//------------------------------// // Chapter the Nineteenth // Story: Guide You Home // by Magical Trevor //------------------------------// To say that there was chaos at the castle would not be surprising. What was surprising was that Discord wasn’t the cause of said chaos. Not that he didn’t enjoy himself, or add to the chaos here and there, but for the most part, he contented himself with watching the chaos take place, taking notes here and there as ideas for his amusement park. As he popped in and out of hallways and rooms, however, he saw a golden opportunity to both help Celestia, thus getting back into her good graces, as well as cause more panic and chaos of a different sort: answering journalists. “Princess Celestia! Is it true that the Elements of Harmony are all currently bedridden from the explosion that occurred in the Royal Garden last night?” “Princess, the public wants to know why Discord is free, and what his intentions are!” “Celestia, with the elements injured, do you have a plan to seal Discord back into stone?” “Princess, will you marry me?” The group of reporters at the front gate paused as they turned as one to look at a pegasus stallion, who also had a pad of paper and a pencil. Celestia, gathering her patience, asked, “Beg pardon?” The reporter flashed a grin, asking calmly, “Princess, do you have any statements to make at this time?” Princess Celestia blinked, unsure of whether she should be facehooving or laughing at the ingenuity of the journalist’s ability to get her attention. “Like I said earlier-” “Oh, my dear little ponies,” Discord said slowly as he popped next to Celestia, startling all of the ponies present. “Of course you could bother her with all of your questions, but she’s very busy right now, so I’m afraid you’ll have to settle with little old me... Now, as to how I got free, that seems to be a rather moot point at this point. As to what I intend to do? Why, I’m insulted that you have to ask!” He snapped his talons, creating a tiny pink cloud to refill his glass. After taking a long drought, he answered, “I’m going to make some chaos!” “When and where do you intend to start, and how far do you intend to spread your influence?” the stallion asked quickly, managing to get to the front of the pack of reporters. “My, my, such inquisitiveness! While it wouldn’t do to spoil details about negotiations that are still ongoing, Princess Celestia has agreed to let me had a modest amount of land over in the Everfree Forest and Ghastly Gorge, where I will be building an amusement park!” Princess Celestia stood still for a moment, taking several seconds to register that the reporters attention was now on Discord. Following the better part of valor, she quickly retreated back into the castle proper, making her way down the halls to the first infirmary room, where most of the elements were located. As she entered, her vision was filled with pink. “Hi Princess Celestia, this is so exciting, are you excited, I’ve never been so excited, except for this one time when Nightmare Moon was all Rawr, and we were all hi-ya with the elements, and then she was all noooooooo, and we were all like yes, and then she was all hey, I’m really Princess Luna, sorry, forgive me please, and then we were all like-” Princess Celestia had long since backed up from the pink party pony, allowing Fluttershy to tackle Pinkie from the air, panting, “Doctors... said... you’re going to rest now!” “Okie Doki Moki!” Pinkie slipped from Fluttershy’s grasp easily, bounding over to her bed, where she proceeded to start bouncing up and down. Celestia mouthed wordlessly for a moment, gathering her nerves. “Ah’m done for! Mah family’s gonna disown me, and then Applebloom is gonna try to get her cutie mark in being disowned, and then she’s going to mess up, and then she’ll get disowned, and then-” “Darling, please, do try not to be so dramatic,” Rarity said primly from her bed, where she was curled up with a pad of note-paper and quill. She frowned slightly as she crumpled her latest idea and tossed it neatly into the garbage. “It’s not lady-like to be-” “Ah’ve got wings, Rarity! Ah’ll act however I gosh-darn want to, miss drama queen! You aren’t going to get disowned by your family for sprouting wings, now are ya? No, you’re not!” Rainbow Dash was oddly silent as she sat on her bed, until she saw Princess Celestia still standing in the doorway, apparently waiting to be acknowledged. “Princess!” Rainbow shot eagerly from