//------------------------------// // 8| Magna Luna // Story: The Evil Paradox // by Alcatraz //------------------------------// I was so busy with preparations for training that, by the time Monday rolled around, I realised the minotaurs hadn’t arrived the previous day like they were supposed to. As I was walking to the dining hall for breakfast to bring the matter to Celestia’s attention, I was greeted by a bombastic cavalcade of five minotaurs all lead by Celestia, whose head barely came up to the chest of the biggest one. His shoulders were as wide as the almighty battle-axe strapped to his back, and packing enough muscle to make his golden ochre frame look like Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime. His upward-curved horns protruded from a mop of obsidian black hair with a sheen to match the tuft of hair at the end of his tail, and the only thing he wore was a pair of scruffy, leather-looking black shorts and accompanying silver belt. “Well if it isn’t Little Lulu!” the minotaur proudly exclaimed, stopping and stooping to tousle my mane. “Touch me again and I’ll vaporise you,” I seethed, glaring at the minotaur through tired and dreary eyes. After a brief pause and glances between the six of them, they group burst out laughing, Celestia included. “Minos,” Celestia said after several mirthful seconds, “are you not going to invite Luna to breakfast?” If my eyes didn’t deceive me, I could’ve sworn she winked at him. Raising an eyebrow in my direction, Minos paused briefly before promptly reaching down and scooping me up with an arm, slinging me over his shoulder like a duffel bag. “Hey, put me down!” I indignantly demanded, batting my forehooves against his back as he turned toward the dining hall. “I am Princess of the Night! I walk in the realm of dreams! I order you to put me down this instant!” I could almost feel every ripple of his muscled arm holding me. It was... Perturbing. And then I suddenly realised why Celestia had fallen behind as we began walking, looking up at me with that smug grin as I had no choice but to admit defeat, deflating against Minos’ back. There was no way I could compete with his brute strength. “Told you I’d get you back, ‘Little Lulu’,” Celestia chuckled. “I hate you so much,” I grumbled. The worst part about being toted around like luggage was when we entered the dining hall. Everyone shot glances my way, trying and failing to hide their giggles by stuffing their mouths with food, or hiding their muzzles in the crook of a hoof. Minos finally let me down into my chair like a parent would their toddler into a high-chair, patting me on the head. Boreas and Comet were already sitting either side of me, trying their absolute hardest at keeping a straight face. I leered at Comet. “Keep that up and I’ll tell you exactly why you should walk very gingerly around Boreas.” That wiped the grin off his face rather quickly. “I still have no idea what she did and I’m already scared...” “Should we tell him, Luna?” Boreas said. She and I exchanged that same knowing look. “Nah,” we both echoed, much to Comet’s continued discomfort and confusion. “Celestia,” Minos began as he sat down at the table, “how many guards and ponies do you have, and how many others have signed up?” “In the neighbourhood of four-hundred and fifty. Some are camping out the back of the castle because we couldn’t accommodate them all, unfortunately.” “Then they can stay where we are at the moment. Since I’m here on business, not that I don’t like your company, my dear, could you have everyone behind the castle after breakfast?” “Some of them are in for a rude awakening if they’re still asleep,” I mumbled. “That’s something to look forward to,” Celestia added, smiling at the thought. “And yes, that won’t be a problem.” “Very good!” Minos declared, curling his knuckles in each palm and cracking them with satisfying pops. Noticing that, Comet leaned over to me and whispered. “Is it too late to back out?” I snorted. “Yes, yes it is...” Once breakfast concluded, gathering everyone didn’t even take ten minutes. Minos may have been one of the most outgoing people (loosely put) I had ever seen, but dear god could he put the scare in you. Standing on a supply wagon the minotaurs brought for themselves, Minos delivered a drill sergeant-style speech to the crowd. It really put into perspective what my dad went through. He stopped the speech by abruptly stomping on the roof of the wagon. “Bring it out!” Two of the other minotaurs pulled it down the wagon’s tailgate–if you could call it that–and reached in behind the canvas curtain to haul out a giant, glass-looking orb attached to a crafted stand and set it in front of the wagon. “Each and every one of you will begin