The New Bearers

by PioneerofImagination

Magic Hunt

After defeating Humanoid and bringing the Crystal ponies back to their home as well as the huge party that lasted almost a week, some of us, most of us actually, thought we could finally relax. But we weren't there just yet. While Humanoid was defeated and most likely very weak his defeat brought a series of messes that we would have to clean up. But before we dealt with that we were still at the Crystal Empire finishing up the long party.

"I've been to a lot of parties in my time, but this one is easily top tier," Cheese Sandwich said.

"Well that's because these Crystal Ponies had you to help them out with Cheese," Pinkie said.

"Me? Oh please," Cheese Sandwich said with a wave. "You were the one that made this party the top tier masterpiece party that it is."

"Ah shucks," Pinkie said as she then gave a wave of her own.

"You both did wonderful in my opinion," Rarity said as the three of them were helping with the cleanup of the party. "As much as I'd love to stay here and enjoy the utter beauty of the empire, I simply must get back to my boutique as well as my fashion. Seeing all the empire has to offer has inspired me something fierce."

"Ah on the other hoof gotta get you back to the Crystal Empire," Applejack said to Big Mac. "We need to get to bucking all the apples at Sweet Apple Acres that need bucking."

"Eeyup."

"Maybe I could come by there as well and help you out," Cheerilee said. "Would that be okay?"

"Eeyup." Cheerilee, Applejack, and Big Mac helped with the clean up. Zecora was giving me a bit of a check up with Rarity and Twilight close behind her.

"From the feel of things your heart is quite strong, of this I quite doubt that I am wrong."

"So Spike's going to be alright?"

"Yes Twilight, you have nothing to fear, the end of Spike's problems are quite near."

"Well that's certainly good to hear," Rarity said as she came over to me and rubbed my chin. "I've been so worried about you, Spikey Wikey."

"She's not the only one," Twilight said as came over to me as well and placed her hoof on my chest to feel my heartbeat. "I'm so glad you're alright Spike."

"She's not the only one." Shining Armor said as he entered the room with Princess Cadence and to my surprise Shining Armor was carrying an entire basket filled with some of the most delicious gemstones I ever laid my eyes on. "Hey there Spike, look what I got you."

"Are those all for me?"

"You bet," Shining answered as he put the basket right in front of me. "My wave of saying good job on giving Humanoid exactly what he deserved. Listen Cadance I'm going to go see how the guard patrols are doing but you can stay here and visit Twily for a while if you want."

"I think that would be a great idea," Cadance said as kissed Shining Armor who made his way out. But not before rubbing my head and telling me to take it easy. I honestly didn't know how to respond and Twilight and Cadance were kind of in the same boat.

"Cadance?"

"Yeah Twilight?"

"Have you noticed how nice Shining Armor is being to Spike?"

"Yes Twilight, I have."

"Did you say something to him?" I asked Cadance.

"Well, not recently."

"Does Shining Armor have issues with dragons or something Twilight?" Rarity asked.

"No," Twilight answered. "It's a long story, but to get the point Spike and Shining Armor never really got along."

"Perhaps he wishes to make his bond with you better, do matter how much that might be an endeavor."

"Well for now Zecora is there anything else we can do for Spike?" Twilight asked.

"More rest might be for the best."

"That's true, you may have won the battle with Humanoid but you shouldn't push yourself," Twilight said. "You should take it easy for a while and not transform."

"All right then," Rarity said as she put her foreleg around my shoulders. "Come on Spikey Wikey, I'll tuck you in."

"I guess that's all right," I said. I wasn't really all that tired but Rarity makes it really hard to say no to. As I got some rest Mudslinger, Satire, and Slapstick had a conversation with Discord and the princesses.

But before I get to that I need to backtrack a little bit to the stuff I said I'd cover in this chapter.

***

After the rescue of the mane six and learning that Mudslinger, Satire, and Slapstick aren't so bad, we got back to Ponyville and stopped at Twilight's Castle. Twilight wanted to get me in my bed because as you can probably imagine seeing me vomit out blood, really made her freak out quite a bit.

"Are you alright Spike?" Rarity asked as I was placed in my bed.

