//------------------------------// // Magic, Meals, and a Mystery // Story: The Study of a Winning Pony // by Ponibius //------------------------------// The Study of a Winning Pony Chapter 9: Magic, Meals, and a Mystery. “I don’t wanna do this anymore!” Sparkler complained, flopping down onto the floor in exhaustion. “I’m tired, and my head hurts.” “Come on, you’ve pretty much got it down.” I nudged her on the shoulder. “I just want to make sure you aren’t going to have any trouble casting the spell back home.” Sparkler let out an annoyed groan. “I can cast it just fine. You’re just torturing me now. Nopony I’ve learned a spell from has been this crazy about it.” “Practice makes perfect.” I poked her again to encourage her to get up. “I just want to make sure you have it down.” Granted, we’d been practicing for a while now. I had invited Sparkler to the upstairs of the library so we would have enough privacy to concentrate. She had wanted to get to learning that silence spell right after school. I couldn’t blame her, given her reasons. Very, very good reasons. I had similar reasons to learn it myself when I had been going to school. Dormitory walls had a distressing lack of sound insulation, and my neighbors tended to do things I would rather not hear. Sparkler buried her face into the floor. “I think I got it.” She rubbed the back of her head. “I’m sure you managed to drill it into my skull.” I frowned at her. “If you're absolutely sure.” “Yeah, I’m sure.” Sparkler worked herself up into a sitting position. “I’ve cast the stupid spell a thousand times now.” “Only forty-two,” I corrected. I had worried that Sparkler was just showing a typical teenage predisposition towards avoiding hard work, but one look at her told me she was exhausted. Sure, somepony her age might be able to fake shaking to try and get out of a trying assignment, but I’ve been around magic enough to recognize the dull ebb of light from her horn; it was the thaumaturgic equivalent of a dehydration headache—a warning sign to call it a day and recharge. Perhaps I had been a bit overzealous. When I’d previously exchanged spells with Rarity, she’d mentioned that my methods were a bit much for the average unicorn. Perhaps the way I had been taught at the School for Gifted Unicorns wasn’t the way to teach most unicorns spells? Deciding that Sparkler had probably had enough for the day, I pulled one of my books off a shelf and levitated it over to my desk, then retrieved a sheet of paper a quill. “Here, I’ll copy the silence spell for you. Just review it every night before you cast it until you are sure you have it down perfectly.” I started copying the spell down with practiced precision. There were a few ways for a unicorn to learn spells. Unicorns almost universally possessed a few innate spells, like telekinesis and lighting up one’s horn, or those inspired by their special talent. Most ponies naturally developed some spells either upon earning their cutie mark and the discovery of their special talent, or later in life having moments of epiphany to develop new spells for themselves. Those spells are generally called a pony’s “natural spells.” Unicorns that wished to learn additional spells—and most do—have to put in additional effort. A unicorn has to either observe another unicorn cast the spell they wished to learn or study a written copy of the spell. After spending sufficient time studying a spell, a unicorn then had to practice casting it until they can replicate it accurately. It should also be noted that it’s generally relatively simple to learn a spell associated with one’s natural talent, while those antithetical to one’s special talent can be much harder. It’s easiest and fastest to learn a spell when watching it being cast by another unicorn. That was the reason why Sparkler asked me to help her learn the silence spell in the first place, rather than just looking it up in a book. When I showed her the spell, it enabled her to study how I cast it, feel how the magical energies flow and move. Looking at a spell on a piece of paper doesn’t have the life that seeing a spell cast does. It’s a bit hard to explain to a non-unicorn. Imagine trying to figure out how to build a train with just the blueprint, but you’re not just trying to build the train: you’re trying to build the full experience of a train, but without ever having seen a train, without ever having rode one, without ever having left the station, without ever having arrived at a destination, without ever having felt the rustle of the cart as it moves along the tracks, without ever having seen the coal being shoveled into a hot engine—without ever having experience what a train is like. You could convey all that in a spell book to a certain point, but it required a significantly more studying and practice to actually learn the spell. Sparkler picked herself off the floor with a grunt and walked over to me. “Thanks. All this help really means a lot to me.” I finished copying the spell and reviewed my work to make sure everything was perfect. Spells had to be copied perfectly, or at best the spell wouldn’t do anything but waste the unicorn’s thaumaturgic energies. At worst... At worst you have things like parasprites being enchanted to gobble up an entire town. I shook my head to dispel the unpleasant memory. “Don’t worry about it. I’m always happy to help.” “I’m serious.” She leaned her head in to whisper to me in a conspiratorial tone. “I don’t wanna hear the... things going on in Mom’s bedroom when Cloud Kicker’s around. And I don’t wanna explain any of it to Dinky.” I winced at that last bit; I had nearly forgotten about her little sister in all this. “I don’t blame you at all for wanting to learn this spell.” I gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, this spell should be exactly what you need. No hearing... that going on.” Sparkler rolled her head around, sharply popping her neck. “Yeah. I just wish the silence spell didn’t take so much out of me. Keeping it up all night isn’t easy. Gonna be even worse to keep two of them up unless I want to have Dinks sleep in my room. I love her to death, but I don’t want her in my bed every night.” “I understand.” I rubbed my chin as I thought over something that had been bothering me since I had started teaching Sparkler that day. “There is something you can do in order feel less exhausted casting spells.” Sparkler ears perked up. “Oh?” I nodded at her. “Yeah, I noticed earlier that you were using a lot more energy than you really need to when spellcasting.” She looked down at the floor and started rubbing at one of her forelegs. “Oh yeah?” “Yep, you seem to have a good deal more power than the average unicorn.” I walked over to one of my drawers and started to shift through its contents. It looked like Spike had been going through my various magical knickknacks and enchanted items, because things looked considerably less organized than they should have been. Sparkler trotted up to stand next to me and looked into the drawer. “Oh, if you say so.” “I know so,” I said, lifting up and examining one enchanted gem after another as I tried to find the right one. I really needed to remind Spike of the necessity of keeping with my filing system. “I could feel the amount of energy you were pumping out when you were practicing that spell. Given how much extra energy you were putting into the silence spell, I’m going to guess you haven’t had a teacher who had enough raw power to actually need to hold back when using magic.” “Um, no, not really,” she said with a hint of reluctance. “The foster care system wasn’t really set up to teach spellcasting. I got the basics, but not a lot else.” That caught my attention and I turned to face her. “I’m sorry to hear that.” Sparkler shrugged. “S’okay. I’ve been trying to catch up on my own. Not a whole lot of other unicorns to learn from around Ponyville, but I’m getting along.” I thought about that for a second and decided on a course of action. I hated hearing that a unicorn with the talent I believed Sparkler to have wasn’t getting all the support she needed. Especially when she did seem to want to improve herself. I could definitely empathize with that. “Ah! Here it is!” I spotted what I was looking for: a clear, round gemstone the size of an orange. I grasped it with my telekinesis, causing it to faintly glow green, and held it in front of Sparkler. “Here you go.” Sparkler narrowed her eyes at the gem. “What is it?”   “It’s a thaumaturgically-sensitive monitoring gem.” Sparkler frowned at me. By the looks of it, it seemed she had never seen one before. It looked like I was going to have to do a bit of a lecture. “It tracks the excess magical energies you put into your telekinesis spells. I used it all the time when I was a filly and trying to get my magic under control.” Sparkler made a circling motion with her hoof. “And that is supposed to help me...?” I smiled patiently at her. I needed to remind myself that not everypony had access to the best education Equestria had to offer. “As I said, your biggest problem with your spellcasting right now is that you’re wasting too much magic using your spells. This,” I gave the gem a slight shake, “will show you exactly how much you’re wasting.” After taking a step closer, Sparkler leaned her head in to get a better view of the gem. “How does it work?” “It’s real simple. Just hold it with your telekinesis, and it will show you how much excess energy you’re putting out with your casting.” I started to put more energy than was needed to hold onto the gem, and it quickly shifted from a dim green to a vibrant red. “See? Simple. The more magic you waste, the hotter the color it glows.” Sparkler reached out with her own telekinesis, and I let her grasp the enchanted gem in her magenta magical aura. The gem immediately took on a bright orange. “But how will this help me with my other spells? This only helps with telekinesis, doesn’t it?” I watched as Sparkler concentrated, and the gem started to cool down to a yellow. “It’s a training tool to make you conscious about your thaumaturgic excesses. Once you become aware of what it feels like to use the right amount of magic for telekinesis, it starts to become second nature for your other spells.” “Um, thanks, but I can’t really accept this.” She pushed the gem back my way. “You’re really cool and all, but I don’t want to be taking advantage of you.” I waved a hoof at her. “Don’t worry about it. They aren’t that expensive, and I don’t really need it anyways. If I really need another one, I can always get it from Rarity. Give me a couple of hours and I could have it enchanted and ready to go. But you need the practice.” Sparkler levitated the gem closer to herself and looked at it with a frown. “That’s ... really nice of you.” I smiled and nodded at Sparkler. “You’re welcome. Now let’s pull out some reading for you while we’re at it.” I walked over to one of my bookshelves and started to pull down some select reading. “I still have some reading materials from when I was in school that should be perfect for you.” “Wait, books too?” Sparkler walked over to the table. Her eyes widened when she checked over one of the titles. “These are high-level textbooks! How much do they even cost!?” I pulled out the last of the books I thought Sparkler would need and turned to face her. “I’m just loaning them to you.” I gave her a wry grin. “This is a library after all. Besides, I haven’t really looked at them in years. But they should do you a world of good.” Sparkler bit her lower lip as she looked at the stack of books. “Well, if you say its okay, then I guess it’s alright.” “Don’t worry about it. I’m just happy to help.” I lifted up Sparkler’s saddlebags and started to shove my suggested reading materials into them. I really didn’t want her to turn down my help; education was vital for a unicorn her age. It took a bit of doing to get my books into her bag given they were still filled with her school supplies. “And don’t be shy about asking for additional help with anything,” I levitated her saddlebags over to her. “Um, sure.” Sparkler took the saddlebags and tied them around herself. “I also wanted to thank you for helping Dinky. She’s really looking forward to learning from you—normally you have to give her sugar to make her bounce off the walls as much as she has been. It’s also doing a lot for Mom, so...” “You’re all welcome,” I said. Sparkler shuffled in place as her saddlebags settled more comfortably. “Yeah, uh, it didn’t feel quite right teaching Dinks myself. Just didn’t think I was getting it all, y’know?” I thought for a moment on how best to reply to that. I didn’t want to hurt her feelings over something that wasn’t her fault. “Don’t worry about it. No offense, but you’re a bit young to be teaching a unicorn her age how to use her magic. It’s just something that should be handled by a unicorn who has more experience.” “Oh, okay.” Sparkler’s ears flattened and she looked away from me. “I guess that makes sense.” I had kind of worried that I had stepped on Sparkler’s hooves by taking over the teaching of her sister, so I put a comforting hoof along her shoulders. “Hey, don’t get down on yourself. Dinky will be fine, and someday you’ll be able to teach others.” Sparkler looked down at the floor and scrapped at it with her hoof. “Yeah, it’s just ... we’re getting so much from you, but we’re not giving you anything in return. I don’t exactly have many bits to give you for the lesson, the gem, the books... And I don’t know what Mom is pulling together for Dinks’ lessons.” I shook my head. “Bits aren’t a problem for me. I’m just happy to help.” I let out a short, friendly laugh. “Really, you’re worrying way too much. We don’t always need to get a reward in order to help others.” She smiled at me. “Thanks, this’s pretty cool of you.” I looked over her saddlebags to make sure they weren’t going to pop open from the extra materials I had put in them. “So, you think you’re good to go now?” “I think we’ve done enough damage for one day,” Sparkler said with a grunt. She shifted her bags around a bit and took a few experimental steps with her bags weighed her down. Some of those books were quite heavy now that I thought about it, and Sparkler didn’t exactly look like a weightlifter. Meh, I’m sure she would be fine. I hefted around worse during my college days. I gave Sparkler a final, affirming nod. “Alright then, if you want to check out any other books on the way out—” “I’m-good-thanks!” Sparkler blurted out, the effort almost causing her knees to buckle. “Well, if you’re sure,” I said. I was going to suggest we might be able to fit in another paperback or two somewhere. “I am,” she said more firmly. “Besides, I should probably head home. Won’t be too long before dinner.” She maneuvered herself towards the stairs leading down to the ground level of the library. “Sounds good.” I followed Sparkler as she tentatively made her way down the stairs of the library. “I wanted to freshen up a bit before heading out to see Fluttershy later this evening anyways, so the timing of this works out just fine.” Sparkler carefully put one hoof in front of the other on the stairs. It wouldn’t be surprising if she was worried about falling end over end given how her weight was currently distributed. “So you two are dating?” That nearly caused me to trip and fall down the stairs—which would have been quite bad considering I likely would have tumbled right into Sparkler. The both of us falling down the stairs would have been unpleasant to say the least. “What? No, it’s nothing like that. We’re just friends who are just