slappy shrugged, reappearing on the sofa, the book back on his lap. “I see no reason I couldn’t do the same to him.” Stine shook his head. “Therein lies your mistake, Slappy. And the means of your own created demise.” Slappy cocked his head. “Very well, humour me, you two. What’s to stop me opening the book and pulling the two of you into its pages this moment?” He finished by opening the book… but nothing happened. Slappy looked down at the book. “What? Uh, gimme a second. Work, you blasted thing!” “I myself am technically a thing of fiction,” the girl said, drawing Slappy’s attention. “But not of Stine’s own creation. Only things connected to what he put into his stories are affected by those books. And, last I checked, he himself was never one of them.” “Then who—?” Slappy’s words were cut off by the blue light of the book, but, instead of the two before him being pulled in, the ink of the pages flew outwards, forming… Stine? “What?” Slappy looked between the two Stines. “Two R. L. Stines? That isn’t possible. It makes no sense!” The girl smirked. “Sense? Slappy, surely you, of all evil creatures, should know there’s no fun in making sense.” Slappy paused. Why did that sound familiar? Screwball giggled. “Do you really think is was blind chance those boys went to Stine’s old house and just happened to stumble upon your book and the key just happened to be in the chest, when any sane being wouldn’t have left the means of letting you free be found right next to your prison?” “This, Slappy, is my aid,” Stine said, putting a hand on the other Stine’s shoulder. “After what Screwball did last time, she helped me create someone to investigate should ever any of my creations escape again.” He lowered his glasses. “She wasn’t wrong. I myself had actually completely forgotten about where I’d left your story.” He narrowed his eyes at the girl, Screwball. “Though her methods of getting my attention regarding its location leave much to be desired.” Screwball shrugged. “What can I say? I’m my daddy’s daughter.” “What exactly is this about?” Slappy demanded, glaring at the girl. “And what do you have to do with my brother and sister monsters?” Screwball puts her hands behind her head, looking away. “Who do ya think let the other Slappy out that night? No one used the key to open his book and no monster can use their abilities outside the book from within it.” “I almost lost my daughter because of you,” Stine growled at her. “Eh,” she simply replied, eyes closed. “I helped you write her back, didn’t I? And it didn’t free the rest of them either. Plus, I got a good laugh out of making you think The Invisible Boy had avoided being pulled into the book. I mean, hello? He couldn’t have been typing on the typewriter and then gone after you. He’s invisible, not intangible.” Slappy just looked at them with a blank expression. “Why do I feel like I’m missing a large piece of the picture, here?” “Point is,” Screwball lowered her hands, the book flying to her. “You fell for a very simple trapped, Slappy. You convinced yourself you’d trapped Stine in a book, but all you did was trap another of his creations, as Stine himself cannot be made fictional.” “Thank you again for the performance,” Stine shook the other him’s hand. “My pleasure,” his double replied. “Now, shall we finish this, once and for all?” Slappy blinked, before it dawned on him. They were going to use the book he wrote to somehow seal him away. He cackled. “I’d like to see you try!” The lights went out, followed by a loud clang and Slappy fell back, groaning. “Did anyone catch the licence plate of that trunk?” he said groggily. He shook himself, before looking up. “WHAT?” The whole house and several metres around it had been surrounded by a large metal square. There were no indents, no doors, nothing. It was like the whole area was sealed in. The sounds of casual footsteps caused him to turn around as the three stepped out of the house. Screwball smirked. “I know all about how you can only effect what you can see.” She snapped her fingers and the house vanished. The metal cube was now empty save the four of them and the book. “Nothing for you to mess with in here, now, Slappy. You’re done.” “Ha!” Slappy laughed, getting up. “Hardly. Stine can’t write a new book to seal me in without his papers and typewriter and you just got rid of them too. How are you going to seal me in when you have no story?” “With this,” Screwball held up the book. “You wrote it so that I was the main character,” Stine’s double say firmly, stepping forward. “But that means, anything connected to me can also go in, can’t it?” Slappy stared for a moment, before his eyes widened. “Now, now, now!” he said, trying to back up as the double came towards him. “Let’s be rational for a moment, here, shall we?” The double ignored him, suddenly turning into a flesh coloured liquid with Stine’s face and moving quickly and wrapping Slappy, holding onto him tightly. “He’s actually a Polymorph,” Screwball snickered. “Couldn’t just have an ordinary Stine Double to deal with your kind, now, can we, Slappy? Gotta fight the supernatural with the supernatural.” “Y-you’re a creation, like me,” Slappy said, trying to negotiate with the Stine-faced Polymorph. “We could rule