"I was going to ask you the same thing."

"Am I all right? Of course I'm okay Spike, it's you that we're worried about. You have no idea how scared I was when I saw that blood." Rarity said as she sweated a bit while remembering what happened.

"I'm okay Rarity," I said as I placed my claw on her hoof to help calm her down. It worked and while we didn't talk there was a surprisingly sweet moment between us.

"Um," Rarity said as she pulled her hoof away gently. "Would you like me to get you something to eat?"

"I have a box of gems over there." As Rarity got the gems, Twilight went to talk to the trio that took her and her friends. The others wanted to get down to business right away and figure out what they knew about Humanoid, but Pinkie Pie wanted to throw them a, and I'm quoting her here "a you were bad but now you're not so bad after all party." And Cheese Sandwich wanted to help her because, well he just wanted to throw a party with Pinkie. As we reached the end of the party those three were sitting by the table.

"So how is the cheesecake Slapstick?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"I don't know," he answered. "I can't taste it."

"Huh?"

"When I was rather young, I hurt myself quite badly. So Humanoid made it so that I couldn't feel pain anymore, but that also meant that I can't taste anything I eat or drink. I can't even feel a gentle breeze."

"Couldn't you just have asked Humanoid to take it back?"

"I did, but he refused. Mudslinger and Satire may have their issues with him, but personally I just wish he was a more attentive and caring father."

Yeah, you heard right father.

After Slapstick said that it was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. "Oh," Slapstick said, surprised by the others' response. "Did we not mention that before?" After that everypony understandably had quite a few questions. Such as why would they want revenge on their own father. But basically as Satire put it, again I'm quoting here "He was our father and at first he took that role rather seriously, but after a while he told us he found fatherhood rather on the boring side. So he threw us out and we haven't been able to find him since then."

"Oh you poor things," Cheerilee said as she went over to Slapstick, Mudslinger, and Slapstick and gave each one of them a hug. Not too long after that we got to work on training to take down Humanoid.

What they told me is kind of complicated but I'll try to keep it simple. So while Humanoid is powerful, his magical energy is also very unstable. If he gets into an intense fight with somepony or in this case some dragon his energy gets released, when that happens too much he tires himself out and becomes weak. Also when his energy is released, other creatures that run into it can absorb it and use his powers. Which is how Sombra was able to cancel out the magic of the Elements of Harmony.

Speaking of which, while the Elements of Harmony usually defeat the enemy in one blow, Humanoid's magic is also kind of like a suit of armor that protects him. Which is why it took so much to defeat him, but before we got to that I had to go through quite a lot of training. Since Slapstick felt no pain he was the perfect sparring partner.

"Wow Spike you're really beating me up," Slapstick said to me one time while we were practicing after I knocked him to the ground. That doesn't add much to the story, it was just funny. The three helped out quite a bit, and not just what I wrote about in the last chapter. They really helped me improve my fighting abilities and they became fast friends with not just me, but with the others too.

"So this is a library?" Slapstick answered as he and his brothers were brought to the castle.

"No," Twilight answered. "It was a library but it was destroyed by Tirek then it became this castle, but it still has a fair share of books in it."

"So this is a book?" Slapstick asked as he grabbed one of the books off of the shelf and started to flip through the pages. "Wow cool, I bet I'd used this all the time if I knew how to read." Cheerilee was visiting Twilight at the time and was shocked at the very least to hear that. She insisted that not just Slapstick but Mudslinger and Satire be part of a private class so Cheerilee could teach them how to read as well as a few other things.

I'll kind of skip that part, but they did rather well and on top of helping me get stronger they also befriended the other new bearers too. Doing that really helped them form a master plan for taking back the Crystal Empire. All of this led to the fight and defeat of Humanoid in the last chapter, and now that he's been dealt with for now it was time to focus on the magical energy, well all of us actually.

Something I almost forgot, Twilight and the other previous bearers stayed outside the Crystal Empire, or rather on the edge to try and collect Humanoid’s magic. And while they got quite a bit, quite a lot escaped the empire.

