> The Adventures of Charm Feather, In Just Me,  and possibly her Chronicles.
>  by R-A-B-G
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue: The journey forth to tomorrow [Rewritten]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prologue 

Edit by FordPrefect

A man wearing an adept's mage robe, a fully packed satchel and scrolls hung loosely around his belt looked down at all of Skyrim.  He shivered and pulled his arms across his chest to conserve body heat because of the freezing temperatures.  Sensing his friend’s presence behind him he looked over his shoulder and saw her marching up the slope, clad in a heavy winter cloak and armor.

“Good evening Leona, do you have the scroll?” The man said as he looked back at the captivating view of the land below.

“Yes,” Leona said simply while pulling the elder scroll out of her pack in all of its glory.

“That’s good.” I hardly looked at it, I rather stared off in the distance.

“Are you sure you want to go?  I mean you could stay at my place if you want.  Divines know that dusty and cold college you been living in these past few years isn’t a great place to live in.” She said, managing to get him to chuckle at her joke, encouraging her.

“I’m sorry, really I am, but you know I cannot stay.”

“I know.” She said, her hopes were crushed causing me to cringe at my rather monotone response.

Looking over Skyrim one last time, he starts thinking about how he first came to be here.

oOo Begin Flashback oOo

It was a rather warm day, the sun was shining, birds were singing and the wind blew just enough to cause the trees to pleasantly wave in the breeze.  Cars practically raced down the highways, people rushing to and fro across town, kids roared in laughter as they played outside and this was all ignored by one guy who was still asleep.

Knock... Knock... Knock

“Argh... wha?” I grunted out half asleep, after hearing the sound of my door being knocked again I became alert enough to answer the door. I stood up from my bed, clad in my typical t-shirt and shorts, bed hair and morning breath.  My name is Zechariah or just Zach to my close friends.  Normally I don’t sleep in but I must've if someone was trying to wake me up.  I got up and opened my door to see mom on the other side. While yawning, I said, “Morning, what’s up?”

“Morning? It’s around noon.”

“Ergh” I grunted out, feeling rather sheepish about waking up so late. “Sorry, guess I stayed up too late. So what’s happening?”

“Your dad and I are heading out to the cottage, if you’re interested you can come as well.” She said with a smile.

“Hum...” I pondered my options. “Nah, I think I’ll stay behind.” I didn't feel like going out on a hike today, besides I need to catch up on some gaming.

“Oh.” Mom said with a bit of a frown, “Alright then, you have a nice day.  We're heading out right now then. So we will see you later.” She joined dad and they got their shoes and jackets and left the house.

Feeling some relief at being alone, I turned back to my room and turned on my Xbox.  Feeling the need for adventure, I put Skyrim in and started the game with a new character in mind.

“I feel like trying to be an imperial for once.” I muttered while waiting through the loading screen.  I've been all the other races after all. Then something different happened, normally the cut scene involves you riding in a cart with some other prisoners being taken to the executioner's block.  This time, it showed me unconscious in the back of the cart not character me, but freaking real life me in my shirt and pants that I' am wearing right now me! ‘... What?’ was my only thought on the matter as I watched on.

*Huff* “Dammit I was too late!” I hear a female voice say which had sounded as if she had been running all day and was beet tired.

“Crap, crap, crap this just had to happen!” The scene then moves further out as if it was some kind of movie done on youtube. I see a brunette woman in ragged and worn out clothing, she is slightly dirty as mud coated her cloths and face, she seemed very exhausted as she leaned onto a tree for support.  She stared at the 'me’ in the cart with sorrow and anger. “Way to go Leona,” she whispers to herself my TV picking up her voice clear as day,  also helpful subtitles at the bottom. “You got an innocent involved.” 

This is some freaky stuff happening right in front of me, 'was I hacked?' I wasn't even plugged into the internet on my Xbox how is that possible? What the hell is going on?  Then right before my disbelieving eyes something emerges from the bottom of the screen, a hand had appeared! Startled beyond reason, I stood up because of all the freakishness occurring with the TV. "Nope! not happening!" I seen much to my regret horror films with such a motive as what was happening here.

When the whole arm up to the elbow was out a light rushes out at me from the hand and before I realize what was happening I was paralyzed! All my body couldn't move anymore I couldn't even wiggle my toes as I had fallen helplessly back onto my chair. Helpless and couldn't do anything I had watched as more of the arm came through the screen, soon followed by a head.  I recognized at once who it was that was before me. “Sheogorath.” I was rather stunned, as it’s not everyday that you see the Daedric Prince of madness coming out of your television or learn magic is real pretty much at the same time.

“Hero!” Sheogorath said cheerfully as his eyes gleam in mischievous glee. “It has been too long my friend!” He laughs as he pulls an arm to help support his body, still trying to come out of the TV. “Say I haven’t seen you since you helped me in the Shivering Isles! Of course now you are doing stuff in Skyrim I see!” He said as he struggled to get his torso out rather comically however, like a cartoon character of sorts, it was rather weird.

“Now you might be wondering, ‘whys my good ol’pal Shery doing here?’  Why, I am here to take you away from this boring and dull of a life you have here.  Yah know, as a reward for helping me!” He said while fully coming out of the TV to stand before my paralyzed and prone state. “I am going to take you out on an adventure to better yourself across space and time!” He said with a pose with one arm on his chest and the other holding the Wabbajack was pointed towards the ceiling. “Though I’m pretty sure I’ll forget about the whole thing afterwards.” He said with fake pondering. “Oh well where to start off... hum... Oh! I know how about Skyrim! Eh? Ah hah ah ha!” He laughs with a wink as he gestures to the screen behind him, as just as suddenly as his appearance he disappears in an explosion of flowers and butterflies.

They had surged towards me and sudden I had control of my body again. I only managed to gasp as my mouth was filled with the insects my muffled screaming could be heard from the mass as I was swarmed.

Before I start thrashing in sheer panic at the creepy crawlies in my mouth, I had suddenly found myself outside in a small cave on the side of a cliff near the bottom. Gasping for breath and holding my throat I coughed loudly as some brightly colored butterfly's leaps out of my mouth causing me to gasp again as I covered my mouth to prevent it from trying to get back inside. After making sure nothing is suddenly going to crawl down my throat again I dusted myself off and made my way outside of the cave and looked up.  There in the sky were twin moons and the most colorful northern lights I had ever seen.  I gaped at the sheer fact that I was here ... Then I proceed to freaked the fuck out. “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK!  H-how is this? I don’t...  wha?  But... I...  I... bwah? Deus ex FUCKING MACHINA!” I screamed out to the sky, then with sudden clarity I was stricken by the sheer fact that it was very cold outside. “... Ok... Ok calm down! Calm down!!” I yelled as I placed my arms around my chest to conserve the little bit of body heat I had.  The sight of Skyrim and the cold air proved that this was real!  Sheogorath had brought me here for shits and giggles! If I had known this was going to happen I would had avoided all the games containing him, like they were the mafia that wanted to break my knee caps for owing them money!

I sighed in relief as I reached a road. At least I had a direction to go to, at the split of the roads I see a sign that points the way to... Helgen... and other places but knowing my luck I am about to...

Before I could complete my thought I was tackled to the ground, flipped a few times and was completely disorientated and bruised.  I found myself on top of a woman with my hand groping a feel.  Yep, I'm going to die here, were my grim thoughts of manga and anime enter my mind about such scenario. managing to wiggle my face out of the chest of the woman I looked up to see a rather pretty face of a woman with brown hair and brown eyes, her face was kind of rough and serious but she seems like a nice person, but still my involuntary squeeze of her chest got a reaction from her... and me, I soon realize even further the kind of shit I was in right now I had just feel her up again!

Her eyes sharpen as the blush increased and her face formed a scowl. But before I could cry, “not the face!” An arrow landed next to us. It was a rather unassuming thing you normally don't see back home, I had seen plastic ones with bright colored shafts, but this was a wooden one with feathered tail end. I couldn't see what the arrow head was made of due to being embedded into the ground. But the message was clear. If you don't want to end up like Dr Rodney McKay you better run boy.  With such a crystal clear message we both stood up but I found myself shoved off by the woman as she had dashed off faster then I could follow as I stumbled and tripped back onto the ground. My brain still reeling from that, I got up from my prone position and found myself surrounded by the imperial guard.  Something hit me in the back of the head and I was out like a light.

oOo End flashback oOo

Zach thought of his time in Skyrim.  Although he wasn’t the dragonborn, he had experienced the dragon razing Helgen to the ground.  Leona had saved him from that fiery death by dragging his butt out of the executioner's court then though the tunnels full of spiders and bears, before that it was full of Stormcloaks and Imperials all mistaking them both as one or the other.  That was the most terrifying moment in his entire life, besides Sheogorath in the flesh of coarse.  Luckily, the dragonborn, being Leona, had killed Alduin The World Eater in the following months. It had ended his reign of terror of the skies and brought a temporary and uneasy truce between the Stormcloaks and the Empire. 

While he wasn't part of it due to his inexperience Zach had spent this and years after at the College of Winterhold, studying alteration, enchanting, conjuration, and alchemy or going on misadventures with Leona across Skyrim.  Leona had paid for his admittance to the college to help him start out in Skyrim. However being uneasy with this arrangement had made him seek odd jobs to earn coin to repay her.

Now in his mid twenties, Zach had become rather renowned for his revolutionary theories of soul gem batteries and spell relays. Which was pretty much a rediscovery that while known, wasn't understood by the minds of the era. While studying the mysteries of magic, he continued his search of rumors and spells for leaving this world to return to his own. While he admit it was fun being with Leona he was sick of being in a world so filled with violence.  The truce between the Legion and the Stormcloaks hadn't lasted and the war had started up soon. The fighting was still happening however the Empire is winning as the Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak had died in battle by Leona's blade.

Zechariah, was now a an Adept Mage of the College of Winterhold now, he had learn some magical secrets he just knew he was going to abuse the fuck out of when he gets home, I mean who wouldn't want to use telekinesis for everything? or the key to extended life? Over all he couldn't wait to get home, the adventure here was wonderful, and the friends he had made had kept him company. But overlooked the whole of Skyrim from the top of the Throat of the World, the realization came to him from the tallest point of the mountain. This wasn't his home... He had always held hope of returning home to his parents. his family. If this doesn't work here he would remain and make a life here, or anywhere really. It was rather cold here but being from the north did helped as he was used to winters, not this cold however, but still used to it. Shaking off the topic he turned to Paarthurnax who stood still nearby on his perch on the word wall, with his impressive stature looming down over him as he views Skyrim one last time.  Next to Paarthurnax, Leona stood idle with the elder scroll in her hands with a sad smile, for this was hopefully their last goodbye.

Sighing fondly of old memories, Zach turned around to Leona.  She gave him a hug and punched him in the arm, giving a small smile while some tears rolled down her face.   Returning her sad smile with his own, Zach mouthed. “Thank you,” as nothing else was needed to be said anymore.  Looking down at the scrolls in his arms he opened them and with their complicated godlike magics and with assistance of Paarthurnax the world zoomed away and Zach went through time in space, hoping of home.

In a Universe far, far away....

Princess Celestia was having her afternoon tea, awaiting on her student to arrive.  She was relaxing from the morning politics, which mostly consisted her saying no to various greedy nobles wanting bits. While tea and biscuits are nice, she couldn't get rid of her melancholy that morning.  She had remembered her sister during morning court and even though it had been over nine hundred years, she still deeply missed her.  Her thoughts of sad remembrance were cut off as a filly came running into the chamber.

“Princess, princess!” The little purple ball of adorable fluffiness came running into the room with an eager grin. “I'm ready for my lesson!” Her antics making Princess Celestia to giggle into her hoof.

“Alright Twilight, today you will learn a bit about history.” Celestia said with a smile.  

Then with a sudden jolt, Princess Celestia stood up.  A ripple of a magic she had little exposure to had flowed through the ether, startling her.  She tried to pinpoint where it had come from but it had dispersed far too quickly to locate. Celestia would had admit it to to any who ask, but she isn't a god of any kind, she and her sister had stumbled onto immortality by mistake, anything they do not know is a potential danger for the future. However after her sisters banishment, one who had looked after some of the things she herself were to busy to handle being gone had left her in the dark for some time now. 

It wasn't a rare thing that something she normally left to her sister had acted up and caused havoc on the countryside before the army could deal with it. 

Like now, a magic her sister normally handles. Creation magic the source to everything in creation. Celestia had always been the political of the two it was her sister who had handled the magical, doesn't mean she was no slouch in that area however, she had always been the better teacher then her sister ever was.

But creation magic was a whole field she herself does not know fully, she does know it's what allows her to raise the celestial bodies and fuels her immortality, it was also the fundamental power in Star Swirls time magic. But how it works or what causes it is unknown to her, and there was a sudden burst of the thing caused by something else she isn't familiar to.

“Princess?” Twilight Sparkle asked, with a tilt of her head, staring curiously at Celestia.  

Sighing, 'nothing I cannot do however.' Creation magic isn't used for evil that much, it could be a filly who has a talent for it had just gotten her cutie mark in the field it isn't anything new to her as it had happened before. Heck technicality she has a cutie mark in the field, but only in the area that it allows her to raise the sun.  However this was something she can deal with for the future.

So Celestia let the matter drop and would keep a eye open for any who would have any creation magical talent out there. Who knows, they could revolutionize the understanding of magic. With that settled she went to reassured Twilight that nothing was wrong and they returned to the lesson at hoof.

End Prologue


> Unrather graceful landing [Rewritten]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1

Edited by FordPrefect

The Throat of The World, the tallest mountain in Skyrim had been the only scar in time and space I had found. Wish I had thought about how high I would be, because I was several thousand feet in the sky falling towards my death!

'Shit!' I thought as I rapidly fell towards the ground.

Then I felt it, the elder scroll’s energy enveloped my form.  With the feeling of being plunged into a pool, I was shoved out of my body.  I watched with sick fascination as my body continued downward, unimpeded by my soul.  It hit the ground with a meaty THUD, leaving behind a rather impressive crater and scattered gore.

As I floated there, I could see my meaty remains start to knit back together.  Upon  closer examination, I could see small fibers of magic, so complex that they make my spell relays seem primitive, pull magic from the surrounding environment and feed it into a sequence of spells.  Extremely complex version of spells like resurrect the dead, healing, transmutation and many more I could not identify.

Whoa.  Trying think of how those spells worked was mind blowing.  

I'm pretty sure it would take me a hundred lifetimes to recreate the spells unfolding before me.  I watched in rapt attention trying to learn all that I could.  The strings of mana continued to wrap around and finally stopped shaping my body.  With the transformation part of the spell finished, I could see that my body has taken the form of an ashen gray pegasus in an outfit similar to my adept robes.  The tail and mane were brown.  The ... oh you have got to be kidding me!  Guess what everyone... the elder scrolls are a bunch of trolls!  Why else would they not send me to Earth and change me from a male human into a female pegasus!

Before I could curse the gods and the divines, I felt a powerful wave wash over me.  I looked down at my hands I could see a hoof fade into existence.  'Oh joy... a spiritual transformation...  that’s just great.  Hope this doesn’t mess with my memories' was my final thought as I was sucked into my newly formed pegasus body.

I sat up groaning, as my entire body ached.  “D-damn you elder scrolls!” I cursed.  I could feel my new fur rubbing against my clothing.  Turning my head I could see that my bags were now ten times bigger than me.  I wiggled my way out of the heavy backpack and used my teeth to drag it out of the crater.

I noticed that my new body instinctively knew just what to do.  When I felt for my magic, I noticed that I could feel both internal and external ambient mana at the same time.  As a human I had to concentrate to feel either one or the other, but I never could feel both at the same time.  

I reached the rim of the crater and looked back at where my body landed.  I could see a vague impression of my human form and I could see how small my current body was in comparison.

“Wow.” I said.  My mind started to realize that my voice had sounded younger and defiantly female. “OH, COME ON!” I yelled out.  The realization hit me that I was no longer a guy or a human and I began to hyperventilate.  'Don't panic!' I slapped myself, causing me much more pain than I expected.  “Owie” I whined pathetically as I laid on the ground.

“Note to self, hooves hurt you idiot.  Ok, let’s recap here, left Skyrim, fell to my death, watched as the mystical god like item knitted my broken form, changed species, gender and age... well crap today has just been perfect.”  I deadpan while staring at my old backpack.  “The kind of day were I wish I could climb back into bed and sleep off whatever effects of a foul failure of a potion I took.”  Sighing I took a deep breath and then exhaled, several times as I felt my stress bleed off.  

I decided to start working on survival.  Marching up to my now rather heavy backpack, wishing I had packed lighter, I opened it with my mouth and started to take out it's contents to set up camp.  Not only did I need to get accustomed to my new body, but I had to survive in a forest that could contains who knows what.  I was gonna need a new name as well, Zechariah isn't very feminine.  Bitter and tired, I wondered what fate had in store for me next.

~ Not so far away, in the Everfree Forest ~

A little filly was terrified.   The day had started out nice.  She had been working on outfits for the school play.  She thought the outfits needed some gems to be complete, so she decided to use a spell to find gems.  Following the spell, she could sense that there was a cache of gems a little ways into the forest.  Since it was daylight and they didn't seem too far into the forest, she decided that she could go in and bring them back by herself.  She had found the cache and had been wondering how to carry back all the beautiful gems when things started to go all wrong.

For a second, the sun had gone black, the ground trembled and there was a very loud noise!  There was then a roar and the filly saw a large and rather grumpy manticore coming her way.  She quickly ran the away from the manticore, realizing seconds latter that she was being chased towards whatever had made the horrific noise!

She galloped as fast as her little hooves could carry her, tears in her eyes from the fear and desperation overwhelming her.  There was a source of firelight ahead!  Maybe somepony was there who could save her!  Then the bane of all fleeing damsels occurred, she tripped on a tree root.  She fell into a heap, exhausted and out of hope.  Tears blurred her vision and she saw lightning and fire swarm around her.  'No one told me … that dying was beautiful' she thought as consciousness left her.

Several hours latter her eyes opened and she found herself in a sleeping cot near a warm and inviting fire.  The rugged cot wasn't very comfortable, but that didn't trouble her because of how happy she felt at being alive.  The cool night air, the sent of burning wood, the beautiful night sky, and the feeling of being safe made her giggle at how crazy her day had been.

Looking around she noticed that the cot and the tent nearby were made of animal skins and fur!  She started to panic, worrying. ‘Did... did I get caught by some kind of barbaric uncivilized beast!?’

“Oh you’re awake!” A cheerful voice sang out from across the fire, with a squeal the white unicorn tucked her head underneath the blankets of her sleeping cot.

“Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry if I frightened you ma'am.” Managing to peek out from her sanctuary of blankets, Rarity looked up, spotting a nervous but friendly looking chestnut brown pegasus filly with a chocolate brown mane, she was around her age maybe a little older, she was giving her an awkward smile.

“O-oh right sorry, just um... ahem.” Taking a breath, she relaxes while pulling herself into a proper sitting position. “I am Rarity, and I’m... very lost.” Rarity finishes rather lamely as she starts to notice her predicament.

“Oh, um. Hi Rarity, I’m Za – Ahem- Charm Feather” Zach, aka Charm introduced herself. “But you can call me Charming if you want!” Charm said with a playful wink in attempt at humor.

Rarity couldn’t help but giggle at the awful joke. “Well Charming.” She said playfully getting the gray pegasus to blush sheepishly “Thank you for looking out for me, but I was wondering what happened after I passed out.” She said now losing her smile as she remembered the fire and lightning.

The humor died rather quickly as the pegasus smile instantly falls and her eyes darken considerably, before brightening again when she smiled. “Not much, managed to scare it off, helped you into the cot and watched out for predators while you slept.  I also set up camp.” Charm said, shuffling in her own cot to get more comfortable.  Her shuffling resulted in Rarity to gasp, which caused Charm to wince as she knew what Rarity had seen.  Sighing Charm stood up and allowed Rarity to see her bandaged right side.   Rarity looks quickly to Charm’s wings and sighs in relief that they seemed untouched.

“H-how did... this happen?” Rarity stutters out as she felt responsible for Charm’s injury.

Charm sighs, “Miss Rarity, do not blame yourself for this.  This happened because of me being careless.” She looked back into the fire fondly. “A story for another time I suppose, it has been a rather long and tiring day for me Miss Rarity.”

“O-oh of course, forgive me Charm, I had forgotten.” Rarity said rather disappointed at not being told the story on how she got injured, the yawn that escaped Rarity’s mouth causes her to blush sheepishly.

Giggling at Rarity’s embarrassment, Charm said “Looks like I’m not the only one in need of sleep.” While smiling sweetly.

Rarity giggled from embarrassment while pulling the blanket on top of her with magic.  Charm stood up suddenly, thereby startling Rarity into dropping the blankets haphazardly.  

“Was that magic?!” Charm said eagerly causing Rarity to raise an eye brow in confusion as she fixed the blankets around her.

“U-um yes it was, why?” The white unicorn filly stutters out still feeling shaky from her mild fright.

Taking a deep breath to calm her before speaking, Charm smiles sheepishly at startling Rarity. “Sorry just that never seen magic focus like that before.” This startled Rarity, because 1/3 of the population in Equestria was a unicorn.

“Really... well its nothing special, just basic telekinesis” Rarity replied after thinking about it some.

“Oh well that’s pretty amazing, never seen it performed before.  Though I’m no expert in anything magical.” Charm said. “But enough about this, we should sleep.”

“I- of course” Rarity said glancing at the wound on Charms side, dropping the issue all together.

Rarity laid her head down on the soft pillow and watched the fire danced.  Finally feeling safe from the dangers of the forest, she nodded off quickly into blissful sleep.

Charm was similarly tired from the fighting. “Oh by the divines, I'm going to be aching all over.” She muttered quietly to herself as she slowly nodded off to sleep.

> First day, hopes crushed, promises made. [Rewritten]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter two 
Edit by FordPrefect

My rest was interrupted from the noise of rustling bushes next to the clearing we occupied. I could see hungry yellow eyes gathering  in the darkness.  Quickly I got up, preparing myself for a fight. I looked towards Rarity, she wouldn't be able to defend herself, so I quickly placed soul gems around her and set up a force field spell relay.  ‘That should do it.’ I thought while looking at the shimmering shield.

The first of the wooden wolves walked out of the bush, ready to eat a filly.  I smirked, thinking of how wrong I would prove it.  I flared out my new wings and lowered my head into what I hoped was a good battle stance.  The lead wolf jumped at me.  I ducked low, conjuring blades and struck the wolf in its belly.  Looking behind, instead of seeing the expected floating blades, I instead saw ghostly blades, attached tightly to my wings as if they were a part of them.

I had no time to study my summoned wing blades as more wolves rushed out of the forest towards me.  No doubt trying to overwhelm me with numbers.   I charged one corner of the oncoming pack, jumping over the first row of wolves to kill the wolf behind him.  The other wolves turned around and jumped at me.  I quickly switched spells and my wings, sheathed in flame, peppered the wooden wolves with fire.  

Seeing their comrades in flames caused the remaining wolves to flee. Panting loudly from the exertion, I looked towards Rarity to make sure she was alright. The shield had protected her, but she had awakened.  I started to feel a little sheepish at her disbelieving stare towards my still flaming wings. “Heh” I said a bit awkwardly, “uh, good morning?”  as the light started to creep over the treetops.

“Y-You can do magic?” she said in disbelief.

“Heh, heh, yeah, pretty neat huh?” I said trying to brush off the whole situation, but Rarity’s mind must of fizzled and displayed an error screen because she then promptly passed out.

“... Wonderful...” I deadpanned

-----

I made use of the morning by working on the camp.  I eventually set up the small but heavy alchemy table up in the middle of the tent.   I placed it there since I preferred sleeping next to the fire and it would keep it safe from the elements.

“Phew. Finally” I said rather winded, wincing as my injury flares with pain, from all the heavy lifting I been doing.

“Oh man, never going to get used to thinking that I have wings.” I said.  Though they do kind of act like three fingered hands.  Maybe that's why the scrolls decided to make me a pegasus rather than a unicorn like Rarity. Speaking of which... I looked outside to see if she was still unconscious.

“Geez, she can sleep for a long time.” I looked up at the sky.  “It's almost past noon!”

Groaning, I returned to the alchemy table and reached into my now much lighter, but still far too large backpack and pulled out a few choice ingredients to help with my injuries.  

Crushing the blue mountain flower and butterfly wings I made a healing potion that I promptly drank.  Feeling worlds better, I sighed and went back to work.

Next, I set up the small arcane enchanters table in the corner of the tent.  To make sure it still worked like I expected it to in this universe I decided to try imbuing power into a knife.  A moment latter, my bread knife gleamed with fiery goodness.  “Awesome, an automatic toaster!”  I said gleefully.  Now I can toast my bread while I cut it.

“Heck not just bread but meat ...”, my thoughts derailed, as the harsh reality of my new body manifested itself into my mind.  I'm in a body of an herbivore, I can't eat meat!

“DAMN YOU ELDER SCROLLS!!!”

Panting, as my temper tantrum was over, I looked to Rarity who is... still sleeping despite the noise.

I went back to the alchemy table, deciding to work on replacing the potions that had been destroyed from the hard landing.  I mixed some basic healing, stamina and mana potions.  Then I mixed up some smelling salts for Rarity.

Heading over to Rarity, who is drooling in her sleep, I placed the smelling salts near her snout.  She bolted awake, covering her snout while trying to get away from the foul smell.

Glaring at me, she grumps “Don’t you know you never wake a lady up?”

“Not if said lady has been asleep past noon.” I said smugly.  

“What... huh?” she checks the sun before coughing into her hoof.  “Ahem... well I guess that is ok then.” Gaining her composure she looks around.  “So, um, what’s for breakfast, I mean lunch?”

“... whoops” I said, I had forgotten about food so I dove into my bags looking for things to eat.  Ignoring things like jerky, I grabbed items like berries, grapes, apples and lettuce.

I brought the food over to Rarity in two bowls, placing one down for me and one for her.  She smiled in thanks and we both started to chow down on the grub. I've got to say snowberries are epic. I mean they were good when I was human but now they were intoxicating.  I almost passed out from how good they tasted.

Taking a break from the awesome food.  I watched Rarity in amusement as she pigged out on the snow-berries.

After the meal.  Rarity went around the camp, looking at my enchanters table, alchemy set and book collection inside my tent.   She returned with the book, ‘De Rerum Dirennis.’ and I wondered if she would be able to read it.

There was some nice fluffy clouds, far up in the sky.  My wings twitched at the prospect of flying. I won’t lie, I'm really excited about learning to fly. I could hear some birds in the distance and insects buzzing.  The smell of the fresh grass permeated the air and was pleasant to lay on as well. I smiled as I enjoyed the moment.  I had learned to appreciate moments when it was both peaceful and pleasant out during my time at Winterhold.

I hadn't even relaxed for two minutes before Rarity started poking me with book 'De Rerum Dirennis'.

“Yes?” I asked.

Shyly Rarity asked “So, um... how can you do magic?”

“Well it’s not like I take unicorn horns and grind them into dust or something.” I laugh slightly but it slowly fades as I see how the white unicorn in front of me is even paler than normal. “Joking! I'm joking! Sorry!”  I apologized, which seemed to ease Rarity’s horrified face.

“Not sure on the exact details, but I use my willpower and spirit to draw forth mana.  Then I put the mana into a spell matrix which then leaves my body when I cast it through my focus.  For you, your focus is your horn, while for me it is my wings.  A spell matrix can be either taught by another or learned from a spell tome.  A magical spell tome can allow a practitioner to instantly learn a spell, but it is destroyed by the act of reading.  It accomplishes this by engraving the spell upon your mind so that you will never forget or mess up the spell.  Spell tomes only lay a framework of a spell, it takes practice and study to be able to unlock the spell's full potential.”

Looking to Rarity she seems quite perplexed at the large stack of information I had just dropped onto her.

“Well... um that’s great so... um... why is it you find me levitating something so fascinating?”

“Oh well its cause I never seen someone use levitation before.” I said rather sheepishly as her gaze turned even more disbelieving.

“Wait so you never seen somepony else levitate before?” she asked in disbelief.

“Ahem. Yes, I have never seen 'somepony' else levitate something before.” I said.

“Anyhow!” I clapped my two front hooves together as I changed the subject. “I was wondering, Miss Rarity, why were you in this forest to begin with?” I asked. “For as you have seen, this place is rather unhealthy.” I said, gesturing at the clearing which contained the charred remains of timber wolves.

“Oh... well I was going home... then something happened with the sky.  Then the next thing I knew I being chased through the forest by that brute of a manticore.” Rarity said summing up her adventure threw the forest.

“... Well why were you in the forest in the first place then?”

“Oh well my horn activated and I was dragged through forests and land from my home as I... was working... on costumes... for a school.... play...” Rarity said.

I started to get a little worried, as Rarity's face was turning into an expression of horrified realization. “Um Miss Rarity? Is something the matter?” I asked.  I checked behind me, to make sure she wasn't freaking out because of a monster, just in case.

“Is something the matter? Is something the matter?!” she yelled.  “Something is definitely the matter! I missed the school play! I was supposed to bring the jewels to the pageant so I could make fantastic costumes with them!”

“It’s been two days!  I've missed the pageant” she yelled frantically, “and I am stuck in this forest with a magic wielding pegasus with no way home!”

She stopped suddenly and whipped towards me, “You're a pegasus!”

“Um. Yes I'm a pegasus”

“You could fly me home” she said happily!  Her voice full of hope and relief.

“Um well you see there is a problem with that.” I said with my ears folded back.  “The problem with that is, that ... um.... I can’t fly.”

She looks at me even more horrified then before.  “Wha-what?” Rarity said in a voice so small that I almost didn’t hear her.

“Well the problem is that... I don’t know how to fly.” I could see tears forming in her eyes when she heard me say that. “So … well … um. I’m really sorry that I couldn’t help but maybe if we work together, I could still get you home?  Do you know which way to go?” She shook her head no and started to cry.  She looked so heartbroken, I went up to her and gave her a big hug while she cried.

“I’ll protect you.” I said out loud with determination, Rarity looked up at me.  

“I'll learn how to fly and help find your home Rarity.” I said with a smile, while internally I was feeling guilty that my untimely arrival had probably caused her getting chased by a manticore.  Yet, if she hadn’t run into me, she would had died, alone in this forest. With my own tears starting to form I hugged Rarity, “I’ll get you home.  You’ll see.”

End of Chapter...

From one world to the next I travel.  Not knowing my actions had changed lives of many, I vowed to protect a child... or filly.  She is now my responsibility.  I'll use fire, ice, lightning, ghostly blades, poisons and potions. My full might will be used to insure she is protected.
> The journey starts[Rewritten]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter three
Re-Written by FordPrefect <- because he did
Edited by: Pinklestia <- cause you did
Supervised by: R-A-B-G <- cause I only watched O_-


We needed to find our way out of the forest.  Unluckily, I was unskilled at illusion and therefore didn't know any scrying spells. Rarity hadn't carried a map with her, nor remembered which direction home was. So we decided to stay in the safety of the camp until I learned to fly.  Once I could do that, it would be easy to figure out where Rarity's hometown was.

That was the plan anyway…

Reaching for the sky, I felt the wind blowing over my mane and fur as I jumped.  My wings beat furiously, feeling my mana react to the wind around my form as I soared... for about three seconds, until I dropped like a rock from the tree I had climbed.  My hopes had been in vain that my pegasus nature would kick in to prevent me from face planting into the ground. Obviously that idea didn’t work as I whimpered in pain on the ground.  

“Well, it serves you right for thinking that jumping from a tree would give you an advantage.” Said Rarity as she poured a healing potion down my throat.  I could feel my bruises disappear and my cracked ribs mend.

“Well birds learn to fly like that, why can’t I?” I said, wincing from my aching muscles as I stood up.

“Those birds don’t use magic to fly.” Rarity said.  She pushed me and I fell back down to the ground with a groan.  Feeling weak, I thought ‘I think I’ll stay here for a few days on the nice, soft, ground.’

----------------------

“These past few days in the forests have been so dark and gloomy, and filthy and let’s not forget about the mud from that rain.” Rarity said to Charm feather in hopes of them heading back towards camp.

Charming had long ago tuned out Rarity's complaints, instead concentrating on finding various flowers and leaves.  She examined them as if they were the most interesting things in all of Equestria.  ‘Honestly I don’t understand it.  Yes that patch of flowers are very beautiful and looks tasty and yes, those blue flowers do indeed look very nice.  Oh, she isn’t going for them...' Rarity thought mentally. “Argh!  Charming, is there a pond or a lake someplace so I can get clean?”

Deciding to look for a place to clean herself, Rarity walked off further into the forest. After a minute, she found a nice little pond with crystal clear water surrounded by large leaves and rocky terrain.  It simply looked divine to her. Rarity practically belly flopped into the pond in her excitement.

Sighing, Rarity settled into the water. She scrubbed the filth off of her coat and mane with her hooves.  After getting as clean as she could, without soap, she laughed and swam around playfully.  

Then something happened that changed how she would look at baths forever.  Suddenly the leaves around the pond snapped up, with her trapped inside. In the dark she screamed, for she was in a stomach of a plant monster with no way out .  Around her, disturbed by the plant's sudden movement, bones of the previous victims bobbed to the surface of the water.  

This spurred Rarity to scream even more while a green luminous liquid started to seep into the water from the walls of the pool, mixing with the water.  She could feel a tingling sensation from the rising acidity of the water.  She felt foolish for leaving Charm.  She cried out with all her might.  “HELP ME CHARMING!”

~ Change of Perspective to Charm ~

“Argh!  Charming, is there a pond or a lake someplace so I can get clean?” Rarity complained as we marched into the forest to get some plants for my potions as I'm running low of alchemical ingredients. Not that I knew if we will find the plants I need or not, this was a different world after all. 

Rarity joined me, saying she needed to get some exercise.  Of course every time I tell her to be quiet she gets appalled at my attitude towards a ‘lady’.  This has been going on for roughly an hour now and I had managed to tune her out.  My trip was proving frustrating as, while I had a few plants that were magical, I was not familiar with them and being stuck inside a dangerous forest was not the best place to do experiments. 

I sneaked my way towards an interesting bug specimen. 'I hope it cant see me.' I thought nervously.   It resembled the dragonflies back in Skyrim, but this one had an extra set of wings on its rear. With a quick swoop of my hoof I caught it in a jar.  Smiling, I wondered if this bug is rare or common in this world. Wait, why can’t I hear Rarity? Looking around me I noticed she was gone.  I started to panic as I looked around frantically, seeing neither fur nor mane of her.

“Oh... crap.”

What the hell was I thinking? She is just a small girl, yet I ignored her in the middle of a forest full of dangers! I looked around the area shouting frantically for Rarity. I galloped back, retracing my steps until I found the point where her hoof prints left my trail. I reached a clearing with a large plant that looked kind of like an artichoke bulb.  I looked around the clearing, searching for more of her hoofprints, but to no avail.  All I could find were her prints where she entered the clearing.  My ears fell back as my overactive imagination started playing out scenarios on how she died.

“Oh no, no, no, no!” I started crying as I yelled, feeling guilty for ignoring Rarity.

“Help me charming!” I whipped my head towards the voice so fast that I almost gave myself whiplash.

‘That was Rarity’s voice!’ My mind registered this new found hope.  I rushed to the plant and put my ear to it, hearing the sound of muffled sobbing.  I knew where Rarity was. Not taking any chances I quickly used a spell to cut the plant's top off.

Looking into the plant I saw Rarity in slightly green tinged water, no doubt acid of sorts. Reaching down to the now hysterical unicorn filly I pulled her out of the acid.  I gave her a healing potion to help with the mild acid burns she had been developing.  She then passed out, probably from emotional exhaustion while she cried. I quickly cleaned the acid out her fur, mane and tail by conjuring ice then melting it over her using fire. It was still cool and she shivered a bit. Once I was sure no acid was left over her I  hugged the little unicorn filly in joy and relief.  I placed her on my back and carried her back to camp.

Once in the camp I warmed her by lighting up a campfire. It also helped up to dry my robes. Later that day Rarity woke up screaming.  It took five minutes to calm her down enough to get some answers from her.

---------

It’s been five days since I told Rarity I'd get her home.  

Rarity’s once beautiful purple mane was uneven and unkempt from the abuse of the forest.  To make her feel better I gave her a ... mane cut? So her mane is now considerably shorter.

“So are you going to stare at me forever Charming?” Rarity said bluntly as I was snapped out of my musing. Blushing and smiling sheepishly I diverted my eyes to an interesting looking plant on the other side of the clearing. “I mean I look good and I wouldn’t fault you for falling for me, but I'm not into mares.” Now I've gone from slightly blushing to a solid red. ‘Curse you brain, you've betrayed me!’ I thought as I found myself staring with disbelief at Rarity.

“I... what... no... I mean ah... grrah!” I stammer out as Rarity giggles at my flustered state “You’re like six or seven, how do you know these things!” I shouted as Rarity goes from giggling to full blown laughter.

Rarity is surprisingly mature for her age.  I had found out she is only '7 ½ years old.'  Since we're somewhat the same size, my body is probably about the same age as her but maybe a year older since I am taller.  I think I'm a little jealous since she can already do magic at such a young age, while it took me a long time to learn as an adult. But then, she is a unicorn and I was human, so is not fair to compare. 

I looked at my flank at my cutie mark which is ‘a symbol of your special talent’ is what Rarity said.  My cutie mark is of a silver sword with blue energy swirling around it, the emblem of enchanting.  I remember when I first found out my talent was in enchanting it was a few years ago at the college of Winterhold.  I couldn’t even get a spark of magic out until I tried my hand at enchantment.

I was then pulled from my musings as Rarity laughs again about what she did to me.  I grumble about little fillies and their knowledge about stuff they shouldn’t know yet.  Then I headed off to my tent to prepare for another attempt at flying.

------

Rarity watched Charm Feather walk into her tent, no doubt getting some healing potions for her next bout of flying lessons. Rarity was dejected at the thought of Charm hurting herself while learning how to fly.  She didn’t like her friend getting injured.

Since Charm Feather hadn’t told Rarity anything about her life, Rarity had been imagining reasons for Charm's situation.  ‘Oh to live a life where her parents couldn’t teach her how to fly!’ Rarity teared up at the image of a poor Charming begging on the streets for bits in the cold.  Struggling to live, day by day.

Charm looked at her wings and flapped them experimentally, only to lift from the ground by a few inches.  Then writing her results in her journal.  Rarity watching as she writes in her journal in an unknown language. ‘I don’t think she knows I can’t read what she's writing.’ Rarity thought as she ate some snowberries.

Rarity no longer felt the need to stuff her face with them. “Maybe I'm getting used to them.” Rarity said, as she mused about the taste of the odd fruit. It's tangy and sweet, like strawberries were combined with blueberries, with an orange aftertaste.  Not to mention that they are cold to the touch. Rarity’s musings were interrupted as Charm yelled out rather loudly.

Rarity stopped eating and rushed to Charm.  She was hovering off the ground with the biggest smile to ever grace her face.

“I DID IT!” Charm yelled in glee and angled her body, causing her to bank as she flies around the clearing. “Yes! I did it, I did it, I did it!” she yells with joy as she starts picking up speed and moves around faster.  Although Rarity had seen better flying, she couldn’t help but cheer her on.

Rarity smiled at the now joyful pegasus as she practices flying.  Although Charm crashed sometimes and had to rest every once in awhile, Rarity could see how determined her friend was to perfect her technique in flying.

There is no way she was ever going to make her stop as the smile on Charms face makes her feel happy. ‘Her smile is beautiful.’ After a moment Rarity given a start at her thought process, but dismissed it as she prefers the smiling pegasus, to the serious studious pegasus, although it is one of her quirks she could enjoy.

It had been a few hours now and Charm is feeling more confident in flying.  She was able to fly above the tree tops and spotted Ponyville.  Charm told Rarity that if they took a safe route, avoiding dangerous creatures, that she would be home within a day or two.

They spent the rest of the day preparing to leave for the trip to Ponyville. 

Charm stashed away unnecessary gear that they didn't need, in order to make their loads as light as possible.  

“Alright the enchanter table is packed away and buried along with the alchemy set.” Charm said, checking that everything was ready for the trip. “I've made several healing potions for any surprises along the way.”

