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// Bonus: Paper Medium for the Purpose of Literary Preservation and Distribution 
// Story: Reformation of the Hives 
// by law abiding pony 
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Ever since Phoenix Roost’s founding, Ponyville was fast becoming a busy town.  That fact was only going to grow exponentially once the rail line between Ponyville and the hive was complete, but for now, the town was bereft of visitors save for the three hundred blue and purple changelings enjoying town life. 

In the late morning of the their week-long vacation, Princess Aegis and Royal-Candidate Blitz were at Sugar Cube Corner along with ten other customers, both pony and changeling alike, as they celebrated a very momentous event.  Aegis lifted her cupcake in her magic like a toasting champagne glass at her vacant-minded friend.  “Well you’ve finally done it, Blitz,” Aegis announced to wake her friend up.  “How does it feel to win the right of royal rebirth?”

Blitz’s mind was a pile of goo that tried to slosh around in her head to work up a response.  To buy time, Blitz bumped her cupcake against Aegis’ own.  “Exhausting,” she said at length.  “I swear, if I didn’t have this week off, I’d probably die of brain overload.”

“That bad huh?” Aegis replied derisively as she took a bite out of her confectionery treat.

“Tests, diplomatic adaptability training, tests, engineering creatively projects,” Aegis cringed a little as Blitz unleashed all the pent up anguish over the past two and a half months. “And I don’t think I’ll ever forget that accursed Kobayashi Maru, more tests,  then there was that whole thing with logistical training about avoiding famine with a failed harvest and still maintaining full egg production between two queens, loved that one,” Blitz groaned heavily while face planting the table.  Her speech was muffled by the table.  “Did I mention the tests?”

Aegis licked the bit of frosting off her nose after polishing off the cupcake.  “Preaching to the choir, sister.”  She took sip of lemonade before continuing.  “Just wait until after your rebirth where you have to take speaking lessons.”  Blitz said nothing, but gazed up at her purple sister with an inquisitive look. “You know, the Royal Phoenix Roost Voice, so you can speak with authority and presence to people both in and outside the hive.  Helps build morale, as our mothers are oh so fond of saying.”

“Joy.” Blitz grumbled at how far removed her life was going away from more important goals, like inventing a new engineering marvel.

“But hey look on the bright side,” Aegis stated with a wry grin.  “You get to be a queen one day, that means we’re both going to be the next contestants on Changeling Evolution!”

All Aegis got out of Blitz was a tired snort.  Aegis passed it off as just fatigue. She’s still thinking like a drone.  Give her a year or two of royal blood in her brain and she’ll come around.  That line of thought made Aegis continue the one-sided conversation with a little more zeal.  “I mean you totally earned your ‘princess-to-be’ necklace.”  

Rolling her head to the side, Blitz gently rubbed a hoof along the silver chain on her neck which was adorned with Rainbow’s cutie mark.  If the necklace meant anything to Blitz, it would be Rainbow’s absolute faith in her.  With Aegis’ love giving Blitz some much needed mental energy, she smiled and pressed the pendent tightly to her chest.

Aegis saw Blitz clutching the necklace with the blue drone’s eyes misting over a little.  Time to press it home.  <You get to be more than a drone, you get to be Aunty Rainbow’s first heir, and as she worded it, ‘super special awesome’.>  Sadly, Blitz’s happy tears sapped much of her diminished mental strength, so all Aegis got out of Blitz was a feeble hoof wave and an equally miserable ‘yeaaa’.  <Did I mention as the civic queen you get to head and/or supervise all of the engineering projects within our future hive?>

Blitz might have come up with a cheerful reply at that one, but at that moment she was too exhausted to think happy thoughts beyond knowing Rainbow had chosen her of all people to be her first heir.  What was left of her remaining brainpower was solely devoted to devouring the vanilla cupcakes with chocolate frosting.  

Seeing that she was getting nowhere fast, Aegis let the conversation drop, and to allow Blitz to mull over her words.  Well, my princess exams were murderous, and I had a hoof in all of Blitz’s class testing… I think I need to make this vacation of hers a memorable one. 