***

So now we're back to when I was getting some rest and Mudslinger, Satire, and Slapstick had a talk with the princesses and Discord. There they told them the stuff I said about Humanoid and his magic.

"I figured Twilight and the others would have trouble getting all of it," Princess Celestia said to the brothers.

"Our father’s magic could pose quite a problem," Satire said.

“Indeed," Princess Luna said.

"We've already seen the damage of what his magic can do, not just from Humanoid, but from Sombra," Discord said.

"Yeah, but that's okay because we can just absorb it with the amulet we helped make," Slapstick said.

"But that's only half of the problem," Princess Luna said. "We still need to find where the magic is before we can absorb it."

"I can help with that," Discord said. "I can sense abnormal magic, remember? And Humanoid's magic can't get any more abnormal."

"True, but what about Humanoid himself?" Princess Celestia asked. "He may have fled the Crystal Empire but he's still out there somewhere."

"And he's probably taking a nap," Mudslinger said with a huff and his arms crossed. "It's what he does best."

"Even if our dad is still out there, he won't be bothering anything for quite a while," Satire said. "We'll have more than enough time to make a plan if or more likely when he comes back."

"No kidding," Discord agreed. "How could he not want revenge after a defeat like that?"

"All right then for now we'll focus on dealing with Humanoid's magic rather than dealing with Humanoid," Princess Celestia said as she looked over to her sister Princess Luna who nodded in agreement. Discord would help with the magic like he said he would, but Twilight wanted to help contain the magic as well and that made her friends join in as well because there's no way they'd let her do something like that alone.

Despite focusing on collecting Humanoid's magic Twilight and her friends had a few other things to deal with, such as the map sending her and her friends to solve some sort of problem. They went off but after a while I got worried, and in all honesty could you blame me? Last time this happened she almost died. So I went off to where they headed and the New Bearers came with, we still called our group that. Though they didn't bring the elements, figuring all they wouldn't need them.

As we made our way to where Twilight's group went. Turned out to be a small village and, yeah, it was rather disturbing. Cheese Sandwich didn't like it either, thinking the smiles there weren't real smiles.

Whatever that means.

"So where do you think Twily and her friends are?" Shining Armor asked as we sat down to eat some muffins.

"Eugh," Soarin said as he ate one of the muffins. "Who in Equestria could eat something like that?" Suddenly Soarin got his answer as he saw Cheese Sandwich eat several like it was no problem.

"What?" he asked.

"I can help you find the others, come inside before you go," a pony named Sugar Belle said before she went back in. We decided to trust her if it meant we would be able to find the others.

"I have an idea," Big Mac said.

"You do?" Shining Armor asked.

"Yeah, but Cheese Sandwich, you need to eat all of those muf-" Big Mac was cut off when he saw that Cheese Sandwich had already eaten the muffins that we got. He hardly even left a crum.

"What?" Long story short we found our friends but we lost our cutie marks. Well they lost them, we got locked in a small cottage with the others who also lost their cutie marks.

"Rarity! Twilight! You're safe!" I then ran over to both of them to give them a hug.

"Spike, what are you doing here?" Twilight asked.

"We'll explain later," I said. "Right now we need to get you all out of here."

"We tried darling, with our marks gone we aren't strong enough to escape and since the rest of you don't have your marks either, you're stuck too."

"Not for long Rarity, once I transform-"

"NO!" Rarity yelled, Twilight was about to do the same thing I could tell, but Rarity beat her to it. "I won't have it Spikey Wikey, you need rest, you're still recovering."

"But Rarity-"

"I won't have it Spike, it's not worth your insides ripping themselves apart so we can get out. Now promise me you won't try it."

"Okay," I said as I looked into her eyes. Again she makes it very hard to say no. Rarity then embraced me before we kissed.

"I think I'm going to be sick," Cheese Sandwich.

"Oh come now Cheese," Rarity said in my defense. "Sure there might be a bit of an age gap but-"

"No no I mean I those muffins aren't sitting too well," Cheese corrected as he grabbed his stomach with both of his forelegs. Suddenly he tossed his cookies or rather his muffins all over the floor, forcing all of us to get to the very edge of our very small prison. Yeah I'm just gonna skip ahead to when we found a way to bust out of there and got ready to deal with the pony that ran the village, Starlight Glimmer.

