Rarity stared carefully at the mirror, then at Twilight Sparkle. "We just go through, and that's all there is to it?"
Twilight nodded. "Yes. Everything's been arranged. The other Rainbow Dash will meet us on the other side—just her."
The white unicorn took a deep breath of relief. "The others aren't too offended, I would hope."
"Certainly not," Twilight replied. "They know I'll explain more later if I can."
"Very well then. Let's have at it, shall we?" Rarity said with an optimistic smile.
"Yes, let's," Twilight agreed, smiling too. "I'll go first. Walking on two legs can be a little disorienting, so I'll catch you."
Rarity nodded. "Very well."
The alicorn went through, soon followed by her friend.
Rarity felt her body contort strangely between realms before finally reaching the other side of the portal. She found her new bipedal body nearly toppling over as she reached out her sudden hands to catch herself.
"Whoa!" a voice she had so wished to hear said.
A purple hand caught her right, and a blue hand caught her left. Rarity looked up to see Twilight and the human Rainbow Dash they were scheduled to meet.
"Rainbow Dash!" Rarity immediately stood up straight with an eager smile, letting go of the other girls' hands.
Rainbow Dash smirked as she suddenly spun a soccer ball on the tip of one of her fingers. "Hey, Rarity. I heard you want my help with something."
"Indeed," Rarity admitted. "Do you have a place where we can speak in private, if that's not too much trouble?"
"Sure, come on," Rainbow Dash replied. The human girl motioned for the pair to follow and led them to her own home, quickly making their way up the stairs to her room. The room was adorned with posters of people Rarity assumed to be professional athletes. Indeed, at least one team's symbol was a lightning bolt. "I see you are athletic like my Equestrian Rainbow Dash friend."
The human Rainbow Dash blushed. "I'll take your word for it. Twilight doesn't actually tell us much about our other selves. We're usually a bit busy fighting off weird magic or you know...high school things."
Rarity nodded. "So I've heard."
Twilight blushed and nervously twirled a lock of her dark blue hair. "S-sorry."
"Don't sweat it," Rainbow replied, waving the remark off with her hand. She sat down at a chair by her desk and gestured that Rarity and Twilight should seat themselves on the bed.
"Indeed, no worries," Rarity added. "She is about to find out more anyway."
The two Equestrian visitors sat on the bed as they had been directed.
"Alright, so what's up?" Rainbow Dash asked.
Rarity brushed her own purple hair aside. "Well, bear with me here. To start, let me just say that nothing terrible is happening. There is no fighting off magic with my request. I'm just seeking your assistance to name something."
Rainbow blinked but waited for the pony in human form to continue.
Rarity met her eyes. "Do humans know anything about vampires?"
At that, Rainbow Dash chuckled. "Well, we don't really 'know' anything. They're not real over here, I think, but as the story goes, they're undead creatures that drink blood with their fangs—nocturnal too," she answered.
"Right. Well, in Equestria, we have much tamer versions of vampires that are called 'mevs'. Magic. Eating. Vampires." She gestured with a finger as if to strike each word of the acronym as she spoke. "Your pony version back home became a master mev sometime ago," Rarity explained.
"But magic-eating sounds bad for a place loaded with magic," Rainbow Dash replied, mildly confused.
Rarity smiled bashfully. "Yes, well. We have arrangements to feed her and ourselves. I'm one of the fledglings in the pack. My title is Mitria."
"Title?"
Rarity nodded. "Yes. I am her third fledgling. She gave a title to each of us."
The human girl looked at Twilight. "You?"
Twilight blushed. "Yes. I am Rexa, her sixth."
Rainbow Dash smiled in fascination. "Cool. So, tell me me more about this naming thing..."
"Yes," Rarity said. "Master...that's your title over there..."
"Neat."
"...has a special crown that she wishes to give a name. She is struggling with finding something that fits. I offered to help but am struggling as well. Spike suggested perhaps the human world could be of assistance. Rexa made the arrangement with Sunset to have me ask you in particular for your advice. If it helps, each of the mevs in our pack has a natural element power as well. Master's is lightning."
