> The Legend of Friendship - Harmony
>  by Danieru
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue - Burning Ponyville
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ponyville...

A small and quiet town in Equestria not too far away from its capital, Canterlot. Ponies in this town live a simple and relaxed live unlike the citizens in bigger towns like Manehattan for example. There were, of course, a whole lot of events and activities that one could do in this town but in the end, it was just a peaceful and almost boring little town.

Recently, however, things happened that were threaten to put Equestria in danger, something that it hadn't seen for many many years while it was under the rule of Princess Celestia. And those things all happened in this little town and led to the current state that Ponyville was in now...

One Pony, a Unicorn stallion with an orange coat, a dark red mane, dark blue eyes and a Cutie Mark that consisted of five white glowing stars, was running towards the center of the town. His name was Summershine and he was a resident of Ponyville.

Multiple ponies came running towards him, screaming in panic and fleeing from something. Any other pony would probably join this scared crowd and flee as well but the Unicorn was confident enough to investigate and find out what was causing all of this. Maybe he could even do something against it.

Summershine was running towards the direction from where the ponies came from. He ran straight until he saw the ponies coming from around the corner that would lead toward the very center of the town. Something over there must be the reason for the quickly spreading panic in this town.

Once Summershine walked around the buildings, he quickly stopped in his track once he saw what was happening. What the pony saw around the corner shocked him and left him speechless...

Fire.

There was fire everywhere...

Half of the town was on fire, the buildings, the trees, everything. And from the looks of it, it was still spreading really quickly. Yellow and orange colors were covering the usual very green town.

Wondering why a fire like that broke out, Summershine moved his head forward and looked into the distance. He could see something or someone standing right in the middle of the fire, who was completely ignored by the flames or maybe even unaffected. This pony was turned around but he quickly recognized who it was and it started to worry him.

"Star Twinkle!" Summershine shouted before he ran towards the pony in his worry.

Star Twinkle, however, did not hear him, he seemed to be busy with something that was apparently important enough to let him ignore all the chaos around him. Even the flames and the screaming ponies.

The closer Summershine came to Star Twinkle, the more he got confused after getting a better look at him. Star Twinkle had a light green coat and a dark green star-shaped mane. This was normal. However, the Star Twinkle that he knew was an Earth Pony, which is why he was confused to see a pair of wings on his back, as well as a horn on his head. This would make Star Twinkle an Alicorn.

As if that wasn't confusing enough, Summershine began to notice something else. He saw some more familiar ponies, two to be exact, who laid on the ground unconscious right in front of Star Twinkle. One of them was a light blue coated Pegasus mare with a white and light blue mane. The other one was a dark blue coated Pegasus Stallion with a light gray and dark blue mane. There seemed to be something coming out of them that flowed right towards Star Twinkle's horn. It's as if he absorbed something from them. Whatever it was he did, it seemed to hurt the two ponies on the ground, which happened to be two friends from Summershine and Star Twinkle so it made no sense that he was doing something like that to them.

"Star Twinkle!" Summershine once more shouted, this time with a little anger in his voice to make sure that he was no longer ignored.

Star Twinkle peeled his ears as soon as his name was said. This time he clearly heard the Unicorn. He stopped doing whatever he was doing to the two ponies, Star Twinkle slowly turned his head around to face the one who was calling his name.

As soon as the Unicorn's eyes met with the eyes of Star Twinkle, there was yet another surprise. The usual light green colored eyes of Star Twinkle were now red and the expression on his face was something the Unicorn never saw before on his face.

It was a malicious grin that sent shivers down on Summershine's back.

Once Star Twinkle's eyes were locked into Summershine's, the grin became even wider and he fully turned around to face the Unicorn while also stopping to care about the two Pegasi in front of him.

Summershine couldn't help but worry about the two but he also had a really bad feeling about what happened to Star Twinkle. It was like he was a completely different pony than before. It was to an extent, quite frightening.

Then without a warning, Star Twinkle raised his horn. A trail of fire started to come from his left and right which was forming a ring of fire around the two. Surprised by that, Summershine didn't know how to react and found himself trapped now.

"You're the one who started the fire!?" Summershine asked in his realization.

But Star Twinkle completely ignored those words and slowly walked up to Summershine. "Only four left," he then said with a sinister tone in his voice.

Those words made Summershine quickly realize what was going on, judging from what recently happened to him and his friends. Summershine's worried expression turned into a more determined and angry one now and he prepared himself for what would happen next.

Star Twinkle didn't seem worried at all and kept on grinning before he stood ready as well. But not without saying some last words.

"This will be the end...of your Equestria!"

...

My Little Pony

Harmony
> 1. Summershine
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ponyville...


It was a nice and sunny day in the little town of Ponyville. Most ponies already got up a few hours ago. The dirt road of Ponyville was already filled with ponies who started their day by going to work, or to school, in case of the younger ones. It was usually the busiest time in Ponyville. 

One of the ponies who got ready for his job was a Unicorn stallion who walked around the main road of Ponyville while pulling a cart with him. The stallion had a dark orange coat color and a dark red spiky mane. His eyes were dark blue and he had five glowing stars as a Cutie Mark on his flank. The name of this pony was Summershine and he was a citizen of Ponyville.

The stallion used his magic to levitate a list in front of his eyes and took a look at it. "Let's see where to go first..." he said before he scrolled his eyes through the list carefully. After confirming what he wanted to know, he put the scroll away again and smiled. "Looks like as if I get to see everypony on my route," he said before he grinned with some excitement in his face.

As Summershine walked through the town, he made sure to take a good look around to see what everypony else was up to. Ponies in the skies were taking care of the clouds to let the sun shine through, sale ponies made sure to open their shops and let in their first customers into their stores, some fillies and colts seemed to be late for school and ran past him in order to still arrive in time, and so on.

Those were the same things that Summershine usually saw in this town. Ponies of all kinds lived their quiet and relaxing lives without any worries. Watching those ponies almost made Summershine feel relaxed as well. Ponyville was perfect for a life like that, unlike Manehattan for example, which was a much more crowded and hectic place. 

Before he knew it, he arrived at the first location that he needed to be at. It was a workshop that strongly resembled a giant anvil. Right above the entrance, there was a sign which said "Iron Hammer,". It was the local wooden and metal workshop of Ponyville. Summershine stopped and looked inside the cart to pick up what he needed right now. As soon as he found it and began walking towards the entrance an Earth Pony stallion with a brown coat, a silver flat top mane, dark blue eyes, and a hammer as a Cutie Mark stepped out of the workshop. It was the owner of this workshop.

"Morning, Summershine!" The Earth Pony greeted with a smile on his face as soon as he saw Summershine walking up to him with a package levitating above his head.

"Hey, Mr. Steel Hammer!" Summershine greeted back.

Steel Hammer sighed in response. "How many times do I have to tell you that you don't have to add "Mr." if you talk to me?"

Summershine laughed a little in embarrassment and rubbed his neck. "Sorry," he apologized before he levitated the package towards Steel Hammer now. "Here, I got a package for you today,"

A formed on the face of the Earth Pony. "Ah, yes! Those must be the new tools that I ordered!" He said in excitement as he took the package from Summershine, who now levitated a list towards him so that he could sign it.

"Thanks a bunch!" Summershine said happily before returned to his cart and checked the list from before one more time to see where he was about to head next. However, as he looked through it, he noticed how Steel Hammer was looking at him with lowered eyebrows. "What's with that look? Did I say something funny?" Summershine asked confused once he noticed the strange expression on Steel Hammer's face.

"No, nothing," Steel Hammer replied while he made sure to keep that look on his face. "Just making sure that you look happy," he added.

Summershine got confused by those words but still formed a smile on his face. "Why wouldn't I be happy?" He then asked.

Steel Hammer went over to the package that Summershine brought to him and started to carry it inside while answering Summershine's question. "You know...delivering packages to little old me," he said, which was not really enough for Summershine to understand so Steel Hammer continued. "Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't your special talent magic?"

Summershine still didn't quite get it. "Yeah, so?" He asked in the hope to get a more clear answer.

"What do you mean, so?" Steel Hammer then replied almost shocked. "I heard you even went to Princess Celestia's school for gifted Unicorns! Don't you want to do something related to all of that magical stuff? I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't see a problem with delivering packages and all that but since you are already gifted with such a talent, shouldn't you be doing something related to that?" He straight out asked.

About now, Summershine finally realized what Steel Hammer wanted to get at. He began to smile and appreciated that Steel Hammer was thinking about his well-being but from the looks of it, Summershine seemed really happy with his current job. "I'm perfectly happy, Steel Hammer," he assured. "I mean look at this," he said before he levitated his list over to Steel Hammer.

The Earth Pony stallion took a look at the names that were on the list. "Aren't those your friend's names?" He asked after he was done reading.

"Yep!" Summershine replied happily. "It just so happens that I have to deliver a package to each of them today," he explained.

"Wow, that is a pretty good coincidence," Steel Hammer replied before he gave the list back to Summershine.

Summershine smiled. "All of my friends live in this town, here in Ponyville. There is nothing that would make me happier than living here and spending my time with them. It doesn't really matter what I do as long as that is the case," he explained with a warm smile on his face.

Steel Hammer began to understand. Of course, if someone who lived a more eventful or extravagant lifestyle would spend a few days here, they would get bored pretty quickly. He figured that Summershine wasn't one of those ponies so what right had he to question his happiness?

"Well, as long as you are happy, I guess there is nothing more than I have to worry about, huh?" Steel Hammer replied with a grin on his face.

Summershine grinned back. "Still, thanks for worrying about me. Now if you excuse me, I have to get those packages delivered," he said before he went back to his cart to continue his work.

After the Unicorn walked away from the Iron Hammer, he took one more quick glance over his list and read the names of his friends. Just knowing that he will see all of them today made him already happy and put a smile on his face.

"Alright! Let's go!" He then said in excitement as he walked to his next destination.


Later...


The first package that he had to deliver, was going to the Golden Oak Library. It was a library inside of a giant tree. There was a Unicorn mare living inside this tree-house who was probably waiting for a book. At least, that's what Summershine guessed, based on how well he knew this pony.

Once he stood in front of the door of the library, he knocked several times and waited for a response. After an unusually long time of waiting, someone finally opened the door slowly but only so far that only one eye peeked out of the house.

"Yes?" The Unicorn mare behind the door asked almost mistrusting.

However, despite that weird behavior, Summershine smiled and levitated his package in front of the door. "I got a package for you," he said with a grin on his face.

The mare looked at the package with a serious and thoughtful expression on her face for a few seconds before she finally gave an answer. "Oh," she simply said before she opened the door completely, revealing her purple coat, her dark purple mane, her light blue eyes with a pair of black glasses in front of it, and a light blue book as a Cutie Mark. The mare took the package with her magic inside. "Thanks," she then said before she closed the door right in front of Summershine.

Of course, Summershine was a little confused by this, especially since he needed her to write her name on his list first. "Wait, Brilliance!" He said as he knocked on the door multiple times. "You still need to sign this!" He shouted at the door in the hope that she would hear this.

Again, the door opened slowly and Brilliance stood in front of Summershine. "Oh, it's you again, Summershine," she said, much to the stallion's surprise.

"Of course, it's me again!" Summershine replied before he let out a sigh and levitated the list in front of the mare. "Here, I just need you to sign this,"

"Oh," Brilliance replied in her realization. "I'll go and get something to write," she then said before she walked inside.

"No, wait I already got-" Summershine said but Brilliance didn't seem to be aware of his words and continued to walk inside to get either a pen or a feather.

Summershine shook his head but then he put on a smile again. He knew how Brilliance could be a little hard to deal with. It's not like she was not interested in talking with Summershine or anything, it's just that she was not really good at it. She spends most of her time inside the library and reads books all day so naturally, her social skills were pretty poor. That's why Summershine decided to be the one who would start a conversation.

He walked inside so that Brilliance wouldn't close the door on him again. "So...mind telling me what was inside the package?" He asked in order to start somewhere.

Brilliance came back with a feather and replied. "A book," she said with a deadpan tone in her voice.

"Figures..." Summershine said.

The mare wrote down her name on Summershine's list. "Done," she then said.

"Thanks," Summershine replied.

After that, there was only an awkward silence in the room. Brilliance only kept looking at Summershine with an emotionless expression on her face. She wasn't telling him to go or anything so Summershine had no idea if he was bothering her now or not. Maybe he was and she just couldn't bring herself to tell him.

Still, Summershine attempted one more time to get into a little conversation with her. "Mind telling me what book it is?"

"No," Brilliance replied before she ripped off the package from the book and revealed its title. 

"Monstrous Manual?" Summershine read. "A book about creatures of Equestria?" He asked confused. "Didn't know that you were interested in something like that,"

"Me neither," Brilliance replied, much to Summershine's surprise. "I once read in a book that it is good to have a hobby to talk about with your friends," she explained.

Suddenly, Brilliance's true nature shined through. Despite her being a little socially awkward, her friends were pretty important to her and she wanted to make sure that it would stay like this. Still, Summershine couldn't help but point out something. "You know, I think that only applies if your friends have the same hobby to talk about,"

Brilliance began to get a little embarrassed since she was sure that her thought process was the right one, however, once Summershine said that her glasses dropped down a little due to her surprise, causing her to lift them up again properly. "I-I guess you're right..." she then said a little flustered.

Summershine began to laugh. "Hey, don't worry. You don't have to get a new hobby just so you can talk to others about it. Reading is your hobby, right? I and the others also love a good book from time to time so I guess you can talk with us about that. After all, you read almost any book known to pony kind, right?"

"Yeah," Brilliance replied. "I seemed to have forgotten that," she admitted.

While the situation must have been a little awkward to Brilliance, Summershine felt like it lifted the mood a little so he was happy and smiled. Still, the silence in the room was still present so Summershine figured that he should continue his work again. "I have to go now, delivering the remaining packages and stuff, you know. Also, I don't want to bother you any longer," he said before he turned around to get back to his cart.

As the stallion was out of the door, however, Brilliance said some words that caught him a little off guard. "You don't bother me..." she said.

"Huh?" Summershine replied as he turned around confused.

Brilliance had a hard time looking straight at Summershine but she still went out with what she had to say. "I like spending time with you...and the others," she said while a warm smile on her face started to form.

Summershine was really happy to hear those words and smiled back before he left the library and returned to his cart. At least he could now leave, knowing that one of his friends was happy seeing him. As much as he wanted to talk a little more with her, he still had to finish his job so he continued to deliver the other packages.


Later...


"Alright, next stop..." Summershine said as he walked through the main road of Ponyville to get to his next destination.

On his way, he noticed how clear the sky was and he was grateful for such a nice day so far. There was only a hoof-full of clouds in the sky and on one of them, a pony was sleeping on. Summershine quickly recognized who it was and decided to shout out the pony's name.

"Nightsky! Hey!" He shouted.

The pony on the cloud quickly was quickly aware of how someone was shouting its name and got up. It was a Pegasus stallion with a dark blue coat, a light gray and dark blue mane, yellow eyes and light blue and yellow shooting star as a Cutie Mark. He had a rather confused look on his face, probably because he just got up. He looked down at the ground and recognized Summershine, who looked up at the sky to him.

"I got a package for you and your sister!" Summershine shouted up to him.

As soon as Nightsky heard those words, he got up on his hooves and slowly dived down towards Summershine. "A finally!" The stallion said with a relieved tone in his voice. "I was wondering if it would come anytime soon," he added.

"What did you order?" Summershine asked out of curiosity while he provided a list for Nightsky to sign on. 

"Just a little present for my sister," Nightsky replied as he put his name on the list for Summershine.

Summershine smiled. "Yeah, of course," he said.

Nightsky seemed to be confused to hear that and lowered his eyebrows. "What do you mean?" He asked.

Summershine explained. "Oh, nothing! I just figured that you would do something nice to your sister as usual. Nothing wrong with that, by the way," he said as if he wanted to make sure to not be too direct.

But Nightsky shook his head. "It's nothing special, really. I think it's normal to present her something from time to time," he explained casually.

The Pegasus stallion didn't seem to notice how thinking like that was exactly what made him look even nicer. From the outside, Nightsky may look like a cold pony who doesn't seem to show any interest in others, however, one couldn't be further away from the truth. He was actually a very polite and kind pony once someone takes the time to look at him properly. He also has a little sister that he puts above all else and that he likes to protect from harm.

"There you go," Nightsky said as he gave the list back to Summershine.

"Thanks a bunch! Here!" Summershine replied as he finally gave Nightsky his package. "One thing is a little strange though, Nightsky," he said with a little confused look on his face. "There is your and your sister's name on this package. Normally there should only one pony who is the address,"

"Okay," Nightsky replied confused before he inspected the package himself. "You're right. It also looks a little bit bigger as I ordered,"

"You think your sister ordered something as well?" Summershine asked, assuming that this way two packages were out into one.

But Nightsky only shook his shoulders. "If that's the case, then I make sure to give it to her," he assured. "Thanks. Now if you don't mind, I would like to get back to sleep," he said before he rubbed one of his eyes.

"Oh, you did the night shift again?" Summershine asked.

"Yeah. Again..." Nightsky replied with a slightly bored expression on his face.

Of course, knowing that Summershine made sure to leave again so that Nightsky could get his well-earned rest. The Pegasus flew back up to his cloud while grabbing his package and continued his nap. Summershine wanted to advise him that taking a package with him on a cloud was probably not the smartest idea but Nightsky was already gone and fast asleep again so he figured that he should continue his work again.


Later...


Summershine found himself in front of a shop. It was a yellow colorful building with a sign above the entrance that said: "Toys N Stuff,". It was a local toy store here in Ponyville that, as one would imagine, specified on selling toys. The Unicorn had to deliver a package to one of his friends who was working there.

When the Unicorn entered the store, he was quickly greeted by a stallion, who seemed to have waited right at the entrance of the store. 

"Hey there, Summershine!" The pony greeted cheerfully.

"Hi, Crash," Summershine greeted back.

The pony in front of Summershine was an Earth Pony Stallion with a yellow coat, a light orange mane, red eyes and a whoopee cushion as his Cutie Mark. The stallion had a bright grin on his face as soon as he saw Summershine coming into the store. 

"Did you came to buy something!? I knew secretly liked toys as much as I do!" He expressed, completely unaware of Summershine's real reason to be here.

"Actually, I-" Summershine replied before Crash dragged him further inside the store.

"Here! Let me find you something!" He said while he pulled Summershine to some shelf with a lot of stuffed toys. "How about some little friend that you can cuddle in a dark and rainy night?"

"Well, I-" Summershine said before he was dragged to another shelf again.

"Or do you want board games!? We have lots of those too!" He said as he showed off every board game imaginable in this store. "But maybe you're more into the classics?" He asked before he took Summershine to yet another shelf. "How about a good old wooden toy train or maybe-"

"No!" Summershine then exclaimed to finally put a stop on all of this. "Here!" He said as he levitated a package in front of Crash. "I got a package for you!"

"Oh!" Crash said in his realization. "Well, why didn't you say that earlier?" He said as he took the package from Summershine.

"I was trying to but-" Summershine replied before he was interrupted yet again by Crash.

"But then you saw all the toys and got distracted, right? I know, happens to me all the time," he said, completely unaware that he was the one driving Summershine to this point. Crash was shaking the package a little and for some reason knew what must have been inside. "Must be the book I ordered: Pranksters 101,"

The Unicorn only released a frustrated sigh after that and tried his best to continue his job. "Whatever, I need you to-"

"Show you around some more? Sure thing!" Crash interrupted in the middle of Summershine's sentence, much to Summershine's dislike who started to get a little annoyed by all of this.

Crash was a pony who could get easily excited by the smallest things and sometimes, he doesn't realize how others around him react to that. But that doesn't mean that he doesn't care about others, he just was a little oblivious to it.


Later, outside...


Summershine was kept inside the store for quite a while because it took a while to get Crash out of his excitement. Eventually, he got him to sign his list so that he could continue his job, even if he was put on hold for a while. But Summershine wouldn't let himself get dragged down like that and continued.

His next destination was not too far away, it was on the marketplace of Ponyville. Ponies would usually put up some stands and sell stuff there. He figured that the pony he was looking for was somewhere there at this time of day.

The stallion walked through the marketplace while pulling the cart behind him and keeping his eyes open. "Now...where could she be?" He mumbled as he looked for the receiver of his next package, unbeknownst to how fast he would get his answer.

"Fifty bucks!? Are you kidding me!?" He heard a female voice screaming through the marketplace.

Hearing this voice actually made him chuckle a little. "Found her," he said with a smile on his face. He decided to follow the voice in the distance and soon found the pony he was looking for arguing with another pony that was standing right in front of her stand.

"Those gems are never worth fifty bits!" The female pony exclaimed once more. She was an Earth Pony mare with a red coat, a yellow mane, purple eyes and three bitcoins as a Cutie Mark. The mare seemed really upset about an offer that one pony made to her, who was offering a basket of gems to her. "I'll give you twenty bits at most! Final offer!" She then replied.

Almost offended by that offer, the pony in front of her left again with its basket of gems. Everypony around her, especially the other sale ponies laughed heavily as soon as that was all over.

"There she goes again!" One pony commented.

"Yeah, she sure showed this pony one or two things," another pony added.

"Well serves that pony right trying to rip off Happytrade, am I right?" One more pony said with a grin on his face.

Happytrade however, didn't mind all those words and waited quietly for the next customer to arrive.  Summershine took the opportunity to talk with her now so that he could give her the package. He placed it in front of her, much to her surprise, until she saw Summershine in front of her.

"Looks like you are in your element. As usual," he commented before he placed his list on her counter so that she could sign it.

Unlike, the others, Happytrade quickly realized that he was bringing her a package. Knowing her, she probably knew that a package was coming today for her. She was really good when it came to planning things ahead, after all.

She wrote down her name and returned Summershine's list. "Please. You think I gonna lose some precious bits to some amateur trader who tries to rip me off?" She said confidently in her abilities with a grin on her face. "And this will help me out even more," she added, referring to the package that Summershine brought to her.

The mare opened the package and revealed what was inside of it. It was a book. "The how to make quick Bits Business Guide?" Summershine read out loud from the book that Happytrade was holding out in front of her. "A book with trading advice? I don't think you really need that," he said, knowing how good of a trader Happytrade was, especially after what he witnessed just a few minutes ago.

But Happytrade disagreed. "It can't hurt trying to improve, right? Maybe there is something in here that I wasn't aware of," she explained.

Happytrade's specialty was trading. She always knows how much something was worth and how much you should pay. Ironically, she wasn't trying to rip off anypony else even though she would be pretty good at it. She always wanted to keep things fair and felt bad taking more money for an item that wasn't worth that much. It was actually that honesty that made her into a pretty well-known trader in Ponyville.

"By the way," Happytrade then started before she presented some stuff to Summershine. "Can I interest you in some of my wares? Do you like hats? I got hats! Do you like books? I got books!" She said before went on and on to present more and more stuff to the stallion.

Luckily, Summershine knew exactly how to deal with this situation. "Bye," he said before he walked with an attempt to never turn around again. When it came to stuff like this, Happytrade would not stop until she would sell him something. 

Of course, being the natural trader she was, Happytrade would not give up that easily and sprinted right after Summershine. As soon as the stallion noticed that, he began to panic and ran away. He knew that once Happytrade started to make an offer, she would not stop anytime soon.

"I will make you a special friend offer!" Happytrade shouted after Summershine.

"No thanks!" Summershine instantly replied.

From an outside perspective, this would look probably a little heartless, especially since Summershine is a really good friend to Happytrade but if he started to buy something from her, then she would not stop until he would have bought like twenty things at once. There was a rather wild and almost silly looking chase going on through the market place, one that would probably not end anytime soon...


Later...


Eventually, Summershine managed to get away from Happytrade and her intentions to sell him something that he really didn't need. He didn't really felt that bad because he knew that Happytrade would eventually sell enough of her stuff even without him buying something. Right now, all he was feeling was just annoyance and exhaustion.

"Ugh...that sure took some time," Summershine expressed in an annoyed tone as he walked through the town again, pulling the cart behind him.

"Wow, you look really exhausted!" A female voice commented on Summershine's current state.

At first, Summershine thought it was Happytrade, who caught up to him but he then quickly realized that it was another voice, which was coming above his head. A Pegasus mare with a light blue coat, a white and light blue straight mane, light orange eyes and a pink flower as a Cutie Mark laid down on a cloud that was levitating above Summershine's head.

"Hey, Lightbeam," Summershine replied. "Let's say that I got a little distracted by something before I could continue my job," he explained.

Lightbeam giggled. "I'm sure it wasn't that bad," she said with a smile on her face before she jumped down from the cloud she was sitting on.

"Yeah, it really wasn't," Summershine had to admit after putting some more thoughts into it. "I mean, I got to meet my friends like that. Including your brother,"

"Oh?" Lightbeam replied. "Does that mean that Nightsky ordered something?" She asked confused.

"Yep," Summershine replied. "Although, it was kinda weird because the package had both your brothers and your name on it," he explained.

"Huh?" Lightbeam said confused.

"Yeah, you ordered something, right? I guess the packages were both put into one since they were going to the same address so don't worry, I gave Nightsky the package,"

"AAAAAHHHH!" Lightbeam then screamed all of a sudden, drawing some looks at her and Summershine.

Of course, Summershine was highly confused about this reaction that practically came out of nowhere. "What!? What!?" He asked confused.

"No, no, no, no! Nightsky can't see what's inside the package! It was supposed to be a surprise!" She explained right into Summershine's face. "I have to get that package back before he opens it! When did you give to him?"

"Probably an hour ago?" Summershine replied almost casually.

Again, Lightbeam screamed in shock. "We need to get that package back! Now!" She said as she grabbed Summershine's hoof and dragged him back to where he last saw Nightsky.

"Not this again!" Summershine mumbled to himself as soon as he realized that his job wouldn't be done for quite a while with all those things interrupting his work. But right now, it couldn't be helped.


Later...


Summershine returned to the place where he found Nightsky before. The stallion didn't seem to have moved away from his cloud and peacefully took a nap. This was actually perfect for Summershine and Lightbeam.

"Alright!" Lightbeam expressed after seeing this opportunity. "I'll go up there and take the package away and you wait here!" She suggested.

"Wait...if you go up there and take the package away, then why do I even need to be here?" Summershine asked in confusion. But before he could listen to an explanation, Lightbeam was already flying towards her brother in order to snatch the package away without him even noticing it. "Oh, boy..." Summershine simply said as he watched this all unfolding.

Nightsky seemed to be in a deep slumber right now, so hopefully, Lightbeam would be able to get the package without a problem. The mare slowly levitated towards her brother and moved her hooves towards the package that Nightsky was holding between his legs like a pillow.

Lightbeam had a victorious smile on her face as if she already got the package. Unfortunately, though, Nightsky began to stretch and rubbed his eyes only moments before she could reach the package. It looked as if he was about to wake up, which made her panic a little. The only thing she could think of now was to grab a nearby cloud above her and hid on top of it and above Nightsky's head.

"What is she doing?" Summershine wondered as he watched her hiding from her brother.

Her brother didn't seem to have noticed how Lightbeam was hiding literally on a cloud above his head, though he still noticed some movements on the cloud and tried to investigate. Summershine noticed that and decided to help out a little.

"Hey, Nightsky!" He shouted at the stallion.

This seemed to be enough to distract Nightsky from the cloud above him again, much to Lightbeam's relief. The stallion noticed how he was visited by Summershine once more and wondered why he was visited by him again.

"Yes?" Nightsky asked with a slightly tired tone in his voice.

"Um..." Summershine replied confused while he thought about an excuse of why he spoke to Nightsky. "Nice day we are having now...right?" Summershine said with the most awkward and suspicious grin ever.

Luckily, Nightsky still seemed to be not fully awake and didn't notice the obvious awkwardness in Summershine's face.

Lightbeam quickly saw another opportunity and decided to try taking the package away now. She slowly moved her cloud towards Nightsky while his back was turned towards her. The stallion didn't seem to notice anything so chances were good that Lightbeam could actually pull this off. Her hooves were dangerously close to the package now and it was only a few moments left until she would get the package now.

"What are you doing, Lightbeam?" Nightsky asked with his back still turned around to her sister.

"Eek!" Lightbeam instantly jumped after realizing that Nightsky actually noticed her easily.

Nightsky turned around and saw how his sister was right next to him now. "What is all this about?"

The mare rubbed her neck and decided to just go out with the truth. All three of them decided to meet up on the ground. Summershine and Lightbeam explained the whole situation to Nightsky.

"So that's how it is?" Nightsky asked although he was still confused. "And why didn't you just tell me to give you the package?" He pointed out.

A shocked expression formed on Lightbeam's face. "I actually didn't think about that!" She said. "But I couldn't tell you anyway because it was a surprise!"

Nightsky looked at the package. "You mean this? Is that why both our names are on it?" He asked. Of course, Lightbeam couldn't explain what was inside because it was supposed to be a surprise. "Here you go," Nightsky then said as he gave his sister the package almost casually.

"What?" Lightbeam replied confused.

Nightsky explained. "If it is really that important for me to not see what you ordered, then take it. That's okay, is it?" He asked before he gave the package to his sister, who happily took it in her hooves.

Right now, Summershine felt as if he should talk with Nightsky about this so he decided to pull the stallion towards him and away from Lightbeam. "Hey," he whispered. "I thought you ordered something for your sister as well. If she opens the package, then she will see what you bought for her," he pointed out.

"That's okay," Nightsky replied happily. "It seems like it is more important for me to not see what's in the package. I mean, she was supposed to get what I bought for anyway so..."

"Here you go!" Lightbeam then said cheerfully out of a sudden as she gave Nightsky a book. "I ordered something for you!" She said happily.

Of course, both stallions were confused by this sudden action, especially since Lightbeam wanted to make sure to keep whatever was inside of the package away from her brother. But now she put out the book as if it was nothing and showed it to Nightsky right away.

"Wait!" Summershine interrupted in his confusion. "I thought we wanted to make sure that Nightsky doesn't see what was inside the package!" He asked.

"Yeah, of course," Lightbeam replied. "So that I can give it to him," she said with a wide smile on her face. 

While the frustration in Summershine was more and more visible, Nightsky appreciated this and took the book from Lightbeam. "Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone?" He read out loud.

"Yes! It's an adventure book! I'm sure you will like it!" Lightbeam said with a beaming smile on her face.

"Thanks, sis," Nightsky replied happily before he advised his sister to take one more look at the package to see the second thing that was inside of it. "I ordered something for you as well,"

"Oh!?" Lightbeam said in her excitement as she took one more look inside of the package to see what else was inside of it. It was another book with the title: "The Beautiful Nature of Equestria,". Lightbeam seemed to be happy about it and hugged her brother as thanks for the book. "Thank you, Night! I love it!"

Summershine still felt some frustration about how this situation could have dealt with much easier but seeing the two of them happy like that was actually worth a little hassle so he just forgot about it. In fact, Summershine decided to leave the scene since the two of them were probably happy enough without him. He still had one more package to deliver too so he might as well do that now.


Later...


With only one package left, Summershine went to his final destination. He stood in front of a wooden house and knocked a few times on the door. He didn't expect anypony to open the door but he figured he should still try.

"Guess, he hasn't returned yet," Summershine figured as he stood in front of the door with the last package levitating in front of him. "I'll hold on to it until he comes back," Summershine said with a smile on his face before he walked away from the door again.

It wasn't long until he returned home again after his work was done. He lived in a relatively normal house in Ponyville. It was well decorated, but not too much, pretty big but not too big. He placed the package on a cupboard next to his bed with a smile on his face.

Moments later, Summershine could hear some knocking on the door so he went ahead and opened it. All of his friends, who he saw earlier this day were standing now in front of him.

"Hey, you ready?" Happytrade asked with a grin on her face.

"Yup," Summershine replied before he closed the door behind him and spent the rest of his day with his friends in Ponyville.

Even though there were a lot of things happening today, some of them more exhausting than others, Summershine still wanted to spend more time with his closest friends. The rest of his friends probably thought the same and were happy as well. It only proved that despite all of them being different or doing different things, they were still happy to have each other.

As the door closed to Summershine's home, the sun began to shine on the lonely package on the cupboard where Summershine left it. He had to wait for one of his friends to return to Ponyville so that he could personally give it back to him.
> 2. Happytrade
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Early in the morning...


The sun wasn't even up on the horizon. Most ponies were still fast asleep. With the exception of one pony, however, that was humming through the streets happily, pulling a cart behind her that was filled with all kinds of stuff. It was Happytrade, a pony that made herself a living by trading. As usual, she was up really early to set up everything for the day.

She arrived pretty early at the location where she usually set down her stand to sell some stuff. That stuff included old clothes that she had fixed, homemade goodies, and other things that she gathered or bought. Her parents, who were traders as well, also provided her with lots of stuff that she could sell, so there was always something that was in need to get rid of.

Once Happytrade arrived at the usual spot, she set up her merchant stand by practically transforming her cart into one and placing all her goodies on it. It wasn't long until she was done and ready to sell. "Alright then! Time to sell!" She said happily as she waited patiently for her first customer.

The mare looked around the place, which she would usually do so that she could take a look at the competition or the potential customers that would roam the place. There was only one problem though...

There were none yet...

Happytrade let out a sigh and rubbed her neck in embarrassment after she was aware of the problem now. "Guess I got up too early again, hehe," she said with a smile on her face.

It was true that Happytrade would easily get up really early because she got too excited to sell something. This was not the first time where she was standing in the marketplace alone before anypony else arrived. It was almost a habit of her, a really bad habit.

All she could do now was to wait...


Later...


A few hours later, the previously empty marketplace was filled with ponies walking around to find that little something that the traders offered. Two of those ponies were Crash and Brilliance who happened to come across each other. Both of them took their time to take a look at each stand to see what ponies had to offer, one of them clearly showing more excitement than the other.

"A fishing rod for five bucks!?" Crash said in his excitement as he looked at said object for a while, exterminating it carefully. "I don't really know anything about fishing...but five bucks is a really good deal..."

Seeing how Crash was fascinated by the fishing rod, the trader who was selling it decided to do the one thing any trader would do in this situation.

"Four bucks," he simply said.

"Deal!" Crash immediately said before he dropped four bits on the counter and took the fishing rode happily with him. Of course, he quickly had to show it to Brilliance, who stood right next to him the whole time and watched all of it. "Look what I got, Brilliance, a fishing rod!" He said happily.

Brilliance didn't show much excitement from the outside. "Cool," she simply said.

Crash then put away the fishing rod by putting it between his back and the saddlebag that he was wearing. "Have you found anything that caught your interest yet?" He then asked.

"No," Brilliance replied as her eyes wandered through the market.

"What are you looking for anyway?" Crash asked curiously.

"A book," Brilliance replied. "For my collection," she added all in a deadpan tone.

"Another one?" Crash asked. "Don't you have enough books?" He asked, being fully aware that her library was probably full.

Brilliance's answer was a short one. "No,"

Crash simply shrugged his shoulders and continued to walk around the marketplace while Brilliance followed him without complaints. The two came across a stand of one of their friends, Happytrade. They figured that they should go to her in order to greet her. That is if she was actually ready to talk.

The mare had her head dropped on the table. On further inspection, the two noticed that Happytrade was clearly asleep. This was weird since she was there to sell something and being asleep was obviously not the best strategy to attract costumers.

The two ponies decided to check up on the mare. As soon as Crash got closer to the mare and touched her shoulder, she quickly lifted her head again in shock. "I'm ready to sell!" She said loudly, much to Crash's surprise who got startled by this reaction. Happytrade quickly realized that she was drawing some attention from the other traders and the ponies who walked around the marketplace and lowered her head in embarrassment hiding it from everypony awkwardly.

Once the eyes looked away from her again, she began to yawn. Crash noticed that and straight out commented on how tired she obviously was. "You look like you didn't get enough sleep," he guessed.

"I did get enough sleep," Happytrade corrected. "I just got up too early and had to wait for a really long time. It...got a little boring..." she added as she leaned her head on her leg.

"No kidding!" Crash agreed. "Everypony would fall asleep if they had to just sit somewhere doing nothing for a few hours!" He then looked over to Brilliance. "Right?" He asked towards her, expecting her to agree on that as well.

"No," Brilliance boldly said. "I can be really patient..." she added almost proudly but without showing much emotion accompanying it.

Crash rolled his eyes because of this reply and tried to get across what he originally intended to say to Happytrade. "How about you set up your stand a little later?" He suggested.

He got a pretty quick response from Happytrade. "Can't do that! If I get here too late, then I'll risk losing my spot here!" She explained.

"Why would that be so bad?" Crash replied confused.

Happytrade explained. "I am not a trader since yesterday! I tried out every single spot on this marketplace and I stood everywhere at least once! This is the perfect spot! The spot that has the perfect mix of customer traffic! There is no better spot to set up your stand anywhere else if you want to sell something!"

Crash almost felt intimidated by how Happytrade explained all of this in this overly serious voice. He almost wanted to say that she was overreacting but he was afraid that this would make her only angry. It's not like, Happytrade was stopping her explanation anytime soon anyway.

"Just today, and it's only morning, I had twelve satisfied customers!" She added proudly.

"Wow...impressive," Crash replied amazed.

Happytrade lifted her head proudly. "That is why I can't allow myself to take it easy, even if it means that I exhaust myself a little,"

While Crash realized that he couldn't talk Happytrade out of this mindset, Brilliance decided to add her opinion into this. "Just don't overdo it too much. I'll get worried seeing you like that,"

"Huh?" Happytrade replied confused.

"She is right," Crash added in his concern as well. "I know this all is important for you but still, try to think about what others think if they see you exhausted like that,"

Hearing those words took away the proud expression on Happytrade's face and replaced it with a more puzzled one. She could see how both of her friends looked at her with concern on their faces and she started to feel bad.

Shortly after, the two ponies decided to leave again since they still had some stuff to buy and Happytrade was left alone again to attend her trading. Still, as soon as they left, she began to think about their words and couldn't help but frown.

"What kind of friend would I be if I make them worried about me?" She said as she was playing around with some bitcoins on her table out of boredom. Those words from before were stuck in her head now and made her feel bad. Eventually, her facial expression slowly turned from bored to a more determined one. She then suddenly began to smile and looked up into the sky.

"Okay! It's settled! Tomorrow I will get a good amount of sleep and then come to the marketplace later!" She vowed before she returned to focus on her job again.

Trading was, of course, really important to her but so was her friends and if she was worrying them because of her job, then taking it a little bit easier was probably not too bad of an idea. It was not as if she would not make enough money by attending the marketplace a little later anyway so taking it slower on one day shouldn't hurt too much. With that in mind, the day went past pretty quick and she decided to do exactly that on the next one.


On the next day...


Just like how she intended, Happytrade arrived a little bit later as usual on the marketplace after getting a good amount of sleep and not waiting hours before she could actually start trading. It was a pretty unusual view for her to see so much activity already. Normally, she would wait for the first ponies to arrive instead of setting up her stand after seeing already other ponies walking around.

"This is great!" She said in excitement as she looked around the marketplace. "I can place my table and instantly sell something with this much ponies around! Awesome!" She said with a huge grin on her face before she accidentally bumped into somepony on her way, causing her to rub her head after receiving a little headache. "Ouch, I'm sorry," she instantly apologized.

"Hey, no problem," the stallion replied, holding no grudge against Happytrade after this. The stallion had a gold-colored coat, with a slightly brighter gold mane, and green eyes. The Cutie Mark on his flank was a filled coin purse with coins coming out on top of it.

After that encounter, Happytrade was back on her way to get to her usual spot. However, she was surprised to find out that she was already there. The spot where she usually placed her stand was occupied by another one that belonged to the pony she just bumped into. The stallion had taken her spot, much to her dislike.

At first, she wanted to speak up to that but then she figured that it was to be expected since she arrived at the market a little late so it actually was her own fault that she lost her special spot. With that in mind, she walked away without a word and looked for a new spot.

She was not really successful though...

The only spot that she managed to get a hold of was way on the corner of the marketplace. Over there, not many ponies came across her stand, making it a little harder for her to make money. She could see the stand of the pony that took away her spot in the far distance and as expected, there was much more traffic going on over there, making her even more frustrated.

Happytrade clenched her teeth in anger after watching that but she slowly calmed down once she decided to do on the next day again. "Okay, no big deal...a got a pretty bad day, tomorrow is another day! I just get up a little earlier again and secure my usual spot!" She said determinedly. There was no way that she would let one day ruin her motivation after all.

This day might have been not too successful but as long as the next day would make up for it, there was not too much to worry about.


The next morning...


Despite, making her friends worry again, Happytrade still decided to get up earlier so that she could get to her usual spot again and make some more money. It was still dark and most ponies were probably asleep, meaning that it would take a while until Happytrade would get some customers but as long as she would get her spot back, that was all worth it for her.

Still, there was something that she didn't expect after she arrived at her usual spot. "What in the name of Celestia?" She said confused after she took a look at a little wagon that was still standing at the same place where the stand of the stallion one day earlier was standing at. Angered by this sight, Happytrade repeatedly knocked on a closed window to see if somepony was in there.

After some more knocking, the very stallion that she met a day before was opening the window and rubbed his eyes. He was clearly asleep and woken up by Happytrade's knocking. "Hey, what's your problem? I was still asleep!" He said angrily.

But Happytrade didn't seem to care that much. "Would you mind moving your wagon out of the way? I was planning to set up my stand over here!" She explained.

The stallion let out a yawn. "I don't think so. I will open up my stand at this very spot in a few hours," he replied with a tired tone in his voice.

"But you are still asleep!" Happytrade replied. "If you don't plan on setting up your stand anyway then you could at least let me set up my stand over here!" She pointed out annoyed.

"Can't you set up your stupid stand somewhere else!?" The stallion replied angrily.

"No, because I want to set it up here!" Happytrade replied. "This used to be my spot before you showed up after all!"

"Oh, is that so?" The stallion replied confused. "Well in that case..." he said before he slammed his window shut again right into Happytrade's face, making her even angrier and causing her to clench her teeth.


Later...


After getting enough sleep, the stallion inside stepped out of the wagon and stretched himself a little. He seemed to be ready to sell something now. However, he was greeted by a rather surprising sight once his eyes began to focus a little more.

"Morning," Happytrade greeted behind the stand that she set up right next to the wagon of this stallion.

"You again!?" He replied confused after he saw the same mare that ruined his sleep a few hours ago. "Hey, wait a minute!" He then added as soon as he realized how Happytrade's stand was literally a few steps away from his wagon. "You can't set up your stand this close to mine! You're ruining all of my business!" He said angrily.

But Happytrade smiled after hearing that and provided an option for the stallion. "You could always move your wagon away a little further. It has wheels after all," she said smugly.

The stallion, however, just silently walked inside his wagon and, from the inside, transformed it into a merchant stand that was ready to sell. 

Without many words, the stallion stood there patiently and waited for the first customers to arrive. So did Happytrade, who wasn't even thinking about letting herself getting beaten by somepony else. Still, they both knew that things would get pretty annoying with both of them being that close to each other.


Later...


"Oh, you are looking for a new teacup? I got one right here!" The stallion said happily towards a customer that just showed up.

"Wait a minute!" Happytrade interrupted in order to get the customer's attention. "My teacups look much better and are much more sturdy!"

"But mine are cheaper!" The stallion quickly said to get back the attention of his customer.

"Mine can be as cheap as you want!" Happytrade added.

Needless to say, the customer left after practically being assaulted like that without buying anything. This, of course, angered the stallion, who fully blamed Happytrade for this outcome.

"Stop scaring away my customers!" He exclaimed angrily.

"Never!" Happytrade replied back in the same manner.

The two then minded their own business again and returned to their own stands. This was going on for quite a while now. Whenever somepony walked across either of the two of them, the other one would always try to get their hooves on the costumer and interrupt any of them to buy something at all. It quickly began to raise the tension even further between the two.

"Is something wrong, Happytrade?" A familiar male voice asked towards Happytrade, causing her attention to shift away from the stallion next to her.

It was Nightsky, who was accompanied by his little sister Lightbeam. Both Pegasi had a confused look on their face as they stood right in front of the mare. Of course, the stallion beside Happytrade quickly saw an opportunity. 

"Hello there, may I interest you in some of my wares?" He said with a wide grin on his face.

But Happytrade got quickly between him and her friends. "Hooves off! They are my friends!" She said right into the stallion's face, causing him to back up again.

Nightsky and Lightbeam looked at each other confused after that. "What is all this about?" Nightsky asked.

"Yeah, we could hear you two from the other end of the marketplace," Lightbeam added.

Happytrade crossed her legs and glanced over to the stallion next to her stand. "It's because of him!" She said in a purposely loud tone so that the stallion could hear it. "It's all because of...um..." She then leaned over to the stand of the stallion. "What's your name!?" She asked.

Even though the stallion felt annoyed just talking to Happytrade, he still answered. "Big Deal,"

"Yes! It's all because of him!" Happytrade mumbled to herself. "He just appeared and took my spot...so I will stay here until he leaves first so that I can get it back,"

Nightsky lowered his eyebrows in confusion. "That's what this is all about? Because he took your spot? Can't you just stand somewhere else instead of doing...what you do now?" He asked.

But Lightbeam seemed to know how Happytrade must feel and tried to make her brother understand the situation. "Just look at it like this...imagine you have a cake in your fridge and somepony else was about to eat it and wouldn't let go until you gave it to him or her. What would you do?"

Nightsky gave a quick and simple answer. "Buy another one so that both of us could..."

"Exactly!" Lightbeam interrupted. "You defend that cake with your life because it's your cake!" She said, completely ignoring the answer from her brother.

Suddenly, Happytrade got a new kind of determination in her eyes and lifted her head. "You're right! This is my spot! And I will defend it!" She said before she walked towards Big Deal.

He wasn't aware of how Happytrade approached her so she tipped her hooves on his shoulder to get his attention. Once Big Deal turned around, he saw Happytrade looking at him with a pretty confident smile on her face. He was about to say something to her but once his lips started to move, Happytrade suddenly jumped on him and made him fall over before she again, jumped on the stallion to attack him.

Realizing that things got too out of hoof, Nightsky and Lightbeam jumped in and separated both Happytrade and Big Deal with Nightsky taking care of Big Deal and Lightbeam taking care of Happytrade.

This little scene caused quite a commotion. Everypony close to those ponies focused their attention on the two traders, unbeknownst to them. It's not like they would have cared that much about this anyway.

"Get that crazy mare away from me!" Big Deal exclaimed angrily while Nightsky tried his best to keep him away from his friend.

"That's it!" Happytrade exclaimed for everyone to hear. "This is a problem between traders and we will settle it like traders!" Happytrade explained before she composed herself again and explained what she had in mind. "I challenge you to a Trade Duel!"

The whole marketplace was filled with shocked gasps. Many ponies were whispering to each other in excitement. Big Deal didn't think much about it and gave a quick response. "Accepted!" He said determined, which caused many ponies to cheer in excitement.

"Yeah! Trade Duel! Trade Duel! Trade Duel!" Lightbeam repeated over and over again in her excitement before she suddenly stopped and formed a confused expression on her face. "What is a Trade Duel?" She then asked, causing the rest of the group to shook their heads.

Luckily, for the ones who felt left out, two traders were present to explain. Happytrade was the one who had the honor.

"A Trade Duel is a competition between two traders. Each of the traders will start with the same amount of money and try to make the most out of it. It is intended to buy something with this money so that, whatever was bought with it, can be sold for more money in return. The one who has the most money at the end wins!"

"Ah!" Nightsky said. "So it's like who can make the most out of their money," he figured.

"Exactly!" Big Deal replied. "It is the ultimate test to determine who has the best trading abilities! Also once I win, you must agree to never bother me again!"

"Deal!" Happytrade agreed before she shook hooves with Big Deal to seal it.

Happytrade was determined to deal with this situation once and for all. This Trade Duel was a fitting way to end any more fighting and since both ponies were reasonable traders, they should accept the outcome of this.


Later...


All of Happytrade's friends met up and decided to pay Happytrade a visit to the marketplace. They all heard about this Trade Duel and got quickly interested in it. Nightsky and Lightbeam explained the whole situation to the rest of their friends, Summershine, Crash and Brilliance.

"So all of this started just because one pony took Happytrade's favorite spot in the marketplace?" Summershine asked confused as he walked beside his friends.

Lightbeam got quickly offended by those words. "Do you want me to tell you the story of the cake again?" She asked with a glare on her face, which caused Summershine to shake his head.

"It's not like we can change it anymore," Nightsky pointed out. "She already agreed to this Trade Duel after all,"

"Yeah," Crash said. "I mean, even if she loses all that happens is that she has to find another spot to trade, right?" He said casually.

Again, Lightbeam got a little offended by those words. "But Happy really likes that spot! She will probably be devastated if she loses!"

While all of those ponies seemed to get worried about the outcome, Brilliance seemed to be the only one who still looked at the facts. "She didn't lose yet," she simply said.

Those words alone were enough to raise the mood again in the group. "Brilliance is right!" Summershine said. "We should all believe in Happytrade. She is a really good trader after all,"

"Ha! I don't think so!" A familiar male voice said towards the group after overhearing their conversation. The voice belonged to Big Deal, who seemed highly confident about winning the competition. "I don't know why that mare wants to keep that stupid spot but if she wants to make a competition out of this then I will make sure to let her know who is the better trader of us. Although, if she starts to do something like that for something this minor, then I guess me winning the duel is already set in stone," he explained with a wide grin on his face.

The five ponies were not happy at all to hear this pony talking like that and despite some of them wanting to say some stuff to him, they remained quiet to not put Happytrade's victory in danger or something and just walked away from him.

"Can't believe this guy is a trader just like Happytrade," Lightbeam said. "She is going to win this competition, right?" She then asked with some worry growing in her voice.

But instead of hearing some encouraging words, Nightsky decided to speak out what he was thinking. "I don't know," he replied brutally honest, much to the shock of his sister who was about to scold him any second. "I mean, as far as I understood the rules, you are supposed to buy something and sell it away for more money, right? And in case you have forgotten, Happytrade is not really somepony who likes to rip off others. She always looks for a fair trade and in a competition where you have to make money while having a limited amount at the beginning, the only way I see to get money is to buy something and sell it for more money to someone who is really naive or gullible,"

Hearing those words slowly made the others think. They were all well aware that Happytrade could get angry fast and that she sometimes had a pretty short fuse but she would never try to rip off somepony. She would never sell something worthless for more money than it was actually worth. Trading with such a mindset was probably not the best idea, especially in this competition.

"Yeah, you're right," Summershine figured. "If she wants to make money, she needs to buy something cheap and sell it for more than it is actually worth,"

"Exactly," Nightsky added.

"So Happytrade is going to lose?" Lightbeam asked worriedly.

"Not if we can help her in some way!" Crash added.

"He's right," Summershine said determinedly. "Let's go and offer our help to her!"

This idea was greeted with the agreement within the group. They all wanted to help Happytrade of course so they decided to do the best thing they could do now. Surely, Happytrade would appreciate some help with this competition.


Later...


"I don't need help," Happytrade instantly replied once the group told her about their plan.

"What?" Summershine replied confused after he and his friends went all the way to look for her to offer their help. "Surely there is something that we can do to help," he asked.

"Nope," Happytrade replied confidently.

"But Happy," Lightbeam said with teary eyes and shaking lips. "If you lose, then you won't be able to stay in your favorite spot anymore..."

Happytrade began to feel a little offended by those words. "And that is where you are worrying too much! Do I need to remind you that I am the best trader in Ponyville? There is no way that I am gonna lose! In fact, I made sure that my victory is ensured already!" She explained confidently. The group looked back and forth to each other in surprise and disbelieve. Realizing that, Happytrade went on and explained everything. "Really! Look, me and Big Deal agreed to start with ten bucks. And I already invested them in all the stuff that I need!"

"You already spent all of it!?" Summershine asked in shock.

"Let me continue..." Happytrade interrupted after seeing Summershine's concern. "I know what you are all thinking: Oh no! Happytrade doesn't stand any chance against Big Deal because she likes to trade on a fair base! She can never sell something for more than she originally paid because she likes to trade on a fair basis!"

The group, again, looked back and forth to each other. "Pretty much," Nightsky boldly replied, much to his sister's dislike, who was throwing daggers at him with her eyes because of how direct he was.

"Don't get us wrong, Happytrade," Summershine said. "We all know that you are good at what you are doing and we know that the way you do it works but this Big Deal guy doesn't seem to be thinking about making fair deals as long as he can win this competition,"

"You're right! I am good at what I am doing," Happytrade said. "And let me tell you that trading is not about taking advantage of other ponies but rather making the best out of what you have. It is about how much work was put into your wares. The worth is determined by how much work was put into something. Everyone can buy an apple for one buck and sell it for two but that is not trading...that, is tricking others," she explained with a serious expression on her face.

Again, the others didn't seem to be too impressed by those words. "But Happytrade," Nightsky started to ask. "Whatever you bought for those ten bits, you need to sell them again, right?"

"Wrong!" Happytrade replied, much to the confusion of everypony. She then pulled out a list and gave it to her friends. "Here, take a look at what I just bought," she said with a confident smile on her face.

Lightbeam readout for everypony what was on the list. "Sugar, flour, eggs, milk," she said before she figured out herself what this could be used to. "Sounds like the ingredients of a cake!"

"That's what it is," Happytrade replied. "I bought all this stuff to bake some cakes! I gave all those ingredients to the cakes in Sugarcube Corner to bake some cakes for me. The rules in a Trade Duel don't necessarily say that we can't use the stuff that we buy and make them into something else. Once I sell all the cakes, I should get a lot more money back that I can invest in something else and repeat the process,"

All of a sudden, everypony was impressed. Apparently, Happytrade planned everything way ahead and got every single spent bit covered. The group almost felt bad for not believing in her. She still wouldn't accept any help from her friends since she claimed that it was a duel between her and Big Deal. There is nothing else that her friends could do except waiting for the competition to be over in a few hours. Luckily, their fear that Happytrade would lose pretty much vanished with her set everything up perfectly. Now they truly believed that she would win.


Later...


"And the winner is...Big Deal!"

"WHAT!?" Happytrade exclaimed in shock.

Hearing those words from the judge of the competition truly surprised everyone in the crowd, especially Happytrade's friends who believed that she had the victory for sure. Big Deal, however, happily raised his head into the air and enjoyed every second of this victory. Happytrade had a whole wagon of profit to show off but Big Deal had more than double the amount next to him.

"I don't believe this..." Happytrade said, lowering her head with a frown on her face.

And of course, Big Deal decided to poke further into her wound. "Well, looks like I am the superior trader of the two of us. Not that there was any doubt at all,"

Happytrade's friends started to get angry hearing this stallion talk down on one of their friends and wanted to tell him a few things but Happytrade was actually the first one who walked up to the stallion.

"You won," she said. "Guess there were still some things that I don't know when it comes to making a good profit," she said, followed by a little laugh. "Alright, guess I finally have to give up my special spot," she added with a little frown on her face.

Luckily, her friends quickly walked up to her in order to cheer her up again.

"Don't worry, Happy," Crash said. "We will help you find another spot that will become even more special than this one!" He vowed, which quickly gained the agreement of his friends as well.

Happytrade smiled but still seemed a little upset. "I'm afraid, there will never be another spot like this one," she said. The group already was aware that this one spot was really good because Happytrade already tested out every other location before and figured that this one would give her the most profit. However, what Happytrade was about to tell them was not at all what they expected. "Yeah, about that...no, this spot is not much different when it comes to that, I'm afraid. I just made that up,"

Now the rest of her friends were really confused. "Then why is it so special to you?" Summershine asked confused.

"Well," Happytrade started. "It is true that I tested out almost every other spot on this marketplace before. You could say that the day when I set it up at this very location was pretty special to me and not the spot itself,"

"And...what was so special about that one day?" Nightsky asked confused, speaking for the rest of his friends who were curious as well.

Happytrade formed a really bright smile on her face and looked as happy as she was never before. "It was the day where I meet you all for the first time," 

Suddenly, the whole group was in a state of shock and surprise. All their mouth dropped open and they finally understood why Happytrade was so defensive about something silly as a spot on the marketplace. 

"I know, it's silly but meeting you all for the first time was the best day of my life. I somehow connected that very spot with this day and...you. The thought of somepony taking it away from me was just..."

"So that's why you got so angry..." Big Deal said after he overheard those words. "Me taking away your spot must have felt like as if I took away your friends, huh?" Happytrade didn't reply but judging from her looking at the ground, it must have been just like Big Deal said. "Alright, you can have your spot back," he then said out of the blue.

"What!? Really!?" Happytrade replied surprised.

The stallion rubbed his neck. "Yeah. After hearing that story, there is no way that I can just take the win, especially since you are the better trader,"

"Better trader?" Happytrade asked confused. "But you earned more money than me," she pointed out.

Big Deal explained. "Actually, I didn't even earn half as much as you. I maybe added some money into the mix," he admitted with an awkward smile on his face. "I informed myself who I was facing off against, shortly after I took your challenge and everypony said that you were the best trader in this town. There was no way that I could win,"

"So you cheated..." Brilliance pointed out.

Of course, nopony in the crowd was really happy to hear Big Deal admitting something like this but  Happytrade thought that it was okay since he actually admitted it and gave her the victory. The crowd was pretty forgiving as well. In the end, everything turned out well. Happytrade won and got her spot back and Big Deal decided to find another spot on the marketplace. It was as easy as that.


On the next day...


Against her better judgment, Happytrade decided to go to the marketplace a little later again. After thinking about it carefully, she came to the conclusion that the spot where she usually would stand was not different than any other. Trying to challenge other ponies because it was also probably not the best thing to do. She just decided to take any spot that was available.

But once she arrived at the marketplace, she was surprised by what she saw. There were signs that were all around where she would usually set up her merchant stand. They all said stuff like: "Happytrade's spot" or "No one allowed". Happytrade was wondering where all this came from and luckily, Big Deal was around to explain it.

"Your friends set this all up," he said. "Came here early in the morning to do all this," he explained.

"Really?" Happytrade asked confused after she looked at her usual spot being protected from anypony to be used. She then suddenly started to laugh happily. "Those ponies are amazing!" She expressed before she started to begin her usual day in the marketplace.
> 3. Nightsky
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the skies above Ponyville...


Pegasus Ponies were the only race of ponies who were able to manipulate the weather in Equestria by moving clouds or using them to create rain or even snow. Some Pegasi were even making a living to take care of exactly that just like that one pony who was flying high above the roofs of Ponyville. He flew directly from one cloud to another, kicking all of them in the process and making them disappear and clearing the sky. This pony was Nightsky, a Pegasus stallion with a dark blue coat, a light gray and dark blue mane. His eyes were yellow and his Cutie Mark was a yellow and light blue shooting star.

The stallion looked into the distance and saw how it was starting to get dark, which meant that his shift as a weather pony was over soon. With that in mind, he started to continue getting rid of all the remaining clouds in the sky. There were not many left so he could do it slowly, the way he liked to do things. When it comes to his work, he liked to do everything in a well-paced speed, not because he was lazy but because he preferred to not over exhaust himself.

Still, some ponies didn't share the same mindset that he had and one of those ponies happened to be just passing by him at full speed. It was a mare with a blue coat and a rainbow-colored mane. It was the self-proclaimed fastest pony in Equestria, Rainbow Dash.

To some extent, he was happy that somepony took care of his work but at the same time, now he was left with nothing to do and just had to wait for his shift to be over, instead of skipping time by working. As if that wasn't bad enough, Rainbow Dash flew up to Nightsky. Having worked a few times with her, he knew that both of them were very different so conversations would always end up being a little bit exhausting. And this was one of them...

"Could have at least tried to kick those clouds away," Rainbow Dash said with a little scolding tone in her voice. Nightsky, however, didn't understand why she was saying that, especially since he actually was trying to kick away those clouds. Rainbow Dash just happened to appear before he could do that. As soon as he explained exactly that, however, Rainbow Dash continued to look down on his speed. "Not to be mean or anything but...you're kinda slow," she straight out said to Nightsky's face.

But the stallion was not bothered by those words at all. "Well, everypony has his or her own pace," he replied calmly and without any sign of being offended by those words.

Rainbow Dash put on a confident smile after hearing those words. "I guess, you're right. Not everyone can be as awesome as me after all," she said as she raised her head in confidence. "Still, it would probably better if you train to fly a little bit faster," she advised.

Now Nightsky was the one who grinned confidently. "I don't know, as long as you are around to do my work, I think I'll like to stay slow," he commented jokingly before he started to fly away now. "All work is done, so I might as well go home now, right?"

Rainbow Dash felt a little annoyed to hear those words, especially since Nightsky didn't seem to take her advice to heart at all and continued to stay in his mindset. It was not up to her to tell him how to do things and she kept telling herself that it was not her problem but she also was a little mad to see such behavior by someone who is practicing the same job that she did. Without noticing that, Nightsky continued to fly his way home. For him, his job was done after all.


Later...


Nightsky entered his home and immediately was greeted by a Pegasus mare. She had a light blue coat, a white and light blue colored mane, orange eyes and a pink flower as a Cutie Mark. It was Nightsky's little sister, Lightbeam.

"Welcome home!" She greeted with a huge smile on her face as soon as her brother stepped inside.

"Hey, Lightbeam," Nightsky replied with a smile on his face as well.

The stallion walked through the living room of the house. The walls were white and decorated with all kinds of pictures from multiple landscapes. This was because of Lightbeam's interest in nature. There were also a lot of flowers scattered throughout the house, all kinds of them, in multiple colors, picked by Lightbeam herself. This all gave the living room a very warm feeling and made it quite easy to relax, the way how Nightsky liked it.

Nightsky walked around the house and picked up an apple that was inside a bowl on a table that was in the middle of the room. As he took a bite from that apple, Lightbeam was continuously following her brother, which Nightsky was fully aware of but he didn't seem to bother. In fact, he expected her to say something. And his expectation came true shortly after.

"Well? Don't you want to tell me how your day was?" She asked curiously.

Nightsky took a bite from his apple. "Nope," he replied as he continued to chew.

Lightbeam seemed disappointed. "Come on!" She said in an almost begging tone. "I know all you do is kicking and moving clouds but you could at least try to make it sound interesting to impress your sister,"

Nightsky rubbed his chin for a minute before he gave a quick answer. "Nah."

Lightbeam laughed at this response and only shook her head. She knew how her brother was and just went with this. Nightsky wasn't really a pony who showed his emotions that open but she knows that he was happy just to be home. Many ponies would probably set goals in their lives and try to pursue them but Nightsky was really simpleminded when it came to this. All he really needed to be happy was to spend time with his sister which was already the case so everything else didn't really too much for him.

The two did talk a little while but Nightsky was starting to yawn more often, which wasn't unnoticed by his little sister. "I guess you want to go to sleep?" Lightbeam asked.

"Yeah, I'm kinda tired," Nigthsky replied before letting out another big yawn.

After the day was over, Nightsky was going to his room. Since he was tired he decided to go to bed early. He laid down on his bed and opened the window next to him, revealing a scenery that mostly consisted of white buildings and clouds. It was his hometown Cloudsdale. It was a fitting view for him. There was only one color and looking at the clouds actually helped him to relax. Not to mention that, up in the clouds, things were really quiet, making it easy to fall asleep. Before he knew it, his eyes closed and he drifted off to dreamland.


The next morning...


Cloudsdale...


Not too far away from Ponyville, high above the sky was the city in the clouds. This city was called Cloudsdale and was home to most Pegasi in Equestria. It was not like other ponies could live there anyway because Pegasus were the only kinds of ponies who had the ability to walk on clouds. This made it impossible to live there for other ponies since Cloudsdale mostly consisted of, as the name suggests, clouds.

Two ponies who lived in this city were Nightsky and his little sister Lightbeam. Both of them spent most of their time in Ponyville though. One of the reasons was, that their closest friends all lived there but in Nightsky's case, it was also his job that kept him there. He was a weather pony that was assigned to take care of the weather in Ponyville, which naturally meant that he had to be there most of the time. Still, both of them were living in Cloudsdale. It was not really far away from Ponyville anyway.

The sun was just beginning to rise but Nightsky was still sound asleep in his bed and didn't plan to get up anytime soon. He didn't need to work today and whenever that was the case, he decided to spend the day to relax. Most of the time, that would include sleeping through the whole day.

Unfortunately, one pony wasn't having it...

"Wake up, Nightsky! Wake up!" His sister said as she slammed the door to his room open and jumped up and down on the bed where Nightsky was sleeping in, much to his dislike. The stallion tried his best to continue sleeping but the mare that was jumping up and down on his bed made it a little hard to do exactly that.

"No. I have the day off today Lightbeam, you don't need to wake me up for work," he explained before he hid his face under his bed covers and tried to ignore all of this.

"No!" Lightbeam replied. "Today is Apple Cider Season!" She said before she took away the bed covers from her brother.

But Nightsky did his best to cover his head under his pillow. "No, it's not. I'm pretty sure of that," he said before tried to sleep again.

But his sister still wouldn't let go that easy and took away his pillow now as well, leaving him to be the only thing left on the bed along with her. "Yes! You're right, it's not really Apple Cider Season. But Pinkie Pie was just here and told me and everypony else that the Apple Family had a really good harvest and they decided to make some Apple Cider to celebrate! That means we have to go to Sweet Apple Acres as soon as possible to get ourselves some cider!" She said with her voice sounding like a mix of excitement and frustration.

"That early?" Nightsky asked as he started to sit up now after figuring out that sleeping wasn't an option with his sister being in the room with this much excitement in her voice. "You want to go there now?" He asked confused.

"Of course!" Lightbeam replied. "You know how popular the Apple Family's cider is! There are gonna be a bunch of ponies there already! That's why we have to go there as early as well!" She demanded.

Nightsky didn't reply at first. He was clearly bothered by getting up this early, not to mention that he planned to spent his day off by relaxing a little, instead of standing in a line to get some apple cider. Lightbeam started to notice that reaction and started to feel bad. She probably knew that she was going on her brother's nerves, even though Nightsky was not showing it directly, especially since he didn't have to work today and planned to relax.

That was until he finally gave a response to her...

"Give me five minutes to get ready," Nightsky said in a really tired tone.

Slowly, Lightbeam formed an excited smile on her face and her eyes were wide open. She quickly hugged her brother. "You're the best!" She said before she left the room and started to get herself ready as well.

As soon as Lightbeam left the room, Nightsky began to go in a sitting position on his bed. He rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Guess, I can still sleep tonight..." he figured before he got out of his bed and started to get ready, even though it was quite a bother for him. When it came to his sister, he just couldn't let her down, that was just who he is.


Later...


A huge line of ponies was in front of Sweet Apple Acres, all of them waiting to get a taste of the famous apple cider from the Apple family. Some ponies were glad to be early because their chances of getting some cider were relatively high. However, the ones who were further back in the line were not so happy. With such high demand, it was obvious that those who came in late probably wouldn't get any cider. The Apple family made sure to always make a lot of cider but sometimes it just wasn't enough for everyone.

That was also the fear of one pony who was nervously waiting almost at the end of the line. It was Rainbow Dash. "I can't believe Pinkie Pie didn't tell me about this!" She complained as she jumped up and down to see how long the line in front of her was and how far away she was from her cider.

Right behind her was another Pegasus mare with a light yellow colored coat, a long pink mane, cyan-colored eyes, and three pink butterflies's as a Cutie Mark. She was worried too but not because of the cider but rather because of Rainbow Dash. "I'm sure that there will still be plenty of cider left once it's your turn," she said, keeping up a positive attitude.

For a moment, Rainbow Dash wanted to believe that but as soon as she saw a certain mare walking towards them, she got even more nervous. This mare was an Earth Pony with a light pink coat, a pink fluffy mane, light blue eyes and three balloons as a Cutie Mark. It was none other than Pinkie Pie, who had a whole bunch of cups filled with apple cider with her. "Hey, Rainbow Dash, hey Fluttershy!" She greeted in a cheerful tone as she walked past the two happy with the cups of cider with her.

Seeing Pinkie Pie walking around with around ten cups of cider only made it worse for Rainbow Dash and she released a huge groan in frustration to which Fluttershy could only smile nervously in response. If everypony would by that much cider, then the chance of her getting any was even slimmer, making her even more nervous.

In the meantime, two other Pegasus pony stood in the exact same line as those two, only a little closer to the stand where the cider was sold. Maybe it was because he just got up but Nightsky just now wondered why he had to accompany Lightbeam by getting some cider. She herself said that she didn't want him to miss out on it but he really wasn't that interested in the cider himself. But since he was already there, he didn't worry too much about it anymore and just went along with her plan.

