The Return of the Everfree Kingdom

by gorutsuki

Rating: teen
Tags: Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Original Character, Trixie, Spike, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Adventure
Length: 29531

as a powerful pony is released from his captivity it's up to the six elements of Harmony to stop hi

No pony knows about how or why the Everfree Forest came to be, most don't even care as they avoid the place because it's dangerous, but two treasure hunters unwittingly unleash an ancient ruler from the distant past who seems to be targeting the Elements of Harmony. And Princess Celestia sends a single pony to help Twilight and her friends overcome this ordeal, but what does this Mentor and Twilight and her friends have to do with the history of the ancient Kingdom of Everfree which was destroyed long ago. (first fic guys, please leave a comment and a rating even if it's not a big amount, also Ponies will be added to the list if they appear in a chapter)

Published 2011-10-06 11:45:54 UTC
Last updated 2012-08-23 00:04:55 UTC

Prologue

Prologue: Before the spark of Friendship had hit the next generation

The day felt a bit colder than usual, the cold air instilling a chilling sensation to each and everypony it breezed past. The bright Sun hovered high as the pegasi cleared the sky, making sure to keep in bounds of what the weather report had stated earlier that day. The elegant Princess of Equestria sat on her throne, guards stationed all throughout the room, all directly across one another, each looking exactly alike. The guards tensed as they shifted their attention to a small pony striding into the throne room, but calmed when they remembered that the filly was the Princess’ pupil. The small lavender pony bowed to the Princess as she stood in front of the throne, to which the Princess replied with a smile as she signalled the small equine to stop her bowing. “Now, what brings you here Twilight Sparkle?” the regal Princess asked, her tone full of sincerity.

“My dearest Princess Celestia…” the small filly known as Twilight Sparkle said, her words full of admiration and respect. “What kinds of magic shall I be learning today? Levitation? Telekinesis? What about all of them?” Twilight asked. She was filled with enthusiasm as she eagerly awaited what her mentor will teach her today.

“Now, now, Twilight…” Princess Celestia answered. Her voice still had the compassionate tone that the Princess was famous for. “There are many different kinds of magic out there my faithful student. Some of them more dangerous than you think. I can’t just go teaching you all of them, I don’t think anypony has learned them all anyway” her words still contained the tone of kind-heartedness but had a substantial amount of worry.

“But what are those dangerous magics you keep telling me to avoid?” the young Twilight asked. Not quite satisfied by the answer she received. “If you tell me what those dangerous types of magic are, I’ll be able to keep away from them.” hoping that this time she’ll get the answers she was hoping for.

Celestia shook her head in disapproval “Twilight Sparkle, I had expected better. Surely you must know that if these weren’t dangerous, I would’ve taught and told you about them already?” her voice slowly losing some of the kindness it was filled with earlier. “These magics were banned by me for a reason Twilight. And even I should tell you, I know that you have a hunger for knowledge, which is quite respectable in a student. But I’ve seen some ponies consumed by that very same hunger. I don’t want you to end up like them.”

“I’m so sorry Princess…” Twilight said, her head almost hugging the ground “I was just a little curious….”

The Princess let out a sigh as she smiled at the small filly “Don’t trouble yourself over it Twilight, I know that you were just curious. But I thought that after all our conversations that we had on this topic, you would stop asking such foalish questions.” her voice returning to its original sympathetic state.

“I’m really sorry if I troubled you Princess” Twilight said, speaking in an apprehensive tone since she genuinely thought she had upset the Princess. “How about we drop the subject and do something else hmm?” she asked hoping to change the subject quickly.

“Alright, today I just want you to practice on your telekinetic powers and read a few books on Equestria’s history, my dear student”

“But… I already know how to do telekinesis Princess” Twilight answered back in a whiny tone, the books she could handle but she was confused as to why she needed to practice that spell again. “Can’t you teach me something like teleportation?”

“Yes, you have learned how to perform Telekinesis. But you should learn how to perfect it.”

Twilight had a confused look on her face “Perfect? But after you leant the spell that’s it, isn’t it?”

“Well, there is learning the spell, and then there is perfecting. Both of which are two completely different things, and the second always comes after the first.” Twilight heard an unfamiliar voice; she turned to see an unfamiliar pony covered in a brown hooded cloak which shaded his face, his bright red eyes shining through the shadow that his cowl cast over his face “What? It’s true” the strange stallion said, a hoof to his chin in thought. He quickly waved his hoof “Oh, hello by the way. Forgot to say that first, but I thought you may have wanted an answer to that simple question of yours.”

“Ah, it’s nice to see you after quite so long” Princess Celestia said smiling back at the mysterious stallion. “It’s so nice to see you again after all these years.”

“Nice to see that you have taken on a student of your own Princess” The stallion said clearly, some glee in his voice. Twilight stood between the two of them, looking from one to the other, wondering what was going on.

“Oh yes” the Princess added after realizing she forgot Twilight. “Twilight this is a unicorn who goes by the name of Mentor” Twilight stared into the black shadow the Mentor’s hood cast over his face “as his name implies he is a teacher and he is also a philosopher.”

“Indeed Princess” the Mentor replied with pride “I travel far and wide teaching ponies and I study the unique nature of the different hearts of ponies in our world.”

“Study their hearts?” Twilight asked trying to understand, “but how can you study their hearts when it is inside their body?”

Both the Princess and the Mentor laughed after Twilight finished asking her question “oh small little filly, you have quite a lot to learn.” The Mentor replied while he tried to stop himself from laughing “a heart keeps them alive, but I am talking about their HEART, the little thing that gives ponies and other living beings the feelings we all call emotions.”

“I think I understand Mister Mentor” Twilight replied scratching her hair in thought “so you study the different emotions that a pony has and then you teach others about those emotions?”

“Exactly! Well I also teach magic but you got the answer correct” he answered “you’ve got a smart little cookie here Princess, oh and speaking of cookies” he reached into a pocket of his cloak to pull out a box “here a little present to the little genius.”

Twilight exclaimed as she opened the box to be greeted by different kinds of cookies, chocolate chip, hazelnut and also vanilla flavoured cookies. “THANK YOU!”

The Mentor chuckled as Twilight started to eat some of the cookies “be careful there are some apple flavoured cookies in there as well, now going back to what you were saying as I arrived here, what was that about you not wanting to perfect your spells?”

Twilight looked towards the Mentor as she still had bits of cookies in her mouth, she quickly tried to swallow it as she tried to think of an answer “I already know them don’t I? Doesn’t that mean I’ve perfected it? So there’s no need to work on the spell more.” Twilight said. He put a hoof to his chin as he contemplated the question.

“Well you see… yes, you have learnt the spell, but perfecting the spell is an entirely different thing” he said in a gentle, soothing tone. “When you are perfecting the spell, you try to test its boundaries, like what it can do and what it can’t. In the example of teleportation, you test to see how far you can go, and if you can teleport instantly from place to place.” he said with a proud smile on his shadowed face. “I could show you, but I just woke up not too long ago, and I’m a bit tired” he said, covering his mouth with his hoof as he yawned. “Sorry little one, but I can’t exactly show you what my version of a perfected teleportation spell is like.”

“Awwww…” Twilight said in disappointment. All the excitement she had from thinking that the Mentor would show an example and all the cookies had vanished in an instant. “I thought you were going to show me what one of your perfected spells was like.” she said, sad at not being able to see an example of what he was trying to tell her.

“Well I suppose one little spell wouldn’t make me sick up” he said ruffling up Twilight’s purple mane with his right hoof “Fine, I’ll show you once” Twilight beamed with excitement as she quickly fixed her hair and turned her full attention to the Mentor. “Now, let’s see here… I’m going to go-“ he said, disappearing with a bright flash of light. “Here” he said, his voice coming from a different direction. As Twilight turned around to see him sitting on top of the back rest of the throne, her face filled with joy and excitement seeing him display his skills at teleportation. He looked down at Princess Celestia who was just below him then, turned into a bright flash of light as he reappeared right next to Twilight, making her jump a tad.

“Awesome!” Twilight said, clearly in awe of the Mentor’s abilities. “Is that what it’s like to perfect a spell?” the stallion turned towards her and raised a hoof in the air which made her stop dead in her tracks.

“There is a time and place for learning. And right now, I’m not teaching anything. I’m not wearing my teaching headband right now as well” he said, pointing a hoof towards his hooded head. “Without it, I’m not in a mood for teaching or mentor related things at this particular point in time.” Twilight was disappointed and confused by Mentor, he saw this and smiled. “Why are you so disappointed? You saw an example of a somewhat perfected spell AND you received some delicious cookies AND you’re being tutored by another great teacher” he paused for a little bit before looking at the Princess “But even SHE had a great teacher once upon a time.” he added, grinning.

“I didn’t invite you here to talk about old times Mentor…” Celestia said, signalling with her hoof that it was time for Twilight to depart. “There is something we need to discuss.” As Twilight left, she turned to see the two of them talking, and she overheard some words coming from their mouths, but she was only barely hear what they were saying.

“So, is your student part of the next generation?” She could hear the question coming from Mentor’s mouth. “Are you already teaching her the essentials?”

“Yes, I am trying to teach her what she needs to know. Would there be any reason for me to do otherwise?”

“Well, she seems like a nice one, but I think you have sheltered her a bit too much don’t you think? She might turn into an anti-social bookworm in the not too distant future, or even worse, A POLITICAN!” the Mentor said with a scarred tone in his voice.

“I would never let my student do that, she is much too bright for that but, I do admit that she may not have many friends at the moment. But trust me when I say that the time will come when she will have lots of wonderful friends.”

“Is this another one of those infamous hunches of yours? Like the act of your little sister being sent into hiding from the public a couple hundred years ago?” Twilight heard as she was walking away. She could hardly make out most of what they were talking about by now, but she could clearly see the Princess get flustered, trying to talk to Mentor.

“That was a necessary precaution for the future of Equestria. She even agreed to it.”

“Yes, yes, I know that this is all fo-” Celestia cut him off as he was about to finish by sticking her hoof near his mouth. “Oh, sorry, I’ll keep quiet. But really, I’m going to be waiting for a long time until it’s my time to shine.” Mentor said, smiling as he pushed the Princess’ hoof down.

“I’m sorry that I have to call you when it’s going to take a while. It must be difficult for you to have to keep doing this.” Twilight could see a frown on Celestia’s face

“My dear Princess Celestia…” he said bowing and putting on a fake regal voice “’Tis my solemn duty, to help and protect this land, no matter how long it takes and no matter what obstacles cross my path I have to ensure that the elem-” once again Mentor was cut off by a simple hoof from Celestia.

“Let us not talk about your duties where ponies could hear us.” Celestia said looking around “also you seemed somehow off when you talked to Twilight, is something wrong?”

“To be honest, she reminds me of this other pony I knew way back when, she even looks and acts like her. But I guess in my case such things aren’t outside the realm of impossibility, I mean remember how long I have been around?”

“Well yes I know you’ve been around for a long time Mentor” Celestia replied “but what I want to know is how do you think she will fare when the time comes?”

“It’s usually different each time, I hope that the others drawn to this one are able to comprehend and master their abilities like the last generation otherwi-” Twilight couldn’t hear anymore as she exited the Throne room. Walking towards where she usually practiced her magic, she wondered what they could have been talking about.

“What was that all about?” Twilight asked to herself as she pulled out a book from a stack of them nearby. “The Princess gave me these books not too long ago... And now that I finally have time to read them, I might as well” She said to herself, telepathically opening the book to its first page. “How to Make Friends” she stared blankly at the cover of the book for well over a minute before telekinetically setting the book down beside her “Although I don’t want it, Princess Celestia gave it to me. I can’t get rid of it just like that…”

She opened another book from the stack entitled ‘telekinesis and the wonders it can do for you’ and she started to read the book, she also started to eat the rest of the cookies the Mentor gave her. She stuffed one into her mouth before spitting it back out “BLEH, he wasn’t kidding when he said there were apple flavoured cookies.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

Not very far from Canterlot, near a small town by the name of Ponyville, was the Everfree Forest. A mysterious and unknown place where everypony fears entering, and those who do, never find their way back out. Which is why the place is feared, and usually ignored by most ponyfolk who live in Ponyville. No one really knows the tale of how this forest came to be, and no one knows how long ago this place became sinister. Deep inside this dark forest laid the ruins of a once well-known castle, the castle is known as the old palace where the two princess sisters used to rule from in the legends of old.

“What are we even doing here?” said a voice from inside the broken palace. An old green pegasus filly with a darker tint of green for her mane stood near a shrine where a pedestal stood, the pedestal was a wide pole and at the top spread out and held 5 spherical objects in the air. “Are you even going to answer? What in the hay are we going to find in this dump?” she kept staring over to the other side of the pedestal, where a red unicorn who barely looked like he was older than a colt with an orange mane was digging with a shovel he was levitating.

“Testy aren’t we? You read that book I showed you, it said in great detail that something was hidden here, something of great value…” he said, his eyes intent on his digging. “Do you know how rich a pony could be if they found this? We’re lucky we found that book otherwise some other lucky pony would have been rolling in bits.”

“Yeah, but is it really worth it? We don’t even know if it is something we could sell in the first place, it could just be a silly plate for eating for all we know.” the unicorn’s female companion said, waving her forehooves in the air. “Besides, this place is just too creepy. It feels… off, somehow…” she said, looking around the large room as the stallion kept digging.

“FINALLY!” the stallion yelled, as he felt the shovel hit something as he dug. He set the shovel down and peered into the hole, as his Pegasus friend trotted over next to him to see what their fruits of their labor were.

“A BOX?!!” the Pegasus had yelled at the top of her lungs “ALL OF THIS FOR A MEASLY BOX?! BY CELESTIA’S GREAT FLAMING FLANK YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING M-!”

“Calm down…that is no way for someone our age to be saying” the stallion said, sticking his hoof in her mouth… only to have to quickly withdraw when he felt her tongue come in contact “ Eugh… Well, hoof licking aside, it’s just a box. A really weird looking box, since it’s sporting all those spikes, and there’s some kind of fog that’s seeping from inside. But think about it for a second, people put valuable things in special boxes, so maybe there is something really valuable in this box, do you understand?” He said slowly so as to mock her, to which she replied with a sigh. “Good. Let’s open this shall we?” he asked, but just went on to open the box without hearing opinion.

By the millisecond he touched the box, it flung open violently, making him stumble back from the shock. And as soon as he put one hoof down, a mysterious dark energy came spiraling out of the box, filling the room. The two small treasure hunters stood still in fear and awe as the sight unraveled itself before them. Soon, all the energy converged towards a single point in front of them and it all collided in a bright flash of light, blinding the two ponies, forcing them to shield their eyes. The light then vanished, and as they deemed it alright to lower their hooves, they saw a strange looking pony standing where the flash had originated from. The bizarre pony was a lot taller than the young unicorn, he had a black coat, a horn, and his mane was brilliantly white. He was also heavily clad in bright silver armor, covering most of his figure.

The strange pony turned towards the treasure hunters, his eyes a fierce dark red. And as he opened his mouth, he said to the two of them, “Greetings little ones, I am King Everfree, I bid you welcome to my castle and fair Kingdom” he smiled as he started to slowly make his way towards them, the two young ponies paralyzed out of fear “I’m sorry, if I knew I was going to be having guests I would’ve cleaned the place up a little.”

Chapter 1

Chapter One: Memories that can never go away

The icy air that had been moving around Equestria brought a chilling feeling to the small town of Ponyville. All the little ponies who reside there have either started to wear their winter attire or have locked themselves indoors and are sitting next to their fireplaces. One pony in particular has decided to ignore the cold by not doing either of these and is instead inside her treehouse reading one of her many books, entitled ‘How to Make Friends’ which is engraved in clear bold letters on the front cover “Whoever would have thought that I would’ve been reading this book. I guess I fool myself sometimes.” the lavender unicorn said with a small chuckle.

“Twi?” a voice from the upper level had asked. “What are you doing? It’s freezing! Why aren’t you wearing something to keep you warm? You could at least light a fire so that the both of us won’t freeze to death?”

“Now, now Spike. It isn’t THAT cold is it? Can’t you bear with it?” the reading pony said with a grin “And also, you’re a dragon. Can’t you just breathe some fire to keep yourself warm?”

“Come on Twi, It’s too cold to bring up any flames. Can’t you just use a spell and summon a fire?” the restless Spike said as his head hung over the ledge of the second floor.

“Spike, I haven’t even learnt a fire spell yet. Furthermore, if I tried that now I may burn the library down by accident. I’m not going to try that….” she paused for a moment turning her head to look at Spike with an awkward smile on her face. “Again.” Spike burst into laughter as he fell to the ground clutching his stomach

“Oh Celestia, I remember that. Thank goodness Rainbow Dash and some of the other pegasi were able to find some rain clouds in time, otherwise that would have ended really badly” he rolled on the floor in a laughing fit as Twilight returned to her book rolling her eyes in the process.

“One thing you need to know when making friends is that you should never betray their trust, otherwise the friendship could become stale or worse.” Twilight said out loud while reading the book she disregarded as a kid. “This sounds a lot like Pinkie Pie.” Twilight said to herself, smiling at how the author thought much like her pastel pink friend, but with quite the few mention of parties unlike what Pinkie would. “Also, if a friend happens to betray your trust is there nothing this book can offer as advice?” she read asking herself as she neared the end of the sentence, but shook her head and continued reading “The best advice this book can give is to listen to your heart on what you feel about what your friend did, and you may be able to trust them again. Over time, some cases someponys are known to never talk to their old friend ever again.”

