Discord is ruler of Equestria, Fluttershy is his royal advisor, Sombra is a prince, and Princess Cadance is Sunburst’s - the Element of Magic’s - mentor. What could possibly go wrong?
The series stars a unicorn pony named Sunburst, a student of Lord Discord - the ruler of the magical land of Equestria - and Princess Cadance. The princess gives Sunburst the task of learning about friendship and invites him and his assistant, a baby dragon named Ember, to the newly-refound Crystal Empire. There, they meet some interesting ponies, including action-loving Shining Armor, fainéant Zephyr Breeze, hard-working Big Mac, amiable Soarin, and hyperactive Cheese Sandwich. Together, they go on adventures, solve various problems, and learn about the magic of friendship. Or, rather, broship.
Original draft here on Tumblr, but checking it out won’t affect the story much. Posted to Fimfiction after curiosity arose from this piece that exists in the AU.
Additional characters (not in the tags): Shining Armor, Ember, Princess Cadance, Discord, King Sombra, Mane 6, Daybreaker, Fluttershy, Moondancer, Twilight Sparkle, Flash Sentry, Cheerilee, Nightmare Moon
Updates are guaranteed to be slow. I’ll be covering the most changed episodes of FiM in this book. If you have a suggestion that you’d like to see, which I decide can’t be summarised in just a single comment, I’ll write it (so long as the story is tagged Ongoing).
“Once upon a time, in a land called Equestria,” started a low, aged voice. The narrator, a male by the sound of things, spoke slowly and calmly, accompanied by the tapestry of a cloudy blue sky, the white clouds parting to reveal two winged unicorns upon an even larger cloud, each looking over the land. The narrator seemed to know what he was doing. “There were two alicorn sisters who ruled together-- I’m sorry, but how are Lulu and Cay-Cay sisters? They look nothing alike!”
The debonair, diligent air of the narration was vanquished by a figurative flick of a figurative switch, replaced by an overexcited complaint. The shift in tone almost changed the voice completely, from aged and wise to a whiny foal in a matter of nanoseconds.
“I mean,” the narrator settled for a moment, as if to take it all in, “how do pony genetics even work? Take a load of Big Mac!”
The tapestry-styled image made an extremely quick, two second long swiping transition to a farm, where an old, harlequin green mare sat on a rocking chair, overlooking apple trees and three other ponies. The largest was a stallion, bright red with a shaggy mane the colour of the single straw of hay he supped on.
The next was a mare, with golden hair and an orange coat. Ironic, considering that it seemed as though they were all apple farmers. She wore a hat that, in colour, matched the red stallion’s work collar. The final pony was a foal, with a creamy coat - the lightest out of the three - with a mane and tail so apple-coloured that it rivalled the stallion’s coat.
“Come on!” exclaimed the narrator, “it’s complete and utter chaos! And believe me, I know a thing or two about chaos!”
He was right. The only similarities between the small family of four ended with the amber eyes (represented as simple one-colour circles by the art style) on the foal and the old mare on the rocking chair’s undrawn faces, and the green eyes and white freckles on the younger mare and stallion’s.
“Oh, I get it! Red and yellow make orange, so AJ’s orange because she’s the middle foal. That doesn’t- that’s not how-”
“Discord...” another voice warned, somewhat playfully. The voice was soft and feminine, with the vowels drawn out just a little more than the consonants.
“Right, right! The story.” The image slid up into the sky with one simple transition, returning to the two winged sisters on their cloud pedestal. “Very well, Fluttershy, dear. You know what? As I’ve always said, what fun is there in making sense? Phew, thanks Fluttershy! I think ruling Equestria after all these years has gotten to me a little bit.”
“Do you need to lie down?” the second voice (now known as ‘Fluttershy’) asked, only half teasing.
“No, no! I’ve got it.” the narrator, Discord, dismissed her worry. “Where were we? Oh! Right. The sisters created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her- ‘unicorn powers’? Seriously? Who wrote this!?”
“Discord!”
Discord sighed. “I know, I know.” He resumed: “The eldest used her unicorn powers,” he said the words with disdain, before continuing on with the tone he had begun his narration with; the image changed as he did so, morphing to illustrate his every word. “-to raise the sun at dawn.”
“The younger,” the darker of the two sisters was shown, “brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters succeeded to maintain balance for their kingdom, which consisted of an array of pretty, prissy ponies-”
“Dis-cord!” Fluttershy cut across. “If you can’t be trusted to tell the story properly, then maybe you should just sit this one out!”
“But-” the ghostly chime of magic was heard, and almost immediately Discord relented. “Ugh, fine. Have it your way, my dear.”
“Thank you.” she said, before clearing her throat. “Over time, however, the sisters found that their respective roles were much more worthy of their subjects’ love than others. With the eldest giving her sunlight for her subjects’ crops to grow, the younger spent most of the night protecting them from bad dreams.
“However, with harmony and light comes chaos and darkness,” thunder cracked, and over black rocky mountains came a creature made of different animals on all fours, his eagle claw gripping onto the rock tightly, “and through a storm of dark liquorice cotton candy clouds and chocolate rain, came a draconequus that went by the name of Discord.”
“That looks nothing like me!” Discord interjected. “I mean, I know how hard it must be to capture my true handsomeness, but they could have at least tried!”
“As I was saying...” Fluttershy said. “He called himself the Spirit of Disharmony, and planned on ruling Equestria all on his own. His power bested the two sisters, and he shrouded the land in pure chaos.”
Multicoloured checkered floors were shown, with pink clouds dotted around a pale green sky. The draconequus was draped horizontally over a floating throne, holding an open bag of black seeds and a glass of chocolate milk. A cackle echoed to underline the scene.
“The youngest sister proposed that they use the Elements of Harmony on Discord to take their land back. And so, the two sisters set out to find the Elements. They journeyed long and hard for over a decade, before bringing back the Elements to Equestria to set the spirit into stone.
“The chaos was gone, and harmony was restored. But, with harmony soothing the land of Equestria once again, chaos was sure to return, for one could not survive without the other.
“Soon, the younger sister became resentful as the eldest basked in the praise of their subjects for vanquishing the disorderly beast-”
“Now that was uncalled for!”
“-when it was her idea to use the Elements of Harmony from old legend. They started to compliment the sunny day that her sister brought forth, and shunned any respect for her beautiful night.
“One fateful day, the younger sister refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her-”
“And by ‘reason’ you mean ‘banish to the moon’!” Discord interrupted yet again, clearly amused with himself. “Celestia never could take any criticism! Even from her own sister.”
“Discord!” Fluttershy said. “I thought I was telling the story.”
“Fine, then, Fluttershy. You may proceed.” His words weren’t exactly the most credible.
“But, the bitterness in the younger sister’s heart had transformed her into a terrifying mare of darkness.” Fluttershy sounded a bit scared herself. “N-Nightmare Moon.” A throaty female’s cackle broke free this time, punctuating Nightmare Moon’s dark appearance. “D..Discord?”
“Oh, for the love of all things Chaos. You know what? I’ll take over.” He made a show of clearing his throat. “She vowed that she would blanket the land in an eternal night! Reluctantly, the eldest sister harnessed the most powerful magic she knew would cure the lack of harmony bestowed upon Equestria once again. The Elements... of Harmony. Blegh.
“Using the power of the Elements, she banished her sister permanently to the moon. At first, the elder sister took on the responsibility of raising both sun and moon, but soon fell to the darkness that her sister had once surrendered to. She became a mare of flame, and made known to the land that she, Daybreaker, showed no mercy upon those ready to defy her.
“The sister exiled the dawn and brought forth a day that she promised to never end. With Equestria overpowered by extreme heat for long over a decade, most water sources ran dry, starting a drought that would inevitably bring forward the end of all of ponykind.
“A race known as the shadow ponies soon became endangered from the lack of darkness to dwell in. The last of the kind, a shadow unicorn by the name of Sombra, rose in search of help in hopes of restoring harmony.”
Atop a green hill stood a dark grey unicorn with his head turned backwards. His mane and tail were both wavy and black; his eyes were vivid green, and around his neck was a thick, murky blue scarf illustrated as if it was blowing in the wind. On his flank were a triad of dark crystals for a cutie mark.
“He banded together a group of six ponies to bring friendship back to Equestria. Once formed, the group of six journeyed to find the Elements of Harmony with Sombra as their guide, before they turned to Daybreaker, hoping to defeat her. They succeeded by turning her into marble, but soon found that the moon couldn’t break past the everlasting day.
“The much more intellectual of the two unicorns of the group stepped forward, volunteering to use her magic to raise the moon and lower the sun. She tried, but found that her mortal power was not enough to do so. Together, she and the other unicorn tried, but even their magic combined failed.
“Despite her friends’ warnings, the meekest of the group approached the most powerful - and devilishly handsome, if I do say so myself! - being known to all of history. After releasing him from his stony prison, the pegasus sought to befriend him, for her kindness rivalled all of Equestria.
“After some time, the Spirit of Disharmony and killer comedy released his hold on Equestria to heed to the pony’s wishes, for she had succeeded in her task of making him a friend, and not a foe. In return for raising the sun and moon when needed, he was granted asylum in Equestria’s castle, with permissions to change the interior to his liking. Oh- and the kind pony as his royal advisor.
“For their heroism, Sombra and the six were each knighted by vote of the ponocracy, and Equestria’s harmony seemed set in stone by order of friendship for good...
“Darkness’ return was long overdue.”
Two moons later
By moonlight, Prince Sombra paced his large bedroom in Canterlot castle, growling to himself. His head was down, his eyes glowed, his mane and tail acted like ribbon in a breeze from the power that usually coursed through him.
“It can’t be,” he muttered to himself, his voice husky, “how can it be?”
A shimmer caught his eyes from outside his tall bedroom window just as he turned his back on it. He whipped around to get another look. Found on the night’s horizon, lit by moonlight, was a glittering object, starting from the ground and stretching into the air. From where he stood it was small because of the great distance between. If anything, it shouldn’t have been visible at all.
“Can it be?” Sombra breathed, the hot air fogging a small part of his window.
“Go to it,” a grungy voice said from the shadows collected in the corner of the room. “It calls thy name.”
“My name...” Sombra, agape, could merely parrot what he had been told. “My name.”
“Yesss.” the shadows called. “Thou know what it is! Get it! Get it...”
Sure enough, the grey-coated prince found himself in the castle’s east wing - the astronomer's unit - to catch a better look north with one of the telescopes. The answer to Sombra’s suspicion was both mouthwatering and rattling.
The shadow stallion stepped away from the telescope and licked his lips with his long serpent-like tongue. Behind him was a cloud of darkness. The shadows from his room. “Go to it. Thy highness deserves his reward.”
Sombra’s fangs were bared at the thought. He licked the dripping saliva away with a small slurp before shaking his head, snapping himself out of his small trance. “No.” He rasped. “I-”
“I hast the power to taketh thou,” whispered the coarse voice of the shadows. “Let me taketh thou. Thou can have it all...”
There was hesitation on Sombra’s behalf. He looked back through the telescope for a moment. He sighed in delight at the sight of the sparkling crystals up north. Suddenly, all of his doubt melted away into ambition. A twisted ambition. Ambition was something he had never felt in years.
Sombra steadied his stance with his four legs set apart. His chest was puffed out, and a stern expression tattooed itself onto his dark grey face. In a flash of blackness, purple, black, and bright green circles bubbled off of his horn like poison. His dark magic summoned dark matte crystals identical to rocks, almost.
“Yessss,” the shadow chanted slowly, “yeeesss.”
The crystals split through the balcony and castle tower, adorning the outside and making their way downwards towards the ground down below. The dark magic stopped. Then, two unwavering words came from Sormbra’s mouth like a verbal incantation.
“Hm,” hummed Sunburst, flipping onto his back and tapping his chin with a hoof. “Elements of Harmony? Never heard of those before.” With his magic, he stuffed some potato chips into his mouth. “Ember! C-Could you-” his glasses slid down his face, so he pushed this back up again, “check the Canterlot Library for the Elements of Harmony, please?”
Ember passed by Sunburst’s bed, on which he lay, with a white towel around her body and another over her shoulder. She was brushing her teeth with a red toothbrush, which matched her bored, lidded eyes. “You do it.” She said simply, somewhat passive-aggressively, and that was that.
“Hey, Sunburst!” Twinkleshine, a white unicorn with a fluffy pink mane, greeted. The cloaked stallion simply trotted passed, head in his levitated book with a barely audible response.
The yellow unicorn next to her was the next to call him. “Sunburst! Hey! You coming home for Starlight’s birthday tomorro...oooow..?” she trailed off the second she saw that Sunburst had disappeared.
Ember, who had been on the unicorn stallion’s back for the entire trip to the library, finally spoke once her feet were both on the ground again. “Aren’t we, you know... getting them anything? For their party, I mean.”
Sunburst didn’t even look at the cerulean baby dragon as he put the book he had been reading back in one of the saddlebags under his cloak. “Party? W- I, uh- What party?”
“The one those girls were going to?” she said dubiously, scratching the back of her scaly head. “Twilight’s I think they said?”
“E, E, Eeeee...” he drawled, barely paying her any mind as he flipped through a book. “Nope!” The aforementioned book was tossed over his shoulder and into Ember.
The baby dragon groaned and rubbed her head. She turned to him with narrowed pupils. “Hey, jerkface! Watch it!”
Sunburst muttered a curt sorry Ember, and then used his magic to twirl a selection of open books in a circle over his head (tilted forward a smidge so he could view their contents). “E...” he muttered, “E, E-L? Elements- I, ugh!” He pranced on the spot antsily, before tossing his ring of books over his shoulder one by one, each hitting Ember back to the floor.
By the time the little blue dragon got back to her feet, smoke was coming out of her nose. Her face went purple for a second as she clenched her fists and puffed out her cheeks. Her tongue lolled out of her mouth as she released the tight breath that she kept in, her purple face returning to its usual shade of sky blue. She was calm, until another book hit her directly in the face.
“Sunbuuuurst!”
The smoke that had filled the room had caught the unicorn’s attention, and he turned with wide eyes to the source. “Ember! How many times have I told you, not to breathe fire or smoke in the Canterlot Library! You might burn some valuable information!”
Ember growled. “I wouldn’t have to if you didn’t keep throwing things at me, jerk!”
Sunburst turned away from the second window he had just opened to peer at the collection of books scattered on the floor around her. “Which reminds me! Could you- uh,” he gave a sheepish grin, pushing his glasses back up his striped nose, “pick, I, uh- pick those up for me? Please?”
“No.” came the blunt response. “What you’re looking for-”
“The Elements of Harmony.”
“Right.” Ember showed very little amusement. “Is probably going to be in the Magical Historical Artifacts of Lost Equestrian Culture in the Lifespan of Lord Discord.” She pointed over her shoulder with her right thumb. “What you’re looking at is the Magical Historical Artifacts of Old Equestrian Culture in the Lifespan of Lord Discord.”
Sunburst merely blinked, before chuckling sheepishly and averting his gaze. “How could I forget! Wait until Headmare Twilight hears about this!”
“She’d wish she was deaf.” Ember grumbled, before turning to spot the stallion pulling out a book from the top shelf of the section that she had guided him to.
“Aha!” Sunburst exclaimed after flicking through the pages. He set the leatherbound book on a lectern and started reading. He blinked after a second with a shocked expression. “E-Ember! Come- Come quick!”
“What?” Ember rushed over, wide eyed, and watched with Sunburst as piece by piece and page by page, the contents of the book disappeared with sharp rips until the cover was baron. “What the-”
“Mm! Mm!” The two turned to see a snaggletoothed creature with body parts of several animals (an eagle here, a lion there, dragon in some parts and a bit of pony in the next) sitting mid air with a fork in one hand and a bowl of paper in the other. He was eating it like... like... “I do love a good salad, don’t you?” asked Discord with a mischievous grin.
“You- you just-” Sunburst was at a loss for words.
“Dry?” Ember grimaced, clearly having not joined two and two together.
“Why,” Discord grabbed a bottle of ink from one of the writing desks close by, “now that I think of it...” he squirted it as if it was rubber and not glass. With every pump ink squirted into his ‘salad’ until it blew a raspberry at him to show that it had been emptied. “I do like a lot of dressing!” He sprinkled some scraps of satin and lacy frills into the bowl by just rubbing his paw’s digits together. He continued eating once his fork reappeared.
Sunburst was shocked. “L-Lord Discord! Why? Why did you just-” the Lord of Chaos dabbed at his pointed lips with a paper napkin once his bowl was empty. “Isn’t that also paper?”
“Hm? Point taken!” The napkin soon became a nice last addition to his meal.
“My lord,” Sunburst briefly bowed, “with-” he fixed his glasses with his golden magic aura, “all due respect, why did you eat the book that I wanted to read?”
In a flash, all objects that Discord held had vanished, and the draconequus now had his clawed arm around the unicorn, pulling him close. “Just between you and me, Sunshoes,” he said, “Fluttershy told me that you haven’t been getting out much. Friendships are important, and you’ve got-” Discord pulled away, counted on his fingers and muttered dim witted mathematical-sounding phrases like ‘add the one’, ‘carry the two’, and the like, before he threw his hands up in a shrug, “-well, you live a pretty sad life. So, we’re - and by we I mean I - here to watch you bloom!”
In one quick motion, Discord now held a baseball bat and bowled a ball into the air. It went into the air, towards the domed ceiling of the Library (which Sunburst was sure seemed higher than normal, and continued higher and higher because of Discord’s discord-magic) until it suddenly started to drop like a stone.
However, before the ball could hit cowering Sunburst in the face, it blossomed into a pink lotus flower and drifted onto his nose like a feather. It suddenly exploded with a poof and Sunburst sneezed at the sudden pile of petals (and explosion of pollen) on his face and mane. By the time he stood and patted himself down, Discord’s props had vanished.
“Pack up your bags, Sunshine! You’re headed to the refound Crystal Empire for the Crystal Faire!”
“WHAT!?”
Discord snapped his fingers, and in a flash, Sunburst and Ember were back in their chambers. The second they were gone, and he was alone, the draconequus’ arms dropped to his side and his grin fell. “I really do hate salad.”
On the train to the north tundra, Ember held up a letter to read to Sunburst, who sulked with his head on his forelegs on the narrow windowsill. “Okay,” he sighed, “now you can read it.”
“Dear Sunburst,” she started, “I am grateful for your visit. Although there is more to a young pony’s life than studying, it does not hurt to know as much as you possibly can. I know somepony who was like you, once. Who, but your own Headmare Twilight Sparkle!- Ugh, why are all ponies’ names so... sappy?”
Sunburst shot her a glare.
“Alright, alright. Sheesh. Ahem... She was sent by her mentor to make friends, and now she’s blossomed more than ever! I’m excited to have you supervise the first Crystal Faire’s preparation. I’m sure the Empire would love to see a friendly face after their millennium disappearance. But, Lord Discord and I have an even more essential task for you to complete: make some friends!”
Sunburst groaned, and buried his head deeper into his forelimbs.
“With lots of love from, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.” Ember finished before turning the scroll around, frowning. “P.S. Call me Cadance. All my friends do. Ugh.” she rolled her eyes, her tone flat. “P.P.S. I know Twilight from my foalsitting days. You and her really have so much in common.”
“That’s why she’s my tutor.” Sunburst grumbled, putting one of his white hooves and face together.
“Hey,” Ember rolled up the scroll and placed a claw onto Sunburst’s shoulder. He looked over at her. “Look on the bright side, Sunburst. The Princess and Royal Advisor planned for you to stay in a nice bungalow to yourself with plenty of books. Doesn’t that make you happy... or, uh, something?” her smile had faded and she had looked up to retract her claw and roll it with the palm faced up as she spoke.
Sunburst shot up, taking the dragon by surprise. “Y-Yeah! Yes, Ember,” he fixed his glasses with a hoof, “why yes it does. I’ll read up on the Elements of Harmony and find out why Lord Discord ate all there is to know about them!”
“But when will you complete your little side quest?” The train halted. “Y’know, like the Princess said.”
“She said to check on preparations.” Sunburst said once the two were outside at the train station, dressed for the colder weather. “And I’ll do my duty.”
