Meanwhile, back in Ponyville, Lyra came back to her house after doing her latest performance, seeing Bon-Bon sitting bored at the counter, reading a book.
"Slow day?" asked Lyra. Bon-Bon nodded.
"Yeah, hardly anypony's come in today. Sometimes I blame Sugar Cube Corner for this."
"Hey, don't say that, sure Sugar Cube Corner has better tasting sweets but that's just because Pinkie works there. Besides everypony knows you give out goods for much cheaper."
"Yeah, I guess. Although that reminds me, you have been spending a lot of time with Cyber, why is that?"
"Oh, uh... you know, he's a misfit, he needs comfort and help."
"I've seen Cyber a few times over the past few days, he doesn't seem like the kind who needs help, more like the kind who gives help."
"Well, Cyber's just a good friend that's all."
"I can tell, so where is he now?"
"He's at Canterlot with the other Misfits, apparently the Princess needs him for something."
"Hm, you know I haven't met those misfits before, maybe you could show me them."
"That's a great idea! I'll bring them here once they get back," Lyra said as as she trotted up to her room and began to practice on her lyre, though something was off... no matter what she always thought about Cyber, she didn't know if it was his arms or how intelligent he is, or if it was just him in general, but he always seemed to understand her, just like the other misfits... probably just her.
Okay, now she was bored. With a sigh she put her lyre away and trotted downstairs, still no customers, and Bon-Bon was taking out her boredom by reading. So Lyra just left the store and trotted outside to see if she could find something to do.
"Alright, Eclipse, just stand there and I'll do the rest," Twilight said as she read over a scroll.
"Are you sure this will work?" asked Eclipse, nervous.
"Of course I'm sure," replied Twilight.
"Trust her," said Cyber. "She's an alicorn princess and the element of magic, don't worry."
"If you say so."
Twilight took a deep breath and concentrated. Shortly a beam of icy blue light erupted from Twilight's horn and hit Solar Eclipse, who felt surprisingly cold. But the feeling went away just as quickly as the spell. Eclipse nearly fell over from the effect.
"Um... did it work?" asked Mixy. Twilight responded by taking a scroll and placing it against Eclipse.
To everypony's surprise, nothing happened.
"It... it work!" Eclipse said happily. "Yeah! Yes!" Eclipse's victory was short lived by the scroll catching on fire, then was put out by Twilight. "Oh, nevermind."
"Actually, it did work, your body temperature is still too hot for the spell, but at least you can touch things without burning them, as long as you stay calm, that is."
"Oh, well thanks anyway, I guess."
"If we are done here, I suggest that we could do something else," said Moonlight.
"Let's just do whatever and meet up back at the castle at twelve," suggested Cyber. The other Misfits agreed and they all set off on their own way. Twilight decided to head over to the Canterlot library with Cyber and Eclipse, where they each had their fair share of reading.
"I still can't believe how much has happened while Moonlight and I were gone," said Eclipse. "You becoming a princess, Discord, Nightmare Moon, it's like I missed out on so much while on the sun," Twilight looked up from her book in awe.
"You were on the sun!? You have to tell me what that is like up there."
"Mostly hot, gassy, with a lot of radiation, nothing special, really."
"Oh."
"Still interesting nonetheless," said Cyber.
Eclipse looked up to see Twilight was reading a history book. "That book's wrong, you know."
"Excuse me? History books aren't wrong, they're never wrong."
"Unless it's about the great fire of Hoofington."
"What about it? Somepony did something wrong with their fireplace and then it burned down most of Hoofington, everypony knows that."
"But what everypony doesn't know is the real reason of the fire is because one pony got angry at his best friend's overprotective dad."
"What kind of cruel pony would do that?"
"Your looking at that kind of pony," Eclipse said.
Twilight was speechless, only managing to say, "oh, I'm sorry about that."
"It's alright, what's done is done. You know that is also my cutie mark story."
Cyber looked up from his book. "Really?"
"Yep, burned down most of Hoofington, then emerged from the ashes with a cutie mark," he pointed to his eclipsed sun cutie mark. "Although you don't know any pegasi named Breeze Blower, do you?"
Twilight shook her head. "No, why?"
"Uh, no reason," Eclipse replied and continued with his reading.
For the first time in Moonlight's life, she had no idea what she should do, where to go, or whether what she's feeling is depression or boredom. She pondered the possibilities until she heard the voice of two colts.
"Come on, Mittens! Come on down!" one of them called. Moonlight looked at the two foals, one of them was a bright yellow unicorn and the other was a violet blue earth pony, neither of them had a cutie mark yet and both were looking up at a tree where a large tabby cat lay stuck on a branch.
