//------------------------------//
// Episode 6: Finding Sunny Skies 
// Story: Friendship is Multiversal 
// by Spark Plug 
//------------------------------//

Twilight walked her guest, a white pegasus with a pink mane, to her castle from the Ponyville train station. "It's so good to see you again, Sunny," she said with a smile.

Sunny Skies tossed her mane and laughed. "The life of a traveling storyteller," she said wistfully. "I'm just happy it can bring me back through Ponyville every so often."

Twilight guided them into Sugarcube Corner, the bakery's smells already hitting the streets. "Let me get you breakfast."

Sunny shook her head. "Twilight, I couldn't impose—"

"Please," Twilight said with a smirk. "I do get a stipend for my work as a Princess, and there's always more than I know what to do with. Treating a friend to breakfast is the least I can do."

"Well, if you insist," Sunny conceded, and the two approached the counter.

"Sunny Skies!" the cashier said. "So good to see you! Chocolate croissant and Earl Bay?"

"You know me well, Mrs. Cake," Sunny said with a smile.

Mrs. Cake demurred with a wave of her hoof. "I'm no Pinkie Pie, but I do know our regulars, even the out-of-town ones." She focused on Twilight. "Speaking of, how is Pinkie?"

Twilight's smile got a little more strained, though only Sunny could tell. "She's getting better," she said. "Hopefully she'll be back on her hooves soon."

"I do hope so," Mrs. Cake said. "Any disease that can knock a pony like her down has to be a doozy, and for a week!" She passed a pair of bags to Sunny and Twilight. "I put a couple of chocolate chip muffins in there for her. Do give her our best."

Twilight's castle was in sight when Sunny asked, "So what happened to Pinkie Pie?"

"Well, we had a bit of a magical mishap a couple of weeks ago," Twilight said. "We got back okay, but she wasn't feeling well. She's been staying in the castle until she feels better."

Sunny glanced around and noticed more than a couple of ponies walking by took interest in what they were discussing. "Well," Sunny said, "I'm sure Ponyville will be happy to have her back once she's feeling better."

They made their way inside the castle and up to one of the bedrooms. Twilight rapped on the door with a hoof. "Pinkie? Sunny Skies is here."

The door opened on its own. Twilight and Sunny walked into the dark room, not seeing Pinkie anywhere.

Twilight let out a brief pulse with her horn. The results came back, and she looked up into the darkest corner of the room, on top of the wardrobe to see a pair of glowing pink eyes.

Twilight sighed. "What is it now, Pinkie?" she groaned.

"I'm not Pinkie," Pinkie said in a guttural yet high-pitched voice.

Twilight side-eyed Sunny who giggled and covered her muzzle with a wing. "Who are you, then?" she said.

"I am vengeance," Pinkie said, rising to her hooves. "I am the night." She jumped down and spread her wings threateningly.

"I. Am. BATMARE!" she finished with a yell.

The three mares stood for a moment as the moment gradually grew more awkward.

"Well," Sunny said, still amused by the whole endeavor, "I may be able to teach you to actually have bat-wings—"

Pinkie dropped into an extreme bow, grabbing one of Sunny's hooves in her own. "Or can you teach me how to get rid of the wings pleeeeeeeeese?"

Sunny gently stepped out of Pinkie's grip and brought her out of the bow with a hoof. "Pinkie Pie," she said, "you've earned those wings, and they are things to be celebrated, not hidden."

Pinkie frowned. "But you got your horn to disappear," she said, tapping Sunny's bare forehead with her hoof.

Or at least she would have had her hoof not run into Sunny's invisible horn which quickly became visible.

"Ouch!" Sunny said as she recoiled back. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples with her hooves, her horn sparking erratically.

Pinkie stood in shock for a moment before lighting her horn and pushing Twilight and Sunny out of the room and slamming the door.

Twilight stared at the door for a moment before turning back to Sunny. "Are you okay?"

