My Brave Pony: The Heart of the World

by Scipio Smith

Wonderful Stories

Wonderful Stories

“Rainbow Dash?” Twilight cried, as Rainbow flew into camp, yelling with alarm. “What’s-“

“Raven!” Rainbow snapped. “Raven’s here, and she’s not alone!”

“Sweet Celestia!” Ace growled. “How many? How close? Who?”

“I don’t-“ Rainbow began, but then stopped, or rather her voice was overrode and interrupted by the sound of a horn blaring out in the darkness. Then another horn sounded, its noise issuing forth from out of the night to reach them round their fire. Then another still: horns, horns, horns wildly blowing, horns to strike the stars. Horns to strike fear into Twilight’s heart.

“Too many and too close,” Ace snapped.

“Everypony, get up,” Twilight said. “We’re leaving. Rarity, help me load the wagon.”

“We don’t have-“ Ace began.

“We can’t leave everything here, not in a place like this,” Twilight said. “We won’t find another friendly lizard to lead Fluttershy to a watering hole.” This is a land where nothing grows. “Rarity-“

“I’m ahead of you, darling,” Rarity said, and her voice sounded admirably calm as the diamond-blue light of her magic burned around her horn, picking up blankets as they fell from the backs of Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, picking up groundsheets as fast as the ponies could get off them, picking up everything that they hadn’t already used, everything that was strewn around the camp and tossing them higgledy-piggledy onto their wagon.

It was a vulnerability, Twilight understood that perfectly well; she understood how their presence had hobbled Sunset’s party and now it would hobble them, slowing them down as they came under attack. But they couldn’t do without it, not in a place like this. If they lost their supplies they would have to go back, and even that would be a dicey proposition at this stage.

Twilight’s own horn flared with lavender as she joined in Rarity’s efforts, picking up whatever was left and tossing it onto the back of the cart.

“I’ll pull,” Applejack volunteered.

“I’ve got a better idea,” Twilight said, and she wrapped the entire cart and all its goods and stores up in the lavender embrace of her telekinesis, lifting the entire object and everything on it up off the ground and into the air. “We’ll be faster this way. Rarity-“

“Still ahead of you,” Rarity said, still sounding calm – it was amazing how Rarity could fret and wail and faint and throw such marvellous tantrums in the face of what were, in the scheme of things, rather trivial disasters, and then turn around and be so calm in the face of real peril; but then, Twilight thought that perhaps the same could be said of her – as she picked up Spike in the embrace of her own telekinesis and set him down upon her back. “Hold on tight, Spikey-Wikey; tangle your fingers up in my mane.”

“Your mane!” Spike exclaimed, “But-“

“It doesn’t matter now, Spike,” Rarity said, gently but firmly. “Just do as I ask.”

The horns continued to sound from out of the darkness, the horns of the hunters blaring to direct the hunt and scare the prey in equal measure. Twilight couldn’t see anything yet, but she fancied that she could hear the sound of hooves thundering upon the ground as Raven’s friends, whoever they were, approached them.

“Ace,” Twilight said, “which way?”

Ace’s head darted this way and that like a meerkat, looking south, then north. “East,” she said, “they haven’t surrounded us yet. Rainbow Dash, can you fight?”

“A little,” Rainbow said.

“If they’re smart they’ll been trying to close the ring,” Ace said. “I need you to get out in front, put yourself between the jaws, keep them open until everypony else gets out. Applejack, I need you to keep track of the flanks, stay with Twilight and the others.”

“Like shepherdin’ the herd, I got ya,” Applejack said. “Kinda wish Winona was here for this.”

“I’ll bring up the rear,” Ace said. “Just in case. Everypony move, now!”

