Starlight read the description of her character. “Err, well, before you stands a… young filly with, I guess I’ll just say pink coat and purple mane, done up in big ponytails like when we were little.”
“You used to have ponytails?” Sage asked.
“Big and heavy ones,” Sunburst said. “Sire’s Hollow tradition.”
“Right. So a filly like that is standing before you. And she asks what in the blazing saddles she walked in on.”
“Now, now, Starlight, since you are playing a Well O’ Wisp, you also have three glowing orbs around you,” Sunburst said. “Two, now that you’ve spent one. Oh, which one did you spend, by the way?”
Starlight ruffled the papers some more. “Umm, I have no idea. I don’t know how any of this works.”
“Spoken like a true Well O’Wisp,” Sage joked, before giving her a book to read. “Here, you can catch up while our party introduces themselves. I am, of course, the great and noble Bamboozalix, an Eastern Unicorn Druid of some repute. You may have heard of me, or your character would, I mean.”
Sunburst snickered. “There’s not enough dice in Las Pegasus for her to make that Reputation roll. Bamboozalix is a shapeshifting mage from a foreign circle, he has the ‘Glorified Troublemaker’ background, which means he can use the name and clout of his faction to get out of trouble, but actual faction members won’t help him.”
“Sounds simple enough,” Starlight nodded as she compared the notes from the book and her character sheet. “Okay, I’m gonna say I spent a single Crystal Wisp on that spell, and I still have one Frost and one Crystal channeled, if that’s okay.”
“Defensive build, fair enough for the early levels,” Sunburst said with a nod. “I think our rugged hulk of a barbarian is next.”
Starlight listened intently for Bulk Biceps’s character description.
“I’m Kettle Belle. I like to rage and stuff.”
Starlight then turned her face slightly to the right, as apparently Tree Hugger was playing the barbarian in this game instead.
“Oh. Okay, did not see that one coming. Although that does explain the bludgeon.”
“Barbarians are physical,” Sunburst explained. “Kettle Belle is a kangaroo Barbarian, most of her attacks involve pouncing and punching in some variety. She took the Storm Totem option, too, which gives her some elemental surges when she rages.”
“Uhuh. And that would make Bulk...”
“Oh, I’m, like, the palomin known as Silver Buckler. I’m on a noble quest.”
Sunburst, noting Starlight’s confusion, added, “A palomin is a magic knight, basically, one that uses all the magic that isn’t restricted to just Unicorns. Bulk is playing an Oath of Endurance paladin, also known as a blue knight, dedicated to preserving knowledge.”
Shapeshifter, storm rager, and a… palomin? That’s awfully familiar. “Yeah. So, small question: what are you all doing here?”
“We were investigating the disappearing deer in these woods. Apparently whoever’s responsible set up a mosquito trap,” Sage replied.
“No, I mean, this game. What is it for? I heard you say it’s a teambuilding activity?”
“I mean, technically it is.” Sunburst shrugged. “We get together and discuss some of the kids and their progress. And we experiment with challenges.”
“Sunburst experiments with challenges,” Sage added. “We guinea pigs are the ones judging the results.”
“Speaking of which: anything on the rentals?” Tree Hugger asked.
Starlight’s ears twitched. “Rentals?”
“As far as I know, they’re underway, but you know B.T.: likes to wait ‘till the last second to jump into action. I’ll know for sure tomorrow.”
Sunburst nodded. “Guess there’s no point in announcing anything yet, then. Any more questions?”
“Just one: why aren’t the other camp counsellors here? The twins?”
Sage snorted. “The twins aren’t the gaming type, and they’re not particularly fond of me in general. It’s nothing personal, just different perspectives. Wouldn’t be any point to including them in this. You, however, are more than welcome to stay. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the boys so far, and we do need another arcane caster to balance out the group.”