Rainbow Dash smiled. "That does help. I've got at least one idea." She immediately stood from her chair and rummaged through a shelf of video games, picking out one game in particular.
"Tekken?" Rarity replied as she read off the cover.
"This is a fighting game," Rainbow Dash explained as she put the game into a console.
As the game loaded up, Rarity saw a young muscular man with spiky black hair as purple lightning surrounded his aura for a moment before he punched at the air. "Who is he?"
"Jin Kazama," Rainbow Dash answered.
Rarity blinked. "That must be it." She looked at Twilight. "It's Jin!"
The other fledgling blinked at her. "As in, that's the name of the crown?"
"Well, I certainly think so. Just 'Jin'—not the 'Kazama' part. Obviously we'll have to run it by Master and the stubborn crown itself, but it definitely feels as right as right can be. Rainbow Dash, does the name itself have any special meaning?"
"'Benevolence'," Rainbow Dash replied.
Rarity put a contemplative hand to her chin. "Yes, that might work."
"The Jin in the game has a dad and grandfather who also have lightning stuff when they fight. Kazuya and Heihachi," Rainbow Dash noted further.
"No, I don't think either of those is right," Rarity noted thoughtfully.
The human girl went on to show Rarity the game, explain some of the story, and a later game so Rarity could know his voice. Rainbow then even showed her guests some other video games and other characters.
Both Rarity and Twilight were deeply fascinated by a unicorn named Ixion in a fantasy role-playing game with a lightning-based power. "Well, if lightning were my element, I think I'd go with that," Twilight bashfully admitted.
The other two girls with her chuckled.
"Perhaps I would as well. I suppose that one can be a top preferred alternative," Rarity remarked.
None of the other names resonated on the same level with the third fledgling as much as 'Jin' did.
Rainbow Dash still wrote them down just in case the master mev or the crown rejected Mitria Rarity's initial choice.
With Rarity at last satisfied she had thoroughly explored their options, she and Twilight Sparkle prepared to leave.
"So is this mev thing a big secret with your group?" Rainbow Dash asked. "Is that why you wanted to meet with just me?"
"Not a big secret, but I just wanted to keep things simple, as it were. I will be telling our own group these name ideas for our weekly pack meeting tonight in fact," Rarity explained.
"Assuming Master is fine with it—and I do believe she will be—I'll come back another time and fill you all in on more details," Twilight explained.
"Fair deal," Rainbow Dash replied with a nod.
She offered out her hand, which Rarity promptly shook. Rainbow and Twilight hugged.
"Thank you for all your help," Rarity said with sincere gratitude.
"Yes, thanks very much," Twilight added.
"No problem. It was actually fun," the human girl said and escorted them back to the portal.
With all said and done, the two ponies left the human world.
Another Tuesday night meant another Team Awesome pack meeting. For most of the fledglings, going down the line would be a formality. They did not have much of anything to report beyond the obvious collective experiences they went through on Nightmare Night and formalizing the Awesome Crusaders. A notable point of interest was how things went in Tartarus. Rarity had only told Twilight and Spike of her intent to finally try naming the crown.
Discord, Spike, and Sweetie Belle were all present. Perhaps it was not so chaotic to put in a temporary throne for himself, but Discord decided to go with it all the same. He felt more properly included at these now regular weekly meetings, and he had gone on actual mission two days ago himself after all.
"Let's get started," Rainbow Dash announced. "First up. Nightmare Night."
Huge cheers rose all around from everyone.
"Nightmare Night was a success. The outsiders did not panic and let us let them in on the fun. I got to ride Blitz and have my laughs. We had a song. Rhezenda predicted they believed us but were also ready to move on," Rainbow said. "My own students actually seem to mostly believe it, but there seems to be an age factor. Their parents...not so much."
"That's been my experience," Rarity said.
"Mine too," Applejack added.