They ran. Rainbow streaked ahead, her rainbow trail illuminating the darkness for a moment. Everypony else followed after her, Twilight dragging the cart along through the air with her telekinesis; Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity with Spike upon her back all ran beside her, while Applejack circled them protectively, first running on their right, then dropping back for a moment to run upon their left, then back to the right again. Ace was in the air, her wings spread out, soaring slowly behind them, constantly looking back, sometimes turning back, sometimes pausing in mid-air to let the others gain some ground on her, always keeping herself to the rear of the group.

They ran, their hooves pounding upon the sand, kicking it up into one another’s faces. Twilight could feel the weight of the wagon pushing down upon her telekinesis, she could feel it dragging at her, she could feel the toll that exerting her magic was taking upon her but she would not relent. She would not let it go. She had power and strength enough to do this and so she would do it. Without this wagon, without everything that was contained within it, they would be truly lost. Especially now, plunging blindly into the night with no idea of where they were going except away from pursuit.

Raven. Why, why was it always her, why did she pursue and torment them so?

Why couldn’t she just leave them alone, hadn’t she done enough already?

Twilight pushed the questions to the back of her mind; clearly Raven was not going to leave them alone, and could not be counted on to do so; that being the case, clearly the only thing to do was to accept it and deal with it.

They had faced stronger enemies than Raven, they could face her too.

But had they faced an enemy as determined and persistent as Raven?

Twilight scowled. It didn’t matter. They could overcome, together.

She looked ahead; Rainbow’s trail was like a star, guiding them on. She looked beside her, to where Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie ran. She looked to her other side, her right, to where Applejack kept pace easily with the rest, looking as though she was having to slow herself to keep from outpacing them.

Together.

She could definitely hear hooves thundering behind them now. Behind and on either side of them. She turned her head, peering into the darkness. She though she could see something, it was hard to make out but they looked like shapes, vague shapes in the night, moving around on either side of them; it was just like Ace said, they were trying to cut them off.

“Rarity, can you hold the cart for a moment?” Twilight asked.

“A little bigger than I’m used to but I can try,” Rarity said, her horn flaring as the blue light of Rarity’s magic replaced Twilight’s lavender aura, the wagon swaying and wobbling a little in Rarity’s grip.

Thus free, Twilight bowed her head, presenting her horn to the vague shapes running beside them. “Applejack,” she called out, “clear the way.”

Applejack dropped back a few steps, as Twilight cast two bolts of magic to her right and another to her left, firing half-blind into the darkness, firing at the shapes that she could see. There was at least one cry of alarm, so she guessed that she’d either hit something or at least made them jump. She cast another bolt in each direction, something for them to think about.

“Twilight,” Rarity grunted. “I’m afraid that I’m not used to having to apply so much force.”

“Right,” Twilight said, taking the cart again. Rarity’s telekinesis was deft, in the art of fine manipulation she was superior to Twilight herself, but she didn’t have Twilight’s raw magical power, and it was raw power, not deftness, that was needed when trying to magically carry something as large and heavy as this wagon and its encumbrance. “Thank you.”

“What are we going to do?” Fluttershy asked tremulously.

“Hope to lose them in the darkness,” Twilight said, panting a little from the effort of running.

“Do you think we can?” Spike asked. Nopony answered him. Nopony had the answer to that, except for the fact that they had to try, and wouldn’t know if they could or until they tried.

The horns of their pursuers had ceased to blow, and for a moment the ponies were granted a respite from all noise, save for the pounding of their own hooves and the counterpoint thunderous drumming of the hooves of their pursuers as they began to overtake the ponies.

Then, one of those shadowy figures out in the darkness let out a wild, shrill, keening cry, and that high-pitched whoop was taken up by one and all amongst those who chased them, filling the night, striking the stars with the sound of wailing and hooting, crying out as though they were enjoying the chase – perhaps they were enjoying the chase, even if those they chased were not.

Fluttershy whimpered as the cries of their pursuers filled the night air.

“Brave heart, Fluttershy,” Rarity murmured, drawing a little closer to her.

Twilight lost sight of Rainbow’s trail up ahead, but only for a moment, then she saw it again, but not moving in front of them but rather from side to side, darting first this way and then the other.

