Multi-mental in Manehatten

Chapters

The Challenge
The Jewel
The Spice
The Element
The Delve
Epilogue: Letters and Notes
The Lure

The Challenge

“Admit it, you enjoyed that. I can sense the smile on your face. How can you resist the joy of unbounded Chaos?”

“A little Chaos goes a long way. And this is pushing the boundary.”

Twilight’s mind woke up before her body, giving her a few seconds to unscramble her thoughts before fresh sensations got in the way. I would be willing to bet real money that things are not going to be like they were before I blacked out, she thought. As feeling started to return to her body and her senses kicked back in, she heard Trixie’s worried voice, accompanied by the feeling of a gentle hoof pressing into her shoulder.

“Twilight? Or, Rainbow Dash? Somepony, wake up!”

Why would she be confusing me for Dash? Twilight thought as she stirred and opened her eyes. She winced as light flooded into her eyes, but after a few blinks she was able to make out the form of the pale blue unicorn magician. “Trixie,” she said, “What happened?”

“You should probably see for yourself Twilight,” Trixie answered, “I’d ask you not to scream, but maybe that’ll wake the others up. Here.” Her horn lit up as she used her telekinesis to help Twilight stand up, and then leaned up next to her as she guided the disoriented pony toward a mirror. Twilight took one second to wonder about the mirror’s presence before registering what it was reflecting. Her mouth went dry and her irises shrank in disbelief and shock.

Then the screaming began, but it wasn’t coming from Twilight’s mouth. Rather, it seemed to come from a point just behind and to the left of her head, and sounded faint, with a slight echo, despite being so loud. ‘Aaaaaaah! What’s going on? I can’t move!’

Twilight was pretty sure she recognized the voice. Rainbow Dash?

‘Ahhhhh!’

“Rainbow,” Twilight said aloud, trying to get through.

‘I’m possessed! Get out of my body you… you…’

“Rainbow Dash, BE QUIET!” Twilight yelled.

‘Wait… Twilight?’

“Yes Rainbow,” Twilight muttered, rubbing her forehead and trying to ignore the lack of horn she discovered there, “Can you please stay calm for a few moments so I can think?” She took a look around and finally realized that she was in a backstage dressing room. Besides Trixie, who was standing nearby with a worried look on her face, there were two other mares stirring out of sleep on the floor, whose appearances made Twilight do a double-take. One was an orange unicorn with a blonde mane styled long with an elegant curl and trio of red apples as a cutie mark. The other was a butter-yellow earth pony with a wildly curly pink mane and three pink butterflies for a cutie mark. Twilight herself was now a lavender pegasus with a short, somewhat ragged dark blue mane with a pink streak. “Oh dear,” she said, realizing what had happened to her and her friends.

“Oh, mah head,” the orange unicorn groaned in a country accent. She put a hoof to her forehead as she started to rise, and then froze when the hoof encountered her horn. “What in tarnation?” She looked around, and her jaw dropped when she saw Twilight. “What in- Who’s there?” She jumped up and spun around to her left. “Rarity?” She spun left again, looking confused beyond measure. “I’m not imagining this, am I?” she asked, eyeing Twilight and Trixie.

“No Applejack,” Twilight said, “I’m afraid this is quite real.” She walked over to the third pony to try and shake her awake. It turned out, however, that she was already awake, but remained on the floor with her hooves covering her ears as she quivered in fear.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight guessed. The yellow pony squeaked something. “Fluttershy, are you ok?”

“……”

“Please speak up,” Twilight urged gently, “What’s wrong?”

“Pinkie Pie’s in my head,” the quivering pony mumbled, and then looked up at Twilight, eyes almost pure white in fear and worry.

“It’ll be ok,” the lavender pony assured, nuzzling Fluttershy, “At least we’re all accounted for. I’ve got Rainbow Dash, and AJ and Rarity are together.”

“Multiple Mental Occupancy?” Trixie asked.

“Looks like,” Twilight said with a slight nod.

‘You mean, like what happened to you and Trixie that one time?' Rainbow Dash asked, ‘Couldn’t you two, like, share control?’

Yes, Twilight said with a blink. When the expected sensation of being shoved aside didn’t come and Twilight found herself still in control, she frowned slightly. Rainbow, she thought, you’re trying to take control, aren’t you?

‘Yeah,’ Rainbow Dash said, as if it were obvious. Twilight blinked again, and again, and finally a third time without sliding out of the control position. ‘Well?’ Dash asked impatiently.

Twilight sighed and rubbed her head. “Applejack,” she said, “Rarity’s in the back of your mind, right?”

“I’m hearin’ her voice,” the orange pony replied, “So I guess so. She’s yelling for me ta get out.”

“Blink your eyes,” Twilight instructed. AJ gave her an odd look before complying. “who am I talking to?” Twilight asked when her eyes opened again.

“Still me,” Applejack said.

“Um…” Fluttershy said, “I… I can’t seem to switch with Pinkie.”

“So,” Twilight concluded, “This isn’t the type of MMO Trixie and I experienced.” She looked at herself and added, “Although, since we’re each apparently a fusion between two ponies now, that should have been obvious. Any idea how this happened Trixie?”

The showmare shook her head. “I think I blacked out when you all did, just after the lights went out. When I came too, the… three of you were lying unconscious on the stage and Mr. Arch and some of the stage crew were trying to make sense of everything. We brought you in here at my insistence. I suspected you’d been subjected to something like MMO, so I’ll gladly offer my experience to help you all adjust.”

AJ’s eyes slid to the right for several seconds, and then she spoke, “Rarity says she appreciates the thought, but she’d prefer gettin’ this un-done. I second that by the way.” Fluttershy nodded her agreement.

‘Same here,’ Rainbow Dash said to Twilight.

“The first thing we need to figure out,” Twilight said, “Is who or what did this to us and how.”

A wicked laugh rolled through the room, coming from nowhere in particular. “Well, as much as I would love to see you stumble about trying to solve that mystery,” a masculine voice said, “I’ve got something else in mind for you.”

“That voice,” Twilight said, sharing horrified glances with her friends, “It can’t be!”

The voice laughed again and Trixie’s mirror shone as the image of a beige, goat-like head with yellow eyes with mismatched red pupils, a deer antler, a goat horn, and a large fang dangling from its mouth appeared in the glass. “Surprise!” Discord crowed with a huge grin.

“H-how?” Twilight sputtered, unwilling to believe her eyes, “We sealed you in stone! How did you get out again?”

“Oh, stop your fretting Twilight Sparkle,” Discord said with sigh, all traces of amusement draining from his face, “My prison is still intact, for the most part. I’m only able to speak to you now thanks to… a little assistance in stretching my power out to Manehatten.”

“What pony in their right mind would help you?” Applejack demanded.

“That would be telling,” Discord said with a small smile, “And I think you have more important things to worry about at the moment. After all, how can you use the six Elements of Harmony is there are only three bodies between you?” He laughed at everypony’s reactions and his head spun up-side down before speaking again. “I am so very much weaker than I was,” he said, “But I can give you the means to un-do this little spell. All you need to do is fetch a few things.”

“No deal Discord,” Twilight said emphatically, feeling her wings snap out under their own power, “We’re not going to play your games. Come on girls, we’re going to Canterlot. I’m certain somepony there can fix this.” She turned away from the mirror and started heading toward the door. As she reached for the handle, it vanished without a trace, effectively sealing the ponies inside the dressing room.

The image of Discord’s head met the lavender pony’s glare coolly as she spun around to confront him again. “Two choices,” he said, “Play the game or stay here forever. I do have enough power to keep you from leaving.”

“Heh, we’ll see,” AJ said. She walked up to the door, turned her back to it, and bucked at it with all her might. As her legs extended, the door bent away so that the orange unicorn hit nothing but air and lost her balance, falling flat on her stomach. She lay there mumbling curses under her breath for a few seconds before snapping, “Oh, like you had a better idea Rarity? Oh, heh heh, right…” She stood up, looked at Trixie, and asked, “any chance of you bein’ able to magic us up a way out of here?”

“I can try,” Trixie said. Her horn lit up and she blinked out of sight, only to reappear on the other side of the room. “I was aiming for the hallway!” she exclaimed, looking around. Discord chuckled.

“Please,” the draconequus said, “Do continue; this is so entertaining.”

“Pinkie Pie wants to play,” Fluttershy said, “and… to be honest, I think I’d rather take my chances with playing along too. Uh, if that’s ok with everyone that is.”

Twilight and AJ exchanged a look while Rainbow Dash said, ‘I want out of this, and I don’t care how we do it.’

“Fine,” Twilight said, looking at the mirror, “what’s the game Discord? And don’t hide anything.”

“Now where’s the fun in telling you everything up front?” Discord asked with a comical frown, “You had to work to stop my lovely chaos, you’ll have to work for this too. Here’s the game:

A simple errand is all I ask. A trio of items you must fetch, if you’re up to the task. The spice of life that rolls and twists, but only in its purest form. A living jewel, no, make it ten, in irritation born. Finally, excitement distilled, the element that can make rain go ‘BOOM.’

The rules are simple: each paired pony must retrieve one of the items. You cannot leave the city, and no money can exchange hooves in the process of obtaining the items. Bring them back here once you’ve found them, and I’ll reverse the spell.” The face started to fade away, but then returned briefly. “One last hint,” he said, “In each pair, one pony should be able to identify an item while the other has the means to acquire it. Good luuuck! Hahaha!” The face vanished in a flash of light and the dressing room door flew open, revealing a very concerned Proscenium Arch.

“Oh thank goodness,” the mahogany stallion said, breathing a sigh of relief, “Is everypony ok in here?”

“For a certain value of ‘OK,’” Twilight said dully.

“It’s almost curtain time Trixie,” Arch said, “the house is only a quarter full tonight. If you’d rather not go on…”

“Trixie will perform,” the showmare said, waving a dismissive hoof at Arch, “I need something familiar and normal to do after what I’ve just experienced. There will be only a slight delay at best.” Arch nodded and left for the stage. “Girls,” Trixie said, turning back to the three melded mares, “If you don’t have a place to spend the night, I can find space for you in the apartment I’m renting.”

“I appreciate that Trixie,” Twilight said, moving to leave, “but we should get busy figuring out Discord’s riddle so we can get this ‘errand’ over with.” She found her way out of the room barred by Trixie’s leg.

“It’s far too late to be wandering around,” Trixie said, “especially with bodies you aren’t familiar with. Twilight, are you even aware that your wings are still out?” The pegasus glanced at her back and blushed slightly to see that Trixie was right.

‘Just relax,’ Rainbow Dash advised as Twilight tried to pull the wings in, ‘you’re thinking about it too much.’

Why didn’t you say anything earlier? Twilight asked accusingly. Dash didn’t respond, but Twilight picked up some embarrassed feelings.

“And,” Trixie continued her line of thought in the meantime, “I’m sure Rari-jack there can’t use magic at the moment.”

“Rari-jack?” Twilight and AJ both asked incredulously.

“That is Rarity and Applejack, right?” Trixie asked, pointing to the orange unicorn.

“Can we please not do the nick-name thing?” Twilight asked.

“Hmm,” Trixie said, rubbing her chin, “Well, for you I may have to forego the nickname. Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. Those just don’t go together well.”

“Rainlight.” Everypony turned to look at Fluttershy, who shrank back with a slight blush. “T-that was Pinkie’s idea,” she said, “She, uh, also suggests Twidash. And Rainbow Sparkle.”

‘Oh bleh,’ Rainbow Dash protested, ‘Those are horrible!’

“I’ll answer to Twilight, Rainbow, or Dash,” Twilight declared, finally getting her wings closed, “Nothing else.”

Trixie sighed and then looked at the yellow earth pony. “I’m thinking Flutterpie for you,” she said.

“Oh… ok, if you want,” Fluttershy replied.

“As I was saying,” Trixie said, “I insist on giving you a place to sleep tonight if you don’t have someplace already.”

“That’s mighty nice of you Trixie,” Applejack said, “We were gonna stay with mah relatives, but I don’t think I want ta drop in on ‘em so late, ‘specially with this thing on my head.” She poked her horn a few times.

“Fine,” Twilight said, giving in, “We’ll get started tomorrow. In the meantime, let’s try to figure out what exactly we’re supposed to be looking for.”

“Say,” Applejack said, looking around, “anypony see mah hat anywhere?”

“Well,” Trixie announced as she opened the door to her apartment, “here we are.” The apartment was larger than Twilight would’ve expected, looking to have been built for two or three ponies to live in. The lavender unicorn wasn’t in much of a mood to take note of her surroundings though, as she was presently frustrated over untangling Discord’s vague riddle. Applejack was also looking sour, since she had failed to locate her precious hat anywhere in Trixie’s dressing room or the theater. Fluttershy simply walked into the apartment and found a corner to sit down in, her eyes barely focused as she tried to deal with wherever Pinkie Pie’s thoughts were currently wandering. Trixie looked at each mare and shook her head as she closed the door. “Lighten up, all of you,” she said, “This can’t be the worst situation you’ve been in.”

‘Speak for yourself,’ Rainbow muttered, ‘I mean, does she really know what it’s like not to be able to control my own body?’

She and I got stuck in Multiple Mental occupancy before, remember? Twilight asked.

‘That was different,’ Rainbow insisted, ‘you two could switch out.’

“This ranks pretty darn high,” Applejack said to Trixie while Twilight and Dash were talking, “I’d say it’s either the worst or tied for when Discord brainwashed us.” Her eyes slid to the side for a second and then she added, “Rarity says it’s definitely the worst for her, what with not bein’ able ta do anything except watch and…” she grit her teeth before finishing, “suggesting that I do certain things.”

“Oh, right,” Trixie said, “I… as similar as my experience with MMO was, I can only imagine not having the ability to share control of the body.”

‘Told ya,’ Dash said smugly.

Twilight rolled her eyes and then looked toward the pale yellow pony in the corner. “How are you and Pinkie holding up Fluttershy?” she asked.

“Huh?” Fluttershy said, snapping out of her funk and looking around.

“You doing ok suger cube?” Applejack asked, looking at Fluttershy with concern.

“Oh, yes,” Fluttershy said quietly, “I… I mean we’re fine. Don’t worry about us.”

“Pinkie’s not being too crazy, is she?” Twilight asked, “She’s a big enough hoof-ful normally.”

“Oh, no!” Fluttershy said, “She’s trying so very hard not to be a bother. It’s just…” her voice failed and her gaze dropped to the floor. Twilight went over and lay down next to her, trying to stretch out a wing to wrap around her back.

“What’s wrong?” she asked in a soothing tone. Fluttershy mumbled something that sounded like “Pinkie Pie Swear” and squeezed her eyes shut.