her bed to hovering in front of Celestia, asking questions at one hundred words a minute. “Where’s Twilight? Is she okay? What’s going on? How did they suddenly sprout wings?! Why did they-” “Doctor Scalpel, is everypony checked out yet?” Celestia asked the doctor near Applejack. “Hmm? Oh, yes, quite,” the brown unicorn stallion said softly, nodding. “Everything checks out. They have full range of motion, proper blood flow, nervous system, ether flow... The only thing they’re lacking is muscles, but they haven’t been flying their whole lives, like Miss Fluttershy or Miss Rainbow Dash, so that’s to be expected. I cannot recommend allowing them to fly for more than half an hour at a time before resting. While they need to build their muscles, over-taxing them could lead to a cramp mid-flight.” “Don’t worry, Doc, I got this,” Dash replied, patting the doctor on the head. “Now... Tell me what happened to Twilight before I wring your scrawny little neck!” “Rainbow Dash, you will stop harassing that doctor immediately!” Celestia ordered, hardening her voice as her eyes narrowed. As Dash slowly complied, Celestia said, “Good! Now apologize! He’s just doing his job, and patient confidentiality is a part of their oath!” Rainbow Dash grumbled an inaudible apology, to which the doctor replied, “Oh, no, it’s fine, Miss Dash. No harm done that a cup of tea won’t solve. Now, you’re all given a clean bill of health, but no strenuous exercising for more than an hour at a time for the next few days, just to make sure that everything is alright, okay? Have a great day!” “I will, once I get to take a shower,” Rarity replied, jumping down from her bed gracefully. “Well, and once we find out where Twilight disappeared to. The dear probably teleported to the library to research how this happened to us. Gah, not again!” As Rarity struggled to put her traitorous wing back into its proper place at her side, Rainbow Dash worked on dragging the panicking Applejack. “Yeag, hayjay, yu can stok freagn out nw,” Rainbow suggested through her friend’s tail. “Ur still a Nerf Poni.” “No, I’m not!” Applejack screamed, her eye twitching slightly. “That’s the point! I’m-” Rainbow Dash spat out Applejack’s tail, and deadpanned, “You’re still as heavy as Tartarus, AJ.” Ignoring the gasp from Rarity, she continued, “If you changed from an Earth Pony to a full-blooded Pegasus, you wouldn’t still be so damned heavy.” “Rainbow Dash!” Rarity exclaimed, scandalized. “Language! What will Princess Celestia-” “Rares, she’s as old as heck,” Rainbow deadpanned. “If she cared about cursing, she would have said something by now. Heck, she’s probably invented half of the curse words out there!” “No, only-” Celestia caught herself, clearing her throat. “As I was saying-” “So we’re finally going to find out how this happened?” Rainbow Dash asked excitedly, before wilting under Celestia’s gaze. “... As I was saying, no, we’re going to Twilight now. I am not going to explain something as... complicated and personal as this more than once,” Celestia sighed, leading the way down the hall. “Wee! Let’s go!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing excitedly, before her eyes widened, looking at her back. “Oh yeah! I’d bet it would be a lot faster if fly there! Wee!” Pinkie jumped forward, spreading her new wings, only to crash straight back to the ground, nursing her head. Rainbow Dash collapsed to the ground, laughing at Pinkie Pie. “H-hey, that’s not funny! It hurt!” Pinkie sulked, crossing her forelegs. “You guys can’t just fly right off the bat! You have to learn how to channel your ether into your wings!” Rainbow Dash gasped, struggling to contain her giggles. “Heck, Rares is probably going to be the first to manage it because... of... Oh come on!” “What, darling? You said to just channel your ether into your wings, yes?” Rarity simpered, flapping her wings slowly, barely hovering above the ground. Her eyes widened, however, as she practically jumped back to the ground, exclaiming, “My mane! Oh no... I can’t fly with my current mane-style, it would get completely ruined! My life is over!” Celestia, having been awake for far longer than was ever intended for a pony to be awake, snapped. Her horn glowed yellow, casting a large-scale teleport spell. “Oh, look, we’re here,” Celestia sighed, taking a few steps to lean against her sister, who was watching over the remaining two ponies. “Ah, there you are, Celes,” Luna exclaimed softly, wrapping her sister