Chapter 13
Once they arrived at the castle, the attendants were quick to take everyone’s things and prepare to settle them in. Many of the maids took an extra moment to greet the twins and tell them that they dearly loved their mother and what kind of a pony she had been, as well as offer their condolences. However, once there, Quill then said, “Um, if it’s all the same to you, your highness, we’d like to go out and find some good busking spots.”
The servants looked at each other oddly about that term, and Twilight said, “They mean they want to find good places where they can stand out and play for donations for people that pass them by.”
Celestia also knew what that meant and asked, “Whatever for?”
“We have to pay for all this,” answered Quill, “I mean, you’re putting us up and all until we have a home built and we understand our magic…whatever that might turn out to be…and we have to earn our keep. Either that, or show us how we can do work about the castle.”
All the servants looked back and forth at one another, and then broke out into laughter at the notion of them having to pay to stay there, especially considering who their mother had been to them and to the princesses. Celestia also laughed and said, “Oh that will not be a problem, my little ponies, because I consider you my guests. Due to the service your mother gave us all her life, nothing shall be held back from you two. Make yourselves at home.”
“Well, we still need to start earning money,” added Downy, “I mean, I don’t think there is a conversion rate here from dollars to…whatever your currency is here.”
Some looked askance and said, “What’s a ‘dollar’?”
“It is the name of their main currency from the land they hailed before coming here,” answered Twilight, “It used to be one ounce of silver per dollar, but it is now worth what it is valued on their open market compared to other currencies.”
The servants, lost on most of that, just shrugged, and Downy added, “Besides, we guessed our money would not work here, so what we had left we just gave away. So, we need to earn some money.”
“Well, just to give you a feel for the worth of our money,” said Twilight, “We call it ‘bits’, and each bit here is worth anywhere between two and three of your dollars. That way, you can know if someone is trying to pull something on you, say, overcharging you because you are strangers or something. It is much better now than what it was. At one time, bits were just a small part of something called jangles. A jangle was about one pound of silver, and you could get 240 bits of silver out of that, so it was called the bit. 12 bits made up a shoe, and 20 shoes a jangle. It could get confusing to someone who wasn’t used to the currency. Yet, often, unless you were buying something expensive, you never saw jangles used as often as bits. Besides, Celestia wanted to simplify the system, so, a long time ago, she decided just to make bits the currency. Each bit is about a third of an ounce of silver, so that should help.”
Celestia cut in before Twilight went into the whole history of money in Equestria and said, “In any case, your mother had a sizeable pension gathered up, as well as money your father left her when he passed. As a result, you two will not be hurting for money at all. I’ve taken the liberty to put it all into investments as a trust fund for you two. I’ve set it up so you can get an income off the interest. It will be enough for you two to live fairly comfortably for the rest of your lives, though you can supplement that if you wish.”
The pair was stunned, not realizing just how prepared they all were to receive them, and they gushed out thank you after thank you, and Celestia assured them it was her pleasure after the good care their mother had given them. She then said, “So, you two go ahead and settle in and get your rest. You’ll be up early tomorrow for some tutoring by Twilight.”
Moon Dancer then said, “Wait, I thought it was with me?”
“Oh, it is,” answered Celestia, “But it is going to be a full day with different subjects.”
“Yep,” said Twilight proudly, “I have it all scheduled out by my teacher’s aide, Spike!”
Spike held out what looked like a thick scroll, and the twins sighed, saying, “Out of school and into school again.”
“I’ve tutored before,” said Twilight, “But this is the first actual classroom setting I’ve done. I’ve read up on it, and I can’t wait to try some of what was in that book.”
Moon Dancer just stood behind Twilight and shrugged towards the twins. The twins were not sure if they liked where this was going.
It was just before Celestia raised the sun, and that was when an alarm clock set in the room went off, put there courtesy of Twilight to be sure the twins got up on schedule. However, Quill smashed the snooze button down with his hoof, groaned, and curled back up again. Five minutes later, a knock came loud on the door, followed by a muffled Twilight, saying, “Rise and shine, sleepyheads! We’ve much to do. We’re already five minutes behind. You can get you hygiene in and breakfast to make sure your minds are alert and chipper, and then class to follow.”
He looked over to Downy all bleary eyed and said, “I don’t recall joining the army!”
