> The Little Pony Legend: Magical Tails
>  by MaggiesHeartLove
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Dance Magic
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


*(~)*

1 Corinthians 12:4-7: 

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:

*(~)*

Dance Magic


Akari dipped the sponge in the bucket, sucking in the soapy water, all the while Hiro rhythmically motivated the team as they worked.

"To the right! To the right! To the left! To the left! Now up! Now up! Bring it down! Spin it around! Wash that car like you mean it! Come on!"

Motivated by the rhythm, Akari and Mai scrubbed the side of the truck, leaving a trail of suds and bubbles in their wake. They scrubbed hard on all area, even the hard to reach places, covering every bit of dirt they could find.

Once the entire vehicle was covered in soap, Nori used her waterbending to slash the soap off of the car, followed by Gallant Steed using his airbending to blow it dry.

Finally, Hiro came in and shinned the car, smiling in satisfaction upon seeing his reflection on the newly spotless surface. He gave himself a wink and a finger pointing gesture.

"Wow. Nice work, kids." Tahno said, happily admiring his newly shinned car. He pulled out some money from his pocket and handed it to the young wisp, Chi.

"Hah! Thanks, Tahno."

"No problem." The now retired Wolf Bat gave her a salute before driving off.

Chi pounded her fists into the air. "Sweet! More cash to add to the stash!"

"Yet another victory for The Guardians of Harmony!" Hiro announced, dramatically lowering his voice for more effect.

"Bro, you don't need to mention that every single time." Mai said, lightly chuckling in amusement. "You've been saying it all month."

"I know, I just still can't get over it." Hiro then zipped away, striking a bunch of dramatic poses, all the while flashy superhero-styled backgrounds appear behind him.

"We're the Elements of Harmony. Defenders of all that is righteous! Protectors of Friendship and tolerance! Vanquishers of all things wicked and evil! The sole heroes of this beloved city! We alone--!" Hiro was cut short when the soapy sponge was thrown to his face, causing the backgrounds behind him to disappear as suddenly as they had appeared. He dropped his arms and gave his sister an annoyed look while the sponge slowly slid down from his face. The others bursted out into laughter.

Nori sighed, "How about a little break? All of this sunshine and suds are doing a number on my scales." she said, rubbing her scaly purple arm.

The others agreed wholeheartedly and took some cool drinks from the freezer while sitting on the grass near Harmony High's parking lot. Gallant Steed and Hiro sat side by side, drinking the fizzy Apple Cider, while Nori fanned herself from the heat.

"Hey, anybody seen Iris and Chrysi lately?" Chi asked.

"We're here!" Iris called out, flapping her wings and landing in front of them, while carrying a box in her hand.

Right beside her, also landing from the air, was none other than the now reformed Chrysalis.

After having defeated her, the once evil Queen of the changelings had reverted back into the age she originally was before her slow descent to madness. Thanks to Rarity and Nori's generosity, Chrysalis's long hair (a result from so many years of using the Changeling King's magic), was now neatly brushed and partly cut.

It reached all the way down to her waist, and her long bangs that patly covered her face were neatly cut and brushed elegantly to the left side of her face. Her bangs were still long, but now they framed her lovely younger face.

She now wore a dark magenta shirt with a butterfly wings pattern around the neckline that wrapped around her neck, exposing her back, giving enough room for her purple colored shells to open up for her translucent sparkly insect wings to open up whenever she needed them too. The shirt perfectly complimented the stones that naturally grew around her neck, resembling a necklace.

Her skirt was a grayish pink with a pale yellow belt, adorned with a heart shaped broach on the side with dew styled droplets dangling from it. She wore pale purple leggings with holes in them and long platform heeled aquamarine boots.

She had a couple of bracelets around both her wrists, complimenting her pale yellow and aquamarine skin tone, and her pointed ears were perked upward rather than draped. She also wore a pale yellow forehead headband with a purple clip and more dangling dew drops.

Nori had picked the outfit especially for her. Chrysalis still felt very self cautious wearing such a lovely ensemble, yet she felt so touched by the merpony's kindness that she didn't have the heart to turn down the offer. Not to mention, wether she admitted it or not, the outfit made her feel… normally, for once. She was already looking more like the teenager she once was.

Ever since, she had been spending more time with Iris and her companions, yet she was still trying to ease her way into their group. She didn't entirely feel like she was part of it, even though the other made the legitimate effort to include her. As it would seem, Chrysalis still had her own baggage to work on before she could officially say she was part of their group.

"Sorry we're late." Iris apologized. "We were just going over the numbers again."

"Have we raised enough for the class trip to Phoenix Falls?" Akari asked hopefully, clutching the bottle of cider in her hand.

"We've only raised half. I counted the money four times just to be sure." Iris said, opening the box with said money inside.

The rest of the team groaned in disappointment. "What's the big deal?" Chrysalis asked. "There are plenty of waterfalls up on the mountains outside the city. What's so great about one in the Fire Nation?"

"Glad ya asked, Chrysi." Gallant Steed pulled out a pamphlet from his jacket pocket and practically shoved at Chrysalis's face. "After Harmonic Convergence, a family of little phoenix spirits migrated to a long since dried up waterfall. It was in really bad shape. But, when the Phoenixes came, the sparks from their wings rained down and the waters flowed once again! The waterfall shimmered with golden colors it looked like fire and water became one! It's literally the largest waterfall in all of the four nations! But, the phoenixes only come every twelve years, and after they leave the waterfall dries up again. Since then, people come from all around come to see the phoenixes restore the waterfall once again. And this year, our class is gonna see it first hand!"

"Wow." Chrysalis's green eyes widened at the image on the paper. "Funny how something so small can create something so grand." she said, feeling foolish for not seeing just how important this was for the others. A memorable moment such as this just had to be witnessed first hand.

"I can't wait for you to see it." Iris said, placing her hand on Chrysalis's shoulder. "It's going to be amazing!"

"If we ever raise enough money that is." Mai pointed out, only to receive an elbow to the ribcage… which only resulted in Akari herself feeling the pain instead of her.

"Ouch!"

"Supper strength, remember?" Mai said with a smug grin.

"Well, no matter. We'll get the money before you know it. There's gotta be some more cars we missed."

Everyone turned their attention to the parking lot, which was completely devoid of any cars. Unusually enough, a tumbleweed came rolling over.

"I, uh, think we're gonna have to come up with a new plan." Mai said.

"But we're running out of time!" Chi said with worry, "The deadline is next week. And Hiro and Mai have already hosted a bake sale, Iris and Gallant Steed had that doggie day care, and Akari and I planned this car wash."

"Not to worry, Starfish." Nori said, stepping in, flipping her hair in the process. "It's my turn to come up with a plan, and I already have something amazing in mind. It'll be the most fin-tasticly profitable of all out fundraising events! The king barracuda of them all!" Nori said excitedly, spinning around on her axis.

"Yeah! Now we're talking!" Akari cheered, pounding her fist into the air. "What's your idea?"

"Meet me at the Sato Estate later this afternoon, and I will explain everything."

Everyone nodded in agreement, patting Nori on the back as they left. The merpony remained, waving her hand in farewell. Chrysalis was the only one who stayed, eying the merpony.

"I know I'm still new to this whole friendship stuff, but I'm pretty sure lying isn't part of the package deal."

Nori's eyes snapped open and she grabbed Chrysalis by the shirt. "How did you know?!" she asked frantically.

"I was literally the queen of deception." Chrysalis said. "You're not hiding anything from me."

Nori released her grip on the changeling, looking completely and utterly discomfit.


(~)


"Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!" Nori said repeatedly as she banged her head against the wall of Rarity's Four Nations Boutique. "Why did I say that? Why?!"

"Darling, beating yourself up is not getting you anywhere." Rarity said while sowing a new gown in her work place.

"Rarity, I really need help! I need a good last-minute fundraiser idea in the next five hours and I've go nothing! No ideas, no inspiration, zip!" her mouth did a popping sound at the 'p'.

"Nori, we've talked about this, remember? When you swim for too long in the same place the waters become rough and--"

"And it's hard to see, I know. I'm sorry, I'm just worried inspiration won't come to me when I need it most, and right now I really, really need it!"

"Well, when I need to accelerate the inspiration train, I usually just surround myself with things that make me happy. Things that ease my stress and the inspiration just flows out naturally."

Nori pondered for a moment. "Well, the mall makes me happy. Staring at all those adorable fresh water fish at the pet store and being around instruments at the music store."

"There you have it."

"Wow, thanks Rarity. I knew coming to you was a smart choice."

Rarity giggled and hugged the merpony. "Anytime, darling."


(~)


Nori decided to take Rarity's advice to heart and went to the mall. After many years, the structure of building had expanded and evolved. A stunning skylight allowed the sunlight to shine through, rays of light making the spirit plants that grew from the ground up to sparkle like a shimmering star in the night. The interior was designed to resemble an enchanted forest with vine-like designs on the walls, statues of beautiful spirits and mythical creatures, and a large fountain that shoot sparkly waters that reached high up towards the food court on the third floor up high, surrounded by a glade balcony. Heads of lion-turtles spewed water from their mouths on ponds that had koi-fish swimming around in them.

Harmony City Plaza was the ideal place to be for most of the modern generation. Nori happily watched the koi fish swim about in their pond, while basking in the fresh, cool sunlight from above. She walked along, listening to the sound of children laughing, people happily chatting, and a few spirits here and there flying about, resting on the tress and plants.

She entered a music store, currently owned by an older, and still very handsome, Feather Bangs, where Nori would happily listen to young aspiring musicians play their music on the guitars, drums and tambourines, to more classical instruments like flutes, pianos and even harps.

The variety of music flowed through her as she listened. After a while, Nori felt more relaxed, unfortunately, regardless of her being more at ease and less stressful, she still felt her creative mind was as hollow as an empty coconut.

"Oh, bull-shark! Three hours and still no ideas." she took in a deep breath and sat cross legged on the edge of the fountain, where a small little spirit with colorful wings rested on her knee. "Okay, pull yourself together, Nori. Stress doesn't help."  She closed her eyes, allowing herself to be submerged by the sound of the running waters. "Relax and let inspiration flow…."

"You there!"

"GAH!!" Nori was so startled by the sudden booming voice coming from a megaphone that she literally fell back into the fountain. Thankfully, being a sea creature herself, the waters didn't bother her, nor did her cloths getting wet either. She crawled out of the water and followed the voice.

It was coming from a man, the old former Equalist protestor who Avatar Korra had met many years ago, was standing on a small table, speaking to a small crowd of people though his newer and shinier megaphone.

"Are you a musician?" he asked, sparking Nori's interest. "Do you and friends love to dance?"

"Yes." Nori replied, more so to herself since no doubt he didn't hear her.

"Are you unique, cool, stylish?"

"Yes, yes, yes, and, ha, obviously!" the merpony grinned confidently.

"Do you want to win a cash prize?"

Nori gasped, her ears perching forwards in excitement. "Yes!"

'Then enter the Harmony Plaza Chance to Prance Competition! All you need is a music video of your own original song and dance. Then you could be prancing your way to first prize! Sign up now at the booth near the Aunt Orange smoothie kiosk."

Nori didn't waste a second and sprung on towards the smoothie place, only to slide to a sudden halt when she spotted the most stunning red dress on the window display. The diamonds captured the light, and right behind her she heard the sound of drums coming from the music store nearby.

The tingling excitement of inspiration coursed through every inch of her body and the merpony couldn't stop grinning. "Oh, we're so going to win!"

There was a small line at the smoothie place, where a participation booth stood with the Dance to Prance logo sign above it and Nori quickly grabbed her spot. Once it was her turn, she took a piece of paper and wrote down her name and slid it into the slot.

Once she spun around, Nori was startled and nearly fell backwards had not for the booth been there to support her weight.

"Nori Posidonia! What a nice surprise!" the pony muttered the last word with sourness. "… Not."

Four teenagers stood before the merpony. The leading one was a beautiful anthro pegasus pony with blue skin/coat, wings on her back with white tips that made them resemble freshly fallen snow, hazel eyes and her long midnight hair cascading down behind her back, adorned with light aqua streaks. She wore a school uniform, consisting of purples, light blues and a checkered pleaded skirt. A vest was over her shirt, added with a single bow tie. Her purple leggings were pulled upwards to her knees and wore simple flat shoes. Her cutie mark was that of a whirlwind with musical notes on her left cheek

The second pony beside her was a female eat pony, yellow green with emerald eyes, with a four leaf clover cutie mark on her cheek and sporting an orange haired pixie cut. She wore a similar uniform as the pegasus, only hers had the collar pulled upwards and her vest was longer, covering half of her blue shirt underneath. A lizard bird was perched on her shoulder.

Accompanying them was a human teenage boy with very light skin, almost pale, stunning blue eyes and sleek black hair jelled to perfection. He wore a male version of the uniform, with ripped jeans and chains around his belt.

Finally, a male teenage dragon was present, wearing nothing but a vest of the unicorn. His scales where a shimmering gray and his underbelly was purple, had blue eyes and wore glasses, yet he oozed with confidence. He was only a head shorter than the human boy.

"Oh, Bella Breeze! Clover Field, Coal. Hey, Akio."

"Hey, Nori." the human boy waved, "Thanks again for washing my uncle's car. He won't stop raving about it."

"Ah, don't mention it." Nori said, casually flipping her wrist.

Bella Breeze let out a low growl, getting Akio's attention. "Oh, lighten up, Bella."

"Is she okay?" Nori asked.

"She's fine, just sour about your school beating Golden Dragon High at the science decathlon last year."

"And the pro-bending school match." Bella muttered under her breath before composing herself and smiling, "It's fine, it is just one competition…. or two." she muttered again before smiling once more. "So, how are things?"

"Are you signing up for the Dance to Prance competition too?" the green earth pony asked.

"I am!" Nori replied, "Are you guys here to sign up for the competition?"

"We definitely aren't here because we like standing in lines." the dragon, Cole, said rather bluntly.

"I assume you already have a video concept figured out." Bella said, inspecting her nails as she approached Nori. "The competition's going to be pret-ty fierce."

"As a mater of fact, I do!" nor said eagerly, "It came to me as soon as I saw that gorgeous red ruffled dress on the way over here."

Bella's eyes widened for a brief second then smiled with a knowing grin. "Oh. Tell me more."

Nori opened her mouth but never got a word in when Akio quickly covered it. "Actually! Why don't you let it be a surprise? Won't really be the same if you spoiled it for us now."

"Oh, good call." Nori said, gently lowering his hand. Akio arched an eyebrow at Bella, who narrowed her eyes, ears partly lowering, reflecting her mood.

"Yeah, I guess." Bella inspected her nails again, "I'm sure whatever your concept is, it'll be absolutely wonderful."

"Thanks! So, what's your concept?"

"Nothing. We don't have one yet." Cole said, once again, very bluntly, which made Bella flinch and her hands to slowly clench into fists.

"What he means is, like yours, it's a surprise! But it's a-ma-zing. So original."

"Oh, well, I can't wait to see it." Nori said, smiling sweetly and waved farewell. "Good luck!"

Bella waved back, "You, too!"

Once Nori was out of sight, Akio let out a sigh of relief. He then pointed a finger at the pegasus. "Bella, you better not do anything stupid."

"Come on, Akio, why do you defend them anyway?"

"My uncle is close friends with Iris's mom. I've known them for years, they're cool. Look, whatever happens, let's just play this fair, okay?"

Balla sighed. "Fine."

"Good. I'm gonna go get us some smoothies." Akio said, walking towards the stand to buy the cool drinks. Bella, however, had her fingers crossed behind her back and turned to Clover Field and her reptile bird, who screeched in reply to their sly grins.


(~)


"So, each of us is going to dance in a different style—like flamenco, hip-hop, or street ballet—and we'll wear costumes to match each genre. I already called Rarity and she said she'll be more than happy to design us the costumes. We'll write some lyrics for our new song, and we'll choreograph some dance moves. Then our video will win a cash prize, and voilà!"

Nori giggled after she explained her plan to her friends. Just as she had requested, they all met at Mai and Hiro's house.

"You make it sound so easy." Mai said, tipping the brown country hat Applejack had given her, which she has since worn often.

"That's because it is! Akio and his friends at Golden Dragon even agree. They're making a video, too."

"They are?" Iris asked, with a mixture of surprised and concern.

"I-Is that a problem?"

"Oh, no, it's not." Iris scratched the back of her neck, "Just haven't heard much about them since the Science Decathlon last year."

Mai sniffed the air, reminiscing that very day. "I can still smell their salty tears." she said, earning a very disturbed look by Chrysalis, who sat on the floor beside Gallant Steed. She scooted away a bit.

"And I thought I was the psychopath." the changeling muttered. "Who are these Golden Dragon students anyway?"

"They're basically our world's equivalent of Crystal Prep Academy from the mirror world." Akari said.

Chrysalis cocked her head. "Ya lost me already."

"Golden Dragon Academy is the most prestigious private school in the city." Hiro said. "Our mom used to study there when she was a kid."

"But, then Harmony High was made and it pretty much started the chain reaction to having more than just humans students attending school." Chi said. "They're also popular for having pro-bending teams compete in the annual pro-bending junior leagues."

"Which our team, The Fire Ferrets-- named after our dad's old team--We beat them at last year too, on the same year as the science decathlon too." Hiro pointed out, smiling smugly while folding his arms.

"Wow. I take it they didn't take that very well." Chrysalis said, her ears lowering at the thought. It wouldn't shock her if these kids had their own personal vendetta towards these kids. She knew that if she were in their shoes, and if she were still that crazy queen, she most definitely would have.

"Don't worry about it." Nori said, relaxed. "Our friend Akio goes to school there, and he's actually really sweet."

"How much is the grand prize worth again?" Iris asked.

"More than double of what we need for the school trip to Phoenix Falls."

"Well then, looks like we've got ourselves a fundraising idea!" Akari said, cheering while jumping up and down in excitement.

Hiro then popped up from behind his sister and cousin, wrapping his arms around them, taking them by surprise. "And I know just the place where we can start shooting!"


(~)


The doors slid upwards, letting in the light that nearly blinded the others, while Hiro only stood smiling in satisfaction, entering the room first.

Everyone else, save for Mai, dropped their jaws to see none other than the secret underground workshop that Hiroshi Sato had once used to store all of his secret Equalist weaponry. As of now, the entire place had been cleaned up of any equalist tech and posters of the deceased Amon, and instead all materials were replaced with a DJ stage, rows upon rows of musical equipment, microphones, headphones, a sound booth, keyboards, drums, pretty much everything under the sun, and the light from above had been replaced with a disco ball, which was currently shut off and only the wall lamps lit up the place.

Hiro took to the center of the room, extending his arms wide to showcase his work. "Welcome, one and all, to Hiroshi Sato the Second's underground Par-tay Cave!" his voiced echoed.

"A party cave?" Gallant repeated.

"No, no, you're saying it wrong. It's Par-tay Cave."

"I didn't even know this was still down here! I thought Aunt Asami sealed it up years ago." Iris exclaimed, still staring in awe not at the equipment but at the fact that this was the exact same Equalist underground workshop that she believed had been abandoned, sealed away and forgotten years ago.

"Funny story…."


……………


"Hiro, I like that you're taken an interest in electronics. Of the musical variety, but still, you've got to find a better place to store them all."

"What's wrong with my room?"

"For one thing, I can't even see the windows!" Asami spread out her arms, showcasing all of Hiro's new equipment in his king sized bedroom, which blocked even the sunlight coming in from the window. 

"Well where else am I supposed to put em? Mai's already taken grandpa's second workshop and you're still using his first one."

Asami bit her bottom lip and fiddled with the curling strand of hair on the left side of her face. "Actually…"

His mother led him to the workshop, where she revealed the pathway to the secret tunnel, down the small track and into the underground former equalist warehouse her father once owned. It was old and covered in cobwebs, but with some cleaning it could be good as new.

Hiro smiled. "I think I can make this work."


…………………


"And you're okay with this?" Iris asked Mai, who leaned casually against the wall.

The youngest Sato shrugged. "Hey, I get my own private workspace, he gets his underground where I can't be disturbed by any loud noises. Win, win."

Nori walked around, marveling at the equipment. "This is perfect! I think we've got pretty much everything we need to make the video happen!"

"Well then, what are waiting for?" Chi said, "Let's win this!"

(~)

With their costumes and equipment in place, the kids prepared for their first shooting. Iris wore a lovely flamingo inspired outfit, Chi wore a hip-hop look, complete with golden hooped earrings, a backwards hat, bagging pants and jacket. Mai sported a country inspired look and Hiro took over the DJ stand to play the music. He would be in the video, but as the DJ dancing along to the song and the dancers. He wore a more disco inspired look. Akari and Gallant wore clothes equivalent to street ballet.

The stage was set with Chrysalis behind the camera. "Chrysi, you sure you don't want to be in the video?" Nori asked, "I had Rarity make this super cute disco look for you." she said, pulling out said costume.

Chrysalis had to admit, it did look nice, but she sadly, and politely declined. "I apreciate it, really. But, I don't think folks are quite ready to see the former Queen of the Changelings performing in a music video. Besides, I'm not much of a dancer like you guys. I'll just slow you down."

Nori dejectedly placed Chrysalis's outfit to the side. "Well, whatever makes you feel comfortable, Starfish." she said. Taking in a deep breath she clapped her hands to get everyone's attention.

"Let's take it from the top one more time. Chi, don't forget your cue. It's when Akari does her triple pirouette, okay?"

Chrysalis gave her the thumbs up as did Hiro, putting on his sunglasses and placed the record in place.

"And… action!"

The instrumental version of their song played and Iris made her way into the stage. Walking in these stiletto heels was rather difficult for her, especially since she had never danced in these types of heels before. Never the less, she took her position and Gallant and Akari made their way into the stage.

Gallant was a natural at the dance, but Akari struggled a bit. When she attempted her pirouette she accidentally kicked Iris from behind. The Avatar nearly tripped but managed to regain her balance, awkwardly stopping her dance while Akari struggled to perform the move.

Chi then appeared, ready to do her dance routine, only for everyone to stop when Nori shouted.

"Cut!"

The record scratched and Chi stopped her dancing."Hey! What happened to the music?"

Nori took in a deep breath, trying not to let her frustrations show and made her way onto the stage. "Akari, sweetie, it's supposed to be a triple pirouette."

"Hey, I only took one year of ballet classes, excuse me if I'm a bit rusty!" Akari exclaimed, folding her arms in frustration.

Iris adjusted the faux flower in her hair, which had been styled into a bun, strands of her long hair falling gracefully over her exposed shoulders. "Yeah, and I've never danced flamingo before. Not as easy as street dancing, really."

"Oh, I know. But if we want to win, we have to bring our A-game!" Nori said.

"Golden Dragon certainly will." Mai said, her tone oozing with disgust, "They're excellent dancers, and you know how they love to compete."

"I think that's just you, sis." Hiro said, earning a glare from his younger sister.

Chi patted Nori on the back to try and cheer her up. "How about we forget about the other teams and get back to dancing?"

"Right. Let's take it from Chi's entrance." Nori made her way back to her director's chair, which had been decorated to be aquatic themed. Chrysalis adjusted the camera again and Hiro readied the music.

The merpony sighed before she shouted, once again, "And… action!"

The music placed once again and the team continued their performance. It didn't take very long for Iris's heel to accidentally get caught in Chi's jacket, ripping it. The music came to an abrupt halt and Nori gasped in horror, zipping to the stage to inspect the now ruined jacket.

"Oh! This is a disaster!"

Dun, dun, duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun! Everyone turned to look at Hiro, who switched the sound effect off. "Seemed fitting." he said.

"Whoops. Sorry, Nori." Iris apologized before angrily removing the shoes from her feet.

"No, it's fine, I can fix it." Nori said as she removed Chi's jacket, "I'll have to run to the boutique to get some fabric before Rarity closes. Keep practicing while I'm gone!"