your training by demonstrating your strength,” Minos declared. I leaned over to Celestia to whisper into her ear. “What is that?” “An MPF, magic power finder. It measures magical and physical strength. Just watch.” “Do I have any volunteers to set the benchmark?” Minos said. I saw a few shaky hooves rise, and Minos pointed out one toward the front. “Come forward!” As the gathered crowd parted, an earth pony stallion strode up. Sporting a mud-brown coat and stony-grey mane, he was absolutely massive and well toned, though he had nowhere near as much muscle as Minos. In his mouth he held a leather strap attached to a stone warhammer that dragged alongside him. “What is your name?” Minos demanded. “Bastille, Sir!” “Hit this thing as hard as you can and prove you’ve got stones as big as your hammer!” “Yes sir!” “Give him some room!” Minos declared, and the other five minotaurs stepped forward to push the crowd back. As everyone parted in a large semi-circle around the MPF, Bastille reared back and rapidly spun the hammer above his head. Then, with all the strength he could muster, brought it crashing down upon the orb. I was honestly surprised neither shattered, and almost immediately, numbers somehow popped up above the orb and began shuffling around, settling on four digits. My jaw dropped. “One-thousand five-hundred and six!” Minos declared, hands on his hips. “Next!” Watching everyone try in vain to match or surpass Bastille’s score was quite the spectacle. During the initial scoring, one of the other minotaurs was keeping track of names and accompanying scores to compare who had the biggest improvement when they retested everyone at the end of training, from which the top two-hundred would be chosen. After everyone had their turn, scoring even as low as twenty, the highest score next to Bastille’s was a hair above a thousand. Jumping down from the top of the wagon and landing with a thud on the ground, Minos kicked everything into action. “Let’s get this show on the road and whip your fat flanks into shape so you’re fit to serve under royalty!” Lightly put, the next four weeks were chaos. The castle halls were somewhat calm during the day since all the trainees were outside, rain or shine, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t hear Minos’, shall we say, words of encouragement somehow echo throughout the castle. That motivated me to learn a soundproofing spell with a timer for my room, as training would often go late into the night. Nothing changed with how busy court got, so Celestia opted to handle the proceedings and desk work if I took care of everything else. At Minos’ behest, I also spent a chunk of time helping him train the guards alongside the other four minotaurs. One of the unicorn stallions, proficient with illusions, made a valiant attempt at trying to use his magic to fool Minos and myself into thinking he was doing better than he actually was. We only found out his deception after someone bumped into him, breaking the illusion that he was flawlessly hurdling over the obstacle course, when in reality he was reclining on the grass. The only reason he finished training was because of a nullifier Minos made him wear. Apparently, he had a few on hand for occasions he thought warranted their use. Bastille broke a few of the obstacles when he couldn’t get over them, opting to go through them instead, which was rather entertaining, and watching the pegasi perform aerobatic maneuvers while in combat was dazzling to behold. At the same time, I realised a fundamental difference between pegasi and thestrals that mirrored birds and bats on Earth. Who knew watching so much Animal Planet while baked would pay off? In a nutshell, feathered wings are great for long distance flying, but a thestral’s wings are more proficient with maneuverability. I’d witnessed several thestrals keep their pegasi opponents on the ropes when sparring, whereas a pegasus had the edge when it came to endurance flying. Boreas was quick on her hooves during the obstacle course, but when it came to target practice, she was only beaten out by one of the older pegasi due to his experience. Comet, on the other hand, performed excellently throughout training, which thankfully justified my decision in placing a portion of the guards under his command. There were endless drills, exercises, and combat training, during which I helped the unicorns with their magic, which was also a learning experience for me just as much as it was for them. There were a number of unicorns who could teleport, so I directed those that could to teach the others while I watched on and picked up on the technique. It saved me the headache of trying to teach myself, which would have likely taken even longer, and