Chapter 1 – The Beginning
Part 2 – The Battlemage, The Egghead and The Expectant Mother
So you are the one…, somepony thought and narrowed its eyes. It was dark in the chamber. The curtains were closed and the bright light of the full moon outside hued everything in dark twilight. In the bed in front of the pony the blanket raised and lowered by a regular breath, coming from a deep sound sleep. It was such a peaceful scene... But one thing was completely wrong: There shouldn´t be only one single breath! There shouldn´t be a deep sound sleep! The only thing there should be, was a dead sleep! But still, in the face of all logical, the blanket raised and lowered, raised and lowered, again and again and again! It was absolutely sickening!
The anonymous pony simply sat there and watched the other pony sleeping. It felt their wrath, felt them trembling in the book under its hooves. They felt the presence, wanted to come out, wanted her! But the pony couldn´t free them now. It couldn´t simply open the book and let them attack her. If she was what the unknown thought she was, it would be suicidal for them! It couldn´t take that risk. Not yet. There was still the injury they took from her. And, in addition, their powers were still very weak. But they needed a victim, needed a body, they could torture with their dark cravings! And they needed a pony, which’s mind couldn´t resist them.
The unicorn´s horn glowed. It levitated the dagger from the leather belt around its hip in front of it. The sharp blade glittered metally in the twilight of the chamber. Sure, the unknown could simply kill her. That would be the easiest way. Without her, there would be nopony which could stop the unicorn´s plans. Slowly the pony placed the dagger above her chest where her heart supposed to be. Only one thought and the sharp point of the double-edged weapon would dig down to her core. It was so simple. So easy! She wouldn´t feel anything. Only the endless rising and lowering of the blanket would stop …
Then, the pony came to a point…
Slowly, the dagger levitated back to the leather belt and in its sheath. There was no blood on the silver gleaming metal. Enjoy this day!, the unknown unicorn thought and smirked an evil grin. Because from tomorrow you´ll walk through hell! With this inner promise the anonymous pony left Twilight Sparkles´ chamber just as it entered it – unrecognized and noiseless…
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The daily routine at Princess Celestias´ School for gifted Unicorns was the same for every student. At seven o´clock the first lesson began. Every lesson lasted for exactly fifty minutes. The next ten minutes were a short recess to prepare for the next lesson. At nine o´clock was morning break. At half past nine, lessons continued until lunch break at half past eleven. The lunch break lasted exactly one hour. At half past twelve, lessons continued. From that moment, it was different from day to day how long it lasts till school was over. After that, the students could pass their time as they liked. The most of the students did their homework at the library or at one of the lounges. On hot summer days, like also today, many of the students picnicked on the great meadow in front of the school pile or went shopping at the city.
But at the moment, it was short before seven o´clock. Twilight was on her way to her first lesson – Magical Physics. Her favorite subject. Wide smiling, she trotted through the second floor, heading for her class room. Finally, she reached the wooden door in the middle of the wide black and white marbled floor with the great green carpet and the light blue walls. With much élan she opened the door and entered the class room. The walls of the class room were also as blue as the sky. But, in marked contrast to the hallway, the floor was not marbled but laminated with a bright wood. On one side of the room, there was a big window, giving a nice sight at the garden in front of the school pile. At the very front, there was the teachers’ desk and a big blackboard. The students´ desks were five rows of benches with six desks per row. Between the second and third and the fifth and sixth desks was a small gap to walk through the rows easily.
Twilight headed for her desk in the middle of the second row. The most students were already there, chatted and waited for the teacher. Next to her desk she saw Bleach, beautiful as ever with his spotless snow-white coat and his long raven mane, falling around his right shoulder down to the bottom. A small black scrunchy tied his mane up at the height of his belly. Oh how she loved this unique style! Actually, he read something in a book and didn´t notice her. Eyeing him up, she sat down next to him. Now, he noticed her and looked up from his book, facing her shining purple eyes.