He half stepped, half fell out of bed with a noticeable thump, staggered towards the door, and opened it up to Twilight, who looked as if she had had two pots of coffee, not realizing that this was her normal state when she had an itinerary to keep. If looks could have killed, they may have been then speaking about the late Princess Twilight Sparkle! “Come on,” encouraged Twilight, “Let’s get freshened up and have a good breakfast.”
All he could say was, “The sun has sense enough not to be up yet!”
“Oh, that’s coming,” responded Twilight, “Celestia is about to raise it.”
Out of habit, the twins got on some bathrobes and went to the showers.
Despite the fact that clothing was optional to ponies, the bathing facilities were still not unisex. It was some kind of odd logic they had yet to figure out, but there it was. Once they took care of that, they went back to put something on. They still were not used to running around unclothed, though this was perfectly natural for the ponies, who must have thought the coats they already had were enough. Nonetheless, the pair indeed did share rooms growing up, but had never really watched each other dress, looking away as one and the other changed clothes or whatnot. In fact, they did this at first out of habit, but eventually just laughed, and Downy said, “Kind of doesn’t make any sense anymore, does it?”
“Even with Luna’s help, it still feels odd,” answered Quill.
Downy went for the door and opened it just as Twilight was about to knock. She swung her hoof through the air that once occupied the door and tumbled through. Spike, right behind here, let out a small laugh, to which Twilight just gave an annoyed glance, and said, “Come on! Breakfast is ready!”
They followed her as she began to chirp on about the classes they would be having: basic magic, history of Equestria, hippology, (which, in this world was their answer to anthropology,) and sociology, followed by Moon Dancer teaching about Bardic history, now having thoroughly made herself expert with the resources she had available. It was a full five class day, and it was to be followed by some study time, supper, and private music lessons with one Octavia, who was requested to come to assist the twins in learning how to play their instruments as unicorns. The twins, knowing the efforts to erase their existence that had been made, knew there was now no going back, but they both just pondered that into which they had gotten themselves.
They arrived at the School for Gifted Unicorns where Celestia had set aside a spare classroom for the task at hand, and it was clear that Twilight was excited to be doing this. The classroom was, of course, full of desks, but the front two were set up with plenty of paper for them to be taking notes, pencils, a few textbooks inside the desk they would need, and…crayons? The twins found this odd, but they also saw above the wall the alphabet in printed and handwritten form, (and in this case, mouth or levitation writing,) with plenty of flowers and smiley faces. They wondered if they were using an elementary school room, but then realized that the desks were just their size, and they wondered just what Twilight was thinking. After all, she had to have been the one to decorate the classroom, and now they were worried about the approach that Twilight was taking. They found it interesting they had stools to rest their hindquarters, but they would have to lean forward onto the desk to write, it being angled for that purpose. Indeed, they had evolved to meet their physical needs in this world, and it was just another of a slew of things to which they would have to become accustomed. It was then that Celestia and Luna entered the classroom to observe, and so that Celestia could remove their seals so they could learn how to control their magic. Moon Dancer was with the princesses, and just shook her head, fearing what was about to happen. It was not out of control magic she feared, it was Twilight’s anxiousness to do this class!
Twilight then began to lecture, and said, “Welcome to all my new and bright students, and I hope this school semester will be as enjoyable for you to learn as it is for me to teach you!”
She sported a bright smile, but the twins were just wide-eyed, wondering if the train had left the station in her head. Both Moon Dancer and Spike just face palmed, expecting this to go south at any moment. Twilight then said, “Okay, let’s get started. Let’s make sure we take lots of notes and pay close attention.”
Before they could take up their pencils into their mouths, Twilight started with a question: “Okay, so, can anyone guess as to how magic works for unicorns?”
She started to look around the room as if there was more than just those two attending, and saying, “Come now, does anypony want to guess?”
Quill sighed and raised his hoof, and Twilight then said, “Oh, okay, Quill…what is your guess?” as if he was somewhere in the middle of a room of students and surprised her with his response. Quill just looked at her blankly and said, “There’s only two of us, we’re not in kindergarten, and we’re not five years old.”
Spike let out a small guwaff, loving how blunt Quill had been, and Twilight just reacted as if she had been slapped, and then looked confused. She then said, “But, I don’t see what’s wrong? I mean, the book on classroom teaching was all about this. I did everything it suggested, exactly how it said…”
“Yeah,” said Spike, “The one you found on entry level teaching. I looked at it. ‘Entry level’ was the age group, not entry level for the teacher.”
