~~*Fluttershy*~~
Apart from a few… stumbles, for lack of a better word, everything seemed to be going much better than Fluttershy had expected. Discord seemed to be inclined to mostly behave himself, at least after he’d been scolded for what he’d done to poor Erin.
“You’re quite certain you want him to stay with you, darling?” Rarity asked from beside her.
The question caused her heart to skitter in her chest like a frightened mouse. Fluttershy concentrated on trying to keep her breathing steady and her steps certain as she composed herself to answer.
Before answering, Fluttershy glanced over her shoulder. The rest of her friends, with Discord in tow, were coming along behind her. Though, she hadn’t needed to look to know they were there. She could practically hear Twilight’s teeth grinding even over the noise of the tuba that Discord had conjured up. He was hovering over the unicorn’s head as she walked along, playing an out-of-tune “Oomp-pah! Oomp-pah!” noise in time with her steps.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash were walking behind Twilight, with Applejack scowling the scowl of the deeply affronted—most likely because of the time she’d spent chasing her hat around the field after Discord had snapped his talons and gave it legs. Dash was walking for a change, glaring at Discord with her ears pinned back as if daring him to try something, anything, so that she would have an excuse to clobber him.
Fluttershy almost wished he would try something. If only he’d give them an excuse to hit him with the Elements again, she wouldn’t have to go through with this.
Spike, Erin and Pinkie were coming up at the rear of the little group, with Erin staring at Discord with a stony expression on her face that Fluttershy couldn’t quite read. She hoped that the former human wasn’t too frightened by Discord’s antics. After all, she knew first-hoof how unsettling it was having the spirit of chaos radically alter your body.
“He has to stay somewhere,” she replied eventually, her voice low enough so that only Rarity could hear. “I really think I’m the best choice.”
It was a relatively easy thing to say, but Fluttershy’s mouth dried up as her cottage came into sight. Even at this distance, she could see many of her animal friends scampering or winging away from the cottage, their instincts most likely warning them about an incoming storm of chaos. She couldn’t blame them, even if she longed for a few of them to stay behind. After all, they were getting out of the area to find someplace safe. In many ways, she reflected, her animal friends were much wiser than she was.
Her heart, already thumping alarmingly, increased in speed. It felt like she had a live hummingbird trapped in her chest, slamming into her ribs as it tried to escape. Every step she took was one step closer to committing her to having a wild and unpredictable creature of immense power staying in her home, one who was willing to do who-knew-what simply to stave off boredom.
Not that he always seemed to understand how what he was doing was wrong. Discord alternated between almost childlike naiveté with an ancient and world-weary cunning, resulting in him flipping between artificial and honest surprise when his “tricks” weren’t well received. There was more than a little bit of a feral streak in him, in spite of his occasional pretense at being urbane and cultured. It was as if somepony had given a willful and energetic ferret godlike power.
Fluttershy almost tripped over her own hooves at the thought. That must have been why Princess Celestia had asked that she be the one to take the lead on Discord’s reformation! After all, she might have no idea how to deal with the Spirit of Chaos, but a misbehaving animal? That was much easier to wrap her head around!
Discord was far more intelligent than the animals Fluttershy usually worked with, and that would definitely make him more dangerous, but that also gave her additional options that she didn’t have with the rest of her furry friends.
Fluttershy gained a calm sense of purpose. Her feathers stopped their intermittent ruffling and her heartbeat slowed almost back to normal. Not that her fear was gone, of course. What she was planning was very risky, and had a good chance of failing.
So deep was Fluttershy in her planning that she almost walked face-first into her front door without realizing it, her hooves having followed the familiar path while she was lost in thought. She blinked at the door, staring at it as it settled on her that this was it, her last chance to back out, to say no, to push the problem of Discord onto somepony else.
Onto one of her friends.
She turned, flashing a bright and fragile smile towards Discord, who was still hovering over Twilight like a mischievous thundercloud. “Well, this is it. This is my home. Would you like to come inside?”
Discord’s answering grin was so full of mischief that it should have been arrested on the spot. “Oooh, I would be simply delighted, thank you!”
If it had been one of her friends she’d been inviting in, Fluttershy would have opened the door and let them to go in first. Instead, she opened the door to her cottage and walked in with her step confident and her head held high. After all, one of the main tricks to handling a wild animal was to convince it that you’re the one who should be in charge, even if—no, especially if—you were scared out of your mind.
Discord backstroked through the air behind her, and her friends came in behind him, all of them clumping together in Fluttershy’s living room. Her pet rabbit, Angel, was lying on his favorite spot on the couch. He glared momentarily at Discord and slightly longer at Fluttershy before curling up with his back to the both of them and pretending to fall asleep.
Angel’s crabby attitude aside, it did Fluttershy’s poor heart a world of good to know that her pet wasn’t going to just abandon her.
“Nice place you have here,” Discord said in a flat tone that implied that he considered it anything but. “It could do with some livening up, though.”
He raised his talons as if to snap his fingers, and Fluttershy knew that now was her best chance to begin laying some boundaries.
“Discord, I was thinking—“ she began.
“Dangerous habit, my dear,” Discord drawled, his talons still raised. “Personally, I try to avoid it.”
Dash snorted and rolled her eyes. “Yeah, we can tell.”
Discord either didn’t hear her, or was pretending not to, so Fluttershy decided to do the same. He hadn’t snapped his fingers yet. That was good. “Well, my thought was that we could make my home a chaos-friendly zone. I mean, if you would like.”
Twilight gasped at that, and Rarity let slip a worried “Oh, dear…” under her breath.
“Oh?” A grey eyebrow arched up. “Well, that is a surprise. I think I’ll take you up on that!”
“I just have a few things I would like to ask, first,” Fluttershy continued.
Discord groaned and gestured widely with his arms. “Oh, here we go. Here come the rules.” He sighed and glowered down at her, his eyes glowing a menacing red which she did her best to ignore. “And you were doing so well, too!”
Fluttershy managed to keep her wings tucked in and her legs still, in spite of every instinct telling her to run. Running from a predator just triggered chase instincts. Right now, it was crucial for her to redirect him. “Not rules, really. Just requests. What I’m suggesting is that you can do anything you like here in my cottage. Be as chaotic as you want! All I ask is that, in return, you don’t do anything to hurt me, my friends, or any pony or animal that comes in here.” She glanced at Erin, who was still staring at Discord. “And that includes changing them in ways that you might think aren’t harmful. Other than that, you really can do whatever you like. How does that sound?”