“Oh, good morning!” he greeted, smiled wide and looked her over. “You´re looking like a picture of health today, very much better than yesterday. You slept very well, I guess?” Twilight returned his smile and nodded. She really looked better this day. The bags under her eyes were gone, her face had back its natural color and her mane was brushed as neat as ever. Altogether, she looked simply wonderful. “Like a log. This tea, this ‘Soul-Refresher’, is a marvel!” she answered cheerful. Bleach raised an eyebrow. “What is a ‘Soul-Refresher’?” he asked. He didn´t know anything about his friends´ yesterday´s activities, so Twilight told him about her and Silverleafs´ spa-trip. “Silverleaf went to a spa with you? Our Silverleaf? Our Miss Can´t-sit-still-for-ten-minutes?” Twilight giggled. “Yes. I was also wondering, but I didn´t say anything. It was just what I needed. I think she went there just because of me.” But in reality, she thought something other…
“And she made this tea with her sister? And she used flowers she cultured for it? I never would have drunk that!” Now, Twilight just laughed. Silverleaf was a very good plant breeder, sure, but only for decorative purposes. In the past, she had always tried to combine magical spells with her flowers to create special teas and elixirs. Mostly, it had worked as wished. But, in the majority of cases, there also had been some…interesting side effects. And Bleach always was her favorite guinea pig. “You remember her ‘Super-Speed-Wonder-Tea’?” she asked still laughing. “Yeah, how should I forget that?” he replied less delighted. “I could move in super-speed for about one or two hours, but I could speak only in slow motion for one whole weak!” In the end, he had to giggle too. He remembered how he had chased Silverleaf through the entire school building until she had hidden herself in the mares´ bathroom. They talked and laughed at the old times and the pranks they played until the teacher, a dark brown unicorn-stallion, entered the room. Abruptly there was silence in the class room and the lesson began…
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Twilight never thought there could be only one lesson that bores her. And she also never thought it would be a lesson at her favorite subject! The teacher, Prof. Antinod, had a monotone voice and spoke very slowly, while he described the nature of magical energies – a theme she had in the first class!
“But now, let’s talk about magical transferring.” he then said as slowly as possible. “Every magical energy, whether it is from a spell or from a pony or another magical source, every one of them could be absorbed and transferred and…yes Bleach?” The dark-maned stallion lowered his hoof. “You mean it´s like my aura-magic?” he asked interested. He was the only one, who was interested in the lesson, because he was the only one, which´s primary magic based on magical energies, or better, their aura.
Bleach Auraknight was his full name. The name meant he came from a family that was able to see magical energies and their aura. It was complicate to explain, even for Twilight, but Bleach had the gift, to take these magical auras and to form them to spells a book never told to anypony. And there was another thing: The Auraknights were very famous for their great combat skills. It was a line of fighters. And primarily, it was a line of guardians. He was like a battlemage in these games: good at magic and an awesome dagger fighter. At the moment, he was a trainee to become one of Celestias´ personal guardians just as every Auraknight.
Twilight smiled. Silverleaf was right. She loved him. He was kind, bountiful, strong, intelligent, handsome and much more things she couldn´t list at the moment.
“Not at all, but it´s familiar.” the professor finally answered Bleachs´ question. “Granted, I don´t know exactly how your magic is working, but as far as I know, you´re able to transfer magical energies and their aura from the far, right?” Bleach nodded and Prof. Antinod continued: “Well, for normal unicorns like us it is not so easy. We have to make contact to the spell or the pony to transfer its energy. I prepared a practice for you.” With these words he got a few crystals out of his desk. “These crystals contain a small magical source.” he explained, “Your exercise is, to absorb the magical energy in these crystals. Then, you´ll absorb some magical energy of your desk neighbor and lead it into the crystal. But attention! Don´t absorb too much energy from your neighbor! Though, our body restores the loss of our magic instantly, but, after all, it´s still able that there are some negative feelings like headache or nausea. So be careful!” After that, he levitated one crystal to every student and the practice began.
Bleach only smiled. This exercise was a cakewalk for him. He blinked and changed his vision. His eyes changed color from dark blue to dark violet. Now, he saw everything in a dark blue touch. Only the magical energies and the auras which surrounded them had another color. The crystal in front of him, or better its energy inside, shone in a slight pulsating green. He looked around. Everywhere he could see faint glows in many different colors, surrounded by a pulsating aura. Also he saw the energies of his classmates, bright glows in different intensities, sphered by unsteady pulsating auras. Twilight´s energy made him squint. Her aura was the brightest he had ever seen. Sure, everybody knew her magical potency, but he was the only one, who really saw it. Her energy was as bright as a shining purple sun. It was not for nothing that she was Princess Celestias´ personal student.