They entered the Empire after a gust of snow obstructed the camera angle.
“But the fate of Equestria does not rely on me making friends.” Sunburst proclaimed.
“Don’t jinx yourself,” Ember muttered.
Sunburst, using his magic, pulled out a scroll from his saddlebags under his navy cloak. He unravelled it and skimmed through all the way to the bottom. “Okay, it says here that the first thing on the list is the weather.” The two started walking through town.
“Hey, how about over there.” Ember pointed to a cloud that held a dozing pale blue pegasus stallion on his front, cheek pressed against his forelegs. Despite the one he was napping (and snoring, and drooling) on, the sky was clear.
“Um,” Sunburst fixed his glasses before he and Ember shared a momentary look. “Hello?” He peered at his scroll. “S-Soarin, is it? Soarin?”
“H-” the pegasus snorted, bright green eyes opened, “Huh? Huh! Huh?” He looked around, each movement of his head like quickfire. His eyes slowly met them, he finally checked to see who had been calling him. “Oh, hey little stallion!” He fluttered down to greet them. Upon noticing Ember, his smile faded. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
“Oh, no! I’m a student of Lord Discord…’s Royal Advisor’s... friend.”
“Who, as we all know, runs everything under Lord Discord because he couldn’t care less about education.” Ember chimed in. She looked up, and the second she saw Soarin’s face, her eyes turned into love hearts and her feet left the ground.
“Yes, thank you, Ember,” Sunburst muttered. Upon seeing Soarin’s taken aback expression, the unicorn averted his gaze with a sheepish grin. “Yeah. He sent me here to make sure the Faire was all organised.”
“Soarin...” Ember said absentmindedly, still afloat. Noticing her expression made Soarin feel a little awkward.
The sunny yellow unicorn looked up at the sky and adjusted his glasses. “But, I see you have it covered, so we’ll be going now. Bye.” As he and Ember turned to leave (Ember much more hesitantly than the unicorn, with love hearts fading in her eyes as she turned), Sunburst was irritated to find that Soarin was calling them back.
“Hey! Hey, dude! Dragon-dude!”
Ember sighed and muttered under her breath. “I’ll take it.”
“What?!”
Soarin grinned sheepishly; he scratched the back of his head with his hoof as he started following the two from the air. Sunburst, with an annoyed and half-lidded expression, dragged Ember along with his magic before placing her on his back.
“You’re working under Discord?” Soarin asked, smiling. “You must be real talented to get into his schooling program. I hear he’s not that easy to impress...”
“Uh-huh.” Sunburst assented, nodding dryly. “You, uh- You heard correctly.” With his magic, he readjusted Ember on his back.
“Whose class you in? Wow, I can’t believe you’re studying under Discord! The Discord! I’m surprised that the Lord of Chaos even has a school! How talented are you really? Come on! Tell me!”
“I- I’d rather not.” as he walked, Sunburst pushed glasses up his nose as he walked, his whole body taught and head low. “What’s it to you, anyway?”
“Oh, I- uh, I’ve got this unicorn friend whose sister teaches there. So, who you under?”
Sunburst huffed haughtily.
Ember was much more willing to respond, her eyes glued on Soarin. “Comet Tail’s!”
Soarin paused for a brief moment. “So your knowledge is better than your skill! Ha! I like it!” He calmed down after receiving a side-eyed glare from Sunburst. “’Cause, y’know, you’d be too overpowered, then, right? After what I’ve heard over the years, too much power can lead to weird life choices, man. The less you’ve got, the better. Ya get me?”
Sunburst feigned thought for a second. “N-No, I-I don’t think I do.”
The two stopped in front of a green house made out of crystal; the oddly shaped roof was orange, and there were ivory steps leading to the door. Sunburst turned and looked up at Soarin, still a little vexed if anything. “Look, I don’t know what a pegasus like- like yourself knows so much about unicorn magic - never mind a magic school, for unicorns - but...”
Soarin frowned.
Sunburst inhaled and exhaled. “I appreciate you-” he used air-quotes with one hoof, “-‘walking me home’, but I’m going to hit the hay early. See you, uh, Soarin.” Sunburst headed inside. Once he knew that Soarin had gone, he continued about town with Ember by his side.
“I still don’t see why we had to ditch Soarin like that,” said Ember, frowning. “You did wake him up from his nap. And he was nice enough not to bite your head off. Aren’t pegasi meant to be, like, really into their naps, or... something?” She inquired, looking up thoughtfully and tapping her chin.
“And not interested in magic in the slightest? Well,” Sunburst trotted ahead of his companion, to which she jogged after him to catch up, “Soarin just seems different, I guess.” He stuffed his face into his now-opened checklist.
“Speaking of different,” Ember began, at Sunburst’s side again.
“It says here there should be a pegasus clearing the clouds on the north-west side of the Empire.” He looked up at the very cloudy sky. “But the sky hasn’t been cleared at all.”
“When did you say you were going to tell your mom that you changed your address, again?”
“Huh?” the stallion halted, reading his checklist over again. “Oh. That. I’ll just... let her figure it out on her own.”
Ember pulled a face as Sunburst carried on. “And how is she going to figure that out?”
“She’ll just have to... uh-” Sunburst dropped to his haunches. He looked over the scroll before rolling it back up and rubbing his head with a hoof.
“Sunburst!” Ember speed-walked over to his side. “You, uh- you okay?”
Sunburst blinked at the lanky seafoam-coloured pegasus stallion he had bumped into. He had an unshaven muzzle and a thick blond mane pulled into a loose bun atop his head. The stallion revealed downturned raspberry-coloured eyes the second he looked at Sunburst, who blushed in embarrassment.
“Oh, I-I- I’m sorry, I- uh-” he stammered, and the two stood.
“Don’t, ugh,” he shook his head, “don’t mention it, Cloaky.”
“Cloaky?” Sunburst repeated under his breath. “Look, you’re Zephyr Breeze, right? Aren’t you meant to be... you know, clearing the clouds for the Faire? Like you’re supposed to do?”
“Hey!” Zephyr adopted an offended tone, putting a forehoof on his chest. “I can clear this sky in five seconds flat!”
“Prove it.” Sunburst challenged him, defiantly turning his head and fixing his glasses back up his nose.
“You got it, Cloaky!” That said, Zephyr Breeze took to the skies. He kicked and punched clouds, and whipped some with his relatively long tail, but as he quickened his pace to match five seconds (failing, as he started to speed up on the fourth second, and went over to seven) his moves started getting clumsier, and he flopped, landing in a large puddle of thick mud. Sunburst ended up on his front, with Zephyr draped over him.
“Ugh,” Sunburst groaned, and the two sat up, facing each other. When they opened their eyes, Zephyr winced and averted his gaze, while the unicorn used his magic to wipe two thick layers of mud off of the lenses of his glasses. “What was that?”
“I, er...” upon noticing himself, Zephyr stood and shook the mud off of himself, like a dog after being bathed, and inadvertently onto Sunburst, who growled in turn.
“Ooh! Sorry.” Zephyr wrapped a foreleg around Sunburst’s neck to pull him close. “Heh, I- how’s about I treat ya to a nice hot coffee in the town, huh, Cloaky? I’m Zephyr, by the way. Zephyr Breeze. You, uh, mighta heard of me, with my sister... being the Royal Advisor and all.”
Sunburst glanced at Zephyr’s hoof, and removed it slowly so he could get more space between him and the pegasus. “No, I’m - uh - not much of a coffee drinker.” He chuckled nervously, presenting a fake smile.
Ember snorted. “Yes you are, Sunburst! You drank three cups just this m-” Sunburst elbowed her sharply in the ribs, still keeping his wide, nervous smile; Ember held her side in pain. “Oof!”
“I can see that you’re very, very busy, doing - er -” nervously, Sunburst giggled, and started to back away, “nothing, so we’ll just be on our-”
“Woah, whoa-whoa!”
“Merry...” Sunburst had turned already, and sighed in defeat when he heard Zephyr speak again, “way.”
“Nothing?!” As Sunburst turned, Zephyr closely inspected the unicorn in offence; he reeled back and took to the air again, vertically hovering tall after placing the recently drawn back hoof on his puffed out chest. “I’ll have you know, Sunshoes-”
“Sunburst,” came the correction.
“Yeah, whatever! -That I am styling the Crystal Empire’s very own princess’ hair for the Faire!” He gloated. “She asked for mepersonally!
Sunburst fixed his glasses. “Oh, I’m sure you are- I-I er-” he stuttered for a moment; “she... did. Come on, Ember.” As they left, he muttered to the baby dragon: “Next is the festivities. Hopefully no one there will try to strike up a conversation.”
An earth pony stallion in a Texan cowboy hat and traditional poncho, with a limp rubber chicken riding on his back, seemed to be in charge of the party planning and decorations. His body was the colour of melted cheese, and his mane and tail were both so curly that it looked almost impossible to maintain.
Sunburst and Ember watched as the dressed up party pony pointed out a perfect place to hang some fairy lights, which a smiling red stallion with a strawberry blond man was holding in his mouth.
“Maybe if you try socialising first,” Ember said, pointedly, “then maybe they won’t try to strike up a conversation with you.”
Sunburst put on a smile. “Um, hello! How are the decorations going?” He looked at his list. “My apologies, I don’t have your name, down on here. My list doesn’t specify a party pony running the preparations.”
“Oh, they’re going good. I-” the earth pony turned; upon noticing Sunburst, he gasped and stared with wide eyes. The two were unwittingly locked in a staring contest.
“Uh...”
Upon collecting himself, the earth pony tipped his hat so that his eyes were shadowed. Using three legs briefly - and then four - the cowboy took a few steps towards the unicorn. His cheery demeanour had turned into one more cold and threatening. “You’re not from ’round these parts, are you, strange... cloaky pony?
Ember stifled a chuckle into her claw.
Sunburst shook his head at the thought of being called ‘Cloaky’ again. “Um, y-yes.” He took a step back sheepishly as the party pony got closer. “Yes, I am.” He readjusted his glasses.
The strange earth pony (called Cheese Sandwich) cleared his throat; Sunburst and Ember were visibly scared, he more than she. Cheese Sandwich pointed a hoof east, down the street facing the castle. “Into that house?”
A bead of sweat ran down Sunburst’s forehead. Ember bit her lip. “I- I, um...”
Cheese Sandwich hummed. “Hm. I see.” He walked off down the street on three hooves, the fourth on his hat. “Come on, Boneless. We’ve got work to do.”
Sunburst was left jittery. “He-He’s not going to destroy m-m-my h-house, right!?”
Ember shrugged and mumbled an ‘I don’t know’ noise. “How am I meant to know?”
Sunburst cleared his throat and checked his list. Gulping, he spotted the other stallion. Big McIntosh was a broad earth pony with a work horse collar around his neck. His family was in charge of the sweeter confectionery items, coming all the way in from Ponyville to share their homemade baked goods.
After recollecting himself, Sunburst approached Big Mac, who turned his back on the decorating to smile at him in turn. “Why, hello there! How’s everything g-going... on this part of town?” asked the unicorn with an awkward smile.
Big Mac looked from side to side, and then gave a quizzical countenance. “..Eeyup!”
An orange mare instantly appeared at this, a hoof around Big Mac. She smiled at Sunburst, her blonde mane and tail glistening in the sun. On her head rested a cowboy hat that rivalled Big McIntosh’s work collar for its brown leather hue.
“Now, Big Mac!” she exclaimed, dragging out the ‘i’ for an extra syllable with her southern drawl. “That’s no way to treat a friendly pony,” she narrowed her eyes and jabbed Big Mac’s chest with her other hoof, “now, is it?
“Er...” the red stallion shook his head, “nope!”
Sunburst double-checked his list. “Apple..jack?” he asked warily.
Applejack dropped back down onto all fours to greet him properly. She laughed. “Right ya are, whippersnapper.” she swung her left forehoof in front of her as some sort of greeting. “Howdydoodie!”
“Oh! Uh... howdydoodie to you... ma’am.” Sunburst returned, his smile fading doubtfully, before returning; “I, er, hear your family’s in charge of most of the catering for the Faire?”
“Why! You heard correct, Cloaky!”
Sunburst: whispered to Ember: “Seriously, what’s with all this... Cloaky business?”
“Now then,” Applejack pulled Sunburst to behind one of the stalls. She plugged one of her hoofs between her teeth and whistled; in response, ponies of orange, red, yellow, and green all approached. They were all either tending the other food stalls or putting up decorations. Nevertheless, they all heeded to Applejack’s call. Sunburst’s eyes were wide.
“That’s a lot of ponies,” even Ember - who acted aloof with her arms crossed - couldn’t help but foster a shocked face.
“Howdy, uh...” Applejack reached over the stall Sunburst was behind to grab one of his front hooves with the both of hers.
“Gah!” she had taken him by surprise; “Sun- Sunburst!”
“Sunburst!” She repeated joyfully, using a hoofshake so powerful that it moved his entire body, even lifting him off the ground as it went up. When she let go, he retracted his hoof and put it on the side of his head, his eyes taking a moment to roll around in their sockets, accentuating his dizziness. “A pleasure making your acquaintance! I’m Applejack, an’ that over there’s my big brother Big Mac! We Apples sure do love makin’ new friends!”
“But... I thought you were ponies,” Ember noted, bluntly.
“Friends?” Sunburst parroted cautiously.
“Eeyup!” chimed in Big McIntosh.
“But, I-”
“So!” exclaimed Applejack, putting her hoof out to gesture to the large herd of green, yellow, orange, and red ponies surrounding them, all smiling kindly. “What can I do ya for?” she winked.
“Well,” Sunburst cleared his throat, “I am - i-in fact -” he readjusted his glasses as they slid down his nose, “here to supervise preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration.”
“Oh! So, you ain’t native to the Crystal Empire also?”
“N-No,” frowned the unicorn, “I don’t think I am. I’m... not a crystal pony, so-”
“So, that’s why Cheese got all worked up! We ain’t natives here, either! Nor is Cheese, for that matter. His Cheesy Sense must have been go’n’ all over the radar like snow in summer the second he met ya!”
“..Cheesy Sense?”
“Yuh-huh!” Applejack confirmed. “A sense as sure as sugar!”
“How can cheese... sense?” Ember scrunched up her snout. “Does that mean I have to lay off the pizza rolls? Or the garlic bread?” She dropped to her knees and balled her fist, closing her eyes tightly: “Not the garlic breeeead..!” her voice echoed through the Empire, making a few citizens gasp and birds flee their roosts.
“So,” Applejack started, “care to try some of our samples?”
“Maybe just one,” Sunburst gave a coy smile, averting his gaze.
“Ya hear that?” the orange mare yelled joyously. “Soup’s on, everypony!” The crowd of earth ponies cheered. “Now!” She reappeared behind the stall, with Ember (who was wriggling in an effort to free herself) under her foreleg. She let the baby dragon go. “Lemme introduce y’all to the Apple family!”
“Why, thank you, but we really need to hurry-”
“This here’s Apple Fritter,” a yellow mare with a green bicolour mane and tail - both with a small red bow at the end of each - to match her eyes set down a plate with a single, albeit large and greasy, apple fritter upon.
“Apple Bumpkin,” another yellow mare stepped forward with two caramel apples in her mouth. Her two-toned red hair was styled into some sort of perm, and around her neck a dark green yellow-checkered-lined handkerchief was tied. Once she set them down she - like Apple Fritter - vanished speedily back into the crowd.
“Red Gala,” this time it was the only pale pink mare spotted. She had an unkempt green mane and a green-iced cupcake with an apple slice as the finish on the top. Like the other two, her treat matched her cutie mark of three, but her name did not.
“Red Delicious,” the cycle sped up. Fourth was a yellow stallion with a blue mane and tail and a big red apple on each of his flanks. He had presented a cinnamon apple swirl of sorts. “Golden Delicious,” a beige stallion with a dark brown - almost black - mane and tail was next. “Caramel Apple.” A yellow, redheaded mare with a cutie mark akin to Apple Bumpkin’s. “Apple Strudel, Apple Tart, Baked Apples, Apple Brioche, Apple Cinnamon Crisp!-”
Applejack was no longer next to Sunburst and salivating Ember - who were both hidden behind the enormous pile of apple-based foods that had been thrown onto the stall’s table. She reappeared in front of the stall before the rest of the group. She took a loud gasp for air, her smile still worn proudly on her lips.
“Big McIntosh,” she started up again, like a revving engine of sorts; the stallion presented another cupcake; “Apple Crumble, Apple Pie, Apple Snickerdoodle, Applejohn, Empire Apple, Apple Butter, Apple Jam, Pink Lady, Applewood, Macoun Apple, Li’l Macoun Apple Junior, Apple Cake, Apple Syrup, Apple Blossom, Apple Tree, Apple Phone, Apple Bite, Apple Bread, Apple Profiterole, Apple Cream, Apple Seed, Apple Milk, Apple Core, Apple Skin, Apple Crisp, Apple Cinnamon, aaaaannd... Cinnamon Apple!” Applejack was breathing heavily after that enormous list.
“Wow,” Sunburst was agape. Ember scrubbed her eyes with her knuckles and stared at the enormous group. “I-”
“Oh! An’ who here can forget li’l Apple Bloom an’ Granny Smith! But they’re back at the farm tendin’ to the animals and crops!”
Sunburst chuckled nervously, staring up at the leaning tower of food. Its top was obscured by the sunlight. “Heh, heh... who can forget?”
“I’d say,” Applejack took Sunburst under her foreleg and stuffed a cupcake into his mouth, “you’re already part of the family!”
He forced a swallow and coughed once all of the cupcake went down, from the sheer size alone. “I- okay, well…” he used his magic to put Ember (who had her claws on the Apple Fritter from the start of the list and stuffed it into her mouth) onto his back as he backed away from the crowd, in the direction of where he remembered his house being. “I see ‘soup’ is already handled, so we’ll just be on our way... now... heh, heh...”
“But... aren’t you gonna stay for lunch?” Apple Bumpkin asked. “We all really like you, Sunburst!”
“Yeah, Sunburst,” Ember was of little help, “they all ‘really like’ you.” When the unicorn turned, he saw that the baby dragon was wiggling her eyebrows mischievously.
“Ohhh-ho... oh-ho-ho! Ho...” Sunburst was sweating, adopting the most fakest and widest smile he had ever adopted. “You all-” he wheezed, “you all- you all really like me! You all-”
He spun around on his hooves and ran.
“Wasn’t that pretty... rude of you to do that?” asked Ember once the duo reached the front of their temporary crystal-walled home.
“Well, what else did you expect me to do, Ember?” Sunburst frowned, and the two entered before he slammed the door behind him with a back hoof. “They wouldn’t have stopped until we burst!”
“Well, that is in your name, Sunburst.” Ember crossed her arms and looked up at him with her now-glowing ruby coloured eyes. One of her brows was quirked. “And isn’t, like,” she rolled one of her claws around at shoulder-level, “connected to a pony’s cutie mark, which is connected to their special talent, or something just as sappy?”
“My special talent is notbursting,” Sunburst started a roll of stammering: “I- uh- gah- how would tha- that even work?”
“Whatever,” she mumbled in return.
“I just need to study,” Sunburst sighed, noticing the darkness that they were in, “that’s all. Hopefully,” he turned to the circular and wooden table behind him and used his magic to lift a lantern and a match to make a light source as he spoke, “I’ll find what I need to on the Elements of Harmony and the essential history needed to finally conclude why Lord Discord didn’t want-”
The room was lit, and revealed as the veil of shadows was washed away was a crowd of smiling non-crystal ponies surrounding them. Most either wore party hats or held a noise maker in their mouth, or even had both. The confetti and streamers that adorned the walls, floor and ceiling all shimmered in the light of the lantern that Sunburst was levitating (and the light that someone had turned on shortly after).
“Suuurpriiiise!” They all cheered.
Having just yelled in shock and jumped up into the air and landed on his front with his forehooves over his face in a cowardly, quivering mess, Sunburst gulped. He groaned once he finally realised the scene - a party - and got back up with Ember by his side (rolling her eyes at that with a much more agitated, and embarrassed flare), before dusting himself off with a single hoof. He used his magic to place the lantern back on the circular table, which also had a punch jug on its top.