“We each have enough food for at least a couple days, in case one of us becomes separated from the other.” Charm said as she marches in front of Rarity like a drill sergeant in front of his troops. Rarity sat there with a stony expression as she floated a list of things to do and makes a check mark on the parchment.

“Tomorrow we will set off on the journey to return you home” Charm said as she looked at Rarity with a guilt filled smile, Rarity returns it with a more happy one as she goes to her friend and hugs her.

“I wouldn’t trade my time here for anything in the world. You protected me and showed me some fascinating new things with your magic and knowledge in alchemy that I couldn’t even dream of.” She said hugging her friend.

Tomorrow the both of them would set out to Ponyville…

End of Chapter…

Two lost souls learn to adapt in the harshness of the world.  One learns to master her body to save her friend because of her folly.  While the other learns to master the forest.  Both set off to the peaceful world of Equestria outside this dark, dangerous and monster infested forest.
For tomorrow would test their limits and their friendship.

> The dream and the journey
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Four

He steps near the enchanters table as he focuses the mana needed to enchant items, they formed like they were suppose to and the mana entered the item, then the gem turned to glittering dust and flowed onto the item turning said item into a glimmering source of light, in vain hopes that it finally worked, he smiled... and for a second it did... then the item disintegrated.

TINK

With a sound of breaking crystal the whole thing falls apart, with a frustrated yell Zach slammed his hands onto the table as frustrated tears form in his eyes as for the hundredth time his enchanted item again breaks on him.

“Why...” he whispered. “Why... can’t I do this?” he said a bit louder this time, taking a breath he pulls his emotions back into control, or else he might start yelling.

“Why won’t anything work?” he whispered now feeling useless as all his effort is wasted... all of Leone's efforts and funds wasted, that hurt’s the most, his friend Leona had put time and effort into his education when she didn’t have to do so, but still she wouldn’t take no for an answer as she did everything she could to help him, and she won’t give a reason as to why.

And he tried... he really did, he kept trying even when the mana started rejecting him, by blowing up in his hands, to the point he started breaking fingers, of course he went to the healer’s to fix himself, they always scold him for going too far. 

Enchanting seems to be the only thing that seemed to work for him, or at least it feels that way as every time he tries he could actually feel the magic flow into the items as intended, it was the only thing that made him feel amazing.

But the bonds could never hold together, they always shatter in the end. 

“Why can’t I do magic!” he yelled starting to lose himself in his emotions. “If every human on earth had this problem it’s no wonder why we turned to science.” His shoulders slump as he was feeling he should just give up.

‘Are you really going to give up?’ a mysterious voice asked within his head. ‘You are developing so very well; please don’t give up my friend.’ The voice as Zach has observed sounded female.

“w-who are you?” Zach ask in fear, afraid of a daedric prince is haunting him, as he didn’t hear any good things about them.

‘yo-you can hear me?’ She asked as if in disbelief and a little bit of hope.

“U-um yes I can, who are you?”

‘I-I can’t remember anymore’ She said as she sounded dejected about this. ‘but I do know what I’ am.’ She said now feeling happier about this fact.

‘I am a spirit guide, I’ am born when you are born and I’ am meant to help you in your journey in life, I remember when you were a child on how you always used to speak to me with childlike wonder and curiosity, but when you went to the doctor’s office you just... stopped... speaking to me... I can’t even remember the name you given me...’ She said as she explained quickly as Zach listens closely.

After a minute of not saying anything she started to lose hope that Zach could no longer hear her, she always dreamed of speaking to him again, she had been trying to reach him for years but soon she just sort of... just... faded, she tried to keep her sanity by speaking to herself as she watched him in his daily life.

Within Zach’s mindscape a solid purple skinned, with blue pulsating veins, stood a female woman with long misty and wavy hair reaching her torso, but her eyes are the most eye catching thing on her as they were brilliant silver, but her eyes threatens to tear up, as the prospect that she lost her chance to finally speak to him again. 

“A spirit guide huh?” his sudden voice caused her to gasp, she looked up to see a sort of distorted image of him floated in his mindscape, one she never thought she would ever been able to see in her life, and it is finally happening to her. 

“Ho-how?” was her only response as his form is now grand in comparison to his old one he had on earth, his life style here in skyrim had improved the slight pudgy human, although she won’t admit it she would miss his pudgy gut. 

She put a hand onto her mouth, now that Zach had heard her thoughts and is now fully focusing on her she now has a voice to speak with; one she had never thought she would ever have in their shared life times.

“I’ am doing meditation and focusing myself.” He said as his form slightly wavers but strengthens as he focuses more. 

She ran at him and given him a large hug, although his form wavers again he couldn’t help but share the hug, since Leona is big on hugs for some reason but he got used to it. Since he won’t lie she is a hot brunette and his mind is weak.

“So... um yea although I may be enjoying this hug, we are still relatively new to each other.” He said as the hug drawn out longer then was comfortable to him.

She pulled back away from him as if he was on fire. “oh right sorry” she said as she straightens her hair and dust at herself as if she had seen dirt on her.

“well let me introduce myself, I’ am Zechariah, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He said politely as although he couldn’t do much at the moment he thought his body to smile warmly to her which she returns.

“Hello Zach it is nice to meet you, but only you can give me a name.” She said as her smile grew as Zach looked like he was concentrating. ‘Is ... Is he going to give me a name?’ she thought with hope.

“You know... I guess I should give you a name... hum.” he ponders looking at her as she was almost dancing as she jumps from one foot to the other in over excitement.

“hum... how about... Eve? Does that sound good to you?” he said smiling as she practically started cheering by screaming out in joy.

“Yes yes yes!” she repeats as she jumps around him in utter joy, she then jumps right in front of him and starts shaking his hand causing his form to waver again but he still held on. “Hello Zach! My name is Eve!” she calls out now hugging him again.

He couldn’t help but smile at her childlike nature as he fears he has to pop her bubble with the next question he was going to say.

“Alright calm down calm down, we have business to discussed” 

-	Dream ends. 

Charm wakes up and stretches like a cat, enlisting some satisfying pops in her stiff joints, she sighs as she observe the deconstructed camp as everything was packed away, the two magical tables were buried with runes to shield the area to prevent wear and tear from the weather, the two saddlebags are full of food, spare bedding's, ropes and potions of all types all labelled of coarse for Rarity.

Looking at the trees Charm could see the morning sun starts to peak the top of the trees singling the new day had started. 

“Time to wake up the princess...” She muttered to herself although Rarity dropped the attitude she still has a hard time waking up this early, she started to utilize her magic to fight her advances off now, that made Charm proud as the battle is quite fierce.

Taking a the infamous poking stick in her newly winged appendage she reaches out and pokes Rarity with it, this of course didn’t do a thing as she turned away from the offending poking and returns to snoring.

Sighing Charm inhales deeply then screamed at the top of her lungs, now let’s think this over ever since Charm has gotten her new body everything is new to her even the sensations on her fur, now Charms new voice is rather high pitch and young when she meets new pitches her voice breaks slightly as they hadn’t mature enough, so with new voice she abused them to their full capability for this task, this of course worked flawlessly as Rarity bolted awake, then not upon seeing any danger glared at Charm who was grinning innocently.

The challenge has been issued and Rarity took a hold of it in full, by ripping a good sized chunk of dirt and throwing it at Charm. With great ease Charm side steps the dirt clog then another and another as this is a morning routine by now.

“Your aim is improving; at this rate we could actually have a use for this.”  Charm taunts as Rarity now started swinging sticks and rocks in vain to actually hit her as Charm playfully and easily dodge. 

But it was bound to happen, Charm isn’t a expert or a master in combat, so a dirt clog finally hit her knocking her to the ground, looking up from her perspective Rarity was grinning evilly unlike a cat that had just cornered her pray and was about to do horrible things to it before it died.

Gulping, Charm smiles nervously. “G-good job, you got me, so maybe um... you should put those away, preferably away from Me.” she said nervously as the dirt clogs started orbiting her in large numbers.

“Oh I don’t think so.” Then all the dirt started falling towards her as Charm was buried in dirt and mud.

Walking away in victory as charms head pokes itself out of the mud pile Rarity heads over to her saddlebags to get some food before they embark on their journey. 

The early morning was crisp and misty as a slight draft waves through the clearing causing the two fillies to shiver slightly as they go through their morning procedures.

It was about four hours of waking up; breakfast and hiking through the forest, the forest was full of bugs of all types as they were deflected by Charms bug repellent potion, they haven’t encounter anything but the odd trap pools, Charm seems to stalk the forest with great ease as Rarity was jealous of the fact she is having trouble duplicating her friend’s moves.

Rarity shudder as she looked at the trap pools remembering the memories of her encounter and being slightly angry at herself for not realizing it was a trap; the signs were clear as day now that she knew what to look for.

The whole clearing was the trap, the whole thing was ominous there was no grass around the pool as the plant sucks all the nutrients in the soil killing off any other competition, the leafs act as a sort of false grassy ground the pools are perfectly round as which should clue in it was a trap but she just ignored it all, for the silly notion of bathing, Rarity was disgusted at herself. 

‘How could I fall for the obvious ploy’ Rarity thought as she stares at the inviting watery pools in the clearing. ‘Isn’t it obvious? It’s because all I cared about was for a bath.’ She turns away and gallops to catch up with Charm as she was ahead.

“Hum...” Charm ponders aloud catching Rarity’s attention.

Not saying anything she watches as Charm looks at the odd blue flowers as she throws one of her potions into the patch, it smashes on a rock throwing up some strange liquid on the plants; a large portion of the flowers goes up in smoke as the flowers turn black and gray. Smiling Charm continues through the dead flowers, not knowing what happened Rarity asks a question.

“What was that all about?” she asks in a whisper as to not attract any creatures to their location.

“That Rarity... was a trap plant.” She said not turning to Rarity as she scanned ahead for any possible death traps.

Gasping Rarity turned to the dead plants they just passed threw in horror at the fact they just went through one.

“I’ am not sure on what it does... but I wasn’t going to take a risk for it to be deadly so I threw some poison to kill them.” Charm said

Sighing in relief she continued to follow Charm as she walks into some bushes and walks into them. 

When Rarity manages to squeeze herself out of the bush and into the next clearing, she hears Charm gasp, looking at Charm she sees she is staring at something so following her gaze, she too gasps at an old castle that expanded before them.
It was an old run down thing some parts of it has fallen apart from time and neglect, whole towers collapsed leaving nothing but rubble, walking up to it Charm stares at it with awe, but shaking from her gawking she turns to Rarity.

“Know anything about it?” Rarity shakes her head in the negative as they proceed into the old castle. “oh well, anyways we need to get through to the other side of this here castle.” sighing she returns her gaze forward as they marched into the old castle keeping sight of anything that will fall on top of them.

It was a good hour before they managed to find a way out to the other side of the castle, to find a very old rickety bridge to pass through. 

Testing the bridge for its stability, Charm smiles nervously as she marches to the other side with no problem, flying over to Rarity she surprises her by hugging Rarity’s back with all four legs while positioning herself with her chin on Rarity’s head and her belly on her back, Rarity could feel Charms hot breath making her feel embarrassed about the situation she found herself in, after dispelling the notion that Charm was this forward she noticed she was lighter as Charm was using her wings to make them both weight less she understood what she was doing now.

With Charm on her back flapping her wings every so often they both made it to the other side just as the bridge decided to give up by breaking down, Rarity sighs and gives a smile of gratitude to Charm. “Next time you wanted a hug all you got to do was just ask.” Rarity said causing Charm to blush now noticing how that would have looked.

It was now noon and after making across the bridge Charm pulled out some food and started eating, while she did this Rarity takes a rest as her hooves hurts from the constant pounding from the rough terrain.

‘argh I need to exercise more.’ Rarity thought as she rubbed her hooves of their pain. 

‘Hmm... The snowberries don’t taste as good as they use too.’ Charm noted mentally as she was eating.

And it was true they use to taste amazing now they lost their flavor, ‘must be from the constant consumption of them.’ Charm thought as she takes a bite out of a slightly rotten apple. Sigh, ‘I missed fresh apples.’ She thought in disappointment’ as the apples taste was less than satisfactory.

After lunch the two set out again, this time they came upon an abnormally dark clearing as the trees blotted out the light even during the day. This is where they encounter trouble as timber wolves started coming out of the shrubbery in great numbers.

Standing tall Charm goes into a battle stance by crouching slightly low to the ground with her wings flared as they sparked in ethereal fire and lightning, she stands on guard in front of Rarity in case everything goes downhill.

Rarity on the other hoof has harden over the week from constant attacks from monsters nightly, of course she always watched and was given tips and advice from Charm, but this time with determination in her eyes Rarity stands tall with her friend with her horn aglow in magical energy as she picks up many types of potions and poisons from her saddlebags.

The two shared a look to each other, they nodded then glared out at the timber wolves with determination, Charm starts the fight off by opening a stream of fire in one direction and using her other wing she unleash a constant downpour of lightning, this had the effect of causing the timber wolves to scatter into cover, unfortunately the ones peppered by fire weren’t too lucky as a good chunk was taken out by the fire.

Rarity using her telekinesis flung a potion labelled plant killer poison out at one timber wolf, causing it to yelp and whine as the poison hissed causing large chunks of bark on its hide to become sickly in brown and black chunks this was an exhalant distraction, as the wolf whines and yelps Charm would dispatch a stream of fire ending the wolfs suffering, this continued for a good minute of fighting as the two covered each other’s backs.

Already the pack was slowly being thinned out as there famed regeneration isn’t as affective when fire is introduced into the mix, the two fillies created a death circle around them as the bodies of the timber wolfs lay haphazardly around them. Sensing that they couldn’t get to the fillies the wolf pack backs off as they retreated from the losing battle.

With the battles end Rarity starts breathing heavily as her nerve of being in battle for the first time starts causing her legs to shake uncontrollably. ‘Charm has to face this every time?’ Rarity thought now seeing her friend in a new light as she looks at Charm who seems stoic and compose as she looks out into the thick forest for any other signs of danger.

‘... I should take up smoking...’ was Charms thoughts. ‘How could Leona fight so much without becoming an alcoholic I’ll never know.’ Charm thought as she tried to calm her franticly beating heart by looking out into the forest too as to keep her mind occupied. 

Once the two managed to get some resemblances of control they kept on their journey to Ponyville. The unexpected but planned battle was short and sweet, but their unscheduled rest to compose there nerve took a half hour as the two rested, upon their finished rest they made up for lost time by galloping out of the dark clearing... only for Charm to bump nose first into a steep Cliffside as she was looking behind herself to see if Rarity was still behind her.

“... owie” Charm said as she lays pathetically on the ground with Rarity trying but failing to hide her snickering, after some embarrassingly long time to get back up Charm sits up rubbing her snout to make sure nothing is broken.

“Ar-are you ok?” Rarity said as she smirks at her. “or is this a situation requiring a healing potion?” this time Rarity couldn’t help but start laughing uncontrollably as Charm stared nonplused at her... only for it to break as she giggles a bit.

“Ok ok so yea that was funny and all,” Charm said smiling as Rarity was still on the ground laughing shaking her head Charm whistles loudly catching her attention. “All done now?” said Charm all serious with a tiny smile, Rarity smiles at how her friend can take some teasing such as this with grace she nods which caused some purple strand to fall onto her face, she corrects  this by blowing it away with a sharp breath.

Charm looked at the cliff she whistles in wonderment. “wow pretty steep should be easy enough.” Taking out thick vines she tugs on them with her wings to make sure they are sturdy enough for the task she has in mind for them, and with her wings and vines in hoof she flies to the top of the cliff where she ties a strong knot to a tree. She then flies back to Rarity who is keeping watch at the bottom.

“Alright if you’re up to it we could take a risk today, if we climb this cliff we could take a day off our journey as this is a big obstacle to get by, because if we were to walk around it, it’ll take a day or two to get around it. So what’ll you choose?” 


~ Elsewhere ~

The search has been going on for a week now, ever since Princess Celestia heard about the fillies disappearance she sent out a platoon of royal guards in hopes to fine the lost filly, they found tracks of the filly leading to a large cash of gem stones, but the same tracks wondered over to the Everfree forest, that’s where the fillies hoof prints start to fade from time and other animal prints start covering them, unfortunately the search had to be called off after a week had past as there was no way a filly could survive this long alone in the Everfree.  

“I hate this part of the job.” Captain Iron Shield said as he and a royal guard escorting him, the two walk up to a house, it was not a really remarkable house two story probably two or three bed rooms, one master bed room with kitchen and one bathroom, the norm for Ponyville 

“What do you mean sir?” The guard asked as the two near the building.

Feeling that talking about it would help him feel better at what he was about to do he answered rather than reprimand him for speaking out of turn. 

“Telling parents, and wives that somepony they loved maybe dead or is dead.” Captain Iron Shield said. “This is the hardest part of the job private armour.” He said to private armour whose ears went down at the horrible feeling that must be to see that.

‘He is a good kid. he is young, but determine a little on the naive side, but he will grow out of that soon, he would make a wonderful captain some day.’ Captain Iron Shield thought to himself as the two finally made it to the door, stepping forward Iron Shield knocks on the door in hope that it’ll end soon.

The door was answered by the stallion of the house, a male in his mid twenties he has what is growing on for him a mustache, his coat is white and mane brown, and seems to be wearing the a awful shirt that clashes with everything.

“Good afternoon sir, I’ am Guard Captain Iron Shield of the Royal Guard of her majesty Princess Celestia, I’ am here for the... report of the current status of the young filly Rarity.” The Stallion grins in hope that they had found her and was bringing her back but the grave face that the Captain was wearing told him another story to which he pieced together on his own as tears already started to form in the corner of his eyes.

At that moment his wife stood behind him to hear the rest of the news. “I’ am afraid we could not find her due to the fact she had wondered into the Everfree forest where we had lost track of her, we had to call off the search of the filly as it would seem the forest had claimed the young one.” The captain said gravely.

The wife wails in horror and shock, as she had broken down in sobs and none intelligible speech at the news, the stallion holding his own composure, even thought he was about to do the same, he thanked the two and shut the door. He ran to his wife and hugged her not allowing her to suffer this alone, and the two cried for their lost little Rarity.

But they prayed and hoped for her continued survival.

~ In Canterlot ~

Princess Celestia just heard the news of a young filly’s possible end and even though it was none conclusive she couldn’t risk the pony power to send more out there to at least find the body so the parents have something to bury, behind her throne Twilight Sparkle just heard the news of a little filly who got lost in the Everfree and prayed she would be safe.


~ back to our heroines ~

Rarity felt the sudden need to get home as soon as possible, using her magic she tighten her saddlebags straps and hooked the bottom straps tightly, then doing the same to Charm who jumped at the sudden movement on her underbelly, after that she went and got some rope then tied it to the two of them, even though Charm couldn’t hold her up for long she hoped it’ll be long enough to prevent her from falling to her death.

“I need to get home as soon as possible Charming, I... I can’t explain it but I must.” Rarity said to Charm who nods and with determination took flight as Rarity started the perilous journey up the Cliff side.

Chapter ends...

Bad news followed with the feeling of a lost loved one.

Two parents and one filly prayed for the protection of the one they loved and a complete stranger.

Two fillies in the forest with fire in their eyes risk life and limb for the journey home.

The mysterious spirit, the human turned pony and the lost filly Rarity.

Two of the same body, friends with the filly, only the filly only knows the one side.

> The Magical art of healing [Rewritten]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Five

She stared down the monstrous beast that stood before the two of them, the hissing reptilian serpent looking like a snake with sickly yellow teeth bigger than even the largest of human’s, two forelegs armed with sharp looking claws that supports its upper body, reptile irises narrowed in their direction, with black scale hide don with harden scales, the beast blocks their way, and Charm knew for a fact... that she could not handle such a beast.

After climbing up the cliff with no difficulty besides a few errand rocks falling under Rarity’s hooves, everything was ok.

That is until this monster showed itself, and before they knew it they were ducking and weaving around the creature in vain hopes to avoid being eaten.

So far her small size and combat experience up to this point had saved her life as well as Rarity’s, her small frame allowed her to duck under the striking teeth, her combat experience allowed her to at least get a hit in or two.

But that’s where things get more complicated, 'Charm in her days in skyrim had developed a lot in the magical arts, but was in no stretch of the word a very good combat mage, her fire couldn’t match a dragons or even the weakest of wielders, her ice was mediocre at best, her lightning was a mild annoyance beside to small and weak targets, she isn’t profound in swordsmanship besides the basics, and her conjuring skills is subpar as she didn’t like the idea of playing god by raising the dead.

And all this was before her transformation, her new body allowed her to channel magical energies more efficiently, unfortunately she is still inexperienced in wielding it, at best her fire and lightning spells had been upgraded from there mild annoyances. 

But when the stakes are high she steps up to the plate to fight to the best of her ability, she also got some helpful tips from her friend Leona.

Her summoned swords are powerful as it was the only thing in conjuring she found a lot of use for.

Her enchanting is amazing as her origins allowed her to add something new to the craft.

Her alchemy craft is also pretty unique.

But as an combative mage? Yea good luck Charm you are not up to the task.'

‘Eve, would you shut up about my mediocre combat skills?’ Charm thought in deadpan as she ducked a swipe from the monsters tail. ‘And help me!?’  Charm thought frantically as the monster strikes again with its claws, missing her by a hair as she is now slowing down in her movements as they been at this for a good ten minutes, with no slowing down of the big creature.

‘Like what!?’ Eve replied also freaking out as their combined knowledge doesn’t cover fighting large monsters, ‘at best as I could come up with is to cut the head off with your swords, but you  can’t achieve the momentum at your current ability, even if you flew your flying skills aren’t up to the task. But if you could do all this you won’t be able to protect Rarity!’ Eve said as she nearly screamed as the monster almost took Charms head off. 

While this was going on, Rarity was off to the side watching with horror as she watched her friend dodge the monsters advances while getting a few fired off shots but they don’t seem to be effecting the creature as effectively as the timber wolves.

Charm turned to Rarity and yelled out at the top of her lungs to her. “GO!” This startled Rarity as she had noticed as she had been watching the fight in a relative safe distance, which she had been backing up while Charm moved the creature. Making it face in a complete different direction with its back towards the cliff, with Rarity’s flank now facing towards Ponyville. “GO I’LL HOLD IT OFF!” she yelled just managing to duck under another bite from the creature, causing the teeth to be lodged into the dirt giving her enough time to jump on the head before it could pull back, summoning her sword she stabs it in the head, only for the blades to bounce off the harden scales.

Cursing some rather creative expletives, she didn’t had time to get off the creature as it pulled its head up taking a large chunk of dirt to which it crushed under its mighty jaws.

It couldn’t find Charm as she was holding on for dear life as the pressure of the sudden assent caused her to be winded, she clung to the beasts head spines with all of her being. The Creature then notices Rarity who watched on still not sure what to do, it hissed in anger as it started moving towards her as she look on with horror. 

“Oh. No. You. Don’t!” Dispelling her swords she summoned fire and lightning into her wings, she then starts shooting downward onto the monsters head causing it to roar out in pain, the lightning pierced the scales giving it a mild shock enough to cause it to be numbed to the world as its vision became distorted, while the fire on the other hoof created light and sound blinding it temporary as its already blurry vision was assaulted, she had enough time now for her to jump off the beasts back then ran towards Rarity.

“What are you doing?! GO!” Charm yelled as she pulled Rarity with her wings away from the monster as it’s in the process of shaking off its sudden daze and blindness.

They barely made it to the tree line that spreads the rocky Cliff side and the forest, because the monster spews a foul smelling sludge in their pathway killing many trees in its way with its presence alone.

Thinking quickly Charm looks back at the monster as it was doing this randomly it had managed to get in a lucky shot, looking to her left she sees a cave, looking back at the only exit, making her mind up she and Rarity made a mad dash to the small cave just as the monster recovers, and with speed that betrays its large size moved quickly in front of them again blocking their only hope for survival. 

Not slowing down in the slightest she jumps in the way of its bite with swords out stretch holding off the monster with one wing blade jammed in its mouth but far enough in to hit a nerve causing the beast to pull up in pain, with Charm stuck in its mouth.

Rarity also not slowing down as she let Charm handle the monster as she rushes into the cave, looking back she sees Charm in the monsters mouth with her wing blades stuck in its jaw as it thrashed its head around.

With an all mighty jerk, the monster throws off the prick in its teeth which was causing pain, this was of course Charm who found herself in the air and in pain in her wing as she feels a joint dislocated, fortunately she was thrown into the cave but unfortunately she hits a stalagmite causing the cave roof to become unstable but not enough to cause it to fall apart.

The monster with a clicking sounding hiss that also sounds like its form of chuckling evilly, the monster watched the unconscious mare pegasus ready to lunge to its well fought meal, but before it could a blue aura surrounds Charm pulling her back in time just as the monster lunges, missing the mare by mere inches, the ensuing thud rumbled the cavern enough to cause a cave in as large hunks of rock falls onto the monster crushing its head under rock and rubble completely blocking the cave entrance. 

Panting heavily from the now fading adrenaline of a life or death situation, she looks at Charm who is still unconscious, only to see that Charms wings are badly damaged with missing feathers and from what she could see is a broken bone sticking out of the wing, which caused Rarity to gasp in horror.

“Oh no!” Rarity exclaims loudly as she starts taking out her sleeping bags, placing Charm in them she reaches out with her magic to fish out some potions, pulling out the right potion for the job she was about to place it into Charms mouth.

Only for Charm to stop her from doing so as the mare is now awake but barely.

“Nah-no, R-rarity that would be... very bad...” Charm winces as her eyes started glassing over.”  At my current injury... it’ll... fuse... bones.... wrong...” with fading consciousness she managed to say before passing out. “Must... set... bones... right...” and with that she was unconscious again. 

“B-but I don’t know how to do that!” Rarity yells hysterically now seeing the situation she is in, she looks at the protruding bone not knowing what to do as she is starting to panic.

Steeling herself she reaches out with her magic she pulls Charms wing to its full length at the tip which had the effect of pulling Charms bones back into the skin. 

Crying as the whole thing made a sickly sound of flesh and bones squishing nastily together, she withheld the urge to vomit as she readies some bandages, with great focus she bandaged Charms side, not knowing what else to do she places her wing back down hoping with all her might that she did it right. 

Next she takes the potion she was going to give her back out ready to give to Charm, but... she couldn’t, with tears in her eyes the potion shakes in her magical field as she couldn’t bring herself to do it as if she did it wrong it could spell the lost of Charms ability to fly.

“I-I’ am sc-scared,” she whispers still with tears in her eyes as the potion falls from her grip spelling its contents onto the cave floor.

‘We all fear something child.’ A voice said sounding feminine in Rarity’s hysterical mind she brushed the voice off as her own. ‘Please tell me of your woes little one,’ The voice said as a small light emits from under Charms tattered adapt robes.

“I-I don’t know what to do, she has been so brave, so strong for me, protecting me from the monsters, s-saving my life. I-I don’t want her to lose the ability to fly when she had just achieved the feat!” Rarity yells out feeling even guiltier in her entire life, this was her fault she knows it and she announced her guilt’s. “I-I shouldn’t had rushed us, shouldn’t had made the risk.” She says all near whisper as tears still leak out of her eyes. “Th-this is my fault, I know it.” She finishes full on crying.

‘hush now, it’s ok child, it is all going to be ok.’ a ghostly apparition of a tall unicorn mare wraps her hooves around Rarity in a soothing gesture, she leaned in the embrace which to her surprise as she could feel her, but she couldn’t hear a heartbeat or the warmth, ‘just like a ghost.’ Rarity thought now taking a good look at the mare.

For a moment Rarity thought she was in front of Princess Celestia, but the fact the white mare was not as tall and lacked wings or even a cutie mark dissuaded her of that. The mare had silver eyes and a mane and tail that were like mist. 

"Who… who are you?" Rarity asked in fear, was this a ghost of a death mare who also had been killed by a horrible monster? The unicorn form wavered slightly, it must be a ghost!

‘My name is errr my name is… uhm… call me Guide for now, I still have to  fit a suitable pony name.  I’ am Charms companion for life, her guide to life’s problems, her morals, Ideas, memory’s and Creativity.’ Eve lifts her head to look at the cave ceiling. ‘When she is lonely we speak, when she is lost I guide her, when she is hurting inside she comes to me.’ She looks down at Rarity again with a soft expression. ‘And when she will fall in love she would come to me for advice.’

"Oh, so you are like a big sister for her?" Rarity asked, now more relaxed, for some reason she could feel that she could trust the strange pony.

'Big sister? I… well, I guess that fits.' The big unicorn  sighs, now her expression was pained. ‘Unfortunately I wasn’t always there for her.’ With determination she looks back at Rarity. ‘We had been granted a second chance her and I… I I won’t lose it again.’ Looking down at her hooves she draws a circle on the ground, Rarity watches with a mix of curiosity and a bit of fear. 

Looking at Charms gentle breathing and injured body she smiles in sadness. ‘She needs help but all I could do is watch, I want to help but I can’t do much. I guess a lot of big sisters must sometimes feel like I do.’ She looks at Rarity again with Rarity tucked under her front legs. ‘I cannot provide much aid, but I can provide teaching.’ Guide said now looking squarely into Rarity’s soul, to see a beautiful and generous one.

‘Rarity listen closely, would you do that for me? Will you help Charm and watch over her, as only a true friend would?’ Rarity nods as she didn’t had the urge to speak contempt in listening to the unicorn. 

‘Charm has many talents in magic, but healing magic is not one of them, and she lacks the right potions to heal herself. And even if she had the ingredients to make them, we are in a bit of a hurry.' Guide then smiled at Rarity "But you on the other hoof, can do what she can't with a bit of help."

‘I will give you the theoretical knowledge of spellcraft for Restoration which is the school of healing, then I want you to go to her bags as she has some spell tomes in hopes that it would be useful look for healing hands ok?’ Rarity nodes as she got up to get the tomes. 

Returning with the spell tomes she places them down at Guide’s hooves. ‘Good now come here’ Rarity did so as she lays down on her belly with her legs tuck in.

‘I shall place my own horn onto yours and establish a link between us.’ Eve said to Rarity as she lowered her head down her horn touching the tip of Rarity’s own.

With a jolt Rarity stands back up rather abruptly as her head was filled to the brim of foreign magical knowledge, looking up at were the unicorn used to be she looks back down at the tome in her hooves.

The book was titled spell tome: healing hooves, Rarity couldn’t understand as she doesn’t remember being able to remember how to even read Charms language, but one look at Charm was all the motivation to start reading came up, opening the book she was assaulted with the  ancient  knowledge of the art of healing, how to regulate mana flow to the affected injury, how to apply her telekinesis to set bones in, while also fusing mana into the bone creating a highway to it, using the hosts own mana flow she can guide it threw the highway to better promote healing for a faster recovery.

All this and much more, the spell formula had started giving her mathematical formulas on how her own mana reserves would be drained and replenish and how effective her healing would be on injured body parts as a whole as she heals it.
And within half a second this was burned into her mind, after its use the tome turns to glimmering blue ash causing it to fall to the ground as even the ash winks out of existence.

“I-I know what to do.” Rarity said now full of confidence as she ran to Charms side, her horn burning into existence with a golden hue, she casts her spell at her friend, causing all her injuries to be instantly healed as Rarity’s own mana reserves lowers, she could physically feel the drain on a mathematical scale.

Rarity looks down at her handy work, she could see how Charms injuries had all healed as she could no longer sense the break in the bones, and she could also tell the muscle tears were all healed, with nothing left of it behind, not even a scar.

Rarity now spent as she had never used so much magic before, was now suffering magical exhaustion as she had never used so much mana in her life, collapsing on top of Charm, she could no longer stand as the day’s events had drained her physically and mentally, now even spiritually

Her day had finally caught up with her, and her friend was safe possibly dreaming of pink fluffy unicorns dancing on rainbows. With a smile she snuggles up to her unconscious friend and soon joined her in dreamland.

In the darkness of the cave a small flash appears in the dark, in the shape of a bird, and something that wasn't there before shows in the little unicorn flanks.

~ Canterlot ~

Some may not know this but Princess Celestia isn’t all knowing, her magical senses have been achieved by time and study over thousands of years, but she doesn’t know everything.
So because of this she was surprised when Twilight Sparkle jumped in her seat as she was previously playing with her smarty pants doll, to now fully alert with her ears pinned up searching for something that made her feel like she was pinched in the brain.

“Twilight dear what is the matter?” Celestia asked her student worried for her as this was odd behavior for her.

“I... I do not know Princess, but... I feel as if... something amazing happened.” Twilight said now full of awe as whatever had happened it was truly something to behold.

End of Chapter...

A battle to survive,

Two fillies flee danger,

Only to be stopped,

One is injured,

The other in tears,

A friend of the injured,

Gives their knowledge,

To the crying filly,

Giving her something magical and wondrous,

A talent she is capable of,

A magical art like no other,

In all of Equestria.


> Relaxation, Striped Ally [Rewritten]
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Six 

~ the next day ~

Sound returned to her at long last, she had sat in this empty void with no sound or even light, things she sorely missed as she has no idea how long she has been here, she could hear a voice repeating the same thing over and over again just at the edge of her hearing sounding like an echo. 

Then her vision returned to her albeit a bit blurry, she sees a white blob jumping around in the dark room, reaching out she tried to touch the blob, ‘why do I feel like having some marshmallows right about now?’ she mentally thought as in vain her forelegs were weaken from wherever they had been just now. ‘Why am I so weak?’ she thought sadly as she missed the feeling of being in motion.

She groans loudly as her foreleg falls to the ground in weariness. This had the added effect of causing the voice that was saying the same thing over and over to suddenly stop, silence was reintroduced to her and with horror she realized she sorely missed that voice. ‘Nu, please say something’ she said mentally rather wearily as her voice was to sore for her to say it aloud. ‘I miss hearing that voice already.’

And before she knew it, something landed on her giving her a rather impressive death grip as it wrapped around her preventing her from moving, this had the effect of causing her eyes to flare open clearing most of her vision but still couldn’t see too well in the dark. She still couldn’t move as whatever was holding her was preventing all movement ‘although it wasn’t like I could move in the first place.’ She mentally noted out as she could feel her breathing was strained.

“C-can’t breathe” she weakly protested against her assailant.

“Oh! Sorry!” A voice said dropping her onto the sleeping cot on the ground.

“Erg where am I?” I said, now feeling out of it more as the sudden lack of oxygen, followed by sudden vertigo followed by pain had really put a toll on my mind.

Looking at the white blob, I squinted my sore eyes to better see in the dark as my eyes focused; I see a dirty white filly unicorn, with a purple mane with stunning blue eyes staring back at me, with a rather large grin on her face.

“R-Rarity?” I said, now feeling more focused as my mind gets everything in order, “oh by the divines everything hurts,” I said aloud weakly causing Rarity to frown as concern replace her earlier glee.

“Oh... you’re still in pain? B-but I thought I followed the tome to the letter?” Rarity said, now feeling worried that she botched the spell and caused more damaged to her friend then giving her that potion would had done.

“Tome?” Charm said in confusion before realization donned on her causing her to bolt upright in her cot, ignoring all of her body’s protests at the action.

This action caused Rarity to jump back from Charm in mild fright and worry thinking she had done wrong. “d-did I do something wrong?” she asked hoping Charm won’t be to mad at her for trying to help.

“Wrong?” Charm looked at her with absolute seriousness, not a grin within sight on her face; this had the effect of causing Rarity to stutter out apologies nearing tearful levels of heart retching effectiveness.

“No... You didn’t do wrong,” Charm said. Rarity looked up in shock as charm gives a wide toothy grin at Rarity. “I didn’t know that somepony else could read these things outside where I got em, but then again I wasn’t originally from there either, so I guess other ponies could read them I guess.”

“s-so I’ am not in trouble for reading, and performing the spell inside it?” Rarity asked now feeling bashful for nearly crying over this.

Charm looked at Rarity then at herself then smiles shaking her head in the negative. “Nah, they were meant to be read, if you had the need to read it then you had a need to read it.”

And just like that everything was ok, sighing in relief Rarity looked around the cavern now forgetting why she was celebrating in the first place.

That was until Charm gasps audibly pointing weakly at her flanks in shock.

“Whoa! Since when had you had that there!?” Charm said loudly still pointing at her new achieved cutie mark.

Smiling a mile wide Rarity exclaims loudly with pride. “I got my cutie mark!” it was true her mark conceives the symbol of the school of Restoration; the mark was of the golden phoenix, but the color was a light shade of blue, while in the middle of the bird was a single darker shade blue gem.

“It is beautiful Rarity...” charm said feeling woozy, ‘heh an apprentice grade spell on her first try, she really has a talent for it, guess that is why her talent is healing.’ Charm lays down now feeling dizzy. 

‘argh why am I so weak?’ looking at herself with her magical eye she could see some mild magical poisoning, effecting her body causing mild headaches, as her own mana reserves fights off the foreign spell. ‘Ah I see foreign spell craft was just preformed on me, no wonder why I’ am suffering some mild effects from it.’ Charm thought with a chuckle.

“Well my friend, it seems we are lost in this cave with no way out, and I’ am to weaken to be of any use,” Charm said feeling weary of the coming journey ahead.

Standing up with assistance from Rarity, the two of them sets off again, this time further into the cavern in search of an exit, but the both of them did not notice the faint sounds of rumbling coming from the caved in entrance.

~ Hours later ~

Two hours had passed by, already they had came upon several dead ends, but undeterred  they kept going further and the deeper they seem to have gotten the darker it seemed to get, already Charm could tell they are far too deep underground that there is no possible way there is a exit, but holding onto what her friend Leona had told her, they kept moving forward regardless, ‘if what she said is true, then there is always two ways to enter but only one way out from the cave.’ unfortunately she had no idea what the heck that means.

‘Damn you Leona, why is it you are so hard to make sense of some times?’ Charm thought in annoyance as the empty cave lead to another dead end, so far the two of them hadn’t found any sort of exit.

Taking a break Charm follows the mild magical poisoning as it had lessened but it’ll take a day for it to be cured completely.

Rarity on the other hoof was determined on helping her stay up, assisting her in anyway by doing trivial matters, going so far as to offer her own food to Charm, because sometime during the fight with the monster she had lost her saddlebags leaving them less than a few days of food if they ration it right.

Charm although still weak  walks further into the cave to explore a bit, coming out of the tunnel she found herself in a very large chamber stack with waterfalls, grass and with some sunlight coming from the ceiling at the top of the cavern, unfortunately the holes are too small for her to squeeze threw. 

Rarity follows charm into the cavern and gasps at the underground oasis.

“well looks like we don’t have to worry about food and water for a long while, maybe when I am feeling better I could try widening the gaps up there, hopefully it won’t cause a cave in.” Charm said feeling more confident in their continued survival now.

Not far away the monster still alive recovers from the cave in pulling its head out of the rubble, shaking its head it looks down at the rubble thinking maybe it wasn’t worth it. But then the headache reminds him... that it was totally worth it. 

So with savage determination it clawed, scratched, and pulled with all its might starting to dig itself to it’s pray. 

~ Change of perspective ~
A hooded four legged equine travels the forest looking at the strange plants of all types picking up a few here and there, while doing so she hums a song that reminds her of home and happy times, with a smile she started to approach what looks like to be another clearing up ahead.
Walking in this forest reminds her of her homeland across the sea, the foreign plants and fauna makes her giggle childishly at the possibilities, “Oh the plants of this forest makes me giddy in glee, and the brew I could stew would surely be worth the journey across the sea.” She said aloud with an exotic voice.

The hooded pony walks out into the clearing to see a horrific sight of a monstrous beast clawing its way into the rocky cliff side, with weariness the hooded pony was about to flee in the other direction but paused when she saw two sets of small hoof prints near the beast... leading towards the cave where the monster is currently digging a hole.

Now realizing the situation the hooded pony couldn’t possibly leave two small ponies become prey to the monster, she was after all raised better by her mother.

So following the creature as it digs its way into the rocky cliff side she hangs back at a safe distance in case the monster sets its eyes upon her.

“Oh the foolish things that I put through, for the safety of younglings, but I was that age too.”

