My(stara's) Little Ponies: Friendship is Adventuring

“Keratin,” Frau Gertrud said, tapping her fingernails and then my claws, “conducts magical energies. This is why Ponies can do magic through their hooves or horns or wings, why humans do hand gestures and why spells adapted for five fingers must change for dragons or griffons or other sentients,” she said. “If you tried to do spells adapted for a human, the result would be unpredictable at best.”

But I couldn’t even make spells adapted for Spikey work. But he was hatched differently… Dammit. “Hey, that’s what my scales are made of, right?”

“Oh yes, it’s among the reasons Dragons are so powerful; as you age, you will channel more and more magic into your scales all the time, making you harder and harder to hurt.” Her voice was getting a little excited as she spoke, which was strange. She gently ran a finger along my crest, then pulled her hand back. “I’m sorry, that was rude.”

“It’s okay,” I said, shivering a little. It had felt almost like a current of power, while she touched my crest.

“Hmm, something odd about the flow of power there,” she said. “May I?”

“Okay,” I said, dreading the answer. “Hmm, ponies have hair all over their bodies too… I guess humans do too but it’s less obvious.”

“Hair is too diffuse. The energy dissipates. Unlike a scale or a fingernail or a claw or a horn,” she said. She now studied me with a glowing circle in front of her eye. I shuffled nervously on my feet. “Have you been exposed to chaos magic?” she asked.

“At my hatching,” I said, feeling as if I might suddenly burst into flame at any time.

“Interesting.” She shook her head. “I must focus. Before they do something terrible to my husband or my son.”

“Or your mother in law,” I said hesitantly.

She snorted, then turned back to studying the portal stone. “Please bring me some wine.”

That I could handle.

**************

Bon-Bon’s Tale:

I’ve never worn armor before; Herr Graustein got me actual enchanted chainmail armor from the armory; it had spells that made it as light as my dress. I’d be more comfortable in pony form but I can ride the golem more easily as a human, though it’s harder to use my abilities that way. I also brewed up some more of my special candies, which he assisted me with. Now I understand why my family saved some of these crazy flavors.

Lyra got them to make her this humongous stone sword out of the remains of that dead golem. Then she discovered she couldn’t actually pick it up because it resists her magic. So they had to lock a gauntlet onto it and she lifts the gauntlet with magic, which lets her swing the sword.

She is so excited and I am scared out of my mind. “Armor!” she said excitedly. “MAGIC armor!” She pranced about as if it was some kind of expensive dress to show off. She did something and it shimmered, making her hard to see. “Oh yeah!”

“Lyra, this is going to be dangerous,” I said urgently. “It’s not one of your books where you can just read it and never get hurt.”

“We’ll be fine,” she told me.

I wish I could be so sure.

War.

Me in a war.

This makes the time Berry and I woke up on top of a train headed for Dagwood, North Dacoata look sensible.

But I can’t let Lyra and Spike go alone and I want to be a good guest. You shouldn’t leave your hostess in the lurch when she needs you.

I am so nervous, I don’t have words for it. I gave Lyra an assortment of candies and Spike as well, then explained them. I’d color coded the wrappings and prayed they would remember but they were both busy being excited about going into battle.

I can’t understand that.

But I will do my part to help out.

**************

Lyra’s Lyric:

I offered to carry Bon-Bon into battle, but Spike was going to ride me instead, since Bon-Bon has to stay human and ride the golem. Man, a giant war golem at your command. That’s cool incarnate, but she seems kind of cranky she has to even do it.

I would totally love to do that but I can’t. Hmm, I wonder if Bon-Bon could control a golem made of nullstone…

A lot of the convention guests fled; that seems kind of rude to me, but I guess a lot of them weren’t armed with combat magic and their spellbooks are at home. Or maybe they just don’t have any manners. Our warparty looked like it was going to be myself, Spike, Gertrud, Rolf, his golems, Bon-Bon, Jaggar’s sister Brunhilde, Franz (the wizard in the lion skin) and his bodyguard Gilda. Gilda eyed me like I had eaten her eggs or something. Franz had enlarged her and rode on her; Brunhilde turned into a white dragon and Rolf rode her, while Bon-Bon rode her stone golem and Spike rode me. Gertrud summoned an air elemental and rode on it, appearing to ride a mini-tornado. She cast a spell and the stone reformed and then the Dragon Line formed and we plunged into it; the stone stayed behind with Herr Sigisimund, who had to stay to avoid risking losing the entire family in one day.

We landed in a temple; I recognized it from the huge statue of a six-limbed Thri-Kreen warrior standing over a fallen foe. Pak-cha is an Immortal of the sphere of Time, who leads the Thri-Kreen in war against their foes and enslaves their enemies. He’s important to their survival in the harsh desert environment of Vanya. Ever since the doom gates opened at the poles, the world has been overheated and dried up; water flows only in oases and the grand canals and along their shores. It’s a dangerous place.

The temple was heavily damaged and smashed up and they’d somehow chained up Dragon-Jaggar with null-stone and were using him to haul stones; you could see Frau Hildegard and Roderick in shackles of the null-stone, doing the same work.

“The chains neutralize magic,” I said. “But I can cut them with this sword!” Bon-Bon, Rolf, Franz (the lion skin mage), and Gilda lead the golem charge, pinning down the main body of warriors in the temple, while Brunhild took on the priests in a duel of dragon against cleric, scattering them with arctic blasts of cold.

And I circled around the fight with Spike, charging in to hack Jaggar free, but he pointed at his mother and Roderick, to my surprise; they can’t do half as much as he can, but… but it’s his mother and his son.

I nodded and Dragon-Jaggar began thrashing, keeping his keepers busy, while I hacked loose Frau Hildegard and Roderick, Spike driving back their guards with bursts of flame.

Then Frau Hildegard gave a cry of anger like a lion on fire and gestures, runes appearing around her hands, and four of the support pillars for the roof formed into huge angry earth elementals.

…

“When I get back, I am burning Baron Du Marais’ estate to the ground for lying to me about how that thing worked!” she shouted; I felt my stomach curdle. “The way he laughed at me when the thing opened the portal and then he teleported away… HE WILL REGRET THAT!”

“Roderick!” I said and threw him my normal sword. He now began fending off Thri-Kreen charging us as the temple began to fall apart around us. In fact, his blows sent Thri-Kreen flying; he’s stronger than I realized.

Spike frowned and scratched his head, looking confused about something.

I could see Bon-Bon on the golem she’d named Stoney, going toe to toe with the Pak-cha statue, which had come to life. But it was driving her back; it was even stronger than the one they’d sent through to the estate.

While Frau Hildegard began scattering our foes in the larger fray, she didn’t seem to even notice the danger to her right here and right now. Spike had to guard me while I hacked Jaggar free.

“RETREAT!” Dragon-Jaggar shouted.

“I am not leaving until I destroy them all!” Hildegard shouted, gesturing at her golems, which began smashing the other pillars; the whole temple ceiling is going to fall on us at this rate; the part her golems had held up now came crashing down and bright sunlight shone brightly into the temple, making it hotter.

That’s when a giant sand-worm came through the wall, trying to swallow Dragon-Jaggar, but he was too big for it; now they thrashed and wrestled around; another pillar fell and part of the ceiling collapsed, taking out the Thri-Kreen riding on it. So now it went TOTALLY berserk.

Roderick was knocking Thri-Kreen about, but there was only one of him and more closed in on him and Hildegard, who only cared about destroying EVERYTHING. Rolf got clocked and went flying and his golems now ringed him for defense while he laid stunned on the ground.

Brunhilde had flown up through the hole in the roof and was busy fighting some kind of giant winged bat creature… bat creature? I don’t remember any bat-creatures in the books. Gertrud and her elementals were now fighting the priests, while the warriors came at the golems around Rolf.

Pak-Cha struck Stoney in the chest and he broke into pieces and Bon-Bon went tumbling and laid there, stunned. For a few seconds, I could only stare in absolute horror. She didn’t even want to be involved in all this and now she’s hurt.

I felt utterly sick to my stomach. Bon-Bon! I tried to charge over, but a half-dozen warriors cut me off and drove me back as I desperately fended them off and Spike spat flame at them. And now Frau Hildegard had been grabbed by some of the Thri-Kreen too, while Roderick was pinned down fighting three others. I didn’t know what to do! BON-BON!!!!!

****************

Spike’s Saga:

Only one choice. “AZKABIBBLE BOBBETY BOO!” I shouted, gesturing wildly and praying for something useful to happen. I hadn’t planned to mess up the words, it just happened.

A huge wall of sound hit both our foes and ourselves; we went tumbling across the temple but so did the warriors in front of us.

I couldn’t hear; Lyra said something to me, trying to get up but I couldn’t hear her. Then I had an idea; I made a gesture like a person cracking a whip, then I grabbed the yellow candy and turned into a huge snake like Slither.

Lyra somehow got this right and let me lash onto her, then extended the front of me to the rafters with her magic; I lashed onto it and we swung OVER our foes to land by Bon-Bon; the good news was that the statue had moved on to attacking Gertrud and her elementals; the bad news was that two mantis-men had grabbed Bon-Bon and were carrying her to the altar.

I know what happens on altars. We charged after them, snake-whipping over another wall of foes, but now they had a priest trying to figure out how to get her armor off to sacrifice her; she was tied down and now EVEN MORE Mantis-men came at us. How many of these things are here, anyway???

But I had a plan; Bon-Bon was stirring, trying to get free. So I reached into the bag she gave Lyra, pulled the lemon candy and hurled it into her mouth.

Then I ate one of the red-hots and drove back our foes with SUPER FIRE.

And that’s when Bon-Bon turned into a bronze dragon and broke the altar under her weight.

******************

Bon-Bon’s Berserkergang:

You really can’t imagine the power of a dragon until you become one; I could feel the power in the ground, in the air, in the sunlight, flowing into me and I laughed, scattering the priests with a swipe of the tail. Then I took to the air, seizing a candy with my tail and popping it into my mouth. The warriors looked quite confused when I breathed fire at them. That’s a red-hot for you!

I took out another pillar, trapping more of our foes below rubble, then bomb-dived warriors trying to pull down Gertrud, who leaped onto my back and directed her elementals from there. I just started smashing everything, determined to punish them all for attacking us, for tying me to an altar, for RUINING my presentation!!!

I was busy popping candy and smashing things when Gertrud said to me, “I think we’ve won.”

But that wasn’t enough, I had to level this whole damn place so they never attack us again!

There was a whole city here, I could see now. This was going to take a while.

Jaggar had turned back to human form for some reason. He was shouting something but I couldn’t hear him.

“We need to retreat,” Gertrud said to me; she’d clambered up my neck to whisper in my ear.

“They tried to sacrifice me!” I said angrily.

“We can’t fight a whole city; we have to go now while we still can,” she said urgently. “You should turn back.”

“I can’t change unless I eat another one,” I told her. “And I can take them,” I said confidently. “I’m a dragon.”

“I’ve been a dragon,” she whispered to me. “You feel so powerful, like you can do anything. But even dragons have their limits, as many evil ones have found at my husband’s hands. Look down.”

I could see Lyra; she looked utterly mortified and was trying to shout to me, with Spike shouting too; but there was so much noise, I couldn’t hear them.

A dragon, I thought. And her husband too.

My brain put two and two together and got four.

Now I really understood. I landed and Gertrud hopped off me, landing by her son, who was breathing hard and watching more warriors pour in.

“There’s thousands of them,” Gilda said to Prince Jaggar. “You can stay but it’s my duty to get Herr Franz out of here.”

“I will cover the retreat,” I said. “Lyra, I need a vanilla snowflake.”

“Bon-Bon, I’m so sorry, I didn’t think…” She looked very shaken up. “You could have died and it would all be my fault,” she said miserably.

“I’m just an ordinary pony,” I said softly to her. “But you make me extraordinary. It’s okay, I’m not mad at you.” I chose to get into this.

Then she flung me the vanilla snowflake. I make these for the weather ponies normally; but it will do.

Lyra passed the portal stone to me. “It will close up behind you as you go.”

I nodded and tucked it into my saddlebags, which now clung to one leg.

They fled down the tunnel and I stood, ready for the onrushing horde. Then I showed them something they’d never seen. I could feel the coldness inside me from the candy and I let it out, powerful dragon lungs expelling cold that froze everything in its path, turning moisture inside me into snow that covered everything in white.

And when they all fell down or retreated in confusion, I fled down the tunnel.

You know, they’ve probably never even seen snow before.

**************

Lyra’s Lyric:

We were all gathered in the gardens; Jagger had used his magic to dispel the polymorph candy, so Bon-Bon and Spike were back to normal.

The portal stone had a rune on it which I recognized from the books. “This is the rune of Tch-Tchi’ka. He’s a trickster immortal of fire and deceit and turning your enemies against each other,” I said. “The whole plot of _Master Mind of Vanya_ revolves around his followers trying to trick three city-states to fight each other so the Thri-Kreen who follow him will then conquer them all.”

“Isn’t that fiction?” Bon-Bon asked, frowning.

“Fiction based on a real place as we just saw!,” I protested. “Anyway, we studied the planets at Celestia’s School for Talented Unicorns and I learned enough to know that Edmund Wheatfurrows is a very accurate author!” He claims that Tom Wagonmaker is real and sends these accounts to him, which he rewrites. I don’t know if that’s true, though I hope it is. But I am a Bard, and I have to know these things!

“It could be a double-bluff,” Gilda said. “Intended to make you hunt down the followers of Tch-Tchi’ka, while the real guilty party laughs at having suckered you.” She scratched the dirt with a claw, forming a crude image of a rearing horse ridden by an archer. “Look, the Krondaharians did it!”

“Given time, I can study it and try to determine exactly how this thing got here and how it was activated; I may be able to read its timeline or perhaps consult an astral sage,” Jaggar said.

“Doesn’t Contact Other Plane sometimes get lies?” I asked, a little worried.

“No divination is perfect,” Jaggar said. “Mother, what exactly were you and Roderick doing here when the stone activated?”

“I know who did this,” Hildegard said angrily. “Baron Malachie du Marais! He gave me the stone and showed us what to do and then he left us to die!”

