The Master Mev

by kazamacat

Chapter 59 - Batty Indulgence

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"The Dragonlands you say?" Spike asked. He proudly puffed his chest a little and pointed to himself with his right thumb. "Perhaps you would like a Friendship Ambassador to accompany you."

Rainbow Dash nodded in his direction with a pleased and polite smile. "You are correct, Ambassador Spike."

"Who's going with? Who's going with?" Pinkie Pie eagerly asked while wagging her puffy tail.

"If they can, Rarity and Applejack for Saturday," Rainbow Dash announced.

"Saturday this time?" Rarity asked with a curious blink. "I can go yes, but I assumed you chose Sundays on purpose."

"My Wonderbolts show is early enough, and I can take care of the weather before we go. Nightmare Night will be here before we know it. You have a very strong chance of getting earth power during our trip. And if that's what happens, I want to give you an extra day to learn how to use it," Rainbow explained. "That will help Twilight and Pinkie with their planning as well."

The other two named ponies quietly nodded in agreement.

"You think it's going to happen there?" the third fledgling asked in mild surprise before giving it some thought. Putting a white hoof to her chin, she stated, "Actually, I suppose that does make sense."

"Are you going to accept if it's offered?" Sweetie Belle could not help herself from asking her older sister.

"Oh, of course, Sweetie Belle. I may not like getting dirty, and I sense what you mean for when Rainbow talked of plain-looking rocks. However, as Rexa has said, we fledglings have instincts of our own. If everything falls in line with what Master expects, I'm sure I will be more than satisfied with such a power," Rarity answered.

"So, can you join us Applejack?" Rainbow asked.

Applejack smiled and nodded. "I'm really glad to be picked now that I got a little dragon fire myself." She winked at Spike, who smiled bashfully and waved back.

"Anyone else?" Starlight Glimmer wondered.

"Perhaps another flier should be with you," Twilight Sparkle suggested.

"Actually...a few notes on that," Rainbow began. "Scootaloo has become another servant of mine."

Whispers and murmurs ran through the group.

"What kind of servant?" Fluttershy asked.

"A daytime bodyguard. Like Sweetie Belle, she has bonded with me. As such, I can give her an adult form that can fly in service of our work. She will be joining us in that form given the dangerous nature of the Dragonlands compared to all of the other places I've visited. Plus, worst case scenario, I can just make Rarity and Applejack bat ponies." At that last, part, Rainbow Dash grinned.

"Really?" asked a very interested Applejack.

"I'll show it off more when we talk about Nightmare Night but really," Rainbow replied. A hint of subtle pride carried through her voice.

"How are you all going to get there?" Starlight asked. "There's no train ride...is there?"

"I was thinking you or Twilight could just teleport us," Rainbow admitted. "Or I guess I could learn to teleport others besides myself."

"Chaos magic can do multiple teleports, and I'll be happy to teach that," Discord said.

"I can teach you to do the multiple teleports with unicorn magic too," Starlight offered.

"Even though you can and should learn, I will teleport you all," Twilight made an offer as well. "I'll be on standby here in case you need to summon my help for anything else. The Dragonlands can be tricky to deal with after all."

"Much appreciated Rexa," Rainbow agreed. She glanced over to Sweetie Belle's notes and the agenda. "Moving on, let's talk about Nightmare Night."

All the other Awesomevs cheered.

Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie met eyes, and Pinkie gave a smiling nod for Twilight to start speaking on their behalf.

"As you all know, from the scroll I passed out earlier, Spike came up with these 'Natural Elements'. Well, he sort of came up with them. He worked with the idea that Pinkie has a water based power in Penny and Applejack has a fire based power in what she got from him and Amara. He was coming up with ideas for our show, and it seems that he was on the right track.

"We were meant to receive these powers. We don't know if Rarity is definitely getting earth or Rainbow Dash lightning, but we do know that a free night of chaos magic can make it seem that way.

"All of our powers are limited, roughly by the size of our own individual bodies though that is hard to tell with wind. We will not have that rule on Nightmare Night. We can go all out and create a more disbelieving illusion."

"Do you think that Rainbow's chaos magic is what will remove that limit or that we ourselves are actually freed up to use the power?" Starlight inquired.

"Oh, you know, I hadn't really made the connection," Twilight told her, "but it would make sense given the special nature of the night."

"We'll make it happen either way. I'll have to learn just in case," Rainbow said.

"Of course," Twilight acknowledged. "But back on track, we think we'll make a big demonstration of using these natural element powers…" she paused and looked over to Pinkie Pie.

