The Misfits have dealt with many challenges in their lives, but when a threat emerges, it may take everypony to save Equestria.
Equestria is faced with a new enemy, one that may destroy the peaceful land, even Celestia is faced with difficulty and seeks those who will save Equestria.
Are The Misfits destined to save Equestria? No... but that won't stop them from doing the best they can to help.
Polite criticism accepted. Not a self-insert.
Previous knowledge of The Misfits is not needed, but it is recommended to read the prequel to better understand characters and events.
Equestria, a place of peace and harmony. One would normally think that everything would be similar and nopony would tease or mock one another if they had a difference. However if one were to think of such they would be wrong.
Enter, The Misfits, a team of ponies who want nothing more than to fit in, they wander Equestria in search of ponies like them who don't want to be shunned, but rather accepted. And it all started with one unicorn, Cyber System, who lost his magic in a lightning strike and became a scientific genius, making many inventions such as mechanical hands, a cart that can turn into a house when needed, and the first fully emotional and willful equine robot, Clockwork.
Of course he never did any of this alone, after all The Misfits only started with four members. Starting with Cyber, The Misfits gained ponies such as Dusty, a pegasus with a love for digging and a fear of heights; Fang, a pony who is a part of a newly discovered pony kind known as predator, which eat meat and have hunting instincts; and finally Mixy, a hybrid crossed between a pony and a changeling, one of the most feared and hated creatures in Equestria.
The routine was normal for The Misfits when it was just the four, they would enter a town, see if anypony needed their help, then leave all while keeping an eye out for Canterlot. However everything changed when they entered the humble town of Ponyville, where they met all kinds of new friends and arrived at Canterlot with the help of Princess Twilight Sparkle.
While at Canterlot, The Misfits showed their true potential to accept anypony by adding Solar Eclipse, a unicorn with the ability to control fire trough thought and emotions, however his anger makes him very dangerous and unpredictable; and Moonlight Shadow, a pony who controls darkness and shadows with a thought, however she keeps her origin a secret.
Time went on, and more problems were solved by saving the entire predator kind from a famine, along with the addition of Marine, a hippocampus princess; Pixel Berry, a very shy satyr; Laa-Mohr, who's curse brought bad luck and disasters wherever he went; and Clockwork, who was built not just by Cyber, but one of Cyber's closest friends, Lyra Heartstrings, who may have a slight human obsession, but her knowledge combined with Cyber's allows the two unicorns to do extraordinary things together.
However as much as they wanted to stay, The Misfits left Ponyville to continue their journey across Equestria, anxiously waiting for the day when they return, which may perhaps be very near after hearing about Twilight's new castle.
"Come on, guys!" Cyber said. "If we continue now, we'll reach Ponyville by this afternoon!" The ocean blue unicorn could hardly contain himself.
"Could we take a break at least? We're exhausted!" complained Dusty.
"Speak for yourself, I'm ready to go," Fang replied with a toothy smile, showing his sharp teeth.
"Not all of us are able to run non-stop, Fang," Eclipse argued. "Even Clockwork is exhausted," the albino unicorn pointed to the bronze body of Clockwork, which was turned off.
"He's not exhausted, just low on power," Cyber replied.
"Which is the same as being exhausted."
Cyber sighed, knowing he was beaten. "Alright, we can see Twilight's castle tomorrow," The Misfits sighed out of relief.
"Does anypony even have the energy to stand?" asked Mixy as she collapsed.
"I can manage," Moonlight said under her cloak. "Shall I gather some firewood?"
Cyber nodded. "Could you get some rocks to set up the base of the fire while you're out?" Moonlight nodded and trotted off.
"Hm? Are we stopping?" Pixel asked as she woke up from her nap inside the cart. The satyr became in clear view with her upper human body and white pony legs and wings, covered by a strawberry pink hoodie and dark blue denim pants.
"Just for a while, we'll be continuing for Ponyville by tomorrow," Cyber responded.
"Alright, anything I can help with?"
"Not at the moment, Moonlight's getting supplies for the fire."
"You think that it will be easy to make it?" asked Laa-Mohr.
"For the last time, Laa-Mohr, your curse won't cause a problem, and even if it does, we've got Eclipse." Eclipse rolled his eyes.
"Is Marine still asleep?" asked Fang.
Pixel nodded. "She's still in her tank, should I wake her up?"
Fang shrugged. "If you want to, it won't really matter, just tap on the glass."
"I thought she hates that," Dusty argued.
"She does, but nothing wakes her up better than that."
"Why do fish hate that anyway?" asked Laa-Mohr.
"Probably something to do with sound and vibrations," Cyber answered as Moonlight returned with a large container made of shadows that was full of rocks, wood and dry grass.
"If you're going to start speaking in science again, don't," Moonlight said as she presented the items to Cyber, who used all four hands to set up a campfire, once that was all set, they just needed to light it.
Cyber looked at Eclipse, who nodded and put his hoof on the dry grass, without any action and just from Eclipse's heat, the grass caught on fire and soon the wood burned in a steady glow.
"There we go, now to cook up dinner. Clockwork! Are you charged yet?" Cyber called out to the automaton, which instantly came to life and began moving.
"Oh dear, I may have overworked myself, that never happened before. Cyber is there something wrong with me?" Clockwork said as his screens that displayed eyes changed to express emotions.
Cyber smiled. "If there was something wrong, you would've known. Could you please wake up Marine? and get what we need for dinner while you're there."
Clockwork nodded and trotted to inside the cart, where not too long later he emerged carrying bags of ingredients such as flour, cheese and a few herbs. Next to him was Marine rubbing her head in pain and annoyance.
"How many times do I have to tell you to stop tapping on my glass?" Marine scolded as she used her fish tail to move her robotic hind legs that allowed her to walk and breathe on land.
"Calm down, Marine," Mixy said. "It's not going to kill you, is it?"
"Sure feels like it will," Marine grumbled as Cyber took the ingredients off of Clockwork's back as he got to work on dinner.
"So, you guys excited for Ponyville?" Fang asked.
"Yeah! I can't wait to beat Rainbow Crash," Dusty replied.
"Well, I'm going to ask Twilight about the weird events that were happening, like that Tirek guy."
"Oh yeah, what was the deal with him, anyway?" Eclipse said. "He sucked my magic from my horn and said it was 'spicy'."
"He said mine had a weird aftertaste." Laa-Mohr said.
"Mine apparently tastes like sandpaper," Moonlight said.
"And he said mine had an 'exotic taste'," Fang said. "What is wrong with him?"
"I don't know," Cyber said. "But did you see his face after he tried to take my magic?"
"No," replied Mixy. "We were too focused on you after he threw you and Clockwork against a brick wall."
"At least I softened your impact," Clockwork said.
"No, you didn't," Cyber replied, rubbing his back out of pain.
"Anyway, I still want to know what the deal was with that rainbow," Dusty said. "First some centaur takes my magic and my cutie mark, then later a rainbow appears and I can dig again."
"Maybe Rainbow Dash had something to do with it," suggested Eclipse.
Dusty scoffed. "If Rainbow Crash had something to do with that rainbow, I'll drink Marine's tank water."
Marine grimaced. "Eeewww, gross! Don't make me swim in your backwash just so you can make a bet."
Pixel snickered. "I'll be sure to get a cup for you, Dusty," Dusty rolled his eyes as Cyber finished up the dinner, which was a special food Lyra shared with them that each of the misfits could enjoy.
"Lyra really knows how to make good food," Fang said. "This pizza is amazing."
Cyber took a bite from his slice. "Lyra said that humans loved this food, they even put meat on it," Fang licked his lips at the idea.
"Humans ate meat?" asked Eclipse.
Cyber shrugged. "That's what Lyra said."
"If that's true, I wouldn't mind living with humans for a while," Fang said.
"I think Twilight told me about a portal that leads to a human realm, she didn't tell me anything else other than to not under any circumstances tell Lyra about it."
"Ever," Clockwork added. "According to what is in my programming, if she hears about it she may not rest until she finds it, and if she does who knows what will happen?"
"Perhaps it is best if we don't find out," Moonlight said.
"Speaking of Lyra," said Mixy. "Are you excited to see her again, Cyber?"
Cyber beamed with excitement as he nodded. "Of course! I plan on finishing the mechanical wings I've been planning on making with her."
Eclipse rose an eyebrow at Mixy's question. "You still worried that they'll end up a couple?"
Mixy blushed and shook her head. "No! I'm completely over that. I'm just going to let whatever happens happen."
Eclipse shrugged. "Still, Cyber, if Lyra doesn't work out, Mixy's always available," Eclipse shook his eyebrows suggestively, making Mixy blush and Cyber roll his eyes.
"I don't think that I understand," Laa-Mohr said.
"Mixy had a crush on Cyber ever since they met but kept it a secret," Moonlight explained. "Then after Cyber started hanging out with Lyra, she started to think that they were falling in love and had some kind of confused nervous breakdown or something before she admitted her love, but now she's fine."
"How can you tell? I suffered a split in my personality and it took me years to regain control."
"I sensed that her dark emotions were gone."
"You can do that?" Laa-Mohr asked.
"Yes," Moonlight said monotone.
"What do you sense with me?"
"Pessimism, worry, and that dark split in your personality you mentioned."
"I never said it was dark."
"You don't have to, everypony has a dark side, some stronger than others, yours is already out but locked in a cage that can only be opened by the captor."
Laa-Mohr stared at her wide-eyed and mouth agape, she was dead-on in describing his dark side, and he never even mentioned his dark side to her before then.
"So, tell me, is your dark side an alternate personality, or just your own bloodthirsty temptations held back by your righteous wisdom?" Moonlight asked.
"Moonlight, I think you're making him uncomfortable," Pixel said.
Moonlight rolled her blank, glowing white eyes that were the only visible detail on her shrouded face. "Whatever."
"At least she's speaking more," Cyber said. "Back when she was first a misfit, she would barely say a word."
"Don't get used to it," Moonlight said.
Time continued and already the sun was setting and the fire dwindled down to mostly embers, the brightest light source being Eclipse's mane that almost appeared to be made of fire.
Marine yawned. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm going to bed," she said as she trotted into the cart, which had her large glass tank that she slept in. Cyber looked around to see most of The Misfits were already asleep, Moonlight was in her shadow realm in some kind of shadow bed, Eclipse lay on a small ring of ash, Dusty slept on a dust cloud, and Fang was comfortably on his side asleep despite laying directly on a large rock. The only misfits that weren't asleep needed a sleeping bag or couldn't make their own bed. Mixy, Pixel, Clockwork, Laa-Mohr, and Cyber.
"So, how long are we going to stay in Ponyville this time?" asked Mixy.
"Certainly longer than last time," Cyber began. "I'm thinking on having a vacation for once, and since Ponyville is the one place we can go without anypony staring, it seemed to be perfect."
"I agree," Laa-Mohr said. "After all, I haven't properly thanked Zecora for dimming my curse yet."
"And Lyra will be thrilled to be working again," Cyber added.
"Makes me wonder when you two will be a couple," said Pixel.
"How about next to never?" Cyber said. "We're just good friends, besides I don't want a marefriend."
"I would reconsider," Clockwork said. "By taking into account both of your personalities, the odds of you two falling in love with a successful relationship are around 86.2% to 77.7%."
Cyber looked at Clockwork unimpressed and annoyed. "Have you also accounted the fact that neither of us want a romantic relationship anytime soon, both of us are just simple friends, and the fact that I have not programmed romance in you. Besides, who's side are you on?"
Clockwork shrugged. "I'm just stating what I know, not really taking a side."
Cyber sighed. "I understand your concerns, but I just don't think I'm ready to have a romantic relationship yet, now good night."
"Good night," the others replied before they all drifted into a deep sleep.
Somewhere in an underground ruin where nopony has touched for eons, a single beam of sunlight shined on one of the several statues in the area, specifically the larges one. The statue remained motionless, except for the one eye that the light shined on, which opened up.
'Great, I blacked out again,' the statue thought. 'No matter, I have waited for long enough, and at least there's some light to absorb to keep me conscious for now. I wish that I could share some with my brethren, but sadly they only have petrifying darkness and stone to absorb to stay alive. I have only a small beam of light that only opens one eye and let's me think. But I will soon rise up, I just have to wait for another rainbow or something, what was it called again? Sonic Rainboom? Whatever, if I just wait a while longer, then I will rise again and the mergelings shall conquer Equestria with me, Malgama, as its ruler, and-' he was cut off as the light began to fade. 'Oh, for the love of-' the eye closed and the thoughts were silenced when the sunlight faded away.
The next day, The Misfits woke up early and continued into Ponyville. Reliving memories as they stepped in.
"Ah, Ponyville," Cyber said. "Remember back when we first arrived here?"
"Yeah," Dusty said. "Remember back when I beat up Rainbow Crash?"
"I thought we agreed to never mention that again," Fang said.
"I didn't agree," Dusty said, smirking.
"Should I even ask?" Eclipse asked Mixy, who shook her head.
"Anyway, Clockwork, head over to where the house was set up last time we were here. Everypony, enjoy your returning time here and we'll meet back together at noon," Cyber said, The Misfits nodded as Cyber handed Clockwork the handle to the cart and the group separated.
Bon-Bon was organizing through her inventory when she heard the bell at the door ring. "Hello, just a moment and I'll be with you."
"Actually, I was wondering if you could help me find somepony," came a familiar male voice.
"Hold on," Bon-Bon trotted to the front. "So, who are you looking for?" She asked before seeing the ocean blue cybernetic unicorn with arms and a motherboard cutie mark. Bon-Bon smiled. "Welcome back, I'll get her down. Lyra! Could you come down here?"
They could hear Lyra complaining upstairs. "But Bon-Bon, just give me five more minutes."
"Aw, come on, Lyra, the wings aren't going to build themselves!" Cyber called out, which seemed to have gotten her attention after she ran out of her room to see the source of the familiar voice.
"Cyber!" Lyra exclaimed as she ran up and hugged her friend. "You're back!"
"I told you I would be," Cyber replied as he broke from the hug.
"I'll never get tired of seeing your hands," Lyra added, Cyber chuckled as Bon-Bon rolled her eyes.
"Is that the only reason I'm your friend?" Cyber asked.
"Of course not, you're smart, creative, and we just work really well together. We built Clockwork didn't we?"
"I didn't know you were parents already," Bon-Bon teased. "That was fast."
Lyra gave her a playful glare. "Just because I helped make a robot doesn't mean I'm a mom. Does it?"
Cyber shrugged. "I guess so, but it kinda makes me uncomfortable thinking about it, so let's just leave it as no."
Lyra smiled and nodded. "I think of it the same way. Now come on, let's get some work done."
"Actually, mind if we stop by Twilight's first? I still haven't seen her new castle."
Lyra nodded. "You have to see it, it's amazing. Come on, I'll show you," the two unicorns nodded and headed out as Bon-Bon returned to her work.
Rarity just finished her array of elegant dresses, sighing at another hard days work played off, however this was short-lived at the sudden scent of smoke.