“Fluttershy,” Twilight said, “Pinkie, we’re friends right? Friends shouldn’t keep secrets if they’re hurting. Remember your fashion model career Fluttershy, and how much trouble that caused for everyone involved?” Most of all me, she finished mentally, ignoring Dash’s snickering.

Fluttershy was silent for a long time, but finally she looked up and met Twilight’s eyes. “You might not understand,” she said, “but, as hard as she tries, as much as she wants to for my sake, she just can’t stop. She’s… Oh, I can’t say. Sorry Twilight.” The lavender pegasus regarded for a few seconds before sighing and standing back up.

“Let me know if you want to talk about it later, either of you,” she said as she clumsily returned her wing to her side and looked at Trixie. “So,” she asked, “Where are we all going to sleep?”

“Let’s see,” the showmare said, looking around, “I don’t normally have guests, but somepony can take the sofa… I can probably find enough blankets and cushions to make up a spot on the floor somewhere, and then somepony can have my bed.”

‘What, with her?'” Dash asked suspiciously.

“What about you?” Twilight asked more diplomatically.

“Trixie will sleep in her wagon,” the showmare declared in a tone of finality, “I much prefer sleeping there anyway, but a successful performer like the Great and Powerful Trixie must not be seen to live below her means in this city.” Her voice had taken on an increasingly sarcastic note as she spoke. She turned toward the door and opened it. “I shall return with the extra blankets momentarily,” she said as she left the apartment, shutting the door behind her. Twilight and Applejack exchanged a glance.

“Well,” Twilight said after a moment, “Any volunteers for the floor?”

The Jewel

“Details and the big picture, propriety and pragmatism, the esoteric and the physical.”

“You couldn’t ask for a more mismatched team, could you? How long do you think it will take before they immobilize themselves with bickering?”

‘Applejack,’ Rarity said, ‘Might I suggest that the two of us pursue the second item on Discord’s list?’

Applejack mulled the suggestion over as she chewed her breakfast. Trixie had, with a little help from Flutterpie, who seemed to be doing better with something to occupy their attention, prepared freshly-baked bran muffins for everypony. The recently-created unicorn swallowed her food and said, “Remind me again which one that was.”

“Which one was what?” Twilight asked.

“I was talkin’ ta Rarity,” AJ told the lavender pegasus, “but, the second item Discord wants. Rarity thinks the two of us should go fer that one.”

“You don’t have to speak to communicate with Rarity,” Twilight said in a tone of reminder, “In body-sharing cases, the two minds can read each other’s thoughts. Now, the second item…” She rubbed her chin as she thought, “I should have had somepony write the riddle down.”

“Excuse me,” Fluttershy said quietly, “But, Pinkie says she remembers it. I could repeat it if you want.”

‘That would be just lovely,’ Rarity said.

“Rare says go fer it Fluttershy,” AJ reported. What? she added mentally when she felt Rarity sigh.

‘Oh, never mind,’ the fashionista said, ‘it just struck me again that I’m entirely dependent on your… manner of speaking to convey my thoughts to the others.’

“R-right,” Fluttershy said, “It’s…” she trailed off and closed her eyes in concentration, evidently trying to keep up with Pinkie Pie’s thoughts. “First was ‘the spice of life that rolls and twists, but only in its purest form’,” she said at last, “and, uh, Pinkie says she’s got lots of ideas for that one. The second one was ‘A living jewel, no, make it ten, in irritation born.’ Finally, ‘excitement distilled, the element that can make rain go boom.’ I guess Twilight and Rainbow are doing that one?”

Twilight tilted her head back and closed her eyes while conferring with her body-mate. “That sounds like a plan,” she said at last, “I’ve got no idea what the last one could be, but if you... four have the other two figured out, Rainbow and I will have to fetch the last.”

“All righty then,” Applejack said, scarfing down the rest of her muffin, “Ain’t no time like the present ta get started. See y’all at the theater when we’re done!”

“Applejack, wait a-” Twilight’s cry was cut off by the door closing behind Applejack as she trotted out of the apartment and headed for the stairs.

‘Applejack,’ Rarity said calmly, ‘While I certainly approve of your desire to get this over with, don’t you think it’s a bad idea to go running of without knowing where you’re going?’

“I was counting on you tellin’ me what you think we’re looking for before we get to the streets,” the farm pony replied snarkily.

‘I see. Well, it’s quite clear that Discord wants us to find ten of a certain type of jewelry. Right away that makes you and me uniquely qualified to locate them, seeing as we are a unicorn and I know a spell for locating jewels.’

Well, that’d be just great, Applejack said mentally as she passed by other ponies on the stairs, ‘Cept fer the part where I’m the one runnin’ the body and I can’t use magic!

‘I think you could if you tried,’ Rarity said, ‘Why else do you think my horn is on our head?’

AJ paused at the foot of the stairs and thought for a moment. “I think it’s cuz Discord used your body type and put mah coloring on it when he put us together. I mean, look, this is your hairstyle I’m wearin’.” She hoofed at her curled mane to illustrate.

‘Yes,’ the fashionita said, ‘speaking of which, I’m surprised you’ve kept it that way.’

“Yeah,” AJ said, stepping out of the building, “Well, I figure this look’ll help us fit in round these parts better. It don’t exactly grow right to make a comfortable ponytail out of it anyway.” She looked around and then moved away from the door and out of the flow of hoof traffic. “Anyway,” she said quietly, trying to look nonchalant, “Even if I can use magic now, ya still haven’t told me which kind of gem we’re supposed ta be looking for.”

‘Oh, sorry,’ Rarity said, ‘It’s not actually a gem, but it is a jewel. We need to get our hooves on ten pearls.’

“All right,” Applejack mused, “Not ta doubt yer expertise, but how do ya figure that?”

‘It’s simple,’ Rarity said flippantly, ‘The riddle says ‘born in irritation.’ Pearls are only found inside of oysters, which make them as a reaction to getting particles of sand inside their shells. I’m told the process is quite irritating.’

So, Applejack thought, We can’t buy the things, so how do we get ‘em? Go find some oysters and ask ‘em to spit out some pearls?

Rarity laughed. ‘Oh Applejack,' she said, ‘Oysters are not native to Manehatten’s waterfronts. Even if they were, it would hardly be proper to go diving in the harbor looking for them.’

Ya got any better ideas?

‘Well,’ the fashionista said, ‘I know for a fact we won’t find an answer if we just stand around here all day.’ Applejack took the hint and started walking off in a random direction. ‘Now,’ Rarity said, ‘I’d expect a city like Manehatten to have the latest in fashion, both off-the-shelf and haute couture, including jewelry made from gems and precious materials of all kinds, most importantly pearls.’

“Yeah,” AJ drawled, fighting the urge to zone out.

‘The problem is,’ Rarity continued, ‘The only places we can expect to see pearls are in jewelry stores or embroidered into somepony’s party gown, not to mention the classic pearl necklaces I’ve already seen six mares sporting as we walk along. We cannot purchase them, and we shall not descend to petty theft.’

“Yer darn tootin’ we ain’t!” Applejack said firmly, causing a passer-by to give her a strange glance. That don’t leave us with any options though, she added mentally.

‘Yes,’ Rarity said airily, 'If only we had some connections to high society…’

What are you tryin’ to… Applejack stopped, and then a smile slowly came to her face. Mah Aunt Orange! she exclaimed happily, barely suppressing the urge to express her glee out loud, I know she’s got plenty of fancy get-ups. I can just trot over to their place and ask ta borrow one of her necklaces.

‘What a marvelous idea Applejack!’ Rarity said as the orange pony began trotting toward her relative’s neighborhood.

Applejack chuckled, not missing the faint sarcasm in her partner’s tone. Thanks for givin’ me the hint, she thought, I can’t believe I forgot about my own… kin…

‘What’s wrong?’ Rarity asked as AJ came to a stop and looked upward with crossed eyes.

“I have a horn,” the farm pony said quietly. Rarity remained silent, caught off guard by the statement and unsure how to respond. “I’m an earth pony,” AJ said, “I’m not supposed to have a horn on mah head.” She looked around and then approached a stallion who looked friendly than most of the ponies walking nearby. “Pardon me,” she said to him, “Could I bother you fer some directions? I’m looking to buy a hat.”

“Just a hat?” the well-dressed stallion asked, looking at the orange unicorn askance.

“Just a hat,” Applejack replied with a look that dared the other pony to say something critical.

“There are several boutiques and hat shops around the downtown area,” the stallion said, meeting AJ’s gaze, “I’d ask around there if I were you.”

“Thank you kindly,” Applejack said with a smile and a polite nod. The stallion returned the nod and resumed his walk while Applejack began to make her way towards downtown Manehatten.

‘Applejack, why the sudden interest in hats?’ Rarity asked.

I want to make this as quick and simple as I can, the orange pony thought, We go ta the Oranges, ask ta borrow a pearl necklace, and go meet up with the others. It’s gonna be awkward enough explainin’ why we didn’t show up last night; I’d rather not have ta explain why I’ve got a horn all of a sudden.

‘Applejack,’ Rarity said with disapproval and surprise, ‘you’re planning to be dishonest? And with family at that!’

I ain’t gonna lie, AJ thought defensively, I’m just not gonna mention anything they don’t need ta know. And anyway, I feel more than a bit weird without something on my head. If mah Stetson doesn’t show up by the time we’re done with this stupid game, I’m gonna find out where they’re keeping that… thing’s statue and buck a few limbs off of it! Rarity had some misgivings, but knowing how stubborn Applejack could be, she decided to drop the issue for the moment. Besides, the farm pony was willingly going to a vendor of fashion; Rarity simply couldn’t bring herself to put a stop to that.

Applejack frowned as she gazed up at the hats displayed on the shelves above her. Her focus was mainly on a wide-brimmed, high crowned specimen that looked like somepony had taken the basic idea behind a Stetson, built it out of mint ice cream, and embroidered it with light blue cotton candy. “Yer kidding, right?” she muttered.

‘This is the fourth store we have tried,’ Rarity said, ‘and that is the only hat I have seen so far that’s not only properly sized to cover your horn without looking silly, but also suits your, or should I say our, present look.'

“It’s also out of my reach,” Applejack said. That was a fact; the hat sat on a shelf well above the reach of a typical earth pony’s mouth.

‘Not if you use your magic.’

“Cons-” AJ started to snap before catching herself. Haven’t we gone over this already? she asked mentally, I’m an earth pony. Earth ponies can’t use magic, period.

‘You haven’t even tried,’ Rarity responded flatly, ‘we have a horn, and I can feel the potential inside of it. All you need to do is try and channel it.’

AJ looked up at her horn and concentrated for a few seconds before exhaling loudly and turning away from the shelf. “Nope,” she said, “I ain’t feelin’ it.”

Rarity gave an exasperated sigh and an imaginary face-hoof. ‘You’re not doing it right!’ she said, ‘Magic is not about brute force, it’s about finesse and attention to detail. You have to be sure of everything you do so you don’t embed something in a wall or tear any seams.’

I can do finesse, Applejack thought darkly, you’ve seen my rope and lasso tricks; those take a lot of careful attention to do right.

‘Is that so?’ Rarity said, turning thoughtful, 'Well, I suppose one could compare basic levitation to using an invisible lasso, but then again that’s a bit of a stretch…’

Are ya tryin’ to goad me inta tryin’ to grab that hat again? Applejack thought with a raised eyebrow. Rarity didn’t answer, but the farm pony could sense the other’s smug confidence in the back of her mind. Fine, challenge accepted. She turned back around and fixed the minty hat with her strongest stare. After a moment of simply willing it to jump off the shelf, Applejack took a breath and started to imagine a rope reaching out and tying itself around the hat’s crown. As she did so, her horn began to glow faintly and she felt something stirring in her head. AJ tried to ignore these sensations as she tugged at her imaginary rope. The hat shifted to the edge of the shelf and then tumbled off onto the floor. That’ll do, AJ thought with pride as she walked over and picked the hat up in her mouth.

‘Very well done Applejack,’ Rarity said with glee, ‘We’ll make a proper unicorn of you yet!’

Heh, no thanks, Applejack thought as she carried the hat to the sales counter, I’ve no interest getting’ used to something I’m not gonna be able to use after today. Uh, assuming the others can get their stuff today as well. She plopped the hat onto the sales counter and smiled at the pegasus mare standing at the register. “How much?” she asked.

“Fifty five bits,” the salespony said after checking the tag. Applejack nodded and fished out the money. The sales pony went to scoop them into the register, but then paused and counted. “Sorry,” she said, “but you’re short by ten bits here.” Applejack raised an eyebrow and looked down at the counter. Sure enough, upon counting up the coins, she only saw forty-five bits.

“Oops,” she said, pulling out a ten-bit coin and placing it with the rest. The sales pony counted the bits again, and then gave the orange unicorn a strange look. “You’re still short by five,” she said.

“What the hay are you tryin’ to pull?” Applejack snapped, “I was ten short and just gave you a ten-bit coin. There should be…” She looked at the bits and added them up in her mind. “Fifty… what the hay.”

‘Perhaps this comes under the ‘no bits can exchange hooves’ rule,’ Rarity suggested.

This ain’t got anything to do with gettin’ the pearls, Applejack replied, finding a five-bit coin and staring at it, I’m just tryin’ ta buy a hat!

‘A hat you intend to use to make getting those pearls easier,’ Rarity pointed out.

Applejack muttered and then set the coin on the counter and covered it with her hoof. “Count ‘em up again,” she told the sales pegasus.

The pegasus’s eyes flitted over the bits a few times. “Fifty bits,” she announced. Applejack grinned and lifted her hoof from the coin she was covering. Her smile fled as she looked at the coin. Instead of a five-bit, it had changed to bear the image of a smirking draconequus resting his head on his lion’s paw arm.

“Why that hodgepodge mish-mash of cast-off…” Applejack muttered darkly. “Fine then,” she said crossly, reclaiming all the bits from the counter, “guess I don’t need this hat anyway.”

“Wait,” the salesmare said, “I’m not sure what’s going on, but I could let you take the hat for less.”

“Nope,” Applejack said, “too late. I’ve taken mah money back, so I doubt there’s any way I’ll be matching yer prices now. Sorry to have wasted yer time.” She started to leave, but then turned back and picked the Discorded coin up in her mouth. She left the shop and then spat the coin at the closest storm drain, smirking in satisfaction as it flew though the grate and vanished from sight.

‘Did that make you feel better?' Rarity asked sardonically.

“A little,” AJ muttered. She heaved a sigh and began walking, pointing her way toward her aunt and uncle’s place again.

“We should have disqualified them. They broke the rules.”

“The stakes aren’t nearly high enough to warrant not allowing them one strike. And you enjoyed the look on her face.”