***

Zecora, being the only one besides me that wasn't affected by Starlight's spell, decided to go into action and stop her before she ran off with the cutie marks of both groups. "If you were to have your way it would be quite tragic, so allow me to give you a taste of zebra magic."

"O-h, I'm so afraid," Starlight said in a very sarcastic tone. But soon she wouldn't have anything to say as Zecora reached into her saddle bag that she brought with her and pulled out a rather large bottle with a red liquid and threw it on the ground. At first it didn't really do anything but suddenly the vegetation around the mountain grew rapidly and wrapped itself around Starlight. bounding and gagging her while also wrapping around her horn so she couldn't use her magic.

After that Zecora freed the cutie marks and Starlight was sent to a certain place to think about all that she did.

"No please!" Starlight called out as she was locked up screaming out to us as we walked off. "Please! I don't belong here!"

"I don't belong here," Chrysalis said as she turned herself into Starlight, clearly mocking her. "Oh my gosh what a winer."

"Indeed," Sombra added.

My group went off to drop off Starlight while Twilight's group stayed behind because she sensed an imbalance by the mountains. As it turned out she was right, though it wasn't nearly as bad as Sombra. Just a few creatures that lived in the mountains and somehow collected the magic similar to how the amulet works. It wasn't all that hard, well it took a while to round them all up but they didn't put up much of a fight. Something that did put up quite a fight was the dread Maulwurf.

That was a rather large creature that was bothering the changelings, though maybe I should explain a little bit about the changelings. After the whole thing with Chrysalis Thorax spent some time with ponies and even Slapstick, Satire, and Mudslinger. He learned to share love, not just take it. Eventually he learned to teach that to other members of the changeling, something that Mudslinger, Slapstick, and Satire helped with as well. The changelings now different reworked their old hive and since they didn't feed on love anymore all the plant life was coming back. (Apparently plants feel love too, who knew?)

So anyway the whole thing with the dread Maulwurf, it's kind of hard to describe so imagine something that's half bear half mole half ragging pile of claws. Geez those claws, I'm just glad I have such thick scales. It had been causing some trouble for the changelings and when we sensed there was also an imbalance near the hive we put two and two together. The magic it absorbed also enhanced its strength, the thing almost flipped over the entire hive, well what was left of it but that's still rather strong. He put up quite a fight but compared to Humanoid, it was nowhere near something I couldn't handle.

But it wasn't easy either.

After stopping the maulwurf the changelings considered me a hero, much like the Crystal Empire. While Discord was more than capable of dealing and tracking with these things Twilight insisted on tracking them down. I think it was because this provided her with a rare chance and honestly pretty bizarre magic. Twilight was on quite the hunt for the rest of Humanoid's magic, again to study the strange magic.

"Twilight, don't you think we should take a break?" I asked Twilight after a magical hunt involving a glue gun, a sentient rock, and some flash bees. You don't want to know, just try me.

"No way Spike, the more magic we collect the less likely we'll have another Sombra on our hooves, or in your case claws," Twilight answered. And she had a point, but eventually she had to put it on hold and allow Discord to handle some of it so she could focus on her princess duties. Such as helping a convention in Canterlot, but she was up for three days to plan it. Yeah, you read that right three days. So of course Twilight was going to need her rest, and I was put in charge of making sure that she got her rest.

But that proved rather difficult as a group of ponies wanted to ask her about quite a few things. Such as this one really annoying pony that wanted to bug Twilight about something about his friend taking his seat.

"Uh yeah, I don't care what some random dragon has to say, I want to know what Princess Twilight thinks," he said when I tried to tell him to just forgive his friend. And needless to say I did not care for that statement. So I turned into my bigger form and that got him to back off quite a bit.

"Don't you ever call me a random dragon, you got that!?"

"Yes sir," he answered.

"Now get out of here and go forgive your friend, got it?!"

"Yes sir," he answered right before taking off. And the others took off with him. There was also this part when I was summoned to the dragon lands and a certain dragon I came across gave me some certain trouble.

