Twilights Mane Passion

by Darkonshadows

First published 22nd of January, 2014

Twilight grows up with a strange passion and it changes her life from how it should have been.

Twilight after witnessing the summer sun celebration as a little filly, she decides to try and get into Celestia’s academy for gifted unicorns. Opening a book with a title that was missing a single letter on it's cover, Twilight picks up a rather interesting passion while studying for the entrance exam.

That's when things start to slowly 'grow' out of control.

1

A filly Twilight watched in awe as Princess Celestia flapped her wings taking to the sky and saw the sun rise.

That’s the day that Twilight would say started the whole weird ball rolling, she really didn’t think that so many strange and wondrous things could happen to her. It was like the discovery of her special talent a week before her exam. She was young and very unsuspecting of what was in store for her back then, especially when she discovered her talent.

Looking back on it Twilight subconsciously understood what her Cutie Mark meant and what it represented before it had even appeared. Her unusually gifted talent meant she could go anywhere and do anything like the stuff that happens in the books she has read or was read to her, even before she started heavily studying for that exam.

Those books were her only friends aside from her beloved best big brother friend forever growing up; her childhood was not entirely a happy one considering how magic kindergarten turned out for her. Her special talent was magic and wherever she wanted to take it in her life. She could do anything if she truly put her mind and massive energy font to it.

Speaking of books it was the next day after the summer sun celebration that Twilight would start studying for the exam and when her parents Velvet and Night took her to the library is where the rolling ball hit its first bump.

“So many books…” Twilights parents just smiled at the sparkling eyes of their daughter who professed an interest in learning all the things she could about magic after watching Celestia raise the sun. Twilight wanted to learn so much and to get into Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns maybe to even possibly meet the beautiful princess Celestia herself. This was her first time in a library and she would make it count.

Her parents thought this was something to finally stop their daughter from being a sad shut in, either that or it would make her more of a shut in but at least she would be accomplishing things even if she had troubles making friends. It was especially going to be problematic soon as their son was off to join Celestia’s guard and wouldn’t be there to stop the bullies from picking on her, much less continue to be Twilights only friend. The prideful parents hoped the school for gifted Unicorns will get her away from them and hopefully she could make some friends her age.

There were only two types of unicorns that could get into the school for gifted unicorns, those who bought their way in just for the prestige of having said they’ve been enrolled in the school and those that truly are gifted by the power of hard work and or unique talents.

Twilights parents let her run around on her own, she started picking up a lot of books and only required a little help with checking them all out. If only they had bothered to check on what Twilight was checking out, what possible danger could any of these books provide? The books that were any danger to ponies were held by Celestia.

The librarian didn’t seem too nonplussed about the choices the filly made even if one of them was a bit odd and a different subject matter from all the books about magic.

They quickly made way for home as Twilight couldn’t wait to figuratively eat the books; she was pretty advanced for her age mentally. Even then she was still only a filly so her interest in getting into the hobby of anything related to astronomy was quickly dashed as soon as she got to the odd book choice in question.

Concerning the fact that she had read all the other books by this point the odd book was a surprise to Twilight as it had nothing to do with astronomy, astrology or anything relating to the stars at all. Instead of dismissing the book by what was behind the cover, which was slightly messed up and missing a single letter that wasn’t missed in the book’s introduction, she started reading out of curiosity.

“Magical Cosmetology, I thought this book was supposed to be magical comet-ology?” The filly learned it was a book about hairstyles, hygiene and the like, but she powered through and continued to read.

After while she became enamored with the book, it was unlike anything Twilight had read before as it was a different science all its own and the health applications and opinions were intriguing, she might even see a great application for learning alchemy from it. It made Twilight think back on the day she saw princess Celestia her calm demeanor, her elegance, her soft white coat, her crowning glory… and a small blush permeated Twilights childish face as she thought of her long colorful flowing mane.

Twilight wasn’t a vain pony; well she at least knew what the word vain meant. She learned of the word having asked her mother what she meant when she called a lot of the nobles they lived close to vain and arrogant.

Twilight closed the book and sighed, there was just something about the subject in the book that made Twilights cheeks burn up. Apparently earth ponies had the ability to control some of their manes and tails better than any other pony out there, the closest earth ponies were those who lived in Ponyville. It sounded like a good place to go to, Twilight wanted to meet ponies and socialize, but a lot of ponies in Canterlot were high class snobs. She knew she’d never start off very well by making friends her age in Canterlot since any pony her age disliked her, so she decided that when she grew up she would go somewhere friendlier.

This was the start of Twilights wish list, top of the list was to see her brother again once he became all big and strong, second was to find a place where she could do whatever it was that would make her happy with lots of friends and the third wish was to have a family like her parents did with her and her brother.

Twilight really looked up to her parents and brother, she idolized them all. They were kind to any pony that needed help; honest even if it was to their detriment, generous where they could be, loyally they all doted on her no matter what mess she made and loved her, they always tried to keep Twilight happy and filled with laughter. One day she would make her parents proud and show them how magical they made her life. The more she thought on it the more she considered that her life was already positively filled with magic and that it was already her special talent as far as she was concerned, the only thing she needed now was at least a friend to share the magic with.

It was these thoughts that made her rear end tingle and upon Twilights flank appeared her Cutie Mark.

The filly that Twilight was, having finished the last of her checked out books, she had to take them all back to the library knowing the importance of a late fee. So with a little green wagon and what little magic she could summon with her horn she dragged all the books back to the library. The librarian was congenial and friendly but still not directly Twilights friend.

“Oh, back already?” The librarian would ask in a curious tone and then Twilight would answer.

“Yes, but I want to check out more books… and maybe this one again please?” Twilight struggled to lift a book up to the librarian with her magic and the adult smiled at the honest effort that was put into it.

“Deciding your future vocation a little early aren’t we?” The librarian chuckled lightly, but seeing the confused look on Twilights face she elaborated. “A vocation is another way of saying job that suits you.”

“N-no… not really… I’m just really interested in this book for a few reasons.” One of the reasons being she really liked the pictures and several other things about the book, there was just something about all the pretty manes that she couldn’t explain. Other than that, it was the way the book talked about magic in less than technical terms that helped her childlike mind finally understand what it had read previously in the more technical books which she had some problems understanding. It helped her learn the average unicorn power of levitation and to light her horn. “It helped me figure out some things about magic that I really never thought of before…”

“Well you can keep the book; I looked it up in the registry. No pony has checked that one out in the last fifty years and its way out of date and no one really wants to use it. Otherwise if we couldn’t find it a good home it might be destroyed…” The mare librarian smiled at the horrified look on Twilights face as she clutched the book to her chest and her fringe hung down in her eyes and she started to tear up while sniffling. “Now, now, don’t cry. You can have it for free; it’s just that some books that aren’t so important get repurposed into newer different books… though when that happens we lose some of the magic that even an old dusty book like that one might carry in their pages. In fact I might be able to give you a few books for free if you want them; unicorns haven’t really created too many innovations in that field anymore.”

“Thank you very much. Oh, could you hold on to it for me while I go find some more books to read? I think I’ve learned to believe that there is magic in everything because of it and well… I truly believe that any pony can do anything they want to achieve even if it’s not their special talent. The book was written by a pony that didn’t have a talent for it but they made a life of it… I want to believe I can do anything just like that. I want to explore everything I can possibly do with my magic; Celestia helps every pony with her magic every day and I want to do something like that.” Twilight smiled up at the librarian with sparkling eyes, who naturally assented to the little filly’s exuberance and took the book levitating it behind the counter.

The librarian didn’t know what the star symbol with five smaller sparks around it meant, but she had an idea that it was a glimmer of imagination and spirit that wouldn’t give up and it created a spark that would carry that little filly to many places. Sure that incredible spark may one day dull, but she believed it would never fully stop shining until the pony’s last breath. Smiling, the librarian didn’t even believe the stars were that little ponies limits… after all the librarian’s special talent had nothing to do with running a library and here she was trying to inspire the younger generations minds to read, expand, learn and continue building a brighter future.

It wasn’t until later that Twilight found out that her cutie mark had appeared, her parents pointed it out to Twilight and she started bouncing around screaming the word ‘yes’ a lot. Her parents then began to start guessing what it meant and how she earned it. After about forty or so guesses, Twilight finally decided to interject.

“My cutie mark doesn’t mean one single thing; it means a lot of things.” Twilight didn’t completely understand why her cutie mark appeared now of all times or even when it had, but she understood the meaning behind it. All kinds of possibilities were now open to her and it didn’t have to do with magic alone. Magic could be anything you like doing, for good or bad. “Now if you’ll excuse me I have a test to study for!”

Twilights parents watched as the filly went upstairs to study more books on magic and to read a certain book that now belonged to her all over again. She now had spread her knowledge to things she wanted to do and not just to study for the sake of studying. She started looking into all kinds of branches of magic that existed, the kind of branches that she could use to help other ponies. Healing magic, alchemy, magical animals, magical plants and enchanting objects… they now had her interest instead of just magic in general.

She wondered if she could improve on the things in the book that caught her interest. Her mind wanted to go to so many places and do so many things. Still though she didn’t know why, but she was attracted to the things she saw in the book whose subject might be just a passing fancy, maybe even something to study as a hobby or even possible her main vocation. All Twilight knew was that she really liked magic and for whatever reason hair.

Who knew what the future would bring, she was still young and had plenty of time to decide what to do with her life.

2

Twilight would be foolish to think she was not powerful, she knew she had a lot of magic; the problem was something was blocking it all up inside of her waiting to get out. She knew her special talent was magic and just had to calm down, being able to control it at will would be a boon to her future and if it surged who knew what could happen to all the ponies around her.

She was standing in a room waiting for whatever exam they were to give her, she searched through many books on what kind of test they could give her. The only thing Twilight could hope for was that her magic didn’t spontaneously surge out of her control and that whatever the exam was, that it was not something ridiculously absurd.

Of the spells Twilight knew, she had levitation, light, hair color changing and hair type alteration. All of those spells were easy to cast. The first two she was getting better at constantly. She only got into lightening or darkening her natural hair color with the third spell and was careful with it because it was permanent for the first twenty three hours, until that time was up she couldn’t alter the color of that part of her mane or tail that was affected. She practiced that one carefully on sections of her own tail hair hoping her parents didn’t notice since it would be more noticeable on her mane and for some reason she was wary of them finding out she was messing with her natural hair color. The fourth spell felt strange and left her slightly wanting as it crimped, curled or straightened her hair out and led to applications for all kinds of hairstyles she could have. She even managed to get her hair to become angular but quickly undid it, because she really didn’t want to lose her usual practical mane style by magical accident.

Looking to her parents who were supportive of her endeavors, Twilight bit her bottom lip as they brought an object into the room. Twilight wondered what they were going to ask her to do with a dragon’s egg.

Twilight knew that researching magical animals that existed in their world might be helpful, who knew when she would run into whatever dangerous creature she may meet in her future. What were they going to ask her to do with that and why did the school have dragon eggs, weren’t dragons resistant to heat and magic? Most dragons could swim in lava with the exception of the likes of ice dragons.

One of the proctors for the entrance exam came up to Twilight.

“We want you to try as hard as you can to hatch this egg. We’ll tell you when to begin.” With that the proctor made her up the stairs and took her seat.

Twilight’s mind was reeling; they expected her to do what!? Really, wasn’t she too young to be having children at this stage? The thought that she couldn’t possibly be capable of hatching it never crossed her mind. She did want to one day have kids, but not like this. Why would they give ponies a test like this?

“Um, can I ask a quick question before we start?” A male proctor nodded at Twilights question to continue, the little filly didn’t disappoint. “What happens to the baby when I hatch it?”

“Good question, we’ll come to that if you can hatch it. In fact I’m willing to help pay for the first year of feeding it if you’re going to take it in and if you can even manage it.” The stallion proctor had seen so many arrogant little unicorns he couldn’t trot two steps backwards without running into one in the school. Though he did silently wondered why the filly cared what happened to the baby if it was hatched, was she actually thinking of her responsibility should she pull it off and that her words weren’t made in complete arrogance? Well at least she already has an idea that magic could backfire. “You may begin.”

Twilight focused her energy towards the egg; there were three basic things to understand about magic, they were power, focus and intent. So far she knew she was getting the intent to hatch it right, the only problem was despite her focus she wasn’t accessing her power quite as well. She started pushing to get more out of her horn, when a huge explosion went off behind her.

Much to her shock the feeling of danger jumpstarted her horn and almost overpowered her, instead she shifted some magic into her mind in hopes to accelerate her understanding of the situation. She needed to have her mind working over matter, horn overloading with magic, some kind of shockwave of rainbows was exploding outward in a concentric ring from a bright point of solid white light, her power blockage was fixed and she was still in the middle of her exam.

Now she knew everything that was going on.

First of all the rainbow thing was unimportant, except for the fact that it unblocked her magic by shock value. She knew she now had enough power to hatch the egg, but it was too much… she needed to bleed it all off in some way. This was most definitely not part of a test that an average eight year old pony was supposed to deal with.

An idea struck Twilight and she grinned to herself, well if she was going to go around hatching dragons… why not personalize this one using her magic to bleed the massive amounts of it off? She quickly made a mental checklist and of course magically applied it to the magic coursing through her to do the things she wanted. She always heard that birth was supposed to be painful, so far she only felt a slight itching sensation like her horn was about to explode painfully.

First off… gender.

Twilight missed her brother, but she didn’t want a son… she knew what having a brother was like already and if anything she wanted to know what having a little sister or daughter was like. So Twilight wanted to make it female of course.

Second off… appearance.

Twilight didn’t know what a tiny freshly hatched dragon was supposed to look like, but she wanted it to look partly like her or to even have a small part of her in it. She also wanted her daughter to have a mane to brush and play with. She knew dragons had scales so she decided to make them purple like her fur color, she decided that her daughter should have green hair because she really liked that color. Oh, and because it was a dragons she couldn’t forget to add cute tiny wings that would grow over time! Let’s see… what else… maybe share her eye color? No, dark blue eyes, so that they matched her hair color. Maybe pony like ears?

Third off… dietary needs which is rather important.

If there was one thing Twilight knew about dragons it was that they ate gems… and tons of them, it would be costly for her parents and the proctor. Not to mention her as well when she had to take care of… she needed to think of a name later. So she gave her daughter the natural pony diet alongside the ability to eat dragon things, eating gems still might be her daughters preferred food but she should be able to enjoy the same things Twilight can.

Fourth off… how fast this being would grow and how much it would do so.

Twilight wasn’t about to give a personality to a blank slate, but she would regulate how fast the being would grow. She wanted to keep the being a baby for a while so slow growth rate and maximum size possible set to about as big as Celestia is, the growth rate would become more normal when Twilight became an adult or at least sixteen. Sure her child would be a child for a long time, but just because her growth is slowed doesn’t mean her intelligence will be.

The magical build up on her horn was beginning to become quite painful, Twilight was glad there was one last step in her list. Her magic was becoming blinding in the room, but outside it was hard to tell anything unusual was going on in the room and it had only been ten seconds since Twilights magic surge started.

Last off… her daughter needed a name.

Twinkle? No… her last name would be Sparkle to identify Twilight as the mother but there is no way her daughter would be called Twinkle as a first name. Polish Sparkle? Well she’d be able to call the life Polly… no, that wouldn’t do. Spiffy… well she really didn’t want her daughter to resent her later on in life. Being a parent is hard work and her daughter wasn’t even born yet! Hmm… add a middle name? It has to be a pun, which was the general rule of all pony naming conventions.

Idly Twilight wondered why naming conventions was like that, it tended to lead ponies to know what they want to do for the rest of their lives before even they did. Wait… could she really… that’s it, Twilight finally had the name for her daughter. It was to the point and she wanted to make a good one.

This was when Twilights horn immediately ejected the concentrated and slowly gathered mass of magic and the magic that was already filtering into the egg received a large boost and it finally hatched.

Unfortunately for Twilight she wouldn’t be able to see it fully come out of the shell and only mumbled the named of her new daughter.

“Barb Sparkle… Barb Air Sparkle…” Twilight mumbled before her eyes closed, she exhausted the excess magic enough to finally rest and it had only been twenty seconds since her surge started.

After a two hour nap, Twilight was given a pass and her daughter. The daughter of which she started treating like a little sister in front of her parents, she was too young to be having children out of wedlock and thought better of not letting her parents know she thought of Barb as her daughter.

Once upon a time Twilight relished playing ‘house’ with her big brother, her brother explained a lot about how families got started. Including the part where two ponies love each other very much they had children, which was supposed to happen after a wedding.

Little Barb was for all intents and purposes now a part of their family, plus Twilight now went to the school for gifted unicorns and she couldn’t be happier to have a place for advanced studies. She did wonder what would have happened had she not read that cosmetology book.

Twilight was one step closer to making a future for herself, now she had to start saving up money. She had to buy treats for her daughter, she wanted to have a home all her own and maybe eventually make some friends in the School for gifted unicorns.

It was not to be, she wasn’t going to make any friends in a school full of rich snobs or actually gifted ponies who thought themselves above others for their specific talents. She was too sweet a little filly to become like them, Twilights parents became exceptionally proud of her for that reason.

She wouldn’t make and subsequently lose her first real friend that wasn’t family until six years later, when her daughter got her a birthday gift. Until then her prowess in magic would increase at a rate that even Celestia might find unbelievable, there were just some fields of magic that Twilight chose to excel in and with hard work she did just that.

3

“Twilight it’s time to get up! Hey Twilight, look if you don’t get up… are you even listening to me! You didn’t give me life to be quiet you know!” Twilight stirred in her bed as a high pitched squeaky version of her own voice yelled in her ears slowly waking her up. “Come on already Twilight, it’s another great day and guess who turned fourteen today?”

“Not now Smart… five more minutes.” Twilight rolled over and pulled her covers over her head. Twilight would never forget why she turned her beloved Smarty Pants doll into a very pixie like creature, much less that it held that form because it was enchanted with several different spells. The most interesting enchantment was the one that made it solar powered.

“Ugh, I’ll just go get Barb then, nothing gets us up in the morning like our daughter!” Smart E. Pants was once Twilights childhood toy, until Twilight took her imagination of the toy being alive and literally brought it to life through her studies on enchantment. She loved her toy even more after it turned into a cute little five inch tiny grey pony form with pixie wings, not to mention it had a default average length well brushed raven mane and tail.

Despite her appearance, Smart was not a truly intelligent doll morphed into a pixie pony. It was a living copy of memory in a memory storage device and could possibly learn things, but for all intents and purposes it was like the piece of Twilights mind that created the Smart E. Pants imaginary friend from when she was little.

This meant a part of her consciousness was constantly wandering around keeping her childhood alive and if the doll were destroyed Twilight would know about it. She’d get a sudden headache and memory of being a tiny little annoying fairy pony with her exact memories that played out her fantasies of being Twilight Sparkles toy. Knowing you’ve been your own play thing was quite disturbing in the least. When you grew up not having friends and are a single mother with a daughter you cherished, well Twilight needed somewhere to vent and no place was better than Smart or more to the point at a small part herself.

Speaking of a small part of herself that Twilight practiced magic on, she played with her Smart’s hair a lot and couldn’t help but toy with the hair as one day it might be brown and the next indigo. All kinds of styles were used on the pixie figure from long hair to short and even once an afro which Twilight didn’t like but Smart certainly did. Smart being part of Twilight relished in all of the attention and liked being Smart E. Pants.

There were downsides to Smarts existence, but there were plenty of upsides to make up for it. Twilight created Smart to act as a reminder to important stuff she may forget or to keep her on schedule. The bigger reason she created Smart after the first year of Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns, it was to have a part of her that could always have time for her daughter. For some reason Twilight found it less creepy that she was her daughter’s mother and plaything, then being her own plaything. As long as the doll wasn’t destroyed it would continue to live on… well past the time Twilight would inevitably die as even given Barbs twists due to Twilights magic, she would eventually out live Twilight and Smart would be her constant companion when and if things got to that point. Smart could even cast a few spells, but she couldn’t directly use any of them on Twilight because she was immune to being affected by them.

Twilight figured that if she were ever to gain an evil side she would force it to become a negative version of Smart without the ability to vocalize or cause trouble. Many had already asked her where her friend Smart came from and Twilight was smart enough not to give away an answer. Enchanting was a dangerous school of magic, one could easily kill themselves by accident if they didn’t take things slow and it was a school of magic that favored the patient. Enchanting never had any great offensive capability and unicorns in the armies of the ancient past never got into it because it was difficult to learn and reaching mastery would take forever. What they entirely ignored was the great supportive capabilities and it fell largely out of practice.

Over the last six years Twilight had learn a lot of magic, however the potency of said magic was random for whatever she placed it into.

Twilight was pretty good at enchantment as Smart would probably say she’s a work of art made from an insane unicorns mind, Twilight was self deprecating at times for her inability to make friends in Canterlot.

When it came to Medical Magic, Twilight had some talent as she had plenty of power for healing cuts, scrapes and minor wounds. Her magic cosmetology book helped her learn those medical spells quite easily and she learned how to remove near permanent scars with her magic easily enough. Her problem was she hit a form of mental wall in this area of magic and could go no further.

Magical Plants and Alchemy could easily coincide with each other, even if they were slightly different fields. Magical Plants was recognition of plants and their properties, if you took alchemy you could possibly have a good combination for mixing up stuff like shampoo. Twilight was embarrassed that that was exactly the first successful concoction she ever created, it made her mane slightly silkier when used and had no detrimental side effects while leaving her smelling like grapes. Alchemy wasn’t all about plants; it had metals and other elements as well and was something Twilight enjoyed.

Her study of Magical Animals really helped her raise her daughter; Twilight would have never known that Barb was a magic dragon and it would explain why she was able to affect her daughters hatching with magic. Magic dragons were apparently dragons that were special because they were hatched by powerful magical forces and any type of dragon egg could be hatched into a magic dragon instead of what they would have originally hatched into should they have hatched normally. The school for gifted unicorns specifically used eggs that were magically protected to be extra difficult to hatch; no other pony has done so for a good one hundred and thirty two years.

Other then all that Twilight was gifted with a talent for raw magic. She could levitate tons of weight, she could light up an entire forest and she was a walking powerhouse capable of understanding what a spell was doing and what it would do as long as she studied it with her eyes carefully. She was even beginning to get teleporting down, as far as things went the most general forms of unicorn magic was her area of expertise even if a lot of it was convoluted silly stuff like transforming an apple into an orange. Twilight thought it was easier to turn her doll into a pixie pony.

There were three ways to go through the Celestia’s academy for gifted unicorns, take classes, self study or mentorship program. Twilight was stiffly into the self study portion and was doing well for herself as she enjoyed the freedom while the other unicorns in self study goofed off a lot. Twilight did take some classes on the side and was even asked by a teacher or two if she would like a mentorship but she had to politely turn them down. She enjoyed her freedom and wouldn’t have time for her daughter if she took a mentorship program.

Along the way through school, Twilight had tried to make friends. She really was trying, but nothing she could do would be good enough for the other unicorns.

She had an acquaintance in a pony named Trixie, a pony that was arrogant and had a special talent for telling stories and making illusions to go along with them. Trixie didn’t get along with Twilight for a variety of reasons but at least they were amiable towards each other. Trixie didn’t outright dislike Twilight.

Sunset Shimmer on the other hoof was Celestia’s personal student, a thing she had the tendency to rub in the faces of other ponies including Twilights quite a few times. She thought herself above other ponies, whereas Trixie was just brash and self confident. Twilight knew how Sunset was being trained by Celestia and thought that Sunset truly needed Celestia to teach her or else she might eventually hurt herself alongside many others one day. For some reason Sunset hated Twilights guts and Twilight never quite understood why.

Those two ponies were sticking points in Twilights memory, but many other ponies that she tried to befriend didn’t acknowledge her in a positive light. Twilight wouldn’t know it, but it was mostly out of jealousy for her talent in the more general forms of magic. Quite a few of them noticed Twilights staring from one time or another at them or mostly at their manes because she thought they were pretty. Twilight never knew or understood why she loved the idea of playing with manes, tails and fur, all she knew is that her magazine subscriptions wouldn’t appear odd for an average teenage mare.

Twilights last six years in a nutshell, trying to make friends and it was not for the lack of trying. She believed at least Trixie was a good pony, once you could get by her boastful nature. Something of which Twilight had yet to do, but she thought she might have been close one time while trying to compliment Trixie’s mane. So she was completely and utterly lonely at her school, but hay at least she wasn’t being bullied.

Twilight made sure that her daughter was generally happy and liked to learn, something Twilight didn’t force feed her under the magical surge that hatched Barb. Barb formed her own mind and ideas and was her own magic dragon pony hybrid.

Twilight was happy for the life she led so far, but sad that she didn’t have any friends. At least she wasn’t a very high strung shut in of a pony; she tried hard to be approachable and outgoing.

“Mom, time to wake up… grandpa and grandma want you downstairs for breakfast after you take a bath, I’m not leaving till you get your lazy magical butt out of bed.” Barb liked to nap in too, but thought it was strange for her mom to sleep in considering she was a hard working pony of many different branches of magic. Barb never called Twilights parents grandpa or grandma to their faces, but she always thought of them as such.

“Not now Barb… mommy is still tired from mixing so many chemicals last night. Something still missing from the formula…” Twilight drifted off back to sleep, while petting Barb’s head with an outstretched hoof.

Barb smiled at being petted and her little wings fluttered at her mother’s touch only for her to realize her mom went back to sleep which annoyed her as soon as the hoof went limp. Today was her mommy’s birthday and she wanted to give her mom her present!

Barb reached up with her tiny claws and struggled to pull herself on top of the bed and when she finally managed it, she crawled on top of her mother and started poking. Eventually she managed to poke her mom enough times to get her to roll out of bed and onto her hooves.

“Fine, fine… I’m up already!” Twilight giggled as her daughter jumped upon her back.

“To the bathroom mom, I don’t want to miss breakfast!” Barb pointed in the general direction for Twilight to go get bathed.

After a quick bit of bathing and mane care, Twilight and Barb ate breakfast. After that Twilight’s parents asked her to meet them in the living room since they all had presents for her birthday, even Barb got her a birthday gift with part of her allowance that didn’t go into gems that she snacked on once in a while.

Twilight looked at the gift that Barb got for her and it was a strange one, she had not heard of an enchanted comic book before and it was something for her to examine later. She hugged her daughter and thanked her parents for her wonderful gifts. Later on she made a note to send a thank you back to her big brother, who was Uncle Shining to Barb, as his gift came later in the day.

They would have a wonderful cake after dinner that night and the next day would bring a bit of trauma for Twilight and Barb.

4

Twilight had received gifts from her parents, brother and Barb yesterday. So now it was time to catalogue everything she had gotten as she was only allowed to quantify her feelings on everything she received the day after she was treated like royalty by her family.

She received a personally signed picture of Fleur De Lis; it was from her mother and the picture did focus on Fleur's rather wondrously extravagant beauty. Twilight wondered how her mom knew that she had an interest in Fleur, much less got a signed picture from the up and coming premier Canterlot supermodel. It was as interesting as the message that basically said, never give up on your dreams or your heart, also don’t change who you are to please others since there is no pleasing every pony.

One would think that Fleur got as far as she did on her looks and they’d be very much wrong as she didn’t sign contracts with any pony if they so much as tried to alter her to their world views and in Canterlot… that was a bit of a big problem considering how many unicorns tried to do that. Fleur was a smart and intelligent role model, but she got more accolades for her looks and many wouldn’t even think of the merits of her magical expertise in some fields after she graduated from Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. In fact Twilight was pretty sure ponies forgot how high Fleur’s IQ level actually was by judging her based on the cover of her outer appearance, kind of like how she was prepared to judge a book by its cover without reading it first.

Fleur proved a fact that a pony could be both beautiful and intelligent like Celestia; Twilight places the picture on the nightstand next to her bed.

Speaking of school for gifted unicorns, Twilight would only spend two more years going there. She’d be sixteen when she set out to make a place for herself in this wide open world, she hoped Barb would go with her as her favorite daughter. Barb would probably say that she was Twilight Sparkles only daughter.

Her father got her several sets of scissors, combs and brushes in all kinds of colors and personalization’s. Twilight didn’t even question why her father got them for her, but she liked the presents all the same, most likely it was to play with Smart. She still didn’t understand why her father snickered at her after she opened her present, much less her mother giving her a silly smile.

She stowed her father’s gifts away, in a meticulous manner in her nightstand sorting the scissors, brushes and combs. If only she knew her parents caught her staring at other ponies manes.

Her brother being the protective guy that he always was sent her a gift through the mail, of course it arrived sometime yesterday during lunch and was delivered by one of Ponyville’s delivery ponies which was rather odd. At least they made up for the mix up, especially when a young wall eyed blond mare also left her a warm muffin alongside her brothers present wishing her a happy birthday and to ignore any future versions of her that they might run across that day.

Ignoring that the mare might be a time traveler and it was actually feasible with magic artifacts, Twilight had started to look over her brothers’ two gifts in the one present. First part of the gift was that her brother sent her notes on how to perform a barrier spell like his that earned him his cutie mark. The second part was a book of spells that all centered around protection magic.

Twilight smiled at the notes as she read them, she also hoofed through the first few pages of the barrier book. She was going to cherish her brothers’ gifts, who knew you could do so many things with barrier magic including use it offensively? Her brother was trying to help her defend herself even when he couldn’t be there to do it himself.

“Hmm… SMART!” Twilight yelled wondering where the pixie pony had gotten to since yesterday, Smart knew that she knew that the day after her birthday was a time to catalogue her presents. She was supposed to be here with Twilight to go over these things.

“You called Doctor Light?” The pixie said cutely, she was carrying a small present in a levitation field. Limited levitation capabilities were not beyond Twilights personally enchanted assistant which was basically her. She plopped the package on the bed and fluttered around Twilights horn and face playfully nudging Twilights bangs around.

“Oh great now I’m getting myself birthday presents. I really need to make some friends... I mean meet some ponies to be friends with me to spend time with; so far too much of my time already goes into studying magic. Also I’m not a doctor anything yet Smart.” Even as she said this Twilight studied the small present and looked quizzically at the small smiling pixie pony that had a rather devious look on her face. The reason why she backtracked on the make some friends’ statement was because she very much could make her own friends using copies of her own memory and specific parts of her own personality through enchanting. Smart was one friend literally made by her hooves too many and would have commented on Twilight literally making more pixie ponies from the other toys that Twilight hoofed down to Barb. “Okay what is it and why are you smiling like that?”

“Well your enchantments professor would like to argue with us about having a doctorate in enchanting. Anyway go on and open the package!” Noting the high pitched voices eagerness and the sweet little innocent eyes dancing with amusement, Twilight wondered why Smart just defined the gift as a package. It certainly looked like a present considering the wrapping paper and the bow.

Opening the present Twilight balked at what was inside, she levitated out a doctorate for enchanting written up by her professor and acknowledged by several ponies in the field.

“How…” Twilight started slowly feeling an eye start to twitch a little in consternation.

“I asked him to slip you a doctorate level exam into another one of your enchanting exam papers; he knew you’d be too nervous to actually apply for the doctorate. He wanted you to earn this considering how good you are at modifying my magical core and enchanting stuff given your massive amount of magic. Heck he was impressed that you even gave me the ability to even grow hair and even become self sufficient considering my base is our childhood toy.” Smart smiled up at Twilight as she settled on the nightstand and looked at Fleur’s picture for a while, admiring it for what it was. She even spoke an aside to Twilight while staring at the picture. “You certainly deserve it or my name isn’t Smart Esmeralda Pants Sparkle! Oh and our comprehensive demonstration on the knowledge of enchantment was me, since I was already there to do the exam while you were busy enjoying your day. I completed the comprehensive examination portion of our exam for us with flying colors and rubbed it in their faces. They said they are sorry you’d miss receiving this doctorate on your birthday and wished you well.”

Twilight face hoofed. Did Smart have to use her full name to get the point across, much less do things that she wasn’t supposed to? Well Smarts design was complex enough for her to earn the doctorate in Twilights stead apparently. After a moment it finally sunk in that Twilight earned a doctorate at fourteen… she wondered how her parents would take this.

She earned a doctorate… in a skill she really wasn’t going to further very much, but she had it. She just wishes she could be more proud of the accomplishment considering it was Smart who forced it to come about. Nonetheless it was useful and looked good on a resume that she was exceptionally talented in a field of magic other then general magic.

“Okay putting aside the fact that I’m now a doctor in enchanting… which is giving me a headache since I can’t invalidate it by saying I wasn’t there for the comprehensive portion. I’ll set this aside next to my hair brushes where I can come to terms with the fact that I actually earned it later and don’t feel slightly jaded by the fact that it came about because of you.” Twilight rolled the doctorate up and placed in nightstand where she said she would and then she curiously picked over her last gift she had from her daughter Barb.

Never judge a book by its cover Sparkle, even if the cover was really interesting. On the cover was a mare with a wild look in her red and green eyes, a strange flamboyant yet well tended to green mane in two tones of color flailing everywhere and dark bluish grey coat. She was wearing a purple suit, black hoof boots and two gold colored stripes around the boots and neckline.

The cover was very interesting as it presents said mare over a city in a presumably night time scene, the comic book was labeled ‘Power Ponies’. What was the more interesting thing about this book was that it was an enchanted comic book.

Twilight Sparkle was already intrigued by the character on the cover of the comic and the idea of the enchantments the book held. One would have to read it to find out where the enchantments were because they weren’t all on the cover.

The purple pony started to read the comic book and the artwork was quite astounding. The six pony heroes and humdrum, each with unique abilities… abilities that normal ponies could have earned through training except for the Saddle Rager or Filli-Second. She thought Humdrum was a quirky character and a goofball, but you couldn’t doubt the guy put his heart into assisting others.

So far the comic book had yet to address the character on the cover. It thus far seems like it was setting up the characters and information about them, she could see each character had their own enchantments magically enwrapping them. Reading the Masked Matter Horn made it glow; the enchantment seemed to be a selector as the same thing had happened when she read Radiance’s profile. It gave a small comic of their origins and how they all came together to fight for justice.

What followed was the chilling story of the mare on the cover and how she came to be, apparently they didn’t give the mare a name but the story is that a supposedly corrupt business pony or pony suspected of bad business practices had an accident.

The accident entailed the pony with a beautiful blue mane, tail, eyes and a pink coat falling into a vat in a shampoo factory and followed by it being electrified with a lightning cable. What crawled out of the vat was a mare with wildly altered mane and crazed look in her eyes.

Then she, the now named Mane-iac, went after some power orb for some convoluted plot and the power ponies appeared, that’s when the comic book ended. If Twilight hadn’t been relatively knowledgeable in enchanting and hadn’t known that the comic book was stated as being an enchanted comic book, she would have felt ripped off.

Instead she studied the magical words in the bottom right corner of the last page and knew better then to read them out loud. Only an idiot would read enchantment magic out loud even if the worst that could happen to you is something unexpectedly annoying and unintended if you were not expecting it. Enchantments could be dangerous, but only to the one doing the enchanting.

“Hmm… let’s see….” Smart said standing on the book looking at the small print and was about to read it out loud only when she received a glare from Twilight and quieted down.

“Smart… don’t you dare read that out loud.” Twilight said tersely at the pixie pony. “Especially before I’ve had a chance to study it!”

“Oh gee, studying magic. Didn’t you want to get away from that?” The pixie pony was looking to have her mane chopped unevenly and really short if she kept that up if the glare Twilight was sending her meant anything. Smart just knew she would temporarily lose the enchantment that allowed her to even grow a mane if she continued to step over her boundaries, but even being punished could be fun once in a while.

“Yes, but I’m not about to go into this blindly without knowing everything that will happen because of whatever this comic book was enchanted to do.” Twilight sat down and started studying the enchantments throughout the comic book, Barb wandered in just when Twilight was finished copying the enchantments down for further study with Smarts help.

Barb thought her gift was pretty nifty, although she did require the help of grandpa and grandma to get it.

“Hey mom, you finished reading it already? You certainly didn’t waste your time finishing… huh what’s this? You can return to the place you start… defeated… take a closer look to join the adventure in this book? What in the world does that even… mom why are you looking at me like that?” That’s when Barb lost her mother to a magical vortex, having been pushed to a safe distance by Twilight’s magic leaving her alone with Smart who barely avoided being pulled into the book as well.

“No…. MOMMY! ”

5

“Okay now is not the time to panic Barb, I’m sure we’re fine. The enchantment isn’t capable of killing any pony, though some mental trauma might be expected.” Despite the pixie’s reassurances that Twilight would come back okay, she was quickly gripped by tiny claws and held to magic dragons’ chest. After a moment Smart started to pat Barb on the shoulder with her tiny hooves. “There, there, everything will be fine. It’ll take her a while to get out of the comic book though. Do you want to go get some ice cream? It’ll cheer you up and you know we have your favorite flavor in stock… maybe with some crushed ruby?”

“We got a ruby to crush into the Rocky Road?” The sniffling dragon said calming down somewhat, at least her moms living toy was still with her.

“Of course we do! Our little Sparkle needs some comfort food and I’ll help set you up.” Smart smiled and fluttered into the air and waited for the dragon to grab the comic book, before she zoomed down to the kitchen to start levitating stuff together for a Rocky Ruby Road special. Crushing the rubies was always the hard part.

Despite Smart’s attempts to calm her down, Barb wanted her pony mom to hug her. Toy mom wasn’t exactly the same thing, but at least she knew how to cheer a dragon up. Barb loved Rocky Road; it’s one of the reasons why she learned to read and why learning stuff wasn’t boring.

Twilight had her eyes closed after falling through a dizzying vortex for a few seconds; she did not want Barb fighting anyone so she protected her child and ended up getting sucked in. Keeping her daughter out of trouble was a full time job; Twilights real problem was keeping her out of the ice cream.

Opening her eyes once she felt a floor beneath her hooves, Twilight could only hope she remembered everything about the enchantments involved in this impromptu adventure. She looks down and saw a pair of jeweled bracelets wrapped around her hooves, she was the character known as Radiance then. She was glad she was capable of making a choice of character that she wanted to be and she didn’t want to be the Masked Matter Horn on the principle of abilities he had and how well they could be controlled.

Looking around her general area, Twilight noticed she was standing on the roof of a building with the default characters in the comic book. She was thankfully the only outsider here and as far as she knew she’d be treated as if she were Radiance, given that was whose costume she was currently wearing at the moment.

The enchantments on this comic book were somewhat simple except for the one incredible enchantment that literally threw you right into the story. Twilight has been to many places before in other books, but to actually be in the book itself and involved in making the plot your own? Barb’s present was going to be more interesting then she originally thought and Twilight was going to have a talk with her daughter about reading magical words out loud when she was done with this.

The objective of this story was to defeat Mane-iac, which was the only name that the pony that fell into the vat of chemicals was known as. There was any number of ways you could defeat some pony, Twilight knew she could lead the story where she wanted it to go.

If Twilight wanted the story to be a tragedy she’d try for killing Mane-iac while making up a horrible back story as to why she wants to take down the shifting pretty green mane behind the earth pony’s powers. Personally Twilight didn’t have any grudge against her to warrant that direction of storytelling especially if her daughter was reading this and the comic book was adding more pages as the story played out.

Another direction this could be taken would be turning the story into a comedy. Twilight could just do completely silly things and by virtue of all the random actions she could take, she will eventually be lead to an inevitable victory by the sheer absurdity of her actions. Well Twilight wouldn’t mind doing something with a banana peel, five pounds of chopped wood, a cannonball, a spring, two pogo sticks, a lantern, a stick of gum, five yards of rope and a gallon of tapioca pudding… well she probably didn’t want her daughter to die laughing if she was reading this, so she wouldn’t go that way either.

The normal way this could play out would be the average hero story, so Twilight would just as well fight Mane-iac as the setting would have her do with the powers that were given to her. Said powers were currently overlaying her natural unicorn abilities and she’d have to use them to the best of her abilities as her normal magical abilities were out of order. It would be action packed to say the least, but Twilight wasn’t a believer of violence solving problems and usually violence often causes more problems.

In a way Twilight felt kind of sad for Mane-iac; no matter what happens she was guaranteed to lose to whoever was pulled into the comic. The comic didn’t even give a reason why she was after this electro orb thing in the first place or what she was going to do with it.

While Twilight was still having her introspection, a loud crashing noise happened next to her shocking her out of her thoughts. She saw the blazing speed of Filli-second as she darted off across the sides of buildings. Looking down to the streets below her, Twilight saw that the Mane-iac had just thrown something at the fastest mare in this comic book. Didn’t the Mane-iac actively acknowledge that what she had just done wasn’t exactly all to threatening? The thing she threw, which was apparently a street vendors stand, fell completely short of ever actually hitting the speedy mare Filli-second. It was like watching a filly throw a temper tantrum with the way the Mane-iac was fighting the other Power Ponies while Humdrum the colt stood next to her watching the fight in earnest excitement.

It was at this point that Twilight knew what kind of plot she wanted to go with, a redemption plot… or she would at least attempt to befriend the Mane-iac and maybe eventually succeed or defeat her trying to by complete accident. Twilights read enough stories to know how plot contrivances work and she wasn’t about to hurt someone she didn’t know personally. In fact she wants to get to know who this supposed villain was. As so far from what Twilight could see, she wasn’t actively doing her worst.

Twilight could see Mane-iac as doing far worse than giving the Power Ponies bumps and bruises. In fact if the villains’ hair was as strong as it appeared to be, then she could have just snapped all their necks by now given that her tail hair alone could lift her weight.

“Well I guess I should help them out…” Twilight mused as she watched the other Power Ponies get their flanks hoofed to them. The three stallions and two mares other then Twilight looked to have been battered and bruised, but had no permanent injuries that a good rest wouldn’t solve.

In all the fighting Humdrum tried to make off with the electro orb only for the teenage colt to find himself held aloft. The lengthy green tentacle made of hair was holding the orb his hooves were currently clutching to.

“Oh Humdrum, I thank you for holding onto this for me. I’ll just take that back now.” Mane-iac chuckled maniacally as she flicked him off the orb and turned around to go back to her hideout only to find Radiance standing in the way. “Well if it isn’t the enchanting Radiance, so I suppose you’re going to get in my way as well?”

“Nope, you just run along now.” Twilight said dismissing Mane-iac entirely, this caused the crazy mare to frown as she trotted right by and started to assist the power ponies in getting out of their predicaments. Twilight had a pretty good idea of how to use her powers; she had already created a large squishy sponge cake made entirely of energy at street level to get to the ground safely.

“What… you’re not going to… you know, challenge me or something?” Mane-iac was completely thrown off when Twilight shrugged in her general direction and got a dizzy Humdrum back on his hooves using an energy spatula.

“No you can go on ahead; we’ll catch up to you later or something. I’m thinking about finding a bakery to get something to eat because I missed breakfast this morning.” Twilight then turned to Humdrum who was looking up at her with affection in his eyes; Humdrum had a boyhood crush on Radiance. It was the reason why he was attempting the heroics he does and always gets stuck under the Power Ponies hooves. “You okay Humdrum?”

The Mane-iac sat there completely astonished like she had been slapped across the face and hard, with her mouth wide open ready to complain that Radiance wasn’t being heroic like all the others she just defeated in a small skirmish. It was inconceivable that a hero would just write her off as a threat! She defeated the other five Power Ponies, why didn’t Radiance even seem worried about this? Much less the question begged why wasn’t Radiance fighting her?

“You sure you don’t want to try to get this orb from me?” Mane-iac said moving the orb closer to Twilights face and even shifting it around in front of her nose from side to side for a few seconds expecting Twilight to go for the bait. Instead Twilight ignored her and managed to get Miss Mare-velous down from the street lamp as all the blood was likely rushing to her unconscious head. “Not even a little attack in my direction?”

“Sorry, don’t feel like it.” Twilight motioned with her right hoof for Mane-iac to get going as she made her way over to Zapp who accidentally shocked himself with lightning during the fight. “Poor guy all his muscles are locked up, so that’s a stop for a meal and then a trip to a masseuse for you. It looks like no one has tended to your wings for a while either so you really need it. Maybe the others would like a massage as well?”

Mane-iac felt at a loss as she sat there watching Radiance just gather the injured Power Ponies and was gently checking them over.

“Not even a little fight?” Mane-iac queried, before she got angry at being ignored. “Well fine, I didn’t want to fight you anyway!”

Twilight watched as the Mane-iac swung away grumbling huffily using her mane to send her flying across the city. Shrugging lazily, Twilight created a circular platform construct, creating energy constructions was Radiance’s power and she was slowly getting an idea about how powerful this character actually was having only used her ability three times. She focused a bit and lifted the five unconscious ponies into the air on her platform. She turned to Humdrum who was looking at her oddly. He was possibly perplexed by her recent actions; she simply motioned for him to get on as she stepped up onto the floating circle.

“You want me to come with you, me, the screw up? Are we going after Mane-iac?” Humdrum said almost getting exuberant that they were going to give chase.

“We’ll get back to her later Humdrum, until then we’re going to enjoy ourselves. Despite how the others see you, you’re a pretty smart kid.” Twilight wasn’t worried about how to locate Mane-iac; because quite frankly Humdrum had the super power that the others probably hadn’t taken notice of. Humdrum knew how to find super villain lairs with relative ease and knew a lot about the city of Maretropolis.

“What are you talking about, how are we going to get back to her later when we don’t know where she’ll be?” Humdrum asked worriedly, even though he did like the praise Radiance gave him.

“Well, where do you think she’ll be?” Twilight asked nonchalantly, it was kind of obvious to begin with.

“Possibly at the abandoned shampoo… oh. Okay then, where are we going?” Humdrum asked intrigued as the floating circle had yet to go in any direction as it floated above the city.

“Do you know the locations of a good spa and a place to eat? Would you also like to swing by the honey festival I saw on this pamphlet I found on the street?” Twilight hasn’t had friends before and this was her daughters’ gift, so she was going to milk it for all it was worth and enjoy it while it lasts. She wanted to actually enjoy spending time with other ponies that weren’t her family while she was trapped here, just to get a feel of what it was like to already have companions. Mane-iac wasn’t that dangerous as she was just sad and lonely, also maybe a bit needy for attention.

“Yes I do and would I ever!” Humdrum said happily throwing his hooves in the air.

6

Twilight really liked this vacation from everything normal. This world had little to no concept of money and she was glad for it. Sure the world had businesses, but she didn’t have to pay for anything as a hero. She happily sipped her honeyed cider as she sat at a table next to Humdrum at the honey festival.

The spa had been a wonderful retreat from all of Twilights real world troubles. She had gotten a facial, went into a mud bath, the hoof curing felt good and she even got the chance to do her own mane. Her mane was in the same style as always but slightly more pronounced and she even got to do Filli-second’s and Mare-velous’s manes. Filli-second had horrible hood mane which Twilight couldn’t fix with a spell and instead enjoyed working with it using her super powers, but Mare-velous had a marvelous well cared for mane that Twilight almost wished she didn’t have to stop touching.

Despite all the good memories this would create for Twilight and especially the time from the spa which even the four male Power Ponies enjoyed, she felt sad. So this is what it was like to have friends, Twilight thought idly.

It really didn’t feel all too real to Twilight. She hadn’t earned the friendships by her own merits, earned their undying trust and there was the fact that she was automatically respected just because she was part of the team. There was also the knowledge that she couldn’t enjoy free five star foods, the luxury hotel she slept in last night and going to that wondrously nice spa forever.

Twilight had a life to get back to with her daughter and this world may have been a lot of good things, but it just wasn’t home. She was a responsible fourteen year old almost adult single mother mare and she just couldn’t leave her daughter alone. Especially alone with Smart for more than a day or else the house would be a disaster zone by the time she got back.

It was time for Twilight to seek out an ending to the dream she found herself in and wake up.

“Humdrum, do you know where the not so abandoned shampoo factory is? I’m ready to get things over with now.” Twilight received a confused look from Humdrum because she knew she had a resolute look on her face. Barbs gift was a wonderful present and Twilight knew what would happen when she finally achieved the end goal of defeating Mane-iac. She would automatically be thrown from the comic and then it would disappear, it was the enchanted comics weird safety feature once you finished the story.

Mane-iac was a bit miffed; she had been angrily going over the entire battle with the Power Ponies again and again in her mind. Why had Radiance let her go without a fight? She was so angry at the pony for ignoring her and not only that, she was angry because Radiance didn’t put up a fight or even seemed interested in one.

It wasn’t just that Radiance ignored Mane-iac either, it was the fact that she and the other Power Ponies were taking their dear sweet time to get to her hideout. Where were they, even Humdrum could have figured out where her hideout was by this point! She did set up a giant neon sign advertising her location after all.

The super villains’ green mane was whipping wildly around the wide open office space she occupied, she grumbled about Radiance with her obnoxiously cute fringe not wanting to fight her. In fact, why did Mane-iac even want to fight her so badly?

Mane-iac’s mane stopped thrashing slightly and settled down; some of it flowed in front of her right eye as she lay down on her belly. She just stared at the floor with her left eye as her thick long hair shifted to warmly blanket her body. Why was she getting so upset over it? Why! Her tail slid back and forth agitatedly across the floor as she pondered why she was feeling like this, wasn’t she crazy or attention drawing enough for her?

Mane-iac flicked the mass of her tail at a nearby wall punching a hole in it out of frustration.

“Ma’am the Power Ponies are finally making a move on us. Also the one you wanted to know about appears to be wearing fake bee antenna and has a shirt that proclaims ‘hug bees’ on it. From what the reports say, she’s even holding a mug with one of her constructions and is slowly following the other Power Ponies while drinking from it. She appears to have saddle bags loaded with four gallons worth of unopened honeyed cider.” The stallion then quickly ducked out of the room to avoid getting whipped by the green mane that never came, after a moment he poked his head back in and saw the blank look on Mane-iac’s face.

“She thought me so unimportant that she went to the all weekend honey festival!” Mane-iac was now livid like the color of her coat and she stormed out while taking a moment to grab the electro orb with a small portion of her mane. Not once did her thoughts go to the other Power Ponies also taking time off to enjoy the festival. “Minions prepare the hair spray of doom! The rest of you with me, we’re going to hold them off.”

Twilight stood at the street corner sipping away at the honeyed cider while she watched the Power Ponies pummel precariously positioned pawns perfectly in their paths. She had very recently acquired an addiction to honeyed cider that might actually match her slowly increasing passion for playing with manes, tails and coats, also she had to get out this place soon or she might acquire an attentively active alliteration addiction too.

Soon Twilights mind started to imagine all the stuff she could do with Mane-iac’s mane, the thought of braiding, brushing, combing or do anything with that much beautiful bountiful bushy hair caused her to blush.

One of these days Twilight would need to look up multiple medical books as to why she kept reacting this way to mares with what she thought were exceptionally attractive manes. She often wondered why she wasn’t as attracted to the bodies of other mares which could be as equally beautiful.

After finishing her current mug of honeyed cider, the last of which she walked out of the festival with, Twilight felt her bladder pulse from all the cider she has been drinking. She quickly excused herself from the battle. The Power Ponies didn’t need her assistance with all this fighting anyway. She decided to enter a wonder toilet station on the nearby street corner, they were rather meticulously cleaned and even had a small sink installed for washing your hooves if you needed to. Apparently they were made in part for Filli-second given her sometimes hyperactive metabolism, they were also used by every other hero who needed to use them and they were fortified can shaped bunkers.

The moment Twilight exited the battle Mane-iac immediately joined the fray with her minions looking forward to proving herself to Radiance. She slapped Zapp the weather powered pegasus to the ground, tripped up Filli-second using her mane and took Matter by his horn to slam him into a building. She was doing fine without the spray until Saddle Rager entered the battle. Miss Mare-velous was busy dealing with the minions.

Mane-iac knew the Saddle Rager was a tough opponent when he sufficiently got bulked up after getting angry; the problem was despite increasing his strength exponentially his speed suffers incredibly because he became heavier from all his extra muscles. So he wasn’t capable of landing a solid blow on Mane-iac who hung by her mane a good ten to twenty feet off the streets to avoid getting mare handled by the brutish beast until she can sap his powers and paralyze him.

One would think the Mane-iac would order her minions to be a distraction to Saddle Rager; the thing is she actually ordered them to stay away from him for their own safety. This was something a truly insane mare would not even care about. Would an insane mare still be paying her minions so well along with getting them great health and dental plan benefits, especially for their families, if they were willing to put up with having the ever loving tar beaten out of them?

“Mane-iac the spray is ready!” The minion that spoke had a neck brace, a full body cast and both his front two legs in slings. Even still this minion didn’t stop doing his best to please the mistress that had ownership of half the salons in the city of Maretropolis, none of them being anywhere near illegal. The shampoo that warped Mane-iac to what she now was was just a prototype and an accident, one she saw fit to make sure wasn’t repeated.

“Let’s see how strong you are when I sap you of your power Saddle Rager!” Mane-iac moved to clinging onto the side of the shampoo factory and quickly sent a tentacle to open the large garage doors; she quickly arranged her hair differently as soon as she got the hair spray of doom out.

Saddle Rager charged and was quickly sprayed by the hair spray and he shrunk down to his average size before he stopped moving entirely except for the fact that he was still breathing. What followed was the other Power Ponies, with the exception of Twilight, charging blindly in and getting caught by the spray as well. One would have at least assumed Filli-second would have been able to avoid the spray at the speeds she could move.

Mane-iac was soon looming over Humdrum smiling wickedly holding the hair spray of doom in her mane possibly prepared to spray him down.

“Wait, please don’t spray me.” Humdrum cowered only to have a hair tentacle gently lift his head up to meet her green and red wild eyes.

“Why would I do that Humdrum? The spray would be a waste on you, now that I have succeeded in capturing all of the Power Ponies…” Mane-iac started out only for one of her minions to interrupt her.

“Actually I think we’re missing one ma’am.” The minion suddenly had two glaring eyes in his face.

“Which one did we miss?” Mane-iac’s tone was sharp and to the point.

“I believe it’s Radiance…” The minion said shuddering under the shadow of the mare being held aloft by her mane.

“Did any of you see Radiance during the fight?” The way Mane-iac said it as she turned about and rose up higher on her mane with a frown marring her face; it sounded like she was hurt on some emotional level that Radiance had the gall to not even hurt her minions. “Where is she, you reported they were all coming here!”

Twilight exited the toilet to the sight of moaning meandering mangled minions and a pack of paralyzed Power Ponies. She sighed; did they just all rush Mane-iac while she was wielding the hair spray of doom? This might have been another reason why she didn’t consider the Power Ponies real friends; they were a bit dim on tactics and strategy, much less actually working in tandem with each other.

“Um… are you alright?” Twilight asked as she walked up to stand behind Mane-iac, the villain turned to stare down at her.

“No I am not alright, why won’t Radiance fight me? She didn’t even come to the attack on my lair and she didn’t even harm any of my minions. I bet she doesn’t even see me as a viable threat.” Mane-iac slumped to the point that her hooves actually touched the ground and her mane became completely limp. “Is there something wrong with me; is there something about me that she doesn’t like?”

Twilight just stood with a bland look on her face wondering just exactly when she would be noticed. Even the salon working minions were just standing there staring at the actions going on between the two. The purple pony just gave them all a sheepish grin as they were all staring at her. They all turned to look at the depressed Mane-iac as she slowly made her way into the factory with her hair dragging on the ground. Some of the minions even voiced that she might have even been crying as she dragged the other Power Ponies inside.

“Um… do you think you could help out the boss? She seems upset that you won’t take her or the situation seriously. I mean didn’t she just capture all your friends, doesn’t that make you want to rush in and fight her to free them or something.” The minions were all looking at Radiance hopefully.

“You can hit me if you want to… I can take it! I can even tell Mane-iac that you broke some of my bones even if you don’t actually do it.” One of the minions added in the hopes that Radiance would beat him to a bloody pulp to make his boss happy.

“I’m not going to fight her or you guys. I’ll just go talk to her and hopefully she’ll stop being crazy long enough to realize I was here. Humdrum could you set the other Power Ponies free and start an action packed battle with the minions while I deal with Mane-iac personally?” All the minions cheered up immediately and couldn’t push a confused Humdrum into the factory fast enough, Twilight sighed at their actions. The things she did to please some ponies, she was just going to talk with Mane-iac. They were acting like she just agreed to a pitched battle that would mess up that mares’ magnificent magical meticulously maintained mane.

“I swear you guys are all a bunch of loony’s.”

7

Twilight walked into the factory, it was still obviously operational by the barest of her observations. She saw a giant device sitting in the middle of the factory; Humdrum was currently being given a tour by the minions who were also giving him helpful tips on how to possibly set up the huge battle. From the looks of it, Humdrum was so confused by the thoroughly helpful minions who were giving him advice on how to use his head.

The Power Ponies were being held in a cage with a minion that was keeping them constantly paralyzed; he looked really bored with the job. He was busy reading a mane magazine and resetting an egg timer.

Shaking her head, the pony that was currently known as Radiance walked up to one of the minions and tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. He jumped and freaked out for a moment before he realized he hadn’t been struck or attacked.

“Excuse me, but what’s that?” Twilight pointed out the large pink hairdryer like structure. She knew what it looked like, but not exactly what it did.

“Oh, that’s Mane-iac’s doomsday weapon you guys were supposed to thwart, I don’t think she’s going to use it now since you just had to go and upset her like that.” The minion glared angrily at Radiance and then dropped it with a sad frown. “To think that we went to all that trouble to build it, it’s basically a giant heat ray. She was going to use it to somehow increase her powers and possibly cause wild mane growth amongst the population.”

“What! Doesn’t she know that too much heat can damage a pony’s mane?” Twilight was glowing with righteous anger now. Would the Mane-iac seriously have destroyed her own mane like that? She was going to set this right. A salon chair with only a very low heat and or regular air blow drying without any heat at all options was much better. She’d not only be giving other ponies a bad mane day if the ray didn’t outright kill them, but she’d do it to herself too? At least now Twilight knew why she named herself Mane-iac. “This is completely inexcusable! Where is she currently?”

The minion cowered at the visible purple glow of an angry Radiance and the dark tone and turn her voice took. Slowly the minion, still shivering like he was freezing cold, lifted a hoof and pointed it towards the office space of the factory. The glowing pyre of imminent pain and suffering stomped off in that direction and all the minions immediately had their backs to the walls as she passed. Even Humdrum was cowering at the energy she was giving off.

Twilight walked up to the door while stowing away her honey festival stuff into her bags and was about to blast it off its hinges with a construct, only to stop cold. She inhaled deeply and counted to ten, she finally exhaled slowly. She couldn’t face Mane-iac angry, Twilight knew that the she’d end up beating herself up for it later if she did. She opened the door and the last vestiges of her anger fled her body.

Mane-iac was sobbing. She was still rather upset, wondering why that one hero in particular didn’t want to thwart her. Was her plan really as dumb as it sounded now that she thought of it? Did her appearance offend in some way? Did she forget to bathe? Maybe Radiance was just being lazy… yeah maybe that’s it; she’ll soon realize how silly she’s being. Radiance will just bust down that door and rush in declaring her intents to fight and then they will.

“Mane-iac… can we talk.” The sound of Twilights voice caused Mane-iac to curl up into a green cocoon made of hair.

“Go away.” Mane-iac didn’t want to acknowledge that Radiance was now there, since it still seemed like she did not want to fight. She really didn’t want to face the reality of the unaggressive Power Pony.

“No, I will not. One of your minions told me of your plans for the electro orb. Why would you make a plan that ends up with you hurting yourself in some way?” Twilight’s slightly increased aggressive tone caught some of Mane-iac’s attention and she uncurled slightly.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about; you Power Ponies were supposed to defeat me before I even got to that point! I wouldn’t have gone through with it anyway, so I have no clue why you think I’m self destructive. I don’t have self destructive tendencies and I’m not being defensive! Why won’t you fight me, am I not good enough for your attention? What’s so wrong with me that you don’t want to see me as the villain that I am!” Mane-iac was now screaming at Radiance with tears in her eyes, her mane sectioned itself into six defensive tentacles that were wiggling aggressively at the hero. Her tail hair was telling different story as it split into two tentacles that wrapped protectively around her body in a comforting hug.

“Is that why…” Twilight said after a moment, a small sparkle appeared in Twilights eyes as she had just had an epiphany. Mane-iac was rather defensive about the self destructive thing, when Twilight never made mention of her being self destructive. Noting that Mane-iac seemed so starved for attention, Twilight decided to start a gentle verbal assault keeping her voice soft. “What makes you think you’re a villain?”

Well that was an armor piercing question of severe magnitudes, Mane-iac’s mane was still in a defensive position but it was less active as if it was just on autopilot. Her tail hair pulled tighter around her body as if she was trying to keep Radiance from attacking her with words. Her eyes became rather glazed as she ducked her head behind her tail hair.

“Mane-iac… have you ever had a friend before?” Twilight knew that look on the mares face; she knew why Mane-iac was always so aggressive and angry at the world. If Twilight were left to her own devices and didn’t have the support of her family or even Barb, she could see herself needing a reason to go on when no pony would be there for you.

“I’ve got plenty of friends.” It was a weak tone that Mane-iac tried to imply she wasn’t as lonely as she sounded, especially not to Radiance.

“Your company employee’s, some of which act as your minions, don’t count. They are acquaintances and are willing to be near you, but none of them have ever tried to spend any personal time with you to get to know you have they? You order them around and they do what you say, but you never let any of them be your friend.” This was going to provide an opening for Twilight, she wanted to Mane-iac to open up to her. Thus she moved slightly closer to the villain. “Do you even know their names? You care for them, but I bet that you don’t know any of them personally.”

“No they didn’t and I don’t. None of them would ever approach a monster like me.” Mane-iac tilted her head towards the floor and her mane covered the right side of her face as it went limp, her tail hair was still hugging her.

“Why do you think you’re a monster?” Receiving an incredulous look from the villain of the comic, Twilight felt that she was on to something. “You know… you still haven’t answered my question about why you think you’re a villain.”

“Have you even looked at me, I’m a freak.” The bitter tone that spit those words from her mouth seemed to have shocked Radiance, which was good to Mane-iac. Maybe the hero will agree and finally attack her.

“You’re dodging the question Mane-iac. Besides you’re mane is really beautiful like you are and you’re coat looks really soft. I truly doubt some pony would ever call you ugly unless they were jealous of how you look.” Twilight could swear she heard explosions going on outside the door to the rather empty office, it sounded like they were having quite a party now and apparently the Power Ponies were free. She could hear Saddle Rager trashing something. She trotted a few steps towards the villain a little more only to recoil and lift a hoof off the floor as Mane-iac lashed out a tentacle at it.

Mane-iac didn’t say anything. Being called beautiful, especially her mane, made her heart jump up her throat and she couldn’t talk because she was too stunned. She reacted poorly to Radiance trying to approach her, despite her acting out Radiance didn’t retreat. Maybe she should actually tell Radiance why she should be hated.

“I stole a mare’s life.” Her voice was filled with so much dark intent; Mane-iac knew that no pony could possibly...

“Whose, your own, yeah that’s got to be pretty hard to do considering you’re still alive.” Twilight retorted simply, Mane-iac certainly had a sudden look of indescribable pain and shock across her face. Twilight decided to sadly point out what she already knew; she thought there was something odd about the Mane-iac’s origin story when she read it. None of Mane-iac’s story mentioned her slipping, how she ended up falling into the vat or how a snapped lightning cable ended up following her. “The accident that gave you your powers wasn’t really an accident was it.”

Mane-iac’s mind went back to that night at the factory, things had been going poorly for the mare who owned a shampoo company and some salons. Business wasn’t the problem; it was her personal life that was horribly stalled.

She was checking on the most recent concoction that was supposed to give ponies some extra lift to their manes. The pony that had yet to become Mane-iac was walking along the walkway, she didn’t slip on anything and she didn’t fall by accident. She looked over the edge and decided to throw herself from the walkway. She was going to let fate decide for her as her life was completely empty. She was comparatively well off, but she wasn’t happy. No family, no love, no pony was interested in her and she was all alone. Her life was all harsh business and she had no hobbies.

Throwing herself from the walkway, her hoof snagged on a lightning cable spinning her so that she was free falling back first towards the vat. Her eyes went wide as the snapped lightning cable followed her down. This was the end of her life as she knew it.

What crawled out of the electrically twisted concoction was the Mane-iac, on the inside she still the same mare she was before. Only her mind had been slightly muddled by the electrical currents that went through her body. After she found a mirror, she was horrified to find out what was happened to her mane and tail. Eventually she slowly started to accept what she had become. Then she decided to become a super villain, just because her coat color was darker and her mane was now acting according to her will.

“I succeeded so easily… at taking it.” Mane-iac said quietly her tail uncurling from her body some. Soon she felt something slide into her mane and suddenly her right eye was uncovered by a construct in the form of a comb gently teasing her mane aside. She didn’t resist the constructs efforts. In front of Mane-iac was Radiance and she certainly looked radiant with that dazzling small sad smile, slowly the hero brought her into a hug.

“You didn’t take anything from her, she’s still here. She’s just lost, confused and lonely. She also really needs a friend and if you’ll let me, can I be yours? In fact I have a fun idea if you’re willing to accept me.” Twilight wondered when Mane-iac would notice that she started brushing her mane; she was still combing it too. It seemed as if Mane-iac had shut down and held her tight. “Your coat really is soft… so have you been to the all weekend honey festival yet Miss Mane-iac? If you haven’t then may I escort you there? It’s the last chance I’ll… we’ll get to see it.”

Mane-iac blushed at affirmation that her coat was soft and then she realized that at some point Radiance had removed her suit, she also realized that she had a comb and brush going through her vibrant green mane. She didn’t feel like doing anything about it though, it felt nice.

“I guess if I’m not too busy with my plans.” Mane-iac said softly after hesitating and deliberating on it for a minute.

At the end of the festival Twilight stood with Mane-iac watching the fireworks, while the Power Ponies were doing who knew what at this point. Twilight had defeated the Mane-iac through befriending her; she felt the pull that was going to drag her away from her friend.

As the super powers evacuated her body, Twilight just wrapped her hooves around Mane-iac. The mare with the prehensile hair reciprocated the friendly hug and then the tug became incredibly strong.

Twilight knew she couldn’t hold on to the friend she had earned herself, but she tightly held on to her for as long as she could even as everything went white.

“Mom your back, I’m so glad you’re okay! Um… who’s that with you?” Hearing her daughters’ voice made Twilight Sparkle’s heart soar.

Then what Twilight heard Barb say finally caught up to her and a comical wide eyed look crossed Twilights face.

8

Enchanted comics were tricky things; all their enchantments had to be set mostly in stone. Such as the enchantments that draw in and eject ponies. The Power Ponies comic Twilight was sucked into had a maximum load of seven ponies. The same seven that entered would be the only ponies that could exit.

The enchantments that made the comic book disappear after going on the adventure in the comic book had to be working or else the other enchantments on the comic book wouldn’t work at all. So therefore as long as the comic book was set to disappear after use, this is the only way it would work.

Mane-iac was not a pony who entered the comic book as she was part of it. For one to understand the meaning of why this is important, one has to know it should be impossible for anything more than the objects you can feasibly carry to come out of the enchanted comic book. Basically you can’t pull an entire bank vault out of the comic or take more then what you should possibly be capable of carrying. So it is intrinsically impossible to remove anything larger then a building or heavier then you are.

Twilight was carrying the following when she was pushed out of the comic by the enchantments: two and a half gallons worth of honeyed cider, one empty gallon bottle that had honeyed cider, one pair of fake bee antenna, a shirt that read ‘hug bees’, one honey festival mug, cured hooves, a spa treated mane and tail, a refreshed body, a stomach filled with good food… and one friend.

One would say that Mane-iac coming out of the comic should be impossible because she’s heavier then Twilight. It is a good thing that Mane-iac didn’t come out of the comic then, but that’s not to say Twilight didn’t exit the book without a friend.

The most important thing in all this is just exactly how powerful Twilight is and who exactly she pulled out of the comic book world with her. Mane-iac gave her first hug to her friend, who was Twilight as Radiance at the honey festival; previously she had received a hug from her but did not reciprocate at that time and only received.

Twilight who after watching the fireworks hugged her friend fiercely who returned the hug as equally strong, but in a more confused manner. Twilight could not feasibly lift Mane-iac out of the world with her, but at the time of their hug Twilight had her own power returned to her and her Radiance abilities stripped of her.

Magic can be simplified down to three things in Equestria even if it was more complicated than that. These three things are intent, power and focus.

Intent, Twilight didn’t want to be separated from the first friend she had ever earned and it was Mane-iac of all ponies. Her intent was that she would take her ‘friend’ with her if she could, even if she didn’t know she had the ability to do so, her magic certainly did.

Power, Twilight was more gifted than any average unicorn given her mystical strength. She could, if given enough time, work her powers hard enough like a muscle to put her on par with beings that were gods. Her special talent being raw magic was certainly a factor in what exactly happened.

Focus, it was different and of the previous two needs this was a very important one. Twilight had an incredibly powerful mind and her ability to focus it in mere glimmers of duress was impossible to copy by any other pony, even Celestia would be hard pressed to focus her magic to such a fine point. Had Twilight not the ability to focus such a degree in specific instances, then what she did would have been completely out of the question as even anywhere being close to feasible. Her focal point was her first friend she had been hugging onto for dear life.

Friendship, Twilight wouldn’t let go of Mane-iac and unfortunately she could not lift her. So she didn’t lift Mane-iac from the world of the comic book, she lifted the bond she forged with her which in turn started a chain reaction.

Friendship, love and familial bonds that are forged can become stronger than any barrier that existence could even be bothered with putting in their way. Existence lost that fight too many times to care at this point when something broke or became horribly bent out of shape when it came to Equestria, so a being named Discord having caused some previous influence on the world did have some bearing on the situation.

Saying Twilight dented existence would be like saying that she tore off a Hydra’s head with her bare hooves without the aid of magic. It seems completely implausible, but that’s exactly what magic was, probability of the impossible and possible to become an intertwined reality.

One last thing to note, to make sure we’re all on the same page of the lessons on magical causality. Twilight did not pull Mane-iac out of the comic book nor did she intentionally or unintentionally do so. The truth of the end result of Twilights unknown struggle to hold onto a friend might be a tad stranger than that, clingy beyond all reason and the laws of physics kind of describes the effort Twilight put into hugging Mane-iac without realizing it.

Twilight was on her back; her magic font was down so low she really doubted that she could do much more then light her horn slightly at the moment much less have the thought of actively using magic. She was still too dizzy and tired when she heard her daughters’ voice. Her heart soared, only her mind finally fed her the message that Barb had relayed to her in her dazed state. The message came in incredibly slow, as if it were slow motion no less.

Twilight felt the weight of the saddle bag that she had acquired in the comic book world, so she still had the cider. Yes, score! Her mind finally picked on something, she couldn't move her legs. Her mind started to panic; hopefully she didn’t lose the use of her legs and would have to move around using only her horn to move some kind of hovering wheel chair. She’d only be able to get a job teaching gifted ponies without the ability to be incredibly mobile on her own, well if she did end up teaching then she’d work on mutating equality for every pony race with the power of her mind.

Lifting her head Twilight opened her eyes and they bugged out spectacularly, her mind wasn’t able to record this moment properly but she’d definitely remember what she saw later laying across the top of her body.

Then Twilights mom, Velvet, walked in.

“Oh, you’re back from your vacation. Who’s your friend and is she staying for dinner?” Velvet frowned when Twilight passed out with the back of her head slamming to the floor. “Oh my, she must be so tired after her trip. Night, honey, I think I’m going to need a little help getting our little Sparkle and her new friend into bed, oh and get the camera. We have embarrassing pictures to take.”

Twilight’s mother and father were decidedly being jerks to their daughter, but they knew she’d forgive them anyway for what happened the following morning. It was a morning that she’d be tardy in getting to Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns, something that she wasn’t overly worried about because she only has self study periods in the morning and could pick up the slack easily enough as she was ahead on her work. There was a reason why Twilight was leaving Canterlot at the age sixteen and was currently doing jobs for extra money to buy her a spot somewhere literally with greener pastures.

Twilight still had two years of school left to go before she started working on figuring out the direction her life was going to take. At the age of fourteen one wonders if Twilight could truly handle another curve ball, other than being a single mother to a magic dragon, one which just hit her directly in the face.

Slowly consciousness came to Twilight and her magic was about back up to a quarter to being full. She was hard pressed to remember why she was experiencing magical exhaustion. Much less why she had a mare wrapped in her hooves as her eyes blinked blearily at the warm body she held. Her lips were almost touching the lips of the face in front of her.

“What the…” Twilight freaked out and flailed her limbs sporadically, she fell out of bed leaving the other occupant where she laid slightly disturbed before curling up in the blanket to continue sleeping. The flash of a camera caught Twilights attention.

“Those two are keepers.” Even with the glare directed at her by her daughter, Velvet could not stop smiling at the pictures she caught of Twilight waking up. “Wake up your friend and help her get prepared for breakfast. Smart! Your better half is still groggy, see if you can direct her to the bathroom and make sure she takes her friend with her. I’ll go wake up Barb, she’ll be so happy to hear how your trip went. She was so worried that you wouldn’t come back after you had been gone for a day or so.”

As Twilights mother exited the room, in flew the pixie pony Twilight created. Who settled down on the bed post and looked at the pony sleeping in Twilights bed. Twilight also looked at the pony still sleeping in her bed. First she focused on the light blue tangled mane and tail, this was something Twilight would definitely fix when she remembered why the pony looked so familiar. Her eyes continued to roam the soft pink coat and a cutie mark of a shampoo bottle with a brush. Her mind was almost on to solving the case when Smart spoke up.

“Isn’t that the pony who became Mane-iac in the comic book?” Smart’s words caused Twilight mind to snap like a twig and it certainly wasn’t because of the mare in her bed that she had slept with and cuddled like a plush toy. It was because Smart came to that conclusion before even she did.

That earth pony mare was the one that eventually became Mane-iac and she was about her age, well a piece of the puzzle Twilight never considered fell into place about why the Mane-iac came about. Being young and a hard working business owner could have lead to heart attacks from the pressure placed on her alone, it was a surprise that she was as healthy as she looked now as she did in the comic book.

“Hey, get our head out of the gutter and stop staring at her flank even if she is really hot. We need to wake up… um… do I call her Mane-iac? She doesn’t exactly have the crazy cool green mane or the super powers.” Smart finally caused Twilights brain to reboot as she shakily stood up and carefully stumbled around to the opposite side of the bed to shake the pony awake.

With a gentle left hoof, Twilight pointedly prodded the peaceful pretty pony purposefully. When said ponies eyes slowly slid open Twilights eyes stared into a pair of crystal blue eyes, they stared back at her shining purple eyes.

“Radiance, where are we? What’s going on?” The pony slowly said as she tried to mentally command her hair to uncurl from around her body, only it didn’t respond to her mental command so she tried again. After a moment a look of wide eyed panic crossed the ponies face. “I can’t feel my hair! Oh no, oh no, this can’t be happening to me. You, what did you do to me!”

As she pointed her hoof at an undisguised Radiance or so her mind was telling her, the pony noticed something off about her hoof. It wasn’t the color of livid anymore, but it certainly was a familiar shade of pink. Looking down she found herself swaddled in a blanket and not one made of her tail hair, she was used to sleeping on her mane because it was more comfortable then a mattress.

Out of the corner of the pony’s eyes she saw strands of blue hanging down and her pupils shrunk at the sight. She quickly reached up with her hoof and gripped a mass of hair and gave it a tug to find out that yes, this was her own mane she was pulling on.

Uncovering the rest of her flank and body with the use of her hooves, since her hair no longer followed her mental commands; she looked at her rear end. Where she would have seen the strange cutie mark of the Mane-iac, here she saw the cutie mark that she had long since forgotten as ever being hers returned to her once again.

“How, what, I’m… I’m normal!” She screamed out, causing both Twilight and Smart to back away cringing at how loud the pony's voice was.

In a way, Twilight had lost her first real friend who was Mane-iac as she was, in another she hadn’t lost her at all because she was still herself on the inside no matter what she looked like now. Twilight was already missing the beautiful mass of green hair and her heart sunk at not being able to play with it more.

“Well that’s a first in this house!” Twilights father Night could be heard shouting back, considering the Sparkles weren’t a normal pony family by any stretch of the imagination.

Twilight face hoofed.

9

In the life of a pegasus there are a limited amount of jobs they are expected to get into. These jobs involve being able to fly well, having an innate or good knowledge on how to control the weather and those that take up athletic ventures.

The types of jobs a pegasus could get were ridiculously limited because there were plenty of expectations set upon them, especially at a young age. Due to these expectations the pegasus education system was severely lacking for pegasus ponies that had special talents outside the common jobs that a pegasus could usually get.

Twilight personally thought Pegasus ponies were a bit flighty, but that didn’t mean they were dumb or poor of character. A pegasus who doesn’t fly very much is an oddity in the world of Equestria unless they are missing a wing or are incapable of flying possibly from having stronger genetics elsewhere even if they were born with wings.

It seemed like any pegasus that wanted a future on the ground or more importantly have a job outside of flying places and sports really had to get their schooling from some other place then Cloudsdale. Cloudsdale was home to a vast population of winged ponies and a minority of unicorns who enjoyed heights and sky diving way too much.

A pony known as Tress Ravel has been in the city of Canterlot for three weeks now, she had learned a lot since coming to the city that had both grand knowledge and incredible idiocy. She was sitting on a bench in the park just enjoying the sun as she read a book. The book in question was on advanced alchemy and chemistry.

From what she knew of Canterlot so far, unicorns were the main pony type concentration here. The horned nobles tended to treat earth ponies like her poorly; they tolerated the pegasi in a similar extent. At least not all unicorns believed themselves above others or happen to be stupidly full of their selves, but Tress had still met a lot of them when she got a tour of the city.

“Um… excuse me.” The voice was soft and very hard to hear.

Tress’s right ear twitched slightly, she thought she heard a pony speaking but it could have just been the wind.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but every pony around here seems so busy and um...” The pony that was trying to talk was having a hard time raising her voice and she stopped once she finally had the book reading pony’s attention. She watched as Tress slid a bookmark into her book and closed it.

“Yes, did you need something?” Tress really wanted to find some more friends other than the ones she already had; maybe this was an opportunity to have another one as this one wasn’t a unicorn with a tree shoved up their rear ends. The mare before her squeaked and hid behind her mane in a cute manner while trying to stammer out a question, one that Tress could hardly hear because she was so soft spoken. The mare before Tress was cute, adorable and beautiful; if her best friend were here she’d probably be fawning over her silky looking mane. “Can you please speak up? Well since you seem to be having trouble speaking, let me introduce myself. I’m Tress Ravel and you are?”

“Sorry, I’m…” The shy mare tried mumbling her name; she noticed the mare before her was starting to lose her patience. She just couldn’t help herself, she was so nervous meeting new ponies and even addressing this earth pony on her own was tough for her. She hasn’t had a friend for the last few years as her childhood filly friend had made friends with a griffon and that griffon was a very territorial one.

The shy mare thought it was notable that the bird lion was smitten with her oblivious friend and they disappeared out of her life with a mutual love for competitiveness. They had just gone different directions in life and she didn’t hold it against the slightly grouchy griffon or what was her best friend for being who they are. Maybe this was an opportunity for her to finally find another friend, as this pony was actually giving her the time of day and willing to listen to her petty problems.

The problems that the shy mare had were actually not quite as petty as she thought they were; she just didn’t make a big deal out of them, the ponies who did learn of her problems would probably be shocked to see she’s still as healthy and happy as she looks. She should have made a big deal of her problems and had all rights to do so, just because she was soft spoken didn’t mean she was tough to how the world treats her. She was like its doormat for everyone to wipe their hooves on.

“Well if I can’t have your name, then can you at least ask me the question you were going to ask?” Tress was starting to lose patience with the mare that had a wonderful pink mane and tail with a canary yellow coat. Despite her irritation she really wanted to hug this mare on the principle that she was adorable with her innocent blue eyes. Oh how far she had fallen from her halcyon days as a card carrying villain. She certainly wouldn’t change where she was currently in her life for anything though, as she was happier now with the family she was happy to be a guest of.

“Well I um… that is…” The pony trailed off mumbling to herself again.

Sighing to herself, Tress wondered how long it would take her patience to wear thin at this rate. If her patience didn’t wear thin, then this pony just might meet her best friend since she was preparing a picnic for three in the park. Technically her friend’s father was preparing an exceptionally large meal because her friend was such a lethally bad cook.

If what Tress’s friend was cooking didn’t come with a ridiculously specific set of directions she tended to innovate into dangerous territories, especially with alchemy and chemistry ingredients on hoof in the domicile. She once animated a simple mixed vegetables casserole; it took her friends’ entire family plus Tress herself twenty minutes to finally kill the darn thing by throwing it to the only being in the room that could eat it. Her friend’s father, mother and even her daughter can cook, but they each had problems cooking certain things which tended to end up with the same results as her best friends cooking. That wasn’t the only problem that family faced, but it did make eating a meal interesting when you had to wrestle it to the floor.

“You sound like you have a problem and it sounds like a big one given how much trouble you’re having communicating on a level that might possibly require the use of a megaphone. I think you might even need two.” As she stated her sarcastic remark, Tress rolled her eyes and with the barest twitch a portion of her mane moved away from her left eye of its own accord.

“Oh, well… sorry… time…” The cute pegasus even looked to have tears coming to her eyes as she looked ready to walk away. How could she have been so stupid to get her hopes up?

“Hold on, I’m not angry at you.” Though Tress wasn’t about to say she was incredibly annoyed as she stowed her book away in her saddle bag, this pony was so ridiculously meek it was kind of funny. At least her voice was nice, when you could hear it that is. “Now tell me what’s wrong?”

“Don’t want to bother you anymore then I already have…” The pegasus started to walk away quickly until a purple unicorn turned the corner of the pathway that she was walking towards. A very large bush had blocked both of them from seeing each other and they ended up colliding.

The unicorn suddenly being spooked let loose a blast of magic point blank at the poor pegasus as they fell to the ground. The giant picnic basket that the unicorn had been carrying in her magic went sailing upwards and it would have spilled its content, if it were not for a quick flying tiny glowing orb. The orb circled around the basket quickly and it slowly floated to the ground without spilling its contents.

Tress sighed; nothing was ever quiet for long with her best friend around. She sighed happily at the thought of having a true friend with a wonderful family that took her in even knowing where she came from and her origins. They said it wasn’t the strangest thing to ever happen to them and they shrugged off her innate weirdness almost immediately. She looked to the pegasus and saw that her mane and tail had been altered into a randomly angular mess, it kind of reminded her of the mess that was Filli-seconds mane only more triangular in nature. That poor mare was only trying to ask for help and then she gets blasted by her friend, she chuckled dryly in amusement.

If there was one lesson in life that Tress had inexorably learned the first week of being here, it was that you never spook, startle, surprise or attack Twilight Sparkle. The unicorns reprisals to sudden shocks were starting to become a tad legendary in Canterlot. An aggressive gang of hoodlums had spooked her so badly once that they were all immediately trapped in an airtight barrier. Those guys were lucky that the celestial guard unicorns managed to bring the entrapping barrier down in time. They might have asphyxiated otherwise and it took five unicorns ten constant minutes of hitting it with powerful spells to bring it down.

Twilight’s response to the pegasus was far more tame and comical looking, she was beginning to see why Twilight had that still growing collection of Mane Fancy magazines. Tress knew Twilight didn’t like fighting and was horrified at the barrier spell she had cast on those thugs, she was just panicking too much after casting it to even concentrate on its removal. She had learned so much about her friend in the last three weeks and even enjoyed befriending her daughter Barb; however there was nothing here for her in Canterlot except Twilight and her family. Even if Twilight Sparkle was her friends real name, she’d still continued to call her Radiance as she was rather radiant about life and learning things.

It took Tress a bit of time to adjust to the sudden changes in her life, not having a mane that could grow on command or do things to her will made her feel like she was missing three limbs. She still had some control over her mane and tail, but not nearly as much as she wanted and she still felt like she was missing a large piece of herself when she did manage to move it. All the once upon a time Mane-iac could currently do was limited earth pony magic and not at the outright super power levels either.

“Oh my goodness I’m so sorry, here let me fix your mane.” With a flash of her horn, Twilight made the shy ones mane and tail go back to the way they were before the head on collision.

“Oh no, it’s my fault that I wasn’t looking where I was going. Thank you very much.” The mare said shyly and she was about to make a run for it.

Only she stopped as she spied a certain tiny creature breathing heavily that was sitting on top of the basket, it caught her eye and from Tress’s position it looked like some kind of odd switch was immediately flipped.

“Oh my goodness, are you a breezy!” The mare was squatting down to eye level with a confused gray coated black haired pixie pony. “I’ve always wanted to meet one of you, my name is Fluttershy. I’ve heard that your species was rare, what are you doing here in Canterlot little one?”

“Oh great, Smart is the one to actually get a name from her. She could hardly even say a few words to me.” Tress groaned out loud as her temper flared slightly, Fluttershy looked towards her with a sheepish little smile.

“Yeah, Smart has a way of getting things done even when she’s supposedly just me. Tress, were you okay by yourself exploring the park?” Twilight lifted the basket again as Smart was relaying to the saddened Fluttershy that she wasn’t a breezy, but a pretty good facsimile of what one would look like. Tress relayed Fluttershy’s actions to Twilight and that it had been very peaceful until she came along.

“Hey mom, are you okay? You’re not going to fire off anymore magic around wildly are you?” Barb poked her head around the bush, Fluttershy once again perked up.

“Oh my goodness a baby dragon… well you look like a dragon, but you also resemble a pony. Um… you are a dragon right?” Fluttershy was beginning to get out of her shell more.

“Fluttershy was it? How about you join us for a picnic so you can learn more about how wonderful my daughter is, we’ve got plenty of food and you certainly look hungry.” Twilight noticed that Fluttershy looked slightly malnourished, but she wasn’t all skin and bones. Her heart went out to this sweet sounding pony.

“No, I wouldn’t want to impose…” Fluttershy’s stomach grumbled as loud as a grizzly bears would and her tune changed quickly once again, with a slightly more pale realization of something important from the look that crossed her face. “But if you insist.”

“Take as much as you need. Just help us set it up and clean up afterwards. Maybe tell us a little about yourself, you wouldn't believe the problems we have with making friends here in Canterlot.” Smiling to herself, Twilight new that her last gallon of currently chilled honeyed cider was about to be emptied. It would be for a good cause, just to find out why there’s an almost starving teenage pegasus running around one of Canterlot’s parks.

Author's Notes:

Tress- a length of female hair.(A synonym to mane.)

Ravel- To tangle or untangle something, to confuse or complicate a situation or question. (A Contronym, one word with opposing meanings.)

10

Fluttershy liked the potato salad, especially when it was made with mustard. She tried hard not to think about the ponies who were sharing their food with her, as she felt guilty enough after they invited her to their picnic out of the kindness of their hearts.

The Pixie Pony that looked like a breezy was really adorable, it was kind of hard to think it was a pony made construct and was not actually alive. Barb on the other hoof was a real baby dragon, well not a baby in so far as much as her age was six and three fourths. Even if she was a little strange, Fluttershy adored her appearance. She was in some parts her mother’s daughter after all and… it really just occurred to Fluttershy to ask how Twilight came about having her daughter because Twilight didn’t look any older then she did.

“So Fluttershy, what did you need help with and what’s your story?” Tress suddenly addressing her caused Fluttershy to turtle up a bit. Tress sighed at the sight of Fluttershy recoiling and taking the potato salad with her.

“Oh I didn’t really need anything important…” Even as she said this Fluttershy watched as a bunch of squirrels run up to her holding berries and nuts. “I’m sorry but I don’t need your help today my friends. You can store those for later; really you don’t need to worry about making sure I eat today. I think I can take care of myself for a while. It’s you who needs all this food especially when things are about to get cold.”

The squirrels were now giving Fluttershy a flat look that said she probably couldn’t take care of herself without their help. Seeing as she was eating with other ponies, the lead squirrel chattered to the others to go put up the food they initially scavenged for their kind pony friend. Then the lead squirrel hopped up onto Fluttershy’s face and started squeaking at her in an angry tone.

“Of course not, I’ll be fine. These kind ponies have invited me to their picnic.” Fluttershy thought the lead squirrel of the group was being rather overprotective of her, but he was so cute when he was being angrily worried about her general safety.

Barb, Twilight and Tress were taking this moment in stride, the three of them drinking the last of the honeyed cider in unison. Smart was also there wielding a tiny set of tanning mirrors and absorbing some premium sunlight, she was laying there on top of the blanket sitting in an equally tiny lawn chair. They really weren’t bothered by the mare who could talk to squirrels; Twilight and Tress silently surmised that it was part of her special talent. Barb was used to weird things happening around her and just thought it was neat that Fluttershy could talk to squirrels.

“Well okay then, I’ll see you later when I’m doing much better for myself or I’m still stuck in my current situation. I’ll bring some macadamia nuts by in the future if I don’t come back immediately by the end of the day.” The squirrel hugged Fluttershy’s left hoof and then it scampered off.

Turning to the others at the picnic, Fluttershy noted that they had continued on like nothing about the picnic had changed. Tress and Twilight were both giving her a rather flat stare when she joined them even as they continued to eat their sandwiches in silence.

“Again, what’s the story? We can’t assist you if we don’t know what’s wrong. Though I can already kind of guess some of what’s wrong.” Twilight started with an earnest interest to hear about Fluttershy’s life. From what she saw Fluttershy was speaking with the squirrel as if she were one and that she could in general talk to animals. The theory was confirmed by a bird carrying a peach that flew up to Fluttershy and dropped it at her hooves and she gently said that she didn’t really need it and that the bird could keep it. Her special talent must have had nothing to do with the average pegasi pastimes and or focuses, which might explain why she was having some kind of trouble in life. “Better yet, why don’t you start from the beginning?”

Fluttershy inhaled deeply, she had to eventually get this off her chest and she would eventually have to find some pony to assist her in some way anyway. She wouldn’t survive several months of freezing cold outside while her friends were asleep cozy in their homes. These ponies were offering to hear her out and she was having so much trouble asking for help.

“Well it all started when I was really young… I’m not quite the best at flying and ponies used to bully me all the time about it in Flight School.” Fluttershy had begun her tale and as the name implies pegasi were all trained in flying almost exclusively. Math was related to flying, science was related to flying and even history was related to flying. “They were always calling me a pegasus who could hardly fly.”

“I know how you feel, I’ve been there. Magic kindergarten will always leave its scars in me; I was bullied a lot when I was younger too.” Twilight was pulled into a hug by Tress and she felt the mare nuzzling the back of her neck, a blush sprung up on her face at her friends’ affectionate gesture before they separated.

“What were the jeers? Were they something like... Fluttershy, Fluttershy, Fluttershy can hardly fly?” Fluttershy immediately broke down into tears causing both Twilight and Tress to gather her into a quick warm embrace until she was capable of handling her emotions. Twilight did send a small glare at Tress who looked rather apologetic. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry.”

“No, don’t worry about it on my account. Though yes, that’s exactly what they sung and no one would ever come to my aid. Well that is until a friend of mine decided to stop the bullies from picking on me. Up to that point every day of my life had been kind of… not nice, except for my little filly days' where not being a good flyer wasn't a big problem. It wasn’t the only thing they made fun of me for. For example they made fun of my legs when I hit an early growth spurt and well I was quite awkward to watch walking around everywhere.” Looking at herself now, Fluttershy felt like she was slowly growing into her legs and her slightly larger wings.

Twilight saw a mare that could have a future as a supermodel because she was pretty beautiful already, even now as the half starved teenaged mess that she was. Give Fluttershy a few years and she’d be beating stallions off of her with an exceptionally ugly stick… maybe also quite a few mares due in part to jealousy or because they swung that way. Twilight would make a mental note here to herself to do a study on her own preferences later on in her life, when she was ready to face something more then friendship.

“It was on that day my friend, Rainbow Dash, came to my aid. My heart filled with hope and happiness that a pony was actually willing to protect me. It was also the day I discovered my special talent because she kind of sort of accidentally knocked me off the clouds and as I said I’m not exactly the best at flying. I eventually landed on a swarm of migrating butterflies after a long fall. I was lucky they were all so clustered together as they were, they were able to temporarily support my weight and slow my fall.” From the looks of it, Fluttershy didn’t look like she weighed a lot to begin with. So Twilight let it slide as the younger Fluttershy being light enough to be lifted by butterflies, strange things like that happened in Equestria all the time. “It was that day that my friend performed the legendary Sonic Rainboom! It was one of the most wondrous sights I’ve ever seen. It scared all the animals near where I landed on the ground and I found my special talent because of that. I had little trouble calming down all those animals she had frightened and my mark appeared. The next two years were the happiest in my life while she was around.”

“Say, did this happen six or so years ago?” Twilight saw a surprised look in Fluttershy’s eyes.

“Yes it did, so you saw it then? Did you get your cutie mark at the time too? My friend earned hers doing it.” Fluttershy’s wings fluttered outward slightly from the excitement of the memory.

“Well it’s when I was hatching Barb here; I did see it or at least part of it. I was kind of in a magically induced haze at the time and my magic was surging out of control. That explosion helped me unlock whatever had been blocking up my magic and here she is today.” Barb snuggled into Twilights side and she threw a hoof around her daughter. Twilight moved her head down to nuzzle her daughters’ hair and then she poked the back of her daughters’ right ear with a light kiss causing her to giggle.

“Mom, stop that, it tickles.” Barb said as she happily accepted the nuzzling with a flutter of her wings.

“I’m taking it that the last four years of your life haven’t been as good either? And by what you say, did something happen to your friend, Rainbow was it? It sounds like she was a colorful pony.” Twilight was worried that her friend might have died from the somber way Fluttershy was acting.

“Well she still is, colorful that is, she’s a big fan of the wonderbolts and really wants to join them one day. I think I may have been standing in the way of her dreams, she quickly forgot about me when Gilda showed up.” After a moment’s pause and no questions came, Fluttershy realized they were waiting for her to continue. “Gilda is an exchange student griffon that showed up in our lives at the age of ten, Rainbow slowly started hanging out with Gilda more because she could be competitive and can actually fly really well. I spent a year trying to spend some time with her and well… I found out Gilda was very territorial.”

“You mean to say she fell in love with Rainbow and they both got together?” Twilight was just asking for clarification since Griffons and Ponies rarely mixed together.

“It’s actually mostly one sided and still was the last time I saw her. Gilda is completely smitten with her and Rainbow is kind of… well she’s not the smartest mare in the world, but I don’t think she really stopped being my friend even when she drifted away from what we had. Cloudsdale's educational system isn’t the greatest it could be and it’s one of the reasons why I’m here in Canterlot. I know I’m never getting a job that involves flying, so I wondered why I should bother with continuing through all the remedial programs they keep putting me through.” Fluttershy looked at the nearby grass with a very vaguely frustrated look on her face.

“You ran away from home!” Her shout having caused the poor shy mare to cringe, Twilight suddenly felt horrible for shouting out her sudden revelation. “Sorry, it’s just; you’ve been on your own for the past three years?”

“Well it hasn’t been all that bad as you’re making it out to be; I’ve made a lot of animal friends and the Canterlot library is really helping me with the stuff I actually want to learn. So I might have had to sleep in a tree or two in the park and I don’t have any pony friends here, but I get by well enough. I’ve also been making sure to keep up with my education while I studied medicine, knowledge of animals and plenty of other things.” After a moment Fluttershy frowned and looked away from everyone. “I’ve been kind of homeless recently and I mostly survive on the kindness of other ponies and my pet sitting earnings. When I take bathes in other ponies’ houses I always feel bad about it afterwards, I never eat a clients food without permission as that would be stealing and I tend to spend a lot of my earnings on my animal friends since they might need it more.”

“Those earnings recently ran out I’m guessing?” Insert the adorability of Fluttershy fumbling with her front hooves at Twilights question, Twilight really liked Fluttershy because who could hate a pony so cute like this one was? The shy mare looked up at them and nodded slightly. “Well you can stay with us, we’ve got plenty of room at my house since my brother moved out, Tress has already moved into the guest room and she’s practically made it her own and is a part of the family. Now come on, let’s pack up all these empty containers and see if my parents will let you stay with us.”

Fluttershy looked positively shocked that these ponies were already willing to help her without wanting anything in return. She started tearing up in happiness and then she set about helping them clean up. Previously she was just going to ask Tress if she knew some pony that had a pet they needed help with. This was much better then she was expecting, hopefully she was about to be thrust into a warm comfy atmosphere.

Walking into the house Twilight led her strange menagerie inside and then her father walked out of the kitchen and suddenly had a large frown across his face.

“How could you do this to me my little sparkle? Why would my own daughter do something like this to me? Me of all ponies, just how could you!” Twilight’s father said angrily at the sight of Fluttershy in the room and he threw his hooves up in the air as he said this.

11

Both Twilight and Tress flicked their ears backwards in fright and confusion. Fluttershy had decidedly ducked behind them in fear at the sudden raised voice in their general direction by Twilights father Night.

Smart saw something that made her smile, while Barb sniffed at the air and joined Smarts expression with her own; they both knew something was missing at the picnic.

Twilight opened her mouth to say something in the defense of her new friend only to be cut off by Night.

“Now I have to go set up another spot at the table, woe is me. You are going to help eat all those cookies I just made young lady and you are going to like them!” The stallions voice had quickly gotten more sarcastic than angry, Night winked at Fluttershy and trotted out of the room. “You can also enjoy the milk at your leisure.”

Fluttershy looked so confused for a moment at being addressed in an angry tone by the stallion, then the sudden unexpected one eighty into a sing song voice about the milk to go with the cookies. She blinked once or twice and it still looked like her mind would take a while to come to grips with what just happened. Barb rushed by her with Smart flying above her and Fluttershy hardly reacted to them or anything around her.

“What.” Was all Twilight could say about her father’s flighty personality, her mind just took a sudden turn into a brick wall and crashed. All the little mental ponies were lying around the wreckage in agonizing pain; this was represented on Twilights face as a slight twitch in one of her eyes.

“Just happened here?” Tress continued following Twilights completely derailed train of thought, before she realized she should be angry. A slight flair of a green ring appears in both her eyes for only a split second as she calmed down quickly.

“You’re back from your picnic already? Looks like you made another friend; it makes me so happy to see you’re finally making some...” Velvet was about to finish her sentence when Twilight Sparkle cut her off.

“Don’t mom, Smart might hear you and I might never hear the end of it. I think she wants me to make more enchanted toys like her.” Twilight could see the pale look cross her mother’s face, she nodded at Twilights reasoning. They certainly didn’t need more Smart’s running around. “Anyway this is Fluttershy, she followed me home. So can we keep her?”

“Oh she’s so adorable, look at her hiding behind her mane; I think I might have a heart attack if I keep looking at the poor dear. I see your father is already playing under his bridge again, she looks like she was just spooked by him.” Velvet chortled at Fluttershy being so shy. “You can keep her, but no forming a herd with your friends until you’re eighteen.”

“Mom, we’re just friends and we only just met Fluttershy today!” Twilight blushed at the implications of forming a herd, with her friends even! Her mother was obviously over thinking things; well at least she now knew her mother wouldn’t be upset that she might have a thing for mares.

“Oh you protest to much my little sparkle.” Velvet studied the pony Twilight called Fluttershy whose face had gone a bright shade of cherry red; Tress didn’t seem to get the implication of what a herd was. Velvet mentally sighed that Tress really came from a sheltered world in that comic book. “Anyway, I heard my husband mention cookies not just a few seconds ago? Why, they must be fresh out of the oven.”

Twilights eyes widened as she finally took in the fact that the word ‘cookies’ was immediately followed by ‘fresh out of the oven’, as it finally started filtering into her mind. It was a good thing they did register as she didn’t want to miss out on delicious fresh warm baked goods. She immediately charged off for the kitchen.

Tress followed at a more sedate graceful pace behind her friend. Fluttershy was levitated into the kitchen by Velvet, she even squeaked as soon as her hooves left the floor causing Velvet to smile.

As Velvet set Fluttershy down in the kitchen, Night was pulling some cookies from the oven. Velvet took notice of the cutie mark on Fluttershy’s flank and became wide eyed, she immediately ran off to get something.

“Sapphire sandies, you are the best grandpa ever!” Barb’s happy expression lit up the room at seeing the bejeweled cookies meant for her. Night wasn’t mad at the fact that she had just called him grandpa; he was even smiling about it. His smile widened even more at hearing the happy humming and crunching noises coming from his granddaughter.

“Come on in and take a seat, we’ve got plenty of room for our daughters’ new friend.” Night ever the gentle stallion even pulled out a chair for Fluttershy.

Sitting down Fluttershy was surprised at such a welcoming atmosphere. Looking to the platter of cookies before her, she saw a peanut butter cookie and she slowly grabbed it. It felt warm in her hoof as she saw a glass of milk being set down in front of her. Biting into the cookie she felt like there was a rush of love going into her, like she could taste the effort that went into making the cookie and that she couldn’t stop the smile that came onto her face as she started to chew it. They didn’t have desserts at the picnic and she was still quite hungry even after consuming almost half of all the food herself, she really totaled the potato salad.

“It appears my little princess has a knack for finding other little princesses.” Night said amusedly. “Don’t be so modest, enjoy as many as you want. Just pile the ones you want onto your plate quickly, this is a first come first serve platter of delights. If it isn’t on your plate it’s free game.”

“You know this reminds me of a time our family spent an entire year avoiding cookies altogether.” Twilight chipped in idly as she thought back to when she was five years old with a smile on her face. Her family was nice that is to be sure, but they were also certifiably nuts like the white chocolate macadamia cookies she was rendering into a delicious paste in her mouth.

“Why would your family avoid cookies for a whole year?” Fluttershy's question was met with a bit of laughter from Twilight and Night.

“Well it happened when Twilight was five and before her older brother left to join Celestia’s guard, it starts with Twilight here wanting a snack. So her older brother, Shining Armor, did what any loving and protective goofball of a brother would. He decided to try and bake some cookies on his own.” Night shivered at the thought of what happened that day, but it did cause him to look back on it and laugh at the hilarity of the situation.

“What exactly happened? This sounds like another one of your house of weirdness tales and I’ve even lived through one or two of them since I arrived.” Tress wanted to know, since she was learning more about Radiance then she ever thought possible. The entire Sparkle family probably had a patent on the words ‘noodle incident’ by now, since they had so many problems that have happened in this household.

“Oh my brother made the cookies alright; it just went badly considering they kind of rebelled against my family. They tied up mom and put her into a closet and gained a lot of intelligence in such a short amount of time. They were even already plotting to kill Celestia by overstuffing her with cake by the time we started fighting back.” Twilight after pausing for a moment started to look back on it just like Night and started laughing uproariously. “Oh gosh, even saying it out loud makes it seem like it didn’t even happen. They still tasted good even if they were bad cookies.”

“You actually ate them?” Fluttershy didn’t know what to think as she bit into the gooey warmth of a chocolate chip cookie and then took a sip of some milk. She didn’t think too hard about the cookies she had on her plate or that she was still eating them.

“They were still cookies, just really highly aggressive cookies.” Twilight bit into a banana nut cookie and hummed in appreciation, she swallowed and gave her father a bright smile. At least he made good cookies.

Velvet rushed into the dining room area to see everyone was sitting at the table; well Smart was standing on it and listening in on the conversation. She looked at Fluttershy, she then looked down at one of the newspapers she was holding with her magic.

“Oh my goodness it is you, we have a legend in the house!” Everyone looked to Velvet in a confused manner as she came up to Fluttershy and gave her a big hug. “I thought you looked familiar.”

“Um... I look familiar?” This was Fluttershy’s innocent response before she thought the worst of the situation. “Oh please don’t send me back to Cloudsdale.”

“What about Cloudsdale? You’re the famous Vagrant Veterinarian!” The ponies looked at Velvet in a confused manner. Barb didn’t care and continued to eat her sapphire loaded cookies and Smart really had nothing better to do since she didn’t need to eat. “You’ve never heard the legend of the mare that goes around helping the sick and injured animals of Canterlot? If a bird breaks a wing it’s quickly splinted, if a cat is having a bad day the pony knew how to cheer it up and if someone is missing a pet there’s no doubt she’d get it back to their owners, provided they are good ponies of course. She’s really popular with the little colts and fillies as well as the lower and middle class unicorns if we’re going by noble pony standards. That has got to be you, look at this!”

Sliding the newspaper across the table for Twilight to read, Tress leaned over to look at it herself. Fluttershy on the other side of Twilight also looked at the picture. It was only a corner of her flank, as only of one of the butterflies marking her butt was visible. The story was about a little colt missing his pet and how the mysterious figure had returned it home, bandaged and cared for.

“Huh, so your world does have super heroes.” It wasn’t that she didn’t think super heroes were possible in this world, but Tress knew this world worked on different principles from the one she came from. Ponies didn’t just put on costumes and run around saving other ponies from danger here.

“Super hero… oh no, I’m nothing like a super hero!” The poor nervous mare noted that this was dated a year ago; Fluttershy was immediately denying what was written in the paper as she raised her hooves shaking them in denial. “There’s nothing really all too special about me.”

“No pony that ever comes to live under the roof of this house is normal, though you wouldn't know it from Tress's griping.” Velvet put down several more newspaper articles featuring Fluttershy or the Vagrant Veterinarian as the ponies of Canterlot knew her. “You’ve been in the news several times for the past year. It's really interesting that you don’t have a home here and you’ve been seen sleeping in several trees throughout Canterlot.”

“You sure you don’t have super powers or something like one?” Fluttershy looked away shyly at Tress’s question and ran a hoof through her mane. “Talking to animals sounds like one to me already and you’re completely sure you don’t have any more?”

“Well I do have a strange ability; I call it ‘The Stare’.” The mere mention of that ability causes Fluttershy to shudder. She didn’t know how it worked, it just did. Whenever she needed to calm down a panicked animal all she had to do is look it in the eyes and it’d almost immediately trust her. “I really don’t like using it, but it happens when animals try to fight me when they really truly need help.”

“Well what does this stare exactly do?” Not being the only one interested in the answer, Twilight noticed everyone at the table was paying attention to the squirming Fluttershy as she quietly ate a snickerdoodle.

Even Barb started paying attention given they had another super hero in the house. At least a super hero that wasn’t her own mother, given her mom had powerful magical abilities and stopped a gang of thugs with a single spell. Mane-iac wasn’t a super hero, but at least she was no longer a super villain and Barb honestly liked her opinions on some things. Being a hero isn’t all fun and games, but the super powers sure were neat to hear about.

“Um… well it causes animals or animalistic creatures to listen to what I have to say; whether or not they do what I say is up to them as far as I know. It really scares me that I can do something like that, that I can force an animal to stop acting entirely on instinct.” Fluttershy shivered until she felt, four ponies and a baby dragon pull her into a group hug.

“Well you’re going to fit in just fine around here, though you may want to change your name to the Valiant Veterinarian. You’re not much of a vagrant if you have a home to return to at the end of the day are you?” Smart said floating in front of Fluttershy’s face.

“Yeah, but she has to get a license to actually become a vet first and I’m sure Smart will help you with that. She helped my daughter get a doctorate in enchanting. Aw, you’re just so cute; it’s so hard to stop hugging you.” The shy mare found herself being snuggled by Velvet alone now.

Fluttershy wondered what she had just gotten herself into and if she could even get away from it if she wanted to.

12

It has been another strange year; Twilight thought things were going well in her life and she needed to finish her plan to move out of the crazy house that her parents lived in. There were always a few snags here and there, but she always found a way to untangle them. She had even managed to ask Tress if she could work on her mane today and here they were with Tress calmly sitting in front of Twilight.

Twilight felt strange as Tress silently sat there with her eyes closed while she worked on her. Twilight really liked running a comb and brush through her mane, that she even trusted Twilight enough to trim her mane meant a lot. The friendship they forged continued to thrive, even though it was a bit of an oddity.

After a few minutes of working the scissors with her magic, Twilight finally stopped and smiled. Tress’s mane was reshaped to how it normally was if a bit longer than usual. A long one length beautiful light blue mass hanging down halfway the length of her front legs. At least it wouldn’t drag on the ground after the light trimming Twilight just did.

“Well Twilight, how are things going for your plans for the future?” Tress said as she stood up and stretched out, she presented her tail to Twilight so she could work on that now.

Still though, Tress had little to no idea what to do with her life outside the comic world, the one thing she did want to do was support her friend in her endeavors. Tress still hadn’t told Twilight what it was she did while her unicorn friend was still busy going to Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns. If only Twilight knew Tress was working with Fleur De Lis, she‘d probably freak out and ask if she could work with Fleur’s mane at least once or just talk to her about advanced magical theories.

“I’m already considering some real estate in Ponyville; I found a place that would be perfect for Fluttershy to set up for what she does best. It’s at the edge of the town away from other ponies, it’s near a forest and it’s a relatively cheap plot of land, it sounds like a good bargain. I’m personally going for a building near the library, from what I hear no pony really uses Ponyville’s library for much anymore. If I’m lucky I can find a way to have Smart running it as a job and get free access to all the books I want.” Twilight had a dreamy look on her face, even as she carefully measured a length of Tress’s tail using the comb to hold the tail hair in place for the scissors. Twilight deftly trimmed her tail and she followed this up by slowly shaping the tail to fit how Tress liked it to look.

“Why not live in the library yourself and be paid by the government to run it? Wouldn’t that make studying stuff all that much easier for you?” One of the things Tress certainly knew about Twilight, she certainly liked to read and study. Usually she was either studying some form of magic or she was picking through one of her previous issues of Mane Fancy magazine or a relatively new one.

“Because why work at the library myself when I can send someone who wouldn’t really have need of the salary considering she doesn’t need to eat, drink or stop working as long as she gets enough sunlight in a week?” Twilight knew Tress had an idea of what she was getting at. “That means I’d be getting paid to do nothing at all. Smart can operate a library pretty well even with her limited spell casting capability and I’ve been working on her energy capacity for how much energy she can store and use in her body. I’m sure I can get her to be efficient enough to work a bunch of relatively low grade defensive enchantments on her own. Just the kind of defenses you’d expect a library to have.”

“Yeah, if that library were in Celestia’s castle.” Tress had a reason to be snarky about this, Twilight was good at enchantments and what she considered low grade was nothing short of impressive. “Twilight you’re a wonderful pony, but I don’t think even you would want to subject robbers to that level of torment. The only thing that goes on there is wild parties being thrown by a pink pony.”

“You better believe I’m going to put a stop to that, it’s a library not a pony’s personal party playhouse!” Twilight was every bit angry to hear how the library was currently being used, that it wasn’t operating like it should be. “Tress you know that still doesn’t answer my question. What do you want out of life? I’ve been done with your tail for a while now so you can lower it, do you want me to brush your coat too?”

“I didn’t know I had a life until you pulled me from my world. Oh and yes I would like that, if you would please.” Tress blushed at Twilights comment about her tail still being raised and she quickly lowered it. She remembered Fleur asking about her personal stylist and how good a job she did with Tress’s look, Tress honestly answered that it was her best friends work. She didn’t tell Fleur that her friend was a fan of Fleur’s beauty and intelligence. “I really have no idea Twilight, what would you expect me to want to do? I have a special talent for making shampoo and body oil; you do know I’ve been working on that formula you’ve been having problems with. Aside from that I’m also good at running business’s and finance but I don’t want to go through all that stress of running all of that on my own again. Now if I can just get that formula that you made to work correctly.”

Sitting down Tress felt her mane lift above her head, held aloft by Twilights magic as she started brushing the coat on her neck. Tress really liked how gently Twilight treated her when they got together like this and she would soon close her eyes so that Twilight could get her face too.

“Tress, I’ve been having problems with that formula since forever. You really need to stop worrying about Fluttershy or me and you need to start caring about what you want out of life. I feel like you’re too good a friend for us sometimes and that we’re not giving you enough back. You should really take some personal time for yourself.” Twilight knew that it had taken Fluttershy half a year to automatically come out of her shell when she was around them, Tress really helped with that even if she caused a lot of problems doing so. It really had been an interesting year since Tress and Fluttershy moved in. Twilight just finished brushing Tress’s face and then would start on her back and sides, before she moved on to finish with her legs. Tress could take care of the other parts of her body herself.

Tress wasn’t about to tell Twilight that being styled by her was what she considered to be personal time. She still thought Fluttershy was a pony to worry about because she hardly took her own health into consideration when someone else, animal or pony, was injured. Fluttershy has been studying first aid for the last few months and her kindness apparently had no limit cap on it, which was a bit worrying as some pony might take advantage of her. That would not happen while Tress was watchful, she didn’t have many friends and this was one friend she took to proactively protecting as Twilight and Fleur didn’t need someone to watch out for them.

Other than that Tress still thought it was funny that Fluttershy was terribly afraid of scissors, as she only came to Twilight for a trim when her hair started to really get in the way of her legs. Fluttershy really enjoyed being brushed and combed by Twilight like Tress did. Tress had even confided in her that Twilight really knew how to make them enjoy being pampered. Fluttershy had agreed that Twilight was good at making them feel nice, but she still didn’t like it when Twilight brought the scissors out and that it made her terribly skittish. Fluttershy’s mane was like her security blanket when she wasn’t among ponies she trusted, at least she trusted Twilight enough to trim her mane when she needed it.

“I’m fine Twilight, it’s just I never thought I’d be in another world or even separated from my dark reality. My reality that would have me constantly losing to a bunch of ponies in tights, no chance of winning even once and I would have liked it, enjoyed it even. There would have been ponies unlike you who would happily beat me up without a second thought to get out of the comic book. But now, I can’t even dream of even going back to that. If I somehow do end up going back to it, I’d be going back a more heroic version of Mane-iac.” Tress had a lot of time to think it over, if she ever did end up back in the comic world she was going to try to live up to her friendships. She shivered at the pleasant feeling of the brush sliding along her back. “So how many bits do you have and do you have enough for your ideal home? Just so you know, the only thing keeping me here in Canterlot is you, your parents, Fluttershy and your family’s cooking… when they get it right that is.”

“With the extra money I’d be making from Smart working at the library, I’ll have enough to help a lot of ponies and start my own business. I’m thinking of working mostly as a freelance stylist, I really think I have a knack for this. I also want ponies to know they can come to me with their problems so I can help them out, so I’m thinking more of a problem solving agency.” Twilight was a dreamer and a big one at that, but even she knew the problems with what she was suggesting. They’d get a lot of business to be sure, but how would they know that whatever cause they were aiding was exactly a worthwhile one?

“So what, it would be like a troubleshooting talent agency?” Tress liked the sound of that, Twilight did have a passion for helping others and it was an endearing quality. “I agree that you do have a talent for styling, but it’s not your special talent. Just being around you is like magic, now that’s your real special talent.”

“Hmm… speaking of talent, I haven’t seen Trixie in the last five months.” Twilight finished off brushing down one of Tress’s legs as she said this. She had spent a lot of time at the gifted unicorn school trying to befriend that one stubborn acquaintance of hers, one that she would actively get into discussions with. “To think I was really so close to her admitting that we could be friends and she just disappears.”

“Try not to think about it too hard.” Tress offered as she thought Trixie was a bit weird when they met that one time. From what Twilight has said of her, she used to be a very prideful braggart and was always referring to herself by her own name. “I really have to ask something now as you’ve garnered my curiosity about it. Why are you saving my mane and tail clippings and why did you fuse all the trimmed hairs together like that?”

Twilight was afraid Tress would eventually ask about that, all the mane clippings were magically fused into a long lock of hair and set aside. The tail hair was done the same way, but separate from the combined mane clippings. She was afraid that Tress would hate her and stop being her friend when she found out about this.

“Okay, please don’t freak out with what I’m about to tell you. I’m going to look at your hair under a microscope to see if you might still yet retain your Mane-iac powers, at the least in an inactive form.” It was the truth or at least half of it, Twilight hoped Tress didn’t press her about it.

“Oh, so it’s not just because you have a hair fetish, well okay then.” After she shrugged, Tress stretched out one of her back legs and Twilight looked at her with a boggled expression. “Tell me the results when you get done studying my trimmings.”

“You don’t care that I’m strangely attracted to hair?” Even as she said this, Twilight started brushing the leg, making sure to stay away from doing anything inappropriate. She really did not feel like getting kicked in the face today.

“I’d be more worried if Fluttershy had a strange attraction to the animals she cares for and I’m glad she doesn’t. You’re not hurting any pony or yourself. As long as you don’t, I have no reason to bother you about your fixations.” Tress stretched out her other leg for Twilight to finish brushing her coat.

“I'm glad I don’t have that kind of problem too and I don’t mind your fixation either. Please excuse me for using your bathroom.” As she said this, Fluttershy giggled at the way Twilight jumped as she made her way past them sitting at the mirror. She really needed to use the little pony’s room, the toilet in what was once Shining’s room currently had a poor monster stuck in it and she would take care of it after she was done using Twilight's.

“So neither of you cares, but I’m still worried what my parents will think of me!” Twilight said out loud.

“Its okay honey, we’ve known for years!” Night was heard shouting through the floor.

“Not like all the Mane Fancy magazine’s wasn’t a big tip off to begin with!” Velvet followed afterwards with her own yell.

“Could you guys keep it down; there’s a dragon that needs her beauty sleep here. So stop yelling about mom’s fascination with hair already!” Even barb was getting in on the act as her nap was disturbed leaving her a tad disgruntled.

Twilight stood there completely red in the face; even then she still managed to finish brushing Tress. Then she quietly went to look for a secluded space to throw a hoof into her own face or silently smack her head against a wall.

13

There was only half a year left for toying with her precious daughter left, half a year and her daughter would leave her parents protective hooves to set out into the world. Personally, Velvet thought she’d be safer anywhere other than here, not that she had anything against the friendly earth pony poltergeist that moved in a few days ago. Velvet just had to face facts that her daughter was growing up, so were the other two daughters she had gained over the last one and almost a half years.

Trotting down the stairs to the living room Velvet stopped and stared at the cute scene before her.

Tress, her quiet if sometimes temperamental daughter, was reading a book while she lay there on her side; her little sparkle got her hooked on the Daring Do series. It was cute to see what was once a super villain reading a story about a hero and other villains doing things, she herself would have been.

Velvet knew her daughters’ first real friend would be a real interesting one and Ms. Ravel didn’t disappoint. She wondered if she should probably tell Twilight that Tress is working with Fleur to help her earn enough money for the inevitable moving out process. Nah, Twilight would find out eventually in some other manner anyway and Velvet wondered how Tress would deal with the fallout of never telling Twilight about it.

Fluttershy, the adorable and sweet daughter, was reading a book on creatures mythological and known. She was currently snuggled into a chair with a blanket wrapping around her. She was really the cutest pony in the house with her squeaks and constant need to know if things were alright and was always apologizing for the slightest thing. Velvet didn’t care if she ran away from her previous home, she was happy to house the dear thing who tried to do housework even when she tried to tell her not to.

Velvet really liked hugging that pegasus, there were no words to describe how cuddly she was without taking her into your hooves and giving her a personal squeeze yourself. She really wished the sweet winged pony the best in life whether she wanted to continue following her daughter around or not.

Twilight, her beloved little sparkle, she was studying hard on the couch so she could graduate. Velvet couldn’t be more proud of her daughter for being who she was; she didn’t have a superiority complex though she was powerful, she tried to be friends with ponies who would be her enemies and found some true friends that would be by her side. Most of all, Twilight Sparkle was her baby so she’d be proud even if she wasn’t successful in life.

Velvet doubted that her daughter would have problems finding success, considering it seemed to be coming at her like a magic missile while dragging trouble in its magical wake. As long as her daughter was happy she would be happy too, even if her daughter was truly into mares and or starting herds with them. Just because she might not be, didn’t mean Velvet couldn’t get in a lot of teasing. All she had to do now as a parent was start forwarding Twilight’s Mane Fancy magazines to her new home.

Next to her daughter was Barb, Velvets granddaughter, reading a book on magic. Barb was an odd case as Twilight didn’t want to send her to Magic Kindergarten to gather the same scars that she did and instead homeschooled Barb through the use of Smart. Considering Barb was a magic dragon, Twilight has recently been teaching Barb on how to use her magic.

Velvet shook her head; her granddaughter still had a ways to go when it came to using magic. She could breathe fire like a dragon, had the tough fire and lava immune body like one, but at heart she was just as much a pony as any other in their family. Barb’s mane was a pretty funny sticking point for Twilight since the little dragons’ hair was just as tough her scales were and as such it was always hard to trim the bipedal dragon’s mane without magic or scissors made from sterner materials then metal.

The quiet scene was interrupted when Barb looked to Twilight.

“Mom, why would I need to learn a light spell when I can breathe fire?” It was an innocent question of a seven year old magical dragon pony hybrid. She may one day earn a cutie mark even.

“That’s a really good question. Now may if I may ask you a few in return, how long can you continuously exhale for? And what would happen if you had nothing around to light with your fire?” Twilight had a twinkle of amusement about her as she answered the question with more questions. She thought her daughter should learn to ask more questions.

“Well not for very long and I guess that I wouldn’t be able to keep a light going like that forever.” Barb turned her eyes to her mother and saw her smile, soon she was being rubbed on the head by a gentle hoof and her little wings fluttered in joy.

“Now practice the light spell and get a feel for your internal magic, ask any more questions if you have them. If I don’t know the answer then I might help you figure it out at a later time. We’ll work on levitation later in a much safer environment, since I’m not sure what would happen should you try levitating objects with magic flames.” Twilight was uneasy about flammable material around her daughter, not to mention explosive chemicals and alchemic ingredients. Sure it wouldn’t harm Barb because she was well armored against most forms of injury, but everyone else around her was a different story.

Barb concentrated and slowly exhaled a ball of fire that floated into the air, it lit up the shadows in the room as it floated in random quick circles in the air above her. After a moment Barb mentally snuffed the flame and it went out.

“Mom, can you tell me why my spell is different from your light spell?” Barb remembered the nights her mother had cast that spell for her as a nightlight. Even Smart could cast it with the same efficiency if a bit smaller and she usually cuddled her toy mom comfortably in bed when the creepy shadows were scared away.

“Well that’s an easy one; each unicorn or magic user has their own idea as to how a spell is supposed to work. If two unicorns used a levitation spell, you wouldn’t know it by the results, but their methods of how they make the spell work could be entirely different. It’s based in intent, my intent is usually to create a twinkling star or have my horn glow brightly. As for you, you are probably imagining a bit of your fire as a close companion. ” With a tilt of her horn, Twilight shot a light spell into the air and the twinkling white star brightened up the room considerably before its dissipation.

“Actually I was imagining how Smart would react to being lit on fire.” That brought a smile to everyone’s faces, even Smarts.

“What and you couldn’t be bothered to get up and go get me some water to put me out? And here I thought you loved me.” Smart said in good natured tune as she held out her tiny hooves, she was soon being dragged into a crushing hug by Barb. “There we go, that’s our sharp little dragoness.”

“You know that’s the very reason why I designed to you to be highly fire resistant Smart.” It was common sense on Twilight’s part, if you were going to have a dragon for a daughter that is. It was best to make sure your daughter didn’t have too many objects that could catch fire easily in her vicinity, especially when she had the ability to breathe flames.

They all continued reading their books in relative silence when the poltergeist floated into the room; he shrugged and floated out seeing as nothing interesting was happening. It was a quiet day in the Sparkle home for once; Velvet just sat down and started knitting a sweater.

“You know I’ve been meaning to ask Fluttershy, what did you eventually end up doing with the monster you found stuck in the toilet a while ago?” Idle conversation was certainly flying around this room; Tress thought things were way too quiet today so odd conversation topics were a must to liven things up.

“Oh… I identified what it was and found a nice place to release it back into the wild, safely far enough away from Canterlot to not be a bother. Though I’m still unsure how a cockatrice even ended up stuck in the toilet.” Admittedly Fluttershy did wonder about the things that went on in this house, much less why all the ponies that lived here weren’t worried about some kind of strange curse. Even she was hard pressed to find any problems with living in a place where weirdness was more of an aesthetic thing to make the whole place cozy; she was going to miss it when she moved out with Twilight.

“Don’t cockatrices cause ponies to turn to stone by sight?” Queried a wondering Twilight, why Fluttershy was okay if she’s met the gaze of one is a question to postulate on.

“What part of the cockatrice do you think was the part it got stuck in the toilet?” The shy pony really didn’t have to elaborate further as everyone in the room just went about ignoring the obvious questions. How did a cockatrice get in the house and why was it found with its head stuck in a toilet? “He was so happy that I freed him that he didn’t turn me to stone, he was very grateful about it and made a comment about being stoned not being a problem for those who are my friends and family.”

“Not going to ask any further and we don’t need any more details Fluttershy.” The less they knew about it now the better; Tress believed the other ponies in the room could agree with that.

“So how do you think you’ll do on your tests Twilight?” Even Fluttershy felt the need to change the subject.

“You’re kidding right? I’ve past almost every test I’ve ever taken with high scores. I’m not really worried about the tests; I just like keeping the subjects I’m learning about on my mind so I’m completely prepared for them. So how many books of the series have you been through Tress?” This felt like a really slow day to Twilight as nothing of great interest was happening today, but at least she was getting plenty of studying in.

“I’m already up to the thirteenth book.” It was all Tress would say as her tired eyes continued reading.

“But you only just started reading the series six days ago and you’re that… have you gotten any sleep?” Worriedly Velvet checked Tress’s eyes and her general state of health, she smelled like she was still bathing and her mane was still brushed and combed.

“Yes, I’m fine and I did get my sleep in.” After letting Velvet fret over her for another minute, Tress gave an indignant huff when she was finally left alone.

“I’m just making sure you’re taking care of yourself. I know what it’s like to go on a Daring Do reading binge.” After that things settled down again, Velvet started to notice the silence of the room was becoming very loud in its own way. Something felt so very wrong all of the sudden, this home was usually rife with troubles and was usually filled with activity. Was this how it was going to feel with all of them gone?

“Hey who wants to go out for dinner tonight? I’m buying.” As soon as Night said this, everyone in the room stood up and started exclaiming places they’d like to go eat.

Velvet smiled; maybe things without the kids around wouldn’t be so bad after all. After all, she’d have Night all to herself again when things got really quiet around here.

One eventful dinner and a few hours later, inside a restaurant were several ponies in rather bizarre states. This was all due to the circumstances of what happened between the moment Night suggested this, to the point they were at now were everything had gone wrong.

Fluttershy was wearing a maid outfit and blushing profusely, even then it made her feel pretty though incredibly embarrassed. She looked up towards the ceiling wondering how it had all come to this so fast.

Tress was stuck, glued to the ceiling of the restaurant with melted cheese; there was a horrified expression on her face. She was looking towards Twilight silently asking for help.

Twilight was covered in soot from an explosion of some kind and had a completely blank expression permeating her face. She slowly turned to where Barb was hiding behind one of the overturned tables.

Barb was keeping low with Smart in case anything else happened. She peaked out from her hiding spot at her grandpa.

A roughed up Night was smiling as he watched a pegasus that was resisting arrest be led away by some irate food covered celestial guards. He turned to his wife and gave her a cheesy grin.

“We just can’t let an entire day go by, can we?” Velvet sighed out at the shenanigans that had happened, but she still had a smile on her face. She was glad she brought the camera to capture all the events. She silently understood why the Sparkle family had that patent on the words ‘noodle incidents’ now, she should have just ordered a salad.

Author's Notes:

To think Night and Velvet are soon going to be out of the plot. A look at a parent bird who see's their little babies ready to fly from the nest.

14

Twilight Sparkle was her name and she could do this, she could get off a train and start a new life. Her friends were with her and they were watching the mountains and countryside go by as the train trundled on to her new home.

Twilight’s parents had given her a tearful farewell, now it was up to them what would happen with their lives. The graduation was celebrated well enough without incident; she was a well rounded powerful unicorn and could handle almost any challenge that came her way. Provided her friends were with her as she wouldn’t be able to survive being away from her parents, without having her friends around to lean on when she needed it.

As for jobs, Smart could work at the library as there were no laws against her doing so even if she was a bit small for a librarian. Twilight was guaranteed back up funds for any emergency. Fluttershy, Twilight and Tress would have to talk with the mayor and then things could get set up.

“So do you think I’m ready for this?” It has been a constant worry of hers; Twilight didn’t think she was ready to be on her own. “That I’m ready to go out into the world and be my own mare.”

“Shouldn’t we be worried that the world isn’t ready for you?” Surprisingly it wasn’t Tress who said this, it was a giggling Fluttershy.

Tress stayed oddly silent as she stared into the distance out the train car window at the place called Ponyville. It was a place where she could possibly be spending the rest of her life alongside her best friend.

“What’s wrong Tress, you’re oddly silent.” A frown marred Twilight's face as Tress stared at the fast lands before her as the train rolled on. “I got the results from testing those hairs from your mane.”

“Huh? What’s the verdict doc, is it… is it hair?” A small smile came across Tress’s face and Twilight certainly became amused by the change in mood. “You’ve been studying it off and on for a whole year you know.”

“Well yes, its hair alright, almost entirely normal… except for the one odd detail about it, otherwise it seems like normal entirely inert pony hair.” It was a surprise to Twilight that Tress might actually be able to become Mane-iac again, though it was incredibly unlikely. The power she would need to even jumpstart the transformation process would have to be astronomical in levels.

“And that would be?” Asked Tress waiting for the intrinsic details of what Twilight had found out.

“There is a chance that you would be able to become Mane-iac again. It would require a force powerful enough to kill a regular pony, at least three times over. Your hair somehow absorbs static energy; as such your hair is impossible to get frizzy from static shocks because of this.” Well that was one less thing Tress had to worry about when it came to her hair in the future. “I’m kind of jealous of you really. It may not be a super power, but hair that is immune to being messed with by having a balloon rubbed up against it is unique to say the least. It’s possibly a side of effect of having had those super powers, so it’s nothing to worry about.”

“Well that’s one load off my mind.” It would take enough force to kill her before she could even feasibly be Mane-iac again? Tress didn’t let it bother her, so she couldn’t become super powered unless she returned to the comic book world or she somehow miraculously survived dying to even go through transforming into her alter ego again.

Now all Tress had to do was think of how to proceed on from here, which she had been doing previously before Twilight interrupted her deep rooted thinking. The modeling business with Fleur was fun, but she had to quit and told Fleur that she was moving with her friend to Ponyville. Maybe she could model for some of Twilight’s ventures. She could probably even make a business of selling hygiene related stuff on the side. Making special homemade shampoo and body wash would never be a problem unless the ingredients became scarce; her friends appreciated that talent as Fluttershy really had a thing for smelling like a bed of flowers.

“Um, how much did the plot of land you got for me cost?” Fluttershy really didn’t like the idea that Twilight was so selfless as to spend so much money on her, especially for a place that was stated as being perfect for her.

“Don’t worry about it Fluttershy, there’s a reason why we’re meeting with the mayor and it involves your workplace and what kind of jobs you’ll have around Ponyville.” It was fun for Twilight to keep this a secret from Fluttershy. She was going to be so happy when she saw her little grove next to the forest.

Fluttershy would soon have more things to do with animals then she could have ever dreamed of. She’d be running an animal sanctuary, finding pets for ponies, being the lead animal specialist during the Winter Wrap Up whatever that was and peacefully solving problems that animals and pests could cause. She could even work at the local veterinary clinic whenever she felt like it; all she had to do is talk with the mayor and get it finalized.

The gentle thrum of the train slowed down as the ponies waited for it to pull into the station, collecting their things they all got off the train and stopped to stare at the peaceful surroundings. Barb was looking around with Smart sitting on top of her head and the wide open spaces were definitely different from the streets of a rather claustrophobic Canterlot.

Now all Twilight had to do was figure out where the mayor is so they could finish the documentation and finally they had to have time to get settled in. Walking out of the train station Twilight decided to ask directions of the first pony she came across. The pony in question was humming happily to herself as she skipped along.

“Excuse me, but…” The pink pony sounded like the one that held the wild parties, but Twilight wasn’t about to berate her if she wasn’t sure about it. The pony stopped stared at the strange group including Barb for a moment and she gave off a loud long drawn out gasp, this was followed by her jumping into the air and shooting off at ridiculous speeds without touching the ground.

“What the hay! Was that Filli-second's cousin? I thought you said normal ponies in your world didn’t have super powers like that.” It was the first time Tress had seen a pony perform feats that would only be expected in a comic book. It was done by an earth pony no less and in a manner resembling the super speed hero from her world.

“I know. I’m just as surprised as you are.” Twilight had hoped to get away from all the zaniness that was the life of a Sparkle. Only now did Twilight truly contemplate that it may have been impossible to separate her from the stark raving insanity. “Come on; let’s find a pony who can give us directions.”

Meanwhile entirely on the other side of Ponyville, a manticore and a timber wolf were going at each other while a bunch of fillies and colts watched in awe. When the pink pony ran up and hugged the nearby unicorn, it caused the timber wolf and the manticore to disappear upsetting the little ponies somewhat until they all saw the pink pony.

“Oh Trixie, please tell me you’ll come! There are some new ponies in Ponyville and I want you to come to the party and be the entertainment and everything! So please, can you, can you, can you?” The poor unicorn was getting dizzy from being spun around by the hyper pink pony.