“Why, hey there, friend! Welcome to the newly rediscovered Crystal Empire!” Cheese Sandwich, the earth pony from before, popped up in Sunburst’s face, taking him aback. He blinked, before taking a second (literally, a second, before the party pony decided to pop up somewhere else around the room) to analyse the earth stallion’s features without the pure terror of a potential threat wrestling his innards.
Cheese Sandwich had discarded his hat - allowing his mane to bounce much more freely - and poncho, not clad in a bright yellow polo shirt and a red fez. He was smiling brightly with a twinkle in his emerald coloured eyes. It seemed as though he was a completely different pony to the gruffly spoken one in the Empire’s centre.
“I’m Sandwich. Cheese Sandwich!” Cheese Sandwich introduced himself, taking Sunburst under his foreleg and smudging the unicorn’s cheek against his chest. “I threw this party just for you, strange, cloaky pony! Were you surprised? I sure was surprised when my Cheesy Sense told me--” a sharp gasp broke through Cheese’s peppy demeanour, and he pushed Sunburst away abruptly to drop back to all four hooves and to lower to Ember’s eye level.
“..What?” Sunburst lifted a hoof, agape, as Ember queried the earth pony with one brow raised.
“You’re a baby dragon. Gosh, I’ve never met one of you guys before! Here!” He slid his rubber chicken in front of her. It fell limply, bending over itself with its head on the floor. “This’s Boneless? Do dragons like rubber chickens? Anywho, this is Boneless, he’s a rubber chicken that I received from my first party ever!”
“Uh...” Ember took a small step back before smiling sheepishly and holding up a hand as a stationary wave. “Hi... Boneless.”
Cheese’s bright, wide smile was unfaltering. “Ha! I knew the two of you’d get along alright! Hey, Sunshoes,” Cheese turned his attention back to Sunburst.
“A-Actually,” he pushed his glasses up with some magic. “I-It’s Sum- gah- Sunburst.”
“Oh! I apologise.” Cheese then whispered harshly to Boneless: “You told me that was his name, Boneless!- So, uh,” and he was back, “Sunburst, you wanna hear some music? If you can’t already tell by my cutie mark, I’m great at playing the accordion! You up for some sweet tunes, ol’ buddy, ol’ pal?”
“You- You mean like polka?” Sunburst’s voice had inadvertently lifted an octave on the last word.
“Gee, I never thought about it like that! But, I guess so! Polka it is!” That declared, Cheese Sandwich hopped onto the long and rectangular coffee table in the living area, pulling out a seemingly oldish accordion and hopping around on his hind legs in a sort of strange jig. “Heeeey, everypony! It’s the paaarty ponyyy poolka!”
The crowd cheered excitedly, opposing Sunburst’s quiet groan.
“It’s your welcome party, a very special day! I've got a song, it won't take long, I just wanted to say;” sang Cheese Sandwich. “If you wanna be the life of the party, but you're feeling just a little uptight-”
“He’s singing,” Ember muttered. “Wow, Sunburst. I’m starting to see how this is getting annoying.” She rolled her eyes. “He probably wrote this just for you.”
“W-Well I didn’t ask him to!” the unicorn protested.
“-Call the doctor, beg and plead, ‘Doctor, tell me what I need!’.” The party pony, smile still bright and unwavering, leapt off of the coffee table and landed on his knees, the anticipation sliding him forward a foot or so. “Try to put a little cheese in your knees!” He finished off with a quick crescendo and repeated the final note.
Everypony in the room bar Sunburst (and, by extension, a grinning Ember) cheered.
“Welcome to the Crystal Empire, Sunburst!” Cheese Sandwich called over the noise, before approaching him now-empty hooved. “Seeing as you’re new, I took the liberty of finding you some friends based off of...” he inhaled sharply; “who you’ve spoken to today, your date of birth, everyday circle, internal circle, today’s smile count, vowels in your name, constants in your name, capitals in your name, hobbies, interests, occupation, peeves, allergies, favourite food, drink, things, age multiplied by the letters in your name, divided by the numbers of letters in their name, r--”
By now, Sunburst had - with a rather bored expression - made his way to the punch table (with Cheese not far behind) to pour himself a drink. After taking his first sip, his jaw fell open, and he almost dropped his paper solo cup when registering what Ember said to interrupt Cheese’s long, long list. “There’s an algorithm for friendship?”
“Not friendship, ya silly rubber goose!” Cheese stifled a laugh. “Broship! Us bros take things super seriously when it comes to forming a broship! It’s, like, diamond level of friendship! But, first, Sunburst...”
Sunburst turned to the earth pony with a curt frown.
“Meet your newfriends!”
The unicorn fought the urge to spit out his punch. His eyes went wide, and his swallow was delayed. Behind Cheese Sandwich a group had formed, eighty-percent of which he recognised. Soarin was in the air, leaning down; Zephyr Breeze was smiling pridefully, wings out and a forehoof raised with the back of it under his chin, as if presenting himself like a long-awaited prize; Big Mac gave a petite smile with a unicorn stallion built similarly to him by his side with a toothy grin.
The unicorn - white with regal blue hooves that matched his bi-toned split-ended mane and tail and eyes - was one that Sunburst was yet to meet. His cutie mark was a singular image, and as large as Big McIntosh’s ample green apple-half. It was a navy blue shield, with a familiar magenta six-point star as the crest. Above were three barely-noticeable sky blue five-point stars, aligning each point of the top of the shield.
“How did you know all that abou--” Sunburst started, but Cheese whizzed over to the white unicorn and put his forehooves around him.
“This is Shining Armor!” he said. “He’s a member of the Royal Guard! He’s a part of your everyday circle!” Cheese paused and tapped his chin. “Well... sort of.”
Shining Armor smiled. “I’m Twily’s brother.”
“And who is T-uh... Twily?” The question was much ruder than anticipated.
“The princess.” He grinned. “Who else?”
“I-” Sunburst was prepared to clarify that he wished for the party to end, that he wanted as little socialising as possible on his visit, and that he especiallydidn’t want any friends! Except, he was uninterrupted when the ground rumbled slowly and a shriek from outside sounded.
The whole party ran outside. It seemed as though all inhabitants and visitors of the Crystal Empire had gathered.
There, on the balcony of the Crystal Palace, was a dark unicorn clad in dark iron-cast armour and a scarlet white-fur lined cloak, with a dark black flowing mop of a mane with a short, wispy tail to match. To be frank, everything about him was dark. His crimson cloak matched his strange blood horn. Well, that was the only way to describe it without being too gruesome; blood red, it was, like the vessels inside were all prepared to simultaneously burst.
The blood horn was a dark grey from red, with a sharp blade-like point (definitely evolved for piercing flesh, the audience of ponies figured), and had a few scratches and chips permanently scarred in the coarse, thick, and weathered keratin.
To make it worse, his eyes were red (with purple smoke around them, and the whites lime green), and his broad smirk of pure malice lines with pointy fangs.
“I have returned as your rightful ruler!” He bellowed. “My sweet inferiors, bow down before me, for your king has returned!”
The witnesses all gasped in terror and shock; they all began a small tsunami of muttering, which was prematurely put to an end by the shadowy stranger’s demand of “Silence!”.
“Heed your king,” he said, “for my first commands as your ruler, I shall enslave you all, and take seize of Kingdom Equestria!”
A cerulean laser was fired, and out from inside the Crystal Palace a pink alicorn with purple tinted wings that matched her fiery and vicious eyes flew at breakneck speeds. Her shiny cream yellow, purple, and pink mane and tail were both ruffled, and there were a few scuffs on her pretty pink body.
“I don’t think so, Sombra!” the alicorn declared. “Wasn’t one blast into the tundra enough?”
“I know,” Shining Armor commented with a dreamy grin, “isn’t she beautiful?”
A dark cloud fogged behind Sombra, pouring down the front of the Palace and rolling towards the crowd of ponies below. The first row of spectators started coughing. Meanwhile, the dark unicorn’s fangs were bared, and the blood horn upon his head started to glow.
A carnage-coloured crimson and black beam of light was directed towards Princess Cadance, but was met with a sky blue counterattack. The two lasers of magic met in the centre by a seam of navy and purple.
After a couple of moves from both parties, it seemed that darkness would unfortunately prevail. The bicoloured magic blasted into Cadance’s stomach. She fell back, down into the black misty abyss below. The watchers all gasped. She let out a scream of pain, and several guards gathered in the spot she was estimated to land.
Cadance’s eyes were scrunched closed. Shining Armor was a part of the select gathering, and soon so were Sunburst and Ember, with Big Mac, Cheese Sandwich, Soarin and (last but not least, a hesitant) Zephyr Breeze.
The pink coated princess opened her purple eyes; Shining’s blues were the first to meet them. “Princess,” he exclaimed, “are you alright?” The white unicorn was given a dirty glare from Cheese Sandwich, Big Mac, and a purple pegasus in guard armour. He gave a sheepish look in turn. “What..?”
“Of course she isn’t alright, Shining!” Big McIntosh hummed and nodded as Cheese Sandwich spoke. “She just fell, like,” he stood on his hind legs for a second or so, “a gazillion feet!”
Princess Cadance shook her head and forced her guards away. She stood clumsily, before flapping her wings and taking to the air again. The first few strokes of flight were tricky, as her left wing was sore and twisted from an awkward landing, but she fought through, and engulfed her harmed wing’s feathers in her blue magic aura for assistance.
“You won’t get away with this, Sombra,” again, Cadance’s eyes burnt with the flame of pegasus passion inside of her. She passed through the awkward crack in her voice.
“Oh,” the dark unicorn cackled, his blood horn twinkling, “my dear, this is only just the beginning. I think I already have.”
The black fog closed around Sombra, and then the entire Empire. As it cleared, ponies coughed and coughed. Princess Cadance wasn’t ready to give in yet, and flew towards the Palace balcony with all her might, only to crash through the opened double doors. She flew back out, looking over the balcony in a haze. She gasped, and so did the crowd of spectators below.
“Princess!” Sunburst exclaimed. He and Ember (plus the other five stallions that insisted on being his friends) had rushed into the Palace’s throne room where Princess Cadance sat on the throne with her bandaged head bowed. Her left wing was in a splint and beige plasters adorned her front legs. A handmaid had just taken off her temporary neck cast.
“No slouching!” warned the handmaid.
Cadance, surprised, opened her eyes and heeded for a moment or so until the mare was gone. Once she was, she started slouching again. Bags formed under her eyes; she must have been exhausted, as her lit up horn was keeping the forcefield around the whole Empire solid.
“I should have done this sooner,” she said guiltily and a little hoarsely, looking up at the six stallions and baby dragon before her, “it was my indolence that caused Sombra’s quick return.”
“Don’t say that!” said Shining Armor nobly, taking a few steps forth. He wore his newly given Crystal Guard armour, all apart from the helmet, which Soarin (who was mid-flight) held. “Your majesty-”
“Please, Shining,” Cadance barely smiled, “call me Cadance.”
Shining’s blanch coat was useless for suppressing his sudden blush (and the girly grin that accompanied it), albeit he tried. “Cadance,” he said, rubbing the back of his head, which caused a couple of chuckles from the others’ (minus Sunburst and Big Mac’s) behalves, “Nopony could have anticipated Sombra’s return. Not even Discord himself could’ve-”
“Oh, but we did,” she said, sighing. “The Empire actually returned three whole moons ago. You see, it is believed that before their extinction, shadow ponies and crystal ponies didn’t get along. Shadow ponies were enamored by the crystals, whereas the crystal ponies feared the darkness that the shadow ponies brought to survive.”
“Why did shadow ponies go extin- oww!” Big McIntosh had elbowed Zephyr Breeze in the side. “What?”
“Nopony talks about that,” clarified the red farmpony adamantly. “’specially the royal-likes.”
“No, it’s quite alright, Big Mac,” came the response from the exhausted alicorn; “Daybreaker’s eternal day was the cause. Shadow ponies need darkness to live and without it... brought their extinction.”
“So, about the Empire?” Ember asked, rather rudely.
Princess Cadance opened her eyes from her drowsiness and yawned, her horn flickering for just a moment. “Huh? Oh. As Sombra is a shadow pony, the darkness that was brought to the land over a thousand moons ago to battle the light in an effort to weigh out the Scales of Harmony returned after Daybreaker’s defeat to corrupt him, feeding off his species’ instinct of crystal-induced greed.” Despite her tiredness, the alicorn had spoken extremely quickly. So much so, that even Cheese was impressed.
“Woah,” he smiled, “that was fast! And... a lot of information! Whoo.”
“My apologies, Princess,” Sunburst frowned, “we’re more than aware of your valiant efforts, but could you please try to slow down... just a little?”
Princess Cadance nodded fairly, her eyes half-lidded. “So,” she said, adjusting her talking speed, “three moons ago, I recruited the same ponies that Sombra did to take down Daybreaker. Two unicorns, two pegasi, and two earth ponies.”
“My sister!” Big McIntosh, Shining Armor, and Zephyr Breeze said proudly, all in unison. “Huh?”
“Yes.” Cadance assented. “Twilight Sparkle, who earned her wings through figuring out how to cast Sombra’s banishment, and her best friends: Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie.”
“You mean the Applejack setting up the apple stalls in the town square?” Sunburst was wide eyed, and so was Ember.
“Eeyup!” smiled Big Mac.
“Yes, well,” Cadance gave a petite, momentary smile, “they’re all very humble.”
“You don’t say.” mumbled the orange and white unicorn.
“We used the Elements of Harmony to defeat Sombra. After that, Discord was advised to cover the return of the Crystal Empire up, and with his magic he draped it in an invisible cloak to stop the publicity. He only revealed it now because he-” she paused, gasping, “the Crystal Faire! You stallions have to keep the Faire going to distract the crystal ponies from Sombra’s return!”
“Don’t worry, Princess,” Soarin put Shining Armor’s helmet back on its owner’s head as the unicorn saluted, “we’ll make sure of it.”
Ember and five out of the six stallions ran to the exit. Once they were gone, Sunburst turned his head back to Princess Cadance after taking his first few steps to follow. “Are the Elements of Harmony still with the Six Saviours?”
“When Sombra returned today, he told me that he’s aware of the broken link between them and the Six. After all, he is the one who banded them together, he said. Here.” She used her magic to pass him a receipt.
“The Crystal Library?” Sunburst read after taking the piece of paper in his own golden aura. “The Elements of Harmony? The History of the Crystal Empire?”
Cadance nodded. “I trust you know what you’re supposed to, Sunburst.” The unicorn nodded determinedly in return. “Sombra said that he hid the Elements. Please, find them. Do what you must to ensure their safety.”
“Will do, Princess,” and with that, he departed.
“Gah,” Sunburst walked, his nose stuck in one of the two books he had retrieved from the Crystal Library. “After conversing with an extremely clueless librarian, I finally got them!”
“Got what?” The six other members of Sunburst’s entourage all turned. Soarin had spoken, and he had walked right into Shining Armor’s haunches, which both made the orange unicorn look over the top of his book in surprise.
“Ah!” He jumped back. “You- you guys are everywhere!”
“Weren’t you just talking to... us?” Shining queried.
“The History of the Crystal Empire!” Sunburst closed his book to present the cover - leatherbound with a cluster of lavender crystals illustrated - to them in a pose where one foreleg was listed and his eyes closed. “Annnd...” in his magic he presented the other, pulling it out from the saddlebags already full of books under his cloak. “Ta-da!”
“The Elements of Harmony?” Big McIntosh squinted, reading with some hesitation and struggle, over-pronouncing robotically here and there. Sunburst instantly presumed he read very little very rarely. “What in tarnation?”
“What Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends used to defeat Sombra!” Sunburst proclaimed. “Princess Cadance told me to pick them up! She said she ‘trusts I know what to do’.”
“So? What does it say?”
Sunburst cleared his throat. “‘As established by their first ruler, Princess Platinum, the Crystal Faire soon became an annual tradition. The crystal ponies were ecstatic, and the Faire was held every year to renew the spirit of love and unity in the Empire so that they shall be protected from harm’.”
“Well, you can’t spell harmony without any harm!” Cheese Sandwich decreed joyously, throwing his forehooves in the air. “What does the other book say, Strange?”
Sunburst chose to ignore that. “‘It is said, the last known location of the five elements was in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters. It is located in what is now-’”
“The Everfree Forest!” exclaimed all but Cheese Sandwich and Ember.
“Where in the who-now?” asked the latter obliviously, one brow quirked.
“How do you guys know what the Everfree Forest is?” Sunburst frowned.
“It’s a horrible forest just on the outskirts of Ponyville,” Zephyr sputtered, biting one of his front hooves nervously. “My sister lives right next to the stuff! It’s positively horrid, Sunshoes! Absolutely vile!” The pegasus had turned his head away and draped his previously lifted forelef over his closed eyes.
“It doesn’t listen to any magic that unicorns use,” added Soarin.
“Or earth ponies!” chimed in Big McIntosh.
“The weather doesn’t work the same there as it does all over Equestria,” Shining Armor added diligently.
“Hm,” Sunburst scanned over the next few pages of the book on the Elements. “..Six elements, but only five are known... This book seriously needs to be updated.” He replaced it back in his saddlebags.
“Back to square one?” asked the other unicorn.
“Back to square one.” he sighed, nodding.
“Well,” Soarin piped up, wearing an uncharacteristic frown, “what about the Crystal Faire? Can’t we at least try to do that for the Princess?”
“We can put it together,” Sunburst said, “word for word! I know that’s what we all came here for, but there’s a few things in here that isn’t quiiite on the list.” The others smiled in turn. “Everything we need to know is in the book!”
“That sounds pretty promising!” Shining smiled, before Princess Cadance on the Palace’s balcony caught his eye. He frowned, the glint-marks in his eyes swelling as he frowned. Cadance looked absolutely exhausted; even though it had just been a mere twenty minutes after their earlier talk, she had worsened direly. “The Princess...”
The others of the herd followed his gaze, and their respective smiles also all dropped. “Then we’ll get started right away!” decreed Sunburst, his glasses sliding down his striped nose. His acquaintances all murmured in confirmation.
From the balcony, Princess Cadance nodded at the young scholar. That small gesture was enough to fill him with enough confidence to smile and readjust his glasses.
“Then let’s go!” The orange unicorn placed Ember on his back. He opened the book again and turned. With the others behind him, he started to canter. “Princess Cadance needs my help,” he sang; “Her magic will not last forever. I think I can do iiiit...”
“But we HAVE to work together!” retorted the others in song.
“We have to get this right,” Cheese Sandwich and Shining Armor started, either side of the orange unicorn.
“Yes, we have to make them see,” Soarin and Zephyr were next, flying above Sunburst’s head.
“We can save the Crystal Ponies with their historyyy!” The five stallions encouraged, before SHining Armor took The History of the Crystal Empire from Sunburst’s magical hold.
“It says that they liked jousting,” the white unicorn started on his own with rubato, presenting a page with a pony in gleaming armor with a jousting pole on their side.
“They flew a flag of many hues!” exclaimed Zephyr as Shining flipped to the next page, where a purple flag was drawn.
“Made sweets of crystal berries,” Soarin added.
“They had a petting zoo with tiny ewes,” Big McIntosh’s sudden bass was a great shift in tempo.
The red earth pony was followed by all but Ember (who thought that singing was lame), and Sunburst. “Oh, we have to get this right- yes, we have to make them seeee...”
“That I can save the Crystal Ponies with their historyyy!” Sunburst trotted ahead of the herd, who all groaned at his unchanged mindset.
“We have to do this together,” Shining called.
“No, we don’t,” argued the smaller unicorn defiantly, before resuming his canter. Once he realised that the others were following, he started a sprint, which they copied the pace of.
“There was a crystal flugelhorn,” Cheese Sandwich hopping forth merrily, as opposed to running. In his forelegs he showed a page of the book where a trumpet-like object was drawn in flashy blue and purple. “That every pony liked to play! And the Crystal Kingdom anthem, can ya learn it in a day?” the question was directed at Sunburst. “Huh? Huh? Can ya, Sunny? Can ya?”