“He can’t have,” Spike said. “I was following him after the first session and he went to rob Jaggar’s library! He couldn’t have been giving you the stone during that.”

“You took a magical artifact and blindly activated it without divining it first to be sure it was safe,” Jaggar said flatly, moustache twitching.

“He demonstrated it on one of the servants! Her kind can’t use magic either,” Hildegard said flatly. “But she can now, so I suppose she’ll want to move out now.” The last sentence came with a sense of growing surprise. Then she frowned. “But she’s probably a con-woman and it was all some trick!”

Bon-Bon pursed her lips and made a noise and I glanced at her, but she didn’t say anything.

Jagger muttered a few words and sent a tiny dragon flying off into the castle and then looked around the gardens. “Tell me exactly what happened, Mother.”

******************

Dowager-Princess Hildegard’s Entirely Accurate and Honest Account Which Proves She Is Innocent of All But Malice Against Gertrud, Who Has It Coming:

Malachie du Marais, Baron de Morlay, is a very charming man when he chooses to be. He approached me about the problem and demonstrated in my quarters on one of the servants that this artifact my son is holding could give magical ability to someone who could not possibly have it.

How, you ask? She was an Earth Pony, and as all know, they cannot use magic.

**************

Bon-Bon’s Rebuttal:

“I most certainly use magic and have been certified an Arcaner by your own government,” I said, flashing my temporary magic license. “I believe you’ve seen examples of my arts today. Because we had to rescue *you*.”

Spike laughed very loudly; Gilda glared at him and he caved in on himself as he continued to ride Lyra.

“Fine. But you don’t cast actual *spells* like we do,” Frau Hildegard said angrily. “Out of a book, not a wand, before you challenge me again. I know an Earth Pony can use a wand if a real wizard charges it up for them.”

“Applebloom *made* a wand and a giant flying treehouse. I make magical candy. Pinkie makes magical desserts. I *am* a real wizard,” I said angrily, flashing my license. “As recognized by your own government.”

I was not sure why Lyra was smiling so much at me but… why am I complaining? It was nice to have her support.

“Applebloom made a wand?” Lyra said, amazed.

“Yeah, but she’s studying under Keraptis, even calls him ‘Uncle K’,” Spike said.

Jagger’s moustache vibrated and half the people present twitched, tugged their hair, or rubbed their forehead.

“I could take him,” Gilda said confidently.

“I am not sure if anyone here but Prince Jaggar could take him,” her boss, Herr Franz, said. “Perhaps if we all rushed him at once, somehow luring him out of the mountain…” He clearly was planning this inside his head.

I see why he hired Gilda.

“Look, Father,” Roderick suddenly said. “Grandmother and the Baron or whoever it was brought me out here with that stone and he told me to say ‘Asharak Gorkaras Minyanastho’ while standing by it and the portal opened and people charged out and grabbed us.” He sighed and stared at the ground. “I just wanted to be like everyone else in the family and not the freak. I should have thought things through but we were stupid and listened to him. I just wanted to be normal,” he said weakly.

“You’re not a freak,” I told him firmly. “There’s more than one way to be a wizard. And I think I understand why you can’t use spellbook magic. But I think first we had better find that servant and see what was going on. Assuming she wasn’t a unicorn in disguise who has teleported to Darokin by now or something.”

“Yes,” Jaggar said. “My friends, thank you for your support. You can come with us, but anyone who wishes a rest, they can go to their quarters while I investigate this.”

“I had best get my golems taken care of. Lady Bon-Bon, can you come by my lab later? We should talk,” Herr Rolf said to her.

“Of course,” I told him and then we all headed into the castle.

*************

Spike’s Saga:

The investigation posse turned out to be me, Prince Jaggar, his mother and his wife, Roderick, Bon-Bon, and Lyra. Everyone else went to handle the clean up, rest, etc.

The maid in question turned out to be named Shimmer Shine; she was an Earth pony with a Cutie Mark of a really clean window. However, she was oddly translucent, like she was made out of glass; her coat was a sparkling blue and her mane a vibrant green. It was styled in this kind of weird way, like I saw in some book of Twilight’s a while back, all piled up and pinned in place; she had a Von Drachenfels badge pinned to one of her black boots, which went up to her knees; all the servants wore high boots, but she was otherwise unclad, except for a bandage around her chest and another over her right eye socket.

“She was injured in the fighting, sir,” a cat-headed human… maybe he was a Rakasta… said. He was dressed like a doctor, white coat and all. He idly licked his hands to get blood off them and I made a face.

“I have healing saliva,” he said curtly to me.

…

“Prince Jaggar, I am sorry,” Shimmer Shine said, tears in her eyes. “I didn’t realize… I don’t understand… it worked for me.”

“Holy… you’re a Crystal Pony! I thought they were extinct!” Lyra said.

“I just thought I must have enchanted myself,” she mumbled. “I’m a normal pony from Dream Valley.”

“She turned that way when she used the artifact,” Frau Hildegard said curtly.

Frau Gertrud frowned at Frau Hildegard, but said nothing.

“What’s a Crystal Pony?” Bon-Bon asked curiously.

“The Crystal Ponies were Earth Ponies who were transformed when Glantri got blown up way back and they fled to the Adri Varma Plateau instead of fleeing south to modern Equestria or east to Ethengar or the Northern Reaches,” Lyra said. She concentrated and an Earth Pony village appeared; purple glowing ash rained down on the village; many died and the survivors became creatures made of crystal and fled because the land could not be tilled.

The image flickered and the Crystal Ponies crafted a beautiful city of crystal, formed like a pentagon with a star inside it; there were palaces at each corner and in the center. “They dwelt there for a very long time. But when Nightmare Moon eclipsed the Sun back in 1 AC, General Sombra, the head of their armies, betrayed them and led an army of Hydrax to conquer the city.” The image changed and you could see Sombra, a shadow in the shape of a pony with red eyes and dark blue armor set with opals. Unlike the earlier images, he was weirdly two-dimensional and flat. He led a horde of monsters and Shadow Ponies into the city.

“Sorry, that’s the only surviving picture; it’s from a book,” Lyra said apologetically. “The princess fled to the Silver Palace and it vanished before Sombra could storm it. Then the city itself vanished when the eclipse ended. A few Crystal Ponies escaped this but everyone thought they had died out,” Lyra said, continuing to stare at Shimmer Shine in amazement. As she said this, you could see the city and then one of the palaces, made of silver and crystal vanished. When it vanished, the rest of the city started to fade, and then the sun came out and it evaporated entirely.

Lyra finished by saying, “They had all sorts of strange magics, and it’s said that during her rule of the Empire, the Princess would become an Alicorn.”

“That’s impossible,” Bon-Bon said, frowning. “Alicorns are divine; you can’t turn into one just by being crowned.”

“Well, Sombra planned to crown himself and become an Alicorn and then it all went poof, so maybe you could but the Immortals shut down whatever did it,” Lyra said hesitantly. “But I totally had to answer a test question on this.”

Jaggar now cast detect magic; I know because it’s one of the spells I messed up. He cast another spell and a spellbook appeared, which he made float in the air by her. “Cast this spell,” he told her.

“Okay, this becomes that and that thing is this, so this goes this way…” she said. I could feel my scales tingling.

“What are you doing?” Jaggar said. “There’s a lot of magic around your hooves but it’s very emphemeral.”

“I don’t have any fingers, so I have to convert it to hooves and I’m not very experienced, sir,” Shimmer Shine said nervously. “Okay, here we go.” She kneeled on her haunches and waved her hooves in the air and chanted and now a tiny dragon appeared like the one Jaggar had summoned earlier; it circled her head and she whispered to it. It flew over to Jaggar and whispered to him, then vanished.

Roderick sighed and Bon-Bon whispered to him and his eyes widened.

“Lady Lyra, if you will cast a spell?” Jaggar said thoughtfully.

I wanted so much to help but I would probably break Shimmer Shine or turn her into a duck.

The cat licked his hands again, making me nervous.

Lyra began to sing and play her harp and now roses rained down from the sky, though they soon vanished.

“Your forehooves have been altered to resemble the functioning of Lady Lyra’s horn,” Jaggar said, frowning. “It would take tremendous power to do that and make it permanent. Your very nature has changed.”

Gertrud, Hildegard, Roderick, and Lyra all shivered in unison, then looked at each other.

“That’s big, I take it,” I said.

“The Crystal Ponies could work gemstone and rock and crystal magic through their hooves even more potently than a normal Earth Pony but were weak with green and growing things,” Lyra said. “Only the Princess, who had the powers of every kind of pony, could cast book magic… spell magic… at all. Though if the legends are true, Sombra somehow gained the powers of a Shadow Pony with the help of Thanatos.”

“Who?” Bon-Bon asked.

“The head of the Sphere of Entropy, one of the few Immortals to walk alive out of the Immortal Storm at the end of the Godswar that killed off most of the previous ‘generation’ of Immortals,” Lyra said. “The Karameikans believe he’s one of the Five Fiends of the Five Hells.”

“Your Cutie Mark is related to window cleaning, right?” Frau Gertrud asked, suddenly changing the subject.

Lyra blinked, looking confused. “It’s music.”

“I meant Shimmer Shine,” Frau Gertrud said.

“Oh yes, I clean glass easily and perfectly,” Shimmer Shine said more cheerfully. She turned and picked up her saddlebags, which hung over one of the ends of the bed she’d been on when we arrived. She flicked out a bottle and a sponge, sprayed the window with the bottle held in her tail and then put it away and did a single wipe with the sponge and the whole window was clean.

“So that is still the same,” Frau Gertrud said thoughtfully.

Further tests showed, however, that she had lost the physical strength of an Earth Pony and the agility as well, unless she was cleaning, though she could still feel the ground as Bon-Bon did. In fact…

“Prince Jaggar, there’s some sort of strange field in the stone,” she said urgently.

“You felt it too? I asked one of the Glantrian ponies and they didn’t notice anything,” Bon-Bon said hesitantly.

“It’s probably the enchantments on the castle,” Prince Jaggar said. “This place was heavily shaped by spell magic, Earth Ponies, elementals and many other things.”

Frau Hildegard frowned. “Hold on.” She kneeled down, placing her hands on the stone and chanting softly. Some of the stone formed into a little man who said, “Hello, Princess.”

“Has anything happened to change you recently?”

“I suffered some damage this morning but otherwise, all is normal,” he said.

She patted his head and he melded back into the floor. “You must be feeling the magics, but…”

They called in the castle’s mason and his entire staff, which included an Earth pony. “Glantri has so much magic, it can confuse visitors,” Hard Hat said. “I went to Equestria once and it all felt really weird. I guess every country has its own kind of flavor of magic down in the Earth.”

“We are on a tangent, anyway,” Jaggar said, sending the masons back to their work. “I know nothing of the Crystal Ponies, so it may be that he somehow turned you into one, which could mean anything. Given it did not turn Roderick into a Crystal Pony, however, I assume that whoever impersonated the Baron actually used some other means of magic to transform Shimmer Shine and they are responsible for the artifact, whatever immortal they may serve.”

“Why turn her into a Crystal Pony and not a Unicorn if you have that kind of power?” I asked. “Also, didn’t you see her change? I’d worry about turning to crystal myself.”

“Her spell worked. I just thought this was some sort of Pony thing,” Hildegard said, waving vaguely. “Also, she didn’t turn that way instantly, it kind of crept up on her and by that time it was too late.”

“I thought I’d done something wrong but I also got it to work,” Shimmer Shine said weakly.

“And I was desperate,” Roderick sighed, face in his hands.

“So, we’re more or less stuck at this point, unless we can track the fake Baron,” I said.

“Gertrud and I will go to my library and see what we can figure out; you should all rest. Mother, never, ever try something like that again,” Jaggar said firmly. “Roderick, I understand your desperation but you have to be more careful.” He sighed. “You can at least use some items for self-defense. You were suckered by a cunning enemy, but remember, people got hurt over this.”

Roderick now looked like he just wanted to die and I felt terrible for him. I know I’ve done some stupid things, trying to prove myself.

“Prince Jaggar, I have a theory about why your son cannot use magic,” Bon-Bon said hesitantly.

“It’s because of the tainted blood of the Alphatian witch,” Hildegard grumbled; Gertrud stared coldly at her, clearly not happy to be called that and I can’t blame her.

“Mother, do not refer to my wife as tainted,” Jaggar said, moustache twitching.

“Prince Jaggar, how long has your family practiced Dragon magics?” Bon-Bon asked.

“Over a century,” he said hesitantly, studying Bon-Bon curiously.

“So generation after generation of Von Drachenfels have saturated themselves with the power of dragons,” Bon-Bon continued.

“Yes,” he said.

“And you have mastered it so greatly that you can become a dragon,” Bon-Bon went on. “As has your wife. Spike, how old can you expect to be when you learn spells?” Bon-Bon said.

“Well, we get a natural talent for it after the second Dragonsleep, around fifteen to twenty years of age,” he said. “I can produce wild magic now but I can’t get it right.”

Roderick is around fifteen or sixteen, I think.

“Roderick, pick up Lyra,” Bon-Bon said more confidently.

He did so easily. I remembered him knocking around Thri-Kreen as if they were children’s toys as he held me over his head.

“Let’s go to the lab,” Bon-Bon said. We went to Herr Rolf’s lab where he was busy repairing his golems. After saying hello to him, she coached Roderick through making one of her magical candies, then ate it and spat fire like Spike. “He couldn’t make these successfully if he couldn’t channel magic. I am not a spellcaster, but I command magic through my chemical arts. Through physical things. Frau Hildegard, who activated the portal stone?”

“Roderick did,” she said, frustrated. “Which we’ve already established.”

“Lyra, can anyone use a Portal Stone?” Bon-Bon asked.

“You have to be able to channel magic in some way,” Lyra said. “They aren’t charged items.”

“I don’t know if he’ll eventually learn formal spells, but he is a user of magic, just in different ways,” Bon-Bon said, then suddenly turned back into her pony form. “He may be able to work wonders none of us can, with the dragon magic that must have coursed through him since… maybe even since before he was born.”