in her wing. “We think that Twilight will make it through, though she’s been in the trial for hours now...” “Trial? I-Is that what Moonstone is stuck in?” Luna turned to Starlight, who was sitting next to an unconscious Moonstone. “Neigh. Moonstone is not... That is... ‘tis very complicated,” Luna deflected, turning back to the elements. “Twilight is still unconscious because she’s only partially here. Her spirit is being judged to see if she is worthy of becoming an Alicorn...” “... What.” “Wait, so you’re saying that Rares here isn’t an Alicorn? But she’s got wings and a horn!” Rainbow Dash protested, confused. “Neigh, for she has no Earth Pony in her. Twilight bore the brunt of the Elements when you were all struck, being the Element of Magic. It... We shall explain as best as we can, for now. Celes was always better at explaining how the ancient magics worked... Long ago, Celes and I used to wield the Elements of Harmony. Celes had the elements of Loyalty, Honesty, and Kindness. I wielded the elements of Generosity and Laughter. Back then, Celes was a unicorn, while I was a pega-” “Wait, what?!” the party exclaimed, shocked. Luna ignored them. “-pegasus. One day, we wondered idly what it would be like to have the other’s ability, so we used the elements on each other, hoping that, in harmony, we would be allowed to willfully switch bodies, or something, so that we could understand each other better. The Elements... regardless, when we woke, we were as you see us now.” “But... Does that mean Moonstone is going to-” Luna chuckled sadly, shaking her head. “Moonstone... will be lucky if he still lives. Since he isn’t an element of harmony, if the elements had released their full force on him, they would have overloaded his ether lay-lines and killed him. The only thing that saved his life, ironically enough, was something so small I didn’t even consider it to be possible.” “Wait, we have increased ether from being elements?” Rarity asked, her interest piqued. “In short, yes. Now...” Luna levitated a small object from the nightstand between the two beds, showing a tarnished silver earring, the silver encasing a broken stone. “We never thought his earring would actually be his name. A Moonstone is a very, very rare stone. It-” “Only exists in legends, and is said that anypony who finds a piece would...” Pinkie broke off, looking around as everypony stared at her. “What?! I grew up on a rock farm, okay? I know my rocks! Oh, and cupcakes! And pancakes, and chocolate cakes, and-” “Yes, Darling, we... get the idea,” Rarity said slowly, backing up a little. “Ugh, I’m more confused than the snake that fell in love with the spaghetti,” Applejack moaned, messaging her head. “As We were saying, only three pieces of Moonstone have been known to exist, though even we aren’t sure if it wasn’t one or two pieces that got handed down to descendants. According to legend, Moonstone is the most magical of all gems. It naturally restores a pony’s ether, and if a spell is cast upon it directly, it could supposedly absorb the spell, or even reflect it.” “But it’s broken! How could a broken stone do anything?” Rainbow Dash pointed out, hovering closer to take a better look at the fracture in the gem. “We saw this stone not several days ago, when Moonstone first came to us, err, me, to ask about curses. It was not broken then. I can only hypothesize that when the elements hit Moonstone the second time, as The Nightmare would have been driven away, the elements began to use their energy in the only other way they knew how, in starting to turn Moonstone into an alicorn. However, the stone, not being sentient, repelled the elements, increasing their power as they hit all of you. Twilight, both because she was in the front, and because she is the Element of Magic, bore the main brunt of the ‘attack’, if you will. We can only pray that Twilight pulls through.” In the silence that followed, Fluttershy mumbled, “S-so is Twilight going to become immortal, then? A-are we going-” “Neigh,” Luna shook her head tiredly. “At least, as far as we know of. Twilight, should she pass the trial... perhaps, though there is no real way of knowing. You, however, have merely been granted extra ether permanently, in the form of wings. Applejack and Pinkie Pie, having been behind Twilight in the circle, gained more power than the others. The doctors estimated that your wing power could be anywhere between 6 and 12, depending on how much you work with them. You