The Pony Dialogues

Chapters

Also Sprach Ei Rikr 1.1: A Hermits's Warning (Revised)
Also Sprach Ei Rikr 1.2: Pink Tightropist Dialogue (Revised)
Also Sprach Ei Rikr 1.3 Rainbow Foalnapper's Dialogue (Revised)
Missing Shade of Red 2.1: Machiavelli's Dialogue (Revised)
Missing Shade of Red 2.2: Deputy of the MMS (Revised)
Missing Shade of Red 2.3: Stale Air (Revised)
Missing Shade of Red 2.4: The Flower District (Revised)
Missing Shade of Red 2.5: Bureaucrats (Revised)
Missing Shade of Red 2.7: Helping and Being Helped
Missing Shade of Red 2.8: The Party
Missing Shade of Red 2.9: A Rude Awakening
Of Livestock and Pets 3.1: Locke's Dialogue
Of Livestock and Pets 3.2: Bon Bon's Dialogue
Of Livestock and Pets 3.3: The Myth of Sissypuss
Of Livestock and Pets 3.4: Magic Envy (Edited)
Of Livestock and Pets 3.5: A Circle and Its Tangents (Edited)
Of Livestock and Pets 3.6: A Ditch in Time (Edited)
Of Livestock and Pets 3.7: Patience (Edited)
Of Livestock and Pets 3.8: The Shovel and Metamorphosis (Re-edited)
Dinner Time 4.1-4.3: Setting the Table
Dinner Time 4.4: Too Many Guests?
Dinner Time 4.5: The Fillies' Table
Side Chapter: Love in Nine (Unedited)
Dinner Time 4.6: Hungry For More (Unedited)
Prologue: The Ignorant Schoolmaster (Revised)
Missing Shade of Red 2.6: The Daughter of an Ancient Noble (Rework in Progress)

Also Sprach Ei Rikr 1.1: A Hermits's Warning (Revised)

Written by: Knowledge
Edited by: Knowledge and Rewrite

Summary of the Prologue:

Three travelers take shelter in a mountain cave. Andrea tells Sophia about her parent Ei Rikr's tragic past while ze loudly mourns said past out in the rain.

Ei is an ancient horsefly (changeling) who became blind when ze discovered Sophia as a foal abandoned in a patch of blue flowers.

Andrea is a mature buffalo warrior and current Queen of the Forest who feels indebted to Ei Rikr despite the horsefly being partially to blame for the atrocities committed against her people.

Sophia is a unicorn filly who cannot feel emotions due the blue flower's curse.

After a night sleep, they plan to continue their search for the land on the other side of the Neverending Forest where Ei Rikr's sibling should be living.

Author Note: This chapter was written before the prologue, so it will once again describe each character, but this time with more detail.

--------------------------------------Mountain cave overlooking the Neverending (Everfree) Forest----------------------------------------------

"You beautiful star! Would you still be happy if you hadn't us upon whom to shine?" proclaimed Ei Rikr the horsefly in a grandiose manner of the priest sheeps as ze emerged from a cave upon a modest mountain. Though Ei could not see the light, ze could feel the bright light shine brightly upon zir black chitin. "It is a beautiful day again, Sophia."

"You say that it is a beautiful day every day, Ei, rain or shine" came the flat, emotionless voice of Sophia, who stood behind the genderless horsefly. To their right emerged the powerful Andrea, Queen of the Neverending Forest, wearing a triangle-fractal-patterned shawl. Andrea said nothing.

Sophia had a salt-and-pepper coat and a black mane. Her brown eyes always spoke of the utmost critical objectivity. Upon her muzzle lay a small pair of reading glasses, which were a gift from her parent Ei Rikr. The group had brought a few books, which Sophia had read multiple times already. Upon her shoulders, the filly wore a square-fractal-designed shawl, given to her by Andrea who wore a similar one.

"Well, that is because it is always true!" declared Ei Rikr.

"You are blind, you could not know how beautiful the day is," retorted the daughter without a hint of emotion entering her rough voice.

"You wound me, Sophia. You are right that I am blind, but I have seen the morning enough in my life before my blindness to know that if the sun is shining this brightly in the morning, it must be a beautiful day. So far it has shined brightly for ten days straight," Ei explained to zir daughter. This started their regular battle of wits where words were thrown between them like boxers would throw punches. Andrea could hardly conceive of why they would desire to leave this forest and live among civilized peoples when they already had enough stimulation between each other sufficient for an entire village worth of conversation.

Well, except when Sophia became contemplative. Then the filly would just watch what interested her and think intensely without talking for hours. Andrea like to think the filly's had somehow combined Andrea's skill of silent observation and Ei Rikr's ability to prolong philosophical conversations indefinitely into her own thinking style.

"We better get going," commented Andrea, interrupting their little back-and-forth. This made the other two stop in their regular morning bickering to hear if Andrea had any more to say. Seeing their focus on her, she felt necessary to add some more. "I cannot know what it means. We could be in a different region."

Ei Rikr and zir daughter both stroked their non-existent beards in deep thought. The horsefly was the first to speak.

"Perhaps, we will finally reach the end of the Neverending Forest?"

"And what would that mean?" Sophia asked critically.

"Open plains and perhaps civilization," Ei responded. Zir wings buzzed in optimistic joy.

"If we are looking for civilization, I suggest searching for a river when and if we exit the forest," added the buffalo.

"Why?" inquired the salt-and-pepper filly.

"People tend to build their villages on the rivers. It would be the most efficient way to civilization," Ei Rikr explained on Andrea's behalf.

"Which direction do you suggest?" the horsefly asked, rubbing zir bright white fangs with a black chitinous hoof.
The buffalo merely pointed, unhelpfully for the blind horsefly. The filly followed the cloven hoof and saw an expanse of forest with something very notable about it.

"That is a fire," said the filly plainly.

"Where?" asked the horsefly. Zir daughter directed her blind parent with a guiding hoof.

"That must be someone! I will go ahead, you two meet me there," Ei Rikr proclaimed loudly. The morning birds flew from their trees in fright at the sudden sound.

Thus Ei descended the mountain alone by wing, leaving the cave, zir daughter, and the Forest Queen behind. Following the general direction indicated by zir daughter and zir sense of flame, Ei Rikr fell upon a thatched-roof structure emitting smoke through a chimney at it side.

The filly went back in the cave to get the books, not quite sure what to expect today. Smoke could mean a lot of things. In her experience, usually bad.

The filly picked Essays on Pessimism by Soap N. Hower, the cleanest and most cynical of the Hippopotamuses, to read on her way to the fire in the distance. Andrea offered to carry some of the other books in a saddle and indicated that Sophia could read them upon her back.

If the horsefly could have seen zir surroundings when ze was descending the mountain, ze would have seen a colorful village full of even more colorful ponies not far from the mountain they slept in last night. The reason the two others had not seen the village was that the cave and walk up the mountain was on the opposite face of the mountain than the one facing the village.

-------------------------------------------------Hermit's Hut-----------------------------------------------------------

Zecora the hermit had just finish making a fire for her pot. Now she was at her table where she was trying to find of what some new Everfree herbs were composed of when she heard a sudden thump on her roof.

"Who has interrupted this delicate process,

For if I were not careful, there would be a mess?" inquired Zecora. She rhymed because that is how she learned Equestrian.

Zecora heard another soften thump this time in front of the entrance of her hut. There she saw a species she had not seen since she left her home country.

"Sorry about that, I did not know you were busy potion making," apologized the ancient horsefly in Equestrian as well. This took a moment to register in the bug's brain. "Ancient Equestrian, I haven't had a chance to really speak this language in over a millennium."

Taking a moment to dust off, the scholar finally introduced zirself. "People call me Ei Rikr. Sorry for barging in. I am still not quite used to flying blind."

"Welcome Ei Rikr, one of the great ancient schoolmasters of the Academy," Zecora reverently replied in Zebrican. She was glad to finally have someone with whom to converse in her native language. "My name is Zecora the Wanderer. It is because of this wandering that I have ended up here on the opposite side of the world."

"Glad to meet you, Zecora," said Ei as ze entered the hut, mindful not to accidentally run into anything. The horsefly had to admit, ze was not expecting to meet a zebra this farm from their continent. They were not known for travelling, but then against Zecora did introduce herself as a wanderer. There are always exceptions to everything, the horsefly thought zirself.

Zecora knew she ought to feed her guest, so she extended her neck so that the horsefly could take a bit. Despite Ei's blindness, ze could sense the movement and happily accepted the offer by injecting a bit of green flame into her. The green flame quickly went to the zebra's head, loosing her inhibitions to hold onto energy. With common zebra-horsefly pleasantries out of the way, they began their dialogue proper.

"I remember you, Ei Rikr," Zecora remarked.

"You do?"

"Yes, I saw you as you were saving the sheep of Fleece from the Lupens of the Roamen empire fifteen years ago. I tagged along your refugee caravan before going on my own into the fabled Neverending forest. I only saw a glimpse of you standing with your students, but I had been told of you when I was but a child."

"They speak of me in Zebrica still?" the horsefly asked bemused.

"We of Zebrica still mourn the loss the horseflies on the South Continent in ancient times, and you were quite famous in our lands as one of the few remaining of their number even before you had your vacation in our lands three centuries ago," Zecora explained. There was no need to go into detail of what 'famous' things the ancient horsefly had done during this historic vacation.

"You probably know why we had to take to the forest," Ei Rikr sighed.

"The wars," Zecora assumed. Changing the subject, the zebra asked about the horsefly's blindness.

"I lost my sight a decade ago. As you know, this has greatly weaken me, so I can no longer fend for myself as I once did. I cope by travelling with my friend Andrea.”

Zecora understood. Any zebra understands the difficulties of their horseflies. They were family in her land after all.

“What is that which you seek in your journey, Ei Rikr?” she asked.

The horsefly could feel the sincere curiosity increase the energy flow from the Zebra.

"I seek a land not plagued by war where I don't need to fear that anyone will attack my daughter," Ei Rikr proclaimed.

Zecora's mood immediately soured.

"There is such a land," the zebra informed her guest. "But I do not suggest going to that cursed land."

"Why? What is wrong with their country?" Ei Rikr wondered confused.

"The land is Equestria, kingdom of the forever happy ponies. I had assumed you had come from there, which I why I spoke that ancient language earlier. They haven't experienced war or genocide since they been isolated from the rest of the world up here in the North."

"That sounds too good to be true," Ei Rikr replied skeptical.

"Oh, it is very much true, and what makes it true is exactly why you are better off avoiding their country," Zecora urged.

"Please, I need to know more about this land. If it is safe, I must bring my daughter there. If it is dangerous, I still must explore it in case my sibling lies in its borders," the horsefly pleaded.

"If I had to summarize what they were, I would say they are a people of violent innocence," the zebra began. This resulted in a curious click of the horsefly's mouth. "First, the ponies can barely tell ally from their enemy. If they do not understand what you are, they assumed you must then be unnatural and attack you. I have experience first hoof myself.

"Second, they are blind to the harm they cause to others. They are so self-absorbed in their own goals that they often destroy many things in the wake of accomplishing them. It is not uncommon for ponies to crash into people's homes or to run someone over with their cart without so much as batting an eye. What makes it worse is that other ponies harmed this way often merely forgive the injury instantly, and so the lesson is never learned. The wisdom of a philosopher who teaches the need to change and to love would be wasted on their innocent minds."

The energy feed was still going strong between Ei Rikr and Zecora as ze considered her words. The horsefly could sense the zebra's bitterness over her past experiences. Ei Rikr could not help but sympathize, but ze could not agree.

"I should at least try, if not for my daughter's sake, for your sake. What you describe is definitely bad if true, but you have become poisoned by resentment and bitterness. It would be the least I could do to show you that people can change and become more appreciative of the ways of the wise."

"Trust a horsefly to speak of the potential of people to change. This just shows your ignorance of the ponies. Changing is the last thing ponies do, and you will find that out soon after arriving in their lands. The powers at be won't let their little ponies change. I fear that you will die before your wisdom reaches the ponies."

Ei buzzed slowly in an expression equivalent to a sad sigh.

"It is probably the most I can ask," Ei Rikr stated. "My companions should be joining us soon."

As if on cue, Zecora and Ei could hear movement in the forest. Ei ended the feeding, letting the green flame in Zecora dissipate like particles in the void.

"'No ram has ever felt perfectly happy in the present; if he had it would have intoxicated him,'" Sophia quote in her cute approximation of a jowly old male philosopher voice, a reading habit she had gain from observing Ei's students.

"What do you think of my daughter? She is funny, isn't she, sitting on a buffalo speaking like an old chimp? I think she gain the love of any sapient being through pure adorableness. I am sure ponies will love her. She is their kind after all."

Zecora listened to Ei Rikr describe zir hopes for zir daughter, she walked to the entrance of her hut to see this filly reading from a collection of Soap N. Hower essays while riding on a buffalo's back.

"This little one is my daughter, Sophia, and the buffalo is Andrea, Queen of the Forest."

Zecora's eyes went wide when she noticed the blue dots on the child's head.

"That pony child has poison joke!" Zecora exclaimed.

Ei Rikr blinked zir blind blue eyes with their splotchy discolorations. "Excuse me, what do you mean Zecora?"

"See those blue dots on her forehead, they are a consequence of a blue flower. They change something about a creature, and in the case of your daughter, I fear, it has done something to her mind."

Ei Rikr lifted zir head as if looking somewhere in the sky.

"Is there a cure?"

"Yes, but I am out of it now. I will get some immediately. You will have it by the morrow," Zecora reported. Looking at the changeling closer, she noticed that ze was infected as well. Informing the horsefly of this, ze nodded in understanding. The zebra was surprised that Ei Rikr was not more enthusiastic.

"Why are you not joyous at regaining your sight and your daughters mind?" she asked.

Ei Rikr considered what ze wanted to say.

"I fear what will happen when my daughter regains her emotions. I want her to be happy."

Zecora understood the cruelty of which ze spoke but thought the horsefly was overreacting.

"A tantrum from such a small filly could not possibly be that bad," Zecora stated. "You will regret it if you don't cure her. Don't let her first emotion be at her last moments with you."

The horsefly didn't want to think about it. "Moving will be stressful. After I know she will be safe, I will free her from the disease that plagues us both."

She started gathering supplies for their trip. She got some concoctions to give to the spa shop and cosmetics store in the marketplace of a nearby pony village. Just in case, the zebra grabbed a few black vials for those she might meet in transit to their destination.

Turning away from the zebra, the horsefly addressed zir daughter.

"Guess what daughter," the philosopher greeted her. The black-and-white filly answered quickly and without a hint of enthusiasm.

"You met a fellow equine, fed on her, had a conversation in private about me, and convinced her to lead you to the nearest civilization," Sophia said to her happy-go-lucky parent.

The horsefly flew a little up into the air in a gesture of disappointment, which was lost on zir daughter, who could not interpret the emotions of anyone, even those of her parent.

"That is true. I am curious how you could guess that," Ei Rikr wondered.

Sophia went into her trademark contemplative state. Andrea patiently awaited what conclusions the young child would make.

"It is simple inferences based on my observations. She has bite marks on her neck, so you must have had a conversation with her. By the looks of it, she is already preparing to leave, which would make sense if you asked the zebra to guide us. I can also safely assume that she is doing that in order to bring us to our closer to our destination."

Ei Rikr stroked zir imaginary beard.

"Then how did you guess that we talked about you specifically?" the philosopher wondered.

The filly turned to her steed who rolled her eyes. Taking a deep breath, the filly answered.

"That was the easiest thing to guess. Like your morning binding to say it is beautiful, you always talk about me to new people," she answered finally.

Ei Rikr buzzed in a gesture of mirth.

"Figuring things out so fast is what makes you no fun," the horsefly jokingly criticized zir daughter before messing her mane with a loving, perforated hoof. "Plus, how are you going to make any friends if you don't even feign surprise at the news?"

Sophia did not react to her parents affection and went into a contemplative trance. After a long moment, she woke from it to retort.

"Are you telling me that I should be dishonest and patronizing to my peers just to boost their ego about how clever they aren't?" Sophia asked without even a hint of sarcasm.

"Ah, um... when you say it like that, it makes it sound bad," Ei Rikr replied with a facetious click of surrender. Then Ei Rikr had a sudden realization.

"But you didn't guess what I wanted to tell you. We are going to meet ponies!" The philosopher exclaimed, throwing a victorious hoof into the air.

Sophia blinked and then thought for a moment. Then she blinked again.

"Wow," the filly replied flatly, trying and failing to make a surprised facial expression.

Ei Rikr froze in zir victorious stance before falling backwards. Andrea, a protector of refugees and a queen of wilds, needed to return to her people soon, so motioned that they get moving even if that meant leaving the bug equine wallowing in the dirt.

"We should begin our move. I need to return later tonight. Hobbes fears Rousseau is convincing the others to revolt against me, and I want to be back before the other manticores buy his arguments," Andrea stated.

"You knew and you had the guts to feign surprise to me!" Ei Rikr exclaimed finally getting up. Zecora worried about the horsefly, but seeing as the other two were ignoring zir, she faced the buffalo.

"What is going on with the manticores?" Zecora asked curiously. She was naturally worried about the activities of her large predatory neighbors.

Sophia took charged of explaining for better or worse. Removing her hoofy-doofy notebook from Andrea's saddlebags, she read her notes on the situation.

"Hobbes and Rousseau are local manticores under the current leadership of Andrea, who beat the previous manticore alpha to submission. Hobbes welcomes their new matriarch as saving the forest from a kill-or-be-killed world of the old State of Nature. Rousseau went along with the change but after spending a lot of time talking to Ei Rikr, he began to believe that morality and dependence on technology has made the manticores weaker and less free," she read out loud.

Hearing this, Zecora decided to go back into the hut for a second putting things away and getting her small purse of tradeable herbs and medicines.

"I will lead you to the pony village. It is not far. I will warn that they only speak the old language there," Zecora told the newcomers. Andrea merely nodded. Except for Ei Rikr who opted to fly above their heads, they all started walking towards a nearby river.

"Let's see these ponies," Andrea encouraged.

They walked through the Neverending Forest passing by a swamp. Andrea was going to warn the group to stop, but it was too late. Dozens of small cragodiles and their mother emerged from their hiding spot in the dark water to attack the unsuspecting travelers.

"What is going on?!" asked Ei Rikr with no answer from the others.

Andrea let Sophia down and drew her Fractal spear. The spear looked like a normal one for it had a wooden pole with a flint tip on it. In actuality, it was much more. When activated the spear would grow smaller spears from its upper parts like branches. Those branches would in turn grown even smaller spears like twigs. This is power of Corvo's fractal technology which had been twisted towards war.

Andrea took the largest cragodile while Zecora attempted to hold the smaller ones by throwing potions that exploded upon breaking. The spilled fluids produce fumes which put near by targets to sleep. The small cragodiles were knocked out but the mother was too large for the potion to take affect.

Mother crag jumped at Andrea who dodged swiftly. While the cragodile was momentarily stunned from missing her target, Andrea stabbed it in the leg and activated her spear. The branches and twigs of the spear eviscerated the leg from the inside out. Andrea deactivated the spear, retracting the branches, and smoothly removed the spear from the permanently crippled leg of her prey.

The cragodile roared causing the party to freeze in apprehension. The swamp shook and suddenly a tsunami of water swept over them. When the party could see again (except for Ei Rikr, of course), before them arose the queens of this portion of the forest. They were Hilda, Haley, and Helen the hydra -- three people, one body.

"For crying out loud, what is going on?!" Ei Rikr screamed.

"Cragodiles and hydras are attacking," Zecora answered the horseflies question finally.

As she said this, the hydra sent its heads at the party. Andrea protected Sophia by turning her spear into make-shift umbrella of needle-like spears. The hydra did not find this very appetizing.

Zecora didn't have such a defense, and fear of death enveloped her mind as the serpentine head lunged for her, causing her to burst into hysterical tears.

"Why didn't you tell me we were in danger? Andrea, you at least should have told me so that I could put a stop to this before anyone got hurt," Ei Rikr said, standing in front of Zecora with zir horn glowing with a green flame not unlike a dragons.

Suddenly the magic spell that Ei Rikr was channeling burst, and a ball of green flame rose into the air. It started to shrink and die, but then like a vacuum it started to suck energy from its surroundings. The queens each were covered in little green flames which flaked off like it was shedding an old skin. These ‘flakes’ would then feed into the green sphere, growing it larger.

With her tears gone, Zecora looked amazed for a second before she became very calm. Then she looked around, watching what was going on. Everyone except for Sophia and Ei Rikr seemed to be burning and feeding the green glowing, growing flame above them. The injured parent cragodile had stopped crying and started covering its wound and crawling back to the swamp with as many children as it could carry. Andrea put away her spear and sat down. Ei Rikr and Sophia started having a conversation.

Then Zecora just stopped watching or thinking for that matter. She had only the faint sense of being guided by someone's hoof.

Author's Note

Looking back, I forgot that Sophia had glasses. I might change that depending how I feel about it later, but it is not that important of an detail. Actually, I forget a lot of the details in this chapter which I fail to carry forward into future chapters. Going back has really helped me make things more consistent. I totally deserve all those dislikes that I have gotten in the past.

Also Sprach Ei Rikr 1.2: Pink Tightropist Dialogue (Revised)

Author: Knowledge

Editor: Rewrite

Revised (12/15/2015)
Summary of previous chapter:

The travelers wake up to a beautiful morning. They decide to go towards some smoke.

Ei Rikr flies ahead towards the source of the smoke to find a hermit named Zecora. The zebra tells our travelers that the kingdom of ponies is near. She warns that, despite the peace of ponies, the travelers should avoid them. Ei Rikr dismisses the hermits caution. Zecora offers to guide them to Ponyville that day and provide them a cure for poison joke the next.

On their trip, they encounter cragodiles and a hydra. They all fight bravely, but Ei Rikr ends the battle with a spell that saps their will to fight. Zecora loses consciousness in the process.

----------------------------------------------------Path to Ponyville-------------------------------------------------------------

Zecora awoke with a start.

"What, huh?!" Zecora uttered in shock. She found herself being carried by a changeling and a buffalo. A small filly with an abnormal coat of black and white splotches cantered behind them.

"Seems you come back to us," Ei Rikr said while buzzing zir wings rapidly in mirth. "You know if you weren't so scared, you wouldn't have been knocked out."

"What, huh?" repeated the zebra. Her disoriented face just added to the mirth that the horsefly was already exhibiting.

"You were under Ei Rikr's pacification spell, Zecora," explained Sophia. "That ball of fire earlier sucks the energy of all those nearby based on their emotions. If you are hungry it will drain you of your energy and your body will naturally try to stop this by turning off its hunger. This was why the hydras stopped attacking us. In your case, you were feelings so much fear, that you lost enough energy to faint."

Sophia's monologue flew over the disoriented Zebra’s head. Andrea came to Zecora’s side to helped her stay standing.

"That enough explaining complicated horsefly magic, thank you very much Sophia," Ei Rikr commanded. "Let the poor hermit wake up first."

"The Pacifier must have cost you a lot of power, Ei," Andrea commented. A memory of how the horsefly would cast the Pacifier multiple times in order to peacefully enter active war zones and rescue civilians caught in the middle.

"I got a few holes here and there, but I have a lot more left in me still," Ei Rikr lifted a hoof up to Zecora who saw that there was indeed some new bit-sized holes had formed.

"This is why I never tell Ei Rikr what is going on. Ze will sacrifice zirself instead of letting warriors like me do my job," Andrea whispered into the Zebras ear.

Zecora was still too delirious to respond in words, so merely pointed towards Ponyville. By the time they reached their location, she would recover.

----------------------------------Gravel Road between Ponyville and the Everfree Forest----------------------------------------

Everyone continued along the path until they reached a gravel road on the border between the forest and Equestria. Off in the distance they could see some structures.

"What are those colorful things?" Sophia asked indicating the structures.

"Those are houses," Zecora said, still speaking zebrican.

Sophia in response pulled a large book from a saddle bag Andrea was carrying called "Woolworth's encyclopedia" and beginning skimming the pages for the H section. When she found what she was looking for, she began to read aloud. "'House: a structures of walls that enclose an area meant for an individual or a family to comfortably live in. It is crafted from stone, bricks, wood, or stucco by a person.' In other words, the only difference between the cave we were in last night and a house is that some person has to make it."

Ei Rikr tapped zir chin a few times while buzzing zir wings in an expression similar to humming. "Not necessarily, Sophia. If I met a bear who called her cave her house, I would not argue with her." Turning to Zecora, ze addressed her. "How many people live in this pony village?"

"Around eight thousand ponies and a few hooffuls of mules and donkeys. Other people live here as pets or livestock," Zecroa answered. Sophia quickly went through the pages of the encyclopedia looking up those new terms.

Her refined magical control made this process particularly efficient.

If Ei Rikr could frown, ze would. Instead, ze just gave a disapproving click. So this must be one of the reasons Zecora warned me of ponies. I should give the ponies the benefit of the doubt before I rely on her judgement, the philosopher thought to zirself.

They continued their way to the pony village and could begin to see among the colorful houses, equally colorful equines. Unlike Sophia who had a salt-and-pepper coat and a horn, the ponies they could see all had one color for their coats and no horns. Self-consciously, Sophia rubbed her horn.

Zecora saw this and worried for the unicorn who had never been among her own kind.

"Young one, this is the valley, so mostly ground ponies live here. Your horned sisters live in cities on the top of that mountain," she said in effort to comfort the little filly. She pointed towards a mountain in the distance which seemed to have a palace atop its peak.

Sophia furrowed her brow and frowned. Ei Rikr was about to say something when Sophia spoke up a moment later.

"Do the unicorns live on mountains because mountains remind them of their horn? The psychologist Joy claims that there are species that relish in their own self-image and surround themselves with symbols that remind them of what makes them distinct," the filly asked curious.

Zecora took a long look at the filly before responding. She felt much more coherent now that she had regained her strength.

"I never thought of it like that. From what I have gathered over the years in proximity to these ponies, is that there is a princess of the sun for whom all the ponies have an equal measure of love and fear. This princess lives at the highest point of a mountain like a god watching her lands in case any invader would threaten her subjects. The unicorns have the privilege of being the princesses nobility and a few of them have the right to ascend to princesshood after receiving a special education exclusive to their most talented."

At the end of her explanation, the philosopher interjected something that had come to zir mind.

"'You beautiful star! Would you be as happy if you hadn't us upon whom to shine?'" ze quoted zirself.

Andrea rolled her eyes for what must have been the eighth time that morning, and Sophia merely blinked at zir parent's morning ritual saying being repurposed.

"Why do you always have to say that?" asked the traveler to whom poetry and humor had no meaning.

"Because it is always true," the horsefly replied, buzzing zir wings in an alien gesture of laughter.

Zecora would not normally interrupt an ancient, but Ei Rikr was different. "I tell you this because there is one such unicorn lives in this village. Her name is Twilight Sparkle. She was the pony who taught me this much about unicorns, and if you want to learn about them, she is the pony to talk to. I do warn you, she has the tendency to over-teach. If you like, I will bring you to her."

Sophia absorbed all of this without blinking once. "I, a unicorn myself, found the mountain we slept at last night very useful for observing the forest without being near the dangers in it, so perhaps the other unicorns are like me. I will need to observe these unicorns to see who is right, you or Joy."

"They could both be wrong," Ei Rikr commented, stroking that imaginary beard again.

"Then I will have to make a new hypothesis to test," the filly retorted.

At this point, they were getting very close to the town. Andrea suddenly stopped and removed her weaponed.

"What is wrong?" Ei Rikr asked her, changing back to the forest language.

"There is no wind," Andrea responded curtly. "It is a bad omen. We should avoid this village."

Curious, Ei Rikr and zir daughter directed their attention to their sense of the air about their body. Both discovered that they could not in fact feel any wind.

Zecora sighed loudly.

"There is no reason to be afraid. This is normal in Equestria," Zecora explained. The travelers indicated for her to continue. "For ponies, nature is an extension of their will, their magic. There is nothing mysterious to them about the world because nothing moves, grows, or acts unless a pony allowed it to happen, be it the falling of leaves or a non-equine going into hibernation. As a consequence, they never speak of invisible spirits acting behind the scenes."

"What about the Never-ending Forest?" asked Sophia.

"That is the only exception for the ponies. There in the forest, nature still works like it does for the rest of the world. The ground ponies here think the forest is full of spirits, black magic, demons, and devils. When I emerged from the forest, they called me an evil enchantress. Fortunately, they have been disabused of this ignorance regarding me by a particularly opened-minded filly. If they see you with me, they may trust you as my friends."

Sophia absorbed this completely with a deep furrow in her brow. She was so absorbed in thought that Zecora waved her hoof before her face only to get no response. The zebra gave the horsefly a worried look.

"She gets like that when she is theorizing. She could be done thinking in a few minutes or days. It is best to just let her be," Ei Rikr whispered to Zecora while buzzing by on her left side.

They finally reached the town. There was no real gate, just a yellow house and a pink house made of ticky-tacky on either side of them.

-------------------------Ponyville from a certain party pony's perspective------------------------

Pinkie Pie was playing. She was always playing. Well, except when she was at her job. Then she was working and playing.

Today, she was tight roping between two houses at the edge of town, her forehooves flailing wildly in effort to stay upright. It was all part of some joke for which she hadn't figured out the punch line quite yet. She had made it halfway between the yellow house and the pink house when she lost balanced.

"Wahhhh!"

"Humpf!" responded someone who was not Pinkie.

The party pony broke out in laughter. When she got up, she saw under her a brown, furry figure wearing some strange blanket with her Aunt Sierpinski's triangle design. If Pinke was correct, this brown furry thing was a buffalo.

Pinkie took a deep breath. The travelers became very tense.

"Welcome to Ponyville!" she shouted, causing two to sigh in relief for some reason.

Then she grabbed the buffalo by the cloven hoof and simultaneously lifted the buffalo off the ground. Then she began shaking the hoof vigorously, causing the large buffalo to wave in the air like a flag.

"My name is Pinkie Pie! What is your name? How old are you? When is your birthday How are the other buffalo at Applaloosa doing? I have not heard from them in forever." Pinkie gasp! "Have I been a bad friend? No wonder they don't write!"

Pinkie started crying hysterically. Crawling on her hind knees towards the buffalo, she begged. "Can you forgive me?"

The buffalo was completely befuddled. Pinkie did not understand why ponies got confused when she talked to them. She only spoke plain Equestrian.

Something started talking to the buffalo above her. Upon further inspection, Pinkie discovered that it wasn't a ‘something’ but a potential new friend, a black bug-friend. Bug-friend (the official name) addressed Pinkie, which was funny because she wasn't even wearing a dress.

"I am sure Courage forgives you," Ei Rikr spoke on the buffalo behalf. Pinkie found this claim of forgiveness suspicious as Courage was not laughing. "By the way, my name is Ever Ruler, the filly is Wisdom, and you may know the zebra as Zecora."

[TN: Andrea = Courage, Sophia=Wisdom, and Ei Rikr=Ever Ruler in Equestrian.]

"Of course I know Zecora. We are best friends," Pinkie replied. A particular zebra disliked this statement, but kept it to herself.

Zecora and Ever Rulr spoke what sounded like gibberish to one another. Pinkie felt it must be some game involving who can say the most gibberish at once and decided to join in by stringing random syllables together faster and louder than they were talking.

The horsefly went to the filly to cover her ears from whatever Pinkie had said while the buffalo hid a smile behind her hoof. Yes, one down, three to go, Pinkie thought to herself.

"Did I win?" Pinkie asked.

"No, you were quite rude,

when you spoke so crude." Zecora responded in her accented Equestrian.

Pinkie frowned. "How do I win?"

"You don't win in talking,

and much less from mocking," Pinkie's friend retorted.

Ever Ruler (formerly known as Bug-friend) decided to interject at this point.

"You can win by understanding."

Pinkie blinked.

The other travelers spoke more gibberish to Ever, but ze ignored them.

"The game we are playing is understanding. Not everyone starts with the same understanding, so it is not a fair game," the bug-pony explained.

"Then how do I win?" Pinkie asked. She didn't care as much about winning as Rainbow Dash, but she preferred games to be fair.

"Anyone and everyone can win if they are patient and hard-working. The only losers are those who give up," Ever continued. "Does this sound like a game you want to play, um..."

"Pinkie Pie," the pony offered. "And yes! I love new games."

------------------------Ponyville from the Traveler's perspective----------------------------------

Ei Rikr focused all zir attention of zir first new student since arriving in Equestria.

"If Pinkie is your average pony, I have my work cut out for me," the philosopher said in an aside to Zebra.

"Pinkie is in no way, shape, or form a normal pony," Zecora corrected. "She is rather the extreme of every fault ponykind has. She is always having fun to the point that her fun causes everyone around her suffering."

It was clearly a biased opinion and Ei Rikr could sense that these two had a history of misunderstanding. This evoked a click of frustration from the philosopher's mouth.

"Pinkie is still a thinking being, Zecora. The philosopher's life asks us to think about the consequences of our actions, particularly consequences that affect the happiness of others. I do you really think Pinkie, who seems to love making people happy, would not embrace the philosopher's life?" horsefly asked rhetorically.

Ignoring the Zebra's disbelief, Ei Rikr led the pink pony to the buffalo she had recently fell upon.

Switching back to Equestrian, Ei Rikr addressed Pinkie. "In the game of understanding, we ask questions. Is there a question you ought to ask Courage?"

Pinkie started spouting an endless stream of random questions.

Ei Rikr waited for Pinkie to stop.

"Am I doing it right?" She asked innocently.

"In the game of understanding, you cannot just ask questions. The question is a tool to learn more from another person. Understanding comes from asking good questions and paying attention to how people respond to them."

Pinkie was about to talk, but Ei Rikr gestured for her to wait.

"Perhaps we should let Courage ask the first question that way you get a good example," the philosopher encouraged.

Pinkie tried to talk again, and Ei Rikr again signaled her to stop. Zecora was very much tempted to just stuff her hoof in the pony's mouth, but such violence was beneath her.

"It is part of the understanding game that you don't talk when it is the other person's turn," ze explained.

Switching to the common language used by most people of the forest, Ei Rikr addressed zir friend Andrea.

"I am teach this pony the basics of getting to know new people. I want you to ask her a question," ze requested.

"You can't make me do this," Andrea replied. She hated when the philosopher simplified things to this degree. It was like ze saw them all as mere children. She had to admit though that if she was more than a thousand years old, it would be difficult not to think act this way.

"If you don't do this for the pony, do it for me," Ei Rikr pled. Andrea was about to shut philosopher down when Ei Rikr slowly flapped zir wings up and down. The expression which would have been alien to anyone unfamiliar with horsefly body expressions conveyed the perfect amount of pouting that the buffalo's cold hard resolved melted.

"I am only doing this because I still owe you for saving me and my people," Andrea said coldly. This prompted the horsefly to make a victory pose. "After this, I have some manticores to show whose boss."

At this point, Zecora left. This was one part having business to do in town with her potions, one part not being able to stand Pinkie Pie for prolonged periods of time, and one part the pain of seeing a wise and ancient horsefly act like a clown. How the mighty have fallen, Zecora thought to herself. If the horseflies of my land could see how you have changed Ei Rikr since your glory days.

Meanwhile, Andrea had formulated a question.

"I would like to know what she thinks of the forest," Andrea said.

Ei Rikr translated this to Pinkie.

"The Everfree Forest?! That place is spooky, not that Pinkie is afraid or anything. You just need to laugh at scary things, and you will realize they are not as scary as before."

"Laughing at the face of danger," Andrea commented. "I can get behind that."

It was now Pinkie's turn. She was more than excited to start asking questions. What stopped her from outright asking one was because she had too many on her mind. With some help from Ei Rikr, she finally picked one.

"How are Chief Thunderhooves and Little Strongheart doing?" Pinkie asked blinking.

"Just because I am a buffalo, doesn't mean I know them. It is impossible to know everyone in ones own species," Andrea said. She would have been offended if this was not a common misconception among people of all cultures.

"That is not true, for Pinkie knows everypony!" she retorted with conviction.

Andrea addressed the translator.

"Is that what she really said?"

Ei Rikr nodded.

"Ask her if she thinks she knows Sophia."

Pinkie gasped after Ei Rikr conveyed the question. Rushing to the salt-and-pepper filly, Pinkie began introducing herself.

"Hello my name is Pinkie, and I am here to make you hap-hap-happy!" she half-greeted, half-cheered.

Sophia only responded by shifting away from the pony entering her personal space. She was still entranced by the topic of unicorns in Equestrian society, so she didn't spare Andrea and Pinkie's conversation any mind.

Pinkie suddenly pulled out a wagon out from behind her. Confetti erupted from it while a freshly baked and decorated cake emerged from its confines. The non-entranced travelers gawked and the party pony placed a party hat on the little filly.

"Now I know everypony," Pinkie Pie declared, mirroring Ei Rikr's victory pose from earlier.

Regaining zir composure, the philosopher spoke up.

"I don't think that counts as knowing someone," Ei Rikr doubted.

"You are right! I still need to know Wisdom's birthday," she exclaimed.

"I am sure my daughter would...um...appreciate an exchange with another pony. You would be the first pony she has ever encountered in her conscious life," Ei Rikr divulged.

"Nopony is more pony than Pinkie Pie. Well, except for maybe the princesses, but that is because they are like three times the pony," the party pony reasoned.

"Y-yes," the horsefly stammered. "We are almost done with this session of our game of understanding. We have places to go and ponies to meet. I will let you ask Courage one more question, and then she has to leave for business in the Everfree."

"One last question? But we just started playing, right?" Pinkie asked.

"Is that your question?" Ei Rikr jested.

"No, no, no. I have a better question!"

Ei Rikr waited for Pinkie to divulge this better question, but it never came.

"Would you like to share this question with us, so we can finish this game?" the horsefly inquired.

"Nope!"

Ei Rikr focused zir senses at the pony before zir. "Why?"

"Because if I ask the question, the game will end. I don't think this game would be fun if I just try to finish understanding right away," Pinkie said in a cheerful tone.

If Ei Rikr smiled, ze would. Alas chitin does not allow for that, and ze had lost the ability to transform when zir eyesight was lost to the blue flower. Instead Ei emoted through zir wings in cheerful buzzing.

"Ahh, what a wonderful understanding you demonstrated, young pony. I will cherish this conversion for a long time," Ei Rikr proclaimed loudly, waking the ponies sleeping in at the houses on either side of zir. Those ponies went back to asleep quickly, used to Pinkie's antics early in the morning. "Regardless, Courage has to go, so your last question has become forfeit due your attempt to be clever."

"Thanks for your help. I will see you in a few hours," the horsefly reminded the buffalo. "I will be searching for Zecora in the marketplace and then try to meet this Twilight Sparkle."

"Perhaps you should focus on finding a place to stay. The mayor or whatever that have here will probably have the paper work for immigrating here and setting up shop," Andrea advised. She handed Ei Rikr Sophia's saddlebags.

Andrea puffed at the long-winded plan. "I understand, now go." Before she left, Andrea handed the pack of books for Ei Rikr to carry.

"You know I cannot buzz around anymore with these books on my back," Ei Rikr complained.

"I know," was all Andrea said in response and then she returned to the forest to deal with the growing tensions between her rule and the manticores.

Pinkie waved goodbye to her new acquaintance, saying that she wants to finish their game next time they meet.

"Pinkie would you be so kind as to direct me to the marketplace. I would like to say something to Zecora before she also leaves for the forest," Ei Rikr requested politely.

"Okie-dokie-lokie artichokie," Pinkie replied. As she said this, the pony made a salute before breaking over in laughter at the whole silliness of herself.

Picking up zir daughter, the philosopher followed the party pony into town square where ponies were just beginning their breakfasts.

Author's Note

Trivia:

I began this arc with only a vague remembrance of Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, but I did make sure to look at the original work when considering which character would be who. Of course, Pinkie is the tightrope walker, but it is important to note that she didn't die in my story but rather landed on Andrea.

I picked Pinkie to be the first pony Ei Rikr met because I could have her interact with a changeling without freaking out.

The psychologist Joy is based off Freud, whose name means joy or pleasure.

The ticky-tacky houses is a reference to Little Boxes.

Also Sprach Ei Rikr 1.3 Rainbow Foalnapper's Dialogue (Revised)

Author: Knowledge

Editors: waterpear and Rewrite

Previous chapter summary:

Pinkie Pie greets the travelers in her typical manner. In an effort to edify the pony, Ei Rikr organizes a "game" between Andrea and Pinkie where the goal is to understand one another. At the end, Andrea leaves for the forest and Pinkie leads the remaining travelers into Ponyville.

Zecora went ahead to market to buy ingredients and sell her potions.

------------------------------------------Ponyville Market square--------------------------------------

"A potion for six bits

and at that price I sit!" Zecora said with finality.

She addressed this to a young stallion named Stage Up with a natural gray coat and a sleek, combed back mane before her. Stage up was makeup artist for the local Ponyville theater, but on the side he sold cosmetics. Zecora's anti-aging potions were a hit in the mostly female village.

The zebra held her potion bag on the edge of Stage's booth, bluffing that she would take these potions back. In truth, she couldn't afford not to sell these potions as they would spoil quickly. It was an irony of potion making that anti-aging potions don't age well themselves.

"Your rhymes won't work on me. Last week, I bought this potion for four bits a pop," the makeup artist replied.

"Last week, I just needed a few bits,

Now I need more for a new potion kit.

What is in the forest changes often

You should be glad I don't charge you ten," Zecora explained.

"If you are going through tough times, why should I suffer? Four bits or–"

"Hiya, Zecora! Whatcha doing?" Pinkie Pie interrupted innocently while occupying Zecora's whole field of vision.

Zecora sported a sage-like smile while silently quelling the disturbance of her inner peace. If Stage Up would have seen the zebra's face, he would have invited her to participate in local theater.

"What was that, Zecora?" Pinkie leaned her head up to the zebra's muzzle in order to listen more carefully.

Zecora continued to silently find her zen. She could see Ei Rikr with Sophia upon zir shoulders cantered through the marketplace without incident. It was fortunate that Pinkie had a unique emotional signature or Ei Rikr might have had a difficult time following her.

"Sophie, you done thinking yet?" the horsefly asked zir passenger. The filly took a moment to take in the crowd all staring with bated breath before giving a bored affirmation. "Pinkie is showing us to the market. Did you know that when I was just starting to walk around undisguised, I went to the town square and marketplace to philosophize with all sorts of people?"

Sophia had heard something about this before.

"Pinkie, are we there yet?" Ei Rikr asked.

Pinkie swirled around on her hindlegs in order to face the philosopher.

"Of course we are or how else could, silly changeling," Pinkie Pie said.

A pony could hear a pin drop after the mention of a 'changeling.'

The ponies of Ponyville had never seen a changeling before. Those who had noticed the bug pony walking through the street just assumed it was some strange species of equine bug. As long as a person was not associated with 'evil' like the Everfree from where monsters came or a villain out to hurt ponies, the townsponies were pretty chill. (The main exception were florists who would panic if a rabbit so much as crossed city limits.) Since changelings were associated with the villain Queen Chrysalis and the invasion of Canterlot, the ponies' flight or fight response activated.

The sudden influx of panic around Ei Rikr would have made a lesser horsefly become queasy and perhaps faint. Decades of maneuvering through war zones had inured zir to crowds filled with negative emotions.

"My name is Ei Rikr. I come from a distant land. This adorable filly is my adoptive daughter Sophia.” Ze indicated the salt-and-pepper filly next to zir. “We are moving here to live among nice, civilized, and tolerant people. Please take care of us."

"The monster kidnapped a kid!" a florist exclaimed.

"Changelings are finally infiltrating Ponyville. I warned you was going to happened," an elderly stallion from a balcony shouted.

"We should panic!" Pinkie Pie added, earning her a glare from Zecora. Several ponies started flailing their hooves in preparation to their weekly ritual of screaming and crying. "What? Panicking is fun and we know where this is all headed."

"No don't panic!

Ze won't attack," Zecora explained.

"The monster brainwashed Zecora. Does he know no decency!" somepony else retorted.

Ei Rikr clicked in an approximation of a sigh. After placing Sophia on the ground, ze flew above the ponies. Many were dazzled by the rising sun. Returning her zen by ignoring Pinkie's playful screaming, the zebra steeled herself for a familiar spell.

A large green ball of fire emerge from the horsefly and began to rise in the sky like a second sun. Ponies could not but calm down as their emotions turned off one by one. The more excitable of the ponies fainted; although, it could not be determined whether they fainted from fear or from having the fear drained from them. It was somewhat awkward for the changeling to use a spell designed to create a temporary demilitarized zone on a bunch of townsponies, but there were no ends to what ze would do for zir daughter.

As the spell took full effect, the philosopher gave a spur of the moment speech. Thus spoke Ei Rikr:

"Ponies, I come to you with a vision from the other side and warn you that in fearing 'monsters' you are doomed to become true monsters. I could feel your desire to have rid of a monster. If that desire were fulfilled, you would have left my daughter bereft of her only parent. You don't have to be these kind of ponies. You can overcome this current you who is afraid and unwilling to confront their 'monsters' for who they really are--people who love like you do.

"The path to the pony who has overcome herself is a tight rope between the familiar and the new. We are all on it and to cross it you will have to understand and you will have to change. Your understanding begin to cause you to change and your change begin to cause you to understand. This process will cause most to falter. Many you will find by the end you have fallen into a world you can neither understand or change. These fallen ponies are those who see 'monsters.'

"But it is not too late for us to cross. We who have seen the other side can guide you across the rope, helping you to survive the process dangerous process that this entails. Those who have fallen will often attack you, fearing you like you still fear me now. If you make it to the other side, you will in a world were there are no monsters because you can overcome anything."

The ponies who were still awake listened to Ei Rikr in silence. Whether they understood or not, the philosopher could at least be happy ze had averted a mass panic attack by distracting them. Ze was, however, concerned that the speech might be construed as pedantic. The philosopher did not pretend to know better than anyone else. Time had not given the horsefly wisdom, merely recognition of zir ignorance.

Descending to the ground, Ei Rikr rejoined Zecora and Pinkie Pie. Zecora felt subdued contentment that she finally saw the horsefly philosopher of which history books heralded as the wisest being in the world. Pinkie Pie surprisingly started laughing claiming to remembered some punchline.

Sophia put her left hoof to her lips and breathed in and then after taking that hoof away from her lips, she breathed out slowly while tapping the hoof on top Stage Up's shop table. The act was very nonchalant.

Zecora arched an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

Sophia blinked, interrupted in her contemplative observation.

"This act,” Sophia said, repeating the hoof gesture, “is one of the few things my parent does regularly while thinking. I think it is because ze is a horsefly. From what I can tell, they are very much focused on superficial aspect of behavior, rather than its purpose. For instance, when we are eating, Ei Rikr will making chewing motions even though ze is not eating food. I have formed a habit of performing some of this rituals while I think."

Zecora wanted to know more, but a rainbow blur passed by her and suddenly Sophia was no where to be seen.

------------------------Over Ponyville-----------------------

"Parent, some person has foalnapped me," Sophia called out in the common language of forest since she didn't know how to speak Equestrian. She did know how to read and write it though.

Ei Rikr's spell took quick effect, causing rainbow to land and reveal herself as a pegasus.

The rainbow pegasus placed the unicorn filly behind her. The foalnapper observed the green flames flaking off them into the sky towards some green ball of fire which was eclipsing Celestia's sun. The only ones left stand were the heroic pony, the filly, and the changeling, who was turning zir head side-to-side, listening for said filly. This should have really concerned her, but all it did was make her curious.

"You did something. What?" the pegasus said in Equestrian.

"Why did you grab my daughter?" ze asked, having flown to zir daughter's plea.

This confused the foalnapper in her calmed, exhausted state.

"To protect her from you," the mare declared as if she was some kind of professional hero.

"And what was I going to do to her that justified you protecting her from me?"

"You were going to feed on her," the mare said confidently.

The philosopher clicked in mirth despite the gravity of a foalnapping.

"I don't think you know much about my daughter, but what makes feeding on her wrong?" the philosopher wondered.

"It’s creepy, biting ponies and sucking on their love," the mare replied.

"First, we don’t suck on people’s love. It is a common misconception of those who have had little experience with my kind. In fact, we do not even consume love but rather energy. All living things need energy to live, and we just get it purely through the passions of others. Before you say this is parasitic, every living being does this to some extent."

The foalnappers face was the picture of confusion.

"For example, have you ever gained strength from people cheering you on? Have you ever felt better when someone comforts you?" Ei Rikr asked.

The rainbow mare nodded her confusion subsiding.

"My kind would die if no one loved us or what we represented. Even equines would die if they didn't receive any love as children. As for my kind, some become lovers, some become parents, and even some become teachers. We only exist because their is hole your kind wants to be filled with your love. In my case, I was a teacher for most of my life, being a symbol of their philosophical quest. Now I am the parent to that girl you have foalnapped because you think me a monster. I trust you, if you want a monster, I can definitely fill that role, but as a philosopher, I can honestly say that wouldn't be wise."

The pegasus considered the monster option much longer than any other pony would.

"Ponies love me because I am awesome," the mare declare. "I don't have to trick ponies to feed myself. Why do changeling do that?” the mare asked. The spell had reduced her aggression significantly.

“When we live in society, we wear masks so people treat us better. I have a pretty good sense for these things, and I would guess that you are wearing a mask of ‘awesomeness’ because you believe that your peers will only love and respect you if they see you like that. In your case, you are wearing it for status and fame. In our case, we are doing it because we often have to disquise ourselves in order to survive.”

The pegasus decided she would have to think about that later, for she had more questions and was getting very tired at this point.

“Didn’t you cast some spell on this filly to convince her that you are really her parent?"

As was the original intent of the spell, the pony's thoughts had moved away from accusations to questions reflected a desire to learn more.

“No, I only adopted her when I couldn’t find her parents and she needed someone to care for her. I am her parent now, though I wouldn’t object letting her biological parents share in her if they were of kind and caring heart.”

Rainbow Dash couldn’t take anymore and fell asleep.

The changeling turned to zir companions. “Despite being a pegasus, she is no lightweight. She withstood the calming spell for a long time with all that pep," Ei Rikr commented ruefully.

Sophia merely walked from behind the collasped pegasus to Zecora's potion bag with the intent to inspect them. Zecora swatted Sofia's hoof away from her things. Sofia just moved to the book bag that Ei Rikr had placed down by Zecora's saddlebag earlier and pulled out the encyclopedia to learn a little more about potions. The filly hadn't understood what had been said at all. It had been far too long for her since she had gotten to learn something new. Love of learning was the only thing her disease had left her.

"Thanks for bring us to Ponyville, Zecora. I understand you are busy. The green sun should last for twelve hours, so we will be safe on our own." Ei Rikr took zir left hoof, which was full of holes, to zir chitinous lips, breathed in, and then placed the hoof on the table. While ze tapped the hoof, the horsefly breathed out slowly.

"We will find Twilight," Sophia said "She could tell me more about being a unicorn and why they live on mountains."

"Why do you do that?" asked Zecora of the horsefly genuinely curious.

Ei Rikr blinked. Ze gave zir left hoof a self-conscious inspection. "That? I never gave it any thought. I just can't help it sometimes. I might be addicted."

At that, Zecora finally chuckled despite the green sun above her. There was a remarkable charm to the old philosopher that no history book could encapsulate. The weirdness at first looked foalish to her, but now it just made her want to cheer zir on. She said farewell to the two travelers.

On her way back to the forest, she thought about how much laughter was in the horsefly and how loyal ze was to zir adoptive daughter.