Still, he couldn't help but look at how many ponies were in front of him and his sister. "I can't believe that there are so many ponies here already. After all, we came here pretty early," Nightsky wondered as he looked around the orchard to realize how long this line actually was.

"Of course there is a huge line!" Lightbeam replied excitedly. "The cider of the Apple family is really famous after all! It's no surprise that so many ponies appeared here! They are probably as excited as I am!" She explained as she jumped up and down on the spot happily.

Ironically, everypony else in the line contained their excitement. Nightsky was also not affected by all of the excitement of his sister and remained to be his usual self. Still, he looked over to his sister and couldn't help but smile. "Clearly," he just said.

"I just hope that they won't run out of cider until we get our share," Lightbeam said before her excitement vanished and was replaced with worry.

Nightsky looked over to where the cider was sold at and figured that there was not too much to worry about. "We are not too far away anymore and I still see a lot of barrels so you should get your fair share of cider," he said, in an attempt to cheer his sister down again.

But even though she listened to her brother just now, she couldn't help but still feel nervous. "I really hope you're right,"

Of course, Nightsky just wanted to cheer up his sister. There was still a good amount of ponies in front of them. He figured that maybe if some of them would buy more then one cup, then the chance that his sister would get one would become really slim. Obviously, he was not saying that out loud because it would really upset her. All they could do was wait until it was their turn.


Later...


Having spent quite a while in this line, Nightsky got a little bored. He even began to fall asleep a few times while standing there, much to the dislike of some ponies behind him. A pony pushed him from behind just when he was dozing off at the moment. "Move it!" The pony said to wake up Nightsky, who was just now blocking the whole line behind him.

"Sorry," the stallion replied with a tired tone in his voice. He was clearly a little sleepy from not getting too much sleep today and it was pretty hard for him to even keep his eyes open, especially since it was pretty boring to just stand there in line. And that was saying a lot since he usually spends his time sleeping or doing other not too exciting activities.

He let out a big yawn and rubbed his eyes. He figured that it shouldn't take that long anymore and kept telling himself that he could soon get back home to catch up getting some sleep. But then suddenly, a scream could be heard right in front of him. He recognized that it was his sister, which caused him to get fully awake now.

Lightbeam was sitting in front of him with a crushed expression on her face. Of course, Nightsky got worried pretty quick to see her in this state and asked away what happened.

"Night..." Lightbeam said with teary eyes.

"Yes! What is it!?" Nightsky replied in concern.

Everypony was looking at the two, especially at Lightbeam who drew everyponies attention at her after this scream. Nightsky was asleep for a few seconds so he figured someone did something to her while he was not looking but right now, all he could focus on was his sister, who he was waiting for to give him a response.

Finally, after trying her best to not start crying the whole time, Lightbeam went out with what was the matter. "I forgot...to bring my money..."

Nightsky's concern quickly vanished and he let out a sigh. It was not remotely as bad as he thought. "That is all?" He then asked, much to Lightbeam's disappointment.

"What do you mean with "That is all?". I don't have any money to buy the best drink in all of Equestria! I totally messed up!" She exclaimed in her frustration.

Despite, this situation being very serious for his sister, Nightsky was actually very calm. "It sure is weird that you forget to bring money on a day that was so important to you," he said.

Lightbeam rubbed the sides of her head. "I must have gotten so excited that I forgot to bring my money! I think I left it home! What am I gonna do now!?" She asked in her frustration.

Unlike his sister, Nightsky was still being really calm. He stretched his legs for a few seconds before he stepped out of the line and decided to deal with the situation. "I'll be right back," he said.

Lightbeam instantly knew what he was about to do and got her hopes up again, however, she looked over the heads of everypony and realized that it wasn't long until it would be her turn to get some cider. But before she could even say anything, Nightsky spread his wings and flew up into the sky. He looked over to the distance, where he was heading to, and then suddenly, he flew at a high speed right past everypony who were all surprised to see somepony flying at a ridiculous speed like that.

Not even a second has passed when Nightsky flew past the whole line of ponies, including Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, the later one being highly fascinated by the speed of Nightsky.

"Wow! He was flying so fast! That's probably the fastest I've ever seen anypony fly!" She said in awe after witnessing what just happened in front of her eyes. However, she realized that she was not thinking before she said those words as soon as she looked over to the mare next to her. Fluttershy quickly grinned nervously as soon as she saw the unamused look on Rainbow Dash  "Oh! I mean...except you of course," she then added to avoid getting her friend upset.

Rainbow Dash didn't pay too much attention to those words though. Her mind was instead highly focused on the stallion that just flew past her. Seeing the pony she previously called slow was flying at a speed like that was certainly a shock for her. He was already long gone but she kept looking at the direction where he was heading to and had an expression on her face that was a mix of concern, shock, and even anger.


Meanwhile...


Nightsky was flying at full speed towards his and Lightbeam's home. As he flew over Ponyville, he created a light gray and blue trace behind him which was caused by the sheer speed that he was flying with. Despite flying that fast, though, Nightsky was fully concentrated as if he was flying at normal speed.

It didn't take too long until he arrived home and entered the house from one of the windows. He entered Lightbeam's room and looked around for the money that she supposedly left. Lightbeam's room was really fancy decorated. Her walls were covered with pictures, some of them had her and Nightsky one them. Seeing those made the stallion smile until he remembered what he came back for. He figured that her money should be somewhere on the cupboard that was next to her bed.

His guess was right. He found a little wallet with a note beside it. It said, "Don't forget! Money for Apple Cider!!!". Given the situation that his sister was in right now, Nightsky could only shake his head while forming a smile on his face. He quickly grabbed the wallet and left the house again, hoping that it wasn't Lightbeam's turn already to fetch some cider.


Later...


"Next!" A female voice shouted towards the line of ponies so that they could continue.

The voice came from a female Earth Pony mare, wearing a brown stetson. She had an orange coat, a blonde mane, emerald green eyes, and three red apples as a Cutie Mark. It was Applejack who was accompanied by the rest of her family, which included, her big brother Big McIntosh, her little sister Apple Bloom and Granny Smith, her grandmother.

The family was waiting for the next pony to step up, which happened to be Lightbeam, who was not moving forward until the pony behind her annoyingly prompted her to finally go and buy her cider. The only problem was that Nightsky didn't return so far and she couldn't buy the cider. She also couldn't afford to leave the line because it would be impossible to get any cider by starting from the end of the line again.

The ponies behind Lightbeam began to get louder so she had no choice but to step in front of the Apple Family. Applejack already prepared a fresh cup of apple cider, making Lightbeam pretty excited to finally get a taste of it, unfortunately, she couldn't buy it because she had no money with her.

Applejack lowered her eyebrows and was wondering why the mare was just standing there without taking the cup or placing some bits in front of her. "Is something the matter?" She then asked confused.

Lightbeam rubbed her neck nervously and put on a smile in her frustration. "Could it be possible that you wait for a few more minutes?" She suggested.

However, Granny Smith overheard that and explained. "Listen, dear, you either buy it now or not. We have other ponies who want to get some cider too," she said, pointing forward towards the line behind Lightbeam.

"Yeah, sorry, we still have more customers to deal with," Applejack agreed, even though it was visibly obvious that she was feeling a little bad denying her some cider.

Lightbeam's eyes were about to be filled with tears after she realized how she would not get a chance to get some cider his time. Then suddenly, a gust of wind was making her jump which was followed by a few bitcoins falling on the counter of the apple stand.

"Two cups, please," Nightsky said as he landed next to Lightbeam who was overjoyed to see her brother making it in time.

Big McIntosh prepared another cup for the two Pegasi and placed it on the counter while Applejack took the bits with a smile on her face. She seemed happy to not turn Lightbeam away. "Here you go, " she said as she gave the two their cups.

The two of them walked away, both having a cup in one of their hooves. Lightbeam was giggling happily, much to Nightsky's relief. "Glad to see you happy again," he said with a smile on his face.

"Thanks to you!" Lightbeam replied. "Thank goodness that you are the fastest pony in all of Equestria!"

Nightsky was happy to hear her say that but he had to disagree. "Equestria is pretty big, I'm sure that there is somepony out there who is faster than me," he said modestly.

"Well, you are at least the fastest pony in Ponyville," she said as if she wanted to hear him at least admit that but Nightsky only smiled and didn't answer.

This sentence was overheard by one certain Pegasus, who was not happy at all to hear this. It was Rainbow Dash, who was keeping her eyes on Nightsky as if he was a long time enemy of her or something. "I can't believe this," she said under her breath in a really mad tone.

"Oh! Look! It's finally your turn, Rainbow Dash!" Fluttershy then said from behind, causing Rainbow Dash's expression to turn from a mad one to an exited one in the matter of a second.

The Pegasus mare hopped over to Applejack and placed some bits on the counter. Applejack was smiling as soon as she saw Rainbow Dash in front of her. "Figured that you would show up too. I bet you can't wait to get some cider!"

"You bet!" Rainbow Dash replied excitedly. "Come on! Come on! Come on! Come on!" She said like a filly that was waiting for her presents on Hearts Warming Eve.

Applejack gave her little sister a signal so that she could get another cup ready. The filly was pulling down a lever on the barrel, where the cider was inside, however, not a single drop was left anymore.  Applejack had no choice but to announce to everypony what happened. "Sorry everypony. Looks like we run out of cider already!" She said towards the line of ponies, who all let out a frustrated sigh at the very same time. The only exception was Rainbow Dash, who was frozen in her happy expression as soon as she heard that news.

Slowly, everypony left and the Apple Family began to remove the barrels and the stands to return home as well. The only ponies that were left were Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash, the latter one still smiling in shock.

"Um...we should go now too," Fluttershy advised as she placed her hoof on Rainbow Dash's shoulder.

Finally, Rainbow Dash showed a reaction and screamed loudly in frustration which could be heard throughout the whole orchard. Needless to say, Fluttershy felt a little unease but there was nothing that she could do now in this situation.

In the meantime, Nightsky and Lightbeam slowly walked on the road to Ponyville in the direction of their home. Lightbeam already took the first taste of her cider and was shaking as soon as she swallowed. "Incredible as always!" She said with a huge smile on her face.

Nightsky was smiling as well after seeing the happy expression on his sister's face. "Glad that it was worth it for you. Even though it's just a drink,"

"Just a drink!?" Lightbeam replied in shock. "How can you say that!? You know how good that cider tastes!"

Nightsky looked at his cup. "Actually, I don't. This is the first time I'm holding this cider in my hooves," he explained.

Hearing that, completely shocked Lightbeam. "What!? You never tasted the Apple Family cider!?" She asked to which Nightsky only shook his shoulders in response. "Then what are you waiting for!? Go ahead!" She then said, prompting him to finally take a sip from the cider so that he could experience what she just tasted.

Nightsky did as he was told and took a sip from the cider, emptying half of the cup in one go. He was actually a little exhausted because of the little trip back home, which was actually the sole reason why he bought one cup as well. After he was done drinking, Lightbeam couldn't wait to hear what he would think about the cider.

"And? And?" Lightbeam asked.

Nightsky gave a quick response. "It's okay," he said.

Again, Lightbeam was shocked. "Okay? Okay!? That is all you have to say!?" She replied confused.

Nightsky gave it another try. "It's good?" He then said, hoping that it would satisfy Lightbeam. "It's not bad if that's what you want to hear," he further explained.

Lightbeam couldn't believe how Nightsky wasn't as impressed by this cider as she was and her jaw dropped down in shock. Then again, Nightsky was not really someone who would express his excitement that openly so she figured that it was the best that she would get from him.

"I can't believe this," she said disappointed, much to Nightsky's surprise, who had no idea why she reacted like that. "Next time, we gonna buy you a lot more of those to get you convinced!" She vowed determined.

Her brother was not sure what he was supposed to be convinced to but whatever it was, it could wait. Right now, all he wanted was to go home to get a good amount of sleep. At first, he thought that this morning was ruined but after looking back at it and seeing the happy expressions on his sister's face, he came to the conclusion that it wasn't so bad after all.
> 4. Brilliance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the Golden Oak Library...


One pony was walking around the library, looking at the bookshelves and scanning her eyes across all the books inside of them. The pony was a Unicorn mare with a purple coat, a dark purple mane, light blue eyes, and a light blue book as a Cutie Mark. She was also wearing black glasses. Her name was Brilliance and she was a librarian in Ponyville who lived inside the Golden Oak Library, which was, as the name might suggest, a library inside of a giant oak tree.

Of course, being a librarian, meant that she was taking an interest in books and Brilliance had a lot of them which meant that she always had to make sure that every single one of it was in the right place and easy to find. This usually was taking a while and Brilliance was not too worried to do it carefully and precisely, just like today.

Brilliance was right about to finish her daily routine to check if every single book was in the right place. She, of course, knew in and out, where every book was at and where to find it, making it easy for her to finish her inspection. The problem was just, that it was just barely after morning...

Once she was done, the mare positioned herself in the middle of the room. She aimlessly looked at the bookshelves in front of her and thought about what to do now only to be interrupted by somepony knocking on the door of the library. She opened the door and saw two of her friends standing in front of her, Summershine and Happytrade.

"Hey there, Brilliance!" Happytrade greeted cheerfully. "Summershine and I decided to go shopping and I thought you wanted to come with us," she asked with a smile on her face.

However, Summershine looked over to Happytrade. "Decided? More like you forced me to go with you," he pointed out.

Happytrade pouted in response. "Well, going shopping on my own is boring!" She replied before she looked back to Brilliance again. "So how about it?"

But Brilliance shook her head. "Sorry...I'm a little busy...I need to make sure that the library is all cleaned up..." she explained.

Summershine and Happytrade both looked at each other for a moment before they moved their heads to the side to look at the library, behind Brilliance. They were looking for things that needed to be cleaned up but they didn't notice anything right away and got a little confused.

"Looks clean to me," Summershine said.

Brilliance quickly replied. "You can't be too sure,"

Happytrade sighed and shook her head after that response. "Brilliance, what did you do so far, I mean today?" She then asked with a slightly worried tone in her voice.

Brilliance answered. "Sorting the books in the bookshelves..."

"Right," Happytrade replied. "And what were you about to do once we would leave?" She then further asked.

Brilliance answered again. "Sorting the books in the bookshelves..."

After hearing that answer, Happytrade couldn't help but get a little frustrated. "That's what I thought. Seriously Brilliance, why not join us? I know you like your books and this library but don't you think that you should do something different for once?"

Right about now, Summershine felt as if Happytrade was just assuming things and was going a little too far to confront Brilliance like that. "Well, Brilliance does have different hobbies, so..." he started, trying to defend Brilliance.

But Happytrade ignored those words. "You really need to get out of this library for once!" Happytrade suggested, towards Brilliance.

"To do what?" Brilliance asked confused.

Happytrade looked over to Summershine for an answer but he just shrugged his shoulders confused. "I don't know!" She then said before the awkward gap between her answer would get even longer. Happytrade was now grabbing Summershine's shoulders and whispered some words to him, in order for Brilliance to not hear them. "Listen, Summershine, I think it's not healthy for her to spend every day in here. She needs to find some more hobbies!"

"Aren't you going a little too far with those assumptions? She doesn't seem sad or anything if you ask me," Summershine pointed out.

"Maybe, but don't you think that it should be better if she spends time with her friends rather than staying in here all day and trying to find something to keep her busy?" Happytrade asked.

"I don't know," Summershine replied with some second thoughts.

"Come on!" Happytrade replied. "We are just asking her to join us spending the day outside! It's not like were are forcing her to travel around the world with us or something," she pointed out.

"Well, if you put it that way," Summershine replied in his realization.

"Then that's settled!" Happytrade then said happily, getting out of that secret conversation all of the sudden and walked towards Brilliance. "You will come with us, Brilliance!" She demanded.

Brilliance didn't show much enthusiasm. "I would like to but...somepony has to take care of the library. I mean, what if somepony wants a book and I'm not around?" She asked.

"No problem!" Happytrade replied happily. "Summershine will take care of the library while we are gone," she explained.

"I do!?" Summershine replied confused.

Happytrade then walked over to Brilliance and practically dragged her outside of the library. It was not like Brilliance was actually resisting but it was probably the case that she didn't like to be forced to go with Happytrade. Still, Brilliance did not say anything and just went outside with Happytrade, leaving only Summershine inside the library.

"You got this, right?" Happytrade only now asked after pretty much decided for Summershine what to do.

"Do I even have a-" Summershine tried to reply but in the middle of the sentence, Happytrade slammed the door shut and went on her way with Brilliance.

"Well, then shall we go?" Happytrade asked highly excited.

"To where?" Brilliance asked confused.

"Wherever you want!" Happytrade replied. "What would you like to do now?" She then asked excitedly.

Brilliance didn't really need much time to think about the answer to that. "Reading..." she simply said.

But Happytrade denied that answer. "No, Brilliance, we are here to find you some other activity. But don't you worry, I'm sure we will find something that you will enjoy," she added determinedly.

Of course, Brilliance didn't share the same enthusiasm as her friend but she just went along and followed her anyway to wherever she wanted her to go.


Later...


As expected, Happytrade dragged Brilliance all around Ponyville. One place after another was visited by them with Happytrade enjoying every minute of it. Unfortunately, Brilliance seemed rather unimpressed by everything that they visited and was pretty much just silently accompanying her.

Right now, the two mares were inside the Ponyville Spa and laid and enjoyed being massaged by the two Spa Sisters who owned the place. Happytrade, of course, felt like having the time of her life but Brilliance, despite feeling really good getting a massage like that, still felt as if something was missing.

Happytrade noticed how Brilliance was not enjoying this as much as she did so she began to think, in order to find something else to do.

Once their time in the spa was over, the two walked outside of the building and Happytrade instantly addressed how her friend didn't enjoy this time as much as she did. "Wasn't this massage nice?" She said with a fake smile on her face. "I don't know about you but I feel completely refreshed now!" She added as she stretched her legs happily.

But Brilliance had a deadpan expression on her face. "It was okay..." she replied.

Obviously, this was not the answer that Happytrade wanted to hear now. "Okay, okay...it's obvious that this wasn't too much to your liking...but I won't give up!" She vowed.

Again, Brilliance's expression didn't change much but she didn't refuse or made it clear that she was bothered by it so she just continued to go with what every Happytrade still had in store for her. She obviously was showing a lot of patience for her friend but at this very moment, she was a little worried about where her patience would lead to, especially since Happytrade seemed very determined.


Later, inside the library...


Summershine did as he was told and took care of the library in Brilliance's place. He desperately tried to find something to do but unfortunately, the library was in top condition. The books were all sorted perfectly and just taking out one from its shelf would feel like ruining a perfect painting.

Once Summershine realized that there was nothing to do, he started to understand why Happytrade wanted Brilliance to find some other thing to do. If this was what Brilliance's days usually looked like, then it was probably for the best to go with Happytrade today.

Thankfully, someone knocked on the door, giving Summershine actually something to do now. He walked up to the door and opened it. In front of the door stood one of his friends, Crash. "Hey, there Brilliance. I'm just here to get a book abou- wait a minute, you're not Brilliance," Crash said excitedly before he realized who was actually opening the door for him.

Summershine explained. "Brilliance is out for a while. I take care of the library until she comes back." Crash decided to just accept that with a smile and shrugged his shoulders. "You said you wanted a book?" Summershine then asked trying to offer his help.

"That's right," Crash replied. "I'm looking for a book about magic tricks!"

Summershine lowered his eyebrows after hearing that. "You are interested in magic?" He asked, considering that Crash was an Earth Pony, which was mainly the reason why he was confused.

"I like to widen my horizon!" Crash replied, smiling happily.

It was not really up to Summershine to question that so he just went on ahead and walked to the other side of the room, towards the bookshelves to get something. "Let's see..." Summershine mumbled as he scanned his eyes across the bookshelf in front of him. There were no signs or anything above the shelves which made it a little hard to tell if the books were sorted by genre or name or something else. Brilliance probably wasn't in need of any of that because she knew her library in and out but for him, it was actually a problem since he didn't know where to start looking.

"It's called: The wonders of magic," Crash then informed with a smile on his face.

Summershine was confused about how Crash already knew the name of the book but he was thankful for his help and looked back at the bookshelf to start looking for the book again. Unfortunately, he didn't have much luck in finding it even after hearing how it was called.

"In the second shelf, third row, sixth from the left," Crash further informed.

By now, Summershine interrupted his search and looked back at Crash. "If you know where to find that book, why didn't you say so in the beginning?" He asked in a slightly annoyed tone.

But Crash smiled in response. "I thought you got it," he said, even though that was clearly not the case.

Summershine decided to not say anything to that and just went to the place that Crash told him before. The book was actually there, much to Summershine's surprise. He pulled the book out with his magic and gave it to Crash.

"Thanks a bunch!" Crash replied happily. "I still need three more books," he then added, much to Summershine's dislike, who already had problems finding one book.

Still, as long as Brilliance was out with Happytrade, he had no choice but to do her work. He just hoped that the two weren't gone for too long.


Meanwhile...


After having not too much success in the spa, Happytrade tried something else. They visited the Ponyville theater and decided to watch a performance. Or rather...Happytrade decided it would be best to watch one since Brilliance was just following her. Brilliance didn't even bother to remember the performance's name or even paid attention.

The same was actually true for Happytrade who was snoring in her seat pretty much as soon as it started. Of course, that didn't sit too much with some other ponies in the theater, who were all complaining.

Brilliance, while sitting next to Happytrade actually wasn't bothered by that but she still decided to grab her friend and dragged her out of the theater before she would end up facing the wrath of ponies sitting around them.

The two were now both outside and Happytrade was starting to wake up again as soon as she was placed on the ground by her friend next to the entrance. Realizing that she was outside of the theater now, made the mare feel a little confused. It took a moment until she remembered how she was inviting Brilliance to the theater. 

"Wait, is it over!?" She asked as she was looking around in order to figure out why she was outside.

"No..." Brilliance replied. "You fell asleep and ponies started to get angry because of your snoring so I dragged you outside of the theater..." she explained casually.

Happytrade was more than embarrassed to hear that and slapped her forehead in frustration. "Well, whatever," she then said, deciding to forget it for now. Obviously, Happytrade was really bored and fell asleep but the important question was if Brilliance enjoyed her time.

Once the important question was asked, Brilliance replied without the need to think about her answer. "It was okay..."

Happytrade grunted in response. Another idea of her didn't work, meaning that she had to figure out something else. But Happytrade was not a pony that was known for giving up that easily so of course, she continued to find that one hobby for Brilliance now matter how long it would take.


Later...


The next stop was a little pet shop. Happytrade figured that if Brilliance had troubles finding a new hobby then maybe she needed something else that would get her mind off from her library. With that in mind, a pet was the best solution to keep someone busy.

"Aww, this puppy is just adorable!" Happytrade said as she was hugging a little puppy in her hooves before looking over to Brilliance to see how her experience was with some pets were.

The Unicorn was surrounded by kittens who were either sitting on her back and head or sleeping right next to her hooves. It was truly an adorable sight, even though Brilliance had her usual emotionless expression on her face.

"They are cute..." Brilliance said.

"Right?" Happytrade replied, witnessing a glimmer of hope that this visit actually paid off. "So which one of them do you want to take home?" She asked.

Brilliance looked down on the kittens in front of them, all of them lining up and looking at her, waiting for which one would be picked.

Brilliance gave a quick answer. "No one," she casually replied, much to the shock of the kittens and Happytrade.

"What!?" Happytrade replied in shock. "But you just said they were cute!" She pointed out.

"Yes," Brilliance replied. "But I'm still not interested to take care of a pet," she explained.

As soon as those words were said, the kittens walked away with frowns on their faces after realizing that their chances to be taken home by her were zero.

And with that, another attempt of Happytrade was for nothing, causing her to find something else again.


Later...


This time, Happytrade set up something more special. She somehow managed to get her hooves on two hang gliders that she and Brilliance both brought on top of a mountain that was close to Ponyville so that they could fly over the town with them.

Happytrade had to admit that she was a little nervous to stand on top of the mountain wearing that hang-glider, ready to jump off any second but with Brilliance standing next to her, she put on a brave face.

"There! Look at the view. Isn't it beautiful?" She asked while she pointed at the buildings of Ponyville in the far distance.

"It is pretty," Brilliance replied with a deadpan expression on her face.

Hearing that made Happytrade really happy. Still, she was shaking a little once she realized how she was about to fly over the very town that they were looking at now. "Just so you know...I don't really know what to do once we jump...but we should be alright...right!?" She asked with some doubts and fear in her voice.

But Brilliance remained completely calm. "Yeah..." she said.

It was almost shocking how Brilliance wasn't even fazed by this one bit. Not only was the sight of her friend being completely fearless surprising her but it also helped her to find her own courage to do this. She slapped her own cheeks to get a grip on the situation and then stood ready to jump.

"Okay, Brilliance! We will jump on three, got it?" Happytrade said before she made sure that her hang glider was ready to carry her now. Brilliance stood right next to her friend ready to jump as well. Happytrade then started counting. "One...two..." she slowly counted, taking her sweet time before she then quickly screamed out the last number. "THREE!!!"

Without thinking much about it, Happytrade jumped off from the mountain with closed eyes, hoping that nothing bad would happen. It took quite a while until she opened her eyes again but once she did, she was baffled by the sight and the realization that she was flying in the air.

"WOAH!" She screamed in excitement. "This is amazing! So this is how the world looks like from the eyes of a Pegasus!" She said as she looked all over the place, feeling the wind blowing through her face. She almost forgot to ask how Brilliance was feeling in this very moment but she figured that even she would admit that this was something truly amazing. "What do you think about that, Brilliance!?" She asked as she was looking all around her to see where the mare was now. Unfortunately, she couldn't spot her anywhere. "Brilliance?" She then said confused, finding herself all alone in the air above Ponyville.


Later, in the Golden Oak Library...


It was really quiet inside the library. Summershine was bored like he never was before in his life. There was not much to do for him. All the books were in the right place, not many ponies visited the library so that he could help them out and time was just not passing. He read through a few books but spending the whole day reading was something that he just couldn't do. He found himself in the middle of the room, sitting on a chair and looking at the ceiling out of pure boredom.

"I really hope the two of them come back soon," he said, obviously referring to Brilliance and Happytrade, who were still gone, leaving him in care of the library. The stallion almost didn't even realize how the door to the library was slowly opening but once he saw how Brilliance was the one stepping inside, he began to let out a huge sigh of relief. "Thank goodness that you're back!" He said as he walked over to the mare before he looked behind her. "Where is Happytrade?" He asked after he was unable to see her anywhere.

"Flying over the town...probably..." Brilliance replied.

Without any context of the situation, of course, Summershine didn't know how to respond. "Okay..." was the only thing he could respond before he asked about her day.

Brilliance explained. "We tried a lot of things," she simply said.

"And...did you find anything that interested you?" Summershine asked out of curiosity.

The answer came really quickly. "No..." Brilliance said before she walked to her bookshelves to see if everything was still in place. "Thanks for taking care of the library by the way," she said with a smile on her face towards Summershine.

"Yeah, no problem but...what about the whole thing to find a new hobby?" Summershine asked.

"Well," Brilliance said before she explained things, however, as soon as she started her explanation, the door to the library was slammed open.

The two Unicorns looked over to the entrance of the door and saw a very angry Happytrade, who was breathing heavily because she probably ran all the way to the library as fast as she could. Seeing, the mare like that actually sent down some shivers on Summershine's back because he feared that he would in some way get caught up in her anger.

"I knew that you were back here!" Happytrade said before she stomped towards her two friends and kept her eyes glued on Brilliance. "What was that about!? You just left me up there!" She exclaimed angrily.

"You seemed to have fun..." Brilliance replied casually as if she was normally talking with her friend.

"That's not the point!" Happytrade exclaimed. "This whole trip today was supposed to find you something else to do besides sitting here in this library all day with nothing left but to read your books! You didn't even seem to have fun with anything else!"

Summershine really wanted to say something to calm Happytrade down but at the same time, he feared to face her wrath as well. He knew that once Happytrade was like that, it was really hard to stop her again.

Despite being yelled at like that, however,  Brilliance wasn't shaken at all and calmly replied. "I had fun," she simply replied.

But Happytrade didn't believe that at all. "Lies!" She exclaimed. "If that was the case then why is everything you ever think about books!?" She asked in her frustration.

Brilliance, by now, wanted to make Happytrade understand something. She did that by asking her one question first. "You like to trade, right?"

Happytrade was confused to be asked that question but she answered regardless. "Yes, of course, I do," she replied.

Brilliance continued. "You like it more than anything else, right?" She then asked.

Happytrade replied again. "Yes, I love it more than anything else!" She said.

While Summershine listened to the two of them, he slowly figured out what Brilliance wanted to get across but he decided to keep quiet to see what Brilliance's next question would be. He had a good guess what her question would be.

And as expected, Brilliance was asking that exact question. "What if somepony came along and tried to take that away from you?"

Happytrade had a quick answer for that. "Well, I would be pretty mad!" She replied offended. "I would feel devastated if somepony would take away the thing that I love doing the most and..." Suddenly Happytrade's eyes popped open and began to hit her. "Ooooh," she added in her realization.

Once Happytrade began to calm down again, Brilliance took her chance to explain. "I really liked trying to do new things and spending time with you but the truth is just that I enjoy spending time in my library reading books a lot more,"

"But doesn't that get boring at times?" Happytrade asked. "Don't you want to try something else?"

Brilliance got a quick response. "I could ask the same thing about you and your trading,"

Happytrade scratched her chin in response. "Now that I think about it...I don't think I have a lot more hobbies besides trading..." she said before she let out a sigh. "Oh boy...I'm such a hypocrite..." she then realized.

As Summershine watched this conversation, he began to smile once he saw how Happytrade was realizing her mistake and decided to cheer her up. He put a hoof on her shoulder and smiled at her. "I guess we just have to respect that everyone has different things that they like, even if we think that it is nothing special,"

"Yeah..." Happytrade said with a frown on her face. "And I was so stubborn and tried to take that away from one of my friends...Some friend I am, right?" she said, feeling deep regrets to make Brilliance go through all of those things today.

But Brilliance shook her head and smiled as she walked over to her friend, letting her know that she was not blaming her for anything. "It's okay," she said much to Happytrade's surprise. "You just wanted me to be happy, right? You were worried about me. That's why you did all of this,"

Happytrade actually had good intentions in mind but she completely overlooked to think about Brilliance's feelings, which made her feel even worse. It made it even harder that Brilliance was so understanding of the situation and wasn't mad or anything.

"I'm sorry..." Happytrade said as she lowered her head in front of her friend.

Again, Brilliance shook her head and smiled. "Don't be. It felt nice, knowing that you were worried about me. I know that you had good intentions. You are a very kind pony after all,"

"Awww," Happytrade replied touched by Brilliance's words before she jumped over to the Unicorn to give her a big hug, which caused Brilliance to get caught off guard a little. "I don't deserve such a good friend,"

"I'm pretty sure you do," Brilliance replied as she pets her friend's head.

It was a really touching moment between the two of them and Summershine was happy to see the two of them like that. It was good that this whole situation didn't escalate any more than it should.

Summershine felt like he was ruining the situation with his next words but he said them anyway. "So...just to wrap it all up...today...was basically a waste of time for everypony?" He said, hinting at that he had to watch the library for nothing.

"Pretty much," Brilliance agreed brutally honest.

"Well, not exactly!" Happytrade disagreed. "At least, I learned that you should accept someone the way they are. Forcefully changing someone even though they are happy the way they are, could end up worse than you think," she shared with the group happily.

After this was all cleared up, Happytrade decided to leave to no longer bother Brilliance, even though she didn't say or do anything to make her think that way. This only left Summershine and Brilliance in the library.

"Thanks for taking care of the library," Brilliance said in gratitude.

"Oh, it was nothing," Summershine replied happily, intentionally leaving out how bored he was most of the time. Brilliance returned to the bookshelves at the end of the room and Summershine was about to leave but then he stopped in front of the doorway. There was something that he was thinking about and that was slightly bothering him. "By the way," he said, causing Brilliance to turn around to him. "I don't completely disagree with Happytrade about one thing,"

Brilliance was confused to hear that. "What do you mean?" She asked.

"Well, about finding another hobby," he started before he explained what exactly he meant. "I mean, it wouldn't hurt to look for something else to do. I know you love spending your time reading books here but I think it wouldn't hurt to have options, especially if you spend it with others,"

Summershine had no idea if she was taking that advice or not but he could swear that he noticed her thinking about it at least. 

"Maybe," Brilliance replied as she turned her head towards her books again. Summershine figured that this was as much as he could get off a response from her so he decided to leave without any more words.

The door of the library closed again and Brilliance was the only one left now. She scanned her eyes over the bookshelves to see if everything was in the right order but for some reason, she had trouble concentrating. The words that Summershine said before he left seemed to be stuck in her head and it wouldn't leave for the rest of the day.


The next day, at the Ponyville market place...


As usual, Happytrade could be found at her usual spot, selling stuff to others in the marketplace. It was a busy but also relatively quiet day compared to any other day. The reason for that maybe because she was still thinking about the day before. She still felt bad that she was forcing Brilliance to find another hobby, especially after realizing that she wasn't any different. When it came to her friends, Happytrade was always trying to do her best to make them happy or help them out but somehow that made her not see what was actually going on. Realizing that, made her still feel bad now.

She let out a sigh. "First I was wondering why there are not that many customers as usual..." she said as she looked around the marketplace to see how most ponies walked past her without even sparing a glare at her. "But now I know...with this frown on my face, nopony would probably be interested in my wares," she figured as she leaned her head on her counter in frustration. "But how can I be cheerful after finding out how I'm the worst friend ever!?"

"You're not," Brilliance then said, revealing herself to stand right next to Happytrade now.

Hearing the voice of the dear friend she was thinking about now, quickly made the mare raise her head in surprise. "Brilliance!?" She asked in shock. "Um...what can I do for you? You here to buy something?" She asked while rubbing her neck, feeling still a little awkward to speak to her.

Brilliance shook her head and quickly got to the point. "I was wondering if we could do something after you are done here. Like finding something that we both could do in our free time,"

Those words certainly confused Happytrade. "You mean like a hobby?" She asked, which caused Brilliance to nod in response. "But what about yesterday? We tried out some things and it didn't work out that well," she pointed out.

"We can still try out more things," Brilliance casually replied.

"Huh?" Happytrade replied in a state of confusion, especially since how the last the went.

Noticing the confusion in Happytrade's face, Brilliance figured that she should explain what exactly she had in mind. "Even if we don't find new hobbies, I just thought that we could spend more time with each other from now on, to have fun, if that is enough reason,"

A wide smile started to slowly form on Happytrade's face as soon as she heard those words coming out of her friend's mouth. "Yes! Of course!" She said happily, causing Brilliance to smile in response. "In fact, I will close my stand right now!" She added.

"Are you sure?" Brilliance asked, mainly pointing out that she would not be able to make any money for the rest of the day.

"Yes, I am! Let's spend the day doing something fun right now!" She simply said while she already prepared to put everything away again..

"Okay," Brilliance said with a smile on her face, appreciating that Happytrade was leaving everything because of her.

And just like that, Happytrade closed her stand and left the marketplace with Brilliance. They were still not sure what they wanted to do on this day but it actually didn't matter that much. What was important was that they could spend time with each other. And even after all the things that happened yesterday, they both had the feeling that they ended up closer to each other. Knowing that was definitely what made them happy the most.
> 5. Crash
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Both Summershine and Nightsky walked down on the road of Ponyville. Summershine was done delivering packages for today and Nightsky was just done with his shift as a weather pony so they decided to both go to a restaurant to grab something to eat.

Nightsky's stomach started to grumble, grabbing Summershine's attention. "You really are hungry from the sound of that, huh?" He asked teasingly not sure if it was embarrassing for Nightsky or not.

"Yeah, I skipped breakfast because I almost overslept," Nightsky replied casually. "I could really go for a hay burger or two now," Nightsky added.

"Yeah, me too," Summershine replied. Hearing Nightsky's stomach grumble actually made him realize that he was quite hungry as well.

As they were on their way to a restaurant, a stallion was walking towards them, carrying a big box on his back as he was walking through the road of Ponyville. It was an Earth Pony stallion with a yellow coat, an orange upstanding mane, red eyes and a pink whoopee cushion as a Cutie Mark. As soon as the stallion saw the two ponies walking towards him, he smiled and waved at them. "Hey there!" He said, causing them both to wave back at him.

However, once the stallion waved at the two of them, he started to lose his balance and the box on his back started to shake, making him lose some of his balance. Realizing this incoming disaster, Summershine and Nightsky rushed towards the stallion. The box started to fall down to the ground but luckily Summershine had his magic ready to catch it in midair so that it wouldn't fall on the ground.

Still, the Earth Pony stallion tripped and fell to the ground. He was relieved to see his box unharmed and released a sigh. "Thanks a bunch, Summershine!" He said in gratitude before he grabbed it with his hooves, shaking it and putting an ear on it to make sure that it had no scratch on it. "It would have been really bad if something in there would have been damaged," he explained.

Summershine and Nightsky seemed to be relieved to see that nothing was damaged. For some reason, Summershine had an awkward smile on his face, much to Nightsky's confusion. "Looks like we managed to save that box before it...crashed, huh?" He said in a tone as if he just made the joke of the century.

There was an awkward silence between the three of them after that sentence. "Oh! I get it! It's because my name is Crash!" The Earth Pony stallion said once he put everything together and busted out in laughter. "That's funny, Summershine!" He said accompanied with some laughter.

"I know, right?" Summershine replied with a smile on his face after seeing how Crash appreciated his joke. But as soon as he looked over to Nightsky who had a pretty unamused expression on his face, he started to feel awkward again.

The laughing eventually stopped and Crash rubbed the tears away from his eyes. "But seriously, it would not have been funny if something broke in here," he said with a more serious tone in his voice now.

"Why? What's inside that box?" Nightsky asked out of curiosity.

Crash took the box and put it on his back once more. "Just something fun! You will see eventually," he just explained before he walked past the two. "Sorry but I was waiting to test out the stuff inside here all day and I can't wait any longer! I need to go home and open it," he said with excitement before he started jumping up and down on the spot.

Of course, Summershine and Nightsky were both still wondering what was inside but they also respected how excited Crash seemed to be about this box so they just let him walk away with it so that he can open it. Before they knew it, the stallion was gone again and the two stood there confused.

"He still hasn't told us what was inside..." Summershine said with some disappointment in his voice.

"Well, he did say that we will see what is inside eventually," Nightsky pointed out.

"Yeah, you're right," Summershine replied with a smile on his face. He decided to leave this matter again and then looked over to Nightsky. "Eating?" He just said.

Nightsky's belly started to grumble once more. "Eating," he replied before he turned around again to walk in direction of a nearby restaurant before Summershine followed him on his way.


A little later...


It was silent and pitch black inside of Crash's home. The package that he brought with him, was sitting right in the middle of the room and was the only thing that was visible at the moment, due to being lighted at by a light bulb that occasionally went on and off, creating a very creepy atmosphere. 

The only other thing that was slowly getting visible was a smiling face, that could be seen every time the light bulb was flashing on. It was Crash's face...who had a sharp knife in his mouth and was ready to let it dive down to the package to open it in one quick swoop.

"Open Sesame!" He said in a highly excited tone while still holding the knife in his mouth and quickly slashing across the package in a maniac fashion and laughing insanely at the same time. A few seconds later, the box was open with the top side being cleanly separated from it as if somepony carefully cut it off. "Alright!" He said happily before he threw the knife away into a corner without a thought that it could hit something.

Crash then removed the top side of the package and without any patience in his behavior, he pulled out another package from inside. It was really colorful and had pictures of multiple things on it, like fake teeth, a whoopee cushion, a rubber duck and more. Seeing all those things on the cover of the package sent down a shiver of excitement on the stallion's back.

"Let's see..." he said as his eyes wandered through the text on the box. "The Pranksters Master bundle. Filled with stuff that only the most advanced and experienced Pranksters can make use of," he read out before he stopped for a moment. "Which I am!" He then said as if he wanted to confirm it to someone, even though there was no one else in the room.

A few seconds later, he opened the box and took a look inside, causing a huge grin to form on his face. Shortly after, he began giggling like a little colt and closed the box again. "This is gonna be So fun!" He said in his excitement after just thinking about what he would do next.


Later...


As planned, Summershine and Nightsky both spent some time in a restaurant to grab something to eat. Unbeknownst to both of them, however, somepony was following them closely, hiding in nearby bushes or behind buildings, and getting closer and closer to them while keeping an eye on the two as they walked through the town, all while having an excited expression on his face.

As he was secretly following them, he began to get more and more excited. He was looking inside of a saddlebag that he was wearing right now and had a wide grin on his face as he was moving his hooves around inside the bag.

"Time to test some of this stuff out," he then said accompanied with almost evil sounding laughter.

In the meantime, Summershine and Nightsky were done eating and still spent some time talking in front of the restaurant.

"So..." Summershine started before he went out with one random question. "Do you think Princess Celestia sometimes lowers the sun earlier so that she can end her day quicker? You know...to avoid more work?"

Nightsky gave a quick response in a completely disinterested tone. "No,"

Hearing such a short response was not exactly what Summershine expected. "Uh, yeah...me neither..." he replied in an attempt to end this awkward conversation.

Then, in the middle of their "conversation", Crash appeared next to them with a huge grin on his face that caused the two stallions to get a little confused. "Hi, Crash," Summershine then eventually greeted with a weird feeling in his mind.

"Hey there! Want some peanuts?" Crash then asked out of the blue before he pulled out a little can offered it two the two stallions.

Wondering if that was all that Crash wanted from them, the two were still a little confused about why he was so excited about it. At first, they hesitated, they just ate something after all and that excited smile on Crash was making the situation a little awkward. It was eventually that which caused Summershine to finally realize what the stallion tried to set up.

"I get it," Summershine thought. "He is trying to play a prank on me. Once I open this can a spring snake will come out and jump at me..." he figured as he kept eye contact with Crash, who still was smiling and waiting for Summershine to open the can.

Being the good friend he was, Summershine did Crash the favor and opened the can and pretending to get scared. And as expected, something came flying out of the can after Summershine opened it. "Whoa! What!?" Summershine said in an overly over the top expression that left Nightsky in quite a shock, causing Summershine to think that he might have overdone it a little bit.

However, that was not what Nightsky was actually shocked off. "Isn't there supposed to be a spring snake coming out of those cans?" He said while he backed off a little bit.

Summershine did not understand what Nightsky meant with that. Now that he thought about it, he didn't even notice what exactly came flying out of the can. He just now noticed how something was on his back and turned his head around to see what it was. He was surprised and mostly shocked to see that a pair of snake eyes were staring right back at him. Snake eyes from a real snake.

Summershine let out a frightened scream and tried to get the snake away but he couldn't get it away, which only made him panic more. He eventually decided to run away with the snake sitting on his back. Nightsky could only stand there and watch his friend running away in fear, screaming through the roads of Ponyville. What made the situation even weirder was how Crash was standing just there with a successful smile on his face.

"Awesome, huh?" He had the nerve to ask. "Instead of a spring snake, a real snake comes jumping out of the can. This causes some real shock!" He explained before he laughed happily.

But Nightsky didn't find it all too amusing. "Don't you think that was a little too much? What if the snake bites him?" He asked out of worry for Summershine.

But Crash calmed him down again. "Don't worry, it doesn't bite, this snake is fairly good trained and won't do anything to him," he explained. However, Nightsky was not convinced and glared back at Crash. "Come on, don't look at me like that, Night. Here," he said before he offered the stallion his hoof. "All forgiven?" He then asked as some kind of apology.

"I think Summershine is the one who you should shake hooves with..." Nightsky pointed out.

"How about you give him my apology by accepting this apology in his stead,"

Failing to see the logic in that Nightsky still walked up to his friend to shake his hoof. Crash was working in some strange ways sometimes so he might as well go along with it. But that proved to be a grave mistake.

BZZZZZ

Shortly after he was shaking his hoof an electric shock was going through Nightsky's body, followed by some laughter from Crash. Nightsky had a good guess what was going on, judging from what happened to Summershine and quickly grabbed his friend's hoof, that he had previously shaken and inspected it carefully. But to his surprise, there was nothing there. He expected to see some kind of buzzer but Crash's hoof was completely empty. Crash seemed rather amused by Nightsky's confusion.

BZZZZZ

Suddenly, another shock went through Nightsky's body. "What!?" He exclaimed confused. He wasn't even touching Crash this time and looked around him to see what was the cause of this. In the meantime, Crash was laughing his soul out seeing Nightsky in this state. "What did you do!?" Nightsky asked, this time in a more aggressive tone.

Crash tried to hold his laughter for a moment and explained. "Maybe you should look at your hoof, for a minute," he advised.

Nightsky did exactly that and looked at the hoof that he used to shake Crash's hoof with. Something was stuck on it. Some kind of buzzer. Something that he expected on Crash's hoof. "What is that!?" He then asked after getting shocked again.

Crash explained. "A shock buzzer that you stuck on somepony else," he proudly said as he raised his chest in the air. "And the best thing is, it sends an electric shock through you every few seconds," he added, much to the surprise of Nightsky.

"What!?"

BZZZZ

By now, Nightsky was getting really tired of that and tried to get the thing on his hoof off, only to find out that it was stuck on him as if it was glued on his hoof, which he actually would expect Crash to do for something like that. Before he could confirm that from him, however, Crash was happily walking away to probably pick up his next victim to prank. Nightsky would like to get him for this "prank" but right now his main concern was to get this buzzer off from his hoof before he would go crazy.


Later...


The next pair to prank was already waiting for Crash inside of the Golden Oak Library. It was Brilliance and Lightbeam. The later one was preparing some tea and placed it in the middle of the room on a table while Brilliance was writing something in a book. Both of them didn't realize though that Crash was watching them from outside through the window, accompanied by some slight laughter, which he barely could hold back.

"Everything is set...now...all I have to do is wait..." he whispered to himself. He clearly planned another prank on the two and just waited for it to start.

In the meantime, Brilliance and Lightbeam didn't even suspect a thing. Lightbeam was just placing a cup of tea in front of Brilliance who looked up for a second before she stopped writing for a second. "Thanks for helping me today," she said in her usual deadpan tone. "I really appreciate you taking care of the library while I was busy writing,"

"Sure, no problem!" Lightbeam replied as she placed her cup of tea on a table. "Mind asking me what you were writing in the first place? It must have been really important if it meant that you couldn't take care of the library in the meantime,"

After hearing that question, Brilliance stopped with what she was doing right now and closed the book in front of her. "This is something that I was writing in for a few days now. It's a list of plans that I plan to do around here,"

"Oh! Important stuff!" Lightbeam said in awe before she started smiling. "Glad that I could help you in any way," she expressed happily. Brilliance smiled in response. She was really glad to have Lightbeam helping her out. She probably wasn't too excited to help her out even if she put on a smile. But then again, Lightbeam was always putting on a smile so it was really hard to tell. "Anyway, we are done now, right? So let's sit down, relax and enjoy some good tea, okay?"

"Kay," Brilliance replied as she put down her book before blowing on the tea to cool it off and taking a small sip of it. Lightbeam, after setting down the tea on the table did the same. She sat down on a chair and wanted to take a good sip from her freshly made tea.

Then...it happened

PFFFFFFT

A loud fart noise echoed through the library as soon as Lightbeam sat down. Brilliance instantly stopped drinking and just looked over to her friend, which was where the sound was coming from. There sat a highly embarrassed Lightbeam whose face turned bright red after this mishap.

"I just pretend I didn't hear that..." Brilliance said, probably to make it easier for Lightbeam even though the Unicorn didn't really seem to mind at all, given that she was speaking in a really deadpan tone like usual.

However, pointing it out was what made the mare blush even more in embarrassment. "No! That wasn't me! I swear!" Lightbeam immediately denied.

But Brilliance wasn't convinced. "I can smell it, you know," she pointed out.

As soon as Brilliance said that Lightbeam immediately noticed a strange smell coming from her. "Wait! She is right! Maybe it was me?" She wondered after everything was kinda pointing at her now, even though she was sure that it wasn't the case.

As Lightbeam tried to figure all of this out, she quickly heard some laughter from outside, right behind the window to be exact. The mare quickly investigated and found her friend Crash, rolling on the ground laughing. "Crash! That was you, right!?" Lightbeam instantly figured as soon as she saw the stallion enjoy this situation that much.

The stallion got up and explained. "Yep! A Whoopee Cushion! I placed it when nopony was looking," he said. It was kinda impressive how he managed to do that, considering how both mares were inside the library the whole time.

Lightbeam looked back at her seat and noticed the Whoopee Cushion after Crash mentioned it, however, there was still one question in her mind. "Wait, does the smell come from that thing as well?" She asked confused.

"Sure!" Crash replied as he jumped through the window and walked up to the Whoopee Cushion to pick it up. "There wouldn't be any fun if it only made fart noises. This baby even smells like a real fart!" He explained proudly as he showed the thing to the mares, who were both holding their noses in disgust.

"Yeah! Good job! But now please get that thing out of here! It really smells!" Lightbeam said annoyed.

Crash did as he was told but not before he walked up to Brilliance for a short moment with a little giggle escaping him. "You might wanna check that book, that you wrote in. I switched your writing feather with another one,"

Brilliance didn't seem too annoyed to hear that. "Why? Is it writing with invisible ink or something? I don't mind that, I can always rewrite those few words that I wrote today," she explained, showing how unimpressed she was by that little prank that Crash played on her.

But Crash started laughing. "Invisible ink? No, even better! After a while, the ink will not only vanish but also incinerate!" He explained.

Hearing that made Brilliance a little nervous and she looked over to the book on her table. Only a few seconds later, the book started to burn and ended up as a pile of ash right before her eyes. Crash highly enjoyed Brilliance's reaction which was, ironically not really obvious and left the library. What he didn't know was that he just ruined a lot of work that Brilliance had put into that book, making her feel really annoyed but luckily, he was nowhere near her to feel her wrath...for now...


Later at the Ponyville marketplace...


"Here you go! Freshly made tomato juice, hope you enjoy it!" She said in the usual friendly manner while she gave one of her customers a red bottle of tomato juice.

"Thanks a bunch!" The stallion who bought the bottle replied before he dropped some bits on Happytrade's counter.

The mare had a happy smile on her face after another good sale and was about to put the coins on the counter away but then suddenly, something grabbed her attention. It was the stallion who just bought her tomato juice. He seemed to have taken a little sip from the juice and clearly not enjoyed it judging from how heavily he was coughing. He then looked over to Happytrade with an angry expression on his face, that signaled the mare that some trouble is coming after her.

"Was this supposed to be a joke!?" The stallion replied in an angry tone as he got close to Happytrade's face, who was backing down her head in response.

"I-I don't know what you mean!" She replied nervously and confused. She was pretty confident in the quality of her wares and couldn't explain what went wrong.

But the stallion didn't wait for a second to explain the problem to her. "Listen, where I come from, tomato juice is not spice and burns my tongue away!" He said while he put the juice down on the table again and took his money back, which was still laying in front of Happytrade.

Of course, seeing a dissatisfied customer leave like that was nagging at her but she also was confused about what was wrong with the tomato juice that she just sold and tasted it herself by just pouring a little drop on her hoof and licking it off. Instead of tomatoes, however, she tasted a spicy flavor that definitely not belonged in there. But before she could even puzzle together how that was possible, she began to hear laughter from behind another counter next to her's.

She quickly recognized that laughter and took a look behind the counter to find a stallion rolling on the floor laughing his lungs out. "Crash!" Happytrade said annoyed after she got a good guess what was going now. "That was your doing, wasn't it!?"

After wiping away some of the tears in his eyes, Crash replied. "Yup," he said admitted with a smile on his face. He then pulled out a little red bottle. "Ultra hot sauce. The hottest and spiciest sauce in all of Equestria. Really good stuff, I mean you saw what it did to this poor guy, right?"

"Yes, I did!" Happytrade replied annoyed. She clearly didn't have as much fun as Crash was having right now. "It worked so well that it made one of my customers walk away angrily!" She explained.

Crash finally got up from the ground but he still had a wide smile on his face. He didn't seem to show much regret for what he was doing to her indirectly. In fact, he seemed to be prepared for this outcome. "Come on, Happy, it was just a little prank," he said before he pulled out a single red flower from out of nowhere and offered it to the angry mare. "Here, as compensation."

Happytrade still had an annoyed look on her face and was angry at him but that gesture made her forgive him. "Aww, that's so nice of you," she said touched from this gift before she took the flower in her hoof to sniff at it. But then suddenly, she was flushed away from a giant current of water that came out of this little flower and blew her right against a wall on a nearby house.

Before the mare knew what even happened to her, the same laughter that she just heard minutes ago came closer and closer to her. "Haha! That was good, wasn't it! A prank flower that has a hundred times more water in it than normal, guaranteed to blow everyone who doesn't expect it away!" He explained as he hopped past Happytrade who was still hanging against a wall, stuck and completely soaked. She would have liked to give Crash something of her mind but that was not possible in her current state. All she could do was to clench her teeth in anger and hope that he won't cross her path anytime soon, for his sake.

After that encounter, Crash was happily walking around the town and looked inside of his saddlebag, like a colt that was looking inside a bag of candies. "The things that I can do with all of those things! Those were the best pranks ever!" He said excitedly as he started imagining what else he could do. "This is going to be so fun!" He exclaimed as he continued his walk through Ponyville.


A few days later...


As expected, by now, Crash was a big prank parade and everypony who came across him had to suffer under it. It ranged from little things like switching salt with rank four spicy chili pepper to bigger things like placing fake poops all over the town, that smell like the real thing.

Needless to say, everypony was quickly getting sick of all those pranks but they couldn't figure out who was responsible for them because Crash was mostly really sneaky about them. The only exception was, of course, his friends, who were holding a secret meeting inside of the Golden Oak library at the very moment.

Nightsky was the one to took it upon himself to walk in the middle of the room and do the talking. "I think you all know why we are here, right?" Nightsky asked into the round with a serious expression on his face.

"Crash!" Every other pony in the room replied in unison, also with serious expressions on their faces.

"Um, yeah!" Nightsky replied. He probably didn't expect a quick answer like that from all sides at the exact same time and was a little surprised by it. Eventually, he put back on his serious expression. "So...any idea what we should do about him? I don't know about you but I think he is going a little overboard with his pranks,"

"A little!?" Happytrade expressed angrily before she walked up to the stallion. "Do you know how many customers I have lost because of his stupid pranks!?"

"Yeah!" Lightbeam agreed. "You know how long Brilliance and I had to wash that terrible smell away from his Whoopee Cushion?"

"I know, I know," Nightsky replied.

BZZZZZ

Another shock seemed to have traveled through the stallion's body, much to the surprise of everyone in the room. As soon as Nightsky saw the confused expressions on his friend's faces, he explained. "Oh, don't worry. That happens from time to time now. Should be going away soon...I hope..." he said in a pretty unconvincing tone.

Whether Nightsky was fine or not, Happytrade was still mad about everything and wanted to know what to do. "Why is Crash pulling all those pranks now anyway?" She asked, trying to get to the source of all this.

Summershine then began to think and remembered one thing. "It all started around when he got this package, right Nightsky?" He asked.

Nightsky did remember that now as well. "Yeah, and he told us that we would see what was inside it eventually!" He figured.

This was enough to get Happytrade pumped to immediately go to Crash and take away whatever was inside the package. "Then what are we waiting for!? Let's go and put an end to all of this!" She said as she led the group towards where Crash lived to take care of the situation.

Of course, the five ponies considered to talk with the stallion first but Crash was not really known to listen to reasons sometimes, especially since he was having the fun of his life with all of those pranks. They figured that he wouldn't stop if they just asked nicely. With that in mind, the group went to Crash's place to end this madness.


Later...


Crash was sitting in his room and was looking over at a hoof drawn map of Ponyville on the ground and had placed several things on it, like a general who was putting down toy soldiers on a real map to figure out his next strategic move. The stallion was moving back and forth multiple prank tools to plan his next move in all seriousness. Judging from how thoughtful he was placing all those things on the map, it seemed to be really important to him.

After he seemed to be done with it, he formed a smile again and was excited to put his plan in motion. However, he soon heard knocking on his front door and was a little annoyed that somepony was interrupting him now. He opened the door and was surprised to see his friends in front of him.

"Oh! Hey, guys!" He then said with a smile on his face. "Are you planning on going somewhere?" He asked, seeing how his friends all met up with the exception of him.

To confirm what Crash was up to now, Summershine asked a question that would decide what he and his friends were about to do next. "So...planned any new pranks for today?" He asked, hopefully, subtle enough so that Crash wouldn't suspect anything.

Luckily, that was exactly the case. "You bet! I got a ton of pranks planned!" He said excitedly. "That reminds me!" He added before he pulled out a can of peanuts, accompanied with a big smile on his face. "Want some?"

There was a long silence in the group, which was soon interrupted by Lightbeam. "Sure why not!" She said as she was about to reach her hoof towards the can, only to get interrupted by a loud and angry "No!" That everyone else was saying at the same time.

Happytrade then just decided to cut to the point. "Listen, Crash! Your pranks need to stop!" She said bluntly.

"What!? Why!?" Crash replied shocked. "Those are the best pranks that I ever pulled! There is no way I'm gonna stop now! I have so many things planned!" He explained.

"But your pranks aren't funny for anypony else!" Nightsky said. "That's why we decided to stop you doing any more," he explained, much to the shock of Crash, who couldn't believe what he was hearing right now.

The stallion stood in the doorway and looked a little upset. The group was surprised by that. It actually looked as if Crash was considering to stop now, something that the group didn't expect to happen.

But that was not the case.

"No!" He quickly said before he slammed the door shut in front of everypony.

"Hey! Get back here!" Summershine said before he grabbed the door handle immediately after.

BZZZZ

Only to get shocked by it as soon as he touched it. "Really!?" Summershine then exclaimed angrily.

"Alright! That's it!" Happytrade said annoyed before she prepared herself to kicked down the door to break into Crash's house. There was clearly no point to talk with Crash normally so all they could resort to was to force him to stop with his pranks. It didn't take long until Happytrade managed to break into the stallion's house. Once the door was kicked down, the angry mare marched into the house, but as soon as she touched the floor she slipped because there were marbles all over the ground, causing her to fall down.

Nightsky stepped into the room next, luckily, as a Pegasus, he was able to fly over the ground to avoid falling down. "Looks like we have to be careful around here," he said before he ironically flew right into some kind of wire, that triggered another trap, in form of a pie that came flying right into the stallion's face and knocking him down on the ground as well.

Summershine, Lightbeam, and Brilliance were still outside and hesitated to step inside, judging from what happened to the rest of their friends. "When did he had time to set all this up?" Lightbeam asked confused as she watched Nightsky and Happytrade on the ground, who both tried to get up again.

Luckily, there were no more traps left and the group cautiously walked up to Crash's room to confront him one more time. Once they opened the door to his room, they found the stallion in the middle of the room who seemed to be ready to deal with his friends.

"You never get me! Not while I have this!" Crash said before he pulled out a little green ball and presented it in front of everypony. The group had no idea what a little ball would do to stop them, but they had a suspicion that Crash would explain, what exactly he was holding in his hoof. And as expected, he did exactly that. "This stink ball will release a stinking gas that will continue to smell for a whole week!"

A huge gasp was released by the group. "No!" Lightbeam exclaimed shocked. "Not more stinky stuff!" She added as she was hiding behind her brother Nightsky.

Crash was ready to throw this ball any second now while looking at his friends to make sure that they were not making any suspicious moves.

Still, Summershine walked up slowly to his friend in order to calm him down again. "Listen...we don't have to resort to that, okay?" He said in a calming voice as he made one step after another towards the stallion.

"Yes, Crash," Lightbeam added. "We just want you to stop your pranks,"

"Why!?" Crash replied confused. "They were all awesome! I never had so much fun before in my life!" He mentioned.

"Yes! But we didn't!" Happytrade bluntly threw at him.

As soon as Crash heard those words, he got even more confused. "What do you mean? You didn't like the pranks that I pulled on you?"

"We like pranks too..." Brilliance added into the round. "But not if we have to suffer because of them," she added.

"Suffer!?" Crash replied as he started to lower his hoof, where he was holding his stink bomb in. "My pranks made you suffer?" He said with a frown on his face. "Wow...I had so much fun with all those pranks that I didn't even notice that...I'm sorry..." 

Seeing how Crash had this moment of insight, the group got relieved again. The little anger that some of the ponies had still inside of them completely vanished and they forgave him as soon as they heard this sincere apology.

"Hey, don't worry about it, Crash," Summershine replied.

"Yeah," Happytrade added while smiling again. "It's all forgiven,"

What followed was a big group hug that involved all of the six ponies. All of them were happy that everything turned out peacefully and that Crash was stopping with his pranks. However, there was one thing in the middle of the hug that distracted everypony. It was a strange sound.

"What is that ticking noise?" Summershine asked in the middle of the hug.

The group went out of the hug again to figure it out but Crash quickly remembered something. "Oh, yeah!" He then said in his realization before he pulled out the stink bomb again. "I set a timer on the stink bomb before you entered this room, in case you would have taken it away from me,"

The group instantly got really nervous and shocked at the same time. "A timer?" Happytrade asked.

"Yeah," Crash replied casually. "It should go off riiiiigt about now...Oh, oh!"

What followed was a huge smoke explosion that sent the whole house shaking for a brief moment. Smoke was filling the whole house and needless to say, the smell was horrible, very, very indescribable horrible. There were screams in disgust and some other noises that indicated that the group was not having a pleasant time.


Later...


After the events in Crash's place, the six ponies took a walk through Ponyville. They were happy to spend some time after all those pranks.

"Sorry, for all the things recently," Crash apologized again.

"Don't worry about it," Summershine said in the name of everypony else.

"Yeah, as long as you learned something from all of this," Lightbeam added.

"Sure," Crash replied before he shared his lesson with everyone. "Pulling pranks is really fun but you should always consider the feeling of those that you prank on,"

The group was happy that Crash came to understand this and smiled happily because of it. Even if the last days were a little rough, at least Crash knew what he was doing was not right. But...that didn't change too much about their current situation.

"So..." Lightbeam started as she was looking around her. "When do you think can we stop moving around this huge bubble?" She asked. She was referring to the magic shield that Summershine was using to protect the other ponies in Ponyville from the terrible smell that was coming from him and his friends.

"One week, at least..." Crash explained casually as if he wasn't bothered by it at all.

Of course, the group was stared at by everyone that walked past them and they all got heavily confused by the huge bubble around the six ponies. It's not really as if the ponies could change anything of their current situation so they just had to endure it for a few days. But if there was a group of ponies to hang around with for that long, then they were happy that it was their closest friends.
> 6. Lightbeam
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cloudsdale...


As the sun was going up on the horizon, one pony was happily watching it. It was a Pegasus mare with a light blue coat, a white and light blue colored straight mane, light orange eyes and a pink flower as a Cutie Mark. Almost hypnotized by the beauty she saw in the far distance, the mare was resting her head on the window ledge.

"Oh!" She then said once she saw something interesting appearing in the distance.

Far, far away, a rainbow was showing up. The colors were slowly appearing and got brighter by the second, which eventually ended in a really colorful image that one would usually see in well-drawn pictures. This view was taking away the breath of the mare that was watching all of this unfold in front of her eyes. Seeing something like that lifted the mood of her, which was high up, to begin with, and started to fill her with cheer happiness.

The mare began to smile and raised her head in determination. "Alright!" She simply said before she ran out of her room.

In the meantime, in the same house, a stallion was still sound asleep and quietly snored his worries away. It was Nightsky, who as usual, liked to spend his days more relaxed and quiet. This happened to be one of those days and he wouldn't change for anything now.

Unfortunately, his rhythm was often disturbed by his more than energy filled and bubbly little sister. This was exactly one of those moments. The stallion's eyes popped open as soon as he noticed how someone was jumping up and down on his bed. Something that happened a lot.

"Wake up! Wake up!" The mare said happily, without noticing how she was waking her brother up a little too abruptly. "You just missed a really beautiful rainbow!" She mentioned as she continued to jump on the bed without a care in her mind.

Despite this commotion, the stallion remained relatively calm and gave a collected response. "If I already missed it, then why do I need to be awake now?" Nightsky pointed out while he tried to ignore his sister's rampage as best as possible.

Suddenly, realization struck the mare and she sat down on the bed. "Good point," she simply said before she started to calm down again. 

Nightsky began to sit up now and rubbed his eyes. "Lightbeam, I like a good rainbow too but I also got home a few hours ago and need some sleep to catch up," Nightsky explained. He was referring to his job as a weather pony, where he occasionally had to do work at night. Somepony had to take care of the weather late as well after all.

Lightbeam quickly explained herself. "Sorry! I just saw a rainbow which means that this day will be great! After all, rainbows are always a good sign!" She explained casually with a big smile on her face.

"Yup," Nightsky agreed. He probably didn't want to question it so that his sister wouldn't switch back to her previous mood again.

Lightbeam expected more of a response from her brother. "You're just gonna sleep through half the day, right?" She asked with little emotions in her voice.

"Yup," Nightsky replied before he laid back down on his back and covered his face under his bedsheet.

Lightbeam flew down from the bed with a sulking expression on her face. "Can't believe this," she whispered under her breath before she raised her shoulders. "To spend a beautiful day like this inside is just a huge waste!" She said as she walked over to the window and opened it wide and flew outside in front of it. "I'm not gonna sit here and let this day go to waste!"

Nightsky looked over to his sister who was flying right in front of the window. He saw how determined she was looking up to the sky as if she wanted to vow to the sky itself that this day would be amazing. "From now on, this day will be aweso-" She said before she was interrupted by some heavy rain that came pouring down on her on cue.

That little interruption certainly ruined her moment. "That doesn't count!" She exclaimed angrily with her mane covering her eyes now.

Nightsky didn't even say something and he didn't even get a chance anyway because Lightbeam flew away before he could. All he was doing was keeping his view at the window from where Lightbeam left. As soon as she was gone, however, the stallion yawned heavily. "I'm going back to sleep," he said before he turned around to continue his nap again. It was not as if he could change his sister's plans anyway, even if he wanted now. All he was hoping for was that she would be okay with whatever she was planning to do now.


Later...


Lightbeam tried her best to make her words come true and walked through the streets of Ponyville open-minded in hope to find something that could make her day. She had no idea what it was but she just knew that seeing the rainbow earlier in this morning was a sign for good things to come. The mare walked through the streets of Ponyville and kept her eyes and ears open to not miss anything. "Let's see...what could be happening to turn this day into a simply wonderful one?" She asked herself as she was scanning her eyes through the ponies that she walked past by.

"Everypony looks happy...but just This day is relatively normal happy and not This day is absolutely awesome happy!" The mare mumbled to herself as she looked at all the ponies on the side while walking aimlessly through the dirt road of Ponyville.

This eventually ended up with her being too focused on the ponies around her that she accidentally bumped into somepony. The stallion that she bumped into turned around in surprise and looked at the mare with an annoying expression on his face. "Watch where you're going!" He said angrily, causing the mare to shrug her shoulders for a second before the stallion walked away.

"S-sorry!" She said after him but it didn't seem as if he cared about it and he just continued to walk away. "He sure was angry..." Lightbeam figured. "Must have not realized that this is a really amazing day yet..."

Lightbeam did feel a little bad for this encounter but she was confident that this was just an unfortunate exception. Maybe the amazingness of this day hasn't kicked in yet, is what she told herself. She then was surprised to hear her belly grumbling a little all of the sudden. "Oh! That's it!"  She then said in her realization. "I haven't eaten anything yet! Of course! There is no way that a day can become good if you forget to eat breakfast after all!" She explained to herself while nodding her head repeatedly as if she wanted to make herself look more convincing for herself. "Now...should I go back and make something?" She asked herself confused.

But the answer came with some shouts from nearby. A mare was screaming through the streets of Ponyville to sell something to everyone who walked by. It was none other than the pink Party Pony Pinkie Pie, who was working in Sugarcube Corner. She stood in front of the shop and advertised something from the looks of it.

"Special bake sale in Sugarcube Corner! Only today!" She screamed through the streets while randomly throwing around some flyers at some ponies that walked past her, sometimes right into their faces, much to their dislike.

Lightbeam had to admit that the cheerful behavior of this mare quickly affected her and even convinced her to go and fetch some of those sweets. "Sweets for breakfast might not be the best idea but then again, this is a very awesome day soooo..." Lightbeam said in a poor attempt to put reason into her next action, only to go with what she wanted anyway.