Prince Jaggar teleported out and returned with a pair of rings and passed them to his son. The rings began to glow and his eyes widened. “I never even thought… Spike, try these on.”

They glowed for Spike too, and then Jaggar collected them. “It seems whenever we meet, I learn something new, Lady Bon-Bon.” He looked almost abnormally calm.

“It’s still her fault,” Frau Hildegard said petulantly.

“Mother, if you were not my mother, I would send you to the dungeons,” Prince Jaggar said calmly. “Roderick, tomorrow, you will need to come to my library; we have many things to test together.”

Roderick shook and his eyes misted and then he smiled. “Of course, father.”

I have to wonder why Jaggar never figured this out himself. It seems like a logical theory, right? I guess since this didn’t happen with their elder son, they didn’t think of it.

“We will go to study my library,” Jaggar said. The rest of you should go rest.

“I will come with you,” Hildegard insisted. “I can make the walls speak.”

Gertrud frowned but Jaggar nodded. “A good point, Mother, thank you.”

We all scattered, though Bon-Bon stayed in the lab and I went with Prince Jaggar because I was a witness. Also, I sent Celestia a letter from Jaggar about the robbery, Crystal Ponies, Shimmer Shine, and the Baron.

Hopefully, she’ll reply soon.

**************************

Bon-Bon’s Meeting:

I helped Herr Rolf work on repairing his golems for a while; it’s not my strong point but I am an Earth Pony and we have a knack for such things. They were all torn up and I felt sorry for them; it’s fortunate they can’t feel pain.

He thanked me, then said, “I am a member of a society of alchemists; you have demonstrated a great degree of skill in this art in a way previously unknown to us, so I would like to offer you membership.”

“Me? Really?” I said in surprise.

“We could use more members who have your skill and...” He laughed nervously. “Anyway, I can call a meeting if you are interested.”

We talked about the group for a while and I said yes. I could use membership in a trade organization and I’m always looking for more ideas I can use to make new candy so I don’t just rely on what Mother passed down to me.

Though I am worried about what he cut himself off on. But it won’t hurt to meet them.

****************

Lyra’s Lyric:

I ended up talking to Shimmer Shine in my quarters; I was curious about her abilities, as we only know a little about Crystal Ponies, and I wanted to tell her the rest of what I know about them, since she may now be the only one.

“How do you know how to convert spells made for hands to your hooves?” I asked her.

“I… isn’t it instinctive? I just *knew* as soon as I used the artifact… or whatever exactly happened to me,” she said.

Like the candy but with magic… Bon-Bon’s candy, you keep your normal magic but gain the *body* of your new form, so you can get stronger but a unicorn’s horn won’t give you magic.

It wasn’t the same as having a hoof somehow function AS a horn, either. For one thing…

I did a light spell, which floated in the air. “Okay, did you see how I did that?”

“No,” she said, frowning. “I can kind of feel there is magic there but I couldn’t tell what or how.”

I got Spike’s spellbook and had her try the light spell in that and she did it on the first try; she tried to explain how she knew, but it was like she was trying to explain how you tell your legs to move.

Was this a Crystal Pony thing? We only know scraps of information, really. They fell right around the time civilization was finally recovering from the fall of Blackmoor and then Nithia.

But Unicorns aren’t born understanding the use of our horn; that’s why we have Magic Kindergarden. Otherwise, we just make a mess if we try to do magic.

Someone did something really powerful and this bothers me a lot. I hope Princess Celestia can get to the bottom of this.

**********************

Spike’s Saga:

Okay, Prince Jaggar has these crystals hidden in his library that record everything that happens, so he was able to see what all the Baron looked at and confirmed my report. I bet they’re like those spheres Dash has.

Also I got to wear a crown that belonged to a dragon king 3000 years ago!

Admittedly, on me, it’s not even a belt, more like a loopty-loop. Which I am pretty good at if I say so myself.

He looked fairly disturbed by the things which the Baron had been trying to copy. “This is about the Carnifex, right?”

“Yes. No one knows where the Castle of Twilight stands which is their prison,” he said. “Beyond ‘the Pit of Banishment’.”

My eyes widened.

He blinked at me, then smiled. “No connection to Duchess Sparkle, of course.”

I gave a sigh of relief. “I’ll tell you some time about that stupid Staff of Twilight and why you shouldn’t grab the first book with a friend’s name on it for a birthday present.” But not this time, because I don’t want to remember that.

Gertrud was busy poking around, looking for something and then I remembered. “If Countess Royal Blue hasn’t left, she was trying to warn us against trusting Baron Malachie for some reason,” I told him.

“She is a friend of Dame Genevieve de Saphora, the great enemy of the Baron; they’ve been sparring ever since Castle Amber re-appeared,” Gertrud said, sighing. “The Baron is a rogue, but I did not think he would go this far. But I will go see her.” She kissed her husband’s cheek and departed.

“He’s not crazy enough to try to bust out the Carnifex, right?” I said weakly.

“He’s not powerful enough; he would die,” Jaggar said flatly. “Steal information and sell it to someone else, that he could do. But then, I thought he was not powerful enough to pierce my defenses or to somehow turn an Earth Pony into… whatever she is now. Crystal Pony with spell hooves…” He rubbed his forehead.

“If you can do that, why not make her a unicorn?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Jaggar said, frowning. “But hopefully your mistress or Princess Celestia will know something about it.”

********************

Bon-Bon’s Greeting:

Princess Luna made a grand appearance that night after sunset with echoing music rolling across the mountains as she descended out of the sky in a chariot pulled by Bat-Pony guards. I am not sure if they’re a special kind of Pegasus or if it’s just special armor and things. A pink unicorn accompanied her; she has red, yellow, and purple streaks in her mane and tail and she wore a countess coronet and yellow hoof-guards. She had purple saddlebags with Twilight’s Cutie Mark on it… is that Twilight? But Twilight is a Duchess. The music came from the rig of a white DJ Unicorn pony crammed into the back of the chariot and from a cellist pony, Octavia.

I felt my bile rise. Why did Princess Luna bring that *waste of oxygen*?

“Her most regal highness Princess Luna has arrived,” one of the guards said in a deep voice as the chariot circled over the courtyard.

“Prince Jaggar of Glantri greets and welcomes Princess Luna. Permission to Land is given from one Prince to another,” Jaggar said formally.

“Spikey! You look so cute in your tuxedo!” the pink unicorn shouted, just before the guard or Luna could reply. “I’m going to have to hug you a lot!”

I stared, Octavia stared, Luna twitched and Prince Jaggar’s moustache twitched too. But the DJ and Lyra laughed loudly. Most of the assembled court just stared in amazement. And Spike buried his face in his hands.

“Oh Cadence, never change,” Lyra said cheerfully.

“Who is she?” I asked as the ceremony *tried* to continue.

“A very prestigious graduate from Celestia’s school; she sometimes taught classes there and I think she foalsat half the class when we were little, all the ones from Canterlot. I guess she’s Countess Cadence now,” Lyra told me quickly.

Cadence was vibrating, clearly eager to hug Spike to death; I couldn’t help but smile as Octavia stared at her in shock and the DJ smirked and Luna tried to pretend she was alone on her chariot.

The chariot finally landed and Cadence basically trampled Spike, hugging him while he flailed and squealed, though he did hug her back eventually. The greeting ceremony went on another twenty minutes, ending with everyone having a glass of wine; Lyra was kind enough to hold my glass for me.

Then most of the people went to their rooms and duties and we were taken to a meeting room with plush velvet covers on the chairs and scenes of battle between wizards and monsters on the walls. Prince Jaggar laid out the story and presented Shimmer Shine to Princess Luna.

“Octavia, play the note I taught you,” Cadence said more calmly to her. “Vinyl, you must duplicate and adjust the tone up one octave and down one octave.”

“Can I help? I am a bard,” Lyra said.

Octavia looked at me and smirked; I avoided eye contact, but I could *feel* her smirking. She thinks she’s so big.

Lyra soon was worked into this and a series of notes which made me feel strange floated through the air; Shimmer Shine glowed in various ways and looked discombobulated. Cadence circled her, now looking very serious and rather surprised. “She is a Crystal Pony,” Cadence said softly. “I am not sure what has awakened her heritage beyond very powerful magic, however.”

“Shapeshifting magic of extremely high caliber,” Princess Luna said, studying the portal key. “There are traces of it on the portal key. And I can confirm that the power of Tch-Tchi’ka was used to make this portal stone but that the shapeshifting came from some other source, which is to say, someone stole this and then rigged the spell they used to transform Shimmer Shine to it, so it would go off in place of the portal. Once it fired off, then the portal could be used normally.”

“I am so sorry,” Shimmer Shine said, looking miserable. “I failed the Prince through my desire to rise above my station.”

“There is nothing wrong with aspiring to rise to greater things,” Cadence said firmly. “We are made to lack and to seek to overcome that lack and become more than we are. You had no way to know.”

Prince Jaggar sighed. “You were injured in defense of my people and paid for your mistake in blood. I consider things settled between us. Good luck studying and qualifying for Arcaner status,” he said solemnly.

She bowed to him. “Thank you, sire.”

Hmm, I will have to see about getting my license made permanent if I join the trade association. We meet tomorrow.

“So how many people are on the short list for who could have done this?” I asked.

“I would suspect an Alphatian,” Princess Luna said. “Simply because it has a lot of very powerful wizards. I will have to do some research.”

I could feel Octavia being smug without even looking at her, but I tried to ignore it. She thinks her bow-tie somehow makes her high class.

*Bow-tie*.

“Lady Bon-Bon,” Prince Jaggar asked. “Am I correct in thinking your shifting candy does not convey magical abilities?”

“You are correct, you retain your native ones; I have Earth Pony strength in human form, for example,” I told them.

Now Octavia looked displeased, and I smiled. I am a Lady. And you can only play your instrument because of your cutie mark, so there.

“I have sent a request to Prince Etienne,” Prince Jaggar said. “Some of his vassals have a great deal of knowledge of such matters.”

There was a sudden whooshing sound and a spiraling pillar of smoke appeared and out of it stepped an old man, dressed in fancy burgundy and green robes with a pointed hat on his head covered with stars; he had a staff in one hand and something about him made my body twitch. He positively reeked of that weird feeling of ‘Glantrian magic’. “Good evening. Princess Luna, from one exile to another, it is a pleasure to see you,” he said, taking her hoof and kissing it. “I see you remain the most beautiful of the children of the night.” She smiled at that. He took his hat off and nodded his head to Prince Jaggar, then put it on. “Good evening to you, Jaggar, it’s good to see your moustache has not achieved independent life yet but is still working on it.” Said moustache twitched furiously.

“Prince Etienne, it is customary to appear at the gate or above the castle and signal for proper entrance,” Prince Jaggar said firmly.

“Now, now, we need two more Princes or Princesses so we have enough to pose for a proper card deck, Jaggar. Perhaps Dona Carnelia or Prince Volospin…” Prince Etienne said, then began studying Spike. “Hello, young fellow, it’s a pleasure to meet you, I am Prince Etienne d’Amberville, Prince of New Averoigne.”

Spike shook his hand; Prince Jaggar’s moustache twitched. Princess Luna said, “Prince Etienne, we need to confer about shapeshifters.” She explained about Shimmer Shine.

“Since this person raided a fellow Prince of Glantri, I will see about producing a list for you, though it won’t be very long,” Prince Etienne said.

I suddenly wondered how he had known to suddenly show up and frowned. Had he been scrying us?

“Do you have time to tell us about why your castle vanished and reappeared?” Lyra suddenly asked excitedly.

“I’m sorry, young lady, if I told the whole story, Jaggar might be forced to smile and that would destroy the universe, I fear,” Prince Etienne said ruefully. “I think he swore an oath.”

Jaggar sighed. “It is not relevant to the investigation and too long a tale.”

“I will send Dame Sephora your way as well; she’s skilled in counter-agents against werecreatures and a skilled alchemist. I think she was coming this way anyway,” Prince Etienne said vaguely.

Oooh, that could be useful. She must be in the Trade Association.

“Anyway, I should go before Jaggar is forced to have the ceremony of kicking out a guest who overstayed his welcome,” Prince Etienne said. “Shimmer Shine, you should think about attending the Great School for training now. I would be most interested to work with you and your unique style of magic. Everyone, have a pleasant evening!” And then he vanished in a puff of smoke.

“Great School?” I asked.

“He is the head of the Great School of Magic, equivalent to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns,” Lyra said.

“Larger and for many sorts of magic users,” Jaggar said. “And uses his age as an excuse to bypass formalities, like being invited.” He sighed. “Luna, I will arrange quarters and show you around. Everyone, thank you for coming and rest well tonight.”

Formalities ensued; Cadence took Spike with her as she went with Luna and crew; I decided to get some sleep and Lyra did too.

****************

Lyra’s Lyric:

Bon-Bon went off to meet with some alchemy group she wants to join, while I had breakfast with Princess Luna and her group. “Hi, everyone,” I said excitedly. “Did you figure out who to stomp while I was sleeping?”

“We are going to have to go to the Adri Varna plateau and investigate if anything is going on,” Princess Luna told me as one of the servants laid out a bowl of oats for me. I dug in as she continued. “Vinyl’s abilities should enable us to find any traces of Crystal Power.”

“Really?” I said curiously; we were in school together, but I don’t remember her having any interest in such matters.

Vinyl looked up from her oats. “It’s all a matter of vibrational harmonics,” she said with a more serious voice than usual. “Crystals vibrate; I can produce the deep vibrations which trigger responses by converting Tavi’s music. If someone is monkeying around with what’s left of their power, then we’ll find it.”

I waited for Octavia to kill Vinyl for using a nickname for her, but nothing happened.

What? She hated the nicknames I tried to give her.

I want to go, but Bon-Bon is going to want to go back to Ponyville, and I do need to get that stupid song written, even if the festival isn’t for nearly another month.

“Is Shimmer Shine using Crystal Magic?” I asked.

“No, though she should be able to learn how to use it,” Luna said, frowning. “It may prove impossible to be sure who actually did this. Prince Jaggar’s major enemies are not known to be able to do this. And I keep wondering why not just set off the stone without risking someone being able to stop you…” She frowned. “There’s some elaborate bluff and double-bluff going on.”

