Mysterious Arrival

by SomeAssembleRequired

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure
Length: 29651

Twilight gives shelter to an unknown mare, who travelled to Ponyville in a severe blizzard. But who is her guest?

Set after Season 4( which in this universe is after the events of the Hero Within)

The Chess Game - Part 1

What pony would want to travel in the most freezing weather since years? That is the question, that haunts Twilight's mind when she finds an almost completely frozen pony on her door. Meeting the new pony will certainly be interesting, but what is the guest hiding?

It starts more like as a " Slice of Life " story, but it and " Adventure" are confronting categories, so I couldn't tag it with both of them.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-01-03 14:10:05 UTC

Freezing

Twilight couldn't remember a colder winter. Hearth's Warming was only two weeks away and it was already snowing heavily. In fact, it was snowing so heavy that the trains had problems reaching Canterlot. The alicorn didn't wish to think how was it like in the Crystal Empire. Only the thought of it made her shivver.

Luckily, it was pretty warm inside of the Golden Oak Library. Usually she would spent such a cosy early evening reading a book, but today she had promiced Spike to bake a big, gem- covered cake just for him. Why? Well, Spike wasn't exactly in the mood. While all of the Mane 6 took part in the adventures related with Hase's return, which took over two years, including him learning about friendship, Spike was... well, he was left aside. He only took part in the first adventure, the New Equestrian one, and even than all he did was strolling around without even trying out his wings, because he thought they would stay forever, and watch Hawk ( and later Hase ) steal his girl. He hoped again, when the last spring, while Hase and all of his forms still weren't separate,  Rarity broke up with him ( because he was strongly affected by Stark from the inside) , but after they dissapeared for a month instead of a week, leaving Spike completely alone, and returned, Hase was her hero again. And why did he wonder it would end up this way? Hase was a hero, one of the most powerful ponies in the whole world, and more importrant, he went beyond friendship by sacroficing himself to save Rarity and all of them.

And who was Spike? A small, purple baby dragon with green spikes, that constantly tried to prove himself worthy for respect. Hay, he didn't even save Applejack from the timberwolves. And now, with all of those heroes around ( well, even he was a hero for a while... but only in his own comic book. And yet again in this comics his friends were better superheroes than him. It was true, he saved them from the Mane- iac, but still... they remained heroes after they got out, while he didn't. Well, they actually preferred their real identities, because in the comic book only Fluttershy had simillar powers( but a different colour and more control) and everypony else had a totally different kind of power... well, it was confusing for everypony ) , there was nopony to be saved. Would Captain Equestria, the Shyulk, War Marechine ever need his help? No! And now,  after she spent the fall with her friends, Rarity was on the Moon, way further than Spike could possibly go. He had a reason to be depressed. With all of this S.H.I.E.L.D. , Moon ruling etc. jibberrish Spike felt alone.

And just when he thought it couldn't get any worse it turned out the girls were going to be away for the two weeks before Heart's Warming, leaving the town quite an empty place. S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted AJ to investigate a possible germaneian threat, together with the Black Widow and Hawk. Stark had asked Dash to help him with the pursuit of a mysterious supervillain from Stalliongrad, called the Crimson Dynamo. It sounded like if his comics had came true, but Spike wasn't a hero. He couldn't oppose the germaneian threat nor the Crimson Dynamo. He was just Spike.

Rarity wished to spent Heart's Warming with Hase, on the Moon. She wasn't going to appear again, at least not until January. Pinkie was visiting some relatives in Manehatten. And Fluttershy.... poor Fluttershy! A general of the equestrian army claimed, that Fluttershy's transformation could have been used to make the army stronger than ever, and chased her through whole of Equestria!

Shining Armour took him to the court several times, but the court never said he was guilty, since he only wanted the best for Equestria. The so-called general Thunderbolt Ross was the general of the " modern " part of the army. This part was equipped with latest A.I.M. technology ( Hase left the company to Wanda, since moving the factory was a nightmare scenario) of machineguns, tanks and " choppers "  ( even Twilight had no idea what they were ) . Now, led by the general, they were chasing Fluttershy around the country, hoping to extract her powers. Only Fluttershy and her friends knew her powers weren't a gift, but a curse: the Shyulk was a monster, led only by rage and when Fluttershy was turning into the Shyulk, she could barely control herself.

Those were dark times. And above all stood Spike's love problems. The small dragon didn't blame Hase for taking Rarity. After all, judging by his sacrofice, he loved Rarity truly, but he got annoyed when the stallion started sending him moon dragonesses in an act of redemption. They were beautiful, Spike admited, but the spark wasn't present. Spike felt it and suspected, that those dragonesses missed it too. They only came because Hase asked them to, and probably from compasion. Spike didn't need compassion. In a result of this since the middle of november he only sat, locked in Twilight's room. Twilight had nothing against it, she could still sleep on the couch, but she was very upset. She wrote a letter to Hase, asking him to stop sending those dragonesses, and luckily he showed some understanding and stopped teasing Spike. In the reply letter he wrote, that he only ment good. Twilight believed him, but this didn't change Spike's mood. For all of those weeks he only came out to eat and once when he helped Twilight with the installation of the furnace. For the rest of the time he was upstairs. The purple alicorn hoped this cake would ligt up his mood at least a little bit.

The mare took a quick glare upon the clock. It was already 6 o'clock and luckily, she soon heard the baby dragon coming down the stairs.

" Spike! "  she exclaimed "  Guess what I've got you? "

Spike looked at the cake, small signs of surprise appearing on his face. But soon they vanished, replaced by his bad mood:

" Cake? Twilight, you... you didn't have to. "  he replied, murmuring so quiet that Twilight almost missed out what he said.

"  Oh, come on, Spike! Cheer up a little! Those sapphires are ... "

" From Rarity?!? " Spike nearly jumped in the air from enthusiasm, which made Twilight feel a little uncomfortable

"  Nooo, but they are the best money can buy. "  her reply caused the baby dragon to frown again.

" Oh. " he noticed, speaking without any feeling, something highly unusual to him

" As I said, you didn't have to. "

"  Well, I didn't, but I wanted to surprise you! The whole of it is for you! " Twilight left the kitchen and sat on the couch, leaving Spike alone with the cake. The purple alicorn hoped he would eat at least a third of it. She sat in front of the fire and levitated a nearby book next to her. Following her commands, the pages unfolded. The mare sunk in her book in front of the warm fire, unaware of what was happening outside.

Blizzard. Snow. Ice. Not her favourites. The mare struggled to keep her progress. The worst was behind her back. The pony looked behind. Nothing could be seen, but somewhere out there was the town centre. The winds there almost blew her off the ground and that was something she certainly didn't want to happen. Getting blown off  the ground in such a storm would probably kill a pony. Nopony could of survived such thing. Absolutely nopony.

She got distracted by her thoughts and a sudden change of the direction of the wind caught her unprepared. The wind pushed her off her hooves  as she slid forwards. Her hooves couldn' t keep her, since now she was sliding on ice. The multiple coats and scarfs covering her, which were ment to keep her warm, were waving behind her back. With horror the mare stared in front of her. At first it was only the snow, but soon a yellow light and a shadow appeared and the pony realised her trip would come to a halt very soon.

BAAAAAAM!

Twilight had fallen asleep while reading her book, but the sudden and pretty loud thud woke her up. Her surprise quickly passed, as she supposed it was snow falling from her tree. She closed her eyes again and while she was trying to remember what she was dreaming about and continue with the dream in her own imagination, something she liked to do after waking up, another sound, this time totally different, was heard.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

There was somepony at the door. Who would possibly want to wander in such harsh weather conditions? And it was dark already. Twilight realised it wasn't going to be somepony she knew. It was probably a late traveller, who would ask for shelter in this late hour. The purple alicorn wan't going to let that unknown anypony to freeze to death, that was sure.

As she pulled the door with her magic a strange something came in. The blowing wind was so cold that Twilight hurried to shut the door closed as soon as possible, catching one of the strange things, that hung from the thing.

"  Oh, sorry! "  Twilight didn't want to make the unknown creature angry, so she opened again and waited for two seconds untill the stranger got away from the door, and closed again.

Now, after she took a closer look, the purple mare realised this wasn't a monster or something simillar, it was just a pony, dressed with at least 5 wet coats and tangled with dozens of scarfs, covered with ice crystals. After she thought about it for a second Twilight decided, that if she had to wander in such weather she wouldn't do anything else. The concealed pony was shivvering strongly, something, that could be seen even from outside of the countless layers of clothing. The princess rushed to aid her unexpected guest. It took her whole three minutes to figure out how to untie those scarfs and take them off. After she counted them, it turned out there were 10 of them. The purple mare left them near the furnace, so that the ice crystals would melt, and slowly took off the five coats, hanging them near the furnace too, to finally reveal the pony.

It was still wearing a woven pullover, a hat and jacket, so by so far the only thing Twilight knew about her guest was, that his or her coat was light yellow, yellow like the inside of a lemon. The lavender alicorn realised her guest would want something warm to drink, so she rushed to the kitchen. Surprisingly, she found Spike there, sleeping on the table, and the dish were the cake stood, or used to stand, was empty. The frosting around the baby dragon's mouth revealed, that he had eaten the whole cake, something, that made Twilight happy. However, as she started making noises with the cups, the spoons and the other things needed to make hot chocolate, the baby dragon woke up too. Surprised by his friend's energetic hot chocolate preparing, the sleepy Spike looked at the clock. It was ten to midnight!

"  Twilight, wh.. what are you doing so late in the evening? " the surprise took the dragon out of his sleep completely.

"  I'm making hot chocolate, as you can see. "  the mare noted, as she sipped three tea spoons of cocoa in the cup and put it on the cooking oven.

"  But... why aren't you asleep? And who is going to drink that chocolate? I must admit, your cake was extremely delicious, so I don't have any space left for a chocolate... "

"  It isn't for you. " Twilight interrupted him " Neither is it for me. "

"  Who is it for, than? Owlowiscious? "  the thought of that made Spike smile for the first time since weeks.

Twilight laughed at that suggestion, but her reply came soon enough:

"  No, Spike. We've got a guest. "

" But who can it be? "  the purple dragon wondered " The Apples? The Cutie Mark Crusaders? None of them is so silly to wander in such a blizzard! "

" It isn't anypony you or me know. It is probably one of those ponies who travel around equestria no matter of the weather. " the purple mare replied.

Curious, Spike went to the end of the kitchen and looked in the living room. Sudden panic took him over as he ran back to the table and jumped on it, completely confusing Twilight. He nearly jumped on her, whch caused her to step back and push the cup with the chocolate off the oven. Luckily, she caught it with her magic beforeit could spill.

"  Spike! "  she told him "  What are you doing? "

"  I think you know that mare well enough, Twilight. "  Spike's voice sounded like if there was a big trouble.

The both of them sneaked to the end of the kitchen, only showing their heads from behind the corner.

The guest was indeed a mare with a yellow coat, and she quite resembled a pony Twilight hoped she would never meet again.

"  Sunset Shimmer. I bet she isn't coming here with peaceful purposes. " Spike whispered and closed his hand in a fist.

"  I am not Sunset Shimmer if you wonder about that. "  a reply from the unknown mare was something they expected at least. She wasn't even looking at them!

"  Everypony thinks I am her, but I am not. I'm even not a unicorn! " the mare didn't sound insulted, she spoke like if it was an everyday procedure for her.

Twilight and Spike showed from behind the corner. The mare was sitting on the couch, and indeed she wasn't a unicorn but a pegasus. Her mane and tail had simillar colours to the one on Sunset Shimmer's mane - red and yellow, but those were only some streaks, while most of the mane and tail of the mare, that was long and fell down on waves, was orange. Her wings had the same colour like her coat, except for the tips of her feathers, which were orange like her mane. Her eyes, unlike the one of Sunset Shimmer, hadn't got the slightest sign of blue but were completely green like the forest. A warm smile stood on her face, but she was still shivvering. She looked a bit like Spitfire the Wonderbolt, but she wasn't her either. She looked far nicer than the leader of the Wonderbolts, who wanted complete obedience from the rookies. And her mane fell down instead of going up.

"  I share no connection to Spitfire. "  the mare guessed their thoughts again.

"  Than... what's your name? By the way, I'm sorry for spying on you. "  Spike apologised. The pegasus smiled and said him her name:

"  It doesn't matter, I would of done the same if a pony, that resembled Sunset Shimmer, arrived in my house without any warning. My name is Fiery. "

"  Fiery, I am... "  Twilight wanted to introduce herself, but her guest smiled and interrupted her:

" No need for that, Princess Twilight Sparkle. You're quite popular these days. "

"  Just Twilight, thank you. It is getting annoying. "  Twilight blushed. She would be never able to get used to ponies calling her " Princess " and bowing. It just wasn't ment for her.

"  I would also guess so, Twilight. "  the mare's shvvering became weaker.

"  Fiery... that's an odd name, beg my pardon. "  Spike spoke

"  Spike! Don't be rude! "  Twilight told him, but Fiery just smiled and replied:

"  No, it isn't rude. Such name isn't common, I admit. Ponies meet me and when I introduce myself, they think I'm going to immeadietly get something on fire. Of course, I have never set anything on fire.. on purpose, I mean. "  Spike liked the last part of her reply.

"  But what other name would you give a filly with such cutie mark? "  the pegasus moved her tail of her flank and revealed one of the most strange cutie mark Twilight had ever seen. It was a huge sun, covering her entire flank and one of it's rays even went a little down her hindhoof. It was a big yellow circle, surrounded by an orange oreol with red rays coming out of it. The purple alicorn had never seen a cutie mark so big.

"  Wow. And what's your special talent? "  Spike asked.

"  And that's the most confusing thing about it! I have no idea what it should mean! "  Fiery laughed "  Now seriously, really, I haven't got any special talent. I've got this cutie mark since I was born. It's confusing, I know, but I don't have any idea how is my yet undiscovered talent related to the sun. It is one of the reasons I travel around Equestria. "

"  Would you be so kind to tell us what the other reasons are? Since I think this isn't the reason you got in mind while crossing that blizzard. " Twilight spoke to her.

"  Indeed it wasn't. I thought the weather would be better today and that I would be able to stay at a local hotel, but in this storm I just tried to find shelter from the wind, while it blew me all the way to this place. "  the pegasus replied.

The purple alicorn remembered, that the hot chocolate was still in the kitchen and she rushed to get it. As she returned, she saw, that Spike was having a conversation with their guest.

"  But still... I do not understand. Why didn't your parents name you before getting your cutie mark? "

" That's the most confusing part. My mother... well, she isn't my true mother. In a cold winter night like this she found me in a basket, covered with a blanket. By that point she had no other foals, so she chose to keep me. I don't know how is it possible, but back than I had my cutie mark. It was there, while I was still a baby. At first, in my foalhood years, I thought this was a good sign and that I need to focus over the talents related to the sun. But I never found mine. My mother and later my younger sister were always behind my back. I would probably never leave... if they didn't want the unthinkable. " Fiery replied to the dragon's question.

"  And what's the unthinkable? "  Twilight decided to join the conversation.

The pegasus mare turned to the purple alicorn and for a part of the second Twilight saw horror in her eyes. Unexplicable horror. It looked like "  the unthinkable " was something Fiery wouldn't gladly want to speak about.

"  I... I prefer not to say what it is. "  the horror could have even been senced in her voice. Twilight thought it was probably a dark part of the past most found exciting, but for Fiery it was traumatizing, so she decided to give the mare a rest for today and find out more about her on the next day, if she could.

"  You may take my bed. I hope Spike won't have anything against it. "  she smiled warmly and happily noticed how the fear dissapeared from the pegasus's face.

"  Really? For me? Thank you! " pure thankfulness, another trait distinguishing her from Sunset Shimmer, could be senced in the mare's reply.

The mare flew upstairs, while Twilight rest herself on the bed. Spike curled up near her and she fell asleep with a smile on her mouth.

A Warm Welcome

Two days had passed since Fiery came by their house and Twilight and Spike had become friends with her. The pegasus had a small talent for everything, from cleaning- up to discussing importrant things with Twilight. It was very pleasant to have somepony to speak with and Fiery's presence caused Spike to forget about his problems and be the old Spike again. It was very merry in the Golden Oaks Library these days. Happiness was everywhere, as it should have been so soon to Heart's Warming, and Twilight felt the void, left from the absence of her friends somehow being almost filled by Fiery.

This day Twilight got woken up from the sound of a frying pan, that was being used. Still sleepy, she raised the head of the pillow on the sofa and saw yet another pleasant scene:

"  Butter! "  Fiery spoke from inside of the kitchen and Spike ran to the near-by fridge ( according to Hase, the strange- looking white device would help keeping food good for a longer time) , getting out butter and taking it to the pegasus, who had obviously chosen to take the role of a chef today.

