Tuesday afternoon finally arrived for Team Awesome. It was one week from the start of Project Mercury, but Rainbow had a lot tell her friends before that part.
Starlight Glimmer sat in her throne in good spirits. Because covering for Luna was in service of the master, her being Primeva, and the overall strength of the pack, the past two nights had not exhausted her.
Fluttershy brought her own report of information to present, from her past experience and what she learned from talking to Bulk Biceps. Discord had come with her and set up his same hammock resting spot near a set of doors not far from her.
Rarity had the report she had made of putting together Rainbow's own words the previous Thursday night. Not only that, she felt rather proud for her part in creating Sweetie Belle's mev bond with Rainbow Dash. The young unicorn would join them for her first pack meeting.
Applejack had the information she and Pinkie Pie collected. Pinkie had a copy too, but the pair agreed that Applejack would do most of the explaining of what they found out, which was involved, as expected for the type of solution to Project Mercury's goal.
Twilight Sparkle sat with Spike at her side in his own smaller throne to her right. The alicorn mev would speak of her findings with Starlight. Spike had his quill and scroll ready to take notes.
Rainbow Dash arrived, deliberately last among the group so all could her new Rhezenda at her side as she entered. Discord respectfully stood up from his hammock and made a polite bow as the sky blue figure needed to pass his place to reach her seat. "Master Rainbow Dash."
Rainbow bowed in turn. "Discord, Lord of Chaos." She glanced at Sweetie Belle.
Remembering Rainbow's instructions to respect her draconequis friend and tutor, Sweetie had bowed with the master mev. "Sir," the unicorn filly added, hoping that was sufficient. Discord smiled and wiggled his eagle claw fingers in a friendly wave at her, looking pleased. Sweetie smiled bashfully and took his reaction to mean she succeeded.
"You'll be joining us for our meeting again today?" Rainbow asked him.
"Provided Master approves, of course," Discord replied.
"Of course. I haven't much business with you today, but I certainly don't mind," Rainbow said.
Starlight and Twilight watched Rainbow and Sweetie make their way to Rainbow's throne with interest and mild pride. Rarity beamed and wiggled in place, trying not to leap from her seat onto the table and announce everything to everyone before her master did. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack watched with quiet curiosity.
Once Rainbow sat at her throne, another, smaller one rose to her side between hers and Starlight's where Sweetie sat. It was very similar to Spike's seat by Twilight. The mevs noticed the chaotic flicker in her eyes, and that it was granted without the same ceremony for when Starlight's appeared. Rainbow did not even comment on it to anyone.
With a small smile, Sweetie Belle took her seat. From her saddlebag, she pulled out a clipboard with with sheets of paper to take notes and one in particular that had the meeting's agenda already on it.
"Looks like every Awesomev is here, along with Discord and Spike, so let's get started," Rainbow announced to the group. "First off, everyone here knows Sweetie Belle." The unicorn filly waved. "Sweetie is now my servant, with the chosen title Rhezenda. She is my right hoof to outsiders and will be taking on a role similar to what Spike does for Twilight but for me instead. Each and every one of you Awesomevs outrank her. She will listen to you when I'm not around, especially Primeva." Starlight nodded respectfully at the reference to her. "We have established a mev bond thanks to help from Rarity."
The other Awesomevs nodded in acceptance of the news without further comment. There would be a chance to discuss the matter further soon enough. Rarity made a happy stifled squeal from her seat.
Rainbow began. "We're going to recap the week, make sure everyone's up-to-date on pack matters and then talk Project Mercury. Let's go ahead and start with Mount Aris.
"So, last Friday afternoon, the map summoned me as the Master Mev to Mount Aris instead of with the usual method for a friendship problem. My cutie mark appeared very large with a red wobbling circle around it. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were called for their own mission, so Twilight went with all of us as we each tended to our own business. I met with Queen Novo and received permission to eat hippogriff magic for the reserve and have one tiny piece of magic pearl that they use to transform into sea ponies. Mount Aris and Seaquestria can now be considered part of the territory we can protect and access as mevs."