Discord’s eyes narrowed. “And I suppose if I don’t agree, then I get the dubious pleasure of returning to my illustrious former career as garden art?”
“Well, not quite,” Fluttershy replied, somehow keeping her voice calm and level. “Like I said, they aren’t rules. But it is true that if you start hurting people or animals, then I’m afraid we won’t have any other choice but to act.”
“Hmm…” Discord regarded her while he floated in mid-air and stroked his scraggly beard. “And I can do whatever I like in here?”
“Oh, yes,” Fluttershy said with an eager nod. “I want you to feel at home!”
“Deal!” Discord crowed.
He snapped his talons, and a blinding light flashed from out of everywhere at once. Fluttershy blinked, her eyes watering as her vision returned to normal. When her vision recovered, a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach almost made her regret getting her eyesight back.
The interior of the cottage was largely the same, only now there were putrid purple, grotesque green and obnoxious orange stripes zig-zagging along the walls and floor, constantly moving in a truly disorienting and disquieting way. White and yellow polka dots of various sizes pulsed in an upsetting fashion as they wandered aimlessly across the new décor.
“Like it?” Discord asked with a saucy smirk.
“It’s very… colorful,” Fluttershy said diplomatically, trying to ignore the retching sounds coming from next to her. Rarity wasn’t reacting at all well to the new color scheme.
“Thank you!” Discord said with a grin. “And I’m just getting started! I have so many ideas to brighten this place up! Oh, where to begin, where to begin!”
Discord floated off, presumably to look for more things to chaoticize, a sinister chuckle trailing behind him.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Twilight whispered to her while eying Discord’s retreating form.
Fluttershy smiled warmly and nodded in return. There was no way to tell Twilight what her plan was without tipping her hoof to Discord, but the simple fact was that there was little chance she could actually stop Discord from using his powers. By offering to let him use them in return for something that at least resembled proper behavior, she’d introduced a compromise where she had given up basically nothing, but Discord felt like he’d gained greater freedom by voluntarily limiting himself.
“I don’t like it,” Rainbow said, scowling like a thunderstorm. That image was helped along by Discord, who popped into the air above her in the shape of a sparking thundercloud and causing Dash to flinch.
“I’m not surprised, honestly,” Discord replied as his cloud-form began raining on the pegasus. “You’re kind of a wet blanket.”
“Oh, a sense of humor?” Rainbow shot back. She flailed her hooves through the air, barely missing the spirit of chaos, who vanished with a pop only to reform in his more usual shape in the middle of the room. “What do you do that’s funny? Turning ponies into the opposite of who they’re supposed to be? Taking my wings away? That’s supposed to be funny, huh?”
Dash’s glare didn’t seem to faze Discord at all. The draconequus rolled his eyes at her. “You got your wings back, didn’t you? Obviously, you have an underdeveloped sense of humor. I’m sure Pinkie Pie gets the joke.”
“Oh, I get it!” Pinkie replied, her usual humor missing from her grinning face. “It’s just not funny, is all.”
Discord snorted. “I try to be nice, and this is the thanks I get?”
One of Twilight’s eyebrows arched up. “How are you being nice?”
The leer that Discord sent Twilight’s way prompted the unicorn to crouch back. “Do you really think I couldn’t take action if I wanted to? Do you really think the spells that Celestia and Luna have been casting are stopping me from doing whatever it is that I want?”
Fluttershy watched as Twilight slowly straightened up, her ears coming back up as a thoughtful frown crossed her face. “I don’t know, honestly. Why don’t you test it and find out?”
The challenge in Twilight’s voice was clear, spoiled only a little bit by the trembling in her forelegs. Discord stared back at her, no emotion showing on his face. The air between the two positively baked with tension, and Fluttershy wanted nothing more than to hide behind the couch.
Discord blew a raspberry and shrugged. “Well, sure, I could, but I don’t want to right now.”
“Sure, right,” Twilight said, contempt heavy in her voice. “Some ‘all-powerful’ spirit of chaos. Right girls?”
Rainbow Dash chuckled at that, and Pinkie’s grin turned more natural. Spike groaned from his place in the doorway, burying his face in his hands. Erin, Applejack and Rarity were all looking at Twilight as if she were crazy, a sentiment that Fluttershy shared. You don’t test a bear’s temper by poking it with a stick.
“Uh, Twilight?” Applejack asked from her place by the doorway. “You sure that’s such a good idea?”
“Trust me, AJ,” Twilight replied. “I’m sure Discord is greatly exaggerating his abilities.”
Discord’s eyes narrowed as his grin became sharper. The zigzagging lines of putrid color adorning Fluttershy’s walls came to a screeching halt. “Careful, now, Miss Element-of-Magic,” he purred, his voice dripping with menace as he poked at her horn with a talon. “You don’t want to see me get angry, do you?”
Twilight shook her head and shot him an impish grin. “No, but I want to see you try, really try to break the wards and enchantments that the Princesses put around Ponyville.”
Discord stopped looking amused. “And if I do break free? What then?”
“Then we use the summoning ritual to bring you back,” Twilight shot back up at him. The way she was acting was enough for Fluttershy to consider having some very stern words with her. Maybe. At a later time.
For now, she had to stop this before Twilight got Discord any more riled up. “Um, Twilight?”
“Oh, I’d like to see you try, silly little filly!” Discord said, folding his arms across his chest and smirking down at her. “Trying to control chaos?” He let out a whoop of laughter. “Good luck, you’ll need it!”
“I don’t know,” Rainbow said in that cocky way she had. “You seem pretty controlled to me right now!”
Dash grinned at Discord’s scowling face. Next to her, Applejack turned a wide-eyed stare at her colorful friend and loudly whispered, “Why would you do that?”
“Oh, yeah?” Discord said. He laced his lion’s paw and eagle’s talon together in a way that shouldn’t have been possible and stretched them out before him, making the knuckles crack. “You want to see some chaos, do you?”
“You bet I do!” Dash retorted.
“Ask and you shall—” Discord began.
Fluttershy finally found her voice. “No!” she shouted, stomping a hoof. Everypony stopped to stare at her, wide-eyed at the outburst, but she’d had enough. “This is my home. Discord, you agreed not to hurt my friends.”
Discord rounded on her, betrayed and furious. “But they—” he began, but Fluttershy had already turned away from him.
“And you girls! How dare you?” Fluttershy walked up until she was almost muzzle-to-muzzle with Twilight, who flinched away with her ears pinned back. “Discord is a guest in my home! I don’t expect you to be best friends with him right away, but I do expect you to at least be polite!”