it was the same for the pegasi and their airborne combat regimen. I was effectively training and teaching myself as much as the guards. Between instructing the guards, my own training and duties around the castle as well as in the dream realm, I barely managed to get in alone time. What few hours I managed to squeeze in here and there were spent practicing flying in remote areas where nobody could witness my spectacular failures, usually in the form of crashing into bushes and the tops of trees. If I got stuck, I could muster enough magic and safely teleport myself to the ground. When I wasn’t picking twigs and leaves out of my mane, and washing the dirt off my coat, I was in the library studying spells, soaking up information like a sponge trying to drain the Pacific ocean. I found out that that there were three types of magic: Holder, caster, and passive. Holder magic effectively required an enchanted item to channel magic through your body, such as how witches and wizards used wands, amulets, and spellbooks in movies on Earth. That made me wonder if anyone could pick up a wand and start casting spells. Caster magic was limited to unicorns and alicorns as far as I knew. It basically required the use of our horns to draw on the magical energy from within and around us to cast spells. If we drained our own reserve of magic too quickly, it’d slowly recharge over time. Passive magic had a lot to do with earth ponies, pegasi, and all the other races. It gave earth ponies incredible strength, endurance, longevity, and likewise gave the pegasi the ability to fly and manipulate the weather and clouds, which I thought was pretty trippy. It was during one of my flying sessions that I discovered laying on clouds was like laying on a gigantic sack of freshly picked cotton! At one point during my studying, Celestia told me that, because alicorns had all the traits of each of the pony races, we could essentially do all of what they did. Our unique brand of magic effectively bolstered and enhanced the capabilities of each individual race, part of which resulted in an exceedingly long lifespan, and it explained how Luna was over a hundred years old and still looked like a teenager if I had to guess. Did it also mean alicorns had a higher tolerance for alcohol? I wouldn’t mind testing that one. It took a hell of a lot of practice, patience, and effort, but I finally had a handle on what I thought were the most important spells to know. The only thing I had trouble with when teleporting, conjuring magical barriers and so on, was exactly how much magic I needed to feed into the spell. When I pumped too much magic into my first attempt at teleportation, I wound up in the middle of a freaking forest. I had no idea how far I went, let alone where I was, but fortunately I was able to teleport back to my room by using the same amount of magic in reverse. Watching everyone score on the MPF on the first day gave me the idea of trying for a score of my own. Part of what I was doing during studying was designing a brand new spell, as well as finishing off the one I’d been working on. With how proficient I was becoming with my magic, I eventually learned how to cast spells without reading instructions on parchment like I had been doing. At the end of the four long weeks, I had a sneaking suspicion that all the time spent training, studying, and trying to perfect my magic as best I could, would pay dividends when it came to finding out why the stolen map had been so important. I had no idea how right I was. With the end of training finally in sight, Celestia had closed court for the day so she could observe the guards try to beat their high scores on the MPF, which gave me an opportunity to polish off my new spell in the four hours everyone spent trying to out-score one another. I’d discussed it with Celestia previously, and she seemed to like my idea of choosing the top twelve scoring guards to serve directly under us, and from there we would establish a proper chain of command within the castle. I already had my eyes on Comet, Boreas, and Bastille, and there were a few others that piqued my interest in my time spent training. As I was up in my room putting the finishing touches on my newest spell, I didn’t realise all the noise outside had died down until I heard a knock come from the balcony doors. Confused, I looked and saw Celestia gesturing me forward, so I went over and opened the doors. “Everything is prepared if you’d care to join us,” she said. “After you.” With Celestia ahead, we both glided down to the training grounds. The grass was worn down with how muddy it’d become from thousands of hooves trampling around. Two deep and four wide, the guards were assembled in groups of