The merpony made a break for the door… only to come back a few seconds later. "Um, could one of you Satos help me out? I don't know how to work the up and down metal thingy."

(~)

"Thanks again, Rarity!" Nori waved farewell to the unicorn as she ran down the street with a ball full of new fabric in hand. "Oh, thank goodness I got there in time. Now to--What the barnacle!?"

A familiar song from famous singer Sapphire Shores played and she saw two ponies, a dragon, and a human performing in front of a camera, while the music played. Several bystanders stopped to watch, taking pictures with their geo-phones.

Nori was frozen in place, feeling as if her entire world was crumbling all around her. Her ears dropped and her face felt hotter than the time she accidentally ate Pinkie Pie's spicy salsa dip during last year's Heart's Warming Eve party.

Bella Breeze, Clover Field, Akio and Cole were performing their dance routine for the music video contest. Only now she realized that when Bella Breeze said their concept was original, she was undoubtedly lying through her teeth.

"Is that a disco-inspired look? And a street ballet tutu?!" Nori exclaimed in horror, clutching the bags with her fists. "I don't believe it. They stole my video idea!"

Once the song ended, the people around them cheered. Not only did they love Nori's original concept, but they were even better dancers than her friends. Their presentation was on professionalism levels of good.

All of the cheering from the crowd made her heart break in two and she dashed away, her vision blurry due to the tears.


(~)


"Thank goodness you're here. She's been like this all afternoon." San, the winged lizard spirit said as he led Iris and her friends to the pro-bending gym.

"Don't worry, bro. We've got this." Iris said, patting his shoulder in reassurance. He nodded and left the kids to speak with their distressed friend.

"Nori, are you… oh." Iris and the others stood in place, a save distance away, as Nori, in a fit of rage, sent ice daggers at each of the pro-bending dummies present, slicing their heads and arms off. Even more disturbing when several of those shards went piercing right through their chests.

One of the heads rolled onto the floor, stopping at Gallant's feet. He gulped in terror. He out of everybody knew better than to confront a woman when she was angry. Years of having Starlight Glimmer as a mother taught him that much.

Seeing her friend, Nori stopped her violent venting on the dummies. She panted, her hair in a dangled mess, strands standing on end and on her face.

"We got your text." Akari said, waving her phone while taking a tentative step forward. "You said it was an emergency?"

"Everything all right?" Chi asked with concern.

Nori inhaled and exhaled, fixing her hair to look more presentable. "Well, since you asked…" she then proceeded to take each of her friend's hands and place them over their ears. None of them questioned and simply stayed in that position while Nori took a few steps back. Her fists trembling and her jaw clenching.

"The answer is NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Her powerful merpony shriek caused the gym to tremble and a few of the windows to crack. Once she was done, Iris quickly used her magic to fix the windows before her brother found out.

"What happened?" Mai asked.

Nori started pacing back and forth, telling them everything in her rant. "Bella Breeze and her friends stole our video concept! I saw them filming earlier. They copied my design ideas and everything!" she briefly stopped her rant to congratulate herself, "So of course they looked absolutely fabulous." she said before quickly returning to her rant, "But the worst part is that they're all incredible dancers!"

Hiro gasped "Major bummer in the summer! Tissue for your issue?" he asked, handing her said tissue box.

Only, rather than take one, Nori took the entire box, threw it into the air and pierced it with an ice dagger, leaving only a puddle with wet tissue and cardboard. Hiro blinked and slowly slipped away from the angry merpony.

"I don't even know how they were able to copy it to the letter!"

"Don't be too hard on yourself, Nori." Gallant Steed said. "There's no way you could have known. Besides, we all know how competitive those guys can be."

"I can't believe Akio would do this." Iris said, feeling personally betrayed.

"I know, it's not like him." Akari said.

Mai pounded her fists together. "I say we head on over there and knock some sense into them." she said with a menacing grin, complete with a wicked laugh that made even Chrysalis whimper and hide behind Iris.

"You just want an excuse to make them cry again." Iris bluntly pointy pointed out.

"Don't pretend you don't want that too!"

"Mai, we're not solving this through violence. If anything, it'll make maters worse."

Mai grunted, folding her arms and pouting in frustration. "And people call me the killjoy."

"Eh, maybe this was all for the best." Gallant Steed said with regret, rubbing his arm.

"Gallant!" Akari exclaimed, narrowing her eyes at him, and Nori looked at him with a sadly startled face.

"No, it's not that her idea was bad, it's great, it's… us, really. Our dancing… leaves a lot to be desired. Especially since we're not all too familiar with these different dance styles."

Hiro scratched the back of his neck, "Yyyyeah, I kind of have to agree with Gallant here. I mean, you guys can barely do a two-step without tripping over each other. I mean, I'm without question the best dancer out of all of you, but even I can't work miracles."

"No way!" Nori exclaimed, her voice booming to the point it made even Mai's hat jump up from her head for a spill second. "You all looked great! Okay, maybe not great, but, but... but it was getting there! And the point is we don't have to let them win! That is our video concept! And I am going straight to Golden Dragon Academy to let them know that they have messed with the wrong merpony! Who's with me?!"

Mai rose her hand, a gleeful smile on her face, only to be forcibly lowered by Iris, who gave her younger cousin the stink eye. Mai slouched and pouted, sitting back on the couch.

Nori cleared her throat, using an even tone. "No, n-no, seriously, who is with me? I have no idea how to get to Golden Dragon."

"I'll go." Iris rose her hand, "Maybe I can try to reason with Akio. His uncle is good friends with my mom after all."

"That's the spirit! Come on!" Nori wasted no time in grabbing Iris by the arm and dragging her out of the gym, leaving the others behind.

Chrysalis spoke up again, "So, do we just stay here or, or what?"


(~)


Golden Dragon Academy was as beautiful as it was expensive. Ever since the unification of the three worlds, much like Harmony High, the school had students from Equestria and the spirit world present. Young teenage spirit who were sentient and could speak like humans, much like Iris's older adopted siblings, happily chatted with their human and pony friends. Each one wore a uniform of the same color patterns, but designed in their own unique flair.

Wearing a hood and sunglasses to cover herself, which Iris didn't even bother doing herself, Nori opened one of the doors from the entrance behind the school and made their way through, carefully to to alarm anyone else.

Nori pressed her back against a locker, spotting something from the corner of her eye. "The sparrow has spotted the chipmunk." she whispered, "I repeat; The sparrow has spotted the chipmunk."

"Why is there a sparrow in here?" Iris asked, poking her head from behind her friend.

"No! I found the dance studio!"

"Why didn't you just say so?"

Nori groaned. Bumi was right, nobody liked using code words anymore. Never the less, they made their way to the dance room, where the same music from before played and ended, just when the Golden Dragon students ended their routine.

Bella Breeze spotted the two and grinned. "Hey, girls! So what did you think of our routine? Scared yet?"

"Don't change the subject, Bella Breeze!" Nori shouted, pointing her finger accusingly at Bella.

"But you didn't bring up a subject." Coal said.

"You, either!"

Bella rolled her eyes, "Ooookay…"

"Iris, is everything okay?" Akio asked, genuinely surprised to find the two at the school.

"You know why we're here!" Nori exclaimed, fuming with anger, her eyes still on Bella, "You stole my—" she quickly corrected herself, "Our music video idea!"

"Wait, what?" Akio turned to the blue pegasus in surprise.

Bella, on the other hand, didn't even bother hiding this fact. "Guess living underwater hasn't turned you into a bubble brain after all."

"How did you manage to do it?" Nori asked, "I never told you my idea!"

Clover Field placed her fingers into her mouth, letting out a whistle and her beloved reptile bird landed on her shoulder, with her phone in his claw. "My family trains respite birds." she said, scratching under her bird's chin affectionally. "Little Olive here followed you and recorded everything with my phone."

Iris turned to her human friend, "Akio, why?"

"I- I didn't know, I swear!" he insisted.

"It's true, he didn't." Bella confessed. "I knew he'd try and stop me."

"Well, I'm not going to let you get away with this." Nori said defensively, "Change your concept, or else!"

"Sorry, heh, but we can't." Belle replied smugly with a flip of her hair.

"And why is that?" Iris asked, hands on her hips in disapproval.

"Because we care about winning. Duh!" Clover Field said, her reptile bird hissing at the princess.

"And we will, because we're just about to submit our video." Bella said smugly.

You're what?" Nori stammered, feeling tempted to let out yet another ear piercing shriek, but she composed herself. If she did do that, she would be charged by destroying school property. "It doesn't matter! Because we are still doing our video the way we planned!"

"Go ahead. But there's just one flaw in your little plan."

By the time you submit yours, it'll just look like you copied us." Clover Field said, mirroring Bella's pomposity.

"Except the worse version." Coal said, once again, very bluntly without much care on wether or not it hurt anyone's feelings. He may be a more modern dragon in comparison to his ancestors back in Princess Twilight's or even Celestia's day, but he still carried the old characteristics that made up much of his race.

Nori's jaw had dropped, feeling completely and utterly defeated. Bella casually closed it. "Now, if you don't mind, we've got some more rehousing to do. Also, I'm pretty sure that if you're not a student here, you're trespassing."

Nori clenched her fists once again, only to be stopped when Iris held her shoulders. "Come on, Nori, let's get out of here." with the star on her forehead glowing, Iris teleported them out of the music room, ignoring Akio's apologetic cries.

"Nori! Iris, wait!" the poor young man felt not only betrayed by his own friends, but also guilty about what he had done to the ones he already had. Without hesitation he marched his way towards the door.

"Where are you going?" Bella asked.

"You lied to me." Akio said, turning around to face her. "You lied about your idea."

"So what? You know we need the money more than they do!"

"Even if that's the case, I'd rather win fair and square than by cheating. As my friend you should have known that!"

For the first time all day, Bella's arrogant demeanor completely washed away. Her ears lowered and her eyes shimmered, her mouth opened agape and her posture slightly recoiled in shock.

"Find yourself some other backup dancer. I'm out." Akio opened the doors and walked out, slamming it behind him.

Even Cloverfield and Cole showed genuine concern and regret when Akio left. The earth pony rose a tentative hand which hovered over the pegasus's shoulder.

"Bella?"

Her shoulders trembled for a moment before she turned around to face them. "Let's get back to practice."


(~)


Back at the Sato Estate, poor Nori swam sadly in the pool, her tail whooshing back and forth in an endless pattern, resting her chin on her arms, crossed over the side.

Iris sat beside her, cross legged. "I'm really sorry about this, Nori."

"It's not your fault, it's mine. I should never have convinced you all that we could pull this off in so little time!"

"Still don't want me to throw them across the room and into a cement wall?" Mai asked, blinking innocently at Iris. The Avatar growled in responce, making Mai slouch and walk away in disappointment. "Fine!" she growled. "I gets super strength and I can't even use it to get back at a bunch of liars and cheats. What a waste!"

"Got a bit of a dark side, doesn't she?" Chrysalis whispered to Hiro, her ears lowering in fear as horrible memories of her past self came flooding back.

"She gets it from mom's side of the family."

"Really? But your mom is so sweet."

Hiro looked at her with a surprised expression. "Have you ever seen my mom at a party with Apple Cider?"

"No." Chrysalis innocently shook her head.

"Ever gotten into a steal cage with a wolverine?"

Chrysalis blinked and turned away awkwardly. "Okay then."

Nori sighed, feeling defeated. "We'll never raise the money we need at this point."

"Are you crazy? We're great at doing stuff super-fast." Akari said, sitting on a chair near the pool right next to Gallant. "I mean, look at Chi. She just built that castle made entirely out of chocolate bars while we were talking."

In the other side of the room, Chi had just finished placing a large star shaped chocolate bar at the very top of said chocolate castle, compete with sugary lollipops, gumdrops, cookies and frosting, which was used as cement to keep the bars in place.

Chi took one bar and started eating it. "Want some?"

"What I want is a new video concept!" Nori said, hoisting herself up and sitting on the side of the pool.

"So let's create one!" Chi said, right before taking another bite out of the chocolate bar.

Nori's face lit up, "Really?"

The rest of the team nodded in agreement. "I'm sure if we all put our heads together, we'll come up with something even better than before." Akari said eagerly.

Nori willed her tail to turn back into legs and walked out of the pool, dripping wet, including her cloths, but dried off almost instantaneously. "Okay. I suppose it's worth a try. Any ideas?"

Everyone 'hummed' at once, each one trying to come up with a new concept for the video. Chi was the first to snap her fingers.

"Ha! I think I've got something."

"Let's hear it!" Nori said, holding her hands close to her heart and whispered hopefully, "Please be a good one, please be a good one."

"So… we're in a deserted alleyway in the dead of night." as Chi began to narrate, she started imagining herself and her friends in said alley, surrounded by darkness, the city lights high above as their only source of illumination along with the crescent moon above.

"Then, out of the shadows appears a masked man, holding a cave, surrounded my a million moths swarming all around him and attack us. Then, out of nowhere, another shadowy emerges, standing on top of a building, her long braids billowing in the nighttime winds. A masked heroine wearing a full body suit or red and black. From her wrist, she--"

"Wait a second!" Iris interrupts, crossing her arms."Isn't this a scene from the latest Marvelous Adventures of Ladymare and Stal-Noir comic book?"

Chi's entire body started to glow pink, a sign of her blushing. "Oh, yeah. That's why it seemed so cool. Never mind."

"Well, it's… creative, I'll admit." Nori said, "But maybe we should go for something a little less…. superhero-ie?"

Akari rose her hand, "Okay, I've got it! Picture a jungle setting, near a waterfall, the sun just over the horizon, and a field of beautiful flowers. Swarms of butterflies flutter all around."

Nori awed at the image in her mind, picturing the little butterfly land delicately on the tip of her finger… only for it to fly away when the ground started to shack.

"But then, a horrifying Ursa Minor shows up! We all pull out our swords and we battle the vicious beast with all of our might! We're slicing, and dicing, the beast roars in anger when one of his claws get sliced off and--"

"Akari!" Gallant exclaimed.

"What?"

"It's a music video, not an action novel."

The alicorn princess blushed. "Sorry, I guess Chi's idea kind of got me all pumped up."

Nori sighed, her patience already wavering. "Any other ideas?"

Hiro waved his hand like an excitable little kid trying to answer a question from the teacher. "Me, me, me! Pick me!"

"Yes, Hiro?"

"Why don't we just have a dance party?"

Nori blinked. "That's it?"

"Yeah! The eight of us dancing to some sick beats, having fun and I'll even use my powers to make fireworks."

"Sounds promising." Chrysalis said.

Gallant nodded in agrement: "Simple, and it involves dancing."

"But that's all?" Nori asked, already feeling anxious. "Just dancing randomly to music?"

"It is called a music video, right?" Hiro asked.

Mai slammed her forehead. "Yes, but a music video also needs to have a concept. No offense Hiro, but your idea is way too generic and devoid of direction. It's not going to work in a competition, especially now that we're against Golden Dragon."

"Well I don't see you coming up with anything!"

"STOP!" Nori shouted, almost as loudly as she did back at the pro-bending arena. "It doesn't matter anymore! The contest deadline is tomorrow, and there is no possible way we'll win now that Golden Dragon's already submitted their video! All we're doing is wasting time!"

Everyone recoiled at her outburst. Nori immediately regretted her decision. Her stress was making her blow up to her own best friends. She felt like the waters around her were constantly hitting against the shoreline, huge waves smashing against her head with crushing force.

"I'm sorry, I just… I need to be alone right now."

The other watched sadly as Nori left the estate, salty tears rolling down her eyes.


(~)


Another thing Nori and Rarity had in common was that they would normally turn to sweets to cope with their pain. For Nori, she ordered a mint chocolate seaweed milkshake from Pinkie Pie's cafe. The pink pony took the now empty cup and gave the depressed merpony another one from her tray.

"Nori, don't you think you've had enough?"

"No, Pinkie." the merpony replied, her voice and her eyes completely drained of any emotion. "No I do not."

"But, you've had six of these already. Whats gotten you so glum, chum?"

Nori sat upright, her ears sadly lowered. "I let my classmates down. Because of me, now we won't have the money to go to Phoenix Falls. Not to mention, Bella Breeze stole my music video idea and there's nothing I can do about it."

Pinkie's blue eyes shimmered and a smile formed across her face. "Chin up, bucko! I have a feeling the sun's about to shine down on your rainy parade!" she ruffled Nori's hair and walked off to continue working.

"It's no use, Bella Breeze. Akio already bailed on us, why are we even still trying?"

Nori's ears perked upwards when she heard the voice of the dragon Cole from behind her. She turned her head around and saw that the Golden Dragon kids were in the booth several seats away from her.

"Because the deadline hasn't passed." Bella said. Nori noticed that she didn't look like the same self assured pony she saw before. Rather, this pony looked worried and even unsure of herself.

"We can still come up with an original song to replace the Sapphire Shores one we've been practicing our choreography with."

"That's highly unlikely." Cole said bluntly and took a sip of his milkshake.

"Why did we tell Nori that we already submitted our video?" Cloverfield asked, even her reptile bird squawked in responce.

"So that we can still use her concept. Nori is creative, and she's part of Guardians of Harmony. She'll come up with something else."

Nori was startled by her words. This definitely wasn't the same pony as before. Well, she was still Bella Breeze, but this was a different side of her. A vulnerable side.

"But if we don't, we have nothing. And imagine what our classmates would say."

"They'll say it's our fault we won't be able to see the Phoenix Falls come back this year like we promised." Cloverfield said sadly, resting her chin on her palm, elbow on the table.

"Exactly."

Nori covered her mouth, muffling a gasp. "Oh. They… want the same thing we do." she whispered with an empathic smile.

"But the Guardians already have a truck load of musical skills." Cole pointed out. "They'll surely have a killer original song, and we don't."

"Face it, Bella. We're doomed." Cloverfield buried her face into her arms on the table. The slam caused the silverware to tremble.

"Excuse me."

Bella jerked her head back in alarm to see their unexpected guest. A bit too far in that she wounded up hitting her head against the seat behind her.

"Ow!" she said, rubbing her head and turning her attention back to the pony. "N-Nori! Uh, how long have you been over there?"

"Long enough to hear that you have no original song."

"Like I said. Doomed." Cole said, taking a sip of his drink.

"Actually, maybe you're not." Nori said, scooting over to sit right next to Bella, who willingly allowed her to do so. "Look, I know our schools haven't been getting along too well lately. But I think I have a solution."

Bella's ears dropped and she sighed. "It doesn't matter. I'm not sure if I even want to make this project anymore, knowing my best friend probably hates me now."

Nori placed a compassionate hand on her former rival's shoulder. "I know that's not true. If you just apologize, I'm sure he'll be more than happy to come back. If you're willing to listen to what I have in mind."

Bella, Cole and Cloverfield all looked at one another for a few seconds, then turned to Nori again.

"We're all ears."


(~)


Akio stood in front of the cafe and waved when he saw Iris and her friends arrive. "Hey, guys."

"Akio?" Iris asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Nori sent me a text and said to meet you guys here."

"Wait, Nori send up the same text." Akari said, showing her phone to prove her claim.

"Actually, you're both right." Nori said, opening the doors of Pinkie's cafe, with the rest of the Golden Dragon students behind her. Akio's eyes narrowed the moment he saw Bella Breeze, who hung her head in regret.

"Nori, what's going on?" Iris asked.

Rather than give the alicorn a direct answer, she stepped back and allowed Bella Breeze to approach the young human male. "I'm so sorry I lied to you about the video concept."

"We all are." said Clover Field, both she and Cole hanging their heads.

"I really did want to win the contest so we could go to Phoenix Falls, but I knew we wouldn't stand a chance against these guys." Bella motioned to the rest of the Element of Harmony, all of which looked at one another in surprise at her comment.

Of course, Mai smiled smugly. "Ya got that right. Ouch!" she felt Akari harshly yank on her hair. The Sato girl rubbed her scalp which stung from the alicorn's strong grip. Her body may be strong now, but not her hair, apparently.

"We wanted to win so badly, we didn't even care if we had to steal to accomplish it… and lie to my best friend." Bella's ears dropped, averting Akio's gaze.

"Think you can forgive us, Man?" Cole asked hopefully, putting his clawed hand on Clover Field's shoulder.

Nori and the others waited anxiously. Judging by the look on Akio's face, they feared the worst. Their concerned were thrown out the window when Akio surprised Bella with a hug.

"Of course I can." he said, patting her on the back. Chrysalis watched the scene in awe. This was the second time she had witnessed an example of forgiveness. It still astonished her every single time.

Bella sighed in relief, happy to have her best friend back. Her modest demeanor returned when she turned towards the Avatar. "So, we're cool?"

Iris nodded and smiled. "Totally."

Mai crossed her arms "I guess." she muttered, and then jumped away when Akari threatened to tug her hair again. "I mean, yes! Totally! Heh, heh, heh, Friendship is Magic and all that stuff!" she chuckled nervously and Akari smiled in approval.

"But, what about the video idea?" Gallant asked.

"Oh, we're still using our idea." Nori said, then motioned to Bella and the others. "And so are they."

"What do you mean?" Chrysalis asked.

"Both out schools want the same thing, right? So, maybe instead of working against one another, we should be working together to win that money for both our schools. They've offered to help with the dance moves if we'll help them with an original song."

"Combining our talents is the most logical thing to do." Cole said.

"We'll make one epic music video together." said Clover Field excitedly, while also sprinkled with hopefulness.

Nori coupled her hands close to her mouth, giving her friends the big hopeful puppy dog eyes. "So, what do you guys think? Are you in?"

Iris and the others glanced at one another, either bitting their lips, scratching their necks and or arms, while muttering dubious mumbles amongst one another.

After a few more second of silence, Hiro hollered out his enthusiasm. "Best! Music! Video! Idea ever!"


(~)


Hiro led the Golden Dragon kids to his Part-tay Cave, everyone already dressed up and rehearsing before they shot the video. Iris approached Akio, handing him a paper sheet.

"We can start by teaching you the words to our song."

Akio looked at the sheets, "But this is just about the Elements. There's nothing about us in the lyrics."

"Yet. Wanna help me make some changes?" Iris asked, already with her pen in hand. She and Akio fist pumped in agreement.

Nori ironed her sparkly blue skirt, "Anybody else care to work on some music?"

"We'll get to it after I teach you some dance moves." Bella suggested, twirling around her axis once.

"Music first." Nori suggested politely.

"Dance first." Bella suggested, also politely.

"Music first!" Nori repeated, this time less politely.

"Dance first!" Bella also repeated, just like Nori, far less politely, until the two were just downright screaming at each other.

"Music first!"

"Dance first!"

"The order is irrelevant." both Cole and Mai said, narrowing their eyes impatiently at the two. A sentiment that was shared with the rest of the group. Both Bella and Nori blushed and laughed in embarrassment before smiling agreeably with one another.

Chrysalis adjusted the camera, only to gasp in surprise when she felt a faux flower clip get placed in her hair, curtesy of Akari herself… and holding the outfit Nori had commissioned for her.

The changeling's ears lowered shyly and she looked away, fiddling with her fingers. "I… I can't. Who'll work the camera?"

Much to her surprise, Clover Field's respite bird flew down and adjusted the camera with its claws. This creature was indeed well trained. Not only that, but even Pabu, wearing a cute little director's hat, assisted as well, climbing onto the top, raising his paw as his own form of a 'thumbs up'.

Akari took Chrysalis's hands into her own. "Wether you feel it or not, you are a part of this team, Chrysi. It won't be the same without you."

It did sound like fun. Everyone looked amazing, and the outfit Rarity made for her was just too beautiful not to try on. The butterfly aesthetics were truly a work of art. But, what if people didn't like seeing the former Queen of the Changelings in a music video? What if she wrecked their chances of winning.

"Okay, fine. But, on one condition." Chrysalis's body became engulfed with her signature green aura and once it cleared she looked physically the same, right down to the hairstyle, but rather than a changeling, she was a human girl with light skin, brown eyes and long raven hair streaked with blue, still wearing the same outfit she was wearing before.

