Star Trek: Equestria: Starfleet Academy Season 1

by Captain_Cosmos

Episode 10: Halloween Special pt 1: Familial Reunions

Author's Note:

I’ve decided to release the Halloween Special in parts. Otherwise this will look out of place in terms of length. I want to try to keep some semblance of consistency.

Also, the ending scene will seem a bit difficult to follow, only because I envisioned the reunions taking place all at the same time, with the CMC reunion happening afterwards,

Anywho, enjoy this first part!

In Ponyville on the planet Equuis, Moondancer has just closed up the library and was reviewing the day's activity log when she heard somepony knocking on the door. She took a quick glance at the clock and arched an eyebrow. "Hm, I wonder who could be calling just after the library closed." Moondancer trotted up to the door and opened it with her magic, and was surprised to see her brother and sister in law with her niece standing at the door. "Shining? Cadance? Flurry Heart? You three aren't supposed to be here for another hour?"

Cadance chuckled. "We didn't want to wait to see one of our favorite sparkling twin siblings."

Cadance and Moondancer started doing their special greeting. "Sunshine sunshine ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"

They stood back up when finished and chuckled. Cadance wrapped her forelegs around her sister. "How've you been Dancer?"

Moondancer returned the hug in kind. "I've been good. I'm finally getting used to the madness that seems to result from ponyville's chaos magnetic houses."

Shining chuckled at that. "Yeah. From the letters both you and twily have sent, Ponyville is never a dull town."

Moondancer was about to respond, but was instead nearly tackled by Flurry Heart leaping out of her baby carriage and wrapping her tiny legs around Moondancer's legs. Causing Moondancer to chuckle and lift Flurry up with her magic. "Hi Flurry. How's my favorite niece been. Are you excited for your trip?" Flurry Heart just made a bunch of giggly noises and nodded. Moondancer chuckled and turned her attention back to shining. "Back to your comment, no. Never a dull moment. There's always something about once every few days. And I still have no idea if it's discord messing with us or our proximity to the Everfree Forest."

"Oh, I'd say it's about, 50/50. I just can't help it, I'm the lord of chaos!" In front of the family, the lord of chaos himself appeared out of a book and landed on the ground, in pieces. Discord chuckled. "Oh, excuse me while I put myself back together." Discord proceeded to put himself back together using tools that poofed out of nowhere, tools that also went places that forced Moondancer to cover Flurry's eyes.

Cadance groaned. "Discord! At least cover yourself! Flurry's right here!"

Discord screwed his head back on and the tools disappeared. Discord rolled his eyes and smiled. "Oh come on Cady, little Flurry here won't even remember this, no harm done."

Shining shook his head. "That's not the point! It's inappropriate."

Discord rolled his eyes. "Whatever, it's in the past now. Let's move on." Discord disappeared and reappeared outside next to a crystal shuttle that Shining and Cadance used periodically. "So, this thing is big enough for you 4 and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. I wonder how much we can actually put in this thing before it can't fly."

Shining and Cadance glared at Discord. "Don't even think about it."

Moondancer nodded. "It would be unwise considering if you were to overload the shuttle mid flight, it could come crashing down and then you would be charged for possibly murdering royalty. As for your comment about the four of us, you miscounted, I am not going."

Discord gasped. "What? You are not going to visit your sister who you probably won't have another chance to see for another few months? Moondancer! I thought family meant everything."

Moondancer sighed. "As much as I would like to, I cannot close the library for a week. That would leave Ponyville without a crucial service and that would not be good for my conscious."

Cadance nudged Moondancer in her hip. "Come on Dancer, I'm sure twilight would live to see you again. Ponyville can survive one week without its chief librarian."

Moondancer scrunched up her face in thought. "Hmm, I don't know." Moondancer felt someone tugging on her leg. She looked down and saw Flurry Heart, trying to pull her towards the shuttle and giving her a look that was blatantly obviously screaming 'please come with us Moondancer, I miss you.' Flurry was using the Puppy Dog Eye trick, Moondancer knew it, she wanted to resist it, but the sheer adorableness right then was too much as she sighed. "Alright, I'll come along." Flurry smiled and hugged Moondancer.