"Quite," Sunny said in a more refined voice. "Though I see what you meant in your letter."

Twilight smiled sheepishly. "I know this is your time off, Princess" she said, "so if you want to do an—"

"Thank you, Twilight," Princess Celestia said as she lit her horn long enough to reapply her illusion, "but I'm here as a friend." She smirked. "Plus you know I'd rather do this than paperwork."

Twilight shook her head with a smile. "One of the many ways we're different."

"What can I say," Sunny said, shifting back into her more casual demeanor, "friendship sure is magic!"







Friendship is Multiversal: Discovery





Episode 6: Finding Sunny Skies







Sonic and Tails (as Fast Hooves and Miles Per Hour) trotted into Ponyville from the general direction of the White Tail Woods. "Great day, isn't it, Bro?" Sonic said with a broad smile.

"I mean, we knew it would be," Tails said, gently flapping his wings to float alongside Sonic. "What with them controlling the weather and all."

"And yet you still didn't want to come along," Sonic responded.

"I just didn't see why we needed to come here."

"Well, we've got to plant one of those beacon things, right?"

"Already..." a voice behind them said, clearly out of breath, "already planted it." A maroon unicorn with a blue mane and a pair of full saddlebags trotted a full pony length behind them and was falling further behind.

"Well," Sonic said, "we should... uh..." He glanced back at the unicorn. "C'mon, Spark Plug, you're harshing my vibe."

Spark Plug smirked. "Gotta find a better excuse," he said.

"Or just admit it," Tails said.

Sonic turned up his nose. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Then tell me where we're going," Tails smirked.

"Twilight's castle—"

"Thank you."

"Where the library is," Sonic finished. "I will admit to no more."

"Okay, okay," Tails said, hovering back to Spark Plug. "Where are you headed?"

"Funnily enough," he said between breaths, "the library. How about you?"

"I wanna build something," Tails said with a slight eye twitch. "Maybe I'll ask Ditsy if I can raid the Doctor's basement."

Spark just nodded and trotted on, still breathing heavily.

"Hey, are you okay?" Tails said, hovering a little lower to get on Spark's eye level.

"Just..." Spark took another breath. "Out of shape... and brought too much stuff." He gave a lopsided smile. “Comes with the ‘IT Guy’ territory.”

"Yeah," Sonic said, "do you need a hand with that?"

Spark hesitated for a moment. "Nah," he said eventually. "The castle's right there."

"You sure?" Sonic pressed. "I can put this 'earth pony strength' to good use."

"Yeah, how does that work, anyway?" Tails said. "Because based on the archetypes, I'd think Sonic would be a pegasus and I'd be a unicorn."

"That is an excellent question," Spark said, perking up slightly. "My guess is there's other biological or hereditary factors involved. The result is typically what you would be if you were born here, so I'd wager a studious pegasus or an earth pony that likes to go fast might be more common than we expect."

"Yeah," Sonic said with a knowing grin, "almost like we get to choose who we are."

Spark nodded. "Point taken," he said quietly.

"So remind me why you didn't choose to be a—"

"Point. Taken," Spark Plug said with a touch of venom.

A moment passed.

"Yeah," Tails said, drifting to the side, "so I'm gonna..."

"You know where to find me," Sonic said with a wave of his hoof.

They got to the foot of the castle before Spark spoke again. "Sorry I snapped," he said.

"It's okay," Sonic said with a nod. He opened his mouth to say more but shut it. "Just..." he finally said, "let's talk later."

"Thanks," Spark said, then stopped at the doors. "Do we knock?"

"Nope," Sonic said, yanking one of the doors open.





Sunny Skies stepped into the bedroom and casually flicked the light switch with a wing. "Pinkie?" she said.

"Pinkie's not here," said the lump on the bed that looked suspiciously like Pinkie hiding under the blankets.

"That's a shame," Sunny said, sitting down to the side of the bed with her forehooves resting on the mattress. "I was hoping to see her. She's such a great friend."