Akari simply nodded in agreement. Whatever made her feel the most comfortable. "Now hurry and get changed."

Chrysalis couldn't contain the excitement she had as she hurried to put on the beautiful outfit.


(~)


Hiro:

Lights! Camera! Action!

Akari and Gallant used their magic to make the lights turn on and the reptiles bird and Pabu worked the camera (surprisingly well to boot).

Nori:

Oh, oh, uh-yeah

The stage was decorated to look like a crystal cave with a rainbow background, shimmering crystal encrusted lanterns hanging up from the ceiling, and sparkles spread across the floor and Hiro, the entire time, was playing the music in his own booth, bobbing his head to the beat.

Bella:

Uh-uh

Let's go

Iris came out in her stunning, sparkly fire themed flamingo outfit, with her father's scarf wrapped elegantly around her shoulders like a shawl. Thanks to Bella Breeze's talent for dancing, and teaching it, she managed to pick up the dance move very quickly and performed with such grace and fire that would make her mother beam with pride.

(Better Together from Disney's Descendants and Dance Magic from Equestria Girls)

Iris:

Don't have to win the gold all on your own

We're a team, now we're stronger

Akari managed to twirl in, gracefully and with more confidence and timing than last time, with Gallant serving as her partner. The two performed in perfect sync, as if they had been dancing together their entire lives.

Akari:

Don't gotta face the whole world all alone

'Cause we can go further

Iris and Akari:

The road could be hard and the night could be dark

Like a jewel, we'll shine brightly wherever we are

Gallant:

If we stick to the dream 

We'll never fall apart

A spotlight shined upon each of the kids, with Chi, Cole and Clover Field in hip hop clothing, Nori, Chrysalis and Bella Breeze in Disco inspired looks, Akio dressed in rocker cloths, Iris in her flamingo attire, Mai in her country/steampunk look, and Akari and Gallant in their street ballet get ups. Nori and Bella smiled at one another, happy to place the rivalry behind him and when Hiro hit the chorus portion of the video, he danced alongside them. Iris using her magic to make it portable for him to move alongside them while the table floated in front of him, giving him the chance to be in the video as much as everyone else.

All:

Because we're better together

Stronger side-by-side

This is the moment 

It's our time

So we're different, whatever

Everyone can shine

This is the moment of our lives 

'Cause we're better together

Chrysalis, despite taking on a different form for the video, couldn't even begin to describe the happiness she felt when she danced alongside Nori and Bella. She didn't have the courage to sing solo just yet, but she was happy to be performing alongside them. Nori was smart to make this a team project rather than a competition between one another. Everyone brought their own skills, talents and energy into this, it made her apreciate more that the changelings had transformed when she was dethroned. She now saw the true beauty in variety and colors than a single drone army.

Bella: 

Everyone of us is more than strong enough

But when we work together 

Nori:

We work together

We're a power that nothing else can touch

Every piece makes us better

Bella and Nori:

The road could be hard and the night could be dark

Like a jewel, we'll shine brightly wherever we are

Akio:

If we stick to the dream

We'll never fall apart 

Iris:

Fall apart

All:

Because we're better together

Stronger side-by-side

This is the moment 

It's our time

So we're different, whatever

Everyone can shine

This is the moment of our lives 

'Cause we're better together

Hiro took center stage, while Chi and Clover Field break dance beside him and he starts rapping and the music sped up a but.

Hiro:

Yeah!

It don't' matter what style you got

Just keep dancin' on that spot

Friends like you for you who are

Dance queen, on the scene, superstar!

Golden Dragon, you've got the moves!

Guardians bringing all the groves

Put it together and make it fit

Harmony Dragons

Dance Magic!

The music reverted back to its original speed, with everyone dancing in sync.

All:

We are stronger

All of us together

Only makes us better 

Nori:

Yeah

All:

We can do whatever

We are stronger 

Bella:

We're stronger

All:

All of us together 

Nori:

Together

All:

Only makes us better

We can do whatever

YEAH!

Because we're better together 

Stronger side-by-side

This is the moment 

It's our time

So we're different, whatever

Everyone can shine

This is the moment of our lives 

'Cause we're better together

We are stronger 

(Oh, oh)

All of us together 

(Oh, oh)

Only makes us better 

(Oh, oh)

We can do whatever 

(Oh, oh)

We are stronger 

(Oh, oh)

All of us together 

(Oh, oh)

Only makes us better 

(Oh, oh)

We can do whatever 

We're better together!


(~)


Bella and Nori couldn't stop grinning as they watched the music video on Nori's geo-phone. "I never get tired of watching it."

"Thanks to you guys, both our classes got to go to Phoenix Falls." Bella hugged Nori, taking her by surprise. "Thank you."

"Hey, it's what I do. I am the Element of Generosity, after all." Nori said, earning a laugh from both of them.

"Hey guys!" Akio called out to the two, "Hurry up, they're coming!"

The entire class, both of Harmony High and Golden Dragon hurried towards the metal railing of the mountain, seeing the dried up waterfall, so high and large it could be seen for miles and miles.

Everyone took out their phones and pointed upwards to the sky, seeing a flock of the most beautiful, shimmering birds they had ever seen. They looked like a mix between an eagle and a peacock, with long feathers that billowed elegantly in the wind like the light helms of Rarity's ball gowns when she twirls, or the elegant manes of Celestia and Luna, to the point they looked as if they defied gravity itself.

They came in array of colors, wings of blue, aquamarine, or orange and yellow yet they gave off very visible pecks of fire that danced upon their bodies, creating a heavenly, other worldly aura, and the feathers above their heads resembled crowns, giving them a regal appearance. They flew with the grace of a swan and in perfect form. They were as intelligent as they were mesmerizing.

The girls were left in awe at the sight, many were already envious of their feathers, wishing they had them for their own cloths and accessories, while at the same time couldn't even bare the idea of plucking even one feather from their bodies. Each one seemed to serve a greater purpose to their beauty.

As they descended, the sparkles of fire fell all around, even close to the students. While they weren't burning hot, they were warm. Like if snow came during the summer or spring time rather than during the winter. The creatures flapped their wings, making their watt towards the rocks.

When their leader, the largest and most majestic of them all landed at the very top, alongside his family and fellow birds, their bodies shimmered and sparkled like never before. Flowers blossomed around the area, forming nests for them to lay their eggs, and the sparkles converged to ignite the flaming waters that now cascaded down from the mountain, all the way down to form the lake. Ray os light shoot upwards from the waters in an otherworldly display.

Tears were shed at witnessing one of the marvelous miracles that came from the three worlds merging as one. Several students even patted Iris on the back, asking her to let Korra know how grateful they were. If she hadn't kept the portals open, they never would have seen such a sight. And now, the fresh water from the waterfall could serve as medicine for the people of this town, which would be stored and saved for emergencies.

The Elements of Harmony gathered together in one group hug, alongside the Golden Dragon kids. However, Nori noticed that Chrysalis was still a tad hesitant. This poor girl still had a long ways to go.

Her happily dragging the timid changeling to be in the picture was her way of saying that no matter what she thought, no matter what she did in the past, Chrysalis was always going to be included in their circle of friends.

Which was growing more and more.


*(~)*

1 Corinthians 12:4-7: 

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all:

*(~)* 

> Movie Magic
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


*(~)*

Ephesians 6:10-18~

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

*(~)*

Movie Magic


Thunder and lightning crashed from behind the glass circular window with designs akin to that of a butterfly's wings. A shadowy figure stood in the center of the darkened room, the only source of light coming from the flashing lights that crashed down onto the earth from the darkened skies outside. An evil laugh echoed within the man's chambers.

"It is almost time." he said, the lightning creating shadows across his already disfigured face, his clenched hand gripping his cane tightly, stretching his leather gloves. "Once I have all the Marvelous gemstones, no one will be able to stop me, and all of Prance will fall! For I am…. Hawk Moth!"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa!"

The lights of the room shut on, revealing the supposed villain to be a fully grown, middle ages anthro unicorn stallion, wearing a full head silver colored mask with a butterfly motif, a sleek sophisticated blue and black tuxedo-like outfit with the shirt being longer in the back, resembling a cape while holding a cane in his right hand. He also wore a purple butterfly gemstone clip on his high collar. He blinked and Varrick, sitting in his director's chair, his wife Zhu Li standing right beside him, shaking her head while rubbing her forehead, a gesture her husband mimicked.

"Ugh! Cut!" Varrick exclaimed through the megaphone, narrowing his eyes at Chi the wisp.

"Sorry. But at this point in the story, Hawk Moth is still looking for the Ladybug and Black Cat Marvelous gemstones. He doesn't start looking for the others until episode fifteen of season 3." Chi smiled, feeling very satisfied, while Iris shook her head and finger in disapproval. 'What? You think he wants Lady-Mare fans to call him out for making a mistake like that?"

"Honey, could you make a few quick edits to the script?" Varrick asked.

"Already done." Zhu Li said, proudly showcasing the script with the already edited bits. She had flipped through the pages and made the changes all the while Chi was talking after her suggestion.

"Gosh darn it, I love ya!" he said proudly before kissing her on the cheek and spoke to the actor playing the film's villain through his megaphone. "Let's go again. And this time, stick to the new script, 'kay? And action!"

The lights went off again and the camera started rolling, all the while a very excitable wisp watched with gleeful anticipation.


(~)


A few weeks after their class trip to Phoenix Falls, the kids were given a personal tour of Varrick's new film project. While he still had his own shipping company, the man wool frequently work on creating new movers for the younger generation to enjoy.

"I can't believe we're really here!" Chi said, literally flipping in mid air as Varrick and Zhu Li led them across the set. The filming was taking place at Varrick's old film studio in Harmony City. The same one he used to film the Nuktuk films back in the day, only now it had expanded and grown into a full blown film studio, akin to those from Sunset's old home in the mirror world.

"Thank you so much for letting us come, Varrick." Iris said, her hands enclosed together, feeling just as excited about being here as the rest of her friends.

"We promise we won't get in the way." Akari said, smiling at Varrick… only to then narrow her eyes and speak through gritted teeth at the blue wisp. "Again."

Chi gave a nervous laugh, her blue body glowing a light green to show her embarrassment.

"Thank nothing of it, Princess." Varrick said, stopping hallway. "Since you're all such big fans of the source material, Zhu Li and I agreed it would be a crime not to let you visit the set of the very first, theatrical release of…"

"The Adventures of Lady-Mare and Stal-Noir!" both Chi and Varrick announced in unison, while both showcasing said poster that was, conveniently, placed right beside them.

The poster depicted two ponies, both in their anthro forms. One was a female pink pegasus mare with midnight blue hair, styled into two pintails with long ribbons, wearing a full body red jumpsuit with black pots and a matching mask, with the arms and boots being fully black and one portion of the collar. She wielded what appeared to be a ladybug styled yo-yo.

Beside her was a handsome, physically fit looking unicorn stallion with light aquamarine coloring and wearing a full body black suit with cat ears. His blond mane and tail were messy but in a rouged, charming sort of way. He wore a black mask that covered more of his cheek bones than his female counterpart, and his eyes were more cat-like. He wielded a staff in his hand.

The background was of a city and the evil villain from set stood in the back, his image manifesting in the sky, looking down at his enemies, with the film's name right in the center.

Chrysalis, on the other hoof, only scratched the back of her head, only to get startled when Chi suddenly just zipped on by, excitedly hovering beside her, a little too close for comfort.

"Isn't it the most exciting thing to ever happen in the history of forever?!"

Chrysalis gave a polite, yet nervous, smile and gently stepped back, feeling her personal space being violated. "I guess my first question would be…. who's Lady-Mare and Stal-Noir?"

Chi recoiled, her eyes as big as a soccer ball and she gasped dramatically. "How could you have never heard of literature's creates accomplishments?! Where have you been, lady?!"

The changeling blushed and fiddled with the ends of her long aquamarine hair, which faded to yellow green at the tips. "Heh, heh, conquering kingdoms with a changeling army, I guess."

Mai had to roughly clear her through, coughing very loudly just to get Chi's attention. She made a "cut it out" hand gesture, reminding the wisp to be a bit more sensitive about Chrysalis's situation.

"Oh, right. Sorry. Anyway, the story is about this simple pegasus pony named Mareinette Selle who lives in Prance and dreams of becoming a fashion designer."

"She and Rarity would get along great!" Nori said, poking her head from the side in front of Chi before zipping away, allowing the wisp to continue.

"Anyway, she's got this massive crush on the most popular pony in school named Adrien Augeron, who also happens to be the son of a wealthy fashion designer. Now, don't be fooled, it may sound like a generic love story, but what nobody knows is that Mareinette and Adrien were both chosen by these two magical stones known as the Marvelous Gems. With the Ladybug earrings, and the Black Cat ring respectively, they transform into the crime fighting duo; Lady-Mare and Stal-Noir! Together, they protect the city from the evil Hawk Moth and his army of brainwashed akuma victims. Innocent civilians who have been turned into twisted villainous versions of themselves! Now, even though Mareinette had a crush on Adrien, Stal-Noir has a crush on Lady-Mare, and neither of them knows who the other is! Leaving to a hilariously clever love square between two people! It's got comedy, mystery, romance, pretty much everything you need for a good story!"

"Nova warned me about showing you those comics." Iris said, folding her arms.

Chi then, somehow, managed to pull out a literally collection of comic books with the characters imprinted on the cover. "I own all 147 issues, the special 25 special edition for the first issue, all the action figures, and the limited edition Lady-Mare earrings!"

"Which you nearly tore someone's limbs off to get." Gallant said rather bluntly.

"I told you, she started it! I got the mask first and, hey, she dug up her own grave by calling me cute."

"You also got us kicked out of the convention." Hiro said, placing his index finger and thumb inches apart. "And I was this close to getting that vintage Nuktuk Junior Novel!"

"Doesn't your dad own like a million of those Nuktuk merchandises?" Akari asked.

"What's your point?"

"What's wrong with her being called "cute", anyway?" Chrysalis asked the Avatar.

"She had… issues with that word when we were younger."

"Issues?" Chrysalis asked, only to have Nori grip her shirt, warning her dramatically.

"Trust me, you do not want to know." she shuddered after releasing the changeling. "I couldn't sleep for days."

Gallant stroked his chin, looking at the female lead on the poster. "You know, Mareinette kind of reminds me a bit of Chi."

Hiro cocked his head, studying the image himself. "Now that you mention it, they do have something similar."

"Really?" Chi asked, looking at the image herself. "I don't see it."

Zhu Li's geo-phone rang. When she answered it she turned to her husband with a worried look in her eyes. "Um, honey, that was the prop department. They can't find the outfit Mareinette's supposed to wear for the nightclub scene."

Varrick face palmed himself. "Not this again." he muttered lowly to himself. He then forced a smile when she addressed the kids. "You kids have fun. Just remember, no touching anything that might break, don't distract the actors while they're working, and also, if you by any chance see a sparkly lady-bug themed night club outfit laying around anywhere just let me know, okay? Okay, come on, Zhu Li!"

In a flash, both were gone from sight, leaving the children rather perplexed at his request. But, no point in standing around asking why, there was an entire film set to explore.

Iris pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket. "According to our visitor schedules, they won't start shooting the next scene for a while, which means we have time to—"

"Get my picture taken with Camellia Spring, the actress playing Lady-Mare!" Mai exclaimed, squealing at the name. She earned a few surprised looks from everyone else. "What? A girl can't have other interests aside from building stuff?"

Noti excitedly pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket. "Oh, and since she's an avid supporter of a foundations that helps protecting endangered sea-life, I can get her to sign my petition for building shelters for injured Eel Hounds!"

"Oh, okay." Iris said, "But I was thinking that we could—"

"Check out all the sets?" Akari asked excitedly, eager to look at the place where there would be an epic battle between the heroine and villain.

"I'd really like to get a closer look at that tower thing." Chrysalis said, pointing her thumb to said tower not too far from them.

"Actually, I thought we'd—" Iris was interrupted when her cousin Hiro intervened.

"Find the buffet! I Pinkie Promised Pinkie Pie I'd find a her a cupcake fountain."

Gallant blinked, "I don't know what a cupcake fountain is, but I'm pretty sure they don't have one."

"Of course they do. I read it in my 100 Things You Didn't Know About This Movie Studio: Insider's Tour Guide." Hiro said, pulling out said guide from the inside of his pocket.

"Is the number-one thing we didn't know that the guy who founded this studio was an eccentric oddball with a sweet tooth?" Mai asked, folding her arms and smiling knowingly.

"Yeah, but pretty much everybody knows that already."

Iris decided to just toss the paper back into her pocket, seeing as everybody already had their own ideas on what to do for fun around the studio, and with how large it was, they might cover more ground this way in order to take in everything this place had to offer.

"I guess we're splitting up?" she asked. Everyone eagerly agreed and dashed on ahead to do what they said they would. Hiro grabbed Gallant by the arm, dragging him along on his quest to find the buffet and, along with it, the cupcake fountain.

The only ones who stayed were Iris and Chi. "I don't suppose you want to—"

"Check out the props that Astruc Zagtoon designed specially for the movie?" Chi said excitedly, not even bothering to restrain herself from squealing.

"You read my mind!"


(~)


Nori and Mai stopped in front of a trailer just outside the studio, complete with a lounge chair and an empty lemonade glass next to it. The star on the door had the actress's name written on its surface.

"You sure now's a good time?" Mai asked, "I mean, I want to meet her too but probably best we don't bother her while she's in her trailer."

"Starfish, please. Actresses love interacting with their fans." Nori said, only to get a healthy heaping of metal to the face when the door swooshed open. Mai gasped but thankfully the merpony was unharmed. Standing in the entrance of the doorframe was a young anthro pegasus, around nineteen-years-old or so, wearing a modest pair of blue jeans, a white shirt with lotus-flower prints and a green lotus flower cutie mark on her cheek. Her hair, much like her character, was black with blue tips, but unlike her character, her coat/skin and wings were white like snow and her eyes were emerald green. She would were contacts during filming.

Nori quickly recollected herself and tried introducing herself, "Oh, Miss Spring! I—" she was cut off, seeing that the actress was currently speaking with someone on the phone, and from the looks of it, she wasn't too happy.

"Look, I don't know how many times I have to tell you this! I don't care if I'm under contract, this is a joke, and I want this thing shut down! Do you hear me?!" she grunted once she slammed the phone closed, only to gasp at the sight of the young merpony and human girl. The actress blushed and lowered her ears in embarrassment.

"Oh, I am so sorry! I didn't see you there!" she said, stepping out of her trailer and inspecting Nori to see if she had caused any unintentional injuries. "Are you okay? I fell awful about this."

"No, don't worry about it, I'm okay." Nori said, rearranging her hair a bit, which had gotten a bit messed up. "It takes a lot more than a door to the face to knock me down."

The actress sighed in relief. "Oh, thank goodness. I swear, that agent of mine makes my feathers ruffle!" she growled, her wings literally ruffling as result. She took in a deep breath before introducing herself. "Nothing to be concerned about, though. Anyways, let's start over. What's are your names sweetie."

"I'm Nori, and this is my friend Mai." she said, introducing the Sato heiress, who squealed excitedly.

"Oh, you're the kids Varrick said would be visiting the set today, aren't you? I was hoping I'd get a chance to talk to you."

Mai squealed again, gripping Nori's arm. "Camellia Springs wanted to talk to us!" she said between her teeth, blanketed by her squealing.

"Hey, I was just about to get something from the buffet before shooting. You guys want to join?"

The two girls couldn't nod their heads fast enough.


(~)


Chrysali's wings flapped as she and Akari flew up the literally high tower set where the actors would need wires and a forklift to get them up there. Or wings for that matter. Her translucent wings shimmers as they flapped, making her look iridescent.

She zipped left and right like a fly, mesmerized by a shinning light. Speaking of which, there were a few lovely lights that adorned the side of the tower of Prance, which at the moment had a darkened night time background behind it.

"Wow! Wonder how long it takes to build something like this." she said, marveling in awe at the tower.

"Several weeks, I'd bet." Akari replied, flying right beside her.

Chrysalis zoomed lower, studying the lower structure. "They sure go all out making it look realistic, don't they?"

Akari landed beside her once they hit the ground, followed by the crushing sound of something beneath her feet. She pulled out something that got stuck to the bottom of her shoe, seeing it was an empty chocolate bar wrapper.

"Yeah, even right down to the trash on the street."

Chrysalis read the label, "Bon Mot peanut butter praline crunch bars?"

"Oh, thanks, you found another one." said a new voice. The voice belonged to a young girl, the same age as Iris, with light skin with freckles sprinkling the bridge of her nose, blue eyes and long dark brown hair with strong cerulean and arctic blue streaks spread downwards from the top of her head and even her sideways bangs. Her hair was styled into two long pintails, one of which went over her shoulder.

She wore a pair of purple cat-glasses, a blue lilac shirt with a purple jacket over it, black skirt with purple spots and simple flat purple shows with white socks that reached up a few inches bellow her knees. She took the empty chocolate bar wrapper and placed it into her pocket.

"I hate it when people drop their garbage on set. It ruins the shot." she muttered to herself in annoyance.

Akari studied the girl's appearance. "Don't I know you from somewhere?"

"I sure hope so. I was at VJ's birthday party last year while my family was visiting Harmony City. I made him that ice sculpture."

Akari slapped herself on the face, "Oh, of course! Juniper!"

"Hey, Akari."

"Wow, I almost didn't recognize you. I'm loving the streaks!"

"Thanks." said the girl, Juniper, smudgy slipping her hair off of her shoulder.

"I'm sorry, who's Juniper?" Chrysalis asked.

"Oh, right, I'm sorry. Chrysalis, this is Juniper Moon. Zhu Li's niece."

The changeling smiled and offered the human girl her hand. "Hi, it's a pleasure to meet you."

Juniper, at first hesitant, eventually shook the reformed changeling's hand. "So, how you guys enjoying your visit?"

"It's amazing!" Akari exclaimed, beaming.

"Astruc Zagtoon is very hands-on when it comes to the sets and props for the movie.

"Have you met him?"

"Just once when he came to check out the Marvelous Gemstones. I did get him to sign a copy of the latest Lady-Mare comic, though." Juniper squealed alongside Akari, while Chrysalis only stood idly by.

Unlike the rest of her friends, she didn't know much about movies, or comic books, or any of that sort of thing. She had been so out of the time during her time as an evil queen that she felt like a fish out of Temporal water. As much as she appreciated her new friends inviting her to their activities, because of how behind she was, and the fact that it was a constant reminder of her past actions, always made it hard for her to fully enjoy herself.

"So what do you do here?" Akari asked Juniper, Chrysalis politely stayed and listened, not saying a word unless addressed.

"Mostly, I bring my aunt and uncle coffee and help get everything ready for shooting. I've been on the set for all the movies Varrick's shot here. Pretty much know every inch of this place like the back of my hand." Juniper giggled, making a snorting sound. "I tried to convince Varrick to cast me as Lady-Mare, but... he really didn't go for that." she muttered the last bit in a bitter tone, which caught both Akari and Chrysalis off guard.

Juniper switched back to her cheerful self in the time it took to, literally, flip a switch. "Hey! Have you guys seen the set for Hawk Moth's secret lair?"

Both girls shook their heads. Chrysalis looked indifferent while Akari looked as excited as a four-year-old on a sugar high.

"They usually lock the door to that set, but I've got keys that open just about every door in this place." Juniper said, pulling out said keys from her pocket, "Come on. I'll show you."


(~)


Chi and Iris walked onto the set of a city, with a cute bakery and a collection of movie props set and ready for the next shooting. Chi gasped and turned Iris's head towards a table where seven animal themed accessories shimmered in the studio lights.

"Wow! These are the five Marvelous Gemstones!"