the world. You don’t have to listen to our creator. I never do. Papa never cared about me, so why would he care about you? Besides, you’ll be trapped in that book with me, forever!” “It doesn’t matter,” the Polymorph said, there now being no emotion in his voice. “I was written for a purpose. And that purpose was to stop beings like you, by any means necessary.” “No!” Slappy’s eyes widened as Screwball opened the book. “NO!” The vortex opened and the two were pulled into the book, Slappy’s angered and horrified scream being cut off as Screwball closed it, locking the book, before handing it to Stine. “Make sure no more things like this happen, okay?” She gave him an annoyed look. “I’ve enough problems with my world. I don’t need you causing more. If Slappy found out about Equestria, I don’t know whether even Discord and I could’ve handled him. Even this early version of him, regardless of his incomplete story.” She sighed. “Though that would explain why he could never truly see the big picture and was so quick to jump the gun on everything.” “I’ll… keep that in mind,” Stine replied, before nodding around them. Screwball snapped her fingers and everything was back to the way it was before. “Now, if you’ll excuse me,” he turned to head inside, “I need to write a new aid. You never know, you might decide to bring another of my forgotten manuscripts to my attention.” He gave her a pointed look over his shoulder. “And I doubt I’ll like the how of that time any more than I did this one or the last.” She just snickered. “Later, Mr. Stine.” She snapped her fingers and was gone, leaving Stine alone to his writing. ___________________________________________________________ I pop into existence in a barren area, stretching my anthro form’s arms. Ah, I may not be able to go to my own Earth anymore, but messing around with alternate ones is always fun. And that was indeed fun, if a little sad. Who’d have thought Slappy, of all R. L. Stine’s creations, could be fooled that freaking easily? Then again, he was the unfinished version from the earliest days in Stine’s writing, so I guess it makes sense, since he wasn’t exactly well developed before Stine’s gave up on him and just rewrote the story later on, creating a whole new, much more thought out Slappy. Whatever the case, it’s time I explored this area. I detected it a few days ago and something seems… off. And not the fun kind of off, either. “Now, what can we learn about this area?” I snap my fingers, a holographic screen and keyboard appearing before me and I type away. A few minutes later, the search results come in. “Hmm,” I frown, reading the Whinnypedia Article over. “So this place is the Peaks of Peril.” Well, that’s not ominous a name at all. “Sheesh. Even a thousand years ago, nopony knew anything about this place? Hmm.” It seems the only thing anypony knew about the Peaks of Peril is that two species of pony hybrids lived here. The Kirin, kind creatures, known for being quite friendly and having a love of song. But they weren’t alone. The other species were the Nirik, fearsome beasts of pure fire. “Well, that’s not exactly encouraging,” I frown, before blinking. “Odd. Nirik is literally just Kirin spelled backwards.” I rub my chin. “Maybe there’s a connection there. Whelp,” I smile cheerily, snapping the screen away, “no time like the present.” I snap my fingers again, my clothes turning into kaki clothing, like the kind Steve Irwin always wore. “Time to find out what’s up. Let’s get exploring!” I decide to spend the next couple minutes hiking through the wilderness, until I find a cave that, after a quick magic scan, lets me know I’ve found the Kirin’s home. Odd. I haven’t sensed a single Nirik, though. I shrug. Eh. It’s been over a thousand years. Maybe the Kirin are still alive while the Nirik died out. Skipping through the cave, I reach the other side and pause, looking out. What I see kinda surprises me. The Kirin look like ponies… but not at the same time. They’ve big manes, like male lions, only it seems they all have them, regardless of gender. Their hooves end in cloven hooves at the front. They have scales along their backs and the fronts of their faces between their eyes and on their foreheads. They have long, curved horns, kinda like Sombra’s, only there’s a slammer branching off piece to theirs and there’s a stripe or two up each one. At first, I can’t see a difference to tell me which are male and which are female as they all seem to have body types like default female ponies… before I notice their tails. Female Kirin have tails that are bare from their backside til a little before the tip, whereas the males all just have fluff all over their tails, like ponies. “Hmm,” I murmur, looking them all over, before shrugging. “Well, may as well blend in.” I snap my fingers, taking on a whole new form for the first time. Making a mirror appear before me, I look myself over. My fur is still the same pink as always, but now I have purple scales on my face and back where the Kirin have theirs. My hooves now have purple cloven ends and my tail is long, ending in the hair. Finally, my horn is the same purple as my new scales, with two stripes of pink going along them. I snicker, before trotting out of the cave