Twilight groaned and said, “Don’t tell me I grabbed the wrong book!”
“How late up were you?” asked a concerned Downy, guessing what was happening.
“Oh, I got to bed about one in the morning,” she said, “There was a lot to go over.”
“Well, it’s understandable then,” she answered, “You were just tired, that’s all. I know you didn’t mean ill. In fact, thank you for taking such time to want to help.”
Twilight smiled at Downy, being thankful for her calming demeanor, thinking that this is what Fluttershy would be like if she was more assertive and open. Twilight sighed and then said, “Right then, I’ll just go ahead and lecture and answer any questions you may have.”
With that, she started her lecture on unicorn magic.
After about 10 minutes on the evolution of unicorn magic, (all of which both Moon Dancer and Spike wondered what this would aid in helping the twins get a handle on their own magical potential,) she finally got to the meat of things. “Now, when foals are born, it is common for random magic to hop out here or there. Usually it is manifested in simple things like wanting a favorite toy or another cookie or something like that. The mishaps that it causes are usually minor and not much to worry about. What is interesting is that, somewhere along the line, once the foal begins to have more sophisticated thoughts, comparably speaking, their access to magic is cut off. In a similar way that a foal, or any child of any being, has exponential growth at first, but then reaches a certain size to where a hormone radically slows the growth, so does the magic have something happen to cut off access to that magic. It can then later be reawakened through practice, but now in a way that it can be fully controlled by the unicorn.”
“Okay, I get that,” interrupted Quill, “But why was it important to seal our magic off in the way you did?”
“I was just getting to that,” she said sternly, as if a schoolmaster who was reacting to a student speaking out of line. Yet, she then saw the looks of the observers, (Luna chuckle, Celestia smile and shake her head, Spike and Moon Dancer just giving her a raised eyebrow,) she sighed and said, “Sorry,” and continued. “Well,” moving on, “In your case, it was unique. You two were really unicorns from the day of your birth, but as that portal does, anyone going through it comes out the other side as human. When that happened, any magic you had was cut off fully. However, it was not just you meeting Sunset and our human counterparts, it was when the magic potential that still rested in you contacted their magical connection to us and Sunset, being connected to your special talent—music—that caused the right components to awaken the magic in you. But, in that world, magic does as it wants and acts randomly when the conditions are right for it to manifest itself, and nopony really can make it happen or make it stop at will. However, because your magicks are directly connected to your musical talent, and because you had not had that significant change happen as it does to all foals, your magic was growing rapidly, and almost exponentially. Thus, whenever you used your music, it was going to appear, and powerfully. This is the main reason why we had to get you back. We have to get that under control so that, if you did want to go back, it would not be an issue. This is why things don’t happen to Sunset and I when we go, because we went through our foal-hood here.”
“Well then,” said Downy, “How are we going to do that?”
“Celestia and Moon Dancer have a theory about that,” said Twilight, “and we’re going to put that to the test. There is a room for practicing spells that, if something gets out of control, it won’t destroy everything around. It is specially reinforced to prevent mishaps. So, what we want to do is have you do something musical once we take off the seal and see what happens. What should happen is that that hormone will kick in and cut it off. From there, we can teach you how to control it. So, if you will follow me, we can give this a try.”
She trotted to the door and said, “Okay, students: single file line and let’s trot in an orderly fashion.”
Quill rolled his eyes, and Downy said, “Just humor her. She’ll get over it.”
They came to a chamber that had steel reinforced walls and wards on the outside to keep runaway spells from getting out of the room. Inside it was empty, but could have anything put into it depending on the spell and what was intended to be done. Since it was Celestia that put the seals on, she would go in with them to take them off, and then leave the room while things happened. She then said, “Try to empty your minds and keep them that way until the door has been closed and sealed. Moon Dancer will then give you instructions from there.”
They nodded and closed their eyes, going into that meditative state they had done earlier from their transcendental meditation that they had learned from their favorite foster parents. Celestia then removed the seals and quickly exited the room, Spike sealing the door shut tight. Moon Dancer looked down from the instructor’s booth, hit a switch, and said in to the microphone, “Okay, just try singing a song, maybe a ballad or something that would have good visuals.”
They nodded, and Downy said, “Whistling Gypsy Rover.”