"Woo-hoo!" Pinkie applauded. "Go us, but mainly you Master. Woo!"
Rainbow smiled. The others let out happy sighs or cheers. Sweetie Belle smiled at the scene as well. Once the others settled down, the master mev continued, "Queen Novo wished to see my fear snare, so she met Blitz. I asked and was given permission to release Blitz out into the ocean to see her full size and solidity. I got to ride her and feel her, so did the Crusaders for that matter. It was a lot of fun, and I learned that I was capable of such magic and about Blitz herself. It was surreal and wonderful, and I could not have done it without our good friend here, Discord, Lord of Chaos."
A round of applause filled the room from everyone. Discord's jaw dropped all the way to the floor, a serpent tongue hanging out before he flapped it back up into his expected mouth form again. His cheeks flushed red.
"Oh Discord," Fluttershy said with pride as she fluttered up momentarily from her seat, "I knew your magic and teaching would be wonderful for our pack and yet still...oh, it's so amazing. You did such a great job teaching Rainbow."
Discord shook his head out from his shocked stupor and held up his eagle claw like an index finger. "First of all, thanks, everyone, really, but...Master Rainbow Dash..you really did all that based on what I taught you in one night?"
"Well, sure," Rainbow said. "Picturing exactly what I wanted as precisely as I could, mev magic itself is strong on its own, especially if I do it for me or the pack as a whole. I practiced at home on a much smaller scale before I ever even knew I would be summoned."
He applauded at last. "Well, well done then!" A flash of nothing happened. "Bah!" he said on having to remember her magic immunity yet again. Another flash, and Fluttershy found her throne lifting, transformed into a pedestal. A bouquet of flowers appeared in her forelimb, and confetti dropped around her from nowhere. "That's what I meant," he told everyone. "I hope you don't mind Fluttershy."
"Not at all," Fluttershy replied sweetly with a blushing smile. Soon, the chaos magic flashed away, putting her back in her seat.
Giggles abound through the room from the seated ponies and dragon.
"Next topic," Rainbow moved on. "Here's a little more on Sweetie Belle as Rhezenda. Sweetie is not a mev, and she cannot be a mev. She can, however, serve me with the bond we formed, and we have exchanged magic, thanks to Rarity's help."
"Master," Twilight said. "Could you tell us how you managed that?" She tapped her forehooves together with a hopeful, starry-eyed smile of interest.
"Oh, sure," Rainbow said. "Well, we still had the tiny piece of pearl with us from Queen Novo at the time we decided to form this bond, so I had Rarity take the magic out of it to hold onto in the reserve. We put it back when we were done. I just needed an object that could hold magic to do the parts I'll describe next. Sweetie Belle then channeled her unicorn magic into the piece with Rarity's help to reach it. Before I summoned Rarity at all, Sweetie herself pointed out to me that she is related by blood to Rarity, and that could help with what we wanted to do, which it did. Then Rarity ate that magic from the piece, and I was able to then eat it from Rarity."
"Wow," uttered an amazed Twilight.
Starlight nodded along with interest.
Discord was breathless.
"So, that got me Sweetie's magic. We still needed to get my magic to her. I released the magic I just ate into the tiny piece, like how I released it for our fledgling hunt games when forming the pack. Then Rarity helped Sweetie take her own magic that now had what I sent. That got Sweetie my mev magic inside her."
"Uh-huh, uh-huh," Twilight said, nodding and nodding, beaming.
Spike was scribbling with focused energy to match her enthusiasm, so much so that he said nothing.
Rainbow concluded, "We still needed the tiny piece of pearl back as it was, so I sucked out any remaining traces of our mev magic back in to my body, and then Rarity sent the original sea pony transformation magic it's supposed to contain back into it."
"Wow, just wow," said Twilight. "To think mevs are capable of such things. I mean, the book does say some of this, but to think it could be used to bond with other ponies. I never could have imagined."
"A projected visual memory would help," Discord remarked.
"I'd like to see that too," Spike noted.