“Please cease these motions or Trixie will lose the lunch Trixie had all over you Pinkie!” The unicorn known as Trixie was suddenly released. After a moment to get her bearings she looked to Pinkie with an accusing stare. “Well Trixie didn’t say you had to stop hugging Trixie entirely.”

Pinkie’s hooves wrapped around Trixie in a gentler manner causing the unicorn blush at the tenderness of the hug, especially from the pony with no sense of personal space that she happened to spend a lot of time around. She was Pinkie’s go to for help with a party. Aside from what Pinkie usually asked her to do, Trixie also got to use her magic as part of the entertainment because the happy weirdo wouldn’t stop hiring her for jobs.

“Please, tell me you’ll attend my party and do your thing.” The pink pony was looking at Trixie with puppy dog eyes; Pinkie knew they were lethal and probably illegal in several countries. It’s why she couldn’t go back to some places, especially after the cherry changa incident.

“Please, stop looking at Trixie like that. You know Trixie wouldn’t miss it.” Though Trixie knew Pinkie was unaware of it, the magician in question had a large crush on the perky party pony. Trixie covered her ears knowing Pinkie would give a loud squeal of joy.

Even if she was unaware of Trixie’s attraction, Pinkie was rather affectionate with every pony who became a close friend of hers. Pinkie was the reason why Trixie had a steady job and they were both happy to be friends. Thinking back on it, Trixie now felt bad that she ran from Twilight’s friendship.

Twilight approached the mayor in her office; it had taken them thirty minutes to find out where the mayor was. In that time they had saw many interesting sights including Sugar Cube Corner, where they all had stopped for a quick snack.

“Excuse me, are you the mayor and… sorry for me asking this, but why does it smell like you dyed your mane?” Twilight could smell temporary dye at a few clicks. It wasn’t harmful for the mane, but it seemed kind of unnecessary with her being here. Twilight had a mastery of her third spell and managed to get the hair color change permanency dropped to just twelve hours after the spell was used then you could change the color again.

“Yes I’m the mayor and that’s not any of your business.” The mayor with the grey dyed mane and the beige coat answered as she was finished doing some paperwork and she had plenty of time on hoof.

“Actually… it is kind of my business, you see I’m Twilight Sparkle and I happen to have a spell that could just outright change your hair color permanently without having to use all those dyes. Well that is unless you like dying your hair multiple different colors, then I have nothing against that and I can’t help you with rapid hair color changes.” It was agreed that Twilight would do all the talking once they finally found the mayor’s office and she thought things were going particularly well. Fluttershy, Tress and Barb sat back eating their quickly bought snacks while Twilight dealt with the red tape. “Other than that I’m here about some residency forms and to ask about acquiring jobs and opening a business here.”

“How permanent a color change are we talking here?” The mayor was now interested and less offended about how Twilight asked about her mane. That was once she heard the magic words that she wouldn’t require the use of temporary dyes anymore. “Aside from that, what kind of business’s, jobs and residency papers do you need help with signing off on?”

“Well the color change is permanent for the first twelve hours for every change, but afterwards I can return your mane to normal or change the color again. Otherwise your hair will just grow in that color from that point on. I can’t do it while you have dye in your hair whether or not said dye is even magical in nature.” Well Twilight didn’t want the mayor’s mane to react poorly to the problematic mixture of hair dye and a magical hair color changing spell going wrong, plus she didn’t want to make a bad first impression. “For starters on the jobs, business and residencies, my friend Fluttershy here would like to apply for position of Ponyville’s animal caretaker and she’s really good with wild animals. She also has some papers to sign for this place outside of the Ever Free Forest as it will soon belong to her.”

“My word, a pony is willing to be that close to… well if she is as good as you say she is with wild animals, I guess this shouldn’t be to big an issue. Come up dear, I’ll get your papers out and then we can see about your qualifications for the job.” The mayor noted the mare was quiet and shy, she had no idea why any pony would want to live next to the Ever Free Forest much less one that looks like a bear would rip her to shreds.

After getting the papers out and hearing the qualifications that this Fluttershy had earned, the mayor would be dumb not to give her the job position outright. They always had some trouble waking up the animals during the wrapping up of winter and having an animal expert that could stop all the rabbits from ruining the crops grown in Ponyville was a much needed boon. In fact, that was the first thing the mayor was going to have Fluttershy look into.

Author's Notes:

I can actually see Pinkie being friends with a party magician.

15

“Well it seems your qualifications are in order and everything checks out, though I’m not happy about it.” After a moment the mayor had to smirk. “Now if you can stop Pinkie Pie from holding anymore parties in the library, because goodness knows she’s planning one for all of you later this evening, I’ll let you stay as the librarian. Here’s a picture of your target. If you can get a picture and in writing from her that you successfully convinced her to hold that party elsewhere or even especially at a later date, I’ll even give you a bonus.”

“Challenge accepted!” The pixie pony yelled out loud as she levitated the picture to herself. She then zipped towards a suitcase to levitate a camera out and then slowly flew out of the room as the camera was a lot heavier then the picture.

“Oh you’ve done it now; she’s getting quite good at lateral thinking you know.” Twilight didn’t think Smart E. Pants understood the words failure. Smart eventually got around to succeeding depending on whether or not success was still a viable solution. She almost had Twilights intellect in there after all and she had to think laterally, she didn’t exactly have Twilight’s body or magical prowess.

“Now on to other matters if you will? Do you have the capabilities of filling any other public service related jobs and what kind of business are you planning on starting? Any other residency papers you need to sign?” The mayor had thus far sent off Fluttershy to check her space and to get settled in. Otherwise she’d be back tomorrow for the mayor to give her an idea of where to start her new job.

“I’ve taken a place near the library; I believe it’s on the corner. My friend Tress Ravel here is going to be living with me and so will my daughter Barb A. Sparkle of course, they will be there until further notice or if they buy their own places.” The right papers were found, brought out, verified and signed. It was a big house with three bedrooms and a guest room, two bathrooms and a kitchen. It had taken a lot of time for Twilight to save up enough money for that much space. They also had the use of the bedroom, bathroom, guest room, laboratory and kitchen at the library. If they had any friends that needed a place to stay and they ran out of room at the house, it would be thanks to Smart that they’d have somewhere else to go. “Sorry to disappoint you, but no more public service positions to fill from us. I do plan to start working as a freelance stylist and I’m planning on taking any odd jobs sent my way. Is there any problem with that?”

“Would you mind if I produce and sell hygiene related products? Like shampoo, body wash and other products relative to that.” Tress wanted to be involved in the discussion, now that they were talking about what they’d be doing here in Ponyville.

“I don’t have any trouble with most of that. Pencil me in so you can change my hair color when my dye completely wears off. The products you sell will depend on whether or not the ponies are willing to buy them and if they are deemed safe for commercial use. You can find a spot in the marketplace if you have a stall or you can run the shop from your home. Just make sure you read the list of illegal items that aren’t allowed in Ponyville and follow the local safety regulations.” After a moment to think it over, the mayor finally decided to address the thing she had an issue with. “The thing I want to know is what kind of odd jobs were you talking about?”

"Well, it’ll mostly be fixing problems that happen around Ponyville. If there is a pony with a problem and they think me or any of my close friends might be able to solve it, then they can post requests for help from us. The fee will be dependent on how big the problem is.” Sure Twilight might have only had two friends so far, but her friends were amazing ponies. She’d eventually find more friends to lend their aid and she felt like the mayor was already warming up to her.

“Say I give you the okay for this, what would you like to call this business of yours?” They had already solved some of the mayors’ problems. If Fluttershy was good at her job, no more animals causing havoc on Ponyville. If Smart was good at hers, the mayor would have some pony who could curve some of Pinkie’s constant partying and maybe slow that mare down a bit.

“Trims, Tresses and Trouble Takers, I hope that's not too much.” Twilight knew they were going to cause accidents or scenes. She’s dealt with enough Sparkle family 'noodle incidents' to figure out how to solve all kinds of strange problems, so why not continue dealing with them as they came. “So what do you think?”

Twilight wouldn’t ignore any problem she caused trying to solve another one. If Twilight were in Sunset Shimmers place, she’d possibly be getting away with everything short of murder as long as she said she was sorry sincerely enough.

The mayor turned the idea over in her head. Plus the young mare didn’t seem like a bad pony and was going to help her change her hair color, so why not? She wouldn’t mind sending a few jobs her way to see what she could do.

“I’ll set up the paperwork for your business then. I already have a job for you myself and require need of your services if you want. Think of it a test of how well you can handle a problem and I’ll even put a free advertisement of your design in the newspaper for you if you can handle it.” The mayor has been wondering about this small problem for a while now. She needed someone to meet with the stranger that kept spooking the ponies of her fair town, she was pretty sure it was just ponies being superstitious.

“I’m ready for whatever task you can give me. What about you Tress?” The eagerness in Twilight’s voice to get started was palpable.

“Depends, what are we doing exactly? If it’s dangerous, then I think we should drop Barb off at the house. We still have to unpack our stuff too you know.” Tress wondered what kind of task the mayor could have been stewing over for a long while before they arrived.

“It’s not dangerous per se, but have you noticed the lack of ponies around today? Well I guess not since you just arrived and wouldn’t know, but the streets are usually much busier then this. Today is the usual day that the stranger visits and I need you to go talk to him or her. The ponies here are way too easily spooked by the strangers’ general appearance because of the cloak that they wear. Many ponies are spreading some pretty nasty rumors about this figure, but I think it’s just a traveler who has very good survival skills and doesn’t mean any harm to any pony.” You’d have to be good at surviving if you live in the middle of the Ever Free Forest after all, that’s where this stranger kept coming from. The mayor always thought of how sad the stranger looked when they left staring at the ground; she wanted to set things right and stop the way the ponies were treating this visitor. “If you go right now, the stranger should be coming into town soon. I want you to talk with this pony and find out what they need if anything. It might be another job for you if they need any help. So how much will this cost me? I’m paying for this commission personally straight out of my pockets.”

“Well this job doesn’t sound too difficult, it’s just starting a conversation… maybe five bits.” It didn’t seem like much of a hassle really, to start a conversation with a complete stranger.

“I’ll give you thirty five, treat the stranger to some food and apologize for how they are being treated by the ponies that live here. Keep whatever’s left if anything for yourselves after you’re done.” Now was the moment the mayor hoped she could trust these three, plus she wanted to know about the stranger that keeps visiting. She hoofed over the money to Twilight. “Oh and come back to me to report your findings.”

“Don’t worry we’ll see to it.” Before Twilight could begin to even think of leaving, Smart flew in holding a picture with writing on it and an envelope.

“Well does this satisfy the bonus I deserve?” Smart said smugly hovering an inch from the mayors face with her hooves crossed.

The mayor looked at the picture, what was written on it and in the envelope was a party invitation to welcome the new Ponyville residents later that week. Pinkie was actually giving them time to settle in before springing a surprise party on them? Will wonders never cease?

“Fine, you get your bonus.” For the life of her, the mayor could not figure out how Smart convinced Pinkie to not party for an entire week. Much less manage to get Pinkie to change the location of said party. The mayor sighed; her new librarian had to be the shrewdest of negotiators. “Now go on, you need to finish my time sensitive job.”

“Okay mayor um… what exactly is your name again?” Not once had Twilight bothered to ask.

“Just call me mayor. I don’t use my real name much since I got this position anyway.”

“Well alright then mayor, let’s go girls!” Twilight led all of those who were with her from the room.

It wasn’t less than ten minutes later that they saw the stranger looking around the empty streets, the stranger looked lonely out here.

“So how do you think we should approach this?” Twilight couldn’t say much else as she saw her daughter already talking to the stranger, apparently the stranger was female. “Never mind, let’s go over and find out what’s going on and the mayor did say we are to treat her to some food.”

“Ah, well met young dragoness named Barb of magical strength, with hair of an immaculate length. Why young child Zecora is my name; you have just set my sad heart to a flame.” This Zecora introduced herself with a hint of appreciation to finally hear someone speak to her. “No pony here would even speak to me or even consider talking; I had wondered why I even come here anymore and admit I liked the exercise from all the walking.”

“Wow, you’re a zebra aren’t you? Sorry, I’ve never met another one like you before Zecora. Hello I’m Twilight Sparkle.” From what Twilight knew, there was no other creature that rhymed nearly as much as a zebra would, there were a few exceptions though. The zebra turned in surprise and lowered her hood revealing a Mohawk and a less scary face then what the hood presented when it was up, she had really nice eyes.

“Do my ears deceive, or do I hear more voices for my reprieve?” The zebra honestly seemed confused that a pony actually took initiative to approach her for once.

“Nope, we just came to the town ourselves. We’re too dumb to know to stay away from you like the rest of them. Personally I don’t see what they are so scared of, you seem friendly.” Shrugging Tress wondered if the ponies of this town were all a bunch of wimps, even Fluttershy can show some backbone when she wanted to. Never has such an innocent looking pegasus sounded more dangerous when in the context of chiropractic wrestling.

“To me none of you seem at all too dim, but did you seek me out on a whim?” Tilting her head, Zecora looked towards Twilight who seemed eager to make her acquaintance.

“We were sent to apologize for the behavior of the town ponies by the mayor as she wanted us to meet, she even told us to treat you to something nice to eat. Me and my friends just started a business of solving problems big and small, you’re our first case but I hope we can be friends most of all.” The smile Twilight got from the zebra was genuine; Twilight knew she had just made a new friend. “So if you’re ever in need of something don’t be afraid to ask, because as I said my name is Twilight Sparkle and I’m up for the task.”

“Please tell me you aren’t going to keep that up while she’s here, if you do I think I just might have found a new thing to fear.” Despite the sarcastic way she stated it, Tress couldn’t help but chuckle at the fact that she couldn’t help it. Her eyes narrowed a bit at a thought about this conversation. “Oh great I think it’s getting rather infectious and quite fast, please tell me there’s a cure for this and that it will not last.”

Author's Notes:

Well this is a chapter posted earlier then usual and in much need of editing. No chapter tomorrow since I posted two today.

Weird Al Yankovich does a good job as a Cheese Sandwich. It made me happy enough to post this early.

I make a good point here when I mentioned Sunset getting away with stuff, how much stuff does the Mane Six usually get away with normally? A lot and without repercussions for their actions, though they learned something they usually get away with causing a huge mess other ponies have to clean up and pay for. They are always calling Discord out for being chaotic, but have they really not looked at themselves and all the hospital bills they should probably be paying by this point that would have them bankrupting immediately?

16

As they sat down for a late lunch at the café, Tress felt oddly detached watching as Twilight, Zecora and Barb interact with each other. They were so busy with their conversation that they didn’t know that Tress currently felt uneasy. She did agree to help Twilight solve problems; Tress thought it would be mostly doing chores if they were lucky to not have Sparkle family level problems pop up constantly. At least she knew their hair care related ventures would go well, as with animal related problems with Fluttershy’s help. That was not the main thing on her mind.

Tress was actually staring at the thing she hadn’t bother to really inquire about for nearly two whole years, in those years she had learned a lot about Twilight. Her friends favorite colors were green and blue, she had a an attraction to hair that was innocent in nature so far, grapes were her favorite fruit and Tress heard the story of Barbs hatching because Fluttershy had once inquired about it. Of the things Twilight couldn’t do, she can’t safely make any food other then pudding when it came to cooking and had trouble controlling her magic in some instances. Twilight once caused an explosion trying to make a daisy sandwich.

“Smart?” Tress said watching as the little pixie pony was watching Barb like a hawk. Said pixie suddenly jerked and turned around to look up at Tress with her two mismatched colored eyes.

Before Smart could ask what it was Tress needed, a waiter came up to take their orders. Tress ordered a large salad and some tasty vinaigrette she liked to go with it, with a side of tomato soup and bread sticks. Twilight being a bit of a plain pony ordered a deluxe daisy sandwich and hay fries. Barb went with lasagna with sliced zucchini and carrots. Zecora took a while to order as it was the first time she ever got to sit down in a restaurant in Ponyville. Once they ordered their drinks the three continued their conversation leaving Tress and Smart to converse.

“Well now that that is over with, what did you need Tress? You know we’ll always be here to hear what’s on your mind.” This was the thing that was supposed to run Ponyville’s library, Smart the pixie pony thing that had problems dissociating herself from Twilight Sparkle.

“I…” Trailing off, Tress tried to think of a good question to ask Smart. The other three at the table were too busy enjoying themselves and she didn’t want to interrupt them. Twilight looked happy. “Why has Twilight never created a pony sized version of you?”

“Oh, that. Well you see it’s actually impossible to create a bigger version of me, even with the enchantments we used to make this work. Our enchantment is only viable on a smaller scale where we can easily contain everything. Not only would it be a waste of energy, but a waste of our time trying for something bigger. Something like that would barely last ten minutes, use up tons of energy and then the enchantments would burn out.” Smart flittered her way to Tress taking on the average Twilight lecture mode tone. It happened when Twilight was going into specifics about whatever magical field she dabbled in over the last two years. “Enchantments are a tricky subject; they can only be placed on objects and surfaces. They can’t be placed directly on things that are alive or, much to our disgust that someone actually tried it, a dead body. For example the enchanted comic book that ended up with you here is what an enchantment can be placed upon. Blank books are usually used for written enchantments that do various things and some can take years to design alone. We still can’t explain how you came here with us or why it left us horribly tired and drained coming out, that was definitely not a design of the enchantments emplaced on it. We’re so glad that you’re still our friend after we dragged you from your world because we were too selfish to let go.”

Tress felt a flush of warmth run through her chest at the sentiment that a part of Twilight worried about her feelings. She sometimes had nightmares of being trapped in Mane-iac’s body with someone else in control yet she was the one who felt all the pain for whatever injuries happened to her. She sometimes wondered if Twilight took over Radiance’s body by entering the comic, the idea sounded like a horror story waiting to happen.

“Tell me, did you always look like this little pixie thing?” Well Tress really did want to know how she was pulled out of a comic book, but she thought better about asking too many questions about it and they still had time until the food came. She took a sip of her lemonade. “How did you eventually get to be what you are now?”

“Not really, it took us an entire year of study to have us gain some operational ability. We still looked like the Smarty Pants doll we started enchanting back then. This body was very simple back then, just animated and given memories.” So basically Smart was saying she could only move around and react based on memories that Twilight fed her at that time. “We spent a lot of time cuddling up to Barb and she was so little back then. Now she’s half our age, at least mentally and she’s going to actually start aging physically at a normal rate soon. We didn’t have to worry about giving me fire protection enchantments early on, but we eventually added them while figuring out how to apply the solar energy absorbing enchantment that has since kept this body powered. Before we were being powered by sunlight we used more than half our magic daily just to make us run for eight hours alone. It was around a year before we met you that we added the ability to talk and we have been somewhat regretting that decision ever since. Well it’s more to the point of the other me that might actually have regrets.”

Tress wondered when their food would get here, she heard her name said and she suddenly turned to Twilight.

“Huh? Did you say something?” She was hoping Twilight wasn’t upset with her for not paying attention to them.

“I just wanted to know if you wouldn’t mind letting Zecora stay with us for a few days. You own part of the house too, so you should have a say in it. Barb and I already agreed that she could stay. I really want to have a sleepover with our new friend here.” There was a hopeful look on Twilights face; she wanted Tress to say yes.

“I don’t mind at all.” There was a hint of glee in Tress’s voice; Twilight had just made her happy by including her in the decision instead of assuming she’d be okay with it. Turning back to Smart, Tress decided to continue the discussion. “So what about you’re appearance, you didn’t mention how that came about. Also could you try to distinguish yourself from Twilight a bit more? It’s a bit confusing.”

“I’ll try, but I am essentially Twilight Sparkle even though I know this body or form is not her. My appearance had to be created through a magical compression of my physical core, which being the Smarty Pants doll that already had several enchantments on it. It was that enchantment that altered me to appear as if I were a tiny pony instead of a plush toy. It’s like how I move my mouth, but that’s not where my voice is actually coming from, I work a sound enchantment to generate sound waves that gives me the ability to speak. It was a real work in progress for Twilight to alter the shape of this body. I at one point actually looked exactly like a five inch high Twilight and we decided that it would get confusing so we tried for an earth pony form. Eventually we decided that I needed to be able to fly since I couldn’t keep up with a fast moving Barb once she started learning to walk, thus I was given a wing spell modified into an enchantment based form. The wing spell gives the target it’s used on wings, usually the easily shredded made from morning dew and gossamer butterfly shaped kind. Turning it into an enchantment had different results and thus here I am with dragonfly wings and happen to be the five inch tall talking pixie pony you see before you. Despite all this, I’m still not really a living being.” With a flourish Smart bowed to Tress.

“Okay why couldn’t she just make another energy holding enchantment?” It seemed easy enough to Tress.

“You can’t put two nearly identical enchantments on a single object or let them even stay near each other for too long, it could cause the enchantments to destabilize or explode violently. There’s a reason enchantments are the most dangerous to the pony creating them and patience really is a virtue when it comes to mastering this magical art. I wasn’t made a pixie pony in a day, because that would just be plain silly.” Smart saw the food coming and turned to Tress. “Looks like your meal is coming now, I’ll be quiet so you can eat.”

“So you can only take in sunlight to power yourself? What about changing your intake to food? This is actually getting pretty interesting; don’t stop now on my account.” As she said this, Tress smiled at the salad, soup and a basket of bread sticks that was placed before her by the waiter. “Thank you.”

“For every four steps taken, I’d have to consume three times the amount food a normal pony would eat for breakfast, I’d be eating like a parasprite and I’m already close enough to one in resemblance as it is. Exceptionally powerful enchantments require a lot of energy and are usually one shot performances, like the ones on the enchanted comic book since it actually makes a really good reference point. It is probably fed enough energy over the course of a week to a month until it becomes functional.” Pausing, Smart tried to recollect anything else that Tress might have wanted to hear on the subject, the pretty light blue haired mare just started eating while patiently waiting for her to continue. “Just because I can’t have two of the same enchantments on me, it does not mean I can’t have a refined version of them or even upgrade the enchantment that’s already there. Though making an upgrade and or better enchantments happens to be a long arduous process, not to mention the added time for the installation process of a better one if an enchantment has to be removed. We were surprised we even got so far with this enchanted toy, but a lot of love and time was put into me. It was hard enough figuring out how to get me to cast spells.”

“I was wondering about that since you don’t need a horn. How does it work exactly?” Tress had politely swallowed the food in her mouth before asking this, next time she’d remember to ask them to leave off the croutons. She had seen the little pixie performing some minor magic spells that Twilight was capable of. It was to be noted by Tress that Smart’s spells were all scaled down though still effective to a degree. “Also why did you have to fly around heavier objects several times to levitate them?”

“My entire body is a magical focal point so no need for a horn. How it works exactly is a trade secret and I don’t actually want to share that one, it’s one of the most unique enchantments Twilight invented and we’ll leave it at that. As for the levitation thing, bigger objects require me grab them from all around so I do it to expand the surface area that my levitation field affects. Imagine me wrapping a magical lasso around it manually since I can’t just throw it at the object and immediately snare it.” It was a rather strange sight to Smart when saw a deep blush suddenly permeating Tress’s face. “Why are you blushing like that, was it something I said?”

“Yes, you just made me realize that there are some things about Miss Mare-velous from my world that I wished I didn’t just think of right then.” Tress decided to quickly change the subject, especially before Smart could ask what she was talking about. The idea that came to her mind at the mention of a magical lasso and knowing a mare that mentally controlled one personally, it wasn’t exactly something Tress wished she had thought of as being a possibility. “How’s the sandwich Twilight?”

“What? Sorry something was on my mind.” Something was off about the way Twilight was sending Tress nervous glances and her voice was oddly sad. Tress pointed a hoof at her sandwich while she sipped some soup, when Twilight was finished swallowing a bite she decided to respond. “Oh, you want to know about my sandwich? It’s good, but the hay fries here are the best I’ve ever had.”

“Care to share some please?” Giving her friend a cheerful smile, Tress titled her head causing her hair to flow from the right side of her face. She made her ears lay back, bit her lower lip and went into big eyes mode.

“Of course, just please stop looking at me like that. It's making me feel funny.” Shyly Twilight pushed the basket of hay fries in Tress’s direction with a hoof. After tasting them Tress agreed that they were really good.

All too soon, they all finished their meals.

“I find this meal to have been quite delicious; I hope the food was at least somewhat nutritious.” Zecora enjoyed her order of a fresh roasted vegetable variety platter and she shared some hay fries with Barb. “Now I hope you aren’t offended, but I would like to share a dessert here that is recommended.”

“Please mom, can we get something with ice cream?” Barb asked looking to Twilight pleadingly.

“I’m with them; I’ve still got a bit of room in my hollow leg.” Added Tress who then turned to hail their waiter, he immediately pulled out the dessert menu and hoofed it to Twilight.

“May I suggest the baked sweet apple dumpling? We use Sweet Apple Acres brand of apples baked in a resplendent pecan streusel; it is then topped with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup.” The stallion waiter received a nod from Twilight. “I’ll bring your check as well.”

Author's Notes:

"She sometimes wondered if Twilight took over Radiance’s body by entering the comic, the idea sounded like a horror story waiting to happen."

Someone take a hint from that and please write it. It's a pretty good idea.

17

“So you know a bit about me, what about you Zecora?” Twilight decided they should go into the nearby café; they had taken a second to drop off their bags at the house while Zecora waited outside for them. Tress was acting rather withdrawn; it was probably nothing to worry about.

“A shaman I am from a far away land that I call my home, I have wandered from far away as I like to roam.” Today felt like a good day for Zecora. She was finally being slowly accepted by the ponies as they came out to go about their business.

“A shaman, what’s that?” Barb was looking to her mother, but it was the zebra who answered as they took a seat.

“I’m a mixer of magical potions and poultices both strange and grand; I am a zebra that can survive in almost any type of land.” It felt good for Zecora to be able to open up to such a nice family, though one in particular seemed to be provoked by her thoughts. “I’ve since stopped my wanderlust and I feel it less, is there something wrong with Miss Tress?”

“Nah, she always gets a bit moody at times, she hasn’t had the best life. She really needs more friends like my mom and Fluttershy do.” Barb always considered Tress like a sometimes grumpy aunt; otherwise she was a wonderful friend to her mother. She was an aunt that knew how to find really tasty gems and jewels for Barb to snack on when she got hungry.

“Hardships are a thing of life that is to be known, I assure you that their number of friends have recently grown.” Though she didn’t know who Fluttershy was, Zecora thought she’d be just as nice as these three… maybe four. She suspiciously eyed the enchanted toy known as Smart, the magical construct was interesting in the way it was watching the dragon in a protective manner as they sat down at a table.

Zecora was willing to be their friend regardless of the magical field of weirdness she felt surrounding them. This was her first time being in a restaurant in Ponyville and it would take her a moment to look through the menu.

“So what are you getting Zecora? I’m paying for this meal so get whatever you want. I’m thinking a daisy sandwich, maybe a daisy deluxe with hay fries.” Twilight thought she enjoyed the simple things in life way too much, so she decided that something a bit more enthralling then an average daisy sandwich. She was going for the deluxe size then.

“Mom what is it with you and daisies? I think you would eat nothing but dollops of daisy paste between two slices of bread if my grandparents didn’t feed you so many 'exotic' meals. I bet you’d live off that one thing for the rest of your life if you could.” The little dragons query and stern stare were met with one in return.

“What is it with you and ice cream? At least daisies aren’t an unhealthy eating habit, besides I’d miss the taste of grapes too much.” Twilight had at least some high ground on this one. They glared at each other for a few seconds before they started laughing.

“My you two are certainly strange, my day is certainly brighter for a change.” Zecora smiled at the relationship these two shared.

“So where have you been living all this time if not in Ponyville? The nearest town to here is not exactly that close you know.” There was so much Twilight could learn from her new friend from beyond the Equestrian lands.

The waiter, a gentle looking stallion, came up to the table and cleared his throat.

“Sorry, I’ll have a deluxe daisy sandwich and a side of hay fries, with grape juice.” Twilight looked to Zecora who was looking over the menu in interest. She leaned over and started to help Zecora make a choice from the menu as it took a minute or so after Barb and Tress’s orders.

“Hmm… the roasted variety of plant, my what a taste to me that will grant. It says it will come with fries, I hope the menu has no lies.” The stallion politely looked at Zecora’s choice and noted it down, he then asked what kind of drink she wanted. “A drink made of lemon and lime, with a bit of seltzer and some syrup will taste fine.”

They were finished ordering now and Twilight stared pointedly at Zecora, as did Barb behind her out of curiosity about where she was living.

“I’ve traveled many lands far and wide, for a place to live and not to hide. The Ever Free Forest is almost like a place for me to settle down, though I wouldn’t mind a place to go for rest while I’m in town. I’ve carved out a place in a tree in that forest that many ponies here find wild; to me all the monsters in there seem quite mild.” It was true, as long as you didn’t bother the monsters or garner their attention they would mostly leave you be. That and provided you stay out of their territories.

“Can you tell me some of the things you’ve seen in this forest?” Twilight was happy to learn about the creatures she has likely only ever read about, but to actually meet them was another thing. Twilight’s ear twitched as she heard Smart going into a lecture and she heard the word ‘comic’ be mentioned. Taking a glance at Tress, she looked to be okay and was listening to whatever Smart was saying. She turned back to Zecora who politely awaited her to come back from her slight distraction.

“Yes, though many a pony fears the forest I have seen creatures big or small, while the place called Froggy Bottom Bog have monsters quite tall. Cragadiles are tough skinned and can be quite scary, when stepping on stones in patterns is when you should be wary. Timber wolves are simple wooden beast, light a fire and they won’t have you for a feast. A cockatrice is a creature that can turn you to stone right in your place, it is a good idea to not to stare at one in the face.” The zebra stopped when Twilight held up a hoof.

“My friend Fluttershy looked one in the face, but it didn’t turn her to stone. She rescued it from a toilet and she said something about it not turning her friends to stone. She’s really good with animals and can even communicate with them since it’s her special talent. I’ll introduce you to her later; she’s really easy to get along with. She even lives right outside the Ever Free Forest now.” Twilight got a nod from Zecora in acceptance at the idea of meeting the friend that wasn’t here at the moment.

“Quite a talent that truly sounds to be, it would have been especially useful for the likes of Ever Free. I have been out there in the forest alone by myself for quite a few weeks filling with sadness; I think in my loneliness I would have been led temporarily to madness.” Zecora perked up slightly as she addressed Twilight personally after taking a sip of her rather refreshing drink. Fluttershy was a pony she had to meet eventually if she survived looking a cockatrice in the eyes. “If it were not for you, I would still be feeling rather blue. Do you think you can assist me in finding a place to stay? There are times in the forest I’d rather be quite out of the way. During the mating seasons some creatures are quite dangerous in there, for my life is something of which I have no spare.”

“You know we have the room mom and I wouldn’t mind learning more about the places she’s been to. I really haven’t been outside of Canterlot before and well this is all so new to me.” The air was a lot friendlier then it was up in the mountain city, Barb thought the ponies in general looked friendly and accepted her presence without a second thought. Then why did they not like Zecora until she started hanging out with them?

“Don’t worry about it; she can stay with us a few days at our new home. Isn’t that right Tress?” Twilight could have sworn she heard the word ‘regrets’ used and took a glance to see that things looked okay with Tress, but her mind wanted to play a different story. “Excuse me Tress, hello? I have a question to ask you.”

“Huh? Did you say something?” Obviously Tress had not been following their conversation. Twilight didn’t blame her, whatever conversation she had going with Smart had to have been interesting.

“I just wanted to know if you wouldn’t mind letting Zecora stay with us for a few days. You own part of the house too, so you should have a say in it. Barb and I already agreed that she could stay. I really want to have a sleepover with our new friend here.” Barb wasn’t the only one wanting to learn more about Zecora’s travels and she too had to admit an interest in the zebra. Twilight always wanted to try her hoof at camping at least once, now that they had the opportunity they would eventually do that with a few friends. Zecora would have made the experience much better as she knew how to live off the land, but she wasn’t so far removed from society that she didn’t know what a restaurant was.

“I don’t mind at all.” Then Tress turned back to converse with Smart after the gleeful response. This made Twilight wonder what they were talking about, but she didn’t want to be so rude by barging into whatever Tress was learning from Smart. It wasn’t long after that the food was brought out.

“Where were we again, aside from the fact that you’ll stay with us for a few days. Hmm… how about the strange and wondrous plants you can find in this Ever Free Forest place?” Idly Twilights ears twitched as she heard Smart say the word ‘fly’ as she focused on Zecora’s response.

“Ah, yes there are things like the blue flower called poison joke, it is not very nice to pony or any other folk. To touch its pollen leads to trouble, if you get any on you try and find me on the double. There are also roots that fizzle for some of the potions I make; it can be used to make a rhubarb cake. Don’t eat the leaves of the rhubarb plant under any measure; they are poisonous and are most certainly not a pleasure.” Enjoying having such a captive audience, Zecora was happy to share her knowledge with folks as thirsty as she was.

“So why did you leave home?” The reason Barb asked this was because she knew why they left their home, because Twilight needed to be her own pony and wondered why Zecora has traveled so far as to be here in the Equestrian realm.

Twilight heard Smart saying some words from the other conversation, she heard the words ‘enchanted comic’. She was starting to wonder whether or not Tress had second thoughts of staying in this world and might have been asking for a way back, Twilight really did not want that to be true. There was also the thought that Smart could be telling her some of Twilight's embarrassing secrets. She quickly turned back to Zecora to hear her tale; once again the zebra patiently awaited her attention.

“My mother is a smart and intelligent mare; she raised me well on how to survive then sent me away so I could live someplace that would be fair. Males of our species can be quite aggressive in a manner, I’m glad to be untaken because my mother was such a good planner. Males are responsible for taking on more than one date, to put it quite frankly it leads to them have an unlikeable trait.” Zecora tilted her head at Barb while looking into Twilights eyes, she could see that Twilight understood and that was good to know. She wouldn't want to go into great detail about what she just said.

Twilight’s thoughts slowly went to embarrassing places. She had heard zebra culture was a bit complicated, what with everyone saying everything in rhyme and the strange social structures that went with it. Her mind started to wander a bit.

“How’s the sandwich Twilight?” Tress’s voice cut through the air and into Twilights head.

“What? Sorry something was on my mind.” Yes, like all the dirty thoughts of beautiful long black and white manes belonging to zebras covered in mud, Twilight’s thoughts went to how they might need a good shampoo and rinse. After a moment she returned to the thought of her first and best friend leaving to return to from whence she came, it overrode her slightly odd fantasy of emergency hair care in a different region of the world. It took Twilight a moment to notice Tress pointing at her sandwich and she swallowed what was already in her mouth. “Oh, you want to know about my sandwich? It’s good, but the hay fries here are the best I’ve ever had.”

“Care to share some please?” Tress started giving Twilight a look that made her stomach feel like it was filled with butterflies.

The smile, bit lip and big eyes were some things Twilight would definitely expect of Fluttershy. Maybe the shy pony gave lessons on how to be adorable?

“Of course, just please stop looking at me like that. It’s making me feel funny.” Yeah it certainly was, mostly because Twilight liked the way Tress’s mane flowed. Twilight slowly pushed the basket of hay fries towards her friend, maybe her best friend possibly wanting to leave wasn’t something to worry about.

Soon they had all finished their meals, then dessert was suggested and they all agreed on it. They each dove into it with their own spoons attacking it with gumption upon its arrival.

Wherever the apples in the dessert came from, they were the best Twilight had ever tasted and she has had quite a number of delicious apples before this. She wondered if this Sweet Apple Acres place sold honeyed cider.

Author's Notes:

Tell me, does this read like a lazy chapter to you? Because if it doesn't I've failed at being a failure.

18

There she stood staring at the somewhat dilapidated, grown over and in need of some reconstruction home with a lot of wild animals running around outside of it. She had a slight frown on her face and she had tears in her eyes at the sight, her friends were just so wonderful to her and this place was beautiful. She didn’t know how to pay them back for such a wonderful place they kindly acquired for her. Sure it would take some work to make it that much better, but Fluttershy was a pegasus that could put in the hours to make this place look like a beautiful sanctuary and it’s only currently rough around the edges. It would become a place for all her friends’, animal or pony.

Fluttershy was almost ready to burst into song, but first she had to make some assessments of the grounds. The soil certainly looks fertile enough, so she would need to get some seeds for a garden to help save on costs of feeding some animals by producing some food herself. The cottage would take some time to clean up, maybe build a second floor and she could even ask Twilight and Tress assist her with that.

Fluttershy’s tail slowly swayed at the thought of her two most wonderful friends, it made her really miss Rainbow a lot though. Two years with Rainbow Dash who protected her from the worst of the bullying and didn’t care that she couldn’t fly well. Then came the griffon she spent the one year trying to befriend like Rainbow had only to be pushed away and then the next three years after were completely lonely in terms of pony companionship. The most of the last two years were with a friendly loving family and the two most wonderful friends a mare could ask for in the rather bizarre home they had lived at.

Thinking of family made Fluttershy realize she still hadn’t sent a message to her own parents; would they be happy that she was out of their lives or were they worried about her? She sometimes thought it was better off not knowing some things. She wouldn’t even know if they moved or not unless she went back to Cloudsdale and she really didn’t want to.

Fluttershy had found it somewhat hard to leave Canterlot, mostly because Velvet wouldn’t let go of her and kept hugging her.

Thinking of friends, Fluttershy’s thoughts turned to Tress as she was always making sure no pony ever bothered her and was always so protective. Sure Tress was a bit crass and looked to be lazy at times, but once you got to know her she really was sweet and her heart couldn’t be any more in the right place when it needed to be. Tress really made a lot of money doing modeling work, mostly in magazines Twilight didn’t read though Fluttershy certainly did. Tress put her heart into helping Twilight and her get their lives started; it was kind of hard to see what Tress herself desired when she was mostly busy with her friends’ happiness. Tress’s origins were quite strange and had to be explained to Fluttershy and despite the weirdness of it she accepted her fully.

Tress was a pony that just needed some attention and kindness.

Now Fluttershy’s thoughts were on Twilight, she was always so willing to help her learn things. At times Fluttershy wished Twilight didn’t have to trim her mane or tail even if it did get a bit long and in the way. Even then at some point Fluttershy had to admit that Twilight really did a good job with mane care, even if it wasn’t her special talent and just something she did that she loved. It was something for her to look up to. Twilight's special talent was magic in general and she cut Fluttershy’s mane only when Fluttershy herself asked her to. Twilight would never force Fluttershy to do stuff she was uncomfortable with, which was her problem with the pegasus school systems as she was a weak flyer and still is even to this day. That didn’t mean Fluttershy didn’t go flying at her own pace or kept her wings well exercised, she just wasn’t meant for high altitudes or extreme speeds and was perfectly fine with that.

There was just something special about Twilight, Fluttershy just knew it and one day the world would probably know it too.

Thinking back to when Fluttershy asked Twilight to test her flight speed, she had barely registered even a one on an anemometer. Fluttershy found herself hard pressed to have a reason to fly faster which was already hard for her to do to begin with. She was sure if push came to shove she’d do her best to perform three times better then she already does in the air and only if she truly needed to do so to help her friends.

After staring at the random animals standing scattered about the area minding their own business, Fluttershy decided to approach the chickens to start getting to know the animals around here.

“Um, excuse me…” Fluttershy’s soft voice suddenly alerted the chicken she called out to, it tilted its head and clucked questionably at the Fluttershy. “I’m new here and I was wondering, how long has it been since a pony has live here?”

The chicken ambled over to Fluttershy and started clucking while flapping her wings in a somewhat agitated manner. It wasn’t an angry manner, it just somewhat sad since they hadn’t been tended to for a long time. They were surviving well enough on their own, though the winter months were a lot harsher for them.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry to hear that Miss Elizabeak. I’m going to try my best to help all of you and all of the other animals here.” Fluttershy gently nuzzled the chicken and it quickly crawled onto her head and sat down. She giggled at the chicken taking an instant liking to her. It even clucked that it wanted to know what she was going to be doing. “I just need to introduce myself to all the animals around here. Once they get to know me I’m sure we’ll all be the best of friends.”

Fluttershy walked around back after setting her luggage down by the door; she really didn’t think any pony would bother to steal it as it looked like none really even come out this way. Hearing a loud groan of pain, Fluttershy turned and looked at a large brown boulder. After a second of staring she realized it was a bear and one that was complaining about its back by all the angry groaning it was doing.

“Miss Elizabeak, could you please get off for a second?” The chicken fluttered to the ground and watched as Fluttershy marched straight up to the bear, she started to approach cautiously it as she got closer. “Okay, tell me where it hurts.”

The groan of pain was soon followed by a roar of anger in Fluttershy’s face and she stood her ground resolutely. The poor bear was hurting so much that Fluttershy didn’t care that it was slightly angry at her; she just wanted to help him. The bear had at least given her an idea of where all the pain was centered around though.

“Please forgive me for what I’m about to do to you, this may sting a bit so bear with me.” A lot of curious animals in the area knew better then to go near Harry the bear; he had recently become real angry all the time. He was strong and big and in comparison to the smaller friendly Fluttershy, the animals thought the bear was going to rip her to shreds.

Imagine the surprised look on all the animals when Fluttershy flipped the bear despite him being heavier and much larger then she was. After getting onto his back Fluttershy gave him a sharp tug of his neck to cause a large cracking noise. None of the animals had any idea of what Fluttershy was truly capable of, but after a moment they notice Fluttershy moved onto putting pressure down on his shoulders and a few pops could be heard. What was that crazy pony doing to that bear?

“You’re really so tense, do you stretch in the morning? You really need to take care of yourself better Mr. Bear.” It was one of the things Fluttershy liked doing when she was learning multiple medical practices. It took Twilight some time and convincing to come around to letting Fluttershy do something for her for a change, but Tress was all for the massages she gave. It was one of the ways she thought she could pay her friends back for their kindness. Fluttershy just didn’t feel it was enough, even if she can get Tress to exclaim that she felt like melted butter under her gentle caressing.

The bear in questioned didn’t know what happened after he roared at the pony. One minute Harry was standing tall while in pain and the next some really sharp pain that bled into the blissful feeling of two hooves kneading his back. At this point he didn’t care the pony was standing on him, she made him feel better and as such he would protect her as long as she continued to help him like she was doing right now. He groaned out his name to Fluttershy and an apology.

“Harry, that’s a nice name for a bear and no need to apologize. My name is Fluttershy and I need you to help me help you get better. So how long have you been like this? I’m finding a lot of problems throughout your back muscles.” Fluttershy pushed and shoved her front hooves over the muscles getting a feel of what would cause him pain or bliss. So far she had only hurt him a little and eased his pain by a lot.

Groaning Harry started to direct Fluttershy. The more he told her, the better he felt after a few pinches of pain here and there. They were nothing compared to the sudden comforting feeling of not being in so much pain.

“There there, a full season of this is a long time to be having these kinds of problems. Just relax. How have you been sleeping lately? That might be the cause.” Fluttershy continued to work Harry over making sure he would be smiling sooner rather than later. In the background a bunch of little animals that live around the general area came out and looked up to Fluttershy in awe.

It took a few minutes, but Harry was soon completely fine and sweeping Fluttershy up into gentle bear hug. Fluttershy accepted it gracefully.

“Now are there any other problems I should take care of or know about? If you know any other animal that’s sick and injured please bring them to me.” That Fluttershy addressed all the animals from the bear’s arms made them look to each other. After chattering for a bit the animals all spread out. A minute later two animals carefully carried back a confused cardinal with a broken wing, the poor guy was chirping erratically at suddenly being accosted and from the pain of its wing.

“Harry, set me down and go to the front of the house and bring me my bags around back please. I have a medical kit in there and I need it for this poor bird.” Fluttershy even illustrated what they looked like using the dirt and soon the bear was back setting the bags down near the pony. Fluttershy turned to her chicken friend. “Elizabeak can you go get me some twigs, I need something sturdy to hold his wing in place after I set it if the poor dear is going to get any better. I’ll go inside and quickly get some water, make sure he doesn’t go anywhere.”

The animals watched as Fluttershy cleaned, set and wrapped the birds’ wing. Then she worked on tying the twigs the chicken brought back to its wing to make sure he couldn’t move it very well.

“There now, all you have to do is not move it too much and don’t remove those bandages. You’ll be staying with me for a while and I’ll make sure you get to fly again.” The bird chirped happily and rubbed himself up against Fluttershy’s right hoof as he felt better already. “Thank you so much for bringing him to my attention and to me. That was really nice of you and that you took the time to be gentle with him really helped out.”

The two animals that brought the injured bird to her looked rather bashful at the praise. It made Fluttershy sad to see others injured or in pain, but she was happy to have a home and patients to take care of already. She needed to go over some things with Harry and she would need to make sure the birds’ wing recovered correctly.

As long as Fluttershy had friends like Tress and Twilight around and she was at a place where she already felt like she belonged, she would be happy. She even felt like she was finally at home in her heart.

19

Twilight slowly yawned and stretched out, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes for the early morning. She had just spent the first night in Ponyville with a small slumber party, with Zecora as a guest. Zecora had quite a few stories to tell and was entertaining to listen to, the rhyming anecdotes she had about things like a hydra or chimera would never be forgotten. Twilight’s stories were as entertaining, such as the fudge brownie beasts that bled cherry syrup she had to fight when she was younger. Twilight had to stab quite a few of those to death with a fork and she wasn’t very remorseful about eating them either.

She rolled out of bed and flopped to the floor on her face, the slight pain was worth the fact that she was now definitely more awake then she previously had been seconds ago.

Today Twilight was going to send Smart and Barb to the library, Barb still needed schooling. Twilight would make the defensive enchantments for the library at a later date. Smart may be able use enchantments and she may even be made of them, but she couldn’t make, upgrade, alter or refine enchantments herself. She was going to leave some money with them so Barb could have something to eat for lunch.

Zecora and Tress would be going through Ponyville to explore and do some window shopping, Twilight thought they really needed furniture for their home. It was sparse with the kitchen stuff, the few beds and little else; it explains why it was cheaper than normal. They also needed various other supplies for their home as well, such as food, though Twilight actually cooking anything was completely right out. They’d later head on over to Fluttershy’s, mostly so Zecora could be introduced to their somewhat chronically shy friend, if she wasn’t there they’d find her somewhere nearby at least. Zecora was glad to finally be enjoying a bit more acknowledgement then she had been receiving as something to be afraid of, with Tress leading her around ponies would be less likely inclined to be afraid of her.

Twilight would personally be reporting to the mayor since she had asked that Twilight come back after she was done with her commission to take on this problem. It wasn’t anything big, well at least not something her family back in Canterlot was used to seeing anyway. Her family didn’t just have a problems food and there were things that happened back when Shining lived with them that were quite pear shaped in nature.

As Twilight slowly dragged her body to the bathtub to clean off and prepare for the day, she got into the tub and noted the water was relatively cold.

“Barb, did you use up all the hot water!” Twilight must have woken up after everyone else or else the water wouldn’t have been like this. Tress was a good early riser, Twilight figured that earth ponies tended to do that anyway and Barb had been learning that she got more hot water the earlier she got out of bed.

“Sorry mom! Though you can’t entirely blame me, Zecora needed a bath too.” It was Barbs response from downstairs and she really did sound apologetic.

“That’s okay; she’s a guest after all.” Twilight answered back in a defeated tone, she at least heard a little cold water wasn’t bad for you as long as it didn’t give you a cold or got you sick. “Smart, please remember to get at least ten or so bits for Barb’s lunch on your way out if I don’t see you two before I leave.”

“You got it boss lady.” Smart shouted gleefully, probably from a windowsill downstairs absorbing some early morning sun.

Why oh why did Twilight think up that kind of annoying personality for Smarty Pants? Especially when she was little and then applied it to a really complicated string of enchantments to make that personality she created to become slightly more real. Oh right, she was friendless up until she turned fourteen. She should probably be more cynical about life.

After getting out the bathroom, she found Zecora and Tress had already vacated the premises. Barb refused to leave without a hug and it really warmed Twilight’s heart that her daughter wanted to stick around for her. After a quick heartfelt hug and then handing the bits to her daughter while explicitly telling her to not use it on ice cream, Twilight finally left the house into the bright morning in Ponyville.

It was a bright and sunny town, once Celestia’s sun rose over the horizon. Ponies were going to and fro, male and female, young and old. The town was much busier then she had seen yesterday and to think that Zecora had that kind of presence to scare so many ponies, it was a bit mind boggling that ponies here didn’t believe in safety in numbers.

She passed by the café they ate at yesterday and greeted the waiter pleasantly and he nodded to her and gave her a slight wave before he continued to set up the outdoor portion of the café. Morning in Ponyville shimmered spectacularly as shops were being set up and she could see the shining community working together to get started up in the morning. They weren’t very particularly organized, but they were doing pretty good working things out on their own.

The largest population here was mostly earth ponies, but it was a mixture of pegasus and unicorn in almost equal parts as well. The only place you could probably see more earth ponies then this was the bustling streets of Manehatten.

Twilight took her time traveling through town to take in the sights as she made her way to the city hall, where the mayor’s office was. Entering the office, Twilight was witness to mayor finishing up a talk with a familiar if older grey and blonde pegasus who was leaning back in a chair and eating a muffin with what possibly appeared to be a smug expression. Soon the mare got up and walked to the door.

“Thank you for your time Miss Hooves and the strawberry muffin.” The mayor was exasperated at how smart the mare was despite appearances, it was so hard sometimes to remember that she was one of the smartest ponies in Ponyville. At least Ditzy Do was at least more like she appeared to be and was a completely weird possibly addled pegasus at that.

“Don’t mention it mayor. Hey Twilight, I’m going to introduce myself to you at the surprise party this week. Don’t miss meeting me for the first time there or would it be for the third time, but first time I actually introduce myself. Since it’s a younger me it would technically be my first time meeting you, hmm...” With that the confusing pegasus left the room with a thought provoking look on her face. She left behind an equally confused Twilight behind with the mayor.

Twilight wondered who that pegasus was. She knew she’s seen her at her fourteenth birthday when she delivered Shining Armor’s notes and that book of barrier magic, but they’ve barely even said anything to each other.

“I see you’ve met her before. She’s a bit of a quirky one but she’s this town’s favorite mail delivery mare, I think it’s all the free muffins really. Don’t worry about her too much.” The mayor really didn’t find it odd that the pegasus just said proclaimed something as happening in the future. It wasn’t like she wasn’t used to the weird stuff that sometimes happened around Ponyville including the time traveling muffin loving mare. It certainly added character to the mayor's town to have a mare that can deliver a muffin to anywhere at any time, even the cake flavored muffin to Celestia’s breakfast table without being caught by her guard. “Other than that your pegasus friend came by earlier, it looks like she’s already taken with her job and I just gave her a small task to deal with the problem of animals ruining Ponyville’s crops. She really made an impression on me when she came in with a cardinal with a bandaged wing. So what do you have to report on our stranger?”

Twilight went into explanation of Zecora and into how a lot of the towns’ ponies being afraid of a single zebra sounded quite silly. They had a nice lunch and left a five bit tip, using up thirty three bits of what the mayor gave her. She even explained they had a really nice sleep over because Zecora wanted a place to stay in Ponyville for a while and she offered to let the zebra be a guest in her new home.

“My you certainly went above the call of duty on this and did everything I requested.” The mayor placed ten bits on her desk and pushed them to Twilight. “I believe you deserve payment.”

“What, but I thought…” Twilight slowly stopped at seeing a smile on the mayors’ face.

“That was so you could take this Zecora out to lunch. The money I gave you was for that meal and I even said you could keep the change. I think you deserve payment for a job well done and I just decided to add five more bits to the payment as a bonus.” The mayor thought Twilight was being too modest, she’s immediately noticed a change about Ponyville the next day after Twilight met the zebra known as Zecora. The ponies of the town were less wary and scared as they moved about the streets now, despite Zecora still being in town. “Besides that café is a really good restaurant, especially their hay fries.”

“I… thank you mayor.” Twilight was a little surprised at how nice the mayor of the town was.

“Oh don’t thank me yet, I still have to know what you can’t do before I think of sending any more things your way. Oh and don’t forget my mane coloring appointment is in a few days.” The mayor knew she had an amused smile on her face, but she couldn’t help it. Twilight was young and endearing.

“I’m not going to forget the appointment mayor, but what do you need to exactly know that we can’t do? Even if we can’t do something, we’re still going to try and find some pony that can to help us do it. I don’t even mind if a job is exceedingly dangerous.” Because frankly, fighting food monsters at her parents or getting sucked into a comic book where Twilight faced down what became her best friend without having to resort to fighting were just the tips of the iceberg. If they had to deal with that cockatrice without Fluttershy, they would have found a way somehow. Likely by blocking the creatures petrifying gaze with a piece of cloth and then they would have released it safely away from Canterlot.

“Just tell me some of the things you aren’t good at. I understand that you’ll still try for a solution to any problem even if you yourself or your close friends can’t solve it.” The mayor was intrigued to hear what Twilight didn’t have going for her.

“Well, I’m not good at dancing or so I’ve been told, I really think it’s more of an opinion anyway. I’m not good at cooking and even my parents wouldn’t let me near the kitchen and sometimes they’ve had the same kind of results I’ve had.” Twilight seeing the mayor raised a hoof at her, she stopped.

“Let me guess, do you create food monsters? It seems a bit of a rare thing among unicorns to be sure, but we have a little unicorn in town that’s so horrible at cooking she created an entire race of spaghetti monsters. That they were capable of reproduction is no less a scary thought, none of the ponies in this town know where the rest went after we took down quite a number of them. They were not really all too threatening, just highly annoying.” The mayor remembered a little pony named Sweetie Belle’s attempts at making spaghetti and hay balls; it was a horrifically messy affair even if no pony was truly hurt. “Now continue on with a few more things you aren’t good at.”

“And here I thought that kind of thing only happened to my family. I’m not good at handling surprises or threats very well unless I’m expecting them somewhat. I also have a slight aversion to violence and prefer to solve all my problems if not diplomatically then as peacefully as possible without hurting any pony.” Twilight’s life might not have been entirely quiet, but she made sure she stayed out of the way of ponies that truly disliked her.

“Okay that’s about all I needed to hear. Now what kind of ad were you thinking of putting into the newspaper?” The mayor wondered if Twilight forgot about that.

“Huh? Oh right, you said you’d get us a slot in the newspaper for completing your request… I really don’t want to impose that stipulation upon you mayor. You really don’t have to worry about it.” The look Twilight saw on her face meant otherwise.

“I’m a mare of my word I’ll have you know, now tell me what kind of things you want other ponies to know about your business? How else will you pick up customers? It needs to be something with a bit of oomph to it. Maybe I can even set up a bulletin board that you or any pony can take requests here at city hall, you can do that instead of having them just come to you personally. Would it help?” The mayor really was trying to help Twilight out and she hoped the purple pony could see that. She was a good judge of character and Twilight was a good pony. Having the Ponyville community take or place jobs on a bulletin board sounds like a good idea, it was a wonder the mayor or any before her didn’t think of this earlier.

“Well…” Twilight trailed off looking out a nearby window at the sky and the streets of Ponyville.

20

A day later…

“Twilight, how exactly did you get us into this mess?” Asking this a slightly tired and disheveled Tress slowly inhaled and then let out a long drawn out sigh. “I mean, the job was simple enough from the outset and I even thought it was cute. Now it’s just gotten ridiculous.”

“I know and I am really sorry about all this Tress. Still though, we haven’t failed the job. It just got a little out of hoof. Are you telling me you want to disappoint that little filly that gave us this job?” Twilight sighed at the thought of whether or not they should have taken the job, that cat probably would have returned home on its own.

“You call that a little out of hoof!?” Tress yelled pointing a hoof at the problem and why they were currently stuck in a bad situation.

They were both sitting on a high up ledge on a mountainside with a white cat; below the ledge was a large five headed hydra whose heads that could almost reach them. It sat there with every one of its heads staring at them and their predicament. The left most head roared then resumed staring at the two ponies and cat just out of reach.

“How did we even climb up here so fast?” Tress ran a hoof through her mane, while looking worriedly at the hydra with her ears back and a shiver going down her spine. “Can’t you do something about that thing?”

“When a pony is scared enough and or adrenaline is running through their bodies they can even outrun a full grown dragon. Whether they can even lose said dragon is the important question and a matter of stamina. In our situation...” Twilight should mention that they’d need something to distract the dragon once or twice to even fully lose one with good senses. If there was one thing every single pony in existence was good at, it was running from danger. Getting cornered like this was not as easy a situation to handle. “Yeah that’s a no. I can’t use magic to deter a hydra directly as they are immune to magic. Indirectly and I might just cause us to fall into its mouths with a rock slide, much less get crushed by boulders if we don’t immediately get crushed in its jaws.”

“So, we can do nothing at all?” Tress queried as the hydra continued to claw its legs at the wall below them trying to get high enough to get a head at them.

“From what I’ve read, a hydra will get bored of a prey it can’t capture in approximately three hours or a prey that can get far enough away that it couldn’t feasibly bother with. All we need to do is to wait until it leaves.” The entire ledge shuddered; looking over the side Twilight watched the creature slam its tail into the side of the rock wall below them.

“Yeah well, hopefully it doesn’t knock us and the cat down in the next two hours.” Despite the calm way she stated it, Tress was not okay with the situation they were in. She was a little irate that one of the first jobs they receive that had nothing to do with the mayor went this horribly south.

“I could always teleport behind it and lead it away from you while you go to Ponyville for help.” Well it was a suggestion that could work, if Twilight could get the hang of teleporting specific distances beyond twenty feet in the next few seconds.

“There is no way you are leaving me alone with this grouchy thing. All we needed to do was find the cat. After that we’d possibly take it back to the owner; I didn’t even think we’d need Fluttershy for a domesticated pet issue either.” Yesterday had been much nicer in Tress’s opinion; she wasn’t dirty, tired and or very close to death by way of giant jaw cracking her entire skeletal structure like a peanut. “We chase this cat a small distance outside of Ponyville and then wham, giant hydra out of nowhere. At least we led the thing away from Ponyville.”

“Meow...” The persnickety cat added its two cents before licking the back of its paw in a dainty manner.

“You said it sister.” Tress answered back amiably that this situation was quite stressful or at least she thought she was agreeing to that. She wasn’t Fluttershy, she didn’t speak gerbil.

“So, we have about two hours and something or so minutes before it will finally gets bored with us. Got any ideas on how to pass the time?” The way she was being glared at by both the pony and the cat, Twilight would have sworn that Tress was the owner of Opalescence. That is if Twilight didn’t already know that she wasn’t.

Yesterday had been interesting; Tress had learned that Zecora had knowledge of ideal ingredients for her shampoo’s, body washes and other products she could make and Zecora had offered her aid freely. It was brought to her attention because Fluttershy mentioned needing Tress to mix up another batch of her ‘bed of flowers’ shampoo when Zecora was being introduced to the shy mare. The following discussions had led to the possibility of completing Twilight’s long unsolved special formula.

Twilight had gotten an ad in the paper today and it did bring in a few interested ponies that they said they’d get back to later after taking care of the first pony who requested their help. That ponies name was Sweetie Belle; she was an adorable little unicorn with a nice voice. Apparently she may or may not have been directly responsible for her older sisters’ cat running away at the mention of cooking food. Opalescence ran away because Sweetie left the door open as she was getting her cooking ingredients together or that was her story at least.

Tress and Twilight both decided to take the job since it sounded simple and they weren’t willing to do anything too big or outrageous yet.

From the perspective of both ponies, they probably figured the filly unicorn that created the spaghetti monsters and Sweetie Belle were one in the same. The older sister had one very intelligent cat that knew better than to stick around when that filly cooked anything. Twilight wondered how the little filly could even horribly burn orange juice beyond recognition by just pouring it. Even Twilight wasn’t so bad that pouring a drink caused it to spontaneously combustion into a glass full of fried ash.

“We’ll wait it out.” Twilight said meekly after a moment.

Approximately some time three hours later and finally back in Ponyville.

Tress and Twilight stumbled into town looking a little worse for wear but still pleasantly alive with the cat in tow. They were surprised to receive a crowd of ponies as a warm welcome that were thanking them for luring the hydra away from Ponyville. When they had brought up the fact that they hadn’t exactly been tasked with doing what they did, the stallion from the quills and sofa decided to speak up.

“Hello I’m Mr. Davenport the owner of Quills and Sofas. Aren’t you the Trouble Takers from the ad? Then what were you doing if not leading the hydra away as a job?” Well the answer the stallion received wasn’t quite what any pony was expecting.

“We were tasked with finding Opal here for a filly named Sweetie Belle. We kind of ran into the hydra and we led it away from Ponyville while trying to make sure this fur ball here stayed safe.” Right now Tress felt rather irritable, Twilight better treat her to some personal time after this. She had herded the cat towards Twilight; it was slippery speedy little devil even if Twilight could have feasibly incapacitated it with magic. Opal was sitting on Tress’s back and moved forward to lick her cheek before sitting down again. “I wish I could throttle this cat right now.”

“We managed to do the job Tress, let’s just leave it at that.” It wasn’t easy, but Sweetie Belle had better pay them for the trouble. Twilight didn’t think the filly would have the bits to pay extra for what they just went through.

“Actually we’re all willing to chip in to pay you fifty bits for luring the hydra away; it was heading straight for Ponyville and it has been a while since we’ve had a nasty five headed one like that come anywhere near here looking for a free meal. We know there are a few three headed ones near Froggy Bottom Bog.” Davenport was just glad the town wasn’t assaulted. Monster attacks didn’t happen often, but they did happen. Sometimes the timber wolves would attack Sweet Apple Acres and the occasional dragon lights their homes on fire, probably for some sick sense of amusement.

“After what we’ve been through, I’d welcome that. But all of you would have to vouch that we actually did that and you would have to pay us by acknowledging we did a job. You don’t actually have to pay us at all if you don’t want to.” The looks on all the ponies’ faces said this was not negotiable; Tress sighed in relief as at least they were getting paid for the hydra and she didn’t just spend the last three hours sitting on hot stones being stared at by a big nasty five headed monstrosity with sharp teeth for ten bits. “Other than that, where can we find Sweetie Belle so we can give her older sister her cat back?”

“Oh that’s easy; her older sister lives and works over at the Carousel Boutique. Now how about we hire these two girls to accept fifty bits for saving a lot of lives eh?” A lot of the ponies agreed to it. They may not have been the bravest or brightest ponies, but they sure were friendly once they stopped being wary of strangers. Twenty five ponies who ran marketplace shops gave them two bits each and the transaction was finalized, then Davenport led them towards the boutique while telling them he had some good deals on sofas and love seats if they needed them.

The idea of a love seat caused Twilights cheeks to burn; she didn’t have any special pony in her life. At least they had a good furniture store to think of now. They were quickly dropped off at the dress shop and it looked to be a bit, resplendent. Yeah, that was the word for it.

Twilight looked to Tress who still had the cat resting comfortably on her back and purring.

“You know we can just walk away and keep her if you want.” Twilight said in an amused tone.

“Not on your life! Or even mine for that matter!” Glaring harshly, an angry Tress was in Twilight’s face with a slight green glow in her blue eyes.

“Okay, calm down Tress. I’ll comb and brush your mane and tail later. Would that cheer you up?” Those were the magic words as Twilight saw the magical effect of Tress suddenly brightening up.

“I’d need to take a bath first though, being covered in several types of mud and getting all scraped up by the rapid rock climbing really does not do well for my appearance. My mane is a bit tangled, you’ll take care of that anyway I’m sure, but yes I would like that very much." Tress didn’t know why she was suddenly so eager now; she was just grouchy about the horrible turnout of the last commission. Then Twilight had to flip a switch in her that made it all worthwhile. She was feeling quite thirsty thinking about it now, maybe she could get some tea or maybe find some fruit juice as her throat was a parched.

Twilight noticed the sign on the door that says it was open. Well she was going to knock, but if it was business hours she may as well walk in. She walked in on a strange sight; the currently busy mare didn’t turn around at the sound of a bell jingling from the door opening.

“Be with you in a minute, welcome to Carousel Boutique where everything is chic, unique and magnifique. My name is Rarity and I’ll assist you in a moment.” The white coated mare with the royal purple mane and tail looked nice, her tail was a single loose curl and her mane was softly curled and coiffed uniquely. Her cutie mark was three beautiful gems; she probably had something to do with finding or using gems and jewels in some manner.

“Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?” Twilight said aside to Tress, from what she saw so far Rarity was trying too hard on her beauty. Fake eyelashes, at least the application of makeup was correct but didn’t look like she really needed it in the first place, her mane was unique that was to be sure but Twilight wasn’t all too attracted to it strangely enough. She liked the color, but it seemed to be too meticulously styled.

“Only if I’m seeing it too, let’s get paid and drop off the cat so we can just go home. I really don’t want to know.” Really, Tress did not want to know why Rarity was doing something so strange to her little sister who happened to be their client. Sweetie Bell had proved she could compensate for their business earlier and it was time to get paid and just leave.

“Now what can I help... you…?” Rarity stood there staring blankly at the two dirt riddled, scraped up, sweaty mares and her still rather clean cat.

Twilight simply levitated the cat from Tress’s back and gently let her to the floor. Opalescence ran off to go find her food dish. Twilight seriously didn’t want to ask the question that was percolating in her mind, it was better to stick to business and leave without thinking about it too hard. “That’ll be ten bits.”

Author's Notes:

I think it's a good punchline. The upcoming Rarity episode will have Rarity fawning over someone and at least it's not Blueblood.

21

“What?” Rarity of sound mind, well it technically wasn’t sound at all at the moment. It was screaming at her to ask what happened to these two mares and to clean them up. It was also asking why the purple pony asked for ten bits.

“Sweetie Belle hired us to find your cat and to bring her back here. We just finished doing that and let me tell you, running into a five headed hydra was not something I expected to happen. Overall it still went well, it is pretty much on par with what I normally expect from my life.” Well that was an easy explanation and Twilight hoped she could get her money and leave; she didn’t like the strange look in Rarity’s eyes.

“Yeah and the ponies at the market place agreed we did them a favor by making sure their business’s didn’t get closed down for a day due in part to a monster attack. Not to mention probably saved their families and friends from being eaten.” Tress also got an odd look from Rarity and she was scrutinized more than Twilight was.

“You look familiar. Oh my, I’m sorry I got so distracted, come over here and let me get you two cleaned up and I can do your hair for you, now have you ever tried cutting it short like…” Rarity was cut off from her plans to style the two ponies, possibly against their will, more specifically in the middle of an idea for the dirtied blue haired mare.

“Just give us the ten bits so we can leave, we’ll clean up when we get home. Maybe we can talk some other time, Rarity was it?” Seeing that the mare wasn’t going to let them go without an issue judging by the determine look on her face, Twilight decided to step up her voice and deflate the other unicorn. She wasn’t going to have some pony mess with their manes if they were going to be this pushy about it. “So please excuse me for saying no to your generosity, so please take it from us that we don’t need your help with this issue.”

“Oh and I suppose you can do a good job of it? I certainly fancy myself a good…” Rarity started only to be cut off by Tress.

“Of course she can, she’s my personal stylist and she’s really good at it.” Tress pointed out Twilight with her hoof, she really didn’t like where Rarity was trying to take this. She liked her hair the length it was and she was pretty sure Fluttershy would immediately vacate the premises at a fast pace hearing the words 'cut' and 'short' in the same sentence. If this Rarity pushed the issue then she was going down on the list of ponies Twilight didn’t like and Sunset Shimmer was the only pony on said list, she was most likely trying to make a suggestion and as such Tress didn’t react to what she said too badly. The purple pony in question just blushed and rubbed the back of her head causing a bit of grime to drop to the floor with a solid plop noise. “Besides she’s already promised to take care of this when we get home and I really don’t want her to go back on that.”

“Thank you for bringing back Opal safe and sound, I’m sorry about all the trouble she caused you. I’m also sorry about my sister, she kind of gets this way upon seeing ponies being all messy. She’s kind of a clean freak.” Sweetie Belle came up to them after shrugging off whatever Rarity was doing with her. She had a purple and pink mane and tail that was a bit curly at the tips and no cutie mark to speak of. She deposited the ten bits before Twilight who took them. “I hope you’ll help me again sometime Miss Sparkle.”

“Thank you very much Sweetie Belle. Don’t worry about it; we’re always happy to help you if you need us. Just make sure you have enough to pay for our services if the problem is really big.” Twilight turned tail to quickly exit before Rarity could try to impose on them anymore. ”Come on Tress, let’s go clean ourselves off.”

“But…” She tried before drooping as the two exited her dress store; Rarity started to get really sad. “How could they not want my help? I’m the best fashion designer in Ponyville and I’m relatively good at hairdressing. I just wanted to lend my assistance, is that so wrong?”

“I talked with them, they recently came from Canterlot and moved into Ponyville a day or so ago, so of course they don’t know who you are. I saw their ad in the newspaper and we both know Opal has been missing for a while, so I thought they could help find her and they did.” Sweetie Belle thought she was the more sensible of the two sisters; well at least she wasn’t a drama queen like her big sister. She pulled out that section of the newspaper she had saved from earlier that morning. “It’s wrong only if you force them to do what you want and you do tend to do that to ponies you know.”

“When did you get so smart Sweetie Belle?” Rarity nuzzled her little sister, addressing her before she would start reading the article over. “Canterlot you say, I really don’t know much of what it’s like living there and it must be so glamorous, now I have the perfect… oh right… I scared them off.”

“I’m the top of my class Rarity, of course I’m smart. We’re not very good at making very many friends though are we? You didn’t exactly scare them; you just unsettled them by trying to order them around.” Sweetie noticed Rarity wince at the thing she said about friends, she sighed. “I’m sure they’ll talk to you about what it’s like in Canterlot if you asked them. Twilight did offer to talk later. You haven’t even read their newspaper article either and you know nothing about them or what they are like. You even started talking about cutting their manes before they even answered you about whether or not they wanted you to help them clean up.”

Rarity herself only currently had the acquaintances of Applejack and Pinkie. She knew of Trixie, but she really hasn’t bothered to actually mingle with her as she was more Pinkies’ friend who had strange fashion sense that rubbed at Rarity the wrong way.

At least Ponyville had a suitable educational system and one that didn’t focus entirely in subjects’ only earth ponies would be good at either. The teacher really knew how to handle a class of pegasus, unicorn and earth ponies equally and Sweetie Belle was an excellent student even if she didn’t have access to her magic yet.

Rarity finally decided to see what Sweetie Belle was talking about, as she perused the small article her eyes bugged out and she made sure to finish reading the article first before she did anything else. Rarity quickly picked up a magazine from a nearby shelf and opened to a section where Fleur De Lis is, there she was Tress Ravel and she was so unclean when she saw her. How could a mare so beautiful be okay with appearing that gruesome?

“My goodness, I had Tress Ravel in my shop and with her personal stylist no less? I think I may have just made a huge faux pas. That she would even consider being in the same room with me ever again is just…” Rarity quickly levitated her couch in and faked passing out on it; Sweetie Belle just stood by and rolled her eyes at the sight.

“You do realize their location is posted in the article and the thing says they’ll welcome just about anyone right?” Watching her sister fling away the couch and dive for the article, leaving Sweetie wondering what she had just done.

“I swear that mare is weird.” Tress said on the road back to the house, she continued to knock some flakes of dirt out of her mane. “Please never leave me alone with her; I don’t want her to working on my mane if her first thoughts were to cut it short.”

“She was probably just trying to be helpful, though she could show a little more control about suggesting things and assuming we’d actually want to go along with her. She makes dresses and it appears she likes working with her own mane a bit too much. Frankly I’m not really attracted to it and it really weird’s me out.” Even Tress paused at Twilight’s confession that Rarity’s mane wasn’t attractive to her. Twilight had been attracted to all kinds of manes she even made mention to the pink pony named Pinkie’s mane as being really healthy looking despite its messy appearance.

“Well I didn’t see much wrong with her mane. Sure she may seem a few cats shy of being crazy, but it did look like she was good at making dresses and clothing at least. Though she seems too entirely set in her ways of just making dresses.” After a pause, Tress decided to breach why Twilight didn’t feel an attraction for Rarity’s mane. “Still this is the first time you’ve shown a lack of interest in any mares' mane.”

“I know, I think maybe it’s too perfect a look on her or maybe it’s just she styled it so meticulously that it seems like it’s a wig. She has roots so that is actually her hair. Her tail on the other hoof I find rather fascinating.” At least Twilight didn’t seem to be missing her attraction to the tail hair or Rarity’s nice clean coat, but her mane just didn’t attract her.

“Oh that’s a load off my mind, for a second there I thought you may have lost your sanity. So you sure it’s just her mane then?” There had to be something about that mare’s mane if Tress’s hair loving friend saw it as uninteresting despite its unique appearance. “Maybe it’s only the hairstyle you don’t like?”

“Eh, could be. I’m not about to ask her to change to fit my needs though. Every pony has their own style and I know mine is the same one I’ve had all my life.” Twilight shrugged as they came to the front door of the house.

“It’s always you and your cute fringe, isn’t it Radiance?” As Tress entered she noticed Twilight blush, she smiled demurely at that. Her friend was almost as adorable as Fluttershy at times, she wondered if the pegasus gave lessons.

“You’re still calling me that?” As she said this, Twilight closed the door to the house. Why wouldn’t Tress ‘The Mane-iac’ Ravel ever drop that nickname fully, she hasn’t been that super hero since they exited the comic together. Was it because of her sparkled butt? Did it have to do with her name and the word radiant meaning the same thing?

Thirty minutes and a quick bath later, Tress was having her mane combed out by her best friend and she was content with the world by being fully clean once again. She’d never get over the feeling of having her mane tenderly cared for like this, especially if it was Twilight doing it. That comb could really glide through her mane and if there were any tangles Twilight would take care of it without a problem. It was almost enough to sooth her to sleep. Some of the best things in life were the simplest to Tress.

After Tress was finished she sat down in the middle of an empty room, they were really going to need to go over to Quills and Sofas to buy a couch or two sooner or later. She heard a knocking on the door, going over to it Tress opened it to see Rarity and she immediately glared.

Rarity however was staring at a clean and refreshed Tress Ravel in total awe; she gulped at the glare she was receiving. She had come over rather fast and maybe she should have come back later, but she did have a problem and she would be willing to pay for a pony to handle it for her.

“Yes, did you want something?” Tress asked after a moment of silence, her tone stayed flat and even.

“I’m here to apologize for my hasty treatment of you and your friend.” She started out with a hint of fear. Rarity really felt small right now.

“If you can answer this question honestly I might accept that, why the sudden apology. I’m no pony important and neither is my friend.” The sudden shocked look across her face was priceless to Tress; it only came when she claimed she wasn’t important. Twilight wasn’t the only one who could play detective. Obviously Rarity has read a magazine she was in and had probably thought she insulted a celebrity.

“But you’re Tress Ravel, your work alongside Fleur was incredible as it was said that she would hardly work with any pony!” Even Rarity knew Fleur was the top supermodel in Canterlot and here was a pony that was praised as being just as beautiful as the famous pony she worked alongside for the most of two years. No pony knew why she quit though. Tress actually proved Fleur was possible to work with and that she had to be special if she was some pony that such a popular model would work with.

“Tress… you were working with Fleur De Lis…” The sound of Twilight's voice halted both Tress and Rarity’s budding conversation.

Author's Notes:

Well I've finished editing the chapter, could use a few more tweaks though.

22

Tress felt like a deer being shined on by flashlights, she knew she forgot something in bringing up her importance and Twilight not knowing she once worked with Fleur was one of them. It was her secret to keep so she was sure Twilight wouldn’t be too harsh with her.

“Tress I’m… well actually that explains a lot. I did kind of calculate your earnings and savings to be in the range of several types of jobs that could earn you money like that. I forgive you Tress.” After saying this Twilight gave Tress a great a big hug, though the other pony looked confused. “I take it that by the fact that Rarity said ‘were’ means you quit that to come live here with me. You had a well paying exclusive job and you just gave it up. You also didn’t tell me about it because I might have asked to meet Fleur or something like that and then things might have spiraled out of control. With me being her fan and all. Still though, how did you meet Fleur and get a job with her? You must really value our friendship and that job must have meant very little to you.”

“Forgive me for… you… I… wow when you put it all like that, it seems I truly don’t care what kind of job I have as long as I’m at my best friends’ side. I was even willing to sit on a hot stone ledge getting stared down by five dangerous maws full of teeth for minimal pay no less. It’s good honest hard work though and you wouldn’t choose a morally bad job for us to do.” She still felt pretty bad about it, but Tress was glad that at least Twilight understood immediately and had already somewhat guessed what kind of job she had when they were in Canterlot. “It would have been boring if you weren’t around and I’m pretty sure your parents wouldn’t have disowned me for staying with them. We really should write them and describe that hydra in great detail. I’m sure they're just happy that I’m making sure their daughter eats something once in a while that didn’t come to life.”

“Still though, how did you land a job with Fleur? She’d probably only work with a pony that… you befriended her didn’t you?” Well that was the easiest explanation to Twilight, Fleur is a pony who didn’t like others trying to change who she was and Tress wouldn’t have tried that at all. In fact Fleur would have welcomed a pony who treated her like she wanted to be treated, even if she was a pony with a gloriously nice mane. “Better questions, when and where did you meet?”

“What is all this I hear in chatter, is there something the matter? The end result of the potion formula I have almost managed to make, though some testing it still may take.” Zecora walked in and stopped to stare at Rarity who was looking perplexed by the zebra that walked into the room. “Is that a new guest in your house I see? For I have done you a favor after the rough times and have made some tea. It looks like the need to make extra is in store, for I see another pony coming through the door.”

“I would like that very much.” A battered and bruised Fluttershy closed the door behind her after entering with a slow limp.

“Fluttershy are you okay? Who did this to you?!” It wasn’t only Tress that asked something like this, but she was the loudest to vocalize her distress. Fluttershy smiled sweetly at Tress.

Fluttershy’s answer was to simply unfold her right wing and hold out what looked like a mummified white rabbit in it. Her wing stayed lightly wrapped around its body.

“It’s okay Tress; it doesn’t really hurt… ow… that much. I just had some problems with stopping the animals from ruining Ponyville’s crops. This little angel had a tree fall on him and I might have gotten a little roughed up trying to help him and while stopping the other animals from causing any more problems.” The shy mare noticed her purple pony friend immediately slap a hat on her head that had a red cross on it and Fluttershy sighed. Twilight wasn’t going to let this go until she got a look for herself.

“Come on Fluttershy let’s get you cleaned up. How’s the rabbit holding up and why did you come here?” Fluttershy was led out of the room by Twilight, who had quickly forgotten about Fleur in lieu of a more pressing concern.

“My word, that poor dear looks to be having a much worse day then you were.” Rarity saw the protective look on Tress’s face and decided to stay quiet about any suggestions that came to mind, they were either just dress ideas or possibly a trip to the spa. She was still apparently in hot water with Tress.

“That’s a friend of ours who came to Ponyville with us; we knew her dream job was rather dangerous. At least we didn’t call her in for finding your cat. She may have gotten it worse than us today, but she certainly wasn’t in nearly as much danger as we were.” She knew she couldn’t protect Fluttershy from everything, even then Tress still felt bad that her friend was injured like that. No pony could be everywhere at once.

Sitting down to tea was a nice calming affair; Zecora went and brewed extra for everyone while Twilight was busy looking over Fluttershy. Fluttershy only had a sprained hoof, a few light cuts and plenty of swollen bruises across her entire body. The rabbit was doing much worse than Fluttershy was, it was a surprise that it was still alive and that Fluttershy managed to save it.

“Is there another reason other than apologizing to someone you think is a celebrity that you’re even still here? Because I’m not a famous celebrity Rarity, I just worked with the nicest one I’ve ever met. She’s just a pony like the rest of us, so drop the pedestal bit already.” Taking a sip of tea, Tress gave Rarity a sharp look. “Because I truly doubt you’re still here for business and even need the help of the Trouble Takers.”

“I just wanted to come ask you a few things about Canterlot. What the city is like and how glamorous it is. Maybe also learn something about the ponies I insulted with my poor tact along the way.” Well Rarity hoped she could learn something from this. She may have caused even more trouble by coming to the Trouble Takers home. How could a pony as glamorous as Tress currently appeared to be just walk away from all that and such a city as Canterlot? That wasn’t the only thing, how could she be okay with getting covered in dirt and grime for less money then she made while in Canterlot?

What Rarity failed to understand was that Tress cared about having friends more than having a job or a well paying business. If she had just taken a step back and saw what Tress had left behind, then she would probably make the same decisions.

“Well… Canterlot is not as glamorous as it appears to be. Not saying the city isn’t beautiful. It’s just that some of the ponies that live there and the situations I got into growing up can really create a colorful opinion of it all. I didn’t have the best childhood.” One of those situations led to her having a best friend, so Twilight wasn’t that put off by growing up in a mostly friendless place.

“Yeah, if you can get over the noble unicorns thinking less of others they think beneath them, when food comes to life and starts attacking you, every pony trying to change who you are to fit their world views, weird magical problems happening around every corner, having cockatrices randomly appear in your toilets and your house suddenly becoming haunted by ghosts. Well then Canterlot certainly is a shining example of a life that every single pony in the world can lead.” Tress’s view on things was definitely colored, she had seen some weird things there and she was one of the weirdest things to happen to Twilight. “I still think the demonic fruitcake last Hearths Warming was something I’d rather not relive.”

Rarity looked aghast at both of them; she thought Canterlot would have more stories of wonder, not what sounded like a three ring circus. Also ghosts existed, she’d find it hard to believe if Twilight and Fluttershy weren’t vouching for Tress’s story. They even had a group picture with a smiling benign poltergeist no less.

“I grew up in a really weird neighborhood. I think there was even an alicorn as a babysitter in the area, but yes Canterlot is just like any other place. It all really depends on where and how you look at things. You wouldn’t believe it, but Fluttershy lived there and was homeless for three years before my parents took her in during the most of the last two years. She’s seen more things on the streets then even I possibly have. Speaking of, how are you feeling Fluttershy?” The ponies turned to the shy mare fussing over the injured rabbit, Twilight felt sad about the injuries her and the rabbit incurred.

Rarity thought Fluttershy could become a supermodel as well, she looked better when she hasn’t been roughed up by a lot of apparently small animals. She however was doing what she loved and Rarity could start understanding why these ponies and zebra were happy. Fluttershy looked so caring, it kind of melted Rarity’s heart how adorable the darling pegasus was.

“I’m okay I think, something a nice little nap would help. I just hope I can nurse him back to health.” Every pony and the one zebra blushed as Fluttershy’s adorability shot through the roof as she nuzzled the rabbit causing its nose to wiggle as it stirred in its slumber.

“Our friend Fluttershy is quite the sweet sight; it feels like my heart will explode or that it very well might.” The shy mare had quite the charm about her and Zecora wasn’t the only one that had that thought.

“Well I guess not everything that shines is beautiful and can even be gaudy. I do someday dream of being the best fashion designer in the world. If not that, then I just want to be a really good one.” After a moment of silence, Rarity blushed at the stares she was receiving. She had just told them her dreams without a second thought.

“I’ve somewhat been in your place before, all business and with no social life or fun makes for a dull and lonely pony Rarity. It seems you have a problem earning friends Rarity and if you don’t mind Twilight, I’ll take on this trouble for free.” Tress nodded to Twilight, Twilight nodded back with a smile in understanding. “Hello my name is Tress Ravel and I would like to get to know you. Is making clothing your special talent? I’m really good at making body wash, shampoo and some other beauty products. Personally I’m not really interested in dresses, but I might be willing to give at least one dress a try.”

“Well no, my special talent came about in a weird way. My horn kind of went crazy and dragged me across hills, grassy plains and over plenty of places until I stopped at a big… ugly… rock...” Rarity looked down at her tea, thinking on how Tress finally introduced herself formally. Why did her tone change so suddenly? Why was Tress not being as hostile to her anymore?

The rock her horn had dragged her to had looked ugly on the outside, but on the inside however… it was filled with beauty. A slight spark happened inside Rarity’s mind. Maybe, maybe coming here to apologize was just the first step to something better.

“That rock wasn’t truly ugly now that I think of it; it was just sitting there on a cliffs edge. It was actually quite beautiful on the inside when exploding rainbow wave caused it to crack open; it had so many gems and jewels. My special talent is finding the beauty in things, that and I have a powerful gem finding spell that helps me locate gems in the ground. It’s what dragged me all the way out there to that rock in the first place.” Slowly a look of understanding passed Rarity’s face. “Hello my name is Rarity, I’m glad to make your acquaintance. I happen to like dresses and while I’m sad that you don’t have as much an interest in them, I do have an interest in what kind of shampoo’s you make. Your mane is quite beautiful if I must say so.”

“Good, now try not to get too ahead of yourself and you’ll find yourself being drawn into our growing group of friends.” Tress plastered a mirth filled smile on her face. “Maybe we can even get you dirty once in a while.”

“Yes, we’ll certainly have to see about that.” Rarity agreed immediately, looking to all the ponies and zebra at the table. A smile spread onto her face; however a frown came to her face when she noticed Fluttershy and Twilight looking at her strangely.

“Did you earn your cutie mark because of the exploding rainbow wave?” Fluttershy felt a bit mystified at the revelation, Twilight was thinking the same thing she probably was. Rainbow Dash’s name was brought up again and a conversation started, Rarity soon found a best friend in Fluttershy.

Author's Notes:

I think I'm finally getting tired of day to day posts. One chapter post every random twenty four hours is actually pretty difficult.

Frienship acquired: You got a Rarity.

Edit: Fixed a few minor things.

23

The next day…

Tress looked up to the sky from the window; it was almost way too early in the morning to be awake at this hour. A job was a job though, no matter the time you needed to wake up for it. Twilight has yet to be hired out to deal with mane care. She was already talking deals with shampoo and some of her products with Rarity and things were looking up. Zecora was even close to finishing Twilight’s pet project, a project that even she had a hoof in and couldn’t finish. What Tress did was tighten up the formulas composition and potency if it did indeed work as intended.

“Twilight rise and shine, it’s time to go and assist in the request we got from the Apple family.” Looking at the zonked out unicorn, Tress decided a bit of strategy would wake her friend up. She closed her eyes and said her next statement in a sing song voice. “They might give us honeyed cider at half price if we make a good effort in helping them.”

Grapes may be Twilight’s favorite fruit, but it wasn’t her favorite drink. Her favorite drink was another thing entirely. Which is why Smart, Zecora, Barb and even Tress suddenly found themselves in the living room dazed and confused with a peppy looking Twilight bouncing from hoof to hoof.

“Well come on then Tress what are you waiting around for slowpoke, we can take baths in the evening we’re going to be doing dirty work all day anyway. Here Barb you can use this to get yourself something nice for lunch today. Zecora sorry for pulling you out of bed but we’re going to the Sweet Apple Acres farm if you need us for anything. Smart make sure Barb doesn’t use any destructive spells and try to teach her to send me letters with her magic. Good? Okay let’s go!” A giddy Twilight was out the door levitating a confused Tress along with her.

“Say Twilight, can I make some quick requests before we get there?” The purple unicorn paused and they were already three fourths of the way there, Tress slowly rolled her eyes. “My first one is that you please put me down and second that you help me tie my mane into a ponytail so that I can keep my hair out my face while I work.”

After a moment Twilight blinked and then her face took on a sheepish grin, she placed her friend down. Tress had a slightly bored look on her face as she was set down standing on her four hooves. Twilight magically lifted Tress’s mane gave it a small tug to pull it taut and wrapped a band around it so that it was held in place and out of her face.

“Thank you.” Tress continued on towards Sweet Apple Acres with Twilight in tow. “So who was it that approached you about needing help this time?”

“A stallion named Big Mac, apparently they are getting something called a zap apple harvest in and they needed some extra help. Our job is just simply to do a hard day’s work, nothing bad could possibly happen to either of us.” After a moment Twilight thought she should let the other horseshoe drop. “I also can’t use my magic to pick these apples so we’re going to need to do it the earth pony way, which isn’t a problem for you since you’re already physically fit. Just don’t say anything about rabbits; you know the tree that fell on that rabbit that Fluttershy had yesterday might have been from this farm.”

“So are you completely sure that nothing can go horribly wrong today.” It wasn’t like Tress was trying to call her friend into question, but she was a walking magical incident waiting to happen.

“Well nothing is ever truly set in stone Tress, so when and where did you meet Fleur again?” Noticing her friends’ wince, Twilight had a devious smirk. Had Tress truly thought she had forgotten that? She doesn’t forget things easily, even when they were worried about Fluttershy and the rabbit that had gotten into an accident.

“You’re just going to keep coming back to that all day aren’t you? We’ve even barely gotten started and already my dear sweet friend is asking me to meet with my other dear friend because she has a crush on their mane.” Tress raised the back of her right hoof to her head and leaned her neck back slightly.

“Is it really so hard for you to give me an answer without all the dramatics Tress?” Twilight said flatly as she tapped a hoof in the dirt when they stopped at a gate.

On the other side of the gate a big red stallion with an orange mane and tail named Big Mac moseyed up to them and gave a soft smile. Well the Trouble Takers were here and they were quite early, earlier then he would have expected of city ponies anyway. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to hire them after all.

“Depends, is this the guy that needed the extra hooves?” Tress pointed a hoof at Big Mac.

“Yep that’s him. Hello again sir, you said you needed us to help you with something?” This seemed like an easy if long and arduous job with little danger to their very lives and Twilight didn’t mind that one bit. Now it was just the idea of working themselves to exhaustion that was a little hard to swallow. Twilight wouldn’t bother worrying about it, so she couldn’t magic the apples; no pony said she couldn’t magic the things around the apples.

“Yup, we just needed a few extra hooves.” He wasn’t particularly talkative, he thought the purple mare was cute and the pink one with the blue mane was quite beautiful. He was a gentle stallion and would never do anything untoward, even then he was pretty smart for a farm worker despite his general appearance and personality would belie.

“Right we’re ready to help in any way we can. This looks like a really good plantation; I’m guessing your biggest production here is apples?” For her trouble Twilight only received a nod from the stallion, she looked around the orchard and couldn’t believe how vast it was.

Tress trotted alongside Twilight looking at the odd rainbow colored apples in the trees that looked like they were teeming with energy, she had never seen apples like those before. She has heard of zap apple jam, but never really a zap apple harvest until Twilight told her. Seeing the size of the fields and the endless amount of trees the task before them was appearing quite daunting. Well nothing in life was ever said to be easy.

“Land sakes Big Mac, who are these two?” A blonde mare with her mane and tail tied back wearing a rather fetching Stetson came up to them right quick, her coat was orange and she had three apples for a cutie mark.

“We’re here about helping you with the zap apple harvest, we’re some extra hooves and I’d like to believe we work well with others. I’m Twilight Sparkle and this is my best friend Tress Ravel.” Twilight introduced herself and then her slightly taller friend while shaking hooves with the mare. Her mane smelled of cinnamon and Twilight really liked that.

“Well I’m Applejack. You’re them Trouble Takers fellers from the newspaper huh? Well if you can put in a good days hard work around here without complaint, I might actually have reason to hire you again. From what I’m seeing, it looks like you’re just like Rarity when it comes to being prissy Tress, no offense meant as I don’t rightly know you too well. As for you Twilight, you do know that I’ll ask you to not use magic on our apples and that it isn’t a good idea to do so especially on zap apples right?” Applejack saw determination in both their eyes within moments.

“Oh no, I’ll like, get covered in mud and junk, then chip a hoof. Oh why am I even here in the first place working for a brutal stallion of a mare.” The surprisingly sarcastic reprisal finally ended with a smile, Tress was ready to finish her statement off. “Do your worst, I can handle a hard day of work. Pain and suffering is nothing new to me. Especially after that incident I had with a fruitcake.”

“You’re never going to let that demonic fruitcake thing go are you Tress? Anyway I assure you I’ve read up on zap apples and I know better than to use magic directly on them; however this does not mean I can’t indirectly affect things around them. If you need me to move heavy basket loads or just doing simple chores I can live with that. I’m not just going to stand around and watch my friend toil away all day when we both came here to do work.” Apparently what Twilight said seemed to earn some respect from this Applejack character. Her blonde mane was still quite nice despite being a bit rustic in style and slightly dusty.

“Now that’s what I like to hear! Come on; let me tell you what you’ll be doing here.” Leading the two ponies over to a wagon and some baskets, Applejack started talking about how they needed to move the zap apples back to the house and quickly.

The process with which the zap apples form is a bit of a magical mystery, but the zap apples last only for a short while and needed to be picked quickly. Tress and Twilight had to help set up baskets below as many of the zap apple trees as they could. A part of their job would require Tress to get a crash course in bucking, which is if she could even buck hard enough to get the apples to fall correctly. There was a snag when it came to Applejack mentioning Twilight and cooking though.

“Twilight can you assist Granny Smith in making the jam?” Noticing the unicorn giving her a fearful look, Applejack was rightfully confused by her apprehension.

“That’s not a good idea Applejack, Twilight is so horrible at cooking she could destroy Sweet Apple Acres even being near someone who is a good cook by trying to assist them. So that’s probably not a good idea, we’ll have her move the wagon and the baskets around. She’d be able to do that for long periods of time using magic. With her constantly going back and forth we can focus more on getting the apples.” Tress’s mind started clicking several ideas into place. “We’ll start with the zap apple trees furthest from the home and work our way towards it. That way our return trips get shorter as we go along, we won’t have to go as far out to get the closer zap apples. When we’re tired that will help a lot for finishing things up.”

“Sounds like a right good simple plan there sugar cube, never would of thought of that myself. I guess Apple Bloom can help Granny Smith here after she’s done with her chores. Come on every pony let’s get to bucking them tree’s.” Applejack reared up and let out a yell as she went to the wagon to load it up with baskets.

Twilight quickly aided in loading up the wagon while Applejack gave them directions about moving around the farm as they prepped for the long day ahead. Applejack even showed Tress how to buck a regular apple tree and then asked Tress to try it herself. The result matched Applejacks causing her to be a bit flabbergasted by the sight.

“A pegasus would supposedly be a master of intent, a unicorn supposedly a master of focus, but if there is one thing we earth ponies have in our magical abilities, its raw natural pony power.” That and Tress worked her internal magic every once in a while to control her mane or tail. It really helped her balance her kick and the force she could put into it. She could easily match Applejacks impressive feat only because she was paying attention to how much force the farm pony was putting out. She guessed she would have to adjust for every tree she came across, but it couldn’t have been that hard right?

“I think I may have spoken too soon Tress. That was pretty impressive for a first timer prissy city girl, but can you do that again and many more times in a row? You both have to go the entire day you know and honestly, I don’t really think you two will be as much help as you think you can be.” Applejack knew she just sounded so smug, it seemed like Tress had a competitive edge to her and she liked that in a mare. “We’ll see how proud you are after you have bucked at least fifteen trees with as much force.”

“Oh this is going to be fun.” Sardonically it may be said, but Tress thought it no less true.

“Yup.” Big Mac said as he walked by.

“Come on Tress, these are good friendly ponies. Besides, I still need to ask Applejack if they sell that kind of cider.” Her tongue slid its way out of her mouth with a bit of drool, it was as if Twilight couldn’t help but imagine that tasty cider.

“It’s good to see you have your priorities straight Radiance.” Sighing the soft pink coated mare started out towards the field of apple trees.

Author's Notes:

Well I'm thinking of taking a siesta, also my story has become ultimately uninteresting or that's how I see it. Thus I reflect that by writing a chapter on apple farming.

I really need some affirmation here, because I've finally finished testing the limits of how far I can keep a once a day post of two thousand five hundred words minimal going.

Twenty three days of constant writing and lot's of editing, lot's of hours going over a single chapter at a time. I really think I botched chapter 22 no less, I'm not very good with Rarity's personality.

Ah, well. It's my story and life goes on.

As for earth ponies having raw pony power. If you can remember the episode a gaggle of stallions are dragging an entire train, mind you how much weight are they towing behind them? How long have they been towing it for and what distance without resting? Now that's earth pony power.

Edit: More chapter tweaking completed.

24

Tress wiped her brow with a hoof, it was nearly lunchtime and she was already downright exhausted. She still kept up with Applejack and Big Mac, it was clearly obvious they had more stamina then even she did as they weren’t tiring nearly as badly. She might not have been out of shape, but she wasn’t nearly as fit as those two were.

Speaking of tired, Twilight’s horn was glowing red hot as she magically pushed the wagon back towards the homestead. Twilight had a lot of magic, but her body and horn could only take so much channeling before giving out. She was moving a lot of baskets filled to the brim and beyond with zap apples, getting as many of the apples back to the home as quickly as she possibly could.

“Okay Tress, you can stop. It’s about time for us to be getting to lunch. You’re looking mighty tired their partner. I’m actually surprised you’ve lasted this long.” Applejack sauntered on past Tress following in Twilight’s wake; she turned to her older brother and took notice of what part of Apple Acres they were in. “Big Mac, you might want to get the next load of zap apples, we’re stopping for lunch. Poor Twilight doesn’t look like she can take much more of this! Heavens to Betsy, we’re way ahead of schedule if we’re at this point in the orchard. We might not miss any zap apples at all this time.”

Upon reaching the home and offloading the apples, Twilight stopped using her magic as her head was aching fiercely. Her horn was sizzling; it felt like it was almost catching on fire. She had never worked her magic like this before. A few seconds of resting on the ground a green spark of magic zipped up to her and exploded into a roll of parchment. Twilight smiled, that was her daughter that just performed a magic messaging spell. She stayed lying on the ground where she was and read it by hoof.

Tress was dripping with sweat as she walked over to a place near the house and planted her plot on a nearby bench. She looked to the well, the nearby corn crop, a tired Twilight reading something and Applejack also meandering in looking only slightly tired. How did that mare do this every day?

“I may have been a bit wrong about you two, you’ve helped us a ton. Though I see that you’re both wearing out mighty quick like and it’s just about time to get started on the vittles anyway. You two rest a spell, you really deserve it.” Applejack was about to walk off only to be stopped when Tress poked her. “Yes, do you need something sugar cube?”

“Can I try one of these zap apples?” If Tress was going to be getting them out of the trees for the rest of the day, she would at least want to try one. She heard Twilight making some sound from her position on the ground as Big Mac went out to pick up one last haul before lunch. Tress saw the hangdog expression on a tired Twilight’s face. “Oh and do you make cider?”

“Well sure as an apple farm we do, we make some of the greatest cider using the oldest of methods. Though are you sure you can handle a zap apple? Those things really pack quite a kick to the jaw and I know because I’ve tried one myself out of curiosity.” Applejack had been jolted so hard by the fantastic taste of an unrefined zap apple before, she wasn’t sure if Tress could handle it but she held one out to her all the same.

“Do you make specialty cider, such as honeyed cider?” Tress was worried when Applejack gave her an odd look as she took the rainbow colored apple in hoof.

“How would even you know about cider like that?” It wasn’t a big secret, it was just a really unique specialty item that was hard to make perfectly.

“A honey festival if you would believe it and my friend is a bit addicted to the stuff.” It wasn’t a joke either, one could easily see that the purple pony loved the stuff and Tress liked it well enough too. Tress preferred the taste of cranberries and pomegranate juice mixed together for a drink, she liked something more tart personally.

“Well something like that festival of yours would serve that stuff, its specialty cider though. I wouldn’t have problems making some of that for y’all.” Applejack was witness to a hoof being thrown in the air from the ground with a small gasp of victory; she snickered at Twilight’s joyous reaction despite how tired she looked.

“Speaking of doing something for someone else, I think Twilight needs to dunk her horn in a bucket of water.” Something was slowly etched into the dirt by the mare on the ground, Tress blinked. “Make that ice water, she’d know better than I would about what she needs for her horn at the moment. Anyway time to try one of these things out.”

Applejack stuck around to see the look on Tress’s face when she took her first bite out of the zap apple; they say the first bite of any apple was the best. It was kind of the opposite with a zap apple, the first bite was the most awkward and the taste only got better the more you eat it.

Eyeing the apple with some suspicion, Tress decided to just bite down on it. It tasted pretty darn good and she couldn’t understand why Applejack said it had a kick to it, sure it was tangy but it wasn’t anywhere near overboard on her taste buds.

“Um Tress, are you feeling okay there girl?” Applejack didn’t understand, the apple should have really given her quite a shock. Not that the farmer hadn’t gotten used to the taste of zap apples, it’s just the first bite was always a bit of a thing to handle and quite a rush for first timers.

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” Tress just took another bite of the apple, its taste only got better after the first bite. She silently considered how awesome the magical rainbow apples tasted. “Hey Twilight you got to try one these, they taste pretty good. You wouldn’t mind if I had a few more of these things right?”

“Not at all, we never get all the zap apples harvested on time and this might be the first time it happens. Go on and have a few more Tress. I’m going to get that ice water for Twilight now.” It was strange to the farmer that Tress didn’t get the shock of her life eating that apple. Applejack knew that they were called zap apples for a reason. The reason was you get zapped for eating one without it being processed or having gotten used to the jolt from eating them. It usually tended to cause a pony to jump and their hair to stand on end. Tress had to be some kind of mare to handle a zap apple without reacting to its special properties.

Within a minute Applejack had placed a bucket of ice water next to Twilight and the unicorn immediately drove her face into it. Steam immediately started to rise from the bucket. Walking over to the zap apples Applejack picked one out and bit into it. She liked the jolt and was used to it, it was as strong a rush of energy as ever. She quickly finished off her zap apple and then left to go help make lunch. The zap apples certainly weren’t weakening in their strength at all and were just the same as they always were.

Twilight finally pulled her head from the bucket of cold water, half of which evaporated, some of which she drunk and the last bit of it sat at the bottom. She upended the bucket into her mouth and drank the last of the water not caring at all what it might taste like.

“Better?” Tress asked after a moment and Twilight nodded to her while grimacing.

“Much, thank you.” Twilight stretched out her spine with an audible pop and made her way over to Tress. She levitated one of the apples they’ve been harvesting to her and looked it over. Her head had a slight migraine from doing even that much. “Hmm… how do they taste?”

“Well they’re not spicy if that’s what you’re asking, it’s nothing like the liquid rainbow topping your father uses for some of his cooking. It’s got a really nice tang to it though.” Innocently enough Tress bit into a second zap apple, she really liked this fruit. Too bad it was a rare seasonal randomly occurring phenomenon of deliciousness.

Twilight bit into her apple and felt a huge jolt go through her body; it was like she had been hit by a bolt of lightning or had consumed a lot of coffee too fast. Eating more of it, the second bite tasted a lot better than the first and she continued on to finish the apple. It was strange that an apple could get better while you’re eating it, but that’s probably the effect of it being a magical fruit. That first bite nearly knocked out her ability to stay standing and her hair was slightly frazzled. How had Tress handled eating a second one if it had that much of a first kick to it?

“You could have warned me that these things had quite a kick to them on the first bite Tress.” Now Twilight had to wonder why her friend look confused. The zap of the apple was something you couldn’t have ignored, unless you were completely used to it and even enjoyed it. This was Tress’s first time eating zap apples, something was odd about this but Twilight didn’t think too much of it.

“They really don’t have that much of a kick to them, the first bite is a bit strong but otherwise it’s really good.” Tress even bit into a third one and didn’t look like she even got jolted by the apple. “I know where we’re buying all our apples from now on.”

“Eeyup.” Big Mac just sauntered on by leaving behind the wagon that needed to be unloaded.

Lunch was a nice thing for them or at least Twilight thought it was. The food didn’t rise up and try to kill everyone, which was Twilight’s definition of nice. That and the food tasted great, the Apples certainly knew how to cook and with more ingredients then their namesakes would imply. The peach cobbler was fulfilling in many ways, the carrot soup also wasn’t anything to sneeze at. They weren’t allowed to leave the table until they tasted the apple pie; it was a matter of pride for the Apple family.

They were introduced to a little red haired filly with a similar coat color to Fluttershy; her defining feature was a pink bow in her mane. She was an active and happy little filly with no cutie mark, kind of reminded them of Sweetie Belle somewhat. She was scampering around and even asking Twilight about random things, the filly had spent most of her life around other earth ponies and has hardly ever interacted with a unicorn or pegasus before. Her name was Apple Bloom, a name the two helpers had heard earlier but really hadn't asked about.

Twilight just knew she and Tress would be back to work real soon, they were enjoying the time to relax from all the back breaking work. It might just be horn breaking as well in her case, she had a slight headache. At least the distance she would have to travel through the orchard was a lot smaller now.

It was a long day already; it was only going to keep getting longer as the small break wasn’t enough for either Tress or Twilight to return to full strength. The Apple’s were a hardy family that worked hard and ran an entire orchard of this incredible size on their own and that wasn’t the only thing they ran. They had fields to plow, other crops to grow, chickens for eggs, fertilizer from the pigs they had, milk from the cows. Anything other than apples was a small side thing as this family was thoroughly in the business of growing apples.

They really hadn’t bothered to ask about it at lunch because it was readily apparent to them as the extra hooves. Applejack, Big Mac and Apple Bloom didn’t have their parents and Granny Smith was the closest thing to one for all of them. That old mare had to have seen many things and knows many a wondrous tale to share. Applejack and Big Mac were in the prime of their youths, strong and healthy. Apple Bloom likely didn’t have her parents growing up and mostly looked to her older siblings and grandmother as surrogates.

“Ready to get going again ladies, we still got work to do so get those hooves a moving.” Applejack looked like she did that morning, perfectly fine and ready to go another round with the special apple harvest.

“By all that is good with the world, we’re working with a pair of tireless maniacs!” This caused a fit of laughter from every pony within hearing range. Tress was receiving a particularly unusual look from a giggling Twilight as she set out on her own through the trees. Twilight obviously found it humorous for a different reason and Tress knew it had to do with her calling other ponies’ maniacs, especially when given the context of their lives thus far.

As she walked along through the orchard, Tress felt a strange sensation going through her body. She shrugged off the strange feelings, her stomach was probably just digesting those zap apples and all the other stuff she ate.

Author's Notes:

No chapter tomorrow or the day after.

Going back to the Rarity thing, I was thinking back to how she treated Twilight after she first met Rainbow Dash and got completely covered in mud. Twilight’s mane and tail were a mess and she was forced into outfits and had her hairstyle played with by Rarity for a while, she left the boutique with Spike out of fear of what Rarity would do to her next. That is the kind of the scene I was playing to avoid a few chapters ago with her forcefully pushing her generosity onto others.

Now onto some theoretical issues that might come up in the story.

Trixie's presence in Ponyville is part of a convoluted number of chain reactions starting from Barb's birth. Imagine if you will a scenario where a young filly Trixie is walking up to the school for gifted unicorns and bears witness to a dragon bursting through the roof of the school after a rainbow explodes across the sky and runs away because of it scaring her. Now imagine because of Barb existing, Trixie instead didn't get scared off and managed to get into the school.

There’s also Sunset Shimmer still being Celestia’s student to consider as well, how will this affect Celestia’s plans for a student to help save her sister from being the villainous Nightmare Moon? Until Sunset actually appears in Ponyville the Nightmare Moon plot can’t happen or can it? Celestia plans to have her student save her sister and her current student isn’t exactly the most selfless pony in the world and as such Celestia has a basket full of easily crushed eggs.

Note this is all rather theoretical and subject to change. Just because the story isn’t focused on them doesn’t mean they still can’t be plot relevant or still moving around in the background doing things outside the view and scope of the story taking place where my focal characters are. I’ve read so many fan fiction stories where a character would need at least ten chapters worth of reading to explain why they ended up where they did when they weren’t the main character or focus in the story at all. I've read some pretty convoluted things to be sure.

Sure I’m smart, but I’m not a great writer. A great writer would have actually planned some of how their story is supposed to go instead of just making stuff up as they went along as long as I have up to this point. This theoretical stuff is the thing that comes to my mind well after the fact that I wrote the early chapters which is where they would initially take effect.

Quite frankly I’m surprised to have even gotten as far as I have or as many favorites and comments, especially with a random number generator for a mind.

25

The work was finished and they got a nice bonus since the Apple family was making a lot more money on getting a full zap apple harvest in. A basket full of zap apples to eat, a jar of zap apple jam, a hundred bits and being called an honorary family member was not a bad thing for a hard day’s work. Applejack liked them and because of that they made friends with the entire family.

In all it had been a rather tiring day for Tress and Twilight, who were making their way home. It was no surprise that Applejack and Big Mac were starting in on harvesting a few regular apples as they left; they were like well oiled machines.

“Well that wasn’t too bad for a day of hard work.” Despite this Twilight let out of a tired huff, she was tired beyond all reason and looking behind her she could see Tress munching on another zap apple from the basket they were bringing with them. They promised they’d return the basket and jar when they were finished with them.

“Yeah and these apples are really good too.” Tress walked along smiling, the apples were rather strangely delectable to her. She still couldn’t understand what Twilight or Applejack meant about them being shocking on their first bite.

“Tress, don’t overdo it on eating those.” Seeing that she got through to her friend, Twilight continued onward to the house.

“Fine, but still one a day of those things may even keep two doctors away.” This only got Tress a worried look from Twilight.

“Or you might need a hospital visit with how many of those things you’ve had before we left.” How could the mare eat ten of them in total thus far without a single flinch? Twilight was pretty sure something was up with Tress and her sudden taste for zap apples, but so far nothing bad had come of it.

Tress walked up to the front door of the house and knocked on it; Zecora opened it up and let them in. The zebra took a keen interest in the zap apples.

“Are those what I think they are before my eyes, those zap apples have my interest on the rise. If it is not too much to ask, can I try one and maybe distill some in a flask?” This was a first for Zecora, since she had never had the chance to study zap apples before.

“Yes, but watch that first bite, it’s quite shocking. We got a basket full of them and some jam for doing a good job.” Twilight wondered how well they’d do on their next job. She quickly realized that she and Tress both needed baths badly, especially from the way Zecora reacted when she sniffed the air around them.

“Among you two I smell sweat and toil; you both need a hot bath possibly with the water close to boil.” The zebra was enjoying her time here in her friend’s house; she’d only be staying a few more days at the most before heading back to her home in the forest. Taking a zap apple from the basket Zecora sniffed it a bit. With a bite that caused her Mohawk to spread out slightly, she smiled at the taste. “That is quite an interesting kick, it certainly does a neat trick.”

“I’m hitting the bath first Twilight, you go have a talk with Barb. you really haven’t spent too much time with her in the last two days. I’ll make sure to save some warm water for you.” Tress was immediately off and ready to wash off the smell of a hard day of work. She made sure to first store away the zap apples and the jar of jam.

Taking the band out of her hair, her mane swiftly fell back into place as Tress flicked her head back and forth to make sure it settled just right while looking at herself in the mirror. After that she started running some bath water while pulling out her own personal shampoo and body wash. She made this stuff with her own hooves and it was her own particular brand that smelled faintly of blueberries, she didn’t stick to one particular smell all the time and she liked to mix it up once in a while. Twilight tended to notice whenever she did and would usually ask about it.

Stepping out of the bath feeling quite refreshed, Tress quickly brushed out her mane while calling for Twilight to take to the tub next. After Twilight finished her bath, getting rid of the soreness she felt throughout her body, it was soon time for a simple late dinner.

Dinner had been made by a combination of Tress and Zecora working together and it was simply a lot of tossed salad with an alchemically made dressing that tasted rather good, along with this was lots of bread slathered with melted cheese. Everything after that turned into a quiet affair for the four of beings living in the house as they were all off doing their own personal things before heading to bed.

Zecora was playing some with chemicals, some bubbled and others fizzed but they were mostly non volatile stuff. Tress personally sat in a corner reading a Daring Do book; it was an epic story with plenty of adventure and not to mention a good look into some of what went on in griffon culture. Barb was looking to be halfway into a comic book with Smart sitting on her left shoulder reading along emphasizing the action dramatically going on in the pages out loud. Twilight herself was reading another Mane Fancy magazine with a slight blush adorning her cheeks.

Before long they were brushing their teeth together and then they all slowly started heading their separate ways for their own bedrooms.

“What a day, right Tress?” Twilight was ready to fall into a nice peaceful sleep after all the grueling work.

“You said it, makes me wonder what we’ll get up to tomorrow.” Tress yawned and made for her own room.

Twilight shrugged as she marched straight towards the bed, she physically pulled the purple blanket with her cutie mark on it aside with a hoof instead of using her currently abused horn. Twilight slid calmly into bed and quickly fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

The next day…

Twilight woke up and yawned; she stretched out and felt great getting out of bed. She felt like today was going to be a great day. The sun was shining and things outside looked more vibrant than usual. Tress was even greeting her as she walked into the living room from a bath she didn’t remember taking.

“Hey Twilight, isn’t everything so great today? Look at all the happy birds, oh and maybe I’ll get a cat like Opal, Fluttershy is finding ponies to take some of the animals off her hooves as pets.” Okay now Twilight knew something was wrong, there was no way Tress could be this perky especially after yesterday. Twilight walked around the couch and wondered if it was because of the zap apples she ate.

“Are you feeling alright Tress, you’re a lot perkier than normal.” Her friend just continued to stare at her with a beaming smile that Twilight felt was entirely off. There wasn’t something right here, everything felt a bit… strange.

“Of course I’m fine. I’m feeling just quite dandy today. Besides we’ve got a few ponies who’d like you to do their manes waiting in the kitchen. I’m working on some new shampoo at the moment, I’m sure you can take care of things yourself.” Tress then trotted off with a skip in her step.

Walking into the kitchen Twilight couldn’t help but feel very weird about how Tress was acting, in the kitchen she saw Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack sitting at the table chatting merrily and they all stopped once Twilight walked in.

“Hello there Twilight darling, it’s so good of you to finally join us on this rather sunny morning.” Rarity smiled at her and then touched the curled part of her mane causing it to bounce. “We all just came over to have you work with our manes. You know, help out with your business and stuff.”

“Well thank you, but are you sure all of you want me to do this?” They all nodded to Twilight who still felt something was badly off about this situation. Everything looked perfectly fine though, well as far as she could tell and that’s why the situation seemed so upsetting to her sensibilities. “How early did you exactly wake up to get here Fluttershy? Also when did you meet Applejack?”

“Oh… um… I’ve met Applejack as she’s kind of my next door neighbor. We introduced ourselves to each other recently and Rarity came here with us when she found out we were coming to see you. It isn’t that early Twilight; it’s about nine now so you must have slept in from all the work you did yesterday. You must have been so tired. I’ve already taken care of all my animals today if you were wondering.” Fluttershy looked normal; Applejack looked normal and even Rarity looked perfectly fine. Something was most definitely not fine with what Fluttershy just said, though Twilight wasn’t about to call her out on it just yet though.

“So where do you plan to do all your work dear? Certainly not here in the kitchen I hope.” Well Rarity did have a point; Twilight would have to look into it later once she could figure out what she felt was wrong with everything and why Fluttershy would be lying to her.

“No I’ll take each of you one at a time in the bathroom, so who goes first.” Fluttershy immediately raised her hoof in an excited manner; Twilight’s suspicions only grew from there. There was no way Fluttershy was this forward or neglectful if she was right about something being horribly wrong here.

“Okay if you will follow me Fluttershy.” Twilight led Fluttershy up to the bathroom. “What exactly did you want me to do with your mane since you’re paying me for a job I haven’t been getting much acknowledgment in doing?”

“Well… I thought you could comb and brush my mane like you always do, maybe you could also wash it?” Fluttershy looked so innocent it was almost hard for Twilight to be suspicious of her nature.

“Well alright then. Let’s just wet your mane with the overhead shower, I really should see some contractors about getting a small salon area added on to the house.” Twilight made a mental note to actually do this when she figured out what was up with everything going on around her. She carefully leaned Fluttershy back so that half her body was hanging over the tub and her beautiful long flowing straight silken pink mane was pooling slightly in the big basin. “Now close your eyes.”

Turning on the shower head, Twilight got Fluttershy’s mane slightly damp with a light spray of water before she shut it off and the shy mare cooed slightly at the feeling. Twilight actually felt the water, but still wasn’t sure about things.

“What kind of smell would you like for your mane and tail Fluttershy?” Well this was a good way to test the waters of what was wrong, that is if Twilight wasn’t just being ridiculously paranoid.

“I like my mane to smell of flowers please, any kind will do. Maybe you have the bed of flowers special?” Well that is something That Fluttershy would be expected to say, if this was in fact Fluttershy.

Twilight continued to run her hooves through Fluttershy’s mane before levitating a shampoo bottle to her. She didn’t bother to read the label and just started to lather what looked like her friends mane, everything that was going on around her was highly suspect since she woke up. She liked the feel and weight of Fluttershy’s beautiful mane and if she weren’t so wary of her surroundings she might have even bothered to enjoy this.

After she finished lathering up Fluttershy, she levitated her so the shower head would rinse the full length of her wondrous mane. After that she set Fluttershy down so that her rear end was sitting over the tub and her tail was now the thing pooling in it.

After performing the same actions for her tail, Twilight went to grab a comb and brush. She got some scissors as well, but she laid the shears aside nearby for a moment and made a good mental note of where they were. Walking up to Fluttershy she noted that her mane covered her right eye and that she was now looking at her with a faint seductive smile, it was a bit creepy to Twilight that she found this attractive.

“So do you want me to just comb and brush you Fluttershy or did you want me to do something else for you.” Twilight felt very weird, as if the look of wanting in Fluttershy’s eyes was abnormal beyond all recognition.

“Oh my yes, I want you to not struggle when our mistress starts to take over. If you don’t mind us taking over that is.” Fluttershy’s mane stretched out and wrapped around Twilight’s front left hoof before she could react to it.

Twilight quickly levitated the scissors, swung them around and cut off a massive amount of hair from Fluttershy’s mane with a single quick swipe. The mass of beautiful hair fell to the floor limply freeing up her hoof and now Twilight could see her friends other eye; Fluttershy’s right eye was green with a red pupil.

“Oh my, mistress Mane-iac isn’t going to be pleased that you found out so soon. Don’t worry though, once she gets her mind control serum into you as well, we’ll all have you to help look after our manes.” Now Fluttershy’s other eye turned green and red and she chuckled darkly as her mane grew back to its original length almost immediately, she started to slowly approach. “You know I don’t like scissors Twilight, you made me very sad when you just cut my mane short like that. Now please put those away and join our mistress, she would like having you at her side. So don’t resist and maybe I’ll even give you a kiss.”

Author's Notes:

Things are never as they appear in this story.

26

Twilight should have leapt forward and into immediate action, well that’s what she would have done if she were a complete idiot. Obviously the thing that tried to take control had made plenty of mistakes in trying to do what it did; it didn’t know Twilight very well at all and it made a huge mistake in trying to attack her like this.

“Really that’s the best that it could do?” Twilight muttered to herself as she placed the scissors aside on the counter. She boldly walked up to Fluttershy and hugged her with compassion to whisper in her ear. “Don’t you have a rabbit and an injured bird at home to take care of?”

“Oh my goodness, thanks for reminding me Twilight!” Fluttershy’s eye turned back to their normal adorable color and she faded from existence. This proved to Twilight what she had just figured out, with but a thought the hair on the floor turned into a pink cape. The cape levitated into the air to curl around her and she once again transformed into the hero known as Radiance from the Power Pony comic. It seemed like a fitting thing to do given the situation Twilight was now in.

“Oh this thing has no idea that it’s messed with the wrong pony.” Twilight huffed angrily, she made her way down the stairs into the living room where she saw that Mane-iac had Barb pinned to the wall. Next to her were the two other ponies Twilight had recently met. Rarity and Applejack had their manes taking on an offensive posture towards her as she walked confidently into the room. “You are without a doubt the biggest idiot to try and do this to me!”

“Oh?” Mane-iac said with a hint of an amused smile on her face, before she let out a cackle.

“Yes, because Barb is in a safely lit room, she’s afraid to sleep without light and rarely would anything like you be able to get to her if she is surrounded by light when she sleeps. She also has a little guardian to make sure nothing happens to her, but I’m sure you couldn’t see or even knows she exists could you?” Slowly Barb faded out of existence from the tentacle pinning her to the wall and the Mane-iac looked positively shocked.

“How did you?” As Mane-iac turned back to Twilight, she yelped and jumped away from the unicorn as she was right in her face. She backed away slowly as the two wild haired ponies went and stood at Twilight’s side with matching glares at her.

“Do you really think I’m that stupid? Do I look like I have stupid written across my forehead like you do right now?” Twilight immediately made a mirror construct with Radiances powers and held it up to Mane-iac who did indeed have the word stupid written across her forehead. With a flick of her hoof the mirror disappeared. “Now let’s get down to business and why I’m not scared that my two newest friends are going to suddenly turn on me.”

Pacing around them Twilight looked over Applejack and Rarity closely, she smiled as looked at Applejack’s hair bands and the fact that they were blue. This thing was seriously shoddy in its work, especially if it thought it could muddle her mind long enough to do what it pleased with her.

“Okay to start off, Applejack you don’t know Fluttershy at all and haven’t even met her yet.” Twilight watched as Applejack nodded and shrugged before disappearing as her hair bands turned red.

“You can’t know that!” The thing posing as Mane-iac said decisively. “You even told me not to ask about the tree that fell on the rabbit.”

“Oh, but I do. If you had bothered with looking in on my less important memories that I think inconsequential, you’d be horribly surprised by what you missed. You see, while Tress didn’t ask Applejack about that yesterday… I did that myself entirely out of curiosity after lunch while she was heading out to the orchard. I know Fluttershy hasn’t been around long enough to make the acquaintance of Applejack as when I asked her, she had no clue about what happened with the so called ‘varmints’ that attacked the carrot plantation next door. Besides that Fluttershy is too busy tending to the injuries of a rabbit and bird to have ever had the time to meet Applejack. She only came over the day before we worked at the farm to blow off some stress with her best friends, before swiftly leaving for home to check on the cardinal who broke a wing.” Twilight smiled as her opponent reeled back as if they had been physically slapped and hard. “Even then, that wasn’t the first thing I’ve noticed that was wrong.”

Twilight turned to look at the couch in the living room, yeah like that wouldn’t really be noticeable. She moved over to sit down on it getting a feel for the texture of which her mind made up from how the couch at her parents’ house felt. Yeah, she’d want a couch like this eventually, but first she had to deal with the uninvited fly in her parlor.

“I first noticed something was off when I looked out the window this morning, I didn’t see the library. Haven’t really been in there yet, but I know it’s there. Mistake number one.” The purple pony had to smile as her opponent flinched in pain. Twilight didn’t like fighting, but nothing was said about waging mental trauma war on a being that invaded her personal sanctity. “The second mistake you made was Tress; I think she secretly likes Opal despite how she acts about the cat. She actually despises Opal, but she does like cats in general. She’s my best friend and I think I’d know her better than anyone. Even someone like you, since I already know you’re an imposter and not even really Mane-iac.”

The fake Mane-iac finding herself in pain once again, she tried to lash out with her hair only for most of it to turn into a pile of daisy sandwiches before it could even get close to hitting a smirking Twilight. Twilight simply picked up a sandwich and bit into it slowly savoring the taste as she chewed it.

“You really chose the wrong pony to attack you know. Especially when Fluttershy can’t tell what time it is by the position of the sun, considering she’s lived outdoors for the most of three years and has some pretty good survival skills. Then there’s you skipping me ahead to a time after I’ve seemed to have taken a shower to disorient me, not to mention we currently don’t own a couch that feels like the one at my parents’ house. Though I think it’s a nice afterthought that you somehow managed to get my butt groove down.” The now smug Twilight continued to eat the sandwich as the now bobbed Mane-iac slammed into the wall of the house of her own volition.

Twilight didn’t do a single thing to cause that but logic bomb the ever loving tar out of her even slightly wily opponent. She still had plenty more to go as she almost now knew what her opponent exactly was by how it was reacting to her fighting back.

“As for my other newest friend Rarity, you may as well have almost gotten away with that one.” Twilight turned to the resemblance of another friend she had recently earned sitting next to her daintily eating a sandwich. “If I didn’t know she likes to do her own mane and is quite meticulous about it. If there was ever a mare that would want to do something even related to the words ‘quality time’, she would have been the first to volunteer not Fluttershy. Rarity hardly had any friends she can relate stuff to, she had two ponies she was acquainted with but she doesn’t know them that well. In the end she would have suggested we all do something together as a group, this probably would have us all at the Ponyville Spa at her expense no less. It’s a place she’s talked about a lot that I’ve never been to in Ponyville yet and you can’t very well recreate what I haven’t seen from the inside. The fact that Fluttershy was even excited about going first in anything was too much a tip off to ignore and by that point I had to learn what I was dealing with.”

Rarity smiled and hugged Twilight before fading away as well; Twilight thought she needed more ponies to spend time with her for who she was and not what she could do for them. The fake Mane-iac’s mane and tail just started falling out and she started looking pale. A second Mane-iac walked into the room, sat down on the couch and simple lay on her back with her head in Twilight’s lap. As Twilight started to lean back and began to pet the super villain, she pointedly stared at the pale balding imitation.

“You have the ability to look at my memories but are incapable of altering them. You’re currently in my dreams trying to usurp control of my sleep from me and give me nightmares. The reason why you haven’t left or escaped yet is very clear to me. You can’t get out now that I’m aware enough to keep you here indefinitely.” Twilight continued to pet the Mane-iac in her lap and she listened to the sweet purring noise from the wondrous mare that slowly morphed into Tress Ravel who nuzzled her softly. “There were some telling things about this being a dream. One was the fact that I couldn’t read the labeled shampoo bottle, so I didn’t bother too hard trying to do so. There were other small things like all the books being missing to the fact that I just acted like I was using my horn. I haven’t actually lit my horn once since this all started either.”

“So what, unless you can claim to know what I am, you still have no true hold over me. I will just escape when you eventually wake up.” The smirk slowly edged off the hairless Mane-iac as she saw a wide smile on Twilight’s highly amused face.

“I wouldn’t count on that... tapir. First time I’ve ever been attacked by a dream eater really, I’m almost impressed.” Twilight indulged in the look of absolute horror that crossed the now hairless Mane-iac’s face.

The false Mane-iac slowly warped and crumbled into a different form entirely. The end result looked vaguely like a pig, with a slight elephant like nose, black and white fur, splayed four toed hooves and a short tail end.

“How… how did you know I was a…” The tapir said slowly in complete and utter shock at having been found out and discovered, not to mention captured. Tapir’s weren’t known for being good at confrontations unless they were the ones creating them. When they lost the fear factor of their dream eater abilities, they became downright harmless.

“There are two questions that you really should answer. First, did you know about the existence of Smart?” Seeing the dumb look on the pigs face Twilight decided to elaborate. “I’ve once read about how tapir’s are thought to be nearly extinct because they weren’t very bright when choosing targets. In particular, you looked at my memories and since Smart is created from my own memories, you probably wouldn’t be able to recognize her as separate from me. You might have even considered me mentally weak in some way, thus it made me seem like an easier target for you to snack on. Another thing about this is, I just got off a very tiring day of work and you like to eat dreams with a side of magic. You must have thought I looked particularly appetizing considering I sleep in the dark and was quite weakened by my long day.”

The tapir glared indignantly at being called stupid, but it didn’t voice its concern that such things like Smart actually existed. Twilight was right though, he had chosen her because she looked like a most appetizing easy target. Something really bugged him about this line of questioning though.

“Which brings me to my second question, do you know zebra’s exist and can you actually see them? If what I know about you is true then the only zebra around here really made sure this dream eating went poorly.” Twilight knew the look on the tapir’s face wasn’t very hard to confuse with anything else, it was abject terror of hearing the word zebra.

“One of them is here! No... You mustn't tell that zebra I’m here!” A tapir was a dream eating creature. They tended to avoid things they couldn’t safely eat the dreams of, and or something that would confound them endlessly. Only because Twilight told this particular tapir of a zebra did it actually know one was around. Accidentally dream eating a zebra was a big fear of a tapir; they usually didn’t survive doing it and the ones that did were never the same afterwards. They usually lost their ability to dream eat and slowly starved to death.

A long time ago a tapir went and began to dream eat a zebra foal, then as a result of what happened the zebra’s immediately became invisible and hostile to them. They were even invisible even in other beings memories and dreams, thus a tapir had little warning as to when they’d run into one and tended to stay very far from places another tapir has never returned from.

The zebra foal involved was perfectly fine from the event if highly traumatized by what that particular Tapir did to it, but continued on to live a long fulfilling life. Equally on the other side of things, the tapir that did it was traumatized by the sudden loss of its ability to engorge itself on dreams and didn’t go on to lead a long fulfilling life. Though it could have survived by eating normal plants and food, it had been too stubborn to change its ways. It went out with a whimper and a warning to the rest of its species.

You just don’t mess with zebras.

Author's Notes:

I don't know how well you'd all take this, but it makes sense to me to use mythology that had yet to be involved in Friendship Is Magic. It's a hooved animal that has yet to make an appearance on the show and it could have been relevant in 'Sleepless in Ponyvlle' when Scootaloo was having nighmares.

A dream eating tapir Vs.a dream walking Luna would make for a good story. I'm giving this idea to anyone who wants to use this.

Dream eating tapirs can be for good or ill. For good they look a lot more different and are more chimera styled based from chinese or japanese mythology, they just ate the nightmares or made sure nightmares couldn't even happen. They resembled something more along the mixture of a tiger, a rhinoceros and elephant.

For what kind of bad they can get up to, just play Cocoron for the NES or maybe look up a Drowzee from pokemon.

27

The real next day, a few hours after the tapir's attack the night previous.

Tress slowly walked into the kitchen yawning up a storm, she really needed some food now.

“You wouldn’t believe the nightmare I had last night.” As she said this, Tress twitched her neck with a satisfying pop and then blinked in confusion at the sight before her.

On the table was a strange glass jar with a tiny elephant like creature in it. Tress looked at it for a moment then turned to Twilight who looked bedraggled with a worried Barb hugging her leg.

“I literally caught the cause of mine Tress.” Twilight really didn’t like the tapir that Zecora got out of her this morning. The thing in question has been cowering in fear ever since it had been put into a jar with an air hole or two. This was the first time she almost felt like resorting to a violent solution.

“A tapir is not a nice creature that is to be said; this one crawled right into poor Twilight’s head.” The tapir in question cowered at Zecora’s voice. “She’ll be fine with some hours to rest; giving her that time is a course that is best. I will deal with punishing this one; at its expense I’ll make sure to have some fun.”

“And here I was going to ask her if she had the sheep dream again, maybe the super models hair salon one or the one where she’s the only mare in all of Canterlot that could take care of Celestia’s mane for the day.” Ticking off each of Twilight’s usual culprits for the stuff she dreamed of, Tress watched her friends face get redder with each thing mentioned. “So what kind of nightmare did that thing give you?”

“I ended up cutting off most of Fluttershy’s mane at one point and had to watch all of Mane-iac’s hair fall out, ate some of it in the form of a sandwich no less. That’s plenty traumatizing enough without knowing I was under attack.” The fact that her friend hissed in sympathy made Twilight feel a bit better about how things went, it could have gone worse all things considered. She even felt a bit remorseful for her strong retaliation and then originally stuffing the tapir in a jar without air holes as soon as Zecora got him out of her ear. She added the air holes after the fact. “The tapir did try a plot where you had mind control serum and made all other ponies around you like the Mane-iac with the manes and everything.”

Twilight went on to explain the nightmare in detail and how she stopped it before it got off the ground. Smart and Zecora were smiling at the part where neither of them seemed to have been on the tapir’s radar.

“Okay, why didn’t you think this was a normal dream that turned into a nightmare naturally?” Tress was only vaguely interested in hearing what Twilight had to say about this. “Actually it sounds like something you’d be interested in. It is a dream where you’re taming the unruly manes of other mares in a heroic fashion.”

“I might have actually accepted that if the tapir didn’t make it too highly obvious that someone was manipulating my dreams. I noticed so many discrepancies from a normal nightmare I’d possibly have and what I was going through with him giving me the nightmares.” The unicorn sighed as she patted her daughter on the head and shoved her towards her own seat. Barb getting the message went with only a mild fuss. “Besides that, you’d never do something like a mind control serum. You may be crazy tress, but you wouldn’t go that far unless you were really too far gone. You probably would have made a body controlling body wash if you were to stick to the adorable hair themed villainy. It wouldn’t cause other ponies to have powers like yours and it would have been ridiculously easy to cure, maybe by something like just washing it out. ”

“Fair point, water was the cure to most of the things I came up with in my small amount of time as a villain. So what’s for breakfast?” Tress smiled cheerily if a bit forced, she wasn’t going to tell Twilight what she thought about her hair themed villainy being adorable. She was glad she couldn’t feel her cheeks burning.

Barb started getting some stuff out, the dragon actually had some cooking skills and at least when she failed to make something it didn’t immediately become a huge problem for anyone nearby.

After breakfast Tress had the whole day to herself to do whatever she wanted, Twilight just went back to bed to catch up on her lost sleep thanks to the now contained troublemaker. She wasn’t about to ask what Zecora was going to do with the tapir, she trusted the zebra to handle the tapir carefully and as in a pony manner as possible.

“Hey Barb, want to spend the day with me?” Tress suddenly had the dragon at her side as she made her way for the front door.