The mare had a quick talk with Pinkie Pie and she found out that Mr. and Mrs. Cake, the owner of Sugarcube Corner were going away for a few days and wanted to make sure to get all their sweets sold before that. Lightbeam actually didn't really put too much care into this information, all she heard was Special Bake Sale and she was sold to go inside to grab some sweets.

However, as soon as she stepped hoof into the shop, she was surprised to see a huge line of ponies in front of her. For a moment, she was worried but then she calmed herself down again with some positive words. "Don't worry, Lightbeam. There might be a lot of ponies in front of me but as long as I can get some sweets, that doesn't really matter!" She said optimistically before she put on a smile and started to wait in line. It couldn't take that long after all.


Later...


Before the mare realized it, she was standing in the line for around an hour now. Waiting was not Lightbeam's strong suit so she quickly got bored, which ended up her resting her head against the mare in front of her, much to her dislike of course. It eventually became too much of a nuisance for the mare and she walked a few steps forward, causing Lightbeam to fall over and wake up in an abrupt manner.

"Wha...!?" Lightbeam said in surprise before she found herself on the ground. She quickly got up again and wondered how much time had passed since she started to stand in this line. She released a yawn and looked as if she was about to fall asleep again but then she realized something that she thought she wouldn't see anytime soon. The line was gone and she was next. "Finally!" She said with a wide smile on her face before she rushed to the counter in front of Mr. and Ms. Cake who both stood on the other side. 

Lightbeam stood there wide a wide smile on her face and was about to tell them what she wanted but Mr. Cake was a little faster. "Sorry, it looks like we are out now," he said after realizing that indeed every shelf was empty and that everything was successfully sold.

"I can't believe that we managed to sell everything in time," Ms. Cake expressed happily.

"Yeah! Looks like Pinkie Pie made a good job telling everypony," Mr. Cake replied happily before he put a little sold sign on top of the counter and walked away, not realizing how Lightbeam was still standing with a wide smile in front of him. The mare's face seemed to be stuck in this smile because she probably didn't want to accept what just happened. But whether she accepted it or not, she had no choice but to walk outside again with a frown on her face.

"I can't believe this," she said in a sad tone. "I thought this was supposed to be a good day..." she added before she then quickly shook her head in denial. "Wait! Wait! Wait! Wait! I'm not giving up! So what if this was a waste of time? There is still much to come for today!" She said to talk herself into a good mood again.

The mare still desperately believed that the rainbow from this morning was a good sign and that this day was going to be good as well. She just had to take a closer look and be patient until that.


Later...


Lightbeam was still determined to turn this day around. She was standing in front of the Ponyville Spa. "Alright! Happytrade always goes to this place and she always comes out of it well-rested and relaxed so I'm sure I will have a good time in there as well!" She said determined to have a good say from now on. After she will get a good and relaxing massage, she was bound to be happy again. At least that's what she was telling herself.

It actually didn't take long until it was Lightbeam's turn to get a massage, which was welcome considering how much time she already wasted in Sugarcube Corner. Lightbeam did find herself getting a nice massage eventually and could finally relax and even consider this a good time. After the massage was done, however, Lightbeam still didn't seem to be as happy as she would expect. 

"If you are not satisfied yet then maybe you should order another massage?" One of the spa sisters asked as soon as she noticed how Lightbeam wasn't completely satisfied. "Here, we just recently invented a few new kinds of massages. Maybe there is something that would be to your liking?" She offered before she gave Lightbeam a list with a menu on it.

"Thanks!" Lightbeam replied before she took a look at the menu. "Now, this massage was actually really good...but it wasn't awesome day kind of good...so I think I can find something on here to make this even better!" She said full of determination to find an even better massage on the menu. She didn't take too long to find something on the list that grabbed her attention. "This sounds good. I'd like to take the extra strength hot stone deep tissue massage," she said with a smile on her face.

The spa sister happily nodded and left the room, probably to prepare the massage for Lightbeam. Just judging from the length of the name she assumed that this massage would give her extra strength for the rest of the day, this alone would be good enough to turn everything around. If she didn't have too much fun so far, then at least she would feel amazing and call it a day.

Lightbeam waited patiently in the room before somepony would come and start the massage. She had to admit that she was kinda curious about how this massage would go. The answer was actually coming towards her at this very moment. The room started to shake as if something really big was moving straight towards her. She was beginning to get a little nervous but she also told herself that she was just imagining things and calmed down again. However, as soon as she was calm again, something came busting through the wall and jumped right in front of the mare, leaving her in a state of shock.

A huge Pegasus stallion with a white coat, a blonde mane, red eyes and a dumbbell as a Cutie Mark stood right in front of her. For the size of this pony, he actually had really tiny wings on his back, which would make him look kind of silly if it wasn't for those huge muscles that kind of intimidated the mare.

"I heard you ordered a massage!?" The stallion asked in a loud tone that made Lightbeam shrug her shoulders for s moment.

"Are...are you my masseur?" She asked, fearing to hear the answer that she didn't want to hear at all now.

"YEAH!" The stallion screamed right into Lightbeam's face. "Let's get to it right away!" He added before he lifted the mare up in the air with only one hoof before he walked outside to another room to get the massage started.

Lightbeam screamed for help as she was carried to the next room but the stallion seemed to ignore that and just proceeded to walk into the next room. He actually laughed and explained that most of his customers behave like that at first and assured that everything will be fine. Lightbeam believed that this was a lie. Right now she was completely sure that she wasn't expecting this when she saw that rainbow earlier this morning. All she was praying for was that whatever was about to happen, wouldn't last for too long...


Later...


Once again, Lightbeam was walking through the road of Ponyville. Walking might be wrong in this case though since the mare was actually stumbling through the town. The massage from earlier had a lasting effect on her body. She was actually surprised that she could move at all after all the unspeakable things that were done to her in the spa.

"I'll never go back there again..." she mumbled with some pain in her voice as she continued to think what else she could do now. "So much for the best day ever..." she said annoyed, as she started to feel like that there was no way that this day could be saved anymore.

"Hey, Lightbeam!" Then a stallion shouted after her, causing her to turn around to see who it was.

"Summershine?" She said once she saw the orange coated Unicorn walking towards her. In an instant, her mood completely shifted and she started to get happy again after realizing something. "Of course! No wonder that I haven't had a good time yet! A day can only become awesome if you spend it with a good friend!" She figured, starting to see some hope again. The mare quickly rushed towards the stallion and stopped right in front of his face, ignoring his personal space completely and smiling widely, much to Summershine's confusion. "Please tell me that you want to spend some time with me on this wonderful day!" She excited but also with a slight hint of frustration in her voice.

Summershine was a little confused by her behavior but he decided to ignore that and explained. "Well, kinda. I need your help with something, in fact,"

"Perfect!" Lightbeam exclaimed cheerfully before jumping up and down on the spot. "Helping a friend in a crisis can always make a day worthwhile!"

"I wouldn't exactly call it a crisis," Summershine pointed out before he cut to the chase and explained everything to her which in return caused her to help Summershine out with his problem.


Later...


Summershine had to do some work on the town hall of Ponyville but he needed some help, and Lightbeam was happily agreeing to help. The mayor of Ponyville asked of Summershine and Steel Hammer, a local carpenter pony to take care of the building. Normally, Steel Hammer would have somepony else to help him but this pony just happened to not be around in Ponyville for a while so Summershine agreed to help out. However, since he wasn't exactly the best in repairing things, he decided to get some additional help, which is why he asked Lightbeam.

"Alright then, it's this time of the year again, where we have to repair this old building," Steel Hammer said as he was overlooking the building for a while.

"Wait, you have to repair this every year?" Lightbeam asked confused.

"Of course!" The stallion replied. "Ponyville doesn't have enough money to fully repair this thing so we always have to come back to it and do some small repairs so that it wouldn't collapse or something," he explained.

"That's why we would appreciate every help that we can get," Summershine added.

"Don't worry!" Lightbeam said optimistically as she saluted eagerly to help out the best she could.

Some time had actually passed and the three ponies actually managed to get some repairs done really quickly. If Steel Hammer alone would have done this, then it certainly would have taken some time but luckily, he had two more ponies who were helping out.

As a Pegasus, Lightbeam could easily work on places that were hard to reach for the two stallions. The mare was flying up into the sky to the top of the building. She was flying near the roof and replaced some of the roof tiles, one of the last tasks that had to be done for today. And while it was almost over, Lightbeam still had a bored expression on her face.

"Well..." Lightbeam said in her boredom as she placed another tile on the roof. "This may not be the most exciting thing to do but that doesn't matter!" She said with a more determined tone now. "If I help out the town by repairing the town hall, then all of this has a much deeper meaning! I might don't be the one who has the most exciting day in the end but everyone will be happy to get a much better-looking town hall!" She said excitedly before she reached out her hoof to pick up another tile to place it on the roof only to find out that it wasn't there anymore. "Huh, I could swear that I put it somewhere..." she said before she noticed how that one tile was sliding down the roof. She panicked a little and jumped after it but it got away and fell down from the roof.

Luckily, Summershine and Steel Hammer were both too far away to possibly because they were already ending their work. There was no way that they would get hit by that tile, even if it somehow flew in their direction. "I'm sure that won't cause too much damage," Lightbeam said with some worry in her voice as she watched the tile fall down the roof.

Instead of falling down to the ground, however, the tile managed to hit a flag pole that was on the balcony right below the roof and knocked it down, which caused it to drop the metal ball on top of it to fall down and roll over to the other side of the balcony, where a workbench that was placed by Steel Hammer was at. The metal ball knocked over the table to the side, making a hammer that somehow managed to get wrapped up in a rope to fall down the balcony. Once the rope straightened, gravity did its job and the hammer came flying towards the building again and hit a pillar one floor below and knocked it over, which then caused half of the side of the building to collapse.

After those almost cartoony set of events were finally over, Steel Hammer and Summershine looked over the destruction that was accidentally caused by Lightbeam. The mare slowly levitated towards the ground with a nervous smile on her face and realized the shocked expressions on the two stallions.

"Sorry...." She said nervously while lowering her head in embarrassment. "But you have to admit that this was kinda awesome!" She added with a smile on her face in order to save the mood again.

It didn't work though. Summershine had a warning expression on his face as if he wanted to prevent her from saying that. That was because he knew that Steel Hammer wouldn't think that this one remark wouldn't be funny at all. And he was right because the stallion glared over to the mare. He certainly did not appreciate how she just created more work for him that would most definitely get him into some trouble with the mayor.

"Okay...I just...go...maybe?" Lightbeam said nervously as she walked slowly away from the scene. The two stallions were not stopping her at all because they now had to worry about the work that they needed to do in the town hall. Which was a lot ...


Later...


Once again, Lightbeam walked through the streets of Ponyville, this time with a lowered head and a frown on her face. That last attempt to make turn this day into a good one was enough for her to give up at last.

That was of course until she cheered herself up again with some motivating words. "It's alright, it's alright!" She said in a determined tone. "There might have been some bad things happening today and not everything worked out perfectly but!" She said before she looked up to the sky to make a stand again. "I still believe that this day will most certainly be-"

But her words were then cut short as soon as lightning could be heard in the sky and rain poured down on her. This time, however, it was not just her who was rained on. Everypony ran home as soon as the weather changed so suddenly. But Lightbeam stood there with a determined expression on her face which slowly turned into a frown. "Or maybe not...who am I kidding..." Lightbeam then said with a frown on her face. She finally seemed to accept that this day might not be as great as she initially thought. Or maybe she accepted it even earlier and didn't want it to be true. The mare simply decided to go home now. Being rained on like that was certainly something that she didn't want now.


Later in Lightbeam and Nightsky's home...


After getting a good round of sleep, Nightsky was up and spending the rest of the day inside, taking it easy. At the moment, he was sitting on a couch in the middle of the living room, reading a book called, "Daring Do and the Abyss of Despair" an entry of his favorite book franchise. He seemed very invested in the story of the book but the sound of the lightning that came from outside was distracting him a little bit and he looked outside of a window to see how heavy it was raining. He instantly thought about his sister and hoped that she was okay.

After he flipped through another page he suddenly heard someone entering his home and he moved his head towards the door to check who it was. As expected, it was his little sister Lightbeam, who was soaking wet and silently closed the door behind her.

"Oh! You're home?" Nightsky replied after his sister entered the door.

"Yeah...I'm home..." Lightbeam replied as she dragged her body inside with a frown on her face and with water dropping off from her head, which didn't seem to bother all that much.

Nightsky instantly offered his sister a towel so that she could dry herself again. Even after she was dry again, however, Nightsky could tell that his sister wasn't happy at all and took a wild guess at how her day went. "So...I assume, that your day didn't go the way you thought?" He asked.

Lightbeam just leaned her head on the table in the middle of the living room. "Not at all," she said depressed.

"Why? What went wrong?" Nightsky asked.

Lightbeam gave a quick and frustrating answer. "Absolutely everything!" She replied frustrated as she buried her head under a pillow from the couch to hide her face and continued to speak in a muffled tone under the pillow. "I thought just telling myself to have a good time was enough to enjoy this day but that didn't work and it turned out the complete opposite,"

As a big brother, Nightsky, of course, listened to everything that his sister was telling him. From what she told him, he could actually understand how this day was probably taking its toll on her. But then again, there was one thing that he didn't quite understand. Something that would have probably avoided all of this frustration.

"You know, Lightbeam, I really like how you always keep a positive attitude but...don't you think that you were aiming a little high? I mean, if you would have set your goals low, then you would have probably not been this upset now," he advised, even though he knew that she didn't want to hear this now.

Lightbeam raised her head again a little. "Maybe..." she just said.

Nightsky sat down on the couch next to his sister. "Why exactly did you want to make this day so amazing? I know you saw a rainbow this morning but still..." he asked trying to figure out an answer of his own.

But Lightbeam was answering that question. "It's just...that rainbow from this morning...it just reminded me to the one that we saw all these years ago," she replied.

Nightsky was thinking for a second but he quickly knew what rainbow she was referring to. "Oh!" Nightsky said in his realization. "You mean that one?"

Judging from Nightsky's reply Lightbeam started to smile since she knew that he remembered now as well. "Yes! The one were all of us seven met!" She mentioned happily. "I thought that after seeing a beautiful rainbow like that again, that something great and life-changing would happen again," she shared with excitement in her voice again and no trace of sadness anymore.

Nightsky began to chuckle a little. "Looks like you were aiming really too high if that's the case," he said jokingly, hoping that Lightbeam would get cheered up by it.

"Maybe," Lightbeam replied childishly while sticking her tongue out. She seemed to have gotten over the events that took place on this day. After thinking back, she actually thought it was kind of funny how all those events unfold. The two even laughed a lot after she shared those stories again without a sad tone in her voice.

As they were talking, they slowly noticed how the rain outside was starting to stop and how it was quiet again. They both walked up to a window and looked outside. The rain clouds started to go away and the sun came out again.

"Hey! Look!" Nightsky said while he pointed at the distance, causing Lightbeam to look at it in awe.

She started to smile widely after witnessing what Nightsky was pointing at. "Beautiful," she just said after seeing another pretty rainbow just like the one that she saw this morning. It instantly made her forget all her troubles and was happy again. The mare then turned around happily. "Well, tomorrow is another day!" She said excitedly, awaiting the next day to come and hopefully make it better than this one. But either way, she was not worrying too much about it this time.

Nightsky was happy seeing his sister like this again and watched her going into her room. He looked back out of the window again and smiled at the sight of this rainbow now as well. He remembered back how he saw an even better rainbow all those years ago with her and the rest of his friends. At that moment, he could understand how Lightbeam was reminded too that day and how she believed that it was a good sign. However, Nightsky was already happy enough with how his life was right now.

But then again, maybe something life-changing would happen again someday. Something for the better, hopefully. But if that wouldn't happen then he wouldn't care either. And he had a good guess that Lightbeam was the same in that regard.
> 7. The Elements of Harmony - Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Canterlot Castle...


Canterlot...It was home to many rich and royal ponies because of its status as the capital of Equestria. Many would love to live there and some ponies would absolutely refuse it because of the snobbish attitude of some of the residents there. Indeed, some ponies who lived there believed that they were better than some "country-living-ponies" who lived in other towns. This was because a lot of citizens were either very successful in some kind of business in Equestria or because they were simply born in a rich family. But what might also be a reason was that among them the most important pony in all of Equestria lived.

Visible from far away, one could see the huge castle that was towering almost above the whole city. It was home of none other than the pony who ruled over Equestria for many many years now, the pony that would raise and lower the sun and the moon every single day, Princess Celestia. She was the only publicly known Alicorn in Equestria, a pony that shares traits from all the pony races, like wings of a Pegasus and a horn, like the ones that Unicorns have.

In this very moment, the princess looked worried about something as she silently walked through the castle until she eventually arrived at a balcony and looked up at the night sky, at the moon to be precise. She would often do that but this time she looked especially concerned about something. The more she looked at it the more she seemed to be in thoughts, it was as if she was hypnotized.

Soon, she moved her head towards the distance, far away from Canterlot. In the direction she was looking at was one little town. It was Ponyville. She had her sight focused on this direction for a while before she turned around again and returned inside her castle. She most certainly had planned something, but that something had to wait for the next day...


The next day in Ponyville...


It was quite a nice and beautiful day in Ponyville, so much that Summershine, Brilliance, Crash, Happytrade, Lightbeam, and Nightsky decided to spent it outside with a picnic on an open grass meadow. Right now, they were still setting everything up for it by placing some plates and food on the blanket.

"Oh no, don't tell me..." Happytrade said in a nervous tone as she was looking inside the picnic basket to look for something. "I forgot the plates! Of all the things that could happen, this is the WORST POSSIBLE- Oh! There they are!" She then said happily once she found the plates inside the basket and put them on the blanket.

The rest of the group was already enjoying this picnic, even though it didn't really start yet.

"It really is a beautiful day today, isn't it?" Lightbeam said as she looked up at the clear sky while she stretched herself a little.

"It sure is!" Crash replied happily before he sat down next to her. "I just hope nothing happens to interrupt our picnic now," he added.

"Me too," Summershine said. "I would like to spend a day with all of my best friends without worrying about something for once," he shared with his friends, who were agreeing with him on that.

Brilliance, however, had to point out something. "Not all," she simply said.

She was referring to that not all friends were complete at this moment and that there was still one missing. This quickly made the mood drop a little in the group and most of them began to frown.

"So much for ruining the moment," Nightsky threw into the round while he scratched his head a little.

Summershine was the only one who didn't get sad or anything. "Come on, don't act like that now," he said to his friends with a smile on his face. "We should see him again soon. He has to see his parents too sometimes. And it's not like we can never see him within that time," he added before he looked over to Canterlot, the place where his last friend was at, at this very moment. Hearing that, made all the others look over to Canterlot as well, but with a smile on their faces now.

As Summershine was looking at the Capital, however, he could see something flying towards them. It was a golden flying chariot.

"Somepony is traveling to Ponyville, I guess," Nightsky figured.

"Probably," Happytrade added. "You know those snobbish ponies from Canterlot, they always have to make a big show,"

"You are just saying that because you probably want a chariot like that too," Nightsky guessed jokingly.

"Maybe..." Happytrade admitted while she looked away with some embarrassment on her face.

While the others were trying to find out what somepony from Canterlot wanted in Ponyville, Summershine kept his eyes focused on the chariot. He could swear that he saw the exact same chariot before. It looked much bigger and fancier decorated than your regular every day chariot, not that Summershine knew much about that to begin with but it still stood out a little.

Once the chariot came closer, however, Summershine figured out why it stood out to him that much. "Isn't that..." he said once he got a better look before he finally realized who was riding in this thing. "Princess Celestia?" He said confused but still a little bit casually.

What wasn't casual, however, was the reaction of his friends once they heard that name. "Princess Celestia!?" Everypony said in unison, highly confused.

Soon all of the ponies looked towards the chariot and saw none other than the ruler of all Equestria heading into their direction. She must have something really important to attend to if she was coming to the little town of Ponyville. There certainly was not much going on in this town after all.

The six ponies decided to watch the princess as she was about to fly past them and towards the town. However, that is not exactly what happened. Princess Celestia noticed how she was looked at and smiled at the ponies. After that, she ordered the Pegasus ponies, who were pulling the chariot to land next to them.

"Is she landing here?" Brilliance asked confused yet calmly.

"What!?" Happytrade exclaimed in shock totally contrasting Brilliance's reaction. "You're kidding me, the princess is about to land here!? I should have put on something fancier, I look terrible right now!" She said worriedly while she grabbed her head in frustration.

"You look good, as always," Lightbeam then said in order to cheer her up again.

It worked like a charm. "Aww...thanks," Happytrade said touched by those words.

Moments later, the princess's chariot was landing right in front of the group. Princess Celestia stepped out of the chariot and the two Pegasi, who pulled it stood in attention as she walked past them and head right towards the six ponies, who by now all bowed down to her.

The princess looked over her subjects and smiled before she looked directly at Summershine now, who was not realizing that at the moment, due to having his head bowed down to her. "Rise, my little ponies," she then said in a gentle voice, causing everypony to do as she said. "It's good that I came across you. I was looking for you, Summershine,"

"You were?" Summershine replied confused, wondering for what reason that could be.

The princess nodded. "I have a very important task that I want to give you," she said before she looked up at the sky with a worried expression on her face. Summershine was wondering what that task could but he decided to be silent until Princess Celestia continued, which she eventually did. "Do you know the tale about the Mare in the Moon?" She then asked while she looked back at him.

Summershine lowered his eyebrows and began to think. The name certainly rang a bell but he couldn't quite put it at first. It was eventually Brilliance who spoke up from the back. "Nightmare Moon...your sister," she said casually, causing the others to react in surprise and some shock after hearing that.

"Sister?" Summershine asked confused.

As soon as every eye was directed at her, Brilliance felt as if she should explain why she knows that information. "I read that in a book..." she replied. Of course, she would get that knowledge from a book, as usual.

Princess Celestia nodded. "Yes, allow me to explain..." she said before she prepared herself to give everypony some more details. "Long ago, my sister and I raised the sun and the moon together, unlike now, where I took both of those responsibilities upon me. Due to some events, my sister was consumed by hate and turned into an evil pony called Nightmare Moon, who wanted to take over Equestria by creating an eternal night. I was forced to stop her before the ponies of Equestria would suffer under her rule..." she said before she looked up at the sky one more time with a concerned look on her face. "...by imprisoning her in the moon..."

"That's why the moon looks like that," Summershine added, referring to the mare that was visible if you look closely at the moon.

"Yes," Princess Celestia replied. "But still...even after all those years, I have the feeling that her banishment might have not changed her. This will be a problem once she comes back..."

"Comes back?" Nightsky asked confused in the name of everypony else around.

Princess Celestia explained. "I fear that sooner or later, the seal that traps her on the moon, will break and when that happens, she needs to be stopped, again. To do that, very powerful magic has to be used. The Elements of Harmony,"

"So somepony just has to use the Elements of Harmony and send her back to the moon? That sounds easy," Crash figured happily.

But judging from Princess Celestia's reaction, that did not seem to be the case. "I'm afraid it is not that easy," she said before she further explained. "The Elements of Harmony lost their power after I used them against Nightmare Moon and were permanently turned to stone,"

"Of course..." Happytrade added frustrated after hearing that.

But Princess Celestia continued. She looked over to Summershine. "When it comes to magic, there were few who came close to your talent back in the school for gifted Unicorns, Summershine. I thought you would be the best to not only find the elements but also find a way to revive them,"

Summershine had mixed feelings after hearing that. He felt honored that Princess Celestia was putting so much trust into him but he also felt pressured too. She was giving him such an important task, that could decide the future of all of Equestria after all. "I'm sorry, Princess Celestia but...don't you think that somepony else would be better suited for that? I mean, what about your student? Wasn't she even better when it comes to magic?"

Princess Celestia smiled after hearing that question. "I initially planned on sending her to deal with this matter but...there is still something that she is lacking, something that you already possess," she explained.

"And what is that?" Summershine asked curiously.

But instead of giving an answer right away, Princess Celestia just looked over the rest of Summershine's friends, who were waiting for an answer as well and smiled. In the end, the princess decided to avoid this question and smiled at the stallion. "Anyway, I am confident that you will find them and that you will find a way to restore their power. There is still enough time left so don't worry. But knowing you, you would probably find a solution very early," she said being confident in Summershine's abilities.

But even after saying that, Summershine couldn't help but feel pressured by that. The princess of all of Equestria asked him to take care of something this important after all. There was no way that he could not not worry. But despite that, Summershine took a deep breath and gave a reply. "Yes, Princess Celestia. I will do my best to not disappoint you!" He then said with a determined tone in his voice.

Princess Celestia was happy to hear that. "That's what I was hoping to hear," she said before she walked back to her chariot. Shortly after, she was already gone again and left the six ponies, who still couldn't believe that they just talked with the princess.

Summershine released a big sigh once the princess was out of sight which was not unnoticed by his friends who walked up to him. 

"Talk about pressure..." Nightsky said as soon as he saw Summershine's current state.

"Yeah..." Summershine simply replied with some frustration in his voice.

Lightbeam on the other hoof seemed rather excited about all this. "Well, I for one think that it is great that the princess trusts you so much that she gave you such an important task," she said as she bounced over next to Summershine.

"Yes..." Happytrade said frustrated. "A task that, if he fails, will most likely put all of Equestria in danger," she brutally honest said without thinking. As soon as those words were said, Summershine began to get a little pale in his face and started to shake, causing Happytrade to react in shock. "I-I mean don't worry! I'm sure you will find a solution that will prevent that!" She corrected hastily.

"Of course he will!" Crash said confidently. "After all, he has all of us to help him out!" He added with a grin on his face.

Hearing those words seemed to calm Summershine down again. He looked at all of his friends who smiled and grinned back at him as if they were prepared to do whatever it would take to make sure that he would succeed. Seeing his friends like that highly motivated him again. "Thank you all," he said in appreciation while putting on a smile. "With your help, I'm sure that we will restore the elements!" He said determined to make those words true.

The rest of his friends cheered in excitement and were ready to start now. However, Nightsky realized that there was one problem. "So...where do we find those elements?" This question left quite some confusion in the group. They just now realized that they had no idea where to start looking for them.


Later, at the Golden Oak Library...


"There it is..." Brilliance said after she spotted a book that could help the group out a little.

The mare levitated the book out of the shelf and gave it to Summershine. It was a red book with a golden pony head on the cover. "The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide," he read out loud so that everypony could hear it clearly. "There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. It is said, the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now...the Everfree Forest!?" He said in surprise after reading the last sentence.

"Oh, come on!" Happytrade said in frustration once she heard the location of the elements. "Not that creepy forest!" She said, starting to feel a little uncomfortable just by the thought of it.

Unlike Lightbeam who seemed rather excited. "The Everfree Forest is not that bad," she pointed out. "It's full of beautiful plants and animals! Sure, some of them try to eat you or something but...um...I don't know where I wanted to go with that..." she said with a smile on her face as she rubbed her neck.

Summershine was fully aware of all that but his decision was already set. "It doesn't matter. If what Princess Celestia said was true, then having Nightmare Moon return will be even worse. So I have to get the Elements of Harmony, the princess is believing in me. But I can understand if you don't want to go there so I might as well do it-"

"No, you don't!" Crash interrupted. "The Everfree Forest is dangerous so there is all the more reason for us to help you now!" He said with a determined expression on his face.

Brilliance nodded after those words were spoken. "Yeah," she said casually.

Even though Happytrade wasn't particularly happy, she eventually agreed to come too. The six ponies wasted no time to get this task over as quickly as possible and went to the Everfree Forest. It was really close to Ponyville but many citizens were afraid to enter it. Rumors said that there were monsters inside of it. It was quite a dangerous place, which is why most tend to avoid entering it. But with Princess Celestia giving Summershine such an important task, he had no choice but to go into it. He just hoped that the Elements of Harmony were still in the Castle of the Two Sisters, which was supposedly inside of this forest.

Even after stepping inside the forest for a few minutes, the group already felt nervous, if not even scared in some cases but they had to be brave if they didn't want to disappoint the Summershine. Unlike him, the others were following him because they wanted to support him and didn't have to go through this scary forest but of course, as his best friends, they would never do something like that and just had to put up with this for a while.

But that didn't stop them from sharing their thoughts.

"I can't believe a scary forest like this is right next to Ponyville," Happytrade said as she walking right behind everypony and kept looking around to see if there was nothing jumping out of the trees or bushes. "I'm just glad that it isn't dark..."

"Yeah," Crash added. "Imagine how scary it would be if we came here later," he said in an excited tone.

Nightsky looked at the stallion and realized the excitement in his voice. "You almost sound like as if you want to do exactly that," he said, only to get a smile back from his friend, which pretty much answered that question.

Brilliance seemed to be the only one who wasn't creeped out at all. Either that or she didn't show it as clearly as everypony else. "I read once in a book that there are quite some monsters in this forest..." she said, causing Happytrade to look over to the mare with a nervous expression on her face. But Brilliance didn't seem to notice that and just continued. "Like, manticores, sea serpents, hydras, Timber Wolfs..."

"Alright, alright we get it!" Happytrade exclaimed in a panic. "This forest is dangerous! Who would have thought!" She added.

Summershine almost didn't seem bothered by how his friends were acting and just led the way even though he didn't really know where he was going to and where to find the Castle of the Two Sisters. Until he had an idea that would make things a lot easier. "Nightsky, Lightbeam, could you two fly up and try to find the castle? It would probably be a lot easier for us to find it if you could spot it from the air," he suggested as he stopped on his track for a moment.

"Got it," Nightsky replied while already spreading his wings and preparing himself to fly up at the sky.

"Yeah..." Lightbeam said a little hesitantly. "I think I will stay down here with the others," she said, obviously being a little bit scared by this forest. Nightsky understood and took off into the sky and left the group for a while. "I hope he will be back soon..." Lightbeam said in concern as she looked up.

"Yes," Crash added. "Still, it was pretty brave of you to stay here in this forest with us, even though it is filled with monsters and you would probably safer up there in the sky, far away from this place and-"

"Wait for me, Night!" Lightbeam shouted after her brother before she jumped up into the sky to follow Nightsky.

This only left Summershine, Brilliance, Happytrade, and Crash on the ground. They decided to stay right where they were so that Nightsky and Lightbeam would find them again. The two should come back soon after all.

Summershine and Brilliance waited quietly and patiently but Crash was rolling around in the ground in his boredom and Happytrade was the only one to keep her ears peeled for every noise around her, turning around each time when she heard something.

"Don't worry, Happy, we will be out of here as soon as we find the elements," Summershine said in order to calm the mare down again.

Happytrade was about to throw back some sassy comment to prove to him that she wasn't scared but as soon as she heard something coming from the bushes next to her, she jumped right behind a very calm and collected Brilliance. The group then looked at the bush where the noises came from and noticed some movement, causing especially Summershine to get a little more cautious now.

"Maybe it's Nightsky and Lightbeam?" Crash asked.

"From the bushes!?" Happytrade replied, indicating that the two Pegasi would most likely come back from the sky.

There was more and more movement coming from the bushes until something actually popped out of it, causing Happytrade to hide behind Brilliance in fear. But that fear was quickly gone once a small white rabbit was revealing itself. "Aww...it's just a cute little rabbit..." she said once she realized that her fear was for nothing.

But then suddenly, something else popped out of the bushes, a more intimidating thing than a rabbit. Something with a big body that was half tiger and half goat, with a snake tail. It had three heads, one was the head of a tiger on the right side of its body, one was a goat head on the left side of its body and one was a snakehead at the end of the tail.

"A chimera," Brilliance said as soon as she saw this creature. "Sorry, forgot to mention those," she apologized casually.

"That is not the problem right now!" Happytrade exclaimed at the mare annoyed.

The Chimera slowly walked up to the four ponies with a menacing look in all of its three faces, having clearly some bad intentions in its mind.

"Looks like our trip outside of the swamp was worth it," the Tiger head said excitedly.

"Yeah," the Snakehead added before hissing in excitement.

"Then what are you waiting for? Get them!" The Goat head said in a bossy tone.

Those words certainly put the group at the edge, except Crash who still remained calm. "Hey, if one of you reads a book, do the other heads know it's content?" He asked casually.

"That would be interesting to know..." Brilliance said with some curiosity in her voice.

Right now, Happytrade was more annoyed by her friends then she was afraid of the Chimera, the later one didn't take it too kindly for not being taken seriously and charged right at the ponies. But Summershine was right there and jumped in front of his friends. He used a teleport spell to get his friends out of there in time and caused the Chimera to hit its head against a tree.

Summershine and his friends appeared again, a few steps away from the Chimera and the stallion was ready to deal with the monster on his own. "I'll take care of this!" He said with a determined look on his face.

"Do you have a flute, a chair, and some cheese?" Brilliance asked.

"No?" Summershine replied confused, not being sure what that had to do with anything now.

At this moment, the Chimera was recovering from the hit against the tree and looked angrily at the four ponies and was ready to charge right at them once more. Summershine instantly looked over to his friends. "Can someone distract that thing for a second?" He threw into the round, knowing that what he was asking was quite dangerous.

But despite that, somepony volunteered. "Oh! Me! Me!" Crash said excitedly while jumping up and down on the spot.

"...Okay..." Summershine replied a little puzzled and not sure why his friend was showing so much enthusiasm for this.

Crash was charging towards the Chimera at full speed, running right past it, much to the creature's confusion. Then suddenly, the stallion was on the Chimera's back and began riding it. "Yeehaaw!" He shouted happily, causing the Chimera to try knocking him off of it's back but the stallion was keeping a good grab didn't fall down.

"Over here!" Summershine shouted, asking for Crash to lead the Chimera towards him.

Crash noticed and jumped off from the Chimera on his own while jumping away from it and towards his friend. The Chimera followed close behind and Summershine waited on the same spot until the Chimera was close enough.

The beast was coming closer and closer but Summershine was not moving an inch. "Now!" He then shouted all of the sudden, which was a signal for Happytrade and Brilliance to pull a vine that was wrapped around some trees. The Chimera didn't notice how it was set up for this and fell down after tripping over the vine. It got even angrier after this and was ready for some payback but unfortunately, it couldn't move after it was getting up again because while it was on the ground, Summershine decided to wrap its snake tail around a tree.

"That should take care of it," Summershine said after they were out of danger with the Chimera being tied up to a tree now.

"Yeah but let's get out of here now, just in case," Happytrade added, still being a little afraid that the Chimera could break free any moment.

All the Chimera could do was to watch how the four ponies walked away, which made it even angrier and more desperate to do break free. However, Summershine made sure that this wouldn't be too easy.

"Well, so much for our little trip outside of the swamp. Should have really stayed there," the Tiger head said annoyed by this situation.

"Ah, shut up," the Goat head just added annoyed as well.

In the meantime, Summershine, Brilliance, Happytrade, and Crash were out of reach for the Chimera now and walked slowly to a random direction. They couldn't stay at the same place where they wanted to wait for Lightbeam and Nightsky because of this beast waiting there for them. They just hoped that the two would still find them like this.

"There you are!" Then suddenly Lightbeam's voice could be heard from afar, who was flying towards the four ponies with her brother next to her. "Did you find the castle too? You are walking in the right direction after all," she asked.

Realizing how they were close to their destination, the ponies listened to what the two Pegasi had to tell them and followed their lead to the castle so that they could soon leave this place again.


A bit later...


After venturing through some bushes, Lightbeam and Nightsky both waited at a certain spot to show the group the castle. "There it is!" Nightsky announced once the others arrived at a spot from where they could clearly see the place that they were all looking for.

The group took a moment to take in what they saw not too far away in front of them. A giant castle, destroyed and covered by plants and trees that grew all around and even from inside of it was there standing in the middle of this creepy forest. If they didn't know that this was supposed to be a castle, then they certainly would have trouble identifying it as one. But this must have been it, Summershine was certain of it.

Without many words being wasted, the group walked up to the castle, intimated a little bit by it, especially since they knew that two very important ponies used to live inside there, probably the two most important ponies in all of Equestria. Judging from how some of the walls were damaged, the group could only imagine how a battle was going on between Princess Celestia and her sister.

Thinking about that made some of the ponies feel quite uneasy.

"I can't imagine how bad it must feel to fight your own sister," Lightbeam said as she thought about the events that must have taken place here.

Brilliance was the one who shined some light on the whole story. "According to the book that I was reading, there was an older and a younger sister, the older one took care of raising the sun and the younger one took care of the moon. Princess Celestia is the one taking care of both those duties now, as we all know. The younger sister became jealous because all the ponies back then were playing outside while the sun was out but slept while the moon was up,"

"And then she turned into Nightmare Moon, right?" Nightsky figured which caused Brilliance to nod in reply.

"And now that Princess Celestia is the only one taking care of those two duties, you figured that Nightmare Moon was her younger sister? And that she was the one who defeated her?" Summershine asked.

Brilliance nodded. "The book didn't state any name because it was quite old but that is most likely what happened. Princess Celestia herself admitted before that it was her sister too," she pointed out as further evidence.

"That doesn't really make the situation any better," Lightbeam said. "It's still sisters who were fighting against each other. That's terrible!" She said while frowning just thinking about it.

"I'm sure Princess Celestia feels that way too," Nightsky figured. "The princess probably didn't see any other way to deal with her sister. She also had to think about everypony else in Equestria. It was probably very hard for her to make that decision to send her own sister to the moon,"

Hearing Nightsky talking about this certainly dropped the mood of the group as they were approaching the castle. 

"Now I feel kinda bad that the princess wants you to deal with Nightmare Moon, once she comes back..." Crash said with a frown on his face.

This only further dropped the mood of the group. Not only was Summershine tasked to protect Equestria from Nightmare Moon, which in itself was pretty big alone but he was also supposed to stop a fight between two sisters. Summershine was fully aware of that and began to get second thoughts about all this. The fact that the princess was trusting him with all of this did put a lot of pressure on him. Sure, he was like Princess Celestia said very gifted with magic but was that enough to take care of all those things?

The stallion turned around and saw how his friends were slowly following, they seemed to have second guesses as well. It was a pretty royal problem that they all got involved with after all. Summershine then took a huge breath and began to smile. "Don't worry," Summershine said, much to everyponies confusion. "Princess Celestia wanted me to find and restore the power of the Elements of Harmony. Maybe if we find them, we can use them to bring Nightmare Moon to her senses," he suggested.

But his suggestion was met with some disbelieving. "You think the Elements of Harmony can do something like that?" Happytrade asked confused.

"Well, they are really powerful, right?" Summershine replied. "They were able to imprison Nightmare Moon for a thousand years now, I'm sure they will be able to do something like that," he said with a confident tone in his voice.

What he was receiving though was silence at first. His motivated tone wasn't jumping over to them, the way he expected.

"Maybe," Lightbeam replied then all of the sudden.

"Yeah!" Crash added. "I mean, out of all ponies in Equestria, the princess trusted you to take care of her own sister!"

"Yeah!" Happytrade said, now in a happier tone. "Your abilities in terms of magic are something that most ponies don't even come close to! If there is anypony who can use the Elements of Harmony like this, then it is you!" She pointed out.

Summershine smiled after hearing that. "Exactly! So it's settled! Once I get the elements, I will try my best to make Nightmare Moon return to normal!" She vowed with a determined expression on his face.

The group's mood quickly went up again. This would be a result that everypony would certainly like to see. It also made them forget the pressure that was put on them.

"Then what are we waiting for!?" Crash excitedly said. "Let's get those elements as quickly as possible!" He said before he jumped towards the castle.

"Yeah!" Lightbeam said in excitement as well. "Now I can't wait for you to save all of Equestria!"

Summershine laughed as he watched those two walk up to the castle. It helped him get his own mood up as well. "Yes!" He simply said as he and the rest of his friends walked up to the Castle of the Two Sisters too. The elements were supposed to be there so all they had to do was going into the castle, get them and then try to restore their power. Getting through the forest was probably harder than this, at least that's what Summershine was telling himself as he was getting closer to the castle.

Unbeknownst to those seven ponies though, from inside the forest, somepony was watching them. Someone had his eyes set on them and made sure that he wasn't spotted. He watched them going inside the castle and slowly walked up to it as well, planning to follow them inside. Whatever that pony was planning to do, he did not want to get caught at all so the real question was, what was he really after?

To be continued...
> 8. The Elements of Harmony - Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The giant front doors of the Castle of the Two sisters slowly opened, creating a very loud screeching sound throughout the area, fitting to the creepy vibe that the castle was giving off already. Once the door was open, the six ponies who ventured into the Everfree Forest, in search of the Elements of Harmony, stood in the doorway and looked at the dark hallway in front of them. Needless to say, they were not looking forward to going inside.

"Okay, this is a little creepy," Lightbeam said as she looked in front of her without being able to see much in this dark hallway.

"To think that it is still day outside. You can barely see anything in here," Nightsky added.

"It can't be worse than outside, right? It only looks scary, right?" Happytrade said in concern, clearly not looking forward to going inside the castle.

Summershine did also not feel too invited by this castle but he did have the task from Princess Celestia, to find the Elements of Harmony, in his mind which pretty much left him no choice but to walk inside. The rest of his friends noticed the resolve inside of him and followed closely while also keeping an eye out for everything suspicious that could lurk in the shadows.

They soon arrived at what seemed to be the throne room. There were some big windows behind the throne, or rather holes, that looked as if they were left by a battle. This was most likely the case since Princess Celestia must have fought Nightmare Moon in this very place. Either that or somepony else broke the place, which could always be a possibility.

What immediately caught their attention was the strange structure at the end of the room. It was some kind of pedestal that was holding five round orbs. "It's them!" Summershine announced once he finally realized what he was looking at. "The Elements of Harmony!"

The group smiled at each other after finally seeing how something went well but Lightbeam quickly pointed something out that some of them must have overlooked. "They don't really look too...powerful..." she said. She was obviously referring to how they were just some orbs of stones.

"You have to remember," Nightsky said as he walked up closer to the elements as well. "Princess Celestia told us that they lost their power. They probably are turned to stone because of that,"

"Also there are only five. Aren't there supposed to be six?" Happytrade then asked confused.

To answer her question, Brilliance quoted something from the book that they were looking into before going into the Everfree Forest. "There are six Elements of Harmony, but only five are known: Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, and Loyalty. The sixth is a complete mystery. That's what the book said," she informed.

"In other words," Summershine started with some low confidence in his voice. "Not only do I have to find a way to restore the power of those elements but I also have to find the missing sixth one..."

Seeing how the stallion was struggling to figure out a solution for either of those things, Crash gave him some motivating words. "I am positive that you will find a solution!" He said confidently.

Summershine smiled back at the stallion with a forced grin on his face just to not make Crash's efforts to cheer him up not go to vain. Still, Summershine was not to sure what to do with those elements and kept staring at them. He had no idea what to do with some ancient relics that lost their power long before he was even born. At that point, he started to think that Princess Celestia should have sent somepony else to deal with this, like her own student. He remembered that Princess Celestia told him that he possessed something that her student didn't have in order to come up with an idea but he had no idea what that could be.

The room was filled with silence, caused by Summershine who kept staring at the Elements of  Harmony, which only was interrupted by some coughs that his friends made.

"Got any idea?" Nightsky asked once he noticed that Summershine was not really doing anything.

He got a quick answer from the stallion. "Nope," he brutally honest reply.

Happytrade rubbed her neck and then suggested something. "Don't you know some kind of spell that can cure petrification?"

"No," Summershine replied. "Besides, I don't think that this would do anything since this petrification was caused by a loss of power. So even if I could manage to return them to normal, that would probably not make their power return," he figured while he kept his eyes glued on the elements.

Crash started to smile at his friends. "See? For somepony who doesn't know what to do, you already have something! I'm sure you will find out the rest!" He said keeping up his positive thinking.

Summershine got confused by those words but his friends started to see where Crash was coming from.

"Crash is right," Nightsky added with a smile on his face. "Princess Celestia said that there is still some time left. But knowing you, you will probably put your nose into some books until you will find the answer,"

"Right!" Lightbeam agreed. "Just take those things home and do some experiments or something until they get all shiny and powerful again," she suggested.

"Yes!" Happytrade almost exclaimed in excitement. "That's an idea that I can get behind! Take those things as far away as possible from here so that we can finally get out of this forest!"

Summershine laughed a little after hearing that. It was true that Nightmare Moon would not come back tomorrow so Summershine still had some time left to find out what to do. "Alright, then let's take those things back to Ponyville," he said, causing the rest of the group to nod in agreement.

Nightsky and Lightbeam carefully flew up to the elements and removed them from the stone structure. The Pegasus stallion placed one of them on the ground next to Happytrade who was further inspecting the orb of stone with her eyes. "How much do you think is an ancient relic like this worth?" She then asked, causing her friends to look at her with some judging expressions. "Just kidding," she added with a smile on her face.

In the meantime, Nightsky put the next one right in front of Brilliance who looked at the orb with fascinating eyes. She would probably give everything to see how they would look like in their original state.

As Nightsky was about to remove the third one. He looked over to his sister, which seemed to have some trouble removing an orb. She tried her best to pull it out of the pedestal but no matter how much she tried pulling it out, it wouldn't budge.

"Need any help?" Nightsky offered as he noticed that Lightbeam was still trying to pull out her first orb.

"I'm good!" She said while she still tried to pull out her current orb.

Nightsky was already done removing the third orb and placed it next to Crash, who put his hoof on the orb and rolled it around a little. He looked over to his sister one more time and figured that he should probably help her. She did try to pull harder after she saw how her brother was looking at her.

Finally, she managed to remove the orb from the pedestal, causing her to fly backward because of the force she put into pulling this thing. This eventually caused her to hit the fifth orb that was still on the pedestal and knocked it off. The group quickly panicked as soon as they saw one of the elements falling down to the ground. Luckily, Nightsky was there and caught the thing right in time and let it sink towards the ground slowly, causing the rest of the group to breathe easy again.

"Sorry," Lightbeam apologized as she closely held on to her own orb.

"Don't worry, everything is fine," Nightsky replied before he let out a relieved sigh. However, the moment he said that the orb in front of him started to glow in white light. "Or maybe not?" He then corrected after clearly something was going on.

The same thing started to happen to the rest of the orbs, they all started to glow, much to everyponies surprise. The five orbs started to levitate above the ground and the group looked at what was about to happen because they sure didn't know what was even going on.

Slowly, the orbs started to transform into some kind of gems, all of a different color. The colors of the gems were purple, red, orange, yellow, and light blue. They all landed in front of everypony who stood in a circle around them and shortly after, the light vanished.

"What just happened?" Happytrade asked confused before she looked over to Summershine, expecting to get some answer from him.

But the stallion only shrugged. "I don't know, I didn't do anything," he explained. "But whatever happened, it looked like it made the Elements of Harmony return to their normal form,"

"Yeah!" Lightbeam said happily. "They look really pretty now!" The mare said as she was looking very closely at one of them. She could even see her own reflection in them now.

"That is also what they looked like in the book," Brilliance added.

Things certainly looked as if they got better out of nowhere but there was still one thing left. Something that Nightsky pointed out. "There are still only five of them. However, having five of them is better than none, right?"

Summershine still had no idea what happened or why it happened but he was also satisfied with the
result. "I guess we should make sure that at least those five elements are safe. Let's go and inform Princess Celestia about this," he suggested.

Happytrade was certainly happy to hear that. "Everything that involves getting out of this forest is fine by me!" She explained happily as she was already heading in direction of the exit. Her friends slowly followed her with the exception of Summershine who looked back at the stone pedestal, from where they got the elements. He couldn't help but think about the last remaining element and how to find it. The way things are now, however, he had no idea where to even start. He planned on asking Princess Celestia for advice, she probably knew what to do. For now, he used his magic and levitated the elements above his head and followed his friends outside.

The group was about to exit the throne room with Happytrade in the lead but they all stopped once they noticed that somepony was walking out of the shadows, and placed himself in front of the entrance to the throne room. The pony was a Unicorn stallion with a red coat, a white mane with red stripes in it, red eyes and an open book as a Cutie Mark.

The Unicorn had a serious and almost dissatisfied expression on his face as soon as he met eyes with the group of ponies, who still had no idea who he was.

"I don't know how you managed to do it but you somehow managed to restore the power of the Elements of Harmony. I would really like to know how you did that," the Unicorn asked with a curious tone in his voice.

Lightbeam, being the trustworthy pony she was, wasn't questioning at all why this pony knew about the elements or why he appeared right now as soon as their power returned and answered. "We don't really know how we did it. They just transformed in front of our eyes like that," she explained.

The Unicorn continued after hearing this answer. "Still, it is kind of weird how you ponies just appear and suddenly, the Elements of Harmony, who were turned into stone for a thousand years, I might add, have their powers return in no time," he said as he slowly made his way towards the group. "I tried to turn them back too, with every spell imagining but I wasn't able to do it. That means you ponies possess something that I don't have. I'm kinda curious what it might be," he said in a more intimidating voice.

Nightsky was getting even more cautious about this stallion right about now. "You tried to turn the elements back? Why? And who are you anyway?" He asked, not bothering to show how he was suspicious about this pony.

The Unicorn wasn't bothered by how Nightsky was talking to him and replied. "My name is Arcana," he introduced himself. "As for my reasons to turn the elements back...its, of course, because I want their power," he brutally honest explained before he formed a sinister smile on his face. "The sixth one is still missing but after five of them have their power returned to them, I think I will be able to get the sixth one too, eventually. After I take them away from you," he explained before his horn started to glow, making it even to the most oblivious pony now obvious that he had bad intentions in his mind.

The group was on edge now and prepared for whatever Arcana was trying to do. However, they had only a little time to defend themselves before Arcana shot a beam of magic at them. Luckily, Summershine was jumping in the way and raised a magic barrier around himself, blocking the incoming attack.

Arcana seemed surprised but also, his interest was peaked after seeing Summershine blocking his attack. "Oh? You managed to stop my attack. Looks like you are a little gifted when it comes to magic,"

Summershine quickly turned around and looked at his friends to make sure that they were fine. He looked back at Arcana for a second and figured that he would attack sooner or later again. He had to make sure that the Elements of Harmony were safe from this pony. "I'll take care of him, you keep the elements safe!" He said in a serious tone.

"On it!" Happytrade replied before she placed herself in front of the elements.

"Me too!" Crash added while he jumped in front of the elements as well.

Brilliance and Lightbeam placed themselves in front of those two and Nightsky walked next to Summershine, ready to help him out. "I help Summershine to distract this guy. When there is a chance, grab the elements and get out of here," he said thinking ahead of how to deal with this situation.

There were three lines of ponies now in front of the Elements of Harmony. Happytrade and Crash were right in front of the elements, Brilliance and Lightbeam were in front of those two and Summershine and Nightsky were in the front, ready to deal with Arcana, who seemed confident enough to deal with any plan that those six ponies were setting up for him. He didn't look remotely worried and just kept on grinning overly confidently. This only caused Summershine and Nightsky to get more cautious of him.

"You might have been able to block my spell but don't think that this will be enough to stop me," Arcana said with no sign of concern that he will lose against those ponies.

Summershine had enough of this arrogant grin on Arcana's face and decided to attack now. "We'll see about that once our battle is over!" He said in determination before he charged right at the Unicorn with Nightsky being right beside him. The two tried to keep Arcana busy until there was a chance for the others to get the elements out of this place. They figured that two of them should be enough to manage that.

As the two were charging right at the Unicorn, however, the grin on his face widened, much to their surprise. "I'm afraid that the battle is already over," he said almost victorious.

The two ponies were surprised to hear those words but they just figured that Arcana was trying to confuse them or that he was bluffing and kept charging at him.

"No!" Then suddenly, Lightbeam exclaimed, which caused Summershine and Nightsky to stop and turn around for a second. All they could see was how Happytrade and Crash were knocked away by somepony. This somepony used his magic and levitated the five elements above the ground with a victorious expression on his face.

Happytrade and Crash weren't hurt that much and got up on their hooves pretty quick. Everything happened way too fast and they didn't know who was attacking them but they were pretty sure that somepony was using magic to knock them away from the elements.

Lightbeam and Brilliance were shocked by how their two friends were dealt with but they were even more shocked by the pony who did it. Summershine and Nightsky were confused as well.

"What?" Summershine just said in his confusion.

"How is that possible?" Nightsky added in his own confusion.

The six ponies carefully looked at the pony who took the elements. It was a Unicorn stallion with a red coat, a white mane with red stripes in it, red eyes and an open book as a Cutie Mark. It was Arcana!

Summershine and Nightsky kept looking back at the pony at the entrance of the room and the one that took the elements. They were both the exact same, they looked identical up to the last hair.

"There are two of them!?" Lightbeam exclaimed in shock.

"What in the name of Celestia is going on here!?" Happytrade added, pretty much taking the words out of everyponies mouth.

As if that wasn't enough, the two Arcana's both had the same sinister grin on their faces. Shortly after, the Arcana, that took the elements, summoned a saddlebag with his magic and put the five elements inside of it before he shot a beam of magic right behind himself, creating a hole in the wall. "All too easy," he had the nerve to say before he jumped out of the hole and out of sight of everypony.

"Wait!" Summershine exclaimed before he attempted to follow Arcana outside. However, he did forget that there was still one Arcana left inside of this room to deal with, who quickly teleported himself between Summershine and Nightsky and the rest of the group.

"I think I will adapt to your plan," Arcana said with a grin on his face. Now he was the one who distracted the ponies so that he could escape with the elements.

Nightsky clenched his teeth. "I don't know how there can be two of this guy but I don't think its good that either of them has the elements. We need to follow the other one!" He explained while he kept his eyes glued on Arcana before he would do something again.

Summershine couldn't agree more but in order to do that, they still had to get past the Unicorn in front of them. Without any attempt to come up with another plan, Summershine decided to straight out attack Arcana by shooting a beam of magic at him.

Arcana just smiled in response and put up a barrier in front of himself to block this attack. "I can do that too," he said teasingly with an evil grin on his face.

But in this instant where Arcana put on his barrier, Nightsky was flying right past him from above with insane speed and stopped right in front of his friends, causing the Unicorn to turn around to see what they were up to, even though he had a pretty good guess. "We need to follow this other Arcana, now! He is the one who has the Elements of Harmony after all!" Nightsky said in a more determined voice that he ever showed since coming into this forest.

The group was struck by surprise by this kind of behavior from Nightsky for a moment but they were also aware that they could not waste any more time. They only looked and nodded at each other with determined expressions on their faces before they turned around and head towards the hole where the other Arcana jumped through.

"I don't think so," Arcana said while he already prepared to fire at the ponies to stop them in their track.

However, Summershine appeared right in front of the Unicorn, who canceled his spell immediately after his aim was blocked. "Go! I'll keep him busy!" Summershine shouted after his friends who did exactly that, even though they were worried about Summershine.

Strangely enough, Arcana did not even bother to stop them and began to smile, followed by some laughter at Summershine's expense. "Doesn't matter. Even if they catch up, they won't get the elements back,"

"They will!" Summershine replied, fully believing in his friends to be able to succeed. "Just like how I will be dealing with you in the meantime!"

Arcana was amused to hear that and chuckled a little. "Another thing you are wrong about," he said confidently and not even the least bit intimidated.

Then the battle started with Arcana focusing some magic in his horn which caused Summershine to form a shield in front of himself, that was ready to block the incoming attack. But Arcana foresaw this move and instead of aiming directly at Summershine, he shot at the ceiling above him, causing some racks to fall down at the Unicorn. Summershine barely managed to jump out of the way before he got hit by this.

The Unicorn prepared himself to counterattack but once he was ready to aim at Arcana, he was nowhere to be found. He took advantage of Summershine being busy dodging this attack.

"Behind you," Arcana then said with an amused tone in his voice. He stood a few meters away from him with a confident smile on his face.

Summershine instantly turned around and shot at him but Arcana teleported away right before getting hit by this attack. After disappearing again, Summershine waited for Arcana's next move which swiftly came. The debris that was falling down from the ceiling before was swirling around Summershine until it eventually came flying towards him from all sides. The Unicorn teleported out of this debris whirlwind and appeared again a few meters away, unscratched.

However, Arcana was standing only a few steps away from him with a playful grin on his face. He seemed to enjoy playing around with Summershine who was clenching his teeth and shot at Arcana again, only so that he could teleport away again.

By now, Summershine got a little frustrated. It almost looked as if Arcana was just planning to play around with him. Or at least, he wasn't taking this fight seriously. "He's stalling for time!" Summershine then figured out. "Stop wasting time and fight!" Summershine said angrily.

"So you figured it out?" Arcana replied impressed from behind Summershine. "I don't need to fight you. I just need to get away with the elements. Of course, I'm not wasting my time with somepony like you," he arrogantly explained.

Summershine figured that if he would continue attacking, Arcana would just avoid his attacks again. This would only waste time, time that could be used to help the rest of his friends. He could waste much more time here, Summershine had to get out of this castle to help the others.

And that is exactly what he did. He sprinted towards the hole that Arcana created previously to go into the forest and after his friends. But of course, Arcana didn't like his back turned towards him and interfered. His horn glowed and he disappeared. He teleported right in front of the hole to stop Summershine. However, as soon as Arcana appeared again, his face was colored in surprise. Summershine's horn was glowing already and a second later, a beam was flying towards Arcana, hitting him directly and throwing him out of the castle, making him fall to the ground outside.

Summershine stopped right in front of the hole and looked down at where Arcana landed. He seemed to be unconscious. "Worked like a charm," Summershine said, being the one with a smile on his face now. He realized that whenever he attacked Arcana, he would just avoid his attacks so all he had to do was making Arcana attack him. This way he could prepare an attack beforehand to get the Unicorn while he was off guard.

As much as Summershine wanted to enjoy this victory, he still had to go and help his friends, who were facing off against this other Arcana. The Unicorn jumped out of the castle and ran towards the direction where his friends went to, hoping that he could help them in time

But things weren't over yet...

Arcana's eyed popped open again and while still laying on the ground, the Unicorn teleported himself away. Summershine stopped in his track again once he saw Arcana standing in front of him once more, something that he was sick of seeing by now. However, unlike the other times, where Arcana had an arrogant grin on his face, this time the Unicorn seemed to lose some of his composure. This was definitely because of Summershine's previous attack.

"Alright," Arcana said with a serious tone in his voice. "You want to fight...then lets fight!" He said in an angry voice before he used his magic on the trees around him, making their branches grow and pointing at Summershine.

Summershine can't say that he was completely satisfied with this result. Arcana was now determined to fight and he was certainly not going easy on him anymore. But it couldn't be changed anymore so Summershine focused on the fight above all else. His opponent would not give him any chance to flee anyway.

The fight started with Arcana using his magic to cause the branches of most nearby trees to stretch and aim towards Summershine. The stallion managed to jump over this attack but one or two of them managed to grab on to his legs anyway and swung him around, right into a tree, causing Summershine to groan in pain. Shortly after, the tree, where Summershine was now leaning against, was trapping him. More branches wrapped around the stallion and held him against the tree. He struggled and tried to get out but he was wrapped around to tightly and couldn't move too much.

In the meantime, Arcana prepared to shoot another beam of magic towards the stallion. Sensing the incoming danger, Summershine focused some magic in his horn as well. He released a blast of magic around himself which managed to destroy the tree branches around him. And it wasn't a second too late because Arcana just shot at him. He missed, and all that was left was a hole inside the tree. Seeing this hole in the tree certainly frightened Summershine a little because a second later,   and he would have gotten hit by that.

Summershine was believing in his friends but still, he couldn't help but get worried. This Arcana pony was dangerous and strong to top it off. And for some reason, there are two of them. He himself was not sure if he could handle this Unicorn on his own so he just hoped that his friends were able to deal with the other one.


Meanwhile...


The other Arcana, who was in possession of the Elements of Harmony in this very moment, was running as fast as possible away from the Castle of the Two Sisters. His goal was clearly trying to get away from the six ponies inside the castle and secure the Elements of Harmony for himself for some reason.

As he ran away in a straight line, following the path outside to the forest, he had a weird feeling that somepony was catching up to him. He teleported away and only a second later, Nightsky was charging right at where Arcana was at before.

"Almost!" Nightsky complained. He clearly attempted to tackle the Unicorn.

Arcana did appear a few meters away in front of the Pegasus and looked rather annoyed to see someone catching up to him. He attempted to use some magic against the Pegasus but shortly after, four more ponies ran up to him and stopped right next to Nightsky, causing the Unicorn to get a little warier.

"Stop right there!" Happytrade said in a threatening voice while ironically, standing in the back of the group. "Give us back the Elements of Harmony!" She demanded.

But Arcana didn't take her seriously at all and just laughed at her words. "Why don't you try?" He said smugly. "But I warn you, if you don't want to get hurt, then you just should let me take the elements. There is no way that five ponies like you can beat me," he said confidently in his abilities.

"Oh yeah!?" Lightbeam replied offended. "It's five against one so don't get too confident!" She pointed out.

"Right!" Crash added determined.

Nightsky nodded to those words. "No matter how strong you are, if we all work together, then there is no way that we can lose against you!" He said confidently.

There was an unamused look on Arcana's face which signaled the group that they have the upper-hoof now. But that changed once Arcana formed a smile on his face again. "So that's how it is?" He asked with confidence in his voice. "You think you can beat me because you work together? Then let's change that..." Arcana was unshaken by the words of the five ponies, in fact, he was enjoying how they declared victory already and decided to crush that determination.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath and focused his magic until his whole body was covered in a magic aura. After some time, four lights came out of his body. Two of them were to his left and two of them to his right. Then those light orbs took a more pony-like form each and turned red. The group had a really bad feeling once they saw that and some of them had a guess what was happening, which they wished was not the case. But unfortunately, exactly that was happening.

Arcana opened his eyes again with a sinister smile. He enjoyed the expression of shock on everyponies face as soon as he was finished with his spell. Right now, there were five Arcana's standing in front of the five ponies, all of them looking identically to each other, with the only exception that the one in the middle had still a saddlebag on.

"No...way..." Lightbeam said stunned by what happened in front of her now, which was pretty much the same reaction that everypony else had at this moment.

But Arcana was not quite finished yet. The one in the middle started to levitate the Elements of Harmony out of the saddlebag before he then summoned four more saddlebags, that he gave to his four other clones. He then took the five elements and put each of them inside of each saddlebag, so that each of the Arcanas would have one now.

"There we go," he then said playfully. "Since I stand no chance against you when you work together, I'm curious to see how you will be able to take the elements away from me now,"

The five Arcanas then split up in different directions and continued to run away, leaving the five ponies confused about what to do now, even though there was really one option left.

"We have to follow them!" Crash said towards his friends.

"Yes but..." Lightbeam said, pointing at the problem of this situation. "Can we deal with those guys on our own? Summershine was struggling against him a little! I don't think I could stand up against him if I manage to catch up to him," she said in concern.

"We don't really have a choice," Nightsky added, even though he wasn't too convinced that he could beat Arcana on his own. "If we don't follow them, the elements are gone. And we can't let that happen!" He pointed out.

"He's right!" Happytrade agreed. "We have to do something! Summershine is fighting against this guy as we speak! And he probably trusts us to get the elements back,"

The group agreed to follow one Arcana each, they had to follow them no matter what. How they would manage to get the elements back was a question that they would have to ask themselves if they managed to catch up with those ponies.


A little later...


Nightsky...


The Pegasus stallion had no trouble at all catching up with one of the Arcana's due to the speed that he was flying with. He managed to fly over the Unicorn and past him before he eventually decided to block the Unicorns path, causing Arcana to stop.

"Somepony sure is fast," Arcana commented with a slightly complimenting tone in his voice. "But now what?"

Nightsky gave a quick answer. "I already attacked you before. I'm not afraid to do it again!" He said, determined to make his words come true.

"Oh?" Arcana replied mockingly. "Sure, that may be true but...what about your friends?"

"What about my friends?" Nightsky asked confused.

"You know what I mean," Arcana replied, again mockingly. "I know that you are determined to get the elements back and that you are brave enough to try, but...are your friends too?"


Lightbeam...


"What are you waiting for? Go ahead and try," Arcana asked of the mare that managed to catch up to him only to find her hesitating and standing there struggling to make a move. "You want the elements back do you? Do you really think you can do that? A little pony like you?"

In the meantime, Lightbeam was actually hesitating to attack Arcana. She knew that she had to because of the element that he was carrying in his saddlebag but no matter how much she wanted to, she couldn't conquer her fear and stood there almost paralyzed.

Crash...


The Earth Pony jumped after the Unicorn, who constantly teleported away in time and appeared back on one tree branch after another. "What makes you ponies even think that you deserve the Elements of Harmony more than me?" He asked Crash, who desperately tried to catch him with his own hooves.

"Princess Celestia asked Summershine to use them against Nightmare Moon, in order to protect Equestria from her!" Crash replied while he jumped at the pony once more, only to miss again, due to Arcana teleporting away again.

"If I was in possession of the elements, Nightmare Moon would no longer be a threat," Arcana replied.

"Maybe, but I can practically smell that you are planning something bad once you have control over the elements!" Crash replied said with a serious look on his face.

Arcana laughed for a moment. "Yes, maybe," he replied.


Happytrade...


"You better give me the elements back or..." Happytrade started nervously as she looked at the Unicorn,

But Arcana was unimpressed. "Or what?" He asked, waiting for an answer from Happytrade. But no answer came and Arcana began to grin. "You are just here because you feel forced to get the elements back because of your friends, right? You could just turn back and say that you gave your best. I'm sure they would not be angry at you if they are your real friends, right?" Arcana pointed out.

But of course, all the Unicorn was trying to do was making the mare think like that. The worst part about it was, though, it seemed to work.


Brilliance...


"You said you had no idea how you restored the Elements of Harmony so what makes you think that you can figure out how to use them to defeat Nightmare Moon?" Arcana asked towards the mare in front of him.

Brilliance took a moment to come up with an answer. "Princess Celestia choose Summershine with this task. You have no right to interfere with that," she pointed out.

"What? Because it is a very important task by your beloved Princess of Equestria? She failed to stop Nightmare Moon and was looking for somepony to correct her mistake, and it just happened to be Summershine. That is all I can gather," he said, mockingly.


All Arcana tried to do with every single pony was to cause them to lose their will to fight. It seemed to work for most of them. He was no easy enemy to deal with to top it off, so even if they were determined to fight him, the chances of them to defeat him were still very slim. None of them were able to use magic, or at least, they were not experienced enough to fight someone who was as strong as him. Arcana was of course, well aware of that, which is why he took the chance to talk with them like that.

The only pony who he did not talk to like that, was Summershine, who he was still fighting against in front of the castle. Unfortunately for Summershine, he was completely overpowered by this Unicorn in every way. Every time when he thought he had him, Arcana would top him immediately after. Still, Summershine wouldn't give up and continued to hold the Unicorn off.

But eventually, Arcana got a little bored and just stood there shaking his head. "You know..." he started as he scratched his mane for a moment. "For somepony who is supposed to use the Elements of Harmony, you really are weaker then I expected. You would think that Princess Celestia would send somepony who is capable," he said mockingly at the Unicorn. "Not to mention that you brought your friends in danger just by bringing them here,"

"That's not true!" Summershine replied. "They came here because they wanted to help me!"

"So it is alright for them to be in danger as long as you are not the one who put them into it?" Arcana quickly asked.

"No..." Summershine replied with concern in his voice. 

Arcana continued. "Maybe they knew that you couldn't do this task on your own. Maybe they knew that you would fail so they felt bad and wanted to help you because of it. And from what it looked like this far, it seems as if they were right. I followed you all once you entered the castle and correct me if I am wrong but...what exactly did you do to restore the power of the elements?"

Summershine remembered back what exactly happened as soon as he and his friends found the elements. He knew that Arcana was just trying to manipulate him with his words but sadly, some of the words he said really affected Summershine. It was true that he didn't really was a part of the restoring process of the elements. It was his friends who seemed to have an effect on them and not him. He found them but as soon as his friends came in contact with them, their powers returned.

"The Elements of Harmony are wasted on you!" Arcana then said in a bitter and serious voice. "The most powerful magic in all of Equestria deserves to be in the possession of somepony who knows what to do with them. Somepony who can use them properly. And not with a bunch of ponies who think that this is just a game!"

After hearing those words, Summershine was quickly reminded of how this Arcana pony was not planning anything good with the elements. But at the same time, he was starting to doubt himself. He was just one normal pony. What right did he have to be in control of the Elements of Harmony? A magic that was strong enough to decide the fate of all of Equestria? Princess Celestia could make a mistake too by deciding that Summershine would be the one to use the elements.