"She's the best," the lump said. "The bestest, super-duperiest friend anypony could have."

"Do you know where she is?"

"She died."

Sunny's ear flicked, but she schooled her response otherwise. "That's strange," she said, "I heard she came back."

"Nope," the lump said, a hint of bitterness coming through. "Just a monster that hurts her friends and makes ponies scared and tells jokes no one understands."

Sunny hummed. "That doesn't sound like a monster to me."

The lump seemed to shrink. "But I hurt you," she whispered.

"Yes, you did," Sunny said. "Did you mean to?"

"No!" Pinkie said, throwing the covers off. "No, and I'm so sorry, and I'll never ever—"

Sunny put a hoof on Pinkie's muzzle. "Did you hurt anyone else?"

Pinkie's eyes welled up with tears as she nodded. "I burned Twilight with my magic when I tried to use it to make cupcakes, I hit Spike with my wings when I didn't see him next to me, I scared Fluttershy when I tried to make fireworks, and I..." She blinked. "I... I'm sure I did more but..."

"Did you mean to hurt them?" Sunny asked when it was clear Pinkie was done.

"No! No, I would never..." Pinkie deflated a bit and pondered her words. "I'm being dramatic, aren't I?" she said after a moment.

Sunny smiled. "I'm sure Rarity has a couch nearby if you need it."

Pinkie giggled. "There's one in the wardrobe. I put one in every wardrobe in the castle."

Sunny laughed. "For fainting couch emergencies, right?"

Pinkie stood up and motioned at Sunny. "See, this pony gets it!"

Sunny smiled and laughed just a little. "So," she said after a moment, "how do you feel about going to Sugarcube Corner?"

Pinkie instantly shrank back in on herself. "But..." she whispered.

Sunny's smile fell, though her face was no less gentle. She turned and sat beside Pinkie, pulling her into a hug with a wing.

"What are you afraid of?" she said, with no judgement or scorn.

Pinkie took a deep breath, held a hoof to her chest, and let it out as she motioned away with her hoof. "Everypony's going to see me," she said in a small voice. "They're going to see me with wings and with a horn and they're going to treat me like..."

"A princess?" Sunny finished.

Pinkie nodded. "It took us forever to stop calling Twilight 'Princess.'" She chuckled to herself. "Heh, 'Twilight Princess.'" She shook it off. "But we were her friends. Are her friends! And we still treated her like..." She blinked some tears away. "Like a princess."

Sunny tilted her head to the side. "You know," she said, "I remember the first time I came to Ponyville—"

"You-you, or you?" Pinkie interrupted. "I mean, as you? Or as..." She groaned in frustration and flopped down. "I can't words now."

Sunny Skies smiled sadly. "This is me, Pinkie." She blinked back a few tears. "My name is Sunny Skies, and I was fifteen when the Fires of Friendship were lit."

Pinkie just looked up at Sunny, jaw slack.

"And when a day came where the sun had to rise and no pony could do it..." She chuckled. "Well, I found a way to make Pegasus magic do the impossible.

"Much like a certain Earth Pony used her connection with the earth to jump into a mid-flight time machine?" Sunny finished with a knowing smile.

Pinkie laughed. It was a tentative laugh, a releasing of tension.

Sunny squeezed Pinkie for a second. "Ponies will treat you differently," she said, "because you are different. You have done the impossible, and it's left a permanent mark on you. Some of them will be afraid, some will be in awe, but nothing that they do will change anything about you.

"So, Pinkie, wanna go get some cake with me?"

Pinkie took another breath to steady herself before rising to her hooves. She looked Sunny in the eye...

And promptly lost her nerve. "I want to," she said quietly. "I want to. But I still see everypony being scared."

Sunny leaned into Pinkie, offering her support. "For what it's worth," she said, "there's ingredients in the kitchen."