Sunburst nodded. “I agree. Anyway, your character’s got the ‘Young Exile’ background, so don’t worry too much about making your saving throws early on. So, after you’ve all introduced yourselves to each other, the party turns to this new arrival and...”
Starlight kept her eyes on Sunburst as he narrated. He seemed so happy, happier than she remembered. But then, he’d always been a little bit of a dork, head stuck in books all day unless he got to try a new spell.
Something nagged at her, though.
She was playing Sage’s old character.
Old character. As in: one from another session.
One of many sessions, going by how easily it came to them all.
They’ve done this before, numerous times.
I never made any friends after Sunburst left, but Sunburst went to Canterlot.
Of course he made new friends.
I can share, though, right?
“So, if you’re up to speed with that, on with the game, then?” Sunburst’s voice snapped her out of her reverie.
“Yes, please, don’t let me stop you,” Starlight said with gritted teeth.
All in all, the game was fun, and Starlight got the hang of her character quickly enough, blasting through traps and helping negotiate passage towards some house on chicken legs, she didn’t catch the details.
Eventually, Sunburst made the call as Dungeon Master and called it a night, so they went back to their respective bunks.
She suppressed a sigh as she walked between Sunburst and Sage.
Still can’t talk to him alone. Patience, Starlight.
“You did well for a first-timer,” Sage said.
“Thanks. I guess I just have a knack for… playing. Even if I was a little caught off guard. Mind if I ask what that rental thing was all about?”
“A little surprise for the camp, one our guest lecturers is taking care of it. A group exercise, with the whole camp, or most of it, at least. Won’t be for tomorrow, but the day after, at the earliest. And the day after that, we can do some more fun stuff with it, hopefully. We’ll see how the kids like it.”
“And for training our boys? Any ideas there?” she asked.
Sage thought for a moment. “Might as well tell you now: once we’re sure everyone in camp is mostly at the same level, we like to organise some big events here. You know, war games, teach’em battle tactics, but not actual violent fighting.”
“Meaning we try to keep the actually violent ones out of it,” Sunburst added.
“Right. So, bottom line: once we start doing those, we split up the boys, especially this year. Two in each event, and one separated to get some quality tutoring. We’ll do the same during some of the breaktime activities, depending on what’s scheduled. We’re still working out all the details. Organising things in a place like this, with all the other things going on outside of camp, it can get a little tricky.”
“Ah. But if there happen to be a lot of activities by the water one day, you’ll take Live Wire aside for some lessons. Like that, you mean.”
Sage nodded emphatically. “Yes, definitely like that. He needs to get some swimming lessons, and I’m all for him getting them, but I can’t ask him to swim in some full-body rubber getup, and I can’t expect every single foal in camp to get an anti-shock treatment. Even we have our limits.”
“Tell me about it,” Sunburst said.
“You know, I could just make that problem go away for a little bit,” Starlight blurted out.
She froze. She wanted to slap herself, make up an excuse.
She wanted to die right on the spot.
“By removing his cutie mark for a bit?” Sage asked, pondering. “Hmm. Yes, that is a viable option, theoretically.”
Wait, what?
“However, that would teach him how to swim without his cutie mark. He’s still going to have to learn to swim with his cutie mark, and we can’t be sure if he’d lose any of his physical fitness with his mark, so I’d rather not risk it in our big lake. But a good idea in case of an emergency, I will admit, hadn’t thought of that.”
“No problem,” she croaked. “So… will I be teaching one of the boys separately?”
Sage nodded and yawned. “All three, at some point, probably wanna start with Bastion. Anyway, we’ll get to that tomorrow. Morning is break time, so we can discuss then. In the meantime, try thinking about what you want to start with, for the solo sessions. You’ve seen the boys in action now, so to speak, use your best judgement.”
They arrived at their bunks, like clockwork. Time to say goodnight. She still hadn’t gotten her talk with Sunburst, but at least she’d had fun with him.
“Okay. See you tomorrow.”
“Good night, Starlight,” Sunburst offered. “Good game.”
