//------------------------------// // Chapter the Twenty-Third // Story: Guide You Home // by Magical Trevor //------------------------------// Moonstone and Starlight both flinched as a large manor suddenly appeared in front of them, appearing quite dark and ominous in the gloom. As they gasped for breath, Moonstone looked at Twilight in amazement, knowing that a spell like that must have taken a lot of magic to accomplish, but she was fine, standing firm. “I have got to learn more spells,” Moonstone promised to himself. “You’ll have time for that later, once you’ve built your Ether levels back up,” Twilight lectured, taking a moment to gather her bearings. “Right now you’d be doing well to levitate more than your own body weight, so don’t go pushing yourself without proper supervision, got it?” “No, not really,” Moonstone answered, confused. “Supervision? How do you supervise magic?” Twilight blinked, opening her mouth, but was interrupted by the front door opening with a bang, Milky Way and Hot Streak jumping out of the dark house screaming, “Surprise!” Moonstone, still not used to his new, lower Ether levels, only caused himself a minor headache as his horn began to glow, then faltered, cutting out. Starlight jumped only slightly, a testament to the length of exposure she had to her younger, more energetic, sister and her antics. “Is you surprised? We did our best to, to surprise you, cause you was just standin there, instead of comin’ in like you was supposed to, so me an Streaky thought to ourselves, and we thought that, that you might have known that this was a surprise party, so then you wouldn’t get surprised when we tried to surprise you, so we thought that, that if we came to surprise you before you were supposed to be surprised, you’d be surprised for sure, and so then we opened the door and jumped out to surprise you, and now we’re waiting to see if you’s surprised!” Milly said in one breath, looking eagerly from pony to pony. “So... Is you surpriseded? ‘Cause I dun think that it’s gonna work if we try a second time...” Looking at the other ponies, Star nodded to her sister, smiling slightly. “I would say it’s safe to say that, yes, you surprised them, Milly.” *Bang!* “Augh!” Everypony jumped into the air as a cannon shot from behind them, in the field of the manor. “Surprise!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, bouncing forward excitedly from behind three large party cannons that had all been fired at once. “Holey moley foaly! That worked out even better than I thought it would! I thought you wouldn’t be surprised, because Milly surprised you guys, and then you’d already be all surprised out, or that you’d turn around and see my cannons, but Milly did a great job distracting you, and so now we can have the party outside, since the inside is still a little spookyish, and-” “Er, yes, thanks for that, Pinkie dear, but I do think that you could have given Twilight and I a warning of some kind, to say the least,” Rarity said, doing her best to gasp for oxygen more discreetly than her friends. “Aw, come on, Rares, y’all enjoyed it an ya know it!” Applejack snickered, nudging her friend as she came from the house. “Heck yeah! ‘Sides, you shoulda seen the looks on your faces!” Rainbow Dash chortled, carrying a large bowl of punch to the table. “Yeah!” Alto said as she levitated several large tables outside through the doorway. “You guys were like-” Green fire engulfed Alto for less than a second, revealing a pristine copy of Rarity, leaving the newcomers gaping. ‘Rarity’ then gave a faint shriek as she practically hovered in the air, her mane becoming frizzled as she landed, her eyes wide open, though that changed as her right eye started to twitch ever so slightly. “I do not look that frazzled!” Rarity objected, narrowing her eyes as a hoof stomped the ground. “I demand that you correct your appearance at once to one befitting of a lady such as... Wait, what?” “Another changeling?” Moonstone asked, blinking as he glanced to Twilight. “Wow, Equestria sure is popular for-” “A changeling! Everypony run!” Moonstone blinked as three mares appeared out of seemingly nowhere and started screaming bloody murder. As other ponies started to panic, Twilight sighed, her face greeting her forehoof quite eagerly. “Ugh, I swear, those three...” Taking a deep breath, Twilight’s horn lit with a lavender aura, and then began to speak. “Alright everypony, quiet down!” Everyone froze as they stared at the lavender alicorn yelling at them with the Royal Canterlot Voice. Several ponies fell over on their faces, as they had frozen in mid-step. Twilight, lavender unicorn, librarian of Great Oaks Library, and all-around causer, then subsequent savior, of Ponyville catastrophes, had wings. In the brief silence that followed Twilight’s exclamation, Daisy shouted, “Twilight’s a Princess?!” Changeling completely forgotten, everypony quickly bowed, much to Twilight’s annoyance. “Everypony cut it out! I’m not a princess!” “It’s a trick!” Lily hissed to everypony else, staying bowed. “Don’t listen! She’s trying to figure out who’s not a real, loyal Equestrian to weed out the other changelings!” “Yeah, because other changelings would