fifty with twelve standing in a row at the forefront as I flew over. We touched down next to Minos and the MPF he was leaning on, holding a large, rolled-up parchment in hand. He offered it to me when I approached, and I took it, unrolling and looking it over. It was all the scores from the MPF arranged highest to lowest, and some really impressive ones, too. The lowest was fifty, and the highest being about twenty-five hundred, which made me do a double-take. “Allow me to introduce those who scored in the top twelve,” Minos began. “Bastille made a huge improvement and scored the highest, and everyone else came within two-hundred of him.” We stopped at the beginning of the line, next to the same unicorn who tried pulling the wool over our eyes. Minos thumbed at him. “You remember this screwup?” I looked over the list to remind myself of the stallion’s name. He had jaundice-yellow eyes, a dark blue coat and purple mane to match, and his cutie mark had the sun overlapping the moon. “Midnight, yes.” “He scored the second lowest above Boreas, though his magic may prove to be useful. Next we have Ares...” Ares was quite the curiosity, though not in any sort of bad way. Looking him over, his jet black coat covered him from head to hoof including his wings, perfectly hugging his handsome, athletically toned body. The black of his coat crept up his ram-like horns, eventually tapering off halfway to the bone-white horns should be. What really stuck out as odd, however, was that he had no cutie mark. “...And then we have, uh, Princess Luna?” Minos’ voice caught me off guard, and when I looked to him, he and Celestia were already half way down the line, looking at me. Wait… When I looked back to Ares, he was sporting a small, knowing grin. He winked, and I suddenly felt a heat upon my cheeks that wasn’t the overhead sun. “Uhm, yes, right,” I replied, awkwardly clearing my throat. “Were you listening?” Minos asked, smirking at me. “I was curious as to why Ares has no cutie mark and a pair of horns is all.” “Care to fill the princess in, soldier?” Minos said. Wherever Ares came from, his accent was rich, smooth, and simply tantalising to listen to. “Your Majesty, rams and ewes do not get cutie marks, and being sired by a ram to my mother, a pegasus, means I won’t get one. Additionally, I inherited my father’s horns and melanism.” A flying battering ram, I mused. “Thank you for that clarification,” I replied, quickly moving to the next in line, a unicorn mare. “And what might your name be?” I asked. She had a red, yellow and black mane and tail that looked like a lava flow, and a fiery red coat to boot. Her cutie mark was a pair of wings closing around a flame. “Firefly, Princess.” “I must say, pyromancy is a fascinating magic, but I feel like I should warn you to take it easy so you’re not causing any collateral damage in the future.” “My apologies, Princess, It won’t happen again.” “Very good,” I replied, moving onto Comet, but he didn’t need any special introduction since I already knew him. Next on the chopping block was Veloce (Velo for short) the only thestral, or aptly named “bat pony” due to their appearance. She had a gunmetal blue coat and the most beautiful magenta eyes, and her mane was a two-toned, light and dark sapphire blue that matched her wings. When I first met her, I was curious, as erroneous rumours stated that thestrals drank blood. Though her diet included meat, she was the furthest from a bloodsucker there was, but what made her stand out were her lack of forelegs below the knees. One morning during training, I saw her attaching prosthetics and pulling the straps to tighten them above her knees and upper legs. Veloce told me she’d simply been born without them, and preferred to fight with her rear legs. And let me tell you, a flyer with the ability to buck you with as much strength as an earth pony coming at you at terminal velocity was a downright terrifying thought. “How’s training been treating you?” I asked Veloce. “I’ve managed to outperform the vast majority of trainees despite my limitations, so it’s been going well, Princess.” “I’m glad to hear. Keep up the good work, Velo.” After Minos went through and introduced the rest of the twelve, some of whom I already knew in passing, it was time to see how high I could score. “Minos,” I began, “since everypony else has had their turn, mind if I have a crack at the MPF?” He furrowed his brow in confusion. “You princesses are the strongest out of all the soldiers here. Why do you want to?” I shrugged. “I couldn’t tell you the last time I had my magic measured like this. You don’t mind, do you?” “Not at all,” he replied, gesturing to the stand with a polite wave of his hand. With my newly dubbed Meteor