He blinked and his gaze went back to the crystal in front of him. Pending his right hoof above the crystal, he concentrated and his horn began to glow. Slowly, the energy parted from the stone. In a thin trail of light, she levitated to his hoof, reached it and became a part of Bleach. He blinked, changed his vision back to normal-view and smiled contentedly. That was way too easy for him.
His gaze wandered to Twilight. Her eyes were closed and her right hoof rested on the crystal. It seemed not to be as easy for her as it was for him. She took a final deep breath, her horn glowed a bit brighter and then, she made it. Slowly, she opened her eyes, exhaled in relief and gave him a short smile.
“Ready for part two?” Bleach asked smiling. Twilight frowned. “You ain´t absorbed a part of my energy yet?” “Nope.” he smiled even wider. Then, as fast as a wink, he put a hoof on Twilight´s chest and absorbed a small part of her magical energy. “Till now.” he sang and looked deep into her shining purple eyes. “Now, a part of yours is mine.”
The purple unicorn gave a thunderstruck gasp when he suddenly put his hoof on her chest. She looked at him wide-eyed and instantly found herself lost in two deep blue oceans which were his eyes. She blushed and her heart fluttered. She felt it. He felt it. But it didn´t mind her. Even if there was a way to stop her heart fluttering and to hide her feelings, she wouldn´t go that way. She smiled sheepishly. Then, she also put her hoof on his chest, felt his heart beating. It beat a bit calmer than hers. Calmer, but also excited. “And now, a part of yours is mine.” she said softly and her words put her to the blush even more.
For a while, they just sat there, lost in each other’s eyes, feeling their hearts beating. If there weren´t the other students, the teacher or the lesson, Bleach possibly even would´ve leaned forward to flutter a small kiss on her cheek…or, maybe, her lips?..., he thought.
Both savored their short romantic moment, lost in each other’s eyes, feeling their hearts beating like never-ending ticking metronomes…
But then, a sudden touch on their necks broke the magic of the moment and brought them back to reality. “And now, a part of you two is mine!” a male voice sang gleeful. Bleach gave an annoyed sigh and rolled his eyes. Then he moved the foreign hoof off of his shoulder and faced its owner. “Oh, I hope I didn´t disturb you two!” the gray stallion said innocently. Lucien leaned over his desk, resting his head on his crossed forelegs, smiling a fake innocent smile. “I just was worried about you. You looked like you wanted to eat up each other with your eyes, so I brought you back to reality…”
Bleach snorted and turned back to his desk. Twilight just looked away, trying to hide her blush, but that didn´t help her very much. Some of the other students whispered secretly and giggled softly. He grimaced upset and covered his face with his mane to hide his own blush. He couldn´t help, but he loved her to death. And now, the whole school would talk about the Auraknight and the Princess´ personal student; fell in love with each other! Normally, he didn´t care about such scuttlebutt, but, in a way, it was simply annoying.
He shook his head and turned back to the lesson. Twilight did the same. They put their hooves on the crystals in front of them and made the last step of the exercise.
No one of both of them used the energy they absorbed from their partner to lead it into the crystal…
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Today, it was a short school day for the duo. Twilight and Bleach had only one lesson after lunch break, so their school finished at half past one. Side by side, they left the school building and headed for the garden. It was a beautiful sunny day and the possibilities, how to spend the afternoon, were endlessly. Twilight sighed with pleasure and enjoyed the warm sun shining down on her face.
“So…what do we want to do?” she asked. Bleach stopped and raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?” Twilight turned back, faced him and frowned. “Don´t you want to spend the afternoon with me?” she asked with a touch of chagrin. “I thought, maybe, we could do something…together…” Now, he noticed his faux pas. “Oh!...No, no…I mean…Yeah, I would love to do something with you, but…” “But?...” He sighed. “I can´t…” “You can´t?” she frowned. He nodded. “Yes, I can´t. Today is Tuesday. And Tuesdays, I always have a combat training-section, remember?” She sighed in disappointment. “Yeah, I remember, but…can´t you skip it just this once?” He shook his head. “I´m sorry, but no, I can´t do that. My father would kill me!” Now, she was downcast. Bleach saw it and made a decision.