“Good night, good game,” Sage added.
“Yeah, good night.” She chuckled to herself. “Good game, I guess.”
The boys were back to the relaxed morning sessions after breakfast. Doldrum was doing tai chi with Tree Hugger’s group, Bastion and Live Wire were doing some games with light kettlebells under Bulk Biceps’ supervision, and Starlight found Sage alone, overlooking the lake. He had a book in front of him, but it only half kept his attention.
“Hey. Mind if I join you?” she asked.
“Go right ahead. Have you thought about what to do?”
She sat down by him and took a glance at the pages of the book. It didn’t take her long to recognise one of the pictures in it: it was one of the standard texts on chaos magic, probably something by Foxtail, or Master Chant. “Something like that. I thought I’d run it by you first, just to make sure.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Okay, so Live Wire’s easy to figure out: he has a talent for electricity. That talent hasn’t been developed into any serious spellwork, he’s obviously worried about that. I would assume you’ve already worked on his finer control before, and that’s why he wants to learn conjuration next. His talent is destructive, he wants something creative.”
Sage nodded in appreciation.“Pretty much in line with what me and Sunburst have observed, not bad for a quick look.”
“So I was thinking I’d just teach conjuration. I know how to do it, I’m pretty good at it myself, I think I can explain most of the theory behind it. Is that okay?”
“Sure. We’ve been trying, starting with teleportation, but Live Wire’s got too much of the thunder in him, we were thinking of starting him on a dash spell first. If you can get him to summon something, that’d be progress.”
“I look forward to trying. Then Bastion. Bastion’s… hard to read. A lot of his knowledge and training was planted, supposedly: conditioned thinking, cult indoctrination techniques, stuff like that, at least that’s how I heard it. Except now that he is thinking for himself, he’ll lose a lot of it. It’s hard to tell which parts are him and which parts are conditioned responses, but it looks like most of it is him now, especially after a few meditation sessions. He’s a bit of a worry-wort, though, over-thinks things too much for an emotional caster. Questions of identity, along with the legacy of his uncle, that’s the big issue for him, not to mention he’s at an extremely high risk of Eighth Grader Syndrome.”
Sage snorted. “You’re tellin’ me. I had that once, it was not pretty.”
“But he can grow out of that, and I think any amount of training should suffice. He wouldn’t even need to learn magic itself, just enough to be able to learn on his own.”
“And your plan?”
“I figured evasion might be best for him to learn first. Start him off on cloaking spells, something that buys time to think.”
Sage chuckled. “Yeah, not a bad idea. And Doldrum?”
Starlight took a deep breath and sighed. “That’s the one I don’t quite get. He’s physically fit, technically capable, too, judging from his toys, but he’s so…”
“Meek?”
Starlight’s ears flicked. “Not even that. He’s neutral a lot of the time, empty almost. He’s so quiet, so turned inward, it’s hard to explain. He doesn’t speak up much, he doesn’t run, he hasn’t gotten excited once. Why, I’m willing to bet if you checked his heart rate, it hasn’t gone up even once since he got here. There’s something off about him, something missing, and I can’t tell what. Did he get his cutie mark during some sort of… I don’t know, traumatic experience?”
“You could say that. Doldrum only looks complicated if you don’t know his history. He lives in Bogsdown, you see, I don’t know if you’re familiar.”
She winced at the mention of that name. “Ooh, yeah, I know. Sire’s Hollow pony, remember? We have a long and ugly rivalry with that place. Oof, that’s swamp country, that’s jock central.”
Sage nodded. “Well, Doldrum wasn’t always a jock, is the thing. Actually, he never was, and probably won’t be. He got picked on a lot, the local little league stars enjoyed tormenting him in, um, the usual ways kids torment each other down there. And so one day he decided enough was enough. He started looking into building his strength.”
“Weightlifting?”
“If you consider weaponry to be weights.”
“I still don’t see it.”
