Where Some Ponies Meet with Ember
It was sunset.
The orange, temporary sky with its sun presiding over the quaint town of Ponyville. Already, lights from inside several homes and businesses were on, giving Ponyville an ambience that was too bright yet was somewhat comforting—the bright pony lights complementing the natural light of the sun.
Sounds of laughter, cheer, and casual talk—ponies walking, ponies playing. A pegasus flew close to the ground.
Past the short bridges over the thin rivers, past the tall town hall with its grandiose circular design of thatched walls and of tall pink windows and of colorful flags on the railings, close to several similar-looking houses, there was a building that was bulkier than the homes it was near to. A wooden canopy was over the archway entrance; on it were two masks—one making a smile, another making a frown.
More cheerful discussion was headed out of the building as a crowd of ponies exited, all having smiles on their faces, exchanging thoughts and opinions about what they had just been witness to. Among them were Starlight Glimmer and Shining Armor talking to each other as they walked into the day.
"I'd never thought I would see the day when I would be OK with watching changelings act," Shining said, looking at Starlight. "And, it turns out that they're very good at it!" He placed a hoof on his chin as he stopped. "I should've expected it."
"Because they're still shape-shifting creatures?" Starlight asked. "It's common sense! If changelings can change into other creatures, they have to be good at acting in order to keep their, uh, act up."
"Yeah, it does, doesn't it?" He continued walking, catching up to her. "So, how did you like the play as a whole, considering it's the first time both of us have seen a changeling play?"
"It was...OK?" Starlight grinned an awkward grin, her eyes darting here and there. "Actually, it's ridiculousy cheesy. The narrator keeps telling us what's obvious—how do you narrate breathing and existing?"
Shining laughed, his head moving about as he did so in his joy. "That's spoonfeeding the audience a little too much, isn't it? Not to mention the various consistency issues with just one play! If they plan to make a sequel, I don't know snarled everything would be by the end!"
"The same character keeps changing color!" Starlight said, pointing a hoof at Shining as if to prove a point. Then, she pasued, looking upward. Then, she looked back at Shining. "Then, you have the terrible dialogue! I don't think that's how changelings talk, always accenting every other syllable as if it was a play for foals. Even then, they don't even use complex words at all! It's always the same word here to describe this thing and that thing."
"And, the ending is unconventional in the wrong way," Shining said. "You try to uphold a serious feeling throughout the final few parts, and it all gets resolved by—what, ice cream? A trip to the ice cream store? It's suddenly all happy and sappy!"
Starlight's smile then went away, replaced with a look of curiosity. "Uh, Shining? Since when did you get so involved in narratives? You were the Captain of the Royal Guard and you're now ruler of the Crystal Empire, so your...enthusiasm about it is unexpected."
Shining made an awkward smile. He scratched his blue mane, looked up as he avoided Starlight's gaze. "Uh—well—I, ah—hm—oh—ah, actually—"
"Don't tell me you're just like Spike, reading comics all day, huh?" The mare smirked at him.
Shining's awkward smile grew into a grin.
"Twilight told me all about it."
"OK, I admit it!" he said, becoming exaggerated in his gestures and body movement. Then, he straightened up. "So?" he then said in a calm and collected voice.
Starlight covered her mouth, attempting to hide her snickering. "Well, I wouldn't blame you. Those comics are interesting and to see such dedication from somepony like you for comics is a welcome thing. I'm trying to get into some myself, although I don't think I would like them that much."
"To clarify," Shining said, raising a hoof, "I don't read comics all day."
"You just them read three-quarters of the day, right?"
"Come on, Starlight!" Shining said. Then, he looked towards a bridge. "Let's eat out at Pinkie's; is that alright with you?"
Outside, the sky is now a little darker and a little more orange. The rays of the sun were now more evident, gracing the town with its final touch before the beginning of the night. The town was also a little darker as well; more and more lights are now on, the contrast between light and darkness becoming clearer.
Inside, the cheery character of Sugarcuber Corner revealed itself in its fullest: baked goods and other sweets littered the place as they were on every table that had a customer. The customers themselves ate and chatted. Columns of candy cane colors, wooden green floors and bright yellow ceiling, the smell of a ready batch of delectable and delicious food, the background chatter of ponies about any topic that they could think of—Sugarcuber Corner was a lively place now.
Starlight and Shining sat near the window, at hoof a lovely view of the place at dusk. On their table were two smoothies, a few plates of cakes and of pies, and a big plate of a combination of a cake and a pie—a cakepie. The cakepie was half-eaten.
"It's nice, isn't it?" a high-pitched voice asked.
The two eating ponies looked at Pinkie Pie passing by.
"Hi, Pinkie!" Starlight greeted.
"Good evening!" Shining said, extending a hoof towards the pink pony.