Author's Note

Trivia:

Before editing, this chapter was awful. Reason forbids any of you get to read it.

Yes, I was trying to be very clever in my last line in this chapter.

Missing Shade of Red 2.1: Machiavelli's Dialogue (Revised)

Author: Knowledge

Editors: waterpear and Rewrite

Revised: 12/18/2015

Chapter Context: 1.2 Tightropist Dialogue

Finally reaching the long lost North Continent, Andrea has finished escorting the horsefly and the unicorn filly. She now makes her way back to her people and kingdom deep in the Everfree.

-------------------------------------Ponyville Outskirts-----------------------------------------------

A lone buffalo looked down upon the equine village and saw a green orb rise from within, heralding the beginning of Ei Rikr's ever-permeating influence on its innocent populace.

Things must have gone badly already, Andrea thought. She was tempted to go back and save them but knew that there could be no danger as long as that the mind magic pacified the ponies. I will return to our camp tonight. If they come back, I will make sure they are okay.

At Andrea’s back stood the Neverending Forest, the forest that the ponies called Everfree. She noticed a figure looming behind her, casting a shadow over her body.

"Machiavelli," Andrea said simply.

Machiavelli was an old manticore. His mane had originally been deep black, but had greyed over time. The scars all over his face and hide reflected many battles with others of his kind. His yellow coat had fallen off in patches due to a sickness. Andrea knew what kind of manticore Machiavelli was from preference for his stinger on his tail to kill his prey over his paws. "It is clean and effortless, but more importantly, venom allows you time to talk to your prey before they die," he had once explained.

During the third year of Andrea's reign over the State of Nature, Machiavelli had offered his services as an advisor. Deep in the Everfree Forest there is a large valley the manticores call the State of Nature. This also happens to be the valley the refugees decided to settle in order to escape the wars of the South Continent. Machiavelli taught Andrea how to solidify her power.

When Andrea asked him why he didn't rule himself if he was so good at it, he replied that he looked too weak. He didn't say he was weak, just looked weak. Because of this, the buffalo always watched her back in case Machiavelli's stinger may one day be found there. She didn't know what would be worse: the venom painfully and slowly killing her while she was too paralyzed to react or listening to the manticore explaining why he had to do it.

The core theme of Machiavelli's teachings was that only rulers ought to know is that morality is just a tool. Like any tool, one must know when and how to use it, and when other tools would be superior. For instance, sometimes the sovereign needs to be merciful to a criminal to make her subjects more loyal and trusting, and other times the sovereign needs to execute an man to make the masses obey. Morality is for the weak and a ruler who obeys morality becomes weak because it prevents her from using all her strength and resources to maintain her kingdom. When Machiavelli was confronted by the idealist Ei Rikr about this, the manticore replied that the State of Nature will always return to a leader who thinks as he does. "Eventually all the moral leaders find stingers in their back and a less moral leader standing over them preaching their 'crimes' to the masses."

While Andrea did not agree with Machiavelli, she was willing to do anything to protect the refugees. She would burn down the forest if it meant they would be safe. Leave all talk of peace and love to foolish philosophers like Plato, Corvo, and Ei Rikr, thought Andrea. The only reason she took over the State of Nature was because the the manticores needed to be brought in line to prevent them from poaching the refugees.

Andrea was a genius with the fractal spear, bound by her parents in the way of nature’s patterns. With her gifts, she had killed the old sovereign of the forest, the Alpha manticore Thrasymachus, in long, bloody combat. She had a scar along her neck which her shawl hid. Daily, she had to return to oversee the manticore pride and motivate them towards a mutual integration with the weak technology-overdependent refugees.

It was essential that this integration occurred as soon as possible because what little crystallized fractal power they had to keep their technology (security, lights, water treatment, automated farming) going would soon be depleted. There were countless sick at the refugee complex who needed medicine they couldn’t synthesize, and the overcrowded conditions were exacerbating this.

The few willing volunteers who dared to venture out in the forest to clear land or to gather much needed resources needed an envoy of one or two warrior philosophers to keep the peace between them and the aggravated natives. Each day, countless natives and refugees died. This led to an uncertainty of there ever being a point the warrior philosophers and Andrea could give authority back to both parties and rejoin with Ei Rikr to make their school again.

Everyday, gifts would be given to Andrea by the philosophers or the people in thanks for her significant contributions to the project. Tonight, Glaucon, the owl-eyed philosopher and inventor, had told her that he was going to make something special for her, something that was complicated but also old fashioned.

The manticore stood quiet for only a moment. "Do you have no fear of an elder of the pride?"

"What need I of fear, when nothing in this forest including the pride could harm me?" the buffalo said, rolling her fractal spear on the ground before her and then kicked it to activate its crystal. The earth around Machiavelli erupted with the branches of the spear, barely grazing his underside. The manticore didn't flinch.

"You need me," Machiavelli replied, calling her bluff.

Andrea retracted the spear's branches back into it after a long moment. She was awfully tempted to kill him right there and then, but it wouldn't do her any good. If she was going to kill a manticore, it would have to be in front of their pride and it would have to be a better specimen than this sickly creature.

Andrea returned her gaze to the village below, looking intently as she saw flying ponies plummet from the sky in exhaustion. There was a cyan one and a lavender one, and even a yellow one. It still amazed her that the ponies were so colorful.

"Machiavelli, what do you make of these ponies?" the buffalo queen asked the manticore.

Machiavelli flew up a bit with his small wings to see the calm carnage below.

"To me, they seem like some combination of ants and poisonous frogs," he observed.

Andrea signaled for her adviser to explain.

"For starters, look at how they swarm in and out of their shelters and move about in organized lines across their town. Now look at how they congregate in places where there is food laid about on tables. This is the ant part." He pointed to a market area, but not the one where the green sun had emerged from. Even Andrea could see the ponies getting their food and walking back into their houses for breakfast or lunch.

"As for their poisonous frog part, see their bright colors. They are obviously prey, but colors that bright always mean there is something dangerous about them. While I could understand the fliers being brightly colored like birds to attract mates, but that is rarely the case for land animals.”

"The ponies may also be like coral snakes and kingsnakes," Andrea mused. She was referencing how the two breeds of snakes looked very similar yet only was poisonous.

The manticore squinted to get a more detailed look at the ponies.

"Clever adaptation that, but I doubt those creatures are mimicking more dangerous creatures. They look too defenseless not to actually be dangerous."

That is probably the most Machiavellian thing Machiavelli ever said, Andrea thought.

"I would suggest we send someone to test how dangerous they are, but it seems you beat me to it. Well done, my disciple," the manticore praised.

"They are friends," I retorted.

"Your point?" the manticore replied oblivious.

"I hope they remain safe in their new home."

"Naturally, pawns may be expendable but that doesn't mean you want them spent."

Andrea sighed.

"I think there is something off this place," the buffalo said in order to change the subject.

The manticore sniffed the air.

"The place rejects the ways of nature," Machiavelli determined. "The air is stale and there is a lonely mountain." By 'mountains are lonely,' he was referring to the lone mountain which stood in the middle of a large plain. A moutain that large and vertical would naturally exist in a mountain range.

Andrea kept watching and observing.

"They also use a dead language but don't know the common language spoken in the forest. I am starting to think these are just branches of the problem with this anti-natural land," Andrea said. "However, from what little I have experienced in the city, they are a simple and silly people. I envy Ei Rikr and Sophia who can just move away from the chaos in the forest."

Machiavelli laughed at this.

"You and I both know the peaceful life wasn't meant for you. I've seen you fight. You are more a predator than any carnivore. And I know you hate it when Ei Rikr takes the easy way out with zir silly peace mind magic. The high we get when we know our attacks are hurting someone, when nature is telling us we are killing the right way."

Andrea stared at the ponies some more. "We all can change." This was one of the few things Ei Rikr had rubbed off on the buffalo bound by the traditions of her parents.

The manticore shook his large head. "Nothing changes. Nature’s patterns are as set as much as the patterns on your dress and in your spear."

Andrea was not convinced.

"Don't believe me? Well perhaps I should do some philosophy to demonstrate my point," the manticore threatened.

Andrea groaned. She knew that Machiavelli did not bluff. If he threatened something, he was going to do it.

"Now listen to this old manticore's wisdom while you are still alive," he said, deliberately saying 'you' instead of 'I'. "Imagined if you painted me pink and then dressed me up like some civilized sheep, would that change who I am? No, of course not. Who we are is not the clothes we wear or how politely we talk or how pink our fur. Give us the scent of blood and our nature is revealed regardless of what we may say otherwise."

"But wasn't it you who went on and on about what the color of fur meant about the nature of a creature. Perhaps the pink fur would change you somewhat," Andrea retorted, thinking of another pink creature who she had met but an hour earlier.

"That is just sophistry, Andrea." Machiavelli finished his sentence with a roar. "I have had enough standing about, talking about this ugly, unbreathable place. I came here to talk about our plans against Rousseau this evening."

Andrea nodded and turned away from the pony village. As she did so, she noticed a white rabbit sitting atop a butter yellow Pegasus off in the distance, coming from the edge of the forest. She seemed to have been attracted by Machiavelli's loud roar, which made the 'perhaps ponies are not dangerous' less plausible as prey would run away. To be fair, they should have assumed this from the powerful telekinetic and geomancy magic that Sophia could wield at a young age.

Machiavelli had not yet noticed the pony, and Andrea felt obligated not to tell him about the pony and her little animal companion. A little revenge for what he had attempt earlier.

"So who is supporting Rousseau now?" the buffalo asked, trying to distract the old codger.

"Maltus and his son Spencer," Machiavelli replied. It made sense to Andrea that Maltus and Spencer would join the rebellion against her rule. Both had strongly disagreed with her policies of giving the weak (prey and refugees from other civilizations) weapons like fractal spear. Maltus believed this would lead to a population explosion of the lower food chain, which would be unsupportable given the potential natural food supply of the State of Nature valley.

Spencer went further, believing that protecting the weak not only lowers the food supply but also causes the whole population to become weaker by allowing inferior traits to survive. The weak would be less productive, thus sustaining them will lower the available food supply in future generations.

They suggested just letting the weak die from natural causes to prevent their population from growing too large. The manticores were very much in favor of this philosophy for obvious reasons.

Machiavelli became enraptured by his act of explaining Maltus and Spencer's abilities and likely tactics of assault. Andrea ignored him and instead watched the pony with bated breath. When the pony finally got to the hill they were on, the old manticore was saying something about Locke probably being a good against Maltus.

The pony then hovered behind Machiavelli trying to get the lions attention. She spoke in the ancient language and received no response. She even poked the lions shoulder, but she was too soft in both respects to get the veteran manticore to notice her.

The rabbit rolled his eyes and made the deepest guttural cough Andrea had ever heard. Another thing to add to the list of all the things unnatural about this place, she thought.

The manticore jumped so fast that it would not have been surprising if the remainder of his fur remained on the ground beneath him.

"Who has dared to sneak up on me!" he roared.

"Oh, is the great and powerful Machiavelli scared of a little white bunny? Oh how cute! If you are not careful, I might have to get some pink dye to test your claim that you are really as fierce deep down as you pretend," Andrea said as she quickly recomposed herself.

"What? How?" Machiavelli looked down at the little pony and the rabbit. "You made that noise?"

"Yeah, what of it? You were ignoring the lady," the rabbit said, pointing down at the pegasus he rode as if he owned her.

Machiavelli warily looked at the pony. Normally, he wouldn't have cared about a prey animal, but ponies were a mystery to him, and he was still spooked by how the both of them had sneaked up on him. Even mice can't sneak up on me, how is this pony more silent than a mouse?

"Speak, pony, and make your words known to me," the manticore demanded loudly.

The yellow pony squeed and started petting the manticore with a hoof. The veteran blinked, unsure how this creature dared to touch him. He was so unprepared for this response that he forgot that, at this point, he was supposed to have maimed the weak creature before him.

"What's going on?" Machiavelli said, his voice no longer threatening but confused.

The pony said some pretty little nothings, which neither the buffalo or manticore understood. Luckily, the rabbit could translate. "She’s wondering what a big tom like you is doing so far from your home in the Everfree Forest and why you are terrorizing this poor buffalo."

Andrea took offense to this. "You can tell this to your lady: I am no poor little thing that needs rescue. I can take care of myself."

The yellow pony looked shocked and then flew to Andrea and started to do some pathetic posturing.

"That Fluttershy understands the forest language perfectly. She is now trying to apologize for hurting your feelings by implying that you were weak," the rabbit explained.

Andrea crooked an eyebrow at this. "If she knows forest, why does she insist on speaking a dead language."

The rabbit blinked his little beady black eyes in genuine surprise.

"Equestrian is hardly a dead language. As for why she doesn't speak forest, I just assume ponies can't."

Forest language or 'common' consisted of mutually intelligible dialects that corresponded to the sounds that each species could produce. For instance, birds speak in chirps, bears growls, and bugs buzzes, and they can all understand one another. Because the language could be used by almost anyone, it was generally used in areas like forests where lots of different species lived in close proximity to one another.

In contrast, the ancient language used by Equestrians was only possible for Equines and some hooved mammals like buffalo. Since most equines moved north during the Ice Age, the language pretty much died.

"Now tell Fluttershy that you were not offended, before I make you," the rabbit demanded without a ounce of fear for the two.

Andrea did not hesitate to reply to the mad mare apologizing for insulting her strength. Nothing was more pathetic to the buffalo than grovelling for forgiveness.

"Fluttershy, I accept your apology."

Fluttershy shook her head, not ready for forgiveness. Andrea gawked at the extremeness of this pony's desire to grovel before her.

"Young pony, I will be offended again if you continue to apologize, and don't you dare apologize for offending me. I will only be happy when you show that you are sorry by not saying sorry," Andrea said forcefully. Gosh, now I sound like a philosopher.

Fluttershy opened her mouth, said something, then immediately put her hoof to her mouth. She started getting more and more distressed as her mind tried to process Andrea's command. Then she just fainted, causing the rabbit to fall with her.

"What the hay!" shouted the rabbit.

"I think you broke that pony with that fancy word play you learned from the bug," Machiavelli jested from the safety of the buffalo's back. He risked a smell and didn't seem offended by it.

"So are you going to eat her or not?" Andrea asked the manticore, causing the rabbit to blanch.

"No," Machiavelli merely replied. "I will wait for some foolish young lion to take the first bite. While it is not customary to give choice meat to the weaker, I feel it is the young's job to make mistakes so the older ones don't have to. Who knows, these ponies might be poisonous in a way I have never smelt before."

"In other words, you want me to eat her," Andrea guessed.

"It is about time you consider meat," the manticore said seriously.

The rabbit had a sigh of relief. Fluttershy remained broken as her mind couldn't handle the logic loop of wanting to apologize and not wanting to offend her, so she didn't even react to the casual talk of eating her.

"I guess we should leave her then. Let's go see about the situation in the forest," Andrea suggested. So the manticore and buffalo left the distraught white bunny and his pony for a dangerous political situation which had the potential to result in the deaths of hundreds of refugees from the Southern Continents and the citizens of the State of Nature. "But lets leave a portal open so that I can check up on Ei Rikr and Sophia tonight at our camp."

Missing Shade of Red 2.2: Deputy of the MMS (Revised)

Chapter context:

1.3: Ei Rikr has cast zir pacification spell again. Now a green sun shines above Ponyville preventing them from panicking at the sight of a changeling.

-------------------------------Lyra's Mansion---------------------------------------

Bring Bring Bring went the alarm in Lyra Heartstrings' bedroom. It signified that she had to hurry to town hall to get to town hall in a hurry to get briefed on whatever magical mishap was occurring in Ponyville now.

Lyra was a mint colored unicorn from Canterlot, living in Ponyville now as an assistant to the village's Representative for the Magistracy of Magic and Science (MMS), Evening Glimmer. Lyra's talent was history and was reflected by a lyre cutie mark. Since Starswirl the Bearded and Clover the Clever discovered all that was to be known about magic and science over a thousand years ago, those subjects naturally fell under the historian pony's jurisdiction. As Deputy of the Magistrate's Representative, Lyra's job was to investigate magical or scientific events caused by the citizens of Equestria and use her knowledge of all there is to know to solve them.

"What did Twilight do now?" Lyra groaned. Twilight Sparkle was almost always responsible for the catastrophes plagued Ponyville. At first, Lyra assumed Princess Celestia dumped Twilight as far away from Canterlot as she possibly could to prevent the unicorn from attracting disaster to the capital. Over time, Lyra realized the Twilight was going to play a major role in Equestrian history. For now, ponies in the Magistracy needed to keep a tab on all of Twilight's friends to make sure they followed the straight-and-narrow path of Harmony as the fate of Equestria hangs in the balance.

Lyra quickly got her red tie, black suit, and shades. While she was doing this, her sense of urgency was fading despite knowing how destructive rogue magic could be. She sensed the emotional numbing, trained against such magics by the gifted unicorn Evening Glimmer.

"Mental magic," Lyra said lethargically. She calmly and slowly reached into her oak nightstand by her bed to get her tin foil hat and Mind Torch.

All those who worked for the magistracy had carried sunglasses and a tin foil hat. The sunglasses protected against mental magic entering through the eyes and tin foil hats protect against aura-based mental magic like the one that was affecting the town this morning. While it made the MMS look dumb, looking dumb actually made them less conspicuous in earth pony villages, according to the higher ups in the Magistracy.

Unique to the Ponyville branch of Magistracy, Lyra carried a Mind Torch. The hoof-held magic device had been invented by Evening Glimmer to remove mental magic from ponies and to return them to a harmonious mental state. There was a similar spell which require a unicorn to touch horn against the head of another pony. Not only was it time consuming and dangerous to do this against masses of magicked ponies, but the caster would have to have the memories they wished used as the base for reprogramming ponies before casting the spell. In other words, the Magic Torch was a big boon in dealing with situations with aura-based mental magic. Unfortunately, the Magic Torch was still in its prototype stages. (1)

A year ago, Twilight had cast brainwashing enchantment on her doll affecting every pony who laid eyes upon it. The spell was the standard but overcharged Want-It-Need-It-Gotta-Have-It formula taught to all Gifted Unicorns. If Lyra remembered correctly, Twilight had said something along the lines of 'it works every time', which did not give Lyra much confidence in Twilight's ability to use mental magic responsibly. (2)

Dealing with the spell was rather simple. Donning their sunglasses, the unicorns of the MMS had set their Magic Torch to crowd mode. This created a large wave of light returning the ponies to prior to their brainwashing. Celestia had appeared on the scene almost immediately afterwards. The ponies assumed that Celestia had freed the ponies from Twilight's spell, which was fine with Lyra and Glimmer as they didn't do it for fame. The MMS works best when nopony realizes it is doing anything.

-------------------------------Ponyville---------------------------------------

With her mental magic protection in tow, Lyra left her small mansion on the east side of Ponyville Lake and galloped to town hall. Above her, she could already see the source of the mental magic, a large green ball of roaring flames. She could see strains of green flame coming off of exhausted ponies in the streets. The unicorn deduced that the spell fueled itself through these flames somehow. While the spell was unique in its appeared, there were many similar spells which drained ponies for power. This one seemed to focus on emotional states.

Lyra galloped through the ticky-tacky houses of the earth pony village. Rounding a corner, she heard some filly having a horrible coughing fit. Lyra almost stopped to make sure that pony got to the hospital, but her training told her that mass mental magic was more important and could not be ignored.

Lyra finally got to the pink round building known as Ponyville Town Hall. Doing so, Lyra accidentally knocked down Pencil Pusher who worked in the immigration offices downstairs. His fall almost knocked an anonymous earth pony on a ladder who painting the interior walls a festive pink. Luckily, the pony steady the ladder by gripping onto the ledge.

Lyra, in accordance with pony custom, quickly forgot that she had hurt anypony and rushed up the round staircase that lead to the top of Town Hall. Lyra reached the golden door that led to the Ponyville Representative of the Magistracy of Magic and Science office, where Evening Glimmer would not doubt be waiting for her.

Galloping from her home and straight up three flights of stairs had winded the unicorn. I need Glimmer to teach me how to teleport up here someday, Lyra thought herself.

Lyra pushed the door opened with trepidation.

-------------------------------Magistracy of Magic and Science office---------------------------------------

"You're late!" shouted the boss.

She had a violet mane covered partially by her tin foil hat and a orange coat, and was getting along into her fifties.

Unlike Lyra, Evening Glimmer had gone to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns, where the most talented unicorns went to get educated and put on the fast track for the top jobs in Equestria's government, including Princesshood. Each gifted unicorn were given a unique animal as their familiar. A familiar's job was to do menial tasks and act as a guinea pig for potentially dangerous spells. Glimmer's familiar was a brown crab, which she called Cancer. Glimmer didn't have a healthy sense of humor as her taste in names demonstrated.

"I'm..." Lyra began but was too winded to say anything. Luckily, Evening was more than ready to make up for the unicorn's lack of breath.

"No excuses. I need you on the ground now. Need I remind you we have a code rainbow emergency on our hooves. You need to investigate whether the green ball of fire is dangerous, how to neutralize it, and who created it."

Lyra humored a salute. Glimmer turned to look out one of her large windows which gave view of most of Ponyville.

"Do you have any leads?" she asked.

Lyra couldn't answer. She needed a break. Even with the endurance she built up from the job in the past, that residual effects from the spell had sapped her more than usual.

"I don't know why we keep you un-gifted unicorns for," Glimmer mumbled while going through her spell books for answers.

"I don't know any spell like this. It is definitely draining ponies to fuel itself. I have no leads as to who may have cast it. Do you want me to look through my spell books for a counter spell?" Lyra inquired, hoping to she might help reduce Glimmer's temper and, more importantly, not have to go down those stairs again.

Lyra feared the Gifted Unicorn's temper as one time Glimmer had raged so hard that the whole town hall had been sent 50 feet in the air. They had Rainbow Dash and Derpy Hooves fix the building. Lyra remembered because Derpy Hooves needed to get reharmonized immediately afterwards for not being up to Prince Dusk Shine's standards and Rainbow Dash went on a wild adventure to Dodge Junction. This left Lyra needing to find new ponies to fix the town hall. Fortunately, Glimmer became impatient and fixed everything with a single spell rather than letting the other ponies do it the 'Ponyville way.' (3)

"No, just go. Like I already said, I need ponies on the ground. Right now, I need to find a counter spell and an excuse to the Prince of Harmony for why this catastrophe happened under my watch," Evening groaned. Lyra didn't take Evening Glimmer's anger personally. The gifted unicorn always apologize for her rudeness when she calmed down. She was a good pony at heart, just very prickly.

If Lyra had to change anything about gifted unicorns, it would be how they go completely insane when they think about possibly disappointing royalty. Celestia's school had conditioned their most powerful unicorns to be absolutely loyal to the crown to the point of self-destruction if they disobeyed. Anypony who had ever met Celestia knew she was really nice and her punishments had always been basically slaps on the fetlock. Twilight brainwashed the entire town and was 'punished' by not having to send letters every week. Yet it was like they thought the princesses would make them explode and then make them explode again. The only upside to this for Lyra was that she was thankful she wasn't a gifted unicorn.

It is good to know your place, and not be wanting of anything greater or less than what you are capable of, Lyra thought to herself as she left the office and started descending the stairs.

Author's Note

1) The Memory Spell is the same one used by Twilight in "The Return of Harmony pt. 2."

2) The episode reference is Lesson Zero.

3) The reference is the beginning of "The Last Roundup," which was changed to remove mention of Derpy's name.

Missing Shade of Red 2.3: Stale Air (Revised)

Chapter Context:
1.3: Ei Rikr and Sophia want to register as immigrants. If they don't find housing today, they will return to their camp at night after the pacification spell has worn off. Sophia also wants to talk to Twilight Sparkle about unicorns.

The green sun shone brightly about the village of ponies as Ei Rikr and zir daughter Sophia trotted to the town hall. In the streets around them lay a hoofful of ponies who had passed out due to the spell. They would wake soon as their brains adapted to energy vacuum activated by their emotions.

Along their journey, the horsefly and zir daughter encountered three mares who had collasped while watering their flowers.

Sophia sneezed.

"Are you alright, Sophie?" Ei Rikr asked.

Sophia tried to respond but started sneezing and coughing violently. Her parent embraced her. "We are flying above this."

Warm tears streaked down from Sophia's brown muzzle as she clinged to Ei Rikr. Ei Rikr buzzed zir wings hard. With all zir strength, the horsefly lifted both zir daughter and the book laden saddlebags off the ground.

"I should have left those books behind," Ei Rikr commented.

Above the pink roofs of the pony village, they escaped the pollen-thick air of the flower gardens.

"Can you see a place we can land?" Ei Rikr asked.

"Not yet. Too much tears," the unicorn filly replied with much difficulty.

"Well, I am going to have to land, so here we go," Ei Rikr flew forward a few dozen meters that ze could managed with zir limited strength. Ze managed a haphazard descent. Sophia was protected from the edges of buildings but the same could not be said for her parent.

Once down, Sophia blinked her eyes a few times. "I think I can manage, now."

"What happened?" Ei Rikr inquired. Several clicks of fright and worry emanated from zir throat.

"The air here is very stale. As we have previously observed, there is no natural ventilation in Equestria or at least in Ponyville. Some ponies were cultivating flowers, which were emitting particulates in significant quantities due to the season. I have a poor history with flowers. [She indicated her crown of blue polka dots before continuing.] I had allergic reaction which you would not understand because you lack histamine as a being made of fire."

"You should tell me sooner if the air is bothering you. We will try to avoid flowers in the future," the horsefly said.

"I was thinking about pony culture," Sophia lifted her parent's hoof in the direction of a lone mountain off in the distance.

Ei Rikr opened and closed zir mouth slowly, chewing this cud of information. Sophia was abandoned in a field of blue flowers in the forest, and now that she has finally returned to her homeland, Sophia was being killed by flowers. The horsefly only wanted zir daughter to be safe and happy.

"I am not going to give up!" the horsefly announced to the sky.

"Who are you talking to, parent?" Sophia asked.

"Oh, the universe, Sophie, the universe."

Sophia cocked her head. "You know that the universe does not and cannot care about you or me. It is mostly empty, cold space."

"I know, dear, I know," the philosopher replied. "Uh, so where is that town hall."

"I think the immigration office is in that round building to your six, if my grasp of ancient horse shoe script is correct," Sophia said.

"Oh, that is convenient. I guess the universe must have had pity on me for me to have accidentally landed where I needed to be. I will have to thank it the next time we have a talk."

Sophia cocked her head again. "But the universe can't"

Ei Rikr shushed her daughter. "It's okay dear, now help me into this building.

The building Sophia had indicated was a large round building with several floors called Town Hall. In front of it was a long pink sign, which indicated what office was on what floor.

According to Sophia's ability, the sign read the following:

Town Hall

U: Municipal Representatives of Magistracy of Harmony

Magistracy of Magic and Science 301

Magistracy of Friendship 302

Magistracy of Aesthetics 303

Magistracy of the Royals 304

P: Local Services

Office of Tourism 201

Office of Animal Care 202

Office of Sports 203

Office of Weather 204

National Services

Local Royal Guard 205

Post Office 206

E: Office of the Mayor 101

Municipal Court 102

Office of Education 103

Festivities Hall

Office of Festivities 104

Office of Confectioneries

and Baked Goods 105

Office of Agriculture 106

N: Office of Immigration

Domestic Transfers 001

International Arrivals 002

Municipal Police

Offices 003

Jail 004

Sophia had never read a sign before, so it utterly confused her. "This sign says the Office of Immigration, but there is a lot on the sign."

"Describe it to me, honey. Perhaps, I can help you figure it out," Ei Rikr suggested more than commanded.

Sophia described the sign in as much detail as possible. Ei Rikr contemplated a bit. "I have no idea what the letters before the sections of offices means. but I am pretty sure the digit in the hundreds place indicates the floor and the whole number refers to the office room number. The room we are looking for is 002. What I find interesting is that this culture lists the floors in descending order."

"Why is that confusing?" Sophia asked. "If 301 is on the top floor, then its location on the list corresponds where it is in the building. The other way the top floor is on the bottom of the list, which is counter-intuitive."

"I never thought of it that way. I guess I have been so used to it being the other way for so long that I was blind to it being any other way." the blind horsefly commented. "We better get out of this air. It should be better in the building."

Sophia took the perforated hoof, taking note how large the holes had become over the course of the morning, and guided her parent into the building.

Inside Town Hall, the duo were introduce to a high roofed circular enclosure. The walls were pinks and blues, and office doors line each floor. A waxed floor for recreation and events took up most of the ground floor. A stair case led to the upstairs and had a sign near it that read just like the one outside. There were also a few equines milling about carrying stacks of paper up and down stairs between offices. A mare and a stallion who had exited a nearby office walked out and was moving towards them. The mare had a grey mane and a yellowish-grey coat, and the stallion had a grey coat and a black mane.

They are less colorful than the other ponies we have seen, especially that rainbow one that had grabbed me, Sophia thought to herself.

"Hello there," Ei Rikr addressed the two conversing ponies. The horsefly could not see this but ze could still sense it. "Don't be alarmed, my name is Ever Ruler. I just a peaceful traveler, come to raise my daughter in the land of her people."

"Hello," the stallion replied politely. "Pardon me for saying this, but I have never seen your kind before."

"I am a horsefly, an endangered species on the continent," Ei Rikr answered.

"I have never heard of a horsefly. Have you?" he asked the mare to his side. She shook her head.

"Could you excuse us for not introducing ourselves, he and I are feeling out of sorts," the mare said. "My name is Mayor Mare, and I am in charge of Ponyville on behalf of Her Highness, Princess Celestia. This here is Judge Right, the judge of Ponyville." The mare lowered her head so that her muzzle was only a few inches away from the filly's, who didn't mind the invasion of her personal space. "I do not know you. Where are your parents?"

"That is Sophia, my daughter," Ei Rikr said on zir daughter's behalf.

If they could, they would have taken that as a joke or thought ze had misspoke. The Judge merely blinked.

The mayor stared. "I think I am confused."

Ei Rikr defended. "I adopted her."

"Adopted, never heard that term before. Have you Judge?" the Mayor asked, legitimately perplexed.

Judge Right blinked and then promptly explained. "I have. It is a thing some foreigners do. Another adults takes over the responsibility of the parents because they are decease or incompetent. We have a few laws for dealing with foreign dignitaries who are adopted by their monarchs. I am glad we ponies don't need adoption because we all have happy families protected by the princesses."

Mayor Mare thought about the Apple family for a moment before she dismissed the thought. "Enough with unpleasant topics like non-equine disharmony. What we really want to know is what is that green sun outside."

"Allow me," Ei Rikr offered. Ze gave a brief overview of zir calm spell and its current status as a green sun over the village, which will die out by sunset.

"It would make sense," the Judge replied. "I should probably see if any laws had been broken by this horsefly, and you [the mayor] should probably send a report to the Evening Glimmer's office, since this is an act of magic." The judge walked towards a door that said court room, where his office was located.

"I should?" the mayor blinked.

"I should," she repeated with more certainty. With that, the mayor started walking back into her office with mechanical recognition of her duty.

Ei Rikr noticed that the mare was moving. "Wait! I had a question to ask you." The mayor stopped but did not turn around. "I wanted to know where I could find the immigration office."

"It is on the non-equine floor below this one," an anonymous earth pony painter said upon a ladder near the entrance.

The philosopher thanked the stallion and had Sophia guide zir to the stairs down.

Author's Note

For people who didn't guess, the letters before each floor is for the pony breed. U is for unicorn, for example.

By the way, anonymous painter is best pony.

Missing Shade of Red 2.4: The Flower District (Revised)

Chapter Context:
2.2: Evening Glimmer tasks Lyra with finding out who is responsible for mass mental magic over the town.

-----------------------------------Ponyville Square---------------------------------------

The mint-colored unicorn trotted out of town hall, avoiding the anonymous earth pony painting by the door. She knew where she would begin her investigation: Ponyville Flower District. She cast an air filtration spell so that she wouldn't be affected by tainted air of the district.

For unprotected ponies, by the time you knew you were in the Flower District (a.k.a. the Red Rose District) it was too late as the air became so thick with the scents of flowers that one became too high to even think straight. The bottom of the bottom of ponykind like Rose Luck and Daisy smelled their senses away here.

They were so unused to the common problems of the world that the smallest things could cause them to faint. While being weak to fright is common to Ponyville due to Evening Glimmer's efforts to keep everypony happy all the time ("big smiles in our village, see Dusk Shine"), those in the Flower District were extremely vulnerable to trauma.

For a deputy of magic and science law, the Flower District was the best place get leads on investigations. Rumors gathered in the well-lit dens of frivolous florists and small-change merchants. While the historian didn't have any experience in such places in Canterlot, her job forced her to make 'friends' with the ponies in the district in Ponyville.

One of those 'friends' was Bon Bon (formerly known as Sweetie Drops), a small candies merchant, who had use her neighbor's flowers to sweeten her confections. Bon Bon was also a valued test subject for the side effects of the Mind Torch along with Derpy Hooves (formerly known as Ditzy Doo) and Bulk Biceps (formerly known as Snowflake). These ponies had suffered some mental deformation while having their personalities remade but it had shown the potential of the Mind Torch to do more than just reset the minds of ponies. (1)

When Lyra found the mare of malignancy, she was high as a kite on a breezing Spring day, literally. Pinkie Pie was on a tight rope talking to Bon Bon who had climbed up onto her roof.

The deputy rang the bell on the stall counter.

"I will be down in like one moment, girl," Bon Bon called in a valley accent common to Earth ponies who lived in said valleys.

(AN: This is a reference to the voice Bon Bon has in "Green Isn't Your Color.")

Lyra adjusted her red tie while she waited. The two earth ponies were talking about Starswirl knows what and not following any logic known to unicorn logic.

Finally, Bon Bon started laughing at something Pinkie Pie said and the two mares on the roof separated in mutual abundant mirth. The laughter caught Lyra off-guard. Interesting, it seems that the abundance of flowers about this area is protecting the ponies from the green sun emotional numbing affect, Lyra noted on a spare piece of paper attached to her Disharmony report book.

"Did Pinkie ever tell you the one about the buffalo, the changeling, and the filly who walk into Ponyville?" Bon Bon asked.

"No," Lyra said curtly, not interested in jokes that had nothing to do with her investigation. Before the candy pony could say any more pleasantries, Lyra continued. "I came here to ask you some questions."

Bon Bon tilted her head a bit. "Do I like, uh, know you? You are Lyra, right?"

Lyra remained stoic as she pulled out a badge from her pocket with the image of Canterlot Mountain standing tall over all of Equestria. "I am Lyra Heartstrings with the Ponyville branch of the Magistracy of Magic and Science. Again, I need to just ask you a few questions."

"Oh, anything I can like help you with? Girl, I swear I know you from somewhere," Bon Bon said.

"Yes, do you know anything about that," the assistant said pointing to the flaming sphere overhead.

Bon Bon looked at it. She opened her mouth and closed it several times, having difficulty figuring out what was on her mind. Something finally distracted her from the horrid job of thinking about the past.

"Uh, was that green thing like always there? I never noticed it before."

The mint unicorn stood patiently as she asked her next question. "Has Rarity said anything to you about Twilight doing more experiments with mass mental magic?"

Bon Bon blinked a few times before seemed to click for her. "Rarity, that's that nice dressing unicorn pony, right. She says she's my friend. I don't, like, remember her. We talked some yesterday, and she talked about everypony. I couldn't remember most of it. She did mention Twilight though. It didn't make much sense , cause how do you, like, make barrel measurements for a time of day?"

Lyra stifled a sigh at the mare confusing Twilight with a time of day.

"Thank you very much for your answers, Bon Bon. Now I only have one more thing to ask you, but before I do, I need you to look carefully at this." Lyra levitated the Mind Torch from her front suit pocket. adjusting it to narrow focus and medium power.

When Bon Bon had finally focused her attention on the device in front of her, Lyra activated the Mind Torch and asked the earth pony her last question. "Bon Bon, do you remember who I am?"

Bon Bon stared for a moment before responding. "How would I know? I never seen you before in my life," she said a completely new voice. It was as if she had swallowed gravel.

(Author's Note: This is a reference to The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000 where Bon Bon has a different voice and complains to have had cider with rocks in it.)

Lyra smirked as Mind Torch successfully created a new pony personality with no memory of Lyra or any of the MMS's experiments. If the mental deformations became bad enough, Lyra would just send Bon Bon to hospital to be institutionalized like Screw Loose and the other former test subjects. It wasn't necessarily permanent as Derpy had recovered enough to be released back into Ponyville proper for Princess Twilight's coronation.

"Good, I am done here. For your help, here is a voucher for ten bits redeemable at Magic and Science store in Equestria," Lyra told the mentally-deteriorating mare.

I guess I will now have to go to the probably source next, since Bon Bon proved to be a dud, literally, Lyra thought to herself as she trotted in her sweaty black suit to Golden Oaks Library, where Princess Twilight lived.

-----------------------------------------Golden Oak's Library------------------------------------------

Bon Bon had proven to be quite useless in the investigation, but Lyra had expected as much since Sweetie Drops had become increasingly incompetent as she transitioned into the Bon Bon of today. Hopefully, Twilight will be able to clear up this mess, so that Evening Glimmer can relax, the mint unicorn thought.

Lyra almost knocked on the library door before she remembered it was a public building. It seems I been infected by whatever causes earth ponies to not know that this building is more than where Twilight lives. It can't be helped, I guess. Earth ponies don't need to read more than what is necessary to make bits.

Upon entering, Lyra examined for the pony she was looking for. She only saw Spike cleaning up some books that looked like they fell off of one of the shelves. "Familiar Spike, where is your master?"

Spike looked up from his task at the Canterlot mare at the door. "It has been a long time since I have been called that. The title familiar makes me feel like a diamond dog's slave."

"The position of familiar is way above even that of the diamond dog alpha. You should be proud. Here in an earth pony village, you among those of relatively equal caste."

Spike went back to work. "Yep, you sound just like all the other Canterlot unicorns. They really need to get out of that castle. Nopony talks like that about others here."

If Lyra understood Spike's comment, she made no indication.

Taking a deep breadth, Spike changed subjects. "You are probably here because of the Green Sun outside."

"Yes, young familiar, I am here for that. The magistracy has gotten really hectic because of whatever that thing is outside."

"More like Evening Glimmer has gone a bit nutty," Spike said knowingly.

"How did you know?" Lyra asked, being careful not to opine opening about her boss.

"Twilight had a class from Evening when she was still teaching at the Gifted School ten years back. Twilight told me many stories of how Evening helped her prepare for Celestia's most stressful magic tests. It doesn't take a gifted to realize those two are basically identical ponies, just different ages."

Lyra noted this information on the spare sheet in her Disharmony report book. Who knows? This might be useful when I write a memoir of Princess Evening Glimmer, the historian reasoned.

"I am not sure I want you to remove the spell, honestly," Spike said. As he did this, he sighed and pulled out a picture of Rarity, a unicorn with a pure white coat, false eyelashes, and a purple coiffure. "See this pony?" Spike asked.

Lyra nodded. "Yes, the valley unicorn, respected in Canterlot for contributions to aesthetics, part of the Belle family."

Spike rolled his eyes. "Not what I meant. Now, what I meant is look at how pretty she is."

"Yeah, she is definitely a prime specimen of unicorn beauty. I am sure this is a reflection of the idea of beauty her talent gives her knowledge of."

"Before the spell, I might have agreed with you," Spike said in a way that betrayed the smallest trace of lament. "You see. I had fallen for this unicorn."

This caused Lyra to pale. "That is wrong."

"You are the only one to think so. The others including her and Twilight thought it was adorable," Spike countered.

"They are a bad influence on you, then. One should never encouraged somepony to aspire beyond their station as it disrupts the harmony which everypony realizes through ones Cutie Mark."

"Spare me the lecture," Spike said with a sigh. "You are still missing the point. I loved her, and now I don't. This has given me time to think about my feelings, and I have come to the conclusion that what she did to me while I was under her spell was morally wrong. Friends don't take advantage of each other. The point is that the green sun protects me from Rarity's magic."

Lyra nodded. "I understand. Slavery is to be made less than one is, and thus the greatest affront to our harmony. You are not the first to be brought low by the spell of seduction for the selfish desires of the seductress. I have once seen Rarity use such magic to swindle an earth pony from his rightfully purchased vegetables. We didn't act on it because she did reimburse the poor stallion and the she is the Element of Generosity." (2)

"Is there anything you can do?" Spike asked.

"If I have time, I will see if Rarity cannot be harmonized into treating you in accordance of your caste. In the meantime, I can get you some sunglasses, though I doubt it will work on her kind of magic," she answered.

Spike placed the picture upside down on a table which was presumably his own workstation. "Friends..." he said meditatively for a moment, then he slowly turned away from the table and to face Lyra. "You came here not to talk to me about my problems. You wanted Twilight. She left awhile ago in a hurry. I am sorry for delaying you."

Lyra sighed.

"It is okay. This is only an emergency. We can talk again when there isn't some oppressive magic at work in Ponyville."

"There is always some emergency in Ponyville. You can take a break every once in awhile. Plus, usually Twilight solves these kind of problems, though I hope she doesn't this time," Spike said.

With that insight, Lyra said goodbye and left. Closing the door, her stomach growled at her. I wish I had breakfast. I don't think Evening Glimmer will mind if I get a quick bite to eat.

Lyra went looking for the sandwich shop. It was not to far from town hall, so if Twilight resolved everything again, she wouldn't have to go very far. I would just have to gallop up those stairs, Lyra reminded herself and moaned.

Author's Note

1) All these characters had different names at some point.

2) This is reference to Rarity's method of acquiring vegetables for Fluttershy in "Putting Your Hoof Down".

Missing Shade of Red 2.5: Bureaucrats (Revised)

Revision: 12/26/2015

Chapter Context:
2.3: Ei Rikr (Ever Ruler) and Sophia (Wisdom) continued their search for the immigration offices. Arriving at the town hall, they made their way to the basement where the non-equines are taken care of.

2.2: Pencil Pusher is injured when Lyra rushes into the town hall. Now he cleans up a bloody nose and must deal with broken glasses.

----------------------------------Town Hall basement for Non-Equine Services (Equestrian perspective)-------------------------------------

(AN: Reminder that Ei Rikr=Ever Ruler and Sophia=Wisdom. I decided to switch this chapter to the Equestrian language perspective.)

Wisdom efficiently navigated her parent to the immigration office, where Pencil Pusher was working. The bureaucrat pony had a box of tissues out for his freshly bleeding nose.

"Could you ask the stallion if I could use some of those paper things?" Wisdom asked in the common language of the forest.

Ever Ruler understood and addressed Pencil Pusher.

"Hello, sir."

Pencil Pusher noticed the changeling and the filly.

"Can I help, you?" he asked with his voice distorted by his blocked up nasal passages.

"I am here to see if I can move into your country. Also, my daughter wants a few of those disposable paper handkerchiefs you have there," the changeling explained.

Pencil Pusher almost nodded then he remembered he had a bloody nose. Instead, he just pushed the box a little. The filly took the box and blew her nose, which had been running since she had gone through the flower gardens. "Of course, the filly can have one."

Ever Ruler picked out a few tissues for zir daughter and using one showed her how to blow her nose. This was all based on the changeling's experience of other people having done so since changelings don't have sinuses or anything to get congested. They are made out of flame after all.

Pencil Pusher then gave zir the immigration form and went back to nursing his nose bleed.

"Sir," the changeling said to get the attention of the bureaucrat again. This proved successful. "I am blind and will need help with this form."

Pencil frowned. "Uh, I am sorry, sir, but if you would notice, my glasses are broken, so I cannot help you with your form either." Pencil assumed Ever Ruler was a male pony because the changeling was nice to him.

"What should I do then?" the changeling asked.

"Just a moment, I will get my colleague from domestic immigration office," Pencil said as he got up and left the office.

Like the stallion said, in a moment, he was back with a mare who looked rather similar to him. "This is my sister. Pocket Protector. She said she has some time to help you with you immigration form and application for placement into Equestria."

Pocket Protector looked closely at the little family before her. "Brother, you said I was working with ponies not some bug thing."

Pencil rubbed his eyes, trying helplessly to focus them. "You are not a pony. I assumed..."

"No worries. It is not the first time someone has mistaken me as one of their speices own," the changeling interrupted the confused but calm stallion.

"If we will begin, I need to get back to work in the other room before the Strongheart family finishes their paperwork," Protector said.

"Right away then."

Protector and took a chair by a desk in the office placed there just for groups of immigrants to do their paperwork on.

As they sat, Wisdom had finished cleaning her nose but had left her tissues lying on the ground. Protector noticed this. "Little one, I don't know why you are here, but you should at least put your tissues in the trash bin."

Wisdom replied with a confused look of her own, which would had melted even the bureaucrat's heart had the calm spell not sapped her of all ability to recognize cuteness.

"The trash bin is that container over there. People place food and paper waste in them," Ever explained to Wisdom.

Pencil Pusher indicated a trash bin below his desk with his spare hoof. Sophia understood then what she must do, but decided it was a good opportunity to practice her magic. Pencil Pusher had no idea what was happening as flying balls of disgusting stuff flew around him as the filly tried to perfect her aim.

The horsefly found this all so very entertaining, but Protector had neither humor nor time for distractions and asked the changeling to help her fill out the form.

"What is your name?" she asked.

"Ei Rikr," ze replied.

"Equestrian, please."

"Ever Ruler," ze said.

"Is that ruler as in leader or as in the measuring device," the bureaucrat asked curious.

"As in leader," Ever called, answered. This prompted Protector to wonder briefly if 'ever ruler' was anything like Princess Celestia.

"Gender?"

"All, none, any, if those options are available?" Ever asked.

Protector looked at the changeling confused again. "Male or female?"

"Uh, I am not really either when I am like this," the changeling said, indicating zir undisguised state.

"Male then," Protector said, having decided that she did not like this Non-Equine. "Now, what is your race?"

"Pferdfliege or horsefly in your tongue," Ever answered. Protector looked through a list of boxes for horsefly but could not find it, so just nicked 'other' and wrote it in the box beside the option.

"You are clearly capable of speech, but you are not a recognized species of Equine or a national species of one of Equestria's allied nations. Ironic though seeing you are a horsefly. Therefore, I must mark you as livestock."

"What---?" Ever began but was cut off by Pocket Protectors next question. Ze was going to ask about the 'livestock' designation.

"Age?"

"Pretty old."

This did not amuse the bureaucrat.

"Would 1500 lunar years suffice. I lived a really long time, I stopped taking count when people started treating me different for it. I am just a person with all the ignorance and foolishness that comes with that."

Protector took out a little book and a calculator from inside the desk. The lunar calendar had been reinstated when Luna had returned to ponykind two years ago, and bureaucrats now had the pleasure of measuring things both in lunar years and solar years. Finishing the calculation, the desk worker concluded that Ever was around 1405 solar years old. That was as older than the princesses, which Pocket Protector found hard to believe. She did not question the non-equines though.

"Family?"

"Three. There is me, Wisdom here, and Corvo Nevermore who I intend to meet up when I find where ze is."

"What does Corvo mean in Equestrian?"

"That is hard. It is the family name which both Crows and Ravens are part of," Ever replied.

The bureaucrat just wrote down Raven.

"Reason for immigrating?"

"I lost my home," Ever answered, avoiding addressing the wars of the South Continent.

Filly decided this was an appropriate time to interrupt. "Parent, I need to eat now."

Ever suddenly realized that ze had forgotten the time. It didn't help that Wisdom didn't feel hunger easily due to her condition.

Ever took off the saddlebag that Courage (Andrea) had given zir. The buffalo had placed some gold doubloons they found in the cave they had camped in last night. The cave also must have been home to a dragon at one point because there were just piles of treasure lying around it. (1)

"Here, while I take care of this form with Mrs. Protector, you go find some restaurant and buy a small meal," Ever explained.

"What is a restaurant?" Wisdom asked.

"Just ask some of the ponies up there what a restaurant is and they will answer for you. None of the ponies can hurt you while my spell is still activated."

"How will I ask them if they don't understand forest language?" Wisdom asked.

"Uh," Ever floundered, zir wings vibrating irregularly in zir nervousness. Looking at objects on the table, one of them stood out as a brilliant idea. "Use this pad of paper and pencil. You can talk to them in writing since you know to read and write in the ancient language."

Wisdom understood and left with the gold doubloons. Ever waited for zir daughter to leave before returning to paperwork.

"Okay, where were we?" Ever asked.

"I was about to ask you if any of those in your family need language lessons. We have a teacher for livestock named Rose Stone, who will come to the farm at which you become stationed on the weekends," Protector explained.

"One, my daughter," the changeling replied.

Protector shook her head. How could a pony not know Equestrian. This just gets stranger and stranger, she thought to herself.

"If I may ask, how many more questions are on the form?" Ever inquired.

Protector used the calculator once more. "588 more questions to be exact."

Ever flapped zir wings twice slowly, in a changeling equivalent of a groan.

Hours later

The horsefly felt like tearing zir wings right off when finally Pocket Protector said, "We are done. I will get your position voucher."

The earth pony mare walked to her brother's table gave him the paperwork to have a copy made for Canterlot for national record. She took out a pink slip of paper and hoofed it to Ever, not realizing the creature was blind.

"Wah, hey, tell me when you are going to give me something," Ever complained.

Protector apologized. "Give that voucher to the owner of Sweet Apple Acres tomorrow morning. Her name is Granny Smith. She will give you work, food, and a place to sleep."

"Why did I answer all those questions about my talents if I am just going to work on a farm?" Ever wondered with not a small amount of anger.

Protector rolled your eyes. "We ask non-equines like you about your talents because we want to know if your body, not your mind, has something to give us that ponies cannot create themselves. Sheep produce wool, cows milk, and pigs mud. You sadly don't seem to have any talents we are looking for, so will be given labor."

"But surely you need teachers," Ever said.

"Even if there was an open teaching position in Ponyville, we could not give it to an non-equine."

This made the changeling click zir fangs in surprise. "Why?"

"You see this mark on my flank?" Protector asked. If Ever could see, ze would have saw an image of a front shirt pocket with a pen and calculator not unlike the one she was wearing now. "This symbolizes my destiny, and I must do what it says. So in order for us ponies to do work related to our special talent, non-equines must become livestock or pets in order to avoid competing with us for jobs." (2)

"So us 'non-equines' as you call us have no hope of doing what we have passion for?" Ever asked worried.

Protector rolled her eyes. "Do you have a cutie mark? No. You can do farm labor and learn to be happy doing that. For us with Cutie Marks, it would be wrong for us to do anything which we were not meant to do. Of the two possibilities, your choice is by far the more cruel."

Ever was not ready to give up this point. Ze had hoped in restarting zir career as a philosopher in this pony civilization so that Sophia could experience the paradise that was the School of the Eternal Siblings. "There must be other equines in your nation other than ponies. Do they have Cutie Marks as well?"

Protector shook her head. "No, there are mules, donkey's, and now Saddle Arabian horses."

"From what you told me, they don't get these same restrictions on where they can live and work."

"It would be cruel to treat a fellow equine like an animal," the mare replied confused.

"Doesn't that cause the same kind of problems as refusing non-equines more appropriate employment?"

"It causes problems but that is why the domestic immigration offices exist. It is our job to make that the number of available jobs are inflated just enough that non-pony equines can live among us without causing trouble for our Harmony. Also, most mules just work on farms overseeing the livestock, which does not interfere with ponies," Pocket Protector explained. (3)

"Do ponies have talents related to working with non-equines?" the philosopher inquired.

"There are lots of Cutie Marks related to animals. We have animal catchers,--"

"Animal catchers?" Ever interjected.