going to spend some time having company with one another.” “Uh-huh,” Sparkler grunted out as she descended the last few steps. “So with that hot, fashion model body, you’ve never considered asking her out?” “She’s my friend,” I said with a bit of a growl. “I don’t think of my friends that way. Why do other ponies keep suggesting I might be interested in my friends?” I swear, it seemed like sex was all teenagers thought about. Maybe that was Cloud Kicker’s issue? Perhaps she just never got out of a teenager mindset? Well if she had a certain imbalance in brain chemistry then... Sparkler narrowed her eyes at me and frowned. “Riiight... So you weren’t planning on putting on a little extra makeup for her?” I rolled my eyes at that. So what if I was? “I always put on a little makeup whenever I see my friends. Trust me, you have to put at least some efforts into your looks when you have a friend like Rarity. Otherwise you never hear the end of it.” Not that it was any of her business how much makeup I used anyways. Sparkler pushed her saddlebags a bit where they had shifted up her back from the descent down the stairs. “If that’s the story you wanna go with.” I decided that it was best just to move away from this pointless topic, and walked over to open the front door for her. “Can you just make sure to remind your mother of Dinky’s first lesson? I almost have the syllabus for her lessons done, and I want to make sure we have plenty of time to go over it before getting started.” Sparkler started making her way out the door. “I’ll let Mom know when I get home.” She turned around to face me once she crossed the threshold. “And thanks for all the help, again. It’s nice to know I’ll be able to sleep if Cloud Kicker stays over again.” I considered commenting about how she probably wouldn’t have to worry about Cloud Kicker for much longer, given her usual habits, but that didn’t seem like a very tactful way to approach things with a young mare like Sparkler. Instead, I went with something slightly more tactful. “I’m sure it will work out in the end.” Sparkler shrugged. “S’okay. She seems to make Mom happy, so whatever. Just as long as I don’t have to listen to it. But anyways, I really need to go. Bye, Twilight.” I gave her a friendly wave as she turned to leave. “Have a nice evening, and don’t be afraid to stop by if you need anything else.” With our business complete, I closed the door and locked the library up for the day. That done, I trotted over to the kitchen and saw Spike busily stirring cookie batter. I gave Spike a quick nuzzle. “Hi, Spike. You making some cookies?” Spike gave me a wide smile and he kept stirring without skipping a beat. “Yup, cooking up a batch for tonight. You done with Sparkler?” I started walking around the kitchen, considering what I could take with me to Fluttershy’s to eat. “Yeah, she just left.” “So what were you planning on doing this evening?” Spike dipped his finger into his cookie mix and licked it clean. That question caused me to freeze for a moment. I hadn’t considered Spike when I had arranged this friendly get-together with Fluttershy. And with me trying to patch things up with Spike, I didn’t want to hurt his feelings all over again by leaving him all alone for another night so soon without very good reasons. But on the other hoof, I hadn’t mentioned anything about Spike to Fluttershy when we last met, and I didn’t want to be rude by suddenly inviting somepony—somedragon over. After thinking it over for a few seconds, I decided on a course of action. “I was planning on heading over to Fluttershy’s in a bit. Did you want to come?” Bringing Spike along struck me as the wisest course of action at the moment given I was trying to patch our relationship back up. Besides, Fluttershy liked Spike, and she would understand after I explained the situation. He looked up at me and smiled. “Sure. Want me to bring my cookies? They should be done in a bit once I put them in the oven.” I gave Spike an encouraging smile. “Sounds good. I’m sure Fluttershy would love to have some. I was also thinking about making a salad or something real quick so that we would have something else to bring. Hopefully nothing too complex given I have a couple things I need to do before we head out.” “How about I fix something up while you get ready?” Spike opened up our icebox and pulled out a head of lettuce. “I put the envelope from Derbyshire on your desk upstairs for ya.” “Thanks for reminding me, Spike.” I had nearly forgotten about that during all the craziness recently. I really prefered to take care of that type of business right away. “You sure you’re okay down here? I don’t want to feel like I’m dumping everything on you.” “Nah, it’s cool. I like cooking.” He picked up a banana and started to peel it. “Lets me snack on all the ingredients.” Spike started sucking and enjoying the banana a lot more then I felt comfortable with anymore thanks to Cloud Kicker. I had become aware of just how much phallic imagery there was around me. I tried to put those less savory thoughts aside. “Thanks for taking care of that. I’m sure Fluttershy will like whatever you make. Just make sure it will be easy to carry all the way out to her cottage.” The talk of Fluttershy reminded me of my last conversation with her. I looked out the window leading to the backyard of the library and suppressed shuddering about what was back there now. “Oh, by the way, Spike—you aren't allowed to go play in the backyard for a few months.” Spike cocked an eyebrow at me. “Why not?” I stepped closer and spoke quietly to Spike. It was perhaps a bit silly. It’s not like they could hear us. Probably. “Because there are snakes back there now. Fluttershy just moved them in the other day.” “Uh-huh.” Spike narrowed his eyes at me. “And that’s a big deal, why?” “They’re snakes, Spike.” Did I really have to outline this for him? “I don’t want you getting bitten or hurt by them.” “Um, Twilight, did you forget I have these babies?” Spike tapped his forearm. “Dragon scales are kinda tough you know. They’d probably just break their fangs on me.” He rubbed his chin. “Is this about you being scared of snakes?” I stuck my nose up. “I’m not scared of snakes. I’m just ... cautious. I don’t want you getting hurt. Besides, snakes are creepy. They eat meat.” Spike crossed his arms in front of his chest. “And did you forget that I can eat meat? Besides, Owlowiscious isn’t exactly a vegetarian.” That much was true. Owlowiscious was a carnivore by nature. I guess I just never really thought about it considering he did his hunting away from the library at night. And Spike was an omnivore in every sense of the term, he got nutritional benefits from rocks of all things. Not to mention he could eat things that were blatantly poisonous to ponies, like the infamous “baked bads.” It was kind of surprising how good of a cook he was given what he considered to taste good. But still... I shuffled in place at the uncomfortable topic. “Yeah, well, they’re still creepy. They have those slimy scales.” Spike tapped on his forearm again. “Okay, so your scales aren't slimy. But snakes still have those forked tongues.” Spike scowled and stuck his also-forked tongue out at me. Okay, now he was just screwing with me. “You’re not like a snake,” I snapped. “You’re completely different. You’re warm-blooded, for starters.” “Nice to know that’s the first thing you can think of that makes me different from some snake,” he said sourly. “Is this like that thing where Fluttershy is afraid of only adult dragons, but not me?” I groaned. Even I could tell that this conversation was not going in a good direction. “Okay, so I don’t like snakes. You happy?” Spike shrugged at my admission. “So you’re afraid of snakes. Lots of ponies have an irrational fear of snakes.” “It is not irrational!” I