Even through his annoyance, the unicorn couldn’t help but smile a little. “Oh, we have to get this right-”
The others all smiled, before the six finally sang together. They now stood in a circle, a forehoof each in the air. “Yes, we have to make them see, we can save the Crystal Ponies with their historyyy!”
“It looks amazing,” Sunburst commented, pacing with a smile on his lips as he inspected his surroundings. The decorations had doubled, and a few more stalls had been put up.
The Apple family have taken to picking Crystal Berries especially, and started fixing them into new batches of desserts as opposed to apples. Soarin had strewn balloons around the place, and Zephyr had offered to try his hand at basket weaving. Cheese Sandwich had also keenly set up a flugelhorn display.
“I don’t know how I could have done this all by myself.”
“You’re welcome,” Zephyr said in a singsong voice. Big Mac was much more humble than the other four.
“Just one more check, and I-” as Sunburst prepared to walk away from the group, Soarin asked a question.
“What’s, uh, this thing for, dude? It isn’t even crystal.” He was flying over a chipped and roughly-cut turquoise sculpture of a heart on a podium, pointing at it with one hoof, a quizzical expression drawn on his face.
“The last page of the book stated that the Faire had a heart-shaped ornament as it’s, uh, centre- centipede- err, uh! Centrepiece.” He fixed the position of his glasses. “So I used my magic to cut one out of a turquoise block!”
“Then, I think we’re ready to get this Fair up and running, guys.” Shining Armor smiled. “We did it!”
One the Palace balcony, Princess Cadance with her horn still alight stood with Sunburst and Shining Armor either side of her. To grab hold of the attention of the ponies below, Cheese Sandwich stood next to the double doors and blew on his flugelhorn. A sharp, off-key sound emitted, but it did the trick all the same.
“Hear ye, hear ye,” called the Princess to the crystal subjects below. “I, Princess Cadance, declare at last that the Crystal Faire is finally open!”
Almost immediately, changes in the crystal ponies were seen. They now stood upright and their manes lacked wilt; their colouredbecame vivid, and they all wore smiles on their faces. Seeing this, Shining Armor, Sunburst, and Cheese Sandwich all hoof-bumped.
“Come on in y’all,” Applejack called to the gathering of crystal ponies with Big McIntosh by her side; the two started walking with the small crystal herd behind them: “we got food ’n’ drinks that a’way, and their crystal berry variants over ahhh, that way. Eheh.” She gave a small laugh. “Then, games ’n’ crafts are a’that way, and the Crystal Heart’s that way over by th’ Princess!”
At this, the crystal ponies began a wave of whispers and mutterings. “Did she say... Crystal Heart?” They all smiled and dispersed towards different stalls.
“Hey!” Soarin chased down a pink crystal mare by flight. “Gotta be feeling a bunch of unity and stuff right about now, right?”
She gasped and flinched. “Oh! Um... do they really have the Crystal Heart?”
“Why of course they do!” He grabbed a pie from one of the wagons and licked his lips. “Can’t have a Crystal Faire without a Crystal Heart, right?”
The mare lit up, her eyes twinkling and her mane lifting into a much more kempt style. “Oh! I’m so excited!” She trotted on the spot before rushing off.
At that, Soarin readied to tuck into the pie he held, but Big McIntosh snatched it off of him with a disapproving countenance and shake of his head. “Nnnope!”
“Aww!” the pegasus complained. “Just one? One bite? Pleeease, Big Mac? I’m so hungry, dude!” At that, his stomach gave a sympathetic rumble.
Big Mac looked around, before sighing and handing the pie back to his winged friend. “Fine. Just one.”
“The Crystal Heart, did you say?” an old crystal mare appeared with round, thick spectacles on her nose. She was wilted, with her mane and tail in a bun each, and three balloons in her forehoof. “The whole purpose of the Crystal Faire is to lift the spirits of the crystal ponies, so that the lights within them can power the Crystal Heart, so that the Crystal Empire can be protected!” Her voice had sped up as she had gone along, and her face lit up, and in a white flash her colours were bright and full, with her mane bouncing once again. “I do work at a library!”
“Uhhh...” Soarin and Big Mac shared a look.
Shining Armor passed the old mare to reach his friends. “What was that, ma’am? A-About powering the heart?”
“Ooh!” Soarin grinned. “How’s it goin’, lover-boy? Fallen even more in love with ‘Cadance’ yet?” The way he said her name was all mushy-like.
Shining growled.
“I just can’t believe you found it!” the old librarian beamed. “King Sombra said that he had hidden it away, where we would never see it ever again! I only hope it’ll be just as powerful after all these years! Mm!” she started pottering off towards a stall at the end of the street. “Pie!”
“I know! It’s delicious!” said Soarin, clueless, as he bit into his own.
“Soarin!” exclaimed Big Mac. “You gotta tell Sunburst that the Heart he crafted ain’t the Heart in that darn book of his!”
The pegasus halted. “Oh...” he went rigid, before throwing his pie into the air and swallowing it whole, because dagnabbit, this is a kids’ show with cartoon-logic laced into its plot! “See ya!” That said, be flew off into the direction of the castle.
Participants of the Faire all gasped and jumped out of Soarin’s way as he flew as fast as his wings could take him. He whizzed to the top of the Crystal Palace, snatched the purple flag, and raced to the fake Heart to cover it, knocking over Sunburst (who was engulfed in one of his books) in the process.
“Hey!” Sunburst got up. “What gives, Soarin?”
The pegasus was sweating and wheezing. “Ah! Hah... Sun...burst! Heart... fake!”
The unicorn couldn’t have been less amused. “From the, uh, beginning?”
Soarin nodded, calming down. “I think we may have a problem.”
“Oh no! Oh no, oh no, oh no!” he nibbled one of his hooves and started to pace. “What? What? No, don’t tell me! What?”
“The Crystal Heart’s real,” gulped the much less frayed blue pegasus, who was still wheezing from his race to get here. “It’s a magic-thingy!”
“Sunburst!” A voice came from the Crystal Palace. It was Princess Cadance.
Sunburst dropped to the floor in panic, scrunching his body up. He was on his front with his forelegs over his head. “Oh no.”
The six stallions had been herded up into the throne room before the Princess, with Sunburst in the front. “Your majesty, I had no idea the Crystal Heart was a relic, I’m so, so sorry! There was a page missing! Princess, I fai-”
“The manestylist’s gone missing!” Cadance interrupted Sunburt’s bow. “She was meant to do my hair for the Faire! But she’s nowhere to be seen!”
“She?” Sunburst shot a look towards Zephyr Breeze, who gulped. “Zeph, I thought you said you were the manestylist!”
“Heh, well I may have told an eensy-weensy little... uh...” Zephyr backed up as the other five all looked at him, all vexed. Sunburst and Shining Armor more so than the others.
“You style manes?” Cadance asked, making the others stop their disapproving gazes, and stepped forth.
“Uh...” he cleared his throat from the high pitch he was using; “I’mjustanameteur!”
His friends (and Sunburst, who was yet to include himself in the friend-group as of yet) all groaned, strengthening Zephyr’s nerves.
“It’s worth a shot,” the Princess rasped, handing him an open book. “Do you think you could do... that?”
“It’s... complicated.” He frowned. “But I can try! For a pony like me, with many talents can-”
“Do you really think now’s the time to put yourself on a throne?” Soarin asked blatantly.
“On a- that’s it!” proclaimed Sunburst.
Princess Cadance jumped, and her horn flickered.
On the border of the Empire, Sombra in his cloud of shadow prepared to barge through the flickering forcefield, but it replenished, and the tip of his blood horn was severed. It sank into the ground with a horrific slide-like audio, like that of a pitched down kazoo’s diminuendo.
“What’s it?” Shining Armor quirked a brow.
“Huh? O-Oh,” Sunburst turned his back on the throne, facing the group again. “Nothing yet. Don’t worry. Okay, everypony! I think I have a plan.”
“Wasn’t that just it?” Zephyr Breeze responded.
“No.” The unicorn stepped forward. “Soarin, Big Mac and Cheese Sandwich, do whatever you can to distract the crystal ponies. We’ll call you if we need you.” The three nodded. “Shining and I will look around the Palace for anything that might be out of place.”
Cadance let out a small cry, falling onto her front. Shining helped her up and the magic around her horn stopped its flickering. “I’m fine, Shining Armor.” said the Princess. “But thank you.” She gave a small, weakened smile.
“We have to find the Crystal Heart.” said the white unicorn to Sunburst, vengefully.
“That’s what I’m hoping,” Sunburst nodded, his half-beard jiggling as he did so. “Zephyr, you’re going to do the Princess’ hair.”
The named pegasus’ wings flared out, and he put a front hoof to his chest before gulping. “Let’s just hope I’m better at doing hair than weaving baskets.”
That said, Soarin, Big Mac, and Cheese Sandwich started for the exit. The yellow earth pony smiled. “Don’t worry, Zeph, Boneless’ll be here to keep ya sane! Isn’t that right, Boneless?” He plopped the rubber chicken into Zephyr’s forelegs before departing. “Good luck, guys! You might really need it!”
“Thanks, Cheese,” Sunburst said, now much nervous than what he was before.
“Where’s the, er, spa, Princess? Heh, heh...”
“This way, Zephyr,” Cadance led him out of the throne room.
“Yes, ma’am!”
“Who wants a flugelhorn?” Soarin called.
“I want a flugelhorn!” Cheese Sandwich retorted.
“Who else wants a flugelhorn?”
“I wanna flugelhorn!”
Soarin and Big McIntosh both sighed.
“So,” Shining Armor said, levitating three or four dozen open books and moving them like they were on a conveyor belt, and checking through all of their pages as they went by, “what gives with this whole search around the castle?”
“This is Sombra we’re talking about, right?” Sunburst emerged from checking his ninth aisle thoroughly. The two were in the Palace’s library. It wasn’t as impressive as the one open for the Empire’s public, but it was still as impressive. “The unicorn who banded together six of the most amazing ponies ever to live?”
“Uh-huh, yeah.” Shining nodded passively. “My sister and her friends. How could I not know that?”
“Well,” Sunburst started his tenth aisle as he spoke, raising his voice by a few decibels, “seeing as we know about his strategic thinking, when Soarin asked Zephyr if it was the right time to put himself on a throne, it simply just clicked that Sombra would have been counting on the crystal ponies never even attempting to search for the Heart in the Palace; they would have been too afraid to even try.”
“And what about the Elements?”
“The Heart is a magical artefact of love and light, so surely he would have done the same for the Elements of Harmony,” it sounded more like a question than a statement or theory.
“I hope you’re right, Sunburst,” said the larger unicorn, “it’s the only shot we’ve got.”
A loud crack of lightning came from outside from an invisible force. The two stallions raced to the window to watch in shock and horror as, on the south edge of the Empire as black crystal rose from the ground. As it rose, black, lime, and purple bubbles surrounded it.
“That looks like the magic that Sombra was using!” gasped Sunburst. “I’ve got to tell Princess Cadance! Check on the crystal ponies! I’ll continue the search!”
The orange unicorn raced to the spa (after walking into several rooms that wasn’t where he wished to go) and called for Cadance by her title the second he opened the door. Sunburst froze. Zephyr Breeze was racing around the room at breakneck speeds with his mane loose from his bun. His hair now made earlier’s cleaner variant seem like that of the most well-groomed pony’s in all of Equestria. For whatever’s sake, there were twigs and leaves in his mane. Where had they even come from?
“Uhh,” Sunburst was at a loss for words, “Zephyr? I-Is that you?”
“C’mon!” Shining Armor started pushing Big McIntosh towards the jousting arena with his head up his rump.
“Ah’ though y’all were searchin’ ’round the castle! Ah’-”
“A black crystal appeared at the end of the Empire. Sunburst wants me to distract the crystal ponies with you guys! So, c’mon! We’re going jousting!”
“But ah’-”
“You what? You’re the strongest stallion I know, knight Mac!” All Big Mac could do was gulp.
“I can’t wait to see the Crystal Heart!” a blue crystal mare exclaimed; Cheese Sandwich in response jumped up, and started pushing her away from the covered sculpture. “May I just...”
“No! No! You - uh - can’t! Better save all the energy ya got when you, er, charge... it!” the yellow earth pony gave a nervous laugh, and the mare huffed and walked off.
“Right,” muttered the mare as she left, “have it... your way.”
Cheese sighed and wiped his brow. “Boneless’ll be real proud o’ me.” He said, before pulling out his flugelhorn and accordion. “Better keep these ponies entertained!” With that, he lifted himself to his hind legs and started multitasking with both instruments.
Zephyr Breeze panted as he rushed around the spa room. He lathered water and shampoo into Princess Cadance’s mane before muttering to himself in the third person as he searched for something else.
“Zephyr? Zephyr!” Sunburst exclaimed, entering the room.
“Can’t talk!” came the busied response. “Hair ties! Hair ties! Where are the--”
Sunburst levitated some black hair ties over to the frantic pegasus, who froze and stared at them. “Why, thanks, Sunburst!” He beamed. “This is really helpful!” His bright smile turned into a bitter, stressed scowl as he whacked the hair ties out of the air and onto the crystal floor. “IF I NEEDED HAIR TIES!”
Sunburst frowned, “But you just said-”
Zephyr whipped around to Boneless, who slouched in a white quartz table-chair. “Stop judging me!” He shook the rubber chicken around, as if interrogating him for answers, before sitting him back on the chair. Zephyr turned again, and smiled. “Ah! Here are the hair ties!” He lifted a tray of hair ties that matched the colours of Cadance’s tricolour mane. “Black would just stick out! No professional manestylist would ever, ever use black hair ties on such beautiful hair. Is he crazy or what?” The pegasus turned his head to Boneless, before feigning an incredulous, wheezy laugh. “Get a load of him, huh?”
Zephyr put Cadance’s deep-mane-clean on hold and grabbed a pair of scissors. He shook violently, each tremor a strong sign of his nerves. He cut a part of Princess Cadance’s mane, and then froze. “Oh no,” he squeaked, muffled by the tool between his teeth.
“Ember’s on market duty, Cheese’s looking after the Heart, and Shining and Big Mac are jousting,” Soarin said, entering through the open doorway of the balcony. “The crystal ponies are all watch...ing.” He paused, watching Zephyr’s panic with an agape expression. “What happened here?”
“I think he’s cracked,” said Sunburst in complete honesty. “Well, for a while, now, really.”
“I can’t do this,” Zephyr whimpered, dropping the scissors onto the floor with a loud clunk, “I can’t DO this!”
“Zephyr...” rasped the Princess, but he didn’t seem to have heard her.
“ZEPHYR!” yelled Soarin. The gangly pegasus halted at this, and his friend landed to place a forehoof on one of his high, slumped shoulders. “You got this, buddy.”
“But, I just-”
“If anyone can do it, it’s you. You’re the best manestylist I know!”
“But I flunked out!” Zephyr wailed. “The only thing I’ve ever not given up on was brushin’ my teeth when I got braces!”
Soarin smiled, barely stifling a laugh. “You’re really smart, Zeph!” A small pink hue spread to his cheeks. “And ya have an eye for this sorta thing! Dude, anything you put your mind to you can do!”
“You... really mean it?”
“Yes, Ze,” the blue pegasus’ smile turned a little dopey. “I mean it.”
“What if I fail, Soar? I-I- I already-”
“You won’t! Trust yourself, Ze!”
A determination that wasn’t foreign to Zephyr took hold, only this time, he planned on succeeding, as opposed to simply finding something petty as a reason to give up. He turned towards where Cadance was placed, and picked up the scissors again.
Then, he did something unexpected: he quickly turned his head and cut off his tail.
His long, wavy, creamy-yellow tail.
Soarin and Sunburt’s jaws dropped. They almost unhinged themselves and fell to the ground. Almost. The watched as Zephyr picked up his severed clump of thick, healthy blond hair and dunk it in the soapy water that the alicorn Princess held her head back over.
After drying his detached tail, and then Cadance’s mane, a series of clicks and cuts started (hair of purple, pink, and yellow flew everywhere), until he handed his ‘customer’ a cyan hand mirror. Cadance, albeit her energy had almost diminished entirely, widened her lavender eyes.
Her tricoloured mane was up in a regal beehive-like do (with Zephyr’s thoroughly-cleaned tail used as extensions to the part he had accidentally ruined with a faulty cut), and sapphire and amethyst jewels adorned her hair, popping and contrasting against the other colours well. Atop her hair was a beautiful golden crown.
While Zephyr Breeze wore a prideful expression with his wings opened (“Ta-da!” he had proclaimed in a sing-songy voice), Sunburst, Cadance, and Soarin were in pure awe.
“But Ze,” Soarin frowned, making the addressed pegasus open his eyes and turn, “your tail!”
“Huh?” he turned, finally looking at the few inches of uneven hair that he had left. “Oh, it’ll grow back!” He gave a nervous chuckle. “Hopefully...” after a moment of hesitation, he replaced the scissors in his mouth and evened out the ends. “What?” he asked, upon noticing the other stallions’ stares. “I better at least make it look good!”
As the two smiled, realisation dawned on Sunburst, and he started writing a scroll immediately. “That’s it!” After a while of writing quickly, he used his magic to teleport it once rolled up. Soarin and Zephyr both frowned.
“What was that for?” queried Soarin.
“The guys’ll meet us in the throne room! Let’s go!” That said, Sunburst led the two out of the room and down the long hall.
Shining Armor and Big McIntosh were clad in matching silver armour and helmets, with identical jousting poles on their sides. The arena’s crowd cheered for the match to begin, adding to Big Mac’s nerves.
The red stallion shook, making his armour clank and rattle, but Shining was determined. The unicorn eyed his opponent with a snort through his nose and a dominating set of rubs on the dirt ground with his forehoof.
Then, Shining Armor charged.
Almost instinctively, Big McIntosh shrieked such a high, girl shriek, that it was almost comically humiliating because it was so unexpected from his usual bassy voice. The earth pony, however muscular he was, huddled to the ground with his large shaven hooves over his helmeted head.
Because of this, his much more bold opponent halted, skidding forward from the sudden downfall in speed and momentum, and he pulled himself back until he was a mere hair’s breadth away from crashing over the fence and onto the cowering stallion.
“And,” despite his holler, Shining sighed, “again!”
The spectators all groaned.
Big Mac gulped and stood, prepared to return to his side of the pen, until Ember began running through the crowd with a rolled up scroll in her claw. “Big Mac! Shining!” She called. “Sunburst needs-”
Simultaneously, the two stallions (Big Mac quicker than Shining Armor) dropped parts of their armour as they ran past her, spinning the baby dragon off her feet. “On it!”
“Gah,” she groaned, eminently dizzy, “I’ll just... hold fort... here then...” she sighed.
The five stallions stood in the throne room, all facing the sixth in a straight line. Sunburst faced his acquaintances, before turning to Shining Armor alone.
“Remember those strange magical orbs that Sombra had around his horn when he summoned those black crystals?” Shining nodded in turn. “Do you think you can recreate them?”
All eyes widened at the orange unicorn’s ask, especially Shining Armor’s.
“Use dark magic? Are you crazy?”
“Please, Shining?” Sunburst really wasn’t one for begging. “It’s the only way!”
There was a second of apprehension; “Alright. Stand back, everypony!” he declared willingly, setting his hooves into a strong stance.
“At the throne,” the smaller unicorn said, fixing the position of his round glasses, “oh, er, uh- if you may.”
Shining shut his eyes tightly and started grunting in strain. There was a moment before agenta encased his horn, twinkling brightly until it soured into a greyish purple, and then black. Soon, the black, tricolour bubbles were replicated for a beam of pure blackness to shoot out at the top crystal.
Almost as an instant reaction, the crystal turned from light lilac to dark grey, and it projected a shadow that got bigger as it furthered away from the throne. The six stallions had all jumped out of the way.
Shining had landed on his rump, with a hoof to his head. His eyes rolled around in their sockets and his head pounded like a drum. Once he shook his head back and forth, normalcy made its return.
