> The Stub and the Snub
>  by Wise Cracker
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Map Calls
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scootaloo kept her breath steady as she ran to the castle in a tight formation with her friends. Apple Bloom always had the front, and Scootaloo didn’t want Sweetie Belle to lag behind, so she always made sure to be just a little slower than the Unicorn. Still, even if the pace wasn’t enough to make her break a sweat, the excitement was enough to make the Pegasus’s heart rate quicken as she sped through the castle gates.  

“Princess Twilight! Princess Twilight! We’re glowing again!” They called in unison.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders came galloping through the crystal corridors as fast as their little legs could carry them. They headed straight to the map of Equestria in the throne room, where a pair of Unicorns and a dragon were already surveying the situation.  

“I noticed, girls,” Twilight said once they skidded to a halt in front of the map. “Looks like you have another friendship mission on your hooves.”

Scootaloo hopped up and down, wings abuzz with excitement. “So where are we going this time? Cloudsdale? Las Pegasus?”

“Ooh, maybe we can go to Canterlot this time,” Sweetie Belle said. “Do you think we could help Princess Celestia with a friendship problem?”

Scootaloo wanted to nod, but then a sound came from next to the girls, one Rainbow Dash had warned her about a few times. The sound was something of a nervous whinny and a frightful gasp, and, as the winged filly had learned from some foreign students, was commonly referred to as ‘panicky horse noise.’ According to Ocellus, when Twilight made that sound, it was usually a good time to either take cover or find a paper bag.  

“I don’t think the Royal Sisters will be getting any friendship problems anytime soon,” said Starlight Glimmer. “Not after what happened last time. No, you girls are needed in Cornucopia, apparently.”

“Corny whatnow?” Apple Bloom asked.  

“Cornucopia,” Twilight replied once the panic attack had worn off. “It’s a Unicorn village near the coast of Southern Equestria, one of the few settlements built exclusively by Unicorns.”

With a quirked eyebrow, Apple Bloom said, “Really? One of the few? Wasn’t your village built by a Unicorn, too, Starlight? You know, you?”

“Yes, but most cities in Equestria aren’t,” Starlight replied. “It’s a long story. Cornucopia’s a great place, it’s pretty famous… in certain circles.”

“I’ve never heard of it,” Scootaloo said.  

“That’s because you’re not in those circles,” Spike remarked.

“No, it’s mostly known for its schools.” Starlight gestured to the map, above where the girl’s cutie marks were floating. “A lot of Unicorns end up going to school there if they can’t go to Canterlot, and a lot of travelling tutors came from there, too. Cornucopia has a long history of producing powerful master wizards.”

Sweetie Belle’s ears perked. “If it’s a Unicorn town, then it’s a probably a Unicorn problem.”

Scootaloo’s ears drooped right along with her wings. “Oh. Yeah, we might have to let you handle this one, Sweetie Belle. You’re the only Unicorn expert we’ve got.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Be that as it may, the map called for all three of you. And it’s not exclusively Unicorns that live there, you know. There are plenty of Pegasi and Earth ponies, too. Actually, they’ll be pretty busy when you get there. That’s why Starlight will be joining you.”

Scootaloo stared at those floating cutie marks above the map, as if somehow she might make the things disappear, or at least scatter to somewhere better. She quickly gave up on the whole endeavour.  

“Yup,” Starlight said. “They’ll be holding the Official Royal Guard Fitness Test there in a few weeks, and one of the teachers has asked me to help out. It’ll be nice to see some of my old frie–err, ahem, teachers there.”

“No need to worry, Starlight.” Twilight walked up and put a hoof on Starlight’s shoulder. “It’s just a simple consultation, nothing more. And you can keep an eye on the girls while they’re there, maybe even give them some advice in case there’s any advanced magic they need to understand.”

“Will do.”

Scootaloo snorted and bunched her wings against her sides, as her shoulders were feeling quite cold and unpatted all of a sudden. “Are you sure the Map needs all three of us?”

“Of course I’m sure. You’re all glowing, aren’t you?” Twilight gestured to the glowing marks.  

For once, the little filly didn’t turn and stare at her flickering rump. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

“Why, what’s wrong? Sweetie Belle asked.

“Nothing’s wrong,” Scootaloo replied. “Everything is fine. Let’s just go and see what the problem is.”





Starlight Glimmer stayed quiet most of the way, letting the girls talk about this and that, mostly the usual foal things: cutie mark problems, overbearing siblings, farm life. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom were real chatterboxes when left to their own devices. Scootaloo, however, had taken a seat by the window, and she took full advantage of the opportunity to stare into the distance when her friends started arguing about what sort of problem they might face and how best to face it.  

“Well, I say it’s probably a Unicorn problem and that means I should take charge,” Sweetie Belle said.

“But it might be somethin’ that you don’t know about,” Apple Bloom replied. “So we won’t know who’s in charge until we find the problem.”

This went on for a while, the two girls going back and forth in their debate, never once asking what they might expect to find once they got to their destination. Around the halfway mark of their journey, Starlight Glimmer spoke up on the matter. “Why do you girls even need someone to take charge? I thought you always worked together?”

“Usually we do, but last time we went on a mission from the map, we couldn’t decide what to do, and we ended up making things worse,” Scootaloo said with a groan. “A lot worse.”

Making things infinitely worse in a misguided attempt to help? This sounded like familiar territory to Starlight, at least. “Oh?”

“See, we had this Hippogriph boy who wasn’t sure where he belonged: in the water, where his mom was living, or on land, where his dad lived.” Apple Bloom gestured with her left hoof and her right to illustrate the point.  

Starlight’s ears twitched. “But Hippogriphs move between the two now. They don’t have to choose.”

“They can go back and forth, sure, but he said everyone his age had already picked one spot to live. I mean, you gotta live somewhere, your house isn’t gonna be in both places at once, or move in between. Unless you live in a submarine, I suppose. Anyway, I guess that kinda choice is part of growin’ up for them now.” Apple Bloom shrugged. ”Point is, he felt like he’d be lettin’ his family down no matter what he did, so he couldn’t decide. And we couldn’t make up our minds about it, either. Sweetie Belle thought he should stay on land, because they had this beautiful nature reserve there, Scootaloo thought he should stay in the water, because...” She stopped herself. “Well, she liked it better.”

“Uhuh.” Starlight furrowed her brow. “And why did you like it better underwater, Scootaloo?”

“Nothing major, really,” came the sullen reponse. “I just liked all the fish and the drums.”

Apple Bloom shook her head. “We got into an argument, and we ended up makin’ poor Terramar even more confused than he already was. So if we wanna avoid that this time, we should decide on who’s in charge nice and early, so we can plan ahead and do this right.”

Starlight rolled her eyes. “Honestly, girls, I think you should at least wait until you know who it is you’re helping in the first place. Who knows, it might be a simple cutie mark problem. Or it could be a three-way problem that requires all of you. There’s no need to argue about it already. What do you think, Scootaloo?”

The girl’s ears twitched. “Huh?”

“You’ve been pretty quiet so far. What do you think?”

“Whatever you decide is fine. Why don’t you take charge, Starlight? You’ve been to Cornucopia before, right?”

Starlight flinched, both because of the suggestion itself and because of what it implied. Was this girl really that lacking in confidence? After all the stories about these three? “Sure, I went to school there, but the Map didn’t call me. I’m just tagging along for the ride, and talking to some of the teachers about the upcoming test.”

“What’s it like?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Cornucopia, I mean.”

Starlight smiled wistfully. “It’s a nice and rustic town, with plenty of buildings in the olden pony style and a castle overlooking everything. There’s a lot of wide, open space on the outskirts, perfect for any pony who wants to practise their magic without getting in anyone’s way. That’s where the training grounds are. In the town itself, you’ve got all the basics: book stores, grocers, lots and lots of jewelers and trinket makers, and of course bakers for olden pony bread.”

Scootaloo scrunched her nose. “Olden pony bread?”

“Olden pony bread,” Starlight said with a nod. “Exactly the way the forefathers ate it. Cornucopia happens to be right next to the ancient grain capital of Equestria.”

Apple Bloom, ever attentive when it came to matters of farming, tapped her chin, thinking out loud. “How does a town even get that kind of title?”

Starlight groaned. “That would be thanks to one stallion in particular who lives in the past and wants everything to stay exactly the same so he can protect his little girl’s feelings.” She shook her head. “Well, that and some interest and money from city ponies, obviously. When you need to perform at a high level, your food becomes really important. When you perform magic at a high level, it’s even more important.”

“High level, like that fitness test?” Scootaloo asked. “Are we gonna run into a bunch of, you know...”

Starlight hesitated when she heard the girl’s tone. It was subtle, but there was some apprehension in the filly’s voice, and those little wings were bunched up tighter than a corset, too. “Prodigies? Probably,” she replied with a smile she hoped would be comforting. “A lot of kids go there this time of year, for magic camps, flight camp prep, or studying aides.”

This did not sit well with the orange filly, from the looks of it. “So we’ll see a lot of little high flyers, huh?”

High flyers. Was that what was bothering the girl? Couldn’t be: Scootaloo was an athlete, too, that much Starlight Glimmer knew already. “Maybe, but I doubt that. Last time I was there, it was mostly a lot of young Unicorns trying to get ready. Pegasi usually go to Rainbow Falls if they want to get ready for flight camp. But there are Pegasi and Earth ponies who just, you know, live there, they don’t bother going anywhere else to prepare.”

Starlight thought that would settle the argument. She was wrong.

“See?” Sweetie Belle started. “It’s going to be a Unicorn problem, so I know better.”

“We’ll see about that, Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom replied. “You don’t know everything about magic, and I’m still better at the athletic stuff than you.”

“Isn’t Scootaloo the athlete of you three, though?” Starlight asked.  

Apple Bloom winced.  

Scootaloo resumed her staring out the window. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”





The girls all gasped when they saw the view outside the train station.

“Told you,” Starlight said. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

Uphill from the train station, the town stood proudly, as it clearly had for centuries, from the looks of it. The roads were paved with cobblestones, the houses were a grey stone and mortar, yet nothing about this place seemed devoid of colour. Flower pots and banners littered the landscape, the nearby market district had all sorts of fresh fruits on display, and all the shops had a clear and tidy sign hanging out, even the rooftops were colour-coded, Starlight knew.  

The centrepiece to it all was the castle, a square-looking block of stone that had remained the same since the Middle Pony Ages, but even that didn’t look too grey. Flags and flowers decorated it, and greenery surrounded it, providing ample room for the younger residents to play in, and zero cover for any enemies of old.  

“This is like Canterlot,” Scootaloo said. “Only older.”

“No, it’s not. It’s Ponyville, only more magic,” Apple Bloom retorted.

“You’re both right, sort of,” Starlight said. “This place is a lot older than Ponyville, and the wizards have tried to keep things intact as much as possible, so most of the houses are in the old style. You won’t find Canterlot architecture here. But they have made it greener over the centuries, it’s a lot prettier than when it was first founded, and Ponyville was built with a lot of the same materials and techniques.”

“Okay, then where do we go to find this friendship problem?” Apple Bloom asked.

Sweetie Belle shrugged. “I guess the first place to check is where there are a lot of ponies. Where do they go to prepare for this Fitness Test?”

Starlight led the way. As soon as they reached the city limits, marked by the remains of the old walls, they found themselves having to navigate all sorts of crowds. Pegasus foals ran past, their wings flapping excitedly yet none of them flying, probably a school trip out of Rainbow Falls. A quick look at where they were going, and Starlight realised they were heading for the candy shop. “Assuming this friendship problem involves locals and not tourists? You’ll want to start near the training grounds, then. There’s a park, swimming pools, shallow pools for water-walking, and a few shooting ranges.”

The girls and mare had to stop and duck out of the way of a pair of Unicorn tourists, Canterlot ponies from the sounds of their accents. The ponies themselves were not hard to dodge, but their goods floated clumsily behind them in a magic glow.  

They reached one of the main crossroads of the town, where a sign stood that pretty much summed up the place.

Welcome to Cornucopia, the town where everything flies. Flying pig contests every second Thursday of the month.

Scootaloo furrowed her brow and rolled her eyes at that last part. “What do you mean by ‘shooting ranges?’”

Starlight stifled a pout. The flying pig contests were fun, but part of her supposed Scootaloo preferred contests of speed to involve actual speedsters, not projectiles. And, if she were totally honest, that was an attitude she could respect. “For magic practice, of course. Plenty of offensive spells require careful aim, and some types of magic are easier to control than others. Besides that, Unicorn foals love to test their abilities once their magic hits a certain level. You’ll see.”

They took a side street towards the castle, and the parks nearby.  

“Stay close to me, now, you don’t want to get lost,” Starlight said.

“We can handle ourselves, Starlight, we’re fine,” Scootaloo replied as the four dodged another Unicorn carrying five bags worth of bread with Celestia-only-knows how many grains in them.  

Starlight looked back and wondered if that mare was carrying genuine Sire’s Hollow produce. Then said mare quickly made a detour towards the nearest cosmetics store, carrying her breads along, and that answered that question. No normal Unicorn could carry that weight and squint for so long without needing a dose of anti-wrinkle cream. “I know, you’re big girls, you can take of yourselves. But I’d feel a lot better if I left you after you know where everything is. So let’s head to the park first and see from there.”

The park was, thankfully, much roomier than the busy town that considered the laws of gravity more of a polite set of suggestions. Still, even here there were Unicorns walking their dogs, holding leashes in magic. A crowd of joggers came past, all holding strings that led up into the air.  

The girls looked up, and Starlight followed. “Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention, this is also the kite capital of Equestria. As you might expect.”

Sweetie Belle stared on in confusion. “Huh?”

“It’s a wizard thing, you’ll learn about it when you’re older. Anyway, the pool areas are down that way, the running tracks are that way, just follow the road around the castle, you know which way the town is, and the main shooting range is over there.” A vague thumping sound came from the last area Starlight pointed to. “If you get separated or lost, head back here, and we’ll meet at the statue of Princess Celestia, okay? We’ll see about grabbing lunch around, let’s say, one o’clock? Think you can manage to be here by then?”

Scootaloo nodded, Apple Bloom followed suit. Sweetie Belle did not. She stared on into the distance where the shooting ranges were.

“Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo asked. “Did you hear what she said?”

“Huh? Um, yeah, meet up here at the statue. Hey, did anypony else hear that crashing noise?”

Starlight followed the girl’s gaze. “Hmm? Probably one of the masters doing a demonstration. That’s where I’m headed first, actually.” Starlight trotted off, before turning back and gesturing to the fillies. “You want to start there, too?”

“Yeah, I think we do,” Sweetie Belle replied. “I wonder…”





Once they cleared the green hill and the meadows came into view, Scootaloo heard Sweetie Belle gasp. It was one of her good gasps, too: the kind she used when she had an idea for a new play or a dress. There were no dresses around, though. Instead, there was a very impressive-looking shooting range. Somehow, Scootaloo figured that Sweetie Belle was not a shooting range enthusiast quite as much as she was a dress enthusiast, so there was probably something else to it.