Shining giggled. "You were quick to change your mind. Puppy Dog Eyes From Flurry?"

Moondancer nodded, which elicited a giggle from Cadance. "You and Twilight used that look on me more times than I can count back when I was watching you. And I could never resist. It's near impossible to resist that look. Especially when somepony Flurry's age uses it. How can you refuse a face like that?"

That got a collective chuckle out of everyone. Until they all heard 5 voices shout out. "Wait!!!" Everypony turned their heads to see the CMC galloping for dear life with a wagon full of bags in tow.

When they reached the library, the CMC caught their breath before Sweetie Bell spoke. "Hello Princess Cadance, Prince Shining Armor."

"Sorry we're late, we weren't expecting you to arrive until much later."

"When we saw your shuttle arrive we loaded the wagon and got here as fast as we could."

"We hope you weren't waiting for long."

Shining and Cadance took a glance at each other, than chuckled as they turned back to the CMC. "It's alright girls. We actually got off work earlier than we thought. We're sorry for causing you to panic."

"And from now on, you can just call us Shining Armor and Cadance."

The CMC let out a relieved sigh and collapsed as the adrenaline they had wore off. "Oh thank Celestia, I was afraid we lost track of time."

Discord chuckled. "I bet you 5 thought you were gonna get left behind."

Scootaloo shot him a frustrated glare. "Of course we thought that! Royalty shouldn't be kept waiting!"

Applebloom arched an eyebrow. "But the only reason they're even here is to pick us up."

Scootaloo turned her attention to Applebloom. "They could've just convinced Moondancer to go and left without us Bloom. And then, they wouldn't offer to bring us along again."

Cadance cleared her throat. "Alright, lets calm down. Everypony's here now. This doesn't need to turn into a fight."

Moondancer nodded. "Indeed. Also, I have been convinced to come. Flurry Heart convinced me using everypony's worst nightmare, Puppy Dog Eyes."

Sweetie's eyes widened and a huge smile crept free on her face. "That means you can connect me to Spike's firemail! You did say I was ready."

Moondancer nodded. "Yes. Our last session provided ample evidence that you were indeed ready for the spell to work."

Sweetie started hopping up and down in excitement. "Yes yes yes yes! Finally! I can't wait to tell spike!"

Her yes dance got a good chuckle out of everyone. Shining armor was the first to calm down. "He he he, tired of being the middle pony eh Moondancer?"

Moondancer ceased her chuckling. "I will admit it has been getting a little old, fortunately for me, sweetie here's said that she'll gladly take over that roll."

Sweetie nodded. "Yeah, once spike and I are connected the other crusaders and I can become Starfleet/Ponyville correspondence delivery mares. Oh this is gonna be good."

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. "Yeah yeah, delivery mares delivering letters from earth to anyone who cares. Yadda yadda yadda. If we're all here and ready, maybe we can get going to earth now? Might as well right?"

Discord grinned. "Oh yes. Go, be free my little ponies. Oh, and cadance." Discord snapped his fingers and he and cadance popped just a few meters away from everyone else. Discord leaned in and whispered. "While you're on earth, see if you can't get twilight and her human roommate to confess their feelings for each other. It's been ignored long enough."

Cadance glared at discord, but whispered back. "Wait, Twilight is in love with someone, and they love her back?"

Discord nodded. "You should be able to sense it when you get there. Ask the CMC for more details." Discord then raised his voice to dramatic level. "Farewell princess of love! May your trip be eventful and full of spooky fun!"