“Is mom going to be okay? She seemed rather upset.” Barb received a contemplative look from Tress as she slung on some saddle bags.

“Radiance will be fine munchkin, she’s just angry that she was mistaken as an idiot and that she reacted a bit violently to the mental intrusion. You’re mother really doesn’t like fighting, though she seems more okay with waging a mental war because she wouldn’t physically harm her opponent. I think she’s taking the realization of the psychological scarring she left on the tapir a bit hard though.” Tress felt like it was a good day to hang out with the eight year old dragon, since Twilight wasn’t going to be up and around for quite a while.

“Hey, I’m not short! I just haven’t had my growth spurt yet.” Barb walked along on two legs at Tress’s side. “So where are we going?”

“I thought I’d pop on over to introduce you to Rarity, I owe her some measurements at least.” Though Tress wondered what kind of colors would go with a pink coat and blue mane. “Maybe stop by Apple Acres and say hello to the family, scope out some couches at Quills and Sofas and then we’ll go see what Fluttershy has been getting up to lately.”

“I miss it you know, auntie Shy living with us and everything.” The dragon looked at the ground sadly until Tress leaned in and whispered the magic words that would cheer Barb up while nuzzling her cheek.

“Look I know you’re manipulating me into saying this, but maybe we can go get some ice cream later? Do want to ride on my back as well?” The dragon quickly scrambled up Tress’s back and she smiled at the dragon nodding.

“So I can talk you into getting me a rocky road, rubies and strawberry syrup banana split?” The big soulful look Barb was giving Tress was something she knew would ensure victory.

“Only if you’re a good dragon and don’t act out or cause problems Barb.” Wondering how she was once again roped into taking care of the dragon Tress made her way towards the Carousel Boutique. “Say, where’s Smart? She’s usually watching over you like a mother bear watches her cubs.”

“I think she’s trying to help mom to get some rest, though I think giving it a rest is a problem with my mother. She knows I’m with you, I don’t think she’s going to worry too much about my safety.” There were times when even Barb had to state it outright that her mother acting a bit overzealous.

“I truly doubt your safety is compromised when there is barely anything around here that can truly scratch your tough scales. Remember, best behavior or no ice cream.” Sometimes Tress felt like she had a daughter by taking Twilight’s out for a spin. She opened the door to the boutique and walked in. “It’s just me Rarity, no need for your spiel.”

“Welcome back, I’ll be right with you in a minute darling.” Rarity walked into Barb’s view as she got off of Tress’s back, the dragon froze and stared at Rarity’s mane.

“I think I know why mom has those mane magazines now, she’s beautiful.” If one were to look at Barb one would have sworn there was little hearts floating off of her alongside the look of adoration in her eyes. “Well her coat and tail are average, but I really like her mane. Her eyes are like sapphires and her cutie mark looks tasty.”

Tress slowly raised her left hoof towards her face and was about to plant it there, but she resisted the urge. She was not Twilight Sparkle, Tress ‘The Mane-iac’ Ravel does not face hoof! Instead she rolled her eyes, so Twilight’s little sparkle had an eye for the fashion designer in exactly the opposite manner of her mother. It looked like Barb was immediately forming a cute puppy like crush on Rarity; Tress wondered how Twilight would take the news if she ever found out. Speaking of news, Tress was glad that Twilight didn’t press her too hard about Fleur. Well Twilight hasn’t yet but her curiosity doesn’t seem easily satiable or would be distracted forever.

“My word what’s this? Who is this with you Ms. Ravel? She’s quite the cutie.” Rarity rubbed Barbs chin and she leaned into it with her wings flapping lightly.

“That’s Twilight’s little cutie Rarity, hatched her a little over eight years ago, it was before I met her. She’s still a baby dragon though, her name is Barb Sparkle. Also please just call me Tress.” It was cute that Barb was acting kind of shy around Rarity; usually it was hard to get her to stop talking like this. “Barb say hello to Rarity.”

“Uh, hello there Miss Rarity.” Barb was blushing and remembered to be on her best behavior by being polite. She rubbed her face against the velvety feeling curl of the mane in front of her, now she knew why her mother had the thing about hair. She just thought her mother was a bit weird, now she understood the attraction herself. Then Rarity turned her attention away from Barb causing her to whimper slightly.

“Can you please come over here darling? I’ll take your measurements. So how has Twilight managed with being a single mother for so long? How did she come across having such a charming little lady like Barb and at such a young age no less? Well that is unless she’s much older then she looks, I have got to know her secrets to how she looks so young then.” For once, Rarity didn’t seem all too grating to Tress.

After talking about Twilight’s early motherhood and getting her measurements taken Tress started talking to Rarity about colors for the one dress she was commissioning. Rarity immediately suggested something purple and black with some gold highlights, Tress blinked at that because it reminded her of the suit she wore as Mane-iac. Sweetie Belle and Barb met each other while they were busy and after a few minutes Barb finally had made a friend that was about her age. Barb only did what her mother always did, being sincerely nice unto others at least until they proved to be not so nice.

After they were done, they were heading towards Quills and Sofas next as it was the closest location. They were about to get there when a rainbow streak shot through the sky bucking clouds and then dived through one a little too fast and then came flying at Tress and Barb.

“Watch out!” Tress saw the streak that yelled coming for her and reacted before she knew what happened. She felt herself get pulled backwards seven feet out of the way of a huge blast of mud flying everywhere.

“Whoa that was a close one, since when were you capable of using you’re Mane-iac powers again Tress?” She may have heard Barb, but Tress was now focused on the green streak in her tail. It unwrapped from the tree and then returned to being her normal shade of blue.

“I…” Tress started to say, she didn’t know what had happened and how she managed to use her powers after so long without being able to use them. Well at least a small bit of them and not nearly as strong as it was supposed to be, but it was still there and a small bit of her tail hair had turned temporarily green. It felt like a strange tingle up her spine starting from her tail.

“Heh, sorry about that, it’s my first day on the job and I just moved into Ponyville and today is my birthday. I’m the awesome, super cool and totally radical Rainbow Dash!” After a moment Rainbow wondered why she was receiving a double glare from both the young thing that slightly resembled a pony and the prissy looking earth pony. Well maybe she understood the prissy ponies motives, since she almost got her covered in mud with another one of her crashes.

Author's Notes:

The show goes on.

28

If there was one thing Tress could understand about the situation she now found herself in, it’s that things had become more complicated since coming to Ponyville. Meeting Fluttershy’s only childhood friend for about three years at most, on her birthday and the first day she’s in Ponyville no less, was not one of the things Tress thought would happen.

Only being in Ponyville a little more than four days could this happen, how many more absurd situations could Tress handle before she snapped and blew up at her friends about it all. Well Tress sort of did it with the hydra, she didn’t think that really counted or at least she didn’t want it to. She would never hate Twilight for something like that.

Tress could feel herself seething with some loathing for Rainbow Dash at the moment, how could she have left Fluttershy in the lurch to be bullied like she was? Did Rainbow have no idea what Fluttershy has been through? Here she has the gall to act like she was a great pony? Tress wasn’t about to cause a scene and not during the mares birthday, but at a later day she very well might.

On a similar mindset Barb was also angry at Rainbow. She knows Fluttershy would always talk about Rainbow in a nicer light and didn’t say anything bad about her. Even then Barb saw that Rainbow had abandoned her friend at some point to hang out with someone more exclusively, Rainbow didn’t bother to make any time for her aunt. Auntie Shy was a really nice and wonderful pony that could really sing a sweet lullaby that could lull even a big mean cantankerous creature right to sleep with her angelic voice. How could Rainbow not want to hang out with her and why would she stop spending time with a pony that no one could possibly hate. Well unless you were one of those ponies who picked on her auntie growing up.

“I accept you’re apology, now we must be going about our way.” Snubbing the colorful mare was probably the best thing Tress thought she could do at the moment without causing a scene or some huge mess. Making sure Barb was secure on her back, Tress walked on by the mud covered Rainbow paying her no attention whatsoever. They were going to get back on track to what they were originally doing and hopefully things would stay quiet.

After a moment the pegasus fluttered up and started to slowly follow Tress out of curiosity. The creature that was with the earth pony had already garnered Dash’s curiosity enough, but Tress had managed to earn it just as much from how she dodged out of the way of her crash landing. Rainbow hadn’t seen how the mare had done it, she was sure the mare would have at least gotten covered in some mud from the impact. There was also the fact that she had just gotten snubbed and glared at for no good reason. It was her first day in Ponyville and she found something that intrigued her and caught her attention, so spy mode time it was!

Tress’s mind was somewhere else or she would have noticed the winged pony tailing them; she wouldn’t bother the flying rainbow as long as she didn’t annoy her too much. She was worried about the implication of even a little bit of her powers returning to her, she had only made a single lock of tail hair turn green and pulled herself out of the way of getting an unwanted mud bath.

Walking up to Quills and Sofas, Tress was going to scope out the wares while she thought of whether or not she’d be happy to even have a little of her Mane-iac powers back. Davenport met her at the entrance and greeted her warmly.

“Uh Tress, the big blue dodo with colorful hair is following us.” Barb wasn’t worried; if Tress had her powers back and could control them then she was plenty safe. If not, Barb knew Tress was a tough mare that could take care of herself.

“She’s more like a peacock Barb; just don’t pay any attention to her. As long as she doesn’t bother us we won’t have the need to have an altercation. Let’s just look at sofas and… novelty quills I guess. Why do you even sell quills Mr. Davenport?” It was a good question, from a standpoint this store was really odd to Tress and odd was something she has to deal with on a daily basis living with Twilight. The tiny ear infesting tapir was just one in a long string of ridiculous things that have crossed their paths, she thought tapirs could dream eat at a distance. It was probably stronger up close and more comfortable swimming in ear wax or at least that’s how Tress tried to rationalize it.

The stories the stallion could tell made looking at sofas fun and Barb wasn’t bored at all, in fact it brought on more questions than it answered. Even Tress was impressed at some of the strangest things she’s ever heard of, and that is even considering what happens in Night and Velvets kitchen back at the Sparkle home.

“It all just fell into place like the Paints and Bathtubs down the street. Ponyville has lots of strange specialty stores like that.” It wasn’t like Mr. Davenport would question it too much when he owned one of those odd stores himself.

“Actually, that one vaguely makes some sort of sense.” Tress thought it did at least, ponies get covered in paint and they’d need a bathtub to go along with it to clean up.

“Well it makes more sense than Whips and Weights store.” This only got Mr. Davenport an odd look. “Look it just works okay? I know someone whose nickname is Snowflake that frequents that store just for workout weights. He tends to wear them out frequently, he’s a heavily muscled pegasus and you can’t even miss him if you ever saw him. He’s broken quite a few couches just because he’s so large, it’s kind of what keeps me in business and I’m still trying to design a couch with him in mind.”

“Still doesn’t explain the oatmeal thing though, it sounds rather crazy.” Barb took a glance at Rainbow who it seemed was taking a keen interest in the conversation while lying on her belly. Rainbow was idly flicking an ear in interest in their general direction while kicking out her hind legs once in a while, her chin resting in her hooves.

“It is. Pinkie could tell that part better than I can, I hear tell she’s even getting started on sending invitations out to celebrate all the new ponies that have come to Ponyville at the end of this week for a meet and greet party. Apparently some fairy thing told her it was easier to hold one big party for multiple new ponies once a week; she was probably sold at bigger parties. You can get the rest of the story from her when you go.” Mr. Davenport knew Pinkie was planning something big because she was currently hardly throwing parties faster than most ponies could keep up with. “I’m sure she can’t wait to invite you or send you an invitation on its time and location.”

“I bet it’ll be the best disaster to ever happen to me and my friends.” Because goodness knows if they could go a few days without something seriously weird happening, Tress didn’t doubt it’d be a blast though. It would probably be a good opportunity to ruin the dress Rarity was making for her, like it’d survive an event where things were bound to go horribly wrong. Tress wasn’t about to ruin the dress on purpose though, Rarity was really excited about making one for her and she wouldn’t do something needlessly mean like that. “I think I’m done looking around, got a catalogue? I really can’t spend all day here.”

“Sure thing Ms. Ravel. Say, where’s your friend and associate Ms. Sparkle?” After telling Davenport about the tapir attack and that Twilight was getting caught up on her stolen sleep. She left with a catalogue full of sofas and quills he could have crafted for her, even then Tress still had no clue what she’d do with quills as she was more of a pencil pony. Maybe she should get one for Twilight’s next birthday? Twilight goes through a lot of quills with her ideas for advancements in enchantments; Tress had no idea what she was currently working on anymore as it slowly started turning into a bunch of jargon.

Leaving the store Tress detoured towards the marketplace a little more aware that the not so sneaky pegasus was still following them. Barb was being a pretty good dragon so far and it looked like she was going to earn that expensive ice cream this evening.

“Hey there Tress, come over here for a spell!” Both dragon and pony perked their ears up at hearing Applejacks voice. She was sitting at an apple stand; she even had a zap apple sitting on the counter with Tress’s name on it. “There’s a free zap apple in it for you.”

“Looks like you’ll be meeting Applejack sooner than I thought Barb. It’s okay to act disgusting around her; she’s used to it unlike Rarity.” Barb nodded and hopped off Tress’s back to run up to Applejack smiling.

“Hey there I’m Barb, did you see the message I sent to my mom yesterday?” Barb was eagerly looking up to Applejack.

“I sure did, but you’re not quite what I was expecting when Twilight said her daughter sent her a message. Who am I to judge, family is family. I don’t care what you look like; since you’re a right cute little thing.” Applejack immediately hoofed the zap apple to Tress who quickly took a bit out of it and savored the tangy goodness. “Now who is that there following you from a distance? She’s acting mighty shady and a bit silly and I know silly, being around Pinkie Pie long enough tends to lead a pony to doing strange things like dancing and singing perfectly in sync without any kind of practice.”

“Oh that? It’s a tailgater and I wish she would get out of my mane. I’m getting a bit more annoyed to the point I could just… hm.” A sharp determinately evil grin crossed Tress’s face. Sure she can’t recreate evil sprays of doom in Equestria, but she could still certainly commit to an evil plot. “Well today is that mare’s birthday, how about you call her over after I leave and tell her happy birthday from me. Also I want to purchase the zap apple she’s going to personally bite into.”

“Why, that’s rather downright devious of you Tress. Sounds like a perfectly good prank to me. If you’re paying, then it’s no bits out of my profits.” Applejack then nodded to herself and placed another zap apple on the counter just as Tress finished her own, Barb wanted an apple too and Tress bought her one to snack on to tide her over until her just desserts that evening. Applejack was willing to oblige and even gave a discount; they were making quite a haul on all those zap apples. “Did anyone ever tell you you’re an evil mastermind?”

“You don’t even know the half of it Applejack.” Tress rolled her eyes before smiling sweetly; there were just some parts of being a villain that she missed. “Wait for her to come close and then call out for her. If you can actually spook her I’ll the pay the rest of the price for the apples later. Hey don’t give me that look; I know you just gave me a discount so think of this as challenge. By the way, I’m off to say hello to your older brother and little sister.”

“Well how in the hay can I say no to that challenge? Oh and tell Apple Bloom she better be done with her chores by the time I mosey on in.” Applejack said pleasantly as Tress walked off in a way that Rainbow would pass close to the stand. Rainbow did come close to the stand and as she passed, Applejack smiled and snuck up behind her. “Hey there, are you feeling hungry!”

Rainbow jumped at the sudden voice from behind and flew straight into an overhanging roof and fell back to the ground dazed. Applejack chuckled at her misfortune.

“Huh? Well yeah I guess, what do you got?”Rainbow was suddenly proffered a zap apple and in her eyes it was a really cool looking rainbow colored apple. If only she knew the truth of the matter.

“That mare that just came by here thought you might be in need of a snack. What with all the creepy stalking you’re doing there. So she paid for this apple and left it for you to have, she also says happy birthday.” Applejack was going to enjoy the look on this ponies face and commit it to memory when she bit into it.

Rainbow opened her mouth to take a bite out of the apple in her hoof.

Tress’s ears flicked at the loud yelp she heard and she smiled, she wasn’t about to let that pegasus follow her to Fluttershy. She thought it was nice that she was getting some revenge in the shy mares place, Fluttershy probably wouldn't approve of her methods though.

29

Tress had managed to lose Rainbow Dash, which wasn’t an easy task as the mare could fly really fast. She was pretty sure Rainbow didn’t appreciate the first bite of that apple, but she hoped the mare bothered to finish it. Now she was on the road towards Sweet Apple Acres and was watching a rainbow zip across the sky of Ponyville.

“You know, I don’t think she appreciated that Tress. So, how did you get your powers back and why isn’t your mane all green and stuff?” What Barb was asking about was her full blown Mane-iac transformation.

“I don’t know; just don’t tell Twilight until I figure this out for myself!” Tress focused on her mane and she managed to turn a single lock of it green. She could not do anymore then that lock of hair; she could barely even stretch it out, though her control was still really good. She was almost at the farm and she decided to pull back on the green portion of her mane and it slowly returned to its light blue color.

“Well did you do anything recently to gain that much of your powers back?” Barb was a little hurt that Tress panicked a little and shouted at her. Didn’t Tress know her mom liked her a lot and wouldn’t care if she changed back into Mane-iac and might have even liked it if she could do that at will?

“Well I did eat a lot of zap apples. They gave me some pretty weird nightmares.” Tress shuddered at the dream. She was running, always running, never safe and always hunted. The moon is shining and mad eyes in the darkness that weren’t her own never ceased to follow her. They weren’t even green and red like her transformed state.

“It’s okay Tress, calm down. I’m here for you; you have friends who will never give up on you.” Barb rubbed her claws up and down Tress’s back and neck, she started to calm down just as they approached the homestead. “Besides I think having super powers is cool!”

It was a rather quick set of greetings and Barb got to meet Apple Bloom, it seemed she was getting along with other fillies her age easily enough on her own. They weren’t really going to stay long; they were only there long enough for Tress to pick up a freshly baked apple pie that she was going to take over to Fluttershy. Tress really needed a good gentle hug about now.

“Barb, it’s time to go see Fluttershy. Apple Bloom, Applejack said to finish your chores before she gets back.” Tress was quickly saddled with Barb again and off on her way, leaving a slightly saddened Apple Bloom behind. “So did you have some fun?”

“Yeah, this place is really cool I guess. Wouldn’t want to live here though, I’d never really get the smell of pigs and chickens out of my nose. Now come on Tress, to Auntie Shy’s new home!” The mare must have been as enthusiastic as Barb, because she picked up the pace. Barb was making sure nothing happened to the apple pie they were carrying.

Tress walked up to Fluttershy’s house with some trepidation. She saw Fluttershy calmly sitting on the front steps of her home and was talking tenderly to a cardinal, it leapt up and flapped its wings several times only to fall back into Fluttershy’s hooves. Even Barb couldn’t say anything as she watched the innocent scene.

“It’s okay, we all fall sometimes. Now try again.” Fluttershy calmly prodded the bird with her nose and then threw it up in the air, it chirped happily as it started flying again only to come back down at Fluttershy’s whistling. “Good, now you’re still not one hundred percent Mr. Cardinal but you’ll get there soon.”

“Maybe, I’m not so sure. Look, do you seriously want to interrupt that?” As Tress pointed a hoof at the new scene playing out, Fluttershy was now feeding a bunch of baby rabbit’s mulched carrots with a spoon. The sight was too adorable and too perfect to interfere with.

“No you’re right, we’ll sit here until she notices us.” Barb wouldn’t interrupt something that looked so adorable, even if it might be news she needed to hear immediately. “It might take her some time, what with her massaging that bear.”

Tress Looking back at Fluttershy again, she was giving a large bear a massage. That shy mare certainly did quick work to be doing so many things that fast. She was like the ultimate kindness machine and her heart matched what she looked like on the outside. Tress felt like she could use some of that tender love and care, but what kind of monster would interrupt her when she was doing what she loved so much? That happy smile on the peaceful mares face was just so hard to approach; she could almost swear that Velvet was right about her being an adorable heart attack waiting to happen.

After hopping off her friend Harry, Fluttershy finally noticed she had visitors and she immediately fluttered up to Tress and threw her hooves around her neck. She soon turned her attention to the little dragon next and gave her a kiss on the forehead causing the dragon to giggle while blushing.

“It’s so nice to see you two! Tress you seemed a little tense when I hugged you, do you need some help relaxing your muscles?” Fluttershy and her horrendous adorability turned up a notch at this point. “You can come inside if you want. Also can you tell me what’s bothering you, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Walking into the home, Tress and Barb noted it was like an animal wonderland. There was even a flamingo in the living room alongside all the mice, raccoons, a jackalope, a seal, several differing species of birds and a slightly less bandaged grumpy looking white rabbit on the couch.

“We brought you an apple pie from the nearby apple farm, I hope you like it Fluttershy. We’ll be going now as we wouldn’t want to impose.” With that Tress set the covered pie on the kitchen counter and immediately tried to push Barb towards the front door only to have Fluttershy jump on top of her and straddle her. Tress felt her face heat up at the position Fluttershy put them in, what had gotten into the innocent mare? Usually Fluttershy wasn’t this forward unless she felt there was something wrong with her friends and that she could somehow help them. In this situation Fluttershy was right, but Tress didn’t want her to know that.

“Can you please tell me what’s wrong with you Tress? If that’s okay with you, I really don’t want to burden you or pressure you about something if it’s too much a bother.” Fluttershy immediately started putting pressure on Tress’s back and with a pop Tress’s legs finally gave out and she gave off a pitiful squeak in contentment as her chest hit the floor. “It’s just really unhealthy to be this tense and I want to help you if you’re feeling bad.”

“Flutters you can pressure me all you want.” Tress said dazedly, Fluttershy and her darned soft yet strong supple hooves. Fluttershy wouldn’t do this to just any stranger; she’d only do it for her friends. That mare was too shy to be forward with any pony other than those close to her heart. After a moment she shook her head and came to her senses, but she wasn’t about to buck Fluttershy off her back as she was being rubbed in all the right ways. “I really don’t want to talk about it Fluttershy, but I can talk about the horrible nightmare I had last night. Oh and I can talk about how Twilight was attacked by a tapir, she’s okay and is sleeping in today. Don’t know what will happen to the tapir, Zecora said she’d take care of it.”

“But you don’t want to tell me about what’s really troubling you? I think there’s more to your discomfort then just those two things.” Fluttershy asked politely, apparently Twilight not being around is making Tress feel all blue. She didn’t think that was the main reason for Tress’s current distress, she always thought something was going on between her and Twilight. In fact she herself might have had a daydream or two about something going on between her and Tress, Tress was a really beautiful mare and such a good friend.

Tress only nodded while sighing blissfully as Fluttershy kneaded her neck muscles. She smiled at the fact that Shy can make anything feel good, pony, animal or whatever. Massaging a pony was a lot different from massaging a wild animal, but Fluttershy did such a good job of it. It was almost enough to lead Tress into a false sense of security. Fluttershy was pretty darn smart and could wheedle just about anything out of her by just being herself. All Fluttershy had to do was… oh there she goes.

Tress was now a limp noodle and at Fluttershy’s mercy and the shy mare had plenty of it when it was needed, this was not one of those times though. Fluttershy hugged Tress to herself and nuzzled her softly while cooing that everything would be alright in Tress’s ears and she knew Tress believed her. She had a way with more than just animals; she had a way with her close friends too.

“Um... Auntie Shy, I think now is a good time to tell you since you have Tress so woefully distracted that your friend Rainbow just moved into town today.” Barb witnessed an odd indescribable look on Fluttershy’s face as she continued to work Tress over.

“Oh my, if I remember what today is… it’s also her birthday as well right?” Seeing Barbs answer was a nod, Fluttershy smiled before she frowned at the frown on the dragons face. “Did Rainbow do something mean to either of you?”

“Well she almost got us splashed with mud, but she did apologize for that. She’s also rather full of herself and she was tailing us until Tress bought her a zap apple to help us lose her.” Even as she spoke Barb noticed Tress was in no state whatsoever to speak up at the moment. There was a happy little lackadaisical smile on Tress’s face that Barb found disturbing despite what she was currently telling Fluttershy.

“Well that was nice of her…” Fluttershy noticed Barb wince and look away which is why she asked her question in a stern manner. “Okay, what do these zap apples do?”

“The first bite shocks the pony eating it, but afterwards it gets really tasty. Cutting one up weakens the shock quite a bit; mom helped prepare one for me last night after dinner. She was so tired from all that work on the apple farm she was even barely on her hooves at all by that point. Tress just loves them and they don’t shock her at all, mom was kind of confused as to why. I think it has to do with her powers coming back.” Barb was intrigued about why the zap apples would be giving Tress her abilities back; she’s been reading a lot of comic books lately as they were intriguing ever since she gave mom one for her birthday. The Power Ponies have regular not so enchanted comic books, not once has the Mane-iac ever returned in any other issue though. Barb knew where the Mane-iac was and she would like it if said super villain never had to leave, she liked having a big sister after all.

“Tress the next time you see Rainbow Dash you are going to apologize to her for not warning her about the apple and she is going to apologize for stalking you!” Fluttershy didn’t receive a response from Tress, because at some point she had fallen asleep underneath her hooves. The butter coated mare sighed wistfully, so her old friend was back in her life or at least would be soon enough anyway. Ponyville was a small town and she was bound to run into her somewhere. “Barb, was there a griffon with Rainbow?”

“Nope, it was just Rainbow. I don’t think she was being a very good friend when she couldn’t make time for you Auntie Shy. I don’t see why Tress has to apologize to her; she was kind of full of herself when introducing herself to us!” Barb flared her wings and let off a slight blast of flame in a huff scaring the nearby animals slightly. After calming down the animals, Fluttershy finished up with Tress and fluttered over to Barb and picked her up.

“Oh sure she can be crude, rude and is very much a tomcolt of the highest order, but I know she means well… I think. Still that’s no reason to be mean to her unless she was trying to be mean to you, she still tried to be a good friend and I doubt she’s truly forgotten about me even though we’ve been apart for a long time.” After a moment and a sad smile Fluttershy cuddled Barb, before looking her in the eyes. “I’m glad that she was even willing to be my friend in the first place and she probably still is even though we each wandered away from one another. Sometimes you just have to let things go Barb; you can’t force your friends to stay by your side forever if they don’t want to be there. Gilda hurt me a bit because she thought I was trying to get in her way, I’m sure she’s truly a nice griffon otherwise. I forgave her for that because she just wanted her affection to be returned by a pony that she really likes. In all likelihood Rainbow probably frustrated her to no end.”

“So did Rainbow let that griffon hurt you?” Barb asked in a grumpy tone as Fluttershy sat down on the couch still holding onto her.

“No, Rainbow probably has no idea why I haven’t been around or left. I wonder where Gilda is now if Rainbow is here. Look, please just give Rainbow a chance. She’s not really a bad pony. I’m sure we could all be the best of friends if you tried.” Fluttershy gave a bright smile to the dragon and she lightly rubbed her back causing the dragon to cuddle into her. After a moment Barb was getting a massage of her own.

“I’ll think about it, just don’t leave Tress and Rainbow in a room alone together. Tress really didn’t like hearing that Rainbow abandoned you and she certainly doesn’t like her now after meeting her once.” After a moment Barb was content as she a felt a pop. Fluttershy’s hooves gently worked her over. Her wings even flapped once or twice and she purred slightly, she was relaxed beyond all compare as her ears went limp.

“Well consider it this way… I might have been the one that abandoned Rainbow.” Fluttershy saw the look on Tress’s face as she sat up hearing this statement; it was frown with a pair of sad passionate eyes directed at her.

30

“I think I understand Fluttershy, but I’m still not ready to forgive Rainbow yet for leaving you without some pony to turn to.” Tress wanted a nice hug from her other friend and now it seems that friend needed the hug more than her. “Sure you ran away from your problems, but what other choice could you have made?”

“Well one that couldn’t have had a better outcome then where I am now that’s for sure. It would have ended all my troubles certainly. I just didn’t consider it because I know some pony out there would miss me.” Fluttershy looked at the floor as her wings hung limply at her side. “Rainbow was not the cause of my problems, she alleviated them by a lot when she was around to actually care that I existed. So please consider being at least genial with her.”

“Until Rainbow can prove herself to me, I won’t call her my friend. You better believe me when I say any true friend of yours would miss you if you were gone Fluttershy, we’re all glad to even know you.” Tress got Fluttershy to look up at her with this statement. “Speaking of the other option,you know that’s kind of my origin story in a nutshell.”

“How did you live with almost doing that to yourself? Didn’t you think any pony would miss you?” Fluttershy was already hugging Tress and Barb to herself. She was sure they enjoyed the feeling of her warm wings protectively wrapping around them.

“Fluttershy, I had absolutely no pony. I hardly know anything about your parents to even comment on it and from the way you talk about it, school was especially hard on you with all the bullying. Speaking of, you don’t seem too worried about my powers possibly coming back or haven’t even asked about it yet.” With a look of concentration in her eyes Tress managed to generate a green highlight in her mane and then wiggled it about in Fluttershy’s face.

“Well it’s who you are Tress; I know you would never truly hurt a friend of yours unless you had too. Just because you’re outward appearance might change and your cutie mark becomes a little different, it doesn’t mean you’ll be a different pony at heart.” Fluttershy put a hoof to Tress’s chest and smiled, she moved the hoof to Barbs chest. “It must be so hard for you to Barb. I mean to live with being the only magic dragon around and having to be kind of homeschooled.”

“Eh, it’s a living. I wouldn’t want to change my scales for anything normal at this point, normal is overrated anyway.” Barb shrugged; she liked the attention and was nonchalant about her own personal differences to everyone around her. She managed to break up the somber mood readily. “So, are you ever going to get to that pie we brought?”

“Oh my yes, a snack sounds like a wonderful idea.” Fluttershy wondered if she should let her parents know that the life she said she would make for herself has come to fruition. She had friends, family and loved ones who all made her content with her newfound place in the world.

It was a nice day to have friends over and the pie smelled really good.

Twilight woke up calmly; she had finally caught up on her sleep. It was hard to say whether or not she’d be able to sleep tonight and wake up tomorrow. She’d have to get herself back on track with coffee then.

“Feeling better doctor Light?” Smart said calmly with the ever present smile on her face as she sat upon the tip of the Twilight’s horn.

“Yes Smart, I’m feeling fine though I’m still pretty fatigued. What’s going on right now?” Now focused on her childhood plaything, which made her cross eyed in the process, Twilight watched as she inhaled in a ridiculously exaggerated manner. Smart didn’t really need to breathe and was as usual goofing around, just like she was supposed to do.

“Well, Barb and Tress are out exploring Ponyville. Zecora said she made some potion you should probably drink and given the ingredients I know it’s relatively safe to ingest. There’s some kind of wonky rainbow zigzagging across the sky and has been for the last twenty or so minutes. That’s about it… so do you want or need to work on me?” Smart flew to the nearby desk and landed on it waiting for Twilight to answer.

“Go and ask Zecora if I have to come get the potion first, then we’ll see to working on you a bit Smart. I think the new modifications might boost your efficiency by eighteen percent.” It may not seem like much, but it was a lot to Twilight to even get an enchantment to such a refined level.

“Aye aye, oh captain my captain!” Smart threw a silly salute to Twilight and flew off through the open crack in the door.

Smart came back zipping around with the zebra in tow, Zecora was chuckling at something Smart had said.

“It was my notion, that I should mix you a potion. To fix your fatigue problems so you’re right as rain, do not worry as I don’t intend any pain.” Zecora held up a vial in her hoof and Twilight quickly levitated to herself and tasted it. “A spoonful of sugar can really help the taste; it took a while to make that so drink it all but not in haste.”

“I appreciate it Zecora thank you very much, when it comes to potion making I think you have a very special touch.” Twilight upended the vial and she immediately swallowed the contents. After a few moments she felt a vigorous boost in her drained magic and her body filled to the brim with vim.

“You would not need to have pleaded; I am your friend just as needed.” Zecore turned to exit the room, looking over her shoulder at the rejuvenated mare. “I go now back to the formula on which I do work, I feel assisting you to be quite an intriguing perk.”

Twilight turned to Smart and lit her horn, soon Smart’s eyes went lifeless and her pixie body morphed into that of Twilight’s stuffed childhood toy. She placed it back on the desk from whence it fell and sat there studying the enchantments and how well they were working. She had to make sure if anything needed fixing before she started upgrading Smart.

Thus far the only thing Smart seemed to be straining was the enchantment that let her use spells, using levitation too much and or lighting herself up to brightly might cause her to completely lose the ability to use magic. It wouldn’t bother Smart's ability to fly or any of the other enchantments though so that was a lucky break. Twilight really didn’t want to replace the spell enchantment and would work on that a bit.

All the enchantments were back in line and Twilight tweaked them a bit before she decided to enhance Smarts systems. The first thing Twilight had to tweak was Smart's ability to store energy; she would increase the capacity by energy compression. It would give Smart more time to be active for longer periods of time and at night without running dry.

Twilight also decided to tighten the magical flow of the enchantments trying to make sure Smart didn’t lose or waste as much energy. Once she was finished with that she decided to start Smart back up. It was a small tweaking session that took an hour of intense focus.

“Special Magical Artificially Rogue Toy, Entertain, Play, Achieve, Note, Teach, Study. Now active Smart E. Pants!” After a moment the body of the Smarty Pants plush toy shrunk down back into its pixie form. Slowly Smart’s eyes fluttered open and she sat up. “Are all your enchantments running nominally Smart?”

“We’re okay to go Neighpoleon! Well unless it’s that one battle, then we’re doomed.” Smart grinned as Twilight rolled her eyes. “It seems the enchantments are working correctly. If there is anything wrong with them I’ll get back to you or explode violently. I really don’t like that second one.”

“Yes, but I’ve managed to bring you back again and again, even when I make mistakes I’m glad that your still around after I’ve made them and have learned much from them.” Twilght watched as the pixie shrugged, she wouldn’t blame her for not liking the possibility to spontaneously blow up. Twilight doubted a pony would survive exploding twice much less eighteen times to date.

“I know how that feels because I’m running on our memories you know. I’m just glad that I as the toy in this situation can’t possibly feel any pain.” Smart rubbed the back of her head; the sensation of exploding was not something she liked living more than three times. The first time it happened, it was actually kind of funny. “Ponies do say, ancient cities aren’t built in a day. I’m surprised we’ve even got this far with all the enchantments.”

“Well you’re done for a month or two unless any pressing matters come up, do I have any pressing agendas today that I need to worry about Smart?” Twilight really had to make the pixie look really darn cute. Smart tilted her head while crossing her front legs in thought while looking up to Twilight.

“Nothing to report Hoofdini, we’re clear for the rest of the day. So you get a little you time and I’m going to go sun a bit. I think we’re still good enough for handling small requests though.” Smart flew towards the window which Twilight opened for her and out the pixie pony went.

Twilight smiled as she shut window knowing Smart would be back in a while, unless she explodes setting off the failsafe enchantment Twilight designed with such a thing in mind.

Twilight made her way downstairs and decided to make a very simple nice ordinary sandwich. As she was close to finishing it by carefully placing the last slice of bread slowly, a knock at the door was heard and she dropped the bread slice into place and turned to look away from it. As soon as Twilight turned her attention away from the sandwich, it pulled a butter knife on her and leapt at her to start attempting to stab her. Luckily the sandwich was wasn’t physically strong enough to actually harm her, even armed with a weapon.

Twilight levitated the butter knife away from the now floating flailing limbed sandwich and bit off a part of the sandwich that had one of its arms and made her way for the front door. Never did Twilight’s cooking ever cease to surprise her; at least it wasn’t as dangerous as the fruitcake. While Tress couldn’t let go of the demonic fruitcake thing, Twilight had to admit that she probably should be more worried about it like her friend was. It was actually still around since it survived being bit by Barb’s tiny diamond eating teeth. She shuddered at the fact that it was still out there possibly terrorizing ponies somewhere.

Opening the door, Twilight came face to face with a mare that could stand to grow her mane out a bit. Unless she was a tom colt, then that style fit perfectly on her and should probably just brush her hair more often. She had a blue coat with a mane and tail that filled out all colors of the rainbow pretty well.

“Hey are you… is that sandwich alive and trying to scream for help in semaphore with its… are those legs? Aw yeah, that is so awesome!” The colorful pegasus watched as Twilight lazily bit off the other arm of the upside down floating sandwich.

The daisy sandwich looked like it was trying to screech in anguish as Twilight ate another part of it, good thing it didn’t have vocal chords like the macaroni bat. That thing had taken them hours to get out of the attic when she still lived at her parents’ house; she wasn’t even actually trying to cook that time either. She just wanted to make some macaroni art, why did life have to be so unfair to her at odd intervals?

“Did you need something or do you want to go on about how my snack just tried to ineffectually kill me with a butter knife?” Continuing to eat the living sandwich without thinking twice about it, Twilight waited for a response. She quickly decided introductions were in order as the pegasus was staring at the still flailing legs of the sandwich. “I’m Twilight Sparkle. Welcome to Trims, Tresses and Trouble Takers and you are?”

“Oh yeah I’m Rainbow Dash, but what I’m here for is not nearly as interesting as that is! So it came at you with a butter knife? Did it have cookie ninja’s with it too? Did the cake lie to you as well?” Rainbow Dash seemed more interested in the volatile things Twilight had to do battle with and consume. Especially more so than what she actually originally came here for.

Twilight face hoofed, she should just start a food circus and have carrot dogs jumping through hoops for the masses at this point. Helping ponies who were going to be insane or crazy was going to drive her nuts, but she felt like doing good deeds was where her heart belonged. Even if it hurts her mentally to do so, she would push forward.

“I see the shining example of the educational standards of Cloudsdale is still going strong as ever, If I am to judge by your apparent lack of holding a train of thought. Yes, let’s do go on about the sandwich that just inexplicably came to life and tried to kill me and failed horribly at that.” It took a moment for Twilight to realize that this was Rainbow Dash. This was the mare that was Fluttershy’s old friend who had drifted away from her a few years ago.

“That’s it; you’re now my friend no matter what. I’m almost even willing to say you’re officially as awesome as I am!” Apparently Rainbow didn’t catch on to sarcasm quite so well. “How do you even go about making samurai sandwiches anyway? Did you use some special magic trick or have a card that brings it to life to fight other food monsters?”

Twilight double face hoofed. Why, just why? She just took another bite out of her sandwich and silently considered how lucky Fluttershy was to have escaped Cloudsdale.

31

Rainbow just watched as Twilight popped the last of her sandwich into her mouth and chewed it thoroughly and slowly. After the unicorn swallowed it, Rainbow suddenly found herself being very bored as soon as the sandwich was gone.

“Now that I’m done entertaining you apparently, what was it that you wanted?” Twilight didn’t know if this was a friend she wanted, she seemed flighty and easily distracted. Well Fluttershy made that last point somewhat clear if Rainbow ignored her for the most of a year.

“Huh? Oh yeah what I came here for in the first place!” Rainbow watched as Twilight threw a hoof in her face and wondered if that hurt. It looks like she does that a lot. “I’m looking for a pony.”

“Can you be more specific? We’re in a town full of ponies.” Twilight couldn’t help but feel this was a opening to some horrible joke on her.

“Well… she looks like a mare.” Rainbow answered simply.

“Can you tell me about this mare you’re looking for?” Twilight wondered if it was Fluttershy.

“Well she’s feminine. Like a mare kind of feminine, she could just be a very pretty stallion with a falsetto voice though.” Rainbow was quite certain that it had been a mare and not a stallion wearing a wig, it happened in Cloudsdale often enough.

“Could you please be more descriptive, like say what does her cutie mark look like?” Okay Twilight felt like this was going somewhere and she felt a migraine coming on. Maybe that was just her brain cells committing suicide in protest of having to deal with Rainbow Dash.

“Well it was a feminine cutie mark and it looked like something that a mare would have. Thus she definitely looked like a mare.” Rainbow honestly didn’t know why Twilight’s face was turning into a frown.

“Okay let’s try a different line of questioning before my brain implodes.” Twilight really didn’t want to continue the direction this conversation was starting to take.

“That would actually be kind of cool to see, though you dying won’t help me find the pony I’m looking for. Okay then, shoot the next one at me.” Rainbow smiled cheerfully.

“Oh I’d like to shoot something alright… what were her coat or mane and tail colors?” Twilight continuing to her attempts to be amiable in the face of adversity.

“Well they were like my colors; they were pretty bright and cheerful. You know, like a mare.” Rainbow looked to the ceiling wondering if she could eat off of it if she suddenly gained spider powers, it was really clean up there.

“Well is she tall or short?” Twilight was beginning to really lose her cool.

“Well she wasn’t shorter then a bread box and I doubt there’s a mare taller than Celestia. So yeah, somewhere between there and mare shaped.” Okay why was the unicorn looking angry and lighting her horn?

“Please answer this one correctly or I may do something I’ll regret later. Did she have a long or short mane?” Twilight was getting to a point that she was expecting Rainbow to aggravate her further and was having none of it.

“It was pretty long and looked pretty classy.” The unicorn calmed down, Rainbow seriously didn’t know what her problem was. “Yeah like a mares, she was quite a looker too.”

“It’s okay Twilight… you wouldn’t know how to hide the body anyway, so it’s better that you don’t assault the customer…” Twilight mumbled to herself very quietly so Rainbow couldn’t hear her. “Okay is there anything that you can tell me that would help me help you find this mare you’re looking for?”

“Uh… other than that fact that she looks like a mare and had a strange creature with her that could talk, not really.” Rainbow rubbed the back of her head with a hoof.

Twilight wondered if Rainbow was really so dense that she couldn’t have mentioned that earlier, she went to face hoof but her hoof was already in her face by the time she came back out of her thoughts.

“Okay can you describe the creature that was with her and can you give me any details?” If it was who Twilight thought it was, then this was going to be a simple ten bits at least.

“Well it was small, female, had bat or dragon wings, was purple with green hair, with dark blue eyes and kind of resembled a small dragon. How would that work though? I mean dragons are really large, breathe fire and would sooner eat a pony then fall in love with one.” Rainbow paused when she saw the strained twitchy eye on Twilight’s face.

How did Rainbow, who was having problems with giving descriptions of a pony, just give a perfectly good description of Barb? How come she couldn’t just give a defined description of Tress? Twilight’s mind was so boggled she could just…

Meanwhile at the apple stand with Applejack.

“That’ll be two bits please; my today sure is going pretty swell.” Applejack then heard the sound of a blood curdling scream in the distance. “Whoa Nelly, sounds like Twilight is having a really bad day and that sounds like it came from clear across town. I sure hope she’s alright. Ah well, I have to keep selling my apples.”

Meanwhile at the Carousel Boutique with Rarity

“My word, what was that?” Rarity looked entirely confused, she just shrugged and went back to work on the dress, she had to get the trim just right. Oh Tress was going to look so fabulous in it.

At that moment where Fluttershy currently resided in her cozy little hovel she called a home.

“Was that mom just now?” Barb asked as she petted a rabbit, she carefully placed it aside and stood up on the couch. “I’ve never heard her scream quite like that before… well ever since the fudge brownie incident that is.”

“Something tells me she has recently met Rainbow Dash. Let’s go Barb.” Tress immediately set out the door to go rescue her best friend, with Barb riding on her back.

“Excuse me my little angel, but I have to go help my friends with something. I’ll be back in an hour or so.” Fluttershy flew off after Tress hoping of all hopes that she didn’t outright hurt Rainbow.

Back with Twilight, Rainbow Dash and a particularly mirth filled Zecora who had been watching the events from off to the side. Rainbow was covering her ears and cowering away from Twilight, wondering what she did to get that kind of reaction. Was this unicorn bipolar or just really high strung?

“I know how to find the pony you’re looking for.” Twilight sighed lowering her head in defeat; she had gotten all that anger out of her system in one furious scream. “Ten bits and I’ll tell you how to find her.”

Rainbow smiled, she was getting somewhere at least. She pulled out the required bits from somewhere and Twilight simply took them.

“Wait here for five minutes, that’s all you need to do.” That was all Twilight needed to say as she was going to go to the fridge and pull out some ice cream. She really needed the comfort food right about now her throat was raw after that scream.

In all likelihood Tress probably heard the scream that Twilight just let out and was running in the general direction of the house. It would take a few minute getting back if anything. Of course, Twilight could be underestimating Tress and she could be back within the next forty seconds if she was really pushing it. So she guessed a nice safe five minute time limit.

“What? That’s it? Is that all I have to do to meet that mare again?” Rainbow didn’t know how to feel at the moment. On the one hoof she just paid ten bits to a mare for doing nothing. On the other hoof the mare in question was awesome enough to get those bits from her without a fuss.

“If it is the mare I think it is that you do seek, then maybe it’s a good idea to wait unless in patience you are weak.” Zecora could see Rainbow ready to go off at her and in a cantankerous manner that a pegasus would be known for. She simply stopped Rainbow before she could get started. “For if you have no patience then the mare you will not find, I hope at least a lesson you can learn and maybe you will teach one in kind.”

“Wha… who are you? Also what’s up with all the rhyming?” Rainbow had stumbled when she heard Zecora speak and was about get angry with her until she spoke again cutting her off from saying anything.

“I am a zebra and Zecora is my name, rhyming is a common trait as among any other zebra you’ll hear the same.” Zecora thought the mare was a bit dense, but just regularly friendly.

“Hey Zecora have you ever had to come up with a rhyme with orange in it before?” Rainbow smiled at the zebra wondering if she would take the bait.

“Ah, if it’s oranges of which you need to hear, an orange is easy to rhyme with just to be clear.” Zecora smiled back at Rainbow.

“Well, I guess that counts as a rhyme with orange in it.” What could Rainbow say to that really? She did use the word and she did rhyme. She just didn’t use the word as the rhyme; she must have been pretty smart. “So do you live here or something? Also what’s up with the unicorn, Malachite was it?”

“Twilight Sparkle is just feeling a might bit tense. Maybe something you said to her didn’t make much sense.” Nobody was ever stumping this zebra. “I’m only living here for a short time; I’m lending my aid as well as my rhyme.”

“I don’t know about that, I was pretty clear that I was looking for a mare and what she looked like.” Rainbow tilted her head in confusion. “So… do you know anything about The Wonderbolts?”

“A wonderful sky fairing lot they are, they go everywhere near and far.” Zecora remember seeing one of their shows when she went through Saddle Arabia. “They travel the world far and wide, to show off their strange form of pride. They usually stick to the lands of Equestria with their apparent fame, a bunch of flying show offs that are mostly tame.”

“Yeah and I’m going to fly with those brave ponies some day.” Rainbow flew up throwing her hoof into the air.

“Not if I beat the tar out of you first you won’t.” Tress said walking through the front door.

“Huh? Oh hey there, I’m so glad I found you. I didn’t get your name earlier and...” Rainbow landed on the floor and held out a hoof to Tress. Tress passed Rainbow to trot into the kitchen at a brisk pace and Rainbows wings wilted, why was she being ignored? She thought the mare was a pretty good prankster and wanted to congratulate her on getting one over on The Dash.

Tress found Twilight eating ice cream, apparently something Rainbow did really got to her if she was eating frozen cow juice mixtures. Well that’s what Twilight called them anyway.

“Are you okay Twilight?” Looking out the window it was getting pretty late into the evening, Tress sighed as she hugged the poor unicorn. Then grabbed a bowl and started spooning out some ice cream for Barb, she didn’t forget she was just going to do it homemade, they had strawberry syrup, bananas and the ruby she could stomp on.

“Yeah, I’m fine Tress. It’s just Rainbow is so dense. It’s like she’s never cracked a book in her life!” Twilight wouldn’t believe it could possible that a pony has never read a book before.

“Huh, but books are for eggheads and squares.” Rainbow watched as Twilight flinched at her sitting right there at the table. “So what are we talking about? Oh and what’s her name, she won’t tell me. Can I have some of that ice cream?”

Twilight didn’t know what to say about Rainbows disrespect of books in general, because she personally loved to read. Rainbow was also a tad hyper and it was a distinctly annoying kind too.

“Tress, I hope I’m not asking too much of you, but could you please try to at least be nice to her?” The soft exceedingly familiar voice caused Rainbow to freeze up and he wings went stiff but didn’t unfold.

Rainbow slowly turned her head and stared wide eyed at her old friend Fluttershy with that strange creature on her back.

“It’s been a long time Rainbow, I hope we’re still friends. Well that is if you want us to still be friends, we don’t have to be if you don’t want to.” Fluttershy squirmed under all the attention she was receiving from every pony; she rubbed her legs with her right wing shyly.

32

“Fluttershy, is that really you? Where in the world have you been? I haven’t seen you in a while.” Rainbow flew up to the shy mare and gave her a short affectionate cuddle; she didn’t want to be lame by prolonging the good feelings of hugging her.

“You haven’t seen me in more than five years Rainbow, by the way happy birthday today. I’m sorry I didn’t get you anything.” Fluttershy knew she couldn’t stay long to make sure her other friends wouldn’t do anything to Rainbow. She did promise she’d be back in an hour to her little angel bunny… maybe she should just name him Angel.

“Oh that’s no problem, has it really been five years though? I thought you’ve only been gone for one.” Rainbow didn’t notice Tress leaping for her in an attempt to throttle her for just being so oblivious.

Twilight tackled Tress to the floor and Barb watched on, lazily eating ice cream as her mom wrestled with her best friend. This was pretty entertaining to the young dragon and she has seen plenty of strange things in her life at her grandparents’ house.

“Rainbow, I left after Gilda had been around for a year. What happened to her anyway, if you don’t mind me asking?” Fluttershy was curious as to how well the griffon did at winning the Rainbow’s heart.

“She left around two years ago… I think. She seemed pretty upset about having to go home though.” Rainbow liked Gilda as she liked doing awesome and cool things too, they were pretty good friends. “So what’s been up with you?”

“Tress, please don’t do this. I know she’s annoying and I certainly feel your pain in that area, don’t think I don’t. We should just let them talk and today is her birthday, I’m not about to let you hospitalize a pony on their birthday in this house.” Twilight was having quite the time pinning down Tress, as Tress was physically more capable and larger then she is.

“Twilight I respectfully ask you to let me go, so I can trample and or maul her.” Tress continued to put up a very good struggle. One of which Fluttershy was witness to, but Rainbow had her back to them.

Fluttershy had a large bead of sweat trail down the side of her head at the scene that was going on beyond Rainbow’s view. She knew Rainbow was aggravating them in some way, maybe the likeliest reason is because she was so ignorant of what Fluttershy herself went through. They were good friends, but they didn’t need to do things like fret over stuff like this for her sake. This was just how Rainbow was.

“Oh, um… I’ve been well… I ran away from home, lived on the streets of Canterlot’s for three years and slept in a lot of trees. I really discovered all the finer points of my cutie mark and that I’m also good at medicine during all it. I even spent some time living with Twilight’s family. It was very nice except when the food came to life, which can actually be very scary even if it still tastes good.” Fluttershy watched as Tress pinned Twilight and Barb started counting up to ten. Apparently they turned whatever they were doing into a competition instead of a possible assault on Rainbow. “I moved to Ponyville a few days ago with my good friends and now have the most wonderful job in the world!”

“And Tress takes the Trouble Takers Takedown wrestling championship belt.” Barb announced gleefully off to the side.

“Huh?” Tress said simply as she turned her head to look in Barb’s direction while making sure Twilight couldn’t get any magic off. It was around this moment that Tress started to calm down. It was better if Tress just left the room and stopped thinking about hurting Rainbow at all, she’d be more upset at making Fluttershy upset. Well at least now that she had come to her senses. “Twilight I’m going to let you go now, we are going to stand and walk into the next room and we are going to sit down on the floor and discuss couches. We will ignore Rainbow until she finds an actual reason to bother us.”

“That actually sounds pretty good to me.” Twilight blushed at the position Tress had currently put her in, the way her mane tickled and slid along her face was really nice.

“You got into the Wonderbolts? Because that’s the coolest job there is! I’m going to be the best one someday.” This was Rainbow’s translation as to the best job in the world and not what Fluttershy thought was her perfect job. “You must have had it so easy Fluttershy, I bet running away was a cakewalk for you and you never had any hardships.”

“Excuse me Twilight, but you make have to restrain me again and drag me from the room before I do something every pony in this room will soon regret.” Tress said threateningly as her eyes turn green and red while glowing slightly as she helped Twilight to her hooves. Running away from home was never an easy thing, Fluttershy was lucky to be a very bright and intelligent mare to barely survive her own at the age of eleven. Without the animals she befriended aiding her she could have been long dead by this point. “The only reason why I’m not leaping at the chance to hurt her right now is simple. She just doesn’t know what Fluttershy has gone through yet and more importantly she doesn't know any better.”

“I think I need to leave too before I start thinking of letting you carry out whatever it is you’re currently thinking.” Twilight quickly levitated Tress against her will and quickly ran out of the room before the situation got worse. There was another reason why she needed to get Tress out of the room and she addressed it. “Tress, I don’t mean to panic you but you’re eyes are green and red.”

“What! Get me to a mirror Twilight.” Tress felt herself be dragged along through the air towards the closest to bathroom.

“Oh no, I’m not a Wonderbolt silly. That’s your dream job. Also it wasn’t very easy for me at all, if you consider being homeless and almost having no bits for food easy. My dream job is running an animal sanctuary and working with other ponies that are good with animals.” Fluttershy really hoped her friends were alright. They disliked Rainbow a lot, but she was sure with a little time Rainbow would grow on them.

“Is every pony staying for an evening meal? To not make enough for all a bad friend I will feel.” Zecora just shook her head at the way Twilight and Tress left the room. She thought there was something off about Tress’s eyes; it looked like she was possessed though Zecora didn’t know for sure if that was the case. She knew that those two would at least be around.

“I’m sorry Zecora, I can’t stay. I promised a rabbit I’d be back within an hour and the one that’s still recovering.” Fluttershy didn’t really want to leave Rainbow Dash alone with her two other good friends. As she made her way for the living room she turned to ask her old friend a question. “Don’t you need to go home too Rainbow?”

“Nah, I’m sticking around for dinner. Free food sounds good right about now. I’ll have whatever you guys are having tonight.” Rainbow couldn’t understand why Fluttershy was sending her worried looks, there was nothing to be worried about and she had made a bunch of new friends today. “So where is your home Fluttershy? I didn’t see any other pegasus houses in the area where I’ve got mine.”

“That’s because my home is on the ground Rainbow, I’ll show you later.” Fluttershy wondered if leaving was such a good idea, but she would do so anyway. She just hoped they didn’t rough up each other too much. “I really must be going now, I’m sorry if things go wrong at dinner Zecora.”

“There is no need to worry, go on back to your charge which is cute and furry. I’ll see to it they do each other no pain, for they have more as friends to gain.” Zecora thought they had a certain quality of craziness working between them as friends that certainly had a unique charm to it.

“Well if you’re sure everything will be okay Zecora.” Fluttershy didn’t say much further as she went for the front door and turned back to say something loud, well loud for her anyway. “I’ll catch up with your later Rainbow.”

“Sure thing Fluttershy, we’ll make a day of it!” Rainbow called back still sitting at the table bored with the world as nothing interesting was happening. What were the other two mares doing? She watched as the zebra started working on dinner as the dragon thing finished off her ice cream.

“Tress… have you’re powers recently come back and how strong are they at the moment if they have?” Twilight saw a look of apprehension in Tress’s eyes.

“Well… I’ve been able to control a lock of my mane; it turns the general Mane-iac style of green when I’m controlling it. I really didn’t want to tell you until I figured out how I managed to get that much of my powers back.” Tress tried to focus on her mane and get it to change; only it wouldn’t. Tress was wondering what was wrong with her. She had the eyes, but the rest of her body and hair was still the same.

“Well can you show me?” Twilight asked as she was witnessing Tress stare into the mirror a little harder than normal.

“I’m trying, but it’s not working for some reason. Hold on a second, I think I’ve got an idea.” She was so focused on her eyes; she needed to move her focus away from her eyes. She really needed to redirect it somehow. Slowly she saw the green with red inner circle fade from her eyes and a length of her mane slowly started turning green.

“Can you do your eyes and hair at the same time?” Twilight queried her as she noticed that Tress’s eyes returned to their usual vibrant blue. Her mane basically highlighted itself green on its own and she moved it to lift a hairbrush.

“Not really, it’s sort of strange. My eyes are taking up some of my powers for some reason. Also I can only create this one small tentacle and stretch it to ten feet at maximum. I had Fluttershy measure it when I was at her house. So far I can only do either my mane or my tail like this and it’s either one or the other.” Tress couldn’t honestly understand why her eyes would be taking up the energy that made her super powers work.

“Have you ever considered the fact that your super powers might have been more than just the things you can do with your beautiful mane? Did you even test everything you could do when you had your powers at full strength?” Seeing her friend shrug, Twilight knew that they had to test Tress’s powers as there was more to them then apparently her hair. She made note that more highly resilient body was a common super power for heroes and villains, so that was also something Tress was currently lacking without her powers.

“Well no, but thanks for the compliment even if I’ve already heard it many times, I do try to keep it nice and clean as you very well know. What in the world could my eyes possibly be doing or what makes them so special that they’d draw from my Mane-iac powers?” Tress really never had power problems before, she was always full on powerful when she was Mane-iac. Right now she doubted she could even take a full on hit from Saddle Rager. She’s done it once or twice, but as she is now Tress would probably die the instant that his hoof made contact with her and provided he was in full rage mode at the time.

“Well it’s no less true; I really do like working with your mane. Look, we’re going to look into this Tress so don’t worry about it too much right now. I do have one question though, when did you gain the ability to change your mane like that?” Twilight was curious as to when Tress had exactly discovered this sudden return of her abilities if even slightly. How long had she kept this a secret?

“It first happened when Rainbow almost slammed into me earlier today and almost got me and Barb covered with a wave of mud. I think the zap apples might have restored some of my power and I reacted to the sudden possible threat at incredible speed.” Tress moved the brush back to where she got it from. She had taken a moment to draw all of the power back inside of herself returning her completely back to normal, well as normal as a super powered mare could be.

“Tress, your powers should be inert. The magical energy from those apples shouldn’t be capable of doing this, though I must admit there might be something to it. Again we’ll look into this later; it smells like Zecora is almost finished working on dinner.” Twilight started to walk away followed by her best friend. Just before they reached the kitchen she heard a whimper behind her. Twilight stopped, turned back around and hugged Tress. “I’m not going to stop being your friend because of something like this Tress; you should really know this by now.”

“Well that’s comforting at least, but I’m whimpering about the fact that Rainbow is apparently staying for dinner. I can already imagine the disappointed look on Fluttershy’s face when I give her a black eye.” Looking at the table Rainbow was talking with Zecora while Barb was making some vegetable stir fry and working a frying pan with her bare claws. Apparently Zecora was finished with most of what she had to cook.

“Come on Tress. Let’s go get this over with.” Twilight dragged Tress to the table holding her hoof as she walked. "We'll get through this somehow."

33

The next day…

Well dinner last night had gone well or at least Tress would attest to it despite the black eye, she wasn’t the only one but with Zecora it was hard to tell if she was bruising or not. Surprisingly the injuries she acquired were not because of Rainbow Dash, whom she begrudgingly respected somewhat now. She was never safe around any Sparkle, but she didn’t care as they were her friends.

Twilight thought things could have gone worse at least Rainbow was entertained by what happened last night. She was going over the agenda’s they could do today while sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of steaming hot tea under her nose.

They had several jobs they could feasibly take this day, one from a pony named Bonbon who was actually asking Twilight for a service she was actually good at. There was also a call for assistance into helping teach some unicorns at the local school by the earth pony Cheerilee. A unicorn named Lyra needed advice and a little outside help with something. There was some call for assistance in setting up musical stuff from someone named Vinyl Scratch. Another request from Vinyl to talk to a pony named Octavia about something. Finally an earth pony stallion named Time Turner needed them to throw garbage into a magical garbage can at a specific time and place, this would only take about ten seconds out of their day or so the request stated. Mr. Turner was offering up a lot of bits for them to do this.

They had plenty of jobs and plenty of things they could be getting paid for.

“Mom, I am so sorry about last night. I still don’t know what went wrong.” Barb walked into the room looking remorseful, only to receive a gentle hug from Twilight.

“It’s alright; things just got a little out of hoof Barb.” The dragon snuggled into Twilight’s chest and she smiled at her daughter. She was certainly a chip off the old block; she was certainly proven to be a part of the Sparkle family after last night. “Smart! What is Barb learning today?”

“Levitation and yes we’re doing it outside and we’re not nearly that stupid we know!” Smart fluttered into the room and landed on top of Tress’s head. “In any case we need something that doesn’t catch on fire to practice with. Unless you want stuff to be teleported to you constantly, Barb is kind of keyed in to your energy signature with her messaging spell and it seems it is a bit automatic if she doesn’t want something to catch on fire. We’re still working out the kinks on it.”

“So what are we going to do today Tress?” Twilight was eager to get out there and earn some bits so they could continue their livelihoods. They were doing pretty well already.

“I’ll take care of this Time Turner’s request, though I don’t know why he’s paying us a hundred bits to do something so simple sounding. It seems a little odd that he’d want to pay us so much, but who am I to complain as long as we get paid to do it?” Still though, Tress was kind of hoping it’d be as simple as it sounded. The description of the garbage can was simple enough; it’d have a plunger shaped object sticking out of it and that they were to ignore whatever it said and just toss some garbage into it, then forget about it entirely. “Other than that, I want to take up Lyra’s request and talk to Octavia for this Vinyl character. I’ll do the Time Turner one when I can. It’s set for around lunchtime anyway so we should probably meet at the café as its close enough to the target location. I’ll see what this Vinyl will exactly want me to say to Octavia before I meet up with Lyra.”

Tress hadn’t met any of these ponies yet, but these were their clients and they were taking their requests. Twilight handled the requests and meetings with the ponies when she got some free time that is. They have been meeting a lot of new ponies to befriend lately and Tress thought Twilight looked so happy to be spreading herself out into the world.

“I’ll come with you to meet up with Vinyl and we’ll work on that angle together and split up to go do the other things. I’ll talk Cheerilee about when I can start teaching and how long she expects me to work with the unicorns about how to do magic; she’ll likely want me doing afternoon classes.” After a moment at which Twilight noticed she was being stared at by Tress, she rolled her eyes. “Of course I’m going to take Bonbon’s request; her mane really needs a trim and some styling. I still need to talk to her about what she exactly wants me to do with her hair.”

“Don’t forget to visit the mayor today! Are you done with breakfast Barb?” Seeing the dragon nod, Smart fluttered into the air off of snuggling into Tress’s mane and immediately started for the door. “Well come on then, it’s time to open the public library or as I like to call it the kung fu dragon warrior training grounds!”

“Oh, before I forget, Pinkie finally sent us an invite to her 'welcome to Ponyville' party! I hope we can all go to it.” Barb pointed to where the invitation lay and then was out the door, she already got her hug from mom today. She could already tell Smart was going to make today fun and unique for her and looked forward to what the crazy toy mom was going to have her do.

“Huh, you have been invited to the best super de duper ultimate welcoming party ever. We’ll have snacks, games and I even got DJ-Pon3 to agree in making an appearance so it’ll be a blast. I hope we can all be the best of friends, love to every pony from the Ponyville Premiere Party Pony Pinkie Pie. It sounds fun Tress, we’ll go and we can earn some business from the sounds of it. Maybe meet a few more acquaintances and friends.” Twilight knew it was the pink pony that held the parties in the library recently, but she couldn’t be mad with her as she agreed to stop doing so. They were going to enjoy it just fine as long as Pinkie wasn’t too annoying.

“DJ-Pon3 is going to be there? Well this is sure to be a blast, especially if she’s doing the music for it. I’ve been to one of her shows before.” Tress wasn’t about to say that was with Fleur, but they did have a lot of fun. “Now let’s go see this Vinyl Scratch about this equipment set up and talking to Ms. Octavia.”

“Excuse me for asking Tress, but can I borrow some of your shampoo. You know, the no particular smell one, I need it for when I meet Bonbon later on.” They were soon setting about the room to pick up their saddle bags and Twilight was given the shampoo, she made sure to pick up the stuff she’d need for taking care of a mares mane later on today.

They were off once again into the wild blue yonder while Zecora cleaned up their home, she too was going to the party and she didn’t say much else except that she’d be leaving for the Ever Free Forest soon after. She’d come visit them once in a while and make sure they actually got a well cooked meal, she felt sorry for Twilight being incapable of making anything other than some of the best pudding she’s ever tasted.

They came up to Vinyl Scratch’s location or at least the one that was given to Twilight. Tress was idly moving along behind her, Looking at the splendor that was the nice town they moved into. Walking up to the door, Twilight knocked on it and it opened to reveal a unicorn mare with a wild looking electric blue mane, white coat and wearing tinted glasses.

“Oh, hey miss Rave Lady! How’s it hanging mare, it’s been a while hasn’t it? Say, where’s the hot stuff Flower Power?” There was a look of confusion on the purple mares face and the other pony the DJ recognized immediately.

“DJ-Pon3, what are you doing here? We’re here to meet a Miss Vinyl Scratch about two jobs, one to talk to Octavia and the other to help move and possibly assist with equipment?” Tress saw a smile cross DJ-Pon3’s face.

“Oh good you’re here! Well you’re looking at her, as my name is Vinyl Scratch and that’s when I’m not up on the stage. So who’s helping me with Octavia, she’s a tad stuffy and is finding it hard to break into Canterlot high society. She really needs to learn how to live a little and let loose once in a while. I needed some pony to show her that not all high society types are all into the pompous blowhard act or at least show her she’s a tad too uptight. I needed a mare that could do the job and you’re perfect for what I need Rave Lady if you will do it; Octavia is a fan of yours and was sad that you mysteriously quit. I can kind of see Ponyville as being more your speed and I can agree that Canterlot can be quite the drag sometimes.” Well it was apparent Vinyl Scratch was quite the chatterbox and was upbeat and friendly.

“Well at least I didn’t have to explain why I quit the super model scene to you at least; you’re quite fast when it counts Vinyl. Though you could stand to bathe more, you have a body odor that’s kind of rank.” Watching as the pony sniffed herself, Tress gagged and so did Vinyl. “Yes well, where is this Octavia? I’ll see what I can do.”

“Well first I want to how much is this going to cost me? I know you aren’t doing this all for free. So when can you two help me move and set up my equipment, because it needs to be done tonight unless you have other pressing matters?” Vinyl waited as the two other ponies deliberated, Tress addressed her first.

“It’s interesting knowing the real name of the DJ that knows how to mix good music. How much a job from us costs is based on how difficult the job is, for Octavia it won’t cost more than ten bits. We can even all join together for lunch and split the check between all of us. We got several other ponies we’re going to be working with today as well.” Tress wouldn’t mind having lunch with Vinyl and whoever this Octavia is. “So we’ll do lunch at the café, what do you say Vinyl?”

“Okay that seems fair; I wouldn’t mind sharing a table with random strangers today.” Vinyl stretched out, she was going to have some fun today.“Sounds like a good plan to me.”

“I can certainly help you move you’re equipment later in the evening Miss Scratch. It really wouldn’t be that big a trouble so it’ll be cheap as well.” Twilight said politely only to get a frown from Vinyl.

“You need to remember that I don’t like being called a miss anything Sparky. Call me Vinnie or Vinyl, maybe eventually at least think of giving me a fun nickname.”After a moment Vinyl smiled seeing that Twilight gets it. “Yeah, I can work with your help though. Just follow my directions when we start setting up and we’ll do just fine Sparky.”

“Sorry about that Sniff, is Sniff okay for you Scratch? We can work out moving and setting up stuff over lunch. I’ve got a lot of other ponies to meet with today. So see you then I guess?” Twilight answered back, she stared at Vinyl’s mane. It was wild, unkempt and in need of a good cleaning but she sounded like the decent sort of pony that liked informalities. Twilight wasn’t going to ask if she could work with Vinyl’s mane as she knew what kind of pony Vinyl was and that she’d refuse immediately. “We’ll all meet at the Café with the good hay fries, say around noon to one.”

“Yeah, I can dig that. As for you Rave Lady, Octavia can be found down the street take a left and she’s in the third house on the left. Just don’t be surprised if she treats you like royalty though, she thought it was previously impossible for an earth pony mare to make it in the high society of Canterlot’s unicorn population. She’s been proven otherwise and is trying to make a splash with her classy music stuff, not exactly my scene but I want her to achieve her dreams she’s working hard for. She’s been my best friend since forever and we grew up here together so treat her with respect.” With that Vinyl turned around wiggled her rear end at them before she closed the door and snickered a bit. They saw her bridged eighth note cutie mark quite clearly and heard some words from her before she got too far from the door. “I’m so going to drop that bass tomorrow.”

“Well that was a strange pony, how do you know her and who’s Flower Power? Is it Fluttershy?” Twilight saw a cringe cross Tress’s face. She was glad to have set a time for them to meet up at the café or else things would have been a little awkward if they didn’t know when to meet up.

“No, actually it’s some of the things I did with Fleur. It’s kind of hard to make friends in Canterlot and not only did I work with her, I also partied with her too once or twice.” One would think Tress was in trouble because she still hasn’t told Twilight about how she met Fleur; they would be wrong as their friendship was as great as ever.

“Well okay then. I guess this is where we split up Tress. Today is going to be crazy I just know it.” Twilight and Tress walked away from each other. Only within seconds did they run back and swapped hugs and wishes of good luck on their jobs today, they’d need it if Twilight was right about it being crazy.

34

Tress counted off the houses and stopped at the third one on the left, trotting up to the door of the small house she could only imagine the way things could go wrong. She seriously wondered why she was so popular. Fleur was supposed to be the one every pony looked up to, not her!

Sighing and deciding to bite the bridle, Tress marched up to the door and gave it several smacks with her left hoof. She could hear a voice on the other side grumbling about something. The door slowly opened up to reveal a somewhat tired looking earth pony.

“Why Vinyl I have half a mind to… to…” Octavia was grey coated mare with a black mane and tail set in a refined well brushed style. Her fringe was especially cute as it swept across her forehead and she wore a small white collared pink bowtie around her neck. Marking her flank was a purple treble clef cutie mark. She stood in the doorway staring at Tress with a rising amount of awe and then her purple eyes rolled upwards. She had flopped into Tress’s hooves passed out.

“Is there a doctor nearby?” Tress suddenly called out. She was completely aware that Twilight was right, today was going to be crazy and this was only the beginning.

A brown stallion with an hourglass cutie mark stopped nearby and gave a mischievous smirk while waggling his eyebrows at Tress and then continued on his way. Tress was thoroughly confused by the stallions’ actions and then she saw Fluttershy leading a pack of ducks while walking backwards.

“Hey Fluttershy, can I get a little help here! How do I resuscitate a pony that’s just passed out in shock?” Tress was asking the pony who knew first aid better than she did.

“Oh my, is she okay? Hold on a second Mrs. Quackers, this’ll only take a moment. Well first you need to lay her down gently; you caught her fainting which is a good thing. Now let me check her pulse… well unless you know she’s perfectly fine and still breathing.” Seeing that the pony was still breathing meant it wasn’t a serious issue, but Fluttershy checked her pulse anyway and it was still strong which was good. “Please remember these things when a pony passes out Tress, you could save a life. First we try to shake her shoulder gently and if she’s unresponsive we move on to the next action to take.”

Tress shook Octavia’s shoulder and she was slightly responsive as one of her ears flicked, but didn’t do much else.

“If that doesn’t work, do you know her name? If she doesn’t respond to your voice we’ll move on to the next step.” Fluttershy waited once again for Tress to complete her action.

“Octavia, wake up!” Yelled Tress into her ear and now both her ears wiggled slightly.

“No Vinyl, I don’t want you to lick marmalade off my belly. That’s really disgusting of you Vinyl… keep going.” Octavia’s words caused Fluttershy and Tress to blush.

“Let us never speak of this moment or even bring it up ever again Fluttershy.” As if it wasn’t awkward enough for them already that she fainted right into Tress’s hooves.

“Um… that would be for the best. Okay if this doesn’t work, you should introduce pain and or splash her with water, but make sure she doesn’t choke on the water and might want to splash her chest or belly as it’s more sensitive. If she’s still unresponsive and doesn’t immediately wake up, get her to a hospital as fast as you can. She doesn’t seem so bad off so get some water; I don’t like causing other’s pain needlessly.” That wasn’t to say Fluttershy wouldn’t cause pain if it could help someone, she just hoped to minimize said pain when the situation it was needed occurred.

They both walked into the currently open home and quickly found out where the mare kept her drinking glasses, after a moment Tress filled one with water and splashed Octavia carelessly. The mare immediately sat up sputtering water and looked completely confused.

“Vinyl, what in the world are…?” Octavia stared at the two ponies one in particular was Tress Ravel, the other was just some random pegasus who she felt radiated pure kindness with her soulful eyes. “Uh… this is awkward.”

“Yes, very much so… you can get back to what you were doing Fluttershy and thank you for all the help. I’ll try to keep your knowledge in mind when another pony passes out on me.” Tress watched the shy mare exit the domicile and then started coaxing the ducks back onto their migratory waddling path along the ground. Apparently Mrs. Quackers little ducklings couldn’t fly, Fluttershy was leading them safely through town to a nice pond.

“Excuse me for my episode if you will, but what is The Tress Ravel doing in my home?” Octavia was kind of star struck and her voice was quite soft sounding in nature with a classy lilt to it reminiscent of an upper class pony. “Oh where are my manners, I am Octavia Apple Melody Pie Philharmonica, you can just call me Octavia or Ms. Philharmonica if you will.”

“What is it with ponies thinking I’m so famous? I only worked with Fleur for about two years. It was nothing that big really.” Considering the positively aghast look on Octavia’s face, Tress felt she was about to get an interesting response from her.

“Why, whatever are you talking about? You’re an inspiration to ponies everywhere and not just because you worked with Fleur De Lis. I’m having troubles even getting my hoof in the door to Canterlot, though I have gotten some acknowledgement for my work. You see my special talent is playing all kinds of stringed instruments, I’m best with a cello or a bass. I’m also really good at violins, but that was mostly because of cousin Fiddlesticks helped me learn. Though I still don’t fully understand her insistence that I learn to play the more country stuff, it’s not my thing really and she thinks I’m just being silly about it.” Octavia paused realizing that she wasn’t talking to Vinyl and was going off on into her own little world. Usually Vinyl let her ramble on but this was a guest in her home and a famous one from Canterlot no less. “I’m terribly sorry about my rambling Ms. Ravel, is there any particular reason you sought me out?”

“I heard I had a fan in the area and I decided to introduce myself. I just moved into Ponyville recently with my friends and so far this town seems peaceful. Well if you can discount the giant monsters and the forest of imminent death next door.” Well that was mostly true, Tress knew Octavia was a fan of hers. Almost like Rarity was and just as classy, she should probably introduce the two to each other as they’d get along greatly.

“Still though, why did you quit? You were doing so well and I must admit you’re as elegant and beautiful as your pictures. Even then I don’t think they do you even a smidge of justice.” Octavia was starry eyed as she said this.

It kind of freaked out Tress on some small level, but Octavia's compliments were nice all the same.

“I’m Tress Ravel as you know, what you don’t seem to know about me is that I’m not into fame or fortune thing. I’m just trying to live a nice life that was given to me, though I thank you for thinking so highly of me. I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind following me around for a bit and then we’ll do lunch with my associate I’m currently working with.” Almost immediately Tress received a nod, Octavia looked eager to impress her and wanted to be friends. “First we have to go meet another pony, since she has a job for me and needs my help.”

“Okay lead on Ms. Ravel, though would you mind if I ask you a question?” Seeing that the taller pony nodded as Octavia locked up her home, she decided to ask the question on her mind. “What is your special talent and how did you get your cutie mark?”

“How I got my cutie mark isn’t that important, I just loved smelling things when I was younger and wondered what it would be like if I could smell like them.” Because it would require Tress to explain she’s a comic book character from another universe and that she was a whiz at alchemy at a young age and had to run a corporation left behind by her deceased parents. All the riches and fame in the world still couldn’t compare to a friend once you’ve lost it all and hit rock bottom. Still though, it wouldn’t hurt to tell Octavia what she was good at. “My special talent is making beauty products, more specifically shampoo and body wash are the particular things I’m really good at mixing up. I have a side business selling some of this homemade stuff and I wouldn’t sell it if I didn’t perfect it and use it on myself first. My main job is working with the Trouble Takers with my best friend and we’ll take commissions for just about anything as long as it isn’t violent in nature. Doesn’t mean the situation we get called in for can’t be volatile, a few days ago we ran afoul of a five headed hydra while chasing a cat.”

“I heard about the hydra thing in the marketplace. That was you and your friends doing? Well that’s an interesting talent, so how did you get along with Fleur so well if I may be so bold to ask? I would also like a few tips on how I can get my start in Canterlot.” Octavia wanted some pointers if she was going to try and become a pony others could look up to as well. She really didn’t want to know how Tress ran into a five headed hydra; it was probably something Vinyl might eventually drag her into meeting because it sounded fun.

“Well for one you got the accent down, honestly don’t know why ponies bother with the holier than thou attitude though. Let me tell you a secret about how things work in life, be yourself and don’t try to change who you are to fit someone else’s design. That’s what Fleur taught my best friend and she’s one of the nicest ponies you could ever meet.” Tress thought Twilight was something special and so did any other pony that inadvertently get’s affected by her endearing personality. “It’s best to find the ponies that you can work with, ponies that will be your close friends no matter what happens. I wouldn’t try to force anything if you’re really dead set on dealing with the nobles though, you should really cater to those who would truly appreciate you.”

“I can agree with that, though I can think of a friend I’d rather not have causing trouble around me.” Octavia was referring to Vinyl Scratch. That pony was such a nuisance and yet Octavia felt a pang of guilt if she were to try and run off Vinyl despite how infuriatingly annoying she was. Vinyl was always messy, uncouth, smelly and was never really too serious about anything and yet Octavia liked having her around for some odd reason. “Then again I feel like I’d miss her too much if I were to push her away.”

“Trust me on this one Octavia; a best friend is something every pony needs. Just to have a pony that can understand you even if they don’t see eye to eye with you. In the high society scene you want to break into, you’re going to need to find friends like that to stay in business and do what you love.” Tress felt a tingly sensation in her heart, now if only she could tell if it was growing three sizes or not. “I think we’re almost there. Let’s see, yes this should be it.”

Octavia took notice of where they were and wondered why of all places did they have to come to her house? She really didn’t like the pony that lived here, but she wasn’t about to voice her displeasure as this was a job for Tress and this had nothing to do with her personal displeasure of the pony.

Walking up to this particular house and knocking on the door, Tress waited for the pony inside to open it. Inside was a mint green pony with a lyre for a cutie mark, she had a cyan colored hair with white streaks in it. As soon as she saw Octavia she glared.

“You, what are you doing here!” The pony in particular had a rivalry with Octavia.

“She’s here with me. I’m Tress Ravel and I’m here about the help you wanted.” Tress saw a bad situation coming a mile away from the clients’ reaction to Octavia who shied away slightly not wanting to cause her any trouble. It was a good sentiment, though Octavia didn’t really need to worry about her livelihood even as she shook hooves with Lyra.

“I’m Lyra Heartstrings. Does she have to be here for this?” Lyra wasn’t particularly pleased with Octavia’s presence; they were rivals in music after all.

“Considering your reaction to her, she has to be here now more than ever!” Both of the ponies looked at the evil smile on Tress’s face with confusion and trepidation. Tress had a plan; she did say a friend was a pony Octavia needed even if she couldn’t see eye to eye with that pony. What better way to show her that then to spread a little friendship between two enemies. “Now what was it you needed of the Trouble Takers Ms. Heartstrings?”

35

“I’m not sure I can trust her with what I need your help with.” Lyra didn’t know who Tress was and in comparison she was pretty sure Octavia didn’t either. She didn’t know why her opponent in music looking at this mare so fondly.

“Eh, I don’t know her that well either, but I’m willing to give her a shot at being my friend at the very least. So what’s the deal with you two, do you have a bad history with each other?” Tress was glad that Octavia had only fainted upon the sight of her and then didn’t do much more as a fan of hers. Current slightly dysfunctional super powers aside, Tress thought she was just an average mare trying to get by and help her friends with their dreams. Twilight was right she needed to find some dreams of her own.

“We don’t like to talk about it much, but we just keep running into each other a lot and we always end up taking music related jobs out of each other’s hooves. It happens fairly often, enough so that we have a grudge going between us.” Octavia understood that and wasn’t insulted by Tress, it was the truth she had only just met her and the first thing she does is faint? Then again she really could stand to be a little less star struck; Tress was definitely not the high societal type she expected her to be.

“Is that really a good reason to be hostile towards each other?” Tress thought Octavia could be much worse about the way she held her in high esteem; even if Rarity wasn’t this bad about it. Speaking of which, Rarity mellowed out pretty quickly once she found out that not everything was all sunny as it seemed up there in Canterlot, though she still had her dreams of finding a nice stallion and running a dress making business with a lot of renown.

“Oh we can make plenty of reasons to be hostile towards each other.” Lyra said plainly with a flat look on her face in Octavia’s direction, Octavia returned the look if slightly unbalanced in comparison to the intensity being much less then Lyra’s.

“We’re really getting off topic here, can we get to what is it that you needed my help with?” Tress got between them and separated them somewhat; she had to get her plan in action and fast.

“Can we do this somewhere more relaxing before I tell you what I need help with?” This got Lyra some odd questioning stares.

“How can your house not be relaxing?” It wasn’t like Octavia was the only pony who thought this as Tress was sharing a similar sentiment in her own head.

“Look I just need some fresh air okay! I also really want to sit on my favorite bench at the park. Maybe then I might feel better about telling my request, especially with octopus here flailing her tentacles at me.” Lyra sniffed with her nose upraised at Octavia who glared at her.

Tress thought there was a bit of irony here. At least so far nothing too horrible has happened to her and it seemed things would be normal for once. Octavia was probably the worst of the trouble she would be getting into today, she could only hope.

Lyra led the way to a grassy place with a few trees; it was a park where ponies tended to play with their pets. Eventually she came up to a particular bench. Planting herself in a weird sitting position that was a tad unnatural for a pony, Lyra turned her eyes to Tress as she got comfortable.

“I swear you’re about as bad as Vinyl is.” Octavia muttered in reference to how the unicorn was sitting.

“Okay I know this is going to sound like an odd request, but I really need help confessing my feelings to a special pony close to my heart.” Lyra looked a bit pensive about the help she needed and was ignoring Octavia’s jab at her, she thought Vinyl was okay for a pony that was noted for being a bit wild. “Maybe you could give me some advice about how to do it or the setting I could do it in?”

“I would need some more information about this pony you’ve got your eyes set on, I promise I’m not about to judge you based on your choices.” Tress had no problems with Lyra, even if she were attracted to mares.

“Well it’s not you I’m worried about, it’s her.” As Lyra pointed out Octavia, the evil smile once again came across Tress’s face.

“Don’t mind her being here; she’d be a terrible pony if she said anything negative about your personal life choices which have nothing to do with her. I’m here to help you out with your problems and if I can’t help you, you won’t have to pay me.” Tress still had that creepy smile plastered on her face.

“But aren’t you kind of making my personal life choices known to her?” Lyra thought Tress was being rather creepy by the fact that she only widened her smile a bit.

Octavia didn’t know why Tress was allowing her to take part in this, but she was pretty sure it was going to get her involved soon.

“Well fine, the pony I really like is a mare and she was kind enough to take me in when I was down on my luck. She likes me even despite all my issues and I wanted her to know how she makes me feel to just be around her.” Lyra had her eyes set sternly on Octavia who had no business actually being in on this. She noticed Octavia really didn’t say much; in fact she looked a bit sad.

“So Octavia, how does it make you feel to know one of your friends is in love and has less time for you?” Yes, Tress really needed to exacerbate the issue.

“I don’t know Ms. Ravel considering we aren’t exactly friends; it’s kind of hard for me to even consider I might have caused another pony to become destitute. When did you have money issues Lyra?” Octavia asked a bit wary now of how this conversation was tangling up her own feelings about a pony she thought she knew.

“Wait… you didn’t know?” A look of confusion crossed Lyra’s face before she became angry. “How could you not know? It was about a year and a half ago!”

“Wasn’t that during… oh, I see.” Octavia thought they were still doing particularly well off even if they were rivals. Lyra was an excellent harp and lyre player.

“Well you might want look on the bright side of things.” Tress said cheerily and only slightly out of character for her.

Octavia just never thought of the possibility of actually causing other ponies she knew personally to have monetary issues, not while she pursued of a good well paying job for her own music. She wondered why Tress was trying to make things worse; didn’t she care about getting paid herself? Didn’t she need the bits as well? She was now working random jobs instead of with a popular supermodel, is this a point she was trying to make about having friends?

“Well you did meet a mare you care so much about that you could profess your love of her to a total stranger and a pony you don’t like and didn’t care what they would actually think of you. If you can do that then you can certainly tell her how you feel to her face!” The two mares reeled back at her words; Tress just started laughing at them. “Let’s talk a little about this mare, what’s she like? Also do you want to join me for lunch? I’m supposed to meet up with my best friend after I finish up another job on the way to the café. If you want to talk completely homeless try doing it for three years, a friend of mine certainly knows what it’s like.”

“You have a friend that was homeless for longer then I was? How is she nowadays, I’d have gone insane if I was stuck that way for much longer with barely any bits to my name.” Lyra’s tone changed immediately, having live through it personally and Tress knowing a pony that had been there as well helped her a bit.

"Oh she’s certainly around and she is much better off now that she has a good job here in Ponyville and she got it with the help of her friends. Octavia has already met her.” The musical mare looked at Tress questioningly before she realized who she was talking about.

“You mean that pegasus that helped you revive me when I fainted?” Octavia asked uncertainly, Lyra chuckled at her despite not knowing the context of why she fainted. Didn’t she know who Tress was? “Who in their right mind wouldn’t take in a pony that nice? She even took time out of her day to help me get back on my hooves.”

“That’s Fluttershy for you, she’s the kindest pony I know and she likes to help others feel better. Her special talent is communicating with and understanding animals. She was barely living on the streets of Canterlot and if she didn’t have the animals as friends there she wouldn’t have been as well off when I and my best friend found her.” The conversation turned a bit lighter tone as Tress thought of that mare being out in the cold without being covered in very friendly squirrels. “So, how bad was it for you in comparison to my friend who had to sleep in tree’s and rely on the kindness of animals to keep her alive? Not to mention she spent most of the money she earned on helping said animals that helped her.”

“Not nearly as bad as my situation was or sounds. I was still able to at least make some money street performing and I was very frugal with it, it sounds like your friend wasn’t even thinking of herself.” It seemed a little sobering that all her problems might not have been as bad, as somewhere at some time there is pony that possibly has it worse.

“She wasn’t, trust me on that. Let's get back to giving me a better description about this mare that you really like.” Tress was intrigued to hear more about how Lyra felt about this mare.

“Well she has a beige coat, a pink and blue mane. She has three sweets marking her flank and she earned her cutie mark in making candy. Also there’s this one unique thing about her that I really like, her voice randomly changes all the time. It is so weird and enchanting.” Lyra sighed while staring off into space. “Though she’s rather sweet and like an angel, just don't get her angry."

Tress knew that sounded an awful like one of Twilight’s other clients; well lunch was going to be an interesting affair when she and Twilight came back together.

“Was this pony named Bonbon by any chance?” Tress suddenly found herself being shaken out of control by a suddenly excited lyrist.

“You two have met, did she say anything about me or does she think my fascination with humans is too weird? Oh goodness I don’t think I can share how I feel with her if she doesn’t like me too much because of that or maybe she does like me back and she’s too afraid to tell me.” Lyra was up and out of the bench, a little worried about what Bonbon would think of having a relationship with her. She was taking a bit of these worries out on Tress. “What do I do?”

Lyra felt herself be slapped by a hoof and she quickly released Tress to have her shoulders held down by two grey hooves. She was being stared down by Octavia and her body froze.

“Well first you can calm down this instant and come to your senses! No rival of my mine is going to cower or go insane when she so bravely faces against me in melodic combat with such beautiful tones.” In reality, Octavia did that to help Tress out of her predicament as she looked to be a bit dizzy from being shaken up so hard.

“Thanks I needed that… wait, neither of you don’t think it’s odd that I love a mare?” Lyra had always worried that her status would make her unlikable in Canterlot, the upper class unicorns were all into the status quo and disliked same gendered couples. Not to mention the issue of whether or not Bonbon would return her feelings to begin with.

“Eh, it doesn’t bother me one bit, though I have no idea what you’re going through.” Tress shrugged, this was a little beyond her but she would still help Lyra confess her feelings.

“I think I personally focus too hard on my career as it is. I don’t care whether any friend of mine likes mares or stallions. It doesn’t have any bearing on how I live my life so it really doesn’t bother me all too much.” Octavia finally admitted that she might have been a little harsh with Lyra in the past and decided to start calling her a friend. Tress was right, when things came right down to it you needed friends who may not like you but will be there when you need them.

“Good to know. Now if we can please stop getting sidetracked, will you join us out for lunch Lyra?” If Tress was right, Lyra will be seeing Bonbon very soon. Twilight was inviting the ponies she was meeting to lunch as well; this job was just as good as done.

Author's Notes:

The word of the day is Frugal.

I really have to bother to ask if people are still reading this, as the story is a bit slow at this point and once I get to Pinkie Pie it'll pick back up. This chapter was a complete mess for me.

36

“Equine based life forms detected, strange excessive mutations in one of the three subjects. Threat level extreme, course of action is immediate deletion. Ex…” The garbage could barely get out its next word when one of the three equines that had been approaching the bridge walked up it.

“Yeah yeah, existential crisis I get it. Kind of what my friends’ toy goes through once in a while just being a pile of memories animated and being too near another enchantment using the same magical signature would cause problems in the long run thus you have issues with being so alone being what you are at times.” Tress stated as she walked up to the strange trash can with the blue light on top of it that stared at her. She pushed the plunger shaped extrusion downwards and the top of the magical garbage can popped open.

“Incon...” The garbage can started to say as it should have been impossible for its lid to open the way it had been.

“Yeah, inconvenient I know but that’s life for you. Now shut up and let me throw my garbage into you.” Tress popped off some bits of trash into the garbage can while the two other ponies stared at the strange magical garbage can thing. After she was done dumping off some random trash she had found lying around, Tress lifted her left hoof off the garbage cans plunger and the lid dropped back into place. “Come on you two stop staring at the strange magic garbage can, we need to reserve a table with a possible party of eight or more. I swear you’re both easily distracted by even the least of the weirdest things I’ve seen.”

Lyra and Octavia carefully trudged around the trash can which didn’t move or say anything, it had been attempting to talk before and now it was just completely silent.

“That thing looks like it was made by humans… and their hands!” Lyra said slightly wary of the so called trash can.

“Must you prattle on about these strange creatures of yours? How do you even know they exist if you don’t have photographic evidence?” Octavia said right back, keeping the trash can in peripheral vision as she slowly passed by it.

“Do you seriously live in an area where there is a forest that is known for its unknown wild creatures next door? It’s not that big a stretch to believe in strange and unheard of creatures that resembles a minotaur that is only less bulky and hairy.” In fact Tress was pretty sure if a world like hers existed, then so did one with Lyra’s thin tall lanky creatures. From what Lyra told them, humans were technologically advanced and had minimal magical powers to see into other worlds and express these realities in magical technological viewing devices, works of art and books.

The trash can twitched slightly once the three equine creatures were far enough away. The garbage can started screaming and moving around small tight circles until it hit the edge of the bridge and flipped over it. It fell towards the small stream upside down and it went up in a spectacularly huge explosion as soon as it hit the water.

Both Octavia and Lyra jumped and turned around to look at the explosion while Tress just flipped her mane and continued walking on to smile at the sight of Twilight. The explosion was framing Tress in some rather epic backdrop lighting as she gave a simple coy smile to her best friend, yeah she didn’t know what was going on behind her and she obviously didn’t care. She simply did what Time Turner wanted her to, to just forget about it after the job was done.

“How are things going with you so far?” Tress said in an amused tone to Twilight and the other two mares, all with boggled expressions on their faces.

Up above Tress and Twilight at the moment was an annoying pegasus who blinked at what she just saw.

“That has got to be the most awesome thing I’ve seen today, she didn’t even look at the explosion!” Rainbow threw her hooves up in the air spreading her wings wide, she was right in thinking Truss was an interesting pony. No wait, her name wasn’t Truss, what was it again?

On a hillside far away looking through a pair of binoculars at the bridge, a brown stallion smiled to his companion who was slowly munching her way through another muffin. He looked to his left at the chalkboard bisected into two different sections with a chalk line. The left side of the chalk line had the word ponies underlined and beneath it the brown stallion lifted a piece of chalk to the board and put a slash through some markings, at the current count it was up to forty five. The other side of the board had another underlined thing but it didn’t even have a single mark.

“Well they certainly aren’t very good at invading Equestria are they Doctor?” The blond mare said cheerily as she nibbled at her blueberry muffin. The brown stallion smiled and nodded. "I better go deliver the bits as promised; you fish whatever is left of it out of the stream.”

The stallion just smirked victoriously as his rather affectionate friend nuzzled him and took to the air with a bag of bits. Once again Equestria proves that alien invaders are really poor at handling friendly, adorable and cuddly little magical equine creatures.

A while ago with Twilight Sparkle, before meeting Tress with an explosion going off behind her while she did a rather impressive pose to go along with it.

Twilight wondered about this Cheerilee mare a bit as she made her way to the school. This was a town which easily supports all types of ponies. A teacher was a pony Twilight could respect as teachers usually had hard jobs in making sure other ponies had futures to look forward to.

She approached the school, today wasn’t a school day and Cheerilee was here just cleaning up the school. Upon trotting inside she could see why Cheerilee needed to clean up. Whatever they were paying her for this job, it wasn’t anywhere nearly enough.

“Excuse me, Ms. Lee. I’m here to talk about assisting you with teaching the unicorns how to use their magic.” The earth pony mare that was poking as some odd sludge like substance on the floor with a broom suddenly perked up her ears and turned around to look at Twilight.

“Oh thank you for coming, maybe you could assist me with the cleanup of a tiny science experiment gone wrong first?” Cheerilee’s green eyes were pleading for some support with her current endeavors. Her mane and tail were two shades of pink, regular and lighter. Her mane was kind of reminiscent of Apple Blooms hair style, just without the bow. Her coat was a dark purplish pink and her cutie mark was three pink and yellow flowers with smiling faces on them.

“Sure thing Ms. Lee. What was the experiment and how did it come to this?” Twilight noticed Cheerilee wasn’t entirely forthcoming with how the room ended up in the state it did as she mumbled something. “What was that? I can’t hear you. You sound like a shy friend of mine.”

“I said we were making volt conducting potatoes or experimenting with how to grow potatoes in water.” Cheerilee honestly didn’t know how one of her students could mess up putting a potato in some water to test the charge it gave off. Much less that they managed to ruin the science behind just growing a potato in something other than soil.

“How could something like that go wrong and end up like this?” Twilight was a bit stumped to explain all the green sludge lying about on the floor. She just started collecting it with her magic and saw the relieved look on the teachers face as she would have it all off the floor, walls and ceiling quickly enough.

“I ask myself that sometimes, hold onto all of it for a second while I go get a garbage bag open.” After managing to stow away the mess into a bag Cheerilee sighed with relief. Things were much easier with a pony like Twilight around to help. “Thank you so much for coming and helping me with this mess.”

“No problem at all. So what did you expect me to do, am I actually getting paid for this and what days do need me to come in on? Other than that am I even capable of teaching without a license in Ponyville?” Twilight needed to be reassured she could even do this job and without any issue, homeschooling Barb was fine. Teaching anyone that was not her own child might not be as fine.

“You do pose some good questions Ms. Sparkle. I expect you to help me as a volunteer assistant and yes I’m willing to pay you depending on how good a job you do with the unicorn children. These sessions will take place on Friday in the evening for at least an hour after school; I’ll let you know when I need you. Also yes you can teach, but only as long as I’m present.” Cheerilee really needed a unicorn to help her teach the unicorns in class how to use their magic; she also needed to find a pegasus to teach those with wings how to fly.

“Are there any ponies against homeschooling here in Ponyville?” Twilight had to ask because of Barb who was currently working on her education with Smart. Twilight taught Barb at times and enjoyed every moment of it. It was a little weird for Twilight to find herself suddenly under some strange looking scrutiny from the earth pony.

“Why would you ask something like that? It’s perfectly fine, just not a good idea when we have some of the best unbiased teaching facilities around. I try to teach all my students subjects that are equally useful for any race of pony as much as I possibly can, considering how diverse the population is here.” Earth ponies may have settled here, but they shared the land with pegasi and unicorns in complete harmony. Cheerilee as a teacher would never put one race above another.

“Well you see, I have a daughter and…” Apparently that was the magic word for some kind of trigger in the teacher as Twilight saw her suddenly get a look of sad concern across her face. “What is it?”

“You’re not one of those little fillies who grew up to fast because of a magical surge that aged them to adulthood for a time are you?” Cheerilee didn’t like it, but it could happen and only too little unicorn fillies. They wanted to grow up so fast around the age of five to seven, they had a magic surge and usually temporarily became anywhere between eighteen to thirty years of age. If this happened the pony in question was not mentally ready for the world and bad things tended to happen.

“Oh no… no… that’s… that’s horrible. Has that… has it actually happened?” Twilight had never considered something like that as being possible. Once the idea of how bad something like that could go and what kind of damage it could do to a little fillies mind popped up, Twilight was suddenly having trouble banishing the horrors that her mind came up with. This was what Cheerilee thought of in reference to her having a daughter? Twilight felt a little sick inside when she noticed the teacher wouldn’t meet her gaze.

“It’s sad, but it doesn’t happen too often thankfully. So how old are you exactly if it wasn’t that? You don’t look a day over thirteen.” Cheerilee was now curious. If Twilight wasn’t one of those sad broken little fillies, then how could she have possibly had a daughter as young looking as she is?

“I’m sixteen actually, I hatched my daughter when I was eight and it was something I’ll never forget. She’s quite a lot of responsibility and I’m so lucky to have the great parents that I do as they helped me raise her. My daughter is a magic dragon you see and it was when I was doing the entrance exam to ‘Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns’. They have attempting to hatch a dragon egg as a test and it’s been a lot of years since any unicorn has actually managed to hatch one, they put spells on the eggs to make sure they’re normally too hard to hatch.” Twilight sighed as she hadn’t had the best childhood, but Barb was always something she cherished to watch growing alongside her.

“Isn’t that a bit barbaric? I mean what happens if the eggs goes bad? Wouldn’t that make dragons want to attack ponies or something?” Cheerilee had always thought unicorns were a bit odd and abusing magic tended to have horrible consequences at times. The teacher shuddered at some of the horror stories she’s heard from Nurse Redheart.

“Dragon eggs don’t go bad and they even have preservation spells on them to make sure they don’t, though I think they might have swapped to using chicken eggs since I took my test. I’m not sure how they get them, but Celestia must know since it’s her school and I don’t think she’d do something bad enough to upset a swarm of dragons.” Twilight was really an eye opener for those examiners, able to control a magical surge to such a fine degree to crack several magical protections and hatch the egg despite what was in her way of actually doing it. “Just so you know, I love my daughter and she means the world to me. Though she’ll continue to be a baby dragon for only so long now, I might have caused her aging process to be a bit slow when I hatched her using my magic.”

“So you slowed down the aging process of a creature that already ages slowly?” This was something important for Cheerilee to point out, not that she was saying Twilight was a bad mother. There were just some minor implications about what she might have done.

“Can we do lunch together today and would you mind following me around for a bit to talk about some things? I have a lot on my mind to get off to some pony.” Twilight was going to consider the implications of what Cheerilee had just pointed out for a while.

Author's Notes:

I just gave everyone a sad or dark story idea here, hope it's not too upsetting to the sensibilities

Just to remind everyone, this is not a grimdark story. That doesn't mean a grimdark scenario can't be brought into question or happen. I do after all have a rather twisted mind that can consider all kinds of strange possibilities, I might have cried a bit when I looked into the particular direction of that one.

To think Trixie aging Snips and Snails in two different directions in the show seemed somewhat innocent at first when she was having a magical duel with Twilight.

There's also something else to consider, I just painted a slightly negative light on Celestia here.

Sorry for the mood whiplash I may have caused.

37

“So there’s a chance Barb might mentally outpace her body?” Twilight asked still wondering if she might have done something irreversibly harmful to her daughter. She and Cheerilee were currently on their way to Bonbon’s house. “I thought most dragons weren’t very well developed mentally if at all, I guess raising her as a pony might have some other consequences like her not getting along with other dragons. Then again dragons don’t normally get along with each other anyway unless it involves mating season and magic dragons are completely different from normal dragons to begin with.”

“Well it is possible. I can tell you’re a good pony and a great mother to worry this much about it.” Cheerilee had never met a pony so young that sounded so devoted to their child; they had been discussing the psychological as well as physical issues Barb may face in the future. “I believe we’re at Bonbon’s house Twilight.”

“What already? My how time flies when you’re discussing the future of your child with a new friend, I hope that you’ll help me out if I have any problems with her?” Twilight was happy to talk about all kinds of subjects that Cheerilee could readily understand. As a teacher she was well educated in all things dealing with foals, fillies and colts. “I also want to thank you for listening to all my worries so far Cheery.”

“No problem at all Twilight, it is kind of my business to help parents while helping their children grow.” Cheerilee wanted to learn more about Twilight Sparkle, she had learned a lot about Barb the daughter of Twilight Sparkle so far.

Twilight walked up to the door and hit it several times with her right hoof. She turned to Cheerilee as she heard a vocal response from Bonbon that she would be a minute before she could open the door. It sounded like Bonbon was busy with something.

“So you’ve lived in Ponyville for most of your life. Do you know Bonbon and is there a reason why Bonbon’s voice sounds so odd? It’s rather strange how it fluctuates at times when I met her.” Twilight kind of thought it odd that Bonbon could have a normal sounding voice one second and the next it was different entirely. She and Bonbon had talked about when her trim and styling would take place. Twilight was happy to come over to her house and exclaimed a day she’d have time for it and Bonbon agreed to that day.

“Yes I know her. It’s not Dysphonia if that’s what you’re thinking, though it is a bit of an odd quirk that makes her incapable of singing normally. Dancing on the other hoof is not a problem for her and she’s really good at that. Never forget that every pony has their strengths and weaknesses Twilight.” Cheerilee decided to broach the subject of Twilight herself. “Speaking of which Ms. Sparkle, I’ve learned a lot about your daughter but what of you and you’re home life? How was it for you going to a premier school of Celestia’s? I want to know how well your parents took to suddenly having granddaughter little earlier than normal.”

“It was interesting growing up Cheery. My parents are the friendliest and most open ponies I know. Then again they’d have to be with all the weird stuff that goes on around us Sparkles', having a dragon for a granddaughter didn’t bother them at all. I thought it would have and that they’d disown me for having a child out of wedlock. Looking back on it I was being a silly filly by trying to pretend Barb was my little sister.” Twilight smiled a little and stuck her tongue out of the corner of her mouth in a silly smile. “Celestia’s school was good for teaching unicorns all kinds of magic and I’m generally good in all of them and that’s what my special talent is, just being good at magic. I might be powerful but I will hardly ever master a field unless I put enough focus into it, though I’ve pretty much mastered enchanting since I got a doctorate in it. Her school might be good at teaching gifted unicorns, but it’s not a good place to make friends and that’s why I moved here.”

“The art of emplacing magical effects onto objects, it sounds useful.” Cheerilee didn’t know many enchanted objects as that was more of a thing to appear in Canterlot than in Ponyville.

“Not as much as you would think, it’s really a hassle to even enchant one object to do more than one thing at a time. Enchantments require a lot of energy to function even if on a small scale.” Twilight knew Smart was the epitome of her enchanting skills and her toy barely absorbed enough energy to use all of her functions at once or even constantly. If Smart didn’t have the capacity to hold onto excess amounts of energy she wouldn’t even be able to levitate small objects or even use the most basic of light spells.

After a moment the door swung open and Cheerilee saw a blush appear on Twilight’s face as she took in Bonbon’s appearance. She wondered why Twilight was blushing like that and why were her eyes trailing across Bonbon like that? Looking to Bonbon herself she could see she hasn’t had her mane cut in a while.

“Hello again Twilight, I guess it’s about time for you to give me that trim I asked for huh?” Bonbon shifted a length of her mane out of her face and noticed the local teacher and old friend standing with her hair styling appointment. Bonbon’s voice seemed to change every once in a while mid speech. “Oh hey there Cheer, are you here with Twilight? Come on in and make yourselves at home.”

Twilight watched as a few inches of Bonbon’s mane and tail dragged along the floor, she was almost like Fluttershy in the way her mane was kept so long. The rose pink that faded into somewhat dark blue portion of her mane that was in front of eyes was a rather nice and evenly colored as it trailed its way to the floor. It seemed like the rose pink was just a highlighted the middle portion in her tail whereas it was half the color that hung in front of her face.

“So what did you need me to do with your mane and tail aside from trimming them?” Twilight was ready to get started with her job; she should have probably brought a bucket. “I want to wash, brush and comb you’re hair out too, but how I style it is up to you really.”

“I want two curled separate bangs resting on my forehead, two large curls lying at both sides of my withers that can uncoil to a bit past my knees and three different small curls in my tail. I’ll try to define it better after we get to that part. So how are we washing my mane and tail?” Bonbon liked how inexpensive Twilight made her services out to be. She really hoped this unicorn was good at what she does and can give her the style that she wanted.

“We can use your bathroom if you don’t mind, hold on a second. Do you want to watch me work with Bonbon or are you going to sit down and read a book or do something to busy yourself while you wait Cheery?” Twilight really needed to work out how these house calls were going to work from now on. So far she was excited as this was her first one and she couldn’t wait to get started on Bonbon’s mane and tail. “I would like you to stick around and tell me how I did with Bonbon’s hair when I’m done and your opinion would really go a long way to helping me earn more business.”

“Bonbon, would you mind if I made some tea for myself and used your stuff?” Cheerilee had to ask as this was her home and the teacher wouldn’t want to impose on an old friend. “I’ll stick around Twilight and I’ll be glad to judge how well you did with Bonbon.”

“Of course I don’t mind Cheer, just don’t eat any of the candy in this house and don’t abuse my stuff and we’ll be fine. Now come on Twilight, you certainly look ready to help me with my mane.” In fact if Bonbon wasn’t sure about it, she thought Twilight might have seemed a bit too eager. It was probably her imagination as she entered the bathroom with the large wide mirror.

“I hope you don’t mind but first we’ll do your tail and I’ll get a feel for what you want me to do from styling it. Now sit here please, so how short do you want your tail.” Twilight had her sit at the edge of the bath tub and got a bucket to fill with lukewarm water, once she started filling it up Twilight got Tress’s special shampoo out from her saddle bags.

“What kind of smell is that shampoo?” Bonbon asked as she was curious what was going to be used on her mane and tail.

“No smell in particular. Here take a whiff of it.” Twilight levitated the open bottles cap underneath Bonbon’s nose and she inhaled and smelled exactly nothing which confused her. “My friend made this shampoo to have no smell at all and it’ll strengthen the smell of the shampoo that was previously used by you. This shampoo is something she can produce cheaply and in vast quantities to help prolong the effects of your favorite shampoo’s smell. She wouldn’t let me even use it unless she’s thoroughly tested this stuff on herself. I tested this a lot for a few months to make sure it was safe as my friend has some rather unique attributes for an earth pony.”

“That actually sounds pretty ingenious and since it’s cheaper to make she wouldn’t have to worry about having to buy much more expensive shampoos.” Bonbon admitted that it sounded like good prospect and she was a mare who knew business running her own candy shop. One that is usually frequented by Pinkie Pie for party snacks sometimes, her chocolate covered pretzels were still selling very well.

“My friend could probably make those more expensive shampoos from scratch; she usually likes to make what works for her. Not to say she doesn’t spend a lot of time innovating some pretty weird stuff. For instance I never knew you could make a pony smell like a chocolate ice cream cone with the waffle cones smell included.” As she said this, Twilight levitated the water out of the bucket she filled and magically ran the liquid through Bonbon’s tail dampening it. She saw Bonbon shudder slightly at the feeling and she even smiled a little.

“That felt kind of funny and the ice cream thing sounds weird.” A blush ran through Bonbon's cheeks at the feeling of the warm water after it had passed over her tail. “Not a bad kind of funny either.”

“I’m trying a method as to not make this messy, now if you don’t mind I need to apply the shampoo if that’s okay with you.” After Twilight got Bonbon to assent, she floated the shampoo bottle and squeezed a bit out of it into her magical field. She started to work it into Bonbon’s tail starting from the base and working outward. A smell of sugar and strawberries started becoming pronounced on Bonbon’s tail. “Strawberries and cream shampoo? That’s an interesting choice.”

“I just really like sugary smells. That’s the closest I can get to smelling like taffy without getting my mane all sticky.” Bonbon actually liked the rapport she was building with Twilight and the feeling of the goop she was working through her tail hair.

“I’m sure my friend can mix you up whatever smell you like best and she has been pretty good about making just about any kind of smell you could imagine into shampoo. She once even smelled like grapes; I don’t even know how she did that without even staining her mane slightly and it smelled so great.” Twilight once again swept a globe of water through Bonbon’s tail cleaning it of the substance that had no smell. “Now how much do you want me to trim off after I’m done combing and brushing it? I really need to know where to start.”

“I would like that. If you could introduce your friend to me sometime I’d appreciate it and would like the challenge of stumping her. Trim my tail where it meets the floor and trim the blue sections a bit shorter than the pink one.” After a few minutes of watching Twilight brushing and combing her tail and feeling a particularly red in the face, Bonbon watched the unicorn calmly levitate the scissors to deftly trim her tail. Bonbon nodded at how much Twilight had cut off. “Good, stop there. Maybe trim a little more of the blue, no trim a little less than that… yes that much. Now curl my blue lengths equally and curl my pink section but it still has to be slightly longer than the rest.”

Twilight focused her magic towards the fourth spell she had ever learned and focused it into curling the tips of the Bonbon’s tail. Bonbon worked her through the effort of how she wanted it curled and seemed very particular about it.

“You know, you’re really good at this are you sure this isn’t your special talent?” Bonbon swished her tail and was pleased to how it felt as it swayed through the air. “Now let’s do my mane.”

Well so far things didn’t seem to be going as badly as Twilight thought they would be, she was actually expecting to be attacked at any moment by some kind of force that just wanted to ruin her day.

Author's Notes:

Someone might want to write a story where Bonbon actually has dysphonia and how it affects her life.

38

“So what do you think Cheery?” Into the room walked the purple pony followed by a completely refreshed Bonbon, her mane was styled to how she wanted it to look and she was happy with Twilight’s work.

Cheerillee looked up from her cup of tea and blushed slightly at the happiness Bonbon was giving off, if she wasn’t already interested in Big Mac and didn’t know she was straight she would probably give Bonbon a wolf whistle. Moving of their own accord, Cheerilee pursed her lips and she gave exactly the whistle she didn’t think she wanted to do.

“Wow, she’s that good Cheer? You’d only do that kind of whistle for a certain stallion.” Chuckling Bonbon ran a hoof through her mane as she laughed at her friends blushing face. She really wished the single teacher would stop tap dancing around the issue and ask the gentle stallion out already.

“Looks like she got you your old mane style perfectly, then she went and made your mane shine beautifully. I think you did really well with her Twilight.” The teacher noted how Twilight looked embarrassed and slightly flustered.

“I try, so how much tea did you make?” All too soon, Twilight found herself sitting down and having a nice cup of tea with two new friends. Today was really beginning to get Twilight paranoid, what was the big disaster that would befall her today? This tea was so relaxing she’d swear it’d lead her into a false sense of security; as such she tried to stay completely tense. She failed at that and started relaxing as they started discussing random topics about what goes on around Ponyville.

“What time is it?” Looking around for a clock Twilight sat up twitch her ears about for a ticking sound and listening for turning gears. Bonbon got out of her seat and made her way into the other room.

“It’s about twelve, why?” Her voice oscillated slightly and it was a little awkward. Bonbon had gotten over her vocal issues a long time ago and many other ponies were used to her having a different voice every other day.

“It’s about time for us to get going to lunch then, my best friend is going to bring the other ponies she’s befriending on the job with her and we’re going to make a big thing of it.” Their circle of friends was expanding exponentially since they came to Ponyville and Twilight now had so many ponies to talk to on a daily basis. She’d never be bored and she’d always have ponies to converse and do things with.

“Give me a moment to get some stuff in order and I’ll join you. It sounds like a nice outing.” Bonbon went about picking up empty cups and the teapot Cheerilee used, she started humming to herself and even that sounded odd to listen to.

Once they got going, they were off towards the café to meet up for a big friendly lunch. Twilight still felt like things had time to go wrong but she wasn’t as worried about it.

“So what’s your friend like, I haven’t exactly met her yet.” Now that she thought of it, Cheerilee knew Bonbon probably hadn’t either.

“Well, she’s beautiful and could make a living as a supermodel. Otherwise she’s just like any other pony and a really good friend to have, though sometimes she has her quirks. I sometimes think her personality is on some indefinable hair trigger at which point she just explodes with charisma.” Twilight smirked at that, yeah her friend had a really nice mane. Speaking of charisma she thought it was time to broach an odd topic. “So, do either of you think Celestia is perfect?”

“Not really.” Both ponies froze as they looked to each other then back to Twilight. They had responded at the same time and Bonbon had made it sound like an echo when her voice matched Cheerilee’s exactly for the seconds it took to speak those words.

“Well it’s a proven fact that no pony is perfect, not even the two princesses we currently have in Equestria. Not to say that they can’t be wise or knowledgeable and something to look to for direction. However looking up to some pony as young as Princess Cadence is kind of foolhardy and until she grows up more and gains some wisdom I don’t see the appeal in why ponies prostrate themselves to her as well as they do to Celestia. Celestia has actually earned her respect for sitting a throne for hundreds of years alone and without any strong lasting companionship. Those two can’t share every pony’s ideals and they have to at least have their own in the grand scheme of things.” As a teacher Cheerilee had to remain unbiased even in mention of Celestia, she may have been a powerful being but she was not perfect. She respected knowledge and those who use it correctly.

After hearing Cheery explain her point, Twilight turned to Bonbon as they continued their slow gaits. Cheery was a logical pony and a good teacher, she wasn’t even wary of speaking ill of the large pony if it was the truth.

“She may be doing her best and she may be a nice pony, but she’s still a politician. Despite the fact that she may have always done right by every pony in the world for years upon years, she still may at one time or another have her own selfish desires in mind when she does stuff.” She really never had given it to much hard thinking as Bonbon didn’t like nobles and their political games, she decided to elaborate a little deeper into what she was thinking. “At some point in her thousand years of existence she has had to kill something at least once in cold blood, she’s fought in wars and despite how she is nowadays she can immediately media blackout anything she doesn’t like. She’s not the end all of power in Equestria, but she’s politically powerful enough to hide so many skeletons in her closet that they will never see the light of day. Celestia could even actively outlive them to the point that the skeletons no longer mattered. If she’s to have her way, she could kill us all if she wanted to considering she controls the sun. Is it any wonder so many ponies walk on eggshells when she comes to Ponyville every once in a while? She frequents every pony town, city, village and settlement at least once to try and stay connected, but ponies are always making sure she’s disconnected because they are always bowing to her whims either on the fear of death or because she comes off as motherly. Is she beautiful? The answer is yes unless she’s magically making herself appear like that. Is she perfect? Not even close to it and she has flaws that she tries to hide behind that sad veneer of a simple cheerful smile on her face.”

“Yeah, I guess those are both good explanations along with the reasoning behind them.” Twilight was mortified by the idea, but now that she thought of it Celestia had to have a reason to open just a school for gifted powerful unicorns. She didn’t open a school for gifted pegasi or earth ponies to help them with their natural skills, it was only unicorns. For a being that was supposedly impartial this was rather suspect and the only reason why she’d consider any of this is because Cheerilee brought up the use of dragon eggs in tests and examinations as barbaric. There’s life in the eggs and to possibly end them by accident or on purpose for some sort of test was a horrible thought. Fillies and colts might have accidentally killed some dragons’ babies all just to find out if they were especially talented at magic. She was giving Barb a big hug the next time she saw her.

They really gave Twilight fuel for some thought provoking stuff as they approached the restaurant. To think that it was a candy maker and a teacher of all ponies that thought of most of this stuff. Twilight saw Tress approaching and smiled at seeing her.

Twilight blinked as she was witness to Tress flipping her mane as an explosion went off behind her and she smiled at Twilight. Twilight could feel her pupils expanding at the beauty of the pose that Tress just took on with the explosion lighting her form so well. Twilight could feel her heart rate speed up at the entrancing scene before her, looking behind her she could see both Cheery and Bonbon were also awed into submission as Tress trotted up to her.

Slowly the two other ponies behind Tress that had turned to look at the explosion quickly caught up with her once they noticed she had kept moving. They came to a stop at her side as she spoke.

“How are things going with you so far?” An amused Tress thought it was funny to see those looks on their faces.

“Oh, uh… fine… just fine Tress. Cheery, Bonbon, this is my best friend Tress Ravel.” Twilight held out a hoof for them to introduce themselves.

“Twilight wasn’t kidding; you do explode with charisma as if on a hair trigger.” Bonbon stepped up and shook hooves with Tress as she let out a bark of laughter.

“That’s a good one Twilight.” Shaking her head, Tress walked for the restaurant while all the ponies grouped together to get to know one another. She looked back to see Lyra was positively red in the face and Bonbon apparently recognized her. She really needed to help the lyre player out as she was having problems speaking to her supposed love. Twilight did good work with Bonbon’s mane, it positively shined and Tress was almost jealous if she didn’t know it was her shampoo that helped it look that way.

“Yes, how can I help you?” The ever familiar stallion waiter of the café saw a large party of six ponies before him, some of which he recognized from before. He was happy to serve the nice mares again and they apparently brought a lot of friends too.

“I’d like a table for eight as we might be getting two more to our party, if you could please get a table set up for us. You know, I never did get your name the last time we were here.” The stallion smiled at Twilight and nodded as he wrote something down on a piece of paper and set about getting the mares their table.

“I’m Savoir Fare, it’s my pleasure to meet you and serve your party madam.” While Savoir was busy talking to Twilight about a table, a pegasus flew up behind Tress and tapped her with a hoof getting her attention.

“Huh, oh it’s you. I’m guessing we’re still not getting your name until the party huh.” The blonde pegasus shrugged at Tress and held out a bag filled with bits and a note from Time Turner that said she did a good job. The grey coated pegasus with the seven bubbles for a cutie mark saluted to Tress and immediately flew off.

After getting Twilight’s attention as they were led inside, Tress hoofed her all the bits. She exclaimed that they came from Time Turner. Twilight accepted them with a disbelieving look that they were actually paid one hundred bits for the exploding trash can thing so soon.

The six of them sat down and they all perused the menu, while they did this an earth pony that looked like the unicorn Savoir came up to them.

“Would you like to order your drinks now or do you want to wait for seven more minutes? Also I’m Savoir Fare’s brother Savor Faire. We tend to confuse ponies often so if he introduces himself then I’m going to introduce myself as well.” He quickly took down their drink orders and he went off to go get them.

“Hey Octaves, I see you’ve met Rave Lady and Sparky!” Vinyl chuckled as Octavia almost jumped out of her seat to turn an angry glare on her. She quickly sat down and got her own drink order in as Savoir brought their drinks.

No other pony came and they ordered their food. Twilight was at least expecting one of their other friends to want in on this, but apparently none of them was at or passing by the Café. Eventually they were nearly finished eating and chatting about various topics such as music, books and food when things finally decided to go horribly wrong. Twilight and Tress were soon proven that they had a right to be paranoid.

Outside the café two ponies seated at the outdoor tables were calmly eating. Well at least Trixie was trying to eat calmly; Pinkie was like a black hole where food ceased to exist. Pinkie stopped eating and she started shuddering garnering Trixie's immediate notice.

“Trixie has to know, did your Pinkie Sense just go off Pinkie?” Trixie asked getting a bit worried. She had learned the lesson rather fast that if Pinkie says something is going to happen, then it inevitably will.

“Yeah, my knee just went all pinchy. I also felt chills travel down my back and my tail is twitching. It’s such a bright and wonderful day, why would a giant monster want to suddenly attack from out of nowhere?” Pinkie got a contemplative look on her face; do monsters actually want to start attacking in broad daylight? Well it was probably a nice day for a monster attack and the monster must have been pretty bored of attacking things at night. So was a monster attacking in broad daylight more scary then one at night?

Trixie noticed a shadow forming on the ground nearby and looked up; she quickly dove for Pinkie Pie in the hopes to get her out of the way of the monster coming down on top of them and the café.

Author's Notes:

You're not paranoid when you're right.

39

The café had been totally decimated in seconds, Savor and Savoir were glad their insurance covered ever single bit of damage that their destroyed restaurant had just taken. The last remnant of the insanely quick attack was the disturbing screech of the creature as it flew off into the distance carrying the vague shape of a pony.

Octavia held onto Vinyl cuddling her to her chest. The DJ slowly came too and blinked at the destruction that surrounded her before looking up at Octavia.

“You saved me?” Vinyl felt a flutter in her heart. Octaves really did care about her.

“Vinyl you may be annoying, crazy and downright crude, but there is no way I’m letting a monster smash the ever loving life out of you. Since that’s my job!” Even as she angrily yelled this into her face, Octavia couldn’t get the smile to leave the unicorns face. Octavia even smacked Vinyl in the back of the head and the smile still ceased to vanish from her horrible friends face. “By the way it seems your glasses were destroyed in this mess, you have really pretty eyes by the way.”

“Why thank you, wait… what!? MY EYES, THEY ARE UNCOVERED!” Vinyl cried over the loss of her DJ glasses, even as ponies were running around and panicking out of control everywhere. She wasn’t smiling anymore but at least she was being comforted by the uptight pony.

In the corner of one of the restaurants still standing walls hugging Bonbon to her chest as she cried, Lyra was wondering how they ended up like this and didn’t care as she needed comforting.

“What’s wrong? Are you okay Lyra? Did you get hurt? Why are you crying like this?” Bonbon felt very odd to be cuddled in Lyra’s hooves even if she was horribly upset about something. Well a huge monster attacking during the daytime was an oddity to be upset about, but she didn’t think that was why Lyra was crying.

“No, I’m not fine Bonnie. That monster destroyed my pie!” Lyra was blubbering too hard to see the flat look that crossed Bonbon’s face. Sighing Bonbon decided to cuddle and comfort the distraught unicorn about the pie she didn’t get to eat, even if it was just plain weird that that was what she was so distraught about. To think this was the unicorn that saved her seconds ago.

Bonbon had always liked those weird quirks about Lyra as she was funny like that; she thought Lyra might have been worried about her safety or something considering she was the first thing Lyra grabbed. She knew Lyra would be even more distraught once she realizes the restaurant that serves her favorite kind of pie just got demolished. Bonbon figured it was better to not mention the restaurant’s destruction at this time as she was having enough of a hard time calming down the easily excitable unicorn.

It took a few minutes, but the surrounding ponies finally stopped panicking. They even started helping assess the damage and the injuries of other nearby ponies; they quickly came together as a community to help out those who were injured by the sudden mayhem.

Nearby Pinkie was lying on top of Trixie and the illusionary magician couldn’t be any more confused.

“Pinkie, how did you end up on top of Trixie? Especially when Trixie is the one that shoved you to the ground?” Trixie was pretty sure she pushed Pinkie to the ground while throwing her body on top of Pinkie’s.

“Are you kidding? I’m always the one that’s on top of things!” Pinkie honestly didn’t know why Trixie gave her such an incredulous look. Then she felt a sharp pain in her head which caused her to reflexively grab it with both hooves, it felt like a pony that wanted to go to one of her parties was being prevented from doing so. That just couldn’t stand as Pinkie has never not knowingly let a pony go if they wanted to party, this would bug her until she could figure out why the pony was indisposed. “Trixie we need to find a pony that can’t attend my party tomorrow and we need to make sure they can come! We also need to find out why they can’t come. Not coming might just be indicative of blueberries and no stallion likes getting blueberries for some reason! Mr. Cake is always going on about them when he’s spending happy time with Mrs. Cake and she doesn’t want to finish whatever it is they are doing since they know I’m listening in.”

“What?” Trixie was having some trouble following Pinkie’s logic, but she couldn’t be any happier to be so distracted from all the groaning injured ponies around her. At least no pony she knew looked to be dying, though there was blood splattering the ground in a few places. The ponies she didn’t know were still breathing or getting back to their hooves slowly if still slightly in shock, the ones that weren’t getting up looked liked really needed help and soon.

“I need a little help over here!” In the midst of this, Cheerilee slowly pulled Twilight out from under a flipped table. She started to look around for some pony that can help the unconscious unicorn she had by the armpits with her front hooves.

“Oh dear, I hope she’s okay. I came over here as quick as possible with my medical kit, excuse me miss but please keep her head elevated.” Fluttershy was quickly on the scene as soon as she heard of panicked ponies and injuries. She may have been afraid of being stared at and or being in large crowds, but she would have been angry at herself for not appearing and helping out those who needed her aid.

Looking up from the unicorn in her hooves the teacher saw the pegasus unfold her wing holding a medical kit and promptly set it down next to her. Doing as Fluttershy asked, Cheerilee kept Twilight’s head elevated. The soft looking winged pony was soon holding Twilight’s hoof and giving it a squeeze or two and then she checked her head.

“It’s another light concussion, poor Twilight. Why do these things always happen to you?” Fluttershy always felt bad that Twilight didn’t have anything close to resembling a normal life. It took a moment for her to realize the other pony holding Twilight’s head in her lap was looking at her. “Oh… um… I’m Fluttershy, nice to meet you miss?”

“I’m Cheerilee, a local schoolteacher here in Ponyville. You can call me Cheery or Cheer. I take it you’re a friend of Twilight’s. Has this kind of thing happened a lot to her before?” Cheerilee wondered what was wrong with the pegasus as she had a distant look on her face.

Fluttershy was just reliving all the moments Twilight has face hoofed at something frustrating at one point or another, then all the other blows she’s taken to the face and or body. The shy mare actually thought Twilight had never looked like she has been injured, thinking it over she has noticed that her friend get’s a lot of blunt trauma on a regular basis and would heal from it in a relatively quick manner.

“Yes, but I’m sure she’ll be fine but she may need something to make the swelling go down. She’s kind of accident prone and is used to these kind of injuries.” Fluttershy shook her head at the thought of the times Twilight tripped or stumbled in life; she always got back up perfectly fine and kept moving forward. “What happened here?”

“A giant monster smashed the surrounding area really fast or at least that’s what I think happened in general. I didn’t even see what it was, I like every other pony here were either sent flying or knocked to the floor by the initial impact it made. That is what destroyed most of the café.” The surrounding area of was pretty bad off; Cheerilee was mostly okay with minor cuts and bruises she had acquired. She really hadn’t noticed when Fluttershy had tended to her; the mare was so gentle she didn’t even feel herself being patched up. “I think our friend here will be okay, go help the ponies that need it more than she does.”

Fluttershy immediately nodded and surveyed the area and despite her quiet nature she managed to announce that those with bad looking injuries need to be brought to her attention immediately. Every pony near the scene of the attack needed to be examined and taken care of. She was trained in first aid and knew how to stabilize ponies with serious injuries.

The towns’ ponies started to help Fluttershy with taking care of those that were more heavily injured from the attack. A lot of other ponies were busy trying to describe the creature to other important ponies while waiting for the mayor to address the issue. The disaster zone was quickly cleared of debris and Fluttershy had her work cut out for her. At least that was the case until the local quick response medic Nurse Redheart appeared to assist with the injured.

Twilight slowly moved her head and it lolled about a bit as she blinked her eyes, her vision was blurry and her head hurt. Well this was another concussion she could have lived without, she was glad her skull was so strong to withstand so many impacts without cracking.

“Mane where are you?” Twilight was so out of it, she was looking around for a green mane and purplish colored fur. She may have had a dream or two about being cocooned in Tress’s hair at some point or another.

“Twilight it would be a good idea to stay calm, you have a slight concussion.” Cheerilee slowly came to Twilight’s attention and she tried to sit up. “Not too fast Twilight, you’ve been injured. Please take it slowly.”

Twilight heeded the teachers’ words and slowly sat up, her head ached and she was looking around as ponies gathered shattered bits of wood, stone and anything else into a pile. She could even make out Fluttershy working with an earth pony to help wrap bandages around several bleeding ponies. The one thing she couldn’t see in all this mess was her friend Tress. She could even see Trixie with a pink pony that had two blue balloons and a yellow one on her flank. Wait, Trixie was here? So that’s where she went.

Trixie was currently unimportant to Twilight’s mind; all her friends were accounted for except for one. Where was Tress, she mentally worked up a memory spell and took in the scene seconds before the attack.

The soonest the monster had hit the ground Twilight had her usual reflex to sudden shocks and was immediately covered in a barrier before she was slapped into the wall by a large monstrous claw. Her barrier faltered when she came to a rest on the floor, a table was sent flying at her and the last thing she saw was an unconscious Tress gripped in the creatures’ claw. That’s when the table finally collided with her head.

Sitting up faster, Twilight staggered to her hooves. There were now two beings on the list of things she didn’t like, Sunset Shimmer and that monster that just took her best friend. She started towards the library and home, she had to prepare for a small journey and she didn’t know whether or not she’d be back. She couldn’t hear Cheerilee calling out for her as she stumbled away.

As she reached the library and went around back, Twilight proudly witnessed her daughter levitating a wooden block with a ring of flames. Barb lost her concentration when she saw Twilight approaching; the wooden block was engulfed in flames and shot towards Twilight as a beam of green fire. It reformed back into a wooden block before slamming into her forehead causing her to grunt in pain.

“Oh no, mom I’m so sorry!” Barb had barely got those words out given she was now being gripped in a strong tight hug by her mother.

“It’s okay, mommies here and slightly even more concussed then she was before. Smart I’m leaving a list with you of ponies I want to look after Barb if I don’t return, Tress was carried off by a monster and I’m going to give chase.” Twilight was already halfway through the list of ponies she’d want Barb to be aided by in the event she didn't come back anytime soon or at all. She finished and levitated it to Smart who took it into her tiny hooves.

“Have you used the locator spell yet professor Sparkle? How do we know that hot flank hasn’t been…?” Smart really didn’t want to finish that train of thought. She didn’t have to as Twilight’s horn lit up and a three dimensional arrow pointed off into the distance, the arrow wouldn’t even appear if the pony in question had been killed. Locator spells were quite useful for finding a friend in an emergency. “Right then, please live long and prosperous. Also try not to die too horribly as I’d really miss myself.”

Somewhere in the Ever Free Forest, currently glued to a ceiling by her hooves was a pony that started coming to.

“Huh, what, where, oh no, NO, not again… anything but this… please tell me I’m not…” Tress was horrified to be glued to the ceiling of wherever she was so high off the floor. She had recurring nightmares like this of being glued to ceilings with different substances. It’s one of the reasons why the ceiling in their home was always clean and spotless. She had to think of better things before this drove her crazy. Fluttershy in a maid uniform… yes, she had to think of pleasant stuff like that adorable image.

Tress thought of Twilight reading a book peacefully on a moonlit night. Barb trying and failing horribly to break a piñata open with a stick. Velvet and Night’s antics when they were in a silly mood and decided the family needed to do something fun together like playing a game of advanced twister. There was even Fluttershy being squeamish and toying with her mane while looking at the floor and blushing.

40

Twilight had gathered the necessary supplies she thought she would need. She didn’t know how far the creature flew or where it went but she wasn’t going to stop for anything until she got her best friend back. She would do the same for any friend who she knew was in danger and needed help.

Going over her inventory Twilight checked her food first. She had several apples, quite a few carrots and four zap apples. Two fully filled canteens of fresh water, one as backup in case she lost the other one. Aside from that she only had two basic tools with her, a collapsible ten foot pole that was made of a good sturdy material and forty feet of coiled rope.

She made sure Barb stayed at home where it was safe before she left and she followed the arrow to the edge of the Ever Free Forest. Well no time like the present, she already wasted fifteen minutes gathering her supplies together.

Summoning the arrow of the locater spell she took in the distance the arrow indicated to target, it had stopped moving somewhere and it was at least still within a few miles of Ponyville. Triangulation really helped her mark the general area Tress was in on a map. It just happened to be through miles of dangerous swamps and monster filled forests.

“Well par for the course Twilight. Your life was already ridiculous to begin with and you are not letting it take a single friend from you without a fight.” She said to herself as she started at a run into the dark forest following the arrow.

Not too far into the forest did she find her first obstacle, a pack of manticore that all immediately surrounded her. Twilight started to back away slightly when one got in her face roared blowing her mane back. They hadn’t surprised her and as such she hadn’t reflexively defended herself.