Both girls eagerly zipped on closer to the stones. Each accessory carried a single gemstone embedded in them. Two of those accessories were absent, a pair of ladybug earrings and a black ring with a green cat paw print adorned with a green topaz jewel.

"The Fox Pendant!" Iris exclaimed, her fingers hovering over said pendant.

"The Ladybug Earrings!" Chi said in awe.

"Don't forget the Black Cat ring, pretty much the best one of the bunch."

The two girl turned around to see a twenty-year-old unicorn stallion with light yellow colored coat/skin and bright brown eyes and what appeared to be star shaped cutie mark on his left shoulder. His hair was mint green. In short, his color scheme was literally a reveres of his character. It was no wonder he was chosen to play the part. He wore a sleeveless shirt with a ying-yang symbol on the center and gray colored pants with a wrist watch and his ears were pierced with an earring. He was showing off said Black Cat ring to them, which was already on his hand.

"You're the Avatar's kid, right?" he asked, gesturing to Iris. She opened her mouth to speak, but was silenced when Chi floated up towards the male unicorn, her entire body glowing from the rising excitement.

"Oh. My. CELESTIA!! You're Neon-Streak! The actor playing Adrien! I'm a huge fan! I'm Chi, this is Iris!"

The unicorn, Neon-Streak, good-heartedly shook Chi's hand, making her tremble with excitement. "It's very nice to meet you both. Varrick said you kids would be visiting the set. I'm a big fan of your mother, Iris."

"So, how does it feel to be playing a staring role in this movie? Was it amazing for you? I'm sure it's amazing, why wouldn't it be amazing, I mean-- OMG! I'm actually talking to Neon-Streak, who is-- without question--the only pony to ever pull of an authentic Adrien! Oh my gosh, I think I'm going to explode!"

Iris quickly grabbed hold of her friend, lowering her back to earth. Literally.

"Chi, Chi, remember, self control. Breath in, breath out."

The wisp did as she instructed. At first, she hyperventilated, only for Iris to take in deep slow breaths herself so Chi could follow her. In now time, the wisp's adrenaline diminished and she calmed down. "Right, right. Sorry."

Neon-Streak only chuckled, not at all phased by her reaction. "Don't worry about it. That was pretty much had the same reaction when I heard I got the part. Camellia and I have been big fans of the comic series when it first came out, so this is a dream come true for both of us."

"Is it true you guys knew each other since you were foals?" Iris asked.

"Yep. We met in the same acting class and have been inseparable ever since."

Chi sighed dreamingly, "Wow. How lucky are you to be in a movie like this, and to share it with your best friend?"

"Pretty lucky." Neon-Streak leaned in closer, lowering his voice as if in a whisper. Really, he was just getting them excited. One of the perks of his job was interacting with fans, and Neon always loved kids. "And, if you think those Marvelous gemstones are cool, wait until you see the Black Cat ring in action."

"Do you have the staff with you?" Chi asked almost completely out of nowhere.

"It's back on set. You girls want to get an up close look?"

"Does Lady-Mare have approximately fifteen spots on her costume?"

Neon-Streak laughed once more, patting the wisp on the head and leading the girls to show them the staff.

"I like you, kid. You've got spunk."


(~)


After what felt like hours--when really, it was just an hour and a half--Hiro sat down on an empty set chair, sighing sadly while Gallant Steed leaned against a box of costumed beside him, chewing on a candy bar. Several more of the same empty wrappers were spread out on the chair's arms and on the floor.

Hiro sighed, leaning against the chair. "Okay, so far we've seen to three lunch buffets, six different kinds of fondue, two rooms with nothing but candy, and still no cupcake fountain!" he exclaimed in frustration at the last part right before pausing and taking the last bite out of the candy bar and smiled contently. He swallowed before speaking again. "Oh, well. At least we found those peanut butter praline crunch bars! They weren't in my guidebook, but they sure were delicious!"

"I'll say." Gallant Steed swallowed the last bit he was chewing on and crumpled the now empty wrapped in his hand, using his levitation to throw it and the rest of the empty wrappers in a nearby trashcan.

"Maybe Pinkie won't mind if we bring her a few of these."

"Ahh! One more month, Mr. HoofWood! That's all we need!"

The two boys flinched when they heard Varrick's loud, booming voice coming from the other end of the building. The two poked their heads from behind a cardboard tree and saw him speaking to someone on his geo-phone.

"I'm doing everything I can to keep us on schedule! But with all the setbacks we've had, I don't think we can do it! If you could just agree to let Camellia stay on for one more month…!" Varrick had to remove the phone from his ear, a loud irritated and, rather screechy voice boomed form the other side it literally made his hair and the collar of his shirt billow. "Okay, okay, you don't have to yell, I'm right here!" Varrick exclaimed right back at the person. He sighed, rubbing his temples to try and prevent the already growing migraine. "I don't know if we got her imported butter praline crunch bars, I haven't seen any since our last phone call! Yes, I know they're Camellia's favorite snacks, you don't have to keep reminding me!"

Both Hiro and Gallant backed away from the scene, their eyes wide in guilt. "Now would probably be a good time to resume the search for that cupcake fountain." Gallant suggested. Hiro nodded and the two scooted away from the scene. The last thing they heard was Varrick's angrily slamming his phone onto the table beside him.


(~)


Chi and Iris watched in awe as Neon showed off his many years of martial arts skills with the way he spun his prop bow staff with ease. It really was like watching Stal-Noir in the flesh. Both girls squealed after he struck the final suppose, just for good measure.

"That was amazing!" Chi squealed, literally trembling. Neon happily handed her the staff for her to see the details herself.

"Thanks. I was a bit rusty though during rehearsal. It's been a while since I worked with one of these."

"I'll say. We needed a glacier for that bump you gave yourself." a female voice was heard. Behind her were Nori and Mai, each one with a smoothie in hand.

Neon chuckled, and Chi's eyes widened, her pupils increasing in size, shimmering like stars. "C-C-C-Ca-Ca-Ca-Camellia Springs!" she stuttered, her body literally rising up from the ground. "Y-Y-Y-You-You-You-You! You're playing Lady-Mare! In the movie! With Neon-Streak! You-She-Him-They--" her entire body started to glow and Iris, Mai and Nori had to literally tackle her to the floor.

"NO!!"

"Oh. Sorry."

Camellia and Neon only laughed at their antics and kindly helped them back up. "It's okay. You must be, Chi. Your friends have told me a lot about you." Camellia said, before folding her arms and flashing her co-star a teasing smile. "Hogging my fans again, are we Neon?"

"Oh, come on, don't be like that, hon."

"Hon?!" The girl all exclaimed in surprise.

Neon Streak then blushed, "Oh. Right. They don't know."

"Don't know what?" Iris asked. Chi, on the other hand, was already gleefully giggling.

"We, haven't exactly told the press since, we wanted it to be private." Camellia said, taking a step closer to Neon, who then wrapped his arm around her.

"Camellia and I have been dating for a year now."

"What!?" the girls exclaimed, yet again, but were all grinning from ear to ear, more so Chi than the rest. Nori was so wonderfully surprised that she spilled her smoothie all over the floor, yet nobody really cared much.

"Yeah. We've been pretty good at keeping it secret." Camellia said. "Last thing we need is a bunch of reporters making up dramatic retellings just to "spice things up." she said, using air quotes while rolling her eyes.

Chi squealed once more. "That is so awesome! No wonder you two were picked for the roles! Nobody can be able to replicate the kind of chemistry Mareinette and Adrien have!"

Neon looked at his wrist watch. "Oh, speaking of which, we should get into costume. They're going to start shooting in the next thirty minutes. Come on."


(~)


Both actors were already in costumes and makeup, their coats and hair now resembling their respected characters. Chi was hyperventilating at seeing the two up close. She took a quick selfie of herself and the two, which they were more than happy to take before walking up onto the set.

Once the lights dimmed Varrick sat on his director's chair and looked around, "Where are the Marvelous Gemstones? We need them for the next shot!"

"I'll got get them!" Chi volunteered, "Be back in a flash!" she said, using her supper speed to go and retrieve the stones herself.

"Alright, while she gets them, let's shoot the first half of the scene. And action!"

Camellia and Neon positioned themselves, facing against the masked villain. Camellia twirled her yo-yo, which for some unknown reasons, snapped in two, much to her and everyone's shock and the bit struck the side of the fake building, which somehow, got loose, broke apart and crumbled on the set. Neon shielded Camellia and both them and the actor platy Hawk Moth sprang right out of there before they could get crushed.

Iris and Akari acted quickly and levitated the rubble, landing it gently so as to not harm anybody else. Varrick didn't even bother yelling out "cut!", the camera man stopped filming the moment the danger began and everyone stepped away from the wreckage. Both Neon and Camellia inspected their older co-star, who removed his villain mask, his hands trembling from the experience and Varrick literally pulling his hair.

"Somebody please explain to me what just happened here! We filmed on this set just yesterday and it was fine! This could set us back weeks!"

"They're gone! They're all gone!" Chi cried out once she arrived.

Varrick's left eye began to twitch. "What's gone?"

Juniper Moon ran up to Chi, "The Marvelous gemstones!"


(~)


"What exactly happened?" Camellia asked, placing a hand on Chi's shoulder. The poor wisp as feeling just as antsy as the director himself. She explained everything in as much detail as she possibly could, but there really wasn't that much to say.

"I came back to get the Marvelous, but when I came back they weren't there! Gone! Nada! Zilch!"

Varrick started pacing back and forth, while his wife looked on in concern, with one hand wrapped around her niece's shoulder. Now that the two were side by side, the rest of the Guardians could definitely see the resemblance between the two. Juniper really did resemble a younger looking Zhu Li with multicolored hair.

"This can't be happening! This can't be happening!" Varrick repeated, "What are we gonna do?!"

"Couldn't you just get the prop department to make new ones?" Akari asked.

"The Marvelous were personally approved by Astruc Zagtoon." Zhu Li said, while equally worried, she did a better job are remaining the level-headed one in this situation. "We could have new ones made, but we can't use them until Mister Zagtoon has given them his official stamp of approval."

"You think it'd be easy to reach someone who is always holed up in his office making comics, but this Zagtoon is a very difficult fella to track down." Varrick said with a huff and a childish pout.

"I-It'll be okay, though, right?" Chi asked, her voice trembling.

"I don't know! With the Tower collapsing, and now this, I fear we'll have to stop production altogether!"

"But-but you have to finish this movie! Think of all the Lady-Mare and Stal-Noir fans who'll be so disappointed if you don't!"

"Are you sure there's nothing you can do to—" Iris's sentence was cut short when a loud crash was head from the other side of the large room. Varrick's left eye started to twitch again.

"I'm so sorry. Please excuse me." Varrick was normally a very high energized man, extremely passionate about anything he did. But today, every minute he was hanging at the end of his rope and felt he wanted to bang his head against a wall. Repeatedly. For eight hours straight.

"Juniper, sweetie, could you get me and your uncle some herbal tea?"

"You got it." Juniper nodded before leaving the other way and Zhu Li walked out with her husband.

Chi turned to Neon and Camellia, her hands clapped together plead-fully. "You guys aren't gonna let this happen, right?"

"Chi, I--" Camellia began, only to be cut short, much like Iris a few short moments ago, and pulled out her geo-phone from her pocket. "Oh, great." she muttered bitterly. "I'm sorry, I have to take this. A little unfinished business."

Camellia regretfully turned from the kids to answer her phone call. Seeing the distress in the poor wisp's face. Neon placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder and smiled hunching slightly to meet her at her level. "Don't worry about it, Chi. Believe me, we can't this movie to happen as much as you do. We'll do whatever we can to save this film, I promise."

He said, right before another ring was heard. This time, it was Neon's phone. He sighed sadly and walked away, replying with an empty, "Hello?"

Once he was gone, Chi began to hyperventilate. Hiro slowly approached her, keeping a cautious distance. "It's okay, Bubbles. Calm Down."

"Calm down?" Chi repeated, her voice slowly rising more and more with each word, along with her size. "Calm down!? The film production of my all time favorite comic book series is on the brink of being canceled and you're telling me to CALM DOWN!?"

Chi's entire body turned a demonic shade of red, added with flowing pupil-less glowing red eyes, her now larger body towered over Hiro, her voice booming and echoing in a way that even the wicked Vaatu himself would be terrified of her.

Hiro gulped and zipped away, only for Nori to sternly cross her arms. "Chi…"

The wisp's reddish glow started to fade and her color returned to its original blue shade. She sighed, her body shrinking back to normal. "I'm sorry guys. I was so excited to see this and now everything's falling apart. So much for the "best day ever"."

Chi floated down on the floor, her head in her hands while Gallant and Chrysalis comforted her.

Iris approached the area from which the Marvelous gemstones once stood. All that remained was an empty black foam case, the shapes of the stones completely dried of any small remands. Not even glitter from the Peacock Broach could be seen.

Iris stroke her chin in thought. "There was trouble with one of the costumes when we first arrived. A set that was fine yesterday just collapsed. And now, the most important props in the movie have been stolen. I don't think these are just coincidences."

"Me, neither." Akari agreed, "All the things that have gone wrong on set have put production on hold. It seems to me like someone is going to a lot of trouble to make sure this movie doesn't get made."

"Who would want to—?" Gallant asked, only to get cut short when Mai gasped. She turned towards Nori.

"You don't think…"

"Oh, no-no-no-no. Definitely not!" Nori shook her head in defiance.

"What?" Chi asked. Both merpony and Sato girl were now the center of everyone's attention. Akari rotated her wrist, motioning at them to spill out whatever it was they knew. Mai sighed, answering her friend's question, though she knew she wouldn't like the sound of it.

"When Nori and I first met Camellia at her trailer, we overheard her saying she wanted something shut down…"

Chi rose upwards, her fists clenching on both sides. "You're not suspecting Camellia of doing this, are you?!"

"I said she wanted something shut down, I didn't say it was the movie."

"Besides, she was supper nice and she couldn't stop talking about how much she wanted to be in the movie." Nori said. It really didn't make any sense. Why would Camellia, an incredibly sweet and generous pony, want a movie to be shut down when she was nothing short of excited for it. They probably heard wrong, after all, they only heard one half of the conversation.

"Maybe she was just ticked off because they ran out of her imported butter praline crunch bars." Hiro said.

Chrysalis and Akari turned to one another, their eyes widening in realization. "Bon Mot butter praline crunch bars?" Chrysalis asked, remembering the name on the label.

"Those are the ones!" Hiro said, giving them a finger pointing gesture. Gallant Steed blushed, scratching the back of his neck.

"We, uh... may have tried a few ourselves. Heh." he gave a light nervous chuckle. He wasn't one to just eat whatever sweets he found, but there was no way he could resist the alluring smell once Hiro had opened up the first bar.

"We found one of the wrappers on the Prance City Tower set right before it collapsed." Akari said.

"We also overheard Varrick talking to someone on the phone, begging to let Camellia remain on the movie." Gallant said, remembering what happened afterwards.

"She was talking to her agent when we saw her." Nori said.

"I don't know who's behind this or what's going on, but the first thing we need to do is find those Marvelous." Chi said, pounding her right fist onto her left palm in determination.

"I agree." Iris said. "The Marvelous were here earlier, and if the one responsible is someone working on the set then they must still be around her somewhere."

"Why don't Gallant Steed, Hiro, Chrysalis, and I follow Camellia and see if we can find anything out?" Akari suggested.

"I'm telling you, she didn't do it!" Chi said in protest, poking a finger at Akari's chest. She gently lowered her hand.

"I'm not accusing her, but maybe whoever is doing this is trying to make sure that Camellia's contract with the movie expires so that the movie won't get made. It's a theory but it's what we have so far."

"Then what are we waiting for, let's get going!" Hiro said as he, Akari, Gallant and Chrysalis walked out of the set in the same direction they saw Camellia left earlier.

"In the meantime, we should look for the Marvelous." Iris said.

"Where do we even start?" Mai asked, "It's not like there's some mysterious, cloaked figure we can chase after and say, "Hey, tell us where you're keeping the Marvelous!"

"You mean like that one?" Nori pointed towards said mysterious cloaked figure, tiptoeing onto set, away from the teen's sight. The figure's entire face was covered by a black hood, tied together with a golden colored rope, adorned with a matching diamond shaped pendant.

"Well, that was freakishly convenient." Mai said, rather dumbfounded at the fact that her incredibly detailed description of the thief just magically came true. She was only kidding before, she didn't legitimately assume there was a literal cloaked figure causing mischief.

"Hey! Stop right there!" Chi exclaimed, causing the figure to high tail it out of there. Using her super speed, Chi zoomed past her friends, leaving their hair an unkept mess, and chased after the cloaked figure across the set. Chi folioed her into at least three different rooms and movie sets, even outside where Camellia's trailer was. One minute she had her in her sights, and the next she made a turn in another direction, even Chi herself found it hard to keep up.

She stopped at one last set, but this time there was no cloaked figure in sight. Iris, Mai and Nori finally managed to keep up with their friend, all four of them panting from running all around the movie studio.

Chi growled in frustration. "I can't believe I lost them! I guess being awesomely fast doesn't help when the person you're chasing knows their way around better than you do."

Coincidentally, Akari, Gallant, Hiro and Chrysalis appeared from behind a wooden set piece.

"Hey, guys." Akari greeted them.

"Any luck finding Camellia?" Mai asked.

We couldn't find her."

"But we did find that cupcake fountain!" Hiro said, pulling out said cupcake and taking a huge bite out of it, his face now smudged in blue frosting.

"Then we got lost and somehow ended up here." Chrysalis said, "What have you guys been doing?"

"We spotted this super-suspicious cloaked figure, but they got away." Chi sighed, folding her arms and gritting her teeth, still furious that she couldn't catch the culprit and save the film production. "They're here somewhere."

"There you are!" A man wearing a headpiece suddenly appeared from behind them, " W-Where are your costumes? We've got to hurry! I-I-I'm so gonna be fired if you aren't ready. The director wants to shoot in three minutes!"

Without warning, the man gathered the kids to a room where they were immediately changed into costumes and were pushed onto the set of what appeared to be the interior some kind of futuristic space ship with a silver to white colored structure and neon blue lights adorning the side of a faux window with an image of a black void with millions of stars.

Iris was dressed in a blue, white, pink and gold colored dress, complete with fake pointed ears, which she quickly removed due to how annoying uncomfortable they were, while Akari, Nori, Hiro, Gallant and Mai were all dressed in matching black jumpsuits under white colored futuristic armor, each one with a helmet and a V symbol on their chests, and blue neon lights on the side of the boots and high collars.

The only things that distinguished them were that each armor had different colored outlines on their chests, helmets and shoulder pads. Akari's outlines were black, Nori's were pink, Hiro's were blue, Mai's were green, Chi's was red and Gallant's were yellow.

Chrysalis, on the other hand, wore what appeared to be a very dreary looking long purple cloak and dress with yellow outlines. It looked more like the kind of thing a mysterious villain would wear.

The kids saw the cameras pointed at them. "Uh, I think there's been some kind of mistake." Mai said, removing the helmet from her head and snatching the country hat the costume designer had taken from her hand.

"Wait, wait. Who are these kids?" The Director asked his P.A.

"They're the Paladins!" he said, droplets of sweat streaming down his brows.

"Look again." the Director said, narrowing his eyes. The P.A. looked at the kids again, this time taking full notice of the wings behind the oldest girl's back. He lowered his head, his poster hunched.

"I'm fired, aren't I?"

"So fired." the Director rubbed his temples, "I'm sorry, you're highness!"

"No problem!" said back.

Chrysalis piled up the helm of her sinister looking cloak, cringing at the sight. She spent hundreds of years in a hive that was devoid of any beauty and happiness, the last thing she needed was to be seen in something equally as depressing.

Chrysalis's eyes caught something on her left side and spotted the cloaked figure leaving the set. "Hey! There she is!"

The kids removed their helmets and Chrysalis removed at least the hood of her villainess costume, leaving behind only the long purple, ragged dress and they chased after the cloaked figure into various movie sets.

They chased her across a nighttime alleyway with a bat-themed car, a set that looked like a medieval kingdom with a sun symbol on one of the flags and a stuffed chameleon on one of the fake fountains. They chased her into a dungeon set, an enchanted forest set with multicolored trees, even the old set from where they once field the Nuktuk films. Hiro screeched to a halt once he saw the set, taking a quick selfie with his geo-phone before getting dragged away by his sister.

They bursted through the door, all simultaneously out of breath. Not even Chi's own supper speed could catch up with the culprit, which astonished even herself. Apparently, knowing her way around the studio was a great advantage she had on the team.

While the whole time they were running, Akari couldn't help but notice how well the cloaked figure manage to seamlessly make her way through every set without question. She didn't get lost, not even once.

Mai leaned against a fake tree, noticing the jungle theme of the set. "Uh, what's this place supposed to be?"

"Hey, this is the set for the upcoming Daring Do Spin-off movie for next year!" Gallant Steed said, marveling at the jungle atmosphere. "The one where her daughter, Bold Wing, goes on a quest to find her missing mother after she disappears for twelve years, while uncovering an ancient secret involving the mystical tomb of the Monkey King!" he explained the plot of the film, all the while geeking out over it. Akari couldn't help but smile at how cute he was when he got excited.

"I know what your thinking, "Next Generation" stories from a long running series tend to carry a lot of expectations given its legacy and can be very hit and miss, but if done right, they can actually open up new doors for world building and--"

"As fun as that sounds, Gallant, now's not the time to be geeking over Daring Do's sequel!" Chi said, reminding him of their mission. "We're supposed to be hunting down the missing Marvelous and catching the bad guy!"

"We're trying." Iris said, "Maybe we should make our way back to the Lady-Mare set. There might have been some clues we missed."

Just as they were about to make their leave, the leafs beneath their feet began to shake and rise up. A net hidden beneath the leafs sprung upwards and trapped the group in its next, save for Chi, who was pushed back by Chrysalis in time. Chi saw the cloaked figure making her leave.

"Don't worry! I've got this!" she said, speeding her way to catch the culprit. Using her magic, Iris managed to easily release them from their bindings and hurried after their friend.


(~)


Chi followed the figure inside another room. "I saw you come in here. Where are you?" she said, trying to see if she could spot that cloaked figure from before. She felt a gust of wind and saw the same figure make her way into a closet. Chi followed her inside, seeing it was a prop closet, filled with an assortment of items for all kinds of films. The room was minimal lighting, save for a single lantern on the veiling. Chi saw a locker in the far side of the room and saw some sparkly red and black fabric inside.

Opening it, she saw a lovely red and black party dress with a lady bug theme. "Hey! This is just like the outfit Mareinette wears in the nightclub scene. What's it doing in here?" she also noticed something else in the corner of her eye. A piece of black fabric attacked to the side of a prop spear.

Chi picked it out, feeling like she had seen it from somewhere before. She heard a creek from the doors and saw the hooded figure close the door behind Chi before she could make her way out. The wisp slammed face first into the door, her face becoming, literally, flat like a pancake, before she blew on her thumb and it inflated back to its normal proportion.

Chi tried to open the door, but quickly found that the knob was stuck. From outside, the cloaked figure moved her arms in swift motions, commanding the water from nearby water bottles to transform into ice, which trapped the wisp inside the closet by freezing the doors from top to bottom with lares, upon thick lares of ice. It would take a while for the ice to melt. A while was all the time she needed. the cloaked figure smiled underneath her hood before making her leave.

Chi kept on trying to break out, using her supper speed to break the door down, but whatever she tried she kept only getting boomeranged back into the room, zipping up and down and all around like a pinpong ball before landing on a pile of stuffed animals and a boa now on her head. Her eyes rolled around in their sockets and she hit her own head, getting them back in place.

She turned herself into a key to try and unlock herself, but sadly it didn't work. She peeked through the keyhole and saw nothing but ice. "Oh, great! Not only is she a thief, she's a waterbender too. Fantastic! Well, no ice is gonna hold me in!"