The colt she started walking towards was probably a good bet. On one of the rows, a coffee-brown unicorn colt with a greyish white mane and tail had taken centre stage, drawing the attention from everyone around with his performance. A nearby stallion, a coach, judging from the whistle, was levitating some kind of white gems around the boy, like homing missiles, in what Scootaloo presumed was a tight practice routine.  

The boy certainly had a tight response to it. As soon as the things started heading towards him, he ran straight into the path of a threesome of projectiles, fast enough to go into a blur, leaving behind a trail of lightning that zapped the gems as they hit the ground. He had a good half a second of leeway before they hit him, too, which was pretty impressive, but not out of the ordinary compared to the speeds she got sometimes. Then he leaped up with a burst of electricity, high enough to get away from at least a dozen more gems that trailed behind him to form a grasping cage of sorts once gravity stopped his upward momentum. Right as they stopped and prepared to strike him from all angles, he swept a crackling hoof through the air, going into a flip. His sweep had cleared a way out with what looked like a ball of lightning at the tip, though the noise it produced made the girl wonder if maybe that spell did its damage through sound. The projectiles that were left followed him down to the ground, but he quickly landed on all fours, faced his assailants, and with closed eyes he cast another wide lightning spell, this one looking like a crackling spiderweb.

The gems fell, the coach doing the testing nodded in appreciation. Every kid behind him had to pick up their jaw. Sweetie Belle had stopped at the bottom of the hill, no doubt to avoid distracting him.  

“Okay, let somepony else showboat now,” the stallion said. “Next!”

Scootaloo went wide-eyed as she came down the hill. “Whoa, lightning magic? Do all Unicorns get that?”  

“No,” Starlight said with a chuckle. “Elemental magic follows a whole different set of rules from regular magic, most Unicorns don’t bother. I don’t think he got that from just studying, though. I mean, that was Silverleaf’s Lightning Rush spell.” She thought for a moment. “And I’m guessing that swoop was Sparkmane’s Arc of Destruction, and he can do Shining Willow’s Thunderwave spell? At that age? That’s pretty hardcore, even for this town.”

The colt walked over to the crowds, and immediately looked to the stallion for the nod of approval, which he got. The next kid in line braced herself, the gems floated back up, the colt moved along.

“Huh,” Scootaloo said to no one in particular. For a colt who was apparently hardcore, he seemed very eager to get some approval, not at all the cool and collected sort one usually expects to have that kind of power. “Think maybe he’d know some friendship problems around here?”

“Live Wire!” With a shout, Sweetie Belle dashed off to the brown colt.

Scootaloo turned to Apple Bloom, and both shot each other a puzzled glance. “Live Wire?”  

Sweetie Belle stopped right in front of him and raised her arms, as if to hug the boy. Only, he flinched, hard, making her stop. Then he tapped his horn.  

“Oh, sorry,” Sweetie said.  

He smiled, and rubbed his arms from his shoulders to his hooves, producing a distinct sparking sound. “No problem. It’s great to see you again, Sweetie Belle. And hey, you got your cutie mark now? That’s awesome!” Live Wire patted her on the shoulder, and that was apparently enough of an okay to let her try to hug him again. This time, he hugged her right back, even squeezing softly.  

Scootaloo got a good look at him then. His manedo was similar to hers: all the hair combed towards a point. The tip at the front was split, though, and he had more volume going for him, as well as a rigidity that kept it from falling in front of his eyes.  

Clearly, this boy had a very good hair conditioner, and Scootaloo thought she should ask him how he got his hair the way he did, but quickly realised there were other factors involved that she wasn’t going to be copying anytime soon.  

“Somethin’ tells me you two’ve got a history together,” Apple Bloom joked, making Sweetie Belle blush.

“Oh, right.” Sweetie broke the hug and gestured between him and her friends. “Umm, girls, this is Live Wire. We were friends back in kindergarten. Live Wire, this is Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Starlight Glimmer.”

The boy looked up in awe at the mare. “Whoa. You’re the Starlight Glimmer? The one who mastered the cutie mark stripping spell and Star Swirl’s time travel spell?”

“That’s me,” Starlight said with a nervous chuckle. “I don’t use those spells much anymore, though, either of them. Speaking of which, that’s an interesting display you did there. Do you have a talent for lightning magic?”

“Does he? He’s been zapping ponies since he was five,” Sweetie Belle joked. “He was the first pony in class to get his cutie mark, too.”

“Five?” Scootaloo muttered.  

He winced and looked away, embarrassed. “Eheh, yeah, I was kind of an early bloomer.”

Scootaloo took a good look at that cutie mark. It was a bright yellow rounded triangle with a black border, which in and of itself was odd. In it, there were black markings that clearly resembled cords or wires, and a pony’s hoof reaching out to touch them. There were also lightning bolts around the hoof, indicating the wires had an electric current running through them.

A danger sign, like the ones ponies would hang on an electrified fence in the zoo. This kid’s cutie mark was a danger sign. A danger sign of electrical hazards.  

It didn’t take long for Scootaloo to connect the dots between his cutie mark, his magic, and his manestyle. Apple Bloom nudged her, the two exchanged another glance, and they both nodded.  

“Well, that’s nothing to be ashamed of,” Starlight said. “Looks like you’re still blooming.”

“What are you doing here?” Sweetie Belle asked. “Preparing for the test?”

“I live here, actually,” he replied. “What about you?”

“Princess Twilight’s map sent us here for a friendship problem,” Scootaloo replied. “Have you seen anything out of the ordinary lately?”

Right at that moment, sparkles exploded behind the boy. A pig squealed as it flew off with its owner scampering to catch it, a lobster swam through the air doing a backstroke, and the sound of a flowerpot breaking could be heard. Said sound was swiftly followed by a distress call from a blue whale.  

Live Wire quirked an eyebrow. “You’re gonna have to be a little more specific than that.”  

“Right. Unicorn town,” Apple Bloom said with a groan. “Umm, anypony arguing more than usual? Any family feuds that might need fixing?”

“No, not especially.”

“Starlight Glimmer! Is that you?”

Starlight and the girls turned towards the voice calling out. It was an older unicorn stallion, clad in a wizard’s cape. “Master Horizon?”

“Hello, Starlight, hello,” the stallion greeted cheerfully. “So good to see you again.” He came trotting down the hill with a bright smile on his face and a spring in his gait that reminded Scootaloo of Pegasi on clouds. In fact, his curiously light gait drew her attention to his hooves. Unlike the rest of his coat, which was a reddish brown, his hooves were a light beige, and so was his coat colour up to about halfway his arms. Not that it was easy to spot, because he wore thick bracers on those arms that just barely failed to conceal the transition.  

“Master Horizon,” Starlight greeted. “It’s been a while.”

“That it has,” he said with a nod, before reaching over to give the mare a friendly hug. “Too long. And who are your little friends? Apprentices?”

Starlight shook her head. “No, no, they’re here on… well, they have some business here of their own. Girls, this is Master Red Horizon, one of my teachers. Master Horizon, this is Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo.”

The stallion murmured and stroked his goatish beard. “Mhmm, pleased to make your acquaintance.” He squinted as he looked them over. “Interesting cutie marks you have, girls. Matching designs, garishly bright colours, if you don’t mind me saying so, and shields to boot, very interesting. I could have sworn I’ve seen you before, too. Are you three quite famous, perchance? Or infamous?”

“We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders, sir,” Apple Bloom said. “We try to help ponies with cutie mark problems.”

The stallion nodded and tapped his head. “And when you’re not busy with that, you carry flags around, is that right?”

“Yes, sir,” Sweetie Belle said. “We did carry the flag for Ponyville last Equestria Games.”

He smirked at that. “Glad to know my memory isn’t going quite yet. Are you, ah, occupied for the day, Starlight? Don’t tell me young Live Wire has procured your services?”

The boy snorted. “I wish.”

“No,” Starlight replied. “I got your message, I’m free for the day. I just wanted to make sure my companions here don’t get lost. You girls be careful, now, and don’t walk in front of a Unicorn if they’ve got their eyes closed. You never know what kind of spells you get tossed your way around here.”

“We won’t,” the fillies said in unison.  

“Remember to meet up at the statue, okay?” Starlight headed off with the master. “Will this take long?”

“We should be done around lunchtime, it’s of no concern to a pony of your talents,” he replied.

Scootaloo saw Starlight’s ears fall back at that. “We’ll try to be there around lunchtime!” the filly called out.

“Okay, great!”

Apple Bloom sighed. “Okay, she’s gone, back to business. You really don’t know about any friendship problems around here, Live Wire? Nothin’ at all?”

Live Wire shook his head. “No more than usual.”

Sweetie Belle glared at him. “And what do you call ‘usual,’ Live Wire?”

“Oh, you know, ponies avoiding me.” He rubbed his arms again, always brushing in a downward motion, never touching on the way back up. “You remember what it was like when I couldn’t control my horn.”

Then it dawned on Scootaloo: he was grounding himself, or discharging. All that rubbing was to make sure he didn’t accidentally zap anypony. And apparently he had to do a lot of it to stay safe. She idly wondered how he managed to get through swimming lessons, then. Or rather, how would anypony else get through swimming lessons with him in the pool?

“I guess, but… there’s really nothing else going on?” Sweetie persisted.

He murmured under his breath, before speaking up. “I guess if you absolutely have to find a problem, there is one pony, maybe. One of my friends, her name’s Haylee.”  

Scootaloo’s ears twitched. Hay Lee? An Eastern Unicorn name? She shouldn’t be too hard to find, then.

Live Wire idly kicked the ground. “It’s probably nothing, but Haylee’s supposed to join me for training, and she’s been skipping out on it.”

“That doesn’t sound like a big problem to me,” Apple Bloom said.

“That’s just it: she’s been skipping everything. She won’t show up for Ogres and Oubliettes anymore, she’s stopped going to the story sessions at the library, she’s even quit the drama club.”

“And she usually does all of that?” Scootaloo asked. “You’re sure?”

“Positive. We do all that stuff together,” Live Wire replied. “Now she won’t show, and nopony in drama will tell me why. They just expect me to do all the special effects myself. I mean, not that I can’t do it, it’s just kinda frustrating being on my own all of a sudden. You know, again.”

“Right. The effects,” Sweetie Belle chuckled softly and looked at his horn. “I guess that would be kind of your thing. And Haylee’s into all the stuff you are, but then she quits right before a big test? That is strange.”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Yeah, I could understand layin’ off one hobby or another, but quittin’ everything out of the blue? Right before a big event, too? That’s downright worrisome, ain’t it, Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo’s wings clenched against her sides. “Yeah. Kinda makes you wonder what might be so bad to make her give up.”

He shrugged. “I wish I knew. I think she might just be avoiding me. And obviously I don’t wanna go running after her or anything if she doesn’t want to be around me.”

Sweetie Belle pouted. “What happened?”

His ears fell back. His whole body seemed to shrink before the girls. “I had an accident. I kind of, sort of… upset her, I think. I’m not sure.”

Scootaloo felt the boy’s pain in her chest. “You zapped her, huh?”

He shook his head and frowned. “Sort of, maybe, I guess. It happened kinda quick, I can’t always tell. But she’s upset with me, and she’s been avoiding me for the past couple of weeks. On everything.”

Apple Bloom furrowed her brow, looking left and right to her friends. “You can still ask her, though. We could come with ya to help smooth things out.”

“I can’t,” Live Wire insisted. “She always hangs out in the Filly Lily garden now, I’m not allowed there.”

“There’s a ‘fillies only’ garden here?” Sweetie Belle asked. “That sounds harsh.”

“No, colts are allowed. But it’s also a butterfly and bee sanctuary. I have a restraining order,” he said with a groan. “It’s a long story.”

Sweetie Belle gave him a determined nod. “Don’t worry, we understand.”

“We do?”

“Yes, we totally do, Apple Bloom,” the Unicorn insisted through gritted teeth. “We’ll talk to her for you. We can fix this.”

He winced and forced out a smile. “Thanks.”
> Meeting Little Miss Stone
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scootaloo sniffed the air around Lily Park, finding the scent sweet and welcoming. A butterfly decided to land on her snout and rest, before flittering off to find a flower to feed on. The air around here felt different, somehow, more calming, as if there was a magic to it in and of itself. Her heart fluttered much like the butterflies did. Then it sank when she realised that butterfly would have gotten fried if it had landed on Live Wire instead of her, and the cause of his restraining order rose to the front of her mind, as well as her purpose here. “So what are we looking for?”

“We’re lookin’ for Live Wire’s friend, obviously,” Apple Bloom replied.  

The park itself was built around a central lily pond, and bees and butterflies flew back and forth all around the flowers. Even here, though, Unicorns were getting magic practice done. A group of them was doing a yoga class nearby, there were school foals tossing and catching Frisbees with their magic, and one of the groundskeepers walked across the water’s surface to clean up the lily pads. Apparently walking on water was not a difficult trick for the local residents. “Uhuh. And what does this friend look like, again?” Scootaloo asked.  

“Well…” The little Earth pony groaned and pressed a hoof to her forehead. “Consarnit, Scootaloo, couldn’t you mention that earlier?”

“I thought you had it under control,” Scootaloo joked.

“We could go back and ask,” Sweetie Belle offered.  

Apple Bloom growled softly. “No, I’m sure we can find her just like that. With a name like that, we’re lookin’ for a pony who’s got a curvy horn, Eastern Unicorn style. And besides, you heard Live Wire: they’ve got a lot in common.”

Sweetie Belle shrugged. “So?”

“So, if she’s anythin’ like that colt, all we gotta do is listen for a bang.” Apple Bloom held a hoof to her right ear, and listened. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shrugged and followed suit.  

Right on cue, the sounds of hammering and banging, along with the telltale voice of a drill sergeant, came drifting on the wind.

“That way,” they said in unison.

The source of the noise, as it turned out, was another shooting range, but not of the same sort as where Live Wire had been. This one was placed in a valley about the same size and shape of a tennis court, probably for safety’s sake. The targets here were stationary, and the ponies blasting them were older. Seven training dummies were set up in a line, each with its own set of bullseye markings, each with its own teenage Unicorn standing at a respectable distance, ready to unleash another round of spells.

“Okay, single shots this time!” a stallion called out. “I want to see deep impact and a controlled release. This is your last chance to impress me, so make it count. Do you get me?”

Scootaloo cringed. There was the drill sergeant, alright. He was a gruff-looking Unicorn with a distinct military green colour coat, and a buzz cut that either meant he was highly disciplined or his barber didn’t like having him in the chair for very long.  

As one, the children all shouted “We get you, coach Dunderhead, sir!”

As the girls went down the stairs leading to the field, the coach went behind each of the teens practising, with a note and quill held aloft in his magic.

The first Unicorn let loose a green bolt that splashed across the target’s surface, denting it slightly to the left of its centre.

“Not bad, not bad,” he said, nodding. “Go ahead and take off the paper, show it your parents.”  