“Hey, don´t be down in the mouth! I want to ask you something.” She gave him a questioning look. “What do you want to know?” First he said nothing. After a while, he asked: “Can you…keep something for me?” “Yeah, sure.” she nodded. “What is it?” “But you have to give it back to me, okay?” he asked another question. “Promised!” she said smiling. “You don´t have to ask such…” she grew stiff by a sudden touch on her cheek.
Bleach quickly had leaned forward and planted a small kiss on her cheek. He took a step back and smiled wide. She blushed, right up to the ears, more than ever before in his presence. “Don´t forget to give it back…” he whispered in her ear, turned around and left for his training. He couldn´t believe he really did that! But he didn´t regret it. Not for anything in the world!
Twilight left speechless. Taken aback, she just stood there, blushing and gazing after him trotting away. Was this real? Was this a dream? No, it wasn´t a dream! She still felt the touch of his lips on her cheek. She put a hoof on her cheek and smiled. Don´t worry! You WILL get it back! Definitely!, she thought.
“TWILIGHT SPARKLE! How DARE you!” a voice behind her shouted and broke her rigidity. She frowned and turned around to face a sternly looking silver-coated mare. “How dare you to fall in love with Bleach without telling me instantly via Best-Friends-Mind-Network!” Twilight giggled. “I guess you heard about this morning?” Silverleaf didn´t answer but put one hoof on Twilight´s chest and looked deep in her eyes with an artificial longing look. “Oh Twilight Sparkle!” she said spurious highly dramatically. “My love for you is so deep! So ardent! Can´t you see it in my ocean-eyes? I swear it to myself, if there weren´t the other students, the teacher and this lesson, I would kiss you instantly, would lay down with you, kissing, snuggling, so tenderly, so passionately! And I would make love to you right here! It´d be so wild, so passionately, so…” “O…kay…” Twilight interrupted her smirking. “Now you´re overegging the pudding, Silv…” The green-maned mare just giggled. “You should be thankful I didn´t use the word I first had in mind.” she said and formed her lips to a silent ‘F’. Both giggled.
“But seriously now, I´m glad to see you found a way to make a first step. Just as I said: Where there´s love, there´s a way.” She smiled even wider. “And soon, you´ll be an expectant mother.” “Now, you are really overexaggerating!” Twilight laughed. “But mentioning that…” she said and came a bit closer to Silverleaf, whispering: “We have to talk…”
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He avoided the attack in the last nick of time. Only one second later the tip of a dagger cut the air where his heart was before. One single black long hair slowly felled to the ground. He breathed heavily. That was close!
“You´re absent-minded.” the deep bass voice of a stallion said smiling. The two fighters on one of the wide green meadows of the big school garden parted. The voice´s owner was a big white stallion with a short dark blue mane. He wore a black surcoat with a yellow sun at the height of his heart – the sign of princess Celestia. Around his hip was a black belt with two sheaths for the two daggers he held in his hooves. He stood there on his hind legs, crossing his forelegs and looking sternly at the other stallion.
Bleach wore the same uniform as his father, but his one was white – the sign of an Auraknight-trainee. “I am not absent-minded!” he returned. His father just laughed and put his daggers back in their sheaths. “You assaulted me in such a stupid way! First you broke your protect-spell, and then you attacked me frontal without any attention to your defense and opened it like an amateur! First I thought, it would be a whizzy trap, but then…” he shook his head. Bleach also put his daggers away. “But I´m…” “Anyway…” his father interrupted him, “…you´re now nineteen years old and I know you exactly just as long. Do you really think, I wouldn´t recognize it when there´s something on your mind?”
“Can we go on now?” Bleach asked impatiently. “No.” his father simply replied. “It´s useless to train with you while you´re not concentrated. Anyway, your combat skills are way better than mine, we both know that. There´s nothing I could tell you, you wouldn´t know yet. Sit down and let´s talk. The morale is as important for an Auraknight as the physical performance.” With these words, he and Bleach sat down. “And now, tell me. What is on your mind?”
“Twilight Sparkle…” he said honestly after a while, blushing slightly.