Twilight grimaced and looked away, shame-faced and ears drooping. “Sorry, Fluttershy,” she whispered. “I have a reason—”
“Yes, I know.” Fluttershy said. She took a deep breath and then slowly let it out. Animals wouldn’t calm down in a hectic environment, and her friends were adding far too much energy to the situation. She needed to bring that energy down if she were going to make any progress. “I think it would be best for everypony to leave for now. Discord and I will spend some time together and get to know each other a little bit better.”
Her heart lurched in her chest as she said it, but she knew down to her hooves that it was the right idea. Even if her friends hadn’t been so aggressive, Discord loved playing to a crowd. The fewer ponies were around, the calmer he’d be. Or, at least that was her hope.
“We will?” Discord asked, quirking an eyebrow at her.
Fluttershy risked a glance at him and was relieved to see that his anger was gone, replaced by a look of surprise that at least appeared to be genuine.
“Oh, yes.” Fluttershy said, smiling her warmest smile at him. “I’ve never had a conversation with anyone quite like you before. I’m sure it will be fascinating!”
Discord’s look of surprise increased for a moment before it was replaced by that confident smirk he usually had on his muzzle.
“You sure you want us to leave you alone with him?” Erin asked, directing a flat stare at Discord, her legs planted and her ears jutting forward aggressively. The emotion on her face, the one that Fluttershy hadn’t been able to recognize before, was obvious now; the former human was nursing a deep, simmering rage. She, more than anypony, had to leave, before Discord did or said anything to set her off.
“Yes, I’m sure.” She smiled at her friends, trying to project an image of a mare who was confident and in control. She wasn’t sure how well she pulled it off, since it wasn’t a look she wore often. “I’ll be fine, I just know it.”
All of them looked torn, none more so than Rainbow, who was flexing her wings and giving Fluttershy a look of helpless desperation. “You sure you know what you’re doing, ‘Shy?” she asked.
“Positive,” Fluttershy said, doing her best to mask the mounting panic she was feeling with a mask of calm serenity.
It took a little more convincing, but eventually she got them all on their way out of her door. All of them went, with dragging hooves and backwards glances.
Rainbow was the last out the door. She turned and hugged Fluttershy, taking the time to whisper in her ear. “You really gonna be okay?”
“I’m sure of it,” Fluttershy whispered back, leaning into the hug. “Just… keep your tablet with you. I’ll send a message if anything goes wrong.”
“You got it,” Rainbow replied, her hug tightening for a moment. Her coat was rough and her mane smelled like lilac shampoo and rainwater, two things she’d always associated with her oldest friend. The scent steadied her, a reminder that Rainbow would always come for her if she were in trouble, no matter what obstacles were in the way.
Rainbow broke the hug and sent a glare Discord’s way. “Just remember, we’ve got our eyes on you.”
“I’ve got my eyes on me too,” Discord replied. Hundreds of eyes opened up all over his body, blinking and leering at Rainbow Dash, who suddenly looked like she was going to be ill. Fluttershy didn’t blame her. Discord’s new look was fascinatingly grotesque.
The eyeballs vanished as Dash backed quickly out of the doorway. Discord moved to stand in the doorway, waving and calling out, “Bye, now! Buh-bye! Byeeee! Bye!” He slammed the door. “Good riddance,” he grumbled. “Seriously, I hardly did anything at all, and still they get mad at me!”
Fluttershy, now alone in her house with the spirit of chaos, regarded him curiously. “Do you know why?” she asked eventually.
Discord snorted and folded his arms across his chest. “Probably because of what I did to that not-quite-a-pony. But I changed her right back to the way she was!”
“Oh? From your tone, it sounded like you were intending some... mischief.”
Discord snorted. “Oh, like I would really want to play ‘Dodge the Rainbow of Harmony’ so soon after my release. I even made a special effort to make sure she kept that so-called ‘cutie mark’ of hers,” he said with accompanying air-quotes. “No appreciation, honestly!”
Fluttershy blinked and filed the information about Erin’s cutie mark away for later investigation. More important was the fact that Discord seemed genuinely confused, and maybe even distressed, by everypony’s reactions.
“Well,” she said, offering up a smile. “How about I make up some nice tea for us, and I can try to explain why everypony was upset?”
~~*Erin*~~
Erin stalked away from Fluttershy’s cottage, a scowl on her face as she stared down at the dirt road beneath her hooves. Discord’s little trick of changing her back to her human form had knocked her off of her feet, figuratively and literally. At first, she’d been too shocked to feel much of anything. Once that wore off, she’d felt unnerved, and then afraid.
For a terrifying few minutes, that fear had almost overwhelmed her. She’d watched Discord receiving a scolding from Twilight Sparkle and wondered why her friend wasn’t running away, screaming in terror.
And then… somehow, something changed. The fear reached its highest point, and then collapsed into a hot, tight ball of anger. After that, one thought kept surfacing every time she glanced at the spirit of chaos. How dare he?.
“Are you okay, Erin?”
She glanced to her left to see Twilight trotting alongside her, only to look away from the sympathy she saw on her friend’s face. She didn’t want compassion right now. She only wanted to hit something.
“Yeah,” Erin replied shortly. “Going to the hospital to make sure everything is where it’s supposed to be.” She blinked and shook her head “Wait. No. Going home, first. I have scans there that were taken of my body right after I came out of Ascent.” She scowled as she marched down the dirt road towards Ponyville. “I have to see what he changed.”
Pinkie Pie came up on her right side, offering up an optimistic smile. “If he did change anything, we can just have Ascent fix it, right?”
“Not really comforting, Pinkie,” Erin snapped.
She walked along for several seconds before she realized that she was walking alone. Her ear flicked as she heard Twilight speaking softly, and she looked back to see Pinkie staring after her with a stricken look on her face.
“She’s just upset,” Twilight was saying to Pinkie. “She’s had a pretty bad shock today.”
“Yeah, but she didn’t have to yell at Pinkie,” Rainbow said from above the two of them, directing a dirty look Erin’s way.
Hot anger crested inside her, scalding words forming on her tongue before she clenched her jaw, blocking them in. Part of her wanted to scream at her friends, wanted to make them understand how she felt.
They do understand, you idiot, she thought savagely, disgusted at herself. According to the stories she’d heard, her own encounter with Discord was the equivalent of a stubbed toe on a battlefield.
Guilt and shame rose up and swamped her anger, her ears drooping as her head hung low. “Sorry, Pinkie. I didn’t mean it.”
That brought a little smile back to Pinkie’s face. “I know that, silly.”