So with stealth, dexterous and balance that betrayed her equine nature, she stands on her hind legs, taking slow and deliberated steps to make sure she isn’t spotted or heard, near her she spots something looking down she sees a small saddlebag, further solidifying the claim that these are children the monster is after, upon closer inspection and much to her glee sees potions of unknown nature, taking the small saddlebags she places them with her own and continue on forward to the cave to follow the monster.

~ back to our heroines ~

Rarity and I had relaxed by the water; the both of us had taken a quick bath which made us feel at least a little bit normal.

Rarity was quite hesitant on taking the bath without me having to check to see if it was safe and that it wasn’t going to suddenly try eating us.

This is completely understandable really, I mean who could simply walk away from that and not feel afraid of such things?

After confirming that it was in fact just water she was quick to get in to wash off the dirt and grime, this made her coat shine pristine white again.

Smiling at the carefree attitude her friend could revel in she starts taking off her own robes to take a bath as well, she had some difficulty as her hooves aren’t really used for fine tuning such as this, after managing to take off the torn toga of her robes she sighs in relief, the feeling of fresh air touching her coat threw the tears and holes was soothing.

She then takes off the rest of the robes revelling in the feeling of being naked with not but the feeling of her fur in the cool temperature of the small underground oasis, it’s not that she hadn’t taken off her robes for necessity every once and awhile over the week she had been here. It’s just she isn’t used to the sensation of her own fur, sighing she smiles at her own reflection in the water, ‘Time to face the fact, I’ am a female pony now, best face that fact now, rather than ignoring it.’ She thought with a sad sigh.

She looked down at her amulet a gift from her friend Leona, the amulet wasn’t anything special just a silver amulet with a sapphire in the middle of the amulet, it is heavily enchanted by her friend, it was a beautiful piece of enchanting there is no way she could figure out what it does as she had tried already.  

But it is a lovely gift and she wears it in pride.

So rather than taking the amulet off she wears as she gets ready to take a bath.
Turning back to her robes she frowned at the tattered form of her adapt robes before her, seeing how the forest had treated her cherished outfit on the ground.

Not many know this but when one becomes an adept mage of the college of Winterhold they need to enchant their own robes, it was a policy introduced at the college to give character and a sense of uniqueness to each student of the college.

Her robes were the symbol she wears to announce her pride in wielding magic successfully for the first time.

Feeling a great sense of lost at her tattered robes she turns around to the pool of water and enters it feeling the water wash away the dirt and grime of the week.

She looked at Rarity simply floating in the water, she then looked at her friend’s cutie mark, and the symbol of the school of restoration always gets a chuckle out of her now every time she looks at it. ‘Who would had thought Rarity has the will and attitude to perform such spells,’ Charm thoughts with a smile. ‘Heck it suits her nicely,’

It was true Restoration is one of the harder schools to learn, as to learn it one needs a lot amount of study, and experience, but after getting threw all that the spells are rewarding in their own right.

‘Something Rarity has a talent in,’ chuckling at the surreal image of a unicorn white mage popping into her head, with the white and red robes to match she nearly burst out laughing at the image, her amused chuckling had caught the unicorn in questions attention.

“What are you laughing about?” Rarity asks her friend.

“He heh he, ahem oh sorry, nothing really, ehe he, just picturing something rather humorous” Charm replied with a smile now coming out of her fit.

“Oh?” she asked now suspicious of her friend’s attitude all of a sudden.
Sensing her friends suspiciousness she came clean, “Alright so I know a group called white mage’s that use healing power and stuff, so I was picturing you in their uniforms casting heal and stuff I just found it a funny thought.” She said with a smile Rarity seeing her friend was opening up figured she could probe for some information.

“Oh, well since you are talking about it, feel like sharing some life stories with me?” she asked hoping Charm would open up a little.

Smiling at her friend she nods and asked. “What would you like to know?”

Cheering on the inside at her little victory she went out and asked the first thing to come to mind. 

“So where are your parents at?” only after saying it Rarity felt like she had did a horrible thing, she went and clamped her hooves over her mouth in horror.

Not noticing her friends predicament Charm smiles wistfully while looking at the cavern oasis ceiling, “Don’t rightly know, I was taken from my home some few years ago, my mother must have been worried sick about me for the first few months and had given up hope of ever seeing me again by now, but knowing her she would be praying to the gods that I’ am doing alright.” She said frowning at the image of her mother crying over the whole affair. Wait… gods? Charm guessed that her time with the Dragonborn and all the trouble she got at first for trying to say there was only one god taught her to always say the G word in plural. 

“My dad on the other hand is hard to read sometimes but I know inside he cares and would be just as devastated as my mother.” She continued already feeling tears welled up in her eyes. 

“My parents weren’t always perfect, heck I loved them, but after everything settled down I was able to reflect on my time spend in… well in that magic school and on how much I missed them.” Charm feel reluctant to admit she was from another world, as like the gods issue, that had got her in trouble in the land of Skyrim. Not really noticing anything around her, Charm felt Rarity hugging her but still went on. “My mother loved me, my sister and little brother with all of her heart, used to give her grief about the whole thing at the time, when I was younger I wanted nothing to do with my parents, as I always wanted to be left alone as I wasn’t much of a social person.”

She didn’t know when it happened, but she was sobbing while trying to get words out most of what she was trying to say came out a garbled mess of tears and sobs
Rarity feels horrible for bringing up such a horrible topic as she hugged her friend to comfort her.

“I could never return home, sniff, he won’t let me said so himself, gasp, an-and although I tried to forget how much it hurts I try to do, sniff, the right thing to make them proud of me. But it still scares me that I’ll never get to see my mother or father again.” She said now starting to calm down enough from her emotional breakdown.

“I’ am so, so sorry Charm I-I didn’t want to make you cry, please forgive me.” Rarity said begging forgiveness for hurting her friend.

“I-I already did, I need to let loose sometimes or else it’ll build up over time an, and then I’ll forget them, I know it.” Charm said now her emotional state had fully solidified again.
Pulling away from Rarity she smiled a big smile, still tears rolled down her cheek from the crying fit from earlier. “Now it’s your turn to answer some questions.” Charm said already her mood improved.

Rarity couldn’t help but admire her friend’s strength, she had already begun smiling again after admitting of missing her parents and being afraid she will never see them again.

Smiling she nods. “Alright what would you like to know?”

“Hum...” Charm ponders for a short moment, “Alright, what is Ponyville like?” Charm asked after a moment

“Well it’s a quiet little town, barely anything worthwhile happens there, it’s funny I wanted to be a famous fashion designer and go to Canterlot and become somepony everypony must know, and my parents weren’t so sure I should go, and I was upset at them for refusing me like that, I thought it was because of their awful sense of fashion that they didn’t want me going, because this one time my dad made me to wear this horrible tacky shirt with clashing colors that didn’t went well with my mane at all, with words written on the chest saying daddy’s little treasure, oh dad always called me his little treasure.” She sniffed a little bit now feeling like she was going to cry.


“H-he always called me his little treasure and I hated him for that, and he always said how much he loved me. But I didn’t like being smothered in affection at the time.

“But now that I had been gone for so long... I want nothing, sniff, want nothing more than him to hug me and tell me he loves me more than anything in all of Equestria.” It was her turn to be comforted as Charm gives her a hug to calm her down as she was approaching her limits to even handle the story as the feeling of guilt made her feel horrible.

“A...And my mo-mom is always getting me tacky things l-like this one time she given me th-this h-horrible statuette of a-a s-striped pony s-standing on its hind legs, written in equestrian, ‘zebra power,’ i-it is a horrible item my m-mom has gotten from Manehattan.” 

The next thing the both of them knew she was having a hard time speaking properly, Charm starts speaking soothing words to calm her down as she listens to Rarity’s plight with her own tears of her own.

“I-I m-miss them so mu-much an-and I’ll wear whatever tacky clothing item, t-they have to o-offer s-so I-I cou-could b-be with them an-and I’ll s-stay i-in p-ponyvillaaaaaahhhh!” she couldn’t finished any more as she started bawling loudly as she hugged Charm.

“Shh it is ok my friend, it’ll be ok we will make it to your home and you can show your parents how much you love them.” Charm said as Rarity has already started to calm down.

“Sniff, y-you were right letting loose of your feelings like this helps.” Rarity said now fully calmed and feeling loads better now that she had lifted her pent-up emotions.

“I know right?” Charm said with a smile to Rarity.

Then suddenly with an almighty roar the monster from before bursts into the cavern, its large bulk forced its way out of the tunnel causing the ground to shake.

“We were having a moment you colossal jerk!” Charm turned around quickly towards the monster as she started yelling some creative expletives directed at the monster as Rarity looked at her funny.

Not even trying she summoned her power to her wings and fired off a few shots of fire and lightning at the monster as it staggers from the sudden barrage of magic. The monster, before it could retaliate, was knocked back as a kick was sent onto its back head causing it to go down and hit the ground with an earth shattering boom. Standing on top of the monster stood a hooded striped pony with a Mohawk carrying a bamboo staff in her fore hooves as she stood on her hind legs in a combat stance.

“Come with me children and do not fear, the beast is out and we must make haste before its head becomes clear.” The Zebra said as she did a flip as she jumped down from the beasts head.

The two fillies looked at one another, shrugged then followed the Zebra as they made a run for it.

Charm although still weak managed to keep up as the rest and the bath had done loads to help her recover some strength, with great haste the three made their way out of the cave.

Charm turn around and fired several bolts of lightning and firebolts down the tunnel, causing the collapse of the whole cavern to prevent the monster from following.

“Pant, see, pant, you get out of that!” Charm said happy to be rid of the monster for good this time.

Turning to the mysterious Zebra Rarity smiles happily up to her, Charm meanwhile was busy laughing and was doing a victory dance. “Thank you so much for the help miss, could I get our saviours name?”

“Zecora is my name, traveling and potion making is my game.” Zecora Replied with a rhyme while smiling.

“GASP! Oh no!” Charm said with utter horror.

Rarity turned to her friend with sudden haste followed by the Zebra.

“What’s wrong charming?” Rarity asked fearing for the worst.

“I-I forgot my robes!!” Charm yelled in horror at this news.

"Darling, they were ruined, surely you can just replace them?" Rarity asked confused, Charm thought about for a moment and silently nodded, too tired to even talk, then the brown pegasus fainted.  

End of Chapter...

In a peaceful setting as all things bad had cleared

Two stories of loved ones were shared, with many tears shed

A monster returns, only to be knocked down with great haste

A new friend appears, to assist the two fillies’ home.


> Warm Rest, Dream learning (new Version)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Seven

It had been a couple of hours since the two young ponies left that cave in Zecora's company and the zebra had offered her place to reside in for the night, since Charm had fainted and had to be carried by Zecora and Rarity was exhausted from the whole ordeal. Time had slipped and as it would seem the two young ponies had spend the night in that cave last night.

Rarity looks at Charm who is riding on miss Zecora’s back, it would seem losing her robes was quite devastating  due to the expression of horror the chestnut brown pegasus had before exhaustion and  her not fully healed injuries finally caught with her. she wondered if those robes were a gift from her mother or something of great substance. Yet even if Charm Feather had not forgot them, they were ruined, and any restoration spell used in them would be worse than just making or buying new ones. Rarity knew that due to have wanted to be a dressmaker and being a unicorn; there were limits to magic, clothes altered or restored by magic lasted less, hence why even unicorn dressmakers still sew them.

Sighing Rarity looked away from her true friend and focused at her odd yet beautiful cutie mark wondering what it could mean. She knows it looked like the tome she had read but the symbol itself? She doesn’t know what exactly. ‘Maybe I should ask Charm?’ she thought, and then she looked back at Charm who still was asleep and decided to leave the question for later.

'Hi little one.' The voice of Guide said, almost startling Rarity, but she keep her calm like a true lady should.

'Hi Guide, are you in my head now?' Rarity asked while keeping her eyes on Zecora and Charm Feather, following the zebra to her place.

'Somewhat, I been thinking on a name for me, how does Guiding Star sound?' The ghost like unicorn voice said and Rarity could see a regular sized white unicorn with mist like mane and tail, and a golden falling star for a cutie mark. Rarity blinked and the vision faded away.

'It works.' Rarity said with less enthusiasm than expected.

"What's troubling you little one?'

'I wonder why Charm was so worried about her robes.'

"Oh, that's easy, it was like a hat was for wizards of old, made and enchanted by her own power.'

'Mmm, my true talent might be healing, but think Charm would like it if I helped to make her a new robe? After all, as my father says a one trick pony is a… uh… can't remember, but I still want to help her get a new robe.'  

'Sorry about that, you lost some unimportant memories to give space to all the spells I had to use so you could learn restoration magic, it was mostly stuff you don't care about, like your father sayings.'

'Well, magic has a price, that's the first rule of magic, I am glad It was just that. But will this happen every time I learn a new spell?'

'No, what took most space in your head was the translation spell… and me.'

'So you really are in my head?'

'Yes. But do not worry, I won't peek at things you don't want me to, and I can stay with Charm if it really bugs you. Only that since Charm  magic is slightly different, some ponies might see me when I am with her. When I am with you, not even princess Celestia herself would notice anything save maybe the use of passive magic, unless I manifest myself in the ghost form as you call it.'

'I will sleep now, but please remember to cheer Charm up when she wakes up, she has self esteem issues.'

The rest of the walk was a quiet affair, apparently Zecora knew the right paths to avoid most of the dangers of the Everfree forest. And in the one case one beast tried to attack them, a manticore, Zecora scared it away throwing a glass of potion that turned into an illusionary dragon of green smoke that made the big kitty run away in fear.

The group of three finally arrived to their destination after hours of walking, seeing a small little hut made out of a tree. Charm finally woke up, but she still looked tired. Rarity smiled to her to show the pegasus that everything was okay, that they weren't in danger.

The place looked like it was recently moved into as there weren’t any windows but a simple door and some alchemical ingredients in baskets sprawl around the small hobble.

“Well it definitely is more sheltered than our camp was.” Charm said on Zecora’s back

Rarity couldn’t help but nod as it were it provided more shelter than the sleeping cots they had been sleeping in for the past week.

"Welcome to my humble above, it may be small but is a labor of love."

"Do you always have to talk in rhyme?" Rarity asked as she sat inside. a simple large black pot on a fire place in the middle of the small room, shelves with some books and jars of unknown substance, and a room with what Charm  could identify a sleeping hammock hanging in what she thinks is Zecora’s room in the back.  

Zecora then shook her head to say no, then winked at the two children.

Rarity huffed in annoyance then mentally counted to ten and said "I am sorry for being rude, thank you for your help."

“Cozy place you got here.” Charm said rather glad to be inside a home after years of sleeping in a chamber rather than her own bed, must most likely it was the magic in the air and the fact of meeting the place of what it seemed like a fellow potion maker what atracted her.

Rarity on the other hoof was just glad that they could sleep in something other than the cold hard ground.

"I understand; please sit I shall prepare some tea and food even if it won't be anything grand.” Zecora said with a smile as she placed down Charm near the cauldron.

"Charm… our mutual friend told me why you missed your robes so much, do you want me to help you make new ones? I studied to be a dressmaker and even if it sounds prideful to say it, I am good at it."

"Huh? What mutual friend?" Charm asked confused while tilting her head.

"Oh you know, the one that sees you as a little sister, loves to talk to you and give you advice.'"

"Ah, THAT mutual friend." It made sense, Eve must have been the one who helped Rarity learn that healing spell.

"So, is that a yes or not?" Rarity asked impatient. Charm Feather, not wanting to make her new friend mad, hurried to answer.

"Yes, you can help me making it."

"By the way, what you did was quite impressive! You are amazing! I never seen a pegasus perform magic before! You should be proud that you are this good!"

"Really?" The chestnut brown pegasus asked, a tad confused by the sudden change of topic. "But I…"

"But I nothing, you are awesome because I say it!"

"Okay." Charm Feather was not about to argue like a little girl, even if she technically only was maybe a year or two older than Rarity now, and a girl. " Thank you very much for your praise. Is a pegasus using magic really THAT weird?" that was troublesome news, the less she wanted in this strange new world she knew so little about was to caught peo… other ponies attention.

"Your friend is right that is something rare, if she refers to spells being cast, but how do you think a pegasus can move so fast? Magic is how they control the weather and dance in the air."

"I see, I guess I was very lucky to have found a school that could teach me." As a human, Charm had not been very good at magic, as a pegasus, she was better. there were still things to work on, like the fact she would have to hide being able to cast spells, but she could still improve.

"By the way, were is that school you talked about? The magic our friend taught me is quite strange."

"Oh, that school is very far away, I got there by… a portal accident. I honestly don't want to think about it right now, things there were quite different."

"Oh, that's why you didn't know how to fly?" Rarity asked.

"Yes. In fact the reason I ended in the Everfree was after failed attempt to get back home. As there wasn't much else I feel I could earn, and I missed my family, but… now I won't see them again." Charm Father started to cry and Rarity hugged her.

"Why do you say that?"

"I… I changed so much… because of magic… that I can't go home anymore." Charm Feather was ashamed of unwinding like this, stupid female pony hormones.

"I understand." Rarity said. What Rarity 'understood' was that they had rejected Charm because she was a pegasus that could cast spells. How could anypony be so cruel?

"You do?"  The chestnut brown mare asked surprised, she had not explained anything yet!

"Is because you can do magic, isn't it?"

"Yes…" It was because she had magic that her own universe had rejected her, and that's why the Elder Scrolls had sent her to the nearest universe where magic existed, and for some reason that ended being Equestria.

"How could they? HOW COULD YOUR OWN FAMILY REJECT YOU?"

"Uh, Rarity…"

"No, I will not shut up about this, is outrageous, so you are a pegasus that can cast spells? That's no reason to kick you out!"

"Rarity, is not so bad, I mean uh… I found you, didn't I?" Charm Feather didn't know what to say, she was not a people err ponies person, not a Charmer (Ha!) and if Rarity wanted to believe her parents had kicked her out for doing magic… well it was less complicated that the truth. Plus if what she had learned back at Earth and Skyrim had taught her something, was that going around saying that you were from another world or an alien that magically changed into a pony was NOT a good idea.

Sure, she would eventually tell Rarity the truth, but not before she knew if saying it would get her arrested, killed or experimented on. She might be a little pony now, but she wasn't a moron.

"Don't worry about anything Charm Feather. Once I get back home and tell my parents about what you did to save me, I am sure they will let you stay for a while at least."

No, this was… wrong, maybe she could tell Rarity something closer to the truth? Just hiding the whole human thing?

Zecora returns after all the drama interrupting Charm Feather thoughts, with a clay tea kettle and leafs, she places them near the fire pit, she then shooed Charm away from the caldron as she moves it out of the way, with some flint she starts the fire, she moves around the fire pit preparing everything. She stands on her hind legs to be able to get to the items on the top shelf adding the items into the boiling water. The way she moved around was as if she was dancing, this had the effect of catching Charms attention as she faintly remembered something about a movie she saw ages ago,, while for Rarity it looked like an exotic dance.

"I got a few snacks, Why don't you eat them and relax?" The zebra have them the snaps, they were… flowers. Not weird looking flowers that were poisonous or something, but kind of normal flowers one would see in someo… somepony garden.

Still, Charm feather was hungry, she hesitantly ate one flower, it tasted good, even if it still tasted like a flower. The pegasus wondered what else she would find taste now that she was a talking equine. She had already mourned the loss of meat during her first few days as a pony girl, but by Rarity complains, she at least knew ponies could eat ice-cream and chocolate, so it wasn't that bad.

Within a few moments the tea kettle started whistling signaling that the water was boiled enough to be taken out the fire, she then takes out a couple cups placing them in front of the two fillies to which she then pours the boiling water then dropping ground up leafs into the mix.

Blowing on her cup Charm takes a tentative sip of the tea, and with a smile she nods her approval. “This is good ma’am.” Charm said surprising Rarity as she didn’t knew Charm could be so polite as it were Rarity is used to how brash the pegasus could be when it is just them.

Rarity was hesitant with drinking her tea, as she didn’t know Miss Zecora to well, but after seeing her friend approve the tea she went right in and took a sip of her tea, which was surprisingly good.

This went on for a few minutes as Zecora takes a sip of her own tea waiting for everypony to become comfortable and they finished eating most of the flower snacks.

“Might I ask at least, as to why you were chased by such a beast?” Zecora asked out of the blue but not so much as to startle the two fillies in anyway.

Rarity figured she would answer as Charm looked like she would rather be sleeping after drinking her warm tea.

“Well, Miss Zecora we had been lost in this forest for nearly a week,” this had the added effect of causing Zecora’s eyes to bug out in surprise at this revelation. “And Charming here hadn’t learns to fly yet, so she took the time in our survival to learn to fly, just a few days ago now she had just learned how to fly. We learned which way to go after she flew above the trees, so with some preparation we left our camp and were heading home. But then we ran into the monster from earlier.” Rarity summed up most of the journey rather nicely; she looked at Charm for confirmation only to see her friend had fallen asleep were she sits, her tea was still warm as steam slowly seeps out of it.

Chuckling nervously as she had just found herself on her own with the stranger, she looked at Zecora who was smiling warmly at Charm.

Zecora walks over to her saddlebags as well as Charms, she then pulls out a blanket from Charms bags then walking over to Charm with the blanket in her mouth she places it over Charm who snuggled into it with a smile.

Zecora looked at Rarity while still smiling; the display of care shown to her friend was enough to ease her worries about Zecora enough that she relaxed.

“Well you two certainly had an adventure, and it is surprising that you two had lasted so long out in this forest, for it most certainly is dangerous,” Zecora said looking at Rarity sternly causing her to squirm under her stare. “But what I want to know is why you two had wandered into this dangerous forest in the first place.” Zecora said awaiting an answer.

Rarity sighed and looks at Charm in hopes she is awake and could take over from here, but she was fast asleep.

“Well I can’t speak for Charm as I had met her in the forest, but I was heading home, which is Ponyville,” Zecora looked at Rarity for a bit sternly, and then her expression softens.

“I know of the town you speak of, I was going to go there tomorrow in hopes to buy some fruits at the market place.” Zecora said smiling. “Tomorrow I will take you to the town you shall be home soon; your parents would be delighted I am sure.” Zecora said smiling, “now you should sleep you need it for tomorrow, although the journey is short it is still a long walk to town.” Rarity nodded agreeing to the wisdom.

With her own blanket near she levitates it over herself and Rarity was asleep within moments.

Zecora watches over the two fillies with a warm smile, ‘so young, yet so strong, two little fillies able to survive in this forest, reminds me of home.’ she thought preparing for her time to sleep.

oOo Rarity’s mindscape oOo

Rarity was dreaming of the sky on what flying would be like, she wasn’t alone as Charm flew beside her with a large smile as the two played in the clouds.

Landing on a cloud tired from all the flying Rarity lays down on her back with her legs holding in the air, she started thinking on how soft the clouds were, she sighs as she sees Charm still flying overhead.

Best dream ever.

“Hello Rarity.” Guiding Star said startling Rarity enough that when she was trying to get up she ended up falling over herself trying to turn to the voice too quickly, Rarity found herself completely covered head to tail in clouds. All in all it was a rather adorable sight to see and ghost like unicorn expresses her amusement by giggling at Rarity who flushed in embarrassment.

Rarity then noticed that Charm's sister looked smaller than when she first saw her, now looking just like a regular sized adult mare unicorn in size. She also had the cutie mark it had show her before.

"Why do you look smaller?"

"Well, why not? I don't want to look like an intimidating tall and wise pony to you, so just looking closer to what you expect an adult to look like works better."

"I understand, is to make me more comfortable. Then why your mane and tail still look like mist?"

"I want to make you feel comfortable, not make you forget what I am."

"Wow Rarity, you certainly have great tastes in dreams.” A new voice announced, causing Rarity to turn around quickly to see the real Charm walking up to her, with her battered old ragged robes, are now shining in their true glory as they are no longer torn and battered or old and ragged, and Rarity gets to see what the fuss was all about.

Charm Feather then looked at the strangely familiar unicorn with mist like mane and Tail "Uh, do I know you?"

"Of course you do silly, I am the mutual friend Rarity told you about, my pony name is Guiding Star."

Charm mouth opened then closed again, then stared at the admittedly quite pretty ghost like pony.

"I see."

Rarity meanwhile was using her seamstress skills to analyze Charm Feather robes. She could tell the robes were meant to keep the wearer warm in extreme cold weather as fur trimmings could be seen, she sees three sets of clothing the inner layer being a simple light brown shirt, the second being a light coat that covers the shirt, the outer layer was an orange robe that wraps around the whole thing, and completing the whole things is a hood with fur trims that wasn’t there last time Rarity had seen her wear them, ‘must had took them out as it is really warm in the Everfree,’ Rarity thought mentally. Then there are some kind of gloves for the fore hooves like shoes, and wrapped up to the knee was some kind of bandage, what really catches her attention was the integrating designs in on the orange robes hood giving it some flare to the outfit, but all in all it was a rather simple set of robes. Of course then Rarity realized that she just did, even if she had not used magic to analyze the robes.

'It must be because this is a dream.'

"Well,  now I know how it supposed to look like, but dear, gloves will not just do unless it's winter, also we have to find nicer color for you. Orange looks awful!" Without waiting for permission Rarity horn glows and she starts to make changes to  the pegasus robes.  First of all the gloves are gone, so are the winter fur trimmings,  and are the extra clothes, since they are not living at the top of a mountain or are in the middle of a snowstorm. That school Charm went to must have been at the top of a very tall mountain to have so many warm clothes, since pegasi are naturally resistant to cold weather. No wonder she did not learn to fly there, how could she with so many restricting clothes over her? Then the shoes are gone too and the robes start to switch colors until they change into a soft purple.

"What do you say darling, purple works for you? For me it would clash with my mane but with your dark chestnut mane and tail, it might work."

“ack what the heck?!” Charm said completely caught off guard at the sudden magic.

"Uh, what's wrong? Surely you can't expect to wear so many layers of clothing in spring, do you? Also summer is coming. That gloves and boots combo would work for an Earth pony, but not for a pegasus."

“Ah yeah, um... these boots and gloves help me stay rooted to the ground better for strikes and magic”

"Dear, you are a pegasus, unless your boots and gloves were made of metal, it would not really make enough of a different to justify dulling your tactile telekinesis magic. Also, pegasi don't stay grounded, they stay ready to fly at any moment."

“Argh” Charm said frustratingly stomping the cloud under her, “thats not the point I can't fly straight if I'm casting magic at the same time!”

"Not yet, but surely you can use spells on your wings while you fly." Guiding Star said. "I saw some of Rarity memories about a show of a group of pegasus called the Wonderbolts Rarity saw last year, and it was quite informative."

Shakes head in the negative “Its not about armor, they also hold enchantments in them to aid in such things.”

"Enchantments you don't need, specially with lighting and ice magic, your natural pegasus magic helps you with those two kinds of magic. Fire might be harder, but you need to stop using crutches. " Guiding Star walked in the air and saw Charm Feather right into the eyes. "You don't really understand, do you? Gloves and boots, unless made of enchanted metal, will dull part of your pegasus magic, you could wear some bracelets around your hooves for the same effect and without affecting your tactile telekinesis."  

Pulls hooves close to herself “b-but, its dirty the ground.” she said in a last effort to save her booties.

"So? Direct contact with the ground helps to use some kind of spells, while you might not have Earth pony magic, you can still use earth based spells, not to mention things like aspell to make vines grow from the ground and trap your enemy." Guiding Star argued back

“c-can I at least keep my back boots then? I like how they look” Charm said pouting.

"They are winter boots, if you want I could make you a pair more in tune with this season." Rarity offered

“Ffffiiine” she sighs out

"Oh, the bracelets idea sounds good. Do any of you two know how to make magic bracelets?" Rarity asked

"Crafting magical jewelry and accessories is both alchemy and metallurgy, we can have the bracelets made of gold or silver by a blacksmith, then inscribe runes on them and bathe them into the appropriate potions." The ghost like unicorn said

“So...  I kinda got distracted but why are you two here?” Rarity asked. "I mean We got to agree about what Charm new clothes would be like but we could have done that while I was awake."

“Oh right, right well um how to put this, umm… well, when you  and Charm Feather are asleep at the same time, I can make you two have a shared dream." Guarding Star said now slightly embarrassed over the whole situation.

"You what?" Rarity said not understanding why she had done that.

"Well, I needed a way to talk to you two in private. I also wanted to show you some of Charm Feather past memories and show him some of your memories."

"But why do you want to do something like that?" Rarity asked

"To teach you magic, and to teach Charm Feather about Ponyville, she has been living for too long in a very different place, she kinda doesn't know how to be a pony."

"Oh you poor thing, I didn't know!" Rarity said and hugged the pegasus

"Also, this is basically a dream, all you will get from this is information, you will still need to train magic with your real bodies."

Oh, so what we do first then?" Charm Feather asked, all those hugs were nice but awkward, she was not used to it.

"We will watch Rarity memories about the Wonderbolts so miss wings here can see what's she is missing." Suddenly the three of them were in a movie theater.

"Oh, can we get popcorn for this?'" Charm Feather has not gotten popcorn in ages.

"Sorry, no taste sense in a dream."

“Wait, so we will all be sharing dreams together now?” Rarity asked not completely understanding, but enough to know that Charm could be sharing dreams with her, and that they could see each other memories if certain specter unicorn wanted them to.

"Not every night, or it would cut out your resting time,  lets just this is more tiring than real dreams." Guiding Star then sat down and the movie started, the others sat down too.  

The chestnut mare ended hugging Rarity during the movie, without noticing, Rarity was too focused on the movie to mind it too much.

The ghost looked on towards the two with a look that said she is having a hard time resisting the adorable sight. ‘Damn, Zach’s err Charm Feather love of cute things has rubbed off on me.’ Still by her connection with both ponies, she knew none of them had romantic feelings to each other. 'A pity, but is better this way, if they had a lover's quarrel I would not want to be in the middle.' They were two fillies hugging each other, and it was really adorable.

After the movie was over, Rarity asked about her cutie mark, the bird represented a phoenix, and the gem represented magic, it was the symbol of the school of magic of Restoration, aka healing. If anypony asked, she would say the Gem was her talent of magic that included gems and the phoenix her healing powers, it made things less complicated that way.  

End of Chapter...

A little unicorn has a spectre in her head, but crazy she is not.

A chestnut pegasus finds a true friend who cares about her a lot.

Do you wanna know what happens next?

Then of the next chapter, read the text!
> A home to call my own (New Version)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Eight

The long night the two fillies had experienced was very enlightening for the two of them. Charm Feather had seen what a pegasus could do thanks to watching Rarity memories about the Wonderbolts, while Rarity had finally found out what her cutie mark meant. While both fillies were anxious to use the shared dreamscape to learn more things, Guiding Star cut their time short due to the fact both girls had used a lot of magic and needed their rest. 



Now it was the next day and the two were both excited, Rarity especially, on going to Ponyville, they were both surprised to find out both of them had sleep for ten hours straight, it seemed that the combination of magic exhaustion, physical exhaustion and their use of their shared dreamscape had not been a good combination. So that's how the group of three ended heading to Ponyville in the afternoon.

After an hour of walking along the path they finally exited the forest and Rarity nearly cried in joy when she saw the small village, Charm smiled as she observe Rarity as she was basically galloping to the town while she stayed behind with the Zebra.

“Hah heh, she sure is happy being home now eh?” Charm said to Zecora who nodded still with her hood on after just leaving the forest. “You know you should take that off now, or else the ponies would be hard pressed to trust you when you go looking all mysterious and creepy like.” Charm said bluntly as she was slightly put off by Zecora’s glowing yellow eyes under the hood.

Zecora looked startled and then chuckles warmly at the filly, “That sounds like good advice, is better if ponies think that I am nice." Zecora said chuckling as she takes off her hood displaying her Mohawk and face for all to see.

Entering the village brought about some ponies who then started pointing their hooves looking rather startled at Rarity, whose enthusiasm has waned when she suddenly notice the sudden influx of onlookers all of course looking at her.

“Um... Charm... why are they all looking at me like I am some sort of ghost?” Rarity asked rather put off by the other ponies behavior.

~ Change of perspective ~

Hondo Flanks was comforting his wife Cookie Crumbles as it has been over a week since their daughter had disappeared. While the Royal Guards have been searching for her, the fact that no news had arrived yet and that Ponyville was so close to the Everfree forest meant that the chances of Rarity being alive were quite low. His wife had reached the point it had to be conforted every time anything reminded  her of their daughter.

Almost all of Ponyville has heard of the news of the filly’s possible demise and are in mourning as it is a very sombre day today.

It was sometime early morning when Cookie found herself wondering around the kitchen when she broke down sobbing, Hondo was there when it happened and started comforting her and has been for almost an hour.

“I-it’s going to be ok she will come home you’ll see, she is stronger than she appears.” The colt said hoping it would get through to his wife as he has been repeating the same thing for awhile now.

Suddenly there was frantic knocking at their doorstep, getting up and wiping his eyes of any tears, Hondo Flanks headed towards the front door.

Upon opening it he sees a brown mare with a bubblegum pink mane look up at him with utter happiness on her face, a face that isn’t suppose to be up today he noted, “you aren’t going to believe this! Rarity is alive! I just saw her exit the Everfree and is currently in town!”

The news was surprising and the small ember of hope was suddenly flared to an inferno, and he wasn’t the only one as he was suddenly barged by his wife who pushed him out of the way to face the mare.

“Rarity is here where?” Cookie Crumbles basically yelled still tear filled eyes but eyes full of hope now.

“Last I saw she was somewhere in the middle of town hall.” And that was all she managed to getting out as Cookie was already half way down the street. Hondo Flanks got up, thanked the mare and joined his wife on running down the street to see his little treasure.

~ Back to our two girls and their Zebra companion ~

Rarity found herself surrounded by the ponies of Ponyville and it was unnerving on how everypony was acting.

“GET OUTTA MY WAY!” She heard somepony called out and like the parting sea, the ponies moved out of the way and Rarity saw her mother who started bawling out loud, Rarity joined her as she ran up to her mother and gave her a fierce hug.

“You are so grounded!” Rarity heard her mother say, but she didn’t care one bit she was home and she kept crying and saying how much she missed her mom and how much she loved both her parents so much.

Then her father joined in the reunion and it was a happy sappy moment, as all three cried tears of joy at the whole thing, when things had finally cleared up all of the ponies who were there left to leave the family have their moment, all except a chestnut brown pegasus and zebra mare who waited patiently.

Rarity who managed to calm down from her emotional moment, broke off from her parents embrace and walked up next to Charm, who was smiling at her rather happy for her friend to be reunited with her parents.

“Mom, dad this is Charm Feather, the one who saved and protected me from the Everfree forest,” Rarity said trying to act all polite, acting as if her crying in public haven’t happened at all. “And this is Zecora a Zebra who provided the two of us shelter and had saved the two of us from a rather large monster of the forest.” She introduced the two who had done so much for her.

Without so much as hesitating Cookie Crumbles marched right up to Charm and gave her a crushing hug of gratitude, while Hondo Flanks walked up to Zecora and gave her a hoof shake.

“Thank you so much for helping our daughter in her hour of need.” Cookie said to Charm while still giving the poor pegasus a crushing hug.

“Yo-your very welcome, can't, breathe” Charm Feather said feeling like she had broken something.

“O-oh right sorry” Cookie said releasing the young mare from her death hug.

Taking a breath Charm remained silent when Rarity came back into the conversation.
“Charm doesn’t have a place to stay; she had been living in the forest for who knows how long… and her parents are meanies and kicked her out!”  This startled the brown pegasus, since while she had heard Rarity said that her parents would probably let Charm, she had kinda forgot about it with all the excitement.

“Of course we welcome her,” Cookie Crumbles said further startling Charm “Wha-what? No, no I didn’t help you to receiving compensation, I-I, wha? B-But.” The pegasus said not knowing what to do, this type of kindness and gratefulness really confusing her. 

Rarity noticed her friend’s hesitation and remembering both her promise to be Charm Feather true friend and the pegasus low self esteem,  walked right up to her friend and gave her a gentle hug. "Stop protesting, until you find a place to stay you will stay at my house and you will like it! And stop thinking you don't deserve it because you are an hero!"

Charm Feather face got red as a tomato by all the affection she was receiving, it felt well, really good, in fact, she did not remember mere hugs and praise affecting her so much, was this yet another pony thing she would get use to? Or it was just part of being female?

“You saved our daughter, if she wants to offer you our home as your own, then we welcome her choice to do so in the matter,” Said Hondo with Cookie nodding in agreement.

“I-I never, knew anypony who was this nice,” Charm Feather said so quietly that only Rarity could hear it as she was right next to the pegasus, and was just slightly shorter than her height. Why had Charm to be taller? Well probably because Charm seemed to be at least a year older than her, maybe even two. 

“Get used to it, ponies in Ponyville tend to be nice, especially to heroes.” Rarity said with a smile as she could hear her friends heart rate rise at that statement. 

“Welcome to the family Charm Feather!” all three family members said out loud now catching Charms attention who was horrified as she could see other ponies also welcome it. Not to mention Zecora who was forgotten giggle at the heart warming scene.

“Oh pony feathers, what have I gotten myself into now,” the pegasus muttered under her breath, blushing as the three started announcing it to all the world of her honorary family member status.

Wait… was Rarity's mother fat or it was something else, and why the heck did she paid attention to something like that?

****

Rarity stood up rather abruptly in her bed, her breath was slightly laboured as if she had been running for half an hour at full tilt, and then barely avoided screaming in fear.

“Wha-what was that?” she asked the room at large as she wasn’t expecting an answer. "It was horrible! Everypony was wearing dreadful clothes… and green! So much green!"

"That was a nightmare, is really your worst fear to live in a world with no sense of style?' This startled an already on edge white unicorn as she meeped in surprise, she looked at the source of the voice to see Guiding Star standing on top of the dresser in her room, sitting like a dog in a what Rarity guess is an uncomfortable position, mostly because the dresser was barely big enough to hold an adult sized pony over it.

The moonlit night casts shadows threw out the whole room, but the light turns slightly purple tinged when it pasts threw the ghost unicorn, her blue eyes reflect the moons light giving them an otherworldly glow to them, 

"And why the hay I dreamed about that?" Rarity asked concerned slightly, her nerves are starting to become normal along with her breathing.

"Magic is a reflection of your soul, your emotions and feelings affect your magic. I am sorry little one, but until you master that fear, I will not teach you more magic."

"WHAT? No way, does Charm know about this?"

"Charm Feather cannot use the school of Restoration magic so she can't help you with this. Those who can heal, can also destroy. The same basis used in a healing spell can be twisted into killing any living being."  Rarity then was hugged by the bigger pony, it was strange, it felt real. 

"Uh… why do you feel like a real pony, I am dreaming right now?" Rarity asked, then noticed the ghost like unicorn mist like mane and tail now had a silver coloring. "And why is your mane and tail silver?"

Guiding Star patted Rarity mane "Since I live in your head now, I can trick your senses so it seems like I am real to you. Anyway the point I wanted to make was, that overcoming your fears is needed to master your magic. Otherwise, if you use a healing spell without control of your emotions, you will end hurting or killing instead of healing."

Rarity pouted "Is not fair! I wanted to learn more healing spells now!"

"Oh little one, I am sorry, but the path of a healer requires way more discipline that the path of a warrior, to kill is easy, to heal is not."

"Okay…  isn't there any spell I can learn anyway? Even if its not healing?" Rarity said, relaxing as the bigger mare rubbed her tummy. 

"Well, don't you have a book about basic unicorn spells?" Guiding Star pointed to a small shelf with a bunch of books on it. "I looked into your memories and I think you might be able to do advanced levitation and the illumination spell at your current level."

"Oh, but I am not good at memorising things." Rarity pointed out, not to mention a mere light spell seemed lame compared to healing, and that levitation, even if it was many objects at once, was not any skill she could really show off.

"As long as I am awake and with you, you just need to read something once, then I will remember it and share it with you in the shared dreamscape, and anything you learn there is hard to forget."

"Really? Cool!"  Rarity then turned the lights on and went to read the book to test it. 

~ The next day ~

I stare blankly at my image in the mirror, I see a chestnut brown pegasus with large brown eyes, and a long dark brown mane, it clings to my face and although I had moved them out of the way to stare at the mirror, a strand or two would get in the way every so often.

“This is me now,” I said with slight sadness. I enjoyed being human, and I may had a thing with cat girls or such morph variations of human animal things on the internet years ago, from before my adventures across the multiverse.