They’ve caught up, she thought. It’s like Ace said, they’re trying to close the ring.

“Come on!” Rainbow yelled. “We gotta go!”

They tried. They ran as fast as they could, their legs pumped furiously to drive them across the sand; but the vague shapes on either side of them began to close in, resolving themselves as they got closer into zebras, tall zebras in dark robes, their spearpoints gleaming.

The ring closed in around them.

A shadow blotted out the moon above them, its wings spread out across the entire diameter of the orb, or at least so it seemed from their perspective.

The shadow of a dragon.

A great roar split the sky, falling like lightning from above them, drowning out the keening cries of the robed zebras as Mantle swept down upon them from the moon above, and as he swooped like a hawk upon a hapless field mouse he opened his mouth to belch out fire upon the sand, scattering the zebras in their robes as their shrill cries of battle turned to wails of alarm.

Mantle landed upon the ground, shaking it with the force of his impact as he landed squarely athwart the ponies’ path, physically blocking their way with his four massive, trunk-like legs and his long, spike-tipped tail.

“Come not between the dragon and his wrath,” he yelled, fire spitting from his nostrils as he spoke. “I claim these ponies as my prize! Get you gone, you worthless insects!”

“Bring down the dragon!” one of the zebras cried. “Find his-“

Mantle roared, and as he roared a gust of fire erupted from his maw so hot that it turned a patch of sand to glass where it struck; a zebra threw off his robes as they began to burn, the others scattered into the darkness to avoid the flames themselves.

A spear flew out of the night to rattle harmlessly off Mantle’s scales.

Mantle growled. “To me, my warriors! To me!”

Once more, the air was filled with high-pitched keening cries, but they did not come from the zebras in their dark robes, whose attack had stalled amidst the shock of Mantle’s arrival; no, they did not come from those who had lain in wait for Twilight and her friends; they came from those who had fallen upon them in turn, the zebras in their plain white masks, lithe and limber, who emerged from out of the night to fall upon the robed warriors with spear and club and hooves that struck like lightning. They were few in number – or fewer at least than those whom they opposed – yet they seemed to come out of nowhere, to fight like dancers, weaving through the combat, disordering the opposition, being everywhere and nowhere at the same time, injuring or disabling their opponents – Twilight saw no one struck dead, or at least she hoped that she did not – without appearing to receive so much as a single injury in turn.

Mantle watched them fight, a smile appearing on his scaly, reptilian features, and he made no move to assist his zebras in the combat, he breathed no more fire, he did not even roar. He simply watched, as though he were spectator in this battle not participant.

Nor were the masked zebras alone: the thunder of hooves heralded the arrival of their reinforcements, a phalanx of Grevyian zebras who wore no masks but who were clad in armour of iron which dully reflected the silver of the moon above. They charged in a tight, square formation four ranks deep, shattering the loose, clustered grouping of the robed zebras – already disordered by Mantle’s masked warriors – and pushing them back like a broom sweeps away dust. They split into two groups, flowing around Mantle and the ponies to press hard upon the robed zebras.

A horn sounded in the night, then another, then another; but these horns sounded more dolorous notes, muted and mournful, and Twilight guessed that they were sounding the retreat, because the robed zebras began to fall back, melting away into the darkness, taking to their heels, kicking up sand as they fled into the cover of night like thieves discovered.

“Mighty One,” an officer of the armoured zebras, his face concealed behind a mask decorated with blood-red stripes and colourful feathers of yellow, blue and green around the edges, bowed to Mantle. “The enemy are repeating.”

“I have eyes, Captain,” Mantle growled.

“Of course, Mighty One,” the Captain added. “Shall we pursue them?”

“No,” Mantle replied. “They are irrelevant. If they try our strength again then we shall punish them again, but perhaps they have learned their lesson. If they have or they have not it is all one to me.” Mantle turned his baleful gaze on Twilight and her friends as his tail swished from side to side, making a rut in the sand. “Our business is with these ponies, so long as those robed fools do not try to take them from me, then we have no quarrel.”

