//------------------------------// // Side-Story 2: All Daydream's Eve // Story: Bridging Ages, Bridging Worlds // by BlueDWarrior //------------------------------// === BABW: A New Conflict === === Side-Story 2: All Daydream’s Eve === [ October, 17, 2081 – Ponyville, Equestria ] ============================================         “It’s so weird to be floating around here like this… though it helps that Equus is as thick with mana as it is…” Venomè said, as she laid across the back of the manifested miniature of Torra-borous, attached to him as the black serpentine-form tail that Vague manifested the both of them as after his purification by the Elements of Harmony. “Number 1: I’m surprised you would willingly bind yourself to me. I know how much you value your freedom. Number 2: Are you even sure that this is a wise course of action, Miss Venomè?” Torra-Borous replied, as the two of them quietly ‘swam’ through the air toward the group bathroom the four Conduits shared in the Greystone Conductor. “First off, I have a particular reason to do this; and secondly, no I’m not sure, I’m not sure of half the things I think of. But that’s what happens when you are formed from someone’s Id - sometimes you just have to roll with it,” Venomè replied matter-of-factly. “I would chide you for not acknowledging the knock-on effects of what you’re planning, but truth be told, I am curious to see how he’d react…” Torra-borous replied. The two of them bantered back and forth in this vein until they reached the bathroom, and quickly prepared it for Vague, using the Water Magic naturally in Torra-Borous as a substitute for a Unicorn’s telekinetic aura. The most important thing, though, as they saw it, was the bath they were drawing, as they used their magic to get the water to a nice comfortable but still quite warm temperature. “I see you have remembered your and Vague’s physical science knowledge, with the whole ‘agitating the water at a molecular level to heat it’ ‘trick’,” Torra said to Venomè with a impressed tone. “Doubt Blaze would want to get in on this little stunt, so we have to make do; now let me scry the spell into the water for Vague. Man this is gonna be so funny when it works!” Venomè said, the devious glint obvious in her serpentine eyes. Torra-Borous shrugged his flippers and stuck his Venomè-tail in the water, which elicited an immediate yelp of pain from the psycho-form[1]. “Well you did say let you scry, and you don’t exactly have limbs for that as you are…” Torra said at the cross-looking snake-ish figure. “I know that…  I just didn’t think the water would hurt like that…” Venomè said in a churlish but quiet tone. “Hrm… Vague might be using something to block the pain… or he may just have an unusually high threshold for temperature. We’ll have to ask him later,” Torra contemplated, as he stuck Venomè back in water (with 100% less yelping in pain). ----- “I know it sounds kinda weird, but you are going to be busy all day and probably into the night too, so why not go ahead and get your bath in now,” Venomè asked, as she lounged along the side of the plunge-pool Vague’s soul-scape; she was in her usual form: a blue Unicorn, not-dissimilar from Vague’s near-identical twin sister, reading her manga as she did. Vague yawned, as it was obvious his body was just waking up, and his brain wasn’t quite all the way in gear. “Ugh, it feels weird taking a soaking bath this early. But at the same time, we’ve been non-stop until yesterday getting this party in order…” “So just go ahead and take little while for yourself. I swear you are so busy with everyone and making sure they’re on their p’s and q’s that you completely forget about Number One,” Venomè chided as she looked on at the ‘master of the house’ from her lounging position. Torra-borous popped his head up from the plunge pool, having listened in on most of the conversation to that point, to agree with the feminine psycho-form. “While I’m not one to say ‘look out for yourself’ per se, you are starting to develop a sense of trying to overcompensate for what you did and almost did as Nightmare Ooze. We don’t need you cracking in an entirely different way because of it.” Vague managed to somehow sigh and yawn at the same time at the mild chiding of his Astral Beast and psycho-form. “Really you two… ugh fine…” Vague thought for a moment he saw that devious, serpentine eye shape and glint of schadenfreude-drenched glee he saw whenever Venomè was plotting a trick or prank on someone, but couldn’t be sure, and ultimately dismissed it as his own paranoia popping up in that moment.                  