With an excited squee, the girl grabbed the paper in her magic, rolled it up, and headed home.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders stopped once they were down at the ground level, looking around while coach Dunderhead checked his students, or his recruits, whatever they were supposed to be. Scootaloo was the first to notice the filly all the way in the back. “Err, girls?” She pointed to the last student. “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

“What’s an Earth pony doing here?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“I don’t think that’s an Earth pony,” Scootaloo replied, squinting. “She just has a really, really short horn.”

Apple Bloom cocked her head. “Huh, now that you mention it. Think that’s her?”

The filly’s baby blue mane was fluffed up and well-kept, which only served to further hide her tiny nub of a horn. Her coat was more of an ice blue, and her eyes a bright violet.  

But what Scootaloo’s eyes settled on was the flank. The cutie mark on this filly was a rounded yellow triangle with a black border, a danger sign like Live Wire’s. Unlike Live Wire’s, this cutie mark looked more weather-related, as it showed a cloud with raindrops falling down from it.  

It was the strangest thing, though: the raindrops were round circles instead of drop-shaped, and they were in different sizes. Part of Scootaloo’s Pegasus instincts kicked in then, telling her she really ought to know what that cutie mark meant and she was being very silly in not understanding it right away.  

“I don’t know,” Sweetie Belle replied as they started towards her. “She doesn’t look like an Eastern Unicorn to me. Aren’t their horns supposed to be sharper? And curvy?”

Then coach Dunderhead reached her, right as the Cutie Mark Crusaders did.

“Can I help you?” Dunderhead asked.

“Oh, we were just wondering what’s going on,” Sweetie Belle said.  

“Preliminary evaluation for the Fitness Test, and tryouts for the markspony team,” he replied. “You’re a little late if you wanted to measure up.” 

“That’s okay, sir, we’re here on, umm, other business. We were sent by Princess Twilight,” Apple Bloom said.  

“Uhuh. Well, you’re welcome to watch, we’re nearly done here anyway.” He nodded to the blue filly. “Ready?”

“Ready, sir,” came the reply.  

“Fire away, then.”

Scootaloo shivered, and found it odd that she was the only one to do so. The wave of cold that radiated from the girl was palpable. Neither Sweetie Belle nor Apple Bloom noticed.  

They noticed the shot, though. The shot was hard to miss. With a calm, graceful swish of her head and horn, the girl conjured up a hailstone the size of an apple and launched it with the sudden force of a cannonball straight into the centre of the target, making the cardboard and paper crumple around it, as well as sending tremors through the Earth.

Scootaloo would have gasped if she’d remembered to breathe.  

Fortunately, Apple Bloom was there to pick up the slack. “W-what in the world? I ain’t seen artillery shots like that since Granny Smith’s last Civil War re-enactment!”

Dunderhead whistled, impressed. “Yup, that’s a proper skull-cracker right there. No change from before, I see.”

The girl sighed. “No, sir.”

“Have you been trying the Frisbee thing?” he asked.

“Yes,” she said with a solemn nod.

“And the pebble exercise?”

She looked away. “Yes.”

“And what about–“

“I’ve been doing everything, sir. Everything you told me to,” the filly said, stifling a sob. “This is all I’ve got.”

Coach Dunderhead glanced at the girls, and Scootaloo was pretty sure he wanted to say something personal, but stopped short because of the audience. He smiled instead. “Good. Keep it up, then, you’ll be up to speed in no time. Go ahead and collect your paper.”

“Up to speed?” Apple Bloom whispered as the girl went to collect her paper. “You mean that shot wasn’t good enough?”

“Maybe she’s trying to get into a league with older foals?” Scootaloo suggested. “That’s how Rainbow Dash got started.”

“Assumin’ this is that Haylee girl. But I don’t see how–” Apple Bloom slapped herself. “Right, of course. It’s Hail-y, not Hay Lee.”

“That’s me,” Haily said, her paper stowed in her saddlebag. “Can I help you?”

Sweetie Belle smiled in greeting. “Umm, hi. We’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders: this is Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, and my name’s Sweetie Belle.”

“I know you,” Haily replied. “You’ve been in the papers. And why are you here?”

Sweetie Belle flinched ever so slightly at the girl’s tone. “Well, we were sent here to solve a friendship problem, and we think it might have something to do with you and Live Wire. Why don’t you want to go to story time at the library with him anymore?”

“Or play Ogres and Oubliettes?” Apple Bloom added.

“Or do drama with him?” Scootaloo finished, before thinking it over. “Well, actually, quitting drama’s not a bad idea, but all that other stuff? Do you just hate Live Wire now?”

“Live Wire?” Dunderhead asked. “You’re avoiding him now? Really, Haily, of all the ponies you should cut from your life...”

The girl grumbled. “With all due respect, that’s none of your concern, sir.”

“Seems like a wasted opportunity, is all,” the stallion said.  

Haily sighed and turned to the Crusaders. “You talked to Live Wire? You’ve met him?”

“Yup,” Sweetie Belle replied. “And I kind of went to kindergarten with him. Before he moved, obviously.”

“Then you know why I don’t want to be around him anymore,” Haily said with a snort. “He’s so immature, always going on and on about being a Royal Guard, about this new spell he wants to show off like some… peacock! I don’t want anything to do with him or his childish hobbies.”

Apple Bloom winced. “Oh. So he’s not your friend anymore. Does that still count as a friendship problem, then?”

“No.” Haily let her head hang. “I mean, he is still my friend, kinda, I guess, but…” She shook her head, and started speaking in a much more fancy-sounding way, nose in the air like a Canterlot pony. “Look, I have another appointment, I am very busy getting my affairs in order, so if you wish to continue this, you’re going to have to tag along.”

“Tag along where?”

Haily nodded towards the stairs behind her. “Miss Mooncalf. She’s a meditation coach.”

Dunderhead let out an indignant whinny, nostrils flared in disgust. “That mare? For pity’s sake, why do you keep going to her? You know she’s only gonna make it worse, Miss Stone.”

“I don’t care,” Haily replied. “At least I get something out of it.”

“Suit yourself. But don’t expect me to go easy on you just because you insist on making your own life difficult.”

Scootaloo looked to the coach for an answer, but he merely walked away, leaving the girls to their own devices. “Make what worse?”





Starlight gazed in awe, as she had in the past, at the menhir in the centre of the room. Before her stood a roughly egg-shaped rock of about six heads high, made of an obsidian-like material that could absorb and contain magic, a more refined though less powerful variant of the crude stone that once made up Chrysalis’s throne.

The Rousettus Stone. It was on display in the Cornucopia Museum for Magical Curiosities and Monuments, tucked away in a far corner of the lower levels where the tourists usually didn’t bother coming, aside from those with niche interests. It had been a gift from bat-winged ponies, as a thanks to the Unicorns who’d spent countless hours working to cure a plague that nearly wiped out the tribe. Lord Rousettus, leader of the strange skin-winged ponies of the mountains, had likewise seen the plight of the Unicorn wizards, who were, at the time, starting to run out of talent under the pressures put upon them by royalty and tradition. In the event that all master wizards were to lose their power or knowledge, or even their very lives, Rousettus wanted Unicorns to always have some source of magic to fall back on.  

That source was the stone, or it should have been. A wizard of some repute himself, Rousettus had imbued the stone with sigils that would reveal secrets of magic to anyone who could look at them in a particular wizardly fashion. Starlight had gotten a few secrets doing just that when she studied here.  

Though not commonly known, the Rousettus Stone was an important part of magical history. In its function, it was an important back-up, to be called upon in case of grave emergency. Every pony library in the world could burn to the ground, every master wizard could be lost, but the stone would ensure there would always be a path to magic mastery. Purely as a symbol, it was a proper reminder to use magic for good, to think ahead and anticipate problems, as well as to stay open for new insights from unlikely, even tenebrous, places.  

Needless to say, Starlight was shocked to see the state it was in. “How did it get cracked?”

“Keep your voice down, Starlight,” Horizon said. “It was an accident.”

Starlight shook her head and assessed the damage. The sigils floating underneath the black glassy surface were shaking, like a fractured reflection. At least three major sites of impact were visible, and on the right side of the black menhir a piece had been shot clean off. “How do you crack a stone like this by accident? Were you trying a new spell?”

Horizon held his front hooves up. “It wasn’t me, no, no. The local school organised a field trip, you see, and we had a little scavenger hunt for the younglings. You know, riddles and clues, and stamps if they found all the landmarks, give them a little thrill while they’re looking around. No one ever comes down here, but one of the clues was meant to lead them to this. Bit of a challenge, sort out the really clever ones. Two of them came here. Wasn’t an easy riddle to get, but they figured it out, only ones in their class to do so, too. They got excited when they managed to fill out their little paper with the last stamp, but then some of the other kids started fooling around in the monster section, somepony hit the ‘roar’ button on the manticore model, and...”

Starlight winced. “They had a misfire.”

Red Horizon’s ears fell back. “Exactly. One of them got startled, slipped and bumped into the other one, and they both let loose on the first thing in their line of sight. I got here right after, and they were upset, obviously. Poor things, they were shaking like leaves. It was a stupid accident, it could have happened to anyone.”

“I doubt that.” Starlight walked around the stone to check for any details. It was clean shooting, alright. No signs of any absorption, none of the little dents that came from a resisted spell, the magic had cracked right through the block like a sledgehammer, except up top, where it had cleanly cut it like a knife through butter. Whoever had done this must have been taking lessons. “Isn’t this thing supposed to be immune to magic?”

“Resistant, Starlight, not immune. The two are very different, as you know. And some types of magic, it is not resistant to at all, need I remind you?”

Starlight rolled her eyes. “No, but the only things it’s not immune to are… wait, I thought you said little foals did this? How little are we talking here?”

“As old as your companions, actually. They’re locals.” He dismissively waved a hoof. “But, at any rate, this is what I need your help with. I collected all the pieces, I can cast the restoration spell to put the stone back in order, but I cannot do that and keep the sigils intact at the same time. I don’t have the mental fortitude to hold that kind magic as well as cast the spells to mend it. I don’t think anyone does, for that matter. For that, I need you. This is clearly a two-wizard job.”

She nodded as it finally dawned on her. “Right. The magic those things are made of is almost the same as cutie mark magic, now I see. But why would you need me? The other masters know that spell, too, don’t they?”

Horizon smiled sadly. “They do, but they are not informed on the matter, and I’d like to keep it that way. I don’t want to have to explain how this happened. They’re just children, Starlight, I don’t want them to get in trouble over this.”

Starlight took the hint. “That Live Wire boy was one of them, huh?”

He winced and nodded. “You always were clever at reading ponies. Yes, it was him. Well, him and his friend, little Miss Stone, another fine talent.”

She chuckled. “She’d have to be, if she could do this.”

“They both are, yes, very powerful for their age, by any metric. So I hope you understand, I’d rather not make things worse on them. They have enough to worry about as it is, with power like that on such small frames. You’re the only student of mine who knows that spell, and that I trust. Of course, if you don’t feel up to it, I could still ask one of the other masters, or even Discord.”

Starlight still stared at the stone. To cause this kind of damage, to a rock like this, it shouldn’t have been possible, even with lightning magic. The sonic ripples of magical thunder, maybe, but would that little boy be that advanced already, or was it his friend who caused most of the damage? Curiosity gnawed at her, but she pushed such thoughts aside. “No, no, I get it, I get it. This shouldn’t take long, just tell me what to do and we can get started right away.”

“Thank you, Starlight.”

She grimaced. “It’s the least I could do.”





Miss Mooncalf reminded Scootaloo of Tree Hugger, Fluttershy’s companion at the last Grand Galloping Gala. The mare had the same hairstyle, the same slow manner of speaking, and her choice of topics tended to lean towards the same boring kinds of silliness. Mooncalf was a Unicorn, though, as most ponies here were, and her coat was more of a dark moon blue than light green. Her mane was a lighter blue with a white streak to it, neatly kept behind her with a bandana.

She was also excruciatingly dull.  

“And exhale, feel the negativity leave your system. Aooommm...”

Scootaloo stifled a yawn. Fifteen minutes of guided meditation, the only thing more boring than doing it was having to watch Sweetie Belle and Haily do it. Neither Scootaloo nor Apple Bloom had wanted to try, and listening to the droning affirmations of positive thinking and inner lights had not changed Scootaloo’s mind in the slightest. She wasn’t sure why Apple Bloom shared the sentiment, but she could take a wild guess.  

“Okay, now that that’s finally over and done with,” Apple Bloom said once the session was over. “Can you please tell us what Live Wire did that’s so bad?”

Mooncalf huffed before the girl could answer. “He fills her head with nonsense, that’s what. A strong, independent filly like you shouldn’t let herself be put down by a boy like that.”  

Haily nodded. “I already told you: Live Wire’s just a child. I need to be around more mature ponies, like Coach Dunderhead and Miss Mooncalf.”

Mooncalf gasped and put a hoof on the girl’s shoulder for comfort. “Oh, sweetie, you went to Dunderhead, of all ponies? I thought we went over this. You know he can’t help.”

Again, Haily grumbled at the remark. “I know. I just wanted to make sure.”

Scootaloo felt her heart sink. “Make sure of what?”

“That she is handicapped, of course,” Mooncalf replied cheerfully, straightening her posture to appear more scholarly. “The sooner you accept it, Haily, the sooner you will find inner peace. It’s quite alright. I talked with my sister, incidentally, and she agrees you’d make a wonderful assistant in her ice cream parlour.”

“Thank you, Miss Mooncalf, but I am still keeping my options open.” Haily forced out a smile.

“Well, the offer stands.”

Sweetie Belle shook her head. “Wait, wait, hold on. What handicap? You look pretty normal to me.”

“My horn is too small, okay?” Haily tapped the little nub beneath her hairdo.  

“Really?” Sweetie Belle looked to Scootaloo’s wings. Scootaloo did not appreciate the comparison one bit, but remained silent on the matter. “I’m pretty sure I’ve seen smaller.”

“Ugh. You want me to spell it out for you? Fine: I don’t want to play Ogres and Oubliettes any more because I don’t want to spend my time pretending to be something I know I’m never gonna be. I don’t want to go to story time at the library because I am tired of hearing stories about all the things I can’t do.” Haily gritted her teeth. “And I don’t want to be around Live Wire anymore because he’s always going on and on about being a Royal Guard, being a hero, learning epic new spells and I am sick of him making me feel bad!”

Scootaloo shrugged. “Well, you could at least try telling him that first. He could stop doing what he’s doing that’s making you feel bad.”

“It wouldn’t help, because it’s not just him. He’s just the worst, is all. He’s got all these big dreams, he keeps dragging me to practice to show off all these spells he’s mastered. He’s…” Haily gulped. “He’s talented, and he’s going to live his dreams. I’m not. So there’s no point in us being friends anymore.”

Sweetie Belle winced. “So... you’re jealous? That’s why you don’t want to be friends anymore?”