"Ponies whose talent is capturing non-equines who have run away from the owners," she answered. Ever chirped with obvious discontent. "We also those domesticate animals like Fluttershy. Domestication is the process where animals have their instincts removed and made dependent on ponies for their care. This is essential step in making them into pets."

"Pets?"

"Pets are non-equines who live in houses where ponies take care of all their needs. Pets cannot speak Equestrian, which is strange. Fluttershy says she can understand what they are saying. How can they say anything if they don't have a language?"

"Perhaps they have a language," Ever hinted. "Are there any other 'animal' jobs about which I should know?"

"Oh, other than that there are ponies who specialize handling animals in the rodeo. That is where ponies tie up bulls and other large non-equines with ropes. This is to show off who is the best at controlling non-equines. It is really fun to watch."

Ever would be a hypocrite if ze outright rejected what the mare said as extreme. Ze believe in a willingness to learn from other. The philosopher gripped the job voucher tightly in zir hoof. "This job is a start. I shouldn't expect everything to be perfect. Corvo warned me of being to idealistic."

"Oh before you go," Pencil Pusher said quickly to get the resolute changeling's attention. "You should go to Golden Oaks Library to get a book called Everything You wanted to Know about Equestria But Were Too Afraid to Ask: A Foreigner's Guide to Ponies by Princess Twilight Sparkle. It is now require reading for international immigrants like yourself." (4)

That is convenient, Ei Rikr thought.

Town Hall Ground Floor

With that, Ever left the basement of Ponyville Town Hall and stood on the ground floor of the building. Ze felt a little light from having expended so much energy that day on spells and paperwork. The horsefly felt that ze should do some thinking in order to unwind after filling out a grueling form for the Equestrian government.

"What are you looking at, stranger?" asked some anonymous earth pony painting the interior of town hall.

"Oh nothing, just thinking about what I want to think about."

"Never heard about somepony doing that before. Perhaps that is your unique talent, you know, like us ponies."

Ever laugh with zir wings. "If that was my cutie mark, perhaps ponies would let me do some teaching. Well, alas there is no way for me to forge one while I am blinded."

Then ze remembered the Poison Joke cure that Zecora was making. It only added to zir apprehension for the future. The pony ignored the comment about 'forging a cutie mark.'

"Well, I got to get back to painting. If you figure out what you want to think about, tell me," said the earth pony. His comment gave the changeling an idea.

"You are painting, sir?" Ever asked politely.

"Yep, painting the wall," he replied.

There was an old puzzle among inner philosophers of whether one could imagine a shade of a color they had never seen before. Ever took this as an opportunity to test that.

"Is this your color?" Ever flashed in green flame before becoming a sky blue. While Ever's ability to transform had been greatly weakened by loss of eyesight, ze could still change zir color.

"I am painting the walls a light shade of red," the stallion said, refusing to say pink in case it summoned a particular pony while he was still on the ladder.

Ever transformed into a rose color. "Pardon, I am blind, and this is kind of like a game. Is this your color?"

"Still too dark. Lighter." The stallion got off his ladder carrying his paint can with him and move it over a few steps to the right. While he climbed the ladder with the paint bucket in tow, the entrance opened suddenly. A pony galloped through and up the stairs.

This caused the stallion, paint can, and all to fall down. The pink paint splattered all over the place, especially on the horsefly. As was in accordance with the custom of ponykind, the offending mare ignored the chaos she caused.

"Am I the right color now?" Ever asked mirthfully as the 'light red' paint dripped down zir carapace.

"Uh yes," the stallion said before fainting from the crash.

Ever laughed with zir wings, finding a way. "I guess I should get you off the floor." Lifting the earth pony with zir magic, Ever placed him on a nearby chair ze had found with some trail-and-error.

When Ever got outside, ze noticed something immediately. The pacification spell had been dispelled. Ze could sense the emotions returning to the townponies.

Author's Note

1) This is the cave from the episode "Dragonshy."

2) In "Call of the Cutie" and "Magical Mystery Cure," it is revealed that ponies feel a compulsion to do what their Cutie Marks tell them.

3) A mule appears on Sweet Apple Acres for a gag in "Applebuck Season."

4) This book was inspired by the one Twilight uses plan her sleepover with Rarity and Applejack.

Missing Shade of Red 2.7: Helping and Being Helped

The horsefly walked passed the restaurant, through the flower district, and into the marketplace all covered in a fresh coat of pink primer. A pony had kindly told Ever that the library would that way. Ever was glad that pony had treated zir more nicely based on the previous mistreatment ze received before the calm spell.

In the marketplace, Ever sense someone in pain. I hope that wasn't my fault. Ever went to investigate and found that some pony injured on a roof. She must have fallen unconscious while flying because of my spell and landed here.

As Ever approached the source of the pain, ze also noticed that this pony held immense power. Enough power that if this pony had panicked, which seemed to be the case, it would have cause the calm spell to overload and explode, which also seemed to be the case.

Knowing that the pony was unconscious, Ever picked up the pony very carefully. The pony was no heavyweight like the earth pony, which is what Ever selfishly noticed first. The next difference was that this pony had both wings and a horn, which ze had not been expecting at all. Finally, ze noticed that the mare's left wing was severely broken and if she did not get to a hospital fast, she might lose it.

"Can anyone help me bring this pony to a hospital?" Ever called out.

The whole marketplace shifted their attention back to the horsefly for the second time that day. Ever shifted uncomfortably under their intense attention.

"Let me help you," called one pony.

"I can get you right there," said another.

"That looks bad. I make an icebag from what I have here," said yet another.

Ever could hardly believe the shift in attitude the ponies were giving to zir. The horsefly followed what felt to be half of the village's population to the hospital on the edge of town. Along the way, all them commented on how nice ze was being and asked who ze was and how they had never seen a non-equine like zir using unicorn magic.

Life was really looking up when a rainbow blur descended on the horsefly. "What happened to my friend?"

Ever maintained zir telekinesis because of their sheer amount years of discipline the horsefly had. "She is hurt."

Rainbow saw the hospital ahead and heard her fellow ponies wondering why she had assaulted the poor non-equine. "Ah he he he," the athlete mare tried to laugh it off as a joke. Then she refocused her attention at the horsefly. "I am watching you bub. Just because you can fool all these villagers with that disguise of yours, doesn't mean you can fool me. By the way, that disguise sucks. You don't even look like a pony."

Ever was really confused. I am not wearing a disguise, unless... The horsefly clicked zir hollow teeth in an equivalent to a facehoof. They think I am a nice person because I have this bright pink coat of paint on me. Do they really believe the color of someone can tell them if they are mean or nice?

The group finally reached the hospital and hoofed the injured, unconscious mare to the doctors for immediate treatment. A nurse asked about what had happened and Ever was the one who could answer. "I did not see what happened but I have a good guess. I found her on a roof, flying directly where my calm spell was building. She had a panic attack, which caused my calm spell to breakdown, but more importantly, it caused my calm spell to make her fall unconscious, which caused her to have a terrible landing on said roof."

The nurse wrote down what had been said. "Okay, it was an honest mistake. If we need more information about this calm spell, where can I contact you."

"I will be in the Everfree Forest tonight in a mountain a dozen or so kilometers in. There is a cave atop of that. Tomorrow I will be moving residences to Sweet Apple Acres."

Rainbow Dash watched the whole exchange carefully, and when Ever had started walking away from the hospital and the crowd dispersed, she began her interrogation.

"I find it hard to believe that you, a changeling, didn't hurt Twilight on purpose. Why did you cast it in the first place?"

Ever flapped zir wings slowly in a groan. "Because ponies were panicking and hurting themselves around me and you had foalnapped my daughter. I responded in the way I thought would lead to least amount of harm for everyone. It is unfortunate that the spell caused your friend to get hurt."

"I remember that," Rainbow said rubbing her chin. "So you are not evil?"

"No, I am not evil."

"You are not going to Twilight's library so you can try to pretend to be her and feed on the love of her friends?"

"I am not that kind of horsefly, uh changeling."

"Then why are you going to Twilight's library, then?" Rainbow Dash asked, still skeptical.

"I had no idea that the pony I had hurt and brought to the hospital would be Twilight, the pony who wrote the book I need to get because I am moving to Ponyville. It was all a big coincidence."

The cyan pegasus wanted to distrust the changeling but she was finding it difficult. "A coincidence, huh. Well, I guess I owe you an apology then. I am sorry, uh whatever you name is."

"Ei Rikr or Ever Ruler, either is fine. I think I remember telling you my name, though."

"I forgot. Anyways, I am sorry, Ever."

Ever flew up to Rainbow's level. It wasn't easy because of the books the saddlebag ze was wearing, but ze did it. The changeling said nothing, but instead extended a hoof in Rainbow's general direction. Rainbow was unsure what to do until she assumed it was some kind of shake. She gingerly put her own hoof against that of the changeling, still somewhat worried that it might be some trick.

Ever gripped the hoof tightly, pulled Rainbow into a surprisingly strong embrace, kissed her cheek, and said into her ear, "Peace, my sister, you are forgiven. Now you can learn and overcome your mistake." Ever held the mare there for only a few seconds so that what ze said to sink in. Then ze released her.

"Huh, what?" she said as she dropped a few feet before regaining control of her flying.

The horsefly just fluttered gaily down Mane Street, going to where the Golden Oaks Library would be. Rainbow followed along, curious at what the stranger would do. Plus, she didn't have anything to do that day anyway unless some random storm blew in from the Everfree.

Missing Shade of Red 2.8: The Party

Reaching the top of town hall for the second time that day, Lyra open the door to the Magistracy office with renewed vigor.

"The green sun catastrophe has been resolved," Lyra announced.

"I know Lyra. I can see." Evening Glimmer was standing next of the window, looking down on the earth ponies below.

The mint unicorn gulped. "So have you decided what you are going to say to Celestia."

Evening's head turned around while her body remained motionless. Her hair sprung out of its precise placements as her head did this. It was like watching a horror film but in real life.

"No, I didn't Lyra. You know why?" Evening asked her assistant. Lyra shook her head. "Because she doesn't need to know. Nopony needs to know that there ever was a green sun over Ponyville. Everypony will just forget it happened, and Celestia will not be the wiser."

"But lying to the princess is highly illegal, Evening."

Evening almost had an aneurysm. "Do you think I don't know that? You are an ungifted unicorn, barely fit to clean my horseshoes."

Lyra shrunk into the floor as Evening towered over her, judging. Then Evening smiled. "Oh get up. Don't worry. I will take care of it. You just take care of whatever the mayor sent to your desk. It has been waiting there for you for about two hours. I will take care of the village wide memory wipe, and if anypony gets in trouble, I will say you had no part in it. Deal?"

Lyra nodded, happy that the Evening she knew was shining through somewhat. She went to her desk to look at this report the mayor had sent her way. She reviewed it and as she did so, everything that had happened that day started to make sense.

Apparently a horsefly, and based on the description, it was actually a changeling, had come into Ponyville, used its own biomass to create a ball of green flame that acted like a calm spell, and had 'adopted' a unicorn filly, the same filly she had seen not five minutes ago. Lyra felt like a complete idiot. Well, duh it was a changeling. You had first-pony experience with them a year ago, so you know that they use green flames for their magic. And horsefly, changeling, how more obvious could it be.

After beating herself up about it for a few seconds, Lyra got up and ran down the stairs. She knew that if she found the filly, she would find the changeling. If she did, Evening wouldn't need to go through with the memory wipe, and everypony would applaud her as the hero who saved Equestria from the second changeling invasion. Maybe Celestia would let Evening get to be a princess like Twilight.

Lyra would be so happy for her. As Evening's inferior friend, it was her duty to learn and succeed in all of the same tasks Evening had. When the time came, Lyra would stand on the sidelines in the princess crowning ceremony, as was her place as the inferior, while Celestia announced how much Evening had learned about harmony. If she was lucky, she would get to march with Evening during the parade right before the newly minted alicorn flew off into the sky without her. To Lyra, that was the dream of any ungifted pony.

By the time this fantasy was over, Lyra was already at Twilight's library. The mare suddenly realized she had galloped the whole distance in her excitement and was starting to feel light-headed. Opening the door, the sounds of heathens bombarded her. The library was full of explosive party poppers, loud techno music. and the games looked like they were designed for children. On that note, Lyra remembered the party was for children, it was just that most of the guests were random adults who had walked in off the street.

Lyra scanned the room for the tale-tell signs of a black changeling but couldn't seem to find it. "He must have taken a disguise," she guessed as she started to faint. Before blacking out, she saw some pink hooves before her. She guessed these were Pinkie Pie's since the colors matched.

Ever sensed the mint color pony who had collapsed before zir pink hooves. She was covered in sweat, that much the horsefly could smell.

"Ei, you came," said a familiar voice. It was hard to hear through all the loud music, but when you lose a sense, the others often strengthen.

"Sophia, you are here. I knew I would be able to find you. It's hard to get lost in a small town like this one," Ever said going through the crowd. Sophia had somehow found herself in the center, having dozens of ponies ask her questions she couldn't understand. "Wow, wow. Give the girl some distance." The crowd obliged the daughter's parent.

"Hello again. I am Ei Rikr, or you may call me Ever. We met earlier and I am sorry for the poor impression I gave you all," Ever said to the crowd, causing the music to abruptly stop. Ze noticed that zir daughter still had the notepad and pencil held in her magic. "Again, this is my daughter Sophia. She doesn't know how to speak your language because I never thought she would need to learn it. However, she has taught herself how to read it. If you have questions for her, please write them down."

Some of the crowd seemed pensive at the realization that the non-equine was the same one who had instilled panic in them only hours ago. Luckily Rainbow Dash was there. "Hey, everypony. She's cool." The crowd seemed to believe Rainbow and the music began again.

A few minutes passed and Ever decided the mint unicorn at the front of the door didn't deserve to be a doormat and asked dragon hosting where ze could put her. It was the third pony that Ever had carried in the last hour, and it was getting ridulous. Now ze was carrying a unicorn. Ze could tell because ze could feel the horn through zir telekinetic grip.

"Oh, she must be partied out already," Spike guessed. "You said that Twilight's in the hospital?" Spike rubbed his chin in thought. "Hmmm, well, I cannot get Twilight's direct permission but I am pretty sure she would be okay in letting the mare use her bed since she isn't using it right now." Spike selfishly did not mention that he could set up the king-sized guest bed because it would have been very difficult for him to get it out of the basement storage on his own.

"Lead the way, sir," Ever said politely.

When they arrived at the bed, Ever was extra careful to get the mare somewhat cleaned up before putting the smelly mare in someone else's bed. "Do you have wet towels and an extra pair of sheets to put beside the bed. Oh, and she might be thirsty when she wakes up. You organics tend to get thirsty in such states."

Spike jumped to these tasks as all of these commands seemed rather important.

"Thanks Spike for helping me, and I am sure the mare will appreciate it," Ever told the proud baby dragon while patting his sweat little head. Spike internally started to think of Ever as a new friend.

Spike and Ever walked down the stairs. As they did so, they past a workstation with a face-down portrait. "What is this?" Ever asked.

"Don't touch that!" Spike instantly told his new friend.

"Oh, is it supposed to be face down or is it some cultural taboo for me to lift it up?" Ever inquired.

Spike looked down at his feet, rubbing his ankles together in embarrassment. "No, I, um. This is just between you and me and Lyra."

"Lyra?"

"The pony we put in Twilight's bed," Spike quickly replied, eliciting and a confused 'oh' from the changeling. "That portrait is of a pony I love, or did love before your spell."

Ever blinked. "I never thought my spell would stop people from loving each other."

"Well, uh it wasn't really love. It was a crush, a terrible crush, and it was destroying me. Just whatever you do, keep that portrait face-down," Spike begged.

"You could always throw it away," Ever said touching the frame with a pink hoof.

Again, the reasonableness of the changeling astounded and impressed the baby dragon. "That is a good idea, but don't."

"Why?" Ever asked.

"I don't have a good reason," Spike said.

Sophia walked up to Ever, and the two made 'hmming' noises as they stroked their non-existing beard. Sophia had apparently gotten tired of the ponies and their questions and sought out her parent.

"Interesting, very interesting," Ever said. "You seem to have issues deciding what you want to do with what I assume is a portrait of some stallion or mare that you had fallen terribly in love with. You have not told me why seeing his or her photo will be so dangerous, but I assume you have some deep down belief that it is. Now you tell me you want to keep this dangerous photo with you." Ever and Sophia walked up to the baby dragon and got eye level with him. "Do you trust me?"

Spike stood very still.

"Do you trust me?"

Spike finally nodded.

"Good. I will be taking this photo then. In five days, I will bring it back to you and you will look at it. Use that time to prepare yourself. Remember I would not do this to you if I did not think it would help you."

Spike was speechless.

Ever took the portrait and put it in zir saddlebag. At this moment, ze remembered something important. "Oh, Spike if you could get me the Foreigner's Guide to Equestria book by Twilight, I would be very much appreciative. I have to read it apparently."

Spike just did what he was told. He couldn't really think at the time. When he came back to Ever, he was a huge tome.

"What the?" Ever almost exclaimed when ze tried to lift it with zir magic. The book weighed twice as much as the earth pony had. There was no way Ever could carry the weight.

"Allow me, Ei," Sophia said. She lifted the book without any indication of its weight.

Ei clicked zir hollow fangs together. "I will never get used to pony magic. So overpowered."

The two only stayed at the party for awhile longer before heading back to their cave atop a high mountain. They said goodbye to all the people they met, especially Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Spike.

If they had stayed a little longer, they would have seen an anonymous earth pony come in and tell them that it the mayor was calling a town wide meeting and that everypony was required to come. This excluded, of course, Twilight and Lyra who were not conscious.

On Ever and Sophia's way back, they encountered a white bunny and an unconscious pegasus.

"Is every pony in this town unconscious and needing my help?" Ever exclaimed. Regardless, the changeling helped. Ever could tell that the white bunny cared a lot about the pegasus because he would constantly complain that ze was being too rough. If there was any upside to the situation, it seemed that pegasi were the lightest of the four kinds of ponies Ever had to carry today.

When they were done, Sophia noticed a large flash in the middle of town. It made her head itchy, but not much else.

The sun was setting behind Ever Ruler and Sophia as they returned to their dragon cave. As they approach the top, they heard a foreboding tune. It seemed to get faster as they got closer and it echoed eerily down into the valley below.

When they finally reached the top, they saw Andrea was the one behind the tune.

"Where did you get that?" Sophia asked, as inquisitive as ever.

Andrea showed the filly what she was playing on. "It is a 27-string guitar."

"How did you get it?" Sophia inquired.

"A chimp named Glaucon gave it to me. He said he didn't need it anymore because he was going to learn fight."

At this, Ever interrupted. "Sophia, why don't you put that book over there with the others." The filly knew that she was being told to go away so Ever can talk to Andrea privately. This just made Sophia get into a hidden position so she could eavesdrop. It was easy to eavesdrop on Ever because Sophia didn't have an emotional signature for the changeling to track except when she was thinking.

"So is it getting bad down there in the valley?" Ever asked.

"Yes, more and more of the forest is deserting me and joining Rousseau because more and more refugees come in everyday," Andrea explained. "They are also realizing I cannot protect them all, so the awe I have commanded in the forest people's hearts is the only thing stopping them right now."

"Is there a way for you to avoid this?" Ever asked.

"These forest and the civilized people are too different. The forest people believe that the weak are food, and rightly so because they need meat to survive, and the civilized think the weak can be sustained through technology. As the civilize take out more and more of the forest to expand their settlements, there is less places for the predators to hunt for food. There will be a time when they have no choice but to eat the refugees. War is inevitable this time, Ever."

The changeling respected the buffalo's judgment, but ze had many years more with the technology that the refugees were using than Andrea. "You said that their settlements are taking up hunting space. Well, if they have portal guns, they could easily build their settlement spread out over this mountain and the surrounding area. The portals would reduce the amount of area they cover and no more forest would have to be cleared for settlements.

Andrea considered this. "I hadn't thought of that. I will suggest it, but I doubt that will stop the tensions. The idea that the two cultures cannot coexist has already permeated both sides despite my interference."

Ever stared unseeingly over the large expanse that was the valley below the mountain. "I wish my sibling was here. Ze would have had a solution I wouldn't have thought about because I am blinded by my idealism."

Andrea looked at the sky, watching as the clouds gathered. "No point in complaining about what cannot be changed. Are you going out again tonight to stand in the rain. It would be an easy way to clean that paint off."

Ever shook zir head, not even bothering to pretend to look at the sky. "It is not going to rain tonight, I can feel it in my holes. The storm will pass us and go to Equestria. Plus, I can just burn the paint off when I find a nice private place. I don't want to expose anyone to the possibly dangerous fumes."

"Very well. One more thing. The Zebra found our settlements. She was surprised that it existed only thirty kilometers north from where she looks for herbs and that she had not noticed the signs of its presence."

Ever looked at the buffalo beside zir. "Did she happen to give you something?"

The buffalo nodded and hoofed a large vial of liquid to the changeling. "She said you just need to pour it on the affected area for it to cleanse the poison."

The changeling held the vial close to zir core.

"You cannot keep protecting her from the horrors of the world," Andrea said getting up and going over to Sophia to see what she was pretending to do at the book corner of the cave.

"I...," Ever began to say but the words just could not come out.

Far away, a legal question was being mailed by a Miss Derpy Hooves to the Canterlot Magistracy of Magic and Science. This legal question came from his Honorable Judge Right about the subject of a calm spell. In short, Celestia was going to know one way or another. It was just a matter of time.

Missing Shade of Red 2.9: A Rude Awakening

Twilight felt pain. That is all she knew. She was no foreigner to pain. For instance, when she had scene that all her friends had been injured during the Gala and she hadn't been, she had felt obligated to rough herself up a bit in order to be symmetrical with them. Her friends said nothing about it, so it must have had been normal.

Twilight did not know where she was. She was laying on her stomach, which she had been getting used to ever since she gained her wings. It was still not a comfortable position for her, so she instinctual tried to roll onto her back.

"Ow!" Twilight yelped as a sudden pain overtook her.

"Careful, you broke your wing, Twi," said a raspy voice.

"Uh, Rainbow, is that you?" the lavender unicorn asked.

"Yeah."

"What happened to me?" Twilight asked, opening her eyes to the small hospital room she was in.

Rainbow rubbed a hoof against her head. "I, uh, I remember knowing this, but I, uh."

"Rainbow, what are you trying to say?" the unicorn asked in that pedantic manner she sometimes took when she was trying to help her friends act more intelligently.

"You see. I know I knew what happened to you. It is just that I forgot. It is like white cloud fills that spot," Rainbow said.

Twilight frowned. "That does not sound normal Rainbow Dash. I should see if something is wrong with you."

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Later, when you are better. The doctor said you will be able to leave soon because of your magical healing but you will need to avoid using magic. They have notes from some pony named Ever Ruler, who took you to the hospital, and apparently you fell while flying. Really weird name if you ask me, but I guess he is cool."

This caused Twilight to suddenly have flash backs. The green sun. It was obviously changeling magic. I remember flying towards it and then I felt tired. I panicked and that is when I must have fell.

"What happened to the green ball of fire? Did we catch the changeling?" Twilight asked.

Rainbow blinked. "You must have hit your head in that fall as well. Twilight, there was no changeling or green ball of fire. I think I would have remembered that." Rainbow then made a scrunchy face. "At least, I think I would have. Today just feels like white clouds." Rainbow knocked the side of her head for emphasis.

Twilight paled. "The changeling must have brainwashed you, Rainbow."

Rainbow paled as well. "What really? How do I unbrainwash myself?"

At this moment, Pinkie Pie popped out of nowhere. "Or you might be a sleeper agent, once the changeling says a keyphrase you will kill one of your closest friends."

"I don't want to kill my friends!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.

"Rainbow Dash calm down, and Pinkie Pie stop scaring her," Twilight demanded.

"I am not scared!" Rainbow said after feigning composure.

"Okay, Pinkie Pie, do you remember what happened today?" Twilight investigated.

"Uh, nope. All I remember is leaving the big town meeting where nothing happened and hearing the super sad news that you got hurt from Nurse Redheart. That is why I have all these balloons and get well cupcakes." As Pinkie said this, said objects of happiness appeared.

"Rainbow, what about you?" the unicorn asked.

"Same thing. I came here as soon as I got the news you were hurt."

"Rainbow, you mentioned a pony named Ever Ruler. Pinkie do you know this pony." The pink mare shook her head.

Twilight rubbed her chin with one hoof while the other balanced her away from her injured side. "Okay, so we have a town meeting, an unmissable green ball of fire no one remembers which was obviously cast by a changeling, and some mysterious pony named Ever Ruler who helped me. Hmmm, we need more clues."

Twilight got out of bed gingerly. Rainbow was immediately at her side to help her balance. "First, let's get back to the library. I am sure Spike is worried about me."

Twilight, Rainbow, and Pinkie arrived at the library relatively slowly. Pinkie had a conversation with Bon Bon, who seemed to laugh at everything the pink pony said, even if it was not a joke. That pony is just sad, Twilight thought to herself.

Twilight opened the door.

"Welcome to Golden Oaks Library, I will be downstairs soon to help you find a book," Spike shouted from the upstairs bedroom area.

"Spike, its me, Twilight."

Spike ran down. "Wah, how can? I thought you were sleeping upstairs, Twilight."

"Psst, Spike, it is only one in the morning. I don't go to sleep until at least five in the morning."

"Then, if you are down here, who is that sleeping in your bed," Spike said in a horrified voice.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie got ready to gallop, but Twilight put one hoof in front of them to hold them back. This caused much discomfort to the unicorn as the hoof she used was on her hurt side. "Slowly, girls. This is probably the changeling, and it is probably pretending to be me. We want to catch it unawares. I cannot use magic so we must devise a trap."

"How are we going to do that?" Rainbow asked.

"I have methods," Twilight said rubbing her forehooves together menacingly. Pinkie thought it was fun and joined in.

"Okay, Rainbow are you ready?" Twilight asked. The pegasus nodded holding up a rope. The three friends and the baby dragon stood around Twilight's bed where a silhouette of a pony with a horn sleeping could be seen.

"Pinkie, are you ready?" Twilight asked her other friend who was holding a net. Said pony saluted.

Twilight moved in on the unconscious creature before her. While she got near, she noticed that the creature smelled like she had just finished the Running of the Leaves and hadn't taken a shower. "Spike, how did you confuse it with me?"

Spike shrugged from his place by the lamp.

Without further ado, Twilight held a needle out and poked the creature in the plot ever so slightly.

"Yehow," the creature said, jumping a whole pony length into the air. Pinkie quickly placed the net below the creature, and then Rainbow Dash pulled up hard, causing the net to raise up from below the creature and catch her.

"Spike turn on the lights! Let's see this changeling!" Twilight shouted in triumph.

When Spike turned on the lamp, the group gasped at what they saw.

"What the buck!" shouted the creature who happened to be Lyra Heartstrings. Her tin foil hat and suit were on the night stand along with a glass of lukewarm water, and a new pair of sheets on the trunk at the end of the bed. "Twilight, is it your fault I am in a net inside your house?"

"I, uh, didn't think..." Twilight stammered.

Lyra was angry. Very angry. So angry she couldn't be blamed for what she said next. "Of course you didn't think. You never think. You just cast your stupid spells without knowing what the consequence would be. You know how many lives you destroyed with you rash use of magic? Hundreds. And you know who has to clean up those messes? Evening Glimmer and I."

Twilight gulped as Rainbow Dash quickly defended her friend. "Hey, don't talk about Twilight and us like that. What did we ever do to you?"

Lyra turned her venegeful gaze upon the rainbow mare. "You foalnapped me for starters. I knew you and your friends were trouble-makers, but I would have never thought you guys would outright foalnap me."

"We didn't..."

Lyra roared, not letting Rainbow Dash finish.

"It seems some pony needs some pick-me-up flowers," Pinkie said shoving some smelly flowers into Lyra's muzzle. The effect was instantaneous as it cleared her mind of rage and filled it with bliss.

With a clear head again, Lyra suddenly realized she had yelled at a gifted pony. "Oh, oh no. I am so sorry Twilight. Please forgive me. It is not my place to criticize you or your friends."

Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked at each other, shocked at the unicorns transformation of personality.

"Uh, let us just say we are both sorry," Twilight suggested. Lyra nodded eagerly, happy to have forgiveness. "We didn't mean to put you in that net. It was a trap for a changeling."

"Changeling?!" Lyra exclaimed. "I was hunting a changeling who I believed to have come to this very house. I must have fainted from exhaustion."

"This changeling was here?" Twilight asked. "What could have possibly wanted with this place? Spike and Pinkie, you look downstairs for anything that is missing. Rainbow, you look around the vicinity. I will ask Lyra some more questions so that we can put our shared knowledge together."

Twilight turned back to the mint unicorn when her friends had left. "I better get you down first before we get through this conversation."

Lyra nodded in agreement. Twilight untied the rope and Lyra fell harmlessly onto the bed. When she got up, she noticed the glass of water and chugged it to quench her acute thirst. Twilight was surprised to see the Canterlot mare so out of sorts.

"Uh, maybe we should wait before we talk. Is there anything else you need?" Twilight asked.

Lyra Wiped the excess water from her mouth. Lyra then sniff herself in as refined a manner as she could muster. Disliking what she found, Lyra nodded. "I could really use a bath."

Both unicorns noticed the towels and stuff placed around the bed. "Just go."

Ten minutes later, Twilight's friends and Lyra were done with their respective tasks and gathered in the library's main room.

"Okay, what was missing?" Twilight asked Pinkie and Spike.

Pinkie raised her hoof and answered first. "Oh, a book called Everything You Wanted to Know About Equestria and Were Too Afraid to Ask: A Foreigner's Guide to Equestria by a Miss Twilight Sparkle."

"What would a changeling want with that book?" Rainbow asked.

"Perhaps, it is studying us so that it can exploit our weaknesses?" Pinkie offered.

Twilight nodded in agreement with Pinkie Pie.

Spike raised a claw next. "My portrait of Rarity was stolen!"

Twilight looked at the dragon incredulously. "Did you look around your little table?"

"Of course, I did! It is not there," Spike said folding his arms together.

"Well, you probably misplaced it," Twilight said. Spike disliked how Twilight dismissed what he thought were legitimate concerns with such remarks. "Rainbow Dash, did you find anything outside?"

She shook her head for a negative.

"Okay, that leaves you, Lyra. What do you know about this changeling? You said you were investigating it or something."

Lyra nodded. "Yes, I am pretty sure it cast that green fire spell yesterday morning."

"You remember that. I thought I was the only one!" Twilight exclaimed.

"What are you two talking about," Spike interjected.

"There was this huge ball of green fire our changeling culprit put into the sky right about the market. Everypony seems to have forgotten about it," Twilight explained.

"I think I would remember seeing that," Spike said.

"That is what I said," Rainbow added. "But you know changelings and their mind games."

Lyra gulped as she knew the illegal truth that the loss of memory was just a huge one-mare, local government cover up.

"I think we shouldn't tell anypony that we know about the green ball of fire," Lyra suggested.

"Why not?" Rainbow said with suspicion in her voice. "Maybe you are still a changeling?"

Pinkie thought about what Rainbow said. "If she is a changeling, then where did she put Spike's portrait?"

Twilight sighed heavily. "The changeling didn't steal a portrait of Spike's crush."

"Why not Twilight?" Lyra asked. "If Spike loves Rarity as... you said, then she would be a great target for the love parasite." Lyra almost said 'Rarity's file', but stop herself. They cannot know how heavily they are being monitored by the Magistracy.

Twilight blinked. She had not expected Spike to have had a point with his portrait. She always just assumed the dragon was being overly-melodramatic when it came to Rarity.

"The reason we don't want to tell anypony else is that we might alert the changeling that we are onto them," Lyra explained further. All of the ponies agreed this was somewhat reasonable, but Twilight and Rainbow negotiated that they can at least ask their friends what they knew as long as they didn't reveal what they were looking for.

"Okay, what else do you know, Lyra?" Twilight asked.

"I know the changeling has brainwashed some foal," she told them.

"The monster!" the others shouted in unison.

"Okay, this is even more serious than we thought. We will have to take extreme measures to take out this changeling once and for good!" Rainbow said, pounding her hoof into her other hoof. Far away, a changeling in a mountain had an extreme sense of dread.

Twilight frowned. "That is helpful, but do we have any information on the changeling itself?"

Lyra thought for a moment. "Yes, it was going by the name Ei Rikr." Everypony became confused at the seemingly nonsense name. "It means Ever Ruler, apparently." Twilight and Rainbow beamed at each other in recognition and complete utter perplexity.

"How can that be right?" Twilight and Rainbow asked each other.

"What is wrong?" Lyra asked.

"That is the name of the pony who took Twilight to the hospital when she broke her wing yesterday," Rainbow explained.

Now Lyra was confused. "Why would it do that?"

Pinkie rubbed her chin in thought. "Perhaps the changeling is actually nice and that all we have to ask it when it comes back some simple questions and it will all this confusion will be solve. Perhaps, we are just assuming it isn't because of our bad experience with them during the Canterlot Wedding," Pinkie suggested.

"It foalnapped a filly/portrait!" the others said respectively.

Pinkie shrugged. "It is possible."

"Okay, I think it is getting late. Tomorrow, we begin our searches. Twilight, if you and your friends find out
something, send the information to the local magistracy. I will watching," Lyra said and the meeting ended.

Lyra went home with her dirty suit and tin foil hat, Twilight made her bed, and Spike got the king-sized bed out of the basement for Pinkie and Rainbow Dash so they could sleep over.

Author's Note

That last chapter had way too many things happening in it. I decided to put this out there.

Of Livestock and Pets 3.1: Locke's Dialogue

When Ever was sure Andrea and Sophia had fallen asleep, ze descended the mountain to clean the paint off zir body. Even without sight, the forest was full of beauty for the senses. Ever could hear the songs of bugs, feel the wind through zir holes, and taste the energy of powerful beings lurking in the bushes.

Eventually, Ever reached an acidic spring. Dipping into it, Ever relaxed for the first time in a long while.

"You left," called a large voice in the undergrowth.

"Bwah," Ever jumped a bit, splashing acidic water all around zir.

"Watch out!" the voice commanded, not happy that it was being sprayed with something foul.

"Sorry, Locke, you scared me," Ever replied. Locke was a powerful manticore, second only to Rousseau in strength. Like other manticores, he liked to come up quickly from behind his prey.

Calm now, Ever eased back down into the water, careful to get every nook and cranny super clean for tomorrow's adventure. He didn't any of yesterday's filth on zir for this future exploit. "Yes, I left the forest yesterday, and I will be leaving again today."

Locke the manticore laid down a safe distance from the spring with a tangible ompf. "You know all of the forest likes you. You help us expand our thinking without compromising who we are, but we will not miss you just because of that. You were a kindred spirit for all forest folk because we all shared a common bond in our love.."

"It is not my place to be here. I need to be with my daughter, and my daughter deserves to see a peaceful civilization."

Locke stared up at the distant, twinkling stars. "You know the manticores will be having a debate in a few days. You know where all of the manticores decide whether or not we should tolerate or kill the refugees."

"Yes, I know. Last time we talked, you were telling me that you were leaning towards the toleration camp."

Locke sighed. "I was, but it is Andrea. She only cares about the refugees who are taking over our lands and destroying our food. If there is a conflict between the natives of the forest and the refugees, she will always pick them. I feel that even though the refugees deserve there right to live in our forest with us, that when the person with the most power is ignoring our rights, we have the right to revolt."

"Yes, that sounds like Andrea. She has really attached herself to the roll of protector of the weak, but she still lacks vision to see how compromises can be made. It will be her folly."

Locke stretched. "You sound like an outsider to this conflict already."

"It is part of the moving on process," Ever said softly. "And I need moving on." Ever took this time to roll around in the burning spring of death a few times.

Locke watched with mild fascination. "You know, I would support the toleration camp again, if you stayed and became ruler. You could easily stop the war because you understand everyone and everyone knows you care about our needs. And your daughter could live in peace here as a princess."

Ever imagined such a happy life for a moment, but memories of those dead bodies of the people who last called zir ruler came to zir mind. Ze splashed zir chitinous face with water several times, causing the water to pool up below zir eyes and stream down the face as literally tears of death.

"You do not want an eternal ruler like myself," Ever said.

"Why not?" Locke asked, genuinely perplexed.

"Do you know what happens as you get older in your mind but your body just regenerates its youth?" Locke patiently listened. "Well, every year becomes a year that your mind moves from a present state of mind to a past state of mind. You must see that with the older manticores, how they can tell you countless stories of their past exploits. Now multiple that by a thousand. Now take away the inevitably of death and the responsibility of a daughter. I need an escape from the past before it destroys me in the present, and the only option I have is the future. Do you understand?"

Locke shook his mighty head. "No, I doubt I could ever understand what it is like to be ageless. What I do know is that you are made from the best part of all of us, our love, and we can see that when you take our love."

It wasn't technically love that Ever fed on, but ze didn't bother to correct him. Ze just pull zirself from the depths of an acidic bath, now clean of paint and grime. Ever then let zir natural flame-like nature evaporate the water.

Locke examined the body of the changeling and noticed the large holes in zir hooves and wings. "You must have used so much love yesterday. You will need more. Allow me to oblige. It is the least I can do for you before you leave us," the manticore said, submitting his neck for Ever. The act reflected Locke's belief that Ever should rule, but the changeling also would not deny any person who freely gave their energy to zir.

After injecting some of zir fiery substance into the lifestream of Locke, the two sat on a nearby boulder facing one another.

"You set the stage for the conversation, Locke," Ever offered.

Locke nodded his mighty head. He already had something he wanted to ask the changeling for a long time. "What do you believe, Ever? You have never told me and I would like to know."

"That is because I have very few beliefs."

"Then you can tell me them and why you hold them."

"Yes, I suppose. One belief I have is that we can become better by seeing our weaknesses, our blindnesses. One can only overcome themselves through doubting their ideas and having the mobility of thought to consider other ideas or even create new ideas.

"Second, I think that people should strive to live in a better world with where more people can live together, striving for their own respective goods.

"My final belief is related to the other two. I think no one should take their own beliefs too seriously. One can tell one is taking their beliefs too seriously if they are willing enough to fight for them. I have yet to see a belief in which it would have been better to fight for it rather than doubt it."

Locke shook his head. "No, Ever, you are wrong. There are times when it is justified to fight for what you believe to be right."

"I would like to know this justified fighting for beliefs," Ever replied.

"Yes, you see there is a creator who made us all," Locke began but Ever had to interject here.

"Remember I have no beliefs about a creator, but for the sake of argument I will just have to accept it for now since it is so central to your belief system," Ever said.

"Okay, understood. This creator made every person reasonable and tolerant but also selfish. Because we think and can understand one another, it is possible for every people, even us manticores, to create a civilization together.

"Now there are three things that everyone has a right to because of how the creator made us. First is life. Everyone has a right to their own survival. Observe anyone in danger and you will see them defend themselves. Watch any manticore and they will seek out food. Because we all seek survival, we cannot blame a person for acting for the sake of survival.

"Next is liberty. We also cannot blame a person for what they do that has no impact on anyone. The creator gave each person life and then reason so that he or she may be the steward of that life. People should not interfere with another person's stewardship of their live as long as that person is using reason.

"Every person has the right to own that which they have created by the sweat of their own brow. This applies more to the herbivores and omnivores than us predators because it is they who will till the land and store food. This is because the creator has made this world and by stewarding a part of it, it becomes your unique responsibility like your body.

"If any of these rights are violated by another, the people have the right to take actions to prevent the person from violating their rights. If it is necessary, the violated party has the right to fight for its creator-given rights. Because Andrea is only sides with the refugees who are taking from our forest while unfairly not putting themselves into the food chain to balance, Andrea is letting our right of survival be violated and thus we are in the right to object to her leadership."

Ever listened carefully to all of this explaining, and when it became clear that Locke was done, Ever voiced zir objections.

"You basically said that everyone naturally acts for survival and that is the basis of the right to survive," Ever said and Locke nodded. "I have seen many a suicide in my long life. What do you say of those people? Were they not acting naturally?"

"They were acting unnaturally. The creator gave us the desire to live, and they are going against that natural desire."

Ever buzzed in a pedantic way, though no one could possibly no that other than another changeling. "That sounds circular to me. You 'know' that the creator made people act for their survival because they act for survival naturally. You 'know' that people commit suicide unnaturally because the creator made people act for their survival. The problem is that you could have easily said: 'people commit suicide naturally so the creator must have made people to commit suicide, and surviving is unnatural because the creator created people to commit suicide.' You will need to make a better case why you think survival is a right."

Locke concede this point with some reservation, but had another answer to it. "The creator owns our bodies and has given them to us to use within reason. To destroy these bodies would destroy the creator's property."

Ever concede that was reasonable assuming that people had the right to property. Ever had some objections about what property was and how one got property, but ze was not going to bring them up in this philosophical exchange.

"You said that we could not punish people for acting reasonably, does this mean we can punish people for acting unreasonably?" Ever asked.

"Yes. It is with reason that we act as stewards of the creator, and to act outside unreasonably is to fail at our jobs as stewards."

"This also seems has the issue of whether or not the creator gave us unreason and how you can tell if the creator wants us to us it, but a more important question is how you tell a person is using unreason."

Locke was prepared for this question. "That is because reason is universal among all people, and with reason, we can be judges of when people are not using it."

"Well, it is universal among all people because you defined people as having reason, Locke."

"True, but that does not make my point any less valid. And if you disagree, notice that your very act of pointing out flaws in my belief system is proof that you believe reason to be universal as well, for how can you judge another person's reason if you don't suppose that both you and the person has it."

"Oh, but if I am correctly pointing out flaws because I can tell that you are being unreasonable, then you must be wrong. If I am not correctly pointing out flaws in your argument because I cannot tell reason from unreason, you are still wrong. Therefore, either way, you are wrong."

This made Locke's eyes go cross as he tried to contemplate what Ever just said. This made Ever flap zir wings in laughter. "Don't worry. It is a silly objection, so take from it what you will."

When Locke had refocused again, Ever continued in zir objections.

"Okay, now here is a big problem for your idea of liberty, I think. You know how there are trails in the forest which everyone uses to reduce damage to the soil?" Locke nodded. "Well, the forest can only be damage if a lot of people walk off those paths because it is the hardening of soil under our hooves and paws which causes the soil to be unable to support life. The problem is that if one person strays off the path, no harm is actually done; however, if we do not punish the person, more people may break the rule, and the soil will suffer. These people as individuals did unharmful acts, but these same people as a collective have done a harmful one. This problem of the pathstrayer I believe how your system of punishment could not stop something we would agree is wrong, which is reduction of food in the ecosystem."

"I guess you are right in this case," Locke conceded after much thought. "People couldn't resolve this situation with just my list of natural rights. I have no plans on enumerating natural rights in order to solve all possible problems, but I have a solution, which is inspired by the refugee's civilized culture.

"As you explained to me in our previous conversation, there are things like governments in the civilized world. These governments have laws which apply to all people within a society. You didn't like them much, but I think they are for the best because they provide for the only solution problems like that of the pathstrayer. I believe that if people came together and out of their own volition agreed to be part of a group that follows laws and they made a law saying anyone who strays from the path unnecessarily is to be punished, then that group would be justified in punishing a pathstrayer within their community."

In response, Ever got up and flapped zir wings mournfully. "That is very good defense of governments Locke, but I have seen too many governments act cruelly to trust them."

Locke did not sympathize with the changeling. The pitiful state of the changeling just made the manticore mad. "It is my turn to object to you. You, Ei Rikr, created a little peaceful philosophical society and convinced them that they should doubt instead of acting. Yes, what you created was peaceful, but it was weak. Why was it weak? Because they were not willing to do what it takes to bring ideals into this world, and sometimes you have to fight to bring those about. Governments are just another thing that can fail, but you have to be willing to experiment or you will be stuck where you began. Taking these risks is all part that self-overcoming that you are always talking about.

"Now, you are fleeing the State of Nature for a civilization. You prefer a society that has already succeeded in becoming a civilization with its knowledge and technology because you thought that would be safer for your daughter than this place which has to get over that hurdle. It is this move to the safer option that will not only cause you to doom us in the State of Nature who need you to unite us but your daughter as well who will always be protected from these risks. Remember it was your fault that your philosophers couldn't fight to save themselves. With the exception of Andrea, you made them weak by making them doubt so much they couldn't fight, and Andrea's only an exception because you forced her to take a risk you were not willing to take yourself."

Ever fell down, no longer able to support zirself on zir legs. Ze pulled zirself into a beetle position and started to rock back and forth. In a quiet voice, the changeling just kept repeating the words "I can't. I can't." Ze was suffering at the fericous might of Locke's wisdom.

Locke saw the feeble changeling becoming more and more pitiful even after he stopped talking. The large manticore forgot his anger and then became very worried. Locke knew that he had been extremely verbally violent to this kindred spirit who had given him and many others the power to think in new and creative ways.

"I am sorry, Ei Rikr. I didn't mean to hurt you so much. You were just so aggravating with all your objections and your fear of all things violent that I just lost myself. Forgive me."

Ever did not calm down and was starting to burst at the seams with green flame because of instability. Locke didn't know what this meant, but he assumed it couldn't be good.

"Ever, tell me what I can do to make it better," Locke meowed into the changeling's ear nodes.

"Water, water, water!" Ever whispered urgently.

Locke looked around for water but could not find any other than the pool of acidic water. With no choice, Locke stuck his left paw into the water, dissolving all of its fur and claws and splashed as much water on the unstable changeling as possible.

Ever's body stopped exploding immediately, ze took a hoof to zir face. Feeling wetness below zir eyes, ze began to calm down.

Locke nursed his paw which was still capable of holding his weight but was now very sensitive and may never fully heal.

When the changeling was done, ze got up. "I am sorry Locke. I can never repay you. I must go, for I can barely keep myself together as it is here. Thanks for restoring my body with your love of wisdom." Ever was referring to how Locke's energy had fed the changeling enough to fill in the holes that had formed throughout zir body yesterday.

Locke sighed, and offered his right, unharmed paw. The changeling grasped it and was pulled into the manticore by his immense stregth. "Peace, Ei Rikr. Go and learn." After a moment, the manticore released the changeling and spoke again. "We will miss you, and when this is all over, we will all come over to this place you found and visit. Perhaps you can show us some nice locals to munch on." Locke chuckled.

Ever was not amused, but welcomed the manticores to visit zir at zir home in Equestria any time.

With the sun rising on a new day, Ever went back up the mountain to pick up zir daughter. Today would be the first day ze had a real job in a very long time, and it would hopefully bring about better things to come.

Author's Note

This chapter I predict will be more controversial in than the prologue was because people feel very strongly about the topic brought up in it. For those who don't know John Locke's ideas about natural rights, he highly ties them up to a creator god. As a result, I cannot but make his manticore counterpart also use a creator as a basis of his ideas. I am not afraid to bring up theistic philosophy into my fanfiction because I think we can all be reasonable enough to listen to another perspective without raging.

Of Livestock and Pets 3.2: Bon Bon's Dialogue

The sun had risen and so had Ei Rikr, Sophia, and Andrea. The horsefly had already made a meal for Sophia and Andrea to eat for breakfast. It was a benefit of being an inorganic flame to be able to serve ones friends and family at all times. Plus, learning how to cook helped Ei Rikr cope with not being able to provide the comfort of a warm fur to sleep against like Andrea.

Once the organics had their fill of sauteed wild pears and onions, had their saddlebags packed, and dawned their shawls, the group set out from the cave. The trek to Ponyville was long and Andrea would need to return to the forest to deal with predators and the refugees, so they had left early. This did not mean that Sophia could not read while they traveled, and Andrea decided she would take her 27-string guitar with her.

Ei Rikr had carefully placed the voucher over the vial of poison joke cure. Ze could have cured zir blindness with the cure already, but ze could not bring zirself to do that until ze cured Sophia first. I will cure her when I am sure Equestria is a safe place for her.

"What are you reading, Sophia?" Ever asked.

"I am looking up what this Twilight princess has to say about ponies, especially the breeds."

"Oh, I am curious about that to. Could you read it for me?"

"I will have to translate, so some of the meaning will be lost. 'Section 4: On Ponies and Their Breeds:

"'While each pony has a unique talent, those talents are related to the pony's breed. There are three main pony breeds. The most numerous breed is the earth pony, and they are the farmers, bakers, millers, cobblers, smiths, entertainers, and merchants. Their Cutie Marks orient them towards the earth, so they live in the valleys at the base of mountains. A focus on the body and its appetites characterizes this breed. Earth ponies have the strong bodies for the honest-hard work of farming and other forms of productive labor. While they grow and prepare the food for all the breeds, earth ponies must consume the most food, and sometimes a pony from another breed would come to one of the earth ponies' numerous celebrations, parties, and family reunions and be overwhelmed by the food provided. Earth ponies also are the breed most concerned with the exchange and accumulation of bits, the currency of Equestria.

"'The second most numerous are the pegasi, who have wings, and they are the weatherponies, care-givers, and soldiers. Their Cutie Marks orient them towards the sky. Even the pegasi who live on the land will have Cutie Marks referring to something flying or weather-related. Pegasi mostly live in sky cities. The winged breed seeks to improve the self both in body and virtue for the sake of serving others. One of the most important jobs of the pegasi is creating and managing the weather. While the weather was created in their sky cities, the management of weather was a service provided to all of Equestria through the deployment of local servant pegasi. They also have the athletic bodies and virtues of courage and honor to be auxiliary soldiers, which is why most of the Royal Guard are pegasi. This winged breed has many competitions where they display their excellence in maintaining the weather or in sheer athleticism, and pegasi often bring ponies even from the other breeds into their competitions. Most often this is earth ponies as they have the strongest bodies.

"'Next is the unicorns, who have horns, use magic to maintain Harmony in Equestria. They are the artists, writers, law makers, soldiers, librarians, historians, and scientists. Each has a Cutie Mark directing them to a manifestation of Harmony like Beauty or Justice. They usually live in mountain castles above the clouds and valleys of the two more common breeds, though some have come to live in the lower parts of Equestria. This breed is characterized by propriety and intellectualism. Their propriety manifests itself in a sensitiveness to order in things making them good at organizing, identifying, and combining materials to create harmony. This propriety helps not only in the create beauty but maintain law between ponies. Their intellectualism is fostered in specialized education in unicorn-only schools. This intellectualism develops because of that education into an obsession with all aspects of the form of magic that their Cutie Mark directs them. They will seek out all its manifestations, bring them under their understanding, and use them into the advancement of their craft. Because of their focus on the form of magic called order, many of them are soldiers as well, making up the rest of the Royal Guard next to the pegasi. Other pony breeds become involved with the horned breed when there is deviance from harmony that a unicorn must restore to the Good. For instance, if a unicorn has the focus of Beauty, they not only create and rise the standard of beauty in Equestria but make beautiful that which has become ugly.

"'The other breeds include bat ponies, crystal ponies, and alicorns. Alicorns are the rarest of those breeds. They are rare because unlike the other breeds, they are not born but chosen....'"

Andrea had to interrupt at this point. "If I were those earth ponies, I would just leave the other breeds behind. There is no reason why they should just accept this drivel that they have to rely on those unicorns for culture and governance. THey are basically told that in exchange for letting the unicorns dictate what they do they have to give those unproductive unicorns foods. As for the pegasi, the rest of the world has been able to prosper fine without weather control."

Ever had heard enough about revolutionary talk from Locke, so zetold SOphia to look up Sweet Apple Acres, which was where they were headed. Sophia searched the large tome for the requested information. Having found it, she began again.