“It’s just… I hate feeling helpless like that,” Erin said as she started walking again, though less quickly than before. “I mean, I know I’ve changed shape before, but it was always by choice. I decided to become a pony, and I decided to become a human again. And I understood how it worked, in general, and the risks involved. For something to just come along, snap its fingers and remake me like that…” She shuddered.
“Welcome to the club,” Rainbow Dash said, landing next to her and bopping her across the back of the head with a wing.
Erin gave a wry smile at that.
“Still, I think it’s a great idea to get checked out,” Twilight said. “Did you want me to come with you?”
“Me, too!” Pinkie chimed in.
Erin’s first instinct was to turn them down, not wanting to be a bother. She hesitated as she realized that she’d never been to an Equestrian hospital before. That, and her fear had only been temporarily eclipsed by her anger. It was still there, a low-lying dread that filled her bones. Suddenly she realized that she very much didn’t want to be alone. “Yeah. Thanks, I’d really appreciate that.”
Twilight nodded, turning to address the others in a businesslike fashion. “Dash, Rarity, Applejack, would you mind staying in the vicinity of Fluttershy’s cottage? If anything happens and the tablets don’t work, you can help out while Dash comes and gets me. We’ll have Discord back in stone before he can blink.”
Rainbow Dash saluted. “You got it!”
“What about me?” Spike asked.
Twilight considered that for a moment, tapping her chin with a forehoof. “Hmm. Well, the Princess did ask me to send her a report on anything interesting. Could you send her a letter, updating her on the day's events?"
"Sure thing!" Spike replied, already pulling a scroll out of the little satchel he had with him. "What about after that?"
"Would you mind staying here? If anything happens, you can send a note to the Princesses right away.”
“You got it!” the little dragon said with an adorable salute.
“Good idea, though I’m not certain what we’ll do while waiting,” Rarity said.
“Maybe we can go insult Discord some more,” Applejack said, giving Twilight a narrow look. “Seriously, what the hay was up with that, sugarcube? I was worried you lost your mind or somethin’!”
“Oh.” Twilight’s eyes flicked around, her cheeks darkening as she blushed. “Well, I just thought it would be a good idea to test and see if Discord could actually break free of the wards. You know, while we were all there.”
Applejack didn’t look too impressed by that reply. “Uh-huh.”
“I mean, we were all together,” Twilight explained, sounding confident even as she shrank back in on herself. “We could have just used the Elements.”
“Right,” AJ replied with a nod. “Exceptin’ that we were in the middle of Fluttershy’s cottage when you invited Discord to do his worst. Y’all think about what might have happened to her home if you set him off right then?”
There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence, broken when Rainbow Dash muttered “Awk-ward” in a sing-song voice from somewhere up above them.
Twilight grimaced and shot the pegasus a mildly dirty look. “I didn’t think of that,” came her sheepish reply.
“I didn’t recon’ you did,” Applejack replied. “Next time you wanna try an’ stick a burr up under the tail of the spirit of chaos, maybe give us a heads-up before you get started.”
“Right,” Twilight said, her head hanging. “Not one of my better plans, sorry.”
Applejack shrugged. “Shucks, sugar. It turned out alright, I guess. Anyway, you go on and get Erin to the hospital. We’ll stay here and keep an eye on things. We can pass the time by getting used to these here tablet doohickeys.” She pulled her apple-themed tablet out of her saddlebags. “I recon’, if we’re gonna use ‘em to send messages in case of trouble, we may as well learn how to use ‘em right.”
“Excellent idea!” Rarity’s horn glowed. Her tablet, now encrusted with a truly ridiculous number of gemstones, rose out of her saddlebags like a high-tech disco ball. “Go on, dears, I’m sure we’ll be just fine here.”
The two groups exchanged goodbye hugs, with Erin reminding the four staying behind to keep an eye on the battery indicator for their tablets. Then the three of them made their way back into town, Pinkie forgoing her usual bouncing step in exchange for a more subdued walk.
It was only a few minutes later that they reached Erin’s cottage, now one of the most unique buildings in Ponyville. The cream-colored walls with the green trim were normal enough, but the glassy, dark-blue tiles on the roof looked out of place, almost alien when compared to the other homes in the area.
That’s because it is, Erin reminded herself with a snort.
She let herself in through the unlocked front door. Using keys as a pony was an annoyance that she just didn’t feel worthwhile, if she could avoid it. The metallic taste was awful, and it was really frustrating getting the key in the hole when she couldn’t see past her muzzle.
“Come on in,” she said as she led her friends inside.
“Wow,” Twilight said, looking around as she walked in. “You really changed this place a lot since I was here last!”
Erin glanced around at her living room. It still felt weird to have her own place, but it was feeling more like home every day. A dark red rug covered part of the hardwood floors, with her sofa and chairs on one end and the entertainment center on the other. She had a large-screen TV, slightly smaller than the one she’d given to Twilight, along with a media center containing a couple hundred movies and thousands of songs. A few family photos were scattered around, mostly her brothers with their families, and a couple with just her parents in it.
“That’s right, you haven’t been here for a while.”
Twilight nodded, looking at a picture of one of Erin’s brothers and his family. “Yeah. Last time I was here, you still had boxes stacked all over.” She glanced along the walls, which were covered with mostly-empty bookshelves. “You need more books.”
“That’s on the list,” Erin said with a grin. “I have hundreds of books on my tablet, but I want to make sure I have lots of space once I start to load up on Equestrian books.”
“I approve of that,” Twilight said, shooting her a grin in return.
Erin smiled back as she made her way to one of the bookshelves. One large cardboard box was wedged into the bottom of it. She pulled it out and flipped the lid off, sorting through the folders within and looking for her medical files.
“This is a really nice sofa!” Pinkie exclaimed. She was stretched out on her back with her hind legs up on the armrest.
“Yeah, I slept on that for a while before I got a bed,” Erin said, looking back over her shoulder.
“I can tell,” Pinkie said. Her hoof shot up into the air, holding aloft a sandy brown feather. “I think you need to get a vacuum cleaner.”
“Uh, that’s also on the list,” Erin said, flushing. One of the downsides to having wings was finding discarded plumage everywhere, from little fluffs of down to broken vanes to full feathers, though luckily her regular preening regimen kept that to a minimum.
“What’s this?” Twilight asked, her horn glowing as she pulled out one of the few books that Erin had brought with her from Earth. “Phoebe and her Unicorn, the complete collection, volume one?”
Erin glanced over with a snicker. Pinkie rolled off of the couch, the soft rug muffling her hoofsteps as she walked up behind Twilight to look curiously over her shoulder.