like I’m a normal Kirin, humming the tune to NateWantsToBattle’s English cover of the first My Hero Academia opening. As I trot through the town, however, my cheeriness subsides a bit as I notice every Kirin stops whatever their doing and is looking right at me. I’m a little confused why a Kirin child trotting through town while humming is so distracting to them when they’re known for singing, but choose to ignore it, closing my eyes and conituing on… until I bump into something and back away, looking up. Before me is another Kirin, this one as tall as Celestia. Must be their leader. She has greyish brown fur, with cream coloured scales and cloven hooves. Her mane is a mix of greenish-blue and lighter greenish-blue. Her eyes are blood red, as is her horn. Her expression is neutral. “Oh, g’morning,” I smile, waving. “Sorry for bumping into you. Guess I should have my eyes open when I’m walking, huh?” When I get no reply, I open my eyes again to see she has tilted her head to the right ever so slightly, her expression as neutral as before. “Um, leader or not, not even replying with good morning back is kinda rude, ya know?” I say, before blinking and look around to notice a large number of Kirin have gathered around me. They all just stare at me with blank expressions. I keep looking between each of them, but I see nothing. No emotion at all. “Um… did I do something wrong?” I ask, actually wondering if I have. Are Kirin really strict about their leader? Are normal Kirin forbidden to even touch her? Are they supposed to get out of the way when she passes? Instead of answering me, the Kirin leader and the ones closest to her all part, revealing a path, to which they all point. I cock an eyebrow. “Um… okay?” I dunno what’s going on around here, but I guess I have to go in their first. I trot down the path, before deciding to ditch my disguise and return to my normal form. I turn my head this way and that, an eyebrow raised. “Just what am I supposed to find or do in here, exactly?” I stop in the middle of the path, frown and decide to turn around, only to yelp as another Kirin is just standing there. The tail tells me she’s female. She has cream coloured fur and greenish-grey scales and cloven hooves. Her mane and tail are an orange colour. I sigh. “Phew. Okay. It’s just another of you guys.” I frown at her. “What the hay’s going on around here? Why didn’t anypony talk to me in the village?” She just tilts her head to the side, like all the others had. I growl, before shouting to the heavens, “Oh, come on! Won’t anypony just say something to me?!” There’s a pause, before I hear a giggle and look back to the Kirin to see her smiling. She points at me. “Gotcha!” She then holds up a hoof. “Sorry, sorry, but that was too good. Oh, you don’t know how much I missed jokes. Hi-larity! Am I pronouncing that right? Some words I haven’t said in a will.” She frowns. “While! While.” Well, I guess— “Hi, I’m Autumn Blaze,” she cuts off my inner monologue. She holds out a hoof, which I move to shake before she puts her foreleg over my shoulder, pulling me into a sideways hug. “You’ve just arrived, and perhaps you’re tired or hungry or reflective and want to sleep and eat and journal? Which you should do, of course! But first—” Her eyes light up and she pulls me into a hug. “Oh! Oh, what joy to talk with another creature! It’s been so long!” She puts her face right up to mine, so close our noses are pressed against each other. “You must tell me everything about you! There’s so much to say, so much to do!” She puts me down, leaving me to flop on my stomach. “Oh, look at me. I’m going on, and you haven’t seen— I mean, have you seen—? W-What am I saying? Of course you haven’t. So just— I— yeah— I will j— Follow me!” She trots off, her steps giddy. I cock an eyebrow. “That... was somethin’, all right.” I follow her up to a ridge, where a somewhat nice, if shambled looking house sits near the very top, overlooking the valley… and a rainbow I can’t help noticing shares similarity to the G1 MLP rainbow. “Nice,” I say, looking around. “This place is amazing, I gotta say.” Autumn Blaze smiles at me. “Oh, you think so, too?!” She looks out over the view. “The way the light shimmers off everything, like, like it all suddenly woke up the moment you saw it. And you realize maybe the water and the mountains and the forest and the... yes, the rainbow and the stars and the sky are all looking back at you thinking the same thing? That we are a part of the everything. That maybe there’s just one thing and we are all it.” She then gives me a smile that… kinda reminds me of Starlight’s old village when we first got there. Should that be considered a red flag? There’s a pause, during which she just keeps smiling at me. Um… okay. That sounded philosophical… but, that, combined with the Starlight smile… I feel there’s a “but” in there, somewhere. She hums, leaping around, stopping to sniff a flower, before smiling normally at me and indicating to follow towards her house, herself walking backwards. Mmmm! And this is just the first stop on a journey of amazing things to see, smell, tiptoe through. Oh, I haven’t been able to share all of this with anypony in forever!” her expression sours a little. “Since