said more loudly than I had intended. “It’s perfectly rational. Because, they’re—um... I have good reasons! Look, just don’t go to the backyard until Fluttershy moves the snakes. Please, it would make me feel better.” “Okay,” Spike said with all the conviction of a child only half listening to his parent’s warnings. He went back to pulling out some tomatoes and carrots for the salad. I decided to just change topics. This one wasn’t particularly productive. There was something else I had wanted to go over with him. “So ... I just wanted to tell you what I’ve been up to lately.” I stepped up to stand next to Spike as he started chopping up the vegetables. I moved them around into an order that would be most efficient for him to cut up and put into the salad for him. “Oh?” He stopped chopping vegetables to direct his attention towards me. I considered my words carefully as I tried to explain my task properly. “You see, I was given a research project by Princess Luna a little while ago. She wanted me to research Cloud Kicker for a sociology project.” “And the reason why you haven’t told me is...” he said tersely. It didn’t really surprise me if he was still a bit sore on this topic. Usually he was right in the thick of any research project I happened to be doing. Even if he didn’t always understand everything I was studying, he was usually helping in some way. I chewed on my lower lip as I considered my words carefully. “There were ... some subjects that were going to be covered during my research that I didn’t want to expose you to.” Spike raised his eyebrows at that. “Like what?” Oh boy, this conversation had more traps in it than a dungeon in a Daring Do novel. I really didn’t want to get into the whole ‘sex’ talk with Spike right at this moment, but I also needed to tell him something that would placate him. I owed him that much, at least. I rubbed my foreleg as tried to explain things to Spike. “It’s just that there are some adult topics that might come up that I don’t really want you to have to listen to yet. My interview with Cloud Kicker is going to have to be very thorough, and chances are good it’ll cover some things that would make me uncomfortable for you to hear.” Spike puffed out his chest and gave me a confident smile. “Aw, come on. I can take it.” I couldn’t help but chuckle at Spike’s bravado, and I rubbed him on the top of the head. “Maybe, but you’re still a baby dragon. There’s still plenty of time for you to learn about the things I’m going to go over with Cloud Kicker.” I looked Spike in the eyes and made sure he was paying attention to me. “Don’t worry, I’m going to interview Cloud Kicker this weekend. Then I plan on finishing up my report to the Princess the following week, and then things will be back to normal.” At least that was my sincerest hope. I certainly aimed to make it work that way. We would have to see if Cloud Kicker would cooperate or not. The air slowly deflated from Spike’s chest. “If you say so. You know you can just ask me if you want help with anything you need, right?” I gave him an encouraging nuzzle. “Yeah, I know. You’re my number one assistant after all. This is just a bit of a rough patch, but we’ll get through it before you know it.” I decided to try and give Spike something he could help with. Being helpful did seem to make him happy. “How about you work on getting everything ready for Fluttershy’s, and I’ll take care of what I need to upstairs? Think you can handle that?” Spike turned around to get back to chopping vegetables. “Sure thing! I’ll have this ready in a jiffy.” I doubted Spike would be able to finish that salad in a fiftieth of a second. While I was tempted to correct Spike on this time measuring mistake, I decided it could wait until after I got ready to go. There was the walk to Fluttershy’s cabin to lecture Spike on what a jiffy really meant. With that dealt with, I headed upstairs to freshen up and take care of some other business before we headed out. I walked over to my work desk and found the envelope exactly where Spike said it would be. Pulling out the series of papers and forms that made up its contents and placed them at the center of my desk, I then retrieved my signet ring and wax from my desk. Just a matter of reviewing everything from Derbyshire, marking everything aye or nay, and then sealing it up to mail back. Just like it had been every month since I had reached the age of maturity. Simple. As simple as I hoped my interview with Cloud Kicker would be. Just had to get through this one weekend, and then I could get back to my normal, happy, Cloud Kicker-less life. *** I got through my paperwork for Derbyshire pretty quickly considering it was a fairly light season for such things, not like the much dreaded tax season. I took a few minutes to make myself more presentable after a long day. After that I let Spike climb onto my back while he carried the dishes, and we walked off to Fluttershy’s cottage. Well, I did all the walking, but anyways... We arrived at Fluttershy’s right as the sun was setting. I knocked on Fluttershy’s front door, and she opened the door a crack. She gave us a welcoming smile. “Hi, Twilight. How are you doing?” Fluttershy opened the door wider to allow me to enter. “As well as could be expected,” I said with only a hint of irritation. It had been a long day with Cloud Kicker showing up at the library, my non-interview with Nimbus Kicker, and everything else that had occurred. I turned so that Fluttershy could more easily see Spike. “I hope you don’t mind that I brought Spike along. I didn’t want to leave him home on his own tonight.” “Hi, Fluttershy.” Spike held up the dishes for Fluttershy to see. “I made us some cookies and salad to eat.” Fluttershy stepped up to give Spike a nuzzle. “I don’t mind at all. Spike is always welcome at my home.” Spike pulled the dishes closer to his chest to keep from dropping them. “Cool, I’ve been hoping to get out of the library today anyways.” I felt a twinge of relief that Fluttershy hadn’t been offended by me bringing Spike along. I figured it wouldn’t be a problem, but guessing is a bit different than knowing. With that taken care of, I stepped into Fluttershy’s cottage.  I couldn’t help but bask in the aroma of cooking vegetables on the stove. “That smells really good. Were you already cooking something?” Fluttershy trotted towards her kitchen. “I was just cooking some vegetable soup considering I knew you were coming over. I figured you might be hungry after walking all the way from Ponyville, and I didn’t want to be a bad host.” “I couldn’t imagine you being a bad host, Fluttershy.” I walked after Fluttershy into the kitchen. “Where would you like for us to put the salad and cookies?” “If you put them on the dinner table, that would be wonderful.” Fluttershy picked up a ladle and tasted the soup she had on her wood-burning stove. She licked her lips and gave a satisfied nod. “I think the soup’s ready now. So if you two want, we can eat now.” “Sounds good to me,” Spike happily chirped. “Let’s head over the dining room then.” I grabbed the soup with my telekinesis. I figured it would be a bit easier for me to carry than Fluttershy. “I can get that if you like.” “If you don’t mind.” Fluttershy opened one of her kitchen drawers and pulled out a couple of hotpads. Spike and I then followed Fluttershy to her dining room and proceeded set the table and sit down. Spike reached out to get himself some salad when a white blur came flying into view and slammed into the side of Spike’s head. “Ow, what was that!?” Spike looked down where the white blur had landed and saw Angel Bunny. He was glaring up at Spike, tapping his foot vigorously. Spike eyes narrowed in his own glare. “Angel,” he grumbled. Fluttershy’s eyes widened at the sudden display of violence. “Oh, I’m