> Prance en France
>  by Sunny_and_Auri_23
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: New Worlds, New Faces
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was a mildly sunny Monday morning in Ponyville, not too hot, not too chilly, the sun peeking through the clouds. The Castle of Friendship gleamed in a heavenly light, radiating love and hope all throughout the town. Leftover snow, still melting from that year’s Winter Wrap Up, was glistening in the early sunlight. And all was calm.

“SPIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIKE!”

Mostly calm.

“Coming, Twilight, just give me a sec.” The short purple and green dragon hurried into the hall, wiping his hands on his apron.
“Oh good, there you are. I need twenty three hundred-packs of gold star stickers! RIGHT NOW!” Twilight Sparkle yelled in the general direction of the door.
“Right aw-wait what?!” confusion flashed across his face before it swiftly disappeared.” Actually, you know what I don't want to know. Shiny or matt?”
She paused, clearing her throat, “The shiny ones because it reflects the students’ achievements and will help encourage them more!” She finished with a grin though her mind seemed somewhere else. She caught a pink glow from the corner of her eye.
Spike rolled his eyes, “Gotcha. Gimme 6 hours, it’s gonna take a while to get- woah! Twilight, your cutie mark’s glowing!”
“Oh yeah that, another map mission. Great. It’s not like I was busy grading term papers or anything.” Twilight deadpanned. She sighed, “Okay, can you get those stickers and ask Starlight to finish grading for me? I’ll also need you two to cover for me today. I’ll go see where I’m headed this time.”
Just then, a starburst literally floated from the throne room, where the magic map was located, over their heads to a portal that had appeared in front of them.
Spike peeked into the throne room, “Um, Twi? It doesn’t look like the friendship problem is on the map.”
Twilight facehooved, “Another portal!? Okay! Now the map can give us friendship problems from alternate universes? Like we don't have enough in this one. How do I expand the school to fit extraterrestrial creatures!? HOW MUCH MORE FRIENDSHIP DO WE NEED TO SPREAD!?”
Spike fiddled with his checklist which had “hundred-pack shiny gold pack star stickers” written on it twenty three times. “Like butter on bread.” He noted nonchalantly.

“Twilight, Twilight!” A very pink earthpony opened the doors to the castle with great force. With one brief glance at the portal, she declared to the other new arrivals behind her, “Oh my gosh, the map’s taking us to Paris!”
Twilight furrowed her brow, “Paris? Pinkie, how did you know that?”
Pinkie only grinned, “Just a hunch!”
Rarity stepped forward with no small amount of confusion, “Paris? Like, Mareis? In Prance? La crème de la crème de l' Equestria?" 
“I thought that was Canterlot.” Rainbow Dash commented.
Rarity held a defensive stance, “Two cities can be the crème de la crème of my heart, merci beaucoup.”
Spike chose that moment to insert himself in the conversation, “I agree with Rarity.” He coughed.
“We know.” Everypony present rolled their eyes. 
Fluttershy stepped forward next, “Oh my, why are we going to Mareis in a… portal?”
Applejack replied, “Judging by Pinkie calling it Paris instead of Mareis, Ah’m guessing we’re not going to Mareis, are we? What is this, some sorta alternate universe shenanigan?” A series of affirmatives followed. “Isn’t that gonna be needlessly complicated?”
Twilight shook her head with a groan, “You have no idea.”

Pinkie Pie jittered in place, “OKAY CHARACTER INTROS ARE DONE LET’S GOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooo…”
And with that, she jumped in the portal.

Fluttershy stared after her, “Should we… jump in… or just walk in… or what?”
Rarity flicked her mane, “Fine by me, darling.” And she cantered through. 
One by one, each of the ponies stepped into the alternate world, and Twilight detailed Spike with instructions pensively. “Okay, I want you to let Starlight know that I have no idea how long this might take and that she probably needs to cover for us at school for the next few days. And be sure to get the shiny gold star stickers!”
Spike waved her off, “Don’t worry, I’ll be sure to get the shiny gold star stickers. Now go and save the… alternate world!” He smiled warmly.
Twilight returned it with a smile of her own and they shared a small hug. 
After a nod of determination, she stepped through the blinding light of the portal, ready to see the whole new world that awaited them.





It was a mildly sunny Monday in Paris not too hot, not too chilly, the sun peeking through the clouds. The school building stood in the shadows, the one exception to the otherwise, cautioning all against approaching it. Leftover snow, still melting from that year’s Polar Storm was glistening in the sunlight. The birds were chirping away happily in some tree, but inside the car, the silence was deafening.
“You will be fine, Felix.” 
“I know.” 
“You already have so many friends here.”
“I know.”
“If you need anything at all-”
“-I’ll get the office to call you.  Don’t worry, Mother.” The blond haired boy unfastened his seatbelt then leaned over to kiss Amelie Graham de Vanily on the cheek. He then got out of the car with fluid motion and began to walk away.
“Oh, and Felix.” Amelie called out.
Felix turned around, “Yes?”
“Today is going to be a good day. I just know it” To that Felix just nodded and started to make his way up the surprisingly well maintained set of stairs.
Despite all the reasons Felix could think off to be as pessimistic as possible, his mothers words had had some effect on Felix. As the blond haired boy made his way across the courtyard, following a map of the school to his new classroom, he began to think more positively than he had in a long time.
Hand on the door handle of his classroom, felix thought optimistically that maybe his mother had been right. Maybe it would be a good day afterall.
Felix swung open the door, ready to face whatever he would find inside. 

Anarchy. That was what Felix found inside. The classroom inside was filled with loudly screeching children, and not a teacher in sight. Felix felt the misconceived hope he had felt so strongly a few seconds ago sink down into his stomach. Quietly, Felix made his way to the back of the classroom, hoping against hope nobody had spotted him. Settling down in a seat alone on a bench at the back, Felix slipped a book out of his bag and in the hopes of getting some time reading before he would inevitably have to engage in human interaction.
A hand slammed down on his desk, and Felix looked up unimpressively at a girl with what appeared to be sausages hanging at the side of her face, smiling at him in a sickeningly sweet way. He might have left his analysis of her at that if it hadn’t been for the strange glint in her eyes that hinted at something more behind her apparent persona.
“Hi!” she said. “My name is Lila Rossi. Are you the new kid Mlle Bustier said would be coming in today?”
Three seconds in to meeting a new person, and Felix already didn’t like her. 
“No, I'm Mlle Bustier in disguise,” he deadpanned. 
The girl blinked at him before laughing a tinkly laugh that she probably thought was pretty but Felix just found annoying.
“Can I help you in any way, Mlle Rossi?”
“Who now? Oh, me. No. I was just here to say that book you’re reading? I love it too. It’s one of my absolute favourites, and you know recently I met the author at an audition for the voice of the audio book. William Golding is such an incredible writer.” she gushed.
Felix narrowed his eyes. “If that will be all, Mlle Rossi, please leave so that I may continue reading this book.”
At this quite frankly rude declaration from Felix, Lila’s eyes filled with tears.
“I’m sorry if I did anything wrong,” she said, voice wobbling. “I just wanted to welcome you to our school.”
“No thank you Mlle Rossi. I’m quite fine by myself.”
Lila gave one more upset look at Felix before rushing towards a group of kids huddled around the front of the classroom. As soon as she was among them, she started whispering loudly, and a redheaded girl with a plaid shirt gave him a death glare.
Felix merely rolled his eyes in return. He really couldn’t care less.
“I thought for sure you wouldn’t see through her,” a quiet voice said. Felix turned round to see a girl with dark hair tied neatly up in two pigtails sit next to him.
“It was painfully obvious, only a fool would miss it” Felix scoffed. “Her attempts at deception were barely professional.”
“What was it that gave her away?” the girl asked him, staring imploringly with bluebell eyes.
“She said that she had met the author of my book, William Golding, recently.” he smirked. “William Golding has been dead for over 20 years.”
The girl smirked back; the mischievous twinkle in her eyes somehow preceded a missed beat of his heart. Curious. 
“Oh I didn't introduce myself, how rude. My name is Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” she said.
“Felix Graham de Vanily,” Felix responded, holding out a hand. “As the only person that seems to be capable of basic thought, Mlle Marinette,”
He looked at the rest of the class that was seated around Lila, all seemingly enraptured by her words, in indication.
“Let us be acquaintances.”
She took his hand  tentatively, though when she did his grip was surprisingly firm.
“For 20 years,” Marinette responded with a solemn face, shaking his hand.
They both managed to keep a straight face and maintain eye contact without any signs of humour for all of 2 seconds before they both bursted into a  laughing fit.
It was only after they had wiped the tears from their eyes and controlled their breathing somewhat that they realised the entire class had been staring at them. 
Felix smiled  at her and she smiled back, uncaring.
Maybe his mother had been right. Today just might turn out to be a good day after all.
> Chapter 2: An Interesting Acquaintance
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Felix was sitting in his favourite spot under the attic window, the sun streaming through, musing over his day. His new acquaintance Marinette had really turned out to be the only one in possession of a single brain cell in his entire class, their classmates all appearing to have swapped common sense for the opportunity to be in Lila’s clique. It appeared that because of her resistance to zombification, Marinette had been isolated and left alone in the back by herself by his arrival, Lila Rossi deciding she would do everything and anything in her power to make Marinette's life difficult.
Felix just didn’t know why that bothered him so much.
Why did he care so much about the obvious hurt Marinette displayed from being cast out by people she had once considered her closest friends? He barely knew her. He decided it was because she appealed to Felix’s own sense of justice. From what he had seen in the short time period he had known her, Marinette was a rather talented girl with the nicest personality Felix had seen in a long time, being treated like dirt by a flock of sheep that had found a new master.
And Felix wanted to… help her. He wanted to help stop the oppression she was being put under. Marinette had gone out of her way to be nice to him that day when most of the class had ignored him and in the case of the redhead he assumed was Lila’s best friend, being downright hostile. Decision made, Felix vowed right there and then that  he wasn’t going to stand for Lila’s regime. He was going to help Marinette.
But how?
His question was answered then by a bright flash of light and swirling mass of energy appearing out of nowhere beside him. A wind blew from it, the papers on his desk flying everywhere, and Felix put an arm over his face in protection, making a beeline for the trapdoor out of the attic, about to shout out a warning to his mother who was downstairs before he realised she was out. Cursing, Felix opened the dial pad of his phone more than slightly afraid as to what was happening before something came out of the energy ball  before the light dimmed to a single point and disappeared leaving. And then the world exploded and all was white.

...

“Ow...”
“Geroff my wings!”
“Stop! You’re ruining my tail!”
“Mah hat! Where’s mah hat!?” 
“Oh my gosh I can’t feel my insides!”
“You’re not supposed to feel your insides, Pinkie.”
“Gosh darn it, Pinkie, what did ya do with mah hat!?”
“Oh hi Felix!”

Felix groaned and rubbed his face as he regained consciousness, automatically looking towards the source of the voice. He was met with the sight of a tangle of hooves and wings. He blinked.
Silence. 

“That bump looks bad, you should get it looked at.” the talking pink horse nodded at him in concern.
Felix put his hands on his head and-

“This can’t possibly be real. Take a minute to process whatever hallucinogen is taking effect here,  Felix.”, he seemingly calmed down, but then, faster than the eye could follow,, he lashed out. 

 “Can we please not be pursued and murdered for once in our lives?” the yellow horse mumbled quietly.
Amidst his impromptu duel with the flying horse with prismatic hair, Felix rolled his eyes, “If you can speak, a little tact and eloquence would not go amiss.”
The pearly unicorn gasped in offense, “Well, I never! You clearly do not know how to reflect eloquence in your distasteful fashion sense!”
Before Felix could form a response, the prismatic pegasus pushed him back, pinning him to the floor, “Take that!” Felix rolled his eyes again, seemingly less disturbed than before, and pushed the horse off of him with very little effort. It stared back at him in shock, “Woah… um… Twilight? Little help here?”
Felix was about to try and apprehend the intruders again, only to be caught in a fuschia aura that suspended him in mid air. Great.

“AH  HA FOUND MAH HAT!”

Subduing the nausea rising in his stomach from his bubble of weightlessness, Felix stared at the brightly coloured…ponies, accepting that they were very, very real.
This was going to be a long night.