are still full-blooded Earth Ponies, though, so you will notice an increased air-resistance, and you won’t be able to fly as fast. However, being full-blooded, you still have your bond to the earth, and your natural strength and resilience, so they should not impact you in your normal lives.” “R-really?!” Applejack exclaimed, her eyes wide. “Ah-ah’m...” Speechless, she rushed over to heavy, wooden door, reared back, and then bucked it open, smashing the door to splinters. Applejack whimpered slightly as she felt the recoil, before melting to the floor in relief as it faded. “Oh thank Faust...” “Rainbow Dash, with you and Fluttershy already having been Pegasi, you won’t notice a large difference, though your wings will likely grow slightly larger, and your wing power should also increase.” “Awww yeah! I’ll bet I can get off two sonic rainbooms in a row now!” Rainbow Dash hoof-pumped, already starting to plan the awesomeness that would be her new and improved routine to impress the Wonderbolts. “What about me?” Rarity asked after a moment of silence, looking at Twilight. “What makes me different from Twilight?” “Well... Uh...” Celestia sighed, tired, and answered for Luna, having been used to giving bad news over the years. “It isn’t necessarily you, Rarity. Since you were in the back of the group, the magic from the elements was at its weakest, having passed through Twilight, and then everyone else. Twilight, Twilight just happened to get most of the power, and was already the Element of Magic.” Celestia was about to continue, when Twilight moaned in her sleep, a bright light shining in the room in increasing intensity. When everypony opened their eyes, the first thing they noticed was Twilight. She blinked slowly, her eyes working on focusing. She found herself suddenly surrounded by her friends, who were all hugging her tightly. “Twi!” “Wha? Girls? Why are you in my bedroom? And... when did you all get... Oh, I’m dreaming,” Twilight said, dismissing her friends as she closed her eyes again. She started to curl up, bringing her legs and tail closer to her body, when she felt something strange on her sides. “Wha? Wings?” “Erm, Twilight, Darling?” Rarity said, trying to get Twilight’s attention without freaking her out. “You aren’t exactly dreaming per se. The elements just might have given us a tinsey bit of power, which was turned into wings...” Twilight blinked dumbly at Rarity, waiting for her to continue. “Also... Dibs on making her regalia!” she exclaimed, stars appearing in her eyes. Twilight yawned, then rolled out out bed, still disoriented. “Look, dream Rarity, first of all, real Rarity would never say ‘dibs’. Secondly, you all got short. Thirdly, I know that Moonstone’s ether level couldn’t have dropped from 1337 all the way to 733, and his recharging ability dropping to, and I still can’t believe I’m saying ‘only’, 742. It’s just not possible for that to happen that quickly. And, finally, I can tell this is a dream, because nopony can tell ether levels just by looking at other ponies!” Twilight finished her lecture, closing her eyes with a definitive nod, very pleased with herself and her arguments towards her dream friends. At least, she was until Rainbow Dash snorted and deadpanned, “Yeah, dream through this, egghead!” Twilight’s pained screech echoed for several seconds as Dash grabbed several feathers from Twilight’s wing, and yanked on them as hard as she could. “Ow! Dash, what the manure?! Why would you-” Twilight blinked dumbly at the triumphant Rainbow Dash, still holding the feathers in her maw, her face betraying how smug she felt. She blinked again, noticing that she was bleeding ever so slightly from her wing, feeling the throbbing of her heartbeat. The elements waited patiently for their friend to reboot, as she struggled to decipher the new information flooding her noggin. “Ten bits says she faints,” Rainbow Dash whispered, after spitting out Twi’s feathers. “Yer on,” Applejack countered, giving Dash’s hoof a solid bump to seal the deal. Twilight rocked back and forward in her hooves, looking at the two princesses. “... So... That dream thing with Faust appearing to me wasn’t a dream?” Luna and Celestia shook their heads. “Oh...” Twilight blinked again, still trying to think of questions to ask, but coming up surprisingly empty. “Well... in that case... I... uh...” “Moonstone?” Starlight shook Moonstone as he moaned fitfully in his sleep, growing increasingly restless for several