sorry, it’s just that you’re sitting in Angel’s spot.” She turned a disappointed frown at Angel. “But that’s no excuse for attacking a guest like that, Angel. We gently ask our guest to please move if we want a specific seat, not kick them in the head.” Angel’s response was to look away from Fluttershy and stick his nose up in the air. “Stupid rabbit.” Spike rubbed the side of his head. I doubted he was seriously hurt. Dragons, even baby ones, were pretty tough. The first couple times he'd misbehaved, my efforts to punish him ended up not being terribly effective. You've got to smack him pretty hard for him to actually feel it through all those scales, but early on I'd been very worried about hitting him too hard and hurting him. I have since gotten a pretty good measure of how hard he needed to be hit to actually feel it. “Well I don’t see why I need to move if he’s going to be a big, dumb jerk about it.” Spike’s stubbornness garnered a rather impressive death glare for a rabbit. I seriously didn’t understand why Angel and Spike didn’t get along. Its like they were archnemeses in a play or something. Fluttershy stood up and walked over to Angel. “Come on, Angel, could you just apologize to Spike and ask for your seat? I’m sure Spike would move if you asked nicely.” Angel just looked away from Fluttershy and crossed his forelegs over his chest. Part of me wanted to just lean over and ask Spike to move over to get this big fight over with, but that was likely just to cause an even bigger fight by dragging myself into the middle of it. Besides, Angel was in the wrong here, and I didn’t want to undermine Fluttershy’s somewhat soft attempts at disciplining her pet. Fluttershy bit her lower lip and looked around as though unsure of herself. But after a minute, she put on a determined scowl. “Alright, Angel, if you don’t apologize right now, then... you can go to bed without dinner.” Angel’s jaw dropped as though he had just been slapped. Given how much slack I had seen Fluttershy give him in the past, this was probably a pretty severe punishment for her. “Well... Are you going to apologize now?” asked Fluttershy with determination. Angel closed his jaw and he gave Fluttershy a steely stare. After a minute of trying to face down his owner, he let out an annoyed huff and started to hop away from the dining room. I guessed his pride meant more than dinner. Fluttershy let out a long, depressed sigh. “I’m sorry about that. Angel normally doesn’t misbehave this badly.” I had a little bit of trouble believing that. Every time I had seen the two of them together, it seemed like Angel was heaping one abuse or another onto Fluttershy. “You mean he’s usually worse?” Spike snarked. I fixed him with a leer that told him to watch what he was saying. He looked down at the dinner table. “Can we just eat already?” he said gloomily. Fluttershy walked back over to her place at the table and sat down. She let out a long breath. “Yes, we don’t want the soup to get cold.” I guess she just wanted to put that whole incident behind her. “That sounds nice.” I poured everyone a bowl of soup to help get things moving along. After all the stress I had built up over the last week I wanted at least one nice, relaxing night. “So how have you been, Fluttershy?” Fluttershy looked up from the plate she was filling with salad. “Oh, it’s been nice. Just been doing my usual work of helping the animals in the area. It’s been nice and quiet.” “Good to hear.” I took a sip of my soup, and I saw Spike start to reach for the cookie. I fixed him with another disapproving stare and he withdrew his claw without having procured any cookies. It was a bit early in the meal to start on the sweets. “How about yourself?” Fluttershy asked. “You’re almost always busy doing something.” “I’ve been working on a research project,” I said reflexively. I immediately regretted it. My research project was not something I really wanted to get into with Fluttershy for a number of reasons. Fluttershy’s ears perked as she ate a spoonful of her soup. “About what?”   Now I was knee-deep in it. Maybe I could get away with being a bit vague. “Um, it’s a sociological study about individual ponies from different walks of life across Equestria.” “Oh really, are you studying a lot of ponies around town?” Fluttershy probed. “Nah, she’s just doing research on Cloud Kicker.” Spike popped a mouthful of salad into his mouth and then pointed his fork my way. “Twilight’s going to interview her this weekend.” Thanks for putting that right out there, Spike. I suppose I shouldn’t be angry with him. He didn’t know about my ... issues with Cloud Kicker. Fluttershy looked down at her plate, pushing around her salad without trying to eat any. “I see.” I decided to go for some damage control given Spike had gone ahead and blurted out Cloud Kicker’s name. “I don’t want to make a big deal of this project. Frankly, dealing with Cloud Kicker is driving me crazy. I’m going to be happy to be done with the whole thing and never talk to her again.” “Okay,” Fluttershy said softly. She was kept looking down at the dinner table.   One of Spike’s eyebrows raised. “What’s the big deal with Cloud Kicker, anyway?” “She’s—um...” I struggled to think of the best way to put things to Spike. “We don’t really get along is all.” Spike scratched the side of his head. “Really? You two seemed to be doing alright back at the library.” “It’s complicated.” Trying to steer this conversation away from the topic of Cloud Kicker, I slid the plate of cookies towards Spike. “Here, how about you have a couple of the cookies you baked, Spike?” I gave Spike my best smile to encourage him to take a cookie and hopefully drop the conversation. “They sure do look good.” “Okay,” Spike happily chirped. He grabbed a cookie and merrily chomped down on it. “You two should try one too.” I jabbed into another clump of my salad with my fork. “I’ll try one once I’m done with my salad.” Some of us had to watch our weight. I looked at Fluttershy and saw that she was just staring down at her plate and playing with her food. “Is everything alright?” I asked her, a hint of concern finding its way into my tone. Fluttershy snapped out of her stupor with a slight jerk. “I’m sorry. I was just ... thinking.” She shook her head. Whether to shake her head out or to say no to me I wasn’t quite sure. “I’m fine, it’s just I remembered a couple things. Don’t worry about it.” I couldn’t help but frown at my friend. “Is this because I brought up Cloud Kicker? If you want to talk about it we—” “Could we please not talk about Cloud Kicker?” I was surprised, Fluttershy had actually interrupted me. I couldn’t remember the last time Fluttershy had ever interrupted anypony in a conversation, if ever. I could only imagine that Cloud Kicker had done something to make Fluttershy terribly uncomfortable. Given how bad Cloud Kicker was around me, and how uncomfortable Fluttershy was around other ponies, I could see why Cloud Kicker could make Fluttershy uncomfortable. Perhaps it was also related with Fluttershy’s time at Flight Camp? Rainbow Dash had said that she had a rough time in general. My academic reflexes kicked in and I wanted to press a bit further and find out more about how Fluttershy knew Cloud Kicker, but the part of my brain that warned me not to hurt my sensitive friend told me to rein that thought in. Then I remembered the promise I had made to Rainbow Dash earlier about not interviewing Fluttershy about Cloud Kicker. Technically this wasn’t an interview, if I wanted to nitpick about the details of my promise to Dash, but I could tell based on how stiff and nervous Fluttershy was acting that this was a bad topic for her. I was already feeling bad just bringing Cloud Kicker up in a casual conversation. I decided it would be best to drop the topic. I