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// 5 - Snack Break 
// Story: Sickness to Health 
// by David Silver 
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As clueless as she felt, her new friends were swift to support her attempts. Each had kind words and supportive encouragements to offer her as she walked through the school with a slight gap between them and her. It felt, in a way, like she had jumped to the most popular kid, and that was a nice, if mildly concerning, feeling.

Silverstream held up her own crystal. "I just wear it. It has one trick, which I like, but that's all I ever thought about. You want to go to the next step!" She giggled at that. "Not super long ago, I was learning that steps existed."

Ariel giggled with her friend. "Steps are weird. Sometimes they lead up, sometimes down, sometimes in a circle."

Sandbar looked back over his shoulder. "You two still on that?" He was smiling despite his teasing words. "Is that a hippogriff thing?"

The group laughed and chuckled together as they emerged from the school and headed across the bridge, water lapping gently in the river underneath it. They kept chatting as they went, a vibrant bunch that liked talking to one another.

Silverstream touched Ariel's hand with her hand, guiding it to her crystal. "Does mine feel different than yours? Besides the different shape, I mean."

Ariel spent some time examining them both. They looked similar to her eyes. It was like looking at the same species, but the more she looked, the more little things she could see. They were different individuals. She rubbed each, one in either hand. "Mmm." Comparing them made her start to notice subtle things about hers. "Silver, you are a genius."

Smolder snorted into a laugh. "You okay? That isn't a term most creatures use for Silver."

"Hey!" Silver chased after Smolder, the two starting a merry game, and soon both calling and cheering as they ran about.

Ariel's eyes were locked on the two crystals, humming gently with thought. She focused on the difference in texture, the way one felt slightly rougher. But why? "Silver's is a lot smoother."

Yona reached up a heavy hoof to Ariel's side. "Silver stone held longer. Yours new." She nodded with a soft snort. "Hers like her. Yours become you. Give time."

Ariel cupped her crystal in her palms. "I haven't had mine long, have I?"

She held hers up towards the sun, shielding her eyes with it even as she gazed through it, allowing her to see further into its depths.  It was shaped like a teardrop, with a wide bottom tapering off to a narrow point at the top, where the chain looped to hang from. As she rotated it in the light, she could see some markings inside it, glittering from within.

As she gazed fixatedly at her crystal with new appreciation, her friends paused their walking to watch her and her expression of growing wonder. The whole group was still, watching and waiting as they saw something happening with the young hippogriff.

Ariel looked back at her friends with a shocked sort of smile. "Oh! Did I make you all just sit there?" Her cheeks were burning with embarrassment. "I'm so sorry!"

Gallus waved that away. "Don't be. You looked like you were getting somewhere. What'd you see, or figure out, or whatever?"

"Um." Ariel considered the question, rolling her talon around her neck. "It's beautiful."

"Sure is." Smolder peered at it, eyes half-lidded. "It's a gemstone, not a rock." She licked over her lips. "Bet it's tasty. But what else did you learn besides it being pretty?"

Ariel smiled at Smolder and her directness. "That I'm starting to understand it." She laughed at that, more surprised that it was true. She handed Silver's gem back to her and hugged her own. "I feel a little closer to you, little rock friend." She giggled again. "Oh! I also see patterns in it, like there are things hidden deep inside it. Just like us. We have things hidden in us, waiting to be discovered."

Silverstream hummed softly. "What kind of patterns?"

"Well, see here." Ariel held out her gem, showing the way the light flickered and moved over its faceted face, shining and shimmering. "You have to watch the light on it, but it's not just a color thing." She giggled with growing excitement. "Now how do I, um, magic?"

Ocellus cooed with curiosity. "How? Do you have to 'magic' yourself first?" She looked up at her own horn, which began to glow. "My horn's different than your gem, but I imagine it like I'm getting warmer right here." She pointed to the base of her horn. "Then push it up." She trailed along the horn slowly. "Here, I can show you." She began to cast a spell, causing a simple glowing ball of energy to appear. It wobbled in place a moment before popping like a soap bubble.

Ariel and Silverstream were unified in their applause for the silly trick.

"That was amazing! How'd you do that?" Ariel peered at Ocellus, looking over her. But the answer was clear. Changelings had horns, like unicorns. The magic came from there. "Right. Right! Okay." She held up her stone. "So let's try this the same way. Get warm here." She shook her grasping talon lightly. "Focus." She closed her eyes tightly. "Feel it." She had a faint warmth around the crystal, as if it was near a fire.

The more she focused on it, the warmer it became. Others could see her efforts, her talons pinkening as blood rushed to the spot as if her hands were blushing. A faint pink glow grew from them, then faded to nothing. "I think I was almost there." Ariel sighed, slumping a moment, before bouncing with excitement. "I was almost there!"

Gallus slapped Ariel on the back with one of his wings. "Almost there is way closer than you were before. You get that, uh, glow into your crystal thingie and maybe you're there."

Ariel breathed deeply, rubbing at the crystal. "I can try again."

"Uh, we're not in a huge hurry." Smolder pointed the way. "I vote we get some snacks and refuel before you do that again. That looked like a lot of work, not gonna lie."

"A snack break sounds good." Ocellus wiggled excitedly. "I bet you're hungry." She lifted onto buzzing wings and darted ahead to one of their favorite snack stops, Sugarcube Corner. "This place is the best!" She chimed excitedly as she landed on the countertop. "Mr. and Mrs. Cake?" She spotted Mr. Cake emerging from the back and waved at them excitedly. "Good morning!"

Mr. Cake looked over the assembled youngsters. "It's not quite noon yet, but yes, hello to you all." He put down a heavy box he had been carrying and ambled up to the counter. "How can I help your sweet tooths today?" He smiled easily as the kids approached the counter and began to browse the goods in the display case. "You've made yourselves at home in this town, haven't you?" He was looking at Ariel as he asked.