Having those things circling around in his mind, made Summershine doubting himself more and more. This is exactly what Arcana wanted. He already had the elements in his possession so there was no reason for him to even fight or wasting time with Summershine but still, he enjoyed proving his dominance to him, it highly amused him.

"Maybe you're right..." Summershine then replied in a serious voice. "I do not know why the elements responded to my friends. I also don't know how to find the sixth Element of Harmony..." he admitted while he looked at the ground with some frustration on his face. "I'll admit that I just went in here because Princess Celestia asked me to...but..." he said while he looked up at Arcana's face again with a determined expression on his face. "My friends believe in me...they believe that I somehow find a way to get things done. This is actually putting a lot of pressure on me," he said almost amused with a smile on his face. "So you see, I can't really stop now,"

Arcana seemed confused about how Summershine can be smiling in a situation like this. The Elements were in Arcana's possession. He decided to listen to what Summershine still had to say though.

"I also believe in my friends. And even if they fail to get the elements back from the other you, they will not give up. That's the way they are after all. And that's the way who I am!" He explained with a determined grin on his face. "You can just run away with the elements but we will get them back again!" He announced.


At the same time...


Nightsky...


"I will not leave my friends hanging! If you stand in our way then I just have to push you aside!"


Lightbeam...


"I wish it would have not come to this and that we didn't have to fight and all...but I can't let you get away with the elements so I guess I have no choice!"


Crash...


"First I thought a visit to this forest would be fun but then you appeared and ruined it! You'll pay for this!"


Happytrade...


"I'll admit that I am scared but I can't let that stop me. Running is no option!"


Brilliance...


"Having friends doesn't always mean having a good time. If it means I have to put in some work to keep it like that, however, then I will do exactly that!"


All of Summershine's friends then charged at the same towards their Arcana clone, in order to get the Elements of Harmony back. While being separated in the forest, they all somehow managed to get a grip at the exact same time without knowing it. On the other side, every single one of the Arcana's was ready for their attacks, not expecting any danger incoming.

At the same moment, in front of the Castle of the Two Sisters, a bright light emerged right in front of Summershine, much to his and Arcana's surprise who widened their eyes at the sight of this. Then a gem was formed out of the light in front of Summershine. It had a dark blue color and had a very familiar look about it.

At this moment, Summershine realized what happened. He had no doubt about it. "It's...the sixth Element of Harmony!" He said in a mix of surprise and shock.

Of course, Arcana identified this gem as the sixth element as well and began to form a wide grin on his face. "Yes!" He exclaimed excitedly once he focused his eyes on the gem in front of Summershine before he ran towards the gem. Summershine noticed the incoming pony and used his magic to levitate the gem above the ground, in an attempt to protect it from Arcana. "With this last element, I will be unstoppable!" Arcana screamed at the pony while he ran towards him with his own glowing already with magic.

Arcana then shot a magic beam towards Summershine as he was about a few steps in front of him. Summershine tried to attack back but he couldn't counter in time and Arcana hit him directly. Or...at least it seemed like it for a moment. The Element of Harmony, that Summershine tried to get away from Arcana reacted on its own and placed itself right where Arcana was shooting at and nullified his attack.

"What!?" Arcana replied in surprise. Summershine was as confused as him and had no idea what was going on. In fact, he had pretty much the same reaction as Arcana.

In the meantime, something similar happened everywhere else in the forest. The Elements of Harmony, which were placed inside the saddlebags of the five Arcanas, reacted on their own and flew right towards Summershine's friends. The Arcanas could even do anything to prevent that and could only watch in shock.

The elements all started to emit a bright light that shot out at the sky in the colors of red, orange, yellow, purple, light blue and dark blue which soon formed a rainbow in the sky. A magic shockwave was released that flew through the whole forest and each time one of the Arcanas was hit by it, they started screaming before they eventually disappeared in a blast of magic.

This also happened to the Arcana in front of Summershine. He screamed in pain while having his eyes glued on Summershine with a furious expression on his face. "This can't be happening! I was so close! Summershine!" He screamed with his remaining strength before he too would disappear in a little blast of magic.

Summershine could only watch how this pony disappeared in front of him. He was paralyzed by how those events just happened in front of him. However, he did snap out of it again as soon as he could hear the sound of something dropping to the ground. He looked down at the ground and saw the sixth Element of Harmony, the gem that was saving him in the last second. He just witnessed this powerful magic and was stunned by it. But at the same time, he was also relieved.


Later, in Ponyville...


Summershine wrote a letter to Princess Celestia and informed her about everything that happened. He told her about how they found the Elements of Harmony, their encounter with Arcana and he was asking what they should do with the Elements of Harmony now. A quick reply came in the form of a letter that told Summershine to take care of the Elements. He and his friends, according to Princess Celestia were chosen by the Elements of Harmony so she figured it would be best if they stayed with them. 

Summershine and his friends were inside the Golden Oak Library and he explained to his friends what was written in the letter. There was a mixed reaction from his friends after they heard the news inside the letter.

"We are chosen by the Elements of Harmony?" Lightbeam asked confused.

"I think I need to sit down," Happytrade said in a shocked voice. 

"Do we have to do something for that? Being chosen now and all?" Crash asked towards Nightsky, who only shrugged his shoulders confused.

The six ponies stood there in the middle of the room and didn't know how to react or what to say. Everything happened so fast and they weren't really prepared for anything. Despite being chosen by really powerful magic, they sure didn't act like as if it was good.

The only exception, who was not showing any signs of worry or confusion was Brilliance. "Let's look at the positive thing," Brilliance said calmly while everypony else's thoughts were all over the place by now. They had no idea what this positive thing was but they were sure eager to find out. And Brilliance, of course, explained what it was. "Now we can all help Summershine because we are all chosen by the elements," she added with a smile on her face.

Shortly after, there was silence inside the group but also a moment of realization. They all wanted to help Summershine with this Nightmare Moon matter, that is why they helped him to find the elements inside the forest after all.

They all looked at each other and began to smile. "She is right!" Lightbeam said happily.

"Yeah," Crash added.  "If I am chosen by some super strong magic, then I am at least happy that you all were chosen too!" He said in excitement as he was jumping up and down on the spot.

Nightsky nodded in agreement before he looked at Summershine. "Now there is no reason for you to feel pressured because we are all behind you," he said confidently.

Happytrade, by now, was also shrugging her shoulders and accepted everything too. "There are worse things. Maybe it will be fun," she said, starting to see the positive about all this.

Summershine was laughing at everyponies reaction. "You're the best," he said happily. "I can't believe I was second doubting myself before, even though I have friends like you at my side,"

His friends were happy to hear those words. It was also nice that Summershine was looking at the positive side of things now. They didn't forget the task that Princess Celestia gave them and that they soon had to face Nightmare Moon but whenever that moment would come, they would all have to be part of it, which alone made it easier.

But that was a thing to worry about another time. Right now, the six ponies were just happy that they were not inside the forest anymore. They were all going home now to take a rest from this day. Still, as Summershine was on his way home, he still had one thing in his mind.

Arcana...

Who was he? And what did he plan to do with the Elements of Harmony? But what bothered him the most was what happened to him in the end. He could create clones of himself, this much was already confirmed but why was he nowhere to be found after everything was over? The elements made him completely disappear. Not that Summershine was really feeling bad for him, or anything. After all, it was obvious that Arcana had only bad intentions in his mind with the elements.

He decided to just forget about him and moved on. There would be more important things waiting for him in the future.


Later...


It was about to get dark in the little town of Ponyville. One pony was still walking around the streets, at this hour though. This pony was pulling a little cart behind him, that was filled with a lot of luggage. On top of it was a fishbowl that had a goldfish inside of it, who blankly stared at the distance.

The pony was stopping in front of a small house. It was a wooden house. The pony opened the door and entered it and placed the luggage near the door. The pony stretched itself and turned on some light inside the house.

"That sure was exhausting," the pony said, most likely referring to how he had to pull his cart through the whole town. He then took the fishbowl and carried it upstairs and place it on a cupboard next to a bed. "We're home, Comet," the pony said happily towards the goldfish inside the bowl.

The fish didn't show any reaction.

The pony then placed himself on his bed and stretched his legs. The pony was an Earth Pony stallion with a light green coat, a dark green, star-shaped mane, and light green eyes. His Cutie Mark consisted of six stars that were lined up like a five shaped star. There was a purple star on top, a dark blue one on the upper left, a light blue one on the upper right, a yellow one on the down left, a red one in the down right and an orange on right in the middle.

"I think, I will just go on ahead and sleep. It's a little too late to visit anypony now, right?" He said before he began to yawn while lying on his bed. "Can't wait to see...the others..." he said before his eyes slowly closed and drifted off to sleep already.
> 9. Another Exciting Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A new morning in Equestria began...

Princess Celestia, the ruler of all Equestria, used her magic to raise the sun and the moon each and every day. She did that from her castle which was located in the capital of Equestria, Canterlot. Today, it was no different. Early in the morning, the sun was slowly rising in the sky and gave everypony a sign that a new day was about to begin. The same goes for the ponies in a little town, not too far away from Canterlot.

Ponyville...

Ponies began to walk around on the streets after the sun was up. The Pegasi started to clear the skies and removed the clouds because today it was set to be a sunny day. They were usually very early since Cloudsdale, the city in the skies, home of many Pegasus and the center of the weather management in all of Equestria, was not too far away.

Shop owners, opened the doors of their shops, ponies who worked on a farm, began to get to work on the fields, fillies and colts were on their way to school, and so on.

However, not everypony was up just now...

The beams of the sun also began to shine through the window of a wooden house and into the still-closed eyes of a light green coated stallion. It was Star Twinkle, who started to wake up after the sun was shining into his eyes. He started to rub his eyes and yawned before he sat up on his bed. He slowly got out of his bed and stretched a little. He had enough sleep but he slowly crawled through the room as if he was half-asleep.

The pony walked past a goldfish bowl that was sitting on a small cupboard. "Morning, Comet," the pony said half asleep as he walked past the bowl where an orange fish was swimming in, motionless with its eyes pinpointed in front of it, even after the pony's greeting.

After getting out of bed the pony started his daily morning routines as well, like showering, eating breakfast and brushing his teeth, while still in a half-asleep state. In his house were two floors. The ground floor was his living area. There was a wooden table in the middle of the room and three doors that lead to a closet, the kitchen, and the bathroom. On the upper floor was only his bedroom with a window next to it and a cupboard where his goldfish was standing on. He was taking it really slow, as usual. If there is one thing that he hated, then it's stressing himself in the morning.

After his morning routine was done, he attempted to leave his house but not before taking a quick look at his mirror to check if he was ready. He was an earth pony with a light green coat, a dark green mane, which has five spikes scattered on his head like a star, light green eyes, and a dark green tail which ended with six spikes. His Cutie Mark consisted of six different colored stars that were lined up in the shape of a star. The colors consisted of yellow, orange, light blue, dark blue, red and purple.

When he looked into the reflection of his eyes, inside of the mirror, he started to smile. "Well then, let's go to work," he said overly optimistic before he walked towards the door and left his house, ready to go to work now.

The stallion walked through the streets and looked around to see everypony getting ready as well. Colts and fillies were going to school, ponies opened up their shops or setting up carts to sell something and so on.

"Busy as always," Star Twinkle commented on what he saw all around him. The stallion was used to see this every morning when he was on his way to work. It helped him to get some energy for his upcoming work.

"Staaaaar Twinkle!" A female voice then shouted excitedly, causing the stallion to turn towards the voice only to get tackled down to the ground shortly after. The voice belonged to Lightbeam, who was trying to give the stallion a hug but couldn't stop in time and knocked off from his hooves instead. "I'm so glad you're back again!" The mare said as she was practically beaming in joy.

"Yes, I'm glad to see you too," Star Twinkle replied while he laid on the ground with some pain in his voice, caused by the tackle from this mare.

As he was getting up on his hooves, he noticed a few more ponies walking up to him. It was Summershine, Crash, Happytrade, Brilliance, and Nightsky who all had smiles on their face, which caused Star Twinkle to smile back as well. "What are you all doing here at the same time?" He wondered.

Nightsky explained. "Well, Lightbeam saw you walking around here so she sent me to gather the rest of us so that we could welcome you back,"

"And here we are!" Crash said happily.

"Still," Summershine started. "Weren't you supposed to come back later this day?" He asked confused.

"Yes," Star Twinkle replied. "But I took the train yesterday evening so that I could have the rest of this day left,"

Star Twinkle was definitely happy to see his friends like this. He really appreciated that they all took their time to see him this early in the morning and from the looks of his friends, they seemed to be happy to see him too.

Lightbeam, for example, was really relieved but also started to pout. "Every time you visit your parents in Canterlot, I can't help but miss you," she said, trying to not sound too upset while doing so.

"It can't be helped," Nightsky added while he petted his little sister's mane. "With his parents living in Canterlot and him living here in Ponyville, he has to visit his parents from time to time,"

"I know," Lightbeam replied, her voice sounding still a little upset.

Crash immediately suggested that they should catch up on their lost time with Star Twinkle by spending the day together. Star Twinkle was ready to accept this idea but then his eyes widened. "Ah!" He exclaimed in shock. "I forgot!" I need to got to work! I'm already late as it is!" He said after he realized that he spend some time with his friends already, completely forgetting to be on his way to work. Upon realizing that, the stallion ran past his friends in a hurry. "I'll see you all later!" He said one last time before vanishing into the distance.

Summershine couldn't help but laugh at that behavior of his friend. "And there he goes again," he said amused.

Nightsky also had a smile on his face. "Well, at least he is back now. I'm sure he would have loved to invest some more time with us right away,"

"Yeah," Summershine added with a smile on his face as he watched his friend running through the streets of Ponyville.


Later...


Star Twinkle arrived at his workplace. The Iron Hammer, an anvil-shaped workshop. His job in this workshop was being a carpenter pony working under Steel Hammer, his boss. Their work included building or repairing all kinds of things in Ponyville. This could range from building furniture out of wood or maintaining buildings or other constructs in town. Star Twinkle was working in this workshop for a while now and could not complain about it so far. Sometimes it was pretty exhausting work but he knew how to do it and that was enough for him to enjoy it.

As expected, Star Twinkle did arrive too late to work and spent a few minutes apologizing to his boss, Steel Hammer who just stood there with a confused expression. "I'm sorry!" Star Twinkle apologized as he bowed down embarrassed for being late at work.

Steel Hammer didn't seem to be too bothered by this at all, however. "Don't worry about it," the stallion said in order for Star Twinkle to stop apologizing. After that was out of the way, Steel Hammer walked towards a cart that was filled with wooden planks and tools. "We need to go to the White Tail Woods do some more last-minute checkups," he said, waiting for Star Twinkle to help him with the cart.

"The White Tail Woods?" Star Twinkle replied confused as he prepared himself to pull the cart as well. "Why do we need to go over there?"

"You forgot what day it is today?" Steel Hammer asked the stallion but judging from the confused expression on Star Twinkle's face, it seemed to be exactly that case so Steel Hammer enlightened him. "Today is the Running of the Leaves Race,"

Star Twinkle's ears pointed up as soon as he heard that. "It is?" He asked confused before he looked up at the sky and lowered his eyebrows. "Yeah, it should be that time of the year," he then figured.

"Yup. While you were in Canterlot, I already built the starting and finish line but it can't hurt to take a closer look at it again," Steel Hammer explained.

With all that said, the two stallions made their way towards the White Tail Woods. Steel Hammer told Star Twinkle that he already got some work done. He built the start and finish line for the Running of the Leaves Race, an annual race that took place in a nearby forest. It was a tradition to hold this race every year at fall to make the remaining leaves from the trees fall down, which would be caused by a bunch of ponies running through the forest.

Star Twinkle considered taking part in this race before. While it was still a race, the focus was winning but rather to just participating in it. It was for fun. Some ponies could just use magic to remove the leaves but not doing that gave everypony a chance to participate in the race instead. Knowing that it sounded like a lot of fun and Star Twinkle had no reason to not take part in it. Still, he missed his opportunity every year. But at least, he could work on the preparations for it.


Later...


The two Earth Ponies were checking the whole track to see if everything was done, including the start and finish line. There was not too much to do there, building a sign here and there so that everypony would know where to go, and some decorations on the way were pretty much all that had to be done, and Steel Hammer already took care of some other things too. Still, the Running of the Leaves Race was an important event so they had to make sure that everything was well done and complete.

Right now, the two were at the finish line and at the end of their work. "Looks like everything is set!" Steel Hammer said happily and with some excitement in his voice. He certainly seemed happy to be done with his work. The same goes for Star Twinkle. He wasn't really exhausted or anything but he wanted to get his work over with as soon as possible so that he could see his friends again.

"Hey! Star!" Lightbeam shouted from afar, before, again, she was tackling Star Twinkle down in her excitement.

The stallion rubbed his head in confusion. "You really need to stop doing that," he said while he got up on his hooves again. When he looked past Lightbeam, he could, again, see the rest of his friends walking up to him as well.

"You're all done with your work?" Summershine asked.

"Yup, just now," Star Twinkle replied.

"Then that means we can finally spend some time together!" Crash said in excitement by just thinking about that.

"If only," Happytrade then added, much to Crash's confusion. "Some of us need to get ready for later,"

Star Twinkle got confused about those words as well. "What do you mean?"

Summershine walked up to the stallion and took it upon himself to explain. "She means the race. Some of us participate in it. Apparently, there were not too many participants like last year, so we decided to be part of it this year,"

"Really?" Star Twinkle replied confused, tilting his head to the side before he closed his eyes and began to think. "Mhh..." Right now, he was playing with the thought to enter the race as well. If his friends were part of it then it surely would be a lot more fun, giving him all the more reason to enter it as well.

Of course, this behavior was not unnoticed by his friends, especially by Summershine. "You want to enter too?" He straight out asked.

"I'm considering it," Star Twinkle replied.

"It will probably be a lot of fun," Nightsky added.

Star Twinkle didn't need any more convincing. "Alright, why not?" He then replied all of a sudden with a smile on his face.

Hearing that made the rest of his friends happy, especially Crash who was jumping up and down on the spot. "I'll go and sign you up!" He said before he ran in direction of Ponyville to take care of it. Star Twinkle couldn't help but to grin by how Crash seemed to be so excited about it.

"Then I guess we see each other later," Summershine said.

Star Twinkle nodded. "Yes," he simply replied.

And just like that, his friends walked away again. They would have enough time to spend time at the race later anyway and Star Twinkle had to walk back to the Iron Hammer to return the tools, he worked with anyway so he didn't have much time right now.

While he was on his way back, his thoughts were at the race already. He wouldn't call himself a good athlete but he could run fast if needed. His work as a carpenter pony could also be exhausting at times so that was a little bit of training as well. Not too much but it was better than nothing.

As the stallion was on his way, somepony was standing in the middle of the road, looking around confused at the trees of the White Tail Woods as if he was looking for something. It was a Unicorn stallion with a gray coat, a dark gray colored spiky mane, and red eyes. His Cutie Mark was a yellow sun with some falling snow in front of it.

Star Twinkle noticed how lost this pony was and walked up to him to offer some help. "Are you looking for something?" He asked.

The stallion turned his head towards Star Twinkle. "Who? Me?" He asked confused.

Star Twinkle took a closer look at the stallion. "I don't think I ever saw you here before so I just thought you were lost or something," he figured.

The Unicorn quickly noticed that he must have looked like somepony who was in need of help and rubbed his neck embarrassed. Was it that obvious?" The stallion replied nervously. "Yeah, you're right, I'm not from Ponyville. In fact, I just arrived here," he explained.

"Hey, don't worry about it, um..." Star Twinkle replied, hinting at that he wanted to know the stallions name.

"Ashgray. My name is Ashgray," the unicorn introduced himself while he offered his hoof.

"My name is Star Twinkle," Star Twinkle replied back as he was shaking the unicorn's hoof. 

Ashgray did look back at the trees once more before he asked what exactly this place was called, causing Star Twinkle to explain. "The White Tail Wood?" Ashgray replied surprised with widened eyes. "Wow, then I really made a wrong turn somewhere..." he added with a frown on his face.

"Well, you are not from here so nopony can really blame you," Star Twinkle said, cheering up the unicorn again, who was rubbing his neck in embarrassment once more. Star Twinkle could actually relate to him in those kinds of things. His sense of direction had its flaws as well at times."So what are you looking for?" He then asked.

"The Everfree Forest," Ashgray casually replied.

What wasn't casual at all, however, was the reaction of Star Twinkle. "The Everfree Forest!?" He replied in shock. "Why in the name of Celestia would you ever want to go there?" He asked confused.

Ashgray explained. "I heard that the Castle of the Two Sisters is somewhere inside there," he again replied casually. "You see, I'm an archaeologist, or...rather, I started being one recently," he said as he rubbed his neck embarrassed again. "The Castle of the Two Sisters would be the first ruin that I take a look at. I heard it's a sight to behold,"

Despite Ashgray showing some enthusiasm to all of this, Star Twinkle felt the need to talk him out of the idea to go to the Everfree Forest. "I don't know anything about a castle but I still wouldn't advise you to go to the Everfree Forest. It's dangerous in there. There are plants and monsters that are just waiting to eat you. I also heard evil Enchantress lives there that will gobble you up," he explained, trying to give as much information as possible.

But Ashgray was still unshaken. "It'll be fine!" He replied confidently. "I heard about all the dangers in this forest and I think I'm prepared for them," he boasted confidently. "I think," he then instantly corrected in a hesitant tone before he closed his eyes and began to think. "Now that I think about it, maybe I should still research the forest a little bit before I enter it,"

"Yes," Star Twinkle said. "That would be better. At least find some ponies who can protect you. It would be a shame if your first ruin ends you up in danger," he advised.

"Yeah, I think I will do that!" Ashgray replied excitedly. "Thanks!" He said happily before he walked off without a worry in his face.

"...Uh...yeah," Star Twinkle replied confused. "I didn't really do anything though..."

This surely was a strange encounter. Ashgray didn't seem to see any problems going to a dangerous forest when it comes to his profession. This was actually a behavior that he knew from some of his friends already. He couldn't help but get worried about him though.

Despite that encounter, however, Star Twinkle had to focus on his own business now. He had to return to the Iron Hammer and then prepare himself for the upcoming race.


Later...


When Star Twinkle arrived at the starting line, there were actually quite a few ponies,  around fifty if not even more. This surprised him because Summershine did tell him that there weren't many participants this year, which didn't look like it at all at first sight.

Star Twinkle walked up next to the starting line and was immediately greeted by some of his friends. "Hey, Star Twinkle!" Happytrade said while she waved at the stallion.

The stallion approached his friends as soon as he saw them. There was not only Happytrade but also, Summershine, Lightbeam, and Nightsky. All of them had numbers on their flanks, which indicated that they were racers as well. However, two of his friends were not in sight. "Where are Crash and Brilliance?" He asked after he could not see them anywhere.

Nightsky pointed up to the sky. "Up there,"

Star Twinkle looked up and saw a hot-air balloon flying above his head in the sky. After narrowing his eyes a little, he could see Crash and Brilliance inside of the balloon. "They are not joining us?" He asked.

Happytrade explained. "Brilliance was never really into sports so of course, she would not participate, and Crash thought it could be a lot more fun to commentate the whole thing,"

That sounded a lot like those two, Star Twinkle thought as he looked up at the balloon. "Then it's just us five, huh?" His friends nodded in reply.

But still, even though two of them were not participating, Lightbeam still was excited about the race. "Doesn't matter! It still will be a ton of fun!" She said as she jumped up and down on the spot.

This was a high contrast to Happytrade's behavior right now. "I wonder who will win the race...maybe it's one of us?" She said before she looked over to Nightsky. "I mean, you are incredibly fast when it comes to flying,"

"Yes, when it comes to flying..." Nightsky replied without getting too confident after hearing Happytrade's words.

"I bet my brother will win!" Lightbeam instantly threw into the conversation. "Nothing personal, by the way," she added as if she didn't want to hurt the others with those words.

But now, the flame of competition was ignited already. "Really?" Happytrade replied smugly. "I have you know that I came here to win! You know how much demand in my wares there will be if ponies know that I once won this competition?" She explained as she clearly imagined right now how many customers she would get. "Not to mention the price for getting first place," she mumbled under breath.

Star Twinkle, however, got a little challenged by those words. "I'm not really the boasting type but I'm pretty confident when it comes to my running speed," he said confidently.

Summershine also got caught up in all of this. "Let's make this all a little bit more fun then," he started. "Let's say, whoever of us gets through the finish line last has to do whatever the winners want them to do for a whole week!"

Hearing this sure got mixed reactions from the others. Nightsky and Lightbeam were not too excited to hear this. "I'll think we two will pass," Nightsky said while looking at his sister, who was confused by those words. But as soon as she saw the concerned look on her brother's face she decided to agree, even if she wasn't sure why. Nightsky would probably not have a problem to come in last of those five after all. The reason why he backed out was probably that he didn't want his sister to lose, something that the other three instantly figured out.

Happytrade, on the other hoof, was not afraid. The thought of somepony helping her out with her trading for one week sure was tempting and would help her out a lot. But then she was looking at the harsh reality. She was not sure if she could beat Star Twinkle and Summershine in a race, and her winning the whole race just like how she imagined it was also a long stretch in hindsight. "I'm out too," she then said without wasting another second to reconsider it.

Summershine felt almost victorious to see everypony backing out like that and began to smile. "Well, I'm still up to the challenge!" Star Twinkle then said confidently, making Summershine's victorious smile turn into a determined one. "There is no way that I will lose to you," he boasted.

The Unicorn was happy to hear that and offered his hoof to Star Twinkle. "Then, it's on!" He said while the two shook hooves to seal the deal.

Shortly after the two were done with this, an announcer stepped in front of the starting line and prompted everypony to take their positions. The race was about to start and the five ponies stood ready for the starting shot.

In the meantime, Crash and Brilliance, who were high up in the hot air balloon, started to comment. "And here we are! The start of the annual Running of the Leaves Race! One of Ponyville's most famous traditions! Isn't that right Brilliance!?" Crash shouted through a megaphone towards the racers on the round.

"Yes..." Brilliance replied with a deadpan tone in her voice.

Despite Brilliance not showing as much excitement as Crash, the stallion continued his excited speech. "Who will come out victorious!? Who can boast with the title "Champion of the Running of the Leaves!? And who can prove to be the fastest of the fastest!?" He shouted in excitement before turning towards Brilliance who he wanted to hear an answer from.

"I don't know..." the mare replied with no excitement in her voice at all, though Crash was sure that it was there somewhere.

After those words were said, the race was about to begin, and Crash was counting down. Everypony was now in position and waited until the signal was given to run. Star Twinkle and Summershine looked at each other with determined expressions on their faces. Both of them wanted to win this race and were confident enough to smile before they focused their sight in front of them again.

In the meantime, Crash was finished counting down and the race began. "Goooo!" The stallion shouted as loud as he could.

The area in front of the starting line was covered in dust, caused by the galloping hooves of everypony. A huge crowd of ponies was building, each and every single one of them wanting to take the lead. However, Star Twinkle and Summershine actually managed to separate themselves from the rest.

Crash did a good job commenting on this already. "Looks like number seven and number twelve managed to take the lead already!" He said, referring with number seven to Star Twinkle and number twelve with Summershine.

The two stallions kept looking at each other as they ran at a high speed. They both figured that it would be too easy if one of them would have a big lead already.

"But it looks like, number twenty-one is coming up closer to them now!"

"Number twenty-one!?" Star Twinkle wondered while he looked back to see who it was, that he thought would catch up to him and Summershine.

As he expected, it was Nightsky, who was accelerating towards the two, only to slow down a little to be running right next to them. The two made room so that he could run right between them. "Figured that you would join us in the lead," Summershine said to the Pegasus stallion, who seemed to have no problem keeping up with the two of them.

Star Twinkle was not surprised to see the stallion catching up to them. "If you would have joined this bet between us, you would have definitely not loose," he pointed out.

"Yeah," Nightsky added, taking this complement for granted before he explained his reasoning for not joining this bet. "The problem is, if I would have joined, my sister would have definitely joined too..."

This certainly made a lot of sense. This was typical behavior of a big brother is very protective of his little sister. Nightsky was especially protective of Lightbeam so his reasoning for doing that was understandable He probably just wanted her to have fun during this race.

Star Twinkle looked back to see where this sister was that Nightsky was supposed to be looking after. "Where is your sister?" He then asked confused.

Nightsky was confused by those words, he could swear his sister was right behind him. But there was nopony to be found. Even looking into the crowd behind them, Nightsky could not spot her at all. This was enough for the stallion to lower his speed to go look for her.

"Oh!" Crash said once he saw the stallion slow down. "Number Twenty-One is slowing down and vanishing inside the crowd of Ponies again! What could this action mean, Brilliance!?" He asked while he turned towards the mare.

"I don't know..." she replied in a deadpan tone.

Nightsky slowed down enough until he found himself the crowd. He looked left and right to find his sister but he couldn't spot her anywhere inside the mass of ponies so he slowed down even more until he came to a complete halt. His face was filled with confusion, he was definitely sure that she wasn't in front of him or that she was faster than everypony else to even accomplish that.

"Take that!" The voice of his sister then shouted from further away in the distance. When Nightsky turned around, he saw how his sister was jumping, or rather stomping up and down in front of a tree while giving it a big glare.

Of course, Nightsky was confused by this kind of behavior, not to mention that his sister barely distanced herself from the starting line. He walked up to her confused. "What are you doing?"

Lightbeam stopped as soon as she heard the voice of her brother. "Hi, Nightsky! I thought you would be at first place by now," she said before she continued to jump-stomp on the spot again. "I'll see you once I'm done with the race!"

Hearing those words highly confused the stallion. "If by jumping up and down on the spot is your definition of running, then I'm afraid you won't be done for a while..." he commented.

Lightbeam stopped her action for a moment before she began to explain. "I may not be racing right now but I still participate in it!" She said, raising her chest into the air proudly. But her brother didn't understand so she explained her action even further. "This race is held because we are supposed to make the leaves fall down from the trees right? That's what I am doing right now!" She said happily with a grin on her face.

Nightsky was appreciating how his sister was ignoring the competitive aspect of this race and focused on the more important matter. It put a smile on his face seeing her do that, even if it was a little bit ridiculous for her trying to attend every single tree in this woods, the sheer thought of that was pretty insane.

Still, Nightsky walked up to his sister with a smile on his face. "You could need some help with that," he said, offering his help to her.

Lightbeam didn't say anything and just smiled back at her brother before both of them then jumped up and down, causing some leaves to fall down in front of them. Looking, back at it, Nightsky didn't have the slightest interest to win this race in the first place so he wasn't too worried about it. He was just attending the race because his sister wanted to and now that she was doing this race the way she wanted it to do, he happily joined her.


In the meantime...


Nothing much had changed, when it came to the order of ponies who were in the lead, which was only two ponies, Star Twinkle and Summershine. The two desperately tried to increase their speed each time the other would take the lead. However, they both stopped doing that after realizing that they would get exhausted by doing that, something that would end up costing them to win the race.

"I can run like this for a long time, Summershine," Star Twinkle said, trying to show his best poker face.

"Me too!" Summershine threw back with a poker face of his own.

The two stallions then turned their heads around as soon as they heard a voice they didn't expect from behind. "Me three!" Happytrade threw at both of them from behind as she caught up to the two. She soon ran past the two, both of them being heavily surprised by the new competitor that just popped up.

"Number fifty came out of nowhere and just took the lead!" Crash announced as loud as possible. "So many twists and turns!" He said while he was almost hanging off from the balloon. Thankfully, Brilliance held on to him to prevent exactly that.

While the two stallions were struck surprised by Happytrade's sudden appearance, they also were impressed. "Didn't expect you to show up here, Happy!" Summershine said.

Happytrade instantly got offended by those words. "Thanks!" She replied angrily. "I have you know that when it comes to winning a competition and getting some prize money, my skills are able to skyrocket into infinity!" She declared while it almost looked as if she increased her speed again.

Hearing that, made the two stallions look at each other in confusion. "Price money?" Star Twinkle asked confused.

Summershine joined into this confusion. "There is no prize money," he pointed out.

The mare quickly lowered her speed so that she would run right beside the two stallions. "What do you mean there is no price money!?" She asked with widened eyes right into the stallion's face.

Summershine repeated himself. "There is no prize money,"

"What about a medal!?" Happytrade asked.

Star Twinkle was thinking for a moment. "I think they wanted to add that sometime but not this year as I recall,"

Happytrade's eyes narrowed in disbelief. "So you are telling me that even if I make it for first place, I will not get any money or a fancy medal that I could potentially sell?" She got a quick answer which came in the form of both of them shaking their heads. In a flashing moment, Happytrade disappeared in the vision of the two and they both saw her come to a complete halt in the middle of the race track. "No thanks then," she said while shrugging her shoulders. "I'm not gonna bother to get myself sweaty for nothing,"

The rest of the racers all ran past the mare as she was walking in the opposite direction again, probably going home now. This caused the two stallions to look at each other confused before they shrugged their shoulders as well.

"I guess it's just us two left then," Star Twinkle said.

"Yeah," Summershine replied with a competitive smile on his face.

With only one of those two left to be a potential winner, the competition between the two of them reached an all-time high now. Not that other competitors would have made any difference. This competition was only between the two of them after all. The one who would come in last out of the two of them would lose and that is all that mattered.

The two of them continued to run at a moderate but still fast enough speed so that they were ahead of everypony else. They could see the rest of the racers behind them which meant that if they slowed down for only a short time, then everypony would catch up to them, again, that was not really an issue because it only mattered who out of the stallions would end up last. Still, the thought of actually winning the whole race was really tempting.

The longer the race was going on, however, the more exhausted everypony got. It was stamina that was now important. Star Twinkle had enough stamina to go for a while and from the looks of it, Summershine could also go on. Summershine decided to change that, however. "Enough playing around! I'll see you at the finish line, where I will think about what you could do for me next week!" He said before he increased his speed and sprinted off.

Star Twinkle got quickly pumped up after that. "We'll see about that!" He replied before he started to sprint as well and managed to catch up to his friend again.

"Oh!" Crash said once the race took another turn. "The two lead ponies, Star Twinkle and Summershine decided to shift into the next gear and speed up! Fitting because we are not too far away from the finish line! Who do you think is going to win, Brilliance!?" He asked again towards her co-moderator.

"It could be anypony..." she replied deadpan.

In the meantime, there was a back in forth going on when it came to who was in the lead between Star Twinkle and Summershine. This soon caused both of them to get really frustrated and even angry by how stubborn the two were.

"How are you so fast? I thought you spend most of your time training your magic!" Star Twinkle shouted at the Unicorn annoyed.

"And what about you!? You work as a carpenter pony! That's not gonna train you to be a fast runner!" Summershine threw back annoyed.

The two locked eyes at each other as they ran at full speed until eventually, they saw the finish line in the distance drawing closer to them. Once again, the two sped up again but they still were right next to each other and neither of them could get a lead.

"I'm gonna win!" Star Twinkle announced.

"No, you don't!" Summershine replied.

"Yes, I am!"

"No, you don't!"

Again, the two of them locked eyes at each other angrily. They also started pushing each other around. It was looking as if this competition was slowly turning into something more ugly. Crash and Brilliance were the only ones who noticed how the two of them took all of this a little too seriously and got a little worried.

The two stallions kept on with this until one of them hopefully would slow down or slip which is something that was actually pretty terrible to think of. But being caught up in this competition completely blinded them to that. Friendship turned into rivalry and caused them to take those measures.

And then it happened...

Their eye contact was interrupted as soon as Star Twinkle fell down to the ground, not because Summershine pushed him or anything but because a small rock in the middle of the road was in his way and made him stumble.

The stallion rolled quite a few meters on the ground before he came to a halt with some groans coming from him. Once he stopped, he looked at Summershine who was speeding off in direction of the finish line.

"Hah!" Summershine said victoriously. "Better watch out where you are going, Star!" He had the nerve to comment.

Star Twinkle clenched his teeth in anger as soon as he heard his friend saying those words after him. The nerve he had to make fun of him, made him only more determined to get up and take the win from Summershine. He started to get back on his hooves so that he could turn his thoughts into reality but...

"Ow!" He released with a painful expression on his face. A sharp pain was going through his body as soon as he started to put some weight on his left front leg. The fall seemed to have got him hurt in the process. "Oh no..." he said once he realized what exactly that meant. The pain in his leg was of course, bad but not as bad as losing the bet. There was no way that he could continue the race like that, if at all.

And of course, Crash was the one who commentated on that. "Looks like Star Twinkle us unable to continue the race, he seems to be hurt,"

"I hope he is fine," Brilliance added in an emotionless voice, even though she was probably really worried about her friend's condition.

Of course, Summershine heard every bit of that and got confused enough to turn around and see for himself. He saw how Star Twinkle got a defeated look on his face and how he was holding his left leg with his right hoof. The victorious expression on Summershine's face vanished and turned into a concerned one before he slowed down considerably.

In the meantime, Star Twinkle turned around as soon as he could feel the ground shaking behind him. It came from the rest of the race ponies who were now running towards him. He covered his head in fear that somepony would trample him down as they ran past him, which luckily didn't happen. Once they were all gone, a huge dust cloud was covering him, causing him to cough heavily. "Yup, great, as if things couldn't get any worse," he said before he slapped some dirt off from his body.

Then suddenly, a dark orange hoof was next to him. It was Summershine, who was offering him his help to get up again. Star Twinkle looked away ashamed and annoyed by this gesture. "What are you doing here? Making fun of me while I am already on the ground?"

But Summershine was not even remotely trying to joke around and had a serious expression on his face. "You're hurt," he simply said before he got his hoof even closer to Star Twinkle, in order to help him.

Star Twinkle turned around his head and looked straight at Summershine's face. "Looks like it," the stallion admitted. "Guess there is no way that I can get through the finish line before you now," he said.

"Hey, don't worry about that now," Summershine replied. "What kind of a friend would I be if I let you lay there in the dirt while you are hurt?"

Star Twinkle could only grin after hearing that. "Well, up until now, you were not really acting like a friend," he snarky commented.

"So were you," Summershine replied in a serious tone.

Soon, both of them would stare at each other with serious expressions on their faces. But that wouldn't last long because the two broke out in laughter only after a few seconds as if they were having the most fun in their entire life. Crash and Brilliance, while still keeping an eye out for the race, watched the two in secret and then smiled at each other after seeing that the two stallions seemed to go along again.

Shortly after, Star Twinkle finally accepted Summershine's hoof and got up on his legs while leaning on his friend's shoulder with a smile on his face. "So...who is winning now?" He asked as he walked with Summershine towards the finish line.

"No one," Summershine replied. "If we both cross the line together then there will be no winner or loser, after all," he explained.

Star Twinkle could live with that result. If Summershine wouldn't have come back for him, he would have lost anyway so things could only get better from this point on. He also started to laugh for a moment. "I can't believe we both got caught up in all of this so much," he said amused, even though he was in some pain.

"Yeah, best friends really shouldn't act like that," Summershine admitted. "It was a shame. This race could have been really fun,"

Star Twinkle thought the same. It was really a wasted opportunity for what could have been a really fun race for both of them. "Let's make a promise," the stallion then said out of nowhere, much to Summershine's surprise. "Next year, we will participate in this race again! But then we will just have fun! No competition. No bets. Okay?"

Summershine didn't think long about this and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, I would like that," he replied already looking forward to that race.

By the time, the two of them approached the finish line, everypony else seemed to have already finished the race. Crash and Brilliance were waiting at the end and they were relieved to see both Star Twinkle and Summershine with smiles on their faces. Lightbeam, Nightsky, and Happytrade also appeared right behind the stallions and walked right next to them.

In the end, the race ended with the five ponies crossing the line at the same time, making them tie for the last place. The bet was quickly forgotten and the group decided to just spend the day without going much into detail how the two stallions got too caught up in this competition. Instead, they just had fun for the rest of the day, after all, that was the most important thing between friends.
> 10. Friends Forever
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a perfectly quiet and peaceful day in Ponyville. The weather was also playing along quite well. All those conditions were perfect to spent the day with your closest friends. And that is exactly what seven ponies decided to do.

Summershine, Brilliance, Nightsky, Lightbeam, Happytrade, Crash, and Star Twinkle were spending their time on a wide meadow and enjoyed the picnic that they were having. They all talked for a while and simply enjoyed the company of each other, laughing and joking around or telling stories.

After another conversation was over, Lightbeam couldn't help but express her happiness at this very moment. "This is so much fun! How long has it been since we all had a picnic like this?" She asked into the round while she was stretching her legs in the process.

"Actually..." Brilliance started. "We had a picnic just a few days before Star Twinkle came back," she pointed out.

Lightbeam quickly protested. "Yeah but that was without Star Twinkle! I meant all of us!" She pointed out.

Star Twinkle smiled after hearing that. "I really enjoy spending time with you all too," he said, causing Lightbeam to get even happier after hearing that.

Crash shrugged his shoulders. "Of course, we all have the biggest fun together! We are all the best of friends after all!" He added.

"Yes!" Happytrade agreed, "Thank Celestia that we all met each other,"

Star Twinkle nodded with a smile on his face. "Yeah," he just said, being relieved that exactly this was the case as well.

The group was continuing their picnic, however, somepony approached them slowly, confused, and lost from the look on that pony's face. Seeing how almost everypony noticed him, the pony decided to just ask away what exactly he wanted. "Sorry, but can anyone of you point me to the direction of a place called the Golden Oak Library?"

As soon as Star Twinkle heard the voice of this pony, he immediately recognized it, he turned towards the pony and quickly saw someone very familiar. "Ashgray?"

It was indeed the gray-coated Unicorn that he met before the Running of the Leaves Race. "Oh hey, um...Star Twinkle, right?" Ashgray replied as soon as he recognized the Earth Pony.

Nightsky looked back and forth between the two. "You know each other?" He asked while looking at Star Twinkle now, who was nodding in response.

"I've met him on the day when I arrived here again. He's an Archaeologist who came here to take a look at a castle in the Everfree Forest," he explained.

Everypony quickly widened their eyes in shock. "The Everfree Forest!?" They all said in unison.

Ashgray surely got surprised by this reaction "Why do I always get a response like this?" He asked confused.

Of course, everypony gave the stallion the same advice that Star Twinkle already gave them on their first meeting, like how dangerous it was and how monsters were inside there. Everypony except Star Twinkle actually experienced those dangers first-hoof so they knew what they were talking about.

Summershine especially was surprised to hear that Ashgray was looking for a castle. He quickly figured that he must have meant the Castle of the Two Sisters. When he mentioned to Ashgray that he and his friends already were in there, the stallion's eyes widened in shock and surprise.

"So the castle does exist! Amazing! I knew it!" Ashgray said in excitement. "But why were you in the castle!?" He then asked.

Crash gave a quick answer. "Princess Celestia told us to go there!" He said before he turned his head towards Summershine. "She was sending Summer in there to find the Elements of Harmony so that we could use them against an evil mare that lives on the moon!"

Summershine didn't really like how Crash was just spewing out all those things. It was a pretty important task and he felt as if it was something that Princess Celestia probably didn't want to share with just everyone. However, his concerns vanished as soon as he saw Ashgray's reaction.

The Unicorn had widened eyes and an open mouth as soon as he heard Crash telling him this story. "The Elements of Harmony!? You mean those ancient relics that Princess Celestia used to trap Nightmare Moon into the moon!?" The group was surprised by how Ashgray knew about this but then they all remembered that he was an Archaeologist and that he was probably well known when it came to the history of Equestria. It was actually confirmed by him when he told everypony that he read all of that from a book. There was still one more question that the stallion was itching to ask, though. "Did you manage to find them!?"

"You bet!" Lightbeam replied.

"Can I see them!?" Ashgray instantly asked once Lightbeam answered his question, as he jumped right in front of the mare, ignoring her personal space completely.

However, Summershine had to pull the plug right now. "This is a rather important task that Princess Celestia gave us. Can you please respect that we just can't involve you in all of that? Also, can you please keep this all a secret? We actually had to deal with somepony already, who tried to steal the elements," he explained.

Summershine may sound a little mean in this very moment, but that was only because the task to use the elements against Nightmare Moon, was really important to him. He also wanted to not involve anypony with this matter to not risk anypony like Arcana showing up again. He had to play safe so that he wouldn't mess up.

Ashgray looked a little disappointed, which caused Summershine to feel actually a little bad. But to everyponies surprise, Ashgray understood the situation that they were in, and how they didn't want to risk failing Princess Celestia's, the ruler of all of Equestria, task. He didn't want to be the cause for Equestria's downfall or anything like that.

"Anyway," Ashgray started before he changed the subject. "As I said before, I was looking for the Golden Oak Library. I seemed to have gotten lost again..." he said a little embarrassed. "If you could tell me where to find it, I will stop bothering you,"

But Happytrade was not happy how Ashgray was putting his words right now. "Don't be ridiculous. You are not bothering anypony!"

Lightbeam had to agree to that. "Exactly! Why don't you come and join us? We're having a lot of fun!"

Everypony seemed to agree with this idea and didn't mind at all, even if Ashgray looked a little hesitant because it was quite obvious to him that they were all close friends, and he was still a stranger to them.

Nightsky realized that behavior and decided to convince the stallion to join them. "You were looking for the library, right?" He asked, causing Ashgray to nod in response. Nightsky then looked over to Brilliance and explained that she was living there and that she could tell him pretty much everything that he wanted to know since she probably had memorized the content of almost every book in there.

"It's true," Brilliance added, pretty much confirming Nightsky's thoughts.

With all those ponies wanting him to join, Ashgray couldn't possibly deny this invitation and decided to just sit down next to them.


A little later...


The eight ponies all had a lot of fun and Ashgray quickly felt as if he was part of their little friendship circle, something that he wouldn't have expected after just recently arriving in Ponyville. He was appreciating how they were so friendly towards him. He just arrived at Ponyville and naturally, hadn't made many friends yet, something that he openly shared with all of them.

Star Twinkle could relate to that. "I was at that point as well, a few years ago but then I met all of you guys and everything in my life changed,"

"Really?" Ashgray said with some disbelieve in his voice. "How so?"

Crash instantly picked up on Star Twinkle's words. "Oh! You mean that day, right!?"

"Which day?" Ashgray asked confused.

Summershine began to smile. "The day we all met each other for the first time," he said towards Ashgray who still seemed a little bit confused. "You wanna hear it?"

The group liked the idea to tell the story. They looked at each other and soon reflected on the events that took place years ago. Ashgray listened carefully and some ponies started to tell the story. In the meantime, Star Twinkle was in his own thoughts already. He thought back at when he first arrived in Ponyville, way back, and ended up listening while the others did the bulk of the talking.





Some years ago...





A train was just arriving at the Ponyville train station. Onboard was a three-headed family who set their first hooves outside. One of them was a slender Earth Pony stallion with a bright yellow coat,  a light green mane, light green colored eyes, and a sun in front of a cloud as Cutie Mark. He took a deep breath as soon as he smelled the air of Ponyville.

"We're here!" He announced excitedly. "I missed this smell for such a long time!" He said taking in another breath.

The next pony that stepped out of the train was an Earth-Pony mare with a light blue coat, a dark blue mane, dark blue eyes, and three raindrops as a Cutie Mark. She was not showing the same overly excitement as her husband but she smiled as soon as she was outside the train, still. As the mare was taking a look around, as if she wanted to check if anything had changed, she noticed how her son was not by her side and still inside the train.

"Starfall! Come out!" She said in a gentle tone as if she wanted to not let her son miss out on something.

After a small pause, a small Earth Pony colt stepped out of the train. His coat was light green colored, his mane in the shape of a star and dark green, and his eyes were light green. There was also no Cutie Mark on his flank. He hesitantly walked out of the train and looked around.

His father quickly slid next to him. "We're here!" He said as he grabbed his son's shoulders. "Ponyville!"

Starfall Twinkle didn't reply. It felt as if he was not liking this trip at all, something that his mother instantly noticed. "Starfall, do you still not like the idea that we decided to move in here?" She asked in concern while she rubbed her son's cheeks in comfort.

Starfall Twinkle looked away with a frown on his face. "It's not like I had any choice, to begin with..." he said before he walked away slowly.

His parents began to frown as they watched how their son was waiting for them a few meters away. "Don't worry, Rain," the stallion said. "I'm sure he will like it here,"

"I just hope that he can make some friends here. That is all that I wish for him," the mare replied.

The train was leaving the station again, and the three ponies were walking towards the town to get to their new house, something that Starfall Twinkle was not looking forward too. Apparently, the house where they would move into was the one where his father lived when he was growing up in this town.

Starfall Twinkle's parents, Sunny Twinkle, and Rainfall Twinkle would both do anything to make their son happy and they were sure that living in Ponyville would make it easier to archive that, at least that's what they hoped for.

When the three ponies were arriving at the house, somepony was waiting in front of the door for them, an Earth Pony stallion, who immediately greeted the family as soon as they arrived.

"Steel Hammer!" Sunny Twinkle said with a smile on his face.

Steel Hammer smiled upon their arrival. "There you are!" He said before he walked up to the three. "I was waiting for you. I was just done checking everything inside so that you could start living here without any problems," he explained.

Steel Hammer was an old friend to Sunny Twinkle who practically grew up together. They both used to live in the very same house when they were younger, in fact, which is why the stallion could access the house. He also helped the family quite a lot when they were starting to move into Ponyville.

"Thank you very much, Steel Hammer," Rainfall Twinkle said, pretty much thanking the stallion for all the work that he has done for them. "You really helped us out a lot,"

The stallion smiled and just shook his head in response. "Anything for you. We are friends after all," he said. His eyes then shifted towards little Starfall Twinkle, who was making sure to stay a little behind his parents. He wasn't too accustomed to the stallion yet, having met him only a few times so far.

But Steel Hammer was so free to just ignore that and approached the colt with a grin on his face. "And? How do you like your new home? Neat, huh?" He asked, hoping to get a little reaction out of the colt.

Starfall Twinkle shyly nodded, he seemed to still feel a little uncomfortable in the presence of this pony. He was no small stallion after all, especially in contrast to the slender figure of his father.

Rainfall Twinkle then rubbed the mane of her son. "Starfall, why don't you go and take a look around town? There are still some things that we need to talk about here. I'm sure you will find it too boring to listen to that," she said.

"Yeah," Sunny Twinkle added. "Don't worry, everypony here is really nice. I'm sure you will find a bunch of friends in no time!"

And there was the thing that Starfall Twinkle was just waiting for. The thing that his parents always wanted him to do: finding friends.

"Do I have to?" The colt replied, clearly showing no interest at all in this idea.

Again, his mother was trying to comfort him by rubbing her son's cheek. "I know in Canterlot you had problems to find friends but I'm sure things will be different here. I believe that you will be much happier here," she said in a gentle voice while she smiled warmly at her son.

"...Yeah..." Starfall Twinkle replied with no sign of enthusiasm in his voice.

It was true that the colt would get bored if he stayed here, his parents still had to clear some stuff up, stuff that he probably didn't understand at his age. He also was in a completely new town that he knew nothing about so the best he could really do was to take a look around.

The colt walked away from the three ponies and marched off. His parents advised him of course, to not go too far away, advice that he really didn't need because he wasn't planning on doing so anyway.

As soon as the colt was out of sight, both Sunny and Rainfall Twinkle sighed in frustration, something that Steel Hammer quickly picked up on. "Hey, don't you two worry too much," he said optimistically.

But Rainfall Twinkle still couldn't help but get worried. "I just want him to be happy here. He hasn't made a single friend in Canterlot and I fear that the same thing could happen here..."

Steel Hammer, again, saw things in a positive light. "Yeah, but come on, you know those ponies from Canterlot..." he began, causing Rainfall to lower her eyebrows confused. "Those snobbish ponies over there are way too hard to deal with. I'm not surprised that he hasn't made friends over there!" He said as if he almost had secret hate against the ponies in Canterlot.

"I grew up in Canterlot..." the mare then said, causing the stallion to stop talking immediately. "And you know that..."

Of course, Steel Hammer knew that but he seemed to have forgotten at this moment and grinned nervously in response, something that Sunny Twinkle joined in just because of this awkward situation.


In the meantime...


Starfall Twinkle slowly walked down the road of Ponyville. He took quite his time to take in everything in this town. It was completely different compared to what he knew from Canterlot. The buildings were simple, and so were the ponies just based on their looks. Nopony was dressed as if they were trying to boast with how many outfits they owned or anything. Ponies were eating in restaurants without some snobbish pony walking by, judging them for that, or thinking that they were something better. Starfall Twinkle actually liked that aspect of Ponyville, things definitely seemed easier in this town.

Walking around town actually, put a relieved smile on the colt for a brief moment. But this moment was interrupted really quickly by somepony walking into him while he was not paying attention to what was in front of him.

"Ouch!" He said while he landed on his behind after bumping into somepony. The colt looked in front of himself to see that he bumped into a Unicorn colt. "Hey! Watch it!" He said annoyed before he got up on his hooves again.

The Unicorn colt in front of him had a dark orange coat, a dark red mane, and dark blue eyes. His Cutie Mark consisted of five bright distant glowing stars. After the colt's head had stopped spinning, he looked around as if he was looking for something. "Sorry," he apologized at the same time.

Starfall Twinkle was wondering what this pony was looking for but quickly figured that it was the object that was laying right in front of his hooves. It was a book. "Beginner spells for Gifted Unicorns?" He said, reading out the title of the book.

"That's mine!" The Unicorn said before he used his magic to levitate the book towards him. "I'm sorry, I was too invested into my book that I didn't see you," he apologized once more with an honest grin on his face. Shortly after, he looked at Starfall Twinkle confused. "I never saw you before, who are you?" He then asked.

"Starfall Twinkle,"

"I'm Summershine," the Unicorn then introduced himself. "Nice to meet you!" He said while he offered Starfall Twinkle his hoof.

But Starfall Twinkle didn't shake Summershine's hoof in return, causing a rather awkward moment between the two. The moment was eventually broken by Starfall Twinkle. "You should watch where you are going, okay? I don't expect that this book is so interesting that you can't pay attention to where to go to,"

But Summershine had to protest against that. "Oh, you will be surprised! This book is full of handy tips to improve my magic! Something that I really need!"

"For what?" Starfall Twinkle asked confused.

"For Princess Celestia's school for gifted Unicorns!" Summershine replied. "A school where only the best Unicorns in Equestria can go to!"

And this is where Starfall Twinkle was getting annoyed again. Another pony who thought was somepony better than anypony else and needed to show it to everypony. It's exactly like the ponies back in Canterlot. Before things would get even more frustrating, Starfall decided to just walk past the Unicorn and continued to be on his way again. "Have fun in that school then," he said in a bitter tone as he left Summershine confused in the middle of the road.

"Um...yeah!" Summershine threw back at him confused, not being entirely sure what this behavior was all about. "That is if I was accepted into this school," he mumbled under his breath.

Starfall Twinkle continued his way through Ponyville, trying to forget this encounter again. His parents wanted him to make friends and that would probably be an opportunity but Starfall Twinkle had no interest in this at all. He didn't need friends. For what reason would he need some? Those were the things circling around in his mind as he walked through Ponyville.

Soon, another pony was walking right towards him, an Earth Pony colt with a yellow coat, am orange mane and red eyes that had a pink Whoopee cushion as a Cutie Mark. The colt was looking right at Starfall Twinkle with a bothered expression on his face.

"What?" Starfall Twinkle thought confused, feeling a little weird that this colt kept staring at him.

Then suddenly, the colt was running right at him, causing him to flinch in surprise once the colt before the colt stopped right in front of him, ignoring his personal space and locking his red eyes right into Starfall Twinkle's green ones.

"What!?" Starfall Twinkle asked after this sudden approach.

The colt gave a slow response. "You..." he said in a serious tone. "I don't know you," he said in an even more serious tone.

"Yeah?" Starfall Twinkle replied nervously. "I just moved here, so that would make sense," he pointed out while he took one step back.

The colt narrowed his eyes. "I see," he said in a serious tone again. A pause was then created by him. Starfall Twinkle had no idea what this colt wanted from him and why he seemed so serious about something. He had no idea who he was, he was one-hundred-percent sure that he never saw him before in his life so there was no way that he could have in any way do something to him. Starfall Twinkle had no idea what was going on and tried to figure out what was going on. That was until the colt spoke up again.

"Wanna be friends?"

"...Huh?" Was the only thing that Starfall Twinkle was able to say after this.

"I don't know you! So we must be friends!" The colt explained, which made absolutely no sense to Starfall Twinkle. "I'm Crash!" He introduced himself. "What's your name?"

Starfall Twinkle had still no idea what this was all about but he still introduced himself as well. "Starfall Twinkle,"

"Mhhh," Crash replied, thinking about something in the meantime. "Alright! Star Twinkle!"

"What? No! It's Starfall Twinkle!" Starfall Twinkle corrected.

"I know," Crash replied. "But I think Star Twinkle sounds better, so I'm calling you that," he said casually with a big grin on his face.

"Great..." Starfall Twinkle thought frustrated. "What is wrong with this pony? He is weird...I better stay away from him..." 

And with those words in his mind, Starfall Twinkle decided to just walk away, ignoring this pony. He didn't need friends, is what he told himself. And he definitely didn't need weirdos like this Crash.

He planned to continue going through town, and from now on, avoiding eye contact with everypony. There was one problem though. The damage already seemed to be done. As Starfall Twinkle walked through the town, Crash was following all the way with a smile on his face. Starfall Twinkle decided to ignore this colt but he just kept following him.

"You know," Crash said, having the nerve to start a conversation with him again. "I just recently moved in here too. And I know how it must feel to leave your old home behind or all the friends that lived there with you,"

"Yeah..." Starfall Twinkle said annoyed. Of curse, he would have no idea what the later would feel like.

"But I bet we can make a lot of friends in no time in Ponyville!" Crash said enthusiastic and determined to make his words true.

But Starfall Twinkle wanted to stop this as soon as possible. "About tha-"

"Hey look!" Crash then interrupted, giving the colt no chance to even reply.

Before he knew it, Starfall was being dragged around by the weird colt to what looked like some kind of marketplace. There were a bunch of merchants stands everywhere with ponies selling all kinds of things. 

Despite the range of things that were sold here however, Starfall Twinkle didn't know why Crash dragged him over here. "What? What do you want here?" He asked annoyed.

Crash raised his nose up into the air and took a good sniff. "I smelled something really tasty!" He just said.

As soon as Crash mentioned it, Starfall Twinkle also noticed a really tasty smell. It was really close. So close that he could easily determine from where it came from. Soon he found himself in front of a really small merchant stand that just consisted of a small table, that had nothing but one pie sitting on it, which was the object from where the smell came from.

As soon as his eyes locked into that pie, a female voice was talking to him from the side. "Are you interested!?" The voice said in excitement, causing Starfall Twinkle to flinch out of sheer surprise.

The voice came from an Earth Pony filly who, similar to Crash, had no problems ignoring Starfall Twinkle's personal space. The pony had a red coat color, a yellow mane, purple eyes and three bitcoins as a Cutie Mark.

"What?" Starfall Twinkle replied confused after this approach.

The filly started to smile. "I made that cake! And I don't want to boast or anything but I think I did a pretty good job! I made out of the best apples that Sweet Apple Acres had to offer!"

Starfall Twinkle had no choice but to listen to this filly going on and on about how much work she put into this pie and how tasty it probably was. He had to admit that he got quite interested in that pie after her words, she somehow had a really good way with words when it came to advertising this pie, it was almost scary.

"Okay, okay, if you insist, I will take it!" Starfall Twinkle said in order for the filly to stop pressuring him.

The filly was very happy to hear that and smiled. "Fifty bucks then!" She then casually said holding out her hoof, expecting money to rain down on it.

"What!?" Starfall Twinkle replied understandably after hearing this unbelievable high price for one pie single pie. "That's way too much!" He added.

The filly reacted in surprise. "No, it isn't!" She protested, stomping her hoof on the ground to make it more clear. "I spent hours making that pie! The price is perfectly compensating for that work!"

But Starfall Twinkle had to disagree with that. "Still, fifty bucks are way too much! Right Crash?" He asked as he looked over to the colt.

Crash didn't even pay attention to this conversation, though. In fact, he was busy digging his face into the very same pie that the ponies were talking about. Of course, the filly reacted in shock as soon as she saw her pie being consumed right before her eyes. The filly instantly pushed away Crash and looked at the remains of her pie in shock. 

The filly glared angrily at Crash and couldn't believe what just happened. "You! You owe me money!" the filly said angrily, pointing at the colt who was completely confused about her reaction.

Starfall Twinkle decided to just take this opportunity to walk away from the scene, he definitely didn't want to be part of this at all. He expected that Crash would be quite busy dealing with the filly but actually, quite the opposite thing happened. "That was really tasty," Crash said licking his lips after he was finished with the pie. "Thanks!" He then said as he walked away happily, following Starfall Twinkle again, much to his dislike.


A little later...


"How did things end up like this?" Starfall Twinkle mumbled annoyed while he looked back to see how not only Crash but also the filly from before following him, or rather the filly following Crash, who was following him.

Crash on the other hoof liked the company. "It's really nice of you to join us," he said towards the filly, who continued to glare at him. "What's your name by the way?" He asked.

"It's Happytrade," the filly replied really annoyed with her eyes glued on the colt in front of her.

Crash was still completely unaware of why she was mad at him and introduced himself as well. "I'm Crash! And that is Star Twinkle!" He said as he pointed towards the green pony in front of him.

"It's Starfall Twinkle!" The green pony corrected. He then looked over to Happytrade and just went out with what he was thinking. "Why do you keep following us?"

He became the answer that he was actually expecting "Until I get the money for my pie back, I will follow you until the ends of Equestria!" Happytrade said determined to make those words come true.

"So you will stick with us until I pay?" Crash asked. "Yay! That means we made a new friend!" He said excitedly, much to Happytrade's annoyance, who was not in the mood to laugh or anything.

All Starfall Twinkle could do at this moment was to sigh. He asked himself how he was included in this situation at all. He could definitely go without those two ponies around him. But as soon as he was thinking that, another pony approached the group.

"Excuse me," a female voice said in a hesitant voice as she was walking up to the three ponies, Starfall Twinkle specifically.

The voice came from a little Pegasus filly, who, judging from her size, looked as if she was one or two years younger then Starfall Twinkle, Crash, and Happytrade. The filly had a light blue colored coat, a white and even lighter blue colored mane, and orange eyes. She also had no Cutie Mark yet.

"Yes?" Starfall Twinkle asked.

The little filly hesitated at first but then slowly explained what she wanted. "I'm looking for my big brother. Have you seen him?" She asked sheepishly.

"What does he look like?" Starfall Twinkle asked.

The filly explained. "He has a dark blue coat and a gray and dark blue mane, oh and he has a shooting star as a Cutie Mark!"

Given that Starfall Twinkle just moved to Ponyville, of course, he had not seen somepony like this so answering that question was pretty easy for him. "No, sorry," he said before he was continuing to walk away, leaving the filly alone again.

"Oh..." The filly replied with a frown on her face. "Can you help me looking for him?" She asked with wide puppy eyes.

But Starfall Twinkle had no interest to deal with this problem and straight out told her that he had no time for that. That was actually a lie because it was rather that he didn't want to spend time looking for somepony. It was this filly's problem after all. As Starfall Twinkle was walking away, however, Happytrade switched her glare from Crash to him and rushed right in front of him.

"You just gonna walk away!?" She asked right into his face. "This little filly asked you for help and you just ignore her!?"

Starfall Twinkle gave a quick answer. "Yep,"

Happytrade clenched her teeth in anger. "No way!" She said while she dragged the colt back to the filly. "We're gonna help this adorable little girl find her brother!" She decided.

Of course, being forced to do stuff like this, against his will, was really getting on Starfall Twinkle's nerves. Why should he care? Or why was he forced to help if only Happytrade was the one wanting to help the filly? It was such a bother. In order to get not even more on Happytrade's annoying side, Starfall Twinkle just decided to go along with helping the filly to just get it over with.

In contrast to how she was acting towards Starfall Twinkle, Happytrade put a warm smile on her face while she talked to the little filly. "What's your name?" She asked gently.

The filly seemed to feel a lot more comfortable in Happytrade's presence and had a much easier time talking with her. "It's Lightbeam," the filly replied.

Happytrade grinned after hearing that name. She then pointed towards the two colts behind her. "That is Crash," she said causing Crash to wave at the filly with a smile on his face. "And the grumpy one is Star Twinkle," she said casually as she pointed towards the green pony.

"My name is not..." Starfall Twinkle corrected before he gave up in mid-sentence. "Whatever..." he then added in frustration.

The four ponies then walked together to find Lightbeam's brother. Slowly but surely the group of ponies wandering around Ponyville got bigger and bigger. And while the others were seeming to have fun, Star Twinkle just got more and more annoyed. All those ponies were so hard to deal with, one of them was completely unpredictable, another one was just weird and the last one was just a bother.

While the green pony was seemingly leading the way, or rather followed by the other three ponies, Happytrade decided to get out some more information to help Lightbeam finding her brother. "Where was the last time you saw your brother?"

Lightbeam thought carefully. "Well, we were just playing around next to this tree-shaped house but then...I..." she stopped in the middle of the sentence as if she didn't want to admit something. "I may have walked a little too far away without him noticing...and..."

"So it was your fault?" Star Twinkle interrupted as if he wanted to prove that this filly was just a bother for everypony right now. Happytrade did not like this input at all and glared at the colt, causing him to get nervous and avoiding eye contact with the red pony again. He definitely didn't want to deal with her angry side again.

Crash then remembered something. "A tree-shaped house? I think I know where that is!" He said happily.

"Great! Then let's go there!" The filly said determinedly.


Later...


The four ponies followed Crash, who was leading the way to the tree-house. When Star Twinkle arrived there, he got surprised by how this was actually a house inside of a tree.

"Yes! This is it!" Lightbeam said, having high hopes to find her brother now after finding the treehouse again.

The four ponies looked all around to see if Lightbeam's brother was somewhere close but this didn't seem to be the case, there was nopony to be found in the nearby area which only meant that the search would end up going on longer. This was not what Star Twinkle was looking forward to. He complained in his mind how this was just a waste of time and that he could have gone home by now, minding his own business.

Just when the four ponies were about to give up the search, to look somewhere else, one pony approached them. "Is something wrong?" A female voice asked, causing the group to turn their attention towards it.

The pony that asked them was a Unicorn filly with a dark purple colored coat, an even darker purple colored mane, light blue eyes, and a light blue colored book on her flank as a Cutie Mark. She was also wearing a black pair of glasses which almost looked too big for her eyes.

Since the group had nowhere to go from now, they decided to just go ahead and asked the filly if she saw somepony who matched Lightbeam's brother's description. There was only a small chance that she would know something about that so everypony was highly surprised once the got an answer from the filly.

"Yes, I saw that pony," the Unicorn replied with a deadpan tone in her voice.

"You did!?" Lightbeam replied in a glimmer of hope to find her brother again.

"Yes," the Unicorn filly said.

Everypony expected the Unicorn to continue but no more words came out of her mouth which resulted in a rather awkward pause. Eventually, Happytrade decided to break that silence. "Well, can you tell us where you saw him?" She then asked, hoping to get some more information.

The Unicorn gave a short answer. "Around here," she just said.

Star Twinkle was shaking his head. "Great...another weirdo..." he thought annoyed.

But then the Unicorn continued. "He told me that if I saw his sister then I should take care of her because he might come back here," she explained as she looked over to Lightbeam. "Are you his sister?" She casually asked staring blankly at the filly.

Lightbeam nodded in response. "So I just have to wait here until my brother returns?" She asked sheepishly with wide eyes full of excitement.

Again, Star Twinkle saw an opportunity to leave. "Awesome! So that means that you just have to wait here, right? Does that mean that I can leave then?" He asked into the round with a forced grin on his face. But as soon as Lightbeam was looking at him with puppy eyes, and Happytrade glared at him again, he felt like he was forced to stay. "Or...maybe we can all wait together..." he then said as he sat down on the ground blaming everyone around him for dragging him into this situation.

Happytrade was glad that she didn't have to convince Star Twinkle and turned towards the Unicorn again. "What's your name?" She asked.

"Brilliance," the Unicorn replied in an emotionless tone.

Crash instantly picked up on that answer and jumped next to the Unicorn. "Do you always sound this funny?" He asked casually, most likely picking up on how Brilliance was showing little emotion whenever she opened her mouth. Happytrade was looking at Crash as if she wanted to scold him for asking her that. She probably thought it was a rude thing to ask.