"He's not coming down, should we get somepony?" the unicorn asked.
"No! I can do it, hold on my mom said this is what they do at Sweet Apple Acres," the young earth pony turned around and lifted his hind legs, ready to buck at the tree, only to be distracted by the sight of Moonlight.
"Hi, miss!" the unicorn said. "We're trying to get this cat down, but we don't know how."
"Would you like me to help?" asked Moonlight.
"Sure!" said the earth pony, then stepped away from Moonlight to give her some room as she used her magic to grab the shadows of the tree and the colts, then clumped them all together to make a large rising pillar.
The sight of their shadows being taken made the foals flinch, and the sight of this made Moonlight flinch. She was ready to put away the shadows and leave, but she was a misfit now, and she had to do what was right. With a sigh, Moonlight continued to raise the pillar until it, reached the cat, which hesitantly got on, then the pillar lowered into the ground as the cat stood there, until the feline hopped onto the earth pony's back.
"That was amazing, thank you!" the unicorn said as Moonlight put back the shadows. The earth pony looked at his shadow, then his friend's.
"Hey, that's my shadow!" the earth pony shouted.
"No, it's not!" the unicorn argued.
"Yes, it is!"
"No it's not!"
"Is too!"
"Is not!"
"Is too!" Moonlight watched the two argue as they trotted away. For the first time since she became a misfit, they didn't run away at the sight of her power. It was probably just something colts do at a young age.
Marine swam happily through the waters, without a care in the world. She knew it was only a matter of time before she could see her best friend, Fang again. Makes her almost wish that she came with him, but alas, she couldn't even if she tried, she would merely suffocate from the air that the surface brought, it was her only barrier from exploring it, where she wouldn't have to worry about getting her finned tail caught in seaweed or sitting around being bored, sure she was a princess with all the privileges a hippocampus like herself could only dream about.
The aquamarine hippocampus continued to swim about, letting her sapphire mane flap as she kept looking at the surface and wishing she could at least go to the predator village without starting to suffocate, but Marine always wanted to try new things, which is probably why her cutie mark was a clam, opening up to reveal a pearl inside. The closest she ever got to meeting somepony on the surface was those pegsi she talked to that morning, but they said some very interesting things, like about how there were with horns, and other princesses like herself, that only made Marine want to go to the surface more, she just wished she could be part of that world so to speak.
That was when she heard her dad calling her, quickly she swam toward the palace through the city where she met her dad, King Trident. Her mom, Amphitrite. Her older brother, Aquarius. And her younger brother, Oceanus. All at the dinner table as they ate lunch. Marine looked at her father, the old hippocampus with royal blue coat and dark blue mane, eyes, and goatee, along with a trident cutie mark that was just above his tail, which acted as the lower half of his body like most hippocampi instead of the hind legs that surface dwellers had.
"So, Dad," Marine said. "What's going on with the pegasi?"
"They left to talk with their princess, but they will return once they have news."
Aquarius lit up with excitement. "Are you saying we don't have to share our food with the predators anymore?" the prince asked. His coat a bright sky blue and his mane sapphire, much like his sister's but a darker shade, with a cutie mark of piranha jaws.
"Not exacly, Aquarius," said the baby blue with indigo maned hippocampus queen that was his mom. "We're still sharing our food, just until things get sorted out, we still have to ration our food," Amphitrite looked at him with her calming, blue-green eyes.
"Alright," said Aquarius before returning to his fish.
"Marine?" Marine turned her attention to her little brother, who looked at her with large, baby blue eyes. "When will Fang be back?" Oceanus asked, Marine looked at the blue hippocampus who had a mixture of dark and light blue in his mane and was still too young to have a cutie mark.
"Soon, Oceanus, soon enough," Marine answered, she remembered how much her brothers played with Fang. Playing several games like hide-and-seek, catch the flag, and even ring toss on occasion, so they were both as happy about Fang's family coming back as much as she was.
Mirror Shard started tending to the crops while his wife was inside cleaning. Things have been slightly difficult since they started a farm, if you're a changeling hiding from civilization, what else could you do? Besides, farm work is rather calming, even for a changeling. Although it is very quiet since his daughter left with that Cyber stallion, almost makes him wonder how things are for them.
The silence was broken by an almost hissing voice Mirror Shard thought and wished he'd never hear again.
"Vibrant Echo?" it said. "Is that you? We thought we'd never see you again, it's been too long." Mirror Shard looked at the changelings behind him, and unfortunately remembered the name, even though changelings looked similar, they could tell each other apart.
"But not long enough, Ambush," said Mirror Shard, with a stern face. "And that's not my name anymore, I go by Mirror Shard now."