“That’s so sad.” Twilight heard somepony say behind her. Literally jumping in shock, she turned to see her pink party standing behind her with a huge grin on her face.

“Heya Twilight!” Pinkie said waving a hoof “Watcha jumping for? Did you find some jumping beans? Did you eat them?” she asked obviously not knowing that it was her that made Twilight practically leap out of her own coat.

“Pinkie!” Twilight said her voice weak as she clutched her chest “You scared the living daylight out of me!”

“Sorry ‘bout that Twi, but I’m pretty sure that ponies don’t have living daylight inside them, or do they?” Pinkie asked as she herself started searching the bookshelves “Hey Twi you got any books on-”

“No Pinkie, there aren’t any books in this library on ponies having daylight inside them” Twilight answered in an unamused tone. “What are you even doing inside my house?” Twilight said just now realizing that that should have been her first question.

“Well…” Pinkie said with a hoof to her chin “Rainbow Dash is going to try a new trick, care to come with me? It’s going to be superly-dupperly-fantasticly-tastic!” Pinkie was leaping with each word she uttered.

“Well, I guess it wouldn’t hurt to watch her try one, since I’ve never seen Rainbow practice a trick.” Twilight said as she quickly went to return the book she was reading to its proper shelf.

“Oh you silly filly” Pinkie said bonking Twilight on the head “She’s not practicing, she’s going to perform her new move. And she calls it the DASHIMATOR!” Pinkie Pie did her usual prancing of joy as she yelled out the name of Rainbow’s new trick.

“I don’t even know how she comes up with most of the names for those tricks” Twilight chuckled “She should just perform her trick instead of thinking of the names for them.”

“COME ON TWILIGHT!” Pinkie called as she galloped out of the library “WE’RE GOING TO BE LAaaAATE~!”

“Coming…” Twilight answered back, grabbing a scarf to help her keep warm.
“Spike look after the place okay?”

“Urgh” was all that Spike muttered after Twilight left, “too cold, to do anything except sleep.”

________________________________________________________________

Although the town was shined upon by Celestia’s warm rays, there was still the feeling of the frosty weather that had lingered on for the past week. The two ponies Pinkie Pie and Twilight Sparkle made their way towards the nearby park where a jumpy Rainbow Dash was stretching her forehooves. She perked up at the sight of her two friends. “Well it’s about time! Where have the two of you been? I’ve been waiting all day” her voice clearly as full of energy as she always was.

“Sorry, but Twi here was just studying really hard as usual so it was tough to get her to stop reading those books” Pinkie pointed at Twi with the her right hoof nearly poking Twilight with it. “Well, at least she’s not hitting them.”

“Pinkie, I already told you it was just a figure of speech. I didn’t mean I would literally hit my books” Pinkie responded with her usual giggle after Twilight’s explanation.

“Come on guys, FOCUS. I can’t have you distracting me while I’m practicing!” Rainbow Dash yelled, both non-pegasi ponies instantly falling silent as their winged friend leapt into the air “Okay let’s see. I pull of the Sonic Rainboom, but I have to make sure I perform it while going in loops” she mumbled to herself. Mentally simulating how everything would come together “Yeah, I just know this is going to work.”

Rainbow set herself up in her starting position waiting for the right moment, her wings ready to let her soar through the air, her mind ticking the seconds away as she braced herself.

A mental countdown clicked as she zoomed off, leaving a rainbow trail behind her like always, her two friends watching in anticipation. Waiting to see her latest and greatest move since the Sonic Rainboom.

She picked up speed as she started to see the outlines of the same cone that hindered and berated her each time she practiced for the Sonic Rainboom. She felt a little troubled but quickly tried to brush that feeling away as she knew she couldn’t let herself be filled with doubt now. Her revolutions were getting faster, and now as she grinned full of pride and joy with the knowledge that she could pull off this new move.

“Oooooooooh” Pinkie said, watching her friend fly in the sky above. “Twi, looks like she’s going to make it!” she repeated in anticipation and excitement, constantly poking the lavender unicorn next to her.

“Yeah, I hope she does pull th-” Twilight said before she stopped midsentence. Shaking her head as she stared off into the distance, her pink friend following suit as she tried to see what Twilight was so curious about.

“I don’t get it Twi. All I see is a pony minding their own business. Funny looking cloak though, looks like Zecora’s.” The two of them had completely forgotten about Dash’s new trick as they both stared at a cloaked figure with a saddlebag standing near a tree watching Rainbow Dash, a hood covering their face.

“I don’t know Pinkie, but that pony just seems…. Familiar. Somehow.” Twilight’s eyes were locked onto the figure, observing the shape and the way it stood.

“Hey, I just realized. I’ve never seen that pony before which means they’re new to town!” Pinkie announced, already making her way towards the figure before Twilight could do anything to stop her.

“PINKIE WAIT!” was all Twilight could yell out as the pink earth pony trotted up to the cloaked being.

“What in the hay was that for?” Twilight heard behind her. She turned around to be greeted by the sight of an angry Rainbow Dash brushing some dust off of herself. “If you two didn’t keep talking and if you didn’t scream, I would‘ve cleared it easy. Instead, I ended up crashing. I mean, I’ve already pulled off the Sonic Rainboom” Twilight could only nervously smile as her pastel cyan friend glared at her before letting out a long sigh. “It doesn’t matter, I’ll pull it off next time. What’s Pinkie doing by the way?”

The two of them turned to see Pinkie Pie and the cloaked pony making their way towards them. “Hey guys look! I made a new friend!” Pinkie gleamed with the same upbeat attitude she always had. Rainbow Dash floated over to the cloaked pony and practically shoved her face right in front of the face of the strange pony.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Rainbow asked in the same tone that Twilight recognised as the one she used when she accused her of being a spy. “I almost had that trick in the bag until you showed up and ruined it.”

“But I was here before you were. And besides, what’s wrong with watching? It’s not like I ruined your trick just by looking” the pony stated his voice clearly indicating he was a stallion.

“Well that is kinda true. It’s just weird that somepony else other than my friends watch me practice.”

“Only your friends are permitted to watch? Well that’s just a bit selfish for not sharing your talent with everypony” the stallion replied, catching Rainbow off guard.

“Well I do have quite the talent. Otherwise I wouldn’t be the fastest pony in all of Equestria” Rainbow Dash said back huffing up her chest out of pride. “I mean, I’m so fast I pulled off the Sonic Rainboom.” The stallion chuckled slightly as he shook his head.

“It wasn’t your speed I was complimenting about. You also have form and grace when you fly.” After hearing the last word come out of his mouth, Twilight tried to stifle laughter as best as she could while Pinkie Pie was already on the ground laughing her pink head off. And Rainbow Dash just stood there, slightly blushing but she shook the feeling away in an instant.

“Look bub, I can’t have another pony become one of my fanatical followers and just one is already more than enough!” Rainbow said clearly with somepony already in her mind when she said that. Twilight stared at Rainbow, with a small grin on her face while Pinkie was still rolling on the ground having a laughing fit.

“Rushing to sudden conclusions aren’t we?” the cloaked stallion asked. “Don’t assume that me complimenting you automatically labels me as a fan. I actually think there are a LOT of things you can improve on. Like being able to not notice distractions, fail a trick, and then proceeding to fall into some shrubbery. Besides, I was just watching because I mistook you for somepony else.” the cloaked pony said. A snarky tone in his voice.

This was the final straw. Twilight couldn’t hold it in anymore as she too started laughing along with Pinkie Pie at how the cloaked pony was making a fool out of Rainbow “Well, then who did you think I was? There’s nopony else who could ever look like me.”

“Even if I tell you, nopony remembers her or even knows who she is.” The stallion said with a hint of sadness in his voice as he spoke before resuming his usual tone. “And also, I just don’t feel like telling you.”

“Then why mention it in the first place if you weren’t going to tell us?” Rainbow asked facehoofing.

“good question” he replied “maybe because I was bored, that seems to be the most likely answer.”

“Well, this was a fun conversation but I’d rather get going. I only came to town buy some supplies anyway.” He said looking over his saddlebags “hold on let’s see, I got the apples, sarsaparilla, water, pears, some fireworks and a bouquet of Lily’s” he muttered to himself checking his bags.

“Oooooooooh are you going to throw a party?” Pinkie asked as she instantly recovered from her laughing fit. “’Cause I love PARTIES!!”

“Sorry but no, just need to get some things for me and my friends, we were kind of running low on supplies.”

“Then what’s with the flowers?” Twilight asked.

“Mind your own business” the stallion said in a stern voice.

“Ah. Okay then” Twilight said, staring at the saddlebags, slightly taken aback by the suddenness and tone of his reply.

“Well it has been fun ladies, but I have to go now, everyone would be wondering where I snuck off to.”

“Wait, but what about your ‘Welcome to Ponyville Party’?” Pinkie asked which made Twilight remember how everypony was in the library on her first day in town.

“Sorry, but I have no time for parties.” He said, quickly turning around. His cloak flew along with him, exposing his cutie mark for the three mares to see. The Stallions cutie mark was just the symbol for infinity.

“That is quite a weird cutie mark” Twilight commented. The stallion said nothing back as he galloped away, and after he was out of their sight Twilight let out a small sigh. “Well, that was certainly weird.”

“OH NO!” Pinkie exclaimed with her hooves on her cheeks.

“What is it Pinkie?” Twilight and Rainbow asked in unison.

“I forgot to ask him his name to put on the cake when he got back!” Pinkie answered making both Twilight and Rainbow facehoof.
________________________________________________________________

At the edge of the Everfree forest, the cloaked pony stared back at Ponyville. “It was nice to see you again. Even if it’s only somepony who only looks and acts like you, my sweet little After Image.” He looked back towards the Everfree forest “Luckily, I can still do that voice changing spell” he said, letting out a sigh.

“It’s funny how it has been a few years since I got out of that accursed box, thanks to those treasure hunters. And even funnier were those three in my castle a little while ago. Thankfully, I had my cloaking spell that hid our presence during that whole nonsense with that Nightmare Moon” he said as his voice returning to its usual tone with the same demonic echo. A red unicorn stallion followed by a green pegasus mare appeared out from the shadows of the forest.

“Why did you leave the castle my lord?” the unicorn asked the cloaked King Everfree.

“To scope out what we will have to face in our future. But I didn’t expect them to look and act exactly like them. Well then again, I suppose I should not be surprised considering you two” Everfree spoke whilst looking back at Ponyville once again.

“Ponies that remind the Master of-” the green pegasus was about to ask before being cut off by the red unicorn.

“Please don’t say anything regarding them. The King does not wish to talk about it” he said before King Everfree walked towards them, both of them bowing as he approached.

“Diglet, Steady, there’s no need to bow” he said as the two of them stood up looking at the other’s cutie mark. Diglet’s was of a hole and a shovel half sticking out of it while Steady Skies’ cutie mark was a single cloud shaped as a resting pony. “We have been together for a few years now, and remember if it wasn’t for you two I’d still be stuck in that cursed box, that really cramped small box.”

“And if it wasn’t for you we’d still be scavenging around Equestria following wild goose chases and not having food in our bellies” both replied in unison.

“Don’t give me too much credit. If you didn’t tell me anything about current events I would have probably gone insane! Or at least be wandering around aimlessly for the next century or two blowing stuff up. I don’t really know which one I would be doing.”

“What was it like in that box?” Diglet asked. “Like were you conscious the entire time?”

“I was forced to watch past events of my life over and over again” King Everfree let out a heavy sigh as he started to continue “seeing all my family and friends, seeing them in their best moments and their worst over and over just made me want to try to end myself to make it stop.”

“Well we can see how well that whole killing yourself plan went” Steady remarked giggling.

“Right you are Steady” Everfree said joining the giggling.

“But my Lord, why are we going to attack the Elements of Harmony now? Couldn’t you have done that when we woke you up?” Steady Skies asked

“Ah, yes. You saw what happened while we were cloaked during that battle at my castle?”

“Yes, King Everfree. The battle between the student of the current ruler of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle and her friends against the fabled Nightmare Moon from the old pony tales.” Digger answered, summing up what they saw that time.

“Indeed. That Nightmare Moon or Princess Luna, whichever one tried to destroy the elements, thought she had succeeded but failed in the end. But it shall be different for me. I know that in order to succeed, patience is a must.” King Everfree proclaimed whilst striding back into the forest that was now his namesake “and it shall be different for me since they have not unlocked their full potential yet. Which means, they are weak and untrained. But then, that gives us time to prepare.”

“Why? What do you mean we have to prepare?” his two subordinates asked as they followed him into the forest.

King Everfree let out a sigh before opening his mouth again. His voice still followed by that demonic echo. “Because ever since the creation of the elements, there has always been a pony who teaches them. Makes them stronger physically, magically, mentally and emotionally. It is a rule that was made by the very alicorn that created the elements of Harmony. And that same alicorn became the very first Mentor.”

“The creator of the elements was an alicorn and became the Mentor?” Diglet repeated out loud. “But why create them if he had to teach the bearers? And wasn’t it Princess Celestia who created the Elements?”

“No, she did not create the elements and that was a decision the Mentor made so I don’t know what that pony was thinking when they decided to train those chosen by the elements.” King Everfree’s face was blank as he continued talking “Moving on, the Mentor must already know about my return. I presume he or she was waiting until the right moment to approach them. So while he or she is busy training them, we will be training and coming up with a plan of attack.” King Everfree said, resuming his way back to his castle. “Don’t worry Diglet and Steady. I’ll tell you more about my past, what your training will be. After some dinner first. I’m somewhat hungry. I shall be cooking some food for us all to eat.”

The two ponies stared at each other after their King vanished into the forest undergrowth. “So, what do you think Steady?” Diglet asked his companion.

“I don’t know. This is treason. But even if he is trying to take down our old sovereign, he didn’t hurt or kill us when we met. And he has taken very good care of us for a couple of years now.”

“That is true, and I believe that you aren’t as loud or bossy as you were several years ago. I believe that us meeting him has changed us.”

“Yeah me too, you got angry too easily. But the reason he didn’t kill us might be because we remind him of his old companions at court.”

“I’m also surprised he can cook. I didn’t know royalty cooked their own meals” Diglet said, scratching his chin with his hoof.

“Well Diglet, I thought you would be thinking about how we remind the lord of his old companions, and not about the fact that he can cook.” Steady Skies said in an unimpressed tone.

“Yeah, you do have a point there. But it was weird when he called us ‘Tunneller’ and ‘Breezy Winds’.” He shrugged as he talked.

“Are the two of you coming or not? The food is either going to get cold when you get here or somepony else might eat it. I think I may be the one to eat it. I have been rather hungry lately” King Evergreen’s voice resonated throughout the forest, reaching their ears, making them both jump and start galloping towards the old castle.
________________________________________________________________

In Canterlot, Capital City of Equestria, the regal Princess Celestia sat upon her throne, routinely tending to her royal duties. A single guard trotted up the stairs to her throne, clearly having something important to tell “Your Grace, you have a guest here to see you.”

Princess Celestia smiled at the news. But that smile quickly turned into a grim frown when she saw a familiar cloak and red eyes. “Is it time already?”

“Yes, Princess Celestia. It is time for them to finally learn what being a bearer of one of the six Elements of Harmony is truly like. But I fear an old friend has come back to our land and he will be tougher than anything the other generations have ever faced.”

“What do you mean?” Princess Celestia asked. Her head filled with worry for her student, her subjects and her kingdom.

“Remember that old ponytale I told you about the once beautiful Kingdom of Everfree, and their King who was one of the most gifted and powerful Unicorns who ever lived?”

Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Enter the Earth and Sky duo

The Treehouse that the student of Princess Celestia was using for accommodation was slowly being entered by five different coloured ponies all being greeted by the student herself and her assistant Spike. The day had gone by so quickly and the world embraced the night sky but the lingering cold air still gave chills to ponies that weren’t clever enough to wear something to keep them warm.

Soon all five of Twilight’s guests were in the treehouse in a circle chatting about why they were called to their friend’s house. “Good evening everypony” Twilight said walking into the room with a letter being levitated by her horn “I’m glad you all could come here on such short notice, I’m sorry if you girls were doing something when I called you over all of a sudden.”

“It’s alright Darling” a white unicorn with a purple mane and tail said to her friend “it’s better to be here than in the cold anyway.”

“Yeah, although I do hope none of my animals cause a mess while I’m gone” a yellow pegasus also said her head hanging near the floor.

“Ah reckon those animal friends of yours will be perfectly safe Fluttershy” an orange mare with a hat on her mane said patting Fluttershy on the back with her hoof.

“Girls, sorry we have no time for this” Twilight Sparkle said out loud to her friends each of them turning their attention towards her “Spike received a letter from the Princess not too long ago”

“We received a message? From Princess Celestia herself?” the other unicorn mare beamed with delight.

“Ah think you should simmer down there Rarity” the orange mare said her accent very clear in her voice “ah don’t think Princess Celestia would send a message unless it was important.”

“You are right Applejack” Twilight had announced “this letter is important, I haven’t even opened it yet”

“What?!” came a high pitched voice “isn’t that the point of a letter? You are meant to read it” Pinkie Pie had a look of confusion on her face, which made practically every other pony in the room struggle not to sigh or face hoof.

“Pinkie, I haven’t read the letter yet because of this” Twilight levitated the letter towards them; all of them leaned in to see that on the back of it there was one sentence.

Dear Twilight Sparkle, please make sure that you and your five friends are present when you open this letter. All six of the elements of Harmony have to be present, for the content of this letter is for all of you and no one else.