“That’s one of my favorite comics from when I was a kid,” Erin said. “That, and my dad’s old Calvin and Hobbes collections.”
“This so-called ‘unicorn’ is far too skinny,” Twilight groused, frowning at the cover.
“I’ll say!” Pinkie exclaimed, right in Twilight’s ear.
Twilight, obviously not aware that Pinkie was there, let out a startled “Waugh!” as her magic blinked out, dropping the book onto the floor. She whirled in place, staring at her friend while holding a hoof up to the front of her chest.
“Pinkie! What have I told you about startling me like that?” Twilight demanded.
“Um…” Pinkie tilted her head and blinked a few times. “Not to do it?”
“That’s right!” Twilight said, then added, “Erin, it’s not funny!”
“I can’t help it!” Erin replied, chuckling. “The look on your face!”
“Twilight,” Pinkie said. “I’m bright pink and not usually all that subtle. Is it really my fault if you don’t notice me?”
“She’s got you there,” Erin said. “And here are my records.” She pulled the thick folder out of the box with her teeth.
The unicorn growled something as she picked the book back up in her magic and slotted it back into the shelf.
“Oooh, Sunflower, can I borrow that book?” Pinkie asked.
Erin finished wedging the folder into her saddlebag. “Sure, why not?”
“Yes!” Pinkie cried, pulling the book out and dropping it into her own set of bags.
Erin put the lid back on the box and stood up. The little bit of laughter had her feeling much better.
“Alright,” she said. “Let’s get to that hospital.”
~~*~~
The metal table was cold under Erin’s hindquarters, even with the insulating layer of disposable paper and the dubious comfort of the hospital gown she’d been asked to wear. The table was too high, her back legs dangling off into empty air as she idly kicked her hooves, bored out of her mind.
The exams were over, at least. Erin had insisted on waiting for whatever results she could get, though she was told that the blood work wouldn’t be done until the next day. As strange as it had been to get the once-over as a pony, and in spite of hospital policy, she had insisted on Pinkie and Twilight being allowed to stay if they wanted.
Her friends, wanting to be supportive, had stayed for most of it; Pinkie had stepped outside when her blood was drawn, looking a little queasy. Both of them had left when the exam got to one very uncomfortable stage, much to Erin’s relief. She hadn’t been sure what pony norms were in regards to that particular exam, but it seemed like it wasn’t any kind of social event.
She shifted on the table, crinkling the paper under her rump and causing the hospital gown to ride up a little bit. She absent-mindedly adjusted it back down with a hoof. The gown confused her, seeing as she’d come in naked in the first place. Why in the world did ponies even bother with them?
She briefly considered asking Twilight or Pinkie, but couldn’t quite figure out a way to ask that wouldn’t lead to a probable faux pas.
“So, what were all those exams?” she asked instead. “I mean, I get the stuff like the blood pressure and heart rate check, but what about that first spell he cast?”
“Thaumic trace,” Twilight said from her chair, looking up from the three-month-old magazine she’d been listlessly flipping through. “Honestly, I should have thought of doing that myself. It’s a pretty simple spell.”
“What does it do?” Erin asked, kicking her back legs idly as she sat on the table.
“Gives the caster a basic impression of how well the magic is flowing through your body, and if it’s going through the correct places,” Twilight said, putting the magazine down. “I imagine yours is more complicated than he’s used to, since you have traits of all three pony tribes.”
“And that machine he had me stand in front of?” Erin asked. It had reminded her of an old-school X-ray machine.
“The X-ray, or the other one?” Twilight asked.
“Oh! Uh, the other one.”
“That was to get your full magic map,” Twilight said. “Basically, all the routes that magic takes as it flows through your body.”
“Hmm…” Erin said, her rear hooves still kicking restlessly through the air. “You think it will be much longer before they come back with the results?”
“Shouldn’t be much longer, I would think.” Twilight glanced over at Pinkie, who was slumped against the wall with her chin propped up on her forehoof, fast asleep. “We should get her home, soon. She looks pretty worn out.”
“It’s been a long day,” Erin replied, then sighed. She was pretty tired herself, even though it was still early in the evening. She chewed her lip for a few seconds, finally voicing the thought that had been clamoring for attention the whole time she’d been in the hospital. “Do you think Fluttershy is okay?”
Twilight winced, and Erin felt an immediate stab of guilt. Twilight would have no better idea of that than Erin herself would.
“I really, really hope so,” Twilight replied heavily. “Nothing’s come up on the tablets, Rainbow hasn’t burst in shouting for us, and I haven’t heard any distant screams or explosions, so I’m hopefully optimistic.”
Erin returned Twilight’s tired grin.
“I guess I’m just worried about her.” Erin frowned down at her hooves. “I got so wrapped up in my own drama, I actually managed to forget that she was still stuck with him.”
“I’m worried, too,” Twilight said, voice soft. She looked away, in the general direction of Fluttershy’s cottage. “I’m just amazed that she actually volunteered for this. I mean, you know Fluttershy. She’s so—”
“Much stronger than you think,” Pinkie Pie muttered sleepily. One eye cracked open and she looked around muzzily. “Your test results are back,” she said. Then she yawned and closed her eyes again.
Erin was just about to ask what Pinkie meant when a knock sounded at the exam room door. A moment later, the door opened to admit Dr. Stable. The tan-coated unicorn was holding up an open folder in his magical field, frowning down at the contents.
“Well, Miss Sunflower, I have your results… most of them, at least. Still waiting on the blood test and a full analysis of your thaumic signature.”
To Erin’s eye, the doctor had a grim look to his face. Her previous fears—not so much forgotten as temporarily misplaced during the long wait for the results—surged back, leaving her throat dry and her stomach churning like a whirlpool.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, not quite able to keep the quaver out of her voice.
“Nothing too alarming, so please relax.” Doctor Stable gave the folder one last scowl before setting it down on a nearby counter. “The good news is that, as near as I can tell, your recent scans came out identical to the ones taken from before you came from Equestria.” He grinned, looking up at her. “Those images are magnificent, by the way. Here’s hoping we get some of that equipment here!”
Erin blinked. “So, nothing is out of place?”
“Well, that’s where we come to the strange part,” he said. “See, you do have some anomalies, but those were there before you came to Ponyville.”
Erin blinked a few times as that news settled in. She traded a confused glance with Twilight. “I don’t understand.”
“Well, look here,” he said. His horn lit up and took out several X-ray films and clipped them to the light box, which he turned on with a flick of his horn.