moments before he woke up. His eyes shot open as his horn charged with magic, wings flaring as he breathed heavily. He looked around wildly, panting, “Where is she?! Is she dead?” “S-she who?” Starlight whimpered, getting ready to duck behind Princess Luna should Moonstone decide he meant her. “The... The Nightmare...” Moonstone said, looking around the room more calmly, allowing his magic to dissipate. His left ear flicked as he took another look at the elements. “Wait... when did everypony start having wings?” “Thou needest to lay back down, Moonstone,” Luna lectured, using her magic to push the stallion back down, his ear still twitching. “Tho-I mean, you almost died. You need to rest and allow your ether to recharge, and to let your body heal.” “What happened?” Moonstone inquired as his ear flicked. “We were watching a movie, and then...” “Okay, that’s it! That is annoying the heck out of me!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “What the heck is with your ear?! It’s flipping out like no tomorrow!” “Huh?” Moonstone blinked, then raised a hoof to his ear. “My earring must be kinda loose or som... Where’s my earring?!” “Err... We tried to fix it, but...” Luna slowly levitated the broken earring back to Moonstone. “Its magics are lost... The runes are still active, but the gem itself has lost its ether restoration powers.” “... The gem was magical?” “I... you... that... How the heck did you even survive long enough to get here?!” Twilight shouted, scandalized. “How can you not know anything about any of these things?!” “Hey, I’m just like any other stallion!” Moonstone objected, grumbling. “I just start my journeys breaking one leg at a time.” Everypony stared at Moonstone as he reattached his earring, before Twilight facehoofed, then started to chuckle. As she started to laugh, the others slowly joined her until everypony was laughing at Moonstone’s failed attempt at using an idiom. “Okay, it’s official; this can’t be a dream,” Twilight giggled, leaning against Pinkie Pie for support. “Of course not, silly filly! You’re an alicorn now, which means that I get to throw a ‘Woo-hoo, we all got wings and now Twilight’s an Alicorn’ party!” Pinkie screamed, her eyes growing to abnormal sizes. “I mean, come on, I’ve been planning and waiting for this day for, like, ever, and-” “Sissy!” An overly energetic filly barreled her way into the room, followed by Chrysalis, who appeared to be doing her best to tune out Discord, who was singing the one song that Celestia hated above all others, with Milly singing his backup. ~This is the song that doesn’t end! Yes it goes on and on my friend!~ Pinkie Pie perked up, grinning from ear to ear, joining in. ~Some ponies started singing it not knowing what it was! And they’ll continue singing it forever just because~ Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Starlight joined in as well, grinning impishly at each other as the infectious song bid them sing. ~This is the song that doesn’t end! Yes it goes on and on~ “Why me?” Celestia whimpered, sagging against her sister, drained after having stayed up all night trying to keep what happened to the elements under wraps, while still running the day court, and everything else that required her attention. Luna just bobbed her head along, singing under her breath. Moonstone blinked as he looked between the different singing ponies, listening carefully to the words, taking a couple loops before he realized that is was the same few lines over and over again. He joined in on the next chorus, singing enthusiastically, bobbing his head along to the song, still not paying his wings any attention. Celestia, finally having had enough, thundered, “That’s it! Enough singing that frelling song!” The sudden outburst made everypony stop singing, though Moonstone was too caught up in the song to realize it for just a few more words, noticing when he was singing alone. ~It just goes on and on... my...