"'Section: Ponies and Places, Subsection S: Sweet Apple Acres:

"'It is princess-verified that the best apples in Equestria come from Sweet Apple Acres, a small family-own farm on the outskirts of Ponyville bordered by the Everfree Forest. On this farm lives four honest, hard-working earth ponies. The oldest is Granny Smith, who was one of Ponyville's original settlers eighty years ago. Under Granny Smith is her grandson, Big Mac, whose immense strength itself is legendary. After him is the most dependable of ponies, Applejack, who's the Element of Honesty. Finally but not least is a small filly name Apple Bloom who biggest concern upon the writing of this guide was finding her Cutie Mark. They also had a border collie name Winona. Together they are but a small part of a much larger Apple Family that spanned the totality of Equestria.'"

"Sophia is there anything on the Apple Family?" Ever inquired.

"Yes, right here. Section: Ponies and Places, Sub-section A: The Apple Family:

"'The Apple Family is the largest and third oldest earth pony family in Equestria, and they are like the lifeblood of Equestria circulating nutrients all across Equestria. They can trace their history back to 700 Before Alicorns B.A. The best account of the Apple Family History is in their own oral histories. Unlike my Canterlot colleagues, I believe that oral histories, not just written ones, have value in historical research. It is to be noted that the Apple Family is not unanimous in its account of what happened during certain parts of their history, but when controversial points are reached, I will point them out.

"'The important contribution in the Apple family, agreed by both earth ponies and unicorn scholars alike, is the apple trees that now line our most major roads. Most scholars do not know the significance these trees have in the Apple Family because they have never asked.

"'According to the elders in the Apple Family, most notably Ponyville's Granny Smith, while settling the valleys across of Equestria, the family planted apple trees along their paths. This is already well known. What is not known is that the descendents of these apple trees still mark the path of the Apple family Ancestors. A pony could literally use these trees to discover when and where the Apple Family came from.

"'To this day, the Apple family performs pilgrimages every summer along the path from the oldest surviving settlements to the youngest like the roots bring nutrients to the highest branches. Conscious of this metaphor, the oldest Apple family settlement is referred as the trunk and the younger ones as the branches. These branches have levels, and while these levels are sometimes used for superiority, their primary purpose is to help Apples draw their ancestry back to the lower branches.

"'This last two years, the Apple family followed the trees to the Ponyville branch which is only eighty years old, but technically youngest settlement is the Appaloosa one, which is three years old, but the trees to their settlement has not fully yet grown. The fully grown trees at Appaloosa are donations from each of the older settlements, including the Ponyville branch. The family waits for the trees to fully grow to a settlement because if the settlement survives until then, they have truly become independent enough from the whole family to be their own branch with the strength to hold the family reunion.'"

Before Sophia could read any further, Andrea made a hushing sound. "Listen," she commanded. The group became very still and quiet. They could hear the sound of several creatures slithering and making occasional bawking noises.

Sophia closed Twilight's book and readied to use it as a bludgeon. Ei Rikr got behind Andrea, unsure what was waiting for them.

The forest sudden got incredibility quiet as those hiding realized they had been found out. Andrea scanned the area around her, and when one bush rustled slightly, she threw her spear into it.

A female adolescent cockatrice jumped out of the bush, trying to avoid the spear, but her long tail still got pierced. Without contact with the spear, Andrea could not activate it, but the cockatrices didn't know that.

"Get it out of my tail! Get it out of my tail!" the teenager shouted. Her young comrades sprung out of the bushes less interested in their prey than the fate of their friend. Together they pulled the spear out of the female cockatrice's tail. The spear flew through the air just to be caught by Andrea who had been prepared for it.

"You kids are not going to win, so get," Andrea shouted.

The cockatrices looked scared, except for one who was their leader. "No, we will defeat you and be hailed as the strongest in the forest," he shouted back. The leader then spoke to his comrades. "Are we chickens or are we cockatrices?" he asked them.

They swallowed their fear and put their full attention at the buffalo in order to petrify her quickly. Unfortunately for them, Sophia blocked their line of sight with her book. While they were shocked, Sophia simply whacked them unconscious.

Ei Rikr disliked the violence, but ze was glad this didn't end in death.

"Okay, we cannot read anymore. There might be more attacks," Andrea said while whisking off the blood on her spear and then hiding it again.

They eventually reached the outskirts of Ponyville. The change in the air was immediately apparent. Thanks to the map inside Twilight's book, they knew they had to work their way around the village until they reached Sweet Apple Acres. The group kept themselves close to the forest.

Off in the distance, Andrea could see the pink pony from yesterday and some white pony they had never seen. As they approached, they could hear that the white one was crying while the pink one was trying to make her smile.

"Just giggle at the mean words," Pinkie Pie advised.

Ei Rikr walked up to the two ponies while zir comrades stayed back. "What is wrong?" ze asked.

The ponies turned their attention to the horsefly. The pink one reacted by pointing and spouting off some gibberish before running away. When Ei Rikr thought Pinkie Pie was gone, she came back suddenly with a cupcake. "Iamsorry,gottago!" she said before rushing away suddenly.

Ei Rikr turned back to the remaining mare. She had a mane of both pink and blue and an off-white coat. "Hello, my name is Ei Rikr, but you can call me Ever Ruler or Ever for short."

The mare was too scared to speak. Sensing this, the horsefly decided turning a bright color might help, so ze took on a bright shade of yellow. "I am sorry I scared you, is this better?"

"Oh that is really neat! How you do that?" the mare said. Her complete switch in attitude disturbed Ei Rikr.

"It is a species-related talent. Nothing special," the horsefly said while ironically taking a big bow. "What is your name, miss?"

The mare blushed at the politeness. "My name is Bon Bon. You can call me Bon Bon for short, all my friends do." Her voice was deep and lacked any musicality common to the other ponies. The horsefly didn't mind.

Ei Rikr buzzed zir wings in mirth. "I bet they do." The horsefly then became serious. "I couldn't help but notice that you were crying. Is there something wrong?"

Bon Bon looked sad again and nodded her head. Ei Rikr could easily guess that she nodded.

"Do you have some place to be right now?"

Bon Bon made a scrunchy face. The two memory wipes from yesterday had had severe consequences to her mind. "I don't remember," the mare said.

"Well, if and until you remember that you have to be someplace, why not come with us? Would you like that?"

Bon Bon nodded again. Ei Rikr motioned for the other two to join them again.

"What is that pony doing with us?" Andrea asked in forest language.

"Her name is Bon Bon. She has some kind of problem and I let her walk with us if she wanted to."

The buffalo examined the pony. Without Machiavelli or Hobbes pessimistic understanding of people, she could only see a harmless equine before her, so she relaxed her guard.

Switching back to ancient, Ei Rikr continued to talk to Bon Bon. "Bon Bon, why were you crying?"

The mare looked down at her hooves. "A stallion called me idiot. He is right. I am idiot."

"What did you do that cause this stallion to call you an idiot?"

"I went to store, and there were quills on store counter. I thought place sells sofas, so quills must be gifts for ponies. I thought perhaps if I help, nice stallion there will hire me for job, so I hoof quills out to ponies. When nice stallion found me, he was not nice. He started calling me idiot. I couldn't figure out what I did wrong, and he called me idiot again. He is right. Bon Bon am idiot."

"Are you sure you are an idiot?" Ever asked.

Bon Bon stared at the horsefly. "How could I not be? Smart ponies tell me only stupid ponies make my mistakes. Smart ponies do not lie. They know better than me. When smart ponies try explain what Bon Bon do wrong, Bon Bon get confused."

"Perhaps you are just as intelligent as these other ponies."

The off-white mare tilted her head. "I am confused. Smart ponies know everything. They do not lie. You say they lie."

"Bon Bon, they are not lying. I am suggesting perhaps that it is not your intelligence, your 'smartness,' that is at fault. That they may be mistaken about you."

"Explain, please," Bon Bon requested. Ever since her memory had become fuzzy, she had developed a powerful urge to compensate for what was lost with curiosity, hence her constant gossiping.

"I am going to tell you something a past friend once explained to me. Okay, now if I told you that the song was in B minor or that minor keys are darker in tone, would you know what I meant?" Ei Rikr asked the earth pony. She replied in the negative.

Ei Rikr turned to address Andrea. "You brought your guitar, Andrea?" She replied in the affirmative. "Could you play us a song?" The buffalo just took out and played the same song she had last night, for it was the only one she knew how to play on a twenty-seven string guitar.

"I want you to listen to the music," Ei Rikr told her.

She listened to it but quickly found it unsettling.

"How did that make you feel?" the horsefly asked.

"Scared," she replied.

"I understand why. I heard the song too. We have the same experience because we both paid attention to the same song. I don't know what other ponies are like, but do you think you would understand why other ponies, these 'smart ponies', might also find this song scary."

Bon Bon thought about this. It took awhile because there were so many words to process, but she finally got it. "I think so."

Bon Bon shook her head. It was a leading question, so Ei Rikr could guess that.

Ei Rikr had Andrea play the B minor scale a few times. Bon Bon eyes opened wide. "That sounds like the song."

"You might not know it but you just demonstrated that you know what B minor is and why it sounds menacing."

Bon Bon tilted her head. "I did."

"Yep, the B minor was what you heard when you heard the similarity between the two songs, and when you said you could understand why other ponies would be scared by this song, you were noticing how the minor key was scary."

Bon Bon had to process this for a bit but didn't understand what Ei Rikr meant.

"Bon Bon, you can understand the song just as well as anyone else. You are as smart as anyone else."

The mare beamed at this. "I do understand song. I understand song like smart ponies."

Ei Rikr shook zir head. "No, you don't understand the song like smart ponies. You understand the song in your own way. Not in B minor or other big words, but in your own words, your own experience."

Bon Bon tilted her head. "What do you mean?"

Ei Rikr stopped trying to help Bon Bon figure out what ze meant by zir words. I could never do Rancid Air justice. He rejects explication as the way we should teach, but I cannot help but try to explicate when asked a question like this.

"Perhaps I don't even know," the horsefly replied.

"But you are smart," Bon Bon gasped.

"I am glad you think so, but I cannot be so certain of some things," ze said.

At this point, they had reached the apple orchard. There were five fillies playing around by a tree house. Bon Bon mentioned them, alerting Ei Rikr to their presence. "Hey, Sophia, why don't you go play with those ponies over there."

Sophia squinted her eyes, studying the ponies before she agreed. "There is a unicorn with them and a pegasus. I have questions about those two breeds of ponies."

Andrea felt she had gone far enough now they were this far into pony territory and said her goodbyes. "Sophia, best of luck on making friends. Remember to play some games with them and not only ask them questions about their breed's history or anatomy." Sophia accepted the buffalo's wisdom and nodded. With that, Andrea and Sophia left the party.

"Bon Bon, are you going to stick with me?" Ei Rikr asked. She nodded again. "Would you tell me please yes or no?"

"Yes. I want to go with you. You are nicer than ponies in town. I want to do more understanding with you."

The two continued until they came upon the doorstep of the farm's main household. Ei Rikr took out zir voucher, hoping to find this Granny Smith. Luckily, she was sitting on the front porch watching from a distance her family work the apple orchard and her non-equine workers doing everything else.

Author's Note

Next chapter: The Myth of Sissypuss

Of Livestock and Pets 3.3: The Myth of Sissypuss

Andrea did not like being alone. Her life was defined by being in the action close to those she protected. Unlike yesterday, Machiavelli would not be checking up on her in Equestria. However, Andrea did not have to be alone long as suddenly three ponies rushed her.

One was Pinkie Pie, but the other two mares were new to Andrea. One was an alicorn with a purple mane and the other a pegasus with a rainbow mane. Together they acted obnoxiously trying to get her attention.

Doing the only rational thing, Andrea sprinted away; however, this failed as she was quickly overcome by both Pinkie Pie and the rainbow one. Knowing it was pointless to keep trying to outrun them, Andrea suddenly stopped, causing the rainbow one to fly passed her. Pinkie Pie had somehow predicted the buffalo stop and stood in a goofy pose. Is she mocking me?

"What do you want?" Andrea asked in a moderately threatening tone. She wanted them to leave her alone, but she didn't want diplomacy to fall through immediately. However, the rainbow one was not going to make it easy. A rainbow afterimage shot in sharp angles around the buffalo. It was pointless to just to stand still so she tried to jump out of the rainbow mare's trap.

After some time, the purple-maned one had caught up. The buffalo was surprised it took her so long given that she had wings. She activated her horn, and when Andrea was in mid jump, her body suddenly was trapped there and unable to move.

Andrea panicked. A telekinetic grip was one of the most horrible acts of violence a magically-inclined species could inflict upon another being. The buffalo felt her limbs feel like they were breaking, and she was beginning to suffocate as her body tried to hyperventilate but couldn't.

The unicorn saw this, but the rainbow one talked her out stopping the spell. This much Andrea could tell, and this caused her to panic more. Luckily, Pinkie Pie came to the buffalo's rescue by quickly bopping the unicorn's horn.

Andrea fell to the ground with a large thump. As she fell unconscious from the trauma, she took a mental note to forgive the pink pony for falling on her yesterday as the debt had been repaid.

When Andrea woke up, she was on a coach with a sling over her left forehoof, her spearleg. Her stuff was on the table in front of the coach. It took her twenty seconds to realize she was in a house; it had been that long.

Her whole body hurt, especially her limbs and her ribs. Her limbs had been torn up resisting and her ribs had gotten bruised from the effort of her body to hyperventilate.

"Where am I?" the buffalo asked.

"Fluttershy's house," said a deep voice on the ground. When Andrea looked down, she saw that white bunny. "You are on my couch by the way, so you're welcome." It astounded Andrea how much this piece of furniture meant to the rodent.

Andrea looked around the room more closely. She saw Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, the rainbow one, and the purple one. She also several other non-ponies like birds of paradise, a bear, and an old camus cat. The cat particularly got her attention for he was playing with a ball of string as if he didn't have a care in the world while a bear sat right next to him.

Andrea would like to talk about that cat, but right now she had more important things to do. First was her first sense of duty was to Pinkie Pie.

"Pink pony, I saw you save me from purple pony's malicious grip," Andrea said raising her right hoof. Pinkie Pie looked confused until Fluttershy translated what Andrea had said in forest. Pinkie grabbed onto Andrea's hoof, clearly expecting a hoofshake. Instead Pinkie was pulled into an embrace and given a kiss on the cheek. The ponies in the room gasped. "Peace, my sister, we are even. Now we can learn and overcome our mistakes." Pinkie Pie quickly returned the embrace. After ten seconds, the embrace formally ended much to the pink pony's dismay.

The rainbow said something to the purple one, mimicking the motions of the embrace. "Rainbow Dash is talking about how she remembers that embrace," Angel informed the buffalo.

"Oh, does she know the forgiveness ritual of the School of the Two Eternal Siblings as well?" Andrea asked surprised.

"Are you referring to Celestia and Luna? If so, I never seen such a ritual from them," the bunny said.

Andrea inspected her sling. Her forehoof had a ice pack and placed securely into a sling. The person who had placed her into the sling had done an excellent job. "Rabbit, who cared for me?" Andrea asked the rabbit.

"Fluttershy, of course. Though these ponies brought you here."

"Then I must thank her." Andrea got up, which caused the ponies to pause in their bickering. She went into her stuff and found her saddlebags. Inside the left pouch, she pulled out an intricate silk shawl with a Mandelbrot tree design on it.

Fluttershy shook her head at the gift, saying something unintelligible to Andrea.

"Do you think this decorative scarf made by my mother is ugly? I have no other gifts to give as I cannot give you the guitar as that was a gift to me," Andrea said, tilting her head.

Fluttershy stammered, and Angel spoke up for her. "Stop forcing your stupid scarf on her. She doesn't need gifts. She only does stuff for ponies pro bono."

"I have a debt with this pony. While I am not obligated to pay this debt by any law, it is my decision to repay my debts. I will find a way, even if I have to come back here later."

Fluttershy again was placed into a difficult position where she had no out. The rainbow pony got very defensive of her friend and started talking down to Andrea from her position flying above the group. The purple one talked the rainbow one down literally.

At this point, the camus cat which had gotten Andrea's attention earlier had completely unrolled his ball of yarn and now needed to roll it back up again. After a brief pause to observe this, Andrea returned her attention back to the ponies.

This led to Andrea's third debt. Andrea gazed at the purple-maned pony and she gazed back. The buffalo could see an inquisitive but innocent mind behind that gaze. Whatever the pony saw, it caused her to shrink back a bit.

"The people call me Queen of the Forest or Bufgium warrior, but I prefer to be called by my birth name, Andrea. What is your name?" the warrior buffalo asked.

Fluttershy and Angel translated for them. "Princess Twilight Sparkle."

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, you committed a great act of violence upon me. If you were threatening right now, I would have treated you as an enemy of the State of Nature and killed you. As you are now, we can open diplomacy. It is what I believe my teacher would want me to do."

Twilight became more uneasy. "All she did was cast a telekinesis spell on you in order to capture you if you were a changeling."

"I don't know what a changeling is, but if you so casually cast telekinesis on me, you must be ignorant. Telekinesis causes its victim to suddenly become paralyzed. Normally, this causes the victim to have a panic attack, especially if the victim is not expecting it. A person can, through training, dull their instincts and remain calm in a magic-users grip, but this is reserved for circus performers. Warriors like me, on the other hoof, have to sharpen those instincts, which make us even more vulnerable to this. Battlemages are easily the most powerful units on the battlefield not only because of how they can kill elite warriors without physically harming them but also because the sheer effect they have on morale on both sides of the battle."

As Fluttershy translated this, she became queasy as the implications of what she said became apparent to her. Even Angel, who normally could care less about ponies, was having trouble keeping his breakfast down.

Twilight asked something, but Andrea had a good idea of what it was.

"I would have died," Andrea finished Twilight's untranslated question. Twilight became stock still as Fluttershy swallowed her fear to explain the horrible truth. The buffalo warrior was not done with Twilight though. "You said you wanted to talk to me. I do not know what customs you have in your country, but where I come from, we do not force people to talk to us, especially with such rough methods. I had a place I needed to go." Andrea looked out the window to gauge the time. "It is midday, and I was already suppose to be there in order to lead and protect those who decide to follow me. They live in a dangerous place, made more dangerous by the frequent attacks by aggravated predators. Some of these people will die because I am not there to protect them, many of these people will panic because I have not shown up for the food-gathering period, all of them will not know about our new compromise with the natives because I am not there to tell them. More important than what you did to me directly is what you have indirectly done to all those people who depend on me."

Andrea's eyes actually started to tear up slightly when she said this. She quickly wiped it away, as there was no time for sadness.

Twilight was a mess of confusion, rationalizations, and nausea. If Andrea had to guess what Twilight was saying over and over, she would have guess it was variations of 'What have I done?' and 'I couldn't have known.' The pink one was trying to cheer her up without much success. The rainbow one immediately began to address Andrea aggressively.

"She wants to know why you told Twilight those horrible lies. That what you said is not funny."

"They are not lies."

"She says it doesn't matter. You hurt her, so tell her that they are lies. Personally, I think you are a jerk too, sitting on my couch, making all of us depressed," Angel said. Andrea stared blankly at the cyan mare who had yet to introduce herself. Corvo was right. There are really people who would rather die than think seriously about the world and how their actions affect it. Ei Rikr's task to bring philosophy to them is hopeless, for you cannot give sight to eyes that do not want to see.

Also, I am sorely tempted to just end their self-imposed blissful ignorance. I guess it doesn't matter though. As Ei Rikr said in zir early days, 'the unconsidered life is equivalent to death.' In other words, it makes no difference if I kill them.

While Andrea was having her dark thoughts about the little lives of these ponies, Twilight had calmed down in a time conveniently fast enough to address the buffalo again.

"She says that she has to make this right. If you are royalty, then it is her duty as princess to make amends to your nation," Angel translated. Andrea frowned at the word nation. She preferred community to nation.

The warrior inspected this pony. Andrea knew that one should never let your feelings prevent you from doing what is for the best. Yes, she had hurt her terribly, but she could use this pony. Twilight was obviously powerful, perhaps, Andrea figured, almost as strong Sophia was.

Andrea shifted her weight a bit. “Twilight, I have no option but to trust you. I know Zecora knows of you because she mentioned you as a friend. Ask if she can guide you to a refugee camp, for she found them yesterday, seeking trade her potions in our market. The trek will take approximately three hours at a trot. If and when you get there, you will need someone to translate for you. Zecora might do it for you, but if she can’t, make sure you contact Glaucon or his brother Plato. Both speak your ancient tongue. They will have you take my place in defending the newest refugee camps. It will be difficult as our warriors are spread out thin. To prove your sincerity, take my shawl, they will recognize it immediately.” Andrea tried to remove the shawl from around her neck, but the sling and fractured leg made it impossible alone. Seeing her struggles, Fluttershy helped while continuing to translate.

Twilight asked a question. “She wants to know where you live and how you know Zecora.”

“We live in the Neverending Forest,” Andrea said, using her head to indicate the Everfree. Again, the ponies gasped. It is as if everything shocks them, Andrea observed. "Zecora guided me and my teacher to your country yesterday."

“Who mentioned you had a teacher?” Twilight asked through the rabbit.

“Yes, Ei Rikr. It is because of zir that I am alive to protect these zir. Even if ze had not saved me, I would have followed zir.”

Angel rubbed his head. “What do you mean by zir?”

“It is the pronoun that is used for horseflies and any individual who requests it. Don’t you have horseflies here?”

Fluttershy and Angel simultaneously shook their heads. Fluttershy was eager to learn more about horseflies, but Twilight was impatient.

“We need to leave soon, but do you have anything else for us to do when we get there?”

Andrea nodded. “Give me a piece of paper. This is far too complex to explain.” The yellow pegasus got a piece of paper and a quill for the buffalo. Andrea looked strangely at the outdated writing tool and tried her best to use it. After several mistakes, she had produced a note detailing instructions to the refugee leaders on the next step in reducing hostilities between them and the predatory natives. “Give this to Glaucon. He will know what to do with it.”

"What langauge is this?" she asked.

"It is Germane, one of the languages of Bufgium, where I come from." Twilight

Twilight nodded. Though she wanted to know more, she had to make things right with the State of Nature, so she conjured a crown with a jewel the shape of the violet mark on her rump and started to leave. Before she could, though, her friends all in turned told her something.

“What is going on, Angel?” the buffalo asked.

“They are each telling Twilight that she will need their help, and they won't take no for an answer. They do this a few times each year, and no matter how many times they do it, they always end up agreeing they should all come. Stupid ponies.”

“Foolish ponies,” Andrea replied, half agreeing with the rabbit.

The ponies left the room, and before Fluttershy left, she pulled a little rope on the lampshade. This caused the room to go dark except where the light came in from the windows, which wasn’t much because it was midday.

Now Andrea was alone with a rabbit that disliked her, a camus cat playing with a ball of string, a bear who was napping, and lots of birds. Andrea knew she should rest and recover but that cat was getting on her nerves.

“Hey, cat,” Andrea said.

“Hmmm,” the tom said, seeming to just notice Andrea’s existence.

“What is your name?” Andrea asked.

“Sissypuss,” he replied as he finally rolled up his ball of yarn. Sissypuss smiled broadly as all his hard work getting the ball of yarn rolled up was undone by a series of pokes and prods.

“Why are you doing that? I find it hard to believe a camus would want to do something so repetitive as this. Your breed is well-known for its love of mediterranean landscapes and sports, not this.”

“I was punished.”

Andrea frowned. “By the ponies? What for?”

“Yes, but you will not understand unless you hear my story.

“Twelve years ago, I lived in Algebra, the country of mathematics. I was a famous lawyer there, but a war forced me to flee with all my family besides my mother, who would not leave the land where her husband, my father, died. I went to Prance, an Equestrian commonwealth for asylum. According to Equestrian custom, my family was divided among ponies who wanted camus for pets.”

“What are pets?” Andrea inquired, not liking this story one bit.

“Pets are like servants but instead of work all we do is play the games ponies want us to play like me and this ball of string. Now not all pets obey their owners, but some owners are extremely tolerant of that behavior.”

“So why don’t you just not obey why none of these ponies are here? I cannot imagine that you are happy playing with that ball of string for all eternity.”

Sissypuss finished unwinding his yarn and began to wind it up again before answering Andrea’s question. “That brings me to the next part of my story. I sent in a request to the immigration office once my whole family had been distributed among ponykind. I requested that we all get to be together for one day. The ponies, you see, value family, especially the earth ponies, who work the local immigration offices, so with just a little legal tomfoolery, they granted my request. So I got my one day with my family.

“But I wasn’t satisfied with only one day. I stayed with my family for a whole week. When the ponies realized that I was withholding ponies their pets and breaking the agreement I had made with the government, I was forcibly sent to Fluttershy’s cottage to be reformed. My punishment is to play with ball of yarn everyday until I get adopted or die trying.”

Andrea’s frown deepened. “That is despicable of ponies, but that still doesn’t explain why you keep winding and unwinding that yarn.”

“We all have our ball of yarn that we are winding up just to lose it in the end. Is it so hard to imagine that I can be happy?” was all the camus said before he became so engrossed with the ball of yarn that further communication was impossible.

The warrior was dumbfounded by what the camus said. It made her rethink what was the life worth-living and what counted as pointless. Before falling asleep, she had one comforting thought. If all my effort to save lives in this cruel world fails, could I be happy like this cat. Probably not, but I could at least try to be a little happier while I give it my all.

Of Livestock and Pets 3.4: Magic Envy (Edited)

Written by: Knowledge
Edited by: Knowledge, and an itsy bit by: ChaoticLightning
Pre-read by: Rewrite

Two fillies, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, stood in front of the Cutie Mark Crusaders tree house, trying their new strategy in getting under the CMC’s skin.

“What kind of unicorn cannot even use magic?” Diamond Tiara mocked Sweetie Belle, whose emotions were bouncing back and forth between indignation and hurtfulness.

“Don’t make fun of Sweetie Belle,” Scootaloo defended. “You try this before, and it won’t work anymore. ” As the orange pegasus said this, the unicorn burst into tears.

“Sweetie Belle, don’t listen to her. Yah don’t need magic to be special. You are our friend regardless,” Apple Bloom said, hugging her distress friend.

“Why don’t you two just make like a tree and leave?” Scootaloo shouted at the earth pony bully duo.

“Why should we listen to talentless blank flanks,” Diamond Tiara retorted.

“We are not the ones in a tree anyway,” Silver Spoon added, earning her an approving look from her rich friend.

As they laughed, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom suddenly were shocked by the sight of a flying giant book glowing in an eerie brown magical aura sneaking up on the duo of all around badness.

Diamond Tiara suddenly got smacked in the face with a notepad, which cut her chortling short. Diamond Tiara slowly turned around to see a huge book roughly the weight of Big Mac behind her. She froze. It took Silver Spoon a good three seconds to realize that her friend had stopped, and when she did, she screamed. The two ponies ran away, eyes shut with fear. They ran into a tree or two on there way back to Lake Ponyville where the Rich mansion was.

The book levitated out of the way, to reveal a very stoic unicorn, who only seemed perturbed that her notebook had been dropped on the ground unused. Picking it up, the unicorn wrote down some notes. She then looked up at the CMC and wrote down some more.

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked back terrified of the unicorn. She didn’t look normal. All ponies had a solid color for their coat, but this one had blotchy black-and-white one. her brown mane and eyes were not common either, and this led the CMC to believe that the unicorn must be some new breed of unicorn. There were also blue dots crowning her forehead, which the Apple Bloom found very familiar for some reason. The most notable quality was her square-fractal checkered shawl.

“Wow, you are strong,” shouted Sweetie Belle. “Look girls! She carrying that book all by herself and she can write at the same time. She will probably get into Celestia’s School for Talented Unicorns for sure.”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked between both unicorn fillies for a moment, and after a moment there fear turned to joy. “Apple Bloom, did you see how she scared away those two bullies?”

“And she doesn’t have her Cutie Mark yet just like us!” Apple Bloom added.

The CMC got down from their tree house to meet the filly. “What is your name? We are Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle, and Apple Bloom,” Sweetie Belle said, which earned her a notebook to the face.

Sweetie Belle frowned as she rubbed her muzzle, but she read the notepad. “My name is Wisdom. I come from forest. I cannot speak or understand language yet. Please write down what you say on this.”

“So she wants us to write on this here notebook thing. That ain’t very convenient,” Apple Bloom said.

“We Cutie Mark Crusaders don’t deny a filly just because she speaks with a notebook,” Scootaloo spoke with her hoof proudly held over her heart as if she were reciting a pledge.

“That isn’t in the oath,” Apple Bloom countered.

“Yeah, it is. I should know; I wrote it,” Scootaloo responded.

“It is a very long oath,” Sweetie Belle added.

During this whole exchange, Wisdom was observing them.

“Um, Ah reckon we should introduce ourselves. Sweetie Belle hand me that there pencil and notebook.” Apple Bloom started by introducing her friends and she. The note read: We are Apple Bloom, Scootalu, and Sweety Bell. Together we are the Cutie Mark Crusaders. We crusading to get our Cutie Marks. Do you want to join? Beside each name was a doodle of their respective pony breed. For instance, ‘Scootalu’ had a picture of a pegasus.

“That is not how you spell my name, Apple Bloom,” Sweetie Belle said.

“Yeah, and my name is wrong too,” Scootaloo said.

“Well, Ah didn’t know. Never had to write your names before,” the yellow earth pony defended.

Apple Bloom indicated she wanted to return the notebook back to Wisdom, and it was magicked out of her hoof along with the pen.

“Ah wonder if she will…” Apple Bloom began to say when she got hit in the face with Wisdom’s response.

“Give me that,” Scootaloo said. She quickly wrote that Wisdom should stop hitting them in the face. Sorry. Did not know. I do not have to communicate this way often.

“This girl doesn’t have a lick of common sense, does she?” Apple Bloom asked, and then she read the filly’s previous response. “Ah don’t want to join in your real-ig-oz war over a holy Cutie Mark with your nation’s enemies. Ah do want to know how children play. Do you have diz-cuss here?” Apple Bloom made a scrunchy face at the foreign words she didn’t know.

“What that supposed to mean?” Scootaloo asked.

“Perhaps she is from far off place where they don’t know what Cutie Marks are,” Sweetie Belle guessed.

“I think from some far away land or how else could she not know what Cutie Marks are?” Scootaloo asked.

“Well, ask her and find out,” Sweetie Belle offered.

Apple Bloom wrote down Scootaloo’s question. “She sahs that she comes from the forest. They don’t have ponies like her there.”

“The forest, the only forest is the Everfree Forest,” Sweetie Belle said.

Apple Bloom inquired on how Wisdom lived in such a place. “She says her parent and courage protects her. Wow, it would take mighty helpin’ of courage to live in the Everfree.”

“Let’s ask her what discus is,” Sweetie Belle suggested, and Apple Bloom complied.

In response, they received a detailed drawing of a bug-pony hybrid and a buffalo spinning around and throwing something that looked like a frisbee into the air.

“Uh, this is what you want to play?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Looks interesting. Perhaps we will get our Cutie Marks in diss-cuss,” the pegasus added.

The CMC agreed to play this strange foreign game.

“I have a frisbee at my house. I will be right back. Let’s meet in left field,” Sweetie Belle said. She galloped away, leaving her friends with Wisdom.

Carrying the frisbee in her mouth, Sweetie Belle arrived to left field. They were not facing Sweetie Belle as she approached. The little unicorn took out the frisbee from her mouth, so she could tell them that she arrived. “Girls, I got it.”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom turned around, but not to face her. They were spinning with discuses in their mouths. They shifted their weight between their hooves, and after turning roughly three-hundred-and-sixty degrees, they threw their discuses into the air. Apple Bloom got thirty-six feet, and Scootaloo, who had the better wind up, got a whopping fifty-one feet.

“No need, Sweetie. Wisdom here made some out clay with her magic,” her pegasus friend said.

“It’s nice having a unicorn our age around who can use magic,” the earth pony added.

“That gives me an idea,” Scootaloo said. “Why don’t we have Wisdom use her magic to levitate us into the air so that we can fly around.”

The white unicorn frowned. “I haven’t even gotten to play yet.”

“Oh,” Scootaloo said. She took the notebook and hoofed it to Wisdom after writing something on it.

Suddenly, the earth around the brown-maned filly shook as clay was extracted and compacted into a perfect discus. It was levitated to Sweetie Belle, but dropped before it reached her. The white unicorn picked it up from the ground. She was mad at the other unicorn for not just giving it to her. When Sweetie Belle looked at Wisdom, she saw that the new filly was observing her with a confused look.

“She wants to know why yah didn’t use your magic to catch the diss-cuss,” Apple Bloom explained, holding up the notebook.

Sweetie Belle growled. Determined to one up the other unicorn, she spun rapidly. This made her dizzy, and threw the discus straight up into the air. The unicorns went cross for a second, but when they refocused, she saw the discus about to fall on her face. Sweetie flinched and shut her eyes.

“Good save, Wisdom,” Apple Bloom shouted and gave her new pony friend a congratulatory pat on the back, which resulted in the unicorn asking her why she did that.

This all served to make Sweetie even more angry. “I bet she couldn’t do much better.”

With encouragement from the other CMC, Wisdom made her own discus and gave it a try. The forest had made intellectual filly strong, and combined with having much more practice, she was able to make it go fifty-three feet.

“That was farther than even me,” Scootaloo replied. Wisdom replied that with practice, Scootaloo would probably do much better than her due to her physical aptitude. “Oh, Wisdom, I bet you can go even further if you threw it with your magic.”

The intellectual agreed, still studying this ‘fun’ phenomenon. This time, instead of using her body, the unicorn used her powerful control of telekinesis to spin a new discus around her body and launch it clear across the apple orchard. Some poor person would have to look out for that one.

“Wow, your magic is amazing, Wisdom,” Scootaloo cheered. “Now, lets go to the flower field to see so you can make us fly in the air.”

In a bush, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon watched their prey carefully.

“Diamond, what are we going to do? She is too strong,” the silver earth pony said.

“Patience. Everypony has a weakness. We just haven’t seen it yet. When we find it, we can have our vengeance!” The tiara-wearing snob laugh maniacally, almost blowing their cover.

Scootaloo wanted to go to the flower field not only because it was pretty, but because it had steep hills which she loved to practice flying on.

When they arrived, they noticed that Wisdom didn’t follow them in.

“What’s wrong? Why she just standing there?” Scootaloo asked.

“Ah don’t know. We should ask her,” Apple Bloom replied.

Scootaloo took the notebook and tried to write her answer. “Sweetie Belle, how do you write telekinesis?”

Sweetie Belle rolled her eyes, and spelt it out for her.

“Thanks, dictionary,” the pegasus answered, using her favorite smart-bashing nickname for the unicorn. This elicited another growl from her.

“She says the air here is bad,” Apple Bloom read. “Why?” After another exchange of the notebook, the earth pony read further. “The flowers fill the air with stuff that causes her to choke.”

“Ah, that’s too bad. I had a relative who had allergies,” Scootaloo said. “I know where we can go.”

“Where?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Ghastly Gorge!” the pegasus announced. Apple Bloom liked the idea, but Sweetie Belle tried to voice doubt without much success. Wisdom just followed, writing down notes about the ponies.

The CMC plus Wisdom started to go to Ghastly Gorge. Scootaloo was pumped for Wisdom to use telekinesis so she could dodge around the wall-eels and other hazards just like she saw Rainbow Dash do several times before.

Scootaloo wrote her request in extreme detail, taking up several pages of notebook. When Wisdom read it, she frowned. Scootaloo read her reply. “She says that she won’t do it because it will hurt me. Then there is a lot of complicated medical mumbo jumbo on telekinesis on the body.”

“I agree. It is too dangerous,” Sweetie Belle said.

“What do yah suggest instead, Sweetie?” Apple Bloom asked.

The unicorn had been planning what she was absolutely beat the new pony at. “Poker with one hundred wood chips each.”

“Uh, you always win at that,” the earth pony replied.

“No, you are on. I won’t lose this time,” the pegasus said, channelling her inner competitive nature.

As they went, they heard some laughter from a shrubbery. This time Wisdom heard it.

With her big book of everything with everything inside, the unicorn sacred two earth pony fillies out of their hiding spot.

“Why are yah two following us?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Yeah, are yah spying on us?” Scootaloo also asked.

Diamond Tiara put her nose into the air. “It is none of your blank flank business what I am doing.”

“It is none of your business what we are doing either,” Sweetie retorted.

“You are still blank flanks,” Silver Spoon added.

Diamond Tiara facehoofed. “We’re going, Silver Spoon.”

“But...okay,” the sycophant conceded and left with her father’s rich benefactor’s daughter.

The four were now in the the club house.

“Do you know how to play poker?” Sweetie Belle asked Wisdom. She replied that she did not, but she would observe and figure it out. This caused the white unicorn filly to smile. “Then you don’t need me to explain the rules.”

Apple Bloom dealt the first hoof. After cards were discarded and drawn, Sweetie Belle folded and Wisdom mimicked her. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo both bet ten chips and then showed each others hoofs.

“Aw, yeah, my three tens beats your two pairs!” Scootaloo cheered.

Apple Bloom frowned. She was hoping that she could at least beat Scootaloo, but this game just didn’t ever work for her. The mind games involved in it just didn’t match up to Apple family values.

Wisdom took the time between deals to ask questions of the CMC.

“She asks. ‘Sweetie Belle, do unicorns live on mountains because it reminds them of their horns?’” Apple Bloom read. Scootaloo and her broke out laughing as Sweetie Belle just couldn’t fathom the question at all.

It must be some kind of mind game. I must not let her get to me, Sweetie Belle rationalized.

Scootaloo dealt the next hoof. After everypony discarded their cards, Sweetie Belle smirked and put in ten bits into the pot. Apple Bloom folded right away. Scootaloo and Wisdom both placed ten bits in. Sweetie Belle placed in another five bits, and this made Scootaloo a scared but she put in another five bits. Wisdom just repeated the action.

Sweetie Belle put in another five bits, staring intensely at Scootaloo. The pegasus just couldn’t take the heat, and folded. Wisdom placed another five bits in.

What kind of hoof does she have? Her face is completely impenetrable. Wait, no, she couldn’t possibility know how to play after one hoof, Sweetie Belle thought. The white unicorn decided to cut her losses now and show her hoof. She had been bluffing and only had a pair of twos.

Wisdom showed her hoof, which also had a pair of twos, but her highest card was a princess’s student, which was better than any other card Sweetie had.

“Wow, you were both bluffing. I should have known!” Scootaloo shouted.

Now Sweetie dealt the cards. While she did, Wisdom asked her next question which Apple Bloom read. “She asks, ‘Scootaloo, did the pegasi throw down thunder bolts upon the earth ponies like gods from in their sky cities during the pre-unification period?’”

“Uh, we were pretty mean back before the tribes learned the power of friendship,” Scootaloo said remembering what she was taught for Hearth’s Warming Eve. “What is a god?”

“She says its some kind of undying being that is usually more power than we are,” the earth pony read.

“Like Celestia?” Sweetie asked.

“I guess that must be what she means,” Scootaloo shrugged. “Tell her I don’t think so.”

Sweetie had dealt the cards and gave people cards for to replace the ones they discarded. Now she was sure she would win this one, but she kept herself completely stoic.

This time Sweetie was able to get all the ponies to put in ten chips. When they showed, Sweetie Belle had a straight. The closest hoof behind the unicorn’s was Apple Bloom’s which was a three of a kind.

“I hate this game,” the earth pony whined.

This time they let Wisdom deal the cards and she had apparently already figured out how to do that properly. This did not mean she couldn’t ask more questions.

Apple Bloom had just made it her job to read the notebook for the other ponies because she could care less about the game. “She says, “Apple Bloom, why do earth ponies let unicorns rule them? They produce the food and have a history of self-rule.’” The earth pony rubbed her chin. “Um, well. Ain’t it about friendship or something like that? The unicorns are nice to us by helping us when we need it, which is not to say we want them using magic on our farms. It gotta be the earth pony way. In return, we give the pegasi a portion of our food, and they distribute between themselves and the unicorns. The rest we get to sell to other earth ponies, which is nice because we need that money to take care of our farm.” She wrote this down as she spoke, which was possible because she could write with her hooves.

“Isn’t the Apple farm struggling?” Sweetie asked.

“Yeah, but we just got a lot of new animals on the farm, and they will be digging irrigation for the new crops we got. You guys like watermelons? Uncle Apple Tart has invited her to sell our apples at this fancy art show in Prance next month. AJ says we will be better off than ever when the years done.”

“What’s irrigation?” Scootaloo asked.

While they talked amongst themselves, they discarded and drew their new cards.

At the end of this hoof, Scootaloo won with a straight getting 5 chips from Apple Bloom and ten chips from both Wisdom and Sweetie Belle.

The game continued and Wisdom would ask her weird questions, most of which they had no answer for. They were all impressed by Wisdom’s poker face and that she learned almost the complete game after twelve games.

Scootaloo noticed something else too. Every once and awhile, Wisdom would take a hoof to her mouth, suck into it, then place her hoof down and tap it while blowing through her lips. The pegasus asked why in writing.

“‘Smoking,’” Apple Bloom read.

“What is that?” Scootaloo asked.

“She says, ‘it’s a thing ponies do to lower their stress or look cool in exchange for their long-term health.’”

“So it makes them die faster. That is stupid. Why does she do it? Is she stressed?” Sweetie Belle said.

Apple Bloom wrote the white unicorn’s question. “Her parent does it, apparently,” the earth pony said after reading the response.

“Then her parent must be stupid,” Sweetie Belle said.

The game was reaching its end, and it was only Sweetie Belle and Wisdom. It was as if Wisdom knew every time she was bluffing and would fold when she wasn’t. Scootaloo had taken over dealing while Apple Bloom stayed with the notebook.

The earth pony read Wisdom’s most recent question. “She asks: How do different ponies think about ponies in different breeds?”

“Well, we in Ponyville are known as the village where earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns can get along and be friends,” Scootaloo explained.

“But we are also an earth pony village, so when it comes down to it, we do things the earth pony way,” Apple Bloom added.

“Which is a pain for us unicorns because we cannot use our magic, which is what makes us special,” Sweetie Belle replied.

“Well, I haven’t seen yah complaining about doing things the earth pony way before, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom retorted. In response, the unicorn made some soft emotional gibberish.

The game continued, and both unicorns seemed confident in their hoofs as they kept putting more and more wood chips until there was roughly one hundred thirty each in the pot. This left Sweetie with only fifty chips and Wisdom with ten.

I have four of a kind. She hasn’t ever let me go this far without folding. She can’t be bluffing then. She must have something better than a four of a kind, the white unicorn thought.

“I fold,” she said putting her hoof face down.

Wisdom showed her hoof. She only had a pair of fours.

“How? You bluffed me!”

“She got yah good, Sweetie,” Apple Bloom said.

“It doesn’t look too good, but you could do one of your famous turnarounds,” Scootaloo said.

“No, I give up. Just look at her,” Sweetie Belle said as Wisdom methodically organized her wood chips by value. “She is a monster.”

“Ah don’t think yah like losing,” Apple Bloom said.

“Says Apple Bloom,” the unicorn retorted.

“What’s that suppose to mean?” the earth pony replied while shoving her face at the unicorn.

“Not to interrupt you girls while you are discussing the values of friendship, but we have company again,” Scootaloo announced.

The fillies went out off the clubhouse and saw Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon accompanied by a unicorn.

“Hey, girls. This is here is our family’s gardner, Mr. Gardner, and he challenges Wisdom to a duel,” Diamond Tiara said. It was vogue among the new rich earth ponies in middle Equestria to have unicorn servants. It made them feel like royalty.

“Do have to?” Mr. Gardner asked in a trembling voice.

“You will or I will tell my father on you,” the bratty princess-wanna-be said.

The gardener gulped.

“Why does she have to duel him?” Scootaloo asked defensively.

“Because you want us to leave, don’t you? Here is the deal. Wisdom wins, we leave you alone forever.”

“What do you get if you win?” Sweetie Belle asked, seeing through the earth pony easily.

“You have to disband. No more Cutie Mark Crusaders, no more tree house, no more friendship.” The duo both smirked really evilly when they said this.

“No way,” Scootaloo shouted.

“Wisdom, yah don’t have to fight him,” Apple Bloom said.

Sweetie Belle raised her left hoof in the air to shush her friends. “Deal.”

“But if she loses,” Scootaloo started to say, but Sweetie Belle interrupted.

“If she is so much better at magic than me, let her fight,” Sweetie said, her disdain for the other unicorn in her voice.

“This is about yah ain’t it?!” Apple Bloom responded shocked.

“You’re jealous of her,” Diamond Tiara laughed. “You must be so angry how she is so much more gifted than you will ever be.”

“Apple Bloom, give me the notebook,” Sweetie demanded. The earth pony refused. “I am going to ask her to fight. You don’t get to decide this.” Apple Bloom refused to give up the notebook but, pressured by her friend, described the situation to on the notebook. The earth pony hoofed the notebook back the silently observant unicorn scholar.

After reading Apple Bloom’s description of the events, Wisdom surprisingly agreed to fight for them, writing that she had never dueled before and it would, therefore, be a learning experience. The unicorn walked down the bridge of the tree house with the mighty tome of all knowledge in tow. The intimidation was clearly affecting Mr. Gardener.

Silver Spoon and Scootaloo stood as referees. “On the count of three, let the duel begin,” Scootaloo said. Apple Bloom communicated this to Wisdom. The two duelist stood fifteen years from each other.

“1, 2, 3,” Silver Spoon said, starting the duel.

Wisdom launched the book at Mr. Gardener. He dodged it but barely. What he didn’t expect was that where he landed, the ground had turned to mud which had trapped him. He also didn’t account for the filly to be able to keep her telekinetic grip on her book after she had sent it so far away from herself. To be fair, her control on it was far weaker at that distance.

“That is not fair. She brought a weapon,” Silver Spoon shout and blew the whistle. Wisdom ignored her as she slowly brought the book to Mr. Gardener so that she could flatten him.

“Silver Spoon, drop it. Mr. Gardener, do it just like we discussed,” Diamond shouted.

The stallion was panicking while the book started move menacing towards his fragile unicorn body; however, the filly’s words reminded him to cast one of the only spells he knew.

His horn developed a green shimmer of channeled magic. Wisdom watched carefully for the spell, when suddenly the air around her started to smell sweet. Below flowers suddenly bloomed all around her due to the garden unicorn’s spell.

She quickly stopped channeling magic as she had a severe reaction to all the flowers.

Sweetie Belle looked down at it all and could see as tears started flowing down the cheeks of the unicorn she had felt so much hate for just a few moments ago. Now her empathy broke through that hatred, and now she didn’t see a strange unicorn but another person who was kind of her friend suffering.

“Stop,” she shout as she tackled Wisdom and saved her from the dandelion garden that had just grown up under her.

“Ha, we win!” Silver Spoon shouted.

“That wasn’t fair and you know that. You could have hurt her really badly! She has allergies,” Sweetie Belle shouted.

Mr. Gardener heard this. “I am done. I don’t care if your boss fires me. I am leaving.” With one last push, he got out of the mud and galloped all the way back to the Rich mansion to first get cleaned up and then to talk to Filthy Rich about what happened.

“What you come back here!” Diamond Tiara shouted.

“Diamond, we should go. What happens if we get in trouble. We did just hurt that filly,” Silver Spoon said reasonably.

“Uh, I hate it when you’re right,” the brat replied. With that, they called the CMC blank flanks and chased after the gardener so that they could turned Filthy Rich against him before he got the chance to tell his side of the story.

When they were out of sight, Sweetie Belle helped Wisdom up.

The puffy-eyed unicorn got the notebook and wrote something on it.

“I am so sorry, Wisdom. I understand if you hate me,” Sweetie Belle said to the uncomprehending unicorn who had something for her to read. Sweetie looked at the notebook. “‘Thank you’? Why are you thanking me? It is my fault you got hurt.”

Wisdom tilted her head and tapped the notebook with the pencil for emphais.

“Oh, I should write that, my bad.”

The foreign unicorn looked over what Sweetie Belle had said and then replied.

“‘I don’t understand. I decided to fight, not you. You saved me. I thank you. You have no need to be sorry.’”

Sweetie was completely taken aback by the words of this new pony. She just started to cry, she was so happy.

Wisdom asked Apple Bloom if she did something wrong. The earth pony shrugged.

“Let’s be friends, Wisdom. Apple Bloom tell her that,” Sweetie said.

“Alright.”

“Well, it is getting late. See you girls at school tomorrow. Hope to see you there too, Wisdom. I am sure all the other classmates will like you, aside other than Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon of course.”

“Scootaloo, that is a lot to write,” Apple Bloom complained.

“Not my problem,” Scootaloo said and then just left on her scooter.

“I got to go to,” Sweetie said. She hugged Wisdom and left.

Apple Bloom and Wisdom watched as the two other CMC left.

“So don’t yah have to go home to?” Apple Bloom asked.

I live on this farm now with my parent, the unicorn replied.

“What really? How was Ah not told another pony was going to be on our farm. Is your momma a unicorn too because we don’t use magic in our farming,” the earth pony replied proudly and then in writing.

No, my parent is not a unicorn.

“Well, even so. Ah still have to talk to her about stopping smoking. It is bad for both yah.”

It is my parent’s decision if ze smokes.

“Yeah, but still. He shouldn't.”

They walked around the farm until Wisdom indicated that she saw her parent.

Apple Bloom was not expecting to see the unicorn’s parent literally on fire, but that might explain why smoking shortened a pony’s lifespan.

Author's Note

This chapter was written in five hours in the same sitting with only the premise that there would be bullying in the beginning and there would be that smoking joke.

The title is a reference to penis envy, which works with Wisdom/Sophia’s interest in psychoanalyzing other ponies.

I had to look up discus throwing, for this chapter.

This chapter was written to give Sophia some much needed character development.

The chapter was written from the CMC’s perspective because imagine how little would have been written had it been in WIsdom’s. I don’t like having to figure out what both sides are thinking and then leave out the side where most of the action is happening. Last chapter taught me that.

I tried to elude to Wisdom's future talent, but only my pre-reader cannot fathom what it was.

Of Livestock and Pets 3.5: A Circle and Its Tangents (Edited)

Author: Knowledge

Main Editor: waterpear

Editor/Proof-reader: Rewrite

“Gender-less. Explain,” Bonbon commanded in her cavemare-like voice.

For the past thirty minutes, Bonbon had been leading Ever to the Apple family home. In exchange, the horsefly would answer any of her questions. Ze had not expected the earth pony to ask zir about everything ze said. The still yellow horsefly had used the work ‘ze’ and ‘zir’ to describe zir kind, the earth pony had become curious as to what the words meant, which led to explaining they are genderless pronouns. This in turn led to the current question about genderlessness.

What had surprised Ever the most in the last thirty minutes was how much of zir explanations Bonbon seemed to understand. She had described her difficulty as if her mind had first been buried under dirt and darkness and then lost. Ever surmised that Bonbon was trying to fill the void in her mind, so had constantly been asking zir what things meant. In response, Ever had been speaking as ze would to anyone, and enjoyed seeing Bonbon worked out what ze meant from context clues. When she didn’t understand, she would just ask for zir to explain more.

This was just great for the horsefly, for ze did not like talking down to anyone. It had been zir experience that people learned new ideas only if you used them in the appropriate context, and that avoiding the use of those words only led to people developing a subpar vocabulary.