Twilight could have probably used Fluttershy’s help at this moment, but she wasn’t about to give up. She inhaled and screamed back in the manticore’s face till her throat was raw. All the manticores immediately backed out of her way cowering and covering their ears.

“That’s what I thought.” Twilight muttered in a gravelly tone. Her voice was quite hoarse and it hurt to talk now, but that scream had been her frustration at life messing with her in general. She continued on her way down the path ahead of her. She could either go up on the ledge to survey the area and get an idea of where she was going or she could just follow her arrow. She just followed the arrow; it was not likely that she was coming back to this part of the forest anyway if she were to be honest.

Twilight thought the trees of the Ever Free Forest looked somewhat creepy, here she was laughing in the face of danger for a friend when she was most likely to be ambushed at any moment by something dangerous like lions, tigers and bears. Well technically not bears as one was a friend of Fluttershy’s.

Looking up to the sky Twilight wondered if she’d save Tress before it gets too dark. Considering how far in she was traveling by herself, it wasn’t likely and she’d need her energy to fight the monster when she finally gets to wherever it stopped.

Continuing to follow the magical arrow pointing towards her friend, Twilight came to a roiling river that looked to be too hard to cross on her own. She really didn’t think falling in the water was conducive to living a productive life at all and it’d probably tear her apart. She wasn’t about to attempt teleporting as it was beyond her current natural range.

“Excuse me for inquiring, but who are you?” A river serpent popped up out of the water. He had a flamboyant orange hair and a magnificent mustache and he sounded rather effeminate, he even looked it too.

“I’d ask the same of you, my name is Twilight Sparkle and I need to cross this river.” Within a minute of introducing herself she noticed the river serpent looked at her sadly.

“My dear pony what happened to your voice? No matter, hold on a second and I’ll help you get you across. I’m Steven Magnet by the way; it was a pleasure to meet you. No, there’s no need to talk as we’re not likely to see each other again anyway and the river is only like this when I’m around. I hardly get any visitors as it is and you’re probably busy with whatever it is that arrow is pointing towards.” The river serpent lifted Twilight into the air and turned a bit and set her down on the opposite bank. Twilight smiled at him and waved before trotting off. “Such a nice young thing, I hope she gets better soon.”

Twilight thought Steven was an oddly generous thing to meet in a forest full of monsters; she liked his mustache. She has thus far spotted a few of the denizens while probably missing many of the others at the same time. The cockatrices she saw didn’t bother her. There were Timber Wolves which she scared off by making loud noises and lighting the air on fire near her head using magic reminiscent of Barbs light spell. She steered clear of any bogs with patterned rocks in them, she has read enough about how easy it was to accidentally step on a cragadile and they were as resilient to magic as a dragon normally was. This seemed to be a common recurring trait among large lizard and reptile type creatures.

Now that it occurred to her, Twilight didn’t know what she was going to be facing. She couldn’t really recall to much of the claw that slammed her into the wall or the one that grabbed Tress. In fact why had the monster specifically gone after Tress? It didn’t seem like a coincidence at all. It smashed the café and the first thing it does is grab a specific pony and then fly off? It didn’t bother to eat any of the surrounding ponies it injured or go wild. It had to be something that had some form of intelligence and had to have specifically foal nabbed her friend for a reason.

She had to know what she was dealing with here; a unicorn attempting to fight a dragon was considered suicidal at best and that was what the creature most looked like to her. If it was any kind of draconic being they’d also be relatively magic resistant. Just because it was resistant didn’t mean it was immune and Twilight would have to plan for the inevitability of having to poach Tress from a dragons hoard. The prospect of success was laughable if that were the case, but Twilight would still try it.

If the creature wasn’t a dragon at all, but mimicked its appearance it was a much more plausible situation. Even then it was still not a very good prospect if a creature could be as powerful as a dragon, but if it wasn’t magic resistant Twilight had more of a chance even if it was large.

Twilight stopped when she came up to what looked like a ravine and a broken rope bridge. There were signs of a pony civilization having been previously here, she wondered how long has it been since anyone has been through here. She saw a need to research this later, the ropes looked really old but still surprisingly serviceable. Twilight knew packing forty feet of rope would come in handy eventually. Now how would she go about getting across as it was incredibly foggy here, she couldn’t see the other side. Teleporting blindly was a bad thing to do. Twilight couldn’t even teleport a massive distance and didn’t want to do so blind on top of that first restriction around a chasm.

Dropping her locator spell for a minute, she started levitate the parts of the rope bridge up and tugged it as hard as she could away from herself. The ropes pulled taught but didn’t snap or fray. Looking to the nearby post Twilight tied one end of her forty foot rope to it and wrapped the coils around her left hoof and once around her barrel.

Twilight started levitating the bridge again, she stepped out on to it and levitated the next portion and slowly moved forwards while giving the rope around her slack as she went. Once she reached the fog she carefully brightened the glow of the bridge beneath her hooves and continued to carefully move hoof over hoof.

After she exited out of the fog safely, she saw that the other side wasn’t too far away, she continued to levitate the bridge in sections and at the same time she levitated the remaining forty feet of rope to the posts she was nearing and tied it off with plenty of rope to spare.

Twilight sighed with relief as she finished tying the bridge back into place and tested each plank to see if any of them were rotting, the wood like the ropes for the bridge was in strangely good condition. After taking the time to retrieve her forty feet of rope Twilight recast her locator spell, only to find out that the spell wasn’t needed as much when she noticed the large shape before her in the evening hours.

Before her sat an ancient if very dilapidated and partially falling apart castle, Twilight wasn’t sure why there was a castle here in the middle of nowhere and danger town. All Twilight knew was that Tress was nearby once she did another triangulation from two different points at a distance from the castle. It was too bad her locator spell didn’t work on a vertical plane or else she’d know exactly where Tress was.

The arrow was definitively pointing Twilight to the dark spooky looking castle; she cancelled the locator spell after moving to a third spot. If Tress was here then the monster that had attacked Ponyville had to be here as well, so caution and staying quiet was how she should proceed.

Two steps toward the castle and Twilight’s stomach grumbled. She needed to eat something before she went inside. She ate all of her apples and two carrots; she was saving some food for Tress when she found her and that was mainly the reason she brought the zap apples along with her for this journey.

Well maybe just one, zap apples were full of energy after all. Twilight enjoyed the apple after the initial jolt and thought she could get used to this if Tress was going after another harvest the next time they came around. After she finished it off she set out for the nearby tower of the castle, if you were a pony trapped by a large dragon like monster you’d probably be in the area of highest still standing tower.

Twilight did search around the tower for fifty minutes and the only thing she had to show for it was five soft glowing stone orbs that had attracted her attention. She took the orbs and stashed them away to study later. Deciding that Tress wasn’t in the tower like the usual story book fashion, Twilight decided to try the main part of the quiet castle.

She trotted down the hallway on the second floor wary of anything that so much as moved, so far things were too quiet for her liking. Seeing an opening to her left she stepped out onto a second floor balcony area. Down below were two thrones and quite a large chunk of the room had a hole ripped into it, none of it was recent damage though.

Turning tail and about to leave something caused her ears to flick, Twilight turned back around. She thought she had heard something.

“Twilight, I’m up here. Please don’t leave me here.” That was Tress’s voice pleading for her and she was whispering, but why would it be coming from the ceiling?

Lighting up her horn and carefully not to make it shine around the entire room she pointed the directional light at the ceiling. Tress was standing upside down on the ceiling and her hooves were stuck inside some strange brown substance.

“Tre…” Twilight started to shout before she was shushed by her friend shaking her head causing her light blue hair to flail back and forth at her movements.

“Don’t talk so loudly, it’s still here and I know what it is.” Tress’s eyes were hurting a bit from the light that Twilight was shining up to her. She had been up on the ceiling for quite a while and she was quite tired, hungry and afraid of how dark it was getting outside from what little she could see.

“What is it?” Twilight whispered looking around and wondering where the creature was. “And where is it exactly?”

“Where do you think? It’s below me and if I can get out of here I’ll explain to you what I know about it, I don’t want to do that here. No, don’t shine you’re light down there!” Tress stressed this with the horrified tone in her voice that was barely a whisper. “Did you bring any food and what’s with your voice?”

“I screamed down a pack of manticores, what have you done today? You seem to be taking being on the ceiling rather well.” Twilight stated conversationally after her sarcastic remark. The monster didn’t seem to have hurt her friend in any given form except emotionally by having stuck her to the ceiling. “And yes I got some food; can you even eat it like that?”

“I cried and freaked out so hard I came full circle, I’m still very much freaked out it’s just so hard for me to express it at the moment. Please get me down from here and give me whatever you got once we’re far enough away from it.” Tress wasn’t crying, but she was very much distressed and if she cried right now her tears would hit the creature and wake it up. She just knew Twilight would figure out a way to get her down from here safely, she could already see her pulling out a ten foot pole.

“Hello is there any pony here?” A familiar scratchy voice said, on the floor of the throne room Rainbow Dash walked in holding a torch made from a tree branch in her right hoof and she revealed the face of the monster. Said monster now had its large red eyes open and they were staring down the pegasus.

Twilight face hoofed, but moved the pole up to Tress without looking at the now screaming pegasus and the roaring monster below. She now had to save both Tress and Rainbow. Will the joys of life never cease?

41

Rainbow Dash was always interested in action and adventure. Twilight and Tress were the most interesting adventurers in the town of Ponyville. Ipso facto, she started following them around like a lost puppy when she wasn’t training for the Wonderbolts or was at work with the weather. Those two things were all she knew how to do and she did them so often she got bored easily. However going off with a unicorn to rescue her friend from a monster sounded like something Rainbow wanted a part of.

Only now that she was staring down the red eyes and what looked like a bloody maw did the thought that she might have been in over her head cross her mind. It was a good thing she got through the Ever Free Forest well enough as a lot of the more dangerous creatures were ground bound, she still had a lot of energy and was about to burn it off. After she finished screaming and the monster got finished roaring in her face.

Off like a streak of lightning, Rainbow shot away in the hopes to get away from the monster that suddenly leapt at her barely missing with its large four fingered claws.

As Rainbow was busy distracting the beast Twilight levitated the ten foot pole and poked at a spot next to Tress’s front right hoof and started jabbing the area hard. Cracks start to form in the general area and Tress started pulling on her hoof. One hard smash with the pole a moment later and the brown stuff holding her hoof shattered as she pulled it free. Tress immediately grasped onto the hovering pole.

“Thanks I can get myself free now. Though I loathe saying this, go rescue Rainbow. I can get down on my own.” Tress was a good fifty feet or so off the floor, but she knew how to get down. Twilight released her hold on the ten foot pole and Tress started smacking the brown stuff around her left hoof. While she was doing this a green stripe started forming along her tail.

Twilight nodded in understanding as to how Tress was getting down, she ran off to see how Rainbow was doing. She still didn’t know what that thing was, but she could see it in the light outside once she exited the castles main gateway.

It was large and dark brown with a few colorful spots along its body; it had a maw that looked to be covered in blood. Its wings were large and the membrane was as red as the stuff on its maw, its wing joints and spine looked to be a bony white color.

To Twilight it looked like Rainbow was able to avoid getting hit by it thus far. It was quite fast for its size but it had poor maneuverability which was a rather instinctive and important part of their annoying friend. Like Tress she was reluctant to save Rainbow, but they would have to face this dragon like being anyway eventually. It might have kept kidnapping ponies and Twilight would have quickly tired of having to rescue ponies from this thing.

Now how to help Rainbow? Twilight needed something heavy to chuck at the creature to temporarily get its attention off of Rainbow. That nearby piece of rubble looked big enough to catch its attention, lighting her horn up she struggled to lift it. After she got it in the air it was much easier to move about, she took aim as the creature followed Rainbow around the tower snapping its jaw sending droplets of red flying off of its mouth.

Twilight suddenly had a better idea and waited for it to open its mouth again.

Tress had managed to get her left hoof free and now she had to free her hind hooves, she was glad that Twilight brought a ten foot pole. Being completely upside down was making the blood rush to her head so she had to do this quickly. She pulled back the pole and swung it tip first to a spot between her hind hooves, being able to move her hooves again felt good. The substance attaching her to the ceiling cracked slightly, two more strikes should do it.

As Tress was about strike again, a pained muffled roar caused her to fumble with the pole and it started to fall. She caught it with her single tentacle and sighed with relief. She twirled her tail around and used the momentum to swing and stab the pole between her legs again with great force and the cracks spread to her rear legs. She could probably just pull herself free now; she pulled the pole out of the ceiling with her hooves. Before she could strike the substance again her hind legs came free and she felt herself falling.

“Ah come on!” Tress screamed as she fell and quickly focused on a nearby pillar and arrested her downward momentum by pulling herself towards it with her tail. Swinging around the pillar once, she planted three hooves on the pillar and started to slowly walk down the side. One hoof was still holding the ten foot pole. “Well that was easier than I thought.”

Only it wasn’t easy when the monster heard had her scream and immediately returned to look at the ceiling. Not seeing Tress there, it shifted its view to look to her as she reached the floor. The portion of her tail turned back to normal and she was in the middle of collapsing the pole when she noticed the monster staring at her.

“Uh, whoops. Spoke to soon.” Turning around Tress made a break for it with the collapsed pole in her mouth as it reached out a claw to grab her and she managed to duck under it. It lunged forward as she was heading towards the entrance to the throne room. A large piece of stone debris slammed into its face and staggered it.

“Come on Tress! It can’t fly in the hallways, we need to lose it.” Motioning with her hoof to hurry up, Twilight put a barrier on the doorway to prevent the creature from putting a claw through it to grab Tress. It could barely even squeeze into the hallway either given it was so large.

Twilight dropped the barrier once Tress was clear and they quickly got lost in the hallways, turning a corner they slammed into Rainbow and tumbled into pile of limbs. Using her magic to separate all of them and set them on their hooves, Twilight huffed tiredly as she was a bit drained.

“I don’t care why you’re here Rainbow. Just help us find a place to hide!” Dislike her though she may, Tress was willing to accept that she was actually trying to help. Despite the fact that she woke up the monster and caused a huge mess in following Twilight here.

“Well don’t places like these have secret passages or something? What is that thing anyway, it looks kind of like a dragon.” Rainbow looked at the walls in the hallway for something to touch.

“Rainbow, if there were secret passages in this castle, I doubt they’d still be working as old as this place is. I mean I can’t just reach up and pull something hanging on the wall and expect it to…” Doing just what she said, Twilight pulled on a lighting fixture for torches and the wall spun taking all three ponies into a small cube like space.

“You were saying?” Quirking an eye in victory, Rainbow was about to boast about how she was right until Tress slapped a hoof over her big mouth.

Tress had noticed the peep hole rather quickly and saw the creature pass by, most likely searching for her. After a moment she removed her hoof from Rainbow’s mouth and had a look of relief on her face as the thundering steps of the monster faded away. She gave Twilight her collapsible ten foot pole back; she had managed to hold onto it while running from the monster.

“Okay Tress while we have the time to figure out a way to escape, what is that thing and what does it want with you exactly?” If Twilight didn’t get to the bottom of why it kept trying to get Tress, she was going to go nuts.

“Would you even believe me? If I spelled out for you exactly what it was and how it might have come to be like it is?” It was a little unbelievable to Tress and she had a working theory of how it came to be what it was. What she didn’t understand is why it was so dead set on gluing her to the ceiling and why it was so interested in her.

“You know what that thing is? Did you even see the blood on its face, that thing is really scary.” If Rainbow weren’t as swift and such a good flyer as she was already, she would have been monster chow.

“Oh that was not blood, it was marinara sauce.” If that wasn’t an eye opener, Tress now had of both their attentions. “It ate a spaghetti monster in front of me because it wiggled its tentacles at me in a threatening manner. It didn’t take me long to figure out what it was after that. I still don’t understand its motives in bringing me here though.”

“Huh and here I always thought spaghetti monsters were only imaginary creatures my mom used as a way to feed me.” Sticking her tongue out the side of her mouth, Rainbow tried to imagine what a spaghetti monster looked like. She imagined it flying around and forming its own religion by magically converting ponies into noodle worshippers and then getting into a fight with Celestia. She had a dreamy look crossing her face as she imagined the epic battle. “Awesome.”

“Charming... Tress I will believe whatever you’ll tell me without a thought even if it’s completely absurd sounding.” Even putting on her serious face here, Twilight was going to listen to whatever it was that Tress said it was.

Inhaling Tress knew what she was about to say was going to sound completely absurd, but it needed to be said and brought up again. She had known that thing was out to get her from the start.

“You know that demonic fruitcake you told me to stop mentioning?” If Tress had to say anything more than that she was going to get angry with Twilight. “Yeah, I would like to bring it up again.”

The unicorn sat there wide eyed with shrinking pupils. The implications were just as staggering as the many things she thought of today.

Rainbow just looked confused and was now thinking of a regular fruitcake leading cookies on a rebellion against the cake menace to blow up the cupcake star. She could even imagine a living sandwich wielding a purple unicorn horn and creating searing beam of light from it like a sword beam thing.

“But… but it was the size of a fruit bat the last time we saw it and that wasn’t too long ago!” Twilight just couldn’t immediately accept what Tress was hinting at. “How can it still be surviving, it would have eroded away eventually and it just can’t be possible.”

“If it’s been surviving on a steady diet of rather reproductive spaghetti monsters it can, it’s even integrated parts of them into itself or did you not see that its spine was made of compacted dried noodles. They probably have the tensile strength of the bones you’d see in something like a large hydra by this point.” Tress said with a bored tone. “I’ve certainly had plenty of time to study it from the ceiling!”

“Are you always going to be on about the ceilings you’ve been stuck to from now on?” Twilight thought it was kind of sad that Tress was still coming back to her now rather realistic fear of messy ceilings.

“You try being stuck to one Twilight and see how you feel afterwards!” Tress shot back angrily. She was finally getting some emotion back into her voice, just the wrong kind. She was happy that her friend came to rescue her and was a bit sad to hear her voice sound like it did, that gravelly tone did not befit her Radiance.

“Girls chill, what we need to focus on is how we are going to take down this thing or deal with it so it can never bother any pony again.” It was a sad day in history when Rainbow Dash was the voice of reason between two smart mares.

“Okay its official, this is the weirdest things have ever gotten. When did Rainbow start being the one that made sense?” If Tress had insulted Rainbow, she didn’t seem to notice or react to it as she was off in her own little world again.

“Yeah I know. I’m horrified at the prospect too.” Twilight shivered, the world just couldn’t be regular around her. “How are we going to take this out of control fruitcake dragon down? Even Barb couldn’t bite through its hide and that’s when it was small!”

"Hey, wait a minute..." Rainbow said as she finally realized she had been insulted.

Author's Notes:

Yep, it seemed so unimportant to the plot previously. How the little things come back to haunt them.

42

Tress was quietly finishing off the food Twilight brought for her, the zap apples really did fill her up along with the few carrots Twilight split between her and Rainbow. She spent a lot of her time glaring at Rainbow.

“You know, I’m getting the feeling that you two don’t like me very much.” Rainbow’s questioning tone was met with two flat stares.

“Tress, if you will do the honors.” Twilight motioned to her friend to go ahead and let her rip while she searched the walls. She was looking for a switch that didn’t lead them back into the hallway where the monster was patrolling. She was still trying to come up with a viable strategy, her last ditch effort would be getting swallowed alive and perform an expanding barrier spell from inside the monster without suffocating first.

“Gladly, Rainbow I’m going to be brutally honest with you. Get upset as much as you want because you know I’m telling the truth. Okay where to start with you? You probably got only straight C’s in school and the schools where you come from are already bad to begin with for a pony that doesn’t specialize in flying, weather or acrobatics.” Tress saw that Rainbow was about to ask what pegasus didn’t specialize in flying.

Rainbow immediately shut her mouth when she thought of one pony in particular; she just looked at the stony floor. She specialized in all of those areas equally, but still did poorly in school.

“They weren’t all C’s.” Rainbow muttered, she had at least some B’s and those were in athletics when she wasn’t goofing off.

“Which brings me to my next fact, what makes you so special? What exactly separates you from the average pegasus? Not very much at all, except for that one Sonic Rainboom you did and it’s not even an original trick as it is an old legend that has been done by another pony already. Fluttershy told me you wanted to join the Wonderbolts, have you thought of anything innovative or have done something completely original at least once?” Tress waited for Rainbow to say something, seeing nothing forthcoming she decided to continue ripping into Rainbow Dash. “Furthermore why do you want the fame and fortune so much? Ponies won’t truly like you for who you are, they’ll like you for the things you can do. Fan aren’t true friends Rainbow, they’ll turn on you the second you do something they don’t like. Who will you turn to then? I doubt ponies will show up to shows where you’re a one trick pony doing stuff other ponies have already done. The likeliest thing you’ll do is a variation on aerial tricks that already exist, which is in and of itself not very special either but at least it would be something.”

“Well I’m… I’m pretty good at…” Rainbow really had to think about this for a minute, she felt a pang of hurt go through her as she realized she had nothing truly special. Doing a Rainboom was the one unique thing she has done and a pony of the distant past had already done it. This means if she could do it, then so could any pony if they tried hard enough. What was the reason she originally did it previously?

Fluttershy… Rainbow did that for her chronically shy friend who was being bullied and then she left her to be bullied when she spent all that time with Gilda. Every single day she flew with Gilda, her friend sat and watched her play in the sky. Slowly she faded from existence and suddenly wasn’t there anymore. She hadn’t even noticed when Fluttershy stopped showing up at all.

“What makes you think you’re all that really? Do ponies truly think you’re awesome or do you see yourself being as such in a blind manner trying to convince yourself of it being reality? How many friends did you have when you came to Ponyville? How many do you really think you have now? You should be glad Fluttershy still considers you one of her friends. That that kind mare would even speak so highly of a moronic airhead like you, it says a lot about the impression you left on her when she was in her darkest hour. Have you recently asked Fluttershy about Gilda? What do you really know about the friends you’ve made if anything? What are you really doing here? Who are you trying to impress? There are no other ponies here besides us. If you really want to know what I think of you, I don’t like you at all and the only reason I tolerate you is because Fluttershy likes you and is my friend. She even had to ask me to play nice with you. Can you seriously tell me you’re going to go through life and get into the Wonderbolts by being as ignorant as you are?” Stopping herself from continuing Tress could see Rainbow cowering in the corner almost coming to tears. Maybe she had gone a tad too far. She could still think like an evil villain apparently, that would always be a small part of her and she would always be slightly tangled up in her past. At least Rainbow had a dream; Tress didn’t have anything to pursue herself and wasn’t all that high and mighty either.

“Tress that was kind of harsh, even for you. I found another switch, but I don’t know where it’ll take us. We still don’t even have a plan for taking on that thing.” Being really worried about her friend, Twilight hoped that she didn’t backslide into being an evil pony even with the minimal powers that she still has. She didn’t think it was even probable that Tress would backslide.

“Oh I know, let’s do what Rainbow would do. Press it anyway and hope for the best and that nothing bad happens to us, like falling into a pit of spikes!” Tress watched as Rainbow cringed at that.

“You’re taking this a bit too far now Tress, but I agree about the button. No time like the present as I have no idea how we’re going to take that thing down. Even if it was affected greatly by magic, I don’t exactly have any magic spells that can do lots of damage. We can’t stay in this small space forever and we can’t return to Ponyville where it will follow us to get at Tress or some other pony.” What Twilight did have was all kinds of spells and only one of them was the only true offensive spell she knew. It was the ever classic unicorn spell the magic missile.

Twilight had already fired a magic missile at the demonic fruitcake dragon. It was after she stuffed its mouth with debris while it was chasing Rainbow, that didn’t do much but push it back some. She would need to use a lot of magic missiles to damage the monster; it had to have a weakness of some kind. What would the food the monster was comprised of be weak to?

Twilight shook her head and finally decided to press the button. Immediately the floor opened beneath them sending them sliding downwards, screaming into the darkness.

The three ponies tumbled into a catacomb like area. The only noise Rainbow made were the few yelps as she slammed into the walls only to roll the opposite way on the way down. Twilight screamed the whole way down. Tress just sighed as she came to a rest on her side at the end of the line.

Tress quickly got to her hooves and looked around, where was the light for this underground area coming from? It should be pitch black down here as it was in the chute they fell out of.

Rainbow sat up and didn’t say anything; she just continued to look thoughtful. She didn’t cry but she looked disheartened.

Twilight just stood up and looked at the walls with some amount of awe; they were lined with enchanted lighting implements and were still operational.

They didn’t get much time to rest as the monsters head came around the nearby corner roaring immediately causing Tress to start running in the opposite direction. Twilight quickly levitated the depressed looking Rainbow and followed taking up the rear as best she could. The monster tried to squeeze around the corner and once it finally did the chase was on again.

Turning into a side passage way Tress stopped looking back and found herself in a dead end room with a pipe organ. Twilight followed her and realized the same thing she had, they had just cornered themselves.

Twilight immediately turned around and conjured a barrier over the entrance to the pipe organ room, why was there even a pipe organ down here? As old as this place seemed, a pipe organ seemed relatively odd as she knew when pipe organs were invented. Musical magic spell book, she was decent with a trumpet and it was a rather simple instrument, she may have gotten her head stuck in one growing up.

“Well, now what?”Tress asked as Twilight held the doorway; the creature started ramming into it several times. She walked up the steps to the pipe organ and started to search the wall. “Twilight unless you want to be an organ donor I think we have to stand our ground."

“Tress, really? You’re making jokes at a time like this!” Twilight cringed as the thing struck her barrier again and then it just stopped to look at her barrier. What was it doing?

The demonic fruitcake dragon looked at the walls around the barrier and a slow grim smirk crosses its face as it raised its claws and started damaging the walls leading into the room. Twilight couldn’t brace the walls directly for fear of weakening them with her magic.

“Huh, that thing is pretty smart.” Rainbow was still lost in her own thoughts and was slowly coming to grips with herself and the kind of pony she was.

“Tress, you better find a way out quickly.” Through her gritted teeth Twilight expanded her barrier slightly around the walls on their side of the doorway. The creature brought back both its claws proceeded to thrust them forward through the wall and Twilight’s barrier exploded sending her flying to land in a heap at the base of the stairs leading up to the organ. She laid there on her side groaning in pain.

“Twilight, oh you did not just do that!” Tress immediately ran towards Rainbow Dash, as the creature brought its left palm down on top of her. Tress’s eyes blazed into a green ring wrapped in a glowing red corona of power.

Rainbow closed her eyes shrinking down into herself only to feel the ground buckle slightly. She opened them to see Tress holding back its palm and was standing on her hind legs pushing against it. Tress was protecting her? How was she even holding that things palm back? It must weigh like a ton or something.

“Stop hurting my friends!” Tress grunted and with a shove its claw flew up into ceiling sending it stumbling backwards in shock. The angry pony immediately charged it and looked to be acting downright insane doing so.

Rainbow looked on in shock, her eyes flashed with a sudden understanding. Tress may not like her, but she still thought of Rainbow as a… as a friend?

Twilight sat up and watched Tress charge the monster, was she insane? Didn’t she know how strong that thing was or the amount of force it would take to even injure it?

The creature went to grab Tress with its right claw, Tress leapt on top of its enclosed fist with a ridiculous leap and then charged up its arm. It slammed its left claw down on its elbow joint and Tress just leapt onto the back of its hand and jumped straight up to its left shoulder.

Upon reaching its shoulder Tress kicked off of it with such a tremendous force the creature shifted right into her flying shoulder charge. The impact sent a large crack through the creatures’ cheek, in return it looked like Tress’s right shoulder caved into her body slightly. Tress started falling and she brought back her left hoof and threw an uppercut blowing back the creatures head causing cracks to form along its chin along with a faint burn mark.

Tress spun into her uppercut as she fell. Her hoof started crackling with energy as she spun around twice and then threw her hoof straight at its chest with as much force as she could muster while screaming in rage. Her hoof caught fire from the friction the moment it connected with the beast. The monster slid back three feet and massive crater appeared in its chest and it roared out in pain as it fell onto its back.

Tress’s eyes reverted to their normal blue and her right eye twitched as she fell towards the floor. She was screaming in agony before she even hit the ground and it looked like she was having a seizure before she passed out.

Twilight unsteadily got to her hooves and quickly prepared a diagnostics spell and screamed Tress’s name as she galloped towards her. The beast shifted a bit, but it wasn’t getting up at the moment. Rainbow quickly followed Twilight with tears in her eyes.

Author's Notes:

Well that doesn't answer everything, but this is my one hundred thousand word chapter. To think it's been forty two chapters already.

I hope this was a good one, the fruitcake monster isn't down and out yet. Tress certainly is though and it'll be explained by Twilight later in great detail what she just did at the end there.

43

Twilight was at Tress’s side and casting her diagnostics spell on the limp mare. One of the most useful medical spells out there that can tell you what is wrong with a pony and where the wrong was. Twilight grimaced at what she was seeing.

“Is she?” Not that Rainbow would ever want that to be true. She kept a wary eye on the demonic fruitcake dragon.

“She’s alive if that is what you’re asking me. She’s not doing too well though.” Twilight was busy trying to understand how Tress did what she had, also why it left her in such a horrible state. Twilight bit her bottom lip while her ears flopped back, Tress really needed help and soon or else she was going to die.

“How bad we talking here? Because I think we need to get going and soon, the monster is kind of blocking our way out of here. It’s also still moving.” It was something important to look into considering Rainbow didn’t think she could hit it as hard as Tress could.

“How does having a large amount of the muscles below you’re neck shredded sound? At least the musculature around her heart only seemed heavily strained. She needs immediate medical attention to even survive or she won’t even last an hour like this.” Twilight sometimes wished her specialty was medical magic instead of general magic.

“Can’t you like blast that creature with an exploding fireball or something?” Rainbow in particular didn’t like thinking that Tress was dying after what she did for them.

“I can’t really do something like that Rainbow; I can only create an illusionary flame or spark enough energy from my horn to light something on fire. I can’t just manifest fire into a large ball then make it explode! Besides what if I accidentally hit you or Tress? It’s not like I want her or you to die sooner rather than much later.” A shifting movement occurred from the downed monster; Twilight levitated Tress carefully and started moving towards the pipe organ and away from monster. Twilight never liked violence and she really didn’t like being violent.

Rainbow fluttered over to Twilight and was starting to panic slightly. Tress was slowly dying. They were trapped in a room with a monster that would soon get up. They had no known escape route here and if there was one they certainly had to find it soon or else.

“Isn’t there anything we can do for Tress? Maybe this thing has a key we can press to get out of here?” Rainbow struck a key on the pipe organ and it caused a loud single note to play. A floor panel on a high tension spring sprung up nearby for a few seconds before sinking back into the floor.

“Keep pressing keys Rainbow, I’m going to make sure Tress is secure and I’ll think of something we can do to save her.” Twilight looked at the limp form held tenderly in her magic. There had to be something she could do that could help Tress, but what? She quickly conjured a proximity barrier spell to hold her friends body still, Twilight made absolutely sure only air was passing through and that she made it correctly. It wasn’t exactly the best form of stasis but it would keep her from getting injured any further if she woke up. As long as Twilight was nearby to keep the barrier running, it would stay up.

While the pipe organ was making a single note at a time the monster started to slowly moving more and more. Rainbow warily kept pressing keys and heard odd noises coming from the surrounding areas of the castle.

It was about time Twilight resorted to using the memory spell. She needed to remember everything as Smart wasn’t here to remind her personally of any pertinent information she’d need about Tress. She lit her horn and cast the spell while keeping Tress in mind.

Tress had her eyes activated when she did feats that even normal earth ponies would be hard pressed to copy. Tress’s hoof glowed with energy as she punched out the fruitcake currently blocking the only known exit from the room. The energy surged up her hoof and her coat was standing on end all the way down her left leg before she thrust it forward.

Twilight stopped on that thought, since when has Tress ever had that kind of ability? Then again Tress never fully explored her powers and only focused on the hair related abilities she gained. Tress never actually fought using just her body as the Mane-iac. This was entering a completely untapped potential area.

Wait, untapped potential? Of course! There was still a piece of the puzzle that Twilight didn’t have yet. Tress’s coat hair standing on end, zap apples being ineffective in shocking her, Zapp’s lightning attacks not working… wait what did she just think? Twilight looked all the way back into the first fight the Power Ponies held with Mane-iac, one that she didn’t participate in but was near. FIlli-second avoids the cart thrown at her and they start attacking Mane-iac one at a time.

Zapp aimed his lightning at Mane-iac and yet it never seems to hit. It looked like Mane-iac was dodging it or was she? A second look the lightning was actually going through Mane-iac and she sped up slightly. Twilight’s eyes took in the sudden realization. It all went back to the lightning cable and the first few pages of Mane-iac’s introduction in the comic.

“I know how we can save Tress!” Twilight had a moment of victorious prancing before a loud roar hit her from behind. Turning slowly around she saw the monster was almost on its feet and growling angrily at them.

“Yeah, I would love to hear that but I still have a few rows of keys to press and I don’t think he’ll let us do that!” She continued hitting keys but at a wild and frantic pace.

“How did you even know about the secret passages in the first place?” It was really strange to Twilight that Rainbow would know something like that when she was so… yeah. Rainbow was always just another face hoof waiting to happen.

“My mom read a lot of adventure stories to me when I was little before… I don’t want to talk about this right now we’re about to be eaten by a fruitcake!” In her frustration Rainbow started hitting all the keys randomly. Somehow she ended up performing a disjointed more horrifying version of ‘Night on Bald Mountain’, it suited the situation they were in at least. “How are we going to save Tress?”

“We need to get her outside for one! If we can’t do that she’s not going to make it.” Twilight turned to the monster as it started a charge, she closed her eyes. This was it.

Rainbow looked at the last key on the far bottom right side of the pipe organ and shrugged; she lifted a hoof and dropped it lightly on to the key. The space around the organ lit up for the barest of seconds and Rainbow smiled once she saw where they ended up.

The fruitcake monster slammed into the wall having lost track of its quarry and it shook its head. It roared to the ceiling in and waited for its voice to reverberate through the halls before its eyes narrowed and it immediately set off out of the room.

Twilight opened her eyes to find herself in the foyer to the castle, she looked to Rainbow is shock.

“It’s always the last one isn’t it?” Rainbow said smiling.

“You skipped hitting fourteen different keys and any one of those could have been the one to get us out of there.” Twilight wondered if brains were optional in Cloudsdale, but Rainbow did just save all of them so she should just give her that one.

“Details, details, at least we’re not down there with big and fruity anymore. Also we’re right next to the door leading outside. So come on, we need to save Tress and you said you can do that once we got outside!” A huge roar was heard going throughout the castle and it sounded like crashing sounds were heard going through the floor, Rainbow cringed slightly. “Yeah, we still need to deal with that thing huh?”

“Well it’s not like Celestia is going to suddenly get up off her throne to aid her citizens in mortal danger and there are no other ponies around here to help us!” Even as she said this Twilight was already in the process of levitating Tress and opening the door and charging outside. “Speaking of help I need yours right now. Get me a cloud with as much lightning as you can possibly stuff into it, we need it like yesterday!”

“I’m on it!” Rainbow zipped off for the sky. Twilight needed a cloud filled to the brim with lightning? She was getting that cloud filled to the brim with lighting. She was not going to let her friends down.

Upon getting a good distance into the sky Rainbow noticed there weren’t very many clouds around, of all nights for the sky to be clear. She’d get what she could gather and then bring it back to Twilight. With speed she had a good small black cloud crackling with lightning, but it was all she could find. She hoped it was enough and quickly winged it back to Twilight.

“Rainbow how did you; you’ve only been gone for ten seconds.” Twilight was impressed with how fast Rainbow managed to get the cloud she needed.

“Yeah, so how should I position it for the monster?” It seemed like the more important thing to deal with at the moment to Rainbow.

“It’s not for the monster, it’s for Tress!” Twilight quickly pulled out her ten foot collapsible pole and levitated Tress. She started running for the river as Rainbow had just given her an idea of how to deal with the monster. “Come on Rainbow, follow me!”

“What.” It was a little known fact that lightning could kill a pony, this led Rainbow to wondering if Twilight was really about to kill Tress? Weren’t they best friends?

“Just trust me, I have a plan!” Twilight’s mind was racing with an idea, but she need to get the lightning off to Tress to help her survive a bit longer.

Crossing the bridge and coming back to the river to find it was still roiling; Twilight smiled and skidded to a stop ten feet away. She carefully sat Tress down and opened a hole in her barrier and carefully stuffed her ten foot pole into Tress’s left armpit. She even prepped a diagnostics spell, if she were wrong she’d be killing Tress and if she were right this would strengthen her enough to survive the self inflicted injuries she caused to herself.

“First thing, Rainbow hit the pole with as much lightning as you can. You have to trust me that this won’t hurt her.” Twilight now understood how Tress’s super powers worked in full. In her saddle bags one of the stone orbs gave off a soft orange glow.

“I… I believe you. Here goes nothing.” Rainbow didn’t like what she was about to do, but she did it anyway. She aimed and she bucked out at the cloud and it expended all its energy in one go. The bolt lasted for a good five seconds.

Tress’s body was thankfully held in place by the barrier as it jumped slightly at the energy forcing its way into her.

Twilight immediately had her diagnostics spell on Tress and was watching something miraculous. The torn ligaments, the shredded muscles, the shattered bones in her shoulder and left hoof were slowly fixing themselves. The bone pieces were sliding back into place and even fusing back into one completely unbroken bone. However her torn muscles didn’t completely regenerate but they were in much better condition than they had previously been, her body had prioritized the bones and the area around her heart first.

“Rainbow, Tress is doing much better now. Thank you…” Her voice was weak and there were tears in her eyes. Twilight’s first, best and most important friend she has ever had was going to live. A roar sounded out behind her, next part of the plan then. “Steven, can you lend me a little help please!”

The river serpent popped up out of the water spooking Rainbow for a moment before she realized he wasn’t very scary or evil looking at all. Kind of odd after seeing all the weird things the Ever Free Forest had.

“Hello again my little friend, what’s the matter?” The river serpent noticed that Twilight had a friend in a barrier and a look of concern crossed his face.

“I need help crossing the river again, Rainbow I need you fly up and find a way to knock the monster into the river when it flies over it to get at us. Steven, can you please roil the river up even worse than this?” Twilight smiled happily when Steven nodded. He liked ponies and didn’t mind helping them.

Rainbow shot off into the sky and saw the monster winging its way towards the river, that thing was relentless. How was she going to…? A sparkle appeared in her eyes. She needed to do a Sonic Rainboom and right now, her friends were depending on her! She flew high up while keeping an eye on that monstrous visage sharing her sky.

“This one is for you guys!” Rainbow dove straight for the demonic fruitcake dragon with both hooves pushing to go as fast as she could, slowly a pressure cone built up in front of her and then she pushed her hardest as the monster was almost over the river.

The monsters eyes went wide at the sudden streak of rainbow colors that shot past its head and then promptly exploded right between its wings destroying them. The monster fell into the roiling river and the water quickly battered it and started to seep into the crack on its body, it started screeching as it begun dissolving into the water.

Tress opened her eyes slightly to see a huge rainbow explosion and watched the monster fall into the water. It was roaring in pain and something else.

“Beautiful.” Tress immediately got the unicorns attention. “Twilight…closer…”

“Don’t try to talk Tress you’re going to be okay, save your strength.” Twilight moved Tress closer to herself all the same.

“Something… tell… pain…” Tress felt herself moved closer to Twilight and she spoke into Twilight’s ear. “Twilight I…”

The whisper caused Twilight to look on in shock just as Tress blacked out again.

Author's Notes:

Don't jump to conclusions.

44

“The fact that it was doing semaphore with its legs was probably just a huge coincidence Rainbow.”

“What about the butter knife? It attacked you with that, which proves it was intelligent right?”

“Actually there was a sharp knife on the counter and a block full of knives right next to where the butter knife was. If it was truly intelligent it would have gone for those.”

Tress stirred at the voices.

“I guess your right then. Still though, why did Tress ask you to do that? Don’t you know much trouble that thing caused us!”

“I’m a believer of seconds chances Rainbow and Tress was willing to give you more than several. With the spells I’ve recently learned from our trip back to the castle of the two sisters, things will turn out for the best. Look at it this way; it was an adventure we’ll never forget and you got to play a heroic role.”

“Still doesn’t feel right Twilight, we didn’t necessarily finish the story in an epic way.”

“I went back and checked the keys on the pipe organ. One of the fourteen you missed on the ‘Organ to the Outside’ would have actually warped us ten feet outside of the castles front door.”

Tress twitched some more and her eyes opened.

“Twilight, Rainbow, where am I?” Tress was nearly blinded by the light in the room, after a moment her eyesight adjusted to the two ponies sitting at her bedside. She could see a dozen flowers, one from each one of the friends her and Twilight recently became acquainted with. “Also how long have I been out?”

“You’ve been out for the last seventeen hours and we’re in Ponyville’s hospital. I’ve had time to get some sleep and go exploring the castle; I even found Celestia’s old diary there. I think Celestia was very irresponsible with what she left behind.” Twilight was glad to see Tress wake up; she was cleared for leaving as soon as she awoke. The doctors were trying to find a way to hold her for more testing and without consent from Tress’s closest guardian or friends they couldn’t hold her here. They were trying to figure out how Tress was miraculously recovering from having so much muscle and nervous tissue related trauma and damage done to her body.

“I made sure nothing attacked Twilight when she went back there; I have to watch out for my buddies backs after all. Glad to see you’re doing alright. I still don’t entirely understand why Twilight had me hit you with a lightning bolt, but I guess everything is cool.” Walking a nearby window Rainbow thrust it open and looked back to them. “I got to jet; see you at the party in two hours!”

“Okay, I take it that after last night Rainbow still won’t leave us alone? Also why do you think the solar princess is irresponsible?” Tress came from a world without a sun controlling princess, she really didn’t think either way about the current monarch and ignored her existence as she had no importance to Tress’s everyday life.

“To answer the first question, probably not but at least Rainbow helped us out of a dire situation and she saved your life. The castle of the two sisters is where we were last night and I’ve learned a lot of disturbing things about it.” Turning it over in her head Twilight decided to answer the last question. Celestia was a pony to look up to as long as you take in all her flaws alongside her good points, at this point she didn’t think she would have done too well under her tutelage. Lighting her horn she levitated out a pet carrier and set it on the bed next to Tress and opened the door. “This is why I think Celestia is irresponsible. She left behind spells that if they were to come into the wrong hooves, they could cause devastating problems.”

Out of the pet carrier crawled a cat with light brown fur with yellow, red and green spots. Tress just stared at it in awe and looked to Twilight with a small frown.

“How many ponies exactly know that this was the thing that attacked yesterday?” The cat rubbed up against Tress’s chest and she shakily lifted a hoof to pet him, the cat purred at her gentle touch. “He kind of looks cute now, but I really should hate his guts knowing what he was. After all that trouble, misery and pain he put us through.”

“Not many. He actually passed as sentient enough for the spell to work, he literally is a cat right now and he is still getting used to the idea of it. I left him with Fluttershy for a few hours to teach him a lesson and he should know better than to hurt any pony anymore unless it’s warranted.” Twilight actually wondered if Tress had ever wanted a pet. “He’s ours now, unless you want him to stay with Fluttershy that is.”

“What did that spell that turned him into a cat exactly do and how does it work?” The cat purred and crawled around in Tress’s lap before curling up there. “Hard to imagine this thing was so ferocious barely a day ago.”

“The spell is a metamorphic spell. The important part is that you require a template to be present and then you can use anything else as a target to change into a version of that template. The spell doesn’t work on morphing small things into larger things unless it was their normal form or animals that are magic immune. Basically I can morph into anything smaller than your general everyday pony, but if I wanted to morph into something large like say an Ursa Minor or Major. That is thankfully impossible.” She thought that she lost her friend at some point, Twilight just decided to continue anyway. “I can also carry only one metamorphic template of said smaller animal at a time to use later. Our fruitcake monster here was still bigger then a cat after I fished him out of the river because you asked me to. He was a perfectly contained test subject for the spell. I used Opal as a template and here is your new pet cat.”

“Do we seriously have to keep him? Why did I even ask you to rescue him, why do I even bother having a conscience if I’m going to get saddled with more weird stuff like this? It must have been the pain talking that I asked you to save him! I’m beginning understand why exactly your parents act so normal compared to all the crazy stuff that goes on around them.” Tress was acting rather melodramatic even as she hugged the cat to her body and gave him a painful smack to the head causing the cat to meow pitifully. “Quick question why aren’t I seriously in pain right now? I still doubt even seventeen hours could help me recover from feeling like my body was on fire, stabbed with a hundred knives and then promptly covered in acid, after the jagged knives are all ripped out at the same time of course.

“It’s because I figured out how your super powers work and you’re on a lot of pain medication right now. You’re healing just fine; I’m surprised you’re not acting really loopy at the moment. Other than that can you truly tell me that you don’t enjoy all the weird and wonderful things life can throw at us?” Twilight even knew what life was going to throw at them in two years. It’s been nine hundred and ninety eight years since that day she read about.

“Yeah, the joys of pain and suffering are never ending with you. Any idea what’s coming at us next? As I’d like an advanced warning if I’m going to be abducted by aliens, mole cats or slave traders.” Tress wouldn’t put it past Twilight to somehow arrange for something like one of those things to happen by complete accident. “On the subjects of my powers what do you know?”

“Well, we might or might not be dealing with a powerful and insane super villain alicorn who’s the sister of Celestia in two years. Her name is apparently Luna and she turned into Nightmare Moon because ponies started ignoring her nights in comparison to her sisters’ days. She’s currently the image on the moon as that is where she’s sealed away by the elements of harmony, which were last used by Celestia on the day of the summer sun celebration hundreds of years ago.” Noticing her friends grimace at having to fight a pony with all three races combined into one powerful package, Twilight decided to move on to Tress’s powers. “As for your powers, I think your hair was the mane attraction. It was not all that you could do and you certainly had a few more abilities then you realized.”

“Okay, do you want me to ask what I missed when I was still Mane-iac? Also remember to mark down on the calendar the day we have to face down Nightmare Moon as a busy day for us. I thought my world was weird being a comic book and everything, but you’re world takes the cake in the week we’ve been having in a place that looked so quiet from the outset.” Around this time Tress actually tried sitting up and she felt slightly woozy, the cat scampered off to her side staring at her with its red eyes.

“I just wanted to know if you were curious or not about it.” Twilight inhaled and then started to regale Tress with the knowledge she had learned about Mane-iac’s physiology based on what she knew.

Apparently Tress’s eyes do have an incredible function, one that’s highly dangerous to her body. A normal pony can only use only so much of their brain and muscles at once, what her eyes do is take in information at double or even triple the rate they’d normally do. This did not make her more intelligent; it just heightened her reaction speed and reflexes.

Tress’s brain was also boosted to a degree and always at the same time her eyes activate. The unfortunate drawback is if she is injured while she’s like this it really comes back on her in a largely inescapably painful way. This boosting broke the restrictions a normal pony’s body would have and it allowed her to use her muscles to their full capacity, which is a really bad thing to do and why they previously tore themselves apart. The pain was likely more indescribable then Tress made it out to be without the particular buffer her Mane-iac form provided.

Tress’s Mane-iac form had the general super powered comic character traditions. The form had a resilience to pain, heightened damage tolerance and was capable of handling heavier amounts of stress to her muscles. It did not increase her strength by too much, it just allowed her to use more of her muscles with far less strain. Her body basically had an exponential increase in efficiency.

What Tress didn’t lose being as she was now was some minimal regenerative properties and the ability to absorb lightning or any energy relatively close to it. As long as her body had at least some form of electrical energy in it, she could regenerate from any injury short of an immediate killing blow provided she had enough energy to deal with the damage.

When Tress first became the Mane-iac she was at full capacity and her mane was constantly writhing about and had arcs of energy coursing through it. The reason for this is because every hair on her body can constantly recharge her body with static electricity, it wasn’t much but it added up over time.

Mane-iac’s mane didn’t use up her electrical energy. Neither did her eyes or more efficient full body transformation. They only needed a certain amount of energy to stay activated and that energy can be fully pulled back into her. The only energy loss Mane-iac would have ever suffered in her conservative fighting style against the Power Ponies is a direct blow to her body or overexerting her muscles to the point where her regenerative properties would kick in. She could stay as the Mane-iac indefinitely once she got her full form going.

“Wow… if you put all of that together I actually make for a good villain and much more powerful than I initially came off as when we met.” Tress really hadn’t been using her abilities to the fullest had she?

“It’s not that surprising as all of your abilities are that of an earth pony's pushed to extreme levels, even your hair control is an earth pony related ability. What is not related is that you have the ability to channel and possibly fire lightning bolts from anywhere out of your body. Maybe you could even create a biological electro orb bomb.” Twilight knew that electrical powers weren’t Tress’s strongest abilities; they’d be more of a last resort kind of thing. “I’d assume abilities like that would put a massive drain on your Mane-iac powers. You’d quickly lose your full body transformation first as it requires a huge build up for you to even fully transform and hold that appearance.”

“So… we still have time to get me into the dress Rarity is likely finished making and get to the party while picking up your daughter and Zecora on the way?” As Tress asked this she wondered about the strange things that went on with her body and how long Twilight fretted over every single aspect of it.

“Yeah we do, I’ll help you stand and walk a bit.” Twilight shouldered Tress and helped her walk. She noticed her friend was limping and looking drained. “You’re truly amazing Tress and not because of your super powers either. I wonder if you’re muscles are constantly locked up from the electrical energy and that’s why Fluttershy’s massages make you feel so good.”

Tress blushed vibrantly. She hoped not as Fluttershy would be constantly on top of her if that were the case, then again it wouldn’t be so bad a prospect.

Author's Notes:

The fruitcake is now a cat, things are just silly now.

Tress is not as swift as Filli-second, she's not as strong as Saddle Rager and she might not even be smarter then the Masked Matter Horn. She's a 'Rodeo Applejack' of all trades and can put up a good fight.

45

“So, now that I’m back to empty on my powers how am I ever going to get a big enough charge to become Mane-iac again?” Tress was sitting in front of Twilight again; having her mane brushed always made her smile. She was already in her dress and they had to get to the party within the next twenty minutes to be considered early. The medication had worn off thirty minutes ago and she felt horribly sore. “I do want to eventually want to be able to transform again.”

“If only lightning clouds weren’t restricted to pegasus use only. They have tight restrictions on them and I’m not sure if you want Rainbow to know you have super powers. That is if she hasn’t guessed already. Maybe I can rig up a lightning rod to the roof and have it run into a battery you can pull the energy from. Even then one lightning bolt wasn’t enough to help you fully recover. We’d need several lightning storms to come through the area to even make some kind of headway into this.” Though Twilight was sure Rainbow could easily figure out that Tress had super powers, it was unlikely. Twilight pulled Tress’s entire mane back and got out a dark purple hair band to hold it altogether after she finished braiding it, that is if Tress would let her. “We’ll figure out something Tress. Would you mind if I braided you’re mane?”

“Go ahead; you know I trust you with my mane Twilight.” Tress looked at herself in the mirror as Twilight started to braid her mane; her dress turned out quite nice though she didn’t like it covering her tail and the straps were causing her sore shoulders some mild discomfort. A light bit of eye shadow and a very light dusting of powder on her cheeks was all the makeup she needed.

“It’s still polite to ask.” Twilight sighed as she braided Tress’s mane by hoof, she would always love the feel of her friends’ manes and enjoyed every moment they allowed her to touch them. She wasn’t getting dressed up like Tress was but she was going to enjoy the party all the same. Tress was really beautiful and looking in the mirror, she looked plain and average in comparison. Twilight was a mare that didn’t use makeup and Tress didn’t even need the stuff, though the eye shadow did add a bit to her friends’ features.

“All that I have left to get on is my choker; you can help me with that after you’re done braiding my mane.” Soon Tress stood up and did a twirl for Twilight and smiled impishly, then winced.

“The doctors said you were okay to leave, they didn’t say you were okay to do anything strenuous.” Twilight hugged her friend softly while nuzzling her neck; she was going to treat her like glass until her muscles were fully healed. “Please Tress, take it easy. You really hurt yourself.”

“Sorry Twilight, I promise when we get to the party I’ll only do one dance and then take a seat off to the side for the rest of the night. I can keep Fluttershy busy; she’s definitely going to wallflower all night long and I’ll be right there with her.” Of that Tress had no doubt. Tress noticed Twilight was getting rather affectionate with her in the last hour or so. It was a little odd if welcome that Twilight worried so much at every little grunt and groan she has made.

“I’m so glad that Vinyl still paid me for helping her move the sound system in a bit later than usual. She still got her practice session in and even understood that we were otherwise indisposed.” The last nine hours were quite interesting for Twilight.

Twilight said goodbye to Mr. Magnet while containing what was left of the monster in a magical barrier. She eventually stuffed it in a pet carrier she got on the way to the hospital at a nocturnal pet store and used saran wrap on the carrier to make sure it stayed inside. She got her friend to the hospital and went to sleep in the bed next to hers after getting her bruises, internal injuries and minor cuts treated. She later woke up to the knowledge that Rainbow stuck around to watch them sleep in a creepy manner. This was followed by the trip back to the castle and she explored it for approximately three hours, found a lot of ancient books one of which she learned a spell from. Said spell was use to turn the monster into a cat. This led to her giving the cat to Fluttershy who was worried about Tress being in the hospital; she had Fluttershy put the cat through obedience and discipline training. It was going to be a get well present for Tress or at least that’s what Twilight had implied. She went around and told the rest of their friends that Tress was sleeping off the injuries from the monster after her rescue. In the end she finished helping Vinyl move her stuff for the party and came back to the hospital all the while discussing whether or not it was wrong to eat barely sentient food with Rainbow.

“You sound like you’ve been incredibly busy and you still had time to move Vinyl’s gear?” She had heard what kind of a late start Twilight got on this day and she did so much in so little time.

“A good eight hours of sleep and I’m good to go. You on the other hoof need more time to recover.” Twilight was still worried about her friend and her current state of health. They were ready to go as soon as she placed the purple silk choker around Tress’s neck. They would soon set out for the party with Zecora and Barb.

“My you certainly do look nice, that dress certainly looks to be worth its price.” Zecora mentioned on the way to the party held at the town hall. “Who you are is where your true beauty does lay; our friendship is one that I hope will forever stay.”

“The maker of this dress didn’t even let me pay for it.” Grumbled Tress, sometimes Rarity was too nice for her own good.

“Just take it easy and enjoy the evening Tress, only everything can go wrong tonight and we might as well make the best of it.” Hoping that reverse Murphy’s Law took effect tonight was one of the things Twilight was banking on. She didn’t think Tress could survive another exciting adventure so soon and if anything did bother her friend tonight other then the cat that was still following them around, she was going to magic everyone around her and hard.

Opening the door to the party Pinkie shouted a hearty ‘surprise’ to them while popping up in front of them. She readily introduced them to the party that just started five minutes ago. Behind Pinkie was a tired looking Trixie.

“And this would be my personal party prestidigitation pony Trixie the incredible illusion master!” Pinkie threw a hoof around Trixie; giving her a hug and a cheerful smile. “She can take anything you think of and make it look like reality; she’s also paid by Rarity to help her flesh out her ideas.”

“Hello Twilight, Trixie can see that you’re doing well. Trixie’s friend Pinkie kept Trixie up all night until sometime around midnight when she finally gave up looking for the pony that couldn’t make it to this party. She said the situation resolved itself and the sky got rather colorful at that time.” Trixie was slightly and rightfully angry with Pinkie Pie at the moment.

“Huh that’s the estimated time we finished fighting the monster last night and when Rainbow did her Sonic Rainboom.” Having said her name, Twilight immediately found Rainbow flying right up to them.

“Did somebody dial awesome? Because I know she’s right here!” Apparently Rainbow’s bravado was back in full force.

“Wait that rainbow explosion was you rescuing Tress? Trixie believes that Tress was the pony you were looking for Pinkie. She was the one foal nabbed by the monster and would have had trouble coming to the party.” Trixie and Tress had been acquainted a long time ago and she had seen Tress get carried off by the monster. Now that Trixie looked back on it she should have put two and two together.

“But then you’d have four. Four and two shouldn’t go together or else you will end up with wood in the morning!” The mind of Pinkie can really boggle many ponies. It certainly boggled Trixie, but she relished in the challenge in trying to understand the bubbly party pony and win her heart.

“We’ve talked about this before. Trixie would like to remind you that you can’t read minds Pinkie.” Trixie even knocked on Pinkie’s skull causing her to giggle.

“Of course I know that I can’t silly. I’m just reading the story along with everyone else! It does get a bit bland at parts though.” Pinkie was getting even more confused looks at this proclamation. Proclamation was a strange word to Pinkie but it didn’t sound like a bad word to think of.

“Tress, there’s Fluttershy. Go get your dance in and then sit down to rest.” Twilight saw Fluttershy staying well out of the way of every single pony in the room, Tress immediately moved over to Fluttershy to widen her comfort zone a bit. Now Twilight turned to Trixie with a question on the tip of her tongue.

“Trixie knows what you are going to ask and yes Trixie will finally admit to being your friend. Are you happy now?” Trixie felt herself get drawn into a short cuddle that made her blush.

“That’s not what I was going to ask, but thank you. You were one of the few ponies I could actually talk to back in school.” There was no void in Twilight’s heart, it was filled with friendship and could stand to be filled even further. “Speaking of, why did you move here?”

“Long story short, Trixie knows Twilight was going to eventually move here. So Trixie came here to see why you would do so. You could have had a great future in any magical field, you could have been incredibly rich, famous and even successful in life. Yet you plan to come here to operate a business of helping ponies with their problems, Trixie wanted to see the appeal.” Trixie shot a glance to Pinkie before returning her sight to Twilight. Pinkie was currently running around introducing herself to every new pony in Ponyville, while pointing out her party magician to every pony. “Trixie saw the appeal.”

“What are you doing talking to her of all ponies?” Rarity came over to see why Twilight was conversing with the annoying magician. Trixie did do a good job making visual representations of finished dress ideas Rarity had and as such she paid her well, but that didn’t mean they liked each other. Though the hat and cape Trixie wore weren’t too horrible on the eyes, it just rubbed at Rarity’s fashion sense that Trixie hardly ever took those two articles of clothing off. It was the same problem she had with Applejack never taking off her hat.

“Trixie was just catching up with an old acquaintance and a newly minted friend. We both went to Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns.” Trixie promised Pinkie a show and that she’d be friendly with her two interesting if polar opposite friends. Meaning she had to play nice with Rarity and Applejack.

“Is this true?” Rarity had never thought that Trixie could get into such a prestigious school, but her powerful use of illusion magic begged to differ.

“Yeah, I tried befriending Trixie a lot and she was the only unicorn my age that I could get along with in Canterlot. We weren’t always the best of pals, but at least Trixie wasn’t Sunset Shimmer.” Twilight noticed that Trixie shivered at hearing that name.

“Trixie agrees that Trixie was never that bad. Trixie learned to stay away from that mare and acting anything like her.” It was one thing for Trixie to be a bit boastful; it was another to be anything like Sunset Shimmer. Even Trixie could feel the darkness rolling off of that unicorn and wanted no part in it.

“You are going to one the best friends I’ve ever made Twilight; I just know it because I’m Pinkie Pie! I know every pony in Ponyville and I hope you can get to know me to.” Pinkie smiled as she hugged all three unicorns that started struggling.

“Need… air…” Twilight felt like Pinkie had super powers from the hug alone; it made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

“Hey there, who are you? Do you want a cupcake?” Releasing the unicorns, Pinkie crouched down to eye level with Barb who shyly hugged one of her mother’s back legs.

“That’s my daughter Barb. I’m Twilight Sparkle and you already saw my friend Tress Ravel, please don’t bother her too much if she stops enjoying the party as she just got out of the hospital. This is Rainbow Dash and Zecora, some other friends I’ve made recently too.” Introductions all around and things were looking okay, the free cupcakes Pinkie was dishing out tasted wonderful. Butter cream frosting was a bit weighty on the waist, but it was delicious.

“No problem, I’ll make sure your friend talking to the pretty pegasus stays happy. I love to see ponies smiling and getting smiles is what I’m good at. So have you heard about the oatmeal thing already? Mr. Davenport said a few ponies would ask about it and I haven’t found them yet.” Pinkie had her party going perfectly without a hitch, hmm… getting hitched? Tricky proposition for one as wild as her, she’d never find a stallion crazy enough to try and date her. Tricky, Tricia, Traps, Tankards, Tops, Tubers, there was just so many T words out there, maybe she should ask Trixie on a date after she talks to the Rainbow as she looked really fun to be around.

46

The party was in full swing and Twilight was enjoying the party games, the music and food.

Pinkie was being a good host to every single pony that has recently moved to Ponyville or even just visiting for a short time. Nothing was going wrong and it was too good to be true, even Rarity had to comment on it. Tress sat off to the side with Fluttershy talking calmly, they looked to be enjoying themselves and Pinkie made her rounds to them once or twice asking them if they needed anything.

“She really does look good in that dress, but I can’t help but feel something is missing from her ensemble. Her hair is quite gorgeous; you do good work Twilight. There’s nothing wrong with her makeup, it just feels like something was missing from her appearance.” Rarity had an eye for detail and the dress she made was getting put to use and so far hadn’t been ruined. It seemed like there was something off about Tress wearing the dress, but she really couldn’t think of what it could be as she currently looked fabulous. “The eye shadow really does add to her appearance a bit and she’s lightly dusted her cheeks, you two don’t really use too much makeup do you? Then again you don’t really need it.”

“What can I say? My best friend is looking a lot better since we rescued her. I even believe all my friends are naturally beautiful, including Rainbow Dash. Tress is still not a hundred percent though and she’ll eventually want to get back to two hundred.” Twilight had her mind working on the problem, Tress needed a large amount of energy and it didn’t necessarily have to all be in one go.

“Trixie still think it’s surprising that Pinkie earned her cutie mark from the same event that four other ponies did. Not all necessarily at the same time mind you, but Rainbow Dash does make for a colorful display and Trixie is considering making an illusionary copy of the explosion, do you think she has a patent on it?” Trixie was thinking of making an illusionary Sonic Rainboom a part of her act she was about to put on, it would be a good finisher.

“Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow, Pinkie and Fluttershy all have a connection to that event. Even Barb here has a connection to it.” Twilight had her daughter at her side all night and was happy to spend more time with her.

“Really, I saw the rainbow explosion last night. What does something like that have to do with me?” It was an explosion of rainbow light at night that had enchanted Barb’s vision, she stayed up late with worry about her mom and older sister figure.

“You were born during one, I hatched you when a Sonic Rainboom went off and was still going. I guess I share some connection to the event as well. How many ponies do you suppose Rainbow affected when she did that years ago?” There were so many variables to think of, Twilight wasn’t sure she’d even think of them all. That rainbow explosion had gotten as far as Manehatten if one were to listen to Applejack’s telling of it and how she got her cutie mark.

“Wow, I guess that does make me pretty special.” Barb smiled and snuggled into her mother’s chest. “Mom, do you think I’ll get a cutie mark someday, I mean I’m a magic dragon with magically mixed in pony so maybe I could have one.”

“I don’t honestly know, maybe one day we’ll find out when you find you’re special talent. Maybe you take after me and are good at magic.” Twilight giggled as Barb was now hugging one of Rarity’s legs.

“Yeah, that’ll be the day. I’m not you mom, I don’t think anybody is quite as power with magic as you are. Except maybe Rarity here, she’s a magic all her own.” Barb liked Rarity and wanted to be her close friend.

“Oh, she’s such a darling little sweetheart! If I didn’t know you’d come after me for stealing her away from you, I would do it in a heartbeat.” Rarity just started petting Barb affectionately causing her wings to flutter.

“You use a lot of gems and jewels in your dresses sometimes right? Well you’d probably give her back once you notice how much of your merchandise she’ll end up eating. Barb has a particular taste for ruby, sapphire, topaz and of course she likes diamonds as well.” The reaction was immediate and Twilight found Barb placed on her back by a sheepish looking Rarity.

“Then again, I wouldn’t dream of separating a child from her mother. To think she has such expensive eating habits like that, at least I know what to get her for her birthdays from now on. She will be around for more birthdays’ right?” Rarity would just give the dragon a bag of gems and jewels for Barb to snack on or use as barter for something she really wanted.

“Hey, I’m not nearly that bad mom! I eat regular food just like any pony. I also like a little bit of garnet as a finisher or as a bit of garnish. Tastes like pepper or cinnamon really, depends on how it’s prepared and what I’m eating it with.” Barb didn’t know why Rarity was looking at her in fear. It wasn’t like she was going to eat any gems at her boutique or go on a crazy jewel jacking spree.

“I know dear. It’s just that you eat them like candy when I do give you some.” Twilight looked back at Barb who didn’t meet her gaze.

“They practically are candy to me, candy that grows in the ground and tastes great.” Barb was looking anywhere but at her mother at this moment. “I really like jawbreakers at least and those are pretty cheap and inexpensive mom.”

“Alright Trixie you’re on to take requests!” Pinkie shouted out into a microphone, soon the magician was walking onto a small area of the floor. “Listen up every pony for the illusion master is on the floor and she’s taking request.”

Twilight smiled eagerly, she wondered if Trixie could do it. Walking up to Trixie, Twilight whispered a few things to her.

“Oh, is this a challenge I hear to the incredible illusion master Trixie? Very well, let’s see if I can conjure it up. Now stand back every pony while I work my magic.” Trixie lit up her horn and then took a step back and disappeared from sight, surprising many ponies.

“My word, I didn’t know Trixie could do something like that.” If Rarity had known Trixie could disappear, she would have asked her a long time ago to do so. Now Trixie was inexpensive help during one of her dress making idea sessions and she couldn’t get rid of her if she tried.

Slowly a spotlight formed in the middle of the room creating a circle on the floor. If one were to look up to the ceiling there were no spot lights and this was part of the illusion. Slowly a mass of colors started to form in the spotlight and rose up into the air before exploding into a swarm of tiny little fairy ponies.

“She’s good; I hope Fluttershy is enjoying this because I know I am.” Twilight had requested Trixie create a nature scene and she did just that. Soon the floor looked to have been covered in flowers and rabbits frolicking around, birds chirping and flying through the air. Not once were any of the animals conjured exactly like another in appearance. From a technical standpoint Twilight was awed, it was visually stunning including the deer drinking some water from a river that was just added to the serene picture.

The ponies watched in awe. When the illusion finished Trixie stepped back into view and in the middle of the flower field while sweeping off her hat in a bow and then the illusion fell away to a thunderous stomping applause.

“Are there any more takers for Trixie?” Trixie asked politely, she suddenly found herself swarmed by ponies with requests. She was thankful when Pinkie arrived to make them all back up so she could choose ponies to take illusion idea’s from.

“Excuse me, but I said I was supposed to meet you here?” The grey coated blonde haired mare walked up to Twilight.

“Oh hey there, we’re still wondering what you’re name is. We know you’re a mail delivery pony already.” Twilight was meeting new ponies all the time and she’s already met this one at three different ages, time travel was quite possible if heavily restricted. One can only wonder where Derpy gets her time jumping abilities.

“My names Derpy Hooves, it’s nice to meet you again for the first time Twilight. I’ll be your local mail carrier and if you ever need a muffin, you can always come to me.” Derpy had a bubbly personality and was quite friendly; she liked the nice version of Twilight no matter how weird the timeline was around her. “Now if you will let me go, I need to get my idea of Muffintopia out there to the illusion maker!”

Twilight was quite amused by some of what ponies could come up with; Trixie had dancing bananas with maracas before the night was out and there was a utopia made with muffins in the form of a tiny theme park.

Every single pony had had a good time.

Leaving the party late in the evening Twilight walked along the dark road on a starry night with her friends still chatting away in amazement at Trixie’s skills with illusions or about how Vinyl’s music felt like it was still thumping in their ears. Twilight’s thoughts went back to her parents, she really missed them and her thoughts went back to Derpy declaring herself their mail carrier. At least her mail would always be on time.

“What’s wrong Twilight, if you don’t mind me asking that is… you look a bit… sad.” Fluttershy walked up and nuzzled Twilight gently before bringing her into a nice quiet comforting hug.

“I think I’m feeling a bit homesick...” Twilight looked at Canterlot in the distance and Tress came up to stand beside her.

“Well why don’t we all compose a letter together and send it to them?” Tress hoped her suggestion would help Twilight feel better. It was only then an odd thought occurred to her. “Why don’t unicorns use the messaging spell more often?”

“Well a messaging spell will only work on small scrolls of a limited size and not many unicorns actually understand the workings of the spell. Even if you were to explain it to them, a unicorn understanding how the spell works is the only reason it does. If they can’t understand it then they can’t use it.” Twilight didn’t have any problems with it working for her and Barb even managed to get it to work. “So what should we write to my parents? About how Pinkie is an insane sugar high mare, meeting our last Hearths Warming fruitcake again recently or the five headed hydra that kept us sitting up on that ledge for a few hours.

“Why not tell them everything; I’m sure Velvet would want to hear about the bear I made friends with and how I met my pet Angel bunny!” Fluttershy smiled sweetly, she was going to end up giving her friends cavities at this rate. Goodness knows Pinkie tried to do just that with all the sugary baked goods at the party.

A day later in the Sparkle home, all the way up in the mountain city.

“Bill, bill, newspaper and what’s this. Hmm… a letter from Twilight, better get Velvet.” Night suddenly had an excited look on his face; he just had to tell his wife that their daughter finally wrote back after getting settled in. “Velvet, honey! Twilight wrote us a letter, stop fighting those pirates and the ninja’s.”

“Aw, but I’m winning.” Velvet had a gaggle of still conscious pirate ponies and ninja ponies to take down. She was currently wielding a three sectioned staff and a cutlass with her magic.

Floating nearby was the resident poltergeist slowly dissolving popcorn into its ectoplasm one kernel at a time; he was enjoying the action packed battle that had taken place in the living room. Hearing that Twilight sent a letter, he immediately floated for the couch and waited patiently.

“Now Velvet, I’m sure the pirates and ninja’s are problematic, but this is our daughter we’re talking about. She’s probably enjoying a more normal life then we are and she took the time to write us.” Night saw that he got through to his wife and she sighed.

“You’re right, our sweet baby girl sent us a letter so I should drop what I’m doing or else I’m a horrible mother.” Velvet let off on the magic holding her cutlass, she kept hold of the three sectioned staff though as she made way for the couch and sat down next to her husband. “Open it up dear.”

Opening it and pulling out fourteen folded sheets of paper Night sighed, apparently their daughter was having as much a blast as they were. He looked up at all the still conscious ninja’s and pirates gathering around the couch.

“Do you guys mind? We’re trying to read a letter our daughter sent us, so could you please kindly carry off your wounded and go somewhere else? If you keep bothering us, my wife might actually want to continue fighting all of you and I’ll join her. Now will all of you please leave?” Night saw the looks of horror on their faces. The ninja threw down smoke balls and in seconds all the ninja ponies disappeared from the room. The pirates had a unicorn that sent up a magic flare and a rope ladder dropped through a hole in the ceiling and they started ferrying their wounded out one at a time. The poltergeist started to leave with a sad look on its face. “Not you, you know we like you.”

The poltergeist floated back happily, he liked living here and didn’t want to be sent away.

“Dear mom and dad.” Velvet read out loud.

47

A few weeks later…

Twilight was sitting at the table waiting for breakfast being cooked by Barb. Of the three beings that needed food in the house only Barb could cook breakfast, lunch and dinner. Tress could make breakfast and dinner easily and at least she didn’t have a problem with the food spontaneously rising up against her. They could actually eat normal meals, none of which would ever be made by Twilight. She couldn’t even make a sandwich without it’s olive eyes following them around the room.

Zecora had left a while ago and back for her home, she had made it there in a safely. Anyone that knew the name Sparkle was never truly safe to be near one. As such Twilight thought it was safer that the zebra walked home alone.

“Mail call everyone, Twilight your Mane Fancy magazine is in and your parents finally fixed the address issue.” Tress immediately let off of her grip from the magazine in question as it zipped over to Twilight to hover in front of her face so she could read the cover. “Barb you’re hot scoop magazine is in, I didn’t even know there was a magazine dedicated to ice cream advancements out there and last but not least, a letter for me?”

“Who’s it from Tress?” Twilight perked up curiously as she knew not many ponies would be writing to Tress, their friends in Ponyville knew where she lived and could visit anytime. There were very few ponies from Canterlot that even knew who she was. Her parents would have just sent them all a letter, which would require them to call in Fluttershy.

“It’s from Fleur.” Tress wouldn’t look her friend in the eyes; she knew there would be a searching look there.

“Well aren’t you going to read it? It might be important.” Twilight’s life certainly hadn’t gotten any more boring. The jobs she had taken on with Tress at her side were ridiculously normal with strange outcomes or completely absurd as all get out with normal outcomes, nothing was ever quite average with her.

Tress popped open the envelope and pulled out the letter inside, she quickly perused the message from Fleur. A slight blush crossed her face and she smiled, after a moment she gave of slight squeal in delight.

“Fleur is getting married!” Tress had an invite and to bring a few friends with her, she hoped Twilight would go with her. “I’m supposed to bring a few friends with me, so do you want to come?”

“That’s great Tress of course I would love to, but only if we can bring Barb along. Who is Fleur getting married to?” There was a noticeable silence as Twilight looked on at a concerned Tress.

“That’s just it, the letter doesn’t say. It just says that she needs me to show up in Canterlot. She wants me to be her brides’ mare.” Tress would gladly do that, now if only she had a clue as to whom her rather popular friend was marrying.

“You still haven’t told me how you two met you know, but it’s nice that she thinks of you as a very good friend for that position.” Twilight had an eye raised in an inquisitive manner, the purple unicorn turned to the food her daughter just placed before her.

“I know, she’ll probably tell you herself when we meet. Might as well get it all out into the open right now I guess. Once I learned that you were saving up some money for this house I decided to find a job, you wanted a nice place to call all your own and I wasn’t really doing much sitting around in the crazy house all day.” Tress thought back to that very day, her job search wasn’t going too well and she was wanting to aid Twilight to get the very house they were currently in. “I met Fleur when I stopped at a fast food restaurant, it was an odd place to see your role model and I decided to chat with her. She was wearing a rather paper thin disguise at the time and things kind of went from there. I introduced myself, she tried to write herself off as no pony important and slowly she eased up once I got her talking about random things.”

“Really, a fast food restaurant? I guess every pony has their tastes and if that’s what Fleur likes then good on her, I don’t think she really needs to hide it. Even I enjoy the occasional hay burger stuffers every now and then with an extra amount of grilled bean curd and ketchup. Unless there’s a problem with being seen eating food, I can’t see the reason why she would disguise herself unless she was avoiding photographers.” Twilight stuffed some fried eggs into her mouth; Barb was definitely getting better at cooking. She was probably the only Sparkle in existence that didn’t cook specialty foods and or monsters in a horrific manner. “Better send my parents a letter that we’ll be coming back to Canterlot sooner than I thought we would be. When’s the date she expects us to come?”

“Don’t tell her I told you anything about her eating habits when I introduce you to her. She wants us to come to her home in Canterlot within a month from now. Can you mark it on the calendar? Speaking of which how are we going to deal with Nightmare Moon? Don’t think I haven’t noticed the issue with getting me energy to fully transform.” If there was one thing Tress disliked about her powers, it was that they required large amounts of energy and she felt empty when they stopped working entirely.

“I’m working on it Tress, I could learn a lightning spell and just power you up myself.” It was a suggestion that Twilight thought over as she ate some buttered toast, quick toasted courtesy of the resident dragon. Magical lightning or shock spell weren’t hard to acquire, what was the problem was figuring out how to overpower them to feed Tress enough power to fuel hers.

“Twilight, you cast a random spell every single time you get spooked and just last week you forced Pinkie’s mane straight for four hours just because she wanted to surprise you with a prank. Are you sure you could learn that spell and not endanger lives by accident? I wouldn’t want that on our consciences.” Speaking of things on the conscience, Tress pet the fruitcake colored cat that hopped onto her lap and he purred happily. She had gotten used to the idea of owning an intelligent monster as a magically altered pet.

Tress named the cat Palatable as a tasteless joke and the little monster actually responded to that as its name, he responded to Pal just as well. Just because he was transformed into a cat didn’t make him any less dangerous, his hide was still as tough as it was when he was first made which was saying something. Apparently some properties from your original form carried over to the new one. At least the cat wasn’t growing to ridiculously large sizes and the only annoying thing it did nowadays was bring dead spaghetti monsters to their doorstep. It was strange to see a little cat bringing in edible food monsters twice its size, at least they always knew what to the feed the cat as its appetite certainly hadn’t changed.

“Maybe it’s a risk I can take… look at it this way Tress; it’s going to be really hard to get your powers back to full otherwise.” Twilight looked to the side to see Barb still reading her magazine on the advances in ice cream flavors, stopping once in a while to eat the grilled cheese sandwich she made for herself. Smart was reading her Mane Fancy magazine and Tress was still looking at the letter in her hoof as she forked up her apple syrup covered pancakes.

“Twilight, you are not learning a spell like that. I can’t risk you becoming a sad sack because of some horrific accident and knowing our luck, something like that will inevitably happen if you do decide to learn it anyway.” There was no other way Tress was going to change her stance on this one, Twilight didn’t like violence and here she was asking if she should learn a spell for Tress’s sake. Her friend was selfless a lot of the time and it was a bit annoying, but she wouldn’t be Twilight if she wasn’t always trying to aid some pony. It was her main passion in life after all, that and friendship.

“Well think of the medical applications, what if some ponies heart stopped and they needed a good jolt? What if you get horribly injured and I have to heal you? This spell could really accelerate the process and you could have the power to become Mane-iac whenever you wished!” Twilight knew there was risk, but there were also great things she could do with a spell like that.

If Twilight could just keep it within a safe tolerance range, she could stun and or paralyze ponies looking for a fight without hurting them too much. On the other hoof Twilight knew she was magically inclined and could just as well fry a friend by accident as much as just giving them a light static jolt. Tress mattered to her a lot and their friendship was one of the things on the top of the list of things she cherished more than anything else. Barb was the absolute top of the list and Twilight had yet to bring up the possible issues the little dragon may be facing later on in her life.

“Twilight, maybe we can discuss this another time? What do we got going on today?” Surprisingly business was booming for them, Tress didn’t think that so many ponies had that many problems. Ponyville was surprisingly a hotspot for crazy things to happen and it wasn’t all just Twilight being in town either.

Being paid five bits to listen to a pony with issues helped the pony get a lot off their chest and a pegasus pony named Bulk Biceps was one such weird pony that needed to get a lot off of his chest. Tress would have sworn the guy was Saddle Rager when she first saw him and he had confidence issues due to having been born with really tiny wings. He liked cheering excitedly and working out to make up for lacking in certain areas, his nickname was snowflake and it suited his personality. Maybe Tress could eventually help find him a nice stallion.

“You’re right Tress; we got some stuff to do today. Rarity wants us to model dresses for her, she’ll pay us handsomely and in the over the top generous way she usually does. So how do you feel about standing around all day?” Twilight wasn’t doing all these jobs or taking them without talking to Tress about them first. Her friends’ opinion mattered when it came to work.

“I’m going to pass on that today, got anything more sporty? I need some exercise; I swear Pinkie Pie is trying to put more weight on me.” The mentioned pink pony fell onto of Tress knocking her out of her chair and to the floor. “Darn it all Pinkie, I didn’t mean that you were literally falling on me!”

“I know, but it’s still funny that I did and have I got a job for you two!” Pinkie popped up and waited for Tress to get seated again as they apparently hadn’t finished breakfast yet.

“Can we immediately deny her on the principle that she just came into our house unannounced?” Tress asked immediately with a sharp tone.

“I’m Pinkie Pie!” Pinkie announced loudly for every pony in the room while throwing out a blast of confetti flinging her hooves into the air. “There I’m announced now, so I can tell you my job request right?”

“She needs to tell us what she wants us to do first before I can deny her Tress. I make it a point to hear out every job offer we get; as long as Pinkie can compensate us I’m willing to hear her out. We just might end up doing it.” Even if it made her face hoof, Twilight would hear out the party pony. Rainbow Dash was annoying on the principle of ignorance, though she has been getting better lately. Pinkie was annoying on the principle of her hyperactive nature. It wasn’t just during parties; she was like this all the time.

“That’s what she said, oh yeah! I think that would actually be sweet of you two.” Pinkie exclaimed in a cheery over the top manner, both Tress and Twilight looked at her oddly. After a moment Twilight face hoofed again when she realized how suggestive her last comment sounded.

“Before Twilight get’s a migraine, can you tell us what you want Pinkie?” Tress will never face hoof and Pinkie was the only pony that could get her close to doing that. Rainbow was being much easier to handle as they were getting too used to her being around.

“Right, I want you two to help me build a super duper amazing do it yourself modifiable welcome wagon! The instructions are all confusing and in a funny written language I don’t quite understand and I know two of the smarty smartest smart ponies I’ve ever met that could help me.” Pinkie only knew that if she was to make this unaided, she might build it wrong or not how she wanted it to work. She did do a lot of silly things at times and she wanted this wagon to be just right.

“Sounds simple enough to me, I’m okay with this.” Tress silently wondered if it was a bad idea to help Pinkie with anything.

“Yeah, we can help you do that Pinkie.” It sounded as equally simple to Twilight and thus far they were pretty well off in bits. They could do Rarity’s request at any given time when they were doing poorly in funds.

48

“Now stick it in there.” Twilight had managed to decipher the odd text and they were nearly done here with Pinkie’s request. Now if only she would stop saying that darn phrase.

“That’s what she said!” Pinkie said once again proving to be silly. She was running a constant gambit of either getting her two new friends to laugh or despise her.

“Well, from here on out it’s yours to modify Pinkie. Twilight has thankfully copied the instruction into something even you could follow Pinkie.” Tress was just happy they were done with Pinkie’s request. “Now will you pay us?”

“Of course I will. Thanks for giving me all the instructions and building most of it while you were making it easier for me to modify later!” Pinkie chirped happily back at them as she pushed her welcome wagon away, leaving them with a bag of bits for their troubles and having to deal with her random blathering.

Even if she was annoyingly perky, Pinkie did get a good laugh out of Twilight and Tress every now and then.

“I think it’s time for a snack in the marketplace, either that or Sugar Cube Corner with Mr. and Mrs. Cake. Maybe visit Fluttershy to see what she’s getting into.” Twilight knew their friend was happy spending so much time with so many cute small animals.

“I would love to see shy today. Back to the earlier discussion of spells, what else have you learned from all those books you’ve been bringing in from the castle recently? I hope you’re keeping them well protected.” Tress really didn’t want to run into Pinkie again so soon, she was a good friend if you wanted a party and she was always the life of it. “I want to go to the marketplace, we might actually run into some pony not crazy or doing weird things today. I can only hope.”

“We really need to stop doing that Tress, hoping things won’t happen seems like a catalyst for things to go horribly wrong around us. Things haven’t been as bad as the incident with Pal destroying the café.” Twilight’s ears perked up as she heard the cat in question meowing and they saw him running up to them wagging his tail.

“Speak of the little demon and he shall appear. Here Palatable, come here boy.” Despite him being a cat, Tress thought it was odd that her cat acted like a dog at times. The cat purred and rolled onto his back to get his belly rubbed. Tress sighed and then continued on her way with a happy cat following in her wake. “I think I’m actually beginning to get used to the weirdness of my pet now. Let’s swing by a pet store while we’re out and about.”

“We can do that, we don’t really have much to do today. As for spells, I’ve been learning a gravity spell. The spell is not really easy to get down, but it allows me to flip my personal gravitational field in any direction I want to.” It was a very intriguing find and Twilight wanted to explore all the options that such a spell could provide. Thus far she learned that the spell would only affect the unicorn using it, easily altering their own gravitational field relative to everything else around them. It couldn’t be used on other ponies.

“So you basically discovered a method for flying without wings? I swear you’re becoming more like a real super hero Radiance. You’re already scheduling fights with villains, crashing a wedding that an almost entirely reformed villain is going to just to make sure she doesn’t do anything wrong and then there’s you gaining of super abilities beyond the average unicorn pony. Oh I do declare is that a flying purple unicorn I do see in the air? My heart is aching to touch the sky the way she does.” Despite her dramatics and the way she held the back of her left hoof to her forehead while clutching her other hoof to her chest momentarily, no pony in the marketplace was paying her any attention. The ponies of the surrounding populace had gotten used to their antics and seeing them doing odd things at times.

“Tress, that’s not the spell’s intended use! That would be an interesting use for it, but to try it immediately without testing it in a safe environment first would make me as reckless as Rainbow Dash is.” Leaping into the air to control the gravitational forces around her body to fling herself around using magic sounded fun to Twilight, but it also sounded exceedingly dangerous. Flying with the gravity spell would require her to not run out of magic at any given time while using it or else she could go splat. It was a relatively complex spell and to control it to such a fine detail would require hours of practice, instead she should just address a spell she already knew about. “Besides I wouldn’t need the gravity spell to fly. I can create temporary wings with a very low maximum flying height as if you fly to high with them they freeze or melt off your back. The reason why Smart can even fly is because of the wing spell that I modified into an enchantment in the first place. Other than that I’ve recently learned to cast a cloud walking spell that allows a unicorn or earth pony to manipulate clouds and stand on them.”

“Gravitational flying would still be faster right?” Tress could imagine the many silly super hero names she could come up with if Twilight were to fly around like that. “Think of all the heroic names I could call you! There’s Shooting Star, Meteor Mare, Twinkling Titan, Galaxy Galloper, Altitude Arbiter, Iridescent Impulse and Radical Radiance. We could even have Rarity make the costumes!”

“Tress, I’m going to put my hoof down on this. I am not becoming a super hero!” Turning to the ice cream vendor next to her Twilight calmed down slightly. “I’ll have strawberry flavor two scoops please.”

As the stallion got to work preparing her cone, Twilight was thinking up a lot of arguments to not become a super hero.

“And for you miss?” The stallion addressed Tress as he started scooping up the strawberry ice cream.

“I’ll have the peach cobbler flavor one scoop.” Ice cream soon in hoof, Tress continued the topic of discussion. “Why not become a hero Twilight, you did a pretty good job of it when you talked me down without a fight.”

“Hmm… you just gave me an idea for later. You know I don’t like fighting Tress. The reason you objected to me learning a lightning based spell was because I could eventually end up potentially hurting some pony. In the same vein of thought I could end up potentially saving them just as well.” Twilight really didn’t want to go looking for trouble, which is technically something they were already doing as jobs. In this case the troubles came to them in an orderly manner and they had a choice of whether or not to take on said trouble. Heroes were expected to do everything for free. “Do you realize how often the super hero life cuts into normal living? Keeping up with secret identities would be just plain ridiculous, given our lives as they are. You’re the one that could actually hold a secret identity because you have a transformative state you can enter. Do you really want to run around doing everything for free? The both of us are not going to survive on Smart being a librarian. Furthermore you’d need to increase your product sells and increase production. I personally would have to run a constant mane care practices. While it is something I really do like doing, I don’t want it to be the only thing I can do for the rest of my life. ”

“You do make a lot of good points. It really wouldn’t change what we’re doing now with the exception that we’d be missing out on being paid. What about just making Nightmare Night costumes? You know, I wonder who even came up with that holiday in the first place.” It wasn’t like Tress wanted to stop being hired to do things. She just thought Twilight would look really cute in a hero costume flying around aimlessly. “It certainly wasn’t Celestia unless she really secretly hated her sister and was being unnecessarily cruel to her after she went evil. I mean a thousand year trip to the moon is bad enough, couldn’t she have gotten her sister counseling or something?”

“What’s worse is that she caused the elements of harmony to go inert when she did that. Apparently they need at least two ponies to function.” Twilight sat down on a bench and dragged her tongue slowly along her ice cream.

“Elements of Harmony, okay what are those?” This was the first Tress was hearing of them, if they were important you’d think they’d be mentioned before now. All Tress got was an abridge version of Nightmare Moon is Luna, Celestia’s sister and was sealed approximately nine hundred and ninety eight years ago.

“Apparently they are powerful resonance artifacts that boost certain personality based perimeters in ponies. They also boost magical performance and are really unsafe to be around all things considered. I picked them up at the castle of the two sisters while I was looking for you. I can’t believe Celestia would leave powerful artifacts like them just lying around.” The one vexing thing was that there were only five elements and one was missing. Twilight had gotten information from Smart that once bearers of the five elements were found they’d spark the sixth one to come out of hiding from whatever dimension it was being held in.

“Can you please state that in a way that I or any other pony would understand?” Tress felt a bit lethargic at Twilight’s explanation or maybe it was the peach ice cream she was lapping up.

“Basically they amplify a ponies natural magic and they require ponies that they resonate with to do obscenely powerful magic. Take for example the magic that stuffed Luna on the moon and turned Discord the chaotic into stone.” Twilight scrunched up her eyes from the slight brain freeze from eating her ice cream a little too fast. “I really don’t think there’s an upper limit to what the elements can actually do or if limits are even there at all, misusing their power likely has dire consequences such as the entire planet exploding.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound the slightest bit bad at all.” Crunching the last bit of her cone after her sarcastic statement, Tress smiled at the idea of something harmonious ending it all. Well at least there would be nothing left to be discordant if the planet exploded. “So why are they called the elements of harmony?”

“Because the elements each represent a piece of a total sum of some pony’s idea of what harmony is. I’ve discovered that I already represent some of the elements personally. The elements are honesty, kindness, loyalty, laughter, generosity and magic.” After thinking it over, Twilight realized that magic could be translated as something differently and she looked to Tress with a tiny bit of worry. “I think I might be able to become a bearer to the element of magic Tress, possibly loyalty or honesty too. Fluttershy has a boatload of kindness so she’s just as eligible for one of them. Anyone who resonates with these elements could probably use them if Luna and Celestia could by themselves. There are no permanent wielders of the elements; each element could work for more than one pony and each pony has the potential to wield more than one element.”

“Isn’t Kindness and Generosity kind of the same though? I can understand loyalty well enough that I may as well represent that personally.” Not that Tress would ever leave Twilight’s side for anything short of saving someone just as important such as Barb. “How does laughter fit into harmony? Laughter can be pretty cruel at times.”

“Well they are somewhat similar. Generosity is giving without expecting anything in return. Kindness is helping those who truly need it. Loyalty is sticking by those who you trust to do the same for you. Honesty is telling things as you see them as truthfully as you can. Laughter can be cruel it’s true, but it can also be the best medicine for a sad heart. Then there’s what magic is….” Twilight thought about it and wondered if she should say, she bit her bottom lip and then just stood up and started looking around for a pet shop. Tress followed her sedately with Pal riding on her back. She stopped in the middle of the road and looked at the ground sadly. “Do you remember saying that meeting me is like magic?”

“Of course I do, I still believe that being with you is like magic. What about it?” There was something wrong with Twilight, Tress could just tell as she was acting oddly.

“Do you ever get the feeling that our friendship might be built on a lie because my magic is forcing you to like me?” Twilight kept her back to Tress and slowly started to sniffle. “That all the friendships I’ve earned aren’t real.”

“Twilight you’re asking what is supposed to be a fictional comic book character about what real is and we’ve both seen a poltergeist. You might be the element of laughter too if you can think of a good enough punch line for that.” Tress quickly pulled Twilight into a comforting hug and draped her light blue mane over Twilights head as she snuggled her. The pony in her hooves relaxed, inhaling the scent of her mane.

Author's Notes:

Editted: I came back and fixed some minor issues with this chapter.

49

“Come on Twilight stop acting so down, let’s go find Fluttershy and we’ll talk to her about how you’re feeling. You’ll see then that you’re not forcing any pony to be friends with you.” Tress released her grip on Twilight and moved on to ask a familiar face if they’ve seen her. “Hey Lyra, have you seen Fluttershy recently?”

“Of course, she’s been walking around with Rainbow. I swear I almost never see that pony on the ground in comparison to Flutters. She’s always flying all the time; it’s like her wings are never restless.” Lyra was street performing and hadn’t ceased playing her lyre just because some pony was talking to her. She continued to make beautiful music even while she was distracted, she was good at multitasking. “Try down that road I think they were going to share some nachos over a discussion.”

“Thank you, you wouldn’t happen to know a good pet store anywhere around here would you?” There was a grimace crossing the mint colored ponies face, Tress wondered why she reacted like that.

“Yes, but please don’t bring up goldfish around Bonbon. Don’t say I didn’t warn you if you do. You’ll find a nice store for all your pet care needs that way and on the right, nice cat by the way.” Lyra waved at them off as they left, Tress just dropped some bits for her performance and information.

“Twilight, you’re being awfully quiet.” It was almost breaking Tress’s heart to see Twilight looking so moody. At least Twilight wasn’t sniffling and crying; she was still following her but looked subdued doing so.

“I’m wondering why Celestia didn’t just use the elements to calm her sister down. If they were that powerful why would she have to seal her own sister away for a thousand years? Did she even intend it to be a thousand years or was that just what happened? I’m still a bit iffy on the reality that I could be the physical representation of the sixth element, that being magic. It could alternatively be known friendship, the basic spark that ties all the elements together and is the basis of social interactions in life.” It wasn’t like Twilight didn’t remember she had problems with garnering friends growing up, it was just strange to her that she could make so many good friends as she had in one week.

Ponies didn’t instantly become friends with another pony upon meeting them for the first time, it seemed like it did happen in Ponyville though. Now Twilight was unsure about things given her research into the elements and what they could do, she almost felt like she was mind controlling ponies to be her friends. If it weren’t for Tress keeping her calm, she’d be a lot more panicky and worried.

“There they are, Rainbow actually looks pretty down about something.” Tress calmly trotted up to the outdoors table to see a depressed Rainbow sitting with a sad Fluttershy. “Okay what’s got the Chromatic Crasher down Shy? Hey that’s another good one Twilight.”

“Tress, I’m not wearing spandex in seven colors nor do I want to.” Twilight growled out angrily, if not really feeling the anger. It seems like today was a Monday that was just getting several ponies down. At least the Radiance costume she wore in the Power Ponies comic wasn’t made with spandex, she was pretty sure Rarity would immediately stuff her into a hero costume if she brought up wanting one.

“I told her about Gilda, she’s not taking it very well.” Fluttershy leaned in close to Tress. “I still haven’t told her why Gilda acts so nice to her though, please let her figure out that Gilda likes her in that way on her own.”

“No promises Fluttershy, but I’ll try. It may take twenty years for her brain to figure out, if it isn’t spelled out in every way imaginable on a wall.” The flat sulking colorful forms ears perked up at Tress’s words.

“Figure out what? That my so called friend was picking on Fluttershy behind my back!” Rainbow was only slightly angry at Tress, she was angrier at herself. Especially for missing the fact that Gilda had been picking on Fluttershy while right under her nose. She was definitely going to confront Gilda the next time she saw her about it.

“Oh it’s not that. I’m talking about the reason why Gilda was picking on Fluttershy in the first place.” Tress laughed at the comical distressed look on Rainbow’s face. Oh if only she had a camera right now. Speaking of camera’s they should get one to take some pictures of their new friends, they could send them Velvet and Nightlight.

“Fluttershy, what is she talking about?” The shy mare looked away from her, causing Rainbow to feel as there was something she had been missing entirely from the way Fluttershy was acting.

“It’s not my place to say Rainbow, I’m sorry.” Fluttershy covered her face with her mane at the attention she was garnering from her friend. She uncovered her face for a moment to quickly grab a cheese covered nacho and daintily tossed it in her mouth with a flick of her hoof. She bit down and hummed in a satisfied tone as she chewed the chip.

“So there’s more to what Gilda did than just picking on you?” Rainbow was positively livid, especially if Gilda had done more things behind her back.

“You could say that, but I’d rather not talk about it if it’s okay with you.” Shy really wanted to tell Rainbow, she wasn’t about to ruin Gilda’s opportunity to tell her herself. She was going to continue being Gilda’s friend because she didn’t seem like a griffon that made friends easily. Sure Gilda may have bullied her a bit, but the griffon had never struck out at her or even harmed her.

“Was what she told you really that bad?” Now Rainbow’s attention turned towards Tress and Twilight, they had to know what Fluttershy was talking about.

“It’s not a bad thing really, it’s just better if you hear it from Gilda herself.” There was no way Tress was going to say anything if Fluttershy wasn’t.

“How’s your day been going Tress? Do I need to teach the lake krakens more synchronized swimming lessons?” Fluttershy wondered why she was getting an odd stare from so many ponies.

“So that’s why they’ve been acting up lately.” A pony from off to the side commented. “I had wondered why they started swimming weirdly.”

“No, I just brought Twilight over here so you can reassure her that she isn’t forcing you to be her friend.” Rolling her eyes Tress wondered if she could make this quick, she actually wanted to get a toy for her crazy little fur ball sometime today.

“Oh my, why would she think something like that? Twilight you’ve been more quiet then I usually am, come here. You’re a good friend to worry about things like this, even if it seems a little silly.” Fluttershy was having none of Twilight’s attempts to step away and she pulled her into a tight comforting hug. “You’d never hurt any pony or their feelings on purpose, I doubt you would even need to force me or any pony to like you.”

“Thank you Fluttershy, I really needed this.” Twilight gave Fluttershy a hearty squeeze herself before she backed off of her shy friend. Getting hugs from Fluttershy was like getting a hug from the cuddliest thing in the universe.

“No problem Twilight, I’m always willing to help my friends feel better.” Smiling Fluttershy cheered up Twilight and Rainbow was looking better already just from having these two around.

“See, aren’t you feeling better now?” Tress sometimes felt that her best friend could be such a silly pony. Even more so then Applejack could be at times, especially after she found out ghosts were real. Applejack had several odd reactions to hearing that Twilight’s parents had living proof of one just idling around in their house minding his own business most of the time.

“Who couldn’t feel better after a getting a hug from her?” It was absurd to Twilight if a pony managed to resist liking Fluttershy’s hugs. What wasn’t absurd to Twilight was just about anything life would possibly throw at her, after the fruitcake dragon she didn’t really think anything could surprise her anymore. On some level she knew it was wrong to think like that, because something eventually was going to surprise her and it wasn’t going to be Pinkie Pie. “Thanks again Fluttershy, hope the rest of your day goes well.”

The two left to continue their day, Rainbow and Fluttershy waved to them as they left.

“You know it’s so cool that they have a lot of weird things that happen to them. Life around here would have been too boring otherwise.” Rainbow smiled as she thought of the dancing krakens, which was something you’d never see in Cloudsdale. They usually managed to drag one of their friends into the weirdness occasionally and if it was Pinkie Pie she eventually ended up as the one doing the dragging.

“I admit that they are really good friends Rainbow, but sometimes I worry about them. Twilight easily gets worked up at times and Tress doesn’t really have a goal in life to pursue and she’s mostly going through the motions.” After a moment Fluttershy decided to simplify it for Rainbow’s convenience. “Twilight get’s sad easily and Tress doesn’t have her own dreams.”

“Oh.” It was all Rainbow said as she continued to eat from the pile of shared nachos.

“Yeah, but they are too strong to ever let life get them down for long.” Vinyl sat down at the table and just started stuffing her face with nachos. “Don’t mind if I do.”

“Please don’t talk with your mouth full Vinyl and no we don’t we mind.” It was kind of odd to Fluttershy how well Vinyl could get through her shyness so easily without doing so much, she was also quite sneaky to have just appeared like that at the table and without spooking her no less.

“You see Fluttershy, this is the very reason I ordered the extra large nacho platter.” While Rainbow might not be the brightest pony around, she certainly understood the likelihood of friends passing by and wanting to share in the bounty that was cheesy goodness. Applejack, Vinyl and Pinkie were some of the best friends she’s ever had.

“Don’t be so stuffy.” Even as Vinyl said this her mouth was stuffed full of corn chips, cheese and jalapenos.

“Just make sure to chew you’re food, I’m not exactly certified to help you if you start choking.” Not that that would stop Fluttershy from trying to save her friend. It only mattered if she performed anti choking maneuvers and some pony called her out on not being medically inclined to perform it.

“I’m good with knowing how to eat Squeakers.” Vinyl was already chuckling at Shy’s squeak of protest at the nickname. “I’m not like Prism here you know.”

“Hey, you know Pinkie shoved that cupcake down my throat!” It was one of the times Rainbow thought Pinkie was being too forceful about eating her cupcakes.

“And I apologized for it already too!” Pinkie said as she passed by still pushing her party wagon. “It’s not like I was shoving churros or anything else long like that down your windpipe.”

“Is it just me or is that the fourth time I’ve seen Pinkie pushing that thing around today?” It did have Rainbow curious, but she just shrugged off the curiosity and continued to eat.

“I really think that mare is the world’s greatest party animal.” Vinyl sighed wistfully, she’d never hold onto that title if she ever got it. No pony would likely out party Pinkie Pie.”She should be easy for you to control Squeakers.”

Fluttershy blushed at the thought of controlling Pinkie and didn’t like where her head went with it. She ducked down slightly even as she took another nacho chip from the platter.

“So what have you been up to lately?” Well Rainbow had to ask the best DJ in town as she knew where stuff was at.

“I just recently got a gig with some ornate slacks stallion coming up in Canterlot. He’s paying me a good deal to make it a nice reception for this lady he’s going to be marrying, he doesn’t care what music I use either. I even think he hired Octaves to do the march down the aisle song thing.” If there was one thing Vinyl disliked it was rich, upper class and snooty as all get out ponies. The fancy pony that hired her was alright for a pony that was rich. “I’m hoping to have a blast there, but I’m not so sure all the snoots will appreciate what I got for them. At least I know some ponies will appreciate my work; apparently the bride to be likes my music. She doesn’t sound snooty at all and neither did the stallion that hired me.”

“That sounds quite lovely Vinyl; I hope you have a great time there.” Fluttershy was truly happy for Vinyl finding some good work..

“Well now that it’s been brought up, would you two like to come? I’m allowed to invite some guests and until it gets to the reception it’s going to be quite the snore fest for me.” Not that Vinyl minded weddings it’s just that they were really boring to work at as a DJ.

“Do you even have a dress for the wedding?” When Fluttershy asked this she heard a gasp and she watched as Rarity came running up to them with a bright smile of glee on her face.

50

The next day around noon, two ponies found themselves in small bit of trouble.

Fluttershy couldn’t believe Rarity was willing to make so many dresses for free. If it weren’t for friends that were forcefully paying her, Rarity wouldn’t be making any bits from all of her generosity.

It was kind of any odd thing to think of as you were scampering up a tree out of the path of some jaws that are currently snapping at your heels. Fluttershy sighed in relief as she looked behind her; the Timber Wolf looked up at her and it growled menacingly.

“Fluttershy, remind me how we both ended up like this again sugar cube?” Applejack the squirrel asked imploringly wearing a resized hat on her head. The orange squirrel rubbed its head in exasperation.

“We might have accidentally spooked Twilight earlier today. She’s got a slight issue with ponies surprising her.” Fluttershy the flying squirrel just wanted to help Applejack with her slight squirrel problem. They ended up tumbling into Twilight in a wheelbarrow at some point that morning and it was enough to set her off, thus causing this magical incident. Then a Timber Wolf found and chased them here when they woke up. The butter yellow flying squirrel with the long pink hair just sighed at the fact that they were now stuck in a tree, while being watched by what appears to be a problematic and incredibly patient Timber Wolf.

“She can fix this right; I’ll have you know I don’t like the idea of being the little sister of the family. I also don’t like being a squirrel and it just feels so weird to be the varmint for once!” Applejack had to run all kinds of apple tree damaging critters out of Sweet Apple Acres, now she had Ponyville’s local animal expert to do that for her. Said expert was a really good friend of the two most chaotic ponies in town not counting Pinkie Pie, one of which led to this situation at paw. “Ugh, these buck teeth sure aren’t easy to talk with.”

“I’m pretty sure we’re both learning a valuable lesson here.” Though Fluttershy was pretty sure she didn’t know what it was that she was learning from all of this. How to be a squirrel was probably one, they already learned how to climb a tree relatively fast thanks to the proper motivation. Now if she could only figure out how to use her flaps to glide around. If there was one thing any pony knew how to do as long as they had four legs, it was running.

“I’m guessing it’s never get Twilight mad at you. Do you mind if I ask a personal question? It looks like we’re going to be stuck like this for a while.” Applejack readjusted her hat and looked down at the dangerous creature taking a rest beneath the tree. To think they’d get stuck in Bloomberg of all trees.

“Um… what is it Applejack?” Fluttershy wondered how they were going to get out of this one. Twilight had to be far away now and she most likely didn’t know she caused them to become squirrels.

“I’ve been wondering. Do you fancy mares? I’m a might bit curious here.” It seemed odd to Applejack that Fluttershy seemed afraid of stallions. Even her brother caused Fluttershy to be skittish and not in the bashful secret crush way either. It was more like in an absolutely terrified kind of way.

“Yes, it’s not really a big secret or one I try to keep. I’m not quite sure Rainbow knows I’m happy in that way, but she’s always been my friend even if she doesn’t understand or notice things too well.” It wasn’t something Fluttershy brought up much, but Vinyl certainly knew about it given her predilection for pointing it out vaguely.

“So you’re saying every other pony you know knows about you being like this except her?” Applejack had looked at a stallion once or twice in her life, but she wasn’t interested. Hard work was what she considered her one true love in life.

“I don’t think Big Mac knows, I think he’s being a bit sweet on me. I don’t know how to let him down about it and I’m sorry, but I don’t like him very much.” Fluttershy covered her face with her fluffy tail while looking away from Applejack shyly. “I’d understand if you want to quite being friends because of this.”

“My brother always did know how to find the barn doors that never swung his way. Why would I want to stop being your friend over that? So you’re gay, I don’t rightly care and would like to continue our friendship. I’m being honest here. I may not understand why two mares get together but it helps the mares who like stallions find Mr. Right I suppose. Less competition for them and every pony is happy in the end.” Applejack had no problem whatsoever; she figured she was bisexual anyway. She did like some pegasus stallions she’s seen around town and she fancied a certain unicorn mare. “So who have you been eyeballing girl? It’s not like we have anywhere else to be, so we may as well talk about it.”

“Just about every single mare I have ever met in my life.” Fluttershy felt rather bad about that and she blushed at all the pretty ponies she knew that were still friends with her. Especially Rainbow, it was how she knew she was across the borders so to speak. She thought Rainbow was a colt and felt an attraction for her when they first met, she quickly found out that she had never previously been attracted to stallions for a good reason.

“Well shoot; there is nothing wrong with looking. I’ve looked once or twice at Rarity’s flank and thought nothing of it other than how round and cushiony it looked.” Applejack wondered if Fluttershy was going to turn entirely red at this rate. “Can you name a few ponies you really like in particular?”

“All my friends, I just really haven’t found a pony that is extra special to me.” Fluttershy really liked Vinyl’s laid back nature, Tress’s protectiveness, Rainbow’s general ignorance of anything in her path and plenty of other things that had attracted her to all of her friends. As long as she had the close friends that she did, she’d be perfectly happy in life without forming a romantic relationship with any pony. “I hope to one day find a special mare that will be my special some pony.”

“Aw shucks, you’re almost sweeter than the family apple pies.” Applejack crawled along the tree until she was right next to Fluttershy and she brought her into a deep hug. She didn’t nuzzle Fluttershy as she didn’t want the other squirrel to get the wrong idea. “Just don’t lead Mac on and we’ll be good as a rodeo clown in a specially built protective barrel that can survive neighagara falls.”

“I’ll try not to, how are we going to get the Timber Wolf to leave? I don’t think my stare works on something that doesn’t have eyes.” Timber Wolves as far as Fluttershy remembered had glowing energy eyes instead of physical eyes; they were magically animated wooden wolves. The signs of one being near were easy to see, especially after witnessing one too many food monsters at Velvet and Nightlight’s home. “I’m surprised we’re still speaking our language and not squirrel right now.”

“Heck, I’m even surprised you can speak squirrel. It sure is a good thing Timber Wolves can’t climb. That feller is really blending in down there.” One of the things Timber Wolves are known for was blending in with the trunk of a tree and then attacking a passing victim from behind. Applejack knew it was still there, as it twitched once in a while and looked up at them with its glowing green eyes. Timber Wolves were relatively smart and hard to kill without fire; lighting one of fire near anything flammable was a really bad idea. Applejack could imagine her entire orchard going up in flames and couldn’t help but give off a little whine at the thought.

“What’s wrong Applejack? I’m sure we’ll be rescued eventually or one of your family members will chase it off.” Fluttershy continued thinking of the things she knew about Timber Wolves, they had a peculiar reaction to tinny clanging noises. She did a short study on the fact that it may be disrupting the magical cohesion of the wolf through a specific frequency caused by the clanging metal vibrating.

“It’s not that, I was imagining everything I love going up in flames.” If there was one thing Applejack truly cared about it was her family, her farm was family and she had named at least a quarter of the trees in the orchard.

“It’s okay, nothing bad can happen to us as long as we stay up here.” Fluttershy probably should have said something different, as she didn’t say something couldn’t happen to another pony.

“Applejack, are you up here?” Apple Bloom wandered towards Bloomberg, the tree that Applejack tended to a lot more than the other tree’s. “Hey big sis where are you!”

“Oh, no…” Applejack really didn’t like where this was going, the Timber Wolf would attack her sister and there was not much damage she could do with her tiny claws. She couldn’t even go for its eyes and could only hope Apple Bloom wasn’t alone.

Apple Bloom thankfully wasn’t alone; she had Winona with her and one other pony. The dog’s ears perked up and she growled at something, while standing in front of Apple Bloom and the pony with them suddenly lazily perked up an eye looking around for danger.

Applejack wondered what in the world was Berry Punch doing here at Sweet Apple Acres. She didn’t care as long as there was a responsible… right Berry Punch was never very sober, but at least she was a fighter.

Berry Punch stumbled forward and Apple Bloom stayed behind Winona looking for what was upsetting her. The wolf lunged for Winona attempting to take down at least the easiest looking target that would put up some fight. It was halted when it felt itself held up by its scruff in rather shaky hoof.

“Just what are you looking at?” Berry Punch was never fully of sound mind, but her body reacted faster than the Timber Wolf could predict. It was launched around a hundred feet away with one solid hard hoof. It quickly got up with its tail between its legs and scampered off for the Ever Free Forest.

“That was a Timber Wolf! Thank you so much for protecting Mrs. Punch.” Apple Bloom moved over to pet Winona.”You’re a good girl Winona, you knew that mean monster was there and were going to protect me weren’t you.”

“No problem kid, now what did I do again?” Berry Punch stumbled and fell onto her side and looked up into the tree, while dizzily trying to get back to her hooves. “I’m not a Mrs. Anything anymore. Just call me Punchy little Doomed Apple, now take me to your reader!”

“I’m trying to do that, Applejack came out here with Fluttershy earlier. Where could they be?” The little filly was soon answered by a squirrel gliding down from the tree and another that crawled down wearing a familiar if smaller hat. “Applejack, is that you?”

“Apple Bloom, please have Big Mac find Twilight…” Within the next thirty minutes Applejack hoped to be herself again.

“Whoa, are you like… a frog or something?” Berry Punch was completely on her back and her tongue lolled out the side of her mouth.

While Apple Bloom was getting Twilight a few squirrels came up to them and Fluttershy started a conversation with them about moving elsewhere or not messing with the apples on the trees. Soon they came to an agreement; Fluttershy had solved the problem by being an intermediary for Applejack and the squirrels. Twilight eventually arrived with Apple Bloom looking completely distressed.

“Fluttershy I am so sorry that this happened to you. I didn’t see any sign of any pony after that wheelbarrow clipped me; I thought my magic didn’t do anything but get a template of a squirrel.” Twilight really could have lost a friend, much less could have gotten a little filly killed even if the Timber Wolf was not something she could control.

“Don’t worry about it any Twilight, it’s rather rare to even see Timber Wolves around here in the daylight. I’m sure Shy here forgives you, I know already do.” Applejack made sure to look Twilight in the eyes and was sure to be as sincere as possible while place a hoof on one of her shoulders. Turning to Berry, Applejack wanted to thank her too. “I thank you for protecting my sister Berry, now what was it you needed?”

“I heard you were making honeyed apple cider again and I came to ask if it was alcoholic.” Berry Punch sounded a bit more sober, then again she always sounded sober when it came to talking about intoxicating herself again.

“It can be, it just needs some extra stuff in it. Are you looking to buy some?” Business mode Applejack turned on immediately. The two mares wandered off to discuss business about alcoholic beverages.

Twilight turned to Fluttershy with a sad look on her face; she opened her mouth to say something but was cut off by Fluttershy.

“You want a massage, okay then!” Fluttershy immediately pounced on Twilight before she knew what was happening. Fluttershy didn’t like Twilight dwelling on the possibility of putting her friends in danger, she didn’t mind being a squirrel as it was fun while it lasted. What was truly dangerous was the Timber Wolf and Berry Punch wandering around the area.

Twilight tried to protest until Fluttershy loosened her muscles.

The cunning plan Fluttershy came up with was to make sure Twilight couldn’t focus at all for the next few minutes until she forgot all about her troubles. Tress brought to her attention yesterday that Twilight was getting moody lately; she was not going to let her friend slide any further into depression over this accident.

Author's Notes:

I'm calling hiatus now. At least a week or two.

My mind is snapping at the rate I'm writing this story once a day.

Edit: Fixed.

51

Three days after Fluttershy temporarily became a flying squirrel and after returning to normal quickly made Twilight feel really good to get her out of a depressive mood.

Twilight opened the book to start reading, it was an unusual subject choice to read up on as she lay on her fresh knew couch. They now had two couches and a chair in the living room, Mr. Davenport was having a sell yesterday.

“Hey Twilight I’m about to set… what are you reading? Is that… is that a Power Ponies comic? Are you actually reading something that’s not entirely educational?” Receiving a blank look as a response, Tress tilted her head in an innocent manner.

“I read your comic didn’t I?” Her friend looked away at that retort while toying with her mane, Twilight turned back to continue reading the comic book with mild interest.

“Well I knew your daughter still reads them, I just didn’t know you did too.” Tress didn’t dwell on where she came from and didn’t think too hard about it. She was a bit sad that the world continued on without her as normal, at least her minions were still around if the regular comics were to be believed. Her character was completely missing in action after becoming friends with Radiance. She didn’t doubt that she was still friends with a radiant pony.

“I prefer to think of this as research Tress; besides that I want to know what has my daughter so fascinated with these stories aside from one of the characters popping out of one. The elements of harmony are going to be the absolute last resort when it comes to Nightmare Moon and since she sounds like a super villain, I decided why not think of her as such. Celestia could only temporarily use them by herself and if she had enough power to seal her sister away for up to a thousand years, she had to have enough power to save her sister as well. Even with the tenuous connection they still had, Celestia still cast her away anyway and most likely for some greater good nonsense.” What Twilight hadn’t stated that compounding the issue is that Celestia made her sister a fading myth. The ponies of the past had horribly failed Luna and so had Celestia. When Luna returned after a thousand years, no pony would have any reason to remember she even existed except from fairy tales. Fairy tales that were very much real and Twilight had the proof of Luna’s existence and that she had fun by building some of the mechanisms in that ancient castle. “I’m working on a plan and I’m already predicting how things will go at the summer sun celebration which is being held here suspiciously enough during that year. Especially suspicious given it’s next to the Ever Free Forest where Celestia’s ancient castle used to be and where Luna will return to on that exact day. In fact, I’m sure Celestia already has a plan for Luna’s return. I hope to implement mine before hers can get off the ground.”

“Well good luck with that and whatever it has to do with reading comic books. I was just coming in here to tell you I’m off to take some hoof to anything else fighting lessons with Rainbow Dash.” Tress had an evil smirk plastered on her face ever since she learned Ponyville had a self defense training dojo. “She only just started taking lessons after watching my impressive display of muscle tearing agony.”

“Don’t hurt Rainbow Dash to much Tress and don’t push yourself too hard, but make sure to get in at least one cheap shot without any pony noticing. Some pony has to keep her ego in check.” Twilight had noticed Tress’s evil grin when she looked up from her comic book, she thought Tress was really good at smiling like that. “Good luck to you too.”

“You’re the one that needs it to have a few quiet days Twilight. I wouldn’t worry about it as I got Applejack in on this as a backup plan.” Tress pranced towards the door while continuing to smile creepily as she exited the house.

“Note to self, Tress is an evil genius with an emphasis on evil.” Twilight looked to the ceiling pondering just how exactly Tress managed to talk Applejack into joining in on the lessons. Then again the farmer did do quite a few dangerous things in life that weren’t all related to apple farming.

Shaking her head Twilight went back to reading her comic book. Twilight was still trying to grasp the exact reason Celestia sealed her sister away instead of saving her. Maybe some ancient prophecy or something was involved or maybe Celestia had a long term plan involving sending her sister away for a while. Or maybe Luna threatening all life on the planet was bad enough for Celestia to seal her away instead of saving her, thus it ended up breaking the harmony between the two and caused the elements to go inert. Maybe it was that last thing, but Celestia thought sealing her own sister away was the only option and then she took on Luna’s job of ferrying the moon around their world.

Either way the elements of harmony were still inert, but Twilight found the stones reacted to her somewhat and was a little pensive to try using them for anything. She did prefer the last idea as it lent to the credence of Celestia secretly being a dejected pony with hidden depths, Twilight always thought she looked a little sad while raising the sun during the summer sun celebrations held in Canterlot. As to her recollection the next one was in Manehatten. Celestia wasn’t a bad pony, but she was one Twilight wouldn’t trust with everything as she can make bad decisions. Celestia made decisions that affected a lot of ponies and she was good at making them in general, but to Twilight she seemed a bit emotionally distant to any pony around her. Celestia was even like this to her own student Sunset; said student really needed some closeness and emotional connections.

Thinking of every pony around Luna back then, Twilight wondered how Luna felt to have no friends or subjects that looked up to her. If there were ponies that did look up to her they certainly weren’t very vocal about how Celestia sealed Luna away or weren’t able to garner enough of Luna’s notice to stop her from going off the deep end. Luna really had to have been lonely, not to mention incredibly jealous of Celestia despite having an equally important job that was a lot of responsibility.

The reason Twilight was reading this comic book was to get into the mindset of the villains, why they became what they are and whether they were being petty or not in their reasoning. She was also taking note of the general things super villains did, like the monologue thing for instance.

Twilight could just imagine Luna coming back from a thousand year trip to the moon. The first thing Luna would want to do is talk to ponies about her sister and go on a long rant about being sealed away. Celestia really didn’t help her sister when it came to finding ponies that enjoyed her nights and Luna was either unable or incapable of reaching out to ponies in general other than her sister whom of which she was coming to despise. So of course Luna went insane, as it was bound to happen from the way things were being played out.

Getting away from thinking of things that were in the past, Twilight continued to read the comic with more interest than she was previously giving it. The Power Ponies were of course still three males and three female team members, with their one slightly more than capable sidekick. The villain wasn’t as interesting as Tress is, this one didn’t have a cryptic hidden back story to them.

“Hey mom, lunch is coming up soon so do you want me to… are you reading the latest issue of Power Ponies?” Barb had little sparkles in her eyes when Twilight nodded to her. “Can we read it together from the beginning?”

“Of course we can.” Twilight lifted up her hoof and patted the spot next to her on the couch and Barb crawled up and snuggled under her leg and looked at the cover of the comic. It was things like this that made Twilight feel like a good mother. Smart flew in and saw the scene and immediately flew off with a smile, she was leaving them to have their time together and they looked too cute together for the enchanted toy to disturb.

Barb snuggled into the warmth of her mother’s coat and tried to remember the smell and the feel, her mother wouldn’t be young forever and neither would she. She was old enough to learn to enjoy the simple things in life, like reading a comic book with her mom.

Twilight would only turn the page when Barb was ready for her to turn it and she stayed completely attentive of her charge. Barb ate up the attention like a little sponge, as she was safely lying underneath her mother.

When Barb asked a question, her mom would go into great detail about why every character acted like they did. Their discussions went on for minutes before they could continue, they even went into a discussion about the art style of the comic book once or twice. It was so interesting to her to hear that each character had their motives and the things they did were what they thought was the best thing to do. The Power Ponies weren’t exactly the greatest battle strategists and they always rushed headlong into the fight except for Humdrum who had been shaping up to be a good hero despite his lack of powers.

Barb thought Humdrums common sense more than made up for his lacking in confrontations with super powered villains and he was her favorite character since he was different like her. Her other favorite had to be Radiance who actively tried to reign in the other Power Ponies when they rushed into things, apparently her mother’s influence had yet to cease changing the comics. Radiance wasn’t the leader of the Power Ponies, but she tried to be the voice of reason in the group with Humdrum’s help.

“The end… well wasn’t that a good one?” Twilight nuzzled her daughters head before planting a kiss on it. Barb yawned and curled into her mother’s nuzzling kiss.

“I love you mom.” Barb snuggles further into her mother and started to slowly nod off.

“I know you do my little sparkle.” Twilight had tears in her eyes as she held Barb close to her, being a mother and being responsible were some of the hardest things in life to do. The rewards however were worth every minute of watching her child grow. Hopefully Barb would grow into something more beautiful and that her magic didn't do any permanent damage to her daughter.

“Well that’s a nice sight to come home to after watching one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen in my life. You and Barb are one of the most heartwarming things I’ve ever seen.” Tress stayed quiet as she watched Twilight cuddle her daughter that was curled up in her hooves fast asleep. She gave a cheeky grin at the thought of what had happened during her martial arts class.

“How did things go Tress, did you get any bruises and are you okay?” Twilight stayed quiet not wanting to wake Barb up after she started her nap in Twilight's hooves.

“Not many, you should have been there. Fluttershy showed up everyone at the training dojo and what she did to poor Rainbow was hilarious.” Tress couldn’t help the dark chuckle that came to her lips. “I may have a few bruises here and there but Rainbow will never be able to live down the teasing, much less anyone who’s ever faced Fluttershy in a match. I and Applejack got Rainbow good, but Fluttershy was the one that really finished her off.”

“Well Fluttershy can throw around bears above two hundred pounds without hurting them.” It wasn’t that odd to Twilight, Fluttershy had an interesting mastery of floating like a butterfly and stinging worse than bee’s. Fluttershy was more butterfly than bee and it would make sense that her fighting style was most likely a soft one and didn’t hurt any pony. “So how bad was the blush this time?”

“Fluttershy was so embarrassed that half her body turned red at the attention she garnered for her skills, she’s definitely the same walking cuddle factory we know and love. Now if only she was willing to go to competitions, we both know she’s not that kind of mare though.” Even Tress knew that Fluttershy would never do something she didn’t like unless she was coerced into it. Fluttershy giving Rainbow a friendly helpful rub down while beating her up was still funny to Tress even now. She went to go fix an early dinner for Twilight and herself, dragons were heavy sleepers and Barb probably wouldn’t wake up until tomorrow.

Author's Notes:

And I'm back, but I don't know if I'm doing any better quite yet.

52

It was just another day and Twilight was soon going back to Canterlot next week on a trip with her best friend and Barb to help with wedding preparations. They still didn’t know who Fleur was getting married to, but they’d find out when they get there.

Twilight’s parents would be glad to house them while they were in the city, they would be stopping off there for a brief visit before they set out for Fleur’s home. Right now they had their bags packed ahead of schedule with everything they needed when they leave next week and they had a bright day ahead of them in Ponyville. Well at least Tress had a bright day ahead of her.

“I really dislike dresses. A pony might think I would like them given my special talent is based in bathing and beauty products but I don’t.” Tress sipped a mug of hot cider and looked at a sheet of paper with the jobs they could do today.

“I don’t understand dresses either Tress, at least a well made one can feel nice on my coat. So anything that catches your eye today?” Twilight still eventually wanted Tress to have a dream to chase. At least they weren’t bad in bits with the odd jobs they’ve been having. “You might as well make yourself busy since I’m going to be creating one big defensive enchantment around the library and our house. It’s going to take me the most of the day to even set up a working solution for it and it’ll be incredibly boring for you to just sit around me all day. Go and live a little Tress, while you’re out doing jobs you could maybe even visit the park with Palatable?”

“Fine, Pal come on out we’re heading to the park after I do a job or two. I got you’re rope toy, so some tugging and fetching may be in today’s agenda.” The cat immediately ran up to Tress and began rubbing up against her while meowing in a pleasant manner. “Why I even value the notion of you as a pet I’ll never understand.”

“Oh come on Tress, I know you like the little monster that nearly tore us to shreds.” If it were any other pony then Twilight, the cheery tone of her voice would have been seen as sarcastic instead of how she really felt.

“I think the only reason we keep him around is because his droppings are actually chocolate chip cookie dough. Also that we’re both too highly amused by the phenomenon of how weird my new pet is to actually finally be rid of him.” Another oddity that Tress did not need to know about the cat, but found out anyway. Apparently fruitcakes did go to the bathroom and when they did a number two, cookie dough came out instead of animal waste. Tress chalked it up to the enigma that was the power of magic.

Shape of a cat, half the mind of a dog, properties of a magically altered living fruitcake that liked Tress a bit too much and its fecal matter that was nothing but raw cookie dough and chocolate. Twilight even checked and studied it to make sure. Never will there ever be another pet quite like Pal in existence. Tress shook her head and trotted out the door with her saddle bags, the cat happily padding after her.

As Tress walked down the road and passed by an alleyway minding her own business, something shifted in the alleyway she just passed. A pair of bug like eyes followed Tress down the street and as the creature poked its head out and followed the target with it moving down the road, it didn’t see too many ponies around. It was about to follow when it heard a growling sound. Turning to the angry looking red eyed cat, the bug eyed creature’s ears wilted when the cat leapt at its face and started mauling it.

“Pal, come on! I’m not going to play with you if you get lost today, so stop mauling whatever poor sap that earned your ire.” Tress nodded to herself that she had the cats’ attention as he came out the alleyway looking rather victorious. She just shook her head at his antics and continued onwards, she had a visit with Carrot Topper of the Golden Harvest clan as a first stop. She had a taste for carrots lately and a job with a carrot farmer might be good for some quick cash and a minor discount on a snack.

The changeling didn’t know what had hit it, but it was definitely hurting now. As a rule of their species, changelings invaded weddings and or parties as often as they possibly could. The reason for this was because changelings ate emotional energy and the emotional energy of choice was love. The quickest source of love involved sneaking into a wedding and not doing anything other than feed off the ambient atmosphere.

This particular changeling was following Tress as she was a bride’s mare, kidnapping Tress and taking her place was the quickest way to find out if the bride and groom truly loved each other. If a changeling was found infiltrating your wedding, then you were likely guaranteed the feelings of love there were completely genuine between the two being married if it had stuck around that long. Not to mention love was tasty to a changeling like the cake usually served after the marriage ceremony that takes place.

The changeling had not been counting on Tress having a pet; one of the few things a changeling couldn’t sneak by was an actively intelligent pet. Said pet had just mauled him quite vigorously before running off at Tress’s voice. There was no information from the others that Tress even had a pet, this changeling had tracked the brides letter to Ponyville and had hit a small complication already. The cat would likely be left behind with a pet sitter or something while they went to the wedding, so the plan was still viable and there was always more than one way to skin a cat.

A changeling was a creature usually with a black exoskeleton, had a carapace that came in various colors, bug like wings, a horn that channeled magic, two fangs alongside teeth that weren’t used very often, bug like eyes and patchy holes in their legs and wings. The defining trait of changelings is that they could take on the appearance of any creature that is close to their size, height and weight. Ponies were the most likely candidates for changeling infiltrations, they sometimes went after buffalo’s and there was one changeling that managed to disguise itself as a cow. They generally didn’t have a true gender as they were hermaphroditic in nature and weren’t too great at direct physical confrontations. Unless they were outnumbering the thing that dragged them into said confrontation, they would avoid fighting as much as possible and killing was something a changeling would not do as they did not need ponies discovering their temporary intrusions.

This changeling was nearly not big enough to transform into Tress and would have had some issues with trying to impersonate her if that cat was always going to be around, it was the only changeling around that was capable of mimicking Tress feasibly. The changeling wasn’t a quitter and would continue to pursue the best course of action, which to it was trying to infiltrate the wedding as some pony close to the bride. This meant continuing to stalk Tress to find out more things about her; just enough to fool the bride at the wedding to eat some high grade love and quickly escape. To say it wasn’t a very bright changeling was not the problem as changelings could be quite intelligent. They were just incredibly accident prone and were notably very unlucky creatures as karma liked to kick them around for stealing.

Staggering to its hooves the changeling transformed to look like an earth pony and quickly tried to pick up Tress’s trail again, it needed to know how Tress acted around other ponies. The trail started leading out of town and the changeling smiled. This was a perfect opportunity to catch the mare and take out the annoying cat; the changeling could always say the cat got lost as Tress had hinted that it had wanderlust about it.

Tress was currently struggling to pull a carrot out of the ground and Pal was digging up some of the dirt around the carrot to help her. After two more pulls the carrot popped free of the ground and flew out of Tress’s hooves causing her to fall onto her back.

“Your right Carrot Topper you’re job isn’t as easy as you make it look.” Tress’s ears perked up at the shriek sound from the direction the large carrot flew, didn’t sound like a noise a pony would make.

The changeling had a carrot impaled through one of its legs and was screeching its head off at the unfortunate circumstance. Then the red eyed colorful cat came and the changelings ears wilted and its frill at the back of its head went completely limp against its neck. It watched as the cats eyes narrowed on the carrot and then on it, it hastily started trying to pull the carrot out of its current position of being stuck in its leg.

A minute later Pal had successfully fetched the carrot from the other monster he thought was trying to steal his owners’ affection. The bush he just left had a small puddle of blood flow from it and a groaning pained moan of unbridled agony surfaced for a few seconds.

“Good cat, I might actually enjoy playing with you later if you keep this up.” Tress took back the carrot and showed it to Carrot after looking it over carefully.

“It didn’t even use its teeth and this carrot is perfectly fine, needs to be washed off first to be safe though. That cat is indeed good; he’s your little helper I take it?” The earth pony mare had a thickly curled orange mane, three bundled carrots as a cutie mark that went well with her slightly pale yellow fur. She established that Tress was to help her harvest and replant a small field of carrots.

A few hours later and after some successfully harvested carrots, Tress packed a bundle of five carrots into her saddle bags. Carrot was a generally friendly mare and was easy to get along with; the job was short and easy with Applejack’s next door neighbor. She did have to admit that Pal helped dig up the carrots without damaging them, Tress still didn’t entirely forgive the cat for gluing her to that ceiling but she was getting close to doing it.

“Next thing… aid Applejack with pie making? Eh, can’t be too hard. It’s a good thing I’m thankfully not a unicorn or else this wouldn’t be a feasible task.” It was becoming an alarming trend for Tress that unicorns weren’t very good cooks, they could usually cook only one thing well and that was about it. Some unicorns could cook really well but those were the minority and Rarity was one of those few unicorns that had no cooking problems.

The changeling followed after Tress with its wounds wrapped in vines that held medicinal leaves to its multiple mauling injuries as makeshift bandages. It hadn’t been able to see Tress interact with that earth pony nor what she had done with her, but apparently it involved farming. Hopefully wherever Tress was going now would be less painful.

“So my cat and your dog have free reign to clean up whatever we accidentally drop in the process of making a variety of different types of apple pie?” Tress received confirmation as long as Winona didn’t get into any chocolate they were good to go ahead with making apple pies with all kinds of different ingredients in them. Honorary family members could help out and Tress would be making a few bits from this adventure.

“Yep and this is the final result!” Applejack turned and put a hoof forward while holding onto an extremely fresh and hot pie lightly dusted with cinnamon. Her hoof landed on a rolling pin that was sitting the floor having fallen there when Applejack had her back turned. Her hoof hit the rolling pin and she slipped slightly, reflexively throwing the pie at Tress by accident. “Whoa Nelly, are you alright there sugar cube?”

“Yeah I’m fine, but I think that pie is a lost cause.” Tress had ducked out of the way of the pie and looked out the open window before turning back to Applejack with a shrug. The cat and dog immediately ran out the pet door to go lick up the pie.

The changeling thought it was a safe distance away from the house and was able to watch the interactions with a pair of binoculars until something came zooming out the window at an upward arc. The changeling lowered its binoculars and looked up straight into the pie that slammed into its face.

The changeling sat there for a moment contemplating the amount of pain it must be in for all its nerve endings to have just suddenly shut down like they did. The pie filling was in its wounds, the pie chunks were in its unblinking eyes and it felt a slow burning sensation that its body was vaguely reading as painfully hot at the moment. There was nothing that could possibly make this more agonizing like another immediately predicted red eyed demonic cat mauling to go on top of all the pain it was most likely currently in.

Hearing a growl both familiar and unfamiliar, the changeling looked down and immediately regretted its previous thought as it saw both the cat and a dog. They turned to each other and were seemingly communicating which part of its body to go for first for its next mauling by meowing and barking respectively towards each other.

Later that afternoon and after the changeling had given up for the day to recuperate from multiple injuries, Tress was playing with Palatable and Winona in the park. She was being paid a few bits to pet sit Winona for a while and Tress might have even enjoyed spending time with Pal. Pal wanted to be in her good graces and was doing a good job of it getting along with Winona despite his catlike appearance.