The journey through the portal, however brief it may be, was a nauseating experience, and Twilight wished she was surprised. She was even less surprised by the fact that she and her friends were facing a creature she knew to be a “human” from her previous expeditions… that she’d rather not think about currently. The human was a male, around the age of fifteen as far as she could tell. He had blonde hair that Twilight could only guess was styled by the hooves, er, hands of a perfectionist. His clothing only supported that theory; a grey shirt with a black vest and tie, presenting him as an orderly and scholarly person. It honestly reminded her of herself, back during her days at Princess Celestia’s school. 

Though the fact that the human would be so apt at fighting was beyond her. It all happened in the millisecond she blinked, the human was standing perfectly still, muttering a few words of surprise. Then, faster than the eye could process, he was attacking them. 

It was impressive, really. Especially considering that she also wasn’t very athletically skilled during her days at Princess Celestia’s school. Unable to contribute to her friends without blasting apart the quaint room they were all situated in, Twilight just stood back with Fluttershy, Rarity and Applejack as Rainbow dueled the strange boy. Pinkie was… somewhere. And Twilight had learned not to question her even stranger friend’s antics over the years.
Fluttershy whimpered beside her and mumbled, “Can we please not be pursued and murdered for once in our lives?”
The human replied as he continued to fight Rainbow, “If you can speak, a little tact and eloquence would not go amiss.” His voice was level and never wavered as he spoke. 
Rarity gasped in offence, “Well, I never! You clearly do not know how to reflect eloquence in your distasteful fashion sense!”
Twilight did not know much about fashion, but she had the slightest feeling that Rarity was not entirely truthful with that statement. In fact, she was almost certain that Rarity had tailored a similar outfit at Carousel Boutique. 
But before she could questioningly voice these thoughts, Rainbow shouted, “Take that!” and Twilight turned to see her pinning the human to the floor. The human, however, just rolled his eyes and pushed her off with ease. Shocking. 

Well, not that shocking since pegasi have hollow bones in order to take flight, making them significantly lighter than the average unicorn or earthpony. 

But shocking. 
As evident by the look on Rainbow’s face. “Woah… um… Twilight? Little help here?”
Twilight smiled exasperatedly at her prismatic friend before using her magic to suspend the human in the air. A few years ago, it would be difficult for her to even consider doing the spell for several safety hazards, since she still couldn’t stabilise the spell enough to hold a pony, let alone six. Though she’d recently managed to suspend an entire army of ponies; casting the spell thereafter had been much easier. 

“AH FOUND MAH HAT!” Applejack proclaimed, holding her stetson close to her chest, “I’ve missed you, Telulah.” 

The human crossed his arms and cleared his throat, “Now we have established that you all are magical horses capable of speech, would you mind telling me who you are?” he paused, examining the height at which he was floating in the air. “And would you also mind releasing me from this suspension?”
Twilight grinned sheepishly, “Oh heh, sorry about that.” she released him and placed him back onto solid ground. He briefly wobbled before standing with a rigid posture. She smiled, “My name is-”

“This is Twilight Sparkle!” Pinkie appeared out of nowhere. “And this is Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Applejack!” she happily listed off as she gestured to the ponies in question. “And I’m Pinkie Pie! Nice to meet you Felix!”
Twilight muttered incoherently for a moment. “How-” she was almost about to ask the deadly question but was saved by Rainbow Dash as she stuck a hoof in her mouth.
“Yes. What Pinkie said.” Rainbow stated with a tone of finality.
Twilight shoved her hoof away and sighed, “Yes. It’s nice to meet you… Felix.” she hesitated as she said the foreign name aloud.
Felix stared at them with an unchanging expression, “Pleasure.” 
She was expecting a more… enthusiastic response, but she supposed not everyone was a socialite. Like herself, way back when. “Anyway, we have come through a portal from the land of Equestria in another universe. An omnipotent magical tree sent us to your universe to solve a friendship problem of some sort. I know, it sounds crazy-”
At this Felix seemed to become more interested and cut her off. “Like the tree from the legend of the tree of the fae? The origin of all magic and eternal balancer of harmony?”
Rainbow Dash shook her head. “Why does the human know all this? It's literally our land’s secret. That literally only we know.”
“It's a bedtime story for children here.” Felix explained.
Twilight hummed, “The tree has always held some sort of foresight. And since it brought us here in the first place, I wouldn’t be so surprised to find a counterpart that exists in this world.”
“Fascinating.” Felix said, the gleam of knowledge shining in his eyes. “That counterpart is probably the source of lore and magic in this world.”
“That’s very possible, Felix” Twilight started. “In fact-
“Sugarcube, maybe we should actually focus on finding who we need to help with their friendship problem?” Applejack raised her eyebrow.
Coming back into a focused mindset, Twilight started thinking.“Sorry. Well since the tree brought us here, as in directly into Felix's attic, from what I can tell, I think it’s safe to assume that we’re here to help him.”
Rarity walked over to Felix and asked him “Is there anything wrong that would be considered a major friendship problem happening in your universe, Felix? A possible war because of a misunderstanding between political allies? A public figure setting a bad example? Or just two friends falling out leading to the end of the world?” Rarity probed with a charming flutter of her eyelashes.
“Actually,” Felix said. “Nothing so dramatic, and yet, important all the same. A… a friend I guess you could call her, though she’s really just an acquaintance, I don’t do friends-
Rainbow dash rolled her eyes. “What a surprise.”
Twilight shushed her though she couldn’t help but frown at his dismissal of friendship. “Felix, continue.”
Shifting slightly, Felix spoke in a sombre tone. “My acquaintance was a popular person, friends with almost everyone, from what I could tell, until a major incident left her alone, with her previous friends completely abandoning her. It wasn't her fault at all,  and yet for some inexplicable reason, they’ve all decided to leave her and treat her like trash.”
“Why? Why would everyone desert her like that?” Fluttershy asked.
Felix’s jaw tightened. “A very conniving liar, ousted by my acquaintance, and fueled by what was probably jealousy, lied even more even at the chance to change her ways, and turned the whole school against her. As the only one besides my acquaintance in possession of a single brain cell, I saw through her act, but what good will that do? Even now, she’s probably poisoning everyone against me so that I have no chance to stop her and her regime of lies from hurting my acquaintance, who does not, in any manner, deserve the vitriol being spewed against her every day, not just by the liar, but by everyone who has been fooled.”
Felix turned to the ponies who were listening with quiet sorrow, even Rainbow Dash, and with pleading eyes spoke.
“Please help me stop her. I can’t let my friend get hurt any longer by this.”
“We’ll help you.” Rainbow Dash said, oddly quiet. 
Fluttershy sent a sympathetic glance her way.
“The situation at your institution is appalling and I’m seriously concerned that adults are allowing this to continue. No wonder literal magic is being brought into play.” Rarity said.
“We will help you resolve this, Felix.” Twilight reassured, determination lining her expression.
“Thank you.” Felix responded sincerely. The purely relieved tone of his voice took Twilight by surprise, but she still returned it with a sincere smile. 
“Now let's all brainstorm. How can we help?”
“Ah’d say that first we should consider exposin’ the liar. The situation’ll prove immediately after that.” Applejack suggested.
Felix shook his head, “I’m afraid that is unlikely to work. The liar is too good at covering her tracks and everyone is too far gone to believe just the words I say, especially since my introduction to them today may have, ahem,  disposed them against me...”
Pinkie raised her hoof up, Felix raising an eyebrow. Twilight glanced at her and didn’t bother mentioning how unnecessary the gesture was, “Yes?”
“I think we should let Felix observe and take notes on the situation. What this person’s lies are, what her interactions with the other person are like and all that. It’s not like we can go out there in the open right?” She grinned.
Everyone just stared at her.
Pinkie nudged Felix with her elbow, “You like observing stuff don’t cha?” Twilight assumed that to be a completely normal comment to make, especially considering her own assessments of Felix. However, the slightly distant look in his eyes and faint redness of his cheeks gave her the feeling that Pinkie had made an observation of her own.
“I- I do,” Felix responded, quickly hiding his stutter, completely nonplussed, then continued, shaking off his confusion.
“You know what, that is not actually a bad idea at all. Let's do it.” He affirmed, 
Rainbow punched her hoof in the air, “Aw yeah!”
“It’s getting quite late now though. I’m going to go to sleep on time. Are you capable of conjuring another one of those disorienting portals or..?
“If it’s okay, we’ll just stay in your attic.” Twilight scratched the back of her head sheepishly, “I doubt the tree will let us back until we solve the problem.”
“Assuredly. Do you need bedding or anything else?”
Fluttershy shook her head and gestured at Pinkie who was already setting up six comfortable hammocks, “I think we’re alright, thank you.” 
Twilight gaped, “How-”
Saved by the Rainbow again.
Felix narrowed his eyes, “I suppose she is a scientific anomaly. How peculiar. Have any of you tried to study her abnormal abilities?”
Twilight nearly facehooved.
> Chapter 3: Progress
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight paced around the room, wondering how they could continue the mission effectively. It’s not that she didn’t trust Felix, but what if he isn’t as reliable as they had thought?

Rainbow Dash stomped her hoof, a signal that she had come up with a brilliant idea, "Girls, I just had the most awesome idea! Let's spy on him!"
Rarity shook her head with no small amount of disdain, "Rainbow, darling, that doesn't sound like a good idea-"
"I think I have a scrying spell..." Twilight hummed, searching through her memory for the spell. 
Rarity rolled her eyes, "It doesn't matter, darling, I do not see how Felix would-"
"He might be lyin'. He's the first human we've met, for Celestia's sake. Ah vote for spying on him!" Applejack shared a hoof bump with Rainbow. 
"Oh for celestia’s sake, Applejack, isn't spying a little dishonest?" Rarity sighed.
Applejack shrugged, "Ah'll do it as long as we don't get trapped like the Starlight Glimmer incident a few years ago."
"Shouldn't we give him the benefit of the dou-"
Fluttershy meekly cut her off, "Oh... um... I vote for spying. He was kind of mean... sorryforinterruptingIdidn'tmeanto-"
"And I vote for spying too! Mostly because one of the authors, Latte D'noire, said so!" Pinkie commented cheerfully.
Rarity groaned, "FINE! Be that way! Do not blame me when this comes back to bite you in your rear end, DARLING!"


***

Details ironed out, Felix walked up the stairs leading up to the school the next day with a new determination, a cause, and a plan.
Hand once more on the handle of the door to his homeroom, Felix opened the door slowly, preparing his eardrums for what he knew was within. Flinching slightly at the insanely high noise levels, Felix made himself inconspicuous and walked stealthily around the back of the classroom, avoiding notice. He sat himself next to Marinette, whose dark head was bent over what seemed like a sketchbook.

“I didn’t know you drew.”
“I design, actually.” she said, looking up at him.
“May I…
“Of course.” she answered, moving the hefty book onto his side of the desk. “Just be careful.”
The portfolio was full of ideas: good designs, better designs, but most of all an overwhelming mass of thoughts, annotations and drawings; skill before him in its rawest form. Yes, she definitely needed more practice to harness said skill, but as Felix flipped through the book the sheer potential increased with every page. He soon reached the end, and jolted out of his reverie at the pure talent, the undiscovered treasure that lay before him.
He looked up at her and tentatively handed her the book. “Marinette,” he breathed out.
“I-I know they aren’t perfect, i-it's just a hobby- 
“They are incredible.You are incredible.”
Her cheeks coloured, and Felix felt his, too as the full extent of his words reached him.
With what Felix reassured himself was innoticible hesitation, he elaborated, cheeks still slightly pink.
“Within this sketchbook lies the work of a true artist, Marinette,” sincerity was clear in his tone.”If you are this skilled now, I’d hedge my bets on you being one of the best designers in Paris within just a few years, if not the whole of France.”
She blushed a delicate pink, and looked up at him through her feathery lashes.
“Thank you, Felix.”
“Never underrate yourself, Marinette.”
As Felix turned to the front of the classroom at the arrival of the teacher, he smiled once at Marinette, the most genuine one he’d given in a long time.