And so after a few moments of gathering his towels, and his “Do not disturb” sign to hang on the bathroom door, the young stallion entered the bathroom and set to relax in the large tub, filled with the ocean breeze-themed scents he had come to like in recent weeks during his time back on Earth. “Man this water is so warm… it’s kinda making me sleepy again…” Vague yawned, as he nodded off. ----- Oh wait what?! How… ugh… I fell asleep in the tub? That’s why I don’t like taking warm baths early in the morning… Vague complained, as he snapped up to a haunch-sitting position in the tub, looking at the clock that seemed to drift five to seven minutes in an instant. Look Vague, you would have been fine. I mean it would really suck for us if you accidentally drowned or something, seeing as that’d void our ‘life’ as well… Venomè said, as she looked on at the mildly panicked Unicorn through their shared mind’s eye. I know Venomè, but I don’t want to have to rely on you all for basic self-preservation; that makes me look all kinds of incompetent… Vague said as he got out of the tub, stumbling slightly as he did. “Alright which corner of the bathroom did I put my towel in again? Ugh another reason why I hate taking baths before I’m completely awake…” Vague grumbled to himself as he looked around… before suddenly coming to a stop. Hrm, is there something wrong Master Vague? Torra-borous wondered aloud, as he looked at the same mind’s eye Venomè was, doing his best to stifle a giggle. “Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti~~” Vague sung out in as quiet but clear voice as he could manage… and was stunned by what he heard. “Why am I almost an entire octave off?!” Hrm, I dunno~~  Venomè replied in a sing-songy voice. Vague suddenly came to some further measure of clarity, as he turned around and looked at the mirror with full and open eyes, thanks to the sudden shock he was under. When he got a good look at ‘himself’, he slowly turned back to face the door. “Venomè… why do I look like you?” Vague asked. What was that now, I couldn’t quite hear you~~ Venomè replied, pretending she couldn’t hear Vague clearly, for some reason. “I ASKED WHY DO I LOOK LIKE YOU?!!!” Vague shouted at full, off-octave throat. Loud enough for a certain mare across to hear in her half-sleep stupor. ----- “Ugh, I have a dream about donuts, and now I hear Blaze screaming about something from across the hall. Hope Storm didn’t do anything…” Midori Hana thought aloud as she tried to rattle the cobwebs out of her head. ----- “Once again, I asked WHY IN THE HELL DO I LOOK LIKE YOU?!” Vague nearly bellowed as he was in the face of his psycho-form, who still hadn’t moved far from her lounging spot within the soul-scape, with a look of confused but palpable rage. “Sounds like your voice and your form are back to normal, at least here they are… but hrm… hot water… ending up looking like a woman, or a mare in this case… I wonder what that sounds like,” Venomè responded with a sly tone. Vague was suddenly broken from his rage, as he recognized where Venomè was going with that statement. He broke from his face-to-face gaze and took a close look at the manga the mare-in-current-form was reading, and his eyes narrowed from wild confusion to a very focused, cold anger. “Really Venomè… really?” Vague could only reply, as he held up the manga in his telekinetic grip, showing the book as a large tankobon[2] paperback of Ranma ½. “Oh yes really~~” the mare sung, as she twirled around Vague; and Torra-borous couldn’t help but laugh with his half-octave-lower-than-Vague’s voice. “And you must have been in on this…” Vague grumbled as he looked at the large, plesiosaur-like neck of Torra-borous. “Guilty as charged, Master Vague. It was all in good fun, did not mean any permanent harm; just having a bit of a laugh as the expense of the master of the proverbial house,” Torra said, in his usual refined tone. “Ugh, should have known something was up when you all were talking about taking a bath early in the morning; especially since Venomè is me, more or less, and she’d hate taking a bath half-asleep like I do,” Vague said, as he looked at the still laughing psycho-form. “I know right…” Venomè started, as she continued to prance like a little filly around the plunge-pool of Vague’s soul-scape. “Anyway… I think things are about to get a little weirder for you~” “I am not sure how much weirder things can get at this point…” Vague said, as he flipped back to his consciousness. ----- Remind me never to ask that question, especially in this kind of context… Vague relayed to his two riders… as he was staring his marefriend right in her face, still stuck in his feminized-appearing form. “Hi?!” Vague said, before he got the response he figured he was going to get out of the green mare: a sharp, shrill scream of manifest confusion and terror.         