"I don't know that magic," Rainbow Dash reminded them.
"Yet!" Discord insisted vigorously, pointing his eagle claw in the air with authority.
Rainbow, for her part, nodded respectfully in compliance to the idea. It certainly sounded like a useful power for pack meetings.
"You know Master," said Starlight, "We should probably have a designated object for this task. Something we can use as a hub for any kind of exchanges or channeling like this. It might not always be with a pony. It could be other creatures, plants, other objects, and so on. It can be like the tiny piece of pearl with existing magic that we'll store in the reserve or it could be something of yours with certain properties since you're the master of the pack."
"What kind of properties?" Applejack asked.
"Well…" Starlight started to consider. "Something important to her, a kind of magical moment in her life. If all of us, or the rest of you since I haven't known Rainbow as long, were there for it, all the better because we are her fledglings."
"Oh, like maybe something from when she won the Best Young Fliers' Competition," Fluttershy offered. "You weren't there Starlight, but the rest of us were. Rainbow did her second Sonic Rainboom, but it was the first since getting her cutie mark. It was spectacular. I cheered like I've never cheered before." The canary-colored pegasus friend blushed.
"And she saved my life, along with the three other ponies," Rarity added.
"And it was an important on her way to becoming a Wonderbolt," Pinkie added on top of that.
Rainbow put a hoof up to her chin in thought. "The wing crown Princess Celestia gave me when I won. I still have it."
Sweetie Belle happily noted it down.
Rainbow saw and smiled with approval. "Excellent. Alright, now where was I?"
The young unicorn looked at her agenda and showed it to the master mev.
"Right, thanks. As I was saying, Sweetie is not and cannot be a mev, but we did form a bond, so that gives me some ability and some restrictions. I'm up almost all night most nights, and I want her to be able to be awake for if the mev work calls for her assistance. Given that, I went to Princess Luna to request her magic. She consented."
"She did?" Discord asked in a shock.
"I can't eat magic that affects the sun and moon or turning day to night or night to day," Rainbow explained. "That is magic that rules over me. I specifically wanted her dream and nocturnality magic. That was what I could eat from her. With that in the reserve with Luna's approval and my mev bond with Sweetie Belle, that will do in allowing her to be with me at night when necessary."
"What's the dream magic for?" Fluttershy asked.
"Project Mercury is what gave me the idea though I'm not sure it will be used there," Rainbow answered. "I'll explain more on that when we talk about the project as a whole. Since Luna's mostly out of commission from my eating her magic, Starlight here has been covering for her and will do so tonight. That's why we're meeting this afternoon instead of later."
"But what about your magic lessons, Master?" Pinkie Pie asked.
Rainbow sighed. "Well, I can't be tutored by Starlight, but Discord's here, so…"
"I certainly don't mind continuing on without Starlight. We'll manage just fine," Discord said, finishing the thought for her. "It will give us a chance to learn memory projection with chaos magic."
"Thanks. And then maybe Starlight and I can work in some extra time later this week. If not, so be it. That's how this deal went. Helping Sweetie Belle help me is going to be a good thing in the long run, I'm sure of it," Rainbow declared.
The other Awesomevs nodded in agreement.
"Can we ask how Starlight's coverage of Luna's duties is going?" Applejack wondered.
"Primeva, you have the floor," Rainbow said, gesturing with a hoof.
"Oh, I actually can't say much," Starlight confessed. "Ponies' dreams are rather private affairs. I'm handling it just fine, and Princess Luna's actually happy about getting to sleep most of the night for three nights in a row."
"Heh," Applejack replied. "I reckon she would, just like that time with the Tantabus."
"I'll take your word for it," Starlight said, having not been friends with the group for that ordeal.
"I've done much the same," Discord told her, having only heard about it after the fact from Fluttershy. He leaned in as if to let her in on a secret. "I wasn't there either."
Starlight giggled.
Twilight cleared her throat. "I'm sure that we can all be happy for Princess Luna's extra rest regardless."
At that, the pair smiled in agreement and nodded. Spike and the other Awesomevs did much the same.