53

A day or so later, the changeling had thought following Twilight was a bust as well. There were always witnesses wherever she went and odd things happened to the changeling so it couldn’t figure out how Twilight interacted with ponies as painful things kept happening. Never had it imagined it would ever know what it would feel like to be run over by a donkey cart, it couldn’t even get the number of the thing because it had been hit by it so fast. That wasn’t the worst thing, but it was the most memorable.

The only thing the changeling could say that was going its way is that so far its cover hadn’t been blown and that it found out that Twilight and Tress were well known around Ponyville as being trouble magnets. The changeling itself was trouble and it was magnetized to them for the rewards of love eating at that wedding. It was almost getting to the point the changeling would give up on the principle that it was almost wasting energy just by going for them; instead it decided going after other targets was prudent.

After it tried Vinyl and her ear destroying noise, the changeling knew that it would never be able to stand being a DJ, no changeling could handle that much noise for such prolonged periods. It tried for Rainbow Dash directly afterwards and it found it wasn’t going to be able to copy the flying speed of the mare as she was ridiculously fast and gave off a rainbow vapor trail. That wasn’t the only reason; the changeling was blown out of the sky by the mare and had slammed into a garbage cart on its way to the reconstitution dump. Rainbow Dash was almost always flying and changelings couldn’t fly forever or at such extremes.

The changeling had to admit ponies knew how to deal with their garbage in a very green way at least, even as it almost went through the process itself of being reconstituted in a painful manner. It didn’t like the fact that it almost became fertilizer.

The changeling decided to try its next target with a force of backers. Fluttershy sounded sweet, innocent and rather easy to take down. The changeling wasn’t going leave anything to chance this time as it gathered its forces on the edge of the forest looking at the quiet cottage from the front. This was a bit disturbing as all the changelings gathered knew that there were supposed to be a ton of animals around here. Something was not quite right here.

“Charge!” The changeling didn’t care that something was off; Fluttershy was home as the lights were on and it’d get into that wedding one way or another.

All the changelings halted their forward movement when a large blue furry head lifted above the house sniffling a bit and then it sneezed. They found themselves glued to the ground and some were in green cocoons made out of snot. It was a rather ironic moment for them as this is the kind of thing they did when they replaced ponies for a while, except they didn’t use snot for their cocoons. After a moment all the changelings looked at what had caused them to be trapped in a gooey mess with fear.

“I would call retreat, but I think we’re all stuck.” The raspy voiced changeling said after a moment, it couldn’t get its legs out of the sticky goo pinning it to the ground. Fluttershy having an Ursa Minor around was not something they could have planned for. Apparently he had cold and they could even see Fluttershy hovering in front of the giant bear’s face which had a frown on it.

“There there, it’s okay. You didn’t hurt me.” Fluttershy cooed to the Ursa Minor, she had to talk to the Ursa Major about how to take care of its ailing child. Plenty of fluids and rest and this giant bear cub would be feeling better in no time. “Your mother will be back for you soon and she’ll take care of you, until then I want you to take your medicine please. It’ll help you feel better.”

Fluttershy got the giant bear to give a happy grunt and she smiled, she turned around to look at the mess she’d have to clean up and saw pony like beings trapped in all the snot. She’d better tell her helping friends about this, she quickly flew down to Tress and Twilight.

Twilight was wearing a nurse’s uniform with her mane in a nifty bun that Tress had called cute. Tress herself was wearing a nurse’s uniform with her hair in a high ponytail. They were currently discussing their current business of aiding Fluttershy with the bear.

“You know, this still isn’t the most disgusting thing we’ve ever had to do Tress.” Twilight sighed and lifted a huge filled up silo up to the bear’s mouth and started to pour the medicine gently into its throat. A few gallons of honey were going to help this medicine go down and it was a good thing they met a stallion that was a bee keeper who had a surprisingly steady surplus.

“I still say that was really sickening to see.” Tress murmured as her face turned as green as the globs of sneezed snot that fell everywhere.

“Um, I don’t want to alarm you and everything, but I may need you out front. A lot of pony like creatures were caught in its snot and they all look to be going into shock. If you could please finish giving little Barley his medicine and help me around front, which is if you don’t mind.” Fluttershy covered her face with her thick pink mane and shyly looked at the ground. “I don’t want to talk to them alone.”

“Fluttershy you’re definition of little needs to be reexamined.” Tress pointed out the likely fifty foot bear cub. “But sure, I’m not really helping out much here anyway. Also I don’t see why I’m even wearing this outfit; I’m not exactly tested for first aid like you two or happen to be good with animals. Wait, did you just say they were trapped in the bears… oh that is so nasty.”

Tress’s face turned straight green and her cheeks swelled up, she quickly ran to a nearby bush. Seeing what she saw trapped in the giant snot globs really caused her to vomit and she had been already sick to her stomach at the thought just seconds ago. A minute later she walked back and around to the front to see all the creatures stuck in the blobs of snot with looks of unmoving horror plastered on their faces.

“So what are we going to do first Fluttershy? They seem inattentive at the moment and I would be too if a giant bear sneezed all over me. Oh and they aren’t ponies Fluttershy, they’re changelings. My cat mauled one three times the other day and I think it might have been the same one that was run over by that runaway donkey cart.” Yes, Tress knew what the changelings were and had noted her cat mauling the ever loving tar out of the same one three times in one day. She just didn’t rightly care at the time and found out from Twilight what the thing was after she described it; apparently it was still following her around for whatever reason.

It was hard to tell any of these changelings apart, they all looked similar to each other, but if you looked at them long enough you could see their variances easily enough. Different solid eye colors, different carapace colors, different placement of holes in the legs and wings and their horns were also unique to each of them. It required a closer look though to notice any of this as at a distance they all looked the same.

“What are changelings?” Fluttershy had never met one, but they certainly looked strange with their big goofy fangs, they weren’t very scary to her as they looked to be sad and some of them were even whimpering.

“Apparently they are considered parasitical creatures that are a cross between a mammal and an insect; they are all hermaphrodites and can change their appearance to match any species close to them. They only use their teeth in self defense when they are low on energy and are otherwise like a succubus in eating emotions. They tend to always be searching for love more than anything else and are considered dangerous if they are not discovered quickly as they have a tendency to stuff ponies into emotionally draining cocoons. Twilight thought it was kind of sad to see so many of them looking downtrodden like they were. She walked up to the one with its feet trapped to the ground and it flinched at her approach making her stop. “No book has actually heard of a pony actually being killed by them though, they usually set the drained pony free without memory of what happened and are said to be the cause of a lot of false amnesia cases.”

The changeling just started crying, why didn’t anything go right for it over the past few days? All it wanted to do was eat some love and get away with it, but apparently that was too much to ask by this point as the ponies were now aware that they were here. They even knew what they were!

“It’s okay, everything will be alright. Now tell me where it hurts.” Fluttershy coaxed the changeling to look at her and she could even feel it feeding on her sympathy. So she let it do so as she knew her kindness was boundless and her heart could spread love, even to creatures that needed to eat it to live. “Come now; let me help you get out of there.”

The changeling was more confused than anything to find itself quickly free of its predicament and being gently bathed in a wash tub. Not to mention Fluttershy was actively feeding it and making it feel better while taking care of its injuries. Horrible confusion was now going on amongst the gathered changelings as Tress and Twilight helped pulled them out of the snot and started cleaning them off too.

Soon the changelings were standing around with no idea what to do with themselves. They could attack the ponies that were nice enough to be sympathetic towards them, not to mention clean them up and tend to their wounds. They all conferred amongst themselves that it would have been a bad idea and they would have been jerks to pursue this point of action. They were glad they came to that conclusion when the Ursa Major arrived to take its child home, Fluttershy even waved goodbye to the monstrosity thus clinching it for them. They would not attack and suddenly earn the ire of a humongous mother bear that could just roar them to death.

“Remember to make him drink a lot of clean water!” Fluttershy yelled out after the mother bear that turned back and let out a really loud appreciative groan.

“Well now what?” One of the changelings asked.

“I have no idea what to do now, my original plans are all busted.” The changeling didn’t want to feel like a complete jerk by kidnapping one of the ponies now, after they aided them and then fed them. Even if it was pity and sympathy they were eating, it still tasted pretty darn good to not steal for once.

“What were your original plans? You know, aside from getting mauled, beaten to a pulp, smashed by a donkey cart and just in general having a lot of bad stuff happen to you while you were stalking me and Twilight around.” Tress raised a brow in the one particular changeling’s direction.

“Wait… you knew all along!” The changeling was now in the throes of being utterly depressed that it wasn’t being as stealthy as it thought it was.

“Well yeah, you weren’t exactly subtle after my cat mauled you the first time, the second time where you gave out a shriek that sounded nothing like a pony after getting a carrot lodged in your leg and then there was the pie I saw that slammed home into your face because it missed mine.” Tress thought the third one was rather funny and chuckled about it. If she had been hit with the pie, Winona and Pal would have just been friendly in their attempts to lick it off of her. “I swear you guys are almost a conga line of traumatizing moments waiting to happen especially given what happened when you were following Twilight around.”

“Even I’m feeling kind of bad for not helping you after all the trauma you’ve been through. Do you need my help with something now? You’ve probably heard of the Trouble Takers right? Well we’ll do something for you for free as long as it is within reason for us to do so.” Twilight smiled, she didn’t want to think she didn’t apply her help to all sentient races equally. Changelings couldn’t be perfectly evil if they were willing to talk about their problems, those hangdog expressions they currently had were making it really easy to be sympathetic with them.

“Oh can I help you too, if that’s alright with you that I help that is?” Fluttershy asked quietly as she sponged a changeling clean of the gross stuff it was covered in and massaged it’s back earning a cute purring noise from it.

“Well…” The changeling looked away and at the small group of changelings it had gathered for a raid. “You could actually help us with something. Got any better ideas on how to earn love other then temporary kidnapping and replacement schemes? To answer your question I planned to infiltrate the wedding you were going to go to and eat enough of the free floating ambient love that could be found there to share with my friends here.”

Author's Notes:

Now I have seven dislikes and as you all know seven means seven hundred people hate me... what do you mean I'm being overly dramatic?

In any case I would like thank you, the commenter’s, for reading this written form of tripe that can't even compete with other stories that immediately get three hundred up votes first chapter. Why do people get that many up votes so fast when they haven't even gotten too far into their story? Even though I may not always give a reply I appreciate the comments.

In any case Equestria Daily has been the same as usual, nothing has changed there. I think Maude Pie is getting a lot of love lately and deserves it.

Speaking of Maude Pie, she pretty much proves Tress's abilities are all physically feasible as occurring in Equestria, also note that Earth Ponies have been getting a lot of love season four of MLP: FIM. So my story is still within the realms of being completely reasonable as to Mane-iac's powers being a highly boosted earth pony. If Maude can burrow through a solid rock in seconds, then Tress can do something similar with a harder substance as if it were butter. Makes you wonder just how much force Tress has to put into a hoof punch to crack Palatable’s tough skin that even Barb couldn't chew through, then again Pal's skin was weaker because it was much larger and less dense composition when Tress attacked it compared to when he was a tiny compact fruitcake bat.

I wonder if physics in a candy coated dangerous magical sugar bowl world are even important enough to even include? Much less Twilight designing a super hero costume and a method to mimic Radiance's power exactly, she'd actually be pretty capable of it in this story. The reason she doesn't want to do it is because being a hero doesn't pay the bills, in the Power Ponies dimension that wasn't a problem. Imagine the reason why Spiderman always comes off as a poor character because he can't hold down a job that doesn't revolve around crime fighting and with a boss that consistently pays him very little to do it.

Heroes are always responsible for anything that goes wrong, even if the trouble wasn't their fault to begin with. Heroes are also known for creating their own super villains at times by accident or completely on purpose by virtue of their actions. I wonder if Mare-Do-Well will make an appearance in this story?

54

The mess with the changelings had been resolved rather fast and they promised that they personally wouldn’t get involved with this wedding. Twilight and Tress would get back to the changelings later with more ideas how to maximize their love intake and or how to receive it without doing the general changeling thing.

Twilight already thought up a good list of at least fifty or so things they could be doing aside from the general kidnapping victim scheme they usually did to live. The changelings looked the list over and agreed to try some of the stuff on it, they’d get back to her later about the results. She thought things would turn out for the better for the changelings if they stayed the course.

As Twilight thought this she was staring at Ponyville in the distance and was happy about seeing her parents again after barely spending even a few weeks away from their care. With her were some of her new friends, Octavia, Vinyl and of course Rainbow Dash. They were all going to be camping out at her parents’ house, apparently her parents wouldn’t take no for an answer and would provide for every pony.

Twilight knew this would be an attempt to show off her baby picture and for at least one of her parents to go through a mid life crisis on purpose while her friends were around just to embarrass her. She really wouldn’t put it past her parents to act up in a superiorly silly manner or be in the process of doing so by the time they got there.

At least none of them would have to pay for hotel rooms and Twilight’s mother would be able to optimize her Fluttershy cuddle time. Who knew what her father would do, aside from have cookies prepared ahead of time. Not once would any pony, much less Twilight herself, question how her father could make so many different kinds of cookies from just regular vanilla cookie dough.

Yawning Twilight decided to get in a nap and Barb snuggled into her side getting the same idea her mother did, they were soon out like a light. This left Tress to deal with their friends including a bored Rainbow. They were currently on a train for Canterlot.

“I can understand Vinyl and Octavia going since they need the work, I also know Fluttershy would never get in anyone’s way and could possibly even enjoy the wedding, but why in the world are you coming too Rainbow?” Tress looked off to the side to see Twilight yawning and Barb resting her head in a cute position on her mother. Turning back to Rainbow she saw a somewhat eager look on her face.

“You’re kidding right? The Wonder Bolts are in Canterlot and I might be able to see Spitfire!” Ah yes, Rainbow still had her dream to join the premiere flying team and it seemed it hadn’t been entirely crushed by Tress in her tirade a while ago. She still wanted to prove she had what it takes to be on the high flying paramilitary team and she was going to be awesome at it!

“Of course it’s the Wonder Bolts and not the fact that it’s a friend of mine that’s getting married here. I’m surprised you’d even agree to wear a dress just to come along.” To Tress, the both of them did have some things in common. While Tress leaned more towards being feminine then Rainbow did, they both loved to roughhouse and Applejack knew how to get that competitive spirit flowing between the three of them.

“Hey, if I have to wear girly stuff and junk to meet the Wonder Bolts then I don’t care if I’m stuffed into the most ridiculously frilly dress ever!” Rainbow declared proudly putting a hoof to her puffed out chest.

“Better not let Rarity ever hear you say that then Dashie, too bad she had so much to do at home and couldn’t come.” Fluttershy mostly liked Rarity, except she tends to forcefully try to guilt ponies into wearing her fashion or even model for it. Otherwise Rarity was incredibly generous, the spa visits were heavenly and Octavia happily joined in when she had the free time. Fluttershy wasn’t sure if Rarity noticed that she like mares and would usually try to drag her uncomfortably into the topic of possibly dating Big Mac. She really didn’t have the heart to tell Rarity that she was gay and disappoint her obvious horrible romance novel based fantasies. She really thought Rainbow was the only pony in Ponyville that didn’t seem to know or catch on to that fact, even with Vinyl hinting at it several times in front of many other ponies.

“Yikes… thanks for putting that mental image in my head Fluttershy. Rarity is a crazy mare and doesn’t care at all for awesome stuff like I do!” Rainbow shuddered and her wings got her flying in the middle of the train car, she did not want to be trapped in the boutique alone with Rarity at all.

“Look if it actually comes to that Prism, I’ll bail you out of her prison of horrors and doilies!” Vinyl also wouldn’t want to be trapped with Rarity either. Apparently her spiked electric blue mane was an affront to the many things fabulous that Rarity stood for, she also disliked Vinyl’s trademark glasses. Even then Vinyl didn’t think Rarity was too horrible, just forceful like Octavia was and not in that really hot kind of way.

“Well you could stand to be at least cleaned up once in a while Vinyl; goodness knows you might even look nice afterwards. Rarity could probably do wonders with you.” Octavia said as she worked her bow over her instrument creating a melody throughout the train car to ease tension and set a calm mood. Fluttershy and Rarity were nice close friends for Octavia to have and she really enjoyed being a part of Twilight’s rather large circle of friends. She didn’t mind getting down and dirty when things came to blows, but she preferred to do things prim and proper first before resulting to such boorish tactics. Boorish was the very definition of Rainbow and Vinyl’s half a brain working between them.

“She is not messing with my coolness Octaves or Rainbows awesomeness for that matter. Hey, we’ll even form an alliance dedicated to doing radical crazy things!” Vinyl got a hoof bump and smile from Rainbow.

“Now I’m beginning to think that following Twilight’s example is the best idea here.” Tress rolled her eyes and then leaned up against her sleeping friend and started to nod off. “Wake me up when we get there Fluttershy, also keep those two from destroying the train.”

Fluttershy sighed, she just nodded to herself. Keeping the reins on the two mares of hazard didn’t sound too hard, especially with Octavia’s assistance. It wasn’t like they could destroy the train as Tress suggested they could, but she wouldn’t put it past the two to at least try it. Looking out the window they were a good distance away from Ponyville already and all of her animal friends should be fine with her little assistant Angel Bunny being in charge. That little rabbit took no guff from anyone but Fluttershy; she thought it was cute that he cared so much about her health and safety.

An hour later the train came to a screeching halt and looking out the window from the sudden jolt out of her practicing, Octavia could see they were nowhere near Canterlot. She frowned in thought and immediately turned to the suddenly awake Rainbow.

“Rainbow, can you fly out to see what’s going on and why we’ve stopped?” Octavia received a ridiculously looking salute and then Rainbow flew out the window. Octavia figured she was looking for a reason to stretch her wings and now was a good time as any. Octavia quickly shook Vinyl who was sleeping against her and drooling slightly.

“Huh, what, where, are we there yet Octaves?” Vinyl had nodded off because of Octavia’s enchanting if drowsy sounding music. She’d still preferred the beat and tones of her speakers any day, even if some classical cello was food for the soul at times.

“No and call it my intuition acting up, but I think we might be in danger soon. I want you to wake up Twilight carefully; we all know how badly she reacts to sudden shocks. I’ll wake Fluttershy.” Octavia ran a hoof through the shy mares’ mane, it felt like silk and she was adorable as she curled up into her touch. She felt really bad about waking her up. Octavia started gently tapping Fluttershy on the nose and the shy mare slowly blinked awake at the taps and was soon stretching out while spreading her gloriously cared for feathered wings.

“Are we there?” Fluttershy asked innocently before looking out the window and realizing that the train had stopped and not in a station. She sighed at what she already knew the answer to. “Is something bad happening?”

“We don’t know that for sure, it could be a huge boulder on the train tracks or that the bridge is out or something Squeakers.” Vinyl stood as far away from Twilight as she could and was wielding a small stick to lightly poke Twilight who continued to snooze. She poked Barb a few times, but she refused to wake up and snuggled deeper into her mother’s side.

“That doesn’t sound too good, but at least no pony is hurt at the moment.” Fluttershy smiled at being informed, but it seemed to be like an unimportant reason to wake her up.

“There’s something to poke holes in your theory Vinyl and I would like to bring it to your attention. Rainbow would have come back or be zipping around the sky right now if it was unimportant and that we were just delayed.” Octavia was looking out the open window for a rainbow colored streak against the sky. Rainbow wasn’t flying around or even present in the air, but within a minute the mare flew into the train car in a clear panic.

“Guys we’ve got a seriously bad problem, we need to wake up Twilight like yesterday! She’d know what to do!” Rainbow realized what she just said and remembered that spooking Twilight awake would not be a bright idea, any pony that became friends with Twilight quickly learned not to set her off. She was on a list of ponies Rainbow Dash would never prank again. “Forget what I just said, wake her up carefully.”

“Why, what’s wrong?” Fluttershy was busy waking up Tress with a light massage. After a moment Tress shot up completely awake and alert, she was immediately looking at Fluttershy with a blush. Fluttershy felt her cheeks heat up, nothing would wake Tress up faster than a few light touches in the right spots.

“Would any of you classify a bunch of minotaur’s preparing to attack the train with another rockslide really bad? Because the first one has blocked the tracks and they’re preparing more rocks as we speak!” Rainbow could stall them, though she clearly doubted she could take them alone given how many there are and how physically powerful they looked. For once, Rainbow was actually using her brain and she could already see the surprised look on Tress’s face because of such fact.

“Why would a bunch of minotaur's be attacking a passenger train?” Octavia mused out loud even as Fluttershy tried to gently ease Twilight into a conscious state like she did with Tress.

“They could be after hostages to feed to their alien overlords.” Vinyl exclaimed excitedly waving her hooves wildly into the air before getting slapped across the face by Octavia. She rubbed her cheek with a hoof.

“I swear Vinyl, you and your tabloid trash nonsense. This situation is serious, some pony has to do something and we have two trouble solving experts here. One of which would be very useful if she were awake.” She didn’t like getting angry with her friend, Octavia actually liked Vinyl a lot and now wasn’t the time to be joking around.

“Huh… is that you Fluttershy? That feels nice, are we finally in Canterlot?” Twilight had been having such a nice dream too; she was happily in the land of beautiful manes only seconds ago. She woke up quickly when Fluttershy carefully whispered the problem into her ears and she sat up with wide eyes. “WHAT!”

All the ponies cringed at the loudness of her voice, Tress hadn’t because she wasn’t currently there. Tress was standing on top of their train car looking at the cliff as some barely organized minotaur’s were rolling rocks into position. She looked down when she heard Twilight yell and was glad that nothing bad had magically happened as a result.

“Twilight, it would be a good idea for you to get up here and figure something out.” Tress pulled her head away from the window and helped pull Twilight onto the top of the train to see what the problem was.

“This has to happen when I was having a really good dream doesn’t it?” Twilight muttered in a slightly annoyed tone, she couldn’t take a simple nap on a passenger train. Looking up at the minotaur's she could already see they were about finished with their set up and they were about to set the boulders moving. “Get Vinyl up here Tress, I’m going to need her help with this. I don’t know what this is all about or why they are attacking us, but we’re inevitably going to find out.”

“You called for help Sparky?” Vinyl was helped up by Tress and looked up at all the huge rocks on the edge of the cliffs above. Her happy go lucky tone took a serious turn to it. “What exactly do you need me to do?”

Author's Notes:

Changelings are a non issue for now, they'll be back. Now we're on to minotaur's.

The question we need to ask here is what Twilight and Tress are going to end up facing next? Harpies? Don't be absurd I would never use harpies, not in a millions years while using overly specific denial about it.

55

“Vinyl do you know how to resonate your magic with another unicorn? I also need to know if you can create a wavelength undulation beam.” Twilight looked at the length of the train exposed to the boulders; she had a lot of area to cover with a barrier spell.

“Say what?” Vinyl said flatly as she didn’t know what Twilight was asking of her.

“Can you create a high frequency magical pulse that can explode rocks?” Twilight thought that was hopefully a bit blunter for Vinyl.

“Oh, you want me to create WUBs! Why didn’t you just say so Sparky? I can certainly do that. You’re currently looking at the inventor of the dub trot blaster spell. Octaves always said my music was offensive, I guess she was right after all!” Smiling to herself, Vinyl watched as Twilight face hoofed.

“Can you do it without affecting the barrier spell I’m going to be using, I need you to hit as many of the biggest rocks as you can. I’m going to be diverting whatever you miss and everything else away from the train.” Twilight grit her teeth and started to focus her magic.

“Yeah, just let me get warmed up first.” Vinyl started trotting in place and made a beat with her hooves as her horn lit up. She just started revving up her dub trot blaster spell and prepared it to be let loose.

“I don’t think we exactly have that much time.” Twilight cast her spell and created a sloping barrier above the train in the hope of diverting the boulders with it.

Within a few minutes the minotaur’s started ramming into the boulders to shove them into falling off the cliff and towards the train far below.

“Don’t worry about it, I got this!” Bobbing her head left and right Vinyl suddenly created three tiny beams the arced outwards from her horn and came together to create an orb that exploded into a beam and pulsed straight at one of the falling boulders. Her horn was creating music as it sent fraying pulses of energy along the beam, when it connected with the boulders they shattered into little pieces of shrapnel.

Twilight kept her concentration as a large amount of stones pelted her sloped barrier and slid off to the side of the train. One of the boulders got through Vinyl's blasting and slammed home into her barrier, causing her to gasp out slightly as it bounced off to the side.

“Vinyl, that one seriously stung and I don’t know how many of those I can actually take.” Twilight held the barrier in place, but magical feedback from the weight of the blows was still very much felt. It was one massive blow to her barrier among the raining stones pelting it and sliding off to the side.

“Well you try hitting a bunch of things coming at you all at once and see how you do! Nice barrier you got there by the way.” Vinyl was shouting over the awesome musical blasts she was generating from her horn that turned into powerful rock exploding beats while Twilight made sure none of the smaller pieces hit them.

Rocks were falling and every pony was going to live, even if one or two got past Twilight’s barrier and Vinyl’s musical blasting magic. The caboose was damaged worse than the rest of the still mostly intact train. After a minute of constantly blazing noisy beats from her horn, Vinyl cut the magic flowing to it and started to rub it before quickly flinching and pulling her hoof away.

“My horn is a tad beat here, did we win this thing?” Vinyl said trying to blow on her hot horn, causing a bit of smoke to float off of it.

“No, they are still up there and they are obviously angry that we stopped them. I don’t think that was the end of it.” Twilight figured things were currently easier said than actually done, looking towards the front of the train the path was blocked by some huge boulders that would take some time to move off the tracks. “Tress, I need you to go talk to the conductors about how long it will take them to move the rocks if they can at all and help them if they need anything. It’s either we move forward or we go back to Ponyville. Fluttershy stay with Barb and Octavia. Rainbow I need you follow me, we’re going to figure out why they are attacking ponies. Vinyl you stay here and watch out for anymore trouble, they might try to attack the train from the rear.”

All the ponies confirmed Twilight’s demands and set out in three directions. Vinyl towards the back of the train, Tress towards the front and Twilight herself climbed down the side of the train and started focusing on casting the gravity spell.

“Do you need me to carry… never mind then.” Rainbow watched as Twilight galloped up the side of the mountain to the cliffs above. She followed after her making sure to stay near her friend instead of going ahead on her own.

Twilight slowed down near the top and crawled forward, to look over the edge to see the minotaur’s of all sizes and shapes bellowing at each other. Twilight turned to Rainbow as she hovered nearby before landing on a ledge, she went back to watching as they snorted and growled at one another.

“They’ve already spotted us. There was a pegasus on the train and they have two powerful unicorns.” The large yellow male cow of a minotaur bellowed. “The pegasus could already be going for help!”

Minotaur’s in general had two large horns coming from their heads, two arms ending in five fingered hands and two hooves that they walked upright on. They were a race that was always physically endowed with muscles, only few were ever truly bright and they all hated mazes with a passion. This might explain why they hated red tape and all forms of politics. As such, talking them out of their current course of action wasn’t a good solution. It was just faster than politics to the minotaur nation to listen to the strongest and the smartest of them all, they were practical experts at shotgun diplomacy.

“Fool, we just have to get down there and make sure the train can’t escape or receive aid in time, by the time any help gets here it’ll already be too late for them to do anything.” The large purple minotaur looked to be the leader of the group. He was exceptionally bulky twelve to fourteen feet tall beast and as such his might makes him right. This particular minotaur screamed raider and was dead set on continuing to press the attack, but his motives as to why he was attacking a passenger train were still a mystery.

“Iron Will still thinks this is a very bad idea. If things are going to go down, I don’t want to be around.” Well at least the blue one seemed to be a reluctant part of this assault; he was less bulkier then the rest of them and was a bit smaller compared to the giants around him.

Twilight backed away from looking over the edge as they all started to set off, she turned tail and started back down the wall while thinking. She really didn’t want this to devolve into a hopelessly one sided fight. This reminded her that her parents were always fighting to protect her and her brother, well at least until they moved out that is. Now her parents were probably just fighting to protect each other from the inane weird things that happen around them.

“We still don’t know why they’re doing this, isn’t this breaking a treaty or something?” Asked a gliding Rainbow to Twilight as she walked down the wall with a concerned look on her face. “You look really awesome doing that wall walking thing by the way. A pegasus can do the same thing by back flapping their wings you know.”

“I know, this is a bit frustrating to me too. Go ask Tress about getting the train moving then get back to me.” Twilight had to think of something. She wasn’t about to fight them, doubly so if there were more than just that one who was reluctantly pushed into this situation. All she wanted to do was spend time with her friends and meet Fleur to go to her wedding. Did she seriously have to have all of life’s little problems dropping down on her skull?

Twilight stopped her magic from altering her gravity as she set a hoof on the ground and walked up to the train, she wasn’t about to abandon all the other passengers. There were probably little foals onboard too and possibly just as many mothers and fathers as well. She really didn’t like the way this situation was going towards, some pony was going to inevitably get hurt.

“Well Radiance we got horrible news, bad news and some good news.” Tress had acquired Twilight’s attention immediately as she came up with two stallions that were obviously the train operator and engineer. Rainbow flew down and landed with them. “Well to give it to you straight going backwards is a no go, forward is going to take some time to get the rocks out of the way and the minotaur’s are going to take a good forty minutes to get down here so we’ve got some time. Apparently this engineer here mountain climbs on the weekend and knows the area pretty well.”

“What’s the good news in all that again?” Twilight sardonically asked in the face of all this awful news.

“If we can get the blockage out of the way of the tracks we can get out of here without having to put up a fight. There are not many ponies onboard that look like fighters and I’m willing for a scrap, but against raw muscle like that we’re not exactly in a winning situation here.” Well if Tress had her full Mane-iac powers she could just treat any minotaur like she did the Saddle Rager, keep them at a distance where their muscles would prove ineffective in a fight. “The blockage apparently can’t be safely blasted out of the way or else some of the mountain side might collapse on us, so Vinyl is out on performing another musical number.”

“Well we can protect the rear of the train, every able bodied pony would need to pitch in and fend them off. That course of action will result in casualties or injuries. We could focus on the debris in the way and again get every pony to assist, but then when the minotaur’s arrive we won’t be prepared for them.” Twilight continued to muse over this, things were somewhat dire if they had to face those massive muscles and if said muscles were armed. They had no weapons except unicorn magic. “We could always send Rainbow for help, but she might not be back in time. The one option that we could all do is run away, but then they might give chase to us and could catch up with us. There are ponies that wouldn’t be able to run as fast as others and we’d be leaving them behind to be picked off and I don’t like that idea.”

“We’ll stand our ground and fight, if there are bully bulls attacking innocent ponies then we got to take them by the horns.” The engineer sounded particularly brave for a stallion that was just well toned in general. “In the meantime we have to start clearing the tracks as much as we can. You’re Twilight from the Trouble Takers right? We saw you put up a barrier field and had that unicorn blasting the rocks before they hit the train, can’t you think of something to give us more time?”

“I’ll see what I can do. Come on guys we’re going to tell Fluttershy and Octavia what’s going on.” Twilight wanted to let her friends know about the situation first. She and her friends spent the next thirty two minutes informing all the other ponies onboard of the things going on so far. It was decided that Rainbow would be sent out for help, even if she was incredibly reluctant to leave them behind.

They were gathering ponies for holding the back end of the train which Vinyl was still watching. They had managed to gain some support among the other ponies on the train that were willing to help move the debris out of the way and a few earth pony stallions were more than willing to fight to protect others.

“Sparky, we got trouble and they look like they are preparing to charge us horn first.” Vinyl pointed off at the minotaur’s taking up axes, maces, swords, spears and shields. “I can rev myself up again, just give me the word and I’ll start firing all my WUBs in their direction.”

“Not yet, wait until my barrier goes down before you even start up.” Twilight noted the Minotaur’s were quickly starting to march towards them and looked to be preparing to charge upon the small patch of hapless defenders. Twilight set up a barrier wall between them and the intelligent train raiders with unknown motives. “I don’t want anyone to die here, even those who are attacking us.”

“How long do you think you’ll be able to hold them off on your own?” None of the ponies here were particularly armed for combat or even combatants, not that it would stop Tress from putting up a huge fight personally.

“As long as it takes, I’ll keep it up until my horn goes out. We’re just lucky they didn’t have any projectile weapons when they were up on the cliffs.” Twilight watched as each minotaur lowered their heads and then charged forward to ram into her barrier. It held but Twilight felt a little shaky as they started to lash out with their weapons, she was going to make it hard for them to get to the train.

Author's Notes:

Vinyl the living dubstep gun everyone.

Again I will deny and or dissavow all knowledge of harpies as existing in Equestria and or the possible use of them in this fan fiction or as having any importance to the next chapter whatsoever. This denial is not overly specific in any given shape or form and I am teling the truth that harpies aren't involved. Saddle Arabia might be mentioned though.

56

Fifteen minutes of constant horn impacts and weapons clattering against her barrier spell that bottlenecked every minotaur a distance behind the train. Twilight was beginning to suffer under the strain of holding up her magical barrier.

“Okay let me through your barrier Twilight; I can’t watch you suffer like this.” It was upsetting Tress to watch her friend struggle to hold the barrier all on her own. “I want to take the fight to them.”

“Let me WUB a few out there as well.” It was also building up guilt for Vinyl to watch a friend put up so much effort at protecting every pony and one dragon.

“No Vinyl, I can keep going. Besides you need to watch out for any of them who might try to climb around. I don’t think they’re that smart though, especially if they are dead set on taking the direct approach to this situation.” Twilight was positively sweating, each horn ram, weapon clash or even just one punching the barrier was putting a strain on her. “Don’t force me to use up more energy to prevent you from being gored by a minotaur Tress.”

“Fine, but I don’t like it.” Tress huffed and stayed right by Twilight’s side, sitting down next to her. Vinyl and the volunteer militia stallions who gathered around the unicorn keeping them safe, followed Tress in sticking together and sitting down.

“Look at it this way, I have to be earning their respect for my strength, integrity and most importantly that I haven’t yet fallen to their constant attacks.” Twilight grunted as she took another ramming impact. Ponies tended to herd together in times of danger to protect the weak and those who couldn’t or wouldn’t defend themselves. Minotaurs on the other hoof sent their weakest into battle first so they could grow strong, the strong would join the battle if the enemy were equally strong and the purple minotaur leader was hitting Twilight’s barrier the hardest.

“That and you’re tiring them out, I guess I can see a good reason to stay patient.” Tress was willing to wait as long as it meant they would have it a little easier when it came time to finally fight. Looking behind her, she could see ponies working tirelessly to clear the train tracks. “The tracks are three fifths clear Twilight, I don’t think your barrier is going to hold long enough for them to finish.”

“I know that Tress, but I have to keep trying.” If she had to keep this barrier up any longer Twilight felt her horn would explode violently. Good thing there was never any documented evidence of something like that ever happening to a unicorn, another axe strike caused her barrier to buckle slightly and she felt the pressure was on.

“Guys I found help!” Rainbow yelled as she flew in and landed on the ground.

“Is it the Celestial Guards? That would be rather fast for them considering they are flying while wearing armor.” Twilight felt the barrier crack slightly and forced the crack to close.

“No it was a pony I know that was definitely a mare. She was on this big bird thing, I thought she was in trouble at first but then it just seems she was enjoying herself riding it around.” Rainbow looked excited to have done something helpful. “She said she’d be here in a minute once I told her minotaurs were attacking a train and ponies needed help.”

“A pony riding a large bird, that’s the help you got for us? How is that going to help us?” Tress was a bit angry that Rainbow only brought one pony and a large bird. If only Tress had more zap apples or a pony that would hit her with lightning without asking questions. She only had enough Mane-iac juice to power up her eyes halfway; she had emptied out their stock of zap apples back in Ponyville getting that much back. Currently Tress was thinking of strangling Rainbow. She wouldn’t kill her, but strangling her definitely sounded nice right now.

“Actually it might be just what we needed, can you describe the pony that was riding this large bird to me?” Twilight would have normally wanted her head examined for asking Rainbow to describe a pony, but in this situation it was important to know who was coming to help. If she was right then they were definitely saved.

“Well she looked like and most definitely was a….” Rainbow started off and was quickly cut off by Twilight yelling.

“Tell me what the bird she was riding looked like!” Twilight wasn’t about to go down that road and cut off the problem early this time, she knew how Rainbow worked now. Even then she could feel that her righteous fury was now powering the barrier that had just about shattered until her angry outburst reinforced it.

“Well the pony with the three purple stars on her flank, light grey coat with the purple and white hair that looked kind of like you except with a Rarity curl thrown in was riding on this big red and sand colored bird.” Rainbow tapped her chin with a hoof looking thoughtful. “Big is not a word to describe it really, awesomely large, super sized? Humongous, that’s it! It had this beak that looked like it could split Celestia in half!”

“Twilight did Rainbow Dash just describe….” Tress knew it was too soon to say, but if Rainbow was right then they might be soon rescued by the least likely pony she could think of. She didn’t know of the bird from vague description Rainbow gave, but apparently Twilight knew what it was. Tress never finished her sentence because Twilight’s barrier finally broke and Twilight crumpled to the ground.

The minotaurs were immediately charging them and they were twenty feet and closing when a shadow covered all of the ponies ready to defend the train. A huge screech was heard and suddenly the charging minotaurs all found themselves harshly slammed into the wall of the mountain by an incredible force.

“Okay which one of you decided to mess up my Fluttershy cuddle time charts, I had it all planned out to the second that she arrived at the station! Not only that, I arrive to find you launching an all out assault on my daughter!” Velvet was certainly beyond angry as she stood on top of the birds head as it flapped its massive wings. “Twilight, are you alright my little sparkle? Did any of them hurt you? Because they are so dead if they hurt my baby in any way.”

“I’m okay mommy, just tired of holding back a horde of dangerous minotaurs for that last hour or so!” The large bird hovered above the train and it lowered itself down slightly to extend its neck over the train tracks. Twilight watched as her mother slid down its beak to hop off and run up to her.

“Oh my poor baby, your horn is burning up.” Velvet was hugging her daughter with tender love and care. “Harrier, please be a dear and blast them again if they keep trying to move one hoof towards us or any pony would you?”

The large bird nodded as it slowly flapped its massive wings to stay hovering where it was.

“So were you taking your pet Roc out for a joyride because we were late mom? She’s gotten a lot bigger then I remember.” Twilight smiled at the ridiculously large bird that cooed at her and her mother, it quickly returned its attention to the minotaurs that were slowly standing up.

“My yes, it’s been a while since I took my pet out for a nice flight and the sky was clear for it.” Velvet was now completely ignoring the minotaurs as the situation was completely handled. “She does tend to get lonely just sitting on the mountainside by herself at times. She’s been eating a few Ever Free Forest tree’s lately, I’m surprised you haven’t seen her around Ponyville.”

“Twilight, have I ever told you that your parent are really nuts?” Said Tress blandly while looking off to the side, Vinyl was still gawking at the giant bird and the stallions were frozen by the very sight of it.

“Multiple times Tress. I don’t think I would change that about them for anything though.” Twilight idly noted Fluttershy immediately flying out of the train and towards the Roc, of course the shy pony would want to spend time with a new animal. Rocs weren’t exactly native to this part of their world.

“Wait, if it’s a rock how is it able to fly?” Rainbow was even more curious about the large bird. “It has to be really heavy and junk.”

“It’s not like the ones in your head Rainbow.” Twilight had always been fascinated with her mother’s pet, they just couldn’t keep her near their house because it was so big and was usually on loan to a nearby zoo. “An R O C is a large bird native to Saddle Arabian territories and are creatures known for controlling winds and creating huge tornadoes, they are the leading cause of all sandstorms in deserts. They tend to eat entire date trees and one is enough to last them for a whole day, they need a lot of fiber in their diet.”

A powerful focused blast of wind punctuated the end of Twilight’s sentence that pinned the minotaurs back to the wall they were trying to stagger away from; they didn’t look like they would be getting up after that one for a few minutes.

“Good girl!” Velvet yelled proudly and the giant bird trilled, she also noticed Fluttershy was happily sitting on its head looking content with the world. She was going to get her cuddles soon. “Now do you need any more help daughter of mine?”

“Yes mom, I would like it very much if you assisted us in reaching Canterlot.” Snuggled against her mother Twilight was happy to have been rescued in a ridiculously over the top fashion like this.

“Quick question, how did you end up with a Roc for a pet?” Tress was willing to suspend her disbelief for a moment to hear the explanation for this one patch of weirdness.

“Well I did spend quite a few Arabian Nights in Saddle Arabia; I think I was pregnant with Shiny back then. I and Night had quite the interesting honeymoon.” Velvet drifted off staring into space with a look of wistfulness and whimsy on her face.

“Right then, let’s get every pony to Canterlot. Move it along ponies, nothing to see here!” Twilight was immediately set off and flustered at the look that crossed her mother’s face. It could only end in traumatizing embarrassment for her if her mother was allowed to continue.

Less than an hour or so later after Velvet finished talking to the Celestial Guards; she was walking up to Twilight and her friends with a bright smile on her face at the train station in Canterlot. Her daughter made her so proud sometimes, especially for holding back an entire horde of minotaurs by herself like she had. It had taken Velvet a while to get her pet back where she belonged and it was feeding time for the Roc anyway.

“You know what Sparky? I still can’t believe how crazy awesome your mother is.” Vinyl stated bluntly as Velvet reached them.

“So these are some of my daughters new friends, they must really like you to give you nicknames. I of course am well acquainted with Fluttershy here.” Velvet was immediately cuddling an uncomfortable Fluttershy, she was behind on her cuddling charts and she was going to make up for lost time. She believed Fluttershy needed the affection and love, she also thought Fluttershy needed a strong mare to take charge of her but Velvet wasn’t about to tell her that out loud.

“Mom, this Rainbow Dash she’s the head weather mare in Ponyville, though I honestly don’t know how she managed to get that position. Vinyl Scratch here is apparently a popular DJ and this is Octavia Philharmonica who’s specializes in playing quite a few stringed instruments.” Having to cover her ears Twilight couldn’t believe the squeal of joy her mother just gave off.

“Oh, my you’ve meeting such adorable friends, look at Octavia’s cute bowtie.” Immediately Velvet started invading Octavia’s personal space snuggling her, then she was giving Rainbow a hug. “I’ve always wanted to meet an adorable tom colt like you.”

“Twilight can’t you control your mom? And I’m not adorable!” Rainbow had a few personal space issues to work out and was soon released.

“Now let’s see what you’re hiding under your glasses.” Velvet quickly flicked Vinyl’s glasses off her face and was hugging the poor unicorn to her. Vinyl struggled not to get out of the strong grip, but to get her glasses back and Velvet soon relented placing them where they rightfully belonged. “Oh my goodness Twilight, I’m so happy for you! How have you gained so many wonderful friends?”

“I’m just lucky I guess.” It was like Twilight couldn’t avoid her mother embarrassing her. Then again it was nice that her mom liked her new friends and all, but this was a bit much.

“Only your mom can impress every pony around her and just as equally embarrass you within the same hour Twilight.” Tress had a small impish smile on her face.

“Look at it this way mom. She’s too busy with your friends that she hasn’t thought of breaking out your baby pictures yet.” Giggling about it, Barb couldn’t believe she had slept through all of that. At least she got to see her grandma’s pet Roc.

“Do all of you want to see my daughters foal pictures when we get home?” The really ecstatic Velvet was so happy at meeting so many young mares that would be friends with her poor daughter. At least knowing that Twilight had friends that would stay by her side through tough times in general was something to celebrate with the age old parental tradition.

“Do we still have time to set the minotaurs free as a distraction?” Twilight lamented quietly while slowly raising a hoof to her face.

Author's Notes:

This was the only way this chapter could have ended. I'm sorry, I truly am.

Again no harpies were used in the making of this story.

57

The next morning saw Twilight and her friend sitting at the breakfast table in her parents’ home. Barb and Tress worked on making breakfast to order for everyone this day.

“Despite the odd poltergeist haunting it, I must admit that this is a nice house though it’s a little bit of a tight fit with so many ponies. Also what was it that was causing all those scratching sounds last night?” Octavia calmly ate a grilled cheese sandwich. She was just starting on her first one.

“That was probably just Leggy; I moved her back into the house when Twilight moved out. Twilight was always so terrified of her, can’t understand why as Leggy isn’t venomous. She’s just making herself at home in our basement and she wouldn’t harm any pony.” Now Night wasn’t a bad father, but he should have probably warned Twilight about it as it looked like she was panicking at the news.

“Dad you know I really don’t like Leggy, please tell me she’ll stay in the basement while I’m here.” Twilight looked particularly ready to leave already and she hadn’t even finished her waffles. On top of her horn was a bag of ice, she had become wary of straining herself after yesterday.

“What’s a Leggy, she sounds neat.” Speaking through a mouthful of cereal Vinyl’s interest was perked.

“Please swallow before talking Vinyl, table manners were invented for a reason I’ll have you know.” While taking a dainty bite of her grilled cheese sandwich Octavia glared at Vinyl.

“Oh it’s just a giant spider I’m friends with; she’s not exactly a pet. She used to live in the house and ate the more problematic outbreaks of our food going crazy and made for a nice garbage disposal option. Shining loved her growing up, however Twilight cried whenever she was around and always got so upset. So I peaceably removed her from the domicile without causing a ruckus.” It was so nice for Night to have his old friend around. “I found a nice corner of the crystal mines for her to stay inside Canterlot Mountain.”

“If you call nearly completely totaling three blocks not causing a ruckus, then you were very successful in the endeavor dear.” Velvet didn’t mind the giant spider, it was just sad that their daughter did. The spider might have looked scary, but it was actually very friendly and enjoyed drinking tea which was a little on the odd side even for her.

“Well I know what Vinyl and Octavia are going to be up to, as they need to prepare for the wedding day. Fluttershy is going to be visiting some of her old friends in the park and all the pets she’s taken care of around Canterlot to see how they are doing. So what are you going to be doing with your time Rainbow?” A change of subject was something Twilight thought they needed at the moment; she didn’t want her parents to break out the projector going down memory lane again.

“I was thinking of finding the Wonder Bolts, but I don’t exactly have any idea where’d they be around here.” It wasn’t like Rainbow had a one track mind; she just wanted to meet her idols as much as Twilight wanted to meet one of hers this day. "So does any pony want to show me around?"

“There is only one way to solve this issue quickly like adults, one two three not it!” As soon as Night had called out that he wasn’t it, every pony except Vinyl and Rainbow had said they weren’t it immediately. Even Fluttershy said she wasn’t it in a timely manner before Twilight could.

“Okay, what exactly was that all about?” Rainbow asked wondering what was up with every pony at the table.

“I think they were deciding who would escort you around the city Prism.” After musing on this a bit Vinyl smiled. She was okay with escorting Rainbow around as she knew Canterlot quite well even if she did prefer to live in Ponyville. “I guess I’ll do it, I don’t do much practicing with my stuff until the evening anyway.”

“Why didn’t any of you want to take me?” It actually kind of hurt Rainbow’s feelings that they didn’t want to pal around for a while. Well Twilight and Tress she could understand as she kind of stalked them a bit too much because they ended up doing a ton of awesome things. “I can give a pass to Barb, Tress and Twilight, but what of the rest of you?”

“Oh it is nothing against you, but we all have things to do today. I personally have a few appointments to keep with fabric producers and some other investments of mine. I think all the business talk would be particularly boring to some pony with your energy.” Velvet could see that Rainbow accepted her explanation. Now if only Night, Octavia and Fluttershy had explanations that were just as good.

“I’ve been working too many all nighters and I think most of my blood has turned into coffee at this point. I needed to visit the hospital for a checkup anyway.” Night actually had a plausible excuse and Rainbow disliked hospitals.

“I hope you know and trust that I like you Dashie. That said, you tend to be loud a lot of the time and I’m going to be doing quiet things with squirrels and you really don’t want to frighten them.” Squirming under the rainbow colored pony’s gaze Fluttershy bravely continued. “They may take any of your actions against my shyness as a clear sign of aggression against me and all of the animals in Canterlot will have you blacklisted before the day is out. I would prefer to avoid that if that’s alright with you. It is better that I tell them about you first and then introduce you later if you really want me too.”

Fluttershy had a bizarre explanation, but it actually made a lot of sense to Rainbow. Rainbow took Fluttershy at her word that it was better that she didn’t follow her around, Fluttershy would know animals better than any pony. They all turned to Octavia who was just tuning her cello and giving Rainbow a sly smile.

“My explanation is this.” Octavia played a tune for twenty seconds and Rainbow fell asleep at the table with her face slamming into the strawberry and honey flavored oatmeal.

“Tress, it looks like you finally have some competition for best evil genius pony to ever visit this house.” Night stated in a highly amused lighthearted tone.

They were all laughing at Rainbow who was startled awake by Tress nudging her wing. There were two strawberries in her eyes and two honey clusters in her nostrils.

“Okay, I can clearly see your point Octavia.” Using her tongue to wipe at the oatmeal on her face Rainbow was doing a rather good impression of a certain hyperactive pink pony. “Just so every pony knows I’m not angry with any of you over this. Besides having a really cool friend giving an awesome one a tour sounds great to me!”

Every pony went their separate way after breakfast and Twilight was excited to be meeting and introducing herself Fleur. She couldn’t understand why Barb kept looking at her flatly and Tress was acting a bit jittery.

Twilight followed Tress up to an average looking home; Fleur was definitely a pony she looked forward to meeting and talking about magical theorems and other related subjects with. Maybe she might even get a chance to play with her mane a bit, but first and foremost she was going to be trying to focus on the wedding. Maybe they could even find out who Fleur was marrying.

Tress lifted a curled hoof and knocked on the door twice, she could only hope Fleur would keep her reaction to a minimum instead of going all out. The door opened revealing a white coated unicorn as tall as Tress was. Said mare yawned tiredly and then she saw who was at her front door, her enthusiasm for her friend showed with a spike of activity in the mare who wasn’t good at mornings. Tress was immediately pulled into a hug and was receiving a kiss on the cheek by the suddenly excited mare.

“You actually came, I am so happy to see you! Who’s this now?” Fleur took in with her purple eyes the unicorn staring at her slightly messy two tone pink mane that hung around her shoulders and then she noticed her wandering eyes trail to her cutie mark. Fleur had a cutie mark that was an oddity, three strange symbols that were about nurturing beauty, blooming passion and seeing how things can flower into something wonderful. Fleur only knew that one day her beauty would fail her and on that day it would be nice to have some friends to tell her she was still capable of being appreciated.

“Fleur this is my best friend Twilight Sparkle and her daughter Barb, circumstances have conspired to have me introduce you two to each other.” Tress stood out of Twilight’s way and hoped for the best.

“Pleased to meet you Fleur, you’re thesis about the nature of some forms of magic was incredible.” Twilight was internally squealing as she shook Fleur’s hoof. Her mane and tail were so bedraggled looking at the moment, Twilight decided to offer up some help. “Have you had a chance to freshen up this morning? If you haven’t I would like to help you with your hair if you don’t mind me asking, it looks like it needs a good brushing. Otherwise the magazines you appear in don’t do you enough justice.”

“Your friend seems nice Tress, if a little strange. This is the first time I’ve had a fan that likes both my looks and my brains. Your little girl looks to be such a sweetheart as well.” Fleur was pleasantly delighted to meet Twilight; however a niggling at the back of her mind forced her to ask something after she was done shaking a hoof with Barb. “You wouldn’t happen to be Velvet Quality’s daughter would you?”

“Wait, is your mother’s maiden name Quality?” Tress asked at hearing this and a slow smile starting creeping up onto her face.

“Mom, please don’t tell her.” Barb looked particularly aggravated as she crossed her arms and her wings reared up in an aggressive manner at what was about to come up. She wanted to go with Fluttershy today and mom shot her down after she asked.

“Sorry Barb, but yes that’s my mother’s maiden name. Her full name is Twilight Velvet Quality Sparkle; she prefers Velvet as a first name though and named me Twilight while striking her first name from the record.” Twilight didn’t know why Barb looked so upset at her telling Tress about all this. It wasn’t until Tress burst out with a bark of laughter and pointed out something that the implications of the general pony naming conventions came to light.

“So your daughter’s full name is Barb ‘Air Quality’ Sparkle? Her name is Barb A. Q. Sparkle, really? Barbecue, oh gosh that’s just really, whew.” Tress fell to the ground laughing with tears in her eyes as she pounded away at it with her hooves. Even Fleur was trying not to giggle into her hooves, at an adorable little magic dragon named Barbecue.

“Mom how could you!” Barb shouted indignantly throwing her claws up in the air from her position on Twilight’s back. She had known about it after her grandma pointed it out and said to never to bring it up or she might incur all forms of teasing.

“I’m your mother, parents are supposed to embarrass their children even if it’s by accident. Mine have just started with me and you laughed quite a bit about it missy.” It wasn’t malicious revenge, but it was revenge nonetheless and Twilight would later win her daughter over with ice cream as an apology. She really didn’t want to spoil her daughter too much though. It was just a good thing her daughter didn’t get rapid growth syndrome when she got a little greedy with the ice cream.

“Your right mom, if I can’t take the heat then I probably shouldn’t be thinking of making fried ice cream when we get back to grandpa and grandma’s house.” There was a story there; it wasn’t likely that Barb would elaborate on it. Barb was a magic dragon that liked cooking in general, fried ice cream was an interesting treat she was trying to figure out how to make and she has had some at a restaurant before.

“I like your friends already Tress, come on in and make yourselves at home. I’m going to take a shower and then let your friend work with my mane. I have a feeling she’ll do a really good job, especially if I’m right in the fact that she’s your personal stylist.” Fleur enjoyed the closeness these three had with each other and was happy to let them have full run of her home. “While my mane is being taken care of I would like to discuss a bachelorette party with you and how you can help me as a bride’s mare. I’ll even introduce you to my fiancé monsieur Fancy Pants if we can find the time.”

Twilight pranced into the house squealing happily, at least she didn’t need her magic to brush and comb Fleur’s mane. Her horn was still sore after yesterday and it would actually be pleasant to lay a physical hoof on that mane to make it shine.

Fleur just smiled and shook her head as she followed them inside closing the door with a flick of her horn.

Author's Notes:

Things are about to get really complicated and weird... yeah that's nothing new with this story at all.

58

Twilight and Tress wondered if Fancy Pants was truly a Canterlot noble, one would think he was like a majority of the nobles in Canterlot. Fleur was going to be marrying this stallion they were soon going to meet and they wondered how the two came to the conclusion of getting married.

Thus far they had the bachelorette party for Fleur planned out a few days before her wedding, it was going to be a very simple affair and at a fast food restaurant with very few ponies knowing about it. They had quite a good lunch while discussing it at a fancy venue that was a bit rich for them.

“Fleur I have to know, will there be any complications or ponies that wouldn’t want you to marry Fancy Pants?” Twilight was not going into this situation as blindly as she would any previous situation with the thought that nothing could go wrong. She was actively expecting things to go wrong now.

“Now that you bring it up, well there is my ex who was only interested in my body and cared nothing else about me who I only dated for three days and he never let me live it down.” Fleur paused and sighed at what she was about to say. “I swear that he’s somehow using magic to try and get me to like him. Every time we have an argument I feel a spell trying to take me over to make me love him, I only get as far as hugging before I leave as fast as I can.”

“Haven’t you tried to go to some pony about this unicorn trying to force themselves on you with magic?” Tress was now instantly angry with the stallion even if she has never met him. There were certain abuses of magic she just couldn’t abide by and she knew that they existed because of Twilight.

“I didn’t say it was a unicorn that this happens around. It happens around this pegasus and I’m trying to avoid him at all costs. I just know he’ll try to ruin my wedding if he finds out about it. I haven’t seen him around lately though and I was thinking of being optimistic that I won’t see him any time before or after the wedding day ever again.” Fleur wouldn’t put it past the pony to somehow show up at an inopportune moment to try and entice her from the most incredible gentle stallion she has ever met. They were almost at Fancy Pants house and she was feeling alright since she hasn’t seen him in a week or two.

“With me around and knowing my luck, I expect we’ll be seeing him in the next few minutes. Tress you have permission to slug him if some magical compulsive force is causing Fleur to like him.” Twilight didn’t like violent impulses, but she didn’t mind her friend being violently protective.

“That works for me.” There was no getting around the fact that Tress disliked any pony taking advantage of some other pony since meeting Fluttershy. She’d even punch a mare if they were taking advantage of a stallion. This meant she’d even hit Fleur if she was leading some poor stallion on.

They didn’t see any signs of a pegasus on approach to Fancy’s mansion. They all trotted up to the door and it was Fleur who took the initiative to knock on it with a eager look on her face.

“Huh, guess you were wrong mom.” Barb just yawned and crawled into one of her mother’s saddle bags and curled up in there.

“Hello how can I... well, this is awkward.” The changeling gave a sheepish grin to the flat looks it was receiving from Twilight and Tress.

“Okay, just what are you doing here of all places? I thought you weren’t going to try and sneak into the wedding or interfere with it.” Twilight’s flat tone caused the changeling to wilt slightly.

“I’m here for a completely different reason then that I swear.” The changeling wasn’t receiving very believing looks and there was a slight rise in hostile emotions. “I’m here to help sort out emotions between two ponies at the behest of the pony that hired me.”

“What exactly are you?” One quick explanation of what changelings were to Fleur later. “So Fancy hired you to help with making sure our relationship was strong?”

“Yep that’s about the size of it, I think.” The changeling smiled, it didn’t have to use a disguise or anything to get some food and it liked the idea of how much easier it sounded to be a symbiotic parasite. “You’re feelings are a reading a little wary of my presence, but that’s to be expected and I’m not going to change what I am to meet your needs. Huh, now you’re radiating acceptance? Ponies are just plain weird sometimes.”

“Remember that he likes that particular brand better and try to take him out for walks at least twice a week. He needs some playtime once in a while as well.” Fluttershy came up to them talking to a stallion and between them was a happy looking schnauzer. She seemed to be doing what she did best, talk about animals and giving advice to others about what they needed to do to have a healthy relationship with their pets.

Twilight was looking at who she suspected to be Fancy Pants. He had a debonair quality about him with his fancily styled blue mane, a mustache on his face and white coat. In fact, if Twilight didn’t know any better having a white coat was a common unicorn thing. He was wearing a blue vest underneath a tuxedo jacket, underneath that was a white collar shirt with a purple bowtie. The last thing of notice is that he had a monocle and he looked incredibly fancy wearing it. His cutie mark was three crowns.

“I’ll try to remember that Ms. Shy. Fleur it is simply smashing to see you here my dear and it looks like you have brought some friends as well?” Fancy was immediately upon Fleur within seconds of seeing her, he tenderly lifted one of her hooves and kissed it. Fleur blushed immediately at his sudden smile and the immediate treatment.

“Whoa… heady… there’s so much love flowing between them I’m getting pretty high off of this.” The changeling started to sway slightly before falling onto its side. It slowly rolled onto its back and its tongue hung out of its mouth as its legs waved lazily at air. “Dude, this feels awesome, why did we ever start stealing love previously again?”

“No wonder changelings like love so much if that’s their reaction to a huge mass of it. I should ask it when it’s in the right state of mind later if they’ve ever fed off of nomadic hippie ponies before. Free love and all that you know.” Twilight commented, clearly fascinated by the reaction to Fleur nuzzling Fancy Pants neck and him doing the same for her.

“I’m more shocked to see him not treating Fluttershy like a one hundredth class citizen. Just to remind every pony here, such a class doesn’t exist. It might as well with the way I’ve seen nobles treating other ponies here in Canterlot.” It was something that earned points in Tress’s book, being nice to Fluttershy went a long way to earning a high opinion from her. Especially the fact that he didn’t even sneer or scoff in her direction added to the positive outlook Tress was having about this stallion.

“Oh, Mr. Pants wouldn’t treat me like that at all; he took me in for a whole winter when I was still living in Canterlot as a vagrant. He said it was payment for helping his schnauzer get all better, it was a little much given all the food and the room he gave me for something that was a small issue. He also doesn’t mind that I’m gay and he’s really been quite nice about it.” Fluttershy was a good seal of approval to have when it came to judging the character of other ponies. “He’s nothing like Blueblood at all Tress.”

“Madam Ravel, I believe I’ve seen you working with the ever lovely Fleur here once upon a time. You are quite the beautiful young mare and if I didn’t have Fleur to dote on I would be trying to court you immediately.” Fancy was respectful of Tress’s personal space and even bowed to her. “Besides, I rather lead by a better example than what that the boorish brute Blueblood sets. I will play nice with him, but any stallion that would dare demolish a playground for foals just to put a statue of himself in its place will barely get the barest of my best verbiage. He’s not someone I recommend spending especially too much time around.”

“Well you’re certainly charming on a number of levels, but you’re barking up the wrong tree pal if you think I’d go for you.” Even as Tress said this she had to watch as Fleur draped herself over Fancy in a loving manner while smiling a tiny smile in her direction. Tress looked around vaguely wondering if her cat would show up and just shrugged when it didn’t. She glared Fancy in his blue eyes. “If you ever hurt Fleur I doubt an army of bodyguards or even the celestial guard would be able to stop me from reaching you.”

“My you’ve got quite the fire in you! It’s why I love Fleur so dearly and makes me see why she’s always talking about you. You’re one of the few friends she has you know and I’m glad to see that you genuinely care about her even if it’s not in the same manner I would myself. It’s that fire for life that draws me to her, not her looks and I find things are never boring when she’s around.” Fancy Pants looked like a joyful friendly stallion and appeared to be a great conversationalist. He was laughing off Tress’s threat as if it were nothing, which would have been his reaction even if he wasn’t taking it seriously.

“Oh trust me, I would like to know the feeling of boring. Being around Twilight is like standing at the epicenter of magical mishap just waiting to happen. I get enough excitement every week doing seemingly boring tasks for other ponies without her weirdness magnet going off all the time.” Tress knew Twilight wouldn’t say anything about it even if it hurt her feelings, it was no less the truth of the matter.

“Of course, I say to each their own as life is too short to spend all your time hating others for who they are or the situations they’ll get you into.” Fancy Pants was enjoying this conversation, Fleur had some good friends. Speaking of which, he decided to bring up something about Fleur as a compliment. “My dear did you recently have someone do your mane and tail, they look marvelous.”

“Thank you for noticing; Twilight Sparkle there is a mane care enthusiast and she does good work. She’s Tress’s best friend and I feel a bit jealous of that, but not too jealous as I have my best friend right here.” Fleur wrapped her hooves around Fancy and he blushed heavily and coughed into one of his hooves.

“Fleur please, there’s a proper time and place for things like that.” Fancy was feeling pretty hot under the collar now and shifting under the beautiful mare who was slightly goosing him, but he did love the feeling of her hooves ever so much as they trail down his back legs. “It wouldn’t be proper, not in front of these nice ponies and especially not before we are wed.”

“Now there’s a stallion with a good sense of honor, your definitely a friend of ours now and with all the chaos that that will entail. I’m just going to apologize in advance for what’s going to happen at the wedding since we’re going to be there and all.” Tress started snickering about whatever weird thing she could come up with that was going to crash the wedding. In fact she was beginning to think of apocalyptic scenarios that were downright hilarious, several fifty foot tall mares chasing after a tiny bouquet thrown by Fleur just to name one.

“Like Tress said we apologize for any inconvenience that may happen while we’re around, trust me it’s not something you should take too lightly.” Twilight agreed that something was going to happen to cause a mess, it wasn’t just a feeling either.

“Poppycock, I’d enjoy and even welcome the coming excitement and surprises that could spring up. Now what’s that in your saddlebag miss Sparkle?” Fancy noticed Barb in Twilight’s bag as the dragon squirmed around a bit; they were all enjoying each other’s company quite fine thus far.

Off to the side Fluttershy sighed wistfully and smiled at friends meeting new friends and forming bonds. Fleur and Fancy were warming her heart up to excessive levels, causing it to beat excitedly as it was so nice to see other ponies being happy together. After a moment she noticed the schnauzer chewing on the changeling.

“Now stop that, it didn’t do anything to you so leave it alone please.” The schnauzer listened to Fluttershy and wagged its tail as it went to her for some attention; the black bug creature wasn’t hurting anything so the dog didn’t really need to rough it up anyway. “Now if you behave I’ll see about finding you a nice dog bone to gnaw on instead. Wouldn’t you like that much better?”

Fluttershy walked off with the dog who was barking happily at her. They left the dazed looking changeling lying on the floor. After a moment the changeling let out a long excessively loud belching noise, causing all the conversing ponies to turn to it for a moment before they went back to their conversation.

59

The bachelorette party was going pretty well. Most likely because Rainbow and Vinyl hadn’t been seen for two days and were probably lost or something. Twilight knew they could take care of themselves and would turn up eventually. A fast food restaurant that Fleur frequented was being used for the party and it was a very low key affair that might have Pinkie Pie calling it anything but a party. The pink pony would have made a highly explosive affair of it that would have been visible to all ponies without a thought about what Fleur would have wanted.

Twilight just bit into and savored the hay stuffer sandwich leaving some ketchup covering her lips slightly. She just scraped the globs of tasty condiment off her face with her magic and shoved it back into the sandwich. Her preferred method for eating a hay fries stuffed sandwich was to never waste a single part of the sandwich.

“Why am I here for this again?” The changeling thought it odd that it was taking part in a female only party, when it wasn’t entirely female. It had tried and failed to get away from the euphoric feeling of being around the two love birds when they were near each other.

“Well you’re at least half female right? Just live with it.” The blunt way Tress said it made it nonnegotiable. It was that way since the changeling was already here and it would have been rude for it to leave.

“I’m also half male; doesn’t that mean I should be joining Fancy in his bachelor party as well?” The changeling had to wonder if it was being held at the same time as this one was.

“We obviously don’t care… do you even have a name? I just realized you’ve been around for the last three days and not once has any pony ever called you anything other than the changeling, hey you, ‘it’ and the incredible living maul me sign.” Octavia quirked a brow at Tress at that last one, said pony just shrugged at the musicians’ scrutiny.

“Yes well, that last one is something that I wish would stop happening to me.” The changeling had been mauled on the way to the fast food restaurant; at least Fluttershy was willing to aid it in a time of distress while the others just stood by gawking at its predicament. One could only wonder how a panther ended up in the streets of Canterlot; the changeling thought it saw a purple and blue ahuizotl for a few seconds after it’s uncalled for out of nowhere mauling. The changeling was lucky Fluttershy always carried a medical kit on hoof for such emergencies.

Twilight was thoroughly amused by the banter, she was a bit freaked out that she saw the familiar creature from the Daring Do books. Other than one of its many cats mauling the poor changeling, the ahuizotl didn’t seem to even attempt or want to involve itself in her life as another obstacle in the road despite the very opportunity to do so. This was something Twilight was rather thankful for.

On a sheet of paper Twilight had several ideas of how the wedding could go wrong and was writing them down and putting details to them about problems she was trying to divine by just thinking backwards.

First up was the evil ex colt friend scenario, this was something she was going to be looking out for the most as the stallion was definitely of the unscrupulous sort.

Twilight had discerned from Fleur that the pegasus only came and got into an argument at odd times with her, sometimes with no other unicorn around and the interesting thing about it all is that Fleur remembered princess Cadence being around for every incident. The princess of love was a pony that Twilight remembered and noted as the alicorn foal sitter that lived down the street from her parents when she was younger. The stallion was definitely bad news if he was trying to manipulate the princess of love into forcing Fleur to love him by starting up arguments with Fleur when the princess was around. The love princess had been known to have the habit of using impulsion spells on two ponies she might view vaguely as couples without a second thought; it was just surprising she hadn’t forced a brother and sister to commit forced incest yet with all the horror stories and rumors surrounding her.

Twilight thought Princess Cadence really should think before she just casts her impulsion spells without thinking about it first, if that is indeed what was happening every single time Fleur met her ex colt friend. Fleur is truly lucky she’s really good at shrugging off impulsion spells, there’s a reason those spells aren’t shared with just any pony but the most trustworthy of those who wouldn’t abuse them. Cadence’s special talent might be related to such spells, but it sounded like she didn’t use them in a completely chaste manner or understood the complete ethical and moral issues of doing so.

Second, on some off chance that her hunch is right the minotaurs are going to stage a jailbreak on the day of the wedding as their injuries have most likely healed by this point. To compound the issue, her mom wouldn’t be able to fly her pet Roc in the city without having to pay for all the collateral damage that it might cause, not to mention incidental deaths. It wasn’t as much of a problem or issue in the open space of the mountain range the train tracks went over.

Minotaurs were tough creatures to keep down; chances are the celestial guards thought they’d be safe to be put in normal cells in a labyrinth style dungeon for holding and questioning purposes. That said they’d probably punch their way out through the walls or at least some of the stronger ones would.

It would be just her luck for something like this to occur, not only that but they’d actively seek her out for revenge and they’d somehow arrive at the wedding at a really inopportune moment. It wasn’t as likely to happen, it’s not like the celestial guard were so incompetent as to stick a minotaur behind something easily breakable as a wooden door or bendable like cheap metal bars.

Third, even only seeing an ahuizotl for a second had her wary. If it were anything like the ahuizotl from the Daring Do novel, it would probably be going after one of the wedding presents for Fleur and Fancy. Said present would turn out to be some kind of ancient magical Saddle Arabian staff that summons a oracle that answers only one question the holder has with perfect clarity or something, because why not complicate things in her life further?

Fourth, there were unknown complications that a pony just couldn’t account for. Who knows what could happen? Twilight Sparkle’s life was never simple, easy or normal. Chances are something she couldn’t account for would happen. She put down, fifty foot giant banana monster being the least likely thing to appear from what she could think of off the top of her head.

Fifth and lastly, some sort of minor apocalypse setting off for only one part of the city that would require Cerberus to leave the gates of Tartarus to retrieve some minor demons. Twilight seriously hoped something like that couldn’t be blamed on her or even become a problem.

“Hey Twilight what’s that your writing there?” Tress finally took an interest in the small list Twilight was making.

“It’s just a list of things that aren’t very likely to happen if at all, but are bound to around me anyway. What if all of them were to happen at the same time? It’s so infinitesimal a chance that that’s the likeliest thing to occur.” Twilight passed the list to Tress and she read it over.

“Yeah, I seriously don’t want fight some minor demons and a giant banana. That would be a little too weird, even for us Twilight and we’re sitting at a table having lunch with a recently mauled by a panther changeling at a bachelorette party.” It was not impossible to Tress though, she didn’t say it was impossible and as long as she didn’t say it out loud it should never come to pass.

“Can you two not discuss Trouble Takers business at the table and think of something a little more pleasant please? Life is not always out to get you two. Fleur is the one that has to be worrying about her ex boyfriend out to get her.” Octavia figured they were focusing too much on the trouble centering on them when it was not always the case. “You’re kind of being self centered, just so you know the world does not revolve around whatever you two end up doing.”

“You’re right Octavia, but I’m still wary after the attack on the café and then the train thing. Some pony could have been permanently injured or worse.” Twilight really felt guilty as she had a part in the creation of said thing that had attacked the cafe.

“It’s not like the café was your fault, who knows where that thing actually came from! Also it’s not like you could have predicted an army of minotaurs attacking a passenger train all of the sudden.” It took a moment but Octavia noticed Fluttershy, Tress and Twilight were all looking away from her at the mention of the café. They obviously knew where it came from, possibly what it was and why it had assaulted the café in the first place. Octavia believed they were good ponies though, Twilight did say she took care of it after rescuing Tress. “Okay, I’m not going to ask then. You’re my friends and if you want me to drop the thing about the café attack, I will.”

“Please do.” Twilight murmured sadly while Fluttershy wrapped a hoof around her and gave her a hug. “I feel guilty enough just knowing how that creature came to be in the first place. In fact I’ll change the subject, so are you truly okay with eating here? I know you have rather specific aspirations and a taste for upper class mannerisms.”

“Some of them have no sense of taste at all. The first noble to tell me onion rings are a lower class food are wrong and will feel my wrath verbally. If they continue to persist that it’s commoner food, they won’t be persisting much longer without any teeth.” Even Octavia got a run in with a bad noble or two and figured that she didn’t care for some of the things they touted on her own.

“I too have a passion for some of the simpler things Octavia, like fried carrot dogs and mustard. The crunch of the carrot and tang from the mustard on my tongue is ever so pleasant. You know, I truly hope we can enjoy moments like this again after I’m married.” Fleur wasn’t afraid of getting married to Fancy and she was pretty sure he was ready for this too. They’d discuss having foals at a later date after they were wed.

“You’re kidding right? Any of us will want to do this again. Daisy hay fry stuffers with lots of ketchup or just a plain fried daisy sandwich if we’re talking about fun unhealthy fried obsessions.” Twilight might have been slightly messy eater, but she knew what she loved.

“Hay fries in general for me.” Tress just liked good hay fries in the fried foods department.

“I like fried pickles.” Fluttershy shared hesitantly and smiled shyly while keeping more than half her face behind her pink mane.

“I tend to favor the crisp taste of confidence in the morning personally.” All the ponies stared at the changeling. “Hey, you are the ones that dragged me here! So I may as well offer some input too once in a while.”

“So does everyone know what they are going to be doing at the wedding except for the changeling who’s apparently not going?” Fleur was only asking now as she was pretty sure they had gone over everything her friends would be doing.

“Yes.” All the ponies answered back.

“Splendid, I hope to have a long engaging happy life. For better or worse I hope I can do right by Fancy as much as he does so by me.” Fleur smiled brightly and toasted to her future with a wonderful charming stallion she’d spend eternity with if she could.

“Fleur, I’m honored to even be a part of your wedding and your friend. I’m also exceedingly happy to be your hairdresser for it too.” If Twilight got to play with her mane some more then things couldn’t be all that bad. She giggled to herself merrily at the thought.

“It all sounds so romantic Fleur, I wish I can find a mare that will sweep my off my hooves like Fancy does for you. How did he propose to you?” Fluttershy noticed her question caused quite a stir at the table; they were all now staring at Fleur as no pony had bothered to even ask that before.

“Well…” Fleur smirked and her eyes trailed to each pony leaning in closely and even the token changeling at the table was intrigued to hear this news. “I’m the one that asked him to marry me; we were at an art gallery at the time and I popped the question to him eloquently enough with a specially made painting. He said yes and I’m the happiest mare in the world for it, he was surprised that I would be so bold. It was our fifty seventh date too, he’s just that intoxicating to me.”

“How did you two end up meeting in the first place?” Twilight was interested in how Fleur came to the marriage conclusion first. After fifty or more dates of dancing around each other emotionally, it must have been comedic to watch the two interacting and not scream about why they weren’t married already.

“Here in this very fast food restaurant ironically enough, I’m not the only famous pony in Canterlot that doesn’t stick to the status quo. I don’t care about saving face if I’m caught, but until then I’m going to keep enjoying the mystery about me when I go off the celebrity grid for a few hours. Anymore questions?” Fleur was soon being pressed for all sorts of memorable moments from her dates; she was happy to share them with all of her friends and might even lend some advice from experience to them if they asked for it.

Author's Notes:

Now we have the set up, don't expect the next chapter to be too exciting. Rest assured Sparkle will deal with all the big problems easily enough.

60

It was the day of the wedding and everything seemed to be going well. Barb and several other fillies were in flower girl dresses. Twilight was sitting the crowd taking notice of the clear weather, she made absolutely sure no changelings were involved and that meant checking every pony here. There were no changelings, so at least the changeling held up its end of the deal. As for Tress she was currently with Fleur. Vinyl and Rainbow were sitting with Twilight in the crowd. Rainbow was wearing a dress and Vinyl was wearing a suit.

“Hey, how come I had to get stuffed into a dress and she didn’t?” Rainbow was whinnying about Vinyl wearing a tux. She also wished she could muss up her mane after Twilight made it all girly looking, though she didn’t mind when Twilight was brushing her mane previously.

“Because she actually looks handsome in it and she can actually pull off a stallion’s voice so ponies wouldn’t question her on it.” Twilight commented to her while pondering how Vinyl got so good at sounding like a stallion. “Besides getting the dress off should be easier for you, we’re going to need you to help us catch Fleur’s ex if he causes any trouble or makes an appearance to interrupt the wedding.”

“Yeah and I really do make this tux look good.” Comically enough Vinyl pulled off the perfect voice to make her sound like a stallion and despite her rather slim appearance; she thought she pulled it off perfectly. Her mane was in its same spiked style it usually was and it stood out amongst the ponies who had had there’s styled eloquently for this day. Twilight hadn’t managed to talk her into getting her mane styled like Fleur had with Rainbow.

“I think you look really pretty in dress anyway Dashie.” Fluttershy came walking up to them to take her own seat; her mane was braided and slightly curled. Rainbow calmed down knowing that Fluttershy could smell when a pony was upset and she would have gone rabid on her with a massage if she kept acting up.

Octavia was with a small band holding up her instrument waiting for the signal to start playing her cello, two stallions and another mare made up an elegant string instrument quartet. She really thought Vinyl had to be the odd one at the wedding given it was very easy to spot her in the crowd, things were about to get started so she had to focus on her music.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this Fleur, it’s a pretty big commitment.” Tress was getting the final touches underway with Fleur before she led her down the aisle to matrimony.

“Ah yes, I feel so alive today and quite giddy. I can’t wait to say yes and then kiss my stallion at the altar. Are you sure you’re ready for this Tress, is being a bride’s mare troubling you that much?” Fleur just shook her head and smiled. “Don’t worry, just don’t say anything and we’ll be at the altar before you know it. I’m so glad you’re here for me today and that you’re willing to do this for me.”

“Yeah, I’d do just about anything for my friends. We’ll see whether or not things are going to go correctly… ” Tress narrowed her eyes at the sky and the dark cloud that wasn’t there a minute ago.

Fancy’s family wasn’t entirely full of nobles and quite a surprising number of them were completely fine with this wedding. Fleur had a family full of average ponies that were happy that their cousin found a keeper. Every pony here was just here for these two, they were all talking to each other in excitement for how this would all go down.

Soon the ceremony was started, Octavia started to play the wedding march with the rest of her quartet. The bride marched down the aisle with a veil covering her face and it appeared that Tress was keeping her face hidden; Fancy was waiting at the end of the isle at the altar with his best stallion. This outdoor wedding was looking good so far.

“Rainbow, be ready. I see him.” Twilight knew that a dark cloud was not something you’d see in a clear sky.

“Huh where is he? Yeah I think I see it, give me a signal and I’ll circle around to take him down.” Rainbow noticed Twilight discreetly pointing above them to the dark cloud.

The priest started his spiel about why they all had gathered there today, the usual things one would expect at a slightly fancy wedding where there was a reception waiting for the two special ponies of the day to enjoy.

“Can any pony think of a reason these two ponies should not be wed? If not, then hold your voices and let these two ponies speak their vows.” This is when the villain always made an entrance or some pony that was more truly in love or some such shtick like that. The priest was told ahead of time about the problems that may occur during the wedding and he was bravely waiting for it to happen and it did in a spectacular manner.

“Yeah, I got something to say. If I can’t have her no one can!” A blonde haired pegasus stallion with a dark teal coat immediately kicked the dark cloud and bright bolt of lightning struck the pony in the brides dress with perfect accuracy.

There was a dark spot marring the wedding dress and the pony was lying on her side.

“No, Fleur my love! Shock Hazard you cad! How dare you interrupt our wedding?” Fancy was angry however the bride slowly stood up and stumbled towards Fancy Pants.

“I dare because… how is she still capable of standing? No matter I still have enough for one more bolt.” The now named Shock Hazard bucked a second lightning bolt and it struck the pony again in the heart, this time the bride didn’t fall over. “What in the world is going on? You should be dead!”

After a moment a dark chuckle erupted from the bride, it turned into a dark demented laugh.

“Hey Rainbow, send him here!” Tress reached up and pulled away the veil of the brides’ dress she was wearing and ripped off the fake metal unicorn horn she had on her head. The lightning had felt really good and only the force of it hitting her had knocked her down and she was prepared for the second one. That really charged her up to halfway and she was feeling positively alive, they had this all planned out.

The stallion looked confused and turned around to get blown off the cloud by a solid blue hoof ramming straight into his face sending him toppling off what was left of the cloud and rolling along the floor. He came to a stop in front of Tress who marched down the stairs from the altar and reared back and stomped down on Shock Hazards head knocking him clean out.

“Okay, that takes care of that…” Tress turned around then thought better of it and turned around to punch him one extra time to bloody his nose. “Everything clear Rainbow?”

“Yeah, no sign of demons, giant banana’s or even a single minotaur in sight. You’re good to go Fleur!” Rainbow flew down to go struggle back into her dress, who said weddings had to be boring as that was awesome.

“Okay, let’s continue this thing then! You were at your vows I believe?” Tress walked back into position and took the ring bearing pillow from the fake Tress.

“Oh thank goodness!” The fake Tress reached up and wiped off the pink makeup dust covering her white coat and removed her hood to reveal a fancily styled two tone pink colored braid and bun combo. It was Fleur, who walked up to stand next to Fancy. After a moment Twilight quickly trotted up and cast a bit of magic and Fleur’s horn appeared on her forehead where it rightfully belonged. “Sorry for scaring you like that my love, Tress was just being a good friend by taking my place temporarily and Twilight told me she has been trying to get into illusion magic recently. I vow to try and be by this stallion’s side in sickness or health for the rest of my life. Until we meet again in death, because screw loving any pony else if I die. I’m not letting any other pony have me in the afterlife.”

“Fleur my dear, I fear that you might soon have a penchant for giving me heart attacks. I too vow to try and be by her side to share my life with this wonderful mare in sickness or health for the rest of my life. I agree to the same thing if I die, you’re the only spirit I’m going to look at in that way and I bet you’ll always be as beautiful as you are now.” One could almost feel the hearts flowing off of Fancy and Fleur, as the stallion waggled his brow at his beloved.

“Do you take this stallion and do you take this mare in holy matrimony?” The priest continued without pause.

“You better believe I will after that.” Fleur stated clearly and concisely.

“I’m not here for any pony else but this really beautiful enchanting lady.” Fancy said smarmily.

“By the powers invested in me, you may now ring your mate and kiss each other as husband and wife.” The priest chuckled despite himself; the stallion trying to ruin a perfectly happy couple certainly deserved that bloody nose.

Fleur levitated a ring onto Fancy’s horn and he did the same for her, taking each other’s hooves they closed the gap and kissed. The crowd of ponies cheered throwing confetti into the air, within a few seconds Fleur deepened the kiss and had Fancy on his back in seconds.

“Hey, you two get a room! Or else you’re going to scar us young ones for life!” Barb got a good chuckle from the audience as the pair stood up blushing vibrantly.

“She’s right my dear, it’s time we all adjourned to the reception hall for food and drink!” Fancy smiled and started trotting back down the aisle with Fleur holding his hoof.

Eventually some Celestial guards arrived and took Shock Hazard into custody. The reception went quite well with Vinyl keeping the musical beats pretty loud. Twilight might have been a little high strung the entire time waiting for something worse to happen, but nothing ever came and she eventually relaxed once Fluttershy got a hold of her.

“There there, nothing bad is going to happen to us Twilight. How about some punch? You haven’t even had a slice of cake yet either.” Fluttershy noticed a lot of mares gathering around Fleur and she was holding a bouquet, maybe someday she’d be able to throw one of her own at a bunch of crazy single mares or stallions.

“Yeah, stop being uptight Radiance. Only one of the things on your list truly happened and you should be glad that’s all that did.” Tress and Fluttershy started dragging Twilight off for some refreshments. Tress stopped a moment to look back while giggling at the mares fighting over the bouquet Fleur just threw over her shoulder idly without a single care in the world. Fleur was last seen leading Fancy away from the reception hall.

In all things had gone pretty well, Twilight didn’t know where her calculations could have went wrong until she and all her friends were making their way home. Twilight turned a corner on the way to her parents’ house and just froze at what she was seeing, her ears dropped.

“Sparky why’d you…whoa.” At this moment Vinyl couldn’t do anything to stop her jaw from dropping.

“Okay what’s going… on? Wow.” Octavia just stood there with them staring and then Fluttershy and Tress turn the corner to see what was so incredible.

“You have got to be bucking kidding me.” Even Tress tried to make sense of what she was seeing.

“Tress I would kindly ask you to watch your language please as there is a minor around, even if it is a bit strange.” Fluttershy knew saying this was strange was an understatement of the century.

“Mom, am I seeing things or…” Barb started off.

The Cerberus quickly caught the last minor demon in its mouth and charged out of the city and leapt off the side of Canterlot. There was a giant fifty foot empty banana peel covering the streets with the words ‘Celestia was here’ written on it. There was a bunch of battered and bloodied minotaurs littering the streets around the banana peel and a gaggle of celestial guards were currently detaining some badly injured large cats and the ahuizotl from earlier. One pony in particular was covered in blood and looked horribly battered, bruised and wounded on the ground breathing heavily.

“We need a medic over here! With all that you have done today Shining Armor Sparkle, I’ll make sure you get a promotion even if I have to yell Celestia into the ground!” One of the guards proudly said to a pony very familiar to Twilight.

Fluttershy immediately went over to the guards trying to detain the cats to assist them; Tress sighed and followed to make sure none of them hurt her shy friend. Vinyl, Rainbow, Barb and Octavia just stood by Twilight.

“Sparky, let me be clear with you on this. Why in the hay didn’t you write down that all of your friends suddenly receive a thousand bits? Without anything bad happening to us when did get said bits.” Throwing her hooves up in the air Vinyl thought she could abuse her friends on paper prophetic powers.

“Well obviously Twilight’s a pessimist Vinyl, she doesn’t think of all the good things that can happen in life considering all the random stuff she has to deal with on a daily basis.” Octavia’s comment got to Twilight’s brain.

“Oh darn, of course I forgot something in my calculations! Only my family, ugh and all that worrying over nothing! Come on; let’s go check on my big brother and see how he’s doing.” Twilight face hoofed for forgetting to account for her family. At least her worries were completely put to rest, even if all the things she wrote on the list actually happened to her brother Shiny. They most likely hadn’t heard the ruckus because of Vinyl’s relatively loud music. Even now she still had to have a good long chat with Princess Cadence before she left Canterlot and she didn't know how to contact her.

Shining Armor Sparkle has just had a really, REALLY, really bad day.

Author's Notes:

Dissapointed after reading this? I know I would be if I missed all the action, it was so awesome with Shining fighting offensively with barrier magic and Celestia swooping down and claiming the banana for some unknown reason and leaving poor Shining and her celestial guard to deal with everything else.

61

“Quick question, did anyone ask you about why I survived the lightning strikes?” It was something that Tress thought would be mentioned or at least brought up by the other ponies at the wedding. They were currently on their way to the hospital; Canterlot had some of the best medical care in the world minus Fluttershy of course.

“A few did, I told them the dress you were wearing had some enchantments on it that wore out on the second bolt and then I was asked what would have happened if it was hit a third time. I told them you might have gotten hurt slightly, but the pegasus expended almost all the energy on the first two shots so the next one would have done any permanent damage.” Twilight hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to Shining before he got carted off by the other guards for the hospital. Apparently the medic wasn’t enough to fix all of her brother’s wounds, but he didn’t look too bad off, then again Twilight has seen him in worse states so she wasn’t a good judge of injury for him specifically. She’d be able to diagnose the injuries of any other pony except her brother perfectly fine.

“I would like to say thank you for the plausible deniability.” Tress said as her mane became fully green and waved around a bit before returning to its light blue color. “My powers are a little more than halfway back thanks to the easily taken down guy.”

“So Fluttershy said she’d catch up with us?” Twilight took note that it was getting pretty late in the evening and the sun had yet to set. The rest of their friends had just gone home to sleep off all the food they had at the wedding and most likely to avoid any more randomness from following Twilight around. After Fluttershy was done with the animals she’d come to the hospital to see how Shining was doing.

“Yep, she’ll be escorted to the hospital by a bunch of… yeah I should have probably stayed with her. That is unless she was chatting up the female guards, then she’ll be perfectly fine.” Shrugging Tress just continued onward and opened the door to the hospital. Shining probably got here thirty or so minutes ago that it took them to walk all the way here, while he got the flying chariot express.

“Can I help you?” The receptionist said, looking up from the papers she was shuffling through.

“Yes, I’m Twilight Sparkle; can you tell me what room Shining Armor Sparkle is in? He’s my brother.” Patiently waiting for the receptionist to finish with her stuff, Twilight turned to Tress. “This might take a while.”

“Funny I thought you would be here to visit your father Nightlight Sparkle, a little bit of his blood was somehow converting itself into coffee which is a strange phenomenon. At least we took care of the problem and he’s only here to make sure his blood isn’t still doing that.” The receptionist flipped through several papers. “Ah here we go, fifty three minutes ago. Multiple injuries, only one appears to be serious. He apparently has a minotaur’s horn stuck in his rear end and needs to have it surgically removed. Otherwise he’ll make a full recovery within a week. He should be in room thirty seven B second floor.”

Tress was already snickering about it as they set off towards the room Shining was in, they hadn’t been able to see too much of Shining other than all the blood he was soaked in. Those minotaurs sure could certainly bleed everywhere without dying from claw wounds, it was more impressive when the changeling survived being mauled by a panther since it didn't have anywhere near as much bulk.

“I swear my brother is going to be the butt of every joke about being horny for quite a while.” It needed to be said and Twilight had to say it to get the puns out of her system. She also didn’t need Tress to break down laughing in front of her brother like she currently was after all the heroic things he did.

Apparently Shining managed to evacuate the area, while using barrier spells to contain the threat to the given area. The minotaurs and the big cats with the ahuizotl were mostly taking each other out and the minor demons came in later, said demons were the cause of the giant banana monster. Eventually Cerberus arrived to put the demons back where they belonged and helped fight the other two problems at the same time. Celestia dealt with the banana monster personally, but no pony around really saw what she exactly did to it and the banana peel was the only clue.

Opening the door to the room Twilight walked in and looked for the bed Shining would be in, she found him laying on his belly with almost fully broken off minotaur’s horn coming out of his butt and it was only about a few inches in. The doctor was writing something down on a clipboard and turned to the two mares that just entered.

“Yes, can I help you?” The doctor continued to check Shining over despite their presence, he was a pretty good doctor to not get distracted so easily.

“I just came to see what kind of state my brother was in. He looks to be doing better than the flying disc incident or that time with the boomerang.” Chuckling about those two incidents, Twilight always thought Shining got injured worse in accidents then actually fighting anything. Her big brother was a bit of a klutz at times.

“He’s surprisingly well off, all the large felines seem to have gotten the worst of it and the minotaurs didn’t fare that much better. I heard a specialist was taking care of the large cats and the minotaurs that broke out of prison are still alive if only in bad conditions.” The doctor finished scribbling stuff down and then looked at Shining. “Do you want me to wake him up? He’s not in a critical condition and just needs some stitches after we get that horn pulled out of his rear, otherwise we have as many bandages on him as we’re going to get.”

“Yes, please.” Twilight watched as the doctor just lightly shook Shining awake and she face hoofed, even she could have done that.

“Wake up, you have some visitors. Now don’t touch the horn in his rear end, we’ll take care of that soon enough and then he’ll need a weeks’ worth of rest.” The doctor exited the room leaving the two mares with Twilight’s older brother.

“Hey, how are you feeling best big brother friend forever?” Twilight started off cheerfully enough.

“Like a truck ran me over and there’s this itching feeling in my flank.” Shining sounded woozy; he was probably on a lot of medication to ignore the slight painful pinch of having a horn in his butt. “Is that you mommy?”

“No Shiny it’s not mom.” Rolling her eye Twilight waited for Shining to come to his senses.

“Are you that pretty alicorn girl that foal sits from down the street?” Shining guessed still muddled in the head.

“If even half the rumors about her are true I should hope not. Would you put me down if I start abusing my magic like that Tress?” If anything Twilight hoped Tress would stop her from becoming her own worst enemy.

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t have the heart to kill you. Holding you down and smacking some sense back into you is about the best I can do.” Tress just shook her head; she didn’t believe Twilight had the stomach or the heart to go evil. She herself however did have the heart for it and it didn’t bother her if she was using her evil ideas for good purposes. She could become a byronic hero if she tried hard enough.

“Leggy, did you come to cocoon me and gently rock me to sleep like you used to do? I miss the good old days when you foal sat for my parents.” Shining said while smiling goofily.

“Okay, you’re not even really trying anymore are you Shiny? Also I did not need to know that the spider that dad keeps in the basement was once your foal sitter.” Now Twilight was disturbed on a number of levels by the huge spider.

“How bad do I look Twily, Is it the javelin incident all over again?” Shining didn’t look to poor off as his heart rate was good and strong and most of his wounds were patched except the one in his flank.

“Not even close to that one, though you do have minotaur’s horn sticking out of your butt.” It was hard not to stare at. “The guards I asked said your barrier spell took the brunt of the impact and it broke off while getting stuck in you.”

“So my injuries are closer to the soccer ball incident then, well that’s a relief. I thought it might have been as bad as the baseball incident, specifically the third one.” Shining smiled, he was enjoying every minute of the medication he was on while he can as he lazily looked back at the horn sticking out of his butt. “I doubt I’m ever going to hear the END of the jokes for this one from my friends in the guard.”

“I swear it’s like you two are speaking in code, your family and their noodle incidents. Well if you want to go on about how horny you…” Before Tress could get started Shining glared hard at her.

“Please don’t Tress, it's bad enough I have to go into surgery soon to have it removed. Every pony is going to make cracks at me about getting rear ended.” Shining thought it was no less than true that they would think of many ways to reference it or the scar it would leave mentally and physically.

“Well I’m going to go visit dad while I’m here as well, he’s apparently having coffee blood problems. I'll be back soon.” Twilight didn’t even know how that one was feasibly possible with any other pony but the ones in her family.

“Thanks for stopping by to see me little sis, tell dad I said hello and that I’m doing much worse than he is at the moment so therefore I’m winning.” Shining just knew most ponies wouldn’t understand why being in a worse condition would be winning, he saw her nod before she started for the door.

Twilight was about to exit the room when she came face to face with the very alicorn she wanted to have a chat with. She and Tress immediately halted in front of Cadence who also stopped to look at the two ponies before her.

“Um, is this the room Shining Armor is in? Also is he awake, I have news of the promotion this brave guard here is supposed to receive.” Cadence didn’t like the looks she was receiving from the two mares; one even looked like she could be related to the guard in question judging by her cutie mark. The other pony looked like she could have been Shining Armor’s girlfriend. She thought Celestia told her he was single, oh well. Why was it always the cute ones that were taken?

Twilight thought Cadence had a nice pink coat and the ponytail she had her rose, violet and gold colored mane in was downright cute. Despite how beautiful Cadences hair might have looked and how much she wanted to play with it, Twilight was going to have her talk and she was going to have it now. If it turns out Cadence is flagrant with the use of her compulsion spells, then Twilight might have to do or say something to teach her not to use them so often.

“Excuse me, but can we talk in the hallway princess. Tress, please wait here with my brother.” Soon Twilight led the curious Cadence out into the hallway.

Tress shrugged, if Twilight wanted to face this issue alone it was up to her. She returned to Shining Armor.

“So, are you keeping that horn after they pull it out? I know you could always use a spare with all the accidents you keep getting into. I’m surprised you’re not worse off then you look.” Chuckling, Tress got a slightly disapproving grunt from Shining.

“I don’t know, but the horns aplenty to think about. Maybe I can play a few notes on it before deciding whether or not to keep it.” Shining decided to be in good humor and get some of it out before Tress did. He didn’t exactly hate his sisters’ best friend, but it was still weird she came from a comic book of all places.

“Well at least you can always tell some mare you’ve got three horns, that’ll be an interesting conversation starter I bet.” That got Tress a chuckle from Shining.

“Please don’t make me laugh, it kind of hurts.” Whined Shining from his position on the bed.

“Aw, but I had a good one about a horn job.” Now Tress really got Shining laughing and crying in a pained manner.

“Oh please stop, I can’t take much more without some more pain medication.” Shining the stallion with a sparkle covered shield as a cutie mark, white coat and electric blue mane was slowly beginning to realize the pain he was in. The dose they had previously given him was probably way to light.

“So what, I can’t ‘poke’ more fun at you about it?” Giggling Tress got another burst of laughter from him. “Haven’t you ever heard that the best medicine is to laugh it off Shining? Well that’s at least what Pinkie says.”

“Come on Tress, this is seriously making me self conscious now even if it is funny.” Even with tears in his eyes that he calls liquid pride, Shining knew he was going to be hearing a lot of these later.

“Suck it up hero boy, some pony has to desensitize you to it now before it gets worse.” It was all in good harmless fun to Tress, she idly wondered how sharply Twilight was going to dig into Cadence.

Author's Notes:

Don't go thinking I have forgotten about Cadence now.

62

Inhaling, Twilight knew she was going into this for the long haul with every ounce of ranting she could force out of her mind for just the cold hard facts before she started. Cadence wasn’t a very old princess and didn’t run her own kingdom, but she was to take charge in case something happened to Celestia. As such Twilight very much doubted Cadence was a take charge kind of pony or even understood that there were consequences to her own actions.

“Look I don’t like you very much. I’m going to ask you a few questions so you’ll know why I don’t like you by the end of what I have to show you.” Twilight immediately had the alicorn perplexed and there was a slight hurt look on her face. “Okay, quick question do you bother to get involved in a situation or do you just cast a compulsion spell and leave it up to the magic to deal with the problem?”

“The second one, the compulsion spells are pretty safe to use and shouldn’t cause to many troubles. It’s just a quick fix to friends and lovers if they get into a quarrel.” Cadence had no idea what she just walked into, but she was receiving one of the harshest glares she could ever remember getting in all of her life.

“And that is exactly why I don’t like you, do you even think before you cast magic that is restricted for a reason? Do you even know what happens if you use even one of those compulsion spells on a single pony multiple times? Do you realize the problems you could cause just by interfering in the lives of other ponies without getting to know the situation first? I understand you’re the princess of love, but you’re doing the exact opposite of causing love to blossom with the lives you’ve possibly ruined!” One would ask why an alicorn princess would be shrinking back from a unicorn half her size, to be fair Twilight was about to deliver a powerful you suck speech. She was going to be very direct to this princess whether or not she cares to hear it personally.

“What do you mean exactly?” Cadence had this feeling creeping up on her that she felt would lead to a horrible revelation.

“I only know one of the lives you possibly ruined, can you teleport us to the Canterlot dungeons real quick?” Twilight had had a huge hunch about something, she wanted to Cadence to see what she had done.

“Yes, but… okay.” Cadence saw the look of angry determination in Twilight’s eyes and she didn’t even know the purple unicorns’ name. Closing her eyes Cadence’s horn lit up and they appeared at the entrance of the Canterlot dungeon, there was a large hole in a nearby wall caused by the minotaurs breaking out. A guard was immediately at attention and was saluting to Cadence.

“You brought a stallion pegasus in here earlier named Shock Hazard, princess Cadence needs to check him for magical mental interference.” Twilight knew what she was doing, as far as things went Fleurs true love was probably what beat out the compulsion spell. It was either that or pure mental disgust for this stallion they were visiting. There was a possibility that another pony didn’t beat the compulsion spell and she was going to force Cadence to see what she has wrought personally.

“Is this true princess?” The guard waited for an answer.

“I… Yes. I do need to do that.” Cadence had foreboding feelings in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t know who Shock Hazard was but she would soon find out. As they were led along to see this Shock Hazard, Cadence had to ask the guard about it. “What are Shock Hazards crimes as they are known now?”

“He’s on the charges of attempted murder of a mare and at her wedding no less. Fired two high powered lightning bolts that would have been enough to kill his target; at least a hundred witnesses saw it. The Trouble Takers took care of the problem and are vouched to have been prepared for every occasion, they saved that poor mares wedding. They are a legit organization with no history of wrong doing and were thanked personally by the bride for making sure the wedding stayed on schedule.” The guard didn’t see the look on Cadence’s face as it sunk a bit further and the princess was biting her bottom lip. They came up to a cell and inside was the sleeping pegasus chained to a wall, the guard unlocked the door for them.

“Do it Cadence.” Twilight ordered immediately. The alicorn princess lit up her horn and used some magic to scan the pony. The princess gave off a gasp and backed away shaking her head at what Twilight was already aware of. Shock Hazard might have been trying to use Cadence to get Fleur to love him, but he never accounted for the fact that the compulsion spells would have an adverse affect on him at all.

“No… I… I couldn’t have, I didn’t mean… how could I have? I have to fix this!” Cadence lit her horn only to find it dragged around to face an angry Twilight who lit her own horn.

“Cadence, do you see yourself above the law?” Twilight asked in a very flat icy tone.

“N-no, I don’t see myself higher than any other pony.” Cadence was living a nightmare she has caused and could only hope she was sleeping.

“Then why were you about to remove evidence from a crime scene, given it has your magical signature.” Twilight stated calmly and Cadence reacted like she had been punched in the gut. “The mare at the wedding was a friend of mine and she’s quite popular around Canterlot as she’s a super model. Her name is Fleur De Lis; she shrugged off your compulsion charms because there was no love for the stallion that kept forcing her into arguments when you were around. Sure he brought this on himself by getting you to use your compulsion charms on him, but because of this you are an accessory to his attempted murder.”

“I…” Cadence’s mind broke, but the unicorn looked ready to continue going on and she was going to hear every word of it.

“You disgust me you know, I know you’re young and everything but that’s no excuse considering you had the right stuff to even become an alicorn in the first place. At what point do mind altering spells help ponies? You could have been forcing brothers and sisters to sleep together, mothers and their sons, fathers and their daughters! Sure you may have caused some good things to happen, but you wouldn’t know if they did considering you walk away before finding out the results of your actions.” Twilight paced around the alicorn, thinking of all things she could bring up. “Have you ever thought once that maybe letting ponies work out their issues might have been healthier for them? This Pegasus is trapped in your compulsion spell due to his unceasing lust. What you do isn’t helping ponies; it’s forcing them to get together instead of working out their issues and that’s only if the spell doesn’t wear off and make the situation even worse. Now I have to ask, do you know a mare named Luna?”

“No, who is that?” Cadence feared hearing what Twilight had to say about that mare, she was already crying because she had to turn herself in. She had become a bad pony and hadn’t even noticed when she slipped into the bad habits that led to her being guilty of almost getting a pony killed. What if this wasn’t the first time though? Did that mean she had gotten a pony killed by association as causing what might be irreparable mental damage to a pony?

“It’s a pony who if Celestia had used a compulsion spell on a long time ago, she would have gravely regretted it and she would have lost a pony most dear to her forever for even attempting it. Don’t ever ask Celestia about that name, it brings her nothing but heartache.” Twilight turned sharply to Cadence ears forward and a glare that caused the alicorn to take a few steps back. “If you have to ask her, then don’t tell her where you got your information from. Just state that it was from a very reliable source that knows of Lulu.”

“… I have to try something… I’m not taking the evidence away, but this may incriminate me even further.” Cadence just had to know how many ponies were here because of her. Her magic went outward in a pulse and the final straw broke inside of her. There were five ponies other then Shock Hazard four of which were stallions and one was a mare, Cadence broke down completely. “Five… four stallions and a mare… what… what have I done? What have I been doing?”

“Now you know why I don’t like you. All I want to do now is go back to the hospital; as I have to visit my father and talk to my brother some more. Cadence… you have a few choices and I know one is where you could just have Celestia sweep this under the rug oh so easily. Can you truly live with the guilt of not knowing everything you’ve done in happy blissful ignorance or will you be a princess that you’re supposed to be and face up to it?” Twilight turned and exited the cell followed by a broken princess.

Cadence could only stare at the floor and asked the guard to lock up the door as they left, they returned to the hospital in the flash of a teleport in silence.

They appeared back in the hospital in front of Fluttershy and several female guards heading towards Shining Sparkle’s room. Fluttershy got incredibly spooked and cowered behind the two guards who took immediate notice of Cadence’s state of mood. They also noticed Twilight walking up to Fluttershy who immediately stood up and hugged her for a few seconds once she realized who was there and not looking happy.

“You will remember that your actions no matter how seemingly inconsequential can have dire effects, magic alone can’t fix what’s wrong with the heart and it might even end up destroying it in the end. I hope you’ve learned something from all this. You might want to even look into the reason why the other unicorns who checked them didn’t question why your magic was affecting those ponies.” Twilight turned to Fluttershy and gave a slight jerk of her head in a come on gesture, her voice was laced with venom that Cadence knew she deserved. “Come on Fluttershy, I’m going to visit my father. We’ll see Shining after we’re done there. I’m through sticking around this disgusting thing that calls itself a pony. Maybe one day I can actually see the beautiful creature that once was there.”

“Princess Cadence, are you going to let her talk to you like…” The female celestial guard was cut off by a pink hoof solemnly lifted into the air.

“I would like to report a grievous crime.” Cadence stated with a bit of finality in her voice as tears slid down her face. “And I need to see Celestia about it personally right now.”

“Twilight, are you feeling okay?” Fluttershy looked back at the princess as she teleported away with the two guards before she turned back to her friend. “Do you want to talk about it, if that’s okay with you?”

“No Fluttershy, I’m not feeling fine at all.” Twilight has just confirmed that the alicorn of love really hasn’t been spreading her namesake and has just called her out on it in such a horrible manner. She had been so horrible to Cadence, but it was something she needed to hear as otherwise Twilight thought they could have been friends in another time. “I don’t want to talk about it, but goodness knows I will anyway just to relieve the heavy feelings in my chest.”

The shy mare exuded caring and understanding as they slowly made their way towards Nightlight Sparkle’s room in the hospital, he was staying overnight to be sure his affliction was completely gone. She listened to every single detail that flopped out of Twilight’s mouth clearly; she didn’t judge Twilight as she hadn’t done anything bad and she didn’t want to judge Cadence as she didn’t know her personally. Even then Fluttershy was horrified to find out that Shock Hazard wasn’t the first pony that Cadence had driven mad with compulsion spells.

Fluttershy had thought that when Fleur talked about it, it sounded like a temporary spell at first. The fact that the magic could actively force ponies to act against their will was not something she wanted to know that unicorn ponies could do. She also didn’t need to know that Twilight had found a spell called the ‘want it, need it’ spell that Celestia left lying around in the castle of the two sisters. Fluttershy had always known that the world was not a perfect place, even then she still trusted in Celestia and even Cadence to try and do the right thing.

“Hey there girls, what’s with the long faces?” Nightlight greeted the two ponies pleasantly; they both gave him a big hug while sniffling. “Awe, come on now. What’s got my little sparkle and her cuddly friend so upset? Cheer up; as long as you’re alive and you can keep looking forward to the future the past will never stop you. Tomorrow is another day after all and it seems to me that it would be a good day for cookies.”

Nightlight even went as far as to tickle the two ponies, one that was his daughter and another that was like a daughter to him. He got them to start giggling and they started to cheer up immediately at the feeling of his comforting warm hooves wrapped around them.

Author's Notes:

There you have it folks, from that one scene where Cadence was foal sitting Twilight and casting a spell on two ponies to this bit of a downer for Princess Cadence.

I'll come back and do a few touch ups on this chapter later.

63

Cadence walked up to Celestia, the solar monarch was in the middle of drinking some tea.

“Before I get to the true reason I come before you Celestia, do you perchance know the name… Luna?” Cadence ducked as a solid blob of tea shot out of Celestia’s mouth and took out one of the guards from more than fifty feet away. Cadence just stared at Celestia in shock, to be able to spit something as hard as to knock out a guard like that was a reaction worthy of something huge.

“Why, where did you ever hear that name from?” Celestia seemed to be trying to compose herself. The alabaster alicorn was failing horribly at it; even her smile was a little hard to take in as it seemed to be filled with a deep unfathomable pain. Celestia started to drink some tea to calm her nerves, while wondering how it was possible that Cadence knew Luna’s name. She could only hope Cadence didn’t connect it to the mare on the moon, her plan to save her sister would be ruined and she was angling her bets on Sunset Shimmer to succeed where she failed. Celestia hoped Sunset would eventually become a better pony as there was much darkness in her heart and her student was power hungry, she was trying to mother the poor pony and she might have gotten through to her once or twice.

“I got some information from a reliable source that knows about Lulu.” Again tea shot out and another guard went down with a grunt, Cadence really had to watch out when Celestia drank tea from now on. “That’s about all the information I actually know, judging by your reaction something bad happened to that pony didn’t it? Now as to the true reason I’m here…”

The next day…

Twilight and all her friends were on the train home waving off her parents.

Twilight was still being rather morose about how she dealt with Cadence and stared out the window at the passing landscape. Octavia was relaxing after a job well played, though she did ask if Twilight was okay and received a noncommittal answer for her troubles. Vinyl was passed out in her seat with Rainbow lying on top of her in a cute position snoring away. Fluttershy and Tress were watching Twilight with a slight bit of worry that she might have been sinking into a depressive state.

“Why do you think it really bothers her so much?” Fluttershy was trying to understand why Twilight was acting this way and who better to ask then her best friend.

“She said some pretty bad things the other night. Though I think she’s right that magic can’t solve all the world’s problems as trying to do so would end badly. Now just put that into perspective with her special talent being magic.” Tress’s ears fell flat as she looked at Twilights back. “I also think that a part of her wanted to be friends with Cadence despite the hurtful stuff she told us she said. She’s probably one of the bravest ponies in the history of this world for doing what she did, which is probably why Cadence will call her a friend the next time they meet.”

“What is it that she did that was so brave exactly?” Fluttershy just wanted to hug all her friends’ pain away. She knew time would heal those wounds easily enough but some of the mental scarring and memories would never leave.

“She basically stood up to a princess and said that what they were doing was wrong, think about how every other pony in this world worships them to the point of absurdity. I know I’d go crazy if all I ever got every day was praise for doing something as simple as just sneezing, Rainbow would probably enjoy all that attention though.” Looking at her hoof Tress tried to will it to transform and the color of her coat shimmered slightly, still not enough for a body transformation or at least she was just short of it. She could feel that her powers were stronger than ever.

“Yes, I can imagine how horrible it would be to always have ponies looking at you and judging every single action you ever did as a good thing while some of things are actually quite questionable.” Squeaked out a slightly freaked out shivering Fluttershy, she quickly curled up into a fluffy ball of adorable. “None of them will give you any privacy at all, even when you’re trying to go to the bathroom. I think celebrities like Fleur have really hard lives.”

“Yeah, bet that can be a real bummer. Calm down Fluttershy, you’re safe here with your friends and I promise no one will ever force you into something like that if I’m around to hear about it.” Tress patted Fluttershy softly on the back until she uncurled from her fetal position as the patting turned into a light petting.

“Thank you, for always trying to protect me and for everything else.” Fluttershy sat up and stretched out a bit into the slow rubbing hoof of comfort.

“Don’t bother with the thanks, what else are friends for if not to help each other in times of need?” Tress thought she had a pretty good handle on the friendship thing after being around Twilight long enough.

“I’m so glad to be going home with you guys, Canterlot is nuts.” The changeling entered their part of the train with Barb riding on its back snacking on an emerald.

Barb hopped off the changeling and went to sit next to her rather quiet mother; she snuggled into the hoof that quietly wrapped around her in a tender manner.

“Speaking of which, where do you even actually live and… is that hair growing out of your head and tail? Okay what is going on with you? Have you come down with something living maul me sign? You also look slightly bigger then I remember you being.” Tress narrowed her eyes at the changeling.

“Oh that… well apparently my hive had a vote, I’ve been voted to be the next leader for my capabilities in surviving ridiculous hardships. Also because I met you guys and you were friendly to me, alas I’ve become more female then male now as I slowly shed my old appearance to become a hive princess or queen. Depends on how the changeling at the time wants to roll with it should they get the chance to be in the position.” The changeling blushed and rubbed the back of her head ruffling the new short mane. “You could say I’m slowly morphing into a form suited for the job. I’m in the first stage my metamorphosis.”

“So does this leadership position come with a name or do we keep calling you by the title of your daily routine around us. You know, the routine where you usually get mauled horribly by something and end up with Fluttershy having to take care of you.” It was still a wonder to Tress that the changeling was willing to continue being their friend, despite all the pain and suffering she gets from just being around them. “Also, changelings vote?”

“You may call me her ever glorious royal highness, Queen Chrysalis!” She stood with her head proudly raised in a sophisticated poise, she didn’t really come off as regal because she was still only as big as Twilight was. “And of course we vote, it’s not like we would do something stupid as let bloodlines get in way of actual good leadership quality. In a time when we previously had bloodline leaders, they all kind of died out by constantly backstabbing each other. They weren’t very good leaders at all to begin with and we’ve had much better luck with voting changelings into power.”

“Eh, I’ll continue to call you living maul me sign. It just works better for me.” Tress smiled cheekily at Chrysalis. “If you’re the quality of leadership the changelings now have and it was much worse previously, then you guys don’t really set very high standards at all.”

“You should be so glad that I know you enjoy my company as much as I do yours or else I might have to take offense to that.” Chrysalis just flipped her short blue mane and her faintly green carapace twitched in a slightly agitated manner as she turned to Twilight. “What’s up with her?”

“I’m now thinking she’s upset that she got angry with a princess and that she might have gone too far in dealing with her. That and on top of the earlier stuff I was telling Fluttershy here.” Tress thought Twilight was oddly complicated in oh so many ways despite her love of the simpler things in life.

“Yes, I’m feeling a sense of general confusion from her about life and it’s slowly ebbing away, must be working through it on her own. I swear you ponies are always so overly dramatic. Still though, it’s nice to have friends especially one as love filled as Fluttershy is here.” Chrysalis cuddled up against Fluttershy causing her face to go red. “I like you too.”

“But I didn’t say anything.” Fluttershy wondered if the changeling empathy abilities were capable of being turned off.

“You didn’t have to; it’s kind of adorable how your feelings work around every living thing.” Chrysalis was all smiles in Fluttershy's presence. “It’s almost like you love everything... except stallions.”

“I once sung about loving everything when I was a filly, but even I know it’s impossible to love every single thing in existence.” Though it was hard to imagine, there were things that Fluttershy didn’t like. Full grown adult dragons for one as they were destructive and cranky as all get out. She’s had a bad run in with one or two in her life. She was never going to elaborate to any pony why she was so afraid of them and would never mention it in front of Barb. Barb was the only dragon she could actually get along with and like as a friend.

“So what are you going to be doing now that you’re the leader of your people?” Octavia had been sitting there quietly listening in to the conversation up until this point.

“Actually, I’m just going to be doing pretty much what I always have been doing. The only thing a leader really does that’s new is get involved when the hive needs an ambassador or to do things that involve diplomacy with other races. There are also raid plans I can enact when we get low on food, but that’s not going to be much of a problem thanks to you guys helping us out.” Chrysalis didn’t think she would need to raid any city, town or village considering she was getting pretty high like a kite off of the friendship she had with these ponies. Fleur and Fancy were especially filling when they finally consummated their marriage; Chrysalis got more love from that alone then she ever would have stealing it. Even cocoons couldn’t get that much love out of ponies with happy dreams. She made a note to have changelings just stick around areas where strong couples do things like that all the time, it’s much easier then infiltration and replacement of multiple targets with very little information to go on. All the hoopla and wasted energy of all those stupid kidnapping schemes, to think they’ve been overcomplicating things all these years. It was so simple that there was a much more efficient solution that didn't require a lot of higher brain functions, said functions which a lot of changelings seemed to lack anyway, so it all worked out for the better.

“Well at least that’s a load off my mind, I would have to beat up your entire hive if it invaded Ponyville and I’d feel pretty bad for mauling you personally. Not to mention the conga line mauling from my cat, all of Fluttershy’s animals, every pet owner in Ponyville and just any pony in general that would be able to see through a changeling disguises easily enough. Oh and Fluttershy is friends with all kinds of large creatures, including several species of bears and not just the teddy kind she sleeps with.” Tress could see the shiver pass through Chrysalis as she most likely imagined all of her changeling friends getting the tar beaten out of them by all the animals that live in Ponyville because they messed with Fluttershy. If that wasn’t bad enough she could even see Chrysalis imagining Mrs. Ursa Major sniffing out then destroying their entire hive without a problem.

“Yes, that is very much noted. Invading Canterlot would be more feasible then invading Ponyville at this rate and that’s only because the celestial guards aren’t allowed to have pets on duty and the animal population is much smaller there, but none the less formidable for it.” Chrysalis decided to make a silent promise here and now to never try to invade either place. She just had a feeling it wouldn’t end well for her or the other changelings, they’d just go on vacation to Manehatten if they were running low on food. No large scale invasion required. “Excuse me, Twilight. Can I ask you something?”

Twilight perked up her left ear; she was still staring at the landscape as the train chugged along.

“I was wondering if you’d be willing to let me live with you guys for a while, I’m going to eventually enter a cocooned state for an entire year and I was wondering if I could use your basement during that time.” Chrysalis looked really hopeful; she wouldn’t be getting in the way of anything and would be in a half meditative sleeping state the entire time. She still had some duties to her hive to report in throughout the year even if she’s going through a long sleep phase. “I promise you won’t even notice I’m there when I need to do it.”

“Sure thing Chrysalis, just warn us before you start setting up. I want to be able to see you off before you go into your deep sleep cycle.” Twilight warmed up slightly even as she stared at Canterlot, she wasn’t tuning her friends out and had listened to everything. Every pony was giving her the distance she needed and she’ll probably feel better tomorrow when she gets back to work with helping ponies. “I truly hope Cadence will be okay after it all comes out.”

Author's Notes:

Most people probably wouldn't have suspected that 'the changeling' was actually Chrysalis all along. Then again she loves the crisp taste of confidence and even was going to run a raid against Fluttershy of all things with a bunch of other changelings, she also had problems with giving up in spite of all the complications in her path. So don't say this hasn't been a long time coming, even if she's the basis of changeling leadership quality which mostly revolves around survival of the fittest in a democratic/republic based hive related government.

Changelings are just plain weird.

64

A week later…

A slightly moping Twilight sat at the table eating her breakfast pudding; it was a creative workaround for her inability to cook normally. She was good at making pudding, so she was going to make pudding for breakfast and eat it. Eggs, potatoes and ketchup mashed into the form of some well cooked pudding. The end results didn’t taste bad at all; it might have been an acquired taste though. She was considering the options for lunch and dinner type puddings as well. The oddest thing she could make was bread pudding and she always made it perfectly.

“Hey mom, have you seen Tress this morning?” Barb wanted to spend some time with her big sister figure.

“Try the basement.” Twilight wasn’t trying to be inattentive of Barb; it’s just that the newspaper had some slightly depressing news. Cadence wasn’t given too heavy a sentence and she certainly didn’t get off easily either, the princess certainly made sure she wasn’t living in luxury when she basically incarcerated herself. Twilight was surprised Cadence even forced a kangaroo court based trial against herself or that such a thing was even possible, the newspaper even tried and failed to explain the logic behind how it even worked.

“Ah, she’s working on something interesting then?” Barb left the kitchen for the living room and into the basement where her mom and Tress tended to play around with chemicals in a well ventilated room. Tress owned the left half of the basement for her business ventures and Twilight owned the right for her random experiments.

Barb came upon the sight of Tress pouring a beaker full of orange fluids into a container, followed by a flask full of blue fluids and after a second the mare added some green leaves into the container which slowly dissolved into the resulting mishmash. Tress grabbed a spoon with a green tentacle from her tail and used it to stir around the green viscous material that formed in the glass cylinder, pulling the spoon out she looked it over and then sniffed it. After a moment Tress smiled lifting her goggles up and clapped her hooves together to rub them in a victorious manner.

“Hey Tress, what are you working on?” Barb could only begin to guess what kind of thing Tress had up her mad scientist sleeves, sure she couldn’t replicate things from her world but she was good at making some pretty weird stuff in this one. The white lab coat she was wearing really added to the ambiance of the basement laboratories.

“Something rather boring I assure you. Otherwise I believe I have an idea that might help Twilight out of her funk by the shock value alone, she’s been moping when we’re not working and I’m annoyed enough to do what I’m planning. Go get breakfast ready for me while I go take a short bath.” Tress stood up and shucked her lab coat onto a rack before trotting up the stairs for the bathroom. She had a particularly small lazy smile playing across her face as she took the container with the strange substance with her.

“So was she working on anything interesting?” It was a loaded question and Twilight knew it, Tress always had done some rather inventive stuff with the spare time she had. Tress certainly had her Tresses business working pretty well and she mainly sold products to Bonbon, Rarity and Octavia plus quite a few other ponies that really liked what she was producing.

“I have no idea what it was mom; she said it was boring. I think she really doesn’t like that you’re moping so much.” Barb set about cooking breakfast for Tress; even she had to admit that her mom was thinking about this one subject too hard. “I have to admit that even I’m beginning to get annoyed.”

“I’m sorry Barb, but I think I’m almost over it… I think.” Twilight knew she shouldn’t have held onto these emotions for so long and had to just let things go.

Eventually Tress finished her bath and ate breakfast. Afterwards while Twilight was going over the list of possible jobs they could do today Tress took out a pack of gum. She started pulling out sticks of gum and began tossing them into her mouth. After a moment of chewing she laid her mane on the table before her and pulled the large wad of gum, then stretched it out between her hooves while looking at Twilight waiting for her to take notice of what she was about to do.

“Tress why did you just chew all that gum and… uh Twilight, I think Tress might have just gone crazy. Like Mane-iac crazy.” Barb saw an evil smile and a determined look in the crystal blue eyes of the pink coated mare. Even Barb could see what Tress intended to do with the wad of stretched bubblegum held above a pile of her own light blue hair sitting on the table.

“What are you talking about Barb? Tress… what are you doing with that gum?” Twilight noticed her friends hooves ever so slightly started to lower the gum to her mane. “Tress please don’t do what I think you’re about to do, you’ll never get it out if you do. You’re mane is so beautiful Tress please don’t. Tress, why are you doing this? Stop, no don’t!”

“Well you said stop and then not to stop, so I’ll listen to you.” There was a squelch sound as Tress slapped the gum soundly down on top of her mane with a bright vibrant smile, as if she were proud of the act. Twilight was sure to forget about Cadence for a while especially with what she had just done. Tress knew Twilight loved hair and playing with it, well why not draw attention away from her worries with something that would be more horrific to her then getting a princess to put herself in jail? Twilight had odd priorities when things were quieter around them.

“Tress, why did you do that? Do you even realize how much of your mane I’d have to cut off to even get it all out? I loved working with your mane Tress, how could you do that to yourself and me!” Twilight started crying, so much beautiful mane ruined by a pile of gum her friend chewed and then crazily slapped down onto it on purpose. Of the things she knew, Tress’s powers didn’t make her mane impervious to gum even if it made her impervious to ever having a frizzy mane. Unicorns have long had problems with getting gum out of manes and tails, even with magic it was next to impossible without shaving off some hair, hopefully she could figure out a way to save most of her friends’ mane.

“Well I had to do something shocking to snap you out of all that moping; you can’t go on for the rest of your life constantly going over what ifs.” Tress had a good reason for not being particularly worried that there was now gum in her mane, it was the reason her mane was sitting on the table and not hanging freely. She had managed to get Twilight’s attention in a very profound way, Twilight didn’t mind hair being covered in mud or anything else as long as the damage wasn’t permanent and could be washed off or fixed easily. Gum was a little bit much, but it would definitely make Twilight take immediate notice.

“That seems kind of a rather extreme thing to do Tress, how are you going to get the gum out?” Barb received Tress’s answer as just a continued smile and light shrug.

“She can’t possibly get it out. Tress I know I’ve been moping too much lately, but did you seriously have to go and destroy your mane like that to get my attention!” Twilight was getting hysterical and all Tress did was lean back, crossed her hooves over her chest and quirked an eyebrow. Tress oddly made sure a portion of her mane stayed lying on the table, but Twilight was in too much shock to really pay attention to how Tress was acting about all of this. “You’re hair would only be four inches long by the time I’m done with it from the mass of gum you just dropped down into it! Doesn’t that mean anything to you?”

“That is a rather unfair assumption that my mane actually needs cutting Twilight, I think it’s perfectly fine the way it is. I’d like to keep my mane long thank you.” Tress wondered if this was torturous enough for her friend to get her mind out of the gutter she placed it in. Nothing was as shocking as doing something like this in front of Twilight. Tress loved her own mane too and like having it brushed and combed, as such this was the perfect situation to snap Twilight out of her funk. She kept her tone calm and even. “Besides even if you did need to cut it I could just grow it back with my powers, but I will refuse to do that on the principle that you don't need to do a single thing to my mane as it is now.”

“Tress there is gum in your hair, even the top stylists’ ponies in the world would have problem getting all of that stuff out and that’s even with the aid of unicorn magic. How can you sit there and imply that it doesn’t need cutting?” Twilight was staring at her friend as if she had gone completely mad, then again she most likely had.

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much.” Tress stood up and as soon as her hair left the table the gum just slid out of her hair not leaving a single tendril of sticky pink chewed goo in her mane. She watched as Twilight’s mane frazzled and her right eye started twitching in disbelief.

“H-how did you…” Twilight was struck speechless; the gum just slid right out of her mane without a fuss and none of it was stuck in there.

Even Barb was just staring blankly at what she had just seen, the fact that the gum just flopped of her mane and onto the table without any resistance at all.

“Tell me, does my mane still need cutting?” Tress asked sweetly, knowing she just pulled a jerk move on Twilight to get her mind completely off of Cadence. She still had her evil genius side after all and the emphasis was more to the genius part.

“No, it looks completely fine.” All Twilight could really do was try to force her mind to reboot. “How come it didn’t get stuck in your mane, is it a new power of yours that you just discovered?”

“Nope, just a product I’ve finished testing extensively and I made a recent batch just to get your attention.” Lazily a portion of Tress’s mane turned green, it grabbed the gum and tossed it into the nearby trash can before returning to normal. “I call it The Ever Clean Cleanser. Like I would truly ruin my mane on purpose, it’s one of my better features and I love how you take care of it.”

Twilight blushed slightly at the praise and somewhat in indignant anger; Tress had really scared her as she did not relish the idea of having to fix a gum damaged mane. Tress did have a point about being able to grow it back, but it would have still upset Twilight greatly if she had to trash her friend’s mane first. Still though, Tress had made one miraculous product and Twilight didn’t even know exactly what it did.

“Wow, what does it do exactly?” Barb had always thought gum was impossible to get out hair unless you removed it.

“It gives six total hours of protection from sticky substances; it can only come in the smell of mint which is not negotiable. Recently Zecora approved for sales and Tress tested. Six hours is the maximum and any change in the consistency to the formula’s main ingredient will cause strange side effects. A stronger consistency tends to make things more slippery as if you were on ice without the skates for it, that will leave you stuck slip sliding around for hours. Less consistency leaves you feeling like you’re covered in oil even after you wipe it off and isn’t as effective and doesn’t last nearly as long either, at least that was just five minutes of feeling uncomfortable.” It was a creation Tress was certainly proud of having invented, her skills in alchemic mixtures was as strong as ever or it wouldn’t have been her special talent at all. “Accidentally swallowing some of it will not even hurt you and it’ll help get rid of the substances already stuck to your coat, mane or tail as well.”

“That’s amazing Tress! How did you even come up with something like this? Well aside from it being your special talent and all.” This was a miracle cure for ponies who worked with sticky or staining substances all day long. “This will definitely help us out with Bonbon’s request for one of us to aid her in the candy shop and I bet she’d appreciate having some of it for herself.”

“See I’m already cheering her up already Barb, even if it means I have to be a complete jerk to get her to be happy and upbeat!” One wonders if Tress should actually be so proud of being a jerk. “Yeah I’m certainly taking Bonbon’s request today and I actually came up with this from spending so much time around you and all the messy situations you keep getting me into.”

“Tress I may not like how you presented this to me and you are very much a jerk, but you wouldn’t be my friend if you weren’t a little Mane-iacal every now and then.” Twilight had to give Tress credit where it was due, as that had been a scary thing to watch her do. Tress had certainly earned her entire attention span with that stunt that caused her heart to jump up her throat. She wished Tress hadn’t even threatened and then carried out what was seemingly leading to the massive destruction of her lovely locks in that demonstration.

“Hey, didn’t you say what you were doing was unimportant?” Barb asked clearly confused about why Tress said that earlier if that was what the stuff she made does, it sounded plenty interesting.

“I didn’t say it was unimportant, I just said it was boring. After you’ve mixed up the same general formula so many times it gets dull and way too easy to go through the motions.” Tress felt something wrapping around her mane and she saw Twilight snuggling her hair. She sighed contently and then just rolled her eyes while snorting derisively. At least Twilight was feeling better now and was even smiling.

Author's Notes:

I quit. I'm done writing this lame story forever.
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Today's april first when I posted this chapter by the way, it's a good day to stop writing entirely.

Starting indefinite hiatus now!

65

It was just another completely average day in Ponyville.

Tress galloped forward and then dove sliding under the garbage cart, her slide managed to get her far enough so she could crawl out from under it on the other side immediately. The manticore that was chasing her slammed into the back end of the cart getting itself stuck while splattering garbage everywhere. Tress stood up and looked at the hind end of the large bat winged, scorpion tailed lion hybrid sticking out of the mound of garbage.

“Tress we found the cub!” Twilight yelled as she and Fluttershy came running up to her, the shy mare had a tiny female manticore on her back that growled cutely. “What happened to the father?”

“I got him stuck in the garbage cart. He chased me all over town and what a nice little jaunt that was.” Tress pointed to the back end sticking out of the cart with her hoof. “Where did you find the cub anyway?”

“We found it mauling Chrysalis in the park.” Fluttershy motioned to a bandaged blue haired changeling with a hoof before glaring at the cub that mewled pitiably at her very mild anger and scolding tone. “It’s been a very naughty cub and it needs to go back to its family. Will you help me by washing off the manticore and taking it back to the forest Twilight?”

“Of course you did.” The bland statement showed how surprised Tress actually was to know it was found mauling Chrysalis. “Well Fluttershy, you and Twilight can take it from here. I’m calling it a day to go soak in a hot tub at the spa.”

“Ugh, I’ll join you after I’m done helping Fluttershy.” Twilight levitated the male and grimaced at the smell. She soon just splashed the large cat creature with water and telekinetically wiped off most the grime until it was sufficient enough for Fluttershy. She too decided to call it a day as soon as they released it back into the Ever Free Forest along with the cute, if dangerous, little cub.

After Fluttershy had helped her friends deal with the slight manticore incursion, she tried to think of something to do. She didn’t want to bother Tress after a harrowing experience of keeping the big creatures attention. She also didn’t want to trouble Twilight after having dealt with all they had gone through this morning. She also finished all her chores with all of her other animals and none of them were currently infirmed.

“Hey Fluttershy, I have a question.” Chrysalis watched as the shy mare squeaked and fell over onto her back flailing her legs in the air. “Huh… looks like one of our mating dances.”

“Oh … it’s you Chrysalis. Um, what did you want to ask?” Fluttershy was curious to know what Chrysalis wanted of her. The changeling usually didn’t seem too particularly interested in actually asking ponies for things.

“One of the things on Twilight’s list for us changeling’s has keeping a pet as a method for getting love. As you very well know that wouldn’t go over well for us.” Chrysalis thought it was obvious even to Fluttershy why that was a problem for changelings. “Do you know why animals hate my kind so much? Is it even feasible for a changeling to have a pet?”

“Why I’m sure there’s a cute critter out there that would be the perfect pet for you. Just nothing that has already hurt you or doesn’t like you at all.” Fluttershy was rather pensive to invite Chrysalis over to her house. She would probably need another pony around to keep an eye on her animals if she leaves Chrysalis in a room alone for too long by herself. “I don’t know why animals hate you so much, but there is something to their instincts that must make them really dislike you.”

“Gee you think? I certainly haven’t noticed with all the claw wounds; bite marks and bruises I’ve accrued.” Chrysalis had a right to be sarcastic, even rabbits attacked her violently and they were otherwise incredibly docile creatures normally.

“Sorry… ” Fluttershy cringed under Chrysalis’s not very threatening stare. “Anyway, Applejack was coming over to my house in a short while. If it’s alright with you… maybe we could stop by there instead so I can save her the trip.”

“That’s fine; just make sure to keep her dog, the sheep and the pigs away from me. The chickens haven’t done anything to me yet, but it’s only a matter of time.” Chrysalis thought sheep were friendly and would usually cower against things as scary looking as a wolf, changelings were plenty scary or at least they sometimes tried to be. Even then she was still perplexed by the bravery of the sheep that had trampled her.

“Oh my, I’m so sorry that animals don’t like you and are always out to get you Chrysalis. I promise to do the best that I can to find you a pet that will not be capable of harming you violently.” Fluttershy pulled Chrysalis into a hug and the changeling blushed, she knew it was most likely the feelings of acceptance and friendship that caused the blush. She even knew Chrysalis was eating her passionate feelings; it wasn’t like many other ponies were willing to feed an emotion eating creature.