flailed around for something else to talk about. “So, um, I guess you put all those snakes behind the library?” Far from the best topic I could get into, but probably better than the old one. The gloomy miasma that had been clinging to Fluttershy seemed to suddenly dissipated at the mention of her favorite topic: animals. She gave me a bright, cheerful smile. “Yes, the darlings are all settled in now. I think they are really going to enjoy their new homes.” I tried to smile without too much strain. This was about making Fluttershy happy at this point. “Oh... that’s good. As long as they stay out of the library.” I lowered my head to whisper to Fluttershy. “They are staying out of the library, right?” “Of course,” Fluttershy assured me. “I told them to respect your privacy.” “That should be fine.” I let myself relax a little bit. At least my home would be safe from the slithering little monsters. Spike wolfed down another cookie and then started talking with his mouth full. “Yeah, Twilight doesn’t want them to get into the library because she has snakeophobia.” Thanks, Spike, that’s what I really needed you to say just now. Fluttershy covered her mouth with her hoof. “Oh dear. Are you really afraid of snakes, Twilight?” I pulled the plate of cookies away from Spike. I decided he had enough for now. This didn’t have anything to do with how I was unhappy with him. “I’m not afraid of snakes. It’s just that I ... have a healthy respect for them.” I fixed Spike with a glare intended to show my disapproval of him. “And it’s called ophidiophobia, not snakeopohobia, Spike.” “Tomato-tamata,” Spike said with derision. “Still doesn’t change the fact that you don’t like snakes.” Fluttershy’s body stiffened and she bit her lower lip. I couldn’t imagine anything going through her head at the moment was good. She might even think I had lied to her about the snakes being put behind the library being alright. “No, really, snakes are fine. They fill an important niche in the local ecology.” I tried to give Fluttershy my best smile. Maybe if I smiled hard enough I could even convince myself that I could tolerate the existence of snakes. Spike’s response was to roll his eyes and start to slurp on his bowl of soup. “That’s good,” said Fluttershy, letting out a sigh of relief. “I was worried there for a moment you would have a problem with all those snakes near the library.” “I-I don’t.” I stuttered out. It looked like I had already crossed the bridge where the snakes were concerned. Telling Fluttershy I had a problem with them would likely only upset her, and I had done enough of that to my friend already. “Don’t worry about it.” “We can talk about it if you want to,” Fluttershy said with assurance. “Sometimes talking about your fears helps. And I can assure you that there isn’t any reason to be scared of snakes.” “Really, it’s fine.” I let out a chuckle I hoped didn’t sound too nervous. “We don’t need to make a big deal out of this.” Fluttershy frowned at me. “If you say so. But you know you can talk to me if you’re having any sort of animal trouble.” Oh, I would have a few words with Fluttershy if those snakes found a way into the library. “Yes, but how about we find something else to talk about?” “Um, okay.” Fluttershy took a long sip of her soup. “So, have you been up to anything else recently?” I tried to think of something interesting to bring up but I drew a blank. “Um, no, not really. How about yourself?” Fluttershy shook her head. “I can’t really think of anything. I’ve just been doing my usual things as of late. What have you been doing lately, Spike?” Spike shrugged his shoulders. “Eh, stuff.” “Like what?” Fluttershy prodded. “The usual.” Spike twirled his fork in the air. “Cleaning the library, checking books out, checking in books, cooking, reading comics. You know, stuff.” “That sounds nice,” Fluttershy said. “Anything interesting happen this week?” “Meh, not really.” Spike let out a yawn and prodded at his salad to pick up another bite. “He’s been doing good with his education,” I cut in with my attempt to keep the conversation going. “I’m really happy with his progress in science, reading, and writing.” “That’s good to hear.” Fluttershy stood up from the table and walked over to a nearby dresser where she kept her fine dishes. She opened the drawer and picked up an egg sized sapphire with her wing. “How about you get a treat for being a good baby dragon? If that’s okay with Twilight that is.” Spike licked his lips and he looked up at me hopefully. He had gotten quite a few cookies earlier, but I didn’t want to be the bad mare here. Plus he had put a lot of work into cleaning the basement. Even if what happened was largely his fault. I gave him a pat on the head. “Sure, he can have one gem for dinner. But that’s enough treats for one night.” “Great, thanks Fluttershy.” Spike smiled like, well, a child who was getting a sweet. He pulled the gem out from under Fluttershy’s wing and started sucking on it. I have no idea what gems could even taste like that makes Spike like them so much. I really needed to ask him about that someday. “So I guess that’s all the new business we have to talk about then?” I asked. Fluttershy sat back down and shuffled a bit to make herself comfortable. “I believe so.” Silence reigned as we ate. I tried to think of some sort of conversation point to talk about, but I kept drawing blanks. Each of us tried to start up a conversation, but they seemed to keep getting cut short. I had just about forgotten how Fluttershy and I sometimes had some trouble maintaining a conversation with each other. All my other friends were usually more talkative: Rarity could go on for hours about her business, town gossip, and other little topics. Applejack had a ready supply of family anecdotes to fill the time. Rainbow Dash was always willing to talk about her lastest stunts and about one sport or another that held her interest, and more often than not Pinkie seemed to like to talk for the sake of talking. But with Fluttershy it was much harder to keep up a conversation. Sometimes we could get going with a good conversation, but this didn’t seem like one of those times. Maybe I was just more tired then I realized? Spike certainly looked like he was at the end of his rope considering he was nodding off after eating his gem. He did have a long day, now that I thought about it.  “So, um, I guess the weather was nice today,” I said, grasping at that old conversational backup that everypony seemed to use. My fork had been put down, considering I had finished eating for awhile now.   “Yes, it was pretty nice for another partially cloudy and sunny day,” Fluttershy said uncertainty. “Oh! I did see a cloud that looked like a bunny rabbit from the right angle.” I grasped onto the topic. “Think somepony did that on purpose? Shaped the cloud like that I mean?” Fluttershy shook her head. “I doubt it. The weatherponies in Cloudsdale get upset if they see ponies playing around with what the clouds look like.” I rubbed my chin. “Huh. I wonder why?” Fluttershy looked away from me and down at the table. “I don’t know, I’ve never asked.” “Oh,” was all I could come up with for that. I looked over to Spike and saw that he was now lying his head on the table with his eyes closed. I guess we had actually managed to bore him to sleep. I let out a long sigh. “Looks like we better get going. I think Spike’s had enough for one night, and I better get him to bed.” I snorted. “Even if he has made himself comfortable.” Fluttershy stood up. “Please, don’t let me hold you up. I can clean up here if you need to put Spike to bed. You do have to walk all the way back to Ponyville after all.” “If you’ve sure about that?” I lifted Spike carefully onto my back. “I can stay for a few minutes to help you out. It’s not a big deal.” “Nono, it’s okay,” Fluttershy assured me. I started to lift up the plates Spike and I had carried our dished on, but Fluttershy put her hoof down on one gently. “You don’t need to worry about those either. I’ll clean them up, and give them back to you later. If you don’t mind that is.” “You really don’t need to do that,” I assured her. “I can handle this much.” Fluttershy didn’t move her hoof. “It’s quite alright. I was going to have to clean everything anyways, and I can drop these off at the library next time I visit. I just want you to concentrate on where you are walking considering it is dark outside and you’ll have Spike on your back.” She did have a good point there. It would take at least some of my concentration off of where I was going to levitate the dishes around, and I didn’t want to wake up Spike or risk him falling asleep during the walk and dropping everything.  “If you really don’t mind, I would appreciate it.” “It’s really not a problem.” Fluttershy escorted me to the front door. Spike seemed content to sleep on my back. I exited her cottage and turned to face her. We stood opposite of one another for a few seconds without talking before I managed to break the silence. “Thanks for having us. It was nice seeing you.” Awkward conversations aside. Fluttershy smiled and nodded. “Yes, it’s always nice seeing you and Spike. We should do this again.” “Yeah, we should. Perhaps you can come to the library next time?” I suggested. “That sounds wonderful.” She motioned to close the door. “See you later then?” “Yep, bye.” With our final goodbyes said, Fluttershy closed her door and I started my way back to Ponyville and the library. Though now I had more questions on my mind than when I had started the day.  *** I entered the Cloudsdale Library and Archive the next day. I used my hot air balloon to get up to the city, and with a simple cloud-walking spell I was navigating its streets. I had gotten up early in the morning to head out to the city to do some research there before my interview with Cloud Kicker. Questions had been nagging me lately, and I needed answers. As was typical of Cloudsdale architecture, the library was all columns, arches, and smoothly flowing curves and lines that gave it a unique look from ground based buildings. Unlike many of the buildings in Cloudsdale, the library sported quite a bit of non-cloud materials. Given it was intended to house materials that had a tendency to develop mold and rot when exposed to moisture, much of the building had been made out of thunderforged steel and other enchanted materials to help store everything and allow ponies to enjoy the services offered by the library. It had cost quite a few bits to set up such a building in Cloudsdale, and it was considered an architectural wonder when the construction had finally finished. Materials that were compatible with clouds were far from cheap, and those had been put in place before modern advancements in cloud production started producing clouds that didn’t risk water damage to what was inside.   A small display announced the building as a national landmark. It was easy to tell why given its unique architecture. All that shining steel gave the building a unique sense of sterility unusual to a library—almost like a hospital really—but the smell of steel and old paper and the casual, quiet atmosphere still caused one to have the sense they were indeed in a library. Luckily the building should hold at least some of the answers I sought. A few things had been bothering me since I started researching for this study on Cloud Kicker—namely issues involving Flight Camp when Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy had gone there, as well as my ever-perverse research subject. Dash, Fluttershy, and Derpy had all clammed up on the topic, and I was starting to become curious why. Each of them had gone to Flight Camp nearly a decade ago, but for some reason the memories of it made them all very uncomfortable. While I wanted to respect their privacy, I also wanted to be thorough in my research. Even if I wanted to finish it up as quickly as possible at this moment. Not like I was going to find much information about them as fillies anyways. My first stop was to look at the Flight Camp yearbooks. A look through them for the relevant years seemed mostly normal, though I did notice that both Dash and Cloud Kicker had gone to Flight Camp for only one year. Flight Camp was normally a two-year summer program, and it was unusual for a young pegasus to only go to it for one year. There was supposed to be a test at the end, both a written and practical exam, to make sure everypony was capable of flying without hurting themselves or others. Perhaps Rainbow Dash had done well enough to take the test early? She was certainly not one to ever take anything slow if she could help it. I supposed Cloud Kicker might have been able to do the same? Now that I thought about it, I didn’t know how great of a flier she was. A part of my brain also noticed that Flight Camp had a complete turnover in its staff after Dash and Cloud Kicker’s first and only year there. Looking through a few of the yearbooks it looked like Flight Camp typically had a pretty high turnover rate, so this might not have been that strange. Only getting a few bits of information, I turned my attention elsewhere. I started reviewing the local newspaper, the Cloudsdale Inquirer, to see if it could offer any information. What I found was not encouraging. It seemed that the Cloudsdale Flight Camp became the source of a particularly nasty scandal one year. Stories of councillor negligence, rampant bullying among students, fights, a couple of pregnancies resulting from students doing things they shouldn’t have been at that age and a lack of supervision, hospital visits for various injuries, and even a case where two fillies had beaten each other to the point of needing Life Flight to take them to the emergency ward. Sun and stars, what had been going on there? It’s possible some of this was exaggerated and sensationalized by the local news sources when this story broke, but if even half of this was true... After reviewing numerous newspapers, it was clear there had been a general outcry when news got out about everything that had happened at Flight Camp. Parents demanded action, politicians jumped at the opportunity to lay blame elsewhere and take advantage of an easy opportunity to earn some credit with parents, and action was taken. The entire Flight Camp staff had been fired, fines levied, and even a couple of the counselors had been sentenced to jail for a couple of years for criminal negligence. Some changes and reforms were made to the program, and over time the uproar seemed to die down. Life went on, for the most part. Though it was starting to look like Flight Camp had left its scars on my friends and others, instead of putting my mind to rest, my research had put it more ill-at-ease. I needed more answers. I double-checked the name of the head counselors of Flight Camp at the time: a stallion by the name of Lift Off. Next I looked up his name in the Cloudsdale address book. Finding that, I made my way back into the city. After about an hour, I trotted to a fairly run down section of Cloudsdale. One I wouldn’t have felt entirely safe in at night. The clouds of the apartment complex I arrived at looked poorly maintained and hadn’t been properly packed together in quite some time, causing it to have a spongy, puffy look to the building instead of the neat and ordered look one usually saw in the rest of the city. The ponies themselves looked to be run down too. I found it disquieting how they didn’t seem able to look anypony in the eyes.  