Pinkie brightened up. "Oh, why didn't you say so, silly?" She pronked to the door and turned back around.

"What is it with you and cake, anyway?" Pinkie said with a grin.

Sunny rolled her eyes. "Listen, you," she said as they left the room, "if you had to sit through a thousand years waiting for culinary science to catch up with your taste buds..."





Twilight walked into the library. She waved a wing to Sonic who waved back from the corner lounge chair as she walked over to the desk in the reference section.

Spark Plug had effectively commandeered the area with a slew of computer equipment. He was focusing hard on a set of cables, trying—unsuccessfully—to tighten a cable tie with his magic. With a sigh, he set it down and turned to Twilight. “Hello, Princess,” he said.

“Spark Plug,” she said, surprised at the shape her mouth made. “I mean—“

He waved her off. “I have a lot of different names at this point,” he said. “What’s one more?”

Twilight nodded. “Well, just let me or Pinkie know if you do want your other name back; I’m pretty sure it takes a princess to do that.” She rolled her eyes. “Or The Doctor, I guess.”

“He’s the exception to everything,” Spark said with a shrug. He held up the cable tie. “Anyway, any chance I can get some magic lessons?"

"Well," Twilight said with a smile, "we're in the right section for it." She walked closer and examined the cable tie. "What exactly are you trying to do?"

Spark held the cable tie up to eye level. "One side fastens to the other, and you can thread it through this loop here." He motioned with his hoof at the cables. "I was trying to tie these together; keep things out of the way."

Twilight nodded. "Can you show me?"

Spark focused back on the cables. He looped the tie around them, but as he went to loop it around his magic started to flicker and the tie jerked around in the air.

Twilight glanced at Spark, then took the tie in her own magic and finished the loop. "You've got the basics, that's good," she said. "I think more control will come as you get used to all..." She trailed off and muttered, "this."

"You just gestured to all of me," Spark said without thinking. "Sorry," he said with a shake of his head, "movie quote."

"Well," Twilight said with a smile, "you do have a lot to get used to. Foals at least have their entire childhood to learn it."

"True," Spark said. With a nod, he got to his hooves and shoved the desk back against the wall. "Anyway," he said, "we're set up! As requested, one desktop computer with a web browser connected to the Lighthouse's network. Should be able to get to most of the multiverse's internets from there."

He motioned to a small box on the floor. "Wired connections only, as requested. I brought some wireless gear with me if you want to try that?"

Twilight shook her head. "It runs off of radio waves, right?" Spark nodded. "Those don't work very well with the crystal walls. My research notes are upstairs."

"Ah," Spark said. "Yeah, I just set the stuff up; I'm no expert on it. But I am proud of this part!" He tapped a gadget plugged into the box. "It's like the digital version of Sunset Shimmer's journal; except instead of sending writing, it's sending electrical signals."

Twilight brightened. "Oh, we could use that here!" she said. "CSGU and MIT have been trying to get their networks connected for years now, but they haven't been able to develop the right cables for the job."

"Yeah, that wou—wait, 'MIT'?"

"Manehatten Institute of Technology."

Spark sighed. "Of course." At Twilight's questioning look, he added, "Ours is 'Massachusetts.'" He looked back at the computer setup. "Anyway, you should be good to go. But I'd love to get in touch with your MIT, if only to give you a more pony-friendly keyboard?"

Twilight nodded. "Thanks!"

Spark nodded. "Happy to get you what you need." He started putting his tools and gadgets back in his saddlebags.

"So," Twilight said, "how are you liking Equestria so far?"

Spark stopped and blinked. "It's... good!" he said with no small hesitation.

Twilight cocked her head. "Somehow that failed to convince me," she said.

Spark sighed and fumbled around for a word before finally shrugging and saying, "I don't know what I was expecting." He blinked. "No, I do know what I was expecting, but it wasn't... yeah."

Twilight furrowed her brow in concern. "Is it the magic thing?" she said. "Because emotional state can affect magic control, especially for..."