***

Back to the spy-scrying. Scrying.
The six mares huddled around a tall antique mirror that wouldn't be out of place in a 19th century palace. The mood was somber, even Pinkie Pie stood completely still, all eyes trained on the lilac mare. She took a deep breath and then let it out.
“The book please Rarity.” A leather book with binding frayed with use was surrounded by a baby blue haze and began to glide through the air until it was in front of Twilight. Without breaking eye contact with her reflection she accepted the book, bathing it in lilac. Another deep breath. “Ok, let's do this.” and she began to cast-
“Wait, where did you get the book from?” Rainbow pointed out. Twilight paused and stared at the book she was levitating, then turned to Rarity. Rarity shrugged and gestured at Pinkie.
Pinkie smiled innocently.
No more questions were asked.
With that, Twilight cast the scrying spell on the mirror. 


***

In the science lesson later on, as a purple haired teacher droned on about things he already knew, Felix watched as Lila whispered to the redheaded girl wearing glasses and a plaid shirt beside her. The girl would, after every few minutes of hearing Lila whisper in her ear, turn around and glare at the two outcasts in the back. Felix merely rolled his eyes, uncaring of whatever new lies the sausage girl could come up with, but he could feel Marinette shrink into herself with every hate filled glance. He turned to her, slightly awkward - social interaction was not his forte- and cleared his throat to garner her attention. 
"Why do you stand for it? Why do you listen to them bad mouthing you and do nothing about it?" The bell rang just then and Felix started to pack his books up. He looked at Marinette and saw such a hopeless expression on her face he immediately felt bad about probing such a delicate topic. 
"I'm sorry-" he began awkwardly, before realising her expression wasn't directed at him, but at a blond boy Felix recognised as Adrien Agreste as he came up to their desk as the rest of the class filtered out and they were left alone in the classroom.
Felix stiffened. “Adrien.”, he acknowledged, with a curt nod.
“Hello, Felix.” Adrien greeted much more cordially, albeit with a strained smile. “I wasn’t in yesterday because of a photoshoot and it seems that a lot of people have been talking about how you’ve been rude to Lila while I wasn’t in, so I was wondering if I could speak with you privately about that.”
Felix narrowed his eyes. His cousin Adrien going to this school had been a massive factor in Felix's reluctance to attend, and with good reason. No doubt his doe-eyed relative had fallen prey to the liar's lies and had approached Felix now to admonish him for his earlier interaction with the liar and offer forgiveness with his holier-than-thou attitude that Felix had never been able to stand. 

“If, Adrien, you honestly expect me to just stand there while you tell me off like I am five for upsetting Mlle Rossi’s ‘feelings’, then you should know better. She is a liar, Adrien. All the far fetched tales she appears to have been spreading among your school are just that: far fetched. She lies, and I had the common sense to see through that and acted accordingly. I would have hoped that you knew better than to blindly trust such an obvious fake.”
Felix picked up his bag and turned to Marinette,  who had been standing awkwardly watching the two boys’ interaction.”Let’s go, Marinette. I would like to enlist your help in picking a suitable establishment to eat at for this lunchtime.” 
Head down, she walked past Adrien, who watched as the two began to leave with a tightlipped expression.
“I know she’s a liar.”
Marinette sighed as Felix froze. “What?”
“I know she’s a liar.” Adrien repeated. “I’ve known, right since the start, that she’s a fake.”
Felix wordlessly stared at Adrien, which the model took as a sign to continue.
“But don’t you see Felix? There’s no point in upsetting her, it just makes her lie more. We have to let her understand her mistakes by herself, otherwise she’ll never change. We should just leave her alone. Besides, it’s not like she’s hurting anyone. ”
Felix, though he had been frozen in shock, could feel anger bubbling within him and shot an icy stare at Adrien that had the boy flinching.

“Congratulations, Adrien. You’ve reached an all time low, which, considering how stunted your standards were in the first place, is a miracle within itself.” He shot out scathingly. “She isn’t hurting anyone, my foot. She’s been spreading lies and committing defamation against me just because I have enough common sense to stand up against her-”
A new thought occurred to Felix, and he turned to Marinette, shock evident on his face.
“You stood up to her too, didn’t you, Marinette? You saw through her and she turned on you, had the entire class hate you -it’s why you were sitting alone in the back before I got here.”
Utter disgust coursed through Felix as he turned back to face Adrien.

“You were so focused on keeping your misguided ideal of peace you stifled her rightfully voiced protests, just so things would remain simple and easy for you. She hurt Marinette's feelings, Adrien. Even I can see that, and I’ve only been aware of the situation for two days. You’ve been allowing her isolation and mistreatment to go on for what I guess as to be weeks without even trying to do anything about it. Don’t approach me again; I am ashamed to call you family”. Felix walked to the front of the classroom, pointedly ignoring his cousin, and held the door open. 
“After you, Marinette.” he said, shooting one last glare at Adrien before following her out of the classroom, and slamming the door shut.

***

Still shaking slightly, Felix muttered angrily under his breath as he and Marinette walked the corridors of the school. 
After calming down a bit, Felix cleared his throat and broke the silence that had settled between the two.
“I apologise for putting Adrien in his place without your consent, Marinette. For all I know, you agree with his beliefs, and I intruded upon them.” 
“Felix, no!” she replied, bluebell eyes wide. “I was just thinking about what you said before, and.. You  were right. I did see through Lila when she first arrived at Francoise Dupont, just a new student with a glamorous life outside of school. I soon realised the things she said couldn’t possibly be true, but when I called her out on them, it was too late. She had already convinced the entire class who was telling the truth. 

"Some of my oldest friends abandoned me within the space of a few days; my supposed bff Alya had found a new bff and although Adrien knew the truth too and he always said we were in it together.. We never were. He didn’t call Lila out, so she left him alone and just targeted me. I was alone, and I never did anything about it because if I tried Adrien would lecture me about how the only way to stop Lila was to just take the highway and… 

"You’ve helped me see that was wrong.  Lila is hurting someone. Me. So I’ve decided, I’m not going to take Adrien’s crud anymore,” She said, resolve hardening in her eyes, a determined set to her mouth. “I’m not going to take Lila’s crud anymore. My feelings and my mental health are just as important as anything else. Thank you, for taking a stand and helping me realise that, Felix.”

She smiled at him, dimples wide, and despite his usually stormy countenance, Felix found himself smiling back at the strong willed girl beside him.
“So. Lunch?” He asked.
“I know a place,” Marinette, replied, a mischievous glint in her eyes.
“Lead the way,” he said, as they walked out of the school, the spring sun shining.

***

“When you say you knew a place, I have to admit, I did not see the family business move coming,” Felix said, following Marinette up to the apartment section of the Tom et Sabine Boulangerie Patisserie. “A rather shrewd business move on your part Mme. Dupain-Cheng.” Felix said with a small smile.
“But of course,” Marinette replied, looking back at him with a smirk.
“I like your parents,” he offered. “They are no doubt decent people, though they seemed a little… Enthused upon my visitation.” he said, referencing the hug he’d been wrapped up in upon his introduction. 
It had been slightly unpleasant but that was more felix and his touch dysphoria. The Dupain-chengs as a whole made him feel...safe. 
“Don’t mind Maman and Papa,” Marinette said, opening the door to the neat yet cozy apartment. “They’re just happy I've brought a new friend for them to feed.” She rolled her eyes fondly as she sat down on the couch. 
“Friends?” Felix asked as he sat carefully on the edge of an armchair, noting her casual use of the word in appliance to him.
“Uh, that is, if you want to be.” she replied, looking at him. “I kinda feel like we’ve moved past the acquaintance stage. So, what do you say? Friends?”
He gave a small smile and extended his hand over the coffee table, preparing himself for the discomfort that would come with touch. “Friends.” he said.
Ignoring his hand, she got up and walked around the coffee table.
“What are you doing?” he asked in surprise, getting up himself. She held her arms out and stepped towards him. “Friends don’t shake hands, dummy, they hug.” She took another step towards him but then stopped inches away. “Unless you don’t want to. I noticed you don’t like it very much when people touch you, and I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.” she said, sympathy evident in her eyes.
“It’s fine,” Felix said, warmth filling him at her thoughtfulness. How anyone could have abandoned someone as kind and incredible as Marinette was beyond him. Bracing himself, Felix closed his eyes and hugged Marinette, waiting for the feelings of repulsion to come.
And he waited. 
And waited.
And waited.
...They didn't come. Surprised, Felix unstiffened and allowed himself to relax into the hug properly.
“Anyway,” Marinette said after a few seconds, pulling back. “I’ll go get some food. Since, you know, that’s the whole point of us coming here in the first place.”
She smiled at him again before walking into what he assumed into the kitchen.
Felix smiled back.


***


“Oh my gosh that was so. Cute!” Pinkie pie squealed, bouncing around the attic.
“Ugh, it was so sappy.” Rainbow dash said, watching the two humans as they ate, but no one could miss the tiny, amused smile that had formed on her lips.
“Ah have ta agree with Pinkie on this one,” Applejack said nodded with a good-natured grin.
“Truly,”  Rarity added. “That, darlings, is the spirit of friendship.” Her expression darkened and she muttered under her breath, “Spying, on the other hoof…”
“I’m happy Felix and Marinette managed to become friends.” Twilight nodded, taking notes on her observations, “It will certainly help combat Marinete’s situation with her other classmates.” 
Fluttershy giggled, “Uh huh, friends.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow, “Um, yes. Friends. Are you okay, Fluttershy?”
Fluttershy just smiled and glanced at Rarity, who took the hint, “I think I understand, darling.” she smirked.
“What?”
“You’ll see.”
> Chapter 4: Alone in the World with a Friend
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stomach full and with the lingering taste of croissants in his mouth, Felix and Marinette walked back to school. Lunch had been amazing, the Dupain-Cheng's baking skills were certainly impressive. Felix made a mental note to come back and pick something for his mother when she got back from her trip as a surprise. The spring sun peeked through the clouds yet the air cool on his bare arms, the blossoming greenery around them more than made up for it. Marinette walked beside him in seemingly good spirits, and as they walked up to the school, Felix deemed it as good a time as any to discuss what their plan of action would be. 

“Marinette?” Felix said as they walked up the steps to the school.

“Yeah?” she responded. 

“We’ve collectively determined that the best course of action would be to not listen to my idiot cousin and leave Lila alone, but what should we do?. I was considering how best to tackle Mlle. Rossi after my first meeting with her, and with some unconventional forms of help,” Felix rolled his eyes at the memory of the six brightly coloured ponies still in his attic. “I came to the conclusion that perhaps it would be best to lay low and observe her. See how she operates, her methods, and any holes to her web of lies.”

“Absolutely,” Marinette said, as they walked back through the corridors of the school towards their afternoon class. “If Lila knows we’re taking a stand against her, she’ll try and stop us before we can even get started. It would be best if we lay low for a while and did some reconnaissance. Besides, I don’t think she likes you very much, and she definitely doesn’t like me, so it’s best we don’t give her a motive to try and make our lives difficult.” 

Felix nodded in response to that sound reasoning. “Very true, Marinette. Then are we agreed?” 

“We are,” she replied. They both nodded and walked into the classroom.


***    


Expecting the usual chaos, Felix was about to follow Marinette around the sides of the classroom up to their spot at the back, hoping to remain unnoticed in the customary tumult of the classroom. What he did not expect, however, was the entire class to be standing in silence in a circle around the liar, who was seated and bawling. Surprised, Felix and Marinette stopped at the door to the classroom, just in time to hear the tail end of Lila’s new lie.

“...and then at lunchtime, after being so rude to me, when I tripped because of severe arthritis that I got while canoeing in Peru, she just left me there! I can’t understand how anyone could be so, so heartless!” Lila sobbed into her hands, obviously favouring her right wrist. The redheaded girl Marinette had called Alya kneeled next to her, and whispered soothingly to the faker, rubbing her back comfortingly. She looked up and caught sight of the duo who had just entered the classroom and an expression of rage crossed her face. Felix could just about see the smoke coming out of her ears.

“Marinette how could you?” she yelled, bringing the entire classes attention to the girl. They all shot daggers at her, murmuring their dissent, except Adrien, who just stood to the side, shrugging helplessly, while Chole and Sabrina ignored everyone and sat at their desks.

“No, don’t blame Marinette.” Lila said helplessly, “I know she never liked me from the start. We should just try to forget and forgive-"

“Absolutely not!” Alya said furiously. “I can’t believe I was ever friends with you, Marinette! I get you dont like Lila but this is taking it too far! What kind of person would you have to be to just leave someone with arthritis there! You’re just a bully, Marinette and no one in this class wants to associate themselves with you!” The class loudly agreed with Alya, many of them shaking their heads.