totally ignore what you just said,” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes. Alto looked around, then changed back to her natural form, inquiring, “Did I do something wrong?” Rarity shrieked, jumping into the air before rushing the changeling, eyes wide with horror. “Oh my stars! What have you been doing to your mane? It’s atrocious! No, no-no, absolutely not! You can not continue to treat your hair this way!” “Treat it what way?” Alto asked, confused. “Umm, your... I mean, er, Twilight?” Roseluck asked, confused. “What’s going on? Why aren’t you capturing the changeling? How did you and your friends get wings? Did you or Celestia figure out a new spell or something?” “Er, not quite,” Twilight laughed, her eyes shifting side to side as she lightly tapped her forehooves together. “There may or may not have been some, ah, shall we say, unexpected side effects to the Elements of Harmony?” Roseluck blinked, opening her mouth, but then she paused for a moment as she, as well as the rest of Ponyville, watched as Rarity, with wings, was berating Alto about proper mane care. Alto appeared a bit shell-shocked, but nodded along with Rarity, trying to take notes as Rarity ranted about the difference between conditioners with aloe and conditioners without. “Oh. Right, changelings. Um, this is going to sound crazy, but uh, turns out that the whole invasion thing was just a joke that Princess Celestia played on her niece to help make the wedding more... how did she put it...” “‘Formal events at Canterlot are always really boring, right? So we called up my girl Chrysalis to make things more memorable!’” Moonstone said, speaking up from a nearby refreshment table, prodding at a muffin slowly with his hoof. Roseluck blinked, mouth opening and closing several times before she found her voice. “I... guess that makes sense... So who’re the new ponies?” Pinkie Pie started the party proper, doing her best with the other Elements to calm down the residents of Ponyville. Due to the recurrence of catastrophes in Ponyville, it wasn’t long before the ponies were laughing and having fun once more. Milky Way bounced forward, eager to meet new ponies like her new bestest best friend Pinkie Pie. “Hai! I’s Milly, and that’s my sissy Star, and that bees Mister Moony! He bees really good at, at magics,” the little filly said authoritatively, nodding several times as she finished. “Oh, well, it’s very nice to me-wahaahh! W-what the heck is wrong with your eyes?!” Roseluck exclaimed, jumping back from Moonstone. She blushed from her outburst, but was still too shocked to really apologise. “Woah, cool!” Moonstone suddenly found his personal space invaded as a grey pegasus mare hovered in front of him. “Err, can I-” “How did you get your eyes different colors? Did you do it with a spell? Does it let you see in the dark? Could you show me?” Blinking several times, Moonstone replied slowly, “Uh, kinda? I was cursed.” The pegasus’ brow furrowed as one of her eyes began moving on its own. “What kind of curse? What color were your eyes originally?” “I don’t know,” Moonstone said, shrugging his wings unintentionally. After wrestling a wing back into position at his side, he huffed, “I’ve had red eye for as long as I can remember, but guess they were silver before. Why?” “Nevermind,” the mare replied, wings drooping to the ground as she trotted off with a muffin. “So, if the wing thing was an ‘Element’ thing,” Roseluck asked, scratching the back of her mane, “then why does, um, Moony? Why does Moony have wings too? Is he an alicorn, or...” “No, it-” Twilight stopped herself, sighing heavily. “It’s complicated, okay? Yeah, he got wings, but his Ether levels are practically a joke now. He has the knowledge to cast the spells, but not the power.” “Ether? What’s that?” Roseluck, to her credit, only twitched slightly as the ‘newly’ discovered resident changeling walked forward, her wings buzzing. Twilight answered instantly, her closed eyes indicating recital from rote memory. “Ether is the term that has been given to the energies of this world that we know and manipulate as ‘magic’. Ether Level is how we determine how much Ether it takes to complete a certain spell or job. It-” “We don’t use Ether,” Alto interrupted, tilting her head. “Wh... What?” “Yeah, we use love, not... whatever you’re talking about,” Alto said, before stuffing a bright blue cupcake in her mouth. As the changeling hummed in apparent satisfaction, Twilight’s eyes widened. “Wait, you mean to tell me that... Wait, why are you eating if you need love to survive?” “Huh? No, no, no, that’s not... Is that what you ponies think?” Alto asked, interested. “I guess so,” Moonstone answered, taking a bite of cupcake. “I know better, but I guess not everypony has had the chance to visit a hive.” “Would you be interested in answering a few questions?” Alto and Twilight asked each other at the same time, both wide-eyed with excitement. Milly blinked as the changeling and alicorn both bounded off eagerly, confusion written across her muzzle. “They, they’s kinda weird...” Rainbow Dash, having been snacking at the food table nearby, swallowed before chuckling, “Yeah they are, kid. That’s egg-heads for ya.”