She trailed off seeing the increasingly panicked look on Spark Plug. "You can tell?" he whispered.

Twilight looked almost embarrassed. "Between being a princess and, well, past history, I've had to get pretty good at spotting Changelings. You're not in trouble!" she quickly added.

Spark Plug sighed and hung his head. "I just wanted a cutie mark," he grumbled.

Twilight nodded in sympathy.

"Or maybe even some sign from the multiverse of who I'm supposed to be," he continued.

"You can be whoever you want to be!" Sonic yelled from across the library.

"Yeah, I wish I could believe that!" Spark yelled back, his eyes blazing. "But I go to one universe, and I'm a shapeshifter. I go to another universe, and I'm a shapeshifter. So I go to Equestria, and I really should have seen this coming, but I'm a shapeshifter that steals love, and I don't even have a cutie mark to show for it!"

He took a breath and charged on. "So yeah, maybe it's all just circumstance, but it seems like the multiverse is trying to tell me that I don't have any personality of my own, I'm only good for copying other people, nothing about me is actually mine, not even my own gender, and what the f—" He bit his lip and cut himself off.

Twilight looked on in sympathy. She moved toward him, but he backed away. "I..." He took a couple of breaths. "I need to go cool off," he said quietly. Without another word he turned and trotted purposefully out of the library.

After a few seconds Twilight went to the entrance but stopped short at Sonic's spot.

"We're going after him, right?" he said.

"Of course we are," she answered. "Give him a few minutes to calm down, though."

Sonic nodded and put a bookmark in his book. "Probably shouldn't have egged him on," he admitted.

Twilight gave him a side-eye. "No," she said, "but it sounds like this goes back a lot longer than the two weeks we've known him." She glanced down at the book. "Huh," she said.

Sonic smirked back. "What about it?"

Twilight shook her head. "You remind me of Rainbow Dash so much," she said, "but she loathes regency romance."

"Well," Sonic said, "I contain multitudes." He relaxed a little. "Plus it's nice to have something low-stakes to escape to."

Twilight almost groaned. "No kidding," she said. "The world's not in peril, just a bit of will-they-won't-they."

"It's so derivative. I'll read twenty."

They both chuckled at that.

"Let me grab a couple of things for Spark," Twilight said after a moment. "I think I know what'll help."





Sunny Skies and Pinkie moseyed into the kitchen to find Tails head-deep in a bundle of wires. Pinkie made some quick introductions then dove into the pantry.

"So, your name is... 'Tails'?" Sunny probed.

Tails nodded. "I mean, technically, it's Miles Per Hour, but I like Tails better."

Sunny looked at him, then to his backside, then back to him. "Is there a joke I'm not getting?" she said quietly.

Tails bit his lip and glanced around.

"She's okay!" Pinkie yelled from... farther in the pantry than had any right to exist.

Tails relaxed and leaned closer to Sunny. "I'm from another world," he whispered.

Sunny smiled. "Well then I'm very glad to meet you," she said. "So there are ponies in other worlds?"

"What?" Tails shook his head. "No, back home I'm a Mobian fox with two tails."

"That sounds wonderful!"

Tails rubbed his shoulder. "It is now," he said quietly.

Sunny nodded. "Then I would love to hear your story," she said. "But I'll admit, I'm curious how you got here?"

"Yeah!" Pinkie said, emerging from the pantry with her back stacked with dry ingredients. She pulled the refrigerator open and started collecting the wet ingredients in her magic. "How did you get back here?"

"Oh!" Tails perked up. "Right, so—okay." He took a breath to steady himself.

"Sorry, got excited," he said quickly. He turned to Sunny Skies. "So, normally, me and Sonic will hop universes using a Chaos Emerald—a really powerful energy source—and a portal generator. Our world, Mobius, has a parallel world called Earth. They're really similar; I have a theory that they were the same world at one point since the Chaos Emeralds seem to resona—" He cut himself off with a wave of a hoof. "Anyway, a few weeks ago we tried to go from Mobius to Earth, but something got in the way and threw us here."