Erin leaned forward, frowning at the image. Even after all this time as a pony, it was still hard for her to accept that the skeletal structure she was seeing was her own.
“I was concerned at first about these dark objects you see in these locations,” Doctor stable said, tapping each one with a pointer held in his magic. There was one in her torso that was the size of a grapefruit, a grape-sized one at the base of her neck, and one by each of her wings, each roughly the size of a golf ball. “They don’t correspond to any organ a pony is supposed to have. In fact, if it weren’t for the scans you brought with you, I’d be very concerned that Discord placed them there himself.”
“What are they?” Erin asked, her voice shaking as anxiety clawed its way up the back of her neck.
“I’m not really sure, but they seem to be causing fluctuations in your thaumic field.”
Erin frowned and pointed a hoof at the light box. “Could that be why I’m having so much trouble using magic?”
The doctor pursed his lips. “Hmm. It’s too early to tell, and I would like to bring in some experts, maybe do a biopsy, but it is definitely possible.” Doctor Stable took another film out of the folder. “Here’s a better look from the images you gave us. You said it was an... MRI scan?”
Erin looked at the film and nodded. “That’s right, yeah.”
“Fascinating, the amount of detail on this,” Doctor Stable said as he clipped it to the lightbox. He tapped his pointer on the same areas on the MRI. “Here’s our mystery growths. As you can see, they seem to be exactly the same.”
Twilight frowned at the screen. “I wonder why they’re there?”
“Perhaps a byproduct of the process the humans used to create her?” the doctor said. “I’m not certain, but I’m fairly sure that you’re not in any immediate danger.”
“Fairly sure? Well, that’s a relief,” Erin shot back. She heard the snideness in her reply and flinched. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be rude, but I’ve had a very rough day.”
“Completely understandable,” Doctor Stable replied soothingly.
“It might be something that Malachite did,” Twilight said, stroking her chin with her hoof.
Erin shuddered as a chill swept through her whole body. “What do you mean?”
“Well, he’s the one who designed the base form that the humans modeled your body on, right?” Twilight looked over at her. “It’s possible that he designed these for some unknown function.”
“First Discord and now Malachite? Oh, god, it’s too much,” Erin said, slumping on the table and burying her face in her hooves.
A pat on her back leg made her jump. She looked up to see Pinkie Pie’s smiling face. “Don’t worry, I just know it’s going to all turn out okay. After all, mean old Malachite wouldn’t have put those there if they were bad for him, right?”
“And if anyone can figure it out, it’s Professor Glimmer,” Twilight added staunchly. “I’ll write to her as soon as I get back to the library. I just know she’ll want to come out, now!”
Erin let out a shaky sigh and nodded. “Okay, yeah. Works for me.”
“In the meanwhile, I think we should do something about those wings of yours,” Doctor Stable said.
Erin blinked at him, confused. “Huh? Is something wrong with them?” She looked over her shoulder at her left wing, but nothing seemed out of place.
“Only that you can’t use them,” the doctor replied. “Otherwise, they’re perfectly healthy, if somewhat lacking in muscle tone. Honestly, you should have come in weeks ago. We can set you up with a physical therapist and get you using them much sooner than you would on your own.”
“Would that work?” Erin asked, her ears perking up. Everything else today had been bad news, but if this doctor could help get her wings working…
“Couldn’t hurt.” Doctor Stable flipped open her folder and began writing some notes. “We’ve been able to help pegasi with broken bones, torn muscles, nerve damage and even brain damage to get back into the air.” He smiled saucily at Twilight. “Your friend Rainbow Dash is one of our most frequent clients, if you’ll recall.”
“She does crash a lot while working on new tricks,” Twilight conceded.
“I’ll have the receptionist set up an appointment for you,” Doctor Stable said. “How soon can you come in?”
“Um…” Erin considered the question for a moment before shrugging. “How does tomorrow sound?”
“Tomorrow, hmm? Not putting it off, I like that,” the doctor replied, smiling. “Check with the receptionist on the way out and she’ll set it up for you.”
~~*Luna*~~
At this distance, it was impossible to tell if the young prince was screeching in outrage or delight. Or, perhaps, simply for the joy of feeling his teeth vibrate. The sound was amplified by the excellent acoustics in Celestia’s bathing room, the marble-tiled walls reflecting every sound out to Luna’s twitching ears. Even the sloshing of water and Celestia’s soft murmurs could be heard, if not her actual words. Luna supposed they were the typical types of things an adult would say while bathing a toddling foal.
A loud shout from Verdant followed by a splash caused Luna to amend her thought. Attempting to bathe a toddling foal.
Her decision to discuss the day’s events in Celestia’s private chambers was one she was seriously beginning to regret. There were, Luna reflected, few things less useful than being a childless aunt when it came time for her sister to put young Prince Verdant to bed. Past experience had informed her that her presence would only serve to excite the young prince and draw out the routine much longer than it already was.
Beside her, Raven shifted uncomfortably while adjusting her glasses. The mare was one of the assistants that Luna had borrowed from Celestia, and she had her notes from the Day Court with her, all ready to give Celestia a summary of the day’s events. Luna noted her flicking ears and shuffling hooves with a frown.
“Have you never been in my sister’s chambers before?”
“Not often, Princess,” Raven admitted, her nerves evident in the shaking of her voice. “I always tried to let this be her personal sanctuary.” She grimaced. “I feel like I’m intruding on something private.”
“Have no fear,” Luna replied. “My sister is far more welcoming and compassionate than most would—”
A loud shriek interrupted her, followed the the sound of a large amount of water sloshing out of a bathtub. Celestia’s distressed shout was quickly followed by a loud thump and a laughing squee. A moment later, a dripping wet Prince Verdant shot into the reception room of Celestia’s apartments, laughing maniacally.
Seeing Luna and Raven, the little prince stopped for a moment. “Butts!” he exclaimed joyfully, then ran off with a giggle into another room.
“Get back here, you little—” A growling Celestia rounded the corner in hot pursuit of her charge only to skid to a stop at the sight of Luna and Raven. “Oh. Hello.”
Luna did her best to not snicker at her sister’s appearance. She was wearing none of her usual regalia, leaving her hooves and neck bare. Her not-so-pristine white coat was wet and matted in several places, dotted here and there with soapy bubbles from the bath. Her flowing, multi-colored mane was held in place by a kerchief, and on top of that was a crown of still more bubbles. To top of her new look, a splotch of something pinkish and wobbly was streaked along one noble cheek.
“Greetings, Sister!” Luna exclaimed brightly. “We have brought you the report from the Day Court!”