Ariel nodded firmly. "Yeah, I think so. It's really pretty. Everyone's friendly." She sniffed gently at the air. "And this place always smells so, mmm." She thrust a finger at a baked good that was all looped on itself. "I want that one, please."

"I'll have another of those cream cheese horns." Gallus pointed with a wing to the delicacies in the display.

There was a chorus as they each pointed out their selections with hooves, wings, tails, or whatever they had that was up to the task. Mr. Cake hurriedly gathered them all out of the case and onto a tray for the students, arranging them tastefully. "That'll be six bits." He counted them off. "Including a little discount for our new resident." He nodded at Ariel.

Ariel gasped. "Discount!" She looked between her friends. "That's not fair!" She dug around and found a bit, placing it on the counter. "They've been helping me so very much."

Sandbar slid a coin up to join it. "It's no big deal. If somecreature's low, the rest of us help out. It's what friends do. And if he wants to give a discount, lettem!"

Four more coins soon joined it, contributed by other members of the band without complaint. Mr. Cake swept the coins off the counter with a nod. "All paid. Enjoy your treat. You work hard at that school, you deserve it."

Gallus squawked and fluttered his wings, eager to get to the treats. He grabbed the tray and hurried to a booth, the others trailing behind him as he set it in the center of the table, slid in and grabbed his  to chomp into, beak becoming slathered in sugar and bliss. The others quickly did the same, filling the shop with happy sighs and satisfied noises.

Ocellus paused her eating, just to stare at Ariel as she took a bite. "Something wrong?"

Ariel lifted her crystal from where it had been dangling around her neck. "Nothing wrong, exactly, just excited! I feel so very close right now." She tucked the crystal away again. "But we do need fuel for all this fun stuff." She started munching on her pastry with a giggle. "Mmm, just as tasty as I'd hoped." She broke off a part and offered it to Silverstream. "Wanna try?"

"Trying new things!" Silverstream laughed brightly as she accepted the pastry piece and popped it into her beak." With a few satisfied munches, she swallowed with a happy almost purring chirp. "Very nice, yes. I like how it bends all around and around too, kinda funny!" She helped herself to one of her own treats.

Yona snorted loudly, slamming her hoof into the floor. "Want best snacks, try yak snacks." She deflated at that. "Not have yak snacks, sorry. Good though! Visit, try. You see."

Gallus flicked at one of the cream cheese horns, sending it spinning in place. "Don't know about those." He chuckled softly, snapping the horn almost in half with a crunch. "But if they're this good, I'd give them a try, sure."

Smolder poked a horn with a single claw. "I don't know, I've had yak cheese before, and it was pretty chewy and, well, rough." She took a delicate bite of her own food. "And they're tough as rocks." She smirked at that. "And dragons know how tough rocks can be. Worth it though."

Yona huffed at Smolder's review of Best Yak Foods. "Yak food for strong yak teeth." She bit into her filled doughnut so hard the filling squirted out, making a little mess on the table. "See? Too weak." She sucked on the bit of jelly she had pulled loose, sucking it into her mouth. "Too soft."

Sandbar shook his head at the sight. "We make foods for our own tastes. Ponies like soft foods."

Gallus leaned in with a smirk. "If I have the choice, I like my food with a little bite in it, that used to bite." She clacked his beak meaningfully. "If you get my meaning."

Ocellus hummed quietly. "I like plants. But some have thorns on them, so they can protect themselves." She considered that. "So you have to be careful picking them up, but then they're usually tasty." She nibbled on her sugar dusted scone joyfully. "Pony snacks are good."

Ariel considered all that as she worked on her food. "We have plenty of different snacks in my world, but I don't really have any favorites."

Silverstream was on Ariel. "Your world? Isn't, uh, this world your world and our world and his world and her world?" She pointed wildly about, trying to encompass the bigness of how much that world belonged to every creature present.

Ariel tittered with amusement. "It is. It's very big." She motioned in opposite directions as if trying to hug the world with her arms. "Um, but it's not my first one."

Sandbar leaned forward onto his elbows on the table. "Alright, story time. What world was your first then, Ariel? You can't just tease us like that."

Ariel rolled her eyes, but she was smiling all the same. "I promise to tell you every last detail." But she colored an instant later, realizing some parts that kind of needed telling. Well, maybe she could just casually not mention that part. "I was very sick in that other world. It was awful, days of sitting in a hospital."

Silverstream blinked softly. "Is that why you were so pale and sick when I found you? I'm glad we could help get you looking better!"

"It is." Ariel leaned back, looking up at the ceiling. "I was stuck in a bed. I could see the rest of the world outside a window, but I couldn't get to it." She shivered with the memories. "I hated it, but I couldn't do much about it."

Smolder cleared her throat. "Were you a pony in your home world, or a hippogriff or somecreature else?"

"Somecreature else." Ariel bobbed her head quickly. "Somecreature you never saw before, I bet. It doesn't matter." She made shooing gestures. "They're gone, and Ariel the hippogriff remains, and I like being me." She flashed a bright smile, teeth dusted with sugar. "And I like having you all as my friends."

Gallus looked to the rest of the group. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't care where she came from." He gestured at Ariel. "She's been cool enough, and I want to see where she ends up with the whole magic thing. Show those unicorns they don't get to be the end all when it comes to that."

Silverstream's eyes shone with wonder. "That would be so cool!" She shook a fist. "Magic for everyone."

"Exactly." Ariel smiled, turning back to her snack. "I hope I can figure it out, but I'll know when I know." She let the crystal fall against her chest. "Thank you, all of you."