they all took that vow of silence.” Her smile returns. “So it’s a lot for me to pro-cess. Process? Uh, deal with.” I just stare, before something she said catches my attention. “Wait. Vow of silence?” Autumn Blaze looks away, her expression saddening again. “That’s, uh... That’s why they asked me to leave.” I blink, glancing back the way we came, before looking to her sympathetically. I’m guessing it’s a bit of a sore subject, but... you mind explaining why you all, or at least they, went quiet in the first place?” She sighs heavily. “It’s a long story.” Geeze, this mare’s making my heart melt. I’m having to keep freezers near it to keep it solid. “You’d rather not talk about it?” Autumn shakes her head. “No.” I sigh. Guess I’ll have to figure this out another way. “I-I under—” “I’d rather... siiiiiiiiiiiing!” she cuts me off. I listen to the song and itexplains a lot, not to mention has a pretty good message. Rainbows won’t light up the sky unless you let it rain. And candles just won’t glow until they’re burned. That’s actually pretty deep. Though, from the way she’s described it, this all happened about twelve years ago, the first four of which she spent still in the village. Being stuck all on your own, with no one to talk to for eight years would certainly give you time to reflect… and explains just why she’s so giddy to have met me. The Kirin used to be as the Whinnypedia page said, until one day things got out of hand… it turns out Kirin and Nirik are indeed connected, because Nirik is what a Kirin who completely loses control of their anger becomes and one day they all became so angry they destroyed their whole village. Their leader then made them all walk through a river called The Stream of Silence, stopping anypony from being able to talk at all, but at the cost of also losing most of their ability to express ANY emotions at all. Autumn eventually got sick of literally not being able to speak and did her best to find a way to fix the problem, eventually finding a cure. But no Kirin wanted to take the cure and, due to having so much to say after so long, got on what can count as everypony’s and, much to my anger, gave her two choices: Either give up her voice again, or leave the village for good. I cock an eyebrow. “Nopony should give up feeling... well, their feelings just to keep from getting angry!” In a deadpan tone, I say, “Trust me. I went there. Not the best idea I ever had. Can’t even zero in on a family in an alternate dimension you can’t remember anything about.” Autumn Blaze looks confused for a moment, before she gets right up in my face, making me back up. “That’s what I said!” She scratches her neck. “You know, after I started talking again. The anger thing. Dunno what else you meant.” And I’m gonna keep it that way to save us time. I shake my head. “Well, I’m thinking, if we just go talk to the other Kirin, we can get them to welcome you back. Maybe even convince them to take your cure.” Autumn’s eyes light up. “Oh, yes! Yes, of course!” Her expression suddenly saddens. “Oh, just one small thing. The antidote from my anecdote? It’s gone.” I blink. “There’s no cure left?!” She shakes her head. “I used the last of the foal’s-breath flowers to make it. I offered it to them… but they refused and, by now, it’s gone off. It’s useless as the cure now. And I-I haven’t seen them bloom since.” I frown, rubbing my chin with a hoof, before smirking. “So, you’re saying it’s impossible?” She nods sadly. I smile brightly. “Well, it’s lucky for you “impossble” is my specialty. Wait right here.” With that, I teleport away. ___________________________________________________________ I reappear in the exact same spot, just in a different dimension. I slam my hooves together, causing a shockwave to push outwards, deteching the flowers and teleporting over to them, taking one of them and then just creating hundreds more. The sound of something loud and whistling through the air causes me to look up and I see something that looks like Nukes made completely of magic. I blink, before deadpanning. “Yeah, how ’bout no.” I hold up my hoof and they all stop, before poofing into butterflies that fly off and I teleport away with my horde. ___________________________________________________________ Autumn Blaze yelps as I pop back into existence next to her, before her eyes widen at the sight of all the foal’s breath I have. “Where’d you find so many?” she asks, looking at them all in awe. “I searched the entire forest seventy-three and ahalf times. I never found naything. Where’d you find them all?” “A Fallout Equestria timeline,” I shrug, before blinking, rubbing my chin. “Yeah, I didn’t feel it fixed, so maybe I actually helped stop the timeline from happening at all.” I shrug. “Sad. Horrifying as that version of Equestria becomes, it did make for a great story.” Autumn just looks at me, clearly lost as to what I’m talking about. “Well, anyway,” I say, getting us back on topic, “we need to make the cure and disperse it among the entire village.” She blinks. “What? Shouldn’t we ask them first?” I scowl. “Fuck that. They kicked you out just because you wanted to talk again. Not to mention, I didn’t see any calves in that village. Do you people not realize how screwed