Judging by the feeling in her gut, it was nearing lunchtime when Applejack and Rarity arrived at the door of the Orange’s apartment. AJ took a deep breath, cast a cross-eyed glance up at the horn on her forehead, and then raised a hoof to knock on the door. She paused and set her hoof back down with a sigh. Rarity, she thought, I feel like I should apologize.

‘Whatever for Applejack?’ Rarity asked.

I wasted our time trying to get a hat because I was ashamed of having a unicorn horn, AJ replied, And you were right to try and talk me out of it.

‘Think nothing of it,’ Rarity said, ‘Let’s just get those pearls so I can get out of your head.’

“Right,” Applejack said with a confident nod. She raised her hoof and gave the door three solid knocks. Wonder if I should put on my “dignified” voice, the orange pony mused.

‘Dignified voice?’ Rarity asked, sounding confused and intrigued. Applejack smiled mischievously.

Guess that answers that question, she thought as she heard the door unlatch. The door opened to reveal a blonde-coated earth pony with her orange mane done up in a layered bouffant and wearing a gold, gem-studded neckpiece, who gave AJ a look of brief confusion followed by recognition, followed by greater confusion when her eyes settled on the distinctive growth on her niece’s forehead. “Hello Aunt Mandarin,” Applejack said in a voice dripping with culture and eloquence. Rarity was speechless, but Applejack could sense her utter shock at her drastic shift in accent. She fought down a smile as she imagined the white unicorn with her mouth hanging open in an unladylike manner.

“Applejack,” Mandarin Orange said, still staring at the horn, “you… you’re quite late. Your letter said you’d be here no later than last night.” She shook her head and shifted her gaze down to AJ’s eyes. “Oh, do excuse my manners, “she said, “Come in.” She moved aside to give Applejack space to enter.

“Thank you,” Applejack said with a smile as she entered the apartment, “I am sorry to have worried you and Uncle Hamlin, but my friends and I had… a rather disturbing experience last night and this,” she tapped her horn, “is only part of the fall-out.” A door leading to another part of the apartment opened and a light orange stallion with a green mane poked his head into the room, accompanied by the sound of conversation.

“Mandy dear,” Hamlin Orange said, “Whatever is keeping… Applejack?”

“Good day Uncle Hamlin,” Applejack said with a nod.

“What is that on your head?” Hamlin asked, looking appalled.

‘What is with that look?’ Rarity asked, insulted, ‘Has he never seen a unicorn before?’

He ain’t ever seen an Apple family unicorn, AJ replied wryly. “There is quite the story behind this,” she told her uncle, “which I will gladly tell you over a light lunch.”

Hamlin stepped out into the main room and cast a glance at the door behind him. “We happen to be entertaining at the moment,” he said,” since you and your friends did not arrive when expected, we found ourselves with far too much food. I notice that you came here alone by the way.”

“Like I said,” Applejack said, slipping back into her normal voice out of mild frustration, “It’s a long story.”

“All right,” Hamlin said, “Mandarin, I’ll see to our guests while you see if you can find something appropriate for our niece to wear. Listen to her story and decide if it’s something that can be told among company.”

“It probably ain’t,” Applejack noted, raising an eyebrow at her uncle before following her aunt into another room, “At least, not the company you’re used to keeping.” She followed Mandarin into the bedroom and the sophisticate earth pony motioned for her to sit at the vanity while she headed toward the closet.

“Now my dear,” Mandarin said, “go ahead and ‘spin the yarn,’ if you’ll pardon the expression.”

‘Do you actually get along with these relatives of yours?’ Rarity asked.

They’re family, Applejack thought, and being a friend to you keeps me in practice for visiting here.

‘Glad to be of service then,’ Rarity said with a tiny hint of sarcasm, ‘Now, if you can speak with such eloquence, why do you don’t so more often?’

Because that ain’t the way I grew up talking, Applejack said with a mental snort, Besides, would you rather buy an apple from a fancy-talkin’ pony or one who sounds like they actually put work into growin’ and harvesting the thing? On second thought, don’t answer that.

“Applejack?” The orange pony jumped and looked to see Mandarin standing next to her with an outfit laid across her back and a concerned look on her face.

“Ah, sorry Aunt Mandy,” Applejack said with a blush, “I, uh… you know what? I’ll just start at the beginning and it’ll all make sense I promise.” As she related the tale, starting with a quick summary of the big fight against Discord before talking about the previous evening’s ninja squirrel chase, being knocked out by some unknown spell and waking up essentially fused with Rarity, and finally the strange scavenger hunt Discord had forced them into participating in, Mandarin got her into a simple forest-green saddle with a light green fringe and had begun trying to style her mane in such a way as to hide her horn. Even with the relative privacy that came with being a passenger mind, Rarity opted to hold her tongue regarding that detail.

Mandarin paused in her work, keeping one hoof in AJ’s mane to keep it from falling out of place, as the orange unicorn finished her story. “That is… quite the tale,” she said simply.

“I get the feeling you don’t believe me,” AJ deadpanned, staring straight ahead into the mirror.

“Oh, well,” Mandarin said, biting her lip and looking up at the ceiling, “It’s just so incredible. I mean, I can’t deny that you have a horn, but that you actually have another pony in your head talking to you?”

“I’m not asking you to believe the whole thing,” Applejack said, “Even though it is all true. All I’m askin’ is if you’ll let me borrow one of your pearl necklaces.”

“Can you promise I’ll get it back?” Mandarin Orange asked. Applejack looked up at her, and then dropped her gaze with a shamed look on her face. Mandarin sighed and finished setting her niece’s mane in place. “I’ll tell you what,” she said, getting back down on all fours, “If you can carry yourself like a proper Manehattenite, in voice, table manners, and conversation, through this luncheon, I’ll let you have one of my necklaces to keep or do whatever you wish with.”

“Well,” Applejack said hesitantly.

‘Is that all?’ Rarity asked with a laugh, ‘She may as well give them to us now.’

Come again? Applejack thought, I haven’t sat through a proper fancy meal without messing something up since… well, before I got mah cutie mark.

‘Have you forgotten who I am Applejack?’ Rarity replied disparagingly, ‘I am Rarity. I am the most graceful, eloquent, fashionable, and trained-for-high-society pony in Ponyville. I have the poise to pass for Canterlot nobility. I can certainly coach you on proper lunch etiquette. You can speak the way they want to speak already. Everything else is simple, so long as you’re willing to listen to me.’

A small smile sneaked onto Applejack’s mouth. You’re right, she thought, I shoulda known I could count on the Element of Generosity to lend me a hoof. Just promise me you won’t try ta push me into actin’ the way I’m about to after we get out of this mess. Rarity simply laughed politely, and AJ looked her aunt in the eye and said, “It would be my pleasure to join you for lunch.”

“The best synergy comes from a diversity of personalities.”

The Spice

“Pinkie Pie was always my favorite.”

“Because she could appreciate your humor up to a point?”

“No. Well, yes, but really because there’s just so much potential in that storm she calls a mind.”

“Applejack, wait a-” the slamming door cut Twilight off. “Minute,” she finished dully. “Well,” she said as she looked at Fluttershy and Trixie, “looks like we’re going to meet at the theater when we’re done. Trixie, would you mind heading over there to keep an eye out and make sure we don’t end up waiting for each other at different spots around the building?”

“I’ll be heading over there after I finish a few preparations anyway,” Trixie said, “I do have a performance this evening after all. I’ll… need to make sure everything’s in place.”

“All right,” Twilight said with a nod, “Fluttershy, are you and Pinkie going to be ok?”

‘Tell her not to worry,’ Pinkie told Fluttershy.

“We’ll be fine Twilight,” Fluttershy said, “Thanks for asking though.”

“Ok,” Twilight said hesitantly. She started toward the door, but then stopped and looked back. “Out of curiosity,” she said, “What do you think your item is going to be?”

“Cinnamon,” Fluttershy answered.

“Cinnamon?” Trixie and Twilight both asked. “What makes you think it’s cinnamon?” Trixie added.

“Well,” Fluttershy said. How did you put it again? she asked Pinkie.

‘Hmmmmmm,’ the party said dramatically, ‘Oh, right. Discord called it the “spice of life…'

“…that twists and rolls, and although he may have been trying to be tricky he was probably talking about an actual spice. And there’s no spice that goes into twiiiists and rolls quite like cinnamon!” Fluttershy froze when she saw Twilight and Trixie gaping at her, and dropped back down onto all four hooves with a furious blush as she realized that not only had she relayed Pinkie’s explanation with exact intonation, but had pulled a pirouette on the word “twists” and ended with a dramatic Pinkie-esque pose. Unable to hide her face behind her mane due to it mimicking the party pony’s curly style, she settled for trying to hide behind a raised leg. “Oh dear…” she mumbled.

‘Wow, that was a pretty good impression Fluttershy,’ Pinkie said.

I didn’t mean to… Fluttershy thought apologetically.

“Well,” Twilight said after an awkward moment, “We should get going then.”

“R-right,” Fluttershy said, barely holding herself back from bolting for the door. She and Twilight arrived at the door at the same time and the pegasus motioned for the pale yellow pony to go first. As Fluttershy left the apartment and started down the stairs, strange thoughts began echoing in from the back of her mind. She was starting to develop the ability to screen out the products of Pinkie’s idle mind, but most of them were still getting through to her. She’d spent most of the previous evening simply trying to block out the mental noise, accompanied by Pinkie’s continual apologies and insistence on keeping it between the two of them, but now that she’d had time to acclimate, Fluttershy was working up the determination to confront it. After all, it would be unkind not to try to understand and help Pinkie Pie while they were stuck together. Pinkie Pie, she thought as she descended the stairs, do you, um, have any ideas where we can get some cinnamon?

‘…nothing but a pile of rock under- Huh?’ The noise faded as Pinkie began to focus.

Maybe Trixie has some in her kitchen? Fluttershy suggested.

‘Nah,’ Pinkie said, ‘I only saw the powdered stuff, and it’s probably way too old to be any good. The riddle says “only in its purest form,” so we’re going to need it to be fresh.’

I see. So, where-

“Good luck you two.” Fluttershy flinched and squeaked before looking around. She was standing outside the apartment building with Twilight next to her looking a little concerned.

“Oh,” she said, “Thank you. Um, good luck to you two as well.” Twilight nodded and trotted off down the street, wings occasionally twitching at her sides.

‘Say,’ Pinkie said, ‘Are you going to be ok with not having wings Fluttershy?’

I’ll be ok, Fluttershy said reassuringly, so long as I don’t forget and try to fly. I do enjoy walking around more than flying anyway.

‘Okie dokie,’ Pinkie said cheerfully, ‘so, where are we going?’

I… was hoping you would have an idea actually, Fluttershy thought, but if you want me to figure it out, I guess I can.

‘Oh, no no no,’ Pinkie exclaimed, ‘I’ll give you all the advice you want Fluttershy. Just ask and your Auntie Pinkie will do her best to help you out!’

“I’m a year older than you,” Fluttershy said, more out reflex than anything.

‘Let’s see…’ Pinkie said thoughtfully, ‘Before we can get the cinnamon, we need to know what we mean by “cinnamon.”’

Fluttershy blinked. What? she thought, I thought cinnamon was just, well, cinnamon.

‘Nopey dope,’ Pinkie declared, ’First of all, there’s cinnamon sticks versus ground cinnamon. Ground cinnamon’s ok if you’re doing a lot of baking, but if you want to get really fancy, fresh, and pure, you have to go for the sticks. Nothing less than the best will do for Discord!’

“Um…”

‘And then there’s the varieties,’ Pinkie continued, ‘There’s cassia, which is what most ponies think of when you say ‘cinnamon,’ but maybe he’d be happier with true cinnamon.’

“Pinkie, why…”

‘Why are we still standing around?’ Pinkie asked, growing excited to the point of mania, ‘We need to find a spice shop or an apothecary or someplace that sells all types of cinnamon, just to be safe. Oh, maybe we should get some nutmeg too? I’ve never heard of a nutmeg roll before, but since Discord’s so ancient and older than the Princesses maybe they used to make sweet rolls with nutmeg because they hadn’t discovered cinnamon yet and-’

“Oohh…” Fluttershy moaned as she started to walk. She listened to Pinkie go on for a bit more before working up the gumption to try and cut in. Pinkie Pie, she thought as firmly as she could.

‘Yes Fluttershy?’ the party pony responded, dropping her train of thought instantly to give Fluttershy her full attention.

Even without the physical presence of another pony looking at her, Fluttershy quailed under the attention, the question on her mind dying out as she thought twice. “N-never mind,” she said quietly, “It’s nothing.”

‘Was I starting to lose you again?’ Pinkie asked, ‘Sorry about that.’

Oh no, it wasn’t that, Fluttershy thought, I should have just let you go on that one. She sighed and started to look around for places that might sell cinnamon. She had no idea how they were going to get any without paying for it, but at least it was somewhere to start.

‘Fluttershy, it’s ok to ask me stuff if you want to,’ Pinkie said after a few seconds, ‘I understand that you get scared picking up on my thoughts. Honestly, I scare myself sometimes, and it’s really tough to focus on happy things right now when I can’t move around for myself.’

I’ll try and go faster, Fluttershy thought, speeding up to a fast trot, Why don’t you think up a song? I love hearing you sing.

‘Ooo, great idea Fluttershy!’ Pinkie exclaimed happily. She started to think her way up and down the music scale, trying to piece together a tune. ‘Can you bounce a little?’ she asked, ‘I need a beat.’ Fluttershy started to bob a little with each step, just barely enough to be noticeable. ‘A little more,’ Pinkie said after a moment, ‘Get those hooves up.’ Fluttershy complied, but she started to feel foolish moving at a high-stepping canter. ‘More, more!’ Pinkie demanded, her voice backed by random tones and frustration.

I can’t, Fluttershy thought, Ponies are already giving me strange looks.

‘Let ‘em look,’ Pinkie snapped. Fluttershy slowed to a stop, concerned at the tone of Pinkie’s thoughts. She was starting to remind the timid pony of the time her friends had thrown Pinkie a surprise birthday party, and the party pony had thought they were no longer her friends. ‘Why’d you stop? Dance!’ Fluttershy cringed and whimpered. ‘Fluttershy! You… Oh.’ The building rage vanished from Pinkie’s mind to be replaced by sadness. ‘I’m so sorry Fluttershy,’ she said, before falling silent.

“It’s… it’s ok,” Fluttershy said, getting back up and starting to walk again.

Pinkie remained silent for a while, but eventually thoughts started to slip into Fluttershy’s awareness. ‘Just so difficult… She has it so easy…’

Who?

‘…You Fluttershy,’ Pinkie admitted, “You’re always so sweet and nice and ready to help everything you meet, it’s so easy for you to be the Element of Kindness.’