“I would like to thank you very much for that if you can actually achieve such a lofty goal. I would also like to not to be constantly mauled or in traction.” Chrysalis liked ponies now, they proved that they weren’t racist bigots… not counting the nobles in Canterlot most of which were in fact bigoted. She’s spent way too much time around nobles, constantly sneaking into their weddings which were basically farces. There was no love in half of them and they were always arranged marriages no less, usually for political power or large amounts of currency which a changeling would have no interest in. She quickly learned to stay away from the words ‘arranged’ back then and nowadays she’d almost fully trust anyone Fluttershy and her friends did. Even now friendship was an odd concept to Chrysalis, any changeling was family even if they weren’t related by blood and though it being a similar concept to friendship it wasn’t exactly the same. If a changeling had a broken leg or had some kind of defect, no changeling would turn them away or put them down for being weak.

“Come on then Chrysalis, I want to catch Applejack before she leaves. Also stay in sight and near me, that way no animals will hurt you.” Fluttershy really felt bad about how animals treated Chrysalis and her kind in general, even the female manticore cub that left the Ever Free Forest to explore Ponyville attacked her without provocation. She would know as she was there at the start of a mauling she quickly put a stop to; Chrysalis hadn’t done anything wrong at the time and certainly had a right to be upset with her situation. Fluttershy thought that if they hadn’t become friends Chryaslis would be a much angrier changeling and would actively seek to make others as miserable as she is a lot of the time.

The walk to Sweet Apple Acres was uneventful for them and once they reached the farm something was going on with the farmer and a little pegasus she had hogtied with a rope. The pegasus was an orange coated filly with a lightly shaded purple almost pink mane and tail. The filly was struggling to free herself while Applejack tried to talk to her and she wasn’t yelling, but there was the displeased look on her face.

“Let me go, I didn’t do anything.” The filly tried to argue as Fluttershy and Chrysalis approached the scene and stopped just shy of being close enough to draw attention.

“That’s because I caught you red hoof in the attempt, now where are your parents? Why I have half a mind to spank you myself for trying to steal my family’s apples.” The little filly froze up at the mention of parents from Applejack.

“I really don’t like the feelings of despair and sorrow that the filly is giving off.” Chrysalis really disliked negative emotions and if anyone were to ask she’d deny them as ever having any sort of negative effects on a changeling. A changeling could personally use negative emotions without ill effect and they couldn’t use their own emotions against each other. However negative energy from another being would always make a changeling ill or sick if they tried to eat it. In some rare cases there were beings who could even force feed them those emotions specifically which will end in an inevitable manner.

“What exactly caused the despair and sorrow?” Fluttershy was already sending her heart out to the little pegasus and noted Chrysalis smiling at her feelings of compassion. Well at least her friend wouldn’t be going hungry today and she was okay with being fed off of if it was for a good cause.

“I think it was the word ‘parents’ that did it. I wonder why that is when she has so many ponies around to help her out.”Chryaslis of course thought ponies had a similar system of caring for the young no matter the blood relation, ponies had long since stopped herding together unless it was in times of need and that was usually by instinct. No changeling was ever an orphan and as such the concept of the filly being one did not generally exist to her. Chrysalis knew what orphanages were, but thought it was like what changelings did where it involves a massive form of daycare where every older changeling helped the younger generation. Even changelings with disabilities always had open jobs as caretakers or nurses.

“I might have an idea as to why that is.” Fluttershy felt a bit of sorrow run through her and Chrysalis flinched a bit at the sudden change in emotions. “Did Twilight happen to put adoptions on that list she gave you?”

“Yeah, but I have no idea what that exactly entails… why do you ask?” Chrysalis wondered why she was getting an odd look from Fluttershy. Adoption was a strange word to Chrysalis, despite knowing the definition she didn’t understand the complete scope of the word. All changelings could choose to help raise other changelings, should there be a shortage of caretakers they’d start searching for willing volunteers that aren’t too busy. Adoption to her meant showing favoritism and some changelings did favor some of the young more than others at times.

“No reason in particular.” Fluttershy thought ponies being raised by changelings would have been slightly creepy. Considering they’d be breeding their own food source or breeding with the food source and that last thought came off as much weirder to Fluttershy.

“Now stop you’re fussing already Scootaloo!” Applejack had drawn their attention back to the scene. Apparently she had learned the name of the filly while they were busy discussing things and Fluttershy decided to make her presence known.

“Is everything okay here Applejack?” Fluttershy offered up while moving forward to calm down the filly.

Chrysalis followed silently behind her while going up in a burst of green flames that turned her into a slightly different copy of Fluttershy with her friends hairstyle mixed with her own natural colors and a cutie mark of a chrysalis on her flanks. Not one of her better disguises, but it was the best she could come up with as she didn’t want to cause even more of a scene and this was mostly to the benefit of the filly. Applejack would see through the disguise easily enough and already knew of Chrysalis. Fluttershy looked back at her and she nodded while motioning with a hoof for the shy mare to go on. Applejack and Scootaloo had their attentions squarely on the both of them now.

“It sure is. I just caught this here varmint trying to steal some of my apples. The only thing she managed was getting caught in the tree sap; she scared the life out of me when I bucked her out of the tree. The tree didn’t like her trying to steal none too much either.” Applejack didn’t like ponies trying to pick her produce without prior notice of intent to do so, especially without paying for it first. “Now I’m trying to figure out where Scootaloo lives so I can talk to her parents.”

Chrysalis leaned away from Scootaloo slightly and her left eye twitched, there was that deep rooted pain and sorrow again.

“Like I’m going to tell you where I live, if you don’t know where I live then you won’t be able to rat me out to my parents.” Scootaloo certainly had some spunk in her despite looking dirty and hungry.

“Applejack, is the apple pie I ordered ready?” Fluttershy had gained a small bit of determination in her and she was willing to pay for some food to feed the filly. Scootaloo looked to be to prideful a pony, like Applejack was and it seemed that Fluttershy had a new job for Tress and Twilight. Fluttershy was going to ask them to look into Scootaloo’s life to see if she was living in an abusive home or if things were much worse than that. Pulling out a few bits from the saddle bag she was wearing, Fluttershy held them out to Applejack. “Also I would like pay for five apples please. I want you to give them to this nice young filly.”

“Sure is and sure thing sugar cube.” Applejack wondered why Scootaloo had an astonished look on her face as Fluttershy hoofed over some money. She knew Fluttershy was on to something judging by her body language and decided to abide by the shy mares ideas of how to handle the little sap covered apple thief.

“Now before we send the filly on her way with HER apples, how about we have some nice warm pie? Doesn’t that sound good to you, Scootaloo was it?” Fluttershy gave the filly a happy little smile and met her at eye level; she just knew Scootaloo needed some kindness in her life if the filly’s reactions were anything to go by. She was like a little Rainbow Dash, a veritable cute little tom colt.

“I seriously think you’re weird and I don’t need you to buy apples for me.” Scootaloo’s stomach grumbled loudly. “Then again I was stuck to that tree for quite a while and I haven’t really eaten anything since breakfast.”

Author's Notes:

The introduction of Scootaloo into the story, does she have a family or does she live in a abandoned house? Is her family cruel to her or does she fend for herself in a lonely world? Are her parents never around or do they just ignore the fact that she exists?

Also I will proudly state that I will not be cancelling this story or going on infinite hiatus status. That joke is over with and is yesterday's problem. The chapter itself was real and not a joke at all, but managed to get into the spirit of things anyway and that wasn't even planned. I'm not complaining about happenstance though.

66

Tress sat a table with three other earth ponies simply having an enjoyable day, taking the day off from doing anything wild or frantic felt nice. She hoped nothing happened to Twilight or Barb at the library. Smart was already on the case for Fluttershy in finding out more about the flightless little pegasus.

“So then you two aren’t doing anything exciting for a while?” Bonbon was a bit curious as she’s always seen Twilight and Tress together and like them she was always hanging out with Lyra. She was spending time with Cheerilee, Tress and a surprisingly sober Berry Punch.

“The two of us needed a break from all the shenanigans life throws our way, as such today Twilight is just spending some quality time with her daughter. So Berry Punch what brings you to Sugar Cube Corner? It’s incredible enough that you seem particularly sober today.” Tress and her friends were snacking as they sat there socializing and Pinkie kept the friendly non alcoholic drinks coming.

“The Hoof Boxing competitions are coming up, I have to be sober or they won’t let me compete this year. Can you believe that?” Berry Punch loved to fight and every pony in Ponyville knew you never pick a fight with Berry Punch, especially since she can down even a minotaur in one round of boxing. She loved fighting almost as much as she loved getting drunk, much to her daughters’ chagrin that her mother was a lush and a very friendly one at that. Friendly until you upset her in any given way that is, never has a single pony taken advantage of Berry Punch and no one dared to flirt with or even touch her wife Colgate Aquafresh Romana inappropriately.

Tress wasn’t very surprised to hear this news from a pony that could take her on and win. This was even if Tress were at her full power and using her super powers to their fullest; Berry Punch could still win by the virtue of being an unpredictable mare while intoxicated off her flank.

Berry Punch was stated as being completely immune to almost all of the negative side effects of alcohol except for the getting drunk part; her special talents were wine making, fighting and almost constantly being drunk. She was one of the top tier trainers at the Ponyville dojo when she wasn’t selling wine. She was always pleased to show the advanced students just why exactly she was happily married to a dentist of all ponies. Her wife was a little less pleased about the destruction of teeth.

“If you’re competing I better not join in then.” Whimpered a big white muscle bound pegasus stallion that heard Berry’s exclamation. Bulk Biceps liked boxing too and despite being bigger and seemingly more physically capable looking, he wasn’t nearly suicidal enough to get into the ring with Berry.

“Hey Snowflake, how are the muscles doing you lately?” Tress commented dryly. The big guy was willing to drop out just because of a mare that was a lot smaller than him and not anywhere near his weight class? Berry must have had a bigger legend behind her then Tress thought she did.

“They are doing awesomely Ms. Ravel, YEAH! Do you mind if I join you?” All the mares made a space for the big bulky pegasus with tiny wings to sit down. It was hard to believe the guy wasn’t on steroids and has been drug tested relentlessly because of his muscle mass when it came to sports.

“Where were we again? Ah yes, Berry Punch is going on a Hoof Boxing tour and at a guess she’s always going to have her wife worrying about her teeth the entire time. Tress is taking a break from the troubles she keeps taking on with being Twilight’s best friend. Bonbon has been making some new super sour candies. So what are we to talk about next?” Every pony was looking to the school teacher for the next topic, Cheerilee rubber the back of her head feeling self conscious. “What is it? Why are all of you staring at me?”

“Come on Cheers, we all know you should ask out Big Mac. He has even been fancying Fluttershy lately, the only reason why you don’t have to worry is because she’s into mares. Quite frankly Rarity’s attempts to set her up with him are getting more laughable by the day. Big Mac knows she’s not interested, but Rarity is pretty insistent they’d be a cute couple. I think Ms. Fashion has had one too many romance novels and the only reason why I haven’t stopped her yet is because she’s not forcing any pony to do anything. That and it’s sort of funny to watch Fluttershy waffling about telling Rarity that she’s gay.” It wasn’t hard to see the writing on the wall, as Tress just watched Pinkie finished scribbling Mac and Cheers inside of a big heart in crayon. Shrugging she just bit down on her mango flavored cupcake, while every pony else was staring at the smiling Pinkie who ran off to get them some refills on their drinks.

“Hey Bulk, do you want anything?” Pinkie was an employee as much as she was a daughter to Mr. and Mrs. Cake of the sugary snack factory and was always found here unless there was a party going on. She was the hostess that ponies came to just for her to brighten their day with even the simplest of smiles.

“YEAH, I’d like some apple juice and a raspberry muffin.” Bulk knew he should cut back on his excitability a bit when he got a glare from the mares at the table for his yelling. “Sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it Snowflake.” Tress just closed her eyes and could imagine ripping out his vocal chords in a violent manner; she wouldn’t because he was a good friend. “So if the teacher here doesn’t want to talk about dating who she’s completely in love with. How about we talk about Bulk’s love life? So, have you found a lucky stallion big buddy?”

“No.” Bulk immediately looked depressed; he was having a hard time finding a stallion that could fit to his generally gentle nature. Even if he did have huge musculature, he was a really nice guy in general who liked pressing flowers and macramé.

“You’ll find some pony special to you some day, you’ll see. I’ll even club them over the head for you because you certainly won’t. I’ll do enough brain damage to make sure they’ll never hurt or do wrong by a large softie like you.” Tress was serious in wanting to help Bulk. She patted him on the shoulder and even made note that he and Fluttershy were really good friends because they both had similar hobbies. He truly reminded her of her minions back in the comic oddly enough.

“The best solution to your problem is to go out drinking with a bunch of other stallions. Who knows, you might even get lucky that one of them won’t try to question their nature too heavily or run off screaming if they wake up in your bed.” Berry met her wife through drinking; she really didn’t see why it couldn’t work for the big lug too.

“I wouldn’t follow that advice Bulk; maybe a newspaper article of a big bulky pegasus wanting to meet a kind hearted male being to share a life with. You don’t necessarily need to date a pony, there’s a whole world full of fish that breathe the same air you do, you just need to get out there and swim around a bit.” Bonbon would know as she’s found love in Lyra, she always thought it was cute how awkward or weird Lyra got around her. She thought the unicorn was cute in her attempts to hide her love whenever she was around and has yet to do anything because of that factor.

“I vote for Bonbon’s approach, date around a bit if you can find some willing stallions.” Tress was not an expert on love; she was a supportive friend nonetheless.

“I second that notion.” Cheerilee wanted to toss her lot in with Bonbon’s idea. She thought Bulk looked cute by the way he was blushing at their conversation. He was practically one of the mares and fit in with their group well enough.

“Oh easy for you guys to say, Tress is practically glued to Twilight to the point of being one of those odd Siamese pony things and Cheerilee is just constantly dancing around her attraction to Big Mac. Don’t even get me started on how Bonbon should just tell Lyra that she should stop acting so darn shy and kiss her already!” Berry Punch didn’t like being sober because common sense really hurt her brain.

“Uh… say what now?” Tress didn’t even understand what Berry Punch was trying to say. Though she was pretty aware of her nature, Twilight wasn’t aware of hers yet and still had to figure that out. “I think you’re reading too far into my relationship Mrs. I married the first pony to bed me after a night of intense drinking. I figure if love happens, it’ll happen and there will be no stopping it when it does. Otherwise I’m not in love with my best friend and happen to be bisexual as best I can tell.”

“You just mean you aren’t in love with her ‘yet’. Also that was the best night I’ve ever had in all my life too! Even if I can’t repeat it, Colgate will never let me forget it. I got her pregnant due to what we did that night.” Berry stated jovially, she was the oldest mare here and darn proud of it and her family.

“I swear I’m still not even sure if it was scientifically possible for you two to even have little Ruby Pinch Punch, considering you said no spells were used in the conception of your daughter and you’re both mares. There was no stallion in the equation at all and the medical tests confirmed that.” Quite frankly Cheerilee didn’t know how it could have possibly worked. She figured it would be only Berry that could find a way, especially while she was drunk.

“Hey, what can I say? It certainly surprised my wife too and we’re both happier for it anyway.” Berry’s ears twitched and she turned to the door at the specific sound of two sets of clopping hooves. Her daughter and the love of her life were here. She gave a bright smile; at least something was keeping her calm while she was sober. She soon stood up and made for her family. “I’m out, peace ya’ll.”

“I think I like her better when she’s blind stinking drunk.” It was an odd thing for Tress to admit to the group as Berry left.

“I agree that she’ll be better after all the Hoof Boxing is over with.” Not that Bonbon would ever say that Berry was a little cranky without her spirits.

Pinkie popped up with Bulk Biceps’ order, today had been a really busy day in the snacking bakery and it was positively crowded. That was just how the hyperactive peppy super duper curly haired mare liked it.

“When I’m old enough, I hope I can be as happy as she is.” Pinkie wondered if she would end up being happy like that with Trixie. She shrugged and continued to work the tables, while continuing to eavesdrop on them like the story is currently saying she will.

“I should really spend more time with my cousin to figure out how she even managed to conceive Ruby.” Cheerilee knew she was never going to understand the mystery that was Berry Punch, but she’d at least try to figure out how her foal came into existence.

“Eh, don’t think about it too hard. Considering how weird Equestria is, anything is possible as far as I can tell. Its how I deal with everything I’ve ever come across from living with Twilight.” This was Tress knowing things could only get weirder if you tried to make sense of it. “So Twilight’s seventeenth Birthday is coming up and I have absolutely no clue what to get her. She’s got more books then she knows what to do with, she’s got a subscription to her favorite magazine for life or until they stop making them. If I truly wanted her to hate me I’d get her a cookbook. I can’t think of a good gift to give her because there isn’t anything she wants as she has just about everything she’ll ever need. Also don’t suggest jewelry.”

“Well why not give her that special stuff you made from her completed formula that you said you were testing?” Bonbon had heard about some of the things Tress was testing, including the new completed products when she had her assistance at the candy shop. Bonbon already had an order of The Ever Clean Cleanser on the way already; it was an amazingly useful product that made taffy easier to work with.

“You know, that just gives me an idea. I should be finished testing it after a few more visits to Zecora and it should be completely ready in time for her birthday.” It sounded like a great idea for Tress to show Twilight the fruits of that cracked formula.

“Can I help with the party? I really love birthdays, especially when they’re my friends.” Pinkie really wanted to help Tress throw a good party for Twilight.

“Sure, as long as it is not a surprise party. We don’t need Twilight destroying half the town because she got spooked.” Tress was still rolling around the idea in her head about the present she would give to Twilight.

Author's Notes:

... I apologize if this chapter doesn't meet up to any standards.

67

It was just a few days before her friend’s birthday. Fluttershy was spending the day by the lake playing with the cute little ducks waiting for Smarty Pants to make an appearance. The pixie has been on the case of finding out everything she could about the filly known as Scootaloo. Twilight’s birthday was coming up and Fluttershy was busy with trying to think of a good gift to get. As she thought of a myriad of things that her friend would appreciate, she was busy tossing the last bits of bread she had to the ducks.

The waiting was probably the worst part of all this, the best part was that the ducks were exceedingly fun and being a perfectly entertaining distraction for Fluttershy. As she just finished throwing the last piece of bread and watched the ducklings fight over it in an adorable manner, a huge explosion went off in the sky. Instead of flying away or running for cover, every duck in the area immediately went for the confused Fluttershy who suddenly found herself under a pile of feathers.

Fluttershy was soon looking up at the sky as the explosion quickly dissipated; it left her wondering what could have possibly caused it. It took her a moment to calm down all the ducks piled on top of her, she eventually managed to stop them from quacking in fear and get them all off of her in a gentle manner. Afterwards they started to wander around calmly once more if slightly ruffled by the sudden sound and were a bit more wary of their surroundings.

Watching the sky for any sign for what could have caused such a massive explosion, Fluttershy saw a small speck slowly veering for the lake and was falling at a rather quick pace. After a minute of keeping an eye on it she could make out that the speck was somewhat green and it suddenly started falling much slower as if it just went into a glide. While her attention was on that flying object of an unidentified nature, Smarty Pants flew up to her also looking at the sky.

“Fluttershy did you see that huge explosion in the sky? I’m curious to know…” Smart was suddenly shushed by Fluttershy and the tiny pixie stopped and tried to see what Fluttershy was looking at.

A pegasus by nature had good eyesight, if they didn’t have good eyesight they would usually wear specialized goggles. Glasses weren’t very good things to be wearing at high altitudes when you fly around, especially considering the cost of replacement when goggles were cheaper in the long run.

Fluttershy narrowed her eyes and they widened at what the falling object was and why it is currently gliding a large circle to try and stay above the lake. She watched as Tress had suddenly angled herself downward and slammed home into the lake sending a huge blast of water flying upwards. Immediately Fluttershy flew out over the lake and soon hovered above the super powered pony that bobbed up to the surface hacking and spluttering water.

Quickly Fluttershy grabbed Tress's hoof and started to slowly drag her back towards the shore of the lake, she felt Tress relax at her touch while the mare’s hair slowly turned from green to blue. After taking a moment to wipe her mane out of her face with her free hoof, Tress smiled brightly up at the sight of Fluttershy bravely helping her out of the lake. As soon as Fluttershy had Tress pulled onto the shore, they were surrounded by rather curious ducks that had to be shooed away by the reluctant shy mare.

“Are you okay Tress? What happened, what was that explosion and how were you gliding like that?” Fluttershy soon found that there wasn’t exactly a problem to worry about as Tress soon started laughing.

“After falling presumably from the starting point of where that explosion was, I’d assume she’s lost it because of some extenuating circumstance that she probably finds highly humorous.” Smart only got a raised hoof that shook in her direction while Tress was trying to find her voice in her laughter. It took a moment for the mare to collect herself.

“Yeah, you could say something like that. I’m fine by the way, thanks for asking. You really don’t want to know, you might not even believe me even if I told you and I used my powers to shape then stiffen my hair to allow me to control my fall well enough to hit the nearest body of water. Remind me to go hair gliding on purpose later on will you Smart? I don’t know when I might need to do that again and it could be a useful skill to have, WHOO what an adrenaline rush!” Tress rolled onto her back throwing two hooves into the air while laughing heartily once more, all the while lying on top of her soggy wet mane. “Don’t you worry about me, go on with what you two were doing before I got here.”

“Well if you’re sure you’re okay, let me check your muscles first.” Fluttershy took a moment to diagnose Tress as just slightly tense and gave her a light muscle relaxing massage for whatever it was she just went through. She found herself looking to Smart as a large satisfying pop went off and Tress let out a moan of pleasure causing Fluttershy to blush. “Smart, what did you find out about Scootaloo? If it’s okay for you to tell me that is. I’m curious to know what you found out about that poor little filly.”

“A lot of surprising things really, Scootaloo has this entire conspiracy going on around her. One that involves trombones, chickens, tree sap, Doughnut Joe’s, the third Daring Do novel specifically and the ambiguous fact that I don’t know whether or not Scootaloo’s parents are actually alive.” The little pixie pony paused while tapping a hoof to her tiny chin as she hovered in front of the two ponies. “To be quite frank it’s all very weird, every last bit of it.”

“Sounds interesting, tell us more about it.” Around this time Tress had calm down thanks to Fluttershy's rather soft touch and had caught her breath, she was going to be drip drying for the next thirty minutes or so.

“Just the thing you found out about her parents please. If you don’t mind me saying so, we really don’t need to know all that unimportant stuff.” It was the most important thing to Fluttershy, all that other stuff sounded weird and rather like a chain of rather incongruent irrelevant details. The shy mare just wanted to know of Scootaloo’s parents.

“It feels kind of weird that I’ve been following her for the most of an entire week now, it feels like it’s been a month. Oh, just a reminder it’s almost our birthday by the way, I can give you some good ideas of what to get Twilight. I’ve been giving all our friends some really good ideas in my spare time, just as long as it’s not cookbooks.” Smart got an angry glare from both Tress and even Fluttershy, getting an angry glare from the shy mare was hard to do and a first for the toy. “Hold your, yeah… I’m getting to it. I have found out that if she does have parents they are likely in a completely different country entirely and are never going to be around to take care of Scootaloo. If she doesn’t have them then she’s by far the most resourceful filly I’ve ever heard of. As we all know I’m Ponyville’s librarian, as such there are some perks to the job and one such perk is the ability to get into some documents. Basically the house that Scootaloo lives in is in her name and completely paid for, then that’s when things start to go Twilight Zone.”

“Okay Smart, now you’ve got my attention.” Rolling onto her belly Tress looked at Smart with a serious expression. The words ‘Twilight Zone’ was code for something that has become extremely convoluted like her or any pony’s life from being around Twilight Sparkle.

“I know you said you only wanted to hear the important stuff. The conspiracy around Scootaloo is the important stuff. Let me start, try to follow and keep up with me now. The house in Scootaloo’s name is being paid for by a griffon trombone making company. Said company has done a lot of business with the chicken feed corporation in Manehatten which may not seem like much at first glance. That chicken feed corporation in turn has ties with a maple syrup company which is owned primarily by the Average Joes clan of ponies who all specialize in diners with an all day breakfast theme. Daring Do is a real pony apparently and frequents one particular clan member’s doughnut shop in Canterlot; this is mentioned in passing in the third Daring Do book under an assumed identity.” Smart stopped when she noticed by Fluttershy and Tress were staring at her oddly. “Lost yet?”

“Daring Do is a real pony, seriously? What next, the author of her books being the mare herself under the assumed name of AK Yearling?” Despite her scoffing, Tress saw that Smart went deathly quiet. “You’re not kidding are you? Okay that is weird, but what does all this have to do with Scootaloo? It seems like nothing much so far, but a bunch of stuff that seems like normal business.”

“AK Yearling is in fact Daring Do, who knows Twilight Velvet Quality Sparkle who is the editor for the more fictional parts of the story that in fact happen. They meet at that doughnut shop to discuss details of the books and I think Donut Joe is a celestial agent that meets frequently with Daring.” The little pixie cross her hooves and tilted her head at the sudden increase in interest. “Continuing on from there, I’ve found the books from the popular Daring Do series somehow ends up paying for some of Scootaloo’s stuff as well as the home in question. While the filly is out, random groceries are delivered to the house by some of the sneakiest celestial guards I’ve ever seen. This makes things even stranger as Celestia has a hoof in it as well. She’s the one that’s allocating the money from the popular book series towards this through all these places of business and has a large share in every single one of them under the name Tia Celes. No adult ponies are ever around Scootaloo in her day to day life and I’m not even sure that her mother and father are alive with the exception that there is plenty of room for doubt considering this conspiracy. In all Scootaloo appeared and has been living in Ponyville for the last three years without the presence of a guardian being seen at all accompanying her at any given time, her birth records are blacked out and there’s even deeper and weirder conspiratorial stuff floating around about her that I couldn’t get into. I know it’s there at least.”

“I’m still trying to wrap my head around Daring Do as being real, so that means the ahuizotl we saw in Canterlot was in fact that specific ahuizotl from the book. So the things that happen in the books do happen for real, only not entirely in the way they are written as Velvet alters them to be more kid friendly.” Any pony would have a problem following all this and Tress was certainly among them. Adding the princess into the mix just pushed it into further complexities.

“Oh my goodness, tell me that there is a pony is capable of adopting the poor thing?” Fluttershy really hoped that some pony could at least move in with Scootaloo. She wasn’t homeless or hungry, but she was a lonely little pegasus that needed love more than she needed the comfort of a stable place to live.

“Sorry, but she’s apparently a homeowner, as such she can’t be taken away by an orphanage. So that’s a no on the adoption. Cheerilee does need to be notified of the truancy issue however, so that’s one thing we can do.” Even Smart thought this was a bit ridiculous especially considering the fact that Scootaloo is a minor and is living on her own. In the last few days she’s been following the exploits of the ever disastrous Rainbow Dash, apparently Scootaloo looked up to her as some form of role model. “She’s a quiet little filly and only becomes exuberant because of only one mare, Rainbow Dash. Whenever Rainbow starts streaking her colors across the sky that little filly’s day brightens up considerably. The three most important things to that filly are her scooter, a wagon and her helmet. Her medical records are protected a lot harder than anything else about her and as such it is completely ambiguous whether or not she has living parents. I’ve noticed that she doesn’t like staying at her house. Usually most of her day is riding the scooter all around Ponyville and she makes constant attempts at flying.”

“It’s kind of concerning that Celestia knows that all of this is going on.” It was another thing for Tress to put down on Twilight’s list of suspicious things surrounding Princess Celestia. Sunset Shimmer was still the only pony on the list of ponies Twilight disliked. “Maybe Twilight can send a letter to her mom to ask if she knows anything about this and I’ll talk to Cheers. Until then our hooves are tied on this situation. Now if you will excuse me I have to go see a zebra about something.”

Tress started to slowly walk off with a contemplative look, she was perturbed by all the stuff she has just heard. Here she was thinking that Fluttershy and Smart wouldn’t believe her when they were into something much weirder then what she had just gotten into and finished in less than twelve hours.

“Okay, just be careful in the forest Tress.” Fluttershy waved off Tress and turned back to Smart with a slightly broken hearted expression on her face. “Are you sure there’s nothing else any pony can do?”

“Aside from just trying to get close to Scootaloo so that you become something like a big sister or a mother to her on an emotional level. Not really much, just try to befriend her on a day to day basis.” It was the best advice Smart could give, Scootaloo wasn’t all too bad off even if she was a loner and afraid of her home. “Just remember and keep in mind that she doesn’t like to be around her home.”

“Thank you very much for looking into this for me.” Fluttershy sighed; Celestia was involved and wasn’t trying to help the filly further than this? Why didn’t Scootaloo have an active family member around her? What was going on with this little filly?

Author's Notes:

Scootaloo conspiracies, more Celestia and Fluttershy being broken hearted to run into a cloak and dagger situation.

This is all without Smart ever leaving Ponyville.

Six was afraid of seven, because seven dates nine.

68

The morning sun rose over the home of Twilight Sparkle and the light of the sun slammed into her eyelids stirring her from her sleep. Twilight wondered what kind of crazy shenanigans she and her friends would get into today. Stretching out her hooves she sat up rubbing her back as a sleepy yawn escaped her mouth.

Wiping the sleep from her eyes Twilight set off for the bathroom and saw a small note posted on the mirror. Slowly Twilight roused herself well enough to read it out by shaking her head sending her bangs flopping through the air.

“Dear Radiance, use the shampoo provided. After you’re done taking a bath this morning, please dry off and call for me. You probably will anyway once you find out what the shampoo does, your friend Tress Ravel. P.S. I hope you enjoy receiving as much as giving?” Twilight tilted her head in confusion and looked at the shampoo bottle; she popped the cap and sniffed it. It smelled of grapes, appreciating the simple gesture the purple pony started to run some water for her bath. She wondered what Tress’s note meant.

Hearing the water run from the kitchen, Tress had the hint of a smile on her face as she looked up to the ceiling as she ate her eggs. She turned to Barb, the dragon nodded and started about preparing a perfect breakfast for her mom. Today was a good day to be Twilight Sparkle, especially considering it was her birthday. They had all kinds of contingencies to stop anything from ruining Twilight’s day and Pinkie assured them with a Pinkie Pie Promise that she wasn’t doing the surprise party thing for Twilight today.

Every pony was gathering everything together for the special pony’s day and hoped to everything that was good in the world that everything went well. They were especially hopeful that Pinkie would make every effort to not surprise Twilight into having a volatile magical reaction. A lot of ponies were making the effort to make Twilight happy because she worked so hard to keep helping the citizens of Ponyville, despite the absurd situations that resulted from throwing herself into the thick of things. Many other ponies would have just given up by now after some of the things they’ve seen Twilight handle.

Twilight scrubbed the body wash along her coat and made sure to get every inch of herself, she washed her face carefully as well. After sitting back to enjoy the warm water, she levitated the bottle of shampoo in front of her face. She still wondered what Tress’s special shampoo did other then the obvious things shampoo was supposed to do. She shrugged, squirted out a bit and then started to rub it into her mane and tail.

After she was done washing Twilight hopped out of the tub and grabbed a towel with her levitation magic. Drying off she sighed in contentment, the shampoo had felt nice and she didn’t feel anything was off or different. Her hair must have been really damp because it certainly felt heavier than normal. Wiping down the mirror using her magic, Twilight just stared at her reflection and reached up with a hoof.

“Tress, you were right!” Twilight’s voice rang throughout the house in an excited tone.

“That would be my cue, can you keep the food warm Barb. We might be a while.” Tress stood up with her green mane and tail already formed, she grabbed a few things on her way to the bathroom with her hair tendrils. It was time for the birthday girl to be pampered for once, instead of being the one that pampered others. Pampering in a manner that Fluttershy seems to chronically do to her closer friends nowadays, it was truly appreciated as it always helped them feel better after a particularly tough day.

Walking into the bathroom slowly, Tress saw Twilight was just standing there staring in the mirror at her floor length mane and her elongated tail. Tress didn’t disturb Twilight’s staring and sat down a stool, before whistling sharply to Twilight breaking her out of her stupor. Tress patted the stool while waiting for Twilight to get the idea.

Twilight had some trepidation about the stool, but she still sat in it and felt every movement of the shifting mass of hair falling down her back. She didn’t have her bangs anymore as they had grown to the same length as the rest of her mane. It was still unbelievable that a foot of her mane was dragging on the floor when she moved over to take her seat. It all felt so weird and looking in the mirror she could see Tress holding a comb and brush in her mane.

“So Radiance, now that I have your mane in my clutches… what do you want me to do with it?” Tress smiled as she wrapped her hoof entirely around Twilight’s mane and gave it a tug causing the mare to squeak while looking to the floor. It made Tress happy to see Twilight trying to dig her chin into her chest as she squirmed slightly. “You’re hair growth formula has been finished by the way, I thought it would be a nice birthday gift if I styled your mane for once. Anything you want, even your original style. You could have a slightly trimmed, one length mane like mine or you could go even shorter then you previously had your mane. The sky is the limit birthday girl, just tell me what you want and I’ll do it. Well after I’m done brushing and combing you that is!”

Twilight couldn’t figure out if she was dreaming or if this was actually happening to her right at this moment. Her hair was so long, but she wouldn’t want to keep it this length as walking around with this much mane was not something she could do. She didn’t want to drag such beauty through the mud. Feeling something entering her hair, Twilight’s attention went to the comb held in Tress’s mane as it slowly swept her bangs away from her right eye. Her cheeks lit up as she realized this was all real and that Tress was combing her mane.

Tress calmly ran the comb from the base of what was once Twilight’s bangs dragging her hair back and over her shoulders and slid the comb all the way down to the tips. She was straightening out Twilight’s hair in preparation for the brushing and then would come the styling. Twilight was so silent and her face was almost redder then Fluttershy could even manage, Tress could only hope she was enjoying her early morning surprise. They still had a full day ahead of them.

The brush soon finished running through the mass and Tress gave a tiny tug of the mane she held causing Twilight to squeal slightly. Who knew Twilight was so embarrassed to be treated to a hair care session, Tress certainly didn’t think she could be so shy about it.

“Come on Radiance. If you don’t tell me what to do now, I’ll just do whatever I like and you know I can get pretty darn evil. I’m already thinking that you’d like a pixie.” Tress whispered into Twilight’s ears and the mare shivered under her caressing brush strokes, causing Tress to enjoy this even more and to chuckle darkly.

“Tress… I kind liked my bangs the way they were, but can you leave my mane a few inches longer then I previously had it.” Twilight was having a hard time talking; just looking at herself in the mirror made her feel embarrassed to be pinned down by her best friends iron grip on her mane.

“This is the reason I also have a brush as a part of my cutie mark you know. So you want to keep it simple if a bit longer, sure you don’t want anything different then your usual style Radiance?” Tress leaned in close to Twilight and the purple pony again squirmed at the feeling of Tress tugging on her dark blue locks with the two naturally occurring highlights. “I find it kind of strange that ponies around here never change their hairstyles very much, except Rarity as she’s fickle like that.”

“Maybe… um… no, I’m absolutely sure that’s what I want… thank you.” Twilight said after a moment with a small smile as she managed to still her nerves as some of her hair was quickly brushed in front of her eyes. She could barely make out the shears Tress was wielding with a hair tentacle through her hair.

“Okay then, last chance to change your mind, going, going…” Tress slid the open blades into Twilight's hair and slowly closed the shears. She had her chest pressed against Twilight’s back and could feel her friends’ heart rate spike. A mass of hair fell to the floor and Twilight just stared at herself in the mirror as her left eye was uncovered and the scissors slid over to the right side of her mane. As they slowly closed once more, Tress made a humorous comment punctuated by the sound of the shears fully closing. “Now it’s gone.”

Minutes later Twilight came down the stairs with her slightly longer than normal mane and found Barb placing the last of her breakfast on the table. Her daughter had a talent in cooking and it was something a normal Sparkle wouldn’t be capable of, even then Barb was still a true Sparkle through and through. She sat down to hearty meal and recalled how tenderly Tress treated her back in the bathroom, her face had yet ceased to stop being a bright cherry red.

“You’re early morning surprise is not all we have Radiance. We’ve still got a birthday party to attend, it’s no work and all play today. Nothing bad is going to happen or I’ll deal with it personally.” Tress’s mane had returned to its normal light blue color and she was waiting for Twilight to finish breakfast. She thought Twilight had been acting cute all morning; making her wonder if she could do something similar to Fluttershy because it was funny.

The day was going by rather fast as Twilight ended up playing a few board games, spent an hour or two quietly reading books and then was dragged into shopping around Ponyville. Before long she had all the things she got in their shopping excursion squared away and they were now standing outside of Sugar Cube Corner.

Twilight opened the door and just saw a lot of ponies quietly waiting for her to enter and she saw the banner that wished her a happy seventeenth birthday. She smiled and stepped inside; Pinkie quickly hopped up to her and then stopped. All her friends were here, even Fluttershy with who she assumed was the enigmatic Scootaloo that was currently rubbing up against Rainbow Dash.

“Welcome to your own special birthday party Twilight, okay every pony it’s time to sing along!” Pinkie was now acting excited, she stood up on her hind legs and swirled her hooves as she got some music started up and all the ponies gathered together. “~Happy happy seventeenth birthday to Twilight our lovely friend, we hope that your stay in Ponyville will never come to an end! We’re all your friends and enjoy you being around, so we’re certainly ecstatic to know that you’re enjoying our little town! Excitement and adventure is something you bring to all of us so of you we’ll never ever bore, so a very happy birthday to the girl we all happen to adore~!”

A huge cake was brought out, every pony sang in key and a huge pony pile started up around Twilight after they finished. It made her heart swell at all the hooves trying to wrap around her. Then they all broke apart and the party started in earnest after Twilight cut the first slice of cake.

“So is that Scootaloo?” This was the first time Twilight has ever seen her, she looked happy and any pony would be after being introduced to Pinkie Pie. The filly was particularly enamored with Rainbow Dash’s presence even as she was stuffing her face with some cake.

“Yes, she seems to be enjoying the party well enough and you shouldn’t be worrying about it. I’m worrying about her enough for the both of us.” Eventually Fluttershy hoped to figure out where the filly came from and would help her whenever she needed it.

“My word darling, did you do something with your mane? You look marvelous today, positively shining like a diamond.” It looked like Rarity was in great form today with her compliments.

“Thank you very much Rarity, Tress got a hold of it this morning.” What Twilight wasn’t saying was that she enjoyed every moment of it too. Tress was so evil in the nicest way possible.

“Trixie has finally decided to return that long overdue compliment that your mane also looks nice.” There was no point in Trixie being jealous of Twilight Sparkle and she liked that they were now generally good friends. Not once did Twilight show a very strong ability in the art of illusion magic which Trixie has mastered.

“Say Twilight, is there any chance we can figure out a way to get Big Mac and Fluttershy together?” Rarity was watching Fluttershy shyly interacting with the few stallions that were here at the party. Twilight had a lot of mares for friends; Rarity thought it was nice that she also knew a few stallions as well.

“As Big Mac would say, nope, Fluttershy is into mares. You know, as in she’s gay.” There was an odd reaction to that, one of which Twilight wasn’t expecting.

Rarity just had a thoughtful look on her face as she put a hoof to her chin instead of immediately freaking out.

“Well no wonder I had a problem setting her up with a nice stallion.” Rarity thought a mare as sweet and adorable as Fluttershy deserved some companionship, so she had been barking up the wrong tree this whole time?

“Darn it all Radiance, now I can’t enjoy her failures at matchmaking! My day is now and forever completely ruined!” Every pony near Tress let out a burst of laughter at the overly dramatic pout Tress had on her face.

Rarity ears went limp and her mouth scrunched up, she tittered into her hoof trying to keep her ladylike composure in the face of the hilarious look on Tress’s face.

“Well I hope you’re happy now… that it’s time to hoof out the presents to you!” Tress’s continuation into a faux angry tone caused more giggling about the room as ponies gathered to watch Twilight open her presents. The first one was a cookbook from Fluttershy; it was about making all kinds of pudding.

Every pony in the room just gave Fluttershy a flat look as she smiled brightly, a lot of ponies would come close to dying of laughter this day.

Author's Notes:

Fluttershy the prankster... didn't see that coming and I write this story.

69

Twilight finished cataloguing all the stuff she got on her birthday the next morning. She had so many friends now it was unbelievable. There was about a little less than a year or so to prepare for the coming of Nightmare Moon, it was something Twilight always kept it in mind and was counting the days away.

“So I guess its back to work for us then. I still can’t believe Fluttershy would get you a cookbook. At least she knew about your talent in cooking and that’s pudding it lightly.” Tress received a light poke to the nose from Twilight

“That was a bad pun Tress, bad best friend.” Twilight lightly bopped her friend on the nose for that.

“Since when did I become a dog?” It was silly but it made Tress smile. “Anyway, I thought it was about time I went over some of the things about the hair growth formula since you didn’t catalogue that one or even ask about it too deeply. In fact it’s kind of confusing to see you not questioning something. You didn’t seem overly excited about it.”

“Ah yes, that. I really did like it Tress.” Even now Twilight could feel her face heat up at the thought of Tress holding her mane. Even if her mane was back in its almost normal shape, the extra length really did make her feel different. She’d eventually get use to it until she needed a trim. “Can you just write it down for me? I’ve got important things to discuss with the mayor. You can take care of Pinkie Pie’s request, I’d do it but my head still feels like it still has a hoof mark from the last time I had to deal with her.”

“That was only yesterday during the party though, but yeah she did cause you to face hoof a lot.” It was still funny to Tress that Pinkie can get a lot of hoof to face action from Twilight. “Fine, what is it I’m doing with that sugar high mare today?”

“Well it was quite the party and all our friends were there; I need a quiet day to relax after all that excitement. Every pony really wore me out last night. So please, for the sake of my sanity keep Pinkie away from me Tress.” It wasn’t that Twilight hated Pinkie Pie, it was just she couldn’t handle her happy hyper routine for an extended amount of time. Pinkie was focused so intently on making sure she was having a good time that it was almost annoying she wouldn’t bother some other pony at the party to see if they were doing well. “I don’t know what you’re going to be doing honestly, take it up with Pinkie.”

“Sure thing Twilight, I can keep her entertained after I help her with whatever inane request she’s got in her top hat this time. Ugh, with so many friends it’s going to be hard to keep all their birthday’s straight, though I’m sure Pinkie could do that easily and remind us to come to them. See you later.” Tress wondered if she could avoid receiving a birthday party personally as she set off for Sugar Cube Corner.

“Hey mom, I’m setting out for the library now.” Barb was scooped into a cuddle and she hugged back before squirming out of the grasp of the comforting hooves. Smart shot by them and out the door for the library, the toy was soon to be followed by a happy dragon waving back to her mother.

“Now all I have to do is go to the mayor’s office… a little fun about how I get there couldn’t hurt.” Lighting her horn Twilight prepared to use the spell she’s been practicing in her free time and while she was teaching Barb when Smart was investigating Scootaloo. Teleporting was a useful ability to have and she only had twenty five foot range thus far, the mechanics to teleporting were complex and could get you anywhere in the blink of an eye with some minor issues. What she was about to do was something that could just as easily get a unicorn anywhere if they could work the spell to a finer degree.

Just as she was about to kick off the ground Twilight heard a shout that caused her to stop channeling magic to her horn.

“Oh I’m so glad I caught you today before you left darling, I wanted to invite you over for tea and biscuits with me today around eleven or so. Bonbon and Octavia are coming as well and I wanted to do some bonding with all of you. How does that sound Twilight?” Rarity couldn’t say she had close friends until Twilight entered her life. Fluttershy was just a delight and so were Octavia and Bonbon. Rarity couldn’t think of a mare to pair Fluttershy with, she had never thought of playing matchmaker for some pony like Fluttershy before. It would be an excellent challenge, even if Rarity had no idea how to start looking for a partner for Fluttershy as she couldn’t think like a gay mare.

“Sure thing Rarity, if you have some sweet tea or chamomile I’d very much like that when I come over. Now if you will excuse me I was about to do this!” Twilight kicked off the ground her horn lit up and she shot off in a low flying arc over all the building in Ponyville with a single leap and continued flying forward with her hoof stretched out before her.

Rarity just stood there for a moment starring in awe at the flying unicorn, a minute later her jaw finally dropped. A few minutes after that Applejack trotted up to her and slapped her jaw back into place before trotting off.

It took only twenty seconds for Twilight to fall with style on her way to city hall, now the only thing she had problems with had come up. Not once had Twilight ever figured out how to land coming out of the gravity spell quite right and only recently did she get the hang of it. Even if velocity was a cruel mistress, she was a tough little unicorn and had practiced for this. Even now falling sideways at thirty six miles per hour was a little disorienting, if she wanted to Twilight could feasibly double that. Seventy two miles per hour was her maximum limit as she didn’t want to go above double the normal gravitational pull of the planet.

Twilight reoriented the gravity in reverse until she came to stop near the town hall and before she could start falling in the opposite direction she shifted her gravitational pull to the planet. The gravity setting for her fall was at a quarter of the planets gravity and she floated down softly. As she came to a rest on all four hooves dropping the gravity spell, a bunch of ponies applauded her by stomping the ground in amazement and gathered around her saying how cool it was to see her flying.

The unicorn quickly ran indoors suddenly embarrassed by all the attention she had garnered. It looks like all that time practicing indoors for the fear of launching herself out of the atmosphere of the planet to a quick death had actually paid off. She was a mare that was no longer personally bound by the laws of gravity, but she still had to account for all the other stuff involved in the tricky spell manipulation and had to make sure not to try doing something like that while completely tired.

Walking into the office Twilight had the mayors’ immediately attention and she looked particularly amused about something.

“So are you trying out for Ponyville’s weather team soon? Amazing what unicorn magic can do besides making you capable of standing on clouds.” The mayor was of course referencing Twilight’s flying entrance, not something a normal everyday unicorn was capable of. Mayor knew Twilight wasn’t your average unicorn once you got to know her, but even flight was a new one for the magical mare.

“No, you’d have to pay me much more to take a job like that especially if you want me to work with Rainbow Dash. The time and energy would be more costly to employ me than a natural pegasus to do anything with the weather.” Who knew repurposing a gravity flipping spell originally meant for cleaning ceilings could get a pony so much attention? Twilight certainly didn’t when she took a short straightforward flight to meet the mayor. It was going to be much harder to do once she started learning to change directions mid-flight later on.

“I’m surprised you took my query seriously.” The mayor chuckled happily; it was always nice to see that Twilight was as silly as ever. “So what can I do for you or is it what can you do for me?”

“It’s about time I came to talk about an important issue with you; it could even be a matter of dire importance. It’s about how Ponyville is going to be chosen by Celestia to hold the Summer Sun Celebration in about a year.” The mayor sat up at her words and took what Twilight was saying with every bit of seriousness.

“How did you find out about this? Celestia usually picks places at random and it’s never the same place within three picks of each other. Answering that, why is it so important this time around and what happens to be the problem? Celestia choosing Ponyville for the celebration sounds like a joyous occasion.” The Mayor knew Twilight wouldn’t be here if this wasn’t important and it had to do with foreknowledge that the mayor wasn’t aware of. It was a good thing Twilight was giving her this information a year ahead of time to prepare for whatever this coming news was.

“Okay it’s like this; you know the legends of Nightmare Moon and Nightmare Night?” If the mayor didn’t Twilight would need to give the mayor the long version of what she wanted to get around to saying.

“Of course I do, now if you could tell me why this is important?” This was a curiosity that the mayor wasn’t about to let slide by her.

“It all has to do with what’s going to happen at the Summer Sun Celebration that day. It marks the return of Celestia’s sister Luna as Nightmare Moon. Do you want me to tell you what I suspect is going to happen that night?” The nod Twilight received was enough for her to go into a hypothetical situation. “Okay the facts are that the mare in the moon will disappear and Luna the lunar princess will be set free from being sealed away by Celestia and will once again take charge of her celestial object. She will make an appearance and threaten to make the night last forever as she did a thousand years ago before she was sealed. Do you understand this and do you want me to explain what I think is going to exactly happen leading up to her appearance?”

“You might as well, I’m very much interested in hearing what you think will happen, especially how we are supposed to deal with an all powerful alicorn that controls the moon.” The mayor planted her chin in her hooves as she leaned forward on her desk completely.

“You’re not going to question this at all?” Twilight was a little surprised at the willingness of the mayor to hear her out.

“Why of course I am, but I’d like to know everything before making a judgment call. Besides, it is becoming a notable occurrence that weird things happen around you. Just about anything is possible, especially when you’re involved with it.” It was true, especially the fudge brownie incident last week. The mayor actually enjoyed that one personally and it was a favorite of hers in the story that was Twilight Sparkle’s life of constant misadventures.

“Okay I’m just guessing here, but what I think will happen is this. First Celestia will send an important pony to oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration; it’ll most likely be a pony named Sunset Shimmer. Celestia won’t actually appear at the celebration and will go into hiding without telling her guards where she is going. As such Nightmare Moon AKA Luna, her sister, makes an appearance in some flashy manner and she’ll monologue before starting her destructive plans to make the night last forever. Which if it does last for too long, well all life as we know it generally ends except for those of us who are lucky enough to be like the princesses. Celestia will be banking on her personal student freeing her sister from her madness, but I’m doubtful that will happen since I know Sunset Shimmer is more likely to get on every ponies nerve instead of doing something constructive.” If Twilight wanted to sell her idea, she figured now would be a good time to do so. “What I want to do is to try and have all of Ponyville acknowledge Luna the second she appears, then we’ll confuse her to the point where we slowly talk her down from her plans. We’ll need a lot of ponies that truly appreciate the night though, as Luna went mad because every pony slept through her beautiful nights leading to her feeling underappreciated. So I want to welcome her with a warm heart after a millennium has passed her by in the blink of an eye, she’s already done her time and we don’t need to make it worse for her. So we’ll alter the decorations to reflect a lunar theme and prepare for her arrival that day.”

“Well… how do we go about raising awareness of this forgotten princess? Do you have evidence of her existence other then foal hood tales? It would go a long way to setting up for her arrival if what you say is true. We’ll be the first place to welcome a princess back after being gone a thousand years, but if that plan of yours falls through I hope you will have a few backup plans in place. Goodness knows I don’t want any pony to get dragged into a fight with a legend like Nightmare Moon.” The mayor truly believed Twilight and was willing to aid her, which is if she could convince many other ponies who lived here to go along with it. The threat sounded like it encompassed the entire planet of Equus and not just her small town.

“We’ll start with changing a few things about Nightmare Night. Nightmare Moon hasn’t been off the moon in the last nine hundred years so I doubt she has truly been gobbling up ponies.” Twilight couldn’t wait for the candy gathering holiday in a few months as she already had her costume planned out, now if only she could talk Rarity into making it.

Author's Notes:

Excuse me if I don't put up any more chapters up for a while, flooding might have happened in the general area of the rock I live under. The stench is kind of horrible and the water damage is everywhere, at least it is only the basement. Where the tech I write the story with happens to be... still working fine, but I don't want to get sick by sticking around for too long in a dingy waterlogged place.

70

Twilight came down in front of the Carousel Boutique, she did so on her face. She really had to work out balancing issues with her gravity spell or else that would keep happening. After rubbing her slightly sore nose with a hoof, Twilight knocked on the door. Rarity opened it welcoming Twilight inside.

“Sorry I’m a bit late. I was having an important discussion with the mayor.” Twilight was actually understating how important it was to change some things about the Summer Sun Celebration being held in Ponyville. It was going to be a celebration of the night as well as the rising sun.

“I just got finished putting the tea on darling, why it’s not even a problem at all. Come on in, I was about to bring out the biscuits.” Rarity bustled back into the kitchen to both Bonbon and Octavia who were sitting at the table already discussing something.

“Oh hey there Twilight, will you please thank Tress for me the next time you see her. That Ever Clean Cleanser stuff is amazing; it makes my job so much easier. Now if only Tress could figure out how to make it in a different smell. Don’t get me wrong as I like the smell of mint, it’s just kind of overpowering.” Bonbon smiled cheerily as Twilight took a seat across from her and Rarity sat down with them while levitating over a plate of biscuits to go with their tea when it was finished. “How did you like my present? The candy tin is reusable after you are finished with the candy inside of it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind when I see her and the candy is really good, I’m finding it hard not to eat all of it in one go.” Twilight liked the gummy candy. It had a nice balance of sweet and sour that was tantalizing instead of overboard.

“I was hoping you could tell me what Canterlot is like Octavia, I’ve never been there myself. Twilight apparently thinks it’s a constant horror story if one decides to look past all the glamour.” It was about time Rarity asked for a second opinion.

“It is kind of like that actually; we saw Cerberus when we went there for the wedding a while ago. Even I would find it hard to get a hoof into high society if it weren’t for a fact that there were nice ponies there as well. Fancy Pants is quite the gentle stallion and Fleur is a lot more promiscuous then I’d thought she’d be.” Octavia gained a little heat in her cheeks remembering how Fleur acted with Fancy; those two were definitely a pair. “It’s not so bad what with the Celestial Guard being competent or at least Twilight’s brother is apparently highly competent.”

“Shiny has a special talent for protecting others and barrier spells. I used to get bullied all the time when I was little and he was always there for me, that is until he left to join the guard. At least I know he’s doing well, he said so himself in a letter he wrote after that horn removal surgery.” Twilight wondered why Rarity and Bonbon was looking at her in a horrified manner.

“Good heavens, what did he do that warrant the removal of his horn and why would a unicorn be okay with that?” Rarity clutched at her horn with her hooves rubbing it softly, the horn of a unicorn was made of stern stuff and to have it removed against your will was like losing your best friend or a limb.

“It wasn’t that horn that got removed.” Now Octavia wondered why Rarity was looking a little sick, Bonbon just looked intrigued.

“You mean he was gelded? I wonder how a stallion can still be happy after that.” Bonbon thought Rarity really needed that tea and soon. She would need it personally to calm her slightly upset stomach.

“Okay, before you two take this out of context any further he got a horn from a minotaur stuck in him and needed to get it removed.” Twilight wondered if they could just stop this conversation now. It was just getting plain silly how much of Shining Armor’s situation could be taken out of context when mentioning it.

“I don’t know whether to feel sorry for your brother or the minotaur now. How did it happen and was it consensual at least?” Rarity did not understand why her question just caused Twilight to face hoof, it was a perfectly legitimate question. She often wondered if there was such a thing as a female minotaur, you never really hear of them and only the males of their species are truly prominent.

“You two really aren’t getting the context here, what happened is that her brother got rear ended by a minotaur and he left his horn in him.” Octavia understood and knew what happened to Twilight’s brother, her phrasing could have used a little work however.

“We know that, what’s wrong with Rarity asking if it was consensual or not?” Now it was Bonbon wondering why Twilight was double face hoofing.

“It was one of the horns from the top of the minotaur’s head that broke off in his flank in pitched battle; does any of that sound like he had given his consent to you?” Both mares, much to Twilight’s delight, had a look of comprehension and understanding on their faces. This was around the time the tea pot started whistling, it made Twilight happy that there was something to distract the two mares from their one track minds.

“Well how deep did the minotaur penetrate...?” Rarity started only to stop and take in Twilight’s flat stare. Being the generous host she was and also for the better part of her own safety, it was time for something else to talk about. “Right, I guess it’s time for a change of subject then.”

“I’ll start, I have an idea for a Nightmare Night costume and I would like you to make it, it’ll require quite a selection of gems. while I’m at it I’ll commission a costume for Tress. Her costume is far less elaborate then mine will be.” Twilight pulled out a folder with her magic and slid it over to Rarity. The fashion master opened the folder and looked it over. “So how much will these two suits cost me?”

“Yes, I believe can do this easily enough. Though tarry the thought of actually… yes it’ll be something like eighty bits given it’s a special job.” The icy stare Rarity received when she was about to do it for free made her shiver.

“Rarity you can’t keep giving stuff to me for free like this. While you never come off as selfish except for your slight gold digging tendencies, you should seriously stop being so lenient to all of your friends. We’re not freeloaders and we all have decent paying jobs. You should also be glad I’m not waiting until the last minute to ask for the costumes as a rush job.” This was a time Twilight was going to be stern with the overly generous mare as she deserved recompense for her hard work. “I’ll be paying those eighty bits even though I know it’s probably discounted given your fine work.”

“It’s Rarity, of course it’s a discount. Speaking of costumes… I was wondering if I could commission a candy corn costume.” Bonbon would be the candy corn to Lyra’s nuts. Those two together tended to make for a good candy bar, one that tasted like a Neigh Day.

“I would give my friends the world if I could Twilight, never doubt that for a moment. Of course you can Bonnie. Octavia do you have a costume in mind as well?” If Rarity was taking Twilight and Bonbon’s requests, then she may as well get Octavia’s in while she was at it. This sudden change in topic was some nice business for Rarity as she’s been a bit light as of late, she could probably advertise her costume making prowess aside from her dressmaking ways.

“Can you make a werewolf pony costume that breathes well? Also I need a cape or mantle for a vampire pony costume if you can do that. I’ve always kind of assumed that you only made dresses.” Octavia took a sip of her tea while leaning back and enjoying good company. Her thoughts turned to the ever infuriating Vinyl and her annoyingly charming habits.

“Just because dresses are my favorite thing to make doesn’t mean it’s the only thing my shop produces.” Looking into her shop from the kitchen Rarity saw nothing but dresses, she just shook her head. “Though I guess I can understand where you’d get an idea like that from. I'll make sure to write down your order as well Octavia.”

“If you broadened your inventory even a little bit you’d get more customers. You could still be known for dresses too if that is your main focus, I’m not here to tell you how to run your business.” It was a bit obvious sounding to Twilight.

“I know, I just really like designing dresses and I have a terrible time getting away from doing so. I’m just doing what I love even if it may drive me a bit crazy at times. Maybe on a slower week I might fancy that option to expand into making other things a bit more, I’m pretty good for winter clothing. Anything else we need to discuss?” Things weren’t going too badly for Rarity today, she was commissioned to make some costumes for some of her friends and she was having a generally quiet day. One would suspect something to go horribly wrong in the presence of Twilight, but nothing so far.

A few minutes after Rarity thought that there was a huge commotion outside. The four ponies went to the window and looked outside to see an army of what looked like killer cupcakes being fought off by Tress and Pinkie.

“How did this even happen, Twilight was nowhere near the bakery!” Tress bit down on a cupcake before tossing her head back sending it into the air. She swallowed the entire cupcake in one go, it was hard to do and Pinkie made it look so easy too.

Speaking of Pinkie, she was taking care of most of the attacking cupcake forces that were growling and biting at their ankles. Pinkie kept snapping them up as fast she feasibly could, there would never be a day where a cupcake would ever get the best of her.

“Tress, why haven’t you called for Palatable yet?” The dumb look that crossed her friends face at the realization of something that would make things easier just made Twilight face hoof harder than usual.

“Pal, get your sweet smelling butt over here and pronto!” The reaction was immediate as Tress witnessed the cupcake army being torn in half by the blind fury of her pet. Only then did the cupcakes start trying to make a run for it, but it was too late to do so. “Thank you for reminding me of him Twilight. Those cupcakes were pure evil I tell you, didn’t taste bad though.”

“No, it wasn’t the cupcakes that were evil. They just wanted to be sugary baked goodness in a world that didn’t understand them and thus they rebelled against us.” Pinkie was holding a candy skull and looking saddened, before she brightened up and bit the candy skull in half.

“Understand what, they had sharpened peppermint sticks for teeth!” In the face of that pronouncement Tress saw Pinkie cringe. This led her to calming down and giving the pink pony a smile. “It’s okay Pinks, I still wonder what caused this if it wasn't Twilight.”

“I think I know and if I’m right I have a little sister to punish. Now if you will all excuse me, SWEETIE BELLE!” Rarity was quite livid that her sister created food monsters again. Whether it was burning juice by just pouring it or bringing more food monsters into the world, Rarity always has to remind Sweetie that her special talent would not be related to anything having to do with food. Her little sister was supposed to be smart, yet she kept trying the same things and expected the end results to change. Their mother trying to help Sweetie learn how to cook was just a small part of the insanity in Rarity’s life.

“I didn’t create any cupcake monsters or was anywhere near Sugar Cube Corner today Rarity, I honestly wouldn’t know about it!” The fact that Sweetie Belle even knew what the monsters were kind of ruined her entire alibi, especially if she had never been out of her room.

Elsewhere in Ponyville Fluttershy was currently spending time with Scootaloo. The filly was enjoying the presence of a pony cool enough to be good friends with Rainbow Dash. In the distance a unicorn watching the two sent off a message using a spell and the light traveled to Canterlot and it would coalesce in front of Celestia. The guard hadn’t been as secretive as he could of been and had been caught spying on Fluttershy and Scootaloo by a Fluttershy lookalike who was now smelling a conspiracy in the works. Thus the guard had earned an unwanted tail.

“Hmm… what’s this? The most likely candidate for the element of kindness has been spotted and she’s been seen around Scootaloo a lot lately. I hope this Fluttershy doesn’t pry too deeply into where Scootaloo comes from, it’s nice to see that filly is at least making some friends.” Even with this good news, Celestia was still reeling from the fact that Cadence jailed herself and refused to leave for quite some time. Where had she gone so wrong with Cadence? She was going to start treading much more lightly from now on.

At least the elements of harmony were gathering on their own, Celestia at least knew the ponies that represented laughter, generosity and honesty. She could only hope that Sunset Shimmer would find the magic in her to complete the set and hopefully she would save herself at the same time by befriending these ponies. Her hidden guards only had to find one more pony and then they could all come back, except for the ones watching out for Scootaloo’s safety of course.

Author's Notes:

The smell is still horrible, but the floor is at least dry, mold may be a issue though. Flood damage is not nice at all.

Otherwise I'm perfectly fine. Hope this chapter is received well enough.

71

It was simply just another day and today Fluttershy and Trixie were spending time watching Rainbow Dash fly around. Scootaloo was also there enjoying the impromptu show going on in the sky.

“Trixie does not know why she likes Rainbow so much. She’s got an ego as big as Trixie does and Trixie has been working on that.” It seemed like Trixie completely lacked the ability to not say her own name every sentence.

“Well you’re doing a wonderful job Trixie; it’s just that I think Scootaloo really likes Rainbow because she flies so fast and free. I think it’s also because she leaves a trail of colors wherever she goes.” Fluttershy watched as Rainbow zipped across the sky with an excited Scootaloo frolicking around on the ground below, the filly was probably dreaming of being able to fly like that. Sighing she turned to Trixie; Fluttershy didn’t mind Trixie’s odd habits and even enjoyed the fact that she was always wearing her hat and cape everywhere in a cute manner. “I’ve noticed that she has seems to have problems with flying. She might be a flightless pegasus.”

“Trixie can see why that would make Rainbow more important. Having wings and being incapable of flight is like Trixie being incapable of being good with magic though she has a horn.” Trixie wilted a bit and also watched as Rainbow performed several loops through the air at an incredible speed. “Having a special talent for telling tales and illusions really is not what Trixie thought Trixie would be good at.”

“Well I never thought I’d be good at anything, I was always picked on for being a weak flyer and the education systems in Cloudsdale are really poorly suited for ponies that can’t fly very well or at all. Do you even know what happens to a pegasus that can’t fly and lives in Cloudsdale?” Fluttershy knew the answer and Trixie didn’t look like she was about to ask for it.

“It’s a tough world at times; Trixie once thought you had to step on ponies to make any headway in it.” After Trixie Lulamoon met Pinkie Pie and became her personal party magician, she couldn’t even think of being self centered anymore. “Pinkie has a way of changing that kind of world view.”

“How does it feel to be in love?” It was nice to ask some pony who knew what it was like as Fluttershy was still sadly single. She wouldn’t poach Twilight or Tress from each other; they were in a strong platonic relationship and Fluttershy didn’t want to mess up that synergy.

“Very weird, Pinkie does so many odd things and Trixie enjoys being hugged by her a lot.” Trixie had only just started dating Pinkie and it was a mutual attraction or at least it appeared to be. They shared a lot of time at parties and worked well together to make each one special.

“There is never a reason to frown, as long as Pinkie lives in this town.” Zecora chuckled as Trixie and Fluttershy both jumped. One bleated like a goat and the other had immediately become invisible except for the disruption of four circles in the grass. “Oh you ponies are the ones I love to tease, now what are you talking about if you please?”

“Hey what’s with the weird pony… she doesn’t look like she has a cutie mark. Does this mean there’s a chance I’ll never get one?” Scootaloo had finally taking her attention off of the most amazing pony she had ever seen and saw a grey, black and white pony.

“Aw such a cute young filly, you are quite silly. I’m not a phony, but I’m definitely not quite a pony.” Zecora had always liked the young fillies and colts as they were usually so sweet and innocent. “The symbol of a cutie mark is not meant for my race, when you will achieve yours I can’t tell as it’s not my place.”

“Do you always talk like that?” Scootaloo tilted her head intrigued by the not a pony.

“Like Trixie, she has a preferred method of speech. Haven’t you ever heard of a zebra before in school? Trixie has learned many things of the other races out there and knowing something like that will help Trixie in understanding their customs if Trixie is ever to travel away from Ponyville.” Trixie had never met a wiser zebra that was a good conversationalist and managed to keep it going in rhyme no less.

“Um, Trixie… I don’t think Scootaloo has ever been in a school before.” At least that’s the impression Fluttershy was getting from Scootaloo. Aside from Smart’s investigation, she personally asked around Ponyville and found out that the little filly was taught on the streets by the townsfolk in general everyday life. At least Ponyville watched out for any pony that lived there even if a pony could overcharge you for a cherry if they felt like being cruel.

“School is so boring, why would any pony want to sit in one place all day when you could be outside having fun and eating the fresh grass? There’s also taking naps out on the sunny hills’.” Scootaloo liked grazing and grass was always a free meal; however it did kind of get boring to eat grass all the time.

“Learning in its own unique way can be quite fun, it’s about as useful as always going for a run. You need to exercise both body and mind, as doing so will help you grow stronger in kind.” Zecora wondered why this adorable filly wasn’t going to school, there was so much that the filly would miss in life if she didn’t learn things.

“What?” Scootaloo really didn’t understand what Zecora meant.

“She means that while you’re a very healthy little filly, you still need to learn how to do math, science and even write. It’ll help you much later when you grow up and you won’t be so alone.” If Fluttershy was going to get to the root of the problem, she was going to start by being there for Scootaloo. The filly in question looked hurt by the insinuation that she was lonely, even if it was very much true. “School is not just a place about sitting around. It’s a place where you can make friends and learn how some things work in the world. You might even be able to learn how to fly like Rainbow does.”

“You should really listen to Fluttershy about this stuff as she’s smart like that. I might not have been too great at regular school, but even I went and learned how to do things.” Rainbow came in for a landing and was suddenly attracting Scootaloo’s attention like a high powered magnet. “I wouldn’t even be able to live in Ponyville if I didn’t know how to hold the weather manager position I have. I’m glad I have enough smarts to even have the job that I do; still it’s not a bad thing to enjoy the world while you’re still young. No point in being a big egghead and wasting all your time with worries when you could be doing things, but that’s just me. Even I need to learn stuff to become a Wonder Bolt, just think about it kid. I’ve got to get back to work guys, see ya.”

Scootaloo mulled over what Rainbow Dash said as the quick flying mare shot for the skies once more. The filly was seen wandering off towards Ponyville on her scooter looking thoughtful. As soon as Scootaloo was gone Fluttershy turned to Zecora and Trixie.

“Um… did you need something Zecora or were you just stopping to say hello?” It was so nice to see the zebra as it has been a while.

“Of things with any pony I can talk, do you two want to go for a walk?” Zecora motioned to the bright happy day going on around them. It was sunny, the lake was shining, the birds were singing and Twilight was once again in pitched battle for survival against what looked like a fierce dragon like creature. Zecora brought a hoof to her chin to rub it with an intrigued look on her face. “Well now that is an interesting sight, what is a jabberwock doing out of the forest and it being nowhere near night?”

Fluttershy was behind Zecora and curled up cowering at the sight of the relatively large dragon like monster. Trixie moved over to the shy mare and started trying to sooth her by holding her. Zecora just shook her head sadly as she watched the unicorn get chased by the monster on the far side of the lake, eventually the two disappeared into the woods. Even if they did go to help, they probably wouldn’t be able to do much to assist her or even know where to go as they were too far away to see which way Twilight was now running.

A jabberwock was a dangerous chimera creature to be sure. They had a body like dragons, but thankfully not the size or actual toughness to match a real one. They had powerful fanged jaws in a fish shaped head with whiskers on a long neck; on its head was some small insect styled antenna. Their wing tips and legs ended in painful looking grasping talons like a birds.

“Do you think we should help or get some pony who can? Trixie doesn’t think she can keep running forever.” It wasn’t like Trixie was incredibly worried for Twilight’s safety, that unicorn has likely survived worse. Right now she was more focused on calming down Fluttershy by snuggling the cute mare. “It’ll be okay Fluttershy; no big bad monster is going to hurt you while Trixie is here.”

“I really don’t like dragons. Just don’t tell Barb I said that as I actually like her.” Fluttershy whimpered and snuggled into Trixie and her enwrapping comforting hooves. The very sight of a dragon like beast scared her.

“It’s a matter based in fact, I have no idea how we’re to act. Our friend Twilight is magically strong; to think that creature has any resilience to magic is wrong.” Zecora knew a thing or two about animals far and wide in the world. Even if this was the first time she has actually seen one, she has heard more than enough to know a unicorn can use magic against it easily enough.

“Do you think Twilight knows that?” Trixie continued to pet Fluttershy gently, the shy mare looked particularly distraught about this.

“We’ve studied all kinds of creatures together Trixie, I’m sure she’ll be okay. She’s always getting into dangerous situations all the time. Can you two walk me home so I can get my medical kit though? I have a feeling she might need it soon.” Fluttershy felt bad about not confronting the creature immediately, but they didn’t have any idea which direction Twilight would be running when she entered the forest on the far side of the lake.

“It is a good course of action to which I can agree. Maybe it is best we should get Twilight when she lands and flee.” The two mares were about to ask Zecora what she meant, only for Twilight fall out of the sky covered in scrapes, a few shallow cuts and breathing like she has just ran a marathon. The mare had tumbled along the ground until she came to a stop near them staring up at them pleadingly. “Now that you see what I mean, it’s about time we became the shoulder on which she can lean.”

Trixie quickly released Fluttershy from the cuddle and focused her horn on Twilight to lift the mare into the air. They all set off in the opposite direction from where they last saw the jabberwock. A little while after this incident Fluttershy was patching up Twilight from her minor injuries and small flesh wounds.

“Are you okay Twilight?” Fluttershy continued to gently patch up the purple unicorn with Trixie’s help.

“I’m okay; I just accidentally woke up that jabberwock. They are really sensitive about their whiskers apparently.” Twilight really wondered how she and Tress keep getting into these messes during very seemingly simple jobs. All she had to do was pick a few specific flowers for Roseluck and then leave. It seemed that sometimes even the simplest jobs she receives get very dangerous in a variety of random ways.

“So you were flying with the gravity spell again I see, Trixie still thinks you need to work on the landings as you’ve only done it once.” It wasn’t that Trixie was jealous Twilight could fall sideways in a unique fashion to appear as if she was flying. She was only slightly envious and figured the poor purple pony needed some cool abilities to make up for all the insanity.

“There is something of the Trouble Takers I must ask; the mayor of Ponyville has given me a task.” Zecora was going to eventually see Twilight about this and now seemed like a good time. Twilight just nodded. “Can you assist me with aid on telling a story of the night, one that brings to many foals, fillies and colts a fright? The special illusionary powder for the performance I won’t have time to mix, do you have the ability to create illusions as a fix?”

Twilight turned to Trixie with a bright cheery toothily wide smile, job finished in half a second. That was a new record.

Trixie wilted as this meant trouble in the foreseeable future if Twilight had a penchant for evil tendencies like Tress did. She’d still do it as it was her special talent and she wasn’t going let some half baked illusionist perform in her town while she was still fit to put on a show.

Author's Notes:

Only half baked illusionists, Pinkie is a fully baked illusionist of the highest order.

72

Lyra plucked away at the strings of her lyre as she sat on the street corner with her coin box, living on the kindness of strangers was always something that made her feel that her music was appreciated. She was playing a small tune that she truly liked and hoped that others liked it as well. Tress came up to Lyra and sat down and listened to the tune, this was soon followed by Bonbon. The music playing mare only played the song once more and then upon finishing she opened her eyes to the sound of two ponies applauding, seeing as one of them was Bonbon her cheeks went hot.

Bonbon smiled at Lyra before placing a few bits in her box and then she went about her way, while Tress stayed behind with lyrist.

“So what’s that little bit of music called?” Tress had nothing to do; she already spent some time with Rainbow at the dojo. The fantastic flyer was getting better at taking a hit and would soon lose the glass to her cannon.

“A griffon named Medley taught me that one; she said it was about awakening winds.” Lyra sighed and played it again, it was calm tune that felt like a soft breeze blowing through the air with a fluttering leaf. After she finished she turned to Tress with a question on the tip of her tongue.

“Did you need something Heartstrings?” Tress tilted her head and flicked her ears in an attentive manner. Tress pulled out a coin and tossed it into Lyra’s coin box. “One bit for your thoughts? I’m listening.”

“Actually yes, I’ve been meaning to ask you something. It’s just kind of hard to ask, but how do you live with Twilight Sparkle? I mean how do you get along with her and stay her friend while living in the same house as she does? Doesn’t anything that happens between the two of you ever get awkward? Doesn’t all the stuff she drags you into ever make you think of striking it out on your own.” In truth Lyra was asking because she wanted to move in with Bonbon and she wanted to learn from a mare that’s got some experience sharing a space with another pony. “It’s just been bugging me that you two can share a space so easily. Also how did you end up living with her and why do you even still do?”

“Well what can I tell you? Twilight’s family took me and gave me a home and I don’t exactly have any other family to go to. I really don’t like to talk about it.” Tress watched as Lyra cringed at bringing up her lack of a family. “Why I still continue to live with Twilight is because she’s my best friend and I like being around her to see what happens next. Maybe I also have a protective streak with my closer friends who all now reside in Ponyville. It’s not always perfect and things can get awkward, it just doesn’t happen often enough. In fact it was her friendship that kind of helped me out of a bad place. Would you believe I used to be a somewhat chronically depressed super villain with very little in life that could truly ever make me happy except getting the stuffing beat out of me?”

“I can tell you now that your special talent is not acting, though being a super villain in a play sounds like something you could pull off. You got the evil cackle down extremely well that it’d send shivers down the spine of a pony that didn’t know the real you.” Lyra didn’t know why Tress looked at her with a bit of a sad smile. “Though having a nice mane does go a long way to having a good stage presence I must admit.”

“Yeah plays… the real me.” Tress rubbed the back of her head with a hoof slightly ruffling her shimmering light blue hair.

“I guess it was easy for you to get a job doing something like that, so were you adopted by Twilight’s family?” Lyra noticed Tress’s body language got even more uncomfortable.

“I was never in an orphanage to be adopted. Where I come from the laws are slightly different, also I had to run a hair styling empire after my families untimely demise. It put a lot of stress on me and it wasn’t until later that I met Twilight and truly started to feel alive again instead of going through the motions.” In oh so many words that she was a comic book character that was destined to be beaten into submission for the rest of her life by costumed weirdoes, ones with no real social lives due in part to all the crime fighting. All the while her sanity would have continued to slip further into the depths, then some purple hooves wrapped around her in comfort and it all changed. “I left everything I’ve ever had behind after meeting her. The Sparkle family took me in with open hooves and almost shoved delicious cookies down my throat. To say Twilight's parents liked anyone who legitimately becomes their daughter’s friend is putting it lightly. Fluttershy is always getting hugs from Twilight’s mother Velvet and they’ve even referenced me as the daughter they’ve always had that sadly went missing for ten or so years.”

“Have you ever thought of going back? Sounds like you were wealthy and I know you’re doing well enough now, but don’t you ever miss being in charge or all that money you left behind as well?” Lyra never thought Tress seemed all too wealthy. She’s only heard from Octavia and Rarity that Tress had worked with Fleur De Lis who was that supermodel that had recently married the philanthropist Fancy Pants.

“I had no money when I started living with the Sparkle family, as I said I left it all behind and I mean absolutely everything. I don’t really have anything that I would want to go back for; I’m truly wealthier for just having good friends and family. Money can get you a lot of stuff, but it can’t buy true happiness. Besides that form of currency is not viable here anyway.” Equestrian currency and Maretropolis currency were two entirely different things. Even if Tress had brought some of that currency over into this world, it would have been pretty useless. “I don’t want to live through having to run a company again after all the stress it put on me, I kind of hurt myself pretty badly because of it. Good thing it wasn’t a permanent injury.”

“You must be from Prance or something given your looks. Are you sure you’re right about currency not buying happiness? I wouldn’t want to pay Bonbon to like me or just buy her love outright. Ponies try it all the time with chocolates or roses, it’s become a truly common way to show affection by buying those two items. One of which Bonbon already produces and the other her friend grows. Basically ponies spend money on the other ponies they like and it almost seems like they’re trying to buy love with those tokens of affection which requires aforementioned money.” It was the beginning of an argument of whether true love was dead or not, Lyra really wondered if these thoughts occurred because of Cadence imprisoning herself. “If it makes a pony happy that you bought flowers that won’t last very long or chocolates that will get them fat if they are liked for their looks… doesn’t it seem kind of counterproductive to actual true love? Especially if said love is based on what your partner can get or do for you? Sure there must be some effort involved in the relationship, but it seems like there’s always requirements and conditions. Can’t a pony just unconditionally love another without pointless trinkets? Can you imagine if I trotted up to Rarity and told her point blank that her idea of love was asinine? Especially if she’s basing them on some poorly written romance novels about vampire ponies called Dawn.”

“So this is a philosophical question about how you should approach Bonbon with the fact that you like her more than a friend, despite the fact that she already knows? This aside from the debate of whether or not love has truly become a commodity that can be bought with money by association of trying to win over a pony’s heart with a mass of gifts. I’m pretty sure Chrysalis would love to hear that gilded lilies will get her love. Now that I think about, it already has… sort of.” A changeling would jump at the chance to buy love in bulk, so would a succubus for that matter. Their methods of feeding may seem similar but were actually quite different. Tress would find it humorous to see who would be the higher bidder in an auction war between those two races. She may even see something like that happening from just being around Twilight long enough. “Just please don’t get Rarity started. She’s already bad at matchmaking as it is, we don’t need to point out her failures of getting a date with her absurdly high standards in place.”

“I can even play music while we’re discussing it too. I want the love I feel for Bonbon to be pure, even using my talent in music would be buying her love in a different way. It would be because of something I can do and not for who I am even if it is technically a part of me.” Lyra knew Bonbon liked her and wanted the relationship, she didn’t want to court Bonbon in a way that other ponies would and she wasn’t sure if Bonbon would go for it. She knew Bonbon was already okay with a mare liking her and didn’t mind a lyrist that had some eccentricities. Still if she didn’t want to eat grass and wanted some fine tasting produce she better start producing herself, she started playing another tune on her lyre. “Do you actually see a pony marrying one who lives off the land and doesn’t have a single bit to their name? It seems to me that a pretty pony could have anyone they want and treat them like dirt just because they are rich, they’ll even get away with treating others like dirt too.”

“Is this coming from seeing it happen to some pony else or is it the personal experience where a pony stole a previous fancy of yours?” Now things were on the other hoof as Tress saw Lyra wince and hugged her lyre tightly. “Ouch, I guess that answers my question. Kind of says a lot about Princess Cadence. How can she truly be the princess of love? She has to know what love is like considering she had at least been given some unconditional love at least one point in her life right? At least she’s seen her own mistakes and is willing to take responsibility for her actions.”

“Speaking of unconditional love, isn’t romance about physical attraction? Wouldn’t that mean my love for Bonbon is all based in her form instead of just for who she is? She has cute ears and her body is quite nice to look at. If that was all I cared about then I’d be hurting her and I would never want to do that.” Lyra could somehow match her lyre playing to her mood; it was a somber tone.

“Well you can’t perfectly love everything about her, that’s why you need to start dating her to figure out what it is that you like and dislike about her. Just because you don’t like something about her doesn’t mean you can’t tolerate it and still love her.” Tress was pretty sure she wasn’t the pony to go to about this kind of thing. “I’m beginning to think Heartstrings is a prophetic family name considering you're plucking at the strings in your own heart.”

“Tress has a point Lyra; you can’t possibly love every single little thing about me. Blind love would be equally false if you don’t test the waters even a little, though it’s kind of sweet that you think you’re unworthy of a rather ordinary normal pony like me.” Bonbon leaned in and kissed Lyra’s cheek. It caused the lyrist to play a few weird notes and faint, Bonbon giggled into her hooves at the sight. She had been standing behind the lyre player after doing some light shopping while listening in to their conversation.

“Laying it on a bit thick there eh Bonnie?” Tress received a completely unapologetic smile for her query. “Well now you’ll have to deal with her, I wash my hooves of this situation.”

“Can’t you at least help me wake her up first? I’m willing to tolerate all of her eccentricities if she’s willing to tolerate mine.” Bonbon’s voice was one of those weird things about her and it was a thing ponies in Ponyville got used to, no pony other than Lyra would actually say it was an attractive feature.

“Tolerating each other isn’t the problem here; it’s being able to do it in an enclosed environment for long periods of time.” Tress started poking Lyra with a stick she found nearby. Derpy eventually appeared carrying a small box and opened it to reveal a small amount of smelling salts and she held it under Lyra’s nose causing the mare to immediately jerk awake.

“Thanks Derpy, do you always carry a small box of smelling salts on you?” Bonbon received a cheerful walled eyed smile as the mare snapped the box close and flew off without a word. “I’ll take that as a yes. It must be useful to have that stuff on hoof at all times if your prospective life partner keeps fainting on you. So Lyra, do you want to go on a date with me?”

Lyra fainted again while murmuring an answer while throwing her hooves up in the air before losing consciousness once more.

“Just be aware that unicorns can be a lot trouble. I live with one so I would know, I guess it’s probably no worse than the crazy ponies living here anyway.” Tress motioned to all of Ponyville with a single wide sweep of her hoof.

73

It was a cloudy day and Tress watched as the world passed below her as she carefully glided through the air on the power of her mane alone. Flying right next to her was Smart who was instructing her on hang glider dynamics that the pixie had memorized for these hair gliding lessons. Jumping off a cliff before would not have been as exhilarating as it felt now.

“We’ve been doing this for about an hour now. You still have to show up for the running of the leaves you know!” Smart yelled to make sure Tress heard her.

“Thanks for reminding me. I guess my fun had to end sometime.” Tress didn’t turn her head and tilted it to the right slightly, her body slowly turned to float towards the lake. She was not ready to land on hard ground yet; it was even a bit problematic trying to find thermal updrafts to gain some height.

“Welcome to our final descent of T. Ravel Airlines this is you’re captain Smart speaking, after an hour of getting plenty of lift with your mane you are now coming in for landing. Please remember to pull up into a stall to slowly float toward the ground or water at your discretion and thank you for flying air hair!” Smart thought she was being so cutesy with her commentary.

Tress alighted and flailed her four hooves slightly at the air as she splashed down into some shallow water safely. She slowly paddled to the shore sighing at the wistful memories of swinging across the cityscape with her mane and tail. Even when she was insane she had had a lot of fun being the Mane-iac and would one day soon recover that side of herself. It was the side of her with an entirely different cutie mark; it meant that special talents or destinies weren’t exactly set in stone if your mark could change like hers had. She wondered if she even still had that other cutie mark hidden away in her powers.

“Come on slowpoke, you can dry off while you’re running or you can have Twilight wring you out.” Smart flew off leaving a trail of energy heading towards where the race was being held.

Winning was not the true goal of the race; it was knocking the leaves out of the trees with the thunderous pounding of many hooves against the road.

Tress slowly started off after Smart, idly thinking of how it felt to glide through the air with the greatest of ease. She wondered if she could flap her mane to fly. Well stability was a big issue if she was going to be flapping her mane awkwardly, there was her body mass and weight to think of and it wasn’t feasible or even worthwhile to try it when gliding was faster and easier to learn. She should also consider using her hair as a parachute when she needed to fall straight down.

“Can we talk for a moment Tress?” The voice of Chrysalis drew Tress out of her reverie. The changeling was sitting on a tree branch with an unusually large monarch butterfly on her shoulder. The bug pony fluttered her way to the ground, her blue mane was now longer and she looked particularly healthy today with no visible mauling wounds.

“Hey Maul Me Sign, where’ve you been lately?” It had been a while since Chrysalis had somehow got mangled on her way back into their lives. “Is that the pet Fluttershy found for you? Looks docile enough and here I thought everything mauled you.”

“Where I’ve been is why I wanted to talk with you and possibly a few other ponies. Other than that Fluttershy found out what would make ideal pets for a changeling and I’m still trying to get over what happened with the Platypus before she did. That will always be the most traumatizing moment in my life bar none.” Chrysalis smiled when the butterfly on her back gave off a tiny almost indecipherable chirp in sympathy. “Apparently arthropods, arachnids and etcetera based creatures don’t hate changelings. My very friendly little pet here isn’t what I was expecting but I’m happy about it.”

“You do realize monarch butterflies only live for a short time right?” Tress knew once the changeling started following you around she wouldn’t leave until she’s at least said her piece or became bored.

“Not if they happen to be a familiar like your cat is, it’ll live about as long as I can and is not a regular monarch butterfly. It’s a giant monarch butterfly, they live much longer.” Funny, Chrysalis could almost taste shock coming off of Tress at that declaration. Maybe she didn’t know Pal was her familiar? Ah well, at least she does now.

“So what did you want to tell me or any pony for that matter specifically?” Tress was already on the path through the woods for today’s event, it wasn’t a big holiday but it was still pretty important. “You may want to hurry with that because I’ve got a race to get to.”

“I’ll give you the quick version then, celestial guards have been living in Ponyville scouting out for the elements of harmony. So far they’ve identified three and only need two more and one of those two being scouted out right now is Fluttershy as the element of kindness. They are having problems with finding the element of loyalty as Rainbow, Vinyl, Twilight and you are the current suspected elements of loyalty.” Chrysalis thought it was weird that this was of no surprise to Tress; she didn’t think she’d ever understand ponies completely.

“So Twilight was right, Celestia has already started in on her plan. I’m surprised the quasi immortal sun controller doesn’t have a backup plan in case things go horribly wrong, then again she’s a notable chess master and life is her favorite chess board.” Taking in the odd look from the changeling Tress decided to elaborate. “It’s what Twilight said and that’s taking into consideration the last nine hundred plus years of pony history where no pony or being otherwise has managed to depose her.”

“Sure she may be good at handling known blatantly loud threats, but I doubt she’d see a changeling attack coming before it’s too late.” It didn’t seem like it, but changelings were major information brokers and could find out anything even given their sometimes clumsy methods of infiltration.

“Thank you for sharing this with me, we’ll discuss it later.” Tress trotted up to the ponies who signed up for the race with Chrysalis following after a burst of green flames.

“Well, there is one other thing though. I have a few changelings looking into the Scootaloo case you started and never finished. We found out lots of interesting tidbits about her that the enchanted toy didn’t and it was hard even getting what little we know.” Receiving an intrigued look in her direction, Chrysalis smiled faintly with her dark Fluttershy doppelganger face. “Fluttershy didn’t want to give up on finding out stuff about Scootaloo and asked us to help her with it. She ironically didn’t want the Trouble Takers to get into trouble which is basically your modus operandi.”

“Can you tell us after the race? It’ll be starting soon.” Turning back to the other ponies Tress saw Twilight waiting with a group of other ponies.

“Sure thing, I’m racing as well. I think I’ve been gaining a little too much weight from all the good feelings around here recently and could stand to lose a few pounds of emotionally heavy fat.” Chrysalis slapped a number on her flank and followed Tress.

“Hey Tress how was your hang gliding session with Smart? Did everything go alright? You look slightly damp. Here I’ll take care of it.” With a flick of her horn Twilight separated a mass of water from Tress’s body and tossed it aside.

“Thanks Radiance, it was really fun. So how many of our friends are going to be doing the run?” The answer to Tress’s question was made clear by the numbers other ponies had on their flanks.

Every earth pony in Ponyville was going to do some running. A few unicorns and a pegasus or two wanted to join in as well. Even Lyra ran up to them on her hind legs bouncing on them with giddy excitement as a grumpy Bonbon followed her in the natural pony form of locomotion.

“Do you think Roseluck and Noteworthy are together? That’s almost like say Daisy and Lily have a thing because they are easily panicked. Well more so Lily anyway, though I think her and Daisy would fit together if they were like that. I swear Daisy, Rose and Lily are all instigators of their own panic attacks.” It appeared Rarity was having a nice conversation with Octavia.

“So you’ll let me rent out your balloon so that I can follow the race with a microphone. Wahoo, the mayor will be happy that I can do my job of helping with the event. Now all I need is a partner to help me commentate. Hmm, hey Fluttershy do you want to ride shotgun, okay great!” Pinkie was renting Cherry Berry's balloon. The hyperactive mare grabbed Fluttershy and leapt into the balloon without pause or even waiting for an answer. “Okay ponies time to round up and spread the leaves today! My guest speaker with me here is Fluttershy. Say hi to every pony that is watching us with all of their attention Fluttershy.”

“H-hi every pony, have fun and please don’t get hurt.” Fluttershy squeaked and ducked down in the balloon shivering. Pinkie gently patted Fluttershy on the head and got the balloon started; at least Fluttershy would have a good view of the race and had a medical kit on hoof if things went wrong.

“Fluttershy really could stand to be a little less shy.” Rainbow shook her head in exasperation as she made her way to the starting line.

“What can you do Rainbow, she wouldn’t be the mare we all liked if she ever stopped being so adorable.” Twilight knew she wasn’t going to be doing so well in the pack as she wasn’t the most athletic of mares, in comparison to some pony like Applejack who had both the endurance and stamina for this.

“I hear that sister.” Chrysalis liked how Fluttershy acted; it made it really fun to feed off of her overly friendly emotions.

“Come on guys, quiet down. I need to get into the zone.” Tress was trotting in place and started stretching out her legs.

“Easy for you to say, you’ve got longer legs than most ponies here. At least I know you don’t have the stamina to keep running full tilt for too long sugar cube.” Applejack was also stretching out; she along with every pony else turned to the mayor who walked up with her assistants. “I’m guessing it’s time to line up.”

“Hello every pony and welcome to Ponyville’s annual running of the leaves. If any pony gets hurt we’ll have medics on the scene to immediately deal with any injuries, Pinkie Pie will be making sure things are safe on the trail. Now get ready to start, three, two, one… GO!” At the sound of the mayor’s voice telling them to start, the racing ponies were all off into a slow gallop causing a thunderous noise that shook the ground.

The end result of the race was that Tress made second, Twilight got seventh, Rainbow was third as running wasn’t her thing, Applejack was first place due in part to her massive stamina. Octavia was surprisingly fourth place, Lyra came in twentieth which was impressive for a mare that was running on two legs, Bonbon was fifth just ahead of Lily who was freaked out into sixth by a spider holding a flower up to her.

Chrysalis took her dear sweet time with finishing as she was enjoying nature with her pet giant butterfly; she wasn’t in last place. That belonged to Time Turner who was chased off the path by what he called an evil statue that he had to take care of before he could finish.

“So you had something to tell us Chrysalis?” Twilight dragged Chrysalis, Fluttershy and Tress off to the side away from the celebrating ponies. The ground all around Ponyville was now covered in leaves.

Chrysalis unloaded the information of the search of element of harmony bearers to the ponies and then she got to what she learned of Scootaloo. The ponies wanted her to tell them something they didn’t already know so she went ahead with it.

“I don’t know if this means much to you but we’ve noticed following around her protectors that she has incredible agility and balance for a little filly. It led to us learning that her inability to fly isn’t due to a wing deficiency.” Chrysalis really didn’t like what was being done to the filly, but she didn’t know the entire story behind it to make a full judgment of the situation. “She may as well be from another world entirely given the level of information blackout protection going on around her. The most disturbing fact we found is that her wings are being clipped to make sure she doesn’t fly; we still don’t know why Celestia is ordering her guards to do that. I can report that no permanent damage has been done to the filly, except possibly emotional damage. We don’t have much more to go on other then the fact that AK Yearling personally leaves her a birthday present every year and reportedly cares deeply about her. We’ll keep you posted if we find out anything else.”

“Well there’s some disturbing news that just ruined my good mood.” Tress along with any pony that heard Chrysalis’s information was not a happy camper with Celestia at the moment.

There had to be a very good reason behind it or even Fluttershy might actually start taking drastic action to protect Scootaloo from whatever was going on around her.

Author's Notes:

The plot thickens... does anyone want the oatmeal I'm making from all this?

Also do you want me to skip slightly ahead to Nightmare Moon after Nightmare Night or do I go into an arc involving a trip to Saddle Arabia? I think I may do the Saddle Arabia thing anyway.

74

It was a new day and still quite a few days before Nightmare Night, the mystery of Scootaloo was still running fresh in Twilight’s mind as she sat down to breakfast. Why would Celestia want to prevent the filly from flying, it was hardly noticeable that they were in fact clipped and quite expertly at that. She didn’t want her friends to draw any attention to the fact that they knew why she couldn’t fly.

They didn’t want to draw attention to the clipped wings quite yet or at all. One reason would be because Scootaloo would get mad when she learned of the reason why she couldn’t fly and might do something drastic. The filly could end up hurting herself or spiral into a depressed state. Who knew what the celestial guards, much less Celestia herself, would do if it brought too much attention to itself publically. Then there were possibly unknown parties that would probably take advantage of the information.

“Huh, if the parties are unknown how am I supposed to throw them then?” Pinkie said wonderingly as she stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth, she giggled when Twilight face hoofed.

“Pinkie how many times do we have to tell you? You can’t read minds!” Though Twilight acknowledged that Pinkie was good at guessing what one was thinking in an eerie fashion. Twilight saw her Pinkie Sense as a viable super power aside from her odd physiology that runs on ninety percent unleaded raw sugar.

“But I can read stories, a lot of them end up with me doing a lot of strange things with Dashie though. Still don’t understand what they mean by the horizontal monster mash when it comes to being stuffed into a sandwich between Rainbow and Applejack while smothered in melted cheese. Some writers are just weird like that.” Pinkie wondered why it seemed like Twilight was ignoring her. Maybe it was because she got past all those really tough defensive enchantments on the house? The unicorn might also be upset that she can circumnavigate the universe by dividing by herself. Shrugging Pinkie started eating the meal that was supposed to be for Tress, it was yummy and her Pinkie Sense said it was okay to eat it.

“Barb, where’s Tress?” Twilight took notice of the absence of one of her favorite manes and in its place was one that was almost impossible to fix without magic, which was the cotton candy styled mop on Pinkie’s head.

“She went to the library to read up on something, I think it had to do with being familiar or something. Anyway what are you doing today mom? I was going to go over to Sweet Apple Acres to play with Apple Bloom, maybe swing by Rarity’s boutique and play with Sweetie Belle some too.” Barb finished her sapphire encrusted pancakes before she continued. “At least you’ll know where I am in case of an emergency and those happen to you more often than it does to me.”

“Reminds me of the time you got a bucket stuck on your head, in true Sparkle fashion no less. You do your family proud Barb.” Twilight ruffled her daughter’s mane innocently while trying to think of what she was going to do today. “I guess I’m going to take a walk around Ponyville, maybe see if Lyra is causing an incident by helping Bonbon make candy. Did you need anything Pinkie?”

“Well, I did want to have you taste test some of my new products I’m going to try and sell at Sugar Cube Corner.” Pinkie looked up at the ceiling with a smile.

“Sounds good to me, but no hot sauce related cupcakes as I already know what liquid rainbow tastes like after an incident with a cherry filled burrito. So don’t put any stuff like that on something or I’m not eating it, I swear your sense of taste is weird.” Twilight didn’t have a taste for the spicier south of the border fare; she heard that ponies have just started building Appleloosa from Applejack and it sounded like they were further southwest then Dodge Junction was.

“That’s why I need your help Twilight. I also don’t know what liquid rainbow tastes like, but you do certainly make it sound super spicy! Gee, I guess this means a no on the volcano mouth cupcakes though.” Smiling brightly Pinkie bounced around in a little circle before hopping for the front door, all the while humming a merry tune.

“So do you have any costume ideas for Nightmare Night Barb? I just want to know what my little girl is going as, it was hard enough to convince Fluttershy to chaperone all those fillies and colts given she doesn’t like the holiday.” Twilight knew Fluttershy tended to stay indoors on Nightmare Night, at least her dad kept her friend company on those nights the shy pony lived with her family.

“You used Scootaloo going around town alone as an excuse to get her to chaperone didn’t you? Anyway I’m going as a shield maiden and was wondering if you could braid my hair for it, Rarity already promised she’d make my costume.” Receiving an interesting smile from her mother, Barb wondered why it made her so happy. Oh right… she forgot her mother would immediately jump on the chance to play with her hair and she just offered. She was swept into a hug and cuddled for a few moments by her squealing mother.

“So I may have used Scootaloo to get Fluttershy out and about on Nightmare Night. Just be mindful of her and make sure she doesn’t have a breakdown as you’ll be going along with her group.” Twilight soon set out with Pinkie Pie to do some taste testing.

It wasn’t hard for ponies of Ponyville to find Twilight nowadays, especially in the case of an emergency. It wasn’t unusual for the townsfolk to try and keep track of her because she was always getting into more trouble than even Ponyville could stir up on its own.

Sugar Cube Corner was a nice pastry shop and a very social snack factory. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were busy with many other ponies when they walked in. Twilight had always thought Mrs. Cake’s hair looked like a dollop of frosting and these two ponies were master bakers to be able to keep up with so many orders.

“Wouldn't it be weird if the Cakes were masters at fishing because then they’d be…” Pinkie immediately received a hoof in her mouth before she could get the punch line off. Being glared at by Twilight was no fun, after a moment she released Pinkie’s mouth. “At least I’ll know whether or not if Berry getting off occurs because Colgate will have a big belly after a few months.”

“Pinkie Pie, I have no idea what you’re talking about and I really don’t want to know. Can we just get this over with?” Watching the pink pony zip off Twilight wondered what was going on. Soon Pinkie came back with a large sign with the words ‘The End of Twilight’s Mane Passion’ written on it and held it up. It was not held at her, but the ceiling. “Pinkie the sign isn’t even grammatically correct. It’s supposed to be M A I N, not M A N E and why would my passion for helping others end?”

“Well you wanted to get this over with didn’t you?” Pinkie just didn’t understand Twilight, did she want the story to end before any of the other future stuff happened in it or not?

“I wanted us to get started with the taste testing.” Twilight spoke blandly in a flat and even tone. Pinkie smiled sheepishly at the air, this confused Twilight as the pink pony quickly threw the sign into the abyss that was known as off the side of the screen.

“Wow, you’re being so flip floppy today. Fine, I’ll get to shaking and baking. Please wait here, I’ll be right back with the snacks, I hope you’re still somewhat hungry.” Pinkie just shook her head and went to go make the new sellable snacks she wanted Twilight to test.

“I’ll never understand that hyperactive mare completely.” Twilight mumbled as she watched other ponies gather into groups at tables and talked about how things were going and their plans for the day. Even Derpy was here talking with Carrot top about a refrigerator while eating a muffin.

“Okay first taste test, can you tell me what this tastes like?” Pinkie plopped down what looked like a blob of caramel.

Twilight inspected the blob from all sides by levitating it in front of her and then she bit into it and hummed quietly.

“Taste like a Neigh Day, except much chewier and a bit nuttier. It’s a bit too chewy and tough.” Twilight continued to chew the chunk still in her mouth; it took her a minute to even swallow it.

“Its candy corn clusters, caramel melted around peanuts and candy corn. No pony in Ponyville is allergic to nuts so I’ll think it’ll be a hit on Nightmare Night, that is if I can get it to be a softer and with less nuts. Reminds me of how Mr. Cake keeps asking Mrs. Cake to play with his nuts, they’re assorted by the way with plenty of filberts, pistachio and cashews. They really must like making art with nuts as a hobby. Now try this.” Once again Pinkie tended to ignore the things she was saying as having any other meaning then what it sounded like.

Twilight took up the provided spoon and scooped up what looked to be cheese cake and popped it into her mouth, it most certainly wasn’t cheesecake at all. It had a lemony zest to it and was savory while being quite soft like a pudding and a bit creamy.

“It tastes good, not to sweet and I have no idea what I’m eating here.” Twilight continued to eat it regardless as it was tasty.

“It’s a lemon flan. It’s a soft cake that has the slight resemblance of cheesecake; its filling is what really makes it special. It’s always something I wanted to try making. Just one last thing I wanted you to try then you can go do whatever.” Pinkie Pie was happy that two out of three so far were generally well received, now for the third one. She’d work on her homemade candy recipe for Nightmare Night. She would figure it out by then or else she was going to disappoint so many little colts and fillies. She went off once again to get the last item, when she brought it back she knew Twilight would like this one.

“Pinkie it’s a cupcake. You always make cupcakes; in fact you make hundreds in a given day. I already know what they taste like.” Twilight was skeptical of the cupcake sitting before her.

“Well that’s what it may seem like to you, but it’s no ordinary cupcake!” Declaring it with enthusiasm Pinkie crouched down next to her good friend and watched as Twilight just stared at it. After a moment the unicorn finally shrugged lifted it up and bit it in half, chewing slightly and having some of her face covered in a small amount of grape and blueberry filling.

“Wow, Pinkie what do you call this? It’s delicious.” Twilight immediately took to the other half with fervor. “What’s in it?”

“It’s my fruit blaster cupcake, the party that’s in your mouth. The butter cream frosting on top has some pureed raspberry and strawberry in the mix. The cupcake itself has some blueberry and grape jam inside of it and the cupcake dough was mixed with pure apple juice.” Pinkie was happy that this new cupcake was such a hit with Twilight as she pulled out her own and bit into it; it had blackberry and date jam instead. “They’re very modifiable too; you just have to ask for what you want on it and in it as long as supplies last. Thanks for helping me taste test stuff Twilight, I’m sure to make some extra money for the Cakes. They are planning on having foals and I want them to have plenty of money to take care of the bundles of joy the stork will bring.”

“No problem Pinkie and that’s really sweet of you, pun somewhat intended. Now I’ve got to go see if Lyra is as bad a cook as me and Sweetie Belle.” Twilight hastily left Sugar Cube Corner; she did not want to be the one to have 'the talk' with Pinkie… ever. She trotted down the street and into Bonbon’s candy shop. Bonbon had to have been busy as Nightmare Night was a large increase in sales for candy shop owners.

“Oh hey it’s Twilight, maybe she can clear this up. Tell me, does this gingerbread human really look so odd to you?” Lyra magically lifted a gingerbread cookie for her friend to take a look at it.

“A little, but I’m not the expert on humans here. So have you had any huge problems cooking anything?” Twilight just might start a support group for unicorns that had problems with cooking.

“Nope, though we did have a small problem with making some chocolate. I’m a pretty decent cook otherwise except for that small problem.” Lyra looked thoughtful for a moment and Bonbon nudged her roughly. “Okay I’ll ask since she’s here, How do you go about getting rid of an animated blob of living liquid chocolate that keeps calling itself The Foodge? It was getting chocolate everywhere until we stuffed it into a pot.”

“Ask Pinkie to deal with it when she gets off work. Bonbon don’t ever let Lyra help you with making chocolate anymore. Unicorns have a problem where they can’t cook a lot of things or can only cook certain things, it doesn’t seem to be too prevalent in Lyra but I think we’ve just found out that she can’t work with chocolate. It’s a thing that’s been going on with unicorns long since even before the Hearths Warming Eve tale of how the three tribes came together.” Twilight decided to order some candy for Smart to hoof out while she was here.

Author's Notes:

The fourth wall ceases to exist wherever Pinkie treads.

"Yeppers it sure does, want a cupcake?"

Sure, thank... wait a minute...

Nevermind, false alarm, I'm just going to eat a cupcake now.

75

It was early morning of the day of Nightmare Night, Fluttershy got out bed with trepidation. She could already tell today was going to be just one of those days. She immediately started off by feeding and caring for her animals and then she’d bathe. Breakfast was a simple affair and she had her Nightmare Night costume already, all she needed to do was put it on later.

Now it was just waiting for the preparations to be complete in town for the evening festivities and then Fluttershy would have to chaperone a group of little ponies including her friend’s sisters, daughter and Scootaloo. It was just on a night where horrific memories of dragons still haunted her, nothing to truly worry about. She knew Twilight forced her hoof and that she was too shy to say she really didn’t want to leave her comfortable safe home this night, she wasn’t about to disappoint all the children she said she would chaperone.

Why oh why did Fluttershy ever let herself get talked into this? She wanted Scootaloo to enjoy the holiday even if it was at the cost of her own personal happiness. It was worth the price of facing some mental scarring from that night long ago, what were the chances it would happen again anyway? The fire, ponies running and screaming alongside all the horrors of that frightful night still burned into her memory.

Fluttershy would soon take Scootaloo over to Twilight’s home because she promised the filly could have a costume that would let her look like Rainbow Dash. Twilight would make her look like Rainbow’s little sister, a plan involving this suddenly popped up in Fluttershy’s head. It might not be a completely nice idea and would probably upset the celestial guards watching Scootaloo, but Fluttershy could hide a disguised filly in plain sight until she was capable of flying again. Fluttershy would have her move into the cottage for an extensively long sleepover. The more Fluttershy thought about it, the more it sounded like a good idea.

In town Tress was having a rather slow morning. Twilight was going to unveil their costumes and she wondered what Radiance had in store for her. Knowing Twilight it was going to be something of interest. Twilight had asked for her to wait in the living room and she already saw Barb with her costume.

Barb was there wearing a flowing white dress with a blue headband that had decorative white feathered wings sticking up out of it and her hair was hanging down her back in a large single braid. She was wielding a fire resistant wood shield that could double as a discus, it was fire resistant as Twilight didn’t want any accidents to occur tonight and if her daughter needed to sneeze she’d do it into the shield.

“So what do you think is taking mom so long?” Barb was curious as to what kind of costume her mother had planned and asked Rarity about it. The fashion master told Barb that she had sworn to keep it a secret.

“Don’t know, but she has a lot of business today with several ponies before we can leave. We need to help poor Rarity out with the rest of her costumes. She’s not missing this Nightmare Night due to fatigue because of last minute orders now that we’re here to help her, Fluttershy is good at sewing and it kind of helps that she’s stitched up Chrysalis a few times. At least we know who’s going to be the best zombie pony in the costume contest.” A knock at the door and Tress sent her tail hair to open it and quickly pulled it back after she had accomplished the task with relative ease. “Hey Zecora, come on in! We’re waiting on Twilight to finish putting on her costume; she says she’s going to be wearing it all day and she’s yet to show me the one she got for me. So why are you here, enjoying the festivities as well?"

“I’m here on an appointment for my hair, for tonight Twilight will have it looking quite good with flair. Though I will miss the Mohawk that is my style, I’m sure Twilight can return it back to being itself after a while.” Zecora reach up and ran a hoof through her mane. She preferred her short hair standing straight up, she’d miss it somewhat this night getting into the spirit of things with the costumes all the other ponies would be wearing. “If she has a problem with making hair short, then a problem this may court.”

“She doesn’t have a problem with giving ponies what they ask… wow.” Tress’s pupils grew wide. Her mouth opened slightly, followed by her ears going straight up in attention, a tail lifted a few centimeters, a heart that started beating a little bit faster and a slightly darker hue that dusted the pink fur along the mare’s cheeks. The thing that caused this reaction was Twilight suddenly making a descent down the stairs; she was wearing a Power Ponies costume for Nightmare Night and it was an almost exact replica of Radiance’s from the comic. It really flattered Twilight’s form and Rarity did good work with a few minor adjustments to make the costume almost shine.

Barb for her part was also happily soaked in her mom’s appearance, she had always liked Radiance as a character and it wasn’t just because Radiance’s costume was covered in tasty looking crystals.

Twilight floated a costume in front of Tress earning her attention; the costume that Tress was to wear was also familiar very looking. Twilight noted that Tress had tears in her eyes as she reverently took the costume made for her in a hoof and made her way up the stairs to go put it on.

“That costume seemed to be of basic attire, why did it create that reaction in Tress if I am to inquire?” Zecora took in the whimsical look upon Twilight’s face as she motioned for the zebra to follow her.

“Let’s just say it’s nostalgia at work Zecora, now come on. I think it’s time a zebra got a taste of the hair growth formula she helped make. You’ve got such a lovely feeling mane, I guess I can understand that having it long might distract you from you’re work or it could mess up your potion making.” Twilight led Zecora into the bathroom, she was always happy to play with a willing friend’s mane or tail. “You wouldn’t have the time to take care of it living in the Ever Free Forest as you do, so you’re mane style is quite sensible in that regard aside from cultural reasons.”

“Only on special nights can a bit of vanity be good, otherwise I like my short hair and hood.” Zecora emphasized this by taking off her cloak and stepping into the bathtub, a lot of ponies knew how Twilight operates when it comes to her Trims business. Zecora was no different when she was tired of smelling like the Ever Free Forest, she would come to her friend’s house just to bathe instead of just going to a river as talking to Twilight always made it feel like a worthwhile trip.

Already the zebra could feel the unicorn lathering her mane up. Her tail was long enough already, so Twilight would only give it some style and would wash it with a shampoo that didn’t have the growth formula in it.

Zecora closed her eyes and dreamed of days past where her mother took great care of her, she was just happy to be where she was now and with a pet tapir no less. Seeing the world was something that she enjoyed vastly and she had found her place in it, especially when she has found friends that treated her well like this. The sensation of her hair growing out was hard to recognize, but it was somewhat euphoric when she did feel it. Interesting side effect, but it wasn’t a bad one.

“Um, do you mind if I keep some of the hair I’m about to trim off? I know it may seem weird Zecora, but I like to ask my friends this question and surprisingly no pony has been put off by it yet.” Twilight only asked because she didn’t want to ever upset any of her friends that she had a thing for saving the cut hair. It was one of the small things about Twilight that none of her friends thought of as a big problem. She wasn’t doing anything wrong with the hair she cut and it made a good reminder of the friends that trusted her with their manes.

“Are you a collector of manes and tails as a fetish? That explains so much about your talent with hairstyling that seems a bit… coquettish.” Zecora smiled at the big blush that came across Twilight’s face, she chuckled dryly to herself as her friend was so easy to embarrass.

“Oh it’s nothing like that. It’s just I have a mild attraction to anything between short and wiry manes and tails to beautiful thick luscious long ones; it kind of varies from pony to pony though. For instance I’m not really attracted to Rarity’s mane.” Twilight saw the look on the zebra’s face in the mirror that was disbelieving as she combed out her floor length mane with an incredible tenderness. “Well at least I know I don’t feel anything too deeply about it, I just really like doing this kind of thing. You’re mane is really quite silky when you let it grow out.”

“Our friendship I will certainly not batter, my trimmed hair you can keep as to me it’s of no matter.” Zecora didn’t even mind the scissors going to work after her mane was styled into a center parting. After it was quickly trimmed; she had to admit long hair on her looked rather fetching. “Every pony you meet might have at least one vice; I would be willing to do this again since as a friend you are always so nice.”

Twilight tilted her head downwards blushing again, was she really that good with styling and making ponies feel good? She made sure she was finished with Zecora who was smiling in the mirror at her own appearance; the zebra certainly looked good with a long mane even if it wasn’t to her preference.

“Well we’re done for now, later on I can cut it back into your original style. Sleepover for the night and I’ll do it almost first thing in the morning.” Twilight received a nod from her friend. They set out into the living room to find Barb opening the door to introduce Fluttershy and Scootaloo into their humble abode. “Hello you two, what can I do for you today?”

“Fluttershy said you can give me a Rainbow Dash costume!” Scootaloo yelled enthusiastically fluttering her buzzing wings rapidly in excitement.

“Can you make it so even her own celestial guards won’t even recognize her please? I managed to evade them with Chrysalis’s help and I really want to see Scootaloo fly, so maybe if we can keep her away from them and scrutiny long enough...” Fluttershy thought Chrysalis was becoming oddly receptive to requests, at least from those who were honestly her close friends at least. She whispered this into Twilight’s ears in the hopes to have her plan carry out.

“Yeah, I can do that Fluttershy. Come on Scootaloo, I’ll see to you immediately. So have you given any thought’s to how you want the colors to flow? I’m not about to make you an exactly a copy of Rainbow, we wouldn’t be able to tell you two apart then.” After her slightly sarcastic comment on Rainbow’s intelligence matching that of a little filly’s, Twilight stopped on the way to the bathroom to witness Tress coming out wearing her costume. “What do you think of Rarity’s work Tress?”

Upon walking into the living room Tress saw Zecora and her new crowning glory. She gave a small whistle that caused the zebra to blush at the attention. She turned to Fluttershy who was acting rather skittish at the moment; then again it was understandable as she really didn’t like Nightmare Night for some reason.

“So what’s your costume Fluttershy?” Tress already knew what Zecora was going to be wearing and wondered what the shy mare would be dressed as, just in case there is any trouble this night and she needed to protect the poor mare. Things were never quiet for long in Ponyville, especially not if Twilight could help it and while currently dressed as a hero.

“Um… I’m going as a-a…” Fluttershy’s voice hit an all time low; she really didn’t like Nightmare Night, but she put on a brave face and answered clearly if in a whisper. “I’m going as a turtle.”

“I bet you’ll be the most adorable turtle ever, I feel kind of sorry that we’ll never get you out of your shell though.” Tress would admit that she missed some things from her world, every mare and stallion with super powers always got nice looking costumes. Twilight was no different as she really sold the jewels in her mane and tail, not to mention across the entire Radiance costume.

Fluttershy giggled lightly at the jab at her shyness, Ponyville was a place where ponies always cheered her up faster then she could get frightened or depressed. Maybe tonight wouldn’t go so horribly for her after all!

Author's Notes:

Late easter post... yeah, no rabbits or eggs. Though I've had some easter chocolate and it was a delicious gooey marshmallow centered chocolate eggs and seperate from that giant marshamallows also shaped like eggs, also fried eggs for breakfast with spam. Lovely and wonderful it was.

Here we find out that not only is Tress possibly masochistic for sticking it out this long with Twilight, she might have a thing for tight fitting hero and villain related costumes.

76

It was midday; things were going quite well with the setup for Nightmare Night. Fluttershy was wearing her turtle costume now and it was about as fully functional as a real turtle shell was as she spent her time with Scootaloo who was excited about all the free candy she was getting tonight looking like a variation of Rainbow Dash wearing a small Wonder Bolts outfit. Things were going perfectly well for these ponies.

Inversely Twilight and Tress had just been seen by Rainbow helping set up the decorations.

“Hey guys, nice Radiance costume Twilight. Who are you supposed to be Tress?” Rainbow was receiving a flat look from Tress who had transformed her mane and eyes for the costume and Twilight helped her with her coat coloring.

“I’m supposed to be The Mane-iac. You know that villain from the same comic series?” There was a slight tic in Tress’s eyes as she said this.

“Funny, you don’t look a thing like her, except you're a mare.” Rainbow was oblivious to the sudden scene of Twilight moving closer to the real Mane-iac as she flew off to continue setting up decorations.

“Don’t Tress, just don’t. It’s not worth the mental agony.” Twilight ran a hoof up and down Tress’s back in an attempt to calm her down, it actually worked pretty well.

“But I am Mane-iac.” Tress said solemnly in a quiet voice as her mane wilted. All the while Fluttershy and Scootaloo waited patiently for them to be finish their private conversation; the little filly was more interested in watching Rainbow help with the decorations.

“My family knows, Fluttershy knows and we know, but does Rainbow Dash really need to know? We have no idea how every pony would even react to you being a comic book character, do you truly want the entire town to bother you about it?” Twilight just watched as Tress brightened up at the fact that she was being silly.

“Yeah I guess it would be kind of silly to get depressed because my costume isn’t exactly a costume.” Why should Tress Ravel get all bent out of shape because of Rainbow Dash anyway? Well aside from the fact that she was something of an attention seeker until she met Twilight and was in fact the real Mane-iac using the appearance of herself as a costume for Nightmare Night.

“Tonight is the night of pretend Tress, just be you and not in a literal sense of the costume you’re supposedly wearing. Fluttershy let’s go, we still need to help Rarity out if she’s to enjoy the holiday with the rest of us.” Twilight quickly got Fluttershy’s attention and the shy pony scooped up Scootaloo and followed them towards the Carousel Boutique. They could tell it was crowded even at a distance.

“Wow, Rarity’s business looks really busy maybe we should come back…” Fluttershy couldn’t retreat too far and stuffed her entire body into the shell when she felt a head impact with her butt. She immediately took notice that it was Tress that started to shove her towards the boutique from inside the shell.

“She’s really not into crowds is she?” Scootaloo asked of Twilight, she thought the older unicorn mare was cool for making her look like Rainbow Dash and the Wonder Bolts costume was a nice touch.

“You don’t know the half of it; she really doesn’t like Nightmare Night either and she’s only willing to chaperone because she doesn’t want to upset all the other children she’ll be taking around tonight. Move over Tress, I got her.” Twilight levitated the shell costume into the air and a pair of eyes looked pleadingly at her from within the shell where Fluttershy’s head was supposed to poke out of.

“Guess I wasn’t kidding about the shell thing. It looks like Rarity really needs our help and we’re not going to let her tire herself out are we? Think about all the fun she’ll miss and how she needs to get out more as those romance novels are wrecking her brain, forcing her to pine away for the life she wishes she could be leading. Can you imagine the devastated look on her face if she misses spending time with others like you Fluttershy? She needs us to stay sane Fluttershy; do you want her insanity on your conscience?” Tress thought being dramatic would get Fluttershy out of her shell, with a pop Fluttershy did in fact return to walking status immediately under the weight of a guilt trip.

“O-okay… let’s go.” Fluttershy moved as quickly as she could in the turtle costume while trying not to think about the crowd as they came closer.

“So what’s Zecora doing? I already understand that you three are going to be helping Rarity, while me and Scootaloo play with Sweetie.” It was just a curiosity to Barb as to why Zecora had wandered off.

“She’s going to be learning her lines for the story of Nightmare Night; she has to talk it over with the mayor for a bit. Of course we all know she’s going to find some way to tell the story in rhyme. When we’re done here you are going to stay here with Fluttershy. I and Tress have some business with Trixie for the story Zecora has to tell. We know where a statue that looks like Nightmare Moon is and we need to fill in the colors for the imagery so the performance can be the best that it can be.” Twilight took in the line of ponies waiting at the door as they walked towards the boutique; they met with Octavia and Vinyl exiting the store in their costumes. Octavia looked cute as a vampire; here Twilight thought Vinyl would be the vampire pony and realized that it made more sense for her to be the wolf pony. They acknowledged each other as they passed going in opposite directions.

“Why hello there darlings, do please come in. Sorry about the crowd, why I’m positively swamped today finishing off all these wonderful costumes. Sweetie Belle some of your friends are here for you to play with! I swear I’m the one raising my sister at times with how often my parents keep running off all over the place.” It was apparent that Rarity needed help and she wasn’t about to ask for it or deny it if she were asked if she needed any.

“We’ll make sure you you’re not overloaded Rarity, come on girls let’s lend a helping hoof. What do you need us to do Rarity?” Watching the fashion pony sigh in contentment at not needing to ask for help, Twilight waited patiently for her to start giving orders and she wasn’t disappointed.

Rarity soon started barking orders to each of them. She was pleasantly surprised to find out that Fluttershy had made her own turtle costume. It was a perfectly tough and lightweight costume, despite looking heavier than it actually is and the wing holes were the only thing that made it looked different from a normal turtle shell. She had Fluttershy work on some sewing she needed done, Tress was given the job of hoofing out finished costumes and giving them to ponies from a list and Twilight was soon assisting Rarity by levitating materials to her as she rapidly worked to give every single pony the costumes they wanted.

It had taken a few hours and they were finished, it was still daylight out and the night had yet begun to fall. It was about time Twilight and Tress set out to assist Trixie in getting Nightmare Moon’s appearance down. They found Trixie assisting Pinkie Pie into a frog costume and Trixie was actually wearing something other than her purple hat and cape for once.

“Why a frog costume?” Tress earned both the mares attention at the question.

“I’ve always liked amphibious and reptilian things you know; besides it’ll help me get through world three much easier. Trixie is going as a witch and I wanted to be her faithful frog companion, maybe I should have been a toady. Other than that why not? My parents would never get me a pet cragadile though I said I could handle one.” After saying this and seeing that the costume wouldn’t be put on any other way, Pinkie got her two legs out of the thing and simply slapped the costume into her face. In a cloud of blinding smoke she was wearing the costume perfectly and bouncing around happily and jumping much higher then she should be capable of normally.

“Trixie does not know how she did that when we were having so much trouble getting it on her in the first place. Trixie assumes you’re finally here to help Trixie with the imagery of the illusions for the telling of that tale?” Not waiting for an answer the witch dressed Trixie just turned her nose into the air in a proud manner. “Then let us depart with my faithful frog suited pink one to see this statue.”

A little later in the woods they found a statue of Nightmare Moon, no pony knew who had put it there or why it was even there in the first place. It was just sitting around Whitetail Woods and it was a perfectly apt appearance of Luna as Nightmare Moon. One would even question that if Luna was only Nightmare Moon for about thirty to forty minutes then how did someone get enough time to sculpt a perfect likeness of her? Especially if not many ponies were around for her fight with Celestia.

“Trixie wonders who made such fine statue, it looks much like the face in the moon and yes you two have warned Trixie that Nightmare Moon is coming in the next or so Summer Sun Celebration. Trixie will be ready to assist you in battle and is training for it. Trixie will defend Trixie’s home and all of Trixie’s friends, but that is only should your plans fall through Twilight.” Trixie believed in Twilight’s capabilities well enough as a jack of all kinds of weird and wonderful magic spells. It was to be noted by her that Twilight was hard pressed to master any spell unless she worked at it as hard as she could, otherwise Twilight’s talent would be quite powerful if it were focused to just one school of magic as shown with her prowess in the complex field of enchantments. As an example Trixie imagined she could master thirteen different illusions and have them all going at once doing completely different things, whereas in the same time it would take Twilight to even do one with equal levels of complexity.

“That’s rather brave of you Trixie. If Twilight’s first three plans don’t work we’ll count on your aid to help bring her down without killing her.” Because Tress knew it was much safer to create a battle herd against an all powerful goddess like being than it was to face her alone. A pony that could keep Nightmare Moon distracted enough that she couldn’t use her more devastating spells would help a lot, especially if she’s misaiming them at illusions as strong as the ones this show off of a mare could make.

“Thank you, Trixie will try Trixie’s best to help when the time comes. Now will you help Trixie, making a grey illusionary image is boring and it needs some color.” Trixie’s horn sprang to life and in front of them was an illusion made from the appearance of the statue, but it was standing up and looking at them in a creepy manner.

“Wow, look at black snooty! You're making her look really nice and stoned Trixie.” Pinkie hopped up to the illusion and made silly faces at it only for it to snort angrily at her spooking her away from it. She heard Trixie giggling a bit into a hoof at her actions.

“Well let’s see…” Twilight started rattling off descriptions and color about Nightmare Moon’s appearance. She had a black coat, flowing blue white speckled starry mane reminiscent of the night sky, dark purple and blue cutie mark, slightly draconic wings, blue green draconic eyes with slits and finally the regalia colors. After looking up from her notes Twilight blinked in awe at a perfect representation of what looked like a real pony standing before her.

“One last thing Trixie needs… how is Trixie to give voice to this apparition?” Now that was a good question as Trixie didn’t know how to do an evil voice or laugh, she noticed that both Pinkie and Twilight were staring at Tress.

“What?” Asked Tress innocently as she noticed three ponies were now staring at her, a moment later she realized why they were staring. “Let me guess, the use of my evil cackling and the voice I sometimes use in the laboratory me and Twilight share?”

“Trixie didn’t want to say anything, but…” The party magician known as Trixie was looking anywhere but at Tress at this moment.

“Well if you didn’t want to say something, then why did you say that?” Now Pinkie was confused, this would lead to some trouble if it wasn’t put a stop to and soon. “I mean if we all go around saying things we didn’t want to then we would…”

“Fine, I assume you need some examples of my evil voice to get it just right?” The pink pony was cut off from continuing by Tress who cleared her throat and then burst out with her evil cackle. Twilight, Pinkie and Trixie shivered at the remarkably eerie deranged laughter. “Fools, I hope you know who you are dealing with! I will make the night last forever for I am Nightmare Moon!”

“G-great d-d-delivery, Trixie thinks that w-will be enough of a sample for the illusion.” Trixie was shivering and now fearing for her life should Tress ever become Nightmare Moon.

Author's Notes:

We've all learned something this chapter, it's easy to guilt Fluttershy into doing things.

Not that I don't have a point about the existence of the Nightmare Moon statue...

77

Nightmare Night has just begun and every little filly and colt were out hunting for sweet tasty treats. The only pony who was upset by Nightmare Night was Colgate, being the town’s personal dentist it was understandable.

Tress watched as ponies ran around having fun, the holiday’s spooky theme was a friendly atmosphere for her. It was nice to look like her alter ego for one night and a few ponies even recognized her costume as much they did Twilight’s Radiance costume.

At least Tress wasn’t a forgotten character in the annals of time. She split away from Twilight to just enjoy the festivities in the surrounding area.

Tress started bobbing for apples for starters; she did want to get to some of the other games of skill that were taking place in the square. She eventually saw Rainbow spooking a few ponies with a cloud causing a booming thunder noise when she snuck up behind them.

Shaking her head, Tress moved over behind Rainbow in a loud and completely unconcealed manner and wondered what the mare was wearing as a costume. It looked like Rainbow was wearing one of those little red devil costumes. It was humorous looking with Rainbow’s feathered wings; though the two horns of the costumes head were pretty fitting given what the mare was currently doing.

“Rainbow what do you…?” Somehow Tress spooked Rainbow and got a face full of lightning; she blinked a bit and then continued on with her body feeling slightly tingly. “Think you are doing? Thanks for that by the way.”

“What, oh sorry about that Tress, you kind of startled me there. Huh, at least you look okay from the near miss.” Once she turned around Rainbow revealed that she even had a fake goatee as part of her costume. She was looking down at a perfectly fine Tress and could have sworn a lightning bolt struck her; at least she could continue to say that no pony got physically hurt during her pranks. “I’m scaring ponies of course; it’s all in good fun for this night right?”

“Right… well I’ll leave you to scaring that giant monster that just landed on your cloud, one that you apparently don’t need any help with.” Tress walked on lazily, she felt a shift in her body and didn’t want to look panicked. She needed a secluded place to see if what she was feeling was true.

Rainbow turned around to see what Tress was talking about and yelped. She fell off of her cloud and flummoxed around on the ground until the horrifying visage suddenly disappeared much to her confusion.

“Trixie thinks it’s worth forty points for scaring Rainbow Dash.” Trixie smiled to the Pinkie who was already erasing something on a chalkboard to put down the new scare score.

“Nice one Trixie, you’re really good at this. Come on Dash, you’ll have to try harder than that. Tress didn’t look scared at all and she’s the one that scared you and she’s not even playing the game.” Pinkie was running a small scare off competition. She had to be present and noted of the ponies that are to be scared for their reactions to judge how many points are deserved for the scare. The prize was a free large fruit blaster cupcake made to order.

Tress quickly left the festival and found a secluded spot in the Whitetail Woods at the edge of town; she felt really strange and decided to force a pulse of her energy through her entire body. She let off a yelp and curled up into a ball feeling very weird; soon she was in a full blown panic from what was happening.

Thirty minutes later with Twilight Sparkle, things were in full swing. She saw Fluttershy pass by with a large group of fillies and colts along with her daughter. At least Fluttershy looked to be doing slightly better. She could already see Rainbow, Pinkie, Trixie and a few others were out scaring other ponies as a game. There was Rarity sporting a nice if simple angel costume and looked to be enjoying the night instead of missing out on it.

Stopping at a refreshments stand, Twilight bought two bottles of honeyed cider from Applejack and decided to look around for Tress. She was oddly absent from the area amongst her other meandering friends. Maybe she could ask Bonbon, if Twilight remembered right she was the pony in the candy corn costume. She easily saw Bonbon and Lyra in the crowd. Lyra looked pretty interesting with the monocle, top hat and cane. Those were some strange things to add to a peanut costume.

“Hey Bonbon have you seen Tress? She’s wearing a Power Ponies costume, specifically the villain Mane-iac from one of the earlier issues.” Twilight received a puzzled look from Bonbon and it looks like she was trying to think of when she last saw Tress.

“Green hair, livid colored coat and that purple suit? Yeah, I think Derpy said something about her not looking to well and heading for Whitetail Woods and told me to tell you about it. You might want to try there.” Stepping out of the way Lyra watched as Twilight set off to see what was wrong with Tress.

As long as Twilight has known Tress she has never gotten sick, her immune system was too tough and her regenerative properties also bolstered her immunity to all kinds of sicknesses. That Tress wasn’t looking good set off alarms in Twilight’s head.

Coming to the edge of Whitetail Woods and the town Twilight stopped and saw a few trees lying around that looked to have been ripped from the ground. There was quite a bit of destruction to the general area, decimated trees, destroyed bushes and divots ripped from the ground everywhere. What had happened here? She slowly started to follow the damage as it led away from Ponyville.

While Twilight didn’t know what was happening to Tress, it was apparent she avoided going back to town for a good reason. She stowed away her two bottles of cider and followed the trail of destruction.

After a few minutes she came upon the sight of Mane-iac going nuts and destroying the surrounding trees and scaring off the woodland critters in the area. So far it seemed like she avoided killing anything or even injuring any animals, however her thrashing hair was still a hazard to go near.

“Tress, what’s going on with you?” Calling out to her was the first thing Twilight thought to do. She watched as Tress turned to her with a pained look in her eyes. She was much larger then she previously was and it appears that she had hit full Mane-iac transformation as her suit was stretched out almost to its limits.

“Twilight, please stay back. I can’t exactly control myself at the moment, Rainbow was flying around with a cloud scaring ponies and she shot me with some lightning.” Tress’s voice was rather quiet despite the thrashing her mane and tail was doing to the clearing she was standing in the middle of. “It was apparently enough for me to fully transform.”

“Are you in any pain?” Twilight stayed right where she is watching as her friend struggle to get her wild hair under control. “What are you feeling right now?”

“No, but my entire body feels really itchy and it has been a few years since I’ve been this big.” Mane-iac was trying to pin her own mane to the ground to stop it from lashing out at things around her, she was quickly tangling herself into large green bush made entirely out of hair. “Not that you haven’t noticed that my hair is also refusing to cooperate with me. I’m feeling everything and pretty bad about all this destruction that I’m causing if that’s what you’re asking about. Can you find a way to help me get all of this under control?”

Twilight frowned when a bit of Mane-iac’s hair shot up slapping herself in the face. Tress whimpered slightly even as she continued to try and keep her mane under control. Twilight stood there and watched as her friend twisted and rolled trying to tangle her mane on purpose. One decidedly painful moment was when Tress’s hair whipped across her own flank viciously and tore through a portion of her costume; it revealed a cutie mark that wasn’t Tress’s normal one at all. Twilight didn’t know what that particular cutie mark represented, but it was certainly interesting. She’d look into it later, Tress was in trouble!

“Hold on Tress, I think I might have an idea of how to help you!” Twilight just standing there watching her friend struggle like this was making her feel horrible.

“While I like the feel of my own mane and tail, I wouldn’t mind if you went ahead with it instead of just talking about it!” Tress tried to get to her hooves and only managed to push herself away from Twilight when her hair struck out at the purple mare.

“Right, I’m sorry Tress.” Twilight lit her horn and blasted Tress with a spell; soon all of the wildly shifting hair slowly calmed down and went slightly limp if still actively shifting on its own. “The hair type alteration spell, I’m so glad it worked.”

“I’m glad too even though it really didn’t do all too much to stop my mane entirely, I feel much better. This may take a while to untangle.” Tress lifted some of her currently less than unruly locks above her head showing that her tail and mane were tangled together and she looked to be quite the mess covered in dirt and mud. Her legs were mostly tangled up in the hair as well making her unable to move.

“Can you wait here while I go get a few brushes and combs for all of this?” Receiving an angry glare from her best friend, Twilight gave her a small sympathetic smile. “I guess I’ll carry you home then Tress. Do have any idea why your hair went so crazy?”

“I have no clue except it has something to do with my full transformation. Also could you avoid any other ponies? It’s going to be hard enough explaining how I grew to my current size if I can’t change back.” Sighing as she floated into the air, Tress relaxed at the feel of Twilight’s magic encompassing her. After a moment she recognized that her body still itched like crazy. “Darn it why am I feeling so itchy?”

Turning back to Tress, Twilight cast a diagnostics spell on her and got a good look at what was going on with her friend. After a moment Twilight blinked in confusion, Tress’s body was now fully transformed into her Mane-iac form. She couldn’t figure out why Tress’s mane might have been thrashing about, her entire body was perfectly fine if she wasn’t currently feeling any pain.