Lavender eyes flicked towards the trembling secretary next to her as the frustration and surprise dropped from Celestia’s mien, replaced by that mask of calm serenity she usually wore. “It is good to see you,” the Princess said with a nod, her regal composure somewhat marred as the motion caused some of the bubbles on her head to slide down onto her muzzle. A momentary irritation pierced Celestia’s mask as she wiped the bubbles away with a fetlock.
“Naturally, we can wait until you’ve dealt with the young prince,” Luna added, grinning at the discomfort she could see under Celestia’s carefully controlled expression.
“I thank you,” Celestia said, nodding more cautiously this time. She disappeared through the same doorway Verdant had gone through earlier. A moment later, a piercing shriek sounded out, followed by the prince’s giggles and the sound of scampering hooves across the royal carpeting.
Luna finally let herself chuckle. She glanced over at Raven, who was staring with wide eyes and a gaping mouth at the doorway Celestia had just gone through.
“It’s not often one sees her with her guard down like that,” Luna said softly, grinning at the other mare’s shock. “You should treasure the memory. It’s something to tell your grandfoals!”
Raven simply gaped at her in shock. “I would never violate Princess Celestia’s confidence like that!”
Luna sighed, some of her good humor leaving her. The pedestal that the ponies placed her sister upon was understandable, she supposed. Still, there was some satisfaction in kicking the base of that pillar from time to time, just to see what would shake loose. They together in awkward silence for a few minutes, while the sound of Verdant's babbling began to slowly die down.
“She’s changed quite a bit, you know,” Luna said, keeping her voice idle.
Raven’s face screwed up momentarily, but she finally took the bait. “Oh? How so?”
“She wasn’t quite so concerned with appearances, back when we were younger,” Luna said. “Nor was she quite so good at hiding her emotions behind that mask of calm serenity. I scarce recognized her upon my return to Canterlot, to be honest.”
“Really?”
Luna chuckled at the confused look on the secretary’s face. “Oh, my, yes. I suppose, to you, she’s the eternal Celestia, as constant as the sun. To me, she’s just my older sister, Silly Celie.” She leaned down to whisper into Raven’s ear. “She would belch at the dinner table, hog all the blankets and would blame me for stealing the last cookie from the jar.”
Raven drew her head back, one foreleg coming up as her eyes widened. “Really?!” she repeated, in a much more disbelieving tone.
“Yes!" Luna said with a joyful laugh. "But now…” she trailed off, staring at the rooms Celestia had disappeared into. “She’s changed so much without me.”
“Aren’t you about the same age, though?” Raven asked, then gasped, bringing her hoof up to her muzzle. “Oh, I’m sorry! That was rude of me, wasn’t it?”
“No matter,” Luna replied, waving away the mare’s embarrassment. “‘Tis true, we were born only a few years apart. However, my banishment passed by like a long fever-dream. I can scarce remember most of it, aside from a long stretch of confusion, regret and anger. Celestia had to live each and every year, fully awake while she lived and learned. She matured, while I stayed mostly the same. She is now by far the older sister.”
"I heard that, Luna," Celestia replied as she reentered the room. She must have taken the time for a quick grooming, because her coat was very nearly restored and the soap bubbles were gone. "Are we going to start making jokes about each other's ages, now, Little Lulu?"
"Ah-ha, I believe this is what the young ponies call 'snark'," Luna said, nodding thoughtfully. "I hear it's all the rage, these days."
"And that would be sarcasm," Celestia replied with a smirk. "Which is older than the hills."
"You would know," Luna replied with a grin.
Celestia opened her mouth to reply, then her eyes flicked towards the wide-eyed Raven, who was gaping at her as if she'd never seen her before. "Ahem, yes. Well, perhaps we should go over the day's events?"
Luna sighed. It looked like the banter was over. For now, at least. Perhaps she could enlist the help of Pinkie Pie to loosen her sister up further. She found her missing the old Celestia, even as obnoxious as she could sometimes be. "Very well. But before we do, have you heard anything of Discord?"
Celestia nodded. "A scroll arrived by dragonfire a few hours ago. Apparently, the release went better than expected. A few minor issues, but nothing the girls couldn't handle. He's currently a guest in Fluttershy's cottage."
"I still can't believe that Fluttershy is to be the one to reform him," Luna said with a grimace. "I can feel him even now, pushing at the wards we created and testing their strength. He certainly hasn't given up on regaining his freedom. I shudder to think what could happen to that poor mare, should he get sufficiently bored or frustrated."
"I don't expect his reformation to be quick or easy, but Fluttershy has the help of her friends." Celestia sighed. "It is out of our hooves, now, in any case. All we can do is trust the girls."
"Indeed." Luna shook her head. "Ah, well. On to more mundane things, then. The Arcanum is still rebuffing my invitations to visit Canterlot. All except for Moonlight Glimmer, who arrived this morning. Unfortunately, her field of study won't help much with creating or stabilizing inter-world gateways."
Celestia frowned. "Hmm. That is odd. Do you want me to ask them, myself?"
"No," Luna replied shortly. "If they will not respond to my invitation, then to Tartarus with them." She took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to release the irritation she felt. Celestia meant well, she reminded herself. "I will conduct the research myself. Perhaps even enlisting the aid of Twilight Sparkle. Raven, would you mind going over the financial reports?"
Raven nodded, adjusted her glasses with her magic, and opened a distressingly thick folder. Luna, already achingly familiar with the contents and uninterested in hearing them once again, immediately began tuning the secretary out.
Luna loved numbers, and she adored mathematics. The dance of symbols, the interplay of integers, the joy of a well-documented proof, they made her heart sing and set her intellect ablaze.
Financial reports, on the other hoof, were where good numbers went to die. Instead of listening as Raven droned on, she instead contented herself with glancing around Celestia’s chambers.
Little changes were evident everywhere. Celestia—or, at least the maids—had kept the rooms pristine, but no amount of tidying up was able to keep pace with the energetic young Prince Verdant. Here and there were scattered various toys, from a wooden block lurking under a small table to a lonely pony doll propped up on a cushion. A half-eaten biscuit was barely visible underneath Celestia’s sofa, but Luna couldn’t be sure if it was the prince or the princess who was responsible for that one.
Luna kept glancing at the clock on Celestia’s mantlepiece. It was an exquisite thing, all golden and shining in the shape of a sun, its face protected by the finest crystal. It was also, as far as she could tell, running slowly. It simply wasn’t possible that providing a summary of the day’s financials could take this long.
Eventually, the little secretary’s voice wound down, which brought Luna back to the here-and-now.