Yes, Fluttershy agreed, isn’t it easy for you too? You always have a smile on your face, a… funny comment to make, and no pony throws a party like you can. That is your special talent after all, right? She paused at a corner to look around, finding herself on a street lined with booths and small tents with tables full of merchandise set out.

‘Well of course it is silly,’ Pinkie said, brightening up briefly before giving a mental sigh. As Fluttershy made her way down the street looking at the various merchants’s offerings, Pinkie started to let herself wander through thoughts of her past. ‘It just takes a lot more effort than you might think,' she said, ‘I didn’t grow up in a cheerful place you know. I was living on a rock farm, a rock farm, before I got my cutie mark. There was hardly ever a reason to smile until I saw the Sonic Rainboom Dashie pulled off. The happiness the sight of that rainbow gave me was such a huge-ariffic difference from anything else that I never wanted to lose it. I threw my first party to try and keep the joy alive and share it with my family. It worked for a few days, but the farm work started to take it away all too soon. I threw party after party, but I just couldn’t keep things interesting. There’s only so many ways to throw a party when all you’ve got to work with is rocks, and the rest of my family never had as much enthusiasm for them.'

No pony has much enthusiasm for parties as you, Fluttershy pointed out.

‘Exactly!’ Pinkie declared, ‘It wasn’t until I moved to Ponyville that I could find what I needed: color, friends, and lots of sugar. But even with all that, and lots of practice at looking on the bright side, I still need to work at being the Pinkie Pie everypony expects me to be. The Pinkie Pie that I need to be.’

You sound like you need a hug, Fluttershy thought, I wish I could give you one right now.

‘Thanks Fluttershy,’ Pinkie said, ‘I’m not sure I could have told that to anyone else. I don’t want ponies treating me any different than they do; they’re smiles and laughs are so much more real if they think I’m random through-and-through.’

I won’t tell anyone, Fluttershy promised. She slowed to a stop as she spotted a food stand with muffins, donuts, and a jar filled with hard candy across the street. We can’t buy what we’re after, she thought, but it should be ok to buy something else, right?

‘Just don’t go for anything with cinna- Oh! Is that a strawberry muffin? Let’s get that!’ Fluttershy smiled to herself as she approached the stand and purchased the muffin. As she reached out to pass the six bits to the vendor, she got a sudden twitch in her leg that caused her to spill the coins onto the ground.

“Oopsie,” she said with a blush, “how clumsy of me.” She started to bend to down to pick up the coins, but the vendor pony waved her back and picked the coins up himself.

“It happens,” he said, “no need for a pretty filly like you to lay down on these dirty streets. Here.” He held out the muffin, which Fluttershy took with a mumbled thank-you and another blush. Transferring the treat onto her back, she turned and walked away to find a place to eat it. She found a clear spot of sidewalk next to a building and took the muffin in hoof before sitting down. As she lifted the muffin to her mouth, her leg twitched again and she nearly dropped it.

‘Is that…?’ Pinkie said, intrigued. Fluttershy quickly stuck the muffin in her mouth and held out her leg, which gave another couple involuntary twitches as she looked at it. ‘Oh my gosh,’ Pinkie said excitedly, ‘You… I… We’ve got my Pinkie Sense! Hooray!’

What does this one mean? Fluttershy asked as she balanced on her haunches so she could hold the muffin in her non-twitchy hoof while she took a bit from it.

‘I don’t get a twitchy leg very often,’ Pinkie said in contemplation, ‘Let’s see if I can remember…’ As the party pony ran through a mental checklist of her various twitches, shudders, and niggling feeling, Fluttershy took delicate bites from the muffin, making sure to savor each bite for Pinkie’s benefit, recalling that Twilight had mentioned that both ponies experienced sensations in Multiple Mental Occupancy, even if only one could control the body. ‘Oh, I’ve got it,’ Pinkie said as Fluttershy got down to the last few bites, ‘Twitchy leg means I’m going to encounter someone I wasn’t expecting to see. Or maybe it’s someone you’re not expecting Fluttershy.’

But I don’t know anypony in Manehatten, Fluttershy thought, except for Trixie that is.

‘Well,’ Pinkie said as Fluttershy finished off the muffin and stood up, ‘We won’t know until we meet them, so let’s get these hooves moving! By the way, that muffin was a little dry. We should have a word with that pony about his stock.’

It wasn’t all that bad, Fluttershy thought, And I don’t think that stand of his has an oven for baking fresh food.

‘Hm, good point.’ Fluttershy resumed walking down the street, stumbling occasionally as her leg twitched. After several feet, the twitching reached a frequency that made it nearly impossible to walk, so the yellow pony sat down and looked around, hoping to see either a familiar face or a spice merchant nearby. Ponies of all shapes and colors passed by, some casting glances at her as they passed by, but none of them were familiar to Fluttershy. She started to feel panicky when Pinkie Pie suddenly exclaimed, ‘Dramatic gasp!’

“Huh?’ Fluttershy said, blinking in confusion.

‘Well,’ Pinkie said, ‘I can’t actually gasp since I’m just a voice in your head right now, so…’

But why? What did you see?

‘A little to the left,’ Pinkie instructed as Fluttershy looked around, ‘Now a teensy bit to the right. Right there, at that stall with the polished stone stuff, with the gray mane.’ Fluttershy nodded slightly as she spotted the pony, who was looking at the various polished stone necklaces on display. Her light gray mane and tail stood out strongly against her darker, purplish-gray coat, and her cutie mark was a slightly rounded block of lapis lazuli. As soon as Fluttershy looked at her, her leg stopped twitching. ‘It’s my sister Shoo Fly!’ Pinkie declared happily, ‘I wonder what she’s doing here? Hey, let’s go say hello!’

W-what? Fluttershy stammered mentally, feeling the panic return again, but… but…

‘Aw, don’t worry Fluttershy,’ Pinkie said reassuringly, ‘She’s not scary. Just go up and say “hello Shoo Fly Pie.” I’ll be with you every step of the way.’ She giggled at her little joke.

Fluttershy closed her eyes for a second to try and calm herself and walked over to the stall. She came to a stop just behind the gray-scale earth pony and opened her mouth to speak, but all that came out at first was a little squeak. She closed her mouth, swallowed, and tried again. “Exc-”

‘Nonono,’ Pinkie said, ‘don’t get her attention yet. Just say it.’

All right… Fluttershy took a few more breaths, closed her eyes and spoke, “Hello Shoo Fly Pie.” She cracked one eye open to see the mare’s ears perk.

“Pinka-” she said in surprise as she turned her head to look, but then suspicion clouded her face as she looked at Fluttershy. “Who are you?” she asked. In the back of Fluttershy’s mind, she heard Pinkie Pie start to laugh.

“I… I’m,” Fluttershy stuttered.

‘You can do it Fluttershy,’ Pinkie said supportively between chuckles.

“I’m Fluttershy,” the yellow pony said, “I’m a friend of your sister Pinkie.”

“Oh, of course you are,” Shoo Fly said, closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead, “She’s the only one who calls me Shoo Fly.” She smirked and opened her eyes while holding a hoof out for Fluttershy to shake. “My name is Susan Fidelity Pie,” she said as Fluttershy gently shook the offered hoof.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Fluttershy said. Susan Fidelity Pie? she asked Pinkie.

‘My parents had a thing for those kind of names,’ Pinkie said with a mental shrug.

Susan released Fluttershy’s hoof and then started walking around her. “Strange,” she said, “Pinkamena’s mentioned you, but she said you were a pegasus.”

“Oh, it’s a… long stor-eep!” The dark gray pony suddenly zipped in front of Fluttershy with one eye closed and the other seeming to bulge out slightly as she stared into Fluttershy’s eye.

“Pinkamena Diane Pie,” she said, “What in the world are you doing inside this pony’s head?” Fluttershy gasped and sat down hard, her jaw falling open as she stared wide-eyed at Susan.

‘Whoa, how did she know?’ Pinkie exclaimed, equally surprised.

“I can sense your aura in there Pinkie,” Susan said, “Remember how I was always the best of us at hide-and-seek back home? Turns out I can detect ponies and sense things about them much like you can sense the immediate future. It doesn’t work so well on the farm for some reason though…” She shook her head and opened her other eye. “But enough about me,” she said, “What’s the story here?”

“Um, well,” Fluttershy began. She and Susan moved away from the stall and out of the flow of traffic as the yellow pony related the tale of Discord’s new game, broken up occasionally as Pinkie asked her to relay a comment to Susan. When they finished, Susan regarded the bonded pony with a thoughtful expression.

“This seems like a lot of trouble to put somepony through just for some cinnamon,” she said, “Are you sure it’s even a good idea to be playing along? I mean, you know Discord much better than I ever could, but from what I heard, he doesn’t play fair.”

“Oh, he’s a big dumb meanie all right,” Fluttershy said testily, “He didn’t give us any choice though, and I do not want to find out what will happen if we don’t win.”

‘Me neither!’ Pinkie declared, just in case her sister could pick up on her thoughts.

“I’d like to help if I can,” Susan said, “There’s a pony selling spices near the next corner. Perhaps I-” The sounds of commotion drew their attention to a point farther down the street. Fluttershy and Susan stepped out into the street to see a light orange unicorn in a straw hat being mobbed by a bunch of small creatures. Susan sighed and shook her head. “Those rodents are at it again,” she said.

“What’s going on?” Fluttershy asked.

“That band of squirrels has been harassing and stealing from ponies on this street for the past few days,” the dark-gray pony explained, “It looks like they’ve decided to pick on the spice merchant I mentioned.” They watched as the unicorn tried to fend off the squirrels alone, as not even his neighbors seemed willing to leave their stalls to lend a hoof.

“Oh no,” Fluttershy said with unusual firmness in her voice, “how can they all just stand there?” She started walking toward the melee, an inner drive to restore peace and kindness overriding her normal timidity. As she approached, a squirrel broke away with a large sprig of rosemary in its jaws and began scampering away in Fluttershy’s direction. The yellow earth pony spotted it, shifted to the left to stand in its path, planted her front hooves firmly, and Stared at the rodent. The squirrel skid to a stop in front of her and quivered as it locked eyes with her. “And just what do you think you’re doing?” Fluttershy asked in a scolding tone. The squirrel’s eyes darted guiltily to the rosemary in its mouth. “Well?” The squirrel slowly bent down, dropped the sprig, and then turned to run away. “Ah ah ah, no you don’t!” Fluttershy said, leaping forward and grabbing the squirrel in her mouth by the scruff of its neck. She dropped it next to the rosemary and tapped her hoof expectantly. With a sigh, the squirrel picked up the sprig and walked back to the stall with Fluttershy looming over him every step of the way. When they reached the stall, the other squirrels stopped, took one look at Fluttershy, and started to scatter. “Hold it!” Fluttershy ordered in a voice that caused every pony in earshot to freeze in place and look at her while the squirrels sulkily returned and lined up on the countertop under the influence of the Stare.

‘Woo, go Fluttershy!’ Pinkie cheered as the yellow pony began to pace, looking each rodent in the eye.

“Now listen here all of you,” Fluttershy lectured, “I don’t know any of you, but I’m sure you were raised better than this. You’re lucky I don’t go and tell your parents what you’ve been up to.” She noticed a pair of smaller squirrels cast furtive gazes at the one standing between them and she focused her gaze on it. “And you, “she said, “What are you thinking teaching your little ones to steal? Isn’t there enough food for you in the parks and trees? Well?” She looked around, but each squirrel simply avoided her gaze. “You’re going to apologize for causing all this trouble and never do it again, got it?” One by one, the rodents nodded and those who were holding thigns put them back where they’d come from. Fluttershy’s gaze softened and she said, “That’s better. Now run along and behave yourselves.” Released from their spell, the squirrels jumped off the stall and scampered away. “As for all of you,” Fluttershy said, whirling on the crowd, “Shame on all of you for not helping. I…” she started to falter as the adrenaline from the Stare session wore off.

‘Come on Fluttershy,’ Pinkie said, picking up on her bond-mate’s train of thought, ‘They deserve it as much as the squirrels did. Just because they’re bigger doesn’t make them anymore right.’

You... You’re right Pinkie, Fluttershy thought, This… this isn’t as scary as that dragon… Except it is.

‘Hm hm hm…’ Pinkie hummed, picking up a tune, ‘When I was a little filly and the sun was going dooowwn…’

The darkness as the shadows would always… Fluttershy’s thoughts trailed off for a second. Laugh the fear away. Ha ha. She smiled slightly and then grew serious. “Those of you the squirrels stole from before should have helped when they came back,” she said to the ponies around her. She snorted and walked away with her nose in the air. She managed to hold the pose until she got past the stunned crowd and a short way down the street. Then her normal timidity returned and she nearly collapsed into a shivering heap. “Oh my goodness,” she mumbled, “That was awful.”

“That was amazing.” Fluttershy looked up to see Susan Fidelity Pie walking up to her with a look of awe on her face. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that before,” she said.

“It’s… My special talent is taking care of animals,” Fluttershy explained shyly, “but I’m normally much nicer to them. I don’t like having to use the Stare on anything.”

“Well, it worked,” Susan said, “for now at least. Only time will tell if that lecture sticks with them.” Fluttershy nodded slowly as she steadied herself, and then froze with a squeak when she felt a hoof tap on her shoulder.

“Pardon me,” a male voice said. Fluttershy turned her head to see the unicorn from the spice stand. “Thank you so much,” he said, “You saved my stock; I didn’t lose a single sprig or seed thanks to you. If there’s anything I can do in return…”

“Oh, no,” Fluttershy said, blushing, “It was nothing.”

‘Fluttershy', Pinkie hissed, ‘He had cinnamon for sale! Cassia and the real stuff! Ask him for some!’

“Oh!” Fluttershy turned around to face the unicorn properly. “A-actually,” she said, “I… I’m looking for some… cinnamon. I don’t have any money though. Sorry.”

“Cinnamon? Is that all?” The unicorn smiled and placed a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “My dear, I’ll give you all the cinnamon you need, free of charge. It’s the least I can do.”

‘Get a few sticks of every kind he’s got,’ Pinkie advised, ‘Just to be safe. Oh, and a nutmeg too. Mr. and Mrs. Cake would be thrilled if I came home with a fresh nutmeg for them.’

Let’s not push it too far Pinkie, Fluttershy thought. She conveyed the request and the unicorn trotted away, returning a minute later with a small bag full of cinnamon sticks. “Thank you,” Fluttershy said as she accepted the bag. The spice merchant smiled and went back to his stall. Fluttershy then turned to Susan and said, “It was very nice to meet you. We have to go meet our friends now. Good bye.” She started to turn away, but Susan stepped forward and caught the yellow pony up in a hug.