~ He looked back and forth, then wilted, folding his ears against his skull. However, as he tried to make himself smaller, his wings flared again, catching him by surprise. As his wings started flapping erratically from his panicking, he was tacked by a hyperactive filly whose eyes were wide open with amazement. “Moony! You’s finally wakened! You gots wings now! Can you take Milly on a griffon-back ride, pretty please? Sissy’s been too tireded to-” “Milly, stop harrassing him, he just woke up!” Starlight lectured, pulling her hyperactive sister from Moonstone, who was still struggling with his flailing wings, though they had lost most of their strength by now. “That, but how did I get wings?” Moonstone grumbled, sweat starting to form from his struggles. Rainbow Dash hovered nearby, waving a hoof dismissively. “Eh, long story short, you got zapped by the elements a second time when you were fine, so the elements started trying to make you an alicorn, but since you’re not an Element of Harmony, it would have ended up killing you, but your earring thingamabobber saved your life, sending the spell back at us. Or something like that. Colt, what kind of crap spell does that?” Rainbow Dash grumbled, still pouting that she hadn’t really gained any powers aside from increasing her already impressive wing power. Moonstone blinked, doing his best to process what just happened. After a moment, he finally shrugged. “Okay.” Everypony gaped at him for a moment, before Rainbow Dash exclaimed, “What? Okay? That’s it?! You just grew some buc-” Milly suddenly found herself bereft of her sense of hearing as Starlight covered her ears in a heartbeat. She blinked, then grinned, figuring that it was a new game, where she had to make up the lines that everypony said, like in the really really old movies! “-Buccaneer Blaze wings that can make you fly at a billion miles an hour!” Milly finished for Rainbow Dash, giggling as Rainbow Dash froze, hovering in place as her cheeks started to redden. As Rainbow Dash started to apologize, Milly did her best to keep up, but it was clear that Rainbow Dash was new to the game, as she kept mumbling, making it hard to Milly to read her lips. “‘I’m a soggy fur butt?’ Why would you say a fing like dat?” Milly asked, tilting her head to the side. Starlight looked back and forth, a slight blush on her face as well. Hesitantly, she lifted her hooves up from Milly’s ears, breathing a sigh of relief. Moonstone, confused as heck, looked back and forth between ponies, before asking slowly, “So what was that back then, about my earring being magic?” .o.O.o. “... So is this the part where I get to say I told you so?” Moonstone whimpered, resting his head on his forehooves. Luna frowned, not following what Moonstone meant. “We do not understand what you mean, Moonstone. Told us so about what?” “... I’m cursed. Ever since I got here, it’s been one catastrophe after another. I make a foal of myself for several days, trying to learn what it means to be a city pony, then my cape, which was a very special gift, got torn to shreds in the fight when those ponies were attacking Starlight, I broke my leg, I got infected by The Nightmare, I find out I’m really weak, and that I’ve just got a good recharge rate, I made a foal of myself again during the movie, and then I get into yet another duel, letting The Nightmare take over, and then I get hit by the Elements to get rid of The Nightmare! Then, then, right as things are starting to look up, I get blasted again, breaking the only other important thing I’ve ever owned! I get knocked unconscious for I don’t know how long, and when I wake up, I find out that I’m now about as weak as a foal, and that my recharging ability has also gotten worse! So yes, I told you so! I’m cursed!” “Were,” Luna corrected, unphased by the stallion’s rantings, aside from getting slightly annoyed. “The Elements lifted said curse, remember? Yes, your magic is weaker because you have wings, and you can’t use magic while flying like Rarity or Twilight can, but that doesn’t mean you can’t train your magic to get better. Your Ether level was only so low because you could recharge it too fast to really improve. Now, with lowered abilities, you have a chance to become even stronger than before.” “... Still won’t let me find home,” Moonstone nickered softly, laying on the bed, defeated. “Face it, I’ll never find my parents because I don’t even know what they look like... I could have passed them by years ago, and I’ll never know... I’ll... never get my dream, will I?” he asked softly. “I don’t know,” Luna admitted softly. “But is it really worth giving up? Are you really willing to just give up on... whatever your dream is?” Moonstone sighed, then started to sing softly, unaware of Discord providing support. “I have often dreamed... Of a far-off place... Where a great, warm welcome would be waiting for me...” As Moonstone sang, he slowly followed Princess Luna as she left the room, wandering down various hallways and