"... Then she pulled an arrow out of nowhere, fired it straight up, and it started to rain."
Yona smiled widely. "Woah!"
Smolder also looked amazed. "With a normal arrow?"
"Not a normal one," Silver clarified, swirling her claw through the lake. "It's one I was able to make due to the bow's help. Okay, maybe not because of the bow, but once I grabbed it, I got a ton of ideas on how to use my powers in more unique ways." She held up her claw that wasn't in the water and made it bigger. "Kinda like this!"
Ocellus looked up from her book. "Maybe it's because the bow had some of Terramar's memories in it, ones that could be passed down to anyone that has his powers." Ocellus looked at the nearby tree. "I wonder what secrets the Castor Staff holds."
Sandbar looked around. They agreed that the best place to talk about their powers would be the lake. Very few ponies make their way there on a regular basis (aside from professor Dash, who had been busy with teacher and Wonderbolt stuff lately), making it safer to talk freely without anyone overhearing them. Even so, they still had to look for anyone that might hear something they really shouldn't.
After ensuring they were alone, Sandbar smiled at Silver. "It's nice to see you happy again. It feels like you're the most prone to these kinds of bad things."
Silver returned her claw to its normal size, and clapped them together. "I'll go through any amount of sorrow to make others happy! And it's not like I have Smolder's luck or anything!"
Four of them laughed. Smolder just groaned. "Thanks for reminding me."
Ocellus, however, was very confused. "I'm sorry, did I miss something?"
"Oh, right," Gallus said between laughs. "I think you were in the library when it happened. Professor Egghead had us try our hands at Bucketball, Sandbar, Smolder, and Lily against me, Yona, and some kid named Snails. Final point, Smolder headbutts the ball away from their bucket, sending it flying into the walls, chairs, other students, and even one of the professor's trophies, before hitting her in the back of the head and into the bucket she tried to keep it out of. Yona and I won because of that."
Smolder had her hands to her face the whole explanation, dragging them down one he finished while making an annoyed sound. "I still can't believe that happened. And I played Bucketball before!"
Ocellus giggled. "I think I need to understand Bucketball better to really get it, but it sound amusing."
"Oh, by the way..." Silver looked around for a second. "... Once we're in our disguises, call me Aqualine. I don't want you calling me by my real name."
The others stared at her for a moment, then collectively facepalmed/facehoofed/faceclawed.
"How did none of us think of that?" Smolder turned to her friends. "We can't go running around in disguise while calling each other by name! That'd ruin the point of having the disguises!"
Ocellus looked up and tapped her hoof to her chin. "We'll all need to think of names."
"Wind Jet," Sandbar said promptly. "If someone realizes I'm a pony, they'd think that was my actual name."
Ocellus flashed Sandbar a smile. "Good idea!" She went back to thinking. "Maybe... Everfree? Like the forest?"
"The Everfree Forest? Where the Castle of the Two Sisters is?" Silver gave a thumbs up. "Good idea! I like it!"
"Boulder made of dirt. Yak made of dirt. Call yak Boulder!" Yona smiled like she expected praise.
Sandbar decided to give her what praise he could. "That's... pretty clever."
"For you." Everyone glared at Gallus.
"Then what Griffon name be?" Yona snapped back. "You no have power!"
Gallus looked ready to argue with her, but seemingly decided it wasn't worth it. "Fair point. Call me Striker, since all I can do is physically hit things."
They all turned to Smolder, the only one without an alias yet. They were all hesitant to talk to her yet since she looked like she was deep in thought. A minute later, she slammed her fist into her open hand. "Heatnix!"
"Haha! Heatnix?" Gallus had a huge smile on his face. "That sounds so cool!"
Silver tilted her head. "Is that why you were thinking for so long?"
Smolder rubbed the back of her head. "I was just trying to remember the name of a character. I remembered that it involved heat and that it sounded really cool, but I needed a bit to remember the exact name."
Ocellus looked confused. "Doesn't that come from a franchise that wasn't well received?"
"It started out strong but got worse over time. I think the team going behind the original creator's back to make it last longer than it was supposed to was partially to blame."
Gallus leaned in close to Smolder. "Neeeeerd."
Smolder playfully shoved him. "Shut up!"
They all started laughing.
"Ahhh, I wish this was all our lives was," Silver said wistfully. "Sitting around, having fun, chatting it up... None of this fighting monsters while being hunted by Equestrian law."
Ocellus nodded in agreement. "Even without monster fighting, we still have classes, and who knows what incidents we'd get wrapped up in even without these powers."
"It would be nice to live life carefree." Gallus put his claw to his chin in thought. "Makes me wonder if we can get away with running away this time."
Sandbar raised an eyebrow. "And risk another war? No thanks."
"Nice to see you have some common sense."
All of the students looked at the new arrival. "Professor Rainbow?"
"Is this a favorite hang-out spot for you six? I'll have to keep that in mind if you all go missing again." Rainbow admired the scenery around her. "Not that I can blame you. This place is really pretty."
"Professor, is something wrong?" Ocellus went up to Rainbow. "There aren't any classes today, and there's nothing important going on today, right?"
"Do you need our help setting up the play?" Silver guessed.
"Not that." Rainbow watched them all get closer to her. "There's been a slight casting change. Twilight just told me who the new lead role is."
Ocellus gasped. "Who is it? Sapphire Shores?
"Countess Coloratura?"
"Songbird Serenade?"
"Cheese Sandwich?"
"Fancy Pants?"
"Professor Twilight herself?" Gallus' tone was significantly more flat than his friends'.