"Well well well if it isn't our little pony pal Sparkle Warkal," the said certain dragon said.

"It's nice to see you too, Garble," I told him.

"I didn't say it was nice to see you," Garble said back. Sarcasm is a foriegn language to him. "Didn't I make it clear, I don't like you." Garble then pushed me off a rock that was actually Twilight and Rarity in disguise, long story. After that I transformed which I could tell just from the look on Garble's face scared him quite a bit.

"And I don't like you, did I make that clear?!"

"Y-yes."

"Yes what?" I asked as I stepped or rather stomped closer making Garble and his friends back away in fear or rather sheer terror.

"Yes Spike," Garble replied right before I grabbed him by the neck.

"Good," I said right before I threw him as hard as I could. He had wings so I wasn't too worried he would get hurt, and looking back as I'm writing this I doubt it was as hard as I could but enough to give him a good scare and teach him a lesson.

Neither of these have anything to do with the story, they were just rather fun and nice to somewhat relive.

Well actually the last one was kind of relevant because after dealing with him and winning a certain Gauntlet of Flame, I got to know another dragon along the way, Princess Ember. I may have won but I decided to allow her to be the leader of the dragons, and she would make sure the dragons wouldn't cause any problems whatsoever for ponies. Quite a few dragons weren't on board for something like that but after a giant golem made entirely of lava appeared that I made short work of, they didn't have a problem whatsoever.

So on top of making a better relationship with ponies and changelings I also made a better relationship between ponies and dragons.

That felt good. But not as good as dating Rarity, it really is the simple things in life that matter.

"Oh I'm so proud of you Spike," Rarity told me as we were enjoying a picnic that I prepared for the two of us. "You're becoming a hero not just at the Crystal Empire, but kind of everywhere."

"Yeah," I said. "Well it's not that big a deal I just happened to be the one that could handle all those problems."

"Oh please Spike," Rarity said as she waved her hoof at me. "Sure you had a bit of an ego problem before, but you've accomplished so much. Don't be so modest."

"Well, now that you mention it I have become pretty amazing lately. I'm the second most perfect thing in the world."

"Second?" Rarity asked. "What's the-" Before Rarity could answer I placed my lips right on hers answering her question. When we locked lips Rarity pulled me in closer and while she did that I started to stroke her mane quite a bit, But after doing that Rarity gently pushed me back. "Easy Spike, let's not get my mane out of place I just grew it back," Rarity said to me as she was getting her mane back into place.

"Oh right, the whole thing with the shampoo." There was some sort of mix up with Zecora and Rarity lost nearly her entire mane.

She did not handle it well. It wasn't easy for me either because I couldn't stand to see her so sad. But Rarity was able to overcome it by giving her mane quite the new look. But as much as she made it look she was so happy when her mane grew back, and I was just happy she was happy.

"So Spike have you dealt with any more of those magical imbalances lately?" Rarity asked.

"Yeah, Satire says it shouldn’t be that much longer to deal with.”

"That's good, because it'll be quite nice to put this mess behind us."

"Yeah, but in all honesty it hasn't been that bad."

"You think so?"

"Yeah, I mean getting beaten up by Humanoid was not fun at all. And the other stuff was pretty stressful as well, but those things kind of gave me the courage to finally tell you how I feel." I then transformed and picked up Rarity, surprising her.

"Oh my, you certainly have become quite bold haven't you? Lucky for you I like bold stallions, er dragons." I then placed my claw on her cheek and started to gently place my claws through her mane, but quickly stopped after remembering what just happened.

"Oh it's all right Spike," Rarity said. "I think I can trust you with my mane, but try to be careful all the same."

"I will Rarity I will." Yeah things were going rather well, and not just for us love was in the air. From Ponyville and all the way to Canterlot, not too long after my picnic with Rarity, or was it before? Anyway it was somewhere in that time period Mudslinger, Slapstick, and Satire were planning a little surprise for Discord and Princess Celestia at the royal gardens.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Mudslinger asked.

"I don't know," Slapstick answered. "I don't think I actually ever had an idea before." Did he actually say that?