“Felix,” Lila sniffed, playing the martyr angle for all its worth, “I know you and Marinette have gotten along well since you came here, but you have to understand that she isn’t who you think she is. We had a bumpy start, but as a friend, I have to tell you that we are in the right and you should be too.” Lila beckoned. 

“Mlle. Rossi, I believe you.”

The room went quiet.

Lila faltered for a brief moment, “....really? I mean, of course, you do! It is the truth, after all.” 

“Marinette, I cannot believe you would have the daring, the audacity, the sheer nerve to do this,”

Lila smirked behind the class, no doubt thinking about how she would soon have Felix wrapped around her finger as well.
Marinette closed her eyes, sadness sweeping over her face, and for a second, Felix felt guilty. She tried to plead with him.

“Felix, you know I-”

“Teleported while I wasn't looking back to the school, brutally harassed Mlle. Rossi, and then teleported back, all within the space of a second, leaving me none the wiser? Yes, I do know. How could you, Marinette?” Felix shook his head solemnly fighting the smirk that was trying to break its way through his act. “You aren’t the person I thought you were.”

Lila stared at him, “B-But, but Marinette, she-"

“It’s the only explanation, Mlle. Rossi. We were together for the whole of lunchtime, there's no way she could have snuck off without teleporting. I’m sorry you had to deal with her magical molestation.” Felix sighed out.
Understanding filling her eyes, Marinette gave him a small smile before turning to the class, jaw set.

“What Felix is trying to say is that there is no way I could have been so mean to Lila is because I was at home eating lunch with Felix the entire time. You all blindly took Lila’s word as if it were drawn in stone and were about to punish me for something I didn’t even do. So from now on, I’m not going to associate with any of you .” Fixing them all with one last icy glare, Marinette walked up the steps to the back of the classroom, Felix right behind her. 

“Thank goodness somebody said something,” Chloe commented, rolling her eyes once before turning back to Sabrina as Lila burst into tears and the class into shouts.


***  


“So much for laying low,” Marinette lamented, pressing her cheek against the desk as the lesson finally began.

“Yes, but you stood up to Mlle. Rossi, and effectively so. You also helped find out that we may even have a potential ally in Mlle. Bourgeois. I’d call that a win.” 

“True, but...magical molestation, huh?”

Felix smirked widely. “A ridiculous answer to befit a ridiculous claim. As if your preposterously kind soul would ever walk away from someone in need, even if that someone were Mlle. Rossi.”

“Thanks,” Marinette said, cheeks slightly pink. “For helping me back there, that is. Y’know I actually believed Lila had you, for a second. I should have known better.”

“Yes, you should. Friends don’t abandon each other. Friend.” he added on at the end, the word still strange in his mouth.

“No, no they don’t. Friends also do that kind of I'm-betraying-you-but-not-really stunt after telling each other first, so tell me next time.” 

Felix put his hand on her smaller one, Trying to engrave the way it felt into his memory and looked straight into her bluebell eyes. 

“I promise you, Marinette.”


***


Lila hissed in annoyance at the duo at the back. She’d thought for sure her latest scheme would work on separating the two and enlisting Felix to her group of admirers. Instead, she was stuck doing damage control to a rock hard claim that could easily have led to questions being raised and backstories being questioned and then her whole web coming down around her. So she played up the injured kitten act and made sure Alya knew how hurt she was. Part of the reason why Lila had given the girl the honour of being her best friend, (apart from the adoration and loyalty Alya showered her in, and the added advantage of stealing Marinette’s emotional support away from her) was that once you appealed to Alya’s inherent sense of justice, the girl would do anything for you. And soon enough, after Lila had shed enough tears and said she ‘didn’t want to talk about Marinette’s utter cruelty’ Alya passed her a note.

I know you aren’t lying, girl, Marinette is!


Thank you for your faith in me, Alya .


It's clear as day what's actually happening! Felix is totally covering up for Marinette! Typical. It's been one day and those bullies have already banded up. I guess it’s true what they say. Birds of a feather, flock together.

Lila blinked. Alya had just presented her the perfect cover story on a silver platter. She smirked internally and decided to go with it.


We have to do something about them, Alya, or they’ll start going after other innocent people.

But what… 


I don’t know Alya, bullies are so hard to deal with. I’m scared. Marinette was already doing all kinds of horrible stuff to me before Felix was there to help her, and I could never prove it. It might be too risky to do anything big... 


Exactly! We don’t need to do anything big, we just need to give Marinette a taste of her own medicine!  


What do you mean?


You’ll see. I’ll get the whole class together after school so I can explain my idea.

Lila laughed to herself. Alya had taken the bait on how to tackle Marinette, and the best part was that even if they got caught, which with the utter lack of authority in this school was unlikely at best, Lila herself couldn’t be blamed. The girl smiled in gratitude to Alya, her expression innocent.


***


Alya simmered with righteous fury as the entire class lazed in their seats after school, except for Marinette and Felix, obviously, and Chloe and Sabrina, because they, like Marinette, had never liked Lila. Sweet, innocent Lila, who wouldn’t harm a fly. Alya couldn’t believe Marinette, or anyone for the matter, could possibly believe Lila was a liar. Sure her life was glamorous, but that was no reason to get jealous and accuse someone of being a fake! They had to do something about it.
Alya cleared her throat from her place at the front of the empty classroom and began.

“So you all know why we’re here today.”

“Marinette.” Alix said, scowling.

“The dudette has gone too far and the new kid is just encouraging her.” Nino said, shaking his head.

“But what should we do?” Lila asked, eyes wide. “Despite all the horrible things Marinette’s said and done to me, it wouldn’t be right to hurt her back.”
Alya’s heart sang for Lila and how kind the other girl was.

“That’s the thing. We won’t go too far. We’ll just do to Marinette what she did to you, so that she knows she can’t get away with this kind of thing.”

“Sounds good to me,” Kim agreed. 

“Hold on, hold on,” Adrien cut in. “What are you talking about? What things has Marinette been doing?” 

Lila sniffed and wiped away a tear. “Oh, Adrien, it’s awful. She’s been messing up my homework, taking my things, and being downright hostile to me when no ones looking! Not to mention, I’m sure she’s the one that took my half off the history project Alya and I were doing.” 

“And you want to do the same to her? Doesn’t that seem kind of drastic?”

“It’s only right, Adrien. We can not let Marinette bully Lila any longer, capisce?”

Adrien shifted in his seat and looked down. ”Okay then.” he conceded.

“Good,” Alya responded. “If we are all in agreement, say aye.”

“Aye!” Everybody chorussed.


***


Adrien stared out through the tinted window of his car as his driver drove the vehicle on towards the Agreste Mansion. He felt mildly uncomfortable at the thought of the class actively deciding to do something about the ‘Marinette problem’, as Alya had dubbed it. But then again, he rationalised to himself, it was Marinette's own fault. If she hadn’t tried to out Lila that afternoon, Lila wouldn’t have felt the need to retaliate by initiating the whole class against her. In fact, none of this would even have happened if Marinette had just listened to him in the first place and just ignored Lila. But then again, his cousin had played a big role in swaying Marinette against taking the high road. He’d have to speak to Marinette about that. Yes, Adrien soothed himself. He would speak to Marinette about not hanging out with Felix because he was a bad influence, she would listen to him and stop trying to out Lila, and then peace in the class would resume.
Yes. Tomorrow, Adrien would speak with Marinette, and everything would go back to normal.


***


Glancing carefully at the mirror, Twilight scrunched her face up in concentration. Her friends had decided to explore and take a break from observing their new acquaintance, whereas Twilight had insisted to continue spyin-scrying on Felix. 
She felt sort of guilty.
She occasionally wondered if this was the best way to handle this situation, but she supposed it was for the best, seeing as they barely knew anything about the world they were currently in. From what Twilight could put together from Felix’s lunch break with Marinette earlier that day, they were in the city of Paris. Twilight gazed in awe at the different structures, including the bakery owned by Marinette’s family. 
The bakery seemed like the product of the mixed efforts of Rarity and Pinkie Pie, if she were honest. A colourful array of confectionaries were put on display, the bubbly aesthetic reminding her of her party-loving friend. But at the same time, it had a sort of elegance to its structure, making it look very professional. 
Though Twilight wished she could eat some of the cakes and pastries displayed there. She remembered herself and her friends staring mouth-wateringly at the macarons Felix and Marinette shared.

But then came the strange bit, after their lunch break, the girl Felix was talking about before, Lila, had framed Marinette for tripping her. Which was impossible, since she was with Felix the whole time. Unless magic existed in this world, which was a very likely possibility since the portal had opened to Equestria in the first place, though that could be something that the tree could do regardless-

Twilight took a deep breath to focus herself. She knew that there was a possibility, though very unlikely, that Marinette could have teleported herself to Lila whilst also creating an illusion of herself with Felix. However, that still required a lot of magic. Considering how little magic Twilight could sense in her surroundings, a spell that powerful would stick out like a sore hoof, and she would have been able to sense it, despite being so far away. So, Lila was definitely lying. Why? She wasn’t exactly clear to what her motives were, other than she disliked Marinette and liked the popularity lying provided. 
But, Twilight couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very off about Lila. What, she couldn’t figure out.

Another observation that she and her friends, though quite an obvious one, have made was the fact that Felix had irrefutably begun to spark a friendship between himself and Marinette, and the thought made her smile. She recalled back when she herself was a social recluse, and a part of her wished her old friends from Canterlot never stopped pestering her until she agreed to join them in their activities. 

Having friends was truly a magical experience, and she was glad Felix got to experience it before it was too late. 
> Chapter 5: An Unpleasant Development
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Lila has been… but how does… no, no, not that! That doesn’t make any sense!” Twilight groaned and crumpled up the page from the notebook and threw it frustratedly at the bin with her magic, and missing spectacularly. She banged her head on the table situated next to the scrying mirror “Ugh.”

Applejack sat a few feet away from her glancing at her and raising an eyebrow, “You okay there, sugarcube? You’ve been at it for quite a while.”

Rainbow gagged as Rarity excitedly braided her rainbow mane, “More like ages!”

Twilight sighed and levitated the crumpled paper from her failed buckball attempt and gently placed it in the bin, “That’s because Felix has been out for ages and we agreed to observe him.”

“Observe me?”

Twilight froze. Fudge biscuits. She slowly turned to face the door of the attic and was met with the unamused face of Felix Graham De Vanily. She very quickly put on a fake smile and silently berated herself for not checking the mirror in case he returned, “Felix! Welcome… home?”

Felix shook his head and entered the room, examining the ponies with scrutiny, who were all similarly frozen to Twilight. He glanced at the mirror suspiciously. “Why is the mirror over there?” He hummed, then added, “And why can I see myself in it without the reflection being reversed, as all mirror images are, despite me not being in the range of the mirror to see myself in the first place?”

Fluttershy and Rarity glanced at each other with uncertainty and stammered.

“Uh, well, you see… darling… uh”

“Um… um… um…”

Rainbow Dash spoke up with an unusually high pitched voice, “Uh… it’s… a dream… You’re dreaming…”
Felix looked unconvinced.

Pinkie backed away in a corner, “It’s a portal to Discord’s realm?”

“Who is this Discord you speak of?” Felix stepped forward, crossing his arms and continued to shake his head like a disappointed teacher. The gesture made Twilight shrink as she was reminded of Celestia’s disappointed face when she had stolen cookies from the Canterlot Castle kitchen when she was younger. Oh, how she hated to see that face.

Twilight facehooved, “Um it’s a spell I’ve been working on that changes the perception of reflective surfaces!” It was a half truth, she supposed. “Right, girls?” 
The others nodded quickly and nervously added a bunch of affirmatives.
Yeah yeah, this was going to be fine. Maybe if they stalled enough he’d go away.

Applejack smiled sheepishly, looking everywhere but Felix, “Eeyup!”
Felix only narrowed his eyes, and targeted the orange earthpony, no doubt realising that the mare was a terrible liar.

Twilight wondered why she does these things.

He advanced on Applejack, “For someone so certain, you seem to be donning a stetson of unsurity.”
She winced from the attack at her hat and stepped back cautiously, sweat matting her coat. She glanced at everypony, until her eyes landed on Rarity. She was wearing an incredulous expression which screamed ‘I told you so, darling!’.
Finally, the dam broke.