Mantle craned his neck as he lowered his head, approaching Rarity – and Spike, who still rode upon her back. “Hello again, little one,” he said, and the breathing out of his nostrils disturbed the placement of Rarity’s mane, or what remained of it after a run with Spike clinging to it for dear life. It looked like a dishevelled mess, but Mantle’s breathing certainly didn’t help. “It was rude of you to leave without saying goodbye.”

“It was rather rude of you to take us all prisoner, I must say,” Rarity said dryly.

Mantle chuckled. “You are bold, to speak so plainly to one who holds your life in his claws,” he declared. “Are you not afraid, little pony?”

Rarity swallowed. “If I were,” she said. “I certainly shouldn’t admit it, I think.”

“Hmm,” Mantle murmured, which gave little sign as to what he thought of Rarity’s response. He said nothing else before two of his white-masked warriors dragged Rainbow Dash between them out of the dark and dumped her at Twilight’s hooves.

Rainbow grunted. “Sorry, Twilight,” he muttered. “Those zebras… they’re really hard to hit.”

“It’s okay,” Twilight murmured. “I’m not sure fighting our way out was ever really an option.”

“Wise pony,” Mantle said, as Ace, too, was dumped on the ground by some of the masked warriors.

Twilight swallowed. There had to be a way out of this somehow, there had to; if they couldn’t fight there way out then maybe they could talk their way out instead? “Princess Celestia… Princess Celestia will pay handsomely for our release.”

“Will Princess Celestia pay me with the Heart of the World?” Mantle asked, in a voice laced with sarcasm. “What you seek is my desire.” He turned his baleful gaze upon her. “Upon your answer to my question hangs the lives of all our companions: do you know where the Heart of the World is to be found?”

“If you harm us, Princess Celestia-“

“Is not here,” Mantle growled, blasting hot air into Twilight’s face and making her flinch. “Do you know?”

“Yes!” Twilight cried. “Yes, we know where it is. But I won’t tell you – nopony will tell you – unless you guarantee the safety of my friends.”

“You are in no position to bargain,” Mantle informed her.

“I have something you want,” Twilight replied. “I think that puts me in the perfect position to bargain.”

Mantle was silent for a moment. “You are the leader of this group, I take it.”

Twilight nodded. “My name is Twilight Sparkle.”

“Twilight Sparkle,” Mantle repeated. “You are bold, Twilight Sparkle. If I were to kill one of your friends, would you really spite me with a silent tongue, though it meant that your other companions would suffer for it.”

“Spare them,” Twilight growled. “Or you’ll never find out where the Heart of the World is.”

Again, Mantle took pause a while. He pulled away from Twilight, rising up to his full and very imposing height. “Bind these ponies,” he commanded. “Set sentries and make camp here. We rest for the night. Tomorrow, Twilight Sparkle will lead us to the Heart of the World.”

“I’m sorry, girls,” Twilight murmured, as she was unceremoniously dumped upon the ground so that the zebras could tie up her legs.

“Don’t let it get you down, Twilight,” Pinkie replied, her tone as cheerful as if they were back in Ponyville. “Everything’s going to be just fine.”

“Uh, Pinkie,” Rainbow said, as her wings were restrained. “We’ve been captured and tied up and a dragon is going to kill us if we don’t show him where this Heart thing is.”

“Oh, he’s not so bad,” Pinkie declared, based on no evidence that Twilight could see. “He’ll come around.”

“Come around?” Applejack repeated. “Pinkie, what are you?”

“Hey there, Mister Mantle?” Pinkie cried, in a sing-song voice.

Mantle had lain down on his stomach on the sand, his wings folded up by his side, seemed like a sort of unusually coloured rock formation as his zebra warriors and servants busied themselves establishing a camp around him. At Pinkie’s words, one red eye opened. “What?” he demanded.