One by one, the dozen sugary delights were consumed into their depthless maws as Aegis made a mental checklist on how to have the best week ever, that didn’t involve Burny or egg laying, much to her displeasure.  This vacation should be all about Blitz.  So, I should probably get with Pinkie Pie to help get some ideas.  



Thanks to sugar, time, and Aegis’ evolving love for her, Blitz’s mind started to return to normal.  So it was that it took Blitz three and a half cupcakes to pause long enough to notice the fluffy treats had writing on them.  “Happy Funnaversery.  What do you think this is about?”

“It’s Pinkie Pie,” Aegis shrugged. “Does she need a reason?”

“Point taken.”

Blitz finished off her cupcake while Aegis returned to her checklist, but didn’t get far when normalcy took a nosedive when the Cutie Mark Crusaders ran up to Pinkie at the cash register wearing, of all things, Pinkie Pie costumes.  The Crusaders were well on their way to marehood, but they still had that youthful energy they were famous for.  That same energy was being tested as the three fillies bounced all around the room like Pinkie Pie trying to hold a secret.  Apple Bloom bounced in front of some drones giggling like a schoolgirl.  “Fun! Fun! Fun!”

Scootaloo jumped over to Pinkie and vaulted the display case a couple of times.  “Fun! Fun! Fun!”  Pinkie snort-laughed manically at the whole thing.

Some of the ponies started giggling along with the pink baker as Sweetie Belle found her way over to Aegis and Blitz’s table.  “Fun! Fun! Fun!”

Blitz eyed Sweetie Belle like she had grown a second head. Aegis was at least trying to live up to her royal status by laughing behind her hoof.  “Is there a new Pinkie holiday we missed?”

Ever the performer, Sweetie Belle didn’t break character and joined her friends chanting ‘fun!’ over and over before they departed the store.  Left without answers, Aegis and Blitz twisted around in their booth to look out the window and see the fillies join a few of their classmates who were all wearing Pinkie Pie costumes.  They too were bouncing around the center of town chanting “Fun!” along with at least a dozen adults.

“You think this about the Funnaversery?” Aegis asked no one in particular.

“Yup-a-ruunie!” Both changelings turned around to find the real Pinkie Pie snickering as she watched the kids outside.  “I thought it’d be a great way to turn a groan day into a silly day, and ponies have way too many serious days.”

Blitz checked the hive mind for the date, but didn’t think she had time to ask either queen about it and stalling the conversation without being rude to Pinkie.  “What makes today a groan day?”

“Weeell,” Pinkie waved her hoof to stall her embarrassment.  “A while ago I found a mirror pool that could make clones of me, and my other-mes sorta kinda maybe caused some trouble for the whole town.”  Without even missing a beat, Pinkie saw the judgmental confusion.  “So to help the town remember this day with smiles instead of groans, I had costumes made for all the ponies who wanted to participate for some good fun!”  Pinkie pointed outside to some adults who were costumed up as the pink baker and bouncing around.

That’s when it hit Aegis.  An idea.  Some might call it fun, some might call it mad, but to her, it was genius.  <Hey, Blitz, we need to round up all our brothers and sisters in town.  I have a plan.> 

<I hope it doesn’t involve fire this time,> Blitz replied with a hopeful half-smile.

<No promises.>  Aegis took the cupcake carrying box and closed the lid.  “Sounds interesting, Pinkie.  Mind if we join in the fun?”

“As if you need to ask, silly buggy.”  Pinkie’s first thought was to grab more costumes from Rarity’s boutique, but she remembered the changelings’ disguise magic.  “Just remember, only harmless pranks.  Wouldn’t want to make smile day a groan day again.”

“I’ll keep her in line,” Blitz replied with a leering eye at Aegis.  “It’s going to be my job before too long, and I might as well get some practice in.”

Aegis vaulted over the table and made her way to the exit.  “Well you better keep up, future princess.”

Blitz scoffed and chased after her fleeing sister while Pinkie Pie gasped comically loud.  “Future princess!?  Looks like I got another party to plan.  Woo Hoo!!”