" Salt! "  after another command Spike again appeared from behind of the corner and Twilight could clearly see how the dragon was trying to reach the upper shelf where she kept the salt, but it was unreachable. Luckily, Fiery also appeared from behind the corner and allowed Spike to stand on her back. The pegasus flew off the ground, laughing, while Spike pulled the handle and got the salt:

"  Got it! "  he reported and Fiiery took him off her back. Catching the salt with mouth she returned to the frying pan and continued asking for different ingredients, that Spike sometimes managed to deliver, but for some of them Fiery got him on her back. After retrieving the product the both of them laughed and clapped palm against hoof. It looked like they had been friends for months and Twilight wondered how could have it happened for only a few days.

'  Friendship is magic. '  the reply appeared in her mind as she got off the sofa, curious to find out what the two chefs were up to.

She peeked from behind the corner to witness a completely new way to cook. Fiery and Spike were circling the whole kitchen, throwing different ingredients in different pans and dishes. It all looked very chaotic, but when she focused over the separate dishes, she realised, much to her surprise, that all the ingredients were used only where they had to be used, and in the exact measures. She knew Spike was an excellent cook, but never supposed a pegasus can cook so good. None of her pegasi friends cooked so good. Rainbow Dash was mainly interested in flying and cool stuff ( her armour combining both of them) and Fluttershy was more interested in animals and made her dishes to fit mainly their tastes, which made it quite strange for most of the ponies. But now, while Fiery and Spike were joining forces to spin in a gastronomical hurricane, Twilight wondered if there was a mistake and her guest's cutie mark shouldn't have been something related to cooking.

Spike and his new pegasus friend were even singing a song while cooking. The cheerful tones of their voices sounded throughout the whole kitchen, as the chef ( singer ) duo was making the breakfast of the century:

Sip some sugar, get the oil,

don't break that egg but let it boil.

take a fork and taste that dish

add some salt and make a wish!

Of course, the song made no sence at all, especially the last line, but Twilight was happy to see, that Fiery had gotten over the panic that took her over the first night when the purple alicorn tried to understand more about her past. Twilight was highly worried what " the unthinkable " was, but decided to leave that question for a future moment, when Fiery would be more confident.

"  Ready! "  the both chefs shouted in unison and Twilight decided it's time to step out of the corner.

"  Twilight! "  Spike spoke excited upon seeing his friend.

"  I'm sorry if we woke you up. "  Fiery apologised " I just wanted to thank you for giving me shelter. None of the ponies I've met before would do such a thing. So what is spoken is true: that if Equestria is the tree of friendship, than Ponyville is it's flower. However, I wouldn't be able to finish in time if Spike didn't bust me. You owe this breakfast to him, too."

"  Well, i thank you. " Twilight smiled

" But know that I am not used to feasts for breakfast, or as Luna calls it, "  a royal breakfast " , so much of that food would probably get wasted. "

"  It is far from too much. "  the pegasus mare replied " And we're going to help you with it. "

The breakfast was indeed delightful. Twilight could count at least five types of dishes, and despite of the what seemed to be a mountain of food, it turned out to be just enough for two mares and a baby dragon. It was supported by jokes and laugh, which sometimes proved a little inappropriate, especially for Spike who bursted in laugh while his mouth was full of milk, but luckily the purple alicorn succeeded to make a magical bareer to protect herself, Fiery and the chairs from the rain, which caused another wave of laughter.

While Fiery was laughing to one of Spike's jokes, Twilight was reminded once more that she wasn't just an ordinary mare. While holding her fork in her mouth, ready to stick a fried egg on it, yellow shades went past the fork until eventually it turned yellow, golden yellow. Spike noticed this very soon, but Fiery was still laughing and Twilight decided to seize that chance to see what happened to her fork. She took the fork from the pegasus's  mouth and investigated it. It certainly was heavier than before. That shine... it was unmistakeable.

The lavender alicorn levitated a black board, on which earlier Spike and Fiery had written and compared their versions of the recipes to find the best sollution, and turned it around. Instead of chalk, she used the fork to write the letter " l " on it. if the fork was still steel, because Twilight owned no silverware, it would of made quite an unpleasant noice, which would cause Fiery to open her eyes, now closed because of laughter, and wonder what the hay happenned to her fork. But this fork was quite softer, so instead it just left a golden scratch on the board. Twilight tried to wipe it off with her napkin, but it stayed.

The purple mare made a sign to Spike. Luckily, the dragon understood her and put his own fork next to Fiery's plate. And just in time! The yellow mare stopped laughing and looked around for her fork, confused. However, she soon spotted it next to her plate and obviously thinking, that it had fallen off during her laugh, she just caught it between her teeth and stuck an egg on it.

The breakfast was over and Twilight wondered what would she do. Showing the golden fork to Fiery and asking her about it wouldn't give her any answers. There was something mysterious about this young mare, but obviously she didn't want to share. Perhaps the unthinkable was, that her mother asked her ,for an example ,to build her a golden castle? Was the mother's love caused by greed? If it was really so, no wonder Fiery was so afraid of her past. The alicorn needed more time to research things, to see what was the reason for her guest to turn the objects into, obviously, gold.

No such case was described in her books and Twilight suspected other books would give her no answer either. The only thing Twilight could remember was the old legend of King Modest of Grease. It was about a pony, supposedly cursed (or blessed) by a god to turn everything he touches to gold. With all of that 9 realms explanations, the god could have easily been a being, simillar to the Horsegardians or even one of them, but Fiery wasn't King Modest. King Modest wasn't modest at all despite of his name, because he had wished for that curse ( blessing) by himself. Twilight doubted Fiery would want such a gift, she was everything but greedy, and unlike the king she was modest. And besides the pegasus didn't turn everyting she touched to gold. By so far such thing had only happened to the fork. According to her observations, it was caused by Fiery's overjoy at that moment.

Another thought came to Twilight's mind. What if it wasn't outer magic, but it came from the inside? What if Fiery caused it?

Twilight quickly threw that thought away from her mind. Inner magic? Pffrt! It was true, the pegasi still had magic in them ( otherwise they wouldn't have been able to fly. Their wings weren't big enough. ) , but it wasn't magic they could control... and despite of the fact, that according to her theory Fiery didn't control the process either it was still... different. And she wasn't a mutant either.

How did she know? Well, after they returned from their last adventure, Hase realised all the mutants that existed in the future would also exist now. Several scouts were sent to look for Xavier's school near Manehatten, but without any success. Twilight knew it was either the fact that it was very well hidden or not built at all. Buzzing with time was dangerous. The way they fixed the future affected the past too. Instead of returning in late June, one week after the adventure with A.I.M. and Vortex, they returned one week before it. And Spike claimed they had left a month earlier, promising that they would return after one week. According to him the A.I.M. adventure happened the third time they were visiting Canterlot to report about Hase and not the last. It was weird and dangerous to mess with time.

So after they returned, Hase built a small gadget, that was supposed to detect mutants if they were nearby ( catching differences in brain waves and simillar stuff). However, it didn't beep when Fiery past by so Twilight was forced to conclude the pegasus wasn't a mutant.

But still... turning a fork to gold? It wasn't something very scary, and who would call a golden fork " the unthinkable " ? Twilight needed more time to analyze the situation, to watch out if something else changes near Fiery.

This noon she was invited to have lunch with the apples. At first, before Fiery came by, she thought of going alone, since Spike definetely wasn't going to be in the mood. But now she thought it would be great if he takes him and Fiery, and this way she would have been able to introduce her to some of her friends - not her best friends, who were still away, but still some friends. The purple alicorn smiled at the thought of the meeting of The Cutie Mark Crusaders and the quiet Fiery. Perhaps they would make her more open?

Yes! It was a perfect idea. Twilight took a look of the clock on the wall. It was nearly noon. They'd better be going.

After she told them about the lunch they were ready to get out after only a couple of minutes. Spike had chosen an orange coat just his size ( probably because Rarity gave it to him) and Fiery was wearing a blue one, probably one of those who were wrapped around her when she arrived.

The day was sunny and there was a thick layer of snow. Twilight was glad they left earlier since in such snow walking was amazingly slow. She could fly, of course, but prefered to walk, leaving more time to talk with Fiery. Obvously she thought the same, since she was walking with them, instead of flying.

" So, who are we visiting? " the pegasus mare asked.

" The relatives of my friend Applejack, who you may know as... "

" Captain Equestria and used to be the Element of Honesty, if I'm right? " the mare with the orange mare smiled upon guessing the identity of the purple alicorn's friend.

"  Yes. Celestia, I didn't know we're that famous! " the lavender mare exclaimed

"  Wallpapers, comics, you're even filling the newspapers. " Fiery replied

"  But, please, continue. "

" They're just normal apple farmers. Honest and hard- working earth ponies. Since Rarity is on the Moon and Sweetie Belle, her sister, hasn't decided if she wants to live there yet she is currently staying in Sweet Apple Acres. Of course, Applebloom, Applejack's younger sister, is also there, and where two of the Cutie Mark Crusaders reside, you would usually find the third one too - Scootaloo... "

"  The Cutie Mark Crusaders? " Fiery's confusion was understandable. After all, the Cutie Mark Crusaders weren't a popular superhero team... yet.

That was something, that bothered Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Twilight herself deeply. No matter that they changed the future, the future selves of Applebloom, Scotaloo and Sweetie Belle had told them, that no matter what they do, unless they mess with the time around their birth, something unthinkable, they would stay mutants - and eventually their powers would be revealed.

Now Twilight knew why neither of the three fillies' cutie marks had appeared yet. In the future their cutie marks were nothing like the fillies of the present expected. Applebloom's was a transparent apple going through a wall, splitting it in half, a pretty obvious sign of her skill to phase herself and anything she touched, if she wished. Applejack was worried about this, since she imagined how her sister's hoof would go through something, while she still couldn't control her powers, and remain stuck there. Such vision would horrify anypony.

Swetie Belle's  cutie mark was consisted of pink, but hollow, butterflies, nothing like the ones on Fluttershy's cutie mark. It suggested, that her skills allowed her to create things out of pure telekinetical energy - something impossible, which was why they fell apart after the magic ended. Her mutation also made her a telepath. Rarity was horrified by the thought of how confused her sister would be when she started hearing voices in her head. Ponies could have even declared her for crazy! That's why she insisted on Sweetie joining her on the moon, but since she " presented no arguments " , as Sweetie said, she said she would think about it. And there was nothing anypony could do about it: no force on the world can stop stubborn young fillies.

But with Scootaloo... Twilight just couldn't imagine how the pegasus filly would have been able to live normally. In the future she was constantly forced to wear either ruby quartz sun glasses, when not fighting, or her special visor when fighting. Her eyes were somehow a portal to a dimension out of pure energy and constantly let it out, destroying everything in their way. Such portal would have opened in the present Scotaloo's eyes too at some point. And that was the most worrying part. Not only that Scootaloo's power was the most destructive of all, but probably her parents didn't know either.

Well, actually they knew. Twilight isolated herself from the outer world and reached back to that memmory....

.... She landed on the terasse, together with Hase and Luna. Hase's worries for Scootaloo were entirely personal, since he loved the filly the way all of the Mane 6 did, while Luna wanted to give her parents some enchanted stones, that were supposed to replicate the effect of ruby quartz and prevent the house from being destroyed when Scoot's powers mainifest, and she also did this as an act of thanking the Scootaloo of the future for helping them, since she knew they would had never succeeded on their own.

The two pegasi were surprised to see three loyalties on their balconee, more surprised than when Twilight told them the bad news. They were frightened, but along the cries the purple alicorn could also hear " Not again. " When she asked them what they ment, they told her a story, that she remembered painfully clear:

" Scootaloo... has a bigger sister. She was a mutant too. Her powers were absorbing energy or creating it and allowed her to use it as a weapon. One day she left and we never saw Alexia again. "

Obviously the mutant gene ran in her family, they same way it ran in the Apples. Alexia Summers had dissapeared, and Twilight certainly didn't want Scotaloo or any of the girls to get hurt, but for mutants this wasn't easy. The lavender mare was sure, that the X-ponies currently exist, though the base search failed, and hoped that Professor Xavier would contact them soon. She hoped, that he reached them first.

Before leaving, the future Scotaloo had warned her for several threats, that would have been dangerous for their past selves. With Hase being brought back to good, the danger of the Sentinels was gone, but a single day didn't pass without that she looked around for strange -looking ponies, members of the Brothership of Evil Mutants, led either by Magneto or Mystique, Twilight didn't know how the time travel affected the Brotherhood's backstory.

And now, with Sweetie's sister on the Moon, Rainbow chasing a mysterious villain and Applejack on a mission Twilight was the only one left. Of course, she had spoken with Big Mac and  Granny Smith. They took that threat very seriously and now Twilight at least had somepony she could rely on in case the worst happenned. While Granny Smith was " a skipped link " like Applejack in the mutation chain of the Apples, Big Mac was able to turn his skin to unbreakable organic steel and crush his enemies with ease. In the future, he was known as " The Colossus " . And still even with Big Mac that were only two ponies with enough power to stand a chance against the Brotherhood. Twilight had also spoken with Zecora. The zebra was surprised to see, that Twilight knows so much about mutants, and later amazed her herself by revealing she was actually an old student of Xavier, who now watched this area for mutants and Brotherhood members. She had refused to share any more information about the X- Ponies and remained stone silent when Twilight tried to ask her something about Wakanda, a small country near Zebrica, where the most of the world's vibranium deposits were hidden. She could rely on her for help, but not for information.

And still, that were three ponies between the Cutie Mark Crusaders and the Brotherhood. Usually Stark and Dash in their armoured suits were also nearby, but now they were away. Twilight was on the verge of panic when she suddenly remembered she wasn't so alone as she thought .

Emma Frost, Wanda Maximoff and Johny Blaze. Hase's foalhood friends, they remained in Ponyville as Wanda was pronounced the CEO of A.I.M. Twilight's relief was great when she remembered that except the two mutant mares and the Spirit of vengeance A.I.M. still had a big number of Extremis soldiers at their facility, which Wanda had decided to move on the sight of the Diamond Dogs. Thus their tunnels were used for something good and with all the treasured they had gathered A.I.M. now had a whole new, strongholdlike facility, which prevented Diamond Dogs from attacking ( the gates to the unused galleries were guarded by power armours and Extremis troops) and proved a strong opponent for any possible threat.

Something Twilight couldn't say about Stark Industries. While Stark was a good pony, he was also a bit arrogant. A little arrogance wasn't something so scary, but Stark kept all the rights for the Arc Reactor technology, forcing A.I.M. to search for other power sources. According to him mass usage of such technology was dangerous and maybe he was right, but why did he just shut A.I.M. up? His technology was still unmatched and Stark Industries was the pioneer of Equestria in all categories but weapons manifacturing. The new Stark Industries facility was built on the two sides of the railway to Canterlot and got finished last week. If Twilight wasn't so worried about the Cutie Mark Crusaders probably she would accept Stark's decision for prudent, but now, confused from fear, she found it terribly wrong. Why would that stallion keep that technology for himself?

Suddenly, she calmed down and thought about this all over again. Stark only wanted to prevent accidents from happening. And with so many superheroes still left in town she could stop worrying about the Cutie mark Crusaders and return to the reality again.

"  Hellooo? "  Fiery was waving her hoof in front of Twilight's face. The purple alicorn looked the pegasus in the yes, which caused her to smile:

" Well, ok. You've been somewhere else in your thoughts for a minute. But hay, you didn't have to stare this way. Spike and I got worried about you. "

"  I'm fine. " the lavender mare replied

" But please, could you repeat your question. "

" I was asking who are the Cutie mark Crusaders. " the pegasus repeated her question.

" Ow, they are just three little fillies, who have found a club to search their cutie marks, nothing more. " Twilight barely managed to say the last two words, since she knew that they were much more than that.

' Not again. ' Spike thought. The last thing they needed was Twilight to psyche out again. Since they returned, Twilight was taking her job as the protector of the three fillies very serious, in fact too serious. She was constantly tracking them and spying on them, and now, after Applejack was away she was even more worried. Luckily, the three fillies didn't suspect a thing, but it was still worrying to see your best friend hide in the bushes and spy on three fillies. It was one of the reasons for Spike to get out of his love depression ( which was only a role since two weeks) and consult the rest of the Cutie Mark Crusaders' guardians: Wanda, Emma, Johny, Applejack, Dash and Pony Stark. They agreed with him it would be better to speak with the alicorn, but she refused to leave her guard. She was overreacting, constantly thinking everypony for a threat, forgetting, that even now Ponyville was guarded by Hase's old friends, Zecora and the Cutie Mark Crusaders themselves were also protected by Big Mack. Luckily, she jumped out of her stance pretty quick this day and Spike thankfully glared at Fiery. This mare had a relinquishing effect on both of them, it distracted the dragon from his love problems ( and was an excellent chef, who even made him a fake moustache out of one of her countless scarfs) and Twilight' from her constant worries about the three fillies. It was almost like if there was nothing to worry about in the whole world.