“Would you like to hear a story before bed?” Pinkie asked.

Mantle stared at her. “A story?” he repeated.

Pinkie’s legs were tied up, but that wasn’t a problem for a pony who bounced as often as she walked. Just as she bounced a couple of steps closer to the dragon now. “Yep.”

“Do I look like a child?” Mantle asked.

“Aw, come on, everyone likes a good story!” Pinkie said.

“Pinkie,” Rainbow hissed. “What are you doing?”

Mantle rolled his eyes. “If I do not enjoy this story,” he growled. “I will gobble you up.”

“Okey dokey,” Pinkie agreed.

“Pinkie!” Twilight cried.

“Darling, what are you-“

“It’s okay, girls,” Pinkie said. “I know he’ll like this one.” She cleared her throat, and when she spoke her voice was louder than it had been a moment before, loud enough to carry across the whole camp. “Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria...”

Twilight hadn’t know exactly what to expect – Pinkie’s stories could be a little bit out there sometimes, and not really what you would think to be to a greedy dragon lord’s taste – but she hadn’t expected Pinkie to start telling the story of how they defeated Nightmare Moon. And yet that was just what Pinkie did, beginning with a quick recap of the story of Nightmare Moon and how she was sealed away by Princess Celestia a thousand years ago – Twilight noted that she was telling the story as Twilight and the others had known it at the time, without any of the details that Lightning Dawn had supplied later.

Perhaps that was because those details hadn’t been confirmed yet; Princess Celestia was very close-mouthed about the whole thing, and Twilight hadn’t had the nerve to approach Princess Luna about it.

“And that was the story that was read in a book by Twilight Sparkle,” Pinkie declared, “a super duper smart unicorn was kind of grumpy because she didn’t have any friends.” Pinkie looked at Twilight, and pulled a sad face.

Twilight rolled her eyes. I got better!

“Why, Twilight didn’t even want to go to a party when she was invited!” Pinkie cried, as though it was the most unimaginable thing… imaginable. “Twilight rushed home to her tower in Canterlot, bumping into Spike on the way hard enough to knock him over. Twilight had been carrying a present for Moondancer, but when he fell over the spike on his tail impaled the box and the bear inside-“

“How does she know that?” Spike asked, but the only answer he got was Rarity shushing him.

Pinkie went on, ignoring the interruptions as she told the story of how Princess Celestia had despatched Twilight and Spike to Ponyville to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, and to make some friends. It was, obviously, a familiar tale to Twilight – one would hope so, considering that she had lived it – but Pinkie told it very well nonetheless, with voices that were not exactly great impressions of her friends – except for Fluttershy, that was spot on for some reason – but conveyed the essence of each one as well as being rather funny. Twilight spotted one zebra guard chuckling to himself when Pinkie got to the part about Twilight drinking the hot sauce by mistake, even if he did stop when another guard glared at him.

For his part, Mantle seemed to be listening carefully, with no sign of boredom or irritation or, thankfully, any sign that he was going to eat Pinkie when she was done.

Which was a good thing, because she had already reached the point of Nightmare Moon’s return.

“The night,” Pinkie yelled, in the most evil voice that she could muster, “will last forever! Muhahahahaha! Muhahahaha!” Thunder rolled in the distance, as if on cue.

Pinkie stopped. Silence ruled in the camp as firmly as Mantle.

It dragged on for a few moments before Mantle spoke. “And?”

Pinkie cocked her head to one side. “And what?”

“And what happened?” Mantle demanded, raising his head. “Where was Princess Celestia? Who stopped Nightmare Moon and how? What happened?”

“Ooooh, that’s tomorrow night’s story,” Pinkie declared. “Don’t worry, we’ll get there.”

Mantle’s eyes narrowed. “Tomorrow night?”

“You can’t have all the stories at once, you know,” Pinkie pointed out. “But you liked it, huh?”

“Yes,” said one of the zebras.