It wasn’t long before Aegis had summoned all two hundred drones in Ponyville (minus Cadista’s former love collectors), to her mother’s old tree library.  Since the battle with Tirek was mostly fought away from town, thanks to the Deception, the house had avoided destruction that may have theoretically occurred to it in other realities, and had since become a sort of hive away from hive.

Already, numerous drones were chatting about the Funnaversery on the first floor of the old tree house.  The crowd buzzed with excitement, which also made speaking aloud all but impossible with buzzing wings, at the plan Aegis had in store for the day.

Blitz and Aegis stood alone on the loft near Twilight’s old bed.  Twilight originally didn’t want to give it up, but her queen sized body was simply too large for it.  So for the time being, Aegis honored her mother by taking up residence here during her vacation. 

<Alright, everypony listen up!> Aegis shouted to calm her rumbustious kin.  Most settled down, though for many it was their first vacation and they wanted to enjoy every moment of it.  <Now as most of you have seen, the Funnaversery is all about dressing up as Pinkie Pie and channeling our inner fun.  But I say, why should today be limited to just Pinkie Pie?”

Thunderfury jumped to hover above his fellows.  “Ooo!  You mean we should go as our queens!?”

“You got it!” Aegis cheered, making the drones buzz even louder in anticipation.  “But since Pinkie is a pony, we should go as the original pony versions of our mothers.” The crowd quickly spoke their agreement, prompting Aegis to continue.  "Now we need to make a big entrance to start things off, but after that we should split off to cover more ground."  Aegis summoned a quill and large roll of paper from a nearby desk.  "I'll make a list of all the key places around town for us to visit, and assign groups there.  Once done, we can go wherever we want."

As Aegis went about making her checklist, Blitz was fine with remaining silent, but a worrying idea struck her not long after Aegis started.  “Wait!”  Most drones stopped mid-disguise to look up at her questioningly.  “Shouldn’t we ask our queens about this first?”  Most of the drones grumbled worriedly and naturally looked to Princess Aegis for leadership.

Acting quickly, Aegis leveraged those speaking lessons to take on a voice of reassuring command, and utilized her royal blood’s subconscious authority over drones.  “Don’t worry about it, girls, it’s just some harmless fun, plus we’re only doing the same thing the ponies are.  Besides, we don’t need to ask the queens every time we want to do stuff, right?”  Aegis searched the crowd’s aura, seeing many of them come around, but there were still some wary siblings out there.  Aegis switched tactics and called upon Rainbow’s style of pep-talk.  “Hey!  Our bloodline’s critical advantage over the other hives is independent thought and taking the initiative without needing to bog our queens down with little stuff.  We have to take this holiday by storm and show not only Equestria but our queen-mothers that we’re totally taking social integration to heart.”  By now, she could feel her siblings’ excitement with many of them on their hooves or wings, waiting for Aegis to give the final word. 

Aegis’ reptilian eyes dilated at the real sense of accomplishment.  We get to make our mothers proud and they don’t even need to babysit us.  “Alright, lads and lasses-”

“Hold on!” Blitz shouted over the general buzz, making Aegis groan impatiently.  “We can’t go around chanting ‘fun’ though, it’s not as fitting as it is with Pinkie Pie.”

The general murmur around the house was in agreement leaving Aegis in doubt as well. She’s got a point.  “So we need to chant something momma-clones would say?”

“Exactly,” Blitz replied with her mother’s prankster streak shining through in a mischievous smirk.  “And I know exactly what we should do.”





Applejack chuckled at her market stall at the small group of ‘Pinkie Pies’ bouncing all over the town square.  “Silliest thing Ah ever did see.”  Sour memories of a failed barn raising due to clones sat in the back of her mind, but the farm mare was willing to sit on those reservations to let others have their fun.  

Lyra Heartstrings came up with a bit purse in her magic.  “Heyya, Applejack, I’ll take a dozen of your best reds.”