"Your voice has lost its tone, are you alright?" asked the changeling known as Noxus.
"I've never been better, Noxus."
"If that is so, why are you still here, living with these ponies instead of Chrysalis?"
"Because I don't belong with Chrysalis."
"Nonsense, you simply got lost, we'll take you back, Echo," said the last changeling that was named Bestial Aura.
Mirror Shard pointed his plow at his former colleagues. "You won't be taking me anywhere, and my name is Mirror Shard!"
"What has gotten into you, Echo? Have you been feeding on enough love?"
"It's Mirror Shard! And yes, I'm feeding off love, I'm feeding off my own love that I have for my family," that made the changelings hiss.
"You actually fell in love with a pony?" Ambush exclaimed
"Yes, that's right, I fell in love with a pony and I'm glad I did! Now I'm happily married with a wife and daughter, and just so you know she really is my own flesh and blood, not adopted," the changelings hissed again. "Oh, shut up!"
"You... you are a traitor!" said Aura.
"You don't deserve to be part of the hive," said Noxus.
"Yeah, I'm a traitor, I'm a traitor and I like it, so now you can head back to that cesspool you call a hive and tell your retched Chrysalis that I am no longer serving her! And furthermore, if she or any one of you so much as transforms into my beloved wife or daughter, I will personally hunt you down to the far reaches of Equestria and tear you apart limb from limb, do I make myself clear?"
The changelings looked at each other before Ambush said, "You will pay for this," and they flew away.
"I'd like to see you try!" shouted Mirror Shard, waving his hoof angrily.
He heard Dandelion Meadow's voice from inside the house. "Honey? Is something wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing, dear!" he called out. "I just had to get rid of some 'unwanted guests'," then he returned to his farm work, as if nothing happened.
Fang, Dusty, and Mixy couldn't figure out what to do for the next fifteen minutes, so they just played 20 questions to pass the time.
"Alright, are you thinking of a food?" asked Dusty, Fang nodded.
"Is it made of meat?" asked Mixy, once again, Fang nodded.
"Is it bacon?"
"Shoot!" Fang said.
"Next time, don't pick something so obvious. Alright, my turn," said Dusty.
"Are you thinking of a food?" asked Mixy, but Dusty shook his head.
"Is it alive?" asked Fang, this time Dusty nodded.
"Is it a plant?" again, a nod.
"Does it have wood?" Dusty shook his head.
"Can you get hurt from it?" Mixy asked. Dusty nodded.
"Is it a venus flytrap?" Fang asked Dusty shook his head.
"Is it a cactus?"
"That's it!"
"Well that wasn't as fun as I thought," said Fang.
"How about wack-a-mole?" Mixy suggested.
"Not after what happened last time," Dusty said. "How about we go see what Fang can sniff up in trash cans."
"That idea seems worse than it sounds," Fang said. "You wanna go see what Twilight's doing?"
Mixy and Dusty shrugged. "Sure."
Celestia and Luna awaited the Misfits to come back for lunch, passing the time by talking.
"So, is it true that the fireplace was Solar Eclipse's favorite playing spot as a colt?" asked Luna. Celestia nodded.
"Oh, very much, at a young age he would toss around the ashes before rolling around in them, he especially loved it when it was already lit."
"So, he played in the fire?"
"Precisely, you should have seen the looks on the nursemares' faces when we first found out, one said he crawled there before another said it was already lit, then after a slight panic we found him inside the flames, giggling happily."
"Sounds like Eclipse had a fun foalhood."
"Yes, although he loved burning things. Usually if he saw something that looked flammable, next thing you know it's on fire, though his temper made things extremely hard when he is deprived of things he wants, it's the same reason why this castle is protected from any kind of fire."
"I wish things were similar when I met Moonlight Shadow, she was already a young mare when I saw her, and she ran away. But I caught up with her and she let me take her, claiming I'll 'leave her like all the rest.' Of course I didn't, but when she found out about what alicorn magic could do, her instant request was to take her someplace where she can be alone. I didn't want to do it, but she insisted and wouldn't back down."
"I understand, sister, sending Eclipse to the sun was one of the hardest things I have ever done, he was like a son to me, and I think he thought of me as his mother, until I had to send him," Celestia replied with sympathy. "Though that reminds me, have you ever seen Moonlight's cutie mark, or even what kind of pony she is?"
Luna thought for a moment. "No, I have not, she was always too depressed or shy to let anypony see."
"And it was that depression and Eclipse's temper that made me worry."
"But they seem happy now," Luna said.
Celestia smiled. "That they do, sister. That they do. Makes me wonder if Moonlight will ever show her true self."
"She will, just give her time. All she needs are true friends to encourage her."