“But being human was unique on its own,” I said sadly while still wearing a sadden face.
It is the day after I had managed to bring Rarity back home to Ponyville, and it felt amazing to sleep on a bed, to have a hot shower, and to relax now that I am relatively safe now.

But after my bath I saw myself in the mirror and for the first time after all this time I could see what I look like now.

I didn’t had a mirror or time to even ponder the existence of my transformation when I was in the forest, now that I do it was a crushing feeling of lost, and even though I had accepted the fact I was taken from my home and in my journey I ended up here, It still hurts to feel the sense of lost.

I enjoyed being human and although I wouldn’t mind some transformation shenanigans for fun, that’s what it would be, fun. But this isn’t a transformation shenanigan joke played on me, it is real I have to be this way for the rest of my life.

Although everypony is friendly and for that matter ponies, “They would not have accepted me being human, they will only see a monster if I was in my true form...” I said feeling even more sadden, and my ears confirm this by splashing back on my head while my eyes starts tearing up at the possible outcome of rejection. 

And it was possibly the most adorable thing I had ever seen, or done!

“Gah!” I yelped startled at my sudden cuteness setting of eleven.

“Ok I’ll admit, I had always wanted to do that,” I’d admit chuckling to myself while I mentally checked the things I want to do in life out.

With my brightened mood I looked at the ‘me’ in the mirror and smiled a big goofy smile. “I guess it’s not so bad, I could get used to all of this, and I have time to grow into this body.” With my smile I dried and brushed my mane, then I went and opened and was about to walk out the door but before I could I was shoved out of the way by magic.

I was startled as a white unicorn filly with a purple mane ran into the bathroom, slamming the door closed. “whoops,” I said, now feeling sheepish as I may have been in there for awhile.

“Well today is a new day, may nothing bad happen, for it is good to be alive!” I said smiling at my happy announcement, something I always say in the mornings back home allowing some normalcy for me.

End of Chapter…

The young unicorn is finally back home, and the young pegasus got adopted. But just because both fillies are now in Ponyville, it doesn't meant their journey will be easy. 

In the next chapter…

The path of an hero is not easy, and sacrifices have to be made. In the case of a certain chestnut brown mare, said sacrifice will be caching the interest of certain princess with a great love of cake.
> Nothing can go wrong now
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Nine

***********




Charm walked down from the bathroom, to see her newly adopted parents fixing up breakfast. she smelled the air, smells she isnt familiar with filled them. Confused but hungry for anything she greets them with a smile and wave.

It was slightly awkward speaking to these ponies as if they were her family.

'Still, I am hungry, and this smells good.'

Stumbling slightly at the hard surface of the floor she pulls herself a seat, a fluffy cushion on the floor, ‘strange’ I thought.

It wasn’t long till Rarity comes downstairs looking refresh and cleaned, so unlike her when she was in the forest, she seemed to radiate. 

Placed before me was a strange dish of something, it smells good… but… it looks like cooked garden plants there were other stuff too, but she was mostly focused on the plants, something humans can't eat.

Charm was staring at this odd thing before her, this thing to mock her intelligence by saying it is food for a growing pony, daring her to eat it and to love every second of it. Still, she had eaten flowers as snacks, so why the hay not?

Rarity stared at Charm to see her stare intently at her plate of food, with a cup of orange juice.

She couldn’t help but giggle at the odd sight, ‘Guess she had never eaten home cooked food before.’ She wondered what the pegasus would do with the food in front of her.

With slow careful movements she watches Charm take a small bite of the food. “... “ Charm chews the food slowly taking careful note of the flavour to see if she would get sick from it.

‘You win this round pony taste buds,’ she swallows the garden plants and although it does taste like well… eating herbs or something like that... the plants weren't wasn’t bland and bitter like her human tongue would had announced, which would had caused her to spit it out in disgust.

But the plants she just ate were surprisingly okay, somewhat like eating veggies what was for most human kids. Not her, she always loved broccoli despite cartoons saying she was supposed to hate it, so she went to take another bite. ‘I guess I could get used to this, but I am sticking with fruits and veggies.’ Charm thought now eating some of the eggs.

After breakfast Rarity took Charm Feather to her room and started to measure her.

"What are you doing?"

"I am measuring you to make you a new robe, you told me I could, remember?"

Charm sweat dropped at that, she kinda forgot about that, she chuckled nervously as she tries to back away.

“Ah right, heh” after that, she almost face hooved right she should get that down, she was feeling rather exposed, a rather unexpected chilling air has highlighted some things on her she didn't want to think about at the moment.

"Stay still!  I know pegasi like to move but this is delicate and… I am not a professional, okay?" 

So the pegasus did her best to stay still as she was measured, prod and pinched "Ouch!"

"I told you to stay still! Okay, I am done. What fabric do you think would work best?"

"Uh.. I can't use leather, right?"

"No, that would be criminal! Literally." Rarity protested

"Well… whatever fabric is not made of animal skin that can have runes engraved in it, and also resists several enhancements?"

"Uh… not a clue about that. Still, is not like I can buy it yet, not with my allowance. Oh ideaaa, I got a gem finding spell! What if I used it to find gems and sell them for cash? Anyway. There is something I been dying to do for a while and I got just enough for the two of us, have you ever went to a spa?"

Charm tapped her chin, she had been, back when she was human, as a pony never, it would be nice, just hope they don’t dress her up in makeup.

"Well, I guess that would be nice." Charm said with a smile, there is no way she would regret this. And why did she feel like she just doomed herself? 

*********

They were using a file  in her hooves, it was not annoying, it was somewhat like using a nail file in fingernails, they got her hoofsies all nice and symmetric. And how did she even knew what hoofsies were?

'That's probably me, I tweaked your translation spell to make you use pony terms.' The voice of Eve, or she now preferred to be called, Guiding Star said in Charm Feather head. 

'Wait, are you the reason I been acting more girly and I am somewhat okay with being a mare?' Charm Feather just had to know.

'No, that's all you honey. Now enjoy your bath, then having your mane and tail washed, and then there is the mud bath. and then another bath to remove the mud.'

Despite herself, Charm ended enjoying her stay at the spa, and talking with Rarity about insane things, and had to resist not eating the cucumber disks over her eyes.  

Of course it was after the spa treatment that the torture began. 

************

"Wha!? what are you dabbing into my face, hey! careful you might poke my eye out with that!" Charm said flinching away from the stick with black smeared onto it. she is regretting this!

"Stop struggling, and I won’t." Rarity said a little frustrated at Charms struggles and pleas for help. It was just a bit of makeup, honest, is like she never had done this before. 

Thankfully they had already talked about anything two fillies who were not yet interested in stallions could talk about during their spa time. Plus the fact Charm Feather had been trying to escape meant the make up session had been mostly silent, save  the pegasus protests. Despite charm protests and struggling, and Rarity having to redo the pegasus make up more than once, at the end Charm was finally done and stared herself in the mirror.  

"Who is that beautiful mare in the mirror?" Charm Feather asked really surprised, then blushing realized it was her. she was an adorable and beautiful young pegasus mare. 

"Wow, you look really good darling, it helps that you are older than me, so you are more developed." Rarity said with a hint of envy. 

"Nonsense, You look really cute, and you know what being a cute filly means, right?"

"Charm, I am a tad old to scam candy from adults, and too young to get discounts by flirting."

"Oh, I just meant that it gets you tickled!" And despite the unicorn protests, the pegasus started to tickle her, both fillies ended ruining their make up because of that, but at least they had fun.

"Charm, look at what you did, we look hideous!" Rarity protested, but after her time roughing it up in the forest she really didn't care that much.

"So what? we clean our faces and later I got some weird coins I can at least trade for the metal. Then we go and get ice-cream since you are such a cute filly, even without make up on."

"That sounds like a wonderful idea."

"Why do you keep trying to talk like that Rarity? It sounds fake."

"Well, I do want to live in Canterlot someday. Don't get me wrong, Ponyville is nice, but there isn't  much I can learn about unicorn magic around here."

"True, now lets get clean."

Once the two young mares got cleaned, Charm Feather discovered to her horror, that gold and gems were actually worth less in Equestria. It kinda made sense with things like gem finding spells, and Rarity having explained that you could dig gems out the ground, and sometimes find them inside rocks. And for gold, well, she was quite sure the Equestrian bit was mostly gold, not pure gold, otherwise it would be too bland, but it had quite a lot of gold in it.  

Ah well, nothing that setting up a magic shop to sell potions would not fix eventually. Granted, Ponyville was a tad small for that, and she did not like the idea of competing with Zecora, how about having a partnership? Maybe she could even learn about herbs and potions from Equestria thanks to the zebra. After all, just because Equestria had magic, it did not meant the flora was gonna match the one found in Skyrim. Once she ran out of ingredients, she needed a way to replace them after all, and better ask somepony who knows. that to risk lives testing experimental potions until she got them right. 

**********

Rumbling could be heard coming from the Everfree or more specifically a cave with a caved in entrance near a cliff side, a few rocks would tumble out of the way every so often.

A hungry looking manticore walks up to the cave sniffing the air to see any possible pray. And with a crash a monster bursts out scaring off any birds in the area and the kitty away.

It let out a terrifying roar to the heavens above, and with a large sniff of the air, it could smell it’s prey of the day before, and with a toothy grin it followed the scent of its meal, and in high hopes to exact its vengeance soon.

Not far off a certain zebra heard the monsters roar, and not taking any chances headed for Ponyville as she fears for her life if the monster is in a hunting mood.

~ Back to our heroines ~

It had become a cloudy day, most of the sun was blocked out by the clouds overhead as the pegasi were preparing for a downpour, something Charm was excited to see for herself since weather manipulation was not part of the Wonderbolts show she had seen using Rarity memories.

So after their ice-cream she stared up at the sky to see the pegasi move clouds she was ecstatic at such a use for magic, ‘So this is pegasus weather magic,’ Charm comment mentally as she watched the pegasi move the clouds in the sky.

She didn’t know how long she watched them perform their routine but it must had been a good couple of hours, to the point Rarity had to drag her inside the house so she didn't get wet. When the rain ended and the pegasi were just getting ready to move the clouds away when a figure came rushing out from the road leading to the Everfree yelling at the pegasi in the sky, to which they respond by flying off to go do something.

Confused at the sudden odd behaviour Charm Feather looked at Rarity who was currently reading one of her books titled ‘Herbalist’s Guide to Skyrim,’ not  that it would be of much use as it was quite unlikely all the herbs of Skyrim existed in Equestria, but it would give her an idea of what to look when they finally needed to replace potion ingredients with Equestrian herbs.

“Rarity there seems to be something going on right about now,” The pegasus interrupted Rarity, who put down the book to look at Charm questionably.

“Just moments ago when I was watching the pegasi, somepony came running from the Everfree, soon all the pegasi flew off after hearing who ever that was.” Rarity looked worried at the news and asks her own questions.

“You were  still looking at them? I mean, did you notice anything else peculiar Charm?” she asked hoping to get more info at Charm Feather shake. She got up to look outside to see the clouds still hanging over head with not a pony tending to them, this was worrying to Rarity  as even  if sometimes pegasi got lazy, today the weather schedule said the sky should be clear by now, so it meant the pegasi had left their posts for a disaster.

That and the fact somepony came yelling from the Everfree meant it was probably a rampaging monster. 

“Yes I don’t like the looks of it either,” the brown pegasus sudden voice rang next to Rarity spooking her a bit, but she nodded at Charms deduction.

Not long after that comment a pegasus came swooping down and landed at Rarity’s home front porch knocking at the door to speak to her father, watching as Hondo Flanks suddenly gots a scared look, then thanked the pegasus and headed back inside.

“Cookie we got to go, get the fillies we need to hurry!” at his sudden panicky tone of voice Charm Feather looked at Rarity who also looked scared.

“What’s going on?” Charm asked fearfully at the sudden situation presented to her.

“Normally when something like this happens, I hear it is because a monster is wandering too close to the village,” Rarity looked worried as this was bad news, and depending on the monster it could cause a lot or damage and even injure or kill somepony before it was dealt with.

Cookie Crumbles came out of the kitchen to pick up Rarity and place her on her back while Charm took to the air to follow her as they left the house in a hurry; Hondo Flanks explained that they are evacuating the settlement in hopes that the monster would just leave them alone.

Before Charm could continue to follow the trio she was shoved in the air by more faster and stable flying pegasus causing her to lose control and fly straight into a wall in an alley knocking her out cold.

Nopony saw this save for one pony, she was on the other side of the street, and although scared she persevere threw her emotions and went to help this pony. So with speed and reflex she didn’t knew she had she managed to make it across the street by dodging the crowd of ponies to make it to the chestnut brown pegasus side.

But before she could do anything to help a loud roar announced the arrival of the beast as it came rushing out of the forest.

The ponies in the area all noticed this and started panicking as they started galloping as fast as they could, while this was happening the monster took notice of them, but sniffing the air it wasn’t interested in the crowd, but it looked at the now shocked pony who turned quickly to Charm Feather in hopes to wake her up, she started shaking the unconscious chestnut brown pegasus in hopes that it will wake her up.

Groaning Charm woke up with a bit of a bump on her forehead, “Owie, what hit me?” she said aloud while rubbing her head looking up she saw a butter yellow pegasus, with a pink mane and a trio of butterflies for a cutie mark not to mention tear filled terrified eyes stare back at her.

“Oh hey... “Before she could say anything a loud roar announced its presence as it started rushing towards them, again betraying its size with the speed it is currently displaying.

Shocked at the monster before them just about to lunge itself at the both of them, Charm reacted quickly by body checking the terrified pegasus next to her allowing the monster to pass by them as it crashed into the building behind them.

With the yellow pegasus in her forelegs, Charm flies close to the ground into another building hearing the sound of the monster roaring again but this time in anger, she flew to the back door of the house and kept going as she rounded back again to Rarity’s house, opening and closing the door she placed the shocked pegasus down onto the ground as she rushed to the closet to get her saddlebags.

“Darn it I can’t believe I forgot these.” She muttered as the yellow pegasus stares in confusion, “Oh hey names Charm Feather nice to meet you, sorry for not introducing myself I was interrupted by that rather rude fellow outside.” With that she pulled out her saddlebags full of potions and gems all ready for use. “What’s your name?” Charm asked the yellow pegasus out of the blue startling the shy pony.

Although she was scared the calm and assertive pegasus before was enough to calm her own self so she answered a bit low but enough to be heard, “m-my name is Fluttershy,” she said feeling embarrassed.

Charm wasn’t paying attention but was able to hear her name regardless, “a good name, anyways Fluttershy I need you to do something for me.” At this Charm stared at the clearly uncomfortable pegasus before her.

“I need you to take these gems and place them around the town square in a Dodecahedron pattern, got it?” Charm looked at the now confused pegasus before her, sighing as Dodecahedron pattern does sound like a mouth full and to a filly she wouldn’t know what that is.

So in a just in case she does not know what shape Charm Feather was talking about she pulled out her journal and flipped to the correct page and showed the other pegasus what she meant on how the arrangement was meant to be placed, all in pictures too, since her written language was different to that of ponies.

“Just follow the steps and you should do alright, ok?” Charm said with a smile full of confidence in her. “I will hold off the monster long enough for you to do this ok?” Fluttershy nodded scared of the monster outside but with Charms confidence in her she hurried along with the gems and left out the window in the kitchen galloping away to town square.

The monster outside managed to track down it’s pray inside the house but before it could do anything to the house a sudden rush of air singles its prey had just exited the building and the monster felt several stings of magic striking its hide.

Turning around it saw the pegasus that hurt it floating in the air several meters away, roaring it starts charging her as it rears its head back and strikes out with its long neck.
Charm evades its attack and flies into the air quickly gaining altitude, when she had gained enough height she dropped her wings and trade flight for falling as she summoned her blades and angled at the now confused beast as it looked for it’s prey.
With the speed of her fall she manoeuvred herself with her wings towards the beasts head and with her momentum she pierced its scales but her wings weren’t long enough to draw blood.

With the monsters attention clearly gotten she turned around and flew towards the center of town dodging the monsters attempt at killing her by throwing debris at her general direction.

But Charm wasn’t a pro flyer so she was already losing speed and the beast saw this and put more effort to slither on the ground to gain more speed by trading lumbering steps, to the more quicker form, and it managed to catch her in its claws, it held Charm down on the ground as it hissed in victory looking down at its prey it was about ready to strike.

Charm smirked as she could feel the charged air around her, singling the success and completion of the ritual circle, she turned to the butter yellow pegasus who stared shocked with tears in her eyes as she was about to see this pony die, Charm smirks at her as she waved a hoof at her.

“Just in case I don’t make it, it was nice meeting you Miss Fluttershy.” the sound of charged particles hummed threw out the whole town blocking out most of what Fluttershy heard as she stared shocked at the pegasus who was smiling at her while the monster was about to kill her.

But before the beast could lunges at its pinned pray, highly charged lightning in a form of a  3D dodecahedron formed around the two.

The visible lightning started discharging the gathered power causing a massive explosion of lightning in the center of the spell, all of it was focuses at one point, that point being at the monsters head was, more specifically the cut it had suffered from the little pegasus blade wings from earlier.

But everything was blown in blinding light as the energy was discharged completely hiding Charm who at this point was still smirking at the outcome.

‘Sorry Rarity seems I don’t get to see yea grow up.’ Were her final thoughts, the feeling of searing hot pain started coursing through her followed by unconsciousness as the world started fading.

Normally, such a powerful spell should have killed both of them due to how careless Charm Feather had been, but the fact was, Charm Father was still suffering from magic exhaustion.  That combined with the beast, some kind of one head Hydra, magical resistance, it meant that Fluttershy watched in horror how electricity electrocuted both creatures until it almost killed them, the keyword being almost. It would have killed both of them had the gems been fully charged with magic, but they were not, our heroine arrival to Equestria had left those gems mostly depleted, and thankfully she had forgot to recharge them. 

End of Chapter…

A monster was defeated not by cunning and swiftness, our hero fought stupid. Will she survive long enough to get yelled at?

"Charm you idiot, if you weren't a pegasus you would be dead!" Rarity said

"Hey wait, you are supposed to wait for the next chapter." Charm Feather weakly protested

"Next chapter my horn, you were a moron and I am gonna yell at you for it!"

Ehem… anyway

Stay tuned for more here at just me and possibly her!
> The Sun misses the Moon
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter ten 


Tink

There was a sound of cracking stone, must be from the amulet around her neck. It made a snapping noise seeming to cut off all other sound in reality even the electricity that currently course threw her body. Even unconscious the pain seeped into her unconscious mind keeping her aware of the existence of her situation.

Creek

Tik

Crack!

A memory of her first week surfaced to the front of her mind.

oOo flashback oOo

“I am not sure what this amulet does, but when my friend given it to me she said it shall protect me. I do not fully understand it all, but it is a beautiful piece of spell work and so far I was only able to identify one enchantment in it.” I look down at my amulet the blue stone reminding me of home.

Rarity looked back from her brewing potion she had been working on for the past few minutes; she had taken to alchemy pretty well after showing her how to do some basic potions she took to them quickly. Of course we were using ingredients from Skyrim, so we both would have to basically relearn everything when we tried to do the same stuff with Equestrian ingredients, but it keep her busy and at least she didn't complain much while doing that. 

It was sometime around her fourth day here, after the incident with the plant monster, she had took an interest in the alchemy and the enchantment tables, so I had showed her how they work and what was needed to make them work.

Rarity walked over to me as I gazed at the amulet with a small smile as it was a one of the many kind gifts she had given to me.

“So what enchantment is in it?” she asked softly still rather wary of the beasts of the forests now that the threat of being here was made perfectly clear to her by now as nightly attacks from either timber wolves or a manticore that wandered into camp.

“Some kind of magic resistance enchantment it’s pretty powerful but not perfect, but then again I never saw a perfect protection against magic.” I said looking down at my amulet with a smile.

oOo end flashback oOo

‘So that’s why I am still alive,’ I thought as the pain had ended now, as I could now feel a tugging sensation as well as something moving under me.

‘Wha-what... is... happening... now?’ my mind slowly starts to fade as finally true unconsciousness start to dull the pain. It is still there but it is now numb and I could finally fall into blissful sleep to fall upon me fully.

'Wrong' a familiar voice said. With a sound of breaking glass the stone broke and turns into dust leaving nothing but its silver casing to which the stone was held in.

*****************

Leona was resting in her home in solitude reading her journal of her past adventures with fondness.

But then she felt it, it was faint like an echo from far away. Her best friend was in danger.

She stood up rather quickly grabbing her armour and weapons, potions and gems, books and scrolls she prepares for the journey ahead.

To save her friend from danger, she only hopes she is not too late.

**************

Celestia walks through the ashen road; the town hall was completely destroyed, an unconscious one head hydra was being dragged away to the Royal zoo by some royal pegasi guards and a few unicorns. 

Windows have been blown to pieces, a apple cart and its contents were scattered and threw out in the whole area. A group of ponies defeating a monster from the Everfree was not something that weird, especially not in Ponyville, a pony doing it solo was rarer, but not unheard out, said pony being a pegasus that triggered a magical trap that was made in very minutes? This was the first time it had happened, ever.

She had heard of the monster attack on Ponyville and reacted right away by teleporting to the town, only to arrive when the lightning discharged and blown her out of the sky.

After managing to get herself organize she flew to the origin of the blast, only to find the unconscious hydra, investigating the area she found several areas that marked the gathering points of the spell circle power source. But... it was acting weird.

For starters it doesn’t acted like a normal thaumic field unicorn magic normally creates when they perform a spell. It did not resemble dragon, or pegasus magic, although it’s the first thing she could identify, the pegasus magic has a self sustaining thaumic field for their flight and cloud manipulation and leaves behind a background noise in the magic field in the air, and dragon magic is potent and violent which leaves noticeable ripples in the lay lines.

But this magic is subtle, elegant, but potent and structured, it was for lack of a better word awe-inspiring, it closely resembles Alicorn magic the most, and it doesn’t resemble her or her sisters magic.

It was on a class of its own, but even though it has all this, it feels newly discovered then honed, but it is strong regardless.

This is frightening  yet interesting for  the Princess of the Sun, because in all her years there had been only a few ponies out there that could match her in regards to magic, so far only her current student has shown an adeptness to magic that could one day surpass her her own, but this pony is untrained and has the power to end up hurting those around them without knowing it. That or it had found an ancient magical artifact, those tended to appear once in a while, but to find one that used an unknown type of magic was very rare indeed. 

Worst of all there is that this pony could already summon a spell circle strong enough to stop a hydra in mere minutes, what could do it given enough time to prepare? This pegasus could become very dangerous, and without guidance there could be a repeat of Sombra, or... Luna. She would not let that happen, ever again. Granted in Sombra case that pony was evil and ambitious even before dark magic twisted him. 

She takes a sample of the spell casters signature so that she could track the pegasus later or whatever artifact it used, after doing so, she took her eyes off the spell circle so she could walk up to where she could follow the tracks left behind by the pony.

After observing for a few moments she sees drag marks as well as blood leaving the area, following the drag marks she came to a heart Wrenching scene.

A little yellow pony pegasus was at the hospital door trying to open them desperately banging on them all the while crying, next to the crying pegasus lays the broken form of a badly hurt pegasus.

Celestia almost facehoofed, she had been so distracted by the strange magic and taking care of the hydra that she had forgot to make sure somepony took care of the injured yet still alive pegasus. 

The chestnut brown pegasus filly had large chunks of burned hide, her right wing was burned and feathers were melted together, as her left has messing feathers and was broken, her mane was nearly burned off. Bruising could be seen through the fur she could as possibly have broken ribs.

One part of her wanted to gasp in horror at the injured pegasus, she was just a filly, not even a teenger yet! Yet another part of her, the part she was forced to grow and nurture upon ruling Equestria alone for almost a thousand years alone, saw a chance, an opportunity. 

Healing spells was not something Celestia excelled at, it was part of her nature, she was the Princess of the Sun and the Sun was her, and fire was not known for healing injuries. Her sister Luna might not have her raw power, but the Moon was more associated with magic and healing than the Sun was, so when she got banished a whole branch of magic had been lost as Luna had not time to teach any students before she became Nightmare Moon.

Yet there was a spell she could do in this case, not a healing spell, but a spell to give  another pony power, and let said pony heal itself. The reason she was even thinking in using said spell was because of the first rule of magic, Magic has a price. While she honestly did not want this little pony to die, getting it indebted to her was her main reason. 

Plus, with the weak healing magic of the current age, healing the pegasus would take too long, and time was what the little pegasus did not have much of in her current situation. A small part of her, a part hidden under the Mask of the ruler, wept for the young soul; death to her is never an easy thing to accept especially one so young.

But why was she thinking that? The pegasus would not die today, all she had to do was lend her power and… 

“Charming!” there was a shout as a young unicorn filly ran up to the broken form of the dying pegasus. Celestia was about to interrupt the unicorn filly who was wasting precious time when something stopped her. There was something in the unicorn aura, something familiar. While reluctant to do so, she decided to trust her instincts, the same instincts that lend her to finally find a wielder for the element of magic. 

“Oh no, no, no! Please don’t die on me!” her horn flares into being. Up first her magic aura was as blue as sapphire as it envelop around Charms body, then it turned into a blazing gold and in her desperation she had put all of her mana into the spell causing her eyes to blaze in gold as well.

'No, she is gonna kill herself, she is using too much magic in the spell!'

The Princess of the Sun lights up her horn, sharing her power with the unicorn filly, and also saving the foolish filly life. 

Celestia watched as the air around the pegasus, Charm, had changed dramatically, wisps of golden light mixed with orange and small motes of flame, probably from Celestia own magic, seeming to form out of nowhere around the unicorn. Then the chestnut brown pegasus turned white, as wounds start to heal, bones out of place snapped back into place, wounds that would had left scars mended fully, even her wings had fully healed, although she would have to re-grow her feathers, small patches of fur where the charred flesh had fallen off leaving behind pink healthy skin also needing to grow back again.

What Celestia had just witness was close to a miracle, as modern healing spells just weren't good enough to do such amount of healing in such a short time. The the math and mana requirements needed  using modern magic was too extreme even for a dozen unicorn Archmages, much less or a little filly, even with the power she just lend her.

'Luna... could have somepony rediscovered the healing magic you keep so close to your heart, to the point you refused to share them with me?'

The yellow pegasus from before watched with awe as this unicorn filly had fully healed Charm Feather, even if it needed Princess Celestia help to do it. The chestnut brown pegasus looked fully healed now but she is still unconscious but is now breathing smoothly unobstructed by her broken ribs.

The white unicorn had then passed out next to Charm, this caused the two ponies to be startled, Celestia ran up to check the two little fillies for any injuries, much to her relief it would seem the unicorn had only over exerted herself and would need rest, while the pegasus filly is now fully healed and is in need of rest. Had she not lend the filly her power however, she would have a death unicorn filly in her hooves, such was the price of using magic beyond the limits the body could take.

‘I have got to get that little unicorn into my school, she would revolutionize the whole field of healing. And I also need to watch her so she doesn't try to kill herself by magic over use again.’ Celestia thought almost giddy with excitement, that is until she felt the unknown magic user signature near, she followed it down to the brown pegasus filly, and in shock she forgot her regal mask in front of the butter yellow pegasus who watched in worry as Celestia stared stupefied at the pegasus filly.

'Is not an artifact! she did the magic herself, with just some help from the magic circle and a few gems.'

While she rarely used it herself, the princess was familiar enough with the use of Gems as magical batteries, to recognize the faint residual magic that left in somepony aura. This was so faint after the healing spell done to the pegasus, that nopony else save Celestia or her sister would have noticed it, and it would be actually gone in a few hours.  

End of Chapter…

A Wayward hero feels the horror of possibly losing her closest friend, she readies to march off to the unknown.

Princess Celestia saw the destructive force of lightning; she had followed a trail in hopes to find the culprit responsible.

Only for the Unconquerable Sun to claim witness of two impossibilities.

She had seen a small unicorn perform a healing spell only her lost sister was ever able to do.

She then found a pegasus able to do unkown magic without the use of an ancient artifact.

And poor Fluttershy with her emotions all fried from terror to dread, to despair and hope, to confusion and worry, she needs a break.

"Hug pile on the shy pony!" Yelled Rarity and she, Celestia and Charm Feather hugged the yellow pegasus 

"Will you please stop breaking the fourth wall?" Asked Princess Celestia, once she finally was able to overcome the need to cheer up the shy pegasus.

"Sorry, I kind of did it by accident because of how angry and worried I was with Charm, and now I dunno how to stop."

"Ah well, since this part doesn't really count for the story, lets eat cake until we burst!"

"Yay!" Said everypony else


> My big sister is trolling me
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Eleven


My mind is groggy as I woke up, the first thing I noticed when I had finally come to was that I was in a soft and warm bed, the blanket is comfortable, it feels like it’s been forever since I last slept in a real bed. 

Not excluding Rarity’s parents kind hospitality of course,’ I feel fine...’ I thought confused. I open my eyes to see I’ am in a dark room, I could see the curtains and behind them light but was being blocked currently. ‘Some time around noon maybe.’ I thought taking stock of my current location. “Guess I’ am in the hospital, I better be,” I said aloud rather annoyed.

'YOU IDIOT!' That voice is just Guiding Star, I ignore her for now despite her glare  that could scare a puppy to death.

“Because if I was anywhere else besides Rarity’s place, I’ am seriously going to consider burning this place to the ground.” I grump out not in any moods to suddenly find myself kidnapped while I was unconscious, this happened before in Skyrim too, a bandit group thought it  be a good way to commit suicide by kidnapping me so they can get the Dragonborn to do whatever they want.

That didn’t go so well for them in the end, but of course Leona did all the heavy lifting. ‘argh, I hate playing damsel in distress. It’s just so... cliché, especially when I was supposed to be the one doing the saving,’ I thought rather annoyed at everything currently.

After what feels forever of just staring off into space, I had started to imagine all the spells I am going to use because I was now seriously considering burning this place to the ground.

“Argh so booored!” I said in frustration as I had noticed how long I had been sitting here doing nothing in for forever!

I look at the clock and noticed how long it has been.

Then Guiding Star finally gets fed up with me ignoring her and I feel like if I had been kicked in the stomach. Yeah, probably I should not have said I was bored out loud, not only it was rude, she clearly wanted to talk to me.

'Fine, I am sorry for being whiny and ignoring you, what do you want?' I ask using my thoughts since even if my guardian spirit is mostly with Rarity lately I know she can still read them. 

'Why the hell did you almost kill yourself? Your magic reserves were not even half full, and if it wasn't because those gems were almost depleted and you are a pegasus so you have natural resistance to lighting, you would be dead!'

'Wait… that's why you said that it wasn't the amulet what saved me?'

'That amulet was calibrated for the human you used to be, not a pegasus pony girl! The only reason it didn't hurt your pegasus butt is because your soul in the same place, so the only thing the amulet protected was itself, and despite that it still cracked! It might have acted like a lightning rod and got some electricity in itself, but most of it went to you and the one headed hydra." 

'Uh… I was I was quite stupid, wasn't I?' I feel my face being slapped a few times by hooves, "By the way, how come my body is fully healed?"

'Princess Celestia lend her power to Rarity to heal you, otherwise the stupid filly would have killed herself by using all her magic in one go.'

"Ah, okay then." I said out loud, then I am happy nopony else seems to be around, since I don't want to end in the mad house by talking to myself.  Wait…

'PRINCESS CELESTIA? THE PRINCESS CELESTIA? AS IN THE PRINCESS CELESTIA THAT RULES EQUESTRIA AND COULD ARREST ME OR KILL ME FOR BEING AN ALIEN?'

'Yes, that one.'

That's it, my life as a pegasus mare is over, I will get arrested then cut into little bitty pieces to see how my magic works. 

'Ah well… can I have a belly rub before Celestia kill me or worse?' Guiding Star looks at me like I was crazy, and I might be, but then I fell like my belly is being rubbed so I don’t care. My mind wanders thinking about how realistic this is, wondering just what else she could do to me, then my face gets red as a tomato when I realize what else she could fake doing to me with her manipulation of my five senses. 

This wasn’t the first time I got weird like this, but before it only happened when I started to write my journal after I became a pony. I would start writing then all of a sudden I start doodling little cartoons in the pages, but lately with the many dangers happening that it helped keep me focus, now that I had finally sat down time seems to have slowed down to a crawl, it’s very annoying so far.

Of course, the belly rubs help a lot, I almost ask for a massage then decided that if I start yelling about how good the massage is, damn sensitive mare body, it would catch too much attention. 

The door opened and out walked a white earth pony with a nurse cap on, with little red cross on it to boot, she is pulling behind her a cart of sorts with some food stuff. To my annoyance the belly rubs stop, and since the nurse is not given me weird looks it seems she did not hear me talking alone. 

I blinked as my attention is caught by the cart she is pulling, I am used to the trolley humans push around in front of them, but it seemed the pony race pulls theirs, the cart has a harness to which the pony would hook themselves in and pull it around with them, it has two wheels on the sides with a kick stand to hold it up when they need to keep it leveled, this of course was what I found out when she did just that when she unhooked herself, it is rather silly but functional.

'I will make so anything you eat will taste bad, so don't get too enthusiastic with the food.' Damn, Guiding Star must be really mad at me, and Rarity still has to show to yell at me. The unicorn probably is still sleeping due to the effort she did healing me. I wonder for a moment how I became so accepting about the spirit manipulating me like that, I guess I… kinda started to see her as a big sister of sorts. 

‘Focus Charm now is not the time for your mind to wander!’ I mentally yelled frustrated at my attention wandering over little things and not so little things... ‘Wait did I just call myself Charm?’ I noticed rather shocked that the name I had given myself is now starting to replace my old name. ‘Sigh, it is for the best I guess, I am no longer Zach anymore,’ I thought slightly dejected. Then I felt like I got a hug despite the nurse not being the one doing it, that means it was Guiding Star. 

'Thank you big sister.' I end up thinking… wait, what?

'Okay Eve, are you SURE you aren't messing with my head?' I think her old name just to annoy her. 

“Oh! You’re awake!” the nurse pony exclaims snapping me out of my stupor. I know Gui… Eve… Star AHHH, I know the spirit won't talk to me until I get alone again or with Rarity, so I better focus on the nurse right now. 

“Oh, um, hello ma’am a good day to you,” I stutter out trying to be polite in front of the stranger before me.

She giggles and smiles, then sets up a table that was hooked to my bed so that it is in front of me. The nurse then places food stuff on it, food such as hay and oatmeal and an apple, with a side of a boxed apple juice.

She then opens the curtains to let in the sunlight to pool into the room, putting everything into stark clarity, now that I could see better now that the dark room is now more clear I took a closer look at the room I found myself in, I seem to be in a normal hospital room, a window to my right, and to my left a door to what I think is the bathroom, I do not need to use it yet so I do not have to worry about it.

In front of me leads to the door the nurse had came from, the door has a full sized mirror on it so I can now see myself, and the tiles are pink with the curtains being pink too, my bed sheets are also pink.

‘Somepony is a fan of pink.’ I deadpan mentally looking at the large pink room.

"Actually its Salmon pink." the nurse said unexpectedly I looked rather spooked at that reply
The nurse done with her duty leaves the room leaving the trolley with more food stuff for me to eat later, upon leaving she closed the door leaving me alone, now that I’ am alone I look at my rather bland looking food. 'Wait… did that nurse just read my mind?'

'No, you just got so bored that you said it out loud.'

'Okay whatever.' I mentally thought dropping the issue and pretending nothing happened. Yes, I did not thought  Guiding Star was my big sister, not that I was thinking on much much yelling Rarity was gonna do to me once she was good enough to walk into my room and tell me how much of an idiot I had been. Nor did I thought about PRINCESS BUCKING CELESTIA knowing I am a magic using pegasus, and probably her finding out I am an alien, nope, not at all, no sir. 

Taking the apple in hoof, I had gotten better at manipulating items with my hoofs although I use my wings like I would use my hands more often, I take a bite, and I would have liked to say that it was the best apple I had in a long while now, even better than the apples I had been eating apples from Skyrim for a whole week.

But nope, Guiding Star had made good of her promise of making the food taste bad, so while I could eat it, it tasted like the food I don't like to eat.

'Oh, such an awesome apple! you should totally taste one, oh right, I am tasting it for you and you feel like you are eating something bad instead.' Yes, that's my big sister, the troll. 

I try to ignore her and focus on eating the rest of the food. Moving onto the oat meal I noticed there was no spoon, shrugging since  I was no stranger to eating like a dog or cat... not that I used to do so as a human, just I had been doing so for over a week lately. So I digged my face into the bowl I finished it off pretty quickly mostly because my mean big sis and her cruel 'food tastes' bad punishment. 

Looking at my nemesis of foods stuff, I give it the evil eye as I take a small hoof full of the stuff then take a bite, all the while treating the thing that calls itself food like it was going to jump up and punch me in the face. Is all rather silly since everything will taste bad and I know it, but I was bored and apparently not getting more belly rubs and or hugs for the moment. 

After the evil has been vanquished I look at the juice box in slight confusion as I noticed the tiny straw that is currently strapped and wrapped in wrapper on the side.

“Um, how am I supposed to get that?” I noticed as I looked at my bulky hooves, then at my bandaged wings as I had just noticed those just now.

Shrugging again I bend down to mouth the thing free and then chewed the wrapper free of the straw I then start to expertly manipulate the straw into place.

Smiling at my accomplishment I take the juice box into my forelegs and drink happily…. or I would if my  temporarily altered sense of taste didn't make it a bad experience. I looked up at the mirror and saw the weaponized cuteness setting of eleven reflecting off the mirror right back at me. Even the grouchy face I had because I did not like the taste of the juice was bucking adorable. 

I almost choked on my juice as I noticed that is some potent cute right there. Putting down my juice as I managed to catch my breath I announced my displeasure of my own adorableness attacking me, “Oh come on that’s like the second time that happened, quit it!” I could just hear the universe chuckle at me.

Wait it was not the universe, it was my mean big sister. 

'Oh Charm, you silly pony.'

Then to my horror I saw an image of myself wearing a frilly pink dress. That's it, my sister is not mean, she is pure evil!

Grumbling about it and blushing slightly at my own embarrassment and hoping nopony, or worst of all someone ever see me in THAT.

'Sorry, I am quite sure the dresses Rarity will make you wear will be of a much better taste than that pink monstrosity.' 

I quickly hop into the denial train and took a one way ticked to nopeville and just lay there looking up at the ceiling NOT thinking in my pony body wearing cute dresses.

***

Rarity was going through a similar thing than Charm was, minus the trolling spirit big sister. She has found herself in a hospital room, she wasn’t covered in bandages only having suffered minor mana exhaustion which was fixed when she had requested the nurses to bring her a potion that was stored in her room. They were about to deny her request when it seemed somepony  higher up approved her request.

To say the nurses were shocked when Rarity was not only allowed to self medicate but also was later walking around, feeling fine, when she should had been bedridden for a week at least: was amazing to them.

But to be sure she still has to wait here over night before she could be discharged.

After she had healed her friend and passing out from exerting too much magic into the spell, that she now recognized would have killed her had not that strange power surge that felt like the sun helped her,  Princess Celestia had teleported the four of them to Canterlot castle’s infirmary right after she had passed out. She was promised by Celestia herself that Charm would be taken good care of and that she gets to see her when she finally awakens.

Then right after the promise, she got a two hours lecture about how much of an IDIOT she had been for overusing her magic like that. Only to later be praised for both being able to use an apparently lost school of Healing magic, and being such a loyal and generous friend to Charm Feather. 

Then she kind of had to promise to enroll in Equestria School for Gifted Unicorns, since otherwise Celestia would post a pair of royal guards to follow her around so she did not try to kill herself using Healing magic again. While Celestia had not told her, Rarity was quite sure the power that had helped her and feel like the sun had been Celestia's magic helping to power up the Restoration spell, so of course Rarity did not even protest and accepted enrolling in the school as soon as she both talked to her parents and her magic reserves got fully recovered. 

Rarity also knew that just because she felt physically fine, it did not meant her body did not need rest, food and relaxation. The "Ace Moonlight and the Phoenix Stone" book the princess had left her helped with the relaxation part. Is not like she could read one of Charm journals, since those were back home, and Guiding Star was probably too angry to answer her questions for today. 