"No. I’m not jealous, I’m tired. I’m tired of going through the motions. I’m tired of him dragging me to the same things over and over again, I’m tired of hating all the things he likes. He...” She took a deep breath and bit her lip. “Live Wire knows where he belongs. I don’t. He’ll ace that test. I won’t. He’s got a purpose, a dream, fun hobbies, and ponies who support him, and I’m tired of having that thrown in my face every single time we do something together. He gets to have all that and I don’t, because I… can’t… lift!”

The girls all blinked as one.

Apple Bloom was the first to speak up. “Come again?”
> Second and Third Opinions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Scootaloo looked anxiously at her friends. Neither of them got the message.

“W-whaddaya mean, you can’t lift?” Apple Bloom asked.  

Haily sighed and squinted. Her horn glowed in a perfectly standard blue light, a pebble near her started quaking, her whole body tensed, but the thing wouldn’t get off the ground. She gave up after three seconds. “Exactly that. I can’t lift. I can’t levitate things. I can’t do any magic. My horn is too small.”  

“But we just saw you cannon-blast a target with a hailstone shot,” Sweetie Belle argued.

“Sure, I can do ice magic, obviously,” Haily replied. “That’s my talent. It’s every other kind of magic I suck at.” She closed her eyes and whimpered. “I’m… I’m a one-trick pony.”

“What she’s trying to say, girls, is that she has a handicap and she has come to terms with it,” Miss Mooncalf said. “But that’s not going to stop her from finding happiness, is it?”

Haily’s jaw clenched, Mooncalf didn’t notice. “No, Miss Mooncalf. I can still do great things… working in an ice cream parlour. That sounds like a perfect use of my abilities,” she droned.

“That actually does sound like a good idea,” Sweetie Belle said. “No need to let yourself get brought down just because you can’t do one silly thing. Right, Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo gritted her teeth. Her wings bunched up against her sides. “Yeah. Right. That’s exactly what I was thinking,” she lied.  

“So, if you’ve made peace with it, why are you avoidin’ Live Wire, then?” Apple Bloom asked.  

“He’s a bad influence,” Mooncalf said before Haily could. “Always going on and on about the Royal Guard, showing off his completely unearned abilities knowing full well poor Haily can’t keep up with him. He’s almost as bad as that Dunderhead.”

“Basically that, yeah.” Haily rubbed an arm, looking away. “It’s because of the test, really. The Fitness Test isn’t official anymore, but a lot of ponies treat it like it is. You get scored for all the magic you can do, if you’re a Unicorn, and your score can help get you into, you know, high places. Live Wire’s gonna ace it, I already know that.” She smiled sadly. “He’s got real talent. I don’t. I mean, he’s the one who always drags me to those things, he’s the one who’s always trying something new. But I’m not like him, and I can’t pretend anymore. I need to find something that’s more me, even if I really wanted to be a Royal Guard, too. And… even if I did have fun… for a while.” She shook her head. “There’s no point in hanging out with him anymore. Nothing we do together is fun now. Ogres and Oubliettes, story time, it just reminds me of all the tests I’m going to fail, of everything I can’t have. So I stop doing it.”

“No sense in getting attached to an impossible dream, Haily,” Mooncalf insisted. “It will only lead to pain.”

“No, Ma’am. No more stupid kid stuff.” Haily nodded morosely, before forcing out another, wider smile. “I just need something more, um, grown up, you know? And that means staying as far away from him as possible.”

“Oh. So it’s not that you don’t you wanna be friends anymore, you just wanna find somethin’ else to do. Find your place and all that? Your own thing?” Apple Bloom asked.

Haily nodded.  

“Well, then, you’re in luck, Haily.” Apple Bloom swung her arms up in a welcoming gesture, dragging her friends along. “Helpin’ ponies with cutie mark problems is our speciality. We can help you figure out what to do with your talent, what you can do and what you’ll enjoy most.”

“Really?” Haily perked up.  

“Totally,” Scootaloo added. “If you want us to, of course. You don’t have to, if you’d rather do it alone.”

“I’ve heard of you,” Mooncalf said. “You have quite the reputation. Good and bad, I might add. I’m not sure if I approve, to be honest.”

“It’s your call, Haily,” Scootaloo added, unabashed. “You’ve got grownups trying to help you already. Do you want our help or not?”

Haily shivered. Her eyes never went towards Miss Mooncalf, but her ears twitched every which way as the mare stared down at her. “Yes. Yes, please. I could really use a fresh opinion on this.”





The stone pieces were at the ready, Starlight had done her warming-up stretches, and both Unicorns had done a quick count of the different sigils that would need to be extracted before any work on the actual stone could commence.  

“Ready?” Master Horizon asked.  

“Ready,” Starlight replied.

“Okay, go.”

Starlight closed her eyes and concentrated. Channelling magic that could hit sigils was about as difficult as ripping off a cutie mark, and either of those magics was close enough to chaos magic that no normal pony wanted any part in it.

The incident where she’d banished Discord from Twilight’s school flashed before her eyes. That spell had been fuelled by nerves, anger, outrage. She’d surprised even Discord, not by the scale of her power, but the notion that she could even operate at that level of existence.  

She pushed that thought aside, aiming to deepen her magical trance. This spell would require a similar mindset, but more precise control, no crude ripping of cutie marks this time but slow and surgical peeling.

That brought to mind all the times she’d done this to a pony. Double Diamond, Night Glider, Sugar Belle, those little runaways…

I did this to children.  

As the magic flowed into her horn, she felt it tug at her thoughts, an insistent nagging of energy right where her spine met her skull. If she wasn’t careful, she’d short-circuit herself.  

Focus, Starlight, just picture kicking a puppy!

She let out an evil growl, and the spell launched itself from her horn. Her mind shifted to a more primal mode of thinking, of feeling, and a scowl formed on her lips. She was amoral, uncaring, all-powerful, or she thought she was, at least. She felt the magic stabilize as her thoughts cleared. The bad memories were flushed out, and replaced by the words of her master.

Power such as this does not corrupt: it requires corruption to work. The world is not kind-hearted, and you cannot be kind-hearted in breaking its rules. Harden your heart, steel your resolve, or the magic will fail.

“Perfect form, as always, Starlight,” Horizon said. “Take your time, don’t rush it. Remember, we can take a break and try again if we have to, no one will know.”

She would know, and that’s all that mattered. She reached out to the stone, grabbing hold of one wandering sigil, then another, and another. Little flashes of knowledge hit her when she made contact, of a basic fireball spell every second-year student in the Royal Guard knew, then a very surprising blast of inspiration involving muffins and mangos. Apparently Lord Rousettus wanted to preserve some culinary knowledge, as well.  

This was not important. Her magic wrapped around the stone, covering and grabbing all the magic-laden symbols within. Then all she had to do was pull.  

Channelling the spell required her to enter a state of amoral power. The peeling part required her to feel cruel and angry, to become, for an instant, beyond good and evil. She managed it, but only barely, remembering her crimes while blocking out the crippling shame she felt regarding them.  

The sigils pierced the glass-like surface and flowed out of the menhir, at which point Master Horizon could go to work. One by one, little fragments of black shiny stone were fitted back like puzzle pieces and melded together with magic, making it a seamless repair job. Then he floated up in a cloud of magic to tend to the smaller cracks, filling and smoothing them out with more careful applications of his horn.

Starlight stood, holding the mass of magic and her frame of mind. A cutie mark could be stored in a bottle, as it had a pony’s life force keeping it intact, even away from the body. There was no way to destroy a cutie mark without destroying the pony, she’d learned long ago. She’d never tested that theory, thankfully, but others had, long before she’d even been born. These sigils, however, could fade and be erased with the correct magic. Few ponies knew how to do the correct magic, or even which magic was the correct one in the first place, but there she was, with a piece of ancient history in her grasp, and trying desperately to sustain it. It struck her as strange, how much effort she’d put into destroying the past once. If she wanted to do so now, all she had to do was squint. Part of her wanted to, and it was the same part she had to tap into to even be able to do it. She’d never forgive herself, though.

Magic had a way of making one’s own mind become strange like that, conflicted between the evils needed to assume power and the good to put the power towards. She could scarcely imagine what the likes of Discord might have gone through to become what he was.  

Still, she had a job to do, and she was strong enough to do it without incident.  

Within minutes, Master Horizon’s work was done. The Rousettus Stone was restored to its former shape, with no seams or cracks to indicate anything had happened. “Okay, you can put them back now.”

With a deep breath out, Starlight returned the sigils to the stone, where they went back to floating around in the blackness like inky eldritch goldfish. “There. That was… not that hard.” She rubbed her head and tried to banish the thoughts that were popping up.  

Happy thoughts, Starlight. Happy thoughts. You get power from the dark place, you don’t need to stay there.  

“So, how’s my sister doing?” Horizon asked.  

A distraction. Perfect. “Gosh, it’s been a while already, actually.” She chuckled. “Last time I saw her, she was trying to make Sire’s Hollow into a modern tourist attraction. And, err, she gave Sunburst a hard time about his plans, or him not planning.”

“That sounds like my little Stellar,” he replied with a solemn nod. “She didn’t go too far, did she ? Haven’t been home in years, myself.”

“She did put up this annoying welcoming announcement on the town gates.”

Few things could make a master wizard groan. Family embarrassment was one of them, right alongside spelling errors in scrolls. “So she did install those gates she wanted. I told her not to.”

Starlight chuckled. “And a perfume shop and a slushy shop got put up to replace the fruit market.”

“Oh, dear.” He rubbed his forehead. “You did fix that, didn’t you? And she squared things with your father, at least? I love her to pieces, but she has a tendency of sugar-coating things every time she comes by.”

“No, you heard right, they ended up compromising, we got both of them to tone it down a little. It was a pretty simple problem. Me and Sunburst had more trouble working things out with our parents than they did with each other,” Starlight admitted.

“Hmm.” Horizon nodded. “Which reminds me, your mother sent me another letter last week. She wanted you to know things are going well in the Southern Marshes, her bee research is going swimmingly, and she still wants to know what your actual address is now.”

She grunted. “Oh, really, again? Don’t they get newspapers there? She knows I live in Twilight’s castle now, doesn’t she?”

“Perhaps, but I think she’d rather not get her letters lost in all of Princess Twilight’s fan mail.” Horizon winked.

“Or maybe she thinks I’ll disappear again,” Starlight blurted out.  

Silence fell between them.  

Eventually, the stallion sighed. “I would have helped, you know. If I’d known.”

“I know,” Starlight replied. “But you didn’t, because I didn’t let you.”

“Still.” His ears flicked in annoyance. “If any of us had realized how strongly you felt about losing Sunburst, we would have taken you to see him. For pity’s sake, he was only ever a train ride away.”

Starlight waved the remark away. “I know, trust me, I know. But I’m okay with it. It happened, I dealt with it, I own up to it. I don’t like it, but… it was my fault, not yours.”

“You were a student, Starlight, under my tutelage,” Horizon insisted. “And I failed you.”

Starlight forced herself to look him in the eyes. “No, you didn’t. You did everything you could to teach me responsibility. I decided to go down the path I did. That was me, all me. My fault, not yours. And if you hadn’t taught me everything you had, I might have stayed on that path until it destroyed me.”

He snorted. “I suppose you’re right. Doesn’t change the mess it made, though. We never should have sent Sunburst to Canterlot. He was always too bookish, he never would have accomplished his full potential there. He could have been so much more.”

“But if he’d gone here, then no one would have even recognised his full potential in the first place,” Starlight argued. “They’d just assume you were playing favourites for your nephew.”

“You know the worst part? I probably would have,” he joked.  

“I doubt that. And it’s not like he’s a nobody now. The Crystal Empire trusts him with some very important things, you know.”

“That they do. More than I’d trust myself with, to tell you the truth.” He turned to face the Stone, back to its full glory. “Thank you, Starlight.”

“It was a simple spell for me to do.”

“No, it wasn’t. I know the toll that kind of magic takes on a pony, and for you especially, it’s a lot to ask, so I did not ask lightly. But that’s not the only thing I’m thankful for. You’ve come a long way.” He looked in her eyes and smiled. “You look much better, now that you’ve found your own path. Strange how I never noticed it when you were studying here.”

“I guess that’s what happens when you spend so much time brooding on bad things: no one knows what you really look like when you’re happy.” Starlight looked behind her, her ears twitching at the sound of her own voice.

“Hmm? Are you okay?”

She shook her head. “I’m fine, I just… I just had the strangest sense of déjà vu.”





“When in doubt, chart it out,” Scootaloo said, putting the scroll on the ground. They’d found a nice spot at the back end of the castle meadows, where there would be no grownups to comment on Haily’s life choices.  

Sweetie Belle nodded. “Okay, all we need to do is figure out the limits of your ice magic, and try everything you can until you find something you’re happy with. Better to focus on what you can do than what you can’t do, right, Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo cringed. “Sure. That’s exactly what I’d say, Sweetie Belle,” she lied.  

“I don’t know,” Apple Bloom started. “Are ya sure you’re handicapped at all, and not just a late bloomer? Like, how can you tell the difference?”

“Well, I can’t lift now,” Haily said. “And really, I don’t care either way.”

Apple Bloom pouted. “But don’t you want to pass the Fitness Test?”

“I’m not worried about the Fitness Test. I’m worried about everything after. I just want this horrible feeling to go away already. I don’t want to feel tired of everything anymore. So, if you think you can find something better, or if you can fix me, either one is fine by me.” The little Unicorn winced.

Scootaloo felt her wings bunch up against her sides. “Okay. Sweetie Belle, you’re the expert on all the pretty stuff. What are we doing?”

Sweetie Belle raised a hoof in the air and cried out, “Ice sculpting, go!” 

The girls all exchanged a confused glance.

“Umm, maybe be a little more specific?” Scootaloo said.

“Huh. That’s odd,” Sweetie Belle said. “This always works when Rainbow Dash does it. Anyway, Haily, first let’s try some nice artistic stuff. Can you conjure ice sculptures?”

Haily nodded. “Pretty easily.”

Sweetie Belle grabbed a quill in her magic and started writing down some things. Haily glared at the floating pen.

“Sorry,” Sweetie Belle said. “Try something easy first. How about a solid block of ice?”

Haily shrugged, squinted, and one cold sparkle and poof later there was a block of ice on the grass.  

Scootaloo kept her eyes on the girl as she did it. That tiny nub of a horn glowed the same way Sweetie Belle’s did, a vague blue rather than green, but it looked like regular Unicorn magic. It didn’t feel like it, though, not by a long shot. Scootaloo could sense the cold contained inside that girl, like a blizzard in a bottle. Strange how neither Apple Bloom nor Sweetie Belle noticed.  

“Okay, good.” Sweetie Belle made the quill move again. “You should always start slow when you’re testing the limits of what you can do. Right, Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo stifled a growl. “Right. Wouldn’t want to hurt yourself.”

“So next up: a pony-shaped block. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect: we’re just testing.”

Haily rolled her eyes, swung her horn again, and blasted the ground right in front of Sweetie Belle.

