It turned out Sunset's claims of rustiness at telekinesis were just covering for her being the best pool shark in Equestria. She took a few hundred bits off of cocky ponies before they got wise to her expertise, and no amount of magical expertise let me keep up with her skills with a cue. We'd been at it an hour before I finally called it quits; it took all of my self-restraint not to snap the stick out of sheer frustration.
Good thing we didn't gamble; we barely brought enough bits to cover lunch.
I don't think Sunset's the type to gamble with a foal anyway. She's got a sly streak, but she seems pretty well-intentioned.
You might be right. You know, if we asked, she'd probably stand in for us as a 'friend' to get Princess Lunatic off of our back.
Ugh, why do I think stuff like that. Wait, why not just really become friends with her? She's been fun to hang out with so far!
Oh sure, just let her manipulate you instead, why not.
Really, why not?
I took the resulting silence as a victory in my own head as I put away the pool supplies in the rec center closet with Sunset. We both had a laugh at the bulging sack of bits she'd acquired; there was no way the ponies of Ponyville would fall for that again. Maybe.
They'll practice, think they can take her, and be ripe for picking again in a month or two.
"Soo, Sunset! You said you were out of town, right? What brings you back to Equestria, then?"
Sunset shrugged as we started to make our way out into the town. "Honestly? Sometimes I just miss it. But I actually came by to visit Twilight today; I was about to head back home when I ran across you."
"Huh? But Twilight's in Canterlot, so why would you stop in Ponyville to go home?"
Sunset laughed a bit nervously. "Well, it's a bit complicated..."
I looked up at her slyly, mental gears turning.
"You've got some kind of portal here that acts as a shortcut?"
Sunset froze and stared at me. I laughed. "Hah, yep! That's gotta be it."
"How did you know that?!"
"I didn't, though your face sure gave it away! But honestly, I use portals to get around sometimes too, so it's not, like, a big deal or anything."
Sunset seemed to process that. I could practically see the gears in her head turning, asking who the heck this foal was.
Horseshoe's on the other hoof now, huh?!
I couldn't suppress a grin at that. Sunset made an 'ahem' sound and spoke up.
"So, there are other portals? Where do they lead?"
"Oh, I just had an incident where I had to teleport all the way from Vanhoover to Baltimare, and that really took it out of me, so I made this personal portal focus. I still have to activate it, but it's a lot easier than a straight teleport."
She huffed a sigh of relief. "Oh, okay. That's pretty impressive, though."
She's not really the least bit impressed! Most ponies would be awed! She didn't even ask what I was doing teleporting clear across Equestria!
Shut up! It doesn't matter! I'm not trying to impress her!
Get real, yes you were. That's why I let you do your thing; peddling your power into fame and friends is what you should have been doing from the start, dummy!
I started in surprise as I realized that on some level I had been trying to impress Sunset with bragging. The fact that she was totally nonchalant about it had just made me try harder, too. I felt a deep-seated anger towards myself rising.
This friend-making thing is way too hard to manage while I'm trying to police my own mind and getting hit with random memories! ARGH, why can't I just pound some monster face or something?!
A huge roar shook Ponyville, causing everypony aside from Sunset and I to scream in surprise and dive for cover. I glanced over at the source of the sound – oh hey, looks like the local Ursa Major is rampaging for some reason – and grinned.
For once, random coincidence works out in my favor!
Sunset rushed forward a bit, putting herself between me and the giant bear as it casually trampled a house on its way towards the crystal castle. "Quillon, get to safety! I'll try to distract it until Twilight and the others can get here!"
I trotted up beside her casually, but before she could utter a phrase to match the consternation on her face, I leaned in and said, "Hey, Sunset, you can keep a secret, can't you?"
She was utterly nonplussed at that. "Huh? Uhh, I guess so?"
I cast the instant-costume-don spell I'd been practicing, and just like that, I was Dashing Savior. "Great! Now if you'll excuse me—" I zipped off towards the Ursa Major, "—it's time for some therapeutic, misplaced, AGGRESSION!"
I fired a hornblast at the Ursa to get its attention, and began weaving through the air, distracting it and luring it back away from the occupied buildings. I really hoped nopony was in that house it already trampled.
Ursas tend to be territorial and defensive of their young, but not aggressive. If it's here, it's either likely looking for its baby, or somepony who hurt it; that, or someone magically agitated it. Retrieve and deploy Fluttershy against it; she's local and an expert on these sorts of things.
If it's a curse, the Ursa Major will just attack her.