“He found a book, at the Trader’s Market. A few books, actually. One was by Chuck Boulders.”
“That one I know. Very big on positive thinking, but not effective in building muscle, unless you happen to have a-”
The stallion smirked. “A talent for it?”
“Yeah. Technically, I guess that would fall under Doldrum’s talent, wouldn’t it?”
“Yup. But then one of the other books turned out to be even more interesting: the one where Chuck Boulders got his ideas from in the first place. The old masters aren’t that popular these days among ponies, but pandas and elephants keep the old texts very much intact, and you’d be surprised what you can find if you ask the right pony for a catalogue and express delivery.”
“Oh, so he’s just copied training methods from a book, then. Okay, makes sense, so, what, Mighty Helm training, then? He has the build for it.”
“Not quite,” Sage replied.
“Right, not an Earth pony. The Order of Netitus?”
“Older.”
“The Siegelords of Midnight Castle?”
“From before the unification of the tribes.”
“Ah, the shinobi of the Eastern Isles, then.” She furrowed her brow. “He’s got a little too much firepower and not enough stealth to be a ninja, though, doesn’t he?”
“Not the Hearth’s Warming unification: the earlier, actual unification, before Hearth’s Warming. You know, the one that saddled all three tribes with each other in the first place. Back when Pegasi didn’t have Unicorns to ask for magical assistance.”
Oh. Oh, no. Starlight rubbed her temples when she realised. “A Stormcrafter. You are instructing an underage bully victim on Stormcrafter magic.”
“Technically, we are. And yes, that’s the one. Not a lot of ponies know their history that far back.”
She looked up, mind racing to find all the information she had on the topic. “My dad’s an antiquarian. I think I know what book Doldrum read, then.” Her eyes went wide. “Oh, seabiscuits, he probably ordered it from my dad’s store in the first place.”
“Does that information help you at all?”
“Oh, umm, yeah, I guess it does? Stormcrafters used artifacts to get their magic out, but they did so by honing their bodies, by trying to embody the things they gifted onto their weapons. Three elements they mastered above all others: wind, ice, and lightning.” She thought for a moment. “And, in hindsight, that does fit Doldrum’s inventory, I suppose. Umm, they used the same Iron Saddle physical conditioning the pandas use, the stuff that piles magic under your skin to harden your body, but they didn’t stop at making themselves stronger. Once they reached a certain level, they would purify themselves and their magic, like metal ore, and then put that magic into weapons and armour. Their craft was focused on what to become first, before they learned how to pass that on. To make a Belt of Strength, they had to become strong first. To make a Ring of Lightning, they had to master managing storm clouds, that sort of thing.”
“And of course, once the Pegasi tribes started going to war with the Unicorns, you got those spell-storage wands and things showing up in cloud cities and the whole thing escalated even further.”
Starlight nodded. “Basic transition of invocation to evocation. The practice, not the school of magic.”
“Exactly.”
“Okay. If that’s what he is, he’s focused on… purity, I guess? He still thinks he has some weakness he has to get rid of?”
“It’s not a thought: he does have some weaknesses,” Sage explained. “And by purifying his magic, so to speak, we’re hoping to help get past that. In the meantime, all of his stuff is a little flawed by ancient standards, but very powerful by modern ones. So is he, by the way. Stormcrafters perfected the concept of putting yourself in your work. Doldrum may use weapons now, but he’s dangerous when he’s unarmed, and I do mean dangerous.”
“Come on, a nice boy like him?”
“He has anger issues,” Sage explained. “The bullies back home, they got under his skin, so did his teachers, coaches, everyone around him, outside of his family. He’s used to being in a hostile environment, that’s part of the long-term issue. He was always sensitive, both in the good and the bad sense. He got his cutie mark after a fight, and the talent he got out of it made him even more sensitive. It’s clouded his judgement over time. It doesn’t show often, but you don’t want to be around when it does. All the things he makes have a hair trigger, and they hit hard. So does he.”