But now the dragon concentrated over their guest. It was true, she was just a normal mare, nothing special, but that fork... sometimes the dragon thought Fiery had bigger problems than any of them, but unlike Spike and Twilight who shared them with eachother, Fiery was keeping them for herself and Spike could only wonder what problems she had.

Something about her past for sure...

But Spike, unlike Twilight, didn't tend to fully sink in his thoughts, so the pegasus mare's voice brought him back:

" Are we near? "

In that snow walking to the Sweet Apple Acres indeed took a lot of time, but at least now they were close. After 5 minutes of walking the farm could be seen, and luckily it was pretty near now.

After another 10 minutes of walking in the snow they reached the door. Luckily, inside Big Mack had obviously taken care of the snow ( he handled such things with ease) and the two ponies and the dragon could finally keep up a good speed.

As they reached the farm, Twilight knocked on the door. Almost immeadietly after the thuds ended the door was opened and Applebloom appeared next to it.

"  Hey, Twilight! " the young filly greeted.

" Hey, Applebloom. Did... did you find your cutie mark yet? " Twilight almost imagined the filly was now going to go back through the wall. Concern sometimes took the best of her, but the purple alicorn didn't let such thing happen.

" Nope. Ah'm still wonderin' what could it be? Do ya have any good ideas? " the enthusiastic filly looked at the lavender mare.

" Weell, you have to find out by yourself. Remember, it will come, sooner or later. " Twilight replied, relieved.

" But don't let mah keep ya out heah! " Applebloom kindly invited them inside. Twilight and Spike thanked her, but when Fiery got ready to pass the door, Applebloom stood in her way, confused.

" Oh sorry, I forgot to mention. Applebloom, meet Fiery. She was caught travelling in the big storm and I offered her shelter, but eventually I think she'll stay, and we're also friends. " Twilight introduced her pegasus friend to the little filly. Fiery nodded and Applebloom smiled in responce.

" Nice ta meet yah! " she exclaimed and stood off her way, allowing her to get in.

After the door closed, Twilight asked Applebloom to lead Spike and Fiery to the table, while she took another corridor and went to the room of Big Mack.

" How are things? " she asked, noticing, that both the stallion and Granny Smith were in the room. Obviously she sounded worried, because the farmstallion looked at her as if she was a filly who was overestimating things.

"  Oh, come on, Twilight, dear. " Granny Smith cam by her and pat her on the shoulder

" Yah don't have ta worry about the three fillies so much! Yah forget, that we aren't rotten apples either! Calm down, take it easy! " the old mare smiled and Twilight immeadietly felt uncomfortable for creating such panic.

" I... I suggest I will. " she replied.

Big Mack stared at the clock and spoke to her:

" Nothing to worry about, really. Now it's lunch time. Get some good ol' Apple family type food and the panic should go away. "

Indeed the pie did help. Everypony were just chatting about everyday stuff and cared about nothing. Currently, the discussion was revolving around Fiery. She had challenged the Cutie Mark Crusaders to guess her cutie mark, taking in mind all Twilight had told them about her. The alicorn smiled, since she had actually never told them what Fiery's cutie mark was , and Applebloom didn't see it at all. The bet was a slice of pie.

" You survived in that storm... it has to be a survival cutie mark! " Scotaloo tried to guess, but Fiery just grinned and shook her head.

" It is a... a cooking cutie mark! " Sweetie Belle made her guess judging by the tales of the pegasus's amazing kitchen skills, but that was pretty far from the truth.

" Last chance. What's your guess, Apple Bloom? " the pegasus turned to the earth pony filly.

" A... big sun? " nopony expected, that Applebloom would guess, but obviously she saw more than ponies thought she saw. The pegasus smiled and transferred one of her pieces to Applebloom's plate.

" May we see it? " Scotaloo jumped from her chair.

" Sure, why not? " Fiery jumped from her chair too and allowed the Cutie mark Crusaders to study her flank.

" Wow.... that's a cutie mark! " the pegasus filly liked it very much.

" How did you get it? " Sweetie asked with begging eyes.

" Yeah, how did ya? " Applebloom joined the line of fillies, waiting for explanation.

" Well, "  after thnking if to lie to them for a second Fiery considered it would be best to tell the truth

" , i was born with it. "

The expression on the muzzles of the three fillies was one of a kind.But the confusion was soon replaced by doubt:

" How can you be so sure? " Scotaloo asked " What if you have gained it in a day you were so small you didn't remember them? "

" I... I remember no such days.... "

" Exactly! " Scotaloo thought, that Fiery agreed with her.

" No, I mean I am not exactly a daughter of my mother. She found me outside the door in a night like this one yesterday , in a basket. She says I had my cutie mark back than. "

" Oh. " the expressions on their muzzles went sad

" Sorry . " Applebloom expressed her compassion.

" There's nothing to be sorry for. " Fiery's reply brought their smiles back

After the lunch was over the three fillies left to play in their room and Granny Smith and Big Mack went upstairs for an afternoon break, so Spike, Twilight and Fiery were left alone on the table, sitting in awkward silence.

" You never said where you came from. " Twilight broke the silence.

" Oh, I come from Canterlot. I used to live there... untill I left. " Fiery looked fine, so Twilight decided to bring up the main question:

" And why did you leave at all?  The way you describe it it sounds like if you had a good family. "

" It was a good family, and they would probably accept me even now... but they wanted me to do something I could, but certainly didn't want to do. "

" Why? Why would your family want something like this? Why wouldn't they give you a choice? " Twilight asked, confused of the conservatism of Fiery's family.

" They wanted me to reveal my true potential. They saw it deep inside of me, but I just can't.... sorry, I shouldn't have spoken about that at all! " the pegasus jumped off her chair and flew away.

" No wait! " Twilight rushed after her. For a moment the pegasus stopped and turned around. Her eyes reflected the same panic she had experienced the last night.

" You... you're not the only one who is having problems. " the purple alicorn decided a confession from her side would cause the same responce.

" No. But I am the only pony with such problems. " Fiery turned around and landed. She walked towards Twilight and spoke:

" All problems have sollutions... but mine. "

" Fiery, you don't know what a relief you are for me! You are distracting me from all of my problems! You are my friend, no matter if you wish it or not! And I don't tend to let my friends deal with their problems on their own. A shared problem is half a problem! " Twilight tried to reason with her.

" And what if your problem cannot be shared? " usually Fiery used " can't " , so the sudden use of the full form made Twilight wonder.

" And what's your problem? Turning things to gold? Ponies have much larger problems than... "

" Twilight! " Spike shouted and the lavender mare realised she had went too far.

The pegasus' s face went pale and she knit her brows as her reply was heard:

" Turning... things... to gold? " she was obviously very angry from the fact Twilight had hidden this from her.

" Why didn't you tell me?! "

" Fiery... this isn't such great of a problem, after all. It can even be a blessing! " the purple alicorn defended herself.

Luckily, these words succeeded to calm the pegasus down. But she started crying. She broke through the door and flew away. Judging by her direction, she was heading for the Golden Oak Library.

Twilight surely didn't expect such turn of the events.  She lowered her head and told Spike:

" I... I think we should go now. "

Applebloom walked with them to the gates and from than on it was the two of them in the snow again.Nothing broke the silence but several rabbits, who ran across the pathway, now burried under the snow, and continued on their way. Twilight sighed. She doubted Fiery would want to talk with her again after what happened today. She was just so grateful for the pegasus bringing her out of her worries, spicing up her life with laughter and that special essence of a normal life, not depending on mysteries and magic, that she wanted to do the same for her. Some secrets were however never to be revealed and the purple alicorn realised, that the only thing she'd done was violently breaking the pegasus' private space and revealing herself as a spy. There was nothing more shameful for the mare. She was the Element of the Magic of Friendship, she was supposed to know all about friendship... and yet she failed. Pesky thoughts took over her mind, convincing her, that without the elements she isn't the friend ponies want her to be anymore. She perished that thought, but she couldn't do the same with her grief, grief of a loss . Fiery was the only pony she had these days, after all of her other friends were away, and she had failed with her. Why was the fate so cruel?

With her head down Twilight slowly walked down the hill to Ponyville, covered in snow, and the day that used to be sunny was now cloudy, in full harmony with her thoughts.

Ho- ho, the missile toad!

Nothing could stop her flight as Fiery flew towards the library, crying on the way. Her true identity was about to be revealed once more and that was something she certainly didn't want to happen.

Baltimare, Manehatten.... it started this way everywhere. But eventually it got clear to the citizen her powers were much more than turning things to gold. Ponies started to fear her and wonder is she a pony or not. Eventually it all ended up bad: everypony were hostile to her and she had no choice but to leave.

She didn't want that to happen here. For the first time in years she found a place that felt like the home she never had. In her real home she was loved, but everything revolved around her other side. And now she took a hard decision. No matter how she felt and no matter Twilight and Spike were the only friends she had... she had to stay away and perhaps adopt Spike's tactic. Yes, that was just what she was about to do! Thus she wouldn't lose them as friends and they would never ever find about anything more about her. Nothing!

Flying in the cold air, she was noticed by few. However, her tears fell down... and melted the snow where they fell. Some ponies even claimed, that it was raining hot water from the winter sky.

Fiery soon reached the library and quickly sneaked in, heading for Twilight's bedroom. There she could let out her tears. They weren't tears of sadness, but of fear. Ponies here knew nothing about her... and it would have been better if it stayed this way.

Alone she cried, away from the world. But what problems was Twilight speaking about? It didn't matter. They surely weren't as serious as hers, and surely they were problems, that could be shared. But Fiery couldn't share hers. They were only hers and nopony else's.

Hope... it was gone. Hope, that she could live as a normal pony. She guessed her sister was right. Her last words echoed through her mind:

" Why be normal, when you can be the greatest? Why live alone and in terrible fear, when you can be surrounded by the ones who adore you? Why? Tell me why, FIERY!?!

' Why? ' the mare replied in her mind ' Because this isn't a gift... it's a curse. '

The residents of Ponyville were still wondering about the hot rain, that hit them a minute ago. Small holes in the three feet thick snow were spread from the Sweet Apple Acres all the way to the Golden Oaks Library. The grass could be seen in these holes. If they weren't so deep they could have explained it with a crying pegasus... but tears, that melt three feet of snow? No! It certainly was something suspicious and the most clever would soon follow the trails to the two ends and either scare Twilight or frighten Fiery with knowing about this strange event, but luckily they were soon given an extremely convenient cause of the hot water rain.

" Hmm -ha - humm. " Discord was strolling around the streets of Ponyville. Before the summer events with the Elements of Harmony being removed from their bearers and returned to the Tree of Harmony, he preferred to stroll somewhere else, after he could aford it. But after being convinced by those events and the other adventures before, that Ponyville is the place where everything happens, he didn't leave the town at all. He had built a small house on the roof of " The Horror House ", Ponyville's newest attraction, run by Hase's three old friends, because he enjoyed the company of somepony so chaotic as the Scarlet Witchmare and everyday ponies could see him stretch over their rooftops and circle the town, causing small, unharmful chaos. And since those holes were such a case, most of the ponies immeadietly linked them to the chaotical being.

Some were even laughing at being so concerned about them, as they had the spirit of chaos for a neighbour.

While the dragonecqueus was walking around and watching the shops' showcases, a small colt stood in his way. Surprised, Discord lowered his head to the ground and found out the pony was Pipsqueak.

" You said it was going to be hot chocolate rain, and not hot water rain! " the colt hit the ground with his hoof, while Discord just laughed:

" Why do you think I would pull up such an amateur trick as hot water rain? That's boring! Here! " the chaotical being cracked with fingers and a small cloud appeared over the colt's head and started raining hot chocolate. Happy, Pipsqueak opened his mouth at the sky and swallowed as much hot chocolate as he could.

Meanwhile the dragonecqeus was wondering what was Pipsqeak talking about. Hot water? Why would anypony think Discord had fallen so low to cause hot water rain? That was nothing special! He asked several ponies about it and they were surprised to find out, that Discord isn't responsible for the rain. That caused Discord to smile and press his fingers against the ones on his other hand.

" We've got ourselves a rookie. I knew Twilight would eventually love it! "

Cracking with fingers again, a cotton candy cloud appeared and Discord ordered it to search the area for Twilight Sparkle. The cloud soon returned and spread into a map, showing Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight, a small figure, soaked with chocolate milk, was just about to get over the hills and walk down to Ponyville. Discord smiled and with a crack of his fingers dissapeared again.

Twilight still hadn't got better when with the sound of fanfares and  ridiculous happy scarecrows Discord appeared out of nowhere.

" Congrats! " he shouted so loud, that the snow fell off the nearby trees and nearly blew away Twilight and Spike.

" Congrats for finally realising the good side of chaos! " the dragonecqueus shook the hoof of the purple alicorn, who still couldn't process what's happening.

" I admit the hot water rain was a bit pathetic, so I will be giving lessons... " glasses appeared on Discord's head and suddenly he was dressed in an official suit. A big scroll appeared in his hands and rolled all the way to Twilight.

" .... I'll be giving lessons from 10 to 12 every Saturday! With my help you would be able to learn some more laughable stuff than just hot water, for an example turning the snow to soap! " Discord pointed his finger at the ground and suddenly the area around them turned to soap, causing twilight and Spike to slip and fall. After he laughed for a second, Discord blew at the soap and snowflakes appeared in his breathe, turning the soap back to snow, but because there was some left on Twilight's chin she ended up with a snow beard like Starswirl the Bearded, which caused yet another wave of laughter for Discord and the scarecrows.

Twilight shook her head, which caused the beard to fall off, and forgeting about her worries for a second, replied to the chaotical being:

" Discord, what do you mean? I don't need any chaotical lessons! "

" You do, if you want to cast something more than that hot water rain. " Discord noted and the glasses and the suit dissapeared.

" I didn't cast any spell for hot water rain! " Twilight protested. Discord's jaw literally fell to the ground:

" You didn't ?!? But than.... " before he could finish his sentence he dissappeared, leaving Spike and Twilight completely confused.

" Who might it be? " Discord hovered in the air in an armchair, wearing a detective hat,  a long grey coat and with a bubble pipe stuck in his mouth.

" Can it be... the dragon? " a pair of binoculars appeared with a puff and the chaos spirit neared them to his eyes, observing the purple dragon from above. Discord thre away the binoculars and his expression went stern as he mused:

" Unless he could sneeze so far he isn't the solution. And the witnesses cliam it was hot water and not dragon spit! ( ' Too gross even for me! eeyuk! ' the dragonecqueus thought to himself) Sooo... it was probably somepony on the other end! " the creature of chaos grinned and cracked with fingers, causing a strange uncomfortably big machine, that resembled... nothing, really. It looked like a sort of a device, that somepony would probably have no idea what to use for.

However Discord used it as his detecting device. On it's side there stood the following inscription:

" Discord's refined ( and patented, don't you dare steal my idea ( or dare, I don't care! ) detecting device. If found, please don't return ,but use for anything but the best purposes. "

" Voila! " the dragonecqueus detected a pony inside of the Golden Oaks Library and quickly folded the device, only to unfold it again, but this time it turned to a big rocket with a red, sharp head. Discord wrapped a rope around his waist and the other end he glued to the head of the rocket. He cracked with fingers, and a spark caused the rear end of the rocket to exhaust fumes. The rocket's rear end went forward and the front one went backward, causing the rocket to nearly smash it's own middle, but than it returned to its normal state and flew to the library with an incredible speed. The large flames, that came out from the rear end obviously didn't burn the rope and Discord even made some BBQ. Sadly for him, because of the sudden halt of the rocket Discord, the BBQed onions and peppers flew, carried by their innertion, and stuck in the snow.  Angry at it, Discord shot a small bolt of lightning with his dragon hand and that snow immeadietly got melted.

Before entering the house a nasty thought of responsibility made its way to the mind of the dragonecqueus. He sighed. Sometimes he missed the old days, when he wouldn't care about leaving an extrememly dangerous thermite- fueled rocket like this, where anypony could have ritten it and get hurt, but now he was reformed. So he cracked, this time using his tail, and a small frog was tied to the rope. Discord laughed, but than regained his serious expression and commanded:

" Toad, you are hereby promoted for the rocket guardian! Don't let anypony ride my rocket! "

" DOON'T! " the toad replied,using " Don't "  instead of " Wribbit. " or another frog sound. Discord laughed and than opened the door.

" Oh my! This place is tragic! Has Twilight never heard of decoration? " Discord spoke his thoughts out loud and this resulted in a brilliant thought replacing those, who were spoken out loud.