"Oh dear, oh dear oh dear," Rarity said out loud as she ran downstairs. "Sweetie Belle better not be cooking again," she continued downstairs until she was surprised at what caught her eye, a familiar albino unicorn and satyr. "Eclipse! Pixel! It's a pleasure seeing you here again! How those clothes working out for you, Pixel?"
"It's great, thanks," Pixel replied. "And I'm surprised that you made it fireproof in case of Eclipse."
"Well, one must always try her best, so what brings you here?"
Eclipse shrugged. "I don't really have anything to do or anypony to visit at the moment so I'm just doing whatever Pixel's doing."
"And I wanted to tell you that we will be staying here for a month or two while on vacation," Pixel added.
"Oh, a vacation, that is lovely, but why of all places did you choose Ponyville? I personally would have gone somewhere exotic or grand like Las Pegasus."
"Cyber said that Ponyville's the one place that accepted us and didn't shun us out," Eclipse answered.
"What about Predator Island?" Rarity asked.
Pixel shrugged. "Not enough to eat, I guess."
"Hey, where is Sweetie Belle?" Eclipse asked.
"Oh, right, I think she's with her friends in that clubhouse of theirs, could you be a darling and check up on her and make sure she isn't doing anything that might cause damage to anything for me, Eclipse?"
Eclipse shrugged. "Alright, could you show me where that clubhouse is?"
Rarity nodded. "Certainly."
Mixy and Dusty trotted about the fields.
"So, we're back," Dusty said.
"Yeah, it's kinda nice to not have ponies accuse you of something wrong." Mixy agreed.
"I hear you on that, remember when-"
"Look out!"
CRASH!
Dusty was hit by a cyan blur as Mixy flinched from nearly being it.
"Hey! Watch where you're going, you little-" Dusty stopped after the dust cleared, showing the cyan pegasus which was the element of loyalty and Dusty's personal frenemy. "Well, isn't this a case of deja vu."
Rainbow Dash rubbed her head before her eyes landed on Dusty, making her smile. "Yep, just like when you first arrived."
"Does this mean you two are going to fight again?" Mixy asked.
Dusty chuckled. "Doesn't sound like a bad idea, actually."
Mixy facehoofed. "You two have a really weird relationship."
"It gets that way when one caused the other trauma," Dusty smiled as Mixy rolled her eyes.
"So, how much have you been training?" Asked Rainbow.
"I don't need training to beat you," Dusty replied.
"I don't know, you really have to be good to beat one of the elements of harmony that saved Equestria from Tirek," Dusty winced and his smile disappeared as Mixy giggled.
"So you were responsible for the rainbow?" Dusty asked.
"Heck yeah!" That put worry in Dusty as Mixy laughed even harder, making Rainbow Dash confused. "What's so funny?"
"No, no, no, no, no, don't tell her," Dusty begged.
"Dusty bet that if you were the cause of the rainbow," she snorted from laughter. "He would drink Marine's tank water," that made both mares laugh and Dusty groan.
"I have got to see this," Rainbow managed through her laughter.
"You'll have to catch me first!" Dusty said as he dug into the ground.
"He's still going to do it, right?" Asked Rainbow.
"I'll be sure you're there when he does," Mixy said, smiling.
Laa-Mohr and Moonlight payed a visit at Sweet Apple Acres, already they were seeing Applejack bucking a tree. The apple tree shook but no apples fell, much to her confusion, so she tried again, again nothing happened, except for one apple that was on direct course for her head.
SPLAT!
The apple spattered as sauce all over Applejack's face.
"What the hay is goin' on?" She said, cleaning her face off.
"Sorry, my fault," Laa-Mohr said earning her attention.
"Well, would ya look at that, Laa-Mohr's back, and Moonlight too!" Applejack said, trotting up to the two misfits.
"Greetings," Laa-Mohr said.
"Hey," Moonlight added.
"Why are y'all here? I thought all y'all misfits would be visitin' Twilight at her new castle first."
"Well, I couldn't think of anything else to do," Laa-Mohr replied.
"I just went with whatever he was doing."
"Well, since y'all are here, how about you help me out with these apples?"
Moonlight shrugged. "Sure."
"As long as you don't mind a couple of apples suddenly turning rancid or something," Laa-Mohr said.
Applejack chuckled. "I think we can manage."
Lyra and Cyber trotted to the large castle of friendship.
"Wow, if this is what destiny has in store Twilight, who knows what else is there in the future?" Cyber said.
"Maybe she'll fight sirens," Lyra replied.
"Come on, Lyra, sirens aren't real."
A familiar voice approached them. "Actually, sirens are a big part of hippocampus legend."
The two unicorns turned to find not just the hippocampus princess, but also the equine automaton.
"Marine, Clockwork! Hey!" Lyra greeted.
"Hello, Lyra," Clockwork said.
"Are you guys here to see Twilight too?" Asked Marine.
Cyber nodded. "Yeah, come on!" He said as he knocked on the door, which after a minute or two was answered by a familiar purple and green baby dragon, who smiled at the sight of The Misfits.
"Cyber! You're back!" Spike said.
"That's right, Spike," Cyber said. "Can we come in?"
"Sure," Spike let The Misfits and Lyra enter the castle, closing the door behind them. "Twilight! The Misfits are back!" he called out.
It wasn't long before the lavender alicorn princess of friendship came into view.
"Hello, Twilight," greeted Clockwork.
"Hi, guys, sorry about the lack of decorations, I just got it a couple days ago," Twilight responded. "Come on, make yourselves comfortable."
Twilight showed her misfit friends to a large dining hall where they could talk while Spike prepared refreshments.
"So, what have you been up to, lately?" Asked Twilight.
"Oh, you know, helping ponies, exploring Equestria," Marine answered.
"However, this has been the lowest amount of ponies we've ever helped by far," added Clockwork. "So Cyber suggested we take a vacation and spend a few months in Ponyville."
"Well, everypony deserves a vacation once in a while, even when you love doing your job," said Cyber.
"I can understand why you would choose Ponyville," Twilight said as Spike brought in snacks. "I've never had more fun than when I'm at Ponyville."
"By the way, what happened to the library? I can't seem to find it anywhere," asks Cyber.
Twilight slumped down a little from recalling a bad memory. "It was destroyed by Tirek," she answered sullenly.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Clockwork said.
"Lots of ponies were really bummed about the library being destroyed too," Lyra said. "But at least Twilight has this place, so it's not a total loss."
Spike put a claw on Twilight for comfort. "It's just that we've been living in there ever since we first came to Ponyville," he explained. "Twilight hasn't been taking it lightly."
"I understand," Cyber said. "It's like when I accidentally made an atomic bomb, sure it didn't harm anypony in the middle of a field, but if it were to blow in a town, any ponies evacuated would be given new homes, but it wouldn't be the same as the ones they grew up in."
There was a moment of silence before Marine broke the silence. "So, how are things going now?"
"Well, with Tirek defeated, we don't have to worry about him anymore," Twilight said. "Although right now I'm still trying understand what it really means to be a princess. What is being a princess like for you, Marine?"
Marine thought for a while. "Well, it isn't as great as Celestia, Luna, Cadence, or you, but I guess that I don't really have much to do, I just learn, play, and do whatever I want, I don't really have that much responsibility, that belongs to my dad, the King. Even then I'm not first in line for the throne, my older brother, Aquarius is, but I don't think you and I are very different as princesses."
Twilight smiled. "I guess you're right, Marine."
"So, Rainbow Dash is one of the reasons for that rainbow?" Fang asked as he and Mixy approached Sugar Cube Corner.
"Yep, I'll try to trick Dusty into fulfilling his bet," Mixy replied.
"How, are you going to boil it first or something?"
"Nah, I'll just slip him the water when he least expects it."
The two misfits entered Sugar Cube Corner to be greeted by the Cakes.
"Good morning, Mixy," greeted Cup Cake.
"Hey, Fang," said Carrot Cake.
"Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Cake," replied Mixy. "Is Pinkie here?"
"Here I am!" Pinkie replied, startling the two misfits.
"Gah! Pinkie!" Fang exclaimed. "Word of advice: if you want to keep your blood in your veins, do not sneak up on a predator!"
"Sorry, I'm just so happy you guys are back! You know what that means? A party!"
Mixy giggled. "We'll be waiting for it, Pinkie."
"And this time it'll be special," added Fang. "Cause this time we'll be staying longer on a vacation."
"Ooh, vacations are always fun."
"I'm sure this will be fun too!" Mixy said.
"And not to mention you could help out with Pumpkin and Pound Cake if it's ok with the Cakes," Pinkie and Mixy looked at Mr. and Mrs. Cake hopefully.
"Well, Pinkie told us how good you are at entertaining them, Mixy," said Cup Cake. "So I don't see why not."
"Yipee!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"Wait, don't you have a party to plan or something?" Fang asked.
"Don't you know, Fang," Pinkie said. "I was planning the party while we were talking, now I gotta get it started!" Pinkie dashed into the kitchen as Mixy and Fang exchanged looks.
"Does she do that a lot?" Asked Fang.
"More than you think," answered Carrot Cake.
The Cutie Mark Crusaders sat in their treehouse discussing how to earn their cutie marks.
"All right, girls," Scootaloo said. "What have you got in mind?"
"Maybe we could earn our cutie marks in astronomy," suggested Sweetie Belle.
"How would we even do that?" Denied Apple Bloom.
Sweetie Belle shrugged. "I dunno, look at the stars or something?"
"Pass," Scootaloo said before thinking. "How about we try doing golf?"
"Golf is boring," commented Apple Bloom, who gasped shortly out of thought. "I got it! We could do-"
"Fire!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed, interrupted.
"Fire? That doesn't make any sense."
"No, fire!" She pointed outside, where large amounts of smoke could be seen just outside the treehouse, which made the CMC panic.
"Come on! We gotta tell somepony!" Scootaloo shouted before they all rushed outside, a little too fast which caused them to fall. They suddenly stopped on a somepony's back.
"You three really know how to find trouble, don't you?" Came a familiar voice.
The CMC looked to find the Saddle Arabian pony that cursed their mean classmate.
"Laa-Mohr, you're back! Were you the cause of the fire?" Asked Scootaloo.
Laa-Mohr chuckled. "No, I don't think my curse does that anymore," he said. "But you'll find the real reason over there," Laa-Mohr pointed to the albino unicorn that the CMC once mistook for something dangerous and tried to doused (but ended up angering) with water.
"Hey, Sweetie Belle, Rarity wanted me to check up on you," Eclipse said.
"And Apple Bloom, Applejack wanted me to tell you to head home," Laa-Mohr informed. "Applejack says you still got some work to do."
"Aw, can't I just stay for a while?" Apple Bloom complained.
"Yeah!" Sweetie Belle added. "We've just gotten started."
Laa-Mohr shook his head. "Sorry, can't do that, Applejack was firm, said something about cider."
"Ah! I almost forgot! Sorry, girls, I gotta go," Apple Bloom said as she ran off, and tripping a few times along the way.
"Sorry about that!" Laa-Mohr called out.
"Aw man, I thought we were going to earn our cutie marks this time," said Sweetie Belle.
"Hey, at least we get to have some cider, I never had some before." Eclipse replied.
"Well, since you guys are back..." Scootaloo started. "You think that you could curse Diamond Tiara again?"
Laa-Mohr chuckled. "Sorry, but my curse doesn't accept requests," Scootaloo pouted.
Fluttershy assisted several ducklings as they made their way into a pond.
"There you go, little friends, safe at home," she said. "Wait a minute, there are five of you, there's supposed to be six!" Fluttershy began to panic and look around frantically before she heard some pony harrumph and gain her attention, which she saw as the digging pegasus and secretive mare.
"Oh, hello, Dusty, welcome back, Moonlight," she greeted. "Have you seen a little duckling? I lost one, and I can't find it anywhere."
"Is this what you're looking for?" Moonlight asked, using a dark pillar to hold up the lost duckling.
"Oh yes, thank you so much," she took the duckling in her hooves as she floated it to the pond. "Now, don't you go wandering off again, okay?" She told the duckling, which gave a quack and a nod as Fluttershy put it in the pond with its family. "See you soon, have fun!"
Fluttershy turned towards the two misfits. "Thank you again, I don't know what I would do if they were gone forever."
"Yeah, apparently it fell in one of my holes and I heard it quack, who knew that a duck's quack can echo?"
"Actually, I knew, I didn't want to disappoint anypony," Fluttershy said. "So, what are you guys doing?"
"Just meeting with our friends right now," Dusty said. "Nothing much until Pinkie starts the party."
"And... is Fang with you?" Fluttershy asked, slightly worried.
"Of course, are you still scared of him?"
"What? No!" the two misfits were unconvinced. "Okay, maybe a little, but I'm scared of all predators."
"You really need to get over this fear, Fluttershy," Dusty said. "Fang may be a predator, but he is really nice."
"I suppose so, but it is really hard after seeing what he did to a squirrel."
"You aren't going to let that go, are you?" Asked Moonlight.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I tried to, but predators are just really, really scary, I think they ate every animal on their island."
"Actually they-" Moonlight was stopped by Dusty, who shook his head. "Nevermind."
"So, how long will you be staying?" Asked Fluttershy.
"A few months, maybe more," Dusty answered. "We're on vacation, which should give you enough time to warm up to Fang."
"I suppose so, as long as he doesn't even put his tongue on Angel, I could get used to him," Fluttershy and Dusty smiled, Moonlight remained stoic.
"So, Marine, didn't you say something about sirens being a part of hippocampus legend?" asked Twilight.
Marine nodded. "Yeah, I've heard stories about sirens in ancient books, apparently most of them were stopped by hippocampus warriors, probably because hippocampi are the only ones immune to a siren's hypnotic melodies."
Spike recognized the name. "Hey, didn't we meet sirens at-oof!" Twilight stopped him by sharply nudging him. "What?" he asked confused before getting the message. "Oh, uh, nevermind."
"What?" asked Lyra.
"It's nothing," Twilight said. "He's just talking about this dream he had."
"You sure?" Lyra seemed unconvinced.
Cyber looked at Twilight before getting the message as well. "Some dreams appear to be so real that even when the dreamer wakes up, they sometimes are unable to tell whether they are still dreaming or not, and on rare occasions the dreamer can believe that reality is a dream and get mixed up," Cyber smiled, trying to provide as much scientific evidence to keep Lyra from entering 'human crazy mode' by hearing about the portal.
Lyra scratched her head in thought. "Clockwork, is this true?" she asked.
Clockwork nodded. "Certainly, there have been numerous recordings where ponies who thought reality was just a dream and vise-versa. Some of those who mistook reality for a dream have done some rather odd things out of belief they're in a lucid dream."
Lyra seemed mildly confused at what Clockwork said, but it seemed to have worked after she shrugged. "Alright," she said. Twilight, Spike, and Cyber silently sighed with relief while Marine had absolutely no idea what was going on, but shrugged it off.
"So, Twilight," Marine said. "If you want, I can get somepony to bring you some hippocampus books sometime."
"That's very nice of you, but no thanks, I already have some being delivered, I guess it just takes a while to copy books, even waterproof ones."
Marine shrugged. "I guess, maybe the materials aren't found on land or something, I don't know, I'm not a book maker."