“Gotcha covered,” Applejack replied happily as a few more Pinkie Pies passed by.  Both mares shared mild pleasantries and idle banter as they exchanged bits for produce.  However, Lyra stopped just short of walking off again when the ground trembled beneath her hooves and the air itself vibrated around their ears.

“Do you feel that, Applejack?” Lyra asked as she noticed a pebble rattling on the ground.

“Yeah,” Applejack replied worriedly as she flattened her ears to protect them.  “Feels like it’s coming from the library.” 

The mares turned in that direction to behold a jumping and flying tidal wave of blue and purple.  Applejack’s eyes narrowed to pinpricks at the jubilant mass of ponies roaring forward.

“Books! Books! Books!” the crowding purple unicorns chanted as they leapt to and fro, filtering through the stunned ponies while a dense cloud of blue hung over head.  “Pranks! Pranks! Pranks!”

Lyra was tickled pink as two Twilight Sparkles bounced over and jumped in circles all around her.  “Books! Books! Books!” 

“You want books eh?”  Lyra fished around her saddlebags and pulled out a paperback almanac.  She waggled it in her magic with the drones playing along and eyeing the literary treat like expectant puppies.  “I’ve got study material for all things astroloooogyyyy!”

“Books! Books! Books!”  the pony Twilights chanted with delight.  They glanced between Lyra and the waggling book trying their hardest to keep from laughing at the silliness of it all.

Lyra flung the book high into the air, easily giving the trio of Twilight enough time to chase after it and catch it in their magic. The trio zipped off with their prize.  Applejack rounded her stall to stand by Lyra’s side.  “Ah was afraid Pinkie’s holiday might spread like wildfire with Twi and RD’s kids.”

“They’re so cute though, aren’t they?” Lyra mused wistfully as she tried to pick out the slightly taller form of Aegis.  Soon my pretty hands… soooon.





Fluttershy was at the other end of the market looking for Zecora’s ‘once every two week sales day’ stall.  I hope she remembered to grab those herbs I needed, or else I won’t have enough medicine for the week.

Fluttershy was flying low to the ground, as per usual, humming along to keep her spirits up.  Her pace slowed when she heard chanting and occasional bouts of laughter coming from further up ahead.  There was the expected gathering of ponies going about their daily shopping, but what confused Fluttershy was that the amassed throng of purple beings was their focus. It was only until she got closer that Fluttershy could see they were not Twilight’s drones, but Twilight herself, with about a hundred copies of herself running around chanting ‘books’.  It was only now that Fluttershy saw several ponies and schoolchildren, who were obviously not disguised drones due to the imperfections in their costumes who were joining in shouting ‘fun!’ all over the place.

“Pranks!” yelled several voices from right behind Fluttershy making her yelp and jump frightfully into the air while turning around.  She found several pony versions of Rainbow Dash snickering maniacally before flying off in different directions.

“Oh my,” Fluttershy heaved as she got her heart rate under control.  “I feared this day would come.” Good thing I had Angel Bunny prepare a shelter.

“Pranks!” yelled some more Rainbows from behind Fluttershy, causing her to freak and race over to Zecora’s stall.  The drones looked sheepishly at each other and bolted for less panicky prey.

Fluttershy came to a screeching halt at the shaman’s stall when she found Zecora giving the stink eye to the sleeping Rainbow Dash perched on top of the stall’s sign.  “Welcome friend, Fluttershy, I hope you too have have not had problems from on high.”

Fluttershy looked up at Rainbow’s imposter who was draped over the flimsy sign that was threatening to buckle.  “Naps, snnnzzzzzkk, naps,” the disguised drone moaned sleepily.  

“Oh well, I wouldn’t say that, exactly,” Fluttershy said as she quickly looked backwards at the sound of feathered wings on the air, only to find it was a passing lime green pegasus.  Some part of her briefly wondered how changelings managed to make that sound while disguised.  “But, um, they’re just having fun.”

Fluttershy realized her mistake the instant the last word left her mouth.  A half dozen pink ponies raced up yelling “Fun! Fun! Fun!”