"Those two have something going on, if we just give them a push in the right direction they'll see just how much they really like each other," Satire said. "Discord is fun and chaotic; he's the perfect match for Princess Celestia." After Satire said that Discord appeared out of thin air as if on cue.

"I still don't sense anything," Discord said, who was told there was some sort of imbalance at the garden.

"Are you sure?" Slapstick asked.

"Yes."

"But are you really sure?" Slapsticked asked. As he asked, Princess Celestia arrived which thankfully stopped Slapstick from needing to stall. "Oh look here's Princess Celestia," Slapstick said as he not so subtly pushed her right over to Discord. "She can help make sure that you're sure."

"What?" She asked. "I thought you wanted me to tell you which flowers were which."

"Well you can always do that later," Mudslinger said. "You two should concentrate on making sure there's no imbalance here."

"And here's some things that will help you sense it if it's here," Satire said as he placed a picnic blanket with a basket and record player. The three of them sat them down on the blanket and played the music before they left, leaving Princess Celestia and Discord quite confused to say the least.

"Beautiful weather we're having," Princess Celestia said to break the silence.

"Yes I suppose," Discord replied as he looked up. "Could use a couple cotton candy clouds."

"Discord!"

"I'm not gonna!"

"Okay then, do you have any plans for the weekend?"

"Well, I was planning to mix up my house a little bit."

"Really? How exactly?"

"I'm just literally going to flip it upside down."

"Oh, I see."

"Would you like me to leave?" Discord asked, which rather shocked the princess.

"N-No," Princess Celestia answered, which rather surprised Discord. "I want you to, that is to say. I've grown rather fond of you recently."

"Really?"

"Yes really," Princess Celestia answered as she turned her head to hide a blush. Once the blush vanished she faced Discord once again to continue talking. "And I've really appreciated all the things that you've done lately, not just sensing out and helping find the magical imbalances. But also how you helped Spike and his group when Sombra took over the Crystal Empire, and when you helped Spike and the others including myself take the Crystal Empire back from Humanoid."

"Well when you put it like that, I guess I have been doing a lot lately," Discord said as he rubbed the back of his head. "You know, I've grown very fond of you too."

"You have?"

"Yeah, I've always liked how you somehow got your mane to move all on its own. Honestly I just like your mane in general."

"Oh thank you," Princess Celestia with a blush she didn't try to hide this time. Suddenly Princess Celestia and Discord pulled their heads towards each other and they kissed each other.

"AH YEAH!" Slapstick shouted as he popped out of a nearby bush but was quickly pulled back under it by his brothers. Which both Discord and Princess Celestia couldn't help but laugh at. Yeah love was kind of flying all over the place, not too much longer after what happened with Princess Celestia and Discord I learned that Pinkie Pie and Cheese Sandwich were dating.

"You are?" I asked when they told me.

"Yes," Cheese Sandwich said to me.

"Really?"

"Really."

"Come on Spike, don't be so surprised," Rarity said to me as she stroked the scales on my head and down my back. "They do make quite the match, not as much of a match as you and I. But still quite good."

"You know what Rarity, we should double date sometime, that would be loads of fun," Pinkie Pie said and we agreed to that almost right away. But despite all the fun we still kept focus on not only the magical imbalances but a few other things that came our way as well. Such as this journal I found after I stopped an imbalance that turned a caterpillar into this giant worm thing that Twilight told me she and Cadance fought when they traveled to the very edge of Equestria.

Long story.

Anyway after returning it to normal I found this old journal in a broken barrel that was written in old ponish, but luckily Cheese Sandwich was able to read it. Yeah he's just full of surprises isn't he? The journal talked about a certain pony you may have heard about, Starswirl the Bearded. He and his friends locked away the Pony of Shadows but had to lock themselves up with it. Twilight quickly put a plan in motion to free Star Swirl and his friends from Limbo. The Pony of Shadows was freed but I dealt with him no problem.

Turns out that he was actually a regular pony and the whole thing was just one big misunderstanding. After it was all settled Star Swirl was quite curious about my abilities and Twilight explained everything to him.