Starlight furrowed her brow. “I thought his talent was the exact opposite of that? Staying calm in the eye of the storm?”
“Yeah, sort of. He doesn’t flail around angrily when things get too much. He turns inward, and he focuses.”
Her heart sank. “Oh. He’s one of those types. The kind that doesn’t get mad, but gets even.”
“Yeah. It can get real ugly, real quick. And to make matters worse: thanks to his talent he’s got pretty good reflexes, too. You can’t catch him in a little force bubble: he’ll punch his way out of it before it forms. If you have to restrain him, cast a wide net and shrink it down around him. Do not give him enough room to push off and punch, and do not form the barrier where he can punch it before it’s finished.”
“Okay, so behaviour-wise, he has to learn not to slip into kill-mode so easily. Got it.”
“A bit crudely worded, but in a nutshell, yes, that’s the challenge. When he got his cutie mark, he had sort of an emotional overload. His brain is all messed up, his joy reflex doesn’t work the way it should. He doesn’t feel anything most of the time, and he feels happy when he feels strong, which is when he’s in combat.”
“Sounds almost like magic addiction,” Starlight noted.
“That’s because it is, technically: he feels at ease when he slips into an altered state. His default doesn’t feel right anymore, and that’s gonna end up biting him hard once adolescence kicks in. Me and Sunburst have been working with him for a little under a year now, on and off, and he’s gotten better, but in the grand scheme of things, he’s blacklisted by a lot of ponies, considered a lost cause by some. Still think you’re up to it?”
“I’m going to have to think about what to show him, and how, but I have a few ideas.” She squinted, thinking, then nodded. “Yeah, I have a pretty good idea of what a Stormcrafter is, what they’re supposed to be capable of. I’m sure I can think of a few tricks he hasn’t read about yet.”
“We’ll see.”
“Come to think of it, does Fight Camp have a weapons locker? I mean, child-proof safe ones, obviously?”
Sage Cracker smiled and gestured to the spot. “Fifty paces uphill, behind the cafeteria. We keep it locked and cloaked at all times, only available with a password. The password is ‘Pactbreaker.’”
“Oddly appropriate,” she remarked. “Oh, and one more thing: if we are using camp trinkets or stuff like that, would it be okay for me to show Bastion some tricks with artifacts, too?”
“Sure, why? Has he asked?”
“I’ve noticed him looking at the stuff our little Assault has in his bag.”
“If you were a boy his age, wouldn’t you?”
“Probably, but still, I think he’s going to ask. And if little Mister Assault only has flawed artifacts with a hair trigger, that might cause some problems.”
“Check the stock, make sure you know your way around it, and if he asks, feel free to use anything in there, it’s all safe.”
Bastion held his magic in easily but tightly.
“And release!” Sage called out.
With a simple thought, he detonated five bundles of green goop at once, coating a squadron of enemies in one go.
“Good job, Bastion,” Sunburst said. “Looks like you have a knack for it.”
He smiled. It did feel nice to find something he was good at just like that.
His smile faded, though, when Live Wire took his turn. The Unicorn had struggled with the exercise of delaying spells right from the get-go, something Live Wire blamed on a heavy lunch eaten too quickly. That had been two hours ago, though, and the excuse wore thin.
Live Wire gestured with his hooves to make a ball of lightning, then tossed it into the field. He tried another, and the first one fizzled. He tried again, and again, and again, but the result was still the same: he couldn’t hold the lightning in long enough to make a trap, or even let it detonate when he wanted it to. From what Bastion could see, the lightning had a mind of its own, and no intention to follow directions.
The same could not be said for Doldrum’s weapons. For this exercise, the Pegasus had resorted to using his lightning ring, no doubt only adding insult to injury for his Unicorn bunkmate. Doldrum made the same motions, did the same toss, but he managed to get three ball lightnings out before being forced to detonate.