"Silly, we're close friends!" Pinkie said, declining the hoofshake offered by pushing the hoof away. "So, what brings you two to eat here, anyway? Sorry, I didn't ask when you were at the counter—I was so busy with tonight, considering that I and the Cakes are all prepping up for you-know-who!" Then, she raised her eyebrows at the two.
Starlight and Shining looked at each other. Starlight shrugged.
Shining looked at Pinkie. "We don't know who's who."
"It looks like some ponies are out of the loop!" Pinkie said. "You should know who she is, or else how is she going to have a fun time being inside here? It's her first time—or one of her first times, it depends on what you mean by first time—"
"Just spill the beans," Shining said, his voice becoming slightly sterner. "Who is it?"
Pinkie raised a hoof to her face and looked at it. "Ooh! If I'm right, then she's going to be here right about—"
A sneeze.
A purple fire was now inside the bakery.
Most ponies panicked at the sight of it—several jumped towards the counter and into the kitchen. Others hid under the furniture. A lot of them were quivering. Shining ducked for cover. Starlight jumped out of her seat.
Only Pinkie Pie stood valiantly amidst the chaos, happily trotting to the newcomer as she extinguished it with some water. "Ember!" she greeted, extending a hoof shake.
"Oh, Pinkie!" Ember said, a little cautious in her tone as she shook the pony's hoof with her claw. "You're the one with the...pink colors everywhere. Twilight wrote about you in her letters to me." Then, she looked here and there, scanning the room of scared and fearful ponies, all looking at her with fightened faces. "Wow, I didn't you know you wanted me to make lots of friends tonight."
"We're not going to make you swim into the pool of friendship right away, silly!" Pinkie said, pushing the dragon towards Starlight and Shining's table—Starlight now smiling at the dragon and Shining just coming out of the chair; there was a smile on his face, too.
Ember gulped and blinked as she looked at the two. She waved. "Hi!" She looked at Starlight. "Starlight Glimmer, right? I don't want to get confused again like when we first met."
Starlight nodded. "You're right, Ember." Then, she gestured a hoof towards the stallion. "This is Shining Armor, sister of Twilight Sparkle. I'm sure you know about him since he's a co-ruler of the Crystal Empire, but I think this is the first time you've met him in person."
Ember blinked as she looked at him. Then, she looked around. Then, she looked at Shining again.
It was silent for a short while.
"I guess I should be leaving you three to it, then!" Pinkie said as she stepped away from the scene. Then, she ran off to the counter.
Starlight leaned a little to the right and again saw the ponies who were cowering wherever they were. Then, she looked at Ember. "Uh, maybe we should take this outside? This is not, well, the most appropriate place to, uh, eat...right now."
Ember looked behind her. "Oh, I see." She groaned. "These ponies giving me new allergies every time," she muttered under her breath.
"I don't know about eating on what used to be a bunch of apples," Ember said as she and the two ponies sat on chairs right beside a dirt path and a house under the nighttime sky with its bright moon and its twinkling stars. The plates and the food from Sugarcuber Corner were all there, with the cakepie now almost done as crumbs instead of full slices filled most of the plate.
"Transformation spells can lead to situations like that all the time," Starlight said. "I don't mind them, personally." She looked at Shining who was happily munching on his slice of cakepie. "What do you think about it, Shining?"
"Uh—" He turned to face Ember "—it's nothing too worrying," he said with composure in his voice. "If it's an inaminate object, then it's completely fine."
"Alright, then," Ember said. "Hearing it from your mouths is better than just hearing about them from other dragons." Then, she glanced away from the two ponies. "Actually, I'm not here to just eat in Sugarcube Corner and make some friends."
"What is it?" Starlight asked, placing a hoof on the table.
"Is it something serious?" Shining asked.
"No, it's not that," Ember said, holding out her claws at them as if in defense.
The two ponies looked at each other with faces of perplexion.
"It's not that serious—just out of the ordinary, that's all. Well, out of the ordinary for me, anyway." She shrugged.
"And, what's that?" Shining asked.
"I'm sure we can at least help you with...whatever that something is if you tell us."
Ember sighed, yet still kept a semblance of a smile. "I'm having a hard time telling you ponies apart."
Shining narrowed his eyes and inched a little closer to her. "What?"
Starlight giggled. "I know what you mean, Ember!"
Shining looked even more confused, turning towards Starlight. "What are you two talking about?"
Starlight faced him. "When Ember visited Ponyville a short time ago, she kept mixing me and Twilight up! It was difficult for her to tell which one was which. It didn't help that we had similar colors, similar cutie marks, even similar names and similar voices—"
"And that's my problem," Ember said, crossing her arms. "In order to get more in touch with you ponies to understand your side, I have to talk to you, play games with you, do whatever else ponies do—" She made a carefree, flowery gesture with a claw "—but, if I can't tell if this pony is named 'Apple This' or 'Apple That,' then it's not going to go well."