A few moments later, after Hana got over her initial freakout, she stared at the gender-offset coltfriend of hers, trying to figure out precisely what happened. “You better start explaining things before I start assuming things!” Hana said, her anxiety still not having completely calmed down. “Would you believe that Venomè decided now was a good time for a manga-based prank today,” Vague responded, trying to show whatever emotion would calm his marefriend down (as to not attract attention and embarrass him further), starting with contrition. “I… I…” Hana started, before her anxiety started to abate, breathing heavy all the while trying to get her emotive state back in some kind of balance. “I guess I can… if she’s you…” “What does that mean?” Vague replied, not sure of what she was implying. “I know you, Vague. You were always planning different net-stunts back when we were all human with Storm…” Hana replied, as she crossed her front legs. “And now that impulse of yours has at least half a mind of its own, doesn’t it?” Vague blushed beet red, as he realized the implication Hana was driving at. “What, I mean… I guess… I dunno. Then again if Venomè is some of my Id, I guess Torra is some of my Super-Ego. Which doesn’t really explain how he was in on it.” Hana just put a hoof to her forehead, looking on at Vague. “What happens when Id and Super-Ego are more or less in agreement, or at least aren’t arguing with each other?” “They end up like the Ego itself… yeah…” Vague replied, looking off to one side. The both of them suddenly heard the soft but discernable flapping of wings and light-treading hooves of a Pegasus, and realized who was near the open door to the bathroom. “Hey you two, I thought I heard a pair of mares yelling about something, so I thought that maybe a bug or something got in here and… um…” Golden Storm started to ask, before he peered in and saw the scene: a nervous looking blue Unicorn and a consternated green Earth Pony, both mares. Which meant obviously there was one mare too many in the house at the current time. -----         “Ugh, what did that fool of a coltfriend do now…” Blaze wondered, as she was trying to figure out a manestyle that would mesh well with the white fedora she had resting on a blank-faced bust of a Unicorn’s head. With a heavy sigh, she rose from her seat and walked over to where about she heard the yelling of said stallion - the bathroom. After a few more moments of walking and hearing of hush but strained conversation, she arrived at the open door… and quickly took stock of what she saw. “One two… and one… yeah this isn’t right…” Blaze said in a matter of fact tone, looking at the mares in blue and green and the stallion in golden-yellow. “Vague, what happened this time…” “Venomè kinda got loose and… well… this…” Vague said, as he turned all the way around to show Blaze what had happened. “Oh… is that all…” Blaze said with a knowing nod, before falling over in raucous laughter, even worse than what Storm did when he figured it out; a fact that turned Vague’s face almost as red as the Element of Fire’s coat. “I was thinking the worst for a few moments there when I heard two female voices screaming, and I wasn’t one of them. Like somehow a mare had snuck in here and Hana found her. That passed when I realized that there wasn’t any kind of a feeling of malice or I didn’t hear any loud arguing,” Blaze started as she looked at the couple to Storm’s right in the bathroom, and how consternated Vague looked, as his face was still flush from all the embarrassment. “I doubt you are in any condition to undo what happened to you, even though you did it to yourself in a very roundabout way…” Blaze said as she sat on her haunches onside Vague, opposite Hana, trying to get the transfigured stallion to settle his mind. “This is such an adorable sight, and me without a camera ready,” Storm giggled, as he looked at the three mares and one apparent mare, the apparent mare staring daggers right into the very heart of the stallion in the room. “Well, it is…” Storm replied defensively, seeing the seething but still quiet anger in the eyes of the blue ‘mare’ in his presence. “Bud’ spokoyen!{Be quiet!