“TWILIGHT USED A SCRYING SPELL ON THE MIRROR SO WE CAN SPY ON YOU BECAUSE WE HAD NO IDEA WHETHER WE COULD TRUST YOU OR NOT AND THAT YOU WOULDN’T LEAVE OUT DETAILS ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED!” She panted, giving an apologetic look to Twilight.
Twilight, meanwhile, was trying her best to not facehoof her head off to land on the moon.


***


Felix sat down next to Twilight, “Fine, I understand why you did this, but when exactly were you going to tell me about this arrangement?”

Pinkie grinned, “We weren’t!”

Rainbow rolled her eyes, undoing the braid that Rarity had made for her, much to the unicorn’s dismay. The seven of them were now seated in a circle in the centre of the attic.
Twilight laughed nervously, “Ehehe… we didn’t think it was that necessary.” She coughed and straightened herself, “However, you can’t tell Marinette that we were spying on you and by default, her.”

Felix glared at her with suspicion, “Why not?”

“We haven’t met her yet, and she doesn’t know about us. It would make it needlessly complicated and uncomfortable for her and us. You can tell her when we’re introduced to each other.” 

Felix considered it for a moment, then agreed, albeit reluctantly, “I suppose so.”

Rarity politely cleared her throat, “Now that… that mess is all tidied up, what do you suppose we do next?”

Pinkie bounced up to her, “We can play UNO!” she proudly displayed the stack of cards in her hoof.

“Uh… I meant about the friendship problem, but I don’t mind playing a little. I think we all need a bit of R and R.” She grimaced, “Especially you, Twilight. You look positively dreadful!” 

Twilight ignored the comment and glanced at Pinkie, “Please don’t tell me you have a stash of UNO cards all over the multiverse in case of UNO emergencies.”

Pinkie looked at Twilight like she had spontaneously grown a second pair of wings, “Why would I do that? The cards were in the secret compartment in the table over there!”

“Yes.” Felix confirmed. “I’m the one who put the UNO cards in the secret table compartment.”

“...Why?” Rainbow Dash asked, her head tilted in confusion.

Felix’s cheeks reddened slightly. “I- I do card tricks. Or at least, I used to. Nothing much, however.”

Pinkie stared at him with a disbelieving expression and silently opened the grand piano to reveal it was chock full of cards. Then pulled a dust cover off a miscellaneous shape to reveal it was a large cupboard bursting at the seams with card packs. She then opened various secret compartments all around the attic, each containing packs of cards.

“‘Nothing much’ indeed, darling.” Rarity iterated with a hint of amusement.

Applejack gaped at the piano, “That’s why it was so big…” She muttered under her breath. 

“Oh my” Fluttershy gasped, “You really like cards.”
The redness on Felix’s cheeks darkened.  

“And these are just the cards in the attic. There are more all over the house and grounds. But not just cards,” Pinkie said, suddenly holding open a discoloured photo album, “All magic tricks in general.” She flipped through the pages of the album, which was filled with pictures of a small blonde boy wearing an oversized top hat and cape doing magic tricks everywhere, progressively getting older and older until the pictures stopped when Felix appeared to be somewhere around 10 years old. 

“Awwwwwwwwwwwww” All the ponies cooed, with the exception of Rainbow dash, who just snickered quietly. 

“That’s private,” Felix snapped, snatching the album out of Pinkie's grasp. 

“Why did you stop doing magic tricks?” Fluttershy asked confusedly, “It obviously made you happy.”

“I stopped doing magic tricks when my mother and I moved to England.” Felix answered curtly, putting the album back in its place. 

“Well why did you move to this ‘England’ place?” Rainbow Dash questioned. “You seem a lot more snappy now than before you did.” 

Real anger flashed in Felix’s eyes. “That’s none of your business.” He responded in a cold voice. 

“Okay, okay.” Rainbow Dash replied, holding her hooves up. “Sheesh. You don’t have to be so-

“MAYBE WE CAN PLAY UNO NOW!” Pinkie cut in loudly. She aggressively handed out cards to everyone with an expression that nobody dared to argue against. 

“Rainbow Dash, you will apologise to Felix for being so pushy when he doesn’t want to talk about it, and Felix you will apologise for being rude to Rainbow Dash.” Fluttershy ascertained.

“Sorry.”

“Sorry.”
They said together.

“And now we will play Uno,” Pinkie said, laying down a card.


***


Though it had been relatively warm the past few days, the weather had taken a turn for the worse, and Felix stood in the courtyard of the school, stamping his feet occasionally to keep the circulation running in his legs and trying not to dwell too much on his earlier interaction with the brightly coloured ponies. The truth was, he had been much happier before he and his mother had moved to England. But he had also arrived at school early and was just waiting for Marinette to come so they could go and sit in the warmth of the classroom together, and tried to focus on that. Just then, he spotted her small form making its way through the crowd toward him.
“Marinette.” He greeted, nodding at her.
She waved back at him, smiling, a few feet away. But, hurrying towards him, she failed to notice the suddenly outstretched ankle right in her path. 

“Hey, Feli- woah!"

Panic flared in his mind and Felix rushed forwards just in time to catch her in an aggressive forward movement. Gripping her arms, Felix stared down in panic at Marinette “Are you all right?” He asked. 

“I’m fine, Felix,” she said quietly. 
Despite the obvious social cue indicating that he should let go of her, Felix held her for a few extra seconds anyway, scanning her face for the slightest sign that she was in any pain. After checking her over to see if she was indeed fine, he somewhat reluctantly released his grip on her. 

Marinette smiled reassuringly at his still concerned expression and brushed herself off before speaking in a soothing voice. “I’m fine, Felix. I’m a major klutz and I’m honestly surprised more accidents haven’t happened already. Thank you for catching me, though. That means a lot.”

“Klutz you may be, Marinette, but that certainly was not an accident. I saw someone trip you up intentionally.” Felix’s gaze looked around the courtyard and soon landed on Lila’s smug eyes staring back at him from a few feet away. Eyes narrowing, Felix spotted their homeroom teacher and called her over. “Mlle. Bustier, Mlle. Rossi just intentionally tried to trip Marinette up. I believe repercussions are in order”

Mlle. Bustier stopped in her tracks and stared oddly at him. “I’m sorry Felix, did you just say Lila  Rossi tried to trip someone up? Are you sure, Felix? Lila is one of the sweetest students I have ever had the pleasure of teaching. I’m sure there must be some kind of misunderstanding.”

“Yeah, Mlle. Bustier, there is,” Alya cut in with narrowed eyes. “Lila didn’t try to do anything. I’ve been talking to her about my blog the whole time.”

“There, see Felix, I’m sure it was a simple misunderstanding. Lila was probably standing nearby, and Marinette tripped at the same time.”

“But Mlle. Bustier-"

“You all need to hurry along anyway if you don’t want to be late to class.”

“Yes, Mlle. Bustier” Lila called sweetly. Alya locked elbows with Lila as the two left.

Felix opened his mouth to make a scathing remark on the unfairness of it all, when he felt Marinette’s hand on his shoulder, restraining him.“Just leave it, Felix. The teachers are useless; Lila’s got them all wrapped around her finger. Hopefully, this was just a one-off as retaliation for standing up to her yesterday.”

Felix sighed. “I certainly hope so.”


***


Lila smirked to herself; her plan was working well. The entire class was poisoned against Marinette, and when the new kid saw how unpopular she was, he would join Lilas side and love her just as much as the other idiots, and Marinette would be alone. It was almost too easy. Lila thought smug thoughts as Alya congratulated her for standing up to 'that bully', not really paying attention but soaking up all the praise. If everything went to plan, she would be able to get away with some other... things. 


***


Adrien hurried out of his car, hoping to catch Marinette before class started. He spotted her in the courtyard and was about to approach her when she went flying. He soon nailed Lila as the one who tripped the girl up and sent her a disapproving look her way. 
Shaking his head, he turned back to Marinette who surprisingly, hadn't fallen over, but rather been caught by… Felix? More than slightly shocked at his rather stoic cousin's unusual interference, Adrien barely noticed the look of extreme displeasure Lila shot at her scheme's failure. He remained unnoticed at the edge of the event as Felix, as astute as usual, correctly assessed that Marinette had not just tripped, but rather, been tripped. Adrien watched as his cousin's attempt to seek justice failed, looking for an opportunity to cut in so that he could talk to Marinette. His impatience began to swell as Mlle. Bustier ushered everyone towards their classroom. Adrien sighed. This was turning out to be harder than he would have thought.


***


Adrien sat uncomfortably at the front of the classroom waiting for class to begin as Lila hung off his arm. He simply had to talk some sense into Marinette, and soon. If he didn't convince her to take the high road again and abandon her extremely unexpected alliance with Felix, who knew what kind of things Lila would do in retaliation. Taking his chance as Lila started chatting to Alya about her third cousin twice removed who was a famous reporter in Germany, Adrien snuck up to the desk at the back where the two outcasts were...sharing cookies? Not believing his eyes, Adrien just gawked as his usually aloof cousin Felix actually smiled then took a cookie from a box that sat between the two of them. Shaking off his shock, Adrien cleared his throat to garner the two’s attention as he stood in front of their desk.

“Marinette, I need to talk to you about Lila-"

Adrien felt the words evaporating from his tongue as Marinette glared at him with an intensity that he had never seen.
“No.” she said tersely, cutting him off.

“No? What do you mean, ‘no’?” Adrien spluttered out.

Marinette stood up, slammed her hands on the desk and leaned forward menacingly. “What I mean, Adrien,  is no. No, I will not listen to you preach to me about how wrong I am. No, I will not stay quiet anymore. Lila is hurting me, and you’re too blind to see it. You are all too blind to see it!” She directed the last part to the entire class who had all stopped to watch her outburst. “Lila is a liar. She’s been lying to you all since day one. All that ‘too good to be true’ stuff is too good to be true. So I’m not going to be tolerating you all acting as if I’m the liar anymore. So, Adrien, you can go right back to your seat, because I don’t want to hear it.” A stunned silence around the classroom as Adrien shuffled stiffly down the aisle to the front and sat down. 


***


Rainbow tried her very best to keep her cool. 
That blonde-haired pretty-boy- who looked almost identical to Felix, by the way. How does that work?- literally tried to get Marinette to not stand up for herself. LITERALLY!
This- it was too painful to watch.
She looked away from the scrying mirror and glanced around the room. Twilight was still taking notes. Apparently she could sense something off about that Lila girl. More like Lie-la, Rainbow snorted at the thought. Twilight said that the abomination of a girl seemed like she had “a faint magic emanating from her”. Whatever that meant. The prismatic pegasus didn’t really dabble in the subject of magic, so she couldn’t really say anything about it.
Applejack was looking at the piano in the corner of the attic, probably thinking about the practicality of keeping all those cards there. Rarity was critiquing the aesthetics of the attic, with Pinkie listening intently beside her.
It was… a big attic. Though not enough for her to fly around and actually do something, unless she broke a lot of stuff, but she didn’t know how Felix would feel about that. She felt kinda bored. And a little claustrophobic if she were being honest.

She turned to glance at Fluttershy, only to see looking straight back at her with sad eyes. No, she wasn’t sad. She was sympathetic.
Oh frick, she knew.


***


After an awkward registration where Mlle. Bustier had grimaced repeatedly at the atmosphere in the class;  it was obvious something that had happened before her arrival. Lila sat in her first-period classroom, soaking up the sympathetic looks her class was shooting at her. She couldn’t believe her luck at how well-timed Marinette’s sudden sense of self-respect had come. The girl standing up for herself now would only add fuel to the fire and make her seem in the eyes of the class as even more of a bully and absolutely no-one would be reluctant to act now. Pretending to be working, Alya scribbled down on a swatch of paper and surreptitiously slid it along to Lila.

Don’t you worry about what Marinette said, Lila, the rest of the class and I will make sure she gets what she deserves.

Lila smirked.


***


Rose watched from the side as Marinette showed Felix the brushstroke patterns they had learnt in art before his arrival; the two appeared to be having fun. Rose’s sense of justice seethed at the scene. How could Marinette possibly say the untruths and hurtful things she had this morning and then act as if it wasn’t even a big deal! 