"Yeah," Pinkie slid up to the table, her chef's hat askew and bits of batter clinging to her mane. "And then the Doctor tried to 'vworp-vworp' you home but then he got thrown somewhere else and me and Twilight got thrown to that lighthouse and then you showed up and I..." She froze for a moment. "But then the Doctor vworped us back here but how'd you get back here?"

"Oh!" Tails nodded. "So the world that lighthouse is in is kind of an in-between world, and they build portals out to all the worlds that they can. And they're stable, so the thing that threw us all over the multiverse can't get to us. But it means they can't move the portals; wherever they are is wherever they are."

"So we can't take the portal and put it in Twilight's basement next to the one that definitely isn't already there?"

Sunny Skies giggled.

Tails looked from her to Pinkie worriedly.

Pinkie shrugged. "She's okay."

Sunny shook her head and smiled. "Keep telling me state secrets, Pinkie," she said, "and they'll have to make me a princess."

Pinkie snorted. "Good one," she said. A piece of batter dripped off her mane. "Oh!" she said. "Do you want the cake to be vanilla, or strawberry, or that kind with the sprinkles that looks like fun and confetti that has a name I can't use for legal reasons?"

Sunny looked at Tails and motioned with a wing.

"Strawberry?" Tails said, looking for approval.

Sunny nodded. "Strawberry sounds great, Pinkie," she said.

"Okie-dokie-lo...quatious?" Pinkie said, stumbling over the last part. She bounced back to the refrigerator.

Sunny turned back to Tails. "So, I'm guessing the portal between this lighthouse and Equestria is somewhere in the Everfree forest?"

Tails' brow furrowed in thought. "We did go through a forest; don't know if it was the Everfree."

"Dark and scary with all sorts of dangerous creatures?" Sunny offered.

Tails shook his head. "It was actually pretty nice. Tall trees without a lot of underbrush."

Sunny perked up. "Oh, the White Tail Woods! That's much nicer." She sighed. "And a relief, to be honest. Usually all the interesting things like this happen in the Everfree, and there's enough interesting things there as it is."

"Oh? Like what?"

Sunny made a show of thinking. "Hmm... how about the story of When the Zebra Came To Ponyville?"





Twilight and Sonic found Spark Plug lying on the floor in one of the empty basement labs, head on his hooves.

He sighed. "Sorry I yelled at you," he said. "Both of you."

Twilight sat down a couple of books. Sonic sat down in front of Spark to look him in the eye.

"I should have been kinder," Sonic said. "I keep telling Tails 'what's the point of being right if you're being a dick', but I forgot that."

"It's okay," Spark said, pushing himself up into a sitting position. "I know you're trying to help in your own way, I just..." He sighed again. "I know I'm being stupid and dramatic and I just need to... let myself figure things out."

"Knowing what you need to do doesn't make it any easier," Twilight said gently.

Spark nodded. "It just brought back every dark thought I had growing up, every insecurity I had whenever I didn't fit in, and—" He turned to Sonic. "I know I should be grateful, but I just don't see it like that yet."

Sonic blinked. "It's hard for me to hear that," he said after a moment. "But I think I'm starting to get it. This isn't something you asked for; it's something that was thrust on you."

Spark nodded.

"But it's something I... desperately wanted," he finished.

Spark blinked and cocked his head. After a moment, the dots connected, and his jaw dropped.

"Yeah," Sonic said. "So don’t tell me that ‘the universe’ dictates who you are, ‘cause it doesn’t. If you're trying to figure out who you are, biology isn't going to give you your answer. We have the cards we’re dealt, but we choose what to do with it.” He poked Spark in the shoulder. “You didn’t get the hand you wanted, but now that you have it, what are you going to do with it?”