But Brilliance was not showing any signs of being hurt or anything and kept up the regular deadpan expression on her face. "What do you mean?" Was the only thing she asked while tilting her head to the side in confusion.


Later...


As expected, it was really boring to wait in front of this tree-house. Star Twinkle was leaning against the tree on his own while the rest of the ponies were talking to each other. They seemed to have a fun time but Star Twinkle just watched them. He didn't feel like joining their conversation. They were just talking and laughing about stupid stuff after all. Star Twinkle thought there were just silly.

As the colt let out another sigh, which he wasn't shy to show for a while now, Lightbeam walked up to the colt. She was thinking that Star Twinkle was in a bad mood or something, not knowing that this was his usual behavior.

"You are sitting here all on your own...is something wrong?" She asked innocently yet curiously.

"I'm fine," Star Twinkle replied in an annoyed tone.

Lightbeam was a little confused. She did not know why Star Twinkle was behaving like this. "Did we do something bad?" She asked.

If by "something bad" meant wasting his time or getting him dragged along all of this, then Star Twinkle's answer would be yes. Still, Star Twinkle understood that the pony in front of him was a little bit younger and probably wouldn't know what he meant.

"You look so sad," Lightbeam then said out of nowhere. Those words really surprised Star Twinkle. He widened his eyes as if deep down somewhere inside of him those words were true but he didn't want to admit them. Still, he told himself that that wasn't the case and he looked away from Lightbeam but the filly jumped into his sight again. "That's why you should have fun with us! We are friends now after all!" She said happily.

Star Twinkle again, felt like he had no saying into anything. "I'm not you..." he started before Crash's voice interrupted him.

"Someone is coming!"

Lightbeam instantly jumped up in joy. "Night!" She said in excitement before she turned around and ran towards Crash to see her brother again. The filly's eyes were filled with joy knowing that she could see her brother again. However, once she walked over to the group, her ears went down and she stopped smiling.

"Sorry, my mistake," Crash said before she smiled at his own mistake.

Star Twinkle walked up to the group as well, to see what was going on. Crash just assumed that the first colt approaching the tree-house would be Lightbeam's brother but the pony walking up to them was clearly not matching the description, not to mention that the pony was not a Pegasus, to begin with.

"You again?" Star Twinkle asked once he recognized the pony. It was the Unicorn colt from before, that he ran into, Summershine.

Summershine also recognized the green colt and began to smile. "Hey, Starfall Twinkle!" He greeted as if he just met an old friend again.

Hearing Star Twinkle's full name confused Lightbeam at first so she walked up to Summershine to correct. "I think you meant to say Star Twinkle," she said as if she didn't want Star Twinkle to hear this.

The Unicorn colt looked confused but the little filly looked trustful enough so Summershine figured that he might have remembered the colt's name wrong so he began to smile and corrected himself. "Sorry, my bad, Star Twinkle," he then apologized with an embarrassed grin on his face. Star Twinkle was about to say that he was actually right the first time but by now, he just figured saying anything would be in vain and just went along with it. Summershine explained while he was nearby and approached the group. "I was just trying to bring back a book, then I saw all of you here and wondered what this gathering was all about,"

When Star Twinkle got confused about why he would bring back a book to this place, Brilliance began to explain that this tree-house had a library inside of it but in fact, the colt didn't really care too much about it. He walked up too Lightbeam and knocked her slightly on the head. "We are all here because this little girl is looking for her brother and we are forced to wait for him here,"

"I'm not forcing you to do anything..." Lightbeam said nervously, while Star Twinkle was pushing her head down.

Despite her words, Star Twinkle did not agree with that at all. All of the ponies around him would either get mad or try to force him to help them. He actually wanted everypony around him to know this fact but as soon as he tried to open his mouth, he was quickly pushed down by somepony who was flying towards him at extreme speed.

"Oof!" The colt released after getting thrown several meters away by the impact. He didn't get hurt too much but everything started to spin for a moment. Once the world stopped moving again, he found himself on the ground with his back in the dirt. Somepony then landed right on top of him, probably the one who pushed him away a second ago and glared at him like a predator that was about to eat him.

It was a Pegasus colt with dark blue coat color, a gray and dark blue colored mane, yellow eyes, and a shooting star as a Cutie Mark. Once Star Twinkle was stopped getting intimidated by the angry face of this pony, he started to realize that he looked exactly like how Lightbeam described her brother.

"Wait, you are-" the green colt tried to say but he got quickly interrupted by the Pegasus colt.

"So you were the one who took away my sister!?" He shouted angrily at Star Twinkle's face.

"What!?" Star Twinkle replied confused until he figured that this pony was just completely misunderstanding the situation. Star Twinkle was about to explain everything but the colt didn't listen and clenched his teeth angrily and the green pony was afraid to say anything at this very moment. All he could think about is that he was probably getting badly hurt in a few seconds.

But then a saving voice came to his rescue. "Night! Stop! Star Twinkle didn't take me away from you!" Those words caused the colt to look towards his sister so that Star Twinkle could breathe easily for a moment.

"Yes!" Happytrade added. "He may be a big jerk but he would never do something like that!" She said before she took a moment to think. "Maybe..." she then added casually.

"Gee...thanks...." Star Twinkle replied annoyed after Happytrade offered her "help".

Lightbeam did a much better job explaining the situation to her brother. "It's true! I know you told me to not wander off to far away while you tried to get a book for me but..." she said before she started tearing up a little. "Those ponies all tried to help me to find you again so please don't get angry at them. They are my friends!" She said with tears starting to build in her eyes.

Of course, her brother didn't want her to cry so he stepped away from Star Twinkle so that he could pet Lightbeam on the head. "Hey, don't worry about it, Light," he said in a gentle and warm voice which completely contrasted his previous behavior from before. "I think I just misunderstood the situation, sorry," he admitted before he looked over to the group.

"You think?" Star Twinkle said annoyed before he got back on his hooves again. The rest of the group was just relieved that everything was resolved before anything could happen, something that Star Twinkle highly disagreed on after getting attacked by this crazy pony.

"My name is Nightsky, please to meet you all, and thanks for taking care of my sister," he said in a polite and earnest voice. Everypony quickly figured that Nightsky was actually really nice and that the disappearance of his sister just worried him a lot. Lightbeam did explain that her brother tended to get a little over the top when it came to her safety. Clearly, an understatement when it came to Star Twinkle.

In the end, all of the ponies talked with each other about different things. What they liked, how they usually spent time with each other and other things. Summershine also listened to what the majority of the group was doing up until now. 

"Wow," Summershine commented. "To think that so many ponies met like this..."

"Crazy, huh?" Crash replied happily.

"Yes," Happytrade said happily as well. "But! You still owe me the money for my pie!" She added as she pointed towards the colt causing him to smile and even the rest of the group to laugh.

"You all seemed to have a lot of fun," Nightsky said, moving his head towards his sister Lightbeam, who could only agree on those words and smiled.

"Can we all be friends!?" Lightbeam asked before she excitedly jumped up and down and looked over the group of ponies.

The ponies liked the sound of this idea. They all looked like they were having fun, despite how different they all were.

"That would be great," Brilliance agreed with a deadpan expression on her face.

"Well, I just only met you all but...yes, why not?" Summershine said, smiling just by the thought of it.

They were all happy and smiled at how many friends they all had made in just those few hours, it was like as if they were destined to meet each other. Somehow they all felt as if they were connected in some kind of special way, which they couldn't really explain.

Still, one pony was not one bit interested in all of this and decided to just walk away while nopony was looking. It was, of course, Star Twinkle, who wasn't up for the idea to make friends with all those ponies.

Eventually, Crash noticed how Star Twinkle was walking away. "Star Twinkle!" He said, causing the colt to stop and the rest of his friends to look at Star Twinkle, who just now wondered why he was walking away at all.

"What?" Star Twinkle replied in a serious tone.

Lightbeam walked out of the group. "Are you going home? Can we all met tomorrow then?" She asked with an excited expression on her face.

Star Twinkle gave a quick answer. "No. I'm not interested in meeting anypony of you again," he replied ice cold towards the little filly, who was lowering her eyes and frowned after hearing those words. Of course, she asked him why he said something like that so Star Twinkle explained further. "I'm not interested in making friends with all of you, okay?"

Crash, quickly came to a conclusion. "Is it because you don't want your other friends to be jealous or something. I'm sure they won't mind if make some other friends," he said being optimistic that this was solving the problem.

But Star Twinkle explained further. "No, I don't have any other friends. I don't need friends, they are just a waste of time and cause nothing but trouble, something that was proven just by how this day went so far,"

Lightbeam's frown was growing even bigger after hearing this. "You thought we were a waste of time?" She asked while getting near some tears once more.

Now Summershine was the one who walked out of the group. He had a concerned look on his face while he spoke to Star Twinkle. "Do you really think that having no friends is better? You can't possibly mean that," he questioned.

But judging from Star Twinkle's expression on his face, he was very serious. "You all can be friends as much as you want, just leave me out of it," he said before he turned around to leave for good now.

The others could not believe what they just heard. It was like a slap in their face. Some of them were questioning if they said or did something wrong, Nightsky even blamed himself that it was his fault because from before. The way how Star Twinkle said all those things were making them all feel really bad and they couldn't even bring themselves to follow him because they were afraid that he would say even meaner things. Just like that, they felt like losing a friend, even though they weren't friends yet...


In the meantime...


Star Twinkle was aimlessly walking through Ponyville. He didn't know where he was originally going to, he just wanted to get away from those ponies. He was fully immersed in his thoughts and couldn't help but think about the recent events and how annoying everything was.

Still, some weird thoughts were circling around in his mind. The possible future that he would have with those ponies, all the fun that they could have and how he would get to know and more about them with each passing day.

Those thoughts were quickly driven away by some memories in his head, events that he remembered from his time in Canterlot. Words that were said to him, things that happened to him.

...

"My parents told me that you weren't even as high class than us! He said you and your parents are just a bunch of commoner! I don't want to play with you anymore!"

...

"You don't even have a Cutie Mark yet! Why would I waste my time with a blank flank like you!?"

...

"Your mane looks so stupid! I bet nopony is ever going to be friends with you!"

...

Star Twinkle didn't like having all those things coming back to him at this very moment. He began tearing up but instantly wiped his ears dry again, only to find out that it wouldn't stop. "I don't need friends...I'm way better off without anypony else..." he mumbled to himself in a shaking voice. He tried to distract himself with those words so that he would stop tearing up. He stopped walking for a moment and looked up at the sky. "They were all so weird and stupid..." he said before he paused for quite a while until eventually, he continued. "They are not my friends...so why...do I feel so sad?" He said towards the clear sky as if he wanted an answer to appear out of nowhere.

Then suddenly...

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

A giant explosion in the sky set off, scaring Star Twinkle like never before in his whole life combined. He dropped to the ground out of shock and had his mouth wide open. He thought that the sky was coming right crashing down on him.

Once the shock was gone, however, and he found out that the sky was still in its place, he recognized something happening in the sky. A rainbow. But that couldn't be, Rainbows don't move, but this one most definitely did. A giant shockwave in all the colors of a rainbow was flying past Ponyville up in the sky. It was an event that nopony would have believed happened to him if he would describe it to somepony else.

Eventually, the colt managed to find his voice again. "Hey, did you all see that!? What was that!? Do you have any idea what just-" he said, asking one question after another, hoping that somepony could answer them.

But then Star Twinkle looked back...

There was nopony...

He was confused for a moment. "Oh, yeah," he then said in his realization. "I walked away..." he said, referring to the group of ponies from before, who he expected to stand right behind him at this moment.

Suddenly, everything in his head was upside down. What would Crash have said to this event? Was Happytrade as confused to see this as he was? Was Nightsky protecting Lightbeam who was scared when this explosion went off? Was Brilliance showing no emotion at all, like usual? For some reason, he wanted to see what they all thought about this.

Star Twinkle started to drop on the ground. Realization struck him. He sunk his head to the ground and grabbed it with his hooves Only minutes ago there was a group of ponies who offered him his friendship, and he decided to leave them. That is not what he wanted. Friendship. Of course, he wanted friendship. But all previous experiences with it were just hurtful memories, and this one turned into one as well. But not because of others...it was because of him.

"What have I done!?" He said in frustration blaming himself for his stupidity and stubbornness. Right now he wanted nothing more than seeing those six ponies again but he couldn't, not the way how he called them a waste of time and how he acted towards them all this time. There was no way that they would even consider talking to him again, and knowing all that was what crushed the colt from the inside.

"Star Twinkle?"

Star Twinkle shrugged as soon as he heard the voice of what he thought was Summershine. He raised his head and revealed his with tears covered eyes, that he didn't even bother to hide at this moment. The voice did come from Summershine who was standing in front of him with a smile on his face.

It took Star Twinkle a moment to realize it but it wasn't only Summershine but everypony else as well. Crash, Happytrade, Brilliance, Lightbeam, and Nightsky were all standing there as well.

Star Twinkle had no idea what to say at this moment, the pure fact that they were all standing in front of him was confusing him enough to silence him. Still, he managed to get out one question in his mind. "What are you all doing here?"

Summershine was the one who answered for all of them. "We wanted to talk to you. We wanted to try if we somehow can convince you to be our friend,"

Again, Star Twinkle confused. "Why? You still want to be my friends after how I acted all this time?" He asked, failing to find any explanation for that.

Nightsky walked out of the group. "Lightbeam was looking right through you. She said you looked sad. And honestly, I noticed that too," he explained.

Nopony in Equestria could deny that Star Twinkle was sad right now, not with all those tears running down his cheeks right now. He felt like he should say something. He was going through his mind what exactly but there was just too much of a mess in there right now to sort it all out so he said the first thing that came in his mind.

"I'm sorry!" He said while bowing down his head in shame. "I know I was acting really mean towards you all! I feel so sorry for all of this...and..." he then stopped in the middle of his sentence because he was afraid to even ask but since he came this far already, he just went out with it. "If you can all forgive me...then I would really like being friends with you all," he said while keeping his head lowered all this time.

He could not hear a reply, making him really nervous. Of course, they would not want him to be a friend of them. But after a while, he heard how most likely Summershine was walking even closer to him, so the colt raised his head again to see how Summershine was offering his hoof to him with a smile on his face.

"How about we start over," he said. "I'm Summershine," he said, introducing himself once more.

Star Twinkle really liked that idea. He wiped his tears away, smiled, and shook Summershine's hoof. "I'm Star Twinkle,"

Crash then jumped next to the two with a huge grin on his face. "I thought your name was Starfall Twinkle," he teased.

"Uh..." Star Twinkle only replied confused before he was hugged by Lightbeam all of the sudden.

"Yay! Now we can all be friends!" She said happily.

Star Twinkle really liked the sound of that and smiled which was accompanied by everypony else's smile. Somehow things turned out better than Star Twinkle expected. And the funny thing was, he didn't even want things to turn out like that a few minutes ago. Being able to call those six ponies friends was a wonderful feeling, considering that they didn't give up on him in the end.

"Excuse me," Happytrade then said in the middle of all this. "I am as happy as everypony else is right now but...can we please talk about what that GIANT RAINBOW EXPLOSION IN THE SKY WAS!?" She exclaimed stressfully.

It was quite a strange phenomenon, that much everypony could agree on. Still, Star Twinkle couldn't care less at this very moment. For some reason, it felt like, however, as if that was a sign for him to give friendship as shot and he was thankful for that. More than everything. Because of this, he could experience...friendship.

Then, suddenly, Star Twinkle began to float up into the air, engulfed in light, much to the confusion of everypony. Some of them had a good idea what was happening to him right now and got excited about it, Star Twinkle, however, didn't know what was happening, though he didn't feel bad or anything so he didn't mind it.

Soon, he landed down on the ground again and wondered what this was all about. His new friends all smiled at him and for some reason, he had a pretty good guess why. He looked carefully at his flank and saw Cutie Mark. Six stars in the colors of red, orange, yellow, light blue, dark blue, and purple were on his flank.

He couldn't believe it, not only did he made friends but he also got a Cutie Mark at the same exact day. It was like as if his life was changing for the better in this very moment, Laughter of happiness could be heard from the group of ponies, and Star Twinkle was part of it. He was part of them and their friendship.





In the present...





"And we were friends ever since that day," Summershine finished explaining.

Ashgray was listening to all of this story and couldn't help but feel happy for all of them. "That was such a nice story," he commented, feeling a little touched that they all decided to share this story with him.

Everypony else felt quite nice to remember all of those events and some of them even saw some enjoyment out of it. Lightbeam was one of them. "I really forgot how grumpy you were back then, Star Twinkle," she teased, poking him in the sides.

Star Twinkle reacted a little nervously at those words. "Sorry," he apologized, even though Lightbeam immediately told him that she was just joking around.

"Well, it sure was a good story that you can always remember whenever times get hard," Ashgray commented.

"Exactly," Summershine agreed. "This day will always remind us that our friendship is stronger than anything else, that is why we are all still close friends like this after all. And I am pretty sure that this will continue," he said confidently.

"Yes," Star Twinkle added with a smile on his face.

Everypony could fully agree on all this, with the exception of Happytrade, who remained silent for quite a while now. "You know, hearing this story again, made me realize something," she said with crossed front legs as she was sitting on the ground.

"And what is that?" Crash asked confused.

The mare immediately turned towards the stallion and started giving him a glare. "You still haven't paid for the cake from back then!" She exclaimed while pointing at the confused stallion.

Crash tipped his chin for a moment in order to think. "Yeah, you're right!" He then remembered.

Chaos began quickly between the two of them. Crash was jumping away from the mare, who was trying to pin him down so that he would finally give her the money back from back then. She even demanded that he should pay extra because of how long he took for it.

Naturally, Ashgray was stunned to see this happening before his eyes, especially since he heard that story just now. But in contrast to his reaction, everypony could just laugh about all this, like Star Twinkle who stopped laughing for a moment to look at the sky for a moment. Those ponies were certainly weird at times but he wouldn't change the time that he spent with them for anything in this world.

Because right now...he was happy...and it all was because of his friends...
> 11. Laughter
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Toys N Stuff

That was the name of a toy store in Ponyville. It was also the workplace of the local prankster, Crash, who while doing his job seriously, most of the time, some times tend to spent his time playing around with toys whenever he got bored.

This was one of those times...

"Alright soldiers! Are you ready!?" He asked towards a bunch of toy ponies right in front of him, that he placed carefully to look like an army that was about to charge into battle. He was also wearing a soldier helmet to cement his position as the commander of this little toy army. "Listen!" He then said in a serious tone before he was about to give a speech to his soldiers. "Your hearts may be little but if you work together as one, your hearts will become one as well! Into a giant one! And that is what we need to defeat our dreaded foe!" He said before he pointed at the target in front of his army, which consisted of a black coated stuffed toy pony. "Now march forward my soldiers!"

Of course, the toy soldiers didn't move on their own so Crash had to move every single one of them by hoof, which he didn't mind at all, he was having fun after all. He was fiddling around with some little toy catapults and fired some tiny rubber balls at the stuffed toy. "Fire!" He shouted with an almost maniacally tone and a determined grin on his face like he was some kind of evil emperor or something.

After firing a few rubber balls at the stuffed toy for a few seconds, it eventually fell down, and Crash let out a victorious laugh. "We did it! Victory! Victory! Victory!" He repeated over and over again, not realizing how many ponies walking by looked at him as if he was completely out of his mind, which probably wasn't too far from the truth.

In the middle of his victorious laughter however, the ground started to shake and he looked in surprise to see another opponent closing into his army. "What's this!? Can it be!?" He said as he took a good look at his next enemy. "It is the Pink Giant! The most fearsome enemy of the Crash Army!" He announced as he readied another shot with his tiny catapults. "Fire!" He then said before the ball hit the pink giant, making it not even flinch in response.

"Hey there, Crash! Watcha doing?" The giant replied happily, who turned out to be Pinkie Pie, the pink coated party planner of Ponyville.

"Working," the stallion casually replied, which of course was far from the truth for everyone who would see him "working" like this. He then started picking the toys up again to place them into their respective place again. "Do you need some toys, Pinkie?" He asked at the same time.

"Nope, not today!" She replied as she bounced next to the stallion, helping him to put back some toys as well, grabbing them with her mane, something that didn't seem to be weird for the stallion at all. "I just dropped by to give you the newest invitation to one of my parties!" She said before she took out a letter that was hidden inside of her mane and gave it to the stallion.

"Uuuuh!" Crash said in reply before he ripped it open to read its content out loud. "Pinkamena Diane Pie, aka Pinkie Pie, hereby invites you... to a party!" He said in excitement. "However!" He continued as he noticed that the letter was going further than usual. "You will not attend this party as a guest...huh?" He said confused after reading that bit of the letter.

"Go on," Pinkie Pie simply said with an excited smile on her face, as if she was waiting for Crash to get to the end of the letter.

Crash did exactly that. "You will attend this party as an..." he paused after he read the last word and widened his eyes. "...Entertainer!?" He said in shock, his mouth open in disbelieve.

"Uh huh!" Pinkie Pie nodded before she explained. "You see, there happen to be two different ponies who want a party on the same day, at the same time, in two different locations. Of course, as a professional party planner, I couldn't let down any of them so I accepted both their requests! But...I can not be at two parties at the same time," she then paused and thought for a moment. "If there was only a way to clone myself," she mumbled while she tipped her chin a few times before returning to her explanation again. "Anyway, that is when I thought about you!"

Crash began to grin widely. "Because I know how to make ponies laugh and how to have a good time!" He said confidently.

"You sure do!" Pinkie Pie replied.

Crash began hopping up and down on the spot in his excitement. When it came to throwing parties, there was nopony who was better at it than Pinkie Pie, and the fact that this exact pony asked him for help to take care of one party, felt like a huge honor to the stallion. Of course, he accepted right away, he never hosted a party before so this was his chance to spread a lot of laughter. 

Pinkie Pie said that she could easily set up two parties on the same day but she knew how much laughter Crash was spreading through Ponyville every day and believed that he was more than capable to take care of one party. She also had to admit that she was curious about how Crash's party would turn out in the end.

Of course, the stallion was eager to accept this task from Pinkie Pie and assured her that he will do his very best to come up with a really awesome party. So much that Pinkie Pie herself got excited.

"I'm looking forward to it!" She said as she hopped up and down on the spot before she left again, fully trusting that Crash will take care of everything.

When the mare was gone Crash instantly had his mindset to the party that he was about to prepare. Having the best party planner to task you with taking care of one of her parties was a once in a lifetime chance for him. If he would be successful with that he would surely get a boost in reputation as well, something that was just too tempting for him.

"This will be...Awesome!" Was the only thing that he could think of at this very moment before he went back to his..."work".


Later...


Summershine, Happytrade, and Star Twinkle heard already the news about Crash's mission to prepare this party. Tomorrow the party was supposed to be done so Crash was heading home after work and decided to prepared everything. He was very passionate when it came to pretty much everything so of course, he went right to it.

Knowing how Crash was about to handle things, however, was exactly what made some of his friends nervous. They were walking over to Crash's house to take a look at what he came up with so far. On their way, Happytrade openly shared her opinion on the whole thing.

"A bad idea?" Star Twinkle asked confused after he listened to Happytrade's words.

The mare backed down a little after hearing this response. "Well, not necessarily bad. but..." she then paused, trying to find the right words.

But Summershine was the one who finished her thoughts. "I get what you mean," he said agreeing with whatever Happytrade was thinking about.

Star Twinkle was the only one who felt left out at this moment, he would have expected his friends to be fully supportive of Crash after hearing that news but that was clearly not the case for some reason. "Come on, we are his friends we should believe in him more,"

The two ponies almost felt bad that Star Twinkle was defending Crash, something that they should do as well.

"We do!" Happytrade said almost offended. "It's just...you know how Crash can be! Sometimes he can get a little bit...overboard..." she explained.

The green pony was kinda getting what Happytrade but he felt as if he should defend the Crash further. "When did Crash ever go too overboard?" He said in a little hesitant tone as if he wasn't believing his own words.

Summershine was quick to answer that question. "How about that one time where he was pulling pranks on everypony in town, and driving everyone crazy with it?"

Star Twinkle didn't expect an answer but he decided to defend Crash again. "I mean, recently," he said in a desperate attempt.

Again, Summershine was quick to answer. "That was just a while ago, in fact..." he said, making Star Twinkle take back his words about Crash.

Happytrade explained further. "That is why we are a little bit concerned about all of this and decided to check on him, you know, to see if he does something like that again...just in case..."

To a degree, Star Twinkle had to admit that this was not such a stupid idea. Hearing that he was putting everypony through some rough times, got him a little weary. It couldn't hurt to just check on him and maybe look after what he has planned for the party to see if he wasn't going too far.

With those goals in mind, the three ponies arrived in front of Crash's door. He was most likely already planning everything for the party tomorrow. Happytrade knocked on Crash's door and shortly after, Crash's voice replied to it. "It's open!" The muffled voice told them, asking them to come in as if he already knew who was coming to visit him.

The three ponies didn't hesitate to slowly open the door. What confused them was that there were no lights on inside the house, giving the three ponies quite a shill. Crash was inside though so it's not like something happened to him or Celestia knows what other scenarios were inside of their heads after only seeing darkness in front of them. Still, walking inside the house with not being able to see anything was still nerve-wracking for the three.

"Why are the lights not on, Crash?" Summershine said, asking the most obvious question in the room right now.

The only response that the stallion got was some evil giggles that came from Crash somewhere inside of this darkness. Summershine did not feel comfortable hearing this at all but he continued to walk inside despite his second guesses. But proved to be even more stressful than he expected, once the door was slammed shut behind him and his friends. Happytrade and Star Twinkle shrieked in shock after this surprise.

Soon, Crash began talking, slowly and menacingly. "I want to play a game..." he said like a sick maniac who just trapped some clueless victims in some kind of trap.

Star Twinkle, while he was getting really nervous by now, asked. "What kind of game?"

In an instant, the light was turned on again and Crash revealed himself to stand right behind the stallion, "Pin the tail to the pony?" He casually asked with a big grin on his face, which was enough to make Star Twinkle jump in shock and landing into Happytrade's front hooves, who while still being scared a bit by those events grinned at the stallion's behavior in the eye of fear.

Things returned to normal, as best as it could, and the group saw the colored decorated room that they were standing in. Crash clearly used his own home to set up some kind of idea of how to decorate the party tomorrow. The three ponies figured as much before they even arrived at his house.

"So, what do you think?" Crash asked, most likely wanting to hear what his friends thought about the decoration around him.

The three ponies looked around closely. While it did look really colorful and impressive at first, at a closer look, everypony noticed how randomly just some random objects were placed at random spots. Balloons that were not blown up yet, confetti and streamers were scattered on the furniture or rather stuck on them randomly, and some board games were placed on the ground with all pieces scattered around in the whole room, instead of on the boards.

The three ponies looked at each other, fishing for an answer that someone of them hopefully would provide. But no reply came, which made Crash wonder a little. "I just take a guess that you are not saying anything because you are so impressed?" He asked while he kept up an obviously forced smile on his face.

"Uh..." Summershine started before he realized he didn't know exactly what to say.

"How to say it..." Happytrade continued while she also tried to figure out what exactly to say without upsetting Crash.

"It's a mess..." Star Twinkle then bluntly said, causing the two ponies next to him to slap their faces in response.

The reaction that they got from Crash was not exactly what they expected. He started to rub his mane in frustration. "I know!" He exclaimed. "This is horrible! Pinkie Pie trusted me to take care of this party and here I am not even knowing what to do!"

Seeing his friend frustrated like that quickly made Summer go supporting the stallion. "Hey don't worry, the party is tomorrow isn't it? So you still have some time to prepare," he explained.

But Crash quickly rushed to Summershine's side. "But what if I don't!?" He asked in a panic. "What if I mess everything up!? I never threw a party before so what exactly do I need to do!?" He said as he grabbed his friend's head, shaking it in the process.

"Shouldn't you have thought about that before you accepted Pinkie Pie's request?" Star Twinkle pointed out, which were words that made sense but didn't really help right now.

Crash then laid down on the ground, seemingly giving up already. "Maybe it would be better if I just tell Pinkie Pie to pick somepony else...or let her take care of it. She did say that she could easily take care of two parties if needed after all," the stallion then let out a huge sigh just thinking about how the mare would react to this. "Boy, will it feel bad to let her down..."

To think that the usually upbeat and positive pony was down to this, certainly worried his friends, who were watching him in this moment of defeat. It was really important to him to show Pinkie Pie how good of an entertainer he was and he really didn't want to let her down with her request. But after realizing that it was a little bit harder than he expected, that was all forgotten and he just worried about how bad the party would end up with him being in charge of it.

Summershine, Happytrade, and Star Twinkle didn't need to speak to each other in this situation and seemed to have come up with the exact same conclusion for all of this.

"Then let us help you!" Summershine said, with a determined expression on his face, which was shared by his two friends as well.

The stallion looked up to the three of them in confusion, it was as if he didn't know the meaning of those words.

"Yes!" Happytrade added. "If we and the others help you out, then there is no way that you will ruin this party!"

By now, Crash was sitting up on his flank. "I don't know. I was supposed to be taking care of this party so..." he replied, trying to recall if Pinkie Pie said something against that or not.

But Star Twinkle had a pretty convincing argument for that ready. "I'm sure, Pinkie Pie, the mare who likes to make friends with everypony she meets, wouldn't mind if you ask for some help from your friends,"

Slowly, Crash was forming a smile on his face. "You would really do this for me?" He asked happily. His friends nodded in reply. Of course, they would help out a friend in need, they didn't even have to think about this once. It was important to them that Crash was pulling this off and his task became their task now, and they would put the same effort into all of this like his would. Before the group could discuss everything through, they decided to fetch the rest of their friends to come and help, leaving Crash in his house, so that he could take a break and let the bulk of this work taken care of from them.

The stallion couldn't help but smile warmly once he was alone again. "What would I do without you all?" He asked himself, as he waited for the return of his friends.


Later...


As expected, Summershine, Happytrade, and Star Twinkle brought back, the rest of their friends, which included, Brilliance, Lightbeam, and Nightsky, all of them ready to help out as well. Just like Crash before, the six ponies were setting up a party inside of his room as preparation for the real thing, the next day. Everything looked a lot more sorted and made sense when it came to the general rules of decoration. Crash also looked a lot happier seeing how the room was decorated like this. There were drinks and snacks laid down on a table, games like pin the tail on the pony or apple bobbing were also in the room for some entertainment. If the party on the next day would look even remotely like this then there was no way that Crash would disappoint Pinkie Pie.

"Crash, Crash!" Happytrade was saying in a singing voice as she entered the door to his room. "I got some ponies who will take care of the music for the party!"

The stallion's ears were standing right up as soon as he heard that. "Nice!" He replied excitedly before he rushed towards the mare who was standing next to some well-dressed, and almost snobbish looking ponies, who had instruments with them that looked like as if they were really, really expensive. The stallion looked around and tried if he could spot those so-called musicians that Happytrade spoke of. Surely it wasn't those ponies, who were equipped with violins, flutes, and harps. "Where are they?" He asked confused.

Happytrade gave back a confused expression. "You're looking at them!" She replied as if it was the most obvious thing ever. Needless to say, Crash was caught off guard by that answer. While those ponies next to Happytrade didn't look like bad musicians, they were certainly not what he expected her to bring for a party. They more looked like musicians that you would want at a wedding and not musicians that would play some upbeat music for a party. It also didn't help when the stallion asked for those musicians to play something, what he got was pretty much what he expected, slow and more elegant music, instead of cheerful and upbeat one.

Still, Crash didn't say anything, maybe he was actually wrong and this is the kind of music that would be more fitting. He thought back at his breakdown, a while ago and figured that he should give those musicians a chance, he didn't know any musicians anyway so any at all was still better than none.

The Earth Pony mare and her musicians were walking inside his room, probably to play some more music somewhere in the background and when the stallion was about to close the door again, the next mare entered the room.

"Hey! I'm back!" Lightbeam announced as she stepped inside. "And I brought the clown!" She added.

"A clown!?" Crash said in excitement. "Now this is an idea that I can finally get behind!" He added, waiting for this clown to enter the room.

However, again, his expectations were again turned upside down once he saw this so-called clown. While the pony was dressed and looked like a clown based on his outfit and makeup, the build of him was really big, muscular, and almost threatening, something that you don't really want in somepony who is supposed to be making others laugh. In fact, the clown had a rather serious expression on his face, causing Crash to get a little bit scared, especially after he asked for a smile from him.

But before Crash could even address that, Happytrade walked up to the two with a bothered and confused expression on her face. "We can't have a clown at this party!" She demanded.

Crash and Lightbeam both looked upset. "Why not?" They asked in unison.

"Because formal music doesn't go well with clown nose honking!" Happytrade explained before one musician, almost on a clue, stepped next to the mare and played on his violin, as if he wanted to support her statement.

Lightbeam gave a quick answer. "You're not supposed to play formal music at a party in the first place!" She replied.

There was a lot of argument going on between the two, something that wasn't needed right now. Crash tried to diffuse the situation but the two mares wouldn't listen, causing him to get a little bit panicked. But then rescue came, and it came in the form of Summershine.

"We can try both," he suggested, much to the confusion of both of them, wanting him to explain further. "Those two things may not go well together but you have to remember, that Crash is the one throwing it. That means it is bound to be unique, right?" He pointed out.

After hearing that, both mares were up to give this combination a chance even if they didn't really like it. Crash was actually the one who was against that idea the most, but once again, he gave in, trusting his friends with all of this. They were putting a lot of thoughts into this party, after all, at least that's what he was telling himself.

With this little problem out of the way, he was looking around the room and found some snacks on a table. There were cookies, some cake, and even cupcakes, homemade from what it looked like as well. "Don't mind if I do!" Crash said before he tasted one of the cupcakes, throwing it whole into his mouth. What followed was sweat flowing down his face and widened eyes. Seconds later, he spits out the cupcake in the next nearby trash bin. He couldn't even explain how bad the taste of something as delicious looking, and even smelling could be.

"Hey, Crash," Brilliance then said as she approached the stallion, who was still trying to clean his tongue with his hooves to get that taste away, which didn't work all too well so he chooses to ignore it the best he could and listened to what Brilliance was talking about. "Want a taste? I made all of that myself. It was quite some work but I think it ended up well," the mare explained as if she wanted to boast with it, even though she sounded as emotionless as ever.

That explained a lot, Crash thought. He was well aware that Brilliance wasn't the best cook or baker. He was one of the unfortunate ponies who had to taste test some things from her before and the results were similar to what he ate just now. Looking back, the stallion had no idea how she could be that bad at cooking or baking, considering that she probably learned everything from a cookbook. When it came to books, the mare was highly capable to take in information so it was a complete mystery how she couldn't make her food tasty at all.

Of course, Crash was highly disagreeing with the whole "ended up well" statement after tasting only one cupcake but he didn't want to hurt his friend's feelings so he just lied in her face that they were very tasty. Brilliance was happy to hear this, at least that's what Crash thought, he couldn't quite tell based on her facial expression.

When the stallion was walking around the room, he was having second guesses about some things but he tried to smile and not let anypony see what he was thinking. Star Twinkle walked up to the stallion. "Hey, Crash!" He greeted the pony with a smile on his face. "Everything looks quite good, right?" He asked.

"Uh...yeah, of course, it does. You all helped me out here after all," Crash replied in a rather uncomfortable voice, something that Star Twinkle didn't seem to notice.

"Yes. It's really fun to help out with this party," Star Twinkle said as he watched everypony working together. "If the party, tomorrow will look even remotely like this then surely everypony will remember you as the one who threw this party,"

"...Yeah..." Crash replied, ironically that is what he was fearing would happen.

Summershine also walked next to the stallions. He overheard what Star Twinkle said and couldn't agree anymore. "It sure was a little bit exhausting to put all of this together but you know what?" He started, waiting for Crash to reply, even though Summershine continued anyway. "Knowing that we could help you with all of this makes us all really happy,"

As soon as Summershine said that, all of his friends were looking at him with a smile on their faces. Seeing that made Crash only more nervous. He didn't want to look nervous or worried just when everypony was looking at him like that and put on a forced smile and once he noticed how everyone was waiting for a response of him he simply replied: "Yes, I'm happy that you all help me with this party,"

Everypony smiled even brighter than before after hearing that and went back to work with even more enthusiasm. By now, Crash was having a really bad feeling that things might not turn out well, for the party tomorrow. The music was not fitting, the clown was scary and the food tasted bad. But saying all those things right now, while everypony was putting so much work into all of this, not to mention that they were doing all of this because of him made it really hard to tell them that he didn't like some of the things they did.


Later that night...


The preparations for the party were pretty much done and all that had to be done was doing the exact same things at tomorrow's party. It was exactly that which made it hard for Crash to fall asleep. He was laying there with his bed covers on him and his eyes focused at the ceiling, wide open and with concern in them. All he could think about was how the party would look like tomorrow. After observing how the "test party" earlier this day looked like, he had to admit that he would have made quite a few changes but his friends put so much work into everything, which prevented him to speak up to that in time.

He knew that worrying about that right now was only preventing him to get some sleep so the stallion tried his best to ignore those concerns and closed his eyes in hope to fall asleep fast and before he knew it, that is just what happened.

The real fun, however, started in his dreams...

...

As expected, Crash was having a dream about the party. The stallion was already part of it and watched how everypony was having fun, which in turn, made him really happy. But as soon as he was feeling safe, everything turned upside down. The balloons that were placed all around the room started to swirl around him, blurring his vision, even blinding him for a moment. He closed his eyes in order to not get dizzy and as soon as he opened them again, everything was on fire, the balloons, the food, everything except the ponies attending the party.

Shock was the only thing that was visible on his face right now. He knew that things would maybe derail a little bit but this was just too extreme. Just when things started to get even more dramatic, a mare was coming out from a bowl of punch. Crash didn't even question how that was possible, first because there were other things happening in the room, and secondly because the pony who came out of the bowl was none other than Pinkie Pie.

The mare pointed at the stallion with an angry face. "You did this!" She said over and over again until everypony else in the room did the same, completely forgetting that everything was on fire right now.

Crash could swear that the words were getting louder and louder by the second. He tried to cover his ears but it didn't help at all. 

"No! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" He repeated in hope that everypony would stop, closing his eyes in the process.

...

With a scream in terror, the pony finally woke up again. Heavy breathing was the only thing that could be heard inside his bedroom. Nothing was on fire, that was a good start for Crash. Due to the shock, it took him some time to figure out what happened.

"Oof! It was just a dream..." he said in relief while he sat up on his bed with some sweat coming down from his head. "Or rather...a nightmare..." he corrected. While he was relieved that the things he saw were just a dream, it actually made him worry that something similar would happen today. But before he could even consider that, something else was shocking him at the very moment.

The time...

"Oh, no! I'm late!" The stallion exclaimed as he looked at the clock hanging on the wall across the room. He woke up one hour too late. The party already started and he, the one who was originally supposed to take care of it, was late. As if things weren't bad enough already.

Without thinking, and much preparation, Crash was getting ready and left the house within a minute. He ran as fast as he could towards the house where the party was held at, which was actually quite a march through Ponyville. He earned some glances from other ponies who were wondering why he was speeding through the town in this hurry. Of course, Crash couldn't care less about what ponies were thinking about that, not that he would have under any other circumstances anyway.

"Please don't be on fire! Please don't be on fire! Please don't be on fire!" Crash told himself over and over again as he ran towards the house where the party was held. It didn't take long until he saw the house. "There! Please don't be a total catastrophe!" He prayed to Celestia as he ran faster and faster now.

However, he soon slowed down. He decided to think about the situation a little bit more logically. Suddenly, he felt stupid. "What am I thinking?" The stallion said as he was approaching the house where the party was held at, slowing down in the process. "I'm overreacting. Surely the party won't be that bad," he told himself, calming down in the process. "And even if things don't go exactly as planned, I will do my best to make it work in the end!" He said determined to deal with everything that might comes up.

After taking a deep breath, the stallion slowly opened the door and peeked his head slowly inside the room, expecting the worst-case scenario, which would be fire everywhere. He was surprised to not see this happening though, or rather, glad. In fact, he was very surprised about what he was not seeing in this room.

Nothing...

There was absolutely nothing going on in this house. No cheers or screams, no laughter or crying, just a bunch of ponies standing in the room doing...nothing.

The party was held for a little filly in town, who just recently got her Cutie Mark. This party was to celebrate an important event in this pony's life. There were quite a few guests inside this house but none of them seemed to enjoy this party.

Right about now, Crash completely forgot his previous concerns and walked inside, looking around confused and without any direction of what was going on. At this party, there were also his friends, who did a pretty good job of decorating this place. As soon as they saw the stallion walk towards the middle of the room, they all rushed towards them, with helplessness literally painted on their faces.

"Crash! There you are!" Happytrade said frustrated.

"What is going on here?" Crash immediately asked after seeing probably the lamest party ever happening in front of him.

His friends didn't even bother to ask why the stallion was late, it seemed like as if they had much bigger problems to worry about now, like making this party a success, or even get it to start from the looks of it.

"Everything that we planned isn't quite working," Summershine started before he explained everything that went wrong. "For example, it looked like Brilliance was putting too much spice in some of her treats," he said before he looked at the mare, who was looking away from a little embarrassed. "And the music..." the stallion continued before Happytrade took it upon herself to do the explaining.

"Yeah, about that..." Happytrade said before she rubbed her neck in discomfort and smiled awkwardly. "It looks like paying those ponies was far more costly than I originally expected. Can you believe that they wanted me to pay for a hotel room in this town!?" She said, feeling rather offended.

Lightbeam took the opportunity to explain her problem as well. "I also messed up with the clown. For some reason, some of the kids thought that he was a little scary," she explained, which surprised Crash not one bit. "I even made sure to get a replacement but..." the mare then moved her head towards a clown who was standing there in the middle of the room. At first glance, Crash didn't recognize that the clown was no other than Nightsky. And as expected, Nightsky wasn't the most perfect candidate when it came to making other ponies laugh so of course, he had a hard time entertaining the colts and fillies.

Crash had to admit that all those fails didn't really surprise him, if nothing else, they actually were a lot tamer than what he would expect to happen. For some reason, things started to feel funny. He was the one who didn't know what to do and was so afraid to disappoint Pinkie Pie and now with everypony helping him, things were just as bad. If there was something that he should bad for, then it was having his friends go through all of this and being sad that they couldn't help him.

Seeing his friends be upset like this surely was not what he wanted to see now. If he would have gone through with his party on his own, then his friends wouldn't have gotten through all this disappointment and regret. They probably felt really bad that they couldn't help their friend out in his time in need. Of course, Crash was not blaming them at all for all of this. Instead, surprisingly, he was the one blaming himself that his friends put so much work into all of this and felt like as if they were the one who was failing. In reality, it was actually him, who was at fault for giving up this early. Seeing his friends upset like this, and everypony else as well is not what a party should look like, and that was what made him more determined than ever.

"Things might not look too good right now but I don't plan on sitting here and let this party stay like this!" He announced as he walked past his friends and ready to make those words come true but not before he said some last words to his friends, who were wondering right about now where he was drawing this determination from. "I think I just gave up too early without trying too much unlike you, who tried your best to make this party a success! What kind of friend would I be if I don't try my hardest as well!?"

Despite Crash showing no signs of giving up now, his friends still wondered how the stallion wanted to save this party, and Crash straight replied that he had no idea but he still wanted to try his best. And with that mindset, the party was about to start.


Later...


Pinkie Pie, who had some time to spare to check up on Crash, was already on her way to the house where the party was at. She happily bounced towards the house and was just about to open the door, Nopony seemed to expect the mare entering the room right now and turned around to face the door only to see a really shocked mare standing at the door.

"Oh. My. Celestia." The mare said with a wide-open mouth as she watched what was happening inside this house. It was as if she couldn't truly believe it.

Ponies, laughing, and having fun, much more how she expected it. Upbeat and cheerful music played by Lightbeam and Summershine, colts and mares eating sweets that Brilliance was handing out while Happytrade was making them on the spot, entertaining everypony in the process who were watching her. Star Twinkle and Nightsky allowed the little ponies to ride on them so that they could have races with each other. It was beautiful to look at.

"This. Is. AMAZING!" The mare exclaimed as she rushed inside the house to jump from one spot to another, admiring how everything looked at this party. "You did even better than I could have ever expected!" She said as she tried to find out where exactly Crash was at this party.

Soon, the stallion showed himself, wearing the clown costume that Nightsky wore previously. He clearly felt much more in his element than the Pegasus. "Hey there Pinkie Pie!" He greeted the mare with a grin on his face.

Again, Pinkie Pie complimented the stallion on his work at this party. "I knew you would make this party a success but this is way better than I expected! How did you do that!? You must be a natural when it comes to parties!" She figured.

But Crash shook his head after hearing all those compliments. "Actually, I had no idea what to do at first and I even wanted to give up completely because I was worried that I would let you down after you were counting on me like this. My friends offered me to help and everything didn't quite work out well," he shared much to the surprise of Pinkie Pie who didn't expect that at all. "Instead, I should have thought about the ponies at the party and how they should have fun. That was the most important thing," he said as he looked around to see only laughing ponies at this party, making him smile as well.

"Hearing my friends laugh is the best thing ever...and there is nothing in this world that I wanted to exchange for that," he said happily before he looked back at Pinkie Pie again. "That also goes for everypony else I know," he added.

Pinkie Pie sure was caught a little off-guard listening to that story. Here she thought that there was just another party going on but it looks like it all was quite an experience for Crash. An Experience that he will probably never forget.

And with that, the party continued, without anything going wrong and everypony enjoying themselves in the process. Still, after the party ended, Crash asked Pinkie Pie to not ask him to throw another one so soon. He didn't know how well his nerves could handle it...
> 12. Generosity
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Usually, Brilliance would spend the day inside, whenever she is not spending time with her friends of course, where she is willing to go outside. It's not even like she hated being outside, she just preferred being inside, reading something in her quiet library. That was just the pony she was.

Whenever she left her library it was either because of her friends or because she needed to do something that she couldn't inside, like shopping or dealing with some kind of problem. This time she left the house because of the later one.

She walked through Ponyville, looking straight forward, presumably knowing exactly where she was going. In fact, she was not looking left or right on her whole walk through town. It was as if she didn't even care about anything around her, or almost as if she wasn't aware of anything else.

Which happened to be the case...

Soon, she found herself suddenly bumping into someone and landed back on her behind. She was surprised by this and looked around confused until she heard a voice talking to her. "Sorry, are you alright?" A male familiar voice asked concerned.

"Sorry," Brilliance apologized before she got up on her hooves again. "Who is there?" She then asked much to the surprise of the one in front of her.

"Um...it's Ashgray," the Unicorn stallion replied, feeling almost hurt that Brilliance didn't recognize him.

Brilliance did seem to notice that. "I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you by your voice and I couldn't see it was you," she explained.

Ashgray raised an eyebrow. "How? Did you forget your glasses?" Ashgray jokingly asked before he actually realized that this was the case and that the mare did not wear her glasses. "Wait, where are your glasses?" He then asked.

Brilliance explained. "I broke them. Read a book in my bed. I usually lift them up and read them while I lay down. It fell down and my glasses got broken once it fell on my face," she said casually and without showing any signs of being embarrassed about this story, which Ashgray would probably when if he was her at this moment. "I'm on my way to the optician to get them fixed,"

"Oh, okay," Ashgray replied. "Then don't let me hold you back on that," the stallion said before he stepped out of the way so that Brilliance could be on her way again.

After a few more words, the mare was gone and Ashgray was on his way as well. Thinking about Brilliance's words from before, however, got the stallion confused for a moment and he turned around. "Wait, isn't the optician the other way?" He asked himself. Then again, he only recently arrived in Ponyville and his sense of direction was also not the best, so he figured that Brilliance was knowing where she was walking to and he continued to walk away again.


Later...


Brilliance finally arrived at her destination and stood in front of the door to the optician. She was taking longer to get to this place than she expected, something that was most likely caused by her not knowing exactly where she was going.

But knowing that she would be able to see clearly again soon, she started to feel better already. The mare entered the door and was greeted by the sound of a bell that hung above the door. "Hello?" She said as soon as she was inside, waiting for somepony to take care of her problem.

Somepony quickly walked up to Brilliance with a cheerful and open voice. "Welcome, how can I help?" A Unicorn mare with a white cloak, a purple mane, dark blue eyes, and three light-blue diamonds as a Cutie Mark greeted.

Not recognizing the voice at first, Brilliance had a slight feeling that this was not the right place but in order to confirm her thought, she asked away. "Is this the optician?" The mare asked casually.

The mare clearly was confused by this question and lowered her eyebrows. "Uh, no dear, this is Carousel Boutique," the white-coated mare replied confused about this visitor. "Wait..." she then added. "Aren't you the mare who lives in the library?" She added after she recognized the mare from somewhere before.

"Yes," Brilliance replied. By now, once Brilliance was aware that she was inside Carousel Boutique, she had also a good guess who she was talking to.  "Rarity, was it?" She added, she knew about her too, and that she was known for her beautiful dresses in Ponyville, something that Brilliance never showed too much interest though. "I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere, sorry," she then said before she turned around and clenched her eyes, trying to see something.

Not knowing what exactly was wrong the mare, Rarity couldn't help but wonder what was going on. "If you don't mind me asking, is there something wrong?"

Brilliance turned around again and explained. "No, I just broke my glasses and I tried to find the optician to fix it again," she said as she levitated her black pair of glasses out of her saddlebag, showing that the glasses were split in half in the middle.

Rarity walked up to the mare and took a closer look at them. "You know, I think I can fix them for you," she then offered out on a whim. "I occasionally wear a pair of glasses too when I work. I have some things somewhere to repair yours if you want,"

Brilliance didn't think too long about this offer and just trusted that Rarity would know what she was doing so she accepted her help. Rarity asked the Unicorn to wait inside until she was done. Brilliance did as she was told and patiently waited for Rarity to hopefully come back with her pair of glasses.

She would have liked to take a look around the place to see what Carousel Boutique looked like from the inside but her blurry vision only allowed her to see mostly pink colors. That she was almost blind whenever she wasn't wearing her glasses, is something that she was well aware of but she was not bothered by it clearly, or else she wouldn't have walked all this way through town on her own to get the problem solved. The most logical thing would have been to ask one of her friends to accompany her so that she wouldn't get lost but since Brilliance saw this as a rather minor problem, she wouldn't feel right to ask her friends for help.

It didn't take too long until Rarity was done with her work and walked up to a still blind Brilliance, who already heard the mare elegantly and proudly approaching her. "All done!" The Unicorn said in a singing voice while she levitated the pair of glasses over to Brilliance, who immediately put back on her pair of glasses to where they belonged to.

Everything became sharper again as soon as she was looking through her lenses again, it was almost a shock, considering how she only saw blurry images today. "Thank you," the mare replied in gratitude, even though her voice sounded as deadpan as ever. "How much do I owe you?" She then asked.

Rarity simply laughed at that question. "Oh, Darling, don't be ridiculous. I was glad to help you in your time of need," she simply said with a smile on her face.

The things that Brilliance knew about Rarity were very limited from what she heard in town but she thought it was almost rude that nopony spread a rumor of her being so nice. "Thank you, that's very generous of you," Brilliance replied happily with a smile on her face, to which Rarity replied with a smile on her own.

This happy moment, however, was interrupted by the sound of the doorbell, indicating that somepony else was entering the boutique. Rarity excused herself to greet the customer, who turned out to be just a mail pony, who delivered a letter to her and left shortly after. Rarity opened the letter and read through it. As the seconds passed, the Unicorn's facial expression looked more and more concerned, stressed, and even shocked.

"WHAT!?" The mare then exclaimed in shock after presumably reading through all of the letter now. "But that is way too early!" She complained. What followed was Rarity sighing in frustration. Her eyes then looked over to Brilliance, who she just realized, was looking at her confused. It was a little awkward but Rarity smiled at her as if everything was okay. "I suppose you don't have a few carts of gems lying around somewhere?" She then asked, not expecting that this would even be remotely the case.

Brilliance figured that Rarity was maybe referring to how Brilliance was offering something in return, and that, if she had some gems, it would be nice of her to lend the mare some. But, naturally, Brilliance had no gems. "What do you need them for?" She asked out of curiosity, wondering how this letter got Rarity so upset in the first place.

Rarity just had to share her frustration with somepony and decided to explain the situation. "Well, the letter was from one of my most loyal, and best-paying customers," she said, saying the later words a little bit under her breath. "I was supposed to create a really fabulous line for her, and gems were supposed to be on all of them! The problem is now that I was asked to have the line finished a little bit earlier than planned and I don't have nearly enough gems as of now! I haven't even started on the dresses yet! There is no way that I can get enough gems while also preparing the line! It's a complete disaster!" She explained in one big rush of frustration before she was about to have a mental breakdown about the whole thing.

There was a huge contrast between the two mares. One was on full-blown-drama and the other one was calm as usual. It sure was important for Rarity to not get on the bad side of her customer, which is why she was freaking out like this. Watching the mare like this was definitely not what Brilliance wanted to see.

"I can help you with the gems," Brilliance then said out of the blue. Rarity's ears were standing up in attention after she heard that. "I can gather the gems while you work on the dresses," she simply said.

"You would do that?" Rarity said in a glimmer of hope now. "But how?" She then asked.

Brilliance had not exactly a plan but she knew where to start. "Just leave it to me, it's the least that I can do after you fixed my glasses," she mentioned.

It was crazy how Brilliance was putting fixing a pair of glasses on the same level as gathering gems. It didn't seem fair for Rarity to accept this help but then again, she was really in need of help and didn't know what else to do now so of course, she was not refusing Brilliance's offer, in fact, she was welcoming it with open hooves.

And just like that, the librarian left to go home and to look up something that could help.


Later...


Brilliance was reading through some of her books, hastily but also with a focus in her eyes. After making a promise to help Rarity, she had to make her words come true. She had an idea what exactly to do but wasn't completely sure so she had to get more information from her books.

She soon stumbled across something in a spellbook. "Able to discover gems hidden under rocks or inside of walls," was the description of the spell, that she was looking for. It seemed to be the solution to Rarity's problem. All she had to do was to learn this spell, which she did immediately after, performing and practicing it over and over again until she got it down. Once that was the case. Brilliance was going back to Carousel Boutique and explained her plan to Rarity.

While Rarity was preparing the dresses, or rather starting to get the work started on them, Brilliance would spend some of her time finding gems for her. That way, the work would be done twice as fast while also taking off some pressure from Rarity.

Again, Rarity asked Brilliance why she would do this for her, they didn't really know each other after all. To that Brilliance didn't really know the answer, all she knew was that she was feeling deep down that this would be the right thing to do. And that is why she continued to help.

Rarity was really thankful for this help and let Brilliance help her. She needed help because she had to be done with those dresses pretty fast so of course, she accepted it. After Brilliance heard how her help was accepted, she immediately went on her part of the agreement and was on her way outside of Ponyville to find a good spot to gather some gems.

The mare actually didn't think that everything would go so well once she started using this gem-finding spell but to her positive surprise, everything went really well. Whenever she used the spell, she could see gems everywhere in the ground as if she could literally see through the ground. It was pretty exhausting to mine and carrying them back to Carousel Boutique but knowing that she could help Rarity made it all worth it. Rarity was really shocked to see Brilliance coming back with a cart that was half full of gems. Seeing how this worked out perfectly, Rarity suggested that if Brilliance would do this some more times then she would certainly have enough gems in time.


Some days later...


Once again, Brilliance was outside of Ponyville mining some gems for Rarity just like all the previous days before. At first, the mare was fearing that she could not handle doing this every day but it became easier each day and she was only doing that for a few hours so it wasn't nearly as bad as she thought.

It was always the same routine, she arrived at the usual spot, used her spell, mined the gems out of the ground, load them into a cart, brought the cart to Carousel Boutique, repeat the same thing the next day.

Considering how many gems the mare already gathered, there were still a lot more left, much to her surprise. But, there was no need to collect all of the gems left in the ground because Rarity had almost enough gems for her whole line. This meant that today was most likely the last day where Brilliance had to do all of this. With that in mind, Brilliance was in highs spirits to gather the last gems.

After she was done digging out all the gems, she looked over her cart which was filled a little bit more than usual, just to make sure that Rarity would have enough. "All done," she then said before she walked in front of the cart and prepared herself to pull it.

But then the mare heard some noises coming from some nearby bushes, which were shaking as soon as she looked over to them. Brilliance got a little bit wearier and looked around herself to see where those noises were coming from. "Is anypony there?" She then asked, hoping that it was just one of her friends trying to pull a prank on her.

She looked all around and couldn't see anything. For a moment she thought that she was just imagining things and attempted to walk in front of the cart again. However, she got stuck on something with her food and looked down. What she saw surprised her, instead of a vine, or some wood sticking out of the ground or something similar, there was an arm, coming out of the ground, that grabbed one of her hind hooves. "Oh-oh," she simply said in a casual tone before she was dragged underground by this arm.

The mare was not really getting what happened. Something dragged her through a really long tunnel system, which she didn't expect to be there. It was really dark so she couldn't really make out who or what was dragging her all this way, it felt like a really bizarre roller coaster ride, it all happened too fast and everything was spinning in the process.

Eventually, all of that stopped and Brilliance was pushed in the middle of a cave underground. Once everything stopped spinning, the mare was looking around to see what exactly was dragging her all this way down. Luckily, there were some torches hanging on the walls so that she could finally see something.

She had a good look on the creature who captured her. It was a dog-like creature that was standing on its two hind legs, with a medium gray colored fur, and green eyes, wearing a jacket and spiked collar around its neck. "I got her!" He then screamed across the cave, making the mare shrug for a moment because she didn't expect this dog to talk

Soon, two more of those dogs showed up, both of them wear also wearing jackets and spiked collars. One of them had a light gray colored fur and yellow eyes who was a little bit bigger than the previous one next to Brilliance, and the other one had a light brown fur and yellow eyes, this one was a little smaller than the other two. The three of them were also accompanied by a few more dogs, wearing some armor, who probably serves as some kind of guards.

"You sure it's her?" The bigger dog asked.

"Yup," The other dog replied confidently. "I saw her digging out some gems and piling them up before I dragged her down here. She used some kind of spell and boom, she knew exactly where to dig! As if she could see through the ground," he explained.

The other two dogs laughed sinister once they heard that. "Well, I hope she isn't too tired to dig out some more gems," the smaller dog said with an evil smile on his face. "But this time for us!" He added.

All those dogs were slowly walking up to the mare, who instead of showing, looked rather concerned. "Oh, boy," was the only thing she said once she realized that she won't be able to bring those gems, that she found back to Rarity for a while.


Later, outside...


"Are you sure that it is here?" Summershine asked towards his friends who were all right next to him.

Brilliance was supposed to meet up with her friends, Summershine, Happytrade, Crash, Lightbeam, Nightsky and Star Twinkle but since she didn't appear, they figured that they should check out the place where the mare would usually dig out the gems. They were all well aware of what Brilliance was doing for Rarity and thought that she was just putting in some extra time today but once they arrived at the spot outside of Ponyville, they couldn't find her anywhere.

"This is where she usually is," Lightbeam said concerned that something might have happened to her friend, which ironically, was the case. The group actually found a cart that was filled with gems, which proved that Brilliance was here, the question that they were asking themselves, however, was where she was now.

Crash then pointed something out. "Maybe she is inside that hole in the ground!" He said pointing at said hole. Everypony quickly looked over to where the stallion was pointing at. There was indeed a hole in the ground and it was quite deep too. Everypony looked down the hole and Crash even struck his head inside of it. "Brilliance! Are you in here!?" He screamed through inside of the hole, causing his voice to echo through it.

Happytrade had concern painted on her face. "You think she fell down there?" She then asked worriedly. The echo from before was quite long which meant that this hole must have been even deeper than everypony expected at first. It could have been possible that Brilliance fell down there and was unable to get out on her own.

"Hey! You!" Star Twinkle then said angrily, much to everyponies surprise. They turned their heads and looked at where the stallion was pointing at. They found one of the same dog creatures that pony napped Brilliance before. This dog was right next to the cart from before and looked at it with greedy eyes before eventually, pulling it behind him, escaping with it.

"Hey! Stop!" Summershine said angrily. "He probably knows where Brilliance is, get him!" He then said before he and his friends were running after the dog.

The dog ran faster as soon as he noticed how he was chased by this herd of ponies, making the cart shake and drop some of the gems in the process. Everypony was determined to chase this dog and got fairly close to them. But then suddenly, one pony after another, dropped to the ground, as if they stumbled across something. When each one of them looked at their legs, they noticed how their legs were grabbed by some more dogs, that came from underground holes beneath them. The only ones who escaped this were Lightbeam and Nightsky, who both decided to fly as soon as they noticed everypony falling to the ground. The later one noticed how the dog was about to jump into a hole with the cart so he decided to speed up in an attempt to tackle the dog. Still, the dog was already to close to the hole and jumped into it, along with the gem-filled cart.

As soon as this dog was gone, the other dogs let go of everypony and vanished as well. Nightsky didn't jump after that one dog, he was getting wary about what could await him once he entered the hole. The others walked to his side however and suggested what he hoped to hear.

"Let's get in there!" Summershine said determined to jump right into the hole in front of Nightsky. "They are probably responsible for Brilliance's disappearance!" He figured.

"Are you sure?" Star Twinkle asked, trying to figure out how Summershine came to that conclusion.

Summershine explained. "They're Diamond Dogs, they collect gems! They probably saw Brilliance digging out some gems with her spell and then pony napped her!"

"So that they can use her to find more gems?" Nightsky added.

"Yes," Summershine replied.

But Happytrade didn't care what the reason was for her disappearance. "Does it matter why they took her? We need to rescue her!" She said, which was greeted with agreement by everypony else.

"Yes!" Lightbeam added angrily and determined. "Let's show those dogs what happens if you hurt one of our friends!" She exclaimed. Before then everypony could react, the mare jumped straight into the hole, causing her brother to jump down as well, just so that he could have an eye on her.

The rest of the group did the same and jumped after the two, ready to get their friend back from the Diamond Dogs.


Meanwhile...


Brilliance was forced to locate all the gems inside the cave. The dogs gave her a pickaxe and she dug out one gem after another without showing any resistance. She used her spell one more time and some of the dogs were right behind here digging out gems just like her after being able to see them.

After the mare dug out another bunch of gems, she looked over to the three dogs from before. She actually learned to knew their names, the big one's name was Fido, the small one's Spot and the one in between, Rover. Three looked back at her, confused about why she stopped working.

The mare explained her reasoning. "Can I go now? I kinda need to be somewhere today," Brilliance said casually while she was hoping that those dogs would understand.

But of course, that was not the case. "Are you kidding!?" Rover said amused. "Thanks to you, we got more gems than ever! There is no way that we will let you go!"

Hearing that, quite upset the mare a little bit. She still needed to bring those gems to Rarity, not to mention that she was supposed to meet her friends after that. Instead, she had to work for those guys. "What do you need those gems for anyway?" She then asked on a whim after just now wondering about that.

Rover raised his chest before he began to explain. "Well, the answer is quite easy, it's because-" but the dog stopped in mid-sentence once one guard dog was tipping him on the shoulder and whispered something in his ear. "What!? Intruders!? Six of them?" The Diamond Dog said in surprise. "Well, then go and get them!" He ordered hushing away the dog.

Brilliance had actually a slight suspicion that those intruders could be her friends, or rather, she was hoping for that. "Well, if it's them, then I might as well mine some more gems before I get rescued,"

The three dogs looked at each other before Fido walked up to the mare, amused to hear those words. "Oh, we make sure that you will stay with us," he assured confidently with a grin on his face.


In the meantime...


After, quite a slide downwards, the six ponies found themselves in front of multiple tunnels. They obviously had no idea where all those tunnels would lead to and stopped in front of them, trying to figure out what to do now.

"Now what?" Happytrade asked worriedly.

"How do we know in which direction Brilliance could be?" Lightbeam asked.

"Easy," Summershine replied before he focused his magic for a moment. Seconds later, the cave was filled with light coming from the unicorn. Shortly after, gems could be seen inside the walls and in the ground.

The group was impressed to see this. "Cool! You can use that gem spell too?" Crash asked while he took a look at all the shiny gems around him.

"Of course," Summershine boasted. "When I heard Brilliance was looking for gems, I looked up a spell that I could help her with. I found the same spell that she was using and learned it. She said she didn't really need my help though so I never really had a chance to use it," he explained, being kinda happy to have an opportunity to use it now, despite the situation.

Still, the group questioned how seeing the gems now would help them, to which Summershine explained that by knowing where there are the most gems, their chances of finding Brilliance would be higher because she was most likely at where the most gems where so that she could dig them out for those dogs. That was of course if that was the reason for her being captured by them in the first place.

"Then let's go!" Crash said. "We can't waste too much time!" He added before he ran right into the tunnel which had the most gems inside the ground. The group nodded and was about to run after him, they couldn't quite keep up with Crash since he was running quite fast through the tunnels. As soon as they were running inside the tunnels however, a very panicked Crash came running right back towards them. "Not here, not here!" He exclaimed in a hurry as he ran past the group, leaving them quite confused.

But the confusion vanished as soon as they saw a bunch of Diamond Dogs running towards them, all of them wearing pieces of armor and equipped with spears, ready to attack the ponies. However, instead of getting scared by the number of dogs approaching them, Summershine, Nightsky, Happytrade and Star Twinkle attacked right back and pushed the dogs out at the end of the tunnel, only to reveal that they were quite more waiting for them in front of a cave.

There were around twenty Diamond Dogs in front of them now, making sure to guard the entrance of a cave. Quite suspicious to the six ponies. A battle ensued between the Diamond Dogs and the group of ponies. The Diamond Dogs, while being bigger and stronger, were easily outsmarted and tricked by the ponies. Nightsky, Happytrade, and Star Twinkle were able to physically keep up if it was one against one, the same was the case for Summershine, whose magic was strong enough to deal with quite a few dogs at once, and Lightbeam and Crash didn't even really try to fight but still managed to confuse the dogs with their playful natures.

It was quite a mess but it looked like the six ponies had the upper hoof in this battle so it was only a matter of time until they would see their friend back again.

Eventually, in the middle of the battle, three more dogs came out in front of the cave. "Hey, hey, stop!" One of them shouted, causing everyone to stop fighting in mid-battle. Those three dogs didn't seem to be equipped to fight, judging from the lack of armor or weapons that they were wearing. "Alright, alright! You want your little friend back?" He said, pretty much confirming that they pony-napped Brilliance. He then whistled, which left an echo throughout the whole cave. "Get them, Tiny!"

The cave was shaking every second, steps were slowly coming closer, and they sounded heavy, really heavy as if something big was coming towards the group of ponies, causing them to get a little nervous. Being nervous is something that everypony wished they could stay though because they quickly felt fear as soon as this huge and monstrous-looking Diamond Dog, which was twice the size of any other one stepped right in front of everyone. 

The Diamond Dog started to laugh after they realized that those six ponies will experience quite some pain from this point on. Still, Rover looked quite confused after taking a look at Tiny, there were some bruises on his face and the giant dog looked quite upset to be there now. "Um..." Rover then said flustered to see Tiny in this state.

Shortly after a pony revealed herself and appeared right on top of Tiny's back, who then jumped gracefully off from him. "Thanks for taking me here, darling," she said in a really casual tone that didn't match the whole situation now before she walked towards everypony.

"Rarity?" Summershine asked confused. "What are you doing here?" He asked.

The mare explained. "I got a little worried about Brilliance after she didn't return to the Boutique after quite some while so I decided to check on her. When I arrived at the usual spot, I met this fellow who was talking about how he and his companions pony-napped someone so I asked him to bring me to her,"

Star Twinkle had just one more question which was floating around everyponies mind as well. "Aaand, those bruises are," he started.

Rarity explained this as well and giggle for a moment. "He tried to get a little rough with me so I taught him a lesson. I may be a lady but when it comes to saving a friend, especially a friend who helped me out for quite a while, I won't resort on using my hooves in self-defense," she said confidently in her abilities, which seemed to be more than justified.

Rover slapped his face in frustration, it was a sign that he was giving up right about now. "Take her!" Rover said before he made way to which Brilliance appeared right behind and walked past by him.

Everypony looked relieved to see their friend back, unscratched, a little bit dirty, but unscratched. Lightbeam immediately hugged her friend. "I'm so glad that you are okay," she expressed with some tears building up in her eyes.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Brilliance casually replied, as if she was never in danger at all.