“Woah,” exclaimed Soarin in awe, flapping his wings so he was above his friends’ heads. On that note, Shining Armor stood and made his way over. In the shadow cast by the enchanted crystal, a large part of the floor had opened to reveal a long, spiralling staircase. “Duuude! How’d ya learn how to do that?”
“That was a little trick my sister taught me.”
“I figured,” Sunburst grinned, “I’m also not that great at magic.” He admitted under his breath.
“Well,” Cheese broke the silence before there was a chance for there to even be one, “what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” And with that, the six started their way down the old stone staircase, Sunburst and Shining with their horns alight.
Almost breaching halfway down was when things went south. The staircase started to crack and crumble. Shining Armor instinctively grabbed hold of the closed stallion near him and teleported to the steps below, whereas Zephyr Breeze and Soarin both caught themselves by flight.
Cheese and Sunburst both yelled as the staircase continued to crumble.
“Jump!” Soarin ordered.
“Are you crazy?” screamed Sunburst, but Cheese Sandwich smiled and heeded the command. He landed in Zephyr’s outstretched forelegs. The blond pegasus wobbled in the air, but held the earth pony firmly under the armpits to fly him to where Big McIntosh and Shining Armor were.
“See? It’s fun!” Cheese claimed.
“Because you’re crazy! I’m not!”
“Sunburst, dude! You gotta let go! We’ll catch you!” Soarin proclaimed, before he paused, and grinned. “Well, I will. Dunno about Zephyr, though.”
“Wha- but I just- hey!”
“Bro, you’re like limp noodle!”
“Ooh!” Cheese Sandwich waved. “Like Discord!”
Sunburst seemed twice as panicked as before. “Not helping!”
“Sorry, Cloaky!” the blue pegasus shrugged. “Just sayin’ the truth! But,” he frowned, extending his front legs once more; “we will catch you! I promise! And if we don’t, especially me, Zeph gets to hit me in the face at least twice!”
Zephyr lit up. It seemed as though the moment they shared in the Palace’s spa had evaporated from existence. “I like that deal!”
Sunburst screamed, and the stone crumbled more. He clung onto the small amount of rock left, now with his front hooves alone. He kicked his back legs, panicking as he almost lost his grip. “NOT HELPING!”
“Look, Cloaky, y’know I’m only kidding! We’ll catch you! I’m telling the complete, honest truth!”
Sunburst gulped, scrunching his eyes tight after noticing Soarin’s earnest expression. So, he let go. As he fell, he started to shriek until, suddenly, he opened his eyes and silenced to find himself in the forelegs of Soarin and Zephyr as they lowered to the next level of stairs.
The six chatted quietly, mostly thanking the two pegasi of the group for saving their lives. It had been a long trot down, but once the end of the staircase came, they silenced abruptly.
“Where do you think it leads?” the only aflight member of the group, Soarin asked with his virescent eyes wide. The orange unicorn of the group took a few prepared steps forward. “Sunburst?”
In the black, rocky wall rested a simple gothic-shaped dark oak door with a black-iron hoop door handle. On the top point of the obsidian frame was a small, mediocre, bulbous shape that was sleeker than both the wall all around and the door itself. Despite its colour being the same as its surroundings, it somehow stood out. It caught Sunburst’s eye, and his mind started working out some sort of riddle or equation including the obsidian bulb.
Zephyr Breeze extended a hoof to yank on the doorknob.
“No, Zephyr, wait, I-” Sunburst tried to warn, but he was cut short when the door whizzed by him to the other end of the pit.
“Ooh,” Zephyr winced, before Sunburst used his magical aura to pull him gently back by his cropped tail. “Sorry... Sunshoes.”
“It’s called ‘the Fool’s Errand’,” said Sunburst, pushing his glasses up with his hoof, his gaze refixed on the doorframe’s bulb. “A safeholder’s enchantment. Whatever’s behind that door, Sombra doesn’t want us to see.”
Shining Armor took stand by his unicorn friend’s side. Zephyr (cowering, with his front hooves over his head and chin to the dirt) took asylum behind Cheese Sandwich and Big McIntosh, who both looked back at him with briefly wide, green eyes.
“What should we do?” Shining queried.
“See that piece on the top?” The answer came as a question. “I’m led to believe that the way to keep hold on the door is to use the same magic that enchanted it in the first place. And the enchanter would have been-”
“Sombra.” the white stallion cut across. “I’m on it.”
And with that, he started a train of hushed grunts and groans as the magic around his horn turned bitter and black, before inevitably turning into an array of the black, tricolour bubbles that signified dark forces at play. The magic was shot into the door’s rocky bulb, and Shining was simultaneously thrown back onto his haunches.
The other five stared at the ajar door in awe. From inside, whilst Shining Armor rubbed his poorly head with his eyes scrunched closed. He stood the second he opened them, and then winced in agony and shock as he touched his horn with a hoof.
The others looked back, and all stared wide-eyed and agape at the blue-haired unicorn. Looking up at his horn, Shining tried to conduct a simple spell of levitation, but the magenta aura was only allowed half way, before being blocked by the small, black crystals that had formed around the keratin. In short, he had been rendered powerless (or, rather, magicless), and summoning any magic stung.
“Shining, your horn!”
“I-”
Cheese Sandwich slid behind the crowd and prodded at the gap between the door and frame with a hoof, his tongue between his lips, before it swung open fully in its aged hinges, engulfing all present in a blinding white light.
“Well, boys,” said Sunburst wearily, “to the Crystal Heart we go.” That said, the six stallions walked towards the light like a flock of moths to a flame.
The light faded, and Sunburst found himself in Canterlot Castle’s throne room. He cantered forward cautiously, confusion written on his face. “But... I don’t understand, that should’ve-”
A tutting noise echoed around the place. “Sunburst, Sunburst, Sunburst...”
The orange and white unicorn looked around. “What? Who’s there? How do you know my-”
“Name?” A figure in the stationary stained glass windows was moving. It was a creature of several different animals, completed with a scraggly white goatee and bushy eyebrows to match. It was a familiar voice, one that was aged like a fine red wine, and mature like cheese. Two things that went well together, in both senses. “What kind of teacher wouldn’t know his own disciple’s name?”
As the small black-outlined illustration expertly slithered to the next pane, Sunburst’s eyes went circular. “Lord Discord? I-”
“Succumbed to rebellion and disregarded my one order? My one expectation of you?” Again, Discord’s voice, just as wine and cheese as before, cut across Sunburst’s dialogue. This time, he was snappier, bitter like a lemon. Lemon didn’t exactly match wine and cheese very well.
“But I-”
“Fluttershy never warned me this would have happened,” he hissed, migrating to the next pane, taking the place of his own story’s retelling, where he had taken over Equestria by rule of chaos. The window pictured Discord at the top, body horizontal, with ponies depicted as marionettes in his control. “You made a liar out of my royal advisor!”
With each word, his voice was becoming much more sour, angrier, snappier. It made Sunburst take a few steps back, holding up a turned-inwards forehoof. His ears flattened to his head in fear as he started stammering, attempting to accumulate a coherent string of words in an effort to either own up to his elusive mistake or to excuse himself.
“Do you know what that means..?”
“No! I- gah- I-I-”
The real Discord sprung out of the window frame towards the terrified pony, a scowl smearing his long face as his slit crimson pupils glowing like hot, fiery coals. He hissed and growled all at once. “Exile!”
Sunburst jumped in fright, before dropping to the ground cowardly and pleading with all his shaky might. “No! Your lord, please, I- I- you can’t! I’ll try again! I’ll do better, I’ll-”
“Pathetic.”
Soarin flew through the blue, cloud-filled sky, a frown on his face. He looked around in hopes of finding his friends. “Hey, guys?” He called, before a mist of sorts surrounded him. “Sunburst? Zeph? Cheeeese? I- OOF!”
Soarin had gone head-first into a cliff and, losing his muscle-control through shock, slid down the rocky terrain of the cliffside with many grunts and exclamations of pain. He landed on his back once reaching the grassy ground (albeit he had landed in a patch of thick mud), and his eyes opened as the mist cleared. A figure was shadowed by the sun, so Soarin sat up and held his head with his back legs splayed.
He finally met the stranger’s face. She was a pegasus, like him, but was a much more vivid blue - like the sky itself - with an unkept mane and tail both coloured with every colour of the rainbow. Her eyes, a moderate raspberry, glowered at him with pure disdain and hatred.
Soarin, however, lit up, jumping to his hooves instantly. “Hey, I recognise you! You’re Rainbow Dash, saviour of Equestria, leader of the Wonderbolts! Wow, I never expected to meet you so soon, you’re at least, like, twenty-percent cooler than anypony else in all of History! Aw, man! I just can’t believe I--”
Rainbow Dash had remained unmoving, and untouched by his words. She remained stony and resentful, scowling and glaring at him with all she had. “You will never be a Wonderbolt.”
Soarin’s mood dropped. “W-What do you mean? It- It’s been my dream ever since I was a colt! You can’t just-”
“A true Wonderbolt would have seen that cliff. This was your test, and you failed.”
“But you can’t just-”
“Yes I can,” Rainbow Dash flicked him with her tail as she turned, her head high prestigiously, “it’s like you said. I’m the leader of the Wonderbolts, you’re just a fan. I’m, like, a thousand-percent cooler than you’ll ever be! Loser!” She kicked some dirt at him with her hind hooves before marching off.
Soarin growled, furrowing his brows, before following after her.
Zephyr Breeze opened his eyes and rubbed his head. In a chair a few feet ahead of him was Cadance, with her hair down. Her horn wasn’t alight anymore, and she seemed as fresh as a daisy. Was it all over? Had Sombra been defeated?
“Zephyr,” the Princess smiled, “are you here to do my mane again?”
“Again?” the pegasus repeated. “But didn’t I just...”
“You did such a good job yesterday,” she said kindly, “I thought I’d let you do it again before the royal summit this afternoon.”
“So...” Zephyr trailed, before grinning elatedly, “I’m like your personal manestylist?”
“If you do as well today as you did yesterday, yes,” Cadance assented.
“Aw, yeah! Wait ’til the guys hear about this!” He eagerly picked up a pair of scissors. “’Kay, tho holdw thtill...”
The first cut he made went disastrously wrong. Zephyr reeled back in horror; he had been sure that the hair was in the right place for him to cut perfectly. The Princess had shifted in her seat ever so slightly, but that shouldn’t have made a misplaced cut this bad.
Cadance gasped too and faced him, now on her hoofs, with her wings open threateningly. “You... failed.” She growled. “I knew I should have never trusted a failure like you!”
“I’m sorry, your majesty! I didn’t mean to-”
“Silence!” Princess Cadance thundered. “You fool! Don’t you have any idea of what you have done?”
Zephyr gulped, beads of sweat dripping down his forehead.
“Y’ain’t no apple, Big Mac!” an old mare’s voice echoed in the darkness.
The named red stallion opened his emerald eyes. He looked around. Where was he? Lost, it seemed. He was floating in an empty black space, and he didn’t like it. Where were the buildings, the nature... the ponies? He was alone, in a dark void, with no one to talk to.
“Yer a coward, ya hear!” the same voice from before exclaimed.
“..Granny?” Big Mac’s deep voice was contrasting, but his accent was indifferent to the mare’s own. “Granny, ’s that you?”
“Ah’ bothered tah greet ’im!” another mare said, and almost simultaneously two large faces appeared in the dark, staring down on him condescendingly. One was green and wrinkled, with eyes as orange as the other’s coat. They were both recognised by Big McIntosh instantly: his grandmother Granny Smith, and his sister Applejack. “Ya talk so little that ya shouldn’t even bother to talk at all!”
“Applejack saved Equestria? An’ what’d you do? Nothin’! Nothin’ at all!”
“Ya just stayed at home, doin’ nothin’!”
Big Mac reeled back. “Ah’ was lookin’ after the farm!”
“Suuuure, an’ ah was crowned the youngest in allll o’ Equestria!” proclaimed the green head sardonically, her amber eyes callous.
“Coward!” Applejack thundered, and just like that Big Mac felt like he was falling back-first.
“Vermin!”
“Slacker!”
“Weak!”
Their voices echoed through the abyss until they merged into one. They continued to shout insults into Big Mac’s head, even when he shut his eyes tight to stop a few tears. The falling stopped, and the scarlet stallion opened his green eyes to find himself in the pane of a stained glass window. He was frozen, unable to move anything but his eyes.
Big McIntosh’s pane of coloured glass was still in the void, afloat in fact, and he heard the reverb hoofsteps all around him. It made him feel dizzy, if anything.
Applejack approached her brother from behind, before she turned, muttered a quick “Yer no apple” and bucked him with her hindlegs. With a sharp, loud smash, the glass, unsurprisingly, smashed, taking Big McIntosh with it.
Before he knew it, Big Mac was himself again, but this time on a purple checkered floor. Has he escaped the void? Just like that? The stallion lifted his head, before taking note of his surroundings. His fancy surroundings. He was in a castle. A home of royals. And there, through the large doorway (that was of similar shape to the door that had brought them here) was Canterlot’s throne room. He was in the stained-window corridor.
And there, inside the throne room, was a shaking Sunburst with a more-than-angry Discord hovering over him.
A sad pony, one that was pink with a darker pink mane and tail, sat at a lone bench in a park. She moped, her colours seeming almost grey, like her emotion. Her eyes, both sad and blue, were shimmering with tears in the sunlight. Her head was on its side against the bench table, her cheek smudged against the coarse wood.
Cheese Sandwich approached her. “What’s a fine gal like you doin’ here all alone? What’s wrong?” His smile, bright and happy, turned into a small, sympathetic frown.
The mare mumbled.
“Ya don’t want to talk? Well that’s fine! How’s about Ol’ Weird Cheese here played ya a song?” He whipped out his accordion in a matter of nanoseconds. “Oh, When I was a little colt and the sun was going down… the darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown..! I'd hide under my pillow, from what I thought I saw, but Grampa Gouda said that wasn't the way, to deal with it at all!”
“Please don’t,” said the pink mare, blowing a strand of flat pink mane away from her eyes. “You’re not making me happy at all.”
Cheese Sandwich, agape, dropped to his haunches the second she said this, his music coming to a sudden halt. “I’m not making you happy? Not…” he gasped. “This is the worst, possible thing!”
“You can’t even use magic anymore,” a purple alicorn stood in front of Shining Armor. She huffed through her nose, clearly angry. “What kind of Sparkleare you?”
“Twilight, I’m sorry! I’ll do better, I-”
“You’ll never be as great as me,” she snapped, “everypony thinks so. Even mom and dad.”
“No, they-” Shining took a step back, “they don’t-”
“Think that you’re a failure?” Twilight flared out her wings and stood upright proudly. “Oh, they do, Shining! Look at me! I’m an alicorn, now, a princess. The Princess of Magic!”
“No!” Shining stomped his hoof, eyes stinging. “My sister loves me! She wouldn’t do this! You’re not Twily!”
A smirk made its way to the impostor’s lips. “Wouldn’t she?”
A light yellow pegasus with teal eyes and a pink mane stood next to a white unicorn with fashionably styled purple hair. They both snickered at Zephyr’s guilty, fear stricken expression.
“What kind of manestylist can’t even do a simple cut?” asked the unicorn mare through her own amusement.
“I know,” agreed the pegasus, “I can’t even look at him! He’s such a failure!”
“Fluttershy?” Zephyr turned. “What- What’re you doing here? My- My own sister! I can’t even begin to believe-”
“How much of a failure you are?” Fluttershy gave a malicious grin. “Neither can I.”
“Failure! Failure! Failure!” The three mares all started to chant.
Zephyr, in turn, bit his bottom lip to stifle a sob. “Yeah? Well... I don’t need you guys! The Breeze needs to-” he choked, “-flow on his own terms! Without this petty... manestyling nonsense! It’s messin’ up my flow, y-you know?”
“Ooh, look!” the unicorn pointed a manicured hoof at the stallion, adopting baby-talk. “The widdle woser’s cwying! Somebody give him a piddy mewal!”
“Big baby!” Fluttershy jeered.
“I thought you were kind, sis,” said Zephyr, “I thought you were- heeey! I thought you were kind.” He came to a realisation, before looking around and giving a single, wet sniff. “I gotta tell the others!”
With that, Zephyr raced to the throne room, Cadance, Rarity, and Fluttershy’s mocking ringing in his head. His ears flattened in a failed effort to keep it all out. The pegasus flew straight down the stairway, head first, before crash-landing in front of the enchanted door. It was ajar, and the white glow kept the pit alight.
Zephyr went through the door, and the flash of light soon vanished when the stallion found himself amongst his friends again. They all stared at the open door, in a trance of sorts with their eyes identical to Sombra’s, with red irises and green whites with purple smoke billowing at the outer-corners. The doorway led to a rock wall, that was all. It was a decoy!
“Rainbow Dash, ma’am! I’m sorry, I-” Soarin began, before a white light overtook him. He rubbed his head, his green eyes opening to find Zephyr looking worriedly at him. “Z...Zeph?”
“Thank goodness! That door had us all in some sort of stupor! Quick, Soar, help me wake the others!”
“I can make you greater than anypony in all of Equestria, Shining,” said the Twilight doppelgänger, “then your family will really be proud. All you have to do is choose me over your pesky friends.”
Shining Armor turned his head, averting his gaze. He paused, as if he was thinking over his options. “I’ll never betray my friends just for some power!”
Twilight hissed, and soon a blinding light overtook them both.
“Sunburst!” Big McIntosh ran over to his unicorn friend and helped him up. “Are y’all oka-”
“You dare help this fiend?” bellowed Lord Discord. “He deliberately disobeyed me! His one order!”
“Ah’m sure he di’n’t mean tah,” said Big Mac. “He can easily try again. All ya need t’ do is show a li’l kindness!”
Discord growled. “After he avoided my order to make some friends?”
A white light engulfed them. “He’s got one right here.”
“Ugh, my head,” groaned Cheese Sandwich. The four stallions had a similar response to Soarin beforehand, and all rubbed their heads and grumbled as they sat up.
“I’m sorry, everypony,” said Sunburst guiltily, “I thought that would take us to the Heart.”
“You couldn’t have known, Sunburst,” said Shining Armor, shifting closer to the sullen orange unicorn.
“Nope!” Big McIntosh nodded, closing the door with a large hoof.
“I couldn’t make the greatest party pony of all time laugh!” Cheese Sandwich exclaimed, joining the two unicorns and throwing his front legs up to emphasise his point. “I never felt more defeated in my entire life!”
“Not helping, Cheese,” retorted Shining.
Sunburst took a deep breath and used his magic to readjust his glasses. “No, it- it’s fine. It was an enchantment to show us our biggest fears. Discord exiled me for disobeying an order.”
“The Princess called me a failure!” Zephyr Breeze admitted. “Even my sister and her friend were there.”
“That’s ridiculous! You’re an amazing manestylist, Zeph!” Soarin said. “The leader of the Wonderbolts told me I was a loser!”
“Now that’s ridiculous! You’re, like, the coolest stallion I know, Soarin!” said the yellow earth pony of the group.
“You’ve been wanting to join them for years,” Zephyr’s eyes had widened, getting closer to the slowly-forming huddle.
“I know! It was horrible!”
“My sister made me choose between power,” Shining spoke up, “and my friends.”
“What did you choose?” asked Sunburst, looking up at the other unicorn.
“I chose you guys.”
“Mah’ family kicked me out,” stated Big Mac, inching closer to the cluster, like the others before him had done, “fer not being a real Apple.”
“Guys!” proclaimed Cheese. “I think we found the most ridiculous! Big Mac’s a pony, duh!”
Everypony present laughed at Cheese Sandwich’s silly joke. Had Sunburst truly gone against Discord’s word now that he had friends right here with him? Sunburst, who was in the centre of the huddle, conducted a spell subconsciously, a flaxen light wisping from his horn unlike any magic ever seen before.
The golden stream hit the doorframe’s bulbous topper, and a multicoloured light, differing greatly from plain white or black, filled the room. The light filled the room with an anti-clockwise pinwheel of yellow, red, purple, blue and green. Then, the door opened all on its own.
“Guys?” exclaimed Zephyr unsurely. “The door!”