They then began to sing the song and focus on the story. As they did, the room began to fill with the images of the Irish countryside, but because things had grown the way they had, the containment grid was having all it could to contain the magic going forth. Yet, just as they got to the second line in the verse, they both groaned, as if they had been hit with something, and they both passed out. Everyone gasped, wondering if their bodies had put out so much that it actually did more than shut off the magic, and actually turned off their brains! A call was made for the school physician to come down with stretchers, but also, (as Celestia shuddered to the thought of this having happened,) body bags, just in case. No time was lost in getting in there. Indeed, both were out cold, but it was seen they were still breathing, and they hoped that it was not as bad as it could now be.
Once in the infirmary, they were hooked up to a machine that read brain activity, and they now felt sick to their stomachs as they almost seemed flat lined. “No!” gasped Twilight, but the doctor said, “Now, don’t fret yet; if they are as out as I think them to be, then this is normal. We’ll just have to wait.”
After about ten minutes, the machines detected much more activity, and after another five, they began to revive, Downy saying, “Ooh, my head!”
Everyone sighed a huge gasp of relief, but the doctor then said, “We’ll observe them for about a half hour and get a blood sample from them. If what guess happened did, the hormones must have slammed shut the output that hit them like a ton of bricks. At the worst, they’ll have a bit of lingering pain for the rest of the day, but they’ll otherwise be fine. Goodness! That must have felt like getting punched by a heavyweight boxer.”
Everyone nodded and left the doctor to his work.
After about a half hour, the twins were doing much better, but still got some heavy aspirin to help deaden any pain. After a few more minutes, they were okay to return to class, but Quill asked the doctor, “What happened?”
“When you let go with that magic,” he said, “Because it had yet to happen to you, and due to the magnitude of what it would take to stop it, your bodies went into overdrive and flooded your heads with that hormone. You’re lucky; if that had hit you in the right way, we may have been talking about the two of you in the past tense. Still, it’s good things happened this way. Medical science can further their studies on magical development in young foals by what happened today.”
Celestia looked a bit said, saying, “I had no idea that was going to happen.”
Downy, however, said, “Please, don’t feel bad. No one knew what would happen. It had to happen anyway, but we just must have put too much into it, that’s all. Besides, no one is hurt, and everyone is okay.”
Celestia smiled, saying, “So much of your mother in you.”
Once back in class, the lesson continued in how unicorns learned spells, and then used them afterwards. It was part magic, and part mind power that made things work. It seems that, once a unicorn learned a spell and memorized it, he or she could just think of the spell title, focus, and things would happen. The more it was done, the more it became an almost instinctive action—an extension of the unicorn. The first spell that all unicorns learned was the levitation spell, making things do what you wanted by a mere act of will. “In this spell,” said Twilight, “It will become as if your horns become an extra appendage for you to manipulate things. What I am thinking is, since the two of you had hands at one point, then when using it, all you would have to do is picture using your hands to do things, and it should work. I mean, when I first visited your world, I learned how to use hands in a similar way that you learned how to use your hoofs. When I came back, I had memories of this, and I could actually move things a whole lot better. Now, right there in your textbooks are all the basic spells unicorns use every day. The first one, of course, is the one I just spoke about. Go ahead and read that.”
They both then read, “This thing before me, with though and skill; it shall move all by my will.”
“Excellent,” said Twilight, still with a touch of the elementary school feel to it, “Now, repeat it over and over again at least six times. If you do that at least six times for anything, you’ll more or less put it to rote memory. Other spells will take more to memorize, depending on how complicated it is. Give it a try.”
The twins nodded, did it about eight or nine times, and then she said, “Now, try to lift your pencils, focusing on that spell.”
They nodded, focused, and focused hard, and sparks started hopping around the tips of their horns, but nothing happened. They stopped, gasping a bit of air, as if they had just tried to lift something heavy. “Nopony gets it the first time,” assured Twilight, “Try again.”
They took a breath, and focused again. Celestia offered from the back, “Just relax and take deep breaths.”
They did as they were bidden, and now their horns started to glow. The pencils began to shift around a bit, but for Quill, it went up for a few moments, but then dropped to the desk. For Downy, however, the pencil shot forward and straight at Twilight, point first! She managed to cast a shield spell just in time and deflected the pencil into the bulletin board where it stuck like a dart! “Well,” said Twilight, “Not bad for the first time, but Quill, you must have let something distract you.”
“Yeah,” he said, “The fact I was making a pencil float!”