Before Ever responded, ze adjusted zir voice box to something void of any emotion a pony could sense. This voice was closer to the horsefly’s natural voice. “I cannot really explain genderlessness without explaining gender first. You see, ‘genderless’ is a category that only exists because gender exists. It is a relationship of dependence, like shadows depend on there being light. The problem is that gender is a tremendously complicated subject. I don’t know if I can explain it,” Ever said, anticipation of the earth pony’s inevitable response showing in zir steady but fast wing flaps. Ever didn’t like ‘explaining’ things, for it made zir feel like a teacher, but it was great to have such an eager mind with zir during this time of uncertainty.

“Gender. Explain,” Bonbon insisted on hopping up and down like a four-year-old, causing mane and tail to bounce in opposition with her body.

“Well, gender is like, uh,” Ever said while stroking zir non-existent beard. It took a few uh’s and hmm’s before something came to the old horsefly. “Our hooves. Gender is like our hooves.”

“Gender like hooves. I want you to explain,” she commanded while looking at her hooves. This did not make walking easy, so they had to stop for a second. After that, Bonbon took a sudden left turn and continued to lead Ever as an ever increasing pace.

Adopting the most old male professorial voice that ze could muster, Ever Ruler complied to the request of learning-loving mare. “You know how most ponies are right-hoofed and left-hoofed and how their hoofedness become evident early in their lives. There is a complicated combination of sociological and biological factors at place that I do not understand which contribute to how hoofedness plays out. You might remember that some ponies are good with both hooves. Being left-, right-, or both-hoofed is important, because it determines how ponies prefer to do many of our daily activities like how we play sports, how we open doors, how we write, and, according to these cultures, the kind of thinking we are proficient at. But hoofedness isn’t all-important, because there is an equal number of activities in which our hooves are irrelevant.

“Gender is very similar. You know that some ponies are male, that some ponies are female, and while you might not know this, I would bet love on it that some are both. Like left- or right-hoofedness, gender becomes evident early in most people’s lives, and the reasons behind this are beyond me, not to mention awfully controversial. According to what I know about most mammalian cultures, being male or female is important because it affects how you play your sports, the etiquette you follow, and, according to these cultures, the kinds of thinking we are proficient at. Gender is not all-important, because there are many instances where gender is not important. Does one have to actively invoke femininity or masculinity to sleep? Probably not.

“Now there is another important similarity between left- or right-hoofedness and male or female gender, and it is becoming competent in both or switching which one is competency. Would you like to hear about it?” Ever teased. Ze had been talking for awhile and wanted a bit of response from zir guide.

Bonbon guided Ever to the left before responding. She seemed to be processing the horsefly’s words for every detail, and then committing them completely to memory. “Hoof switching like gender switching. Explain,” Bonbon giddly demanded, and Ever was all too ready to spoil the mare with all the ideas she wanted.

Now Ever adjusted zir voice to that of Rainbow Dash. This next lesson seemed appropriate to be said in the tomboy mare’s voice. “Normally, we let the hoof we don’t use atrophy from disuse, and people find themselves completely incompetent in using it for anything but the most simple tasks.” Bonbon giggled as she seemed to recognize the voice and notice the comedy of hearing it come from a yellow bug pony.

Ever continued. “However, if you train your weak hoof enough in those activities for which you normally use your other side, you can become more proficient in that other hoof. If you stop using your strong hoof and only use the other one, the latter will become the stronger, and this is very difficult at the start because you lose a major part of your ability to interact with your world. Some cultures which dislike the left hoof because they see it as wrong will make their left-hoofed citizens become right-hoofed. Possibly, if you create a good workout regime, you could make yourself equally proficient in both hooves, which is probably better because then you do not have a weak side. Some cultures. understanding this, actually promote ambidextrousness by proactively forcing their young use both hooves for every activity.”

Bonbon frowned, because she didn’t like the idea of a culture forcing people into things. It brought back vague memories of a dark room with the sense of earth all around. Then she remembered bright flashes, stopped in her tracks, and began to tangibly tremble.

Ever noticed this and put a perforated yellow hoof on the mare’s back. “Are you alright?”

Bonbon calmed down at the friendly touch. “Yes, gray mare was with me.”

“I don’t understand,” the horsefly responded.

“Neither do I. Explain,” Bonbon said, her happy-go-lucky smile coming back to her face. She began to lead Ever to the left, increasing their pace to a trot.

“Explain what? That you don’t understand or how gender is like hoofedness?” Ever asked still unsure about the mare.
“Gender. Explain, please. I want to know more,” Bonbon replied as if nothing had happened.

“I don’t know if you will learn the truth from me. These are just my musings from my horsefly perspective on a subject I am not qualified to really talk about. As to the topic of gender--,” Ever started, but Bonbon interrupted.

“Ever, use new voice. Rainbow voice funny but I want to hear new one,” Bonbon said.

Ever buzzed in mirth adopting the voice of Glaucon, the bright-eyed warrior philosopher at the refugee camp. “Back to the topic of gender, normally people only use one gender their entire lives, at the expense of atrophying the parts of their personality which are used more exclusively by the other genders. I say other genders because there are plenty of cultures with more than two, and because some species are so structured so that a two-gender system is impractical if not impossible. This is not to say that gender and biological structure are identical. Though from what I observed of your culture, they are.” Suddenly, the horsefly facehoofed. “I am on a tangent. Ah...Glaucon, why’d I have to pick your voice?”

After recomposing zirself, ze took on the stern voice of Glaucon’s younger brother, the broad-shouldered Plato. “Let us return to the metaphor at hoof. By forcing your personality to only use your weak gender, you will start off crippled in social interaction because gender proficiency is so important to many of our activities that using your weak one will be very obvious in most cultures. Some cultures force certain individuals to change how they express themselves in order to change the individual’s gender. With exercise aimed at seeing the whole of personality, you will become proficient in all gender expression.”

Bonbon turned Ever left while increasing their pace to a slow gallop. Ever started another tangent due to the nature of the personality ze was mimicking.

“At the school, in which I once ruled—unwillingly, mind you—some of my followers would try to disabuse new residents of the gendering their cultures had given them, amongst other things, of course. My followers would encourage them to see things in ways that were often uncomfortable because of their gendered narrow-sighted sensibilities. As they would put it, they would turn the foreigners away from the metaphorical cave of gendering where they had been restrained so that they could only see a shadow of their full personality, and turn them towards the green sun. In the green sun, they would see the original wholeness which their inner personality, now fully realized, reflected. The green sun of genderless wholeness was, of course, a deification of myself as some kind of being of the transcendent Good. These followers of mine thought that philosophers who have well-ordered personalities will know the highest good because, unlike gendered people, they will have knowledge of the full spectrum of possible personality. They will be genderless and use ‘ze’ and ‘zir’, like the supposedly enlightened horseflies do.”

Again Ever stopped, this time to hit zirself in the head. “Why do I even bother using their voices. I always go on tangents with them.”

“Gender like hooves still?” Bonbon asked, very concerned about her new friend.

“I don’t even know anymore,” Ever responded.

“Genderless is what Ever is?” she asked, massaging her head to facilitate thought while the horsefly rubbed zir face into zir hoof in the futile task of inhibiting it.

“Yes, as a horsefly, I can’t be limited by gender for survival reasons,” Ever said still mad with zirself.

“Genderless is being not limited?” Bonbon asked.

Ever turned to face Bonbon now less mad at zirself for not completely confusing the pony with zir babbling. “Yes, but it is not only that. Going back to the hooves example. You could use neither of your hooves. Likewise you could be genderless by not participating in gender, limiting yourself to only ungendered activities. But you are still right in so far as gender means participating in a limitation to your personality. A genderless person would therefore be a person without these kinds of limitation”

Bonbon nodded, her mane bobbing enthusiastically with her head. “Bonbon can become genderless through exercise?”

“Uh, I guess, but remember I was just musing. You shouldn’t take everything I say seriously. While my followers thought it was the best life ever, they thought that about a lot of things which later proved to be quite silly or extreme.”

Bonbon waved this off. “Bonbon will exercise because Bonbon wants to be like Ever.”

This completely shocked the horsefly. “I would be a hypocrite to my species if I told you that you couldn’t become anyone you wanted to be, even an existing person like myself, but may I ask why me?”

Bonbon had a large smile plastered on her face. “Ever is smart and remembers many people. I want to be smart and remember people. I want to meet gray mare again.”

Ever was just utterly shocked that anyone wanted to be like zir. “Uh, well, I hope you don’t get what you wish. I am far from being smart, and trust me, you don’t want to remember as much as I do.”

Bonbon tilted her head in confusion.

“Let’s just keep going to the house,” Ever said, not willing to spoil the hopes of earth pony with any nasty details from zir life.

She smiled again and guided Ever left. This time the horsefly noticed it and facehoofed.

“Bonbon, are we going around in circles?” ze asked.

“Yes!” This cause zir to double facehoof.

“Bonbon, have we been going around in circles for the last forty minutes?”

The earth pony calculated it for a bit, not quite sure. She didn’t know the answer, she still answered. “Yes!” Ever face-planted into the ground with zir rear hooves up in the air.

“Bonbon, have we been going around the house I am supposed to go to in order to turn in this form?” Ever said, waving the pink slip with one zir rear hooves.

Bonbon hopped as she knew the answer to this question. “Yes, yes.”

As the horsefly mourned the death of all rationality and the mare celebrated her ability to understand things, something flew through the air. Next followed the sound of something smashing a window.

Bonbon paused in her merrymaking. “What was that?” she asked, her ears swivelling to find the source.

“I don’t care anymore,” Ever rolled in the dirt.

“I want to find out,” the ever curious pony revealed. She picked up the self-loathing horsefly with her mighty earth pony strength and carried zir on her shoulder to the Apple family house from whence the crashing sound had come.

“I’d be a pony pickin’ corn, the girl finally caught that bug after forty minutes of chasing it! Oh, Big Mac, stop complainin’ about the damaged window. Come and look at the bug this mare’s caught. It's a real big, ugly yeller one!” said a voice of a pony with the wisdom of the Road of Generations.

Author's Note

When discussing the finished chapter with one of my editors, I said something which you guys might find interesting: "I am glad you notice that [the dialogue] was not futile for Bonbon. Some people see circles, others see lines. I wish Ei Rikr could see...that Bonbon got more practice going right instead of wrong....er left."

Trivia:
I really expected more splash from this chapter. Apparently, it is just 'good'. Will I ever be able to top the ending from Magic Envy?

I had the hoofedness is like gender dialogue planned a month ago and it was not until now that I decided who would be involved in it and in what context.

The Allegory of the Cave reference came about by accident really. I noticed that I said something vaguely like Plato's concept of the soul, which I use personality here, and then transformed it into a very detailed translation of it for gender.

I felt that Ei Rikr was a bit out of character here, but I looked back to my original portrayal of zir in the first arc and saw that ze is quite a goof ball. All this doom and gloom made me forget that.

While this is ultimately a tragedy, I will make much use of comic relief when I am merely fleshing out characters. There is definitely darkness playing around the edges of this dialogue so that it wont be completely out of nowhere when it developed completely.

I will probably move some of my chapters around so that there isn't so much distance between the first part of a sub-arc and the end of it.

Of Livestock and Pets 3.6: A Ditch in Time (Edited)

Author: Knowledge

Main Editor: waterpear

Editor/Proof-reader: Rewrite

Bonbon carried the philosopher into the Apple Family’s living room as Granny Smith and Big MacIntosh watched in awe.

“Loud sound?” Bonbon inquired, spinning around quickly looking for anything eye-catching. All she found was an old mare and her son staring at the horsefly, who was taking the spinning very graciously despite it causing various objects to fall out of zir saddlebags.

“Forget that, gal. We got a bug to smash!” the grandmother exclaimed. “Big Mac, get meh my fly swatter!”

Big Mac ran into the kitchen and returned with a large novelty fly swatter. Taking the tool of death and carnage, Granny Smith slowly made her way to Bonbon, who was inspecting every corner of the house from her position in the entrance of the room. Upon reaching the curious learner, the grandmother started swatting Ei Rikr mercilessly, but the tool was ineffective. Bonbon’s constant shifting of Ei Rikr from side to side was doing more damage than the fly swatter.

This was the point of no return. The last five minutes had caused Ei Rikr to fall so deep into despair from the lack of rationality in the world that nothing could bring zir back...except for:

“Big Mac, we need to take extreme measures! Get meh my fly mallet!” Granny commanded, donning her soldier helmet.

The large red stallion again vanished into the kitchen again and in an instant returned with a wooden potato mashing mallet.

Granny Smith took the mallet in hoof and prepared to strike. The horsefly pulled and pushed at Bonbon’s hooves. Having failed to break Bonbon’s iron earth pony grip, Ei Rikr flailed manically “Stop, stop. Don’t kill me!”

“Ah won’t be tricked by your tricks!” Granny Smith roared with the mallet coming down in all its death inducing terror.

“Bonbon move!” the philosopher cried. There was only one other option open to zir if Bonbon didn’t react and that was to phase into flames. The problem was that this would cause Bonbon to receive terrible burns.

“Huh?” Bonbon said, turning around to see what Ei Rikr wanted. This didn’t help Bonbon see who was talking to zir as she was carrying Ei Rikr on zir back, but it did switch who was in line to be smacked by the hammer.

“Eee–Nooo!” Big Mac cried, adding to loudness and confusion of the already immensely chaotic situation.

Granny Smith closed her eyes in strain as she pulled up on the mallet, trying to stop its deadly but surprisingly slow descent upon the unsuspecting newly genderless-identifying pony.

“Huh?” Bonbon asked, turning to Big Mac and putting Ei Rikr back into the path of doom, crushy, smashy doom.

Ei Rikr felt that ze now understood how Zecora must have felt when the hydra was descending upon her with the intent to gobble her up whole yesterday morning.

“Bonbon, tell Sophia I am sorry!” Ei Rikr shouted, accepting zir doom. Ze felt the wooden spikes of the mallet as they made contact with zir chitin. Then there was nothing...

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

...nothing to worry about, because Big Mac had come to help Granny Smith and had successfully stopped the mallet before it crushed the poor, not entirely helpless horsefly.

“Now, Bonbon, if yah would be so kind to drop that there bug so we could crush it without another heart-attack inducing incident?” the matriarch asked politely.

Bonbon thought about this for a moment before grasping the horsefly tighter, since she didn’t want Ei Rikr to be crushed.

Becoming more constricted, Ei Rikr struggled to speak. “I am...not here...to...HURT… I...was sent...TO...WORK!”

“Oh, why didn’t yah say so?” Granny Smith asked, tossing the mallet haphazardly. Big Mac had to gallop to catch it. Upon doing so, he returned it to the kitchen.

“Bon...bon...would...you...let…me!” Ei Rikr demanded, happy that ze didn’t need to breathe in order to live, only to mimic speech.

Bonbon thought about this. She completed her thought by spinning around three times on her rearhooves, and placing the philosopher down on the ground like a danseur with his ballerina partner. The Apples clapped their hooves on the wooden floor in applause.

“Why do you even have a death mallet?” the philosopher inquired, exasperated.

“Have yah seen those flies and blood suckers we get in summer? They’re huge! If anything, Barnyard Bargain’s death mallets ain’t big enough!” the matriarch resolutely replied to the foalish question. Ei Rikr knew about the constant battle equines had with bugs. One of the major functions of their tails was to ward off the small annoying insects. That mallet, however, was just absurd, and the horsefly had to accept that things just didn’t work like they did in the Southern hemisphere.

“Ahem, why were yah so late?” Granny asked Ei Rikr, immediately getting back to business. She went to her rocking chair while her son, standing behind her, poured her a glass of apple juice.

“I accidently took a detour. I am sincerely sorry for that. I will make up any work I have missed,” Ei Rikr replied while taking zir time to pick up the objects that had fell out of zir saddlebags.

Granny looked the horsefly right in the eyes. “Look me in the eyes when yah talk to me, young’in.” The grandmother felt Ei Rikr was being sincere and very polite, but she couldn’t stand the dishonest mannerism.

Ei Rikr flapped zir wings slowly in a sigh. “I am sorry, Mrs. Smith, but I lack the ability to make eye contact.”

“Why not?” the matriarch asked with a mixture of suspicion and curiosity.

“Ze’s blind!” Bonbon answered for her friend.

“What does she mean by that?” Granny Smith inquired, confused.

“Not she, zzzzeeee!” Bonbon said. This confused everyone but Ei Rikr, who more surprised than confused.

“Ahem, what Bonbon is trying to say and what I was alluding to is that I am blind, there cannot easily make eye contact. Also, Bonbon prefers the ‘ze’ pronoun instead of ‘she’ now, which is a long story,” Ei Rikr replied.

Bonbon smiled and merely added a ‘Yes.’

Granny Smith squinted at the two young’ins before her. Big Mac stood behind her, trying best to add to the intimidation. Bonbon started to rethink her outbursts and moved closer to her only friend she had right now, wishing that the matriarch would stop looking so mean at her.

Suddenly, the grandmother broke out in a smile. “Ain’t she the most adorable mare you ever darn seen? Don’t you think so, Big Mac?”

“Eeee…,” Big Mac started to say before he was at a loss for the other half of his characteristic binary response.

Bonbon tilted zir head to the right. “No?” she inquired of the big stallion.

Big Mac had finally had enough and run out of the house to find some hard work to avoid thinking about awkward things.

Granny Smith’s smile increased tenfold. “Woohee, look at that boy run. Strong and fast, what do you think, Bonbon?”

Bonbon tilted zir heard to the left. “Yes?” ze half-asked and half-stated, unsure as to what was being asked of zir.

This caused Granny Smith to laugh heartily. “Ah knew it when I first laid eyes upon yah that Big Mac and yah were meant for each other. Ah wonder what it would be like for you two to have a little talk.”

Ei Rikr was actually curious how Bonbon would act when ze was talking to someone other than Ei Rikr, but the horsefly was not about to force zir new friend into any situation where ze would be uncomfortable.

“So why are yah here, Bonbon? Our delicious apples, perhaps? Maybe a pie? Or how about a nice stallion husband?” the granny said while winking on the last suggestion.

Ei Rikr was about to say something, but Bonbon answered the question.

“We heard sound. Like ‘brtssh.’ Explain, please,” Bonbon replied.

The grandmother blinked. “Oh, you mean that!” Granny Smith slowly eased out of her rocking chair and then lead them upstairs. There they entered a childs room. It had a twin bed with pink sheets and a pink canopy, a pile of newspapers in the corner for some reason, a blue cabinet, and a gothic-style window with blue curtains. The window was also broken, and the object that broke it lay in the middle of the floor.

Bonbon rushed to the mysterious object and picked it up with her mouth. “Mha mis?” she asked, and it wasn’t hard to guess what she had asked.

“Ah don’t know. Ah was hoping’ yah or the animal yah got there might know,” the matriarch said.

“Let me inspect it, Bonbon,” Ei Rikr asked. Zir friend thought for a second before complying, which meant she spit the object directly at the poor horsefly. Ei Rikr did not get hurt, but ze reacted as it ze had been. “Wow Bonbon, if I am not careful, you will be the death of me.”

“Stop complainin’. Yah didn’t git hurt, and yah know it. So what is it?” the grandmother asked.

Ei Rikr lifted the object with zir magic, using it to sense out the shape and mass of it. “I didn’t know ponies played discus. My daughter will be, um, interested to play with you. She’s really good at the game.”

“What object, Ever?” Bonbon asked still very confused.

“Oh, pardon me. This here-” Ever whirled the object for emphasis. “-is a discus. This one is made out of magically hardened clay, and is lighter than normal to be used by children. You throw it as part of a sport.”

“Ah never heard of the sport. Yah saying somepony threw this ‘diss-cuss’ into our house as some kind of sport?” Granny Smith asked.

“You don’t play discus?” Ei Rikr took a second to put two and two together. “I think I know who made this discus then.” Before either the matriarch or the curious learner could ask a question, the horsefly pre-emptively answered. “I think it was my daughter playing her favorite sport. She must have gotten carried away and used her magic. You have no idea how many things she has thrown around with her magic. Well, I doubt she intended it to go through your window, but I am willing to fix it.”

Granny Smith’s opinion of the horsefly rose after hearing that ze had a daughter and her immediate desire, upon learning that zir family member had wronged someone of another family, was to strive prevent potential conflict between families.

“Oh, no need, youngin’. Yah said yer foal did it playing. Ah understand. My grandfoal can’t go a day without breakin’ somethin’. Anywho, yah got to git to work.”

Ei Rikr gave Bonbon the discus because ze was still curious about it, and then as a group, they went downstairs and out the front door.

Once outside, Granny Smith inspected the pink worker voucher. “Says here yer name is Ever Ruler, strange name, but yah are an animal. A boy? And here I thought yah were a ladybug. Also says yah are an horsefly and have no talents. What it forgot to mention was that yah were as ugly a mule.”

That final statement caught Ei Rikr completely off-guard, when suddenly a mule appeared from just outside of zir peripheral vision.

“Ahem, no offense, Meuler,” the grandmother immediately amended.

“None taken. So Miss Smith is this the new worker?” the mule asked. Ei Rikr had the irrational suspicion that the only reason the grandmother had used a speciest slur was that it caused the mule to appear like magic.

“Yep. He’s talentless, so put him in irrigation with the pigs for now.”

Ei Rikr vibrated zir wings in steady but powerful flaps, trying to keep calm after being insulted so much.

“Well, follow me. Ah will show yah to the animals yah will be workin’ with. If yah had come earlier, Ah would have shown yah the farm, but that will have to wait for another day. Ah am sure the other animals will have questions about yah. Not often they see a talentless,” Meuler said.

Ei Rikr followed closely behind Meuler, lest ze get lost. Bonbon noticed they were moving and joined them, carrying the clay discus in zir mouth all the while. Meuler was surprised by the development.

“Uh Miss, may Ah ask yer name?” Meuler inquired politely as they passed the barn where the cows and chickens lived.

Bonbon attempted to talk through the discus again with equally incoherent results. Noticing this, ze prepared to spit it out by rearing back a bit.

Bonbon stamped the ground with her forehooves and ejected the dirty disk in violent percision towards a poor horsefly migrant. This time ze was prepared. Ei Rikr tilted zir barrel towards the ground while pushing zir saddlebags open and deftly caught the sporting projectile.

Bonbon clapped her hooves at the show before turning to the mule in order to answer his question. “My name is Bonbon. Your name is Meuler? Correct?”

“Yes, Miss Bonbon, my name is Meuler.”

The curious learner frowned. “Not ‘miss’, only Bonbon.”

Meuler’s face became a bit taunt in response to what ze had said. “Ah can’t call yah just by yer name. It ain’t proper, Miss.” Bonbon snorted at this.

They started walking by corn fields, where the sheep were harvesting. It was convenient for them, as their pen where they slept, ate, were sheared, and did their other business was adjacent to the yellow grain.

“So Miss Bonbon, why are yah following us to the irrigation canals?” Meuler asked nervously.

“I am curious. Explain irrigation ditches please,” Bonbon commanded.

Meuler relaxed his expression considerably. “Yes, Miss Bonbon. Yah see those crops,” Meuler pointed to the corn fields. “Those crops need water. The ponies in the village normally water their gardens with watering cans and hoses, but we are a farm, obviously, so we can’t just water every plant individually. We also need a lot more water, so we use rivers. By digging ditches from the rivers and using dams, which we call irrigation canals, we can control where the water goes and lead it through our plots. By laying down perforated tubes of metal, water from the irrigation canals can be dispersed through the soil evenly.”

Bonbon hummed as she listened. “I would like to see. You are digging now?”

“Miss Bonbon, if by ‘you,’ yah mean the animals, then, yes, we are digging now, and it would be mah pleasure, Miss Bonbon, to show yah the crops that the animals work on,” Meuler replied, taking a deep bow each time he said zir name.

Ei Rikr did zir best to ignore how ze was being ignored. Ze did not come to this country to get involved with political and social issues. Ze had enough of those things and just wanted timeless, universal kinds of philosophical thoughts.

At this point, they had gotten past all the current crop fields and reached the new areas where pigs and local beavers were working on the irrigation. There were donkeys and mules overseeing groups of ten to twenty-five ‘animals’ each. They did this by standing by a cart of tools and basically walking back and forth. If there was a problem, they would jump into the ditch and solve it. For instance if a pig found a particularly large rock, the mule or donkey would come in to help.

The reached the edge of the developed property of the farm, and Bonbon could see only five pigs working there.

“So Miss Bonbon, this is here is an irrigation canal. This one’s just getting started, but we plan to get it all the way to the other side before we connect it to where other animals are working in our direction. We don’t got many people in my team ‘cause Ah am the head mule around here. Ah tell the other equines where to have their teams dig so that all of their canals go through important points. It requires a special eye like mine to see where those points are ‘cause the land is more irregular here than in the apple orchard.”

The curious learner surveyed the land before her, seeing some of these lines, but not the ‘important points’ Meuler was referring to.

“Excuse me Miss Bonbon while I talk to this animal,” Meuler said before addressing Ei Rikr. “So listen to me. I am your boss, and you do whatever I say unless an Apple or any other pony tells you differently. You see that cart over there?” He pointed to a cart full of shovels, ropes, and water jugs. “You are to get one of those shovels and work with him.” Meuler pointed to a rather large pig with splotches of brown pigmentation along his back.

Ei Rikr compiled without complaint.
In the past, Ei Rikr would have started a dialogue about oppression, but at this point ze just didn’t want to introduce such a radical concept to a people who might take offense to it.

Bonbon followed behind, and when Ei Rikr took a shovel and entered the ditch, ze did as well. Meuler’s face became stretched back with a forced expression again, but he wasn’t the only one upset by this. The animals who had been neglecting their work to watch this unusual exchange had become very territorial about having an earth pony join them. The philosophical foreigner could not but feel their angry gaze on zir yellow back.

“Miss Bonbon, that isn’t the place for ponies like you. If you want to work on the farm, there is the apple orchard on the other side. I am sure Applejack will be happy to have you help.” The curious learner ignored him and started to help Ei Rikr find a place to dig. For some reason, this farming earth stuff made intuitive sense to zir. “Oh, why are you acting like an old mare who can barely remembered what happened to her yesterday?” Meuler waited for half a second before adding, “No offense.”

Ei Rikr twitched as ze had a sinking feeling of what was going to happen next.

“None taken,” came the voice that knew of the Road of Generations, a road which spanned Equestria and beyond.

The horsefly flapped zir wings very slowly as ze decided to drop the load of dirt from zir shovel before shoveling it up again as a form of silent protest. Bonbon made a curious look at zir digging partner.

“Its refreshing seeing a young pony getting in the dirt again,” Granny Smith began. “In my day, we earth ponies did all the irrigation. Ah had to carry them boulders around the farm for my dad, and not once did Ah complain that it was animal work because it wasn’t animal work, it was pony work back then. Yah youngin’s could learn a thing or two from an ol’ fashioned gal like Bonbon, so Ah don’t want to hear any of yah complainin’ about what she can and cannot do.”

Meuler’s face became so stretched with stress that Bonbon though it would peel off.

“Oh, and Bonbon, Ah insist yah join us for dinner. Meuler will be happy to show yah the way when yah are done out here.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Meuler replied in complete obedience to his pony boss. With that, Granny Smith moseyed back to the house very slowly.

Bonbon and Ei Rikr continued to work without interruption, but that didn’t keep the pigs from talking amongst themselves. The one right next to Ei Rikr with the brown splotch on his back, however, was quite different. He seemed to be smirking broadly.

The philosopher shoveled rapidly, unsure what pace was appropriate.

“Woah there, new guy. Yer gettin’ the dirt everywhere,” Meuler shouted. He was about to go into the ditch to help but Bonbon was already helping.

Bonbon put zir shovel down so ze could guide Ei Rikr’s hooves. Together they lifted the dirt and put it into a medium pile behind the pig next to them. “Here,” the curious teacher said, making Ei Rikr pat the dirt with zir shovel.

“Thank, Bonbon, I am glad to have you with me.”

Everyone watching the couple were completely scandalized by the public display of closeness between a pony and an ‘animal.’ It was not normal for a farm animal to touch ponies, except during pony holidays like the Sisterhooves Social for the ceremonial petting zoo.

The pig started laughing heartily. “What’s with you two? I have never have expect an undisguised horsefly to be here, and I haven’t seen a pony work directly with an ‘animal’ in years. By the way, the name’s Bacon, Franks Bacon.”

‘Horsefly’ got Ei Rikr’s attention. “And my name is Ever Ruler. You know what my species is called?”

The pig laughed again. “Oh, Ever, you know what they say about knowledge?”

“Uh, I don’t. What do they say about knowledge?”

The pig just shook his large head as he shoveled a heavy mixture of stone and dirt over his shoulder into the pile behind him. “Just forget I asked.” Then Franks adopted a very soft tone. “Hey, what do yah think of ponies?”

Ei Rikr tensed. Adopting an equally hushed tone, ze replied. “I am not comfortable talking about a people I only encountered yesterday as if I understand them.”

Franks chewed on his inner cheek a bit before replying. “I understand.” Franks looked behind him to see if Meuler was watching them. “Marks and Angles-” He indicated the two pigs in their respective ditches with the butt of his shovel. “-and I are having our kind gather in the barn tonight. Why don’t you join us? I think you would find some of us with whom you would enjoy to share your opinions, openly, and we could really learn a lot from an ancient outsider like you.”

Meuler then noticed they were talking more than working and shouted at them. Ei Rikr just went back to work, and contemplated how Franks had known so much of zir when no one else here did. Ze decided ze would go to this barn meeting to find out more and see if any of them might oblige zir in philosophy.

Bonbon and Ei Rikr worked for the next two hours, and every once and awhile they would run into a large stone or Ei Rikr would not know what to do and Bonbon would help out. She had the strength to remove the stones, relieving Meuler of much of his job, and she was observant enough to spot what Ei Rikr was doing wrong and correct it. Meuler, in response, got the two their own water canteens. Ei Rikr just took zir water canteen and strapped it to zir saddlebags.

Eventually it was time for a break, and the pigs made mud through their magical talent to pull groundwater from the soil and bring it to the surface. They used this mud to cool themselves off. Bonbon and Ei Rikr left the ditch to look at their progress. In the last three hours, the seven digging had gotten twelve meters of dirt removed for the canal. It helped that Ei Rikr had used zir body mass to fuel zir digging, because that allowed zir to dig at a constant, aggressive pace. This did mean that ze would have to recuperate that lost energy later in a feeding. The holes in zir legs were already the size of bits.

Bonbon took this time to drink and ask questions. “Why does Ei Rikr not drink?” She pushed her already half-empty water canteen at the philosopher for emphasis.

“I don’t need water. I am a being without the distractions of hunger, thirst, or lust.”

“Why do you have water then?” the curious learner asked nudging the canteen Ei Rikr had tied to zir saddlebags.

“Bonbon, why don’t you try telling some of our co-workers about things we have talked about. I find it useful to explain things to others in order to improve my understanding of them.” Ei Rikr indicated the pigs behind Bonbon so ze would have no problem understanding zir.

Ze nodded enthusiastically and paired up with a mud covered pig who wasn’t Franks. She opened with “Gender is like hooves!” and just started repeating as verbatim as possible the talk they had the previous day.

Another pig took this opportunity to ask Ei Rikr some questions. “My name’s Ovens. Pam Ovens,” she introduced herself. “I had a question, which is: why are you two together like that? Are you her pet or something?”

“Pet? I am sorry. I am new here and don’t know this country’s customs. What is a pet?” Ei Rikr asked.

Pam smiled before frowning. “What are pets? They are like us-” She pointed between the two of them as if there was some obvious commonality. “-but they don’t have to do any work. All they do is play. Pets get nice pony food which the ponies make for them. And they get this because they cannot speak Equestrian. It isn’t fair. I tell you.”

Ei Rikr absorbed this. “Why do you think I am Bonbon’s pet then? Ze clearly isn’t working for me or feeding me. Well, ze hasn’t ever fed me yet.”

Pam squinted at the philosopher.

Ze shrugged. “What can I say, I am a species that has to be fed by another person because we are parasitic. If Bonbon decided she will feed me, then I will not deny her. I already have holes in my hooves that need to be filled.”

“The reason why I think that pony is your owner is because you two are so chummy,” she explained.

“You know I only met zir today, and after a long chat, I think we just kind of bonded.”

“Bonbon bonded with you? That just how they make us pets. They go out and bond with our kind, and we have to give up our pride and joy.” Pam indicated the canal.

“Well, I don’t think of myself as a pet,” Ei Rikr responded.

“Doesn’t matter. It’s their choice, not yours. If you want to stop it, you better make some connections and fast. I hear there is a group in Neighara Falls who’s secretly helping out our kind.” Pam then seem to realize something. “Wait a minute. You are one of them, aren’t you. No wonder you just come here all of a sudden and don’t care if a pony has claimed you or not. Can you let me join? I got family in Trottingham I want to meet again.” Her eyes became so full of hope.

Ei Rikr was just plain uncomfortable at this point, so ze found the nearest object and tried to turn it into a philosophical distraction. Finding nothing particularly interesting around zir, ze remembered the stuff in zir saddlebags. After opening it, ze had to push around many things like gold doubloons, Spike’s portrait of Rarity, and Soap N. Hower’s book of clean but absolutely pessimistic essays. Ze finally found the discus which had somehow found its way to the bottom.

“See this,” Ei Rikr introduced the discus. Pam’s eyes just exploded with wonder. “Imagine that this is not a discus but a tiny particle called an atom. Now imagine yourself made out of these particles. That your shovel is made out of these particles. They are just so small you cannot see them. There are about ten times ten to the twenty-seventh power, that is followed by twenty-seven zeros atoms in your entire body to give you perspective.”

Pam blinked but tried to figure out what secret was hidden in the philosopher’s words. She didn’t know math, for that was not taught to non-equines, so she had no idea what Ei Rikr meant.

“Now there are even smaller particles called electrons which just orbit around this-” Ei Rikr indicated the discus while creating little green flames with zir horn. “-not too unlike our sun and moon.” The green flames started to rapidly move around discus in elliptical orbits, leaving little trails of afterglow.

“Now imagine I place this discus in the middle of an island which is ten kilometers wide. The range between the discus and the coastline is, if I remember correctly, the same relative distance between an atom its electrons.” The little flames started to move further and further away from the discus and faded into nothingness to exaggerate the distance they traveled away without having to maintain the spell.

At this point, Pam’s eyes had started to glaze over.

“If you think about it, that is all empty space between the center of the atom and its electrons and that means we are actually mostly empty space. It should really surprise us that when I try to pick up this discus that my hoof doesn’t just phase right through it because the chances is that I am only going to have a tiny fraction of the particles actually hit each other. Isn’t that neat?”

Pam frowned deeply. “Well, if you are not going to tell me anything about your secret organization, then fine. You don’t have to spout gibberish at me to let me know you want to be left alone.”

Ei Rikr dropped the discus onto the ground. It landed on a stone and cracked into two halves. Ei Rikr saw that the pig was speaking very slowly and patronizingly to Bonbon, who had just attempted to repeat what the philosopher had talked to her about earlier that day.

“I don’t know what happened to your head, but just look between your legs if you forget what gender you are,” the pig advised the pony. With that, the pig went back to mud bathing, ignoring the hurt look of Bonbon.

The stone then crumbled into the tiniest pieces; just the right atom of the discus had landed on just the right atom of the stone to completely compromise the structural integrity of the latter.

“Back to work!” Meuler shouted and all the animals stopped laying in the mud or whatever they were doing and took up their shovels again.

“Bonbon, I am going to go back to work. If you want, you can join me again, but you don’t have to,” Ei Rikr said to the sad pony, trying to comfort zir.

She looked at Ei Rikr sternly. “I want to learn more. I want to explain more.”

The horsefly offered zir dirty hoof to Bonbon. Ze tentatively took it. Ei Rikr then pulled her into an embrace. “Peace, sibling. You have not made a mistake. Learn with me and we shall overcome this difficult time in our lives.” Ze held the pony there for a few seconds before receiving an embrace back which was strong enough to prevent the horsefly from talking back.

“Come on you pet, get back to work,” the mule commanded them in a moderate tone. Aside from the pony doing ditch digging, Meuler didn’t really mind what the two did, being more concerned with keeping his stern image up. Weirder things happened on this farm on a weekly basis, after all.

The other workers, on the other hoof, did mind. It was going to be a long evening of shoveling dirt with all the gossip going on around the two.

Author's Note

Author Trivia:

Both of my editors liked the pun for Francis Bacon, who was very inspirational to me when I studied the early modern period of philosophy. I can only hope to do my research and do him justice.

Pam Ovens was not a philosophy reference. When I grew up, I loved the Louis Sachor's Sideways Stories from Wayside School, so I had the idea to use idea of the Eric Ovens, Eric Bacon, and Eric Fry joke from his book to name three pigs. Thus after Franks Bacon, I made Pam Ovens. I never got around to putting in Porkin Fries, which would have been the pig Bonbon talked to.

Marks and Angles are of course Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, the writers of the Communist Manifesto.

Meuler is a reference to Euler, which gives you an idea of how he calculates where canals ought to be.

Originally the opening sequence in this story was even more zanny than it already is. The wooden potato mallet for instance was originally a giant novelty mallets complemented by metal death spikes.

This chapter was written in two days and edited in a week to give you perspective.

Of Livestock and Pets 3.7: Patience (Edited)

Author: Knowledge

Main Editor: waterpear

Editor/Proof-reader: Rewrite

The midday sunlight shone through the windows of the unicorn level of Ponyville Town Hall as Lyra Heartstrings sat at her desk, organizing it. In particular, she was making sure that her name plate was sufficiently eye-catching and readable to anypony who entered the Representative of the Magistrate of Magic and Science’s (MMS) office without occupying the spot for interdepartmental reports. While she had a unicorn’s skill at organizing things, Lyra only spent so much time making things visibly perfect because Evening Glimmer’s happiness was directly proportional to how orderly her “home away from home” (aka the office) was.

Earlier that day, Lyra and Evening had discussed the essentials of yesterday’s events, since Lyra hadn’t had the opportunity last night. The Representative had taken the news—that nopony except Twilight Sparkle knew what happened yesterday—calmly. Then, Lyra wrote her detailed report of everything that had happened and of what she had learned about the changeling while Evening read the intradepartmental reports. Evening was taking her time reading, so Lyra had just started ultra-perfecting her desk space. Cancer, the gifted unicorn’s crab familiar, read fashion magazines and snipped out coupons for Barnyard Bargains.

Now, Evening Glimmer was reading the reports from the Neighara Falls branch, which had just discovered that several documents were missing, and possibly even stolen.

“Have they gotten any leads on what happened to their files?” Lyra asked. A week ago, some files had mysteriously gone missing in Neighara Falls. The local representative of the magistrate only noticed because she had a talent in measuring things, and the filing cabinet was just not the same.

“They still only know that they belong to the pegasi in the region, which isn’t telling us much,” Evening Glimmer replied. Pegasi did many jobs in Neighara Falls, ranging from managing water production for southern Equestria to collecting codfish oil from the many fisheries in the region.

“Virtuosos or Troublemaker files?” Lyra asked as she cleared her desk of any last remnants of clutter.

“I don’t see any mention of the file type in the reports. Why don’t you take a look, Assistant Heartstrings?” Evening Glimmer asked while hoofing the reports that she had just finished reading to Cancer. He waddled across the sunlight-lit office space to the clean and well-dressed Lyra, who took the reports up in her magic to immediately skim through.

After a minute, the assistant felt she had had enough. “This is just another example of a local MMS office trying to save face. First, there are almost no details about what files were stolen aside from what you mentioned. Second, most of this is a retelling of how they did their jobs according to protocol all day,” Lyra deduced.

“It is a shame that there is corruption this high up in Equestrian government. We gifted unicorns should be held to a higher standard. If I were in charge of the magistracy, I wouldn’t tolerate any of this coverup business,” Evening proclaimed proudly. Then she started to think. “You told me that you are certain the ‘incident’ yesterday was caused by a changeling.”

“Yes, I am almost certain. I was able to deduce it from talking to a strange filly who I had encountered. Later, I discovered that she was cursed by that very changeling to only speak in writing and to believe that the changeling was her parent. If you read the detailed description of changeling magic from the Royal Wedding Reports, the mental magic used fits perfectly,” Lyra replied confidently. She hoofed Cancer the reports on changeling magic.

Evening Glimmer read through them earnestly while the others waited. During the first ten minutes of waiting, Lyra practiced tying and retying her red tie, and Cancer read about the new dresses coming out of Prance which all the Manehattanite nouveau riche earth ponies were wearing. After that, Lyra went out to get sandwiches for Evening, Cancer, and herself.

Every day, when Lyra was waiting for Evening to finish reading and give her her orders from Magistrate Prince Dusk Shine, Lyra would eventually run out of things to do and start reading the tabloids with the crab familiar. While they all ate their sandwiches, Lyra joined Cancer on the floor in reading the worst of pony media on the best of ponies. Lyra enjoyed it because these were ponies she knew about in Canterlot but never had the right to meet due to her mediocre rank. Cancer just needed the vapid distraction between marathons of reading the dry and serious reports from the MMS.

Recently in the news, it became known that Fancy Pants, the most important ungifted unicorn in Canterlot, encouraged his traders in the northern lakes region to marry buffalo (after the custom of the country). The buffalo would gather valuable fur dye, and in exchange for common pony things like cast iron pots for soup. The traders would bring this fur dye to Equestria and sell it for profit. Currently, the most valuable fur dye was gray, and even in Ponyville, occasionally a pony attempting to look more dignified would dye his or her mane.

According to the tabloids, Fancy Pants had a harem of beautiful buffalo females. Every time he leaves to check on his Prench traders, so the tabloids said, he seduces his many buffalo brides with songs of his adventures upon his big airship (read other tabloid articles for those adventures). Upon seduction, he recommits his vows with his exotic wives and takes them to the fancy Prench restaurant on his airship for expensive cider. The biggest concern for the tabloid wasn’t the polygamy, though, but that Fleur de Lis knows about it, and that explained why she was seen shopping by herself yesterday, instead of doing her duty of making Fancy Pants look good by posing around him as a trophy.

Now, Lyra would never ever spread what she read about in the tabloids with other ponies. It just wasn’t right to talk about one's betters like that, as the unicorn would often say. She would just keep the juicy rumors to herself when she passed by those fancy unicorns during her visits to her family in Canterlot.

“Okay, I am done. Lyra, stop squealing over whatever that is, and let’s finish talking about this changeling,” Evening commanded. Lyra jumped up off of the ground and straightened out her black suit and tie. After her assistant returned to her desk, Evening expressed her thoughts.

“It says here that changelings were seen using green flames in their spells to increase their landing velocity and to teleport ponies into their hive. This would explain the appearance of the green sun. And if a changeling had the power to fool a captain of the Royal Guard—one of our most elite soldiers—then a changeling could make a filly believe anything. For all we know, that filly believes the world is made of cheese.”

The representative nodded as she compared the Canterlot notes with what Lyra had reported to her this morning. “Assistant Heartstrings, I see it here that you said the changeling came into town hall, talked to the mayor, and went to the immigration offices.” Evening put the reports down on her desk and sat far back in her rolly chair to think this through. “I think that both our town hall and Neighara falls were the subject of a changeling attack. The only difference was that what we faced here was a much more poorly orchestrated attack.”

Lyra paled. “Representative Glimmer, not to disagree with you, but weren’t we told not to assume that anything was a changeling without the princes reviewing our evidence first?”

“It’s nearly impossible to get anything with the word “changeling” on it verified by the princes. Assistant Heartstrings, you don’t have to deal with the intradepartmental politics like I do, so you don’t know that the whole point for that stipulation is that the magistracy’s imagination went wild after the Royal Wedding invasion. Every representative with a single problem ended up blaming the changelings. Why? Because changelings had the skills of shapeshifting, sabotage, and manipulation—perfect skills for representatives to displace blame for their mistakes.”

Lyra nodded in understanding. Both she and Evening bemoaned how dysfunctional all the other municipal MMS offices were. The only solace they had was that they lived by higher standards, the kind of standards that would make Celestia proud.

“So are we going to present our evidence to the princes?” Lyra asked confused.

Evening shook her head. “They wouldn’t read it. Anyways, we cannot afford for them to know about the ‘incident’ yesterday.”

Lyra nodded in complete agreement. She knew if Celestia knew about what happened in Ponyville yesterday, Evening Glimmer would probably be sent to the Ponyopticon. If Evening was sent to prison, the MMS would lose one of its most gifted unicorns. If that happened, the magistracy would become weaker. If it became weaker, Equestria would suffer.

Also, Evening wouldn’t be able to ascend like Celestia’s other prized pupils, Twilight Sparkle and Dusk Shine, if she lost all honor.

Still, Lyra had some lingering thoughts about what the changeling was up to yesterday. “Do you think some of our files have been stolen?” Ponyville had some of the most volatile files in the whole MMS, due to the use of cutting-edge, experimental behavioral technology under Prince Dusk Shine’s orders.

Evening shook her head. “No, when I received this report, it came with a command from Prince Dusk Shine that all municipal branches had to recheck all the files. Regardless of the command or not, I would have investigated our security. Before you came in this morning with your report, Cancer and I took out all the files and reorganized them.” The representative pointed to the cabinets the lined all the wall space in their office. “We found nothing amiss. This does not mean files were not stolen from our town hall.”

Lyra was shocked by this. “Representative, what do you mean?”

“Your report says that the changeling, calling itself by a species pseudonym “horsefly,” infiltrated the immigration offices, the hospital, and Twilight’s library all in one day. If the Neighara Falls incident and the Ponyville incident are connected, then we should expect important documents to be missing in both of these locations. Plus, other town halls may have been infiltrated recently as well, but they either haven’t noticed it like we have, or they are not reporting it.” Like we are.

“This leads me to your job today. About the members of Mane 6 you recruited, are you sure they won’t tell anypony about yesterday?” Lyra nodded. Mane 6 was the MMS’s codename for Twilight and the other bearers of the Elements of Harmony. “Prince Dusk Shine sent us a list of ponies who we need to take in. While you do that, I want you to check on Twilight and see if she or her friends have noticed anything suspicious.”

Lyra nodded. The two unicorns gave Cancer all the reports they had left on the desk so that they could be locked up and Lyra received her list of ponies needing help. While Lyra handled her rounds for the MMS, Evening would take care of getting warrants to investigate the hospital and immigration office. They didn’t need to know what was missing at the library because they already knew the changeling had taken Twilight’s magnum opus, Everything You Wanted to Know About Equestria But Were Too Afraid to Ask: A Foreigner’s Guide. If they proved a changeling was responsible, which was only possible by capturing one, they wouldn’t have to hide their mistake.

Lyra skimmed through Prince Dusk Shine’s list of ponies requiring behavioral amending today. One name stuck out to her. “This list includes Bonbon, but how? She couldn’t possibly be a problem after I wiped her mind yesterday.”

Evening Glimmer frowned. “Bonbon has received enough treatment for her to remain a Troublemaker for the rest of her life. Was she doing anything problematic, aside from the normal, that you noticed?”

Lyra shook her head. “Bonbon was getting into gossip, but with two treatments of the Mind Torch yesterday, she is unlikely to be doing anything like that anytime soon. If I torched her any more, it could give her strabismus or completely break her mind.”

Evening considered what her assistant said. “Did you check if there were any additional instructions?”

Lyra blushed and checked the list more thoroughly. “Oh, he just wants me to observe her for at least an hour a day, not rewipe her.”

“See that is why you shouldn’t just skim things. You miss the important details,” Evening lectured.

“I will be more thorough in the future, Representative,” Lyra promptly replied.

Evening started reading through her orders and started confused.

“Does Prince Dusk need you to do some more Blackbox work?” Lyra asked. Normally, the assistant would have left to fulfill her order immediately, but on difficult days like these, she knew Evening would need another pony to listen to her.

Evening rubbed her long violet mane with her hoof, and since it had been pulled back with a pin, this caused her hair to come fall forward. “No, it isn’t anything like that.”

Lyra observed the Representative, knowing better than to interrupt her while she was reading. With each successive rereading of her brief orders, Evening’s mane became more undone by her constant stroking her mane. Had Lyra been an impressionist, the transformation of her boss’s orange face as her violet mane slowly fell over her eyes and along side her muzzle would have made an ideal study of light and shading over time.

“You were wrong,” Evening said letting the orders fall from her magical grip and into Cancer’s waiting claws.

The assistant blinked in confusion. “About the Blackbox or...?”

Even slumped in her chair while her shaking her head, which caused her loose mane to swing. “I have a test from Princess Celestia.”

Lyra blinked again, but then smiled. “This is amazing. It is your chance to become a princess.”

Evening smiled weakly for a moment before shaking her head again. “The Princess’s tests are never walks in a part. Even if she tells you to walk in a park, the fate of Equestria is on the line, so you better take it as if you are going to fight Discord or Nightmare Moon. While success could mean princesshood for me, more often than not, it is merely a step.”

“We both know we tackled some of the hardest problems, and you have gotten so much better. Remember the D-incident last year? That was a mess, but together we handled it. Now look at yesterday. You got the whole town wiped on your own and only missed one pony. This is evidence that you have improved immensely. I believe this test is your last one.”

The Representative revealed her growing smile as she pulled back her mane to look at her her loyal, cheerful, and honest assistant. “You always know how to cheer me up Lyra. You are a great assistant, and I will remember you forever.”

Stained-glass windows in a princess’s court passed through Lyra’s mind as she imagined the literal truth of that statement. “So what does Princess Celestia want you to do?”

Evening kept her smile, even though concern returned to her eyes. “My teacher wants me to cast the Harmony Spell.”

Lyra became confused again, as was the norm when discussing gifted unicorn things. “Why would that be difficult?”

“First, Discord destroyed every copy of the spell three months ago.”

“I just assumed that the fiend only consumed Twilight’s,” Lyra replied.

“You shouldn’t rush to conclusions, my assistant. No, he didn’t just sample a bit of Twilight’s copious Starswirl collection, Discord got rid of every last copy in Equestria, including those in the Royal Archives. I am sure a few library talents fainted when they checked their most ancient of books and found whole pages ripped out in the messiest of fashions.”

Lyra paled, thinking of her own library in her house.

Evening continued. “What is important, however, Nopony could possibly memorize one of the most complicated spells in all of magicdom, so it is up to me, as the premiere scholar of Starswirl the Bearded, to study his most complicated and enigmatic doodles, then derive from those the basic patterns of the unicorn’s thoughts, and finally recreate the reality-shaping poetry known as Starswirl the Bearded’s Harmony Spell, the spell associated with the creation of Equestria as we know it. Normally, I would have to go to Canterlot to do this, but luckily Twilight has an extensive library nearby.”

Lyra leaned her head back and put her left hoof to her chest. “As a history talent, I naturally have an extensive library, Representative. You have no need to use Twilight’s. I know for a fact that she only has a fifth edition collection Starswirl’s Metaharmonics. My collection has third edition scribal recordings which are so ancient, scholars hadn’t even classified these later texts that came after Harmonics as Metaharmonics yet.” Lyra replied adamantly.

Evening rolled her eyes as her assistant so quickly went into a needless defense of her collection. Evening had already concluded that she would go to Twilight’s Library when she had time because it was very close by. If she didn’t find what she needed, then she could check on other options like her assistant’s collection.

When the representative saw that her assistant had stopped, her face became immediatley stern. “Lyra, that is very kind of you, but you know you have a job to do right now. It is getting really late, and I would hate to have to send to put this on your record.”

“Right away!” she yelped. She dashed out of the room.

She had left so quickly that her orders from Dusk Shine flew up into the air and landed in Cancer’s waiting claws. The familiar prepared to put the abandoned forms into the appropriate filing cabinet, but Evening gestured not to.