}” Blaze barked at Storm, as she could tell that Storm’s verbal antics weren’t helping settle out the other stallion’s thoughts any. “Vague, let me call Twilight so we can get this sorted out. I’m afraid my coltfriend is just going to keep on with this until whatever spell you cast wears off…” “Fine… not like there’s much I can do to embarrass myself further with this…” Vague agreed quietly, but not quite enough for the other stallion to not hear. “Ah, and he has such a cute voice too~” Storm mused, before he got lashed by a fireball along his flank. “Did I not just tell you to be quiet?!” Blaze shouted in a terse tone, as she wondered what got into Storm all of a sudden. “Yes, ma’am,” Storm said with a dry monotone, looking almost as embarrassed as Vague did in that moment. -----         “You have quite outdone yourself this time Vague. Glamour Magic is not an easy field for new Unicorns to get. Then again, you learned a good trick for stabilizing the visual form in using water as the medium for the spell, instead of just raw magic. A lot of Unicorns try and brute force it through pure spellcraft,” Twilight Sparkle said, as she finished up scanning the spell on Vague’s body, realizing what he had done. “Let me guess, Twilight. You tried to do it with brute force before?” Blaze asked of the mulberry Element of Magic. “Did I!? I tried to transform a frog into an orange once… or was that an orange into a frog…” Twilight replied, before trying to remember exactly what she had done that day. “You know you scare me sometimes…” Vague said, as he continued to stand almost exactly where Hana found him about half an hour ago. “Anyway, you were lucky you caught me while I was awake trying to get everything ready for tonight. Plus…~” Twilight said, before suddenly getting a faraway tone in her voice. “Oh right, that little pen pal of yours is coming in on the 9 AM train from Manehattan isn’t he,” Blaze said, as she giggled a bit. “I told you all didn’t I, right?” Twilight said, as she continued working over Vague, trying to find the right magical thread to unravel so she could undo the glamour on his body. “Several times, and at increasing length each time…” Storm replied nonchalantly. “Here’s to hoping that you two hit it off as well as we think you two can,” Hana added, with a much more supportive tone. Vague just grumbled, as his mind was still a-twitter from the verbal teasing Storm heaped on him earlier in his visually scrambled state. “What’s with him, besides the obvious?” Twilight asked of Blaze. Blaze sighed as she looked at the blue ‘mare’ still staring daggers into the golden-yellow stallion, and stallion trying desperately not to acknowledge it. “Storm started teasing him about it, and was quite thorough about it. On top of that, they’ve been a bit back and forth the last few weeks,” Blaze replied, sighing as she figured the running low-grade conflict the two of them had going would not stop any time soon. “I swear, they both act like fourteen-year-olds around each other sometimes,” Hana replied, as the two stallions continued to try and not really acknowledge the fact, but still didn’t deny it either. “Oh, look at that, I found the magi-thread I was looking for,” Twilight said, as her purplish aura interacted with a blue strand of mana that had suddenly appeared on Vague’s person. With a swift tug, the water cascaded off Vague’s body, as said body returned to its normal shape and dimensions. “Thank you very much, Miss Twilight Sparkle...” Vague replied, his voice dropping back to its normal range of tones. “Oh dear… don’t like that tone, but we’ll have to deal with that another time,” Twilight said, as she realized it was creeping ever closer to 9 AM, and she had a train to wait for. Blaze noticed the same thing, and made a snap decision. “Alright, you, Storm, go with Twilight to the train station. I feel some Draconic Mana, and tells me Spike is with her, so you won’t be alone with the two of them when the train gets here.” “I um…” Storm started, before he noticed the level of malice in Vague’s eyes seemingly ticking up ever so slightly by the moment. “Yeah, you’ll probably be tied up with him, so I guess I need to keep Spike company… perhaps for the rest of the day until we get ready for the Nightmare Night party, right?!” Twilight didn’t exactly want any other male companionship besides her prospective beau and her adoptive brother, but thought better given the cold anger that was welling in the body of the blue stallion. “Yeah, I guess Spike would need someone to hang out with until then.” The mulberry Unicorn and golden-yellow Pegasus exited the bathroom, as the blue Unicorn continued staring at the Pegasus with ill intent. “And you… please don’t do anything crazy to him. You know he wasn’t trying to hurt you or anything,” Blaze said, as she sighed in exasperation. “Really Blaze? I thought you’d be trying to talk Ao-kun down right now,” Hana said, as she looked confused all of a sudden. “I would, but this is something the two of them have to sort out for