Rose had been slightly unwilling to act against her in the beginning - the Marinette she now saw was a complete turnaround of the sweet, kind girl Rose had known- but no more. The pixie-like girl took her chance as the two made their way over to the sink to clean their paint brushes. Rose made eye contact with Juleka and Nathaniel, who accurately guessed her intent, and nodded once. Alix, Kim and Max looked over as well, nodding their approval. At this, Rose casually strolled past Marinette and Felix's desk, quietly tipping their cup of paint water over Marinette's art book, watching the water swirl over the surface and sink through the pages.


***


Marinette was exhausted. Nothing had been going her way today, and she suspected it wasn’t just her astronomically bad luck in play. First, her artbook had been soaked through this morning after a spillage, which meant she would have to spend hours re-doing all the work that had been ruined. Her classmates had taken so long helping Lila get her food at lunch because she ‘couldn’t get it herself because of her crippling arthritis’ as Felix had explained to her, his rolling his eyes, that Marinette had had to stand in the queue for virtually the whole hour, barely getting anything down before lunch was over and it was time for gym. 
Not to mention all the other innumerable, unexplainable things that had plagued her the entire day. But as Marinette adjusted her pigtails in the gym changing room, she smiled for herself, just glad the day was almost over and done with.


***


The day was far from over. Marinette stood in the gymnasium as she stared at the substitute loudly explaining the rules of dodgeball and groaned.

Though Marinette was relatively lithe and decently quick, she, very simply put, sucked at dodgeball. 

But Monsieur D’Argentcourt and the other physical education teacher weren’t in so both classes would be lumped together in a massive game until the next lesson when normality would resume. Marinette groaned again and did some preliminary stretches, preparing herself for the coming onslaught. She just needed to get through this hour and then she would be home free.


***


Playing the arthritis card again, Lila managed to get out of P.E., giving her another excellent opportunity to further her propaganda. Clutching at her supposedly aching leg, Lila looked up at Alya from her seat at the edge of the gym and said quietly “It’s a good thing I couldn’t play today anyway, otherwise what with all the hustle and noise, and only a supply teacher for supervision... who knows what Marinette could have gotten away with again.” Lila watched as her words began to take root in Alya’s mind, growing and growing until they finally blossomed into a poisonous flower. Eyes set, Alya responded.

“Don’t worry about that, Lila. I have an idea.”


***


Felix had never played dodgeball before and listened to the teacher explain what sounded like the most violent game he had ever heard off with growing apprehension. 

“Uh, Mlle., I’ve never played dodgeball before, so I believe an observation period would be prudent.” 

“Of course! Just join when you’re ready!” the teacher responded brightly.

“That seems unlikely,” Felix muttered under his breath as he sat down on a bench, watching a large boy Marinette had earlier identified as Kim get hit in the stomach particularly viciously by a shorter girl that he had yet to be introduced to. The shorter girl let out a loud cheer of triumph, completely unaffected or concerned about the severe injury she had just inflicted. At this seemingly standard display of brutality, Felix worriedly made eye contact with Marinette, who merely shrugged from her place towards the back of the gym. Seeing the supply teacher wasn’t paying any attention to them, she came a few feet closer to him. 

“That’s just Alix and Kim who are like that. They have this huge rivalry thing and do pretty much anything for it. The other class is much more subdued, so you might even have fun playing with them. A huge plus is they haven’t met Lila yet, so we could even try to gather allies from there...”

“An excellent idea,” Felix replied, nodding in approval before a smirk crossed his features. “But if dodgeball is so fun, why aren’t you even attempting to pla-”

Felix was cut off by the loud whoosh of air that left Marinette's mouth, a shocked expression crossing her face as a dodgeball hit her.


*** 


Marinette's breath left her as a dodgeball collided with her stomach, forcing the air from her lungs. Wheezing, she doubled over, just as another ball landed a hit on her side. A few seconds later with her breathe mostly recovered, she frowned and straightened up, looking through the clamour of the surrounding kids who were also playing so that she could give whoever had hit her a piece of her mind, when yet another dodgeball struck her across the arm, the area smarting painfully. She soon located the ones throwing the dodgeballs: Alya and Alix. Marinette scowled and called for the substitute, but to no avail, she was busy talking to Lila at the very end of the hall, much too far away to have seen anything or to have heard her calls. 
Marinette scowled again; she wasn't going to let the two girls get away with this. “You're only supposed to aim below the waist. That was completely uncalled for- “

Another ball hit her from behind, landing right in between her shoulder blades, and she stumbled forward a few steps.   
“Uncalled for my foot! What's uncalled for is how you specifically aimed for Lila last time we played dodgeball, not to mention how barbarous you are to her in general! Yeah that’s right,” Kim’s voice came from behind her. “She told us all about the stuff you do when no one is looking, and now we’re going to give you a taste of your own medicine!”

Marinette swivelled round to face him in annoyance. “You aren't even in the game anymore! So just stop hitting me where you shouldn’t be and-"

Dodgeballs rained down on her, and Marinette panicked, crouching down in a squat to minimise surface area. 

“This is physical abuse.” Felix's voice called out in an ice-cold tone from a few yards away. “Stop immediately.”

“Or what?” Kim jeered. “I could take you on. And what’s more...” 

Kim’s distraction lent Marinette a momentary reprieve; the girl making a beeline for the exit. Alix and Alya’s blows glanced off her, unable to get a solid hit on her while she was a moving target. Hoping her luck would hold until she could get out, Marinette stopped to open the doors and made the mistake of pausing to look at Alix when the fiery girl let out a war cry and flung the dodgeball in her hand with all of her strength at Marinette.


***


Marinette sat on the ground unsure as to how she got there. Everything was too loud and bright, and her head was killing her.
“...Marinette? Marinette? Are you okay? Please talk to me.” A male voice said to her as the noise and brightness levels came back to somewhat normal.

“Felix?” she asked, slightly dazed, looking at his face as it swam in and out of her vision before it became clear. She focused on his eyes. He had nice eyes. A similar shade to Adrien’s leaf green ones, but darker. More teal green, with silver flecks. 

“M’kay.” She said, stumbling to her feet, accepting the arm he offered her.

“Are you sure, sweetie?” The substitute asked her with a concerned look. “You took quite a nasty hit to the face, or so I’ve been told. I didn’t see it myself, but Lila here assures me that Alix must have just misjudged her throw and it was all a big accident. Go to the nurse’s office and get checked out, okay? I’m sure she’ll apologise to you afterwards.”

“Can I go get some water first?” Marinette asked in a quiet voice, grimacing from both the pain of being hit in the face with a dodgeball and that the throwers of said dodgeball would be getting away with it.

“Of course you can, sweetie. You there, Felix, was it? Take her to the water fountain outside the changing rooms on the way to the nurse’s office.”

“Of course, Mlle.”
Leaning heavily on Felix’s side, Marinette walked out of the gym, head spinning.


***


Felix handed Marinette a ridiculously brightly coloured plastic cup of water.
“Thank you,” she said, sipping slowly as she shifted on her seat. Silence hung heavily between the two before Marinette set down the cup with a clack. 

“So how bad is it?”

“How bad is what?” Felix asked, slightly confused.

“My face, duh. Will I be getting any cool scars?” Marinette asked with a cynical smile.

“No, certainly not!” Felix rushed out. “There are preliminary signs of eminent bruising, but that is all. You..may have a black eye, at most.”

“Cool.”

Felix cleared his throat and brought himself down to eyes level with Marinette, kneeling in front of her.
“I am truly sorry I could not have prevented this, Marinette. I should have known this would be the perfect opportunity for Rossi to quash any resistance.” 

“It’s fine, Felix. I knew what I was getting into when I decided I wasn’t going to take anymore crud. There’s nothing you could have done.”

“I feel awful, though.”

“So do I,” Marinette said. She gently placed a hand on his shoulder. “But we’ll both feel better after a while.” She smiled softly at him, and Felix looked into her azure blue eyes, as they sparkled with vibrancy and understanding, and Felix couldn’t help but move closer-

The door to the waiting area outside the changing rooms opened and Felix jerked back from Marinette and stood up in one motion, eyes narrowing.
“Adrien.”


  ***


When the lesson ended not long after the whole dodgeball incident, Adrien took his chance while Lila was distracted by her latest victory to escape and hurriedly make his way to the changing rooms. Hopefully, Marinette and Felix would still be there. He absolutely had to talk to them. Bursting through the doors Adrien swore he saw Felix about to….but he couldn’t be sure as his cousin was standing up and glaring at him within the next second. “Adrien,” he said in acknowledgement, almost spitting out his name.
“What do you want, Adrien?” Marinette asked, getting up from her seat and standing next to Felix, a tired but stubborn look on her face.

“I have to talk to you-"

“Like heck you do. She has to go to the nurse's office and recuperate, not listen to your blither-

“Just listen to me!” Adrien yelled, cutting off Felix. “When you were so busy defending yourself, Marinette, you made Lila feel attacked and she retaliated by convincing the entire class to do all the stuff to you that she's been telling them you were doing to her! ‘Standing up for yourself’ has officially backfired! Lila isn’t going to leave you in peace anymore; what happened today is just one example of the lengths she’ll go to keep you quiet. She’s already convinced everyone to make your life miserable, and with so many people on her side, she’ll feel comfortable doing even bigger stuff than did today! Saying she’s a liar like you did today won't do anything to convince the class and now have no one on your side.”

“So what do you suggest, Adrien? I go back to quietly suffering through the lies Lila was already spreading? Go through what you said we were in together, alone?”

Adrien's jaw tightened. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. Don’t misguidedly ‘stand up for yourself’ it just disrupts the peace and doesn’t do anything. Take the high road, Marinette. Do the right thing. And we are in this together.”

“Is that all, Adrien? Is that all I need to do?” 

“Yes. That's all I’m asking. But the class isn't just going to let this go, so first you to apologise to Lila-”

Adrien didn't see the slap coming, but he felt it. A searing pain cut across his face and his cheek burned.
Marinette stood panting in front of him, eyes alight.

“Now you listen to me, Adrien. You want me to apologise to that witch, just so we can all go back to your mistaken idea of peace? You want me to take the high road and just ignore all those whispered words, shared looks and disgusted faces like it doesn’t hurt to see people I once considered my friends abandon me-” She sobbed once, anger turning to anguish, tears filling her eyes. “It does hurt, Adrien. It does. So much. I can’t do that anymore. I can’t go along with your deluded idea of peace, and I certainly won’t apologise to Lila. When I first agreed to just ignore her, you said that we were in this fight against her together, but whatever friendship we once had, that ended when you chose her over me.”

“You’ve only changed your mind because Felix-"

Her eyes seared through him with a ferocious intensity. “Don’t you dare!  Felix has done nothing except show me kindness and be my friend when you were too busy keeping the status quo! Yes, it took his interference for me to realise what was happening was wrong and to take action, but I would have figured out bottling up emotions is far from normal or healthy. All I have left to say, Adrien, is that I hope one day you realise just how oblivious you are.” And with that, Marinette rushed out of the room, tears spilling down her cheeks and Felix following after her, leaving Adrien alone in the room as the door slammed shut.


***


Marinette stormed down the corridors and knocked on the nurse's office, tapping her foot impatiently as she waited for the nurse. She felt Felix silently come up behind her and turned to accept the handkerchief he tentatively offered her, angrily swiping at her face with the silky fabric. 
“I just- cannot believe the nerve-” she said furiously as the nurse opened the door and ushered the two inside.

“I’ll just get an ice pack for that,” the nurse said, motioning to Marinette's quickly bruising face and directing them to seats. He left them alone in the office and Marinette flumped down on a seat and let out a noise of frustration.

“I know,” Felix said in a soothing voice. “I too cannot believe the sheer nerve and idiocy Adrien would require to have said all that he did.” 

Marinette stared straight at him. “We have got to do something about the situation or I will explode.”

“I sincerely do not wish for that, and so… I think there is something concerning the said situation that you should know.”

“What is it?” 

Felix winced. “I cannot exactly tell you here. Can you come to my house? I would be better able to show you there.”#

Marinette tilted her head at him. “...Sure. When?”

“Today?”

“Is 5:00 fine? I need to go home and drop off my books and get changed and stuff first.”

“Certainly. I will text you the location. Here is my number.”
He pulled out a business card with his number on it and handed it to her.

“...Marinette?” He asked when she just blinked at him.

Her face cracked into a smile and she chuckled.
“Where did you get that from?” She asked as she looked him up and down, some of her normal cheer returning to her eyes.

“You just pulled that out of no-where!”