“And Downy,” said Twilight to her, “I think you might have put a touch too much oomph into it.”
She blushed a bit, but Twilight said, “Not bad, but let’s practice again.”
After about 20 minutes, they were starting to get the hang of it without reciting the spell, just having to think about what they wanted to move to have it happen. Twilight then said, “Okay, now take your pencils and try to write something.”
The pencils then went up and they began to scribble on paper. Quill managed to write his name, though it looked like the efforts of a kindergartener just learning how to write. Downy, however, decided to draw some things, drawing some butterflies, flowers, and peace symbols, though simple, and Twilight said, “Ooh, that’s good!” as a gold star sticker floated over and was stuck to the paper. Quill saw that, sighed, grumbled something unintelligible, and crossed his fore hoofs in a bit of frustration. Twilight then said, “Oops! Sorry, I…” but Downy raised a hoof and said, “Oh, it’s okay. I think it brings back some wonderful memories during our time with our favorite foster parents, and besides, he’s mad because I always got the gold stars and he didn’t.”
She giggled and grinned as she looked at him out of the corner of her eye, and he grumbled, “Nothing’s changed with you, has it?”
“Oh stop,” she said, “You got good grades, too.”
He rolled his eyes, sighed in concession, and grinned, saying, “That’s what I’ve loved about you, Sissy; you always doing well and pushing me to try to better you.”
“Well, somebod…somepony…has to keep you on your toes,” she teased, and he got that look in his eye, but she wagged a hoof before him and said, “Hold on, mister: no wrestling in class. Besides, you don’t want me to pin you and embarrass you before the royalty, do you.”
He tried to speak, looked at the back of the room, then back at her, grinned, and said, “Later…”
She smiled knowingly and went back to work. Everyone got a good laugh out of that, making them able to work.
As the day progressed, they learned a handful of spells, got a basic handle on pony culture, learned some history, and then learned some history on their heritage. Moon Dancer said, “I was able to get copied their special tome and history for you to read on your own. When it comes time to show you the magic involved, I am sure you’ll be able to see what traditions and practices will actually have a benefit to you. As I’ve said, both Celestia and I have figured that the extent that the ancient Bardics went to were mostly needless and caused them an exclusiveness that caused their eventual downfall. Look them over and we can discuss some of those things the next time we meet.”
Twilight then said, “As sort of a homework assignment, I’d like you two to do as much as you can with what you learned today and as little as you can physically. The more you do this, the better off you’ll be, and the faster you can not only learn all the basic stuff all unicorns know, but it should aid you in your area of specialty. All unicorns have their magicks focused on whatever their main talent is, and yours, obviously, is music.”
Moon Dancer then cut in and said, “Considering what the Bardics used music for, either as a way to entertain, or as a means to end conflicts without violence, there is going to be much to learn. I would figure most you will learn on your own, but if you do end up as some kind of vanguard of a new kind of Bardic, you two will have to become absolute masters of your craft.”
Quill looked a bit overwhelmed and said, “You say it like that’s an inevitability.”
“Well,” Celestia cut in, “At the very least, if you decide to stay, such things could benefit all ponies. The more we can fix things without fighting, the better off all ponies will be.”
“Okay, I can dig that,” said Downy, “Far out! Stopping war with a direct act of peace; who’d have thought it.”
“Groovy,” added Quill, “At the least, if we can bring peace to a few, then that would be cool.”
With that, class was dismissed, and they used the few hours they had between that and dinner to practice and study what they had learned.
As they did, Quill spent time looking at the tome on the practices of the Bardics, and he said, “This is all way out there. I’d say about 75% of what they have here is nonsense and useless when it comes to music.”
“What do you mean?” asked Downy, looking up from her own notes.
“Well, I mean, all of this was supposed to focus and hone musical skill, freeing one of anything that would take away from playing and singing,” he answered, “They felt it could get into one’s heart and taint their power. That’s a bunch of horse feathers! I mean, they get one thing right: music has to be from within. Yet, to think that all this stuff will help what comes from within to come out better is garbage. Music comes from the heart. Either you have the desire for it, or you don’t. If music is your life, nothing can get in your way.”
“What about the rest?” asked Downy.
“Well, it seems that they are more specialized things we would do to hone our own skills anyway,” he answered, “They have some use, but you know, from the history we’ve seen, it seems they did it for the most important reason: they loved what they did. Somewhere along the way, they must have forgotten this.”