“Could it be Cunning Thought?” Spike asked, looking up from his plate of sausages and pancakes.

“It could be, but Mother would normally show up and gloat; it’s one of her weaknesses. She can’t *just* be clever, she has to shove it in your face and get recognition,” Princess Luna said, frowning.

“Couldn’t we go after the Baron, though?” Spike asked.

“Attacking Glantrian nobles is a good way to cause a diplomatic incident, since he committed no crime against Equestria except for paralyzing you,” Princess Luna said to Spike apologetically. “I have no authority here beyond the respect I command for my power and rank in Equestria. Jaggar hopes to prod Etienne into action. One of Glantri’s major problems is the difficulty of enforcing the law against those with the power to cause the most trouble.” Princess Luna sighed.

Spike sighed. “So basically, diplomatic immunity.”

“Yes. He is a Baron,” Princess Luna said.

Maybe I could sedu… no, I have a fillyfriend.

I spent the rest of breakfast in search of a plan.

*****************

Spike’s Saga:

Prince Jaggar wanted to see me after breakfast; he took Roderick and I down a hidden staircase in the library. I’m kind of stunned he’s showing this to me. But I felt proud too!

We descended to a huge laboratory. “I am going to see if each of you can perform a secret art, one of the foundations of our studies.”

Roderick shuffled on his feet, nervous but excited.

“I’m born ready!” I said eagerly.

Okay, I can’t *tell you* the secret, but what it does is you generate a circle around you which bans Dragons from entering! I got it on the first try; Roderick flung himself out of the circle the first three times, including landing on me, but he finally got it up (and stayed in it) and I tried getting into it and just bounced off.

“Very good,” Jagger said, then looked thoughtful and did it himself; we couldn’t get inside it to save our lives.

We practiced this until lunch; I had lunch and instantly fell asleep, utterly wiped out.

*Totally worth it*.

****************

Bon-Bon’s Initiation:

I would like to tell you about the meeting, but it was a secret! Suffice it to say, I decided to sign up with the Alchemy Society, and traded lots of information. I also got a magical labcoat, which seems to be more or less the standard garb of the society. I also spent some time working with Herr Rolf on repairing his golems and making some batches of candy.

“You will need to go to the Great School for a permanent license valid anywhere, though I’m sure Jaggar would certify you for Aalban,” he told me.

Having joined this society, I should have enough business in Glantri to make it worth it, so we discussed that for a while, until lunch time; I then went to have lunch with Prince Jaggar, his family, and Princess Luna and her followers, and of course, Spike and Lyra.

“We are heading to the Adri Varna Plateau to make sure there’s not some evil overlord of the like building a fortress there and turning people into Crystal Ponies and the like,” Cadence said cheerfully. “If you’d like to join us.”

Octavia was busy eating a rather nice looking tomato salad and being her usual smug self. Ugh. I’d have to deal with her but I can tell Lyra wants to go and if Princess Luna needs me…

“If you need us, Princess Luna, we will go. I take it everything’s stalled out on the question of who is behind this?” I said.

“For now, I will have to do some intelligence work once I have a better list of who could have done it,” Princess Luna said. “And I wish to be sure nothing strange is going on where the Crystal Empire once stood.”

I am a little nervous about this; I’m not a country girl, despite being an Earth Pony and part of me worries that Shimmer Shine was turned into a Crystal Pony to lure us into a trap.

But I trust Princess Luna’s judgement.

She is a princess and I am an ordinary Earth Pony who doesn’t deal with this sort of thing all the time.

***************

Lyra’s Lyric:

I have to say that Vinyl has a *sweet* soundboard. We spent the first few hours of the flight just monkeying around with it (with headphones on so we didn’t deafen everyone). You could simulate lots of instruments, so Vinyl, Octavia and I did all sorts of musical pieces with just the board; you can tell they’re fake, though. Or at least, I could; Spike couldn’t tell the difference and Bon-Bon spent the whole time shrunk down by Luna so she could ride in her own saddlebags and study ‘secret texts’ she got from her new Alchemy club buddies. I am *very curious* but I guess I shouldn’t complain since we were Music Clubbing it up out here.

Spike was asleep, having had too much for lunch, cuddled up to Cadence, who was just doting on him like he was her own kid. I guess once a foalsitter, always a foalsitter. And then, as we flew over the mountains west of Prince Jaggar’s territories, she began to sing a low, sad song in a language I didn’t know; we all just listened, though I could see Vinyl was recording it. Princess Luna started in surprise, then joined the song and I felt the urge to sing it but I didn’t know the words; I joined the chorus, at least, and so did Octavia and now we began to play it as we picked up the tune. Vinyl just listened, her eyes hidden behind those goggles she wears, her hooves tapping the beat.

“What song was that?” I asked.

You could now see dry hills to the west of us, rising towards a high plateau, though not as high as the Equestrian Plateau; this one looked a lot dryer and rocky than ours.

“One of the refugees from the Crystal Empire wrote a song about its fall,” Cadence said, patting Spike as he slept.

“It didn’t just vanish to the Hollow World, did it?” Vinyl suddenly asked. “I know some places about to be destroyed get moved like that.”

Princess Luna made an unhappy noise. “That requires some foresight that doom was coming; it happened so fast no one could respond to it, as other things were going on elsewhere,” she said softly.

Like the Nightmare Moon crisis, I know. I didn’t pay as much attention to Equestrian history as I should have, as it wasn’t as cool as the weird exotic stuff in the rest of the world. I know the most important stuff, but I was more interested in new places.

Like this freaky plateau; the air got colder and dryer as we went upwards and the whole place was a wasteland of scrub grass, sand, rocks and cacti forests. I got a weird feeling from the local magic that made me uncomfortable; Vinyl began fidgeting even more than usual too. I wonder if what Bon-Bon was feeling was like this to her.

“What’s this weird feeling?” I asked.

“Entropy is strong here,” Luna said softly. “The fall of the Crystal Empire devastated this land, which had been made green and beautiful by its power. The powerful bonds of friendship and love between the Crystal Ponies generated huge amounts of magic, with which they reshaped the land. But when Sombra betrayed them and the city vanished, then came the night.”

We flew over a lake covered with green scum and I stared at it. “What’s that weird… That isn’t a giant green slime patch, is it?” That thing could eat Ponyville if it’s green slime.

“The Crystal Ponies defeated a horrible monster there long ago,” Luna said softly. “But that is just algae.”

“What is algae?” Octavia asked hesitantly. “It looks dangerous.”

“Isn’t it some kind of swamp monster?” Vinyl asked hesitantly. “I’m pretty sure the Death of Alestair Pennydown talks about how it grew on the trees and corrupted them.”

Cadence stared at us. “None of you know what algae is?” Her eyes were wide and her voice was full of shock.

“This is the first time I’ve been outside a city,” Octavia suddenly confessed. “Other than train rides.”

I knew that but it *still boggles me*. What kind of Earth Pony has never touched real dirt???

“Does it grow in Equestria? I thought it was one of those things our magic keeps out,” Vinyl said hesitantly.

Luna… I looked at Luna and she looked like we didn’t know what hooves were or that we had four legs. “So much has changed,” she said softly.

“We’re all city girls,” Vinyl said. “I’ve never left Equestria before, and I’ve been to the countryside, but they didn’t have this stuff either.”

“Didn’t you pay any attention in Biology?” Cadence finally said weakly.

Okay, now I feel like the biggest idiot in the universe. “I might have had other things on my mind,” I mumbled. “I only paid attention in Sapient Biology.” Any species that can talk has this thing on their throat called Noumena’s Apple, allegedly from when he ate the Apple of Wisdom. In some species, like humans, it’s bigger on men for some reason I no longer remember. It’s one of the ways to identify sapient creatures!

Which is to say, your audience!

Spike yawned and sat up. “Did someone say something about dinner?”

“After we land,” Cadence said. “You can nap more if you want.”

“Did you know about algae, Spike?” Vinyl asked curiously.

“Yeah, Black Dragons let it grow around their lairs because they can actually eat it; a lot of dragons are mainly meat eaters, but Black Dragons can eat algae and some other things that grow in the stagnant water they prefer,” Spike said, then looked over the side of the chariot. “Wow, that’s a lot of algae.”

Vinyl covered her face with her hooves. Octavia blinked in surprise, and I said, “Okay, Spike, you win.”

“What did I win?” he asked excitedly.

“HUGS,” Cadence said and hugged him, while he turned red. “You must stay small and cute forever.”

“I need to grow up,” Spike mumbled.

“If you try to never change, you end up like that lake,” Luna said softly. “It is good and right that a child wish to grow.” Cadence sighed.

“Growing up too fast isn’t good either,” Cadence said softly.

“I know, I know,” Luna said, staring out across the landscape.

After that, we travelled in silence; as it started to get dark, Luna directed the charioteers to descend; we’d left the creepy lake behind, thankfully.

The air was cold and this place felt wrong and it felt *more* wrong as we descended. Vinyl and I both shuffled about and Octavia’s eyes widened and she shied away from the edge of the chariot, trying to get into the center.

Bon-Bon finally came out, blinked and retreated back into the saddlebag. “What is going on?” she said anxiously.

Luna frowned, looking around. “Make for that,” she said; scraggly trees grew on a hill with some grass; a spring bubbled up water near the peak and I felt a little less like the world was going to eat me as we approached.

“I am sorry, I have not been here in a thousand years,” Luna said softly. “I did not realize it was this bad.”

She dug in her saddlebags and extracted ebony and opal hoof-guards which she fitted onto our hooves; it made everything feel a little less terrible; she also turned Bon-Bon back to normal and we got out. “This isn’t too bad but I can feel everything is twisted and wrong beyond this,” she said softly.

“I know,” Octavia said. “It shouldn’t be like this. The Earth cries out.” Her voice wobbled. “I’ve never felt anything like this.”

“It shouldn’t be this bad, I think,” Luna said hesitantly. “Moon Bat, Cadence, ensure everyone is fed; I must contact Celestia.”

Moon Bat was one of the Bat Pony Guards, the Night Guard; he and the other guardsmen set up a pavilion; well, we all helped and then they poured out bags of oats and rye for everyone; Spike ate another of his sealed sandwiches Twilight made him.

Octavia and Bon-Bon were still somewhat agitated and kept glancing at each other, not in a ‘I hate you’ way but more ‘What the hell is this?’ I ate quickly and cuddled up to Bon-Bon, which I think helped.

“Maybe we should retreat to the mountains instead of camping out here,” Vinyl said, looking around after dinner. “This seems like the kind of place undead would like.”

“Wraith-slug,” Cadence and Spike said in unison in a creepy voice.

Octavia shivered. “Wraith… slug?” she said hesitantly.

“I’ll save that for when we tell ghost stories,” Cadence said cheerfully.

“I do not wish to tell ghost stories in a place like this,” Octavia said, shivering.

“It’ll be okay, Tavi,” Vinyl said, patting her back with a hoof and Octavia moved closer to her.

Holy shit, are they…

My brain exploded.

Bon-Bon either didn’t notice or didn’t care.

I mean, Vinyl’s cool to party with, but… And maybe we did make out at that one party before I got with Octavia… but she’s…

I began wondering if all this ancient evil was making me hallucinate.

Why does she get to use a nickname when I never did????

******************

Spike’s Saga:

I wandered around just a little; not going out of sight of everyone but I was curious why this hill is less tainted. Maybe there’s a druid working here? “Hey, any druids around?” I shouted. “I have a friend who is a druid!”

I could feel the bass levels; for some reason, DJ Pon-3 had fired up her rig and was busy pumping deep bass into everything; it felt kind of strange and she kept changing it, sending it ever lower.

“Hello, druids?” I hope they like deep bass.

I heard Luna say loudly, “Cadence, this is not the time for ghost stories,” so I ran back to see what she found out.

“You can’t tell the wraith-slug story without me,” I said urgently.

“I won’t,” she said, smiling that ‘hehe’ smile of hers.

“Celestia is worried; it wasn’t this bad the last time she checked in on the area. But it was three years ago,” Princess Luna said, glancing up at the stars; the moon was mostly full, only slightly declining. The visible moon, that is; there’s an invisible one full of cat-people.

I don’t remember any more why it’s invisible, though.

“Before your return from your journeys, before the second Nightmare Moon attack,” Vinyl said thoughtfully. “Are there any prophecies about the Crystal Empire?”

“They’re lost too,” Lyra said, laughing nervously. “Princess Luna, does every place’s magic feel different? I don’t remember them teaching us that at the School. But I didn’t take any advanced arcane theory.”

“Your majesty, I strongly recommend we evacuate this area. I don’t like it,” Moon Bat said, surprising us all; the Bat Ponies don’t seem to talk much.

“Yes. I think we had better load up and go; I had not planned to bring any of you here when we left Canterlot.” Princess Luna glanced at Cadence.

“I have been so busy with everything,” she said softly, looking embarrassed. “Pack up,” she said with her foalsitter voice. “Let’s get out of here.”

“We’ll set a course southeast back into Glantrian territory; we should be able to make it to Dream Valley,” Princess Luna said.

“Isn’t it constantly being ravaged by monsters?” Vinyl asked.

“Not so much these days,” Princess Luna said, though she frowned.

We began packing and she said to Lyra, “To finally answer your question, there is a distinct flavor but it is usually less… powerful or disgusting than this.”

Octavia helped Vinyl get her rig back on the chariot; Vinyl set it up to play backwards, behind the chariot. I guess in case we’re pursued.

Yeah, I am getting the definite feeling we’ve been suckered into something. I helped get everything loaded and then I suddenly coughed up a letter to Luna which turned out to be a map of the area. She passed that to her charioteers.

We got airborne and began heading what we hoped was southeast, towards Dream Valley. They say the local pegasi all have butterfly wings; I was curious to see if this was true.

Octavia was the first to hear it. “I hear hoofbeats,” she said softly.

It was hard to tell if anything was on the ground; it was rather dark despite the moon and starlight and the ground was mostly gravel and dark colored dirt. Then I saw the shadows of Ponies… with no Ponies attached. I could hear the hoofbeats, but I couldn’t *see* anyone. This was even creepier than the wraith-slug.