“Well we can open it now right?” Rainbow Dash asked “come on I want to see what the Princess wrote in the letter” Rainbow clearly not wanting to wait any longer.

“Okay Rainbow” Twilight said sighing using her magic to levitate the letter to Spike to read, he opened the letter clearing his throat preparing to read it out loud.

“Dear Twilight Sparkle and friends, I hereby send you this letter to warn you that something terrible is going to happen soon and that Equestria needs your help.” Spike stopped looking towards the others with a worried look before continuing “this danger could very well destroy all of what we hold dear, I am sorry to suddenly bring this bad news but it is only the power of the Elements that can defeat this threat.” Spike once again looked towards his pony friends seeing their shocked and worried expressions “but do not fret. I am sending a special teacher to help you girls. This pony was the one who taught me most of the magic I know so I can vouch for his knowledge and his excellence in his field, he will be arriving shortly.”

Spike finished reading the letter for a third time looking at the six ponies in front of him letting the contents of the letter sink in.

“WHAT?” they all cried out in unison except for Fluttershy who immediately rand and hid behind Rainbow Dash whimpering in the process, while Rainbow Dash was too stunned to even sigh let alone even look around to see the expressions of her friends.

“This can’t be” Twilight said reading the letter again frantically “something dangerous is going to happen to Equestria and we are the only ones who can stop it.”

Applejack quickly reacted when the white unicorn fainted in a dramatic fashion “whoa there Rarity, don’t you go fainting on us now” she said catching her as she fell.

Rarity shook her head trying to wake herself up “oh, sorry Applejack, also could you please not touch me, I just washed my coat.”

Applejack sighed before dropping Rarity to the ground with a loud thud “if you didn’t want my dirty hooves touching you then I should just let you fall to the ground then, little miss clean and tidy.”

Rarity got back up staring Applejack with daggers in her eyes as she did “it’s not my fault that somepony doesn’t take care of their hy-”

“Oh no, not this argument again you two” Twilight said interrupting Rarity “we have more important things to do than argue now”

Applejack and Rarity seeing the wisdom in Twilight’s words both backed down without a fight “I’m sorry” they said in unison, Rarity in her lady like tone and Applejack in her accent.

“It’s alright, huh?” Twilight levitated the letter closer to her eyes as she read out loud “also ps this pony that is coming to help you guys decided not to take the pegasi chariot to Ponyville and decided to walk it, I don’t know why but the only reason he would give was that he didn’t like being in the air.”

“OH. YOU. HAVE. GOT. TO. BE. KIDDING. ME!” Rainbow Dash yelled face hoofing in the process.

Twilight just continued staring at that one line on the letter “the fate of Equestria hangs in the balance and the pony who Celestia sends to help us decided not to take the quickest route cause he doesn’t want to fly?” she ask herself trying to figure out what possible realistic reasoning this stupid pony had for not doing so.

She met all the worried, confused and angry faces of her friends as she looked up from the letter “well girls there is nothing we can do know, we should get some sleep, it is getting late and you all should get some rest after what we just heard.”

“Is Equestria really going to be in Trouble Twilight?” the yellow pegasus asked whimpering underneath a table.

“No Fluttershy, not if we have anything to say about it, but we won’t be doing any saving if we’re all tired and sleepy.”

All the ponies except Twilight exited the library, it took a while for Rainbow to leave since she was muttering how hard she was going to buck the pony who decided to take the scenic route.

________________________________________________________________

The bright shine of Celesita’s sun broke through the dark clouds hanging over the town of Ponyville, pegasi were busy moving the dark clouds while unicorns and earth ponies were busy taking off the braches from the trees in the area.

Rarity, using her unicorn magic wedged a couple branches off a tree “well you seem to be doing mighty fine there Rarity” Applejack said walking up to Rarity “at least you aren’t decorating them anymore like you were last time.”

“And I see that you’re being cautious when you rip off branches too Applejack” Rarity commented as her orange friend lassoed another branch off a tree.

“But really, just last night we heard about how something bad was coming but now we’re just acting like it never happened and we also have another doozy of a storm coming our way” Applejack commented spitting the lasso out of her mouth.

“Do you really think that pony the Princess sent will actually arrive?”

“Ah don’t know, if this pony was willing to walk all the way instead of taking a pegasi chariot here then their apple tree must not be growing enough apples”

“Who’s growing apple trees?” Applejack and Rarity jumped from surprise when they spotted a red unicorn stallion and green pegasus mare behind them smiling and waving their hoofs a couple meters away.

“Blimey you startled us there, mah heart almost leaped out of mah chest there” Applejack said taking in deep breaths to calm her down.

“Why aren’t you two inside? There’s going to be a storm soo-” Rarity was about to say but just as she was ending as if right on cue the storm started and the four ponies were being pelted by rain.

They all scrambled to find some shade from the rain and lightning “Over here” the four ponies heard Twilight’s voice from her treehouse library, the four of them rushing inside as fast as their hooves could take them.

“Not this again” Applejack commented walking inside “and so nothing like that happens again” she shoved her forehooves into Rarity’s face “see, this time I didn’t step in any mud.”

“Okay, okay darling you don’t need to mess up my face with your hooves” Rarity replied pushing down Applejack’s hooves with her own.

“Umm I’m sorry to interrupt but isn’t a tree the wor-” the green pegasus was saying before Twilight interrupted

“Worst place to be in a storm? Well I have a magical lightning rod so we are completely safe from lightning”

“Well not exactly safe from other tress” Rarity commented earning her looks from the other four ponies in the room, “but anyway who are you two?” she asked coming closer to the two new ponies as she inspected them with her keen eyes.

“Oh we’re new to town” the stallion unicorn answered “I’m Diglet and this delightful mare over here is Steady Skies” the mare known as Steady Skies waved with her hoof blushing a little bit as she did so.

“Ya know” Applejack said poking her chin with her hoof in thought “you look a lot like a skinnier unicorn version of mah brother there Diglet.”

“Oh, I do” Diglet asked as he gave himself a look over.

“Yeah, sure ya do” Applejack said smiling patting him on the back “buuut I reckon you ain’t as strong though.”

“Well it doesn’t matter how strong he is Applejack” Rarity interjected “but he does look like he could be a good model for some of designs.”

Rarity circled around Diglet looking him over before jumping back with a yelp “oh dear, what happened to your tail?”

Applejack and Twilight made their way to Rarity where they spotted that Diglet had no tail what so ever “umm sugarcube, I hate to ask the obvious but why do you have no tail?”

Diglet and Steady sighed in unison before Diglet cleared his throat “as my name implies I am good at digging and whenever I used to dig my tail kept getting caught in something or was stuck in a small crack, so I asked somepony to cut it off.”

“Well how about I help you with styling your tail?” Rarity asked “I will craft it in a way that is fashionable and doesn’t get in your way and Steady I would just LOVE to do something with your luscious green mane.”

“Umm thanks for being so kind but we only just met you ponies” Steady Skies said standing between Diglet and the others “and we haven’t even moved into our new house yet, how about you let us do that first before we go and do any favors for you ponies.”

“Oh yeah” Twilight said “my name is Twilight Sparkle, and the white unicorn over there is Rarity, she owns the local boutique” she said pointing towards her white coated friend “and there’s Applejack of the apple family, they buck and grow all the apples in the area.” Applejack scratched the back of her head when Twilight pointed towards her.

Applejack then walked over to one of the windows and looked outside, she looked around and let out an amazed whistle “hoh boy, looks like it’s raining cats and dogs out there.”

Ever other pony in the room all trotted up to a window staring at how hard the rain was coming down, lightning could be seen striking the ground off in the distance. “What in tarnation?” Applejack asked making everypony else look out her window.

In the pelting rain was a purple earth pony running around, dancing in the bad weather having a blast.

“What in Equestria is that pony doing?” Twilight asked going for the door, trying to open the door only to be buffeted the fierce winds of the storm “ahhh, I can’t get out.”

As Twilight shut the door the rest of assembled ponies looked out to see the dancing pony still prancing around without a care in the world.

“Do you think he even knows it’s raining?” Steady asked turning to the others.

“Ah don’t reckon he does, but it seems like he’s having the time of his life over there.”

The purple earth pony stopped in his tracks, stared at the direction of the tree library almost as if staring at the ponies inside. He waved a hoof in their direction before quickly galloping off away from them.

“What in Equestria was that strange pony doing?” Rarity inquired looking to the other ponies hoping they might know the answer.

Diglet and Steady looked at each other before turning to the others shrugging “we only just got here.” Steady said “we don’t know anything about what you strange ponies do for recreation.”

“I don’t think any of us would consider dancing in the rain while there is a storm a recreational activity” Twilight stated “well maybe that pony went back home.”

“Huh? Oh would you look at that” Diglet said as he looked out the window, ever other pony looked out a window to see that the rain had stopped, the black clouds still loomed overhead but at least the pelting rain was no longer there.

“Now we have a chance to quickly run home Diglet” Steady said nudging Diglet with her elbow “we still have a lot of unpacking to do.”

“Thanks for letting us stay here for a little bit” both of the new ponies said before galloping out at full speed.

“Well they seem like nice folk, don’t they?” Applejack asked shifting her hat as she trotted over to the door “well as fun as it is to spend time with you all I have to head back and see how Applebloom is doing.”

Rarity also started to trot towards the door “Sorry Twilight but I do have to make sure that Sweetie Bell is safe, I don’t want her to be alone.”

“Bye girls” Twilight shouted to her friends as the galloped towards their respective homes.

She walked back inside her treehouse to see Spike asleep in his little bed that was at the foot of her bed, she nuzzled his neck as he mumbled in his sleep “don’t worry Rarity, I will save the day.”

___________________________________________________________________________

Diglet and Steady galloped quickly to the house that was given to them. As they ran inside they shut the door behind them both of them looked up to see a purple earth pony lying on one of their couches with a big grin on his face “oh man, I LOVE dancing in the rain.”

Diglet and Steady sighed as they trotted towards their smiling purple guest “Rain Prancer, what were you thinking?” Diglet asked.

“Aww, come on Diggy you know how I get whenever it starts to rain.” Rain Prancer answered with a moppy face “I just couldn’t help myself, besides it’s not like anypony saw me enter the house of Ponyville’s latest and hottest couple.”

Both Diglet and Steady blushed, they quickly realized and turned away from each other “I’m still not so sure about this, what does our leader have in mind making us three infiltrate this place?” Prancer asked as the fake couple quickly regained their senses.

“He said that he needed time to set some things up, he’s using a lot of his powers at the moment” Steady answered “apparently he has a spell that will help us with our training, and a spell that powerful needs time to prepare for.”

“But” Diglet said out loud “he also said that this “Mentor” pony also knows this spell that is why he is trying to save up his magical power now.”

“I wonder when he” Prancer said before looking at Steady “or she, gets here”

“Who knows” Diglet and Steady said in unison shrugging.

___________________________________________________________________________

Twilight felt her stomach growl and rumble “oops, guess I forgot to eat anything” Twilight said making her way to the kitchen of her library treehouse.
She stepped inside only to find she was unable to move any muscle in her body “What the?” She asked herself trying to move, but found out she couldn’t budge even an inch.

“I see you triggered my trap spell” Twilight looked around frantically trying to find the source of the voice, the voice sounded close, but somehow sounded young.

“What do you want with me?” Twilight yelled as she tried to use her magic to dispel the trap.

“Using your magic won’t save you, that is an ancient holding spell, but I congratulate you on your determination.” The voice said getting closer.

“Who are you?” Twilight shouted fearing for her life and scared for what will happen to Spike “are you what the princess warned me about?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” The voice asked before Twilight could see a small figure trot out from behind a chair, her eyes were wide with shock as she saw her captor.

A small figure in a brown hooded cloak walked out from behind a chair, the small cloaked figured reached for the pulling it back revealing a colt with a black coloured coat, white mane and bright red eyes, Twilight also noticed he was wearing a bandana with the words ‘teach’ in bold letters.

“If you haven’t guessed it yet” the small colt said clearing his throat “I am the one who your Princess sent to teach you and your friends, oh and also I am afraid you are out of tea, sorry I may have drank it all while I was waiting.” The colt said smiling.

Chapter 3 (unedited)

Chapter 3: The Disoriented Memory

A storm had just passed over the settlement of Ponyville, leaving the town drenched and full of puddles, the dark clouds have been replaced with Luna’s starry night sky. All the houses in Ponyville had their lights turned off, all of the buildings except for the Ponyville Library.

Spike had awakened from his nap a little earlier than what he would’ve liked when he heard yelling which made it impossible for him to sleep peacefully, but he quickly stopped his grumbling when he walked into the kitchen to see Twilight sitting at the table with a black coated colt with a brown cloak covering his body who was drinking some teat the other end.

“Umm Twilight, what is going on?” He asked looking back and forth between the two ponies at the table “who is that?”

Twilight turned her head towards Spike slowly with a nervous smile on her face “remember that pony who the Princess sent?” she asked with a shaky voice.

“You mean that stupid foal who thought it would be a good idea to not take the pegasi chariot?” Spike crossed his arms his he stared at Twilight “what about him?”

Twilight turned her head back to face their guest “well umm he’s here.”

Spike having just woken up was not in the mood for jokes, he walked over to the colt as he rubbed his right eye “who? You mean this kid?”

“Yes she means this kid” the colt replied still sipping his tea, Spike glared back at the colt “and before you say anything little dragon, this is not a joke nor is this some crude prank.” He set his empty tea cup down onto the table “I am the one sent to help you.”

Spike just continued glaring until he stretched and yawned as he walked back to his bed “must be some type of dream” he concluded as he let his tiredness take over and fell asleep.

Now the two unicorns were once again alone at the kitchen table, Twilight still unable to determine whether she was dreaming or that the Princess was playing a prank of some kind.

“He seems like a nice assistant” The mysterious child announced “but how about we finally cut to the chase.”

Twilight gulped as she tried to assess the situation, a strange colt with magical prowess had appeared and is supposedly the one who is meant to help train us to defend Equestria. Twilight still couldn’t understand what was going on as she let out a sigh as she gave up.

“I see you’ve grown since last time I saw you” the colt stated making Twilight even more confused.

“Just who are you?” Twilight finally managed to ask “I mean you’re a colt who can clearly have enough magic power to render me paralysed as long as you wanted, and you say you were sent by Princess Celestia.” The colt stared her in the eyes as she continued “all of this doesn’t make any sense, just answer me, who are you?”

The colt shot Twilight a look that told her he was unimpressed for some reason then he let out a sigh “I admit that we only met the once and that you wouldn’t remember me, but really I thought I at least left some kind of impression, especially with those cookies I gave you.” He jumped out his chair and started making his way to Twilight’s door.

He stopped as he turned his head towards Twilight as he glared her down “all I have to say after observing you and your friends is this.” The colt opened the door of the library, the storm outside had started up again and the rain looked heavier than before and thunder could be heard in the background.

“In all my time as mentor for the Elements of Harmony not once have I come across a generation as awful and appalling as you and your friends.” Twilight watched as the colt put his hood back on as he disappeared into the storm slamming the door behind him.

___________________________________________________________________________

“HE SAID WHAT?” an angry Rainbow Dash yelled out as she stood with her friends in Twilight’s library.

Twilight had gathered her friends the next day after the storm and retold them the events of last night including the two new ponies Diglet and Steady Skies as well as her encounter with the colt who said he was the mentor of the Elements of Harmony.

“How could he say that about us?” Rainbow continued to yell “we are the embodiment of the elements aren’t we? We defeated Nightmare Moon AND Discord using the Elements! And yet some little kid tells us that we aren’t good enough!”

“Calm down Rainbow” their cowpony friend calmly said “what you’re doing is only proving his point.”

“Applejack has a point darling” Rarity insisted “if we get flustered by his statement then we only falling into his trap.”

“I don’t know” Twilight announced “I believe he was telling the truth about him being the one the Princess sent, but why would she send a kid?”

“Yes I wonder that too.”

Everyone in the room, except for Spike who was still napping turned their heads to one corner of the room where a brown cloaked colt was sitting on the floor.

“Well say something, I don’t like awkward silences” the colt Mentor said to the six stunned ponies.

“SAY SOMETHING?” Rainbow yelled “you insult us then appear out of nowhere and expect US to say something?”

“There you go, see was that so hard?” the colt replied “well at least now I know you can at least form a sentence.”

“Urgh, what am I doing yelling at some kid?” she asked herself sighing.

“You’re back?” Twilight asked as she stepped closer to the colt Mentor “why are you back?”

“Well I am back to ask you all a question” he lifted his hood back, revealing his face to the others, a big grin on his face “and depending on how you answer this question, I may or may not help you ponies.”

Twilight and her friends looked to each other, hoping somepony would come up with a reply.

“What’s this question of yours?” Applejack finally asked breaking the silence.

“Do you believe I am the one the Princess sent to help you?” he said with a straight face “that is my question.”

“What kind of question is that?” Pinkie asked “you said you’re the pony the Princess sent, but then again you did say we were not good, but then again I can’t stay mad for long.” Pinkie kept listing off different reasons then countering with another reason.

The others let Pinkie continue rambling as they thought up of their own opinions.

“I think you’re a liar and that this is some kind of sick joke.” Rainbow said aloud with a huffed chest “there’s no way I am the worst element of loyalty!”

“Wait!” Twilight said making everypony stare at her “if he said we are the worst elements, doesn’t that mean that there were others who were the Elements of Harmony.”

Twilight and her friends remained silent as their thought about their lavender friend’s conclusion.