Starlight and Shining looked at each other again, with perplexed faces again. Shining looked at Ember. "Uh, I don't get it."
"Of course, you don't get it," Ember said, sounding aggressive. "You're a pony. You get to immerse yourself in places filled with different ponies so you know which one is friend number one and which one is friend number thirty-nine." She rolled her eyes. "The only reason why I still remember you as Shining Armor is because you're slightly bigger than the rest of them here. Starlight, on the other claw, is about the same size as almost everypony else!" She gestured a claw towards the unicorn mare who responded with a face of restrained recoil.
"But, surely, you know ponies have lots of physical differences other than size," Shining said. "There's Earth ponies and—"
"Pegasi and unicorns, I know," Ember said. "What, you think I was born yesterday? You think that my father, who himself was a Dragon Lord, didn't tell me the basics about ponies?" She stood up, making the table shake and causing the plates to teeter close to the edge.
Starlight's horn glowed blue as she magically levitated the plates over the table; her eyes were focused on the plates as she backed a little.
Shining only widened his eyes at the sight of it. He looked at Ember. "I'm not saying that, Ember," he said with a hint of nervousness. He glanced here and there.
"OK, Shining Armor!" Ember said. She held on to the table as she took a seat.
The plates magically went down on to the table, more organized than before. Starlight's horn stopped glowing as she wiped the sweat off of her face.
Another while of silence passed by as Shining and Starlight looked at Ember. Ember looked back at them, staring at them with a menacing glare.
She sighed again. "Sorry for the outburst," Ember said. "You know that we dragons are..." She looked off to the distance.
"Yeah, we know," Starlight said. "But, as long as you can keep it under control—at least when you're here in Equestria—then it's good."
"I've had several of your friends tell me that as if it was standard routine," Ember said, regaining a part of that mean stare. "I still have to get used to ponies telling other ponies what they learned about friendship. Sounds quite boring, but if it helps...." She took a muffin from one of the plates and munched on that quite loudly with an open mouth.
Starlight and Shining looked at each other again as she continued her obnoxious eating.
Then, she wiped her mouth clean from any crumbs and looked at the two ponies, smiling again though only a little. "That reminds me, what do you say about you two helping me overcome my problem?"
"Of telling ponies apart?" Shining asked. She looked at Starlight.
Starlight twirled a hoof. "I guess we could try."
"That's a good start!" Ember said, crossing her arms again but with a bigger, though smug smile. "I need at least two other ponies, though—I don't know how bad this might get, so backup is always beneficial."
"What two ponies are you looking for?" Starlight asked. "And, is that even allowed?"
"You're good at friendship, you two, right?" Ember asked, pointing at the two of them as she stood up. "So, I'm sure you can convince those ponies with the magic of friendship that this is all for a good cause."
"That's not how it works," Shining began. Then, a tap. "Uh, Starlight?"
"We should help her be a better dragon," Starlight said.
"But, there must be another way. Didn't my sister tell you—"
"Just leave it to me, Shining Armor. I'm certain your sister will understand."
"Where is that Starlight?" Ember asked. Then, she groaned while she tapped the table with a finger in front of the half-eaten goods on their crumb-filled plates. "It shouldn't take that long to get ponies to volunteer in helping a friend."
"That's not how it's supposed to work, anyway," Shining said from across the table. "But, she convinced me that it's going to help you no matter what." He sighed, moving a hoof to his head as he rested an elbow on the table.
Silence passed between the two. Distant talk from inside houses and stores could be heard although not so clear.
"Let's...do that chatting thing that friends do," Ember said, her eyes darting here and there with anxiety.
Shining looked here and there as well. "Uh, OK."
A little bit more silence passed by.
"What's it like, being Dragon Lord and all?" Shining said, smiling a little. He glanced at the plates then back at Ember.
"It's a daunting task," Ember said. "Leading all the dragons in the Dragon Lands with an iron claw was what I did at first—not that I wasn't nicer to my subjects than my father was, but..." She drifted off, looking away from Shining and towards a house with bright lights on inside. "Thorax taught me that if I kept up being harsh and overly-competitive with them, then they would feel very bad and end up just fearing me. Which is nice—but, fear isn't enough, I guess." Then, her eyes narrowed at Shining. She pointed a claw at him. "The only reason why I'm like this to you is to help you help us dragons. Nothing personal." The dragon groaned again and slammed the table with her fist.
Shining looked scared as he tried to move away from the table while staying on his chair.
Ember then rubbed the table with her claws. "I still have to get used to telling my feelings, huh?"