Chi changed herself into a sledgehammer, continuously hitting the door repeatedly. Specks of ice managed to fall off, but the solidity was too intense, even for the wisp. Her banging slowed down, mainly due to Chi feeling a terrible migraine coming on.

Star spiraled around her head and she fell on her back. "Oh, right… now I know why I never do that." she said disoriented, pointing her finger upwards. She got herself back up, dusting her costume. Knowing there was not other way out, she resulted to desert measures.

"Hello? Anybody out there?" she called out, banging hard against the door with her fists. "I said, HELOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Wisp trapped inside here!!" when no one responded to her cries, Chi leaned against a pile of boxes before snapping her fingers. "No problem! I'll just call my friends and let them know—" she then groaned impatiently, "Except I can't because security took all our phones when we got here." Chi sighed. "Well, back to business." she said, once again hitting the door.

"Help! I'm trapped in here! Can anybody hear me?! Somebody! Help!"

"Chi? Is that you?" A voice came from outside and the wisp gasped.

"Neon Streak?"

"Yeah. Stand back!"

Chi complied and before long she heard the sound of ice chattering into a million shards. The door jiggled and Neon Streak, along with Camellia, opened the door. The wisp jumped out, hugging them both. Neon had used a sledgehammer to break the ice apart to free their friend.

"Boy, am I happy to see you!"

"How did you get stuck in there?" Camellia asked with concern, petting her wisp's head.

"My friends and I were chasing after the person who stole the Marvelous gemstones and he tricked me into getting stuck in that closet. I also found this." she revealed to Camellia the sparkly outfit she had found.

"That's the outfit I was supposed to wear for the nightclub scene." Camellia said, taking the dress in her hands.

"Yeah. But, how did you guys find me?"

"After I had a talk with my agent, Varrick couldn't find you kids, and with everything going on he thought of the worst and believed you went missing."

"To calm him down we volunteered to look for you while the crew members worked on rebuilding the damaged set."

"Did you see the person who locked you in?" Camellia asked.

Chi sighed, shaking her head. "No, and there's still no sign of the Marvelous." she sighed sadly. "I guess Lady-Mare and Stal-Noir were never really meant to be on the big screen after all."

"I wouldn't say that." Camellia said, smiling warmly while removing strands of Chi's bangs from her face. "I admit, I wasn't being complete honest with you kids before. You see, aside from this movie, my agent got me a deal with this other project, but honestly, when they approached me I thought they wanted to do a documentary about my organization for protecting endangered sea life." Camellia narrowed her eyes in anger, "But, as it turns out, their description was very misleading and it was just a documentary about various nests around the world. I tried to get out of it, but I had to deal with a bunch of complex nonsense that only now I managed to resolve."

"So, does that mean?"

"I can extend my contract and finish filming the movie. I didn't tell you kids because I didn't want you to worry. Neon and I want to make this movie happen just as much as our fans do. I'm sorry I kept that from you guys."

Chi only smiled in relief. "It's okay. I understand."

"But, even with her extended contract, if we don't solve this whole issue the movie will miss it's deadline and we'll never be able to finish it either way."

"Wait!" Chi pulled out the piece of fabric from her pocket. The memory of the fabric finally clicked in her mind. "Guys, I think I know someone who can solve this whole mystery."


(~)


The kids managed to exit from the jungle set and into what appeared to be some kind of factory film set. Nori groaned impatiently. "Great! Now we lost her. Again."

"She really knows her way around this place, doesn't she?" Akari asked in a skeptical tone.

Iris turned a corner, with the others in tow, only to collide with another human being. The princess heard an annoyed growl from the stranger, only to see who it was.

"Juniper?"

"Oh, hey, Iris."

"What are you doing here?"

"I was looking around to see if I could find the Marvelous. So far, no luck."

"Oh, Starfish, your jacket got ripped." Nori said, pointing at the torn up piece on Juniper's jacket. The younger human girl flinched at the sight.

"Oh! Must have happened with one of the prods from that Gladiator movie set." she said, trying to casually cover it with her hand. Iris noticed how jumpy she was, she subtly arched an eyebrow. "Well, I'm gonna try and see if I can find anything else. I'll see you back on set." Juniper waved goodbye and sped walk out of the scene. She sure looked to be in quite the hurry.

"Guys!"

The rest of the team turned around to see their wisp friend, accompanied by Camellia and Neon.

"Chi!" they all rushed to embrace their friend, despite the bulky costumed armor they were still wearing.

"We were so worried! Where were you?" Hiro asked.

"I was tricked by that cloaked figure and was locked in a closet. I managed to get out thanks to my new friends." Chi then pulled something from her pocket, handing it to Iris. "And, I found this. It was stuck on one of those prop spears in the closet. Also, it turns out the cloaked figure is a waterbender."

"Yeah. She locked Chi in that supply closet with ice so thick it was almost like a glacier." Neon said.

"That thick, huh?" Iris asked, studying the fabric in her hand. Both she and Akari stroked their chins in thought, putting the pieces together. Both nodded in agreement.

"I think we've got a pretty good idea who our thief is." Iris said, "But we're gonna need Varrick's help to catch her."


(~)


After getting out of those costumes, they got Varrick, Zhu Li, Camellia, Neon and Juniper together back at the scene of the crime, where the Marvelous stones were stolen. Varrick held the missing costume outfit in his hands.

"You found this in a supply closet?" Varrick asked, still surprised the costume was stored away in there.

"We didn't find the Marvelous." Iris said, "But we don't think the thief has had a chance to take them off the lot yet. We wanted your permission to search the city block set from top to bottom. Maybe we'll find a clue that would lead us to where they're hidden."

Varrick nodded in agreement. "Of course." he said before turning to the two actors, while Zhu Li looked over her clip notes. "Camellia, Neon, I need you guys to get into hair and makeup. As soon as we get the Marvelous, we're gonna start shooting again."

"You got it." Camellia nodded and she and Neon went to get into their costumed and makeup.

"Juniper, can you do a smoothie run?" Zhu Li asked her niece, "I'm sure all this sleuthing is gonna make everyone thirsty."

Juniper gave a happy salute before dashing off, "Absolutely!"


(~)


The cloaked figure returned, silently running towards a crate behind the city block set, only a few steps away. Far enough so nobody could find them, but not far enough to keep them hidden for long. She pushed back the faux hay inside, finding a leather box. Opening it revealed the five of the Marvelous gemstones. At the same time, her hood slid off, revealing her face and long hair.

"Those really don't go with your outfit, sweetie."

The culprit spun around, seeing Nori smugly folding her arms and the rest of the Elements of Harmony all surrounding her. She clenched the box close to her chest.

"Look! I found the missing Marvelous!" she said coyly, but she wasn't fooling anyone.

"Because you're the one who stole them… Juniper!" Akari said, pointing an accusing finger at the thief. Chi forcibly took the box away from her.

Varrick and Zhu Li saw the whole thing, both looking devastated and confused. "No, she… she wouldn't." Zhu Li said, unwilling to believe her own sweet niece would do such a thing.

"She would. And she did." Iris said, walking towards Juniper, who hung her head in shame. Shame of getting caught that is. "What she didn't expect was for Chi to come and retrieve the Marvelous before she was able to sneak them off to a safer hiding place. So she was forced to hide them in the first place she could find. But she knew she couldn't leave them there, so the first chance she got, she tried to sneak them away. Unfortunately for her, we spotted her!"

Akari explained the second half next, having noticed this while they were chasing after her. "But since Juniper knows "every inch of this place like the back of her hand", she was able to trap us and lose Chi."

"For a while." Iris continued. "When Chi managed to figure out where she'd run off to, she locked her in a closet using her waterbending. Her ice had to be incredibly thick to keep that door locked up tight that even Chi couldn't break out. Juniper might not be a fighter, but she's the only waterbender I know who can create ice that thick."

"And if that wasn't the clincher, Chi found this attached to one of the spears." Iris pulled out the torn up piece of fabric "Not long after we saw the same torn on your sweater."

"With Chi locked up, it gave her the time she needed to hide the Marvelous here." Akari finished. Of course, we knew Juniper would never admit she was the one who had taken the relics."

"Unless, of course, she was caught in the act of trying to move them again." Iris said, turning to Varrick, "Which is why I told you to send her on that smoothie run. So she'd think she had the opportunity to get the relics off the lot where we'd never find them."

Chrysalis blinked, "Wow. You guys are good."

Akari shrugged, "Well, our fathers are in the detective business after all."

"But instead of searching the city block set, you all were secretly following me here." Juniper said, looking down in regret.

Zhu Li felt as if her own heart had been split in two. "Oh, Junie, why would you do this?"

"I'm sorry! Okay? I'm sorry. I just can't stand Camellia!" Juniper exclaimed in anger. Any trace of the once sweet and friendly girl was now completely gone, replaced by a spiteful young girl.

"Wow. What did you do to tick her off?" Hiro asked Camellia, who only looked at the young girl in confusion.

"Nothing. Juniper, whatever I did, I'm sorry."

"It's not what you did, it's just you're so pretty and talented, and you're always eating  all the peanut butter praline crunch bars, which are the only candy bars I like." Juniper complained. From behind her, Hiro silently pulled out another said candy bar and started bitting into it. Gallant lowered it from his mouth, shaking his head. Now was really not the time for a snack.

"That's hardly a reason to go—" Varrcik was cut off when Juniper suddenly pointed at him, finally snapping.

"And I was mad at you for casting her as Lady-Mare! I mean, I have told you over and over again how it was my dream to play Lady-Mare and you just ignored me!"

Zhu Li stepped forward, trying to reason with her only niece. "Juniper, I know you're talented, but we've talked about this. You're too young, you have no profecional experience, you don't do much of your own stunts, and the role is supposed to be meant for a pony!"

"Not to mention, you're a little emotionally unstable." Varrick voiced out.

"That too." his wife agreed. Needless to say, Varrick wasn't the only one who's family was a bit… special, in a way.

"I know! But I thought if enough things went wrong, Camellia would maybe back out of the movie and then... you would give me a chance." Juniper held her hands close, smiling sweetly, hoping they'd go easy on her.

While it wasn't always common whenever Zhu Li would lose her temper and snap at someone, but when it did happen, the person on the other end of that conversation knew they were in a whole heap of trouble. Without question. Juniper reeled back as her aunt towered over her, who's voice rose, so much so nearly everyone in the entire studio heard her.

"Not only did you jeopardize the production, endanger the safety of the actors and the film crew, but you also lied to me and Varrick and took advantage of our trust!" Zhu Li placed her hand over her heart at the last part, looking visibly heartbroken.

Varrick huffed, having his arms folded the entire time his wife was yelling. "Yeah! Years ago I probably would have been impressed by a stunt like this, but I'm not that man anymore, so I'm far from impressed! We are very disappointed in you, Junie! People could have gotten seriously hurt!"

Juniper gripped her arm, "I know. A-And I'm sorry. I--I really never meant to hurt anyone, and I was going to return all the props, just as soon as Camellia quit. I hope you can forgive me."

Varrick and Zhu Li looked at one another, their expressions softening. Zhu Li sighed and cupped the young girl's face. "You're my niece, Juniper, so, of course, I can forgive you."

"Me too." Varrick said, placing his hand on her shoulder. It was a sweet family moment… only to be broken when Varrick rose his voice, making Juniper flinch. "But I never got off that easily, and neither are you!" he said, taking Juniper by her shoulders while Zhu Li snapped her fingers and security arrived, taking the child. "I'm sorry to say you're no longer welcome on the set, and it'll be a long time before I consider allowing you back here!"

Zhu Li extended her hand to Juniper. "Keys!" she demanded. Juniper complied and handed her the keys to the set she had been given. As the security guard led Juniper out, she turned her head to look back at the Guardians of Harmony.

Chrysalis, more than all of them, knew what the look in her eyes signified. That was the look of vengeance. As Juniper left the studio, Chrysalis had a hunch they wouldn't be seeing the last of her.

Varrick sighed and turned to the two actors. "Camellia, I know this is probably too much to ask and I know your contract with us is--"

"Actually, Varrick, there's some good news about that."

"There is?" Varrick asked, his spirits already feeling lifted.

"I finally resolved that whole issue with my agent so, I can stay and finish filming Lady-Mare and Stal-Noir. No need to worry about any scheduling conflict anymore."

Varrick, quite literally, leaped into he air and started shaking Camellia's hand very enthusiastically. "That's great to hear! We'll get started on the next scene right away! Oh, the movie is saved!"

"And it's thanks to the Guardians of Harmony." Neon said, motioning proudly to the kids. The girls blushed bashfully, while Chi only stood proud and satisfied. "First you save the world, now the Lady-Mare movie. Y'all are certainly on a roll."

"Especially you, Chi." Camellia said. "You never once gave up on the movie, or on us. You're a true friend, just like Lady-Mare."

Chi's entire body started to glow pink, looking bashful. "Thanks, Camellia. That means a lot coming from you."

Camellia them pulled out her bracelet and handed it to Chi. "It's a gift. A sign of our new friendship."

Chi gasped and hugged the actress. "Best! Day! Ever!"

"Only now, who's gonna get us coffee?" Varrick asked. He then noticed a very sad looking man walking by. It was the P.A who got fired from earlier. "You!"

The man looked around then pointed at himself. "Me?"

"How would you like a job?"

The P.A man smiled, "Would I!"

"Yes, that's why I'm asking. Would you?"

"You bet I do!"

"Great! Go get me an expresso with extra foam and a decaf late for my wife here. Oh, and get us those cinnamon buns while you're at it."

"Sir, yes sir!" The now new coffee guy said eagerly and zipped away to retrieve what Varrick had requested. Hey, a job is still a job.

"Well, enough chit chat, let's get to filming!"

"Uh, honey." Zhu Li just received one of the props from the prop department guy and showed Varrick the broken yo-yo. After the set had collapsed.

Varrick gasped in horror, taking the broken yo-yo into his hand and got down on his knees. "NO!! Not the Marvelous Lady-Mare Yo-Yo! This was one of a kind with imported Saddle Arabian silk worm made string!"

"Why do you buy everything from Saddle Arabia now?" Akari asked.

"Have you felt their silk laced pillows? It's like sleeping on a cotton candy cloud that smells like cinnamon buns!" Varrick said, pleasantly thinking about said pillows before getting back to the situation at hand. "How are we going to do the action scenes now?!"

Chi gently tapped him on the shoulder. "Actually, I think I know a way we can fix it."

"You do?"

"Yep. Also, if it's alright, I don't supposed you've got any extra parts my friends and I could play? You know, heh, as a reward for saving the day?"

The wisp, and literally the rest of the kids all gave Varrick the big puppy eyes, while grinning ear to ear. Varrick made a camera with his hands and smiled, stroking his chin.

"I think we could figure something out."


(~)


Mareinette ran across the street corner, nearly bumping into two more ponies, who were played by Nori and Akari, with her covering her wings with a long jacket. Mareinette hurried into the hotel, bypassing a human and unicorn having a conversation. They were both played by Gallant and Hiro, who noticed the hurried pegasus anthro rush into the restroom. Gallant then pointed towards the window, where they saw Lady-Mare leaping from rooftop to rooftop, using her wings as a momentum.

Not too far behind, Adrien too was on his way to find a quiet place where he could transform. He bypassed a street dance performer, played by Iris, and her adorable little pup who danced along with her. The pup was actually Chrysalis, taking on the form of a puppy.

Adrien nearly bumped into a girl, played by Mai, carrying a few books from the nearby library. One fell from her tall pile and he kindly handed it back to her. She smiled in gratitude. After his transformation, Stal-Noir joined his partner in crime, Lady-Mare, winking flirtatiously, to which she rolled her eyes at.

In reality, Camellia found it charming, and knew that while it was part of Neon's character, she knew part of it was mainly true. She knew him so well, almost as well as they knew the characters they were playing.

They both landed on the same roof, only to see none other than Hawk Moth standing before them. "End of the line, heroes. You will give me the Marvelous gemstones!"

"Not on your life, Hawk Moth!" Lady-Mare exclaimed, fearlessly taking on a defensive stance, ready to fight him while Stal-Noir spoon his staff.

"Have it your way!" Hawk Moth laughed maniacally, and the clouds above them began to darken. An army of black butterflies, with purple glowing outlines on their wings, swarmed all over the city of Prance. Their very presence effect the weather as well, creating thunder and lightening in their wake. One by one, the butterflies zoomed downwards, infecting every citizen they encountered. Their eye glowed purple, their postured sluggard and they let out mindless moans from their mouths, continuously changing.

"Hawk Moth… Hawk Moth… Hawk Moth…."

Stal-Noir's eyes widened and taped his partner's shoulder. "His staff! He has the other Marvelous in his staff!" he shouted, pointing his clawed gloved hand towards the staff, where the other Marvelous gemstones circled inside the glowing orb, which manifests the glow of the Butterfly Marvelous on his collar.

"How will you be able to stop me? Without your precious yo-yo?" Hawk Moth taunted, showcasing the now broken yo-yo in his hand.

Lady-Mare, on the other hand, only smirked. She flashed a loving glance at Stal-Noir, a silent way of saying 'thank you' and pulled out a second version of her yo-yo, this one with a blue glowing string.

Hawk Moth's eyes widened. "No! How is that possible?!"

"You're not the only one with a trick up your sleeve. Time to end this!" she said, twirling her yo-yo, the blue string creating magical crystals as it spun and she flung it at Hawk Moth, wrapping it around his staff and yanking it away from him, all the while a voice cried out excitedly, seemingly out of nowhere.

"Best! Day! EVER!!"

"Cut!" Varrick cried out, leaving Hawk Mouth to pout in annoyance while the director shook his head, leaning against his chair. "Again?!"

The yo-yo Camellia used started to glow, revealing it to have been Chi the entire time, now holding onto the pro staff in her hand. All of her friends, including Chrysalis who changed back to her true form, narrowed their eyes at their wisp friend, who blushed pink in bashfulness.

"Uh, sorry." she said. Camellia and Neon could only chuckle.


(~)


After shooting that day, the entire staff gathered together for a little get together in the studio, complete with more food that Hiro could get his hands on, and stuffing a few of the sweet cinnamon rolls into his jacket, earning him a disapproving look from his sister and cousin.

"What? They want you to take the rolls!"

Chi floated over to Camellia and Neon, handing them a few more cupcakes. "Thanks for letting us stay a while longer, you guys. Especially after I kind of ruined the shot…. twice."

Neon casually flicked his wrist. "Eh, don't sweat it." Camellia then whispered something into his ear. "Really?" he asked. She nodded.

Chi cocked her head curiously, while the rest of her friends rallied behind her. "What's going on?"

"We have another confession to make." Camellia said, "And, we promise, this will be the last one."

"We just like keeping our private lives, well, private." Neon said. "The life of a celebrity can be very daunting at times."

"What is it?" Chi asked.

"Camellia haven't really been dating for a year…. it's actually been five."

The kids all dropped their jaws. "What!?"

"And, about a month ago…" Camellia pulled out her hand… revealing an adorable ladybug themed ring on her finger. "He proposed."

Chi was literally trembling, though she wasn't the only one. Chi, Iris, Mai, Nori, Chrysalis and Akari all squealed with delight, while the boys had to cover up their ears to try in futile to block out their high pitched screamed.

"We decided to tell you because, as a thank you for not giving up on the movie, we want you kids to be there at the wedding." Camellia said, "I could use some more brides maids."

"And best men." Neon said, pointing to Hiro and Gallant, who nodded in agreement.

Chi's body started to tremble again, and glow… really brightly.

"Oh, no. Wisp in the hole!" Hiro shouted, and everyone, including Varrick, Zhu Li, everyone working on the set, ducked in cover. Iris and Akari had to drag Camellia and Neon out of the way and the wisp spontaneously combusted into nothing but sparkly confetti.

"Still worth it!" her voice came from the confetti, which landed like gentle flakes of snow onto the floor. Camellia and Neon were concerned at first, but given the reactions from Chi's friends, it was evident that this was a natural occurrence.

Mai sighed and dragged herself towards the supply closet. "I'll go get the broom."


*(~)*

Ephesians 6:10-18~

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.

*(~)* 

> Mirror Magic
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


*(~)*

Romans 8:28-29~ 

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

*(~)*

Mirror Magic



Chrysalis happily stretched her limbs once she exited the door of hers and Kuvira's apartment. The sun was bright and the sky was clear as the sparkly ocean out in the horizon. Kuvira called out the young changeling's name, handing her bag. She thanked her care taker/roommate with a hug and flew off to meet her friends.

Friends. The word was still so new and strange to her, yet as the days went by, it slowly started to grow on her. For the first time in thousands of years, Chrysalis the changeling was finally free. She could start all over with a new life and a new family. The idea of moving away from what she used to be filled her up with such joy her sparkly transparent wings flapped faster and faster, seeing Harmony Park just up ahead.

Once she planted her feet firmly on the ground, she noticed a sudden change in the air. Normally, on a bright sunny day, the rustle and fast paste of the city would create unintentional, yet upbeat music in the air, morphing effortlessly with the sounds of singing birds, quaking turtle ducks splashing in the lake, giggling children and rustling leafs from the beautiful trees that appeared to dance against the soft breeze, sprinkling with faint traces the salty sea water from the bay.

But today, it felt as if the entire world had gone silent, save for the sound of disapproving murmurs coming from the people and ponies at the park. All eyes were on Chrysalis, either with looks of fear, confusion, hesitation or even, as much as she hated to even admit it… anger.

Hatred. Disgust. Resentment.

She caught faint words like "What's she doing here?", "What is with that outfit?", "Who does she think she's fooling?". Chrysalis spotted a young girl playing with her dolls. She waved and smiled, but the child's mother swooped in and shielded her from Chrysalis, narrowing her eyes in a threatening manner. Chrysalis recoiled as if the women were a viper and stepped back. She wasn't trying to harm the child, she was just saying hello.

She sighed in relief when she saw her friends gathered neat the statue of Avatar Korra. "Hey, guys!" Chrysalis called out, waving her arm excitedly as she sprung towards them. Their backs still facing her, as if they hadn't heard her calling.

"Why is with everybody today? Did something happen?" Chrysalis' question fell on deff ears. None of her friends turned to speak with her. "Uh, guys?" she gently tapped Iris's shoulder. The Avatar spun around, her eyes soulless.

"Oh, Chrysalis. What are you doing here?"

"I… you invited me." Chrysalis said, her ears lowering and taking a fearful step back when Iris stared at her with those emotionless eyes. The same eyes shared by the rest of the Guardians of Harmony. Their cold gazes made the changeling feel small and insignificant, more so than she normally did.

"Right. About that, I can't stay." Iris said. Even her voice was cold.

"Me neither." Akari said, her voice matching the same tone as her friend. "We've got some important princess stuff to take care of."

"Oh, O-okay then." Chrysalis stuttered, trying not to sound disappointed, which she was. "But, you'll be back for the premier tonight, right?"

"You're not going, are you?" Nori asked, folding her arms and arching an eyebrow while her ears pressed back against her head. A common pony gesture that signified anger or annoyance. In Nori's case, it was definitely annoyance.

"Why wouldn't I?" Chrysalis asked, seeing everyone's cold gazes sharpen as they gained up on her. Chrysalis felt like a helpless rabbit being caught between a rock and a pack of hungry wolves. "Why are you all looking at me like that? Did I do something wrong?"

Mai, of all people, was the first one to burst out laughing historically, tilting her head back, her mouth wide like a psychopath with the eyes and tone to match. "What kind of question is that? Can you believe her?" she said, optioning her thumb at the still terrified and confused changeling.

The rest of the team laughed maniacally alongside the Element of Honesty. The skies darkened and Chrysalis saw everybody else in the park laughing at her, all the while drawing in closer, entrapping her in a circle. She could have flown away but her fear weighted her down to the point flying didn't even strike her as a possible option right now.