The silence was broken by clapping that came from the colt, “bravo, you always were a smart cookie, but sadly that is irrelevant to the question, and speaking of cookies I need to buy some more later.”

“Your Rainbow friend answered the way I expected her to, I wonder if you will do the same” the colt said with some glee.

“You expected her to not believe you?” Pinkie asked “wow, you must be magical; I believe you are telling the truth.”

“Well seems like that now leaves four more ponies to answer a simple question” he turned his head towards the yellow pegasus who was hiding behind a table.

“Don’t be worried frightened one, all you have to do at the moment is answer a simple question.” He said in a soothing tone.

“I…I... don’t know” Fluttershy meekly said “you said something bad, but I can’t stay mad at a weak defenceless pony.”

“Perfect” he said “you answered perfectly, now it’s time for you three, although I’m not as weak as I look.” He said looking at Rarity, Applejack and Twilight.

“But darling, you’re just a kid” Rarity had a motherly look on her face “and you should stop playing these weird games and change into something more decent, that cloak looks absolutely tacky.”

The colt Mentor looked over his cloak then turned to Rarity with an unimpressed look “no one says my cloak is not decent, but you answered exactly the way I expected.”

He again look at his cloak “I think it’s good” he muttered.

“Well ah don’t know one bit what to make of this nonsense.” Applejack said scratching her mane “so my honest answer is that I don’t have an answer.”

“You girls are on a roll, you’re answering exactly as I had anticipated” he said grinning “now it’s time for the bookworm to answer.”

Everyone turned to Twilight who just crept away from their glances.

Twilight sighed as she stared the colt in his bright red eyes “although you’re very confusing and that you may be lying I believe you though.”

The colt just smiled as everypony turned their attention to him. “Exactly as I said, the worst generation to date.”

“Why?” they all cried in unison “we answered your question.”

“Let me finish” the colt stared daggers into their eyes, making them all back away “BUT, I’ll give you a chance to change my mind.”

___________________________________________________________________________

The next day the storm had finally passed leaving puddles and mud everywhere in Ponyville. Little fillies were everywhere, all of them playing in the mud and puddles, some parents having to drag their children away to clean them.

Twilight had her saddlebags set up on one of the tables, neatly putting in several items.

“Twi” a sleepy Spike asked as he walked down the stairs rubbing his eyes “what are you doing?”

“We’re going on a trip Spike” Twilight answered packing away books into her bags “and don’t worry I’ve already packed your stuff as well.”

Spike slowly made his way to Twilight as he let out a long yawn, he climbed onto her back “will Rarity be coming?”

Twilight let out a sigh but smiled and brushed the dragon’s head with her hoof. “Sure, we’re all going; we decided that we should go on a camping trip.”

Spike immediately woke up, all sign of drowsiness disappearing in an instant “well we shouldn’t keep them waiting shall we, onwards to fair lady Rarity!”

Twilight just shot an unamused look at Spike before galloping out her library’s door.

___________________________________________________________________________

Twilight arrived at a single tree on the outskirts of Ponyville. She looked around seeing her friends making their way to the tree, Scootaloo was rapidly following Rainbow Dash with both Sweetie Bell and Applebloom in the red wagon attached to her scooter, Rarity and Applejack was in turn rapidly galloping after their little sisters, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie both arrived from different directions, Pinkie bouncing along like usual.

“Well looks like we’re all here” Rainbow announced coming to an abrupt stop next to Twilight. “Still don’t know why we have to bring these guys.” She motioned towards the small group known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“He said to bring them along, as well as Spike, I don’t know why if all he said was to go on a camping trip.” Twilight replied.

“I’m not so sure about the girls coming along with us, what if something happens to them?” Fluttershy asked as she approached them with a worried expression.

“Yeah Twilight” Rainbow added looking back at the speeding scooter “why would he want them to come along?”

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER CAMPING EXPERTS!!!!” the young fillies shouted with glee as they all jumped off from their transport.

“Sweetie Bell!/Applebloom!” the fashionable unicorn and cowpony both said in unison “we told you to wait for us and to not rush off” Applejack’s accent making her voice very distinguishable from Rarity’s.

“But we wanted to get here first” Scootaloo responded defending her friends “but it seems like we won’t be able to beat Rainbow Dash.”

The two older sisters sighed as they gathered up the Crusaders and joined the rest of the group.

“Mornin’ Spike!” Applebloom said waving her right forehoof at the dragon assistant “are ya comin’ with us?”

“Yeah, yeah” Spike answered while he sat on Twilight’s back “what are you three doing here?”

“We heard about it from some weird boy who told us about it” Sweetie Bell replied “then after he told us our sisters started to pack some of the essentials and here we are.”

“We’re going to be Cutie Mark Crusader Campers!” Scootaloo shouted puffing her chest “and I know we’re going to get our cutie marks, I can just feel it.”

“You say that about every crusade you little fillies have” Rarity said getting the attention of the Crusaders “can’t you just wait until you get you figure out your special talent?”

“No!” the Crusaders shouted “we’re going to try everything until we get our cutie mark.”

“Most you be so intolerant to advice?.”

Everypony turned to see the cloaked colt once again, a saddlebag on his back. “Well don’t everypony try to talk at once now, it’s not like I’m a ghost.”

He quickly turned in a circle on the spot looking himself over “Or am I? Quickly! Tell me, am I a ghost?”

“Um no, you’re not a ghost” Twilight replied “and what are you doing here?”

“What? Who doesn’t like a good camping trip” the colt replied “besides, it would be unfair for Spike since he is the only boy here.”

“Well he does have a point, it does get a bit annoying when I have no one to talk to” Spike said, Twilight nodded in agreement.

“Okay you can come with us” Twilight looked to the others before looking back to the colt “so-” was all she could say before being cut off from the colt Mentor.

“We’re going to an inn a few hours away, a nice place full of nice ponies” the colt said taking the lead of the group “also just to make things easier for everyone here, just call me….”

He scratched his white mane in thought “ummm, hold on it’s coming to me” he started to furiously scratch his head with both of his forehooves.

The assembled ponies plus Spike looked at each other, some confused while most were just trying to make sense of the situation.

“I know!” he stated out loud “call me Cookie Monster!”

The other ponies and Spike all turned to each other then back to the colt, Rainbow facehoofed “What?” he asked, then he let out a long sigh “oh fine call me Clyde.”

“What kind of name is Clyde?” Rainbow asked “And secondly why are YOU picking where we go, all you did was tell us to go on a camping trip with these four as well.”

Twilight shook her head as she approached Rainbow and Clyde “look Rainbow, I’m sure he has his reasons however weird they may seem.”

“Are you sure you’re okay Twi?” Rainbow shifted her attention to her lavender friend “you seem different ever since the letter from the Princess.”

“I think it may be stress” Twilight said sighing “the Princess sent a letter telling us that Equestria is in danger and here we are having a colt who says he is here to help telling us that we have to go on a camping trip.”

“Don’t talk as if I am not here girl.” Clyde interjected “and you seriously don’t believe I am here to help do you?”

“I believe that this is some kind of joke” Rainbow answered “This could all be some kind of prank, a really, really bad prank.”

“COME ON!” Sweetie Bell shouted grabbing the attention of the three bickering ponies “LET’S GO!”

Clyde walked on ahead of everyone else “okay to the inn it is then.”

___________________________________________________________________________

“How much longer do we have to go?” Scootaloo complained, having been the one to drive the Crusader Mobile since the start of the trip “my wings are getting tired since we’ve been going for two hours now.”

“Hey! How about this” Clyde said not even turning to look at Scootaloo “maybe you’re special talent is complaining, since you just LOVE to do that.”

Scootaloo brought her scooter right alongside Clyde “well maybe it IS my special talent.” Scootaloo shoved her face into Clyde’s, her muzzle dangerously close to his “how about this for a complaint? I don’t like you.”

He pushed her away, again without even turning to look her in the eyes. He chuckled as Scootaloo was no longer in his personal bubble “you do know that wasn’t complaining? You were stating a fact, get it right.”

“Hmph” was all that Scootaloo said as she continued to drive the Crusader Mobile.

Sweetie Bell tapped her muzzle in thought before asking “Do you have your cutie mark?” which made the other two crusaders and the other ponies plus Spike turn their attention towards Clyde.

Clyde turned his head to see that the three Crusaders was intently staring at him, he let out a heavy sigh as he stopped and face hoofed “since when was I so important?” he asked to no pony in particular “fine, I have one and then again I don’t have one.” He turned towards Sweetie Bell “now can we move on now?”

“That doesn’t make any sense” Applebloom stated as the group continued to march on “what do you mean you have one and you don’t?”

“Complicated” he answered “don’t want to talk about it, and now this discussion shall now be forever locked and the key will be tucked away and shall only be brought out when I feel like it.”

The Crusaders looked at each other before replying in unison “what?”

“Meaning I will only discussion when I damn well feel like it okay?”

“Whoa calm down there, no need for the language” Applejack said cutting into the conversation.

“I just don’t want to talk about my cutie mark” Clyde replied, the anger in his voice becoming more evident “so let’s just drop it, probably in a ditch somewhere and then burnt, just in case.”

“You’re insane” Scootaloo said sighing

“I take that as a compliment” Clyde said chuckling “it proves that I’m different.”

“I give up” Applebloom said slumping further into the red wagon she was sitting in “I can’t make heads or tails of most of the things you say.”

“Let’s keep it that way” Clyde said with a smile.

Twilight looked to the rest of her friends, each of them shrugging their shoulders indicating that they didn’t know either.

Twilight sighed as they continued to the inn “what in Equestria are we doing?”

___________________________________________________________________________

It took the group another half hour of walking and some minor complaints from Rarity about how she was going to have the first shower once they arrive until they finally reached their destination.

“Wow, it’s huge” Sweetie Bell commented as Scootaloo pulled the Crusader Mobile to a stop in front of the inn.

“Yeah it is big” Applejack agreed “bigger than what I expected it to be at least.”

“The GAP Inn” Applebloom read the sign hanging above the door to the inn out loud “what kind of name is that?”

“It’s the name of the inn, duh” Scootaloo replied “everypony can see that.”

“Well what if the pony looking at it doesn’t have very good eyesight” Clyde said in response to Scootaloo “would they be able see that?”

Rainbow walked in between the two little ponies before an argument could break out “hey it’s getting late, we should probably just go inside.” She insisted “we all could use a good rest after that long trip.”

“Uh huh” Scootaloo happily replied “anything you say Rainbow Dash.”

Rarity took charge and entered the inn first “hello there, we need a couple of rooms for the night and a good warm bath ASAP.”

The other ponies followed her lead and entered their destination, they were greeted by a large interior filled with chairs, tables, a small reception t the left of the entrance and a large stage which was surrounded by the tables.

“Hello there” the assembled group of ponies turned to see a dark pink mare with a mane of a bright purple colour with indigo coloured streaks running through it, she also wore a pink beret, she also had a warm, greeting smile on her face.

“Welcome to the GAP Inn” she said with her big smile “we have enough rooms for all of you, it’s four ponies per room and the cost is 4 bits per room, I see there are eleven of you here so that’ll be 12 bits please, oh and dinner is 2 bits per pony so now your cost is 36 bits in total.”

The six older ponies nervously looked at each other. Twilight was the first to speak “umm did any of you girls bring any money at all?”

“I’m really sorry Twilight” Fluttershy bashfully said staring at the ground.

“Ahm sorry too sugarcube” Twilight’s orange friend said “I forgot to bring some on the fact I had to rush so I can catch Applebloom.”

“The same could be said for me too” Rarity spoke up with an ashamed look on her face “I must say I am quite ashamed of myself for having forgotten to bring any bits at all dear.”

“I wanted to be at the tree first so I flew as fast as I could after waking up” Rainbow Dash nervously smiled and chuckled.

“I brought bits of string by accident” Pinkie said as she pulled out some string from her saddlebag and started to play with.

“Oh can I have one?” Clyde asked with utter glee in his voice.

“Sure you can” Pinkie answered “here you go.”

Clyde eagerly took a long piece of string in his hooves “these can be real fun if you know what to do.” he stated as he tucked it into one of his sleeves.

“Well what are going to do? I only brought a couple bits with me but I didn’t think it would cost this much, I mean we came all this way for nothing.”

“I swear ponies these days” Clyde said shoving his way through them, “here are your bits miss” he reached into a pocket in his cloak and pulled out the required amount of bits and passed them over to the Inn Keeper.

“Thank you very much, glad to see you’re back and with friends this time.” The Inn Keeper said as she took the bits “and I told you please call me by my nickname, Insi.”

“Every other pony who visits seems to call me that” Insi handed Twilight three keys and a note “here’s the keys to your rooms and a list of what will be on the menu for dinner, also like always my friend will perform a show on that stage while everypony is enjoying their meal.”

Twilight skimmed through the menu as the others figured out who was sleeping in which room, it was quickly decided that the three fillies should sleep in separate rooms lest they cause a disturbance for the inn much to the annoyance of the three fillies in question. It was also decided that Twilight and her friends split up into groups of two so they can all watch over the small filly in their room to make sure that she doesn’t sneak out to do any crusading.

“Okay so in room five we have Rarity, Fluttershy and Sweetie Bell.” Twilight announced after the group discussion was over “next in room six we have me, Spike, Applejack and Applebloom and then that leaves room seven to Rainbow Dash, Scootaloo, Pinkie Pie and Clyde.”

Twilight handed a key to Rarity and Rainbow Dash, “and remember girls no crusading” Rarity firmly said putting her hoof down “do you promise not to?”

“We promise” the Cutie Mark Crusaders replied in unison.

“Well if anypony needs me I’ll be finding a good table so I can get a good view of the magic show.”Clyde said as he started searching “and don’t worry I’ll make sure I find a big table for all of us.”

“Wait, it’s going to be a magic show?” Spike asked “I wonder if the magician is gonna pull a rabbit out of his hat” he started to follow Clyde as the two of them searched for a table with a good view.

“Oh, I hope the magician won’t hurt the rabbit” Fluttershy said as she looked to her friends for answers.

“Urgh, Fluttershy he’s not going to hurt the rabbit” Rainbow Dash face hoofed again for the second time that day “it’s all just an act.”

“Oh thank goodness” Fluttershy let out a sigh of relief as she made her way up towards the second level where the rooms were located.

“Wait for me darling” Rarity called out as she strode to Fluttershy’s side “I do have the key remember, and I do believe that I have to have the first bath, I’m all sweaty from that walk.”

“That’s okay Rarity, I’ll take a bath after you and then we can go and watch the magic show.”

Rainbow, Pinkie, Applejack and Twilight were left with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, “Well” Twilight started to say “we should get into our rooms and rest for a little bit until dinner.”

“Don’t worry about us Twilight” Applebloom confidentially said “we’re not tired at all.”

“That’s because I did all the work” Scootaloo said stretching her hooves “all you and Sweetie Bell did was sit in the back.”

Applebloom leant in towards Scootaloo “shush, do you want to go find our cutie marks or not?” she whispered into Scootaloo’s ears.

“I-uh mean yeah we’re not tired at all.” Scootaloo quickly said correcting herself.

“Yeah so can we please go exploring?” Sweetie Bell asked as they each tried to pull off their best sappy face.

“Oh fine.” Twilight answered with an unamused expression “but just make sure you don’t wreck anything.”

“Yeah we’ll make sure.” The three fillies replied in unison as they galloped away.

“Now I don’t want to hear any stories of you three girls doing anything wrong now you hear” Applejack called out to the Crusaders as they disappeared from sight “ah swear ah worry for those three fillies.”

“Well Applejack let’s go to our rooms now” Pinkie mused as she bounced towards the stairs “my bags are full of string and I want to put it down.”

“Wait for me.” Applejack called out as she chased after Pinkie Pie.

“Well I guess I’ll follow Pinkie since she can’t get in the room without me, I think I’ll go take a little nap” Rainbow said as she stretched her forehooves “I think I’ll need it in case Scootaloo and “Clyde” have another little fight again.”

“Yeah, I’ll see you at dinner time” Twilight said to Rainbow Dash, as she too trotted to her room

___________________________________________________________________________

The Crusaders sped off as they all decided to help Spike and Clyde find a table.

“Well, well, well look at what the Ursa Major just dragged in.” a snobby young voice came from near the Crusaders. The three ponies turned to see Diamond Tiara with her faithful lackey Silver Spoon in tow.

“Oh brother” Sweetie Bell moaned as the bullies came closer.

“Is that anyway for a blank flank to treat a pony that already has their cutie mark?” Diamond Tiara asked smugly, “I think the three of you will never get your cutie mark.”

“Like yeah” Silver Spoon added.

“Oh just leave us alone already” Applebloom insisted “we don’t to hear your stupid nonsense.”

“Nonsense?” Diamond Tiara asked back sounding offended “what about the nonsense YOU pulled at my cute cenera.”

“You three!” A voice called out “I found us a table not too far away it’s actually at the front of the stage, we can get a REAL good view of the show from there.”

“Don’t you know not to interrupt ladies when they’re having a conversation?” Diamond Tiara smugly said to Clyde “and what’s with the outfit? Is your face so ugly you had to hide it?”

“Nope” he answered flatly “I’m pretty sure you might have been looking in a mirror when you said that cause last time I checked my face was of normal standards.”

“Oh look at him” Silver Spoon commented “he’s trying to come up with an insult; you could at least try to think of like something better?”

“Oh put a sock in it” Clyde replied bluntly “I know your type, you two are the kind of ponies who will one day end up with no friends and you’ll have no pony to blame but yourself.”