"Which reminds me, what does your cutie mark mean?" asked Twilight. "Laa-Mohr said that Saddle Arabian ponies have jobs regardless of cutie marks and Fang said that cutie mark determines easier skills, what do cutie marks mean for hippocampi?"
Marine looked at her cutie mark, which was an open clam revealing a pearl inside, the she looked at Twilight and shrugged. "We honestly don't really care, hippocampi are so easy going that we just do whatever strikes our fancy without much care."
"Well, clams are known to be rather hideous on the outside. However when a pearl is revealed within them, it creates a beautiful sight," Clockwork explained.
"So, I guess that means that you may seem hard or something that you have yet to explore what the world has to offer," Lyra said.
Marine shrugged. "I guess that makes sense, I've always wanted to walk on the mainland ever since I met Fang, so I guess that makes me a pearl in an oyster's shell or something."
"But would that make Fang the clam and you the pearl? Then again, I doubt that the symbolism of a cutie mark is that literal, especially for a hippocampus. Then again, that would bring into question the connection between the interpretation of a cutie mark and its importance depending on different cultures. So by that logic, hippocampi would see them as-"
Marine cut him off. "Yeesh, I'm starting to think me and Spike are the only non-eggheads here."
"Uh, that's 'Spike and I', Marine," Twilight corrected the hippocampus princess. "Use your grammar correctly."
"Thanks for proving my point," Marine said, everypony laughed.
At Canterlot Castle, Celestia continued to have an uncomfortable and worried look on her face that has remained for some time.
Luna quickly noticed. "Sister? Is something wrong? You do not look well."
"I am not entirely sure, Luna," Celestia answered. "I think there is something coming soon, but I am not certain yet."
"Perhaps it is just nothing and it could just be the stress, sometimes even a princess needs some rest and relaxation."
Celestia considered it. "You're right, I'm probably just worrying about nothing."
Luna nodded in agreement as a very mischievous and annoying voice rang through the area. "Quite right, my dear Celestia, stress can really mess up one's concentration and self-esteem," the princesses were half suspicious and half annoyed to see the spirit of chaos and disharmony, Discord.
"Discord, what are you doing here?" asked Celestia.
"I just came to let you know about something Fluttershy told me, did you know that The Misfits are back in Ponyville? I find rather exciting, maybe I can bring up a bit of chaos with those two introvert ponies, or ponies and a satyr... whatever, I'm just going to mess with them."
"If that is the case then why aren't you down in Ponyville with them?" asked Luna, half hoping it would get him to leave.
The spirit of chaos shrugged. "I don't know, just bored I guess, also I couldn't help but overhear about Celestia's little stress problem."
"I appreciate your concern, but it is nothing to worry about. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to take a bath to help relieve my nerves," and with that, the sun princess left as Luna turned to Discord.
"Do you really think that there is nothing to worry about?" she asked.
Discord shrugged. "If this is a threat, why are we keeping this a secret from Celestia?"
"We're not, I just want to be sure that this isn't what I think it is."
"Do you mean..." he sharply looked around. "...Malgama?" Discord whispered, obvious worry in his tone.
Luna nodded. "If this disturbance continues to grow and Malgama is the cause of it, then Equestria is in grave danger. Until then, let us hope that it is indeed nothing."
"But why aren't we telling Celestia about our concern?"
"Celestia fears Malgama's power more than anypony, the last time we thought Malgama attacked she held a lockdown all across Equestria, and the last thing any of us want is another fifty year false alarm. It's better if we let Celestia tell us first or we have proof, then we'll know for sure."
"Very well then, I'll be with The Misfits if you need me," and with a snap of his eagle talon, Discord teleprted away in a quick flash of light.
Meanwhile, Malgama watched as his only beam of light flickered from a stampede of creatures trampled over it, or at least something, he couldn't tell what it was due to sound being blocked out from the surface. He sighed in his mind. 'If only I wasn't so deep underground whatever's up there might have broken the ceiling,' he thought. 'Which brings up a question, if I'm so deep underground, how did that light get here? Augh! I'm too weak to think about complex situations, let alone remember them. Perhaps once I get out of here I can- wait, is that...?' he heard several tapping sounds from above.
'This better not be another pebble,' shortly, a small seed emerged from the light source, so fresh, so full of life, if only he could touch it to absorb it. 'Yes! Come on... come on...' in a matter of moments, the seed fell and hit the ground... several feet away from him. 'No! That's the third time this century that happened, if only I had just a small amount of energy even a small sprout or a leaf will have enough energy let me merge with it and get out of here to start my uprising and the mergelings will rule! Oh well, all I can do now is wait and store energy for later, if I can, anyway. Darkness, light, and life energy are the other half of our combination along with elements, with light and life energy letting us have a full transformation and gain the powers of whatever else we merge with, if we absorbed life energy we end up killing something, but who really cares?' he mentally sighed to himself. 'I'm talking to myself, this isolation has finally gotten to my head. No matter, once I get out of here it'll all be worth it, and nothing can stop us once we do!'
Laa-Mohr trotted about during a relaxing walk when he found Pixel Berry on a hill, laying down and listening to her music. He approached his satyr friend when she spoke up.
"Hey, Laa-Mohr."
"How did you know I was here?" Laa-Mohr asked, sitting down next to her.
"The sound's only coming out one speaker," she answered as she removed her headphones. "So, what's up?"
"Not much, currently I'm just bored, so I decided to walk around for a while until Pinkie's party starts."
"Yeah, same here, I'm just laying here, listening to my music."
"I can understand, even though a vacation is needed for relaxation, I can't seem to find a single activity to do."
"Well, I just hang out with Moonlight when I have nothing to do."
"You seem to have built up a strong relationship with her."
"Moonlight Shadow? Yeah, we're good friends, we've been that way ever since we met. Why are you concerned?"
"This is Moonlight we're talking about, the mare who could hit you on the head with your own shadow if you so much as ask her what her eye color is. How did you become friends with Moonlight the first day you met?"
Pixel shrugged. "We have similar pasts, Moonlight and I spent our foalhoods alone with nopony to look up to. It's kinda like you and Eclipse, both of you are orphans but adopted by a royal before being sent away for the protection of everypony much to said royal's regret."
Laa-Mohr stared with awe. "That's quite an observation, I never thought of that, how did you figure that out?"
"Moonlight told me."
"Of course, so do you know where Eclipse is?"
Pixel searched through her memory. "Last time I saw him he was back at the house doing something with Dusty and Fang."
"Thank you," Laa-Mohr said as he trotted away.
Pixel waited a while before speaking up. "Okay, he's gone," in response, Moonlight rose up from Pixel's shadow.
Moonlight trotted next to her friend and sat down. "You know, just because I'm in the shadow realm, doesn't mean I can't see anything."
Pixel shrugged. "I had no idea, so how was it?"
"I didn't feel what you described as 'fun', perhaps I was doing it incorrectly."
"No, you were doing it right, you just gotta do it in the right place, maybe it helps if you jump out and surprise them, especially on Nightmare Night."
"What's so fun about fear?"
"I don't know, it's like a prank; it's kinda cruel, but it's just for fun and laughs."
"I guess..." Moonlight said sullenly and flat.
This made Pixel notice something. "Hey, wait a minute, have you even laughed before?"
Moonlight thought about it. "No, no I have not."
"Not even a chuckle, or a giggle? Never in your life?"
Moonlight shook her head. "No, never."
Pixel frowned. "Now that's just sad, everypony has to laugh sometime."
"I haven't, never in my entire life."
"What about smiled?"
"That, I have done, back when I was first enrolled as a misfit."
"Alright then, I know what we need to do, we need to get you to laugh," Pixel said.
"As long as this doesn't make you obsessed," Moonlight replied.
"How many has he gone through?" Fang asked.
"He'a already gone through three whole slushies," Dusty answered.
The two watched as Solar Eclipse downed his fourth slushie and belching loudly.
"How do you feel?" asked Dusty.
"Not even the slightest-" Eclipse said before he winced and clutched his head. "AaaaAAAAAGH! Is this what a brain freeze feels like?"
"May I ask what it is you are doing?" Dusty and Fang turned their heads to see Laa-Mohr, which made them groan.
"Argh, Laa-Mohr, you ruined it!" Dusty said.
"What did I do?" Laa-Mohr asked as he watched Eclipse rub his temples.
"We tried to do an experiment to see if Eclipse could get a brain freeze, apparently he can, but only when you're around," Fang answered.
"I apologize for my inconvenient arrival, I had no knowledge of this."
"It's alright," Dusty said. "We'll just ask Cyber or Clockwork or something."
Eclipse finally broke from his brain freeze and stood up. "Well, that's something I don't want to go through again," he said. "So, what's up, Laa-Mohr?"
"I was wondering if there is something that I could do with you."
"Well, right now, nothing," said Fang.
"What is Mixy doing?" Dusty asked.
"I think she's with the Cutie Mark Crusaders," replied Eclipse.
"What about Marine?"
"Twilight." Fang said.
"Actually, I don't think we got to see Twilight's castle yet." Laa-Mohr said.
"You think we should go check it out? Maybe get Marine?" Dusty suggested.
"Sure," Eclipse said.
"Alright, let's go," Fang said as the four misfits left.
"And what sort of propulsion would you need to use?" asked Twilight as the group discussed about Cyber's invention.
"Well, originally I planned on using jet propulsion, but then I thought about it resulting in not just pollution from smoke, but also a fire hazard," Cyber said.
"Maybe you could use propellers like a helicopter," Lyra suggested.
Clockwork shook his head. "At the RPM most helicopter propellers rotate at, it would become a major safety hazard."
"What about water?"
"That would require a constant supply to continually pump into the main module," Cyber answered.
Spike turned to Marine. "Do you have any idea what they're talking about?"
"Not a clue," Marine replied. "I'm about to die from boredom, why can't-" suddenly a knock at the door. "Finally, I got it."
Marine trotted to the front door and answered it, smiling at who it was. "Hey, guys! You do not know how glad I am to see you, come on!"
Marine let Dusty, Laa-Mohr, Eclipse and Fang inside, then they followed Marine to where their friends were.
"Hey, guys," Cyber said. "We were just talking about some artificial wings we were planning on making."
"Wings?" Laa-Mohr asked, confused.
"Basically once they're built, everypony will get a chance to have the same point of view as a pegasus and fly." Clockwork said.
"Why would anypony want to fly?" asked Dusty. "It's just moving around in the air and doing show-off tricks, and not to mention the threat of..." he shuddered. "...falling."
"Well, some ponies would say the same thing about digging," Clockwork said. "It's dirty, you can't see anything, and going too deep will kill you from subterranean pressure and heat."
"Well, at least you could stop yourself while you're digging."
"We'll take care of everything that needs to be fixed," Twilight said. "Anyway, what brings you here?"
"Nothing, we're just bored, we thought you had something to do," Eclipse answered.
"Well, unless you know about aerodynamics, I'm afraid you came to the wrong location," Cyber replied.
"Perhaps Mixy has an activity to do until Pinkie's party," Clockwork suggested.
"Can I come with you?" Marine asked, "I'm getting tired of hearing words I don't understand."
"Sure, but first, can I use your bathroom?" Eclipse asked.
"I'll show you where it is," said Spike. "Follow me."
"Alright, Moonlight, let's see if we can get a chuckle outa you," Pixel said as she sat across from Moonlight Shadow on the grassy hill.
"Fine," Moonlight said.
"Alright, so why did the chicken cross the road?... to get to the other side!"
Silence, pure awkward silence.
"Are you going to say the joke yet?" Moonlight finally said.
"I... already did."
"That was not a joke, that was a question and an answer, nothing 'funny' about that."
"Oh, ok, um..." Pixel tried to think of something else. "Ok, how about this, Cyber told me that this one time, Dusty wouldn't stop stealing his lunch, so Cyber made a plan where he grounded up his flowers he was having for lunch, then after Dusty ate it... Cyber said that he replaced it with highly toxic chemicals... and you should have seen the look on his face!" Pixel started laughing while Moonlight remained emotionless.
"I do not see at any point how this is 'funny', it was simply a devious act to stop Dusty from taking his food."
This made Pixel's laughter short as she started stroking her chin. "Ooh, this is tricky, though I'll admit, I don't have the best sense of humor in Equestria, but we might need to see a professional for this, just in case."
"We're going to see Pinkie Pie, aren't we?"
Pixel smiled. "Oh yeah," she said nodding.
Moonlight sighed. "Very well, but if we must, could we ask her during her 'Welcome back to Ponyville' party', I do not wish to have her always at my side trying to get me to laugh."
"Don't worry, I'll make sure you get your space." Pixel said.
"Thank you," Moonlight replied.
There was thirty minutes of silence before Pixel spoke. "Hey, Moonlight?"
"Yes?"
"Why haven't you ever laughed before?"
"I saw no reason to."
"No, I mean why haven't you laughed, what's the real reason? What is hiding behind that black cloak and white eyes? Who is Moonlight Shadow?"
"Since when were you trying to see what I have under my cloak?"
"Ever since I officially became your best friend."
Moonlight's eyes widened a little at the mention of being considered a best friend. "I knew I was your friend, but your best friend? When was it official?"
Pixel shrugged. "You never know, it just happens when two ponies spend almost every moment of time with each other."
"We have to spend every moment together with the other misfits and I don't consider Laa-Mohr nor Solar Eclipse a 'best friend'."
Pixel shook her head. "Not my point, just look at Dusty and Fang, they spend as much time together as they do with Cyber, but if they had to choose between being separated for the rest of their lives or being in their least favorite situation, they'd choose the latter in a heartbeat."
"I suppose that would be having Rainbow Dash join us on our quest," Moonlight said, making Pixel laugh.
"Moonlight, I think you just made a joke!"
"I... I did? But I wasn't trying to be funny."
"You don't have to, just say what's on your mind and don't think too hard, it's what Pinkie does."
"It's the only thing Pinkie does."
Pixel laughed again. "There it is again, maybe this humor thing is going to be easier than I thought."
Moonlight smiled underneath her shroud. "I think I understand it now, I used a casual conversation and added a random addition based on the fact that Pinkie Pie hardly takes situations seriously."
Pixel stopped smiling. "And you overthought it again."
"Sorry," Moonlight replied as she also stopped smiling.
Mixy spent time with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, playing a game where Mixy would impersonate somepony and the CMC would guess who it is before Mixy reached her full transformation.
The CMC watched as Mixy changed her look to a blond, neatly groomed mane, white coat, and a star cutie mark.
"I'm still not gettin' it," Apple Bloom said.
"Alright, final hint," Mixy cleared her throat as her voice changed to that of an accented royal stallion. "Why must I listen to you freaks? I don't know what those are, you are downright filthy, and your breath is downright rancid."
"Nope, still don't know." Scootaloo replied
"Wait, I think I know," Sweetie Belle said, searching hard through her memory. "It's Prince... Blue... Blood?"
Mixy smiled and changed back to normal. "I almost thought you wouldn't get that one."
"No fair, how come you did one only Sweetie Belle knows?" complained Apple Bloom.
"Sorry, I guess I got carried away."
"How did you get that anyway?" asked Scootaloo.