“No, Cancer, be patient,” Evening said. The crab clicked his free claw in anticipation.

They heard a door slam downstairs.

“A few more moments, my familiar,” Evening calmly said, pinning her hair up again while simultaneously taking out a search warrant request form from a draw.

Three minutes passed and Cancer was about to just start reading magazines again when they heard the entrance door to Town Hall slammed open below them.

“Oh my, that pony is going to hurt somepony rushing in and out of that door.”

Evening was going to say “I told you so”. The reason she didn’t say was not because it was unbecoming of her in her relative maturity. It was actually encouraged among the gifted to have a casual relationship with ones familiar. It helped one feel less alone during the rigorous emotional endurance training during Magical Kindergarten.

The real reason she had said what she said was that a sudden ping of concerned for the earth ponies below her had come from a deep, dark place in her mind. Though she knew this strange place existed and influenced her time to time, in reflection, she would just think over this anomaly in her mental design, not missing it but not noticing it either.

At this point, they could hear Lyra running up the stairs before she opened the door. “Sorry, ha thanks Cancer, ha, now I am off!” The assistant quickly grabbed her orders and ran back down the stairs again.

Cancer looked at Evening, his black eyes peering at her refined owner.

“Or she will kill herself first galloping up and down those stairs. She really needs to learn patience,” Evening replied to her crab life-friend before slowly getting back into the groove of filling out forms.

Of Livestock and Pets 3.8: The Shovel and Metamorphosis (Re-edited)

Author's Note

My editors were very busy this month, so I couldn't get them to finish proofing this chapter. I tried my best, but if you find anything, tell me and and I will endeavor to fix it.

The title is a reference to Franz Kafka's work by the same title in which a person transforms into a bug.

Trigger Warning: Violent Cruelty described in this chapter.

Of Livestock and Pets 3.8: The Shovel and Metamorphosis (Re-edited)

Bon Bon felt great, yet... muddy. All the diggers had been laboring throughout the afternoon, and it was about two hours before dinner time. Working on the land made her focus on herself, externalize herself, create herself.

“Okay, everybody move,” ordered Meuler. After approximately thirty minutes, the front diggers would have cleared enough dirt for the team to move down.

Whatever they did, Bon Bon had to help Ei Rikr situate zirself.

“Right here and... here,” Bon Bon held the philosopher’s forelegs patting where ze would have to dig and placed them on the ground.

“Yah shouldn’t be here,” said Pam Ovens bluntly to Bon Bon as she worked beside her. The pig had said variations of this since their break and it was starting to make Bon Bon curious. The earth pony had remained quiet this long only because Ei Rikr, whom Bon Bon was emulating, remained quiet.

“Why?” asked Bon Bon, lifting an intimidating load of stones and clay on zir shovel. Pam had tried to match the curious learner’s pace, but failed. It did not help that the stubborn pig had been holding the shovel with one hoof right near the end of spade.

Pam took a moment to respond. “It ain’t right, ponies workin’ with animals. That’s why.”

“That isn’t a reason,” Bon Bon inquired further.

This time ze found a large rock and instead of asking for help, ze put zir shoved in the tool like a lever. Unfortunately, ze pulled it with so much force that not only did ze get the stone out of the ground but ze broke the shovel in the process.

“See how useless yah are, breakin’ the Apple family’s tools fa' being rash,” Pam said immediately.

“A person immediately notices the mistakes of others, especially when one is trying to hide one’s own,” remarked the horsefly as if ze were talking to no one. The remark did not go unnoticed by Pam.

“Ah don’t wanna to hear that from some stupid, blind animal who can’t even dig properly without a pony helpin' him.”

Bon Bon felt bad and showed the broken shovel to Ei Rikr, who inspected it with zir magic.

“Yeah, it snapped pretty hard. I don’t have any magic that can fix wood,” ze told Bon Bon after a moment.

Meuler came down to the pair. “That was, um, a good idea, Miss Bon Bon, but Ah think yah should let the animals finish the job. Why don’t you stand up here with me and watch,” he offered.

Bon Bon looked between Meuler, Pam, and Ei Rikr. The mule and the pig wanted zir out of the ditch. The pig in particular didn’t want her around, evidenced by how she stared at zir. Ei Rikr, on the other hoof, remained neutral to the situation.

Bon Bon’s head began to throb, feelings of bright lights and dark loneliness swirling deep inside zir. Ze began to caress zir head and teetered from side-to-side.

“Bon Bon, you have been very kind in helping me around and I would love for you to stay with me, but if you aren’t feeling well, perhaps you should take a break?”

The pony tried to say ze was fine, but ze stumbled to zir knees. Ei Rikr helped the addled earth pony up. As they made their way out of the ditch, everyone watched, continuously shocked by the allowances this new, strange farm animal had with a pony.

“Good riddance,” Pam said under her breath. Meuler, overhearing the comment, glared at the pig.

“That is enough out of yah, dirty animal. Now, if Ah hear yah treating Miss Bon Bon or any pony as anything less than they are, yah can say goodbye to tomorrow’s break. Now yah get apologizin' before we have us here an insubordination against a pony charge,” he reprimanded.

“Yes, sir. Right away. Ah understand my mistake, sir,” Pam said, fear and anger simmering deep in her eyes.

Pulling herself out of the ditch and taking her shovel with her, Pam approached Bon Bon and Ei Rikr. The earth pony laid down in the ditch, nursing zir headache with one hoof and holding the pieces of her snapped shovel in the other.

Pam snorted at the dirty mare before putting on an actually convincingly nice face and tone.

“Ah sorry for being mean, Miss Bon Bon. Ah didn’t mean what Ah said. Ah just didn’t know what Ah was saying because Ah am a dumb animal,” she said. The sarcasm was lost on the pony but Ei Rikr almost doubled over in the thickness of its venom.

“Uh, my head,” Bon Bon cried.

“You need some water. You are probably dehydrated,” Ei Rikr said, taking out zir full water bottle for zir friend to drink.

Bon Bon took a swig but quickly coughed it up as pain in her throbbing temples resurged.

“Bright,” the dirty pony wailed.

“What’s bright? The sun?” Ei Rikr asked.

Meuler became concerned.

“Yah better take her into one of the cabins. It could be heat exhaustion,” the mule said.

“Then keep zir hooves up while we take her to the cabins,” Ei Rikr said.

“Pam and Franks, yah help them go to the barn and show her the shower and a bed. Ei Rikr, since yah know her best, yah watch over Miss Bon Bon. If it gets worse, ask one of the pigs there to get Mrs. Smith. She will make sure she gets better,” the boss commanded.

“Right away, sir,” both pigs said. Franks seemed genuinely pleased at the prospect.

While Franks and Pam started helping Bon Bon move, Ei Rikr took a moment to gather zir saddlebags. Franks noticed that the horsefly had placed a screw in them.

“Where did you get that?” Franks asked Ei Rikr, indicating the piece of metal.

“Oh, I noticed it while I was digging. The clinking of metal against metal is very distinct. I assumed it belonged to someone’s shovel, so I will be keeping it until I can find a match,” the horsefly said.
` Author: Knowledge

Editor/Proof-reader: Rewrite

“That is a good idea. We animals can get in a lot of trouble if we break the farmer’s tools,” the well-mannered pig explained. “We should probably get going.”

The party left the irrigation ditches behind and made way towards the barn sector. Both Pam and Bon Bon held onto their shovels, which made the process much slower.

“Why are you carrying that shovel around?” Bacon asked Pam.

“Ah just didn’t want anyone taking my shovel when we were gone,” she replied.

Bacon looked skeptically at his fellow pig but decided not to push the topic further.

“You come from a very different place, right, Ei Rikr?” Bacon asked.

“Huh, oh, there are some similarities but many more differences,” ze replied, swirling a hoof in the air. “Are you feeling alright, Bon Bon?”

The pony nodded. “Much better. My head hurts only a little.”

“I still think you should rest until we are sure nothing’s wrong,” Ei Rikr responded. Memories of treating zir daughter when she was sick underneath zir actions.

“It will take awhile to get to the barn. Do you think you can stand on your own, Bon Bon,” Franks asked.

Pam gave Franks the same suspicious look he gave her earlier.

“Yes, I think I can,” Bon Bon replied. The people surrounding the curious learner gave zir a little room. While ze did not look great, it was important for zir to stand on her own four legs as a proof of zir health.

Franks smiled at Bon Bon and then at Pam. “Ei Rikr, tell us a little bit about your species. I’m sure most animals and ponies have never seen your kind before.”

“Well, that is not unusual,” the philosopher began. “Most people have never seen my species before, and for good reason. We are called horseflies where I am from because we look like insectoid equines.”

Pam wanted to ask something, but Franks interrupted her. “Where do you come from?”

“Oh, we call it the Southern Continents. It is the land below your Everfree Forest,” ze answered.

“Yah telling me yah came from the other side of that evil forest?” Pam asked.

Ei Rikr flapped zir wings nervously. “Uh yes, but I don’t really say it is evil. I heard that you people think it is evil because it doesn’t have your kind of weather. People from the Southern Continents just associate it with getting lost. Explorers have never been recorded as ever crossing it.”

“It is the same with us,” Franks said. “There must be a lot of countries where you are from.”

“Oh, of course. There is Bufgium, Fetland, Germaney, Mareica, Zebrica, Giraffe Lands, and the Wilds.”

“All these countries have never heard of ponies, I presume?” Franks led.

“Yes and no. We know of ponies but only in legends and ancient manuscripts. We have evidence that they existed in the Southern Continents,” Ei Rikr said in an academic tone.

“How did all those countries manage without ponies to do their weather and such? It must be awful down there,” Pam guessed.

“It wasn’t horrible. It could be bad, and trust me, I have seen the worst people have to offer,” the horsefly answered, zir fangs clinking at a memory. “But we can handle ourselves without ponies. We have for thousands of years, and unless there is world-ending war, we will for the next thousand years.”

“What do yah know of war?” Pam asked incredulous of the pet-like animal before her.

Ei Rikr buzzed angrily. Ze had a long day of being disrespected. “You say that as if I am some pampered know-nothing. I have done every job imaginable, seen a good half of the southern hemisphere. Most importantly, I have been in the middle of war countless times and in my early years, I even participated in several of them.”

Pam was shocked. Ze had never met an animal who ever actually been in a war.

Bacon was intrigued. “We pigs have ancient tales of revolutions,” he said through his smiling lips. “But pony magic wielded by the few has quickly subdued most enemies of the peace for centuries. As a consequence these stories have turned to legend and from legend to fable. Your land to the south is as forgotten to animals as much as the idea of revolution. This makes me curious. What are your thoughts about revolution? Do you think they are ever justified?”

“I think revolution is always justified, but only in that people always justify it. Now, to your question, I think that one thing I can request of anyone thinking of committing to a cause which entails revolution is that they step away from their reasons and try to understand them first before dying for them. I don’t think it is a controversial thing to ask because if you really care about those reasons, wouldn’t that imply that you also care to understand them? I often say that if you do not understand your conviction enough to explain it, then you don’t really have a conviction.”

Ei Rikr turned to Bon Bon. “This is important for you. You cannot just repeat what others say and say you understand.”

Bon Bon stared intently at the horsefly. “Don’t repeat what others say and say ‘you understand.’”

No one could tell if the pony was being serious. Ei Rikr just kept zir wings straight, Franks giggled at the two, and Pam was struggling between her desire to listen to the horsefly and to run as far away from this maddening pony as possible.

Returning to the topic, Ei Rikr began speaking again. “If you still want to revolt after understanding your reasons the point that you can explain them to another, then I won’t stop you.”

Franks looked at Bon Bon and decided to change the topic. “Now you said something interesting earlier. You said that ‘most people have never seen your species, and for good reason.’ Mind explaining that?”

“It is kind of complicated.”

Franks waved it off. “At this pace, we got a lot of time to the barn.”

Bon Bon nodded zir head in agreement, not for what Franks said but rather for the desire to hear more.

“Okay. First, I should clarify that I have never been in a real hive with other horseflies due to my queen dying soon after creating my spark, so I can only speak about why horseflies, as individuals, would hide from other species knowledge. It all starts when an organic person like you guys loves someone else very much…” Ei Rikr started.

“We are not children, yah laut,” Pam interrupted.

The horsefly buzzed with annoyance. “I am not treating you like a child. What I am saying is important. When an organic person loves someone else…”

“What’s a person?” Pam asked interrupting again.

“A person is any being who can trace the history of their lives and continuously find themselves. The important thing about persons is that with their self-awareness, every person, you and I included, can decide to change who they are because our identities are not tied to any particular form we take. For instance, you today are an unpaid laborer on a farm. As a person, if you step away from your situation and really look at yourself, you could decide that tomorrow you want to be someone else. If anyone told you no, like a pony farmer, you could always resist, demanding to be recognized for your sovereignty over your own existence.”

Pam stopped walking and took a step back, needing a moment to reflect. Franks stood with her, while Ei Rikr just kept walking. Ze was tired of stopping and starting. Ze just wanted to get somewhere, not go on more tangents. Ze had a plan: inspire thought in people and through that form a new life with zir daughter.

“That is the exact opposite from what the ponies say. They are all about destiny and being who you truly are, which is being a baker or something like that. Are yah sure yah aren’t part of the BH?” Pam asked.

“Oh he isn’t. But ze should be. We could use another horsefly in the organization,” Franks said.

“What is the BH?” Bon Bon asked confused.

“Oh just animal babble. I might explain it to you later when we are friends. Now, Ever, finish telling us about this reason for horseflies hiding from everypony,” Franks replied.

Ei Rikr waited a moment before compiling. “First I should probably clarify some things about my species before I explain how love plays into it.”

Ei Rikr formed a spark at zir shoulder to demonstrate.

“Unlike you organics, horseflies are actually completely made out of green flames. We don’t eat food or anything like that, we have to grow by being given energy from others In this sense, even though you call me an animal, physically you and ponies are more closely related than you are to me.

“Back to what I was saying earlier, when an organic person loves another person a lot, they create a bond in which their natural energies are shared between them. In times of difficulty, one can give the other the strength they need to persevere.

“However, people often form bonds with a possibility. An expectant parent forms a bond with a possibility of a child who hasn’t been born, a teenager with a friend who has disappeared, and an adult with a friend who has died all are are all examples of possibilities horseflies depend on for purpose and life. We horseflies call these possibilities holes, which is inspired by the holes in our horsefly form’s chitin that we are constantly trying to fill with your energy.”

The horsefly indicated the holes on zir hooves while hovering the green flame above one of them. Ze demonstrated zir point by having the green flame descended into the hole in zir hoof, which began to fill it up with shiny new chitin.

“What a horsefly queen does is plant sparks like this green flame in an open space a person has created for some other, and that person will feed that spark into a full-fledged horsefly, shaping it into the form of the person they need. For instance, if you always wanted a sister, a queen could give you the chance. While there is some magic at work initially to help you believe the spark is a sibling, your desire would form it into your piglet sister you imagined.”

“In my case, I was born to two very loving sheep parents and I became the son they always wanted. This process is like a potter shaping clay around a space that will one day be filled with water or wine. The empty space acts as the reason why, or the final cause, as another horsefly Aristrotle called it, the clay becomes a vase just like the hole acts as the reason why the spark becomes a horsefly. But as you can tell I don’t look like a sheep. All horseflies are made of flame, which makes them essentially different from a true organic being.”

Ei Rikr removed the flame from zir hoof again. “This flame is constantly changing, never truly formed, actualized as one thing. It always remains a potentiality.” Ze quickly changed the shape of the flame into various geometric objects like balls and blocks. “One horsefly philosopher once argued that the world was all made out of flame because it was always changing.”

Ze then returned the flame back to zir hoof. “Aristrotle claimed that flame was the closest thing matter. According to him, everything is a mixture of form and matter. Form is the properties and dispositions a thing has. Matter is what has the potential to be formed. A horsefly’s flame may have a green color and a disposition to burn, but it has such extreme potentiality to take on so many forms almost instantly as compared to the matter of other living things which is slowly formed through processes of nutrition and reproduction. Because this flame, horseflies are not bound to the hole our loving parents created.

“When our parents expect their children to leave as a rite of passage, horseflies and biological children must go out in the world and find their place. For organic children this often a joyous time where parents cry happy tears, but for horseflies, this is the time when we become aware that we cannot just be a normal child. We come to learn we are actually horseflies. Like a hermit crab, we shed our old shell by necessity and find a new one, but the first time we will not know we are doing this until some other horsefly explains it to us. If a young horsefly’s parents were good, which is often the case, ze will often turn to them to reveal zir horsefly form underneath the shape zir parents gave zir. It makes sense. If anyone is to be trusted, it is one’s parents. They love zir and always guided zir in the past. Also, it is the least a horsefly can do since chances are the parents will never see their child with the same face again.

“But this meeting hardly ever goes well. The parents immediately believe a monster has replaced their real child. If their culture has stories about us, it is even worse because a single sighting will lead to a horsefly hunt.”

“That is so bad. What happened to you?” Bon Bon asked, pointing at the horsefly with zir shovel head.

“Don’t point with a shovel!” Pam complained. The pig had taken a hoof off of the head of her shovel, and for some reason, the head fell off.

Bon Bon was shocked. Franks just laughed.

“I know you were a fish!” Bon Bon asserted.

“The word is fishy,” Franks explained.

“Ah can explain,” Pam protested.

“I don’t see how, Miss Complains About Everything!” Franks said mockingly.

“Ah don’t want to hear anything from yah, Mr. Fancy Talker from Neighara Falls. If it wasn’t for me, all of the other pigs wouldn’t trusted yah,” Pam retorted.

“Just let me fix it. I knew that screw belonged to someone.” Ei Rikr just picked up the shovel head from the ground and its staff from Pam’s grip with zir magic. Then going through zir pack, ze found the screw ze had found earlier. It had unfortunately scratched the picture of Spike’s beloved Rarity, which made the horsefly swear quietly.

“Bon Bon, I understand wanting to learn more about me. I barely told you anything about me, but I warn you, my story is particularly horrible. Most people have this grandiose idea that I am some saint who never did anything wrong in zir life, who abstained from war and violences, and single-hoofedly invented philosophy. This fiction has inspired some of the greatest minds in the world to overcome their contemporaries’ mindset in order to seek greater understanding of Truth through scholarship and experimentations in living. However, when people hear my real story, they find that nothing was obvious for me, that I committed every crime against reason possible. Even to this day, those who know me best, see in me prejudicial baggage from my formative years in the Central Continent. Bon Bon, this a long story about an idiot. Do you still want to hear it?” Ei Rikr asked.

The horsefly had mixed feelings. As ze had told Locke this morning, that an ancient being like put the past behind zir.

Bon Bon nodded, now even more curious because of zir warning. Ei Rikr could tell that Bon Bon wanted the horsefly to pour out zir memories and fill the reverent silence she had created. Resigned to zir new task, Ei Rikr began to tell zir story while securing the bond between the two parts of the shovel with the screw.

“I remember my parents. On one hoof, there was my father, Lachares, who was a stonemason, who had only seen wealth when there was a need for specially sized stone blocks for some artist and engineer to carve into a fine column.. On the other hoof, there was my mother, Alcestis, who came from an aristocratic family, and she had been raised with the expectations of the finer things in life.

“You might be asking: ‘How did my father, a lowly stonemason, get married to one of richest people in Fleece.’ First, they were part of the same family. My father only came from the poorest branch of it. At the wedding, I was told by my father, the celebration was framed as the noble parents of the family reaching out to its long lost son. That was only half of truth, which leads me to the second reason: my mother was afraid of the outdoors, dirt, insects, being unclean, disease. She was an embarrassment to the family and my grandparents needed to put her somewhere outside of the public sphere and that was with my father who worked near a quarry, and lacked the means to justify a noble’s social posturing.

“What is important about my parents was that they were people who didn’t love each other but still needed each other. My mother need my father so that she had a house to live in and someone to connect her to the outside world. My father needed someone to take care of everything economical in nature and to provide a steady source of revenue, which came from the main family, to bolster his failing occupation as a stonemason. he was only a second generation stonemason afterall. Their lack of love, however, caused my parents to fight each other often, vying for power in the relationship. My mother used her closer connection to the main family, which had ultimate authority, as leverage while my father simply asserted himself as the ram of the house.

“Whoever my queen was, she placed me into a hole my parents had created but probably didn’t even fully comprehend comprehend themselves. My parents hole was that I become an ultimate resolution to the mutual displacement their sham wedding had created. While the fights never went away because of my presence, for I remember them after all, my parents would always end them by ‘teaching’ me who I was supposed to be. My father wanted me to be the great ram he could have become had he the means my mother provided. In other words, if I succeeded, his poverty would not be the fault of his or his father’s lack of virtue but rather a lack of resources. He would be validated as a full noble. My mother told me everyday that I was going to be someone famous and respected, and when that happened, I was going to remind them all of the daughter who was abandoned by her family to a dirty half-noble. These contradictory goals overlapped in me in such a way that it forced them to cooperate just so they could find victory over one another. My parents ironically named me Lysis, which means to separate.”

Ei Rikr punctuated zir last sentence by hoofing Pam back zir shovel now completely functional due to an expertly fastened screw.

“One of the biggest fights my parents had that I remember was that my father had killed our only slave, which was an inheritance from my mother’s branch of the family. I cannot remember the slave’s name, but I remember he was a young plow horse and that I was responsible for making my father release him.

“My father needed the horse to help him carry light loads of tools and bricks up around quarry and to his workstation. At the end of the day, the equine would come home with my father and help my mother with dinner, especially with the more messy parts of the cooking process. When I was only eight, I realized that the slave had more attention from my parents than I did, and the equine was even allowed to do things I wasn’t like cooking and working with tools. Jealous,I broke my father’s tools and hid the evidence in the slave’s cabin. I went out of my way to lead my father away from the slave’s cabin in search for his missing tools. This led him to ask the horse if he knew, which naturally the slave did not know.

“It took a week for my father to finally go to the slave’s cabin. There was the slave, who was desperately trying to fix the tools he had just found. My father had not only beleived the slave had stolen his tools, but also that he broke them and had lied to him earlier. He was so furious, everything the slave said only fueled his hatred. My father took the slave and had me watch because, as he said, ‘Lysis, you’re a ram now.’ My father took the head of the broken hammer and smashed into the horse front foreleg, marking him a thief.

Ei Rikr felt a particular part of his face. “I remember the blood. It hit me in the face here. and stain my father’s coat. Like a child, I didn’t think what would happen. I was terrified, not because I felt I had done wrong, I was too thoughtless for that, but because I had never seen such violence. When my father was done, he released the slave to a life of begging and starvation. Turning to me, he saw my expression. He told me, ‘You are my child. You will have to do that many times over. Not just to horses, to sheep too. Life is violence, and as a ram, you are expected to live. Remember this when you walk into your mother’s house and meet those wolves who banished your grandfather and spat on his grave.’”

Ei Rikr paused to rekindle the flame of ancient memory, ancient lesson.

“My mother just about murdered my father for releasing the slave instead of chastising him. Because the equine was crippled, he was basically useless to my parents, so they couldn’t just bring him back. I pleaded with my mother that things wouldn’t be bad if she just let me help her with chores. My parents weren’t happy, but they let me help, and due to their formative attention during those chores, I gained the strength and skill to replace the horse slave.”

“What’s a slave?” Bon Bon asked resolute to maintain her composure through Ei Rikr’s harrowing childhood tale.

Ei Rikr slowed down to a halt. Ze seemed not even to notice Bon Bon’s question. After several moments of silence, Franks felt he could maneuver the conversation for his benefit.

Franks looked around for equines aside from Bon Bon, who seemed like a pony who could be a friend to the animals. Seeing no other ponies, he took this opportunity to get on his soap box.

“A slave is what you ponies call animals,” he said. “We exist for our equine overlords much like a chisel exists for a carpenter. To weaken us, the ponies separate us from our families and our friends regularly to prevent us from gaining strength from any sense of community distinct from ponykind. To reinforce this dependence on ponies, we must appeal to them for the right communicate to our families, but few animals even try to appeal because the prolonged separation with every familiar face leads to death of the idea of kinship in our hearts.”

This revelation awoke the horsefly from zir memory stupor.

“Franks, I don’t know much about ponies, but is it true that ponies will separate us from our families?” ze asked worriedly.

“Yes,” Pam and Franks replied in unison bluntly.

“Every few weeks, we are moved to another farm as designated by the department of Non-equine Immigration. Princess Star Shine in Cloudsdale heads this department with the understanding what they are doing is kind because they are giving us harmony our species naturally lack by reorganizing us according to the ever shifting needs of the pony farmers or pet owners,” Franks explained.

“Franks is right about ponies always changin’ their minds,” Pam added, “You and Franks wouldn’t know it because you are new here, but a year ago, Rainbow Dash, an important pegasus pony in Ponyville, wanted a pet. All the animals were talkin’ about it so we on the farms eventually got wind of it. Story is that Rainbow spent the whole day lookin’ for a pet who was fast, flying, and ‘cool’ but at the end of the day, she got a tortoise. We animals have no stability when ponies have some kind of complete change of mind about what they want midday.”

“That’s interesting, but I need to know if the ponies will separate me from my daughter,” Ei Rikr asserted in voice strained with passion.

“You never told me you came here with your daughter,” Franks said, his face fully abandoning its jovial facade. “You have three days before they will separate you two. At this point, they want to make sure there is nothing wrong with your family, but after words they will assimilate your daughter and you into new farms around Ponyville, or worse, elsewhere.”

“I had planned to just waltz in here and just philosophize my way into my preferred mode of living, but with only a few days, there isn’t enough time to make a new home here and get into my new position. Is there anything I can do?” the horsefly pleaded to the pig who had been leading zir all this time to the barn where ze would only be living for a short time.

“Does anyone in your family need to learn Equestrian?” Pam asked.

“I came only with my daughter. I learned this language long ago, but she only knows how to read and write currently. How will this help me?” Ei Rikr asked.

“The ponies will send a teacher here tomorrow to help foreigners assimilate to Equestrian norms,” Franks replied. “As long as your daughter is taking those lessons, the immigration department will keep her here to accelerate the assimilation process. You, however, will need to find one of the Apples here to vouch for a continued presence on the farm. This will force the department to leave you together with your daughter.”

“What if I cannot convince one of the Apples to keep me?” Ei Rikr further inquired.

Glancing at Bon Bon, Franks replied to the horsefly. “Just remember to stay at the barn we are bringing you tonight. It shouldn’t be hard, seeing that you and your daughter will be there tonight. The other animals will be getting off work in a few hours and after we eat, Marks, Angles, and I will be hosting a meeting tonight.”

“What are you talking about?” Bon Bon asked confused.

“It is not important for you,” Pam told the pony, still not trusting her.

“I will explain it to you later, my dear, when you prove yourself loyal to our kind,” Franks said with a joyous, reassuring smile. “You already done much by befriending a strange species like a horsefly.”

Ei Rikr understood that ze should probably return to the story before talking about such dangerous things so openly again.

“As my jealous maneuvering to get my parents love might suggest, I had mixture of normal childlike behavior mixed with horsefly strategies for getting nourishment. These distinct horsefly traits caused me to learn at a very young age that I wasn’t a normal sheep. I didn’t play sports competitively. I didn’t care for candy. I didn’t even have a real opinion about the attractiveness of other sheep, and insults about my how unram-like I was did not bother me. This doesn’t mean that I didn’t fit in. I did all that was expected of me. Fleece had a very rigorous set of moral and religious codes which I was expected by my parents and everyone to believe and follow without question. It was just that there was a difference between the face I showed others when I repeated their beliefs and the face I kept deep inside.

“The time came when I was no longer simply being formed by my parents but started to take charge of who I was going to be. Pam, this is also the time people make a revolution of sorts and say ‘World, recognize that I am my own person.’ So I did what I was supposed to do when I came of age; I got an apprenticeship as a scholar of mathematics. My parents were very proud of me, seeing me make something of myself. The problem is that by taking on this apprenticeship I realized why I was so different from other sheep because in attempting to be something new, I literally changed to look like the ideal mathematician. More importantly, I found out that I didn’t know how to transform back into my old form.

“If I had a hive to fall back onto, they would have found me and explained to me what I was before this, but I had no one. I ran all the way home from my teacher’s house and sought my parents for the advice my kind was not there to give me. My parents saw some old mathematician at the door, they thought I was one of the academics teaching their son. They let me in and offered me wine. I entered the house, but refused the wine. It was expensive wine and my parents were offended that I rejected a valuable gift. I told them that I was really their son. They thought I was mad. I became desperate that I accidently removed my outer form all together, revealing the horsefly form below. At this point, I had never seen this form, and was as shocked as they were of what seemed like a monster with long white fangs and unsheeplike blue eyes.

“Immediately, I was attacked by my father with the wine bottle as my entomophobic mother fainted. Seeing no love in them, I ran. I remember the red wine on my face, bleeding on the floor and staining my mother’s coat. I hid in a nearby street for the night as some horse beggar’s long lost friend, whose right foreleg had been broken. I didn’t know how or why I transformed into a horse, but I did and I didn’t question it because it allowed me to be completely invisible while being so near my parents. Though the horse’s love fed me for the night, I knew he didn’t really love me, only the idea I represented. It hurt while I silently nodded to his endless cries of joy and sad confessions of past misdeeds because I realized that had been true for all my relationships I had in my life to that point, including my parents. The next morning, I watched my parents.They had already discovered that their son had disappeared without a trace, and last night, they had apparently gone to the guard and told them of the ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing.’

“That morning my parents joined a large mob in front of courthouse. This had been the third report of this ‘wolf’ this week, which makes sense now because queen horseflies create multiple sparks in a single day, but it caused the already paranoid sheep to take extreme measures. My parents and the other sheep went through the town seeking my destruction. They didn’t actually find any horseflies, but it didn’t stop them from killing a few sheep they thought were suspicious. A guard actually took the beggar next to me and had him taken to be beaten to death. The only reason I didn’t get caught was that I hid my face and didn’t ask the guard for money like the real beggar did. I remember the pegasus calling out to me to back him and me acting like I never seen him in my life, which only reinforced the guards belief that he was a horsefly. I also remember the shadenfreude I had when the equine become shocked and terribly hurt because his friend had betrayed him. I wonder if that pegasus was the slave I had forced on the street, and if so, if he made the same face of betrayal when I had him thrown out. Either way, another person died by my selfish, uncaring black hooves.”

Ei Rikr paused to ‘smoke’ a bit, blowing zir memory into the stagnant, pungent Equestrian air, which provoked for the horsefly a feeling of base kinship with the nation because they both shared a betrayal of their modern popular image. Ei Rikr knew the truth that both zirself and the ponies were far from the modern ideals back then. Ponies had slavery in every sense except in word. Especially in the way the unicorns and pegasi took advantage of earth ponies from labor and food production.

All the evidence Ei Rikr had seen in the last day seemed to indicated that ponies have retained most their ancient traditions of duty to destined talent. For a moment, Ei Rikr became rather dour as a thought that ze had really not changed at all from zir childish self entered zir mind. Thinking of Bon Bon and Sophia, however, reminded the horsefly that at least ze had overcome some of zir ancient prejudice against equines. Andrea’s beliefs in the overcoming our current self played in the background of the horsefly’s mind as ze finished the story.

“Officially, the Fleecians had a decree that all of my kind had to leave Fleece or be exterminated. Though I loved my home country, I accepted my exile, never to see my home, my teacher, or my parents again because I was young and didn’t really think independently from the laws that had cradled me throughout my life. I learned later from word of mouth that Fleece descended into chaos where the closer a person was to another the most they suspected them to be a monster. It became known as The Day Love Died. In the end, thousands of horseflies and sheep were killed because the sheep needed to purify themselves of the ‘wolves in sheeps clothing.’ I wouldn’t have been surprised if my parents without me got into a fight and had one another killed. Consequences like what happen to me and other hiveless Fleecian horseflies are why almost all horseflies never show their horsefly face to others, especially their parents. No one understands that just because their child does not conform to what they expect them to be in the end, that does not mean they are any less their child.”

The three people listening were not sure what to make of the story. It was indeed sad, but Ei Rikr had buffered so much of it with zir own follies and immaturity that it was hard to sympathize with the horsefly. However, despite the lesson being shoehorned at the end, Franks found the lesson particularly relevant to his own ideals.

“You must be a great parent to be so open to your child’s development of her own identity,” Franks said.

Ei Rikr, at first, buzzed proudly of the lesson ze shoehorned at the end of zir story, but Franks assumption about zir parenting technique reminded zir of the poison joke which began to weigh heavily in zir saddlebags.

“I have a saying to those who see me as their teacher. ‘Words mean more to those who hear than those who speak,’” Ei Rikr said.

“Yah mean that people think too much of what others say?” Pam asked, pretty sure she figured it out.

“Do you mean words can be more hurtful to the ponies who hear them than the ponies who say them?” Bon Bon asked, not sure if she understood, having been fairly confused by the last few exchanges the pigs and Ei Rikr.

“Uh, not what I had in mind, but the fact you two interpreted my saying in novel ways reflects what I did have in mind. Allow me to explain,” Ei Rikr said. “What I meant is that those who listen to teachers often interpret novel ideas into the teacher’s words which go beyond the teacher’s intention. Furthermore, though the student is origin of the new ideas, they often believe these ideas are actually their teacher’s. In other words, when you perceive another person as wise, you utilizing your own capacity for wisdom to do so. Pam and Bon Bon, your alternate ways of interpreting my saying are your own insights.”

“Kind of like how your scholars in the Southern Continents impose their own values of freedom on the ponykind of ancient past,” Franks added.

Pam felt a bit validated in herself since Ei Rikr implied that she was wise, but she wasn’t willing to stay here all day listening to an old animal talk about his pre-Equestria days. She had a shovel to return to the tool pile.

“The barn is right ahead,” Pam told Ei Rikr. “Just take an empty stall. Each adult gets one to themselves. The children all get a separate stall, so your daughter will be with them. If this pony is actually suffering, she can use yours. There are showers in the back.”

“We will be heading back now,” Franks said with a proud salute to his fellow animal before walking back with Pam to Meuler’s ditch.

With the pigs gone, Ei Rikr addressed Bon Bon. “Are you feeling okay?”

Bon Bon smiled weakly and nodded.

“You should still probably get a shower and rest,” Ei Rikr said while feeling zir way to the barnyard door. Bon Bon ignored zir friend because ze was too curious in the barn.

Once inside, the two friends found three dozen stalls. Most of the stalls were small but one stall was extra large. Bon Bon didn’t know why there was a difference, but the larger one did look comfortable.

Laying down on the hay matting in the larger stall, Bon Bon watched Ei Rikr deposit zir belongings in the empty next door stall.

“I think that stall is for the children, Bon Bon,” Ei Rikr said.

“Problem?” the curious learner asked.

“I guess not,” Ei Rikr said. “We probably stink, so why don’t we take a shower now.”

Bon Bon pouted. “I want to hear more,” ze demanded.

“Of my story? You know if we go through my whole story, you be die of old age before I’d finished.”

“Problem?” the curious learner asked again.

“While you make a good argument, Bon Bon,” Ei Rikr said with a mirthful buzzing. “I think now it would only be appropriate after telling you so much about myself that you tell me about yourself. Conversations should be acts of reciprocal gift-giving.”

“My life, my life,” Bon Bon repeated. A dour tone began to seep into zir voice as a soft throbbing built up in her head. This caused concerned for the horsefly, who quickly finished what ze was doing and moved to the large stall where Bon Bon was.

“I believe you told me you forgot many things, but I would like to know what you do remember. You told me already about the shopkeeper with the quills and sofas, but what about your parents. If you don’t like talking about that, tell me about your country or about ponies. I am new here, and anything you would have to say would be just as new,” Ei Rikr assured zir friend.

Bon Bon thought back as far as ze could but something scary and painful seemed to be forcing zir back, but because zir friend was here, Bon Bon felt that ze could beat back the darkness in zir mind.

“I remember magic,” Bon Bon began.

Dinner Time 4.1-4.3: Setting the Table

Author's Note

Yes, this story was put on hold for over a year. I graduated college with a degree in...(I will let you guess), got my first real job, quit my first real job, and went back to college to study accounting.

As a gift, I rendered three potential chapters into one. I decided to change the spelling of Bonbon to Bon Bon to make it more consistent with how I see it spelled in other fictions. I am also experimenting with First person, so I would like your thoughts on it.

If you want this story to continue, say so in the comments. If you want me to go back and edit stuff, tell me. If you have questions, I love those.

Dinner Time 4.1-4.3: Setting the Table

1.1 How Accountants Suffer and Silverware

Lead Silverton

One would imagine life as a guest in the Filthy Rich mansion to be easy. You get what you want when you want it. While there is some truth to that, merely getting what you want for free comes at a price. No one knows this better than me, Lead Silverton.

I am an accountant by trade. I had worked at Barnyard Bargain's corporate offices in Neigh York for years. Everything was going fine. I had enough bits to make ends meet and allow my wife, Silvertongue, to write her gossip column in the Tribune. I never took any risks, and my life was fine.

Then one day, I get called up to a board meeting with the all the big wigs. I had been worked like some farm dog all day calculating the impairment to goodwill on one of our subsidiaries in Manehatten. I expected that is what they wanted to know. I could not have been more wrong.

Once I entered the board room, Filthy Rich asked me if I ever played poker. I told them I hadn't but I knew the rules. More than satisfied, he threw me some chips and told me to play. I protested but the boss wouldn't hear any of it. Filthy and his poker buddies needed a replacement player after Prance Prints of Prince Prance Prints got caught plagiarizing his competitors in Manehatten for the third and final time. The amoral fool now does time in Canterlot.

I hate taking risks while Filthy loved them. He knew how to make any uncertainty an opportunity to make more money. I was an accountant who could tell you how risky something was, and he was the businesspony who made all the decisions. Needless to say, I was a fish out of water playing poker.

In less than one hour, I lost all that I had ever earned from Filthy Rich in my entire time working for him and more. I was about to break down and start crying when I realized what happened, but the businesspony started laughing. He told me he had never seen someone lose so bad ever before, then corrected himself when he remembered good-old Prance.

Filthy wasn't a bad pony at heart, and he knew well enough that I had lost everything. This led him to invite me and my family to be guests at his mansion in Ponyville. Again, I couldn't really refuse. If I had, my soon to be foal would suffer out in the streets as I searched trash bins for food in our new found poverty.

Nearly a decade later, I am still under Filthy Rich's care. I get taken along on his business trips. Giving out tips and gambling keep in a constant state of dependence upon my benefactor.

These days, I swear that Filthy kept me for two reasons. First is to see me lose to him at everything. Second is that my daughter Silverspoon be his daughter's best friend. It has become essential to the survival of the Silver family that these two things never change.

In my study, I reviewed my family's finances. Things were looking up for once in a really long time. If things keep going as they have been, I should----

A knock came at the door.

"Come in," I say, my weariness evident.

Hensley, the unicorn butler, entered.

"The master wishes to inform you that you are needed in the parlor. Should I tell him that you will be with him shortly?"

"No need," I reply, efficiently putting all my financial statements into their correct folders. "I will be coming down with you."

Hensley held the door open for me with magic as I exited my study. Soundlessly, he closed the door behind me. The fact he didn't even seem to notice the door while doing this unnerved me. I had nothing against Hensley or unicorns per se, but I could never get used to the effortless and subtle ways they could use magic. It was like having an ghost pony, and it is always mansions like this that get haunted.

Filthy insisted that all his servants be unicorns and that at every possible occasion that they use magic to accomplish tasks. The goal from what I gathered was to demonstrate how wealthy he was that he could invert the natural order between ponies. A earth pony hiring a unicorn is perfectly legal albeit rare; however, the image of unicorn serving an earth pony was a clear statement. I truly wonder how long it will take before Ponyville's Magistry of Magic and Science takes corrective measures to restore the status quo.

"Mr. Silverton has arrived, Master," the servant spoke quietly. This woke me from my private thoughts.

I looked around the room. I immediately turned to face my boss. Filthy stood next to two tall unicorn stallions by the cupboard and table where he serves his Prench imported concoctions. He was not merrymaking. He was not in the middle of some wild tale of his business exploits, He was not pouring any drinks. Something was up.

The unicorns were most definitely identical twins. One sported a mustache, which I used to tell them apart.

Examining the room more, I was surprised to find the gardener, appearing markedly muddier than I have ever seen the unicorn.

"Thank you, Hensley. You are dismissed," Filthy commanded. With that, the unicorn teleported out of the room and the door slowly shut to the influence of a spell he cast before leaving. I shuddered.

My benefactor turned his attention to the two unicorns to his right. "Pardon me. I have some private business to discuss with Lead and our gardener."

"My brother and I totally understand," said the mustached one.

"We do?" the clean shaven one asked before correcting himself. "We do!"

Filthy procured a bell from his jacket pocket and rang it. In a bright blue flash, another an unicorn mare materialized next to her master in a Prench maid uniform.

"Eclair, would you escort these sales unicorns to the Lewy parlor until I have need of them again," he ordered.

Eclair curtsied and replied."Certainement, mon maitre."

She offered a hoof to the brothers. They delightfully extended theirs unaware of how Filthy's operates his house. The maid took forelegs by force and pulled them near her, causing the businessponies to blush in excitement and confusion.

"Hold on!" She whispered in their ears, dropping her faux Prench accent. Then they left in another flash of magic.

I had gotten used to such sights in the Rich mansion. My boss sat down and then directed me to seat, not being one who waited on anypony.

"The gardener tells me that our girls tried to blackmail him into hurting another pony, a filly, with magic," Filthy began. He rang his bell again and Eclair appeared with Diamond Tiara and Silverspoon in tow. The sudden teleportation left them quite disoriented. "Our daughters claim that they brought him along to give some flowers to a new filly in town; however, the poor filly was allergic to the pollen. Angered that the filly didn't appreciate his hard work, he lashed out at the pony."

He rang the bell again no longer needing our daughters as visual aides. Pointing a hoof at the gardener, he asked, "What you do in this situation?"

"I would take my daughter to the filly and her parents and apologize with her," I said nervously.

Filthy frowned. Apologizing was not something he liked to do, but he didn't stay rich from being inflexible. He rang the bell again.

The maid brought the two fillies back into the room. Poor Silverspoon looked like she was going to puke right then and there. At least, she knew better than to due something that might cause a scene. We need to keep our good relationship with the Rich's if we are going to survive. A lesson I drove into her at a very young age.

"My little princess, you are going to come with me to meet this new filly and her parents, right now," my boss commanded. Diamond knew better than to disagree with her father. "Now do you know where this filly lives?"

"I don't know. She arrived like today. As far as I know, she lives in a barn," the little pony admitted.

"That is not a good answer. Where did you last see her, think," he ordered.

"Sweet Apple Acres!" the filly cried out in frustration.

Suddenly, Filthy Rich's demeanor changed on the spot. His face spoke of thoughts wizzing at extreme speeding through his head like motored carts in Manehatten.

Taking out his bell, he rang again. Our daughters tensed up for a spontaneous teleportation and sighed in relief when Eclair ignored them. With another flash, the two salesponies were back in the room.

"There you are boys. I know you two probably want your drinks now, but how does a full course dinner at Sweet Apple Acres sound?" Filthy inquired.

The clean-shaven pony barfed on the spot. A blemish quickly vaporized by another maid hiding silently in the corner of the room, ready for any and all messes that occur in this parlor.

The mustached brother laughed nervously, supporting with a hoof sympathetically. "Ignore Flim. A meal with the Apples sounds appletastic." Turning his brother, the he continues, "Hear that Flim, we get pitch our proposal to Apples three days ahead of schedule."

Flim raises his head to feign a smile but only manages to faint.

Ignoring Flim's condition, Filthy directs the brothers and his daughter out of the mansion. The poor salespony was basically dragged out of the house by his brother. Silverspoon, the gardener, the maids, and I remained.

"Should I apologize as well, daddy?" my daughter asked.

I pulled at my collar. "It wasn't your idea to attack a filly?" I inquired.

The filly gazed out the window as her only friend left for the farm.

"No," she replied.

"Then it is best to let them be. We would only get in the way of whatever gambit they are playing."

My daughter contemplated my words for a moment before her stomach growled.

"Dinner will be for two, I assume?" Eclair wondered. Whenever Filthy was not around, I insisted that she act 'normal'.

I looked at the gardener who looked worse for wear. I guess he deserved something for what the girls put him through today, so I invited him to take Filthy's meal. It was not like he would actually mind or even notice that his meal was enjoyed rather than thrown out. Also, I could use a more down-to-earth pony at dinner, even if that pony was not an earth pony.

1.2 Revenge Best Served in Fire

-------------------------------Ei Rikr (Ever Ruler)-------------------------------------

Bonbon was taking the first shower in the limited stall on the side of the barn when I laid myself down to rest in my stall inside. I would take my shower after zir.

I removed my saddlebags and organized my things.

Among my effects, a particular vial of Poison Joke cure taunted me. I promised through my holes that I should just share the cure with Sophia, but doubts plagued me.

There is no telling how she would react to the burden of emotions, having never experienced them before. What if she becomes a complete wreck? Moving to a new place can put a loss of stress on a young person. No, this wasn't a time to be uncertain. I should cure my daughter. I should have done it when I received the cure from Zecora in the first place. The sooner I transition her into the world of non-rational emotions, the easier it will be for her to live a healthy life.

While these thoughts tousled through my holes, a well-masked killing intent in the emotional landscape of the room alerted me to a presence. Whoever it was had silently entered the barn. Were I not attuned to the slight changes in the emotional field around me to compensate for my missing sense, I would not have noticed this mysterious person. I couldn't pinpoint someone with this ability, so I relied on changes in the air around me to check when this presence got close enough to attack.

"I know you are here," I state coldly. "I assure you, if you or your employer has business with me, I am very amendable to polite dialogue."

The air became very still.

"Knowing I am here is nothing," came feminine voice to my right. I turned to face the source only for a kick to my rear to knock my exhausted body down. "For here can mean so many things," echoed a masculine voice from behind.

I clicked my tongue in frustration. This was no normal assassin. I could tell there was only one person in the room other than me, so they must be using magic or advanced ventriloquism to throw their voice around the room. The modulating of the voice into different registers had the purpose of weakening my focus and determination. These combat tactics were similar to those used by my sibling when we first met. This only added to my desire to know more about my assassin.

"I also am familiar with what you are doing," I added, continuing our discussion.

"Knowing what I am doing is nothing," came the feminine voice again. This time it came from above. I focused on the sudden changes in the air around me and barely had time to dodge an attack from my left. Unfortunately, I had not prepared for zir to immediately reverse their velocity to attack me from the right. "For knowing is not the same as stopping."

During the initial dodge, I could feel the beating of wings. This explained the assassin's agility but not how they were throwing their voice around the barn.

"Well, I guess I just need to know more until I am able to stop you," I casually replied, ignoring the micro-fractures forming through my carapace.

I perfectly dodged the assassin for the next few attacks. I didn't merely read zir movements but began to predict the movements before they happened. For instance, I knew the assassin would reverse the vector of their attack, so there was no need to read zir movements during the reversal of momentum.

I focused entirely on my assailant that I did not notice that ze had corralled me into a corner. My back against the wall, I prepared for the next attack.

"Ha! Got you!" a male voice shouted from before me, which is exactly from where the attack came.

Using a spell I learned during the Age of the Windigo, which ended the Ancient Era, I super-heated the air around me, causing it to expand quickly and repulse the killer. Taking advantage of the opening the spell made, I flew back to the center of the room.

"You should know better than to corner your prey as you might find that it has fangs," I scolded zir.

Our game of cat and mouse continued, but this time I had a better sense of the dimensions of the barn. Occassionally, I ran into a pull but I just burned some love and used the air to protect me. There were only two downsides of this. First, I was already weaken by a day's work, so the use of horsefly magic only served to drain my body more. Second, every time I created a barrier of air around myself, I lost my ability to sense the presence motions in through the air. Eventually either someone would come to my rescue or I would finally fall.

"Why won't you just let me break you?!" a misdirecting voice screamed at me. This youthful, impatient, and passionate exclamation told me much of the character of my assassin.

"I have a reason not to die right now," I responded. "Why are you fighting me?"

"Like you don't know!"

I clicked in what roughly translated as a disappointed sigh. How many times have I heard these lines before? How many times did someone treat me like some villain?

"I really don't."

The assassin slowed their movements. I could pick up that ze was moving closer. "For what are you resisting me, you murderer?"

I balked at the accusation. Yes, I have killed before, but that was long ago and on another continent. Only in my imagination did my past haunt me so.

"I resist for the sake of my daughter who I brought to this continent so that she may have a good life out of the forest in which I discovered her and for the sake of reuniting with my sibling who has made this journey to this hemisphere before me," I reply honestly, which I hoped might show my assailant that I am not some cruel monster.

The presence stopped and then picked up something. The clinking of hooves against glass gave away what ze had picked up.

"A potion, hmmm. Is this for you?" the presence asked. I did not respond. I couldn't as fear unbidden and heavy filled my plentiful holes despite my desire to be honest. "Or perhaps for this 'daughter' of yours?" My flame turned cold at the mention of Sophia.

I froze, unsure of where the assassin would take this.

"Oh, it is for her then." The presence broke the potion against the wall, its contents bleeding into the hay below. It was the first victim of this unnecessary conflict. The second was me as the assassin wasted no time taking advantage of my distress

In the end, it was neither my blindness nor my weaken state that had done me in but rather my love for family that had been my undoing. Ze crush my flames out of me like yoke from an eggshell. Through all of this, I took dark solace in my daughter's inability to mourn for me, to be disappointed in me. A relatively recent memory began to burn within my poisoned eyes, giving me the ability to see a loved one as energy left me.

A kindness of ravens and a murder of crows circled above me like a Yin-Yang symbol, but all black. A warmth both chaotic and loving radiated from their bodies and spoke directly into my mind. There were no barriers and no lies.

"I warned you," said the chorus of the many who is also one.

"I warned you so many times," ze repeated and then continued. "I will not see you destroy all that you, I, and all our friends have built."

"What are you going to do?" I asked even though I knew the answer deep in my holes.

"I and those who know what I know are leaving. We are leaving this reason-forsaken continent and making a journey to the other side where no one will ever hunt someone down again because they question everything, take the unpopular side to an issue, or find joy in something no one else understands."

I clicked in frustration. My sibling could be so stubborn sometimes. I wondered why ze couldn't see that the very fact that the nations are coming to us is a sign that the world is changing and becoming more accepting of our ways. Did we not desire in the depths of our holes together those many years ago that the world might come to accept us? That they might learn how to share the energy of their passions with one another, that they may then manifest a willingness to change and adopt what makes others different to grow stronger and safer?

"You say I am blind, but I think you have given up your vision," I screeched, my sadness and frustration breaking my usual calm.

"A vision where the world becomes just like us? It was as narcissistic as it was naive," the ravens and the crows retorted as one. Hot passion rained down upon me, blowing all loose objects away from me and leaving me feeling vulnerable.

Then all the avians swooped down before me. They flashed as green fire before condensing into the very solid body of a horsefly.

"It is precisely because of that vision that I can no longer maintain it," the horsefly said softly, the other side of my sibling shining through. "I have done what you refuse to do and that is let what makes this world different to us into myself and change. These other nations treats us and everything related to us like an infection; as a result, our kind has almost been driven to extinction on this continent. You need to learn as I have to not trust people who lack a capability to change, to break from immoral and harmful forms, and then you will see that we must make the journey away from this land."

Ze placed a hoof around my neck and pulled me in for a long hug. We basked in the warmth of each other's familiar love, which had sustained us through the most difficult of tribulations in the past, for the last time. We could not stop clicking in sadness and betrayal as our divergent minds had finally won against our convergent passion.