A white earth pony walks into the room, causing Rarity’s focus to be drawn to her from her line of thought, Rarity takes in the nurses details closely, the nurse is wearing a cap with a red cross displaying her rank as a healer of sorts, her cutie mark is that of a needle with two band aids crisscrossing each other, the nurse has green eyes and a two tone teal and brown mane and tail.

“Good day miss Rarity.” At this she nods formally to Rarity while giving a kind smile to the filly she continues, “I’ am here to take you to your friends bedroom.” the soft spoken nurse said with a smile.

Rarity perked up at the news and was instantly over by the nurse’s side with a smile beaming up at her.

Together they left and headed for Charm’s room, with Rarity smiling in eagerness and slight worry for her friends current health and to see her again.

***

Fluttershy had her own room set up, although it wasn’t a hospital room as she wasn’t hurt during the hydra attack.

After the nights rest she is now currently taking time to figure out her situation now that she has time to calm down and think.

It has been nearly a day since she was brought here by the princess and was offered the bed for the night in one of the guest rooms. The princess had promised she could visit Charm Feather when she wakes up, she then wonders if her animal friends would be ok right about now.

Now that she thinks about it, would Charm be consider her friend now that she is worrying for her health and safety?

She remembered how cool and collected the chestnut brown pegasus was when the hydra had attacked, how she fought the hydra, she has pretty good eyesight so she watched Charm draw the attention of the beast by shocking it, then to her amazement slash it with ghostly wing blades.

She shivers at that memory as it was unpleasant to see some creature injured in front of her like that, even if it was a really mean hydra that wanted to injure and eat ponies. Thankfully no pony or monster had died. 

Now that she thinks about it Charm… she… she had went and faced the hydra like a true hero, not caring about herself, that was quite heroic. Yet life was not like one of the stories she liked to read. The pegasus almost died if it wasn't because of Princess Celestia and  the white unicorn saving her.

Thinking about it now she wondered if that little white unicorn is ok, she hadn’t seen a lot of unicorns in her life as most of her time was spent in Cloudsdale and she hasn’t been living in Ponyville for very long. ‘I wonder if she would like to be my friend too,’ she thought absent minded.

She hasn’t bothered making friends since most ponies she knew picked on her for her weak flying skills, and Charm had showed she was like her friend Rainbow Dash and was willing to be her friend during the attack, and the unicorn seemed nice enough that she could try to make friends rather than shun most ponies.

Then the door to her room opened and a white unicorn pony wearing fancy tuxedo walks in.
“A good day to you miss Fluttershy, I am here to tell you that Charm Feather is awake and that I am to take you to her room.” the butler said. "Also, Miss Rarity woke up a while ago and you can visit it too if you want."

Miss Rarity? Rarity must be the white unicorn with the bird and gem cutie mark name, 

Nodding slowly, Fluttershy followed the butler closely as not to offend him she was then lead to Charms room to see Celestia looking rather silly all pressed up against the wall as she appears to be eavesdropping.

“Princess?” she had said softly but it was enough to cause Celestia to lose herself and whirl around too quickly that she tripped on her own shoe causing her to fall into the room then a series of things happened causing the Princess to be covered completely in food.

There was a silence as a startled Rarity, Fluttershy, and Charm stare at a now very embarrassed ruler of Equestria.

***

Celestia, even if she had meetings today with nobles and dignitaries and having a lunch and high class dinner with them as well, dropped everything when she heard that the little filly pegasus was awake and well, somethings are just more important.

So nearly galloping down the halls of the castle she made her way to the infirmary, when she had finally made it outside the door to Charm Feathers room she hesitate before walking in as she could hear the two speak.

“I can’t believe you used such a dangerous spell in town like that, what were you thinking Charm?” she heard Rarity yell loudly, opening the door slightly as to see what is going on.

“Um, well, you see ah, um well none of my other spells seem to be even hurting that thing.” She heard the small pegasus say.

‘Other spells? I wonder how many spells can she do?’ Celestia thought frantically now realizing the possibilities, contrary to popular belief Celestia is a scholar for anything magical in nature; she has been since she was a filly. Of course Luna was always better at magic than her, Unfortunately, since Luna was such a shut in and a bookworm, that did not help her to make friends. Celestia was always much more social and outgoing, and well, things did not end well between the two. 

Celestia imagined a younger Luna jumping into that room yelling ‘Yes’ over and over again like a filly at finding out new magic. 

“Besides the spell had a focus or target to aim for, it’s just the town hall was in the path to that monster.” From her vantage point she could see Charm idly tap her hoof tips nervously as Rarity sternly looks at Charm.

"Focus my horn! You went INSIDE THE DAMNED MAGIC CIRCLE, WHAT THE BUCK WERE YOU THINKING?" Rarity started to shake the pegasus like a doll. 

“Princess?” was the only warning that she got when the voice, in her mind at least, was a yell in the hallway behind her, whirling around to quickly acting like a filly caught with a hoof in the cookie jar, but she lost her balance when her hoof shoes came loose from the unexpected turn causing her to fall down into the room behind her.

Upon falling she hit a cart causing some of the food still on the trolley to be flung into the air and land on the Princess messing up her coat and mane with mucky food and sticky juice.

There was a silence as Celestia just sat there stunned into silence at being caught like this and how she had acted.

“Um, wow that lady is huge!” was the rather blunt exasperation of Charm Feather gawking at a now even redder faced princess.

‘This day has just been perfect.’ Celestia mentally thought in utter confusion and dismay.

‘This has just been perfect.’ though a very amused Charm mentally, only to blush as she noticed herself admiring the bigger pony body, thankfully there wasn't that much to see due to the food covering it. 

End of Chapter…

Nothing to report, nothing much is happening yet, but the plot… ‘NOT THAT ONE’ moves forward as a now embarrassed royalty was caught peeking in a conversation she was not meant to hear.

Stay tune for more on. Just me, and possibly her!

Charm Feather finds herself looking older, like an adult mare "What the buck?"

"Oh dear, you look fabulous! There are so many dresses I want to test on you!" an adult Rarity says, her cutie mark looks different, being three gems unlike the Phoenix and gem of the Rarity she knows.

"Eeep!"  Charm Feather says hiding her face in her now longer mane, while Celestia appears out of nowhere and takes pictures. 

"Damn it Rarity, this isn't funny!!"

"Oh, darling, don't be like that, this is not canon anyway." Rarity says as she measures the adult Charm Feather 

"Ah well, in that case…" Charm Feather teleports to Twilight Sparkles library,  then gives her a kiss. Then Charm has to run away out of an enraged and blushing lavender unicorn, "Worth it!" she calls.
> Luxurious Castle Tour
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Twelve


‘Well... this is very awkward.’ I mentally thought as I had now found myself in the bath house of the castle, with three other women... ‘Mares.’ I mentally corrected.

After the food incident back at my room, Princess Celestia had invited us to join her in the baths, ‘Seems she is rather relaxed around children.’ I noted because if she noticed that I was in fact was in my mid twenties, and male, she wouldn’t had even been tempted to invite me to join her, unless we were lovers…

‘Darn it brain!’ I mentally yelled not at all amused at my brains antics.

'Well she does have a nice and toned body, but her butt is a tad big.' Guiding Star said in my head

'Not helping sister!'

Since Rarity has a home and parents to worry for her, she requested to be send back home as soon as possible as she was still grounded, she also had to tell them about the offer, more like order to join Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. 

Celestia had replied that she had already notified her parents on her whereabouts.

So after that I found out that Princess Celestia has an illusion placed on her, or a transformation of some sort, or she placed one on herself to be less intimidating to us, she is now shorter than her former self and now has a light pink that is almost white coat, with a bright pink mane.

She looks rather pretty and cute in this form, my guess not many ponies see her in this form where the stress of politics and such forces her to be regal and proper, but it’s nice seeing she could now and then just let down her hair as it were.

‘All in all I like this version of Celestia better than her regal form.’ I thought as I try to wash myself.

'Yes, she looks rather beautiful like this, too bad I don't have a real body or I…' Damn trolling sister!

'Star, drop it please, I can hear it too!' thought a blushing Rarity 

Anyway… 

The water is warm and has silky soaps, herbal remedies and whatever bath oils are in the rather large pool. Soap bubbles gently wrap around my fur as the stress of the past week slowly melted away in the warm water.

Of course Rarity still asked me to check the pool for any plant traps, ‘I know she is going to develop a phobia towards such things, I know it.’ I said not at all amused since I am not prepared for future events involving her and baths with everything when she wants one.

'Yet one of her bigger fears is still a world with horrible fashion taste.' Upon hearing that Rarity hugged me for comfort while I sent a glare to Guiding Star. At least that made the spirit disappear and stop bugging us. Fluttershy said 'Eeep' and hid behind Celestia, noticing that it looked like I had glared at her, I smiled and told her I was sorry. 

Then I wondered why Celestia had not seen my big sis, she must have used her trick to alter our  five senses instead of the astral projection like thing she usually uses. 

The tub or would it be considered a swimming pool as it is enormous, looked like it could support several ponies the size of Celestia. Pipes on the edges of the pool constantly pour water into the large pool, they are decorated to look like ponies are spitting into the water, and it is a rather silly thought that made me giggle at the idea of us swimming in spit. Still with a smile I reach for a brush with my hoof figuring my matted and tangled fur could use a brushing.

As I was about to do some personal grooming a rubber ducky slowly floated by me, I watch it pass me as I watched it rather amused. But rather chase it down and give it a squeak I return to my fumble attempts with the brush, then I noticed my plight at the realization at the fact that I had no idea how to do this.

Shortly after Celestia’s head pass by me following the duck, she was utterly focused on the rubber ducky she had ignored my presence as she passed. Again I just stared, she floated right up to the ducky and bite down onto the duck giving it a squeak. Ignoring the very odd supposed ruler of the world playing with her rubber ducky, I returning back to my rather awkward brushing. I then started to ignore my surroundings as I was still trying to figure out how to brush my fur or even my mane and tail.

I then noticed that I hadn’t really bathed, there was the time at Rarity’s or the pond in the underground oasis, but I didn’t use soap or fur or mane care products so I have no idea how to use these. Well, I did had a shower in Rarity's house… I think. Did Rarity give me a bath while I was sleep? That was a tad creepy. 

I had in the past just dunk myself into the water, then scrubbed my fur of any muck and go on with life, then I would either air dried or towelled myself off. This is what I had done the few times I had ever needed to bathe in this form as it had felt weird to me at the time.

Now I had suddenly find myself utterly perplexed at my current situation now that I had time to actually needing to use these things. So I try to balance my brush with my hoof to be able to comb my mane.

Only to make a bigger mess of it then it already is.

Noticing my plight Rarity moves her way from across the bath towards me, she looked amused at my utter mess of a mane I now currently have.

Without saying a word she takes my brush from my hoof with her magic, I blush embarrassingly, I averted my eyes out of embarrassment as I look at that rather interesting looking soap bubble. I turn around for her so she could see my mane more clearly. she then starts to brush the knots out of my fur and mane.

"Honest darling, you should really learn to groom yourself, I even had to give you a sponge bath when you were asleep!"

Okay, so she did give me a bath when I was asleep, but now I find it heartwarming  as it must not have been easy to give me a bath using a sponge for a small filly like her.   

I smile and nod as the soothing sensation of being brushed slowly bled my stress away.‘This is rather nice, I enjoy this all too much.’ I couldn’t help but to feel slightly sleepy from the soothing sensation.

While this was going on I could hear a song which caused me slowly nod off to sleep to dream of nice things.

******

Rarity giggled as she noticed that Charm had fallen asleep from her gentle brushing. humming a soft tune to sooth her friend even further, the unicorn was so engrossed on her friend she hadn't noticed the other pegasus had made her way to them.

Slowly she made her way to the white unicorn until she spoke catching her attention.

“Um, ah e-excuse me.” at this Rarity not halting in her brushing turned her attention to Fluttershy.

“Hum? Oh my, why hello dear how may I help you?” Rarity smiled warmly at the yellow pegasus still remembering to be polite.

Smiling softly as she pushed her wet mane out of her face to try to be more assertive with herself she tried to introduce herself. “M-my name is F-Fluttershy, a-and I h-helped Charm w-when she h-had been k-knocked o-out.” She tries to introduce herself stuttering as she had subconsciously hid behind her mane.

Smiling as she had remembered Charm giving a brief summary on what happened she remembered that she met and recruited a pegasus to help her.

“Ah I remember you, Charm here told me all about that, my name is Rarity, nice to meet you.” Rarity said beaming, while Fluttershy couldn’t help but to blush at this.

“S-she did?” Fluttershy blushed rather flustered.

“Indeed, said you helped her set up that spell circle that helped defeat the hydra.” Rarity said with praise and a smile. Looking down at Charm as she continued to brush out Charms mane to get it knots free.

“I-I did?” Fluttershy said somehow achieving a whole new level of blushing at the praise in Rarity’s tone.

“Yup she also said there was no way she could have had the time to be able to do that with the hydra on her tail.” Rarity said not at all noticing how Fluttershy was now looking rather faint.

“I-I buh bwah?” Fluttershy said now unable to form words properly as her blush had deepened impossibly deeper. ‘H-how come being praised is m-making me feel this way?’ she thought unable to voice her words.

“Yes. She was going on and on about how the battle was going for her then, and on how much it was taking to keep out of the reach of the beast, then right when she arrived at the spot she was practically dreading that you didn’t had enough time to set up the spell, and to her shock and joy noticed that everything was set up.” At this Rarity still using her magic to brush Charms fur  reached over and placed her hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulders. “You had accomplished the task needed of you when Charm needed it most, you are a good friend Fluttershy.” Rarity said looking into Fluttershy’s eyes with absolute gratitude.

“Thank you for sticking around this silly filly.” at this she pointed at Charm Feather who was fast asleep and snoring cutely, “And because of that you have made two friends this day.”

After saying that Rarity was very confused when her new friend Fluttershy had fainted with her head face down in the pool.

Gasping in shock the unicorn rushed to the pegasus helping her sit up as she held Charm Feather in her magic hold to prevent her from drowning. And using her hooves she held up Fluttershy to prevent her from drowning as well.

“W-what just happened?” Rarity asked confused completely at her current situation.

******

It had been several years since she had seen her friend, when he went to the tear to travel the universe.

But that was a long time ago but now it has been several days since she had gotten the feeling that her friend was in danger so pretty much dropping everything she was doing she gathered her old gear and made track to the throat of the world to assist her friend. The enchantment alarms that were blaring in her mind had lessened considerably, meaning he isn’t in immediate danger, but that could change very quickly.

When they had used the elder scrolls to send him away to his home universe only for the scroll to do something unexpected and send her dear friend to another universe, afterwards the scroll dropped and the light it once glowed with when one opened it had dulled considerably.

She thought she wouldn’t be able to see her friend ever again thinking maybe he could find happiness in the other universe.

His amulet a gift she had given him had many enchantments in it. She had presented it to the Mages College in Winterhold as well as several other wizards able to give the necessary enchantments.

One such enchantment was meant to communicate to her a warning if her friend was in danger of dying then continue to broadcast his current health to her afterwards.

Or at least that was what was told to her would happen.

Reaching the location on the highest mountain in the world, the throat of the world she could see with her senses the exact location of the tear in space and time.

It is now night and the sky was clear displaying the incredible sight of the glowing lights above, the norm for Skyrim.

She gazed out towards the top noticing nothing had changed one bit since Zach left, the same old barren mountain top with the same old dragon who resides here.

Upon spotting her friend Paarthurnax who stood at his perch on the wall of words which still holds the dragon language written upon it.

He turned his focus from the sky above to look her in the eye, ‘if I didn’t know any better I would have thought he was angry to see me.’ She thought smiling at her friend’s happy but although hard to tell if you don’t know him smile.

“Ah Dovakiin it is good to see you again.” He greeted with his deep voice

“Hello my friend, I fear I’ am on business rather than pleasure.” She said nodding as Paarthurnax sighed at being denied a friendly chat.

‘I only hope I’ am not too late.’ She thought with dread as the night moved on.

******

I stare out of the tower towards the land below, the land of Equestria home of the ponies it would seem.

I had a long chat about the world I now find myself in thanks to Fluttershy who was all too eager to display her knowledge to me.

After the long talk about Equestria and its many wonders that are still unknown to the world Charm Feather smiled as the sunset was giving her some peace of mind.

“Heh I have been around here for nearly two weeks, and in that time I meet a real friend, saved a town and got to meet the ruler of Equestria." I said watching the suns golden hues start to turn purple as the sun lowers in the horizon.

“Yeah that is rather strange.” Had not noticing her presence Rarity speaks causing me to jolt in fright.

“Oh my gosh! Rarity you scared me half to death!” I announced as Rarity giggles into her hoof at my current flustered state.

“Hah ha, sorry you were just so focused on the sunset that I couldn’t resist.” Rarity said still giggling at me and beside her Fluttershy joins her in the merriment.

I couldn’t help but to giggle myself as her laugh was infectious.

“So what are you thinking Charm?” Rarity asked me as I watched the sunset.

“Not much really, just recalling the past few hours.” I said starting to think of the conversation we had with Celestia earlier.

oOo Flashback oOo

After the bath Celestia had showed us Canterlot castle, starting with her personal quarters, which I got to say is pretty average, ‘I guess living in high class for eons would get old sooner or later.’ I had mentally thought at the time.

‘Or this is luxurious for ponies.’ I thought intrigue slightly.

She had also showed us the many guest rooms and the enormous banquet hall, all of coarse rather luxurious and looking rather expensive.

I made sure not to touch anything as I had the fear of breaking anything here.

Celestia had also showed us the massive library here and although I had seen bigger it was still rather impressive. Plus is not like she was gonna show a mere visitor the place where she keeps the restricted books. 

Within the hallways we had traveled in Canterlot castle, there were paintings of all kinds mostly of Celestia or of nobles, meadows and sunrise and sets. But they were too bright and cheery for my tastes, but I did enjoyed the rather few night paintings that exists, the colors were mellow and calm, the kind of colors I enjoy most.

Last was the throne room, it was like everything I noticed looking rather expensive, there were two thrones one gold with a red seat cushion, and one onyx with a bright blue seat cushion.

I didn’t put much stock into them figuring there was another ruler I do not know of as I’ am fairly new here.  

Celestia sat on the golden throne she then took a few minutes to stall as she tries to adjust to get comfortable.

“Ah that’s much better.” Princess Celestia said now comfortable.

I sat there waiting while Rarity gawks at how everything in the throne room looked very expensive and was filled with very breakable objects. I tuck my body closer to myself to prevent any unwanted movement.

“I had brought you here today to officially request the both of you to become my students as I had noticed that both of you are extremely talented in magic.” Celestia had said being very formal and regal.

But all what was going through my mind was ‘I am going back to school?’ to say I had a bad schooling history is an understatement and it showed although I don’t think Celestia had noticed.

Rarity on the other hoof has a look that looked conflicted over something. Why? I already knew she had to go to the school and be followed by royal guards for life and she had picked going to the magic school. 

“I am sorry Charm… but… would you like to be my teacher?” Rarity asked hesitatingly  while I watched the look of curiosity on Princess Celestia’s face.

“Uh… really?” It was one thing to share knowledge with her, but to officially become her teacher? 

Rarity then cleared her throat to become more assertive within herself she speaks clearly and full of determination.

“You are the reason I know Healing magic at all, that's why.” My mind had displayed an error screen for a moment as I processed this information. While Celestia was looking at me really interested. 

“Interesting, how could she be able to teach you magic when she herself seems to be just a student?” Celestia said then cast a spell over me and I glowed orange for a moment "Oh I see,  that explains it."

"Uh?" Rarity and I said at the same time. 

"Did you know your friend Charm Feather is a reincarnation?" Celestia said with the same calm somepony else would have said in a casual conversation. 

"Really? Well… that's okay." Rarity said giving me a look that basically said that she really was okay with it. 

“Anyway, while I will go your school princess, the only way I can improve my Healing magic and my Alchemy is if I have Charm Feather to help me. But I know she would not want to go to a school where they would look at her like a freak for being a pegasus that can cast spells. Hence why I am asking her to be my teacher." Rarity said  then bowed to me and have me a puppy dog eye stare.

While all I did was teach a little about my style of magic and let her read a few magic books… I guess that being her teacher won't be so bad, plus this way we would not have to reveal Guiding Star existence, so I guess I am a teacher.

But in the end I can’t teach her all that she needs to know, since I have no clue how unicorn magic works, not I am myself a unicorn. So her having me to help improve her Healing magic and Alchemy while she also goes to learn unicorn magic balances things out. I noticed how I was thinking, before I would have argued that I was not really proficient in magic, but since I was the only spell caster pegasus around that argument would fall on deaf ears. Plus my magic was easier and more powerful since I became a pegasus, to the point Guiding Star had argued that I needed to learn to cast it without using shortcuts. 

"So, yes or no?" Rarity asked sounding impatient, I must have been staring at nothing for a few minutes while I thought about it.  

"Yes, I will be your teacher in Alchemy and Healing magic." Then I looked at the ruler of Equestria. "However I would like to point out that myself cannot do Healing magic not teach it to anypony else. If you want ponies to learn that you will have to wait until my student Rarity becomes a teacher herself." That was a way to cover both of our tails and help to hide Guiding Star existence. 

"Very well, I assume than by what Rarity say, there is no way I can convince you to go to my school?" Celestia asked with a resigned tone, thinking about it, it was quite logical that being a pegasus, Miss Charm Feather would be unable to learn unicorn magic and so her going to her school would be pointless. 

"Yes, I would be unable to learn unicorn magic, plus having Rarity as a student I will have my hooves full. Not to mention the type of magic I can do myself is not really that impressive. It takes a lot of time to learn and master, and save for healing that not everypony can do, most unicorn mages would probably kick my tail."

Charm Feather was downplaying her magic and what she could do on purpose, but since she was used to feeling inferior when it came to magic, it came out sounding sincere.  

"I see, would you not be interested to teach your style of magic to non unicorns then?" Celestia asked. "I would of course, pay handsomely to you for doing that."

"No, your majesty.  I am sorry, one student is more than enough for me at the moment, and probably for the next few years. After I think that Rarity had learned all she can from me I might take your proposal into consideration."

"Very well, I expect miss Rarity to pass the test to enter my school with flying colors, and shall she fail, I will give her a personal tutor. If anything else, she needs to learn her limits and not try to kill herself with her own magic." 

"Sorry your majesty." Rarity said blushing deep red in embarrassment and bowed. 

Then she looked at me "Miss Charm Feather, I would like to keep the fact that you are a reincarnation a secret, unless I give it my permission, no pony that doesn't already now should find out." Celestia then looked at Rarity. "The same goes for you young lady, unless I authorize it, you can't tell anypony about what Charm Feather is."

I wisely decided to not ask why. "Yes your majesty, as you wish your Majesty." Both me and Rarity said at almost the same time. 

"Good, now that's done, let's invite you two for lunch!"  

oOo End of Flashback. oOo

After a very filling lunch were Rarity stayed behind with Celestia to talk about "Unicorn stuff", I headed to Fluttershy’s room, with assistance from a butler of course. I then spend most of the time just sitting around and generally being lazy with Fluttershy, she is a real sweetheart to be around, she talked most of the time about her animal friends and how they are so fluffy, cuddly and adorable.

That was what I had done mostly until Rarity interrupted my musing while I watched the sunset.
Coming out of my musing I look back towards Rarity and Fluttershy who smiled at me, the two of us had grown closer over the day.

I found out she has a love for cute little animals, and don’t laugh at me but even when I was a human, I could not help but to cuddle with cats.  

It’s no wonder why I was probably turned into a female pony and am dealing with it better than most people I know who would totally freak out by now, ‘I was more attached with my feminine side than most men.’ I thought.

I turned back towards the land beyond. ‘Hard to believe Celestia controls that massive ball of fire and gas.’ I noted rather amused about that tidbit of information.

'Well, this world literally runs on magic, don't be surprised if you suddenly become part of a live musical. Then everypony acts like it was normal.'

I was about to argue then that would never happen but after remembering the fact that I almost killed myself and that Guiding Star could read Rarity memories, I wisely decided to shut up. I would later find out that was a smart choice. 

‘I wonder if I could think up some does this orbit makes me look fat jokes.’ Unfortunately not much came to mind I shrug and turn back to the others.

Glancing back to Fluttershy I remembered most of what we had been doing we had a lot to speak about and from what I understand her friend Rainbow Dash isn’t so open to the shy mare at least that’s what I had gleaned from her stories Fluttershy told me.

“I have accepted to join Princess Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns.” Rarity said more for Fluttershy than anything else. I then hugged Rarity and congratulated her for her good luck.

“You go in there and show up those other unicorns with your awesomeness my friend.” I said slightly blushing at my emotions towards Rarity, as I noticed how much I am going to miss her while she is gone.

'I can have you two having shared dreams once every two days, not every night as otherwise it would be too tiresome.' Guiding Star said showing that she might be a troll but also was an awesome sister. 

Yeah, she is my sister, dunno why, she just is. Just like I accepted her ability to manipulate my and Rarity five senses, becoming a mare and that friendship made me feel awesome since I became a pony. 

Rarity although unbeknownst to me is silently crying, I look up at a slightly awkward pegasus filly motioning her towards us I invited her into the embrace.

Tomorrow I would return to Ponyville with Fluttershy and without Rarity, as she would attend the school for gifted unicorns for the next few years. Not that I don't plan to visit, I have to, she is my student after all, but mostly it would be a day or two a week. I could stay in Canterlot but it would make hard to practice my magic, not to mention I want to become Zecora apprentice and trade with her Alchemy tips. Plus I have to learn how to be a pegasus, make potions and… damn, I really have a lot of things to do. 

******

Celestia although wasn’t mad, she wasn’t also glad the chestnut brown pegasus Charm Feather isn’t going to be her student, but she could feel the truth behind the words of the small filly. Plus she got a future healer grandmaster in Rarity, and Charm Feather was gonna have to visit if she planned to make good of her offer to be Rarity's teacher. 

‘The future holds many curious secrets, only time will tell if they would benefit Equestria, or destroy it.’ She thought grim at the possible outcome. Then decided to  hit herself for being so negative, while impressive, what Charm Feather had done was not the most powerful magic she had ever seen, or the most dangerous. She was mostly interested in Rarity healing ability than anything else.  

Celestia has cast a spell to get a peak of who Charm Feather really was when she cast that spell to figure out Charm was a reincarnation. It  wasn't mind reading  or anything really invasive, 

But she got a good look at Charms moral compass on who the mare would prefer to be, and much to Celestia’s relief, it seemed Charm Feather prefered to avoid seeking conflict and would rather help when she could and be a good pony.

But she still would rather place some agents to watch Charm Feather... just in case, since corruption of the soul isn’t an unknown concept to her. And that the victim isn’t always willing to be evil.

'No.' A small part of her said, and unlikely many times before, The princess of the Sun decided to accept the advice. Ponyville was a great town full of honest and caring ponies. Charm Feather lived there and would be visiting regularly to train Rarity in her unique branch of magic. If she spied on the pegasus all the time, it would just seed distrust. 

'Trust in harmony and hope for the best.' 

Celestia was not a nice pony, she had done many things that most ponies would find bad to keep the peace of her beloved Equestria. But she had the hunch that both Rarity and Charm Feather had an important role to play and going behind their backs too much would come to bite her back in the behind. 

Besides, she had Twilight Sparkle to train, that was more important than anything else, with Nightmare Moon release coming closer every year. 

End of Chapter…

Everything is set and the hour is near,

For the heroes at hoof would step to the stage,

To banish the darkness,

For the stars above would set her free,

For in a few years the threat of night time eternal would try to take over once again.

But that time has yet to come, there is time to play and dance, and for certain pegasus to try dresses and be girly, much to her shame. 

So ladies and gentlecolts, I hope you've been enjoying our little tale. 

"Hi, I am Pinklestia, the story co-author!" A pink Celestia appears on stage then drags RandomAncientBadGuy, who looks a lot like Charm Feather, only as an adult mare and wearing glasses, and with a paper and quill cutie mark. "And this is the Author, lets call her Ranan!"

"My name is R-A-B-G!" The brown pegasus mare protests, then tries to leave the stage but is tackled by the pink alicorn

"Ranan sounds more cute!”

“And I am really a guy! now release me pink demon!"

"Oh really? Cause you aren't one right now."

R-A-B-G blushes and tries to escape yet again, only to be lassoed back to stage 

"Anyway, here is a treat for our beloved readers, you can ask what would you like for the beautiful Ranan to do and we might use your ideas in this end of chapters segments. That also includes any idea to might usually be too silly and weird to do in the story. Who knows, we might even do a full Omake out one of your ideas!" 

"Wait we doing what now? No, no way, not doing it, nope!" R-A-B-G runs away

"Don't worry guys and gals, we are still doing it. Now I will go get some ice-cream and chocolate to bribe her. goodbye!"

There was a poof of pink smoke and the stage and the pink princess was gone.
> Ladies and Gentlecolts, our ruler, Princess Celestia
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Thirteen 

******

I gave Fluttershy a big hug as she tearfully says goodbye to me.

“You’ll visit Ponyville every so often?” she asked nearly sobbing.

Smiling I pull away from the hug, “Of course I will, I do need to go to the Everfree to collect ingredients. Maybe you could join me.” I said. "In fact I will be more in Ponyville than Canterlot, is not like I can really let everypony know I am a spellcasting pegasus, right?"

She wiped the tears in her eyes while smiling at me, “I would like that.” she said. "Maybe… you could stay with me when you are in Ponyville… if you want to. I mean… I don't have many friends and…" 

"I will visit you Fluttershy, I promise it." With one final hug I watched her board the train heading for Ponyville. I stare at the train waving goodbye to Fluttershy who I could see in the trains windows with her parents, who had came to Canterlot from Cloudsdale to escort her back home.

It was a tear-filled departure since I would not be returning Ponyville with Fluttershy, for Celestia had convinced me to stay. Well… to stay for a while, there was no way I could actually live for long in a stuffy city full of  unicorns were I would have to hide my use of magic. 

It’s the day after our audience with Princess Celestia and the both of us had been cleared from the hospital. I still have to take it easy since my feathers need to re-grow.

So in my haste to leave I had forgotten I really do not have a home here in Equestria, and I am not the sort to take charity willingly. I had a plan, said plan being to become Zecora apprentice and maybe find a place in the Everfree to live, it was not a perfect plan, but I did need to go to the Everfree for ingredients and to practice my magic by casting spells against monsters. 

And then Celestia had given me an offer. She had offered to give Rarity and I a home, it’s a small two story house, two bedrooms, a bathroom at the top floor and a lobby with a kitchen and counter in the bottom floor.

I had to provide my Alchemy skills and sell them there in exchange. I had wanted to set a shop to sell potions anyway and Ponyville was too small for that, not to mention I would be competing with Zecora if I set shop there there, so I accepted.  

Granted I was too prideful to take Celestia money, but Rarity was not, and Rarity unlike me, needed the money as she was actually staying in Canterlot. So basically the house and Rarity expenses were paid until the unicorn graduated, while we would set the Alchemy shop down on the first floor. 

Of course the shop would not be ready for a while, I need to prepare for that, needed to get ingredients and the ingredients I would need to replace them with Equestrian equivalents. 

I still had money left from when I changed my "rare coins" and gems, and I got more as I changed the rest in Canterlot, and I wanted to expend some of it. 'Damn, I am becoming such a mare.' I had practically drooled all over in the stores here.

I saw several good articles of clothing, and I could really use a new robe, I don’t really like the idea of being naked all the time. But Rarity was making my new robe, so I was just getting the fabric from a place Celestria recomended me. The magic bracelets and the boots could wait, much to my annoyance, since I had no clue if our potions shop would work or not so it was unwise to just waste all my money. Heck, both Rarity and Guiding Star had made me left
half of it hidden in our new house just in case. 

'Somepony has to show these other ponies how to dress, I mean come on you should see some of these snobs with their over the top garish outfits.  I mean I saw one wearing diamonds for crying out loud! And… pony feathers, I just thought like Rarity.'

Talk about the fashion demon and she will appear, I noticed Rarity walking up towards me after the train was out of sight, she smiled and wordlessly gestured towards the castle.

We headed for the castle ready to meet with some office official about the details of our home.
We would also be visiting Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns for her magic test, ‘arg tests.’ I thought thinking it would be a long written test like the one I had done in Skyrim, as well as a demonstration.

'Nope, is more like a dog and pony show, only you replace the dog with magic.' Guiding Star said, I didn't knew if she was joking or not. 

Today would be boring. I could already feel how long it is going to be already. 

'Well, if you are so bored, then remember to take flying lessons as soon as you get back to Ponyville, you gotta build those pegasus muscles and practice pegasus magic.' Guiding Star helpfully reminded me. 

******

Celestia is happy, she had managed to convince Charm Feather to stay in Canterlot, and she had even given her a home and store to sell her wares at, the idea of foreign potions is rather exciting.

‘When Charm opens that shop I must get some of those potions for myself.’ She thought rather giddy at her success. granted the mare would probably still stay more in Ponyville than Canterlot, since the place was not exactly a city pegasi liked, and there was the fact Charm Feather did not like to get unwanted attention, heroic exploits aside. 

She looked at the clock now noticing the time, ‘I wonder where my student is, she is late.’ She thought in surprise, ‘wonder what happe-...’

Her thoughts were interrupted when a small purple unicorn filly comes running into her personal quarters looking rather upset but glad.

“Princess, gasp, Princess I am so sorry I’m late for our lesson.” She said rather out of breath managing to catch her breath she scowled angrily.

Noticing how her students attitude is rather hostile but wasn’t directed to her, she started using gentle gestures to calm her down, “it is alright my little pony, please tell me what happened.” Celestia said in a soothing tone.

Taking a breath Twilight went into detail on what happened moments ago.

~ Earlier, Twilight’s perspective. ~

I was running late, and I hate being late, so I had stuffed my saddlebags with the books that was given to me by Celestia and placed spike on my back so I rushed out my room, in hopes I could make it to Celestia before I am... tardy... ‘I will not be Tardy!’ I thought heatedly.

In my haste I bumped into a white unicorn filly with a short purple mane, and a chestnut brown filly pegasus with a brown mane, who was missing  feathers so it could not probably fly well.

“Oof.” I said falling onto my flank as the unicorn does the same as the pegasus looked rather startled from the action.

“Oh hay, Rarity are you ok?” the chestnut brown pegasus said, but from there I did not know what was said I had already noticed that I was running late so I made a dash for it not bothering to see if this Rarity was ok.

~ back to Celestia. ~

Celestia frowned disappointingly at Twilight at her attitude towards her soon to be fellow peer.
“Now, now Twilight you shouldn’t go and be rude like that, it is alright if you’re a little late, but please remember to be polite, you don't see me being rude to other ponies, do you?" Celestia said soothingly but was still disappointed at her student’s lack of social tack.

“B-but princess I’m never tardy, I-I need to do my best so that I can impress you.” said a sad Twilight with her ears splayed back behind her head. "But you are right, I should have at least apologised, I am sorry, I promise I will try harder to be nice."

Getting up from her seat Celestia walks over to twilight and nuzzles her student affectionately.
“It is alright my student. One can’t be the best at everything, but that's not excuse to be rude to everypony.” This had proven to be the wrong thing to say as twilight pulled back from Celestia.

“B-but I must be the best at magic Princess!” she protested loudly.

She smiled at her student figuring to drop this issue and move on to studying, “hah, heh well you can try, anyways let us return to the theoretical enchanting of gemstones shall we?” with the subject change Twilight was eager already pulling out her books from her saddlebags.

~ back to our heroines. ~

“Well that was rude.” Charm said rather miffed at the nerve of some ponies.

Rarity was dusting herself off not at all fazed at the rude behavior of the purple unicorn.

“It is quite alright Charming. She seemed to be in a hurry, besides we are no different.” Rarity said now standing and collecting the spilled items from her saddlebags that are on the ground.

Helping Rarity pick up some of the items and allowing her to levitating them into the saddlebags to be stored safely Charm noticed something odd.

Waking up at a lump of oddly shaped purple stone she poked it with her hoof to hear it giggled.
Acting like a startled cat her fur on her back stood on end, and she jumped away from the thing, evidently she ended up behind Rarity who looked rather amused at the supposed, ‘mighty warrior.’

Rolling her eyes she used her magic she pushed Charm to the lumpy thing, after glaring at Rarity who smiled innocently, Charm takes careful steps and pokes the lump again.
It moved and unraveled itself revealing a little baby drake.

“Awe it’s adorable.” Charm said cooing at the little drake that laughed and giggled at the pegasus who was moments ago was terrified of it.

Laughing at the oddity that is Charm, she walked up next to her, “alright you had your fun we should put the baby dragon in that room, since he belongs to the unicorn.”

“Awe I want one.” Charm said now feeling crushed at being denied time to spend with the baby.

“R-really?” Rarity asked curiously 

“Indeed.” Charm Feather giggled. 'Oh sun and moon, I giggled, first going crazy about shopping and now this?'

“Bad luck, it belongs to Celestia's chosen student and they aren't offering dragon eggs to hatch anymore. in fact that's why Princess Celestia wanted me to stay behind to talk to her the other day. She informed me that my test would be different and that she has a personal student so she will get busy."

"Awww, well come on, come on let’s go!” dropping the drake inside the room the two set off to Rarity’s test.

~ back to Celestia. ~

It had been a good hour of studying with her student, ‘Although I enjoy our sessions it gets kind of dull.’ she thought kind of tired from the intensive studying. Looking at the clock she noticed that the student’s magic tests would still be progressing right now, so getting up she stretched like a very big cat.

“Come along my student, let us have a break, we could watch the entrance exams to see any new promising students.” She said to Twilight who was eager to view the tests without all the pressure from last time.

With that the two were off.

******

Rarity was nervous, she hadn’t performed in front of a crowd before, already some of the students had failed the test, and already she was on edge since over thirty candidates had failed. She had no clue what the test was, since it was held in a private room. 

Finally, it was her turn, they led her to a private room and closed the door, to her surprise, there were only a few unicorns testing her, and only one seemed to be the examiner, the others were there just to see her do the test. 

"Hi honey, just show us your best spells, okay?" Said the examiner, it was an old and gentle mare with a few leaves as her cutie mark. 

"Uh… I only got two spells… a gem finding spell that can find any gem in miles and a minor healing spell."

"Really, lets test that gem finding spell." The examiner uses her magic to point horn using magic and creating and arrow sign to the direction of Ponyville "Tell me if there is any gems that way."

Rarity closed her eyes and concentrated, she was alone for this, Charm Feather did not want to be near the Academy so Princess Celestia did not force her to reveal that she could do magic, and Guiding Star had said Rarity had to do this on her own. She focused her magic and then her eyes flashed white. "There are a lot of gems over there, what is it, the royal treasure? No… about three miles away, underground cave… a big deposit of gems, probably Diamond Dogs mine."

"Really?" The examiner called a couple of pegasus guards and told them to go there, half an hour later they were back and whispered something to the old mare. "It was true? That was quite impressive. Is that why you have a gem as part of your cutie mark?"

"Maybe? Uh, if you have an injured animal or something I could show my healing spell."
"Oh, nothing like that dear." The examiner created a knife with her magic and have herself a slight cut in her hoof. "There, now lets see this healing spell of yours."

Rarity focused her magic in the mare, first came the analysis, she saw more than the cut, she saw all of the old mare body and the problems it had. It might be a minor spell but she decided to go all out, she decided to use  most of her magic, leaving herself just enough to not faint, she would not make the same mistake than when she saved Charms' life after the lecture she got. Her horn glowed gold and her magic covered the examiner body, the minor cut healed and there wasn't even a scar left, then her magic found other problems and healed them. That continued until the spell ran out of mana.

The examiner was left with her mouth open, she felt better than she had in years, old aches and pains were simply gone, and she could swear her hip did not hurt anymore.

"What… what did you do?" It seemed impossible, a small filly had done what it would take several trained unicorn mages to do, or a even a single if she was right… "Did you fix my bones?"

"Yes uh… I am tired so I am gonna sleep now." Rarity then fell asleep right there, she was smart enough to not totally exhaust herself, but she would have to be careful with her magic for a few weeks after this, heck for the first few days, even levitation would be too much.  