Sweetie Belle shrugged. "I don't know, Rarity came home from the Gala and wouldn't stop talking about this 'prince' who wasn't nice to her."
"Wait, did this 'prince' say that to y'all misfits?" asked Apple Bloom.
Mixy nodded. "Every word, he said that he was some kind of relative to Celestia, but Cyber said that if she's an extremely distant aunt, it doesn't make them related anymore, I don't know, the point is he was a jerk and I'm glad that Laa-Mohr was with us when we met him."
"Did he use his curse on Blue Blood?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"I think the word 'karma' is better, but yes, and also it was nice to see Laa-Mohr show him how a true royal should act."
Shortly Marine's familiar voice emerged not too far away. "Are you talking about Blueblood? I still want to know if his blood is actually blue." turning, the CMC and Mixy could see the hippocampus misfit along with most of the other members come over to them.
"It was the only time I could not tell whether my curse was acting or if it was just pure karma," added Laa-Mohr.
"Hey, guys!" Mixy greeted. "Yeah, we were just talking about that jerk."
"I hear you on that, I couldn't tell you how many times he got on my nerves," Fang said. "Fortunately I managed to maintain myself and control my anger before it got out of control."
"So, how many times did you bite him?" Scootaloo asked.
"Three, he tastes like makeup for some reason, not like I know what makeup tastes like."
"And you should have seen the look on his face when I rolled all over his room," Dusty said, laughing.
"Although I disliked Blueblood, I at least maintained a chivalrous attitude towards him," Laa-Mohr said.
"Which means you stood in his kitchen and watched while the servants burned the food, the dishes, and each other," Eclipse answered.
"He insulted us, what else was I going to do?"
"Maybe you could have let me torch him?"
"Eclipse, we already discussed that burning his home with him in it was going too far, even if it was Blueblood."
"What would have happened if you let me?"
"Banishment, our reputation ruined, your reputation ruined," Laa-Mohr suggested.
"I burned down most of Hoofington, I doubt my reputation could get any worse."
"It was blamed on a fireplace, hardly anypony knows you were the cause."
Dusty chuckled as the two stallions argued. "Looks like they're at it again," he said. "So tell us what's up while we wait for the two hot heads to work it out."
"I heard that!" Eclipse yelled inside his argument.
"Not much, just playing with the CMC," Mixy said.
"And they haven't blown anything up or broke anything, you must be really good with kids." Dusty said as the CMC looked at each other in confusion.
Mixy shrugged. "Well, it's like what Celestia said, I can see through other ponies' eyes or something, so I guess that's the reason."
"Well, whether that's the reason or not, you're really fun to play with, Mixy," Apple Bloom said.
"Yeah, I can't wait until hang out with you next time." Scootaloo added.
"Maybe you could help us earn our cutie marks in something." Sweetie Belle said.
Mixy chuckled. "Maybe some other time, why don't you go play with Fang and Marine while we wait for Eclipse and Laa-Mohr to stop arguing, if it's alright with them."
"I don't see why not," Fang answered.
"Come on!" Marine said as the group separated, leaving Dusty and Mixy alone while Eclipse and Laa-Mohr left to settle their argument somewhere else.
"You know, Scootaloo doesn't seem to be the kind who could fly," said Dusty as he watched the CMC play some kind of game with their predator and hippocampus friends.
"Dusty!" Mixy scolded him. "Don't say that, have hope in her, she's still learning, you didn't have an easy time flying either."
"Yeah, but my destiny is the complete opposite to flying."
"What about your parents?"
"My parents were pegasi born in Cloudsdale, if you were born there, you've got a guaranteed chance of easy flying, it's like that with all purebred pegasi."
"I don't know, Pound Cake is the son of two earth ponies and he already pretty much mastered flying, he even crawls on the ceiling."
Dusty scoffed, "Well, how am I supposed to know what foals learn as they grow up? What do I look like, a geologist?"
"A geologist studies rocks, you mean 'genealogist' and you're not even using it right." Mixy corrected.
Dusty gave her a dead-pan expression. "Wow. Right now, I'm a bit surprised you didn't end up with Cyber as your coltfriend."
"Well, I was thinking on being a school teacher or something if we ever stop with this misfit business so I've been studying every now and then."
Dusty rose an eyebrow at Mixy's surprisingly simple goal. "That's it?"
"Well, of course not, I was hoping on settling down, get a house, husband, maybe raise a foal or two if I'm able."
Dusty lounged on the ground next to her. "Heh, you really have your life planned out, do you?"
Mixy smiled and nodded. "Of course, why wouldn't I? Being here in Ponyville made me see how I am around children, helping them move on in life and teaching them about misfits while their minds are still fresh, but I'm not sure if I can. I'll be taking in a lot of responsibility just by considering having a foal, and even then there's worries like what if because I'm half-changeling I can't get pregnant, or what if things don't work out how I hope, or what if I never find the right stallion for me, or what if-." she was stopped when Dusty put a hoof over her mouth.
"Woah, Mixy, you're overreacting about something that won't happen until years from now. Besides, even if you can't get pregnant, there's always adoption, and even then you'll make an excellent teacher, and maybe even a better mother, whether or not you birthed your foal. As for the stallion of your dreams, sometimes you gotta look in places you'd never expect to find what you're looking for, whether it's keys, bits, or your 'special somepony'."
Dusty let Mixy speak. "Wow, I never thought you'd be the romantic type," she said with a smile.
"I'm not being romantic, I'm just stating the obvious about my friend."
"You sure? Cause I'm pretty sure that time we spent in Prance made you soft."
"The only thing Prance made me was sick from all the sap."
"You sure that wasn't the escargot?"
Dusty shuddered. "How can those ponies eat that stuff?" he muttered under his breath before turning back to Mixy. "Anyway, the point is I'm not romantic, nor am I soft."
The voice of the tomcolt pegasus mare came from behind them. "Aww, you sure? This looks pretty sappy to me."
"Rainbow Crash, what are you doing here?" Dusty demanded, see the cyan pegasus with rainbow hued mane hovering just a few feet away from them.
"Just wanted to see how my favorite pegasus misfit is doing." Rainbow answered.
"I'm the only pegasus misfit."
"I know, that's why you're the favorite," Rainbow Dash said as she landed next to the two misfits.
"So, what's up, Rainbow?" Mixy asked. "Scootaloo's over there if you wanted to know."
"Not this time, I was bored just sitting around and not beating Dusty at anything, but seeing you two together made me think of a song."
"What kind of song?" Mixy asked.
"You know..." Rainbow Dash mischievously grinned.
Dusty understood. "Don't say it," he demanded.
"I'm gonna say it," Rainbow replied, nodding.
"Don't say it."
"I'm sayin' it."
"Don't say it!"
"Dusty and Mixy, sitting in a tree..." Rainbow began.
"That's it!" Dusty shouted as he tackled Rainbow, making Mixy roll her eyes.
"Sometimes I wonder if those two are meant to be together," she muttered to herself.
Meanwhile, at the Palace of Friendship, Twilight, Cyber, Clockwork, and Lyra somehow managed to change their subject from the mechanical wings, to about what they were going to do in the future while The Misfits were staying in Ponyville for the next couple months.
"Perhaps Eclipse could help out with the Winter Wrap-up when it comes again," Cyber suggested.
"That sounds nice, but it's tradition for ponies to not use magic during Winter Wrap-up," Twilight said.
"Actually, Eclipse's body temperature seems to be also natural, so it's a bit of a loophole if you think about it," Clockwork said.
"Yeah, and all he has to do is stand near snow or ice, and it'll melt instantly." Lyra pointed out.
"Unless he falls in the water," Twilight said. "What happens if Eclipse is in water, anyway?"
"Well, as Dusty would say it: instant hot tub." Clockwork replied.
"Cool!" Spike exclaimed.
"Right, so anyway, do you think Moonlight would help out by following tradition?" Twilight asked.
"Doubt it," Lyra replied. "She'll probably just stay inside alone or something."
"One can only wait and see." Clockwork replied.
"Hey, all this talk about misfits reminds me," Twilight began. "I've always wondered, what will you guys do if you have too many members?"
Twilight's question caught Cyber off guard, either he wasn't paying much attention or it wasn't something he ever considered. "What?"
"I mean like what will happen when you have too many members than you can travel with?"
"Huh, I don't know, maybe I could just set up some kind of center of operation, like a headquarters or a hotel, or..."
"How about a city?" Lyra suggested.
"That sounds marvelous!" Clockwork said.
"Actually, that does sound pretty interesting, a whole city dedicated to misfits fitting in, it'll be like Cloudsdale."
"How will it be like Cloudsdale?" Spike asked.
"Everypony may enter, however the whole area was built for a certain kind of pony," Clockwork answered. "In this case it would be for misfits."
"But what would it be called?" Twilight brought up, making everypony think."
"How about 'The City of Misfit Ponies'," Spike suggested.
"Interesting idea, but I was thinking on a name that's different," Cyber said. "After all, a misfit home needs a misfit name."
"I ran every plausible name that was in my database, none show pleasing results." Clockwork added.
"I'm sure we'll think of something someday, until then, maybe we should wait until we're done with the vacation before the city is mapped out."
Twilight nodded. "That's sounds great, but aren't you still going to invent things even on vacation?"
Cyber shrugged. "It's how I relieve stress."
The next several minutes were followed by talking about subjects too complex to explain. Finally Clockwork spoke up after an alarm went off in his internal computer.
"As much as I would hate to ruin this conversation," said the automaton. "But it is time for the party."
"Oh yeah, should we go now?" Twilight said.
"Ooh! Ooh! Can I come, please?" Spike begged. "I'm so bored listening to you guys talk about arrow-dinatics."
"It's 'aerodynamics'." Lyra corrected as Twilight smiled at her assistant.
"Sure, Spike, come on." she answered as Spike clawpumped in excitement.
Cyber, Clockwork, Spike, Lyra, and Twilight met up with the other Misfits and Elements of harmony in front of the Misfit home. It was clear the party was waiting on the other side.
"There you are!" Pinkie said. "I was about to come get you."
Cyber shrugged. "We got caught up in science."
"You guys ready?" Pinkie asked, everypony nodded.
"Wait," Clockwork said. "Dusty, Rainbow, why are you two injured?"
"We got to beat each other up again." Dusty answered proudly.
"I won, by the way," Rainbow Dash said, Applejack rolled her eyes.
"Sure, so shall we enter and let the party begin?" Rarity suggested.
Moonlight rolled her eyes. "Let's get this over with." she said as Cyber grabbed the knob with his hand and opened the door.
Instantly the lights turned on as balloons and confetti fell from the ceiling, with a giant cake in the center that had each of The Misfits' names on it under a banner that said, 'Welcome back to Ponyville, Misfits!' across it.
"So, how do you like it?" Pinkie asked eagerly. "It would've been a surprise party but Fang doesn't like surprises."
"Great job as always, Pinkie." Twilight said.
"Couldn't of ask for a better party than the ones run by you." Applejack added.
"I feel nothing." Moonlight said, much to Pinkie's surprise.
"Don't mind her, Pinkie," Laa-Mohr said.
"I'm sure if she could feel happiness, she would." Fluttershy added.
Pinkie's giant grin returned to her face. "Okay, glad you like it."
"Heck ya!" Rainbow added. "Hey, Dusty, I bet you five bits you can't keep Fang's meat-flavored cake down."
"And I bet you ten bits you can't," Dusty replied as they dashed towards Fang's side of the giant cake.
"Hey, save some for me!" Fang said, following them.
"Ooh! I wanna see!" Pinkie said.
"Looks like they've already started." Cyber said as everypony separated to certain areas of the Misfits Home.
Lyra nodded. "Come on, I want to see how well they can keep down that cake."
Time continued as it was full of fun, conversation, and vomiting by both Rainbow Dash and Dusty. About halfway through the party, Pixel Berry looked at Moonlight Shadow.
"I think it's about time, are you ready to laugh?" she asked.
"As ready as I'll ever be," Moonlight replied flatly, then they trotted over to where the pink party pony was, who was enjoying a piece of cake.
"Pnkie, I-" Pixel was stopped by Pinkie Pie raising her hoof to stop them as she swallowed the slice.
"Ok, you can tell me now," Pinkie said with a smile.
"Pinkie, we have an emergency," Pixel said, making Pinkie's eyes widen in notice.
"What is it? Ghosts? Werewolves? Did all the sugar in Equestria become sugar-free?" Pinkie guessed.
"How would that even be possible?" Moonlight asked.
"No, wait!" Pinkie continued. "It's zombies isn't it? Don't worry, I have a secret bunker underneath Sugar Cube Corner, Gummy sometimes likes to play in it but we should be fine."
Pixel shook her head. "No it's not that, it's- wait, why do you have a bunker?"
Pinkie shrugged. "Why not?" she said as she ate another piece of cake.
"Okay? Anyway, this is something only you can solve. It's Moonlight, she's never laughed in her life."
After that Pinkie froze in shock, swallowed the rest of her cake, then dashed right up close to Moonlight's face.
"What!? You've never laughed at all?" Pinkie almost demanded, Moonlight could smell Pinkie's sugar-coated frosting breath from the distance she was.
"No, I haven't." Moonlight replied.
"What about chuckled?"
"No."
"Giggled?"
"No."
"Snickered?"
"No."
"Chuckled?"
"You already said that and no."
"Faked a laugh at least?"
"No."
"Have you even thought of something funny?"
"I don't think so."
"But she did accidentally make two jokes," Pixel added.
"How many did she kill?" Pinkie asked Pixel.
"Just the second one."
"And has she ever smiled before?"
Moonlight nodded, "Yes, I have."
Pinkie thought it over for a while before she narrowed her eyes in seriousness. "Meet me at Sugar Cube Corner tomorrow morning at nine. Don't be late, this is worse than a zombie apocalypse." after that, she smiled and bounced away as if none of that ever happened.
"That was a bit odd..." Moonlight said.
"It's Pinkie Pie, who knows what she thinks. Now come on, we've got cake to eat."
The next morning Cyber woke up from an odd dream involving taffy magma and sugar-coated ducks that rode lightning bolts.
"I have got to start monitoring how dreams are affected by the quantity of cake consumed," he muttered as he got off the bed, instantly a feeling of nausea came over him. Cyber sighed as he trotted downstairs, finding Clockwork, Eclipse, Mixy, and Marine.
"Good morning, Cyber!" Clockwork said as he flipped a pancake over.
"Morning, guys," Cyber replied, waving and trying to keep his nausea hidden to keep them from worrying. "Where's everyone else?"
"Pixel and Moonlight are with Pinkie, Fang's hunting, Laa-Mohr is trotting around Ponyville, and Dusty's somewhere underground." Marine answered.
"Alright, so any plans for today in our second day back in Ponyville?"
"Not really," Eclipse said. "What about you?"
"I was considering working in the lab, there are a few machines I would like to get started on."
"Like what?" Mixy asked.
"Oh, you know, certain mechanics to help ponykind."
"Alright, try not to blow yourself up again."
"Not making any promise," Cyber replied with a chuckle as he trotted into his lab, where instantly his smile disappeared as he trotted to the supercomputer and placed his hoof on the pad.