“Good bye,” the gray pony whispered into her ear, “Pinkie, you should come visit soon. Mother’s in need of one of your parties.”

Fluttershy blinked several times, and then smiled. “She says ‘Okie Dokie Lokie Shoo Fly.’”

“That Fluttershy is a living weapon.”

“Aye, a weapon of peace. Everywhere she goes, peace and order spread.”

The Element

“Ok, now this is going to be an interesting pair to watch…”

“Hmm.”

“What, bored already? We’ve barely begun.”

“Um, good luck to you two as well.”

‘Let’s get this show on the road Twilight,’ Rainbow Dash said eagerly as Twilight turned away from Fluttershy and began walking down the street. Her wings twitched uncomfortably as she walked, opening and closing slightly and shifting about in just about every way Twilight could imagine and more. She suspected the movement was due to the wing muscles picking up some of the signals traveling between her brain and her legs muscles as she walked. It was likely a backwards version of the phantom limb phenomenon she’d read about in her studies on pony psychology; instead of the brain reporting sensation in an amputated limb, it was sending confused orders to a pair of newly- ‘BORING!’

Come on Rainbow Dash, Twilight thought, This is fascinating. Think about it, of all the pony types, only Pegasi and the Princesses have six limbs instead of four. So long as we’re stuck like this, I can’t pass up the opportunity to study how pegasi work through personal experience.

‘Ok…’ Dash said, still bored, ‘So, why don’t we get to the experience part and save all the egghead stuff for later? I’m going to go stir-crazy if I don’t get in the air soon. Besides, the sooner I can get you flying, the sooner we can get that Sonic Rainboom.’

What Sonic Rainboom? Twilight thought, dreading the answer.

‘Duh, the Sonic Rainboom we need to pull off to complete our part of the scavenger hunt,’ Dash said.

Of all the possible meanings of that part of the riddle, how did you arrive at Sonic Rainboom as an answer? Twilight asked, Wouldn’t it make more sense for it to be-

‘Whoa whoa whoa, stop,’ Dash said, cutting Twilight off, ‘I have to be the ideas pony this time, remember?’

Twilight finally came to a stop, finding a window that gave back a good enough reflection for her to cast a confused and annoyed look at herself and Dash. Remember what? We never talked about who the ‘ideas pony’ is supposed to be. We never even established that there is an ‘ideas pony!’

‘Discord did,’ Rainbow answered confidently, ‘He said in each pair there was one pony who had to figure out what to look for and the other would have a way to get it. It’s obvious that since you’re the one who actually gets to control our body, you’re the one who has to get the thingy and that makes me the one who has to figure it out.’

“Rainbow, I don’t think-”

‘Pinkie and Rarity were doing the figuring out for their teams,’ the brash pony continued, ‘It only makes sense I have to do it four ours.’

“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said, “I’m pretty sure he called it a hint, and he never did specify which was which.”

‘Twilight, this is Discord we’re talking about,’ Rainbow said, ‘He uses riddles and vague words so he can pull whatever he wants. And you’re not exactly the best at figuring him out you know.’

Twilight’s ears flattened as she glared at her reflection. That’s cold Rainbow Dash. Do you honestly think you’re going to do any better than me? I may have screwed up by leading us into the hedge maze, but that was simply because I focused on the wrong part of the riddle. You’re trying to decipher an even vaguer clue by yourself.

‘Sour apples,’ Rainbow scoffed, ‘Think about it Twilight; Discord knows you and how smart you are. He’d try to trip you up by making you over-think all the things “excitement distilled” and “make the rain go boom” could possibly mean when the real answer is plain as day: Sonic. Rain. BOOM!’ Twilight flinched at the strength of Dash’s final word echoing in her head. ‘Now come on,’ Rainbow urged, ‘Let’s get in the air already!’

Twilight heaved a sigh and turned away from the window. She looked up at the buildings reaching into the sky above her and the noticeable lack of pegasi flying about. Tell you what, she thought as she walked in what she thought was the direction of Manehatten Central Park, After I let you teach me enough to fly around safely, you let me list every reason I have why I think a Sonic Rainboom is a red herring.

‘A what?’

“A false lead,” Twilight replied in a mutter, pausing to rub her forehead in frustration, “a mistake, dead end, incorrect course of action.”

‘Fine, fine,’ Rainbow said, ‘Just stop being a dictionary. Where are you going anyway?’

The park, Twilight answered, Manehatten has a law restricting flying in the streets to weather patrol and emergency crews.

‘Oh yeah, that stupid rule,’ Rainbow grumbled, ‘Well, the wind currents between the buildings probably aren’t the best for a rookie like you anyway.’

“Were they just fighting? Maybe this will be the fun pair after all.”

‘We’re lost, aren’t we?’ Twilight had been wandering around the city for close to two hours without any signs that she was getting closer to finding Central Park, or any other park for that matter. The lavender pegasus was growing weary, both of her seeming inability to recall the numerous directions she’d asked for from passers-by and of Rainbow Dash’s barely-constrained impatience.

Yeah, Twilight admitted, ears drooping sadly, Completely lost.

‘Then let’s stop wasting time and start the flying lessons now,’ Dash said.

But Rainbow, Twilight protested, The airspace laws-

‘Just go into a secluded alley or something,’ Rainbow insisted, ‘We’ll be staying low to the ground at first anyway, so you don’t have to worry about the wind too much.’

“If we get caught and fined, you owe me,” Twilight muttered. Doing her best not to look suspicious, she walked to the nearest gap between buildings and stepped into it. She went down to the end, turned a corner to move behind a building, and then sat down and looked around to make she and Rainbow were alone. “Ok,” she said with resignation, “Let’s get this over with.” With some effort she managed to extend her wings out and upward. Rainbow Dash sighed. What? Twilight asked, I’ve never had wings before. I’m not used to working the related muscles.

‘You and Trixie used that wing-making spell when the two of you were stuck together,’ Rainbow pointed out.

“Yes,” Twilight said slowly, “I don’t remember if I actually used them though. Besides, those wings were magic constructs and operate in a completely different manner from real pegasus wings. It was more dependent on thought than physical effort.”

‘So…’ Dash said, ‘You just had to think to fly?’ Twilight nodded. ‘Welcome to pegasus flight Twilight Sparkle,’ the speedster declared, ‘it works the same way.’

“You must be joking,” Twilight said, looking askance at her wings, “Unicorn magic requires effort and concentration. I can’t believe that flying is easier than that for Pegasi. After all, didn’t you have to attend schools and camp to learn how to fly?”

‘Ok, yes,’ Rainbow admitted, ‘That’s not the point though. You’re thinking way too much about how my wings are supposed to move. You need to stop thinking like a science pony and start thinking like a flyer.’

“And just how do you propose I do that?”

‘Uh…’ Rainbow fell silent for a long time, causing Twilight to sigh, roll her eyes, and start to lay down until she thought about what might be on the ground in a back alley. ‘Ah-ha!’ Dash exclaimed suddenly, startling Twilight, ‘I remember some of the old exercises they had us do. Twilight, find something to climb up on.’ Twilight looked around and spotted a closed dumpster nearby. As she jumped and tried to climb onto it, her wings started to flap and gave her an unexpected boost. ‘That’s what I’m talking about,’ Rainbow said with pleasure as Twilight stood up on the dumpster, ‘don’t think too much about the basics and it’ll be just like walking. Now, let’s start with some stretching…’

As Rainbow ran her through a crash-course in basic flying techniques, Twilight proved to be as good a student as she was with magic and other subjects. In other words, she kept getting hung up on the technical details until Rainbow lost her patience and made her start the current exercise over “with forty percent less thinking!” Eventually, though, the lavender pony got the idea and began to master hovering, altitude changing, and forward travel. The dimensions of the alleyway were not appropriate for learning how to turn, so Rainbow reluctantly called a halt to the lessons so Twilight could take another shot at finding a city park. “Ok Rainbow,” Twilight said before stepping back out into the streets, “I’m a halfway decent flyer now, so it’s your turn to listen to my ideas.”

‘I’m still not sure this is a good idea,’ Rainbow muttered.

Just hear me out, Twilight thought, trotting out and joining the flow of hoof traffic, You can make the final decision, but a good researcher makes use of every source available to them.

‘Just get on with it,’ the pegasus moaned.

Item one, Twilight thought, The Sonic Rainboom has only been performed successfully twice in modern history.

‘Yep, by yours truly.’

I’m not you Rainbow, the lavender pony pointed out, I don’t have the years of training and conditioning you do. Asking me to pull off a Sonic Rainboom would be like asking, say, Sweetie Bell to replicate my Ursa Minor taming method.

‘Twilight,’ Dash said, ‘I did my first Rainboom when I was filly in Summer Flight Camp. It doesn’t take years of training to do one. You just have to go fast enough.’

That brings me to my second point, Twilight thought, What do you think would happen if we pulled off a Rainboom in the middle of a city like this?

‘Uh, everypony would stare in awe at us?’ Dash asked uncertainly.

All except the city guard, who would likely arrest us for disturbing the peace, breaking who knows how many windows with the shock wave, and possibly other crimes I can’t think of right now, Twilight answered, Point three: how would we even deliver a Sonic Rainboom to the… oh, hello there Central Park. She came to a stop in front of the arching decorative gateway that framed the entrance to the park she’d stumbled upon. She looked back the way she’d come and noted, We were just three blocks away… Rainbow Dash groaned and Twilight gave an embarrassed laugh.

‘Whatever,’ Rainbow said with a sigh, ‘Take off and start working on your gliding turns. Just tilt slightly in the direction you want to turn.’ Twilight nodded slightly as she walked into the park. The path took her through a stand of trees before opening up into a wide field with a large pond near the center. She spread her wings and flew up until she was at the level of the tree-tops before going into a forward glide and leaning to her left. She panicked for a second as she tumbled into a barrel-roll, but managed to right herself and regain control before she crashed into the water. ‘Good recovery,’ Rainbow said happily, ‘Try again.’

“Right,” Twilight said as she regained her altitude and tried again. This time she succeeded in putting herself into a counter-clockwise spiral toward the ground. As she touched down on the ground, Twilight asked, So, have you thought about what I’ve pointed out?

‘Try turning to the right, and tighten the turns,’ Dash instructed. Twilight sighed and took flight again. 'I guess you’re right Twilight,’ she admitted once Twilight was airborne, ‘Trying for a Rainboom right now probably isn’t the best idea. Still, I wouldn’t put it past Discord to try and make us do something that would get us in trouble.’

Not to mention the problem of delivering a Rainboom to the theater, Twilight pointed out, Were you expecting me to loop around and catch some of the shockwave in a bucket or something?

Rainbow gave an amused mental snort. ‘That sounds like something Pinkie Pie would think up,’ she said ‘And knowing her, she might find a way to…’ She trailed off for a second, and then began cackling. ‘Oh my gosh, if I could actually grab a piece of a Sonic Rainboom blast and do something with it… that would be soooo-’

Awesome? Twilight finished flatly, smirking.

‘No,’ Dash said, ‘Beyond awesome. It would be like if I found the dial marked “Awesome,” turned it up to eleven, then tore it off and ran away laughing! The Wonderbolts would be begging me to try out for the team!’

Focus Rainbow, Twilight thought, leveling out and coming to a stop in the air, If we’re not going with a Sonic Rainboom, we need to get back to figuring out Discord’s riddle.

‘You got any suggestions?’ Rainbow asked sardonically.

“Well,” Twilight said as she came in for a landing, “it’s getting close to lunch time and I’m famished. I’m going to go find some food, and we can discuss things on the way.”

‘Food is good,’ Rainbow agreed, ‘Just don’t get lost again.’ Twilight rolled her eyes and trotted out of the park. ‘So…' the speedster prompted.

Let’s look at the riddle as a whole and then break it down, Twilight thought as she walked, excitement distilled, the element that can make rain go ‘BOOM.’ You seemed to focus mostly on the last few words with your idea. What we need to do is come up with something that can be described by that entire line.

‘He said rain,’ Rainbow mused, ‘So he was either talking about weather or water.'

There are some kinds of elemental metal that react explosively in water, Twilight added, Although, because of that there’s no chance of finding any outside of a research lab. You could say they’re distilled excitement though…

‘Yeah… I don’t think so,’ Rainbow said, ‘That’s not something I’d think of on my own anyway.’

Technically, Twilight thought, flapping her wings a couple times, these are yours, so we could say you provide the means to get what we need and I can figure out the solution.

‘Um…’ Rainbow thought, ‘sorry Twi, but to me that sounds like a complicated way of saying “sit back and let me do all the work Rainbow Dash.” Anyway, no fancy exploding metal. What about the weather… Oh. Ugh, imagine me doing a face-hoof.’ Twilight quirked an eyebrow up but waited for Rainbow to continue. ‘I should have thought of this first,' Rainbow said grumpily, ‘Lightning and thunder. It adds a definite “BOOM!” to rainstorms, and kicking a thundercloud gets ponies excited.’

If you call ‘scared out of their wits’ excited, Twilight thought sarcastically, but that’s a good point. Electricity energizes and excites whatever it goes into, whether it be by lightning setting something on fire or a hoof buzzer giving you a spasm.

‘So then,’ Rainbow said excitedly, ‘all we need is a small thunder cloud. That sound good to you Twilight?’

Twilight nodded and then looked up at the sky. She frowned when she failed to locate any clouds in the parts of the sky she could see. How long would it take you to teach me to make clouds? she asked.

‘Hmm…’ Rainbow said thoughtfully, ‘Find some food first.’

After filling up on more spaghetti marinara than she imagined her stomach could hold, at Dash’s insistence, Twilight made her way back to the Central Park clearing with the pond. She glanced around to see if there were any other ponies around. She knew some of Manehatten’s rules regarding pegasi, but she wasn’t sure if they included anything about making clouds or other small weather effects. She didn’t see anypony around, so she let out a relieved breath and filed away the worrying for later.

‘Ok, here’s the basic idea,’ Rainbow Dash said, ‘Clouds are made of water vapor and air. If you want a simple fluffy white one you just need to gather enough water into one spot and mix it with the air using your wings. Clouds that can produce thunder when kicked need to be a little more dense, and that takes more time and tighter maneuvers. For starters, just skim the pond there with a hoof and try to catch some of the spray in your draft. If you start making a misty contrail, you’re doing it right.’

“Ok,” Twilight said, blinking in mild surprise.