Rainbow gave them a soft smile. "Not bad guesses, but no. It's somepony is far more significant than any of them."
"Play not with Cheese Sandwich?" Yona looked upset.
"But... But..." Silver got uncomfortably close to Rainbow's face. "SONGBIRD SERENADE!"
"No." Sandbar's eyes went wide with realization. "It's not her is it?"
Rainbow raised an eyebrow but kept smiling. "And who would she be?"
"Princess Celestia?"
The other students looked at Sandbar in shock. Rainbow, however, quietly nodded.
"I mean, we listed off the cream of the crop, and you said it was somepony more important. The only pony that makes sense at that point is Princess Celestia herself."
"I'm not sure why Celestia decided to join, or why Twilight asked her, but she's the lead role now." Rainbow turned around. "Anyway, I'm off to inform the rest of Equestria about this!" With that, she took off.
Silver went starry-eyed. "We'll be acting... with Princess Celestia herself? That sounds amazing!"
Smolder lightly elbowed Silver. "I bet she's a great actress, being as old as she is."
"And dealing with idiots on a regular basis." Gallus helpfully tacked on.
That's when something crossed Yona's mind. "Smolder burn outfit by wearing it!"
Smolder put one hand on her hip and waved the other dismissively. "That won't be a problem."
Gallus raised an eyebrow. "Won't be a problem that you set things on fire by touching them?"
"We figured out how to turn down the heat on Smolder's body flames." Ocellus went from proud to worried. "Though I still have no clue on how to turn our bodies back to normal flesh."
"Let's worry about that later." Sandbar smiled. "I bet this play will turn out great!"
Sandbar removed his costume. "Well, that was a near disaster."
Silver kept positive. "At least it wasn't a complete disaster. If it was, I might not see my dreams come true."
Ocellus grew curious. "What are your dreams?"
Silver, her outfit mostly off, spun around rapidly. "Dancing!" Once she came to a stop, her headpiece dropped off, and most of the others laughed as she stared at it.
Smolder was too busy removing her own costume... "ACHOO!" ... and accidentally burning it. "Err, oops! I hope we didn't need that." The others laughed even more.
"No, but it would have been nice to keep." Rarity stepped up to the Dragoness. "A nice reminder of what happened today."
"You mean the last minute miracle? Or the mess before that?"
"Man, Gallus. You're on a roll with the sarcasm today." Sandbar dusted off his leg. "But yeah, it was a mess. They should have brought Countess Coloratura on board."
Rarity smiled at the colt. "You're a Coloratura fan?"
"Yeah. Got all of her albums." Sandbar let out a wistful sigh. "I wish I could meet her someday. That would be a dream come true."
Rarity smiled at him coyly, then turned back to Smolder. "Either way, I was hoping to fix these up in case we could re-use them."
"I can help if you want." Smolder looked at the burned parts of her outfit. "Considering I caused most of the damage to this one."
"That would be nice, although..." Rarity prodded Smolder's snout. "We should figure out a way to keep you from burning things all the time."
Smolder let out a nervous chuckle. "Lily said she's working on something, but-"
"That's something I wanted to ask about earlier." Ocellus interrupted. "You guys mention Lily from time to time, but who is she?"
Smolder was shocked. "You haven't met her? I thought you two would have met while stargazing."
"Gilded Lily. One of the younger students at the school." Gallus clarified. "She's a budding astronomat- astramama... Help?"
"Astronomer." Rarity clarified a gentle smirk on her face. "It means she studies the stars and identifies the constellations."
"Thanks, professor." Gallus took back over. "Her parents sent her here to help her become more... uh..."
Rarity giggled. "Important and influential. If you want me to handle this, I can."
"Nah, it's cool." Gallus cleared his throat. "Her own reason for coming to the school was to be around others that are as casual as she is, specifically..." Gallus started sweating, then gave Rarity a nervous smile. "Can you take it from here, professor?"
Rarity laughed a bit. "She wanted to be around the Cutie Mark Crusaders."
"Oh, them?" Sandbar said with an annoyed tone. "I remember them from when they were trying to get their fishing cutie marks."
Rarity's expression changed to one of pain. "Oh, uh. Were you the one they, uh..."
Sandbar looked mad. "My family will not let me forget what happened to that scuba tank."
Rarity looked away. "That's what I was afraid of. I can see if I can get Sweetie Belle to help pay for repairs, but-"
"Wait, are the other two Scootaloo and Apple Bloom?"
Rarity looked at Silver in shock. "Yes! Do you know them?"
"They helped my brother, Terramar, with a personal problem. From what I heard, Scootaloo loved Seaquestria, while Sweetie Belle wanted to live in-"
"DON'T SPOIL IT!" Sweetie ran in and slammed her hoof against Silver's beak. Her pointy beak, which poked Sweetie's hoof. Sweetie pulled her hoof back and waved it around. "Ow..."
"Sweetie Belle?" Rarity was shocked by her sister appearing out of nowhere. "Where did you come from?"
"We were watching the play, and Spike just let us back here to talk to you." Apple Bloom said from the doorway. "The acting and effects were great, but what happened to the costumes?"
Scootaloo popped up from behind her. "It looked like someone rolled through the dirt with them."
"Celestia." Rarity said flatly. "Of all things, Celestia herself happened."
Rarity described the events of the day to the Crusaders, who listened intently except while giggling. The students watched on. After a bit, however, Silver sent them all a thought.
Remember what I said earlier? About having a peaceful life? This is what I meant. This is the kind of life I want. And I'm sure you'll all agree with me, but I'll fight to have this kind of life one day. No matter how hard.