"Computer, run toxin analysis." He ordered, then after a slight prick, the screen lit up.
BLOOD CONTAMINATION: 50%
TOXIN DATA: UNKNOWN.
Cyber sighed. "Initiate blood filter, transport residue to back output," he said sullenly, then after a sudden feeling of dizziness and becoming light-headed that nearly knocked him unconscious, Cyber regained feeling as the small phial that contained the toxin rose from the machine on his back, which he then took and trotted over to a counter with a microscope, then after using a dropper to place it onto a slide, he positioned it and tried to analyze the black toxin through the microscope as two of his arms reached into a nearby cabinet to replace the phial.
Just a black smudge, that was all he ever saw when he looked at it. This toxin was very mysterious, it was able to contaminate organic fluids and hosts over a period of time. In fact it might make a good weapon if he wasn't against it, he made some in the past, most on accident or by discovery, the worst of course being his atomic bomb. Just the thought of the damage it could do made Cyber shudder uneasy, and the worst part is he still knows how to make it, though Celestia knows he'll never make that again, and to think it was supposed to be a firework!
After twenty minutes of unsuccessful observation, Cyber rubbed his eyes and took out a notebook and pen from his drawer.
'Entry #187
I tried once again to identify the toxin that contaminates my bloodstream, no difference from last time. Perhaps I should start inspecting the source and properties if it instead of what it is, so far all I know is that it is flammable which makes easy removal for now unless it releases a toxic fume when burned or I find a better way to get rid of it. Perhaps Lyra could-I don't know if my friends could trust me if they- I know that this is my problem, but if my friends were to discover the dangers of my inventions, who knows the consequences. Although there is a chance they could forgive me, but what of my inventions, would they trust them then? And what about Marine? However, on the other hoof, they could help me, yet I don't want them to worry about a problem I have to deal with.
I'm only keeping this a secret for their own good, this will get out once I find a way to stop it, until then, things will continue as normal.'
With a sigh, Cyber put away the slide and notebook then turned to another machine to begin tinkering.
Moonlight and Pixel Berry approached the entrance to Sugar Cube Corner, ready for Moonlight's appointment.
"This better be worth it," Moonlight said.
"It will be, trust me, nothing's greater than a good laugh," Pixel replied. Moonlight rolled her eyes as Pinkie came into view with an assortment of gags and comedy items with her.
"What have you pulled me into?" Moonlight asked, almost scared at what Pinkie might plan to do with her.
"Hey, if you're nervous, I'll stay with you."
"You may, but I'm not nervous, more curious on how desperate Pinkie will become."
The two sat down across from Pinkie, only for Pixel to fall victim to the old fashion whoopie cushion prank. Pixel and Pinkie laughed while Moonlight remained stoic.
"Well?" Pinkie asked Moonlight expectantly.
"Well what?" Moonlight replied.
"You were supposed to laugh!"
"About what?"
"The whoopie cushion, duh!" she holds it in front of Moonlight's face for clear evidence.
"You mean the flatulence noise? That is not funny, in fact it would be considered gross among other details."
"Oh, I thought you wouldn't laugh at that, but hey worth a shot. Now, how are we going to get you to laugh?"
"How does everypony else laugh?" Pixel asked.
"Well..." Pinkie Pie stood on the table and took a deep breath.
"Are you going to start singing?" Moonlight interrupted the party pony's musical number.
"Maybe," Pinkie answered.
"Please don't, I can make it through a day of gags and random acts of unpredictable weirdness without somepony breaking into random outbursts of music."
"Oh," Pinkie replied, slightly upset as she sat back down while Pixel shrugged.
"Maybe we should start small," Pixel suggested.
"That sounds good, so Moonlight, what do you like to do?"
Moonlight opened her mouth to speak but ended up closing it after failing to find an answer. "I don't know."
"Ugh!" Pinkie slammed her face on the table as she rubbed her head. "Think, Pinkie Pie, you're the element of laughter, you can do this!"
"Why are you talking to yourself?" Moonlight asked as Pinkie looked up.
"Nevermind that, Moonlight, this is more important. Now, let's see, you like being in the dark right? So does anypony know a good dark-related joke?" she was answered by silence. "No, seriously, anypony know anything cause I got nothing," she sat back down.
"Maybe there's something else that Moonlight likes to do," Pixel said.
"None that I can think of," Moonlight replied.
Pinkie rubbed her temples in thought, muttering to herself until a sudden inspiration struck. "Wait a minute, I think I know of a way to get Moonlight to laugh!" Pinkie whispered the idea to Pixel, who started snickering as she was told of a plan.
"What is it?" Moonlight asked.
"That's not important. By the way, can you turn off that whole 'negative emotion sensing' thing?"
"Yes..."
"Good, because you won't need it for a while, just try pranking other ponies by hiding in their shadows or something," Moonlight shrugged before trotting off, then Pixel leaned over to Pinkie. "Are you sure this will work?" Pinkie shrugged.
Malgama continued to think, after all it was the only thing he could do in this state.
'I wonder how his majesty is doing, maybe he's dead, but I don't know. Maybe once I get out of here I'll see how he's doing with his new bride, Chrysalis. Those changelings were the closest to actually being on my side, though I don't have much quarrel with them as much as I do with ponies and Celestia, though they were more neutral and assisting Celestia and Star Swirl and aren't going to help me. Maybe I'll use those royal changelings as a warning to those ponies, I'm sure Celestia and Star Swirl will know of my return soon, anyway so I'll spare their time of searching and let them know to make this fight worth it. That's what I'll do... once I get our of here at least, but the only way to do that is- well, hello, what's this,' Malgama heard small squeaks if some animal echo through the darkness, making him internally chuckle with anticipation. 'It's only a matter of time before I return, Celestia, Luna, and Star Swirl, then I will absorb all your magic, and finally, the mergelings will regain control over Equestria like we were supposed to when time began.'
Meanwhile, back at Canterlot, everything was quiet, nothing eventful went on.
The silence was broken after Celestia turned to her sister. "You know, Luna, I've been thinking."
"Yes...?" Luna asked, hoping it had nothing to do with Malgama.
"After all this time since we met The Misfits, and we still haven't met Mixy's father."
Luna silently sighed. "I am aware of this, sometimes Mirror Shard dreams of his daughter, some good, some awful, and what's interesting is that all the ones that ended badly involve us."
Celestia was mildly surprised. "In what ways?"
"Mainly us taking her away from him, hanging her, and/or imprisoning her and him."
Celestia was surprised at the unexpected detail. "I understand why Mirror Shard is afraid of us, but is he that afraid?"
"I'm afraid so, he would most likely run away with his wife if we were to so much as talk to him."
"Haven't you tried talking to him in his dream?"
"I have a few times, but it seems that either changelings are masters over lucid dreaming or he learned how to master it. The moment when I mentioned that I am your sister, he woke up and would do it again every time I arrived in his dream, same thing happens when I enter his wife's dreams, they seem to take any chance they can get to stay away from us."
"Then I suppose there is no way to have a decent conversation with either of them, or at least not Mirror Shard."
"Perhaps there is somepony who can talk him into it," Luna suggested. "Somepony like his daughter."
Celestia nodded. "That seems to be the best method, and I'm sure Twilight would like to get to know Mirror Shard as well." she replied as a quill and paper as she began writing a letter to the lavender Princess of friendship in question.
Back in Ponyville, in the Palace of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle was busy organizing her books within the library. As she finished the top shelf, she turned around to start on the next section before encountering two yellow-green, serpentine eyes.
"Gah!" Twilight shouted in shock as she fell out of the air and onto a pile of books. Rubbing her head, she looked up to see the familiar changeling hybrid, Mixy.
"Sorry, Twilight," Mixy said as she floated onto the ground. "I didn't mean to scare you."
Twilight smiled as she got back onto her hooves. "It's alright, Mixy, so what brings you here?"
Mixy shrugged. "I got bored, and wanted to see what you are up to."
"Well, I was just in the middle of organizing the books in my new library, would you like to help?"
Mixy shrugged. "Sure," she replied.
"Alright, all you have to do is just organize each book by their title, genre, and author, with the longer books on top and shorter at the bottom, all in alphabetical order." Mixy just stared at her, confused as to what Twilight just said, though the princess shortly started laughing. "I'm only kidding, just put each book in the right genre, there should be a plaque on each of the shelves showing the genre type."
Mixy smiled. "That I can do," she said as she grabbed a couple books within her emerald green levitation spell. And flew up to the shelves to begin.
After about twenty minutes later, Twilight broke the silence. "You know, it's nice to have another alicorn like you to help me out around here, Mixy."
"Thanks, Twilight, though I'm not really an alicorn, just a changeling hybrid, so I'm more like a unicorn with wings that can change its looks at will instead of something that has the magic of unicorns, earth ponies, and pegasi." Mixy replied as she stocked the non-fiction shelf.
"I know. Although that reminds me, I still haven't talked to your dad yet."
"Don't expect to, the moment he hears you're a princess, he'll run faster than Fang chasing a hyperactive squirrel."
"What if I just say I'm a part of The Misfits?" suggested Twilight.
Mixy thought about it. "That's so crazy, it might just work!" she replied. "If he hasn't heard about you already, that is."
"We'll just have to see what he thinks once he meets me sometime, I'm not sure when though, I hope it's soon."
"We'll just have to wait and see, Twilight." Mixy smiled at her friend as loud belching and fire could be heard in the other room, followed by the pitter-patter of dragon claws on flooring before Spike entered the room.
"Twilight, letter for you!" He said as he held it up to the princess of friendship, who took the letter and opened it, a smile gradually forming on her face as she read.
"What does it say?" Mixy asked.
"Mixy, get what you need, we're going to see your dad."
Mixy didn't know whether to be happy, surprised, or upset. "My dad?"
Twilight nodded. "Celestia thinks it's about time that she finally got to meet Mirror Shard, and she thought that nopony could be better at talking to him than his only daughter."
"I guess, but how are we going to get to him? He's all the way near Las Pegasus."
"We could take the train," Twilight suggested. "It's not that far afterwards."
Mixy shrugged. "Alright then, should we being Cyber along? Next to me and my mom, Cyber's pretty much one of the only ponies he trusts. He won't even check mail without sometimes going paranoid and suspecting it's from the princess or something."
"If Cyber agrees, then yes, and we should leave by tonight if we're going to make it by noon tomorrow."
"Sounds like a plan, I'll get started, see you tonight."
Twilight and Mixy nodded to each other before separating. Mixy quickly flew over to the Misfit home to find Cyber in his lab tinkering on a machine.
"Hey Cyber?" Mixy asked, earning the unicorn's attention.
"Hey, Mixy, what's up?" He asked as he removed his goggles and wiped off the grease on his face.
"Alright, so I was over at Twilight's and she got a letter from Celestia," Cyber nodded in understanding. "And well, she said that it might be time for my dad to come to Canterlot and meet the princess."
"Really?" Cyber asked, surprised.
Mixy nodded. "Yeah, anyway, so Twilight's coming with me, and since my dad trusts you, would you like to come too?"
Cyber scratched his chin in thought. "I wish I could, but I can't right now, sorry, I have a couple projects planned to do with Lyra."
"Oh, I see." Mixy replied upset.
"What? You're not still jealous, are you?"
"No, I just thought it would be easier to talk to him if you were there."
"I see, but I have an alternative," Cyber grabbed a nearby piece of paper and wrote on it before folding it up and handing it to Mixy. "Give this to Mirror Shard, he'll know it's from me."
"Thanks, Cyber!" Mixy took the note in her magic and trotted off to prepare a few nights stay with her parents.
Meanwhile, Twilight prepared as well, only she was going through everything via checklist.
"Sleeping bag?" Spike read off the checklist.
"Check!" Twilight replied.
"Toothbrush, Toothpaste, and books?"
"Check!"
"Changeling repellent?"
"Che- Spike!" Twilight scolded her assistant.
"Sorry, I just heard there was going to be changelings near Mirror Shard."
"Mirror Shard is the changeling, besides there's no such thing as changeling repellent."
"That's not what Pinkie told me." Spike grumbled.
"Now, let's continue with the checklist."
Spike rolled his eyes. "Notebooks?"
"Check!"
"Pillow?"
"Check!"
Meanwhile, Laa-Mohr, Eclipse and Fluttershy enjoyed a meal at the Ponyville diner, each eating their own food.
"I'll be honest, I wasn't sure if I should be here because of my curse," Laa-Mohr said. "But everything seems to be fine."
"Tell that to the ponies who slipped while on the way to the bathroom." Eclipse said.
"Oh, but I do feel sorry for them, and for you, Laa-Mohr," Fluttershy replied. "It must be awful having to live with that curse."
"You get used to it. Besides look on the bright side, if my curse wasn't weakened, somepony would've already fallen on the floor from poison." Laa-Mohr's statement made Eclipse start eating his food a bit more hesitantly.
Fluttershy gasped. "That's just horrible! Was that how you were back in Saddle Arabia?"
Laa-Mohr nodded. "Only much worse, I couldn't tell you how desperate I was when I had to leave."
"What about your family?" Fluttershy asked.
"I don't have one, I was adopted by the Vizier of Saddle Arabia before my curse arrived."
Eclipse nodded. "I understand that, I don't have a family either, except Celestia, and even then after I was put on the sun I was more angry than sad."
Both of their comments made Fluttershy curious, "Though haven't either of you ever thought about who your real parents were?"
"I have once," Eclipse answered. "But Celestia keeps coming to mind as my mom, so I stopped, besides I'm much better living as a misfit."
"As do I," Laa-Mohr said. "However it wouldn't hurt you to at least know just in case."
"No it won't, Laa-Mohr," Fluttershy agreed. "No it won't, though I'm sure we'll find out who they are someday, I'm sure of it."
"Thanks Fluttershy, but you don't need to do it for us."
"Oh, no I insist, it's just a kind deed to do for a friend."
Laa-Mohr and Eclipse smiled and nodded as they continued eating.
Mixy and Twilight met together at the train station.
"So, Cyber's not coming?" Twilight asked.
"Nah, he's got something to do with Lyra, but he gave me a note to give to my dad."
"Oh, well it shouldn't make too much of a difference."
Shortly they could see the train approach the station as the whistle blew.
The two exchanged looks. "You ready?" Twilight asked.
Mixy nodded. "As I'll ever be." then the two boarded the train to set off towards Mixy's parents.
Fang, Marine and Dusty hung out at Sweet Apple Acres, each having their own share of work in taking care of the trees.
"Sho, doesh thish, thing go on the tree?" Fang asked while holding the object he found in his mouth.
"Fang, that's a watering can," Dusty said, Fang stared at him. "Which is used to water," Fang continued with his confused staring, making Dusty facehoof. "No, it does not go on the tree."
"Then where doesh it go?"
"I don't know, ask Applejack."
"Ask me what?" Applejack asked while Fang pointed to the watering can in his mouth.
"What should I do with it?" Fang asked, making Applejack laugh.
"You don' know much about farmin' or yard work, do you?" Fang shook his head as Applejack put the can on her back. "I guess I should've known, y'all predators must not know the difference between a trowel and a shovel."