Then, she sneezed.
A purple fire came out of her mouth and burned the remaining food on the table. Now, they were all burnt. Even the plates were burnt, too.
Shining grinned as his horn glowed rose. He levitated and the plates with their food (both in whole and in crumbs) and magically brushed them off to a nearby garbage bin. "Don't worry about that, Ember. They'll take care of it sooner or later."
Ember slapped a hand on her head and let it stay there. "And, I'm still allergic to feelings, I guess. First, it was the celebration. Today, it was Sugarcube Corner. Now, what, just telling you my feelings?"
"Didn't you already say that you were allergic to feelings?" Shining asked. "I'm not Twilight, but I didn't think dragons could be allergic to feelings. Do you feel a sneeze coming when you're happy?"
Ember sighed. "Really, Shining?" She frowned. "What about you let me do the main talking?" She pointed a finger at herself. "So I could get better at friendship, huh?"
"OK?"
"So, you want to move first?" the amber Earth pony asked the gray pegasus over a chessboard on the table—all the pieces were ready. A light from the canopy above brightened the place, making the chessboard and its pieces visible.
"No, I want you to move first, Caramel," the pegasus said.
"I don't know about you, but I don't think I should be the one playing first, Thunderlane."
"And why is that, exactly?"
"I'm a defensive player," Caramel said.
"You just want to get the advantage, don't you?" Thunderlane asked. He crossed his arms as he sat on the chair. "Well, if I play first, then we're both on level ground. No fancy boosts or anything. Just you and me."
"Unless you have a secret strategy that you're not telling me!" Caramel accused.
"You're just whining about you losing the only unfair advantage that you have against anypony! Is that why you always want the other pony to play first?"
"I never said that I always do that!"
"Uh, guys?" Starlight said as she walked into the scene. "I hope you don't mind me asking you to help out a friend of mine."
Her horn glowed.
"I promise it's going to be good!"
Then, the two stallions were encased in a light blue glow.
Starlight levitated the two ponies and smiled.
"You're telling me that you used to read comics a lot and these comics are books made up of pictures? And that you still read them today?" She giggled. "I guess one of the rulers of the Crystal Empire is—what do they call it here? A nerd?"
"Hey, they're still cool!" Shining said.
"I appreciate that," Ember said. "Reading about epic adventures and imagining them in your head. Of course, you said it yourself that a lot of those comic books do paint us dragons as the bad guys."
"It was a different time, OK?" Shining defended, raising his two front hooves in resistance. He laughed nervously. "I didn't expect that we would have a nicer Dragon Lord later on! I mean no harm at all—totally no harm, heh-heh-heh-heh!"
Ember stood up from her chair, glaring at the fearful unicorn.
"Come on! They were fun to read!"
"I was just joking!" Ember said, lightening up. Then, she sat down. "I understand—well, I have to, otherwise I might end up burning down Ponyville on a whim."
Shining still looked scared—a few beads of sweat went down his face. Then, he calmed down and wiped the sweat away. "Alright, now that we got that out of the way—what else can we talk about besides my geeky interests?"
"I find it endearing, to be honest," Ember said, "your comic book reading. But, I think my childhood was better—why read about those epic adventures when you actually lived them out? My father Torch let me join the others in their raids and their patrols. Anypony who dared fight us—you know what happens. I was the one who planned the most—I figured that brute force wasn't enough—"
Shining gulped.
"Was it something I said?" Ember asked.
"Uh, it was nothing," Shining answered with a much calmer, much more normal, voice.
Ember eyed the unicorn with suspicion. "So, I thought that it wasn't enough to fight with just strength. We actually ended up with more gems in our hands and less ponies in our lands because of my, uh, thoughtfulness."
A silence passed between the two.
Her smile gave way to a tired demeanor. "OK, is it over, yet? Is Starlight back? I'm exhausted from opening up my past to you. Is this how ponies make friends? Tell them about their past?"
"We talk about other things," Shining said.
"Like what? Flowers?"
"The florists talk about flowers a lot, but we don't talk about flowers most of the time. We talk about current events, what we've learned—"
"From friendship lessons?" Ember said. She rolled her eyes. "What, do you have some kind of friendship system where you have to report to Princess Twilight Sparkle?"
"It's not like that. It's all casual—we learn from each other and let our friendships grow and enrich our day."
"Doesn't that sound sappy?" Ember said. "I'm trying my best to understand you pony folk, but not only do I have some sort of pony blindness but I also have to join in the 'fun' of friendship activities. I don't want to go to picnics on sunny days in the middle of a grassy nowhere. I don't want to spend hours on end talking about my feelings and your feelings. And, before you say, 'It's to spend time with your friends,' I spend time with my dragons doing things like fiery target practice. So, what do you have to say about that? And, where's Starlight, anyway?"