‘What?’ Dash asked indignantly, picking up on Twilight’s amazement, ‘I’m a weather pony. I have to know how this stuff works.’ Twilight flushed in embarrassment and took flight, kicking off the ground occasionally as she glided in low toward the water. She tucked all but one foreleg up as she reached the shore and trailed her hoof through the water as she began to flap to maintain her momentum and altitude. ‘That’s enough,’ Rainbow said when she reached the middle of the pond, ‘head up and let’s see if you got it.’ Twilight pulled in her leg and angled her flight upward as she accelerated. She leveled out again near tree-top level and banked to the right to check behind her. She laughed in triumph when she saw a thin wispy line of mist curving up from the surface of the pond along the path she’d flown. Rainbow gave a short laugh as well and said, ‘Not bad Twilight. Now, go get some more water and we’ll see if you can form a real cloud.’ Twilight dove toward the pond, intending to zoom across the surface and drag as much water as possible into her wake. She miscalculated her speed however and ended up crashing into the water and sending up a short fountain of the liquid. Dash guffawed as the lavender Pegasus swam to the edge of the pond and pulled herself out, soaked to the skin. ‘Wow, I wish I could have seen that from the outside,’ the pegasus said, ‘That has to be one of the best- wait wait, don’t dry off too much!’

“Why?” Twilight asked, pausing in the middle of shaking the water out of her coat, “I can’t fly with wet wings, can I?”

‘Well no…’ Twilight resumed shaking. ‘But you can probably use the water in your coat as cloud material once you go fast enough for the wind to blow it loose.’

“Oh,” Twilight said, brushing her sodden forelock out of her eyes, “That makes sense, I guess. There’s still these though,” she added as she extended and flapped her wings as rapidly as she could to try and shake the water out.

‘Careful,’ Rainbow hissed with a mental wince, ‘Don’t mess up the feathers!’ Twilight slowed her flapping with a slight blush. ‘I am going to be so happy when this is all over,’ Dash muttered.

After a few minutes, Twilight’s wings were dry enough for her fly. She took flight, buzzed the pond a few times to collect a thick trail of mist, and then flew up to begin crafting the cloud. Under Rainbow’s direction, she flew in tightening circles until she’d created a spiral disk of cloud material. Then, hesitantly, she flew around the disk in vertical loops to add thickness to the proto-cloud. Finally, once her contrail had faded away, she began to fly around the mist, pressing in on it with her hooves as she went to force the vapor to condense into a smaller and smaller package. After five tiring minutes, the cloud had finished forming and hung in the air with inviting softness. Twilight came to a stop and settled onto it with a sigh, barely resisting the urge to burrow into it and fall asleep. “Is this why you’re always napping Rainbow?” she asked.

‘Yeeah, let’s go with that,’ Rainbow said, ‘anyway, this feels pretty good for a first hoof-made cloud. Mind giving it a kick? I’m not expecting much, but I’d like to see how it responds.’ Twilight nodded and stood up. She stomped down on the cloud, and it responded with a dull rumble and a few drops of water. ‘Huh,’ Rainbow said, ‘It shouldn’t be making noise yet. You must have packed it in tighter than I thought. Nice job.'

“Thank you,” Twilight said proudly.

‘Don’t mention it,’ Rainbow said, ‘Rest up a little, and then let’s get to work turning this into a proper thunderhead.’

“You just can’t break ponies who’ve been through what these girls have.”

“You were counting on this the whole time, weren’t you?”

“I never meant that to be a secret.”

The Delve

“I love it when a plot comes together.”

“It’s not over yet. I spy a possible complication for your little scheme.”

“What are you talking abo… Ah. Well, we almost made it without discovery. That's respectable."”

“Don’t you worry, I’ll handle it.”

“Discord! Don’t you dare-”

Fluttershy pranced down the street toward the Silver Halter, humming happily around the bag held in her mouth in time with the song Pinkie Pie was improvising around the theme of cinnamon. The spicy-sweet scent wafting from the bag combined with Pinkie’s music drove all worries about confronting Discord from the yellow pony’s mind. As the bonded pair arrived at the theater, they met Applejack coming from the other direction. Fluttershy blinked in surprise at the orange mare’s mane, which was layered up on her head in a sort of forward-leaning bun, and the string of pearls hanging around her neck.

“Howdy there Flutterpie,” AJ said, “How’d the two of you fare?”

“We got what we needed,” Fluttershy said, setting her bag down, “What about you and Rarity? Did you find what you were looking for?”

“Yup, right here,” Applejack said, motioning to the pearls, “Ten pearls and then some.” Her stomach gurgled and she chuckled, “Ah-heh-heh… Sorry. Say, you got anything ta eat in that bag? I forgot how tiny the portions can be fer a fancy luncheon.”

Fluttershy shook her head. “Sorry Applejack,” she said, “It’s only the cinnamon we had to get.”

“Cinnamon?” AJ cocked her head to the side, “Now what in Equestria would Discord want with ten pearls and a bunch of cinnamon?” Fluttershy just shrugged with an apologetic look on her face. A shadow fell over the ponies and they looked up to see a pony-sized black cloud pass low over their heads and settle to the street. Twilight was on top the cloud, all four legs wrapped around it in a tight grip. “Looks like the gang’s all here,” Applejack said as Twilight stood up on the cloud and looked at her friends, “But Twi, ain’t there some sort of rules ‘bout flying in the city?”

“Yeah,” Twilight said, “But if you’re dragging a thundercloud around and acting like you have every right to do so, nopony asks any questions. It’s called a…” She narrowed her eyes and tilted her head as she consulted with Rainbow Dash. “A Griffon Fire Drill apparently,” she concluded with a shrug of her wings, “Anyway, here’s hoping Rainbow and I guessed right in making this cloud. You girls ready?”

“Ready as we’ll ever be,” AJ said.

“Um,” Fluttershy said, “Are you going to be able to get that cloud inside the building?”

Twilight jumped down from the cloud and looked at it. “That’s a good question,” she said, “Maybe if I break off a smaller piece?” She regarded to the thunderhead for several seconds as Rainbow gave her opinion on the matter. Finally, Twilight gave a nod and then proceeded to carefully split the cloud in half, and then in half again. She pulled one of the quarters aside and kicked the others out of existence. “Rainbow says this is only good for one or two lightning strikes,” she said, taking flight and starting to push the smaller cloud toward the theater, “but that should be more than enough. Come on.” Applejack ran ahead to open a door, but found them all to be locked.

“Huh, let’s try around the back,” she said.

“I hope Trixie’s here,” Fluttershy said as the group walked into the alley behind the building, “If they’re not expecting us yet…” Applejack tried to backstage door and then stepped back with a frown when it refused to yield. “Oh dear.”

“Try knocking,” Twilight suggested, “Maybe Mr. Arch is here; I’m sure he’ll let us in.” Applejack approached the door and knocked on it twice, and then jumped back as it cracked open slightly and a thick pink mist hissed out and surrounded the ponies.

“Now what?” AJ asked as she and her friends drew as close together as they could. The mist encircled the group and curled up to close over their heads, sealing them inside a dome as Discord’s laugh echoed around them.

“My little ponies,” the chaos spirit’s voice said, “So dependable and trusting.”

“Cut the nonsense Discord,” Twilight snapped, “We’ve brought what you asked for, so it’s your turn to hold up your end of the bargain. Change us back!”

“I admire the confidence Twilight Sparkle,” Discord said, “But are you sure you solved my riddle? After all-” the voice cut out suddenly and the mist ceased swirling, simply hanging where it was as if frozen in time.

After a moment, a new voice was heard from outside the pink curtain. “That’s enough,” it said, “you’ve crossed the line already. Game over, you lose, chimera. Dispell!” The world seemed to vanish in a blinding flash of light. When the light faded, the misty dome was gone along with the thundercloud, the bag of cinnamon, and ten pearls from AJ’s necklace. Also, where once three ponies had stood flank-to-flank now six ponies were laying in a heap.

“Oh yeah,” Rainbow Dash shouted, leaping into the air and hugging her legs across her chest, “I’m back baby!” Twilight chuckled at the pegasus as she extracted herself from the pile and checked to see if her horn was back in its proper place. The others stood up as well and looked each other over.

“Welp,” Applejack said, “Looks you got to keep the hairdo there Rarity.”

“Indeed,” the white unicorn said, using her magic to remove bobby pins until her hair fell free into something vaguely resembling her normal style, “and I notice that your hat has returned.”

Applejack looked up and then pulled the Stetson off her head. “That’s great,” she said, “But that means Discord an’ whoever else was involved in this just got saved from a serious flank-kicking.” Twilight glanced at the farm-pony, and then at Rarity, who simply shrugged.

“Speaking of which,” Rainbow said, coming back down to earth, “Who the hay was that other guy? And what did they want with all that random stuff?”

“Hey girls!” Pinkie shouted, waving a hoof from her place next to the theater door, “Come check this out!” The others gathered around to see a letter taped to the door, written in a rather sloppy manner. “Hmm,” Pinkie said, sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth as she leaned in close to read, “I think it says, ‘Girls, congratulations on winning, but I’m afraid Discord left you one last surprise that’s beyond my ability to reverse. Go to the showmare’s dressing room and I’m sure you’ll see what I mean.’ Hm, this last bit’s either a signature or a scribble…”

“Argh,” Rainbow said with a face-hoof, “First a ninja-squirrel, then multi-mental whatever… NOW what? A ticking candy time bomb?” Pinkie’s ears shot up and she ran into the theater with a cry of “Oo!” A few glances were exchanged between the remaining ponies before they followed Pinkie. They caught up to her outside Trixie’s dressing room, where she was peering through the door with a slight droop to her mane and tail.

“It’s not a candy bomb,” she said as she opened the door wider and moved to let the others look inside. The mares gasped as they saw a pony huddled in the middle of the floor, face buried under front legs as she shook with muffled sobs. She was a solid, dull grey with pure white mane and tail and a cutie mark depicting a star-tipped magic wand and a swirl of pixie dust.

“Trixie?!” Fluttershy gasped.

“She’s grey!” Rarity exclaimed in horror.

“Discord’s twisted her,” Twilight said, pushing past her friends to kneel next to Trixie.

“He can do that?” Applejack asked as she and the others gathered around, “I mean, when he did it to us it was by turning us against our Elements, right? Trixie’s just a regular pony.”

“That’s right,” Trixie sobbed, “Just a… regular old… weak and useless Trixie.”

“Aw, no you’re not,” Pinkie said, grabbing the grey pony up in a hug, “You’re the Great and Powerful Trixie, remember? You’re the best stage magician I’ve ever seen! Don’t let mean ol’ Discord get you down!”

“I’m a fraud!” Trixie cried, hanging limp in Pinkie’s grip, “A charlatan! A pathetic pretender who’s only good at making things up!”

“Well, she’s still as big a ham as usual,” Rainbow Dash said flatly. Twilight shot her a look. “She is,” Dash said defensively.

“Trying to talk her out of this isn’t going to work,” Twilight said, starting to focus her magic, “I’ll have to use the memory spell to knock this out of her.”

“You sure that’ll work sugar cube?” Applejack asked, “I mean, our history with her ain’t been the greatest…”

“I may have to find a memory that doesn’t include us,” Twilight said as she placed her horn on Trixie’s head, “wish me luck.”

With a few days of “real” Multiple Mental Occupancy, the previous few hours, and the memory spells she’d cast on her friends during Discord’s brief return to full power, Twilight was becoming rather experienced with traversing the mental plane. This particular experience, delving into Trixie’s memory to find something to break the showmare free of Discord’s influence, was fairly unique. When using the spell to restore her friends, Twilight had simply inserted key thoughts that triggered happy memories of their growing friendship. For this, Twilight had to go deeper than the surface, deeper than she’d ever gone into another’s mind. This would be so exciting if it wasn’t so risky, she thought.

Her awareness of the world around her faded and she felt her sense of time begin to disappear as well. In no time, all there was was her, the magic, and Trixie. Soon, though, a new world formed around Twilight, a world made up of shadows and light. She was standing on a street made of soft golden light surrounded by the barely-visible shadows of buildings in styles reminiscent of Ponyville and other smaller towns in the Everfree region. One house stood out from the rest, being constructed of wood and stone with a roof of thatch. Or rather, Twilight thought as she approached it, the memory of wood, stone, and thatch…

Home. The word echoed through the air, coming from all directions at once. Twilight paused for a second and looked around. When nothing new appeared, she continued toward the house. She came to a stop at the foot of a cobblestone walk that curved ever so slightly as it crossed through a small yard on its way to the front door. On the lawn lay a sapphire-blue unicorn mare watching a pale blue filly trying to lift a trio of pebbles with her magic. The little pony’s face was scrunched up in concentration as the aura around her horn sputtered and sparked. After several seconds, the aura stabilized and the pebbles rose gently into the air, suspended in a matching glow. The filly opened her eyes slowly, and then she beamed at the mare. “Look mama! I did it!”

“Yes you did,” the mare said proudly, standing up to walk over and nuzzle the filly, “My little Trixie, you’re becoming so powerful.” Twilight couldn’t help but smile at the tender scene, but it suddenly froze and lost all its color before fading into the shadows.

She spoiled me. The voice was filled with anger, and to Twilight it sounded almost like Trixie, but with a strange artificial twist to it. The buildings shifted around the unicorn, moving her to a point just outside the ethereal town. Before her was the familiar form of Trixie’s original stage-wagon, and the showmare herself was sitting in the open door looking out at the town, her coat devoid of color. Around Twilight appeared the shadows of several ponies, who looked at Trixie and then turned away and walked toward the buildings, fading away with each step. Trixie watched them go with an unreadable expression, and then stepped into her wagon and closed the door. Did anypony come to see me off when I set out on my own? The Trixie-voice asked sardonically.

“Trixie!” Twilight called out, running toward the wagon, “Wait!” The wagon turned grey and vanished along with the town, leaving Twilight temporarily alone on a disk of light. “This… this feels wrong,” Twilight said, “I mean, sure I don’t actually know what your fillyhood was like, but I’m sure it’s not as bad as you’re thinking right now. I bet your mother was there when you left. She loves you. She has to.”

Oh go away Twilight, the voice said, starting to sound more like Discord than Trixie, You have the most annoying habit of sticking your nose into our business.

“I’m helping a friend,” Twilight replied, narrowing her eyes as she looked around for something to glare at.

“Did she ask for your help?” An image of the Spirit of Chaos appeared in front of the unicorn, arms crossed as he looked askance at her. “Has she ever asked you to help her, or did you just keep pushing until she relented?”

“Of course…” Twilight began, but then stopped as her mind failed to conjure up a moment when Trixie had actually requested help from her. “I…” she stammered. Discord smirked and started to turn away. “That shouldn’t matter,” Twilight said firmly, rallying her thoughts, “A good friend can tell when she’s needed even without being asked.”