“The same place I stored the handkerchief.” He replied, not understanding her reaction.

“The handkerchief?” Her eyes widened as she stared at the handkerchief he had given her in her fist. “Where did you get that from? You don’t even have pockets!”

The nurse returned and handed Marinette an ice pack.
“You’re free to leave dear. Just take it easy now, okay?”

“Yes, Monsieur. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

He smiled at them and Marinette smiled back as she and Felix left the office to go home.
“A magician never reveals his tricks,” Felix responded.

“Oh come on! You can’t be seriou- Wait, magician?”

“I know a few tricks.”

“Show me,” Marinette demanded with a solemn expression. “This I’ve got to see.”

“I don’t have any cards or such apart from business cards with me now, but I would love to show you when you come by later.”

“It’s a date.”
> Chapter 6: A Plan
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nothing much had changed over the last few days. Twilight bit her lip as she continued taking notes from the scrying mirror. She could see what Lila was doing, it didn’t really take much to see through her endless bouts of manipulation and lies.

So why was everyone else falling for it?

The only solution she could think of was mind magic or something of the sort, and she had a feeling Lila had an aura of magic surrounding her. However, she didn’t know for sure. And she highly doubted magic existed in this world. 

She shook her head and groaned in frustration, “It doesn’t make any sense…”

Rarity carefully approached her, “Darling? I think you should take a break.”

Twilight sighed, “I guess I should... “

Rarity seemed mildly surprised by her lack of protest but quickly hid it beneath a comforting smile. “Let’s have lunch, hm?”

Surprisingly, Felix had managed to produce enough sustenance for all of them from his oversized rich-person food stock for each of them, which they had been grateful for. Twilight especially was grateful for the food, since she sometimes forgot to make herself a meal when involved in a research project.
No one really had many complaints about the salads, sandwiches and other dishes they got each day, with the exception of Pinkie, who was begging for a sugar rush for some reason. 

As she and her friends sat around the table in the attic, another feeling emanated from their faces and postures. Boredom. 

She was reminded of all the times when she was sitting around all day, wishing on shooting stars that she would finally be called to help with a friendship problem. Yet, here she was now. They had been at this for days, with no real progress. She knew physical combat was much more of Rainbow’s style, but she honestly just wanted to kick that Lila girl in the face.

Not that she’d ever actually do it.

Rainbow rubbed her hooves over her face, “You guys feel that feeling of nothingness yet?”

Fluttershy sighed sadly, “Did you find anything Twilight?”

Twilight shook her head, “No. All I can come up with are theories. We’ll need to ask Felix if he can do some 
tests to see if any of them are true.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow, “What kinda tests?”

“Magic tests. Obviously, since he doesn’t have magic, I’ll need to lend him some of my magic to do them.”

Rarity paused, then spoke, “Are… you certain this is the only way we can do this? What about the spell you used to turn us into breezes before? Can’t you use that to turn us into humans or something?”

Rainbow nodded with a hint of annoyance, “Yeah, the one that you didn’t turn us into dragons with!” She huffed, crossing her hooves. 

Twilight rolled her eyes and turned back to face Rarity, “Humans don’t exist in Equestria, as far as we know. To use the spell to transform us into such foreign creatures would require… a lot of modifications. And I don’t have all the resources I need for it. Not to mention it could take weeks or even months, and I don’t think we can afford to be away from Equestria for so long.”

Rarity sighed dramatically in defeat, “I suppose that makes sense.”

“Yeah. I’ll discuss it with Felix later.”

“Discuss what with me later?”

Twilight jumped in surprise, “Felix! Why do you keep walking in like that!?” 

“...I live here.”

“He’s got a point y’know.” Pinkie Pie commented.

“But I am also here to tell you I think it's time we informed Marinette of your involvement in the situation.”

Twilight’s eyes widened, “W-Wha- Bu-”

“I invited her over so she can meet you all.”

Twilight paused. Then she opened her mouth to fill it with the words, “Oh.”

Felix nodded, “Yes.”

“Well then, I don’t really have much to say.” She shrugged, then smiled, “I can’t wait to meet your friend!”

Rarity giggled, “Yes… your friend.” This was followed by a series of snickers around the group of colourful pastel ponies. Though, it seemed that everypony was laughing for completely different reasons.

Rainbow smirked, “You gonna show ‘er your card tricks?”
Felix groaned and rubbed the bridge of his nose with his fingers, “I was planning to show her a few tricks, yes.”

Applejack grinned, “Well then, ya better show us what y’all have up yer sleeve! Ah know Ah’ve been waitin’ to see yer magicking those cards!” She ended with a wink. Felix actually gave a small smile. Twilight could tell it was genuine; it was that same smile he had on his face whenever he was with Marinette.

Fluttershy stepped forward quietly, noticeably much less nervous than when they were first thrust into this world, “You know, Felix, if you’re worried about anything, you can tell us. I know how scary it is to perform something. Especially in front of people you care about.” She smiled sympathetically.

He stuttered momentarily, though Twilight couldn’t imagine why, and quickly recomposed himself, smiling back down at Fluttershy. “Thank you, Fluttershy, but it is not necessary.” He closed his eyes and sighed.

Twilight flew up to his height, grabbing his attention. “You seem very passionate about magic tricks.” She looked away briefly, “I love magic too. Well, not stage magic, that’s Trixie’s thing. But… I get it.” she faced him again, determination and certainty lining her expression, “I think, no, I know that Marinette will like it.” 
Felix gave her a grateful nod for the reassurance. “Trust me, everything will go just fine. I promise.”


***


Felix waited aimlessly around the empty house, waiting for the doorbell to ring when it hit him he had yet to ask his mother if it was okay to have guests over. Cursing internally, Felix pulled out his phone and dialled her number. He hoped she would allow it, or else he would have to introduce the magical horses to Marinette another way. His mother would definitely have allowed guests in their house in England, but he doubted she would for their house in France. It was where they had lived before, where the memories of his father were strongest…

“Hello, Mother.”

“Hi, Felix!” His mother’s cheerful voice called from the phone. “How was school!? How have you been getting along? I'm sorry I didn’t call earlier, I’ve been super busy but I have some time now! In fact, I just need to wrap up a few things and I’ll be back in about a fortnight, sooner if I can. I know you don’t mind, but I hate having to leave you alone all the time, now that your father can’t stay with you.”

“I’m fine mother, school is complicated, but I was just calling you about that. I was wondering if…” he trailed off, unsure how to proceed.

“Yes?”

“I could invite someone over? To show magic tricks to?” Technically, it was true. “She’s very responsible, and I guarantee the house will be left in perfect condition-”

“Felix.” His mother’s voice cut off his rambling and there was a pause before she spoke again. “Did you...make a friend?”

“I think so. She said we are. Twice.”

“You made a fRIEND?????!!!!!! OF COURSE, YOU CAN HAVE HER OVER!!!!!!! I'M SO HAPPY FOR YOU! When's the wedding?”  

“Thank you, Mother. But what was that last part? I didn’t quite catch it.”

“Nothing! Just make sure to invite her over again when I come back so I can meet her too! I love you, bye!”

“Certainly, Mother. Goodbye”

The call cut off, and the doorbell rang.

*** 

“Can I get you anything?” Felix asked Marinette, feeling slightly awkward. “We have tea. Quite a lot of tea.”

“Sure, I love tea! What kinds do you have?”

“Mostly earl grey, but a few other varieties too. Do you have a preference?”

“Earl grey is fine,” she said, smiling.

“I’ll go make some,” he said, backing into the kitchen. “Make yourself comfortable in the living room until then.”

Felix returned minutes later with a tray with a teapot and teacups on it.

“You have a nice house,” Marinette commented, taking a cup and sipping from it. 

“Thank you. The credit goes to my mother though; she designed most of the interior.”

“She did an excellent job, then. But speaking of your mother, where are your parents, Felix? Are they somewhere else in the house?”

“Oh, no, my mother is on a business trip and often leaves me by myself.” At Marinette’s concerned look he hastily added on. “I don’t mind, and she has someone check up on me and drive me to and from school every day.”

Marinette's look of concern lessened somewhat but remained. “Still, you shouldn’t be alone so much. It’s not good for you. Is your father on a business trip, too?” she asked.

Felix stiffened at the mention and managed to choke out an explanation. “No- he- he died a few years ago.”
There was a pregnant pause and Felix looked out the window to the grounds surrounding the house when suddenly Marinette’s arms were around him, pulling him into a tight hug. “I’m so sorry Felix,” She said into his chest.

 Felix just rested his chin on the top of her head, her cinnamon and lavender scent soothing. “It’s okay.” He said, fighting to keep his voice steady. “It happened a long time ago.”

“It’s not fair on you at all. How…?”

“He died of cancer when I was eleven. It’s why we moved from Paris to London; my mother couldn’t bear being here anymore. She’s better now, though. She’s accepted it. So we moved back to France.”

“What about you?” Marinette asked, pulling back from the hug and looking up at him. “How are you coping?”

He averted his eyes. “I- I don’t really want to talk about it.”

“Of course,” Marinette said quickly, expression soft. “But if you change your mind, let me know. I’ll be here.”

“Thank you. So, about your reason for visitation…”

“That thing about the situation with Lila you said you had to show me? What is it?”

“It’s uh, it’s in the attic, so...” They made their way up a twisting staircase to the top of the house, and stopped in front of the attic door. Felix put his hand on the doorknob and began to turn it-   

Suddenly, Marinette’s eyes widened. “Felix did you murder her and stuff her body in your atti-”

“No! Nothing like that! It’s just-”

“Us!” Pinkie pie yelled, bursting through the attic door.

 Marinette screamed. “AH TALKING HORSE! PINK TALKING HORSE! FELIX RUN THE HORSE WILL GET US-”

Pinkie paused and rolled her eyes, “Um, I’m a pony, not a Mare of Diomedes.” Then, with a bounce, she regained her chirp and bubbliness, “I won’t eat you unless you’re cake! Which, last time I checked, you are not!” She ended with a grin. 

Marinette jumped behind Felix and did her best to not fall down the stairs all the way to the bottom floor and took a few short breaths to steady herself.  Felix turned his face away to hide his small amused smile. “I see you’ve met Pinkie Pie.” He said calmly.

“How does a pink talking horse have anything to do with the situation with Lila!” Marinette exclaimed from behind Felix, peeking out over his shoulder.

“That’s the thing.” He tried to explain. “The talking horses do not just talk and be brightly coloured, they are also magic and go around the multiverse solving friendship problems. The situation we are in is a friendship problem, and so they are here to help.”

“Horses?! Plural?!”

“Eeyup.” Applejack said, poking her head out through the doorway. 

Twilight stuck her head out too and smiled. “Nice to finally meet you, Marinette. How about we have this conversation in the attic?”

“How do you know my name?! But besides that, I’m not going into an enclosed space! How do I know you aren’t a serial killer!” 

“Because we aren’t,” Rainbow Dash said in a bored voice. “We’re ‘spirits’ of friendship here to help you or whatever we’re supposed to do. We’ve been here so long I barely remember life back in Equestria.”

Fluttershy, who was hiding behind Rainbow quietly mumbled, “Rainbow, it’s been five days.” to which Rainbow groaned.

“All of you stop, immediately.” Rarity said, pushing everyone back into the attic. “You’re scaring her.”
Rarity turned to look at Marinette. “You are a designer, are you not?” She asked in a gentle voice. At Marinette’s shaky nod she continued in a calming voice, “I am, too. And on the designer's code, I swear that my friends and I intend no harm, and sincerely want to help you.”  She held out one perfectly polished hoof to Marinette, who tentatively accepted it with her own hand and the two walked into the attic like that, Felix following after.

The rest of the mane six stood at a distance to Marinette, and she watched them warily before she took a deep breath and she looked at them. “This ‘spirits of friendship’ thing,” she said. “Explain.”
“Gladly,” Twilight said with a smug expression, levitating the fully produced presentation she had prepared for this moment...


*** 

“So basically you come from an alternate universe called Equestria where the dominant species is not humans but a variety of mythical creatures and you are all magic and live in a magic world where a magic map made a magic portal and magically transported you to here to help me with your magic, magically?” Marinette glanced at all the ponies as Twilight finished her speech.

“That’s ‘bout it.” Applejack nodded. 

“Yep, but I don’t think you used the word magic enough times.” Rainbow Dash deadpanned. Fluttershy gently chastised her to be nicer. 