Cadance watched discord pop away as she processed what he just told her. 'Twilight is in love with someone, and 5 little fillies found out before me?' Cadance wasn't surprised that Discord seemed to know, and of course spike would know too, and yet twilight neglected to mention this to her sister in law, the Princess Of Love. Cadance's eyes fell on the CMC, who were just boarding the shuttle. 'Alright Cutie Mark Crusaders. Get ready to spill the beans, we have plenty of time to put together this puzzle.' Cadance smiled as she trotted back to the shuttle.

Shining noticed his wife's return and smiled. "So, you want me to fly?"

Cadance nodded. "Yes please. I have some interrogating to do."

Shining arched an eyebrow. "Interrogating?"

Cadance smirked. "Oh, yes."

Moondancer eyes Cadance as she and shining entered the shuttle. "And why would you need to interrogate anypony right now? And for that matter, who?"

Cadance snickered. "Discord just told me something very interesting. Apparently Moondancer, your twin sister is in love with someone, and has neglected to tell us."

Moondancer gasped. "Twilight has a crush?"

Cadance nodded. "And what's even more interesting. A certain group of fillies seem to know about it, but also neglected to tell us." Cadance, Shining, And Moondancer turned to the CMC, who were playing with Flurry.

Shining headed to the cockpit. "I'm gonna get this shuttle in the air."

Cadance nodded and returned her attention to the CMC. "Girls."

The CMC turned their attention to Cadance, and noticed that she and Moondancer were slowly walking towards them. Scootaloo arched an eyebrow. "Uh, what's going on guys?"

Moondancer eyed the fillies. "Girls, would you mind explaining to us why you left us in the dark about a certain lavender alicorn's crush on her human roommate? And just how you came to know about said crush?

The fillies tensed up as they took glances at each other. They knew that cadance was the princess of love, and they knew her history with Twilight and Moondancer. This was not going to be a fun journey. Shining chuckled to himself as he called out from the cockpit. "Attention passengers this is your pilot speaking, we are cleared for an on time departure with a flight time of 15 hours. Plenty of time to learn about romance and somepony's love life. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight. And for our younger passengers, also enjoy the interrogation." The CMC audibly gulped as the shuttle lifted off and ascended into space, headed straight for earth.

The next day, at Starfleet Academy, twilight, Pinkie, and Rarity were with Harry in Uniform Requisition, talking about the Halloween Dance and costumes. Rarity had dragged twilight there so they could talk about twilight's love problem while pinkie discussed party arrangements with Harry.

Rarity smirked at twilight. "Darling, I really think it would be a great thing for you to ask Jessica to the dance."

Twilight sighed. "But I can't. Because when you ask someone that typically, it means asking them on a date, and if I just ask her out out of the blue, she'll suspect something's up, ask me about it, I'll reveal my feelings, she'll hate me, and spike and I will have to find somewhere else to stay while we're here!"

Rarity sighed. Twilight was blowing this out of proportion, as usual. "Twilight. You don't know that's gonna happen."

Twilight eyed rarity. "But it COULD! That's the problem. I don't want to lose her completely. I just—" Twilight felt a hoof press against her muzzle, shutting her up.

Rarity spoke calmly. "Twilight, you and Jessica have a lot in common, you both love hanging with your friends, you both like astronomy..."

Pinkie interjected. "You're both massive eggheads!"

Rarity shot pinkie a look, then turned back to twilight. "The point is, even if you two aren't going to be marefriend and girlfriend, you two are still going to be best friends. That part will never change."

Twilight sighed. "But once I say something things between us will never be the same again, how can you be so sure Jessica will still want to be my friend?"

Rarity wanted nothing more then to tell Twilight right then and there that Jessica felt the same way, but Pinkie made her pinkie promise not to. Instead, she decided to do the next best thing. "Because in just 4 weeks, you two have formed a bond of friendship I have otherwise only seen with you and Moondancer. Even if the bond here is only a fraction of that bond. Jessica will not break that. No matter what you tell her."

Hardy nodded. "From what I've seen you two became best friends faster than I was expecting. I half-expected Jessica to be a little creeped out that she was sharing a room with a quadruped. But the only thing that fazed her was the fact that she was getting roommates at all. I don't think you have anything to worry about."

