Guide You Home

by Magical Trevor

Chapter the Twenty-Third

Moonstone and Starlight both flinched as a large manor suddenly appeared in front of them, appearing quite dark and ominous in the gloom. As they gasped for breath, Moonstone looked at Twilight in amazement, knowing that a spell like that must have taken a lot of magic to accomplish, but she was fine, standing firm. “I have got to learn more spells,” Moonstone promised to himself.

“You’ll have time for that later, once you’ve built your Ether levels back up,” Twilight lectured, taking a moment to gather her bearings. “Right now you’d be doing well to levitate more than your own body weight, so don’t go pushing yourself without proper supervision, got it?”

“No, not really,” Moonstone answered, confused. “Supervision? How do you supervise magic?”

Twilight blinked, opening her mouth, but was interrupted by the front door opening with a bang, Milky Way and Hot Streak jumping out of the dark house screaming, “Surprise!”

Moonstone, still not used to his new, lower Ether levels, only caused himself a minor headache as his horn began to glow, then faltered, cutting out. Starlight jumped only slightly, a testament to the length of exposure she had to her younger, more energetic, sister and her antics.

“Is you surprised? We did our best to, to surprise you, cause you was just standin there, instead of comin’ in like you was supposed to, so me an Streaky thought to ourselves, and we thought that, that you might have known that this was a surprise party, so then you wouldn’t get surprised when we tried to surprise you, so we thought that, that if we came to surprise you before you were supposed to be surprised, you’d be surprised for sure, and so then we opened the door and jumped out to surprise you, and now we’re waiting to see if you’s surprised!” Milly said in one breath, looking eagerly from pony to pony. “So... Is you surpriseded? ‘Cause I dun think that it’s gonna work if we try a second time...”

Looking at the other ponies, Star nodded to her sister, smiling slightly. “I would say it’s safe to say that, yes, you surprised them, Milly.”

*Bang!*

“Augh!”

Everypony jumped into the air as a cannon shot from behind them, in the field of the manor. “Surprise!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, bouncing forward excitedly from behind three large party cannons that had all been fired at once. “Holey moley foaly! That worked out even better than I thought it would! I thought you wouldn’t be surprised, because Milly surprised you guys, and then you’d already be all surprised out, or that you’d turn around and see my cannons, but Milly did a great job distracting you, and so now we can have the party outside, since the inside is still a little spookyish, and-”

“Er, yes, thanks for that, Pinkie dear, but I do think that you could have given Twilight and I a warning of some kind, to say the least,” Rarity said, doing her best to gasp for oxygen more discreetly than her friends.

“Aw, come on, Rares, y’all enjoyed it an ya know it!” Applejack snickered, nudging her friend as she came from the house.

“Heck yeah! ‘Sides, you shoulda seen the looks on your faces!” Rainbow Dash chortled, carrying a large bowl of punch to the table.

“Yeah!” Alto said as she levitated several large tables outside through the doorway. “You guys were like-” Green fire engulfed Alto for less than a second, revealing a pristine copy of Rarity, leaving the newcomers gaping. ‘Rarity’ then gave a faint shriek as she practically hovered in the air, her mane becoming frizzled as she landed, her eyes wide open, though that changed as her right eye started to twitch ever so slightly.

“I do not look that frazzled!” Rarity objected, narrowing her eyes as a hoof stomped the ground. “I demand that you correct your appearance at once to one befitting of a lady such as... Wait, what?”

“Another changeling?” Moonstone asked, blinking as he glanced to Twilight. “Wow, Equestria sure is popular for-”

“A changeling! Everypony run!”

Moonstone blinked as three mares appeared out of seemingly nowhere and started screaming bloody murder. As other ponies started to panic, Twilight sighed, her face greeting her forehoof quite eagerly. “Ugh, I swear, those three...”

Taking a deep breath, Twilight’s horn lit with a lavender aura, and then began to speak. “Alright everypony, quiet down!”

Everyone froze as they stared at the lavender alicorn yelling at them with the Royal Canterlot Voice. Several ponies fell over on their faces, as they had frozen in mid-step. Twilight, lavender unicorn, librarian of Great Oaks Library, and all-around causer, then subsequent savior, of Ponyville catastrophes, had wings. In the brief silence that followed Twilight’s exclamation, Daisy shouted, “Twilight’s a Princess?!”

Changeling completely forgotten, everypony quickly bowed, much to Twilight’s annoyance. “Everypony cut it out! I’m not a princess!”

“It’s a trick!” Lily hissed to everypony else, staying bowed. “Don’t listen! She’s trying to figure out who’s not a real, loyal Equestrian to weed out the other changelings!”

“Yeah, because other changelings would totally ignore what you just said,” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes.

Alto looked around, then changed back to her natural form, inquiring, “Did I do something wrong?”

Rarity shrieked, jumping into the air before rushing the changeling, eyes wide with horror. “Oh my stars! What have you been doing to your mane? It’s atrocious! No, no-no, absolutely not! You can not continue to treat your hair this way!”