"Here!" Starlight yelled.
Ember and Shining whipped their heads to face her.
Beside her were two levitating ponies, both of them shivering and having pleading faces—open, wide eyes with shruken pupils; their teeth shaking.
"Starlight!" Shining yelled. "What are you doing?!"
"Ah, perfect!" Ember said, crossing her arms again as she confidently strided towards the levitating ponies. "Two ponies that I hope are very different." She exchanged looks between the two scared stallions who were eyeing her with their shrunken pupils and their petrified faces.
Then, the magic glow around both ponies disappeared and the two fell to the ground.
Starlight winced. "Ooh! That's gotta hurt."
The two stallions rubbed their heads as Caramel recovered and pulled Thunderlane's hoof, getting him up on his four hooves. While their faces were milder now, they were still quavering in Starlight's presence.
"Don't worry, guys!" Starlight said, looking at the two stallions and smiling at them. "This will be over before you know it!"
"You didn't even tell us what you're going to do!" Caramel shouted. He pointed at the dragon. "And, what is she doing here?! Is she going to burn us if we don't follow your little game?"
"I'm out!" Thunderlane exclaimed as he spread his wings and took flight.
He was snagged by the magical glow. He struggled with his wings, sweat pouring down on his face—to no avail. The pegasus was magically pulled back to the ground, to Caramel's side.
"What is going on, Starlight?" Shining asked, stepping in between the two other stallions and the dragon. "What exactly are you planning? You don't grab ponies and drop them here!"
"Well, I am helping a friend. Won't you and Twilight be proud of me that I'm helping a friend?"
"There's a proper way of helping a friend, Starlight!"
Ember groaned. "When are we going to start this?" She tapped her foot. "I'm getting impatient!"
Starlight and Shining looked at the irritated dragon. Then, Shining shot a mean glare at the mare. "Make this quick, Starlight."
She gulped, yet kept a smooth attitude around her.
She turned to face the two stallions who were staring at her with fear and trembling faces. "Your job is simple: You're two different ponies, right?"
The two stallions nodded.
"So, you're going to help Ember over here see your differences."
"Are we going to argue?" Caramel asked, his voice somewhat hesitant as his teeth clattered.
"Physical differences," Starlight specified. "I don't know what Ember will do, but I trust her as much as I trust a friend of mine." A pause as she looked at Ember. "Because she's my friend." She grinned a very wide grin. She stepped aside, away from the scene.
Now, there was little space between the two stallions and Ember. Starlight and Shining stood on the side, Shining shaking his head with closed eyes while Starlight looked on, beaming with anticipation.
Ember walked up to the two stallions.
There was not much going on around them. The crickets chirped, some ponies laughed in some far building or open area. Classical music was being played in a nearby house. The rush of the river.
It was a quiet place.
Ember cracked her knuckles.
Shining gulped, his eyes widening.
The two stallions gulped as well, now both shivering and sweating. They slowly stepped away from Ember.
"No need to be afraid," Ember said. "I'll thank you for your help, OK?" She made a smile or, rather, an attempt at making a smile. It ended up being a nervous, even forced, smile.
The two looked at each other. Then, they looked at Ember. They forced grins on their faces and nodded creakily.
"So, what's your name?" Ember asked.
Caramel raised his hoof. "Uh, I'm Caramel."
"And, I'm Thunderlane," the pegasus said, still a little shaky in his voice.
Ember nodded. "We dragons are very different. I don't know if you've visited the Dragon Lands before, but our differences are clear—my father Torch is a towering gray dragon who could easily crush this entire town with his foot."
The two stallions shivered even more profusely.
"That wasn't supposed to do that kind of thing," Ember said. She sighed. "This isn't helping, right?"
They kept on shivering, neither nodding nor shaking their heads in response.
"What you need to know is that we dragons are very different while you ponies are very similar. Just look at yourselves! Most of you are the same size, a lot of you have similar if not the same hairstyles just with different colors, and even your shapes just look the same! And, if you're a unicorn, your names have to have something related to lights and shiny, glimmering things! If you're a pegasus, it's about the weather—windy this, windy that! If you're an Earth pony, I have to remember the different fruits and other foodstuffs that's right there in your names! What if you are part of the Apple family or the Pear family or any other fruit family? It gets even worse! Because, the same fruit is there but I have to remember another word! How am I supposed to tell the difference between you two?!"
The two shivered even more. Caramel looked at Starlight. "Can we get out, now? I think she learned her lesson already!"
"It's obvious that she hasn't," Starlight bluntly replied.
Shining sighed and looked at her. "You're disrupting their schedule, you've made them afraid of Ember, and what are they going to tell their friends about both you and Ember? Have you even thought this entire thing through?"