Yelling in fear, which sadly ended up sounding like she was playing along, Fluttershy was chased by the six Pinkie Pies all the way out of the marketplace before they bounced away to find more unhappy ponies to cheer up.

Zecora sighed at both Fluttershy and the false Rainbow Dash still limply draped on her sign.  “These ponies and their crazy way, I’ll have to go by her house later today.”







Rarity was many things; a fashionista, a mother, friend to both pony and changeling crowns, a dressmaker, and a businessmare.  However, it was rare that people took notice of just how shrewd of a businessmare she actually was.  Even now with her second foal barely a month away, she toiled away at the store floor, making sure her stock was ‘just so’. 

The sound of leathery wings heralded her husband’s arrival from upstairs.  “I thought I’d find you down here, toiling away as always.”

“My dear, Epaulets,” Rarity cooed as he came in for a loving nuzzle.  “Would you have me wasting away in bed while our foal-to-be saps me of my strength?”

“As if you let that stop you the first time,” Epaulets replied with a wink and a kiss.  “I know better than to try and stop you, but you should at least let me take more of the workload for the time being.”

“No time for that now, darling,” Rarity declared as she waddled her way over to stand at the ready for the expected customers.  “Today is important.”

Epaulets stood there quizzically, yet his unspoken question was not answered by Rarity, but by the clamor going on outside.  Rarity nodded towards the door, prompting him to take a look.  However he barely got three steps before the door exploded open to reveal a Rainbow Dash, three Twilight Sparkles, and Sweetie Belle dressed up as Pinkie Pie.”

“Fun! Pranks! Books!” they cried as they bounded into the room all smiles and smirks.  Rarity gave her sister a knowing grin before going right into her sales pitch.  “Well heavens me, but it looks like we have a clone parade today!”  Rarity pulled a rack of dresses over that had a book motif, ranging from decorative script, to having layered fabric appearing as pages of a tome.  The brief moment of the Twilight Sparkles breaking character was all Rarity needed to pull up a second line of outfits.  “I even made some dashing book suits for those you who are colts under that disguise.”

One purple unicorn blushed and pulled over to peruse the suits.  Sweetie Belle was caught between embarrassment at her sister capitalizing on the holiday like this and being impressed for the same reason.

“Pranks, pranks?” chirped the Rainbows as they swirled inquisitively around Rarity.

“I haven’t forgotten about you,” Rarity teased.  

She looked to Epaulets who was now stuck with scoffing laughter.  So that’s why she wanted me to work on those motifs.  “Come one, come all, to the finest garments any self respecting prankster should wear.”  The two Rainbows were joined by three more that flew in, along with two more Twilight Sparkles.  “Comfortable, unisex, and yet won’t get in the way if you need a quick escape, and even has pouches so you need not burden yourself with saddlebags.”

“Pranks! Pranks! Pranks!” they chanted as the Rainbows swarmed over the outfits.  Many of them saw potential uses for such utilitarian clothing in soldiering or engineering duties, and quickly snatched up the whole line.

“Now don’t worry about paying now,” Rarity said at the expected question, though mostly so none of them had to break character.  “I’ll pass the tab along to your mothers.”

It wasn’t long before drones of both colors cycled through the boutique and quickly took Rarity and Epaulets’ entire stock.

Rarity leaned against her thestral husband smiling all the while.  Sweetie Belle came up to her with a mildly disapproving half-smile.  “Rarity, you’re so bad sometimes.”

“Oh posh,” Rarity dismissed with a hoof wave.  “I’m already giving them the friend’s discount.”

“Not to mention the changelings are in terrible need of some different colors,” Epaulets added with a proud nod to his work.  “Blue, purple, and brass can get a bit stale after a while.” 

“I hope so,” Sweetie Belle replied with a little less sour in her tone.  Poor bugs may look like adults, but they’re like kids in so many ways.






Aegis couldn’t be happier as she ran through town with Blitz at her side along with a small group of her blue and purple kin.  “Books!  Books!” she said at random passersby as her group somehow managed to round town hall, the spa, and Rarity’s shop only to return near the library without realizing it.