Slowly, crows and ravens emerged from my siblings back until eventually one final crow from the murder and one raven from the kindness remained. They pressed themselves against my eyes, becoming flame once more, and fused with them. A flame to rest there if I ever wished to see the last invitation of Corvo Nevermore.

----------------------------------------Sophia---------------------------------------------

Apple Bloom guided me passed a barn. The scent of smoke clogged the stagnant air, prompting me to cough. Rationally, Apple Bloom diverted us toward the source of the smoke as it was her family's property which was at stake. A crowd of various species in the farm animal caste of Equestria, presumably the Apple family's slaves, were gathered before the burning barn.

My friend, which is what one calls someone with whom you play discus and card games, struggled to find a path through the people who are legally her property. Normally, I would merely walk around a large crowd like this but given that fires are classified as emergencies, I decided I should probably do something.

It was actually rather simple as most of the best plans are. I gathered my magic in my horned and encouraged the earth below us to rise. Not only did this cause some noise but also the shifting of the dirt below the crowd caused them to redirect their attention to their owner. Additionally, our perch gave us the vantage to determine the extent of the emergency and determine the next course of action.

Apple Bloom held onto me while we rose. Once we had the slaves attention, she spoke to them, causing the crowd to split. I ignored this for the most part as the fire had really grabbed my attention. While there was indeed fire in the barn, patch of fire was, instead of the usual hues, green. This meant one thing: Ei Rikr had finally cracked up. It was a long time coming, and I could determine signs of stress upon his carapace had grown over the course of the year. The fact, however, that the flames hadn't completely dissipated meant there was still life in the ancient philosopher.

I descended from my dirt platform and galloped through the parted crowd. I removed my shawl and wrapped it around my muzzle to reduce the amount of smoke that entered my lungs. Even before I entered the barn, which had just begun to catch on fire, my chest hurt and my breathing became shallow. I worried in the back of my mind that sickness might have taken me due to all the stale Equestrian air to which I have been exposed lately. Standing next to flames, I started gathering pushing them together with my hooves. Apple Bloom had yelled at what must have seem to her as me voluntarily ensconcing my hooves in flesh-consuming combustion. I indicated with the best of my ability that this fire was safe for me to touch, albeit I had to admit it was hotter to my touch than I remembered. Perhaps this is a result of my sudden sickness.

The farm filly tentatively touched the fire but unfortunately this made the flames burst. Her emotional state must have reacted to my parent's essence, causing her fur on her hooves to be singed as the flames grew larger and hotter. This was detrimental to Ei RIkr's continued existence as all energy expended as heat would usher the horsefly towards non-sapient existence.

Keeping my parent in one piece would ensure that ze would retain zir personality and memories. What was need was a new chitin to form. I gave my spare focus to giving Apple Bloom instructions on how I thought best with which we could deal with the fire. With my notepad in magical grip, I wrote that we would need plenty of muddy water. The filly took my notes with hesitation but I could not immediately tell if she understood its contents. Perhaps she took fault at me giving her orders given that I was technically her slave; however, she had shown no signs of thinking me as such.

As I gathered my parent into one spot, avoiding the dangerous fire as much as possible, Apple Bloom went to work ordering her livestock to get buckets of water. The filly directed them to the side of the barn where I remember seeing several stalls with a solitary trickle of water exiting therefrom. Then I could hear a mare squealing for whatever reason.

All other animal caste present were helping but one who stood somewhat off to the side. The bystander, a solitary pig, caught my attention because she had continued to stare at me for over five minutes. I decided to pay her no mind as I had more pressing matters before me.

The sheep, cows, chickens, and pigs forms a jumbled line passing buckets of water between each other and the source of the water. Most of the water contained no dirt, so I directed my fellow slaves to poor it upon the orange fire. Some of them understood the common tongue which made matters easier.

As for the dirty water, it was not muddy enough, so I supplemented the dirt with clay I summoned from below the barn. Forming a thick mud, I surrounded my parent's flames in an egg-like shell. Steam issued from my creation as Ei Rikr baked the mud from within. By this point, almost all the fire was out.

Apple Bloom came to me and gestured toward the object before me. Hoofing her the notebook, she wrote. "What in the hay is that?"

I replied with a full diagram of a terracotta healing cocoon with explanations of its ability to renew chitin. I based it roughly on a description I read in a Ei Rikr's journal ze wrote when ze had shortly been in Zebrica, learning about horsefly culture on a continent where horseflies had great cities and lived in peace with other species. My parent had taught me about the cocoon in order for me to practice my magic.

Apple Bloom quickly flipped to a fresh page. "Can you explain so somepony other than Twilight can understand?"

I somewhat understood the reference. Having read a small portion of one of Twilight's books, I found her to be an excessively detail-oriented writer. She had made the consumption of salad in Manehattan a two page affair. Those were giant pages with only two diagrams. It would not be far fetched that Twilight had rubbed off on me through the course of the day.

"This cast for a broken bone and inside is my parent," I explained in simpler terms.

Apple Bloom began asking many questions all at once, but a wet mare interrupted. I remembered her as the mare with whom Ei Rikr had struck conversation this morning. As for the animals, they had decided to give us ponies space.

A mule approached with an elderly lime green mare and a large red stallion. They talked with Apple Bloom who pointed at me and then my parent. I had no idea what they were actually said as Apple Bloom left me out of the conversation.

I took this moment to ask the candy-marked mare if she knew of what Ei Rikr's condition had been. She took my note book and stared at the words. I attempted to give her one of my writing utensil from my pack but my notebook had captured the entirety of her attention. Finally, something seemed to click in the earth pony's head. She looked around her location and spotting my pencil after making two full circles. She took the pencil into her mouth and pressed it against the paper only to break the tip. The mare return the pencil in is slobbery, broken state. I used my magic to peel back some of the wood and then reshape the graphite into a point. The earth pony reclaimed the pencil and resumed her attempt to communicate with a foreigner like me.

When she was done, she flipped the note book to me. She had drawn three pictures. On top was a circle with two dots and a downturned curve. Below this was a depiction of an oval with holes in it. The bottom picture was of the sun and moon. I know that the top is an abstraction of a face, but I was unable to read these kinds of faces as they depicted emotions, of which my mind has no experience. The middle one was probably my parent. The last might be referring to time.

I assumed this pony might be illiterate, so I replied in kind. I looked at the sky to see the sun approaching the horizon. I drew a picture of the sun disappearing behind the horizon. Realizing this could be misinterpreted as the morning, I frustrated myself with trying to clarify. I decided on using stars just so I didn't make a mistake with how ponies express cardinal directions.

I gave the notebook back to the mare and she reviewed my picture. Then she reviewed the rest of the contents of my notebook.

As I observed the earth pony, whose name eluded me, my stomach involuntarily growled. This attracted the attention of the Apple family. The big red stallion picked Apple Bloom and I and took us away from the barn and my father. The elder talked to the candy mare with my notebook, guiding her with us. Next thing that I know I am in an indoor bathtub with Apple Bloom. The smell of food encouraged me to efficiently cleanse my body of a day's worth of activity.

1.3 The Best Spice is Time and Hardwork

--------------------------------------Lyra Heartstrings--------------------------------------------

I made my rounds of Ponyville. She had made contact with several problem ponies like Snowflake and Derpy Hooves who both have had to go through several reharmonizing sessions just to fit Equestria's rigorous standards for what a pony can be. Up next on my list was the reclusive Fluttershy who lived just outside of town.

The yellow mare, while not technically a "problem pony" per se, required regular supervision from the Magistracy. Though I did not quite understand it. According to Fluttershy's file, the Magistracy warned that the pony never learn to completely stand up for herself. This was labeled a matter of national security as if Fluttershy not being able to deal with bullies would lead to some cataclysm. Unfortunately for me, the pet trainer had the penchant to learn self-confidence several times a year. Not only did this make redundant records of Fluttershy learning this lesson friendship reports and friendship journals, but also that the Magistracy had to roll back Fluttershy's character development in contradiction to some of those lessons. One time, Fluttershy had severe, simultaneous recollection of all her self-confidence lessons while interacting with a minotaur, leading to the personality we have been trying to bury for years emerging in full force and fury. Luckily, that time her friends were able to make Fluttershy repress it before the madpony became a true threat to ponykind. Her file went so far as to speculate that Fluttershy may be the only pony capable of defeating Discord alone through sheer power of determination, and if the draconequus ever escape his stone prison again and the elements were unavailable, the Magistracy would task the animal lover with controlling the lord of chaos.

Approaching Fluttershy's cottage, I noticed the distinct lack of singing. A sigh escaped my lips. I knocked on the door to hear groaning. Perhaps the mare is ill. Angel opened the door, and seeing me, gave me the raspberry before shutting the door in my face. I rolled my eyes and forced my way inside. Not much an animal can do against a unicorn. Once inside, I found the source of the groaning--a full-grown female buffalo.

"Where is Fluttershy?" I asked.

The buffalo gruffly replied in incoherent grunts and groans as if speaking an actual language. Her injuries led me to believe she might have suffered brain damage. It would not be the first time I encountered something like this.

Angel glared at me before giving me the usual sign that Fluttershy was gone. He then signed that Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie had gone with her on an adventure with no definite return date. I could only understand Angel's signing because we had plenty of time to get to know each other when Fluttershy inexplicably went on an adventure.

This left the animals, who were trained not feed themselves, in need of some pony to care for them in the meantime. I wondered if Fluttershy never thought about how her animals survived her sometimes week long trips to other parts of Equestria because she had never had to deal with the consequences of her actions due to the Magistracy's intervention on the animals' behalf. Well, it is for the villains to think about consequences and the heroes to bask in how right they are.

"I guess I have to take care of this mess," I declared, and directing my attention to the buffalo, I continued. "You probably need proper care for your injuries. Can you walk?"

She gave me more grunts and groans.

"I guess that is a no. Seeing you have a sling, I should have known. Well no matter, I have magic. I will just carry you to the hospital. A cottage is no place for a recognized species of the Equestrian government to recover from a fracture much less brain damage."

My horn lit up and the buffalo became bug eyed with what seemed like fear. She rolled over reaching for a spear near the couch.

"Oh, such hostility. Come on, no pony would ever hurt a buffalo," I laughed, picking her up in a tight telekinetic grip. My magical studies had indeed proven fruitful as the buffalo weighed negligibly against the power I mustered through my horn.

Suddenly, Angel yanked my tail.

"How dare you? Why are you doing this to me after all I have done for you?" I half asked, half shouted. I shoved my snout into rodent.

He responded like the beast he is by grabbing my horn and disrupting my magic channeling. The buffalo fell onto the floor with a thud. While I struggled to remove Angel from my face, the buffalo dragged herself to the spear on the other end of the couch.

"Get off me before I implode you like some useless clone!" I shrieked, rearing up and attempting to swipe off my attacker.

Angel seemed to respond to this and happily hopped off the end of my nose just before my hoof hit me in the horn. I winced in sudden pain. Then I heard a swishing sound as I felt a breeze across my face, which shouldn't be possible under normal circumstances.

I opened my eyes to find the buffalo's spear had what seemed to be magical properties allowing it lengthen and branch out into smaller spears. She had completely ensnared me in a trap, a very pointy and cramped trap. One false move, and I would find myself skewered in fifty different directions. A gulp developed in my throat but the look on the buffalo trapped it in place.

Angel started talking to the buffalo, and they seemed to be having a mutual conversation. I would probably be more interested in the fact that buffalo were capable of animal speak, but oxygen was struggling to get to my brain.

Suddenly, the injured buffalo fell unconscious. The spear retracted into itself and I was freed from my deadly prison. I took several deep breaths before examining the poor creature. From what I had gathered, the injuries were severe enough that a normal pony would have collapsed in pain. A mixture of determination and adrenaline must have kept her going.

I charged up my horn again to begin my telekinetic spell once more when Angel pantomimed at me again.

"No Twilight? Twilight isn't even here," I responded flabbergasted.

The bunny smacked his face and then reemphasized the Twilight pantomime. It took me longer to figure out what he meant then I will admit.

"Oh, you mean no magic!"

This led to a new problem.

"How am I going to transport her to the hospital without magic?" I inquired out loud. Luckily, the animals who were not just watching or playing with toys got me an old beat up cart from Fluttershy's tool shed. The bear lifted the buffalo carefully into the cart. I had to smack him across the head when he started drooling over the unconscious bovine.

Speaking about eating, Angel wouldn't let me leave until I had taken care of Fluttershy's feeding chores. I make short work of that because magic is a powerful multi-tasking tool after all. After that, I harnessed myself to the cart and made to the hospital. It was a grueling journey, especially given that I had been basically running around Ponyville all day checking the harmony state of ponies.

When I reached the hospital, the staff quickly took the buffalo off my hooves without asking any questions. Nurse Red Heart did tell me before I left that it would probably be forty-eight hours before the fractures healed and that she hadn't seen anyone this injured since Twilight's piano injury. While I knew the buffalo was badly injured, I did not think it was that bad. Even the worst injury for pegasi--broken wings--only takes twenty-four hours maximum to heal. I must admit I am not familiar with buffalo biology, but I trust the hospital staff know what they are doing.

Leaving hospital, I put all this behind me, forgetting all about the buffalo in turn for a more pressing concern--finishing the prince's list. The last pony who I needed to find was Bon Bon. I couldn't find her earlier, but I assumed I would find her by the end of the day. The sun was setting, and I was ready to get dinner and retire.

I trotted doggedly through the market square where farm ponies were already closing shop. The smell of apple pie stopped me in my tracks. A pony laughed at me.

"Ah can see yah're hungry," said Applejack.

I nodded absentmindedly.

"Yah know we are closed right," she said.

I nodded again, drool escaping from my mouth unbidden like some unicorn from the sticks.

"My family is havin' dinner soon, and we always like guests. Why don't yah join us?" the farm pony asked.

I nodded, paying more attention to the pie than to her. She suddenly shut the top of her food cart, waking me from my hunger stupor.

"Wait wha...what?" I stammered. "No, I can't. I have to work."

"Oh, yah look completely famished. A pony can't work on an empty stomach. And Twi tells me that yah an' her used to be friends back in Canterlot. Any friend of Twilight's is a friend of mine, and my family always treats a friend to dinner at least once."

Not resisting as much I probably should have, the rodeo pony successfully roped me into eating at her farm. Hopefully I can find Bon Bon on my way home.

Dinner Time 4.4: Too Many Guests?

Chapter Context: Of livestock and Pets 3.6, Dinner Time 4.1-4.3

4.1 Filthy Rich goes to the Apple family house for dinner with Flim and Flam uninvited on the pretext of having his daughter apologize. Free dinner is a perk of being a business partner with the Apple Family.

4.2 Sophia and Apple Bloom wash up after a long day. Apple Bloom is surprised to learn that Sophia parent is not a pony but 'something else.'

3.6, 4.2 Bon Bon joins Granny Smith and Big Mac for dinner after a long days work digging irrigation ditches. (Ze was invited in 3.6)

4.3 Applejack also has a guest, Lyra, who couldn't say no to food after her own long days work protecting the harmony of Ponyville. Lyra only has Bon Bon left on her list of ponies she needs to harmonize who are still in town.

-------------------------------------Apple Family Bathroom----------------------------------------

Apple Bloom dried off next to her new friend Wisdom. They had gone through a lot that day. She reflected how the little filly had almost won in a magic duel against an adult unicorn. The farmer did not know much about magic, but she knew that most unicorns didn't have that much control over magic at that age. From what she remembers from Twilight's lectures, which was not much, unicorns magic power is the combination of their focus, understanding, and talent.

Speaking of talents, Apple Bloom waved her hoof in front of Wisdom's face because her friend was staring at the bathroom wallpaper. She got to response from Wisdom. I guess her talent isn't focusing, Apple Bloom concluded.

"Applejack is home. Time to say goodbye to yer friend," Granny Smith called from the kitchen.

"Come on, Wisdom. It is time for dinner, and I am hungry," Apple Bloom said, but got noncommittal grunts from the unicorn.

The earth pony grabbed Wisdom's forehoof, but it was like she had glued it to the floor. Her second attempt involved using both hooves to pick the salt-and-pepper filly from the barrel. It was ineffective. It is like liftin' a boulder! On the third try, Apple Bloom moved away so she could get a run up before charging her friend. She didn't figure out if it would have worked because, in the middle of her charge, Applejack entered the bathroom to wash her hooves.

In a mess of limbs, the two sisters rolled into Wisdom whose unyielding form stopped them.

Applejack glared at her young sister.

"Apple Bloom, how often Ah told yah 'No ruf-housin' in the house'?!"

"But sister, Ah...," the filly began to protest, but Applejack stopped her.

"No buts. Now Ah want you to march to the table and think about what you done," the older sister commanded.

Apple Bloom felt betrayed by her friend. After untangling herself from Applejack, she turned to where Wisdom had just been only to find that the filly wasn't there anymore. Looking around, she got a glimpse of Wisdom exiting the bathroom and heading toward the kitchen. Apple Bloom chased after her friend, leaving a very disappointed Applejack to wash her hooves.

--------------------------------------Kitchen--------------------------------------------

"Ah said, 'do yer parents know yah here?'" Granny Smith hollered at the filly who had walked into the kitchen and began inspecting the various apple dishes she had prepared for dinner. For the second time, the unicorn didn't seem to hear her.

Plus, her coat still had black splotches on it even after washing up. Did parents teach their foals how to wash up properly anymore? Granny Smith complained internally.

Apple Bloom entered the room.

"Is yer friend deaf?" Granny Smith asked her granddaughter. Before she got her answer, Granny Smith began imitating hoof language. This seemed to get a reaction from the filly, though not one of understanding.

"No," Apple Bloom replied.

"What was that?" Granny Smith inquired, continuing her hoof language assault on the small filly.

"No!" Apple Bloom yelped.

"Apple Bloom, no yelling indoors. Ah thought we raised you better than this," Applejack reprimanded. This was the second to the last straw before Apple Bloom would break down in tears.

A knock came from the front door. Applejack and Apple Bloom went to answer it. On the way, they past Lyra who was talking to Bon Bon in the family room. From what Apple Bloom could observe, Wisdom's notebook absorbed the majority of Bon Bon's attention. Lyra looked just as frustrated as Apple Bloom, and, deep in the filly's heart, it pleased her that someone else was suffering.

-------------------------------------Front Door-----------------------------------------------

Opening the door, Filthy Rich's face greeted them with his typical overconfident smile.

"Hello, there," Rich said. Applejack returned the greeting.

"So why are you here, if you don't mind me asking?" Applejack inquired.

The business stallion put on a sad face.

"I was in the middle of an important business meeting when I learned from my gardener that my daughter intended to hurt a new pony who is friends with your daughter," Filthy Rich explained.

"Is that so?" Applejack asked her sister.

"Yeah, we met this new filly, Wisdom. Diamond Tiara had her gardener duel her. He used flowers against her even though she has bad allergies," Apple Bloom answered. Applejack felt ambivalent. On one hoof, her sister was being honest. On the other hoof, her friends were getting in fights, which explained Apple Bloom's earlier behavior in the bathroom.

"I feel very horrible about this and would like to apologize with my daughter to this filly and her parents. Do you know where they live?" Filthy inquired superfacially.

"Wisdom is here right now," Apple Bloom divulged.

"But where are her parents?" Filthy inquired again. The filly sweated nervously.

"Her mom is sleeping."

"Sleeping? At this hour?" Applejack asked, doubt entering her voice.

"She had an accident...and needs to sleep to recover."

"An accident, oh dear. What happened to the poor mare?" Filthy inquired. Apple Bloom trembled as the questions seemed to never end. She didn't want to explain that Wisdom's mom was in the barn and not a pony. While she felt betrayed by Wisdom's earlier behavior, she did not actually blame the pony. Apple Bloom knew the Wisdom was special.

"Too much smoking," Apple Bloom said, wincing at the incredulous nature of the statement.

"Smoking?" Applejack asked. She leaned into Apple Bloom squinting hard. It took all the filly's will to look her sister in the eyes.

"Yeah. Smoking it is bad fer yah, or yah'll end up in the hospital," Apple Bloom responded.

"Oh that is sad to hear," Filthy Rich said. "What about her father?"

"Um...Wisdom only said she had one parent," Apple Bloom said honestly.

"Well, tell Wisdom that she can have dinner with us," Applejack said, suspicious in her voice

The filly was about to return to the kitchen when a voice stopped her in her tracks.

"Dad, how long am I going to have to stand out in the cold?" complained a very familiar bratty filly.

"Oh, I forgot to ask, would it be a bother for us to join you for dinner tonight?" Filthy requested.

Applejack looked behind her and quickly counted their current guests. There was her guest Lyra, Granny's guest Bon Bon, and now Apple Bloom's guest Wisdom. The dining table could only seat eight ponies comfortably. She guessed that she could squeeze the fillies together.

Before Applejack could answer, Apple Bloom interjected.

"No!" she whined. "We have enough guests as it is."

Diamond Tiara huffed and pleaded to her father to get her inside. Lucky for Rich, Applejack came to his rescue.

"Now, Apple Bloom, that is not how we treat guests. Ah'm disappointed in yah," Applejack reprimanded her sister. "Yah know we Apples can never have enough guests fer dinner."

Ah wish Applejack knew what it was like get in trouble for doin' nothin' wrong, she screamed internally, knowing full well that talking back would just get her grounded.

"Now yah come in and we will mix yah up some grub," Applejack said, inviting the ponies in the house. Diamond Tiara smirked in triumph. Apple Bloom couldn't believe what was happening. Tears started welling up in her eyes, but suddenly, Applejack became rigid.

Filthy pulled at his collar nervously.

"I thought you wouldn't mind if I brought some of my future business partners. They are very interested in working with both of us. Do you know each other?" he wondered, trying to diffuse the situation.

"No! Not yah! Yer not welcome here," the farm pony shouted out the door. Apple Bloom saw that there were two familiar unicorn salesponies out there. One was unconscious for some reason. Ah know Applejack can get loud when she yells, but Ah never seen her knock a pony out before, Apple Bloom thought.

Granny Smith came into the room at the sound of yelling. When she saw the unconscious pony, she glared at Applejack.

"What Ah tell yah about fightin' in the house?" Granny asked, moving to comfort the poor unconscious pony.

"But...Ah didn...he was already," Applejack tried to reply. The anger was still stuck to her tone.

"And what is with all this yellin'," Granny continued. "Ah didn't raise yah in a barn. Yah were raised proper and Ah expect yah to act like it."

Applejack wilted under the gaze of the matriarch of the farm.

"Finally, what is this with not being hospitable? We Apples never turn down anypony who come to our house for dinner. Ah don't care if the guest is Discord himself, an Apple always treats her guest with hospitality," Granny finished.

Applejack froze from shock as all the reprimands. As the grandmother passed her daughter, she had one last thing to say.

"Ah am not mad at yah, Applejack, just very disappointed."

Applejack couldn't shift emotions fast enough to deal with all these reprimands at once. Apple Bloom thanked Celestia for this justice.

Flam carried his brother into the house with the help of Granny Smith.

"You have a lot of guests. You are sure you have room for all of us at your table?" the salespony asked, avoiding the topic of what just transpired.

"Have yah ever seen an Apple family reunion?" Granny responded, politely putting rudeness behind her.

"No," he said.

"What yah need to know is that we can feed all of yah and don't worry about seats," the matriarch assured.

Author's Note

Remember this is not a comedy. My position on the matter is that the status quo of pony culture is that they are prone hilarious misunderstandings. When we get to later sections of the story, it will become immediately obvious that this is a tragedy and very sad.

At least, I hope so.

Anyways, tell me what you thought about this chapter in the comments. There are probably grammar issues with this chapter, so I will get back to editing it tomorrow.

Dinner Time 4.5: The Fillies' Table

Author's Note

This isn't the Timeline and Glossary. There was a bug for some reason with the link and it sent some people to this chapter instead.

I wrote this all in a single sitting. Probably has a lot of problems, but after receiving so many unexplained dislikes over the last week, I am more interested in finishing this story than perfecting my grammar and lore consistency. If do spot mistakes, I will fix them. I will revise everything eventually to bring it up to the standards I want.

Revisions: Confused the name of the Magistracy with Dusk Shine's title. It is the Magistry of Magic and Science, not Harmony. He is the Prince of Harmony. Also, I accidentally called Twilight the princess of harmony rather than friendship. Sorry.

Dinner Time 4.5: The Fillies' Table

------------------------------Dining Room----------------------------

Lyra adjusted her tie before entering the dining room. The adult ponies were standing behind their respective chairs. The children had been sent to the kitchen where Big Mach had set up the 'Fillies' table'. The only exception was Flim who had joined the foals since he didn't seem well-enough for 'business talk.'

Lyra took a seat, sighing in relief. She had ran around town all day making sure ponies were harmonized. Luckily, Bon Bon, who was last on her list, ended up being at Applejack's.

The atmosphere of the room weighed down on the unicorn suddenly. Looking around, she noticed that all the other ponies were still standing behind their chairs. Worse, they were all glaring at her like she did something wrong.

"She doesn't know any better," Applejack and Granny Smith said simultaneously. Then they turned to stare at each other, and the oppressive atmosphere lifted from Lyra.

Everypony else seemed really uncomfortable standing around. Lyra didn't understand, and it surprised the unicorn that Bon Bon did.

Repetitive uses of the Mind Torch had seared much of the candy mare's intelligence, leaving her at a minimally functional state. It was certain that unless a new model of Mind Torch came out, that Bon Bon would have to be institutionalized.

Granny Smith and Applejack mirrored each other motions as they sat into their respective chairs at each end of the table. Sitting at the exact same time, everypony else sat down. Granny Smith and Applejack began filling their plates and then passed the food trays to the next pony to their right. Lyra was the last to receive a tray and there was only a filly's helping left.

"So Bon Bon was workin' on the farm today," Granny Smith said, initiating dinner conversation.

"Really?" Applejack asked. The farm mare studied Bon Bon, who had brought a little notebook with her to the table.

"Eeyup," Big Mac confirmed.

"What did you do on our farm, Bon Bon?" Applejack inquired further.

The questioned mare blinked a moment, processing the question. "Philosophy of holes," she replied.

"Filly softie what now?" Applejack was puzzled.

"Oh, Applejack, don't let the townmare get to you. That is just fancy talk for diggin' a ditch," Granny Smith explained.

"Why was she workin' in the irrigation ditches fer?"

"Because she wanted to, of course. While you were relaxing in town selling pies, Bon Bon did hard labor just like Ah did before we had livestock." Granny Smith's words had an palpable edge to them which made Lyra uncomfortable.

"Why would a townmare want to work with livestock?" The same edge appeared in Applejack's edge.

"Friend is livestock. Ze needs help digging holes. I want learn to. Good for zir. Good for me." Bon Bon explained in her broken Equestrian.

"Bon Bon, livestock are not pets. You don't make friends with livestock. Ah don't want to hear that you are playing with them again." Applejack was very serious. The farm mare basically doing Lyra's job.

"Let the mare be," Granny Smith said. The the assistant to Ponyville's Repersentative to the Magistracy of Magic and Science glanced at the elder with suspicion. "No harm can come from hard work. Does it really matter that she is doing it because she likes a bug?"

"A bug-" Applejack began, but Lyra interrupted.

"It is a big deal. It is important for the economy that animals do not get the idea that they are equal to ponies," Lyra said for the Granny Smith. Her hoof on her Mind Torch just in case she needed to use it.

"Why?" Bon Bon asked innocently.

"If livestock think they are equal, they will think they can do what ponies can do."

"So?" Bon Bon gave Lyra her undivided attention.

"If livestock do what ponies do, then ponies will be unhappy," Lyra explained. This left the farm mares confused, but Filthy Rich and Flam understood.

"Bon Bon, you have a talent, right?" Flam asked. Bon Bon blinked and nodded with uncertainty. "You know that there are only so many ponies that can have similar talents in Ponyville."

Bon Bon shook her head.

"Dear, there can only be so many candy mares in town before the competition gets out of control," Filthy said.

"What does this have to do with animals?" Bon Bon wondered.

"It has everything thing to do with animals. Our whole society is based on ponies living lives based on their Cutie Marks, and there are only enough Cutie Marks for do all the jobs necessary to keep Equestria at an economic equilibrium. If animals are allowed to do whatever they want, they take jobs from ponies," Lyra explained in an absolutely serious tone.

"Why bad?" Bon Bon barked, which surprised several ponies.

"Unhappy ponies is why. Cutie Marks tell ponies what they should do with their lives. If Applejack had Rarity's Cutie Mark, she would be making dresses because her Cutie Mark demand her to do it. If Applejack couldn't do what her Cutie Mark was telling her, she would become incredibly depressed. This means Equestria must make sure that she has a job available for her, and to do that, animals cannot be allowed to do anything that gets in the way of that. They must either be pets, who basically do nothing economic, or be livestock, who do hard labor that no pony would be happy to do."

"Animal's happiness?" Bon Bon wondered.

Lyra lifted an eyebrow. If Bon Bon hadn't been mind torched several times recently, Lyra would have taken her out of the room to recondition her right then.

"This is Equestria, not some backwater, chaotic non-equine country," Flam stated coldly. Filthy squirmed uncomfortably.

"The business unicorn is correct. This is Equestria, a country of ponies for ponies. We don't have to do anything for non-ponies," Lyra began. "But there is more to it. Anything that we let non-ponies do is a gift. They decide to immigrate to our country because there is Harmony here and disharmony where they live. We give them free food in return they don't compete with us for jobs. Those who can speak Equestrian are even given work on farms. They have no reason not to be happy."

Filthy coughed. "So did I ever tell you the story of how my daughter got her Cutie Mark?"

"We heard it, but they haven't. Yah should tell it, Filthy," Granny Smith urged.

Big Mac excused himself. Taking his unfinished plate, he exited to the kitchen.

--------------------------------------------------The Filly's Table--------------------------------------------------

"Ah hate the fillies' table," Apple Bloom whined. "Ah want to know what the adults are talkin' about."

At this, an unconscious adult unicorn fell on the farm filly.

"Diamond Tiara, stop it," Apple Bloom cried. She picked up the unicorn and sat him back up in his chair before an untouched plate. The school bully who sat on the other side of business stallion, took every opportunity to poke him, causing the tall unconscious pony to lean ever so slightly towards Apple Bloom. The farm filly had to poke the stallion back every time Diamond Tiara to correct his posture. It was quickly devolving into rapid fire kicks.

"Wisdom help!" Apple Bloom. The salt-and-pepper unicorn blinked and then cast a spell. Suddenly, the stallion didn't budge at all. It was as if the stallion became a beam cemented into the ground. Apple Bloom thanked Wisdom.

"What gives!" Diamond exclaimed. "What did that freak do?"

"She ain't a freak. She's Wisdom," Apple Bloom retorted. "Anyways she doesn't know what you said. She can't speak Equestrian."

"A pony who can't speak Equestrian is a freak." Diamond threw a bunch of insults at Wisdom only to get blinks and head tilts. "See a freak."

Apple Bloom took out a piece of paper that fillies and colts used at dinner to play tic-tac-toe and wrote a message to Wisdom.

What did you do? she asked.

Wisdom answered immediately with her own writing utensil. Grounding spell. Makes a person unable to be moved. I used it earlier when I was in the bathroom where I came up with it. I usually come up with my best ideas while washing up.

"That makes sense," Apple Bloom said, digesting this new information.

"What makes sense?" Diamond Tiara asked. She didn't like being left out.

"None of your bee's wax." The farm filly blew the bully a raspberry. Tell me more about your mother, she wrote.

My parent is a horsefly. Using emotions to shapeshift and then feed on your energy. Very rare species. What you say earlier was what they look like underneath their chitin. Ze teaches-

"That ain't no horsefly, that is a changeling," Apple Bloom exclaimed out loud.

"What is this about changelings? I demand you tell me what you two are talking about!"

"Again, none of your bee's wax!" Wisdom, do you realize that

"Apple Bloom!" bellowed a certain big brother.

------------------------------Dining Room----------------------------

"So it was Diamond's eighth birthday. My wife and I wanted it to be extra special, so I thought what would be more amazing than taking part of the fast trip across Equestria ever experienced by a pony ever." Filthy's story had quickly taken Lyra and Bon Bon's attention. "We considered train, pegasus, and airship, but all paled in comparison to the fastest form transportation known to ponykind."

"Teleportation," Lyra guessed.

Filthy nodded. "We had seen Princess Celestia teleport from Canterlot into the middle of Ponyville before, but there were no records of anypony, not even the princesses teleporting across the entire nation. When we asked the former librarian Dusk Shine if it was possible, he said no one unicorn or alicorn can handle such distances.

"Well, if one unicorn could no handle it, it was just a matter of getting multiple unicorns. Using the old Apple family reunion roads, which connect every corner of Equestria together (you can find them by looking for the Apple trees they plant along the way when they move to new villages like Appleoosa), we build little huts and employed hundreds of unicorn students from Manehatten and Fillydelphia off for the Summer break to teleport objects along these paths. Many of them were not good at teleportion when we hired them, so we had Dusk Shine give them lessons at a modest fee of supporting his projects in Canterlot."

"Dusk Shine, the Prince of Harmony, the Magister of Magic and Science? Giving lessons?" Lyra was genuinely surprised to hear that her boss did something like this.

"The same. He was such a helpful stallion and business partner," Filthy replied with a small chuckle. "Back to the story, ahem."

"We performed experiments first before we were going to do it on my daughter. We couldn't do ponies because the whole point was that Diamond would be the first, so we settle for fruit. First time, we tried an apple and it turned into an orange. According to Dusk Shine, even the most talented unicorn slightly distorts the object they teleport, though it is usually so slight as to be negligible. It took a month to figure out that one unicorn was using the wrong spell as a prank.

"With the hiccup in our teleportion fixed, we were ready to give our daughter an experience nopony has ever had before. The wife said goodbye to a brown filly with no cutie mark in Manehatten and I greeted a pink filly with a diamond tiara cutie mark in Appleoosa. We had to do blood tests just to make sure she was actually our daughter. And that is how our little princess did something not even the Princesses ever did."

"Better than the Princesses?" Lyra asked, summoning her Disharmony report pad.

"I didn't say that." Filthy Rich pulled at his collar. Sweat visibly ran down his temples. "Did I mention that Dusk Shine was a fan of my project?"

Lyra banished the report pad. If Dusk Shine is okay with Filthy Rich's behavior, then there is no reason to report him, she reasoned.

Granny Smith broke out in laughter. "That story always cracks me up. Your grandpa would be proud, Filthy."

Filthy thanked the matriarch. Finishing the last bit of food, he addressed Flim. "Why don't you tell them about our proposal while I talk to my daughter about that apology?"

Flim nervously agreed while Filthy mechanically left the table, carefully avoiding eye contact with Lyra.

--------------------------------------------------The Filly's Table--------------------------------------------------

"Ugh, Big Mac, ugh, why are yah here?" Apple Bloom deflected. The large stallion grumbled before plopping down in a spare seat. He was never one for many words.

"That bad?"

"Eeyup." Big Mac chomped down on a carrot and twirled it in his mouth while he thought.

"Um, Big Mac, you got anything against bug ponies?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Nope." Big Mac raised an eyebrow higher than the filly thought possible.

"Would you panic if you met one?"

"Nope."

"Have you ever met one?"

"Eeyup."

"Recently?"

"Eeyup."

"Was her name Ever?"

"Eeyup."

"No panicking when you met her?"

Big Mac took a moment to finish his carrot before frowning. He remembered Granny Smith and his response to their new livestock.

"Bad?"

"Nope," Big Mac frown deepened.

"Badder?"

"Worse, you hick," Diamond Tiara corrected.

Big Mac merely chewed on a piece of celery. He had nearly forgotten that they had came inches from squashing the poor horsefly or changeling or whatever she was.

Apple Bloom became scared. "Well, um Wisdom's mom is this bug pony."

"I knew she was a freak!" DT shouted.

Big Mac chewed on this.

"She will have to get back to her mom later tonight."

"Her mom was that egg in the barn. She almost died. Wisdom thinks it was emotional stress."

Big Mac took another piece of celery and really began to masticate his vegetables. His mind tried to wrap around what he was learning.

"Ah am worried what would happen if other ponies met Wisdom's mom. Ah don't want Wisdom to lose her only parent. What do you think would happen if Applejack learned about Ever?"

Big Mac swallowed prematurely.

"What would Applejack do, exactly?" Diamond Tiara asked.

"Yah remember how she went on and on about changelings after the wedding. She was bought so much bug spray from yer dad that we got a shed full of it. She would spray all of us every night until we convinced her that ain't no more changelings. It was worse than her dislike of fruit bats," Apple Bloom explained.

"So what are you going to do?" Diamond grinned as she gleaned more information.

"We need someone to take Wisdom to the barn where Wisdom is while pretending she is going to town, and we are going to hide this from Applejack. She barely talks to the livestock anymore, leaving the mules and Granny to manage them. Applejack will never know."

"What is to stop me from telling her myself?"

"Yah wouldn't kill a pony! We would have to be sprayed every night again!" Apple Bloom replied shocked.

"I am not killing a pony. A bug is a different story. And it would be hilarious to see you two getting bug sprayed." Memories of Diamond Tiara and Silverspoon tormenting ant hills with fireworks came to mind.

Big Mac didn't respond, picking up another carrot to chomp on. He needed to think, not worry about fillies squabbling. Wisdom had the same idea for a long time and had been eating her food in quiet contemplation.

"If yah say anything, Ah will tell Lyra on your father's less-than-harmonious beliefs!" Apple Bloom said. As an Apple, she had gotten to hear a lot of Filthy's ideas during their business meetings. To put it simply, the stallion literally believed his daughter could become a princess. Earth ponies were not supposed to have the ambitions of gifted unicorns as it would lead to competition between the races and, therefore, disharmony.

"There is no need for that when we could strike a deal," spoke a calm but very serious voice of a business stallion.

------------------------------Dining Room----------------------------

Flim began to sing and then realized his brother wasn't present. This made him a bit nervous because he then.

"Ahem, so I was saying. I am suggesting that we become partners during the next cider season," Flim said plainly.

"Yah needed a whole song to say that?" Applejack was incredulous.

"Ponies are easily persuaded by song and dance numbers. If you do business, you take every advantage you can get." Flim waved off criticism.

"Why yah think we need yer help in cider season?" the matriarch inquired.

"I have seen the lines for your cider. You either have to increase your prices--"

"Not going to happen." Applejack was adamant on this point.

"As Filthy explained to me. Or you will have to increase your production. The demand for cider is higher than you are producing. There is money to be made. If you let us help you make cider, we can easily make ten times as much as you did last year. With Filthy Rich's help, we can get excess all the way to Neighara Falls."

"Again, what makes yah think we let you help us with your machines and magic?" Applejack asked. If anypony had to describe Applejack as something other than honest, they would all say stubborn.

"I know for a fact that you haven't gotten help from other ponies, unicorns in fact. Last cider season, it was a unicorn who did the vast majority of the picking during our competition to which you agreed. Filthy informed me that you barely harvested your fields during Applebuck season because your brother was injured. It was again due to a unicorn who did more work than you did in moments that you finished on time. Last time I checked, magic was not a traditional earth pony way of harvesting. So I cannot see how our ways of doing things should be an issue for you."

He got Applejack, but she wasn't about to give up. "They were family."

"You are claiming a unicorn as your family? Last I checked the Apple Family were all earth ponies," Flim said. Filthy prepared Flim and Flam for these reponses, knowing Applejack and their farm inside and out.

"Who is this unicorn exactly that I keep hearing about?" Lyra inquired, summoning her report book again. Her squinting stare at Applejack spoke of the utmost suspicion.

"Twilight. Now put that away," Applejack said, commanding Evening Glimmer's deputy.

"Princess Twilight, the princess of Friendship, bearer of the Element of Magic. Your friend. I find no issue with this," Lyra stated, banishing her notebook again.

"As Ah was sayin', my friends are honorary family, which you accepted during our little bet," Applejack said.

"I had no intention with disagreeing with you here. I mostly wanted to point out how willing you are to bend traditions to fit your circumstances much likes us business stallions." Flim took a sip of water. He was not used to this kind of deal making and wished Filthy would return soon. "So let us make this clear, do you consider friends family?"

"That is what Ah said, and Ah stand by it," Applejack stated adamantly.

"Do you consider anypony who does work on your farm family?"

"Except when Ah let yah borrow our apples for our competition, yeah anypony else is considered family."

Flim blinked. He was hoping to catch her on that. Applejack looked satisfied.

Filthy reentered the room, sat down, and had a private whispered conversation with Flim. He took in the information of what he missed. He then coughed into his napkin and began to speak. "Applejack do you consider the friends of your friends friends?"

Applejack nodded.

"Do you consider me a friend? We have done business with the Apple family for more than a generation."

Applejack didn't respond.

"We are friends," Granny Smith said on her granddaughters behalf.

"Well, Flim and his brother Flam are my friends, so I guess this makes them your friends too."

Applejack didn't respond.

"Ah reckon yah are right," Granny Smith said with a small smile. There was a reason she liked Filthy; the stallion had a head on his shoulders. If he was forty years older and she hadn't already given her heart to somepony else, she might have fallen in love with him.

"Which would make them your family," Filthy said while correcting his tie.

"Again, ah reckon yah are right."

"Applejack couldn't possible disagree unless she was lying before," Filthy finished with a victorious smirk.

Applejack seethed. She hated Filthy. She couldn't stand him as a filly. If she ever found a stallion that she loved, he would be the opposite of Filthy in every way.

"Ah guess all there is left is the details," the matriarch said.

"Could we talk about this first?" Applejack asked. Filthy excused himself again, got up, and pushed in his chair. Taking his plate, he entered the kitchen.

"What questions do you have?" Flim asked.

"Could we talk about this?" Applejack repeated.

"Oh," Flim uttered before getting up and pushing in his chair quickly. Bon Bon mirrored the motions and followed them into the kitchen to put away their plates.

Lyra sipped her water observing what was going on. Applejack rubbed a hoof against her temple for the behavior of her guest.

"Lyra, you are excused," Applejack stated as politely as she could manage.

The unicorn looked confused before it clicked. She got up, leaving her chair and plate behind. The unicorn went to the front door, picking up her tin foil hat and suit before leaving.

When the door shut, Applejack sighed.

"Canterlot ponies don't know any better. Remember Dusk Shine's first time?" Granny Smith reminisced.

"Twilight was even worse. She thought Big Mac was a servant." Applejack smirked at the memory of the socially clumsy mare.

The humor helped the matriarchs of the Ponyville branch of the Apple Family ease into what would be a long, stressful night of discussing the future of the farm. Not to mention, Applejack was still recovering from a tongue lashing she received at the front door earlier.

------------------------------Fillies' Table (Kitchen)----------------------------

"What kind of deal?" Apple Bloom asked, failing at a poker face.

Filthy chuckled a bit before returning back to his slick old self.

"The deal is I do something for you, and no pony talks to the government dog," Filthy explained.

"The government dog?" Apple Bloom asked, her ears flattening against her head in nervousness.

"Lyra," Filthy answered. He turned to his daughter. "Is there something your friends need?"

"They need someone to take the freak to her mother and make sure Applejack doesn't know who the freak's equally freaky mother is," DT replied quickly.

"Freak?"

"Wisdom," Apple Bloom answered.

"And what is so strange of her mother?"

"She is a changeling," DT answered this time before Apple Bloom could stop her.

Filthy leaned against the wall. Closing his eyes, he chuckled for a good minute.

"Yah ain't going to hurt her? Tell Applejack about the changeling, right?"

Filthy shook his head. "I would sooner sell my business at book value than hurt such a glorious creature of change and possibility."

Diamond Tiara did not like any talk of setting her inheritance away. The other ponies, on the other hoof, did not know what to think of the response.

"Let us sweeten the deal then. I will take care of Wisdom, make sure she gets to her parent without Applejack knowing about anything. In return, all I ask that this changeling visit me for a small get-together at my mansion next week."

Extending a hoof to the filly, Apple Bloom considered the offer. She did not feel comfortable accepting deals as she was the second daughter, so the right to accept deals were really Applejack's right.

Big Mac took the hoof.

"Between us business stallions then?"

"Eeyup."

"Very well," Filthy said. Turning back to his daughter, he reminded her that they were going to apologize to the changeling. He chuckled one more time to himself before returning to the dining room.

Apple Bloom returned to talking to Wisdom on paper.

Diamond Tiara groaned. It was late, and she was exhausted. The filly didn't look forward to 'apologizing' to some freaks. Worst of all, her friend Silverspoon wasn't here.

"Tic Tac Toe?" Big Mac offered the little filly.

At least, she should wouldn't be left out.

Side Chapter: Love in Nine (Unedited)

Author's Note

(This is a pre-edit. I am doing this because I want to get it out before the holiday for my fans.)
This Equestria is dark. Never forget that.

There were five rough rules for this chapter.
1) None of the characters could have already appeared in my story.
2) No names are to be used for the characters, even if they are easy to be guessed.
3) It will alternate between boy and girl.
4) No two chapters about a pony in a row.
5) Each character must have strong feelings for someone or something which differs in nature from those of the other chapters, except for the first and last.

I wanted to make all the chapters based on named characters in the show, but I ran into trouble with the livestock. Sure there is Daisy Jo, but I wanted a male character and the plight of the sheep seemed interesting.

And before you ask, I do things like this all the time when coming up with the structure for a chapter.

Side Chapter: Love in Nine (Unedited)

1: The Queen of Hearts Act 1

"There is also madness in not repeating what has failed before."

The queen took her seat in preparation for her favorite play. Her children had worked so hard to make it perfect.

The lights dimmed, and the curtains were drawn. The queen could see the set for the first scene. A house stood on each end of the stage, one red and the other blue. In the middle stood a bridge.

There were six actors on stage, paired off at the three different structures. Under the red house to the right was the Duke of Light and his maid. Under the blue house to the left, the Duchess of Velvet and her butler stood. Under the bridge in the center was the Queen of Hearts and her drone adviser.

A spotlight shined on a drone who told the audience that the play was a tragedy of the loved. Then the spotlight expanded to include the Queen of Hearts, who spoke passionately about coming to a new city so full of love, hopeful to start her family. The drone advised that she not get ahead of herself and focus on finding love first.

Agreeing, the Queen began her search. Looking to the right, she saw the Duke. A spotlight moved to him as he began to talk to his maid. It was evident to the audience that the Duke loved things organized in lists. The maid encouraged him to go out more and meet a mare for the upcoming Grand Galloping Gala, but he insisted has no time in his schedule. The spotlight moved as the Queen turns her attention to the other side of the stage where the Duchess begins to talk. It was very obvious that the Duchess does not focus but prefers to contemplate the mysteries of magic. Her butler insists that she should dedicate some time to finding a stallion for the upcoming ball. The Duchess makes a positive grunt but no one in the audience believes she actually intends to look for love with any commitment.

The spotlight refocuses on the drone and zir Queen who says that she has two great opportunities to begin gathering energy for her new family. The drone asks which one she will be pursuing. The Queen laughs at the foolishness of her advisor, saying that she doesn't need to pick between them if she can pursue both at the same time. The Queen has the bright idea of using the Duchess's form to court the Duke and the Duke's for the Duchess. The drone is very skeptical of the plan. Thus begins the action.

As the Duke crosses the bridge, the Queen gets out of under the bridge in the form of the Duchess and puts herself in his way. Too busy looking at his notes and schedules, he runs over the Queen. His papers are lost into the current of the water below. The Queen apologizes profusely and offers to buy the stallion a meal for his trouble. He tries to decline but she insists.

During their meal, the Queen pretends to be the Duchess by talking about the mysterious of magic in a disjointed manner. The Duke doesn't lack her lack of focus, blaming that lack for why they ran into each other in the first place. The Queen acts more focused while still maintaining her character. The willingness to change causes the Duke to blush a bit because no mare had done that for him.

Her drone took the form of the butler and stands next to the maid. They don't get along.

After that, the Queen does the same thing with the Duchess but in the form of the Duke. The mare runs into the Queen much like the Duke had, but in her case she loses track of a particularly important piece of the puzzle of magic. Angry, the duchess starts complaining about the Queen spending too much time looking at his notes to pay attention to the road. Again, the Queen invites them to eat lunch.

The Queen starts off talking about the importance of schedules and note taking. This causes the Duchess to become angrier as it was this same behavior that had cost Equestria the most brilliant theory of magic ever. The fake duke apologizes and 'tries' to be more casual. This causes the mare to blush as no stallion had ever care enough to actually change in response to her criticism.

Her drone took the form of the maid and stands next to the butler. They don't get along

The meal ends and the Queen rejoins her drone underneath the bridge to talk about the results. The drone says that there was no love and that the Queen should really focus on one. She scoffs at the foolishness of her adviser and says that he just can't see the seeds of love growing. She orders the drone to watch for the royal ponies next day and warn her of their coming.

The lights go out and music plays indicating it is the next day. The first to leave their house is the Duchess who comes to the bridge, looking for something. The adviser tells zir Queen of her guest, and she emerges from under the bridge as the Duke. He (the Queen) makes some excuse about why he was under the bridge. The Duchess gives him a curious look before becoming distracted by all the things she wants to talk about.

The fake duke eagerly listens, saying that his schedule is flexible. They have a conversation a bunch of different things, mostly magic and schedules. The Duchess finds herself charmed by his orderliness, and asks if he will meet her at the upcoming ball. He agrees happily. The words 'Love' and 'Trust' on strings manipulated by changelings in the rafters above the stage float from the Duchess to the Queen.

After the Duchess leaves, the Duke comes to the bridge and the Queen makes a quick change. Again, it is the same thing just reversed. The Duke becomes charmed by the false duchess's ruminations. The words 'Love' and 'Joy' float from the Duke to the Queen. The real duke says he wants to meet the Duchess again and quickly makes his departure to his house.

The drone joins zir queen on the bridge and congratulates her on successfully forming a love bond with two ponies at the same time. 'Truly a marvel fitting for the Queen of Hearts.' The Queen makes a comment that the two royal ponies are not the only ones falling in love.

Before the drone can ask what the Queen means, the maid crosses the bridge carrying a letter from her master. The two changelings quickly duck under their bridge to hide. The maid makes her way to the Duchess of Velvet's blue house. The butler opens the door with a frown, seeing the servant he hates. The maid announces that the Duke of Light invites the Duchess to Grand Galloping Gala. The butler closes the door shortly and then opens it to say that his mistress accepts the invitation though she was certain that she invited him already.

The lights go out and a spotlight appears over the adviser again. Ze narrates the current problem and the Queen’s ignorance of the upcoming trial of love. The curtains close for the intermission.

The queen in the audience gave great applause to her children's great performance so far.

2: Distant Love

"When you love somepony, you become somepony different."

All the gray unicorns stood in a line flanked by white pegasi and white earth ponies. They marched through Manehattan, flew through the skies of Cloudsdale, and shielded walls of Canterlot. No inch of Equestria did not know the hoof of the Royal Guard, sworn to protect the princesses and do their bidding.

Something, or in this case somepony, was not like the others. Among the almost completely identical male troopers, a white unicorn marched. This stallion did not have the destiny of a replaceable guard.

The stallion in question didn't think too much about why he was the only unique one in the army. Instead, he was focused on catching the eye of the one he loved.

The unusual guard had only seen a picture of her, but it became immediately obvious to him that his destiny was to marry this mare. She was a beautiful pink alicorn princess. He knew he would have to strive to be the stallion such a mare deserved.

Fortunately for him, he was on the fast track to becoming the Captain of the Royal Guard. There were indeed benefits from standing out.