Pinkie nodded. "Yeah Twi. You two are super duper best friends for life. So even if she doesn't return your feelings, she'll still want to be your friend. You're getting worried over nothing. If you are gonna worry about anything, worry about what you're going to wear for Nightmare Night."

Rarity nodded. "Oh, yes. That's a must. Pinkie what are you gonna go as?"

Pinkie smiled. "I'm gonna be a lion." Pinkie let out a very very convincing lion roar.

Harry's eyes went wide. "Wow. If I didn't see you move your mouth pinkie, I would've thought a lion actually got in here."

Rarity chuckled. "One thing to note about pinkie, on Nightmare Night, whatever she goes as, she literally becomes. Anywho, what about you Mr. Leginton?"

Harry smiled and crossed his arms. "I'm going as a mad scientist. How about you Rarity?"

Rarity smiled. "I'm going as Mare Do-Well. I found that costume while I was packing and, well, it's been doing nothing but collecting dust since that incident with rainbow dash so I thought I'd give it a use again."

Twilight nodded. "I admit, it'll be nice to see Mare Do-Well again. That was actually kinda fun. As for me, I'm going as Sombra."

Pinkie and Rarity gasped and both shouted in unison. "Sombra?!"

Twilight arched an eyebrow. "Yeah? Is that a problem?"

Pinkie and rarity glanced at each other then back at twilight. "Twilight, why would you want to go as a stallion who ruled the crystal empire with an iron fist"

"And more importantly, aren't you too nice to pull him off?"

Twilight rolled her eyes. "I'm not gonna copy his personality. I'm just gonna copy his look. It's not like he’s coming back anytime soon anyway. I've looked into it..." twilight lit her horn and summoned a PADD from her saddlebag and brought up an image, turning the PADD around for her friends to see. "I can replicate Sombra's look pretty easily, just a simple illusion spell for the fur coat, eye contacts, those sharp teeth party implant things that you can get, the only thing that's difficult is his regalia."

Pinkie nodded. "Yeah That makes sense. You can't get that in the store."

Rarity nodded. "But, you can recreate it from scratch. Twilight. Leave the regalia to me. Mr. Leginton, do you mind to terribly if I asked for your assistance? Making 6 pieces of armor in just a week when you have classes as well is an extremely difficult task for one pony."

Harry nodded. "Sure thing Rarity. And again, you can just call me Harry. I am not old enough to be called Mr. Leginton."

The entire room let out a chuckle. "My sincerest apologies Harry, its a habit I've developed when calling everyone else Mr, Ms, or Mrs.”

Twilight nodded. "But, Yeah. Thank you for your help Rares, you too Harry."

Rarity turned back to twilight. "Any time twilight. Now, how are you going to ask Jessica to the dance?"

"Rarity!"

Elsewhere at the Academy around that time, in the shuttlebay, Jessica was leaning against the railing, looking up into the sky, thinking. Alongside the Lookout, she liked the Shuttlebay because it was a place where she could clear her mind relax. And she really needed it now. 'So, my experience so far at Starfleet Academy, September, made new friends, ok, great. October, made new friends, a demon moved in to my mind and has started tormenting me with nightmares, and I fall for a pony who happens to be my roommate along with a dragon. Why do two of those bullet points sound normal?'

Jessica's brain responded. 'And why shouldn't it sound normal? They are all citizens of the Federation just like you. And besides, you've roomed with aliens before, and you've crushed on an alien or two before.'

'Yeah, But none of them had wings, magic, or fire breath, and those were just passing crushes, this one is much more.'

'And again, why should it feel any weirder then those? Have you forgotten who is currently residing inside your mind? If anything, that's the only weird thing going on here right now.'

'Oh believe me, I know. Ms evil spirit hasn't let me forget. If the nightmares she's given me are any indication.'

All of a sudden, Jessica heard said evil spirit's voice in her mind. "Someone call?"