Discord leaned forward and looked Twilight in the eye. “You just assume she thinks of you as a friend,” he said, and then adopted a mocking, sing-song voice, “Oh look at me! I’m the Element of Magic! And since Friendship is Magic, every pony in the world will want to be my friend!” He spat to the side. “Why don’t we just see how good a friend Trixie thinks you are?” He vanished from view and a scene began to emerge. Unlike the ethereal town, this scene was full of color, although it was muted and translucent. A quick look around told Twilight that she was standing in the main square of Ponyville. A starry expanse overhead set the time at some point after sunset, and the location of Trixie’s wagon gave the unicorn her final clue as to what was about to unfold.

“Nice choice Discord,” Twilight muttered as she saw two small pony-shaped light blobs run up to the wagon and begin to pound on the door in a panic, calling out Trixie’s name. The showmare stuck her head out the open top of the door and began to berate the pair for waking her up. As the Ursa Minor appeared and Trixie ran for her life, Twilight sat back with a thoughtful frown on her face. She knew this memory was accurate, she’d heard enough from Snips, Snails, and other ponies about what had happened before she’d entered the scene. The question was whether she’d be able to interact with the memory before she was supposed to be there. She still had that nagging feeling in the back of her mind that the earlier memories had been altered. On the other hoof, it wouldn’t do Trixie any good to rebuild her confidence based on a false idea. With a defeated sigh, Twilight watched Trixie try in vain to drive off the Ursa, and then as an image of her ran up, talked to Snips, heard Trixie’s confession of making things up, and then began to calm and lull the oversize infant bear to sleep. The real Twilight shook her head and turned away from the scene. “Trixie doesn’t hold any of this against me,” she said, “She told me that herself. It took her a while to come to terms with it though.” The scene abruptly changed and Twilight found herself at the foot of a stage made of rocks and dirt, while an angry Trixie yelled at another Twilight Sparkle who was backed up against a half-formed cage of dirt. A golden-yellow blur of light followed by smaller points of red and blue flew onto the stage and interposed themselves between Trixie and the Twilight image. The real Twilight turned away again and said, “She scared me when she was like that, but I understand why she did it now. The next time…” Her ears perked up as she recalled the last time she had been in Trixie’s head. Smiling, she looked up at the shadows above her and said, “When Ashen Blaze was restoring us to our bodies, Trixie asked me to help her find Ash’s mind so she could anchor to it like he told her to.” Immediately she was inside the Ponyville medical tent, with gray-scale Trixie standing in front of her with a sad look in her eyes.

“Twilight,” Trixie said, “I wish I had your strength. You… you never seem to falter.”

Twilight chuckled and shook her head. “Trust me Trixie,” she said, “I falter all the time. What Discord’s done to you happened to me as well. I would have given up if it weren’t for Princess Celestia reminding me what I was fighting for: my friends.”

“It always comes back to your friends,” Trixie said, scowling, “You drive off the Ursa Minor and your friends are there to congratulate you and praise your gift. I come close to losing control and doing you harm with my new earth powers and your friends come to save you. The very spirit of disharmony himself breaks free, and friendship gives you the power to stop him. I don’t have your strength Twilight Sparkle. I don’t have real friends.” She dropped her gaze and Twilight stood in silence, trying to form an answer.

“Do… don’t you think of me as a real friend?” she asked as last, “I… I hoped, after the MMO.”

“Your friends are always around you,” Trixie said, “Not even a day’s trot from your door. I’m out here in Manehatten; the only pony I could consider a friend here is Proscenium, and I work for him…” She sniffled and then continued, “Besides, some of your friends still don’t like me that much.”

“We all have times when we don’t want to be around each other,” Twilight said, reaching out a comforting hoof, but then paused and thought. “Have you even tried to make friends of you own?” she asked.

“No,” Trixie said, looking up at Twilight, “I’ve traveled most of my life, and been an over-inflated braggart for most of that. I’ve never had the time or inclination to try. I was going to head back out on the road in a few months too. How can I have friends if I’m always on the move?”

“Take them with you?” Twilight said with a shrug, “I think I got off lucky; everypony I met on my first day in Ponyville wanted to be my friend right away. I can’t promise it will be that easy for you, but why not start by forming a performance group? Find ponies willing to share the stage with the Great and Powerful Trixie.”

“But I’ve always been a solo act,” Trixie muttered, but then blinked as some color appeared in her coat, making her a dusty grey-blue. “Except that one week…” she mused, “When the Princess…” She trailed off and smiled as Twilight gave her a confused look. The showmare’s full color flowed back into her coat and mane and the medical tent vanished to make way for the stage of the Silver Halter. “You should leave now Twilight Sparkle,” Trixie said as her trademark hat and cape materialized on her, “The Great and Powerful Trixie requires privacy in her own mind.”

“Ah, right,” Twilight said, turning away. She’d nearly forgotten that she was simply a projection of her own psyche into the showmare’s head. That must be one of the biggest dangers of this sort of spell, she thought as she began to pull herself out and returned to the real world. She put a hoof to her head as sensation returned and she found herself standing among her friend in Trixie’s dressing room again. “How long was I in there?” she asked.

“Uh,” Rainbow Dash said, “You were touching her for about two seconds if that’s what you mean.” Twilight raised a surprised eyebrow at the relative time dilation.

“It sure did the trick though,” Pinkie said, still holding onto the limp Trixie. The showmare’s color was flowing back into her coat and mane from the tip of her horn outward. Once the change was complete, her eyes focused and she extracted herself from Pinkie’s grasp, tossing her mane and brushing at her chest with a hoof before regarding Twilight with a small smile.

“Don’t mention it,” Twilight said, returning the smile.

“Very well,” Trixie said smugly, “I won’t. The Great and Powerful Trixie shouldn’t need to waste her breath stating the obvious anyway.”

“Yay, everypony’s back to normal!” Pinkie declared, grabbing everypony in a big hug, “you know what this-”

“Party time,” Twilight, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash said at the same time.

“Aw, you girls know me too well,” Pinkie chuckled, releasing her captives.

“I know a good café,” Trixie said, “They have a gelato that’s second to none.”

“I’ll be the judge of that!” Pinkie declared, raising a hoof dramatically, “lead the way!”

Epilogue: Letters and Notes

Dear Proscenium Arch,

It is with reluctance and a heavy heart that I must inform you in this manner that I am leaving Manehatten. I am in dire need of new scenery and the excitement of the life of a traveling performer. I hope to find other ponies who share my passions and to form a troupe of actors and performers, and the best way to do so is to travel to where they are. I may return in the future, but it will not be to resume our current, or should I say former? – relationship. I will always be grateful for your patronage, and I hope you do not think too badly of me for breaking our contract. I must do this though.

If you desire to contact me, I will be heading to Hoofington for a few weeks before beginning my journey in earnest.

Greatly yours,
Trixie

Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student,

I am relieved to hear that you and your friends have survived your encounter with Discord and his unknown assistant. Neither Luna nor I have been able to discern the identity of the mystery pony; the only magic we have sensed around Discord’s prison belong to Ashen Blaze and Soul Mage, who I assigned to gauge the new seal’s strength. They’d previously reported that the seal seemed to have a minor imperfection, but that there was no danger of it growing weaker. For now I have ordered a regular watch over the statue to make sure there is no repetition of what happened to you in Manehatten.

I am concerned that there is a pony, or some other intelligent creature, who is able to help Discord’s power circumvent the seal, and, worse, that he or she is willing to do so. Until their identity and location is discovered, I advise you to keep your guard up and your friends close. I will be sure to inform you of any new developments, and I may need to call upon the Elements of Harmony to re-set Discord’s seal in the near future.

Be safe my beloved student.

Princess Celestia

Dear Trixie,

I hope this letter finds you, and that you are well.

Do not worry yourself over your decision to leave the Silver Halter. I remember when I first met you, out on the streets performing slight-of-hoof parlor tricks for spare change. The light in your eyes was nearly gone, and I could tell you were continuing with nothing but sheer willpower and stubbornness driving your actions. I saw your potential though and gave you the chance to prove yourself on a real stage. You did not disappoint, and my fellows quickly grew envious that I had been the one to discover you. Recently though, I’ve seen that same lack of light in your eyes, which only returned when you spoke of your off-season travels and the friendships you forged in Ponyville.

So, not only will I not condemn you for breach of contract, I will provide you what assistance I can. Along with this letter, please find a list of theaters and performance centers operated by friends of mine across Equestria. Mention me to them and they should be willing to accommodate your shows. They may even have leads on performers who might be willing to make your acquaintance.

If you’re ever in Manehatten again, the Silver Halter would be honored to have you grace its stage.

Sincerely,

Proscenium Arch

I should have known better. I mean, making a deal with a trickster spirit of that caliber, I must be insane!

Nonetheless, it seems to have worked out. My intention was to keep Discord’s attention occupied while I tested a temporary patch to the imperfection in the stone seal. I have a suspicion about why the Harmony spell that sealed Discord in stone has that flaw, but I won’t go pointing hooves, not even in my private notes. Those girls have enough problems without doubting the integrity of one of their own. Then again, if it is who I think… Not the point!

I fed Discord the idea of using the Element Bearers to obtain the ingredients because his thoughts were already, and predictably, leaning towards vengeance upon those girls. It was too easy to convince him to let me channel his power toward fusing them into pairs and managing the reality shifts to keep them inside the city and to prevent certain purchases. He was so focused on seeing the results of the excuse I gave that he didn’t realize I’d talked him into using all the power that could leak out of the seal.

What I didn’t realize what that letting that power flow out would widen the crack even after I applied the temporary patch. He got to Trixie before I could lock his mind away completely, using that attack as an excuse to “disqualify” him from the game. That chimeric nightmare may be the embodiment of chaos, but he’s got a strong affinity to rules and consequences. Break the rules, and you’re out, even if you’re a dragonequus.

My tracks are covered, the seal should hold as long as nopony else tries to do anything with it (besides hitting it with the Elements of course), and, should my formula work, I’ve got the means to undo a tragic loss to the multiverse. There will be stinim!

The Lure

“The seal is imperfect. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say somepony wasn’t one hundred percent committed to the spell.”

As the late afternoon sun slowly sank toward the horizon, the tall city buildings cast shadows that plunged most of the streets into an early twilight. For those who lived and frequently visited Manehatten, the premature evening was a simple fact of life that garnered no commentary or attention. For one pale blue unicorn mare, however, it felt like another light blow between the ears after a day of disappointments. With her head and ears drooping and a simple mauve skirt chosen simply to hide her cutie mark, one would need to look twice to recognize her as the Great and Powerful Trixie. She sighed as her stomach rumbled, and the stallion walking beside her gave a small chuckle. “Let me buy you some dinner,” he said, “I’m sure you’ll feel better after some food.”

“Thank you, but Trixie has already taken up enough of your money,” the showmare said, “I can pay for myself.”

“I insist,” the mahogany-colored unicorn said, “you’ve talked me into deeper pay cuts than you deserve. I can’t have my shining star starving herself sick in the middle of the season.”

“You flatter me Mr. Arch,” Trixie said, her dull tone giving lie to her words, “But can you really consider me a star when my shows are barely breaking even in ticket sales? And don’t try to tell me I’m wrong about that; I’ve seen the books.”

“We’re simply having a slow patch,” Proscenium Arch said, “That happens from time to time in our line of work. Surely you’ve noticed that Trixie.”

Trixie pursed her lips in thought for a second before replying. “On the road, I could always pack up and move on if I received a lackluster reception.” She looked over at Arch and said, “To be honest, I think I prefer the traveling life.”

“Well, don’t let me hold you back from it,” Arch said, and then coughed and added, “After you’ve fulfilled your current contract that is. Ah, here we go,” he said, stopping in front of a salad shop, “This seems like a good place to eat. What do you think?”

“It will do, I suppose,” Trixie said, plodding toward the door. Proscenium held the door open for her as she entered and looked around. The showmare looked around at the tables, most of which were occupied.

“Go find a seat,” Arch said, coming up next to her, “I’ll go get our food. What do you want?”

“Something with pine nuts,” Trixie answered. Arch made his way to the counter while Trixie resumed looking around the shop. A sudden peal of high-spirited laughter drew her attention to the far corner of the seating area. After working her way around another group of diners, Trixie spotted six familiar mares gathered around a table. Closest to her, with their backs to the showmare, were a vibrantly pink earth pony with a wildly curly mane and tail, an elegant-looking white unicorn with a purple mane and tail, and a butter-yellow, pink-maned pegasus. On the other side sat a cyan pegasus with a short, rainbow-striped mane, an orange earth pony wearing a Stetson hat, and, of course, Twilight Sparkle. Trixie was momentarily puzzled by their presence, but when Twilight looked up from her food and didn’t seem to realize the showmare was looking at her, she decided to get some answers, in her usual way. She shifted her weight slightly as she struck one of her trademark condescension poses, with a hoof placed on her chest to temper it with an air of pleasant surprise.

“Hiya Trixie!” Pinkie Pie all but shouted as she spun around to give the blue unicorn a welcoming grin. Several eyes - including all those belonging to Pinkie’s friends – were immediately directed at the showmare, who dropped her façade with a sigh.

“Hello,” she said with a smile, “What, may I ask, has brought the six of you here to Manehatten?”

“We’re taking a well-deserved vacation,” Twilight said, “I’m sure you heard about how we defeated Discord a little while back.”

“The embodiment of chaos and disharmony?” Trixie asked, arching an eyebrow, “Of course I have! That… creature’s influence was felt all across Equestria! And of course the Princesses weren’t shy about spreading the news.”

“Yeah,” Twilight said, “He picked Ponyville as the center of his kingdom, and even after using the Elements of Harmony to seal him and his work away, we’re still finding little pockets of… whatever to clean up.”

“We simply had to get away for a while to unwind,” Rarity said, “and when Applejack here mentioned Manehatten, we all agreed it would be the perfect place to spend a week off.”

“I see,” Trixie said, “Well, I do hope you enjoy your time here.”

“Hey,” Pinkie said as Trixie turned to leave, “you’re not looking too happy there. Why don’t you take a seat and let me cheer you up?” She shifted to the side, ignoring the glare Rarity gave her as she bumped up against the white unicorn.

“I…” Trixie said, “thank you, but I don’t want to intrude. Besides, I’m here with someone.” She caught the sly look in Dash’s, Applejack’s, and Rarity’s eyes and quickly added, “Not like that. It’s just my manager, Proscenium Arch.”

“Just your manager?” Arch’s voice said from behind Trixie, “My dear, have you been leading me on this whole time?” Rainbow Dash muffled a laugh as the pale blue unicorn blushed furiously and whirled on the mahogany unicorn, who was wearing a goofy smile as he levitated two plates of salad above his head.

“Is this ‘Embarrass the Great and Powerful Trixie Day’ or something?” she snapped.

“My apologies,” Arch said, “The opportunity was simply too good to pass up. Who are your friends?”