Then we started hearing wingbeats too, but you couldn’t see any kind of flying Ponies, just shadows of them on the ground, trying to catch up to us.

The charioteers sped up, but so did our foes, assuming anyone is there and this isn’t some kind of illusion. “This could be an illusion. Can Shadow Ponies even fly?” I asked.

“Shadow Ponies bargain service to the Entropics to gain special blessings; some gain the power of flight,” Princess Luna said tensely.

“I know what to do,” Lyra suddenly said, gently striking her forehead with a hoof. “Bon-Bon, you have some of your sparklers, right?”

“Those are dangerous for non-Earth Ponies to use; it’s really easy to burn your mouth trying to spit them if you’re not one of us,” Bon-Bon said. “But… hmm, I bet Spike could use them safely too. You’re immune to fire, right?”

“I can swim in lava!” I said proudly.

“Spike’s even better than my idea,” Lyra said. “He could spit them up and then we three bards will combine our power to augment the spark bursts into a giant light show. That should discourage the Shadow Ponies, right?”

The fact that Princess Luna is actually running away from these things worries me.

Bon-Bon dug out her sparkler candies; she sells them at festivals; you basically can spit up a firework! They’re really cool but you have to be careful the sparks don’t land on someone. Or your parents don’t kill you. She tossed them to me.

“And I will boost Spikey,” Cadence said confidently.

Octavia looked at Bon-Bon, who looked at her. They both nodded and Octavia said, “Fire on the Mountain?”

“Fire on the Mountain,” Lyra said, her harp floating up by her head.

“Laying down bass line NOW,” DJ Pon-3 said, beginning to vibrate her speakers.

“Spike, do you mind if I stand on your head?” Bon-Bon asked.

….

“I mean, I think I can turn into a phoenix and that will make more light, right?” she said hesitantly, looking at Princess Luna.

Princess Luna blinked, then smiled. “Yes. And I will strengthen the moon’s light.” She began a song.

Bon-Bon transformed and now perched on my head; it actually felt weirdly nice; she was so warm. Phoenix-Bon began to shine brighter; I could feel Cadence giving us power as I spat up the sparklers.

Each one exploded like a star going nova, shimmering with lights; you could see solid shadows behind and below us, shadow ponies, who now whinnied in fear and began to break off in all directions as I sent up ‘rocket’ after ‘rocket’ and Phoenix-Bon sang about burning down houses.

Where did Bon-Bon learn a song about burning houses???

Also, all that bass was making my body vibrate.

You could see the ground clearly now and the Shadow Ponies were gone; I guess we showed we weren’t easy targets. “They don’t… eat people… right?” I said weakly.

“We are fortunate; some of them are as brave as any of you,” Princess Luna said. “If they had served Orcus or Alphaks or someone similar, we would have likely had to fight them.”

We ended our light show, though now all the sparklers were gone. I hoped we wouldn’t need them again.

Distantly, you could barely make out the mountains; hopefully we’d drop off the plateau and it would get warmer and we’d be beyond reach of our foes. Then the chanting started.

It was far away, in some strange tongue that made Cadence and Princess Luna squirm and the rest of us feel uncomfortable. Phoenix-Bon, still perched on my head, since she can’t actually turn back without either more candy or a unicorn’s help or it wearing off, made unhappy noises and tried to plug her ears with her wings.

“They’re summoning a Shadow Dragon; they must have decided they are not strong enough to take us,” Princess Luna said, frowning. “We’re going to have to land because the first breath will likely destroy the chariot.”

“We can’t get off the plateau on foot,” Lyra said, frowning. “It’s a pretty sharp drop for hundreds of feet and only you can fly, Princess.”

A dragon. Maybe I can talk… hey! “Hah! Spike is here to save the day!” I said proudly. “I know a trick to ward off dragons!” And I don’t ward myself off any more with it either!

Princess Luna blinked. “You do?”

“Ooooh,” Cadence said. “Did Twilight figure it out and teach you?”

“Prince Jaggar taught me,” I said proudly. “Okay, here it goes.”

I waved my arms and chanted and the field formed… about two feet around me.

That’s not enough. “Maybe if Princess Luna shrinks everyone,” I mumbled.

“We can all strengthen you with our power,” Cadence said, now serious again. “Friendship is magic and we’re all friends, right?”

Phoenix-Bon made a bird noise and looked at Octavia. Octavia shuffled on her hooves and looked at Bon-Bon.

“Come on, I’m the one who screwed things up,” Lyra said desperately. “You shouldn’t hate each other. You can hate me instead. And you like Spike, right?”

“She’s so smug and thinks she’s special because of her fancy clothing and her manners and her hair and hobnobbing with nobles all the time,” Phoenix-Bon squawked, sounding aggravated. “She makes me wonder what you see in me.” Then her eyes widened as she’d clearly said WAY more than she intended.

“I wear this bow-tie because my mother gave it to me,” Octavia said angrily.

I could hear the chanting getting louder. “I think this is the *worst* possible time for a fight,” I said, worried.

“And I seem to remembering seeing *you* all excited about hobnobbing with nobles and wearing fancy dresses and being *Lady* Bon-Bon when I’m just the hired help!,” Octavia continued, getting angrier.

Princess Luna kept opening and shutting her mouth and struggling for words.

Diplomacy is really not her strong point.

“Octavia, you’re a wonderful pony,” Cadence said. “I may love tiaras a lot…. A whole lot…”

“Focus,” I stage-whispered to her.

Cadence’s eyes refocused. “I could never be as good a musician as you. Whatever the Glantrians may think, you are a Pony, and Ponies are noble creatures.”

Made in a laboratory, I thought, but I kept my mouth shut.

“Bon-Bon, don’t say that,” Lyra said, sounding wounded. “I love you because you anchor me; I lift you to the skies and you keep me from floating off into space. Please don’t hate Octavia; she’s a wonderful pony, and I’m sure you could be good friends.”

I’ve seen enough to know Lyra will probably spend the rest of her life regretting urging her fillyfriend to be friends with her ex. If it works.

“Come on, Tavi, you remember what we saw at the club that night,” Vinyl said urgently to Octavia. “Also, if we all die because you two can’t let go, we won’t make the rent payments and we’ll be evicted.”

“You *live together*?” Lyra said, jaw dropping.

Princess Luna was starting to look ill and her eyes were unfocused and she was shivering and I could hear the chanting getting louder. “The clock to us all becoming dinner is ticking!” I said urgently. “I need all your help!”

“They’ll probably wallpaper a house with your sheet music or something to get our missed payments,” Vinyl continued.

Octavia’s eyes turned into balls of flame, or so it seemed.

Lyra now ate a candy and turned into a phoenix as well (with a horn), then flew over to embrace Phoenix-Bon. “I love you, now and for always,” she said softly. “Don’t be afraid.”

And then I heard a great cry of triumph. The charioteers were… burning wing… I guess… but we were not even going to make it to the edge of the plateau without my shield. “Come on, everyone!” I said desperately.

Phoenix-Bon closed her eyes and stroked Phoenix-Lyra with a wing. “A lady does not insult others to make herself feel better. I am sorry, Octavia. You are a magnificent musician and have the right to be proud of your skills. I am sorry.”

Octavia said, “No one is burning my precious sheet music collection!” For a second, I thought she was going to burst into flame. She put out a hoof to touch my leg and Vinyl to touch my other one.

“You need to forgive her,” Cadence told Octavia, though she now lit up her horn and lines of light began to connect us all.

“Hey, Luna, you okay?” I asked her, starting to worry.

“No,” she said softly but she tied herself into the network. “I am proud of you, Spike. You will be a great dragon one day.”

YEAH!

Octavia looked at Phoenix-Bon, then at Phoenix-Lyra, then at Vinyl. “My parents scrimped and saved to send me to Madame Silver Fountain's School For Young Fillies of Distinction. I graduated with honors and soon became part of the Royal Orchestra as I’ve always dreamed.” Her voice was soft. “But no one sees me as a lady.”

“I always did,” Lyra mumbled.

“You’re a lot more of a gentlewoman than I’ll ever be,” Vinyl said. “I’m sure Cadence can give you a tiara and make you a Baroness if you want, though. But you don’t need a title to be a wonderful person. And if we die, we’ll miss another rent payment.”

I’m kind of surprised they struggle to pay the rent, given one is a popular DJ and the other is in the Royal Orchestra.

Luna said something incoherent about rent; she looks like Twilight the time Twilight accidentally invented a new kind of vomit.

Actually, let’s forget that ever happened.

“I will never be a musician as good as you, no matter how much candy I eat,” Phoenix-Bon said, holding out a wing.

“You are the most elegant of us here,” Cadence said. “Sorry, Looney.”

“Apology accepted,” Luna said, making a gurgling noise.

“We have to do this before either Luna throws up or the DRAGON EATS US,” I shouted.

I could hear it getting closer, circling and trying to decide on a line of attack.

Maybe Luna has motion sickness. It’s really terrible but I stopped getting it after my last Dragonsleep.

“Okay,” Octavia said. “I’m sorry I yelled at you, Lady Bon-Bon.”

“Accepted, Lady Octavia,” Phoenix-Bon said and Octavia smiled a little smile.

Candace wove everyone’s power into me JUST as I heard the dragon closing in. I felt stronger than I had since the unfortunate hoarding incident… let’s not think about that either.

I extended the sphere and it glowed like fire around us, protecting everyone. Oh yeah, SPIKE THE MIGHTY DRAGON IS HERE! Four lights sparkled on the eastern horizon, above the green vale of Dream Valley, which sits in… well, a valley… which connects Glantri to the Adri Varma Plateau.

You could see the Shadow Dragon and hear it howl as it bounced off and had to retreat and come around. I blocked it three times and now we were over the edge of the plateau and beginning to descend.

Then it SAT ON MY FIELD. Bastard!

We began losing height rapidly; this thing was hard to see, being made of black shadows, but it was huge, bigger than my aunt and uncle. Luna was still gibbering and moaning, though she added power to my shield and the three bards were singing some song together and playing as they shared power with me.

The distant lights got closer even as we sank quickly towards the ground. They were Ponies! In fact, it was Rainbow Crash, followed by Cruisin’, Fire Swallow, and Dragonfly!

Man, being rescued by the Elements of Power is VERY embarrassing.

But how did they even know to find us?

I was sweating like a pig; even with everyone helping me, this was way too much. It was hard to think about anything but keeping the sphere up. And the dragon jumping up and down on it.

“You can do it, Spikey,” Cadence said warmly, and I concentrated harder, though I felt like I would die.

The Shadow Dragon hammered at my field with his head, but it bounced off; before it could try and breathe on us, lightning spiked down from the sky, striking it in the head and it fell off the sphere; though it recovered, now it made for the four onrushing ponies, who split in four directions.

Luna finally rose to her feet and shook like a dog shaking off water. And I chose this moment to faint from exhaustion.

***************

Bon-Bon’s Burning:

I tried to get one of my candies but set my saddlebags, lying on the floor of the chariot, on fire. Cadence stamped it out and dug out the candy I had been making on the way here for me and threw one each to Lyra and I. Then we took off, still in Phoenix form, after the dragon as it turned to chase Dragonshy, who was laughing in a very disturbing way.

I could see the other three starting to peel around, Fire Swallow coming down from above and Cruisin’ and Rainbow Crash rising up from below. Lyra and I arched around the right side of him; our goal was to get near his face. I continued frantically chewing the bubblegum.

The shadow dragon grew closer and closer to Dragonshy and we tried to get closer to it, but it was so fast and we weren’t half as big as it was.

“Fool! Face the wrath of mother nature!” Dragonshy shouted and began to shapeshift into another dragon…

Except something went wrong and she ended up as a huge lizard the size of a pony, maybe even a full sized horse… but with no wings. She immediately began to plummet. “Dammit, that girl makes it look so easy!!!!!!”

Ironically, the Shadow Dragon missed biting her as she plunged right out of the range of his teeth. Or hers. I have no idea how to tell dragon gender.

Lyra and I plunged downwards to try and save her from splatting.

And then Fire Swallow spat flame into the face of the Shadow Dragon, temporarily blinding it; as it fumbled around, I could now see that Rainbow Crash and Cruisin’ were carrying a long chain in their mouths and they now began flying intricately around the dragon’s wings, tangling them up and sending it flying around erratically as it struggled to remain skyborne. They dodged nimbly between beating wings and the thrashing tail with a grace I know I couldn’t match. They’re so nimble!

Then I saw Luna point one hoof and shout “PETTY MORTAL, BOW BEFORE THE PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT!”; Vinyl’s speakers amplified this humongously and the dragon shook like an earthquake had hit him. Cello notes thundered like meteors striking the earth and I could see Cadence glowing brightly, her light shining onto Luna, Vinyl, and Octavia.

We plunged down towards Dragonshy, who now turned into a small brown dog and coughed up bees.

…

She shifted again, becoming a large cow, and then into a small fluffy blue cat. At that point, we reached her and each spat bubblegum onto her legs and caught her, carefully biting the bubblegum so we didn’t end up cutting her leg with our sharp beaks; I had *planned* to spit it in the Dragon’s eyes.

Only now did it sink in that I had just been planning to CHARGE A DRAGON and spit in its eyes.

…

Shifting really does affect your mind if you’re not careful.

We hauled her around to the chariot and she turned back to normal, still with bubblegum on two legs. She also looked slightly charred for some reason, the tips of her coat hairs all blackened.

Then I remembered I am *on fire*.

There were stars in the east, coming our way, hundreds of them. The dragon thrashed and now began to plummet, too tangled up to fly and Rainbow Crash and Cruisin’ flew upwards and slapped hooves in triumph. The lights grew closer, hundreds of butterfly-winged ponies, all of them wearing softly glowing armor, led by… Fluttershy? No, this pony, though it had the same coat and mane as Fluttershy, was a touch larger than Fluttershy and also wore a crown and had butterfly wings with pink roses and green rose petals and rosebuds on a white background. She wore a crown of red gold set with pink gems and wore a necklace with two golden rings on it.