“Still no change there,” Sunburst said. “Three’s a good number, Doldrum. Live Wire, we’re gonna work on that issue the next couple of days.”
Bastion wanted to speak up at that. Maybe Live Wire could try using a Lightning Ring too? Surely a small session with magical training wheels was all it took? Or perhaps Doldrum could at least pretend to be struggling like Live Wire was? At the very least, using lightning for practice seemed a bit uncouth, as Apple Bloom would say, or unfair.
He never got around to voicing his objections, though, because a scroll appeared in front of Sage Cracker.
“Ah, word from Canterlot.” Sage quickly read the letter, then grinned and called out. “Okay, we can call it for today, boys! Gather around!”
The three boys went to sit in front of Sage, ears perked.
“I just got word from our guest lecturer: we’re going to get a little surprise.”
“When?” Sunburst asked.
“Two days from now. B.T.’s made the arrangements, E.E.A.’s cleared it, so the day after tomorrow we’ll start our big group games.”
For the first time since arriving at camp, Bastion saw Doldrum smirk, almost evilly. “Great. I can’t wait to see how we do.”
Weirdly enough, even that sentence, confident as it should have sounded, came out in that same hushed husky whisper. Bastion idly wondered if maybe Doldrum and Miss Fluttershy were related.
“So no need to change the schedule, then.” Sunburst floated a scroll of his own over, along with a quill to mark a few things. “Okay, we’ll start with the solo practice tomorrow, then. Bastion, you and Starlight will have the field to yourselves tomorrow morning. Live Wire, you and me will be here in the afternoon during break time.”
“Unless, of course, the young changeling insists on joining tomorrow morning’s tournament?” Sage asked.
“What’s the tournament?”
“Tug of War,” came the reply. “We figured it would be best to keep you aside from that, since you have the shapeshifter size factor going on. Some of the campers might object, but we can always step in if it gets too much.”
“Oh. Umm, no, that’s fine,” Bastion said. “Tug of War really isn’t my kind of game. I wouldn’t want to accidentally turn into something too big and win.”
“Why not?” Doldrum asked. “If it works, it works.”
“Well, yeah, but wouldn’t that be… you know, unfair?”
Doldrum quirked an eyebrow at him, and it almost seemed like the Pegasus was going to pout. “I guess, if you wanna look at it that way.”
“Doldrum and me are pretty good at it, so we have a title to defend,” Live Wire explained. “Although I’m pretty sure it’s just him doing all the work.”
“Not exactly,” the Pegasus said, back to his quiet monotone. “I’m stronger, but you have a better grip on the ground.”
Bastion didn’t press the issue. He turned to look at Starlight Glimmer instead. “So it’ll be me and you alone, then?”
“Yup. I’ve already prepared a little lesson on something I’m sure you’ll appreciate. Nice and strategic, not too difficult, good basic skill to start learning advanced magic with.”
“Okay. That sounds great, then. And what about the other big games?”
“The day after tomorrow, B.T.’s going to show up in the afternoon.”
Live Wire gulped.
“So we’ll take Live Wire separately for that one, too. Starlight, you’ll be on call for that session.”
“Who’s B.T.?” Bastion asked.
“Restraining order number eight,” Live Wire replied.
“And five,” Doldrum added. “Number three for me, too, technically.”
Live Wire tilted his head, tapped his chin with a sparking sound, then nodded. “Oh yeah, I forgot about that one.”
Sage continued undisturbed. “The day after that, we’ve scheduled a fitness test for the whole camp, under the supervision of the E.E.A.”
Now Sunburst gulped.
“So I’ll give Bastion some pointers during that time, stay out of the way for that. It’s a fitness test geared towards ponies, Bastion, and horribly standardised at that. You wouldn’t get anything useful out of it anyway,” Sage added.
“That sounds reasonable.”
“Alright, that’s the schedule for now. We’ll fill in the blanks a little later on, so you know when to follow the group and when to head back up the hill.