Marinette ignored her and wrapped her arms around herself. “So magic is real. Wow! Real-life magic! Magic magic magic magic...” she said, more to herself than anyone in particular. She looked up as a new thought entered her mind. “I have one question.”

“Yes… What’s your question?” Twilight probed.

Marinette turned and looked up at Felix, “Did you spike my tea and this is all a really complex hallucination?”

Felix’s eyes blew wide. “Of course not-”

“We’re real,” Rainbow Dash cut in, “Pinkie, tell her.”

Pinkie stood up and walked over to Marinette, enough seriousness lining her brow to make Felix stutter, “Tell me, do you have magical jewellery that you and your former crush use to save Paris from the evil butterfly guy?” She leaned in conspiratorially.

Marinette leaned back, “...No?”

Pinkie reverted her head back to its starting point and gasped, “Oh. Yeah, then you’re totally hallucinating!”

“WHAT!?”

Twilight rolled her eyes, “No, don’t listen to her. When you do, hallucinating or not, you feel like you’re in a fever dream. Trust me, and don’t question her. Ever.” She sighed, “And I can assure you that you’re not hallucinating.”

Marinette raised her eyebrow, “That’s exactly what a hallucination would say.”

“Wha- I- Ugh.”

Felix snickered in his mind at their antics, seconds away from his straight face cracking as he tried to mediate the situation. 

“Even if they are hallucinations, they wish to help us and have the means to solve our ‘friendship problem’. And if I’m real enough to spike your tea, then I’m real, and I assure you, so are they.” Marinette peered at him through her lashes, her blue eyes scanning his face with apprehension. “I am aware I am not making the most sense right now, but please trust me.” 

Indecision wavered on her face until Marinette sighed and met his eyes. “ Okay. I trust you.” 
She then turned to the ponies, “So you said you're gonna help with the situation with Lila? How? I don’t know what to do myself. My everything still hurts from when I got dodgeballed today.” 

Rainbow took a double-take, “Dodgeballed? What?”

Applejack raised her eyebrow, “Were ya not payin’ attention or somethin’?”

She paused, “...Eheh… no. I wasn’t.” 

“Basically, as part of her regime to make my life miserable, Lila convinced some of our class to throw dodgeballs at me. Repeatedly.” 

Rainbow grimaced and looked over to Marinette, “Sheesh, what is with that girl and her minions. Dodgeballs? I thought you went to school, not war.”

Marinette sighed, “I suppose it is war, and I know who's losing. There’ll be bruises everywhere on me by tomorrow.” 

“Oh,” a small voice exclaimed,” that’s terrible. Uh I-I could help with that. If you wanted ?” A timid pink haired pony mumbled towards the end, seemingly shrinking into herself. 

Marinette’s eyes widened. “Really? How?” 
Fluttershy gestured for the girl to sit down on one of the slightly dusty straight-backed chairs scattered around the attic. She shyly shuffled over to Marinette and stopped a foot away, silently asking for permission that she received a second later in the form of a nod. Marinette closed her eyes and felt a coolness against her skin, resisting the urge to open her eyes- there was only so much crazy a girl could process in one day.

“Y-You can open your eyes now, Miss .” 

“Call me Marinette,” she said almost reflexively, gasping as she opened her eyes at the lack of pain that she had become somewhat accustomed to in the last hours. She turned to Fluttershy, eyes wide, “ H- How did you- actually don’t answer that, just thank you so very much! “

Rainbow grinned proudly at her foalhood friend, “That’s Flutters, alright. Spreading kindness even to absolute strangers.”

Pinkie laughed and hugged the soft pegasus, “So kind, she’ll melt your heart within seconds of meeting her! Like she did to me! And Rarity! And Applejack! And probably Rainbow! And- wait I guess not really Twilight, she was just annoyed. BUT WE’RE ALL BESTIES NOW!”

A fierce blush decorated the pony’s yellow coat as she ducked, hiding behind the curtain of pink hair, “I-It was n-nothing, really. Just some magic anaesthetic that Zecora helped me make in case of emergencies...” Twilight chose this moment to interrupt, drawing the attention away from Fluttershy, receiving a grateful smile from her.  

“Now that that’s all cleared up, Marinette, we need your help. After intense observation I have noted that we have reason to believe Lila Rossi has…” she took a breath“ magic.” she then continued quickly before Marinette could get a word in, “But I’m not a hundred percent sure and we are going to need a personal item of hers so I can run some tests on it and see if I can detect anything. Something she keeps close to her person, like hair ties.”

Felix watched as a sly smile stretched across Marinette's usually innocent face. “How about a necklace?” she asked demurely.

“Yes, that's perfect! A necklace will have had a chance to absorb any magical energies and will be the perfect subject for tests-”

Rarity cut off Twilight’s excited ramble. “But it’s a necklace. It’s not like you can just snatch it off her.”

A mischievous glint came to Marinette’s eyes. “Oh, you’d be surprised.”

“...Yes, I don’t think I’ll question that.” Rarity said. “As long as you can obtain something for Twilight to test, however, we won't scrutinise your methods.”

“Don’t worry; give me a few days and I'll get Lila’s necklace.”

Twilight nodded. “Good. But until we next regroup, there are a few other things the two of you can do.”

At Felix and Marinette’s nod, Twilight continued. “I noticed before the unfortunate incident that occurred in your gym lesson, Marinette, you said people in other classes haven’t yet met Lila?”

Marinette frowned slightly. “Yes, but how did you know that?”

Applejack coughed slightly. “We were, uh, we were spy- Ah mean scrying on you.”

“You were wHAT-”

“Ehehe... just a simple observation spell to see how things were going,” Twilight said, not making eye contact.

Marinette turned to Felix. “Did you know about this?!” She asked angrily.

“Yes, but I only just found out this morning.” He placated. “It’s part of why I arranged this meeting; so you too could be aware. But besides, it’s not like we can stop them; they have magic.”

Applejack sighed guiltily, “Yeah, Ah know it wasn’t really honest. But ya can rest assured that we didn’t have no bad intentions.” 

Marinette muttered irately under her breath but eventually conceded. “Okay, as long as next time you tell me… and Felix, first. Anyway yes, Lila hasn’t had the chance to expand her domain to other classes yet so the only people who aren't her minions are people from there, and… Chloe.”

Rainbow Dash perked her head from the corner of the room. “Hold on, isn’t that the blond one with a head practically congealed with hair-spray?”

Felix grimaced. “The very same. From what I remember of her from when I used to live in Paris, she hasn’t changed much. Certainly just as stuck up, but perhaps being replaced as queen bee by Lila has taught her a few things. For example, she does not appear to be taken in by the lies, from what I’ve observed.”

Marinette nodded. “Chloe Bourgeois is a spoiled brat who always gets her way because her dad’s the mayor of Paris and the only reason she isn’t another human subjugate is that she’s so pig-headed.”

“She is indeed one of the most tenastic people I know, and though she could be a potential ally in this fight with Lila, I could not stand to hear her speak for a second before my brain melted from vexation and poured out from my ears.” Felix continued.

“That’s very true,” Marinette agreed, “Chloe’s almost as bad as that witch and I sincerely hope I never have to interact with her ever again-”

“Too bad!” Rainbow Dash interjected. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend or something like that, I don’t know I don’t do philosophy but anyway, from what you said she has power so it would be very dumb of you to not take this opportunity”

“But-” Felix and Marinette both started.

“You know darlings, you don’t just have to make friends with this Chloe,” Rarity soothed with a placating voice.”You are also gathering allies from other classes. Make friends there first, and see what you can do about Mlle. Bourgeois along the way.”

Marinette made a face. “I suppose so. Is there anything else?”

Twilight nodded hesitantly. “Yes, actually. I’ve been… reluctant to do this, but it has been a few eventful days, and from what we observed, you’re both good people.”

Marinette raised her eyebrow, “Thank… you?”

Twilight smiled and nodded, slowly relaxing as she continued, “The experiments with her necklace are going to help determine exactly what kind of magic she has if she has any. But that will be a long and arduous process. I need something that can be done to determine that she has magic in the first place. I need to be there in person with her to be able to do it, but it will only take a few minutes.”

Felix eyed her sceptically, “I am not sure that that is the best course of action.”

Pinkie rolled her eyes, bouncing in front of Twilight before the alicorn could reply, “Wel duhhhhhhhhh, which is why she’s giving you her magic!”

Marinette gaped at her, “Bu- Wha- uhhhhh- huh?”

Twilight groaned and shook her head, “Pinkie, you should really stop doing that. I’m tired of people interrupting my fully planned, written and memorised speeches.” She crossed her hooves and huffed.

Rainbow gave her a look, “Wait, that was memorised?”

“Of course it was! Anyway,” She performed the breathing exercise that Cadence had taught her, “It’s not all of my magic but a fraction of it. I’ll teach you how to use it, don’t worry. But let’s regroup as soon as you get the necklace. I’ll give you my magic then and train you properly on how to use it. Just remember to bring a piece of jewellery that you can wear to access the magic.”

“Sure,” Marinette said turning around, the fact that she was going to use magic not completely sinking in, “In fact, if that’s all, I’ll just go no- Woah!” Her foot caught on the leg of the piano pressed against the wall and tripped over.
Shaking off concern, Marinette got up and dusted herself off. “Ahem. Sorry about that, I’m fine. This is a very um, cool piano you have, Felix.”

“It is of good quality,” Rarity nodded in acknowledgement while running a hoof over the polished surface. “Wherever did you acquire such a thing?”

Felix smiled sadly, a bit more comfortable with opening up with his new acquaintance- friends. If… the candy-coloured horses did consider him a friend, of course. He walked up to the piano, nostalgia and memories of bygone times lingering in his eyes. “Adrien's parents gave it to mine for a wedding gift. My parents didn't use it much but Adrien and I used to play it all the time together.”

Rainbow flew up to meet Felix’s eye-level, shocked, “Wait, you and that blonde-haired pretty-boy were close!?”

“Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy sternly chastised, to which Rainbow slowly flew back down to the floor of the attic with an apologetic expression.

Felix shook his head, “It is fine. Yes, we were close. The closest, in fact. Our mothers are twins so we are nearly identical.” He briefly glanced at the photo album lying a few feet away from earlier. “It was useful in magic tricks and tricking adults. He was my…”

Twilight stepped forward tentatively, “Friend?”

Felix looked at her and nodded, “I suppose we were… friends.”

Marinette sat down on the piano seat, studying the keys. After a few moments, she looked back at Felix, “What… What happened to you two?”

Felix lowered his gaze to his feet.  He seemed to be attempting to twist his hands off. He took a calming breath before saying “ H-He didn't come to my fathers funeral. Then I moved to England and we just lost touch. We have scarcely spoken since then.”

Applejack sat on her haunches, listening with a knowing, yet sad expression, “And… that’s why y’all  moved to ‘England’, ain’t it?” 

Felix flashed her a pained look, “T-That was probably accurate,” he seemed to withdraw into himself, his face haunted, probably recounting a million memories in his mind’s eye. Marinette walked to the boy and lay a hand on his shoulder, she then guided him to the piano stool.

“Hey. Does the great, multi-talented Felix play the piano, or did he admit defeat to the keys?” she chuckled, knowing full and well what answer she was about to receive. When they were downstairs she had seen many certificates and photos of Felix, with the piano.

“Absolutely not! I have not spent hours upon hours toiling away with my archaic instructor to merely succumb to defeat!” Marinette sitting beside him on the piano stool and the main six gathered around, Felix flexed his fingers once before starting to play the first few bars of Clair de lune. 
His hands flattered slightly when he heard a beautiful voice overlapping the music whispering a haunting melody. The music slowed and quietened to compliment the chanter. 
Applejack now sat in the hammock close to the piano, eyes closed and seemingly unaware that she was singing. Her warm, honey-filled voice adorned the words with familiarity. 






“Moonlight fills the sky 


As angels whisper lullabies 


And stars come out to dance around


 the milky way. 



“While streams of moonbeams


Chase away 


The light of day”


Soon, Fluttershy and Rarity had joined in, their sopranos harmonising with the orange mare’s tenor.


“Moonbeams paint your dreams


Radiant moonbeams 


Somehow seem to 


gently break through the


Deepest darkness…”



A calm had descended over the eight friends, as they forgot their worries for a few minutes and just let the music take them.


***