“HELLO, COUNTESS ROSEDUST,” Princess Luna said through the speakers; Flutterponies went tumbling in the wave of sound. The Duchess weathered the storm unbowed, however. Vinyl frantically worked the equipment. “My apologies,” she said, still amplified. “We request permission to enter the Fluttermarch of Dream Valley.”

Several other ponies whispered to Countess Rosedust; one of them was a regular Pegasus, blue with a pink mane and her cutie mark was two blue whistles and one pink. “Permission is granted,” Countess Rosedust said regally, as loud as Princess Luna without needing an amplifier.

The dragon hit the ground and dissolved. It just broke into shadowy clouds of smoke which dispersed in the wind; soon it was as if it had never existed.

“Are these yours?” Countess Rosedust asked, pointing at Crash and Cruisin’. “They invaded our airspace without asking permission and we were coming to deal with them and then I got a report of a dragon coming this way.”

Cruisin’ seemed to only now actually notice Countess Rosedust and his eyes lit up.

What a jerk he is.

“I serve Mother Nature, who MADE the air!” Dragonfly said angrily, waving her staff with her tail.

“Princess Celestia asked Princess Marjorie to send us to help you and no one said anything about ‘airspace’,” Rainbow Crash said frantically.

They got all the way from the Broken Lands this fast? Wow.

I can ‘t fly that fast.

I’m flying! I suddenly was reminded I was flying. I can see why Pegasi love this.

Cadence whispered frantically to Dragonfly.

Cruisin’ flew down to Countess Rosedust and bowed. “Wise and beautiful Countess Rosedust, please forgive us for our intrusion; we were so frantic to prevent Princess Luna being devoured by a fearsome Shadow Dragon that we could think of nothing else, not even you and your lovely lady warriors.”

Fire Swallow had a hoof over her mouth, to suppress laughter, I think; she was making her way back to the chariot.

“I’m sure that works on all the ladies back home, but you will find us more clear eyed here,” Countess Rosedust said firmly and Crusin’ looked stunned. “That being said, I see the urgency of your mission. This will be the fourth time I have seen that dragon ‘die’.”

Princess Luna frowned. “When did it first appear?”

“After the eclipse at the Summer Solstice in 1000 AC,” Countess Rosedust said. “Ever since then, the Adri Varna Plateau has increasingly been a place of shadow and darkness. Princess Emerald has sent some of her Pegasi Guard to assist us in patrolling the border.” She nodded to her Pegasus advisor and I could now see some Pegasi in groups among the Flutterponies.

Princess Luna frowned and I wondered how the news of this hadn’t gotten around… though I guess even before this, no one wise went to the Adri Varna Plateau; it’s kind of hostile.

“But now it looks even worse; the darkness grows,” Countess Rosedust continued. “But our homeland is too fractious and self-absorbed to do anything about it.” She sounded quite frustrated. “Half the Princes and Princesses spend their time plotting against each other and the other half want to conquer one of our neighbors for no reason at all.”

“All three of our neighbors raid us regularly, that would constitute a valid reason for wishing to bring a cessation of such activities,” the Pegasus next to Countess Rosedust said firmly. “Though a study of the financial cost of conquest would require a very long term period of control in order for it to not cost more than simply accepting the raids as a cost of business, so to speak. And of course, it is hard to predict the cost of actual occupation and rule in the face of local resistance.” Countess Rosedust simply looked at her. “It’s also not very nice.”

“Enemies are for killing,” Dragonshy said; she sounds like Fluttershy, so having her say that is kind of creepy.

Lyra and I continued to circle the chariot because now I was worried about setting it on fire. I hope I can keep this up. “Doesn’t Glantri also border Darokin? They’re not raiding you, are they?”

“Darokin does technically border us,” the Pegasus said. “However, the Silver Sierras block trade, and in practice, our real neighbors are Wendar, which is full of wild, unstable fey, the Broken Lands, full of insane maniac monsters, and the Ethengars, who believe theft is both holy and obligatory.”

“That’s a bit of an oversimplification of the Ethengars,” Lyra said, flying over and now arguing about Ethengarian culture with the Pegasus, who still hasn’t introduced herself!

Luna whispered to Dragonshy, who looked aggravated and now began trying to groom herself with Cadence’s help.

Countess Rosedust now came over to talk to Luna privately and we all made for the aeries of the Flutterponies.

****************

Lyra’s Lyric:

Her name is Wind Whistler and she’s really smart, but kind of stubborn. I can tell I’ve studied more Humanics than her, but she’s a great arguer, so we had a good time discussing Glantri’s situation, while everyone else stretched out in the aerie. Basically, Dream Valley is the region between the Kurish Massif mountains in the south and east and the Adri Varna Plateau to the north and west of it; the Flutterponies patrol the border, but their homes are carved in to the mountainsides on the southern and eastern border. So we were in a town carved in a series of tiers into the side of a mountain.

It was *very cool*. I’ve always wanted to see one but the Flutterponies are pretty picky about visitors.

“I’ve never seen a Phoenix with a Unicorn horn before,” Wind Whistler said solemnly. “Are there different kind of phoenixes? Or are you a transformed Flame Unicorn?”

The candy, as if on cue, now wore off and I turned into my normal self. “I am a Unicorn,” I told her and bowed. “Transformed by my fair lady love, Lady Bon-Bon. I am Lady Lyra, her consort.”

“An Earth Pony Arcaner?” she said, amazed, and studying Bon-Bon, who was busy talking to Cadence about something, while Cadence held the snoozing Spike.

I smiled broadly. “No one will look down on my lady love.”

Princess Luna and Countess Rosedust had gone to a private chamber; we were in a reception room, having food and drink and talking to lots of other ponies; none of us had ever met a Flutterpony, so other than Dragonshy, who had gone off for a bath, we were all talking to our hosts.

I’m kind of worried about what happened to Luna; she was a mess, but she’s divine and I wish I knew what happened. What could do that to her?

Maybe she just has keener senses for entropy?

I now asked Wind Whistler about the hill we’d landed on.

“Some spots resist the shadow and we don’t know why,” Wind Whistler said. “We think they must have been especially strong in the power of Law before the fall of the Crystal Empire.”

This bothers me; why hadn’t I heard of this before? I guess I just never hear much about stuff up here because it’s all wilderness, but still…

“We hadn’t heard of it,” I said, frowning.

“Well, you don’t border it and even most Glantrians and Sindhi aren’t anywhere near it,” Wind Whistler said. “And it is strangely uncomfortable to discuss.” She shuffled a bit on her hooves. “Sometimes I almost forget the problem until I am on patrol again.”

Or maybe something is *making* people not notice or think about it.

I got as much information about this as I could from Wind Whistler and began racking my brain, trying to solve the problem. And trying to reduce Wind Whistler-ese to simpler terms. She reminds me of Twilight. Who probably would already know the problem and be solving it.

But I have a hard time with any kind of knowledge that isn’t music or behavior or stories. Which is why I majored in music and minored in cultural studies and acting.

“Hmm, Equestria, Rockhome, Alfheim… you know, until Thyatis got its independence, there were no real human states of significance around the time that the Crystal Empire vanished,” I said hesitantly. “Oh, and the Five Shires. But Darokin, Glantri, Sindh, Karameikos, Ylarum, the Northern Reaches… they were all just big messes with petty states and so on.”

“Or Alphatian colonies,” Wind Whistler pointed out. “But of course, Alphatia was a mighty human nation, though I guess it did have a little of everything.”

“A lot of Elves, especially,” I pointed out. “Something strange has to be going on here. I guess we’re just grasping at straws right now, though.”

Then it hit me. “Maybe the Shadow Dragon isn’t real at all. Maybe they’re making a giant shadow monster of one. And that’s why they were all chanting and why it went poof.”

“That has been my theory,” Wind Whistler said. “I don’t know much about arcane magic works, but I know there are ways to cooperate, and friendship is magic.”

Evil friendship. Do Shadow Ponies even have friends? How can you be evil and care about people?

Princess Luna now came out with the Countess. “We will stay here the rest of tonight; you receive a rare honor in this. Spike, I need to talk to you about sending some messages.”

“Of course!” he said. He’d revived from earlier by now.

The bed was nice and soft, and even with Bon-Bon mumbling recipes in her sleep, I soon fell asleep, more exhausted than I had realized.

*********************

Spike’s Saga:

I felt all weird when I woke up, kind of wobbly and hollow. I ate like a pig, then got bloated from eating too much. I hate my stomach sometimes.

People had meetings and consulted libraries and things, I think, while I laid around moaning in the reception room and coughing up gas. Cadence was kind enough to stay with me and soothe my suffering. She’s a real sweetie. I’d think she had a thing for me but I thought that… I hoped Rarity liked me and… now I don’t trust my judgment. It’s probably just foalsitter instincts, because she still thinks I’m a little kid.

“Have you ever had your heart broken?” I asked her, then wished I hadn’t said that.

“Oh yes, the second colt I ever fell in love with was in love with someone else,” she said mournfully. “I thought I’d be alone forever.”

“Wait, what happened to the first one?” I asked.

“His family moved and I never saw him again; I moped around magic kindergarden for days,” she said, sighing wistfully.

…

“I mean, when you were old enough to not just have a little kid crush,” I said weakly.

“That never stops,” she said softly. “You just get better at recognizing and shutting it down if it’s a bad idea. But it’s a difference of degree, not kind.” A little louder, she said, “I am sorry for you, Spike. Rarity is a wonderful mare. But she was both too young and too old for you.”

“Too… young…?” I said in confusion.

“A pony’s life is measured in decades and a dragon’s in centuries or more, even now. For the moment, you are too young for her, but the time would come when you were just barely being considered an adult by other dragons and Rarity would be ready for burial,” she said softly, her eyes unfocused and a little wet.

My stomach churned at that. “Yes, but I’d have to be alone forever if I worried about that. It’s better to have those decades than nothing. Twilight agrees with me.” Or she wouldn’t be seeing West Wind; I like him. I dunno if it’ll come to anything if he’s always gone and so is she, though.

She studied me with an odd look on her face. If she’s about to confess to me… I have *no* idea what to do.

But I’m probably being vain.

“So tell me about Big Macintosh,” she said slowly.

Why is she… does she… oh wait, she’s likely thinking in terms of him dropping dead while Celestia has to go on. One of Cadence’s cutie mark tricks is that she’s really good at telling how people feel about someone else. Her big one is that she can literally turn friendship and other kinds of love into magic; this lets her amplify people’s powers when they work together. It’s a big part of how everyone pooled their power to me to save everyone.

Hey, *I* got to save everyone!

That made me smile. “He’s a hard working, kind of quiet farmpony; he loves his family very much but he’s not the type to talk about it… or anything else… too much,” I told her. “But he’s very, very honest. And…” I tried to think how to say it. “He’s farm-educated.”

Her eyebrows moved oddly and her face crunched. “I don’t understand what you mean.”

“It’s like… he couldn’t tell you who Hanno was or what the plot of Fifth Night was, but he knows twenty kinds of soil and what they’re good for and he can read the weather and tell how something will grow when he plants it. Not just because he’s an Earth Pony but because he is part of his family’s lore and their ongoing experiments to be the best farmers,” I told her. “I dunno, him and Celestia seems like personality wise, it’s fine, but it’s like they’re from different planets socially and in how they live. She can’t be a farm girl and he’s no prince. Not in the ‘evil nasty’ way but he’s totally… I mean, I guess Celestia at least has touched dirt…” What kind of Earth Pony has never been in the countryside??? I know more about the countryside than Octavia does. That’s just so wrong.

Cadence sighed, then said, “So what about these ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’? Twilight mentions them in her letters, but I haven’t met them.”

“They’re the Immortality Mark Crusaders now,” I said, laughing softly. “Thinking about them because of the whole Big Mac thing?”

“Among other reasons,” she said, oddly with her naughty voice, which worried me because when Cadence thinks she is being wicked, I somehow end up covered in honey and chased by angry bees.

She apologized, but not something I want to do again.

“Scootaloo basically is Rainbow Dash at a younger age,” I said. “I think Ivan is training her and so is Dash. *Now*.” Everyone had basically chewed on her head to get her to do it.

“Sweetie Belle is kind of like you, if you were a dimwit,” I continued.

She frowned at me. “Spike, that’s very mean.”

“She’s kind and gentle but all she knows is card tricks that bastard Marcus taught her.” I could feel my voice heating up. “Which she then uses to manipulate people. Like him.” My hands were clenching and unclenching.

“Spikey, it’s not healthy to hate people,” Cadence said gently. “You’re just saying that because she likes Marcus and you hate him because Rarity loves him.”

“And what he did to Twilight! Who forgave him!” I shouted. People stared, but I didn’t care. I felt this knot in my chest; it hurt, but I couldn’t stop.

“Twilight has a good heart,” Cadence said. Cadence is too trusting and kind; she’d say that to a monster eating her leg. “But… oh wait, he was Erik.”

“Yes, he lied to you too!” I said, pointing at her.

People were whispering but I didn’t care. The more people who know, the faster his past catches up with him.

“Spikey, that’s a state secret,” she said very softly. She sighed. “You need to let go, because hate gives darkness a hold into you. And that can destroy you.”

Dragons are good at hating. As Marjorie demonstrated.

Not the example I want.

“I can never forgive him,” I said stubbornly.

“So tell me about the rest of the Crusaders,” she said sadly.

“Apple Bloom’s like a mechanical genius. She’s fairly practical and probably the smartest of the group. She built a giant flying warship treehouse! And a really cool blimp. Twist is probably going to be like Bon-Bon with glasses in the future. She has really nice hair. And Dinky… is kind of weird,” I concluded.

“Weird?” Cadence asked curiously.

“She’s full of conspiracy theories and probably thinks you’re controlled by evil tiaras from the future, but she’s a pretty good wizard for her age. A lot better than Sweetie.” Admittedly, a lot of kids in magic Kindergarden aren’t big suckers like Sweetie.

“I’m controlled by evil tiaras from the *past*,” Cadence said, laughing, and I now noticed she’d changed headgear since yesterday. She probably likes Marcus because they both want to put things on their head.