The group didn't spend too much time talking while so many Diamond Dogs were still there. They didn't attack them though and just watched the ponies walk away without hurting them anymore. As for accepting to let Brilliance go, they were not all too happy about that.

"So..." Fido started before he scratched his head. "What now?"

"Guess we gonna dig out gems on our own again," Spot figured while he shrugged his shoulders confused.

"Argh! Whatever!" Rover said frustrated stomping on the ground in the process. "Who knows, maybe we find another pony to dig for us someday!" He said before he went back on digging himself with some other dogs that he ordered to do the same but not before he looked up to Tiny disappointed in him that he got beat up by a little pony.


Later...


The eight ponies made it outside again, relieved that everything turned out well for them.

"Ah! Fresh air!" Lightbeam said before she stretched her hooves up in the air happily.

"Yes," Happytrade agreed. "It sure beats that dirty underground cave," she added, clearly not being the biggest fan of the Diamond Dogs and their home.

Brilliance took the opportunity to apologize to Rarity. "I'm sorry. Those dogs took away the gems that I dug out for you,"

Rarity was shocked that the mare was even thinking about that right now. "Don't worry about that now. I'm just happy that you are safe!"

Brilliance was happy to hear that and smiled. But that smile vanished again after a few seconds. "I just wanted to help you after you helped me. I thought that would be the right thing to do." She was referring to how Rarity fixed her glasses and that she wanted to help Rarity in time of need to repay that generosity.

Rarity shook her head with a smile on her face. "Oh darling, I didn't help you because I wanted to expect anything in return. I really appreciated you offering your help but I could have never forgiven myself if something happened to one of my friends," she expressed. "And you know," she then started, grabbing Brilliance's full attention. "I don't think you helped me because you wanted to be even with me,"

Those words confused Brilliance at first but she knew deep down that this was most likely the case. She saw how Rarity was in trouble and wanted to help her, nothing more, nothing less. Right now was the same situation, Brilliance was in trouble and Rarity came to help her and she did it not because she wanted something in return for it. She did it because she wanted to help.

"I don't expect anything in return...if I can make my friends happy with a simple act of generosity then that is completely fine with me..." Brilliance said to herself. "That is why I originally helped you," she said towards Rarity who couldn't be happier to hear those words.

With everypony else overhearing this conversation, they quickly came to a better, and safer solution. They could help Rarity with the dresses or the gems as well. Rarity initially protested against that idea but after she realized that everypony was highly excited to help, she couldn't possibly refuse.

"It would be wonderful if you all helped me," she said with a bright smile on her face, looking forward to spending more time with those ponies.

There was no doubt that the work would be done in no time with all those ponies helping out at once. Brilliance's work alone was already enough help at it was. In fact, it wasn't about getting everything done in time but rather about spending time together and having fun with everyone.

That is what should be most important after all.
> 13. Kindness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lightbeam, the carefree Pegasus mare, was strolling through Ponyville with her usual cheerful attitude. She and her brother both lived in Cloudsdale, home of the Pegasus but they spent more time in Ponyville. Their friends lived there and Nightsky was also working in Ponyville most of the time so there was no avoiding spending so much time there. Today, Lightbeam was on her way to do some errands. For her, that was just another reason to spend her day in this nice town.

"Morning in Ponyville shimmers~" Lightbeam hummed as she walked through Ponyville before she stopped in the middle of the road. "Oh! That sounds good! I should write a song like that," she said, interrupting her little song. "Maybe someday later," she added before she continued to walk through town.

She pulled out a little list from her saddlebag and read out loud to where she needed to go. "First, shopping in the marketplace," she said as she made her way to said place.


Later...


Lightbeam was in charge of buying some food. Equipped with a saddlebag, she was walking from one merchant to the next, going down her list and picking up everything on it. It didn't take long until she was only short of one more item. The mare quickly found the right merchant for what she was looking for. She was in luck because there wasn't a line in front of the merchant, or at least not a long one. There was only one pony standing in front of her. It was a Pegasus mare with a yellow-colored coat, a long pink mane, cyan-colored eyes, and three pink butterflies as a Cutie Mark.

The mare placed a bunch of carrots on the table along with some bitcoins. The merchant took a look at the mare in front of him and began to smile for some unknown reason. "Six bucks," the merchant pony then demanded.

The Pegasus mare looked a little flustered after hearing that, however. "But...the sign behind you says One buck per carrot," she pointed out while she pointed towards the said sign. Lightbeam could confirm that this was true after looking at the sign as well.

Still, the merchant insisted to get those six bucks. "Yeah, must have forgotten to change that, it's six bucks, trust me."

Something smelled fishy. Lightbeam had a slight feeling that this merchant was trying to rip the mare off. There was a really smug smile on the merchant's face that just gave her that feeling. But despite that, the mare in front of her didn't seem to mind so Lightbeam didn't either.

"Um...okay," the yellow Pegasus said before she pulled out a few more bitcoins and placed them on the table.

Needless to say, the merchant looked pleased, much more than he should be if this was supposed to be a fair trade. "Pleasure doing business with-"

"HOLD IT!" A female voice shouted from afar before the merchant could finish his sentence. 

Everypony turned their heads towards Happytrade, who was running right towards the merchant with an angry expression on her face, completely ignoring personal space and locking eyes with him. "What do you think you're doing!?" She asked the merchant.

"What do you mean?" The merchant asked obliviously. It wasn't sure if he just played that or not.

But Happytrade was in full-blown merchant mode and didn't let this incident slip. "You have to be truthful to your prices! You can't just put a price on this sign and change it whenever you want!"

The yellow mare backed away a little as if she couldn't handle this situation right now. "It's not that big of a deal...I just..." the mare tried to say but Happytrade wouldn't stop saying what was bothering her.

"No, no!" Happytrade said. "I know you are as angry as me when it comes to an unfair trade but don't worry, I got your back," she explained, proudly to help out a pony in need.

"But it's fine...I don't want any trouble..." the mare tried to explain but Happytrade just wouldn't listen.

What followed was a long speech about being an honorably merchant and how to treat every customer fairly and just. It actually made the merchant feel bad to the point where he was on his knees crying in regret, something that made the mare feel quite better, seeing how the pony realized his mistake, she patted him on the back out of comfort.

"There, there, nothing to get upset about as long as you understood your mistake," she said like a mother that tried to comfort her child. This whole scene was really sweet, even though it kinda came out of nowhere. The merchant was even offering a discount to make up for all of this, something that Happytrade was really happy to hear. "Alright! That's really nice isn't it?" She asked towards the yellow Pegasus mare behind her. "Right?" She asked one more time after she realized that she didn't hear a reply from the mare.

But to everyponies surprise, the Pegasus mare was gone and completely out of sight. She probably left a long time ago. Lightbeam had to admit that she was too caught up with Happytrade and the merchant that she didn't notice.

"I think she didn't care too much about the money," she guessed in her confusion.

The other two ponies figured this as well and just shrugged their shoulders in response and just went to continue their day on the marketplace as usual. And so did Lightbeam. "Next stop, Toys N Stuff!" She read out loud from her list before she went on her way to the next destination.


Later...


Lightbeam was just a huge filly. As a result, she liked to play often, and for that she needed toys, that's why she was stopping at the local toy shop to find something of interest. She did this a lot but she didn't necessarily buy something each time. She just enjoyed looking at toys and was interested in every new piece that was available in the shop. It helped that her friend, Crash, was working in this shop, who was as much as a playful pony as she was, so of course, he let her even play in the shop whenever his boss wasn't around.

The mare actually found something, a little dark blue plush pony. It reminded her of her brother Nightsky so she decided to buy it and went to Crash at the counter to pay for it.

There wasn't much of a line when Lightbeam walked towards Crash, there was only one pony in front of her. "Whoa, Deja Vu," the mare said in her realization after she saw the exact same yellow coated Pegasus from the marketplace standing in front of her again. Lightbeam almost wanted to ask why she left before but right now she just wondered why the mare didn't have anything with her, even though she was clearly walking up to Crash.

"What can I do for you?" Crash asked with a friendly smile on his face.

For some reason, the mare shrugged in discomfort as soon as the stallion talked to her, something that she tried to hide but wasn't really successful with. "Um..." where the only word she managed to get out. Crash was not pressuring the mare and kept on smiling, which in turn made the situation even more awkward than it deserved to be. Eventually, the mare managed to get out some more words. "This...I would like...this," she said while she pointed forward.

The pony was pointing at something on a shelf behind Crash. A bunch of plush bunnies were perfectly lined up and presented behind the stallion. "Oh, those?" Crash asked, just to be absolutely sure.

The mare started to show some excitement. "Yes!" She said before she went back to being shy.

Crash walked up to the wall to pick up what the mare wanted and placed it on the counter. "There you go,"

The yellow Pegasus, however, didn't look too happy. That was because Crash picked up the wrong toy, from a shelf directly above the plush bunny shelf. In front of the mare now laid a toy robot, something that she clearly didn't look to excited about.

But despite Crash picking up the wrong toy, the mare, while looking rather upset, accepted the toy. "Thanks," she said with no happiness in her voice at all before she took the toy and walked out of the shop.

Crash waved the mare goodbye with a big smile on his face, oblivious about his mess up. Lightbeam, on the other hoof, was standing there confused about why the mare wasn't speaking up about this mistake. All she had to do was saying that Crash picked the wrong toy, it was as easy as that. Still, the mare figured that this Pegasus was accepting this outcome and just shrugged her shoulders before she went ahead and paid for her toy.


Later...


"Last stop, Golden Oak Library!" Lightbeam announced to herself as she walked up to the library with a book in her wing. All she needed to do was bring back a book that she borrowed from Brilliance.

The mare opened the door to the library and was surprised to see yet again, the yellow coated Pegasus mare standing right in the doorway, ready to leave at the same moment where Lightbeam entered.

The mare shrieked quietly for a moment, being surprised to see somepony the moment where she was about to leave but she composed herself quickly and just walked away, hiding her face under her mane.

Lightbeam didn't put too many thoughts about this situation and just walked past the mare to see Brilliance. Bringing back the book was done pretty fast without many words wasted. Seeing the yellow pony, however, made Lightbeam wonder how she was acting towards Brilliance, given that she was not too much of a talkative type on the other two occasions before.

"Say," Lightbeam started, trying to put her words in a way that wouldn't sound too weird. "That mare that just left...she didn't seem...a little off to you, did she,"

Brilliance was confused by this question and lowered her eyebrows. "She seemed normal to me..." the mare replied. Obviously, Brilliance was not very talkative herself so maybe the mare's behavior didn't seem off to her.

Lightbeam wasn't really sure why she was even asking this question. Maybe she felt like a pony like her, who had obviously problems speaking up for herself, would have one or two problems in her life. But it felt wrong to Lightbeam to judge this mare just after two incidents from early this day. In the end, Lightbeam decided to just forget about her and left the library once she was done there.


Later...


With no real goal in her mind, Lightbeam decided to take a walk in Ponyville. She planned to spend some time with her brother but the problem was, that he was still working at this time of the day which meant that she had to kill some time.

She ended up a little bit outside of Ponyville, on a meadow. She didn't really know why she was walking to this place but she somehow felt like something was drawing her to this place. Once she was getting closer to the meadow, however, she knew what it was. A beautiful melody was sung by somepony in the far distance. It was such a nice and soothing song that it somehow caught Lightbeam's attention from much farther away.

Of course, Lightbeam investigated and approached the source from where the song was coming from. She was really surprised to see who was actually singing it. It was the same Pegasus mare that she met countless times earlier today. She was sitting together with some small animals on a picnic blanket, humming a beautiful song to them, who enjoyed every second of it. The mare looked really happy and seemed to enjoy herself quite a lot. This was surprising since all this time, Lightbeam could swear that this mare was really uncomfortable most of the time.

Seeing how this pony was happy now, however, made Lightbeam feel better and she figured that this was the right time to talk, or at least, get to know her.

Unfortunately, Lightbeam was not really good when it came to being subtle...

"Hey!" The mare shouted towards the yellow Pegasus mare as she waved at her.

Of course, the Pegasus mare most likely didn't expect someone speaking to her in this volume and shrugged her shoulders in surprise, or rather shock judging from how she was jumping inside a nearby bush to hide, just like her animal companions who were running away.

But Lightbeam didn't seem to notice the mess that she created and merrily walked up to the bush where the yellow pony was hiding in. "Hello, there," Lightbeam greeted with a big smile on her face.

As soon as the scared Pegasus realized that it was just a pony that spoke to her, she did manage to walk out of her hiding place, still, there was no sign of the carefree behavior that she showed a few seconds ago. Instead, she was hiding her face under her mane with an uncomfortable expression on her face.

"I'm Lightbeam!" The blue-coated mare introduced herself. No reply came from the yellow coated Pegasus mare. All she did was looking away in discomfort when she was expected to introduce herself as well. But after realizing that this moment wasn't about to come, Lightbeam asked away. "What's your name?"

It took some time but the mare eventually replied. "Um...my name is..." she said, followed by some words that Lightbeam had quite some time to understand.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" Lightbeam asked nicely.

Again, the mare introduced herself. "My name is..." she repeated, this time it was even harder to understand her.

"Nope still didn't catch that," Lightbeam said, still with a bright smile on her face.

And once again, the mare introduced herself but this time, Lightbeam couldn't make out a single word that she was saying, due to the mare backing away, and mumbling those words into her mane, as if she didn't want to tell her anymore out of discomfort.

There was an awkward pause between the two ponies, it was painfully long and even too uncomfortable for a pony like Lightbeam to realize that the mare in front of her was difficult to handle. But knowing that only gave her an idea to get this conversation rolling.

She started with a compliment, after all, everypony likes hearing nice things said to them. "I heard you singing just now, you are really good. Your singing voice is so beautiful,"

The face of the yellow pony turned red like a tomato. She took some steps back and took some huge breaths as if she was starting to hyperventilate. "I-I...I have to go!" She then said in a panic before she turned around and ran away, leaving Lightbeam alone and confused.

While Lightbeam was a little puzzled about what happened, she still seemed a little unsure why it even happened. "That...didn't go the way I thought it would,"


The next day...


Lightbeam had a chance to tell the little story about the weird mare that she met yesterday to Summershine, who she was walking with through Ponyville. She told him everything about how this mare was acting really shy and scared most of the time.

Summershine actually had a pretty good guess about who Lightbeam was talking about. "You mean Fluttershy?" He guessed after Lightbeam gave him a little description about how she looked like. "Yeah, she is really...shy, go figure," he said, obviously referring to her name. "I had to deliver a few packages to her in the past and every time I did, she barely spoke a word and just stood there awkwardly,"

"Exactly!" Lightbeam said. "Is something wrong with her?" She then asked confused, much to Summershine's surprise.

It was hilarious to Summershine how Lightbeam was not understanding that Fluttershy was just really shy. Maybe it was because Lightbeam was the exact opposite that didn't make her understand this.

"Nothing is wrong with her," Summershine said. "Speaking to other ponies is just a little harder for her, that is all. That is probably why she is acting a little weird in public or in front of other ponies," the stallion explained.

Lightbeam's eyes popped widely open after realizing that. "So she has problems talking with other ponies?" She asked to confirm her thoughts.

"Yes," Summershine replied.

Suddenly, Lightbeam turned around. "Why didn't you say so before!?" She said determined before she rushed away and left the stallion alone again, who was a little confused about this behavior and what exactly his friend was up to now.


Later...


Lightbeam knocked on the door of a little woodland cottage just a little bit outside of Ponyville. It was Fluttershy's home. Multiple birdhouses were scattered all over the place and there were also multiple rabbit-holes on the ground. It was like this place was a home for all kinds of animals. It looked quite inviting at least.

Soon, the door in front of Lightbeam opened and Fluttershy stood in front of her, having a surprised expression on her face, it wasn't a really happy one but also not a negative one, uncomfortable was maybe the right word to describe her expression.

It was as if Fluttershy was about to close the door right in front of Lightbeam just so that she could avoid another awkward encounter. Lightbeam was well aware of that as well and tried to get to the point real quick. 

"Let's spend the day together!" She just straight out said without hesitation.

"Um..." Fluttershy replied hesitantly, she was clearly about to tell Lightbeam that she wasn't interested in doing that.

"Come on! It'll be fun!" Lightbeam insisted.

"I..." Fluttershy said, her eyes wandering from one lower corner to another.

"I won't take a no as an answer!" Lightbeam said as she stomped on the ground with a determined expression on her face.

By now, Fluttershy felt too pressured to decline Lightbeam's request. She was really not up for this, especially after their awkward encounter from yesterday. Unfortunately, Fluttershy was, just like Summershine said, really shy. She didn't have it in her to say no in a situation like this and Lightbeam being the upbeat she was, certainly didn't make it easier to decline.

"Okay..." Fluttershy then said forced, avoiding as much eye contact with Lightbeam as possible.

The blue-coated Pegasus was, of course, oblivious of how Fluttershy was feeling in this very moment and just got happy to hear this answer from Fluttershy. "Great! Then let's go!" She said as she grabbed Fluttershy's hoof and dragged her out of her cottage, much to the dislike of the mare, who just gasped in response.

Lightbeam did all of this to archive a certain thing and that was making Fluttershy's shyness disappear. Obviously, she was having a hard time being shy, so all Lightbeam had to do was fix this to make the life of Fluttershy a lot easier.

And she had quite some ideas on how to do that.


Later...


Lightbeam and Fluttershy, who was dragged along against her own will, went to the Ponyville bowling alley. A game would hopefully put Fluttershy in a better mood, instead of thinking that Lightbeam was forcing her to accompany her...which was pretty much the case.

The first one to go was Lightbeam. She put a bowling ball in front of her and looked back and forth between it and the pins before eventually giving it a good kick with her hind legs. She managed to hit quite a few pins and only two remained, of course, they were both in each corner and especially hard to hit with another ball. But despite her chances, Lightbeam put down another ball in front of her, turned around, and kicked it straight down the lane. The ball went right between the two pins in the middle.

"Darn!" The mare said frustrated, stomping on the ground in anger. "Whatever!" She then said in a sudden mood swing with a smile on her face, accepting this result and leaving the lane. "Your turn,"

Fluttershy was walking up to the lane and picked a bowling ball. She hardly managed to carry it above the ground while flying to her lane and seemed already exhausted. She looked back at Lightbeam embarrassed but the light blue coated mare just grinned as if everything was completely fine, she probably didn't even notice how Fluttershy was having trouble already.

Once the bowling ball was sitting still in front of the lane, Fluttershy took a huge breath and formed a determined expression on her face. She was ready and turned around to kick the ball away with her left hind leg. The problem was, that it seemed to be too hard for Fluttershy to do exactly that, which was weird since a ball is round, making the process of moving it usually easier.

The ball did roll on the lane, slowly. It reached the pin that was all the way in front but with only this little force behind this... "throw" it was barely moving after getting his by it. Fluttershy was not really satisfied with this result and looked back at Lightbeam embarrassed, who was looking almost impressed at the mare as if she had no idea how she managed to do this.

"Maybe...we should try something else?" She asked confused, to which Fluttershy only replied with an agreeing nod.

So Fluttershy wasn't into this game and didn't seem to enjoy it this much, no problem, thought Lightbeam while she and Fluttershy left the bowling alley. It was just a matter of time until the two of them would find something to enjoy together. Lightbeam couldn't give up after one or two failed attempts, especially since Fluttershy desperately needed her help to be more assertive. Having that in the back of her mind gave her all the more reason to continue.

Still, finding something that Fluttershy could enjoy provided to be more difficult than Lightbeam initially expected. She was willing to do something that she didn't enjoy as much as long as Fluttershy could be happy but that didn't seem to be the case most of the time.

The spa, a restaurant, the library, no matter where they would go, Fluttershy always seemed really uncomfortable and almost upset. There was no progress. The two just couldn't find a place to have fun with or an activity to enjoy.

They ended up aimlessly wandering through Ponyville desperately finding something to do but Lightbeam was starting to lose her drive to help Fluttershy after multiple failed attempts without any progress.

Fluttershy remained silent most of the time. She probably thought of herself as a bother to Lightbeam by now, making her a little upset while she followed the mare in front of her. Of course, she didn't say anything because she was too shy to do so.

Just when Lightbeam about to give up though, new hope arrived in the form of one of her friends, Star Twinkle, who just walked towards the two of them. Lightbeam slapped her cheek in a sudden realization. "I'm so dumb!" She exclaimed before she whispered something to herself in secret. "Why didn't I thought about that? Friends! In order to get Fluttershy out of her shell and make it easier for her to speak with others, she needs to speak with others!"

Fluttershy didn't know what Lightbeam was mumbling under her breath but she has a suspicion that she was somehow the subject of it and as soon as Lightbeam turned her head towards Fluttershy with an almost sinister-looking expression on her face, she knew that she was right.

"Fluttershy!" Lightbeam said as she rushed right in front of Fluttershy's face, scaring the mare in the process. "Let me introduce you to one of my friends! You're gonna be friends too!" She said in a maniac tone, much to Fluttershy's concern.

The yellow Pegasus didn't look as if she liked the idea to meet somepony right now. She started to hyperventilate again but Lightbeam was completely unaware of that and ran towards Star Twinkle.

The stallion was about to greet his friend but without a word wasted, Lightbeam went behind him and pushed him right in front of Fluttershy.

"This is Star Twinkle! He is one of my friends!" Lightbeam said with a smile on her face. "You are gonna be friends too!"

"We are?" Star Twinkle said confused before he turned towards his friend. "What is even going on here, Lightbeam?" He finally asked, even if he was already dragged into this whole situation by now.

"It's easy!" Lightbeam replied, waving one of her hooves casually. "Fluttershy here is really shy and has problems talking with other ponies, and I try to help her overcome this problem by introducing her to one of my friends," she said before she pointed at the stallion. "That is you!" She added so that Star Twinkle would hopefully understand everything.

Star Twinkle, however, had mixed feelings about this situation. "Well, I don't have a problem making new friends but don't you think that you should have at least asked before?"

"Oh, it's fine," Lightbeam replied casually. "Right, Fluttershy?"

"I meant asked me..." Star Twinkle corrected before he turned around to see what Fluttershy was thinking about all of this.

But to the surprise of both of them, Fluttershy was gone without them noticing it at all. By now, Lightbeam was boiling, she couldn't believe that Fluttershy just left without a word and stomped on the ground in anger. "You gotta be kidding me!" She said before she left to where she thought the mare escaped.

The mare left Star Twinkle, who was already confused as it is, even more confused. "Um...okay, I'll see you around...I guess," he said before he was on his way again, trying to forget this weird encounter as fast as possible.


Later...


A bunch of heavy knocks were thrown at Fluttershy's cottage door. "Open up! I know you are in there Fluttershy!" Lightbeam said angrily.

After Lightbeam stopped knocking on the door for a while, a quiet voice could be heard from behind the door. "Um...please don't get this the wrong way but...please leave...if you don't mind..." the mare said from the other site, saying every single word in a scared tone as if she was afraid to hear Lightbeam's response.

Which was well deserved...

"I do mind!" Lightbeam replied angrily. "I just tried to help you! I knew that you had problems talking with others and all I wanted to do was helping you to overcome this fear! And what do I get!? Nothing!" She said as she walked away from the door a little bit.  "You are not even letting me help you!"

"I do..." Fluttershy replied, again in a scared tone.

"No, you don't!" Lightbeam replied annoyed hearing this reply. "If you did then you would have fun and at least tried to talk with my friend! I know I would have done that!"

After those words were spoken, there was a small silence between the two. The next words that Fluttershy said would completely catch Lightbeam off guard.

"...But I'm not you..."

Lightbeam's anger vanished for a moment and was replaced by sudden confusion. "...What!?" She replied not angrily or annoyed but rather puzzled as if somepony just told her that Earth Ponies could fly.

Fluttershy continued. "I'm afraid to meet new ponies and I don't know how to act as carefree as you in public. I'm afraid of those things. I'm afraid of what other ponies think about me and I don't know how to deal with that. But I appreciate you trying to give me a chance, I know you did this out of kindness but I think I can't be helped like this..."

Lightbeam carefully listened to every word that Fluttershy said to her and took then all in. She looked down at the ground, reflecting on them before she eventually spoke up again. "Oh my goodness...what am I doing!?" Lightbeam said in shock before she stepped back from Fluttershy's cottage.

"I am so sorry," Lightbeam said in a shaking voice that was just screaming regret. "You're right, I think I did all of this out of kindness but it soon turned out into something very ugly. Summershine told me that you were very shy and I instantly thought that this was a problem. But it wasn't," she said before she sat down on the ground, upset about everything that she did. "You're right, you are not me. I can't turn you into me. Some ponies would have pushed me away instantly after I tried to just come into their life but you actually let me. And what did I do? I forced you to spent time with me, a stranger..." she said while she buried her face into her hooves in shame. "And worst of all, I blamed you for all of this and screamed at you..."

The mare stood up on her hooves again and turned around. "I just...go away and leave you...I promise I will never bother you ever again, Fluttershy. I'm sorry," she said before she walked away from the cottage, hoping that she didn't make Fluttershy's day all too worse.

Shortly after however, the door was slowly opened and Fluttershy stepped out of the cottage. "No...wait!" She said in a surprisingly desperate loud tone.

Lightbeam turned her head around, her face filled with shame, she couldn't even look at Fluttershy right now. However, Fluttershy walked up to her with a smile on her face. "I don't want you to never speak to me again," she said almost casually.

Lightbeam was thinking that she wasn't hearing right just now. "Why? After how I screamed at you just now and dragged you around with me the whole day how can you even speak to me like this?" She asked, being at a complete loss about now.

Fluttershy explained herself. "Oh, I'm not mad at you for that, I am quite a difficult pony to deal with," she admitted almost too casually. "And knowing that you tried to help me made me not blame you but myself," she then looked down at the ground. "Though I have to admit that I get easily scared if somepony screams at me,"

By now Lightbeam sounded really desperate after hearing the kind words of Fluttershy. "So...we are still friends?" She asked with tears starting to build up in her eyes.

"Yes," Fluttershy replied warmly with a gentle smile on her face. Lightbeam hugged the mare after hearing those words, and while Fluttershy was a little surprised by this action, she let it happen and hugged the mare back.

Lightbeam understood that you simply cannot change somepony just like that. Fluttershy was having trouble with her shyness and she wanted to work on it but the way Lightbeam was taking on this was not the right way. Surprisingly, Fluttershy was all up for the idea to let Lightbeam help her but she wanted to do baby steps, one at a time, to make it easier for her and appreciate the time that she would spend with her new friend.

"It's kinda weird," Lightbeam said at the end of the day once she walked away from Fluttershy's cottage again to head home. "All I wanted was to help her but I somehow got lost and it ended up in the worst way possible,"

The mare looked up at the sky. "Sometimes being too kind is probably a bad thing...if you end up hurting your friends...or in my case, it can blind you to what was actually important," she said as she walked home now.

While she was still a little upset that she put Fluttershy through all of this today, there was one thing that cheered her up again.

And that was knowing that she made a new friend...
> 14. Honesty
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was one of those days where a bunch of good friends came together to spend time with each other. Happytrade invited her friends Summershine, Crash, Nightsky, Lightbeam, Star Twinkle, and Ashgray into one of the fancier restaurants in Ponyville in order to celebrate something. 

"Everypony eat up! I'll invite you all!" Happytrade announced while she raised a cup with cider into the air.

Her friends cheered happily in response, and for good reason. The table was filled with all kinds of sweets, that begged to get eaten, which of course, their friends did. They got invited after all.

Lightbeam, as usual, was the one who shared her thoughts about all of this first. "Mhhhh! Delicious!" She simply said after she took a bite off from a filled donut.

Summershine couldn't agree with this more. "It really is nice to invite us all to this,"

Still, Nightsky could only wonder what exactly the occasion was for this invitation. "You rarely invite us all, especially in a costly restaurant like this,"

"Yes, what is the occasion?" Star Twinkle asked.

"Does it matter? The food is amazing!" Crash said before he dug his face right into a cake in front of him, covering his whole face in cream.

Happytrade wasted no time explaining herself. "Basically, I got really lucky!" She said with a grin on her face. "You won't believe it! I got a chance to work together with the Apple Family," she announced proudly.

Some of her friends were not really sure why that was so good that Happytrade needed to invite them. It was eventually Ashgray who asked. "What's so good about that?" The stallion asked confused.

Happytrade eyes popped open in surprise. Of course, Ashgray being in Ponyville for not that long couldn't understand how important that was for Happytrade but she still felt a little shocked. It was probably good that none of her other friends asked this question because she expected them to know. "The Apple Family are the most well-known and most beloved ponies in Ponyville. They live here for generations and made quite a name for themselves. Not to mention that their apple products are top-notch!"

It then clicked for Ashgray. "Oh! I see! So if you work for them, your reputation as a merchant can get a little boost,"

Happytrade grinned smugly. "Eeyup!" She replied. "I tried to work with the Apple Family for a long time now so I will not miss my chance to make a name for myself! Their apple products are really popular and if I sell them, I will get popular as a merchant as well!" She explained, laughing happily just by the thought of that.

But not everypony was looking at this with the same eyes, like Star Twinkle. "Sounds to me like as if you are trying to use them for your own good," he bluntly said.

The mare, however, was not bothered by those words. "That just shows me that you know nothing about trading," she said while she shook her head. "Listen, the Apple Family wants me to sell their products because they don't have the time themselves, so I just help them out with that while also making a little bit of profit and exposure for myself, everypony wins, nopony looses,"

The group of friends was not as good when it came to stuff like that of course so they just believed in the mare's words even if some of them had second thoughts. But Happytrade assured everypony that this will be a huge step for her.

"Aaand, it gets even better!" The mare continued. "I am supposed to sell their stuff in Canterlot!"

Summershine was a little confused. "In Canterlot?" He asked before he got an immediate answer from the mare.

"I know, right? Home of the noblest and richest ponies in all of Equestria, who have more money than they can ever spend!"

Lightbeam suddenly, understood why Happytrade was so excited about all this. "That sounds like as if you're about to make a lot of money,"

"Bingo!" Happytrade replied with a smile on her face.

Hearing that, actually caused the opposite reaction on Star Twinkle. "I don't know, Happytrade," he said with concern in his voice. "Some ponies in Canterlot tend to be rather...difficult..." he explained, trying to choose his words carefully.

That was something that Happytrade was well aware though. "I know, I know," she said unimpressed. "It'll be fine, you think a merchant like me can not deal with some ponies like those?" She boasted confidently.

Still, Star Twinkle had some doubts about that. He was born in Canterlot and spent a few years in his childhood there to know quite some things about the ponies in Canterlot. Happytrade, however, was showing so much enthusiasm and confidence that he withheld his thoughts. He just hoped that everything would end the way the mare expected.


On the next day...


Happytrade made a quick detour to Sweet Apple Acres to gather the products that she was about to sell in Canterlot later. Sweet Apple Acres was a huge orchard and the home of the Apple Family, which consisted of Granny Smith, the owner of the orchard, and her grandchildren, Big McIntosh, Applejack, and Apple Bloom. They were all Earth Ponies and with the exception of Apple Bloom, who was still too young, every one of them had a Cutie Mark and a special talent that had something to do with apples, which of course, made sense, given the name of the family.

The Apple Family was familiar with Happy and her line of work and was even respected by them. She was doing some businesses with them in the past and they all went pretty well so there was already a good relationship between all of them. Granny Smith was usually not somepony who would trust someone when it comes to her business but Happytrade proved herself to be responsible and experienced to earn her trust. Knowing that, was really nice for Happytrade. She knew that she was being trusted and she aimed to not let her down.

The Apple Family was almost done putting on their wares on Happytrade's cart. The bulk of the work was done by, fittingly, a bulk of a stallion called Big McIntosh. He had a red coat, an orange mane, green eyes, and a green apple sliced in half as a Cutie Mark. Happytrade didn't know much about him, except that he was Applejack's and Apple Bloom's bigger brother.  That may be because Big McIntosh wasn't too much of a talker himself. Still, he seemed nice and definitely was a hardworking pony.

Happytrade checked most of the wares that were loaded into her cart and as expected it was a lot of stuff made out of apples...or maybe all of it was. One thing stood out inside of that cart, though. There was a little filly inside the cart, checking on some of the wares. It was Apple Bloom, Applejack's, and Big McIntosh's little sister. She had a yellow coat, a red mane with a crimson-colored bow in it, and orange eyes. She had no Cutie Mark on her flank.

"All set up and ready! When can we go?" The little filly asked towards Happytrade with excited puppy eyes.

"We?" Happytrade replied confused.

Shortly after, her big sister, Applejack appeared and pulled her out of the cart. "Apple Bloom, I told you that you can't go with her," the mare scolded. Applejack was the one pony who Happytrade spend the most time with out of all from the Apple Family. The mare had an orange coat, a blonde mane, green eyes, and three red apples as a Cutie Mark. She also wore, as usual, her light brown stetson on her head.

Apple Bloom seemed upset to hear those words. "Aw, but what if it gets me my special talent? Who knows, maybe being a merchant is my true destiny!" She explained, looking over to Happytrade as if she expected her to back her up in this statement.

Applejack just shook her head. "You are saying that every single time about almost everything," she said. The mare clearly was accustomed to this behavior from her little sister. "The only thing you haven't tried so far was being patient,"

"But I'll never get my Cutie Mark if I just sit around!" Apple Bloom replied with a frown on her face.

"But you think you'll get it by bothering Happytrade on her trip to Canterlot?" Applejack added, in a scolding tone once more.

While Happytrade agreed with Applejack when it came to bringing Apple Bloom along, she didn't feel like it was up to her to talk the filly out of it. Applejack eventually managed to convince her sister to stay so Happytrade wasn't needed for that matter. 

Soon, Big McIntosh appeared with the last load of food and put it inside the cart. Applejack looked over the cart and figured that it was full. "Everything set?" She asked her brother, just for confirmation.

Big McIntosh gave a quick answer. "Eeyup,"

Applejack threw back a nod and then turned towards Happytrade. "Alrighty then, Happytrade, it's all yours now,"

Happytrade smiled back at the mare. "Leave it to me! I'll guarantee you that I get every little thing sold and make sure that, by the end of the day, every pony in Canterlot will know the name of the Apple Family," she said while she saluted determined.

"Well, well, I wouldn't go that far," Applejack replied, feeling a little embarrassed but also flattered. "Even if you don't sell too much, it will be fine," she assured.

But that wasn't sitting right with Happytrade. "Nope! I promise you that I will come back with every little bit sold! You are talking to the best merchant in all of Ponyville after all,"

Right about now, Applejack was almost infected by the determination that Happytrade showed towards her. "Alright, if you say so. We will expect you later today,"

"Right!" Happytrade replied before she stood in front of her cart, ready to pull it. "See ya!" She said, waving goodbye to the Apple Family and leaving to get the next train to Canterlot.


Later, in Canterlot...


Canterlot...

Around every corner of the capital of Equestria, you could see a shop that sold things of the highest value, at least when it came to popularity. There was not a single merchant stand anywhere in town and Happytrade knew that because she checked. After having wasted some time looking for a good spot though, Happytrade settled on one spot and set up her merchant stand, placing all the stuff from the Apple Family on it.

"Okay! All set up and ready for Business!" Happytrade announced with a smile on her face before she placed herself behind her cart. There were quite a lot of ponies walking past her, some of them throwing interested looks at her wares. Happytrade, of course, was no amateur. She knew that nopony would come and buy something right away. Everypony that would walk past her, would hopefully spread the word around that she was standing at this spot and with tons of rich ponies in this town, it should be easy to draw in potential customers.

Happytrade spent most of her time waiting by daydreaming about her success in this town. Too many customers that she could possibly serve, too much money that she could carry, her name spreading around in Canterlot...

There could be a chance that she was imagining things to go this well, while also being well aware that it was a little bit unrealistic.

That was until one stallion actually walked up to her. The mare easily identified the look on this stallion as one of interest, one she knew all too well, one she liked to see one each of her customers.

"My dear, excuse me and my silly question but could it be that you are selling those sweets?" He asked, showing more and more interest in Happytrade's products.

A full smile formed on the mare's face. She did not expect somepony to show interest in her wares this quickly. It was almost unprofessional how she reacted now, but she managed to calm down in time again. The stallion in front of her was exactly what she would expect to live in Canterlot, fancy suit and all, which in her eyes meant, somepony with a lot of money.

"Yes, I do!" Happytrade replied happily.

The stallion looked over the sweet wares and barely could keep his spit escaping. "I must admit, that pie over there looks quite delicious! I'll take one!"

Again, Happytrade had a big smile on her face. "Coming right up!" She said before she placed one pie right in front of the stallion who already dug his face right into it. Considering the fancy clothes that he was wearing one would assume that he would try to not get them dirty. He must have gotten too excited by the smell of it. "I'm glad you like it!" She said. "Only the best products from the Apple Family of Ponyville! Now let's talk about the price," the mare started trying to get to the businesses part of all of this.

The mare was surprised though to see remains of the pie flying right back into her face, spat out from the stallion in front of her.

"Ponyville!?" The stallion said in shock. "You mean that backwater place where all the common ponies live in!?"

"Backwater place?" Happytrade replied, feeling a little offended to hear her home called something like that but she tried to stay realistic. "You seemed to enjoy that pie so what does it matter where it came from?"

But the stallion didn't listen and cleaned his mouth with his hooves. "My tongue has touched common food! Ew!" The stallion said in disgust before he glared over to Happytrade, who couldn't be any more shocked by this kind of reaction. "I want my money back!" The stallion demanded angrily.

"You haven't even paid yet!" Happytrade replied angrily, getting fed up with this the behavior of this pony.

The stallion then arrogantly turned his head around. "Good! I'm not paying one bit for this junk!" He said, raising his head up high in the air as he walked away from Happytrade's merchant stand.

The mare was boiling with anger as she watched the stallion walk away. "Urgh! What was his problem!? He said he liked the smell of the pie and he couldn't wait to eat it but as soon as I mention that it is from Ponyville, he gets disgusted!?" She released in anger.

This little scene was not unnoticed by some ponies nearby, which in return affected how Happytrade was looked at by others, causing her to calm down again, she didn't want to leave a bad impression in Canterlot after all. She also had to think about the reputation of the Apple Family. All she could do was to forget this little incident and move on, it was a little slip up that shouldn't affect her in the long run.


Later...


It's been a long time since, Happytrade had her last costumer in Canterlot, in fact, that one annoying stallion from before, was the only one she had so far. Normally, she wouldn't get bothered by something like that but she expected there to be more traffic when it came to money wandering into her pockets. She also started to get a little bit bored. Eventually, she packed in her stuff and decided to go somewhere else. It must have been bad luck that kept her from selling anything.

She pulled her cart behind her and looked around town, not to find a new spot but to find something to drink. The Apple Family didn't give her any drinks to sell, that she would have bought herself to get some refreshment so she had no choice but to look for something in Canterlot. It didn't take too long until she came across a restaurant. She placed her cart outside and bought something to drink from inside. It was heavily overpriced but the mare had no choice, she didn't care too much about it and just dealt with it, she just wanted something to drink now and move on.

When she walked outside again, taking a little sip from her bottle, she saw some ponies standing next to her cart, inspecting her wares.

"It sure looks tasty," a mare said as she inspected the food inside of the cart.

"Yeah but I heard it all comes from Ponyville, you know, the place where all the ponies play in dirt and such, I wouldn't recommend eating any of that," another stallion said.

It was almost the same situation as with this one snobby pony from before. Unlike him, the other ponies around him were highly interested in the sweets inside of Happytrade's cart but the stallion wanted to make sure nopony even looked at that stuff.

Needless to say, Happytrade didn't like how one pony was talking bad about her wares and even went so far to talk others out of buying anything. But that was only of minor concern compared to what he kept saying about Ponyville. "Hey! What did you just say!?" Happytrade said angrily as she stomped towards the ponies in front of her cart. "Stop spreading stuff like that about Ponyville!" She warned.

The group of ponies looked over to her in surprise. Happytrade expected everypony to take a look at her wares instead of listening to that one stallion. If they tried her stuff than they would surely come to a different conclusion and regret even listening to that pony.

But that is not what happened...

"So that food is from Ponyville?" One mare asked in surprise.

"Um...yeah?" Happytrade replied confused.

Soon, all of the ponies in front of the cart turned their heads around and walked away as if just looking at this food was beneath them.

Happytrade stomped on the ground in anger. "What is their problem!?" She said angered and frustrated. "They all treat that food as if it was poisoned!"

Bitterly and angered, the mare stomped away from the restaurant to find another spot to sell her wares. She tried to ignore all of this as best as she could and continued what she came here to do, even if it would be a pain in the neck.


Later...


"Come and buy! Only the freshest and best Apple products! Grab them before they are gone!" Happytrade screamed across the streets of Canterlot. But nopony even looked at the mare, no matter how desperate she was shouting. The more she was ignored, the more she tried to get everyponies attention. She would refuse to give up just like that. She walked up directly into someone's face, with a smug smile on her face, waving her products right in front of their faces. "You sure you don't want to try one of those things?" She offered. This approach, however, proved to be a little too direct and didn't work all too well, no matter how many times she tried. 

Eventually, she returned to her merchant stand with her head laid down on it in frustration. She could not believe how unsuccessful she was up until now. All those fancy ponies in Canterlot had so much money, it wouldn't hurt them to spend it for some food. At some point, Happytrade actually believed that ponies in Canterlot are not eating at all, but that couldn't be possible.

It was frustrating and confusing how nopony was even betting an eye on her stuff. It was just impossible that every single pony in Canterlot was simply not interested in her food just because of it being from Ponyville.

Strange theories started to form into her head. "Is it possible that this one pony from earlier told everypony to stay away from me? That can't be right, can it?" She wondered with a frown on her face. "No what am I talking about!?" She then said before her face showed determination again.

Again, the mare packed her stuff and looked for another spot to set up her stand. She decided to go away a little bit further from her first two spots. Maybe she was actually just standing in the wrong spots all this time. She never tried to sell something in Canterlot, she wasn't experienced in this town, it just made perfect sense.

As she was walking past a group of ponies, all of them fancily dressed, of course, one mare stopped and gasped in shock. "How dare common ponies like her walk on the same streets than us! Look at that contraption that she is pulling behind her! And all this junk food in her cart! Disgusting!" She said loudly so that everypony around her would clearly hear her.

Happytrade, of course, heard every single word and stopped in her tracks. "What!?" She said annoyed as she turned her head around and spotted the mare that was talking about her behind her back. "What did you just say?" She said with a hint of anger in her voice.

The mare replied casually. "I just shared my opinion with everypony! I don't want anypony to get accidentally involved with ponies like you!" She explained.

Happytrade was about to lose it right about now. "You think just because you live here in Canterlot that you are better than everypony else!?" She screamed angrily at her.

The mare rose her nose high up into the air and replied. "Obviously," which was accompanied by the laughter from her company, who all seemed to agree with her.

Smack!

A fresh apple pie flew right into the face of the mare, who stumbled back in surprise by the impact. Happytrade left her cart and had a few more pies equipped with her as she ran towards the group of ponies who now ran away from the crazy mare who threw one pie after another at them.

Once they were gone, Happytrade was breathing heavily in exhaustion and after letting out some steam. She needed to do that to calm down, this town was starting to drive her crazy after all. She was about to return to her cart to continue on her way but in the corner of her eye, she saw a familiar pony. Somepony she didn't want to see at all now.

"Look at this primitive specimen," the stallion said arrogantly. "I told you to stay away from the folks from Ponyville," he said towards his followers, who all nodded in agreement.

It was the same pony from before that tried to buy the pie from Happytrade and talked bad about her wares.

The mare looked over to the stallion with an angry glare on her face that sent shivers down on his face and quickly replaced his smile with a nervous look. Happytrade kept her eyes locked on the stallion and didn't move one bit. It was as if he was the only thing that existed in her world.

There were no words spoken, the stallion was actually too nervous to open his mouth and Happytrade kept staring at the poor pony.

"Aaaaah!" Happytrade then suddenly screamed angrily while she charged right at the pony and his company, causing the stallion and everypony else to run away in fear of that crazy mare who needed to let out some anger at anyone in reach.

Happytrade didn't manage to catch the stallion though...


Later...


It was beginning to get dark on the streets of Canterlot and nothing had changed when it came to selling anything. The day that she imagined to be a historical one of her career turned out to be the worst day in her whole life. Not only was she getting annoyed by almost every single pony in this town but she also lost money because she had to compensate for the pies that she threw.

The mare parked her cart in a corner of a rather empty street. Considering the time, not many ponies were walking past her now, not that she would care about that anyway at this point. "It's about time for me to go..." Happytrade said frustrated after checking the time one more time and realizing that she had to go back to Ponyville and report her sales to the Apple Family, or rather she failed attempt to sell anything in this town. "I guess that is it for me and a future business relationship with the Apple Family..." she said before she took some of her apple fries to eat a few of them, paying for them from her own pockets, later on.

A few moments later, somepony walked towards the mare. "I'll take one pie please," a female voice demanded in a friendly tone.

Happytrade was so busy eating her apple fritters that she didn't even bother too much with her customer. Maybe she was also expecting the mare to leave again as soon as she would explain from were her wares came from. "This is food from Ponyville, are you sure?" She said in an almost cold tone. She definitely was not in the mood to sell anything anymore for today.

"Is that a problem?" The female voice replied to her confused.

"Apparently, it is for all of you snobby and-" Happytrade replied before she stopped in shock after realizing that the pony in front of her was none other than the Ruler of Equestria herself. "P-p-p-p-p-princess Celestia!?" Happytrade said before she fell down to the ground in shock, hoping that she didn't hear her almost insulting her.

But Princess Celestia was smiling at the mare's reaction. "You are one of Summershine's friends, aren't you? You look a lot less happy than I remember," she asked, referring to how frustrated Happytrade was acting at this moment.

"I-I'm sorry!" She apologized before she was about to explain that it was the fault of this town, something that she probably shouldn't say to the ruler of Equestria, who happens to live in this town for a long time now.

Realizing how uncomfortable Happytrade became, Princess Celestia came to her own conclusion. "It looks like the ponies in Canterlot were too much for you as well," she said almost amused.

"As well?" Happytrade asked confused.

Princess Celestia nodded with a smile on her face. "Summershine, when he was going to my school for gifted Unicorns, was always complaining how some of the ponies in Canterlot were always thinking as if they were better than him. He also told me that another friend of mine grew up here and wasn't particularly happy as well," she explained almost happily.

Happytrade had no idea how to react to that. Princess Celestia basically told her that her hometown is a pretty bad place to live in, or at least difficult to live in. The mare didn't know if she should agree to all of this, even though she really wanted to.

"I guess I hit the nail on the head?" The princess asked, again smiling widely.

"...yeah..." Happytrade finally admitted. She also decided to ask a question that she was afraid to ask. "How do you manage to live with so many snobby ponies in this place? I think I would go crazy if I stayed here any longer!"

Surprisingly, Princess Celestia smiled again. "I do have to admit, some ponies that live in this town tend to think a little bit too high of themselves. You'll get used to it," she said casually.

But Happytrade didn't want to get used to it. "Well, I didn't plan to spend more time here anyway. I just can't believe that ponies looked down to me just because my wares are from Ponyville..."

"Oh?" Princess Celestia replied. "So you think your wares would have been more appreciated if you didn't tell them that?" She asked curiously.

For a moment, Happytrade had to think. She tried to come up with an answer but she figured out that she already knew what to say.

"Things can be a lot harder if you tell the truth...but I rather want to live a harder life then being dishonest with my friends,"

The princess got a little confused by this reply and where it came from. Happytrade sounded really serious while saying that sentence. The mare explained. "That is basically what I try to live by. Now I know that none of the ponies that I encountered today are my friends but...if I start being dishonest from the very beginning, then there is no point of being honest once it develops into a friendship. I don't want to build a friendship based off from a lie...and if that means that I have to deal with the consequences of my honesty then it just is like that,"

Princess Celestia was actually happy to hear those words. There was something nice about them. "That's a really good rule to live by," she said in a caring voice.

The sound of a bell was ringing from afar, which managed to get Happytrade back into reality. "Oh, no! I need to get back to Ponyville!" She said before she started to pull her cart behind her and ran.

But then, suddenly, the princess landed right in front of there mare, like thunder that struck into the ground, causing the mare to get a little bit startled. The princess had a serious expression on her face, which sent down shivers on Happytrade's back. But that serious expression quickly vanished and turned into a smile again. "What about my pie?" She then asked casually.

"Oh! Yes!" Happytrade replied nervously before she prepared the best-looking apple pie that she could find in her cart. Princess Celestia levitated a few bits towards Happytrade but the mare felt kinda weird accepting money from the princess but she insisted to pay for it.

"Thank you very much," Princess Celestia said happily after taking the pie with her magic, trading it for a few bitcoins in the process. "I'm not sure if you knew but I can be quite weak when it comes to pies," she admitted almost embarrassingly. "But don't tell anypony,"

"I would never!" Happytrade replied before she was on her way back to Ponyville again.


Later...


Happytrade was afraid of how the Apple Family would react to her failing completely to sell anything in Canterlot. A professional approach is what she planned, mistakes like this happen to even the best. If she would explain everything like this, then the Apple Family surely would not get mad that she didn't make any money for them.

But that didn't go too well...

When the mare arrived back in Sweet Apple Acres, she instantly bowed down and apologized in shame for letting them down and ruining their future potential success in Canterlot. She was panicking and needless to say, she looked really amateurish.

After apologizing for a few minutes now, she waited for a response from Applejack, Big McIntosh, and Granny Smith, which all looked at each other confused before eventually bursting out in laughter.

Of course, Happytrade looked at the three ponies in confusion. "What's so funny!?" She said in a mix of confusion and frustration.

After the three ponies calmed down again, Applejack explained what was amusing them. "Now, nothing against you, Happy, but we totally expected this to happen,"

This still didn't make sense to Happytrade. "You expected me to not sell anything!?" She asked confused, feeling a little hurt in her pride as a merchant.

Granny Smith was the one who walked up to the mare in order to comfort her. "It didn't matter how good of a merchant you were, hon. Those ponies in Canterlot with their fancy nancy attitude and their noses raised up all the way to Cloudsdale probably don't even look at stuff that wasn't touched by Princess Celestia herself,"

That sentence was kinda ironic to Happytrade since Princess Celestia was the only one who actually purchased something from her. "But..." Happytrade started confused. "Then why did you even sent me to Canterlot to sell something if you knew that I would fail?"

Applejack explained. "Well, we thought that if there would be one pony that could sell some stuff from Ponyville in Canterlot then it would be you. But I guess not even the best merchant in Ponyville can change them," she said shaking her head just thinking about the citizens of Canterlot. Happytrade did feel flattered to be addressed as the best merchant of Ponyville by Applejack. "I hope that little trip to Canterlot didn't make you feel too upset for the future,"

"The future?" Happytrade asked confused.

"Yes, the next time we will work together, I mean," Applejack replied.

Of course, getting another chance to work with the Apple Family didn't even cross Happytrade's mind. She thought it was all over forever. But there was no sign of that at all. No one of the family seemed mad or upset at all, they didn't even blame Happytrade for all of this.

But Happytrade still had to ask to make sure she wasn't hearing things. "So...you want me to work with you again in the future?" She asked with disbelieving in her voice.

"Course," Applejack replied as if it was the most obvious thing ever. "Didn't you hear me? You are the best merchant in Ponyville after all," she added with a wink.

"Eeyup," Big McIntosh agreed.

Happytrade had to try holding back some tears in her eyes to hear such a compliment from the Apple Family. "I swear I will not let you down ever again!" She said determinedly, raising her hoof up at the sky.

The Apple Family was happy to hear that and decided to celebrate a future business relationship between them. Luckily there was enough food left for that. Eventually, Happytrade's visit got longer than she expected and once the evening was over, she was happy that everything somehow went well.

Maybe this wasn't the worst day in her life after all.
> 15. Loyalty
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The weather above Ponyville for today was scheduled to be sunny and clean. That is what the Pegasus in Cloudsdale and their local weather control central decided. As a result, the sky above Ponyville was clear of any clouds and looked exactly like what was planned today.

Having a clear sky right now, was thanks to the ponies who worked as weather ponies, which were Pegasus who moved and manipulated the clouds so that it would match with what was decided in Cloudsdale. One of those weather ponies was Rainbow Dash, a mare who did her very best to kick away every single cloud as fast as possible as if it was a personal challenge, constantly trying to improve her speed.

As usual, whenever her work was done, she took a nap somewhere on a single cloud and relaxed. It was her way of rewarding herself for a job well done. Considering that she was also giving one-hundred percent every day, she must have been pretty tired too.

Her nap, however, was rudely interrupted...

"Niiiigth!" A female voice then screamed suddenly in excitement, causing Rainbow Dash's ears to ring and making her jump up in surprise. The voice belonged to Lightbeam, who was hovering above the previously sleeping Pegasus mare. She was smiling, but that didn't last too long once she inspected the mare in front of her. "Oh! You're not Nightsky, my bad..." Lightbeam apologized, innocently sticking out her tongue in embarrassment.

Rainbow Dash, being a pony who highly valued her little naps and her free time, was not taking too kindly about this abrupt wake-up call. "Hey! I was fast asleep!" She exclaimed annoyed.

"Sorry, I mistook you with my brother Nightsky," Lightbeam apologized again. "He usually takes a nap at this time of day in a cloud, just like you just now. Funny, huh?" He explained.

But Rainbow Dash didn't find anything about this whole situation funny. In fact, hearing that name was ruining her good mood completely. "Don't compare me with this lazy guy, we are nothing alike!" She replied as if she got offended by this statement for some reason. 

Lightbeam didn't understand why Rainbow Dash reacted like that. She didn't know what her brother's and Rainbow Dash's relationship was but judging from Rainbow Dash's reaction it didn't seem too good. But despite that, Lightbeam still had to disagree. "I don't know. You both work as weather ponies, you both like to take naps, you are both blue..." she pointed out. The more things that the mare listed up, the more Rainbow Dash seemed to get annoyed. "Also, you are both really fast flyer,"

"So, I've heard..." Rainbow Dash replied annoyed. She happened to know this already after witnessing the stallion's flying abilities before. For some reason, it only made her angrier that a pony like him was actually as fast of a flyer than she was.

Lightbeam didn't notice how Rainbow Dash didn't want to hear all of this and just merrily continued. "I mean, I guess you can be considered really fast if even the Wonderbolts approach you and ask you to join them," she casually mentioned.

Suddenly, the annoyance from Rainbow Dash's face disappeared and turned into shock. "He what!?" Rainbow Dash replied in shock, her body now being fully awake. It was almost like she misheard something right now.

"Yeah," Lightbeam said happily with a nod. "One day, one of them came to visit. Spitfire, was it?" She said trying to recall the name, which according to Rainbow Dash's shocked expression must have been the right one. "She said, she saw him flying somewhere in Cloudsdale at some point and asked my brother if he considered joining them with his skills," the mare explained.

"So he is a member of the Wonderbolts!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed in surprise and with widened eyes.

"Nope, he declined," Lightbeam replied casually with a smile on her face.

It was almost possible to hear Rainbow Dash's frustration once she heard those words. "He WHAT!?" She exclaimed louder than ever before. The mare then grabbed Lightbeam's shoulders, shaking her back and forth. "So you are telling me that this guy got the opportunity to join the best and most awesome ponies in Equestria and he decided to not join them!?" She asked desperately.

"Uh-huh," Lightbeam replied, again, really casually considering how Rainbow Dash was shaking her back and forth.

"Why!?" Rainbow Dash asked in desperation, confusion, frustration, and almost any other bad emotion in her mind right now.

Lightbeam began to think for a moment. "I...don't really know. I don't think he ever explained why. All I remember is him saying that he didn't think it was this important,"

"NOT IMPORTANT!?" Rainbow Dash exclaimed angrily now. She couldn't take it anymore. It was just too much for her to handle at this moment. All she knew right now was that she had to go to Nightsky and have a talk with him about some things. Some really important things that she couldn't let pass by like that.

"If he was good enough to join the Wonderbolts, then there is no way that I am not fit to join them as well! I am better after all!" She said determined while she was flying over Ponyville at extreme speed to find Nightsky and settle some things that she wanted to settle for a while now.


Later...


Nightsky's shift as a weather pony ended just an hour ago and as usual, to get some rest from work, he would usually take a little nap in the clouds. Given that Nightsky was a pony who was needlessly happy, he enjoyed those naps quite a lot and didn't like it when somepony interrupted them. Except for his sister of course.

Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened now. His nap was interrupted by someone. A shadow was thrown on him, causing his eyebrows to lower in confusion. "Is that you Lightbeam?" Nightsky asked with his eyes still closed. "I'm exhausted, let me sleep for a while please," he begged.

After not hearing a reply for a while and still feeling the shadow on his face, the stallion opened his eyes and soon found out that it wasn't Lightbeam hovering over him but instead a sky blue-coated Pegasus mare with a rainbow-colored mane, cherry red-colored eyes and a rainbow-colored lightning bolt coming out of a white cloud as a Cutie Mark.

"Rainbow Dash?" Nightsky asked confused in a tired voice after he recognized his fellow work partner. "Can I help you?"

The mare clenched her eyes bitterly and glared at the stallion. "You!" She simply said, not breaking eye contact with the stallion one bit.

"Yes?" Nightsky replied confused. His tiredness vanished after he realized with what determined of a look the mare was looking at him. She must have wanted something really serious from him, judging from the expression on her face.

Rainbow Dash didn't waste any time and got straight to the point. "You and me, we're gonna race! Now!" She demanded.

"Huh?" Nightsky replied confused. He had no idea where this came from and he wished for some more explanation from the mare.

But Rainbow Dash didn't want to explain anything. "You heard me! We will both race against each other! The winner is gonna get the title of Fastest Flyer in Ponyville!" She said with a determined grin on her face as if she already won this race.

Nightsky looked at the mare and noticed the determination on her face. For some reason, this seemed to be important for her, very important. His answer followed relatively quickly. "No," he simply said before he turned around and laid down on his cloud again.

The mare in front of him had a look on her face as if she wasn't picked up from her mother after school. "What!? You can't decline! I just challenged you to a race!" She pointed out.

"I just did," Nightsky replied with his head laying on his cloud again, ready to go to sleep again.

Needless to say, Rainbow Dash got pretty angry by this response. "The fastest pony in all of Equestria just challenged you to a race! You can't just decline!" She said angrily.

But Nightsky didn't care one bit. "If you are the fastest pony in Equestria then there is no reason to do a race now, is there?" He pointed out, his head still turned away from the mare.

Rainbow Dash clearly found her determination waver after hearing those words. "Still!" She said with some less confidence in her voice. "This is something that needs to be settled!"

"Why?" Nightsky asked.

Rainbow Dash was now hovering right in front of the stallion's face, much to close for his comfort. "Listen, I've been watching you for a while now!" She said, which confused Nightsky a little and actually made him feel a little weird. "At work, you are always so lazy and laid back, you don't put any energy into anything. But then, on some random occasions, like back then at Apple Cider Season, you clearly showed that you can fly really fast if you want to," the mare pointed out almost angrily.

Still, Nightsky remained calm and collected while replying to her. "Those were not random occasions. I fly fast when I need to, that is all. What is wrong with that?" He asked as if it was the most normal thing ever.

"So you do admit that you are a fast flyer!" Rainbow Dash threw at the stallion, even though he was sure that he never denied that in the first place. "Don't tell me that you are too lazy to spend a few minutes racing with me!" But then something suddenly struck the mare and she got her confidence back. "Or don't tell me that you are too afraid to lose against me?" She said with a smug smile on her face.

The expression on Nightsky changed a little. He lowered his eyebrows and looked a little bit more bothered. Rainbow Dash seemed to have struck the right spot with him now. Now he had to accept her challenge.

At least that's what she thought was happening...

"Sure, that's it. Glad that we are done here now," the stallion said before he turned around to sleep on his cloud again.

Rainbow Dash was boiling in anger. She couldn't believe how difficult it would be to deal with this pony. In the end, she was out of options and gave up for now. She had to come up with something else to convince this pony to race her. And she quickly realized how she was able to do this.

Nightsky watched the mare leave and was glad that this was over with. Now he could happily return to his nap.


Later...


Nightsky was about to fall asleep again. This one talk with Rainbow Dash did give him a little bit of a headache but he quickly put it aside and focused on his nap again. He figured that it was a waste of time thinking about it so he decided to not worry about it anymore.

The stallion came close to fall asleep but again, a shadow appeared on him and Nightsky figured that Rainbow Dash didn't give up on him already. However, as soon as he opened his eyes to check, he saw his sister hovering above him.

"Oh, it's you..." Nightsky said with relief in his voice. "Do you need something, Light?" He asked, hoping that this wasn't the case so that he could continue to rest some more.

"Oh, nothing special," Lightbeam said casually. "I am a little bored, that is all,"

"I'm sure you find something to do to keep yourself entertained..." Nightsky said while he turned around to sleep again.

But Lightbeam was not noticing those signs to leave her brother alone. "I was hoping that you could help me," she said before she hovered in front of Nightsky's face.

"Do I need to?" Nightsky replied with a bothered tone in his voice. "You know how much I like my naps after work," he pointed out, hoping that his sister would understand.

"Yeah, I know," Lightbeam replied. "I just thought...maybe doing something entertaining would get rid of my boredom...like watching you fly!"

Nightsky's eyes popped open in surprise. He turned around and looked at his sister. "What?" He just asked confused.

"I know!" Lightbeam exclaimed excitedly. "I would really like watching you in a race, it'll be fun!"

This was really suspicious. Nightsky clenched his eyes and looked around carefully. He inspected his surroundings and quickly saw what he thought he would find. Rainbow Dash. The mare was hiding behind a cloud, her head was pointed out but as soon as Nightsky was looking at her general direction, she made sure to be out of sight.

"Of course..." Nightsky said annoyed after realizing what might have happened. It was just too suspicious that his sister was asking him to do something like this now out of all days. Rainbow Dash must have somehow convinced his sister to talk him into this whole racing thing.

"Well, what do you say?" Lightbeam then asked while Nightsky's eyes were still focused on the cloud where Rainbow Dash was hiding behind.

His sister had a genuinely excited expression on her face. Rainbow Dash must have gotten into her head really good to make her feel like this. Needless to say, Nightsky couldn't just say no with his sister looking at him like this and he just let out a sigh. "Fine..." he said, agreeing to take part in this race that Rainbow Dash demanded from him.

The stallion could swear that he could hear Rainbow Dash giggling behind her cloud after accepting the challenge.


Later...


The two Pegasus ponies were waiting at the starting line for the race, which wasn't a line at all and just a drawn line in the dirt on an empty grass meadow a little bit outside of Ponyville. Lightbeam accompanied them and had the job to give the starting signal to the two of them, once they were ready.

"Alright, the rules are simple, no need to over complicate things, after all," Rainbow Dash said while she was stretching her legs next to Nightsky.

"Right..." Nightsky said a little annoyed as he practically waited for her to be ready so that this could all be over as fast as possible.

Rainbow Dash pointed forward at the huge city of Canterlot in the far distance. "The first pony that reaches the gates of Canterlot and returns here, wins!" She said. It really was pretty simple. Nightsky almost expected the mare to set up a whole obstacle course for them.

"Got it," Nightsky replied before he stood there ready to fly at any time.

Seeing how the stallion was ready for the race, really was to Rainbow Dash's liking. But instead of being thankful to Nightsky that he was taking part in this race now, she decided to boast. "You probably already know but I think I should warn you that you will not win this race," she said confidently with a big grin on her face.

Nightsky only looked at the mare annoyed. He really wanted to tell her that the race was pointless if she thought that but he just decided to ignore her and get this all over with. No need to fuel the fire anymore. "We are both ready, Light!" He said towards his little sister who was already waiting for the two of them to start.

Lightbeam walked past the two ponies before she eventually placed herself on the sideline. She had to admit that she was getting quite excited to see who would win this race. Of course, she knew that her brother was pretty fast when it came to flying but she also knows that Rainbow Dash was not bad either, according to the things that Nightsky occasionally brought up after coming back from work. This race will probably be really close and not to mention, interesting.

"Alright! Get ready!" Lightbeam shouted. The two ponies both stood ready and just waited for the signal from Lightbeam.

A suspenseful pause happened. Both Pegasus Ponies had their eyes focused in front of them and waited for a signal from Lightbeam. Both of them seemed serious about winning just judging from the expressions on their faces. Rainbow Dash had to admit that she got quite excited about this race as well after noticing the seriousness on Nightsky's face.

"Set...GO!"

The sight of the two ponies was replaced by a huge smoke cloud that was created by their fast lift off. Lightbeam was cheering heavily and bounced up and down on the spot. She shouted her brother's name repeatedly even though he could probably not hear her anymore. Her cheers were, however, stopped as soon as she spotted something right in front of her eyes.

Once the smoke on the starting line cleared, one pony revealed itself, standing still and without any sign to move any time. It was Nightsky. He watched Rainbow Dash flying away at high speed until she eventually was out of sight, and once that happened, he turned around and slowly walked away.

Lightbeam kept continuing to cheer. She didn't quite seem to understand what was happening in front of her eyes. "Um..." she then said after realizing that her brother did not bother to continue the race. She then ran towards the stallion, asking the obvious question. "What are you doing!? You gonna lose the race if you don't hurry!" She advised.

"Yep, Looks like it," Nightsky said while he casually shook his shoulders and continued to walk away.

The mare was still a little bit confused. "But...you didn't even attempt to race her," Lightbeam pointed out.

"The race started and I was there when it started. That should be enough," Nightsky replied.

"I dunno," Lightbeam replied, thinking about how this was not really what she was expecting when she was looking forward to this race.

But Nightsky knew exactly how to handle this situation. "I'll buy you some ice cream,"

Lightbeam ears pointed up in excitement. "Okay!" She said with a smile on her face before she hopped behind Nightsky who was now walking away from the starting line. Thank goodness that his sister was easy to convince. Now it kinda made sense how Rainbow Dash managed to talk her into this race.

Nightsky did not really feel bad for what he did, he attended the race and by now Rainbow Dash was probably way on her way to Canterlot and about to reach the gates so she pretty much won anyway. One way or another, the race was decided.


Later...


Again, Nightsky was laying on a cloud continuing his nap, when not much time later, a shadow appeared on his face again. The stallion lowered his eyebrows in worry because he had a pretty good guess who that shadow belonged to, and once he opened his eyes, he found out his guess was true.

"You! You tricked me!" Rainbow Dash said furiously. As if she wasn't annoyed enough before from Nightsky's previous behavior, now she had a legitimate reason to be pretty angry at him.

"Guess I lost the race," Nightsky casually replied before he closed his eyes again.

"You weren't racing at all!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed angrily.

Nightsky shook his shoulders. "Okay, I didn't..." he replied before he turned around and tried to ignore the mare so that he could sleep again.

Rainbow Dash was furious after hearing that reply. She couldn't believe that this pony was so difficult to deal with. All she wanted was a race and nothing more but Nightsky was just not having it. But the thing was, Rainbow Dash was way too stubborn to give up now.

"We both will go back to the starting line right now and start this race again!" She demanded.

"No," Nightsky shot back.

Again, Rainbow Dash was boiling in anger after hearing this response. "Why are you so stubborn!?" She exclaimed angrily.

"I could ask you the same thing," Nightsky replied calmly. "I'm pretty sure I would lose the race anyway, to be honest," he added.

"But we can't be sure!" Rainbow Dash shouted back before she covered her mouth in shock, much to the surprise of Nightsky who had no idea what this was about. "What I mean is...uh...I know that I'll win this race but I...uh...I can't just call myself the fastest flyer in Equestria if there is still somepony out there that I haven't competed against,"

Right about now Nightsky figured that this was just an excuse. What she said made absolutely no sense. Going by that logic, she needed to race every single pony in Equestria to claim that title. But whatever the reason was for her, Nightsky couldn't care less.

Rainbow Dash, however, was not letting it go until the race was happening. "It will only take a few minutes and after that, it will be all over!" She almost said in a begging tone.

Those words actually sounded pretty good in Nightsky's ears. The stallion got up from his cloud and looked around. "One race?" He asked.

"One race!" Rainbow Dash replied.

"No matter who wins, you will leave me alone after that?" He asked further.

"Yes!" Rainbow Dash answered.

Again, Nightsky looked around until he got an idea. "Okay, from here to the entrance of the Everfree Forest then," he suggested.

Rainbow Dash's ears peeked up. "The Everfree Forest!? You mean that dangerous forest outside of Ponyville?" She said in a slightly nervous tone.