“I think they started to think themselves more important than they ought to have, by the looks of it.”
“And to only wed and raise foals within themselves, accepting no outsiders with similar gifts, well, if there was dampening in skills, that has to have happened there.”
Downy set down her books, though about it, and then said, “You know, it’s like when you sit there and try to breed the perfect animal for whatever you want. If you do it too much to where keep it in a close circle, that actually stunts the development of those animals. I would think that, if they wanted to become better at what they did, they would have tried to include other unicorns that could do magic with music and branched out into other things, been more open, and been accepting of everyone…everypony. Ugh, I’ll get the hang of this one day.”
Quill started to pace a bit and think. He then said, “Remember what Twilight said about cutie marks, and then how Moon Dancer said that pure blood Bardics were born with the mark? Well, as far as I am concerned, that should never have happened.”
She looked at him oddly, not knowing where he was going with it, and then said, “I don’t get it. Why would that be a bad thing?”
“If getting that mark is what helps you find yourself,” answered Quill, “Then have you not robbed a pony of something special? It makes me wonder just how many of them were not really called to this work. These unicorns were crazy to not let things happen naturally. When you much about with Mother Nature, she has a nasty way of lashing back. It was karma, Sissy, it was karma. They became their own worst enemies. They tried to further themselves, but actually stagnated themselves in the process. Worse, could it have actually weakened them overall as to where that was the reason they ultimately could not stop Ponaeros?”
Downy looked as if the lights were turning on in her mind, and then she said, “But, we were born with those marks; how come it then seems that music was our destinies?”
“Who knows?” answered Quill, “It is what it is, I guess, so I guess it is just a benefit then that it turned out that way. Even though we were born as what they would have called full-blooded Bardics with all the traits, I think there should have been far more variety among us.
Downy pondered this further, and then said, with a touch of energy, as if things were coming together, “Wait… Then, what we’re saying is that a true Bardic should not have been a…well…racial thing, for the lack of a better term, and Bardics should just come to be from all walks of unicorns, and not be born into it.”
Quill was going over one of the music instruction books and said, “Well, their method of writing music was unique, but not too unfamiliar, and by this, by the time marks for the beat and styling, they had little in the way of musical variety. Yeah, it was much to do with Ponaeros, but I kind of think they shot themselves in the…hoof…so to speak.”
After a few more moments of contemplation, Quill then said, “You know what? Forget these old methods—all these wacky-jack doctrines. I bet that, if we just stick to these spells and just using what does work, we can make a new kind of Bardic. We can have a variety of different music styles for different purposes, uses…” he stopped thought, and Downy seemed to be thinking the same way, and she finished his thought and said, “Bottom line is, we can learn from their mistakes and go back to basics. We can teach them so many styles and ways…” and Quill then picked it up from there, saying, “…and we can either find unicorns that already can do this kind of thing, have the circle of fifths marking which makes them of ancient Bardic blood anyway, to some extent, while looking for colts and fillies in the unicorns that are headed towards music and see if we can recruit them into the ranks of the Bardics. Of course, we’ll not force it on them if they don’t want it, but if they do…” she then took up, saying, “…we’ll teach them to love everypony and intermix with all Equestria.”
Quill’s heart was racing as they were both having an epiphany. Ideas were flooding their heads, and nothing seemed illogical, coming in a natural and powerful flow. They were having that moment in life when all things begin to click for someone, all the pieces fall into place, and one really knows for certain his or her calling in life. “I’m jazzed about this!” exclaimed Quill, “We’ve always been good at music, and now we know why. We’ve always wondered what we were to do with all this music, but this makes so much sense! It would be more than just some petty music or recording career. We can truly try to help end war and bring peace for all man…ugh…all ponykind! Our music has purpose! We have purpose; for the first time in our lives, Sissy, our lives have purpose!”
Their hearts were racing now, and they suddenly realized that tears of joy were flowing freely. They were laughing and crying at the same time, hugging and bouncing around the room. None of this felt weird anymore. This was just as Spike entered the room to tell them supper was ready, and then found himself scooped up by the twins. “WHOA!” he shouted, being spun around and bounced up and down, “What’s the matter with you two!” his voicing inflecting up and down as they went. Downy kissed his cheek and said, “We’ve come home, Spike. Oh sweet Celestia and Luna, we’re finally home!”