Mantle growled at him, and he shrank back and hid behind one of the tents they had erected.

Mantle snorted. “It was… tolerable,” he muttered, sounding as though the word was being dragged out of him with pincers. More like the admission that he had, in fact, enjoyed himself was one that had not really wanted to make. “Very well. Tomorrow you will finish the story. And it had better be good,” he added, as he closed his eyes.

Twilight’s own eyes were wide as Pinkie bounced back to the others and lay down. “How did you-“

“It’s like I said,” Pinkie replied. “Everyone enjoys a good story.”

---

Tomorrow came, and under the heat of the sun everypony’s legs were untied, although the wings of the pegasi remained bound. The zebras pressed close about them, alert for any sign of attempted escape as Twilight led the way towards Mount Hyperion – or rather to one of the watering holes that Hamilcar had marked out on the route to Mount Hyperion, which would take a little longer but which would, at least, ensure that they got to the mountain alive.

How long they would stay that way once they got there was rather less certain, as was the vexed question of how long so large a group would be permitted to travel together. Dido’s account suggested that pilgrims to the Heart of the World were supposed to shed companions as they went until only one went up the mountain, but Mantle hardly seemed the type to obey such restrictions… mind you, he hadn’t seemed the type to enjoy a story about Twilight and the others either, but he had.

And yet, all the same, would he proceed without his guards? Would he go up the mountain alone? And if he did, would he deny Twilight the chance to do so after? Was she doomed to have come so far, only to yield place to this dragon and his ambitions?

It would be a bitter blow, but considering the alternative… so long as her friends made it through this in one piece then she would bear it. She wouldn’t like it, in fact she would hate it, but she would bear it.

Lightning, she was sure, would understand.

The day passed in near silence, as the zebra guards said nothing to them, and neither did Mantle; sometimes the dragon walked beside them, other times he flew overhead, swooping forward and then returning to the column afterwards.

It was not until the night returned, and they made camp again, and after the meal had been served to the captives, that Mantle, once more lying on his belly in the sand, said, “You were going to finish the story, Pinkie Pie.”

“You know my name!” Pinkie said happily.

“You gave it to Twilight Sparkle,” Mantle reminded her. “And, thus, to me.”

“And you remembered,” Pinkie pointed out. “So, where was I?”

“The night will last forever!” a zebra called out, then once more hid when Mantle glared at him.

“Oh, right,” Pinkie said. “Okay, so the next thing that happened was that Nightmare Moon…”

She proceeded to tell the rest of the story, of how the six friends came together to reclaim the Elements of Harmony and defeat Nightmare Moon, complete with a full rendition of the song she had sung to break the fright spell that Nightmare Moon had cast upon the trees of the forest.

“And then Princess Celestia said, ‘Why so glum, my faithful student, are you not happy that your quest is complete and you can return to your studies in Canterlot?’ And then Twilight replied, ‘That’s just it, just when I learned how wonderful it is to have friends, I have to leave them.’ Princess Celestia thought hard about it – or maybe she just pretended to think about it because she’d already seen this coming and made up her mind. It’s kind of hard to tell with her,” Pinkie said. “Anyway, Princess Celestia acted like she was thinking about it, but then she smiled and I think that it was one of those ‘I already saw this coming and planned ahead’ smiles, but anyway, she smiled and said, ‘Spike, take a note please: I, Princess Celestia, hereby decree that Twilight Sparkle shall take on a new mission for Equestria. She must continue to study the magic of friendship. She must report to me her findings from her new home in Ponyville.’”

A zebra cheered. Notably, it was not the same one who had remembered the end of the last night’s story.

And Mantle didn’t even glare at them.

“And Twilight promised to study harder than ever before!” Pinkie declared.

“And… did she?” Mantle asked.

Pinkie smiled. “Well that’s a completely different story, isn’t it?”

“I suppose so,” Mantle admitted. “Can you tell it tomorrow?”