"It's working at the very least, Shining!" Starlight said. "And, if anything goes wrong, I can bank on your defensive magic to protect them, right?"
"I would be protecting them from the unnecessary danger you've put them into, Starlight. What happens if Ember goes beserk? She's on the way there!"
"I'm not going beserk!" Ember yelled at Shining.
"Exactly!" Shining shouted at Starlight, pointing a hoof at the angry dragon as if to prove his point.
"It's going to work out, I promise!" Starlight said. "Let Ember try to learn!"
Shining put his hoof on his face and let the hoof run down his face. He groaned. "OK, Starlight. If this goes well, maybe I won't have to snitch you out."
"Hey!"
"Does that mean I can go back to whatever I'm doing?" Ember asked, annoyed waiting in her accent.
Starlight nodded.
Shining nodded slowly and with reluctance.
"Good."
Ember went even closer to the two stallions. Then, she circled them. She paced and she asked, "So, can you give me some tips, some ways to tell you apart?"
"Uh, one of us is an Earth pony and the other is a pegasus," Caramel said. He was still shivering along with Thunderlane.
"That I already know," Ember responded. "Anything else?"
"Our voices?" Thunderlane asked. "You know the difference between my voice and Caramel's, right?"
"It's good that Starlight chose the two of you," Ember said. "If you two had similar voices, I would be very confused by now. But, anyway—anything else? I need more than just the obvious!"
Caramel sticked out his tongue as he put his hoof on his chin and pondered.
Thunderlane rolled his eyes as he faced up.
"Do those gestures mean that you're thinking?" Ember prodded.
"Uh, yes," Thunderlane replied, calmer than before.
Ember placed a hand on her head, looking at the two thinking stallions, the shudder of fear still in their movements.
Ember tapped her foot again. "Come on! I don't have all night!"
"Eek!" Caramel yelped. "I don't want to get burned, I don't want to face the fire of dragons! Please don't hurt me!"
"I'm not going to hurt you if you just cooperate," Ember said, crossing her arms and still tapping her foot. "Now, what were you doing again?"
"Thinking about things that make us different?" Thunderlane asked. "Ask us what we want—what we like and don't like are different."
The dragon groaned. "So, I have to ask ponies 'What do you like?' every time so I can be sure that this pony is Caramel this and not Caramel that?"
"I have a name, you know!" Thunderlane yelled.
"Yeah, Caramel," Ember said.
"What? No, he's Caramel!" Thunderlane said, pointing at his friend beside him. "You can't tell the difference between an Earth pony and a pegasus?"
"It's the names that get mixed up," Ember said. "Also, your cutie marks."
"Our cutie marks aren't even related!" Caramel yelled. "Mine is a trio of blue horseshoes, his is a storm cloud with lightning. If you brought Rainbow Dash here instead of me, I would understand, but confusing horseshoes with storm clouds?"
"Do you want to help me or not?" Ember said, stomping a foot right in front of Caramel.
He quickly took a few steps back.
"OK, why are you threatening us?" Thudnerlane asked, daring to take a step forward at her. "Are you sure you're here just for the lesson? Besides, dragons being pony blind? That's ridiculous."
"I can attest to it!" Starlight shouted from where she was beside Shining.
"And, what do you have to do with it?" he brashly asked, turning his head. "I haven't seen Ember get confused between you and somepony else."
"I did get confused with Starlight and Twilight," Ember said.
Thunderlane and Caramel looked at her.
"They both had lights and shiny things in their names, their cutie marks had sparkles on them—"
"Mine doesn't have sparkles!"
Shining slammed a hoof on his face, shaking his head again; he went to a chair and sat down.
"Well, it doesn't matter what you call it!" Ember argued. "They still look the same to me. Also, there's your colors being the same and that you both have unicorn horns on your heads. And, your voices sound similar."
"Can we go now?" Caramel asked, raising a hoof. "It's getting late already."
"It's not even midnight, yet!" Ember yelled.
Caramel resumed his shuddering.
A few ponies gathered nearby, watching the entire scene unfold.
Ember paced around, rubbing her head. She faced the two stallions. "There's not much you can do, is there? I don't want to embarass myself in front of ponies—not that I care about it or anything, but I'm the Dragon Lord! The Dragon Lord is supposed to be fiercesome!" She raised her arms in the air and made a confident smile. "Sure, I have to be considerate of my subjects, but we dragons are dragons—strong, tough, persistent! Who wants a bumbling Dragon Lord as leader of the dragons? That's why I'm here!" Then, she stomped the ground again with a foot, causing the ground to rumble.
Several ponies screamed; Starlight and Shining took cover under the table while the stallions hurried to hide in two bushes right beside a house.