"What? You're too afraid?" Nightsky said with a smug expression on his face.

And as planned, Rainbow Dash jumped up after hearing that. "Of course not!" She replied before she was ready to fly at full speed any second now.

Nightsky also got ready now. He really wanted to be left in peace so he had no choice to get this over with. "On go," he signaled before he counted down from three to give the sign to start this race, which he was forced into. "GO!" He then exclaimed, officially starting the race now.

For Rainbow Dash...

Just like before, Rainbow Dash was flying at high speed while Nightsky didn't move one bit. He tricked her again and as soon as she was out of sight, the stallion left the scene to continue his day.

"Can't believe that actually worked twice..." he commented before he flew away to find a new cloud.


Later...


It was the same scene as before, Nightsky laying on a cloud, only this time he was awake. He probably figured that, with Rainbow Dash constantly interrupting him, it would just be a waste of time to go to sleep. So instead, he decided to read a book: Daring Do and the Quest For the Sapphire Stone. The book he was reading was one that his sister recently bought for him.

Nightsky did read a little bit of this book already and quickly found himself interested in the story. "Wow. This book is really good," he said in surprise as he went through another page of it. However, as soon as he found himself lost into this book, a shadow appeared above him, making it quite a bit annoying to read. "Hey, Rainbow Dash," the stallion casually greeted after feeling a lot of anger hanging in the air.

The mare glared at him. It almost seemed as if she was used to this behavior from Nightsky and didn't even bother shouting at him anymore. "Reading, really?" She commented after she saw the book in the stallion's hooves. She was clearly looking down on her self-proclaimed rival for reading a book instead of doing something of a more athletic nature.

The stallion wasn't offended by this and instead held the book in her direction. "It's a really fun book. I'm sure you would like it as well," he said, practically offering it to the mare to give it a read.

But Rainbow Dash instantly declined. "No thanks. Reading is for Eggheads and not cool ponies like me,"

Again, Nightsky didn't feel offended and simply shrug his shoulders. "Suit yourself." What followed was an awkward silence between the two and while Nightsky was continuing his book as if nothing was wrong, Rainbow Dash was throwing daggers with her eyes at the stallion. Eventually, Nightsky broke the silence after turning another page of his book. "So...how long are you trying to convince me to race with you?"

Rainbow Dash explained. "Until you accept,"

"And if I don't?" The stallion countered.

"I'll try as long until you do!"

"Okay then. I'm quite patient..." Nightsky replied while he kept reading his book.

"Well, I'm not!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed before she slapped the book out of Nightsky's hooves in anger. The stallion was not sure if she did that because she wanted him to react to that or not, but either way, he didn't care too much to bother.

There was another thing that did bother him, however. "Why are you so focused on this race anyway? This is not just about who of us is faster is it?" He asked, hoping to get to the bottom of this.

"Maybe," Rainbow Dash replied coldly. Another silence was between the two of them. Nightsky kept looking at the mare, waiting for an explanation. Rainbow Dash figured that it was now the time to get some answers to a bunch of questions that she kept in her mind.

"Is it true that the Wonderbolts asked you to join them!?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes," Nightsky replied.

"And is it true that you declined their offer!?"

"Yes," Nightsky replied again.

"And is it true that your reason for declining their offer was because you didn't think it was that important!?" 

"Yes," Nightsky replied once more.

Rainbow Dash screamed in anger. "Do you have any idea for how long I tried to join the Wonderbolts!?" She exclaimed before she went up right into Nightsky's face. "And then I'm told that you, out of all ponies in Equestria, had the chance to join them served on a silver plate! It's like you are kicking me right in the face!"

Nightsky lowered his eyebrows in confusion. "I still don't really understand why you are so upset about that," he asked.

Rainbow Dash quickly screamed back, "I am upset because joining the Wonderbolts is my dream!"

In complete contrast to Rainbow Dash's behavior, Nightsky remained calm and answered. "But it's not my dream. It's not like I ruined your chance to join them. It will only be a matter of time until they will approach you someday so I don't really get why you are getting mad at me for declining my chance," the stallion explained.

The mare suspiciously raised an eyebrow. Eventually, she got a little confused about the stallion's words. "You really think they will approach me too?" She asked with a glimmer of hope in her voice.

"Are you kidding me?" Nightsky said. "It's as you said, if they approach me, then surely they will notice you as well in no time."

"You think!?" Rainbow Dash asked as if Nightsky's words were absolute. Still, the mare had a hard time believing that. "You...you are not just saying that so that I would calm down, right?"

"Not at all," Nightsky assured. "I mean, weren't you the pony who pulled off a Sonic Rainboom? I never managed to do something like that," he admitted.

All of a sudden, the mare's behavior changed completely and she began raising her chest confidently. "Yeah, I'm pretty awesome," she said with a grin on her face.

Nightsky smiled after hearing that response. "There we go, that's more like you,"

The mare rubbed her neck with a little bit of embarrassment on her face. "I guess it was pretty stupid of me to think that I am a worse flyer than you," she said followed by a little laugh.

Now Nightsky was the one who laughed. "So that is what this was all about?" He teased with a smile on his face.

Rainbow Dash's eyes popped open in embarrassment. "Like I said! It was stupid of me to even consider that a possibility considering that I am the best flyer in Equestria!" She said in an attempt to defend herself.

Nightsky chuckled and approached the mare. "Listen...even if  I am a better flyer than you if joining the Wonderbolts is your dream and you keep improving yourself until you archive that dream then there is no way that you will soon become the fastest flyer in all of Equestria. I am sure of that," the stallion explained with more emotions than he ever showed before towards Rainbow Dash.

Those words certainly helped to boost Rainbow Dash's confidence. "Say..." she then started in order to change the subject. "Now that we all settled who is better, I guess it wouldn't hurt if we both could spend some time together, from one good flyer to another," she suggested while still trying to keep up her confidence. "We do have a lot in common after all." She then moved closer to the stallion. "Just between us...I like to take a nap after work as well," the mare whispered into the stallion's ears so that nopony else world hear it.

Nightsky smiled after hearing that. "Yeah, so I've heard. And yes, that sounds like a good idea,"

The two settled this newfound friendship with a hoof bump. It was true that both of them had quite a few things in common. They both liked to take naps, both were fast flyer, and they both worked as weather ponies. Now those were probably not the best things to start a friendship of from but it was better than nothing.

"But..." Rainbow Dash started after she remembered one thing. "There is still one thing that bothers me..."

"What?" Nightsky asked.

Rainbow Dash quickly asked her question. "Now, what could possibly be more important than joining the Wonderbolts? You said it wasn't that important to you so was there something that was more important to you at that time?"

Nightsky had to smile as soon as he thought back at that time. Coincidentally, his sister Lightbeam could be seen in the distance talking and laughing with the rest of his friends. Seeing that quickly put a smile on his face. "Yeah, maybe," he said happily before he decided to walk up to his friends. "I wanted to stay with my friends...I wanted to spend time with them right here, right now," he then mumbled under his breath.

"What?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Nothing. Hey, want me to introduce you to my friends?" Nightsky then asked towards Rainbow Dash, who nodded in response and followed the stallion who was walking up to the group of ponies.
> 16. Battle for Harmony - Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Summershine was done with his work for today, delivering packages all over Ponyville. Right now he didn't really have an idea what to do. Usually, he would come across one of his friends and then decided what to do. In fact, the stallion was hoping that this would happen because he was relatively clueless about what to do. It was almost astonishing how helpless he could be without his friends next to him.

Luckily, as if a whim of good luck was poured right at him, one of his friends did come across him. It was Ashgray. However, instead of walking towards him, the stallion was running, and instead of having an inviting smile on his face, the stallion had a stressed-out expression on him.

As soon as Ashgray spotted Summershine, he came to a halt right in front of him. He took some deep breathes and tried to catch a break again. "Ashgray? What is wrong?" Summershine asked, obviously referring to how the Unicorn was running towards him.

Normally Ashgray was pretty calm and collected, which was all the more confusing to see him like this. The Unicorn was heavily panting and could barely speak. There was one sentence, however, that he managed to get out, and it was sending down shivers on Summershine's back.

"It's Princess Celestia! She's in danger!"

Summershine widened his eyes and felt how his breath became nervous already. He didn't know what to reply to that at first. "If that is supposed to be a joke, then it's not really funny," he said with a frown on his face. Maybe he was wishing that he misheard that right now.

But judging from Ashgray's behavior, that did not seem to be the case at all. "No! I'm serious!" He said. "She needs help! Now!"

There was a lot of thinking going on inside of Summershine's head. Of course, he wanted to know what exactly happened first, but again, Ashgray was really exhausted and could barely talk to him normally. The first thing that came to mind was obvious, if what Ashgray said was true, then he needed help, now. Summershine instantly turned his head towards the sky, looking for something, or rather someone. "Night!" He shouted in hope that his friend would be nearby sleeping on a cloud, like usual.

He was lucky, Nightsky pointed his head up from one cloud not too far away from Summershine. "What?" He asked while he rubbed his eyes. He clearly didn't like to be woken up from his nap.

But Nightsky quickly grabbed the seriousness of the situation just by looking at Summershine's face. "Go get the others! They might want to hear this!" He said.

The Pegasus stallion just nodded and was then already on his way. Summershine would not ask him to do something like that if it wasn't important. He was flying at high speed around Ponyville to gather the rest of his friends.

Just hearing that Princess Celestia was in danger was enough to put Summershine on edge. At first, it was rather unbelievable that Princess Celestia, the ruler of all of Equestria would find herself in some kind of danger where she could not get out on her own. But then again, she probably had some enemies in this world, some who probably would want the throne of Equestria for themselves. It was almost funny how quickly the words "Princess Celestia is in danger" left an impact on the stallion. He still hoped that this was all just a really bad joke but in case it wasn't, he knew he would definitely need help from his friends.


Later...


Nightsky successfully gathered all of his friends to join Summershine and Ashgray. All with the exception of Star Twinkle, who he couldn't find and afford to look for any longer. Time was of the essence after all. Still, Happytrade, Crash, Nightsky, Lightbeam, Brilliance, Summershine, as well as Ashgray should be enough to deal with the situation.

They were already running towards where Ashgray found the princess and Happytrade already didn't like one bit where they were heading to.

"Do we really have to go to this creepy forest again!?" She said in concern for her own safety rather than for the princess.

"Yeah," Nightsky commented. "Do you mind telling the rest of us what exactly happened?"

It was true that Ashgray, in his panic didn't fully explain the situation yet. Since the group was already on their way, he figured now would be the best time for that.

"Well, I was inside the Castle of the Two Sisters. You know, studying it, gathering some information and such...and then I saw her! In the Throne room! Princess Celestia was trapped in some kind of spell!" The Unicorn said as he was leading the way to the forest.

Summershine was the first one to comment on that. "A spell? What kind of spell?"

"I don't know!" Ashgray replied nervously. "It looked pretty serious, she wasn't conscious too so I couldn't ask her what happened!"

Ashgray seemed to blame himself for not being able to do something in this situation. From the stallion's explanation, it must have been some pretty strong spell. A spell that was powerful enough to trap the ruler of Equestria. Princess Celestia would surely not get herself trapped in some ordinary spell after all.

But Crash had the right words to say in this situation. "If it is a spell then we don't have anything to worry about!" He said confidentially.

"Crash is right!" Lightbeam agreed. "When it comes to magic and spells then Summershine will find some way to break it," she said with the same amount of confidence as Crash.

Summershine would like to be as confident as his friends were but first, he had to take a look at the spell himself. "Let's check it out!" He said, prompting everypony to make haste to the castle.

It didn't take much longer until the group arrived at the castle. It felt weird storming into this castle, especially since the last time, they were there, the group was carefully sneaking around the place. Clearly, they didn't have time for that now because of their worry for the princess. It was also still bright as day outside so some dangers inside the forest were probably sleeping now.

Not everypony of the group remembered exactly where the throne room was again but luckily Ashgray did since he was spending quite some time in this castle because of his work as an archaeologist or rather...his own curiosity.

Multiple sets of stairs later, Ashgray was standing in the entrance of the throne room. "There!" He said while he pointed in front of him before anyone was even in the same room as him.

When the rest of the ponies eventually did arrive in the throne room, they did in fact saw Princess Celestia at the end of the room. The mare was inside some kind of magic sphere that was levitating a few meters above the ground. And just like Ashgray said before, she was unconscious.

Summershine was the first one to walk up to her. "Princess Celestia!" He shouted at her but to no effect, no response came from the mare no matter how loud he shouted her name.

The rest of his friends quickly joined him. Nightsky tried to break the sphere with brute force but it didn't work at all and the rest could just watch, hoping that Summershine would find a way to destroy it.

Once the stallion figured that screaming wasn't helping, he resorted to magic. Whatever that magic sphere was, if he was focusing stronger magic then the spell will most likely be broken, or at least he hoped that's what's going to happen.

The stallion closed his eyes and focused his magic, as much as he could. His horn began to glow in a blue light which was starting to engulf the sphere around the princess. She wasn't aware of any of this. This went on for a while now. His friends stood there and watched, hoping that Summershine could break the spell quickly enough.

However, as time passed on, Summershine began to pant in exhaustion. He focused quite a lot of his magic but the princess was still trapped and no progress was made.

"Well?" Ashgray then asked, wondering about what was exactly happening.

Summershine replied honestly. "This isn't going to work. Whoever was responsible for this spell was good...really good," he admitted in his frustration. "I can't break that spell on my own..." he added with the little confidence that he had left inside of him slipping away.

Now the rest of the group was starting to worry. "Then what do we do!?" Happytrade asked in the name of everypony else present.

Meanwhile, Brilliance was asking herself another important question. "Who would be able to create a powerful spell like this in the first place?" 

"Yeah!" Lightbeam added. "Who is trying to hurt our beloved princess like this!? And for what reason," she questioned while she kept looking back at Princess Celestia.

Nightsky was shooting out a guess. "Maybe somepony like Arcana?"

While most ponies in the group could actually see this happening, Ashgray was the only one who got confused to hear this name. "Who?"

It was true that Ashgray, out of all of the ponies present, Ashgray couldn't know about him so Summershine explained. "When we first found the Elements of Harmony, this one pony, Arcana, showed up and tried to take them away from us. He was pretty strong, he definitely was very powerful when it came to magic," he said before he looked over to Princess Celestia who was still trapped inside this magic sphere. "He also clearly had evil intentions. This is a pretty strong spell so I just draw conclusions that it was somepony who was at least as strong as him. If it wasn't for the Elements of Harmony, then he would have surely won," he admitted.

Suddenly, Ashgray's eyes widened and his ears perked up. "That's it!" He said in an unusual happy tone.

Summershine shrugged after this sudden mood change from Ashgray."What?" He replied confused.

"The Elements of Harmony!" Ashgray said. "You have them, don't you!? Just use them to free her!" Ashgray explained.

The group didn't even consider that at this moment but they figured that Ashgray was right. The Elements of Harmony were the most powerful magic in Equestria so breaking through this spell should provide no problem for them. What everypony was worrying about however was if they could manage to use them at will, especially in a situation like this.

But considering all those worries, Summershine was ready to give this a shot. They had no other option. If Summershine had some more time to figure out this spell, he would surely find a solution but he had no idea if he had time to spare now. If they didn't try this option now then they might as well just sit there and do nothing and of course, they were not going to do that.

"Let's try it!" Summershine decided. "The elements are at my place," he informed.

"Got it!" Nightsky instantly replied. "I'll get them right away!" He added before he was ready to get them in a matter of minutes.

"No, don't go!" Summershine then interrupted, causing the Pegasus to stop in midair after only flying a few steps.

Needless to say, the group was confused by this, especially Nightsky. "What!? Why!?" He asked confused.

Summershine explained. "After our last encounter with Arcana, Princess Celestia entrusted me with the Elements of Harmony. They are in my house but she put a spell to protect them around them, a spell that can only be deactivated by her or me,"

"So you are the only one who can get them?" Happytrade asked.

"I'm afraid so," Summershine replied before he turned around. "I'll come back as soon as possible, you stay here and have an eye on Princess Celestia!"

"Got it!" Most of the ponies replied determinedly.

Right now everyone could just do as Summershine said and hope that the Elements of Harmony would save the day again.

As Summershine was running out of the castle, his mind was still focused on the princess. As the one who gave him the task to use the Elements of Harmony to defeat Nightmare Moon after she returned, he felt a huge weight on his shoulders right now. If he couldn't save Princess Celestia right now, then he would have never been fit to be able to save all of Equestria.

"Princess Celestia..." he said to himself as he ran through the forest, determined to save her. "I will not let you down! Not now or any other day!"


Later...


It took a few minutes but Summershine arrived at his house and quickly went to where he placed the Elements of Harmony. They were placed in Summershine's bedroom right in one corner of the room, begging to get stolen by somepony. Of course, something like that could not easily happen because of the huge shield around them. Princess Celestia and Summershine used their combined strength to create this spell, meaning that it would take quite some powerful magic to break it.

Luckily, Summershine didn't need to do anything. He casually walked through the shield as if it wasn't even there. He and Princess Celestia were the only ones who could walk through the shield like that. It was necessary to do that in case somepony like Arcana shows up again. Right now, however, it was more of a bother because Nightsky could have grabbed the elements much quicker. The princess could be free by now.

The six elements were placed on a pedestal and Summershine just grabbed them with his magic and was on his way to the castle again. As soon as he opened the door to his house again, however, he almost crashed into his best friend who was about to knock on the door.

"Ah!" Star Twinkle said in surprise after the door opened unexpectedly in front of him. "Finally, somepony is home. Do you know where everypony is? I can't seem to find anypony of our friends," the pony asked confused before he took a look at the six gems levitating above Summershine's head. "What are those?" The Earth Pony stallion asked.

Summershine just now realized that Star Twinkle didn't even know about the events that unfolded in the Castle of the Two Sister a while ago or the Elements of Harmony. He should have really told him about that, he was his best friend after all.

But as soon as Summershine was thinking about that, he remembered the most important thing right now. "I don't have any time to explain stuff right now! Princess Celestia is in danger! I need to go!" He said before he ran past Star Twinkle, leaving him completely in the unknown of the situation. But of course, Star Twinkle could not just ignore all of this and followed the unicorn. "What are you doing!?"  Summershine asked confused by this action.

Star Twinkle explained himself. "I don't know what is happening but I can tell that it is something serious so there is no way that I will just sit here and do nothing!" The stallion said, determined to help in any way possible.

Summershine was happy to hear that. Right now, he could need every bit of support that he could find. "Thank you, Star Twinkle," he said with a smile on his face which was quickly replaced by a more serious expression again. "But we have to hurry!" He advised.

"Got it!" Star Twinkle replied with a determined grin on his face.

The two made their way to the Everfree Forest. As soon as Star Twinkle heard that they were heading towards this place, he got a little nervous but he couldn't let this get in the way right now so he just continued to follow his friend.


Later...


All this running was starting to exhaust Summershine a little, especially the stairs that he had to climb again to reach the throne room. In his panic, he completely forgot that he could have actually teleport himself to the throne room. It wouldn't make any difference anymore since he was almost there anyway. He also didn't want to risk dropping the Elements of Harmony

The two ponies finally stepped into the throne room, ready to use the Elements of Harmony to save Princess Celestia and get this all over with.

But something wasn't right...something wasn't right at all. The two ponies stood there, their eyes widened and their mouths open. It was quiet, way too quiet.

"What...happened here?" Summershine said after he took a look at the room.

His friends...they laid on the ground, unconscious, hurt, attacked by something.

"What happened here!?" Star Twinkle repeated in shock. "Who did that!?" He said, hoping to receive an answer from someone.

Right now, it was exactly what Summershine feared. Somepony attacked his friends while he was gone getting the Elements of Harmony. None of his friends had bruises or any visible damage on them, or at least nothing what he could see at first glance. This only meant that someone used magic to hurt them. It was probably the same pony who trapped Princess Celestia, who was still floating up in the air at the end of the room.

Star Twinkle walked up to his friends, Nightsky happened to be the one who was the closest to him so he approached him first. He was unconscious so there was no way that he could tell what happened.

Summershine was walking up to his friends as well. He carefully made one step after another because there could be a chance that the one who did all this was still close. As he walked closer to his friends however, he noticed something. He looked around and no matter how many times he counted, there were only five ponies laying on the ground.

"Someone is missing," he said in his realization. The puzzle pieces in his mind quickly built a whole picture of what could have happened but before it could arrive in his brain his view was focused on Princess Celestia, who was waking up inside of this magic trap. It looked as if she was desperately trying to tell him something but before he could understand what she was trying to tell him it was already too late.

BAM!

Pain started to appear on his back, making him scream in shock. The stallion flew a few meters forward right towards Star Twinkle. The Earth Pony could only watch how his best friend dropped to the floor after an attack from behind.

"Summershine!" Star Twinkle exclaimed in concern before he rushed towards his friend to see if he was okay.

The Earth Pony could not exactly see what happened but for just a brief moment, when Summershine was still in the air, he could swear he saw a beam of magic. Star Twinkle looked over to from where the attack came from and noticed that the Elements of Harmony were on the ground, dropped by Summershine after the attack.

A little bit further away, he could finally see somepony in the shadows, walking towards them and levitating the objects above the ground. The pony had no more plans to hide and stepped out of the shadows, fully revealing himself to Star Twinkle and Summershine, the later one still being conscious. 

"You!?" Summershine asked in shock after he saw the one picking up the Elements of Harmony.

Star Twinkle's eyes were widened after taking a look at the pony in front of him. A gray-coated Unicorn stallion, with a dark gray colored mane, red eyes, and a Cutie Mark that consisted of a yellow sun with some falling snow in front of it.

"...Ashgray?" Star Twinkle said in disbelieve after seeing one of his friends standing there unfazed after attacking his best friend.

Ashgray didn't say anything. He only looked at the two ponies with a serious expression on his face. 
Summershine and Star Twinkle wanted to know what the meaning of this was but just the situation alone left them both speechless...for now...


Earlier this day...


Princess Celestia was riding on her chariot, pulled by two Pegasus stallions, and headed right towards Ponyville. The expression on the princess's face was filled with concern and even fear. "Was I...imagining things?" she mumbled under her mane.

There was something going on out there. Something was going on at a specific place, a place that she had almost forgotten, which made the whole situation even more concerning.

The chariot was close to Ponyville. However, Ponyville was not exactly where the princess was heading to. Instead, it was the Everfree Forest. The princess advised her two guards to land at a specific place in the forest. Some kind of cave hidden deep in the forest. The Princess walked up to the cave accompanied by her two guards, who followed her.

Princess Celestia came to hold as soon as she came close to something inside of it. A tree. A light-blue colored tree made out of crystals or diamonds. The princess took a closer look at the tree as if she was looking for something. But that something wasn't there.

"I could swear...that something was happening to the Tree of Harmony...but it looks just like I remember it..." she figured. Still, she had the suspicion that something was wrong.

"You actually came..." A male voice then said, coming from behind the tree.

The princess's attention was quickly caught. At first, she thought one of her guards spoke up but soon she realized that somepony was stepping forward from behind the tree, walking up to her.

It was Ashgray.

"I was wondering if fiddling around with the tree would have been enough to lure you in here," the stallion said with a grim smile on his face.

Princess Celestia didn't like the sound of that at all. She formed a serious expression on her face. "What did you do!?" She said in anger, causing her two guards to step next to hear and pointing their lances at the Unicorn.

Ashgray, however, seemed unimpressed. "I didn't do anything...turns out the tree is actually pretty strong even without the elements inside of it," he said while he looked over to the tree.

Again, Princess Celestia didn't like the sound of that. This pony in front of her knew that the Elements of Harmony were once inside this tree, something that only she and her sister should know. This pony had some explanations to do. "How do you know about this tree? Who are you?" She asked.

The Unicorn looked over to Princess Celestia, his face showing little emotion. He didn't reply straight away but right before he did, a smile formed on his face, much to the princesses dislike. It made her feel uncomfortable.

"Come on Celestia! Is that a way to speak with an old friend?" Ashgray replied almost in a happy tone.

Princess Celestia lowered her eyebrows confused. She figured that this pony was trying to mess with her. The smile, that he kept on his face, was only supporting this theory. However, for some reason, something felt familiar about him, she just could not put it in any way. And the more she tried to think about it, the more her head started to hurt.

Eventually, the smile on Ashgray's face vanished. "Oh, yeah, you forgot about me..." he said with a bitter sound in his voice. "Must be nice to have all your problems vanish into thin air, huh?" He said mockingly. "Did you forget about Luna as well? You know, your sister? The one you banished on the moon?"

Those words struck the princess hard. She lowered her head in discomfort, something that her guards noticed as well. The two of them walked in front of her in a defensive position. It was obvious that Ashgray was not just there to have a nice talk anyway so they both figured they should be ready for anything.

Princess Celestia was able to finally found her words again and looked at the Unicorn with a serious expression on her face. "The banishment of my sister was the most difficult choice in my whole life. It was a choice I had to do nonetheless, to save the ponies of Equestria," she said, her words sounding powerful.

Ashgray glanced at the princess as if he was looking down at her but soon his face was showing signs of sadness. "You know, I actually believe you...or at least I can relate how you must feel," he admitted. "Still, if you can't take care of your own sister then it only proves that a pony like you is not fit to rule over Equestria,"

With every passing moment, it felt as if Ashgray was judging the princess more and more. He clearly had no respect for her title and talked about her as if he knew her more than she did herself. Those words also slowly ignited some anger inside of Princess Celestia's two guards.

"You will refrain to talk to our princess with this little respect!" One of them threatened, pointing his lance right at the Unicorn.

The gray pony moved his eyes towards the guard for one moment, his horn starting to glow in a red light which soon surrounded the guard as well, pushing him away and knocking him against a wall, leaving him unconscious. The other guard felt his confidence to deal with Ashgray slip after seeing that and played with the thought to back away but as soon as he looked over to Ashgray again, he was blasted away by a shot of magic.

Princess Celestia did not take it too well that her two guards were attacked like that and glared at the stallion angrily. Being able to knock out her guards like that with no effort at all, only concerned her more than she already was. This pony was dangerous and had evil intentions, that much was clear just by exchanging a few words with him. And Princess Celestia was no longer standing around to find out what those intentions were.

"I could feel that something was wrong with the Tree of Harmony, that someone was trying to use magic against it. You did this knowing that I would come to check it, right? For what reason? What business do you have with me?" Princess Celestia asked after she was done putting the pieces together.

Ashgray kept up a serious expression on his face. "The Elements of Harmony returned," he simply replied. "I need them. And to get them I need you,"

More and more things started to worry the princess. This pony was sharing more and more information about things that he shouldn't know. Things that could provide a danger for Equestria. But for what reason? That is what Princess Celestia wanted to know.

"What are you planning to do with the Elements of Harmony?" She asked.

A quick answer came from Ashgray. "You stole the throne along with your sister. It was supposed to belong to you but you took it by force. And I will not let this go by any longer," he explained.

Princess Celestia was thinking about those words but they didn't make any sense to her. From who did she stole the throne? She also doesn't remember to take the throne of Equestria by force. This pony was completely delusional or maybe even crazy. Just the thought that a pony like his would posses the Elements of Harmony was worrying her.

Still, Ashgray continued. "Once there was finally peace between the pony races you claimed to be the one who brought it to everypony. You stomped the sacrifices that were made to archive it. You forgot about the ones who made it possible, like everyone else," he said before he looked over to the Tree of Harmony again. He paused for a moment. A sense of nostalgia could be seen on his face, sadness even. But this sadness vanished quickly and he looked at the Princess again in anger. "But I didn't!" He said determinedly.

A red light started to surround Ashgray's horn. He was readying his magic for an attack. Princess Celestia was caught off guard for a moment, still thinking about the words of this pony. Ashgray shot at her but she managed to get out an attack in the very last second, crossing beams with the stallion.

A beam struggle happened. Princess Celestia was having some trouble keeping it up at first but after concentrating some more magic, she found herself winning in the end. Ashgray was hit by her counter attack and flew back, dropping on the ground by Princess Celestia's magic.

After letting out some exhausted breathes, Princess Celestia emerged victorious from this battle. The stallion didn't move and was unconscious. The princess walked slowly towards the stallion to check on him. She needed to ask him some questions so she decided to restrain him. He was obviously too dangerous to roam around Equestria.

As the princess moved close enough, however, some strange symbol was appearing on the ground beneath her hooves. She was too surprised to react in time and soon she was feeling pain as if she was struck by lightning. It was a spell to paralyze or trap her on the spot. She couldn't move and shortly after, a sphere of magic was surrounding her. She tried to escape it immediately but it was no use. Her magic didn't work and raw force didn't do anything either. She was completely trapped inside with no way out.

And once there was no way out for her, Ashgray decided to get up on his hooves again. He didn't seem as hurt as he was supposed to be. A victorious smile was on the stallion's face. "Do you really think that I wouldn't prepare myself before I face you?" He teased as he walked up to the princess. "But then again, you never were better with magic as I was,"

More and more words were thrown at her that confused her. This pony was talking to her as if he knew her, making it all the more confusing because she had no idea who he was.

"Celestia..." Ashgray then started as he looked into the eyes of the princess, his eyes filled with a hint of sadness again. "I am not the one to talk down on you when it comes to your confrontation with your sister. I know you had no choice but to banish her, in order to protect Equestria..."

Sympathy. That is the feeling she got from the gray pony now. Princess Celestia could not read what was going on in this pony's head, she was just confused and thought to herself that she was supposed to remember something. But she didn't and for some reason, that is what made Ashgray act like that.

"You look at me as if I am evil," the stallion said. "But I am not. I thought you were my friend but you betrayed me," he said with anger filling his face again. "You took away my family and my friends! Ponies look at you as if you were a savior! But all you did was taking the credit for everything that my friends fought for!" He exclaimed while he was stomping against the sphere, causing Princess Celestia to widen her eyes in surprise.

Soon, Ashgray calmed down again and walked away, leaving the princess in this state. But now before he told he looked at her once more, telling her those final words. "I was right back then..." he said with a bitter tone in his voice. "Winterglow was not the one who was supposed to be gone,"

At this moment, for the first time, Princess Celestia actually recalled something that the pony told her. "Winterglow?" She said, having not heard that name for a very long time.

But before she could even ask further, the sphere around her was starting to glow in a bright light that sent pain through her whole body. The princess screamed in pain until she eventually fell unconscious from it.

Ashgray did not feel bad for the princess and just walked away. He was now ready to set his plan in motion. His plan to steal the Elements of Harmony from Summershine and his friends. And having Princess Celestia as a hostage would most likely help him to archive that goal.


To be continued...
> 17. Battle for Harmony - Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The throne room of the Castle of the Two Sisters was still filled with silence. It was there where one pony attacked all of his "Friends" and left two of them in a state of shock. Star Twinkle could not believe that Ashgray hurt everypony and made them believe that he was one of them. The Unicorn had a completely different air about him right now. The Ashgray that he remembered, was friendly, easily impressed, even geeky at times, but right now all he could see was a pony with a bitter expression on his face, who was probably planning what to do with him and Summershine.

There were many questions that Star Twinkle wanted to ask right now but Ashgray was the one finally broke the silence between them. "There is one missing," he said to himself.

The Unicorn was referring to the Elements of Harmony, which he was levitating above his head right now. Star Twinkle and Summershine both were so surprised about all of this that they didn't notice that there were five gems levitating above his head and that one of the elements was laying right in front of their hooves. Without a second to waste, Star Twinkle sprinted forward and grabbed the element with his mouth and jumping back again, away from Ashgray who didn't bother to do anything to stop the stallion and just looked at him.

For now, one of the elements was safe. But safe from what? Or for what reason? Summershine managed to get himself up on his own hooves again and so did the rest of his friends, all of them gathering next to Star Twinkle and Summershine. They quickly figured that Ashgray attacked them as well.

"Are you alright?" Star Twinkle asked into the round after he put the last element out of his mouth, carrying it now in one of his hooves.

While some of his friends were still a little bit hurt, they tried to not show it. They were not out of danger anyway if Ashgray decided to attack again, which, surprisingly enough he didn't even though he had plenty of time so far.

"What even happened?" Happytrade asked with her head still spinning a little.

Nightsky looked over to Ashgray, keeping a close eye on him at all times. "He attacked us, one after another." If there was any hint that this all could be a huge misunderstanding, then it was gone now after Nightsky's confirmation.

Star Twinkle already heard enough There was only one thing left to ask and he was the one who tackled that question. "What's the meaning of this, Ashgray!?" He said after he saw how Ashgray struck down his friend with a beam of magic.

Ashgray replied boldly. "I had to make sure that they wouldn't come in my way," he said in a serious tone, which completely contrasted his way of speaking that everypony was used to.

Happytrade was pretty disappointed and angry at the stallion. She stomped her hooves. "You were after the elements all this time!?"

Lightbeam, instead of being angry at him like the rest, was starting to feel really sad. "I thought we were friends..." she said with a frown on her face.

Ashgray's face didn't change as he replied. "I did enjoy the time I had with you," he said, which was pretty hard to believe judging from how he looked at everypony. "...but getting the Elements of Harmony was more important than your friendship,"

Hearing that made Star Twinkle step back. He was holding the last element in his hoof and he was not ready to give it to the stallion any time soon. In the meantime, Summershine, Nightsky, Happytrade, and Crash all stepped forward, in front of the Earth Pony, making sure that Ashgray had to go past them in order to get the last one.

Summershine whispered something over to Nightsky. "I'm gonna go and attack him. Once he is distracted, you go and grab the elements. Even if you only manage to get one, try to get it as far away as possible. If we can get at least save one of them, he won't be able to win at all,"

Nightsky had to admit that this was a decent plan but he didn't really like leaving his friends alone with Ashgray. Still, loosing all of the elements was worse than losing most of them so he had no choice to agree to this plan. "On it,"

Of course, it was not unnoticed by Ashgray that the ponies in front of him were planning something. He quickly decided to ruin it. "I don't know what you are whispering to each other but don't think that you can get the elements back," Ashgray said before his horn started to glow in red light.

A bright light was building up from behind everypony, causing them to turn around. The light came from that magic sphere around Princess Celestia, who was starting to scream in pain inside of it.

"Princess Celestia!" Summershine screamed in a panic. At this time it was obvious that Ashgray was the one who trapped her inside this sphere but he also could freely torture her whenever he wanted. Summershine turned towards Ashgray again, his face filled with anger. "Stop it!" He yelled towards the stallion.

Surprisingly, Ashgray did stop. He just did this to show everypony that he was in control of the situation. Summershine couldn't stop glaring at the pony in anger after what he did with the princess. To think that he once called him a friend was making him boil from the inside.

"Give me the last element and I will release her," Ashgray offered short and quick.

But Nightsky was continuing to glare at the Unicorn. "And we are supposed to believe that?" He asked.

"Yeah!" Crash added. "You lied to us all this time after all!"

But Ashgray reminded the group about who is in control of the situation again. "If you value the safety of your precious princess, then you will give me the Elements of Harmony, now," his voice started to sound more threatening. It was like he was losing his patience by now.

Summershine kept looking back and forth at Ashgray and Princess Celestia. Giving him the last element would be a mistake for sure but he also couldn't let Princess Celestia suffer. Even if he would not care about her at all, this was the Ruler of all of Equestria. If something happened to her, things would get pretty dire as well. This was a lose-lose situation.

The Unicorn clenched his teeth in anger and looked over to Star Twinkle who was still holding the last element in his hooves. "Give it to him," he simply said with a broken tone in his voice.

Star Twinkle looked back at him in concern. Of course, he didn't want anything to happen to the princess as well so it was not hard for him to accept the decision that Summershine made. The rest of his friends seemed to agree with this choice as well and remained silent. Eventually, Star Twinkle slowly walked up to Ashgray to give him the element.

"Promise that you will let Princess Celestia go," Summershine asked of him once more while Star Twinkle was on his way to the Unicorn.

Ashgray didn't reply. He only had eyes for Star Twinkle who was now in front of him. They both locked eyes and Star Twinkle hesitated for a moment. Looking at this pony in front of him, who claimed to be his friend made him angry and even sad. But eventually, Star Twinkle lowered his head and placed the last element on the ground before he stepped back again.

The element slowly levitated above the ground and joined in the other five, making Ashgray smile victoriously. He then looked over to the princess and actually deactivated the spell, making her slow descent to the ground where she was quickly joined by everypony else. Princess Celestia was obviously not in the best condition right now but she still managed to open her eyes.

"Are you alright?" Lightbeam asked in concern, with tears starting to build in her eyes.

Princess Celestia nodded weakly and tried to get up but she couldn't. "The elements..." she then said. "We can't let him have them," she added as she reached her hooves out to

This much was obvious. Nopony present planned on letting Ashgray get away with them and now that Princess Celestia was free again, the group had no reason to charge at him. Summershine, especially, had his sight focused on the Unicorn already, readying his magic to go and attack him. 

"Huh!?" Summershine then let out in surprise after he saw what happened in front of him right now. Ashgray was using his magic at the Elements of Harmony. They started to glow just like that time when the six friends used them against Arcana and his clones. Ashgray also seemed to deliberately do this.

The princess was more shocked than anypony else about this picture, she nearly forgot the pain that she was feeling seconds ago. "He can control the Elements of Harmony!?" She said in shock.

The rest of the group were shocked to hear this as well. They expected Ashgray to run away with the elements just like Arcana before but from the looks of it, Ashgray had other plans. The elements released a bright light that filled the whole room all while Ashgray grinned victoriously.

"But..." Summershine said in shock. "I thought only we and Princess Celestia were able to use them," he added in disbelieve. What was all this talk about, Honesty, Kindness, Generosity, Laughter, Loyalty, and Friendship if just Arcana could use them without showing any signs of those things, let alone that he could control all of them at once.

The gray Unicorn looked over to the eight ponies in front of him. "Now you...you are the only ones who can get in my way...so I have no choice to take care of you," he said before he placed the elements in front of him.

The group of ponies was moving close together, preparing themselves for whatever would happen next. Ashgray was aiming the most powerful magic in Equestria at them after all. There was no telling what would happen to them.

The Unicorn closed his eyes for a moment. He started to mumble some words to himself. "I'm getting one step closer...to return Equestria to the way it was supposed to be..."

Once he opened his eyes again, the light from the elements got even brighter. Then, multiple colors were circling around him, and shortly after, a rainbow was shot out from the elements that were heading right at the eight ponies.

Most of the ponies closed their eyes in fear, wishing that everything would be alright in the last second. Summershine's last thought, however, was just regret. He felt he let everypony down. Princess Celestia chose him to take care of the elements and now it was exactly those elements that would end him. All those lights and colors around him, he could only ignore them and closed his eyes as well, accepting his fate...


...


It was quiet again. Too quiet. Suspiciously quiet. Granted Summershine didn't know what would happen to him after getting hit by the Elements of Harmony. He decided to open his eyes again to see what happened now.

He looked to his right and his left and saw all of his friends without a scratch from the last attack. Some of them opened their eyes now as well and were pretty confused. But that didn't come close to the confused expression that Ashgray had on his face right now, who stood there with the elements still levitating in front of them.

"What!?" Ashgray released in shock. "What happened!? The elements...they didn't work!?" He said before he took a close at the elements again as if he wanted to check if they worked, which obviously was the case judging from the light show just now.

By now, everypony opened their eyes again after hearing Ashgray's frustrated words.

"We are still here?" Star Twinkle said in surprise.

"Thank goodness!" Crash said happily. "For a moment there I thought he was sending us to the moon or something," he added, clearly referring to what happened to Nightmare Moon after she got hit by the Elements of Harmony.

Ashgray still couldn't believe what happened. "I don't get it! Why didn't the elements work just now!?" He exclaimed angrily.

"They rejected you," was the answer that Princess Celestia shot back at the pony.

"What!?" Ashgray replied in disbelieve as he looked back at Princess Celestia.

The princess slowly walked a few steps forward, as best as she could in her current condition. "I don't know how you are able to control them like that but it looked like the Elements of Harmony don't appreciate the way you used them," she explained. Now she was the one who had a victorious smile on her face. "The ponies in front of you are the spirits chosen by the elements. You can't hope to use them against them,"

Summershine had no other explanation himself how everything went well at the end so what the princess said made sense to him. All he knew right now is that he and his friends were safe and the only thing that was left was to get the elements back from Ashgray.

The gray Unicorn didn't take too well to this situation. He was boiling in anger in fact. He thought he had everything planned out but of course, it fell apart in the last second. He became desperate and came up with only one more thing left to do.

"Fine! If I can't use them, then no one can!" He said angrily before his horn started to glow in red light. One moment later, he vanished. He used a teleport spell to get away along with the elements.

The group let out a gasp in shock. He would get away with the elements and from the sound of his last words, he was probably planning to destroy them. That is something that they couldn't let happen at all costs.

In a glimpse of his eye, Summershine could barely see a light flashing in one of the towers outside of the throne room. He knew what that meant and quickly acted.

In the meantime, Ashgray appeared inside another room, the elements of Harmony laying in front of him. The stallion was panting in frustration. "I got so close! I was rejected by the elements!? Can't those things see that I'll try to correct things!?" He said annoyed with his eyes locked on the six gems.

Suddenly, a light flashed from behind him, causing him to turn around. Summershine stood a few meters away from him. He teleported himself into the same tower and was ready to confront the gray Unicorn.

Ashgray was about to blow a fuse right now. All he wanted now as to destroy the elements but with Summershine in the same room, that task would become difficult. He had to deal with this nuisance.

Summershine was not intending to let Ashgray get away. He was lowering his head and stomped on the ground, as if he was ready to charge at the Unicorn at any time, magic starting to glow around his horn.

"You're kidding...you're kidding right?" Ashgray said, looking at Summershine who was ready to run at him. He couldn't believe how the Unicorn attempted to attack him straight on.

Ashgray accepted the challenge. There was no way that he would lose when it came to magical strength. Summershine didn't manage to break the magic sphere around Princess Celestia after all.  Summershine charged right towards Ashgray with his horn glowing strongly with magic and Ashgray replied in the same manner, he charged at the pony with his horn glowing with magic.

The two were running as fast as they could, their horns would collide, or rather, their magic. The stronger would blow the other one away. But only moments before the impact, Summershine vanished out of Ashgray's sight, causing him to stop abruptly. He teleported away. Ashgray turned his head around and saw the Unicorn running towards the elements and he shot a magic beam at him, which Summershine couldn't prepare himself for.

Luckily, Ashgray missed and instead hit the ground, which caused a little explosion that knocked Summershine off from his hooves and into the air, with his face landing right in front of the Elements of Harmony. Once Summershine realizes that he was only a nose length away from the elements, he focused his magic to levitate them above the ground.

"Oh, no you don't!" Ashgray said angrily clenching his teeth in anger, blaming himself to fall for such a trick. But he was about to correct his mistake. He aimed his horn at Summershine, who was completely concentrating on getting the elements back. All Ashgray had to do was shot at him and it was over.

A magic blast was shot from Ashgray but unfortunately for him, Nightsky came out of nowhere and flew right past the pony's face before that, making him miss in the last moment. The Pegasus stallion smiled knowing that he interrupted Ashgray's attack. It also served to mock the Unicorn, which actually worked like a charm since now Ashgray was aiming at Nightsky.

But before the Unicorn could get one shot off in time, Crash jumped right on the stallion's back. "Yeehaw!" Crash shouted happily as he was riding the gray pony.

"Get off of me!" Ashgray shouted while he tried to kick the Earth Pony off.

But then Ashgray realized that he can use magic, so instead, he lifted the stallion off from his back and as soon as that happened, he got tackled by Happytrade and flew a few meters away, holding his head for a moment after this impact.

Everypony except Princess Celestia was now present in this room, they quickly surrounded the Unicorn. Summershine also successfully managed to get the elements back as well. Ashgray did back up at the corner after seeing how everypony was ready to go at him. It was now seven against one. Ashgray might be strong but if he decided to attack now, everypony else would jump at him, and there is no way that he could defend himself from all of them at once.

"It's over, Ashgray!" Summershine said.

"Yeah!" Lightbeam added. "You might be strong when it comes to magic but if we all work together then there is no one who we can't defeat!" She said confidentially as she raises her chest up in the air.

"That's right!" Nightsky agreed. No matter how strong your magic is!"

Ashgray did not make any rash movements and slowly backed up into a corner. He knew that the odds were not too much into his favor right now. Summershine realized that now as well and offered the Unicorn to not resist anymore. The Elements of Harmony did not work for him anyway so there was no point in continuing now.

First, the cornered Unicorn glared at them after accepting to be in a disadvantage against those ponies. It was as they said, Arcana was strong but if those friends worked together then they could even defeat the most dangerous and strongest enemies. They proved that by getting Ashgray into this situation.

But despite that, Ashgray was not giving up. He was far away from giving up. In fact, he didn't look as if he was concerned but rather annoyed by the situation. The group quickly got aware of that as well once the stallion smiled confidentially again.

"True...friendship can be very strong. It can be powerful enough to conquer the hearts of many and help you to archive impossible things..." he said as he stared at the eyes of everypony in front of him. Hearing those words from Ashgray was really weird for the seven ponies. 

"Really?" Happytrade started, who was the first one to pick up on that. "You sure claim to know a lot about friendship after proving that you clearly don't know what it means," she said almost arrogantly after this Unicorn was just pretending to be their friends.

"Yeah! Friends don't pretend to be friends with others to trick them!" Crash added angrily and in disappointed at Ashgray.

The gray stallion chuckled in response. "You sure got it all figured out, huh?" He said now with an arrogant tone in his voice. "But I assure you all that soon you will find out that not everything can be solved with friendship." He lowered his head. "No matter how hard you try..." he said in a more sad and nostalgic tone, which caused the group to get a little confused. They had the feeling that he wasn't just playing them for fools just now and that he actually showed sincere feelings.

"But..." Ashgray then continued. "First you have to know who your friends really are. Friendship is not something that you should easily offer because you will end up getting hurt at the end," the stallion advised. "That is what got you in this situation after all," he further pointed out.

Star Twinkle felt attacked by those words. "How can you say something like that!?" He exclaimed angrily. "How can you talk so casually about all this!? Didn't the time we all spent together mean anything to you!?"

Ashgray had a surprising answer. "It...was fun..." he replied, which was greeted by looks of disbelieve on the seven ponies faces. "I felt...happy...something that I didn't feel for a long time now. It was nice," he shared, again sounding rather sincere about it.

This time, the seven ponies actually could feel sympathy towards Ashgray. Lightbeam almost wanted to walk up to the stallion if it wasn't for Nightsky who advised her to not get closer to him, claiming that this could all be a trick.

Summershine too wanted to have a talk with the stallion. He felt like he didn't know too much about him to blame him for all those things he did. Who knows what the reasoning for his action was. He was about to forgive him for everything, even hurting Princess Celestia, if the stallion would accept it.

But right before Summershine decided to take a step forward, he could practically feel a change in the air. The expression on Ashgray's face was serious, deadly serious, and determined. This battle was not over and probably just beginning.

Ashgray had his sight focused on the Elements of Harmony, levitating above Summershine's head. "No matter how much I enjoyed my time with you all," he said with a bitter tone in his voice. "I have a bigger goal to archive..."

Suddenly, strange energy was surrounding Ashgray. Magic. But that could not be possible. There was no magic surrounding Ashgray's horn, indicating that he was not using a spell. But at the same time, he did, much to everyponies confusion.

"...And I am not about to give up on that goal!" He then exclaimed before he clenched his teeth. The magic around him became stronger. His body started to glow for a moment, especially, his back. Then it happened. The magic vanished and formed something on the stallion's back that took a physical form.

Wings!

Wings started to appear on Ashgray's back, leaving the whole group in surprise.

"Did he just grow wings!?" Happytrade said in surprise.

"He turned into an Alicorn!" Summershine added with his mouth wide open.

For once, even Brilliance was shocked. But not because of the transformation itself but because of the surprise to see something like this happening in front of her. "Terra Unisus?" She said confused.

Summershine overheard those words and would have liked to know what they meant but right now was probably not the best time considering that Ashgray was ready to attack again.

Ashgray let out a scream in anger. His right front hoof began to burn, literally. It was covered in fire, much to the shock of everypony present. The Unicorn then whipped his hoof in front of him and a wave of fire came flying towards the group. Everypony either ducked under it or jumped or flew away. 

"Fire!? Seriously!?" Happytrade exclaimed frustrated while she was ducking under this attack, her eyes covered by her hooves.

Summershine was next to her. He looked at Ashgray only to find out that he was not where he was standing before. It became really hot, heat started to build from above Summershine's head. When he looked up, he could see Ashgray above him who was literally holding fire inside his two front hooves above his head with an angry expression on his face that was just telling him that he was being serious right now.

The orange Unicorn knew what was about to happen next. He closed his eyes and concentrated his magic. He teleported himself, Happytrade, and the Elements of Harmony away. And it was good that he did because Ashgray jut threw a fireball right at them, which exploded as soon as it hit the ground, releasing another wave of fire on the ground as well that spread around in the room.

Summershine and Happytrade appeared next to the rest of their friends who all gathered in the middle of the room behind a pillar, far away from this Fire Unicorn turned Alicorn and hopefully out of his sight.

"Thank you!" Happytrade said with a faint voice after she was appearing again.

Star Twinkle, just like everypony else, was getting really frustrated about the situation right about now. "This guy is going crazy with all those spells he is throwing around now,"

"I don't think those are spells," Summershine said.

"What!?" Star Twinkle. "What else could they be?" He asked confused.

"Well, I don't know!" Summershine replied confused as well. "I'm just saying, his horn is not glowing while he is throwing around those flames," he pointed out.

Luckily, there was one pony in the group who could provide some insight. "It's Terra Unisus Magic," Brilliance said, grabbing Summershine's attention. "That transformation into an Alicorn is called Terra Unisus Transformation. He is able to use this fire because he is in that form," she informed.

Summershine could only lower his eyebrows. "I never heard about that before," he said, given that he knew a great deal about magic himself.

Brilliance continued. "It's a form of magic that was used by a few ponies over one thousand years ago. It was said that certain ponies could control the elements at their will and use them as some kind of magic. At least that's what I read in a book," she casually added at the end.

While Summershine was interested to know more, the rest of the group could not care less if this was magic or not, what they do know, however, was that Ashgray was now a lot more dangerous. And that exact same pony just now spotted the group behind the pillar and approached them, something that Summershine was all aware of.

Seeing how his friends were right next to him, he had no choice but to get Ashgray's attention to get them out of harm's way. The stallion sprinted away from the pillar, causing Ashgray to focus on him. Summershine did not have the elements with him but he was by far the one who was the most annoying to deal with so it was clear that he had to deal with him first.

The orange stallion focused his magic and was ready to shoot at Ashgray. "No, Summershine!" Brilliance shouted at the stallion. Summershine did hear his friend but he did shoot anyway, it was too late for him to react to it.

Ashgray stood still and pointed his hoof forward. What followed was a beam of fire that was supposed to counter the attack. But it was far more than a counter. As soon as the two beams met each other, Summershine's beam was completely overpowered as if it wasn't there. It was like a heated up knife slicing through butter, there was not even a struggle.

Realizing what had happened to his attack, Summershine jumped away, barely dodging the attack. "My magic didn't come through!?" He said in shock.

Meanwhile, Brilliance was explaining what she was about to say earlier. "Terra Unisus Magic is stronger than regular magic! You can't beat him with that!" She shouted at her friend.

That is something that the stallion wished to know before, also, he wished that Brilliance would have remained quiet because Ashgray spotted them and made contact with the Elements of Harmony again.

The gray Unicorn covered his whole body on fire and flew towards the group, ready to attack them. Happytrade could only scream at the sight of that. But despite that screaming in his ear, Star Twinkle was planning something. He knew what Ashgray was after and they needed to come up with something to stop his plan.

"Here!" He said while he threw one of the elements to each of his friends. "He wants to destroy them! We need to get them away from him!" He explained.

Having all of the elements scattered like this would make it harder for Ashgray to get a hold of them and his friends knew that so they decided to go along with this plan and ran all into different directions.

Ashgray did realize what they were doing and decided to go after each of them one after another. And the one who was the unlucky first one was Star Twinkle. "Of course!" He said frustrated while he ran as fast away from the stallion as possible. Ashgray managed to catch up with him and was only a few steps He decided to put some more energy in his flying and tackled into the stallion from behind. But Star Twinkle managed to save the element by throwing it away in the last second, something that Ashgray wasn't aware of in the literal heat of the chase.

Luckily, Summershine was not too far away and caught the element. Still, he was more worried about his friend who was just attacked. The rest of his friends joined his side, shocked by this attack but unfortunately, they couldn't do anything. Star Twinkle was coughing in pain after this tackle and Ashgray was standing in front of him, looking for the element that he carried just moments ago, still not realizing that the Earth Pony got rid of it in the last second.

Summershine was getting frustrated. Brilliance told him that normal magic doesn't work so what could? As he was asking himself that question, he took a look at the Elements of Harmony. This caused him to come up with the last option at their disposal.

"You are our last chance!" He said as he levitated one of the elements in front of his face with closed eyes. "Please help us!" He said, practically praying to the elements now.

His friends realized what he was trying to do now and did the same. They believed in the Elements of Harmony to save them now. To save Equestria and their friends.

Ashgray was losing his patience and was about to let it out at Star Twinkle, who was too hurt to even get up now. The Unicorn prepared another attack but he interrupted it as soon as he could sense something behind him.

A bright light emerged from the six ponies behind him. It was like with Arcana back then, only more concentrated and powerful. The six ponies levitated above the air. They managed to activate the Elements of Harmony, and Ashgray knew all too well what was coming at him now and panicked.

Summershine, Happytrade, Crash, Brilliance, Lightbeam, and Nightsky all had their sight on Ashgray and the light around them was beginning to get even brighter. Summershine was about to give a signal for them to attack but he stopped abruptly. He clenched his teeth after seeing what Ashgray resorted to.

The gray stallion levitated Star Twinkle right in front of him. "You better stop now before you accidentally hurt your friend!" He shouted at the six ponies.

The group didn't know what to do. The elements managed to stop working once Ashgray tried to use them against them but that was because they were chosen by them to begin with. What would happen if Star Twinkle was attacked was not clear, and the ponies definitely didn't want to take a chance? In the worst-case scenario, they could end up hurting Star Twinkle.

Ashgray could feel a chance for victory coming towards him again and smiled. He could use Star Twinkle to get the elements back again if he played his cards right. Everything was still open to him.

Blast!

A magic beam was hitting Ashgray directly at the chest. He managed to not fall back but he was getting hurt, and closed one of his eyes due to the pain. When the Unicorn looked over to the right side of the room and saw who was hitting him just now. It was none other than Princess Celestia, who still struggled to keep herself on her hooves. "Celestia!" He shouted in his anger. Seeing the princess made Ashgray furious and he lost his composure even more. But in this moment of pain and anger, he did not notice how the magic to lift Star Twinkle up in front of him got canceled.

"Now!" Summershine screamed, giving his friends a signal to fire the Elements of Harmony at Ashgray at this very moment.

Before Ashgray realized what exactly happened, it was already too late. A rainbow Colored light came from the six ponies and headed towards him.

Out of a reflex, Ashgray pulled up a barrier in front of him and Star Twinkle in a poor attempt to protect himself from this blast that was heading straight for him. But as expected, it did little to protect him. It only managed to defend him from the elements for a few seconds before it eventually collapsed and head right at him, sending him flying against the wall and only leaving Star Twinkle, who was still ducking under the beam, in hope to not get hit by it too.

The attack lasted for a few more moments and Ashgray could be seen falling to the ground, he actually managed to land on his hooves, despite what happened now. He looked over to all the ponies in front of him, his eyes filled with anger.

And then...his body started to turn into stone, starting from his hooves and ending at his head. In the very last moment, his sight was still focused on the Elements of Harmony. In the end, what was left was a stone statue at the end of the room, motionless and quiet.

Star Twinkle could be seen laying on the ground. He dropped his head in relief after making it out of this in one piece. He was soon joined by his friends who helped him to get up again. Everypony in the room panted heavily and was relieved that everything was over. Even Princess Celestia no longer had a tense expression on her face. She was shortly accompanied by Summershine who helped her up on her hooves again.

"Princess Celestia..." the stallion said in a serious tone. "I have some questions once we get out of here,"

Princess Celestia was agreeing to answer those questions but first, she needed to leave this castle. Considering that she once used to live there it was kinda funny that she was thinking that right now.
> 18. Friendship
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the gardens of Canterlot Castle...


Ashgray, who got hit by the Elements of Harmony turned to stone. Princess Celestia thought it would be best to keep him close. The garden in front of her castle in Canterlot was a good place. Summershine, Happytrade, Brilliance, Crash, Lightbeam, and Nightsky were watching when Princess Celestia placed the stone statue, which previously was Ashgray, on an open spot in the garden.

Nightsky couldn't help but get a bad feeling about this. "Is it really such a good idea to leave him here?" The stallion asked.

"I agree," Summershine added. "What if he turns back to normal? He would be dangerously close to you, Princess Celestia," he pointed out as he looked at the princess in concern.

But Princess Celestia confidently shook her head. "He won't. The Elements of Harmony were what turned him into this. He won't be able to escape, trust me,"

It almost sounded as if Princess Celestia was talking from experience. Summershine half expected that some of the statues that were scattered around in this garden were created like this. One of those statues looked like a mix of a pony and all sorta different creatures. He played around with the thought that this thing could have been some evil creature that needed to be stopped by the Elements of Harmony as well. But of course, he had to admit that his imagination was running a little too wild. It must have been because of how the rest of the day was stressing him out so much.

Lightbeam took a look at Ashgray. Her face showed a frown. "I feel bad for him. Was this really the best outcome? Couldn't we have found another way?" She said after she turned around to face her friends.

"Yeah," Crash replied with a frown on his face as well. "I mean, he just pretended to be our friend but I feel really bad for turning him to stone. I know I wouldn't want that happen to me," the stallion said.

But Princess Celestia was making sure that the ponies would not regret their decision. "I know it was a difficult choice for you all," she said, again most likely speaking from experience since she had to banish her own sister to the moon. "But in order to keep Equestria safe, this was a sacrifice that was needed. Ashgray was dangerous and needed to be stopped, especially after he planned to destroy the Elements of Harmony,"

Summershine quickly remembered his previous task from the princess. He and his friends still needed the Elements of Harmony to fight Nightmare Moon once she returns so having them destroyed was not an option.

"Ashgray," the princess mumbled under her breath while being deeply in thoughts.

This caught Summershine's attention. "Your majesty?" He asked.

The princess then shook her head. "It's no use...I can't remember," she then said with some frustration in her voice. Once the group was looking over to her, Princess Celestia felt the need to explain herself. "Ashgray...he seemed to know me," she said.

Lightbeam could only chuckle after hearing that. "Of course he does! Who doesn't know the ruler of all of Equestria?" She figured.

But everypony else knew that this was not exactly what Princess Celestia meant. "No," she replied. "This pony seemed to know me...personally. The way he spoke to me...it was like I did something that caused him to end up the way he was..."

"And, you can't remember?" Crash asked confused.

Princess Celestia shook her head again. "He knew about the Tree of Harmony, the Elements of Harmony, and Winterglow..." she mumbled to herself. With the exception of The Elements of Harmony, the other two things sounded new to everypony. Not even Brilliance could enlighten the group about those things. Again, Princess Celestia explained.

"I guess, since you all did so much, the least I can do is to explain those things as well," she said almost as if she had no choice anymore.

"The Tree of Harmony," the princess started. "It's the tree where my sister and I originally found the Elements of Harmony,"

This took some of the ponies by surprise. "The Elements of Harmony grew from a tree?" Lightbeam said in surprise.

Princess Celestia chuckled in response. "It's no ordinary tree of course," she explained. "It held powerful magic within it and even after we removed it from the tree, it still protects Equestria in a way,"

Those words must be true, The Elements of Harmony were turned to stone for over a thousand years now, which would mean that the tree was without them for just as long. Still, it didn't change too much of the situation. Whatever the tree was doing to protect Equestria, it was working, according to Princess Celestia.

"And Winterglow?" Summershine then asked.

Hearing that name put a more serious expression on Princess Celestia again. "Winterglow was a pony who I met a long time ago," she said with a nostalgic tone in her voice. "My sister and I were still young at that time. We met him shortly after the founding of Equestria when the three pony tribes were about to set their differences aside. Winterglow was doing everything in his power to make that happen as well,"

"Sounds like a great pony!" Crash interrupted in the middle of the explanation, causing Summershine to be quiet again.

Judging from the serious expression on Princess Celestia's face, there was still more things that she needed to mention before one could come to this conclusion. The princess continued. "It was a noble goal of him, that is for sure but making it happen was a lot more difficult," she said before she looked over to the ponies in expectations. "I assume you all are familiar with the story about the founding of Equestria?" She then asked.

Brilliance nodded. "The Fire of Friendship," she started. The group knew that she would explain everything for those who were unaware of some things about this story. "Windigos were roaming around in Equestria and covered it in snow. Everyponies hate made them stronger. But then three leaders found a new land for them to live in: Equestria. They began fighting again and the Windigos appeared in this land and covered it in snow as well. But the advisers, their second-in-commands, and a pony named Starwhite managed to make peace with each other and the Fire of Friendship was ignited,"

Lightbeam jumped up and down after remembering this tale again. "Oh, yeah! I love that story!" She shared in excitement.

"Yes," Princess Celestia said after she listened to Brilliance's summary. "The stories about the founding of Equestria always make it sound like as if there was a Happy End after this but unfortunately, things did not just completely change for the better out of nowhere. Many were still against living with the other pony races in harmony, especially the leaders of the three pony tribes who were still hard to convince. Winterglow noticed how stubborn those ponies were too...that's when it happened,"

The ears of everypony perked up. "When what happened?" Nightsky asked curiously.

Princess Celestia had a mix of seriousness and sadness on her face. "Winterglow changed. He was a pony with noble goals and he tried to archive them peacefully, with respect and kindness. But then suddenly, he turned to an enemy of Equestria. He got corrupted by Dark Magic and used it to force Harmony on Equestria, even going so far to go up against the three pony tribe leaders and wanting to rule over Equestria himself,"

Nopony, not even Brilliance heard about this. One would think that somepony like this would be heard of but then again, this story was a long time ago. Even the founding of Equestria was retold differently according to what Princess Celestia said.

Of course, there was one question that Summershine was asking himself the most. "What happened to him?"

Princess Celestia was thinking. She seemed to have trouble recalling the exact details but she shared with everypony what she knew. "He was stopped by...somepony..." she vaguely replied.

Suddenly, Crash jumped up. "Oh! You think it was Starwhite!? You know, this Unicorn that turned into an Alicorn and helped to ignite the Fire of Friendship?" He asked into the round.

Summershine instantly connected some dots inside of his head. "Wait...that sound just like...Ashgray?" He started, causing his friends to look at him in realization. "What was it called? Terra Unisus?" He then asked toward Brilliance who just nodded in response. "Princess Celestia, do you know anything about this?"

"Yes," Princess Celestia replied. "Terra Unisus is an old spell that allows ponies of all races to transform into an Alicorn and use a special kind of Magic called Terra Unisus Magic. Starwhite possessed this power as well and so did Winterglow, even though he already was an Alicorn," she casually mentioned much to the surprise of everypony.

"Winterglow was an Alicorn!? Like you!?" Happytrade asked shocked.

Princess Celestia explained. "Alicorns are not born, as far as I know so I don't know how he became one. And about Starwhite...it might be possible that he was the one who stopped him. Then again, I don't know what became of him,"

Lightbeam threw in a theory. "Maybe Ashgray is Starwhite?" She casually mentioned, earning herself some confused looks. "What? They are both Unicorns that can turn into Alicorns," she said while she shrugged her shoulders.

"But that can't be possible," Summershine said. "Think about it, that would mean that Ashgray was over a thousand years old," he pointed out.

"Yes," Princess Celestia agreed. "They do share the ability to turn into an Alicorn however, so there is a possibility that they are connected in some way. Still, Ashgray knowing about all those different things is still a mystery. Still," she said with another thought crossing her mind now. "He knew me, but I didn't know him. I think I know why that could be the case," she started, gaining the full attention of the six ponies. "The Memory Erase Spell...but...that also can't be possible," she then said, instantly taking back her thoughts.

Summershine never heard of a spell like this. Judging from the name alone, he figured that it was a spell to erase memories. Still, the stallion asked away what this spell was.

Princess Celestia explained. "It's an ancient spell that was used to remove someone from everyone's memory," she briefly explained.

"What does that mean?" Lightbeam asked confused. 

The princess continued. "It's a little hard to explain. The way it works goes like this: you pick somepony, let's say in our case, Ashgray," she said before she looked over to the stone statue. "Once the spell is activated, everypony who ever met Ashgray will forget him, like he never existed in the first place,"

Crash shuddered for a moment. "Sounds scary. I don't want anypony to forget about me!"

But the princess smiled at the stallion. "Don't worry. There is a requirement for the spell to work. The one who is supposed to be removed from everyponies memory can not physically exist anymore,"

Summershine lowered his eyebrows in confusion. "What do you mean with that?" He asked.

Princess Celestia looked over to Ashgray again. "For example, Ashgray could be removed from everyponies memory because he is turned to stone and longer exists," she then looked over to Summershine. "But it would not work for you since you are right in front of me,"

Nightsky was then the one who put one and one together. "So, you think Ashgray used some kind of spell like this? But that would not make any sense because he existed when you met him,"

"Precisely," Princess Celestia answered. "There are so many things that I would have liked to ask him but we also cannot afford to let him roam free so I guess it just be like this," she said.

Happytrade could only scratch her head after this avalanche of information. "This is so much to take in! I don't think I can process it all!"

"Yeah," Summershine said. "It will be quite fun explaining everything to Star Twinkle but I'll try my best," he figured.

But Happytrade looked at the Unicorn and rolled her eyes. "You mean like you told him about the Elements of Harmony and Arcana?"

Summershine looked away embarrassed. "I was about to tell him," he said with a pretty unconvincing tone in his voice.

Princess Celestia's attention was grabbed. "That one friend of yours? He got hurt by Ashgray, wasn't he? Is he alright?" She asked concerned.

Summershine nodded in response. "He wasn't hurt that much, but he needed some rest. He is with his parents now, here in Canterlot," he informed. The stallion moved down his head in regret. "He may have not gotten hurt if I was stronger..." he said, blaming himself for this situation.

But Princess Celestia shook her head and couldn't disagree more. "Summershine, I know you still feel pressured that I gave you the mission to take care of Nightmare Moon," she said, causing the stallion to widen his eyes in surprise. She didn't expect the princess to read him like this. "I may say that I entrust you with this task but I never said that you have to do it alone. I mean just look around,"

Summershine did as the Princess told him and saw his five friends behind him, smiling at the stallion happily. "You all managed to save Equestria by working together and I am confident that you will continue to do so. You were chosen by the Elements of Harmony after all," Princess Celestia assured confidently. "You were not put randomly into this situation but rather the elements saw something special in all of you and decided to choose you. And it is not one of you who is supposed to figure everything out, but all of you. Only if you combine Kindness, Generosity, Loyalty, Laughter, Honesty, and Friendship, Harmony can be upheld,"

The group felt more motivated than ever before. They didn't feel pressured but rather excited, as if they couldn't wait to fight the next danger that would threaten Equestria.

"Thank you, Princess Celestia," Summershine said before he laughed slightly. "As the Element of Friendship, I should be the one who should know everything about Friendship...but luckily, I have friends who can support me whenever I feel lost,"

With those words, the group left the princess alone. They wanted to check up on Star Twinkle and his condition. He probably wanted to know what the princess told them and what happened to Ashgray. Or maybe they just were worried about him.


Later...


"Starfall, do you need anything!? Do you want me to get you some water!?" Rainfall Twinkle asked.

"No, I already had four glasses, mom..."

"Oh! So you need to go to the bathroom!?" Sunny Twinkle asked concerned.

"No!... I mean, yes, dad, but I can do that on my own if I wanted to!"

It was quite a funny scene to watch for everypony to see Star Twinkle's parents overly worried about him. Some of them even chuckled in secret.

But Rainfall didn't think this was a laughing matter at all. "I'm sorry dear but try to understand. You come to visit us after quite some time and the first thing we see is you being carried by your friends into our house,"

Summershine had to admit that he had no other idea what to do with Star Twinkle. He needed some rest so he figured he should wait with his parents to get some rest before they would return to Ponyville. Star Twinkle only agreed to all of this because his friends were worried about him. But now, he wished that he could leave his parents out of this. All these worrying questions were starting to get annoying.