Okay, I love my hat but not like Marcus loves hats.

Cadence continued catching up on things with me as gradually my body adjusted, and finally, I felt like I was really functional. I get the impression she’s digging for something, but I don’t know what.

But talking to her is fun, so it’s okay.

*****************

Bon-Bon’s Flying Lesson:

“Thank you for coming to our aid,” I told Rainbow Crash; we’d gone outside to look at Dream Valley; you could see a lot of it from here, endless plains and forests and hills, nestled between the distant plateau, a dark horizon smear from here, and the mountains we were in. “I see Cruisin’ still needs a beating, though.”

Crash sighed. “It’s weird. Attacking the dragon, we were in such perfect synch with each other.”

“It was amazing,” I told her. Because it was. “You really are an incredible precision flyer.”

“Dash is faster than me, but I’m more nimble,” she said, perking up a little. “You were the phoenix, right?”

“Yeah,” I told her. “It’s kind of incredible, being a phoenix. Being able to fly,” I said softly.

“Yeah, that’s why Pegasi are the best ponies,” she said with an amount of pride that reminded me she is a clone of Rainbow Dash after all. “If you turn into one, we could go flying together, right?”

“Yeah,” I said, so I got one and we took to the air, flying around the mountain and exploring. The one thing that worries me is that these things don’t have a warning they’re going to wear off. I need to get some kind of magic timer that will change with me; my cooking timers would be hard for some forms to carry.

A half-dozen pegasi and flutterponies soon joined us, flying merrily around the mountain. There really is something magical in flight. One of the flutterponies asked me, “Are you a doppleganger?”

I laughed. “No, I use magical candy to transform myself.”

She looked greatly relieved and glanced off towards the distant plateau; you could see it raining heavily there now and tiny distant streaks of lightning. The thunder was hardly any louder than if you dropped a spoon on the floor.

“Are we likely to get hit by the storm?” I asked.

“There’s a pretty good chance we’ll get overrun by the storm around sunset,” Rainbow Crash said. “I assume the weather patrol will deal with it.”

“The what?” one of the flutterponies asked.

“You know, the people who control the weather,” Rainbow Crash said very hesitantly.

“We lost our weather control powers when we became Flutterponies, but gained power over light,” the flutterpony said, now dancing in a circle and creating a rainbow as she danced; butterflies flew around her and birds took flight, then all dissolved as she stopped. “I think the Pegasi Corps can do stuff like that.” She had a colorwheel as her cutie mark.

One of the pegasi with us said, “We don’t have enough ponypower to cover all of Dream Valley, though. It takes a huge number of us to control really big weather patterns.” She studied the storm. “I don’t know if every Pegasus in Dream Valley combined could stop that.” He was blue with a black mane and his cutie mark was a golden eagle.

Rainbow Crash said, “Isn’t this like super-magic-kingdom place?”

“I’ve heard that our powers are much stronger here,” the flutterpony said thoughtfully. “Because we tap the magic of Glantri but the Pegasi are not adapted to the magic of Glantri.”

“Hey, we’re an important part of this land too, Light Show!” the Pegasus said angrily.

“Nothing personal, Keen Eye,” Light Show said, waving her hooves and looking apologetic. “That’s just what we learned in school.”

Rainbow Crash frowned, then said, “What exactly is the magic of Glantri?”

“Secret knowledge, hidden lore, the joy of discovery of new things,” Light Show said. “It’s why there are so many secret societies and the people who join them become more powerful.”

Like the one I joined, I realized. I need to finish reading the books they gave me.

“Are you in a secret society?” Rainbow Crash asked Light Show. “And why wouldn’t that work for pegasi?”

“It wouldn’t be a *secret* if I told you,” Light Show said cheerfully, circling us all with a trail of stars.

This must have to do with the weird magic I felt in the ground in the palace and here too. Does each country have its own magic? We didn’t get much into magical theory in school and I wouldn’t have paid attention, not being a Unicorn.

“But why not Pegasi?” Rainbow Crash said, flapping her wings and looking thoughtful.

Eagle Eyes mumbled something incoherent.

“Pegasi aren’t much into books, studying, lore, and all that,” Light Show said. “They want *action*.”

“In Equestria, the power of friendship drives our magic,” I said.

Everyone looked at me like I was a small child and I frowned. “It does!”

It suddenly struck me that the Flutterponies, with their light powers, are the ideal people to fend off the shadowy entropy stuff of the Adri Varna. Which is no doubt why they have the job.

Rainbow Crash mumbled something about skill and hard work.

“What was that?” I asked her. At least she didn’t mock me with her eyes.

“I am the Element of Excellence, and my power comes from my hard work and my building my skills by practice, practice, practice,” Rainbow Crash said louder.

The other ponies nodded approvingly; I felt good for Crash but more annoyed they had looked at me so skeptically.

“You were really incredible,” Eagle Eyes said, coming a little closer to Crash as we flew around. “And you’re so fast too.”

“Yeah, we don’t have the raw speed of a Pegasus,” Light Show confessed. “Our wings aren’t sturdy enough to sustain that high a speed.”

I wonder how fast I could go.

We ended up having a race; I was ahead of the flutterponies, but while I kept up with the pegasi at first, around the time I hit the best speed I could do, they all suddenly fired off like rockets at high speed with Crash as much ahead of them as they were ahead of me. I was amazed by it.

Eagle Eyes circled back to me. “I guess you don’t know how to slipstream because you’ve never been a Pegasus before,” he said hesitantly. “You were keeping up until we hit the slip barrier.”

“I can’t use the magics of my form, just the physical.” I told him. “I’m probably stronger than you like this but I can’t do Pegasus magic like that.”

“I guess you couldn’t do dragon breath as a dragon, then,” he said thoughtfully.

“Yes. Though I have a few candy that could fake it once or twice.”

Rainbow Crash now studied me in an odd way, circling me slowly. “Eagle Eyes, Rock Lobster, come here.”

Rock Lobster was a male Pegasus with a pink coat and a red mane and a cutie mark of a lobster playing a guitar. I have no idea what his cutie mark *does*.

They hurriedly whispered, then they flew into a triangle formation around me. “Bon-Bon, I’m going to need you to fly as fast as you can,” Rainbow Crash said very seriously. “Put all your Earth Pony strength into it.”

I licked my lips nervously. “Okay.”

Then we began zooming forward, faster, faster, faster; I could feel air pile up in front of me; this has to be the slip barrier. But now they began to spin like turbines; I felt the air churn and wash across me and suddenly, the barrier was gone; I could see rainbow streaks of light glowing along the edge of the triangle and inside it, the air was clear and easy to move through and we blazed over Dream Valley at incredible speed, passing over a huge fortress/palace, which I assume is where the Princess lives and heading onwards towards another fortress, which guards the mountain pass that lets you enter the rest of Glantri from Dream Valley.

It was maybe the most incredible thing I’ve ever done in my life and I suddenly understood why Pegasi love being Pegasi. This sense of freedom is so incredible.

The fortress, oddly, was staffed with people who looked rather Thyatian. Why would Thyatians be working in a fortress in Glantri?

Whatever the reason, they panicked as we circled the fortress and turned around to go back, but by the time they go do anything, we were long gone.

To our surprise, Countess Rosedust and Princess Luna were out on the edge of the aerie, watching us, as we returned. I hoped we were not in trouble.

We coasted to a halt in front of them and Rainbow Crash said, “Hey, ladies,” nervously.

“I just got a complaint about you from the Castellan of Fortress Ylourgne,” Countess Rosedust said sternly. “Eagle Eyes, Rock Lobster, harassing the Caurenzians is strictly forbidden!”

“Yeah, but we figured out a new trick!” Rock Lobster said proudly. “I bet we could move a bunch of Flutterponies quickly with it.”

“It was my idea,” Rainbow Crash said, moving up close to her. “The rest of them were just helping me out. I figured out how to make a joint slipstream so flyers who can’t make one could fly along with us.”

“That could be useful,” Countess Rosedust said thoughtfully. “But avoid the fortress. I do not need more trouble with the Caurenzians.”

“Yes, Countess,” Rock Lobster said and saluted.

But she soon had her people executing this move on various scales while I went to rest and Rainbow Crash talked to Princess Luna.

************************

Lyra’s Lyric:

Caurenzians? Fortress Ylourgne is right next to New Averoigne on the other side of the pass; Caurenze is over 100 miles away! I felt quite confused by why it would be full of them; the Caurenzians are exiles from Thyatis who fled here after losing out in a civil war. They’re not very nice people at all, prone to things like poisoning you for looking at them funny.

Man, I missed out on something really cool; I was just hanging out and talking to people. Which was fun, but it wasn’t ‘let’s invent something new!’

“So what’s the plan?” I asked Luna eagerly.

“We will return to Equestria,” she said. “Strange things are afoot and I must go where I cannot take you.”

To Pandius, where the Immortals have a hidden city on the moon! I would give my left foreleg to see that!

“I do have work calling but we can stay if you need us,” Bon-Bon said.

“I have asked enough of you, my little ponies,” Princess Luna said, sounding a little sad. “I may need to call upon you again, but for now, you need to rest and recover.” She shivered, glancing off towards the plateau, though we were all inside in her guest room.

“And I should report on this to Princess Marjorie,” Rainbow Crash said.

Dragonfly was now whispering to Bon-Bon about something and they talked quietly.

Damn, I was ready for more adventure, creepy as that place is.

Spike, who was riding on Cadence, said, “Should I tell Twilight to expect you, Princess?”

“Yes,” Princess Luna said.

Spike wrote a quick note and burned it.

Well, I do need to try and get some decent songs written; it’s less than a month to the Running of the Leaves, after all.

*******************

Spike’s Saga:

Right when Princess Luna, Cadence and I walked into the library in Ponyville, I suddenly realized we had left Twilight’s balloon in GLANTRI.

“The BALLOON!”

“I have it,” Luna said, magicking a tiny balloon out of her bags. “Twilight can just dispel this when she needs to use it again.”

“Hi! Twilight’s having a conniption fit and Rarity’s trying to help her shop while I library it up,” Dinky said cheerfully. She was wearing a professor mortarboard hat for some reason. “Watch this!” She made a cloud of bubbles, stepped onto it and rode it up to the high shelves. “Now I can get any book down!” she said proudly.

I sighed. “Twilight doesn’t even know where half the stores in town are, since I do the shopping more than her.”

“I’ve been trying to help her but I kind of got buried under the paper order,” Dinky said, landing her cloud, which I could see Cadence was studying. “It was so heavy,” she mumbled.

“Twilight needs at least one ream of paper every three days,” I told Dinky. “Or she starts writing on anything flat. And that’s if she’s only doing light writing.”

I woke up with notes on the soles of my feet one time, though she was admittedly drunk.

“She ordered one hundred reams,” Dinky mumbled.

OWW. “What bond strength?”

“Bond what?” Dinky asked.

“Reams come in a bond strength which is their weight,” I said patiently. Don’t they teach kids anything in school? “Thicker, tougher paper has a higher bond rating.”

“It was all… papery,” she said vaguely, waving a hoof about.

Probably 24-bond; that’s Twilight’s usual. 20-bond sometimes gets rent if she writes furiously.

“Cadence, you should go find Twilight and help her. Spike, we need to talk in your room,” Luna said to me.

I’m not sure how Cadence is going to find her here when she’s only visited once and that was months ago… Well, Luna knows what she’s doing.

We went up to the bedroom; Twilight and I sleep in the same room, different beds. I will need a bigger one soon, after my next dragonsleep.

I sat on my bed, Luna laid out on the floor, stretching, then sat up. “Spike, I understand how you feel about Marcus and Rarity, but you need to let go of that or it will destroy you. I know all about hating someone so much that it consumes you,” she said softly, studying the wall and her voice toned very low and soft without its usual power.

I squirmed uncomfortably. I know… sort of… about how she became Nightmare Moon but this is totally different because Marcus is a horrible serial seducer and abandoner! Whereas Celestia was just… you know, I’m not sure how anyone could get that mad at Celestia.

“He’s a terrible person who is going to hurt Rarity,” I said angrily, squirming on my bed.

“That’s for Rarity to deal with, not you; you can’t live other people’s lives for them,” Luna said firmly to me. “And when you hold onto anger, you let entropy have a hold on you.” She shivered. “I’m going to tell you a story that hardly anyone knows, because I want you to understand, Spike.”

My eyes widened. “I… I don’t know if that’s wise, I have a big mouth sometimes.”

“I trust you to keep a secret,” she said, and then she started.

***************

Luna’s Secret:

In the sixth and fifth century BC, Orcs and other monsters ruled a huge swathe of land from here all the way to Karameikos and they only narrowly failed to conquer Karameikos. Celestia and I came to what is now Equestria to liberate it and we found the Elements of Harmony with the help of the Crystal Ponies, who had founded their empire with the help of the Elements. Celestia and I were not Immortals yet, but we were… not normal either. Our kingdom flourished and we achieved Immortality but the original element bearers died; every so often, a new group would be chosen by the elements. We remained strongly allied to the Crystal Ponies, though the distances and dangers of travel kept contact low for most Ponies.

Celestia and I developed a system where she ran the public side of government and I controlled the ‘Night Court’ which handled things out of the sight of the public, from bureaucratic work to espionage. I am no diplomat, unfortunately, but I am cunning in ways Celestia still is not, for all she tries.

But I began to resent that she received all the love and affection of the public and I did not, for no one saw what I did. Further, at times, I had to do terrible things to protect Equestria. Or so I told myself at the time.

I became bitter and frustrated; Celestia could keep her hooves clean and I could not. She was loved and I scared people.

That’s how Mother was able to get me to join Entropy. She loved me, though Mother’s love can be more dangerous than her hate. She always comforted me when I was frustrated and angry and eventually, I succumbed. I wanted to be loved, needed it, and she offered me that.

She played me like a violin.

And she did it because I held on to hate. I nurtured it and watered it. I associated only with people like Sombra, who fed my anger. He was frustrated with his Queen for the same reasons I was with Celestia. Counterpoint was kind and gentle and beloved, in part because people like him took care of the dirty work in the shadows.