"Only everything!" Gallant Steed exclaimed, pointing an accusing finger at Chrysalis. "Did you seriously believe we would be friends with a soul sucking changeling for this long? You're even more pathetic and we thought!"

"No! I'm not like that anymore!" Chrysalis cried out, tears already forming in her eyes. "Gallant! Nori! Mai, you know me!"

"Do we?" Hiro asked, narrowing his eyes. He was normally the upbeat one, but right now he was inspiring fear rather than joy. "You've fooled people before, who's to say you won't again?"

"No, I won't! I swear!" Chrysalis's voice trembled and cracked, getting down on her knees as the bodies of everyone began to morph together as one. Their eyes and maniacal smiled and laughter were the only things visible in the now darkened void that surrounded her.

The shapes then rose upwards, manifesting into the body of a sickly thin woman. The rows of laughter were now converged into only one. The laughter of a woman, echoing far and wide, ringing in Chrysalis's ears.

She looked down, only to see that the beautiful cloths Nori had given her were now replaced with nothing but the dark rags. Her body began to wither, her beautiful pale blue and pale light yellow skin turned gray before becoming pitch black. Her healthy full body became dangerously slim and holes began to form in her long hair, loosing its yellow green highlights. She felt her teeth suddenly become sharp and something grew from her forehead.

The world spun around until Chrysalis was face to face with a shimmering crystal rock, where staring right at her was the hideous monster of the once wicked and heartless Queen of the Changelings!

She looked just like her, old and starved, but rather than having a look of confidence and greed, Chrysalis could see the very evident fear in her own eyes. She shook her head.

"No… No!"

The voice echoed, revealing a shadow of Chrysalis's own silhouette then changing into a larger version of her old evil self, towering over her, her mouth wide open, ready to consume her once more.

"You can never get rid of me. You created me. Why fight it? Deep down you know how powerful you can be. How powerful WE can be! Just let me into your heart again, Chrysalis. We can gain everything we've ever wanted."

Chrysalis could feel the green energy sinking into every part of her body, gripping her soul, her mind, everything she needed in order to break free was now subdued. All she could hear was the sound of her evil self consign every fiber of her being all over again.

"NO! STOP!"

"CHRYSALIS!"

The changeling jerked awake, sweat dripping from her brows and panting. Her hair was sticky, and her hooves gripped her blanket. Like all equine creatures, whenever she was in Equestria, or asleep, Chrysalis automatically changed back into her normal four-legged self. She resembled any other changeling, except her eyes were different and she had hair, both of which were a result of her many years of using royal changeling magic. She no longer had that magic, but some elements from her centuries of using it still remained. Nori had done a wonderful job making her hair and tail look lovely, so she would feel happy looking at herself in the mirror, and for the most part, it worked.

Kuvira sat beside the frightened changeling on her own bed, just across the room from Kuvira's own bed. The far off light of the spirit portal let off a faint illuminating light that radiated off of the window, not too much to blind them but enough to give a serene glow. It especially helped that the portal's lighting seemed to naturally adjust to the atmosphere. At least it's the reason why no one else had complained about it for years, and the vines that wrapped around the lower half assisted in that was well.

Kuvira held the changeling close, rubbing her back to try and sooth her anxiety. "It's okay. It was just a dream."

"I've been having a lot of those lately." Chrysalis said, her breathing leveling. "Is that normal?"

Kuvira gently nodded her head, smiling empathetically. "They're be difficult to manage for a while, but I can say, from personal experience, they will get better. Just try not to push yourself too hard. Healing takes time."

Chrysalis managed to relax against Kuvira's upper torso, her hand tracking through her long mane. The metalbender began humming a soft tune, one which Suyin used to sing to her when she was young. Back when she was innocent and before her falling out with the woman she admired and respected for years.

She knew better than anyone what Chrysalis was going through, and she was more than happy to be there for her in her time of confusion and fear. Chrysalis, in her part, was grateful for that. Kuvira truly was the mother/older sister she never had, or knew she could have had in order to guide her down the right path back then.

She just had to remind herself she wasn't a monster. She wasn't the same changeling she was before. All the things she aimed so hard to achieve were not what she wanted anymore. She was a new creature, with a new dream, and a new life.

But even if it was a dream, that dark version of her was right. She did create that monstrous form. She was the one who ruined so many lives. Lives she could never get back. Kuvira empathized with this, sharing her own story about Asami's father, Hiroshi Sato.

Kuvira was living prof that things would get better for Chrysalis. But, unlike Chrysalis, Kuvira had already done so much to make up for the messes she had made to the point wherever she went people happily greeted her and she was welcomed into their homes with open arms.

What could Chrysalis do to really feel she had changed and will stay the way she is now rather than turn back?

And when that moment came… would she be up for the test?


(~)


As if the horribly colored uniform, exaggerated film-strip headband and the endless smell of salt in her hair wasn't humiliating and unbearable enough, she mall's speakers bursted with the song the Guardians of Harmony used to win the Dance to Prance competition alongside their friends from Golden Dragon Academy. What's worse, there was even a poster of them, in their music video get up, on one of the poles from which the music boomed out of.

Juniper growled, trying to block out the sound to no avail. Even long after the song was over, bystanders hummed and sang the lyrics, even some were commenting on how amazing the Guardians of Harmony were. Some of them were classmates who they either knew personally or just admired them. Some girls swooned over how cute Hiro Sato was, while a few female ponies commented on how adorable Gallant Steed was, only for one to remind her that he was in a 'sort-of' relationship with Princess Akari.

Similar admires for Princess Iris and even Mai Sato spoke amongst themselves, all agreeing that the two cousins were undeniable beauties like their mothers, and a few girls envied Nori's creative style, even saying who grateful they were for the merpony who introduced them to Rarity's boutique and couldn't wait to try on their new commissioned outfits.

Adults spoke about how they saved the world from Queen Chrysalis and a few kids even said they hoped to be like them when they grew up.

If Juniper didn't know any better, she would have assumed there was some kind of Guardians of Harmony convention she didn't know of, or the day was so slow there was literally nothing else to speak about.

"Ugh! Ahh!" Juniper yelled, "First, they get me kicked off the Lady-Mare and Stal-Noir film set. Now..." she crashed backwards into a cardboard cutout of Lady-Mare and Stal-Noir, a promotion for the movie. In the right end corner, she saw images of the team themselves, all posing as every day people, but Juniper recognized them in an instant. The movie's grand premier was happening that very same night, so it was probably one of the reasons why the Guardians were such a hot topic today. The music playing every other hour wasn't helping either.

"They're everywhere!" Juniper exclaimed, tugging angrily at her long pigtails, "No doubt they'll be at the premiere tonight. I bet I'll be the lucky one ushering them to their seats. Ugh!" she angrily slapped at the cardboard. It tilted to the side before getting back into place. In a fit of rage, Juniper just outright kicked the cardboard down with her foot, ignoring the bypassing shoppers giving her confused looks.

The walkie talker in her apron's pocket went off and her boss's voice was heard through the static. "Juniper, where are you? We need you back at the popcorn popper stat."

Juniper mocked his words with her mouth, simultaneously making a talking mouth with her hand. Times like this she was glad he couldn't see her. She blew through her gritted teeth, making a radio static sound into the walkie talkier.

"What was that--gshshs--boss? Can't hear you!--gshsh--  Losing you!"

She shut off the walkie talkie and put it back into her pocket, ignoring her responsibilities. She walked over towards a small booth that sold sunglasses. She sighed as she looked at the options.

"If those so called Guardians hadn't shown up, I would have played Lady-Mare! Tonight would have been about me. I would have been a star!" Juniper put on a pair of sparkly, red star shaped sunglasses. The clerk at the cash register, who was listening to music, only shook his head.

Juniper studied the glasses herself and placed them back. "You're right. They are a bit much." seeing as there wasn't too many options that caught her interest, Juniper kept on walking, only to stop when she heard the sound of an old anthro male earth pony struggling with a box he was carryon out of his antique store.

Juniper looked in disinterest at the small shop. It was filled with all sorts of ancient, useless junk like old china sets, candle holders, hats, novelty skulls-- or at least she hopped they were of the novelty kind-- plain, boring looking jewelry with gaudy stones that looked more like rocks that had been painted on. What was the point of jewelry if they couldn't use actual gemstones. Even common, everyday one ones they find in a Ponyville mine were more appealing than those.

She even saw scrolls, vases, weird looking statues of various creatures like a lion-turtle, one resembling a dragon-bird, and one that looked like an odd combination of a pony and an eagle. She rolled her eyes at it, somebody probably took two pieces of two different statues and smashed them together.

"Careful!" the pony shouted at Juniper, who's hand hovered over a small clothed table display with various antique objects, like spins, quills, books and a mirror, all haphazardly placed near several boxes.

"These items will be shipped to Canterlot." said the pony, while a delivery pony arrived just in time with an empty trolley and packed the now boxed items onto it. "Some of them are very dangerous." He warned.

Juniper scoffed. "What could be so dangerous about this stuff?"

"Oh, believe me, not everything is at is seems. If you value your life, and those you love, don't touch anything! In fact, just leave the premises now, the shop is closed for revelations anyway!" he said, swatting her away and got back into his store to pack more materials into them. At least the ones he needed to get rid of. "I learned my lesson with the Alicorn Amulet, I'm not making that mistake again!" he muttered to himself, but Juniper didn't catch it.

Never the less, Juniper's eyes was drawn to at least one item on the table that had yet to be packed.

The crystal-styled hand mirror with a pink circle around the reflective glass and amethyst stones engraved onto its edges shimmered in the sunlight that came down from the skylight above. While the delivery guy was busy, and the shopkeeper inside, Juniper grabbed the mirror, if to just marvel at its stunning design.

Now this was the kind of beautiful she was talking about. Compared to everything else she saw, this mirror looked like it belonged in a jewelry shop, or Rarity's boutique. Anywhere but here.

The mirror's surface rippled like water and white sparkles danced around it to reveal Juniper's reflection. Only, rather than see the scrawny, butter covered face of herself, Juniper saw a stunning, slightly older, more mesmerizing version of herself. Her hair was styled elegantly, long and curled, lips as pink as a peach and bright as a diamond. Her eyes slender and alluring that any boy who looked at her would immediately fall under her spell. She also caught a glimpse of a dress, black, purple and green sparkly, elegant, and yet sassy all at once.

She was a vision of what Juniper had always wanted to see. She only flinched and dropped the mirror, letting out a terrified yelp when the reflection suddenly winked at her.

Juniper looked around her, relieved that nobody else heard her. "What was that?" she asked before tentatively picking the mirror back up again. For a moment, she saw her actual reflection, but the imaged quickly shifted to reveal the beautiful version of herself, blowing kisses and winking like a movie star.

Rather than get scared again, Juniper felt drawn in by the sight of herself in such a way. It was she was staring directly into her own dreams. This woman, this beauty was everything Juniper had hoped to become one day. Confident, stunning and adored by many. She saw the real her.

The shop keeper was right, these items were magic… and they would be shipped to Canterlot.

Well, they probably won't miss one little hand mirror, now would they? After all, why would such a beautiful treasure be cooped up in a stuffy museum anyway?

Besides, something told Juniper that this mirror would be totally worth it.


(~)


At Air Temple Island, Chrysalis watched from the stairs outside of the temple, watching Kuvira and Avatar Korra mount the last remaining bags into their private airship. She observed Akari and her mother Twilight levitated a few papers and scrolls onto a box filled with files, clipboards, pens and such, perfectly organized to the letter, no doubt. King Flash Sentry conversed with Korra about something that was muffled due to the distance between them and Chrysalis.

Kuvira walked on over to grab another bag, hoisting it over her shoulder. "How long are you going to be gone again?" Chrysalis asked, trying and failing to hide the disappointment in her tone.

"It'll only be for three days. As an Earth Federation representative to the United Republic, I was personally requested to attend the meeting between the Queens and the Governors of Ba Sing Sea and Omashu." Kuvira said sweetly, ruffling Chrysalis's hair. It had only been a few months, and yet the earthbender was already feeling a deep fondness towards the reformed teenage changeling. "I promise, I'll be back before you know it."

Chrysalis smiled, but she couldn't hide her sadness. For someone who spent years and years deceiving others to get what she wanted, Chrysalis was a surprisingly easy creature to read. Even when she tried to hide her emotions something in her eyes, body language or the way she would rub her arm, have her bangs cover part of her face or the way her ears would drop gave it away every single time. Then again, it was Chrysalis's emotions that helped kickstart her descent to madness. Her ambition and desire. She was a very passionate and ambitious changeling back then, but now the memory of who she used to be made her feel ashamed.

"You don't have to stay in the apartment if you don't want to." Kuvira said, gently cupping Chrysalis's cheek. "You can always stay at a friend's house. It won't be a problem."

The changeling nodded her head and Kuvira took her hand, helping her back up, leading her towards the airship for her to get a closer look. Another thing Kuvira noticed about Chrysalis was the way her green eyes sparkled when she saw modern technology at work. She really had been deprived of so much anything new was an adventure for her. Kuvira knew Chrysalis has a vivacious spirit just waiting to come out. She just needed to learn to move past the guilt in order to fully allow herself to shine.

"Okay, that's the last of em." Iris said, dusting her hands.

Akari handed her mother her bag. "Have fun on your boring political trip, Mom and Dad." she said with a disinterested tone.

"Don't get too casual about it, Akari." Twilight said. "You may be one of the new Elements of Harmony, but you're also a Princess of Friendship, their for, a future Queen of Friendship, which means it's you're responsibility to maintain balance and harmony amongst the three worlds and--Quit it!"

Akari flinched. The entire time Twilight was talking, Akari had been mimicking her mother's hand gestures and mouth movements while giving her grand speech. The young alicorn blushed and hung her head apologetically.

Flash only chuckled. "They'll have plenty of time to worry about that stuff later, honey." he patted Twilight on the back. "Let them enjoy their childhood while they still got it."

"You absolutely sure you guys won't be gone long?" Iris asked, almost anxiously. "I mean, what if there's some new threat or maybe one of the prisoners from Tartarus breaks loose?"

"If anything does happen, the city has you guys." Korra said proudly, placing her hand on her daughter's shoulder.

Iris only arched an eyebrow, giving her mother a pout. "You're seriously placing the fate of an entire city and all the lives in it on the hands of a bunch of teenagers?"

"It wouldn't be the first time." Mako pointed out.

If a thousand year old war was stopped by a twelve-year-old boy and his companions, the majority of which were in their early to mid teen years, an Avatar/Alicorn could reunite three worlds on the brink of destruction at only eighteen-years old, and a fourteen-year-old girl and her friends managed to defeat a power hungry changeling woman-monster, not to mention all the times Tenzin's own children no older than Korra and her friends could face their own enemies without breaking a sweat, there really was no reason as to why Mako and Korra wouldn't trust that Iris and her friends could handle any situation.

"Plus, it's not like you'll be left in charge of running the place." Mako said, "You've got Iroh, Tenzin, the Alicorns, the rest of the Mane Six. Whatever happens, you've more than enough family an friends backing you up."

"I know, I know. I just don't want to fall behind on my Avatar training is all." Iris said, shyly rubbing her arm.

Korra wrapped her arm around her child. "Iris, your Avatar lessons aren't going anywhere. Besides, there's a lot more to being an Avatar than knowing how to throw a rock at a tree."

"I know, Mom. It's what you always say."

Iris and her parents shared one more hug before parting ways. "You and your friends have a great time at the premier tonight, okay?"

"We will."

"And don't let Naga and Akhlut into the kitchen cabinets again!" Mako called out, "I don't want any another mountain of vomit on the rug!"

"You got it, Dad!" Iris called out.

Kuvira and Chrysalis embraced once more before waving farewell. Twilight and Flash hugged and kissed Akari and the five adults waved from the window of the airship which took to the skies.

Chrysalis was already feeling sad seeing the airship grow farther and farther away. She saw how Iris and Akari waved happily while shouting "I love you"s to their respected parents. She thought about Kuvira's words and the suggestion of staying with either of her friends, for a moment, made her feel relaxed.

That feeling didn't last long. Visions of her nightmare flashed before her eyes. Seeing her friends staring at her with cold eyes and the face of her monstrous form towering over her, teeth sharp as knifes, ready to pierce through her skin and devour her soul.

"Chrysalis, you okay?" Akari asked, notching the changeling's horrified expression. She shook her head, trying to eradicate the image from her brain.

"Y-Yeah. I just remembered, I have to go water the plants back at the apartment."

"You sure you want to stay there by yourself?" Iris asked.

"I'll be fine. Besides, the place has become a mess since I moved in. I-I want to do Kuvira a favor and spruce the place up a bit, you know." Chrysalis tried to sound convincing, but knew her stuttering and rubbing of her arm, and her dropped ears, weren't helping with the charade.

"Okay, but we'll see you at the premier, right?" Iris asked, hoping her friend hasn't forgotten.

"Of course. See you guys." Chrysalis didn't waste a second and flew off into the sky, wiling herself not to look back at the two princesses down bellow.


(~)


Iris scrolled through the pictures in her geo-phone, smiling at the happy looks on her friend's faces. It's been months since the event, and so far everything was settling back to normal. There were no word on any monster attacks, no world ending crisis of any kind. Everything was just… perfect.

Which was exactly what was bothering Iris.

She learned the hard way that she shouldn't focus so much on trying to be like her mother, feeling important an at her same level, but instead use her powers to better the world for their sake and not her own. Her friends have all been doings wonderfully with their powers, and Iris's Avatar training was progressing nicely. She even practiced her waterbending with a glass melted ice from her empty juice cup.

She should feel happy, and even exited that tonight was the premier of the Lady-Mare and Stal-Noir film, with them playing extras. It wasn't a huge premier with flashing cameras and limos, but it would be cool to see themselves on the screen. Their classmates would flip once they saw their scenes!

Never the less, Iris couldn't help but struggle but worry. Normally when all was quiet and calm was when danger would strike at unexpected moments. It's what happened the last time. Chrysalis managed to get the better of everyone, kidnapping her family and the most powerful beings, and Iris didn't know how to master her powers. Her foolishness nearly cost her friends their lives, so she was determined not to make the same mistake twice.

Even so, the last thing she wanted was to stress her friends out. Though, something was telling her they weren't the ones running around inside their heads worrying about what may or may not happen. She wanted to ask her mother about this before she left, but it didn't seem like much of an issue before. Now that she was gone, all of those worries and concerns just came back with striking force.

"I know that look." Akari said, taking her spot next to Iris on their table, putting her lunch tray on its surface. Her surprise greeting nearly caused Iris to drop the water she was bending. "What's gotten your feathers in a ruffle this time?"

Iris chuckled, playfully rolling her eyes. "It's nothing. I was just practicing my bending a bit. That's all."

"Chillax, Avatar Shine." Hiro said, leaning back into his seat, taking a sip of his smoothie.

Gallant Steed cocked his head. "Um, "Avatar Shine"?"

"That's Iris's new movie star name. I just made it up!"

Mai shook her head. "For pete's sake, we only have bit parts in this flick. We're not movie stars."

"Yet, little sister. Yet."

"Would it even matter?" Nori asked, "I mean, we are the New Elements of Harmony. We're already a big deal." she winked at a few bypassing male ponies, all the while flipping her hair. The boys all sighed dreamingly and literally fainted. Nori only smiled in satisfaction.

But Akari wasn't buying Iris's excuse. "There's more bothering you than just Avatar training, isn't there?"

"C'mon! Share your troubles." Chi said, wrapping her arms around the young Avatar, "It might help soothe your stressed nerves."

"Uh, I don't wanna take any of the fun out of our big night…"

"I said spill it, Avatar Shine!"

"Okay, okay. It's just that things have been calm around here, magic-wise."

"And that's bad how, exactly?" Nori asked, finding it hard to see the issue in that statement.

"It's not. It's just that instead of enjoying the fact that things are calm, I'm constantly thinking about things going wrong, even when they aren't."

"Like what things?" Gallant asked.

"I don't know. I shouldn't even be thinking about any of this stuff right now. And neither should any of you." Before Akari could speak, Iris's phone started to vibrate. A reminder flashing on the screen. Iris grabbed the phone and gasped. "Oh, shoot! I almost forgot, I've got some liberty books I have to return to day!" Iris got off of her chair, flinging her backpack over her shoulder. "I'll be back, I've got to get to there before they close early!"

With that, Iris dashed away towards the library, leaving her friends, and her troubles, behind for a short while.


(~)


At the mall's movie thither, people came and went, mainly to see what was playing while others walked in to see the movies already playing. As for Juniper Moon, who was working the popcorn popper, she just leaned against the counter, dreamingly gazing at her mirror self, basking in all of the attention from her adoring fans. She became more and more beautiful the longer Juniper looked at her, it gave her a sense of pride. Everything she ever wanted to be was staring right at her in this beautiful, precious, enchanted object.

"It's like this mirror is the only one around here who gets me." Juniper's private moment with herself was interrupted by her boss, irritably clearing his throat.

He was a tall man with hair tied into a messy ponytail, with a small mustache over his lip. He wore the typical manager's uniform, and carried a broom with him, which he angrily handed to Juniper. He only agreed to let her work her out of a favor, but in all honesty, Juniper was by far a nightmare to work with.

"Popcorn spill at the condiment counter."

Juniper huffed and showed him the mirror. Maybe if he saw just how magical it was, and how stunning she looked, he might second guess forcing her to run much a mundane shore.

"Does this look like someone who cleans popcorn spills?"

"No. It looks like someone about to fire somebody." said the manager. Juniper arched an eyebrow, only to realize that her beautiful self was gone, replaced by only the common girl before her. Her boss didn't even see her other self, only his own reflection.

He angrily shoved the broom into her hands. "Popcorn spill. Now!"

Juniper growled under her breath. "Yesh, Schoochy."

Indeed, the manager was none other than the once street urchin Schoochy. An old accomplice of Mako and Bolin during their street-rat and pro-bending days. Over the years, he had gained a number of pony and spirit friends and even was adopted by a loving family long before Kuvira and the Siren's attack on the city years ago. Now, he was the hard working man with a stable career, a home of his own, and living a more honest living compared to his past.

There was rarely anything he didn't like about his job, but stubborn Juniper was beginning to change that.

Juniper dragged the broom towards the spill of salty, sticky popcorn, groaning in frustration. "Ugh! This is the worst." she didn't even bother cleaning it up. She could care less if she got fired. In fact, the sooner she got out of here, the better.

"Hey, I know what will perk me up! A little Mirror Me time!" Juniper pull out the mirror again, and this time she saw her mirror self, signing autographs, blowing kisses and just being a vibrant star amongst everything else around her. Juniper sighed. "That's more like it! I wish this popcorn would just clean itself up so I could just stare at you all day."

As soon as the words left her mouth, the mirror's surface started to shimmer and sparkle, radiating with vibrant colors on part with the Northern Lights. Spiraling vortex opened on the surface and a beam of magic came bursting out, sucking in all of the dropped pieces of popcorn from the ground, leaving it sparkly clean.

Juniper temporarily turned away, eyes closed as the beam was sucked right back into the mirror. The colors fading, but one stream of green aura came spiraling from the mirror and across Juniper's arm, reaching her eyes. Her blue orbs briefly glowed a vibrant green before reverting back to normal.

Schoochy walked by, surprised to see all of the popcorn picked up. "Whuh? Done already? I'm shocked." he said before walking off to do his work.

"You and me both." Juniper gazed at the mirror. She already knew it was magic, but she didn't know it could do things like this. First it showed her what she wanted, now it was actually doing what she wanted.

This might not be such a bad day after all.


(~)


Iris sighed a breath of relief she didn't even know she was holding. She arrived at the Harmony City Library in the nick of time. Only one hour and thirty minutes left before closing early. They normally did that on Sundays.

The library was still as strong and beautiful as it was in the days before the spirit portals opened. Beautiful flower covered vines adorned the marble polished staircases and the roots of spirit trees helped support the structure. Little spirits nuzzled in their nests above, happily listening to the sound of flipping pages from old and new books.