"Me three and me four if you count Penny," Pinkie said with a smile and giggle.
"Same here," Fluttershy said with a sweet smile.
Starlight and Twilight merely nodded to agree with the rest of them.
"Have any of you been called by your mev title?" Twilight couldn't help asking.
"Yeah," Applejack admitted. "Not much, just a couple of students have tried it. I guess it don't bother me as much given the uh…process...of how we presented it."
More murmurs of agreement ran through the group.
"What about you, Master?" Twilight wondered. "Since you were top billing for the show and it has a different power than ours."
"The students from the other kingdoms and Sandbar are taking full advantage of it," Rainbow informed them. "Other students in my own classes have started using it."
Spike noted it all down in his scribbling.
"Up next, as you all know, Apple Bloom has become another servant of mine," Rainbow said.
More cheering.
"Growing quite the collection, Master," Discord said with an intrigued smile.
Fluttershy giggled. "Funny you say that. We even gave their group an updated name when they serve Master."
"Really?" he asked with interest.
"We are the Awesome Crusaders since we're going to help out Team Awesome and all," Sweetie Belle told him.
He laughed in amusement.
"Interestingly, the fledglings all felt the completion of this collection," Rainbow added.
"That is fascinating," Discord agreed.
Twilight cleared her throat. "So, how was that earth pony bond process done, Master?"
Rainbow Dash smiled, flashed her magenta eyes to red-on-yellow to create a projection of the experience on the table as she explained it.
Twilight smiled when it was all done. "Did you realize that each filly was at a different level for these? Apple Bloom had to be in the lower point of the earth, Sweetie at the ground level—or rather, the table acted as her ground. Scootaloo was in the sky."
"No, I'll admit that did not occur to me," Rainbow replied, "but so long as we're talking about that sort of thing, check this out."
The projection cleared away and a medium red circle formed on the table. Inside it formed another smaller red circle where she projected the entire pack. "This is us, Team Awesome."
The other mevs all smiled in fascination.
Next, she placed the figures of the outsiders present just outside the smaller circle. "Here's Rhezenda. Not fully in the pack circle but as close as Discord and Spike. In a way, she's actually closer since she's at my side quite a bit."
Discord and Spike themselves looked at their own figures with interest.
The two new servants were added in what Rainbow deemed appropriate places. "Here's Scootaloo near the edge of the bigger circle," she said to everyone. "Apple Bloom herself is the one who pointed this all out to me since she was still outside the circle at the time. Now listen to this. When asked to be brought in," the figure of Apple Bloom shifted into the circle next to Scootaloo, "the role she chose was to be in part bodyguard and the other part a gopher."
"Meaning," Twilight said with pleased understanding, "she's still the closest to the outside of the circle even if she's in because of how she moves away from you or us to do that part of her role."
Spike realized Twilight was looking at him, and he began to note down everything the master mev had said.
"Moving on," Rainbow told everyone and deactivated the projection, "I brought Amara here to the castle during Cadance's visit. They had a good talk. Amara happened to mention that the other objects in Rhezenda's trunk know and speak to each other as friends."
"Wow, really?" said Pinkie. "That is so cool! Do they have object parties in there?"
"That didn't really come up," Rainbow said, "but it turns out that the tiny piece of pearl I brought back from Mount Aris had no traces of my mev magic because of how I tried to leave it intact. It goes by the name of Pearl for them. Amara herself said she felt that might be important, so to bring Pearl up to that patterned link with the others, Twilight ate her magic yesterday. We have no need to return it directly, so it will actually go back on its own within a week's time."
"Is she as nice as Grant is?" Fluttershy wondered. "And Amara too. She must be nice if things went well with Princess Cadance."
"They're all very nice," Twilight answered for Rainbow.
"Not that I mind," Applejack said, "but I wonder why that is."
"Friendship magic I presume," Rarity said. "Rainbow goes to these places to offer her services, but every one of them has a friendship connection to us already in some form."