The group all opened their eyes to find the white light filling the pit once again, and (once again), they went through together. This time however, together they remained. The scene was set as a white void with a never-ending crystal tower with white quartz stairs twisting around it going all the way up. The complete opposite of the pit they were just in.
“A staircase? Again?” Zephyr groaned. “I don’t think I can handle anymore near-death experiences!”
“So are we, Zeph,” Soarin patted his friend on the shoulder. “So are we.”
And on that note, the six trekked the staircase one after the other.
“What if this...” Zephyr grunted as he struggled to climb the step before him. He was a whole level of stairs below the others, with Soarin aflight above his head to make sure he made it, “is just more of Sombra’s magic? I mean, the guy can make doorways leading to your greatest fear, why not a staircase that leads on forever.”
“You can fly, y’know!” exclaimed the blue pegasus of the group.
Zephyr turned his head to his now-open wings and fluttered them. Then, he smiled as he joined Soarin in the air. “Oh, yeeeaah..!”
The other five rolled their eyes before the two pegasi of the group joined the rest. Sunburst used his magic to readjust his glasses.
“You know,” said the orange unicorn, “perhaps Zephyr’s right.”
“Hey, where’d Cheese go?” asked Shining Armor.
“Whee-hee-hee!” Looking up, the group found an upside down Cheese sliding on the smooth underneath of the lengthy spiralling staircase with childish entertainment on his face.
Everypony was gobsmacked. “Cheese!” said Soarin. “How’re you doing that!”
“You just have to look on the more sillier side of things!” he said as he whizzed underneath them.
Shrugging, Soarin planted himself on the underneath of the next level of steps and, sure enough, he too was defying gravity enough to use it as a slide. Shining followed, and then Big Mac, then Zephyr, and then, finally, an apprehensive Sunburst.
“Crystals...”
Ponies screamed and ran to the centre of the Empire, trying desperately to get away from the flickering forcefield. Ember gulped, following the herd to hide the fake Crystal Heart from view.
The forcefield was present and shiny blue one minute, and then flickered to reveal the cloud of shadow and orange sky and blizzard the next. It was terrifying, and the black crystals looming at the edges of the Empire didn’t help, not even a smidge.
“The Crystal Heart!” exclaimed a wilted crystal mare. “We need it! Now!”
The statue was knocked over and slid to the hoofs of the herd. Ember winced as they stared at her judgingly. “This isn’t the Crystal Heart,” said a yellow stallion.
“Of course it isn’t!” Ember laughed nervously. “It... It’s... being polished!”
“The Crystal Heart...” growled Sombra.
The makeshift slide came to an abrupt stop, and the six stallions crashed into an enormous pile on top of one another, bringing an unsteady end to their roarous laughter. Groaning and mumbling, they eventually got their bearings and found themselves face-to-face with a bright blue crystal in the shape of a heart.
“Woah...” the stallions were in awe, until the floor went black and the Crystal Heart dropped to the floor and smashed.
The six gasped and clambered off of each other to inspect the scattering of a billion tiny, crystal pieces. Sombra’s cackle was heard echoing all across the Empire. “Discord’s gonna exile me for sure...” Sunburst muttered, being the closest to the crystal shards.
“Now everypony’s gonna think I’m a failure,” complained Zephyr.
“I’m never, ever gonna get into the Wonderbolts!”
“Twily’s gonna be so ashamed!”
“I’ll never be able to make anyone laugh after this ever again!”
“I ain’t no Apple anymore!”
“How are we gonna spread light and joy to the Crystal Empire? We can’t just leave them like this! There has to be another way!” declared Shining Armor.
“Honestly, dude,” Soarin lowered himself to the floor glumly, “I don’t think there is...”
“Now, y’all, we can’t just give up.” Cheese Sandwich said adamantly.
“Nope!” agreed Big McIntosh.
Then, Cheese lowered his voice to a mere whisper. “Look at Sunburst.” He nodded over to the orange unicorn, who now sat before the broken head with his head low.
“What do you mean ‘look at Sunburst’?” Zephyr said. “You’re the happy one! Go cheer him up!”
“I would if I could! But this... this isn’t-”
“What about the Elements of Harmony?” asked Soarin, and to this, one of Sunburst’s ears turned. “Surely we can-”
“Soar, look around!” Zephyr cut across, throwing his forehooves up in the air to define his point. “Do you see any Elements of-”
Sunburst turned his head to the group. “Shining?” he asked meekly. “What was that you said before?”
“We can’t just leave them?” answered the white unicorn dubiously.
“Yes,” he sighed, “and about...”
“Spreading light and joy? I said there has to be another way!”
“All ya need t’ do is show a li’l kindness!” Big McIntosh was looking at his sitting friend with the gentlest, most empathetic look he could have given.
“You just have to look on the sillier side of things!” Sunburst looked over at Cheese Sandwich’s smile.
“I chose you guys.” Shining Armor was standing proud. Here he was, his crystalised horn proof that he had chosen his friends over power.
Zephyr Breeze turned his head quickly and cut off his tail. His long, yellow tail. The orange unicorn looked over at Zephyr Breeze’s now-missing tail. He had cut it off willingly for Princess Cadance with no expectation of payment back.
“I’m telling the complete, honest truth!” The image of Soarin catching Sunburst came to mind. He had in fact been telling the truth, Sunburst still alive proved that notion.
“I’m not that great at magic.” His own words ran through his mind, but then the image of that golden trail leaving his horn and projecting into the door followed. He had been thinking about how he hadn’t truly gone against Lord Discord’s order in that moment in time, whilst being surrounded by the five stallions that had stuck with him through this entire journey.
“I trust you know what you’re supposed to do, Sunburst.”
A twinkle shone in Sunburst’s eyes, and he gasped before using his magic to remove his cloak and fill it with the shards of crystal. “I think I know where the Elements of Harmony are!”
As lighting cracked and buildings turned into Sombra’s signature black and grey, the six raced down the steps, towards the throne room. There, they met Princess Cadance on the balcony.
“Stop. We know what to do now, your highness.” said Shining.
With a groan, Cadance collapsed, and the blue flickering stopped. “Shining..? Sunburst?”
“Ponies of the Crystal Empire!” Sunburst shouted. “Behold, the Crystal Heart!” Using his cape as a sheet, he flung the shards down below. The civilians gasped.
“Uh, don’t worry your pretty little crystal heads!” exclaimed Cheese Sandwich worriedly.
“Foals,” Sombra cackled, proclaiming, “my reign shall last forever!”
The crystal ponies below all exclaimed and fell to the ground in fear, hooves over their heads.
“To fix the Heart, all- a-all...” Sunburst stammered as he saw Sombra’s head etch closer and closer from the south side of the Empire, his cloud of shadow now surrounding the whole area. Then, he noticed his friends looking back at him encouragingly, and his eyes shone in turn. As Sombra began another cackle, Sunburst stood much more determined. “We have the Elements of Harmony, Sombra! Right here.”
“What?” hissed the shadow pony bitterly, eyes narrowing.
A golden glow illuminated Sunburst's horn, and soon trailed towards the group of ponies behind him. “You knew that Princess Cadance would take your word, wouldn’t you, Sombra? You never hid the elements to begin with.” Sombra snarled.
“The Crystal Heart is powered by love and light,” said Sunburst, dragging his speech out for longer, “but by crushing the spirits of the crystal ponies, you knew it would never work.”
The six stallions were now swallowed in a semi-transparent golden light, and were all levitated a few feet above the balcony. Each of their manes and tails waved simultaneously in an illusory wind of sorts, and over the Empire a portal briefly flashed into existence. It was a bright white, and in the blink of an eye it was gone. Out of it floated several grey shards each with their own coloured glow.
“We may not have the Elements, but the Spirits of Harmony are right here!” Sunburst grinned, eliciting a hiss from the agitated shadow unicorn. “Soarin,” a set of five grey shards orbited around the blue-haired pegasus; “who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the Spirit of Honesty!”
Soarin, who was at first taken aback by the purple-glowing shards of crystal circling him, soon wore his new position (and title) with pride.
“Big Mac, who stood up against the scariest thing ever to cross the land of Equestria-”
Discord, who watched from afar sat high in the air far away from the scene with a striped box of popcorn, rolled his eyes at this. “Scariest? Please. Perhaps the most handsomest, but I wouldn’t say the scariest.” He poofed a hand mirror into his eagle claw and peered into it. “Pfft, he’s just intimidated.”
Sunburst hadn’t stopped talking, “-with his ardent determination, represents the Spirit of Kindness!”
Down below, the orange earth pony mare known as Applejack held her hat to her chest with a proud grin, liquid pride meeting her eyes. Her bright green eyes met Big McIntosh’s - who was orbited by green-glowing grey shards - filling him up with glory and pride in return (although Applejack was the most proud out of the two).
“Cheese Sandwich, who banished all doubt by showing us how to look on the sillier side of things, represents the Spirit of Laughter!”
A set of shards glowing a cobalt each started a race around the eager earth pony.
“Zephyr Breeze, who sacrificed something of his own to gift to another,” said Sunburst, straining for a way to word that without explaining his friend’s desperate frenzy, “represents the Spirit of Generosity!”
The set of red-lit crystals surrounded Zephyr.
“And finally, Shining Armor, who could not abandon his friends for his own heart’s desires, represents the Spirit of Loyalty!”
The group of magenta-themed crystals orbited the white unicorn.
“The Spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge that you threw at us! And the sixth? I felt it the very moment I realised how happy I was to find my friends still by my side, even when we all thought we would return empty-hoofed. When I realised how much they cared, that they were my friends, I found a spark ignite inside of me! Do you know what also spreads love and light, Sombra? Friendship!”
And with that, a six-coloured streak of light emitted from the floating herd the second the final set of crystals circled Sunburst, and in a flash of white, the Crystal Heart was mended - whole again - and started spinning in its place. Sombra’s eyes widened as he yelled in defiance as the power of the Heart and Elements worked together against him.
The white light that engulfed all around was blinding, and even spectator Discord - who sat, reclined, in a floating red armchair and wore two-toned 3D glasses on his snout and held a box of popcorn - covered his eyes in surprise.
Through the blinding wave of magic, the sets of crystals each formed a golden necklace with the centrepiece made out of pure crystal, each shaped and coloured differently to the others. Soarin’s was a yellow lightning bolt; Big Mac’s was a green apple to match his cutie mark; Cheese Sandwich’s was a dark orange bread slice; Zephyr’s was a purple feather, and Shining Armor’s was a six-point magenta star.
Sunburst, on the other hand, received a crown. At its apex sat a blue crystal streaked with a lighter shade, much like his own cloak. It - much like the others’ - resembled his cutie mark, being a circular body with rays forming half a circle by protruding from the side.
“Nooooo!” Sombra proclaimed as the rainbow emitting from the six friends enveloped him.
Once the light diminished after emitting from Sunburst’s eyes, the six found themselves on the ground below, laid on their fronts. They groaned as they awoke - the number of times this had happened was now shocking.
“My head,” said Soarin, rubbing one of his temples with his hoof.
“Everypony okay?” asked Shining Armor in return.
“Oh, thank goodness, guys!” Zephyr Breeze and Big Mac stood. The pegasus’s eyes were glued to his newly-formed tail, and one of his forehooves rested on his chest.
“Why, ain’t that lovely, Zeph?” said Big McIntosh rhetorically, meaning the necklace around his winged friend’s neck.
“Aw,” the teal pony swished his tail joyously, “I’m never parting with you again, buddy!”
“Well, ah’ was on about that there neckpiece,” said the broad earth stallion, “looks just like yer cutie mark, there, dun-it?”
Zephyr was agape as his eyes trailed to the necklace, and then his cutie mark. “Well so does yours, Mackster!” He pulled his friend close.
On that note, the six all eyed their necklaces after standing.
“Ooh, mine! Mine’s a sandwich!”
“Oh yeah! Mine’s so awesome.”
“Wow!”
“Ooh!”
“Oh man!”
“Look at Sunburt’s,” said Cheese Sandwich suddenly, pointing a hoof at his orange unicorn friend’s crown. “Ooh! Ooh! Pretty. And here we are thinking that the Element of Friendship was just a myth!”
“Yet Sunburst is representing it,” down from the balcony Princess Cadence glided. She landed on all four hooves gracefully, with her wings opened. “I’m proud of you, Sunburst. You figured it out!”
“But- But what about Sombra?” Sunburst asked.
Cadance simply grinned. “Why not see for yourself?” She turned her head to the east of the Empire.
The six stallions were led by Princess Cadance across the Empire to where a dark grey stallion with wispy black hair laid on his side next to the protective shield. His iron armor and crown were strewn around him.
“Uh... Ki- King Sombra?” Sunburst stepped past Princess Cadance and pushed his glasses up his striped nose with a hoof.
The stallion, Sombra, opened his eyes with a short gasp. While they were perfectly pony-like, his irises were as red as the tip of his curved horn. At last, he stood, and bowed his head with watering eyes.
“I- I’m sorry,” Sombra said solemnly, his voice raspy. “I’m so, so sorry...”
Princess Cadance took a few steps forward. She met Sombra’s gaze after lifting his head slightly with her golden-clad hoof. She smiled: “It’s been a while since I’ve seen you like this, Sombra.”
Sombra only pulled away, and turned his head in shame. She engulfed him in an embrace of pale pink and dark grey, using her purple-tipped wings as extra forelimbs.
“I think it’s best if we put this behind us,” she continued. “Tell me: will you accept friendship into your heart once again?”
“I’ll try,” Sombra straightened himself, but kept his head bowed. “By Discord, I’ll try.”
“Hey, do ya know what this calls for?” Cheese Sandwich bounced up and exclaimed. “A paaarty!”
The Crystal Faire raged on like it never had before. Streets bustled with many natives and tourists, and stalls were always busy. The Crystal Heart shone brightly on its podium, and every single pony was in awe whenever they caught sight.
Everypony was having fun, apart from one.
Sunburst sat on the sidelines, alone at a café table, with a great frown on his face. He sighed, and then used his magic to readjust his glasses. He should really go to have them refitted.
There was a snap of almost-blinding white, and a serpentine-like creature coiled around the orange unicorn with a satisfied smirk. “Why so glum, Sunset? Baby dragon got your tongue? Or, perhaps it was a Draconequus? Really, who can tell?”
A wet, pink muscle was pinched between the first finger and thumb of Discord’s eagle claw, and Sunburst found his mouth feeling awfully empty. His white forehooves raced to his muzzle and he held his mouth to stifle a horrified scream.
Discord rolled his eyes and sighed like a nuisance foal being told it was bedtime. “Oh, you ponies are all the same. All work and no play makes Discord a dull pony,” he recited. “Really.” He then scoffed, and stuffed his claw into Sunburst’s horrified maw, roughly fixing his tongue back into place at the back of his throat. “No, wait, that’s upside down... ah, there!”
Sunburst awkwardly wiggled his tongue against his teeth to make sure everything was right.
“Now,” Discord said, in a way that made the unicorn stallion flinch, “what seems to be the matter, Glumburst?” He used a painfully mocking tone to address him.
“W-Well-” Sunburst stammered, his nerves taking hold of him, “-i-it’s just that, well, after learning how great it was making friends, I have to leave.”
Discord groaned loudly, and unwound himself from around Sunburst to slither his way next to the seat opposite him. He didn’t sit himself down in it, though. “I knew it would come to this. As much as it pains me to let you go, Sunblast,” dramatically, the Lord of Chaos placed an arm over his face and draped himself backwards, but soon returned to his previous position; “it’s only fair I free you from your educational confines so that you join the real world!”
Sunburst gasped. “A-Are you really saying what I think you’re saying?”
Discord only sighed at first. “Yes, Sunburst, but I’m pretty sure I’ll live.”
“Oh, thank you!” Overcome by delight, Sunburst hugged the slender torso of the mighty ruler of Equestria before trotting off to join his friends in the crowd.
Discord was taken aback. “I- well- of course...”
“Isn’t that great?” Zephyr asked, having overheard most of the conversation like the rest of the group. “Now we can all siesta!” He made a to-and-fro gesture with his head and hoof.
Sunburst grinned into his own hoof. “Why else would I ask to stay for?”
The sun was bright and sparkling across the Crystal Empire, but many of the pegasi - crystal or otherwise - were filling in the sky with dark clouds ready for a great storm while many of the crystal and earth ponies remained on the ground, picking up quartz pebbles and crystal branches and the like, or taking down loose branches.
Everypony was working, including most of the guards.
Shining Armor grunted quietly as he used his magic to tug at an unsafely hanging crystal tree branch onto the floor. He turned his head and found a familiar teal pegasus laid on a misplaced pearly-white cloud a few feet away. Shining growled under his breath, pulled down a few more branches, and upon realising that Zephyr Breeze hadn’t moved from his little white dozing-cloud.
Everypony was at work, except for one.
“Aren’t you meant to be helping, Zephyr?” Shining asked, looking up as he approached.
“Huh? Oh, yeah,” Zephyr waved a dismissive hoof, “I’m just on my break, that’s all.”
Shining noticed the long trail of perfectly square storm clouds to the left of Zephyr’s resting spot. His eyes landed on one that was out of place, having been shaped into an almost exact image of Zephyr Breeze’s face.
Shining growled under his breath again, before sending a magenta beam at the fluffy white cloud, making it evaporate in a mere second. Zephyr landed on the floor with a thud!.
“Hey!” The pegasus exclaimed upon getting up onto his hooves, throwing a forelimb up dramatically. “I was siesta-ing!”
“Well you can do less of that and more helping instead!” Shining Armor turned on his heel and began walking back to the nearby crystal trees. Zephyr followed him.
From a distance up in the air, Soarin - who had been corralling a herd of storm clouds and putting them in place - watched the scene unfold with a frown. He sighed, shrugged to himself, and returned back to work.
“I was helping!” Zephyr defended himself.
“Stylising the clouds is not helping!” Shining retorted, before sighing. He pointed at one of the untouched crystal trees as he addressed his slacking friend: “Look, just make yourself useful and fly up there to take some of the broken branches down, okay? You got that?”
There was a stare-off. Shining’s dark glare eventually won, though, and so muttering bitterly, Zephyr flew up to the designated tree’s branches and started plucking most of the loose ones off. Once he landed, he began placing all the branches that he had collected - and the ones that Shining had previously taken down - into a pattern of squares.
Shining Armor groaned. “What are you doing?”
“I’m cleaning up your mess,” said the pegasus defiantly, sticking up his nose as he flapped around with his forelegs full. “And besides, Shiny, squares are totally gonna be the next new thing! And it’ll be moi who all of Equestria’s going to thank.”
“I think you’ve taken too many feathers to the head,” Shining Armor shook his own head with a quiet scoff. “The storm’s going to make an even bigger mess if we don’t start pruning all these branches, Zeph, so just help out.”
Zephyr looked up at the sky, and decided to change the subject now that his forelegs were no longer full. He landed on the ground and tucked his wings back into his body. “Really, though! I simply cannot imagine why all the pegasi would want to schedule such a dreadfuldownpour on what could have been an ab-so-lutely glorious day for ponies like me to be siesta-ing!” He proclaimed as the last of the sky was patched up with storm clouds.
Shining sighed irritatedly in reply. “Think more practically, Zeph!” he said, pulling down a good cluster of branches with his magic. “They missed a small sprinkle last week, so they’re just making up for it with a storm today, and-” he paused, and then shot the absent-minded Zephyr Breeze a greatly annoyed glare. “Say, aren’t you on the weather team?”
Zephyr cringed back and lifted a slowly rotating hoof to accentuate his next point: “Ehhhh...”
Shining’s brows knitted together as he leaned forward to go face-to-face with the pegasus. “You quit, didn’t you?”
“I wouldn’t say that...” Zephyr pulled away from Shining and averted his gaze. The two froze before a response could come. The wind began to howl and the heavy rain began to pour. Zephyr gasped and covered his head with his forehooves. “My mane! How am I going to pull off this-” he gestured to all of himself, “when it’s all wet!”
“Well, if you had just hurried up and finished the job already-”
“Ah! Ooh! No, not there! Oh!” Zephyr began hopping around in an effort to dodge the frequent raindrops, and failing terribly. “It’s coming down too fast!” He ran, and skidded to a halt so he could run back. “Oh!” He took flight, but got the same result. “Ah! Ooh! Oh, no! Shining, help me!”