Iris walked towards the counter, returning her books to the co-librarians. A human and a pony, with a book-styled cutie mark on her cheek. Both were a couple of nice looking elderly women, with matching glasses. If it weren't for the fact that they were two different species, Iris would have assumed they were twins.

After she returned the books, Iris looked out on the back of the library, pass the glass windowed doors. Behind the library was a small patio, with a koi fish pond, lovely trees and benches for one to read outside in the cool breeze.

She spotted someone sitting close to the pond, happily tossing some treats to the fish, all of which swam towards her, flapping their tail fins happily. Iris walked out. There wasn't anyone else out right now, no doubt due to the closing hours, so she was left alone. The Avatar slowly approached the girl, noticing her familiar aquamarine hair with yellow green tips.

She hummed a lovely tune while marveling the fish swimming around. She even poked her finger into the waters, marveling at the ripples, while the fish sucked any traces of food that was stuck to her. She giggled at the tickling sensation.

She gasped when she saw another refection in the water. She nearly fell back, only to transform into a koi fish herself right when she fell in the water.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

The transformed koi fish flipped into the air, becoming engulfed by a blue aura again before revealing the young changeling, her sparkly wings flapping and landed back onto the ground beside the human alicorn.

"No, no, it's fine. I wasn't expecting company."

"I thought you went back to your apartment."

"I did. I watered the plants, fixed things up which didn't really take very long. It's a relatively small apartment. Then I decided to come here for a while. Looking at the koi fish always calms me. I thought you were at the mall with the others."

"I was, but then I ran back here to return a few books."

Chrysalis stood there in awkward silence, unsure on what to say next. Iris noticed her hesitation. "So… any word from Kuvira?"

"They left only a few hours ago, Chrysi. Pretty sure they're still flying over the ocean at this point."

"Right." Chrysalis mentally slapped herself. What a stupid thing to ask. "Does your mom get called away a lot?" she asked, hoping this one didn't sound as stupid as the last one.

"Not all the time, but when she is, it's usually to solve a friendship problem or a political issue. Happens more often than you think." Iris said. Her mind drifted back to her original concerns. "Never knowing when you might be called on to save the day. Dropping everything at a moment's notice. How does she do it?" she whispered the last one, though Chrysalis was wining hearing range so she caught wind of it very quickly.

"Sorry, you're asking the wrong changeling."

"Oh, my bad. I was just thinking out loud at that last part." Iris said, blushing in embarrassment from her slip up.

The awkward silence returned, only to be penetrated when Chrysalis spoke again, picking up a notebook that had been laying beside her while she was gazing at the koi fish. "O…kay… I guess I'll be going now." just as Chrysalis lifted the shells to reveal her sparkly wings, she stopped when Iris spoke again.

"That was a nice tune you were humming just now."

"It's an old changeling lullaby." Chrysalis said, rubbing her shoulder. A gesture that was so common to her at this point many just anticipated it from her now. "I had completely forgotten it until a few months back."

"It sounds beautiful." Iris then noticed her notebook, along with a few detailed lines that resembled scales, drawn on by pencil. "Is that new?"

Chrysalis looked down at her notebook, shyly showing it to Iris. "Oh, um. Yeah. I started sketching a while back." she allowed Iris to look at the image. Indeed, it was a surprisingly well detailed drawing of the koi fish. She flipped through the pages, seeing sketches of a trolly, the park, even a few reptile pigeons that were eating food from a street corner. "I never really got to see much back when I was… you know." Chrysalis said, turning her gaze to the ground, "So, I just wanted to commemorate what I find memorable. I'd take a picture on my geo-phone but, I kind of like the feel of a pencil in my hand."

"These are really good." Iris said, her violet eyes shimmering at the careful and very organized details of every image, shaded with light shades of gray. "These are really good."

"Kuvira thought so too." Chrysalis's ghost of a smile morphed back into a frown. She really was missing Kuvira. She knew the metalbender told her to try and spend more time with her friends but, in all honesty, she didn't feel as comfortable talking about her "issues" with them than she did with Kuvira. After all, none of them were every a power hungry changeling queen, or an in-over-her-head dictator for that matter. She even felt afraid to talk about it with them. Friendship, which indeed wonderful, was still so new to her.

Iris didn't want Chrysalis to go back to the apartment by herself. Seeing these drawings gave her an idea. "Hey! I just remembered, there's this brand new art store that just opened up at the mall. You want to check it out?"

"I… don't know."

"Come on, it'll be fun. Besides, I doubt Kuvira would want you to stay cooped up in the apartment while she's gone."

Chrysalis bit her bottom lip, her mind wrestling with the idea. But, then again, maybe looking at art supplies and such would be a nice distraction from her thoughts. After all, Iris only said they could see the store, she didn't say they needed to talk about her own issues.

The young changeling nodded in yes and the two flew off back to Harmony City Mall.


(~)


It wasn't the first time Chrysalis had seen the Harmony City Mall, but every time she did she felt like she were entering a massive changeling hive bursting with bright colors, beautiful spirit plants, music bursting through the speakers, and the happy chatter amongst the many people, ponies and spirits that walked and or hovered on by.

Iris led her friend to the art store. At first, Chrysalis was hesitant to go inside. It was much larger than she had expected, with employers still pulling materials off of boxes and stacking them into shelves, but for the most part the store looked highly presentable. There were clay sculptures, portraits of various art pieces, stretching from plants, to people to locations. The colors came to life on the page, it reminded Chrysalis of the stunning colors of her fellow reformed changelings.

Fuchsia, aquamarine, yellow, green, reds and oranges and purples and violets. The place even smelled of dried paint and potpourri on the checking counter, along with beautifully fainted lanterns that hung on the ceiling for decorative purposes. The shelves aligned with paintbrushes, notebooks, blank canvases, and paints of all shades, probably more than she could count. Instantly, the changeling could feel herself becoming emerged in the store. There were even taller shelves with books that taught one how to draw, as well as books on folklore from Equestria and all four Nations and how to draw them.

Chrysalis flew upwards and flipped through the pages, her smile growing wider and wider, her eyes sparkling with childlike glee and wonder as she looked at all of the diverse creatures and myths. One of her favorites was that of the mythical Painted Lady. Iris told Chrysalis all about her story, having heard it from her Aunt Asami when she was younger.

Chrysalis explored the shop some more and found some brushes, color pencils, normal pencils for shading, paints, brushes, a few canvases and more notebooks. Chrysalis even bought a lantern, blank colored so she could paint the designs on it later on. She would surprise Kuvira with a few decorative lanterns to adorn the apartment.

Iris watched as her friend zipped and zagged all across the room like a moth to a flame. She was such a different creature from before. Shy and timid one moment and then bursting with life and color the next. Chrysalis's mind was just buzzing with new ideas she wanted to do she couldn't keep still. It made Iris laugh, but in a good way.

It was a lot like seeing Akari get excited over an antique sword or exploring new locations in the Everfree Forest. The way Nori's tail would literally wag whenever she heard a new hit single from Songbird Serenade. How Mai's eyes shimmer like the dancing flames of the fire from her fingertips when a new invention of her works flawlessly after hours of figuring out the kinks. Or even how Chi would flip around like a torpedo with no sense of direction whenever a new issue of Lady-Mare and Stal-Noir came out. Or even Iris herself whenever she uncovers a new spell to master.

Chrysalis shared the same passion and vicarious spirit as the rest of the team. But, when she was just standing beside them, or had nothing else to say she would be silent, still and resistant. Iris knew it was mainly because Chrysalis was still adjusting to her new life as a former villainess, but it was clear that she was capable of so much more than being a dictator Queen.

Once she knew she had everything, Chrysalis landed on the counter and placed all of her items on top. The cashier was both surprised and delighted. Their store was already becoming a huge hit, and she hoped this changeling would be a recurring costumer in the future. Once she told Chrysalis the amount, she reached into her wallet and frowned.

She had money, but in her excitable rush she didn't think much about the prices. Buying all of these would literally take up all of her money, and Kuvira wasn't going to be gone for long so she didn't think to pile up more on cash. The items weren't that expensive, but the money just didn't add up.

Her ears perched upwards in surprise when Iris, instead, pulled out a bag of a few gemstones from Equestria. Normally, these tips of gems didn't amount to that much, and were used as no different than common yuans in the human world. Thankfully, Harmony City ran on both human and Equestrian currency, so the gemstones were more than what needed to be paid, but Iris insisted she keep the change.

Chrysalis didn't know what to say, but Iris only casually brushed it off saying it's what friends do.

Next, Iris took Chrysalis to one of her favorite stores. Ever since she was young, Iris always had a love for music. She inherited her mother's beautifully enchanting singing talents, and her father's natural gift for playing stringed musical instruments, specifically the guitar. Both parents would sing to her every night or whenever she was feeling scared. It's another one of the reasons she had become fast friends with Nori, who shared the same love, and too held an emotional attachment to it.

Chrysalis was swayed by the sound of classical mussy playing, smiling at the children playing instruments like a tambourine and a flute. Iris found an old vintage guitar and started strumming along. Chrysalis realized she was playing the same tune Chrysalis was humming back at the library.

The music seemed to take hold of her and the changeling started humming the tune, along with Iris's guitar strumming. Costumers turned their heads to listen to the beautiful sound. Chrysalis had her eyes closed, letting the music whisk her away. She often sang the song to calm herself before she went to sleep, and now hearing it being accommodated with music made it come alive. She could even see the season change in her mind as she hummed and twirled in place to the sound.

Once the song had ended, Chrysalis let out an adorably frightened yelp when the room bursted into applauds. The changeling recoiled and her eyes widened like a deer in headlights. She gripped her newly purchased art supplies close to her chest, her knees pressed together and her ears dropped. Iris gently tapped her shoulder, letting her knew she wasn't in any danger.

Chrysalis slowly calmed, realizing that everyone was smiling at her rather than laughing maniacally and gaining up as if to attack her. This was nothing like her nightmare at all. Her racing heart slowly eased and she took a bow, which made everyone clap even louder.

Iris then surprised Chrysalis with a side hug. It wasn't the first time and the gesture still took some getting used to, but overall this trip wasn't such a bad decision after all.


(~)


Juniper took out some popcorn from the popcorn popper and tossed it to the floor behind the counter. The theater was nearly deserted at this hour, with only a handful of small movies playing. She held the mirror to the floor.

"Mirror, pick up this popcorn!" she ordered. Nothing happened. She expected the same magical sucking, whatever that was, to come back and clean up the mess like last time. But it seemed like the mirror refused to obey her. Maybe a different form of command was in order.

"Mirror, I command thee, pick upeth this poppage of corn!" Still, nothing happened. Juniper grunted in frustration, staring at her common girl reflection once more. Eyes narrowed and her free hand curled up into an angry fist. "Ugh! Why won't this thing work anymore?"

"Excuse me?" a costumer spoke, getting Juniper's attention. "We were gonna eat some of that." he said, his companion arching an eyebrow at Juniper.

The young girl them aimed the mirror at them, "Mirror, make these annoying people go away." she ordered. The two costumers only shook their head, concluding that this girl had been working for far too long and just up and left. They weren't that hungry anyways.

"Well, that kinda worked…" Juniper said, looking at the mirror. She was really just trying to make herself feel better.

"Juniper Moon?!"

A familiar voice nearly caused her to drop her beloved mirror. Thankfully she caught it in the nick of time. She didn't know what she would do if it broke. Why, the very idea was just…

"What the heck are you doing here?" Mai Sato asked. She and the rest of the Guardians had arrived to get the specific hour from when the movie was going to air. They weren't expecting to see Juniper Moon of all people to be by the popcorn.

"Were you invited to the Lady-Mare premiere? Ooh, that's exciting!" Hiro said excitedly, only to quickly recall just how unpleasant their last meeting was, "No, crazy! No, concerning! No! Just no! No offense."

"I wasn't invited to the premiere." Juniper said, adjusting her glasses and dusting the popcorn off of the counter. "My Aunt Zhu Li and Uncle Varrick felt bad for firing me, so they pulled some strings and got me this job." she showed them her horribly purple and yellow striped apron.

"You're working here now?" Gallant Steed asked, though more so with concern than anything. They all knew how much Juniper disliked them since the incident at Varrick's movie set.

"As little as possible." Juniper said bitterly after she tossed the last popcorn onto the ground and kicked it with the foot of her shoe.

"Y'know, if you hadn't tried to sabotage the movie, you could be celebrating with us." Chi said. It was true, if Juniper hadn't been so upset about not getting her way, Varrick and Zhu Li wouldn't have needed to punish her by making her work at the one place where they had movies but she couldn't watch them.

Apparently, Varrick too his time at Sweet Apple Acres to heart when it came to disciplining his wife's niece.

If only Chi knew just what type of can of worms she had just unleashed. Juniper Moon, while not the most terrifying foe they had encountered, was not someone you wished to mess with if pushed too far. They were about to learn that the hard way.

"This should be my night!" Juniper exclaimed, stepping away from behind the counter to directly face the Guardians, pointing an accusing finger at them all. "I would have found a way to be in the film if you all had stayed out of it! I would have been Lady-Mare! Everyone would've loved me! See?"

She help the mirror right at their faces, determined, desperate to prove just how wrong they were about how. How wrong they all were about her. But rather than see that beautiful version of Juniper, all the kids saw was their own reflections. Nothing out of the ordinary, just themselves. They all shared the same confused reactions.

"Can't you see what's right under your noses?" Juniper said, looking at the mirror, only find that it didn't show anything other than what was right in front of her: An adverse nobody with no friends. Someone who wasn't special at all. Not like them.

"Ugh! You think you're all so great! With your fancy powers and good looks! Why does everybody have to love you!? I wish you'd all just go away and leave me alone!"

Juniper took a step back when the magical energy from before came bursting out of the mirror, engulfing the Guardians in its powerful grip. Their bodies shrunk and turned white before becoming sucked right into the mirror, screaming all the while trying in vain to fight back. The same green energy from before spiraled around her arm and reached her eyes, which glowed a sinister green.

The sensation made Juniper smile. Looking down, she noticed Nori's shell-shaped barrette on the floor. She gladly picked it up and placed it on her vest, smiling maliciously at herself in the mirror.

"Hmm. Looks like I may be finally getting the hang of this."

The mirror rippled and once again she was greeted with the beautiful version of herself, giggling and winking, radiating with confidence and importance. She waved at her real world self.

"Hi, me!"


(~)


"Okay, this is weird." Iris strolled through her contacts list one more time. "Six geo-phones, all straight to voicemail."

After seeing a few more stores, Chrysalis and Iris decided to get some ice cream and sat near the fountain to enjoy them. Iris ordered a chocolate/vanilla small sunday with rainbow sprinkles, while Chrysalis ate a chocolate chipped pistachio ice cream cone. She licked it like a happy little child who was was overjoyed to have sugar in her body.

Iris had spent the last ten minutes trying to reach her friends, but none of them answered. Normally at least one or two of them would. Hiro almost never misses a phone call, and even if he did he made sure to always call back as soon as he got it. Sometimes even two minutes after the voice mail was recorded. Something didn't feel right. She hoped nothing had happened while Iris and Chrysalis were having fun. After all, something like this is exactly what happened the night their parents were taken.

"I'm sure they're around. What's the worst that could have happened?" Chrysalis asked, licking her ice cream.

"Well, given our family history, any number of terrible things could have happened." Iris said. Her words made the air around the two immediately awkward.  Iris inhaled deeply. "Our friends are probably fine. I'm overreacting." she said, smiling in reassurance. Only it was a fake smile and it faded very quickly. "But maybe not. I can't tell anymore."

"I'm gonna take a shot in the dark here and say that something else bothering you." Chrysalis concluded. Her years as the Changeling Queen had given her some knowledge on knowing when someone is behaving out of character, or hiding something. Iris was definitely trying to cover up something else that was on her mind. They were both so distracted with how much fun they were having that any worries they had just faded to the back of their minds. Only now, with none of Iris's friends answering, her previous worries came back.

Iris sighed, levitating her now empty ice cream cup into a near by trash can. "Yeah. I've never really been good at hiding my problems."

Chrysalis nodded her head, more so because she could relate to that statement. Iris took in a deep breath.

"It's just… ever since my friends and I became the new Elements, things have been kind of slow and calm. Which, in of itself isn't a bad thing, but I also want to be ready for whatever is gonna be thrown at us but we never know when stuff is going to happen. I guess knowing that is making me feel like I could never really relax and let my guard down, so I end up obsessing about it and can't get out of my own head."

"Tell me about it." Chrysalis blurted out, only to quickly cover her mouth afterwards. Too late though, for Iris already heard her. "I mean, I…"

"It's okay, go ahead." Iris insisted, smiling kindly.

This was the first time Chrysalis felt she could confined in someone about this sort of thing who wasn't Kuvira. Maybe this was one of those friendship things. Trusting your friends enough to talk your problems out.

"I think I know where you're coming from." Chrysalis began. A bit hesitant at first, but slowly growing more confident as she went on. "Ever since I transformed back I keep trying to tell myself that I've changed, or at least I want to. But I still don't feel like I've really done anything to earn this second chance, or that I have changed. I just keep--"

"Wandering around the same thing." Iris finished for her, "Even when everybody else tells you you'll be fine you're having a hard time believe it yourself and unless you do something to prove you've earned this you won't feel like you did?"

Chrysalis blinked. "That's exactly how it feels. How did you know?"

"Because I've been there. When I found out I was the Avatar, I wanted nothing more than to prove I was worthy of my powers. And, maybe even be on the same level as my mom. But by focusing so much on that I lost sight of what was really important. That no matter what, my powers are only as strong as they are because of my friends. I should have trusted them more instead of trying to fix things by myself."

"Maybe that's why you're so concerned." Chrysalis said, "You don't want to make the same mistake twice so that's why you wind up worrying about what could go wrong before it even happens."

"That sounds like the voice of bitter experience."

"Yeah. It is."

The two were silent for a while. This was the first deep, serious conversation they have ever had since becoming friends. After a while, they didn't know how or why, but they just started laughing. It was as if the relief of letting everything out just made them want to smile and laugh it off. Chrysalis certainly did feel more at ease with herself. Like a huge load had been lifted off of her shoulders, the same went for Iris.

"You know, I think our problem is we're being way too hard on ourselves." Iris said, wiping away a stray tear as her laughter eased down. "We both messed up, and we both regret our mistakes. The most we can do now is learn from them and trust that things will work themselves out in the end. If you spend too much time worrying about the bad things that might happen, you'll miss out on all the good things that are happening."

"Looks like that Avatar wisdom is already kick in." Chrysalis said. Her voice sounded a bit more confident now, a real contrast from before.

The two shared one more laugh and Iris helped Chrysalis off of the side of the fountain, linking their arms together and walked through the mall again.

"Come on. Let's go take a look around the theater for the others." Iris said, feeling more relaxed than she had all day. "I'm sure they're fine."


(~)


Iris had no idea just how wrong she really was.

Akari, Nori, Mai, Hiro, Chi and Gallant Steed found themselves inside a wide, blank void. There didn't appear to be any walls or even a floor, yet they didn't hover in mid air. They stood upright as if they were touching actual ground, yet the so called floor felt like nothingness, even when their hands were pressed against it. It was legitimately like touching an invisible wall.

"Uh… Any clue yet where we are or what just happened? Anyone?" Nori asked, hearing her voice echo within the wide space.

"Hang on to your hooves, everybody. Hiro Sato is on the case!" Hiro cracked his knuckles and his neck then rubbed his chin, inspecting what he assumed was the wall. He took in a deep breath and then started running around the place.

"CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGGGGG---Omp!"

"What are you doing?" Mai asked.

Hiro had been shouting the word CHARGE for a really long time, running around the place with his hands outstretched. He disappeared when he ran towards the left, only to reappear suddenly, and with no logical explanation whatsoever, emerged running from the right in the opposite direction. When he ran right back from where he started, he was stopped when his sister grabbed him by the hood of his jacket.

"I'm trying to hit a wall." Hiro replied, "If I hit one, maybe we can find a door that will lead us out. Now, if you'll excuse me." He cleared his throat before proceeding to run around again, all the while everyone just gave him a deadpan look.

"CHARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR--- "Yeah, I've got nothing'." Hiro finally stopped after disappearing from one view only to reappearing in the exact opposite, as if everywhere he went he just ended up in the same place. "There's no walls in here anywhere!"

There might not have been a wall, but there was a hovering flat circle with a glowing purple outline right above them. Magical energy seemed to burst from all sides around it, and they could see their own reflections on the surface.

Akari started pacing back and forth, her mind hard at work. "Wait, I think I know what's going on. This is a wishing mirror!"

"A what now?" Chi asked, cocking her head.

"I read about them from one of the books from the StarSwirl the Bearded wing in Canterlot. These mirrors were originally from the Crystal Empire, long before King Sombra's reign. But because of how powerful they were, ponies feared their magic and they were lost for centuries. Somehow, someway, Juniper managed to get her hands on one of them."

"And from the looks of it, she's figured out how it works." Mai said, her eyes narrowing in frustration, "Now we're stuck in some kind of freaky limbo."

Gallant Steed started to tremble and crunched down, hugging himself, his pony ears pressing hard against his head. "I think I feel the cluster-phobia kicking in again!"

"Why? This place is ten times bigger than your living room." Chi said, floating right beside him.

"It's an enchanted mirror with nothing but blank space and no easy access to an exit, so it qualifies as an enclosed space!"

"On the upside, there's popcorn in here!" Hiro had found popcorn on the floor and started munching on them. His cheeks puffed up and he immediately spit out the already chewed up pieces. He gagged and spit in disgust. "Gah! Floor lint! Blech! That one had floor lint!"

Nori placed the back of her palm on her forehead in a dramatic fashion. "How could this happen on the night of my very first movie premiere? Of all the nights!" she then waved her fist at the blank void above her, shooting dramatically, "Curse you, cruel fate!"

"Not our number-one problem right now, Nori." Mai said, hands on her hips. If there were a number of things that annoyed Mai, and so far, being trapped inside an enchanted vanity object was already making its way onto the list.

"Mmm, true. But I think we can agree it's in the top five."

Gallant Steed gripped Akari's shoulder for protection. "Is there really no way out of here? Please?" he pleaded, and Akari gently patted him on the back.

As if things couldn't get any worse, brown pellets began falling from the opening. Small, but hit them hard on their heads. "Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!"

Nori acted fast and created a pearl shield to cover herself and Mai. "Mother of a kraken! What is that?"

Using her super speed, Chi managed to swat the pellets away with her hands. She managed to catch one in her hand and felt the surface literally melt in her hand, followed by seeing the brown substance already fading, catching sight of a brown colored shell.

"Chocolate-covered almonds?"

Using her magic, Akari made the aliments freeze in mid air. Despite the situation, Hiro happily ate the still clean candies with nothing but his mouth.

"Dibs!"


(~)


Back in the real world, Juniper, now knowing how her mirror works, used it as her own personal vacuum cleaner to suck away the dropped box of almonds on the floor.

The doors of the theater opened and Iris and Chrysalis walked inside. The Avatar quickly stopped when she spotted Zhu Li's niece behind the counter. Dragging Chrysalis by the arm, the two hid behind a cardboard cut out of another action movie that was currently playing. It was the cutout of what appeared to be a robot, consisting of black, blue, red, green and yellow colors with a lion-themed motif.

"It's Juniper Moon!" Iris whispered, poking her head to see.

"What is she doing here?" Chrysalis asked, eyeing the girl suspiciously.

"I don't know." Iris squinted her eyes and noticed something familiar attached to Juniper's vest. "Wait… that's Nori's barrette."

Her friends hadn't called her back, she hadn't seen them for hours, and now Juniper was wearing Nori's favorite hair accessory for no explained, or logical reason. If Avatar instincts were a security alarm, her's would be buzzing like mad right now going; RED FLAG! RED FLAG!