their race is if this problem isn’t fixed?” Autumn just stares at me. “Huh? What do you mean?” I blink, before my eyes widen. Oh, Sweet Celestia. None of them have realized the long term ramifications of this shit! “Right. Come on, Autumn,” I say, taking on my new Kirin form, causing to her start. “We’re curing your people and I’m going to explain to them personally why this is so fucked up and… Oh, wait a second.” I teleport away, before reappearing a second later. “Thought I’d fixed the Stream of Silence in that FOE world too. Just to be safe and…” I facehoof. “And, after this, I’ll have to go to all those other timelines Starlight’s meddling created and fix them too. ARGH! Thanks for giving me more work, Glim Glam!” Autumn gives me an uncertain look. “Never mind,” I shake my head and start off back in the direction of her village. “Come on!” A few minutes later, the two of us walk into town. “Everypony, listen up!” I yell, causing all the stop what they’re doing and look in our direction. Autumn gulps, tapping my shoulder. “Are you sure this is such a good idea?” I nod. “Oh, it’s more than good. Now,” I turn around and rise into the air, forelegs outstretched, the flowers swirling around me. “I have a few choice words for all of you, but we’re going to fix the shit ass mistake you all caused first!” The flowers burst into dust and swirling through the air, settling into everything. Thrusting my hooves upwards, clouds form and a downpour happens almost instantly. Moving my limbs in frantic motions, water from the ground flies around, hitting every Kirin present. It takes them all by surprise, causing them to open their mouths, the fluids getting to them and down their throats. They all cough, before everypony looks up and around at each other in shock. Doing a superhero landing, the clouds disperse, leaving the sky clear and sunny. Everypony is talking uncertainty, seeming both overjoyed and worried about regaining their voices. “I’ve a few choice words for all of you now, especially, you, Rain Shine,” I point at the leader. “Have none of you ever considered the disastrous results of not being able to speak at all and not expression your emotions? One is bad enough, but both together is a nightmare! Without the ability to talk or express emotions means teachers wouldn’t be able to teach anything in school and students can’t ask questions to learn. If a calf wakes up and cries in the middle of the night, nopony would be able to hear it and it would either pass out from exhaustion or die due to safitcating!” Horror passes over several Kirin, but I keep going. Not to mention, by not being able to talk or express emotions, no new families would be made because no Kirin would be able to date another. No new families means no new calves. No new calves means, once the current youngest generation of Kirin died out, you’re entire race would be extinct! What were you all thinking?!” “B-but I thought Niriks were dangerous when they’re angry,” a Kirin from somewhere in the crowd I can’t see calls. “How do you know we will be able to control our tempers?” I look to Autumn Blaze. “I don’t. But you need to try. You can’t just run away from it. Anger’s like other feelings. It’s not about having them. It’s what you do with them.” “And giving up happiness to keep away anger is no kind of life,” Autumn says, stepping forward. “I lived that here. It’s why I cured myself and tried to cure all of you.” I look around firmly at them all. “I know you’re worried about fighting. But friends can disagree without causing a disaster. Everypony gets mad sometimes. Even my sister and I argue, but that doesn’t stop us from loving each other.” I look to Autumn and she looks out to her fellow Kirin. We won’t always see eye-to-eye. But that’s life, isn’t it? If we always were the same, we’ve never change. We just have to make sure wenever let that get in the way of our friendships.” I smirk. “And if you’re really angry, then take some time away to be a Nirik where it won’t hurt anypony. Trust me, I do that all the time.” Of course, it helps to be able to travel to alternate realities to take my anger out on villains of other franchises, but that’s besides the point. “And that Steam of Silence is dangerous. Pretty sure it’s one of those remnants form Daddy's time ruling Equestria with utter, uncontorled Choas. So, I fixed it. Now it’s just any ordinary stream. You’re welcome.” Everypony looks to each for a few moments, before several Kirin hug each other and start talking. “Autumn Blaze,” I glance to my right to see Rain Shine standing next to the other Kirin, “you have given us a gift. The realization that anger is within us, but it is our choice how we let it out. We would very much like it if you came back to live with us. I can’t say how much we’ve missed your beautiful voice.” She then looks to me, an eyebrow cocked. “I’m also curious as to your new friend. You are younger than any Kirin here and what you did was beyond the magic of our kind. I would like to hear your story too, young…?” I smirk, before giving a polite bow. “Screwball. Princess of Chaos and I’d be delighted, Rain Shine. Just… be ready to have your whole perception of reality blown after I finish explaining exactly what I am.”