Shining rolled his eyes before scanning the surrounding area. Eventually, he pointed at a white quartz bench. “There! You can hide under that bench for as long as you want until I’ve finished up here.”
Zephyr flew faster than he ever had before to the bench, but by the time he reached the bench, it was surrounded by an enormous puddle. “Oh, no! The Breeze cannot siesta there!”
Shining groaned. “And why’s that?”
“I’ll get even wetter! How am I meant to catch some Zs while wet?”
“There’s just no pleasing you, is there?” Shining remarked. “Everything’s got to be exactly the way that you want it!”
“Well, how is getting wet any use to us?” Zephyr asked.
“Please.” Shining Armor dismissed his friend’s reply. “You wouldn’t know useful if it came up and bit you on the nose!”
Zephyr gasped dramatically. “How dare you! The Breeze can be very useful!”
“No, you can’t.”
“Yes, I can!”
“No, you can’t.”
“Yes, I can.”
“Can’t!”
“Can!”
“Can’t!”
“Can-infinity!” Zephyr made himself seem bigger by stretching out his neck.
“Can’t-infinity-plus-one. Ha!” The two were face-to-face as Shining gave a single petty laugh.
The two were locked in a stare-off of annoyed glaring and furrowed brows. There was a long and suspenseful silence between the two.
“What say we just go our separate ways until this whole thing is over, huh, Shiny?” Zephyr said at last, putting a soggy hoof onto his chest. He resumed their stare-off. “Before one of us - being the smaller pony that he is - says something that we regret.”
“Why? Because you’re the one who’ll say something that he regrets first?”
“Why, you’ve got your story all the wrong way ’round, Shiny! It’s you who’ll totally say something to upset the both of us! Why, you’ll regret so hard that you’ll be crying yourself to sleep for a week!”
“I’m not saying anything,” said Shining Armor stubbornly, stepping backwards and stomping a shaven blue hoof.
“Neither am I!”
“You can just go on your way, then!” The white unicorn waved a hoof at the pegasus.
Zephyr returned the gesture to mock him. “I insist: after you.”
And, so, without taking their eyes off of the other, the two both began walking away backwards, their heads pressed down low.
There was a mighty clash of thunder and blinding white light. In that exact moment, there was a frightened girly squeal, and Zephyr whizzed through the air and wrapped his shivering gangly body around Shining Armor’s broad neck. A strand of his golden hair fell down out of his topknot in his panic.
“Er,” Zephyr gulped, “p-perhaps we should - uh - stick together for now, eh, Shiny? J-Just to find some shelter, that is.”
Shining Armor hid his fear much better, but still had to gulp. “Sure, Zeph. Whatever you say.”
“It’s nice and dry under here, you know!” Shining mocked, his relatively large frame huddled under the quartz bench. He looked down at the puddle underneath him. “Sort of.”
“Oh, that is just unacceptable!” Zephyr retorted, his crystal-leaf and -branch filled bun ready to come undone in the strong winds at any second.
“Zephyr! Shining!” A voice called in the distance. Zephyr’s eyes went wide, and the two turned to find Soarin with his door wide open waving hurriedly at them. “Zephyr! Shining!”
Shining Armor got out from under the bench and stepped next to Zephyr. “Soarin?” They recited in unison.
“Get in, dudes! It’s freezing!”
The two ran across the Crystal Empire’s centre and passed Soarin into the dry warmth of his house. They stopped at the welcome mat inside.
“Oh, thank Cadance, you saw us, Soar’!” Zephyr sighed in relief, and Soarin threw them both a towel.
“Yes, thank you.” Shining - as much as he hated to admit it - agreed with Zephyr.
“No problem, dudes. Just dry off and come into the living room. Mi casa es su casa!” He took flight and flew around the nearby door frame into the living room.
As Shining started to follow. Zephyr stopped him with his forearm before giving a pointed look down at his positively soaked hooves. “Heh,” he grinned sourly, “make sure to get your hooves.” That said, he trotted forward triumphantly into the living room.
“Yeah, well,” Shining tried to shoot back: “make sure to get your mane!”
Zephyr poked his head around the doorframe, revealing his mane to be dry, sparkling, and perfectly placed back into his signature topknot. He gave a dazzling smile with a prideful hoof on his chest: “Believe me, Shiny: styling my mane is the first thing I did!”
“And you look great, Ze’!” exclaimed Soarin from inside the living room, having completely missed the point of the remark.
Shining only growled, and got to work cleaning and shining his hooves in hopes of one-upping Zephyr’s luscious mane. “If I have to spend one more minute with that featherbrained rustbucket, I won’t be able to hold responsibility for my actions...” he grumbled to himself, shutting the front door with one of his soggy hind legs.
“Some storm, huh?” Soarin grinned, leaning over the back of the sofa to talk to Zephyr. “I’m actually real proud of what we managed to have cooked up out there!”
“Huh, that’s great, Soar’, but you know what?” Zephyr glanced around the doorframe to briefly watch Shining Armor dry off one of his hooves. “I’m just probably gonna go hit the hay. Catch some Zs, if ya catch my drift, I hope ya made the guest room the way I like it, right? Thanks.”
“Wait!” Soarin called his friend back, and back he came. “You’re sleeping over? Oh, this’ll be great!” Soarin clapped his hooves together excitedly. “We can all have one big slumber party! That is,” he frowned, and quirked a brow as he tapped his chin with one hoof, “if the two of you can’t really make it home.”
“That - uh - might be a problem,” Shining said, stepping into the living room at last. Zephyr looked down at his hooves; they were shined so well that he could see his own reflection in them.
“Oh, that’s totally mondo, dudes!” Soarin exclaimed. “We can paint each other’s hooves, do face masks, we can even have Zeph style our manes!”
“Uh...” Shining Armor began hesitantly. “I just realised that I have - er - somewhere else to be! At this moment. That I forgot. Now. So, uh, see ya!” exclaimed the unicorn, forcing a nervous laugh, slowly walking backwards. “So, I can’t possibly stay here. All night. With Zephyr.”
“But, we can finally do something about those split ends of yours, Shining,” Zephyr grinned deviously, purposely trying to wind Shining Armor up. He then gave an amused little sound, and just as Shining began to growl like a dog with rabies, the pegasus leaned in and whispered in his ear: “You wouldn’t want to upset Soarin now, would you?”
“Heh-heh,” Shining Armor’s ears flattened against his head, “I guess not.”
Soarin, seemingly oblivious to the others’ personal conflict, clapped his hooves together once again and squealed with a bright, toothy smile. “Mondo, dudes! I’ll go fix us some snacks!” He flew past them and into the kitchen, but soon popped his head back around the door. “There’s some pie in the fridge, but that’s mine, got it?”
“Yeah, ’course, Soar’. Whatever you say, goes.” Zephyr assented.
“That’s so tubular of you guys! Okay, be right back. This party calls for some cheese ’n’ mustard!”
Zephyr’s closed eyes opened widely, and he grit his teeth and cringed. Now, it was Shining’s turn to smirk and whisper into his winged peer’s ear: “What? You’re not stallion enough for a little mustard? Oh, you wouldn’t want to upset Soarin, now, would you?” He mocked, and so it was Zephyr’s turn to growl. “Now, if you excuse me, I’m gonna go use the little colt’s room.”
Zephyr sneered, “If the name fits.”
Shining gasped, growled, and swung a mighty hoof at Zephyr’s face. Luckily, the pegasus ducked.
When Shining Armor returned to the downstairs area, he was greeted by the sight of Zephyr and Soarin sitting on the sofa with their hooves in tubs of water. He gasped. “Now wait a minute!” He exclaimed, and the two turned their heads to look at him from across the back of the sofa.
“What’s the matter, Shiny? Has the Breeze bedazzled you too much for your lizard brain to handle?”
Shining growled for what felt like the billionth time that evening. “No,” he huffed, “it’s just that you made such a big deal about my wet hooves, but it’s perfectly fine if it’s yours!”
Zephyr gave a high-pitched, nasal sound of pure amusement, as if the unicorn was being absolutely and utterly idiotic. “Hngeh, don’t be silly, Shining! Psh, why this is mineral water with some scented oils and bath salts! Why, it’s like mane therapy but for your hooves!” He lifted one of his forelegs to show him. His hoof was glimmering and slicked with oil, and perfectly treated. Not a day’s hard work had met with them. “Voila! Rejuvenation!”
“We’re giving each other makeovers!” Soarin exclaimed elatedly.
“That’s - um - great, Soarin, but-”
“You should join us, dude!”
“I don’t think-”
“Aw, come on, dude, don’t be grody!”
Thunder clapped outside, and so Shining’s head dropped in defeat. “Fine.” He sighed, sitting on the armchair beside the sofa, and dunked his hind hooves into a third tub of minerals.
Zephyr gasped excitedly, and picked up the slices of cucumber from their snack tray. “Try these!” He threw them onto Shining’s face, and they slid onto his eyes from his nose and forehead. “It’ll reduce the puffiness around your eyes.”
“What the-” a moment went by before the unicorn screamed in pain. He peeled the cucumber slices off, threw them back onto the plate, and dunked his smoking face into his tub of mineral water. He sighed in relief for a moment.
“Shining! Bro, you good?” Soarin exclaimed, biting his hoof and flaring his wings.
“Ooh...” Zephyr cringed in genuine remorse, “sorry, Shiny. I - uh - guess I didn’t see the mustard, huh?”
“You think?” There was a pause, and then Shining restarted his howls of pain as he ran for the kitchen. “Mineral oil! Mineral oil! Mineral oil!”
Zephyr bit his lip as he and Soarin watched the scene. This was going to be a long, guilt-ridden night.
The second Shining Armor exited the kitchen, Zephyr Breeze was quick to whisk him around and pull him back in. Shining didn’t take too kindly to this: “What are you doing?”
“Look, for the rest of the night, let’s just - heh - try to get along, got that, Shiny-Whiny?”
“Yeah,” Shining scowled, “you burnt my eyes, not my ears.”
It was then that Zephyr noticed that the unicorn’s usually bluish eye-whites were looking particularly pink and irritant. The pegasus sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth: “Not for me. For Soarin.”
Shining relented with a sigh. “Okay, Zeph.”
The two returned to the living room, and Soarin turned around and smiled. “You guys good, now?”
“Yeah,” Shining responded. “Zephyr agreed to put the cucumbers on his eyes.”
“I did what?!”
“You agreed to put the cucumbers on your eyes.” Shining repeated, gritting his teeth with a grin. “Isn’t that right, Zeph?”
“Uh,” the gangly pegasus wavered, and then gulped loudly, “oh, yeah. I remember now.” Hesitantly, Zephyr made his way to the coffee table and - after a moment of just staring at the snack tray - Shining used his magenta magic to stuff the two cucumber slices onto Zephyr’s eyes.
The process of screaming repeated, and Zephyr ran into the kitchen. When he returned, Soarin was frowning and Shining was grinning. Zephyr, grinding his teeth together, pulled Shining back into the kitchen.
“Okay, so now can we not upset Soarin? We are, after all, Shiny-Whiny, the guests, aren’t we?”
“Yeah, okay, okay. I see your point.” Shining spat on his shaven blue hoof. “Let’s shake on it, then.”
Zephyr reeled. “You know, there’s being messy, and then there’s just being - ugh - gross!”
Shining butted heads with his opponent. “There’s spoiled, and there’s just getting on my nerves!”
Zephyr gave a long, sharp gasp: “Spoiled?!”
“You heard me!”
“Luckily,” Zephyr put a proud hoof on his chest, “I can get along with anypony, no matter how difficult he may be!”
“Hah, well,” Shining smirked cockily, “it’s a good thing I’m the most friendly pony the Empire has to offer.”
Zephyr scoffed, both in pride and in disbelief, “Yeah, well,” the hoof that rose to his chest as he turned his head to give a subtle and brief stink eye soon returned to the floor, “I’m the most, uh,” he faltered as he thought of a word, “get-alongingest pony the Empire has to offer! So there!” Closing his eyes, Zephyr stomped his ever-wagging, ever-communicating hoof on the floor in triumph.
Shining gave a sort of arrogant snort in place of a remark, or whatever the noise that would fling phlegm from your throat would be called. Then, he did actually remark - just as arrogantly - “Oh my Cadance, Zeph, that isn’t even a word. And I sho-”
“How would you knooow?” Zephyr interrupted loudly, but Shining Armor continued to speak, unwavering and undeterred.
“-uld know, my sister is the Princess of Magic and Dictionaries, after all.”
“Yeah? Well,” Zephyr huffed in an effort to think of an adequate retaliation, “my sister is the Royal Advisor! So, hah.”
“Yeah, genius? How does that help with that not being a word?”
Zephyr opened his eyes, “I’m sorry, what now?” He tucked in his flared wings. “Well, I- er- she could just ask Lord Discord to add it to the dictionary.”
There was a magical poof, and out of the air fluttered a raggedy piece of parchment, which read: I’m Lord Discord, and I approve this message.
There was a flash of lightning and a mighty roar of thunder; in that mere split second Shining and Zephyr found themselves shaking and huddling together, their limbs entangled unceremoniously. But, as it turned out, that thunder and lightning was just another flash of magic, and a third note sprawled on the floor said, Maybe.
Shining and Zephyr turned to one another, stuck out their tongues, and made simultaneous back-of-the-mouth noises to signal their own disgust. Then, they rightfully decided to return to the living room.
“Oh, dudes,” Soarin proclaimed, smiling from over the top of his sofa, “this is totes gonna be one righteous sleepover, man! Can I get an ‘awwwesome’?” He raised a pale blue hoof to his ear.
Shining Armor and Zephyr Breeze both baulked, and eventually they said together as they glared daggers at one another: “Awesome...”
As the storm continued to rage outside, Zephyr had found some curlers and applied them to his mane. Of course, this had meant that Soarin and Shining just ‘had to’ join him. He’d also found some entertaining magazines, and was the only one out of the three who read one.
Zephyr sat on the sofa with his hind legs up on the coffee table, sat back snuggly with the blue rollers (they were blue because they were perfectly manly) in his blond mane and tail, and with a magazine between his front hooves. “I must say, Soarin old buddy, old pal,” he mused aloud, making an ‘mm-mm’ sort of sound and rolling his head around to demonstrate such, “these ES-Pone Magazines are ab-so-lutely deeevine! Mm! I never knew sports-mags could be so interesting!”
Shining, who had curlers in his hair up to the wazoo and did not look too happy about it - demonstrated by how he slouched miserably in his unreclined armchair with a woefully sour expression on his face - shot Zephyr an insidious glare. An ‘I know what you’re doing’ glare.
“I mean, Cosmarepolitan and Fille, sure! But sports?” Zephyr gave a quick laugh. “Man,” he said as his short lived laughter settled in his chest, flailing one of his hooves up in exclamation, causing the issue of ES-Pone Magazine he was holding to flop, “you sure do know how to pick ’em!”
Soarin - who sat on the sofa too, propped up and his hind legs tucked in - kept his gaze on Zephyr as a coy but wry grin made its way to his muzzle; a hoof travelled to the back of his neck and fondled the short, fluffy bits of his mane that didn’t make it into the rollers. “Yeah,” he said with a faint laugh, “I do, don’t I, brah?”
There was a pause.
“Wait, are we still talkin’ about the magazines, or..?”
Zephyr interrupted by returning Shining Armor’s acidious glare with a smug one, saying, “How you holdin’ up there, Shiny? You doin’ good?”
“Just fine, Zephyr,” he grunted in turn.
Soarin’s coy smile was replaced with an amiable grin, “Cool beans, dude! Oh, man,” he slouched in his seat, and his wings stretched out behind him, causing the tip of his right wing to come into contact with the tip of Zephyr’s left; Soarin sat back up abruptly, “I think this just might turn out to be the best sleepover ever, guys.”
Shining practically ripped the curlers out of his hair with his magic and picked up the bowl of dip from the coffee table next to Zephyr’s hooves. “Alright! Enough with this girl stuff-”
With a magical poof, a note fell on the floor behind the armchair: What’s wrong with girl stuff?
“-now it’s time for: scary stories! Oo-ooh!” Through his ooh-ing, Shining chewed a particularly crunchy chip before placing the dip back on the table.
Zephyr rolled his eyes. “Please, Shiny-Whiny. You know, beyond all those creepy features, like that shaggy mane and those tacky-coloured hooves, you’re really not all that bad.” A small smirk was evident on Zephyr’s lips as he leaned forwards. “Besides, Shiny, what’s wrong with just relaxing? You know how much I like my-” Zephyr shook his hoof around and sang in a single breath: “siestaaa..!”
“I’ll go first,” Shining disregarded him, and so Zephyr huffed in annoyance and slammed his back back into the sofa, and he resumed reading ES-Pone. “So, here’s the spooky story of the slacking spectre, who drove every single pony insane with his spinelessness! Ooooh..!” Shining rolled his eyes around in their sockets and wafted his front hooves. In all honesty, he looked a little insane himself. That was probably the point, though. He stopped, and turned his head in Zephyr’s direction; the teal pegasus gave an obnoxious look over the tippy-top of his magazine; “I’m sure you are all familiar with that one.”
“Aha,” Zephyr gave a blatantly forced laugh, and placed the magazine on the coffee table with a light slap, and then retracted his hind legs and swung them around so they landed on Soarin’s lap. “No, Armor, I haven’t heard of that one. But, maybe, you head of the ab-so-lutely true, and ab-so-lutely terrifying tale of the most brutish, and most in-con-siderate ghost I have ever had the absolute displeasure of meeting! Ooh, just the thought of it’s givin’ me some real chills,” he wiggled his front hooves around, “ew, Soarin, look! I’ve got -” he gasped dramatically - “goosebumps..!”
Soarin looked at Zephyr’s hooves. “Spooky.” He said, dryly, unsure of what else he could have possibly said.
“Zephyr,” Shining said harshly, voicing both disdain and vexation, “that is not a real story.”
“I know!” Zephyr exclaimed, almost proudly, as he sat back.
“Ha! So you admit that you made it up! Admit it!” Shining Armor shot up and pointed an accusatory hoof at the pegasus.
“It’s a ghost story, Shiny,” Zephyr said obviously, “they’re all made up.”
A loud snap of thunder and lightning arose, and the room went black. Zephyr screamed; when the lights turned on again, it was revealed that he had lunged over the table - the bowl of dip was upside down on the carpet to prove it - into Shining Armor’s forelegs, his own wrapped around the larger stallion’s neck.
Zephyr gave Shining’s glare a sheepish look, giggling sheepishly: “Heheh-heh... hey therrre, palll...”
Another peal of thunder, and in the flashes of lightning that were to follow, a large and looming figure was seen lingering around the room. A door creaked, as did some floorboards, and then another door slammed. The two looked at one another, and both screamed.
The lights turned on. Everybody was now hair roller-free. Soarin was fluttering next to the room’s light switch. “Sorry, guys,” he apologised, an empathetic expression worn for his friends, “the lightning musta totally tubed the lights, ’n’ I just had to go check the fuse box. Hope you guys weren’t wiggin’ out too much while I was gone.”
Zephyr gave an overtly nervous laugh. “Yeaaah,” he said, close to being in falsetto, “wigging out. Totally weren’t doing that. We’re cool.”
Shining’s wide-eyed expression soon fell slack, and then he let his front hooves back on the floor. Unfortunately - or fortunately... it really depends how you’d want to look at it - that also meant that Zephyr had to follow them. With a thud.
Soarin winced at the impact. Then, his mouth fell open and his eyes went wide. In barely one bat of an eye, he had flown over to his coffee table with his full attention glued to the red and white goop on his rug. “Aw, man!” He proclaimed, “The dips! My rug! My poor rug!”
Now, as he sat up, it was Zephyr’s turn to wince: “Ooh...” he winced, one eye instinctively scrunching up. “Sorry, Soar’.”
“Sorry, Soarin,” Shining parroted miserably.