Dusk was upon Ponyville by the time most Ponyvillians were used to the new additions to the Funnaversery so they passed it off with mild yet tired cheer.  Hunger and thirst clawed at Aegis, but not only did she want to keep having fun, but saw it as a test of her endurance.

Off to the side, she spotted an orange unicorn mare sitting alone on a cafe bench.  Yet it was the book she had her nose stuck to that made Aegis grin.  Aunty isn’t the only one who likes a good prank.

Mentally pinging her purple siblings, Aegis led them away from Blitz and the rest to stalk the new mare that she hadn’t seen in her literary tour of the town.  The trio of Twilight Sparkles crept the long way around the cafe’s outer fence.  A few passing ponies saw them and it didn’t take much for them to identify their hapless target.  Some ignored it and moved on while a few stuck around to see a harmless scream.

Aegis gingerly crept over the fence while her two cohorts simply bounded over it, thankfully the cafe had soft grass to quiet their landing.  As one, the three disguised changelings jumped right behind the blissfully unaware unicorn.  “Books! Books! Books!” they cried as the Twilight Sparkles bounced around the mare’s table.

“I hear you’ve had fun today,” the orange mare said with a snorting nerdy giggle.  Aegis and the others stopped bouncing around and looked at the orange mare with confusion at the familiar tone.  “I hope you didn’t smudge my good name too much today.”  

The orange mare gave Aegis just long enough for her to see the unicorn radiated the tell tale sign of non-changeling arcane illusion magic, a sort of mana runoff that was obvious to her now that she thought to look.  Upon Aegis’ realization, the orange mare seemed to warp and grow as magic rippled off of her like water to reveal the real Queen Twilight Sparkle.  

One of the stallions in the small crowd jeered, “Busted!”  Others in the crowd joined in the schadenfreude.

Aegis and her cohorts did a good impression of Fluttershy by squeaking and jumping backwards while dropping their disguises.  “Oh, ah, hey mo- I mean, my queen.  It was all harmless fun, honest.”  The two drones dumbly parroted Aegis.

“Uh huh.”  Twilight stood to her full height to eye her royal daughter.  “Now, Aegis, I hope I can walk through town without any dirty looks.”

“Umm…” Aegis gave her best innocent smile.  “You may want to avoid Cranky Doodle’s house for a while.”

Twilight’s face soured progressively worse as the same stallion jeered some more ,”OOooo you did it now, girl.”

Aegis wanted to give the stallion some lip, but Twilight’s Motherly Glower of Parental Vexation rooted her gaze.  “Anypony else?”

“There was that brown guy with the hourglass mark that dropped his ice cream cone after we ambushed him,” one of the drones offered hesitantly.

“And we may or may not have scared Granny Smith up an apple tree.”

“I thought you purple guys chanted ‘books’ not ‘pranks’,” the stallion heckled with mounting amusement.

Aegis purposely shifted her eyes between her mother and the stallion, but Twilight remained unmoving as if she couldn’t even hear him.  “I trust you didn’t just leave her up there, did you?”  Twilight sighed in relief when they shook their heads.  “Very well, you may enjoy the rest of your week, my daughters.  From what I’ve seen, the holiday was a grand success,” Twilight added with a sly wink and smile.  “Since you managed to expand the holiday, we should make this a yearly event, what do you say?”

“That’d be stupendous, my queen,” one of the drones cheered while Aegis inwardly heaved a sigh of relief.  The turnaround in the conversation saw the crowd dispersing, leaving only the heckling stallion behind.

“Do you think we could do the rest of your pony friends next year?” Aegis inquired eagerly.

“You better ask them in advance first,” Twilight conceded, but her tone grew stern again.  “But before we go into any of that, Aegis, I want you to try to make it up to Granny Smith, Cranky, and whoever the other stallion is.  Any success can be reversed if any of them hold a grudge about it.”

“Yes, my queen,” Aegis and the others replied with deflated enthusiasm.  

With a queenly nod and an amused smile, Twilight pulled away from the table, threw her forelegs out and let her expression go from queen to mother.  “Now come here you three.”