Jessica shook her head. "No."

NM just chuckled. "That's right, you never call. And quite frankly, I'm hurt that you never want to initiate any conversation between us."

Jessica smiled. "Good, because I never want to talk to you, and if it hurts you that just gives me more reason not to."

NM huffed. "You're no fun."

Jessica groaned. "And you are annoying as all heck. You better put on a convincing show on Friday. Because if they don't believe me after the fact then you are in trouble."

NM chuckled. "And just what could you do to me?"

Jessica was about to respond when she heard spike call out to her. "Jessica! Didn't expect to see you here."

Jessica finished her conversation with NM abruptly. "This conversation's over." Jessica proceeded to block out NM just as spike landed on the railing and sat down on it.

Jessica eyed spike with concern. "Careful, one move forwards or back, you could fall and break something,"

Spike chuckled. "This isn't the first time I've sat on a railing. Besides, you'll catch me right?"

Jessica nodded. "I'm sure Twilight would yell at me with her "Royal Canterlot Voice" if I didn't stop you from falling." Both of them chuckled at that.

"You'll want to cover your ears for that. Depending on how close she is that could make you go death." They finally stopped chuckling and spike spoke up. "So, what are you doing here Jessica? Waiting for a shuttle?"

Jessica shook her head. "Aside from the Lookout, I like to come here to clear my head. Something about the ambient noise here is soothing for my brain."

Spike chuckled. "I'll bet."

Jessica nodded. "So, why are you here?"

Spike looked up into the sky. "I'm waiting for a shuttle from Equuis. Twilight's brother and sister, as well as the Cutie Mark Crusaders, are visiting for the week."

Jessica smiled. "Family and friends visiting. That'll be fun."

Spike nodded. "I know, I'm so excited to see my marefriend again. As well as the rest of my CMC friends. And some of the only family I've ever known."

Jessica chuckled. "Your marefriend is Sweetie Belle right?"

Spike nodded. "Yep. And I am so excited to see her. I miss getting to kiss her cute muzzle everyday."

Jessica chuckled. "I'll bet she can't wait to do the same." Jessica chuckled for a few seconds, then eased out. What happened next Jessica didn't even think about beforehand. "Hey, spike?"

Spike looked over to his roommate and arched an eyebrow. "What is it Jessica?"

"You've been with Twilight you're whole life, right?"

Spike nodded. "Yeah. she's taken care of me since she was a filly."

Jessica smiled. "So you've watched her grow and develop into the mare she is today?"

Spike nodded.

"Perchance, do you know what twilight looks for in a, significant other?"

Spike smirked knowingly as he answered almost too fast "Hm, well, for the sake of argument, describe yourself in line with what you just asked."

Jessica deadpanned. "That's not what I asked."

"Just do it."

Jessica sighed. "Well, I like hanging out with my friends, I'm always there for them, I'm caring, compassionate, a bookworm..." Spike chuckled at that one. "...and, I don't let anyone put me down. I keep going no matter what happens in my life."

Spike smiled. "There you go."

Jessica arched an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"You just answered your own question."

"What do you mean?"

Spike rubbed his forehead in frustration. "You're everything she looks for in a significant other."

Jessica arched an eyebrow. "She looks for a bookworm?"

Spike chuckled. "She put that in the bonus section. It's not a requirement. But everything she does looks for, you have."

A hopeful smile crept its way onto Jessica's face. "So, you're saying I have a chance with her."

Spike nodded. "Mhm. And we're all rooting for you. If that helps.

Jessica arched an eyebrow. "Excuse me?"

"To put it simply, the only one who DOESN'T know is twilight. Seriously Jess, she is the most oblivious mare in the history of romance."

Jessica arched an eyebrow. "And you all know how? I knew T'Nea knew because I told her, but the rest of you?" Spike was going to respond, but was interrupted by the sight of a certain shuttle with a crystal shaped space frame descending.