Around four, before the last of the evening training sessions would begin, Sage was off by the lake, the boys were back to playing normal, non-violent camp games, and Starlight finally had a moment alone with Sunburst.
“So you really are going to let them compete against the other campers?” Starlight asked.
“Sure. They have before. Why not?”
“Because the boys think they’re top bunk. Don’t you think that might be a little… arrogant?”
“Not really. I mean, it’s true: they’re leagues ahead of anyone in the other bunks, even most older kids.”
“Yeah, but Doldrum and Live Wire sounded almost… eager.”
“And?”
“They’re eager to beat other ponies. They want other ponies to lose. Isn’t that bad?”
Sunburst stopped. “Neither of them gets to have fun most of the time, any fun at all. So we try to give them enough freedom here. Live Wire’s got some obvious problems when he cuts loose, and Doldrum has a tendency to fly into a rage sometimes.”
“Yeah, Sage told me: his talent makes for a nasty cocktail with his anger issues, apparently. All the more reason not to let him compete, then?”
“If we keep him out of it, if we exclude him completely, he’s never going to learn how to handle himself. Besides, he’s been getting better. You haven’t seen him angry yet, have you?”
“No, no I haven’t. In fact, I’m not sure I know what the big deal is: he looks fine to me. I suppose if all that’s true, then getting him to stay calm down under stress, maybe guiding that talent into something constructive, is a good thing. But still, is it fair to put those boys in the same competition as everyone else?”
“Where else are we supposed to put them?” Sage asked.
How the stallion managed to sneak up like that, she still couldn’t tell. She’d seen him appear out of nowhere on the first day of camp, but there wasn’t any sign of magic. Even up close, she couldn’t divine what sort of spell he used to get around. “Oh, hi, Sage. Didn’t notice you there.”
“I noticed.”
“Starlight was just wondering if it’s a good idea to keep the boys in the same competition as everyone else.”
“It’s a fair question, no harm in asking, but yes. I think they should play with kids their own age.”
“But that’s hardly fair to the rest of the campers, right?”
“Depends on what the game is,” Sage replied. “Most kids here are Pegasus foals, and they like to race, that’s hardly a fair game against Assault or Battery. Close quarters combat, it depends on the rules: wrestling favours the strong, but anything involving counting hits favours the quick. None of the three have an obvious advantage there, although Live Wire does pose the obvious safety risk. But as for Doldrum: he doesn’t get to use his artifacts around the other campers, if that’s what you’re worried about. We were thinking of having a biathlon in a few days, but Doldrum’s going to have to use camp equipment for that if he wants to join in.”
“Oh. Well, sure, that makes it a little more okay, I suppose. I just meant…”
She looked at Sunburst then.
“What? We should separate them into their own league?” Sunburst asked. “Might as well toss Bastion in there too, then. Wouldn’t be fair to ponies to compete with a changeling.”
“No, you’re right, I’m being silly.”
“I would call it overly cautious, but that’s not a bad thing, either,” Sage suggested.
Starlight looked at the ground as they entered.
“Hey, don’t worry about it, okay? We appreciate different perspectives around here. Stars know we can’t prepare for every surprise the kids might throw at us. It’s good to consider the different results you might get.”
“Thanks,” she said, lowering her voice as Sunburst went into the cabin to set up his game screen and books. “I can see why you and Sunburst are friends.”
“Heheh. We’ll see how friendly he is when we get to the chicken leg house. I think he’s got plans for the hag encounter. Speaking of encounters, have you considered my offer?”
“Which one?”
“The one for the sparring match. You know, do a little demo for the boys? We both have the same skillset, more or less, I’d be very interested in comparing notes.”
Starlight snickered to herself. “I look forward to it. But maybe after a few one on one sessions with the boys. See where they’re going, see what they still want. See what they might still need after the first few lessons?”
“Sounds good to me.”