We spent a lot of time being resentful together. He was no immortal, but he understood me and I understood him.

Or so I told myself.

We planned a double coup. His people would reinforce mine and then once Celestia was down and we’d seized all the Elements of Harmony, we’d seize the Crystal Empire too and unite them.

Mother told me that I had to be careful, that if I went beyond mortal power, the Council of Intrusion would come down on me like a bug. But I was overconfident; Sombra had allied himself to Thanatos as I had to Mother and we thought that Thanatos would keep the council off us. If only as revenge for what happened to his followers in Nithia.

I was wrong and I spent a thousand years sleeping in prison on the Moon as a result. Thanatos and Sombra betrayed me. Hule was invaded at the same time by Boreans and Mother was busy trying to save her people there when I was defeated by Celestia and the Elements and then tried and imprisoned.

I spent 1000 years sleeping and plotting revenge and Celestia spent 1000 years feeling guilty and trying to find a way to bring me back. And she did. She could have, should have hated me for what I did, betraying everything we worked for and turning on her, but she loved me.

But we can’t count on people loving us that much to save us from ourselves. I know Twilight would never give up on you Spike, but I don’t want you to end up like I did.

****************

Spike’s Saga The Return:

“What happened to Sombra?” I asked softly.

“I don’t know, for sure,” Luna told me. “Something went wrong, the Silver Palace vanished and then somehow, the Crystal Empire vanished. Uncle doesn’t know what happened to it; it wasn’t any direct act of the Immortals as a whole, though someone must know.” She frowned. “And now this business with spreading entropy and people often forgetting about it… Something is wrong and I have to find out.”

“You got really sick,” I told her.

Luna grimaced. “I know. Which means I can’t go in there myself as I should. But I will figure out something.” She rose. “The best thing for you is to move on. There are plenty of people your age who I am sure would find you a wonderful companion. Let go of your hate, before it devours you.”

I flopped onto my back, legs in the air. “It’s not so easy.”

“I know,” she said softly. “All my words are just words; Even Mother told me I needed to calm down in the end.” She sighed.

“Hey, Luna, you here?” Ivan shouted distantly.

“I’ll be down in a minute,” she shouted back, then smiled a sad smile.

“So… you and Ivan…” I said hesitantly.

“Fire is pretty, but when you’ve burned yourself on it, you get wary. Yet the beauty remains,” she said softly. “I don’t know. We shall see.”

That sounds like that stupid Ochelean book Twilight made me read. ‘The grass is green and the skies blue, yet water cannot fly and you cannot spend the grass.’ If that guy wasn’t stoned 24-7 on opium, I’ll eat my hat.

Then she headed downstairs, while I laid on my bed, lost in thought.

******************

Lyra’s Lyric:

“Another year turns / another cake burns / the leaves fall down / all over town,” Pinkie sang.

This was not great, but it STILL was better than anything I had thought of.

We were up in her room over Sugar Cube Corner. Then Pound Cake began chewing on Pinkie’s leg. I think he’s teething and he keeps mistaking Pinkie for food. She laughed, then pried him off; he’s a Pegasus, even though the Cakes are Earth Ponies. Their daughter, his twin, is a Unicorn! Magical genetics are messy. “Hey, eat this,” Pinkie said, shoving a cookie in his mouth and massaging her leg back into shape.

“You’re so patient. I think I’d go mad with kids,” I confessed.

“You’ll be a fine father,” Pinkie said, smiling.

“I’m a *mare*,” I told her. A little androgynous but Bon-Bon likes that.

Pinkie just smiled at me and now Pound Cake tried to crawl into her saddlebags. I pulled him out gently with magic. “So did you enjoy your adventure?”

“I had a great time, but now I have to work,” I said, then flopped out on the floor, legs in the air.

“I know, I know,” she said, gently patting Pound Cake and tucking him between a leg and her body. “But you have a cute fillyfriend to share it with.”

“I’m surprised you don’t have a coltfriend,” I told her.

“Oh, there was this soldier, but he couldn’t stay around…” She sighed. “I’m good at friendship but I never… my family was all ‘no touching anyone until marriage or even looking, really’, and I kind of never learned how to deal with stallions. I either hint and they don’t notice or I come on too strong and they move to Alphatia.” She paused. “That’s what his family said, anyway.”

Pound Cake began toddling towards Pinkie’s shelf of weird stuff and she pulled him back.

“Well, I do know some stallions,” I said hesitantly. I have to know everyone as the bard, and I get on well with stallions even if I’m not into them like that. Maybe *because*, so there’s no messy business between us about who may or may not sleep with who.

“Or was it Norwold…” Pinkie mused, then pulled Pound Cake away from her bookshelf. Not that he… well, he is a Pegasus, but I don’t think they can fly until later.

“So who is watching Pumpkin Cake?” I asked.

“Oh, I’m watching bo…”

There was a great and terrible silence.

“PUMPKIN CAKE WHERE ARE YOU!” Pinkie shouted and ran off to find her, while I followed, keeping Pound Cake suspended in the air.

If you have ever wondered, a baby Unicorn can try to eat ten pounds of sugar, but it won’t actually *work* very well.

Pinkie and I worked on my music for a while once we had both kids; I had to meet Bon-Bon later for dinner, but I had time to wander around; you can’t see Vanya this time of day but I looked up at the sky and wondered how much of the books are true and how much is false and if I will ever find out one day.

I want to go there for a long visit. See if he’s real. I want to sail the canals and cross the deserts and fight angry fire-lion-scorpion beetles in an arena.

And I think one day I will. With Bon-Bon by my side. Whatever happens, we’ll face it together.

But she *has* to stop calling them Potato People!

At least Pinkie believes it too. Admittedly, she also believes the Seaponies only sing Do-Wop and I had to try to explain otherwise to her.

Man, I do admit this.

I am totally going to enjoy sitting… I almost forgot!

This poses a problem, as it was unwise of me to accept a letter to deliver to Rainbow Dash, when she lives up in a flying house.

So I had to go to plan B, where I bought a paper cup and filled it with water, lifted it up to her house and dumped it on her head as she slept on her front porch.

“Dash, I have a letter for you!” I shouted.

She flew down and shook herself off on me while I laughed. “Since when did you deliver mail?”

“Since I ran into Gilda in Glantri,” I said softly.

Dash froze and I tossed her the letter.

Dash finally breathed out. “So she’s working as a bodyguard. Is she… okay?”

“Well, I’d say the people we fought together were a lot less okay than her in the end,” I told Dash.

“You fought… you and Gilda fought…” Dash was vibrating, producing small chaotic puffs of wind.

So I told her the whole story.

“You going back any time soon?” Dash asked hesitantly.

“I think Bon-Bon is going to study for a permanent license from the Great School to facilitate selling her candies there and things,” I told Dash. “We’ll have to go at some point. So what exactly happened, anyway?”

Then Dash told me *her* story.

“And now you’re a teacher and she’s a bodyguard,” I said.

“And you’re teaching too, you know,” Dash said.

“….” I totally forgot about that; they want better music training and I am the Town Bard.

Dash began rolling around laughing and pointing.

I think I had better get to work.

******************

Bon-Bon’s Becoming:

It was nice to be home; When Lyra came back from the library, we simply went out to eat for dinner, since we had nothing fresh to cook with; I’ll have to go shopping tomorrow. Lyra was going to work on her songs and prepare for teaching soon, but I had a mission.

I headed over to Berry’s house and knocked on the door.

Pinchy answered; her proper name is Ruby Pinch, but it’s her nickname. The same way Dinky is short for some thirty syllable long name I cannot even pronounce, or so Time Turner claims. She looked larger than I remembered her. But it’s been… it hasn’t been that long, has it?

Anyway, Pinchy’s a good kid. “Aunt Bon-Bon, you’re back!” she said, hugging me tightly.

“This is for you,” I said, pulling a badly wrapped present out of my saddlebags. Herr Rolf is a great alchemist and golem maker but even with hands, he is no good at wrapping.

Neither am I, so she probably thought I wrapped it.

“Oh wow!” she said excitedly and tore it open with her magic; it was a little golem-pony, made of red gold. “What’s his name?”

“You get to name him,” I told her.

“Then I name him Iron Pony!” she said excitedly.

He whinnied and she smiled and let me in, running around the living room with him; he’s really scaled more for a foal to play with but there wasn’t time to make something bigger. But Pinchy had fun anyway.

“Pinchy, what are you…” Berry Punch began, galloping out from the kitchen to the living room. She lives over her shop, which is down below us; I came in the back way. She also has a farm house for her, well, farm, where she grows her berries and grapes.

“Hi, Berry,” I said, laying out the present I got her. “This is magically preserved, but only until you open it.” Prince Jaggar said it was laid down by a dragon who made wine!

She opened it and stared. “I could buy half the farms in Ponyville for the cost of this!”

She has to be exaggerating; Prince Jaggar wouldn’t even let me pay for it.

“Well, you can keep it in case of fiscal crisis, then,” I said hesitantly.

“Come in, I’ll open something for you,” she said. We sat in the kitchen and had grape juice with Pinchy; she’s brewing up some huge stewpot of something, though it’s kind of late for dinner and enough for ten ponies.

I told her about my adventures and she shared the latest town gossip. Berry hears just about everything that happens. “The oddest thing is that some mare in a leather jacket with badges all over it came into town, beat up Ponet and then left. No one knows who she is, why she came here, what she wanted, what he did to her, nothing. Then some stallion with an umbrella dragged her off and they were never seen again. Not that he didn’t have it coming,” Berry said, grimacing.

“Oh yeah,” I agreed.

Pinchy began running amok with her toy and ran right out of the room.

“I was worried that was too young for her; she’s growing up so fast,” I said softly.

“She may hate it tomorrow. She’s at that stage where you kind of bounce back and forth and today you want to be an adult and tomorrow, you want to be a little kid,” Berry said softly, staring into her cup.

“Is there a colt?” I asked softly.

“Not yet, but she’ll likely have colts all over her soon; you can see how big she’s getting,” Berry said, sounding worried. Berry was the first one of our class to get a cutie mark and then she just grew like crazy.

“Is she old enough to be alone for an hour or two?” I asked thoughtfully.

“I wish I could go out but I have to be responsible, because when I’m not some disaster happens,” Berry said, sounding frustrated. “You were lucky, Bon-Bon.”

I know. I know. “Come outside with me,” I told her.

“Pinchy!” she shouted.

Pinchy skidded into the room with Iron Pony trying to keep up. “Yeah, Mom?”

“We’re going outside,” she told Pinchy.

“Okay!” Pinchy said and went running off.

We went outside and down the back ramp, through the alley behind some houses to the street.

“Does everyone dress like that in Glantri?” she asked softly.

“They often dress fancier than this,” I told her, suddenly realizing I was still in one of the dresses Rarity had made for me; I need to find out how to wash them properly; I’m not used to fancy materials.

You know how you hear a train coming and then it passes you and then it goes past you and the whistle sound it makes changes? This happened to us just as Berry was about to say something. But it wasn’t a train, it was Rarity wailing incoherently. She was chasing what appeared to be some sort of high speed mobile bundle of cloth, roughly the size and shape of a filly, which was somehow flying just above the ground at high speed and also screaming.

Distantly, I heard Sweetie shouting something incoherent too but she couldn’t keep up with either of these things.

Berry just stared, and I decided to wait for them to pass; I think maybe Scootaloo had somehow become swaddled in cloth and was fleeing that way.

I never found out what happened.

That’s okay.

Once they were gone, I said to her softly, “Ever wondered what it’s like to fly?”

“Pegasi make it look awesome,” Berry said. “I rode a Pegasus one time, it was pretty cool and terrifying at once.” She looked up at the sky; clouds gently drifted on an east wind but you could see the declining moon and the stars.

I pulled out two lemon candies. “Want to find out?”

Her eyes widened. “What’s this?”

“Earth pony magic,” I said, smiling. Then I ate one and turned into a Pegasus.

She stared, eyes wide.

“Just think about turning into a Pegasus,” I told her.

Blam, Pegasus Berry!

So I took her up to Rainbow Dash’s house and told her about what Crash had figured out. “Oh wow,” she said thoughtfully. “We do use a variation on that for formation flying but of course, normally anyone we fly with wouldn’t *need* it. But I bet that would help anyone using Twilight’s spell or your candy or…”

Pretty soon, she got two other pegasi and we all did it together, so Berry could see what speed is REALLY like.

It’s a rush, I have to confess.

Then I took her home; she was utterly wiped out but it felt wonderful. “If people had tried to kill us, that would be my whole trip in a nutshell.”

“Alchemy society, hmm, well, I am a chemist, one could say…” She said hesitantly.

“We’ll see,” I told her. “I’m just an initiate, but I expect we’ll have a branch in Equestria as it comes along.” I gave her a hug. “I have a ton of work to catch up on, but it was worth it.”

A while back, Lyra forced me to read the first Tom Wagonmaker book, potato-people and all. Though I guess maybe I misread something as that world looked terrible for potatoes. But there was one bit I liked, the end.

No, not… okay, because it was the end. But also, I thought it was kind of wise. It said that every time you go on a journey, you can never return, because the ‘you’ that comes back is different.

Edmund Wheatfurrows was right. I am Bon-Bon the ordinary pony, and I am Bon-Bon the party girl, even if she mostly has to sleep for now, and I am Lady Bon-Bon of Ponyville, who gives lectures to wizards and Lady Bon-Bon of the First Circle of Alchemy and Phoenix-Bon and Bon-Bon the Pegasus and many other things besides. I have changed, I am changing, and I will change in the future. Everything changes.

My candy art always changes and now it lets me change my form as I need, while time and trial change what lies inside me. I was never ‘just’ an ordinary pony. Maybe no one is. And that’s why Celestia sent Lyra and I on that trip in the Moonraker. She saw what we could become.

Does that make us special? Or does it just mean we chose to step up to the plate when we had to? I don’t know.

I thought about that plateau and the evil stirring there. Not my problem for now, but I doubt we have seen the last of that. But I leave it to the Princess. I may not be ordinary but I’m not up to dealing with something like that under my own initiative.

Yet.

The End For Now