3: Pride

"Ponies make plans, and the princess laughs."

They grew up fast out West. She was only four years old and already considered wise enough to be an elder. The peace treaty between the buffalo and the Apples could have been her coming-of-age test if she wasn't still young. All the different apple foods would be a boon to my family, but they would need more if we were going to move forward in this magic filled world, she reasoned.

One day, the ponies offered to teach the buffalo their ways. Not only was the young buffalo more than willing to learn, she wanted to prove to the chief that she was fit to become a leader. With a blessing from the chief, she left on the pony's train. She had attacked a train before but never ridden in one. On the ride, she dreamed of all the amazing stories of magic and heroism she would learn. Perhaps she could take their ways of magic back to protect her people.

She arrived in Fillydelphia where the ponies led her to Apple Core's Non-Equine Industrial School. It was a very utilitarian building, and by the looks of it, still in construction. There were even beds outside the dorms where there weren't enough rooms for the buffalo and other non-equines.

The teachers there broke her three expectations of what happens at a school based on what the ponies had told her. The first was that they would focus on teaching her new things. Instead, they focused on making her forget what she had been taught. They gave her a new more Pony name, forbidding her from using her birth name. The teachers told her to give up all her stories, customs, and beliefs for pony ones. Worst of all, she was forbidden to contact her parents. The only way to see one's parents during one's four years at the school was to be very sick or for the parents to petition Canterlot that they have their kid for the harvest season. The latter was near impossible and the former happened occasionally as disease ran rampant in the school during the winter months (sleeping outside didn't help).

The second expectation was that she would be learning magic and pony stories. While there were history lessons, they mostly could be summarized as 'in this period there was peace and ponies were very happy they were ruled by the princesses.' Even the pre-Harmony period was boring. The ponies had all these powerful creatures attacking them, and all of them were defeated in seconds by the Elements of Harmony. Ponies always win.

Instead of magic and awesome stories of heroes, they were taught 'useful' skills that would get them jobs in an Equestrian society. Most of non-equines were asked to do majority of the labor in constructing school facilities. Some of them like her went into the city to be maids for pony families. The maids were expected to be quiet and dress in the clothes appropriate for their new role. Those who couldn't get those jobs were sent to the farms to work with the livestock either as ranchers or livestock themselves.

The last expectation was that she would learn something that could help her tribe. Aside from ranching, the job skills didn't translate to tribe life. In fact, they detracted from it. The young buffalo couldn't take anything she had learned back and claim she had become strong enough to be an adult.

That was true until the ponies introduced her to hoofball. She was great at them not just as a player but a team leader. With non-equines of all kinds behind her back, she showed the ponies a completely new way of playing their sports. They were so good that the lesser ponies claimed they cheated because 'no pony could possibly be that good without proper equipment and any sport cutie marks.' The non-equine coach that worked at the Industrial school defended the buffalo's unorthodox tactics the whole way to Nationals. Before the princesses, the young buffalo from west of Appleoosa proved that non-equines could beat ponies, and at their own game. The princess herself had given her the trophy. The trophy had a miniature pony carrying a ball at its top making victory pose.

The princess gave a speech afterwards. The gist of it was 'when ponies come together to play games, no matter who wins, all ponies win.' Ponies always win.

The school allowed her team to return to their homes for a short holiday. On the tribe, the fantasized about how proud the chief would be to see her as a warrior leader. When she returned, the buffalo relearned the one lesson she should have memorized after the first day: expectations are meant to be broken.

The ponies' friendship had eaten away her people. The ponies have given the buffalo cider but taken their pride through addiction. The ponies had given them education but taken their calves like her. The ponies had given the buffalo Harmony but taken their fighting spirit, leaving them incapable of defending against the hostile tribes further west. The only escape from their depression and new found weakness was into waiting hugging hooves of ponies.

The buffalo girl could not face her beloved family while they were like this. She ran back to Equestria but not to school. She was going to stop the Harmony by fighting the princesses. She did the only thing she knew how and threw their trophy with its little pony figurine at the princess. The guards didn't see it coming and the princess was knocked out, blood tainting her perfect white fur.

The guards eventually caught the wily buffalo and put her into jail-cart. The warrior laughed manically all the way to the local jail where they would keep her for the night before transporting her to the new prison in Canterlot. Ponies can lose.

A crow sang outside her cell window. She did not go to the capital the next day. The guards found the jailer unconscious and the bars of the buffalo's cell seared off.

4: Narcissism

"The ponies took solace in that there would only be one pony like the current prince of royals. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them, the princess reasoned."

One day the prince was walking around the palace carrying a mirror, enraptured by his own beauty.

While he was a prince, he was not an alicorn. Better for the rest of ponykind, as they probably couldn't handle his ego for an eternity. His job was merely to make sure that the other princes and princesses were well cared for. It was easier than it seemed as extended lifespans had come with greater self-reliance. One stopped relying on others when one knew they would fade away in what seemed like a blink of an eye. Only one princess really invested in educating and preparing retainers and even then, she did most of the work for her students.

This left the prince with his other two duties. First was making sure he looked dashing at all angles and at all times. If this meant letting cake fall on a mare, so be it, he believed. The second giving blood samples to the princess's scientists for the future prosperity. She assured him that it would give him the agelessness that he could not achieve through Harmony magic. The other royals valued that the prince would go to any lengths to preserve his image in Equestrian history.

Another day the prince was walking around the palace looking around, enraptured by his own beauty.

5: Love of Life or Contentment

"We enjoy life not because we are used to enjoyment but because we are used to life."

Being a pet cat had its perks. You slept all day, ate regularly, and never had to worry about being eaten by larger predators. This cat knew this and didn't really accept anything as a downside. Sure the new pets grumbled about domestication process and not being able to live their lives independent of their others, but they would learn that this was a merely them misunderstanding a blessing as curse.

Decisions are difficult. You have to pick between two things you could have. Ponies take the stress of decision-making away from their pets. Anyways, you can still do almost anything you want and get away with it. Yesterday, I clawed my master's face and tore one of her dresses apart. She screamed but didn't punish me.

The cat watched out the window at the busy ponies, contentment emanating from her throat in the form of a purr.

6: Friendship

"Chaos accepts us, but will we accept chaos."

He was the only one of his kind in the world. Lived long enough to get over that, but he did throw a bit of tantrum when he realized. Like the ponies, he had penchant for changing reality to what he saw fit. It was unfortunate that there wasn't room for two realities in the same world.

One day the ponies had taught him friendship and had him renounce the reality had wished upon the world because it was incompatible with said friendship. He didn't give up his ways easily. He took frequent vacations to the South Continent were things were slightly more to his liking, but only slightly. He preferred chaos that he himself caused. Plus, all the suffering was a buzz kill.

He stopped going on vacations when someone was making things actually interesting in Equestria. Not interesting like those two-bit villains who were crushed by friendship in twenty minutes or less. No, this was a thinker who took their time and who didn't work alone. He made sure to meet this individual while the pet trainer wasn't paying attention.

Because of his friendship with the ponies, he couldn't get involved directly. He did promise not to tattle on the rebel to the princesses. The biggest fear he had was 'would he have to pick a side after this was all said and done.'

7: Parental Love

"What we like is what we know."

Two pegsasi, a stallion and a filly, had entered Rainbow Falls Traders Exchange. He knew anything and everything could be traded here. Was it out of desperation or greed that the stallion sold her? The filly would never know. All she knew was that he left the exchange flying.

The filly was made to scrubbed the floors of an aristocratic family in Canterlot. It didn't take her long to accept the destiny of a servant. There was not much more to pegasi lives than doing what unicorn nobles told them to do, but she hoped that her cutie mark would not be cleaning-related. To get through the hardship of being separated from her family and home, the filly developed many coping mechanisms.

Her owners had a foal. They needed a sitter and she was chosen. The pegasus gladly took the new responsibility as it freed her from some of her prior chores. Caring for a foal had been much harder work but she had a deep-seated desire to be good at it. This may or may not be related to another pony in her life being very bad at raising a foal. She was almost convinced that her special talent was foalsitting after she had shown such a knack for it.

Instead her destiny was completely unexpected for herself, her owners, and the Princess. One day, she had just been walking down the street after getting groceries for the master when she noticed a stallion and a mare arguing. Instead of walking by, the servant urged them to make up. When they continued to yell at each other, the filly began to panic. Memories she wished repressed had resurfaced unbidden. A reality she didn't want to face, couldn't face had reared its ugly head in the form of two acquaintances of the opposite gender fighting. She tried her breathing exercises she had developed for situations like this, but they failed.

Something else had to be done to fix the problem. A happy place needed to exist. One just like in her mind, but in reality.

This had led to a revelation of sorts. A reevaluation that pegasi don't have because they don't have magic. A revelation about replacing other people's reality with their own.

With revelation came power. With power came a new form. The form of an alicorn who could impose her understanding of love upon the world. No stallion and mare would ever fight around her. Come two feet away from each other with critical words and they would find themselves with new feelings they always had.

8: Reciprocal Love

"In running away, we often find ourselves back where we started."

Sheep were never asked or told anything. They were always forced. The ponies sent their dogs barking at them in order to corralled them into their pens. All Equestrian farms that raised livestock were like this.

In exchange of the sheep's obedience and a part of their body at regular intervals, they are given small pins in which to sleep and fields in which to feed for the entirety. During the winter, the sheep just stood back and watched as ponies walked around in their hair and eating warm food.

To say this ram was a little angry about the life he had was to put it lightly. He made sure to escape the first time he could. Unfortunately, the ponies were willing to abandon everything just to find a single sheep.

The ram had heard stories passed in song among the sheep of a road invisible to ponies made by those who wanted to change Equestria. One only needed to see the patterns.

Running for all the ram was worth, he finally spotted one of the patterns on a quilt outside a log cabin beside the Everfree Forest. The owner was a mare to the ram but he had to trust her if he was going to escape to the west where the buffalo lived free of Harmony. Getting inside, the mare threw a blanket over him. He panicked thinking he was tricked, but she told him to calm down and be quiet.

The animal catchers with their animal catching cutie marks knocked on the door. The ram stared through the fabric to see the ponies asking the cabin-dweller if she had seen a lost sheep. The mare made quite the performance of bemoaning the loss of livestock and promising resolutely that she would report if she saw anything.

After they left, the ram got up ready to continue my journey but the mare told me to rest. She made food from a small stash of vegetables she stored in a cabinet. There wasn't enough for more than a day or two. The ram didn't want to impose on the pony who had helped him, old instincts telling him to take from ponies. The mare assured him that his thanks was more than enough.

During the meal, the mare ate nothing, content with just watching the sheep eat the meal she had prepared. He asked if she wanted some, but she insisted that she had already ate. The ram thought she was being dishonest but didn't want to contradict a pony. Ponies put sheep into pens and she could easily turn him into the animal catchers if he offended her, the ram assumed.

After the meal, she prepared a bed for him. It was the only bed in the cabin. He hadn't ever been in a pony bed before, having always slept in an animal pen. Again, he felt like he was imposing, but she insisted that as long as he was comfortable, so was she. He fell asleep with her green eyes watching him.

Knock knock knock

He didn't want to wake up, but when he realized it could be the animal catchers, he quickly got out of the pony's bed. She told him to hide underneath it with the blanket.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK

Whoever it was, the ram knew they wanted in and they wanted in now. He was certain that he was caught.

The mare unlocked the door only to have it burst open. The royal guard stormed in neat lines of white and gray. Finally, one walked in that did not look like the others. He was a yellow pegasus and was in charge. Sticking out of his saddlebag was a picture of a purple alicorn that the sheep had seen before on his farm before.

The ram shook in fright. The pegasus asked questions of his benefactor. Every time she would respond, he would ask the next question faster, louder, and angrier than before. After the fourth question, he was done and bucked the mare in the mouth. This sent her flying into the cabin wall and then onto her bed.

When the guards the picked up the body of his benefactor, it was not of a mare but some bug pony. The guards with their prisoner exited the cabin. The pegasus was the last to leave. The ram whimpered, causing the pegasus to stare in his direction. There was a long moment before the leader of the guard unit assumed he was just hearing things. The guard left and closed the door behind him.

The ram took a few hours to get out of under the bed. He saw the indent in the log where presumably his benefactor had hit it earlier. He puked, losing the meal the mare...the bug pony had made for him.

He felt weak. He felt like he couldn't run anymore. He felt like he could faint. He had to live though. For the sacrifice that was made for him by his benefactor.

The ram collected the food he wouldn't have to cook from the bug pony's cabinet, and he just kept putting one hoof in front of another.

He never expected that at the end of his trek to the land where the buffalo roam that another bug pony give him the opportunity to go back and save the one who had saved him. They needed everyone they could get to change Equestria.

9: The Queen of Hearts Act 2

"We tell stories so history doesn't repeat itself."

The queen got her snack and rejoined the audience. The play resumed shortly afterwards.

The curtains raise and the drone narrates that they are now at the Grand Galloping Gala and that the Queen is running late.

The set had been remade into a ballroom with a balcony in the center. The Duke and Duchess stood on either side of the room, both afraid to make the first move. They finally both agreed that the servants should go first. The maid and the butler meet at the balcony and begin talking about their respective masters. Strangely, they find each other charming, a complete contrast from before. It becomes quickly evident to the audience that the maid and butler are falling in love while the royal ponies pine in their respective corners.

Finally both ponies give up on their servants and meet in the middle. At this point, the servants leave the balcony to the Duke's side while the royals go to the Duchess's side. The royals talk and start saying things which get on each other nerves with their respective antics. Before they can completely ruin their opinion of each other, the Duke of Light is announced to the Gala...for the second time.

This causes the royal ponies and their servants to become silent. The false duke meets the couple. The real duke accuses the other as an impostor while the false makes no excuse for himself. The Duchess of Velvet suggests that she ask them questions only the real duke would know. The Queen obviously gets them all right while the real Duke fails miserably. The Duchess gallops into her lover's hooves to protect herself from the 'impostor'.

At this moment, the princess of the ponies comes to see what is wrong. The real Duke explains the situation and the princess is surprised about this because she has never seen such perfect disguise before. Casting a spell, she reveals the Queen's true form. The royals and their servant then become very angry at the Queen. The words 'hate' and 'fear' hanging on strings manipulated by changelings on the rafters move from the ponies to the Queen.

Queen screams out as if she was being mutilated. Betrayed by her lovers’ emotions, the Queen of Hearts flees out the balcony window with her adviser.

With the Queen gone, the Gala resumes. The servants begin discussing what happened. They eventually realize that their respective masters have actually never met each other until the Gala. This revelation ends the scene.

The curtains close as the changelings remake the set. When they open, the audience is greet to the familiar sight of the two houses and the bridge.

The scene begins with the Queen of Hearts and her adviser on the bridge. She bemoans the painful existence of a being who needs people to care for her in order to get the energy needed to live. Her adviser tells her that with love often comes tragedy. The Queen then renounces love as starts pounding her chest, causing a cracking noise.

The lights fade on the queen and turn to both houses. In their respective houses, the masters are explaining how their love is not the same. They remember their love being a pony more willing to change, but instead they have inflexible, self-absorbed caricatures. The servants sympathize too well.

The servants then explain to their respective masters that their true love is the creature that fled the Gala by wing. This revelation causes both the Duke of Light and the Duchess of Velvet to cry in anguish of their grave mistake. They both rush out of their homes and towards the bridge.

The lights are still on the houses and all is dark on the bridge. The two royal ponies are lost in the darkness and all that can be heard is a cracking sound.

The real duke and duchess call out for the creature they love but do not know the real name.

She responds, "The one you loved was the Queen of Hearts. She is no more."

With that, there is a sound of glass shattering. A glowing green flame in the same of a heart appears. First the fire illuminates the Queen and then the Duke and Duchess. The royal ponies' faces were of pure horror.

"I am now the The Heartless Queen!" she exclaims as the hole where her heart should be. She throws the flame heart into the current below. The two ponies rush to the edge of the bridge, ready to fetch the heart, but the water explodes as dozens of changeling drones emerge from the water ready to follow their queen.

The ponies cry out to their real love, but there love (represented by words on strings) passes through the queen and burns to nothingness. The Heartless Queen flies away with her children, leaving the love-cursed ponies behind.

The curtain falls and the adviser returns to narrate the ending. Ze doesn't even get to the lesson before the queen in the audience begins applauding loudly at her children's great performance.

She did have a stray thought of perhaps someday sharing this play with the daughter of the duke and duchess, a certain purple alicorn, but she dismissed it as a fantasy.For the narration of the play here: the way you write about these scenes is much too 'tell-y'. narrating exactly what happens would be much more effective than summarising all the events.

Hmmm, yeah, you are right. I will have to think of how to that.

Well, there's also the issue that this amount of focus on a play which is probably of little consequence to the actual story (I say 'probably' because I haven't actually read all the way to this point) is really unnecessary. In other words, the average reader would probably skip this entire section.

Now, if this play were of great importance to the story, it would be different. And I should probably go and read the story up to this point first, actually. :P

You are probably right. This was something very different from what I usually write. I wanted to give the reader the experience of watching a play, full of the props and the gimmicks that come with it.

Or at least, the making of a play. I didn't want to make a transcript of a play. "And the duke enters from the right."

I could probably summarize the whole first act in a single paragraph rather than narrating the whole thing. That way it would take up far less bulk of this chapter.

Yeah, just providing the main story of the play would probably be enough. If you _do_ want to give the readers a glimmer of the play itself, though, showing just the first scene, followed by an ellipses and the summary of the play would probably be your best option.

It would be a good compromise.

This entire part should be in past tense, since it's still narrating past events.

Yeah, I had the wrong mindset. I was imagining it as it was happening, so it turned into present tense.

Dinner Time 4.6: Hungry For More (Unedited)

-------------------------------------New Barn--------------------------------------------

There was a mound of dirt in what looked like an egg in the middle of the barn. The livestock didn't know what to think of it. Like most things they didn't get that ponies made, they ignored it. The fact the mules had given filled the troughs with their food made ignoring the strange dirt cocoon so much easier.

While the livestock chowed down on a broth of corn, overripe fruit, and leftovers from the ponies' last night dinner, the dirt cocoon started to change color. It blackened and then turned a translucent green. A pig who didn't have an appetite for animal feed took noticed and muttered in fear and confusion.

"How is she still alive?" the pig whispered.

"What got botherin', sis?" another pig said.

"It isn't possible!" the first pig exclaimed, shaking her sister.

"What ain't possible, Spam?" the second pig said. She took a break from eating to comfort her sister Spam.

"Pam, I thought, it shouldn't... I can't...." The words died as Spam held back what she was going to say.

The dirt cocoon started to shake.

"Sister, yah can be honest with me. Ah am your...family," Pam said, getting a headache suddenly when she mentioned 'family'. Something told her that it wasn't normal for livestock to live with their family, but she dismissed the idea.

Cracks started to appear over the surface of the cocoon.

Spam pointed a trembling hoof towards towards the alien object behind her sister. Pam recovered from her headache and followed the hoof. Turning around, she spoke.

"This better be good. Yah are actin' like a scaredy---Wahhhhhh!"

The cocoon suddenly exploded, sending green slime everywhere. That was not what caused Pam to scream. No, what caused her to scream was the bug pony that had launched zirself from the cocoon and straight onto her face.

"Get it off, get it off," the pig screamed. Spam didn't move and the other animals hadn't had the time to react yet.

"It is biting me. Help me someone!"

This got some of the rams to rush to Pam's rescue. They tried prying the changeling off with their hooves, using zir large holes to get a good grip, but the sheep had no success.

Another ram and male pig walked up calmly. By this point, the changeling had put enough flame venom into Pam to pacify her.

"That is not how you get a feral changeling to do what you want," the pig said.

"Bacon, if yah had a better way to do it, then its all yers," one of the two rams said. They made way for the pig and his accompanying ram.

"Samuel, if you don't mind," Bacon said, addressing the ram next to him. Samuel nodded before walking up to poor Pam. Extending his forelegs to either side, he made a space for the changeling in his embrace for the changeling. The feral bug pony loosen zir grip on a very unhappy pig. Dislodging zir fangs from the Pam's neck, ze swiveled zir head towards Samuel.

"Ah'm here to help," Samuel reassured. This caused the changeling to launch zirself from Pam's face into the ram's waiting embrace where Samuel let zir bite into his shoulder. Samuel noticed how panicked the changeling was and used his sympathy to feed the creature live-sustaining energy.

"How he do dat?" one of the rams from earlier said.

Bacon smirked to himself. "Samuel here met a changeling when he was on the run."

"Don't tell me yah believe dat pack of lies," the other ram doubted.

"Oh it is all truth."

"Prove it." The rams were about to ram into Bacon for dishonesty.

"I met him on the outside. He had gotten all the way to the Raven camp thanks to a changeling sacrificing herself to house him in her cabin."

"Why would he come back?" the first ram asked.

"Why would she do that?" the second ram asked.

"She was part of the Freedom Road," Bacon stated. The Freedom Road referred to the safe houses provided by equines, usually mules and donkeys, who sympathized with non-equines. The safe houses were situated to get livestock from the farms to the West where ponies where the buffalo roamed. "If anyone is going to side with us, it would be a changeling. They can't help but empathized with our plight."

"I wouldn't know about that," Spam muttered, picking up her inebriated sister from the ground. The feral flame venom had taken a number on Pam's ability to ambulate. Bacon merely cocked an eyebrow at the skeptical pig.

"As for Samuel, he has a debt for that changeling. While he hid under the bed, the ponies' Royal Guard stormed the safe house. It was no he but her that they were after. Removing the changeling's disguise with a quick bug, the Guard took her prisoner. Now Samuel has returned to Equestria in order to give her the freedom that she had given him."

"Well, not much luck doin' that on an apple farm," one of the rams said.

"You don't realize that the only way we are going to free those like that changeling is by having as many rebels like Samuel here on the front lines. The farms are the ponies first defense for weathering any conflict, and if we take those away from them, their society will quickly crumble," Bacon explained.

The rams rolled their eyes. "That talk again. No one is going to rebel against no ponies. We got food. We got safety. We got a roof over our heads."

"Hedonists! It could be better, we could be free," the pig retorted.

"A pig calling someone a hedonist," Spam muttered, earning her another glare from Bacon.

"It could also be a lot worse. We could be pets, stuck in some house all day doing nothin'," one ram countered.

"Even worse, we could be banished to some desert to starve," the other followed up. With that, the two rams went back to eating. Bacon frowned. He hadn't had any luck convincing the livestock that they could have a better life. Well, that will all change soon, and this changeling will help, Bacon thought to himself.

Since their argument was finished, Samuel voiced his concerns. "Why ain't this changeling shapeshifting? Ah got a clear idea of what Ah want her to be."

"Ze's blind, Samuel, and ze is a horsefly," Bacon explained.

"Like--" the ram began to ask.

"Just like zir," he replied, omitting as many details as possible. Samuel's eyes went wide and he held the changeling even closer at this revelation. After a moment to recover, Samuel return to asking questions.

"How can a changeling become blind? They are made of magic, ain't they? Can't ze just make new eyes?"

"They are made of magic, but this one seems to have had a run into poison joke."

"Poison joke can do that?"

"It can do pretty much anything, and making a changeling lose zir sight does fit the flower's humor."

Samuel accepted this with a nod and began to think.

An hour later

"Ever looks about done. I ain't never seen a changeling that hungry before," the ram commented.

"You 'ain't never seen' many changelings period," Bacon countered.

"But what about--," the ram began.

"They were a few changelings just in different disguises," Bacon explained. Samuel's jaw dropped a bit. "You will get used to it in the new world order when changelings can freely change their disguises more regularly in order to feel more comfortable."

"A new world order?" grumbled the weak voice of Ever Ruler.

"Finally woke up," Bacon said, greeting the magical being.

"Woke up? What?" ze wondered, deeply confused.

"First time waking up? Now you know how we mortals feel," Bacon replied, lending a cloven hoof to pick up his future accomplice. "At least you can talk. I was worried your near death experience left you permanently feral. Now lets see what you remember."

"Wait, you thought he would be permanently feral?!" Samuel exclaimed.

"It was a possibility I considered. Their minds are their flames, and they were all strewn all over the barn floor during our little fire incident." Samuel gave Bacon a cold stare. "Oh, did no one tell you about that? Well, Ever Ruler seemed to have cracked up or... something and had caused an emergency. Luckily, there was a unicorn talented in geomancy enough to make the traditional dirt cocoon. And before you ask why a unicorn would do that, a little birdy told me this filly is Ever's adoptive daughter."

Samuel shook his head in disbelief. The changeling focused on nuzzling the soft sheep in order to encourage a more generous flow of energy.

"Ahem, Ever, if you don't mind, may I ask you a few questions? You love answering questions." Bacon felt like they needed to get some business done before it was lights out and they would all enter their stalls.

"Questions." The changeling chirped in pleasure. "I like asking questions."

Bacon rolled his eyes. "I will be asking the questions right now. You may ask yours later."

"Rude to ask before letting other go first," Ever mumbled with a buzz of frustration.

Bacon coughed. "Be that as it may, but I must insist you answer my questions. If you would--."

"Buck! Just ask 'em already!" Samuel exclaimed. Bacon huffed indignantly and then blushed embarassed as the changeling deliriously chewed on the ram's coat.

"Do you remember what happened to you, Ever?" Bacon asked. The changeling buzzed furiously as ze tried to think.

"I...the potion...cure....Ah the presence destroy the cure!" Ever answered with a hiss.

"A cure for what?" Samuel asked curious.

"A cure for poison joke," Ever said.

"For your disease," Samuel responded.

"No, I need it for my daughter. I can wait," Ever corrected with a squirm. "But I am afraid. Can she handle emotions? Maybe this was not a bad thing."

"Ze seems to be recovering nicely, but I want to know what this presence was," Bacon said. "Ever, who is this presence?"

Ever buzzed in memory of pain and agony.

"Perhaps you should let the changeling go," a female voice said. The two rebels jumped at the sudden intrusion. They turned to see it was Spam. "Don't act like that. We are in a barn. There are no private conversations here."

Bacon squinted at the pig.

"Bacon, we should let zir be. We can talk to the changeling as much as we want in the morning," Samuel suggested. The pig took a long moment before huffing and nodding.

Knock Knock Knock

Someone was knocking on the barn doors. It surprised everyone that they didn't know to think about it.

"It's a barn, not somepony's house. Just come in!" Pam hollered.

The door opened to reveal two stallions, a mare, and three fillies.

"Ever!" exclaimed the mare in a gravelly voice no one would expected possible. She ran up to Samuel and pulled the delirious changeling from his grip with ease. Ze happily sunk zir teeth into the mare, who flinched for a moment and then calmed down. The livestock who hadn't seen Bon Bon earlier couldn't believe their eyes.

"Bon Bon dear, if you please, my daughter and I need to talk to your friend there," one of the stallions said.

The mare frowned but complied by dropping Ever down before the other ponies. One of the fillies, a unicorn, walked around the changeling inspect zir. Another filly, Apple Bloom, joined the unicorn, expressing clear curiosity.

"I am Filthy Rich," the stallion says. Pointing to the filly at his side, he continues. "This is my daughter, Diamond Tiara. Today, I am sorry to inform you that Diamond harmed your daughter. This was very shameful, and so we have come to apologize. I am very sorry."

His daughter didn't apologize but instead looked terrified. He nudged her, but she still refused.

"Daddy, that is a monster--."

"This is a glorious creature capable of completely changing Equestria!" he replied.

"Daddy, they attack Equestria!" the daughter complained.

"And almost won!" Filthy Rich exclaimed, earning him a glare from Big Mac behind him. "That is to say, those were misguided changelings. Not all of them want to rule us. They just want love and we would be hypocrites to deny them that. Now I don't want any more of this. Just apologize."

He nudged his daughter into the face of the changeling. She closed her eyes. "I'm sor--Wah."

Ever bit into the filly, causing her to scream.

Bacon rolled his eyes and was about to signal Samuel to get Ever again when Bon Bon beat him to it, her feelings less forced than the ram's.

"He bit me!" the filly exclaimed, running behind her father for protection. She rubbed where she was bit to find no blood as the entry points for the venom were immediately cauterized due its flame nature.

"It isn't a he," the Filthy Rich corrected.

"Whatever! I am not apologizing after being bit by some monster," Diamond replied.

"Daughter, please, while the changeling was a bit forward, this is an important learning experience. It is proper manners when doing business with changelings that you offer them to bite you a little so they can have some food. After that, they become very amiable to anything you might propose in exchange," Filthy explained.

"Wait! Yah do business with changelings?!" Apple Bloom asked surprised, turning away from the changeling she had watching intently.

Filthy coughed in his hooves. Big Mac behind him was eyeing him suspiciously. "When you have done as much business as I have, you eventually do business with everypony and everyone."

This seemed to satisfy the two earth ponies. Urging is daughter to apologize again, she did so half-heartedly.

The changeling gave a small nod if acceptance, but said nothing.

"Ah don't think Wisdom's mom is ready to talk much. She was hurt pretty bad, so we should just leave 'em be," Apple Bloom said.

Yawning, Filthy Rich accepted this with ease. Before he left, the business pony said he would visit again soon.

The ponies began to leave when they noticed Bon Bon was not. "Yah comin'?" Big Mac asked. The mare shook zir head. This surprised the ponies in the room except Big Mac.

"Yah want to be with yer friend," the stallion half-asked, half-stated.

"Eeyup," the candy mare answered.

With that said, the stallions left.

"Wisdom, I am going to get you some blankets. Just you wait," Apple Bloom declared before galloping after her brother.

The filly in question didn't seem to hear as she picked a stall. She charged her horn and the earth shifted into a raised platform. Moving some hay around, she created a mat. The filly climbed onto her makeshift bed and began to sleep. Bon Bon yawned, becoming extremely drowsy due to being drained by zir teacher, and collapsed on the bed with zir teacher in her hooves.

The animals didn't say anything about what they saw that night, but they all knew that things would be getting a lot more interesting on Sweet Apple Acres.

Author's Note

I will get back to this in a day or so. If you want to read it now, it isn't changing much, just making sure I didn't make my typical errors with leaving out words or writing half sentences.

Prologue: The Ignorant Schoolmaster (Revised)

Author's Note

There is a Timeline and Glossary which provides more background information. You don't have to read it but it helps.

Prologue: The Ignorant Schoolmaster (Revised)

Written by Knowledge
Edited by waterpear
Revision and edit by Knowledge

-------------------------------------Mountain Cave overlooking the Neverending (Everfree) Forest--------------------------------------

Two travelers sat in a cave upon a mountain for multiple reasons. First, they needed to get out of the rain. Second, it was late, so they needed a nice, dry place to camp. Third, they wanted a high vantage point in the morning so they could plot the next leg of their journey. Lastly, if the wanderings tomorrow proved fruitless, they could return to the mountain easily in the sea of trees that was the Neverending Forest.

Of the two travelers, one was an unicorn filly named Sophia and the other was the warrior buffalo Andrea. They ignored for the most part the piles of ancient gold doubloons behind them which marked that this cave had once been the home of a dragon. Instead, they decided to talk about a third fellow traveler who was out in the rain, singing mournfully to the valley below.

"Why does my parent sing like this?" Sophia asked her companion in the common language of animals while pointing to person in the rain. The buffalo considered the filly's words carefully.

"You would not understand," Andrea replied.

"What do you mean I wouldn't understand?'" Sophia curiously inquired. The buffalo responded by pointing at the blue polka dots that crowned the filly's head.

"That is why. Your mind has been poisoned, young one. You are incapable of understanding things like this. Especially because Ei Rikr is what ze is."

Andrea had referred to both to the disease which had robbed Sophia her ability to feel the most basic emotions and to Ei Rikr being a horsefly, which is a shapeshifting species fueled by the passions of others. Horseflies, being asexual in their basic form, go by the gender neutral pronouns ze and zir. The filly's disease was like some twisted joke when one considered Ei Rikr's needs. Feeding the horsefly was one of the reasons Andrea had to accompany them. The other was to take a break from her real job.

Yet the mysterious disease had left the filly with one thing and that was the drive to learn and understand, which prompted her next request.

"Tell me about Ei. Ze has never told me about zirself."

The buffalo looked at the horsefly and frowned. Ei Rikr had long avoided telling Sophia zir backstory for fear of what zir daughter would think of zir and the war plagued continent that they left on the other side of the Neverending Forest. Andrea came to the conclusion that this fear was meaningless given that Sophia was incapable of hating her adoptive parent.

"You deserve to know. But I warn you, my words are from my perspective. Many will take issue with my words, even Ei Rikr."

Taking a deep breath, Andrea began the practically legendary tale of the ignorant schoolmaster.

"Long ago, during the time of Fleece's golden age, Ei Rikr your parent was born," Andrea began.

"Ei Rikr spent zir early years as a young stone carver, living with a family of sheep as if ze was one of them. I don't know what precisely happened, but Ei got exposed, and zir parents and the rest of the sheep thought Ei was some kind of wolf demon. They called the newly discovered horseflies the 'Wolves in Sheep's Clothing' or something like that. Anyways, Ei Rikr had to run away from Fleece alone and with no prospect of returning to zir life as a stone carver's son.

"For the next century, the fleecians and eventually all their neighbors on the South Continent started hunting horseflies. All the queens were killed with most of their horseflies. Only a hoofful who had never known their queen like Ei Rikr survived because they did not sacrifice themselves to protect the hive. With no queens left and their naturally ageless lives, the remaining horseflies remained as testaments to what fear and ignorance can accomplish. There are still queens on Zebrica, but all of them refuse to travel to the South Continent out of completely justified fear that we would kill them.

"Anyways," Andrea said, trying to shift the subject of extinction. "During this period, Ei Rikr wandered the South Continent, which, I think, at this point had been sealed from the fabled North Continent by the sudden, cataclysmic growth of this forest during the Age of Chaos."

"And no one until now has sought to travel across it because of its fabled monsters, bad weather, and endlessness?" the filly asked innocently, interrupting.

Andrea nodded.

"Let's keep focus on your parent," the buffalo requested. "So during this journey, Ei Rikr blended in with each culture ze encountered, trying to avoid the hunters and a repeat of what happened with zir parents.

"After the horseflies were forgotten except by exaggerated stories, the countries turned against each other. During this time, Ei Rikr decided to take a stand against the violence. Some think the young Ei Rikr was merely motivated by collecting more love--war being bad for the love market if you get what I mean. Personally, I think it was because Ei Rikr has always been an idealistic idiot. Ze would have probably said something sooner if it would not have meant instant death. But then again, I don't really know what ze was doing during those wanderings in detail.

"Well, having seen the world from the perspective many different cultures over the course of a very long time--horseflies being basically immortal green fire and all, Ei Rikr went to work to figure out how to solve world violence. The younger horsefly concluded that the issue was bindings, which could include anything from simple promises to complex ideologies. For example, if the status quo was sexist, then a myth, would be created to justify, reinforce, and perpetuate that sexism as a binding. Even of the most noblest of bindings, Ei Rikr argued, carried blame. 'Every time the Bound claim a virtue, they create an Unbound plagued by a vice. The endless war between Us and Them escalates the more moral our bindings become,' ze is fabled to have said."

Sophia attempted and failed to stifle a yawn. It was still raining but they could tell that the sun had set.

"I am sorry. We should probably get to sleep soon," Andrea suggested.

"I want to know what Ei Rikr thought the alternative was," Sophia stated plainly, shaking her head in order to stay awake longer. Andrea accepted only because, unlike the filly, the buffalo would not have been able to fall asleep with Ei Rikr still singing. The buffalo hoped it would end soon, but she knew the ancient horsefly needed to mourn the past like this occasionally. The uncontrollable bursts of green fire from Ei Rikr's body indicated it was a particularly painful remembrance.

"Your parent took all this 'insight' and concluded that the solution was to methodically doubt everything, including doubt itself. Ze thought that no one with this doubting mindset could commit atrocities. People would just live together because they would have enough time to sympathize with beliefs contrary to their own when they doubt themselves. People who had learned to doubt conventional thought were called lovers of wisdom or philosophers because they did not claim wisdom but to merely seek it in others."

"That is nonsense," the filly said. "Believing nothing is just as wrong believing whatever you want. That is why philosophers invented science and logic. We can know the truth."

I grew up with a binding, so I don't quite agree," Andrea responded. "Despite that, I must admit that the old horsefly was right in a sense. It is pretty hard to commit yourself to killing a whole group of people if you don't believe they are evil. It was always the zealots that do the craziest things for their ideologies."

Sophia was dumbfounded by this but did not press the issue, so the warrior continued the story unimpeded.

"At this point, no one remembered what horseflies were. Ei Rikr dropped zir disguise and started to have dialogues with anyone who would listen. This had the unintentional consequence of people thinking that ze was some wise teacher and follow zir. These followers gave zir the name 'Ei Rikr,' which means 'Ever Ruler.' 'Ever' because your parent has the potential to live forever as long as people are willing to give love to one another, and 'Ruler' because they saw zir as their new leader. Despite Ei's protests against any claim that ze was wise or capable of teaching, a movement had grown in the wake of horsefly's travels. The followers became the first philosophers, or people who love wisdom. They emulated Ei by estranging themselves from their home countries and cultures through questioning all things sacred and dear.

"One of these philosophers even revealed themselves to be a fellow horsefly, and Ei Rikr, never having spoken to zir own kind out of fear of being caught, quickly decided they should regard each other as siblings. This other horsefly goes by the name of Corvo Nevermore. Corvo soon became Ei Rikr's greatest ally and critic in philosophy movement at the end of the dark ages."

Sophia's eyes flickered at recognition of the name. "Ei often speaks of Corvo. Ze says Corvo has already made it to the Northern Continent. Ei also says we will get to the Northern Continents soon as well, but I have been waiting all my life for these promises to be fulfilled."

Andrea looked down at Sophia. "I will not lie to you. I doubt you will ever see either Corvo or the Northern Continent. I fear this journey is only the madness of an ancient mind overcome by grief."

"Then why did you agree to this journey?" Sophia wondered.

"Because I owe the unbound old codger."

With a short break, Andrea continued the story. "As I was about to say, Corvo was Ei Rikr's closest friend but also zir biggest critic. It was because of Corvo's influence at the time that philosophy turned to finding the truth after all the doubt to counter the 'If I know nothing, everything will be just fine' of Ei Rikr. Even Ei eventually adopted many of zir adopted sibling's principles and methods, formalizing them in logic and science. This is the philosophy as ze taught you."

Sophia took a moment to digest this new information. Ei Rikr had taught her a few things, but most of it she had to teach herself. Her parent often refuse to answer questions related to the Academy and zir past. She was certain that ze was hiding things from her, but she could not fathom why.

"Shortly after they became family, they decided to settle down and build a city for those who shared their way of thinking, which they called Academy. Immediately after its construction, the other nations opposed its existence. If they were not too afraid of committing war resources to nonthreatening city that was well-defended by ancient horsefly magic, the Academy would have probably been destroyed in its early years. Instead they merely isolated the city from trade."

"This isolation had a negative effect on the horsefly's siblings relation as neither could agree about the future of the Academy in relation to the rest of the South Continent. On one hoof, Corvo was content ignoring the nations and their squabbles, having grown callous of their politics and their wars. Ze would rather just focus on promoting technological advancement and improving the material conditions of the those who resided at the Academy. Corvo focus on the external earn zir the title 'The Outer Philosopher of Change' despite the fact ze did not care about the outside world. On the other hoof, Ei Rikr sought to reunite with the rest of the world through a willingness to change ones mind. EI Rikr focused on mental magic, trying to help people through problems philosophically. One of the ways ze did this was by creating a spell that caused all the people in an area to become lose their passions and act reasonably. This earned Ei Rikr the title of 'The Inner Philosopher of Change.'"

Sophia had definitely seen those titles referenced in her books. More importantly, it made sense as there were a clear distinction between Inner and Outer philosophical traditions when reading philosophical texts. While the traditions dealt with core problems of philosophy with many of the same tools like logic, they came from opposite directions (the mind to the world as oppose to the world to the mind). Often they reached conclusions that contradicted those of the other tradition leading to lengthy arguments about which tradition was superior.

"There was almost a thousand years in which the eternal horsefly siblings developed philosophy together without interference. Wars happened elsewhere, away from the Academy, and the philosophers played no part. Their heads were in the clouds thinking abstract nothings as the rest of the world burned. Then about fifty years ago, rumors of the advanced technology developed at the Academy reached the ears of the leaders of the surrounding nations. Curious of how they could take advantage of this technology, the nations sent scholars and diplomats to negotiate an exchange of knowledge.

"Ei was obviously elated at the prospect of finally having nations interested in what they had to say. Corvo wanted to bar them from entry. Ei dismissed zir sibling's cynicism, believing that the world cannot change for the better if the Academy doesn't show others an open heart. Ei Rikr was very willing to give away Corvo's technological inventions to these foreign scholars as a way to help nations change for the better."

The buffalo took a moment to consider the irony that Corvo who didn't want anything to do with the outside world would be the cause of the nations coming to their land.

"It was at this time that Corvo abandoned the school, unwilling to see the inevitable result of Ei Rikr's idealism. I don't know if they left on friendly terms, but I do know that Corvo and zir students fled to this forest in search of the fabled Northern Continent. As everyone knows now, Corvo was right. When the antelopes of my country Bufgium found a way to turn the fractal home-building technology into weapons, they tested them on us buffalo.

"Ei Rikr was devastated from the deadly re-engineering of zir sibling's technology. Ze was unable to remain aloof of international affairs. Instead Ei Rikr dedicated zirself to rescuing innocents from those who used the Academy's knowledge for war. It was from this interfering that I became indebted to your parent. Ze and a small following of young philosophers infiltrated the country and gave many of my people the means to escape the slaughter. When Ei found me, I told the philosopher that I wanted to help with the rescues. My parents had taught me to be courageous, even going so far as to name me Andrea. With my parent's warrior bindings, I proved to be a strong ally for Ei Rikr and the other philosophers.

"Your parent let me join without hesitation, giving me many opportunities to exercise leadership. I didn't realize at the time that the toll of Corvo abandoning Ei Rikr had left your parent with a weaken resolve. In only ten years, I became in charge of almost all operations as Ei Rikr faded into the background. Eventually, the philosopher secluded zirself at the Academy, becoming more isolated than ever before.

"Then came the Great Academic Purge. Several nations had taken offense to my more direct ways of interfering. These nations in temporary truce staged a coordinated attack against a common enemy, the Academy. In one day, the school of the two eternal siblings fell. I had been returning from a successful mission when I heard what had happened. My team and I rushed back, seeking to save as many as I could. I returned to find only your parent, husk of zir former self in the wreckage of what took a thousand years to build."

Andrea looked at the horsefly mourning in the rain, seeing unsettling parallels with the husk she had seen back then.

"After that, I took your parent with the refugees to the only place left untouched by the war--the Neverending Forest. I had to fight for all their safety here as you have seen. Someone has to keep the manticores in line. Your parent was a pain to care for during those early years. Fortunately, someone came along to fix that."

"Ah...Who was that?" Sophia half-asked and half-yawned. She had a good idea who the buffalo meant, but she was in a listening mood.

"You, of course," Andrea said in as cheesy and lighthearted manner possible. "I still remember when Ei Rikr came back to camp after finding you abandoned in a field of blue flowers. Ze kept doting on how beautiful you were and that ze would find your real parents as soon as ze could. It was the next day that ze suffered a similar poisoning as you did but to zir eyes. This was unfortunate not only because most of a horsefly's power is in zir sight but because ze loved looking at you very much."

"That is how we both received our condition," Sophia said, realizing it for the first time. Ei Rikr had never told her how ze had become blind. Another secret ze had kept from her.

Andrea continued to watch the horsefly, whose blind blue eyes had hid the poison's mark well. "Well, it is that disease that will prevent you from realizing why what I told you makes your parent stand in the rain and sing."

Sophia rubbed her crown of blue polka dots, disliking how they stopped her from having emotions and understanding them in other people. She would have reflected more upon her misfortune, but she could not stay awake any longer. Sleep quickly enveloped the filly. Andrea on the other hoof had to deal with the remainder of Ei Rikr's singing.

Missing Shade of Red 2.6: The Daughter of an Ancient Noble (Rework in Progress)

This chapter marks the point in which the chapters are not revised. These revisions fix clarity and lore issues. One chapter is revised roughly each day. If you wait, they will all be fixed soon. You can, however, read on, but it will be messy.

She arrived at the sandwich shop shortly after crossing the bridge in the middle of the village. Before she got a seat at an empty table, some filly poked her with a notepad. Lyra turned to the unicorn filly at her side and was surprised wit hwhat she sawa. The assistant representative had never seen a pony with this filly's coloration. The filly had a brown mane (very rare), a coat of black and white dots (never heard of), and brown eyes (also very rare). The filly also had blue polka dots on her head, which Lyra assumed were not part of the filly's natural coloration.

"Who are you?" Lyra asked.

The filly just pushed the notepad at her again, this time at the mare's face. This filly needs to learn some manners, thought Lyra.

The notepad read: "I cannot speak ancient. Please communicate via paper roll." Lyra looked at the filly inquisitively. I might as well play along. I have nothing better to do while I wait for my food. As she thought that, a waiter came by and asked for drinks.

Lyra used her magic to take out her Mind Torch. Cool thing about the Mind Torch (copyright Evening Glimmer) is that it can used as a pencil. You just have to be careful not to accidentally activate it went dispensing the lead.

Lyra wrote down her original question with the Mind Torch, and the filly took used pencil out and wrote on the pad. The mare read aloud the pad when the filly was done. "My name is Wisdom. Do you know where a rest-u-runt is?" Apparently, she does not know how to spell restaurant.

The mint unicorn wrote her response, underlining the correct spelling of restaurant and telling her that she was at one. Just as soon as she had finished giving it to the filly, Lyra had the notepad pushed in her face again with some golden coins and with Wisdom's next question.

"Good. How does one use these to get food?" Lyra read. She looked at the golden coins and was shocked that they were pre-Nightmare doubloons, meaning they were over one thousand years old. Lyra quickly wrote down her inquiry about where the filly had gotten them.

"Where we slept, piles of these lay around us," the mare read and then she read it again and finally what these word meant caused her to have an epiphany. The strange way the filly wrote and the social akawardness. It was just like Luna's. Lyra hypothesized that she must be dealing with a filly from some ancient high noble family who had come had resurfaced either when Luna or the Crystal empire returned. There was one way to make sure.

"You said 'we', who do you live with?" Lyra asked and wrote on the pad.

The reply simply read: "You mean, 'with whom do you live'." Lyra's left eye twitched, she had just been corrected by a filly and her mistake might incur the wrath of an ancient noble family, notorious for their ruthlessness. Lyra quickly revised her question, and received an answer even faster.

"I live with my parent, Ever Ruler, and our friend, Courage," Wisdom had written. Courage, Lyra assumed, was probably just some dog's name, but Ever Ruler sealed the deal for her. Lyra felt certain that only a noble family would have such a name obviously indicative of immortality as Ever Ruler.

Lyra slumped in her chair for a moment, taking it all in, and then quickly straightened up. The scared unicorn addressed her tin foil hat, trying to look as proper as possible. She wrote down on the notepad that she would buy the filly a sandwich and what she would want.

After giving the filly the menu, the filly quickly picked the one haywich that didn't have any flowers in it and Lyra ordered it without question. While she was waiting for her food, the little salt-and-pepper filly started asking Lyra all these questions about unicorns and mountains. Lyra was far more interested in the little ones family though. Thus began a mutual exchange of information.

"Do unicorns live on top of mountains because it reminds them of their horns?" the mint unicorn read the first of the filly's numerous questions. Looking at the little filly, eagerly waiting for her reply, Lyra readied a reply to the weirdest question she had ever read. "I do not know where you got that idea from. We unicorns live atop of mountains because those are nice places to live and the princess lives there," Lyra said aloud before writing it down.

As the mare said this, she twirled her very important unicorn-made, rod-shaped device in the air to 'emphasize' her point while sub-consciously pulling at her pointed red tie with a free forehoof. Sophia was not convinced.

"Tell me about your parents," Lyra requested in writing.

Sophia replied hastily. "I have one parent that I know of and that is Ever. S/he is a horsefly."

Lyra had never seen 's/he' written in Equestrian and assumed it was some error of the filly's zeal in giving and getting answers. "Oh, is your parent male or female?" the mare asked.

"No," Sophia merely replied.

Lyra realized she wasn't going to get any normal answers from this little filly so changed her tactics to more mundane questions. "What is your favorite color?" Lyra asked.

"Black," read Sophia's answer. "What is your favorite color?"

"Pink, of course," Lyra replied both out loud and in writing. After saying it, she instantly regretted it because the pink menace herself soon appeared from under the table.

"Pink is my favorite color too," Pinkie Pie said with happiness oozing from her every pore. She was wearing a bouquet of flowers strapped to her head like a hat.

"Pinkie Pie, dare I ask why you are so happy?" Lyra said tilting her head at the green sun above them.

"Because flowers always make me happy, silly," the party mare replied. Aha, so my hypothesis about the flowers was correct! Lyra thought to herself.

"Why are you here, Pinkie Pie?" Lyra inquired further, adjusting her shades to help her feel more professional.

"Because there is a new pony in town and she is rigggghhhhttttt, here, and I am going to bring her to a party at the library?" Pinkie Pie did a cartwheel around the table ending which her pointing at the filly while she said this. Lyra was going to ask how the pony had prepared the library so fast for a party but decided not to. The files on Pinkie suggested that the experiments on this earth pony had resulted in many strange powers like having a body sensitive to the time line, ability to pull objects from different dimensions, and being in more than one place at a time. Her code name was quantum pony. Lyra was also warned that many of the unicorn scientists that had experimented on her lost their minds soon after conceiving the full scope of the earth pony's might.

Sophia did not take kindly at the pony putting flowers directly into her face as it caused her to have another reaction. Sophia wrote on the notepad and tossed it at Pinkie Pie who caught it in her mane. Pinkie Pie thought it was a game and threw it at Lyra, breaking her glasses.

"Pinkie Pie, she wants you to read it!" Lyra seethed.

"Oh, why didn't she say so then?" the party mare asked.

"I don't know. She hasn't talked to me either."

"Okie dokie lokie, reading, reading, reading," Pinkie Pie said as her eyes carefully scanned every last detail from the notepad that was magically lodged at her face.

Lyra noticed that Pinkie Pie's body was vibrating while she read. "What is happening to you?"

"Oh, my Pinkie Sense is just telling me that something is going to explode twice," the mare replied.

The unicorn's eyes opened up wide. She quickly turned her gaze to the sky and saw that the green sun was fluctuating violently.

"Oh, my hat is causing you to have the sneezes. Okay, no more flower hat," Pinkie said, and threw her bouquet of flowers that had served as a hat in some random direction.

Lyra out of instinct turned to watch the hat make its travel back to earth, a sense of dread as it flew through the air. When it landed, the mint unicorn sighed in relief that nothing had exploded.

"I thought we were doomed..."

Before Lyra could finish, the green sun exploded as its outer layer of emotion expelled itself in a silent explosion of green color. Without its outer shell, its white core was exposed and loosing its spherical perfection, becoming an hourglass shape. Once it could no longer hold itself together, the core erupted into a geyser of green sparks, which rained down on Ponyville, returning some of the energy it had taken.

"Ooo, pretty," Pinkie said, clapping her hooves.

"Sorry I have to go," Lyra said, putting some bits on the table for the meal and galloping back to report to her boss. It is great that the green sun had been resolved. It meant she no longer needed to investigate it.

Pinkie waved Lyra off and then turned to the little filly. "You are coming with me," she said in a foreboding tone that even made Sophia wary.