Spark worked his jaw for a moment before ducking his head. “I don’t know,” he said, dejected.

Sonic stood there for a moment before shrugging. “Eh, you also don’t have to decide right now.”

“If it helps,” Twilight said, walking over to them, “those feelings you mentioned? About feeling like you were just a copy?” Spark nodded, and Twilight tapped one of the books she brought. “You’re not the only one to feel that way.”

“Other Changelings feel like that?”

“Other ponies feel like that.”

Spark blinked, then let his breath out in a quiet laugh. “Of course,” he said, “I felt like that as a human so…”

Twilight nodded. “Like Sonic said, it’s not the hand you wanted. You didn’t get a Cutie Mark from the magic of Equestria, but that doesn’t mean you're not unique or that you don’t have a special talent. Now," She opened the other book. "Can I see you without the disguise?"

Spark nodded and stood up. He took a deep breath and let it out. "Sorry," he said with a sheepish grin, "it's like... unclenching your butt."

Sonic started to laugh but stopped when he saw Twilight nodding along. "What?"

"Most Changelings describe it like that," she said sagely, "though maybe with a different set of muscles." She grinned.

"Okay, okay, for real this time," Spark muttered. He took a deep breath, and relaxed, letting the green fire pass over him in a blink. His coloration as a Changeling was largely the same maroon and blue as the unicorn disguise he'd had up to this point.

Twilight looked him up and down. "And you haven't stolen any love?" She asked with a smile.

Spark shook his head. 

Twilight nodded. "And yet looking very well-fed." She fixed him with a mildly stern look. "Because ponies love you."

Spark opened his mouth, thought better of it, and just nodded. "Thanks," he said quietly. "Both of you."





Pinkie and Sunny Skies walked toward the door of the castle.

"You can't stay any longer?" Pinkie said.

Sunny shook her head. "I have to go back home tonight," she said with a sad smile, "and I promised to take a flight with Rainbow Dash."

"I knoooooooow," Pinkie groaned, flopping her head to the side. "But you'll come back before you leave?"

"Of course," Sunny said, pulling Pinkie in for a wing hug. "I wouldn't dream of leaving Ponyville without saying goodbye." She pulled the door open just enough to slip out, careful not to accidentally expose Pinkie to anypony outside.

Pinkie took her time closing the door, listening to the hustle and bustle of a late-afternoon Ponyville. She heard Mrs. Cake and Sunny get into a conversation just outside the castle, and her hooves almost moved on their own to take her out there before the fear gripped her chest and stopped her.

She stared at the back of the door, her body tense, pulling her in two different directions. She blinked back a few tears, the frustration starting to boil over.

“I want the dear to get better,” she heard Mrs. Cake say. “I just…” A sigh. “Little Pipsqueak really wants a Death By Vanilla Chocolate Strawberry Cake for his birthday, and I know there’s just some part of the recipe I’m missing because it’s just not the same as when Pinkie makes it.”

Pinkie sighed and glared to the side. “You’re a jerk,” she grumbled. With a deep breath and a shake of her mane that rippled from her nose to her tail, she jumped outside.

“It’s simple syrup!” she yelled as she pronked over to Mrs. Cake. “I used simple syrup instead of raw sugar last time because I had a hunch and it turned out really well but I forgot to write it down in the recipe book because I wanted to try it one more time but it sounds like it worked so I’ll write it down but is there still time to make another cake because the only thing worse than a bad cake is no cake at all and I don’t want Pipsqueak to be sad an—“

Mrs. Cake leapt forward and hugged Pinkie tightly. “It’s so good to see you!” she said. “When they said you were sick I was worried but…” She stepped back. “You look positively radiant, dear. And those wings!”

Pinkie blinked and scuffed a hoof on the ground. “You’re… not scared?” she asked quietly.

Mrs. Cake smiled. “Well, when you came flying out of the castle like a noisy parasprite, yes, I was a little scared. But," she said as her smile broadened, "you are unmistakably you, Pinkie Pie."