“Well, that’s the financial report,” Luna said, relieved that it was finally over. “Raven, did you have the Starfall report?”
"Here, Princess," Raven said as she floated some papers out of one of the smaller folders she was carrying.
"Thank you,” she said as she took the papers in her own magic. “The nobles of Starfall Isle are causing a commotion once again." She snorted, laying her ears back as she pawed the carpet with a forehoof. "I've received several strongly worded letters, and their representative today made a very impassioned speech about a 'Pure Equestria'."
"I suppose it was due." Celestia heaved a weary sigh. "This nonsense seems to come to a head once or twice every century." She snorted, adding, "'Equestria for ponies,' they say. One short step away from 'everypony in their place, with the unicorns on top.'"
"Then I suppose we should lance this boil before it grows any larger," Luna said. "Any advice on how to do so without fueling enough resentment for them to propose becoming an independent city-state?"
"I find that waiting for the older generation to die off works wonders," Celestia replied, her voice wry. Her eyes flicked towards Raven, the wide-eyed secretary staring back at her almost disbelievingly. She cleared her throat and continued. "Provided, of course, that they don't pass their prejudices along to the younger generation. We need to expose them to more races, let the young people see that there are wonderful people in this world who aren't ponies."
"Tricky to do, since the entirety of Starfall Island is independently owned. We can't simply force them to meet other species. Can we?"
Celestia chuckled. "Not without breaking more than a few laws. I’m reluctant to do that, since I’m the one who wrote most of them. However, we can invite the young nobles to come to Canterlot for various social events, while making certain that these events have plenty of non-ponies in attendance."
"Good idea," Luna said, nodding. "That reminds me, the planning committee for the next Grand Galloping Gala met for the first time today. Do they really need to begin planning that seven months in advance?"
"Oh, yes," Celestia replied with a grimace. "It takes at least that long to suction all the fun out of it."
Raven giggled, blushed, and covered her mouth with a hoof before clearing her throat. "Sorry," she mumbled.
Celestia offered her a warm smile before returning to the discussion at hoof. "We'll have to make sure we extend some invitations to the humans."
"I've already spoken to their ambassador," Luna replied. "He promised to procure a list of noteworthy people from his world."
"Ah, the first inter-world Gala," Celestia said with a happy little smile. "With any luck, this will make for the second interesting Gala in a row. Which reminds me, we need to make sure to invite all of the Element Bearers this time. Last time, I tried giving just a pair of tickets to Twilight. It didn't work out so well."
Luna blinked, frowning. "Why would you only give her two tickets when she has five friends?" She considered for a moment. “Oh, yes, and Spike.”
"Honestly? I was hoping she would figure out that she was supposed to bring a date."
Luna stared at her sister for a moment before bursting into a full-blown belly laugh. “Seriously? You expected Twilight Sparkle to invite a suitor to the Grand Galloping Gala? Even I know better, and I didn’t all but raise her.”
“My hopes were, admittedly, a touch too high,” Celestia replied, a wry tinge to her voice. “Still, hope blooms eternal. It wasn’t all that long ago that she found no value in friendship. Perhaps, one day, she’ll see the value of romance. In any case, what is the next order of business?”
“Hmm, well, training of the new Dreamguard is proceeding apace. I should be able to begin deployments soon, with further training to follow in the Dreamrealms themselves. I shall keep one or two behind at the castle to begin basic training with the newest candidates, while I teach the more advanced workings of Dream Magic to the others. Let’s see, what else…”
The rest of the evening passed quickly, with Luna and Raven bringing Celestia up to speed on the events of the day. The elder princess was, naturally enough, already well in-tune with the local political and economic landscape, and was a veritable font of insight and suggestions.
For the most part, Luna was grateful to have her sister’s advice. Still, she was alarmed to find a small and disturbingly familiar ember of resentment burning in her breast. As a princess in her own right, there was a non-incidental part of her psyche that was convinced she could do just as well on her own, that relying on Celestia was a weakness.
An old voice from her past echoed in her mind. ”With my help, you can show them all what it means to be the Princess of the Night!”
She shuddered, blotting the memory out as best she could.
“Luna?”
Celestia's expression held nothing but concern. Luna let out a breath and smiled. “‘Tis nothing. Shall we continue?”
Her sister held her gaze for a moment before she nodded. “Yes, let’s do,” she said with a smile.
~~*Erin*~~
The sun was setting as Erin finally returned home. After the doctor’s office, she had tried to treat Pinkie and Twilight to dinner as a way of thanking them for their support. They’d turned down the offer, instead grabbing something quick from the hospital cafe before heading back to Fluttershy’s cottage to make sure she was okay.
Removing her saddlebags, she immediately went into her lab and fired up the large-screen portable computer she had in there. Like her tablet, it was a touch-screen. Unlike her tablet, it was roughly two feet wide and much more powerful.
A few taps was all it took to fire up the probe control program that she’d been given by the Wi-Fi technicians. The probes, self-sufficient quadcopters that had been loaded with sensors in order to explore Equestria before first contact, had been repurposed as mobile Wi-Fi repeaters in order to reach Erin’s more remote friends.
Twilight and Pinkie might have wanted to check up on Fluttershy, but Erin had her own ways to keep an eye on things.
After a few minutes of navigation, she managed to pull up the probe that was stationed near Fluttershy’s cottage. It had been repurposed to act as a mobile repeater to allow the town’s Wi-Fi to reach all the way out there, but it still had much of its old functionality.
Piloting the thing was easier than she’d been afraid it would be, with simple, tappable controls on the screen allowing her to direct it. The probe’s own software took care of the minute details, such as keeping it level and adjusting for the wind.
One thing caught her eye almost immediately. A small wisp of cloud hovered maybe fifty feet from the cottage, low and strangely immobile. Erin raised the probe and zoomed in the camera, frowning at the image on the screen. At first, she wasn’t sure what to make of the blue lump on top of the cloud, but then a flick of rainbow-colored tail filled her in.
She chuckled, glad that she wasn’t the only one keeping an eye on Fluttershy’s cottage.
For the first hour or so, Erin stared diligently at the screen, waiting for something to happen. Three hours later, well after the sun set and she’d switched to night-vision, she could barely keep her eyes open. Her jaw cracked with a yawn and she shook her head, trying to will herself awake.
She could sleep in the morning, when her friends were up to keep an eye on things. For now, Fluttershy needed her. She got up, stretched, and trotted in place for a few seconds, trying to get her blood pumping.
Her determination kept her going for another half an hour before sleep claimed her.