“No, no,” Soarin reframed, sighing, “it’s okay, guys. I’m sorry for blowing up like that.” Zephyr and Shining shared a look of brief confusion: Blowing up who and where now?. “I’ll clean this up, and then I’ll make some more snacks.”
Shining Armor turned a log that blazed in Soarin’s fireplace with a golden coloured poker equipped in his magenta magic. Meanwhile, Zephyr Breeze and Soarin were sitting on the couch, in the midst of their own little conversation that made Shining seem like the third wheel of a perfectly assembled bicycle.
“Okay, so - like -” Soarin said, leaning forward and bristling his wings in concentration, “you gotta make sure the lettuce stays on top of the mayo and melted ’mallow. Don’t just squish it in. Think of it like the silken sheets to Princess Cadance’s gnarly chambers.”
“Right, yeah, okay,” Zephyr stuck out his tongue, and narrowed in on the white-ooze-covered slice of wholegrain laid on a plate at the edge of the coffee table. Slowly, his shaky hooves began to lower a sheet of lettuce towards the beginning of a sandwich. A bead of sweat formed on his brow, and he sat back dramatically with a groan of vanquish. “I can’t do it! I’ll never be as gooda chef as you, Soar’!”
Soarin smiled gently, “Here, let me,” he said, taking the slice of lettuce from Zephyr before lowering himself towards the plate. Expertly, he placed the leaf on top of the mayo and marshmallow, followed by four slices of tomato, a sprinkle of black pepper from a strangely oversized grinder, a slice of cheese, and some carrot, all topped off with a thin square of chocolate and the topper of a wholegrain slice twinning with the one underneath everything else. “Aaand... voila, brah! The perfect sandwich!”
Zephyr took a noisy bite out of the sandwich before Soarin could properly take in the sight of his work. Nevertheless, he watched as Zephyr - magenta eyes closed - moaned in delight. “Mm! Mm, ith rea’y goot!”
Shining groaned and rolled his eyes. “Ugh, Zeph, that’s so gross.”
Once Zephyr finished the sandwich, he let out a small burp and leaned back into the back of the sofa, stretching out his wings as he did so.
Shining continued to grimace, “You know,” he scoffed, “you could at least say ‘excuse me’.”
As Soarin opened his mouth to reply, Shining spoke again, “It’s rude.”
“Ugh, fine,” Zephyr positioned himself defiantly, before saying: “Excuse me, Soarin.”
Soarin smiled cheerily, “You’re excused!” Zephyr and Shining stared at one another for some time - angrily, in fact - so Soarin decided to change the subject. “Hey dudes, how’s about some truth or dare?”
“I’ll go first!” Zephyr declared with fervour, raising an excited hoof and waving it around. “I dare Shining to do something without leaving behind a mess, for a change!”
Shining huffed, “You realise how ironic that sounds, right? Coming from you?”
“Hm!” Zephyr harrumphed arrogantly. “Well, if you can’t do it...”
“Yeah, well,” Shining fell short on a witty reply, and decided that pushing his head in Zephyr’s face would suffice. They were so close that Shining’s horn slid into Zephyr’s thick blond mane. “I dare Zephyr to lighten up, and to stop obsessing over every little detail and going Twilynanas all over the place!”
“Um,” Soarin pursed his lips, frowning, “dudes? You do know that’s not how you play, right?”
Zephyr began huffing and puffing incredulously, “I think the truth of this situation, Shiny-Whiny, is that somepony could stand to pay a little more attention to detail.”
“And I think somepony can stand to do a little more work around here and help out when he’s told to.”
“Dudes!” Soarin exclaimed sharply. “You’re meant to dare each other or fish for some serious goss. Not-”
“Then I dare Zephyr to step outside and get himself all wet so that his precious mane gets ruined again!” Shining interrupted, pointing a hoof at the teal pegasus.
Zephyr reeled, drawing in a mighty gasp. He stuck his muzzle in the air: “Fine! Hmph!” With that hmphed, he got up and trotted out of the living room. A door opened, the sound of rain made itself apparent - so did whimpering, which Shining snickered into his shaven blue hoof at - and eventually silenced as Zephyr reentered, his wings slack with the tips dragging on the floor, matching his mane, which had fallen down out of its topknot, running into his eyes and over his ears, and absolutely, completely, positively sopping wet.
He looked like the pony equivalent to a shaggy sheepdog that had been herding sheep through a muddy highland field late at night.
Zephyr was shaking with cold, and as he used a hoof to push his mane out of his field of vision, Shining’s snickering evolved into a glorious display of amusement. “Oh, wow,” he guffawed, “you look great, Zeph. Real great! Pfft-haha!”
“Okay, Jose,” Zephyr stomped towards Shining in anger, “now you’ve really upset The Breeze! I dare you, Shining,” he prodded a thin hoof into Shining’s broad white chest, “to dress up all fancy - you know,” he scoffed, “with the glitter and the sparkles, make it really match your name.”
There was a brief and judgemental pause. “Hey, wait! That’s two dares!”
“Is not.”
“Is too.”
“Is not.”
Shining drew in a deep, agitated breath. “Fine!” And out of the living room he stomped, only to return donning a glittery, sequined blue tasseled vest, which had been finished off with some pale pink frilly lace and a darker large pink bow around his neck, twisted to the side, and a mane that was heavily styled, and slicked back with shiny hair gel. “Happy?” He grunted.
Zephyr gave an amused little laugh. “I’d be lying if I didn’t say... hm, very.”
“Guys? Do I ever get a turn?” Soarin piped up, almost timidly.
“I dare you to enter the next jousting tournament that comes to the Empire!”
“I dare you not to enter the next jousting tournament that comes to the Empire!”
Shining stomped his hoof, gritting his teeth, “I dare you to not comb your mane a thousand times before you go to bed every night!”
Zephyr scoffed, “And I dare you to comb yours even just once!”
Soarin gave a cautious smile, followed by a wry laugh, “Haha, dudes. You’re both, like, super dare-devil-dogs... but maybe we should - uh - play something else?” He asked, his voice diminishing meekly as he coiled backwards.
Shining Armor’s face contorted into a sadistic grin, and his horn ignited in magenta; he was now back to normal, from shaggy mane to bare back. Zephyr was also back to normal - hipsterly styled and dry - and yelped as a cushion whacked him over the head. “Pillow fight!”
“Wait, wha-” Zephyr yelped again as a dozen pillows attacked him at once.
“Oh, dear,” Soarin meeped, “I think we’re gonna need more snacks.” And off he flew to the kitchen to keep out of the way of Shining’s pillowy wrath.
Zephyr lifted his head from the mountain of cushions and throw-pillows that engulfed him. Spitting out some white feathers, he pointed a hoof and announced, “It, is, on!”
The fight ensued. Zephyr used his gangly frame and ability to fly as a leverage whilst Shining used his strength and horn. There was kicking, bucking, flailing, flinging, gnawing, dropping, smashing, and even some dogging. No, that last one certainly wasn’t right. To put it bluntly, it was obvious that - even if it was by just a smidgeon - Shining was definitely, undoubtedly winning.
When Soarin returned through the kitchen door frame with a tray consisting of some guac’ and cheeses in his forehooves, he winced at the sight. Feathers of non-pegasus origin littered the floor and sofa; some cushions laid flat on the floor or draped across something, split and deceased; one of Zephyr’s eyes was red with a blackening ring encircling it; a throw-pillow sat on Shining’s horn, which had come through the other side; and in the far corner of the room the scattered pieces of Soarin’s grandmother’s urn-- er, his family-friendly white and blue floral vase had fallen.
Soarin’s green eyes widened. He put down the snack tray and slowly fluttered his way over to the fallen vase, agape and silent. A slow, awkward croaking noise started to exit Soarin’s throat as he fumbled for a word and lowered to the vase. With tears welling in his eyes he sniffled wetly and began scooping at the china shards in what could only be described as desperation. Perhaps even grief. “Nana Gusty!”
Zephyr and Shining’s jaws dropped, and they side-eyed one another in shock. Sickening, gunky-throated shock. What had they done?
Soarin sniffed again and rubbed at his eyes with a foreleg. “Maybe- Maybe we should just go to bed.”
“Soarin-”
Soarin headed towards the stairs, “I’ll set the guest bedroom up for you dudes.”
Shining and Zephyr laid in the guest bed with their backs facing each other and the blanket clutched tautly at their shoulders and chins. The tension in the room was thick with whispery bickering.
“Keep your wet hooves on your side of the bed,” Zephyr hissed under his breath.
“I dried them, remember?” Shining hissed right back.
The pegasus turned around to face Shining. “You might have missed a bit!”
“I most certainly did not,” Shining decided to face Zephyr, and now the two were face to face. Until SHining stuck one of his shaven blue hooves between them. “See? Dry as a bone!”
Zephyr gasped for dramatic effect, “Bones have blood on them, Shiny. Bones are definitely not dry. So that expression doesn’t even make any sense.”
“They’re as dry as your mane, then. How’s about that?”
“Jokes on you,” Zephyr huffed triumphantly, grinning and closing his eyes, He put a hoof to his chest. “I’m really sweaty because Soarin left the heater on!”
Shining made a loud noise of complete and utter disgust and pushed himself to the edge of the bed, away from Zephyr. Then, he turned around huffily and took the blanket with him.
“Oh, come on! You’re acting like you’ve never sweated before.”
“Being in bed with a sweaty Zephyr Breeze isn’t really something I wanted to check off the bucket list.”
There wasn’t an answer for some time, until Zephyr’s wide-eyed expression turned into a cocky smirk, “But, it’s on your bucket list?” Shining growled. This was definitely a family-friendly conversation to be having. Definitely. Absolutely. Zephyr sighed pridefully. “Can’t blame you, Whiny. After all, who can resist The Breeze and his-” Zephyr slid himself closer to Shining Armor, before whispering deeply, “amor?”
Shining opened his eyes and squinted, before pushing himself into Zephyr with such force that he fell rump-and-wing-first onto the floor with a blunt thump.
Zephyr brushed himself off as he got up, and with great annoyance plopped himself back into his dent on his side of the bed. “Suit yourself,” he grumbled grumpily, and tugged at the blanket with his teeth so it now covered him, and not Shining.
“Hey!” Shining sat up abruptly and exclaimed.
There was a knocking on the wall above the bed. “Hey, dudes, is everything okay in there?” asked Soarin.
“Fine, Soarin,” the two stallions chorused.
Shining resumed quietly, “Why, you good for nothing, inconsiderate brat!”
“I can’t hear you,” Zephyr feigned a sing-song, “I’m all toasty. Sleeping.”
Shining Armor growled again. With his magic, he snatched the blanket so that it only covered him once more.
Zephyr got out of bed. “Get up.”
“No.”
The pegasus almost echoed Shining’s signature growl of the night to a tee. But, he relented, and turned around and trotted to the door.
Shining peeked; “What are you doing?”
“Going in Soarin’s room.”
Shining closed his eyes again. The bedroom door creaked open, and hoofsteps down the hall followed. Light knocking. A creak of a different door. Muffled voices coming through the wall. Shining scrunched his eyes shut even harder. A door closed.
“Thanks for lettin’ me sleep in here, buddy,” Zephyr said smoothly. “I appreciate it.”
“Oh - uh - yeah. No problem.”
Just as Shining relaxed, ready to doze off, new weight was applied to the space in the bed behind him. He turned around, and was met with a coyly smiling Soarin laying on his back. “..Soarin?”
“Oh, hey, dude,” Soarin rubbed the back of his head with a hoof. “Ya mind sharin’ some of that blanket?”
With a cross look on his face, Shining Armor got up and marched straight down the hall and into Soarin’s bedroom. Soarin had of course followed him. “For Cadance’s sake, Zeph! Give Soarin his room back!”
Zephyr sat up, the quilt bundled around his waist as he pointed right back at Shining’s own accusatory point. “I never said that he had to leave!”
Shining gave Soarin a look requiring more information. A sheepish smile was given in turn. The unicorn turned back to Zephyr. “Just come back to the spare room...” Shining groaned and face-hoofed.
“Nuh-uh! You’re just gonna hog all the covers!” Zephyr said adamantly, crossing his forelegs and sticking up his nose.
“To be fair, dude, you were kinda hoggin’ all the covers.” Soarin admitted. Shining growled at this, and the pale blue pegasus recoiled.
Zephyr patted the space in the bed next to him. “Come on, Soar’, you can crash right next to me.”
Soarin’s wings opened, and so did his mouth as he was about to respond, but Shining cut across: “Back to bed, now.”
“Make me!”
Shining clenched his hooves and lit up his horn, pulling Zephyr out of Soarin’s bed. The cyan pegasus grabbed onto one of the corner knobs of the bedframe and proclaimed his need of help. Shining continued to yank at Zephyr’s hind legs.
The back-and-forth continued, until Shining suddenly stopped his use of magic, which sent Zephyr proverbially flying into the wall. He crash-landed upside down with his tail hung onto his stomach. “You did that on purpose!” He claimed.
“Maybe I did, maybe I didn’t,” Shining said haughtily.
Zephyr got up clumsily. Leaning over the bed towards Shining by placing his front hooves on top, he said, “Now who’s inconsiderate?”
“Uh, dudes?”
Shining put his hooves on the bed so that he and Zephyr came just a hair’s breadth away from being nose-to-nose. “It was just a little fall. You’re fine.”
Zephyr went to get back into bed, but Shining pulled the blanket away from him. “Shining,” Zephyr said sharply, “you will give me back Soarin’s blanket right now!”
“Will not.”
“Dudes?” Soarin called, only to be once again drowned out by all the arguing.
Zephyr grabbed the other end with his teeth and pulled. “Will too.”
“Will not.”
“Will too!”
“Will not!”
“Will too!”
“Will not!”
“Will-”
“EEENOUGH!” Soarin yelled, bursting into the air so suddenly that a loose feather or two fluttered down to the floor. Zephyr and Shining stared at him in surprise with the blanket in their mouths. “Tonight was supposed to be fun while we all waited out the storm. But thanks to you two constantly arguing, and fighting, I can’t say that it has been!”
Zephyr dropped the blanket immediately, and lifted a hoof to say, “Well, I’ve been trying my very-very best to get along!”
Shining scoffed wryly and bitterly, dropping the blanket too. “No, you most certainly have not.”
“Have too.”
“Have not,” the unicorn gently stomped his hoof against the floorboards, “if anypony has, here, it’s me.”
“Well,” Soarin put his hooves back on the floor and sighed, “I hope you’re both happy. You ruined our night. From the hair-rollers, the spilled dip, to the pillow-fighting, I dunno if anything else could possibly go wrong!” A ferocious snap of lightning and thunder sounded outside, and just beyond the window the lightning was seen singing the middle of a crystal tree. Soarin gulped. “Er, sorry I asked.”
With the lights now on, the three stallions rushed to the window to watch the wobbly tree with great fear. They gasped when they saw it lean at a particularly violent angle towards someone’s house.
Shining turned to Zephyr, “You see?” He asked aggressively, and the pegasus reeled in shame. “That right there is exactly why we all need to take down all those loose branches. Not turn them into fancy shapes and rearrange them into pretty pictures!”
“But Shiny-”
“Out of my way,” Shining retorted angrily and opened the window with his magic. Then, he grabbed the blanket on Soarin’s bed and started twisting it around like a lasso.
Zephyr put out a desperate hoof, “But Shining, wait! Stop! Don’t-” he cringed as Shining harnessed the crystal tree with the blanket, and then tugged at it with all his might. But, it was too late, and as physics usually does what it does, the tree came crashing down into Soarin’s bedroom. Into the side of his house. Through the wall and roof.
Soarin was not happy. Nor was Zephyr, but especially Soarin.
Zephyr held a pillow over his head, and fell onto his haunches. “I did try to tell you that it’d just fall down on us.”
“Well, you should’ve tried harder,” Shining Armor said, looking over the crystal tree at Zephyr. He froze: Soarin’s room was wrecked, and Zephyr was cowering under his pillow as he tried to gather any nearby fallen objects. “Soarin,” Shining said sadly as Soarin appeared, “I’m really sorry.”
“It’s...” Soarin began, but corrected himself: “Well, it’s not okay, bro! You both ruined my carpet, shredded all of my pillows, wrecked my house, and-” his voice had slowly raised; “-you smashed my Nana!”
Shining cringed. He popped out of the tree next to Zephyr, who was now placing objects back on what shelves were left. “Zeph, what are you doing?”
“Cleaning up your mess!” Zephyr jabbed a hoof into Shining’s chest.
“Well then, stop sweating over all that small stuff when you should be helping to move the tree out of Soarin’s bedroom!” No reply. “I said, get over here and help me!” Zilch. Nada. “Come on, already!” Nothing. Shining sighed, and his scowl relaxed into something more sincere. “Look, I’m sorry, okay? Is that what you want to hear?” Zephyr turned around, his eyes wide in surprise. “I should have-” another sigh, “I should have listened to you when you noticed where this branch would end up. Your annoying, Twilynanas attention to detail would have saved us from, well... this.”
Zephyr lowered the pillow from over his head and squeezed it tightly.
“But, right now, you need to stop with picking up all of that little stuff and help pick up the one big thing in here that actually matters!” Shining had found himself yelling over the howling winds. “Please!”
Zephyr’s eyes went wide. “Did you just say what I think you said?”
“Don’t make me repeat it.”
The pegasus grinned, “I don’t know. The wind’s pretty loud...”
Shining groaned and rolled his eyes.
Zephyr looked back at the crystal tree, “But,” he grimaced, “I’ll get all dirty. And wet. And icky! Eurgh!”
Shining growled and muttered in anger. He refrained, and tried a calmer approach: “That is usually the side effect of hard work. But, you’re going to have to get over it, because... I can’t fix this all by myself. I- I need your help, Zeph. Please?”
“Oh,” Zephyr groaned, putting a reluctant hoof forward, “fine.” That said, he stepped into the storm and started chipping away at the crystal.
Eventually, the crystal tree had been paved into a new shape: a miniature matchstick version of the Crystal Palace. Zephyr was covered in ick, and was absolutely drenched. Now, all that was left of the tree, really, was a piece of log hanging from the window. Shining was about to buck it, but Zephyr glared at him, which coaxed him to gently nudge it off with one of his forehooves.
Shining closed the window, and magically, the side of Soarin’s house now seemed untouched. He smiled at Zephyr, who smiled back.
The teal pegasus looked down at himself. “Ugh!” He whimpered. “I look positively hideous!” He draped a foreleg over his eyes dramatically.
Shining rubbed his chin in thought, and then he grinned and his horn ignited in magenta. On Zephyr’s eyes he planted two slices of cucumber. “Better?”
Zephyr chuckled, “Thanks.” He waved a foreleg out to try and touch Shining, but after a few failed attempts the unicorn decided to do it himself, before the two embraced.
Soarin smiled at them. “Aw, duuudes!”
The following day, which was sunny with just a few puddles left over, Sunburst sat on a quartz bench listening to Soarin, Zephyr and Shining’s (mostly just Zephyr and Shining’s) story.
“And then,” Zephyr exclaimed, “the tree came crashing down! And Shining screamed like a little girl!”
“Did not,” Shining argued.
“Did too.”
“Did not!”
“Did too!” There was a tense pause, before the two broke out into a series of giggles.
“And then Zephyr saved us by turning the tree into a replica of the Crystal Palace!” Soarin chimed in proudly gesturing to the actual life-sized Crystal Palace.
“Fascinating,” Sunburst awed, “so even though the two of you spent the whole night arguing, the two of you eventually worked out your differences and came together! Wow, I- uh- i-if you don’t mind,” he adjusted his glasses, “I’d like to write a letter to Lord Discord about this lesson on friendship!”
Shining and Zephyr shared a look and winced.
Soarin beamed regardless of this. “Sure, dude!”
Sunburst smiled and took out his quill and parchment with his golden aura: “Dear Lord Discord, It's hard to believe that two ponies who seem to have so little in common could ever get along. But I found out that if you embrace each other's differences, you just might be surprised to discover a way to be friends after all.”
Discord set down the letter and turned his attention to the yellow pegasus sitting opposite him sipping her tea. He smiled at her. Fluttershy smiled back, and put a gentle hoof on the top of his right paw.