"Yup, I'm me!" Pinkie said reflexively. "But we gotta make a cake! Pipsqueak's party—"

"Isn't for another week, dear," Mrs. Cake said calmly. "I just wanted to see how you were."

The commotion had started to draw a crowd. Doors opened, heads poked out of windows, pedestrians ambled closer, and more than a few pegasi hovered a little closer to the ground. Murmurs rippled through, some excited, some nervous. The crowd edged closer, but never less than a ponylength away.

But while Sunny Skies may not have had the poise or regalia of her more exalted persona, her calm, quiet presence was impossible to disguise. And Mrs. Cake was every inch a mother as she fussed over Pinkie.

So when Pinkie herself finally worked up the courage to look at the growing crowd, she saw some fear. Some ponies that weren't sure whether to bow or not.

But more than that, she saw her friends. The neighbors she knew the names of. The foals she'd thrown birthday parties for. The many, many frowns she'd turned upside down over the years.

And she knew what she had to do. The fear loosened its grip, the weight lifted. Pinkie strode calmly toward one edge of the crowd. The pony she ended up walking toward—Lyra, as it happened—started to bow, but Pinkie subtly shook her head.

"Well, Ponyville," Pinkie said at an alarmingly normal volume.

The crowd was silent.

Pinkie grinned. "Are you ready to PARTY?!" she yelled, jumping into the air and throwing confetti over half the town.

The crowd roared in response, some rushing forward to congratulate their newest princess. Vinyl Scratch somehow ended up in front of her turntables, punch and pastries somehow appeared, and the block party was on.





Spark Plug trotted back into the library and found Spike straightening one of the shelves. He trotted past, stopped, and backed up.

"Spike?" he said. "Hey... uh, what do you charge for favors?"

"Depends on the favor," Spike said with a side eye and a grin. "I'll take gems, comic books—wait, you just set up the new computer, right?"

Spark nodded.

"Tell me how to bypass parental controls?"

"Not a chance," Spark said with his own grin. "Mostly because it ties into the network management, and it'll be hard enough as it is keeping y'all on the safer side of the internet."

Spike shrugged. "Worth a shot. What's the favor?"

Spark glanced away and scratched a foreleg. "I... kinda want to send a friendship report."

"That's it?" Spike scoffed. "Just bring me a comic next time you're in town." He hopped off his stool and headed to the nearest wrtiting desk. He pulled out a sheet of parchment and turned back to Spark. "I'm guessing your magic is still..." He shook his claw a little. "'Cause of the whole 'changeling' thing and all?"

Spark Plug rolled his eyes. "Am I just that obvious?"

"Nah," Spike shook his head. "I can smell your magic. It's a little off, but definitely Changeling."

"Wait, you can smell Changeling magic?"

"Perks of being a dragon," Spike said with a puff of his chest. "Why do you think Chrysalis never tried to invade them?"

"Because bug types are weak against fire," Spark snarked. "Also, if that's the case, how did they get the drop on you before?"

Spike groaned. "Latest one was a nighttime ambush, and I didn't know what they smelled like at The Wedding." He tapped the parchment. "Anyway, your report?"

Spark nodded. "Right, let's see..."



Dear Princess Celestia,

Hi, my name's Spark Plug, or at least it is here. You know The Doctor, so maybe you know how that goes. I don't know if Twilight or Pinkie told you about me or how I first learned about you and your little ponies, but suffice to say, y'all are amazing.

Really amazing. Because today I learned that friends are patient with you. When you yell at them, they don't yell back. When your problems don't look like problems, they listen. They're there to remind you that no matter how big a problem may seem, sometimes what is there is all there is.

Twilight and Sonic gave me a lot of wisdom today, and I know some of that came from you. So thank you.

Not technically your subject (but would be happy to be one seriously I wish my rulers were half as caring as you),

Spark Plug