"I see, so Humanoid is up to his old tricks," Star Swirl said and it was quite the shock that he knew about him too. "I've actually studied his unusual magic for a bit." After telling us that we explained to him about the magic imbalances and also how the Elements of Harmony were affected by one which started all this, yeah Twilight left that part out. "I see," Star Swirl said as he rubbed his chin. "Perhaps that is worth looking into as well."

"What do you mean?" I asked. Star Swirl explained that the elements should be placed back into the Tree of Harmony which as it turned out was created by him and his friends who are known as the pillars. As it turned out they took a part of themselves to create the Tree of Harmony which in case you didn't know was what the Elements of Harmony came from. Anyway, Star Swirl said that placing the elements back into the tree would allow Twilight and her friends to be the bearers again because it would remove the remnants of Humanoid's magic that caused my group to be the new bearers.

I talked to them about it and they were all fine with it. The less of Humanoid's magic running around the better. And besides, even without the elements those ponies are quite reliable.

"So you're sure this is going to work, Star Swirl," I asked.

"Of course he's sure Spike," Twilight said to me with a rather intense and crazy tone in her voice. "He's Star Swirl the Bearded!"

"Yes," Star Swirl said. "But Humanoid is quite powerful and his magic will take time to remove from the elements."

"So Star Swirl," Shining Armor asked. "How long until my sister and her friends can use the Elements of Harmony?"

"Let's just say that I hope you've made some backup plans for protecting Equestria while we were gone," Starswirl answered. "In the meantime I should look more into Humanoid's unique magic, but I'm going to need a sample of Humanoid's magic and somepony knowledgeable in the ways of magic to help me-"

"I'LL DO IT!" Twilight said as she ran right over to Star Swirl with the biggest smile I ever saw in my life. "I'd be honored if I could work with you on, anything." Twilight being who she is was a very helpful aid to Star Swirl.

Not too long after that Big Mac proposed to Cheerilee.

“Cheerilee,” he said to her. “Our relationship had a unique start to say the least. And despite all the other unique things we’ve been through, we’ve stuck together. And that’s exactly what I want to do: stick together, Cheerilee, will you be my bride?”

“Oh Big Mac, how could I possibly say no?” Cheerilee said as she accepted.

“Love’s really been spreading all over hasn’t it?” Shining Armor asked.

“Yeah, so maybe Soarin will finally ask Rainbow Dash out,” Cheese Sandwich said.

“What are you talking about?” Soarin asked embarrassed as he blushed a bit and brushed his forelegs through his mane. “I mean, who am I kidding?” Soarin asked as he calmed down and dropped his forelegs. “It’s that obvious isn’t it?”

If it was, I didn’t notice.

While all that love was spreading around, Twilight opened up a School of Friendship. We all thought that was a great idea and it wouldn't just be for ponies but all creatures. Dragons, Yaks, seasponies, griffins, and even changelings.

But sadly not every creature would come there to learn how to be a friend or how to be a better friend. A young filly by the name of Cozy Glow came in and tried to steal all the magic in Equestria, yeah you read that right, all of the magic in Equestria. But thankfully she was stopped by students who actually did understand what Twilight and the rest of us were trying to teach and that special prison would soon be getting a new member.

"Come on, let me out of here already," Starlight said when I helped escort the guards to drop off Cozy Glow. "Wait, is that a filly? You can't leave a filly here she'll get scared.”

"Hello there," Cozy said to Starlight. "Wanna be friends?" Cozy asked with a sinister smile.

"Uh Chrysalis?" Starlight said after a pause. "Can I come into your cell for a bit?"

While Cozy Glow's plan was quite the close call to say the least it turned out to be quite the blessing in disguise. Star Swirl with the help from Mudslinger, Satire, Slapstick, and Twilight he reworked the portal to seal away the remaining magical imbalances. Except one. Cozy used several artifacts as some sort of nexus for her portal, so Star Swirl used the amulet for the nexus of his portal. And with one imbalance left headed out to take care of it and put this whole thing behind us.

And I think that's a good part to stop this chapter. I know I've kind of been all over the place with this chapter, but I wanted to do something simple and not as intense as the other ones. A calm before the storm is probably a good way to put it.