Discord cracked with fingers and his army of scarecrows entered the room and started decorating. They even brought a pine tree. Since Fiery hadn't lit the candles, it was already getting a bit dark, Discord summonned a big cannon on a platform. He quickly jumped in the pilot's speed and a voice from the cannon warned:

" Please, remain seated and keep your hands and legs in at all times. "

Discord grinned and turned the cannon on. Moving on rails, that Discord caused to appear, the cannon shot chains of light in all directions, going all around the library and even moving on walls. Surprisingly, there wasn't great chaos, since Discord somehow managed to shoot all the lights( since those were magical " lights on lines" ) with a sort of pattern, that made the interior of the library gain the Warming spirit it missed.

Meanwhile the scarecrows were putting toys on the pine tree. Of course, so that the residents could be sure who brought them this decoration most of the toys represented Discord in some way and very little space on the tree was left for the traditional decorations - most of the tree was covered either in the shining ropes or in the miniature glass statues of Discord.

There wasn't a way this couldn't bring Fiery out of her dark mood and make her ask herself what the hay was going on. From the sounds the only thing she could guess was somepony was firing at the library using an artillery cannon. And she wasn't letting her friend's house getting destroyed.

However, when she came downstairs, she litterally froze. A big black canon was defying all laws of physics and going wherever it wanted to, including the wall and the ceiling and even the book shelves while meanwhile shooting beatiful shining decorations. Scarecrows, come to life, were decorating a big Warming tree with... were that miniature glass Discord-s?

The canon stopped right in front of her and the spirit of chaos jumped out. Obviously he was looking for her, because he asked:

" So, young lady, I guess you committed that magnificent act of pure flattery out there? "

" What? " Fiery didn't even get what he said.

" Shortly: Did you cause the hot rain? I am interested in teaching chaos to the talented and I will be at your service... " again he turned to the manager with the glasses, the suit and the scroll

" ... every Saturday from 8 to 10. How about that? " he stretched his lion paw to her.

" What do you mean? " the pegasus asked again.

Discord sighed deeply. He had to explain it.

" There is a trail of holes, that penetrate the three feet snow all the way to the bottom. That trail leads from Sweet Apple Acres to here. Some ponies have complained from hot rain. According to my deductive skillss.... " the bubble pipe appeared again in his mouth

" ... the only option is you. I've interrogated young miss Twilight and she denied that she had anything in common with this peculiar case. " the hat also reappeared.

" So that leaves us nopony but you! What's your name, student? " Discord asked.

" Fiery. " the orange maned mare introduced herself, thinking over how had this happenned. It obviously was caused by her, but how....

" My tears... " she whispered, but felt something poke in her head. When she turned around, she saw that Discord now had a significantly larger ear, that nearly touched her. He smiled and it returned to it's original size.

" Sooo.... " now his smile was more like a grin.

" You're having it hard in this world, huh? Being repelled by everypony... " the dragonecqueus sneaked behind her and his head appeared on her left side. She glared at him, confused, but she was carefully listening.

' The iron is forged while still hot. ' Discord thought and continued persuading Fiery, something he had left from his old, unrestrained self.

" You're afraid? You have skills too dangerous too reveal? " his convincing words sneaked inside of the pegasus' s head and gave her.... not a headache, but hope.

She glanced at him with hoping eyes and the chaotical being grinned even wider. At last he found somepony with a true potential for chaos. Somepony, who needed it.

" And do you know, that chaos is something amazing? " his words continued convincing her more and more

" It can reveal your true potential, and still keep you and everypony else out of harm's way... " suddenly Discord had a brilliant idea. At the crack of his fingers the scarecrows stopped decorating the tree and stood on a platform, that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. And than Discord began singing:

"               I was afraid from the consequences,

restrained by laws and spiky fences! ( Discord was suddenly surrounded by a thorn hedge, which dissapeared after a second.  Some of the scarecrows slowly began to dance, while others played trumpets, supporting Discord's fast- paced jazz tune . )

but it is no more; with chaos I got free,

no longer contained by the royaltieees! ( a picture of Luna and Celestia appeared on the wall and Discord threw a pie at it. His tone lowered on " royalties " , indicating that another part of the song awaited )

And what about you? You're the same!

Stop playing their nasty little game!

Join my game, come play along!

No worries, you'll party all day looooooooooooooooooooooong!  "

The scarecrows moved faster and even Discord joined their dance while singing. The long " o "( the scarecrows joined the singing when Discord reached "long") and the gradually ascending tone brought the enthusiastic Fiery to the conclusion, that the chorus awaited.

Discord jumped and spun in the air, sending sparkles in all directions. A podium appeared bellow him and once again he spread his lion paw towards Fiery. This time she gladly accepted and joined him on the podium, while he was singing the chorus:

"              Oh, join the chaos! It's so amazing!

No more worries, pain or restraining!

Join me now and be yourself!

Don't listen to what the others tell!              "

( Discord said the first part of the last row very quick and emphasised on " tell " .)

Fiery laughed. He was right. What was she so afraid of? She even decided to join the song and reveal her singing talent. The scarecrows switched from their chorus tune to the regular one and taking the lead, Fiery sang:

"                     Before I was afraid from my powers,

So I sat frightened and alone for hours

But now I'll go and let them be,

it seems to be my destiny!

My mom was right, I am great,

I had better listened, hope it's not too late!

after I reveal them, they would try to stop me, wow!

( Fiery said the last word with sarcasm)

I'll find a way to stop them...... somehow!        "

" That's how it's done! " Discord congratulated her and sang along her as the scarecrows played the chorus tune again. The chaotical duet let out their voices in a slightly more different chorus than before:

     "             Oh, I'll join the chaos!It's so amazing!

No more pain for me and no restraining!

I'll join you and be myself,

I don't care what the others tell!             "

However, the singing duo was unaware they had other audience than the scarecrows. Spike and Twilight had appeared just in time to see how Discord persuaded her and the beggining of the song. In a result of this now Twilight sat there, leaning against the wall,depressed, while Spike was trying to calm her down:

" Twilight.... Discord isn't evil anymore. Nothing will happen to Fiery. She might even reveal her powers to you! "

" You're right... he's just uncanny. But how did Discord cause her to be herself, while I couldn't ? " Twilight answered, worried that she wasn't such a good friend anymore.

" I must stop this! " Twilight rushed to her door. Spike jumped on her back as she opened the door. the scarecrows stopped playing the trumpets and Fiery and Discord stopped dancing.

" Fiery, don't listen to him! He's Discord! You don't have to follow chaos to be yoursel... " before she could finish her sentence she was struck by the magic of Discord. The scarecrows played again and the dance continued. Now it was Discord's turn to sing:

"                           If you want to talk, you'd better sing,

music is such a good and pleasant thing!

With my hex you'll join the song,

sing it now and prove me wrong!                        "

Twilight stood on her four again, but Discord's magic caused her to sing and not talk,and the result somehow also fit the song:

"          Fiery, please, listen to me now,

I don't want him to change you anyhow,

You're good the way you are,

Remain how you were so far!                    "

Fiery smiled and replied to the purple alicorn:

"           Twilight, Twilight, it is too late,

I've already found my true fate

My power is unknown to you,

you're far away from the truth!

You don't suspect who I really am,

and this is where I put the end.

Before I was afraid, and now I'm not!

No more scary, fearful thoughts!               "

With these last lines Discord, Fiery and the scarecrows left through the door, leaving Twilight confused, horrified and still randomly speaking in rhymes. The lights went off and Spike silently went upstairs, leaving Twilight alone with her thoughts, in the darkness.

Confrontation

Fiery was more certain than she ever was in her whole life. Before she feared to reveal her powers, and now she was proud of them. Discord was her chance. Her second chance, after she missed the first one years ago.

The house on the roof of the Horror House was exactly as chaotical as it's owner. From the outside, it looked like if it only contained one small room, that could barely fit three ponies, but from the inside it was a big, three storey house. Some things were only possible with chaos.

Fiery had her breakfast, which didn't taste as good as the one... no, no more thoughts about Spike and Twilight! She was doing all of this to be able to use  her powers without anypony getting hurt. No matter how uncanny Discord was, she needed him to learn her to control it.

The dragonecqeus awaited her on the roof.

" Ready for some chaos? " he smiled.

" I guess. " she replied, smiling back.

An armchair appeared and Discord sat in it. Finally he was going to teach chaos to somepony else. Being good was getting boring recently so he was glad he finaly had a source of fun.

" So... what's your kind of chaos? " the chaotic being asked.

Fiery was just about to answer, when she stopped. She had the feeling she shouldn't be doing this. It.... it felt wrong. After all of these years of keeping back she didn't feel ready at all. In fact it was the quite opposite.

But the days when she would listen to that voice were over. She wasn't the shy, unconfident Fiery anymore.

However, she wasn't that absolutely confident mare she wished to be either. She wished to be brave and not to care about anything. She wanted to be a mare, who wasn't afraid of her powers.

And she wasn't. Because she realised, that all of these years she wasn't afraid for herself, but for the others. At second thought the idea of truly unleashing her powers seemed to be a little inapropriate. But she could give Discord a glimpse of it anyway.

She touched the armchair of Discord. The yellow colour slowly covered it, until the whole armchair was golden. Discord looked suprised and clapped with hands:

" Bravo! But can yout turn it to anything else but gold? It's quite uncomfortable. "

Although Fiery had never tried turning things into something than gold, she decided to try. She concentrated and slowly the armchair changed its colour to purple and became transparent. It became unusually slippery and Discord fell of it. In a result, the jelly armchair slid down the roof and fell off the edge. Luckily, there was nopony, who the jelly armchair can fall on,but it produced quite a splash amd spread all the way to the other end of the street. Ponies had better watch their hooves trying to cross that area.

" Good! Is this all you can? " Discord asked.

" Nnnnot exactly. " Fiery make a few steps back. She was unsure. Her other powers weren't so unharmful.

Discord's left eyebrow raised and the dragonecqueus spoke to her:

" I thought you have got ridden of the fear of failure already. Why keep back your true self? "

" It.. it isn't safe. "

" Nopony ever said chaos was safe! " Discord reasoned with her

" It's just chaotic: you don't know if it will end up evil or good. Like me! At first I was evil, but now I am good! Nopony knows what will happen, but I'm sure your chaos won't be something I can't restrain if it gets out of control. "

" No, I'm sure it isn't safe. "

Discord's expression got stern:

" Than it isn't chaos. If it has the same effect every time... does it? " he looked at Fiery. She nodded.

" .... than it probably and most surely isn't of chaotical origins. That means I have been confused. Nopony has the same chaotical powers as me.You may go now. " he spoke to her.

" But.... but I can't control it! It happens whenever I'm angry, more like furious and I have no control over it. I need to learn to control it! Can't you help me with that? " the pegasus mare asked.

" Absolute control isn't a trait of chaos either. " the dragonecqueus

" Tell me, did you think exactly of purple jelly when you changed the chair? "

" Yyes?! " Fiery now got more confused than ever.

" Well, if i tried to do such thing the jelly would probably end up green. " Discord smiled

" The beauty of chaos is that nopony never knows what will happen. Not even the one causing it. You're free to go, Fiery, I can do nothing to help you with your powers. "

Discord walked back in his house, leaving a sad Fiery outside on the roof.

Fiery landed in front of the Horror House, forgeting to mind the jelly. She slipped and fell. When she got up, she was covered with snow and jelly. She sighed and walked away, without watching where she was going.

Without knowing how, she ended up on the outskirts of Ponyville, near the edge of the Everfree forest. She sat there and observed the town and the sky. It was still cloudy and there was no snow - the kind of winter weather everypony hates. The town was just waking up, unlike Fiery, who got up pretty early that morning.  The ponies were just coming out, together.

Fiery didn't cry, she was beyond that phase already. She was a mare, not so easily getting sad anymore. It was the only way to keep up with the harsh life, she knew that. But she had no idea what to do from now on. So there she stood, alone, standing alone with the wind waving her orange mane and tail with the small shades of yellow and red.

And there the solution came to her mind. She would return to twilight and say she's really sorry and say her once and for all what trully bothered her.

' Since friendship is all about sharing. ' she thought as she spread her wings and flew in the sky.

Twilight wasn't speaking in rhymes ( most of the time) now, but she didn't get how Discord got Fiery to almost reveal her secrets, while she failed. Was it something about her?

She sighed. Currently she was probably doing some awesome chaotic magic with Discord. She said she didn't care about what the others tell. And why would she?

The dark thoughts inside of the purple alicorn's head went away as soon as somepony knocked on the door. Curious to see who was it, Twilight opened the door to see the pony she least expected: Fiery.

" Hey. " obviously the mare felt uncomfortable, since she was constantly putting her left forehoof in front of the right and reversed.

" I want to tell you... that I'm sorry. It turns out sometmes it's good to listen to what the others tell. You were right Twilight, I am not a being of chaos. Could you ever forgive me? " she asked, lowering her head in despair, awaiting a refusal.

But the lavender mare just smiled and hugged the unsuspecting pegasus, saying:

" Yes! "

" You do? " the orange maned pegasus still doubted this was a kind of joke.

" I do. " she looked right in Fiery's eyes, trying to show her her honesty. Obviously she trusted Twilight, since she smiled and stopped moving her hooves.

" Spike, you won't guess who's back. " Twilight spoke as she, together with Fiery, went back inside of the library. The dragon slid down the hoofrails and jumped right in front of Fiery.

" I knew it! " he commented upon landing.

" I knew you would return. Did you learn anything new from Discord? "

" Not really. " Fiery answered

" I just became more confident in myself. And do you know what? I think it's finally time to tell you all about me. You've told me everything about you the same night we met and I've beeen keeping you wondering for nearly a week. Friendship is about sharing, I think. " she smiled and looked at the surprised Spike and Twilight.

" No more hiding. " she promised.

" Well, I think that if I were Rarity right now I would say such an ocasion deserves a visit at the spa. " Twilight suggested.

" Absolutely. " Fiery nodded as asign of her agree.

After five minutes the two mares and the dragon were walking as if nothing had happened since last evening. The only difference, was that now Fiery freely answered all of the questions she was asked without any sight of fear. As a sign of this she had moved the few strands of her mane that fell down her muzzle before and made her look shy and unconfident and now her face was open, while her mane was falling back, mirroring her changes. Twilight reckoned she looked better this way. Her former style fit better somepony like Fluttershy, and this one made her look magnificent, as Spike had said.

" So.. how what hanging out with Discord? " Spike asked, curious to find something more about the dragonecqeus.

" On the day of my arrival he made an official dinner, but honestly his chaotic servants are horrible chefs. The most strange thing about his house is that it's a three storey building in the inside and an old, ugly one room house from the outside. " Fiery told Spike.

" On the next day, today, he decided to test my skills, which eventually turned out to be non- chaotic, so he literally dumped me. The only use of the whole thing was that I learned, that i can not only turn things to gold, but to other materials also. "

" Such as... ? " Twilight was interested of the variations of this skill.

" Purple jelly. " Fiery chuckled.

They reached the spa pretty quickly. After being instructed by the spa ponies, they left their coats in one of the wooden cabins and let their bodies sink in the warm pool. The spa ponies brought them cream and sliced cucumbers, but they decided not to use them now, but just enjoy the hot water.

" So... tell us about your former life. " Twilight suggested to her pegasus friend.

" You know the more interesting part of it already. I had a pretty normal life, a normal foalhood. Until I grew up. Than first my mother, and two years later my sister, started convincing me to reveal my true powers, which they knew about, of course. They realized I have great potential, so they literally reminded me each hour of the day. You see, both of them were skilled unicorns, my sister even went to Celestia's School for Gifted unicorns, and my mum had graduated from it, so they constantly kept speaking about this. In fact, after I think about it, perhaps i didn't left because I was scared, but because I was annoyed and wanted to live without somepony constantly whining in my ear! " the three friends laughed after Fiery finished talking.

" It was reaaally annoying. " she spoke again.

" Don't your mother and sister have names? " Spike asked.

" They do. " Fiery replied. And probably she was just about to answer the dragon's question when the spa ponies appeared running and stopped alongside the pool.

" Princess twilight, princess Twilight! " they shouted and looked exhausted. Celestia knows why, their manes were smoking. Why were they so worried?

" Sss... sss.  " one of the mares was trying to tell something, but fell on the ground unconcious, soon followed by the other mare.

Twilight, Fiery and Spike quickly jumped out of the pool and splashed some water on their muzzles. They were black from something the purple alicorn identified as ash. The two of them came back to conciousness and spoke:

" You must see the mayor! "

The lavender mare, followed by the yellow pegasus and the dragon ran out of the spa and headed for the mayor's office.

Mayor mare was waiting for them right in front of her office. As they neared she greeted them with a nod and than spoke to Twilight:

" Princess Twilight, we depend on you now! "

" Mayor, what's the problem? " the purple alicorn was confused.

" It is... it is Sunset Shimmer, Twilight. She on the outskirts setting things on fire, yelling your name out loud and blasting anypony else that tries to reason with her. " the mayor looked concerned and now Twilight understood her fully.