Aegis and the others beamed smiles at the prospect of Mother-Twilight time and raced over to glomp their matriarch to form a pile of fur and giggles.  Aegis was fastest and got the coveted spot where she could fully wrap her arms around Twilight and nuzzled her chest.  All three of them basked in Twilight’s motherly love as if it was the light of the Silver City itself.  Twilight in turn let her children’s love wrap around her like a warm blanket on a cold night.  “You all make me so proud.”  She hugged them a little tighter, flooding them with her depthless love.

Between Twilight’s praise, the embrace, and her mother’s love, Aegis dearly wished she could prolong this moment for an eternity.  A small part of the back of her mind pondered the future.  I wonder what it will feel like on the flip side.

As always, it was Twilight who had to break the embrace with one of the drones looking into Twilight’s eyes with pride.  “Will you be staying long?”

“The whole week,” Twilight replied, much to the trio’s profound delight.  “Gentle Touch is more than capable of running things for that long without me.”  

Aegis and the others cheered wildly and pranced around Twilight.  “Does this mean we get momma-time with you all week?!”

Twilight tittered behind a hoof.  “Well it wouldn’t be much of a vacation if I spent it as Queen-Twilight now would it, just remember it’s not just you three,” she added with a knowing smirk.  Before Aegis and the others could explode with excitement, Twilight continued.  “Now off you go for now, and have fun while you can,” Twilight focused on Aegis, “Rainbow and I will be redoubling your training after the vacation to make up for the week.”

“Ah, that’s future me’s problem,” Aegis remarked before turning to wave the drones to come with her.  “Come on, girls, I heard Applejack’s got some hard cider waiting for us.”

“Now you're speaking my language,” cheered one.

“Yes!  That stuff’s stupendously good!” yelled the other.

Aegis cast one last questioning leer at the lingering stallion who was busying himself with reading over the cafe’s menu on a stand-up chalkboard, but since his aura remained a playful yellowish green instead of a more insidious color, she ultimately dismissed him.  The trio sped away to fully enjoy the week. 

With them gone, Twilight sat back down to enjoy her book with a waiter bringing over a few hayburgers and some root beer.  With only the waiter and a few remaining diners of the cafe remaining nearby, the stallion cantering over to Twilight before being wreathed in magenta flames to reveal Rainbow Dash puppeting Thunderfury.  “Gotta say, Twi, this was a crazy fun day.”

Twilight playfully rolled her eyes at the obvious word play.  “Ha, and that it was.”  With only a thankful nod to the waiter, Twilight dove right into her burger.  <How long did it take before you joined in the fun?>

“All of about two seconds,” Rainbow snickered.  “Had to jump from kid to kid every so often so I wouldn’t take anypony’s whole day away.”

“Well that was thoughtful of you,” Twilight said with a blissful mouth full of heavenly food.  Omnivore or not, Twilight still loved a good and greasy hayburger loaded down with onions, pickles, and swimming in ketchup. 

“Yeah well you know me, I am the nice one,” Rainbow teased as she leered at Twilight.

“If that’s the case, we’re all doomed,” Twilight shot back with a chuckle.  Her mirth died as her breath caught in her throat.  “Wait… you jumped from drone to drone?  You at least made sure they had some privacy before departing them right?”

Rainbow turned away with a superior fang filled grin.  “Of course I did, what do you take me for?”  Thunderfury started to worry and prepared to bolt for an alleyway should Rainbow release him right then and there.

“A shameless prankster,” Twilight deadpanned with an unamused lifted eyebrow.  

“Whatever gave you that idea?” Rainbow replied innocently.  

“Everything from the day I met you and on,” Twilight rebuked while blowing a raspberry.   

“Guilty as charged.”  Rainbow cackled, offering no further defense.  “By the way, Pinkie’s throwing a final party to close the day out.  I’m physically on my way over now.  You going to be there?”

The famished queen downed the last bite, and used the bun of a second burger to wipe the ketchup off her face with practiced success.  <On my vacation?  Wouldn’t miss it for the world.>