"Hey, I so do know!"
"Then what's that?" Applejack pointed to a large shovel that rested on the barn
Fang scratched his head. "A giant spoon?" Fang guessed.
"What about that?" Applejack pointed to a trowel nearby.
"A smaller giant spoon?" Fang guessed again.
Applejack laughed. "Sure it is. Marine, could you help me out here?"
"What? Do you need me to do something with one of those spoons?" Marine asked.
Applejack facehoofed. "On second thought why don't you two just help pull weeds?"
"Sure thing!" The two replied and set off.
"Well, at least I know they're good at somethin' on the farm."
"Five, four, three, two..." Dusty started counting down.
"Uh, Applejack, which ones are weeds?" asked Fang.
Applejack facehoofed as Dusty snickered. "This is gonna be a long day," Applejack muttered.
Twilight and Mixy tried to pass the time on the train by talking.
Mixy advised Twilight about when they finally make it to Mixy's home. "Alright, so do not ask him about Chrysalis or anything about changelings too much, a few questions an hour or so is fine but more than that makes him uncomfortable and feel guilty."
"Got it," Twilight took notes.
"Also, if my dad doesn't feel like talking, my mom most likely will, but if neither of them feel comfortable just leave them alone for a while."
Twilight nodded in understanding.
"And if my dad says he doesn't want to talk about it, never bring it up again unless he's in a really good mood."
"Now what should I ask him?" Twilight asked.
"Other than normal small talk, I think you should just let me do most of the talking until he warms up to you." Twilight nodded.
Pixel Berry guided Moonlight Shadow to Sugar Cube Corner.
"I tried your advise on surprising, I think I may have given somepony a heart attack from that." Moonlight said as they approached the door.
"Trust me, if what Pinkie has in store doesn't make you laugh, nothing will," Pixel advised her friend. "Just don't think too much and let your emotions out."
Moonlight rolled her eyes. "If you insist."
The two entered the building to find nopony there.
"Pinkie Pie! Are you here?" called Pixel.
Pinkie's voice was heard from upstairs. "Pixel? Is Moonlight with you?"
"Yeah."
"Stay right there, I'll be down in a second!"
Within a couple seconds, Pinkie trotted down the stairs. "I'm so glad you two could make it, I've got the perfect plan to make you laugh Moonli-Woaah!" she was interrupted after she slipped on a banana peel that was unnoticed and she was sent sliding across the room. Moonlight wanted to help but Pixel stopped her, leaving Moonlight to just watch as Pinkie continued to slip and slide across the room constantly running into various pots, pans, and food, mostly pies and cakes before she finally stopped, but her dazed and confused condition made her stumble into a lever that caused another set of contraptions to take effect as she was launched into the sink that not only cleaned the pie crust, fruit filling, and frosting off of her, but also leave her soaking wet that made her slide onto a ramp which sent her flying through the air and landing just some distance away from Pixel and Moonlight, and finally to finish it off, a bag of flour was dumped on her head.
Pinkie looked up and smiled to show she was okay.
Pixel looked at Moonlight expectantly. "Well, what do you think?"
Moonlight stood there eyes wide, she had no idea how to respond to the calamities and craziness. However she couldn't react with sympathy knowing that Pinkie was relatively unharmed. She suddenly felt something inside her that started to well up, a slight mixture of several emotions combined with sudden spasms in her diaphragm that seemed to also force a smile on her face.
Right after that, Moonlight's laughter filled the air. Pinkie and Pixel looked at each other at a job well done before joining in the laughter as well.
Once the laughing died down, Pixel turned to her friend. "So, Moonlight, how do you feel?"
"I... I don't know!" Moonlight answered, sounding very excited. "But at the same time I don't care! I feel as though I have exhausted unwanted-" she stopped herself and shook her head to correct herself. "I feel great! And for the first time in my life I'm feeling multiple emotions at once! It's confusing, and I want to question it, but this laughter makes it all indescribable. All I can say is thank you, Pinkie."
"Hey, it's what I do," Pinkie replied with a *squee* and a smile.
"So does this mean you'll show more emotions now?" Pixel asked.
"Sort of, I'll try now, but this will be the most amount of emotions I will demonstrate for who knows how long, the laughter just gave me this burst of energy that makes me just want to smile and keep showing emotions!"
"Of course!" Pinkie replied. "Why do you think I'm always smiling?"
"I always figured that it was part of your personality, but-" Moonlight stopped herself again. "That was rhetorical wasn't it?"
Pinkie nodded. "Yep! You're on your way, Moonlight." Moonlight nodded as the two visitors left with a big smile on their faces, even though Moonlight's wasn't seen.
"Hey, Pixel?" Moonlight asked.
"Yes, Moonlight?" Pixel responded.
"Thank you, you didn't just show me what I was missing by not laughing, but also how much I've lost while alone."
"No problem, Moonlight, that's what friends are for," they smiled at each other. "Now, come on, let's go home, it's almost the afternoon and all that laughter made me exhausted."
Laa-Mohr and Eclipse sat down together in a wide open field, just relaxing. Until Eclipse broke the silence.
"Laa-Mohr?"
"Yeah?" the cursed misfit replied.
"I'm bored."
"Me too."
"What do you want to do?"
"I don't know."
"Me neither, there must be something we could do."
"Perhaps we could enhance our abilities," Laa-Mohr suggested.
Eclipse raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"
"You know, I could practice my swordfighting and you could practice controlling your flames."
"I can already control my flames."
"But you can't control your heat, from what I heard you needed a spell to decrease your heat and you still burn and set fires by touching, have you ever felt cold before?"
"Hm, no I haven't, but how would that help me?"
"I never said that, it was just a question."
"I know, but that does make me wonder how I could feel cold, just to know what it's like."
Laa-Mohr was about to reply when a voice from above emerged. "I think I could help with that," suddenly the two were covered in blue shreds of confetti-like substance.
The cause was none other than Discord. "You know, I have wondered what it would look like if you were affected." he said.
"Affected? Affected by what?" Eclipse demanded, about to flare up from annoyance.
Laa-Mohr took a closer look at the material that surrounds them, then his eyes grew in shock. "Eclipse, this is poison joke!"
"What the heck is poison joke?" Eclipse asked.
"A plant that causes strange effects to ponies from contact, I've only read about it, but never seen it before."
Eclipse looked at his body, nothing seems different. "Then why hasn't anything happened yet?"
"Actually, your mane stopped flaring." Laa-Mohr answered.
Discord sat down on a lawn chair. "Ooh, this is going to be exciting."
At that moment, Eclipse's coat changed from its normal albino white to an icy blue, as well as his mane changing to different colors of blue as well. Finally, Eclipse started shaking and shivering.
Discord flew over Eclipse. "Hm, would you look at that, you're frozen," he said with interest. "I almost thought you would get some kind of rain cloud over your head or something like this." Discord demonstrated it by hovering a cloud over Eclipse that rained. Laa-Mohr was the only one to notice the raindrops freezing upon contact with Eclipse.
Eclipse growled at the draconequus. "I sh-should t-t-torch-ch y-y-you right-t n-now!" Eclipse threatened.
"Go ahead," Discord said as a large target appeared on his torso.
Eclipse focused and aimed, yet nothing happened. Eclipse tried again, still no fire. Eclipse growled and stomped his hoof about to charge straight at Discord until Laa-Mohr stopped him.
"Eclipse, channel your anger, do not let this result in something we would regret, even if it is Discord."
Eclipse deeply breathed and calm down, his breath was seen as he breathed out. "S-s-sorry, L-Laa-M-M-M-Mohr," that was when he noticed the large sheet of ice on the ground. "Hey, w-w-w-where'd-d th-th-this-s c-come f-f-from?"
"It was created when you stomped your hoof, it seems that the poison joke has frozen your fire and given you ice powers instead."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that, poison joke's too ridiculous to give perfect powers, it's just more unpredictable and uncontrollable."
"Ah... ah... ACHOO!" the now cryokinetic unicorn sneezed, causing two large icicles to form from his nostrils.
"Such as that," Discord said as he broke off the icicles on Eclipse's nose and used them to knit a multicolored sweater with Discord's face on it. he then put it on Eclipse, who glared at him with hatred.
"Wait a minute, I was in contact with the joke too," Laa-More said as Eclipse struggled to get the sweater off. "Why wasn't I affected?"
"Oh, you were, Laa-Mohr, you'll see." Discord replied. By then Eclipse got the sweater off and it launched right onto Laa-Mohr's face, who after stumbling around for a few seconds slipped on Eclipse's ice patch and tumble around as the sweater unraveled and managed to tie up Laa-Mohr in a cocoon of wool. Discord then made a scissor shape with his eagle talon and used it to cut Laa-Mohr free.
"It redirected my curse to affect me..." Laa-Mohr said awe-struck. "If I knew this earlier things would have been much easier back in Saddle Arabia."
"Not exactly," Discord replied. "It just allowed your curse to affect you, nothing else changed."
Laa-Mohr sighed. "I knew it was too good to be true."
"I th-th-think I l-lost-t-t f-f-feel-l-ling in-n m-my hoov-ves," Eclipse said. "Isn't-t th-there a c-cure f-f-for th-th-this?"
"Fine, I'll be right back." Discord teleported away before coming back several minutes later with Fluttershy.
"Oh my goodness, what happened?" Fluttershy exclaimed.
"These two unfortunate souls somehow found themselves under the effects of poison joke." said Discord, sweeping up the poison joke leaves off the ground.
"Somehow? You dumped them on us for goodness sake!" Laa-Mohr said, trying to approach Fluttershy before tripping several times and bumping straight into her. "Sorry about that."
"It's alright, I understand." Fluttershy said before looking at the other pony, only recognizing the blue, shivering unicorn because of his eclipsed sun cutie mark. "Oh my gosh, Eclipse! Are you alright? You're ice cold!"
"Y-yeah, th-th-this-s p-p-possib-b-ble f-f-frost-t-tbite is p-p-perfect-t-tly n-n-normal!" Eclipse replied sarcastic.
"Oh my, I could hardly recognize you with that blue color. Come on, I'll give you both a bath to cure the poison joke." the three ponies trotted away after Laa-Mohr and Eclipse gave Discord a look that screamed, 'I will get you for this,' after which Discord replied with a grin and a shrug.
Meanwhile, Clockwork, Cyber, and Lyra continued to work on the wings.
"Why do I have to be the one that tests it?" complained Clockwork, who had the wings on his back, almost looking like a pegasus.
Cyber pushed buttons as he explained to Clockwork. "We already discussed this, your weight matches the average weight of ponies, therefore we could get best results."
"Also, we have your memories backed up so it's alright if you get destroyed." Lyra added.
"What!?" Clockwork exclaimed.
"Relax, Clockwork, if this goes well, maybe we could turn you into a pegasus."
"That's easy for you to say, you're not the one who has dangerous wings strapped to his back!"
"We're only testing the hover feature, after that you'll be free of it and we'll work on the control group."
Clockwork sighed. "Fine, but I better get something out of this when we're done."
Lyra took over the controls. "Alright, activating in three... two... one..." the two unicorns flipped a few switches, causing some internal turbines to turn on and gently lift Clockwork off the ground.
"So far so good," Cyber said. "How are you feeling, Clockwork?"
"Nervous." the automaton answered.
"Don't worry, we're just going to lift you up a few more inches then test the directional functions."
"Make it quick, being destroyed is not something I want to experience anytime soon."
"Alright, testing motors now." Cyber replied as he started moving the joystick to turn the device. Immediately the slightest nudge sent Clockwork flying into a tree.
"Clockwork!" Lyra exclaimed as they turned off the wings and went over to Clockwork's aid.
"Are you alright?" Cyber asked.
Clockwork stood up, his eyes spinning in their screens. "Cyber, tell me again why did you program pain into me? Ow..."
Cyber inspected the automaton. "There seems to be only a few dents, nothing I can't fix. Clockwork, run a check for any internal damages while we see what went wrong."
"I'll go get my repairs done now." Clockwork said, taking off the mechanical wings before trotting inside.
Cyber picked up the wings and sighed. "I can build a robot with fully functioning emotions but I can't make a simple pair of wings."
"Don't worry, we'll figure out what's wrong someday, don't stress out about it.
"I'm not stressing out about it, I'm just confused right now, also I'm going to have to deal with Clockwork rambling on about how he could've died and how I should use a dummy or replica next time."
"Well then, we'll deal with it together."
Cyber smiled and nodded as they both trotted inside the house to continue.
As the sun began to set, Laa-Mohr and Eclipse were returning to the misfit home.
"Fluttershy can really draw a good bath, I felt like I was at a spa!" Eclipse said, now free of the poison joke effect and back to his normal, pyrokinetic, albino self.
"Clearly you've never been to a spa," Laa-Mohr replied. "Though Fluttershy did provide what was necessary to cure the poison joke while also providing comfort."
"At least it worked, now I'm beat and want to go home."
"Agreed, plus we haven't eaten dinner yet."
"I don't care, after nearly getting frostbite, I'm still resisting the urge to set myself on fire."
The two enter to find Cyber and Lyra working on a blueprint.
"And here we see the rare techno unicorns in their natural habitat," Laa-Mohr joked, earning the attention of the unicorns in question, Cyber looked very annoyed while Lyra was confused. "If we're lucky, we may get to see them participate in the mating ritual known as 'kissing'."
Eclipse started to snicker as Cyber threw his pen at Laa-Mohr, only to miss and hit Eclipse in the head.
Lyra was confused. "What are they talking about?" she asked.
Cyber rolled up the blueprints as he continued to look unimpressed. "They just think we're going to be coltfriend and marefriend."
"The techno unicorns deny their attraction towards one another," Laa-Mohr continued. "Yet they are inseparable."
Lyra was starting to get irritated as well. "Knock it off, Laa-Mohr!" she shouted, about to hit him, only to fail and falling down the process.
"The techno unicorns also fail to notice that their target has a curse that brings bad luck to anyone near, this has been today's moment of 'watching, waiting for the moment' my name is Laa-Mohr, I'll see you next time," Laa-Mohr and Eclipse chuckled as Cyber rolled his eyes.
Then another voice was heard laughing within the darkness of the other room.
"What was that?" asked Eclipse.
"Is it a ghost?" asked Lyra, worried.
"Oh, calm down, it's only me." added the voice as the source stepped out of the shadows, which surprised everypony.
"Moonlight?" cried out almost everypony in the room. Moonlight nodded.
"Yes, it's me," Moonlight Shadow responded. "Why are you all so surprised?"
"Who are you and what have you done to Moonlight Shadow?" Eclipse asked.
"I see, it's just Mixy, isn't it?" Laa-Mohr said.
"Nope, it's really Moonlight." Cyber replied. "Mixy left with Twilight to visit her parents."
"Who?" Laa-Mohr asked.
"Mirror Shard and Dandelion Meadow, Mirror Shard's the changeling," Cyber answered. "Anyway, I'm about to start on dinner while Clockwork is being repaired. Lyra, you wanna join?"
"Sure." Lyra replied as everypony started their own individual activities.
Laa-Mohr trotted up to Moonlight. "So if you're here, where is Pixel?"