This was crazy, first that purple filly called Twilight sparkle and now this filly called Rarity? What did they feed the unicorns in this generation? Maybe it was something in the water?

Then Celestia herself entered the room, she was carrying a sleeping purple unicorn on her back, and Charm feather was next to her carrying certain baby dragon.     

"So, ladies and gentlecolts, did she pass?" The examiner looked behind her and the others nodded. "Yes, yes your majesty, she did."

"Oh my Gentle Breeze, you look like ten years younger at least." Celestia commented, making the old mare blush. 

"Yes… I told her to heal a simple cut, and she did… a tad more than that."

"Yes, and she passed out again, at least this time she did not try to use more magic than she actually had." Celestia picked Rarity with her magic and got a wicked grin on her face.

******

When Twilight Sparkle woke up later, it was in the same bed as a white unicorn she remembered crashing with before, she screamed, apologised, and ran back to her room.  All that without waking up Rarity.

"You are a mean princess." Charm Feather said, still carrying the baby dragon, she had tried to put it in a basket, but it had ran back to her, so Charm had to wait for over an hour holding it until the purple filly finally woke up and was victim of Celestia's prank.  

"Thank you, I try my best."  Celestia then picked the baby dragon away from charm and hugged it. "You two can stay in the castle for today, this is a guest room and is rarely used, feel free to order any food or drinks you want, but nothing alcoholic."

"Okay." Charm knew that as a young mare she was probably a lightweight anyway, and as a human she had also not been very tolerant to alcohol. 

"Now unfortunately I have to put this baby in his room, and attend to royal duties, thank you for your assistance. Goodbye miss Charm Feather."

******

End of Chapter

> Flight of the pegasi 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter fourteen


Leona looked over all of Skyrim, the lights above sways and swirls in their eternal dance above. This was the first time she ever tried looking at it from Zach’s perspective, the perspective of possibly never seeing her home again.

She had grown up in this world. Everything about her came from this land. Skyrim itself was just another adventure from her long life of traveling Nirn, never staying and always on the move. She had never understood it at the time on why she had the urge to keep moving.

She of course understands now and it deeply annoys her to no end, after all she never was one to place her trust in the divines, so coming to Skyrim the last stop in her long list of traveled locations, she felt contempt at staying in this wonderful land.

Once she had came here however it was one adventure to another here, again always on the move, like she was being controlled by an outside force. But after exploring all of Skyrim, and completing several quests and adventures as well as completing the prophecy of ending Alduin, the urge to travel and explore just stopped all together, she didn’t know what to do after that.

That was greatly a shock to her at the time when she didn’t know what to do with her time now. So with her wealth she had gathered in her adventures she went and bought a home as well as invested in small businesses.

Of course she wondered what would had happened if she had stayed in her birth home, what would had happened if she stayed with some love interests she had acquired in her travels, and what would had happened to her friend Zach if she did?

She had remembered how she had met him. She was running away from the Imperial Empire when she had found herself in an Imperial ambush due to them taking down some Storm cloaks and she was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

She blushed faintly when she also remembered how she was touched by him inappropriately by accident on their first meeting. She didn’t really blame him for that since she did run into him at full speed. ‘But he still didn’t have to squeeze so hard.’ she thought out embarrassed slightly.

Unfortunately in her haste she shoved him and ran off, ‘I guess the Imperials didn’t get a good look at me, since they mistaken him as me.’ She still felt guilty over that incident. Even although he had said he forgave her for that.

He was like a child when she thinks about it, he wasn’t tainted by war, or battle, or strive, he had no combat experience, and the way he acts towards how she used magic it was amusing, like he never seen real magic preformed and how fascinated he was toward magic.

It had fascinated her to no end.

So after managing to get him out of Helgen under the cover of a black dragon attacking the small settlement she had decided to help him in any way she could, he didn’t deserve what the imperials were about to do to him and he certainly didn’t deserve what she almost had done to him, she couldn’t live with herself if she had gotten someone so innocent in her eyes killed.

So she took time to help him, by give him an education by sending him to Winterhold, by spending every coin she could muster in her adventures to pay for him the basics in magic, since at his age he couldn’t be physically as strong as a Nord, so she went with the alternative, by making him strong in the arcane arts, and giving him a strict routine in physical exercises.

But enough about that, if she expended all time remembering the past she would lose the little time she had to rescue her friend. After all for what little she knew it could have already been weeks since her little Zachs needed her help, or she could actually arrive years before her friend arrive. Such was the danger of dimensional travel to another world. 

The dragonborn took one last long look out towards Skyrim. After doing so she turns around facing the tear, she sits down in a meditative stance, and she brought out the elder scrolls and looked up at her friend Paarthurnax who just nodded to her. Smiling at him and thanking him one last time for all the help he had supplied, he then begins to chant in his language causing noticeable effect to the scroll as it glowed gold.

With the feeling of being torn apart from the inside out, she was aware of each atom of her entire being spun out into infinity.

Then reassemble back into being, but she now noticed her predicament, she can’t move, can’t breathe and there is a powerful heart beat all around her. ‘Well... crap.’ She thought out not at all amused at her predicament.

'Maybe I really should have thought this better.' 

- Present, change of perspective. -

Charm Feather noticed her amulet breaking down in pieces, then into nothing. 

"What the hay?" Charm Feather said shocked, she and Rarity just had a big dinner in the room Celestia had lend them, since it took that long for the little unicorn filly to finally wake up.

'Oh, the dragonborn must be here, finally.' Guiding star said looking rather smug as she looks off far into the distance.

"What is a dragonborn?" Rarity asked curious about the strange word Guiding had used.

"A friend." Charm Feather said blushing faintly. 

"So, was he your-" Rarity mouth got covered by the deeply blushing pegasus hoof.

"No, no, no. Besides .. errr he as you say must have been reborn if he is here, hehehe…" she said nervously smiling big.

"Ah okay. So he is a baby now?" Rarity said rather confused at Charms behavior.

'He as you say, might not even be born yet.' Guiding Star said with a grin on her face while Charm Feather face blushed red as a tomato with all the attention on her.  

- Time passes. -

It had been a few hours since then and Charm and Rarity, are currently inside their new home, most of the house was bare with only a table, a few chairs, and a couple beds. A kitchen stocked with shelves and a fridge, causing Charm to smile wide at, 'finally refrigerated food.'

“Well this is cozy.” said Charm all smiles at finally having a home to call her own again, since she spend most of her time with only a small bedroom at the college in Skyrim. Granted it was basically a loan until Rarity graduated, but they would pay it back to the Sun princess with potions and so on. 

Rarity on the other hand isn’t all smiles, but she could see potential to the home. Also, it was her own place... 

'Oh what the hay.' Rarity thought and started to jump around.

'Yes, yes yes! I got my own home away of my parents and my best friend ever and teacher will be also be here a lot, yahooo!"

Charm almost melted at seeing Rarity jump like crazy at how happy she was. 

"Ehem, sorry, a true lady does not act like that." Rarity said and blushed. "So teacher, think we could set a place for me to study magic around here?"

'Well, due to being on a mountain it lacks a basement, but I guess the second floor will do for now.' Guiding Star said and rubbed her chin. 'You are lucky healing magic does not cause big explosions, but we will need a place for your Alchemy lessons. Those can cause big explosions, especially as we don't know much about Equestrian plants and we will have to experiment a bit, even if our daring and charming pegasus mage here learns from the zebra.'  

Charm feather yawns deeply "Ah well, we can worry about that later, I wanna catch some sleep." she said heading to the stairs leading to the bed rooms.

Rarity was about to protest that she wasn't tired but she yawned too, she had after all, used a lot of magic, in fact she had been ordered to not use any magic for the next few days. 

So now that the day is finally ending the two fillies went to their respected beds, with Guiding Star kissing the two goodnight. 

‘The days to come are going to be hectic, I know it.’ Charm Feather thought feeling Guiding Star giving her a hug. 

That night, they did not have any shared dreams, both girls had earned  a full night's rest after all. 

- The next day. -

The next day found its way into the world, its light shines down below all of Equestria, and shadows are pushed away in the natural cycle that is the morning.

In the city of Canterlot the light reaches a room shining its light into its victim’s eyes to awaken the sleep raddled and lazy.

The sun has been up for some time now and just now a lump inside its sheets groggily gets out, it is none other than Charm who had found herself cuddled in with Rarity, who was quite warm and comfortable, even if it was Spring, the night had been cold, and is not like Rarity was a stranger to cuddle with the brown pegasus.

Charm Feather blushed slightly at the fact she found herself in such a cliché that is normally played off in anime, then remembered that this happened a lot in Skyrim and that it was Rarity. 

Getting out from the clutches of the unicorn she turned over to get up and off the bed, but due to how early it is and her new height she forgot about how high the bed was. So without noticing she walked right off the bed to find the floor in her face.

“Owie.” she whined pathetically on the floor, turning around on her back she looked up at the ceiling, Rarity was still sleeping like a log, something normal after having used so much magic like that.

'I could go back to bed.' Just after she thought back the lazy pegasus stomach grumbled so with a growl of protest she went to make herself breakfast. 

Rarity was awaken to the sweet aroma of homemade waffles.

"Good morning Charm. Mmm, that smells just like my mother's special recipe for waffles."

"Good morning Rarity. also it's because it is your mother recipe for waffles, my big sis insisted that I do have learn how to cook, then she joked about me making a proper wife someday." Charm said rolling her eyes as she lowers a plate full of waffles before Rarity. 

"Okay." Rarity decided to not question the stealing of her family recipe since her parents had practically adopted Charm. "But where did you got the flour and milk?"

"Came with the house, apparently you get food and board for being a student at Celestia's School  of Gifted Unicorns. Since your parents don't live in Canterlot or there is any relative or friend she can stay with. Is all in the rule book over the kitchen table."  

"I get a rulebook?" Rarity decided to ignore it for now and sat to eat the waffles. After breakfast she have a look at the supposed rulebook. 

"Uh… here it says I need a fancy dress for formal occasions. That reminds me, did you got the cloth I need to make your robes? I brought my sewing kit from home, so I could start with that since I have a week off due to magic exhaustion."

'Don't you use your magic for sewing?' Guiding Star pointed out

"Yes but I also know how to sew by hoof, only I am better using levitation. I guess I will have to wait." Rarity groaned in frustration. "Oh, how I am gonna practice magic like this?"

'You don't, save for some reading.' Guiding Star pointed out then looked at Charm Feather. 'And you miss, try to buy some Equestrian books about herbs and plants. Is not like we have access to our own library or something.'

"Later." The chestnut brown pegasus said and went to eat breakfast with Rarity

And with that the day progressed smoothly, by going to the bathroom, having breakfast, then going outside to buy books while Rarity stayed inside reading. 

- More Time passes. –

It has been a week now, and the routine continues with the small change of Rarity finally allowed to go to classes but forbidden to do anything magically exhausting, so she is basically stuck with telekinesis and that basic light unicorn spell she read in a book back in Ponyville. 

So Charm Feather got up, went going to the bathroom, ate breakfast, and then watched in amusement at a frantic Rarity about being late, then escorting her to school.

Charm was contempt with this, it was normal, it was routine, and it was safe.And it was also a waste of time. She had yet to truly learn to make 'local' potions, and was due to go to Ponyville. So she decided to leave the next day, she knew Rarity was not gonna be happy, but she had Guiding Star to help with healing, and Charm Feather needed Zecora help before she started with alchemy that did not involve the little ingredients she had from Skyrim. 

True, she had found a convenient nearby cave, thanks to the not so subtle hints of a certain princess, where she had been training her magic. The cave was at the foot of the mountain Canterlot castle sits upon and there was no way the place was not royal property. 

From frost, fire, and lightning she had improved in them already feeling the charged spells become more lethal in their potency.

And that was without using crutches as Guiding Star called them, once she got some focus and her robe, she probably would be able to take on a one headed hydra without almost killing herself.  

Her conjuring have also helped her in improving her sword fighting skills, since she could still summon them, only she was jealous of them since they get to keep their fingers, well more like claws due to being in Equestria, but still. 

She also found out they no longer reside in the plain of oblivion anymore, and judging by what her wolf companion had said.

‘I have been relaxing beneath a tree resting while I awaited your call, then suddenly a powerful wave of energy had washed over me, then I find myself in a near void like pocket, it resembled the Oblivion Plains with fields of magic constructs to resemble life, and in the middle of it all sits a large tree that reaches the sky with emerald green leaves that seem to radiate with power, I later find this tree is suppose to resemble you.’

It was quite a shock to find out that her wolf companion as well as other beings seem to no longer reside inside the oblivion plains, and even more shocking was that they are slowly losing the traits that made them monsters.

The Dremora for example are losing their twisted intimidating appearance, becoming friendlier looking with gleaming armor rather than their darker versions, and basically becoming like bipedal humanoid lizard like beings without scales and having different colors depending on their powers.

Then there are the Atronach, they also became more... softer resembling more like humans with odd traits such as flaming hair or lightning hair, and they no longer gender neutral by looking only female... much to her embarrassment when she had called a Ice Atronach so she could get more better with her ice forms, when ‘he’ came to her... and was naked.

Of course, since the realm was based on her, the human looks were slowly disappearing, the fire Atronach becoming more like biped anthropomorphic wolves made of fire and lava, the ice ones also being wolf like, but more like arctic wolves with blue fur and big chunks of ice in their bodies and so on. 

All in all it was a confusing week of summoning creatures who were once monstrous looking and not very talkative and made it quite clear that they didn’t like being taken away or just wanted to kill her the moment she gave a reason, to them becoming friendlier and talkative, and are willing to help her develop in her magic.

It also made her face red as a tomato until their looks went from very human like more like creatures you could find in Equestria. There was also the fact that since they now had genders, sometimes they were too busy to answer her calls. 

They even helped her develop more in her form so she could no longer say she is self taught. Fighting with lizard monsters and elemental wolves was strange and fun, thankfully none of the males had taken a pony form or she would probably get too distracted. Also Charm could swear than since the first day the number of males had been decreasing, or maybe  only females tended to answer her summons due to her preferring it that way?

Then there was the fact Charm would not know the native written pony language if it wasn't because of her shared dreamscape lessons, so Charm now basically had Rarity reading skills. It was so cheap, almost as good as magic tomes, with the main difference they could not do it everyday and that it was slower. Still the fact anything learned there was hard to forget really helped both ponies with their studies. 

So Charm who at first didn’t know to read the written native language was now quite prepared for when she does go to school. She won’t be starting school for some time until the next year since she had arrived at near the end of the school year, so even if she does go it would be pointless. Also she would be going to school in Ponyville, and visit Rarity in Canterlot in the weekends. There was of course, flight school, maybe she could take a Summer course? 

She also had to get back the Alchemy tables she nearly forgot back in the Everfree. She had not much faith any ingredients had survived being buried after learning how the Everfree magic affected everything. 

Of course, all the changes on her magic also had downsides, her summons were okay fighting her, but when she tried to make them fight each other they didn't do it. It also seemed that the summons would only be able to fight for her in places like the Everfree, as Canterlot smelled foul to them for some reason. Maybe because she had been reborn in the Everfree her magic actually worked better there? It was worth trying it out. 

Plus her feathers still needed to grow back, her fur was back thank to a simple coat fur growing spell Celestia had used on her. Apparently while Celestia admitted healing was not her thing, she knew a lot of cosmetic spells like that, probably why she always looks so fabulous as Rarity would say. Charm mane and tail had been cut shorter much to Rarity annoyance. 

Charm is currently lazily flapping her wings while flying in the sky above Canterlot, it became a favorite pass time now that she doesn’t have to worry about monsters of the forests or her worry for her friends safety. It was also her way of not thinking how much Rarity was gonna yell at her for leaving before she finished her new cloak. 

Granted it was not true flying due to the spells she was using to compensate the fact she had lost feathers. She was basically using her magic to make herself lighter. An idea Guiding Star had given her due to how making things lose weight was part of pegasi magic. But she could not rely on those spells forever as using them left her unable to do any other type of magic while in 
the air. 

********

Charm was right, Rarity did yell at her a lot, then hugged her and told her to be safe. Then used her magic to make her a blue jacket. 

"Is not a cloak, but it will help to keep you warm." Rarity had said before Charm had left.

*********

The next day… 

Charm Feather spots a cloud in the distance bordering Ponyville by a mile or two, smiling at the now possibly test of her innate pegasus magic she flies towards it near gracefully only stumbling in the air to regain her rhythm once or twice. Landing on the cloud softly she could feel how her magic had created a field around her hooves, it wasn’t a noticeable drain on her reserves in fact it would seem she is regenerating more quickly than whatever was going on, just enough so that she could feel the contact of the cloud under hoof. Of course, she still has on the spells to make herself lighter. 

The cloud felt amazing it felt like liquid silk completely covering her hoof she could just fall down and go to sleep forever.

She would have nearly done that, just sleep for a few hours then go to see Fluttershy and tell her she is there to visit. If it wasn’t for something slamming into her causing the cloud under her to suddenly disappear from the sudden force and having found she is now falling to the ground. Granted, with all the low weight spells Charm Feather had on, the impact would not be big. 

But the brown pegasus panicked as she flailed her limbs completely forgetting that she has wings that could save her, in fright her wings had locked to her sides since she is not used to her new found instincts, so not finding any other solution that would save her she did the only thing she could think of, so she screamed.

Only to be saved from the fall by… Fluttershy?

"Oh my! You are so light, have you been eating well?" She said causing Charm to blush at the accusation of her weight.

Chapter End.

Omake: Charms Big Kitty Cat problem. 

*Warning, don't take it too seriously*

It was a nice day out in Ponyville the sun was shining the birds are a singing and the rampaging monster was terrorizing the town.

Now some of ye may say, Charm Feather that doesn't sound like a nice day at all, well I would say, well yeah you're right, it was a nice day.

Its a funny thing about that, monsters tend to do such things, it was just a manticore, ponies are such soft fragile creatures, well most of them, these are just citizens they aren't built or forged to hunt monsters and the like.

I however was.

So I flew right up to that manticore, and give it a shove, sternly glaring at him.

“Now see here Mr just because you didn't get your juice doesn't mean you can terrorized the ponies, what would Fluttershy say if she hears about this huh?” that shut the manticore right up, yea its Fluttershy’s animal friend, little guy was the runt of the litter and was abandoned to fend for himself. I just happen to be trotting along the forests edge when I saw the little kitty and my heart went out to the little guy.

I have a soft spot for cats, this one had a scorpion tail, so extra awesome.

Little guy tried to sting me, I gave him a bap on the nose for trying, and he cried the poor dear.

That was a year ago, little fella is all grown up now.

All the little guy needed was some love, and boom, big kitty cat.

Now if everypony stops screaming in terror and hiding every time I take him for a walk, anyways cuddles, quiet you would name him that to, was upset that he doesn't get his juice, its a potion that gives all the protein his body needs, a little something from my Zebra friend Zecora has taught me, now I know how she can live in the forest, she gives this to the monsters of the forest and they leave her alone.

Rather ingenious I think.

“Now all of you quit your yapping!” I hollered out at all the little ponies rolling my eyes at everypony shutting up right quick, again fragile creatures.

“Come on now Cuddles lets get going.” I said pulling on his leash, geez if Cuddles so much as scratch an itch everypony goes bananas.

> A Everyday Life Of a Unicorn Student 
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Fifteen
Edited by: Pinklestia


“Oh Sun and Moon! Oh pony feathers!” Rarity panicked not really knowing where she got the last expression from, but it suits the current crisis. “I’m late! So very, very late!”

Right now she is running as fast as she could because she was very, very late for her classes. She had fallen asleep during her history lessons. Which she is so regretting doing now, in reality she isn’t late at all and had only slept for a few minutes. But to Rarity, apprentice mage of Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns she might as well had slept all day and is about to enter class at the end of the day.

She ran past other students and teachers, she jumped over foals and school staff, she ducked under a table filled with books. Running into the class panting and sweaty and in a panic called out, “Sorry I am late!” just for the bell to ring the start of the class as it was being filled with the students she ran past earlier, so far it has been a normal day for her.

Calmly walking into the room behind her is her new friend, Lyra Heartstrings, a green unicorn whose talent is music based. “Relax Rares, we are not THAT late! I told you this before, as long as you get decent grades the professors won’t really care.” Sheepishly Rarity walks to her desk ducking down and blushing at the odd looks she received from pretty much everypony in class.

Sitting down in the desk near Rarity. Lyra looks at the front listening in to the unicorn professor teach about shields and their importance, with a bored impression. Of course it inevitable leads to mentioning her best student Shining Armor and could he create shields big enough to shield a whole house at their age. 

While the class progress Lyra basically copies Rarity notes, while at the same time she starts to mentally compose a new song. The Green mare has some complicated way to split her focus that she had to create since she gets bored easily. So she can basically do more than one thing at once even while not casting spells. 

Every unicorn in Equestria comes to this school at one point in their lives. Despite the name of the school, they accept ordinary unicorns. But depending on their skill they may end up being placed in less advanced classes where they are taught the basic uses of magic and practices. Of course, a single school cannot teach every bucking unicorn in Equestria, so only those with money and talent get to stay after the first year. And the whole 'staying for at least a year even if you suck' rule was only put around ten years ago, thanks to some stupid Noble really irritating Princess Celestia with something he said. 

‘Still, getting put in magic kindergarten it’s a good way to undermine certain students.’ Lyra thought bitterly. To be honest with herself, the only reason she had stayed in the school at all was because she wanted to prove the world that she was more than a musician. That and she had actually made some friends. 

In the school the students used to be placed in groups and learn based on the whole group, and depending on who you know, or whom are your family you got taught above everyone else. Then Celestia changed things ten years ago, now the school was more like a University, with students taking classes and forming study groups on their own. The change was needed due to the huge amount of new students the rule changes had caused. So basically if you did not learn how to study on your own or had friends or a tutor to help, you were screwed. 

Shaking her head out of her depressing thoughts, Lyra focused on copying Rarity while listening on some complicated formula for spellweaving the professor was saying. Something she thought was rather much for something simple. Then again she isn’t a master, or has a magic based cutie mark, for her the spell would be harder because of that. 

Granted, Lyra had a cheat, but she could not use it in tests, her cheat was uses a Lyra to chant spells and use songs to boost her magic. Of course no rule said that she could not give herself a song boost BEFORE she took a test. After all, no pony found weird that a musician was always playing music, right?

Earlier in the year, any new students of the school were put to the test for their skill and talent by hatching a dragon’s egg, but everypony but Twilight Sparkle failed. It turned out it was a test to find a personal student for princess Celestia. And those who failed the test were offered to try to get into the school next year with a much more fair test. Of course both Lyra and Rarity had taken their entrance exams tests AFTER the whole magic surge that purple unicorn had, so they actually got to show off their best spells and passed with flying colors. 

Lyra had created an harp out of her magic and used to play a song that put everypony to sleep. It might not have been as impressive as Twilight Sparkle hatching a dragon egg or Rares making an old mare look and feel ten years younger, but she passed. 

‘Anyway’ she thought getting back on track. The sciences we learn will help us get a better understanding and facts about the world and how things work giving better control and influence on the world. And adding math to the equation unicorns are capable of performing more predictably and energy efficiently. Granted, ponies like Lyra Heartstrings actually worked better using imagination, one of her other cheats was to sing a song in her head when she performed a spell. 

Rarity on the other hoof, seemed able to memorise things easily, and seemed to have developed an incredible observation skill that helped her to learn spells she at least saw once. Rarity had explained to Lyra that her healing magic worked by analyzing a patient's body to fix out what was wrong then fixing it. So as a side-effect of practicing her healing magic she had developed an observation skill that helped with other things, like learning spells. Granted she still had to learn the spell the usual way, her observation skill just made it easier by giving her a vague idea of what she had to do. 

Anyway, it seemed her mind was wandering more than usual, since the class had almost ended. 

Lyra almost growled as some stupid noble had spit a blob wet paper at her. He probably did that by using telekinesis to lift a tube, mixed paper with spit, then used magic in the tube to launch it at her. That's one of the reasons she tends to get so angry. Rarity is mostly safe from pranks since she might not be Celestia's personal student, but is one of the few favored by Celestia, the Princess even got her a house to stay, instead of making her stay in the students dorm. And the way Celestia humiliated that noble ten years ago is still taught to Noble unicorn families as an example of why it’s a bad idea to get the Unconquerable Sun angry with you. 

Still, Lyra pretended the blob was not in the fact of her head and continued to try to listen to the the lesson.



Before Celestia's changes, a commoner who shows more acquired knowledge and talent in magic would unwillingly become a target, as the nobles would sometimes rig their tests to make it more difficult for the commoner to overcome the test. That would continue even if the young unicorn passed the entrance test. 

Such things as a magic suppression field around the unicorn filly during testing for example. This greatly limits a unicorn foal’s ability to cast magic. Another such tactic is to put the foal through mental stress, for example, ‘don’t blow it, or you might be place through magic kindergarten for the rest of your life.’ such a tactic is enough to throw off the young minded foal into making mistakes.

Despite the changes, they had tried the last tactic during her entrance exam, that's one of the reasons why Lyra hates nobles so much.

Anyway, the class finally ended and Lyra followed Rarity for lunch, it was no coincidence the two of them had the same schedule, Lyra had sneaked into the files and copied Rarity schedule to make sure she had the exact same classes. After all, being close to one of Celestia's favored was the only way she would be able to endure years of insulting nobles, mean pranks, and possible sabotage. 

Sure, Celestia had changed things for the better, but about half of the teachers were from Nobler unicorn families, so injustice and abused still existed. Lyra Heartstrings was not only making sure to be Rarity’s friend because she wanted to graduate, it was also to help Rarity, as the poor filly came from Ponyville and probably had no clue how life in Canterlot worked. 


~ Earlier change of perspective. ~

Events of the previous week were unexpected to many of The Noble Councillors, who already are upset about having to endure the squabbling of other nobles about the changes made in the last ten years. Worse, half of the school teaching staff is in the hooves of 'commoner' ponies nowadays. 

It was bad enough that Princess Celestia personal student was from a minor noble family, one that had never shared the views of the old noble houses, but now Princess Celestia had given a filly from a nowhere town her own house. Granted it did not violate the school rules, and the unicorn filly healing magic was impressive, but the fact was then that filly should be sleeping in the school dorms, not have her own, worse, any attempts so far from unicorns of noble house to get into that filly good graces have failed.

How could they get her to join them? while uncommon it was not rare for a noble to marry a powerful commoner unicorn mage, and while they could not go after Twilight Sparkle due to the bad blood with the purple filly family, this Rarity was just a country bumpkin! It should be easy to make her forget her origins and make her start to date unicorns from noble houses. Yet every attempt failed somewhat.  

In the highest tower of the school sits the Arch-mage for Celestia School for gifted unicorns, he wears a decorative red and gold robe with a blazing sun on his flanks symbolizing his importance of his position.

He sighed as he looked up at the ceiling in slight despair and fatigue, in front of him on his desk was a stack of complaints of the noble families who are sharing classes with the commoners. Even if it had been ten years already, they just would not give up their damn complaining. 

“Sigh, I really hate this job sometimes.” he said rather annoyed at the extra work he now has to deal with, going through the letters one at a time then placing them down, he relaxed in his chair, looking up towards the ceiling he thinks about how everything went downhill for him.

I shouldn’t have mixed politics with school work.” He said in regret, ‘I was in such a need of influence and fame that I had the bad idea of boasting how Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns was only for ponies of Noble blood, then it happened Princess Celestia herself had been hearing me. But did she fire me? Oh no, she charged me with the task of solving the problem."

Sighing at that awful mistake he looked down at his desk, at the then even more work arriving by magical fire on his desk, the growing strength of the monster that is paper work.

‘All it really did was placing me at the mercy of these wolves wearing pony skins.’ He thought in disgust. To think that ten years ago he wanted to be just like them, that was until the lengths they would go to avoid commoner ponies even getting into the school came to light. Oh, how he wished to even have a fraction of Celestia's power, then he would use to burn all of them alive. 

But alas, he was actually not very skilled at magic save the basics, his cutie mark was a book, not a book with a pentagram or another magic symbol, just a book. He should have stayed as a librarian, he had actually liked that job. 

Reaching over to the paperwork with his magic he looks out towards the courtyard of the school in melancholy, an eye falls upon a decorative statue of an Alicorn mare, which looked awfully liked a certain noble mare he knows of, raising her hoof above her in some kind of victory hoof pump while her wings seem to be in mid flap at their highest reach.

"And now you brought a powerful healer to the school, one that made Gentle Breeze become ten years younger, and that was with just as she claimed, a BASIC healing spell. You are never gonna let me retire, will you? If I claim I am sick and tired and have weak bones you will have that little monster fix me up!"

Turning around back to his desk he looked at the letters, then lift them up and burned them to ashes with a basic fire spell. 

"I already read one, they are all the same complain anyway. I need a drink." Sitting back into his desk he pulled a bottle of alcoholic Cinder from the Apple Family Farm. 

"Why I had to leave my old job in ponyville as a librarian? Ah right, my damn family wanted me to be a powerful and influential pony. And being a librarian in a  no name town wasn't gonna cut it."

Then Gentle Breeze, the not so old anymore mare that had taken Rarity’s test, entered his office. 

"What do you want?" The Arch-mage, actually The School director, asked in  an angry tone. 

"Well… I… uh… nevermind." Gentle Breeze left in a hurry, her plan of inviting the Director for lunch forgotten.  

******

Groaning softly at her current discomfort Lyra continued to take notes, she hated sitting all day. Why she thought it was a good idea to have the same advanced that Rarity did again? Most of the talented unicorns have shown how disorganised and frantic they are if left to their own devices.

Not Rarity.

The little filly really knew how to live on her own, granted she told that she had been living with a pegasus for a week, and that she would probably get visit on weekends, but its like the filly was crazy about order or something. Yet still had not that much problem with getting dirty like a tipical fru fru pony would. 

Also for what little time she had knew Rarity, the filly seemed to have an impressive memory, only needing to read a text once or twice to remember it. 

In fact Rarity is one of the few who are doing very well, if anything she is just as good as that purple unicorn with the purple baby dragon. Lyra is also doing well but because she basically copies Rarity and studies with her. 

Had she thought about how good Rarity was at this before? Hard to tell, she was so scatter brained sometimes! 

In fact sometimes she had dreams about a far away land full of adventure, where she… ah did the class end already? Nevermind. Time to go to her daily study sessions with Rarity. 

Ever since entering the school Rarity, has been put through the grinder in all the classes were Nobles are professors off. Yet despite that she was doing quite well, that meant Lyra was doing well too. 

They also mock her attempts at casting spells that isn’t healing magic, much to Rarity’s frustration she sometimes gets a spell sequence wrong and end up messing up the spell, and they would tease her about it. Yet they all seemed to ignore that only happened when she had just learned the spell, after a few days she got it perfect. 

Lyra while not perfect, had her cheats to make magic easier, and was used to ignore the bullies. Lyra also shielded the white unicorn of the worst of it, but making herself a target. Granted, Rarity had it easier than others since no pony dared to go too far as that would probably get Celestia angry, but, she was still a young pony living on her own for the first time in her life. 

Lyra had already consoled a crying Rarity once, that was how they became real friends instead of Lyra just being close to her to make surviving in the school easier. 

Unknown to Lyra Heartstrings, Guiding Star had also consoled Rarity when she wasn't expending time with Charm Feather.  Otherwise Rarity would have quit the school and took the ofer Princess Celestia had done to her before about a private tutor in case she did not pass the school entrance test. 

Also unknown to both Rarity and Lyra, Twilight Sparkle saw the white unicorn as a rival, because despite the fact she gets topped by the purple unicorn filly in raw magical strength, Rarity has proven to assimilate math and science more quickly and perform with much more control than her. And the fact it only took her slightly longer than Twilight Sparkle did to master spells, despite wasting a lot less time studying and practicing magic. That was of course, because of Guiding Star help, but no pony but Charm Feather and Rarity herself knew that. 

And the green unicorn, to her surprise, found herself having to fend of suitors of Rarity, since she knew they did not want Rarity for anything but her unique healing powers. 

'Since when I became her secretary?' Lyra Heartstrings thought in annoyance 

******

“Um... sorry about that and stuff.” A voice said beside Fluttershy and a blushing Charm Feather.

the brown pegasus slowly, ever so slowly as she was still a tad scared, got down Fluttershy arms and turned her head to see a pegasus pony with a cyan coat and a rainbow mane.
"Eh… is okay." Charm Feather said to the new pony, then turned to look at the yellow pegasus that had caught her. "Thank you for the save Fluttershy, and I am eating well, I just made myself really light using a spell to compensate the state my feathers are in."

Fluttershy and Charm Feather stared at each other, not really knowing what to say. Until Fluttershy said "Oh, how have you been Charm?"

"Well, I guess… and you?" 

"I got to help at an old mare who takes care of the animals around here… is, nice."

The blue pegasus, started to slowly back away, until she got a glare from the yellow pegasus.

"Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy yelled at the rainbow maned pony. "How could you be so careless?"

“H-hey look I’m sorry I didn’t...” she trailed off as the eyes were directed to Charm Feather then to the yellow pony. Who continued to scream at her and shut up any argument she tried to formulate at this point.

"Hey Fluttershy, calm down, I am okay? See?" Charm Feather jumped and landed on her hooves to prove the point, and the yellow pegasus relaxed.

"I… I am sorry I overreacted but… I don't like to see my friends hurt each other." She said meekly.

"Is okay, just… let the other pony go, okay?" Charm said. 

Fluttershy then looked at Rainbow Dash, who was so terrified  that she was breathing hard. Did… did she really do this?

The rainbow pony not knowing what she could had decided to leave, until Fluttershy hugged her. "I am sorry Dash, I did not want to scare you like that!  Is just that Charm Feather almost died not long ago and when she had fallen from that cloud, I got scared and you tend to be so careless and crash all the time and…"

"Fluttershy, small breaths!" Charm Feather said and Fluttershy calmed down. 


After being spooked by Fluttershy's assertiveness and harshness, Rainbow Dash being the youngest of the three of them had cried. Thinking she was about to lose her friend, after many hugs and reassurances had helped calmed her down and promising she would be more careful, she made the other two ponies promise they would never tell that she had cried like a baby. 

Charm Feather then had mentioned she was planning to go to a flying camp as her flying wasn't very good, or at least take classes somewhere. It was a ploy to change the subject. If Dash had noticed she didn't make a effort to show it Rainbow had offered to join in to help out, that is until Fluttershy pointed out Rainbow Dash  was not very careful and also was not good at landing. 

Laying on her back Charm stared into the sky, somehow they all ended up in a three pony hug pile. Guiding Star wouldnt stop making jokes about how they were all as adorable as kittens in a basket about it making Charm blush.

Later all three of them ending admitting they all needed to get better at flying, the point was, what they would do about it? 

To be continued…


> Summer Gala part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Sixteen

Not that Gala

‘It’s morning.’ I thought groggily. I stood up from my bed, I make my way to the bathroom not at all paying attention to my surroundings, I would normally keep everything around me in check, I almost trip over a stack of scrolls I must had discarded last night, reaching my bathroom I would had nearly bolted to assist the damage to my state, but I’m too tired to do that.

I looked in the mirror, I see myself, I almost jumped in surprise at the sight. The image although blurry from my late night studying could still be made out. My short purple mane was a disheveled mess, my blue eyes are strained in red from the late night, and I think my horn needs a good filing to smooth it out a bit. After looking in the mirror long enough I blinked to clear the image to make sure I do look like that, after confirming I do indeed need good cleaning I made my way to the shower to do just that.

Once done I see myself clean and proper again, smiling I make my way to the door... then turn back around to make use of the toilet. Once done with the dirty deed I make my way down stairs.

After a bit of sitting there a plate of pancakes was placed in front of me, ‘Ooh my favorite.’ I thought with a smile on my face, and then a cup of OJ was also placed in front of me, ‘Yum I could go for some juice about now.’ Not thinking clearly I reached over to the juice with my fore hooves and took a big gulp of the orange juice. Sure I could use magic, but since I tend to overuse it with my spells, I hold things the earth pony way when I am at home. But then, this time I am not magically exhausted, and magic makes it less messy. 

I Take a fork into my levitation field I started to eat the pancakes, chewing slowly to enjoy the taste. 

After finishing I hovered all the dishes into the sink, getting up while cleaning them I look at the calendar to see the date.

But before I could reach it, my thoughts caught up with my brain and I froze in place as I noticed the fact I didn’t prepare breakfast.

Turning around I see a chestnut brown pegasus garbed in practical blue robes, ones based off the design similar to her old ones, the hood is pulled down giving me a view of the brown mane underneath, its more decorated than her old ones. It’s none other than my best friend Charm Feather, who is waving at me from the living room. Squealing loudly I ran up to my friend and hugged her. Is nice to see she has been taking care of the robes I made her. She even got silver bracelets in her hooves with magical carvings to help her magic. Yes I finally talked her out of using boots, but only because it is Summer. 

Of course she knows what my favorite breakfast for the morning. Well Lyra does too, but since it's Summer holidays she went to visit her family. 
It’s been a few weeks since I last saw her. She makes these trips to the Everfree forest to master her magic arts away from preying eyes. And to take Alchemy classes with Zecora, so that combined with the fact I had midterm exams before the Summer holidays started means I really missed her. 

“Welcome home darling!” Charm Feather hugs me, Lyra has teased me saying that Charm is my marefriend, but at most I see her as a true friend, nothing else. 

A stray thought enters my mind, ‘I wonder what Big Mac is doing now a days.’ Shaking my head I return my attention to Charm who chuckled at the attention she’s getting from me.

“Heh, hey, sorry I couldn’t come yesterday, but I did make you a gift for your birthday.” Yeah that’s right it was my birthday yesterday, and I also had my last exams before the Summer break that day. That sucked. 

Then I felt something bumping my nose I look down to see a nicely wrapped gift box bumping me in Charms levitation field, her magic is always so beautiful to behold. Her feathers would light up in a spectacular display of lights. Her levitation magic would light up her primaries and a faint hum could be heard, it’s her primaries that would start vibrating the air and would echo around the room.

‘Heh bringing the Charm in her feathers, making her name literal.’ I chuckled loudly as I brought the box to my fore hoofs with my own magic.

Charm tilts her head with a smile on her face.

Opening the wrapped box I see its one of Charms, well um Charms... it’s a beautifully crafted horn ring, I could see a faint glow coming off from it, and squealing loudly I hugged her causing her to say "Oof" in discomfort. This is the first time I see Charm make an enchanted item for someone else, she says is because the items need constant adjustments because she has not mastered that art yet. 

What we sell in our magic shop, that we end calling it "The Bottled Spells" is all potions. Gentle Breeze ended quitting the school for some reason, well, actually she retired, and now works at the shop attendant there as a way of thanking me for fixing up her bones.  

Now, while my spell did make her look like ten years younger, she was one of the oldest mares in the school, so is not like she really looks young or anything, she has just lost some wrinkles and has no more aching problems. 

Also, turns out the mare natural coat color is pink, and her mane is blonde, she had been using green and gray dyes to look more professional or something! 

"What does this one do?” I ask excited to know the effects of this wonderful gift.

Smiling her wonderful smile Charm started to speak, only to be interrupted by a loud thudding sound coming from outside. Looking at one another we made our way to the door, opening it we see it's none other than Fluttershy. She rubbed her head, she wince slightly muttering a soft, ‘owie.’ She looks up to see Charming standing behind me, she jumps up to her hooves and runs to her giving her a big hug.

Of course I was in the way and now find myself trampled with her standing on my back. A good thing she is a pegasus or else she be heavy.

“Omigosh, Charm! Your back!” she yells out loudly, Fluttershy had been coming over during my Finals to make sure I don’t overslept, or starve, or forget to bathe... I forget sometimes ok?

But only when I have exams, otherwise I try to look my best, it’s not like I am Twilight Sparkle. 

Talking about that purple unicorn, I could swear Princess Celestia has been arranging for us to get together or something, how else can you explain me ending sleeping at her bed in the castle every time I go there? Or how many project the teachers made us do together?

And yes, Fluttershy is also not my marefriend. Yes I know Canterlot is not that close to Ponyville, but I healed a few of her animals and she feels like she owns me, okay? 

'Mmm, I wonder where I left that poster Lyra have me as a present? It got Mister Equestria in it.'