That pretty much set the tone for the stage of their journey through Qartaggia: each day, they would march closer to Mount Hyperion under guard from Mantle’s zebra warriors, and each night Pinkie would tell a different story: about the fight that they had had over the Grand Galloping Gala tickets, about how Applejack had tried to take on the entire harvest by herself, about the time when Rainbow’s old friend Gilda had come to Ponyville.

And as Pinkie told the stories, as she sang the songs, a change came over the zebras and the dragon who led them. Mantle began to laugh at Pinkie’s accounts, and so did the guards in increasing numbers. When the stories were done, they could be heard humming the songs softly in the camp, and in the mornings as they packed up the camp. What had previously been silent marches became more animated, as the zebra warriors seemed to feel increasingly free to talk to their captives, and to one another as well. On the night after Pinkie had told Gilda’s story, the zebras pressed her to tell the next story – Trixie’s arrival in Ponyville – in the daytime as they walked, and Mantle landed on the ground to hear it too.

As Pinkie shared her stories – their stories – the zebras began to share more about themselves in turn. The ponies learned that the captain’s name was Bostar, and that he was an amateur cartographer who hoped to map this area – once he found out that Twilight was a scholar, he asked for her help. They told the ponies their names, they unburdened themselves of their hopes, their dreams, their ambitions, their frustrations and their problems. They shared the songs that Pinkie had taught them – it would have been surreal to have been marched along by a company of warriors and a dragon belting out Pinkie’s smile song, except that by that point the ponies no longer really felt like prisoners; their bonds were gone, even the wings of Rainbow, Ace and Fluttershy had been freed. They hadn’t been explicitly told that they could go, but they no longer really felt like prisoners.

It felt almost like travelling with friends.

And all thanks to the magic of Pinkie’s stories.

“I… I have never known anything quite like this,” Mantle confessed, as Pinkie finished telling the story of how they had all told the story of how they got their cutie marks to the Cutie Mark Crusaders. “I have never heard stories quite like these before.”

“Well of course not, silly,” Pinkie replied, with laughter in her voice. “We hadn’t lived them yet.”

Mantle chuckled. “You are a very unusual pony, Pinkie Pie.” He looked at each of her friends in turn. “You are all very unusual ponies.”

“No, we’re not,” Pinkie replied. “We just do the best we can, that’s all.”

“I feel as though I know you so well,” Mantle declared. “And as though you have taught me so much.” He paused for a moment, and when he spoke again. “Let it be known that when we return to Cirta there will be changes to how my lands are ruled. I shall be fairer with my subjects, and more than that I shall be present in your lives, even as Princess Celestia of the ponies is. I shall be kind, and generous. I shall laugh, and give you cause to laugh and sing in turn. I shall be, if I may presume, the kind of dragon that you would be proud to call ‘friend’.”

“I thought we were friends already,” Pinkie replied. “But we can always be better ones if that’s what you want.”

“It is,” Mantle replied. He paused. “Now, if I may ask, if it does not skip ahead too much in the order, will you tell me how you found yourselves so far from Ponyville, seeking the Heart of the World?”

“Sure, I can tell you that,” Pinkie said quickly. “But not tonight. That’s a story-“

“For another time,” Mantle finished for her. “Very well. Goodnight, Pinkie Pie.”

“Goodnight, Mantle,” Pinkie replied cheerfully, as she bounced back to where the others were waiting for me.

“Pinkie,” Twilight asked, as her friend settled down, “did you know this would happen when you started to tell those stories?”

Pinkie smiled. “It’s like I said, Twilight,” she said. “Everyone loves a good story.”

That answer, Twilight reflected, could have meant anything. It could have meant everything. It could have meant nothing at all.

So, about par for the course with Pinkie, then.

“Pinkie Pie?”

“Yes, Twilight?”

“Don’t ever change.”

Pinkie giggled. “Don’t worry, Twilight, I won’t. Trust me, I’m not going to change a thing.”