Spike let out the widest smile Jessica had ever seen on him as he took off circling the shuttlebay. "There they are! They're here! They're finally here!" Jessica watched her small, usually mature roommate fly around in circles like a child who just opened up their new favorite toy.

Jessica chuckled as she tried to get spike's attention. "Spike! You might want to land, because if I remember correctly, Sweetie Belle is a unicorn!" Much to her surprise, spike actually heard her through his own shouts of excitement.

Spike landed on the ground next to Jessica and chuckled nervously. "Heh heh. Sorry about that Jess, just excited is all."

Jessica knelt down and patted spike on the back as they watched the shuttle descend. "I'm sure Sweetie Belle will come galloping out of that shuttle and jump into your arms like a princess reuniting with her knight in shining armor."

Spike blushed as they watched the shuttle come in for a landing. Jessica stood back up and took a step away from spike, which was actually a pretty good idea because no sooner after Jessica completed the motion, a giant puff of purple smoke erupted out of nowhere between Jessica and spike. The smoke cleared the reveal twilight, with, in Jessica's personal opinion, the goofiest grin she had ever seen from twilight. Jessica could feel her heart beating a mile a minute when she saw just how adorable twilight looked. It nearly caused her to break down and just confess to twilight then and there. But she knew it wasn't the time yet.

So instead, Jessica shook her head clear and asked the logical question. "Twilight?! Where the stars did you come from? And why did you-I'm assuring you did-teleport here rather than use the turbolift?"

Twilight's smile faded slightly. "Oh, sorry if I almost landed on you Jessica. It's just that I saw the crystal shuttle and immediately got excited because it belongs to my brother and sister-in-law."

Jessica nodded. "Yeah. They're the monarchs of the crystal empire correct?"

Twilight nodded. "And I may have told them about you. So they're itching to meet, and I quote, 'the human twilight of this dimension'."

Jessica burst out laughing. "The human twilight of this dimension? That's the comparison they're going with?"

Twilight chuckled. "Yeah."

Spike, twilight, and Jessica all laughed for a good minute before being interrupted by the arrival of their Equine friends. Starlight was the first to hear their chuckling and smiled. "Hey guys. What's all the chuckling about?"

Jessica stopped chuckling and caught her breath. "Hey guys. Apparently, twi's family compares me to twilight as her human counterpart of this dimension."

Sunset chuckled. "Oh so they remembered that twilight has a counterpart in the Alternate Universe. Now that you mention it Jessica. You do remind me of her."

Everyone laughed while Jessica arched an eyebrow. "Wait, that's what they mean by, of this dimension?"

Twilight nodded. "Yeah. I have a literal counterpart in another dimension. I bet if I took you over there and introduced you to her, you'd hit it off immediately."

Jessica snickered as she nodded. "You know, I bet we would." Jessica joined in the chuckling as they all saw the shuttle open up.

Applejack cleared her throat. "Calm down y'all. Cadance and shining're here." The chuckling died down as they all saw a group of ponies exit the shuttle. Twilight, spike, Applejack, Rarity, and rainbow smiled as they lay eyes on their kin, honorary or otherwise, for the first time since coming to the academy.

Twilight started running towards her brother and sisters whilst the fillies rushed past her to their own kin. "Shiny! Cadance! Moondancer!"

Cadance and Moondancer saw their sister running towards them and smiled. Once twilight got close enough the trio launched into their special greeting.

"Sunshine sunshine ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" The three stood back up and they and shining armor all shared a group hug.

Twilight's smile couldn't be any wider. "This is so unexpected, I didn't know you were coming today!"

Shining chuckled. "That was kinda the point little sis, we wrote to spike saying that we were coming so he could put it through whatever visiting obstacles this place has, and asked him to keep it from you."

Spike chimed in from behind twilight. "Yeah, and also so I could make hotel arrangements for you guys and the cutie mark crusaders. Though I didn't account for Moondancer showing up."

Jessica eyes suddenly widened. "Wait a minute spike. This was your pet project wasn't it? The one you needed my help on?"

