//------------------------------// // Chapter Five // Story: Endstone and Harmony // by PrincessOfTheEnd //------------------------------// "So then I said, oatmeal, are you crazy?" Pinkie Pie finished her story. Twilight giggled, although Faeron just stared. Her eyebrows were slightly creased. "I don't get it." She admitted. Pinkie opened her mouth to explain but before she could say anything she walked into the front door of the library. "Ow. We're here!" She announced before rubbing her head. Faeron looked at the library for a moment. "I've never seen a library inside a tree before. Houses, but not a library. Or at least not a genuine one rather than a book collection." She said. Twilight looked at her in surprise before opening the front door, stepping inside. "Spike! Rainbow Dash!" She called. There was a thud coming from upstairs, and as Twilight walked further into the public area of the library Rainbow Dash appeared at the top of the staircase. "Hi Twilight! I think Spike is feeling a little better; Princess Celestia ran out of letters," Rainbow grimaced. A pile of blankets shuffled to sit behind her, and a claw poked through one of the layers around the front and pulled it down, revealing Spike's face. "Hey Twilight," Spike said. His voice was hoarse. Twilight's ears drooped. "Hi Spike. Did you take any medicine?" she asked. Spike nodded, and Twilight relaxed. She hadn't noticed how tense she'd been. "We need to send a letter but I don't think it would be very fair to ask you to send it after all that..." she trailed off. Should she just wait until Spike was better? "Maybe Rainbow Dash could fly to Canterlot and deliver the letter that way! Ooh, or maybe the princess will come here on her own? The elements do make a pretty big light show!" Pinkie Pie waved her forelegs in the air for emphasis. She had a point, Twilight thought. "Twilight, if I can send a letter when I have a cold I can send one now!" Spike argued. Twilight shook her head firmly. "It wouldn't be fair to ask you to send it right now. But—" Twilight raised a hoof as Spike opened his mouth to interject. "—if you're really that adamant about it we'll wait until everypony else gets here, and then we can think about it." Spike sighed, relenting, then raised an eyebrow, looking behind Twilight. "What's with her?" Twilight turned around and saw Faeron staring into space with a frown. "Are you o-" as Twilight started, the space in front of Faeron flashed bright purple. "What was that?" Twilight asked, blinking spots out of her eyes. Faeron looked at her sheepishly, a small, floating, glowing symbol of a tree where the flash came from. "I didn't mean for that to flash so brightly. My bag is missing, so I made a waypoint for me to come back to after I've found it." Faeron gestured at the glowing tree. "A waypoint?" Rainbow Dash echoed. "I can explain after I've got my bag," Faeron said, before vanishing in a burst of sparks, just like she had earlier. Twilight stared at the sparks and the symbol in the air for a moment before sighing and turning back towards Spike and Rainbow Dash. Spike had a vaguely startled look. "Did you bring a teleporting earth pony into the library or was I just seeing things?" Spike asked. Twilight sighed again, bordering on a groan. "I think I did, and she left before I could ask any questions." In the middle of teleporting, Faeron made sure to spend an extra few seconds in the ether. She could feel a faint string of her magic which she recognised as the binding she put on her alchemy bag, and used the string to make sure she came out of the ether in the right place. As she left, she noted that it didn't feel like the ether for any of the realms she recognised. The world untwisted, and she was standing at the edge of the forest she was in before. Her bag was lying on the ground, a bit of dirt kicked up around it. She frowned, and rather than take a few minutes to get the string over her neck manually and probably get her face dirty, she used a bit of magic to pick it up like hands. She noticed it took a little less energy to do so than it normally would, but there was a surprisingly high saturation of ambient magic there still, so it was probably helping. After her bag was once again safely attached to her, she focused on the waypoint she'd set, and let the world twist for her once more. *pff* "-stop, pl-haha-please! I g-haha-give up!" Faeron stared for a moment when she regained her her vision of the tree library. Just off from the staircase, "Twilight" was sitting down with a flailing and laughing purple and green mess. Her horn was glowing magenta, and the same glow surrounded several feathers, which were attacking whoever was in front of her. "L-ha-Look, the-haha- other pony is back! Go talk to ha-her and sto-h-p tickling meeeeee!" he managed to squeak out. Twilight turned to look, lowering the feathers, and smiled. "Hello again. You got your bag, I see," Twilight said. Faeron nodded slowly. "I'm afraid to ask what happened in the few minutes I was gone that led to that..." she said, looking at the green and purple scaly- Faeron tensed and recoiled. "Is that a..." she trailed off, looking back at Twilight. "Oh, Spike? He's a baby dragon, and my number one assistant!" Twilight said, pulling the small dragon into a hug. Spike rolled his eyes and smiled. "I send letters, help her with her checklists, and make sure she remembers to eat," he said, listing them off with his claws. Faeron had to focus on his young voice and small size to keep herself from doing anything rash, and tried not to let her shaking show. 'It's a he, not a her, he's a baby, she wasn't, there aren't any crystals around, he isn't like her, please let him not be like her,' Faeron mentally repeated to herself, forcing her tense breathing to stay slow and regular. She noticed someone was waving a hoof in front of her face, and realised she'd zoned out. Pinkie looked concerned. "Are you okay? You looked like when Fluttershy tries to pretend she's not in the centre of attention," she said. Faeron wasn't sure who Fluttershy was but concern was a lot better than the looks she was used to getting, and as she glanced around she realized that Pinkie wasn't the only one looking at her like that.