spell fresh in my mind, I took flight and quickly drew five arrays some fifty metres directly above the MPF with my magic, all connected by lines resembling a five pointed star inside a pentagon. I floated in the centre of it all, and began charging the massive spell with as much magic as I could gather, and then I started the incantation. The entire array began glowing brightly alongside me, and I could feel the spell charging my horn with a massive amount of magic. When I felt it near critical mass, I reared back and unleashed the almighty ball of incandescent magic directly on top of the MPF like a comet roaring through the sky. From my position above, I saw detritus get kicked up all around ground zero as everyone in the immediate vicinity staggered back to shield themselves from the shockwave, breaking their formation. By the time I touched back to the ground, I barely had enough magic left to teleport back to my room. I gazed upon the four numbers with pride. So this is the power that Luna wields? I thought to myself. Seven thousand, six-hundred and twenty-two. “I didn’t think someone your age had such power!” Minos said in awe. “Care for a turn, Celestia?” “Don’t mind if I do,” she said without a second glance. “Mind if I go all out?” she asked, looking over her shoulder to Minos. He shrugged indifferently. “That’s what it’s for!” Clearing her throat and closing her eyes, Celestia spread her wings and hovered just out of reach of the orb, her horn glowing as bright as the sun. After several seconds of fierce concentration, a bead of magic shot skyward from her horn. Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed it as forehooves shielded faces from the blinding sun. And like a kid holding a magnifying glass over a colony of ants, a column of blazing yellow light slammed into the ground with a wave of intense heat radiating outward. Everyone staggered further back and shielded themselves from the heat, myself included. After the smoke cleared, everyone stared in silent disbelief with agape jaws at those five digits. “There’s no way that number can be real!” someone in the crowd shouted. I was lost for words, but Minos grinning widely and chuckling at everyone’s bafflement. “Ten thousand and forty-two isn’t anything to sneeze at! Now, you’re dismissed!” Minos bellowed to the assembled, then ordering to two minotaurs for the MPF to be put back inside the wagon. I shot a look to Celestia, and she proudly stuck her nose up in the air, making a deliberate show of cantering toward the castle like that display of hers was nothing. “Pfft, show off,” I muttered under my breath. With training complete, and the new recruits selected to serve Celestia and myself, Celestia took it upon herself to send the latter half of the guards home with a letter saying because they’d completed royal guard training, they could serve as sheriffs, deputies, or whatever else ponies called the ones who looked after their respective towns, so that even though they hadn’t been selected, their training wasn’t completely wasted. Since we already had accommodations set up, it was decided to put two guards in each room, splitting up the mares and stallions on different floors for obvious reasons. Everyone was more than welcome to decorate their rooms within reason so as to make them feel more homey. We divvied up the guards according to their capabilities, experience, and split them into three groups so they all could learn off of one another. Two groups of sixty worked from Monday to Thursday when it was busy, and the rest did Friday to Sunday while still maintaining a presence. Having been the underdog at the office for years, it felt nice having people working for me. The fact that they had powers (for lack of a better word) beyond my wildest dreams was the icing on the cake. With the newcomers settled in, Celestia and I decided it was time to pursue the matter of the missing map. We gathered our chosen guards in a conference room Celestia used to discuss sensitive diplomatic cases. Once everyone was inside, and the doors closed, I spread out the relevant maps I brought with me for everyone to look at. “Five weeks ago,” I began, “the castle, and subsequently my room was broken into. A pegasus stallion with a rust-red coat and green eyes is to blame. Courtesy of yours truly, he may or may not still have a nasty gash across his face. We also believe that he was not alone, as the attending guard outside my door was knocked unconscious. Whether it was a unicorn or pegasus is still unknown.” Comet thickly swallowed, but the others didn’t need to know it was him. I pointed out the small map that was stolen, and the one that was recovered. “Apparently, these maps play an important role in