“Treat it what way?” Alto asked, confused.

“Umm, your... I mean, er, Twilight?” Roseluck asked, confused. “What’s going on? Why aren’t you capturing the changeling? How did you and your friends get wings? Did you or Celestia figure out a new spell or something?”

“Er, not quite,” Twilight laughed, her eyes shifting side to side as she lightly tapped her forehooves together. “There may or may not have been some, ah, shall we say, unexpected side effects to the Elements of Harmony?”

Roseluck blinked, opening her mouth, but then she paused for a moment as she, as well as the rest of Ponyville, watched as Rarity, with wings, was berating Alto about proper mane care. Alto appeared a bit shell-shocked, but nodded along with Rarity, trying to take notes as Rarity ranted about the difference between conditioners with aloe and conditioners without.

“Oh. Right, changelings. Um, this is going to sound crazy, but uh, turns out that the whole invasion thing was just a joke that Princess Celestia played on her niece to help make the wedding more... how did she put it...”

“‘Formal events at Canterlot are always really boring, right? So we called up my girl Chrysalis to make things more memorable!’” Moonstone said, speaking up from a nearby refreshment table, prodding at a muffin slowly with his hoof.

Roseluck blinked, mouth opening and closing several times before she found her voice. “I... guess that makes sense... So who’re the new ponies?”

Pinkie Pie started the party proper, doing her best with the other Elements to calm down the residents of Ponyville. Due to the recurrence of catastrophes in Ponyville, it wasn’t long before the ponies were laughing and having fun once more.

Milky Way bounced forward, eager to meet new ponies like her new bestest best friend Pinkie Pie. “Hai! I’s Milly, and that’s my sissy Star, and that bees Mister Moony! He bees really good at, at magics,” the little filly said authoritatively, nodding several times as she finished.

“Oh, well, it’s very nice to me-wahaahh! W-what the heck is wrong with your eyes?!” Roseluck exclaimed, jumping back from Moonstone. She blushed from her outburst, but was still too shocked to really apologise.

“Woah, cool!”

Moonstone suddenly found his personal space invaded as a grey pegasus mare hovered in front of him. “Err, can I-”

“How did you get your eyes different colors? Did you do it with a spell? Does it let you see in the dark? Could you show me?”

Blinking several times, Moonstone replied slowly, “Uh, kinda? I was cursed.”

The pegasus’ brow furrowed as one of her eyes began moving on its own. “What kind of curse? What color were your eyes originally?”

“I don’t know,” Moonstone said, shrugging his wings unintentionally. After wrestling a wing back into position at his side, he huffed, “I’ve had red eye for as long as I can remember, but guess they were silver before. Why?”

“Nevermind,” the mare replied, wings drooping to the ground as she trotted off with a muffin.

“So, if the wing thing was an ‘Element’ thing,” Roseluck asked, scratching the back of her mane, “then why does, um, Moony? Why does Moony have wings too? Is he an alicorn, or...”

“No, it-” Twilight stopped herself, sighing heavily. “It’s complicated, okay? Yeah, he got wings, but his Ether levels are practically a joke now. He has the knowledge to cast the spells, but not the power.”

“Ether? What’s that?”

Roseluck, to her credit, only twitched slightly as the ‘newly’ discovered resident changeling walked forward, her wings buzzing. Twilight answered instantly, her closed eyes indicating recital from rote memory. “Ether is the term that has been given to the energies of this world that we know and manipulate as ‘magic’. Ether Level is how we determine how much Ether it takes to complete a certain spell or job. It-”

“We don’t use Ether,” Alto interrupted, tilting her head.

“Wh... What?”

“Yeah, we use love, not... whatever you’re talking about,” Alto said, before stuffing a bright blue cupcake in her mouth.

As the changeling hummed in apparent satisfaction, Twilight’s eyes widened. “Wait, you mean to tell me that... Wait, why are you eating if you need love to survive?”

“Huh? No, no, no, that’s not... Is that what you ponies think?” Alto asked, interested.

“I guess so,” Moonstone answered, taking a bite of cupcake. “I know better, but I guess not everypony has had the chance to visit a hive.”

“Would you be interested in answering a few questions?” Alto and Twilight asked each other at the same time, both wide-eyed with excitement.

Milly blinked as the changeling and alicorn both bounded off eagerly, confusion written across her muzzle. “They, they’s kinda weird...”

Rainbow Dash, having been snacking at the food table nearby, swallowed before chuckling, “Yeah they are, kid. That’s egg-heads for ya.”

Author's Note:

I know this is super short, even by my standards, but I just... I’ve had trouble with this segment, and that was a good stopping point, so yeah. I hope I’m not getting bored of this story or something, because it still has a LONG way to go. <.<

So yeah, sorry about the brevity, but I have to get writing other stuff too! Later!

Comments

[Lucky424]

Oh look, those three are overreacting again. Everything's normal in this Ponyville..