“Well you did have a huge growth spurt. You’re skin stretched out grew more coating that wasn’t previously there; your mane has doubled in thickness. Everything inside you, bones, muscles and the like have all increased in size as well and you’re low on energy. I assume all of it is going into your current full bodied transformation.” Twilight reached up with her hooves and wrapped them around a crying Tress’s neck. “It’ll be alright Tress at least no pony was hurt except for you; I’ll help you keep your mane under control and then we’ll see if you can transform back to your smaller self.”

“Thank you Radiance.” Mane-iac looked weary from fighting with her own mane, her hair felt awful now… wait… she could actually feel her mane again? She had forgotten what this had felt like and it feels so strange to feel her mane again, in fact she could even feel her coat as well. “You have no idea how much that understates my gratitude. I think I might have an idea as to why my mane went crazy, but I’ll tell you when we get home.”

With all the ponies out enjoying Nightmare Night, it didn’t look so odd for Tress to appear as she did. They made it back to the house without a second glance and they met Smart at the door and Palatable was immediately there whining and meowing while looking up at his master.

“Hello and… whoa what happened to Tress?” Smart frowned at the sight of Mane-iac so horribly tangled up in her own mane.

“I’ll give you the memories later.” Twilight quickly levitated Tress up towards the bathroom ahead of her. “You keep hoofing out candy Smart, this really isn’t something to worry about too much, I hope.”

“Well now that we’re here, will you help me untangle this mess that my hair raising experience caused?” Feeling herself get being sat down gently, Tress looked at Twilight who got out a bunch of combs and brushes. Twilight started to magically work her out of the tangled heap she was in. “The problem here is I have forgotten how it felt to feel my hair. You have no idea how weird it is to feel all of this, I guess I can handle it due in part to how my brain and eyes work.”

“So you’re mane went crazy because you could suddenly feel all of it when you’re body transformed? So you started panicking and then you’re hair did the same thing reacting to how you felt, is that what happened?” Not hearing a response Twilight continued to work out the tangles of her friends mane, she was going to need a good washing after this. “You wouldn’t happen to have some untangling shampoo by any chance?”

“Actually I do, but I’ll wait until you’re finished untangling my limbs first. It’s not just my mane and tail either; I can feel every inch of my coat as well. It feels both comforting and creepy to have this sensation back again. To think I once missed this so much.” Tress would spend the rest of the evening with Twilight getting untangled, then she would transform back to being Tress Ravel to prove that she still could. The Nightmare Night festival was already winding down by the time Tress finished bathing.

Zecora arrived at the Sparkle residence to find her friends drinking bottles of cider in the moonlight while staring up at the visage on the moon.

Author's Notes:

The Mane-iac is reborn, she's still not at full strength though. When she get's to that point, Whoa Nelly wouldn't begin to describe what she'll be capable of then.

Sorry it's taking so long, but I've been playing EDF 2025 recently and I've had to catch up on my youtube backlogs and everything. I've also slept for fourteen hours straight, but that's actually normal for me.

78

“How are you feeling Tress?” Twilight was immediately interested in her friend’s state of mind as she walked into the kitchen.

“Morose, ugh last night was hard on me. Thanks for helping me calm down Twilight.” Tress rolled her head and a few cricks could be heard snapping as she stretched out her hooves.

“Yeah, about that… my spell only had about a fourth the normal effect on you. It was actually like my spell was mostly just a placebo.” The super powered mare just stared at her and Twilight didn’t have the heart to finish saying what was on her mind, but she would anyway. Friends don’t keep friends in the dark when they truly needed to know something. “My spell was supposed to loosen the tension of your hair, what actually happened was that I loosened up your emotions. The only reason why the spell had any effect at all is that you believed it would and therefore it did.”

“Loosened my emotions how exactly?” Tress seemed to take the news very well; even Barb and Zecora were taking an interest in this conversation. Looking at Zecora her hair was restyled to how it was before.

“Well you’re hair has a mental connection to you that seems to be the cause of your psychosomatic problem last night.” Twilight knew she would always be drawn back to mentally recounting these things, because she’d likely never forget how she got her first friend. “Frankly you were panicking badly last night and you’re hair was reacting to the panic in quite an equally spectacular manner.”

“So of this fact we should always be wary, our friend in full Mane-iac form has a partially mood controlled mane that makes things hairy.” Zecora was kind of amused by this; she could only begin to guess the problems Tress had surrounding her abilities. Twilight would know more about it then she would. “Twilight was targeting your hair to loosen your tension, instead it hit your emotions as she did just mention.”

“Well that’s nothing new to you Tress; it’s just going to take you a while to get used to fully being Mane-iac again. Am I right?” Barb could be pretty insightful when she wanted to be.

“Have you ever tried riding a bicycle, after having broken all your legs on it before? Even if I can transform I might be currently averse to doing so.” Tress looked to Barb, Twilight and Zecora with a stern gaze. “Especially in a small room like this, with three friends I wouldn’t be able to handle the guilt of hurting.”

“It’s okay Tress; you’re doing pretty well in the control department so far. At least I hope you’re as equally forgiving of me for manipulating your emotions by accident.” Twilight really didn’t like the sound of anything that could be closely related to mind control. If you controlled another pony’s emotions it didn’t necessarily control that pony entirely. Forcing a pony to feel angry? They could have that tranquil fury directed at you unknowingly. Forcing them to feel calm would end in the same way; it depends on how the pony determines the use of said forced emotion. “That’s the very reason I went off on Cadence for and here I am doing the same thing.”

“No you’re not, that magic lasted all of a split second. It had no real staying power and it did what it set out to do. I completely forgive you for stopping me from killing anything and just in general getting horribly violent with everything around me.” After a moment of Tress mentioning that, the two ponies, zebra and dragon sitting at the table just started laughing a bit. After hearing a grumbling sound, Tress acquired a sheepish blush on her face. “So… I guess it’s my turn to make breakfast then? I’m thinking egg drop soup today or as it should be known egg flower soup.”

Ten minutes later, a vegetable broth was made with whisked eggs and some rice for extra texture. Tress had made some really good soup that they all enjoyed equally, even if it required a bit of watering down for her friends because the flavor was a bit strong. Tress liked the heavy flavor personally, it had quite a zing to it with a little soy sauce mixed in.

“This is another reason I want you to forgive me Tress, without you around I’d only have Barb to rely on to cook everything.” It wasn’t that Twilight hated her daughters cooking; it’s just that she doesn’t innovate half as well as Tress does. Not to mention Tress adds a definite bit of variety to the mix with some foreign cooking every now and then.

“Ah, this recipe on my own I may have to try, maybe some eggs from Fluttershy I could buy?” It was definitely a thought; Zecora never tried making her own foreign delights for her friends and this soup recipe looked pretty easy to make.

“You know that sounds like a great idea Zecora, we should have a foreign food festival where we can all try new things!” Everyone slowly turned towards Pinkie and glared at her suddenly appearing amongst them still wearing her frog costume. To be honest Pinkie still didn’t know how to remove it. “What? Is now not a good time? Hold on, let me check the script, I’ll be back in a minute to see what I missed.”

“How does she keep getting into the house when every available entrance is blocked off? I even made sure she couldn’t even get in through the toilets. I swear she’s an earth pony with unicorn abilities aside from her Pinkie Sense super power, she has got to be teleporting when we’re not looking.” This just rankled Twilight, even if she was the one sitting here assuming there was at least one abnormal pony in all of Ponyville that would ever bother with the front door. Zecora didn’t count as she didn’t technically have a true residence in Ponyville.

“Getting into your home should be especially hard without permission; it is clearly improbable with the enchantments you put on as an addition.” Zecora knew a thing or two about enchantments and that there were more ways to perform magic then with just a horn on your noggin. “Pinkie Pie is a companion of yours, causing you headaches is something of which she obviously never bores.”

“Pinkie, that’s right!” Pinkie hopped in while striking a silly pose in her frog suit. Tress lifted a hoof and slugged Pinkie across the head and in a puff of smoke her Nightmare Night costume disappeared. “Wahoo freedom from the frog oppression suit! Thank you Tress and the word thingy that told me exactly what to say to annoy you hard enough to get hoofed so hard to the point that I…”

Pinkie fell to the floor out cold after her eyes rolled up into her head and Tress had a somewhat sickening satisfied smile on her face. They may have been friends, but Pinkie was getting so annoying that even Zecora was asking Tress to cold cock Pinkie with her eyes. The zebra nodded solemnly at the out cold crazy pony on the floor.

“Is it always the violent option with you Tress?” Deadpanned Twilight, she looked down at the knocked out Pinkie and wondered what they should do with her. Eh, they’d take her back to Sugar Cube Corner later, the Cakes could actually use some private time without a Pinkie Pie interruption.

“Well duh, I’m not exactly the brains behind the Trouble Takers even if I can match you in intellect at times.” Thinking about it Tress figured she was pretty much even with Twilight mentally in most scenarios. “In any case, are you saying you wanted her to continue for another minute? You hate raising your voice and Pinkie wasn’t obviously going to stop until you got to that really shrill pitched yell. It’s usually the third one you do when you get really mad in the most adorable manner. All of that may or may not involve a face hoof in the interim and I was saving you the pain of having to slap yourself.”

“Okay, so you have a good point there Tress. Pinkie is annoying and I was in fact on the way to another face hoof. I will not deny that the method used to quiet her was effective and at least it didn’t seem to leave a bruise.” Twilight decided to compromise so they could move on with their lives. Pinkie was an earth pony, so Twilight thought she should be able to take a punch just like any earth pony would.

“Can we go for a walk this day; I wish to celebrate the time before winter comes this way.” It made Zecora happy that they could go for a walk to see the leaves after they’ve finished eating the rather delectable soup.

Walking through the woods, things were peaceful as they passed by the spot Tress had trashed. The mare in question looked away from the damage feeling exceptionally shy about the minor devastation she caused. They just took to walking the trail around Ponyville; they breathed the fresh air and felt the grass beneath their hooves as they wandered.

“Those Cakes certainly know how to make a food buffet and it tasted great. Funnily enough I thought Pinkie would ruin them getting together again like she always does.” Chrysalis looked to have a distended belly which was a first for her and she was idly talking to her giant monarch butterfly. The butterfly stopped for a moment to flutter a small circle around Twilight’s head before continuing after her owner. “Yeah, I don’t have any business with them today my pet. It’s always fun to see friends enjoying nature as well, when said nature is not mauling me that is.”

“Well that never bodes well, you do know what they say about a butterfly that flaps its wings right?” Now that Twilight thought of it, things always happened around Fluttershy to conspire against her every time she tries to fly. The butterflies for a cutie mark were not very subtle in the slightest, especially for a pony that attracted chaos and was a friend like Twilight.

“So, countdown from ten and something weird happens because the butterfly took great interest in you on a moment’s notice?” Tress wouldn’t be surprised if something did happen.

“Trouble is not always so spry, not that you two don’t seek it like it constantly falls from the sky.” There wasn’t always going to be trouble around just because those two thought there would be and Zecora knew that they weren’t that unlucky.

“I guess, I’m going to need some training to get my Mane-iac form back under control.” Tress turned to Twilight with an interesting sparkle appearing in her eyes. “How do you suggest we do that?”

“Well we’d have to test the limits of your abilities as they are, then we continue to test them away from every pony in different environments and levels of danger.” In fact, now that it was brought up, Twilight could feel her head filling with idea’s to help Tress out with training and where this training would take place. She was going to be using a lot of barrier spells for it. “I know you can glide and manipulate your hair to grasp, harden and soften. You could even grow out your fur from your hooves and not just you’re mane and tail. You said you could feel all the hair on your body so it makes sense that you’re fur can also grow and retract like the rest of your hair does.”

“If you two need some assistance in that, I would be willing to assist both of you at the drop of a hat.” Even if she didn’t do much at all, Zecora could still be a very good advisor to help train Tress in her rather unique abilities.

Palatable ran up to Tress and hopped onto her back mewling sweetly. He wanted to aid Tress as well, he had felt horrible that his owner had got into some trouble last night and that he wasn’t there to protect her from it.

“So aside from preparing for the return of Nightmare Moon, we’ve got to train your powers even if they are just at minimal capacity for a full transformation.” Twilight did a few mental calculations by waving her hoof in the air. “Also we’d have to keep doing jobs that pay well or else Barb will have to cut back on her snacks and that will undoubtedly make her cranky. If we cut back on her gem snacks we’d have to cut back on things we like too.”

“I can live with that, I can train on the job easily enough.” There was a slight ear flick that meant Tress was less then alright if it cut into her personal exquisite shampoo that she stocks up on. If Nightmare Moon so much as upsets Twilight, dark, moody and mooned was going down and hard. All they had to do was survive until Nightmare Moon actually appeared and that was going to be hard enough as it was.

“So why do ponies think the Ever Free Forest is unnatural Zecora?” Barb was curious as a lot of Ponyville’s ponies seemed to say that forest was unnatural in the occurrences that went on there and she had finally decided to ask.

“The Ever Free is not as unnatural as you modern ponies would think; the fact that ponies are the ones doing unnatural things to their surroundings is what may cause you to blink.” When it came to the Ever Free Forest, Zecora knew better about it. Ponies were always manipulating nature when in the past they never did so as much. It only seemed so unnatural now since they’ve been altering nature to their whims for so long. Wild magic was the only reason why it stayed the way it does free of forced conformation.

Author's Notes:

Twilight mentally recounting the moments when a fully transformed Mane-iac's mane actually matched her mood.

When Twilight first watched the Power Ponies fight Mane-iac she was wild and free like her mane was acting while still under Mane-iac's command.

When Twilight confronts Mane-iac in the shampoo factory her hair was limp and listless like the depressed Mane-iac and reacted to her rage by lashing out at Twilight.

During Nightmare Night where her panic caused her mane to automatically attack her surroundings out of her control.

The Ever Free Forest is Ever Free of conforming to one's will.

Next chapter: And now for something completely different.

79

Standing on the edge of a cliff three figures looked on silently at the vast gorge before them. These three silent figures were wearing cloaks and just staring at the vast gaping maw before them that was on the edge of a vast desert. One was wearing a beige cloak, another a brown cloak and the last one in a royal red cloak.

They just stood there for a few moments and turned around to leave until a sound caused all three of them to pause and turned around, a hoof was seen holding onto the edge of the cliff and a fourth cloaked figure pulled it up to the surprise of the other three. This figure in the dark green cloak was suddenly surrounded by the other three and pulled into a hug.

“How did you survive? We heard you were thrown from the cliff.” Figure two said in complete surprise, she was the one wearing the beige cloak.

“Oh, I was. It’s just too bad the grand vizier who think himself almightier then every other pony really didn’t think to outright kill me himself when he had me cornered at its edge.” The dark green cloaked figure was positively brimming with anger at this vizier. “So what is that despot in his oh so grand wisdom doing now with all of his power?”

“Uh, we’d still like to know how you survive the fall. Other than that it is quite horrible, he is taking any mare that he fancies for himself as personal slaves and is bullying the people into poverty. Eventually he plans to turn one into his personal concubine if he can’t find my charge soon enough.” The first cloaked figure said wearing the brown one. “There have been quite a few injuries and the vizier is just throwing ponies in jail without even the slightest provocation. We are only glad he is unwilling to spread his influence for fear of earning the ire of the sun and love goddesses whom protect their lands with fervor.”

“I hit a ledge ten feet down, it still hurt a lot though and I could use a healers touch. I barely climbed back up on my own.” The dark green cloaked figure was suddenly slammed into by the red cloaked figure and crying could be heard as the red cloak pulled the green cloak closer. “It’s okay my love, we’ll find a way to free your father from that dastardly villain’s clutches. We just need to find some way around his guards and destroy his source of power.”

“Yeah, about that… sneaking in is going to be hard. We need to deal with those guards eventually and they won’t stop searching for your royal lady here. I’d rather solve this problem by working alone, but apparently I can’t do that now and keep you three out of trouble.” The beige robed figure was shorter than the other three present that were all taller by comparison. “We need to lay low, we’ll only last a week out here at best if we stretch what supplies we still have. We could feasibly make it to one of the surrounding oasis outposts and wait there for help.”

“I will not put my charge in danger by taking her near the city again or those who will tell the vizier of her location for a price.” The brown cloaked being was pretty firm on that note if his voice was anything to go by. “Defending my true liege’s daughter is my honor and I will not rest in keeping her safe from harm.”

“Even I in all my cunning am weary and need to recover from my fall.” The dark green cloak spoke slightly grunting in pain putting weight down on one of his hooves.

“Well your royal highness?” The beige cloaked one said to the red cloak that seemed to be staring at the ground with tears slowly dropping from the shadowed hood.

“We need to find help, of that I will not deny. We will go to the nearest place where the vizier has no influence. We need to hire more adventurers like you, our friend, to aid us.” The red cloaked figure pulled out a map and pointed to a spot on it, it was a relatively new little town in the territory of the sun goddess. “We are but a few against a mighty force, these badlands aren’t too far away. We could still make it to this place. Even the loosest lips from the merchants of the sands will not cross the grounds where a buffalo treads.”

“Works for me, I’m not about to fight an entire war even if I’m as cunning as this guy here.” As soon as the beige cloaked figure finished speaking while motioning to the green cloaked one, they all nodded to themselves and set off. Three of them were already missing their home among the dunes, whereas the beige cloaked one knew the situation was far beyond the normal kind of trouble she usually handled.

Tress Ravel and Twilight Sparkle hopped off the train in Appleoosa, they were currently doing a job for Applejack in transporting some seedlings to the distant town in the badlands. They weren’t alone in their travels, Chrysalis needed to check in with the hive to see if everything was going alright with her people. The still growing changeling left her giant monarch butterfly in the care of Fluttershy promising to return to Ponyville as soon as she was done, she was currently between Twilight and Tress in size. Soon she would enter her cocooned state and would be gone for a year, she’d truly miss being able to help out during the Nightmare Moon event.

“Ciao guys, see you tomorrow. I’ve got some friends of mine to discuss how the changes in our policies are doing.” Chrysalis, in the form of the black furred Fluttershy, immediately ran off the minute the train stopped. In her haste she bypassed the earth pony stallion that was waiting to greet the newcomers.

The stallion had heard his cousin Applejack said she hired some respectable mercenaries to bring over some saplings for the little budding town; they hadn’t exactly gotten their apple groves going full tilt yet but they soon would be bringing in good harvests.

“I wonder where that mare was going… well howdy and welcome to APPLEOOSA! The names Braeburn Apple and welcome to our humble little town, I take it you two young things are the ones cousin Applejack sent over?” Brae was shaking hooves with the two before they knew what had happened and found themselves being dragged about the boring little town. He was already in the midst of showing them the most unimportant of events going on.

“That’s nice and all Brae, but we need to get your saplings off the train… you know the one we were just dragged away from.” At least Tress was glad the excited stallion had the decency to blush, she turned around and started walking away. “Come on Twilight. Let’s go get those saplings off before the train decides to depart with them still on it, especially while we’re receiving this rather fascinating two bit tour for free.”

“Sorry about that Brae, but my partner and best friend has a point. If you will excuse us we have a job to do, once we get the trees off we need you to show us where the orchard will be.” Earth pony magic was rather fascinating to Twilight, none of it was harmful to nature and they could accelerate the growth of plants without shortening their lifespan. It wasn’t anywhere near related to Tress’s special talent; if it was then Twilight would be eating daisies for the rest of her life from a large field of flowers. The unfortunate downside would be not having a mane growth formula or the friend that she knew and loved from a different plane of existence, one that lets her dote on such a beautiful lengthy mane.

Tress had already managed to get half the tree’s off by herself, her physical strength definitely wasn’t getting any worse. She slept in her Mane-iac form now; since it slowly generated its own energy build up until it hit the full maximum capacity of which her body could carry. She had about twenty five percent more power in her full Mane-iac form by this point in time. Staying in control of her form really wasn’t that much trouble, though shifting between them took about five seconds. Her body still itched quite a bit to shift, but she was getting over that faster every single time.

Twilight levitated the rest of the somewhat heavy half sized saplings from the train and then turned to Brae with a questioning gaze.

Taking that as an example to show them where they needed these trees, Brae immediately led them to where the apple trees were to be placed. He had a roguish charm to his excitability at seeing the new trees arrive; he even called all of his kin to get started on making their grounds a fruit bearing paradise in the middle of this somewhat arid place. Braeburn had Dark blonde and orange hair with a yellow coat that made him kind of cute looking to Twilight, but Tress wasn’t amused by his painfully giddy demeanor. His single apple cutie mark was kind of boring to look at for the taller mare as well.

Idly Twilight realized that changelings hardly needed water and the best place to put a hive would be a place no pony would normally wish to go. This was probably why Chrysalis didn’t invite them to see her hive, even though she knew she could trust the two of them not to give its location away. It was probably in a place with minimal water as changelings didn’t need as much water as an actual pony to live. In all the time that she knew her, Twilight had never seen Chrysalis so much as drink something from since she was still an average looking changeling to the ambassador of her people she was currently slowly turning into now.

“Well that was nice, how about we hit the saloon and see what they’ve got going on. I’ve heard of western towns in my world having card games and awesome bar brawls.” The soonest they arrived at the bar after a job well done of delivering a bunch of plants, Tress was sadly disappointed at how boring the place was. “Well this is boring.”

“You’re world was built out of nothing but interesting concepts Tress. Not everything in this world has to be as exciting as my family or Ponyville.” Twilight took a seat at the bar and was soon joined by a lazy looking Tress, the bartender quickly popped up with a smile.

“Howdy there, what can I do for ye’ pretty ladies? I’m willing to give ye’ two free ones on the house for the tree delivery, us apples know an honorary family member when we be seeing them.” He was about as accented as every other pony here.

“Actually we’d rather pay for it. We kind of have this friend who is so chronically generous that she’d give you her home if you were homeless and then would proceed to live on the streets happily knowing she did a good deed.” At the thoughts of the fashion pony, Tress chuckled at how much Rarity gave to others at times. She’d almost swear the Rarity was trying to buy off her friends if she didn’t know her so well. “It’s just unfortunate we can barely curb that little problem of hers by forcefully paying her the bits she needs to stay in business. In any case two cold ciders please.”

“Whoa there, no looking a gift from our family in the mouth now! You’re friend sounds like a real nice sort that every pony should know; it’s still on the house though.” The owner of the bar thought these two were too nice for their own good to not accept things given to them freely. Even then both mares placed a bit on the counter, he chuckled dryly at them as he took them.

“It’s a tip for the good service here. Also this town seems to have its fair share of apple related kin around here, willing to talk us into buying another round?” Twilight stated sweetly even if the first one was on the house she still felt bad about not paying it fully. It reminded her way too much of Rarity since Tress bothered to mention her.

“Thank ye’ kindly. Why we apples are a large and loving clan, honest good hard working members each and every last one o’ us. With the few occasions of bad apples every now and then, but even then they are just really grumpy folk. There is nary an apple that will fall that far from the tree without a good reason to do so.” The bartender could really jabber on about the extended family, he only stopped to think about what to say next. “Anything in particular you need to know about the clan, like any o’ the juicy stuff you might have heard in passing? I don’t just provide drinks, I tell stories too! Any good bartender worth their saltlicks knows a good yarn.”

“Could you tell us what happened to Applejack’s parents? She really didn’t like to talk about it much.” The minute she asked that, Tress received the deepest frown she would likely ever see cross the bartenders face.

“Now there’s a story I wish that had never happened. They were good folks; the entire family came together in Smith’s aid when they went.” The bartender swept his hat from his head and a few tears appeared in his eyes. “It’s not a pretty tale to tell two wonderful young gals like yourselves, are you sure you want to hear it?”

“Even if it’s sad, we still want to know about how our friend became like a mother to her own little sister. To truly be an honorary part of the family, we have to take all the good with the bad don’t we?” Even Twilight was curious about this as well and since Tress placed it out there, why not? “You can trust us to handle a sad story.”

“Well now, I guess I better get started. It all started on a warm and sunny day. A bit too warm if you are to be asking me and that was exactly the problem…” The bartender went into his woeful tale of as he dished out two more filled mugs after the mares finished their first and paid for the second round.

Author's Notes:

Just to be a jerk, I'm skipping to Applejack's backstory of how she lost her parents.

Will the four cloaked figures require help from the Trouble Takers and their present tag along Chrysalis?

80

As soon as Twilight and Tress hopped off the train the next day, they were greeted by the constant hat wearing farmer that was their apple focused sadistic work horse of a friend. Chrysalis was looking as chipper ever since she got back from her hive and even followed them in what they did next.

“Hey there you three, how did things go in Appleoosa? I hope good old Brae didn’t annoy Tress too much.” Applejack quickly found herself drawn into a warm hug. Twilight, Tress and even the changeling were hugging her with a strong if gently applied grip. “Whoa, what’s this all about?”

“Just shut up and let us hug you.” Tress said with a tremble in her voice as she continued to cuddle the farm pony.

Applejack was feeling pretty uncomfortable about being snuggled like this. After a moment they released her and swiftly left the train station, leaving behind a confused farm pony that wanted to ask what that was all about.

“Okay, now I need something to get my mind off of that story…” Twilight stood around for a minute in the lazy streets of Ponyville, nothing happened. “You’d think there’d be a problem we could solve almost immediately given we’ve been away for a day.”

“Well I would like to know what the hay all that hugging was about.” Watching them turn around to face her, Applejack idly noticed that Chrysalis had simply wandered off to do who knows what again.

They all figured Chrysalis probably went to pick up her pet with the slightly hypnotic wings from Fluttershy. Said wings were only effective against other animals and had saved Chrysalis from being mauled quite a few times. In fact she hadn’t been mauled in so long Tress has lost the ability to call her ‘maul me sign’ and now resorts to affectionately calling her ‘cheese legs’.

“Well…” Tress started off only to be interrupted by a familiar voice.

“Trixie needs your help, please come with Trixie!” The magician looked harried as she dragged the both of them away from Applejack.

Applejack sighed and turned back towards the road to the farm, she’d ask about it later as she currently had a business to run and had taken some time off to greet them at the station. They were doing quite fine apparently if they were being dragged into something else like that.

Trixie stopped dragging her friends along when she came to a stop near the marketplace. She looked around for something and sighed in relief at not seeing it.

“Trixie wants to get a present for Pinkie, but Trixie doesn’t know what to get! It is of the upmost importance to Trixie, so will you take on my trouble? It is an urgent and important thing to Trixie!” It was mostly because Trixie wanted to do something special for Pinkie Pie, she would not be denied actually being humble by asking for professional helpers who could think beyond any box.

“This important thing would be what now?” Tress kept her voice even and steady in the face of Trixie’s blind panic. “We’re not having another Winter Wrap Up incident here are we?”

“Trixie apologized for that already! Anyway, Pinkie’s birthday is coming up and Trixie wants to get her the best gift ever.” After a moment Trixie looked at the street they were standing on, what she said next shocked the two ponies she dragged to the marketplace area. “I-I want to put a smile on her face. Please, help me find something.”

“Trixie did you just… wow. You must really be invested in this if you’re using pronouns in reference to yourself.” It was a bit surprising for Twilight to see Trixie break her long standing tradition of always saying her name even if for a moment. “Pinkie is a hard one to plan for; she’d just as much like a gift that is hoof made as she would one that is bought as long as it’s from the heart.”

“Actually, I have the perfect idea of what you should get her. You’re not going to find it in a marketplace and you may actually need Fluttershy’s help with this one.” Tress had an idea cooking in her brain, it percolated a bit and then it finally popped into a resoundingly odd idea. One that was entirely worthy of the thought processes required to get an excellent present for Pinkie instead of an average or mediocre one that the pony would get bored with after a while.

“Trixie would like to know why the wallflower would be important in this endeavor.” Trixie wasn’t exactly the best pony around animals, at least she wasn’t Chrysalis. Changelings were supposed to be scary bedtime stories. Instead she’s met a changeling queen who was currently a bit underwhelming, outward appearance and possible voyeuristic streak due to her eating habits notwithstanding.

“Fluttershy will be the perfect pony to help you find a present for Pinkie.” Just to make sure they were on the same page Tress spoke slowly. “Just think of something Pinkie doesn’t have yet and remember that she mentioned it during the Nightmare Night. You know, while you were trying to help her with that strange frog suit.”

“Oh right, she doesn’t have a pet. Trixie can certainly see what Tress is getting at now. Trixie will seek help from the shy one, thank you for assisting Trixie in Trixie’s time of need.” Trixie immediately set off for the cabin where Fluttershy was seen most often. “Trixie has it from here and will pay you later for your timely assistance!”

“So what do you think Trixie will end up getting for Pinkie?” Twilight was curious, now that Trixie no longer needed their assistance they were left standing outside the marketplace.

“Hopefully not a cragadile, that’s all I can say.” Tress could only imagine the trouble a pet cragadile would bring to this town.

“Yeah, that’s something I’d actually fear having around. Besides it would be dangerous and irresponsible to even bring one into Ponyville, even a baby cragadile is a pretty big thing to take care of.” It was around this time that something else occurred to Twilight. “How would Pinkie even feed it? Carnivores don’t usually make for good pets for any pony. At least Winona, Palatable and Opal are good pets that aren’t too hard to feed.”

“Pal especially, considering his diet is almost entirely noodles and pasta sauce.” Tress thought it was sort of adorable that he kept trying to cheer her up, even if it involved bringing dead spaghetti monsters to their doorstep. “So, training? I don’t feel like helping out much more today and it was a boring train ride, I crave something to get the blood flowing.”

“Yeah, I’ll get whatever we need for it. Just be waiting in the fields, I’ll meet you there.” Twilight was only just starting to push the Mane-iac to her limits.

“Can’t wait, this’ll be fun.” Tress was far more powerful then she had previously been. This was only because she had a clear thinking mind to work with and Twilight’s constant insistence of testing her boundaries.

Forty seven minutes later, Twilight sat in grassy hills and fields outside of town with Tress. They were sitting across from each other in the relatively empty fields as no other pony was around. Twilight on her side of the field had a ton of skeet shooting ceramic plates meant for archery practice. Tress slowly stood up spreading her hooves slightly apart from each other taking a stiff stance while staring Twilight down.

“Tress, transform and please try to do it slowly.” It always mystified Twilight every time she watched Tress transform into the Mane-iac, especially the change in her cutie mark which was still a complete mystery as to why it does that. The cutie mark itself wasn’t hard to understand why it looked like it did, it was a representation of Mane-iac’s special talent after all. A cutie mark was not entirely indicative of one’s destiny and Twilight knew that for a fact, because she knew her best friend wasn’t truly evil. A cutie mark was only there to remind you of what you’re best talented at and not what else you could do if you put enough hard work into it.

“Okay, bringing out the psycho in me, better be prepared for it Twilight.” Tress closed her eyes and she crouched down and brought her front two hooves to her head and let out what sounded like a pained gasp.

The change starts from the tip of her nose as her fur changed from pink to grayish blue color and it rippled as her face started to expand and grow as soon as that area of her body was covered in livid fur. Tress’s crystal blues eyes shifted, starting with half her pupils turning red and the rest of her eye color turning green. Her mane started to slowly fade from light blue into a solid green starting from the roots going outward. The end of the transformation centered with all the changes coming together at her cutie mark which slowly warped into its new shape. A dark grin now crossed Tress’s face as she proudly stood there facing down Twilight.

“Ready?” Twilight needn’t have asked that, Mane-iac’s mane lazily waved a single tentacle at her while the rest of it stayed unmoving. Twilight levitated twelve of the skeet plates into the air, spread them out and then launched them all at Mane-iac randomly one or two at a time at a rapid pace.

Tress crouched down and waited until the plates neared, then she spiked out her coat and had caught each plate without damaging it. All twelve plates spun on five inch spiked out points of fur. She manipulated her coat to gather all twelve plates into her hooves and then looked at Twilight with a decidedly evil grin.

“Think fast!” Mane-iac flicked eleven plates back at Twilight on differing trajectories and speeds. A spark of surprised went off in her friends eyes before they started glowing slightly along with her horn.

Twilight narrowed her sight on each plate coming at her. They all started moving at a slower pace as she expanded a field of magic outward that stayed connected to her horn so she didn’t lose the magic. She was concentrating her mind to everything coming at her to a fine point, the first plate entered the magic field and Twilight did nothing. The plate zipped past her at dangerous speeds, given Tress threw each one with incredible strength. An impact from one of them could really injure her.

The second disc entered the field and with the barest of flickers it deflected away from Twilight when she created a pinpoint barrier for the barest of seconds only using a minimal amount of magical power. The next five were deflected or alternatively let by; by the time Twilight was done she had used very little magic in protecting herself.

Mane-iac was swinging her hair around to launch the last plate at Twilight, she let it loose and it blurred towards Twilight. Barest of a centimeter from her forehead the plate simple bounced off Twilight looking like it had hit her, she hadn’t even flinched.

“So I should ramp up the difficulty of your training then?” Twilight asked lazily as if that last plate hadn’t completely freaked her out. She didn’t even think she could deflect something moving that fast and she had with minimal effort on her part. She was quite surprised by her own abilities at time to create a pinpoint barrier an inch in diameter and barely a centimeter thick in a milliseconds notice.

“Please do speed the warm up a bit. If you don’t ramp it up, defending yourself will become the mane event here.” Mane-iac chuckled darkly before she smiled at Twilight with her ridiculously white teeth. One would have to thank most super powers for including good teeth, looks and health as a side benefit. “You need to learn how to protect yourself from dangers using what you have and could use the training as well you know, so it should be our training that you need to step up. Let your hair down and start pushing me harder already!”

Twilight floated into the air using her gravity spell and levitated at least ten or so plates up. She spread the plates out in all directions while keeping a magical field expanded from her body. Tress grinned maniacally and waited for Twilight to get started.

“Bring it.” The plates all shot for Mane-iac at incredible speeds and she reacted, it was the beginning of a very interesting training session. Mane-iac soon had a swirling swarm of plates shooting at her from all angles and she was throwing the plates back at Twilight while the unicorn floated around multitasking three different spells at once. She could tell Twilight was having some trouble doing three things at once and went easy on her friend.

A few hours later, it was getting into the evening and Fluttershy came upon the scene of Tress and Twilight’s battle. She could see they were almost huddled together taking a nap. She was smiling at how adorable the two look napping in a pile of shattered ceramic plates and they did look comfortable.

Hearing their stomach’s grumbling, Fluttershy knew bringing a loaded picnic basket all the way out here was a good idea. She simply plucked the basket off her back with her left wing and also pulled out her medical kit with her right. The medical kit was a foregone conclusion as she knew they’d need some attention after apparently having quite a fun time out here.

“Hey Fluttershy, are you having a picnic with Tress and Twilight?” The shy mare squeaked and turned to Cheerilee and nodded slightly. The teacher idly wondered what happened here to see so many wrecked skeet plates and no archery equipment anywhere nearby. “May I join you then?”

“Of course, I made enough for five ponies. If you don’t mind me asking, can you please help me move them onto the blanket; those plates can’t be very comfortable to sleep on.” Fluttershy with a little help from Cheerilee managed to move both Tress and Twilight over to the blanket she had laid out.

Author's Notes:

Wait, but what about the cloaked figures? If it all happened in the same day, it's going to take them a while to even reach Appleoosa. One of them is important to a plot and everyone should already know or guess who it is already. If not now, then when the cloaked figures show up again.

The magic field is not a spell; it's just Twilight putting her magic into the air around her and could be used to immediately form a barrier. Barrier, Gravity and Levitation, even these three simple spells could have incredible effects. If she mastered them she'd be as tough to beat as Magneto, in theory.

Rarity has been shown to be capable of levitating and manipulating tons of small objects of varying sizes and shapes to such a fine degree. Twilight doesn't have it as easy and all the objects she is levitating are all relatively the same shape. Having the concentration and ability to do three things at once is a problem. How to move, when to defend and when to attack are all important factors of a battle. It'd actually be easier if the skeet plates were vastly different in appearance.

81

“And that concludes today’s lesson class.” It was another day and the end of the weekend with Twilight, who has just finished teaching a bunch of fillies and colts about magic. The magic she taught was used by the three pony races; she was exceptionally knowledgeable in the subject.

“Now what do we say to Ms. Sparkle for joining us today class?” Cheerilee enjoyed having attentive students and Twilight was a good helper for teaching her entire class about the magic that is innate in all ponies.

“Thank you Miss Sparkle!” An entire chorus of young voices sang out as the colts and fillies started gathering their things to leave.

“It’s so nice to help out with teaching young minds Cheerilee, though I’m pretty sure they’re not always the little angels they act like in front of you.” Twilight received a warm chuckle from the schoolmarm.

“Oh I know that, even if my name isn’t Cheery Leeway. They’re children and it’s a time of exploring their boundaries.” Cheerilee sighed thoughtfully looking out the window. “They have all the time in the world to make mistakes, just so long as it’s not really bad ones that could get some pony hurt permanently.”

Twilight beamed along with Cheery as they watched the foals and colts set off to play and have fun as it was the start of their weekend. Twilight felt a pony bump into her and a she heard the ever familiar squeak of a cuddly pony, along with the growl of Tress’s cat.

“Sorry for bumping into you Twilight.” Even as she said this in an absentminded tone, Fluttershy twisted and twirled as her eyes followed movements going on in the sky and she slowly continued on her way. Out of idle curiosity Twilight and Cheerilee followed her turning their gazes towards the sky to see what she was keeping track of.

“It’s okay Fluttershy, but what are you… oh. Yeah, that would be kind of noticeable.” Looking to the sky Twilight couldn’t help but shake her head at Tress’s antics, it looked like the problem of the day was what was known as a dragon’s mortal nemesis. “Seriously, a wyvern, that’s what we were supposed to be dealing with today?”

“Well you two certainly do get into all kinds of shenanigans.” Now Cheery was doing what Fluttershy was doing in tracking the goings on up high in the air. “So what was it that was special about wyverns again? It’s kind of slipped my mind; Tress really seems intent on keeping its mouth closed.”

“Well they are said to share a lot of similarities with basilisks, only they’re less dangerous and not nearly as poisonous. Some wyverns are even said to spit their venom while igniting it and a wyverns cry tends to attract and anger dragons.” Twilight went through the motions with Fluttershy and Cheerilee in watching the speck in the sky. Tress was holding onto the relatively small wyvern’s neck with her hind legs, she was also holding its mouth shut with one hoof and punching it in the head with the other one.

Despite their training for when and if things got violent with Nightmare Moon, Twilight knew she and Tress were nowhere near as invincible as they appeared at times. Twilight didn’t have a body that could handle too much punishment and her barriers spells were the only thing preventing her from getting heavily injured at times by Tress, especially when they played rough when it came to exercising their natural abilities. She at times compared herself to Tress, who even outside her Mane-iac form could still take a lot of punishment.

Tress was currently trying to avoid the wyvern’s spines as it lashed out its tail at its own neck and struggled to hold its mouth shut to prevent its teeth from biting at her. It was also to prevent any dragons that might have lived near Ponyville from attacking if they so much as heard a wyvern in the area. She shifted her weight when it clumsily swung its talons from its two legs at her that narrowly missed gouging a chunk out of her back.

“Funny, I didn’t think wyverns were native to anywhere within Equestrian territories.” The teacher mused as they slowly followed the pitched fight between a mare and a two winged, long necked serpentine creature with poisonous spines, fangs and talons.

“They aren’t. Especially given there is a d-d-d-dragon migration path that goes through Ponyville.” Fluttershy would know all about it, wyverns weren’t native within the borders of Equestria especially given the small population of dragons that lived in the surrounding mountains and caves. She hoped that Tress didn’t lose her grip on the wyverns mouth, the disaster of a dragon attack would be imminent if one were to here it cry out for a prolonged period of time. “Some pony had to of have released it here on purpose or it just recently escaped captivity for there to even be one.”

“First we need to deal with the dangerous creature. After that we can actually find out where it actually came from. Just so long as nothing exacerbates this situation to make it worse, it looks pretty well handled so far.” Twilight saw a streak of colors shoot for Tress and the wyvern. Lifting a hoof to her face was the only thing she could do now. “Oh for the love of... please don’t tell me Rainbow is about to make things worse.”

“Okay, we won’t. I still can’t believe I’m giving the top weather manager in Ponyville remedial courses.” After a moment Cheery slapped a hoof to her mouth before looking at her two friends. “Forget I ever said that.”

“Don’t worry; we’re all well aware of Cloudsdale’s ever exemplary educational system. Not that it is a system that doesn’t focus every pony that has ever lived there down narrow pathways in the ways of prospective jobs.” Twilight always took the opportunity to snipe at the pegasus educational systems. Doing so in front of Cheery should have gotten the teacher angry and started an argument. Instead Cheery just nodded at her words. “So how did Tress end up grappling the wyvern? Wasn’t she helping you with all those kittens today Fluttershy?”

“Um… well, the wyvern tried to grab me with its talons while we were playing with the kittens.” Fluttershy didn’t need to say more, Tress immediately bucked the wyvern in the chin and the wrapped herself around its neck to try and force it to pass out. Fluttershy had quickly told her a few things to do before it took her out of earshot when it ascended. Pal growled something at Fluttershy bringing her back to the present situation. “Yes, you were a good kitty getting the other cats to shelter and no she hasn’t gotten hurt yet.”

Meanwhile at the Ponyville Train Station and a distance away from the midair fight.

“So my Pinkie Sense says I have to be right here Trixie, the pony I haven’t been able to throw a party for is coming in on the next train!” Pinkie’s back left hoof flopped lazy at the air three times. “Oh and the pony is bringing three new friends who have never been to Ponyville before.”

“Trixie does not know why you’re so excited; the pony might not have time for a party. How is little Gummy by the way, is he alright?” Trixie had hatched an alligator a day before Pinkie’s birthday. Against her better judgment, she gave the now named Gummy to Pinkie and the pony had never been happier to have a pygmy alligator as a pet. The alligator was adorable in his own unique way and he didn’t have any teeth, it made Trixie wonder what they would do when he did get them.

“Oh, he’s perfectly fine. I think he likes gummy worms and is really energetic for a little guy.” Pinkie would take care of her pet and prove once and for all that she could be Pinkie ‘Responsibility’ Pie. “I hope that Mr. and Mrs. Cake don’t mind that I left him in the bathtub when I left.”

There was a scream in the distance and Pinkie shrugged. It was probably nothing even if it did sound like Mrs. Cake and that it came from the direction of her home and or workplace. Pinkie trusted in the fact that Mr. and Mrs. Cake wouldn’t hurt Gummy even if her new little friend did freak them out once or twice.

The train in the distance started rolling into the station; it eventually came slowly to a halt in front of them. Pinkie was waiting eagerly. She would not miss a chance to throw a party for this pony and they would have no choice but to attend along with the three new ponies that came to Ponyville. The magician sitting right next to her sighed as she could already tell Pinkie was in one of her moods, considering there was that lovable goofy smile that crossed the pink pony’s face.

Of the four cloaked figures that stepped off the train, one of them was antsy and it was the smaller one in the beige cloak. She really didn’t want to come back to this town right now, but circumstances saw fit to draw her here. Ponyville was a safe haven for something important to her and she could only hope the town was quiet and out of the way enough. Of course it begged the question why this town needed mercenaries; it was a quiet town where not much happened or at least that was what she thought.

“Oh my goodness there you are! I think you really need my party now, because you look really grumpy.” Pinkie spooked the beige cloak wearing pony by appearing in front of her from out of nowhere.

“Look kid, I don’t need a… what the!?” The beige cloaked figure pushed away Pinkie Pie and leapt backwards avoided the wyvern head that just rammed its way into the station with Tress still holding onto it. It boggled her mind to see something so dangerous especially when it wasn’t native to any place near here.

“Well of course you don’t need a ‘what the!?’, however you really need that party and so do your friends! They could stand to be a little less grim looking.” Even as Pinkie said this Trixie was dragging her away from the thrashing head of the wyvern.

The brown and green cloaked figures spoke some funny gibberish and stood protectively in front of the pony in the red cloak. They watched as Tress continued to fight the head of the wyvern whose body was currently wedged into the train station platform and appeared to be completely stuck.

“Come on, just go down already!” Punching the wyvern with one hard blow after a flash in her eyes, Tress caused it to slow its wild movements. After a moment it was finally too tired to fight her anymore and laid down to accept it wasn’t getting her off of itself and fell asleep were it lay stuck in the train station. “Finally, that took forever. Is Rainbow okay?”

“Rainbow should be fine and I should be asking you the same thing Tress.” Twilight walked up to her with a worried look in her eyes.

“I’m just hungry and a bit thirsty; this wyvern really didn’t want to give up the fight.” Tress after a moment finally released her hind legs from gripping its neck, she stretched them out given they were a bit stiff. “I heard the café is open again, maybe we could stop by there for dinner?”

“We still have to deal with the wyvern first Tress. I’d really like to know where it came from and I personally think we should at least secure it first, do you want to deal with it again?” Twilight saw that her friend understood the need to stick around when she winced at having to do all that again. They were waiting for Fluttershy and Cheerilee to go get some ponies to help contain the wyvern. Nurse Redheart hopefully had some wyvern antivenin for Rainbow; if not then they could synthesize some from the wyvern itself.

“So it was a Wyvern today? Trixie thinks this is rather tame for you and that said, Pinkie now owes Trixie fifty bits.” Holding out her hoof, Trixie waited for Pinkie to plant a bag of bits there. She swiftly made them disappeared into her purple starry hat before placing it back on her head.

“Wow, now ponies are betting on what we’ll do next. The Trouble Takers are now officially a tourist attraction Twilight!” Turning to the four cloaked figures and recognizing one, she sighed and turned back to her friend. “And I think we already have our next job lined up for us by Daring Do herself.”

“What?” Was all Daring could say, as she pulled her beige cloak tighter around herself. “I have no idea… fine I need help if you are in fact those mercenary mares I heard about in Appleoosa. Just stop looking at me like that with those flat stares!”

“Don’t worry about going to the café Tress. I’m throwing this pony a party immediately and she’s not avoiding this one!” Pinkie bounced in front of Daring and wrapped a hoof around her. “I’ve already set everything up for it lady, there’s no avoiding a Pinkie Pie party when it’s meant for you!”

“What in the world did I just walk into?” Daring idly asked as if the world had gone completely crazy, the wyvern was still quite a shocking thing to see around here. Did Celestia even have this town properly protected? She turned to her three cloaked friends. “*Comforting words in Saddle Arabian and a quick explanation of the situation as far as she could decipher it.*”

“Just our lives apparently Miss Do.” Twilight spoke with a sing song voice as she trotted on by the cloaked explorer who was being dragged away towards Sugar Cube Corner by Pinkie and Trixie. Fluttershy was already arriving with a group of ponies to help with the wyvern. "Just our lives..."

Author's Notes:

Daring Do done dropped in decisively.

In other news, tornadoes, power outages and lightning storms. At least there wasn't flooding at my rock, the one I still live under.

82

Sitting down at the table Daring Do massaged her head with her hooves; she was being stared at by an expectant unicorn while their friends were currently being entertained by the magician. Taking a glance off to the side Daring watched as the magician picked up and hugged a small alligator before returning back to her show. It kind of caused Daring to remember all the close calls in all the swamps, lagoons, jungles and forests she kept ending up in over the last few years. At least her three friends were being entertained while she talked business with the so called mercenaries.

“Okay, how did you know I exist? My identity is actually kept under wraps pretty well.” Daring Do’s first question was one that most intrigued her. “Also I’m rather curious as to how your friend immediately identified the fact that I was looking help.”

“To answer your first question, the town librarian is privy to a lot of information and records that led to such a discovery. I’m just surprised that this town didn’t really have one until I came to Ponyville.” Twilight closed her eyes and remembered the surprised look on her face given she heard that Daring Do was a real pony and that she knew her mother. “As for the second you’re Daring Do; when are you not dealing with awful artifacts, ancient articles and aggressive associates. My friend and I really like you’re books Miss Yearling. Aside from that you’re pretty recognizable from the book’s cover and my brother caught Ahuizotl himself while in a pitched battle that involved a giant banana monster and a gaggle of minotaurs. You’re well acquainted with my mother and even I recognized you from that right off the bat as I’ve seen you once or twice before today.”

“Really, who’s your mother?” Daring was very wary of ponies knowing her on sight. Her beige coat and her black and grey mane was not as colorful as most ponies so she stood out slightly. Usually she’d wear a boring looking hat and nerdy glasses to hide who she really was. It only took her seconds after stepping off the train to be recognized. Not that the party that was thrown for her and her friends was all bad, it was a simple one and she liked the free cupcakes the pink pony was peddling.

“Twilight Velvet Quality Sparkle, I believe she does some editing for you. I once thought that was the most normal thing my mother does, but now I can see even that was secretly weird.” Not a single thing about her parents was ever normal, not that Twilight disliked that fact. She loved her affectionate parents; it’s just that they couldn’t go to the store without wrestling a bear, getting launched over a tank full of sharks and end up getting into a vicious fight while on a runaway carriage all within the span of ten minutes. “Mom always had an eye for detail and I guess that was useful to your partial autobiography played off as fantasy books for young ponies like this one rambunctious filly I know named Scootaloo.”

“Yes, I know your mother then at least. Can we get to a different topic?” Daring was rather uncomfortable at the mention of Scootaloo and really hoped that Twilight couldn’t read her currently worried mind. She really wanted to steer the conversation entirely away from Scootaloo. If the unicorn started prying too far into it she didn’t know what she’d do about it. “You both don’t exactly look like mercenaries and especially not the kind of cutthroat ones I’d expect to handle the situation I’m in. Though the way your friend handled that wyvern was pretty impressive.”

“What can I say, we may not look it but we’re good at solving problems of all kinds. Trust me when I say we can take on just about anything you can throw at us.” Twilight was proud of being able to help ponies successfully and she wasn’t going to stop now. “So what’s the problem, what artifact does it involve and how can we help you solve it? I like working as a hairstylist and Tress is a beauty products maker. Aside from that we’ve been involved in several volatile situations or else we wouldn’t be Trims, Tresses and Trouble Takers.”

“Before I tell you that, what have you and your friend exactly done besides taking down a wyvern?” Again Daring looked off to the side to see the pink pony serve free refreshments out to the Saddle Arabians, it was nice to see them not looking as glum or grim now. That pony could cheer up any pony.

“You’re really worried about them; it must have been hard for them to leave their country. I’m guessing something bad is going down in Saddle Arabia given their looks.” After making her observation Twilight decided to answer Daring’s question. “Well thus far we’ve dealt with a jabberwock, a bandersnatch, that wyvern you saw today, a five headed hydra, stalled a pack of armed minotaurs raiding a passenger train for whatever reason, had a problem with some creepy exploding frogs a few days ago, battled a dragon that was made entirely out of fruitcake and quite a lot of other stuff like that to name a few things. Would getting a princess to imprison herself count as something successful? I’m not exactly sure.”

“Wait, you’re the reason why Princess Cadence jailed herself on purpose? Well at least she knows she did wrong by some ponies and admitted to her faults.” Daring had always thought Cadence was a bit flighty with her spell usage, then again it was said she was a pegasus before she turned into an alicorn. Throw in a bit of idle conversation and maybe she might actually hire these two hair care focused ponies to help her out of a jam, since apparently they were really adventurous hair care ponies. “Speaking of knowing things, what’s your level of schooling? I was personally born and raised in Manehatten where I got my passion for archaeology and exploration from a field trip to a museum. I started writing once I found out my job really didn’t pay as much as I thought it would, but I still do what I love.”

“I’m a graduate of Celestia’s school for gifted unicorns and as for Tress she is as knowledgeable as I am in many subjects. I have a doctorate in enchantments and I’m good in all forms of magic and can even see traps if they are enchantment based. For an example as to how strong my magic is, my levitation spell is powerful enough to lift an Ursa Minor and I have done so in aiding a friend while she was taking care of a sick one.” At some point Twilight figured she was understating how useful her skill at all forms of magic was. “My friend Tress is hoof to hoof combat expert and she’s much more dangerous then she initially appears.”

“You better believe I’m dangerous knowing me as you do, no other pony would be crazy enough to take a wyvern head on aside from Rainbow.” It was a fleeting thought, but Tress actually realized she was worried about the colorful nuisance that aided her without question. She had to admit Rainbow did get some credit for helping bring down the wyvern and was a good friend when she wasn’t ignoring your existence. Twilight had already paid for Rainbow’s short stay in the hospital. “I hope she’s okay.”

“She is Tress; our favorite knucklehead isn’t that easy to take out for long.” Chuckling at the sentiment, Twilight knew Rainbow would be too rowdy a patient to keep down. She gave Rainbow two days before she made a full recovery and was once again zipping across the skies. Turning to Daring, she took on a serious look. “Can you give us more information about what is going on now?”

“The city of Neighgraba in Saddle Arabia has been overthrown by the power mad grand vizier Jabber Fartulong. Apparently he got a hold of an artifact I was after and it had a genie in it, which is why I’m currently here looking for help.” Daring hadn’t seen the genie personally but she saw the effects of what happened after the vizier got a hold of it well enough. “As far as I know he’s captured the princess’s father the sultan of Neighgraba, has somehow gained complete control over the guards and is forcing mares that he likes into being slaves for him. That genie is way too powerful to take on in a straightforward confrontation and it almost got the guy in the green cloak over there killed.”

“Are you sure it’s a genie he has helping him though? As far as I know of genies they can’t directly kill, force love of any kind, bring any being back to life or change a powerful nature of the world. An example of a powerful nature would be an alicorn like Celestia.” Twilight didn’t like the sound of going near a genie, but she needed to know for sure it was a genie as that would have been a simpler thing to deal with. “Then there’s the alternative and I really don’t like the idea of dealing with one of those creatures as it’s far worse than a genie and knowing my luck it probably is one of those.”

“What alternative could there be other than it being a genie and why would it be worse than one?” Daring was curious and it caused her to immediately have a bad feeling about what was going on back in Neighgraba.

“A genie has a limit of three wishes and can do things for their masters of their own free will up and to the point the third wish is made. On the other hoof, there is a nastier version of a genie that is called a jinn.” Twilight shivered at just saying the name of the dark version of a genie. “Jinns aren’t exactly bound to the three wishes thing like genies are and are said to be bringers of great evil. As long as the item binding them to this world is kept safe they can’t be stopped easily. If this grand vizier was the owner to a lamp holding one, then things are slowly getting far worse in Neighgraba then what you’ve already heard or saw. A jinn will always be pleased with an evil master that spreads misery, destruction and greed. Unlike genies, a jinn can directly kill you.”

“Yikes, hope it’s not a jinn he’s got then…” Daring didn't know all this stuff about genies and jinn, if it was a jinn then finding help was a good idea. “You’re hired, how exactly do we go about dealing with this situation? Other than finding that lamp and smashing it to pieces that is.”

“Well first I need to send a letter to my parents. If we are dealing with a jinn we’re going to need all the help we can muster. My parents have been to Saddle Arabian territories before and I’m not afraid of asking for their help on this one.” Twilight was going to need the help of quite a few of her friends; she had to make sure they were available for this trip though. “I’m also going to get together a few of my friends to help out with this adventure. Do you think we can all get a small part in your next book?”

“I don’t see why not, but there won’t be a next book if Jabber continues to hold sway over Neighgraba. I’d be too depressed about my failure to prevent this mess in the first place to write anything new.” Daring sat back and picked up a cupcake to bite into it. After swallowing and looking Twilight in the eyes, she just had to ask as it had been on her mind since the start of this conversation. “How much is this going to cost me?”

“I’d say your friendship for one and that would mostly be about it. Even I’m not about to let a ruthless pony get away with harming mostly innocent people.” Tress was already aware that Twilight wouldn’t turn down this trouble even if it sounded difficult. Camels, griffons and plenty of other merchants of all species passed through Neighgraba so saying ‘ponies’ wasn’t the right word for it when a good portion of the population was in fact not.

“I can live with that cost, friendship and a part in my book huh. You guys certainly work for cheap don’t you?” Daring wondered if she should have just gone back and taken care of this trouble personally, she worked alone for a very good reason. She could only hope things didn’t blow up in her face, because now she had to watch out for these ponies as well and couldn’t be everywhere at once.

“Our business does give some of the biggest first time discounts you'll ever see, you’re a friend of my family and you’re going to become my friend personally. It’s almost paid in full except for one tiny question I have to ask after we’re done helping you with your trouble. Tress could you please go find Rarity, Fluttershy and Chrysalis.” As she said this, Twilight had a twinkle in her eye while she levitated out some paper and ink. “I can already tell this is going to be an interesting experience.”

83

Twilight thought over the general things Saddle Arabia provided to Equestria through trading, the vizier was in a good spot to start devastating commodities ponies took for granted. She watched as Tress danced on the deck below her as she leaned against the railing and was slightly mesmerized by her friend’s mane as it shifted about to her movements. She was dancing to some sitar music being played by the Princess Jasmine’s bodyguard, Twilight thought his name sounded like Rough Heed.

Saddle Arabian ponies were very much different from regular ponies, for one they were tall and had longer legs. They were taller than most normal ponies and only ponies bigger then Mane-iac would outsize them in general. Despite their size they weren’t any more physically fit than a regular earth pony and they never got cutie marks. Their bodies were built to survive a hot arid realm and the harsh conditions there.

They were already en route to Neighgraba and were riding an airship there, courtesy of Twilight’s parents having recently come by a used airship that once belonged to a band of marauding pirates a few hours before they set out. It was certain that the air pirates were not happy that their airship was stolen out from under their noses.

Rarity was currently working on some outfits in the hold as they needed something to beat the heat; it was made sure that she was focusing on function as much as the form. She was making some loose clothing to protect them from the baking heat of the desert sun and a costume or two for later infiltration plans.

Daring was having a rather intriguing chat with Chrysalis about how bad her translation of Saddle Arabian names was. Jazz Bane was not the name of the princess, though Ballad Din was close enough to being right for the stallion in the green cloak. Daring seemed edgy around Chrysalis because she was a changeling and didn’t trust her very much even if she could speak fluent Saddle Arabian.

Piloting the airship was Nightlight; he looked to be rather bored with being the stallion at the helm and being one of the only three stallions on this ship. Ballad Din was checking the rigging and Rough Heed would every once in a while make sure to survey the skies around the ship. The princess herself was to keep watch of the balloon to make sure it wasn’t leaking air.

Every pony onboard the airship could already smell Pinkie’s baking and were getting hungry, Trixie was likely assisting her with the food. They certainly weren’t going to go hungry with those two around manning the galley.

“Twilight, can I talk to you if it’s alright to?” Fluttershy was always worried about her friends getting hurt, especially Twilight as Tress healed fast enough to hardly ever need medical aid.

“Why of course you can Fluttershy. You know I’m willing to listen to you about anything.” Twilight had flinched slightly as she hadn’t noticed Fluttershy come up to her. Her friend was as silent as a mouse and could go unnoticed just about anywhere when she wanted to.

“Why did you bring me along?” It took Fluttershy a moment to realize she was being cuddled by Velvet again; her friend snickered at her plight. “Also will your mother ever stop hugging me?”

“Not likely, as you’re apparently very cuddly.” Now even Twilight was cuddling Fluttershy along with her mother. She felt bad about doing it just so she could fondle Fluttershy’s mane, it was just so silky and she couldn’t help but rub her face against it. “Your talent with animals and medical training are two very good things to have out in the desert. Just think of all the exotic animals you’ll get to meet.”

Fluttershy enjoyed the attention a bit, but this was probably the only time she was annoyed instead of scared of receiving too much attention. Twilight wouldn’t stop petting her and Velvet’s comforting hooves were nice, but this was getting a bit ridiculous. She didn’t raise her voice to them, she was still the quietest mare you would ever meet and they weren’t exactly making Fluttershy feel too uncomfortable about her personal space.

Velvet and Twilight finally let go of Fluttershy. They both giggled at Fluttershy and she relented giggling a bit with them as well, she couldn’t stay mad at what were a second mother and a very nice friend to her. A friend that she thought had a cute mane style and was attractive.

Fluttershy walked to the railing followed by Twilight and looked over it. The ground slowly crawled by beneath them as the airship chugged along leading Fluttershy to think of Velvet’s eye for detail as an amazing special talent. There were so many uses for it, especially when Velvet was currently acting as the ships mechanic.

“So what’s wrong Fluttershy?” Twilight was going to call a meeting soon. It would involve a plan for what to do when they came within three or more miles of Neighgraba.

The plan for saving Neighgraba needed the subjects of infiltration, information and instigation. They’d infiltrate the city under the guise of a troupe that travelled the world randomly performing wherever they stopped, it shouldn’t be too hard to fool anyone given their lives were already a three ring circus. They needed information of where the vizier was keeping his magical artifact to protect the genie or jinn. They also needed the layout of the palace, city and generally any other information that is pertinent as to what was currently going on in Neighgraba. They already had a head start with Ballad Din and Jasmine, but the jinn or genie could have magically rearranged things or warped the general surroundings to something else.

“I’m just wondering about Angel and the all the animals back at home.” Sure Fluttershy had nothing pressing going on as nature was taking care of itself well enough. After her instigation of the fair chance law around her home that is. Any animal that was injured and on her property was not to be harmed by any other animal, else she would not care for the breaker of that law should they in turn be grievously injured and in dire need of her help later on. Her home was not a place were aggressive behavior lived or very well tolerated, except for Angel who was only angry at Fluttershy for being too much of a doormat at times.

“I’m sure he’ll do fine, he did really well when we went to Canterlot for the wedding didn’t he?” Taking on a thoughtful look, Twilight could see Fluttershy looking at her out of the corner of her left eye. Fluttershy soon spread her wings and flapped them twice before closing them and tilting her head to the right. Twilight looked to Daring Do who was still heatedly discussing something with Chrysalis in Saddle Arabian; Daring did not like the presence of changelings in Ponyville even if they were benign voyeurs. Feeding off married or loving couples was proven to be safe for both changelings and their main source of food. “You left her with Applejack didn’t you? She should be fine and capable of flying within a month’s time, Applejack is a dependable pony.”

“It’s not just that, I want to know if you know what the connection is between Daring and the ‘filly’ yet.” Fluttershy was still thinking of Scootaloo, the guards were trying hard to find her and she was in plain sight and making friends with Apple Bloom. She mentally made a side note that Rarity left Sweetie Belle with their parents and then absconded onto the airship. It was a form of sweet revenge to Rarity for all the times her parents kept sending Sweetie her way while gallivanting off somewhere for the umpteenth time.

“I’m not entirely sure, but I have a hunch that involves why ‘the filly’ is always so excited to see Rainbow Dash.” Twilight made the comparison that Daring and Rainbow looked exactly alike, except for the glaring differences in personality, intelligence and colors. Daring was far smarter than Rainbow and was just a bit more cunning in pinch. “If my hunch is right then Daring must be constantly heartbroken considering the kind of life she has to lead. Aside from that, remind me to introduce Rainbow to Daring’s books later.”

Fluttershy looked over to Velvet dancing with Tress to the music being played, sometimes she wished she could just let go of her stress like that. She couldn’t imagine what Twilight would find out; she just hoped it wasn’t something that would make her cry. Fluttershy’s stomach grumbled and she gave off a frightened goat squeak, before she realized in embarrassment that the noise came from her.

“Stop worrying about every little thing, go to galley and get something to eat Fluttershy.” Twilight put a hoof on Fluttershy and rubbed it gently up and down the mares back. “Maybe Pinkie Pie even has a cupcake with your name on it.”

“Okay, Twilight… do you think that I’ll ever… or that you could ever help me with um… never mind.” Fluttershy’s voice dropped down to a pitch that only dogs could probably hear, she walked away mumbling an apology. Entering the airship she carefully made her way down the steps into the kitchen, a smell wafted up into her nose causing her to hum gently and trot on into the galley following the lifting aroma.

Fluttershy could tell something smelled really good and sweet; Pinkie bounced up to her and sat her down at the table before hoofing to her what looked to be a menu with a smile. The pegasus was curious as to why she was receiving a menu of all things, this was a stolen pirate airship and she didn’t think they would actually run a restaurant out of it. On the menu was the name of the airship, ‘The Indistinguishable Plot’, followed by the name of the restaurant being a welcome to the ‘Goofy Good Grub Galley’.

Rolling her eyes at the menu, Fluttershy just laughed at the resourcefulness that Pinkie had. Deciding to play along she opened the menu and inside she saw that all crew members received food for free. Since there were no passengers on the ship and every pony chipped in to keep it flying, they were all crew members. There was a large upturn in the shy pony’s mood and she started truly smiling as she read what was the first thing on the menu, it was ‘smiles’ and the price was ‘always’.

“So have you figured out what you wanted yet Fluttershy?” Pinkie was wearing a cheesy fake mustache along with a waiter’s uniform. She was already placing a napkin before Fluttershy to use to wipe her mouth when she started eating her food.

“Whatever that is that smells so good, some apple juice and the ‘Plank Pasta Pasty’? It sounds good.” Fluttershy received a wide smile as Pinkie wrote something down. After a moment she showed Fluttershy a perfect sketch of Angel Bunny much to the shy mares amusement and then left it on the table as she bounced off for the kitchen.

“Fluttershy wants whatever that smell is, some juicy fruit and the ‘Plank Pasta Pasty’ special!” Pinkie disappeared into the kitchen. Trixie could be heard grumbling about wanting to be the waiter and be the one wearing the goofy mustache.

Fluttershy wondered how close Trixe and Pinkie were now; they seemed to work well together. If only she were as brave as Trixie was to just walk up to a mare she liked and ask if they could go on a date. Maybe Zecora wouldn’t mind a date or even Chrysalis as the bug like hermaphrodite was pretty in her own unique way.

After twenty minutes of waiting Fluttershy had a warm raspberry swirl cupcake placed before her. It had yellow icing on top of it and on top of the yellow icing was bright pink icing spelling out her name. A mug of apple juice was sat down further from the cupcake and a strange brown plank shaped lump was placed before her with a butter knife and fork.

“Sorry it took so long Fluttershy, it requires to be baked to perfection so that it tasted just right.” Pinkie gave Fluttershy a big hug before bouncing off for the kitchen. “Don’t forget, that no matter where you go there are friends that know and love you for who you are!”

For baked vegetable lasagna wrapped in a thin crust of pizza dough, it was quite tasty. Pinkie was exceptionally talented at baking things; the spinach really brought the taste together for the pasta stuffed pizza dough.

Yawning after having finished her meal, Fluttershy went to find a bed. As she lay down to sleep, she wondered how things would go once they reached Neighgraba. She prayed for the safety of all her friends, family and those who truly needed it in the days to come. She silently in her sleep pulled a plushy version of Tress to her chest and snuggled down under the blanket.

84

With a loud thud of the airship settling on the ground causing, Fluttershy fell out of bed with a yelp. This also sent her plush toy flying into the air; it came back down straddling her face.

“You okay there Fluttershy? Twilight sent me to get you up, we’re there… well technically we’re parked outside of Neighgraba a good distance away.” Stopping to look at the plush toy, Chrysalis chuckled as she levitated the miniature version of Tress to herself. “This is adorable, who made it?”

“I got it from Rarity… I sometimes have problems sleeping alone.” It was something Fluttershy has been trying to stamp out of herself. Fluttershy reached up and took the plush toy out of the levitation field. “It’s not the only one I have, I also have one of Octavia, You, Carrot Topper, Zecora, Twilight and one of Rarity herself.”

“Is mine anatomically correct at least?” Chrysalis was more than a little curious as to know what her plush toy was like.

“Well… if you don’t mind the answer… yes.” Fluttershy barely squeaked that out as her entire face turned bright red as she looked at the floor in embarrassed. Her mane covered her face as she thought back to when she asked Rarity to make them for her. She really had a thing for her friends and Rarity really helped her out by making these plush toys for her to snuggle.

“Huh, okay then. Come on, we have a meeting to get to. I’m excited to hear what I’m going to be doing, as infiltration is my specialty!” As a changeling Chrysalis had pride in her species ability to infiltrate any place even if they may not be very quiet about doing so. She waited for Fluttershy to put up her plush toy and then they set out for the galley.

All the ponies were waiting for the meeting to get started; Twilight had to call up Chrysalis to translate what she was saying for the benefit of the Saddle Arabian’s present. There was one particular part of the presentation that Twilight set up that Princess Jasmine had a question for.

“I know its importance is of no matter, but why are ponies always getting the grand vizier’s name wrong?” Jasmine had a darker blue mane and lighter shade of pink, otherwise she could have just been a Saddle Arabian version of Tress.

“What? I thought ‘Fat Barring Flatulence’ was a pretty good insult.” Chrysalis replied back in fluent Saddle Arabian.

“So even if they are getting his name wrong by accident, they still insult it so grandly as Daring does. Please tell her to excuse my interruption.” The princess had been spending a lot of time around her companion with the dark mane and the green cloak.

Jasmine had learned that sometimes there were things you couldn’t see or experience from being cooped up in a palace. One of the things she recently learned to love was having friends, even if Daring was a bit of a cranky pony at times and a loner. Velvet was one of the few ponies that the adventurer would talk with.

The plan was set and they all would enter the city in groups at different times set more than an hour apart from one another.

The plan was set and they all would enter the city in groups at different times set more than an hour apart from one another. No group would be without a translator, Nightlight and Velvet weren’t too rusty with the language.

Fluttershy looked at the grand city with its majestic round towers leading into pointed spires and the sandstone buildings that held their weight. She nervously approached the front gates being guarded by rough looking stallions. She pulled her shawl tighter around her head and once again made sure there was nothing on her worth stealing.

“Halt!” The guard on the left yelled as Fluttershy approached, he recognized Fluttershy as being Equestrian and thus spoke in that language. “State your business with the city of Neighgraba.”

“I’m a wary traveler… one that got separated from my merchant convoy. I have been wandering the desert for hours and my throat is parched. If you would be so kind, I come seeking refuge within the city.” Fluttershy shivered at the hungry stares she was receiving, she had gotten all sweaty and tired before coming up to the gates just so that her story would be believable.

“Kind she says, hah!” The guard on the right chuckled darkly causing a shiver to run down the shy mares back.

“I’m sure I’ll be able to catch up with my convoy if I can get a drink of water and a nights rest. I won’t be in the city for that long and I promise to not cause too much trouble.” Fluttershy really didn’t have to act fearful, she was fearful. She was the first pony to enter the city and she needed to gain access to the palace. Chrysalis was shadowing her and hopefully would help her if things went bad.

“Fine, we’ll let you through. Be aware though, the grand vizier’s word is law and if he deems you worthy for slavery, then you will become his slave. You are entering at your own risk.” The guard on the left actually showed some hint of kindness in his warning despite his lust filled stare. “A pretty thing like you would best stay away from going too far into the city. Maybe there is nearby a guard or two who you could pay for certain services to keep you out of his sight hmmm? We could use some… entertainment… if you will.”

“N-N-No thank you, I can take care of myself.” Fluttershy waited for the large doors to be opened as the guard called for it. She hastily entered with the stares of the two stallions following her robed form.

The guards certainly didn’t like to be ignored. They already were sending out word that a new mare has just walked into the city and that her soft voice could possibly sound like that of a nightingale singing.

Fluttershy was to get into the palace and find the mares that were enslaved, it was her main goal. They weren’t being kept in the dungeon. This was all they knew of from when Daring helped Jasmine escape from the city while the vizier was dealing with Ballad Din. Walking through the marketplace she noticed how dire things seemed. The smell here was rather sickening, the air tasted a tad metallic. There were thieves rampant on every street and she was lucky that her clothing wasn’t interesting enough for them to steal.

Even Fluttershy could tell the thieves were practically running the city; the merchants still did good business though and were the only ones untouched by the thieves. The people that lived in the city were not as lucky, they were downtrodden and the mood was grim.

The female populace that Fluttershy did see was staying well out of sight, they feared to tread where Fluttershy had in her false bravado. In fact, after five minutes of walking towards the palace there was a distinct lack of any mares entirely. This may have explained all those females of several different species that she spotted on the way to Neighgraba sitting in camps more than a mile away from the city. They were probably related to the merchants that had entered the city to do business and had set up camp as they weren’t willing to risk being enslaved.

After looking around to make sure no one saw her, Fluttershy went to the nearby fountain of water outside the palace took a large drink from it. She took note at all the guards patrolling around the place; it would be hard getting anyone out of there. The water was refreshing and cool as it slid down her throat; she wasn’t lying about being parched and the water was the one comforting thing in this dreary place.

Fluttershy wondered why Twilight gave her such a scary mission. The only females around the palace were those too young even for the vizier’s tastes, they were also considered street vermin and or orphans. At least the guards weren’t assaulting them or actively hunting them outright. Instead they went entirely ignored as they played around the only good thing left in the city, the fresh water fountains.

Sighing, Fluttershy felt bad about the state of the city. Now that she has had her fill of water, she had to find out where the enslaved mares were being kept and what condition they were in. She truly hoped that Chrysalis hadn’t lost her thus far; her feminine robe and shawl combination was highly noticeable to make sure that the changeling didn’t lose her in the crowds.

Being highly noticeable, but lacking money was probably the one reason why thieves weren’t trying to touch her at all. For this reason alone Fluttershy was glad to be easily seen for once. She had already seen at least twenty seven different acts of theft in the span of a minute just sitting quietly at the fountain.

“She looks to be a foreigner; do you think Maul will want her?” The sound of a camel could be heard asking in Saddle Arabian.

“No, she has already been marked for slavery by the guards. It is the only reason we dare not touch her. She is the vizier’s merchandise. If she doesn’t heed the unturned guard’s warnings soon, she will not be leaving.” The stallion in the alleyway with the camel looked at the innocent face of the mare as she sat at the fountain. Fluttershy played with some of the kids around the fountain and he kept his watch of her, he could already guess she was sleek of form by her movements. “The vizier doesn’t like his merchandise to be broken in ahead of time. If she were smart, she would have escaped the city while she still has a chance.”

“Such a waste of a perfectly good flesh, but the vizier gets what he wants as his word is law.” The camel went back to watching the streets with the stallion.

“You there, foreigner! You are to come with us by order of the grand vizier.” The guard that spoke in a particularly monotone voice looked incredibly different from the ones at the gate. In fact all the guards near the palace had eyes that were solid grey, even the non pony members of the guard. Behind the guard that had called out to Fluttershy, there was a regal if nasty looking stallion with a sneer upon his face. He turned away and made his way for the palace. The guards forced Fluttershy to follow him as they held her at sword point.

Fluttershy knew what she was doing was dangerous, but she had to do this. Her friends were relying on her getting some of the information they needed, she dearly hoped she wasn’t alone and that Chrysalis was still with her. To think she was so comfy in bed earlier, now she was being accosted by the evil vizier. There was no turning back now as she was in the thick of it.

Upon being forced into the throne room, the vizier turned to his less than seemingly aware guards and simply pointed a hoof at Fluttershy. The guards roughly took away her shawl and robe taking away a part of her comfort zone in the completely stale air of the palace. The vizier was saying something she couldn’t entirely understand as he walked up to her and looked her over.

Like any Saddle Arabian he was tall and certainly imposing to the shy mare. He had a dark brown coat and short trimmed black hair except for the pointy beard. He said something that sounded sickeningly sweet as he gathered a mass of her pink mane that was covering her face in his hoof and gave it a jerk forcing Fluttershy to the ground onto her side. Fluttershy didn’t fight him and just whimpered a little, she could only hope he wouldn’t try anything to her right now.

Taking a slight interest in her hindquarters the vizier said something that he thought could be decidedly humorous and laughed at his own joke. The guard stood around blankly still holding their swords towards the shy mare, after a moment vizier scowled at them and was barking at them while pointing towards Fluttershy. She was pushed onto her hooves and slowly forced from the room leaving behind a smiling vizier. That smile didn’t bode well for her future.

Thankfully Trixie’s magic had thus far held up to scrutiny and Fluttershy had gotten into the palace without anyone knowing she had wings. If the vizier had known she was able to fly, he probably would have ordered her wings be chopped off as part of the processing all his slaves went through. Her wings were kept hidden under the illusion magic safe and sound if a bit bruised.

Fluttershy had no idea what was going to happen to her now, but she trusted Chrysalis would pull her to safety if she were about to be killed. Even if she couldn’t see any sign of the changeling she still trusted her friend to be there for her as she was led to a room and was stopped at its entrance.

Three other guards were leading a Saddle Arabian mare that was shorn of all her hair, mane, tail and body. She also had her hooves in chains and there were horrible scars running along her back from being whipped harshly, possibly for struggling against what her detainers were doing to her. The look in her eyes was the look of one who has lost all hope in the world, she limped away forced to walk with the injuries dealt to her.

Gulping Fluttershy moved as they roughly pushed her along and corralled her into the room’s only entrance. The guards spoke to the griffon in the room with the same grey eyes as the others. A quickly muzzled Fluttershy was forcefully tied down to table on her belly with the ropes holding her legs immobile. The griffon brought out some shears snapping them at her with a sadistic smile on his beak. She knew she was being processed like the mare before her and could only hope that by not struggling she wouldn’t be hurt as badly.

85

The griffon approached the tied down cowering Fluttershy with the scissors. A shadow flitted in through the higher portion of doorway and narrowed its glowing eyes at him as he grabbed a mass of the shy mare’s mane.

A chained and barren of hair Fluttershy was pushed out of the room, led by the guards towards her next destination. As she kept her head down, she smiled slightly revealing fanged teeth.

Back in the room, the griffon stood there blankly for a moment before falling over revealing the real Fluttershy who was hiding behind him struggling to lift some heavily overloaded saddlebags. She quietly poked her head out of the entrance to the room and watched as the guards turned the corner with Chrysalis. The changeling winked back in her direction before disappearing entirely.

Fluttershy started following them cautiously, she thought Chrysalis’s intervention was amazingly well timed. Having her hide behind the unconscious griffon was a stroke of genius. The changeling had transformed to appear as if she were a fully processed Fluttershy after dealing with the griffon and followed that up by calling the guards into the room using his voice while holding him up with her magic. Chrysalis had even injured herself slightly to make it believable, much to Fluttershy’s consternation. Whatever magic that was affecting the guards had to be messing with their sight, as such they failed to spot the changeling that snuck into the room.

Now that they had traded places, Fluttershy had her medical kit among the other supplies in the saddlebags. She had to be careful as getting in was the easy part, getting to the slaves without getting caught was going to be difficult as she was slowed down by the weight placed on her back. She would have to give Chrysalis a thank you hug with lots of love later for making sure she didn’t have to go through something that would have been somewhat traumatizing. She was pretty sure Twilight’s hair growth formula would have fixed the problem, if she had bothered to bring some along.

While the thieves, brigands and the like were too busy watching Fluttershy, they didn’t notice Chrysalis tailing her with the medical supplies, water and food. The two hoped they could get some useful information from the slaves and said slaves wouldn’t be stuck for much longer under the vizier’s cruel hooves.

Chrysalis was going to be sneaking in as much stuff as she could for the slaves after she was done leading Fluttershy right to them. The shy mare would proceed to patch up the sick, wounded and otherwise mares that were hurt by the grand vizier while avoiding the guards.

Elsewhere meeting with a camel and a stallion, Ballad Din was talking to the stallion and camel in a hushed tone as Tress and Daring Do stood by watching their surroundings.

Tress, given her general height, could have anyone mistaking her for a Saddle Arabian native that didn’t talk much and was wearing masculine clothing. She hoped Fluttershy and Chrysalis were doing well with their part of the infiltration scheme; thus far she had yet to see any sign of the genie or jinn. She was with the team that were all going after the lamp specifically. Finding out what, if anything, the Vizier had to control all those guards that just forced Fluttershy into the palace was a small side objective for every team.

“Just tell Abyss Maul, that Ballad Din will come seeking the information and he will get it one way or another.” Ballad turned away and led his companions towards his home in Neighgraba. On the way he explained that Abyss Maul was a thief who was stupid enough to try and steal anything, even the lamp that the vizier had under his hoof. Ballad only stole what he needed to live and was an honorable quick witted stallion, but now he was going to put his thieving ways to use in saving the city he loved.

They were basically the group focused on the less friendly aspects of Neighgraba. If Abyss Maul was as stupid as many thought he was, he would be planning to steal the vizier’s power for himself. If anybody knew where it was, then it would be Abyss who would have a half decent idea of where to look. It would be a while before they set out for his hideout to steal his plans, but for now they would just eat some dates.

“So when Twilight said you were dangerous. Did she mean you can walk into a room full of armed thieves and walk out without injury?” Daring was skeptical of Tress’s combat prowess, she wasn’t skeptical of Tress’s hair products as that stuff felt good to bathe with. Daring personally could do it, only she’d get a few bruises here and there as she’d mostly be looking out for knife wounds. Ballad Din could just dance circles around them to the point that they were beating themselves up. Tress was the one Daring was unsure of as she hadn’t seen her fight yet.

“I’m ready when Ballad is. Besides I’m itching for a brawl and I can’t wait until Twilight and the troupe make their grand entrance, because that’s when we move out right?” Popping another date in her mouth and chewing it thoroughly, she knew that didn’t really answer Daring’s question. She instead swallowed and decided to ask. “So who’s going to be left behind to watch the ship again?”

“Rough Heed, Jasmine and Pinkie Pie. Pinkie looks to be kind of attached to the idea of having her own little restaurant and it scares me as to how clingy to it she is.” Even Daring was wary of leaving Pinkie Pie alone to her own devices, who knew what the wild card would do.

An hour and thirteen minutes later the three of them were in the seediest part of town; all three of them were good in a fight. They stood outside the hideout which was located in a bar, Tress smiled and haughtily trotted in not waiting for the other two to scout it out. There was no better time to start a bar brawl then right now, she missed doing this in Appleoosa because the ponies there were boring.

Boldly walking in caused every thief in the hideout to turn towards Tress. She simply moved to a corner lifted a table above her head and then threw it into the den of thieves as hard as she could into the largest mass of bodies she could see.

“What is she doing, we have to… what?” Ballad was pulled back by Daring as an unconscious body flew from the hideout passing through the space he was just standing.

“I don’t think she needs our help, let’s sneak around and steal from Abyss’s personal stash while she keeps them busy.” Daring approached the doorway only to stop as a pair of hooves appeared scrabbling hopelessly for the exit. The poor Saddle Arabian camel was dragged back inside screaming incomprehensible expletives. “Then again maybe we can wait while she deals with this; it looks like she has a lot of aggression to get out of her system and this certainly answers my earlier question.”

“If that were me in there, I would have beaten them all without attacking them once.” Ballad grumbled as a griffon flew out with two black eyes and bounced twice before coming to a rest.

“Yes, but her solution makes sure no pony will ever talk about this, can you imagine an entire guild full of thieves getting their butts kicked by one mare? This is priceless.” Chuckling Daring looked in to see more than twenty bodies strewn around the room, with parts on them bent at varying painful angles. Tress was just dusting off her hooves as she stood in the middle of the room. “Are you quite finished yet?”

Tress bucked out her left hind leg breaking a thief’s jaw like it was made of glass, just as he was about to stab her in the back too.

“Yeah, we’re done here. Abyss really didn’t fortify his hideout very well.” Tress preened at the attention she was getting from the thief and the treasure hunter looking on in awe. She might have caused a bit of a mess, shattered some ancient urns, ripped up expensive looking art and a smashed a few ugly looking sculptures. That wasn’t even the half of the damage done to the entire room.

“Actually this was fortifying it to the highest level he was capable of.” Ballad’s words were relayed by a laughing Daring Do as the two set out to search Abyss Maul’s stashes. They were looking for his plans to steal from the vizier and anything else that could have been usefully specifically. Abyss always had a plan; they were never any good though and were just good for informational purposes.

Anyone that tried to follow an Abyss Maul plan usually ended up worse off than when they started. Only Abyss can follow his usually insanely suicidal plans and come out even, never ahead and never behind. Anyone else got the short end of the stick, though it wasn’t rare that Abyss got his comeuppance. Sure he may not have been the best thief in the world, but he wasn’t the worst and he has yet to be permanently caught by anyone. That shows that Abyss, despite his seemingly bumbling nature at times, usually knew how to survive whatever horrible thing ends up aimed at him.

While the Treasure Hunter and Thief cased the hideout room by room, Tress leaned back against the bar and relaxed a bit. She had never had so much fun beating the tar out of lowlifes. Not that she had previously gone around beating up lowlifes before this.

“So, any of you want to go for another round?” A chorus of groans sounded out in defeat at Tress’s question and she cackled insanely. “No then? Okay, I’ll just wait for my friends to be done stealing your stuff; ah it feels good to let the inner evil out once in a while. Now all I have to do is just sit here and look pretty.”

“You know you could be helping us look for the plans this guy has!” Daring shouted down at Tress from an upstairs room.

“No can do. You’re the minions, you do the work. I just beat up a room full of thieves, what have you done that was important lately?” Tress knew she was being slightly lazy, but she deserved to kick back for a minute or two. “I swear you would get too lazy if I did all the work for you.”

“I think I’ve found it, let’s get out of here.” Ballad Din and Daring were heard rummaging and stuffing something away upstairs and they quickly came down. As the two exited the den of the thieves they witnessed an explosion of fireworks in the distance. “Our friends seem to be keeping the general public very busy, let us make haste back to my hideout to look over what we’ve found. We’ll join them again later tonight with our discoveries.”

“Come on Tress, let’s go.” Daring watched as the mare lazily stood up stretched out and slowly before she sauntered out the front door without a single injury. Never had the explorer ever seen a mare that could fight so well while wearing a robe and shawl, there were only three small tears in the robe from near misses.

Thirty or so minutes later Abyss Maul, a slightly tubby and short Saddle Arabian stallion, arrived at his hideout. He walked into the room and blinked owlishly at all the throwing knives impaling the walls, the destroyed stolen merchandise and the mangled thieves still lying around.

“What do I pay you guys for; Ballad Din couldn’t have been that tough. He was just one guy!” Abyss Maul was positively angry at having his hideout destroyed. Sighing he made his way to his stash of plans and information, he quickly found that a lot of it was stolen. “Ah great, there goes all that time sending in perfectly good patsy’s to get that information on where the Vizier was getting his power from. I swear I don’t know why I tolerate you guys.”

“Sure it was just one guy, that’s who took us all out.” The stallion that spoke would never admit that he brought low by what was probably the most vicious mare he has ever seen. When he was approached by Ballad Din earlier today after that weirdly colorfully dressed mare was taken by the vizier, he didn’t think the thief could be very threatening. Oh how wrong he was, they didn’t even make that mare bleed and she wiped the floor with their entire den of thieves in less than ten minutes.

“I swear you just can’t good help these days.” Abyss Maul just shook his head at his minions scattered about and bloodied.

This was going to be one of the more horrific memories of the thieves who were beaten to a bloody pulp today by one crazy mare. Not like Abyss Maul hasn’t already caused them problems with his horrible leadership. The reprehensible thieves would forever remember the red and green eyes of that mare in their nightmares

Back at Ballad Din’s hideout, the three ponies poured over the stolen information until they found the answer to their lamp problem.

It was unfortunate that the lamp was currently placed in the catacombs beneath Neighgraba and protected by a variety of traps both magical and sadistic in nature. It was apparent that several hapless thieves sent to gather this much barely survived to escape with even as much information as they were seeing here.

Animated skeletons, a monster called a Slumbergath and plenty of references to bladed traps, poison darts and the other usual stuff that Daring and Ballad were used to dealing with. This was nothing new to the adventurous mare; only it was going to be really dangerous.

None of them had any idea as to what a Slumbergath was.

86

Late in the evening back at The Indistinguishable Plot, AKA the stolen pirate airship repurposed by the Sparkle family for fun and travel purposes.

“Okay something’s up, that went too well for us. What did you say the projected reactions were my little sparkle butt? I know we got the Grand Vizier Giraffe Fellatio’s attention and distracted him and a lot of other prying eyes away from the actions of our friends in the city, but I didn’t see the lamp with him.” Nightlight enjoyed being the barker for their little all unicorn circus act. He thought Rarity made a particular good showing with her flamboyantly dressed appearance and elegant dancing with feathered fans. His daughter had some weird friends, but he always liked the strange personalities they had.

“Dad, please don’t call me that. Not while I’m planning to overthrow Daft Lard’s current reign and rescue Jasmine’s father from wherever he’s been put.” Twilight faced hoof at what she had just said. She was trying to ignore her father’s name for the vizier and had just blushed at it. “Oh great, now even you got me pronouncing his name wrong and turning it into a joke.”

“Just don’t follow you’re fathers example of dirty humor dear. It’s not like our family doesn’t have enough bad habits as it is at times.” Velvet sighed at her husband’s rather cheery smile at the mention of bad habits. “Anyway, we were talking about Gyp Bard’s reaction to us? I’m sorry for that, but it’s kind of hard not to try and find a way to mess his name up.”

“Don’t worry, she won’t. Not that we don’t get enough of Pinkie doing it by complete accident. If she was doing it on purpose it wouldn’t be funny anymore.” Tress took stock of the ponies and changeling sitting around the table. She narrowed her eyes at the changeling who didn’t come back with Fluttershy. “Okay I just noticed Fluttershy isn’t here, where is she Chrysalis and what is she doing?”

The mood turned serious as Chrysalis clenched her mouth and her eyes shifted about at all the attention she was receiving.

“Well it’s like this...” Chrysalis started off into a flashback while looking to everyone knowing this was going to be a hard bit of news to swallow.

Fluttershy had finished following the disguised Chrysalis and the scary zombie guards to where the enslaved mares were being kept. The area leading to this place was heavily patrolled and she was currently standing at the top of steps, it had been hard to keep up with the guards forcing Chrysalis along without being discovered.

It was at the back of the palace across a bridge that reached out halfway to a small butte, the halfway point had an outpost building that had more of those grey eyed guards inside. The guards inside raised a bridge the rest of the way to the butte where the enslaved were being kept. It was a small area with a smattering of dry brittle ugly brown grass; there were seven mounds of turned dirt on the uncomfortable looking butte.

From the window Fluttershy was looking through, she could already guess what the seven mounds meant and tears dropped from her eyes as she brought her hooves to her mouth. She steeled her resolve to reach out and help those who were still being enslaved by the tyrant. She could tell that she didn’t have nearly enough supplies considering the numbers, but she would make use of what she currently had to the best of her ability.

Fluttershy watched as the guards shoved Chrysalis to the ground and quickly made their way back to the outpost where the bridge was lowered. From what she could see of the state of the poor slaves, they’ve been beaten up, whipped, left out in the hot sun without a coating to protect their skin, they looked to be showing signs of malnourishment and she didn’t even need a pair of binoculars to even diagnose that a few of them might be currently slowly dying from heatstroke. If it wasn’t heat stroke then it was hypothermia from going through the freezing cold nights unprotected. She didn’t even want to consider what the Vizier was doing to them when they weren’t out there.

The strongest looking slaves on the butte were the Saddle Arabian camels; they could hold their water and could take the oppressive temperatures changes easily. The Saddle Arabian mares were not quite as lucky in that regard. Fluttershy even spotted a single griffon that was plucked of all her feathers, with blunted talons and lots of scarring.

The griffon was notably staring off the side of the butte at the ground with a contemplative look on her face; it truly looked as if she would jump at a moment's notice. She looked to have put up more of a struggle than any other slave there.

“Needless to say, you should have seen the looks of depression on their faces when they saw that I could fly away. However that quickly turned around when I came back helping Fluttershy fly the supplies to the butte and translated for her what we were doing. We made sure to fly well clear of that outpost though, we don’t entirely know what kind of visual range those guards have aside from very little peripheral vision.” Chrysalis turned to Tress with a frown. “As you can imagine Fluttershy refused to leave as some of the slaves were in critical condition and we all know she wouldn’t stand by while other beings were hurting like that. Heck, even I had trouble coming here and leaving them all behind. Fluttershy even told me to tell you specifically to get to work on some pain relieving temperature sustaining gel and to find some medicine specifically made for heatstroke cases. She needs that stuff like yesterday.”

Tress was immediately out of her seat rushing from the room, Fluttershy needed help and that was all she needed to know to get onto her hooves.

Twilight was oddly silent, but her mane and tail seemed to be igniting and her jaw was set firmly in a grim frown.

Nightlight held Velvet’s hoof, this was some disturbing information to take in.

Rarity was silently passed a bucket by a straight haired Pinkie Pie for her to throw up in. There wasn’t even a silly deflation sound from the pink pony.

Rough Heed stayed stoic though there was a shine of water in his eyes, the people were hurting and as such he was hurting.

Jasmine was already breaking down into Ballad Din’s chest at the treatment of the people, the stallion simply held the mare in silence.

“If Trixie had a genie right now, the first two wishes would be to make sure the vizier got a fate worse than death. The last wish would be to set the genie free and maybe if it was feeling nice then it will continue helping with the first two wishes of its own volition.” If Trixie remembered her history, she’d even wish for whatever cruel twisted thing Discord could think of to do to him.

“Oh trust me; I would love to arrange something like that personally. We may not have seen it or drawn it out with our performance, but the jinn’s presence is very clear considering all the corruption.” Twilight’s mane and tail were practically made of magical fire at this point, but her voice stayed calm despite the state of her appearance. “It at least stands to reason that’s why its lamp has been reportedly placed so deeply in the catacombs by the vizier. A genie changes their master depending on who holds their lamp; it’s not the same thing with jinn.”

“I’ve already got a good plan already if all of you are willing to hear it.” Daring noted the mood was quite down and she wasn’t a pony to be a down for long. Time to kick the charisma she had up a notch. “If it helps, I’ve seen a lot of stuff like this and it never gets any easier. The best thing we can do is to keep pushing forward and try to save who we can. We’ll be sad later; at least we know the merchants are trying to help the people of the city even if they fear doing too much visibly.”

“Well that’s nice darling, but we still don’t know what tricks that vicious stallion has up his sleeves. We still need the location of Jasmine’s father, unless you saw something Chrysalis.” Even Rarity couldn’t be proud of her cloth work for the show she helped put on earlier. “I also think it pertinent that we find out what exactly that jinn is doing. The air in Neighgraba smells horrid and it could only be the work of that monster.”

“He’s not in the dungeon because I ran a quick check by there before I came here, it’s completely empty. I didn’t do too thorough a search though. I think it was much more prudent that I got this information to all of you then stick around creepy grey eyed central. If I hadn’t kept a close eye on Fluttershy going in she’d be forced into sporting a new daring do. It seems to be the popular style amongst the vizier’s slaves; at least the one thing he hasn’t done thus far is rape them and Fluttershy thankfully confirmed it.” Chrysalis really wanted to lighten the mood; the negative emotions were almost overwhelming just about everywhere she went now. The vizier still did horrible things, but at least that was one piece of good news. “I do have one other interesting bit of information, the scepter the vizier has is magical in nature. Don’t know what it exactly does, but it’s a very good idea to be wary of it.”

“Daring, this is your show. What do we do?” Twilight was deferring to the well traveled mare as she said she had a plan. Daring’s plans were always quite brilliant in her books and this was the real Daring Do, she was a mare that could walk into dangerous places as if she were shopping for groceries.

“We have enough information to bring the vizier down. The only thing we really lack is enough skilled fighters.” Daring suddenly jolted upright when a three-sectioned staff twirled into the air and then slammed down next to Velvet.

“As your friend I will respectfully ask you to acknowledge that what we have right now is actually overkill.” Velvet received a bunch of stares. “It’s not like we need to kill the guards, we only need incapacitate them. Nighty and I aren’t exactly spring chickens when it comes to a fight. Also do you even know what I went through raising my son and little sparkle here to where they are now? That seems much harder then what I think we’re about to do.”

“I believe she's right, then again I always do. We’re all certainly more than capable enough. We just need to divide our talents to where they’re needed most.” Nightlight leaned over and kissed Velvet on the cheek. “A good plan would be really useful though.”

“Right, we’ll use The Indistinguishable Plot to rescue the slaves, I’ll personally enter the catacombs and caves beneath Neighgraba in an effort to destroy the lamp and we need ponies to attack the vizier head on and keep his attention until we can deal with his jinn and rescue the slaves. Maybe we can even get some assistance from the nearby friendly merchants.” As Daring set about making the plan this time, they would quickly set it off as fast as they feasibly could. The most worrying thing about all this was the Jinn, as they’ve yet to encounter it.

“Rarity can you get some blankets? We’ll have Chrysalis levitate them up to the butte. Those mares must be nearly freezing to death every night and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but an airship is not exactly discreet. We don’t want to give away the fact that we can rescue them right now. We don't need the vizier preparing for us by doing anything too hastily.” After watching the fashion pony go to carry out her request, Twilight turned to Pinkie Pie. “There’s going to be a lot of hungry mouths to feed Pinkie so you might want to get some sleep and be ready for it tomorrow when the ship picks them up.”

Pinkie slowly gritted her teeth and her hair immediately puffed up when she started smiling again. She would not stay a grumpy sad pony forever, not if she was to continue being in this story. If there were bellies that needed to be filled, then she would get started with shaking and baking after a nice nap. She hopped off humming an old upbeat pegasus war tune to herself, one popularized by a pony named Pit who crawled out of the depths of Tartarus to save Cloudsdale.

At the butte, Fluttershy had managed to organize every female there through the use of body language. The very first thing she did was help the sick and the injured based on who was worse off. She had thus far stabilized the worst cases, but without medication what she did already wouldn’t last very long. As it was getting dark she started to organize them all into a group at the center of the butte hoping that they could survive through shared body heat.

Sighing, Fluttershy knew she had some troubling work ahead of her and would only rest when she was assured that all of them were safe. She looked to the only one she hadn’t touched the entire time she’s been here. She trotted up to the griffon in a meek and not very threatening manner. She carefully wrapped a hoof around the griffons arm and gave her a gentle tug; she wanted her to join the group.

The griffon turned to look at Fluttershy fiercely. For a moment both the griffon and the pony stared at each other, they each became wide eyed in recognition.

“Gilda is that you!?”

Author's Notes:

Is it a wham line chapter, I don't even know if I'm actually writing anything anymore. Alternate Universe really is getting a lot of use here.

I think my writing was slightly messed up this chapter, ah well.

Anyway Twilight's Kingdom airs soon... let the cliche storm plot commence. Friendship wins the day again and it's magical. Sums up the entire show really, not that I'm any better with my cliche plot writing. It's just that there's foreshadowing and then there's blunt right out telling you what's going to happen no matter what may occur before hoof.

87

It was nighttime when the vizier Jabber stood at the highest balcony overlooking the city from the palace, the mare in the moon shined brightly this night. Next to him a ghostly cloud of dark yellow billowed into existence with bright grey eyes.

“I sense a coming trouble. It appears a mimic has managed to sneak into your well guarded palace. Remember master, if you don’t protect what is mine you will lose my aid. Now we wouldn’t want that would we?” The gas cloud chuckled darkly. “There was a powerful gathering of magic that can rival even my phenomenal cosmic powers today, it gathered to put on a show that you were witness too. Be wary, for the forces of good seek to bring you and me down. If you do not heed my warnings you will pay dearly.”

“What power could take us on? The power we wield shall bring them to their knees.” The vizier turned and walked back into the palace throwing his thoughts back at the jinn. “Something that can rival our powers combined is nonsense!”

“You fool, should even one being reach that which binds me to this realm your fall will be as swift as my own.” Slowly the cloud of dark yellow fog dissipated and waited for the enemies next movements, it would do it’s best to aid the twisted mind as it was a kindred spirit of causing pain and misery. Too bad stupidity was always in great supply, but never in demand. Their enemies were small in numbers compared to all the enthralled guards under their command, but no less a threat that could end their reign of terror swiftly before its power could grow any further.

Behind the palace on the Butte, Fluttershy stood there staring at the griffon who just stared back in surprise. After a moment the griffon was the first to come to her senses.

“Dweeb, what in the buck are you doing here of all places!” The only reason Gilda hadn’t bothered to turn around when the others were excited about something is because she was used to them getting their hopes up. Also that she couldn’t understand any of what they were saying, she was the odd one out as the first foreigner to be forced into this situation. She had been stuck here for three weeks and surviving off what food she could steal in the palace when those messed up guards weren’t looking. She’d never berate those dumb sun dried grapes with her wrath ever again.

The griffon looked like she was still relatively strong and somewhat healthy; this made her of lower importance to Fluttershy since her injuries weren’t immediately life threatening. Only now did Fluttershy bother her since it was important as things were growing a lot colder, the night was as lethal as the day was in the desert and Gilda thus far apparently survived by pure determination and grit.

Gilda was beginning to think that the best way out was to slide down the side of the butte while accepting any injury that came to her. The problem with that is if she even survived to reach the bottom there were humongous scorpions, gigantic poisonous snakes, giant flesh eating worms and monstrously oversized fire breathing scarabs. The very reason why this butte was used as a place to put captives was that the sands behind the palace were teeming with death incarnate. She didn’t believe those were the only threats to anyone willing to pull a runner, just the ones she had seen so far every time she was stuck out here.

“You poor thing, that monster of a stallion ruined you’re wings, talons and had you hurt a lot didn’t he.” Fluttershy touched the bare skin of Gilda’s left wing with a comforting hoof. Gilda flinched and suddenly spun around to slam the pony to the ground for invading the lion bird’s personal space. She could feel the anger from the griffon’s right talon strangling her slightly as it gripped her neck. Even with this kind of reaction Fluttershy had already forgiven Gilda for acting like this. The griffon was after all stripped completely of her pride and shaved of her dignity; as such the shy pony had expected this reaction.

“I don’t need your pity or sympathy spineless!” Gilda immediately flared her featherless wings in a manner that could be seen as threatening, if her appearance hadn’t been missing a lot of the key features for the intimidation factor. “Now why in Tartarus are you here!”

“I was just trying to help every pony, camel and griffon here.” Fluttershy gasped out through the grip on her neck, Gilda was still doing pretty well despite being forced into slavery. She glanced at the ponies and camels watching her with worry at being assaulted like this, she just gave them a sad little smile and shook her head telling them not to help her.

The female Saddle Arabian natives hunched together and stayed where they were praying for their soft spoken angel’s safety. They felt like she was a figure of purity and that her friend of shifting shapes was her bodyguard with a fake fierce appearance. They thought Chrysalis might have even been a freed genie that was friends with the angel that came to them in their time of need. They only hoped the angry one didn’t do her any permanent harm.

“Did I ask for your help?” Gilda grunted while squeezing Fluttershy’s neck causing the pony to wheeze in pain. She had never liked the shy mare very much and was just as aggressive as ever to her.

“It doesn’t matter whether you asked or not, I would try to anyway.” Fluttershy’s comment was met with pain as she was lifted up slightly and slammed back down. Pain erupted from the back of her head from the rough treatment she was receiving. Gilda causing her pain was also something Fluttershy expected and forgave, after a year of following the griffon around she understood how Gilda worked well enough. She knew Gilda loves that pony that Tress had termed as the world’s densest living object, alongside also having the world’s densest material where said objects skull was concerned. “Take it out on me as much as you want Gilda. I’m actually glad to see you’re relatively healthy, but I am sad that you ended up like this. You didn’t deserve this.”

“If really you insist I’ll happily oblige.” Gilda tightened her grip on Fluttershy’s neck making it very hard for her to breathe. “I even bet after I left Rainbow was all over you as her best friend once again wasn’t she?”

“To be fair… I always knew you… were like me.” Gasping in some air, Fluttershy suddenly felt the grip relaxed a little when Gilda had a confused expression on her beak. After she almost blacked out, she was slapped across the face by the griffon bringing her back from the brink.

“I’m nothing like the loser you are!” The moment Gilda screeched this she received the fiercest glare she had ever seen before on the ridiculously soft dweebs face. Gilda felt her heart almost stop and a large amount of primal fear swept through her body from the piercing glare.

“I know I’m a loser, but that wasn’t what I was talking about. Although there is one thing I’m not a loser in and that is actually having friends who don’t care about that.” The real Fluttershy had mentally left the building for the moment, Gilda had taken notice and completely let go of her and backed away. It was a quiet and gentle if very pronounced dark rebuke and Gilda couldn’t find her voice because of the stare Fluttershy had planted on her. The shy butter coated mare kept her voice low and didn’t raise it an octave as she stayed completely focused on those two amber colored eyes. “You know at one time I actually wanted to talk to you personally and help you with Rainbow Dash, if only you had bothered to ask without pushing me away. I wasn’t going to stand in your way Gilda; in fact I liked your spirit, determination and bravery. I can see those qualities in you still, but you’re a sad bitter griffon that keeps pushing away every single good thing that comes your way and for what? You call me a coward, but then you turn and run away from one good thing after another because of fear of what anybody would think if they knew about you? Does your pride in how others perceive you matter that much? To think you’re the griffon who fell in love with my friend. I looked up to you because you were brave enough to approach Rainbow Dash with your feelings laid bare to her. You shared the sky with her in simple joy of just being in her presence, but you never told her how you felt did you?”

Gilda tried to say something, but she didn’t want to give away something that Fluttershy couldn’t have possibly...

“You’re gay like I am. I understand why you act like you do and I’m willing to continue excusing your actions unless you can prove to me that you aren’t running from your emotions like scared cub with your tail between your legs. You also likely recognized that I was gay too the instant you started becoming friends with Rainbow Dash. I tried to be friends with you for an entire year Gilda. You belittled me, you hurt me and you were overly territorial of my friend’s time. Did you know that when I left, she hadn’t noticed that I stopped coming around?” Moving closer so that she was face to face with the griffon, Fluttershy stopped short of their noses touching. “Rainbow Dash is quite oblivious, she was your first real friend and I know the feeling. You must have fell in love with her so fast, it frightened you how deep into your heart she wiggled without effort. It must have annoyed you so much that she didn’t notice your feelings given you never talk about them because you thought it wasn’t cool to do so. You were scared of what she would think, what others would think and it leads me to believe you are secretly just as shy as I am. The only difference between us is that you’ve got a tougher exterior to hide all your insecurities in. Tell me why you came to Saddle Arabia and then go over there with the rest of them and lend your strength to others for once, they need all the warmth they can get or one of them might not even survive another night. Maybe it will help you be less selfish instead of hiding who you really are behind all that anger and violence. If you are going to hurt anyone, then let loose all your anger onto me. Show me how much you truly hate yourself for who you are and that you aren’t the friend Rainbow thought you were. Show me that Rainbow was wrong to put even an ounce of trust in you.”

“I’m not...” Gilda tried to be defensive; she tried to deny it after Fluttershy seemed to be finished with her tirade. She couldn’t back away without falling off the cliff as Fluttershy moved forward and placed her mouth over Gilda’s beak and shoved her tongue down the griffon’s throat. It took Fluttershy only a split second to dominate Gilda’s anger with a simple deep kiss. After Fluttershy pulled away Gilda was silent for a moment before she opened her beak. “I don’t really understand the Saddle Arabian language at all. My reason for even being here in the first place abandoned me as soon as we got here, especially when that crazy Saddle Arabian head honcho jerk started doing that weird grey eye thing to those guards. Excuse me.”

Fluttershy silently watched with that same hard stare as Gilda, with her tail between her legs, moved over to the frightened slaves. After a moment their fears were eased as the griffon took roost next to a shivering mare that looked to be very cold and she threw a featherless wing over her and pulled her in tightly to share her body heat with the mare. Fluttershy continued tending to those who needed a kind or soft word while Gilda watched.

Chrysalis eventually arrived with blankets and they all started snuggling together under them for warmth, the changeling was even witness to the griffon with Fluttershy and another mare snuggled together. Like a newborn Gilda cried clutching to Fluttershy who held her gently comforting her until she fell into a peaceful sleep. The changeling came up to them and draped a blanket over them while smiling as Fluttershy looked up at her with a smile of her own.

One day Rainbow would have that cantankerous brave griffon that could coach her to being the best Wonder Bolt that she could be, all it would take was a little patience and some kindness to bring Gilda back to who she could be. Maybe Fluttershy would even be both Gilda’s and Rainbow’s best mare.

“What’s up with her? Her emotions are all over the place.” Chrysalis thought the positive emotions were nice; Fluttershy especially bled a lot of her heart warming passion in the changeling’s direction filling her up after her flight through the cold air of the night. She lit her horn and cast a warming spell over all that were sleeping on the butte.

“It’s nothing to worry about; she just has some things she needs to sleep on. She’s actually an old friend of mine that hasn’t had a bit of kindness thrown her way in quite a while. So have our friends figured out a plan yet to help all of them?” Getting a nod at her query, Fluttershy gave her wings two happy little flaps and she settled down to rest. She was incredibly tired from her long day. “Yay…”

Author's Notes:

Next- The deaths of Twilight, Trixie, Velvet and Rarity. Wait... huh?

88

Daring flew out of Neighgraba with a few angry words on her tongue as she headed for the airship with a quirky name. Coming in for a landing she could see that changeling again talking with Twilight. She was still wary of the love eater and has faced too many strange, odd or fantastic creatures to really trust it entirely and thus far its presence was entirely seemingly benign.

“That news is a bit relieving Chrysalis even if I’m still furious with that thing that calls itself a pony currently holding the throne. Get back to Fluttershy and make sure they can’t use them as hostages and get them ready for pickup, we’re moving against him today with or without any extra help.” Watching as her friend took off; Twilight sighed and turned to Daring. “What did the merchants have to say?”

“That’s a no on having any extra help. I’m ready to enter the catacombs that lead underneath the palace when you launch your attack, please try to keep them exceedingly busy. Did you know your hair hasn’t stopped flaming since yesterday?” Daring couldn’t help but stare at the magical conflagration that was Twilight’s billowing mane and tail. She could also swear Twilight’s coat was turning white.

“Arcane Keeper Yearling, may I have a word with you?” The sternness of Velvet’s words brought both Twilight and Daring’s attention to her as she came forward with Tress and Ballad.

“Can you not use my full pinion name?” Daring was physically dragged a short distance away from the others by Velvet before she was let go. “Okay, what is it Velvet?”

“You’re taking Tress and Ballad into the catacombs with you.” Velvet stared into Daring’s eyes daring her to try and go it alone.

“I work better alone Velvet, you know that.” It was not hard to tell where this was going and Daring would rather do this solo. She figured it was much safer that way.

“Even you need help at times. I’m not a medic Daring and you’ve come into our home bloodied or worse when running from your enemies once or twice. I’m tired of having to patch you up, you’re taking help this time and you’re going to accept it.” Velvet knew Daring didn’t trust too many after what has happened to her quite a few times, the adventurer even avoided hospitals after that assassination attempt. Velvet tends to only hear the lighter version of Daring’s more dangerous exploits. “I know you can trust Tress at least, she is basically my second daughter and quite capable. Ballad aside from being a thief is kind of like you in some ways and he even survived going after the lamp the first time on a different route of traps no less.”

“Yes, but he is also the screw up that caused the vizier to gain power. He grabbed the lamp while we were both fighting over it. In fact the vizier was the reason Ballad even knew it existed and I was just trying to prevent it from falling into the wrong hooves.” After a moment Daring realized she just basically agreed to take Tress along as she had no reason not to. The mare was a fighter if you could overlook her seemingly frail appearance and beauty; she was fast and viciously strong if the crying thieves were to be believed.

“You’re still taking Ballad along, he wants to make amends for what he caused and he’s willing to put things right. Give him the chance, that’s all I’m asking and you know I’m a good judge of character Daring. The princess wouldn’t love him if his heart wasn’t in the right place.” Turning her backside to her old friend, Velvet walked off to converse with her husband. If her Nightlight fell for any of the dessert beauties he was saving even for a moment he was getting the couched for a week.

An hour later of convincing arguments saw Daring flying off with Tress and Ballad Din in tow, but not without Twilight giving Tress a hug. Even Ballad got some snuggling in with the princess despite Rough Heeds glare directed at him before he galloped off. They were headed to the catacombs, while Twilight led her group to march on the entrance to the city of Neighgraba. Behind Twilight’s group the airship lifted off, Nightlight would be waiting for the signal to begin loading passengers as that was when the vizier’s forces would be too distracted to notice the airship.

Twilight had her mother, Trixie and Rarity with her. She knew her mom was generally good at fighting; she had little to no idea how good Rarity would be and had at least some idea as to what Trixie could do. She stopped outside the gates to Neighgraba. She didn’t care that her hair was constantly lit aflame; her seething anger at what the vizier had done to those mares was fresh in her mind. She was not going to let that go without justice and retribution, there were fates worse than death and Twilight knew how to inflict a few of them on a pony.

“Are you sure about coming along for this Rarity?” Four unicorns of varying magical strengths attacking a power mad vizier, he had an entire army of guards at his command and Twilight knew Rarity was the least powerful of the four of them.

“Why of course darling, he is an abomination and an affront to all that is fabulous. Besides once we’ve dealt with the brute, I can finally get some shopping in and get some authentic Saddle Arabian fashion.” Rarity wasn’t going to back down from this fight, what that stallion was doing was abhorrent and she was as angry as Twilight only she hid it better than the one with the magically flaming mane. “Don’t worry about me; I can take care of myself even though I’m nowhere near as powerful as you are.”

“Trixie has no complaints either; Trixie will show you all just how powerful she is.” Flaring her cape and taking a magnificent stance Trixie knew she was ready to put on the performance of a lifetime.

“Are you okay with this mom? You’re the only one here that can speak Saddle Arabian at the moment.” Twilight’s query received a response of a twirling three sectioned staff and the hum of an expert baton twirler who was once part of a marching band when she was younger.

“Just remember my little Sparkle Butt; we need to stop the vizier from using the guards as hostages as well while we take them down.” Velvet was the current voice of the group. She wasn’t as fluent in Saddle Arabian, but she knew how to get her point across. She kissed her daughter on the cheek and hugged her while giving her a longing nuzzle. “Just try not to get too hurt, because if you do I’m not sure I will be able to stop myself from breaking out the permanent injuries on every pony between me and you. You’ll always be my little pony. It’s sad that you’re almost all grown up, soon you won’t even need me to fight off mind controlled armies or ancient destructive cosmically powered beings anymore.”

The happy go lucky way that Velvet Sparkle put it caused the three mares to shiver at the promise of bodily harm. Nobody would ever hurt her foal on purpose without expecting to lose a limb or get horribly maimed like that poor Chrysalis girl.

“Please remind Trixie to never ask you for a duel with anything tougher then pillows as a weapon.” Trixie ears fell back as she addressed Twilight while Velvet led them to the gates. “You’re mother is scary and I’m now worried her spine breaking hugs might be more literal then Fluttershy gives them credit for.”

“She’s always been like that Trixie and I doubt she would permanently harm any of my friends.” Twilight only cooled down a little, her magic was ready to be unleashed on the nearest source of evil in righteous fury.

“Please do open the gates will you.” Soft spoken, yet with a hint of danger the two guards immediately pushed the doors opened and stepped clear of Velvet. She simple trotted through with three trailing mares, she only stopped for a moment to say something in Saddle Arabian. “Thank you.”

“Rarity don’t get distracted, you need to be vigilant and even more so as we approach the palace if the thieves don’t get in our way thanks to what Tress did to a good number of them yesterday then it’ll be a clear shot to the palace.” Twilight noticed Rarity almost getting sidetracked by the marketplace and immediately veered back into following them.

“Sorry, it’s just I want to at least explore the city.” Rarity’s eyes wandered a bit at all the wares as they passed, she was a bit nervous about this and even then she wasn’t about to allow something like this to continue. “I know we can do that afterwards, but you can’t blame me for wanting to look as I have hardly had a chance to. Besides I know it’s dangerous to walk around alone, but what are the chances that the controlled guards would even bother with us right now?”

As soon as it was mentioned, two grey eyed guards approached them with lethal intent only to have two heavy pots smash into their heads before they could even get close. Looking up at the nearby windows the four mares saw a male camel wink at them, he had heard of an attack on the vizier from a mare asking the merchants for help dealing with the controlled guards. He had a bone to pick with the vizier so he figured he’d lend the mares some aid. While he wouldn’t attack the empowered vizier or his forces directly, he wouldn’t mind helping the guards after they’ve had an accident that was in no way his fault whatsoever.

The camel had given the surrounding populace that was friendly to the cause a heads up. This is why the unconscious guards were soon dragged away by two Saddle Arabian stallions; a small quiet rebellion against the vizier was started.

Twilight’s group had a clear shot to the palace and half the controlled guards that were put in their path were mysteriously missing in action by the time they reached the steps to the palace. There was a lot of broken pottery that some Saddle Arabian mares were sweeping off the streets; it was somewhat inconsequential that there seemed to be a lot of citizens with butter hooves today.

“Grand Vizier *incomprehensible gibberish name*, come out and face us yourself you coward!” One of these days Velvet figured she was going to look through some of her old notes on the translation spell she was using.

They had garnered Jabber’s attention alright, he had used half the guards under his command and he saw clear road all the way up to the steps the four mares were standing at the bottom of.

“It seems my… friend, shall we say…was right, you are more of a nuisance then I originally gave credit for. To have passed all my guards looking fresh and unhindered as you do.” He held a scepter in his left hoof he thrust it forward. “But I’m no fool off my guard, kill them!”

A large surge of guards passed the vizier and charged down the stairs. The vizier stood there waiting to see what he was up against, the purple mare sent a bolt of energy into the sky that glowed brightly and did little else.

“Oh, oh, there’s the signal Mr. Twilight’s Dad Sir Captain!” Pinkie hopped up and down next to Nightlight, the stallion smiled and spun the wheel and hit a lever with his magic. The Indistinguishable Plot started to move for the back of the palace.

The four mares stood their ground as the guards charged down the center of the steps.

Velvet standing in the lead as she brought down the first three guards as she met them with her three sectioned staff she stole from a ninja pony with relative ease. Soon she received a blade through the neck as they swarmed her. Despite looking to have the situation well handled before; she fell to the ground where the blood began to pool and twitched slightly before she ceased moving.

Twilight cried out for her mom and rush forwards only to be stabbed in the side and have the sword ripped out of her spilling her guts to the sandy ground, she cried and tried hold her innards in before a sword came down upon her ending her tears. There was just too many of them.

Rarity was back into a corner and defending herself quite well with a wooden stool and some cloth she was using to trip and befuddle the guards, she was swiftly stabbed in the chest where her heart was and the life slowly left her eyes.

Trixie was firing magic blasts and putting up a lot of a fight and avoided getting stabbed or sliced as horribly until a spear hurtled into her butt and right hind leg. This took out one of her legs from beneath her. After a few seconds the controlled guards backed off.

Trixie stood there curiously looking on wondering why they retreated a bit. With a grimace on her face, she looked up as at the palace to see archers releasing arrows at her, they rained down upon her body piercing it in multiple places. The blue mare stumbled a few feet forward and let out a gasp throwing a hoof into the air dramatically before falling to the ground defeated.

“Hah and the jinn said this would be hard, they were nothing against my might.” The vizier chuckled darkly before he turned around to walk away.

Author's Notes:

Things the author has done lately.

Read excessively long fan fiction. Has read a millions words in the last few days. Some with repeated exposition so long that you could write a book from 'Twilight' describing a sparkly pretty boy from it and spend half the book describing his appearance.

Played video games. Violence is almost as fun as science.

Procrastinated in life. Never got back to the attempts of actually finding one.

Thinking about the next chapter being Daring Do and the Calamitous Catacombs.

Just killed off a mane (loving) character, two friends and her mother against a surge of armed guards while heavily outnumbered in a very short battle sequence.

89

A loud smashing sound was heard, a crooked circular portion of the roof caved in and a cloud of dust shot up. Once the dust cleared it revealed a very surprised looking Tress who looked back up at the shaft of light coming from the hole she just created.

“Well I didn’t find an entrance, but I certainly made one!” Tress spotted Daring and Ballad looking down on her and she waved up at them. “This is exactly how you step into it, isn’t that right Daring?”

Seconds later Daring with her green shirt, a brown satchel and a pith helmet was in tunnel leading down into the catacombs holding a lit torch. Ballad Din was wearing puffy white pants held up by a red sash and a small purple vest; he also had a fez on top of his dark mane. The entrance was the first obstacle, which they circumvented entirely because Tress had to stomp in just the right place in frustration.

“So what did you have against Ballad coming with us? You didn’t have a problem with me.” It wasn’t that Tress didn’t know Daring tended to prefer doing things solo; this newly shown resentment was a bit off. “You didn’t have a problem when he was with us for finding the information to where the vizier stashed the lamp.”

“Yes, because we needed that information and it was necessary that I tolerated his presence.” Daring didn’t want to tip off Ballad that she was a still angry with him and kept her tone even. “I do not like the idea of him being anywhere near the lamp after the scuffle he dragged me into and what that led too. I was the one getting the princess and her bodyguard to safety while he was being hunted down by the vizier; he started this whole mess you know.”

“I can clearly see the resentment then. Do you have anything to help us communicate? I don’t want to do the whole back and forth thing with you as the translator, especially if you’re going to continue being angry about that.” Having read the mares books, Tress remembered some of the less dangerous artifacts that Daring tends the carry around that could be of use. Daring never knew what could be useful in different ways. “Say, you wouldn’t happen to have Lady Llama’s Linguistic Lace Leggings on you by chance?”

“If you read my books, you likely already know why they don’t come up very much as they’re situational at best. They need someone willing to wear one and be given the knowledge of what they do for it to work.” Daring had only mentioned them once or twice in passing in her books. The one who speaks the language or languages needed to be wearing one of the two leggings, they’d magically fit any hoof which was a useful side feature. “Quick question Ballad, would you wear a legging that would let Tress understand what you’re saying?”

The leggings weren’t anywhere as nearly as apocalyptic as some of the other things Daring has seen or touched in the name of saving the world, they were boring if impractical in function. The irony of the fact that you’d need a translator for the leggings to explain how they work in the first place was not lost on Daring, the leggings were only useful to a third party who couldn’t speak the language and required someone that did to explain the function of the leggings. She didn’t think Ballad would wear one on the principle of the matter that they were lady stockings.

Several minutes and a few circumnavigated deadly traps later, Tress and Ballad were having an interesting conversation about how the thief grew up on the streets and they were speaking fluently in Saddle Arabian. Daring had silently seethed for a while; she stopped and held up her hooves stopping the two ponies from moving any further. She narrowed her eyes at the warning marks in the corridor and the empty stone coffins in the room ahead of them. Sniffing the air Daring narrowed her eyes.

“I smell animated skeletons, I can hear them too.” The creaking sounds of bones grinding against bones without sinew or muscle between them, Daring passed her torch to Ballad and carefully uncoiled her whip. They couldn’t slow their progress for too long or else things above ground could go bad for their allies on the surface. “Keep me at the edge of the light at all times, depending on what type of skeletons they are we might have some trouble.”

Creeping forward she kept her eyes on the shadows as they entered the tomb of empty coffins, looking at the ground Daring picked up a dagger. It looked to be left behind by one of the thieves that came through here previously, she silently stowed it away in her satchel. Her eyes darted about at movements in the shadows as she kept moving forward. Within the span of a second she leapt back as the skeleton of a large camel slammed a broadsword down with an overhead swing. Daring retaliated by ripping out a vertebrae from the skeleton with her whip causing it to fall into a pile of bones.

The creaking sounds started getting louder and Daring backed up towards Ballad whose eyes were warily taking in the surrounding glints of metal in the shadows; metallic scraping sounds were heard amongst the sound of clacking hooves. The downed skeleton started shaking a bit and its bones started to pull together.

“Well darn, it’s that type of skeleton. Stay near me and knock them down, the only thing that will stop them is explosives.” Daring reached into a coat pocket and pulled out a small blue bomb, which she held out to Ballad who paused for a second before lighting it. She tossed it into the pile of bones as it was reforming itself. Flapping her wings she took to the air staying within range of the light. “Now move!”

Daring hovered above them readying her whip as, Tress and Ballad started to swiftly move through the room look for an exit. The skeleton behind them exploded and a blast of vile purple smoke was released into the air.

“Well at least that’s one down right?” Tress said uneasily and stopped just short of having a mace take her head off. She spun around and bucked out shredding a Saddle Arabian Skeleton's ribcage with her hooves. A lit bomb was chucked at that one as well as Daring flicked her whip at the shadows with several sharp cracks.

“Moving faster seems like a good idea." Ballad sped up heeding his own words as the noises started to get closer. The room seemed to darken unnaturally to the point that the light of the torch was barely filling the room at all. He quickly leapt forward dodging the battleaxe that was aimed at the back of his neck; he kept a strong grip on the torch as he swung it around and knocked the head off a skeleton and looked around for more attacks as Daring dealt with that one.

“Come on, this way!” Daring led them towards a wall that slowly became visible and pulled out the thieves’ map quickly looking it over before stowing it away. The explorer started frantically checking the wall with her hooves as several glowing red eyes were coming out of the darkness wielding more large weapons.

“You might want to hurry up with whatever it is your doing.” Tress was ready for a fight until a click sound was heard. She turned to see a smile on Daring’s face as the entire wall spun around before the skeletons could get to them.

“That is one of the reasons why I like doing things like this alone. A room designed to weaken light and with reanimating skeletons that don’t stay down for long unless you destroy their bones.” Turning away from her two companions, Daring looked down the hallway they were in.

It was pretty well lit already which was an oddity for the corridor, the musty smell was quite bad and they all took a moment to peruse what the thieves had managed to put down on the map. They made sure of their location while getting their bearings; they went down the lit hallway after putting out their torch.

The winding narrow passageways were leading them closer to their goal or so they hoped. They bypassed a rolling boulder trap, avoided a ceiling smasher room and a hallway of spring loaded spears. Daring and Ballad were proving themselves to be equally good at avoiding death at every new obstacle. Daring had more experience having dealt with these kinds of traps before whereas Ballad had a preternatural ability for seeing things coming before they actually happened and was very agile. The thieves that had come through here before obviously hadn’t figured out how to deactivate the traps, but Daring did so as they passed each one.

“So what else do you think we’ll run into? The thieves really didn’t get too far beyond that Slumbergath thing and they really didn’t have too much beyond the animated skeletons as dangerous.” Tress felt like she was actually in one of the books Daring wrote, things were dangerous considering their general haste to reach the lamp. The walls slowly started getting further apart as they entered a well lit room where the floor was made entirely of sand.

“At a guess, I’d say whatever happens to be in the sand here.” Daring flew above the sand and looked down, it was obviously a trap, but it wasn’t quicksand at least. “The thieves must have had dessert boots or camel hooves; otherwise whatever is in the sand would have attacked them.”

“Look we don’t have time for this, my friends could be in real trouble!” Tress darted out and two explosions of sand shot into the air once she got halfway across. A few seconds after the sand had settled Tress could be seen with her eyes closed, straining all four of her hooves against the two large red pincers that had burst out of the sand where a pit was slowly forming. “Okay Ballad, go while I’ve got it distracted. I feel I now understand Fluttershy and her fear of scissors better.”

“What about you? The fact that you even survived the initial attack of an ant-lion of such a size is miraculous!” Ballad galloped around the edge of the sand pit, he looked worried about his new friend. To watch her struggle to keep the pincers from snapping closed was tearing at his heart. He could imagine Jasmine in a similar state.

“Don’t worry I’ve got her! Get ready to relax you’re grip when I yell.” With a flick of her hoof, Daring had her whip wrapped around Tress’s mid-section. She yelled out and pulled with all her might using both hooves.

Pushing out of the pincers, Tress flew forward unharmed and Daring swung her towards the open pathway on the other side of the wide open sand trap, she let go of her whip so that Tress fell to safety and continued into the hallway. The ant-lion wasn’t too happy and reared up to snap at Daring who swiftly flew out of the way of its snapping pincers and down the hallway around the corner where Ballad and Tress had stopped. The ant-lion was too big to follow them and slowly sunk back into the sand growling angrily like a real lion would.

What had stopped them was another room that was larger than the last and on the other side there was a short corridor to a smaller room where they could see a black lamp that gave off a sick looking yellow glow. The large room was apparently directly under the palace, there were twelve pillars to the ceiling around this large circular two hundred yards in diameter room with a high ceiling. There didn’t seem to be anything between them and the lamp. It looked to be so easy, except they hadn’t seen what was called the Slumbergath yet.

They entered the room and they heard a strange noise the three of them looked up as what appear to be a large dark green slimy monster with glowing green eyes slammed to the floor in front of them and narrowed its eyes on them. Behind it a gate slammed shut preventing them from just going around the creature to get at the lamp while one of them distracted it.

“I take it that’s the Slumbergath? Doesn’t look like much.” Daring approached it with her whip only for its eyes to glow and it transformed to look like Ahuizotl holding a little filly that was very familiar to her and then he did something to the filly while smiling. Daring dropped the whip and backed away quickly as fear rose up in her body at the image, she had her back to the wall near the entryway shivering in horror and reduced to tears. “No, NO… PLEASE NO!”

“Well that was an interesting reaction. Okay blob bring it on!” Moving forward preparing her transformation, Tress watched as the blobs eyes glowed and then it shot towards the ceiling. It quickly became murky sticky looking mess. Tress backed away with her tail between her legs and reverted much to the same state that Daring was on the other side of the entryway to the corridor. “So… so sticky… so unclean… it’s coming closer… impossible to escape… Twilight… I never meant to stay a little while… you brought me here… what is even real anymore!”

From Ballad’s position he had only saw the Slumbergath’s eyes flash once for each mare when approached and then they became quivering emotional wrecks. They were suddenly very afraid of the creature and it seemed to be feeding off their fear given its unnatural increase in size. He looked at the nearby skeletons that lined the walls including ones that looked to be the remains of brave warriors.

Ballad Din turned back to the blob and narrowed his eyes at the creature. He stepped forward; it was doing to them what it had done to all others before them. He stared into the eyes of fear itself.

Author's Notes:

Again reading all other kinds of fan fiction and have been a bit lazy lately. Going on a Harry Potter sliding into Naruto bender really does not help my writing one bit, at least some of it wasn't repetition in D minor.

Daring Do, always ready to tomb raid huh? Well better hope the Slumbergath doesn't kill them from fear alone.

90

The vizier turned around to walk off only to get bashed across the face harshly with the end of a three sectioned staff courtesy of Velvet Q. Sparkle. Trixie and Rarity also appeared out of nowhere and Twilight was seen floating in mid-air above the palace with her horn glowing vibrantly.

“You imbecile, I told you they were more powerful then they appeared!” This was only heard in the vizier’s mind as he created a barrier with his scepter to prevent a second blow from landing on him. It didn’t take him long to see what was going on; all the archers had been taken out with one strafing run from the flying purple unicorn. The elite guards that were still in the palace main entrance grounds were being wrapped up in tapestries by Rarity and an exhausted looking Trixie.

Looking back down the steps the vizier was witness to the four forms fading from existence and the arrows and spear were being held in a field of purple magic that disappeared dropping the items harmlessly on the ground. The guards down there were being pelted with pots from the rooftops.

“See the power of the great illusion mistress Trixie!” Trixie shouted as she aided Rarity in tying up loose ends by capturing the guards in some fabric. “It was not easy to fire magic missiles while keeping them and us invisible at the same time, not to mention redirecting them mid flight. Though I will admit without Twilight’s help the entire thing would have fallen apart.”

“I swear you’re sense of theatrics could have made it fall apart alone! You just had to upstage us in your illusion didn’t you?” Rarity shook her head knowing that Trixie would always put herself in a better light when it came to performing, with the exception of Pinkie Pie.

“It worked didn’t it? Trixie doesn’t see the issue as we managed to launch our surprise attack effectively.” Trixie tied the tapestries together with all the struggling guards and Rarity sent them rolling down the staircase leading up to the palace. Trixie gripped her head with her hooves and her ears fell flat as she swept her hat from her head and wiped away some sweat. “Trixie’s horn aches like you wouldn’t believe!”

"I must admit that you did put a lot of effort into all of it. Here drink some water dear, you look like you could use it.” Rarity floated a canteen to Trixie who took a few huge gulps and then poured some water over her horn causing it to release steam. “Twilight certainly has a higher tolerance for casting if her horn isn’t overheating nearly as bad as yours is. Her ability to create magic fields really is interesting; it really helped sell the illusions.”

Speaking of Twilight she swept across the wall picking up the downed archers in her magic and she plopped all of them on ground at the base of the steps well out of the way of the action. As she flew back up to the palace the vizier came to his senses and flared his cape while raising his scepter, he teleported into the throne room and was now standing in front of his opulent looking throne.

Rarity and Trixie followed behind as Velvet and Twilight went to deal with the Vizier personally, they were to make sure none of the controlled guards could interfere in the fight or become willing hostages. It currently didn’t seem like much of a problem. When they arrived the vizier raised his scepter and showed an image that made them pause, he was showing the butte behind the palace.

“Come no further or they shall all perish!” Other than his assumption that all his adversaries spoke his language, he made a second mistake in thinking he still had hostages there. Looking at his own projection he would have seen that what he was threatening was an empty butte with a smiling Fluttershy prancing up the gangplank to an airship. The airship pulled away into the sky with Pinkie waving at them with a cheery smile through the visual screen projected by the vizier, she even hoofing off a cupcake to a nearby recently relieved captive.

Velvet lunged forward with her three sectioned staff, which he deflected with another barrier and then with a magical flash of his staff the entire butte crumbled only upsetting a bunch of large dessert dwelling predators.

Looking at his handiwork the vizier was surprised that the there were no dead mares or camels being consumed by the beasts that were found out behind the palace. He turned the two angry mares who stepped forward.