themselves. And I trust you won’t escalate this beyond where it needs to be, right?” Blaze replied to Hana, as she looked at the returned-to-normal-state stallion in blue. “No, I will keep all of this right where it needs to be. But he has to understand there is a time for banter and going back and forth, and a time to just leave things be…” Vague said, as he began plotting out exactly when and where he was going to deal with the recently departed Pegasus. ~=[ Later that Morning, a little before 9:00 AM ]=~         “And here we are, Ponyville Train Depot,” Twilight said with a big sense of accomplishment, a sense that went over the heads of her travelling party in Storm and Spike, who merely shrugged and found a spot to sit so they could wait for the train to actually arrive. “So there y’all are. Ah was wonderin’ when ya’d get here,” they heard from a pumpkin orange mare a short distance away. “Oh that’s right, we were supposed to find Applejack when we got here. It would figure that she’d get here well before us,” Spike said as he smacked his head, just then remembering what the three of them agree to the night before. “Given our little issue with Vague earlier, couldn’t really be helped, I guess,” Storm added. “What happened to Blue this time… last I heard he was turned into a Kelpie…” Applejack stated with some measure of humored exasperation. “Twilight’ll tell you later, hopefully when Vague is around to hear it as well,” Storm chuckled. Though as he did, he could swear he saw a flash of electric blue and cobalt out the peripheral vision. “Spike…?” Storm asked, a sudden and odd pall over his voice. “Yeah?” Spike replied, not quite sure what the Pegasus was thinking about. “Get the feeling we have a certain someone watching us?” Storm asked, as he looked around the train station and the Ponies milling about. “More than usual? Not really…” Spike answered, still quite unsure of where said Pegasus was going. “What?” Storm started, before realizing that a known Convert and a post-adolescent (equivalent) Dragon would turn heads no matter how common or well-known they were in town. “Oh right. Anyway, I mean someone in particular watching us…” “Aside from Lyra forever hanging around Converts in the time she’s not hanging around Bon-Bon, no, not really,” Spike replied, as he watched the clock tick to 9:01 AM, and a few hairs starting to come unmoored from Twilight’s rather simple manestyle. “The train needs to get here before Twilight tries to speed time to make it get here,” Applejack joked a bit, as she saw the mulberry Unicorn starting to fret a bit. “Oh right the whole time travel to last Tuesday incident. I think she knows by now not to dabble in Chronomancy… I hope she does anyway,” Spike said, before he heard the shrill-ish whistle of the 9 AM train from Manehatten pulling in. “Thankfully we won’t have to get the answer to that question right now.” “That must be the train from Manehatten,” Storm heard of a young filly, voice not far removed from Applejack in terms of tone or speech pattern. “That higher pitched country accent must mean Apple Bloom is with ya, huh AJ?” Storm wondered aloud. “Yeah, ‘Bloom and the others wanted to come meet Babs at the train, so Ah let ‘em. No harm in that Ah reckon,” Applejack responded as she saw the watermelon-pink mane’d and burnt-orange coated filly one year Apple Bloom’s senior disembark from the train. “So whatcha been up to out here? And how long is it gonna take for ya to get to Manehatten for a holiday with my folks?” Babs Seed responded to the strawberry-red and yellow filly her cousin and junior. “Not much besides school, and hopefully for the Winter Moon,” Apple Bloom responded in kind. “So whatcha got as your costume Babs?” Scootaloo asked excitedly. “Not tellin’ ya right now where someone might overhear me. Wait ‘til we get to the clubhouse at Sweet Apple Acres,” Babs replied, taking a coy tone, looking for any spies about their age trying to one up what she had planned for the trick or treating session later that evening. “And that’s mah cue. Gonna see y’all ‘round then, right?” Applejack asked of the Pegasus and the Dragon as she rejoined her sister, her cousin, and their friends. “Sure, see ya later on,” Storm replied as the five mares and fillies walked out of the open-air station. The two males turned their eyes back to the third of their party, as Twilight began to run-in-place a little bit as she was greatly anxious about why she hadn’t seen her pen pal yet. “Where is he? Where is he? Where is he?” she muttered in an unusually loud (for a mutter) volume. Spike just sighed as he looked on at his adoptive sister fretting about. “Boy you thought they