Sunset Shimmer craved revenge since a very long time. Being replaced by Twilight as Celestia's private student, she was so angry she stole her crown and tried to fight her in a world, were the dominant species were evolved apes ( Twilight still felt weird after remembering that) . With the help of her friends, even without the crown, Twilight had defeated her, reversing her back to normal from the demon form she took while in possesion of her element or any other magical relic, powerful enough to power this spell. As Twilight knew from Vortex, some spells required more energy than a pony body could hold and Sunset Shimmer's diabolical transformation was one of them.

Later, while on the Pre- Equestrian adventure, Sunset Shimmer had resurfaced. Sadly, it wasn't the Sunset Shimmer from the other dimension, who wouldn't know anything about Twilight and thus wouldn't hold any grudge against her, but the equestrian one, who used a portal, specially to have revenge on the purple alicorn. On the way she got herself equipped with a magical, sun- powered amulet, whom power she combined with the one of the crown to become a twice more ferocious demon Hase barely handled, using her own fears. A pony would hope she had learned her lesson, but obviously she had not.

However, this time her motives were unknown to Twilight. Everypony in Equetria should have already known about the return of the Elements. What was she seeking this time?

" Stay here. I am fighting her. " Twilight told Spike and Fiery and followed the frightened mayor.

" No way. " Spike jumped on her back and refused to get down.

" I'm not staying here either. This is personal. " Fiery spoke, much to Twilight's surprise. Before she could ask what did she mean, she flew away.

" Well, I guess she loves leaving us wondering. Kind of a mystery pony. " Spike noted, as Twilight also raised in the air and flew to the outskirts of Ponyville.

From here the situation was clearly visible. Although Sunset Shimmer's fire powers weren't so big as in her demon form, she could still cause a big fire... if it wasn't winter. Yet again the purple alicorn wondered: why did she choose to attack now, in the winter, when there was nothing that could catch fire? usually her fireballs would have been a huge danger, but now they went off as soon as they touched the snow. Her fire rings, that in the spring for an example, would have been able to trap a pony in an infernal circle, were now useless.

It was the worst time for her to strike.

Twilight landed next to a stone. Behind this stone Fiery was hiding from the fire stream of Sunset Shimmer. However, the alicorn guarded herself and Spike with a magical barrier. As soon as the stream stopped, the purple mare disabled it and neared Sunset, untill the distance between them was only 20 feet.

The red maned unicorn grinned and spoke at the lavender alicorn with a chalenging voice:

" Twilight Sparkle! At last, the time for your destruction had came! Kneel before me and your death will be quick! "

" I don't see how you're threatening me, especially in the winter. Your once threatening attacks are nothing against the snow, that covers the land. I'm giving you one last chance, Sunset. Give up now. " Twilight replied.

" You're deeply conceived. " the diabolical mare grinned

" I am always threatening. However, soon I won't be able to tell the same about you! "

With these words Sunset Shimmer got out a medalion Twilight couldn't recognize. Thinking it for one of the amulets, that would give her the power to turn to a demon, she protected herself with a shield once more. But the unicorn had another thing in mind. As she levitated it with her magic it dissapeared in the air, while Sunset Shimmer's magic suddenly changed it's colour to black and than to white. It continued to change colours and behind her shield Twilight was wondering what was going on. Shimmer concentrated and fired a black and white bolt of magic, while her magic regained it's original colours. The purple alicorn sighed and prepared herself to block the bolt with her shield, when suddenly the bolt passed through her field and hit her right in her horn. Black and white miniature sparks ran across her horn and her force field faded. The purple alicorn tried to recreate it, but suddenly realized Sunset Shimmer's spell prevented her from casting any spell.

" The great princess without her magic. " the unicorn mocked

" Let's see how you fight now! "

Meanwhile Spike and Fiery were observing the confrontation from behind the rock. At the sight of twilight getting neutralized by her opponent, Fiery's expression became sterner and she spoke to Spike:

" This is ending. Now. "

" Fiery, you can't do nothing about it! " Spike tried to grab one of her hindlegs and stop her from going, but it slipped from his fingers and Fiery flew in the air.

" This is your destiny. Being destroyed by me! We'll finally see who the better student is! " Sunset Shimmer expressed her triumph, as she slowly neared the fallen Twilight, her horn shining brighter and brighter. But as she was 10 feet away from her, something landed just in front of her.

She landed exactly where she wanted. Fiery raised her head and grinned at the diabolical mare.

" Fiery, you'll get yourself killed. Fly away! " she heard Twilight shouting behind her.

And than Twilight went aside and witnesses something interesting: Sunset Shimmer looked startled and made a few steps away from Fiery.

" Hello, sunshine. "  those words were obviously ment for the unicorn, because she neared the pegasus as if she was examining her, and suddenly spoke:

" F-f-fffiery? " obviously her surprise was great.

" Who else, sis? "

The responce of the pegasus finally made it all clear to Twilight. Fiery was Sunset Shimmer's sister. Now everything made sence.

The Shimmers were a rich and wealthy family. From generations all of them ( all of them were unicorns, or at least so she thought) visited and graduated Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Now it was crystal clear why Fiery's mother and sister insisted on her revealing her powers: because they were ashamed there was a pegasus in their family. Twilight could only wonder what scorn that caused. Fiery should have hated them. She slowly moved further aside, untill she was witnessing the two ponies from the left. Spike soon joined her and sat next to her.

" It is you, Fiery! " Sunset Shimmer looked overcome with joy, in full contrast to Fiery, who looked really threatening.

" Long story short. Why are you here? " she asked with a crude tone.

" We will go back to Canterlot. You will reveal your powers to the world! " the unicorn continued triumphing without noticing how Fiery got angrier and angrier. So angry, that she grabbed Sunset in her forehooves, while flying, and yelled in her face:

" WHY ARE YOU HERE? "

" Aren't you... aren't you happy to see me? " the red-maned mare looked dissapointed now.

" No. Why do you think I fled? " Fiery replied.

" To... think and find out, that we were right? " obviously the unicorn still hoped Fiery would follow her back in Canterlot, but Twilight was sure she wasn't going to do that.

" No! I never wanted to see you or mother ever again! I won't reveal my powers. DEAL WITH IT!!! " these words sounded so menacing, that Spike even got worried for Sunset Shimmer.

" But Fiery... why? Greatness lies within you, why conceal it? You are better than me... " Twilight was surprised to hear those words coming out of Sunset's mouth. It was the last thing she expected to hear from her. Were golden forks highly praised in canterlot or was there still something about Fiery they didn't know?

" ... the only thing you have to do is to get out in the world and show themm what you've got! " the unicorn was still desperately trying to reason with her sister.

" Well, I got out. Some ponies saw them. And guess what? They didn't like me! They said I was a monster, that needs to be destroyed! " the orange- maned pegasus had stopped yelling, but still sounded threatening.

" That's what happens when you do it on your own! The point is, that you had the bravery to reveal yourself. Now all you need is a little help from me and mum! Nopony would ever call a Shimmer a monster, if they knew who you really were! Things are going to be different! " Sunset Shimmer's voice had a calming effect on Fiery and for a moment Twilight got afraid she was going to convince the pegasus to join her.

" No. You should go away. " Fiery's answer came immeadietly, calming Twilight down.

" I admit, you're stubborn. Fine. " Sunset got over it

" Do whatever you want. In the end, you're the one, that will be sorry. Now let me finish that, what I've came for! "

The diabolical unicron headed for Spike and twilight, her horn shining in yellow. But before she could fire, something pushed her on the ground, causing her bolt to fly in other direction than intended. The mare jumped back on her hooves and was surprised to see that was her sister.

" What do you think you're doing? " now she got angry at the pegasus.

" Stopping you from harming my friends, that's what. " Fiery replied and stood between the dragon and the alicorn and the red-maned unicorn.

" Your friends? " Shimmer was surpried.

" And why do you call them your friends? "

" Because they love me and accept me the way i am, unlike you. They were there for me when I needed it, instead of not caring about anything else about me but my powers. I am not one of your amulets. sister. I am not in your control. I will not obey to what you say. " the pegasus's reply was inspirational and made a small tear appear in twilight's left eye.

" Well, if you think so, ignoring the fact you're terribly missguided, I'll continue ignoring you! " Sunset shimmer yelled and pushed Fiery aside. Her horn glew and Twilight had no time to react, she knew that.  Her horn glew, brighter and brighter and twilight closed her eyes, expecting the end.

The Answer to Everything

The seconds were passing and yet nothing was happening. No burning, incinerating or exploding, so Twilight opened her left eye and than her rigt one. Spike still had his eyes closed, so she shook them. Confused, the dragon opened them and looked around, still seeing the snow.

" Why aren't we dead yet? " he wondered.

" Or are we... and this is the place where we go after we die? I preferred the tropics! " Spike shouted at the sky, but Twilight got a pretty clear sign that they weren't dead.

Sunset Shimmer was still standing there where she used to stand and the alicorn was sure she wouldn't just kill herself. The magic oreol had dissapeared from her horn and she was staring terrified at something next to her. When Spike and Twilight saw it they almost got terrified too.

Fiery was just hanging 6 feet over the ground without using her wings. Her mane and tail were spread as if there was no gravity and she was shining. The horrified Shimmer tried to do something about it, but her magic was somehow sucked into the shining Fiery as soon as it appeared on her horn. The sun looked less brighter than before and Fiery kept getting more shining and more shining, and eventually became so bright Twilight couldn't look directly at her. The only things she still saw, not caught by Fiery's blinding oreol, were the forest and Sunset Shimmer, who was desperately trying to run away, but was held in one place by a mysterious force. Strange streams of blinding light came out of Fiery and than returned, and Twilight suddenly remembered something about that from her books. Fiery was acting as a miniature sun and the alicorn surely didn't want to see what will happen. She told Spike to get quickly back on her back and quickly flew back towards Ponyville. It wasn't something a friend would do, but she didn't prefer to get toasted. There she stopped the Ponyville residents from going further and trying to investigate the mysterious light.

" What is happening, princess Twilight? " a concerne resident asked

" I wished I knew. " the lavender mare replied and turned around to watch what was going to happen.

And than it happened. The light, that surrounded Fiery exploded, sending enormous white flames, hotter than everything in equestria, in all directions, melting the snow in their way. The shockwave was so strong it tossed some of the residents in the buildings of Ponyville violently and all of the pegasi fell down from the sky. Luckily, the destructive inferno  stopped before it reached Ponyville and the ponies could now see the aftermath of what Twilight determined as a miniature supernova, explosion of a small sun. Twilight didn't want to think what would have happened if such thing took place in the town square. There would have been literally nothing and nopony in Ponyville left unincinerated. Such explosion could destroy Ponyville. Luckily, the flames didn't cause any damage, because they didn't reach Ponyville.

But unlike the others she wasn't currently wondering at the circle without snow. She was looking for a mare. A specific mare.

Fiery was lying in the center of a small crater, while Sunset Shimmer was on it's edge. Twilight had no idea how did she manage to survive such an explosion, probably it was... exterior magic.

And that caused Twilight to wonder. The spell she used to leave her helpless wasn't hers. She used an amulet to cast it and the spell had a totally different colour of magic than hers. Somepony was helping Sunset Shimmer, and it was somepony powerful. What pony had placed the defensive spells, that kept her alive during the supernova, had to be a very, very skillful magician and the alicorn wished to know who that was.

The only damage Shimmer had suffered, was that the nova had incinerated her mane, tail and coat, so she was currently just a unicorn with sin, completely covered with black ash. The dizzy mare got up before Twilight landed, looked at herself and fled to the Everfree forest, crying and yelling " Mommy! " .

The most strange thing was, that Fiery got up on her hooves before Twilight landed. She was still shaking a bit, but she looked OK. She evn got her mane, tail, coat and feathers.

" Are you OK? " Spike jumped from the purple alicorn's back as soon as she landed and ran to Fiery. The pegasus smiled and nodded.

" Well, I suggest we get out of here before they come here and start asking questions! " Twilight suggested and revealed the ponies, that ran to see who was she speaking with. Fiery's eyes widened in surprise and she frantically nodded. She got up in the air and flew it all the spped she had, flying towards the Golden Oak Library. Spike got back on her back and Twilight followed Fiery's example.

The pegasus was sitting in the coach and breathing heavily, while Twilight was locking the door and pulling the curtains in front of the windows. She certainly didn't want everypony to bump in the library and start asking her who was that pony she was talking to and is she somehow related to the blast.  The Ponyville residents had became quite worried about such thing after the last spring a " villain " , called the Mandarin, caused several unstable Extremis troops to detonate in almost all Equestrian cities, causing chaos. Of course, he was just an actor, but the blast were still real and Twilight was sure soon ponies would start speculating about her, and after asking A.I.M. if they had anything in common and Wanda denied such thing they would eventually head for the library and that was something Twilight wished to avoid.

" I'm sorry I didn't mention it earlier. " Twilight heard Fiery apologise , so she sat in the other armchair together with Spike and got ready for an interrogation.

" Did you cause that? " Spike was amazed.

" Yes. I did. " Fiery admitted.

" How? " the purple alicorn still didn't get how her body could hold such energy. It was pretty mysterious before, with the golden fork , but now it was up to impossible. Twilight wasn't sure anypony could perform such a blast... well, perhaps except Primal Shine and celestia, they were the sun rulers, after all.

But how did Fiery, a normal pegasus, create such thing? It was really a supernova, only it could unleash such power, such heat, such flames.

" At least now we know what your cutie mark stands for That was like.... a million times more spectacular than singing or cooking! " Spike told her, still very excited.

Fiery smiled to him and than spoke:

" Well, this is everything about me. No more to be told. Those were my greatest secrets: I turn things to whatever I want, I am Sunset Shimmer's sister and if I am angry enough I could wipe out an entire town. "

She said the last words with sarcasm, but it was sad sarcasm. Finally Twilight understood what was she worried about. If she got out of rails she could have destroyed everything in a huge radius. It required perfect self-control, and that was the reason Fiery didn't want to reveal herself, as Sunset Shimmer asked her to. It was too powerful.

" Can you control it? " the purple alicorn asked.

" That's the worst thing; I can't. If I am not so angry and I am lucky, it might just end up to be a small fireball. But if something like today happens, I... I don't know what I'll do! " the pegasus spoke with despair.

" The sound of that explosio echoed throughout the whole of Equestria. This is... the biggest explosion I've caused so far. Ponies will start asking questions and i just can't hide forever. The Princesses will be concerned... " suddenly Fiery was interrupted by Spike's belch. A scroll appeared from the green flames and fell on the ground. Twilight quietly walked towards it, her legs starting to shivver. She opened it and read it out loud:

Dear Twilight,

while I and Luna were having a conversation on the terasse we were syddenly surprised to see a big ball of fire on the field between Ponyville and the Everfree forest. Half a minute later the palace shook under the shockwave of this explosion and brought extreme heat with it. We would be grateful if you give us more information about this accident.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

" Information travels even faster than I think. " Fiery was overcome with grief.

" I must go. I will fly away through the window. I will be eternally grateful if you succeed to think of anther cause of the explosion than me. " Fiery spread her wings and got ready to fly, but Twilight put her left forehoof on her shoulder and told her:

" You're not going anywhere. You're staying here and we'll find a ay to deal with it... somehow. "

Fiery looked at her gratefully and folded her wings. She wasn't going to leave.

" But what are we supposed to do? " she asked the alicorn

" You can't just ignore the letter! "

" I can. " Twilight answered and threw the letter from the princess in the furnace. Both Spike and Fiery looked astonished from what she just did. Her lips formed a playful grin, as she spoke:

" Let's just say Spike was warming up from a cold day of playing outside, and was completely unprepared for the letter, sitting in front of the furnace, and before I could react, it had already burned. "

Fiery rushed at the lavender mare and hugged her.

" Thank you, thank you so much! I would be never able to repay you! "

" And that brings us to the question " What do we do? " again. " Spike noted.

" Spike, I think you know the answer to that. " the alicorn grinned, while Spike's expression became surprised at first, but than annoyed.

" The answer to everything is research? " he guessed with a monotonous voice.

" Exactly! To the lab! " the lavender mare exclaimed.

Nopony ever went downstairs. Nopony but Twilight. The ponies knew, that all the interesting books were on the ground floor, and there was only the bedroom upstairs, so the visitors kept to the ground floor. That left the underground room pretty useless... until Twilight turned it into her own laboratory, a place, where she could explain everything that bothered her ( or at least she thought so) . Fiery glared upon the big machine, that Twilight once used to find out what caused Pinkie Pie's Pinkie sence, and got really freaked out.

" Don't worry, this place is always creepy. " Spike pat her on the shoulder and went to Twilight, who was frantically mixing different liquids in the glasses. After she got satisfied with the resut, she suddenly poored it in the nearby plant pot.

" I am making an experiment about what would happen to a plant if it's only fed water, containing the exact proportion of every needed mineral. " she looked excited, and Fiery sighed in relief that water wasn't for her.