“Jinn, aid me!” The vizier called out and the jinn coalesced into existence. It started with a yellow cloud with silver eyes that started forming a humanoid upper torso with a lion like head, its lower half stayed gaseous in appearance. Its eyes narrowed on the four unicorns and with a snap of its clawed fingers two giant fire breathing scarabs were summoned; it took immediate control over them and moved them to vent blasts of fire from their mandibles.

Twilight moved forward and created a funnel shaped barrier that forced the fire to split into two different directions around her and her mother. Before she clenched her teeth and sent the scarabs through the back walls with her magic much to the jinn’s surprise that she was strong enough to do so.

“So she is the one who is quite powerful. Well how about this?” The jinn pulled back its arms and sent them forward blasting out arcs of volatile energy, Velvet and Twilight came together formed a barrier together and took on the onslaught. After a moment the jinn snapped its fingers again. A large scorpion appeared behind the two mares in the midst of already attacking with its tail. It separated the two from one another. “I can’t have you helping each other, it would be too annoying.”

The jinn continued to fire blasts of energy at Twilight who fought by firing her own blasts with less lethal intent. Velvet busied herself with deflecting the scorpion’s tail and brought her staff down on its head harshly a few times before leaping back to dodge its equally deadly claws that snapped around while retreating.

The vizier even got into the mix after a minute or two of watching boredom, raising his scepter to shoot a fireball at blazing speeds towards Velvet, where Twilight formed a barrier to protect her mother’s back. The jinn quickly teleported behind Twilight and launched concussive blast of wind, it sent her tumbling along the floor until she slammed into the wall with a grunt of pain

“My word, they are positively outmatched in there. Is your horn feeling any better Trixie?” Rarity watched as Trixie’s horn sparked a bit.

“Trixie is still tired.” That was all Trixie had to say about her lack of magic right now. “What about you, what’s your excuse?”

“I’m afraid I’d just get in the way if I went in there.” Rarity admitted to herself long ago as not being anywhere near as magically gifted as her friends, even Trixie. Twilight and Velvet seemed to be holding their three opponents off well enough.

“Well think of something to be helpful, like magic some sharp jewels or something.” Trixie actually cared that she had friends and that they were still alive. They watched as Velvet was sent flying by some exploding flames. “That one look like it stung quite a bit.”

“When I see an opportunity to help I’ll at least try to step in. Ugh those fire breathing scarabs are back.” Rarity backed away from the flare of fire that was aimed at the main entrance she and Trixie were standing at. Looking to Trixie, Rarity noticed the magician had a marshmallow on a stick and was roasting it in the temporary flames. “Where ever in the world did you get that stick and marshmallow on such short notice?”

“No clue, Trixie thinks Pinkie might be rubbing off on Trixie. Also Trixie needed a snack to build up some energy if Trixie is going to continue helping them.” Trixie even pulled out two sugar crackers and some chocolate without Rarity figuring out where she had even pulled them from.

Twilight knew getting the guards out of the way was the easy part; dealing with the jinn was definitely the hard part as it was just currently toying with them. It took its attempts at killing them seriously enough, even if it wasn’t overly active in pursuing their deaths. She could only hope the others got to the lamp soon.

The powerful purple pony continued to draw the oversized fire breathing scarabs to herself and she stood still between them, they charged her opening their mandibles ready to release more fire. She kicked off the floor and shot straight up leaving the two beetles to slam into each other. She changed her gravity to arc herself straight into the scorpion while powering the toughest barrier she could manage to ram it from above.

Velvet leapt back and batted away two fireballs and magically twirled her staff above her head before catching the tail as the scorpion launched its stinger for her. She was always decent with magic and was having fun helping her daughter in one of her little quests. Who knew it would take them to Neighgraba of all places, fighting exotic monsters was always a blast and she should have brought her pet roc along. A few seconds later her daughter came slamming down on top of the scorpion and it stopped moving entirely having been put out of commission from the force of the impact knocking it to the floor.

“Hmm…” The jinn with a snap of its claws the three beasts disappeared and it lit its own four fingered hands aflame. He raised his hands to start launching a torrent of fireballs only to get a blast of green energy to the face. The jinn grunted and otherwise remained uninjured.

“Did somebody call for backup?” Chrysalis flittered into the room from a window.

Seeing what it termed as ‘the mimic’ and getting hit by it seemed to really set off the jinn as it growled slightly. It was just toying with them before, now it grew to twice its size and grew two extra arms which sent two streams of energy at Chrysalis who deftly flitted out of the way as they tried to corral her into corner.

Twilight sent a magic missile at the jinn to aid Chrysalis, only for it to audibly impact with the jinn’s chest doing nothing to it. She gulped when it grew two more arms holding swords one of which swung at her with a flash, she blinked and found herself on the floor with her mother on top of her.

“Can you not lose your head here sweetie? I like it attached where it is at the moment and having a daughter that’s alive.” Velvet deflected the second sword and her staff cracked where it was struck. What soon followed her deflection was a concussive blast of wind from one of the jinn’s six arms that sent the two of them flying. All while the three other arms fired constant streams of energy at Chrysalis.

“Just how powerful is that thing?” Twilight was speaking more to herself then her mother as Trixie and Rarity came to their side. Looking as the vizier sat at his throne he looked bored with the situation; he was all but assured victory if this kept up.

“Trixie would help, but Trixie is a little low on energy.” Two streams of energy raked across the barrier Twilight hastily threw up. The jinn wasn’t going to leave them alone to just pursue Chrysalis all the time and it wasn’t stupid enough to let them plan unhindered.

“Well if you have any suggestions for what we should be doing right now, I would love to hear them Twilight.” Rarity scrambled out of the way of chunks of ceiling as the jinn fire a blast to drop chunks of it on them to stop them from coming up with a plan of action. They all went behind some of the pillars in the throne room to avoid any more attacks directed at them.

“Other than hold the jinn off and hope for the best?” Twilight was not about to ask what was taking them so long; they had to go a long way around to reach the room with the Slumbergath directly beneath the palace. If the catacombs were the usual stuff Daring faced, then it was a safe bet that they'd still be a while yet. “We need to give Tress, Daring and Ballad time to destroy the lamp.”

“How much time we talking here? I think I might not survive being mauled this time.” Chrysalis flittered backwards barely avoiding getting cut apart by a scimitar as the jinn’s arm elongated and swung the blade at her. The second blade flashed forward only to stop an inch from taking a chunk out of Chrysalis’s side and the jinn sat there for a moment. It disappeared with an intensely angry look on its face. “That was too close for comfort, what happened to it?”

“Well speak of the devils; they must have reached it for the jinn to suddenly disappear like that. Unfortunately it’s now their problem and that’s far worse for them given they can’t receive help.” Velvet leaned out from behind the pillar and looked towards the vizier who stood up and he flared out his cape he sneered at them.

“Do not think me any easier just because the jinn left.” He flicked his scepter forward sweeping a beam of energy across everything in his vision. He watched as all his adversaries duck behind the pillars, which were now starting to take damage as he began attacking them with as much power as he could bring forth. The jinn had avoided damaging the surrounding walls thus far; as it would not do to have the entire palace come down on their heads, it would have been counterproductive to aiding Jabber in his goals after all. He personally had no such compunctions to avoid destroying everything between him and his enemies.

“I sure hope we’re not the ones left paying for all this once this is over!” Twilight yelled over the cacophony of fireballs, blasts of wind, lightning bolts and beams of imminent death that started slowly whittling the pillars down. Idly Twilight noticed that these were of the same abilities that the jinn had, it certainly explained where the scepter came from.

Author's Notes:

Mario Kart 8, that is as good a distraction as anything. Also free Zelda Wind Waker HD for the Wii U that came with it.

I think the last chapter will be the aftermath of Nightmare Moon's defeat. Then I can start a sequal or do I continue with this story as is? I wonder sometimes why I author and the fight scenes aren't some of my best work. Then again I remember that I'm insane and all is right with the world, unless sanity should suddenly assert itself I'll be completely fine.

91

A Slumbergath is a blob like monster made entirely of nightmares that have conjoined together to create a semi corporeal form. A monster like this does not automatically form because of a thousand nightmares; it takes a dark being of great magic to even will one into existence. The true specifications and nature of this monster has it coming from the currently missing crystal empire, it was one of Sombra’s defenses against ponies trying to steal the crystal heart a little over nine hundred ninety nine years ago. Princess Luna was the one that had tossed the dark creature away from the Crystal Empire where it would starve and die in the sunlight; she hadn’t done so without taking some mental scars from fighting the beast which later led to her becoming Nightmare Moon as her nightmares started becoming reality.

The beast had somehow ended up in the catacombs beneath Neighgraba long ago after it’s altercation with the princess of the night. Its main power was to cause fear and nightmares, which was all it had as a weapon. It forced its opponents into submission then slowly devours them alive in its mass; it would feel like acid if you were the one to be engulfed. Its power of causing fear is at its greatest when it is in the process of consuming its victims; the victims usually died purely out of fear alone which was supernaturally powerful in this creature.

Of the three who had ventured into the catacombs, Ballad Din would have been the most likely to survive the beast. While he did fear the beast, he didn’t fear it itself he feared what it could do if left unchecked. He didn’t believe it to be real whatever it was he was forced to be witness to, he start chanting a mantra to keep himself focused on the creature itself.

Tress is the second likely to survive the beast, given she would have figured out what it was doing once it started consuming her. This was only true if she had bothered to enter the catacombs alone, she had not so it wasn't an issue.

Daring Do wouldn’t have been able to shrug it off as easily even after all the things she had seen, she more than the other two had witnessed and survived too many nightmares to shrug them all off as easily. She however did have an uncommon ability in being unnaturally lucky at times and she was the one who was the arbiter to defeating the Slumbergath in a roundabout manner.

Do was a tough pony that had took on many challenges alone. This was one that she had been talked into taking on with friends and had she come alone, she would have been killed by it. Had she not given her two leggings to the others and told them both what the objects did, things might have been left up to a pony she didn’t like to save them. She didn’t like thieves even if she herself counted as one and only because she was stuck stopping apocalyptic nightmares from overtaking the world. Those were the nightmares currently being forced down her throat leaving her paralyzed; not that she had experienced too many horrors already in being strapped into numerous death traps that would kill a lesser pony.

Tress was stuck in her nightmares until she heard a voice that was saying that it wasn’t real, what she was hearing was Ballad’s mind focusing on the fact that whatever he was seeing was not real. The leggings Daring had given them did far more then expedite the ability to communicate outside your own language, they also allowed you to communicate telepathically and Daring did not know of this feature at all. Tress certainly found this out quickly enough when the Slumbergath’s hold on her had faltered harshly upon hearing Ballad’s voice, it gave her enough focus to shrug off its nightmare stare.

Not being able to get a grip on one victim and then losing its grip on another, the Slumbergath started shrinking and was growing weaker as it tried to feed off their fears. It soon could no longer hold Daring who broke the grip on herself without the aid of Tress and Ballad, she was furious and now directing her anger at the Slumbergath. There was nothing for it to feed off after that even as it kept trying to force nightmares onto them, all of which they were now blocking effortlessly.

The Slumbergath continued to shrink down until it was the size of an average slug and then with a pop it went out with a whimper. Even the greatest of warriors couldn’t have faced it alone, it took more than one to take down a Slumbergath and Daring Do regaining her mental fortitude was the killing blow.

“That thing… it was horrific. I saw things that I should have known that were impossible to come to pass.” Daring shivered the memories of all those apocalyptic visions dancing around in her head, she had put a stop to many a plot to destroy the world or just see it burn and she would continue to do so to her dying days.

“Good riddance.” Ballad had saved their lives and was being humble about helping take down a monster that literally scares you to death.

“Yeah, all we need to do is open that gate and get at the lamp.” Tress trotted up to the iron bars separating them from the lamp. “Did you know these leggings mentally connected the users?”

“Not a clue, I guess I should research everything magical that I have at my disposal a bit more to see if there are any more interesting things I’ve missed. So it really made you able to hear what Ballad was thinking?” It was just a bit of curiosity on Daring’s part, she thought they just allowed you to understand another’s language. Apparently the language of the mind and heart were also included as languages.

“He’s currently thinking of a way to get through those iron bars, he actually wants to destroy that thing and regrets ever having gone after it in the first place.” Tress noted Daring’s face lighten up on her glare at the natives back. “I can actually see his heart is set on making it up to the princess for causing all this, kind of has a golden feel to it.”

“The vizier has hurt too many to be allowed to get away with it.” Ballad was pretty set on his course of action, that thing was getting destroyed as soon as any one of them reach it and by hoof if necessary, even if it meant injuring themselves on the shards of metal crushing the lamp to pieces.

“I’ve got three bombs left, two should be enough for the lamp given I use this cork and some sports tape.” The pith helmet wearing pony moved towards the gate while reaching into her satchel, one never knew what might be useful and her hat has saved her life more than once alone. Her whip was the least important thing she carried on her unless one of her wings were broken again, that fact that she can still use them after thirty or so times of being broken is miraculous.

Taking out a bomb Daring wedged it into two of the bars in the gate that was the only thing stopping them from getting to the lamp. She lit her torch aflame and then put it the fuse and quickly flew back to the others. It exploded as powerfully as the rest of her skeleton destroying explosives and the gate was wrenched apart leaving a gaping hole.

“Those things are pretty powerful, where in the world do you get them from?” Because Tress wanted some and she happened to like explosions, probably a nuance of the small evil side of her that still existed.

“From the airship shops of the Beetle’s clan, I swear all those ponies are changelings since they look so much alike. I usually get them through special delivery mail order. It’s a bit costly but I have plenty of bits, saving the world really doesn’t pay nearly as much as my books do.” Daring slowly walked towards the hole followed by Ballad and Tress. “Every bomb guaranteed to blow up when lit or your money back! I still don’t know how they guarantee it, but so far they haven’t killed me or made me lose a hoof yet.”

An explosion of yellow smoke threw Tress, Daring and Ballad back forty feet, a pair of silver eyes on a large body with six arms appeared floating before them. Its eyes narrowed on them, aside from the six arms and the lion like head it have no lower body as it hovered there in front of them. It lifted one of its six arms and sent a powerful blast of energy past all of them missing them completely; the sound of something collapsing could be heard.

“This must be the jinn… it has sealed us in with it!” Watching the creature from the lamp Ballad watched as with a wave of its hand fire covered the entrance to the room with the lamp.

“Apparently it doesn’t like us threatening its lamp, come on we can take it.” Daring stood up and brandished her whip snapping it at the floor while staring down the solid silver eyes in the floating goliaths head.

The jinn just looked at the three that got by all those traps and so swiftly as well; it wasn’t going to toy with them he would have to take them out immediately. It immediately raised its four upper arms and they cracked with electrical energy, it still had a penchant for causing a lot of pain and the only one that may withstand a prolonged blast from a room filled with electrical energy would be the winged one. Teleporting to the middle of the room and raised all four of its arms together unleash a furious amount of electrical energy started surging outward throughout the room.

Both Daring and Ballad had closed their eyes at the blinding light, Tress however just leapt in front of them. Upon the two opening their eyes all they were watching all of the energy converge on Tress and the form inside of the electrical energy was slowly growing. The jinn immediately stopped filling the room with his power feeling something draining it and looked to where all that energy filling the room went to, one of its most devastating attacks was blocked by a single mare without magic.

The energy build up dissipated and then the mare that was standing where Tress used to be started cackling. In fact the laughter became a bit wild and the mares mane was positively alive with arcs of energy bouncing around in it.

“Well that was euphoric, I’ll just brush up on my laugh some more.” Cackling like a mad mare the Mane-iac stared straight into the surprised eyes of the jinn. “Time for me to let my hair down I guess, Tress has left the building! Excuse me, but can you hold on to this? Thank you.”

The mare stripped the legging from her hoof and tossed it to Daring, flipped her vibrant green hair and gave a devilish smile before her hair slammed the jinn against the wall in the time it took for it to blink. It reacted by swinging the two swords held by its lower arms at her at insane speeds only for them to be stopped by the mares mane.

“I really don’t need help with my split ends, but thank you for trying!” With a tug Mane-iac had both the larger than life swords impaled to the hilt into two differing nearby pillars, much to the shock of the jinn that it had been physically overpowered. She followed it up by whipping around the full mass of her mane and it went through the jinn’s body as it phased out of the way of the attack. “Aw come now, don’t avoid my mane. It is to die for after all!”

The Mane-iac shot to a nearby pillar before the stream of fireballs sent at her in retaliation could even come close to hitting her and she stood on the side of the pillar with her hair wrapping around it. Daring flew up to Mane-iac and asked the obvious.

“What the buck just happened to you! What are you even?” Daring was now wearing the legging for Ballads benefit; he was worried about his new friend having changed so drastically.

“I’m not Lady Lovely Locks if that’s what you’re asking!” Even as she said this, Mane-iac rolled her eyes leaning backwards off the pillar in an odd manner. She quickly leapt off the pillar to another one as a powerful blast of wind gouged out large sections of stone from the pillar. “Maybe you should be paying more attention to the real threat here Do-gooder!”

“How did you know…? Never mind that, you’re right! We need that lamp gone like yesterday!” Daring flew around a fireball and looked for Ballad who was taking cover behind the pillar. They still had to get to the lamp which was now protected by a skin melting wall of fire that had rose up around the hole where the gate used to be.

“Are you a Kirin?” It was the only words the jinn would say now and it was thoroughly displeased with the power that was absorbed from it. There were legends of Kirin, otherwise noted as a two horned mystical horse. This being didn’t have two horns, but it was already proven quite powerful if seemingly insane. The things flowing mane was kind of like the fires in the legends that was said to be flowing on the body of one.

“Nope, but I’ll certainly try Kirin you now!” Penchant for bad puns aside, the Mane-iac was going to take this fight to the jinn and rummy to anyone who could stop her from doing so.

Author's Notes:

Well this arc is about to come to an abrupt stop, especially now that Mane-iac is fully restored it'll take a large amount of damage to drop her into having to conserve energy.

Qilin/Kirin, said to have two horns and bodies wreathed with flaming hair. In general they are basically chinese unicorns, a chimerical creature seen as signs of good luck and prosperity. Not to be confused with Dragon Ball's Krillan, who is seen as a sign of constant pain, suffering, comic relief and hopelessness.

I think a Qilin is what you get when you mix a horse and a dragon.

Also this was posted with very little editing. Will come back and look over later.

92

Ten minutes of constant battling, three destroyed pillars, some others partially damaged and a few minor scrapes and bruises later. The Mane-iac had finally gotten in a good hit by swinging half a fallen pillar across the jinn’s face with her tail. Dazed by her first hit she pinned it to the wall by stabbing it with said pillar on the second swing around.

Pulling herself on top of the pillar Mane-iac ran along its length and lashed out with her mane at the jinn’s face in rapid successive hits that had some effect on the jinn. It soon phased off the pillar and once it solidified it created a large blast of wind that launching her into the air to catch her within its belly button that opened up like a mouth to engulf her. Daring had gotten in a few good strikes herself when it was pinned and was sent into spiraling to the floor by the same blast of wind.

Mane-iac did not like the sanitary issued of having half her body being crushed in its belly button and spiked her coat and tail outwards causing quite a bit of pain to the jinn before it phased and let her fall to the floor.

“Sorry, but I don’t like your version of blow drying!” The Mane-iac had been acting like a highly caffeinated grasshopper the entire fight and shot away towards one of the still standing if slightly damaged pillars avoiding fireballs as she went. “Hey Do-gooder, how are we supposed to deal with big, bad and ugly if we can’t even hurt him?”

“Well whatever you did with the pillar actually made him solid for a bit. Those flames dimmed when he took that blow.” The flames Daring pointed out were the one’s protecting the jinn’s lamp; the jinn couldn’t hurt them while phasing. Uniquely enough, it didn’t do anything to lower the flames protecting the room with the lamp as the hit Tress got in on it caused them to dim slightly.

The jinn was wary of bringing the pillars down since his lamp would be crushed if the entire underground area decided to collapse on it. It wanted to deal with these gnats but it couldn’t so long as the energy absorbing one wasn’t dealt with permanently.

The last ten minutes for Twilight, Chrysalis and Velvet was pretty much the same thing with the vizier as it was for Daring’s group. The stallion and his jinn’s manifested powers in the form of a scepter was incredible, his barrier was hard to break and he was putting out a lot of attacks that was making cheese of the palace.

Rarity and Trixie were busy dealing with the irate sandworm the vizier summoned, they had lured it away and were having a bit of time trying force it to leave. It wasn’t under the vizier’s control, but it certainly was restless, angry and attracted towards the nearest source of aggression it could find.

“Mom, do you have any idea what we can do?” Twilight ducked as blast of energy shot by the upturned chunk of debris they were using as cover. They definitively had the vizier pinned, though the same could be said about them.

“Well destroying the manifestation of power seems prudent at this point sweetie, now if only we could do something about that nasty barrier in the way.” Velvet had stowed her three sectioned staff as it had taken too much damage deflecting magical attacks; she really needed to get it repaired. “We need to hit it with plenty of force to bring it down. I kind of wish your brother was here, this is the most entertaining family outing I’ve had since the both of you moved out and left us, your loving parents, all alone.”

“You’re family is nuts and I’m surprised I’m only mildly injured at this point.” Chrysalis was counting blessings to not be halfway mauled to death and while putting up a good fight. She raised her head over the debris and let off two quick green blasts of magic before ducking down. “It must be the queen side of me finally showing, I’m also starting to feel kind of lethargic with my cocooning period coming up. Ah to be young a young maggot again, happily feasting off both my parents emotion storing glandular sacks.”

“Yeah, we get that a lot Chrysalis. Also I did not need to know that.” Even if it was similar to breast feeding in ponies, Twilight really didn’t want to get into it while they were still fighting a vizier that was practically leveling the entire palace around them. It was a good thing there wasn’t anyone else inside to get hurt except for the ones currently in pitched battle.

“Captain Sparkle, they aren’t looking to good down there.” Pinkie pulled the telescope away from her eye that left a black ring of ink on it, she giggled about pulling a prank on herself without realizing it.

Up in the air The Indistinguishable Plot hovered a good distance away from the palace and Nightlight had Pinkie keeping him up to date on the situation ground side once Chrysalis took off to aid his wife, daughter and friends.

“I’m sure they can handle it, a Sparkle will always shine in the dark times. I’m more interested in how well my daughter’s mercenary business is doing. Does she do thing like capturing pirate ships like her dear old dad?” Nightlight stood there at the wheel as Pinkie hopped on up to him and started to regale him with some of the smaller things Twilight and Tress has handled since moving to Ponyville.

Off to the side a particular griffon watched as another hole was blasted into the palace and she clenched her beak, sitting still and being helpless were two things a griffon was not known for. She couldn’t fly until her feathers grew back and she wouldn’t be able to tear out the vizier’s throat until her talons grew back. Hearing that this was a commandeered pirate vessel did give her an idea though.

Gilda turned and went below deck and started searching storage. A few of the healthier Saddle Arabian mares noticed what she was doing when they saw her struggling to heft the cannon alone by herself up some stairs. The mares and a camel cautiously came over to her and they each lent her a hoof in lifting it to a higher deck where the portholes were. Situating the cannon Gilda went down to storage followed by her pack of curious helpers.

The griffon, after getting a box of cannonballs and a several bags of gunpowder, looked into the cannon having opened the back she let out a huge whistle from her beak. Gilda wondered how ponies could have gotten hold of one of these babies. She had always thought ponies too soft for something like this and this was a supposedly stolen pony pirate airship. A wicked smirk crossed her beak, aiming this thing was going to be so easy.

The mares were watching the griffon check the insides of the cannon; she looked over the scope and pulled out a spiral grooved cannonball. Noticing the mares watching her with interesting in how she loaded the cannon, Gilda pointed to the closed hatch and they swiftly figured out how to open it for her. She slid the cannon out and scoped one of the gaping holes in the palace and to the very victim of her ire.

“Who says the dish served cold is the only form of revenge?” Gilda chuckled humorlessly to herself as she armed the cannon and immediately fired it. She wasn’t a military griffon but she recognized high end warfare material and she knew how to work the cannon easily enough. Her avian heritage gave her eyes as good as or much better than a pegasus, her shot wasn’t going to miss.

Hearing an explosion from the sky caused the vizier halt in his constant barrage and the three mares he was firing upon jumped slightly. Jabber looked up and then the cannonball rammed directly into his shield. The shield bulged for a second at the spiraling cannonball’s pressure; he had barely enough time to lunge out of the path of the cannonball before it created a huge cratered hole in the floor after shattering his protective barrier.

This left him open to attack and Twilight opened up by firing as many magic missiles as her horn could feasible conjure at once, a shotgun blast of seven magic missiles all struck the vizier in seven different places with varying degrees of strength. She had failed to hit or damage the scepter, but her mother and Chrysalis hadn’t. A minor explosion spell knocked the scepter out of hoof and a large splash of viscous looking green fire had the vizier rolling around on the floor in agony covered in flames. Velvet stared at Chrysalis considering the spell she used.

“Napalm spell, nobody upsets my friends and causes so many negative emotions around me without repercussions.” That quick explanation was all she gave for her actions as she leapt forward and tried to magically levitate the scepter to her, failing to do so she blasted it away from the vizier’s grasping hoof.

The battle had turned completely around and the vizier was down for the count flailing while covered in nasty clinging flames that wouldn’t kill him, but they’d definitely leave him hairless and stuck in a burn ward for quite some time. Chrysalis wasn’t a pony and was a lot more willing to use violence if it was completely justified, even if Twilight didn’t like her overkill she thought it was necessary in the long run.

Things in the catacombs hadn’t changed as much. Ballad was pinned and about to be fried until the hand holding him down lifted and the jinn screamed in agony gripping at its silver eyes with all its arms while it went intangible. The flames to the room with the lamp went down halfway before the jinn recovered and concentrated on getting the flames back up to full strength.

“Hmm… now that is interesting. By all that is quality shampoo, I’ve got it!” Mane-iac smiled having realized something; she quickly hair crawled her way over to Ballad where he had been dropped on the floor and hefted him into the air. He had a worried look on his face at the teeth the crazy mare was showing him while being held by the rather silky green tentacle around his barrel. “Do-gooder pass you’re satchel off to me, I need to comb through your things for a second.”

The jinn tried to attack them when Daring went flying for Mane-iac; it stopped momentarily screaming in pain again. Daring reached them and passed off the satchel while looking back at the jinn gathering its bearings. Mane-iac took out the knife and fastened it to the tip of Daring’s whip while quickly forcing the satchel around a confused looking Ballad.

“Go for its eyes, I just noticed that it can’t phase them entirely like it can the rest of its body. We need to gouge them.” With a whinny Mane-iac leapt up to a pillar and Daring followed her lead as they advanced on the jinn. “I’m going for the left one, you take the right and Ballad will get the lamp while we take the hair from the chinny jinn’s chin.”

Fighting off the pain of the destroyed connection of its power made manifest as the scepter the vizier wielded, the jinn raised all six of its arms. It couldn’t leave to help its master or its lamp would be destroyed. It started to actually fear these three mortals and unleashed a volatile barrage; it was even firing bolts of electricity even though it knew that the green haired creature would absorb them as they approached.

Daring reached the jinn first and managed to create a slash halfway across the jinn’s eye and it reacted in pain trying to swat Daring away as she continued to batter its right eye. It made the unfortunate mistake of ignoring Mane-iac who swung in to ram home one of the jinn’s own forgotten swords through its left eye. A fountain of dark black blood to spew liberally from the silver colored orb and the flames protecting the lamp went down with its roar of utter suffering.

Mane-iac quickly dropped to the floor fluffing out her hair to create a huge puffball out of herself. With a roll upon landing she launched Ballad spinning head over hooves into the room with the lamp, before the jinn could raise the flames again.

The jinn didn’t even bother to remove the sword from its eye, it was now dead set on killing the two…. wait, two? Looking back towards the lamp the jinn’s eye with the still healing knife wounds watched its imminent defeat in slow motion. Even as it was still under attack from the mares, it was left too stunned to react to pain anymore.

Ballad Din hastily pulled out and stuffed a cork in the open spout of the lamp. He pulled off the lid, using the torch he lit the two bombs and promptly dropped them into the lamp. Quickly putting the lid back on the lamp, Ballad pulled out the sports taped and started to wrap it around the lid as fast as he could before biting the tape apart and hastily tossing the lamp away from himself.

The explosion was violent and messy sending shards of lamp everywhere. It scorched Ballad badly and filled him with shrapnel, even so he fell to the ground with a smile that he had finally ended the evils plaguing his home among the dunes. He blearily noticed Mane-iac and Daring making their way too him.

“He needs medical attention… um, how the hair are we going to get out of here?” Mane-iac looked towards the sealed way into the two rooms they were stuck in.

“I’ll chock this one up to being buried alive again; hopefully they won’t forget we’re down here and will send help.” Daring sighed lifting her helmet from her head and ran a hoof through her sweat ridden mane, currently trying to think of a way to help out Ballad who was bleeding out. She turned to her other companion with a thoughtful look. “How much can you grow out?”

Meanwhile on the surface things were just about wrapped up, with Twilight scaring away the sandworm. The Indistinguishable Plot was docked with the walls of the palace and the princess owed them all a big favor for saving her country. One could only guess Twilight wanted to work with the princess’s pretty purple mane.

“Well we got the vizier and if the jinn doesn’t show up soon, then the others succeeded in destroying the lamp. It looks like everything is going to be just fine!” Twilight’s cheerful announcement at the defeat of the vizier was punctuated with an explosion. In the distance as four pirate airships could be seen approaching Neighgraba. Twilight face hoofed. “Right, for a moment I forgot the Sparkle family tradition.”

Author's Notes:

As an eye monster this chapter kind of makes me cringe.

Don't worry we're starting the Nightmare Moon arc, the next chapter is not all about pirate battles as we're completely skipping over that. Will Twilight get to play with Jasmine's mane? Will Daring's group escape the catacombs alive? Will the pirates try to take back there ship? Is Twilight upset that Chrysalis is willing to use semi lethal force? Yep, the real question that should be asked is about Scootaloo and why she likes Rainbow Dash so much.

93

There the captain stood at the wheel of the airship wearing a purple tricorn with a cutie mark adorned on it, the right hoof was on the wheel and the left hoof was holding a large flagon of apple cider. The captain brought the drink up to parched lips and sipped some of the life giving fluid while making sure to keep their course straight.

“I wish it were honeyed, but even I know you just can’t put honey in to make it taste that divine. First mate, care to take the wheel for a while? We need to stay to this heading, pay attention to the compass and give us a bit of altitude.” Twilight smiled as Tress came up to her wearing a red bandana on her head. She received a rather affectionate nuzzle before giving her friend the wheel.

“Yeah, yeah, I got this captain.” Tress did well to hide her nervousness of letting Twilight out of her sight even though she logically knew the mare could take care of herself. “You know the pirates could have put up a bit more of a fight until we got out of the catacombs. I think Ballad and Jasmine looked so happy together when they gave us all a good send off. I’m not exactly surprised that the sultan was magically transformed into the throne Jabber’s butt had been sitting on.”

“Are you sure you’re okay Tress, you’ve been around me a lot lately and you seem a bit… clingy. Is this about what you saw with the Slumbergath?” It wasn’t hard to notice for Twilight that her friend wouldn’t even look at her. She thought that Tress was getting exceptionally touchy feely lately.

Twilight knew that physically Tress was perfectly fine because of her regenerative qualities, mentally was a different story. For all her strength and powers Tress was and will always be just like any other pony, the only exception is that she didn’t seem to have dreams for her own future. Tress really needed a Twilight brand gentle caressing mane wash followed by some brushing and combing, especially after having to hack off some of her hair with a knife while in full Mane-iac form. Twilight’s best friend had confided that it felt like she was cut off her own limbs to stanch Ballad’s bleeding after the lamp had exploded a bit too close to him.

“I’ll live Radiance; go see how Fluttershy is doing. Get in Chrysalis and Daring while you’re at it.” Tress was glad they got a bit of vacation time to learn of a new culture. Over the course of their stay she herself personally picked up some Saddle Arabian cooking recipes, eventually things could go back to normal and she would stop leaning so heavily on Twilight for support.

The total outcome of Saddle Arabia for Twilight and her friends were as follows.

Rarity bought an outfit or two and walked away with a head filled full of dress and clothing ideas, her notebook also had quite a few pages of accessories.

Chrysalis was allowed to work as an envoy of her people to work up trade agreements with the Saddle Arabian territories.

Pinkie got to throw a huge party from the city entrance all the way to the palace. The party pony was happy to have helped put so many smiles on despairing faces and was a good morale boost to the city. Thanks to her the Trouble Takers weren’t stuck with the bill for the collateral damage to the palace, the party was very distracting.

Twilight got herself a snazzy new pirate hat that was modified by Rarity and was currently the proud owner of The Indistinguishable Plot. She had spent most of the week in a palace suite and aside from tending to Tress; she got to play with Jasmine’s mane.

Velvet and Nightlight Sparkle were flying a different ship home; it was called The Floggable Flank. They spent the week in a romantic manner befitting two ponies who needed some quality time with each other. Velvet still snuck Fluttershy snuggling into her time spent with her husband.

Fluttershy had met many wondrous and exotic animals, including some poisonous snakes and a snake charmer that was befuddled that she could talk with them on a personal level. Snakes liked smooth jazz, who knew? She had otherwise spent a nice week relaxing with the girls she was nursing back to health alongside the ever cantankerous Gilda. She was completely unsuccessful in avoiding Velvet’s coddling.

Trixie spent the week putting on shows with some of Saddle Arabia’s best street performers. Even then she would always be Pinkie’s pretty personal party prestidigitation pony first and foremost.

The vizier had survived his injuries, he might never walk again, he was never going to have any children and the jinn cursed him upon its defeat. The stallion brought it upon himself by vying for power without real allies or a stable power base.

“Hey Fluttershy are you okay?” Twilight walked towards the bow of the ship, the shy mare squeaked flapping her wings before calming down and looking at her with those innocent eyes.

“Yes, I was so happy that I could help you and every pony Twilight.” Fluttershy smiled before looking up at the stars, she could swear that some stars were converging towards the moon ever so slowly. Some of them weren’t in the same place they were last night. “Nightmare Moon is coming soon isn’t she? I hope to be as much help to you then as I was this time.”

“Of course you’ll be helpful Fluttershy, you’re a good friend and I trust you to do your best.” Not seeing any problem with the pegasus, Twilight decided to go after Chrysalis as they have avoided each other long enough.

Fluttershy silently watched as Twilight trot away, she soon reached up to touch a hoof to her lips remembering Gilda forcefully kissing her back before they left Saddle Arabia. The griffon promised she’d drop on by Ponyville eventually looking for Rainbow Dash and she wouldn’t give up until her true feelings were known, even if they were lame mushy dweeb feelings that she’d rather not deal with. The so called wallflower sighed; Gilda would be okay as she just needed some time to come to terms with herself.

Twilight walked into the galley to see Chrysalis being fed love via Pinkie happiness, Fluttershy wasn’t the only pony that easily kept Chrysalis fed. The changeling just let the hyper mare hug her and fed on the ambiance.

“Chrysalis, I want a few words with you.” Twilight would not abuse their existing friendship or try to end it. She just wanted to know why Chrysalis did something so permanent, something that she once felt like personally doing to Jabber.

“I’ll be back with some cupcakes.” Pinkie warily hopped off to get a snack for the tired captain.

“Chrysalis I don’t like violence, though I accept that sometimes violence is just a part of life and that one should defend themselves to the fullest of their abilities. What you did was a little bit… how should I put it? I think overkill would be close enough.” Twilight was of course referring to the rather devastating use of the napalm spell. It made her sick to her stomach to watch Jabber writhe in pain like he did, even if admittedly a small part of her thought he deserved it alongside the curse he now had.

“Aiming below the belt is something I know ponies won’t do. I made sure he learned a lesson from treating all those mares and my friends badly, so what’s done is done. I made a sound decision and he would have lost it anyway, Saddle Arabian law would have seen to that.” Chrysalis didn’t take full enjoyment in making Jabber know agony, she didn’t fully regret doing it either. “The jinn’s curse for his failure to protect it was overkill. Truly a buck to where the sun can no longer shine.”

“It’ll take me a while to get over the fact that you horribly crippled and disfigured a pony. I don’t hate you Chrysalis; all I ask for is time.” The look on the changelings face was sad with wilting ears and Twilight almost regretted being bluntly honest about how she felt.

“I don’t want to stop being friends because of this. While she didn’t say it was right, Fluttershy told me everything would be okay.” Chrysalis’s mood was rather somber and then Pinkie popped in with the cupcakes to cheer them up.

One snack break and an hour of searching the ship later, Twilight couldn’t find the one pony she really needed to talk to. Tress spent a lot of time saying that Daring, despite her misgivings and suspicions of others, was some pony you could look up to. Sitting on the deck of the ship not having found the pony anywhere, Twilight looked up at the balloon of the airship. Lighting her horn she launched herself off the side and flew up to where she saw the mare staring at the sky. Landing on the top of the balloon, Twilight slowly approached the pony resting on her back.

“So what did you want to ask me Twilight?” Daring didn’t even look at the unicorn to know she was the one that landed on the balloon. She knew that Twilight could fly, just not the method or the spell that allowed her to do so.

“What’s Celestia truly like?” Twilight decided she didn’t want to truly know the answer to the question she truly wanted to ask for her new friend’s sake.

“She’s just like any other pony, she has her flaws and she paves a road of good intentions. Not a perfect leader, but she’s much better than all kinds of alternatives I’ve met with visions of world conquest.” Daring rolled over onto her belly to stare Twilight in the eyes. “I know that’s not the real question you wanted to ask me is it? Go ahead Twilight, I’m willing to answer anything.”

“Um… if you’re sure…” Now Twilight could honestly say she understood Fluttershy being hesitant on some things, swallowing she went for it. “Is Scootaloo your daughter?”

“Figured out at least that much have you? Yes she is, but quite frankly I can’t take her with me on my job and I can’t quit it either. I don’t think I can even bring myself to raise her or be what she truly needs, some mother I am huh?” Daring gave out a mirthless chuckle even as she wilted under Twilight’s blank stare. “The things I do are way too dangerous for a little filly and I have a ton of resourceful enemies, ones that are always trying to keep an eye out for me. Even Ponyville is barely safe for me to be around for too long, it takes a whole lot to even get into town without paranoia of them finding out about my daughter riding my flank.”

“Did you know that Scootaloo’s wings were being clipped?” It seemed to Twilight that the world traveling mother wouldn’t hide anything.

“If they are it's definitely Celestia’s idea, she likely has her reasons. So tell me everything you know and I’ll fill you in on what you don’t.” Daring rested in comfortable position on the envelope while she listened to Twilight’s information as she rattled off everything she found out from her personal secretary and librarian enchanted toy Smart. “Well I can see you don’t know how Scootaloo came about, much less a few other things.”

“Well enlighten me, I Pinkie Pie promise not to tell any pony. Trust me, if I broke that promise Pinkie would know and she doesn’t like it when some pony breaks a promise.” There was a sudden weight on the envelope that caused the two mares to turn to the party pony in question scribbling something down in a little red book.

“Pinkie Pie promise, late evening, between Twilight Sparkle and Daring Do… say you wouldn’t happen to be related to a Ditzy Do-gooder would you?” Pinkie’s question was met with a blink of surprise.

“Wait, there are still Do’s out there? I thought I was the last one. Look never mind that now, I’ll talk to you later about it later.” Daring wondered when Pinkie would take the hint and leave. “We were kind of in the middle of a private discussion here, until you showed up!”

“Oh right, sorry about that, I didn’t hear single thing! Remember not to break whatever that promise to Daring was!” With that Pinkie slid down a rope back to the ship leaving the two alone.

“Scootaloo wasn’t exactly conceived in the nicest of manners, then again rape is never a pretty or even happy thing. Those slave traders got what was coming to them in the end though. I kept adventuring until it came to a point that Celestia had to put her hoof down on me and hard. It was to keep me safe when I was too far along.” Daring saw the look of pity cross Twilight’s face, but she didn’t get angry at the young mare that still had a lot to see and experience. “It’s all in the past now and it was how I got started into writing books in the first place, being kept under constant guard for those few months was really boring and so was the hospital stay when I finally had brought her into the world on my own. Working with Celestia has its perks; my little Scooter Do is provided for at least, given I can’t be a stable part of her life. The only thing left is to explain how Rainbow Dash got her job in Ponyville and then you’ll be able to see the whole picture.”

“Wait, you’re the reason why Rainbow Dash got a job in Ponyville?” Now that was a perplexing bit of information and Twilight hadn’t said much about Rainbow Dash except when she was injured by the Wyvern a while back. “I always did wonder how Rainbow managed to get through all that paperwork to be head manager of the weather team. That was your doing?”

“What can I say? My kid needs a role model to look up to, one that would fit the bill better than some imaginary hero that is always jumping at shadows.” Daring just adjusted her helmet with a hoof and gave a wan smile, before taking off for a quick flight she had one last thing to say. “Never lose that spirit to push forward, no matter the dangers or the obstacles ahead of you. The future is always worth fighting for!”

94

It was two weeks later; things were settling back into the norm. The Trouble Takers business took a bit of a nosedive, while Trims and Tresses had a mild upturn in business. Tress was especially making a tidy profit for her minty smelling cleanser as a perfect chewing gum removing agent; Bonbon was a constant advertisement to the effects.

Daring left Ponyville after only staying for six hours, she stayed two hours to get into contact with her distant relative who looked almost exactly like Derpy Hooves. She even asked Twilight to look into Celestia about the wing clipping thing personally, she spent three hours with Scootaloo while disguised almost perfectly as Rainbow Dash given their similar builds even if she were older. Twilight couldn’t alter or change cutie marks and Rainbow would never wear a dress unless the occasion saw fit to put her in the path of some Wonder Bolts that required it.

There were several winged equines in Ponyville that were grey coated and had blonde hair. They were all friends with the muffin loving Derpy who was currently taking some back roads through time and space at the moment. None of them were related by blood despite sharing very similar outward appearances.

Ditzy Do understood the meaning of family quite well; she was raised by Timber Wolves before moving to Ponyville after all. Leaving her to the wooden wolves was an assassination attempt to stamp out the Do-gooder line, one that somehow backfired magnificently. Scootaloo was family to Ditsy and she would look out for filly when she wasn’t too busy. No pony knows how Ditzy managed to get a job with heavy parcel services as a mail pony, much less became a licensed nurse and learned to speak equestrian. She was just a mare whose special talent was a ludicrous resilience to all forms of injury, including having survived being swallowed alive by a hydra after being thoroughly chewed with only a mildly sprained hock to show for it. She had a big bubble enwrapping smaller bubbles for a cutie mark.

Scootaloo was almost fully capable of flight now as Fluttershy had kept her out of sight and out of mind; the guards were none too happy and knew that she was still around Ponyville somewhere by word of mouth. She was happy to know she was related to Ditsy, if only the mare in question wasn’t so hard to understand and would stop speaking in weird metaphors. Everything was almost right with the world for the little filly; Fluttershy had even started reading some Daring Do novels to her.

At the Sparkle and Ravel residence, Tress was rubbing Pal’s belly after he had been fed some reheated flying spaghetti monster. Pal purred happily as it stretched out on the couch, his master was in a relaxed state and in good mood. They weren’t about to run out of food for him at this rated with at least a few pounds of magically preserved food monster, of which anyone could feasibly eat in a pinch as well.

Turning back to the book Tress continued to read it alongside Twilight with Barb sandwiched between them. Daring’s latest hit, the mare knew how to write a compelling book when she had the spare time to work out a few chapters.

“So what actually happened and what did she embellish?” Barb was curious as ever, she heard that books could take you places. The young dragon never thought her mother meant it literally; then again her mother was sucked into a comic book.

“She’s been pretty good about it so far my little flame, I just feel bad that she can’t raise Scoots like I raise you.” Twilight knew what she’d be feeling if she couldn’t raise Barb herself and had to leave it to some other pony for prolonged periods of time or no pony at all. She immediately started nuzzling her daughter. How Daring can stand to crack jokes and continue living when she can’t watch over the most important thing to her? It was a bit heartbreaking to think about. “So, do you want Tress to make one of the recipe’s she picked up from Saddle Arabia for dinner?”

“I sometimes wish I could eat like you guys. Sunlight tastes like nothing but forty flavors of ice cream constantly being dumped down my tiny throat.” Smart was reading along with them and hadn’t been too mischievous since they left or came back. She was running liaison duties with the mayor about how to prepare for the Summer Sun Celebration and how best to talk Luna down from committing omnicide by eternal night. “Say, did you remember to put the elements back where they belong four days ago?”

“Yes, I took the elements back to the tree of harmony. The tree really had an interesting reaction to them, but it’s not my business anymore to worry about them.” Twilight shrugged, she figured life would be better without forcing things to happen through the use of ancient magic. The tree glowing and the sprouting a new flower was none of her business, especially not when she didn’t know where the tree came from originally and she wasn’t about to mess with it. Turning back to the book she was levitating she continued to read. “Where were we again? Ah yes, Daring Do was in the middle of rescuing Princess Jasmine along with her bodyguard Rough Heed and were evading the guards still in the city. The guards were under the control of the grand vizier who was off chasing the thief with a golden heart who met the princess a week earlier and fell in love with her. It’s really interesting to know how Ballad Din played his part; he’s got a pretty good singing voice when we heard him serenade Jasmine.”

“He’s a good stallion, too bad he’s already taken with someone else. The good ones are like diamonds in the rough. All they need is little polishing to really shine.” Tress smiled, she couldn’t wait to see how they ended up as part of the story personally. Being a fictional character twice over was quite amusing for the comic book character. “You know if I’m in this book, doesn’t that make me a cameo?”

“Only if she knows you’re super villain name and uses it can it be a cameo. Hey does being in this book mean you’re super fictional?” Barb could now feel the same amusement that was showing on Tress’s face. Her mom started giggling into her hoof.

“Can we not degrade ourselves with more puns please? It’s bad enough that I do that when I’m full on Mane-iac, I’m a braid I wouldn’t be able to quit if I got started as just myself.” Tress couldn’t help but blush at making yet another hair pun. More laughter resounded from the two ponies and dragon on the couch, before they continued.

“Say, didn’t you guys say you have an airship? Where did you even put it? You just walked into town.” Smart was just being overly curious since Ponyville didn’t exactly have an airship port to speak of.

Before Twilight could answer where the airship went to, a knock at the door stopped her. Barb squeezed out from between her mother and Tress; she made her way to the door and opened it up. A pegasus stallion was at the door with a sickly looking Chrysalis draped across her back.

“Who is at the door Barb?” Twilight placed a bookmark into the book and closed it before standing up and stretching out. Tress did the same about to go start dinner when what Barb said next drew their attentions.

“It’s Mr. Thunder Lane with Chrysalis draped across his back mom. She looks really ill.” That news from Barb brought both mares to the front door immediately with questions dancing amidst their tongues.

“Hey, I’m sorry about disturbing your evening, but she insisted I bring her to you instead of the hospital. Goodness knows why, she’s been coughing up a lot of this really strange stuff.” Carefully the dark grey stallion with the two toned blue mane and a dark cloud spewing a lightning bolt for a cutie mark gently put down the changeling.

Chrysalis shakily stood up and then held up her left hoof to her mouth and coughed up a blob of green goo into her hoof. She flicked it away and teetered slightly before being aided by Tress to even stay standing.

“Where did you find her?” Twilight wanted to know if she was being bullied or if something was making her sick like this, Chrysalis looked positively pale. “Also I don’t think a hospital would have really been helpful as ponies don’t really know much about healing changelings.”

“I was with Flitter and Cloud Chaser when I saw what I thought to be a mare collapsing on the ground around Whitetail Woods. I found out it was just Chrysalis and then I noticed something was off with her.” Thunder Lane much like any pony who lived in Ponyville long enough learned to accept that the changelings were a rather benign species, even if they could be more harmful and dangerous by choice. “She wasn’t being mauled or was already in the state of having been mauled, she didn’t look to well then and now she looks even worse.”

“Basement please, I need to get to the basement.” Chrysalis sounded short on breath as she coughed violently. “It’s my time.”

“Really you’re going to let something like a little cold take you…” Tress started out, before Chrysalis glared at her making her go quiet.

“Not a cold, not dying… cocooning phase.” The realization struck both the mares at what Chrysalis meant, it was time she entered a year long process to fully become a queen.

“Thank you for getting her here safely Thunder. I appreciate you looking out for our friend, we’ll see to her now.” Twilight levitated Chrysalis and made for the basement door, they currently had no experiments going on down there. They had long ago installed a closet for Chrysalis, having promised her that she could use their basement for this purpose.

“Can I watch this cocooning thing?” Thunder was now less worried and was intrigued to know what was going on.

“Only if it’s okay with Chrysalis, this could be a very private matter for her.” Twilight turned to Chrysalis who nodded her permission to witness the stage to fully becoming a queen. She turned to her daughter and addressed her even as Tress started trotting down the stairs to the basement. “Barb stay here, this might get a bit gross.”

Barb nodded; she did not want to watch this and would stay in the living room. She had to find something else to occupy her time with until Tress started cooking dinner. Goodness knows her mom couldn’t cook to save a pony’s life and would most likely be the cause of the danger in the first place. Pal padded up to her and meowed softly, he pawed at her leg affectionately wanting some attention. Launch the cat toys!

In the basement Twilight opened the closet and sat Chrysalis down inside, Tress and Thunder just stood aside watching with interest as the changeling started barfing up more green sludge. It became apparent what that the stuff was when it started building up around Chrysalis’s hooves.

“Is this closet good enough Chrysalis?” Receiving a nod Twilight watched as the changeling continued to spew sticky looking fluids all over her body. Her front two hooves started working the material into a shape. “Sure you’re not uncomfortable?”

“I’ll be fine, the process is almost exactly a year long, give or take some time.” Chrysalis’s carapace opened slightly and spilled out more of the green substance filling in the immediate space around her. She could just feel Twilight was having a hard time saying goodbye to a friend. Differences between races aside, for Chrysalis it was going to be but a blink of her eyes. Tress would likely miss being able to throw those jabs at her inability to fend off tiny, if very vicious, woodland creatures. “See you guys in the future and have fun facing Luna without me.”

Chrysalis was having a hard time talking as every other word had bits of fluid slowly falling from the sides of her mouth. She thought better of talking anymore as she continued the process of wrapping her body in a snug jelly filled jelly bean shaped blob. Said blob was made from questionable substances that ponies wouldn’t find nearly as pleasant as a changeling would.

“This is really disturbing, yet I can’t look away.” Thunder Lane’s ears fell back and even he looked a bit green at the half formed cylindrical cocoon slowly making its way up Chrysalis’s body.

“I know exactly what you mean.” Twilight studied the rubbery substance as Chrysalis slowly engulfed herself. The changeling’s presence would be missed, even if Twilight still hadn’t entirely gotten over the napalm spell thing.

“Well at least it doesn’t smell horrible, you’d expect the bile she’s spewing to at least have some sort of funky smell.” At Tress’s unique bit of insight the cocoon was three fourths of the way finished and already filling up with a fluid substance.

In fact, after a sniff from her own olfactory senses, Twilight could tell that Chrysalis wasn’t going to stink up their basement. She smiled sadly as the changeling pointed her mouth upwards and started to create the top of the cocoon, a massive fountain of goo that flowed from her throat completely encompassing her head. Twilight could go for some frozen cow juice right about now, watching as Chrysalis’s eyes blinked slowly and then slid shut.

“We better make sure there is a future for her to come back to, The Summer Sun Celebration is coming up and we need to prepare for all eventualities. Now if you’ll please get out of our home Mr. Lane, I’m sure you have a busy day ahead of you tomorrow.” Tress watched as the stallion rubbed the back of his head and then started for the stairs.

“Can I hire you for something right now or can I reserve first dibs for tomorrow?” Both mares looked at him as he stopped halfway to the front door.

“Depends on the nature of your trouble, is it world ending or immediately dangerous to pony lives? If not then I’m sorry, you’ll have to drop in tomorrow and we’ll look into it then.” Nodding the stallion left without a word, as Twilight shut the door she motioned to Tress to start cooking dinner with the barest flick of her left ear.

“Probably has a hot date with Flitter and wants to ask us to foal sit his little brother Rumble again.” Tress mused as she walked into the kitchen.

Author's Notes:

A TAS with four megamans going at once with one input, the things that occupy my time on the internet.

95

It was finally the day of the Summer Sun Celebration set up, a day in which Trims, Tresses and Trouble Takers businesses were all closed. Twilight, Tress and quite a few ponies were sleeping in today; they were sleeping during some of the best sunlight hours to be best rested for facing Nightmare Moon during the coming night.

Fluttershy had come to their home for a sleep over and to show the giant monarch butterfly that Chrysalis was okay. She woke up early to feed a sleeping Chrysalis some of her raw passion by hugging the jiggling green mass that encased the changeling, not caring one bit about how gross it was.

Zecora was sleeping in the library nearby and would help prepare for Nightmare Moon; Cheerilee would meet up with her later to help the zebra in her preparations. They had a special surprise in store for the alicorn should things start heading south.

Twilight twitched slightly in her sleeping and snuggled against the large warm pillow that her head was resting on. She felt something soft touch her horn and she reacted by opening her bleary eyes, it took a few moments for her to realize what was going on. She was quite sure still in her own bed, but why was Tress also in her bed with her? It was to be noted her pink coated friend was nosing her horn slightly while snuggling her. She was busy trying not to freak out knowing that if she did she could hurt Tress. Being her friends snuggle toy didn’t really bother her that much; it was the principle of the matter that her bed had been infiltrated at some point and she hadn’t noticed.

“Tress, could you please wake up and maybe let go of me?” It was a bit embarrassing for Twilight to even be in this situation, for her effort to wiggle out of Tress’s grip she was clutched tighter making it impossible for her to move. She struggled to shake Tress awake and the mare resisted her efforts with a slight frown on her face.

“No… my unicorn, you can’t have her you stupid aliens.” Tress mumbled as she wrapped her body around Twilight getting them all tangled up in the sheets.

The blush on Twilight’s face might have set fire to the whole house at this point with how bright red she was getting.

“Smart, I need some help here!” Despite yelling for help Twilight hadn’t woken up Tress who continued to snuggle her.

The door opened to Twilight’s room and in flew the tiny pixie pony who took in the situation for a moment before a wide smile started to spread across her face. Maybe Twilight had been a bit hasty in calling for help; she might have been better off calling for Barb or teleporting.

“As your creation I’m obliged to help you. However being based on the personality you gave your toy from childhood, you do realize that I will go get a camera and take a picture of this moment to make it last forever.” Smart just smiled at Twilight’s glare, which promised pain and suffering, as she flittered out of the room. “Hey Barb, do you know where a camera is?”

Twilight managed to get her leg free to face hoof, Tress quickly resituated her so that her leg was no longer free. She sighed; today was just going to be one of those days even if she did like the feel of Tress’s mane blanketing her.

An hour later it was around lunch time and Tress didn’t seem bothered by the fact that she had crawled into Twilight’s bed and used her as a plush toy. Twilight on the other hoof was thoroughly embarrassed; eventually all of them, with the exception of Smart, went out to eat at the Savor café. They were welcomed warmly by the two brothers Savoir and Savor.

“So we’re doing the Summer Sun Celebration thing, chances of Celestia making an appearance before Nightmare Moon is nil considering she knows what day this is.” Looking to the partly cloudy sky Tress shook her head; Rainbow was goofing off again even when she knew this evening was going to be hectic. “Heck every pony in Ponyville knows what’s going to happen, especially since the mayor pointed out the clear evidence of the stars moving to aid in her escape. Why are the stars releasing or even helping her after a thousand years anyway? Why didn’t they try to do anything sooner and what are we going to be doing until Pinkie’s Summer Sun party this evening?”

“I think good preparations are a must, if Nightmare Moon’s plans we are to bust.” Zecora calmly sipped some tea from her glass.

“We already did a lot of work in making sure Luna knows she wasn’t forgotten, I think all she needs now is a little kindness and things will be okay.” Fluttershy was actually being optimistic and outspoken for once; her friends knew this wouldn’t last long when her mind stopped being occupied by thoughts of sweet little singing birds. “It must have been so lonely sitting up there for a thousand years, I wonder if she was awake or asleep for most of it? I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to be forced to stay awake for a thousand years.”

“I and Twilight are already expecting a fight. Not to say we won’t try diplomacy first, but as you said Luna is going to be exceptionally cranky at being put in time out for a millennium.” Tress snickered; Luna was truly a little sister in that respect. “She kind of deserves it given an eternal night would end all life on the planet except for god like beings like Discord, Celestia and Cadence. Trying to kill everyone is a pretty bad way of garnering attention. She could have just tried communing with ponies when they were awake instead of immediately resorting to threatening everything. It still seems kind of like a disproportionate reaction to being ignored to jump immediately to harming the entire world.”

They finished lunch simply enough and set off about their separate ways. Twilight, Tress and Barb were going home to relax for the confrontation. Fluttershy set off to work with her bird choir, one of the most adorable things she’s done to date. Zecora went to meet up with Cheerilee to continue preparing for the coming of Nightmare Moon.

Twilight and family were going to continue reading Daring Do where they left off when Pinkie popped up out of nowhere in their home.

“Hey guys, guess what? There’s a new pony in Ponyville and...” Pinkie started off only to have Tress's immediately in her mouth.

“Sorry Pinkie but we’re going to have to cut you short here…” Twilight started only for Pinkie to dart off and come back with a stool, scissors and a cape. She immediately took a seat and caped herself sniffling a bit.

“Well alright then, I didn’t even know I needed a haircut! Do I have to get it cut short here? What’s wrong with the length of my mane as it is now; I thought it was perfectly fine and what about my tail? I really like that the way it is too. Also why couldn’t we do it there instead of here?” Pinkie looked sad and was running a hoof through her puffy curls. Twilight’s reaction was her now somewhat trademarked face hoof.

“Don’t ever change Pinkie. I meant stop talking, since we already know the pony you saw. At a guess the pony has a yellow and red mane with a really light shade of orange for a coat, her cutie mark is a two colored sun, she has a downright dark demeanor about her and she’s a unicorn.” Twilight rolled her eyes at the sight of Pinkie’s bright smile and nodding head.

“Yeah, exactly… wait, how did you know that? Are you psychic! And to think every pony is always telling me I’m not.” Pinkie was hopping in place excitedly; she wanted this new pony to come to her party tonight. She hadn’t forgotten that it was the night Black Snooty was coming into the story at all, but who cares? It just meant more partying for the party pony!

“Call it me getting a good hunch.” Twilight said dryly.

“Why would you get a hunch and why would it be good unless… oh, you do secretly want to be camel!” Now Pinkie was full on scatterbrained and angry at being called as such by the text being written after her verbal statement. “Can we also stop stalling the plot please?”

“Say what?” Tress asked rubbing the side of her head.

Before Pinkie could try and fail to explain the infeasibility of the fact that the fourth wall was still standing, Applejack made an entrance into the house looking really miffed.

“I guess a unicorn dropped by the farm with a list and was checking on your catering services and then did something needlessly cruel?” It was Barb who was picking up on the following line of logic that said all of her mother’s other friends were going to ask her to figure out a way to kick Sunset Shimmer out of town.

“Now how in the world did you know that?” Applejack was honestly surprised that Barb knew about it already and she hadn’t met the unicorn more than thirty minutes ago. Never had Applejack met a pony she could possibly outright hate before that. Besmirching her livelihood and calling her family a bunch of hicks was grounds for a feud.

“An old acquaintance of mine is in town and she’s currently acting like a migrating thorn in the flank on Celestia’s orders. I’m already expecting her to go after Rarity, Rainbow and Fluttershy. Speaking of, Tress you might want to go find Fluttershy real quick and make sure Sunset doesn’t do anything to upset her.” She may not be psychic, but Twilight had already seen all this coming. Celestia was expecting Sunset to find the elements of harmony and then use them to return her sister to normal. Seriously, why use something so stupidly powerful when there were always other solutions to the problem? It was never a good idea to rely on such power alone to solve all your problems and sometimes doing things the hard way was more often rewarding than not.

Later that evening at Pinkie’s summer sun party, things started out well and Fluttershy had arrived dressed in her maid outfit looking particularly self-conscious about it. Twilight said there was a reason she was wearing this outfit and it had her shyly shuffling hooves adorably at the stares she was getting. Things stopped going so well when Sunset Shimmer soon arrived at the town hall having gotten an invite via Pinkie.

“Well if it isn’t the hapless dork, with her oversized iguana and pet dog. It’s no wonder you have friends like that simple hick, the parroting pegasus and the gaudy dress maker. Where’s that hobo you’re always hanging out with? Did she finally starve to death because no pony gave her hoof outs?” As far as ponies go, the bad ones were a minority and Sunset Shimmer was just one of those ponies. She wasn’t of noble blood or anything; she just had a superiority complex which is why she had just insulted Twilight’s family and friends without remorse.

“I can see you’re still as tactful as ever Sunset. In town for the celebration I take it?” It surprised quite a few ponies that Twilight wasn’t getting mad at the insults; just about every pony in the room had backed away from Sunset expecting some form of retaliation. She just saw Sunset as the sad petty mare that she was.

“Yeah, like there’s anything here that’s of real interest. I’m about to set out soon anyway, apparently there are some magic artifacts of great power at some castle in the Ever Free Forest. I’m not about to stick around at some boring party for little foals when I’ve got better things to be doing.” Sunset had said the wrong words now.

Trixie stepped up to Sunset with a cool expression on her face. It wasn’t so much the ‘for foals’ part that annoyed Trixie as Pinkie was a foal at heart and it was a completely endearing quality that she loved about the puffy haired angel. It was the fact that Sunset called the party boring that made her mad, even Gummy the baby pygmy alligator with his relatively limited understanding of his surroundings was glaring at Sunset instinctively.

“Trixie thinks that being the worst student Celestia has ever had is nothing to be proud of.” The gauntlet was thrown by Trixie, after at least a year or so a pony under Celestia’s tutelage would have done something truly impressive by now.

“Like a third rate party magician like you knows what it means to be the princess’s student.” These were the counter and very much offensive words said by Sunset.

“True, but at least Trixie isn’t a complete failure by comparison by having gotten somewhere then going nowhere at all.” Trixie kept an even look on her face when Sunset flinched and snorted angrily. Every pony watched as Sunset took a moment to drink some punch before hastily leaving the party. Turning to the crowd with a glare when it looked like they were about to start cheering, they stopped at her sharp look and after a moment Trixie sighed. “Trixie would prefer you don’t cheer for the suffering of another even if it was warranted.”

“Who wants cake?” Pinkie said trying to raise the mood back to party levels, ponies quickly forgot the short altercation and went about snacking.

Twilight had stood there watching Sunset leave the party; she turned to Tress with a look of consternation on her face.

“Well that happened.” Tress said pleasantly, she had been busy keeping Barb from setting fire to town hall. The rest of their friends were resisting the idea of forming an angry mob, even Fluttershy looked tempted.

“Small change of plan ponies, we need a pony or two to follow Sunset and make sure she doesn’t get hurt. No matter how much of a stubborn donkey she can be, if she died when we could have helped her it will be on all of our consciences forever.” Twilight turned to a donkey that was currently standing at a table enjoying some cheesecake hoping she didn’t anger him too much. “No offense meant George.”

“Oh, no offense taken. I understand completely.” The donkey continued eating without a fuss.

Nightmare Moon came in a cloud of dark smoke a few hours later and Twilight was down three friends who followed Sunset to make sure she didn’t get too badly roughed up by the Ever Free Forest.

Author's Notes:

Hope the editing went well this time.

96

Applejack, Ditzy and Rainbow were all off making sure Sunset Shimmer didn’t get terribly hurt. Applejack was a tough pony and could handle herself and was good at tracking varmints down, Sunset was definitely an ornery one. Ditsy was raised in the Ever Free Forest until she was eight, long story short she would be perfectly fine asking her mother and father if they’ve seen a grumpy pony wandering the forest. Rainbow knew the path to the castle and if Sunset strayed from it, she’d be able to find her quickly if Ditzy’s parents didn’t first.

At the town hall in Ponyville, Rarity had just finished complimenting Fluttershy on her adorable outfit when the mayor announced Princess Celestia. The stars outside moved to the moon and the mares image disappeared, that was when the dark smoke started rolling in and the mayor signaled that it was Luna to every pony.

“Well at least she knows how to make an entrance, let’s just hope she doesn’t start a monologue.” Tress whispered aside to Twilight as they stood near the snack table. “It’s one of the most annoying things a villain will do.”

“Oh come on, she’s not a comic book villain Tress. She’s just a princess that’s missed a thousand years of progress after letting jealousy consume her, she’s not about to do something like that.” Twilight whispered back.

“Ten bits says she does, also that her laugh is nowhere as good as Tress’s evil laugh.” A few ponies took up Lyra on her bets as Luna finished coalescing into existence with a flourish and a flap or two of her wings.

One major part of the plan was that Celestia’s guards didn’t cause problems, so they were still outside unaware of what was going on here. The mayor had thankfully made sure they stayed outside.

Starry blue mane and tail, black coat and a blue moon cutie mark surrounded by purple splotches. Her blue green eyes were draconic in nature and they looked down upon all the ponies before her. Her gaze went throughout the room, no pony seem particularly surprised at her appearance and were all looking at her with… smiles? Something weird was going on here; she shook her head and decided to start her spiel.

“Oh my beloved subjects, it has been so long since I have seen your precious sun loving faces.” Nightmare Moon started off, still feeling a bit awkward at all the ponies paying an especially large amount of attention to her. It was making her really skittish, she decided to giggle it off and it didn’t sound particularly as evil as Tress’s insane laughter. Lyra got a few bits from some of the surrounding ponies after that since her voice just sounded cute. “Why, am I not royal enough for you, don’t you know who I am?”

“Hello Princess Luna!” Every single pony in the room including Tress shouted cheerfully in unison, causing Nightmare Moon to balk and back away from all of them.

“What… did you all just say?” Nightmare Moon teleported to the floor in confusion and glared at the ponies they all gathered around her. Instead of being scared off by her angry countenance, three foals and a baby dragon cuddled up to her hugging her legs, it confused the ever loving snot out of her. She gently shook them off of herself.

“Welcome back from the moon Princess Luna.” Twilight said making her way forward, first plan befriend the crap out of her. She bowed to the princess and could see the shocked look on the Nightmare Moon’s face. “It certainly has been a long time hasn’t it.”

“Thou will tell thee what is going on and I am Nightmare Moon!” Nightmare Moon threw her hooves up in the air angrily and none of the ponies reacted in fear, only sadness and sympathy, which bothered her a great deal.

“Well Luna, wouldn’t it be bad for night to be eternal? Daytime isn’t eternal and you already know it and to be fair it truly hasn’t been your night for an entire millennium.” Looking outside Twilight stared wistfully at the bright glowing full moon. “It’s good to meet you, because ponies of the world can see a full moon again. The light of the beautiful night has returned to us all. Even if we fail to reach you now, it’ll be a beautiful end for us. If only you’d let go of your anger for the slight you thought was done to you.”

“A slight, is that what you think made me angry?” Nightmare Moon approached looking down on Twilight who bravely stood her ground. “Neigh, I was ignored and forgotten while my sister was revered by our subjects.”

“You were never really forgotten Luna. You just need listen better to hear our hearts.” It had taken some nudging before Fluttershy got the idea of what Tress wanted her to do, she shyly approached the princess. She at least understood why she was wearing the maid outfit now, it was really comfortable.

“Oh, pray tell how you explain the attention to those who think me the lesser of two equals!?” Despite Luna’s roar of anger, Fluttershy walked up to her with maid dress bouncing each step of the way and then she pulled Luna into a soft comforting snuggle. Nightmare Moon tried to deny the warmth that filled her, the feeling of compassion spreading through her body and the beauty of the mare that was making her feel happy instead of bitter.

“Luna, have you truly become as heartless as to harm even little fillies? There are still tales of the past where ponies slept outside under the moon knowing that it was safe with you watching over them.” The maid outfit was embarrassing; even then Fluttershy continued talking barely above a whisper while holding Luna and she started to cry a little. “Did you ever bother to try and talk to them as the night was coming before they slept or just after they even woke up before dawn? Do you really care about acknowledgment or were you just being selfish? Did you truly even think of your past subjects? They needed their rest; they were not tireless as you or your sister. It was said a thousand years ago Celestia actually talked to her subjects, where it was said that you were the one ignoring them.”

Nightmare Moon winced at the questions. She put a hoof up to her head, her right eye changed to a normal looking pony eye blue as the sky; it quickly flickered back to its draconic appearance. Instead of roughly shoving Fluttershy away she slowly pushed the gentle pony off of herself, something about the butter yellow pegasus was causing her heart to quicken. She was a beautiful pony, dressed in fabrics both black and white which was oddly attractive on her form.

“Did you watch ponies during the day Luna; did you notice that not all of them frolicked all the time? When you attacked Celestia and proclaimed the night would last forever, did you think of what that would do to the ponies that trusted you with their safety back then?” Continuing to hammer home the point Twilight made sure that Luna knew she had become her own worst monster. “You became a monster in their eyes and rightfully so, after you were sealed away many ponies were stricken. They even started a celebration called Nightmare Night because of it, it’s a holiday that paints you in a bad light and it was not Celestia’s idea before you ask. For years after your downfall ponies had unceasing nightmares that Celestia could not personally deal with. The EUP was soon formed, a group made to protect the remaining princess of Equestria and the many ponies left exposed to all forms of danger in your absence. Your sister ferried your moon and the sun for a thousand years without complaint doing twice the work, millions of ponies likely died because you weren’t there to protect them. The years of your absence are definitely not forgotten; those that truly missed you started jobs and businesses that required them to be awake at night. Those jobs and recreations still exist nowadays.”

“They… missed me? I caused them all nightmares? Ponies died… because of me.” Nightmare Moon frowned splotches of her coat turned a lighter shade before darkening again, she took a few steps back shaking her head. “What are these recreations and jobs you speak of?”

“I can answer that Loony.” Vinyl stepped up to the princess threw a hoof around her, off to the side Octavia could be groaning before she moved to stop Vinyl from making a large mess of things only to be held back by Bonbon. “You see the night became a time where many ponies came together to think about things. Ponies use telescopes to look up at the stars. There are these guys, bards I think, that created fancy poetry about it. It’s considered a romantic time for two ponies to get together. There are rare flowers that can only be found growing at night that makes healing medicines and gardeners started cultivating them in the dark; I learned that one from my friend Octaves.”

“Your manner of speaking is strange and yet as of the night as if it was your domain.” Nightmare Moon just watched as Vinyl nod with a smile before moving back over to Octavia, she turned to Twilight. “Still I sense there is something you are not telling me!”

“Celestia made a plan for your return Luna; she would have a group of ponies activate the elements of harmony. To force you back to being her little sister, one that she still loves dearly.” Seeing the anger that flashed on the dark mares face, Twilight slowly trailed into what was happening now with complete honesty. “I’ve derailed that plan thoroughly already; those who were supposed to use the elements will never do so. I don’t believe we need to use the elements of harmony to force you to be some pony you’re not Luna. You chose this path and if it’s what truly you want then that’s up to you; I personally will not take that choice from you.”

Luna paused in her anger; all these ponies were not here as part of a plan made by her sister? They weren’t going to use the elements of harmony on her like her sister did to her so long ago? Her sister did have a valid reason to seal her away, but why not as a statue like Discord? Why the moon of all places? She was sealed inside her own celestial domain, a place that would be of some comfort to her instead of sitting in one place where harmony could be seen thriving without her. Had her sister truly been trying to protect her from the same torture they put Discord under? Slowly, her doubt at what she thought she knew to be true started breaking through the inky darkness.

Many ponies watched on as her cutie mark slowly painstakingly morphed into a white moon and the purple splotches started turning black as if the moonlight could not be dimmed by the darkness that surrounded it. Even the regalia, in its dark form, started reacting to her slow change by becoming less threatening in appearance, only after a moment did something snap.

Her moon became half blue and half white; the purple still coloring her flank was the hidden poison in her heart; only half of it fled her as she accepted the fact that she had wronged her subjects. There was still something inside Luna that refused to let go of her hatred completely and it appeared she was fighting herself over it.

Twilight watched in confusion as she had thought they had gotten through to Luna, only for her to grip her head and a lot of ponies shouted out to her in worry while moving towards her. Luna stomped her hooves and all the ponies backed away looking to be worried for her instead of afraid, she frowned at the ponies with worried expressions. They feared for her, the feeling was… welcoming… including from the beautiful maiden and her heart gave an odd painful twinge at even hurting one so innocent.

“She reminds me of myself. All lonely and confused while lashing out at everything around her. We haven’t exactly introduced ourselves and she looks like she really could use a friend right about now.” If there was one thing Tress knew about Twilight, like Pinkie she was always willing to befriend new ponies and put an effort into doing it. Her friend’s eyes gleamed with little sparkling motes and she knew that Twilight would eventually end up attending Luna’s mane at some point in the future.

“Luna, I apologize for being so rude as to not tell you my name. I’m Twilight Sparkle and these are all my friends.” Twilight gave a wide sweep of her hoof at all of the other ponies in the room, male, female, young and old. “This is my best friend Tress Ravel and this is Fluttershy. Can you tell me what’s wrong? We just want to help.”

“There is still much anger in my heart. I can forgive ponies of the past for I see the fault was mine, but thyself and thy sister I find harder to forgive… Twilight, was it?” Saying the name eased some of her hearts suffering, she looked at the three mares that smiled at her so pleasantly alongside every other pony there. “I am not exactly safe to be around at this moment, please leave.”

“No, you need help now more than ever princess! History has waited so long for you to return and we’re not losing you again!” Twilight, Tress and Fluttershy tried to approach her but were blown back by an explosively powerful cry. Princess Luna certainly had a set of lungs on her to create a powerful noise of sorrow like that; it left her body muddled between her personification of Nightmare Moon the doom bringer and Luna the protector.

“Luna, I’m sorry for what I’m about to do to you. I hope that you’ll forgive me afterwards, but I’m going to beat the rest of that darkness out of you now.” Tress calmly looked to an injured Twilight on the floor lying on her side. Twilight had been the closest to Luna and had been hurt the most by the ancient voice. Slowly Tress’s eyes started to bleed from their blue to green and red. “Citizens of Ponyville I’ve long since held a secret, I’m sorry you had to find out this way. Please get to a safe distance, hopefully to a well fortified building.”

The last all the ponies saw of Tress; she just flickered and disappeared leaving behind a large hole in the wall. She had just rammed an alicorn giving her one hundred percent from the start.

97

“Thank you again for the pillow Bonbon.” She could hear Fluttershy say.

“No problem, I needed a good nap after that party and Lyra got it for me.” The nap Bonbon had sounded pretty refreshing.

“Ugh, what happened and why do I feel like some pony performed acupuncture on me?” Twilight tried to move only for Fluttershy to put a firm hoof on her chest.

“Please continue resting for a bit, it’s only been ten minutes. Luna screamed loudly and um, you broke a table in half with the back of your head and a bowl of punch shattered all over your face after hitting your horn. A lot of silverware hit you to; luckily the knives weren’t in too deep.” Turning to the large hole in the wall Fluttershy could almost be seen as having giant sweat drop hanging off the side of her face. “Tress wasn’t happy about that. I just had to pull a few things out, clean the wounds, use some medication to avoid infection and I only just finished bandaging you.”

“Are you feeling okay mom?” Her daughter was at her side with a worried look, wondering if it was okay to hug her.

“I feel alright enough my little flame. Since all of you are staring at me, I take it you want to ask about Tress and the hole she obviously created in the wall?” It wasn’t hard for Twilight to figure out, Tress decided to tangle with Luna. After a moment Twilight face hoofed at even thinking the pun. The ponies started to crowd around her asking her about Tress’s cutie mark changing shape, including the changelings who knew she wasn’t one of them.

“Actually I don’t really care what’s up with Tress, she’s our friend and if she really wanted us to know she’d tell us what that was.” Many a pony looked at Lyra wondering if she was a changeling infiltrator, some even murmured as much, even the few still clearly visible changelings standing among the other ponies. “What? If it’s not right for another pony to go prying into any of your personal lives; then why should it be okay to do it to others? If Tress doesn’t want to talk about it then she probably has a good reason, it’s only okay if they are doing something completely suspicious. No offense to all the changelings in the room.”

“We go by the donkey’s statement of none taken; I feel a lot of shock in the room slowly easing into acceptance here. Luna tasted happy when we greeted her, acknowledging her in mass really helped her work out some of her issues.” The changeling that spoke was currently the best psychiatrist in Ponyville, never once did it have to ask how a pony felt. It was an interesting job for a changeling; it could get to the root of any problem if it was emotional in nature. “Now if only she could get over her jealousy of her sister and her hatred of herself for feeling the jealousy in the first place. Otherwise she does feel complete remorse for failing her subjects a thousand years prior and becoming what she is still partially now. Currently her emotional intent aside from anger is only sadness; all that fighting must really be putting some of her mind off all stress of suddenly being thrust back into society. I think Luna is easily redeemable without having to forcefully alter her mind with magic, which is a bad idea in the long run anyway. You might really need to talk with your friend Tress however; all that pent up frustration is never a good thing to hold on to. Maybe you could send her my way so that I can figure out a way to get her to talk about it if she won’t do so with you.”

“Thanks for the information Doctor Leech, I’ll try to talk to you later about getting Tress to come in and see you about that frustration.” Twilight had gone to the changeling a few times about how Chrysalis handled the situation in Saddle Arabia. The doctor was a good changeling who wanted to make ponies happy which in turn equaled happy changelings.

“Lyra, it’s a bit jarring that you are the mature one in the room at the moment. I’ve seen you acting weird all the time and especially with Bonbon, but now?” Octavia already liked Lyra well enough after they had become such good friends. It was a tad hard to keep up with Twilight and Tress always gallivanting about, who knows what kind of magical maladies those two ran into. At least every pony in Ponyville knew plenty about poison joke now.

A lot of the ponies shrugged figuring Lyra had a point and started moving out to go watch the battle from a safe distance, the top of a grassy hill would be perfect. Twilight aided by Fluttershy followed them and came upon the sight of Tress wrapping her hair around Luna’s neck and right leg. The two lengths of Tress’s mane lit up in a white glow causing Luna to convulse in pain as tons of electrical energy surged into her.

Twilight sat down with the other ponies and it was obvious all were worried for their princess and for Tress as well. Luna had suddenly forced her way through the pain to blast Tress with a solid beam of magic. This forced Tress to release Luna and crash solidly through a tree which toppled over on top of her. A lot of ponies were gasping until Tress lifted the tree off of herself with her hair and swung it around. Luna took the full brunt of a tree and all its branches to her entire body, she shot off into the sky and within a second she caught herself and flew back towards Tress before diving steeply at her.

“Feeling better yet or are you still on a hair trigger?!” Mane-iac shouted mockingly only to nearly get gored by Luna’s horn. She didn’t avoid the impact entirely and it sent her flying, she bounced a few times against the ground before she caught herself on her mane and tail. “Okay, ouch, now I’m starting to feel all the hairline fractures.”

“Thou art hoping this fight is not to the death, thou art an interesting individual and thine transformation doesn’t appear to be nearly as baleful as mine.” The darkness was just disappearing from Luna as they fought up to this point and she was actually enjoying the battle and the pain of exertion. “It is truly helping, I thank thee.”

“Oh, my aching follicles… I don’t know how much more of this I can take. An alicorn is definitely the toughest thing I’ve ever had to face and alone at that.” Mane-iac grunted as her body quickly worked to fix her injuries, she set herself down gently only her front right hoof didn’t hit the ground. Another hoof had wrapped around hers.

“Who says Luna or you have to face this alone, I’m tagging in! The princess could use all the friends she can get so stop hogging her already! I always wanted to show my stuff, you’ll why I’m the top trainer in Ponyville’s dojo.” Berry Punch quickly spun around and then threw Mane-iac directly at Twilight who hastily caught her in her magic. Pulling out a bottle of wine she poured some down her throat and then stumbled slightly as she stood up on her two hind hooves. “My names Berry Punch, let’s do this thing princess woo!”

“Oh Celestia, please strike me down now if you’re watching.” Colgate said sadly as she face hoofed.

“Mommy is mom going to hurt the princess badly?” Ruby Pinch asked innocently.

“No Ruby, she just wants to challenge herself… that and your mom is completely blind stinking drunk again dear.” Sighing Colgate couldn’t help but smile at her wife. “Probably won’t feel a single thing when she wakes up later. I love her so dearly; I just wish she wouldn’t jump into things without asking how I feel about it.”

Princess Luna hadn’t any idea what had hit her when she had been attacked by Tress, now she knew what hit her this time but she didn’t see it. Her chin flared in agony and then with a sudden yank on her tail, Luna was spun around twice before being slammed into the ground. It seems a thousand years hadn’t dulled the strength of earth ponies at all.

Charging her horn, Luna let off a barrage of energy blasts at Berry and she dodged each one of them magnificently in only a fashion that would make one mistake her for a drunken idiot. Each movement she made, standing on one hoof upside down, flopping like a fish on her belly, a cartwheel and then doing the monkey out of nowhere, it was all performed in an overtop ridiculous manner. It confused Luna to no end that she had missed Berry when she stopped to start waving her front two hooves up and down which shifting side to side; this was a most vexing opponent.

“Zecora, Trixie would like to ask if she can borrow those flash bombs you and the teacher made.” Fixing the hat on her head Trixie smiled at Pinkie asking a question silently, the pink mare nodded enthusiastically. Have audience, will flaunt.

“I see no problem as things are not all too rough; we will save some as what little left of Nightmare Moon is proving quite tough.” Sitting among friends watching them tire the princess out was quite amusing and here Zecora thought Nightmare Moon would have been more volatile and violent. Instead she was playing with her subjects and enjoying herself. It was going to be a long night and though darkness may not have entirely fled Luna’s heart yet, it certainly had a hard time finding purchase in the fun Luna was having this evening.

Twilight smiled slightly as an exhausted Tress rested next to her having felt no need to hold her transformation. Berry was forcefully tagged out by Colgate to be dragged off by her ear; it was Trixie and Pinkie’s turn to have fun now as they appeared in two blinding flashes. Trixie was wearing her usual uniform and Pinkie was wearing a top hat and a tuxedo, she had an unusually bright smile on her face as they faced down Luna. Berry was right, why face something alone when you could bring a friend?

“I call next!” Shouted Lyra as she practiced some notes on her harp, many other ponies started to pick up on what was going on here.

Twilight was proud to call all these ponies her friends; just having friends was solving the problem without any pony having to get seriously injured or hurt. Except for her and Tress of course, not like life would let them get away without injury. The next five minutes were a slapstick comedy routine in which neither Pinkie nor Trixie showed any aggression towards the princess, Luna moved over to join the rest of the ponies in the crowd hearing them laugh gaily.

“So having fun Princess Luna?” Twilight looked up at the princess as she giggled mercilessly at what Trixie and Pinkie were doing to each other; the laughter was infectious.

“Fun, pray tell us, what does thou word mean?” Luna didn’t know why she got such an awkward look from Twilight.

It boggled the mind that Luna didn’t know what fun was, especially given the diary of the two sisters did together. Only Celestia truly sought amusement, as in not seeing things as just a means to a specified end. In that respect it made perfect sense that Luna didn’t know what fun was.

“Really, I know the perfect song for you then! F is for friends who…” Pinkie got a pie to the face courtesy of Trixie causing an uproarious laughter as nobody had ever managed to stop her from starting a musical number before in quite such a fashion.

“No singing in the middle of the act Pinkie!” Trixie shouted angrily, only to have Pinkie hold a flower up to her asking for forgiveness and then they hugged. The crowd was positively gushing at the adorable antics of the pair. Soon they moved out of the way and let Lyra and Octavia out onto the field.

While a musical act went on, Twilight turned to Luna and thought of her friends currently risking their lives in the Ever Free Forest for one of the worst mares she has ever met in her life. They were doing it because she asked her friends to volunteer for such a mission. Tress snuggled Twilight feeling that her mood had taken a sharp downturn to match the frown.

“Is this fun a time where one seeks merriment?” It took a moment for Luna to notice Twilight’s downturned expression. Looking at herself Luna’s coat was now dark blue, her mane was less universal looking and her cutie mark was completely normal. At some point she had forgiven Celestia for she had greatly wronged herself and others that night years ago, only now did the reason she did all that for seem entirely petty. “Twilight what is the matter?”

“Luna, fun is doing stuff with friends that you and the friend involved can both enjoy. Sometimes you can do things with your friends that they don’t like, but they will still do them with you if it makes you happy.” It was odd to Fluttershy that the three of them have come so far, they may not have always been the best of friends at all times but they were practically glued together from the moment they met. They had even saved a princess from her own madness and anger by just giving her some love and kindness, something Fluttershy had in spades. “A friend is an important pony to you that you want to spend some time with when you’re feeling blue and need the comfort of familiarity. No pony is an island princess.”

“We know that now, Fluttershy, still what is it that makes Twilight feel the blueness?” Every pony paused in the simple enjoyment of the music and they all gather around Twilight herding together out of instinct.

“Some of her friends went to protect your sisters current student, with the dangers they face the fleeting feelings of joy here is prudent. Until they are truly safe in mind, Twilight will not feel right in kind.” At Zecora’s words a determined look passed over Luna’s face, her subjects were in danger and it was about time she got back into being the princess she was supposed to be.

The night was Luna’s realm and she had a newfound sense of responsibility.

Author's Notes:

I really want to know how this chapter turned out. The Mane-iac did beat the darkness out of her... well that was cool.

98

“Nu-uh Radiance, have you used a diagnostics spell on yourself lately?” Tress was not having Twilight traipse around a dark forbidding forest of monsters and magical maladies.

One flare of her horn later, Twilight had scanned herself, Tress and Luna in that specified order.

“I’ve just got some flesh wounds; aside from the concussion I’m perfectly fine. Maybe Fluttershy just went a bit overboard on the bandaging. You on the other hoof have a lot of still healing minor fractures Tress, not only that but Luna’s ribs are broken.” Giving the princess of the night a stern gaze, Twilight watched as Luna’s ears flopped downward followed by a very sheepish looking toothy smile. “Aside from that I can tell Berry really did a number on her as well when she tagged in. How are you even still standing? I know she didn’t hit you in the ribs and in fact seemed to know you were hurt there and was actively avoiding it, but still.”

“We are hurting its true, but thou art tougher than that to let a few broken bones get in the way of aiding yonder lost subjects in the dire forest. Now this Berry you speak of, we wonder why she was so vexing in her movements.” Luna patted her chest with a hoof wincing a bit, her broken bones were sure taking their sweet time and being violently electrocuted didn’t help them at all either. She was too resilient to let a thing like that stop her, even then Tress really could have grievously injured her with the first blow which was something a average pony wouldn’t have stood up to. It took a lot to incapacitate an alicorn without killing them; in turn Luna hadn’t truly tried to kill Tress either. Had they both actually been trying, Ponyville would have been leveled to the ground.

“She was drunk at the time Luna.” Seeing the incomprehension it took Twilight a moment to remember Luna was still a thousand years in the past. “She imbibes a lot of spirits and is just about always tanked.”

“Ah, now a proper understanding of the situation can be had. She is a warrior of the spirits!” There were plenty of warriors a thousand years ago that Luna knew who would drink and perform better than those who became worse after imbibing certain beverages. “We waste our time with senseless prattle. Injured though we may be, we are not infirmed well enough to be a thing of trifle. Now we must be moving if we are to aid thy friends.”

“Well you heard the lady Twilight. We might be a bit messed up, but we’re good to go! Coming along Fluttershy or will you let three injured mares walk into the Ever Free Forest alone?” Like Tress really had to ask that. All three of them turned to the shy mare poking her head out from behind a large stump with Pal curiously meowing at her hooves.

Sighing Fluttershy fluttered out from behind the stump carrying a novelty super sized medical kit, today was going so well considering that not many ponies other than her close friends and a princess had been injured by today’s events. Only problem is they kept making things worse by actively wanting to run head long into danger. They weren’t invincible and Fluttershy wished they could acknowledge their injuries for once, going on like this wasn’t very smart or wise. Fluttershy doubted their friends were in mortal peril as they were ponies that could handle themselves.

“Let me see to Luna’s ribs first, I just hope you all know that I don’t like that you’re always getting hurt so often.” The tone Fluttershy spoke in was slightly angry sounding, even if it did make her sound more adorable, as she fluttered over to the princess. The reason for the maid outfit for all the embarrassment and bad memories that wearing it brought the shy mare, it made it all the easier for her speak out loud and was quite comfortable. “I’m still wondering what happened to Celestia’s guards, they weren’t around anymore when Tress created that hole in the town hall.”

“Knowing our sister’s solar guard, if only minor things have changed in my absence, they probably took off for reinforcements or to find orders from a higher ranking official since Celestia went into hiding upon my arrival.” Luna rolled her eyes, she kind of saw a problem with guards that weren’t semi autonomous and this would be one of them. Without a princess to tell them what to do they were seemingly inept. She grunted slightly when Fluttershy tightened some bandages around her withers and chest. “If our sister did not have a backup plan for our return, then she has truly become silly.”

“There you go, feeling better Luna?” Fluttershy smiled up at Luna who wrapped a comfortable wing around her.

“We thank you kind maiden Fluttershy. Let us move, so we can find thy friends and return to the merriment that is fun renewed with vigor!” Luna pronounced excitedly as she motioned for Twilight to lead the way, she had more knowledge of the forest then Tress or Fluttershy at this time.

Twilight rolled her eyes and simple set an easy going pace. She knew a quicker route to the castle, but her friends were following Sunset so she had to assume that they were on path that the map from the library showed, one that was created by Celestia a few years ago no less. Twilight didn’t think this was coincidental at all.

It was about twenty minutes in; they had passed a collapsed ledge and helped a manticore remove a few thorns from its butt and paws. It had taken a while, but they had finally found Ditzy Do in a most unusual situation. Luna leapt in to protect one of her subjects from the two evil looking wooden wolves that looked vicious and dangerous.

“Do not worry subject, we will protect you from these…” Luna started jumping in front of Ditsy with her horn lit, only for the mare to jump in front of her with an angry look in her crossed eyes while holding her hooves out.

“Pineapples never hurt kiwi! No tomatoes need throwing!” Ditzy screamed angrily at the princess causing her to back down looking confused. Just about any pony would have had that reaction.

“What?” Luna asked patiently noting that the large timber wolves were standing protectively at the mares side, the situation was baffling.

“I think she means to say her parents would never hurt her and that bloodshed doesn’t need to happen.” Twilight was suddenly hugged, just when she felt like she would pass out she was let go.

“The felling of a tree and the glow to the gold pot visually prowling wet noodles lair!” Ditsy smiled at them before tilting her head questioningly and looked back at her parents. “I continue to molasses, pineapples need unabridged existence! No tomatoes to worry about, tell alpha that flank is three cycles for heaviness. Wing pup provided butterfly?”

“Um, I think I understand. She said Applejack and Rainbow were last seen heading towards where a river serpent lives and that she’s staying behind to catch up with her parents. She’ll be fine and will be back in three days to continue work and wants us to inform her boss about it.” Fluttershy smiled when Ditzy started clapping her hooves, only for the mare to give her an intriguing look. “And um… yes I’ll look after Scootaloo Ditsy.”

Ditzy smiled and motioned for them to run along before nuzzling into the more feminine looking timber wolf while making a cute whining noise that got her licked several times.

“Thy subjects are more puzzling then they ever were in the past. Where is this river, is the serpent there of danger to your friends?” Luna only got a small smile from Twilight as she led the way to towards the river. The silence told Luna that this was going to be a bit disappointing; she was pleasantly surprised to be wrong.

“So then he says, apples, how do you like them? You can bet things got silly after that.” Applejack snorted as she lifted a teacup up to her lips and took a sip, both Steven the river serpent and Rainbow were laughing up a storm. The river serpent was clawing out some crumpets to the two ponies.

“Aw yeah, this is going to be so awesome.” As long as Rainbow Dash was saying how awesome things were, then all was right with the world.

“Oh my, this is a simply smashing story and well if it isn’t an old friend. Twilight, it’s not often I get so many visitors at once and you are certainly making my day!” It was nice to see old friends again within the same lifetime, getting visitors always made Steven happy.

“Have you more tea to share mister…?” Luna inquired, the safety of all her subjects was almost assured; the only one missing now was the pony these two were supposed to be following and the river serpent didn’t look evil in the slightest.

“My name is Steven nice to meet you miss… I know you! You’re that mare that’s always on the moon, so nice to make your acquaintance in person or would it be pony? Oh where are my manners, let me get some tea for you.” Steven had a teapot held in his tail and dunked the front half of his body in the river and came up with an empty teacup a second later. “When you next see Zecora, can you please give her my thanks for this tea set she got me Twilight? Oh my who is that mare back there, she’s rather adorable and it certainly is good to see your best friend made a full recovery. She didn’t look so good the last time I saw her.”

“Of course I will Steven. We got some time to talk, but we can’t stay long.” It made Twilight kind of sad that she kept forgetting to visit Steven and he had been so friendly to her previously. “We have a unicorn to find and make sure she’s alright.”

“You mean that really angry unicorn that came by here? She seemed rather brutish and is really riling up all the animals in the forest; she’s not a good conversationalist either.” Steven couldn’t keep the contempt out of his voice; he was another in a long line of beings that were not fans of Sunset Shimmer.

Fluttershy and Luna were properly introduced to Steven and it was quite a nice little diversion, they stayed for thirty minutes to rest. Once they were ready to move on they all waved goodbye to Steven. The five mares and trailing cat came upon the bridge as Twilight explained that Ditsy was going to be spending quality time with her parents for the next three days.

“I still think it’s kind of weird our language is her third and I didn’t even know diamond dogs have schools.” Applejack muttered to herself as she crossed the bridge, the legend that was Ditzy would continue on.

“We say thee halt! Something is not right with the castle.” Well Luna hadn’t known that the castle would look as dilapidated as it did after a thousand years.

“Looks perfectly fine to me, give or take a thousand years.” Her comment causing the princess to blush, Twilight continued walking forward with Tress shaking her head as she followed. “Besides Celestia has a new castle up in Canterlot, you know the place where unicorns moved to in the hearths warming tale? You have to at least know that one.”

“I really don’t like the memories of being stuck to the ceiling this is bringing me back to.” It was one thing to have being stuck to the ceiling as one of your worst fears, but Tress had an actual reason for her fears as it has happened three times already.

“What are the chances of that happening a fourth time?” After a moment Twilight stopped, realized what she just said and face hoofed. “Sorry Tress, I know with us it’s an unavoidable certainty. Oh and before we go into the castle you might want to get the moon back in motion Luna.”

“You are right, thy night is nearly over and our sister’s dawn comes this way!” Luna started the moon back on its merry path across the sky a bit quicker than it was before, since it had to catch up with the correct time given that she hadn’t moved it since her release. “Now where can this Sunset Shimmer be and why is she here?”

“She’s looking for the Elements of Harmony, unfortunately for her she’s not going to find them here. I put the five elements of harmony back with the tree of harmony and then the element of magic appeared there, nothing much else happened aside from a flower with a box popping up and the tree taking the elements back into it.” Thinking on it Twilight mused over the tree a bit. “Though it is kind of odd that the tree is shaped like my cutie mark, with how my life is I don’t really do coincidences anymore. The tree appears to be related to the lost empire of crystals, an empire which disappeared a thousand years ago because of an evil tyrant unicorn.”

“Sombra was a horrid pony, the curse he dealt the empire is one of our bigger follies. Well at least the elements are safe from being misused by the wrong hooves. We told Celestia that we should have put them back immediately after Discord was dealt with. Neigh, she just had to study them and given the few months we had them nothing new ever came of it!” It was clear Luna was still frustrated with Celestia, she stomped the floor leaving imprints in the shape of her shoes in the castles main entrance. “Our voice fell upon deaf ears and is probably what eventually started our great schism. Thy sister also did not aid us with our nightmares saying they were nothing to worry about; well we hope she has learned much from ignoring signs of dissonance and what became of it.”

“Where are they, they have to be here somewhere!” It wasn’t hard to know Sunset Shimmer was in the castle with her voice bouncing off the wall. This was followed by an obscenely loud roar and Sunset's blood curdling scream.

Rainbow, Twilight and Tress looked back at Pal playfully following a butterfly before looking to each other and frowning.

Author's Notes:

There are about three chapters left in this story, the next one starts off after what caused that roar having already been dealt with, also heavily traumitized ponies.

I'll just leave it as a noodle incident, one that will have a name to it.

99

Celestia, the princess of equestria, the protector of all ponies who frolicked under her sun, flew into the castle. It had taken her a while to notice her sister’s moon was moving on its own and into the correct position no less. She hadn’t sensed the power of the elements or heard from her student Sunset Shimmer, but she was going to find out what was going on here.

Thus far Celestia hadn’t heard much from Luna as she made sure to keep a good eye on her student. Sunset was still a power mad mare, but Celestia forgave her for the lust of power calling to her. If Sunset somehow got the element of magic Celestia was prepared to slap down her own student with a heavy heart. The pony was like a daughter to her in the years they spent together and then Sunset slowly started growing distant and hateful at the success of others.

Celestia didn’t know what she would see when she entered the castle; she simply started raising the sun as she entered. The sight she came upon was horrific in nature of which the likes Celestia had never seen before; even Discord couldn’t create such a hideous monstrosity. With the barest of a glance, she knew it was dead and heard something shifting within its mass.

Out of the mass crawled the oddest cat Celestia had ever seen, it had bright red eyes and looked particularly colorful like a pony. The huge thing in the small cat’s mouth was obviously what passed for the uvula of the monster. The cat set it down on the floor and started ripping it up so it could ingest the smaller bits while purring pleasantly. To say something was a bit off about the cat was a bit of an understatement.

“Sister, it is about time. Thou art late to the party as ever. Neigh, we could have used thine help minutes into the past.” Luna looked like her old self, full height and size to match Celestia in her regal appearance if she weren’t so heavily disheveled looking. Apparently the monster was a pretty big issue. “Thou said it wasn’t real, well we laugh now sister as the truth has come to pass! Behold the now deceased Cthoodle; this vindicates our past assertions of its existence! Thou will now apologize for ignoring the truth, Cthoodle isn’t real my flank!”

Celestia was speechless. This was the Cthoodle that Luna kept going on about, it was actually real? She had no idea how to respond to this situation. She wanted to run up to her sister and hug her, but Luna was shooting her an angry look so she thought better of it. She was well aware that while Luna might not have been doing the Nightmare Moon thing currently, her sister was still angry at her.

“Luna, have you truly returned after so long.” Celestia wanted to cry, her sister was back or at least that’s what her eyes were telling her. Her heart also said the same, but her brain told her no.

“For thee we will have yet to return so called dear sister, we expect an apology forsooth as otherwise our bridge is still burned! We return to sanity for our subjects and the night itself of thy own volition, not for the sister that banished us in our madness.” Turning her back to her sister, Luna walked over to the mare in a maid outfit tending to some highly injured looking ponies one of which was a mummified looking Sunset Shimmer. “Fluttershy is there anything we may aid thee in? We can do many a thing, but solving the mental trauma of this situation is beyond our abilities.”

Fluttershy started directing Luna into what she needed done to heal Applejack; she had internal clotting and bleeding. She personally dealt with the Applejack’s bruises and deep cuts that needed stitching. She would then start into Rainbow’s wings; they needed to be fixed before she woke up or else they would be agonizing at the angles they were currently bent and according to a diagnostics spell from Twilight her front two ankles needed to be braced. Sunset really needed a hospital as she was almost critical condition status, possibly needing some corrective surgery for possible spinal injuries. Pal for all the fighting and painful looking hits he took was perfectly fine, his special traits saw to that. Both Twilight and Tress were still awake and aware of their surroundings; they were sharing their pain after the mentally traumatizing events that took place in the castle. Tress’s regenerative abilities meant she would be the second to fully physically recover, Luna being a princess healed at a much faster rate and would be fine within a few hours. Twilight had a broken leg among other numerous minor injuries and would have to stay off her front left hoof for a while.

After going over all her patients’ current states of health twice, Fluttershy had Luna blast Tress with a lightning spell as powerful as she could make it to help speed up Tress’s recovery. It was nice to know that in a pinch she could grab a bunch of lightning bearing clouds and strike it over Tress to help her heal from deep and possibly fatal wounds.

“Please tell me you can wipe my memories of this Radiance.” As the lightning surged over her Tress moaned pitiably at what had just occurred here and stared up at the sunlight filtering into the castle. “We are taking a few days off, no ifs ands or buts about it. If the world is destroyed in our absence so be it, I’m declaring a holiday for the Trouble Takers.”

“I’m sorry that I can’t. I would find it morally wrong to remove them, even from my own head Tress. I’m really tempted to though; I highly doubt it’s possible even if I did know a spell to do such a thing. That said, I definitely agree that we need the holiday. Also we are really going to need therapy after that. ” Her body being laid up next to her friends, Twilight took full comfort in being able to snuggle against Tress. She truly wished she could remove the memories, she wouldn’t even believe anyone who said they could. She doubted she’d ever truly forget this one and it would haunt her for the rest of her life. “Luna we will never speak of fighting this thing ever again after we leave here.”

“We understand thy sentiments.” Nodding Luna was happy to aid in Tress’s quickened recovery by firing lightning at her. Even if it was odd to her that Tress ate lighting like a sponge, she didn’t think much of it as she had seen plenty of oddities in the world. Turning back to her sister, Luna hated to ask for aid and was only doing so because her new friends were hurting. “Sister, if thou wish to prove useful then bring aid to move our subjects to a place of safety. We owe them much.”

Celestia felt something drop into the pit of her stomach the way Luna said the word ‘our’ and ‘we’. It left no room to the imagination that Luna was actively not including her when talking about the injured ponies. Nodding to Luna she turned and went to summon some aid.

A few hours later, the summer sun celebration was in full swing. Many a pony welcomed Luna and completely overlooked Celestia on purpose. Never had Celestia felt such a liberating feeling as being completely ignored, even as she watched her truly beloved sister frolic amongst the ponies of Ponyville with a hint of sadness in her heart.

Turning away from the celebration Celestia made her way to the hospital to look over her poor wayward student, she would later talk with her sister in the evening in her own domain. Right now, her sister was happy and not destroying everything. That was all that truly mattered to Celestia at the moment.

Back at the Sparkle Ravel residence after being cleared from the hospital within the same time span that the celebration was still going strong.

“How are you feeling now mom? You kind of look like you were hit by a donkey cart; did you get the number of it?” Barb asked as she looked over her mom and Tress, while Smart fluttered around her head aimlessly.

“I want to dig my own grave at this point, I’m so tired.” Twilight said with a straight serious tone and look on her face.

“That bad huh, please tell me I’m not getting the memories of this in my next download.” It was rather apathetic sounding of Smart to whine about getting memories that would cause that kind of reaction. The look Twilight gave Smart wasn’t a very friendly one and the enchanted toy whimpered slightly.

“You can copy your memories onto her, but you can’t erase them?” Flipping her mane Tress sounded rather irate, she just wanted to lie down and relax.

“Well I can erase Smart’s memories; they are just a copy of my own after all. I however will live with what happened at the castle forever and it was far worse than what we went through with Pal here.” The cat just mewled apologetically at Twilight while rolling onto his back trying to be cuddly.

“I’m here to make sure you take it easy. All I need to do is get Angel Bunny and my things; I’m sleeping over here until Twilight’s leg is better.” At her announcement and appearance from the kitchen Fluttershy could tell she made Barb happy that she would be around. “I’ve also already scheduled psychiatry appointments with Dr. Leech.”

“Fluttershy, you're an angel.” The cute pegasus had an adorable blush going throughout her entire face at Tress’s compliment. “You do know you can take off the maid outfit now, right?”

“But... like it… feel pretty.” Fluttershy only became more withdrawn and squeaky at the looks she was receiving.

“Quick question, would getting honeyed cider by anytime tonight be within the cards if you’re putting us under house arrest?” Say whatever about Twilight, she felt like celebrating after a long exceedingly rough night and nothing would be more comforting then that drink. “I mean it wouldn’t be too bad for my health would it?”

“Well it wouldn’t hurt, just don’t over indulge and I’ll see to it you get some.” It was best that Fluttershy compromise now instead of having Twilight galloping about with her injuries, if she was a good pony her leg would be better in no time. Oh great, she just now realized she was starting to treat ponies like they were little animals. She shook her head and went back into the kitchen; they were going to sleep right after a good meal.

Pinkie would laugh at the irony of Fluttershy treating ponies like little animals, then again she wasn’t here at the moment or else the plot would be more skewed than usual.

Overall the whole family was happy that there were no pressing matters at the moment. A knock on the door and Twilight hoofed five bits to Tress; it didn’t take long before they were disturbed after sitting down to rest on the couch and not even a minute had passed.

Getting up from the couch Tress slowly trotted to the door and opened it, to find Zecora and Cheerilee there.

“Sorry for disturbing your rest, but I and Zecora wanted to know if you have any flash bombs left and if they helped you out.” At least Cheerilee seemed chipper in the face of sour moods.

“Oh they helped out immensely, saved a mare’s life and helped blind a monster a few times. Living in a dark castle will do that to you when you’re suddenly introduced to exceedingly bright light. Did you two really need to go overboard on the phosphorus though?” Giving them her lazy gaze Tress was met with sheepish grins.

“Their purpose was to go boom, to create a flash that can light a whole room.” Zecora didn’t like seeing her friends roughed up or tired like they were. Tress looked fine to the zebra, but then again she had higher regenerative abilities. Looking to the couch, Twilight didn’t look like she would move from the couch for any reason. “We were wondering if we can stay for a meal, maybe I can mix a potion to help Twilight heal?”

“Sure, but know that we’re currently on holiday. I hope the mayor makes that announcement quickly, after what we went through we really need a vacation.” Tress thought they could use some good friends right now. Rainbow was never going to stop pestering her about her incredible abilities now that she saw them, Tress would like some good company to brighten her mood to a point where she won’t maul the winged annoyance when the time came to weather that storm.

It was getting late into the evening when Luna was finally starting to become tired of getting so much attention, though she was inexorably happy she knew the fun had to end eventually. Her sister let her have her time in the sun and now it was apparent they had a few things to discuss.

“Luna…” Celestia started off filling the word with warmth. “Are you coming back to Canterlot with me? It has been many years and we have much to catch up on.”

“Neigh, thy current sitting in the gilded city would not be as welcoming as here. Our wish is to stay here and we will do so.” Luna was not going to let Celestia dictate her life for her and she wanted some space. “Thou will receive missives from me, there is much to learn and we will show our knowledge of what we will be learning. The lesson we need most help in is making friends, would thou deny us such a lesson upon our return?”

“Are you… of course you’re sure, I will write back Luna.” Celestia was about to head off for her flying chariot back to what her sister rightfully called a gilded city. She felt her heart breaking until two dark blue hooves wrapped around her neck and pulled her into a fierce hug where two wings that were not her own caressed her.

“We know thou have missed us. Time will heal this rift sister; do not think us forever parted.” Luna let go of Celestia and started her trek to see the mayor of Ponyville leaving her sister behind to the silence of the oncoming night.

Celestia looked at the ground, at least her sister promised to write. Watching her sister disappear down the street, a faint smile tugged at Celestia’s lips. She was proud of her sister, even if they had yet to truly apologize to one another.

Author's Notes:

Two chapters that's all that I have left in me for this story. The wind down chapters are not going to be anything special so it's going to be pretty boring.

Heck even this chapter is boring, but that's my personal perspective. You might enjoy them better as you're not the ones who wrote them.

100

It was the twilight hours when Twilight was woken up from a nightmare involving the creature they fought at the castle. She never knew she could see something so horrific before that thing; at least Luna dealt with it after they spent a lot of time wearing it down. It was the sound of knocking on the door downstairs that had roused the unicorn from her sleep.

Yawning Twilight thought silently about how she and Tress would have to get their days straight and in a few hours the day of the summer sun celebration would officially end. Floating carefully downstairs while wiping at her eyes with her good leg, she was gravity flying to avoid putting weight on her broken leg, Twilight wondered what pony would be bothering them at this hour. Even if it was a night that she and Tress were going to be awake for.

She stopped at the small ottoman with a sticky note on it from Fluttershy, knowledge that there was a gallon of honeyed cider in the refrigerator made her feel giddy. She couldn’t wait to drink some and would maybe make a few sandwiches; it took her a moment to realize that this was a dumb idea. Tress would make the sandwiches for the meal tonight or else they would end up eating inexplicably living sandwich monsters. In fact a nighttime picnic sounded nice.

Even as she mused on spending a good time with her friend, Twilight opened the door while hovering in front of it. On the other side was Luna hopping from hoof to hoof in excitement.

“Huzzah, we have finally found thy friends home. We may have annoyed a few of thy neighbors in the process, but we are assured all will be forgiven for we have apologized!” Looking behind Luna one would see a rather irate looking Octavia.

“Yes, she’s your problem now. I’ve honestly been worried sick about you, Tress and Fluttershy. It’s nice to know you’re alright, maybe now Vinyl will stop bugging me about how you were doing. Well goodnight Luna. I’m sorry to sleep during your night, but I sorely need my beauty rest and I also have a concert to practice for tomorrow.” Octavia turned about face and grumpily muttered to herself about loud princesses as she trudged off for her home.

“Thy friends are all mares of many talents and we enjoy their company, including The Scratch.” Luna exclaimed exuberantly. “She is a wondrous reveler of the night and is rather affectionate.”

“So what can I do for you this evening Luna?” Sure she may have been a princess, but Twilight could care less about her status and wouldn’t address her as one unless she asked to be.

“May we enter thy abode? Also if it is not too much trouble, may we partake of some refreshments?” Friendship was still new to Luna and she didn’t want to overstep her boundaries.

“Of course Luna, make yourself comfortable and try not to destroy anything.” Twilight floated off to get a drink for their guest; she was getting pretty good at floating around. There were side effects to prolonged use of the gravity spell; she would get the exercise she needed once the cast can be taken off in a day or two.

After a bit of relaxation and some tea with Luna, Twilight had to ask about something that she had Luna look into.

“So did you find out why Scootaloo’s wings were being clipped?” The lunar princess was doing Twilight a small favor. She had asked the princess to make contact with the incognito guards that all the changelings in Ponyville could point out to her.

“We find the information strange; the filly was well protected by Celestia. It is of interest that thy sister has good reason for the clipping of the wings of a filly. I even saw a filly that looked like her by description in the hospital visiting Rainbow Dash, her mane and coat were all the wrong colors though. The similarities were still quite striking.” Luna wasn’t exactly the sharpest mare in the world; then again she had recently got off the moon and was still experiencing the changes of a millennium wrought upon a world without her.

“And that reason would be?” A sleepy Tress asked as she slowly staggered into the room, took up Twilight’s tea and downed the entire cup. She honestly didn’t know why Twilight was glaring at her. “Hey I really want to know too you know!”

“Apparently there are a lot of bad ponies that seem to be looking for a healthy pegasus, one that lives in luxury and is very visibly guarded.” Luna learned this while visiting the hospital to make sure Rainbow and Applejack would be okay. Applejack was almost fully healed and it hadn’t even been more than twenty four hours since she got her injuries. Rainbow would need a few days for her wings and hooves to heal, hitting what amounts up to a brick wall at rain boom speeds had to hurt even if she did massive amounts of damage to the monstrosity. “Also these enemies seem to be looking throughout cloud cities and somehow have documents that my sister’s arcane keeper had a healthy foal. The arcane keeper has recently notified the guards that they need not worry as she has found ponies she trusts implicitly to look out for her daughter.”

“Well that certainly answers a lot. Why look for a foal that was incapable of flight, lived in a normal neighborhood on the ground and where there isn’t a heavily noticeable guard presence. Say, are you hungry Radiance?” Hearing a rumbling stomach, Tress smiled and went to make some sandwiches. “You must have really burned through a lot of magic to be that hungry; I’ll make a lot of sandwiches then.”

“Pack them up for a picnic Tress; I want to enjoy the stars tonight!” If Twilight had to wonder if picnics existed a thousand years ago, then all she had to do was look to Luna. “Make extra and pack some extra snacks, I’m sure Luna is going to be joining us.”

“We would not wish to impose.” Luna started out.

“You wouldn’t be, besides you really need to see that there are ponies that truly do enjoy being up late. We did spend all of last night talking you down from killing every pony, fighting a monster and then surviving to sleep away our numerous injuries.” No selling the princess felt weird to Twilight, she didn’t want Luna to backslide into her shy shell when she was doing so well. “You really need to join us, especially when things aren’t as hectic as things have usually been for us.”

It might have taken a while but Twilight was soon floating along, towards the grassy observation hill where a pony would set up a telescope on to look at the stars or the moon. She was magically carrying the basket of goodies Tress had packed away.

Tress was keeping pace with Twilight with a blanket and a few other things on her back; she was choosing the spot they’d settle down at.

Bringing up the rear was Luna who was studying the cooler with the cider locked away inside surrounded by ice. She followed the two mares and looked around at the ponies that were still up and saw romantic couples, ponies that were relaxing and then there were the ones that were gazing at the stars with wonder in their eyes. She had truly been way too hasty in the past, looking up to the moon it now shone brightly even in a waning period.

“There’s a good spot.” Tress had pointed out a nice flat point on the top of the hill where she started setting up.

Settling down to eat, they talked and spent the next thirty minutes talking about simple things. Luna was able to get into the conversation easily enough, but spent most of her time quietly watching how the two interacted with one another.

“Well Luna did you have any questions or a topic to discuss?” Twilight was not about to let the princess stay out of the conversation.

“We do have one question. What is the importance of this honeyed cider?” Seeing a look pass between the two other ponies Luna couldn’t help but wonder why they were smiling at each other like that.

“It is what marked the start of my friendship with Tress and it is a really good drink.” Taking a cup of the stuff in her hoof Twilight slowly drank the ambrosia that was within.

“Not just regular friends either Twilight, you’re the best friend a mare can ask for.” Tress started in on her own drink.

“Is proposing a toast beyond us at this point?” Luna just looked at the golden colored fluids and sipped the sweet tasting concoction. She figured things would be alright if drinks like this continued existing.

“Go ahead Luna, we’re not stopping you and we’d join you for toast with this buttering us up.” Twilight received a playful slap from Tress for the horrible pun.

“I present a toast to the night!” Luna held her cup aloft in her magic.

“I present a toast to family!” Twilight said equaling the enthusiasm that Luna had and raised her cup to meet the princess’s cup.

“I present a toast to… friends!” Tress hesitated as she looked at Twilight and put her cup against theirs.

They all slowly downed their drinks savoring the taste as it flowed over their lips, passing their tongues and going down their throats.

Sharing cider at night with her best friend was something Twilight loved; she never thought she would be friends with a villain. Then again the villain wasn’t really that evil, just a bit lost in the dark and Twilight was the shining light that found her. The night was warm, beautiful and calm, she wonders what the future held for her and all the friends she had.

“There is something else we wish to discuss, we are taking residence in Ponyville and would like to ascertain some help from good friends.” It was too strong a hint and Luna knew it was.

“Of course we’ll help you acclimatize to the future Luna. So princess, welcome to the world of tomorrow!” Twilight flamboyant threw her hooves out towards Ponyville, Tress and Luna started giggling.

“Oh for the love of, please tell me you’re not going to become another Trixie. The town has one and that’s more than enough for the entire planet thank you. Couldn’t you become a second Bonbon, she makes great fudge.” After a moment to think it over and lay down, Tress snickered. “Never mind, I prefer you as the magically adorable dork you are.”

Twilight wondered what life would have been like if she never met Tress, would their paths have ever crossed at some point. Would she have saved Luna in the same way? It seems like the path she was on was painful after having to deal with what Luna termed the fabled monster Cthoodle.

Sure Twilight may get hurt, but she was always willing to stand back up and face every day life with a smile like any of her friends did. Collectively they all grinned and would bear it as long as they had ponies to share the pain with. Friendship was quite powerful; it helped solved all kinds of problems. Having friends that each had their own talents that they could use in unique ways to solve any situation.

Closing her eyes and nestling between the two larger ponies Twilight started to go down a mental list of friends she had met and all that they could do. All their hidden talents beyond their cutie marks were also something to factor in; the possibilities were limitless if they all worked together for a better world. She was comfy and snug between the princess and her friend.

“Twilight we would like to ask thee, why do thou covet our manes?” Luna noted it took a moment for the smallest amongst them to realize she was almost trying to cocoon herself in their manes.

Twilight blushed slightly; Luna might take offense to having her mane snuggled, Tress didn’t look bothered by it at all. At the moment Twilight started comparing the shades of their manes as she snuggled them.

“Don’t worry about it princess, that’s just Twilight’s way of saying she likes your hair. Eventually she’s going to ask if she can brush and comb it, she does that with every mare she meets and a few stallions.” In fact it was almost nonexistent for Tress to see Twilight work a stallion at all and that left her feeling oddly pleased by the prospect.

“Sorry, it’s just you’re mane is really sparkly. It also smells like Tress’s shampoo?” Twilight squirmed a bit in letting go of Luna’s mane, even when she managed to do that she had yet to cease holding onto Tress’s like it was a blanket.

“We thank thee for thy compliment. We have recently learned of the bathing implement known as a tub. The kind maiden Fluttershy showed us its purpose.” After a moment of deliberation Luna decided to ask about Fluttershy. “Why does she always stare at our flank when she thinks we are not aware of her eyesight?”

“Um… yeah… maybe you should field this one Twilight. You’re about to get into dating right?” Tress really didn’t want to explain that Fluttershy found Luna attractive; she didn’t know what the stigma about same sex coupling was like a thousand years prior in this world or what Luna thought of it.

“Well I don’t know who I would date, but this would be a good lesson about how things have changed!” Twilight finally released Tress’s hair and clapped her hooves together. “Okay how best to go about this... would you be upset to know Fluttershy is only attracted to mares as ideal mating partners and that she finds you enticing?”

"Actually, it brings to mind Clover the Clever and Pansy.” Luna mused out loud while looking thoughtful. “All those private meetings they shared were trysts then… so it is more okay nowadays to love who you wish openly?”

“Not entirely, there are still a lot ponies that would look down on Fluttershy for it such as nobles for one. Here in Ponyville that’s not a problem.” Twilight watched as Luna smiled vibrantly and her wings apparently flared at the thought of Fluttershy. Was Luna getting a wing…? It was like asking Rainbow Dash about the Wonder Bolts all over again.

Yep things were going to be just fine even if having a princess resident in town is going to cause all forms of chaos.

Author's Notes:

The epilogue is going to be posted on a rather specific day. It's basically a summary of the story and Twilight's thoughts on her early life. Consider this story finished.

I could write a sequel, I have a few ideas already. A Power Pony arrives, Bulk Biceps finds the love of his life and Cadence finally getting out of jail. The one thing I’m definitely going to do if I write a sequel is that I will have Twilight defeat Discord in such a way that it will leave both Celestia and Luna so incredibly flabbergasted as to how she did it when they needed the elements of harmony to deal with him.

101

It all started with a bright light, slowly a horned foal floated down to a grassy plain being overlooked by two shadows. One licked her head making her giggle. The foal stood up and started walking across the grasslands to explore the world.

After a while the foal started to age, a cookie ran at the foal with a spear made out of a pretzel stick. The foal bit into the pretzel stick and before the oatmeal cookie could run it was grabbed by the foal. Half its head disappeared into the gaping maw.

Yawning the foal stood up again and started walking down the path, it was aging more as it went only stopping to playfully gallop with a third shadow that watched over it. After a bit of fun the foal took a nap for a minute.

Waking up the foal was placed before others like it and they weren’t very nice foals, slowly the foal grew distant from them and closer to the three shadows that were coming more and more into focus.

The foal slowly became a young well loved, but still relatively friendless, filly. One day her parents dragged her to the summer sun celebration in Canterlot to get her out of the house to see the world that was passing her by. The sun shined brightly obscuring the view of the filly.

The filly was slightly older now and in a library, she picked up books on her own. Her parents silently watching over her as she picked out books herself, soon they left her to her own devices.

As the filly started talking to the librarian a flash appeared on her flank revealing a large star with a smattering of smaller stars. She walked out of the building stepping back onto the grassy road, completely enamored with what was written in the book.

The filly stopped when she felt her leg hit something, the filly had come upon an egg. She looked at it questioningly; an exploding rainbow obscured view of the filly.

The filly was once again walking down the grassy road again slowly aging like always; she now had a companion crawling behind her whom of which she slowed down for.

After a while of traveling the companion started crying and the filly stopped, she reach into her little saddlebags and pulled out a doll and set it upon the ground.

The doll slowly got up and started walking down the road on its own, slowly transforming into a wingless pixie as it went. It made sure to entertain the companion so that the road was more fun for her.

They all continued down the road together. After a while the companion got up on her two hind legs to start walking, the pixie sprouted wings and started flying around her. The little filly had become a young mare.

Along the grassy road the young mare stopped to smell some flowers, while her companion and the pixie ran ahead. She caught up with the two after passing a small market stall where a blonde pony sat reading a comic book and eating a muffin.

The companion was reading something and the young mare quickly threw her companion aside as a vortex appeared from the comic book trying to suck her in. The young mare disappeared from the grassy road, leaving behind two sad travelers.

The young mare found herself in a forest where she was met with the illusions of what was expected of her to get back to the grassy road. Shaking her head the young mare considered her options.

Instead of attacking the monster like the other illusions had she walked up to it and gave it a hug. The monster had looked exceedingly lonely and when it started to hug back with equal vigor a bright light engulfed the two.

The young mare slowly woke up and the monster had turned into a beautiful friend, it wasn’t an illusion after all and she had only gotten lost in the dark forest for a while. A friend was something the young mare had never had before, she was wary of to continue on.

The friend rammed the young mare from behind and started to push her down the road. The four were now moving together down the now brighter path made of dirt with flowers off to the side of the road. As they walked the path three of them grew older still.

Upon the path they saw a frail young winged mare lying on the ground getting covered in snow. The friend started digging at the snow to get it off the frail mare, the young mare joined her and they freed the frail mare from the cold biting emptiness that was covering her.

The frail mare was about to walk away after thanking them for the rescue only for her to be pulled into a warm hug by the young mare and the friend. The frail one found herself being dragged down the road by the young mare and her friend, while the pixie and companion giggled.

Eventually the frail mare found the strength to start walking on her own down the road. She followed the others and stopped at a place with a red cross, she wanted to repay their kindness for bringing the warmth back into her life and thus became the healer.

The frail mare stopped being so frail and was now constantly carrying a medical kit on her back, the bumps and bruises those she travelled with disappeared much faster now.

At some point the friend wandered off the road and met a glamorous mare, the group paid little attention to the wanderings of the friend.

The young mare stopped at a building and started to work for money, she wanted to buy a home for those who travelled with her.

Eventually the friend came back from out of nowhere with lots of money too and she shared it with them.

They all continued moving down the same road again; they saw a pink pony that gasped and ran off confusing them. In the distance, in a flowered meadow, she could be seen with a blue and purple speck bouncing up and down excitedly.

They tried to move onward only to be stopped by the mayor of a town. A few words were shared and the mayor fell into step with the group, passing by a blonde mare eating a muffin sitting at a blue box.

Off the side of the path the mayor spotted a striped mare sitting apart from a group of indifferent ponies. The mayor turned to the ever aging young mare and asked her to do something.

It was a bit late for that as the companion had already approached the zebra, she started talking and the sad lonely zebra perked up. The wise zebra walked over to the rest of the group and happily started trotting with the rest of them.

A five headed hydra popped up and chased the young mare and her friend off from the rest of the group. The group shrugged and continued up to the point that they met the two resting on the road after being chased all over the place. They were joined by two more ponies with their cat in tow that had been sitting with the tired young mare and her friend.

A stallion riding a flying couch floated by waving to the group and they all waved back. At the same time the companion could be seen snuggling against the fashion mare who owned the cat. The little sister of that fashion mare came over to play with the companion.

They all stopped on the path and looked around confusedly for the healer, they heard said pony walking up to them from another path with a white rabbit looking relatively injured. After meeting up with her friends the once frail mare smiled and her injuries vanished.

The sun slowly started to sink in the sky and it was the onset of the evening. Soon the young mare started galloping and all her friends followed her in picking up the pace. More ponies appeared to gallop along with them in trying and chase the setting sun; they eventually realized how futile it was to the point that they started trotting once more.

A grandmother, a big brother, a big sister and their little pony all smelling of apples joined the herd providing their endurance and strength while smiling brightly as they all went. As their honorary family had just grown in size; they had reasons to smile despite the hardships they had faced and they brought fresh juicy apples with them to share with every pony.

The friend started to hoard all the lightning apples for herself, she liked how they tasted.

The zebra stopped to scoop up a tiny pig like thing into a jar with holes in the lid. She smiled at the little thing as it cowered in fear; she stuffed it away in her saddlebags.

A rainbow colored pony with wings flew into the group and started to pester the friend and the young mare, to the point that their eyes started twitching. Their anger was stopped when the colorful mare flew into a tree, the two mares she was pestering started laughing before they picked her up. They couldn’t stay mad at the rainbow.

Eventually they crossed paths with a teacher, a musician, a reveler, a harpist and a candy maker hoofing out free sweets to every pony she met. They took notice of and met with the young mare and her friend, they had a few issues amongst themselves which were smoothed out in the presence of the young mare.

It was getting to the point that the young mare had an army of ponies following her; the friend stopped to toss some garbage into a trash can and it exploded violently after the entire herd safely passed it. They all decided to stop at a restaurant sitting at the side of the now gravel paved road.

A giant fruitcake dragon swooped in destroying the restaurant and the herd escaped the destruction, most of them decided to continue on. The young mare and rainbow gave chase off the path since the dragon stole the friend. The healer stayed behind to take care of those injured by the destruction of the restaurant.

As the rest of the group walked along the road they met up with the friend, rainbow and the young mare once more. Only now they had a strange cat with them. They were about to continue walking when the healer came galloping up behind the herd only to trip into them causing all the ponies to stumble and fall into a pile of flailing limbs.

Off from the side the pink pony showed up with the muffin mare and the time traveler stallion. The happy pink one jumped into the pile. The blue, purple clothing wearing magician the pink pony was talking to before walked up to the pile, sighing she leapt into it after the pinky pony. Once the herd got back on its hooves, an orange filly came out of nowhere and was now following the rainbow around in the herd.

The herd continued to walk down the road and coming up next to it was a river where a friendly river serpent popped up to wave at the passing ponies. The zebra stopped to talk with the river serpent as the rest of the herd moved on.

The young mare squeaked when the healer and the elder apple sister ran in front of her and then they were squirrels, a drunken mare stumbled randomly into the herd and then out of it while being followed by her family. That confused the herd so badly; it took a few moments for the squirrels to be returned to normal.

A small black bug like creature poked its head from behind a bush watching them pass by; it started trailing behind the herd only to screech when a giant bear sneezed on it causing it to get stuck in some mucus. The healer heard its cry of dismay and turned around to rescue the whiny changeling, it too became one with the herd.

A lot of minotaurs ran past the herd as it traveled, they were trying to escape from a giant bird whose rider was the young mare’s mother. The young mare’s brother soon ran past them being chased by a giant banana monster; the entire herd slowed to watch him pass in astonishment before turning back towards the brick road ahead of them.

They stopped when the friend and the now almost adult mare ran towards a wedding where the glamorous mare and a true noble were standing together. The friend and rainbow stopped a bad pony from hurting the two being wedded. The two married ponies hugged their friends and heroes then went down a separate path and were given a great send off by the herd.

A short while afterwards the almost adult mare’s horn lit up and she flew into the air, she became a living shooting star. She was still being followed by the entire herd as the world started getting darker slowly turning to night; they all would walk the moonlit path without fear following the light of the living star.

A bulky stallion joined the group flexing his muscles while smiling, only to scream in a girly manner while being run off by cupcakes which in turn were chased by the pink pony and the strange cat.

The almost adult mare flew happily over to a brave intrepid explorer, a gold hearted thief and a foreign princess playing in a sandbox. They all waved to the herd, two of them left the sandbox heading for home while the explorer followed the herd. The explorer only stayed parallel with them for a little while, watching fondly as the orange filly played with the rainbow. Turning away the explorer flew off on her own path with tears in her eyes as she led some dangerous shadows away from the herd.

The herd finally saw a town coming up in the distance, the changeling quickly turned into a cocoon before they could reach it much to the herd’s sadness. The healer lifted and carried the cocoon as they continued onward.

After a point they had noticed the moon stopped moving, it was now hanging directly above them. All the ponies jumped when a flash of darkness happened, an angry evil looking mare appeared before them.

Following the adult mares lead, the herd all just ran forward to embrace the moon wielder. After a moment they released the moon pony and she looked much less menacing now. The friend decided to get into a fight with the moon pony; it resulted in a dust cloud with the rest of the herd watching on in rapt interest, the fighting became much more playful as it went on.

Eventually the mare of the moon joined the herd; she listened to the worried words of the adult mare wishing to help those who disappeared from the herd that went after a wayward student of the sun pony. Only after a pitched battle with an eldritch abomination to save the angry student did the sun pony finally appear filled with sadness at seeing the moon pony once again.

Only after the moon pony talked to the sun pony and hugged her did the sadness leave, the sun pony went down a different path with some of her burden eased.

The herd disbanded and entered the surrounding empty homes of the town as soon as they arrived. They were all tired and weary from traveling the road with the adult mare.

The fully adult mare, her friend and the moon pony decided to sit on a nearby hill overlooking the town. They looked back on bright sunny road they had all walked down leading into the night and talked about their experiences. It seemed like they could go no further then the town where the herd decided to settle down.

A normal rectangular wooden door with a star and brush symbol appeared in front of the adult mare. Tilting her head while looking at it quizzically, the world seemed to freeze. There was nothing beyond the town that the herd was now resting in, but the door was something entirely new and just when the mare had thought she had seen everything on the road.

The adult mare tried to push it open only to fail, her friend came up to her and hugged her affectionately. The mare turned to her friend sadly pointing at the door wishing to explore it. They both tried to push it open together and barely managed a glimpse of what was on the other side before it slammed shut in their faces. The friend just shook her head as it seemed the door just wasn’t meant to be opened yet.

“Give it time, there’s no need to rush as the path will open when you’re ready to continue. Rest now and start again anew. We will learn much from watching thee, Twilight Sparkle.” Luna smiled as the adult mare yawned and draped herself across her friend. The friend snuggled into the adult mare as she too fell asleep. Walking away from the adorable dream of life, Luna went to write a letter to her sister. “Whether it is day or night, thy future looks bright for all who will come to know thee as a friend most dear. A true star will share its brilliance with the whole world.”

_

Dear sister,

We know you have only just left yesterday, but we have learned much in such a short time. We wish your student Ms. Shimmer good health and quick recovery. You may not have apologized yet for ignoring our feelings, but we apologize for what our actions have cost thee and the world. We don’t know the true scope of the damage that we have done and can never fully make up for it and those we have failed. We will try to make up for it by aiding those in the present and the friends we have recently made.

The elements of harmony were not the only power that could have returned us to sanity. Yes we know of thy plan to use them against us again, it seems our ponies were well informed of our return. The elements are now where we thought they truly belong to begin with and have nothing to worry about as they can no longer fall into dangerous hooves. For one who used to plan so elegantly, we currently find thee lacking in foresight.

We are ageless yet there are many lessons that we can still learn or will have to relearn, to think we can never learn something new is a falsity. It is a fact that we are still ponies no matter what the status or power we hold and are easily capable of hurting those we wish to protect.

Worry not for our safety as we have as many protectors as those we would wish to protect in this town, please do not make a big fuss of our return and have guards watch us in secret. If thou must make a fuss, then at least keep the nobles away from our countenance. We have no love of having to deal with such behavior as what we have heard thus far from our friends here in Ponyville.

There is one question in particular we wish to know an answer to, how does one properly court a mare in this day and age? In the past we kept quiet about our preferences, but now a thousand years later we have learned that loving both mare and stallion equally isn’t as looked down upon as it was then.

It is truly good to be back amongst our subjects and to see you again. We hope that you will write back to us soon so that we may reconnect a bond once broken at the end of the time of Discord.

From the princess of the night, your sister returned, Luna.
_

Thend, THEND I SAY!

Author's Notes:

The younger years of Twilight.

Oh and today is a special day for me, I'm a year older and none the wiser when it comes to writing.

This chapter may stink or it will not be worth reading in its entirety, but I don't rightfully care.

Now to go and enjoy the rest of the month before I even consider starting a sequel or another story.

I'm just toying with idea's for a title now 'Twilight's Mane Journey', 'Twilight's Mane Squeeze', 'Twilight's Mane Friend/Love' and 'Mane-iac's Twilight Passion'.

Not titles for a sequel but a different stories entirely that I'm considering before that are 'Yonder Wandered Fluttershy', 'Loyalties Lament', 'Rocket Rainbow Adventures' and 'Mischief Bakers'.

I've always got an idea and this might have been my most successful story, kind of sad really to say that considering it shows how bad a writer I am.

Thanks for reading and giving me comments. Also thanks to those who don't give voice to how bad they think this story actually is.

I'm done here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJQyGbv0oZ8