Scootaloo’s jaw dropped. There was an ice clone standing in front of Sweetie Belle. Perfectly carved, every detail, even an engraved cutie mark. The likeness was perfect.

“Star apples,” Apple Bloom said with a gasp. “That’s amazing.”

“What else have you got?” Haily asked.

Scootaloo grimaced. Haily sounded annoyed, and given how things were going, she was going to get more annoyed if Sweetie Belle kept this up. But still, this was a job for the Unicorn expert, it wasn’t Scootaloo’s place to say anything. Her wings clenched again at the thought.

Sweetie Belle checked her paper. “Try a swan, maybe?”

With a groan of defeat, Haily nodded towards an open spot on her left, let a little sparkle escape from her horn, and shaped it into a swan sculpture, complete with detailed wings, a solid block to sit on, even tail-feathers.  

Sweetie Belle gasped. “Cool.”

“Yes,” Haily replied, glaring daggers again. “Freezingly so.”

“Oh, sorry. I guess you get that a lot, huh?”

“Every... single… day.”

Scootaloo walked over to the sculptures to investigate them. “She’s right, you know. This is a really awesome talent. I’ll bet lots of ponies would love it if you did this for them.”

“Oh, I know, they do,” Haily replied, stifling a growl. “See, every time someone wants to throw a party, they ask for an ice sculpture. Every time, it takes a couple of seconds. Every time, they gasp and ooh and aah or whatever, and every time they ask for the same thing: a swan, or a pony.” She let out a deep sigh and sat down.  

“And you don’t even like doing this sort of thing?” Apple Bloom asked. “At all?”

“Not really. It gets kinda bleh after a while.” Haily rubbed her chest. “It’s so boring, I get sleepy just thinking about it. And my chest feels funny, my head starts to get heavy…”

“Whoa, maybe you’re overdoin’ it, then,” Apple Bloom started.

“No, I’m not.” The little Unicorn chuckled mirthlessly. “I get the same thing when I keep failing at magic, or when I don’t do anything, or when my teachers nag at me again. It’s not my magic, it’s just me being bored.”

Scootaloo could relate. When her scooter needed repairing, when she messed up a stunt, or even all the times she’d tried and failed to get her cutie mark, the same feeling would creep up on her. Feeling tired all the time, weird ache in her heart, heaviness in her head, this was all familiar, and it only took a glance towards Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to confirm that, yes, this sounded familiar to them, too.

Apple Bloom tilted her head, thinking out loud. “So is it that you don’t like makin’ ice sculptures, then, or that you don’t like doin’ those ice sculptures, specifically?”

“I don’t know, it’s never come up. Nopony ever asks for a dragon made out of ice, or a manticore.”

“Oh, that’s easy to fix, then,” Sweetie Belle said with a smile. “You need to challenge yourself. Make a dragon out of ice. Do something hard, something that’ll take you time to master.”

“Okay.” Haily twirled her horn and started projecting her blue magic again. “Solid block for the belly, sculpt out some arms and legs, wings, snout… And I’m done.”

“And you’re done,” Sweetie Belle repeated, before shaking her head. “Wait, what? Already? You can’t be!”

“Just look. This is a dragon, isn’t it?”

Scootaloo had to agree. It stood a good three ponies high, on its hind legs, it had all the back spines in the right place, the snout was open to show off a tongue, teeth, and a throat flappy thing Scootaloo never got the name of, it was a complete dragon.

And Haily had not even broken a sweat. Scootaloo could relate to that, too, somewhat. After a while of scootering through Ponyville, she’d run out of challenges herself. The fun had gone out of her scooter practice, so she’d just stopped, mostly. She got her fun with her friends now, or the many other things she could do around Ponyville.  

“Oh. And this doesn’t motivate you at all, either?” Sweetie Belle asked.  

Haily gagged. “Ugh, no. Why would I care about stupid sculptures? They’re just decorations, pretty things to look at. It doesn’t mean anything to anypony, not really.”

“Hmm… okay. So you need something meaningful and hard, huh? I think we can do that.” Sweetie Belle got out an apple she’d brought along. “This will be a real challenge to your skills, and it’ll help you feel better. Freezing food is very important for preservation, but it’s also very tricky. Freeze fruit the wrong way, and it’ll burst.”

“Done.”

Sweetie Belle blinked, and tapped the now frozen solid apple. She hadn’t even heard the crackle of that magic frost covering it. “Again? No way.”

“Yes way,” Haily said. “Freezing food is not that tricky. I’ve gone over every fruit there is in this town, it’s pretty easy when you take the water contents into account and adjust for volumes.”

Scootaloo nodded. She didn’t understand what Haily was saying, but she recognised the tone and confidence of an expert. Scootaloo sounded just like that when she had to explain stunts to her fellow students, her teachers, and her insurance agents.

“And that’s still not a good thing?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“No,” Haily said. “It’s the same boring thing over and over and over again. Why would you think I’d enjoy this?”

“Maybe because you’re making something other ponies like?”

Haily grunted. “Is that really all you can think of? No offence, but this is boring.”

“Really? Umm, sorry. But why do you hate all this? I mean, look at all the beautiful things you can make.”

“Yeah, it’s beautiful. Until it melts. Or something hits it.” With a firm shot of hail, she crushed the swan she’d made. “I mean, what’s your next idea? Igloo making? My third grade teacher thought that was a neat idea that’d keep me busy. It did; look how long it takes me to do it.” The little ice mage squinted, the magic crackled and erupted from her horn, and the girls found themselves in a crystal clear dome. Individual bricks could be seen in the walls, there was an ice chair by an ice table, even a giant snowflake on the floor to serve as a rug.

“Okay, I have to admit, I did not think you could do that that quickly,” Sweetie Belle said, marking that off her list. “You’re sure none of this is fun to you?”

Haily cantered out of the igloo, the girls in tow. “No. This is all the same stuff Miss Mooncalf wants me to do.” She let her head hang. “I mean, I’m good at it, but it… I can’t explain it.”

“It’s so boring you feel like your soul can’t breathe?” Scootaloo said.

“Yeah, that. That’s exactly what it feels like.” Haily nodded and smiled.  

“This is boring to you? That’d take me hours to do, days. In winter,” Sweetie Belle argued.

“Yeah, but she’s not you,” Apple Bloom said. “You don’t have a talent for ice magic.”

“I don’t get it.”

Apple Bloom chuckled at the obvious. “Of course none of this ice stuff is interesting or fun: it doesn’t take any effort. She doesn’t have to work for it, so it all feels meaningless. I mean, face it, Haily, when it comes to ice, you’re about as strong as, as...”

“Discord?”

“I was gonna say somepony nicer, but yeah, I guess that works, too. Honestly, I think we just need to get you lifting things, or usin’ other kinds of magic. Nothin’ can hold you back from your dreams if you work hard enough. You just gotta push past this handicap and then you’re fine. Right, Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo’s jaw clenched. “Yeah. Yeah, that’s totally true.”  

“But Coach Dunderhead’s tried training me,” came the reply. “I’ve tried every training he knows. It doesn’t work. And no offence, but you’re an Earth pony. What do you know about magic?”

Apple Bloom proudly put a hoof to her chest. “I ain’t got no fancy horn magic, no, but I got Earth pony magic all the same, and Earth pony magic is all about hard work. Plus, my family deals with magical critters all the time, and I’ve learned potion making from my zebra friend. I think I’m qualified to make one or two suggestions.”

The blue filly nodded. “Okay, if you say so. How am I going to get anything to lift up?”

“How about you start by doing what you do when you shoot your hailstones? Can you lift up that igloo over there?”

“No, I can’t move ice once it finishes forming. All I can do is break it.”

“Okay.” Apple Bloom sat down to think it over. “Then how about we move this to someplace more suited to your kinda trainin’, huh?”  

“Like where?”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo asked. “What do you have in mind? And where would you even get the idea?”

“From Twilight Sparkle herself, of course. My big sister’s told me all the stories. Plus, I paid real good attention when she was coachin’ Sweetie Belle.”

“That doesn’t mean it’ll help Haily,” Sweetie Belle argued. “Don’t you think I’d know better?”

“Oh, so just because you’re a Unicorn, you’re the only one who can fix this? Why don’t you show Haily how Twilight trained you, huh?”

Sweetie Belle huffed, puffed, and pouted, but eventually relented. “Fine, you’re right. You don’t need to be the same kind of pony to help somepony else with their problems. Right, Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo was, at this point, fuming. Fortunately, she managed to fume on the inside only. “Yeah. Totally true.”

Apple Bloom took them to a nearby pond. “How about we start basic: water walking. Have you done that before?”

“Plenty of times,” Haily said. She looked into the water, as if she were looking for something.  

“Perfect. Go right ahead, we’ll build up your magical power in no time.” Apple Bloom turned around to write down some things on Sweetie Belle’s paper while Haily casually walked up to the pond and started walking across the surface.

Scootaloo, however, saw the immediate problem with this exercise, and quickly realised Haily had been looking for fish and found none. “Umm, Apple Bloom?”

“Yeah?”

“I think maybe you should have been a little more specific.”

“About what?”

“About Hailey having to walk on water that isn’t frozen.”

Apple Bloom turned to look at the girl, who was now skipping merrily along a frozen surface. “Oh. Right, Ogres and Oubliettes player, of course. I don’t suppose you can do it on regular liquid water?”

Hailey skated towards them and shook her head. “No, sorry. I’m a pretty good swimmer, though, even if I do have to take private lessons. What else did you have in mind?”

Apple Bloom grumbled and tapped her chin as Haily jumped back on land. “If you can’t do longer magic, maybe you should try quick bursts. Here, a stick toss. Try catching this in your magic.” She picked up a branch from one of the trees around and tossed it. Haily ran after it, charging her horn.

“Don’t think about it too hard, just follow your instinct!” Apple Bloom shouted.

“Bad advice,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Why’s that?”

“Unicorn magic is usually pretty close to their talent. So if you tell us to use our magic on instinct, well...”

Haily came trotting back to them with a block of ice in her mouth. The stick was inside. “Shorry,” she said through her teeth.

“Okay.” Apple Bloom pressed a hoof to her forehead. “This might be a little more complicated than I thought.”

Haily spat out the block. “You don’t know how to help either, huh?”

“No, no, I got this, I got this. It’s my fault, I should’ve realized. We need to start at the bare bone basics. Can’t run before you learn how to crawl, right, Scootaloo?”

“Sure,” Scootaloo half-growled. “Whatever you say.”

“So how about we take the easiest magic exercise of all?”

Sweetie Belle cringed. “You can’t be serious, Apple Bloom.”

“Oh, I’m dead serious.”

“But...” she leaned in to whisper in Apple Bloom’s ear. “That’s for toddlers.”

Haily flinched. “What are you talking about?”

“Look, you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, Haily, but it sounds to me like you need to start on the fundamentals,” Apple Bloom explained. “And Twilight said this one’s the fundamental one.”

“Okay. What’s it called?”

Apple Bloom grabbed the quill Sweetie Belle had been using to write with. “The Feather Fall. I’m gonna hold this here quill up, you’re gonna focus on not freezing it, but keeping it up in the air instead. Once you can slow it down, you can work up to holding it, and you’ll be movin’ houses in no time,” she said bright-eyed. “Without conjurin’ up a glacier in the process.”

“I got that far in the first fifteen minutes of Twilight Time,” Sweetie Belle remarked. “I think Haily’s teachers would have tried this already.”

“Oh, they didn’t, actually,” Haily said.

“Really? Why not?” Scootaloo asked.

Hailey chuckled and rubbed the back of her head. “You know, it’s the weirdest thing. I think because I’m so good at this ice magic, everypony just assumes I’m good at magic, period, so I don’t need the basic exercises. Then when they find out I’m not, they assume I’m handicapped anyway, so why bother with the basics at all?”

Scootaloo winced. “Yeah, that sounds like something grownups would do, alright.”

“Anyway, just try to focus on lifting, not freezing, and you’ll do fine. Ready?” Apple Bloom held the quill up.  

“Ready.”

Apple Bloom dropped the quill. Haily squinted and grimaced, covering it in a blue glow, but the feather fell, regardless.  

“Again.” Apple Bloom picked it up and dropped it. This time, it dropped faster.

“Again,” Apple Bloom said.





How many times Apple Bloom had dropped the feather, everypony had lost count.  

Haily panted and rubbed her horn. Her eyes were starting to water up with tears, her head hung low, her limbs were starting to buckle, even her breath came in ragged, little puffs of vapour forming from the cold she tried so desperately to keep in. “Apple Bloom, stop. My head hurts, I’m exhausted. I can’t do this. Please don’t make me try again, it’s not working!”

Apple Bloom picked up the feather and sighed as she wiped some ice crystals off it. “I can see that. I thought you were trying to not freeze this thing?”

“I was. I mean, I wasn’t.” Haily let herself collapse on the ground. “What was the question again?”

“So even when you try not to, you freeze everything? Is all your magic frosty?”

“Yes,” Hailey whined through gritted teeth. “I thought we’d established this is the basic problem I have to deal with every single day. This is what you said you’d be fixing.”

Apple Bloom thought it over again. “So what happens if you try heating something up?”

“It freezes,” the girl droned, getting back on her hooves. “Or it gets a layer of very wet and slick ice.”  

“See?” Sweetie Belle said. “I knew this was a waste of time. Look, you just have to accept that she can’t lift. But she can still be a great wizard and do something she loves. Right, Scootaloo?”

“But that’s givin’ up! You shouldn’t let a handicap dictate your whole life. Right, Scootaloo?”

Scootaloo tried to block them out, tried to think of something to say, but it was too late. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom argued, loudly. She couldn’t hear herself think, she couldn’t even hear what they were saying, not really. The filly snorted, wings tightening against her sides. All the echoing cries of ‘Right, Scootaloo? Right, Scootaloo?’ drilled into her skull.  

Finally, she cracked. “Wrong! This whole thing is wrong!” The Pegasus shouted, lifting off into the air with angry buzzing before dropping back down.  

“What do you mean?” Apple Bloom asked.

“You can’t just wish or force something that you have to grow into. That’s what we got wrong trying to get our cutie marks for so long.”

“But she can’t lift, and she really wants to,” Apple Bloom argued.

“You want to be a big pony really badly, but you wouldn’t try to grow up faster by running twenty laps around the farm every day!” Scootaloo retorted. “Not everything can be fixed just by working harder. Sometimes all that does is hurt yourself and make it worse, and then you end up blaming yourself for something that’s not your fault!”

“I guess that’s true.”

“Thank you,” Sweetie Belle said. “So let’s get back to the ice sculptures.”

“You’re just as bad, Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo said. “You’re trying to push Haily into a box, because you think that’ll make her happy. Boxes don’t make you happy, you know that. What if this was Rumble we were dealing with? You’d never try to do this kind of thing with him.”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes and shrugged. “Well, no, obviously, but Rumble can… oh. Right.”

Scootaloo’s jaw clenched. Her wings flared up as she lowered her head, ready to pounce. “Rumble can... what, Sweetie Belle?”

“Umm, you know...”