“Oh, hey there Flutters, um I think you’re crushing Rarity there.” she points down at my current position, at this Fluttershy looks down as if noticing me for the first time. She flaps her wings to gain height and moves further into the house. Getting up from my spot on the floor, I take a good look at the butter yellow pegasus, she took flying lessons with Charm and Rainbow Dash, so she got better, but she is still a tad slow. 

“How was your trip this time Charming?” Fluttershy asked softly now less excited from her earlier outburst, than she gasps out loudly. “Did you get to see any baby manticores?”

Chuckling Charm opens her mouth to answer the question. I was about to listen in on any juicy stories, but then suddenly I heard a gasp, turning my attention from the two chatting, I look to the stairs I see my baby sister there running to the unsuspecting pegasus. 

"How did you get here?" I said and pick up Sweetie Belle. The baby unicorn is barely a month old, yet she has powerful accidental magic, but getting from Ponyville to here is a tad too much 

"Hi my little treasure." I heard my daddy voice and see both my father and my mother at the door. It still does not explain how my dear sister got to the stairs, but makes it more reasonable. 

We expend the rest of the day talking, Charm plays with Sweetie Belle, and Princess Celestia drops in a totally expected surprise to tell me I passed all my midterm exams with flying colors. 

Yes, one would think I would be more awed about Princess Celestia taking a personal interest in me, but since for one reason or another I end up seeing her every ten days or so, I gotten used to it over time. 

Granted she was somewhat right to praise me, since I had started in Spring and now was the beginning of Summer, so I had done quite well for just having been in school for a few months. Yes, the whole dragon egg hatching stuff had made me and others start quite late. 

Since first year was basically to "Weed up the losers" as the stuck up Nobles said, it did not really matter how later you started first year as long as you passed it. 

My parents of course are very proud of me, with the Unconquerable Sun coming to visit me and that, not to mention Fluttershy hid under the bed and stayed there until the princess left. 

Anyway, it was an exciting if tiresome day, my parents and baby sister finally left to catch the last night train to Ponyville and Fluttershy went with them as she had stayed in Canterlot too long. 

That left me and Charm alone together, just like I had planned. 

…...


"Oh come on Charm, it’s not so bad!" Rarity said as she watched the chestnut brown pegasus mare get measured. "Everypony else will be wearing clothes too."

"But it’s a dress!" Charm protested earning an eye roll from Rarity.

Rarity sighed “I know Charm but dearie, I NEED somepony to accompany me, Having no one else but those nobles is going to give me a migraine! Even with Lyra there I couldn’t guarantee a shred of enjoyment! Besides you owe me this. We hardly saw each other for weeks. You are going to this party and you will enjoy it."

Charm stilled, her ears drooped, she was right; leaving Rarity with those fools would only ruin her night. 'Well at least I only have to wear it once.' 

"Oh, once your dress is measured, we have to go to the spa, then to the mane stylist, and I have to find what perfume goes best with you and..."

'Why did I have come to visit her in Canterlot? Why not stay in Ponyville? Ah right, our magic shop needed more potions. And I owed her a birthday present.'

'Curse those nobles!' Charm thought, 'All that, because of their stature and birth and all!. And because they annoy Rarity, I have to wear a dress!'

'Why not teach them a lesson?' Guiding Star said inside the pegasus head

She stared out the window; there they were, all in their little group, laughing, acting all proud, Still, this was nothing compared to the Thalmor, or any Altmer really

Charm stilled, her mind coming to a grinding halt.

Nothing compared to the Thalmor..

“Nothing compared to the Thalmor…” Charm’s eyes widened, her mind moved, gears setting place, oh yes she could have fun with this.

“Something on your mind dearie?” 

Charm turned from the window, hair fluttering in the wind as she did so, an uncharacteristically positive grin spread on her face

“How long until the Summer Gala?” she asked somewhat more chipper than she’d ever been all month.

“Two weeks dearie.” Rarity replied, her brow rose in confusion. “But why-“

She was cut off as Charm placed a hoof on her shoulder.

“I’ll go; I just have to make plans”

And with that the Pegasus left for her room, giggling all the way. 

Rarity remained staring wondering just what the flying buck happened to her friend.

"So, were you able to measure her?" Rarity asked the dressmaker

"Yes miss Rarity, she is not the first filly I had to take quick measures on before running away." The dressmaker, a mare old enough to be Rarity's mother, said her face clearly showing that she’d witnessed something similar countless times before. 

………….

Gilded Setter sat, gazing forlornly at the clock, it was a slow day, he mused, though well enough, he’d already made enough money for the day,

But in his heart he felt bored, There just wasn’t anything new to do, all that was asked of him were simple things! Nothing at all complicated, All those nobles asked of him might as well have been done by some pony fresh off his apprenticeship!

He craved for something new, something that brought him back to the joys of being a jewel smith, something elegant! Someth-

“Excuse me, are you Gilded Setter?”

He spun around, quick to follow protocol and give a smile.

“Of course lass, what’dya need”

The lass was a Pegasus, chestnut brown, probably here on holiday he mused, he looked, she was carrying an awful lot for a tourist.

“Well, you were the only Jeweler in the city with the credentials I’ve been looking for.”

He stared, credentials? Ah, finally somepony who acknowledged his former apprenticeship!

“I’d like to commission something, and you’re the only one I’d trust at the moment.”

A commission? So she wasn’t here to buy some random trinket then. A smile formed on his face, yes here was somepony who understood the capacity of a true jewel smith.

“Come on inside lass, it’s been awhile since I received a commission.”
………………………………….
He stared at the parchment, his face well fixed into a wide grin, yes, finally something worthy of his caliber! He made note of the jewels the lass brought with her, the design matched them perfectly.


“I also brought the material needed to make them.”

A thud, and a bag of very large coins, spilled onto the table.

The unicorn inspected them, lightweight, all somehow worn on one side, while some sort of diamond design lay etched clearly on the other.”

“I’m not from around here, as I’m sure you can tell.”

He took a coin into his hoof, bouncing it to gauge its weight

“It’s light”

The Pegasus mare nodded, “Mithril infused.” She replied.


“Mithril?” The stallion stared at Charm Feather, clear surprise and confusion on his face.

The mare shifted uncomfortably, “Yes is that going to be a pr-“

"No. no it won't be a problem; it’s just, I’ve never heard of it outside of old legends."

Charms jaw dropped "Really? Uh...so you can't do it?" That  explained why she had been unable to trade her septims, but apparently, what was valuable back in Tamriel didn’t translate here, her coins had been labeled, ‘interesting but impure’.

He stared, taking in all the details needed, "I will need to test the metal first, but yes, I think it can be done." He stared at the coins again, continuing to gauge their weight

“Give me a week and a half.” He said, a pleased nod echoing his sentiments.

“How much would it cost me?” The mare asked, no doubt ready to hoof out some bits.

"The weight of the finished product in bits."

"That much? Uh okay." She nodded, "How long will it take?"

"About a week and a half"

"Well then, see you then." Charm said with a forced smile in her face. But of course, she had no alternatives other than Canterlot, prices there were outrageously inflated. Most jewelry the stallion probably made was fancy, decorative and for the Nobility.

“Yer not gonna check up on it?”

“I trust you well enough to make no mistakes, besides, is not like I’m a smithee myself. So I’d best not keep you from working any longer.”

And with that she left, leaving an eager jewel smith heating his kiln like a newly accepted apprentice.
…………………………….

A week and a half later a smiling Charm left Canterlot’s market district with a bag, a smile on her face and a mischievous glint in her eye

Rarity’s face when presented with the dress she wanted was one of pure joy, and exploded into more once Charm revealed that she had gone through all the trouble to procure the materials needed to make herself look fabulous.

“Why, it’s nice to know, you’ve put so much effort into this darling!”

“Rarity, you have no idea…” In fact if it had not been for Guiding Stars encouragement and her reluctance to disappoint her friend, she might’ve quit. So much etiquette and posture lessons had to be drilled by her so-called big sis! The horror! Still, if it worked, it would be totally worth ‘it.

All that was needed to complete the package, was a smidgen of pride, only emulating the Thalmor could match, thankfully continued exposure to one in the past had all but impressed the most key elements needed for her ruse to begin.

“Hmm, said something dearie?”

“Oh nothing.”

And so it was on the day of the occasion that both of them entered one of the city’s spas to prepare

“It’s the big day dear!, now all that’s left is to relax, and prepare, I’ll have a carriage take us to the palace when we’re all done~!”

“If you say so Rarity.”

Most of the day after that was full of hooficures, general pampering, and making sure that Rarity didn’t peek at what she had gotten ready for the nights festivities.

The look at the spas mane stylist when she presented how she wanted her mane to be done, was equal parts wonder, giddiness, and surprise, but nonetheless conceded,

“Are you sure Madame? This seems…”

“It’s traditional manestyle, from my homeland. And I figured it would be proper. Can you pull it off?”

“Why of course!”
…
“Charm? Charm dearie are you ready?”

“Just a minute Rary!, I just gotta finish getting ready!”

“I appreciate your dedication, Charmie, but with all this, it seems like you’re more conscious of yourself than I am., not that I mind of course.”

Charm stared at the mirror, so far none other than she herself had seen the finished look, even the mane stylist was told that she herself would make the final braid, something she was able to do with ease,

“I wonder what they’d think of me?’ she mused, ‘Well guess it’s time to find out”

Her dress was on, her jewelry was ready, and with a stroke of her hoof, the door opened.
Rarity sat waiting, passing the time with one of the latest magazines, musing on some of the designs present and heavily critiquing on others.

A creak of the door alerted her to her friend being finished with her preparation.

“It’s about time dearie, I’d wondered when you’d finally leave! Now come on let’s see how you.. you..”

“Look?”

Rarity stared, jaw uncharacteristically dropped, Charm stood, in all her finery, Her hair was braided in a strangely natural looking style, as various braids looped around each other,  on her forehead a golden circlet sat, centered around a sapphire, it too looked as it the gold was woven rather than smiled.

Her dress was emerald green, with white and gold to balance it out, the brooch she wore added immensely to her image

“How do I look?”

Rarity snapped out of her reverie, shaking her head.

“Well darling, I- I have nothing to say, you look grand!”.

The carriage arrived, as both of them left the spa smiling, and ready, Watching the carriage leave, the trainees waved, smiling as it took off towards the sky.

“Did you understand what Lady Feather was saying towards the end?”

“No, not a word.”

“She was talking? sounded like a sonnet to me!”

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

“Alright now dearie, whats this all really about?”

Charm blanked, her eyes widening a bit, she snapped out of her reverie, having been staring out of the carriage window for most of the ride up till then.

She closed her eyes, sighing, knowing well that she had been caught.

“That easy huh?”

“I’m afraid so darling, anypony who doesn’t know you as well as I do wouldn’t notice.”

“What gave me away?”

“Well, the giggling you did two weeks ago for one.”

“Couldn’t that just be me being excited for all this?”

“Charm, one thing is being excited for an event, and there is being excited because you want to do something, the giggling i saw? that seemed very much like the latter now that i think about it.”

Charm paused in thought, Yes her little… display weeks ago would fit that picture.

“Though I would say, with that you would definitely outclass any mare in the Gala.”

Charm stilled staring at the white unicorn even more, before having her face change into a vicious smirk

“You’ve caught on.”

“Indeed I have dearie, now, what do you really want to do?”

Charm looked back at the window, once again The Nobles District stood lavishly outside, they were close, just several more minutes.

“Simple, I want to beat the nobles at their own game.”

Rarity stared, before breaking out into a chuckle

“Seriously Charming, only you, only you could come up with a ridiculous plan like this.”

'Oh, let's think about it. my little sister trying to be all fancy, it’s gonna be hilarious!' Guiding Star said in both of her heads. ‘Of course it was all my idea!' 

Charm continued to stare, rolling her eyes and ignoring the spirit, before staring back out the window.

“Watch me Rarity, Watch me.”

“Hmm?”

“Those nobles act all proud, they act all Haughty, High and Mighty, but that’s the whole point, they just act.”

At seeing Rarity’s raised brow Charm saw fit to continue her explanation.

She reclined deep into the shadows present in the carriage, shrouding her body in darkness, All Rarity could see were Charms eyes, which glowed with expectation, and mischief.

"These nobles don't even know, what being Haughty, High and Mighty is like, I’ve been with worse, and compared to them, these nobles are nothing, not even a speck of dust.’ Watch me Rarity, and I will show you how to be High, Haughty and Mighty, and how to turn it into an art form."

The last words seemed to flow from her mouth, like a viper waiting to strike, Rarity looked at her friend.

'My little girl is growing up, I am so proud. Also,she doesn't even realize that she’s dropped the tomboy act for this? She is going to be a proper lady!' Guiding Star chuckled out.

For the first time, in that hour, Rarity thought that those Nobles didn't stand a chance. 

Then she caught on what Guiding Star had  just said 'You’re planning something, aren't you?' 

'You just got that from a few words?'

'I know you. You think Celestia’s pranks are actually funny, and this is an important social event, is too big of a target for you to ignore.'

Rarity then smiled 'Go for it!'

…………..

“Charm, there's been an issue..” A voice said out of the blue. It took a moment for Charm Feather to realize  who it was, since it sounded so somber. 

Charm’s eyes widened, that didn’t sound good…

‘Star?’ She asked curious and with a hint of fear

‘..Yes’ She answered

‘What’s going on?’ 

‘Well, remember that passive translation magic you usually have?’

‘... I wasn’t aware of that’

‘Hence it being passive, I guess I never told you. It was the work of the Scrolls’

‘Okay, so what about it?’

‘It’s failing.’

‘...WHAT!?’

‘You be the one to tell Rarity about this. She’s the only one who can understand you.’

‘So, what DO I sound like?” Charm asked, only to hear nothing,

‘Staaaar!’

‘You’ll find that out, soon enough~! Have fun at the Gala! I’ll see what I can do.”

And with that, Charm Feathers mind grew silent.

“Something the matter dearie?” Rarity asks Charm in concern.

“Ah… there’s been an issue..”

“What is it darling?”

“You know what, nevermind.”

…………….


“Charm, I’ve made some progress..” Guiding Star said from out of the blue, Charm started at the sudden voice but didn't show it listening into her, it had been awhile now and they are approaching the castle..

Charm feather sighed, looking out at the passing buildings in Canterlot. “What is it this time Star?”

“That issue with the translation magic?, I might just be able to fix it.”

“Really?’

“Yes… just give me 12 hours.” Guiding Star said sheepishly.

“T-twelve hours!, Twelve hours!” She stuttered her voice echoing loudly inside her mind causing Guiding Star to wince at the volume.

“Minimum…” Guiding Star squeaked.

“B-but were almost there...” she whispered in horror.

‘Yep, now go back to telling your friend…”

Her mind grew silent again, While Rarity stared, clearly not convinced that what was happening was “Nothing”

“Now dearie, what did Star tell you?”

“Uh..”

….

It was quite a strangely festive affair, say what you would about nobility, but they knew how to throw a wonderful soiree when they needed to, much less combine some measure of enjoyment with class.

Celestia sighed, every year had been the same, perhaps, something would have to liven up the festivities once in a while. Looking from the alcove, she smiled, the healer and her friend were here, perhaps she would learn a few things about that Pegasus..

“Hello my little ponies; it’s been awhile since I’ve seen you two.”

Both bowed, The White one added an obligatory response.

“It’s a pleasure to be here princess.”

The Pegasus, Charm was it? Moved to give a similar response, Celestia smiled, this was probably the first she’d been in a formal event in quite a while.

Celestia however had not been prepared for the following.



It was melodic she thought, like an opera, a cacophony of notes, coming from one source.  Little Charm blanched, before covering her mouth, her friend Rarity had her eyes wide,

“My apologies your highness, the translation magic usually present isn’t working, I’ll be following her for the most part, to act as her translator.”

Celestia stilled, mulling over the revelation, that was her language?, her true, untranslated tongue? She nodded, telling them that it would be no trouble, before urging them to follow onto the main hall.

Watching them leave up the stairs she smiled, before greeting the last line of guests.
Perhaps this gala wouldn’t be so quaint after all.

…….

They stilled, entering a long line of expected guests. Lyra ran up to them, giggling in anticipation, but Rarity knew that it was all an elaborate mask, as the place was full of nobility and there were none who the mint mare hated more than the nobility, The hall was grand, a red carpet stretched from below them, all the way to the end of the hall, far on the sides silk and various other exotic clothes lined up the walls of the grand hall.

All in all, not that different from the banquets that would occasionally be thrown at the old College, Though Charm noted, Winterhold, for all its magic couldn’t hold a candle to others when preparing for any sort of festivities.

“I don’t suppose you’ve been to anything similar before Charmie?”

Charm snapped out of her musing, she flattened her ears grinning sheepishly.

[“We used to have banquets in the old College during the festival days, though nothing like this, this looks like something the Synod could do with ease.”] she said smiling towards Rarity.

“Hmm?” Wondered Rarity

[“The Synod were always the more political of the remaining Mages Guilds”] She answered the unasked question. 

“Now that I think about it dearie, yes, this DOES seem like a massive political fair doesn’t it?”

[“Yes quite.”] Charm said with a smirk.

They turned, only to find a wide eyed Lyra, staring at them, though a secondary glance pointed out that she was staring mostly at Charm

The mint green unicorn stared for a few more moments, before schooling her expression once more, such behavior was unbecoming for the occasion she thought.

“What was that?,” she whispered to them both

Rarity, ever so conscious of the situation moved towards her friend.

“Charm’s translation matrix isn’t working well, she’s been speaking in her own language for most of the day.”

‘Wait, She’s Talking?” Lyra responded, her brow raised.

“Why of course darling!, what else could she be doing?”

“Sounds like singing to me, lovely too!”

They all stilled, the line continued to move, and as the gala slowly approached its beginning as the three’s eyes slowly widened.

[“This,,, this just got a bit more complicated.”] Charm said

“For once dearie, I’d have to agree with you..” Rarity said in deadpan.

“What’d she say? I was caught up in all the notes and stuff”
………………….

Ten minutes, twelve if they counted the opening fanfare, twelve minutes until the line finally reached them. And twelve minutes to figure out what to do.

There had to be something, the plan could still be salvaged, they just had to put their minds to it,

[“Any idea’s?”]

“I’m afraid not darling…”

[“Star, any more progress on the translation matrix?”]

“I told you; give me Twelve hours, minimum, the actual process would take weeks.”

[“Weeks?!”] She yelps out.

“If I was working at a fair pace, I’m giving it all I got here...” 

[“But - but I-“]

“I’m sure you’ll figure something out Charm.”

[“Don’t just leave me hanging!”]

“It’s your plan isn’t it? I just took the credit.”

[“Did you know that I hate it when you have a point?”]

“Did YOU know that I don’t really care either way?”

[“Touché.”]

“Now enjoy the party~!”

With another sigh, Charm focused once more, slowly taking in her surroundings again.

“I suppose Star wasn’t any help at all?”

She looked to the side, Rarity looked to her with concern, Lyra also shared a similar look further back.

Charm weighed her options, she could try, not all was lost, she just needed more time to figure out how to get her plan back on it’s rails.

[“Okay, Rary, here’s how it goes, i need time to think something up, do I have to follow the protocol?”]

Rarity stilled, mulling over the question.

“No, you don’t have to, neither do we, but we’re obliged to greet the delegations as per the sequence of events.”

[“That’s more than i hoped for, good.”]

“Have something up your sleeve?”

[“I need you to deal with them for me,who knows if they’d get the wrong idea or ask questions.”]

“Don’t worry dearie, I’ve got just the idea!, Lyra, i think we’ll have to do a bit of acting..”

[“What about me?”]

“You just act all silent and elegant darling, we’ll handle the rest…”

[Alright, if you say so.”]

“No doubt, they’d find you “Charming” either way.”

[“Again with the puns…”]

“I aim to please~!”

…….

Celestia sighed, from her place at the end of the Grand hall she surveyed all before her, everything was as usual, The Unicorns sat closest to her, with the Pegasi at the second highest tier and the Earth Pony Gentry at the lowest

A small Balcony leading to the Palace gardens lay reserved for Foreign dignitaries, Not that it mattered, though with the current lining of events she had made some last minute changes, namely a single table ready at said balcony

Politics, it had all come down to that, The Summer Gala had been something different once, though the Allure of gaining connections, connections one could use when needed was something too strong, too valuable to pass up.

Hence the current arrangement, At the bottom, The earth pony Gentry sway, though significantly larger than the other two delegations when compared one to one. Though numerous and highly influential due to their hold on various lands and food production, They were only valued for their support, the nobles of the Unicorn court never really seeing anything more than potential favor to be called in.

The gala was supposedly a way for students to gain connections, both personally and for their respective Families.

Though throughout her musing her eyes had only kept focused on one trio of attendees.

Her various sources in the City had told her of Charm’s movements, mostly of her apprehension at having to attend said event. Her few discussions with her Unicorn friend Rarity had only received the usual response, that Charm wasn't liable to attend such a formal event.

Though shortly afterwards, her sources had confirmed the opposite, that Charm was making preparations in order to attend and if the reports were to be believed, she was making Heavy preparations, with quite the amount of enthusiasm.

A trip to one of the city’s jewel smiths, a week at the city’s trade center perusing various silks and cloths. though if one of her earlier reports were to be believed the young mage was giggling herself silly as if she had found something immeasurably amusing to do.

They arrived, Unicorns at the front, as if it were some escort, The mint green one, followed not quite far ahead from Charm, and seemed to be waiting on her beck and call, no doubt in a bid to decrease attention to themselves, as most attention was focused on the more… Affluent students of the school.

Celestia grinned, Really now, all that preparation? only to wish to be ignored? though she hadn’t paid much attention to the Pegasus mare’s attire, being lost in the chorus after a short encounter with her melodic language, She had at least acknowledged that such potential to liven up the Gala would not be wasted.

“Oh my sweet summer child… all your preparation, and you want them to look away?”

She looked to Charm, still shrouded in mild shadow.

“Well we can’t have that now can we?” She whispered, giggling to herself,

A glow of her horn, and a slight shifting of a chandelier, as well as a few more pieces, and her game was set.

“You’d do well to survive my test little one, My court can be a bit rowdy after all…”

It seemed that the extra balcony table was needed after all.


…...

I can do this, I can do this…

The plan was simple, all she had to do was remain calm, They had made significant progress past the entry Arch, and from her point of view were on the way for an uneventful entry, hopefully the delegations would be more focused on the guests behind them, she really hoped so,

I can do this, i can do this…

They were already halfway to reaching the first delegation,

Thank the Nine for that.

In front of her, Rarity looked back, a small smile set on her face, She maintained her balance, well aware to keep her gaze forward in between looking back at her friend

“You see dearie, everythings going to be al-”

Then the light for some reason went out of whack the lights scattered, before reforming…

Specifically on Charm..

I can’t do this…

Oh damn it all, and things were starting to look up too…

Charms mind was in overdrive, what to do, WHAT TO DO, she took stock of the situation, keeping sure to keep her expression steady, To the outside observer it would seem as if she was momentarily put off from the sudden light source.

I can’t do this!, just when i thought things were going my way this happ-

"That we are superior to men is an established fact. For example, take this belief in Talos. The "ninth" Divine. Heh. Certainly you don't believe such things? Or perhaps there's something you'd like to confess?"

She blanked, momentarily put off by the memory, It was in that moment that she took a brief look at the delegations before her.

Her mind returned to her memories of preparation. All the etiquette, all the lessons with Star, all those memories of those knife eared walking golden pincushions.

Be graceful, yet maintain the air of superiority, ready to fight, but elegant in your fury...

She took stock of the situation, freeing herself from her brief reverie to look at each of the delegations.

Her eyes scanned the crowd, giving a warm look towards the assembled earth ponies, before scanning the other two delegations more thoroughly.

It was to her momentary glee that she noted both of the other delegations flinching collectively at her scrutinizing gaze.

You know what, buck that I’m doing this

"Be warned. You have been marked by the Thalmor."

For once, she and her memories agreed.

…………………...

Bell Fount stood resolutely at his table, it had taken ages to secure a seat for him and his associates at this gala, and even then the most he could do was secure a good word for his family,

It had taken compromises, and various words throughout the Senatus to get him and his friends a decent chance of securing a place among the Delegation,, most of which were composed of the patricians, no matter, his status as a mere citizen had allowed him little in terms of leeway.

Though for some reason her highness had accepted him as a member of the delegation, for reasons he and his compatriots didn’t know, it had given him some form of respect on the forum floor and even some measure of respect from the Senatus, he would bring honor to his family, he swore it..

His eyes darted through out the various students in line, noting the various crests present on some of their capes

“Alright, lets see here, we have the Silverhooves, the Goldbrands, the Bluebloods..”  His eyes continued to scan the room, taking note of the traditional attendees of the party

“Then we have the Proudhooves, Harhooves, Brandybucks, “ His gaze flickered over to the Earth ponies present, some of the more influential and affluent of the Gentry showed, not that he had anything against, for all the status of his family, they had been doing quite well partnered with some of the Gentry families in recent ventures…

His gaze faltered however at the brief loss of lighting, He blinked once more, trying to regain his visual bearings, before noting that everypony else's gaze was focused elsewhere.

He raised his brow in confusion, even noting that his companions were in a similar position before turning to see what all the fuss was about.

Oh, so that’s what all the fuss was about.

She was glorious, he mused, a Pegasus, about three years his junior, the light shone her well, She paused, probably from the sudden shifting of the light onto her. She stilled, probably thinking on what to do next, all eyes were on her.

Bell stared, this must’ve been very stressing moments for her then, judging by the sudden stop she had most likely planned to enter the gala without notice, lost within the other more visible delegates, to fade into the night.

Her head rose, and for a brief moment he looked away as the light shone off her finery, her eyes rested on the Earth Pony delegation, currently a level below his, before shifting up to his.

He remembered the stories of his grandfather, He spoke of moments where he had to journey to the Surface and trek into the forests, his grandfather would warn that there were certain instincts that kicked in depending on how one as being looked at.

As her gaze scanned his delegation he felt a sudden chill run up his spine, his gaze shifted to his fellow pegasi, the rest had taken an involuntary step back, others flinched, as her gaze roamed the delegation

Her gaze began to move, upwards, towards the Unicorn delegation, They too had taken a step back, some flinched a lot more noticeably, others had been unconsciously wiping a cold sweat.

He himself could feel it; it was as if a thousand manticores had found their fill for the day only content to survey their future prey, He noted that some of the delegation above remained unscathed, probably left alone by the mare below.

Upon noticing the various reactions the mare grinned, Fount wiped the sweat from his brow, it was as if she’d found prey, Her eyes closed once more, her frame seemed to shrink, and for a moment she seemed statuesque

Then she moved, nudging her unicorn hoofmaiden they strode forward, making the rest of the way towards the first delegation. She gave off a warm smile, the unicorn in front of her greeting the delegation with ease after a few words from the pegasus mare,

He was far enough not to hear anything. as was the rest of his party, but from what they could see, the Earth ponies seemed to be in a trance, before returning to their senses and giving curt bows, which were returned by the three mares.

The three continued, though at a slowed pace, it was a slightly shorter distance up from the earth pony delegation to his. Along the way the three engaged in idle banter. though strangely the mint green Unicorn ended up being left out of said conversations from what he could observe from afar.

As they slowly neared he observed the brown ones gait, she moved gracefully. Though her grace betrayed many features that were about her. Her eyes narrowed, and what little of her wings that were exposed sharpened in posture, and ever so slightly her movements retained some form of rigidity.

She approached his delegation, he noted that the light cloud carpeting his delegation was afforded began to crackle with faint streaks of lightning as she neared. As she came closer he couldn’t feel but tense up, it was like being scrutinized by one of the elders whenever they’d turn up at the city Forum

Her eyes upon approaching the delegation, scanned each one within her distance, Her gaze faltered however upon a yelp from behind her.

Turning attention away he turned to the source of the yelp, Behind the three one of the elderly delegates had tripped, landing quite ungracefully on the red carpet. quickly, too quickly he noticed, the young mare turned, helping the old mare to her hooves.

Not that anypony noticed initially, most were too preoccupied with making themselves presentable, the old lady’s fall was simply drowned out by the idle chit chat, It was when the young lady turned to help that the old matriarchs current state was noticed.

The young lady helped the older one get her bearings, taking care to make sure if anything else happened, 

she's well mannered, he concluded,she was graceful to boot, her previous actions notwithstanding, she probably had an idea or two of what to do in these sorts of functions, which spoke well of her possible stature.

Then she opened her mouth to speak. 



Silence, he focused again, noting that for a moment he’d slightly been off-put, Her voice glided across the air, like a soft melody, her face was one of concern, The elderly mare, quite preoccupied with getting her bearings straight, smiled back and assured her. despite her initial confusion regarding the young lady’s language.

The young lady in turn brought her focus back to her path, before noticing that all eyes were on her, and not in the way she’d wanted, upon noticing, she frantically scrambled to revert to her previous persona, forcefully adopting the serious stare she carried earlier.

Bell Fount stared, no , that would not work, a few of them had already seen beneath her mask, though the Unicorns thankfully been focusing elsewhere for the time being, He smiled back at her, as did most of the pegasus delegation, Noticing that her small ploy didn’t work she then dropped her stare, finally deciding to wave and greet in turn.

Taking a slight step forward, Font moved towards a companion of his, before stopping for a slight moment near her.whispering to her as he passed her by.

“They didn’t see that, so your guise might still work.”  Bell Fount said unsure as to  whether or not she could understand him.

With a nod of recognition, she moved forward, mulling over his words, before continuing on her way up once more.

………………..

“What was that about?” Rarity questioned curiously at the display she witnessed.

Charm was almost forced to pause mid stride, turning her head to Rarity she noted the confused and somewhat mirthful stare the unicorn gave towards her.

[“Oh just a bit of a heads up, though I don’t know how long it stays that way.”] Charm said trailing off quite a bit.

“Equish dearie, I still don’t get where you’re going.” Rarity said with a sigh placing a hoof to her temples at Charms rapid firing speech.

[“My little facade might still work, The Unicorns were focused elsewhere when I went to the pegasi,”] 

“Oh?” Rarity questioned tilting her head ever so slightly Charm couldn't help but to smile, confound these ponies they were so cute.

[“My little staring contest might’ve put them off for the time being.”] Charm couldn't help but chuckle softly, oh yes, quite put off indeed.

“Alright, we’re approaching the final delegation, I trust you’d continue this little game of yours?” Rarity said as she walked next to Charm.

[Why Rarity, you know me too well.”] She said with a smirk.

“And what was that with the colt before we continued on?” Charm blushed but shook her head and glared at Rarity.

[“I told you, he gave me a heads up on the Unicorns.”] She deadpanned towards Rarity. 

“Is that so dearie? seems to me that he was quite ‘Charmed’.” Rarity giggled into her hoof giving a soft snort.

[“Again with the puns.”] Charm grumbled unhappily while rolling her eyes but she couldn't help but smirk, she did love puns.

“Can’t pass up an opportunity dearie~!” Rarity sing songed.

Charm paused, not too far away was the Unicorn delegation, Her gaze settled, on them, though her gaze was firmly locked on those who were known for their.. flair and higher stature. She made sure to focus less on the lower houses, Noting that those ones or the most part didn’t deserve the various cold sweats she gave them earlier. 

Though with the gala about to start in full soon enough, and the fact that word would spread fast, Charm suspected that her little facade wouldn’t be as convincing for some.

They neared the delegation, only to falter slightly as Princess Celestia neared, Behind her two rows of guards stood, most likely a ceremonial formation.

The Princess neared, and Charm stood, brow raised in confusion, before widening, as the Princess stopped short oh her and bowed

“It is an honor to have you here Lady Feather.” Princess Celestia said with a polite smile, but a glint in her eye caught Charms attention.

Charm stilled, noticing something, her gaze narrowed, to the outside observer her face carried an air of grace, she bowed back, Her plan was halted, and she was so close to the delegation too...

Well played princess, well played…

“Tell me about it..” Star said disappointed. 

“Aren't you supposed to be fixing the spell?”  Charm thought out curiously hoping Star wasn't being lazy, a smack was heard and a feeling of sheepishness felt out in her mind.

“Just checking…” A feeling of someone leaving the room and Star was back to work leaving Charm slightly confused.

The Princess then stood once more, before turning to the delegations,.

“Lady Feather has been having issues with her translation spell as of late, so it is quite a relief that she has decided to attend at all.” Celestia had said to the nobility as the nobles seemed to nod in agreement among each other.

She turned to the three. “Come, your tables by the balcony.” She said with a glint in her eye.

Damn, she was placing her somewhere obvious as well, not that it went against her plan, it just made for her to be a more obvious target for the various delegates to approach.



She bowed once more, before her and her small party accompanied the given guards to their designated table..

“Do you think she saw into your plan?” Stars voice suddenly echoed into her mind, Charm, startled by her voice nearly tripped, before regaining her balance.

Her head took a brief turn back, noting that the Princess Celestias eyes narrowed accompanied with a victorious smirk.

“I think so Star, I think so” She sighed out.

Their seats were taken, and after the last of the guests was seated, the Gala was officially, started…

Charm moved, shifting her gaze to her two companions.

[“So… now what?”] Rarity looked to Lyra, and with a smirk the two started planning, leaving Charm out of the conversation.

…….

Noticing that Charm Feather was suddenly and literally in the spotlight, Lyra Heartstrings whispered something into the pegasus ears. 

["Singing? Are you insane?"]  Charm Feather said and Rarity translated.

"Hello? Big fancy event here, we usually have singing and at least one musical in one of these. See my cutie mark? Is music based, I know what I am talking about."

The pegasus then turned to look at Rarity ["Please tell me you are not okay with this."]

"Sorry Charm dear, but I actually think is a good idea."

'And you have a beautiful voice.' Guiding Star added, making the chestnut pegasus blush. 

["But even if I do it, how that works for my intro?"] Rarity translated that.

"Just sing how you feel, make it come from your heart, don't try to make it an art, it doesn't matter what you say, only Rarity can understand you now anyways." Lyra said and winked

…..

While she sang the song, Charm couldn't help but smirk a bit, while the lyrics seem kind of ordinary to her, the ponies around her seemed almost smitten.

One thing the elves in Nirn were, an that is they have lovely singing voices. 













…..

"That… that was beautiful." Lyra said in awe.

While no pony but Rarity, and certain spirit understood the song, she had sang with such a passion, with such a heart, and with such a lovely voice that everypony clapped their hooves together. Charm noticing the crowd of onlookers meeps at the sudden attention and her ears lowered as she looked out towards the many ponies now paying attention to her. Even if it was her idea she was never prepared for being center of attention. 

Celestia found herself crying a single tear for some reason, that song, it touched her heart, she didn't know why, maybe it was a song about loss?

Rarity had to plant her hooves firmly in the ground to avoid breaking protocol and hug her friend. 

> Summer Gala part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 17

Not that Gala part 2 end

With a wave of goodbye to the Princess and Lyra, I closed the doors to our carriage, a quick mention of direction, followed by a few bits to the carriage driver and we’re off in the air.

Outside, out the window lays the City of Canterlot, watching it rushed past, her mind elsewhere, rather than on the glamorous grass filled mansions and villas of the wealthier districts, or the slightly less spacious but still open upper districts, and the quite cramped apartments of the lower spaces.

It doesn’t really seem all that strange to me, the rush of it all, one moment you’d find yourself talking to some nice gentle-stallion, and another you’d be deflecting the advances by some colt who wants to show off.

My concentration faltered however, when the sound of snoring filled the carriage.

Looking down I found Charm, near haphazardly sprawled on the other carriage seat. Her tiara, still unblemished and as new as ever seemed to shine in contrast to Charms dishevelled state.

Charm for the most part was a considerate sleeper, though the snoring was a point, though I had never really found the snoring to be that much of a problem, it was rather cute in a way. She just never gave much problems to deal with. No haphazard sleeping positions in odd places, no sleepwalking, no incidents.

But with the previous events, I'd find it hard to NOT justifying her haphazard and dishevelled state. After all, it wasn’t as if we had an easy time at all.

[{=o=}]

The Gala had begun, and though the princess’s speech had kicked off the event, alongside signalling the beginning hour, I had heard no other topic spreading through the crowd aside from my friend. My friend had remained somewhat blissfully oblivious to her increasingly growing popularity. Not that I would have wanted to ruin her night by telling her. The word just kept on spreading, pony to pony, table to table, delegate to delegate.

‘Honestly I don't think even Charm thought this would happen.’ I thought aloud as I listen in on noble’s conversations while I made my way through the crowds to gage their reactions while I make my way to the snack table spread with Charm following a ways back.

“Did you see that young lady?” One noble lady tittered into her hoof. Upon closer inspection I find that she was wearing the ostentatious piece in the gala. Most of her outfit seemed imported from foreign seas with bright red and swirling green and gold. “She seemed to have stolen the show! Talk about being rather bold!”

“Yes, she’s quite the charmer if I do say so myself.” Another noble lady commented as she eyed Charm from afar.

Charm on her end of things seemed to be busy looking anywhere but the gala itself, she busied herself with inspecting the pattern on the tablecloth, then the carving on the table, then the embroidery on her own dress, then the tapestries, never really keeping her focus on one thing for long. She had followed me to the snack table and had helped herself to some of the more fancy spreads while destroying chocolate with gusto, although refrain herself from making a mess of her dress in the process.

All in all she looked like a diplomat’s or a merchant's daughter, too busy trying to focus on something else while dearest father was busy settling with matters of business. Still, it did lend aid to her cover story, though I wonder if her staring at the moonlight now and again out of the window near the table might attract other kinds of attention. I could not help but chuckle at the wistful look Charm is throwing at the freedom of the night sky. ‘She does love her flying.’

Lyra for the most part sat on her end of the table, though her eyes seemed glued to a thousand places at once, first to her current location, then to the fountain of wine a few tables away and finally to Charm. Who was too busy pretending to be fascinated with the patterns on the tablecloth to notice anything else happening. ‘Although that's her effort on not listening in on the fact most conversations were on her.’ I rolled my eyes while my ears flick to the continued sounds of conversations while I listened in discreetly

“I’ve seen her shopping for some silk in the Market district!” That had caught my attention, Silk was expensive, and a roll of the stuff costs hundreds, where had she been getting that kind of coin? Never mind finding somepony who would sell silk in a large enough amount to make a whole dress from it, most cloths are made from a magically created synthetic material that simulated the texture of silk.


However now that I think about it it's not too farfetched that Charm could get such materials, she does have a business of her own with some hefty buyers, *cough Celestia cough,* that is one way on how she managed to pay for her expensive dress. With ingredients from the Everfree she charges a fairly high price for her potions.

While potion craft is rather common subject, Charms is more magical in the fact that they are fast acting potions that instantly imbue their effects.

I’m not very familiar in the field of what she does now, but I do know she had enough plant samples and seeds to re-grow the more exotic plants from her homeland in the Everfree.

But that's change in compare to her enchanting skills. A lot of ponies had shot down the idea she was an enchanter and had dismissed her work. She had to lie to make any profit on items that were deemed a hoax. Lyra being a unicorn and a friend had volunteered her services in selling the fact she was the enchanter rather than Charm, it was a boon and many customers flock to the superior chanted items.

Still this doesn’t mean money isn’t going to be tight for some time though, as most of the money made goes to rent, shipping, materials and specialized equipment as well as ores, to be in used for most of those things as they are very expensive skills with very expensive ingredients in need.

“Silk? Oh my how Exquisite.” One of the more fashion savvy nobles commented before fanning herself seeming to excuse herself as she made known of her own perches on the rather expensive material. I rolled my eyes shaking my thoughts away from depressing thoughts. On closer inspection her comments were warranted, as her fan seemed to be silken whenever the light shone on it I could see come gold imbued into the wire frame of the no doubt really expensive and impractical item.

“I believe I do see a one Miss Heartstrings, my they must be close friends the way they are acting.” Lyra isn't a household name but anyone could point her out as the ‘Enchanter genius’ from a crowd. Personally I find it rather unfair and diminish Charms efforts and hard work.

The conversations droned on, though I paid most of them no mind, Charm for the most part was content in looking around with a smile on her face, ‘no doubt enjoying the chocolate, one would wonder how long it had been since she had the stuff, to pretty much pig out on them.’ Perhaps this night would be good for her after all.