were long-separated lovers who hadn’t seen each other in years; and not just a pair who might be sorta starting a relationship, kinda…” “I hope Blaze was never this bad… nah she couldn’t have been, that’s not her,” Storm thought aloud, before dismissing the notion out of hoof. “Hey, um, I’m looking for a Twilight Sparkle. Mulberry purple unicorn with dark violet mane, Element of Magic, and all that…” the three of them heard a youngish male voice call out. “That must be him!” Twilight shouted, as she winked away in a flash teleport… and then returned to the same spot a few seconds later with another yellow Pegasus in tow. “Wow, you must have been waiting quite some time to pull that…” said yellow Pegasus said, as he tried to regain his bearing after being yanked (however briefly) through the Space Between Worlds. “A whole five minutes you silly oaf,” Twilight said, as she giggled. “But it’s nice to see you again, and in such good health considering how I first saw you.” Storm’s ears perked up at that last statement, as the gears turned over in his head again considering how Twilight might know the stallion she standing next to previously. “Oh, was he the stallion you all were talking about back in late June?” “Yeah I think that was about the timeframe for it, it was a while before the incident with Vague, but still relatively close,” Spike thought aloud, trying to put the timeline together from what he heard from Twilight during her recollections. Before he could continue, a pair of scaly, bright orange-red hands covered his eyes and upper face. “Oh guess whoo~,” Spike heard of a certain overly chipper, slightly Germanic accented Dragoness. “Wait what, Cinnamon?” Spike yelped as he turned around to see the pair of Dragoness that made up his Triad apparently having already disembarked the train that Babs and the yellow Pegasus were on. “Yes sir, Mister third-of-the-Triad!” Cinnamon replied, her tail whipping slightly in excitement as Coral had what looked like a small pile of luggage floating on an air-cushion behind her. “So who is all of that for?” Spike said he saw the chalk-white and blue, and much more demure, Dragoness catch up with the three Ponies and the two other Dragons. “About 40% of the luggage on this air-trolley is for Mister Flash Sentry, over there with Twilight. The other 60% is roughly split evenly between me and Miss Cinnamon,” Coral stated matter-of-factly, as was her default tone. “Great, you still didn’t answer my question though… neither of you did, really…” Spike said, a tad exasperated as the six of them were all in the same area of the station’s general seating; Twilight hanging especially close to Flash Sentry with a positive glow on her face. “If you must know~~ We came here both to see you, as it’s been a little while since we’ve all been together, and the fact that the Ponyville Nightmare Night celebration is one of the best, per capita, in all of Equestria,” Cinnamon said, as she sat next to the purple Dragon. “I guess I can see you coming out all this way to see me; but for a Nightmare Night party?” Spike replied, still a bit confused at the second part of her statement. “I remind you what typically happens to a Dragon who consumes too much processed sugar?” Coral asked of Spike, leading him into hopefully the correct conclusion. “Oh boy, really Cinnamon?” Spike asked, as he looked at the bright orange-red Dragoness with eye-half-open look of deep and biting accusation. “Look honey, if I wanted to get completely bombed out of my skull on sugar… I can do it at home with some alcohol to make the process faster,” Cinnamon replied with a tone of mild resentment… which was followed by one of feigned innocence. “Now if I so happen to get a little inebriated while gorging myself on all the candy to surely fly around this town in about nine hour’s time… could you really blame me?” “Yes we could…” Spike started. “And yes, we will,” Coral finished, both of their tones one of grave displeasure with the cavalier attitude of their Triad partner. “You two can be such a pair of spoilsports, you know…” Cinnamon huffed, crossing her arms and legs as she sat on the seats with her Draconic Triad partners. ----- Target acquired sir… beginning tracking procedure… now! Venomè said, as she took active control of a section of Vague’s consciousness to keep tabs on where Storm was at all times, as the lot of her, Vague, and Torra-borous hid in the bushes near the train station, using a telescoping spell to keep visual on the trio of Dragons with the trio of Ponies at said station. That is, they were trying to keep visual on the sextuplet grouping… until a certain mint green Unicorn mare found Vague skulking around in the bushes. “Oh this looks fun~” Lyra Heartstrings said as she took position next to Vague in the bush, overlooking the arrivals and departures. “Right… fun…” Vague said with a confused tone, as he looked at the chipper Unicorn mare with an equally confused face. “Oh… is that part of your costume for later? Gonna be a Ninma?