Scootaloo got so close to Sweetie Belle she could hear the scared little filly’s breath quicken. “He can what?”

Sweetie Belle gulped and took a step back. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “I don’t wanna say it, Scootaloo. I know you’ll get upset if I say it. Please calm down? I-I didn’t mean to.”

Haily moaned and stroked her temples. “Well, this has been nice and enlightening. So what do you suggest I do, Scootaloo? Any advice that doesn’t end with a magic migraine?”

Scootaloo blinked, and suddenly found her rage nipped in the bud by doubt. “I… I don’t know.”

“Oh, you don’t know? I’m sorry, but I thought you girls were supposed to be good at this? I can’t believe you. Do you have any idea how badly you’ve wasted my time?” Haily turned her back on them and hissed, keeping one hoof on her head. “Now I’ve got a headache, and I can’t even put ice on it to make it feel better. Fix your own issues before you try to solve someone else’s. You’ll be a lot happier that way, and everyone will be better off!” With that, the Unicorn was off, eyes clenched shut.

Once she was out of earshot, Apple Bloom sighed. “Gosh, Scootaloo, I’m real sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“Me neither,” Sweetie Belle added. “We should have asked you what to do first. And I’m really sorry I made you feel bad about the, you know…”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo said. “I know. I’m not mad at you, girls, it’s not your fault. I’m just frustrated, I guess.”

“We should have noticed. You know this kind of thing better than we do,” Sweetie Belle said. “You’ve dealt with this already.”

“No, I haven’t.” Scootaloo sat down dejectedly and let her head hang. “That’s just it: if I knew how to deal with it, I’d have done it already.”

Apple Bloom sat down next to her. “We messed up again, huh?”

Scootaloo shook her head. “No, I messed up. I knew this was going to happen, I should have said something sooner. I should go find her and talk to her.” Her stomach groaned.

“We will. After we get something to eat,” Apple Bloom said, looking at the shadows of the trees around as they shrank. In the distance, they could hear bells ringing. “Come on, Starlight’ll be lookin’ for us.”
> The Stone Cold Truth.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Starlight listened intently to the girls relating what had happened. Her initial guess had proven right: Live Wire was indeed the boy who’d accidentally damaged the Rousettus Stone, and his friend had been right there with him.

Haily Stone. An ice mage, no less. That did explain the cracks, something mere lightning magic could never have accomplished on its own. Then the story of how nothing was fun anymore for little Haily, how she was losing her talented friend while she got left behind… all well-trodden ground for Starlight.  

Strangely enough, Scootaloo seemed as pained about it as Starlight was. It didn’t take long to figure out why, though: clearly the girl was insecure about her wings the same way Haily was about her horn. Possibly Scootaloo had given up on a few hobbies, but never lost her friends, Starlight couldn’t be sure.   

“So that’s where are,” Sweetie Belle said, before chewing on an ancient grain clover bun that supposedly was Star Swirl the Bearded’s favourite dish. The restaurant owner even had a picture of the old coot to prove it. A thousand-odd years trapped in the space between spaces, and the wizard of legend still came by for a taste of home.  

Starlight bit down on her own chewy bun, a herb and olive mix. After ruminating on the situation, she said, “Sounds like you’re up to your ears in Timberwolves.”

“Huh?” Sweetie Belle tilted her head.  

“It’s an old pony saying. ‘When you’re up to your ears in Timberwolves, you forget the original project was to cut the forest.’”  

This did nothing to change the confused expression on the girls’ faces.

“Think about it. As bad as Haily’s situation is, aren’t you forgetting you’re here to deal with a friendship problem? Have you told Live Wire how Haily feels?” Starlight asked.  

“No, and I don’t think it’s a good idea, either,” Sweetie Belle replied. “This has nothing to do with him. He didn’t do anything wrong.”

“No, I guess he didn’t. But it sounds like he still thinks it is. Even if you manage to fix Haily’s problem, do you want him to keep thinking this was his fault after it’s over?” Starlight shuddered at the prospect. After getting back in touch with Sunburst, given how her story had been national news, she’d half-expected him to cut all ties with her officially as soon as he saw her.  

She really should have figured Sunburst didn’t even read national news. She’d been the one to tell him the whole story, including some of the ugly details of her village life, even the part about the children. The look on his face when he realised he could have done something about it years ago, that guilt, it still plagued her, almost as much as the fear and disgust he’d shown when she’d turned them both into foals again to play a game. On top of all that, they were both relatively normal Unicorns, and Sunburst’s aptitude for solar magic had hardly affected him in childhood, as far as she knew. To move that situation to a master of lightning or ice, young ones who were defined by their talent, would be a disaster waiting to happen.  

“Okay, when you put it like that, maybe he should know,” Sweetie Belle said. “But how do we fix Haily’s problem?”

“Scootaloo’s the only one who can really relate,” Apple Bloom started.

Scootaloo was still chewing on her bun. Finally, she gulped. “Am I? I mean, we’ve all been down in the dumps before.”

“Yeah, but you’re the only one who’s been there for the same reason Haily has.” Apple Bloom stared pensively at her lunch, before continuing. “This is pretty much what happened with the flag thing, isn’t it?”

Scootaloo looked away. “Pretty much. But you girls got me out of that. If anything, you two should know what to say, I don’t.”

Starlight held up a hoof. “Excuse me, but what is this flag thing again?”

“We were competin’ to be flagbearers for the Equestria Games. Some girls thought they could sabotage our acts by getting it into Scoot’s head that only a Pegasus who can fly would be worth watching. It worked, too: Scootaloo ended up making the whole act about her, and she wore herself out trying to get off the ground.” Apple Bloom took a long sip of her drink after explaining that.  

“But then I fixed it,” Scootaloo said. “I didn’t want to be the weakest link, so I stepped out and quit.”

Sweetie Belle nodded. “I’ll say. You tore down your Wonderbolts posters and everything.”

“That does sound similar,” Starlight said. “But you worked it out in the end, right?”

“Yeah, we got there, and we won. Without me flying,” Scootaloo explained. “We could try getting Haily and Live Wire to talk it out. I don’t think Live Wire would be upset if he knew what was going on.”

“But she hangs out where he can’t get to her, so… we’re back to square one: getting Haily to listen to us.” Sweetie shrugged. “And what we’d say if she did.”

Apple Bloom shrugged right along. “We just gotta use our heads, is all. Scootaloo, what do you think Rainbow Dash would say?”

“Even if you can’t use magic, you’ll still be awesome,” Scootaloo replied without a second thought. ”But that’s what Miss Mooncalf and Sweetie Belle tried. She won’t believe that.”

Sweetie Belle pouted. “You mean you don’t believe it.”

“That’s not important right now. Haily’s the one with a problem, I’m not. I got over it.”

The little unicorn tilted her head. “Did you? Because it sounds like you’re still sore about it.”

“Why would I be sore about not flying?” Scootaloo snapped. “I can ride my scooter, go bungee jumping, rafting, ropeskipping, I can take breakdance lessons if I want to. I can do whatever I want that’s not flying, let it go. But Haily can’t. Haily doesn’t have anything she likes to do that’s not magic or doesn’t remind her of it, that’s her problem.”

Starlight scrunched her nose at that remark, but she stopped herself from actually saying anything.  

“What do you think, Starlight? Do you know anything that might make Haily stronger?”

The mare looked Scootaloo right in the eyes then, and thought. Making Haily stronger would be the obvious solution. Strange how Scootaloo wasn’t asking anything about her own problems, too. Not about to get distracted, Starlight shook her head. “Sorry. It sounds like she’s a standard natural ice mage growing up. Like I said, elemental magic doesn’t follow the same rules as regular Unicorn magic. If she was born with a talent for it, you’d expect her to, well, be a certain way. And part of what she would be is exactly what she is: a girl with a smaller horn. Ice is a slow element, it doesn’t develop at the same rate as fire or lightning. And you can’t expect to do the same things with ice that you can do with lightning, you can’t access the same abilities just like that.”

“But she doesn’t want to be a one-trick pony,” Scootaloo insisted. “Isn’t there a way to give her normal magic?”

“To her, this is normal magic,” Starlight replied. “The fact that she has this talent for ice means the rest of her magic will be slower to grow, that’s why her horn is so small.”

Scootaloo grumbled. “But she can’t be a Royal Guard or a master wizard, then? Not like Live Wire? She can’t do anything except ice magic?”

“That’s the thing about growing up, Scootaloo: you don’t know what you’ll be when you grow up until after you’ve grown up. If Haily can grow up to be a Royal Guard now, she won’t know until she becomes one. And she won’t know it’s impossible until after it’s official. That’ll take years.”

Sweetie Belle joined in the grumbling, albeit more pensively. “Okay, but then why isn’t Live Wire upset about the same thing? He could lift and write with his magic back in kindergarten already, and he’s got elemental magic, too. Shouldn’t he be having the same problem?”

Starlight took another bite of her bun, taking the time to weigh her words. “They’re not in the same situation, no, their elements are different. Think of magic like making a picture. You need different colours of pencils or crayons to draw a picture, right?”

The girls all nodded.

“Right,” Sweetie Belle replied.  

“And you need a black pencil to draw the lines around things, right?”

The little Unicorn nodded reluctantly. “Well, if you want black outlines over everything.”

“You get my point. Haily and Live Wire both have a lot of crayons of the same colour. They can do a lot of spells other Unicorns can’t, because they have that colour in large supply, as well as the exact right shades they need for those specific spells. But Haily doesn’t have anything to draw her outlines with yet, so regular Unicorn magic doesn’t work. All she has is different shades of blue. A normal Unicorn doesn’t start off with any colours at all. They learn how to sketch and draw outlines in black first, and then they can learn how to make different colours, if they decide to learn elemental magic, which nine out of ten don’t. Does any of this make sense?”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo said. “But that doesn’t answer the question. Why isn’t Live Wire having this problem? Can’t he just show her how to do it?”

Starlight looked up pensively and sighed. “If you want the whole answer, we’ll be here all day. The short version is: lightning magic is yellow, which is very clear against black, it’s easy to tell them apart. Ice magic is a very dark blue, and that’s so close to black that when Haily tries to make black, it comes out blue instead. Ice is one of the solid elements, it’s in her nature: any hard magic she tries comes out as ice first, she doesn’t have the same kind of energy you do. She would basically have to go through the same process a regular Unicorn would to learn elemental magic, except the other way around. It’s a matter of experience, really, and waiting for her horn to grow. What little black she can conjure up, Apple Bloom ended up draining with her suggestion, that’s why she snapped at you. It hurts when your magic is exhausted, it hurts very deeply. She’s probably not even that angry at you or Live Wire, just getting a bad case of magic migraines because she’s overworking herself and she’s having trouble keeping her energy up because, well, nothing’s fun anymore.”

“Makes sense,” Scootaloo said. “So you think she’ll give us another chance?”

“No way to know unless you try. Do you want to give it another shot?”

“Do you know what you’re going to say to her now?” Apple Bloom asked.

Scootaloo bit her lip. “Maybe. I’m not sure. What if she doesn’t wanna listen to me? Haily’s scary talented, so’s Live Wire.”

“So are you,” Sweetie Belle said. “How many ponies do you know who can do the tricks you can?”

“Lots of ponies can, Sweetie Belle.”

“Sure, lotsa grownups. I ain’t seen many ponies of your calibre at the junior rodeos,” Apple Bloom retorted.

“But that’s just scootering, and I don’t even do it that much anymore.” The Pegasus filly folded her arms with a huff.  

Apple Bloom winced. “Because we sucked the fun out of it?”

“Ugh.” Scootaloo threw her head back. “Will you stop bringing that up, please? It’s ancient history by now, let it go already. And besides, you didn’t do anything wrong. I’m the one who quit. I’m the one who made that mistake, I’m the one who had to, blegh.” She gagged. “I’m the one who had to learn from all that sappy stuff. This is all on me. And I think the Map wants me to fix this, alone.”

Starlight had heard enough. “Well, that’s obviously not going to happen, you’re not capable of that sort of thing yet. Would it help if I was there to step in? Just as backup?”

“What?” Scootaloo looked up. “Umm, maybe? I guess? But the map didn’t call you.”

“You’re right, it didn’t.” Starlight nodded. “But I’m here now, so you can call on me. I’m all for letting ponies figuring things out on their own, but it sounds like you girls are way out of your league here. You’re talking about nature versus nurture, two out three Wizard’s Paradoxes, not to mention the Cyclops Conundrum.”

The winged filly tilted her head, confused. “I don’t know what any of that is.”

“You wouldn’t, and you shouldn’t, yet. That’s kind of my point. The Map sent you here to solve this problem, but it’s still a pretty heavy problem to deal with at your age. And the only reason it even sent you here is because you had some painful experiences in the past that are probably going to hurt digging up again. As talented as you might be, you’re still children. You might need a grownup.” Starlight bit her lip and paused. “I’m not going to speak for you, but if you want me to, I’ll throw in my two bits and you can wrap it up, do it your way, what you think is best. But you do not have to do something this hard, this big, without some adult supervision. It wouldn’t be fair to you. Do you want my help?”

“No.” Scootaloo shook her head, then shrugged. “But I think I might need it, anyway.”

The mare quickly realised what the problem was, and offered up a solution. “I can make myself invisible, and I promise I won’t speak up unless it’s absolutely necessary.” Starlight held up a hoof. “Haily doesn’t need to know you brought backup. If you think you can handle it on your own, it’ll be like I’m not even there. But say the word and I’ll step in.”  

As expected, Scootaloo nodded. “Then yes, please help.”

“We can talk to Live Wire in the meantime. We were kinda in his shoes when this whole thing happened to us,” Apple Bloom said. “We could try explaining it’s not his fault, for starters.”

“Yeah, you should.” Scootaloo smiled. “You really don’t want to put the blame for this on him.”

“So you are gonna say the same thing Rainbow Dash told you?”

The winged filly looked down and wriggled her little flappers. “I think maybe I should stick to what I do best, so I’m just gonna wing it a little bit.”





Scootaloo trotted along the path, finding her target under a cherry tree that was in full bloom. Butterflies flitted around idly, and the sunlight gave the whole place a touch of welcome warmth.

“How did you find me?” Haily asked.

“Lucky guess. Since your magic is all icy, I figured you’d be where the sun is shining, and where there are a lot of butterflies, so Live Wire can’t come over. That just narrows it down to this lily place and anywhere that’s far uphill.”

“Pretty smart. What do you want?”

“Just talk,” Scootaloo replied. “Is that okay?”

“Might as well,” she replied with a shrug. “You’ve wasted a whole day anyway.”

Scootaloo sat down next to the girl and grimaced. “Yeah, sorry about that. Me and my friends can get a little carried away.”

“No kidding. So, cut to the chase: what’s your suggestion?”

Scootaloo took a deep breath and braced herself. “Honestly? I don’t know. I wish I did. I get it, don’t get me wrong. It’s not easy to deal with, feeling like there’s something wrong with you, while everypony else is perfect the way they are. Especially your friends. It’s hard not to get jealous. And even if you don’t get jealous, you still feel bad. The fun just… stops being fun. So why do anything at all anymore, right?”