“Ah! A filly!” his father said slowly and smiled wise. “You knew it, right?” His father nodded. “You know Antinod, that old chatterbox. He told us this morning about your exercise.” he winked. Bleach just snorted. “Means: Every teacher at this school is informed now!” “Don´t mind them. I´m only asking me: Why didn´t you skip my lesson? Today´s such a beautiful day! Wouldn´t you prefer to spend it with her than with your old man?” Bleach looked at him wide-eyed. “You would´ve killed me if I didn´t appear!” “But you could´ve asked me to postpone the lesson.” he replied. “I once was young too, you know? I would´ve comprehend it.” Bleach just nodded and looked to the ground.
”Anyway, I hope you won´t blame me if I say it, but I think Twilight is a good cohabitant for you. She´s kind, intelligent and, don´t blame me again that I say it, very good-looking. You two would be a handsome couple, there the teachers sing from the same hymn sheet.” “Dad!” Bleach laughed and blushed even more.
“Well, how´s Silverleaf doing?” he changed the topic. “I haven´t seen her for a long time.” Now, Bleach frowned. “Didn´t her class had PE with you this morning?” His father nodded. “Yes, they had. But, she excused herself. Something with her family.” he shrugged. Bleach raised an eyebrow. “But there was nothing with her family. Sure as death!” “Then why did she skip the lesson? That makes no sense, Silverleaf loves PE…”
Now Bleach smiled wide. “Well, Twi and I could only guess, but we think we know, what´s up with her. We already noticed that she´s a bit…different since her vacation.” “And what do you think is up with her, if you don´t mind my asking?” He smiled even wider. “OK, I´ll tell you. But you have to keep it secretly!” “Promised.” his father nodded. “Okay, listen carefully.” Bleach lowered his voice to whisper.
“We think, Silverleaf…”
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“Now: What did you want to talk about?”
The last two hours, Twilight and Silverleaf had spent with a homework the silvery mare had had. A short tract about the mode of action of the Magical-Filtration-Principle. For Twilight it had been simple to understand. But explaining it to Silverleaf had been time-consuming…extremely time-consuming…
After their two-hours-sojourn, they finally had left the library and had been heading for the canteen. Silverleaf had been hungry and Twilight had had no objections against a small cup of coffee. “I can´t begin to tell you how sick I am of this library, now! Even my flowers couldn´t veneer this mass of books!” Silverleaf had complained. Twilight only had smiled as reply. For her, there was no ‘too much books’.
Now, they both sat in the great white marbled and empty canteen, a cup of coffee in front of Twilight and a rose-sandwich in front of Silverleaf. The most of the students were out in the city or the school garden to enjoy the sunny day. Through the big window of the canteen, they saw everywhere ponies picnicking, playing badminton or just laying in the grass and savoring the warm sun.
“Oh, nothing very important.” Twilight replied to the silver mares´ question. “I just wanted to ask you how your vacation trip to the southern coast was like. You wrote this beautiful postcard with the ‘beach-at-full-moon'-motive, remember? Looked like a nice place to relax.” Now Silverleaf smiled. “Oh yeah, it was really a beautiful location! We had very lots of fun! Diving, paragliding, soaring, it was simply stunning what you could do there! We had a wonderful small vacation cottage near the beach with everything the heart could wish for: balcony with ocean view, a big clean bathroom, a nice kitchen and, the most important, a very comfortable, smoothly as silk, big bed.” she said with a wink and took a bite of her sandwich.
Twilight giggled and took a sip of her coffee before she asked another question. “Mentioning that…how´s Nevio doing?” Nevio was Silverleaf´s coltfriend since…well, since a very long while, yet. He was a gentle dark brown earthpony with a shoulder-length black mane. Silverleaf met him the first time at a tennis competition and shaded the game. After that, they met more and more often and finally felled in love with each other. “Oh, he is doing very well. At the moment, he´s in Manehatten with his family, but he´ll come back tomorrow. I´m going to meet him at the station, so you and Bleach have to…entertain yourself.” she said and winked once more. The purple mare blushed and toyed with her cup absently.
Silverleaf giggled. “You two would be a handsome couple, do you know that? Everypony thinks so, maybe excluded Lucien, but don´t mind him.” “Yeah, I know…” she just replied. The silver unicorn frowned. “There is something on your mind. And it´s not Bleach.” she guessed. Twilight smiled. “You know me way too good.” “You can talk with me about everything, you know? I am your best friend.” “Yeah, I know…” she said.