“I think you’re just jealous since you’re probably wearing that cloak to hide your blank flank.” Diamond Tiara “a pony that has no cutie mark doesn’t deserve to talk to us.”

“Well okay here, how about a little bet?” Clyde proposed “this little string that you can see coming out of my sleeve, if you can pull all of it out then I will do whatever you say for an entire year, if you can’t then you have to leave us alone.”

“Hey isn’t that the string he got from Pinkie?” Sweetie Bell asked as she watched the scene unfold.

“Then it’s his fault then” Scootaloo commented.

“Maybe he has something up his sleeve.” Applebloom said as she focused on the string, both Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo stared at Applebloom “what?”

“That has to be the most stupidest bet ever” Silver Spoon insisted “of course we’ll win it’s just a piece of string, how stupid are you?”

“Then prove it” he challenged, the piece of string hanging from his sleeve.

“Just be prepared to lose once I prove how worthless you are, then you’ll be my slave for a WHOLE YEAR” Diamond Tiara stepped forward and grabbed the string with her teeth and tugged on it as hard as she could.

Clyde somehow didn’t budge, but a whole metre of string flew out of his sleeve which landed in a pile in front of Diamond, but it still lead back to Clyde, “Nope, you haven’t pulled it out yet.” All three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders were shocked at first but quickly started to laugh at Diamond Tiara.

“You’re cheating!” Silver Spoon accused “you’re just hiding a bunch of string in your sleeve.”

“I SO AM NOT!” Clyde replied imitating her voice “all she has to do is to get the string out of my sleeve, how hard is that?”

“Well show us your sleeve then!” Diamond Tiara demanded as she spat out the string and graved Clyde’s sleeve.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you” Clyde warned her “I’m very fragile and can break easily.”

“What are you-“ Diamond started as she grabbed Clyde’s forehoof only to have it fall right out of his sleeve.

“Warned ya” he said with a smug tone as Diamond Tiara backed away from his fallen limb “but no, nopony listens to me, it’s almost as if I’m a mute or something.”

Both of the bullies screamed in shock as they galloped away, Clyde laughing as they rounded a corner “oh how I love teaching lessons.” Clyde’s supposedly fallen limb disappeared into a cloud of smoke which flew by the surprised Crusaders.

“How did you do that?” Applebloom asked excitedly.

“Magic”

“But what kind of magic?” Sweetie asked insistently.

“As I said before” Clyde restated stomping his hoof “magic!”

“Well I’m just glad you got rid of those two” Scootaloo said sighing in relief “sorry if I bugged you before.”

Clyde held out one of his forehooves to Scootaloo “so let’s agree not to fight anymore, until such time as when we are both really mad at each other.”

“Agreed” Scootaloo replied taking his hoof in hers and shaking in agreement “it’s not going to fall off again is it?”

“No it won’t, that was just an illusion.” Clyde explained “You know the things Magicians do?”

“Is that why you’re so excited about the show?” Applebloom enquired.

“Yes and as I was saying before I had to deal with miss silverware and miss sparkly headgear, Spike and I found a table, so make sure to go there when dinner starts.”

“Sure” the three Crusaders said in unison as they rushed off to find something to do so they can find their cutie marks.

“Have fun there, hope you get your cutie marks one day, you little Buccaneers” Clyde said to himself as he made his way back to the table.

___________________________________________________________________________

“So is the show starting soon?” Pinkie Pie asked as she jumped up and down in her chair.

“Oooooh Pinkie” Rainbow Dash moaned as she pat her stomach “I can’t see how you’re not full after a meal like that.”

“Oh don’t be such a sour puss” Clyde said as he stopped bouncing in his chair “cheer up, this magic show is gonna be so awesome!”

“And how do you know?” Rainbow asked trying to sit up in her chair.

“Because I know the pony that’s performing the magic show tonight, you’re going to love her, she pulls off the best illusion based magic shows.”

“Well she must be really talented then” Twilight said as she pushed her plate away “maybe I’ll learn a thing or too.”

Suddenly the attention of everypony in the dining hall was directed towards the stage when a fanfare started to resonate from there.

“Wait a tick” Applejack said as she sat back on her chair after her trip to the toilet “this sounds familiar, don’t ya reckon?”

“Yeah it do-” Twilight started before she was cut off by a voice which echoed throughout the entire hall.

“PREPARE TO BE ASTOUNDED AND IN AWE OF THE MAGIC OF-” the echoed voice began, some of the fillies and colts in the room were excited except from Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon who were with their families in the corner of the hall.

“No…..” Twilight stated as the pupils of her eyes and that of her friends shrank in size when they recognised the introduction.

“THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!”

___________________________________________________________________________

“Well looks like they left town this morning” Rain Prancer sang as he lay sprawled out on a couch “what do we do now?”

“We stick to our orders” Diglet answered setting up his digging harness “if you’re bored then why not go out and socialise”

“What about you? You’re not socialising at all!” Rain Prancer said sitting up “All you’re going to do is what you did back at the castle.”

“I like having an escape route whenever possible” Diglet said as he levitated his digging tools into place on his harness “and I could get around town quicker.”

“But Diggy why do you need to make tunnels underneath this town? Why don’t you just man up and explore Steady’s tunnel already?”

“HEY!” Diglet yelled back, his cheeks blushing a bright red “you keep out of my personal affairs.”

“But Diggy, everypony in our group knows about how you two feel about each other, I say you should just go for it.”

“I can’t” Diglet sadly said sighing “there are certain things a colt must do if he wants to court a mare.”

“No way!” Rain Prancer yelled in astonishment “You’re one of those old fashioned ponies? I never would have guessed.”

“Well now you know” Diglet turned away from Rain Prancer as he trotted away “oh and by the way, how are our other friends doing?”

Rain Prancer sat up and opened his notebook that was lying next to him “the last report from them said that the targets checked into an inn.”

“Good, we need to always keep tabs on them so we know what they’re doing.”

“Hey Diggy, what do you think of the boss’ orders?”

“Remember he told us not to refer to him as somepony who is above us, he is our friend, an equal.”

“Who sometimes tells us what to do, right” Rain Prancer said sounding unconvinced “So do you know why he stayed in the castle?

“He told us that the Everfree Kingdom was never overrun with forests and dangerous beasts when he last saw it” Diglet answered “he’s researching on what could have caused this kind of outcome, he’s also looking into more magic spells.”

“Yeah okay, I understand that part now” Prancer said scratching his mane “but why did he say we’re not allowed to harm, let alone touch the Rainbow Maned one?”

Chapter 4 (unedited)

Chapter 4: The Unveiling
“All the pieces have been assembled,
I guess it’s time for the show to begin”

“BEHOLD THE SPLENDID AND AWESOME POWER THAT IS THE GREATEST UNICORN WHO EVER LIVED, ME, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE! THE ONLY UNICORN CAPABLE OF VANQUISHING AN URSA MAJOR!” the blue magician mare shouted as she appeared from within a cloud of pink smoke.

“yay” Clyde exclaimed as the colourful cloud settled and the full image of the show pony could be seen “I love her magic shows, I haven’t seen a show like hers in forever, it almost brings a tear to my eyes.”

“How could a magic show make you cry silly?” Pinkie Pie asked, casually eating popcorn.

Rainbow Dash sighed as she sat up in her seat “what’s Trixie doing here?”

Twilight looked between her friends and Trixie’s familiar stage act, “I’m not sure Rainbow, maybe she’s just performing her act, but I would think that she would have learned her lesson from last time we saw her.”

Rarity scoffed as she flicked her hair to get a better view of her friends “well I’m fine as long as she doesn’t change the colour of my hair again, it took me ages to fix that disaster” she shuddered as she remembered the ordeal she went through because of that.

Sweetie Bell laughed softly as she turned to her two friends “she was freaking out about it for several days.”

Fluttershy stayed quiet as she watched the magic show going on in front of her, Twilight noticed this and tapped Fluttershy on her shoulder “Hey Fluttershy you okay?”

Fluttershy almost screamed from the sudden physical contact but quickly covered her mouth as she turned to face her lavender friend “umm it’s just that I never saw her show completely remember? Everypony kind of interrupted her performance last time we saw her.” She said in her usual soft, timid voice “oh, but I don’t mean you guys were rude or anything.”

Twilight stared at Trixie as she continued on her show, boasting of her abilities while Twilight made sure she and her friends were making as little noise as possible so as to not attract too much attention.

___________________________________________________________________________

The show was over now, everypony in the room was either leaving the inn or were making their way to their rooms for the night, Twilight and friends were still sitting at the table talking about small things like the magic show or the quality of the food.

Twilight looked around the table as she realized somepony was missing from their table“hey where did Clyde go?”

Every other pony stared at the spot where Clyde was sitting to see an empty seat.

“Maybe the little guy just went to the toilet” Applejack reasoned “I mean he’s probably tired after how excited he was for that show.”

Twilight nodded as she stood up from her seat “okay everyone, it’s getting late we should all get a good night’s rest, I’ll look for Clyde.”

“Awww” the three little Crusaders moaned in unison as they sunk further into their individual seats.

“Come on girls, if you don’t get your beauty sleep you’ll start to get wrinkles” Rarity motherly said as she tried to usher the girls to their rooms.

Everyone all climbed out of their seats as they went to their planned sleeping rooms, Rainbow Dash easily getting Scootaloo to follow her and Pinkie to their rooms while Applebloom and Sweetie Bell were more difficult to even get moving.

Twilight disengaged from the group as she started searching for Clyde, “where did that kid go?” she asked herself as she looked around.

___________________________________________________________________________

Twilight had only begun her search only several minutes ago, being very thorough as she checked underneath the tables and everywhere else inside the inn.

Twilight stopped as she heard the sound of a pony making their way towards her, the clip clop of their hooves as they walked on the wooden floor.

“Where did yo_” Twilight started as she turned around only to be stunned by the fact that it wasn’t Clyde who was behind her.

“Hello Sparkle” Trixie said coldly as Twilight was now face to face with the unicorn who only last year ran out of Ponyville after the Ursa Minor attack.

Trixie’s eyes stared into Twilight’s as the two of them stood there, frozen in time each trying to come up with something to say.

Twilight swallowed her anxiety and took the first step “hello Trixie. That was a nice performance you did.”

Trixie’s expression brightened up as she heard the praise come from the student’s mouth “thank you, when I spotted you and your friends in the audience I thought you were going to run me out of this place.”

Twilight turned her gaze away from Trixie, ashamed that she had made such an impression on somepony.

“I’m sorry about that Trixie, I’m also sorry that your wagon was destroyed as well.” Twilight felt horrible as she recalled what happened that time.

Trixie turned her head high flicking her mane while doing so “the Great and Powerful Trixie accepts the apologies of this miss Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight smiled, she didn’t expect to be forgiven so easily, which made her worried “why? I thought you would hate me after what happened.”

Trixie chuckled as she invited Twilight to an empty table, the two unicorns sat down “Excuse me Insi, can you please get me and miss Twilight here a drink?”

The innkeeper’s head appeared from underneath the counter with a big smile on her face “coming right up Trixie, wonderful performance again like always.”

“Thanks” was all that Trixie said as she returned her attention to the lavender mare sitting across from her “now, what is the question you were going to ask the Great and Powerful Trixie?”

“I thought that you would have learned your lesson after the Ursa Minor.” Twilight bluntly said before realizing what she was saying “I mean, that was a good show Trixie.”

Trixie sighed “you must have realized that the attitude was only an act right?”

“I beg your pardon?” Twilight managed to say, the shock of the revelation paralysing her ability to come up with the right words, she sat there dumbfounded.

“Here you go” Insi said balancing a tray with three glasses on it on top her muzzle, setting it down on the table as she took the empty seat near Trixie “I hope you two don’t mind if I join? Every other pony has already gone to their rooms.”

“Not at all Insi, miss Sparkle I’m sure you met my friend Insi already.”

Twilight quickly regained her composure when the innkeeper joined their table “it’s nice to see you again, and Trixie please call me Twilight.”

“Sorry, Twilight” Trixie said as she took a sip from her drink “ahh, I love Pinecone Blast flavour.”

Insi smiled as she took a drink from her own glass “why do you think I chose it if you didn’t like it?”

“You have a point there” Trixie said with a smile on her face as she enjoyed herself “but moving back onto the topic at hoof here, would it be right to assume you didn’t know my previous behaviour was thought to be my real behaviour?”

“Yes, I’m sorry Trixie if we just assumed without knowing what you were really like.” Twilight replied feeling guilty.

Insi and Trixie both shook their heads “nah, don’t be. That was Trixie before she met me.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well it was an act but I got too absorbed into it to drop it once my shows were over, the persona I made grew on me and eventually became me, so you were both right and wrong to think the me back then was the real me” Trixie answered.

“Yeah and after her wagon was destroyed by that Ursa Minor she somehow came across me as I was going for a stroll and I took her in” Insi said smiling as she nudged Trixie “but, oh boy was she a stubborn one to deal with at first.”

Trixie blushed at the comment “hey, remember I was still in stage mode at the time.”

Twilight smiled as she watched the two friends in front of her bicker, but a thought crossed her mind “but what about your boasting Trixie.”

“Oh that” Trixie said calmly “you do know that’s what stage ponies do right? They boast and exaggerate their abilities so that they can even get an audience.”

Insi finished her drink with a slurp “yeah I mean come on, would anyone want to see a show performed by the Weak and Timid Trixie? Or even the Mild and Average Trixie”

“Hey!” Trixie loudly said pushing Insi softly as they both began to laugh.

Twilight’s heart began to sink, she didn’t know that most of it was an act, she felt terrible even though it seemed that Trixie was a nice pony deep down and that she never tried to get along with her before finding out.

“I’m sorry Trixie.”

Both the magician and innkeeper stopped their friendly fight and looked at Twilight who was tearing up as droplets began to stream down her face.

“Why are you sorry? If it wasn’t for you and your friends I wouldn’t be here right now, although I didn’t like the means of how nor do I want to remember it, that time changed me and made me the pony you see before you.” Trixie said as she put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulders.

Twilight wiped her face clean as she smiled back at Trixie “thank you Trixie.”

Trixie was taken aback slightly after Twilight had finished her sentence “whatever for?”

“You’ve teached me an important lesson about friendship, it doesn’t matter if a pony and you have an argument, if in the end the two of you can make up and learn something about each other from it then your friendship has grown even stronger.”

“That’s a lesson we all need to learn” Insi said nodding her head.

The mood of the conversation was interrupted when a loud bang stole the attention of the three ponies.

A small hatch from the floor near the end of the stage popped open and a purple earth pony climbed out of it.

“Heya Trixie and Insi, thought I’d check up on ya” the mysterious pony said as he cleaned himself of dust and dirt.

“What are you doing here Rain Prancer?” Trixie asked getting up from her chair while Insi made her way back to the bar.

“He probably just wants a drink Trixie, more Sarsaparilla Prancer?” Insi called out as she prepared a drink for the new pony.

“Heck yeah, I haven’t had one of those in ages and I need my creative juices flowing.” Rain Prancer merrily said taking a seat at the table with Trixie and Twilight.

Twilight was about to greet the new pony when she remembered what she was doing before she ran into Trixie “oh, sorry everypony, I just remembered something I had to do.”

Trixie and Rain Prancer looked at her before Prancer let out a little chuckle “nah, it’s okay, you do what you gotta do meanwhile I still gotta come up with ideas” Prancer said as he took out a journal and pencil.

“Ideas for what?” Twilight asked as she pushed her chair back under the table.

“I’m a toy maker, and I’ve sorta’ve got a mental block as to what to think up of next.” Prancer mumbled loudly before taking the pencil into his mouth and started to sketch “nows sisn’t shere shomeshing slou were meants to bees doings?” the pencil in his mouth making his speech slurred as he continued to sketch.

“Yeah there is” Twilight galloped away as she restarted her search for Clyde “oh I’m never this forgetful” she mumbled to herself.

___________________________________________________________________________

Twilight had resigned from her search after another hour of searching, figuring that the Mentor calling himself Clyde would return eventually, she past by Trixie and the other two, waving as she walked up the stairs.

Twilight walked into her room, where Applejack, Applebloom and Spike were already asleep.

“Hnng, Twilight is that you?” Twilight stared as Applejack rubbed her eyes.

“Yeah it’s me Applejack, I couldn’t find him though” she sighed as she made her way to the toilet.

“Don’t worry Twilight, ah’m sure he’ll be fine” Applejack turned in her bed yawning as she fell back to sleep.

“Yeah, you may be right” Twilight agreed “but I still have an uneasy feeling.”

After brushing her teeth thoroughly she climbed into bed and let her eyes close as she drifted into sleep.

___________________________________________________________________________

“Twilight Sparkle” a purple earth pony said as he placed his cup back onto the table “if she is the element of magic then none of us have got worry about her.”

“Why?” Trixie asked raising an eyebrow.

“Orders remember, stick to your respective target unless ordered otherwise.”

Insi joined Rain Prancer at the table “yeah, yeah we know, would have been devastating to Trixie if something bad happened to the mare that helped her remember why she was in showbiz in the first place.”

“As long as I am not the one to do it then I am fine by it.” Trixie said with a ‘humph’ before leaving her two friends at the table.

“So what are ya working on this time?” Insi asked shifting her attention towards Rain Prancer.

Rain Prancer grabbed the journal in his mouth and showed Insi some diagrams that were on the side Insi could see.

“looking at this I’m guessing it’s for good ol’ Diggy?”