Spike nodded sheepishly. "Yeah. Sorry I couldn't tell you. I wanted to minimize the possibility of twilight knowing."

Jessica patted him on the head. "It's cool spike. Now, you said sweetie belle was the white unicorn with pink hair right?" Spike nodded. "Well, I think she's waiting for ya to finish up." Jessica pointed behind spike, who glanced behind him and saw Sweetie Belle acting like she really wanted to just run up and kiss him silly, but was waiting to not be rude.

Spike started slowly walking backwards. "It's nice to see you all again, but if you'll excuse me, I have a few more ponies to say hello to." With That, spike turned around and zipped away to say hello to sweetie belle, by kissing her square on the lips.

Moondancer let out a small chuckle. "Yeah, we're not gonna see them apart again until Monday when he needs to go to class."

Cadance nodded. "He's a dragon in love. Quite frankly, I'm surprised he didn't automatically go to sweetie."

Jessica chuckled. "From the way we were talking just before you arrived, I half expected him to just run up and tackle her to the ground kissing her silly." That got a chuckle out of the sparkles.

Shining nodded towards Jessica. "So, twily, you gonna introduce us to your friend here?"

Twilight's eyes widened. "Oh, right. Shining, cadance, Moondancer, this is my roommate and best friend, Jessica Cosmos. Jessica, this is my twin sister Moondancer-"Jessica and Moondancer shook hands and hooves. "-and our older siblings shining armor, and princess Cadance."

Jessica curtsied toward shining and cadance. "Your majesties."

Cadance raised a hoof. "Don't. If you are a friend of our sister and spike you are a friend of ours."

Shining nodded. "So it's just Cadance and shining armor to you. Got it?"

Jessica was surprised, but nodded. "Sure." Right then, before Jessica could even process what was happening, a small cloud of smoke suddenly appeared out nowhere in front of Jessica, close to her face, causing her to jump back a bit. "What the..." before Jessica uttered another word, she saw a little white ball of fur rush towards and clamp itself onto her chest. Jessica's mind caught up and she saw that it was a foal.

Shining and cadance gasped. "Flurry!" Flurry lifted her head to stare up at Jessica, giggling along the way. Flurry was then enveloped in a magenta aura and pulled from Jessica, straight into twilight's hooves.

Twilight nuzzled flurry. "Flurry! You're here too!" Flurry giggled, nodded. Jessica took one look at flurry and immediately fell in love, as you do when you gaze upon an adorable infant for the first time.

"Aww! She's adorable!" Jessica cooed.

Cadance nodded. "Yeah, Flurry Heart is quite the adorable one. Although she can also be a trouble maker at times. We're hoping that she won't cause any trouble here, er, anymore trouble. Sorry about her sudden appearance in front of you Jessica."

Jessica shook her head. "Oh, no, it's fine. Like I told Twilight when I first met her. If we have magic wielding ponies as cadets here, we should be prepared for anything. Like the cutest teleporting nieces of my roommates." Twilight chuckled as Jessica reached in with her finger and used it to tickle flurry right under her chin, earning a giggle from the foal.

Meanwhile, applebloom was hugging Applejack and Rara, her eyes misty. "I missed you two so much! We all do."

Applejack chuckled as she nuzzled Applebloom. "We missed ya too sugarcube."

"How're things on the farm AB?"

Applebloom smiled. "Things are great. I miss you and all, but with you gone I can finally help out more. And sugar belle is a big help. And Big Mac is stepping up too. You two would be proud..." While Applebloom chatted away, scootaloo had ran toward rainbow and Fluttershy, and wrapped her forelegs around both of them.

"Rainbow, fluttershy, it's so good to see you two!"

Rainbow chuckled. "It's good to see you too squirt. How's life back in Ponyville?"