"Taking a shower." Moonlight answered.
"I see, so how did you learn to laugh?"
"Pinkie Pie," Moonlight replied, smiling underneath her hood.
"Is that a smile I detect within that shroud?"
Moonlight gasped and pulled her hood further over her face. "H-how did you know?"
"Several years of isolation makes some pony very observant, also the look in your eyes is very clear."
"I didn't know that my eyes could show emotions."
"You'd be surprised what the eyes of a pony can show."
The following silence was interrupted by Dusty's voice. "Aww... you look so cute together."
"D-Dusty!" Moonlight exclaimed. "How long were you standing there?"
"Long enough, Fang and Marine are back too. So what's the big thing that happened?"
"Moonlight laughed," Laa-Mohr answered.
"Yeah, right."
Moonlight spoke up. "Actually, I have."
"You're serious?" Moonlight nodded. "Dang, I wish I was there."
"It was a pleasant experience." Moonlight said.
"Hm, well, I'm going to let you two do whatever you were doing, I'm going to hang with Fang."
Laa-Mohr and Moonlight nodded as Dusty trotted away, then Laa-Mohr turned to Moonlight. "So, does this mean that you'll be expressing yourself more?"
Moonlight took a minute to think before nodding. "Yes, and I think that it may be close to showing who I really am."
Afterward, The Misfits and Lyra chatted, ate, and it wasn't long before they all trotted to bed.
Meanwhile, somewhere else in Equestria, a young mare trotted across the street in the night, everything was normal, until a nearby bush rustled.
"Hm?" The mare looked over at the bush, nothing seemed wrong until she saw it move. That made her look closer.
Within the leaves and darkness, she could barely make out a pair of orange-yellow eyes of somepony.
"H-hello?" she asked, then the eyes looked alarmed before she saw an orange-yellow streak zoom out of the bush, along with a weird, rapid, squishing noise, somewhat like walking on dough.
"Wait, stop!" The mare yelled, trying to follow the pony she saw, but couldn't catch up.
Meanwhile, the pony in question kept running, panicking, into the forest before he stopped after hearing a splash, looking down the pony saw his hoof in a small pool of water, immediately taking it out, but still watched in horror as he watched the water dissolve pieces of his hoof, making it start to fall apart, but only for a few seconds. The pony didn't know how that happens, in fact he didn't know anything, for he was always too busy running to learn. He didn't have a name yet, nor did he have knowledge on how to react to other ponies, so he just ran in fear, he wanted to be like them but he didn't know how or who to learn from.
The pony looked at the pool of water and saw looking back the usual reflection: a pineapple flavored stallion made completely of gelatin.
The next day, Twilight and Mixy approached a lone, two-storied house in the middle of a field that included several crops nearby.
"Well, here we are, home sweet home," Mixy said. "Remember what I told you, just leave the changeling talk to a minimum." Twilight nodded in response as Mixy took a deep breath and knocked. After a few minutes, nothing happened.
"You think they're not home?" Twilight asked.
"Wait for it..." on cue, the door opened to show a golden yellow unicorn mare with a darker yellow mane and a dandelion cutie mark, who gasped out of happiness.
"Mixy!" she exclaimed.
"Hi, Mom!" Mixy replied, hugging her.
"This is unexpected, I didn't know you were coming, and where's Cyber?"
"He's in Ponyville, he's got some things to do, I just came to show Dad the newest member to The Misfits, this is Twilight Sparkle."
"Oh, really? Well, Twilight, I am Dandelion Meadow," Dandelion replied, sounding slightly relieved. "Come on in, make yourself at home." Twilight smiled and was shown into the parlor as Dandelion leaned to Mixy. "So, she knows?" She whispered.
Mixy nodded. "Twilight's really smart and wants to meet a good changeling."
"But you know how your father gets when you talk about his 'origin'."
"Don't worry, Mom, I know what I'm doing. Where is Dad anyway?"
"He's inside, and I hope you're right, for his sake."
Mixy and Dandelion trotted inside where they found Twilight already at the dinner table.
"Now, Dandelion," Twilight said. "I know about your husband's 'trust issues' but I don't think it could hurt anypony if you brought him here."
"Who says I have trust issues?" asked the baby blue stallion that stood at the end of the stairs and approached the mares.
"Hi, Dad!" Mixy said.
"Hello, sweetheart," the stallion who was most likely Mirror Shard said, nuzzling his daughter.
"Hi, Mirror," Dandelion said, kissing her husband.
"That's your dad?" Twilight whispered to Mixy.
"He's wearing his disguise right now." Mixy answered.
"Oh, and uh... Mixy, who's your friend? Some kind of princess?" Mirror Shard looked at Twilight with suspicion.
"No, Mirror Shard, I'm not," Twilight lied to keep Mirror Shard calm. "I'm actually a natural born alicorn, and ever since Mixy told me about your... 'true self' I always wanted to meet you."
Mirror Shard rose an eyebrow in suspicion. "So, you know about me being a..." Twilight nodded.
"Honey, it's ok," Dandelion comforted her husband. "Don't worry so much, if Mixy trusts her, we can trust her too."
Mirror shard looked at his wife for a good thirty seconds before sighing. "You're right, sorry about how I acted, Twilight, it's just that being a changeling leaves you wondering whether or not you can trust anypony, but I guess it's just leaving me paranoid." Mirror Shard smiled.
"Uh, Dad? You're still wearing your disguise." Mixy said.
"Huh? Oh, yes, right." after which, Mirror Shard became coated in the familiar green flame that allowed changelings to change. After a few seconds the fire subsided and Twilight was looking at a changeling, every detail was similar to the other changelings, with only exception being his eyes didn't change into the normal changeling pure blue.
Twilight's mouth was agape as Dandelion trotted up to Mirror Shard. "And that's the changeling I fell in love with." she said.
"Yes, so this is what I look like as a changeling, now if you'll excuse me, it's been a lot in such short time and I need to relieve this stress and to prepare tonight's dinner." Mirror Shard then trotted outside.
"Alright, dear!" called out Dandelion, then once her husband was out of earshot, she turned to the other mares looking determined. "Alright, now spill it," she said.
"Spill what?" Mixy asked, slightly worried.
"You're lying, aren't you?"
Mixy tensed up. "A-About what?"
"About Twilight, she really is a princess, isn't she?"
Mixy and Twilight looked at each other with worry before Twilight nodded admittedly.
"How did you know?" asked Mixy.
"I dated your father for five years, I know a lie when I see one."
"But didn't you fall for those lies?"
Dandelion was about to argue, but stopped. "Alright, fine I heard rumors about her in town, but that's outside the point. Why did you bring her here?"
"I really wanted to meet your husband," Twilight answered. "Being the first reformed changeling, he has knowledge that could benefit Equestria, also Celestia wanted me to."
Dandelion's eyes widened and her mouth was agape as she stood shocked. "What? Celestia knows about him? How?" she asked, worried.
Mixy hesitated. "I... told her?"
"Mixy? How could you do that to your own father? You know how he is with the princess, if he hears about this he'll have a heart attack."
"Yes, I do know, and that is why I told her, I want Dad to live in Equestria peacefully and at least step outside, not be afraid that Celestia is spying on his every move and will assassinate him the moment she gets."
"And I know Celestia, I was her personal student," Twilight added. "She would never take apart another pony's family, whether or not there is a changeling in it."
Dandelion looked like she didn't know whether or not to trust them, then she looked into her daughter's eyes, practically begging for an answer, this made her sigh.
"We'll have to convince your father, it won't be easy, but it's possible, but I would suggest telling him the truth before his trust grows too much to be repaired."
Twilight nodded. "I understand."
Right then Mirror Shard stepped in from outside, carrying a basket of produce in his sky blue magic.
"Alright, now who's up for some dinner?" Mirror Shard asked.
"I'll get it started," Dandelion said as a golden yellow aura levitated the produce onto Dandelion's back. "In the meantime I believe Mixy has something she would like to tell you." After that, she left into the kitchen leaving Mirror Shard alone with Twilight and Mixy.
"Alright, what is it?" Mirror Shard asked.
"Um, Dad... don't freak out but, about Twilight... she's not actually a member of The Misfits, she's an actual princess."
"Yes, I know," Mirror Shard said nonchalantly.
Mixy looked at her father. "Really?"
Mirror Shard nodded. "First bit of facts for you, Twilight: changelings are good with logic. The Misfits are a group that accept ponies that are teased or mocked, if anything an alicorn wouldn't be teased, praised maybe, but not teased. Furthermore, if somepony was a new princess, word would reach around very quickly, even out here."
"Wow, but why did you go along with me?"
"I wasn't sure at first, but if you had to break the family code to tell me that, it became obvious. I'm a changeling, I know lies."
"But you didn't suspect that Twilight was going to tear us apart!"
"Mixy, she's your friend, doesn't have a kingdom and not related to Celestia, I'm not that paranoid."
"Actually..." Twilight was about to say about her brother being married to Cadence before Mixy stopped her.
"Actually what?" Mirror Shard asked.
"Actually... I was wondering what your family code was." Twilight said.
"Well, ever since Dandelion found out I was a changeling we made it an oath that we would never tell a lie in this family." Mirror Shard answered.
"So you aren't suspicious about how your daughter almost lied to you?"
"She was just trying to keep me calm, and I respect that, so I'll let it slide, but please don't do it again."
Mixy shrank in her seat, ashamed. "Sorry, Dad."
"Wow, I never knew that changelings were so intelligent!" Twilight said.
"There's a lot of things you don't know, but please wait until a better time to ask. I don't like being reminded of when I was under Chrysalis' control."
"And Dad?" Mixy hesitated. "I should probably tell you that Celestia knows you're a changeling."
Mirror Shard froze with shock. "Wh-what did you say?" he asked.
"Celestia knows you're a changeling?"
Mirror Shard tried to think about it, trying to find some proof she was lying, but he couldn't and he sighed. "I was afraid of that, Luna managed to enter my dreams and being Celestia's sister, I assume that she would have already told her, but I didn't want to accept it until now. Though I still don't know how she figured it out."
"I'm sorry, Dad, but I just couldn't stand the thought of you being locked up in here forever. Besides, I met Celestia, she really wants to meet you ever since I told her about you," Mixy covered her mouth with a gasp at what she just said as Mirror Shard gave his daughter a look of pure disappointment.
"Mixy! How could you?" Mirror Shard scolded. "Words cannot describe how disappointed I am in you. I trusted you and you let me down! That's it, you can't go back to Cyber."
"But Dad!" Mixy tried to say. Mirror Shard held up his hoof to stop her.
"No, I won't hear it, if I can't trust you to keep a secret from the Princess, I can't trust you to keep a secret from anypony else."
"Dad!"
"Mixy, I told you-"
Twilight couldn't take it anymore. "STOP!" she yelled, gaining the attention of the changeling and his daughter. "Look, Mixy was trying to do the right thing and you keep pushing her out, Mirror Shard. Also Celestia told her to tell you, look!" Twilight took the letter she received yesterday from Celestia out of her bag, Mirror Shard then read over it, keeping a face of disbelief.
"If that doesn't convince you, then how about this?" Mixy took out Cyber's letter and showed it to her dad, who read it as well.
Mirror Shard thought deeply before he sighed and looked down in regret. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, I got a little carried away. Though as much as I want to punish you for telling Celestia, I can't help but feel as though you're probably right. I guess I should just accept change and try something else, I was just scared, that's all."
"So, I can still go with Cyber?"
Mirror Shard smiled. "Yes, you can, now let's go get something to eat."
Dusty continued to dig through the earth, just to relax, nothing else. He always enjoyed seeing how deep he could go.
'I'd like to see Rainbow Crash beat me in digging,' he thought. 'It would do her good to do something other than fly and sit on her butt all day, maybe even- GAAH!' he fell into a large cavern in the center a small pool of water.
Dusty stood up as he rubbed his head, then he looked around since his eyes already adjusted to the darkness from the previous digging, he admired the cavern formation. Though there was something off, he felt kinda uncomfortable, in fact it might have reminded him of the cave he was trapped in...
Dusty started quivering and sweating as he entered a flashback...
"Hey, Dusty, what's going on?" asked Rainbow Dash as a foal, flying next to Dusty, who sat down on a cloud.
"Leave me alone, Rainbow Dash, if you want my lunch money I don't have any," Dusty responded.
"Woah, take it easy, I just came to check on you, you didn't show up to flight school again."
"You're wasting your time, I'm not going, I don't like it."
"Really? What makes you say that?"
"Because I just don't!"
"No, I think it's because you can't fly."
Dusty tried to hide his blush with his wing. "I can fly, I'm a pegasus! I just need to mature, that's what my mom told me."
"Nnnope, I still don't think you can."
"I can too!"
"Prove it," Rainbow sneered at him as Dusty started flapping his wings as hard as he could, only flying a few inches in the air before falling back down.
"There! See? I can fly!"
"Hmm, nope, I'm not convinced, I've seen all pegasi do that, even your sister can do better and she's several years younger."
"Well, that's what I can do, what do you want me to do?"
"I don't know..." Rainbow looked around for anything to give her an idea. "How about jump off of Cloudsdale?"
Dusty stiffened as he felt worried. "What?"
"There's the edge, just jump and don't fall, like this:" Rainbow demonstrated it by jumping off the cloud, staying afloat with ease. "Unless you're chicken."
Normally Dusty wouldn't give in to peer pressure, but this time he would make an exception, he looked off the edge, swallowed his fear, then jumped and tried to flap as much and as hard as he could, managing to stay in the air.
Rainbow clapped her hooves as she landed. "Looks like you're not so flightless after all."
"See?..." Dusty sputtered, using most of his energy to stay alive. "I... told you... I... I..." that was when he started dropping. "Uh-oh," after that, Dusty fell down, barely able to breathe or say anything, too afraid to even try using his wings, all he could do was scream. Then he crashed, once the dust cleared he could see the cave around him, nearly dark, with only a small hole at the top that he fell in, which he could see Rainbow through.
"Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash, over here!" The cyan pegasus didn't respond from that far away, instead she just shook her head then left. "No, Rainbow, don't leave me alone! Don't leave me! Don't... leave me..." Rainbow was already gone, there was nopony, nopony to help him, not a single soul in the cave, he was something much worse than falling, he was alone. He was scared, hurt, in the dark, and alone. No matter what happened, nopony heard his screams or crying, Dusty began to feel like he would never be found.
"AAAAAAAAAHH!" Dusty returned to reality screaming, sweating, and almost crying. He was alone again, and though he was underground, he was as scared as anypony could be that nopony would find him. Quickly he began to dig through the walls, not even being surrounded by dirt calmed him down. Soon he found the surface, seeing the sun's rays, but still nopony around, he didn't want to be alone, he started panicking at the same time Rainbow Dash came up to him.
"Hey, Dusty," Rainbow said as she noticed Dusty's panic attack. "Wanna- woah, Dusty, are you alright?"
Dusty turned around and saw her, but Rainbow was not to be seen after a flashback like that.
"RRAAAAAINBOOOOW CRAAAAASH!" he yelled, trying to hit the cyan pegasus with all his might.