Iris handed her bag to Chrysalis. "Wait here. Don't come out until I give a signal."

Chrysalis nodded and watched as Iris approached the counter. Juniper was too busy gazing at her mirror, but gasped when her beautiful self disappeared and saw Iris's reflection approaching her from behind. She gasped in fear, but quickly smirked.

"Princess Iris. I was wondering if you'd show up."

"I'm, uh, looking for my friends. I don't suppose you've seen them."

Rather than answer, Juniper smirked and giggled mischievously. She didn't see any reason to hide her intentions. After all, she now had six of the seven Elements of Harmony trapped inside her mirror, why should be intimidated by a new-bee Avatar anyways.

Iris didn't like the sound of that laugh. Juniper obviously knew something, why she wasn't hiding it she wasn't sure, but it couldn't have been good.

"Where are they?" Iris demanded to know.

Juniper tapped the surface of her new shell shaped barrette. "I'll never tell."

Iris then noticed something odd about the mirror she held in her hand. It was giving off a very strange and, even familiar energy. Her Avatar connection to the other Elements kicked in all on its own and she could see their faces clearly inside the mirror. She gasped and pointed at Juniper's mirror.

"How did you--? What is that thing?!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Juniper placed the mirror behind her back, but it was already too late. Iris knew what she had done to her friends. And she knew what that object was.

"Wait, that's a wishing mirror!"

"So what?"

"Juniper, you need to give it back! That's an ancient Equestrian artifact, and if you keep using it it's only going to make things worse for you!"

Juniper sneered at the princess, holding the mirror protectively like a mother would her child. "You're just saying that because you want the mirror for yourself."

"What I want is my friends back. Please, Juniper. You wished them into that mirror, only you can wish them out."

Wish them out? Why would she do as she said? Just because she was a princess didn't make her the boss. Juniper had the power now. She had everything she could ever want. She was the one calling the shots now. The mirror reacted to her thoughts, fusing her with its magical energy, causing her eyes to glow green once more.

"Or maybe... I wish you'd join them!"

Just like her friends, Iris too was forcibly sucked into the mirror. Her screams were ignored as Juniper smiled wickedly at the princess struggling to break free of her magical grip. Once she was gone, Juniper went back to admiring herself.

From behind the cutout, Chrysalis gasped. "Iris!" she quickly cupped her mouth and hid when Juniper turned her head. The sound was faint and unrecognizable. She easily dismissed it, but now Chrysalis was left alone. Her friends were trapped inside a magic mirror in Juniper's hands.

She had to break them free, and fast.


(~)


Akari tried desperately to break through the opening, but no matter how many punches she threw it never broke. She should have guessed as much, after all, it was an enchanted mirror. Maybe it couldn't be broken from the inside.

The sound of echoing screams filled the blank void and Iris came crashing down from the opening, landing hard on her stomach.

"Iris!" Akari quickly helped her best friend back up to her feet and Hiro hugged her from behind.

"Yeah! We're all together again!"

"But wait. If we're all together, then nobody out there knows where we are!" Akari exclaimed.

Gallant Steed stopped his hyperventilating once he noticed the cutie mark on his arm started to let off a faint, almost unnoticeable glow.

"Um, guys…"

"Chrysalis does!" Iris said, trying to reassure her friends that not all hope was lost. They were so caught up in their current situation they hardly noticed the slowly glowing glow of their marks.

"Um, guys…"

"She does?" Nori asked.

"But how is she supposed to get us out? She doesn't have her old powers anymore." Mai said, completely unaware of the mark in her arm glowing.

Gallant Steed tried to speak up again, "Guys…"

"She can get the Mane Six or somebody else with magic to get us out." Iris said.

"And what if they get sucked in too?"

"Um, sorry to interrupt, but—" Gallant was cut short when Chi showed everyone her glowing mark, making everyone else notice their own.

"Whoa! Check out our marks!"

Gallant sighed in defeat, "That's what I was trying to say."

But it wasn't just their marks that were glowing. It was everything around them. Colors that matched their color schemes flashed behind them like the flashing lights at a dance party. The aura around the opening glowed with more intensity.

"Something's changed." Akari said, "This wasn't happening before."

"Maybe it's because all seven of us are together now." Iris concluded, while Hiro hid behind her.

"Is this a good thing or a bad thing?" Hiro asked, his voice trembling. Their entire bodies began to glow and the auras struck the opening, surrounding it with the essence of their magic while their marks still glowed. Their respected colors danced on the surface, and the mirror itself shimmered with bright and intimidating colors. Every bone in the bodies could feel the negative energy emitting from the other end.

Nori held her clenched hands close to her chest, her eyes widening in horror. "A bad thing. Definitely a bad thing!"


(~)


While Juniper continued to gaze at her faux reflection, a multicolored energy suddenly emerged from the mirror itself and spiraled around the sides. That same rainbow-colored light spiraled around Juniper's arm, engulfing her entire body. Rather than question what was happening, or even show any signs of concern, Juniper happily embraced this incredible surge of power. Chrysalis watched from behind the cutout as the young human girl's body began to grow in size.

Her head now reached only a few inches bellow the ceiling, but would tower over the normal everyday human or pony. Her skin, if possible, actually became paler, shinier like that of a pearl, her body matured in a short span, resembling that of a fully grown, healthy, athletic looking woman with a slim figure that would make any man turn his head.

She gained cheek bones, longer eyelashes and her blue eyes now carried a purple aura around the outline of her irises, matching the purple eyeshadow. Her hair was styled into a high willow's peak, curled like the spirit vines of the mall. Any trace of her black hair had disappeared, her blue streaks having taken over, now with shades of darker with strong dark cerulean colors added with the lighters shades.

Shimmering glitter was sprinkled across her hair, skin and dress. Her new wore a beautiful mermaid-tail styled dress with a vine/plant motif. She wore a black corset with green vines sharp purple and green leafs around her neckline and shoulders. Leafs of purple and green adorned her hips and the black dress underneath ended at her knees, followed by a cape of purple that was left open around her knees and flowed behind her feet, dragging behind her. Her shoes were high heeled with green leafs around her ankles and wore green leaf-styled gloves with sharp nails that resembled claws.

She looked at herself in the mirror but, just to be sure, she looked at her actual reflection in the reflective surface of the vending machine. The same reflective version of herself that she witnessed in the mirror was now more beautiful than anything else she could have imagined.

Only, this wasn't just some magical trick of the mirror. This was real. This was who Juniper was now. She was everything she ever wanted to be. Beautiful, confident, adored. Her dreams were finally coming true.

"Now everyone will recognize I'm a real star!"

Juniper cal walked out of the movie theater, eager to see her adoring public. Chrysalis quietly stepped out from behind the cutout once Juniper had left and silently followed her.

"Okay, first things first. I need to get that mirror away from her." she said to herself, hiding behind a potted plant, seeing the still shimmering mirror in Juniper's hand.

When she walked out, everyone inside the mall gasped and screamed in terror at the fifty foot woman inside the mall. Some even asked the spirits if maybe she was someone new from the spirit world, but none of them had claimed she was. In fact, they could plainly see she was in fact all human, but carried some essence of magic in her. Their first instinct was to run away, for they knew she couldn't be from Equestria, seeing as she was human, but she couldn't be human is she was this massive.

As Juniper approached them, the people stepped back, some taking out their geo-phones to take pictures of the unusual sight, if to only to ask someone else more questions later. More and more screams filled the entire mall, even those from the upper levels, where they saw at least the top of Juniper's new hairdo.

But Juniper didn't hear screaming. She didn't hear frightened gasps or even saw anyone backing away or running in terror at her massive size and intimidating presence. Instead, her eyes shimmered like the reflective surface of her mirror.

In her eyes she saw them smile, cheer, applaud and even chant her name. Some were even fighting the already massive crowd just to get a closer look at her while cameras flashed here, there and everywhere.

Juniper spotted a young boy eating ice cream with his mother. He smiled and gazed in awe at the movie star.

"Want Mommy to take our picture together?" Juniper asked. In her eyes, he was excited, but in reality, the boy was terrified beyond belief. He started to scream and cry and his mother quickly took him into his arms and ran away, dropping his ice cream cone in the process.

Everywhere she went, Juniper could only see her adoring fans, screaming her name and showering her with all the flattering compliments and praises she had always dreamed of and she blew kisses their way, never being aware of the horrified screams as they ran away. She didn't even question on wether or not this was real anymore, because in her eyes, in her mind, and in her heart, this was real. This was her reality, and nobody, not even some spoiled, pampered Avatar Princess was going to take that away from her now.

Juniper swatted an annoying fly that kept buzzing at her face. Only, it wasn't a fly, but a bee. "Hey, get away! I'm allergic to bees!" she exclaimed. The wasp's tail poked her hand, but rather than feel her allergies act up, she realized all the bug did was poke her very hard and its tail didn't even fall off.

But her mirror did.

Juniper gasped and reached out to grab the mirror, only for a green glow to temporarily blind her and Chrysalis grabbed the mirror in her hand before flying away. Juniper growled in anger, furious that this changeling had managed to trick her.

Chrysalis knew she had to get out of the mall and towards someone who could help. Maybe Starlight Glimmer, or Sunset Shimmer, or the Alicorns. Anyone with powerful magic who could free them, and maybe bring Juniper back to her normal self before she hurt somebody.

However, Juniper not only increased in size, but in strength and speed also. She was able to effortlessly catch up to the changeling girl, grab her by the ankle and toss her across the room. Bystanders ran away as Chrysalis slid across the floor and into a dress shop.

In the process, the mirror had fallen right beside her. The sound of cracks made her gasp in fear.


(~)


From inside, the same cracks appeared on the opening above the Guardians, and even more, larger, black cracks started to form inside the blank void itself. From the floor, to even the non existent walls. Hiro poked his hand through one of the cracks, seeing nothing but emptiness and no place on where they could stand on. It felt like a true empty space that had no end or start. Just, nothingness.

"The mirror is breaking!" Iris exclaimed, trying to step away from more of the forming cracks. The sound of shattering glass echoed inside.

Chi held Akari's arm, pulling her away from another forming back beneath her feet. "If Chrysalis doesn't find a way to get us out of here soon, I don't know what's gonna happen!"

"Chrysalis, I hope you know what you're doing." Iris said, seeing more and more cracks forming.


(~)


Chrysalis held the mirror close. This could not be good. If the mirror broke while her friends were still inside, they could be lost in there forever.

She would lose her friends forever.

Chrysalis had spent almost an eternity stealing nothing but the love others had for one another for herself. Now she would do whatever it took to save the Guardians of Harmony. She couldn't abandon them, no way, no how.

Juniper came bursting through the store, her claws digging into the stone surface of the entrance, causing everyone inside to either hide in whatever hiding place they could find, or run out as fast as they could

"Give that back!" Juniper slammed her hand at Chrysalis, who narrowly dodged her sharp nails. Chrysalis flapped her wings and reached the upper balcony, where designer bags, shoes and party dresses were placed. Not once did she let go of the mirror.

"No! This mirror is nothing but trouble. You have to realize that. Ah!" Chrysalis screamed and nearly fell backwards into a row of mannequins when Juniper crunched down and leaped up to the balcony, using her upper body strength to hoist herself up, angrily pulling the sparkly chandelier that annoyed her face when she arrived.

"What I realize is that you are just like those spoiled brats!" Juniper pulled the mannequin where Chrysalis was hiding behind away, "I wish you'd join them!"

Chrysalis held the mirror's surface away from her, anticipating for the same vortex that sucked in Iris to do the same to her. She breathed a sigh of relief when nothing happened.

Furious at the mirror's disobedience, Juniper lifted up one of the shelves that held the expensive looking shoes and hurled it at Chrysalis.

She managed to fly away in time, but the impact caused the balcony to crumble. One innocent costumer tried to run but slipped and was now hanging for her life.

"Help!"

Chrysalis quickly flew right in, catching the woman in her arms, her fingers having slipped very quickly. Chrysalis flew out and landed her safely back in the ground.

Juniper jumped from the balcony and chased after Chrysalis across the mall again.

"Looks like you can't make that wish unless you're the one holding the mirror!" Chrysalis shouted as she flew off, but Juniper managed to grab hold of a ficus potted plant and hurled it at Chrysalis. She lost her momentum and fell again to the floor, causing the mirror to shatter once again.

She was running out of time.


(~)


Gallant Steed tried to balance himself when another crack formed on the ground. It was so freaky, cracks even started to form even in thin air, right over Chi's head. She had to literally duck in cover.

Before long, most of the blank space was become nothing but broken pieces of hovering nothing, which then crumbled and fell into the darkness that was taking hold of everything that wasn't there to begin with.

The guardians all gathered together, with Iris creating a force field to shield them, but there was no telling how much longer they could hold on.


(~)


Chrysalis jumped behind the same sunglasses booth Juniper had visited earlier that day. If wishing was what got the others in there, then wishing would be the only way to get them out.

"I wish Princess Iris and her friends would come back!" Chrysalis shouted, eagerly awaiting for them to return. Juniper gave a smug grin when all that came out of the mirror was nothing more than a small broken shard.

"Looks like you can't use it, either!" Juniper laughed as she reached out to grab her. A came of cat and mouse ensued with Chrysalis running away from Juniper around the booth, her already limited patience was wearing thin.

She grabbed more a nearby bench and even a vending machine and hurled them at Chrysalis, which she dodged, all the while holding the mirror close. While Juniper held it close out of vanity, Chrysalis held it because if she let it fall into her hands again, she would loose something far greater than any supernatural makeover.

"Give it back to me!" Juniper threatened, her now sharp teeth bare, her eyes shrunk in madness.

"But my friends are trapped in there!" Chrysalis exclaimed, tears already forming in her eyes.

Right on cue, the same song from the Guardians's music video plays from the speakers again. Juniper's eyes widened in anger, her jaw clenched so hard a vain started popping onto her forehead.

"Your friends stole my one chance at being famous!" Juniper growled and knocked the speaker down with one punch.


(~)


Inside the mirror, the one piece of floating space was already breaking apart, which in turn was splitting the team apart. Mai took a leap of faith and jumped from her floating spot and was caught by bother her brother and Chi. Hiro held his younger sister protectively.

Nori was left in her own corner, too far away from the others for her to jump. The pieces cracked and fell beneath her and the merpony screamed as she fell.

"Nori!"

Thankfully, she was levitated herself back up, using her pearls so she could land back with them. She hugged them in relief, but her relief was very short lived whenever the small spot they now stood was cracking faster and faster.


(~)


Chrysalis hid inside the booth, seeing more and more shards breaking and falling off. The tears that had formed were now rolling down her cheeks. Chrysalis felt she had let them down. They gave her nothing but kindness and support, and now she was about to loose them forever.

Juniper, in a flurry of blind range, kept bunching and breaking the speaker, and every other speaker that played the song over and over again.

"I could have had everything!" she shouted, breaking another into pieces. "Everyone would love me! I would have finally been something more! Something greater! But your stupid friends took it from me! Now, you'll know exactly how it feels to loose everything! To be alone!"

Alone… Chrysalis knew that feeling all too well.

Since her wicked self took over and lied to her fellow changelings, she had been alone. She had an army of followers, but she never really cared for any of them they way she should have. The way Kuvira, Iris, and everyone cared for her.

Juniper wanted to be respected, to be loved, to have everything. Only, even if she had this new body, and powers… nobody was adoring her. Everywhere she went, she inspired fear. Yet, she couldn't see it.

Juniper was… no different from Chrysalis.

She wiped away her tears, taking in a deep breath as she held the mirror protectively. She couldn't explain how, but she now knew exactly what needed to be done. Chrysalis stood up to Juniper, her heart pounding and her hands trembling, but she stood tall none the less.

"Is fame really what you're after or are you looking for something else?"

Chrysalis flinched a bit when Juniper now held the to of the booth over her head, ready to crush her opponent.

"Like what?!"

"Like… a friend?"

As soon as the word left her mouth, Juniper froze. Her expression was still tense and filled with furry, but her brows furrowed, as if internally wrestling with the decision to either destroy here right then and there, or reconsider her question.

"Who would want to be my friend?"

"I would." Chrysalis answered sincerely.

"Why?"

Because… because I understand you, Juniper. You think getting all of this power is going to make you feel better about yourself, but it won't. You'll only end up becoming a prisoner of your own ambition. You may have all this power, but you'll still be alone!"

"No I won't. I have all the fans I need."

"Take another look." Chrysalis motioned for Juniper to look behind her.

Without her mirror in hand, the deception from the magic had wavered. No longer did she see people cheering her name, or showering her with love and adoration, but rather the only thing she saw in their eyes was…

Fear.

They were afraid. Of her.

"Wha… what's wrong? Why are they so scared?" she asked, a part of her refusing to accept this as real.

"The mirror showed you what you wanted to see. But this is the truth."

Juniper lowered the roof she held in her hands looked at her own reflection in one of the store glass windows. She still looked just as beautiful as before, but she also didn't recognize herself. At all. She wasn't a fourteen-year-old anymore, she was an adult. A very pale, very intimidating looking adult. She couldn't believe she had once thought this to be beautiful.

More whimpers and screams of terror filled her ears. She didn't had to turn around to know how everyone was looking at her. She only wanted people to like her, but now… she was more alone than ever.

"No… not, I didn't ask for this! This makes no sense, I only wanted people to like me!"

"I understand, I really do." Chrysalis held her hand close to her heart, along with the mirror. "But this isn't the way, Juniper. It will never be the way. Please, don't make a mistake that you'll end up regretting for the rest of your life."

"I've already made too many mistakes." Juniper's voice cracked and she hung her head in shame. "What I've done is... is... unforgivable."

Chrysalis stepped out from the both, reaching her hand out to the now horrified young girl. "No, Juniper. I know they'll forgive you. But first, you have to set them free!"

Chrysalis held the mirror to Juniper, seeing more shards of the mirror falling off and traces of magic going haywire from within.

The Guardians all gathered together, with Iris, Akari and Gallant trying to keep them steady and stable with their magic, but with every shard that broke off, a bit of their magic continue to give way. The space they stood on was falling off fast, and it wouldn't be too long before they were all lost in the darkness forever.

Juniper grabbed the mirror. She knew they would be angry with her once they were out, but if she didn't, then she won't get what she wanted after all. She will be stuck like this, hated forever for what she did to Korra and Twilight's children. Their families, even her own would never speak to her again.

It was then she realized, she would rather than them mad at her now and eventually forgive her rather than live the rest of her life knowing what she had done. If the former Queen of the Changelings could be given a second chance, maybe she could too.

She held the mirror in her hands and then outreached her hand, the mirror now facing the sky.

"I… I wish I could make up for my mistakes."

The sound of screamed echoed within the black void. The kids expected themselves to just fall and fall forever, but they all breathed a deep, huge sigh of relief when they felt very solid, and very hard ground.

The last of the mirror's shard had fallen off, and along with it, it's magic became undone. Juniper Moon had reverted back to her normal, human self, and all the destruction she had caused was magically fixed in a flash of blinding light that engulfed the mall.

The team helped one another stand back and Iris spotted the changeling, wiping away her tears. She ran up to the Avatar and hugged her.

"Chrysalis, you did it!"

The changeling was then surround by all of her friends, safe and sound. She didn't even mind that they were nearly crushing her ribs. Anything to make her certain that they weren't going anywhere any time soon.

Juniper looked at the now useless, non magical mirror in her hand and seeing Chrysalis being surrounded by her friends. All she ever wanted was to be loved like she was. But, in her efforts to get what she wanted, she lost so much more than she cared to admit. The magic had consumed her she couldn't even tell reality from fiction anymore.

"There you are!" a voice called Juniper from behind. It was the same shop keeper pony from before. "You're the one who stole that mirror! I told you it was dangerous!"

Iris quickly stepped in, "Sir, if I may. I apologize on behalf of my friend Juniper."

"No, Iris." Juniper stepped forward. "I'm sorry. I never should have taken it." she handed him the now worthless mirror, which Iris gently took.

"If you ask me, I'd say this was a welcomed loss." Iris said, "A power like this should never be in the hands of anybody."

The shop keeper couldn't deny that much. It was the whole reason why he planned on shifting these items to Canterlot where they would be safe. But, then again, perhaps loosing one dangerous artifact was more of a blessing than anything.

"Very well. I'll let this slide." he narrowed his eyes and pointed his finger at Juniper, "But if I see you near my shop again I'm calling security!"

With that, he left in a huff, leaving Juniper to face the rest of the Guardians. Aside from Iris and Chrysalis, who looked at Juniper with sympathy, the majority of the others looked at her in either disapproval or sadness.

Juniper didn't blame them. At least they were safe and sound, and whatever punishment they had in mind, she would face it.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't know I was…" she was silenced when Chrysalis held her hand.

"It's okay. I didn't either. But, a wise friend once told me, it's never too late to start over."

"Not sure if I can."

"Well, I do."

"So do we." Iris said. "Besides, if my mom could forgive your uncle Varrick for attempting to kidnap the president and pushing for a war, I think we can do the same for you."

Juniper didn't know what to say when they all surrounded her. Two reformed villains for the new Generation of heroes already. It would seem they were definitely following in their predecessors's footsteps.

And hoof-steps.


(~)


Before the premier for the movie, the team visited Rarity's boutique, where Nori helped Juniper pick out an outfit for the occasion. She was still surprised they forgave her so easily, but she knew she would have to face the punishment that awaited her from her aunt and uncle. But, for now, she would just enjoy being herself again.

For the first time ever, she finally felt like she didn't need to be grand and famous to have friends. All she needed was to be honest.

"Thanks again for saving our necks, Chrysi." Iris said as she and Chrysalis stood side by side next to one of Rarity's water tribe themed mannequins.

"No problem. " Chrysalis became silent for a moment before speaking again. "I think I finally understand."

"Understand what?"

"I've doubting myself a lot lately on how much I have changed. But, after today, I realized that while I can't erase my past, it really doesn't defy who I am anymore. And, I should have trusted you guys with that sooner rather than keep it to myself. Guess I've still got a lot to learn about this Friendship stuff.

Iris chuckled and wrapped her arm around her friend. "Lucky for you, you won't have to learn on your own." her phone chimed and Iris saw a text message. "Looks like my Mother agrees, too."

Everyone else gathered around Iris to hear her read her mother's message.

"Iris, I'm very proud of you kids for handling that wishing mirror problem. As for any concerns you may have: Some lessons are better learned in action, and you kids are great teachers. Make Juniper feel welcome and enjoy the premiere! Love you and see you soon."

Chrysalis's phone chimed too and she read a text from Kuvira.

"Chrysi, I'm very proud of you. Never doubt that you can make a difference. I love you and I expect to hear the full details on the movie when I come back."

The team all smiled at Kuvira's sweet text to her roommate. Chrysalis placed the phone back into her pocket. "So, now that I resolved my problem, think maybe you can focus on the positive from here on out?" she asked Iris, not forgetting her own concerns regarding the future.

"Whatever happens is gonna happen. I've just gotta live in the moment, right?"

"Right!"

The two friends fist pumped and everyone celebrated with a group hug, Juniper included.

For the rest of the evening, and long since, Chrysalis not only learned that she had indeed changed, but that by her own experiences, she now knew she could help others from falling into the same trap as she once did.

In time, she no longer felt ashamed of being a former villain, and Iris no longer stressed over what could happen or what could not happen.

After all, if her mother and her friends could face all of those dangers, threats and near death experiences together, then it wasn't too far as stretch that they could too.

Times and faces may change, but The Magic of Friendship never will.


…………………..

Everywhere you go

Friendship there will grow

When you find it, it's the key

Friends can change the world, you see

Everywhere you go

Friendship there will grow

When you find it, it's the key

Friends can change the world 

(ah-ah)

Friends can change the world 

(ah-ah)

Friends can change the world 

You see!

……………….

*(~)*

Romans 8:28-29~ 

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

*(~)*