Ember looked behind her. "And, what do you want?" she asked the observing ponies who were shivering, huddling close to each other. "Go away! I'm trying to learn here!"
And the ponies ran away from there.
Ember sighed. Then, she turned around. She saw Starlight and Shining hiding under the table and some bushes quivering.
"I didn't want that to happen," Ember said.
She closed her eyes, balled up her claws into fists. She opened her eyes, now arched. Then, she took in a breath of air. "No need for a fight."
Then, she walked to the table where Starlight and Shining were. She leaned down to reach their level. "Uh, thanks for your help, Starlight," Ember said. "It may not have worked perfectly, but I...got something out of it. I hope."
"Yeah, Ember!" Starlight responded, wearing a nice grin.
Shining also wore a nice grin and waved her goodbye.
"See you soon," Ember said, adopting a friendlier tone before she flew away into the night sky.
The ponies under the table got out of the table and watched the dragon fly towards the horizon. Then, she slowly disappeared.
The big double doors of the castle closed.
Starlight sighed and closed her eyes.
"Starlight," Shining said with a stern voice, "did you really think through that? Because it doesn't sound like you did."
She didn't respond. She didn't turn around or say anything.
"Starlight."
"I know, Shining Armor!" Starlight yelled, turning around and bringing her two front hooves right in front of her face. "I thought it would be easy—if Ember just trained with two ponies to help her, then it would turn out just fine! Except it didn't! I didn't know that the ponies would be scared of her—"
"You honestly thought that stealing a few ponies away from their activity and dropping them right in front of a dragon isn't going to scare them?"
Starlight sighed again and looked down. "You're right, Shining. I really didn't think this entire situation through."
"I don't know what my sister is going to say about this," Shining said. "I would try to be as kind as I could be while still giving you a reasonable punishment, but from what I've heard about my sister—"
"I already heard about it," a voice said.
They looked at Princess Twilight Sparkle standing in the middle of the hallway and on the royal carpet. She had an angry look on her face—a pout and narrowed eyes staring straight at Starlight.
She walked towards her. The hoofsteps she made broke the silence of no words.
"While I was busy reading, Rarity came by to tell me that Ember is in Ponyville, trying to learn something about how to tell ponies apart. Then, I heard the ground shake. We felt it. A few ponies then came by here to tell me that there's a dragon on the loose."
Starlight gulped.
"It's only now that I realized that it was caused by you, Starlight," Twilight said. She shook her head. "It's not bad compared to switching the cutie marks of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, but..." Twilight sighed. "You've scared several ponies indirectly because of this. You caused a false alarm. And, I don't want to know what you did in order to help Ember learn."
"Yeah, it's best that I don't tell you."
Twilight rubbed her head. "Sorry about it, Starlight. When you're panicking, the stress really does get to you." She brought in a calmer tone, relaxing a little. "I don't want to be mad at you, Starlight. You're not supposed to be learning about friendship and to be helping out friends inside a box. But, what you did was still not a good thing." Then, she looked at Shining. She smiled. "Oh, I almost forgot you were here, Shining!"
"On the bright side, we did watch a play together," Shining said.
Twilight's smile remained when she looked at Starlight. "Hanging out with my brother, huh? That's some progress in terms of friendship." Then, her smile faded away. "That doesn't excuse you."
"I know, Twilight," Starlight said, wearing a sheepish grin. Then, she dropped the smiling facade and revealed a frown.
Snores from past the wooden door.
"Why didn't you try to stop her?" Twilight asked her brother in hushed volume; a desire for a good answer was in her voice. "Did she intimidate you with her magic?"
He blinked as he thought of something. "I just had a good time with her back in the theater. I did become serious after it went too far, but I was secretly hoping that it would work out in the end. I wouldn't want Ember to become a laughingstock, and I did tell her to get through with the lesson as quickly as she could."
Twilight sighed. "Thanks for being kind to her, Shining," Twilight said. "Having to tutor a pony who's like that—with her type of view on how to solve things—it's...not easy. The things that make sense to us don't make that much sense to her, and vice versa."
She became silent for a while.
Shining only watched her sister move her eyes slowly.
"Maybe it's because I'm filled with Princess duties in my mind lately," Twilight said, pacing the carpet but still eyeing Shining with that starry look. "As much as I try to cope with all the meetings and all the events and all the things that I have to attend and to do, it's getting challenging to just get some rest some days. But, I know I can't blame it all on being a Princeess. Princess Celestia has lots on her mind—it must be—but she doesn't harbor lots of anger against anypony who ends up only irritating her."
"Twilight," Shining interrupted, lightly holding out a hoof towards her. "It's alright, Twilight. You don't have to ramble on about it."
"But I do," Twilight replied. Then, she sighed again. "Or, it's because I panicked and it's late at night."