“That’s pretty much what it’s like.” Haily nodded to Scootaloo’s sides. “Your wings, huh? You can’t fly?”

“Nope.”

Haily let a pause fall between them, before asking, “Ever?”

Scootaloo shrugged, staring at the ground. “I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Grah!” The blue filly growled at the sky. “Maybe sucks! You can’t do anything with a maybe! You’re not allowed to take it easy, you’re not allowed to give up, you’re stuck in one place all the time! At least ‘no’ is a straight answer. You know what to do with a no.”

“Tell me about it.” Scootaloo let her head hang. “I don’t know what’s worse: the ponies who smile and keep telling me it’ll take a little longer, the ponies who look at me all sad and keep telling me it’s okay to be the way I am, or the ponies who don’t say anything, even when they’re obviously thinking something about it. None of that helps. And none of that makes things fun again.”

Haily snorted. “You’re not very good at this cheering up thing, are you?”

“No. I’m pretty terrible at it, actually.” Scootaloo let out a little grunt.  

“Is that why you brought her along?”

Scootaloo’s heart skipped a beat. “Brought who along?”

“The mare behind you, under that second-level cloaking spell and first-level insect repellent.”

Busted. Scootaloo let out a nervous chuckle. “How did you know she was there?”

Hailey tapped her nose. “Ogres and Oubliettes player, remember? I’ve played invisible wizards dozens of times. And I’ve gotten them caught dozens of times too, because...”

“I forgot to mask my scent, didn’t I?” Starlight said as she dropped the veil.

“You did,” Hailey replied. “Your bug repellent smells like lemon, it’s easy to spot. But you didn’t get any butterflies or cherry blossoms on you to give you away, that’s impressive.” Her ears fell back. “And it’s still a lot better than anything I can do.”

“Sorry, Starlight,” Scootaloo said. “I think I got carried away.”

“That’s okay, I thought you might.” Starlight walked over to face the girls, now that her cover was blown. “Hello, Haily, I don’t think we’ve met.”

“No, but I know you. You’re Starlight Glimmer. Everypony knows your story around here.”

“Right. Even the part about Sunburst?”

“Your friend who got sent to Canterlot? The reason you went crazy instead of just, I don’t know, writing a letter to get back in touch?”

Scootaloo wanted to object to that insult, but Starlight Glimmer took it in stride.  

“Oh, you do know that part of the story. Good. That’ll save us all some time.” She sat down with a smile. “Yes, that was Sunburst. And Scootaloo’s not terrible at cheering her friends on, by the way. She’s a very good motivational speaker when she has all the information, at least that’s what I heard. She just has a bad case of First Wizard’s Paradox today, is all.”

“Oh, sorry,” Haily said. “I guess I made that a lot worse, then, huh?”

Scootaloo’s ears twitched. “Umm, apology accepted?”

“So what do you think I should do?” The little Unicorn asked. “You obviously know how to get more power. Can you fix me?”

“I could try, but I doubt it would do you any good. And I don’t think that would fix your friendship problem, either.”

“Then what would? I’ve been getting advice from everypony for ages and nothing helps. So if you’re not going to say something that’ll stop me from feeling miserable, good day, Ma’am.”

Scootaloo winced. Haily had gone back her snootier wannabe adult voice.  

Again, though, Starlight ignored it. “How about I give you some advice, then. Don’t be so quick to want a solution to all your problems. You might enjoy being miserable all the time.”

“What?!”

“I’m serious. You know what happened with me, obviously. When I lost touch with my best friend in the whole world, my only friend, I was sad all the time. I never tried to contact him. I didn’t speak to his parents, I never sent a letter. His uncle is a teacher here, you know, I spent whole days with him, never brought up how much I missed Sunburst. I had every opportunity to see my friend again. I could have taken a train and visited him at Princess Celestia’s school if I wanted to. I figured out how to break into Princess Twilight’s castle, hijack her map and go back in time, but all I did was try to take out my problems on her. I could have saved everyone the headache and stopped Sunburst from leaving me in the first place, without anyone ever noticing. I even took Twilight to that moment in time and…” She sighed and chuckled. “I think part of me expected her to fix it on my behalf. But she didn’t. I didn’t. I wallowed in my own self-pity, I channelled all my negative emotions into my magic, and I planned to take my revenge on the world that had taken my only friend from me. You know, even though the world had only really taken him a few hours by train away. That’s the story you know, isn’t it? That’s what you were told?”

“Not all of that, but most of it.” Haily nodded, calmer than before from the looks of it. “I never really thought about the time travel fixing everything. I just kind of figured you’d create a paradox with that.”

“At the time, I was too far gone to care. But you know why I let myself go that far, why I stuck with revenge? Did you ever hear that part of the story?”

Both girls shook their heads.  

“For the same reason you are giving up. Deep down, you want to be alone, and sad, because at least then you know what’ll happen. You get to be treated special, you get pity. More than that, you get to blame everything around you and never have to work towards a real solution. You get to be the victim, and everyone rewards you for being a victim. No matter how much you fail, no matter how badly you start behaving, you’ll always have an excuse.”

“I am not making excuses for getting angry,” Haily objected. “My head really hurts.”

“Oh, I know. I don’t mean today. I mean what will happen in the future, when you don’t have any friends and you blame everything except yourself. You know what I did, instead of taking the risk and just seeing if I could contact Sunburst again, or even make new friends. Everyone in Equestria knows the story by now. Everyone knows about my crimes, my pardon, and everyone can judge me for both. I have to live with that. I have to live with knowing I made those choices. I can live with that, now. I ended up in a good place eventually, but let me tell you, those are long odds you don’t want to play. And those are long years you can spend so much better.”

Scootaloo smiled as she remembered what she was going to say, what she had to say to make it all better. “She’s right, Hailey. You need to take some responsibility about how you feel. You have to come clean about what you want.”  

“I can’t. I don’t want Live Wire to know. You saw how Coach Dunderhead and Miss Mooncalf act around me. Magic used to be fun. I used to be fun. Now any magic I do, everything I do with Live Wire, it just makes me want to scream.”

“Because he reminds you you’re weak,” Scootaloo said. “Because no matter what you do together, you’ll be the weakest link. That’s rough, but it’s not his fault and you know it.”

“Of course I know. But nothing’s fun anymore and I can’t…” A frozen tear ran down her cheek. “I don’t wanna be the one to suck the fun out of everything, either. I don’t want my friend to hate me for something I can’t help. I don’t know what to do.”

“Hmm,” Starlight said with a nod. “So it sounds like your friendship problem is more of a hobby problem. I wouldn’t know about that. I quit all my hobbies and got obsessed with magic when I was in your position. You don’t even have that luxury.”

Scootaloo took the hint. “If nothing’s fun anymore, then try something new. Don’t just quit everything right away, find new things. You wouldn’t throw out your bed if you don’t have a new and better one. You wouldn’t quit scootering if you can’t go bungee jumping or rafting.”

“I can’t go rafting, I’ve tried.” Haily lamented. “It always ends up with one stallion in the water and a mare lying on a closet. Which is really weird, because the closet’s always big enough for both of them.”

“You know what I mean. You’re not just not having fun, you’re avoiding fun. All day long, we’ve seen you complain about how bad things are for you, and taking advice from other ponies. If there’s so much stuff you don’t like now, what do you like?”

Hailey bit her lip.  

“Well?” Scootaloo prodded the girl. “You’ve been asking other ponies what to do this whole time, but what do you want to do, really? What always makes you smile?”

The little Unicorn winced, but she couldn’t stop the tiniest of smiles forming. “Umm, Ogres and Oubliettes is still kind of fun, I guess. I do kinda like the fights and the strategy. It is pretty nice to feel like a real Royal Guard every once in a while. I just don’t want to be stuck playing a wizard all the time if I can’t do any real magic. I’m kind of envious of the clerics, honestly.”

“See? That sounds reasonable,” Scootaloo said with a smile. “I’m sure no one would mind if you switched it up.”

“I definitely don’t want to do drama anymore, though.” Haily shook her head and closed her eyes. “Everyone always treats me like I’m there for climate control or to chill their drinks. And story time is always the same boring Unicorn stories. Master This and Earl That, all those show-offs with their hundreds of spells and perfect balance, and those Hairy Plodders don’t even have to work to get their magic. How does anypony think that’s a good story?”

Scootaloo nodded. “I know what you mean. You’d be surprised how bad some of the Pegasus stories are. Everypony always ends up as a Wonderbolt in those. Who thought that was a good idea?”

“I know, right? And I swear, if I have to listen to one more Star Swirl the Bearded legend… ugh! I almost wish that old goat had stayed wherever he was. No offence.”

“It’s okay, he has that effect on ponies,” Starlight remarked. “So you don’t like most of the stories they read at the library. That’s easy enough to explain, too, isn’t it? It’s just not something you like.”

Scootaloo nodded. “You can be honest about what you like and dislike. And you don’t have to do everything together with your friends.”

“Friend,” Haily corrected. “I only have one. He’s got plenty.”

Scootaloo prodded the girl again. “For now. You never who you run into. So you know what to say about what you don’t want to do, what do you want to do instead?”

The girl gulped. “I don’t know, honestly. Usually Live Wire’s the one who picks stuff to do, I just tag along. But there is one thing, I guess: there’s this other game that my cousin plays, it’s a card game for older kids. You have to pick cards that are passed around, so it’s more even. You’re more equal in card games.”

Scootaloo practically felt the chill that went up Starlight’s spine then.  

Haily shrugged. “It’s a city building thingie, it’s hard to explain. There’s no magic involved, just ponies and gold and stuff. It looks fun. I’ve wanted to join in, but I don’t want to be the only little kid there.”

“There you go, ask Live Wire if he wants to try it.” Scootaloo smiled. “Don’t get stuck on things where what you can and can’t do runs everything. Find something fun, where it doesn’t matter.”

“Okay. It doesn’t change anything, though. I’ll still be a one-trick pony. I can’t even try any of the really physical stuff because of my magic. Tabletop is kinda the only safe option there is.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s true for Live Wire, too,” Scootaloo said.

“No, it’s not. He can do whatever he wants, he’s got perfect control.”

Right at that moment, a butterfly landed on Scootaloo’s nose. She snorted to get it off. “Uhuh. So perfect he’s got a restraining order against him.”

“Okay, point taken.”

Scootaloo patted the girl on the shoulder. “Just tell him the truth, and tell him about the tabletop thing. If he wants to join, great. If not, you can still find other things to do, you can make friends over other things. If you wanna do something alone, or together, you should be honest about it. You don’t have to give up on everything if you don’t want to. But, umm, you’re the one who has to decide. Nopony else can do that for you.”

“Well, technically, I suppose I could, but that’d be falling back to a bad habit,” Starlight joked.

Haily chuckled, and Scootaloo felt another rush of cold wash out from the girl.  

“I guess I do have some explaining to do.”





When Scootaloo and Starlight found Live Wire and the girls, they looked like they’d just gotten done with whatever they wanted to say to him.  

Haily came up behind them, breathing deeply and nervously. “Umm, hey, Live Wire.”

“Hey,” he replied.

“I guess they’ve told you what’s been going on?”

He shook his head. “They just said it was something personal, and that it wasn’t my fault. But they didn’t get around to telling me what wasn’t my fault.”

Haily sighed.  

Scootaloo gave her a friendly nudge. “Come on, you know what you need to do.”

“Okay.” Haily closed her eyes. “I’m sorry I’ve been avoiding you, I’m sorry I’ve been skipping out on everything, and I’m really sorry I abused your restraining order to keep you from talking to me. That wasn’t fair, and I promise I’ll make it up to you somehow.”

The boy grimaced, clearly expecting a ‘but’ to pop up anytime now. “Umm, okay?”

“It’s just…” She took in a big gulp of air through her nose. “I don’t like it anymore. It’s no fun. I can’t lift, I can’t teleport, I can’t even write with magic.”

“So?” Live Wire shrugged. “I don’t care.”

The blue filly bit her lip. “Well, I do. I was avoiding you because, umm, for starters, I don’t want to do the Fitness Test anymore.”

Live Wire cringed, hard. Scootaloo could practically hear his heart breaking, getting that kind of response from a friend.

“It’s not that I don’t want to be friends anymore, I just didn’t see the point. It doesn’t matter if I’m handicapped or a late bloomer, nothing I do is going to change the fact that I can’t lift now and that I won’t be able to lift for the test. You’re going to ace it, I’m not.”

“You do know I’m not going anywhere, right?” Live Wire said. “Even if I ace the test, there’s no way I’m going to Canterlot. My mom and dad can’t afford the lawyers, or the insurance, or the real estate.”

“Yeah, I know. But part of me still got worried about that. And what with everything that’s been going on, it… it all got a little too much, I guess.”

“So this is my fault,” Live Wire said. “I’m the reason we had our little, umm, accident.”

“An accident which is now fixed, by the way,” Starlight said. “There was no damage done. Everything’s back the way it was, I saw to it myself. It’s like it never happened.”

Live Wire glared at the mare. “But it did, and it was my fault.”

“No, it wasn’t. It was a stupid accident. If anything, it was my fault.” Haily bit her lip. “I couldn’t even try to pick up the pieces. You can’t just take responsibility for something somepony else did. You did everything right, I was wrong, and if you take that away from me, then… I’m only gonna end up being wrong more often. You shouldn’t let somepony else put you in that kind of position, especially a friend.”

Scootaloo looked up at Starlight Glimmer, but got no response aside from a knowing smirk. It didn’t take a genius to guess what had happened.  

“So, what, that’s it, then?” he asked. “You don’t want to hang out with me anymore?”

“Of course I do. I mean, you’re kinda the only friend I have. I’m just tired of always doing the same things that keep reminding me of all the things I can’t do. I do want to play Ogres Oubliettes again, I just don’t want to play the wizard anymore. I don’t hate story time, I just hate the fact that it’s always the same boring stories. And drama? Come on, they never ask for genuine snow effects, those divas only ever want me there to cool their drinks.”

The girls all winced at Haily’s tone. Live Wire fell silent.  

Scootaloo’s ears fell back. This was going wrong, all wrong. Live Wire wouldn’t stand for much more of this. His feelings were hurt.

“Well, jeez, you could have just said something.”

Then again, they were dealing with a boy, and even if his feelings were hurt, his pride was, as far anypony could tell, still very much intact.  

Haily shook her head in confusion. “Wait, what?”

“I’ve only been going to story time because I thought you liked it,” he said.

“Really? You don’t like it either?”

“No. I mean, I used to, obviously, but after a while you start to notice all that kid’s stuff ends up looking the same. And I swear, if I have to listen to one more anecdote about Star Swirl the Bearded… is it that much to ask to make a story about some other great wizard?!” He shouted at the sky.  

The sky then sent forth a lightning bolt that grazed past Starlight Glimmer and scorched the ground next to her.