Scootaloo smiled as she positioned herself to start flapping her wings. "Eh, the usual, the monster attack of the week, school, I can finally fly properly, nopony's adopted me yet but I'm hoping—"

"Hold on a minute scoots." Rainbow interrupted scootaloo, a smile slowly creeping it's way onto her face. "What was that? That third thing?"

Scootaloo looked at her confused, but then smiled as she began flapping her wings. "Oh yeah. Watch this!" Just like any Pegasus, scootaloo flapped her wings and lifted off with little effort. She hovered above the ground for a second before taking off to fly circles around Rainbow and fluttershy.

Rainbow watched with her jaw hanging down. Ever since she met scootaloo, she had been working with her to teach her how to fly. Through that, and just general hanging out, the two of them became as close as sisters. So when Rainbow saw that her surrogate sister was finally capable of flying without any help. She nearly lost it with joy.

Rainbow flapped her wings and rose to scootaloo's level. "Scootaloo, you're, you're flying! You're actually flying!"

Scootaloo nodded excitedly. "I know! I practiced all the routines you taught me every day since you got sent here. And just this week, I finally was able to complete a full lap around sweet Apple acres without touching the ground once!"

Fluttershy had flown up to their level at that point and she instantly enveloped scootaloo with her wings in a hug. "That's amazing scootaloo! I'm so proud of you."

Rainbow joined them in a group hug. "Me too scoots, I told you one day you'd fly. And that day finally came. I wish I was there to see it."

Scootaloo chuckled. "Thanks guys. Hey, maybe sometime this week we three can go on a flight, a proper one. I haven't gone for my First Flight yet and I want to share it with you two."

Rainbow and Fluttershy let go of a scootaloo and looked at each other in disbelief. They both knew that a pegasus's First Flight was a special one, one that all Pegasi remembered to their dying day. There wasn't any like it, and it could never be replicated no matter how hard it was tried. It was the flight that introduced the Pegasi to the sky that they were destined to inherit from the Pegasi before them.

Fluttershy looked back to scootaloo, her eyes tearing up. "Me? You want to share your first flight with me?" The fact that scootaloo wanted to share her First Flight with Rainbow wasn't all that surprising considering they were as close as sisters, but Fluttershy didn't have nearly as close a bond with the orange filly.

Scootaloo nodded. "Yeah. I mean, I will admit that we aren't as close as rainbow and I, but you've always been there for me ever since you and Dash started seeing each other. You're like, a distant cousin who you only see a couple times a year, but I can always write you. It wouldn't be right if I didn't let both ponies as close as I currently have to family share my First Flight with me."

Tears were freely rolling down Fluttershy's face as she again embraced scootaloo. "Of course scootaloo, I'd be honored."

Rainbow nodded her head. "Count me in too scoots, I can't wait to see you tackle earth's sky."

They all heard whistling coming from the ground. Followed by Applebloom's voice. "Hey scoots, when you're finished showing off your new ability, come down here so the we can do the CMC chant with all 6 members, like it's meant for." Scootaloo slowed her wing beat and descended down onto the floor, and grouped up with the rest of her CMC friends.

Scootaloo nodded towards spike. "Hey spike."

Spike nodded back. "Sup scoots."

She and spike, along with Applebloom. Diamond Tiara, Sweetie Belle, and Silver Spoon got into a circle and extended their arm and forelegs in a hoofpile. "Crusaders together, CMC forever!" The hoofpile exploded as they all came together in a group hug. All laughing.

"Boy did we miss you spike!"

"Yeah! It just wasn't the same without ya spike."

Spike chuckled. "I missed you guys too. By the way, who came up with us going as pirates?"

Scootaloo held her head proudly. "That be me matey. First mate scootaloo reporting fee duty captain spike!" All 6 of them chuckled, then heard a gasp from afar. Everyone in the shuttlebay turned to the source of the gasp and saw sunset and Starlight, who had wandered over to the sparkles, frantically looking around while a huge puff of pink smoke faded away.

Sunset shouted. "We got a foal on the loose!"

At this, everyone gasped. Flurry Heart was missing!

To be continued.