" Stand there, i'm going to scan you with my horn. " the purple alicorn instructed Fiery to stand still as she scanned her with her magic. After she had finished, she waved her head in confusion and spoke:

" I didn't detect any magic. I am riddled. "

" Perhaps the brain waves would reveal the answer! " she put the big cup, which was connected to the big scary machine on the wall, on Fiery's head and sealed the bands under her chin. Seeing Fiery was nearly freaking out, twilight got afraid she would explode again and devastate the equipment, so she calmed her down:

" Take it easy, nothing got hurt in that lab. Well, except for that plant. "

Twilight managed to calm her down - up to some point. Maybe she shouldn't have mentioned the plant.

The machine satarted working and a rumbling sound from the inside was heard. Fiery shivvered, but it was almost over. Twilight ripped the piece of paper off the other end of the machine and carefuly examined it. She knit her brows and reported:

" No significant difference to a normal pony mind, and the insignificant difference is caused by the fact, that everypony's mind is different. There is just no explanation! "

And in that exact moment somepony knocked on the door. The two mares and the dragon froze. It knocked again, and again, and finally there was heard:

" Open in the name of Equestria! "

Visitors

" Those are Royal Guards! " Spike whispered,as they silently walked up the stairs.

" I know, Spike! " Twilight whispered in responce.

" What are we going to do? "  Fiery wondered, again whispering.

" We're certainly not going to open. " the alicorn replied.

" So what? They are going to break the door! " Spike exclaimed.

Twilight hadn't thought of that yet. The Royal Guards were trained and could easily break the door. They needed another plan, a better one. After one minute of concidering the purple mare came up with it:

" You and Fiery go hide in the bedroom. I meet with the Princess outside and make up a story. " she told the dragon.

" You were never good making up stories! " Spike protested.

" Just go! " Twilight ordered him and the baby dragon decided to listen to her. Together with Fiery he went upstairs, while Twilight headed for the entrance. The Guards were still knocking and soon they would have started trying to break through. Twilight certainly wasn't going to let them break her door, who had fatefuly served her as a begining of her adventures for years. So she took a deep breathe and opened the door.

She expected to see Celestia or Luna with their respective guards. For a minute she even thought of Vortex or Primal Shine. Spike was right. None of those 4 royalties would have believed to a made- up story, and they had their ways to find out if she is lying or not.

So she was somehow relieved, when she saw, that on her door there were handsome male changelings with light green armour, and behind them there was the magnificent Queen Chrysalis. Few mares could match her beauty after her curse and the one of her folk were broken by the Princesses, who promised to help them find their spot in the society.

Queen Chrysalis was revealed to be more liberal than Celestia and Luna in some ways, so Twilight was even glad it was her she met in front of her door.

" Queen Chrysalis! So nice to see you! How are you doing? " Twilight tried to be nice, but Chrysalis's stern expression suggested she awaited answers.

" Do you... do you want to know about the blast? " Twilight asked shyly. The changeling queen nodded.

" Well, ... it was a hydra.... and I was training! Yes, that's it! I was just quietly training near the Everfree Forest when that giant hydra just jumped out of the forest. I had no choice but to fight her. However, accidentally my magic set off the fiery liquid hydras use to breathe out fire upon ponies and the hydra exploded! " her explanation sounded quite convincing, at least to Twilight, but Chrysalis just smiled. So did the guards. Their smiles became wider and wider, until finally they laughed loudly, revaling, that they didn't believe a word in the alicorn's story.

After they laughter ended, with a smile on her face Chrysalis replied:

" First, hydras don't breathe out fire, Twilight. Dragons do. I appreciate your concern about your friend, but I really need to see Fiery and speak with her... and with you also. "

" You... you.. you know her name? " Twilight hadn't got a single reason why would the Baroness of the West know her friend's name.

" It will all become very clear to you very soon, I promise. I won't do Fiery any harm. May I come in? " the queen asked, and Twilight nodded in agreement. Chrysalis entered, but before she closed the door, she ordered her guards:

" Don't let anypony inside. "

That also riddled Twilight. Obviously the Queen didn't wish for any visitors too. But why? Obviously she would find out only if she let Chrysalis speak with her pegasus friend.

As she went up the stairs, Twilight looked at Chrysalis. The queen seemed happy, and not worried as she should have been, if Fiery had caused a problem. The lavender mare, more confused than ever, walked to her bedroom and opened the door.

Spike was sitting on the bed, while Fiery was nowhere to be seen. For a moment the alicorn got afraid she had flown away, but the orange- maned pegasus came out from bellow the bed.

" Did it work? " she asked. Twilight shook her head in responce and answered her friend:

" No, it didn't. Queen Chrysalis is downstairs. I don't know how or why, but she knows your name and wants to speak with you. "

" She knows my name and wants to speak with me? " Fiery didn't seem to believe her friend, so Twilight asked her to follow her downstairs. Curious, Spike also followed the two mares.

Twilight's words were true and that made Spike wonder what was the Queen doing here. Did she come to arrest Fiery or something?

Spike immeadietly rejected that thought. Twilight would never ask Fiery to follow her if she wasn't sure Chrysalis wouldn't do anything to Fiery, and besides Chrysalis only had the right to arrest ponies in her zone, he remembered that part of her baroness contract pretty clear. So it was better, that Chrysalis had came before Luna or Celestia, but the reasons why she did so were still unclear to the dragon.

As the two mares and the dragon came downstairs, Chrysalis smiled honestly. It wasn't an evil grin, just a simple, warm smile.

" Sit, please. " she told them and Twilight and Fiery sat in the sofa, while Chrysalis was sitting in the hoofchair.

For the first several moments there was an awkward silence. Chrysalis kept on smiling, Fiery was very confused, since the Queen was looking at nopony else but her, and Twilight had no more patience left to see what would happen. Spike was just sitting on the carpet and wondering who would dare to speak first. It was the Queen:

" Fiery, what do you know about your past? "

" What should I know? " the pegasus replied, using a question herself, her lips forming a playful grin, and her brows lowered a bit, which made her expression clever. Chrysalis' s muzzle took the same expression and suddenly Twilight noticed something peculiar: their expressions were much alike. And suddenly an idea came to her mind. This should have been impossible! It should have, it was impossible. Twilight couldn't imagine what would happen if what she was thinking was true, so she decided to ask:

" Queen... " Twilight began.

" Let's speak the way a royalty speaks to a royalty, Twilight. " the changeling queen told her.

" OK, Chrysalis, let me remind you something, something from the past. may I? " the changeling replied her with a nod.

" You once said, that Hase is your only foal, am I right? " the alicorn asked, hoping that the queen's reply would make her pesky thoughts go away.

" You've had a good memory there, Twilight, but I said he's my only son, if you remember. " Chrysalis evaded her catch swiftly, so Twilight was left wondering if what she was thinking was right or wrong.

" Either way, it's wrong. "

Now that was something Twilight didn't expect to hear. Not only it confirmed her fears... but it made them worse. She started frantically looking first at Fiery, than at Chrysalis, and than again, noticing more and more common traits in their expression, until finally she faded out.

Luckly, her loyal Spike was there to save her. The dragon bravely ran to the kitchen, where he filled a glass with water and than returned, lettting the liquid, that carries life, flow over her face.

The purple alicorn opened her eyes and the final conclusion came to her mind. She looked at Chrysalis with a questioning glare, not sure if it's true or not. Perhaps her other foals were changelings?

Chrysalis's expression changed to the clever one again and she nodded.

" Twilight... are you OK? What is wrong? " the orange-maned pegasus still didn't get what was happening with her friend.

" Fiery.... I think Sunset Shimmer isn't your real sister. " Twilight replied.

" Why do you think so? " the mare with the yellow coat was glad, that the unicorn was probably not her real sister, but she still wondered what did the alicorn mean by that.

" Because... Chrysalis is your true mother. " Twilight revealed the truth to her pegasus friend.

Fiery's expression revealed mostly confusion and disbelief, but there was something else - deep shock.

She looked at the queen of the changelings and asked:

" Is... is any of this true? "

" It is. " Chrysalis had her warm smile again

" Do you want me to tell you who you really are? "

" I wish nothing more than that. Please, tell me. " the pegasus still thought this was a kind of dream.

And so Chrysalis began telling her story:

" As you know, Twilight, Hase is the son of me and Vortex. However, he isn't the only foal, nor is he the only son.

I was deeply concerned and  heartbroken when Hase was taken away from us forever, and Vortex was turned to stone. Luckily, this time his imprisonment lasted no more than a month. The power of love from the inside broke his prison. He returned to the hives without that anypony knew about it. Nopony but me and Sombra.

Long days after that we kept thinking why did our plan fail, and how would we repay the Princesses. The thought of vengeance never left our minds, until last summer.

However, those plans were left behind, because I was madly in love in your father, Fiery. Our love was stronger than our vengeance. I was so happy to know he was alive, that I literally met him on the door of the hives, ignoring all the threats of spies or simillar. We loved eachother more than ever, but we knew that this time our love shouldn't have resulted in anything, since the alignment of the stars was past and our foal wouldn't be able to live a normal life.

And than Sombra found out something: the stars would remain in that alignment for two years.  9 months after that you, together with your twin sister, came to the world, blessed by the power of the stars to be a pegasus, who would live freely in the real world and not spend her foalhood in the dark caves of the hives. Some said I was reckless and didn't think of the consequences. Some said I'd better stopped after our plan with Hase failed. Some said, that it is irresponsible to have foals you can't take care of.

But love has it's own ways, and I also knew, that though all of the problems you'll have and all the pain you will suffer, eventually, we will be together again.

However, before that we had another plan. it wasn't called " Dark Mist " anymore, but " The Dark Siblings" . Do not dare to think you only exist because of our plan. No! The plan exists because of you. It was ment to protect you all, to protect you from the outside world.

It was a plan how you, together with your sister and your two brothers, would end the rule of Celestia and Luna once and for all. You were all given specific gifts to help you in your conquest. And all of you can use normal magic as well.

Hase, the eldest sibling, got his father's control over the Void and the full power of darkness, together with the gift of telepathy. Since he was the eldest sibling, he was the most gifted of you all. He was made brave, strong, loyal, so that he could lead the army and never wonder what would happen if he didn't do so. He is a pony, who never abandons his friends,as neither of you wouldn't do, and most importrantly, a pony, whose decision is not easily changed. With his powers he would have guarded the rest of you from the forces of the regal sisters and leaded you and the army to success and victory over Celestia and Luna.  His telepathy and his mind control would have helped him gather an army so great, that the royals would have had no choice, but to retreat.

You and your twin sister are the second of age. One year younger than Hase, but one year older than your other brother. Since we knew the ponies would stand up against those, who wanted to destroy their beloved rulers, we also needed a story, that we could tell the ponies after we took the throne. Hase would have easily erased their memories and we would have been able to convince them in our story: " Celestia and Luna suffered a horrible fate by falling down from a cliff, while going out for a walk, and now their places would be taken by their younger cousins from the pegasi race - Fiery Incendia,(  " That's your full name, by the way, so don't get surprised if I call you Cendi sometimes. " Chrysalis smiled to her daughter. )

" , and Stella Galaxia. In your true form, you both will find out you share some resemblance to them. However, you are totally different ponies. You would have ruled Equestria instead of them.

Fiery, your powers origin from the sun. But not quite the same way as it is with Celestia. Celestia has the ability to move the sun, is proficient in magic, and has immense powers connected with light. But she can't wield the true potential of the sun, the power that feeds it and makes it be. Such power is barely wielded by her father, and believe me, when you realize your true power you will be able to perform the Solar Extermination spell on your own... and much, much more. After i think of it, the regal sisters are more like the Princesses of the Day and the Night, and not of the Sun and the Moon, or even the stars. Their powers are connected to the different aspects of day and night. Celestia... she is the beatiful, sunny day everypony loves. Primal Shine... his power is more immense, so I would say his power over the day is more like the hot summer day, when everypony tries to find a shadow ( or water, though in such days it is rare). As you see, being the ruler of the day doesn't give you such power over the sun itself as you have. I'm not sure when, but one day you will see what I'm talking about right now. "

" Won't... won't Celestia get afraid for her throne? Won't she try to inprison me? " Fiery got a bit worried.

" As soon as she learns who you are, I very much doubt she would do so. She certainly wouldn't want to have your brother with the whole Moon army to support him, or your father, as enemies. " the pegasus' s mother smiled warmly.

" And what do my powers to turn, for an example, a fork to gold or a hoofchair to jelly, have to do with it? " the orange- maned mare was confused. What was the relation between that and her sun powers?

" Each one of you was also given a specific power, not related to his other power in any way, which were ment to help you in the conquer. Hase's mental power and the ability to easily manipulate the simple ponies - and by simple I mean those, who aren't proficient enough in magic to guard their mind - would first gather your army and later erase the ponies' memories of that war, so that they could accept our version of the story. Your power, Fiery, although it's quite interesting you're also able to make jelly, was ment to turn other materials to iron... "

" Iron? Seriously? My powers were ment to create iron? My brother gets to mind wash the army and I create iron? " Fiery interrupted her mother, speaking sarcasticaly and shaking her head in disbelief.

" Iron is a lot more precious metal than most ponies think it is. From what do you forge swords? What material do you use for armours? An army without weapons is nothing but failure, my dear. You see, all of you were ment to be together. Alone you would have failed... as it happened with your brother. Two times he tried to smite them... and he failed. "

Speaking of Hase brought another question to the pegasus mare's mind:

" Wait... so you're telling me I am one year younger than Hase? "

" Yes. " Chrysalis confirmed.

" Than... how do I feel as if I was born, like , 20 years ago? " Fiery's question made perfect sence. How did she only remember the last part of her life?

" Unlike we did with Hase, with the rest of you we knew we had to stay away from you . Some of our servants silently took you to all different and far away from eachother cities: Canterlot, Baltimare, Las Pegasus. Because if you accidentally met... you might have spoiled your secret. However, though we tried, we couldn't fully conceal your powers. In a result, many ponies left you back on the street where they found you. So we made another spell: none of you grew, unless he or she stayed in the same home for more than a month. This way you remained babies for a very long time and my poor servants constantly had to bring you from house to house. Sometimes we even changed the cities, still not leaving anypony of you in the same town. And luckily, about 20 years ago all of you finally found your homes. I don't know if Shinestar Shimmer, your stepmother, kept you from love or greed for fame, but I know one thing: you never have to see her or your stepsister ever again if you don't want to.

Foalhood memories is something a few remember, and with some magic, you never remembered the almost 1000 years, in which you were constantly carried from home to home."

" It is a sad story, I know. " Chrysalis lowered her head and Twilight saw some teardrops falling down.

" It was a cruel methode... but it was the only one. Could you forgive me, Fiery? " she looked at her daughter and the purple alicorn saw, that she was really crying.

For a moment Twilight thought Fiery wouldn't forgive her mother.  But eventually the pegasus jumped in her mother's grip and said her:

" I have nothing to forgive you for. "

It was a beatiful moment of silence. The yellow coat of the mare with the orange mane next to the completely white coat of the changeling queen. Only the fire was heard and Twilight thought, that this was one of the wonders, that only happened near Heart's Warming Eve.

Threats are to be eliminated!

It was exciting to look how Fiery and Chrysalis spent their first day as mother and daughter. The pegasus was asking questions so fast, that the queen had to give up for a minute and accept Twilight's offer for a cup of tea. Eventually, the whole afternoon turned to a very pleasant tea party. The lavender alicorn decided to invite the poor guards, that still stood outside, guarding,inside, and they gladly accepted. The noon almost past with their stories:

" And so, enough with these war stories. Don't you have a fun story? For an example, like the thing, that happened with me and Discord? " Fiery asked one of the guards.

" But of course, Princess Fiery. " the guard, a beatiful stallion with dragonfly wings ( actually, the leader of the Changeling Royal Guard, Dragonflight) , smiled and started telling his funny story.

" Our lives before we were changed was mostly filled with tragic stories of broken hearts, or battle stories, as the ones you heard, but sometimes there were also funny stories. And some of them even had a happy ending! Don't think, that after we are changelings, we don't appreciate love. It's the polar opposite, in fact, and we hated ourselves for what we did to feed.

However, as I mentioned, some funny stories with a happy ending are worth a mention. For an example the case with the, pardon my speech, The Cannonball Mare! "

" Isn't that a bit... rude? " Twilight asked. The guard just smiled and replied to her:

" Believe me, if you saw that mare, you would see, that this name fits her perfectly.

The Cannonball mare was, well, wasn't a very skinny pony. It was hard to move her love interest from candy to me - well, it took me about 2 months of pretending - to - be - the - candy - deliverer. However, eventually I failed again and Mr. Candy replaced me. However, I contacted a colleague mare, who had a simillar case with " The Stallionball " . We made sure they knew of eachother's existence and - voala! We only had to sit there, watching them share mountains of sweets! Love is such a strange thing! " the changeling exclaimed.