“Exactly” Rain Prancer replied with glee.

“So how’s your target coming along?” Insi asked as she gestured for Rain Prancer to join her for a walk.

“She’s alright, had to come here though since the veterans of my squad are busy playing the ‘I’ll wait for them to make the first move game’”

Insi chuckled and shook her head “those two seriously need to get over it and just embrace each other or something, save us all a major headache from hearing them talk about each other all the damn time.”

Prancer laughed “it’s funny, I just found out that Diglet is old fashioned when it comes to ‘courting’ mares” he said putting on a fake posh accent making himself burst into laughter.

Insi raised an eyebrow as she watched the purple earth pony continue laughing “is there something wrong with a stallion treating a mare correctly?”

Prancer immediately stopped laughing and cleared his throat “well I’m only laughing cause it’s Diglet, I mean come on, it’s Diglet who is like that, I would have expected him to be the one who would just pounce on her or something.”

“Well yeah, I thought the same too, hey who knows maybe Steady is the one who tends to pounce instead.”

The conversation went quiet as they both shuddered at the idea “let’s never talk about that, it is scary thinking of the idea alone.”

“You big baby, she’s not scary all the time.”

“Yeah, only if you cross her, and I apparently make her cross fifty percent of the time so every time I see here, half the time I practically piss myself.”

“Eugh, too much information.” Insi said sticking her tongue out of her mouth in disgust.

Prancer shrugged as the two of them stood up out of the chairs and trotted around the inn picking up rubbish left over from the show.

___________________________________________________________________________

Twilight turned in her bed, tossing and turning as she drifted off towards her dream land.

Twilight finds herself standing in a big empty space, she can see small blurry visions of her past rotating around her in the distance, and she looks around to see that the visions of the past are rotating around her in a dome like shape.

“Took you long enough to fall asleep.”

Twilight turned and saw Clyde standing in the distance in his own dome which was connected to hers.

“Was this where you were after the show?”

“No, I went to the little boys room, I really had to go.”

“Okay, what is going on? What are you doing here?”

“I called you here; right now your friends are talking to me as well in their own little dream lands.”

“But how can this be?” Twilight asked with doubt in her voice.

“Some spells have been forgotten by the pony kind of this era, although I suppose it’s better that way since no pony else can use them nowadays.”

Twilight stared at her surroundings, all the different memories she can plainly see through her viewpoint of it.

The time she was accepted by Celestia to be her student, when she first met her friends, the time they stopped Nightmare Moon and then Discord using the elements, all the memories small and big rotating around her dome.

“I have done this to you and your friends so I can discuss some things individually, and please don’t make it difficult, this spell is hard enough to do but splitting my psyche in 6 is going to be really taxing on my recovery and possibly my mental wellbeing” Clyde said with no emotion in his voice.

“Recovery?” Twilight asked once again confused by Clyde’s antics.

“Well let me explain it” Clyde said taking a deep breath in “I am the Mentor, you met me when you were but a small wittle filly.”

Twilight nodded, as she tried to remember the encounter.

“Anyway the Mentor is a title, one that is passed down when a Mentor finds another pony worthy enough of the title and responsibility” Clyde stopped talking, waiting for Twilight to nod in acknowledgment “the task of all Mentors is to ensure the safety of the elements and the bearers of said elements.”

“Wait” Twilight said interrupting Clyde “if making sure the elements are safe, what about the time Discord ran amuck and almost tore me apart from my friends?”

Clyde laughed softly before clearing his throat “oh yeah that, I knew you could handle that problem and besides I was busy in the land of the Zebras at the time.”

“But Equestria was in trouble and so was the Elements, you could have saved us from Discord.”

Clyde groaned in frustration “Equestria? Remember that I said my duty is to protect the Elements, I said nothing about Equestria.”

Twilight was shocked she quickly regained her composure and quickly thought of what to ask “but, but what if Equestria is destroyed?”

“Well that means the Equestrians have to find a new place to call home” Clyde replied coldly and bluntly.

“But why would you not do anything to stop it?” Twilight shouted “Innocent ponies could get hurt by.....Whatever it is that we have to go up against.”

“SHUT IT GIRL!” Clyde shouted, his magic amplifying his voice “YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO!”

Twilight backed away from Clyde who was clearly angry, he looked ready to kill somepony, which made Twilight scared.

Clyde calmed down with a long breath out “getting back onto topic here” he said sitting down tapping his chin thought “being the Mentor is not a blessing, rather it’s a curse where your stamina or magic affects you in more ways than one.”

Twilight, forgetting about Clyde snapping was confused by what he just said “stamina or magic affecting you? What do you mean?”

Clyde sighed as he rubbed his temples with his fore hooves “well earth ponies and pegasi rely on stamina, unicorns like me and you rely on magic.”

“Okay” Twilight let her brain process it all before indicating for Clyde to continue.

“How it affects me is very simple, when your stamina, well in my case magic is low in supply, my body shrinks, reverting it back to the ‘child’ state or as I call it the ‘recharging’ state and when I am back at full strength I revert back to the ‘adult’ form.”

“Oh” Twilight mumbled as the information started to clear up some things in her mind.

“And sadly another part of being the Mentor is that our coat colour and eyes change to this colour.”

“Wait! Why would it even do that?”

“I don’t rightfully know, it’s just ancient magic from a long time ago” Clyde looked himself over before groaning “I didn’t want to look like thi-”

“I think you look good in those colours.”

An echoing voice resonated through the domes as Clyde’s expression turned into one of pure panic and shock.

“How did you even get in here?” Clyde’s voice matching his shock as Twilight looked around her in confusion and shock.

“I thought we were safe here” Twilight said as she frantically looked around for the source of the voice.

“There is no place that is safe for you scholar” the voice said as it sounded closer than before.

“Scholar?” Twilight asked herself.

“NOW IS NOT THE TIME!” Clyde yelled as he tried to summon some magic in his horn.

THUD

A hoof flies out of thin air and collides with Clyde, sending him flying towards Twilight.

Twilight stared as part of her dome tore open and a single pony materialised in front of her, he looked exactly like an older version of Clyde with armour that resembled Luna’s royal guards but with a white colour instead of the traditional dark blue, his voice boomed with several echoes that filled the entire dome.

“Scholar Shade Glimmer of the once glorious Library of the Everfree Kingdom, I King Everfree hereby declare war on you and your friends.”

chapter 5 (unedited)

Chapter 5: The Declaration
“Even should both of our bodies fade away, I will find you no matter what.”

“What did he mean war? We’re only five ponies!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she hovered above the group of assembled ponies in one of their inn rooms.

“What do yah mean five of us Rainbow?” Applejack asked putting a hoof down.

“Well I mean, look at Fluttershy, she would never be able to hold herself in a fight let alone a war” Rainbow pointed towards the yellow Pegasus who was already shying away from their stares.

“Now that is no way to speak of a friend darling” Rarity trotted into the conversation, flicking her mane in the process “however true it may be” she added looking to the side.

“I just don’t think Fluttershy would be any good in this little war thing we have got going on with that King Everfree stallion, I’d really rather not have him invade my dreams again” Rainbow stated shuddering “I just get an off feeling about him.”

“Yeah I felt the same thing” the others looked to see Twilight looking up from a book in front of her with a worried expression “I can’t quite put my hoof on it though.”

“Well his voice sounded weird, he might have a frog in his throat, OH NO! that may be why he was so mean, fluttershy we have to find him and get the frog out of his throat!” Pinkie rambled while trying to get Fluttershy off the ground.

“Pinkie!” Twilight got up and gently nudged her away from Fluttershy, every other pony sighed “I don’t think he had a frog in his throat.”

“Well you’re right that there was something off about him and that his voice was weird, sixty points” they turned to see Clyde lying on one of the beds, resting his head on his front hooves.

“Sixty points? Since when were you scoring us?” Twilight asked with a puzzled face while Rainbow snickered off to the side.

“I’m the Mentor, which is a kind of teacher I guess, anyway I have to grade my students on their performance like all teachers” he jumped off the bed and trotted towards them “anyway since we are at war with him I might as well explain some things, you might want to take a seat because this may take a long time.”

The six mares each took a seat as Clyde took centre stage, Twilight hovered a pillow for her to rest her head on while Rarity pretty much did the same except she fluffed her pillow before resting her head down on her pillow. Rainbow slowly reached out to grab a pillow with her teeth and set it down behind her as she laid down on her back with Applejack doing the same and settling down next to her cyan friend. Fluttershy squeaked and stayed quiet and still as Pinkie jumped into the air and somehow defied the laws of gravity as she placed a pillow underneath her and placed a pillow next to Fluttershy who laid her head down on it lying down on her side and finally Pinkie dropped rump first onto her pillow.

“Okay, well I’ll start with his voice. I’ve read reports about your ‘experience’ with Princess Luna during the last Nightmare Night correct?” they all nod in agreement “and I’m sure you all remember her Royal Equestrian voice?” he asked while snickering.

“Yes we remember, it scared Fluttershy here to death, when she used it up close when Twilight was trying to help Luna that night” Rarity replied.

“Oh yeah speaking of Nightmare Night, where were you that night Rarity?” Rainbow asked while she was lounging on the bed “I didn’t have a chance to prank you.”

“Well me being the only designer in Ponyville, I was more than tired after making a good majority of those costumes for all the lovely little kids and a few clients.”

“Oh well I do remember you looked tired when you made my costu-“

“ANYWAY!” Clyde cut waving his hoof in the air “King Everfree’s voice was the Royal Everfree voice, so yes before Twilight says anything it is their version of the Royal Equestrian voice.”

“I guess that makes sense” Twilight commented, contemplating the thought “but why does it sound so weird compared to Princess Luna’s?”

“Oh yeah, that is because the Everfree Kingdom wasn’t that big in its early days so the royalty developed the voice to echo and changed the tone and pitch of it to make it sound like something from Tartarus” Clyde stopped and looked at them to see if they were following “the voice was primarily used for intimidating potential invader envoys and well after a few years it stuck to them.”

“I guess that makes sense” Twilight concluded while scratching her muzzle “the creatures and denizens of Tartarus are known to have been greatly feared by the ponies of old when the gate to Tartarus was weak and unstable.”

“Now wait just a darn tooting second” Applejack called out getting everypony’s attention “how come we’ve nevah heard of this here Everfree Kingdom before?”

“Oh, yeah about that, the Everfree Kingdom was at first a bunch of ponies that left the first Equestrians during the great Winter and before they decided to cooperate. They each left their individual tribes and somehow met along the way, at first there was tension in the group but after defending themselves from a dragon they each found out that a lot of good could come out of working together.”

“Hold on a sec” Rainbow interrupted “I remember the play we did for Heart’s Warming Eve, there were no ponies mentioned that left and how could years of arguing be resolved through a single fight?”

“Well in the heat of battle, friendship and trust forms easily with those who fight with you, it may not be the most traditional method of making friends but back then it was one of the more common ways, and if you remember correctly Twilight quickly became your friend since you did save her life when you first went to find the elements..”

“And as for the leaving part, they were all presumed dead since they left without telling anypony else about their plan, in the beginning if I remember correctly it was two families of pegasi, about three families of earth ponies and there was only two unicorn families. And that one of the unicorn families became the leaders of their little band of nomads and later, well they soon became the Royal Family of the Everfree Kingdom.”

“After the nomads found a nice and fertile land in amongst a rather large forest they decided to set up camp and just stayed there, soon other travelling ponies and even a few other races came to them and joined the community, in the Everfree Kingdom it wasn’t really weird to see a Griffin or even a Changeling back then.”

“A changeling?” Rarity called out, sounding shocked “why would those monstrous little things be part of the Kingdom?”

“Well remember Rarity, this is in the past and anything is possible really” Twilight stated, which received an approving nod from Clyde.

“Yes you are correct, but let me explain further so the rest of you can understand. The Changelings back then was actually one of the most greatest and powerful spy networks there was, their ability to shape shift and adapt to their new environment quickly made them one of the most employed and richest races at the time. And their Queen was indeed one hell of a looker I might say.”

“Bleh” Rainbow spat out while listening to him talking “seriously don’t make those kinds of bad jokes.”

“Fine, well anyway a small band of them was employed frequently by the Everfree Kingdom because they were one of the best and always produced the best possible results and because of that they didn’t mind letting changelings into the kingdom because they had a good relationship.”

“Okay fine darling, we get it already” Rarity groaned while reclining on one of the beds “the Changelings back then weren’t like the ones at Twilight’s brother’s wedding.”

Clyde chuckled and grabbed a pillow to sit on “haha, yeah I heard all about that. Too bad I was away on business when that happened.”

“Don’t you care about Equestria at all?” Twilight asked with a deadly glare.

He groaned and rested his head on the pillow “I do care, but after having so many memories of Mentor’s before me. Seeing empires rise and fall, dictatorship and tyrants, the good and bad, it just feels like if Equestria falls, then that means it was just time and pony kind will of course like usual rebuild and besides, I was away on important business at the time which I will not discuss.”

Twilight was about to open her mouth to add a rebuttal but Clyde stuck his hoof in her mouth before she could say anything “shush, I’m done talking about that, and I think we all need a good night’s rest anyway” he stood up and trotted out of the room “so everypony back to their rooms. Oh and I almost forgot to answer your question Applejack, there are no records of the Everfree Kingdom because some ponies made sure to leave no trace of it in history.”

After that Clyde crept back into his bed and so did the others as most o fth sighed and rubbed their eyes out of exhaustion.

___________________________________________________________________________

Rainbow Dash stirred from her sleep, the sound of yelling and screaming all around her.

“No! Stay away from me!” a young colt like voice cried out.

“But we wanna see it!” two voices called out after the first voice, one sounded like a young energetic filly and the other belonged to a bubbly mare.

Rainbow moved about on her bed, using a pillow to try to drown out the noise “I told you two that it is not that important!” The young colt voice cried out again.

A loud crashing sound brought Rainbow to full alertness as she jumped out of her bed and saw Clyde levitating near the ceiling with his hood back and a clear look of terror on his face while Pinkie and Scootaloo on the ground in a pile next to a broken vase that they must have broken during their scuffle.

“What in Celestia’s name are you three doing?” Rainbow asked in a loud voice, making them all stop and look at her.

“They started chasing me after I woke up!” Clyde pointed towards the two ponies lying on the ground in a pile.

“W-we didn’t do anything, Clyde started yelling after Scootaloo she tried to peek under his cloak.”

“I-I did not! I just wanted to see if he had his cutie mark yet!” Scootaloo yelled back with an embarrassed blush on her face.

Rainbow stared at Scootaloo’s flustered face, then to Clyde who was still magically floating in the air “she has a point, we don’t know what your cutie mark is”

Clyde sighed as he floated in the air “you all do not need to see my cutie mark, at least not yet anyway.”

“So when can we see it then?” Pinkie Pie asked as she bounced in the air “oh, are you going to make it a big reveal or are you just going to show it to us, ooh I’m get excited just thinking about it.”

“Calm down Pinkie” Clyde brought himself back down to the ground “we have bigger things to worry about.”

“Like what?” Scootaloo brought herself back onto her hooves and dusted herself off.

Clyde pointed to the broken vase on the ground “like that problem to be exact.”

Scootaloo gasped in shock as she realized that the vase was actually smashed to pieces “What are we going to do?”

“Oooh we have to tell the Inn Lady about this vase, otherwise we’ll be in trouble” Pinkie said in a serious voice as she continued to bounce up and down on the spot “come on Scoots I’ll help you talk to her about it.”

“Bu-but maybe we could fix it!” Scootaloo cried out as she tied reaching for one of the pieces before her hoof and then her whole body was enveloped by a white magical aura that lifted her form the ground.

“You foal, you might accidentally cut yourself if you touched one of those” keeping himself and Scootaloo in the air he picked up the pieces of the broken vase and placed them inside the nearest bin.

Slowly he brought himself and Scootaloo down to the ground before he fell flat on his belly groaning as he hit the floor with a tiny thud.

“What’s wrong?” Pinkie stared at Clyde as he tried to get back onto his hooves “got a belly ache? Are you hungry? Oooh we haven’t had breakfast yet!”

“Uh yeah sure, you girls go down ahead of me, I need to take a little breather first” Clyde climbed back onto his bed and ducked under the covers leaving the others in the room confused.

“Isn’t it a bit weird to wear that cloak under the bed silly?” Pinkie smiled and chuckled covering her hoof as she did so.

“Yeah, you never take that thing off don you?” Scootaloo asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Two things” the lump in Clyde’s bed replied “one, you all will see my cutie mark if I take this cloak off and two because I love cloaks, laugh if you want but I love and kinds of cloaks and capes.”

Pinkie and Scootaloo did in fact laugh loudly while Rainbow giggled to herself “nothing wrong with that silly filly, Scootaloo here is desperately obsessed with Ra-“ Pinkie started before Scootaloo violently nudged her with her entire body which made Pinkie laugh even harder “oops! Sorry Scoots.”

After everypony had finished lauhing Pinkie forced the little filly out the door to go apologize about the vase while Rainbow stared at the bump that Clyde made on his bed as she made her way out of the room.

“Hey kid, you okay there?” Rainbow got out of her bed and crept close to Clyde’s, wondering what was wrong with him.

“I’m fine, I….just need a bit more rest, I’ve used up a lot of magic lately and it’s taking its toll on me” she remembered from that dream what Clyde said about his body and the amount of magic he has stored inside him.

“Don’t push yourself too hard okay? I’ll see you at breakfast then” she took one more worried glance towards Clyde’s direction before exiting the room and going down the stairs to breakfast.