So?! That's like a 1-in-3 chance at best, and she's a hero, she's ready for that kind of thing!
You and I both know she'll get hurt or worse if we drag her into it already. I've gotta send this thing packing on my own, first!
UGH, fine! In that case, try talking to it and see if it seems coherent! And go Shrew!
Roger; we are 'go' for Shrew.
I dodged a massive paw-swipe, opened my mouth to speak, and was nearly deafened by a subsequent roar. I took a moment to process just how truly massive the creature was; I wasn't even the size of one of its fangs.
I pushed down a fear reaction and augmented my voice. "HEY, UGLY! IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR YOUR KID, THEY AREN'T HERE!"
The Ursa paused when I spoke, processing the sudden source of loud noise, but then simply lifted a paw to swipe at me again.
Oh, right. Ursas don't understand language anyway.
It didn't matter either way; during the brief time the Ursa had been distracted, I'd been busy.
My old special moves might not work on something this size, but I had been practicing.
As soon as I dodged its swipe, the Ursa slammed its paw down on a sinkhole and went down to the shoulder in the ground.
"Hah! Another oversized villain falls to the Shrew Style: Headless Pony technique!"
So-named because I usually buried the creature up to the head with the move, in this case it was far less effective; the Ursa was already trying to yank its shoulder out of the hole, and it was only Sunset rapidly turning the ground under it into quicksand that prevented it from getting enough of a foothold with its remaining three legs to do so. The creature sank up to its neck in the mud and sand, roaring in either terror or bloodlust – could be both, really – and struggling uselessly.
Yowza. That unicorn has some serious magical expertise.
Quicksand. That's a much more energy-efficient transmutation than our sinkhole spell. Gotta make a note of that for the future.
I zipped down to Sunset and alighted gently next to her. "Think it's safe to get Fluttershy to see what's wrong with him now?"
Sunset looked confused for a second, and then her eyes brightened. "Oh, right! Fluttershy! Who lives in Ponyville! Good thinking. Yeah, I'll go get her if you want to hold the Ursa down – I burnt a lot of energy on that spell."
I nodded and casually rolled my head around, popping my neck in the process. "No problem. No random Ursa is a match for DS!"
"DS?"
"Dashing Savior!"
I almost felt offended she hadn't heard of me.
"Oh. Well alright then."
As Sunset galloped off to retrieve Fluttershy, and I sighed as I casually zapped the Ursa in the face to dissuade an escape attempt.
That mare couldn't be more unimpressed with me.
What happened to the whole 'I'm not doing heroics for fame' bit?
She's cool! I want her to be excited about what I'm excited about! That's, like, lesson zero in friendship!
Suuure, justify it however you want.
This back-and-forth over my own motives continued until Sunset returned with Fluttershy. Almost as soon as Fluttershy arrived, the Ursa calmed down, and the two began chatting. I stood up, nodded to Sunset in a businesslike fashion, and spread my wings, putting on my 'hero' voice.
"This seems to be settled, which means it's time for me to make good my escape before my identity gets compromised."
Sunset giggled at that, holding a hoof up to her mouth. "Right, that seems like an important concern. Well, want to meet up again in a few days?"
I nodded a bit too hurriedly. "Definitely! Ponyville on Saturday?"
"See you then."
And with that, I zipped into the sky, only to teleport out of sight. I reappeared in Luna's room, and had barely taken off my chanfron when Luna sprang from her bed and leaned in towards me, expression serious.
"Cozy! I saw thine armor vanish from atop the dresser! What has happened?"
Uh-oh. She only goes medieval speech when she's really freaked out.
"Uhh... well, there was a monster, so I dealt with it. No big deal! Don't worry!"
Luna hardly seemed reassured, and I could tell she was about to reiterate that my hobby was dangerous when I suddenly had the perfect idea for how to distract her.
"I made a friend today, though! She even helped with the monster!"
Luna paused. I could tell she knew I was deflecting her criticism, but to be fair, she was only going to go off on that rant again because she felt like it was her job as my guardian. She took the out.
"Oh? And who was this pony?"
Oh yeah, I'm Quillon, the totally-not-manipulative pony who—
Shut up, talking to mom.
THAT'S NOT OUR MOM!
I said shut up!
"W-well, her name is Sunset Shimmer..."
I reiterated the events of the day to Luna, trying to shove that nagging old-Cozy voice to the back of my head. Something about trying to accept Luna as my mom was really bothering me, and honestly, I was so distracted by that stuff I never bothered asking what had set off the Ursa Major in the first place.
Things would probably have gone a lot easier for me past there if I had.