Since all of the guards were inside, spending their afternoon in the cosy library, no changeling noticed the chariot, that moved across the sky and landed near the Everfree forest, nor did Twilight, Fiery or Spike. There was no mistake, that was Celestia's chariot. The Princess of the Day graciously walked out of the chariot and nodded to the guards, who pulled the chariot while it was in the sky. They nodded back and freed themselves from the parts, connecting them to the vehicle, and stood on the princess's both sides.

The alicorn slowly examined the field between the forest and the town. There was a big area, where the snow was missing, with a black hole in it's center. Celestia supposed the change of colour was because of extreme temperatures. It was exactly what she was expecting. Somepony was bothering with the sun. HER sun. She frowned and spoke:

" Exactly as expected. The troublemaker is here. Follow the orders! "

At her command the guards surrounded her, so that she could remain hidden, and slowly moved to the explosion site.

" I haven't got a single idea what thing could have caused that. " the stallion's face gave expression of his confusion. The mayor knit her brows and hit the ground with her left forehoof. If they didn't know, who knew anything at all?

Being the mayor was never easy, she admitted it. But the last two years she wasn't a mayor, she was more like something like a clean-up crew for the heroes. Most of the time everything was OK... but when the heroes failed it was up to her to calm down the ponies of Ponyville. She still was the mayor, after all. And usually, she apreciated what the Avengers, the lords and the Mane 6 did for the town. But when things got reaally wrong, like it happened with the Mandarin explosion, it was all on her.

Today it was the same. A huge explosion, much bigger than the one, that was " caused " by the Mandarin, shook almost the whole town. Luckily, there was no damage at all, but still... nopony could give the mayor an explanation she could herself give to the ponies. The only things she knew, was that Twilight was knocked out by Sunset Shimmer, her friend tried to save her... and boom. If this was caused by Sunset Shimmer, ponies would still wonder how did she get such power. But... it wasn't her. Ponies had reported of a unicorn, burned to the skin, running to the forest, yelling with Sunset Shimmer's voice. So the only logical explanation left to Mayor Mare, was that Twilight used an extremely powerful spell to protect herself from being killed and later, worried for her wounded friend, quickly flew away.

But this wasn't the truth either. After consulting several magic experts ( the best was Princess Twilight herself, of course, however she refused to cooperate. Ponies told her, that her door was locked and the view from her windows was blocked by drapes) , the earth pony was surprised to find out, that no other but Princess Celestia herself should have been able to perform a spell, connected so closely to the sun. And even worse, after contacting several of her friends in Canterlot, she found out, that there is no reported case of Celestia using the inner power of the sun in any way.

.... for the whole period Equestria's history had been recorded!

Back than, the mayor's mind was filled with her deepest fears and doubts. What if Celestia turned to something different? What if something like the case with Luna turning to Nightmare Moon happened? What awaited them than? Incineration?

Luckily, after a few quick letters, sent by some of her unicorn friends, she found out, that the both of the princesses were in their palace, and there wasn't any reason for worrying until the shockwave reached Canterlot.

Than the solution came to her mind, or at least she thought so minutes ago. Probably she should have called out for some scientific experts. The mayor remembered how relieved she was only 5 minutes ago, when she thought science would explain everything.

A.I.M. were at the site first, and Stark Industries sent ponies only half a minute after that. Sadly, as she understood right now, neither of the two group of specialists had an idea what caused the explosion ( or supernova, as they called it). There were no signs of Unstable Extremis explosion, and no parts of a machine, leading both of the groups to the conclusion, that the cause of the blast was magical.

The research by magic led to scientific explanation. And the scientific research showed, that the reason was magic. What was the true reason?

" Ma' am? " somepony called for her. The mare raised her head and saw something, that made her heart stop from the huge relief for a second. Princess Celestia herself, along with 6 royal guards, were closely examining the crater. The mayor put on a big smile and neared the alicorn.

" Princess Celestia? " the mayor called for the ruler of the day.

The alicorn stopped examining the hole and looked at the earth pony with an nnoyed expresion on her muzzle.

" I prefer not getting interrupted while I'm examining. " the princess looked more cross than usual, but Mayor Mare had no choice but to ask:

" D... do you know what might of caused that explosion, your majesty? "

Now the princess looked more annoyed. She sighed, knit her brows and angrily told the mayor:

" It is magic, don't you see? I thought it's obvious! Pffrt! "

The unsure pony made a step back. Why would Princess Celestia, who was always in a sunny mood, behave like that? Probably it was because of the stress. Sometimes stress took the best of ponies. Mayor Mare guessed the princess was extremely worried about something. She would have also been if she was Celestia, probably, so she just smiled warmly and made a few steps back, saying:

" OK, I would just let you finish with your work, your majesty. "

" Fine! " Celestia's reply sounded almost like a yell.

After a minute of carefuly studying the place with magic, Celestia turned her gaze to the town. The small trail of solar magic left behind led to the center. She said something only her guards had heard and all of them headed to the town.

" So, as you see, not everything was being a love vampire! " Dragonflight finished his last funny story. Nowadays changelings were adapting even easier than expected. Ponies gladly acceppted them into their society and some were even sorry they didn't look at the things from their point of view.

" I never knew changelings were so... gentle and kind. " Fiery replied.

" We are. " the guard assured her

" All of you had... a wrong perspective because of the curse upon us. Luckily, now it's away and we're able to be ourselves again..."

A sudden thud interrupted Dragonflight. The ponies, the changelings and the dragon gasped in horror, as the thud was heard again.

" Is anypony else coming along? " Twilight looked at Chrysalis, but the beatiful queen shook her head. Nopony else was expected. That ment it was...

" Princess Celestia. " the purple alicorn spoke her suggestion out loud. Both Spike and the changeling queen nodded sadly.

" Well... I think she would understand all if we gave her a proper explanation... " Twilight walked to the door, but found herself being stopped by Fiery, who stood in front of her with a scared expression on her muzzle. The lavender mare could see the panic in her eyes, the same panic that ruled her when she first arrived and they met. Her eyes were begging her not to go, but Twilight knew she was doing what was right. If she tried to hide something like this from Princess Celestia, her mentor could even gather the army. She surely didn't want this to happen, so she spoke with her pegasus friend:

" Fiery... you have nothing to worry about. Celestia... well, she'll understand. She is more understanding than Luna. She's probably just curious to know what happened and will be eager to meet you once I tell her the truth. "

" What if she doesn't? " the pegasus was panting. She seemed very worried, as if something horrible awaited her behind the door.

Twilight just couldn't think of Celestia the same way Fiery thought. For her Celestia was a mentor, a mare she could always turn to for advice. She had helped her make the right decision not once or twice, and she was one of the reasons for her to be an alicorn right now.

For the orange- maned pegasus, who never got to knew the princess of the day personally, Celestia posed a threat. The frightened mare imagined how furious she would be when she found out the truth and how she would cast one of her most horrible spells upon her for showing greater control over the sun than herself.

Twilight smiled warmly and hugged Fiery, whispering, that everything was going to be OK. The unsure pegasus made a few steps aside and the path to the door was now free. Putting on her best smile, the purple alicorn held the handle of the door with her magic and opened it.

As she had expected, Celestia was standing in front of her with her guards on her two sides. The annoyed princess moved her gaze to the door and noticed the purple alicorn. She gasped and made a step back, her expression revealing surprise and confusion.

" Princess Celestia! Nice to see you! " Twilight's greetings sounded lame, but it was the best she could currently think of.

" Twilight Sparkle? " though Celestia had put on an angry muzzle, her surprise was still obvious to the lavender mare. She revealed it with her voice.

" Is.. something wrong, Princess? " the purple alicorn seemed confused from her behaviour.

" Nothing at all. " Celestia replied

" However, there is a trail of solar magic, leading from the accident site to your house. As you should know, I am highly concerned from the fact, that somepony uses solar magic. It is dangerous for everypony. So I've came here to ask you do you know anything that could help us eliminate the threat as soon as possible? "

Fiery, who was hiding up to this moment,, literally froze. Chills went down her spine and her heart beat with a faster pace. Celestia concidered her a threat! She had no way out. Except probably...

The pegasus realized the thing she was going to do would permanently mark her as an enemy of the princess, but she couldn't help herself listening to her instincts, who told her to get away from there as quick as possible, before Celestia makes her words come true. She had never tried it before, because she never had the guts. Well, now she wasn't afraid and she needed it.

The mare with the yellow coat concentrated and imagined how a big fireball broke the window and granted her an escape route. For the first horrible seconds nothing happened. Fiery shook from fear. And just when the tension was so big she thought she would cause an explosion again, it was suddenly released. A ball of molten plasma materialized from her front right hoof and flew towards the window with great speed. Upon contact it exploded, melting the glass right away and freeing her way out. She spread her wings and flew to her freedom. She preferred being a fugitive, not a prisoner.

While Fiery was still trying to summon her powers, something she had never done before, Twilight was trying to reason with the Princess, who today was extremely stubborn:

" Didn't you hear me, Twilight? Threats are to be eliminated! Solar magic is something dangerous for everypony! Do you want to wake up in a world set on fire? If this happens it won't matter if your friend says " I'm sorry! " ! We have to deal with this while there's still time! "

" She can learn to control it! " the purple alicorn didn't agree with her ex- mentor

" Why can't you see what I mean? Why do you see everything as a threat? "

" Because it is a threat! " the princess of the day yelled at her.

Just than they were interrupted by the sound of a blast and Fiery flying out of the window. Both were so shocked they just stood there and observed. Even more, something was holding for Fiery's tail. Twilight recognized Spike. The pegasus stopped for a second, taking Spike on her back, and than continued her flight towards the Everfree forest.

Twilight knew there was only one thing she could do. She spread her wings and flew after them.

" Follow them! Don't let them escape! " Celestia commanded her guards, who flew after them, while Celestia chose to gallop instead.

The moment Fiery flew away she realized some extra weight was holding her back. She glared to her back and saw Spike barely holding on her tail. Worried he would fall, she stoped, shook her tail and Spike fell down, but while he still hadn't reached even the height of the roofs, the pegasus flew below him, allowing him to land on her back. She than flew to the Everfree forest.

" I just couldn't let you fly away like that! " Spike said her after she saw her dissaproving muzzle expresion.

" Thanks. " she smiled and looked forward again.

" I never thought I would see Princess Celestia like this! She is totally not the pony she usually is! " the baby dragon commented.

" She isn't? " the orange- maned mare was surprised.

" No! Usually she is kind, understanding, something like Twilight after 3000 years, if I can make a comparison. " Spike still didn't get why was Celestia so angry and unforgiving today.

" I guess I bring out the ponies' bad side. " Fiery noted.

Spike decided to spare his friend the information, that Twilight and the Royal Guards were following them. Probably those were his last minutes with her. He didn't want to ruin them with a reckless rush.

After not very long Fiery landed on the edge of the Everefree forest and Spike got off her back.

" This is the time when we say good bye. " Fiery told the dragon.

" I'm sorry, Spike, but you can't come along. You've got a normal life, keep it at any cost. Don't let your life turn to a series of disasters, as it happened with mine. Actually, this visit also had it's bad sides. Now I know I'm immortal and Celestia will chase me to the end of the world. "

" You don't think Twilight and I would let her do so, do you? " Spike smiled unsurely.

" And don't think your father and brother would just leave it that way. "

" What can they do? " the mare frowned

" Nopony on this world is more powerful than her. "

" No. But they are as poweful as her. And I doubt they would just sit and watch. " the dragon's smile turned to a grin.

" So... this is it. Good bye. " Fiery turned to the forest, when she heard a voice behind her.

" Nooo! " Twilight landed nearby. The pegasus turned around and probably she would have smiled, if she hadn't seen who stood behind her friend: all the royal guards and Celestia. Only 20 feet separated them with Twilight from her and Spike.

" Behind you! " Spike shouted.

The purple alicorn turned around and faced her ex- mentor. She flew in the air, so that she could look directly into Celestia's eyes and literally yelled:

" Princess, beg my pardon, but you cannot arrest ponies just like that, especially my friends! Such act is inexcusable! I refuse to stay away and I will oppose you with all my strength! "

Celestia smirked maliciously and the only thing she said was:

" Fine. "

Than the thing, that nopony thought would ever happen, happenned. The princess's horn glew and with a strong blast of her yellow magic Twilight was blown 10 feet away. She lay away from everypony, on their right, unconcious. Spike couldn't hear if she was breathing or not, and the sheer thought of it made him almost faint, but he reminded himself he had to help her. He rushed to her, so worried that his spinal spikes' tops swayed to the left. Luckily, she was still breathing.

Than the dragon realized what clever tactic Celestia had used. She had eliminated both Spike and Twilight with a single strike and now she was facing Fiery. Spike knew there was no use of going back, so that the princess could knock him out too, so he stayed by the unconcious Twilight, observing the confrontation between the two mares and hoping everything would turn out well for his friend.

" Don't let them interrupt me. " Celstia commanded her guards. They silencely nodded and stood on their positions, now looking at Twilight and Spike instead at Fiery. The princess of the day neared the orange-maned pegasus, speaking loud and mockingly:

" You are charged with use of forbidden magic. Sentenced to a life-long stay in the dungeons. Is there any point of retilliating? "

Spike was shocked, that instead of running in the forest, which began literally one foot behind her, Fiety made a step forward and declared:

" I've been running and hiding my whole life. But it's no more. I don't care who you are and what you want, but I know one thing: ponies, who hurt my friends, I never leave without having my revenge. "

" You? " Celestia mocked again.

" A pegasus, having small powers related with the sun. The control is subconcious. How would you have your revenge upon me? "

Before the alicorn could continue mocking, a sudden shockwave blew her and the guards of their hooves. Spike looked at Fiery, guessing she had caused the shockwave.  He had guessed right. Pure anger was irradiated from her eyes. The dragon had no idea how she could gain control over her powers, so he threw a quiestioning gaze at his friend. She only replied with a grin.

Suddenly, her eyes started changing their colour. At first some parts, but than her whole eye rings lost their green colour and became orange like her mane. Spike guessed it was the colour of the sun's surface as well.

Fiery was raised and hung a foot over the ground, but obviously didn't notice it. Her now orange eyes looked much more malicious than their green version. An oreol in orange, yellow and red appeared around her and it became a little darker around them. Fiery was gaining power from the sun. Spike guessed she was going to blast that energy at Celestia, but this time he was wrong. The oreol grew bigger and bigger and Fiery herself began shining. Eventually she shone so strong Spike couldn't look directly at her, but with his peripheral vision he noticed something strange: the pegasus's body was growing bigger, while her hooves were becoming longer. Suddenly, the oreol and the shine dissapeared and a new Fiery landed. She was taller than before, actually now she was as tall as Celestia herself, and had the figure of a princess as well. She spread her wings, which were also longer than before. They matched the size of Celestia's wings, but were still smaller than the ones Hase had. Her eyes had regained their normal colour, but suddenly the oreol glew again, but this time only around her head and her rump. It somehow sunk into her mane and tail, and instead of falling freely, they waved behind her as Celestia's mane did. However, something, that worried Spike, happenned a second after that. Her mane and tail got on fire and Spike nearly rushed to help her, but the pegasus made him a sign to stay where he was. After her mane and tail were burnt away, the dragon saw they were replaced by a cloud- like mane and tail as the ones Celestia and Luna had, but it's colours were the same as before - mainly orange and some red and yellow. It looked beatiful and Spike thought, that if somepony erased the mind of a random ony and asked him to choose the princess of the sun, while standing in front of Fiery and Celestia, if the pony ignored the fact, that the princess of the day was an alicorn, he must have admitted Fiery had a much more... solar look.

" Let's see how subconsious is it. " the changed Fiery spoke to Celestia who was just getting up from the ground.

The guards needed no sign. They rushed at Fiery, shouting, while holding their swords in their mouth. The result was a bit strange, but Fiery's counterstrike wiped the confusion of Spike's mind.

The pegasus smiled and a streak of her mane separated from the main part. However, it didn't look exactly as mane anymore. The peak of the streak suddenly returned to the rest of the mane, while the streak now looked more like molten stone. However, Spike knew those were heat rays ( which were visible) and molten plasma. The result resembled a miniature solar flare, something that Twilight had once observed from the Canterlot Observatory and didn't stop speaking about it for the rest of the week. However, it was more exxciting to see one in action and Spike felt sorry, that his friend missed such a sight. The solar flare clashed with the guards, sending them 30 feet away. If Fiery didn't decrease the power of the flare the guards would evaporate as soon as they contacted the solar, but since she did they only looked like struck by lightning.

" Impressive. " Celestia commented.

" However, filly, I have 3000 years of experience behind my back. How many do you have? "

Spike frowned. Celestia would never boast with her experience, otherwise it would have been a nightmare for Luna, who had 1000 years less experience. This Celestia was nothing like the one the dragon knew and he wondered if the princess wasn't getting a bit crazy ( Celestia forbid).