I knocked on the door of what I believed to be Lift Off’s address, but received no reply. Not caring to wait in the suspect neighborhood, I knocked on a few of the neighboring doors until I got a pony willing to speak with me. It took a few bits, but I got the information I needed to find Lift Off’s workplace. Double-checking my map of the city, I made my way into a commercial district of the city, which was lined with shops and restaurants and ponies milling about and shopping. I found the restaurant I was looking for, a vegetable grill joint called the Cloud Nine Diner. Hoping that my information was correct, I entered the establishment. The restaurant seemed nice enough. The simple white walls were decorated with various photographs and paraphernalia of Cloudsdale-based sports teams. Booths lined the walls and tables and chairs filled up floor space with seating. One of the walls was dominated by the grill where a pony could walk up and select what they wanted to eat. It had a family-friendly atmosphere to it, despite being considerably ... whiter than I was used to for a restaurant.  I looked around and saw a stallion similar in appearance to the one in the photographs I had seen in the Flight Camp yearbook working the grill. He was a brown-coated pegasus with a dark brown mane. He had been fairly muscular when he was younger, but the weight of years and neglect left him pudgy.  I trotted up to the grill to speak to him. He gave me a dispassionate look, one of a pony who had seen a hundred customers already that day and would see another hundred before it was over. “What would you like, ma’am.” “Mr. Lift Off?” I inquired. He immediately scowled at me and then turned to an older stallion running the cash register. “Uncle Fry, I’m taking my break now. I’ve got another one.” Uncle Fry gave me a good, long, hard look and then nodded at Lift Off. “Take care of your business. Call me if you need me.” “Thanks, Uncle.” Lift Off turned back to me and motioned towards one of the corner booths. “Come on.” Slightly confused by this straightforward behavior, I followed him and sat opposite of him in booth. “Mr. Lift Off, right? I just wanted to—” He cut me off with a slash of his hoof. “Listen, if you’re here to cause trouble, just take your plot and get out of here. It’s been nearly a decade and I’ve already gotten more than enough grief over what happened.” He sounded tired as well as frustrated, as if he’d had this talk dozens of times already. Come to think of it, he probably had. I found myself leaning back against my seat, subconsciously putting more distance between myself and the stallion opposite of me. “I just wanted to ask some questions.” “Yeah, I’m sure.” He rubbed the side of his face, his hoof running along the stubble that looked like it hadn’t been cut back for a couple of days. “So what are you? A sister, or a fillyfriend? Can’t be one of the kids, ya don’t have the wings.” “A-a friend.” I had been put off-balance due to it feeling like Lift Off was a step or two ahead in our conversation. This wasn’t exactly how I thought things would go. He leaned back and let out an annoyed huff. “Great, a nosy friend. Exactly what I need. Look, just say whatever you need to say and get out. I’m sick and tired of wasting my breaks on ponies like you.” I raised an eyebrow. “Ponies like me?” He rubbed at one of his eyes roughly. “Yes. Are you just slow or something? You think you’re the first one? You know how many angry parents that have cornered me and threatened to geld me? Prison was probably safer for me those first couple of years after what happened.” I had finally had enough of being bull-rushed by this pony. I slammed a hoof on the table, but the effect was slowly ruined given it sounded like I was hitting a pillow. Clouds could be inconvenient like that. “Can we slow down for one second?” “You have—” he looked up to a nearby clock, “—eleven minutes. Then I need to get back to work.” I took a steadying breath to calm myself. Lift Off might be acting like a bit of a jerk, but I could still control my own attitude and behavior. “Why, why did things turn out so badly at Flight Camp?” “Why do you care?” He glanced at the clock again and let out a huff. I was a bit annoyed that he was wasting the apparently invaluable time I had with him with his own questions. “Because I’m trying to understand how and why my friends got hurt. So can you answer my question?” Lift Off leaned towards me spoke quietly. “Listen, I didn’t mean for things to get so bad. It just... happened. I didn’t want anypony to get hurt. Certainly not all those fillies and colts. Endless night, a couple’a the kids really tore into one another. There was so much blood and...” He shook his head and started to rub the back of his neck. I leaned in a bit and spoke to him in the same volume as he had spoken to me. “What were you and the other counselors doing all that time? I read in the newspapers that the children couldn’t even find you half the time when they needed you.” His shoulders slouched and he suddenly looked much older than he should be been. Like the less than a decade that had passed since his running of Flight Camp had weighed twice as heavily on him than other ponies. “You want to know the truth? I’d been trying to get under the tail of the camp nurse.” “That’s it?” My tone came across much harsher than I originally intended. “That’s why my friends got hurt? Why they were bullied, got into fights, and I’m not sure what else?” He grinned at me, but it wasn’t an amused one or a malicious one. It tried to be, but there was too much pain behind it to be genuine. “What do you want? For me to admit that it was all part of some evil plot? I made a stupid, stupid mistake. One I’m still paying for. Same stupid deal for the other counselors. I spent two years in jail because I spent more time flirting with the nurse instead of watching the kids I was getting paid to watch. You think I’m proud of any of that, that I haven’t thought time and again what I did wrong in every detail? Always being confronted by parents, aunts, uncles, siblings, lovers, and everypony else who wants to pick a bone with me?” He ran a hoof through his mane. “The only job I could get when I got out of prison was at my uncle’s own restaurant, and he only gave it to me out of familial obligations. I’m stuck in a dead-end job that I have to work six days out of the week just to pay the rent of my crappy apartment.” I didn’t know what to say to that. What could be said? What could I say that he probably hadn’t heard a thousand times over the years? What could I do to him that being a social pariah wasn’t doing to him? “Oh,” I said out of a need to say something. “I see.” “Yeah, I’m sure you do.” He stood up from his seat. “So if you don’t mind, I’m going to see if I have enough time to get a little something to drink and a snack before having to get back into the grind.” He walked past me towards the grill. “Have a nice day,” he said without an ounce of sincerity. All I could do was sit there and look down at the table I was sitting at. I wasn’t quite sure what to think of the information I had just been given. Had all that happened at Flight Camp to my friends and the other ponies I knew been so pointless? Lift Off seemed to be sincere about what he said. If he was lying then he came up with a pretty terrible one. No, what he told me rung of too much terrible truth. I looked at the former Flight Camp counselor as he got back to work serving ponies grilled vegetables. A job it sounded like he would keep right on doing for a long time. Deciding that I had taken up space in the restaurant long enough, I stood up and began the trek back to Ponyville. I think I had found out about as much as I cared to for one day. I had enough to fill my thoughts for the journey. As I thought about what I had just learned, I considered that perhaps things didn’t always have a reason for happening.