"I'm fine. Yes, I got hurt in a battle but I'm fine now, I promise," he assured everypony in the room.

"Well," Crash started. "You did get hit by Ashgray covered in fire, didn't that hurt?" He asked, totally out of place.

Star Twinkle's eyes widened after hearing that so Star Twinkle had to diffuse the situation. "It did, it really hurt, but, as I said, I'm fine!"

"So...we need to cool the area!?" Sunny Twinkle asked concerned. Star Twinkle groaned in response.

In the meantime, his mother, Rainfall Twinkle was walking out of the room, to the kitchen and returned briefly after. "I'm afraid, we don't have enough food to offer for so many ponies,"

"No," Nightsky replied. "No need to bother for us," he said.

But Lightbeam was thinking otherwise. "I am actually quite hungry. I don't think I ate something today," she added before she held her stomach.

Being her brother, Nightsky already offered to go and buy something but Summershine decided to do it instead. He claimed to know Canterlot a little bit more from his time at Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns in this town.

"This could be a good opportunity for us to celebrate us saving Equestria!" Summershine explained.

"Good idea!" Crash replied excitedly. 

The rest of the group got quickly excited as well so Summershine left to grab some sweets for everypony before they would all starve.


Later...


Summershine carried a big box filled with multiple sweets inside of it around Canterlot and headed back to Star Twinkle's house, or rather his former house. The stallion bought the sweets from a nearby doughnut shop. He had to admit that he was pretty hungry too after a day like this. 

As he walked through the town however, his thoughts went back to the events that happened earlier this day. Ashgray, Winterglow, Starwhite, Terra Unisus, Memory Erase Spell, all those things were pretty hard to take in at once. On top of that, there was Arcana before that, who tried to steal the Elements of Harmony too. Summershine had the feeling that restoring the elements caused more problems instead of helping Equestria. He had a feeling that this was just the beginning of something bigger and more dangerous than what he originally expected. At first, he only was prepared for Nightmare Moon but now there were already multiple dangers that he and his friends dealt with.

"Is this how my life will go from now on? Saving Equestria with my friends on a weekly basis?" He asked himself. He and his friends were chosen by the Elements of Harmony so who else would save the world? Was he really putting himself and his friends in such a high position? He was just a normal pony, and so were his friends.

But Summershine was confident that he and his friends could accomplish everything. They proved that by taking care of both Arcana and Ashgray, and they will be successful against Nightmare Moon as well. They had to.

"If that is how it is now, then so be it!" He said determinedly. "I don't plan to let the princess or Equestria down!" He said as he stopped and looked up at the sky. "I and my friends will figure out everything! No matter what stands in our way! I know it!" He vowed to himself.

BUMP!

Summershine's speech was interrupted as soon as somepony walked into him, knocking him off from his hooves. The world spun for a moment, when Summershine got back on his hooves again he saw somepony on the ground in front of him. It was the pony that ran into him, it was a purple coated Unicorn mare with a dark blue mane that had streaks of pink and purple in it. Her eyes were dark purple and her Cutie Mark consisted of a pink sparkle with five small white sparkles around it.

The mare grabbed her head, the world was still spinning for her at this moment. "I'm sorry," she said, her voice sounding very dizzy. "I must have gotten too invested in my book," she added.

Summershine looked down at the ground. First, he checked the books of sweets and made sure that everything was still in perfect condition. Luckily, it was. He also spotted the book the mare was talking about. He picked it up for her with his magic and instantly recognized the title. "The many Tales of Star Swirl the Bearded?"

The book was snatched away by the mare with her own magic. "That's mine!" She said nervously, adding a pretty uncomfortable laugh.

"That's a really good book," Summershine commented interested.

"Really?" The mare replied in surprise. "You know who Star Swirl the Bearded is?" She then asked.

Summershine nodded. "Of course I do!" He said almost offended. "He was one of the greatest Unicorns that ever existed and the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era. He created over two-hundred spells. And he is the father of the-"

"-amniomorphic spell!" The mare joined in excitedly before she got a little embarrassed about it. "Sorry," she apologized, which there was no real reason to. "I just didn't expect somepony to know so much about him as I do. Normally ponies roll their eyes whenever I mention him and treat me like I speak a completely different language,"

"Yeah, I know what you mean," Summershine said. "I assume you have an interest in magic if you are interested in Star Swirl?" The stallion guessed.

The mare looked away in modesty. "Yeah, it's my special talent," she casually said.

Hearing that was really exciting for Summershine. His special talent was magic and considering that he went to Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, he never really met anypony who actually had magic as a special talent other than himself. He got curious about her. "My special talent is magic as well," he informed casually.

The mare was surprised to hear that. "Is that so?" She replied astonished. "That's crazy! I've never met anypony who had the same special talent as I!"

The two ended up having a short conversation about Star Swirl, and Magic in general. With two ponies having the same special talent, both of them got along pretty well, it was almost scary. They had the same view on certain things and shared their experiences with magic. They both highly enjoyed this conversation.

"That's strange," the mare said puzzled. "I usually don't have such an easy time talking to others,"

"Maybe we were destined to meet?" Summershine guessed.

"Huh!?" The mare responded with wide eyes.

Summershine chuckled. "Too corny? Sorry," he apologized teasingly. Despite how much fun he was having right now, he couldn't spend more time with her. "I have to go," he said before he levitated the box of sweets in front of his face. "You see, my friends are all waiting for those, and I don't want them all to starve," he explained.

The mare lowered her ears, she didn't like to hear that. "Oh, yeah, you're friends...I mean yes! Friends are important after all, am I right?" She said with an awkward tone in her voice, which confused Summershine a little. "That reminds me that I have to go to! I'm quite busy with my studies after all!" She then said hastily before she ran past the Summershine.

The stallion started walking too but then he turned around. "Wait!" He screamed almost in a panic. "I'm Summershine! What's your name!?" He then asked after he realized that they didn't introduce themselves at all so far.

The mare turned around for a moment and introduced herself. "Twilight Sparkle," she said before she was on her way again.

Summershine stood still in confusion. "Huh?" He replied once he heard her name. Twilight didn't notice the confusion on the stallion's face and just left. "Wasn't that the name of Princess Celestia's..." he then mumbled to himself before he figured that he was right and smiled. "Mhhh, guess it really was destiny..."


Later in Ponyville...


There was not much celebrating but rather eating after Summershine returned with the sweets. It took some convincing but Star Twinkle's parents let their son return to Ponyville. Of course only if his friends stayed with him.

The group managed to get the last train that was heading for Ponyville and walked together a good while through town. They decided to go to Star Twinkle's house first. He told them that they were overreacting about his condition just like his parents did but they all insisted to walk him home, just in case. He had to admit that he thought it was a little embarrassing but he also was happy that his friends were concerned about him.

Once the group was arriving at his house, they spent some time talking about the events that happened. Star Twinkle did have a hard time processing everything though. Crash trying to explain some things also didn't really help out either.

"So...we basically didn't get anything figured out about Ashgray at all?" He concluded.

It was true that the only thing they figured out about him was that he was somehow connected to Starwhite because of his Terra Unisus Transformation, that he knew about some stuff that he shouldn't, and that he maybe knew Princess Celestia.

"Well...yes..." Summershine replied after he realized that just now.

Happytrade was showing some dislike towards this whole subject. "Do we really need to know anything about him anyway?" She said annoyed. "He used us to get to the Elements of Harmony! He just pretended to be our friend! I don't know about you but I wouldn't be too mad if somepony erases him from my memories," she boldly shared with the group.

But Lightbeam was not feeling like this at all. She lowered her head and frowned. "I'm really sad that all those things happened," she said, causing her brother to put a hoof around her shoulders. "We all had so much fun together after all,"

Star Twinkle was feeling the same but the Elements of Harmony turned him to stone so there was not much they could do now, even if they wanted to. But as soon as he thought about that, an idea struck him. "How about we use the Elements of Harmony to turn him back?" He said out of the blue. Of course, everypony shot glares at him, considering what happened earlier this day. "I mean not now!" He assured. "Someday!"

"Why?" Nightsky asked confused, not liking this idea one bit.

"Yes, Star Twinkle!" Happytrade added. "It was obvious that this guy is dangerous and that he doesn't have any good intentions!" She pointed out.

"I know, I know..." Star Twinkle admitted. "But...I don't think that he is evil...just...lost..." he said as he tried to fish for the right words. "As somepony who used to be quite a jerk and had no interest in friendship, I think he needs a second chance,"

Everypony looked at each other and smiled. Now Star Twinkle was now the one to be confused.

"Of course, you would say something like this," Summershine said amused.

"Yeah!" Lightbeam added. "And I fully support it!" She said as she jumped up and down on the spot.

Summershine then walked up to Star Twinkle and put a hoof on his shoulder. "One day, we will release him again, and hopefully, we can convince him to change. If that is what you are thinking now, then I am positive that we can make it!" He said confidently with a smile on his face.

Star Twinkle smiled in response. "Thank you, Summershine," he said happily.

By now, the sun was starting to go down and everypony figured it would be best to go home. His friends walked away laughing and smiling. To think that only hours ago they were in a pretty intense fight was almost impossible. Star Twinkle waved at them with a smile on his face. His friends were walking together, talking and laughing on their way.

They were slowly walking away...away...far away...

...

They still walked slowly but for Star Twinkle it felt as if they were running. They were running away from him. The stallion could barely hear anything and only saw his friends getting further and further away, to a place where he couldn't reach. Then, it felt as if the six ponies were surrounded by darkness, slowly engulfed by it, their voices became muffled and hard to hear. Ponyville was nowhere to be seen and vanished, leaving only his friends that could be seen in the distance.

Star Twinkle's breath became unstable and he hyperventilated for a while. He didn't understand what was happening right now but he didn't like it one bit. His eyes widened and his friends were barely in sight despite him trying to walk towards them. He started to sweat and then panic struck him. He screamed as loud as he could at them. 

"Wait!" He said as he reached his hoof out to them, his face filled with fear and panic.

"Yes?" Summershine casually replied after hearing his friend's voice again.

...


Everything was normal again. Star Twinkle stood in the middle of the road in Ponyville, his hoof still reached out at his friends. "Huh?" He replied in confusion after everything around him seemed normal again.

His friends stopped and looked back at the stallion, waiting for him to say something, he was the one calling out for them after all.

"What is it, Star Twinkle?" Crash asked at the Earth Pony with a smile on his face.

Star Twinkle didn't know what just happened. He stood there like a lost colt without his mommy on his site. "Um..." was the only thing he could reply. This sudden feeling from before was gone and he had no idea what it was all about. "Nothing..." he then said to them confused.

Summershine could only snicker at that. "Then why did you tell us to wait?" He asked amused by this random act of Star Twinkle.

Lightbeam began to laugh. "Yeah, you're weird, Star Twinkle," she said also in an amused tone.

Happytrade waved over to the stallion. "Take a rest, Star Twinkle," she advised. "We'll see each other again tomorrow!"

Star Twinkle waved back at everypony. "Yes! Yes...we do, right?" He asked.

Summershine smiled at the stallion. "Of course," he said before he turned around to leave again.

After that his friends walked away, this time, Star Twinkle didn't have that strange feeling from before. Everything was normal. Despite that, Star Twinkle walked inside his house and tried to ignore it.

But he couldn't...

"What was that just now?" The stallion asked himself as he made his way to his bedroom. He couldn't help but think about what just happened. It was a really busy day and he was hurt just a few hours ago. Maybe not only his body but his mind was taking a toll today. 

"Why did I have that feeling...that I wouldn't see them again?" He asked himself. He somehow got scared by this thought alone. He didn't want to think about this at all and went off to bed, trying to relax from this day.

"I will see them all again...tomorrow...I know it," were the last words he told himself before he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
> 19. The End of Friendship - Part 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was early in the morning...


The sun was already up and threw its light on Equestria, including the little town of Ponyville.

Some ponies were already walking around in town, going to work, school, or setting up merchant stands to sell something in the market. But there were also some ponies who still were asleep. One of them was Star Twinkle, who had a rough night. One would expect that it would be because of the day before. He and his friends had to deal with Ashgray, who tried to steal the Elements of Harmony, and eventually tried to destroy them. It was a hard-fought battle but they managed to win this battle. And even though Star Twinkle was hurt in this battle, he recovered really quickly and didn't sustain any serious damage. 

But that was not the reason why he had such a rough night. The reason for him to not sleep very well was that he was haunted by nightmares. Star Twinkle was rolling around in his bed, sweating and panting. He was having a nightmare at this very moment.

...

In his dream, the stallion was walking around in a more empty version of Ponyville, something that he didn't notice while walking through the town. He was probably not even aware that he was dreaming at all now. He saw his friends in the distance and slowly walked up to them. Summershine, Happytrade, Brilliance, Crash, Nightsky, and Lightbeam were all walking away from the stallion, but as soon as they noticed him, they turned around, each one with a smile on their face, waiting for Star Twinkle to catch up to them.

Expecting nothing wrong, the stallion walked up to the ponies to spend the day with them. But as soon as Star Twinkle got closer to them, another pony was further in the back, looking at him with a malicious grin on his face. It was a pony that he once called a friend as well.

Ashgray...

Once he spotted the stallion behind his friends, things got a lot more chaotic. His friends were vanishing, and so did Ashgray. Ponyville was slowly fading away as well, leaving Star Twinkle in complete darkness. The stallion was looking around to figure out what was going on but things were way too bizarre for him.

Suddenly, he found himself in the Castle of the Two Sisters, the room where he last saw Ashgray before he turned to stone. Of course, he was wondering why he found himself inside the castle all of the sudden but he got distracted by things happening in front of him.

His friends were standing in the middle of the room and Ashgray was right behind him. It was the scene right before they defeated Ashgray with the Elements of Harmony. Star Twinkle found himself laying on the ground. He remembered that Ashgray was holding the Earth Pony in front of himself so that Summershine and the others would not attack. It was right after Ashgray dropped him to the ground after Princess Celestia shot him and his friends took the chance to attack at this very moment. The Elements of Harmony were activated and a huge rainbow-colored beam was heading right towards Ashray and Star Twinkle, the later one ducking to try avoiding this attack.

Before the beam reached them, however, Ashgray put on a shield spell in front of himself in an attempt to protect himself from this blast. Star Twinkle remembered how this shield was not helping the stallion to protect himself from the attack, so he knew that it wouldn't last for long.

But he forgot completely what happened right before that...

Ashgray lowered his head towards Star Twinkle, who was cowering on the ground to duck under the beam, even though, right now, he was also protected by the shield that Ashgray put up. Despite how loud the attack from the Elements of Harmony was, Ashgray slowly and calmly said some words to him, as if he had all the time in the world. It was almost as if time came to hold at the very moment. The words that Ashgray said to him both confused and scared him.

"You are me, and I am you...by giving up my body...I shall continue to live inside yours!" Ashgray said before his red eyes and his horn glowed for a moment before eventually, the shield spell got destroyed and everything disappeared in a bright light in front of Star Twinkle.

Those were the last things that Star Twinkle saw before his eyes popped open and he finally woke up in his bed...

...

Star Twinkle felt weird, to put it simply. He looked around in his room rather calmly and took a moment to catch his breath. He also wanted to make sure that he was awake now. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, which was good. He grabbed his head with his hoof. "I...didn't sleep too well..." he said as if he needed to explain himself at this very moment. He could not remember his dream but he knew that he had a nightmare judging from how stressed he was at this very moment. But Star Twinkle couldn't just sit in his bed and try thinking about it so he decided to get out of his bed. "Morning, Comet," he greeted as usual towards his pet Gold Fish.

Comet didn't respond and looked blankly into the distance.

There was still some time left until he had to go to work and Star Twinkle planned to use every spare minute of it to slowly get ready. For a moment, he considered to call in sick for work but he figured that he wasn't feeling weak or unable to work but rather confused and...not really there.

He couldn't exactly remember his dream but he knew that it scared him. As much as he tried to recall it, he just couldn't remember so he decided to just forget about it. Trying to think about it the whole day would definitely not do him any favor. The best thing he could do was to ignore it and focus on something else.

The stallion walked out of his house and closed the door behind him before taking a look in front of him to see some ponies already walking on the roads of Ponyville. For some reason, he had a hard time focusing his eyes in front of himself. Not because he felt weak or anything, it was rather like as if he was wearing glasses, it was just...harder as usual.

He held his head for a moment. "Come on...put yourself together," he said before he shook his head, which only caused him to get dizzier and lose his balance a little. "Maybe I really need some more rest?" He said after figuring that he might not be in top condition. The stallion tried to turn around and open the door to his house again but for some reason, he wouldn't do that no matter how much he wanted to. Before he knew it, his legs carried him forward to his way on work. "Let's just do everything slowly," he said to himself as he walked through town.

As he walked through the road of Ponyville, he looked with his eyes around to see some ponies already getting ready for their daily routines. Knowing that he was not exactly fully rested made him almost jealous to see everypony around him being in high spirits.

His attention then drifted towards a voice that screamed his name from behind. He knew exactly who this voice belonged to.

"Staaaaaar!" The voice shouted in excitement.

It was Lightbeam, who ran towards the stallion, ready to hug him from behind. It was her usual way of greeting him and Star Twinkle, most of the time, was not fast enough to react to this so he instead prepared himself for impact and hoped that he wouldn't get hurt in the process. Then again, it was just a hug so there was no reason for him to stop her so he just stood still.

At least that is what he planned...

Star Twinkle sidestepped out of the way, causing Lightbeam to fall to the ground head first as she tried to jump hug the stallion, and making her face drop into the dirt. The stallion didn't plan on doing that at all and was surprised to see how the mare laid in front of him now.

After an awkward silence, Lightbeam spoke up. "Hey!" She said, with her head face buried into the ground still. "You are not supposed to dodge that!" She said with a pouting tone in her voice.

"Sorry!" Star Twinkle apologized before he helped the mare to get back up on her hooves again.

Lightbeam was glaring a little bit at the stallion for this action, causing Star Twinkle to apologize once more. Of course, Lightbeam was forgiving him, she just was a little bit confused. But this confusion vanished once she realized something. "Wait! Could it be that you are still hurt? Is that why you moved out of the way? So that I wouldn't accidentally hurt you?" She figured with wide-open eyes.

That was not true. In fact, Star Twinkle had no idea why he dodged out of the way. It just seemed to have happened on instinct or reflex. But since Star Twinkle didn't know how exactly explain that to her, he just decided to go with Lightbeam's theory. "Yes! I mean, you could never know," he said briefly while he rubbed his neck.

Now Lightbeam was feeling bad. "In that case, I should be the one apologizing! I didn't mean to hurt you!" She said in regret, even though there was no reason for that since Star Twinkle just made that up.

"Hey, don't worry about it!" Star Twinkle replied nervously. Now it was his turn to feel bad.

With those words, the two decided to ignore what happened and they continued to be on their way. It didn't take long until Nightsky spotted the two from one of his clouds and joined them as well. "Morning," he greeted Star Twinkle.

"Hey, Nightsky," Star Twinkle replied. "Seeing how you are awake now, I assume that you had to work last night?" He asked, referring to Nightsky's job as a weather pony.

"Yeah," Nightsky replied bothered. "You would think that they get somepony else to do the night duty from time to time," he added as he rubbed his shoulders with his hooves, showing that he was still a little bit exhausted.

Lightbeam had a guess for that. "Well, your name has the word "night" in it," she pointed out. "Maybe that's why," she said with a smile on her face.

Nitghtsky smiled. "I'm really starting to think that this is the case," he figured before he looked over to Star Twinkle. He quickly noticed how something was a little bit off. He could tell that Star Twinkle was having trouble focusing his eyes for some reason. "Are you feeling well?" He then asked in concern.

It caught Star Twinkle by surprise that he apparently was looking like as if he was not feeling well. But before the stallion could explain, Lightbeam was the one to reply. "He is still a little bit hurt from yesterday!" She said, continuing to roll with the made-up excuse from before.

Hearing that didn't really surprise Nightsky. "Maybe you need a little bit more than one day of rest?" He guessed.

"I'm fine," Star Twinkle replied. "Really," he added on top.

The two could not look directly into Star Twinkle's head so they just had to take this answer and believe him. Still, they were a little worried and wished they could do something for him.

"At least let us accompany you on your way to work," Nightsky offered in his concern.

"Yeah!" Lightbeam said happily, her ears perked up in excitement. "We will come with you, okay?" She asked.

Star Twinkle was touched by how concerned his friends were about him and smiled. However, he didn't want to make them worry anymore. If he was really looking a little bit under the weather then the worst thing would be for them to see him like this any longer so the stallion gratefully declined this offer.

"No-"

"Yes..."

Star Twinkle's eyes widened in surprise. He could swear he was saying "Yes" just now even though he was planning to say "No". In fact, judging from Lightbeam's relieved reaction, he seemed to have said "Yes".

"Then that's settled!" Lightbeam said cheerfully before she led the way to the Iron Hammer, Star Twinkle's workplace, with Nightsky walking beside her closely.

But Star Twinkle was still confused right now and didn't know how to even say anything about this. "Um...yes..." he said before he followed his friends even though he was planning to go to work alone.

Every second that passed, Star Twinkle felt a little bit more...weird. He couldn't even explain what was happening. He must have been still hurt from the battle against Ashgray. Maybe he wasn't aware of the damage he took from this battle, he was using some strange kind of magic after all. He figured that it must have had some kind of lasting effect on him that he couldn't really see just now.

His two friends were engaged in a lively conversation while Star Twinkle walked right behind them. He listened closely to distract himself. "Hey, today is a special bake sale at the market! Should we all meet later and get us some?" She suggested in high spirits.

Nightsky shook his head. "You are just looking for a reason to eat some sweets, are you?" He boldly pointed out with a smile on his face.

Lightbeam looked away embarrassed. "No! I just thought it would be fun!" She threw back.

Star Twinkle chuckled. "I would like to,"

... 

"Right, Star Twinkle?" Lightbeam asked as she turned her head around to the stallion.

The green pony was surprised once more. He thought Lightbeam didn't hear him the first time so he repeated himself. "I would like to," he said again.

"See? Now it's decided!" Lightbeam said happily before she turned around again.

Things got weird again. Star Twinkle could swear that he spoke loud and clear and when he repeated himself, he was speaking at the same volume. The stallion was stopping for a moment to collect his thoughts. He needed to do that. Things happened that just confused the stallion too much.

"I really feel under the weather..." Star Twinkle thought. "I should go home and sleep over it to avoid getting my friends concerned," he figured.

The stallion decided to share his thoughts. "I think...I actually really need some more rest," Star Twinkle said, lowering his head. But his friends didn't seem to hear him...again...they didn't turn around at least. The stallion started to get a little bothered by it and decided to speak up on it. But as soon as he looked towards them again, he got shocked by what he saw.

He saw himself...

Another Star Twinkle was walking behind both Lightbeam and Nightsky while he was standing there in shock watching this unfold in front of him. Soon, this Star Twinkle stopped and turned his head, revealing his red-colored eyes which were supposed to be light green. There was also a confident smile on this Star Twinkle's face. Star Twinkle widened his eyes in shock and wanted to know what happened right now but it felt as if he had no control over anything just now.

Before he knew it, he found himself right behind his friends again, at the very position where this other Star Twinkle stood just now. Star Twinkle looked around and found out that he could not control his actions at all. His legs moved on their own no matter how much he wanted to stop.

"What is going on!?" Star Twinkle said, only to find out that he could not speak out loud, as if his voice couldn't come out of his mouth for anypony to hear.

Then, another voice spoke up loud and clearly...

"Don't take all of this personally..." a voice then said inside of his head. He knew exactly who this voice belonged to and instantly got really concerned. "You just happened to be my short term solution in the very last moment," the voice explained calmly.

Somepony appeared in front of him...somepony he knew all too well. "What!? Where did you come from!?" Star Twinkle said confused.

This was bad. Star Twinkle had no idea what exactly was happening right now but he knew that it was really really bad. He needed to do something and fast.

Star Twinkle found himself in control of his body again and looked around, his mind stressed out beyond belief. But this "control" quickly left again and he found himself in pain, mostly in his head He was holding his head with his hooves in pain and dropped to his knees.

Of course, Lightbeam and Nightsky quickly noticed the condition of their friend and turned around. "Star Twinkle!" Lightbeam said in shock before she rushed towards the Earth Pony with Nightsky being there as well shortly after. "What's wrong!?" She said with a helpless tone in her voice.

"Are you still hurt!?" Nightsky asked in concern about his friend, which was a pretty stupid question considering that Star Twinkle was shaking and holding his head due to the pain.

Star Twinkle didn't exactly know what was going to happen from now on but he knew one thing for sure...his friends are in danger and he needed to warn them.

"Run!" Star Twinkle mumbled with his head on the ground. His friends wondered what this was all about as much as he did and wanted to help but they didn't know how. Things only got more serious once Star Twinkle spoke again. "Run! ...Stay away from me!" Star Twinkle shouted towards two Pegasus ponies in front of him, in the middle of the road of Ponyville, causing some ponies too look at the three ponies in confusion.

The two ponies didn't know how to react and were just confused by the stallion's behavior. Before they knew it, Star Twinkle grabbed his head and dropped to his knees again, causing the two to get worried. Eventually, Star Twinkle raised his head again and looked at them, his eyes turning from a light green color to a red color.

"What's wrong with you, Star Twinkle!?" Lightbeam mare asked in worry, her eyes starting to water a little bit. She tried to reach out to her friend but she was afraid that she would hurt him while he was in this condition.

What followed was Star Twinkle screaming in pain before magic engulfed his entire body. Lightbeam was still confused and too shocked about all this to notice it but Nightsky recognized something like this happening before. He pulled his sister away from Star Twinkle, much to her confusion, and tried to think what to do at this moment if his guess was right. But just when he was about to put his thoughts into place everything seemed already too late.

Wings appeared on Star Twinkle's back and a horn on his head. It was the Terra Unisus Transformation, something that the two of them already saw in action before.

Things happened too quickly from this point on. Star Twinkle looked at the two of them with his red-colored eyes and aimed his head towards Lightbeam who was paralyzed by all of this. A beam of magic was shot at her. She couldn't dodge in time. Nightsky however, managed to move her out of the way...but at the cost of getting hit himself.

"Night!" Lightbeam said in shock once she saw her brother getting hit by the attack and dropping to the ground unconsciously.

The mare approached her brother, shaking his body nervously but she couldn't wake him up at all, he was knocked out by this attack. She looked over to Star Twinkle who had a serious expression on his face and was slowly walking up to her, his hoof still grabbing his head.

"Run..." The stallion said with pain colored on his face. His voice was filled with regret even and his face was frowning for a moment before returning to a serious look again.

"What?" Lightbeam replied confused and still in shock of her brother being attacked by her own friend just now.

Seeing the mare in front of him frustrated Star Twinkle. He clenched his teeth. "Run!" He said once more but this time more aggressive and frustrated, almost begging for the mare to go.

Lightbeam had no idea what was going on. Her brother just was attacked by one of her friends and the same friend asked her to run away, something that she couldn't do because of her brother laying next to her. But the mare took too long and Star Twinkle was acting again. This time he raised his head into the air, and shortly after, a fire started to appear around the two in a ring of flames, trapping Lightbeam into it.

"Fire?" Lightbeam said confused and in shock. Slowly, she managed to recognize what that meant, even though she had no idea how exactly it was possible. "Just like..." she started before she noticed how Star Twinkle was walking up to her with a menacing look on his face.

Lightbeam didn't know what she should do at this moment. She was paralyzed by fear and confusion about this whole situation. She just wished that this was all a bad dream and that she would wake up any moment now.

But that didn't happen...this was reality...


In the meantime...


Steel Hammer was already starting work in the Iron Hammer. He was carrying some wood inside the workshop while also checking the time and wondering why a certain pony is at this very moment.

He began scratching his head. "It's really not like Star Twinkle to be late," he said. But a few moments later, he could hear some steps drawing closer so he turned around to check, expecting Star Twinkle. "Oh, it's you," he then said once he realized that it wasn't him.

"Hey, Steel Hammer," Summershine greeted with a smile.

By now Steel Hammer was getting a little bothered. "I thought you would be Star Twinkle. The guy is pretty late already," he said.

Summershine lowered his eyebrows in confusion. "He is not here yet?" He asked in confusion while he looked around the workshop. "I was actually coming here to check if he is alright," he mentioned.

This choice words certainly confused Steel Hammer. "Why wouldn't he be alright?" The Earth Pony asked.

Of course, Steel Hammer had no idea about the events that unfolded the day before so Summershine explained. But only a few things since he didn't want to worry Steel Hammer. "Well, he got hurt yesterday. He probably still is and needs some rest so I am not surprised that he hasn't shown up here,"

"Is that so?" Steel Hammer said concerned. "I had no idea," he added, now feeling a little bad to even consider that he was just slacking off or something.

"Since he is not here, I guess he is home. I'm gonna check up on him," Summershine said before he was about to be on his way again.

"Yes!" Steel Hammer said. "And tell him that he doesn't have to worry about work!" The stallion threw at the Unicorn.

Summershine nodded and assured that he would do that and was on his way to Star Twinkle's house. The reason why he visited the Iron Hammer was to see if Star Twinkle wasn't pushing himself after the events from yesterday. It was not like Star Twinkle however, to not even let Steel Hammer know, which caused Summershine to get a little worried. He feared the worst and thought that Star Twinkle was to hurt to even leave the house.

If that was really the case then Summershine knew exactly what to do. "Okay! It's decided!" He then said determined, out of nowhere. "Time to make sure that my best friend has everything he needs to get well again!" He vowed as he stopped for a moment to make it look as if he was proving it to someone.

But this moment was interrupted as soon as someone's voice could be heard screaming in the distance.

"Aaaah!"

Summershine flinched after hearing this scream. He turned towards from where he heard the scream and was surprised to see a bunch of ponies running towards him or rather running away from something. As they ran past him he could make only out a few words.

"Fire!" One pony screamed in horror.

"The horror! The horror!" He could hear some ponies saying in the midst of all of this.

The stallion looked up at the sky. He could see smoke clouds rising up in the sky. There was definitely something burning in this town. Needless to say, Summershine ran towards the smoke to find out what happened and to offer his help in any way possible.

The more he got closer, the more ponies came running towards him. He still wondered what caused all of this but if he just went to where all those ponies came from he would surely find out the source for all of this. 

As he got closer to the source, he could notice how the fire was spreading through the town. He actually stood still due to the shock of seeing that his hometown was burning right now. He didn't know where the rest of his friends were and he hoped that they were safe. Some ponies actually tried to put this fire out, which made Summershine feel a little better about ignoring it all to investigate the cause.

Summershine was running towards the direction from where the ponies came from. He ran straight until he saw the ponies coming from around the corner that would lead towards the very center of the town. Something over there must be the reason for the quickly spreading panic in this town.

Once Summershine walked around the buildings, he quickly stopped in his track once he saw what was happening. What the pony saw around the corner shocked him and left him speechless...

Fire.

There was fire everywhere...worse then what he saw before.

Half of the town was on fire, the buildings, the trees, everything. And from the looks of it, it was still spreading really quickly. Yellow and orange colors were covering the usual very green town.

Wondering why a fire like that broke out, Summershine moved his head forward and looked into the distance. He could see something or someone standing right in the middle of the fire, who was completely ignored by the flames or maybe even unaffected. This pony was turned around but he quickly recognized who it was and it started to worry him.

"Star Twinkle!" Summershine shouted before he ran towards the pony in his worry. He probably was in no condition to save himself right now.

Star Twinkle, however, did not hear him, he seemed to be busy with something that was apparently important enough to let him ignore all the chaos around him. Even the flames and the screaming ponies.

The closer Summershine came to Star Twinkle, the more he got confused after getting a better look at him. Star Twinkle had a light green coat and a dark green star-shaped mane. This was normal. However, the Star Twinkle that he knew was an Earth Pony, which is why he was confused to see a pair of wings on his back, as well as a horn on his head. This would make Star Twinkle an Alicorn.

As if that wasn't confusing enough, Summershine began to notice something else. He saw some more familiar ponies, two to be exact, who laid on the ground unconscious right in front of Star Twinkle. It was Lightbeam and Nightsky. There seemed to be something coming out of them that flowed right towards Star Twinkle's horn. It's as if he absorbed something from them. Whatever it was he did, it seemed to hurt his two friends on the ground.

"Star Twinkle!" Summershine once more shouted, this time with a little anger in his voice to make sure that he was no longer ignored.

Star Twinkle perked his ears as soon as his name was said. This time he clearly heard the Unicorn's voice. He stopped doing whatever he was doing to the two ponies, Star Twinkle slowly turned his head around to face the one who was calling his name.

As soon as the Unicorn's eyes met with the eyes of Star Twinkle, there was yet another surprise. The usual light green colored eyes of Star Twinkle were now red and the expression on his face was something the Unicorn never saw before on his face.

It was a malicious grin that sent shivers down on Summershine's back.

Once Star Twinkle's eyes were locked into Summershine's, the grin became even wider and he fully turned around to face the Unicorn while also stopping to care about the two Pegasi in front of him.

Summershine couldn't help but worry about the two but he also had a really bad feeling about what happened to Star Twinkle. It was like he was a completely different pony than before. It was to an extent, quite frightening.

Then without a warning, Star Twinkle raised his horn. A trail of fire started to come from his left and right which was forming a ring of fire around the two. Surprised by that, Summershine didn't know how to react and found himself trapped now.

"You're the one who started the fire!?" Summershine asked in his realization.

But Star Twinkle completely ignored those words and slowly walked up to Summershine. "Only four left," he then said with a sinister tone in his voice.

The fire, the fact that Star Twinkle was an Alicorn, this feeling of Star Twinkle not being himself...

He slowly put one and one together but he couldn't quite complete the puzzle. But, as if Star Twinkle could read his mind now, Star Twinkle spoke to him.

"You maybe don't recognize me like this, right?" Star Twinkle asked.

Now, everything that happened yesterday flashed through Summershine's mind. He didn't know how he did it or when but he knew the answer. It just came to him and just looking at Star Twinkle right now made him actually believe his theory.

But just in case, Summershine asked the question anyway...

"Is that you? Ashgray?"

Star Twinkle smiled back confidently, pretty much confirming that Summershine was right.

Summershine's worried expression turned into a more determined and angry one now and he prepared himself for what would happen next. Ashgray didn't seem worried at all and kept on grinning before he stood ready as well. But not without saying some last words.

"This will be the end...of your Equestria!"

To be continued...
> 20. The End of Friendship - Part 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ponyville was on fire...

The little peaceful town was covered in flames and ponies all over the town were doing their best to put them out. But as they did that, they didn't realize how something much bigger was going on at this very moment.

In the center of the town, two ponies were staring at each other while all of this happened around them. Summershine was confronting Ashgray who was inside Star Twinkle's body, and on top of that, an Alicorn. Next to Ashgray were Lightbeam and Nightsky who got knocked out by him.

Seeing his friends on the ground unconscious made the stallion angry but at the same time, he still couldn't fully believe that Ashgray was inside Star Twinkle. "Is that really you, Ashgray!?" He asked as confirmation. "How did you steal Star Twinkle's body!? Get out of him!" He exclaimed angrily.

But Ashgray remained calm. "I'm afraid I can't do that. I need him to archive my goal,"

Summershine's sight was then focused on his two friends on the ground. "What do you mean with that!? What did you do with my friends!?" He asked angrily.

Ashgray was confident right now. He didn't plan to hide anything from Summershine because he knew he already won. "I wasn't able to control the Elements of Harmony before..." he said before he looked over to the two Pegasi next to him. "That was because you and your friends are the ones tied to them. I maybe was able to use their power for a moment but as soon as the elements realized that I wasn't chosen by them, I got rejected. Only those who were chosen have the ability to use them," he explained before he looked back at Summershine. "So...I somehow had to find a way to connect myself to the elements, that way I would be able to control them,"

"Connect yourself with the elements?" Summershine asked confused.

Ashgray nodded with a smile on his face. "It was actually pretty easy to figure out what to do. You are able to control the Elements of Harmony because you were destined to...and as everypony knows, Cutie Marks are connected with your destiny,"

Having said that, Summershine instantly noticed that the Cutie Marks of his friends were gone. Before Ashgray turned towards Summershine before, he was using his magic to draw out something from the two. He must have used some kind of spell to take away their Cutie Marks. Summershine quickly put one and one together and had a good guess what exactly Ashgray had in mind.

"You seem to have figured it out," Ashgray said after he noticed how the gears in Summershine's head were turning. "Yes. By stealing their Cutie Marks, the Elements of Harmony will recognize me as the one chosen by them," he said with a victorious smile on his face.

Summershine clenched his teeth. "Your plan will not work! And I will make sure of that!" He exclaimed angrily with his horn glowing in blue light.

But Ashgray smiled in response. "Then go ahead," he offered confidently.

The orange Unicorn was about to instantly take this offer but then he realized something that prevented him to go further. Right now he was aiming at his friend, Star Twinkle. The pony that was talking to him was none other than Ashgray but the body that he was in now was one of his best friends. There was no way that he would attack Star Twinkle.

And Ashgray was well aware of that. "You can't attack me because you would only hurt your friend," he said mockingly. "And that means I already won!" He then exclaimed before flames were rising around him and in front of Summershine, blocking the view of the Unicorn for a moment.

Once the flames were gone, Ashgray was nowhere to be found. He used this as a distraction to get away. In a way, he was glad that he was gone. Now he had the time to check up on Lightbeam and Nightsky. Both of them were waking up but their bodies were shaking.

"I...feel weak..." Nightsky said. His voice could barely be heard.

Summershine didn't know what to do and could only look at the two. "Don't worry! Everything will be fine!" He said, even though he wasn't believing his own words right now.

Then suddenly, with the little strength that she had left, Lightbeam grabbed the stallion's legs. "Please..." she said, panting heavily. "The others...save the others..."

It was just now that Summershine realized that Ashgray was most likely going after them at this very moment. Happytrade, Crash, and Brilliance had no idea what was coming after them right now. Still, Summershine could not let his two friends lay in the middle of the road, especially when there was a fire in town. 

It took a lot but the two managed to convinced Summershine to go and warn the others. First, he went to The Golden Oak Library to protect Brilliance. The real problem was that Ashgray knew where everypony lived so getting there in time before he did was still really hard.

Summershine smashed open the door of the library and hoped that he wasn't too late but as soon as he took a look into the room he saw what he didn't want to see at all. "No..." he said in frustration. Brilliance was on the ground, he Cutie Mark was gone, and she was too weak to even move. Ashgray was already there and dealt with the mare.

"Star...Twinkle...why?" She said with a frown on her face.

"It wasn't Star Twinkle!" Summershine corrected before the mare got any wrong ideas about all this. He wanted to do something for her but he was running out of time, two of his friends were still out there and in danger. "Stay here! I will take care of everything! I promise!" He said before he left with a heavy heart. He didn't want to leave his friends in this condition but everything happened so quickly and he needed to act fast.

The Unicorn stallion focused his magic like never before. Soon he teleported away. He knew where Crash would be at this very moment and made sure to be there as fast as possible this time. Brilliance could only watch how her friend vanished in front of her. She didn't know what happened here but she knew that right now she couldn't even help anyway which made her rather sad.

In the meantime, Summershine appeared inside the Toys N Stuff shop, Crash's workplace. Soon, he saw Star Twinkle, or rather, Ashgray already absorbing Crash's magic. "No!" Summershine shouted before he readied his magic to attack but Ashgray turned around to face the stallion and dropped Crash to the ground. He was already done and used a teleport spell to get away again but not before smiling at Summershine victoriously.

By now, Summershine clenched his teeth in anger. Not only was he angry at Ashgray but also at himself for not being able to save his friends in time. As much as he also wanted to help Crash and explain the situation, he could not waste any time and straight out teleported away again, this time he headed to the marketplace, where Happytrade should be. Crash could only watch his friend disappearing again and he was confused beyond belief.

"That...was not a really fun prank," he said in a weak voice.

Again, Summershine appeared somewhere else. He was at the Marketplace of Ponyville. If there was any place where Happytrade could be, then it was this place. But to Summershine's surprise, that is not where she was. At first, he panicked, but then he realized that it was actually a good thing. If Happytrade was not at the Market and Summershine didn't know where she is, then there was no way that Ashgray would know her location. That gave Summershine a little bit more time.

In the meantime, Happytrade and some other ponies were busy putting out some flames in Ponyville. The mare gathered some ponies as soon as she saw the fire and decided to take action. "Over there!" She ordered some ponies, who carried buckets filled with water, to a nearby house. Of course, the mare did some work too and tried her best to put every single fire out but she couldn't help but look at the state of her hometown with a frown on her face. "How did this all happen?" She said after seeing the state of Ponyville.

Her luck started to turn around, however, once Star Twinkle walked up to her. She really needed everypony to help her and the others out at this dire moment. The mare rushed over to the stallion who didn't seem to be too bothered by everything that happened around him. Happytrade was about to scold him for this but then she immediately noticed the wings and his horn. Before she could address this, however, Star Twinkle used his magic to hold her in place and walked closer to her. He was about to do the same thing that he did with the rest of his friends, something that Happytrade was not aware of. The only thing she knew was that one of her friends was attacking her now.

"What...are you doing...Star Twinkle?" She said confused and with a sad tone in her voice.

Star Twinkle was about to steal the mare's Cutie Mark, all he had to do was starting the spell. But just before he was about to start, a beam of magic was shot at him, which he managed to notice and dodge just in the last second. Because of that, Happytrade was released by his spell and dropped to the ground. The one who attacked him was Summershine, who placed himself right in front of Happytrade in order to protect her.

"Are you hurt?" He asked in concern while he locked his eyes right at Star Twinkle.

"Yes..." Happytrade replied while she got up on her hooves. "What is going on? Why is Star Twinkle-"

"That's not Star Twinkle!" Summershine immediately corrected. "It's Ashgray! He stole Star Twinkle's body and went after our friends and stole their Cutie Marks! He is also the one who caused this fire!" He explained in a quick rush to the mare.

Happytrade couldn't even process what was said to her before Star Twinkle-Ashgray charged at the two again, his body covered in fire now. Both of them dodged out of the way, to different sides and Summershine countered with a magic beam. Ashgray simply blocked this attack by putting a wall of flames in front of him, separating Summershine from both Ashgray and Happytrade.

"No, you don't!" Summershine shouted angrily. He was long beyond not attacking Star Twinkle's body anymore. His friends were in danger after all. He teleported himself behind the firewall already saw Ashgray trying to attempt going after Happytrade. Ashgray was surprised to see Summershine appearing in front of him and decided to move a few steps back before then preparing another attack. He pointed his hoof in front and a flame beam came out of it, which headed right at Summershine. This was bad. Summershine well remembered when he tried to counter Ashgray's fire attacks the last time and that his magic was too weak against it. All he could do was teleport out of the way.

When Summershine appeared again, he was a few meters behind Ashgray. Again, the Alicorn pulled up another firewall to separate him and Happytrade from Summershine. And again, Summershine teleported himself behind the wall to protect Happytrade. But that was exactly what Ashgray expected. Once Summershine appeared behind the wall, Ashgray was nowhere to be found. The Alicorn was flying up in the air and prepared another attack, a flame ball was created above his head which he threw at Summershine, who just barely noticed the attack and put up a shield in the very last second.

But the shield broke very easily and Summershine git hit, not directly but the impact of the attack is what got him and pushed him back. It was enough to almost knock him out. Things got blurry and Summershine could feel that he was barely keeping things together. Maybe he even passed out for a few seconds. Whatever happened, it was bad. Because as soon as he could sharpen his view again, he saw how Happytrade dropped to the ground and passed out. Her flank was blank. Ashgray successfully managed to steal her Cutie Mark.

Summershine reached out to her, helplessly and with a defeated expression on his face. He then lowered his head. "I couldn't protect any of them..." he said, completely blaming him for everything that happened.

With Summershine being in this state, Ashgray was not afraid to walk up to him. And as expected, Summershine didn't do anything. What else could he even do at this moment? His friends got their Cutie Marks stolen, Star Twinkle lost his body, and Ashgray was too strong for Summershine to even do anything about it.

And Ashgray was aware of that too. "When we fought at the Castle of the Two Sisters, I made a mistake to try and fight against you first. Going after your friends first was a good choice. They would have appeared and messed up things for me again," he explained calmly.

The fact that Ashgray talked about his and his friends defeat so casually made the stallion really angry. "Why are you doing all of this!?" Summershine asked in his anger.

Ashgray felt as if he had no reason to tell him but he did anyway. There was no way that he could be stopped anymore, not with Summershine's crushed determination. "I will simply return things the way they were meant to be,"

"The way things were meant to be?" Summershine replied angrily. "You held Princess Celestia hostage, tried to steal and even destroy the Elements of Harmony, which are supposed to save Equestria, burned this town, and claim that this is how things are meant to be!?" Summershine asked, his anger almost showing no limit at this point. "All that you are doing is proving that you are nothing more than evil!"

The last sentence made Ashgray furious. He clenched his teeth and threw daggers at Summershine with his eyes. before he calmly walked up to the stallion in front of him. "You and pretty much everyone in Equestria look up to your precious princess," he said mockingly and with some disgust in his voice. Soon the stallion found himself in a state of anger while he summed up everything that he knew. "All without knowing that in reality, she did nothing to deserve all this. The love of everyone, the title of being the ruler of Equestria! Nothing! She stole the title as the ruler of all of Equestria! She sent her own sister to the moon! She took everything away from me! You might think that what I am doing is evil but all I do is make things right again! And I will not let a pony who doesn't know anything call me evil!" Ashgray shouted right into Summershine's face.

A chance opened up!

Ashgray found himself trapped in Summershine's magic and couldn't move. He was too angry to notice that Summershine wanted him to get closer. Summershine did not waste this opportunity and readied his horn to get a good shot at Ashgray from this close. He decided to use all of his remaining magic. It would be enough to finish Ashgray off and end all of this. He would hurt Star Twinkle's body in the process but that was a sacrifice that had to be made now.

Summershine shot. The beam was close enough that it didn't even take a second to reach him.

But Ashgray was still faster. The beam was heading at Ashgray's face but the spot where the beam would hit was blocked by a slim wall of fire that came shooting up from the ground and nullifying Summershine's attack. Of course, Summershine was left in shock after this and didn't know how to react and before he knew what happened Ashgray created flames around him and pushed Summershine away and to the ground.

The Alicorn stood victorious once again. "Nice try," he just commented after this attempt.

Ashgray was too strong...

Summershine could not defeat him, at least not without his friends or the Elements of Harmony. It was now that Summershine realized that. He tried to get up on his hooves again but he figured that there was no point anymore. For one, his friends already got defeated and no matter how much Summershine tried, Ashgray was using Terra Unisus Magic, something that can't be beaten by regular magic.

"Just give up, Summershine," Ashgray said before he, once more, slowly walked up to the stallion. This time, however, he got a close look at him in case he was trying something fishy again. "You are not stupid, Summershine. You know that this is it for you, do you?"

No matter how much he wanted to deny it, Ashgray was right. Summershine could only chuckle in his defeat. "Maybe..." he said with a defeated smile on his face. "I couldn't save my friends in time...and it looks like I can't stop you...I'm all out of magic..." he admitted with a broken tone in his voice.

Ashgray was set to steal Summershine's Cutie Mark now. It would mean that he would have all Cutie Marks from the bearer of the Elements of Harmony. If what he said before was true, then he would get full control over the elements. And what would happen after that? Would that be the end of Equestria?

"Wait!" Summershine said right before Ashgray was about to use his magic against him. Surprisingly, Ashgray did stop in the last second, even if he didn't really like to. But he was curious about what Summershine still wanted. "I know I am not in a position to demand anything but..." Summershine started before he looked the Alicorn straight into the eyes. "Release Star Twinkle's body!"

The gray pony raised his eyebrows. "I can't do that," he replied. "I need his body to keep going. My body was turned to stone after all. I know you don't feel too happy that I am in control of your friend's body but I need one to archive my goal,"

"Then take my body!" Summershine exclaimed.

Ashgray widened his eyes confused for a moment. "What!?" He asked confused.

"You heard me," Summershine said before he managed to get up on his hooves again. "You need my Cutie Mark because you need my element, right? Just take my body instead and you can have it,"

"You offer me your body just so that I can release Star Twinkle's? Why?" Ashgray asked.

Summershine began to smile. Ashgray did not seem to be completely against this idea, which managed to calm Summershine down a little. "I just want Star Twinkle to be safe. Even if I couldn't stop you to go after my other friends, the least I can do now is save one of them," he explained. Ashgray did not say anything in return and kept a serious expression on his face. Summershine then bowed down. "Please. He is my best friend. I can't let him end up like this. I need to save him!" He begged, his voice starting to break while saying those words.

Instead of looking down on Summershine, Ashgray could feel sympathy. He knew exactly how he felt at this moment and looking at him reminded him to himself.

"Okay," Ashgray replied. "I will take your body instead," 

The head of Summershine raised up immediately after hearing that. "You promise to not hurt Star Twinkle?" He asked with wide-open eyes.

"I promise," Ashgray assured.

What followed was Ashgray walking even closer to Summershine. He closed his eyes and spoke the same words that he said to Star Twinkle before. "You are me, and I am you...by giving up my body...I shall continue to live inside yours!"

An orb of light came out of Star Twinkle's body which transferred itself into Summershine. The red-colored eyes of Star Twinkle returned to their light green color and the stallion collapsed to the ground, passing out.

Summershine closed his eyes and accepted what was happening. He knew that by giving up his body, he pretty much gave Ashgray a complete victory. Depending on what exactly Ashgray was planning to do from now on, Equestria was doomed. But knowing that he protected Star Twinkle in the last moment, made him feel happy and relieved...


A little later...


"Happy?" A female voice said, far away.

Things got a little blurry once Happytrade opened her eyes again. She saw Lightbeam who kept pushing the mare to wake her up.

"You're awake!" Lightbeam said relieved, holding her chest with her hoof.

The mare managed to stand up again, slowly. Lightbeam, Nightsky, Crash, and Brilliance were standing around her. "What happened?" She asked with a dizzy tone in her voice. But then things started to flash through her mind. Pictures of what happened before she passed out. "Star Twinkle!...no...Ashgray!" She said.

The town was also still burning, things were still in chaos. The group desperately wanted to do something against that fire but unfortunately, they had bigger things to take care of now.

"Ashgray...he stole Star Twinkle's body, right?" Nightsky asked.

"And he attacked us!" Lightbeam added angrily, at least as angrily as she could, given the condition that she was in now.

The group was still weak after Ashgray's attack. Having their Cutie Marks removed was taking away a lot of their strength, some of them could barely stand right now.

"What happened to Summershine?" Crash then asked confused.

Happytrade could answer this question. "He fought against Star...err...Ashgray! But I don't know what happened because I passed out,"

Nightsky looked over his shoulder. "It looks like Summershine won the battle, look," he said before he pointed at what made him think that. Star Twinkle laid in the middle of the road, just a few meters away from them. "We tried to wake him up but he is knocked out cold, maybe even hurt," he figured.

"But there is no trace from Summershine! Where is he?" Lightbeam asked.

As on cue, Happytrade spotted exactly him, walking over to the group from afar. "There, look!" She said causing everypony to look over to him.

Summershine walked over to the group. The expression on his face was serious. As if that wasn't concerning enough, he was levitating the Elements of Harmony above his head. Nightsky and Brilliance were the only ones who noticed that something was not right. The dark blue stallion pulled his sister behind him to protect her.

"That is not Summershine," Nightsky said cautiously.

"What!?" Happytrade asked confused, not believing him at first.

But Nightsky pointed out something that no one noticed yet. Summershine had wings. He was an Alicorn. It was exactly like with Star Twinkle before. That alone gave him and his friends a really bad feeling.

Summershine stopped moving eventually, in the middle of the road. He didn't say a single word while walking towards the group. There was a short moment where he and the five ponies were looking at each other cautiously but soon Summershine finally spoke.

"I'm surprised that you could still move after I took your Cutie Marks."

Everypony instantly widened their eyes in shock. This pony didn't even try to hide anything anymore. The eyes of Summershine were not dark blue but instead red. He was an Alicorn. He had the Elements of Harmony with him. He just said that he stole everyponies Cutie Mark. There was no mistake. This pony was not Summershine.

"You are...Ashgray!" Happytrade said in her realization.

The Alicorn nodded. "Yes, I am," he admitted. "And before you accuse me of stealing your friend's body, you should know that he offered it to me freely,"

Crash looked at the pony in disbelieve. "Why would he do that!?" He asked.

Ashgray looked over to Star Twinkle, who was laying on the ground a few steps away from him, still unconscious. "I was in control of Star Twinkle's body before, as some of you might know. Summershine wanted me to trade Star Twinkle's body for his own in order to save him,"

Nightsky smiled upon hearing that. "Sound like something he would do,"

Ashgray continued. "I promised that I would keep Star Twinkle out of this, and I will keep my promise," he assured before he moved his head towards the five ponies again. "However, he didn't mention anything about you guys so I assume he doesn't care too much about what I can and can't do to you,"

It was an attempt to make the ponies feel worried and sad but the group instantly corrected Ashgray. "You're wrong!" Lightbeam said. "Summershine does care about every single one of us!" She added while she threw a glare at the stallion.

"Maybe," Ashgray replied unaffected by the mare's glare. "I think he pretty much gave up on saving you after I got a hold of your Cutie Marks,"

Again, Nightsky smiled. "I know Summershine long enough to know that he wouldn't have made that choice without reason. He probably knew that he couldn't defeat you and had to resort to this. But..." he said before he paused for a moment and formed a serious expression on his face. "Don't you dare talk about him as if he gave up on us!"

"Yes!" Brilliance added with a serious expression on her face as well. "By giving up his body he saved Star Twinkle," she pointed out.

"But he didn't save you," Ashgray said menacingly before he levitated the Elements of Harmony above his head now. A bright light was forming around the pony and he started to levitate above the ground. Just the mere sight of this left the five ponies in shock and helplessness. "I'm sorry but if I want to reach my goal, I need to make sure that nopony will stand in my way. I can't afford to risk you messing everything up for me. You are the ponies chosen by the Elements of Harmony and I have to remove you!"

The light around Ashgray became brighter and brighter. If the five ponies weren't the target for the attack, then they would admit that this was a rather pretty sight but instead they felt that an unavoidable doom was heading towards them.

Crash looked at Ashgray in shock. Happytrade backed up in fear before she then turned towards Brilliance's shoulder, who hugged the pony in return and kept her eyes locked on Ashgray. Nightsky offered Lightbeam his hoof. She took it and they both held hooves as the attack was starting to come after them now.

A rainbow shot out from Ashgray and headed right at the five ponies. They were directly hit and the light was completely covering them. And after the attack was done...the five ponies were gone...

...

It was quiet. The only noises that could be heard were the sounds of the flames that were still all around Ponyville, accompanied by some stressed voices far in the background.

Ashgray landed slowly on the ground again. He looked at where the group of ponies was standing only to find no one left anymore. He won. There was nopony left to stop him now. The bearers of the Elements of Harmony were gone. He and he alone was in control of the Elements of Harmony, the strongest magic in Equestria. He was the strongest pony alive now and Ashgray was fully aware of this.

But rather than showing happiness, the pony transformed back into a Unicorn and let out a sigh in relief. "It's done..." he said before he looked up at the sky. The pony closed his eyes and thought back at his past. "Mother...Winter...it took a long time but I am really close to making sure Equestria is heading in the right direction again. Now that I have the elements, I can bring you both back," he said with a slight smile on his face.

The stallion then lowered his eyebrows and formed a determined expression on his face. "Right after I dealt with Celestia," he said in with a serious tone in his voice.

...

"Huh?" Ashgray said in confusion. "I...can't move!?" Ashgray said with his body trembling in the meantime. No matter how much he tried to, he could not move. Something was wrong, and he didn't like it. "What is going on!?" He asked in a panic.

"That is enough!" An all too familiar voice said inside his mind.

Suddenly, Ashgray found himself in another plane of existence. He found himself in a completely white place. He looked exactly like he did before he stole Star Twinkle's body, his mane and coat were gray and his eyes red. In front of him stood Summershine, who had a serious expression on his face.

"I may have not been able to save my friends but I will not let you continue anymore!" Summershine said determined to make those words come true.

But Ashgray just smiled at the stallion in return. "You are trying to fight back?" He asked mockingly. "I am in control of your body now! You are not strong enough to break free from my control!" He said confidently before he concentrated his magic.

A gray-colored magic aura was heading straight at Summershine who countered with his own magic, that took form as an orange-colored aura. The two auras collided and tried to consume each other in the middle. The two of them were evenly strong but Ashgray had still something to turn things into his favor. He grew wings on his back, it was his Terra Unisus Transformation. Once he was in this form, his magic aura grew wider and stronger. It easily managed to consume Summershine's aura, who had a lot of struggle to fight back now.

Ashgray smiled as soon as he saw how much trouble his opponent had. "I told you! You are not strong enough to beat me!" Things seemed dire. Ashgray was about to deal the finishing blow and let all of his magic consume Summershine.

But then...

Five lights appeared above the two pony's heads. Both of them looked very confused, especially Ashgray. Summershine looked up at the five lights but he couldn't really afford to concentrate on them since he was about to lose now. But strangely, his strength seemed to have increased. No. It was rather as if someone gave him support. A familiar feeling. Summershine smiled soon after he realized what it was.

In the meantime, Ashgray found himself struggling once he saw how those five lights began landing next to Summershine. They began to take the form of five ponies. It was Happytrade, Crash, Brilliance, Nightsky, and Lightbeam. All of them gave him a serious look.

"You!?" He said in his confusion.

The five ponies had magic auras coming out of them now as well. Each of them in the color of their coat. Those five auras joined Summershine's and created a much bigger magic aura that was soon heading towards Ashgray. The gray pony looked a lot more nervous now, he clenched his teeth and didn't know what to do.

"I am not alone, Ashgray..." Summershine said in the midst of the attack, causing Ashgray to widen his eyes. "I am not strong enough to beat you. But we are!" He said in a determined tone before he let out a scream and released huge amount of magic at once.

The magic aura completely consumed the gray magic aura of Ashgray and hit him directly. "No! I was so close! I was...so...close!" He said before he screamed in fear and shock before his voice faded out and soon Ashgray was completely gone.

The only thing that was left was the six ponies. Summershine looked over to his friends and gave them a thankful smile, which was returned by smiles from his friends.

...

Soon this strange place vanished and Summershine found himself in the middle of Ponyville again. His eyes were no longer red but blue again, just like how they were supposed to be. Summershine released a deep breath. Ashgray was no longer in control of his body. He looked around and saw how most of the fire was putting itself out for some reason as if Ashgray's absence was making it disappear.

The stallion turned towards Star Twinkle who laid a few steps next to him. He looked at him with a relieved expression on his face. A few moments later, the five lights from before appeared again, and once more turned into his friends. However...something was wrong. His friends were not completely there, at least that's what Summershine figured at this moment. He could look right through them as if they were ghosts.

That was, of course, not unnoticed by them as well. "What happened to us?" Lightbeam asked confused as she literally looked through her own hoof.

"I don't know..." Happytrade said. "But I feel really...tired..." she added. Looking from everyponies expression, they all seemed to feel the same way.

"We were his by the Elements of Harmony..." Brilliance pointed out. "Maybe that is why we are like this?" She guessed.

Summershine formed a frown on his face. He knew that the state of his friends was not normal. And he had a really bad feeling that it would only get worse. "This might be a stretch but..." Summershine started. "Your bodies are gone and it looks like your spirits are the only thing that is left now. Remember, Ashgray took away your Cutie Marks and your destiny, and then he took away your bodies. You are pretty much in the same state as Ashgray was once his body turned to stone,"

There was a mix of confusion and realization in the group. Their bodies were gone and now their spirits wandered around aimlessly. They managed to help Summershine with his battle against Ashgray because their spirits were inside his body, that is why they were able to help. At least that is what Summershine puzzled himself together.

"But..." Happytrade then started. "What happens to us now?"

"Well," Summershine replied before he then realized that he had the solution. "The Elements of Harmony!" He exclaimed. He quickly found the six elements laying on the ground next to him. "Ashgray managed to use them to take away your bodies so they should-" but he stopped in his sentence once he realized something different. The Elements of Harmony were turned to stone, and on top of that, there were only five. "What!?" He said confused. "What happened to them!? And where is the sixth one!?" He said in his frustration.

As usual, despite the situation, Brilliance remained calm and shared her thoughts. "The elements got back their powers after we came in contact with them. But since were are technically gone..." she said before she stopped, knowing that Summershine already expected to come to the same conclusion.

"But..." Summershine said in his frustration. "Then how are you supposed to get your bodies back!?" He said helplessly.

Lightbeam, by now, had a real problem to stay awake. "I feel really tired..."

"Yeah, me too," Crash added as he rubbed one of his eyes. "Weird, normally I am always full of energy,"

Soon, the bodies of his friends started to fade more and more, like light bulbs that were about to run out of energy. "What will happen to us now!?" Lightbeam said afraid.

"I don't know..." Nightsky replied with a frown on his face. "I guess, we're gonna vanish..."

Summershine felt helpless. He had no idea what to do. His friends were about to vanish and all he could do was watch. Tears came down running on his cheeks. Were his friends really gonna vanish forever? Was there not one solution that he could come up with to save them? What even was about to happen to them? He wished that Star Twinkle was awake to help him in this situation. The stallion looked over to Star Twinkle, who was completely unaware of what was happening now. It was in this moment when Summershine saw one last ray of hope, one last solution that would, in a way prevent his friends to leave forever. 

"No, you're not," he said before he walked closer to Star Twinkle. "You guys need new bodies. You are pretty much in the same state as Ashgray was before we turned him to stone. But he managed to exist still, by going into Star Twinkle's body," he explained before he turned towards his friends again. "You all need to do the same!"

Of course, this idea was met with confusion by his friends. "We need to go inside Star Twinkle's body?" Crash asked in the name of the rest of his friends.

Summershine explained further. "I don't know what happens if you vanish now so the best thing I can think of is that you should rest inside of him. At least until I can figure out how to get you all back completely!"

Having brought that up, there was one thing that Nightsky wondered. "Wait. What about you? Can't we go inside your body?" He asked.

"No," Summershine quickly replied.

"Why not?" Happytrade asked.

Summershine gave back a quick answer. "Ashgray," once he said that name, he, again was met with confusion. "I...can feel that he is not gone. He will be back I know it. And if you all reside in my body, and Ashgray takes control of it again, then he will be able to use the Element's of Harmony again. You need to be out of reach of him, and fortunately getting inside Star Twinkle's body is one of two things that will make it harder for him,"

"One of two things?" Nightsky asked.

The orange pony took a deep breath before he gave his answer. "There is one more thing I need to do after that," he paused. His friends would not like what he was about to say now. "I need to cast...the Memory Erase Spell,"

Everypony was perking their ears up after hearing that. "You what!?" Happytrade exclaimed despite the condition she was in now. "Why do you need to do that!?"

But Brilliance knew why. "To keep us safe," she replied, which still didn't make much more sense to Happytrade.

The Memory Erase Spell was a spell that was brought up by Celestia after Ashgray's attack. A spell that would remove someone from everyone's memory under the condition that the removed someone no longer existed physically. Right now, his friends would match this condition.

"If I remove you from everyone's memory, then Ashgray will no longer know who to go after. And he certainly would not go after Star Twinkle because he doesn't know that you are inside of him,"

"But..." Lightbeam said with a frown on her face. "Everyone will forget about us...even..." she then looked over to Star Twinkle.

It was a pretty strange situation. There was no win-win situation. Summershine's friends would be gone either way, most likely, and Ashgray could return any time and ruin everything. All of this was happening way too fast and even thinking about this situation gave everypony a headache. But despite all of that, Nightsky raised his head confidently at the sky.

"Alright, let's do this," he then said out of the blue, causing his friends to look over to him. "Listen. We are six ponies, chosen by the Elements of Harmony. We are partly responsible to protect Equestria. But...we are not the only ones. I am sure that out there, are ponies who are just as strong, just as brave, and just as a good team as we are. And if Ashgray does return, and we are not here, somepony else will arrive and stop him," he then smiled and looked over to a still unconscious Star Twinkle. "I mean, wouldn't it be funny if Star Twinkle would be one of them?"

This caused his friends to laugh for the first time what felt like forever. "I can't believe he is still unconscious. He always had  a habit to oversleep things, didn't he?" She said jokingly.

"I'm sure if there is one pony that will protect Equestria, then it would be him," Brilliance said happily.

Lightbeam chuckled. "Well...if I am going to rest somewhere, then I guess Star Twinkle wouldn't be the worst choice. Maybe it's really roomy in his head," she said with a grin on her face.

"Yes!" Crash added. "And if somepony tries to go in his head and do some weird stuff to him, we will kick them out again!"

Despite this very dire situation, everypony managed to get a good laugh out of it. Summershine could only smile before he gave them all a look filled with determination. "I will find a way to get you all back! I promise!"

His friends smiled at him. They had no doubt that his words would come true. They were five ponies, who's existence was about to vanish now. Their bodies gone, only their spirits remain, which were about to leave anytime soon. The only thing they could do was to reside in one body and wait until they had their bodies back so that they could exist again. That is all they could do right now, even if it meant vanishing from everyone's memories.

The five ponies did as Summershine told them and turned into five magic orbs that would soon fly into Star Twinkle's body before vanishing in his mind. They were no longer and rested inside of him. They couldn't talk with each other, nor could they see or hear anything. It was as if they were gone.

Summershine was about to cast the Memory Erase Spell. It was pretty ironic that he had to use a spell to save Equestria, which he only heard about one day ago. He only managed to even cast it now because he spent all night informing himself about it in some books. He just hoped that it would work, now out of all times. A bright light surrounded the Unicorn and moments later, it was flashing through all of Ponyville and then around the minds of everyone who ever met the five ponies.

They were now gone from Equestria...


Later...


The fire in Ponyville was of course, not unnoticed by Princess Celestia who just arrived at the town. When she arrived, however, she was met by confusion. She asked around to find out how this fire started but nopony knew the answer. For some reason, she wanted to check out the Castle of the Two Sisters. She felt as if she needed to check the Elements of Harmony but she didn't know why and thinking about it, made her head hurt.

Once she arrived at the castle, she saw them in the same state as usual. They were five stone balls. She somehow expected them to have changed or something but that wasn't the case. Then there was something else. A pony was laying in front of the elements. A green Earth Pony with a dark green star-shaped mane.

Next to Star Twinkle was a scroll. Princess Celestia picked it up with her magic and gave it a read.

"Whoever reads this, please make sure that Princess Celestia is informed about this...

This pony in front of you, his name is Star Twinkle. 

I have a request...

Make sure that his safety is assured. At least for a while...
Sooner or later he will be targeted because of his connection with the Elements of Harmony. 
This has to be prevented at all costs.
I cannot go into much detail about this...neither can I tell you who I am.
I know that you don't have a reason to trust me but all I want is this ponies and Equestria's safety.

All I ask for...is some time...
Until I made sure to deal with everything..."

Once she read through it, she looked back at Star Twinkle and remained silent.

...

In the meantime, Summershine was already walking away from Ponyville. He looked only once back at the town and hoped that by the next time he would be there, everything would be settled. Ashgray, his friends, everything should be back to normal once he could figure out everything. First, he needs to make sure that Ashgray would never return, then he needed to find a way to return everyone's bodies, only then could he face Star Twinkle again. Only then. With that thought, he left, dealing with all of this on his own, he was the last pony who would eventually save Equestria by doing all of this. And he didn't plan to fail.


Later...


A new morning in Equestria began...

Early in the morning, the sun was slowly rising in the sky and gave everypony a sign that a new day was about to begin. The beams of the sun began to shine through the window of a wooden house and into the still-closed eyes of a light green coated stallion. Awoken from the sunlight, the green-coated pony looked out of his window and saw the sun rising on the horizon. It was a beautiful sight outside but the pony didn't seem to be impressed at all and let out an annoyed sigh. He slowly got out of his bed and stretched a little. He had enough sleep but he slowly crawled through the room as if he was half-asleep.
"...Another boring day begins," Star Twinkle said with an almost expressionless voice accompanied by a bored face before he got out of his bed and started his daily morning routine. Before he left his house, he took on more look into a mirror to inspect himself. His eyes wandered to his flank, which was blank and had no Cutie Mark on it. Just looking at it made him sigh. Eventually, he forced a smile on his face and left his house to go to work and start his normal and boring life, just like every other day in his life.
A life without friends...