"It's not even nine o' clock," Shining said. "But, if you've been up for such a long time, then maybe just a good night's rest will do the trick."
Twilight cracked a smile. "Yeah. I guess I do need a simple rest."
"That's my Twilight."
Then, they hugged each other. It lasted for a short while.
"Thanks for the visit, brother."
"You're welcome, sis."
Then, Twilight drowsily walked towards the large double doors at the end of the long hallway.
Shining walked the other way, going towards the exit of the castle.
Several bright and colorful changelings walked out of the theater, giving themselves hoofbumps as they talked and joked about the play they had just enacted again. Shining stopped his walk to watch them pass by.
The changelings' carapaces and eyes glistening in the moonlight. Their talk was fun, optimistic—it was dotted with laughs and gasps and other loud expressions.
Shining smiled. "It was a fun play in the end, wasn't it?" he said to himself. He smiled and chuckled a little. Then, he walked away from the theater, following the changelings and hearing their joyous conversation.
A few days later, at morning
"And there are various factors that play in to change up the normal conditions of the spell," Starlight said as she sat in front of a large book on her reading desk. "But, if I go back to the previous page, there's, of course, one of the great axioms of teleportation spells: never, ever, teleport into an object. Since I already mastered advanced teleportation, then modifying this spell to time the teleportation shouldn't be a problem."
Then, she levitated the book and read and re-read a certain paragraph. "All I have to do is to set the time and I'm good to—"
The door opened.
The book dropped to the floor. Starlight looked at the intruder.
"Twilight!" Starlight said, smiling as she hastily picked up the book with her magic. "I cleaned up my room just like you said!"
Twilight scanned the room, smiling, too.
A vase of scrolls was beside the reading desk. A few pictures adorned the wall, and then there was the wide mirror that reflected the room; the mirror also had lots of pictures of Starlight and her friends just chilling out and relaxing and having fun with each other. There were several stacks of books. There was also a wooden bookshelf beside the simple, normal-sized bed. A small desk was beside the bed. The open window let in rays of sunlight that brightened up the room and its mood.
"I've decided to try out a new spell," Twilight announced, levitating a large book of her own, though it was closed. "'Modern Spellcasting' is a book I've read lots of times; I've already categorized it as a classic! And, since I know that you've read it lots of times, then you also know that there are several spells in that book that I'm sure we'll have lots of fun trying to, well, cast!"
"Are you talking about temporary attainment of other types of magic?" Starlight asked gleefully; a big, wide grin was on her face, accompanied with big, wide eyes and shrunken irises.
"Yeah! I've already casted the spell that lets unicorns and Earth ponies walk on clouds as well as pegasi do, but it's a basic spell—basic compared to these spells that we're gonna try out. And, besides, the spell is a faraway branch of this, uh, branch of magic. Getting to the fundamental and essential spells that govern this type of magic is going to test the limits of your ability, Starlight!"
"Have you actually tried out the spells, though?" Starlight asked, placing a hoof on her chin as she shot her mentor a smug smirk.
"Trained for it, but I haven't tried out the spells themselves," Twilight said. Then, she placed a hoof around Starlight's neck and hugged her. "So, are you ready for some serious spellcasting, Starlight?"
"Of course, I am!" Starlight said. She levitated her book again and closed it and placed it on her back. "So, of course, when you get to temporary attainment of other types of magic, what are we talking about here? Short-term is out of the question—are we talking long-term or semi-permanency?"
"You should start off with long-term first, Starlight," Twilight said. "Have you brushed up about it recently? Semi-permanency spells under this branch requires at least twice the layers of complexity than long-term spells have in order to make you perfectly suitable for the other magic first before you can actually utilize the magic with its benefits."
"But, I protest," Starlight said, giving Twilight yet another smirk. "If you've read the author's other books, then you know that he's touched upon a subject of magic known as 'The Easy Semi-Permanency Trick,' where he argued that, with a little bit of bending here and there—this is just to simplify—then you've gotten a headstart in learning semi-permanency spells with much safety."
"You're just ignoring one important thing," Twilight shot back. "Right after that section, he also gives a warning: It can worsen your learning ability in relation to these spells."
"Which is why I decided to make the trick even better—if you were wondering why I was awake late at night two weeks ago, then you know that—"
"There you are!"
The door was smashed open.
"I was looking for you, Twilight!" Ember said. Then, she groaned again.
"Uh, oh." Starlight looked fearful.
"Not only do I have to talk to two ponies with similar colors and similar cutie marks and similar names and similar voices, I don't even know what you're talking about! How am I supposed to tell who the real Twilight is?"
Twilight raised a hoof. "Uh, I'm Twilight, Ember."
Starlight groaned and placed a hoof on her face.