his agenda, though what his goals are still continue to elude us. Comet,” I said, turning to look at him, “care to fill in everypony about what you told me?” “Several years ago,” Comet began, “there was an earthquake that created a large crevasse outside the mountain range. Between then and now, I’d venture that somepony has made a discovery and needed maps to fully chart the area. The question that concerns us is how many are involved, and what it is they’re after.” “Princess Luna, if I may ask, what does this have to do with the rest of us?” one of Celestia’s guards, Slipstream, asked. “In addition to making up for the lack of security we didn’t initially have,” Celestia said, “we plan on taking a few of you to the town located within the mountain range to investigate. We suspect anypony with involvement will have a presence there since it’s the closest town to the crevasse they can buy supplies from.” “So are we like Her Majesty’s Secret Service?” Boreas asked with a grin. “As superiors to everypony else while under the guidance of the more seasoned guards, it will be your responsibility to maintain proper order among the lower ranked guards and make sure their duties are carried out accordingly,” Celestia said sternly in response. “All of you have been chosen because your respective skillsets will be instrumental in situations like this.” “When do we start this little operation of ours?” Firefly asked. “Tomorrow,” Celestia replied. “We do not know what else has been going on, and we need to get to the bottom of everything before the situation devolves even further. Anypony involved alongside the stallion that assaulted my sister over the maps has committed treason against the crown for their own ends, and I shall not stand for it.” I had no idea Celestia cared about Luna enough to accuse someone of treason. All the more reason to keep my situation to myself. “Starting in the morning,” Celestia continued, “Midnight, Boreas, Slipstream, and Firefly will be sent to the town of Mercy to monitor any and all nefarious activities, and pay the crevasse a visit to find out if it holds any significance. Your orders will be to mingle with the town’s ponies and keep a watchful eye out for the previously mentioned stallion and apprehend him if you find him. Everypony else will carry out their regular duties while being informed of potential security threats.” “One flaw in that plan,” I said. Celestia cocked an eyebrow. “Explain.” “If that stallion was to be apprehended the moment he’s spotted, he wouldn’t be able to lead us to his accomplices.” “Hmm, a valid point. How do you wish to do things then, Luna?” “If you’ll allow it, I’d like to accompany everypony, and I do have good reason.” “Luna, I can’t let you wander into danger again. We don’t know what those ponies are capable of!” “Celestia, listen to me for a moment. I’ve seen that stallion’s face; I know exactly what he looks like. Would you risk apprehending an innocent stallion just because he bears a similar resemblance to another?” She sighed and pinched her brow in frustration. “If I may?” a deep, gravelly voice spoke. “Yes, Anvil?” Celestia said through exasperation. “Princess Luna makes a good point. We can’t run the risk of arresting an innocent stallion and having the operation blowing wide open sooner than it needs to.” “Can everypony give us a moment?” Celestia said rather than asked. There were awkward nods throughout, and everyone silently vacated the room. “I can’t allow it,” Celestia finally said when the door clicked shut. “There are a multitude of unknown factors in play, not to mention how risky it would be for you.” “I understand that you want to keep me safe, really, I do. But doesn’t it defeat the purpose of recruiting more accomplished guards if you don’t trust them to do their job?” Celestia looked at me for a good, long while, studying me with a weird expression. “And what of your little friend that lives in Mercy? I remember you telling me about him when you visited my dreams a little while ago.” She knew by how surprised I looked that she figured it out. “I… will admit that my motives are two-fold,” I said sheepishly. “Look, I’m just asking that you trust me on this. When we locate that stallion, Firefly can tail him to find out how he ties in with the maps; Slipstream and Boreas can fly over the crevasse, and I’ll have Midnight’s magic to keep me out of the public eye.” Celestia cupped her face in her hooves and sighed heavily. She knew I was right, she just didn’t want to admit it. “Alright, Luna, alright,” came her muffled reply. “Though, I shall be telling Midnight not to let you out of his sight,” she finished, lowering her hooves. “Would you mind telling me why you want to visit your