Once again I moved to see to the rest of the crowd. The floor was open now, though the dancing wouldn’t happen for quite some time. Most of the guests were just mingling, perhaps following up on some unfinished business in some cases.

I raised my ear as one particular conversation that caught my attention.

“Did you see her?” Whisper an earth pony mare to the mares.

“That tiara though… it looked like it was woven...” Swoons another mare impressed at the rather elegant piece of jewellery.

“What about her mane? I thought it looked rather exotic.” One noble mare said aloud as she eyes Charms custom made hair job with a measuring gaze approving on what she sees.

“That dress was very well done as well.” Another mare said who was also sizing the dress Charm was wearing.

“Last I heard, some families were pushing for their sons to make a good impression.” That… was disconcerting, though I couldn’t help but laugh quite a bit. The idea of Charm being left to fend off that rabble was equal parts intriguing and disturbing. ‘It’s best if I return to my table now.’ I decided.

“That stare… it was rather ruthless.” Whispers a unicorn colt who seemed to be a student here, ‘I recognize him he must be a year ahead of me.’ I had wondered I thought while watching them distance themselves from the herd of mares looking rather uncomfortable from Charms entrance and rather cold demeanour.

“She didn’t seem so cold to my folks.” A pegasus colt shrugs not at all that impressed at his friend's behaviour as it's rather common for most military family pegasi to be rather harsh with military discipline, he personally believes that this mare was falling back to habits due to the attention attracted towards her.

“Well it is rather expected she seems a more down to earth pegasus then most who much prefer anything relating to the sky such as the Wonderbolts. Her outfit seems to reflect that being as she may probably have a more favourable view towards you earth ponies.” He points at one of his friends next to him who chuckled.

“The way she walked around though… That's definitely pegasus pride, I believe she may be of a military family the way she moves.” One pegasus colt helpfully pointed out to his friends interrupting anything the Earth pony may had said.

It is true that Charm is a trained warrior of sorts, she reflects this in her movement, not a ounce of her movement is wasted the way the colt looks at her he had noticed it. I couldn't help the amused grin, it's rather funny when Charm catches the eyes of most colts, at our age it isn't out of the realm of possibilities that they be dating, however Charm doesn't show much interest in that.

I couldn't help but to sigh at that, at least her rather foolish facade of hers ended. Even if it worked she had already captured the floor as it were. Though rumours of the cultural bias and other such aside. Charm just seemed content to watch as the proceedings go on.

Finally making my way to her after slowing down to listen in on conversations around the ballroom I greeted Charm with a smile. “Well dearie, how did it go~!” I sing song throwing a smile Charms way.

I turned my focus back to Charm who looked back with a smile of her own, off to her side Lyra was busy doing her own thing, though for all intents and purposes the sea green unicorn seemed to be enjoying the role of hoof maiden.

[“Nothing for the most part… some of them are just keeping a short distance for the time being. Better for me really, the sooner this is done the sooner we get to end this.”] Charm said seeming exhausted by the party, while I had grown used to such things. Charm mostly enjoys small get together rather than a big party hard kind of pony. [Although I love the fact I get to indulge on the chocolate here! Not as good as Pinkie pies though, but I enjoy it none the less.]

I gave her a bright smile I was happy for her, she hardly seem to enjoy herself now a days, to busy training with her powers to really indulge in luxurious items to often. It would seem that Charm’s little facade was all for naught. While she can in fact pull the looks off, she just isn't the type to keep it up, although that had left her with some rather exquisite clothing, and a fair bit of attention. That I’m sure she would rather pass to somepony else. Although once we go home I’m going to hang her dress on a ponyquin it's a work of art and would really liven the shop quite a bit.

“Now come on, she’s right there, all you have to do is make nice with her~!” I heard at the edge of my hearing as ponies made their way to us. I turn my head to see who it was.

Ah, it’s those ponies again, off to the side one would be hard pressed to miss the more affluent families, some of whom merely attended these functions out of reputation than actual business.

This gala was mostly thrown for the students and their accomplishments in the school, but really it’s just another ball for the adults to brag or show off then anything, what I know of is that Celestia only attends because she is genuinely here to show her pride of the students who pass.

The group moved forward. Hum one middle sister, two elder sisters, a pushy mother, probably meant for gathering information.

Leaving Charm with them as her language acts as a shield from them from getting any answers besides polite greetings in that magical language of hers.

Rarity sees she was being waved by a servant, she was told to approach Princess Celestia, nodding at the servant she slowly approached the Alicorn before her, the Alicorn who for the most part remained ever watchful, and her gaze always sweeping over the assembly as a whole in one way or another. In front of her levitated a simple glass of wine. It was encased in a golden aura which should be obvious. Celestia simply took small sips, giggling to herself in long intervals.

Rarity pondered her options, on one hoof there was much opportunity for engaging in polite conversation with her peers, and though she knew for a fact that the majority of those in attendance had enough pedigree to simply scoff in her face and leave, many of those in attendance were of the Lower nobility, and probably kind enough to listen to her for a minute or two.

Relax Rarity. This is the princess, the kind benevolent princess.

Steeling herself, and unintentionally wiping sweat from her brow in the process she moved forward. Mindful of how the Princess’s gaze flickered towards her for a brief moment, before returning to the scene before her.

She had barely made it to within a dozen paces near her when one of the cushions surrounding the monarch glowed, levitated for a fair bit and settled itself next to the Alicorn.

Celestia’s eyes moved to have her in their sights, before glancing to the cushion. Taking that as invitation the white unicorn moved to take a seat, silently surprised at the softness.

“Surprising isn’t it?” The Princess asked, before taking a sip. “I had them imported from the east.”

Rarity’s eyebrow rose, The East? She wondered. There was nothing but sand there, and the occasional oasis kingdom, At least, that’s what she thinks is there anyways.
“Not there dear, further east, past Rub Al Khalid- that is The Endless Desert.” She imparted her knowledge with a smile.

Rarity nodded silently, before looking back at the princess, her eyes roamed the palace hall, settling upon one group or another randomly, though her eyes always lingered on one individual in particular.

Charm sat off on the other end of the veranda, a rather content Lyra with her, not too far away, several sets of noble parents continued to push their heirs to at least introduce themselves.

“Strange- for one to find enough silk for such a dress, even stranger would be her jewelry.” The Princess looked to Rarity, eyebrows raised. “I don’t suppose you had any hoof in their creation?”

Rarity shook her head. “A friend of mine had helped with the dress, Charm provided the materials and design I believe, her tiara and her other jewellery were something I believe she commissioned herself.”

“Oh you don’t say?” The Princess said seemingly disappointed for some unknown reason.

“Perhaps I could inspect it myself, her translation spell is basically gone correct?” Rarity nodded to confirm her highness. As well as a well performed a conversational social dodge that Rarity had not noticed not being too well versed in the machinations of politics. “Perhaps the Jewel smith has left his mark on one of her pieces? “She pondered placing a hoof on her chin in contemplation.” Maybe I’d even commission a new crown.” She said rather smug at Rarity’s scandalized look. She had been in the market for new crowns, ones that aren’t overpriced piece of junk that wouldn't really work well with her figure.

“Gasp, truly?” Rarity said sarcastically while sounding scandalized after all the crown she wore has been the same one for thousands of years, or at least a copy of the original.

“Of course, besides, the pattern does look as if the tiara was woven, it may very well have been.” Celestia said, she was rather impressed at the impressive original crown, nowadays most tiara are over gaudy things with too much gems and gold that it had made the crown to heavy to be practical. As well as not really for her taste very well. As would with most ponies who wore such a thing. However she is really impressed at Charm for stepping out from the norm of most ponies especially pegasi who wear more uniform outfits then fancy dresses.

Rarity sat, noting the glint in the Princesses eye, one that focused on the chestnut mare, who was currently enjoying a glass of wine, courtesy of Lyra, who smiled as she poured herself a fair bit too.

“Though she does seem a bit cold doesn’t she dear?” Princess Celestia remarked, taking another sip.

Rarity chuckled “She’s not used to being social your grace, aside from Lyra and I, pending Fluttershy she barely speaks to anypony else.” Rarity was very sure it was her more advanced mature attitude that was the cause hanging around those who she feel is younger than her made for isolation at best worse a hermit.

“What a shame then.” The princess sighed, seeing to much of her own sister at then she liked and determined to fix that.

Rarity nodded, before moving to sip her tea.

“Though I suppose-” Celestia said her mind already thinking of things with a smile towards the young mare.

Rarity’s brow raised at that, “Suppose what your grace?” Try to follow along what she was saying she opted out on taking another sip of her tea rather curious about what her monarch is thinking.

“-I suppose it would be a bit eventful if something were to happen would it not? A counter rumour to deal with the distance all the others are showing her.” Celestia said a twinkle in her eye ever stronger.

Rarity blinked for a few moments, before feeling the beginnings of a grin forming, as improper at that may have been at the moment, the princess held a similar grin of her own.

“Yes, indeed your grace, indeed, may I then ask what story you had planned for Charm?”

“Well- “ Celestia started, mulling to herself quite a bit, taking a bite of some scones a servant had presented to her. “-I did have her listed as an ambassador's daughter and given the usual fuss, and her apparent difference, it held up well.” The princess finished.

“I suppose then it wouldn’t be too much trouble to let loose that her father has fallen ill-” Rarity started as the gears began to turn in her mind.

“-and that he wouldn’t be able to join his dear little daughter for the gala.” Celestia finished both of them giggled for a while, before quieting.

“My little pony, I think you and I will have to meet like this more often.” Celestia spoke smiling at the young mare, she seemed to make for a good adviser who would tell it to her straight when she is messing up rather than agree with whatever she says, as well as one who wouldn't be so serious and make a joke every once in awhile.

Rarity smiled in return. “I surely do hope so your highness.” Unaware of the thoughts in Celestia's mind she continued to smile pleasantly at Celestia.

“Not Your Grace?” Celestia asked curious at the younger mare.

“With all the planning I’d think that being graceful is the least attribute you have on you at the moment.” Rarity responded, bowing before leaving for her friend.

“A rather clever child one,” Celestia whispered, chuckling to herself. She bade a servant to come near, whispering into the servant's ear, before biding her to spread the news around to the rest of the serving staff.

Yes, the counter rumour would be known within the hour.

The little pegasus would learn to have fun with others, one way or another.

…

Charm sat in thought for what seemed to be the umpteenth time that night, Lyra had kept the wine pouring for a short while, before noting that perhaps it wasn’t wise to inebriate both herself, and made off to find some other beverage she could bring back to the table.

Wine is legal here, well for minors however my first time drinking ever I won't get into the habit, drinking alcohol is a home wrecker in the relationship in my opinion.

While in her musings she notices small things in play around her. Right on the corner of her sight at times, the servants would speak amongst themselves, some of them occasionally taking a glance in her direction, before making some distinct sound of what seemed to be sympathy, then looking away. ‘I know not why, but I shouldn't let it bother me there are bound to be many rumours around by now.’

Shortly after that she began to get the same looks from a few others, and then the guards, and soon enough most of the guests in her radius seemed to look on her one way or another.

Then the dance requests began to pile up.

Although she wasn't fully aware of all this right away as she was too busy trying not to be noticed, to some degree of failure not of her doing. But she had picked up on subtle cues she had learned from Guiding stars social etiquette lessons.

Now she had a whole line of dance partners and she didn't even know how to dance!

‘Oh by the Nine what is going on?’  She muttered to herself as a worrying feeling crept up her spine.

…

“Was this the Princesses doing?” Rarity wondered to herself, nearby another colt found her was looking at the situation with some manner of amusement.

“I suggest you take a look at the balcony for the answer to that question.” The colt muttered, Rarity decided to take his advice, looking to the balcony.

Her eyes met Celestia’s, whose eyes were filled with mirth, and was staring at the chestnut pegasus while fending off giggles.

The colt got up, making to move towards the situation. “I think that’s my cue to move in, the young lady seems a tad bit confused as is.” He expressed his worries.

“I suppose I’ll go with you then- ah! I'm sorry what your name is?” Rarity responded, making to step forward.

“Pants.” He smiled smartly holding himself rather proper. “Fancy Pants.” He nodded his head. “Shall we miss?”

Rarity smiled rather charmed by the older stallion. “Rarity belle, a pleasure.” she greeted.

“Charmed” he returned as they walked and talk.
…

‘Okay, I don’t speak their language. The closest pony I have to backup is off looking for something that isn’t Wine.’ Charm thought to herself now in distressed at the crowd around her and unable to ask for space.

A smartly dressed stallion, ‘if wearing a tie and having a rather overly groomed mane is being smartly dressed, but I guess for ponies it's overdressed for them.’ She thought amused feeling a little relaxed as the crowd parted around him. ‘He must be important to warrant such a reaction.’

Clearing his throat as he bowed to her, making her feel rather flustered at the action.

“Greetings I am blue blood,” The colt said smiling as he grabbed her foreleg and gave it a rather sloppy kiss, however she just knew she was not going to like him, being rather straight forward with his now obvious flirting. “I am sure it is a pleasure to meet one as important such as I.” Yup she didn't like him one bit.

Sighing over the top at his rather rude behaviour at her obvious discomfort as he drones on about being so, so, so important. She interrupted his rather self serving speech, getting a rather perplexed and offended look from him.

[Look I'm sure you're just being nice and all. But I don't feel like socializing right about now, if you could understand me I'm sure you would be kind enough to leave me alone.] If he doesn't get the hint I'm sure it's just a language barrier thing. With a wave I dismissed him, but he grab hold of my hoof startling me at his rather forceful approached, I was not really used to something’s like this. If I were human I’d had flipped him over and onto his back at the look he was giving me.

It was true being human I had studied plenty of martial arts, them helping with my survival whenever I ended up in a fight in Nirn. I wouldn't call me the strongest person, but I will lay someone twice my size, twice my strength, and twice the skilled with a sword on their back and defenceless, if I was approached with ill intent.

With most people's strongest unarmed attack being to hit you as hard as you can overtop telegraph haymaker had made it easy to counter.

But being a pony with only mild training in said body I had no idea what to do, while I had retain some strength and reflexes from my training back in Mundus I however am rather perplex on what to do now. See while I had been training I was more focus on my other forms and my movement in this body rather than the grapple styles of combat, although I am now regretting that. So I couldn't prevent myself from being dragged forcefully to the dance floor, only my wings flared out in alarm as he brought me into a two legged dance that was grudgingly simple enough to follow along.

But I could not hide my anger from my face, I said no, sure he may had taken my hoof wave as a invitation, sure I could had just shook my head if he had trouble understanding that. But when someone tries to stop following you and protesting by pulling back you stop what you're doing you jerk! Were the many thoughts I had on the matter as I watched my footing to try not fall down and make a fool of myself, I was still rather panicked at being the center of attention.

I saw Rarity who I could see she was accompanied by a stallion herself, but she looked rather panicked at something I figured it was me, but a hoof under my chin brought me out of my wandering thought, my eyes following to the face as he leans to me, and I got a mouth full of tongue.

My eyes could not be any higher as my breath was stolen from me, my shock evidence enough as I stared wide eyed as many conflicting thoughts went through my mind. ‘A guy was kissing me! A. Guy. Was. Kissing. Me! Why. The. heck?!’ Was one of the examples of what was going through my mind.

Frustrated and scared of my conflicting emotions I couldn't think up anything to say, to do or anything at all! So I ran from the ballroom tears in my eyes my thoughts confused.

…

Oh dear, was all that was going through Rarity's mind as she watches her friend run off. The Colt who had stolen a kiss seemed rather satisfied with himself. “Well, she must be a pure innocent at heart to be so moved to tears by my kiss.” He boasted to the crowd of his fans.

‘That isn't it you moron!’ Was what Rarity wanted to say but restrain herself from attacking him out of anger.

Fancy Pants next to her could do nothing but shake his head in bewilderment “That colt is going to be a hooful to hand when he grows up with that attitude.”

Somehow Rarity knows it to be true as she made her way to Charm who had made her way to the Gardens out back excusing herself from Fancy Pants who nodded in understanding and left.

The sight she walked into was a scary sight, Rarity had seen many things from Charm, from amazing awe inspiring magic her craft in alchemy and how she sometimes warm up to strangers and rather insightful advice in social interactions with her friends.

But she had never seen Charm angry or furious. But she can now say she had seen her enrage as with what looked like a considerable and impressive amount of strength lifting a boulder above her tiny frame and making her way to the ballroom with the most angered face she had seen on her.

Startled momentarily she exclaimed in shock. “Oh! My goodness!! What are you doing with that?”

[I’m going to kill him!] She yelled out holding the large boulder above her, Rarity now noticing a trail of her hoof prints leading further into the garden where she had gotten her giant murder instrument.

Delicately Rarity place a hoof on her withers catching Charms attention and drawing her eyes to Rarity, seeing the tears in her eyes showing her distraught and despair had brought a twinge in her own heart at the sight.

“I know it may seem like a good idea, but doing so you will come to regret it dear, I know I would want to kill him for doing this to you but just please, put down the rock.” Rarity said soothingly even though it was true she did want to hurt the colt that had hurt her Charm, with great effort she drop the rock and sat next to it and sobbed.

Placing herself next to the sadden mare Rarity rubbed her back, there they remain till a sea foam green mare trotted in hesitantly and sat down next to them. “I’m sorry I wasn't there to stop him.” Lyra said morosely as she stared off to nothing as both of us listened. “I-I abandoned you to the crowds when I should had been the one to defend you from them.”

A wing wraps around the saddened mare and brought her close to her, [I hold no grudge against you Lyra I- right can't understand me.] She turned to Rarity for help.

“She said it's ok, and that it wasn't really your fault, we were all rather caught off guard by that colt’s action.” At that she sighed. ‘It was looking to be a rather amusing evening as well, but I guess not everypony would fall into place like in movies or novels where everything seems to go accordingly to plan, goes to show reality can really pop up and surprise you with rather seemingly innocent things.’

Standing up she offered an alternative to the evening, “I saw a new shop opened selling pastries of all things opened at this hour, shall we make like a tree and leave?” She chuckled at the unanimous vote in yes as everypony's stomach growls at the mention of food.

In the end they all had fun.

....

It had been an hour the bustling of the cart had broken her musings of the gala, allowing her to waken Charm as they make it back home, she waved a goodnight to Charm who no doubt had shrugged off her dress and is now already asleep in mid fall onto her bed.

She checked on Sweetie belle who was asleep in her own bed, unknown to her Sweetie jolted awake the moment she had entered her room, listening in and keeping a single scrunched eye on her till she had left the room, now going back to sleeping and dreams of the past.

…

HA!

Tonk

HA!

Tonk

Ha!

Tonk…

I panted as I had punched the tree, I was wearing my full gear of armoured robes and leather hind boots, I just didn't feel comfortable being so exposed anymore.

The image of a certain white coated unicorn stallion leaning down on me, pinning me in his hooves in my compromising position as he kissed me, the image had cause an unholy rage to allow me to stand back away from the tree.

I hadn't been all that angry in life. Sure I get upset or mad, but fury? I would lying if I said I hadn't been that angry before, but it happened so rarely that afterwards I feel sick and exhausted from the ordeal.

So here I am now, far enough away from the town that none of the ponies would come this way, but still close enough that I can still see it. I resume my attacking of the tree, I didn't buck the trees like the farm ponies do down at the farm here do. That would leave my back side exposed to be exploited, a more agile foe could take advantage of my exposed rear, then I’d be on the defensive and I did not like that idea at all.

I had learn, that while I may be in fact, in a new body, younger, and have to grow up all over again, doesn't mean I have a new preference to the other sex, sure I may have… enjoyed it. Only a little bit. I hadn't had such attention brought onto me for years but that doesn't mean anything, what I was truly angry at… was the fact I was so helpless.

I had learn I been taking it easy for a long while, getting fat and lazy in my training, I used to at least train in the blade arts in Skyrim everyday, and have at least three other spars with Leona, here I hardly pick up the blade and only do short adventures into the dangerous forest for a camping trip in my usual spot.

Sure Equestria is peaceful I had learned it's like it was back home before my adventures.

But this place has its own danger that isn’t human made. Monsters live here, this should be obvious, I had heard stories of towns just going dark overnight of how small towns like Ponyville isn't the only place near some dangerous location, heck I had considered joining the Militia here in an effort to defend the town better.

Although even with my cutie mark I had to be required to learn how to handle a spear, as it seems to be the iconic symbol of the pony army since swords is impractical for a quadruped species.

I sighed, wasn’t important right now, it’s for the future, right now I still felt shivers go down my spine over what happened.

I hate feeling helpless, for years I been at the whims of higher beings so powerful, I cannot scale them as anything more than gods.

From Sheogorath to Vaermina, to the lesser Dremoras I been at the mercy of these terrible creatures, and I hated it. I thought I managed to escape that, reached a plane of oblivion that isn't populated fully of Daedric Princes and Dremora.

It’s not in the realm of possibility that Equestria may have their own version of them, who are manipulating everything behind the scenes, heck everything that happened here could be their doing.

Celestia could be a avatar of such beings, a rather uncomfortable prospect to tell the truth.

Skyrim was a real eye opener to such thoughts, heck I’m a believer in the supernatural now, I live threw them how could I not?

Oh, seems I’m crying, I just can’t help thinking on how useless I feel now. Yeah the truth of the universe can drastically change your outlook on your naivety on life.

“God I’m getting too old for this.” I muttered calming down some as I can hear someone approaching. I figure my smacking the trees and yelling so loudly had attracted attention.

Turning my head I see it is Fluttershy, she wore a look of concern upon seeing me in full gear.

She is a good friend of mine, while my mental age had made me dominant in our friendship and I had pretty much strong armed her into self help courses for self esteem building.

She is still shy, but she no longer timid when it comes to speaking her mind now.

If I had followed Rainbow Dash's suggestion she would be scarred for life and scared of anything that even so much as look at her general direction, the poor dear.

She landed and proceeds to hug me, I had guessed Rarity had filled her in, or is hugging me because she sees I am sad, I’m not fully sure. But it's consoling regardless, it doesn't however doesn't mean I hadn't stiffen at her touch, or blush at the fact this isn't the first time she had hugged out of the blue like this.

So I told her what was wrong, up first she thought the prince was charming, but after I had told how I knew he was just doing it for bragging rights to his friends, and the fact he had stolen a very unwanted kiss had set her emotions from stun to kill when she expressed her anger.

Fluttershy is like this adorable friend one would have that you just can't help but pet their manes and have a good hearted chuckle, even if they are showing so much anger to an individual.

She puffed her cheeks when I had pet her mane as she looked rather miffed at being pat like she was a pet, although she doesn't discourage such an action.

I really needed that, I guess I had let it get to me, doesn't mean I wasn't going to stop training however.

Besides it's good exercise, and if something were to happen that I needed to defend myself I’d rather be able to give it a black eye.

Now that I have calmed down me and Fluttershy are in a comfortable silence just enjoying the nature around us. She turned to me and spoke.

“I was wondering, Rainbow and I are going to a summer flight camp to improve our flying, do you want to join us?” She asked and I put some thought into it, I do need to improve my flying, it is a great way to learn how to control my pegasus magic more better.

“Sure, sounds like fun.” I agreed and we hanged out for the rest of the day.

It turned out to be a great day.

Chapter End...

> Chapter 18 Summer Break
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter Eighteen 

Summer Break

Rarity was currently at home in Canterlot doing some cleaning in an effort to stave off the madness that is Charms non-existent cleaning habits honestly that mare needs to pick up after herself. 

Where the heck did she even get fish this far inland to have it just laying around!

With disgust and a note to berate the mare of this later her thoughts drifted elsewhere.

She had plans for the summer, everything is perfectly laid out! 

Some light study to keep her skill sharp, some alchemy to keep their stores stock.

Then it's off to the beach! Meet some colts who would be willing to pay for their meals! Less spend on such things mean more to spend on other stuff! She could hardly wait!

Then.. disaster struck.

Charm flew down the stairs, looking ragged, as it was early in the morning, she doesn't do mornings all that well.

Or afternoons for that matter.

Crash!

Charm had knocked over a bookshelf in her haze and flopped down onto the ground with a groan.

With little effort she just lifts up the shelf and its contents back into place. Yay magic!

While she could be a decent flier when she tries, the truth is that Charm just doesn't have the grasp of her pegasi magic all that well, if that was even possible.

She can fly in a loose term as she uses her wings to fall with style as Rainbow calls it.

But she tends to struggle flying up to gain altitude or traveling very fast in a straight line. Without hurting herself at least, breaking in midair is also a hazard.

Charm proceeds to set up a simple meal for breakfast then looked over at her. 

“M’ning.” She mangled the equestrian language to greet you, zombies do exist and they aren't morning ponies. I just shrug and smile with a nod.

Eating her oats and milk, she proceeds to ignore my cleaning efforts.

Once she had eaten and had waken enough to be a thinking and living creature among us again she perked up by a lot.

That's how the morning went as I give some light nods to her as she mingled around the house.

Then the subject came up.


“Oh right Rainbow had invited me to join her in summer flight camp, I thought it be a good way to sharpen my flying skills my lots so I just agreed, I should be gone for most of the summer although we do get the rest of the month off before summer ends.” She smiles brightly at me and all my hopes of a beach summer holiday just flew out the window as Charm prepares to leave.

“Ooh that's good news! I had been noticing on how you needed such lessons, after all, birds may learn by being thrown out of the nest doesn't mean you can't always learn to sharpen what you already know.” is my smile straining? I can't tell if I'm straining it!

With that Rainbow Dash had just derailed her whole plan to get Fluttershy and Charm to join her in at the beach. It just wasn't fair!

Rarity definitely wasn't happy about this, she wanted to join in with her sister and friend, at least then she wasn’t totally alone. Maybe she shouldn’t have wait for so long to tell Charm, she tends to jump at opportunities when presented to her, in fact I don't think she ever reacted well to surprises now that I think about it.

Guess she could hang out with Lyra however Lyra was only going to be there to keep her company for a little while. Lyra was just gonna be with her for only for a few days, as she already had plans for the Summer. 

But then again, she thought about her two friends who, were admittedly bad fliers, both Fluttershy and Charm could use more flying lessons. And she could go back to Ponyville after Lyra left, spend some time with her family and baby sister… and maybe talk with Zecora about some Alchemy lessons. 

With that thought she marched off to finish her work of keeping the house clean.

The madness that is dirty alchemy lab on the other hoof is another story.

She needs to get more armor plates to tackle that mess.

***

A few days had passed already… and already Rarity was bored out of her mind, Lyra has left to do her own thing for the summer while she was stuck at home to study, or lay around the house with nothing to do.

A really big problem for sure.

With an explosive sigh Rarity stood up from her prone position in the living room, she needs some kind of device to distract her when she doesn’t have anything better to do.

Even training would be boring for all she could do is repeat the same action for several hours, restoration is one of the more harder branches of magic. Really it's all about repeated practice however she doesn't have that kind of mana pool to handle it, which just means study would have to suffice for the time being, which brings her to this problem now. She didn't feel like studying right now.

So she watches Guiding Star make her way out of the room with a absent wave, even her ghost friend is bored enough to leave her.

She proceeds to lay back down in misery. Papers and other projects lay forgotten at her desk in her room.

Her baby sister was of not much help, she was a curious one always on the move, and checking things out. While adorable, it was tiring as all-get-out.

I hear hoof steps and I would investigate to find her in the kitchen, under the sink! She almost gave me a heart attack! I sigh, while I try to keep busy I really need to put a bell on her.

***

She was the dragonborn, she was a hero, she was an idiot. She sighed loudly, she was bored. She had missed him. Time was a funny thing, she guessed it had be nearly a hundred years after Zach had left, when she no longer was needed and at the end of her adventures in skyrim she would follow his path, a whole other world! Right for exploration to new things. So she decided to use an Elder scrolls to find her friend.

Somehow, that had ended with her being stuck for months in a dark and damp place and now, she was a baby. But not just a baby, a baby unicorn, a filly.

'I'm starting to be freaked out by these creatures, sure I am one now, but the way they treat me is as if I'm a bab- oh right I am…' She grumbled to herself in dismay.

A baby unicorn foal, at least I am still female, if I had been reborn the opposite gender, someone's heads was going to roll. 

This one, the white one is my caretaker, I haven't learned the language just yet, I wasn't blessed with instant translation.

Still, considering that she is younger than my new parents and that we are family, is most likely that she’s my big sister. She stated the obvious to keep her mind busy.

Today I plan to make a break for it, mostly to check out the general location, see if this land has any noticeable landmarks for me to use in the event of a dragon attack, I may be small and puny but I don't plan on being useless.

At last I still can use magic, but not all spells work, just the most basic ones, and my Dragonborn abilities seem to be locked away. Although I find it hard for it to be totally gone as it's pretty much my soul here.

'Oh look at the mighty Ponyborn! Such a cute baby girl!' A tick mark appeared as I scrunched my face in anger. 

"Hey who said that!?" I would had bolted upright to face the accuser and I would had loved to have said that out loud in anger. But all that comes out is baby gibberish. Then I had fallen on my face, muzzle.

A deep blue colored Unicorn wraith with impossibly long mist like mane flowing in a astral breeze appears before me and smiles as she leans in, I lean away to keep my distance from the spirit, as there is no other way to explain it as her ethereal appearance and the fact I can see though her. 'Does the name Eve sound familiar to you?' I nearly stumbled at the name, but my face remained stone face… if a baby fat face could accomplish anything beyond cute grumpy that is.

I square my shoulders as if ready to attack, all I accomplished was make the wraith coo at me, patting my cheeks, I nearly bit off the offending appendage if I knew it would do me any good."If you were Eve, you should be close to Zach." I barked out… adorably.

Sheepishly she answers. 'I kind of cheated, I had also linked to Rarity, ah the white unicorn.’ She supplied an answer to my confusion. ‘I had played around with the amulet you had given to Zach. And Rarity is sleeping next door, you got her tired by moving around so much.'

"What? You can't do those things, that's not how it works!" At least to my knowledge, I'm rather ignorant of spirits from other realms and what she had told me back in Nirn.

'Really? First of all this land is not Skyrim, but then again magic works the same anywhere you would go, but however the rules are different, second had I not interfered, you could have ended being reborn as anything. From an animal, to a dragon to a griffon to a monster from the Everfree Forest. I literally guided your soul to the past so you would be reborn as Rarity's sister. I also had to, don't wanna explain why, let's just say time travel mechanics give me a headache.’ At that remark we both end up rubbing our foreheads at that, that's so true time travel is complicated.

“So what you are saying is that once you meet this Rarity mare parents, you sensed I was their unborn daughter, so you had to manipulate things so it actually happened to avoid a paradox? Or conflicting convergences?” It is kind of funny on how many big words I'm saying as a baby, it must sound adorable to most… much to my dismay. 

'What are you, a dictionary?' She snarked at me sarcastically.

"Lets just say Zach loved to talk about the most crazy of things and leave it at that." The baby unicorn said blushing. “I also have some experience with time travel, although I wasn't informed as much as he was. I handle the big picture stuff, point me in direction and I blow it up sue me.”

'Ah yes, she is such a crazy mare.' Wut?

"Wut? A Mare? What are you talking about?" I said rather confused at this sudden turn in the conversation.

'I won't say anything else unless we form a bond.' Eve said and Leona, Sweetie, could swear that she saw the weird unicorns mist like mane twinkle in such an odd way.

"You already have two ponies, wouldn’t three be a tad much?" I said to compromise I wasn't really knowledgeable in the arts of spirits after all.

'That is true. Maybe you could get a wolf summon?' She mused to herself tapping her hoof to her chin in contemplation.

"To what? Split the load between the two of us? I don't think that's how it works, by adding more a load to the link." I said matter-of-factly. 

'True, I guess you will have to learn the language the hard way…' She gave up and rub her forehead in frustration. 

I shrugged I’m too young to be able to speak full sentences anyways besides I can just picture the look on, um Charms face when I started showing some rather uncanny knowledge about her and the reveal. I waved off Eve as I started thinking up my big escape of this baby hell and explore the town.

*** 

I started in utter stupefaction, because Cloudsdale was amazing! The ponies have built a whole freaking city in the clouds! unbelievable. And they also make solid stuff out of clouds! 

With my feathers fully grown back, and Guiding Star insisting I should not cheat, I was learning to fly like a pegasus in the proper way. To my surprise I found out that I could actually manipulate the wind and my weight without casting spells, even if it was a lot harder. I guessed most pegasi must do it by instinct. 

Not everything was good, I had to leave my cloak behind, since there was no way to fly without casting spells with it on, but I had the blue jacket Rarity had made for me months ago. I also had to leave behind any potions, magical items or charms, as jewelry would make me appear to be too girly, and magic items would have caught attention since I am not a unicorn. 

'Quit complaining, how will you learn to be a pegasus if you keep using crutches?'

'You seem okay by helping Rarity to cheat by making it easier for her to memorize and practice spells.' I complained.

'Hush little sister, I do the same for you. But you need to train your pegasus abilities as much as you do your magic. Fluttershy has been trying hard without any of the advantages you have, and she is doing amazingly. Rainbow Dash is probably the faster flyer of her generation, and she also isn't cheating. Granted, her landings could use some improvement, but still. Plus you don't want to be a squishy wizard, do you?'

'Fine.' I went back to doing wings push ups. I hated to admit it but my big sister was right, since I became a pegasus and magic came to me easier I could not stop casting spells, even for simple things. Using my natural pegasus abilities was also less draining than casting spells, so I should really work on it. With Rarity's classes not starting back until the Fall, the shop potions restocked, and being stuck in a pegasi camp were my magic would not go unnoticed if I tried using it, it’s not like I had any other choice anyway. 

I kinda wondered how much Eve had changed when she became Guiding Star, had this worlds different magic system really affected her that much? How much was it also changing me? Would I become attracted to stallions? I shuddered at the thought. Using magic to become male just did not seem to work, due to apparently being a child of the Everfree. And I had noticed my magic being stronger there. Heck, my summons seemed to be their strongest the closest they were to the Everfree forest. 

But in the other hoof, would my new friends even accept me if I had went and changed into a colt one day? Being a pegasus mare… it felt right. I felt better than I ever had, been back on Earth, or as a third rate magus in Skyrim. 

Had I been offered a way back to Earth, back to not having magic, to leave my pony friends behind, I did not know if I would take it. 

I finished my wings push ups and went to drink some water. 

"Hey Charm, are you okay?" Rainbow Dash asked noticing my serious expression. 

"Yes, I was just thinking about… stuff. By the way Dash, how come you are in Ponyville if you are such a great flier and seem to think the place is too lame for you?"

"Eh… well… I am training to be weather mare there and… I kind of felt guilty for Fluttershy. I almost got her killed once. And when she left after that, I had to decide if being a hot shot flier was more important than my friend. 

Granted, I still want to be a Wonderbolt one day, but not if I have to dump my friends to do that." That was a surprising answer, but then again, Rainbow dash can do that to you by her hidden depth that she has.

Fluttershy reached over and pulled her into a hug making Rainbow Dash blush, as she nuzzles Rainbows cheek. "Dashie, I didn't knew you cared so much!" She cheered happily.

"Oh, look at those losers, hugging each other and stuff, is disgusting!" A voice suddenly said spoiling the mood.

******

Griffons, they were griffons, predators. So of course my first reaction was to scream and hide behind Rainbow Dash, the griffons laughed and said ponies were a bunch of wussies. Then they left because it was time for more flying lessons. Charm Feather had to hold Rainbow Dash by biting on her tail to avoid her friend starting a fight. 

It was stupid, I could go and face one headed hydra, talk down a hungry wolf, and was okay going to the Everfree Forest as long as Charm was with me, I could round house a bear and beat it into submission and fight Charm easily while dodging her spells. But as soon as I faced something dangerous that could actually talk I was a scaredy cat.  Well, that and dragons, but only somepony stupid would not be scared of a dragon. 

***

Not to far off in Ponyville Sweetie Belle sneezed.

"Oh my Sweetie, are you okay?" Rarity picks up her baby sister and looks her over, watching for any signs of sickness.

"I am okay." Sweetie Belle said in a squeaky voice at least try to, baby gibberish doesn't translates to well. 

Still I feel rather offended someone had struck my dragonborn pride! Grumpy baby unicorn filly is adorable and I grump again at that thought.

***

Charm glared at the disappearing griffons snorting in anger. “Ignore that lot Flutters they trying to prove they are the strongest, strong people don't need to prove themselves as strong, not to anyone.”


Fluttershy smiled at her friend, she always seemed to know what to say to cheer her up, her advice made perfect sense to her, she doesn't have to prove she is stronger than them, it only counts when it matters not anytime else.

“Besides its normally the weak ones who are the loudest.” At that Charm chuckled getting a nervous chuckle from Rainbow only to receive a head rub from the smaller pegasus playfully. “Ah don't worry about it Rainbow I know you are strong when it counts.” 

Rainbow dash couldn't help but return with a smirk and a challenging glint in her eye. “Heh if you're such a big shot lets race!”

With a chuckle I couldn't hold back I figured I'll join in the fun with my friends.

Softly I said. “I will join in to, um if that's ok with you two.”

I could tell Rainbow wanted to accept but hesitated, I know she is still hurt that she almost hurt me it was sweet so I couldn't help the mischievous of an idea that popped into my head and I yelled out.

“One,two,three,Go!” I took off surprising the two and gotten exclaims of ‘no fair’ for that as I took the lead.

It turned out to be a great first day of flight camp.

***

I almost crash during the flying lessons. As I clumsily avoided a collision with the cloud pylon.  

"Watch out loser." A rude pegasus colt said to his friends getting chuckles and sneered comments about how bad she was doing. Charm wished she had not promised to avoid casting spells during the camp, a well placed thunderbolt would shut up that jerk right quick.

It must had shown on my face on how I was getting angry at them, because my ever watchful companion had made herself known by flying next to me. "Come on Charm, just ignore it, please. " Fluttershy pleaded with puppy like dog eyes. 

I sighed it was hard to argue with Flutters, and boy does she know it. "Fine." This was gonna be a long Summer. Charm was glad that she had gained some resistance to cute, mostly by being a cute little pony herself. Because if she was still human she would be squealing like a little girl at how cute that was. Although Fluttershy was very effective at it.

Thinking about it, once Fluttershy became an adult, by pony standards, she would be quite beautiful. 

'Well, you sure got a good taste about mares, don't you honey?' My big evil sister was trolling me again, but secretly I had to admit that she was right. Still at least I only tended to admire the mares I knew, not just any cute mare I saw. 

Anyway I had to focus on flying or I would crash like Rainbow Dash tended to do. Even if in her case it was mostly because she tended to go way too fast to have any control over it. 

Unfortunately, apparently while a tad tomboyish looking, I was getting a few stares myself. Were we teenagers or something? Well Fluttershy apparently was, due to having longer legs and that, and I guess I got some attention just by hanging out with her. 

'This is gonna be torture.' Insults I knew how to deal with, compliments and colts wanting to date me? Give me a dragon to fight any day, it would be easier than this!  

*******
Sweetie Belle was hurt, she had tried to sneak outside, she had succeeded, but being so small she had instead had gotten tossed around by the busy streets of adults and Sweetie had found herself helpless, Rarity had then came to her rescue and had taken a potentially deadly blow for her.

Rarity had ran in front of a cart and push Sweetie out of the way and had broken her leg in the process.

She was brought to the hospital where she used her magic to heal her and then herself in a more sterile environment. 

Sweetie Belle stared at her big sister. She never had been in a family before like this. Rarity saved me. 

My big sister saved my life, in her eyes it was the tipping point. For so long she had been, that white unicorn. Never truly connecting with her as she felt like an intruder an invader. She loves me… she loves me enough to suffer what could had been fatal. It had all suddenly clicked, I have a family.

Walking across the room she looked at her big sister with big pleading tearful eyes, she stared at the older unicorn, without any hesitation she was picked up by her magic and hugged by her.

"Please.. please promise me you won't do any dangerously stupid stuff like that again sweetie, at least not until you are older and you have somepony to watch your back, okay?"

Sweetie Belle had started to cry, and Rarity consoled her. Leona did not know how to deal with this, her emotions were unstable and it had been a long time since she had been seen as weak and defenseless. But having a family, having a big sister that loved her, it had felt good. It gave her an unknown but comfortable warmth in her heart.

Where it would stay.

Chapter end.