[3]” Lyra asked of the Unicorn stallion next to her, the blue scarf over his mouth matching the blue of his coat. “How are we responding, sir?” Venomè asked of Vague, who sat in a seat in their shared soulscape, which now resembled the bridge of a science-fiction starship. “Hrm… highly doubt she knows anything, and she probably won’t figure anything unless we tell her outright, so we keep it neutral…” Vague replied in the soulscape. “Oh, hey Lyra. Yeah, this is part of my Ninma costume, gonna pick the rest of it up at Carousel Boutique from Rarity after-while,” Vague said to Lyra in real-space, the scarf over his snout hiding the wry smile he put on. “Seems like you're practicing your Ninma moves as well…” Lyra replied as she looked out at the slowly growing crowd milling about the station. “Yeah, you could say that…” Vague replied, as Venomè kept tracking the group, who had started to make their way out of the station proper. -----         It did not take the cluster of six (and the one, sometimes two, Unicorn(s) trailing them) to reach Golden Oaks Library. Flash Sentry stood in silent awe of the still-living tree made into a place of knowledge, residence, and semi-clandestine magical laboratory. “This place is… wow. And you say the oak tree itself is still alive, right?” the bright(er) yellow Pegasus asked of Twilight, who seemed to have a dumb grin of comfort etched on her face while in his presence. “Yep. Part of the job of caretaking or owning this place is making sure the oak itself is still living. I have Ironwood to help me diagnose any issues with the tree. I might be the Element of Magic, but I still can’t feel a living thing like an Earth Pony can,” Twilight explained, as Coral sorted out the luggage. “I don’t think this place is big enough for the five of us over the next couple of days,” Spike wondered. “Should only be you, Flash, and Twilight. Coral and I have a couple of rooms at an inn not too far from here,” Cinnamon replied. That should save some consternation… no telling how Cinnamon acts when she gets tipsy… Spike thought to himself; internally sighing a sigh of relief. “And you aren’t going to tell me what you two are going to be dressed as, are you?” Spike grumbled, honestly wondering what the two Dragonesses that were his Triad partners were cooking up. “You will simply be required to wait until sundown to find out. We wish not to spoil any surprise before the time comes,” Coral replied. “That figures…” Spike huffed, as he walked over to help them with the luggage for Flash Sentry. “So I wonder what we’re gonna do until we walk with the foals and whoever else for the Trick-or-Treating?” Flash asked of Storm and Twilight. “I was just thinking milling about town, seeing if we could help anypony else with anything,” Storm said, as he continued to scan the bushes and lampposts around the vicinity, looking for any hint of a familiar blue stallion. “Are you alright? You’ve been kinda… what’s the word…” Flash started. “Skittish?” Twilight offered. “Skittish works… So why have you been so skittish out here?” Flash asked of the golden-yellow stallion. “I dunno, deep sense of foreboding brought about by guilt?” Storm replied, with a nervous smile and an off-putting chuckle. “I’m sure you know that feeling well, Storm,” Twilight chided, as she could feel the subtle yet distinct pulse of the Element of Water nearby. ----- “Now or never, Vague! This is the only time we’re gonna get a clear shot…” Venomè shouted, as Vague, looked on. “Engage…” Vague said with a matter of fact tone, with a bit of a smirk on his face. ----- “Hey, Storm~” Vague said, as he approached Storm who was looking around in the opposite direction. “Ahh!” Storm shouted when he saw the blue Unicorn approach, but regained his footing and his sense quickly. “Oh man, have you been trailing us the whole time?” “Maybe. But that’s neither here nor there right now. I just wanted to come over and say,” Vague started, before taking a heavy breath. “… that I want to forgive your admittedly mild transgression earlier this morning.” “I… um… okay…” Storm said, as he looked on, off put by the feeling he was getting from the Unicorn before him. Twilight narrowed her eyes, as she felt the same thing. Her horn lit briefly, as she suddenly came to a realization. But it wasn’t before Vague had already