“Well, friends may be too strong in certain cases,” Trixie replied, casting a withering glance at the laughing cyan pegasus, “but these are Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville. Everypony, this is Proscenium Arch, owner of the Silver Halter Theater where I am currently performing.” Except for Fluttershy, who hid shyly behind her mane, and Dash, who cut her laughter off instantly to strike a proud pose, each pony nodded a greeting as they were named.

“It’s a pleasure to-” Proscenium Arch began, but then did a double-take and nearly dropped the salads. Trixie grabbed the one that looked like it had her pine nuts on it as the mahogany unicorn found his voice again. “Pardon me,” he said, “I wasn’t expecting to meet the six ponies who saved Equestria. I’m honored to meet you all.”

“Yep,” Rainbow Dash said casually, all too willing to bask in the recognition. Twilight cast a glance at her friend, rolled her eyes, and then gave Arch and Trixie a friendly smile.

“You’re welcome to join us if you want,” she said, “I’m sure we can make room for two more.”

“Thank you,” Arch said with a low bow. The mares at the table shifted around to make space as Trixie and Arch set their plates down and took their seats. They spent a few minutes simply eating and giving the mahogany stallion better introductions, but soon the conversation turned toward the theater and Trixie’s mood.

“It’s terrible, to be honest,” Trixie said dramatically, “I used to sell out the house almost every night, but now we’re lucky if half the seats are taken during the evening, and there’s simply no point trying to hold matinees anymore.”

“Why would you hold a manatee?” Pinkie asked, earning several confused stares, “Is that a new part of your act?” The others puzzled over the question for several seconds, and then Twilight and Rarity both face-hooved.

“Darling, she said ‘matinee,’” Rarity explained, “That means a performance held during the day.”

“Ooooh,” Pinkie said before applying herself to her food again.

“Yes, well,” Proscenium Arch said, returning to the original train of thought, “As I was saying to Trixie here earlier, lulls in audience turn-out do occur on occasion, and I haven’t seen any reason to panic about it.”

“I suspect most folks are more concerned with recoverin’ from Discord’s shenanigans at the moment,” Applejack said, “No offense to you Trixie, but listenin’ to some of your tall tales don’t sound to appealing so soon after that nightmare.”

“You’re hardly one to judge, little miss Honesty” Trixie said critically, “Besides, I’ve been cutting down on my stories in favor of more tricks and audience participation. Although now that I think of it, perhaps that is why my popularity is waning?”

“I believe Applejack makes a valid point actually,” Arch said, “It’s difficult to predict how large-scale disasters will affect audience turn-out. Sometimes they turn out in greater numbers to escape for a few hours, but sometimes they turn their attention to more important things like family or self-preservation.” Silence fell for a few seconds as the ponies continued to eat. Suddenly, Arch’s ears perked up and his chewing slowed for a second before accelerating in his haste to voice the idea that had just popped into his mind. “My dears,” he said sweetly, looking around the table, “You aren’t by chance busy this evening, are you?” Trixie gave him a suspicious glance.

“Not particularly,” Twilight said, looking at her friends in case somepony thought differently. The other five Ponyville mares were simply looking at Proscenium Arch with varying levels of curiosity. “Why?”

“Perhaps you would do us a favor and grant tonight’s show with your presence?” Arch asked, eyes shining in a manner that reminded Twilight of Rarity receiving inspiration, “Could you imagine the publicity-”

“No,” Trixie said firmly, cutting the stallion off, “The Great and Powerful Trixie stands or falls on her own merits, not on her connections. Besides, my shows tend to go very badly when any of these ponies get involved.”

“Well that’s a bit of an exaggeration,” Rarity protested.

Trixie raised an eyebrow at the white unicorn. “Ponyville visit number one ended with an Ursa trampling my wagon,” she said, “visit number two was nothing less than an embarrassing temper tantrum. I recall Applejack here being present when Princess Luna almost blew the roof off the Silver Halter. And then when I returned to Ponyville for the third time, I was subjected to projectile produce, followed by nearly two days of having another pony in my head! So, as much I have come to consider you pleasant company, you’d be doing me a favor by spending your evening elsewhere.”

“Oh, this just will not do at all.”

“Indeed. Oh well, can’t be helped.”

“I beg to differ.”

Shouts and cries from the street brought all conversation in the salad shop to a halt. Twilight and company found themselves at the back of the crowd pushing its way toward the front to peer out the windows. Even Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were blocked off by the pegasi flying in front of them. As Twilight, AJ, and Trixie tried to push their way through the mass, Pinkie Pie bounced up and down trying to see over everypony before losing her patience and jumping up onto the nearest back. Ignoring the complaints and attempts to shake her off, the pink earth pony bounced lightly from pony to pony until she reached the front and squeezed her head between a pair of pegasi wearing matching newsboy caps.

“What do you see?” Twilight called out as she continued worming her way toward the door.

“There’s a squirrel out there,” Pinkie reported.

“A squirrel?” Twilight replied, eyes crossing in confusion, “All this commotion is because of a little squirrel?”

“No,” Pinkie said, “it’s because of a squirrel the size of a pony running around dressed like a ninja.”

“What’s a ninja?” Twilight asked.

“Seriously?” Rainbow Dash asked, giving Twilight an odd look, “How can you read so much and not know about ninjas? They’re only the coolest warriors ever! They can hide in the shadows and wield these awesome swords that can cut through anything. They’re normally only found in Neighpon though…”

“So,” Twilight summarized as she and the others grouped up to push their way out faster, “There’s a giant squirrel out there dressed like some sort of magic shadow warrior from Neighpon. That doesn’t make any…” she trailed off and then facehoofed as the realization hit her. “Great,” she deadpanned, “it’s got to be a Discord leftover…” Gasps and horrified whispers erupted as most of the crowd turned their eyes toward the lavender unicorn. “Uh,” she said, briefly overwhelmed by the sudden attention.

“Well,” Trixie said, raising her voice to project over the murmurs, “If that’s the case, then the best thing for everypony to do is make room for the Elements of Harmony here so they can go deal with it!” It took several seconds for the message to sink in, but it had the desired effect. A path to the door began to form and Twilight’s group, plus Trixie and Proscenium Arch, found themselves quickly herded out into the street and into a convenient gap in the street-side crowd that had formed. Like Pinkie had said, a pony-sized red squirrel dressed in a black bodysuit and matching ninja mask was running up and down the street in front of the salad shop. It even had a sheathed katana strapped to its back.

“Yep,” Rainbow said, staring at the animal in mild shock, “That’s a ninja squirrel alright.”

“Right then,” Twilight said, growing serious, “It may be big, but it’s still just a squirrel. Fluttershy, you’re up.”

“Right,” the yellow pegasus said with conviction. She walked toward the scampering rodent and cleared her throat politely as it ran past. “Excuse me,” she said as it came to stop in front of her, “I don’t mean to interrupt whatever it is you’re doing, but you’re causing a big scene. Why don’t you stop running for a bit and let us… fix whatever’s wrong with you. If you don’t mind.” The squirrel’s head cocked to one side as it regarded Fluttershy, and then pulled down its mask and stretched its cheeks out with its front paws while sticking its tongue out at her before running off down the street at full speed. “So that’s a ‘no’ then?” Fluttershy said quietly.

“Don’t let it get away!” Dash shouted, rocketing after the ninja. Her friends followed close behind her, with Trixie taking up the rear alongside Rarity. The showmare felt no obligation to help out, but she was quite curious about how the chase would end, hoping she could build some new story out of it later on. The Ponyvilleans may have been bad luck for her performances in the past, but by the same token they’d proven to be great sources of material.

After weeks of dealing with the remnants of Discord’s brief reign, the Element Bearers had learned to expect the unexpected, so Dash wasn’t too surprised when the ninja squirrel vanished from sight in a cloud of smoke and re-appeared on the fire escape of a nearby building. In fact, the cyan pegasus was impressed. “That is so cool,” she squeaked as she banked toward the rodent of unusual size. As she approached, the squirrel jumped off the fire escape and pulled a quadruple somersault over Dash’s head before hitting the street and taking off again. Now I know how Pinkie felt about the chocolate rain, Dash thought as she looped around to make chase again. She arrived back on the street just as Twilight and the others caught up. “When we catch this thing, can we just shrink it down to normal size?” she asked the lavender unicorn, “It would make the greatest pet ever.”

“No Rainbow,” Twilight answered flatly, “We can’t let anything Discord made stay. There’s literally no telling what kind of effects this creature could have on the city.”

“But, it’s a squirrel that’s a ninja,” Rainbow persisted, “You can’t tell me that’s not some kind of awesome.”

“Consarnit Rainbow,” Applejack snapped, “Just hurry up and catch the varmint. There’s no point in arguin’ over keeping it if ya can’t even catch it in the first place.”

“Puh-lease,” the pegasus said, “There hasn’t been a ninja squirrel yet that can out-run Rainbow Dash!” She zipped away in pursuit as several pairs of eyes were rolled.

For several blocks, the chase remained simple and straight-forward, right up until the moment that Dash was close enough to touch the squirrel. The rodent vanished in another puff of smoke, and Dash slowed to a stop as she looked around for it to reappear. With another, larger puff, the squirrel materialized in the middle of the next intersection and began making comical faces at the approaching ponies. “That’s it,” Rainbow growled, flying at the ninja with all the speed she could muster. After blowing one last raspberry, the squirrel ran off again – in three separate directions. Dash came to another stop, jaw hanging open in disbelief. “That’s not… WHAT?” she exclaimed, looking around wildly at the trio of retreating ninja squirrels.

“I told you,” Twilight said as the others caught up, “There’s no predicting what’ll happen. We’ll have to split up. Pinkie and Fluttershy, take the left one; Rarity and AJ, take the right. Dash, you’re with me. Catch them if you can, but make sure you don’t lose sight of them. Go!”

“Could I-” Trixie began, only to snort in frustration as the six scattered to chase down their targets, ignoring her. After a quick glance around, she galloped off after Pinkie and Fluttershy, if only to give each pursuit group a unicorn to work with. “Do we have some sort of plan?” she asked as she came up even with the earth pony and pegasus.

“Nope,” Pinkie said with a smile, “just go with a flow Trixie.”

“Well,” the showmare said, “I’d rather not run across the entire city waiting for that thing to tire out.” With her magic, she removed her skirt and sent it flying ahead to wrap around the squirrel’s face, forcing it to stop and try to remove the offending cloth. Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Trixie quickly caught up and surrounded it before moving in quietly for the capture. Trixie kept the skirt over the rodent’s face while Fluttershy tried to talk it down with soothing tones. When it continued to scratch at the cloth blocking its eyes, Pinkie leaped forward to tackle it to the ground. The moment she impacted it, however, the squirrel disintegrated into a cloud of dust and a single pinecone that bounced off the earth pony’s head after she hit the ground.

“Ptooey,” Pinkie spat, clearing some dust from her mouth as Fluttershy helped her to her feet, “Wow, even I couldn’t have seen that coming!”

Trixie picked the pinecone up in her magic and scrutinized it.

“Oh wow!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as Twilight extracted a pinecone from the dust pile that had been their quarry until the pegasus had rammed it, “That was a decoy clone! Unicorn Ninjas are supposed to be experts at that trick!”

“As are chaos-powered squirrels it seems,” Twilight muttered, dropping the pinecone and smashing it underneath a hoof. She sighed and looked around, noting that the chase had brought the pair into the theater district of Manehatten. “This is great,” she said grumpily, “now we’re probably going to have search the entire city to find the others.”

“Nuh-uh, we’re right here Twilight!” Twilight and Dash looked to see Pinkie Pie bouncing down the street toward them, each landing dislodging a fresh puff of dust from her coat. Fluttershy was behind her, using her wings to shield her eyes from the dust. Taking up the rear was Trixie, who was…

“Why are you eating that pinecone Trixie?” Twilight asked, giving the unicorn a strange look.

The showmare plucked another scale off the cone and chewed it as she thought. “I’m not sure what possessed me to start,” she said, “but they taste pretty good.”

“You just decided to start eating something that came out of a… clone of something altered by Discord?” Twilight nearly shouted.

“This isn’t my first,” Trixie shot back defensively, “and there’s nothing magical or strange about this one. Although, it is a bit old, and tougher than I prefer…” She bit off another couple of scales and chewed them as defiantly as she could.

“Drinking all that chocolate milk rain didn’t hurt me any Twilight,” Pinkie pointed out. She cast a glance toward Trixie, and then leaned over and bit a scale off of the cone. “Hmm,” she said, chewing it thoughtfully, and then her face screwed up and she spit it out. “Bleh, needs sugar,” she declared.

“Sugar?” Trixie scoffed, “Pinecones are meant to be enjoyed as they are. If you must put something on them it must be either salt or a mildly bitter herb.” Twilight and Rainbow Dash exchanged bewildered looks before shaking their heads and leaving Pinkie and Trixie to their discussion.

“So,” the cyan pegasus said, “Now we just need to find Apple-”

“Put me dooown!’ The ninja squirrel landed in the middle of the group with a struggling Rarity tucked under one arm. “Girls,” the unicorn said with forced calm as the squirrel looked around, “Would you be so kind as to help me!” Before anypony could react, the squirrel dashed toward the nearest building and kicked its way through the door. Applejack arrived a second later, sides heaving as she paused to catch her breath.

“Ha,” she gasped out, “The… varmint’s gone… trapped ‘isself now… if we hurry… Come on!”

“Right,” everypony said as they followed the farm-pony into the theater. Trixie noted that it was her venue, the Silver Halter, that they were entering. I knew it, she thought, I start hanging around these ponies and something happens to the stage I use. At least it won’t be my wagon this time. The group entered the theater proper and saw the squirrel on the stage, trying in vain to taunt them while keeping Rarity from escaping his grasp. The white unicorn wiggled free and kicked the rodent’s leg just as Rainbow flew in for a tackle, knocking it to the ground.

“Ok Twilight,” the pegasus said, pinning the squirrel in place, “do your thing.” The lavender unicorn nodded as she and her other friends climbed up on the stage and gathered around the over-sized rodent. Twilight’s horn lit up as she began to examine the squirrel for spells and stray magic. The creature seemed to be a real squirrel that had been subjected to fundamental changes. Reversing Discord alterations was trickier than simply banishing constructs, such as giant pepper shakers, but this was nothing Twilight couldn’t handle while she had her friends around her. A quick blast of magic to isolate the discordant elements followed by pin-point spells derived from the Elements of Harmony’s rainbow blast cleaned the squirrel up and left it lying on the stage in a daze, restored to its proper size and frame of mind. As Twilight sat back and let her magic fade away, she gave Fluttershy a nod to prompt the pegasus to take charge of the little critter. Trixie, standing out in the audience, stared in awe at the magic she had just witnessed.

And then the lights went out. The ponies didn’t even get a chance to scream before something forced them into a deep sleep.