___________________________________________________________________________

The table was abuzz with talk and chatter as the ponies and Spike were having a wonderful time with their breakfast.

“Did you girls have a good sleep?” Rarity asked as she delicately cut her toast with a knife she levitated with her magic.

“Yes Rarity” all three of the Cutie Mark Crusaders replied with a groan as they stared at their own breakfast.

Rainbow and Applejack were having a friendly competition between each other to see who could finish their sandwich first, Rainbow was using her hooves to hold the sandwich and trying to shove it into her mouth while Applejack dove into the plate and ate hers from there, the other watched and laughed at the two ponies while Rarity scoffed and continued trying to eat her food in peace.

Twilight stared at the empty seat across the table from her and wondered where Clyde was, although she didn’t even need to know as she spotted his cloaked form come down from the stairs and joined them at the table.

“Did I miss anythi-“ he stopped as he saw what Rainbow and Applejack was doing before he burst into laughter “oh you girls look ridiculous right now” he couldn’t hold himself back as he joined the others as they laughed at the spectacle of what was in front of them.

After Rainbow had lost to Applejack in the eating contest she was ready to go another round but Twilight stopped her and reminded Rainbow what happened last time Applejack and her wouldn’t quit in a contest.

“Aww, fine!” Rainbow huffed as she crossed her front hooves “but next time I’ll win Applejack, I swear it.”

“Sure Rainbow, ah hear ya” Applejack laughed as she cleaned her mouth and wiped away all the crumbs on her area of the table.

Rarity giggled to herself at the sight “finally learning some table manners Applejack? But I must say that display before was awful to watch”

“Nah, ah’m just doing this so you won’t be complaining about mah manners Rarity” Applejack grinned as she continued eating her meal.

Rarity scoffed as she flicked her mane back “puhlease Applejack, I do not complain that much, only when it is necessary.”

“And when it is ‘necessary’ is nearly every other time” Rainbow whispered to Applejack making both of the mare giggle which left Rarity confused as to what they were laughing about.

Clyde ate his food rather slowly as he gulped down his milkshake and rested his head on the table “Clyde darling, we were just talking about table manners, please use some manners and sit back normally” Rarity advised in her motherly voice.

Clyde mumbled something but it was inaudible due to his face being in the table “umm can’t hear you sugarcube.”

“I said” Clyde brought his face off the table and wiped his eyes “I’m so tired today, so I won’t be doing any of my Mentor duties today and I’m just going to sleep, so you all have fun, I’ll be in my bed if anypony needs me oh and if anyone tries to sneak a peek at my cutie mark while I am asleep they will face the consequences” and with that he excused himself from the table and climbed back up the stairs.

“Tired? Just a second ago he was laughing at Rainbow Dash and Applejack” Twilight commented as she read her book while eating her breakfast.

“Best not to dwell on the subject Twilight” Spike said after eating a mouthful of hay fries “I’m sure that he’s just tired from doing whatever he possibly did last night or whatever, although I really wish this place had maybe just a few gemstones for me to munch on.”

“Spike how many times do I have to tell you that you won’t be able to find a place that is selling gemstones for you to eat” Twilight set a hoof on the table with a little smile.

“aw, fine! But I still want gemstones for breakfast.” Spike crossed his arms and leant back in his stool which prompted him to fall off it and crash on the ground below him, the others laughed at the sight but Rarity was quick to her hooves and helped the baby dragon back onto his legs.

“Are you okay darling? Are you hurt anywhere?” Spike dusted himself off and checked himself over.

“No, nothing wrong” he smiled before his eyes were filled with hearts as he stared at Rarity “thank you Rarity, you’re really kind.”

Rarity giggled and took her seat again “anytime Spike” Spike sat back onto his stool with a bright red blush on his face, Apple bloom and Sweetie Bell both angrily sighed at the sight and when back to their food.

“Something wrong girls?” Spike asked as he stared at the yellow and white crusaders.

“N-nothing, it’s none of your business Spike!” Sweetie Bell crossed her front hooves while Apple bloom just stared at her food, Spike shrugged and finished the rest of his food.

Applejack giggled and leant towards Rarity “are yah sure those two will be okay?”

Rarity returned the giggle and whispered back to Applejack “oh I am sure it’s just a little crush, those girls will be alright.”

___________________________________________________________________________

Everyone at the table had finished their meal and were all busy talking and laughing when the innkeeper Insi arrived at their table with a pleasant smile, “hello everypony, and little dragon how are you all doing today?”

“We’re doing great, and the food was wonderful, thank you so much Insi” Twilight and the others nodded as they all shared they thoughts on the food.

“Glad to receive such positive feedback, by the way, where is that Clyde colt?”

“Oh that colt? He’s upstairs sleeping still” Rainbow replied with a look of pride “everypony needs a nap every now and then, trust me I know.”

“Oh yah know alright, yah know that the perfect time for a nap is when I ask you for help at the farm” Applejack commented with a glare.

“Exact- I mean no, it’s just a coincidence, anyway he’s upstairs but why are you looking for him?”

“oh, there’s this cute little filly looking for him, said her name was Crystal Shine or something like that, thanks guys but do any of you think you can take her to see him?”

“I’ll do it” Twilight answered as she rose out of her seat “I need to take a good walk anyway.”

“Excellent, she’s at the counter waiting” and with that Insi left to go cater to the other inn guests as Twilight left the others to go find this filly.

Twilight arrived at the counter to spot a filly unicorn with a green coat and a black mane sitting nearby, the little fillies face lit up when she saw Twilight “hey! Aren’t you Twilight Sparkle?”

“Why yes I am, I’m guessing you know of me” Twilight smiled at the tiny filly before her.

“Cool! It’s really nice to meet you, do you know where Clyde is?”

“Sure, follow me Crystal Morph” Twilight turned and made for the stairs with Crystal next to her humming happily.

‘So since you are looking for him I take it you know Clyde then?” Twilight inquired as they started climbing the stairs.

“Yes! I’ve known him for a very long time, we’re best fwiends” Crystal beamed as she replied, her adorable expression making Twilight smile.

As they reached the door to the room Clyde was in Crystal opened the door slightly and walked halfway through when she stopped and looked at Twilight “I’m sorry miss Twilight, be I need some time alone with him you can go back to your friends now.”

And with that she closed the door and Twilight was left confused as to why a little filly would know of Clyde since he is the Mentor, but she shrugged it off and thought he must have helped her somewhere.

___________________________________________________________________________

Clyde returned to the table where everyone else was sitting at and watched them as they laughed and messed around, he hid a small smile on his face as he watched.

“Oh Clyde, you’re back?” Twilight asked clearly only now noticing him at the table “how was your meeting with your filly friend Crystal Morph?”

“Filly friend?” the three little crusaders asked with surprise and glee.

“Clyde and Crystal sitting in a tree” Applebloom started as she and the other crusaders were about to tease Clyde but Applejack put a hoof on her little sister’s shoulder and stopped her which made all the crusaders sigh in unison.

“It’s alright Applejack, it wouldn’t have bothered me much if they continued anyway” Clyde chuckled “besides they’re only kids.”

“What do ya mean ‘only kids’?” Applebloom blurted out “ya are a kid too!”

“Sure whatever you say” he continued to chuckle “I totally believe you.”

“I think he’s being sarcastic” Sweetie Belle whispered to Scootaloo.

“Of course he is, you didn’t need to point it out captain obvious!” Scootaloo remarked in reply to Sweetie Belle.

“Calm down, no need to get so worked up” Clyde finally stopped laughing and breathed in heavily “oh now my cheeks are hurting from all that.”

“Well uh anyway” Twilight cut in trying to change the subject “what shall we do now?”

“I say we go Crusading!” Sweetie Belle yelled out while waving her fore hooves in the air.

“No, not now Sweetie Belle” Rarity interjected “you can go do that when we get back to Ponyville.”

“Speaking of which” Pinkie started while rubbing her chin “when are we going back to Ponyville?”

“We’re going back tomorrow” Clyde stated “cause we only gave the innkeeper enough for two nights.”

“Oh okay then, how about we just enjoy ourselves today then?” Twilight asked before cracking a huge smile “oh I have this wonderful book about fun activities outdoors, we should totally try some.”

“You have a book for everything don’t you Twilight” Rainbow Dash joked while nudging Twilight with an elbow.

“Hey!” Twilight blushed as she was being nudged by Rainbow “not everything, cut it out already.”

“Well you girls go have fun, there’s something I have to do” Clyde jumped off of his chair and left them alone as they rest of them shrugged and went off to enjoy themselves.

“What do ya think he’s going to do?” Applejack inquired as they left the table and went outside.

“Why do you care? Let’s just leave him be for now, let’s just enjoy ourselves” Rainbow said as she stretched her wings “besides I bet you still can’t beat me in a game of tug of rope anyway.”

“Thems fighting words” Applejack chuckled as the two of them eagerly got things ready for their game while the others sat down and watched.

“Woohoo, you both can do it” Fluttershy cheered as the game of tug of war started.

As everypony cheered at the match between Applejack and Rainbow Dash they didn’t notice a lone figure standing behind the corner of the inn watching them from afar and as he spoke to himself his voice slightly echoed with a menacing tone “haha, how funny it is to see them having fun, soon all the pieces will fall into place and everything will start.”

Chapter 6 (unedited)

Chapter 6: The Party
“It all happened so fast, we didn’t even know what had happened until
It was too late.”

A day after the very exciting game of tug of war between Applejack and Rainbow Dash, everypony found themselves back at Ponyville all of them exhausted after the long trip to get back here, except for a very bouncy pink pony.

“We should totally do that again some time guys!” Pinkie cheerfully cried out as she bounced backwards at the front of the group with a huge grin.

“Haha, well it was rather fun” Rarity said while she was still trying to keep up her sophisticated image even though she was physically exhausted “maybe we should schedule another one we have time.”

“Can I make a request?” Spike inquired as he strode alongside Twilight.

“Yes, what is it Spike?” Rarity turned her head to look at him and fluttered her eyelashes which sent the little dragon’s heart racing.

“I..um..” Spike fidgeted with his claws before Twilight smiled and sighed at the same time.

“Rarity, I’m sure that next time he wants to go to a place where they serve gemstones on the menu.”

“Ah dunno sugarcube” Applejack chimed in “aren’t gemstones only for dragons? So ah reckon that we won’t be finding any at an inn that is for ponies.”

“Aw crud” Spike’s shoulders slowly slouched over as he sighed.

“Cheer up Spike” this time Rainbow Dash joined in “I’m sure ‘lady’ Rarity could lend you some of her gems~”

Spike’s scaly cheeks turned a bright pink while Rarity took Rainbow’s words as more of an insult to her and not Spike “what do you mean ‘lady Rarity’?” Rarity asked with her brows furrowed.

“Oh lighten up Rarity Sharity!” Pinkie Pie bounced in front still with her endless suplus of energy keeping her going “she was only joking.”

“Rarity….Sharity?” Rainbow said to herself slowly as she glanced at the white unicorn before she and the rest of the girls except for Rarity, all broke into laughter with Spike still just walking along with his claws still fidgeting with each other.

Clyde, who had stayed silent for most of the trip with his hood back letting his slightly medium length mane blow in the wind behind him cracked a smile.

“There you are!”

The group of ponies stopped laughing as they turned towards the source of the voice and saw two ponies trotting towards them, one of them with a red coat and the other with a green coat, Twilight recognising the two of them and waved “hey Diglet! Steady Skies!”

Pinkie Pie leant down towards Clyde and whispered “are they new in town?”

Clyde who somehow donned his hood back on chuckled “yes, so you know what that means right?” Pinkie Pie smiled from ear to ear as she already started planning things inside her head.

Applejack stared as the two forms of the ponies came closer and the little gears in her head started spinning “oh ah remember those two now, shucks it’s only been a few days and ah almost forgot about ‘em.”

Diglet was the first to arrive with Steady arriving a close second, both of them a little out of breathe. “I win!” Diglet announced triumphantly.

“That’s only because you saw them first! I would have beaten you if we both started at the same time” Steady crossed her forehooves as she floated in the air above Diglet.

“Oh I know! The party can be held inside Sugarecube Corner!” Pinkie announced out loud, earning her looks from everypony except Clyde who was silently laughing.

“What in tarnation are ya blabbing about Pinkie?” Applejack asked with a confused expression until she stared at the red and green duo and realization dawned on her “ooooh ah get it now” the cowpony turned back to Diglet and smiled “you two are in for one surprise.”

“What do you mean?” Steady sounded confused which matched hers and Diglet’s expression “what party?”

Pinkie promptly jumped up right close to Steady’s face and excitedly yelled “YOUR WELCOME TO PONYVILLY PARTY! What else could it be silly?”

“Haha, you haven’t had a party until you had one ‘Pinkie Pie’ style” snickered Rainbow Dash as she patted Pinkie on her back.

Diglet and Steady stared at each other, both of them still confused and the red stallion opened his mouth to ask a question but Pinkie suddenly appeared between the two of them and wrapped her fore hooves around both of them “come on! You have a party to attend!”

“But…I..we” Diglet tried to say as Steady and him were firmly wrapped in the pink pony’s fore hooves and were being dragged off to Sugarcube Corner.

“No buts, you two are getting a ‘welcome to Ponyville party’ and you two are going to love it!” The others laughed as they watched the exuberant pony take her two new friends off to prepare for the party that will be on later tonight.

“So how do you know those two ponies anyway?” Rainbow asked with a grin, as she was watching the ponies trying to break out of Pinkie’s grasp.

“Oh we met those two darlings during that last rain storm, how they ever evaded Pinkie’s radar I will never know” Rarity replied, with a tiny grin as she too watched the scene.

“Oh well ah guess we’ll see them later tonight at Sugarcube Corner anyway, we can’t miss out on a Pinkie Pie party” Applejack commented as she placed the tired Applebloom onto her back and made her way back to Sweet Apple Acres “ah’ll see y’all there!”

The others nodded as Rarity and Sweetie left towards the Boutique while Scootaloo followed behind Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy quietly left for her home, leaving Twilight, Spike and Clyde alone.

“Hey Spike” Clyde said as he turned to the baby Dragon “do you want to go hang out and try to find some gemstones for you to eat?”

“Boy do I!” Spike jumped up and patted the cloaked colt on his back “you know, you ain’t so bad little guy.”

Clyde chuckled as the two of them left Twilight and went towards town “oh please, who are you calling ‘little guy’? I’m older than you by more than you can imagine tiny dragon.”

“Now who are you calling ‘tiny dragon’?” The two glared at each other before both of them started laughing as they walked off.

Twilight smiled as she made her way to the Library with a little reminder to herself that she needs to make sure to grab Spike before it was time for Pinkie’s Party.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Twilight and Spike stepped into Sugarcube Corner and were greeted with confetti that was thrown by Pinkie Pie who waited right next to the door with a big smile “Hi guys, glad you could make it.”

“We wouldn’t miss this for the world Pinkie” Spike replied with a happy sigh while he rubbed his tummy “ah, Clyde had a secret stash of Gemstones in town and he was nice enough to share it and I am so full.”

“Aww, but we have everything!” Pinkie frowned and pointed towards the buffet which was filled with all kinds of candy, drinks and even cakes which made Spike lick his lips and stared at the food with a hunger in his eyes.

Twilight smiled but put a hoof in front of Spike as he charged for the table “uh uh Spike, eat anymore and you’ll get a stomach ache, and do I need to remind you about being greedy?”

Spike stared at the ground and kicked it with his foot “that’s right…” Spike looked up to Twilight quickly before he giggled and ran off to the table anyway and started eating away.

“um, he won’t become all big and scary and mean again will he?” Pinkie leaned towards Twilight with a worried look.

“Nah” Twilight replied as she too made for the table “he’s just a growing boy and he’s just really hungry.”

Pinkie let out a sigh of relief as two more ponies trotted through the door, both of them with a white coat “Hello Pinkie, I am terribly sorry we are late.”

Pinkie giggled and booped Rarity’s muzzle “first time for everything.”

“Well yes, but I just wish that some little sister didn’t break my mane straightener” Rarity glared at Sweetie Belle who hung her head down low and sighed.

“I didn’t mean to, I just thought it might get me my cutie mark” Sweetie stared up at her older sister and gave her a sappy, giant eyed look that made Rarity scoff.

“Oh alright” Rarity flicked her mane “I’ll just have to buy a new one then, just don’t break it this time” the two sisters happily entered followed by Pinkie Pie.

“Oh Rarity wait!”

“What is it Pinkie?” Rarity turned to face her pink friend only to have her face pelted by confetti.

“Hahaha, welcome to the party.”

Elsewhere one nervous and one somehow calm ponies were surrounded by mares left and right all of them asking a lot of questions.

“Oh, I love your mane!”

“Please tell us where you are from.”

“Do you need someone to do your garden?”

“Why is his tail missing?”

“Oh is he single?”

“Thank you, far away from here, no thanks, because he wants it like that and no!” Steady somehow managed to answer each and every single question with ease, not even shedding a single sweat.

Diglet stood behind Steady, sure he had a smaller frame than most stallions which made him the same height as any normal mare which made hiding behind Steady so much easier. But he was uneasy being around so many mares, all of their prying eyes and good looks made him extremely nervous.

After about five more minutes of questioning the mares seemed pleased and left the two ponies alone, Diglet let out a sigh of relief as he regained his composure only to look at Steady’s face to find her glaring at him.

“You really are hopeless aren’t you?”

Diglet lowered his head and nervously smiled “it-it’s not my fault that I get like that, but there were so many of them!”