set his plan in motion. “I do forgive you, I honestly do… I just don’t forget things very easily…” Vague said, as the Unicorn dissipated into magical vapor and a small puddle of water. “Eh? That’s a new one…” Cinnamon said, as she didn’t think that Vague could literally turn himself into water. “It’s a Water Cloning technique, admittedly an impromptu one developed through a combination of precise manipulation of water and Unicorn Explicit magic to create an illusory body for feint operations,” Coral reported, familiar with the techniques through her acquaintanceship with some Ninma trainees back home. A blob of magic-laced water, not unlike that which formed the fake Blue Vague who was standing before Storm until a few moments previous, came flying out from a bush near the Library. The sheer speed was astounding to Twilight, who didn’t quite recognize it until it was already microseconds from its intended target. And with a splash and a yelp of pain, Vague knew his target was struck. “We have a hit!” Vague shouted, his scarf still over his snout, muffling his voice slightly, a pair of runes along his forehead showing it was all Water Magic at work the last minute or so. Ugh, of course… I wouldn’t be looking for a pure source of Terran Magic except for Vague and Storm’s internal link to their Elements… Twilight grumbled internally, mad she couldn’t see the ambush coming given Vague’s attitude in the minutes before she departed. “So mister Storm, what do you have to say for yourself now,” the en-scarv’ed Unicorn said to the Pegasus enshrouded by a cloud of magical vapor. “What in the hell did you just do?” everyone heard a feminine voice shout, surprised at that fact… well everyone except one. Vague waved a hoof, dispersing the vapor, revealing a slightly smaller and entirely female-appearing Pegasus, with the same mane and Cutie Mark as Golden Storm. “WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!” Storm shouted as he made to wring the neck of the stallion standing next to him. “Turnabout is fair play, I wager, Miss Storm,” Vague chided as the Pegasus started to shake him violently. “Eh? What’s going on Twilight?” Flash replied, deeply confused at why the stallion he was travelling with, however briefly, was all of a sudden turned into a mare. “The two of them have had a bit of a back and forth going insofar as pranks and jokes are going, and Nightmare Night during the day is a bit like your April’s Fools Day. It’s one of the few times people accept others pulling random acts of dumb humor,” Twilight thought, as the smile began to widen on her face, and she started to giggle at the gold-colored ‘mare’ in front of all of them. “D-D… Don’t you start, Twi~” Storm whined, the Latina in ‘her’ voice bleeding through just a little more than it did normally. “Hrm, you’re right, the correct voice paired to an already cute body does enhance the total package,” Vague nodded sagely. Storm huffed, sitting on 'her' haunches and holding 'her' wings down to show as much displeasure as she could without having to put 'her' altered voice to words. “There are some things I guess I was never meant to understand about Humans, Converts or otherwise…” Spike mused, shrugging all the while as he moved the couple of suitcases that were for Flash inside the Library. “Alright Vague, you… you proved your point… and I’m sorry. So could you please undo this?” Storm asked, trying his hardest to not plead with his altered voice to the stallion that was now definitely taller than him. “Hrm… nah… Kinda feeling like just letting the spell run its course; which means that unless I change my mind, or you pry Twilight away from Mr. Flash over there long enough, you are stuck like that for next roughly 57 minutes,” Vague replied, with a snide tone. “What?! Twilight, do something!” Storm yelped in surprise. “Hrm… maybe~” Twilight replied in a sing-songy voice, the dumb grin re-etched on her face as she leaned in a bit on Flash Sentry; she stuck her tongue out at Storm for good measure, which caused the transformed stallion to grumble audibly. “Anyway, see you all after-while, I’m out!” Vague replied, as his vanished in a puff of blue-ish smoke, as if he had thrown a smoke bomb at the ground. Storm continued to fume, as she wanted so desperately to start cursing in both English and Spanish as loud as she could manage. “Not sure what to say, except make the best of it?” Flash offered, not sure what kind of weirdness he was going to become incidental to if he was hooked up with Twilight on a more consistent basis. The transformed other yellow Pegasus didn’t reply, other than continuing to fume in a low but audible grumble. ==== ~-~-~ ====