She took another sip of her coffee. “Silv, can I ask you something?” she asked after a while. “Everything you want, Twi. Don´t hold back!” “Well then. I want to ask you…Are the rumors true?” Silverleaf snorted. “Rumors, shrumors…what is it this time?” “Well, rumors came up that…” she leaned forward and whispered it in her ear…
After that, Silverleaf was wide-eyed. Very wide-eyed. And slightly trembling. “I guess it´s true?” Twilight asked, rising an eyebrow. “Who. Told. You. That?” she asked, fighting not to lose her temper. Now, the purple unicorn smiled a winning smile. Silverleaf understood and exhaled her frustration. “You…guessed, right?” “I wouldn´t call it ‘guess’.” she smiled. “Druther ‘construing the clues’…” “But…”
“First clue…” she interrupted her. “…our trip to the spa yesterday. You remember your slip of the tongue? You definitely wanted to say, that you can´t go out for a tennis or volleyball match at your current condition, right?” “But…” “Second clue: You want to go more often to a spa? You of all ponies want to go to a spa? You, our sport fan? A little bit strange, don´t you think?” “But…” “And now, the third clue…” she said and pointed at the sandwich in front of Silverleaf, “That´s your third sandwich in the last hour! You never ate that much!”
The green-maned mare was trembling. “You…you…EGGHEAD!” she said and didn´t know, if she should laugh or smack her for her exorbitant intellect.
“And the fourth clue…” a soft voice broke the short silence and both mares turned to the entrance. “You skipped PE this morning! That with your family was such a stupid excuse! A doctors´ appointment I maybe would´ve bought from you. But that was simply ridiculous!” Silverleaf narrowed. “Yeah, you two are really fitting each other like a hand in a glove!” she said sarcastically. “The egghead and the exceptionally clever battlemage! I could write a whole book series about that!” Twilight and Bleach laughed and also Silverleaf joined.
“How did you know, where we are?” Twilight asked the Auraknight. “Didn´t know it.” he said honestly. “I just wanted to buy a cake. I was a bit hungry. And then, I heard you talking about the clues Twi and I discussed this morning.” “Aha…” “By the way…” Silverleaf interposed, “Shouldn´t you have your training right now?” Bleach smiled. “My father released me earlier today, because it´s such a beautiful day. Anyway, I´m a lil´ bit far ahead with my lessons. This one missed training wouldn´t kill me.” he explained.
“But back to topic now…” he continued and looked back to Silverleaf. “Congratulation! Both of you.” “Yeah, congratulation Silv!” Twilight joined smiling widely. A small tear appeared in Silverleaf´s smiling face. “Thank you two! Thank you very much.” Then, her gaze got a slight sad touch. “But this also means: Goodbye. Not yet, but soon. I´ll stay here at school till February. Then, I´ll open a small florist´s. I already found some interesting buildings here in Canterlot, but still…” “We´ll help you.” both said chorusing. “And before you say something against that: We´re your best friends! That goes without saying!” Twilight said smiling; using the words Silverleaf used the day before. She just nodded. “Thank you…”
Twilight smiled even wider and stretched out her right hoof. “For our friendship!” she said. Silverleaf giggled and also stretched her hoof, meeting Twilight´s in the middle. “For our hearts!” she said, remembering their old sign of their friendship. They both looked at Bleach, who was frowning. “Aren´t we a lil´ bit too old for that?” he asked. “Nah, come on!” Silverleaf said. “Don´t be such a spoiler!” He sighed, rolled his eyes and smiled. “Okay. But I do this just for you!” he said and stretched his hoof to meet the others in the middle. “For our souls!” he said.
“And our expectant mother!” Twilight and Bleach said chorusing and then, they all together lowered their still stretched hooves to the ground.
“From the ground…” they said together. Then, they raised their hooves over their heads.
“…our souls fly high!” And in a final step, they raised on their hind legs, turned around and stood back to back, their hooves still connected, and with a final “Together they´ll reach the sky!” they high-hoofed and sank back on their hooves.
After that, they never did it as a trio again…
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