" None. But what power do you really have over the sun? None. So we're equal. " Fiery mocked in responce. Not giving her any time to answer, the pegasus spread her right forehoof and a beam of hot light was shot at the Princess. It would have melted any shield, but the clever princess jumped aside and fired a bolt of magic at Fiery. Another flare blocked it and redirected the pegasus's attention from the place, where Celestia used to be to her current location. She shot a ball of plasma, that would evaporate anything in contact, but the alicorn managed to dodge this strike too. Angry at her miss, Fiery shot another beam of heat, but Celestia jumped over it and shot a bolt at her opponent. This one nearly hit, but the yellow- coated mare shielded herself with her mane in her last second.

The bolt jumped off Fiery's mane and fired at Celestia. Obviously she didn't expect that, since she was struck by her own magic and fell down on the lane, mumbling something like:

" Should.... her....  like us. "

The pegasus neared her with a ball of plasma on the end of her mane. She hesitated for a second and that was enough for Celestia to jump back on her hooves and force Fiery to back off with a really simple, but effective tool - her hoof.

After she punched her enemy, Celestia raised in the air and fired a beam of light at Fiery. For a moment to Spike it looked like if it would hit Fiery, but in the last second she blocked it with her wings. The beam somehow broke and turned to miniature sparks falling down from the air. The destruction of the beam obviously also had an effect on Celestia, since she nearly fell . The princess of the day frowned and fired an especially big ball of light. The pegasus didn't see it coming, because she was just folding her wings back on her back, and when her eyesight stumbled upon it, it was 3 inches away from her muzzle.

Fiery fell down on the grass and panted, while Celestia neared her with a victorious smile. She mocked:

" I don't need power over the sun to show you the difference between me and you, you pathetic replica! Why do you think I was pronounced princess of all lands? How do you think you control an entire race? Without power... you're doomed. I don't see why your parents, or should I say creators, hoped, that you could resemble me, the master of the light and the day? The inner power of the sun is nothing matched to my strength. All you stand for is nothing for me, you're just one pathetic copy of me.

You could never hope to reach the greatness I have reached. You cannot hope to earn the trust I have earned. All you can do is to remain the monster you are right now... and hide from the eyes of the ponies. However, you won't have to, as soon as you're sent down to Tartarus! "

Spike didn't believe the words, that got out of the princess's mouth. Was she always so mean? Was her other side just a disguise?

The dragon told himself to shut up. This was nothing like princess Celestia. What if that wasn't her? Sadly, this wasn't the truth either. Nopony but Primal Shine and Celestia herself possessed such strength. But her got to do something! He couldn't just sit there and watch his friend being banished to Tartarus!

Spike got on his feet and closed his claw in a fist. Just when Celestia's horn started glowing in red and black, he ran,jumped and did the thing he never thought he would do. He punched Celestia, her royal highness, right under the eye.

The alicorn lost her concentration and her horn returned to a normal state. She angrily glared at the dragon and her horn shone again, this time with a blinding white light.

" I won't waste my magic to banish you too, beast, when I can simply take the flesh off your bones! " she spoke. The dragon closed his eyes and got ready for the worst.But a sudden sound of explosion caused him to reopen them.

Somehow Fiery was back on her hooves. Her mane, now looking more like the surface of the sun, held Celestia in a tight grip. Only her hindhooves, tail and head could be seen outside of the hot plasma cloud, that was Fiery's mane. The desperate princess fought to get out and tried to use magic for that purpose, but one of the miniature solar flares, that came out of the pegasus's mane, that went less than an inch near her muzzle caused her to give it up.

" Let's see how much princess material is there in you exactly. I seriously doubt there is any. " the smile of the pegasus was nothing like Celestia's evil grin, but was a playful smile. Fier looked at Spike and nodded slightly.

" Perhaps those, who had sent you, don't know much about Celestia. "

" What do you mean? " the voice, that was once angry and threatened to banish Fiery and take Spike's flesh off his bones, now was full of fear and confusion.

" I mean Celestia doesn't behave anything like that. You know, being the stepsister of Sunset Shimmer has some advantages... and one of them is, that you get to know the princess very well during the countless after school tea parties. My little sister insisted, that I join her every second Friday to drink tea with her and her mentor. Of course, that ended when she messed up everything, but I still got to know Celestia as good as probably my friend, Twilight. Even if I didn't know her so well, I would still be sure Princess Celestia wouldn't just break into her ex- student's house and try to terminate her enemies just like this. It was true, prejudice fooled her in the past, when she denied redemption to my parents and Uncle Sombra, but that was probably because back than they still wanted me and my siblings to substitute Celestia and Luna. Honestly, I wish nothing like this - being stuck in the throne hall for open court every second day. Also, I am not Celestia's copy. My powers are totally different. I don't pretend to be as powerful as her - I've still got a lot to learn - but I am proud I am the daughter of my parents. Finally I have found my place under the sun and you, should I say " pathetic replica " , are not taking it away from me. You forget I am a changeling from my mother's side and I can perfectly recognize when somepony is concealing something. I didn't detect such magic around you - I guess you and your guards or those who sent you are powerful wizards - but your behaviour gave it away. When you pretend to be Celestia, at least behave like her.

Now tell me, how to undo your magic? "

Celestia's muzzle curved into a sarcastic grin and spoke:

" I shall tell you nothing, creature of darkness! You have foiled our scheme, but this... "

Suddenly something shone from the forest. A small bolt of magic, coloured black and white, hit Celestia right in the horn. She stopped talking and her head fell down. Surprised, Fiery relinquished her from her mane's grip and she fell down on the ground. The air around her became hazy, as the concealing spell was broken and Celestia was revealed to be fake - it was just a normal uncorn mare with a grey coat and a dark- green mane. There were two streaks with different colour - one was white and the other was black.

Since the mare didn't move, Fiery placed her hoof on her neck. After a second the pegasus removed it from there and told Spike:

" She is dead. I guess somepony wanted to silence her forever. "

" The guards! " the dragon exclaimed in reply

" Perhaps they will know something! "

Fiery shook her head in responce.

" Whoever got rid of her porbably has gotten rid of them too. We'll only find more corpses. "

" What happenned here? I remember seeing Celestia... and than grass. Who's that? " the mare and the dragon turned around and noticed a curious Twilight peeking between them. She moved her eyes from the corpse to Fiery and for a second she looked like if she had swollen a whole cupcake without chewing.

" Celestia, when did you become so high? "

" Twilight! Are you OK? " Spike and Fiery spoke in unison. That made the purple alicorn laugh:

" I'm fine, guys, thanks. The ony thing that bothers me is what happenned while I was out, and where did Celestia go? "

" It wasn't Celestia, at least not the real one. " after a few seconds of looking at each other , deciding who should tell the story, finally Spike nodded and Fiery spoke.

" It was an extremely well - concealed unicorn mare. The spell wasn't cast by her.

However, she carried a medalion. Obviously it gave her enough power to be equal to Celestia herself. Though it was broken by a mysterious bolt of magic, that came out of the forest, that also murdered the pony and prevented her from giving us more information, when I held it with my mane, I still felt an extremely strong stream of magic, flowing out of it.

At first we didn't know that and I was foalish enough to think I could face Celestia on my own. I was only saved by Spike, who stopped her from banishing me to Tartarus in the last second... "

" Banishing to Tartarus can only be performed by Luna or Celestia, it has a magic seal. " Twilight interrupted her.

" What? " Fiery got confused

" Than what was the point of all this? With the power of the medalion she could have just take the flesh of my bones, as she almost did with Spike. "

" I guess she didn't want you killed... or at least her master, whoever he or she is, wanted you alive, but with a wish to kill Celestia. " Twilight concluded.

" This whole situation is horribly strange. We need to talk to the real Celestia right away. " Fiery replied

" Are you sure you want to meet her? "

" I know her as good as you, Twilight. I think she'll understand. Now... perhaps my transformation has made my mind more clear. Now I realize, that no matter of it's power, Celestia would never kill a pony before at least taking him or her to court. " the pegasus didn't waste any more time talking, but headed towards Ponyville.

" Wait, what do you mean? " Twilight and Spike could barely keep up with her

" Ask Spike, he saw everything. " Fiery responded.

" And by the way, Spike, take this as a gift from me. A gift as a sign of gratefulness for saving me. I don't care if there was something to be saved from, the point is, that you saved me and you were ready to die because of me. " before she said that, the pegasus mare stopped and went back to her friends, taking Spike on her back. After she thanked him, she gave him a special gift.

A golden medal, with " Spike, my hero"  written over it. The O of hero had a big round ruby in it's hole. Spike happily put it around his neck.

" And never dare to think you aren't a hero again. " Fiery smiled warmly

" Being a hero isn't wielding a magical hammer, being a tech genius or having any superpowers at all, Spike. It is putting the others' needs before yours. "

Sun and day

Twilight got amazed more and more as Spike described her everything, that had happenned while she was unconcious. She never guessed Spike or Fiery could reach such hights - to face Celestia only to defend her and Spike and to sacrofice himself because of a friend. If she was Fiery, she would have never had the guts to face Celestia on her own.

" I'm sure you would have. " Spike told her when she said that to him.

As they reached the town square, dozens of ponies, led by the mayor, rushed to them, guided by the tall figure of Fiery and her mane. Immeadietly they got surrounded by ponies, who spoke so loudly, that nothing could be distinguished. The pegasus with the ornage mane grinned and by the power of her magic all the ponies but the mayor were pushed 15 feet away. That at least silenced them.

" Mayor Mare. I am Fiery Incendia, " Fiery introduced herself to the mayor

" Daughter of Vortex and Chrysalis and sister to Hase. I appologise to you for the chaos, caused by the explosion earlier today, but it's imperative, that you contact Princess Celestia right away, because we need to speak with her about something, concerning national security. "

The mayor nearly kneeled, but thepegasus's mane caught her chin and raised her head, so that her eyes can meet Fiery's eyes again:

" Make no mistake, though as a daughter of a queen, I am not the kind of princess that requires kneeling. "

" Pardon me, Princess, but where have you been? Where did you appear from? " the mayor asked, confused by the sudden appaearance of yet another pegasus with the power of an alicorn.

" When I arrived my powers weren't fully revealed, as it happenned with my brother before me. However, Princess Twilight befriended me and eventually, my true nature was revealed. Just in time for me to fight a mare, pretending to be Celestia, that was concerningly powerful. This is why we need to talk to Celestia as soon as possible. " the pegasus replied and walked away from the mayor. Twilight and Spike followed her and the crowd split in front of them.

Chrysalis was waiting at the door. When she saw them, she grinned, and Fiery responded with the same.

" She wasn't the real one, was she? " Chrysalis made a guess when Twilight, Spike and Fiery got in and closed the dor ( and also pulled the drapes again).

" She wasn't. By the way, will my mane always be a cloud? " Fiery asked.

" Yes. This trait of you was ment to convince the ponies you're something more than an overgrown pegasus. You were ment to be a princess, after all. "

" Am I not a princess now? " the mare with the yellow coat pretended to be offended, but actually just joked.

" You are. And I doubt Celestia would punish a pony, who foiled the scheme of an impostor. Who was it? " Chrysalis was curious to find out more about Celestia's double.

" We never got to know something about it. I was nearly defeated, but Spike's involvement turned the table. However, after she was defeated, I mean the unicorn mare that pretended to be celestia, a magical blast from the forest murdered her. The same has happenned with the guards, obviously under a concealing spell too. It's obvious there are other forces involved. " her daughter answered her.

" So... what do we do after we meet the Princesses? " Spike found another thing that was worth discussing.

" We'll contact Hase. He needs to know all about what happenned here. And than... Twilight,Spike,  I hope it wouldn't be too much to ask you, together with Hase and Fiery, to go search for Stella in Baltimare... and than for Quake in Las Pegasus? " Chrysalis felt uncomfortable as she asked.

" Not at all. " Twilight smiled.

" Fiery... do you want to find your true sister? The mare, that is really like you? " the queen turned to her daughter.

" I think it's time I reunite with my family. After all, from all I know only you. You're a better mother than I could ever wish. " Fiery smiled warmly in reply to her mother's question.

" If all are like you, I think it's gonna turn out to be quite a good family after all. "

Chrysalis smiled in responce.

Suddenly a beam of light appeared in the centre of the room. Everypony made a few steps away from it, but after a few seconds, it dissapeared, leaving Celestia and Luna in the room. Twilight was absolutely confused, until she noticed a small gadget on Luna's left forehoof. In this moment it had the size of a small book. A robotic voice was heard from it:

" Translocator v.21.0. Translocation completed. No bugs detected. Retracting... "

The device folded to something, that had the size of a pocket watch.

" Technology. Never seizes to amaze me. " Luna admitted, while Celestia and Fiery were quietly looking at eachother. This turned to a staring contest at some point, but luckily the more tense situation was soon avoided, when the princess of the day asked:

" Are you Sunset Shimmer's sister? "

The pegasus smiled, glad that the princess had recognized her, and replied:

" More like stepsister, really. "

Celestia moved her gaze towards Chrysalis. She shook her head in confusion, so Twilight decided to explain everything to her:

" Princess Celestia, ... "

" Twilight... " both Celestia and Chrysalis reminded her in one voice, that she didn't have to call them by their titles.

The purple alicorn sighed, She could never get used to it, but at least she tried:

" Celestia, Fiery isn't the real sister of Sunset Shimmer, because actually Fiery is the daughter of Chrysalis and Vortex. After you captured Hase and turned him to an earth pony, and later defeated Vortex, the union of Chrysalis, Sombra and later Vortex himself, who got freed from the stone prison from the power of love from the inside. While they were thinking of a plan, they were in love more than ever, but knew, that if they had other foals they wouldn't have been able to live normally... untill Sombra found out that the perfect star allignment is going to last for two more years. Under the sign of the stars they had two more foals - two twin sisters - the same year, and another one - a colt - the last year of the alignment.

The plan they prepared included all of their foals leading an army... to dethrone you and Luna. They planned to tell their foals their true identity when the time came. Meanwhile they hid them in different towns, away from themselves, so that you could never track that plan to them. "

" But we have crossed ways... every second Friday, was it? How didn't I detect such powerful magic inside of you back than? "

" All of their powers were hidden.., or sealed so to say. They only kept their secondary powers and randomly unleashed a small piece of their true power sometimes. Otherwise they were normal. " Chrysalis replied to Celestia.

" But... if that's true, you're 1000 years old! Why do I remember seeing you as a filly only 15 years ago? " the surprised princess turned to the pegasus.

" A spell was cast over all of us but Hase, who you had already captured. It stopped us from aging, unless somepony kept us in their house for at least a month. Sadly, the ponies, who would do that weren't many. All of us " settled down" about 20 years ago." Fiery answered her.

" One last thing. " Luna suddenly joined the conversation.

" Why didn't Hase show any signs of telepathy 1000 years ago? You said, that your foals kept their secondary powers. "

Chrysalis smiled to that question, since the answer was obvious to her:

" By changing Hase to an earth pony, you interrupted his development. His powers would have been revealed much earlier, had you not done this. He returned to his normal development later, on the end of the adventure with A.I.M. He kept that form during the Prequestrian adventure, though there it was sped up by the Weapons of Devastation, and gained his true form when he was possessed by the Nightmare Spirits. "

" Prin... I mean, Celestia, Spike and I volunteer to join Fiery, and eventually Hase, on their journey to find their brother and sister. " Twilight spoke to her ex- mentor.

" This is a noble act, Twilight. " Luna approved.

" And also, I forgot to mention: a new foe arises. Suunset Shimmer uses magic she had never used before. Somepony, disguised as Celestia, with a worrying amount of power, coming only from a medalion, fought Fiery. I think somepony wants to make you and her enemies. " Twilight spoke, concerned.

" This means you should certainly go. The security of Equestria is at hoof.  " Celestia frowned.

" But I think it's time for us to leave. "

The two regal sisters nodded. Everypony else nodded in responce. The device on Luna's hoof unfolded again and the princesses were engulfed in light again, dissapearing from the room. Twilight realized this way their visit didn't cause any chaos amongst ponies, and was grateful they chose it.

" We'll contact Hase tomorrow, if you don't mind. I'm feeling sleepy. " Chrysalis broke the silence, that lasted for a minute since the Princesses' departure.

" Oh, I fear I haven't got enough beds! " Twilight apologised to her.

" No worries. I'm sure the hotel could find a room for a queen. " Chrysalis smiled and walked out of the door, her guards following her.

" Here we go again... " Spike told his two friends.

" The adventures never end, obviously. " Twilight agreed.

" I don't know about you, but all I want now is a little sleep and no adventures. " Fiery admitted to them.

" I'm only not sure if I can fit in the bed. "

Twilight smiled warmly and replied:

" It's only yours. "

While the pegasus went upstairs, Twilight saw, that Spike had already curled up in the hoofchair. Still smiling, she lay on the sofa and closed her eyes, imagining the adventures that awaited.