Steady sighed and facehoofed but quickly smiled and patted Diglet on his head “it’s a shame about how being around a lot of mares freaks you out.”

“And this town’s mare to stallion ratio is...” he shuddered and gulped “I don’t even want to say it!”

“Come on Diglet calm down, I think some friends want to speak to you” Steady smiled as Diglet lifted his head to see Twilight and Rarity which made him smile.

“It is good to see you again darling, but why are you cowering?” The fasionista asked as she pointed to the red unicorn.

“Um” he quickly dusted himself off, even though there was no dust and coughed “you uh, promise not to laugh?”

“He’s afraid of being around too many mares!” Steady announced softly to the two unicorns in front of her.

“Steady!” Diglet stared daggers at the green Pegasus to which she replied with her own stare.

“Then how come you didn’t have a reaction when we first met you?”Twilight asked, trying to change the mood.

Diglet’s face lifted up and he smiled “well that’s because I can handle a small amount, anymore than six or so and I kind of start to shiver and get chills down my spine.”

“He actually was even worse when we first met, poor bugger couldn’t even stand the sight of me” Steady smirked and nudged Diglet with a hoof.

“Well I’m getting better, but still not by much...”

Twilight magically levitated a glasses and notepad and stared at Diglet “so tell me, when did all of it start?”

Rarity poked Twilight’s side very hard which caused her to almost lose balance “Twilight darling, don’t you think that is a bit personal to just ask of somepony?”

“No it is quite alright” Diglet smiled wryly and waved a hoof “Steady already knows the full story but suffice to say I grew up in New Maresey.”

“New Maresey!? That awful place?” Rarity shook her head in disbelief “oh I am so sorry for you darling.”

Twilight put away the glasses and notepad and sighed “so what is New Maresey anyway? Is it like a town or city even?”

“You haven’t heard of it?” Rarity seemed even more shocked that her purple friend had no idea what New Maresey was.

“New Maresey, is a place that is far out of the Princess’ reach” Diglet wore a sad smile on his face “it is town, that is close to the border of Equestria and the mare to stallion ratio is much higher than here” he shivered at his own words and Steady rested a hoof on his back.

“You don’t need to say anymore Diglet, I think they understand” the green mare turned to the unicorns and put on a sweet smile “let’s leave it at that okay? My brave little stallion here is not having a good time and this party is meant to be for us after all.”

“Haha, sorry about that” Twilight awkwardly rubbed the back of her neck with a forehoof “well it is nice that you get to be acquainted with the ponies of Ponyville, they are not bad ponies.”

“We’ll take your word for it Twilight, it is good to see you and rarity again.”

“Oh of course darling, the feeling is mutual” Rarity flicked her mane and smiled “and don’t forget about my offer for Diglet here.”

“I-I might consider it..” Diglet trailed off as he spied more mares coming their way and tried to sneak away only to have Steady pull him back.

“They’re not going to come this way, it’s just that we’re near the buffet.”

“Speaking of buffet” the four ponies turned to see Spike holding a plate that had a tower of different food and snacks “looky what I found!” He giggled and tried to find a spot to set his food down.

“Now Spike Wikey, what have I told you about having too much food?” Rarity had a concerned look as she eyed the tower on Spike’s plate.

“Oh don’t worry Rarity, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom said that they wanted some food and I offered to get some for them too” the tiny dragon grinned as he eyed his loot “I hope they get here soon, I can’t hold back for long.”

Rarity and Twilight shared a laugh as Diglet’s and Steady’s jaws hit the ground at the sheer size of pile of food “it’s almost hitting the ceiling!” Diglet shook his head and stared at Spike “you must be one strong tiny dragon.”

“Ah this is nothing, Twilight told me that something like this is natural for a baby dragon, I just need to hold back a little or I might lose it…again.”

“Spike!” Two voices loudly resonated from nearby and Sweetie Belle and Applebloom charged forward and took spots on both sides of Spike as they registered the stack of food “WOW! ~”

“Wow Spike, did ya get all this food for us ta share?”

“I…I’m not sure we can eat it all” Sweetie dropped her head and Spike just laughed softly.

“Come on Sweetie Belle, we’re all sharing and besides I can just eat the rest.”

Sweetie lifted her head and smiled sweetly at Spike “thanks Spike.”

Applebloom roughly nudged Spike in his side and drew his attention “come on Spike, ah bet ah can eat more than you!”

“Oh you’re on!”

“Hey, don’t forget about me guys!”

Twilight smiled as she watch the three kids chow down as she leant towards Rarity “those two are still competing?”

Rarity nervously chuckled as she fixed her mane “I-I’m not sure, but they both seem keen on beating the other whenever it comes to the little guy, oh I just hope he doesn’t break their adorable little hearts.”

“I’m not sure I can guarantee he won’t, he hasn’t even noticed it yet and what about Scootloo?”

“Oh you know that one, always has her eyes on Rainbow Dash.”

“Rainbow Dash?” The two unicorns stopped their gossiping and saw Steady with an almost uneasy expression “you know her? Oh no is she here?”

“Didn’t you see her when before Pinkie dragged you two away?”

“Well we didn’t have time because we were being attacked by your pink friend who then brought us here.”

“Haha, well what’s wrong with Dash?” Twilight inquired as Steady still seemed as though she wanted to leave as soon as possible.

“I’d rather not say, just keep her away from me” Steady looked left and right as she huddled closer to Diglet.

“Keep who away from you?” a familiar tomboy-ish voice asked from behind Steady causing her to jump into the air.

“Curses Rainbow Dash” Steady sighed and lowered herself in front of the rainbow maned Pegasus “I thought I didn’t have to deal with you anymore.”

“Haha, it’s nice to see you too Ready Steady” The tomboy nudged Steady which made her groan.

“Can you stop with that stupid nickname already?” That was years ago.”

“Fine” Rainbow Dash had let her eyes off of Steady and joined her friends and smiled “I almost didn’t recognize you Steady, how have you been?”

Steady had apparently slipped away as Dash was walking to her friends which prompted the cyan Pegasus to sigh.

“She was always really good at doing that.”

“So how do you know her Rainbow?” Twilight asked while Rarity kept an eye out for Steady while Diglet just stood there with them awkwardly and slightly fidgeted with his hooves.

“Well duh, she’s a Pegasus so of course she went to Flight school in Cloudsdale” Rainbow stared at the ceiling as she was hit by a wave of nostalgia “she was sometimes teased for her name, but it was all in good fun though.”

“Well judging by how she acted when she saw you it is obvious that is wasn’t fun for her Rainbow Dash” Rarity commented with a slight smug tone.

“Yeah, but I was just a kid back then you can-“

“Hi guys!” Rainbow was cut off as a pink blur came shooting past them and stopping right next to Diglet, which made him freeze on the spot.

“Oh hi Pinkie Pie, awesome party as usual” Rainbow sighed, having somehow dodged trying to explain herself.”

“Thanks Rainbow Dash” Pinkie giggled and brought her face right next to Diglet’s “enjoying your super-duper fun ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party?”

Diglet just stayed frozen on the spot until Pinkie tapped him with a hoof and he just fell onto the ground as if he had turned to stone “do you think he’ll be okay?” Rainbow asked as she tried to hold back a giggle.

“Oh, I almost totally forgot about his marephobia, um, well I need to check up on Spike and make sure he and the girls are getting along well” Twilight made her way through the crowd followed by Rarity who only grinned and giggled.

“I hope the dears did not eat all the food, I could go for some nourishment myself.”

“Well have fun Rainbow Dash, I have to go and make sure everyone is having fun but can you make sure our friend Diglet is having fun for me?” and with that Pinkie bounced away leaving the cyan Pegasus with the red unicorn who was only now regaining his senses.

“What the? Oh it’s you” Diglet returned to his hooves and dusted himself off before glaring at Rainbow Dash “what are you still doing here?”

“What am I doing here?” Rainbow was offended by his attitude “I was left here to look after you!”

“Oh, thanks then I guess” Diglet continued glaring at her but dropped his stare as he looked to his left and right “urgh, I need to get out of here and quickly.”

“Why? Can’t stand being around a few girls tough guy?” Rainbow nudged him while giggling.

Diglet jumped back at her touch and lowered himself into a threatening stance and spoke with a tone of the same manner “never, never touch me again!”

“Whoa dude, calm down” Rainbow nervously tried to smile as some of the other ponies were starting to stare “everypony is staring at us.”

Diglet continued to glare but he finally dropped his stance and put on a fake smile as he signalled to the staring ponies everything was fine and as soon as they resumed what they were doing he leaned towards Rainbow and whispered into her ear “outside, now!”

And with that Diglet awkwardly tried to work his way through the crowd of mares to the exit leaving a very confused Rainbow Dash by herself who just shrugged and walked outside as well.

Rainbow was greeted by a very cross looking red coated unicorn “seriously umm…Diglet right? Anyway you need to calm down, all I did was poke you.”

“You heard Twilight Sparkle, I have a phobias of mares.”

“So? What is a phobia anyway? Is it like some kind of allergy or something?”

Diglet’s jaw hit the ground as he tried to supress a laugh “well I guess, that I can’t really be that mad if you have no idea what a phobia is, but seriously? You don’t know what a phobia is?”

“Oh so you calm down when I don’t know what phobia is.”

“Well it just means you didn’t know what you were doing is all, and that can be forgiven” Diglet stopped giggling and breathed deeply “but still just never touch me.”

“So what is a phobia anyway? Can you at least tell me that?”

“It’s a fear of something, but much more worse than that, like if you are deadly scared of spiders I think that is arachnophobia or something.”

“So if you have a phobia of mares” Diglet watched as the gears turned inside Rainbow’s face as realization dawned on her “oooooh, hehe I’m sorry dude.”

“It doesn’t matter, I’m fine now just don’t touch me, EVER~!”

“Sure Diglet” Rainbow giggled and thrust her hoof towards him prompting him to flinch “hahaha relax Diglet, I’m not going to do anything.”

Diglet glared at her before a small smile broke across his face “I could just you know, grab you with my magic and hang you upside down till all the blood rushes to your head, if you ever do that again.”

Rainbow and Diglet chuckled as the two of sat down and leaned against Sugar Cube Corner, feeling the vibrations of the music on their backs and with Diglet a fair distance away from the rainbow maned mare “oh Rainbow Dash.”

“What is it?” she turned her head and stared as he scratched the back of his neck

“Sorry I kind of got angry at you before” he nervously smiled and couldn’t meet her eyes with his.

“Eh, it’s water under the river now” Rainbow waved the matter away with a hoof and a smile trying to look cool which only made Diglet giggle.

“Don’t you mean ‘under the bridge’?”

“That’s what I said, what are you deaf?”

“Well no, but you’re lacking with your knowledge of metaphors Rainbow Dash.”

“Heh, you’re not too bad Diglet.”

“And you are quite a worthy adversary as well Rainbow Dash.”

“Look at you mister Fancy using all your fancy words, you’d get along well with Rarity.”

“That white coated unicorn friend of yours? Nah mares like her tend to pick on every little detail and that is just so-“

“Annoying? Tell me about it, I have to model for some of her outfits and they are so tight and uncomfortable!”

“Oh no…” Diglet’s expression turned into one of horror.

“What’s wrong? Don’t tell me she as-“

“Yes, and you know that it’s going to be difficult to…”

“To turn her down in the nicest way possible? With Rarity it is not going to be easy believe me Diglet I’ve tried.”

“M-maybe if I hide or something I could get out of it.”

“But then she’d get Pinkie Pie to chase after you, so even if you manage to escape Rarity there is nothing in Equestria that can escape Pinkie, so you’ve got no choice dude, sorry.”

“There you are!” Rainbow and Diglet turned to see Rarity at the door to Sugar Cube Corner with a wide grin “I heard about what happened and thought you two might need my help.”

Diglet quickly shock his head left to right leaving him slightly dizzy afterwards “ah, no thank you Rarity we’re fine………” he became silent making Rainbow Dash chuckle nervously as she avoided Rarity’s prying and observing eyes.

“Well okay dears, oh I have to get back to Applejack, she’s busy talking with your mare friend Steady and I’m trying to convince her to model for a couple ensemble I’ve created just for you two” Rarity quickly left leaving Rainbow with Diglet again who shook his head again and put his hooves on his eyes.

“You okay Diglet?”

“The dizziness made it seem like there were five Raritys” he shuddered and hugged himself “it was awful.”

“But did you hear a single word she said after that? I didn’t know you and Steady were going out you sly dog you” Rainbow elbowed Diglet making him freeze again and forcing Rainbow to remember that she shouldn’t do that.

But he just chuckled nervously and waved a hoof “ah, it’s nothing like that, we’re just friends so nothing going on between us” he sighed and smiled as he looked up to the confused Pegasus next to him “oh don’t worry, me not going off at you just means that my sub conscious has registered you as a friendly, if that makes sense.”

“Nope, not making any sense to me” Rainbow returned the smile and nudged him again which still resulted in no response from the stallion with the phobia.

“My phobia is special where it doesn’t react around mares I am comfortable being with” he gave her a bright smile and a hearty laugh “which means that I won’t freak out if you touch me, just don’t go overboard and decide we should try some tackle hoofball and we’ll be fine.”

“But if that means you won’t freak out everytime I touch you then that’s fine, that means we can do some real action!”

“Um, now you’re the one who needs to explain yourself” Diglet inquired as he stroked his chin in thought “um, Steady told me you were a sporty one, what? do you want to compete against me?”

“Yeah, come on let’s have a race around Ponyville!” Rainbow Dash eagerly set herself in a starting position while she was staring at Diglet who just continued to sit against Sugar Cube Corner with a giant smirk.

“Oh but I don’t know the full layout of so how about from umm….from here to Town Centre and back.”

“Oh you are on, ready, set go!” Rainbow shot off leaving behind her trademark rainbow streak wherever she went.

After a mere couple of seconds Rainbow arrived at Town Centre only to find Diglet leaning against it with a snarky expression “what took you so long? I was starting to get bored over here.”

“B-but how did you?” Rainbow quickly glanced behind her and back to Diglet only to see him no longer there “oh come on!”

She jumped up into the air and flew off back to Sugar Cube Corner only to once again find Diglet back where he was before, leaning up against Sugar Cube Corner with the same grin he had before.

“How…how did you get here before I did?” Rainbow quickly was glancing back and forth between the path from Sugar Cube Corner and Town Centre still in shock at what just happened.

Diglet giggled and pointed to his horn “I am an expert at teleportation magic there are only a small number of unicorns better than me at it, maybe you shouldn’t try to beat me in a race Rainbow Dash.”

“Hey! That’s cheating, you can’t use magic in a race!”

“Funny, I heard that a certain rainbow maned mare had in fact cheated several times when she was competing against a certain cowpony.”

“I didn’t cheat, I was using all of my abilities and all of my options!”

“And so was I, your point?”

“You crafty colt” Rainbow smiled and nudged him again “okay how about a hoof wrestle then!”

“Rainbow, I know I no longer just freak out when you touch me since you’re alright, doesn’t mean I am still not afraid of prolonged contact to a mare so no hoof wrestling for now.”

“Okay Diglet, but come on we should totally see who is better at sports, I’ll promise not to use my wings if you don’t use your magic.”

“Deal, but not tonight I have to go get Steady and take her home, I swear if she drank any of that punch she’ll be babbling random nonsense for the rest of the night.”

“Oh yeah, what is up with her? It is like she wants to avoid me or something.”

“Gee I wonder why, figure it out yourself. I need to inside now, oh and Rainbow Dash.”

“What?”

“Thanks, it was fun becoming friends with you Rainbow Dash.”

The Cyan Pegasus chuckled and turned her face away from him as she slightly blushed “yeah right back at ya, I can’t wait to prove that the better one out of us is me! No doubts about it.”

“Geez, just became friends and you already want to try to prove that you are somehow better than me athletics wise.”

“I know I am better Diglet and next time I’m going to prove it” the two new friends shared a hearty laugh as they both separated as the party inside drew to a close.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Later that night, a certain red unicorn carried a drunken Pegasus on his back “I loves you, we had the bestest best of times!”

“Yeah, yeah we sure did Steady.”

“No I means it, I love you!”

“Steady you’re drunk, just wait a sec we’re almost home.”

Steady just mumbled incoherently and Diglet just ignored her as the two of them arrived back at the house they had bought, still being the same as they had left it.

“Hey Steady, we’re here.”

“I’m not talking to you!”

“Why? What did I do?” Diglet opened the door and Steady flew off his back and hovered in front of him, stopping him from entering the house.

“You rejected me! I said I loved you and you ignored it you big fat meany head!” Diglet sighed and teleported behind her.

“Steady, you’re drunk you need to go to bed.”

“Can I sleep with you? It’s too cold for me.”

Diglet blushed slightly but sighed as he saw her drunken smile “fine, come on I’m sure you’ll fall asleep as soon as you hop into bed.”

“Yay! I won’t make a single sound, you won’t even notice me there!”

Diglet let out another sigh as he slowly climbed into bed, the fatigue of his spells and the party hitting him full blast and the fact of Steady’s drunken confession didn’t help his heart either.

“It’s not fair..” he mumbled to himself “it…it doesn’t count as a real one if she’s drunk.”

Not a minute had passed when Diglet heard his Pegasus housemate giggle and land on the bed right beside him and snuggled up close to his back.

“Night Diglet~”

“Yeah, nighty night Steady….” His heart sank for a moment as he whispered to her but low enough that she wouldn’t here “I love you.”