[Lucky424]

3512152 Why, yes I did give a small chuckle at this. At first I was confused, thinking 'this hasn't updated in a while, what comment is he replying to?' But yes, it is fixed now.

"We're not alone!" a little creame colored filly protested

And don't worry, I know I've missed loads in my first two stories! That was way before I had an editor!

[Magical Trevor]

3512171 ... Yeah, I hate to do this to you, Lucky, but... I'm thinking there's a REALLY good chance I'm gonna cancel this story... I just... I can't NOT read it and wince. And not just a little 'oh, that's a tiny splinter' kind of wince, but a 'Good God my adrenaline just faded and this hurts like a *ing bitch!' kind of way.

Of course, that leaves me wondering what to do... There's far too much to rewrite, but I can't keep going when the beginning is just a poorly written OC that develops into a decent/good OC as time goes on. I think...

Hey, do you have Skype? It would be a lot easier to talk that way.

[Lucky424]

3512196 I do, but my internet connection is not good enough for video calls.

That, and everyone else in my room is asleep. I also don't even know where to find my username, as it automatically transferred over when Microsoft binned MSN Messenger.

Edit: He's not poorly written. He is very intriguing right from the start!

[Magical Trevor]

3512215 I don't do Video things anyway. I only ever use IMs. Just figured it would be faster to talk that way, so we don't have to wait for Fimfic to let us know when we've replied. I think I'm darethwinterstone. Yeah. That.

[Spacecowboy]

Going through my favorites and saw this one. Don't recall what it was about at this point, so going to reread it. You still plinking away at this story?

[Magical Trevor]

4301263 Yes and no. It's going to be rewritten as, really... Moonstone (one of the MCs) is a bit of a Gary Stu, and is out of character at times due to writing the story before I had REALLY figured out WHO he was, if that makes any sense. So I'm still in the process of reworking the plot to make sense, making decisions on what is and isn't important, etc. Nothing has been rewritten YET, so everything is the same as the original. (Once it is Rewritten, it will have (Rewritten) after the chapter title, and then the Author's Notes will include a Google Docs link to the original for those who want to see what it was like before the rewrite.)

[Spacecowboy]

4301325
Ah, I've gotcha. In that massive [re]planning stage, anotherwards. I've just been going through my nearly 700 favorites and scrutinizing each one, at the time I read it I enjoyed it as there's also an upvote from me on it. I'm certain on this reread I'll notice the stuff you mentioned. I'll also keep an eye out for when you start putting up the revisions, as well.

[Magical Trevor]

4301335 Alrighty. Feel free to comment on stuff you see that needs fixed/changed. (Like me having Cadance and Shining Armour after awhile, but the prologue doesn't have Celestia explaining to Luna that the sphere of Love has actually been taken over by Cadance, so that's why no one is thinking of her for love advice.)

With the re-write chapters, I'd make a blog saying which chapter(s) are now rewritten for reading pleasure, so no worries there.

[Spacecowboy]

4301413
Welp, after a few chapters in, I can see why you might want to rewrite it. I also faintly recall this story now. I thought it was going to be romance with Luna and Moonstone, and then shifted towards one of the OC mares you introduce. There was also something really weird where they all gained the attribute of another race for some reason or another that I no longer recall, I think. It'll be staying in my favorites, and still gotta reread from Ch 8 on.

When you go to rewrite, I'd try to keep an eye on word repetition. It crops up here and there, I think it's the only thing grammatically that has stood out to me. Also, his reaction of 'kill me, please' is definitely over-the-top and quite angsty.

[Magical Trevor]

4301681 Eeyup. The attitudes change far too quickly, stuff is over-the-top at places and emo at others, and... Yeah. It's just a clusterfuck, really. There's just a few things I have left to figure out before I get to rewrite.

[Enderstorm]

♪ I would die for you~
Cross the sky for you~
I would send out a light shining for you alone~
You're all I need~
You set me free~
And this fire will guide you home ♪

[Magical Trevor]

6035173 I am actuallly in the middle of rewritting the story, so feel free to either keep reading, so you can see why I want to start over, or wait for the updates. I hope to start pumping them out here soon, so... Yeah. X3

[Magical Trevor]

4660918 ... Why did I never see this comment? Notifications, why?! But yeah, that's it. You got it. X3
(And rewrites are coming soon! )

[Enderstorm]

6035718 Dawn of the Dragon was like, my favourite Legend of Spyro game.

[Lunar Valkyrie]

Whys yous stoppeded

[Magical Trevor]

9307313
Multiple reasons, but the main one is, honestly, my writing bug has just died down the past couple years. As I've gotten busy with work and other things, spending time to write just... hasn't really happened as much. As time went on, I had more ideas for the story, until eventually it felt like I needed to start over to make it "good", but then it go to the point where I wasn't sure I could start over. I just haven't come back to this story to see where I'd like to take it, as I also have other stories I "should" be writing, and am not.

[Lunar Valkyrie]

9307327
At least change them to canceled