"With a song! It might be long, but we're sure, ever so sure, it's not wrong! We should have ourselves a Nightmare Night song!" Pinkie Pie gleefully declared in a song of her own.

"Oh, that's a wonderful idea," Fluttershy said with a sweet, hopeful smile. She loved singing and had even grown to love performing it in recent years.

"You two are right," Rainbow Dash agreed. "It feels like there has to be a song now that I think about it."

All the Awesomevs nodded with eager smiles.

Sweetie Belle's eyes widened, and she looked at Rainbow, then at Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie.

"Looks like you've read our minds Rhezenda," Twilight said. "We were hoping you might be interested in helping us write that. We know crusading is your main calling, but that musical note in your cutie mark is there too. It would be a great way to bridge us with the outsiders, given your role."

"Master, can I?" Sweetie Belle asked, and her voice brimmed with hope. "I definitely want to do it. Please!"

"I think it's a great idea," Rainbow replied, "so yes, you most certainly can. You'll have to fit it into your busy schedule."

"I can use my Thursday night nocturnality and other times. I know I can do it," Sweetie Belle declared with confidence. "I've got some ideas already."

"Make sure I'm on Blitz in there," Rainbow Dash told her.

Sweetie Belle grinned. "Of course, Master."

"Anything else?" Rainbow asked, turning her attention back to Twilight.

"From us, no, but you did mention to me the other day you had stuff to talk about that you learned from the students. Would any of that be relevant here?" Twilight replied to her.

"Oh!" Rainbow said as she recalled that conversation. "Maybe. Here, let me just show you all in a little projection from my memory on the table."

Using the always helpful ability during pack meetings, she replayed a vision of her encounter with the students regarding the fear snares.

"Mev magic can do that?" Discord asked, clearly fascinated by the whole affair.

"Only if they're scared of me or the trap or Blitz," Rainbow Dash informed everyone. "Once the fear is gone, which is why it would be hard to show here, they can escape."

"So, theoretically," the first fledgling began,"you could give the younger creatures about our students' age a couple of 'amusement park' rides provided they've still got enough fear in them after the song?"

"Yes," Rainbow confirmed. "The thing is, it's right at the end of the song where the communal fear should level off. We should try to have the outsiders settled by then, and we give our thanks to the audience."

"I think you could still do it," Applejack said. "I still haven't met Blitz myself, but if you've got her in the flesh, from what everyone else has said, she'll be enough."

"Besides that, you could probably bypass the fear requirement by using chaos magic," Sweetie Belle reminded the master mev.

Rainbow raised her eyebrows thoughtfully though she did not comment. She had an instinctual preference to rely on her mev magic for the idea. Still, she could at least sense fear and work from there.

"We could offer other games too," Pinkie Pie suggested. "Something special to our powers, some of us, maybe not all of us but like Darkness and Light should do so something together. Some kind of shadow puppet show or something!"

"Good thinking," Rainbow agreed. "Alright. Now, another part of my part. My dear Awesomevs, you should all be bat ponies that night."

The fledglings cheered and smiled.

"Ready to test it?" the master among them asked with an eager grin.

They all nodded.

Rainbow Dash took on her own bat form. She then activated her red-on-yellow eyes, and a stream of red magic flowed over into Starlight Glimmer's chest. Bat wings grew on her back though the magic did not linger nor wait for her. It made a course over to Fluttershy.

The canary yellow pegasus giggled as she felt her feathered wings transform into leathery flaps. These wings were more like Rainbow's own bat form than the Flutterbat form she had been practicing.

After that, the magic swooshed over to Rarity. And so on it went through Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and at last, Twilight Sparkle. Each fledgling felt their fangs grow out as well. "It's got flight too. Try it," Rainbow encouraged the rest of her pack.

Every one of them lifted from their seats and began to fly, including those who already could.

"Oh my goodness!" Pinkie Pie screeched with joy. "I love it! I love it! I love it! She zipped about like a blurry pink rocket.

"I don't think I've flown like this since the Best Young Fliers' competition," Rarity noted. She hovered gracefully.

"I'm that much closer to being a dragon," Applejack declared with evident fondness for it.

Spike lifted off to dart around with her where the two enjoyed tiny bursts of flame on their fireproof selves.

Floating up to Discord's perch, a fanged Fluttershy asked, "Discord, what do you think?" as she smiled warmly at him.

The draconequis in question was eating popcorn. He finished chewing his latest bite and answered, "I'm enjoying the show. At this rate, I won't hardly be needed for props and set."

"We'll just see about that," Pinkie pointed at him with a playful air.