stairways. Twilight blinked, looking at everypony else awkwardly, mumbling, “So... Are we supposed to follow, or...” “Heck if I know anything anymore,” Starlight sighed, trotting after the princess. “Ever since he came along, everything’s been all messed up...” “But at least ish fun!” Milly exclaimed from her back, grinning widely at Pinkie Pie. “Right, Miss Pink-Pink?” “Yepper peppers!” Pinkie giggled, bouncing along. “So, how long till we get to learn how to fly, huh Dashie?” “Well...” Dash drawled, taking her time thinking. “Normally, unless you’re the squirt, I charge a lot. I mean, come on, I am the best flier in Equestria!” Rainbow Dash boasted, buffing a hoof on her coat. “Buuuuuuut, since you’re my best friends, and being the Element of Loyalty and all, I’m willing to cut you a deal, Pinks. All I want from you, for the rest of your life, is one single, simple thing. And with how much you have every year, I’m sure you can afford to spare just one, teeny, tiny, little thing for me...” “What, you mean like the first mug of apple cider every season?” Pinkie guessed, pausing for just a second in her funny face competition with Milky Way. “Yeah, sure, whatever. I was gonna bump up my order from twelve to an even baker’s dozen anyhoof.” “H-how... Y-you...” Rainbow Dash gaped for a moment, before remembering who it was she was talking to. “Deal!” After shaking hooves with Pinkie Pie, Dash turned to everypony else. “AJ... Meh, same as Pinks. Everypony else... Rares, you got nothing I want, so I guess I’ll teach you for free.” Rarity rolled her eyes, simpering sarcastically. “Thank you oh-so-much for your generosity, Rainbow Darling. Surely you are an example to us all.” “Yes, yes, I know, it’s all true! Finally, Twi... Alright girl, I know you’ve been holding out on me! I know you have connections! You gotta get me the next Daring Do book the second it gets out, alright?! Autographed!” “Ha! Joke’s on you, Dash,” Twilight exclaimed triumphantly. “I was already getting that for your birthday next week, so I’ve already got my part covered! Ha!” Rainbow Dash blinked, then grinned wickedly. “Oh yeah? Well that means that I won the bet, because now I know what you’re getting me for my birthday, and you owe me a VIP season pass for the Wonderbolts!” “W-what?!” Twilight yelled, her jaw dropping in shock. “I do not! You had to figure it out yourself! Just because I told you doesn’t mean that-” “Does too! You never said how I had to find out, all you said was I had to tell you I knew what it was before my birthday, and I found out because you told me, so that’s your fault! Besides,” Dash added, hovering next to Twilight, not noticing that she had grown a few inches. “Think of it this way. The book is your payment for having me, the great Dash, teach you how to fly, and the pass is my Birthday present!” Twilight opened and closed her mouth a few times, before nodding. “Fine...” As they caught up to Luna, they caught the tail end of Moonstone’s song. As he finished, he heaved a sigh, then nodded as Luna began instructing him on what to say for his oaths. While it only took a minute, Rainbow Dash was already getting restless, but did her best to refrain herself as the excitement of getting to teach all of her friends how to fly started to become real. “Good!” Luna said, nodding happily. “All that’s left is for you to sign your name, and then... Oh wait, do you know how... Er, We mean...” Starlight stepped forward, standing next to Moonstone, trying to calm him down. “Come on, it’s fine, just relax. Remember your lesson? Just calm down... First an m... then an o...” Rarity sighed, watching as Starlight instructed Moonstone, who was struggling with keeping the quill absolutely as still as possible to try to help his poor calligraphy skills. After a moment, she squinted ever so slightly, leaning forward a couple inches, before huffing as she turned to Applejack. “Ah,” Rarity cut her off, holding her hoof up. “Don’t even say it...” “Ah didn’t need to,” Applejack smirked, tugging her cowpony hat down an inch, resettling it on her mane. “And there we go!” Luna smiled, rolling up the parchment. She levitated one over to Moonstone, continuing, “Here’s what you need to keep, and... I guess that’s everything! You’ll have to look at the houses and decide which one you want to be your main mailing address, though.” “... Main house? Mailing address?” Luna’s smile faltered a bit, before she sighed. “Well, so much for keeping this simple...”