"Woah! Dusty, what's the matter with you?" Rainbow asked, keeping out of Dusty's reach until he calmed down.
"Sorry, Rainbow Crash, I just had a flashback, those are not pretty."
"A flashback? Of what?"
"That day you dared me to fly off of Cloudsdale."
Rainbow looked at him in confusion. "I don't get it, you weren't falling, why are you suddenly acting like I'm telling you to jump from the highest cloud in Equestria?"
Dusty sighed. "Rainbow, I need to tell you something important."
"Don't tell me, you have a crush don't you? No? Did you found out who has a crush on you?"
"No, Rainbow, this is serious! I'm trying to tell you that I'm not just scared of heights!"
"Really?"
Dusty nodded and wiped his eyebrows. "Yeah, I'm not just scared of heights, I have something else, Cyber called it... mellotosis? No, Macromania? No... whatever, I don't like being alone!"
"So, you're scared of heights and being alone?" Rainbow assumed.
Dusty shrugged and nodded. "Pretty much, I don't know why, but every time I crash into a cave, I start panicking, I feel like nopony will find me and I'll be alone for the rest of my life, and technically it's your fault."
"Do we really need to go through this again?"
Dusty shook his head. "Nah, I'm still getting over that panic attack, but I just need to ask you something. Back after I hit the ground, I saw you through the hole I made from crashing, I tried calling for you but you just shook your head and left. Why?"
"Wait... you saw me?" Rainbow said. "I didn't know, I tried looking for you but I couldn't find you and told your parents what happened."
"Really?" Rainbow nodded. "Wow, I guess I never looked close enough to get a good enough opinion for you," the two smiled at each other. "So... what's this about somepony having a crush on me?"
"Like I'm gonna tell you."
"Come on."
"Nope, not telling you."
"How about we settle this in a race?"
Rainbow looked with interest. "I'm listening."
"First one to Ponyville wins."
"Deal!" Rainbow said as they immediately took off towards Ponyville.
Pinkie, Marine, and Clockwork stared intensely at each other, waiting for someone to blink.
Clockwork was the first to speak. "You do know that I'm a robot and can stare at you all day, right?"
Marine nodded. "Yeah, we know, this just pretty much turned into a more 'who can stare the longest' contest."
"But isn't that what a staring contest is?"
Pinkie shrugged. "I dunno, probably, but I'm bored. What do you two wanna do?"
"Perhaps we could run a diagnosis on the neurotically aspects of Pinkie's unusual ability to predict upcoming calamities with specific combinations of various body irritations," Clockwork said, making the mares confused.
"The who-zit and what-zit now?" Marine asked.
"All I heard was 'blah, blah, blah, science, science, science, something'," Pinkie responded.
"Yeah," Marine got an idea. "Hey, you're smart, how about we find out how Pinkie's Pinkie Sense works."
"But that's what I just said," Clockwork replied. "And maybe at some other time when Lyra and Cyber are not working with each other."
"You mean on one of their 'dates'?" Pinkie said suggestively.
"I don't see how fruit could relate to them working."
Marine facehoofed. "Clockwork, a date is also where-"
"I know what a date is," Clockwork interrupted, "I'm just trying to make my point that Cyber and Lyra did not design me for romance."
"Hold it!" Pinkie shouted. "There's a fruit called a date?"
Clockwork nodded. "I don't know the exact details but I do know that there are various recipes that include dates and that Laa-Mohr may be able to get some."
"Ooh, I should make a note!" Pinkie then reached into her poofy mane, pilled out a pencil and note pad and began scribbling. "Ask... Laa-Mohr... about... dates... fruit..." then she put it back in her mane and smiled at Clockwork and Marine, both were confused.
"How'd she do that?" Marine asked.
Clockwork's eyes flashed briefely and his head twitched. "I'm getting glitches just by thinking about it."
"Ooh! That reminds me," Pinkie said. "There's something I wanted to try out. Clockwork, you have backup memory, right?"
Clockwork nodded. "I suppose so, why?"
"Because this sentence is false!"
"What's that supposed to-" Clockwork was interrupted by his eyes widening and his head sparking and popping before he shut down and fell over.
"How'd that happen?" Marine asked.
Pinkie shrugged. "I don't know, I heard that's what happens when you say that to robots and I wanted to be sure."
"I think you broke him," Marine said as Clockwork came back online.
"I'm fine, I just never thought I would have to deal with a paradox and initiated emergency shutdown, but please don't do that again."
"Okay!" Pinkie said with a grin.
The pineapple stallion continued on his way, not knowing where he is going or why, he just knew he needed to run. He continued running until he heard something, something deep and growling, he didn't know what it was but it was scary.
Large creatures made of wood approached him as he tried to get away. Then he stepped in a puddle again, feeling more pieces of him fall apart. The stallion was stuck between a rock and a hard place within a forest. Something hit the creature making it look in another direction before running away. Then a striped pony was in view, waving a stick with a glowing thing on one end around. Then she dropped it and faced the pineapple stallion.
"You sir, do not be afraid, for fire drives the timberwolves away," she said.
The stallion didn't understand, he just looked at the mare with fear, only the puddle behind him stopped his retreat.
"Excuse me, why do you just stay? Can you hear what I am trying to say?"
Still a worried look, he looked at the glowing stick, if the creatures were scared of it, and he was scared of the creatures, he thinks he should be more scared of it.
The mare spoke again this time slower. "If you wish to protect yourself from the beasts, then I will take you where you should be."
She moved closer, and the stallion moved further away, until he was just barely touching the puddle, he didn't want to lose more pieces of himself, but he also didn't want to be wherever this stranger was going either. Once she was close enough, the stallion took his chance and ran past the mare, much to her confusion, then after staying away from the glowing stick, he ran deeper into the forest, leaving the mare confused.
Fang and Fluttershy were sitting together, enjoying a picnic while getting to know each other.
Fang started to eat his food when he started talking. "Thanks again for setting this up, Fluttershy."
Fluttershy smiled. "It's not a problem, Fang, I thought that this would be a good opportunity for us to understand each other more."
"Speaking of that, you aren't still scared of me, are you?"
"What? Oh, of course not!" Fang wasn't convinced. "Well, maybe a little," still not convinced. Fluttershy slumped down in shame. "Yes..."
Fang smiled. "It's alright, I'm used to it."
"I can tell, it must be awful having ponies run away from you because of a misunderstanding."
"It's common for us misfits, but you're the only one who's ever tried to get over their fear of predators."
Fluttershy smiled as she put together her food. "I had my doubts but once I heard about who you are and your tribe being in a famine, I knew I had to do something."
"You know they're not in a famine anymore, right?"
"I know, but I just feel awful about how I treated you when we first met."
"You didn't treat me like anything, you just stood there keeping your distance until Pinkie came in."
"But I could've at least made a good first impression."
"I'm the one who made the impression."
"Which I reacted poorly too."
"By not running away?" Fang said.
Fluttershy giggled. "I guess you got me there, but I'm serious that I should've reacted better. I thought you were some monster, but really you were just a sweet, innocent, meat-eating animal, just more pony-like," she then started to scratch Fang behind his ears, much to his confusion.
"Uh, Fluttershy? You know that still makes me a pony, right?"
Fluttershy stopped scratching and went back to her plate as she tried to hide herself out of embarrassment. "Oh, sorry."
"It's fine," Fang replied as he took a bite from his meat.
"Anyway, if you need anything, just let me know."
Fang swallowed the food before saying, "Tell me where you got this meat, it's delicious!"
"Oh, I just got it from some of my animals' leftover breakfast, I knew they wouldn't mind."
"Huh," Fang said with a shrug before smiling, then Fluttershy smiled too.
Then Discord appeared next to them floating in a director's chair while wearing a director's hat and holding a megaphone.
"Good, now kiss!" Discord said through the megaphone, surprising the two ponies as Fluttershy turned bright red and tried to hide herself while Fang turned to Discord in a battle-ready stance as he growled.
"Discord!" Fang said out of annoyance.
"Cut!" Discord said as he got off the chair and wrapped an arm around Fang. "Honestly, Fang, if you're gonna do it right, you gotta kiss her."
"I'm not kissing Fluttershy."
"Of course, you're right, why put two mares in your heart when only one is suitable? Wink, wink, nudge, nudge," Fang was confused. "You know, the fish mare."
"Marine? I don't have a crush on her."
"That's what you say now but in the future, you'll know that you were meant to be," Discord held his lion paw and eagle talon up to Fang, showing two sock puppets barely resembling Fang and Marine.
"Oh, Fang, I love you so much!" Discord said in a high pitched voice, making the Marine sock puppet talk.
"I love you too, Marine!" Discord said in a deep, gruff voice, making the Fang sock puppet talk, then he proceeded to make the two kiss.
"And who knows," Discord added in his normal voice. "Maybe you two will be standing at the altar..." he put up a wedding scene with the puppets. "Where after that you'll be making a bunch of meat-eating, water-breathing babies..." then he held up several tiny puppets that made high pitched noises before Discord threw them all away. "What do you say to that?"
"I say 'go away before I bite that smile off your face'."
"How about this?" Discord grabbed his head and turned it upside down, then pointed at it. "See? No smile," Fang just clenched his teeth on Discord's upside-down head and tore it off, making Discord reach into his head stump and pull out his normal head, now pouting.
"Everyone's a critic," Discord said.
"I've waited so long to do that," Fang said after he spat out Discord's previous head.
Fluttershy finally spoke up. "Um, Discord, if it isn't too much trouble, could you please stop? I think you're making him uncomfortable."
"No, not uncomfortable, just very annoyed and wanting to chew off the rest of him."
Discord shrugged in response, completely unfazed by Fang's threat. "Well, I don't want to be somepony's chew toy, so, I'll just leave you two alone to possibly fall in love and cause drama," and with that, Discord teleported away while also just barely dodging Fang again.
"Don't mind him, Fang, once you get to know him, Discord is actually very sweet," Fluttershy said.
"Are we talking about the same Discord?" Fang asked.
"Oh, don't be so hard on him, maybe you could get to know Discord like you are with me."
"I appreciate the offer, but the last thing I want is to be turned into some kind of toy."
"I'm sure he won't do that."
Fang rolled his eyes as he returned to his spot. "If you say so."
Twilight tried to enjoy dinner with Mirror Shard, and she also tried all she can to resist asking the countless amount of questions she had. But if she was going to earn his trust, she had to respect him.
Finally it was the Changeling that broke the silence. "So, Mixy, how's it coming with Cyber?"
Mixy blushed. "Wh-what do you mean?"
"I know young love when I see it, and the moment you became a misfit you were brimming with it."
"Oh, um, well, there was some problems and-"
"Mixy got jealous," Twilight said.
"With what?" Dandelion asked.
"Well, there's this mare that Cyber hangs out with a lot, they have so much in common that they seemed perfect," Mixy explained.
"Then what happened?"
"Well," Mixy continued, "I got really confused as to what I should do, like 'should I tell him or will he just turn me down?' Or 'will he still like me or does he have the same feelings?' even 'does he even know or is this all just pointless?' it was really hard to know."
"I see, I had the same problem after you were born, I couldn't tell if I should go back and raise you or go to Chrysalis and the hive?"
"How'd you break out?"
"All I did was look into your eyes and I remembered how strong a father's love is."
"So how does this 'confusion' thing work anyway?" Twilight asked seeing that now was the opportunity to get some info she wanted.
"Well, Changelings feed off of love and if they feel love themselves, they are pretty much using something that is... unique, so to speak. Though honestly I can't really explain it, just think of it as a 'right of passage' that all changelings need to go through to gain independence from the hive."
Twilight nodded in understanding as she tried to remember what he said.
"Do you think that Chrysalis will be reformed?" Mixy asked.
"I hope so, dear, I hope so."
That evening, Eclipse, Pixel, Moonlight, and the CMC watched as Laa-Mohr held his scimitar in a battle-ready stance, facing a few equally armed dummies as if they were his mortal enemies. Then Laa-Mohr charged at the fake ponies with quick reflexes as the mannequins seemed to react with counters. Laa-Mohr quickly dodged the nearest attacks, reacting with swift reflexes.
Shortly, the cursed swords-stallion clashed his blade against the others, managing to get all blades hitting each other. Laa-Mohr crawled away while his opponents were distracted, then easily cut a deep gash in each of their chests while also dodging attacks. Each of the dummies froze and slumped forward as though they were dead.
The CMC started cheering as Laa-Mohr put down his scimitar.
"That was awesome, Laa-Mohr!" Scootaloo said. "You think you could teach us how to do those moves?"
"Yeah!" Apple Bloom exclaimed. "Maybe we could get swordfightin' cutie marks!"
Laa-Mohr chuckled. "I understand your excitement, but this is more dangerous than you think. There's a reason why ponies like you aren't allowed to have weapons such as these. Especially with me around you could accidentally cut yourselves just by holding it, or worse, lose a limb," Pixel and the CMC were shocked at that last one.
Eclipse looked at him with mild confusion and shock. "Lose a limb? Don't you think that's a little much, I thought your curse was weakened."
"My curse is still uncontrollable," he explained, "I'm still trying to understand the full lengths of it since Zecora helped me, all I know is it can't take another pony's life."
Sweetie Belle inspected the dummies to see how they work, but ended up getting hit in the face after one suddenly reacted to her presence. "Ow, my eye!" she exclaimed.
"But I do know it can do that," Laa-Mohr added.
"I will inspect the damage," Moonlight said as she looked at Sweetie Belle, who's eye already turning black and swollen. "A black eye, Rarity will not be happy."
"Can't you just take it away or something?" Sweetie Belle asked.
"I control darkness and shadows, not injuries."
"Ooh, sorry about that," Laa-Mohr said.
"It's alright, but how am I going to explain it to Rarity?"
"Just tell her the truth," Pixel said. "I'll take you home to make sure she doesn't yell at you too much."
"It is getting late," Eclipse said. "I'll take Apple Bloom home.
"Then I shall escort Scootaloo," Moonlight said.
Laa-Mohr nodded to his friends as they all separated. "Then I shall meet you all back home."
"Alright, thanks again for that awesome sword fighting," Scootaloo said.
"No problem, just don't get into any trouble."
Lyra came home to find Bon-Bon already made dinner.
"Had a nice date with Cyber?" Bon-Bon asked.
"It wasn't a date, we were just working on an invention Cyber was planning," Lyra replied.
"Sure it wasn't, when are you going to find out you have feelings for each other?"
"We don't, we're just friends."
"That's what you said last time."
"This time I really mean it, we aren't falling in love."
Bon-Bon shrugged as she knew Lyra wasn't going to submit. "Sure, whatever, but I wouldn't be surprised if you two are dating by the end of the year."
"And what makes you think we are going to fall in love?"
"Well, you two are smart, you like to work together, and this has been the longest since I heard you mention the word 'human'."
Lyra bit into her food, fuming but also thinking. She wanted to argue but couldn't find the right words, instead she just wolfed down the rest of her food and said, "I'm going to bed." then she trotted to her room, wondering and worrying if she really has grown attached to Cyber. She immediately shook the thought away, knowing that if she had a crush on him, he would have one on her, and the only thing he crushes are mineral samples in his lab.