Sweetie Belle gazed on at the several vampires flying about and having so much fun together. The sight put her on the verge of happy tears. An idea registered with her for having each one take the bat form at the end of a solo within the suggested song. She quickly wrote that idea down.

"The flight feels the same," Twilight noted aloud.

"Even though we're using chaos magic to get the wings and the fangs on, it is mev magic that makes flight with bat wings so easy for all of us," Rainbow Dash explained.

"Oh," Twilight replied. Rather than trouble Spike, who was enjoying flying with the other bat ponies, Twilight descended to note what Rainbow told her on her own.

"Alright Awesomevs, party's over. We found out I can do it to all of you at the same time. Back to your seats," the master mev instructed them.

The fledglings contentedly obeyed. It helped that each knew they could at the very least request the form during a flexchange if they liked.

As every pony and dragon settled back into their seats, Rainbow Dash read from Sweetie Belle's notes. "Down the line," she proclaimed." We go in order like last time. Primeva, number one…"

The first fledgling answered, "We've covered me already. I got this cool darkness power and was there for Griffonstone. I'll be here to help out for the Nightmare Night show as needed."

"Segunda, number two."

"My bat form is at both wings. It seems related to my wind gift. Since I got the wind, I'm able to do it more often. And in the bat form, I can double the amount of wind I breathe out. I can change the winds with or without it to be stronger or weaker. Another thing that I'm sure Master will explain more about on her turn is that I have been taking care of a roc who gave up his magic for her. He will be back to his very large self Friday. He's doing fine, all things considered," Fluttershy said. "That's it from me."

"Mitria, number three," Rainbow called on the next in line.

"I went with Master to talk to phoenixes last Thursday. She'll tell you all more soon, but in the mean time, I found out something interesting. I used the feathers from the phoenix for a dress I was making and one of my customers warned me that phoenix feathers can sometimes cause temporary deafness. I suffered no such ill effects, but Master, do you think that might be part of my being a vampire now?" Rarity asked.

"That you would be protected from that happening?" Rainbow asked back.

Rarity nodded.

"Yeah, I do think so. None of us got super strong or anything but that sounds like a perk we'd get," Rainbow said.

Twilight glanced over to see that Spike was indeed writing the observation and hypothesis down. Sweetie Belle was too for that matter.

"I offered Master to help with naming her crown," Rarity announced. "However, I am still gathering ideas."

"Maybe it should be lightning-related," Spike quietly uttered. He said it more to himself and did not even glance up while making the suggestion.

Rarity blinked and paused in thought. "Yes, well....I will do some more research soon enough. That aside, I have nothing new to report. I think we'll have an interesting time in the Dragonlands on Saturday, and I'll do my best not to get my hopes up too high. After all, it is still a theory, and we must focus on the work at hoof while there," Rarity said.

"Fyra, number four," Rainbow moved onto the next fledgling.

"Nothing new to report here. Still enjoying my fire gift and now looking forward to the trip just like Mitria here. Almost like a sister camping trip, only the part of Apple Bloom shall be played by Spike," she noted with a smile.

"Heh heh," Spike chuckled at that.

"Quintaza and Pentaza, number five," the master mev called out with a smile.

Pinkie Pie grinned and whistled out Penny.

"Hi everypony, dragon, and draconequis." Penny waved at them all. "I'm still having lots of fun helping out Pinkie Pie. We have the most awesome ideas for the show. Of course some of them are the same ideas since I'm copied from her, but it's still awesome, I promise. Pinkie said she'll work me into the performance for sure."

Sweetie Belle scribbled down a note of that for her song.

"See, Rhezenda's going to make sure it happens," Pinkie pointed at the young unicorn as she informed Penny.

"Many thanks, my filly assistant friend," Penny stated with a polite bow.

"A pleasure," Sweetie Belle replied as she blushed.

"I know my turn's over so until next time," Penny waved her good-bye at everyone again and was soon sucked back into Pinkie Pie's body.

"Rexa, number six," Rainbow Dash gestured toward Twilight.

"We've covered everything I'd like to say for my part in what happened with your trip to Griffonstone and our plans for Nightmare Night. No other news here," Twilight said.

"Your turn Master," Sweetie Belle noted so Rainbow would not have to call on herself.

Author's Note:

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Comments

[THERDSTORYWHISPERER]

Great chapter!

"Make sure I'm on Blitz in there," Rainbow Dash told her.

Is that going to be part of the lyrics or is that a little grammar error?

[kazamacat]

10676939
Thanks!

That will be part of the lyrics. She already wanted to be on Blitz as part of a show so wants to go ahead and include that in the song.