little friend too?” “The first time I found his dream and went in, he expressed an interest in meeting me as a friend,” I said. “Can you imagine his serendipity if I showed up out of the blue? Besides, it’ll give us a good excuse to wander around town looking for... you-know-who…” “As much as I hate to say it, you make a convincing argument,” Celestia said with a defeated, yet playful smile which I returned as my way of thanks. “Now, you have a moon to raise. Hurry up before I change my mind.” I had the biggest grin on my face on the way out, and a reason to pay Hayseed a visit and let him know I was coming to see him. How else would he know to look out for me while I was in disguise? Despite how well things were going, it was when I visited the dream realm that things took a bit of a turn. I had planned on using my newfound magic to deal with any nightmares appropriately, which I did anyway, then say hello to Hayseed at the end of the night. I kept an eye on his dreams during training while tending to others to see if he had any more nightmares, but tonight was a different story. When I caught sight of his portal later in the night, it was darker in colour. Concerned, I went to check up on him. He sat on a swing underneath an outgrowing tree branch, idly swinging his legs back and forth and barely moving, head hung and looking down at the ground despondently. Overhead were black, rolling stormclouds, threatening to unleash a deluge. “Hey there buddy,” I said softly, walking up to Hayseed slowly so I didn’t startle him. Hayseed didn’t say anything, sighing heavily. “What’s the matter?” “I was playing with Citrus in the sandbox, then Bastion came up and started picking on her. I told Bastion to leave her alone, but he wouldn’t, so I pushed him back,” he muttered. “Did you tell your teacher?” I ventured. “Bastion told Miss Abacus that I pushed him first…” My mouth formed a silent ‘O’ in realisation. “What happened after that?” “Miss Abacus told me I couldn’t go outside and play for the rest of the week.” Considering it was Thursday, that was unfair. Just as I was about to say something, Hayseed did instead. “And after school, I told Bastion you’d put him in the dungeon, ‘cause you’re my friend!” I honestly tried to hide my giggle-snort, but I simply couldn’t. Hayseed saying that was just way too adorable. “But then,” Hayseed continued, my interruption seemingly gone unnoticed, “Bastion pushed me back and said that nopony wants to be friends with me because I only have half a h-head…” “I wouldn’t want to be friends with Bastion, ‘cause he sounds like a big fat meanie,” I said, trying to lift the mood a bit. Giggling half-heartedly, Hayseed wiped a hoof over his nose. “You’re my friend, right?” he asked hesitantly, looking up to me with those adorable emerald eyes of his. “Of course I am, why wouldn’t I be?” “Bastion said—” I looked him straight in the eyes. “Hayseed, you should never be ashamed of your ear. If you wear it like armour, it can never be used to hurt you. Own it, make it part of who you are. Behind everypony’s imperfections is someone with the heart and strength to do things in their own special way. And what about Citrus, she’s your friend too, right?” He nodded, “Mmhmm.” “Keep her close to you. If she wants to be your friend, then I know she sees more in you than what’s on the outside.” Hayseed hopped down off the swing and unashamedly wrapped his forehooves around me tightly. In all my years of adulthood, there’s one thing I learned about little kids. Never be the first one to pull away from a hug. Chances are, they need it more than you do. I draped a forehoof across his back to return the warm gesture. “Can you come visit some time?” he asked, slightly muffled by my chest. “How does tomorrow sound?” I said after a moment. “Really!?” Hayseed exclaimed, somewhere disbelief and surprise. “Of course! Though, I will be in disguise because I don’t want the whole town to get jealous about paying you a visit instead of them,” I chuckled. “What will you look like?” he asked. An idea popped into my head. “What do you want me to look like?” Hayseed sat on his haunches, looking up and studying my features. “Pink!” he finally exclaimed. “With a rainbow mane!” “I…” My eyebrow twitched. Every fibre of my being was urging me to say no to that horrendous colour palette, but I couldn’t turn the little guy down. Note to self, I thought, never let a little kid pick a disguise for me ever again. “Alright, deal.” “Thank you, Luna,” he said, hugging me again. I didn’t say anything. I just enjoyed his hug with one of my own. By the time Hayseed pulled back and we looked up, all the dark and stormy clouds had vanished, replaced by an endless blue expanse and the shining sun.