The boy grimaced. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Starlight said. “Star Swirl is a polarising character. I’m more of a fan of the Post-Classical wizards myself.”

“Me too,” Haily and Live Wire said in unison.  

“Eheh, so, umm, what do you want to do now?” Live Wire asked.

Haily gulped. “You decide. You know how to let loose and have fun. You know that better than me, and you know what kind of stuff I like, at least now. I should have been more honest about it.”

“There’s that new city builder game at the Dragon Egg. I think your cousin plays it, too, Tuesday drafts and Thursday Constructed. We can do the drafts, if you’re up for a little collection-building.”

She smiled. “You read my mind. But we’ll probably be the only younger kids there, though.”

“Good.” Live Wire smirked, rubbing his front hooves together and generating little excited sparks in the process. “Then they’ll underestimate us.”

Scootaloo’s ears perked at a blinking sound. Her cutie mark was glowing again.

“What’s that mean?” Live Wire asked.

“It means the friendship problem we were here to fix is fixed,” Sweetie Belle said. “And we should probably go.”

Starlight looked back at the town’s clock tower. “Hmm, we should be able to catch the next train if we leave now.”

“Guess I’ll see you around, then,” Haily said. “Thanks for the help. You know, on both things.”

“Don’t mention it,” Scootaloo replied.  

Sweetie Belle gave Live Wire a firm hug goodbye. “Bye, Live Wire. You’ll come and visit Ponyville sometime, won’t you?”

He hugged her right back and chuckled. “We’ll both be there next markspony tournament. If Haily feels up for joining in on that.”

“I think a few ponies in Ponyville would love to meet you, actually,” Apple Bloom said. “We’ve got a couple of foals with good aim, and a lot of history with sharpshooters like you, Haily.”

“I heard.” Haily blushed and looked to Live Wire, still hugging his friend. “I think I will do that sometime, it’d be nice seeing some new ponies drop their jaws.”

Sweetie Belle withdrew, and quickly started patting her mane down, which had now blown up with static.  

Scootaloo rolled her eyes. “Come on, let’s go, girls. Our work here is done. See you later!”





Starlight had to suppress her smile as she walked the girls to the train station.  

“That went pretty well,” Apple Bloom said. “Whatever you told her, Scootaloo, it worked.”

“Yup. Told you I could do it.”

The mare rolled her eyes.  

“But I did have help this time. Thanks, Starlight.”

“Don’t mention it,” she replied. “You needed an adult, and I was there. That’s all there is to it.”  

“You know, Scootaloo, if you’re not okay with your wing thing, you could ask somepony else for advice, too,” Sweetie Belle said.

Starlight’s ears twitched.

“It’s nothing,” Scootaloo replied. “I’m fine, I have plenty of fun things I can do without flying. Besides, who would I ask? Rainbow Dash? Twilight Sparkle? They would have said something long ago if they thought anything was really wrong. I’ve been around your place plenty of times, Apple Bloom, and Applejack would have definitely said something if she thought something was wrong with me, right?”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Yeah, my sister wouldn’t let that kind of thing slide. But it’s not like she’s an expert on these things. You’d have to compare with another Pegasus foal, and we ain’t exactly got a lot of high-flyers in Ponyville to ask.”

As if called for, one such high-flyer happened to pass them by in the air.

“Hey, Rumble!” Sweetie Belle shouted, loudly enough to make sure he and his brother would hear.

He glided down slowly and gracefully, not missing a beat of his wings or staggering his descent in the slightest. “Hey girls. Hi, Starlight,” Rumble greeted.

“Hello, Rumble, Thunderlane.” Starlight nodded at the stallion who, likewise, made a smooth Wonderbolt landing right in front of them. “What are you two doing here?”

“Training camp for junior speedsters,” Thunderlane said. “Well, prep camp, since Flight Camp is still getting remodelled and all.”

“What are you doing here?” Rumble asked.

“Friendship problem,” Apple Bloom replied. “And actually, you’ve caught us at a perfect time. We were just discussing something that you might have some expertise on.”

He raised an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“But unfortunately we do have a train to catch, so we'll have to ask some other time. Have fun at camp, Rumble!” Scootaloo cried out, already running ahead.

“Eh, yeah, we’ll take a raincheck on that advice, then,” Apple Bloom said.  

“No problem,” the boy replied. “If you need me, you know where to find me.”

Starlight furrowed her brow as she followed the girls.  

“What was that all about?” Apple Bloom asked once she’d caught up.

“What? We couldn’t miss our train, could we?” She pointed a hoof at the train entering the station.  

“I guess, but that was still rude, Scootaloo,” Sweetie Belle added.

“Come on, Rumble’s a busy guy, he doesn’t mind. And it’s not like you can’t ask him later.”

Starlight nodded pensively. “She does have a point there, girls. Speaking of later, you girls can get home okay once we’re in Ponyville, right? Your sisters won’t mind if I drop you off at the station?” She conjured up a letter, scribbled a note on it, then wrapped it around a cinnamon bun she’d bought and burned it in dragonflame. It would arrive through Spike’s mouth, after all, and while she didn’t use his services often, she always made sure to try and compensate for the inconvenience.

“Huh? Uh, no,” Apple Bloom replied as they all boarded the train and took their seats. “Why?”

“I just remembered another errand I’ve putting off for a while,” Starlight lied. “I think I’ll hop by Rainbow Falls for a quick visit and get that done, too. You know, while I have the time for it.”

“That’s totally fine,” Apple Bloom said. “We can get home alright. My sister’ll probably come pick me up, if she hears we’re coming.”

“Yup, Rarity will be waiting, too, if she’s not busy again.” Sweetie Belle added. “And you probably don’t want to be around for Twilight’s de-briefing anyway.”

Starlight shuddered. “Good point.”

“And I can get home alone, no problem,” Scootaloo said. “I don’t need a chaperone to walk across the street.” She playfully stuck her tongue out at her friends.

“We do not need chaperones,” Apple Bloom protested. “We’ve done two friendship missions already, we’re practically big ponies as it is.”

Starlight Glimmer sat back and rolled her eyes. “Of course you are, girls.”

“It’s weird, though,” Sweetie Belle said.  

“What is?” Scootaloo asked.

“Think about it. When Terramar had his problem, Apple Bloom fixed it.”

“No, I didn’t. Twilight helped us out with that,” Apple Bloom retorted.

“Now Haily had her problem, and it was Scootaloo and Starlight who fixed it. So you know what that means.”

“Yup,” Scootaloo said. “Next time, we just skip to me and Apple Bloom arguing while you do all the hard work with the grownup. I can’t wait.”

Apple Bloom nodded. “Huh. I guess when you look at it like that, we did kinda get our cutie marks in arguing, then, didn’t we?”

Even if she didn't understand it, Starlight slapped herself in the forehead. This was going to be a long train ride.

The End.
> Epilogue: A Pair of Outsiders
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

A couple of days later, things were quiet around Ponyville again. The map was back to its waiting self, Twilight’s school was running smoothly –  barring the occasional incident involving dragons, changelings and noodles, of course – and Starlight Glimmer found herself with some spare time.  

More importantly, Applejack was out of town to do a rodeo, and Rarity had left for Canterlot to stock up her shop. Both had taken their sisters along for the ride. Rainbow Dash had Wonderbolts training. She had gone alone.

So Starlight didn’t need a lot of effort to find Scootaloo on her way home after window shopping along Ponyville’s main street. “Hey, Scootaloo. Got a minute?”

The filly stopped, surprised. “Sure. What’s the matter?”

“Nothing’s the matter, I just wanted to have a word about something.” Starlight saw the house with the Cloudsdale-style columns come into view. She looked left and right, keeping up with Scootaloo’s pace, then lowered her voice and conjured up a bag she’d readied for the occasion. “Actually, I wanted to give you something. Here. This is for you.” She let the bag float down in front of Scootaloo.  

Having reached her front porch, Scootaloo looked in the bag and found what appeared to be three bundles of fabric. They felt smooth, and the smell was oddly familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. “What is this?”

“Pyjamas,” Starlight replied. “Pegasus pyjamas, to be specific. They have a little more padding around your extremities and the base of your wings, to keep you nice and warm.”

Scootaloo grimaced with embarrassment. “Umm, thanks, but I don’t need baby peejays.”

“I know you don’t,” Starlight said with a nod. “That’s not what these are. These are specifically designed for Pegasi, and they’re Wonderbolts-approved, the fabric is pretty close to what they wear.”

That explained the smell. “I don’t get it.”

“It’s just a thought I had, you don’t have to wear them to bed if you don’t want to. But it might help, if you’re losing a lot of heat when you sleep. And…” Starlight sighed, looking around again. “Look, there’s no way for me to say this without making it awkward, so I’m just going to say it: if you ever need an adult for anything, my door is always open.”

Scootaloo put the things back in the bag and thought for a moment. “Okay, but… why?”

“You tell me. Doctor’s visits you don’t want Rainbow Dash to know about, consultations with magic experts you don’t want Twilight Sparkle to hear about. I know I’m not related to you or anything, but that’s kind of an advantage, depending on how you want to look at it. If you ever need a grownup to take you somewhere, and you don’t feel comfortable asking Rainbow Dash, or Twilight, or Pinkie Pie, you can ask me. I can keep a secret, and technically it’s my job as a counsellor now. If you don’t need it, forget we even had this conversation. If you do, just say the word.”

“Uhuh. Is that all you wanted to say?”

“Pretty much. I won’t bother you if you’re busy with other things.”

Scootaloo bit her lip. “Wait, Starlight,” she said while the mare turned to leave. “There is one thing. Just out of curiosity, what you said back in Cornucopia, to Hailey, did you mean it?”

Starlight nodded. Something squeezed inside her chest, but she made sure not to show it. “Every word. Me and Sunburst were pretty much in the same situation. He ended up in Canterlot, I didn’t. He was my only friend, everything I used to do with him stopped being fun. The rest is history. I’m sure you’ve heard the stories plenty of times by now.”

“A couple. But what do you know about Pegasi? About the, you know…” Scootaloo looked down at her wings, wriggling them.

She sighed and faced the filly again. “I was pretty big into making everypony equal, remember? I didn’t start my village without preparing, I did research on things. So I know a thing or two about development, I know the standards and the margins, I even know them by age. And I can tell you right now: from what I know, you not flying yet is nothing to be worried about.”

Scootaloo nodded. “Maybe. But it’s not normal either, is it?”

Starlight’s ears fell back. “That’s where it gets complicated. Whether that’s normal depends on what runs in your family.” She nodded to the columns on Scootaloo’s house.  

The girl cringed.  

“And that’s a sensitive topic, I know. I won’t pry. But if you are concerned about it, really worried, you don’t have to lose sleep over it. I know ponies from back when I was studying, Twilight’s introduced me to some ponies to help me with my problems, I know where to ask. I could take you to Rainbow Falls to see a Pegasus doctor, one who won’t treat you like an Earth pony with wings. I can chaperon to Cornucopia again if you like, you could talk to some of the instructors. There’s all sorts of sports involving flying, different disciplines, different training methods, you could have talents you don’t even know exist.”

Scootaloo blushed, and Starlight realised that this was a thought, or a dream, the girl had had quite often.

“You could also, maybe, even meet a few other Pegasus foals who aren’t flying yet,” Starlight said. “My point is: you can get a straight answer, if you really want one. But if you’re not ready for that yet, if you’re not prepared for what kind of an answer you might get, you don’t have to feel pressured at all. But you should know you can decide to get an answer and I will get you one. You don’t have to deal with not knowing if it really bothers you, but it’s still your decision. Just say when, or if, or say no, if that’s what you want. But it’s your choice, either way.”

Scootaloo gulped and shivered. She looked in the bag, getting another whiff of the Wonderbolt-style peejays, then closed her eyes and exhaled slowly, nodding. “Umm, okay. Six months and one week, how does that sound?”

“What?” Starlight’s ears perked. She hadn’t expected the talk to be quite so effective.

“My birthday is in six months and two weeks. So… one week before that, if I still can’t fly then, you’d do that? All of it?”

Then again, this was Rainbow Dash’s little protégée. “I just said I would.”

Scootaloo shivered. “And you wouldn’t tell Rainbow Dash, or Twilight? Promise?”

“Not a peep.” Starlight made a zipping motion over her mouth. “Not unless you want me to.”

Again, the girl cringed. Those wings bunched up against her sides, hard.

Starlight had anticipated as much. “Because if you did, well, they’d understand, I’m sure, but I think they might end up feeling kinda guilty about not helping sooner. Not to mention the whole big sister thing.”

She looked up and stifled a whimper.

“I mean, I get it: Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle have their big sisters and their bigshot families. Farmers who helped found Ponyville, a fashion designer working for Sapphire Shores, plus them being Elements of Harmony and all, that's impressive company to keep any way you look at it. Your friends were born into that kind of family, being special like that was always a part of them. You weren’t. No matter what you do, you’re always going to be the outsider compared to them.”

“Were you the outsider with Sunburst?”

Starlight nodded. “His family had a history of producing powerful wizards. Master Red Horizon, the stallion from Cornucopia?”

“His dad?” Scootaloo tried.

“Close enough: his uncle. Me, I didn’t have the same raw talent Sunburst had, not at that early age, at least. I didn’t start getting crazy powerful until I was about, hmm, five years older than you are now, if I remember right. And my family were mostly researchers, wizards weren’t that common. So yes, I always was a little bit of an outsider, just like you. Thing is, me and Sunburst were still friends. We are still friends.”

“That doesn’t change anything, though.”

“True. But outsider or not, you’re connected to your friends by your cutie mark. The Map called on you, too, remember? Besides, you earned your special big sister. You may not be special the same way they are, but you’re special your own way. You had to be brave enough to ask an important pony to take you under your wing. That’s not an easy thing to do, and there are plenty of legends about apprentices like you, just like there are plenty of legends about wizard families. And important ponies like her don’t take just anypony under their wing, believe me. You must have impressed her, and that’s not easy, either.”

“Yeah, that… was kinda scary…” Scootaloo idly rubbed her left arm. “Umm, now that I think about it, if you do take me to wherever, is it going to hurt?”

“Are you in any pain now?”

Scootaloo didn’t answer right away, which Starlight took as a good sign: it meant she was smart enough not to give a kneejerk answer to a question like that. “No.”

“Then an examination won’t hurt, either. All you get is some poking and prodding. Is there any place you want to start in particular?”

The filly bit her lip. “I think I’m gonna leave that up to you, if you know this sort of thing.”

Starlight nodded. “Six months it is, then, I’ll keep my schedule clear and I’ll be sure to make the necessary appointments. Try the peejays if you feel like it, don’t hesitate to ask if anything else comes up. Sneak around the school ninja-style if you think you have to, but don’t get stuck mulling over maybes when you can get a straight answer. Got that?”

“Got it.”

“Good. You’ve got talent, and you’ve got heart. You don’t want to waste either one.”

“Thanks, Starlight.”

Starlight smiled. “Don’t worry about it. That’s what I’m here for.”