"I guess, but the idol of Boreas is for us to help Scootaloo, not Griffonstone," Applejack reminded her.
"It's actually both," Starlight interjected. "We did mange to get griffon magic from him despite Gilda refusing that part of Rainbow's requests on our visit."
"Oh, yeah," Applejack conceded.
"I don't activate their liveliness often, but Pearl did alert me that I won't be able to speak with her during this week she's out. She said she will weakly be able to speak to the other objects," Rainbow noted.
"How interesting," Discord casually remarked.
"It's been a useful ability you've taught me," Rainbow told him.
Discord nodded pleasantly.
Rainbow glanced at the agenda Sweetie Belle had ready for her. "Moving on again, let's talk about visiting Tirek in Tartarus," the master mev said. "Discord helped me make a basic introduction. I told Tirek I was there because I felt it the proper time. I said I could feed him a little bit and did. I told him maybe we could be friends."
"Really?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"That seems a mite odd, Master," Applejack noted carefully.
"I agree," Rainbow said, "but Fluttershy brought up the point she and Discord became friends. It's not impossible and worth a shot."
"Well, what did he say in response to that?" Rarity prodded with interest.
"He wasn't sure, but he'd take me up on the free food. I'll let him think on the idea and visit him again another time," Rainbow answered.
"It really was that simple?" Twilight asked.
"Almost," Starlight said, meeting eyes with Rainbow Dash.
"Oh, right. He asked if I'd gone berserk and if that was how I got my lightning power," Rainbow remembered. "I told him yes. Alright, enough on that. Starlight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie, are you three available for a mission this Sunday to the Changeling Kingdom?"
"I am," Starlight answered first.
"Yes, Master, I am as well," Fluttershy said.
"Me three!" Pinkie eagerly declared.
"Awesome," Rainbow said. "That will put us back on track to continuing Project Mercury. We have nothing else to report on that this week. Let's go down the line now. Primeva."
"Beyond the things we all did together as the entire pack, I was here when Master brought Amara and went with Master to Tartarus on Sunday. Besides that," she blushed, "I'm going to admit I've taken a liking to being a bat pony for flexchanges."
The other mevs giggled in amusement. Sweetie Belle's cheeks flushed red.
"That's it from me," Starlight said.
"Segunda," Rainbow continued to her second fledgling.
"I can finally be a bat pony anytime at night," Fluttershy told everyone. They all cheered for her. "I went with Master to Tartarus on Sunday too, as you all know. And it's not exactly a mev related thing, but I showed Discord around at the school today after Master pointed out to Twilight we hadn't done that," Fluttershy said.
"We're mighty sorry about that," Applejack told him.
"Indeed, shame on us," Rarity agreed.
"Super sorry, Discord," Pinkie added.
"Like everyone else, I am sorry Discord," Starlight spoke as well.
Rainbow and Twilight had already made their fervent apologies earlier in the day.
"Yes. Well, all's well that ends well and all that," Discord said. "I'm glad you all came around. Thank you, Master."
Rainbow blushed. "Oh, I was just trying to right a wrong from us."
"And that can still be appreciated," the draconequus told her with an authoritative air of one of his clawed talons.
"You're welcome then," Rainbow replied.
"No more to report from me," Fluttershy told everyone.
"Mitria," Rainbow called upon the next in line.
Rarity smiled proudly. "I am happy to report I do believe I have a fitting name for your crown."
Rainbow Dash smiled at that. "Let's hear it."
"Wait!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. She used her magic to lift out the crown from a saddlebag and set it in front of Rarity.
"Alright, let's hear it," Rainbow Dash encouraged her fledgling.
"Jin," Rarity said confidently.
The crown shimmered and lit up to a golden glow for a moment before that glow shifted into a red hue. The red was slightly more subdued compared to Rainbow's usual magic aura, but it was familiar enough to all present at the table, especially the mevs.
"I think he likes it," Applejack noted.
"He does," Rainbow Dash told her. "Jin...finally. I'm glad to know it."